After the second fire was spent, he wiped both his eyes with his hands,
and beholding the people he said with an indifferent loud voice, For God's love,
good people, let me have more fire.
And all this while his nether parts did burn, but the faggots were so few that the
flame only singed his upper parts.
The third fire was kindled within a while after, which was more extreme than the
other two.
In this fire he prayed with a loud voice, Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me,
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And these were the last words he was heard to utter.
But when he was black in the mouth and his tongue so swollen that he could not speak,
yet his lips went until they were shrunk to the gums, and he knocked his breast
with his hands until one of his arms fell off, and then knocked still with the
other, while the fat, water, and blood dropped out at his fingers' ends,
until by renewing the fire his strength was gone and his hand clave fast in
knocking to the iron upon his breast.
And immediately bowing forwards he yielded up his spirit.
Thus was he three quarters of an hour or more in the fire.
Even as a lamb, patiently he abode the extremity thereof, neither moving
forwards, backwards, nor to any side, but he died as quietly as a child in his
bed.
And he now reigneth, I doubt not, as a blessed martyr in the joys of heaven,
prepared for the faithful in Christ before the foundations of the world, for whose
constancy all Christians are bound to praise God.
THE LIFE AND CONDUCT OF DR.
ROLAND TAYLOR OF HADLEY Dr. Roland Taylor, vicar of Hadley in Suffolk, was a man of
eminent learning and had been admitted to the degree of Doctor of the Civil and
Canon Law.
His attachment to the pure and uncorrupted principles of Christianity recommended him
to the favour and friendship of Dr. Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury,
with whom he lived a considerable time, until, through his interest, he obtained
the living at Hadley.
Not only was his word a preaching unto them, but all his life and conversation
was an example of unfeigned Christian life and true holiness.
He was void of all pride, humble and meek as any child, so that none were so poor
but they might boldly, as unto their father, resort unto him.
Neither was his lowliness childish or fearful, but, as occasion, time and place
required, he would be stout in rebuking the sinful and evildoers, so that none
were so rich but he would tell them plainly his fault, with such earnest and
grave rebukes as became a good curate and pastor.
He was a man very mild, void of all rancour, grudge or evil will, ready to do
good to all men, readily forgiving his enemies, and never sought to do evil to
any.
To the poor that were blind, lame, sick, bedrid, or that had many children,
he was a very father, a careful patron and diligent provider, insomuch that he caused
the parishioners to make a general provision for them, and he himself,
beside the continual relief that they always found at his house, gave an honest
portion yearly to the common alms-box.
His wife also was an honest, discreet and sober matron, and his children well
nurtured, brought up in the fear of God and good learning.
He was a good salt of the earth, savourly biting the corrupt manners of
evil men, a light in God's house, set upon a candlestick for all good men to
imitate and follow.
Thus continued this good shepherd among his flock, governing and leading them
through the wilderness of this wicked world, all the days of the most innocent
and holy King of blessed memory, Edward VI.
But on his demise and the succession of Queen Mary to the throne, he escaped not
the cloud that burst on so many beside, for two of his parishioners, Foster,
an attorney, and Clark, a tradesman, out of blind zeal, resolved that Mass
should be celebrated in all its superstitious forms in the parish church
of Hadley, on Monday before Easter.
This Dr. Taylor entering the church strictly for bad, but Clark forced the
doctor out of the church, celebrated Mass, and immediately informed the Lord
Chancellor, Bishop of Winchester, of his behaviour, who summoned him to
appear and answer the complaints that were alleged against him.
The doctor, upon the receipt of the summons, cheerfully prepared to obey the
same, and rejected the advice of his friends, to fly beyond sea.
When Gardiner saw Dr. Taylor, he, according to his common custom,
reviled him.
Dr. Taylor heard his abuse patiently, and when the Bishop said, How darest thou
look me in the face?
knowest thou not who I am?
Dr. Taylor replied, You are Dr. Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester,
and Lord Chancellor, and yet but a mortal man.
But if I should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear ye not God, the Lord of us
all?
With what countenance will you appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
and answer to your oath, made first unto King Henry VIII., and afterward unto King
Edward VI., his son?
A long conversation ensued, in which Dr. Taylor was so piously collected and severe
upon his antagonist, that he exclaimed, Thou art a blasphemous heretic.
Thou indeed blasphemest the blessed sacrament.
Here he put off his cap, and speakest against the Holy Mass, which is made a
sacrifice for the quick and the dead.
The Bishop afterward committed him into the King's bench.
When Dr. Taylor came there, he found the virtuous and vigilant preacher of God's
word, Mr. Bradford, who equally thanked God that he had provided him with such a
comfortable fellow-prisoner, and they both together praised God, and continued in
prayer, reading, and exhorting one another.
After Dr. Taylor had lain some time in prison, he was cited to appear in the
arches of Bow Church.
Dr. Taylor, being condemned, was committed to the clink, and the keepers were charged
to treat him roughly.
At night he was removed to the poultry compter.
When Dr. Taylor had lain in the compter about a week, on the 4th of February,
Bonner came to degrade him, bringing with him such ornaments as appertained to the
massing mummery, but the doctor refused these trappings until they were forced
upon him.
The night after he was degraded, his wife came with John Hull, his servant,
and his son Thomas, and were, by the gentleness of the keepers, permitted to
sup with him.
After supper, walking up and down, he gave God thanks for his grace that had
given him strength to abide by his holy word.
With tears they prayed together and kissed one another, and to his son Thomas he gave
a Latin book containing the notable sayings of the old martyrs, and in the end
of that he wrote his testament.
I say to my wife and to my children, the Lord gave you unto me, and the Lord
hath taken me from you, and you from me.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
I believe that they are blessed which die in the Lord.
God careth for sparrows and for the hairs of our heads.
I have ever found him more faithful and favourable than is any father or husband.
Trust ye therefore in him by the means of our dear Saviour Christ's merits.
Believe, love, fear, and obey him.
Pray to him, for he hath promised to help.
Count me not dead, for I shall certainly live and never die.
I go before, and you shall follow after, to our long home.
On the morrow the Sheriff of London with his officers came to the compter by two o
'clock in the morning, and brought forth Dr. Taylor, and without any light led him
to the Woolsack, an inn without Aldgate.
Dr. Taylor's wife, suspecting that her husband should that night be carried away,
watched all night in St. Botolph's church porch beside Aldgate, having her two
children, the one named Elizabeth of thirteen years of age, whom, being left
without father or mother, Dr. Taylor had brought up of arms from three years old,
the other named Mary, Dr. Taylor's own daughter.
Now, when the Sheriff and his company came against St. Botolph's church, Elizabeth
cried, saying, Oh, my dear father, mother, mother, here is my father led
away.
Then his wife cried, Roland, Roland, where art thou?
For it was a very dark morning, that the one could not well see the other.
Dr. Taylor answered, Dear wife, I am here, and stayed.
The Sheriff's men would have led him forth, but the Sheriff said, Stay a
little, masters, I pray you, and let him speak to his wife.
And so they stayed.
Then came she to him, and he took his daughter Mary in his arms.
And he, his wife, and Elizabeth, kneeled down and said the Lord's Prayer,
at which sight the Sheriff wept apace, and so did divers others of the company.
After they had prayed, he rose up and kissed his wife, and shook her by the
hand, and said, Farewell, my dear wife, be of good comfort, for I am quiet in my
conscience.
God shall stir up a father for my children.
All the way Dr. Taylor was joyful and merry as one that counted himself going to
a most pleasant banquet or bridal.
He spake many notable things to the Sheriff and yeomen of the guard that
conducted him, and often moved them to weep, through his much earnest calling
upon them to repent, and to amend their evil and wicked living.
Oftentimes also he caused them to wonder and rejoice, to see him so constant and
steadfast, void of all fear, joyful in heart, and glad to die.
When Dr. Taylor had arrived at Oldham Common, the place where he should suffer,
seeing a great multitude of people, he asked, What place is this, and what
meaneth it, that so much people are gathered hither?
It was answered, It is Oldham Common, the place where you must suffer,
and the people have come to look upon you.
Then he said, Thank it be God, I am even at home, and he alighted from
his horse, and with both hands rent the hood from his head.
His head had been notched and clipped, like as a man would clip a fool's,
which cost the good Bishop Bonner had bestowed upon him, but when the people saw
his reverend and ancient face with a long white beard, they burst out with weeping
tears, and cried, saying, God save thee, good Dr. Taylor, Jesus Christ strengthen
thee, and help thee, the Holy Ghost comfort thee, with such other like good
wishes.
When he had prayed, he went to the stake, and kissed it, and set himself into a
pitch-barrel, which they had put for him to stand in, and stood with his back
upright against the stake, with his hands folded together, and his eyes towards
heaven, and continually prayed.
They then bound him with the chains, and having set up the faggots,
one warwick cruelly cast a faggot at him, which struck him on his head, and cut his
face, so that the blood ran down.
Then said Dr. Taylor, Oh, friend, I have harm enough, what needed that?
Sir John Shelton, standing by as Dr. Taylor was speaking, and saying the psalm
Miserere in English, struck him on the lips.
You knave, he said, speak Latin, I will make thee.
At last they kindled the fire, and Dr. Taylor, holding up both his hands,
calling upon God, and said, Merciful Father of Heaven, for Jesus Christ,
my Saviour's sake, receive my soul into thy hands.
So he stood still, without either crying or moving, with his hands folded together,
until Soice, with a halberd, struck him on the head, until his brains fell out,
and the corpse fell down into the fire.
Thus rendered up this man of God his blessed soul into the hands of his
Merciful Father, and to his most dear Saviour Jesus Christ, whom he most
entirely loved, faithfully and earnestly preached, obediently followed in living,
and constantly glorified in death.
Martyrdom of William Hunter William Hunter had been trained to the doctrines of the
Reformation from his earliest youth, being descended from religious parents who
carefully instructed him in the principles of true religion.
Hunter, then nineteen years of age, refusing to receive the Communion at Mass,
was threatened to be brought before the bishop, to whom this valiant young martyr
was conducted by a constable.
Bonner caused William to be brought into a chamber, where he began to reason with
him, promising him security and pardon if he would recant.
Nay, he would have been content if he would have gone only to receive and to
confession, but William would not do so for all the world.
Upon this the bishop commanded his men to put William in the stocks in his
gate-house, where he sat two days and nights with a crust of brown bread and a
cup of water only, which he did not touch.
At the two days' end the bishop came to him, and finding him steadfast in the
faith, sent him to the convict prison and commanded the keeper to lay irons upon him
as many as he could bear.
He continued in prison three quarters of a year, during which time he had been before
the bishop five times, besides the time when he was condemned in the consistory in
St. Paul's, February 9, at which time his brother Robert Hunter was present.
Then the bishop, calling William, asked him if he would recant, and finding
he was unchangeable, pronounced sentence upon him, that he should go from that
place to Newgate for a time, and thence to Brentwood, there to be burned.
About a month afterward William was sent down to Brentwood, where he was to be
executed.
On coming to the stake he knelt down and read the fifty-first psalm, until he came
to these words, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
Steadfast in refusing the Queen's pardon if he would become an apostate,
at length one Richard Pond, a bailiff, came, and made the chain fast about him.
William now cast his psalter into his brother's hand, who said, William,
think on the holy passion of Christ, and be not afraid of death.
Behold, answered William, I am not afraid.
Then he lifted up his hands to heaven, and said, Lord, Lord, Lord, receive my
spirit, and casting down his head again into the smothering smoke, he yielded up
his life for the truth, sealing it with his blood to the praise of God.
Dr. Robert Farrar This worthy and learned prelate, the Bishop of St. David's in
Wales, having in the former reign as well as since the accession of Mary been
remarkably zealous in promoting the reformed doctrines and exploding the
errors of Popish idolatry, was summoned among others before the persecuting Bishop
of Winchester and other commissioners set apart for the abominable work of
devastation and massacre.
His principal accusers and persecutors on a charge of primunire in the reign of
Edward VI were George Constantine Walter, his servant, Thomas Young, chanter of the
cathedral, afterward Bishop of Bangor, etc.
Dr. Farrar ably replied to the copies of information laid against him, consisting
of fifty-six articles.
The whole process of this trial was long and tedious.
Delay succeeded delay, and after that Dr. Farrar had been long unjustly detained in
custody under sureties, in the reign of King Edward, because he had been promoted
by the Duke of Somerset, whence after his fall he found fewer friends to support him
against such as wanted his bishopric, by the coming in of Queen Mary he was
accused and examined not for any matter of primunire, but for his faith and doctrine,
for which he was called before the Bishop of Winchester, with Bishop Hooper,
Mr. Rogers, Mr. Bradford, Mr. Saunders and others, on February 4, 1555, on which day
he would also with them have been condemned, but his condemnation was
deferred and he sent to prison again, where he continued until February 14,
and then was sent into Wales to receive sentence.
He was six times brought up before Henry Morgan, Bishop of St. David's,
who demanded if he would abjure, from which he zealously dissented,
and appealed to Cardinal Pole, notwithstanding which the bishop,
proceeding in his rage, pronounced him a heretic excommunicate, and surrendered him
to the secular power.
Dr. Farrar, being condemned and degraded, was not long after brought to the place of
execution in the town of Carmarthen, in the marketplace of which, on the south
side of the Market Cross, March 30, 1555, being Saturday next before Passion
Sunday, he most constantly sustained the torments of the fire.
Concerning his constancy, it is said that one Richard Jones, a knight's son,
coming to Dr. Farrar a little before his death, seemed to lament the painfulness of
the death he had to suffer, to whom the bishop answered that, if he saw him once
stir in the pains of his burning, he might then give no credit to his
doctrine, and as he said, so did he maintain his promise, patiently standing
without emotion, until one Richard Gravel, with a staff, struck him down.
Martyrdom of Rawlins White Rawlins White was, by his calling, an occupation of
fisherman, living and continuing in the said trade for the space of twenty years
at least, in the town of Cardiff, where he bore a very good name amongst his
neighbours.
Though the good man was altogether unlearned, and withal very simple,
yet it pleased God to remove him from error and idolatry to a knowledge of the
truth, through the blessed reformation in Edward's reign.
He had his son taught to read English, and after the little boy could read pretty
well, his father every night, after supper, summer and winter, made the boy
read a portion of the Holy Scriptures, and now and then a part of some other good
book.
When he had continued in his profession the space of five years, King Edward died,
upon whose deceased Queen Mary succeeded, and with her all kinds of superstition
crept in.
White was taken by the officers of the town as a man suspected of heresy,
brought before the Bishop Landaff and committed to prison in Chepstow,
and at last removed to the castle of Cardiff, where he continued for the space
of one whole year.
Being brought before the Bishop in his chapel, he counselled him by threats and
promises, but as Rawlins would in no wise recant his opinions, the Bishop told him
plainly that he must proceed against him by law and condemn him as a heretic.
Before they proceeded to this extremity, the Bishop proposed that prayer should be
said for his conversion.
This, said White, is like a godly bishop, and if your request be godly and right,
and you pray as you ought, no doubt God will hear you.
Pray you therefore to your God, and I will pray to my God.
After the Bishop and his party had done praying, he asked Rawlins if he would now
revoke.
You find, said the latter, your prayer is not granted, for I remain the same,
and God will strengthen me in support of this truth.
After this the Bishop tried what saying Mass would do, but Rawlins called all the
people to witness that he did not bow down to the host.
Mass being ended, Rawlins was called for again, to whom the Bishop used many
persuasions, but the blessed man continued so steadfast in his former profession that
the Bishop's discourse was to no purpose.
The Bishop now caused the definitive sentence to be read, which being ended,
Rawlins was carried again to Cardiff to a loathsome prison in the town, called
Cockmarrow, where he passed his time in prayer and in the singing of the Psalms.
In about three weeks the order came from town for his execution.
When he came to the place where his poor wife and children stood weeping,
a sudden sight of them so pierced his heart that the tears trickled down his
face.
Being come to the altar of his sacrifice, in going toward the stake he fell down
upon his knees and kissed the ground, and in rising again, a little earth
sticking on his face, he said these words, Earth unto earth and dust unto dust,
Thou art my mother and unto thee I shall return.
When all things were ready, directly over against the stake, in the face of Rawlins
White, there was a stand erected, whereon stepped up a priest, addressing
himself to the people, but as he spoke of the Romish doctrines of the sacrament,
Rawlins cried out, Are thou wicked hypocrite, dost thou presume to prove thy
false doctrine by Scripture?
Look in the text that followeth, did not Christ say, Do this in remembrance
of me?
Then some that stood by cried out, Put fire, set on fire, which being done,
the straw and reeds cast up a great and sudden flame, in which flame this good man
bathed his hand so long, until such time as the sinews shrank and the fat dropped
away, saying that once he did, as it were, wipe his face with one of
them.
All this while, which was somewhat long, he cried with a loud voice, O Lord,
receive my spirit, until he could not open his mouth.
At last the extremity of the fire was so vehement against his legs that they were
consumed almost before the rest of his body was hurt, which made the whole body
fall over the chains into the fire sooner than it would have done.
Thus died this good old man for his testimony of God's truth, and is now
rewarded, no doubt, with the crown of eternal life.
The Reverend George Marsh George Marsh, born in the parish of Dean in the county
of Lancaster, received a good education and trade from his parents.
About his twenty-fifth year he married, and lived blessed with several children on
his farm until his wife died.
He then went to study at Cambridge, and became the curate of Reverend Laurence
Saunders, in which duty he constantly and zealously set forth the truth of God's
word and the false doctrines of the modern Antichrist.
Being confined by Dr. Coles, the Bishop of Chester, within the precincts of his own
house, he was kept from any intercourse with his friends during four months.
His friends and mother earnestly wished him to have flown from the Roth to come,
but Mr. Marsh thought that such a step would ill agree with that profession he
had during nine years openly made.
He, however, secreted himself, but he had much struggling, and in secret
prayer begged that God would direct him through the advice of his best friends for
his own glory unto what was best.
At length, determined by a letter he received, boldly to confess the faith of
Christ, he took leave of his mother-in-law and other friends, recommending his
children to their care, and departed for Smeathills, whence he was with others
conducted to Latham, to undergo examination before the Earl of Derby,
Sir William Norse, Mr. Sherburn, the parson of Grapnell, and others.
The various questions put to him he answered with a good conscience,
but when Mr. Sherburn interrogated him upon his belief of the sacrament of the
altar, Mr. Marsh answered like a true Protestant that the essence of the bread
and wine was not at all changed.
Hence, after receiving dreadful threats from some, and fair words from others for
his opinions, he was remanded to ward, where he lay two nights without any bed.
On Palm Sunday he underwent a second examination, and Mr. Marsh much lamented
that his fear should at all have induced him to prevaricate, and to seek his
safety, as long as he did not openly deny Christ, and he again cried more earnestly
to God for strength that he might not be overcome by the subtleties of those who
strove to overrule the purity of his faith.
He underwent three examinations before Dr. Coles, who, finding him steadfast in the
Protestant faith, began to read his sentence, but he was interrupted by the
Chancellor, who prayed the Bishop to stay before it was too late.
The priest then prayed for Mr. Marsh, but the latter, upon being again solicited
to recount, said he does not deny his Saviour Christ, lest he lose his
everlasting mercy, and so obtain eternal death.
The Bishop then proceeded in the sentence.
He was committed to a dark dungeon, and lay deprived of the consolation of any
one, for all were afraid to relieve or communicate with him, until the day
appointed came that he should suffer.
The sheriffs of the city, Amory and Cooper, were their officers, went to the
North Gate, and took out Mr. George Marsh, who walked all the way with the book in
his hand, looking upon the same, whence the people said, This man does not
go to his death as a thief, nor as one that deserveth to die.
When he came to the place of execution without the city, near Spittleboughton,
Mr. Cawdry, Deputy Chamberlain of Chester, showed Mr. Marsh a writing under a great
seal, saying that it was a pardon for him if he would recant.
He answered that he would gladly accept the same did it not tend to pluck him from
God.
After that he began to speak to the people, showing the cause of his death,
and would have exhorted them to stick unto Christ, but one of the sheriffs prevented
him.
Kneeling down, he then said his prayers, put off his clothes unto his shirt,
and was chained to the post, having a number of faggots under him, and a thing
made like a firkin, with pitch and tar in it, over his head.
The fire being unskillfully made, and the wind driving it in eddies,
he suffered great extremity, which notwithstanding he bore with Christian
fortitude.
When he had been a long time tormented in the fire, without moving, having his flesh
so broiled and puffed up that they who stood before him could not see the chain
wherewith he was fastened, and therefore supposed that he had been dead,
suddenly he spread abroad his arms, saying, Father of Heaven have mercy upon
me, and so yielded his spirit into the hands of the Lord.
Upon this many of the people said he was a martyr, and died gloriously patient.
This caused the bishop, shortly after, to make a sermon in the cathedral church,
and therein he affirmed that the said Marsh was a heretic, burnt as such,
and is a firebrand in hell.
Mr. Marsh suffered.
April 24, 1555.
WILLIAM FLOWER William Flower, otherwise Branch, was born at Snow Hill in
the county of Cambridge, where he went to school some years, and then came to the
Abbey of Ely.
After he had remained a while he became a professed monk, was made a priest in the
same house, and there celebrated and sang Mass.
After that, by reason of a visitation, and certain injunctions by the authority
of Henry VIII, he took upon him the habit of a secular priest, and returned to Snow
Hill where he was born, and taught children about half a year.
He then went to Ludgate in Suffolk, and served as a secular priest about a
quarter of a year, from thence to Stoneyland, at length to Tewkesbury,
where he married a wife with whom he ever after faithfully and honestly continued.
After marriage he resided at Tewkesbury about two years, and thence went to
Brosley, where he practised physic and surgery, but departing from those parts he
came to London, and finally settled at Lambeth, where he and his wife dwelt
together.
However, he was generally abroad, excepting once or twice in a month,
to visit and see his wife.
Being at home upon Easter Sunday morning, he came over the water from Lambeth into
St Margaret's Church at Westminster, when seeing a priest named John Keltham,
administering and giving the sacrament of the altar to the people, and being greatly
offended in his conscience with the priest for the same, he struck and wounded him
upon the head, and also upon the arm and hand with his wood-knife, the priest,
having at the same time in his hand a chalice with a consecrated host there in,
which became sprinkled with blood.
Mr. Flower, for this injudicious zeal, was heavily ironed and put into the
gatehouse at Westminster, and afterwards summoned before Bishop Bonner and his
ordinary, where the bishop, after he had sworn him upon a book, ministered articles
and interrogatories to him.
After examination, the bishop began to exhort him again to return to the unity of
his mother, the Catholic Church, with many fair promises.
These, Mr. Flower steadfastly rejecting, the bishop ordered him to appear in the
same place in the afternoon, and in the meantime to consider well his former
answer.
But he, neither apologising for having struck the priest, nor swerving from his
faith, the bishop assigned him the next day, April 20, to receive sentence if he
would not recant.
The next morning the bishop accordingly proceeded to the sentence, condemning and
excommunicating him for a heretic, and after pronouncing him to be degraded,
committed him to the secular power.
On April 24, St. Mark's Eve, he was brought to the place of martyrdom in St.
Margaret's Churchyard, Westminster, where the fact was committed.
And there, coming to the stake, he prayed to Almighty God, made a
confession of his faith, and forgave all the world.
This done, his hand was held up against the stake, and struck off, his left hand
being fastened behind him.
Fire was then set to him, and he, burning therein, cried with a loud voice,
O thou Son of God, receive my soul, three times.
His speech being now taken from him, he spoke no more, but notwithstanding,
he lifted up the stump with his other arm as long as he could.
Thus he endured the extremity of the fire, and was cruelly tortured, for the few
faggots that were brought being insufficient to burn him, they were
compelled to strike him down into the fire, where, lying along upon the ground,
his lower part was consumed in the fire, whilst his upper part was little injured,
his tongue moving in his mouth for a considerable time.
The Rev.
John Codmaker and John Warne May 30, 1555, the Rev.
John Codmaker, otherwise called Taylor, Prebendry of the Church of Wells,
and John Warne, Upholsterer of St. John's, Walbrook, suffered together in Smithfield.
Mr. Codmaker, who first was an observant friar before the dissolution of the
Abbeys, afterward was a married minister, and in King Edward's time, appointed to be
a reader in St. Paul's.
Being apprehended in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, with Dr. Barlow,
Bishop of Bath, he was brought to London and put in the Fleet Prison, King Edward's
laws being yet in force.
In Mary's reign, when brought before the Bishop of Winchester, the latter offered
them the Queen's mercy if they would recant.
Articles having been preferred against Mr. John Warne, he was examined upon them by
Bonner, who earnestly exhorted him to recant his opinions, to whom he answered,
I am persuaded that I am in the right opinion, and I see no cause to recant,
for all the filthiness and idolatry lies in the Church of Rome.
The Bishop then, seeing that all his fair promises and terrible threatenings could
not prevail, pronounced the definitive sentence of condemnation, and ordered May
30, 1555, for the execution of John Codmaker and John Warne, who were brought
by the sheriffs to Smithfield.
Being come to the stake, the sheriffs called Mr. Codmaker aside and talked with
him secretly, during which Mr. Warne prayed, was chained to the stake,
and had wood and reeds set about him.
The people were greatly afflicted, thinking that Mr. Codmaker would recant at
the burning of Mr. Warne.
At length Mr. Codmaker departed from the sheriffs and came towards the stake,
knelt down, and made a long prayer, in silence, to himself.
He then rose up, put off his clothes to his shirt, and went with a bold courage
unto the stake and kissed it, and taking Mr. Warne by the hand, he heartily
comforted him, and was bound to the stake rejoicing.
The people, seeing this so suddenly done, contrary to their previous expectation,
cried out, God be praised, the Lord strengthen thee, Codmaker, the Lord Jesus
receive thy spirit.
And this continued while the executioner put fire to them, and both had passed
through the fire to the blessed rest and peace among gods, holy saints,
and martyrs, to enjoy the crown of triumph and victory prepared for the elect
soldiers and warriors of Christ Jesus in his blessed kingdom, to whom be glory and
majesty for ever.
Amen.
John Simpson and John Ardley John Simpson and John Ardley were condemned on the same
day with Mr. Codmaker and John Warne, which was the twenty-fifth of May.
They were shortly after sent down from London to Essex, where they were burned in
one day, John Simpson at Rochford, and John Ardley at Raleigh, glorifying God
in his beloved son, and rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer.
Thomas Hawkes, Thomas Watts, and Anne Askew Thomas Hawkes, with six others,
was condemned on the ninth of February, 1555.
In education he was erudite, in person comely and of good stature, in manners a
gentleman and a sincere Christian.
A little before death, several of Mr. Hawkes's friends, terrified by the
sharpness of the punishment he was going to suffer, privately desired that in the
midst of the flames he should show them some token, whether the pains of burning
were so great that a man might not collectively endure it.
This he promised to do, and it was agreed that if the rage of the pain might be
suffered, then he should lift up his hands above his head towards heaven before he
gave up the ghost.
Not long after, Mr. Hawkes was led away to the place appointed for slaughter by Lord
Rich, and being come to the stake, mildly and patiently prepared himself for
the fire, having a strong chain cast about his middle, with a multitude of people on
every side compassing him about, unto whom, after he had spoken many things
and poured out his soul unto God, the fire was kindled.
When he had continued long in it, and his speech was taken away by violence
of the flame, his skin drawn together and his fingers consumed with the fire,
so that it was thought that he was gone, suddenly, and contrary to all expectation,
this good man, being mindful of his promise, reached up his hands,
burning in flames over his head, to the living God, and with great
rejoicings, as it seemed, struck or clapped them three times together.
A great shout followed this wonderful circumstance, and then this blessed martyr
of Christ, sinking down in the fire, gave up his spirit, June 10, 1555.
Thomas Watts, of Billerica, in Essex, of the Diocese of London, was a linen
draper.
He had daily expected to be taken by God's adversaries, and this came to pass on the
5th April, 1555, when he was brought before Lord Rich and other commissioners
at Chelmsford, and accused for not coming to the church.
Being consigned over to the bloody bishop, who gave him several hearings and,
as usual, many arguments, with much entreaty that he would be a disciple of
Antichrist, but his preaching availed not, and he resorted to his last revenge,
that of condemnation.
At the stake, after he had kissed it, he spake to Lord Rich, charging him to
repent, for the Lord would revenge his death.
Thus did this good martyr offer his body to the fire, in defence of the true gospel
of the Saviour.
Thomas Osmond, William Bamford and Nicholas Chamberlain, all of the town of
Coxhall, being sent up to be examined, Bonner, after several hearings,
pronounced them obstinate heretics, and delivered them to the sheriffs,
in whose custody they remained until they were delivered to the sheriff of Essex
County, and by him were executed, Chamberlain at Colchester, the 14th of
June, Thomas Osmond at Manningtree, and William Bamford, alias Butler,
at Harwich, the 15th of June, 1555, all dying full of the glorious hope of
immortality.
Then Writhesley, Lord Chancellor, offered Anne Askew the King's pardon if
she would recant, who made this answer, that she came not thither to deny her Lord
and Master.
And thus the good Anne Askew, being compassed in with flames of fire,
as a blessed sacrifice unto God, slept in the Lord, A.D.
1546, leaving behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men
to follow.
Reverend John Bradford and John Leith, an Apprentice Reverend John Bradford was
born at Manchester in Lancashire.
He was a good Latin scholar and afterward became a servant of Sir John Harrington,
Knight.
He continued several years in an honest and thriving way, but the Lord had elected
him to a better function.
Hence he departed from his master, quitting the Temple at London for the
University of Cambridge, to learn by God's law how to further the building of the
Lord's Temple.
In a few years after, the University gave him the degree of Master of Arts,
and he became a Fellow of Pembroke Hall.
Martin Butzer first urged him to preach, and when he modestly doubted his ability,
Butzer was wont to reply, If thou hast not fine wheat bread, yet give the poor people
barley bread, or whatsoever else the Lord hath committed unto thee.
Dr. Ridley, that worthy Bishop of London and glorious martyr of Christ,
first called him to take the degree of a deacon, and gave him a prebend in his
Cathedral Church of St. Paul.
In this preaching office, Mr. Bradford diligently laboured for the space of three
years.
Sharply he reproved sin, sweetly he preached Christ crucified, ably he
disproved heresies and errors, earnestly he persuaded to godly life.
After the death of blessed King Edward VI, Mr. Bradford still continued diligent in
preaching, until he was suppressed by Queen Mary.
An act now followed of the blackest ingratitude, and at which a pagan would
blush.
It has been recited that a tumult was occasioned by Mr. Bourne's, then Bishop of
Bath, preaching at St. Paul's Cross.
The indignation of the people placed his life in imminent danger.
Indeed, a dagger was thrown at him.
In this situation he entreated Mr. Bradford, who stood behind him,
to speak in his place, and assuage the tumult.
The people welcomed Mr. Bradford, and the latter afterward kept close to
him, that his presence might prevent the populace from renewing their assaults.
The same Sunday, in the afternoon, Mr. Bradford preached at Bow Church in
Cheapside, and reproved the people sharply for their seditious misdemeanor.
Notwithstanding this conduct, within three days after he was sent forth to the Tower
of London, where the Queen then was, to appear before the Council, there he was
charged with this act of saving Mr. Bourne, which was called seditious,
and they also objected against him for preaching.
Thus he was committed first to the Tower, then to other prisons, and after his
condemnation to the Poultry Comptor, where he preached twice a day continually,
unless sickness hindered him.
Such was his credit with the Keeper of the King's Bench, that he permitted him in an
evening to visit a poor sick person near the steelyard, upon his promise to return
in time, and in this he never failed.
The night before he was sent to Newgate, he was troubled in his sleep by foreboding
dreams that on Monday after he should be burned in Smithfield.
In the afternoon the Keeper's wife came up and announced this dreadful news to him,
but in him it excited only thankfulness to God.
At night half a dozen friends came with whom he spent all the evening in prayer
and godly exercises.
When he was removed to Newgate, a weeping crowd accompanied him,
and a rumour having been spread that he was to suffer at four the next morning,
an immense multitude attended.
At nine o'clock Mr. Bradford was brought into Smithfield.
The cruelty of the Sheriff deserves notice, for his brother-in-law,
Roger Beswick, having taken him by the hand as he passed, Mr. Woodruff,
with his staff, cut his head open.
Mr. Bradford, being come to the place, fell flat on the ground, and putting off
his clothes under the shirt he went to the stake, and there suffered with a young man
of twenty years of age whose name was John Leaf, an apprentice to Mr. Humphrey Gowdy,
tallow-chandler of Christchurch, London.
Upon Friday before Palm Sunday he was committed to the compter in Bread Street,
and afterward examined and condemned by the bloody Bishop.
It is reported of him that when the bill of his confession was read unto him,
instead of pen he took a pin, and pricking his hand, sprinkled the blood upon the
said bill, desiring the reader thereof to show the Bishop that he had sealed the
same bill with his blood already.
They both ended this mortal life, July 12, 1555, like two lambs,
without any alteration of their countenances, hoping to obtain that prize
they had long run for, to which may Almighty God conduct us all through the
merits of Christ our Saviour.
We shall conclude this article with mentioning that Mr. Sheriff Woodruff,
it is said, within half a year after, was struck on the right side with a palsy,
and for the space of eight years after, until his dying day, he was unable to turn
himself in his bed, thus he became at last a fearful object to behold.
The day after Mr. Bradford and John Leaf suffered in Smithfield, William Minge,
priest, died in prison at Maidstone.
With as great constancy and boldness he yielded up his life in prison,
as if it had pleased God to have called him to suffer by fire, as other godly men
had done before at the stake, and as he himself was ready to do, had it pleased
God to have called him to this trial.
REVEREND JOHN BLAND, REVEREND JOHN FRANKISH, NICHOLAS SHEDDERTON,
AND HUMPHREY MIDDLETON These Christian persons were all burnt at Canterbury for
the same cause.
Frankish and Bland were ministers and preachers of the word of God, the one
being Parson of Eydisham and the other vicar of Rolvenden.
Mr. Bland was cited to answer for his opposition to anti-Christianism,
and underwent several examinations before Dr. Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury,
and finally on the 25th of June, 1555, again withstanding the power of the
Pope, he was condemned and delivered to the secular arm.
On the same day were condemned John Frankish, Nicholas Shedderton,
Humphrey Middleton, Thacker, and Crocker, of whom Thacker only recounted.
Being delivered to the secular power, Mr. Bland, with the three former,
were all burnt together at Canterbury, July 12, 1555, at two several stakes but
in one fire, when they, in the sight of God and His angels and before men,
like true soldiers of Jesus Christ, gave a constant testimony to the truth of
His holy gospel.
Derek Carver and John Launder.
The 22nd of July, 1555, Derek Carver, brewer of Brightthorne Stone, aged 40,
was burnt at Lewes, and the day following, John Launder, husbandman, aged 25,
of Godstone, Surrey, was burnt at Staining.
Derek Carver was a man whom the Lord had blessed as well with temporal riches as
with his spiritual treasures.
At his coming into the town of Lewes to be burned, the people called to him,
beseeching God to strengthen him in the faith of Jesus Christ, and as he came to
the stake he knelt down and prayed earnestly.
Then his book was thrown into the barrel, and when he had stripped himself,
he too went into a barrel.
As soon as he was in, he took the book and threw it among the people, upon which the
sheriff commanded, in the name of the king and queen, on pain of death, to throw in
the book again.
And immediately the holy martyr began to address the people.
After he had prayed a while, he said, O Lord my God, Thou hast written,
He that will not forsake wife, children, house, and everything that he
hath, and take up Thy cross and follow Thee, is not worthy of Thee.
But Thou, Lord, knowest that I have forsaken all to come unto Thee.
Lord, have mercy upon me, for unto Thee I commend my spirit, and my soul doth
rejoice in Thee.
These were the last words of this faithful servant of Christ before enduring the
fire.
And when the fire came to him, he cried, O Lord, have mercy upon me,
and sprang up in the fire, calling upon the name of Jesus, until he gave up the
ghost.
James Abbas.
This young man wandered about to escape apprehension, but was at last informed
against and brought before the Bishop of Norwich, who influenced him to recant.
To secure him further in apostasy, the Bishop afterward gave him a piece of
money, but the interference of Providence is here remarkable.
This bribe lay so heavily upon his conscience that he returned, threw back
the money, and repented of his conduct.
Like Peter, he was contrite, steadfast in the faith, and sealed it with his blood at
Bury, August 2, 1555, praising and glorifying God.
John Denley, John Newman, and Patrick Packingham.
Mr. Denley and Newman were returning one day to Maidstone, the place of their
abode, when they were met by E.
Tyrell Esquire, a bigoted justice of the peace in Essex, and a cruel persecutor of
the Protestants.
He apprehended them merely on suspicion.
On the 5th of July, 1555, they were condemned and consigned to the sheriffs,
who sent Mr. Denley to Uxbridge, where he perished, August 8, 1555.
While suffering in agony and singing a psalm, Dr. Storey inhumanly ordered one of
the tormentors to throw a faggot at him, which cut his face severely, caused him to
cease singing, and to raise his hands to his face.
Just as Dr. Storey was remarking in jest that he had spoiled a good song,
the pious martyr again changed, spread his hands abroad in the flames,
and through Christ Jesus resigned his soul into the hands of his Maker.
Mr. Packingham suffered at the same town on the 28th of the same month.
Mr. Newman, puterer, was burned at Saffron Walden in Essex, August 31, for the same
cause, and Richard Hook, about the same time, perished at Chichester.
W.
Coker, W.
Hooper, H.
Lawrence, R.
Collier, R.
Wright, and W.
Steer.
These persons, all of Kent, were examined at the same time with Mr. Bland and
Shetterdon by Thornton, Bishop of Dover, Dr. Harpsfield, and others.
These six martyrs and witnesses of the truth were consigned to the flames in
Canterbury at the end of August, 1555.
Elizabeth Warne, widow of John Warne, upholsterer, martyr, was burned at
Stratford-le-Beau near London at the end of August, 1555.
George Tankerfield, of London, Cook, born at York, aged 27, in the reign
of Edward VI, had been a papist, but the cruelty of Bloody Mary made him
suspect the truth of those doctrines which were enforced by fire and torture.
Tankerfield was imprisoned in Newgate about the end of February, 1555,
and on August 26, at St. Albans, he braved the excruciating fire and
joyfully died for the glory of his Redeemer.
Rev.
Robert Smith was first in the service of Sir T.
Smith, Provost of Eton, and was afterwards removed to Windsor, where he had a
clerkship of £10 a year.
He was condemned July 12, 1555, and suffered August 8 at Uxbridge.
He doubted not but that God would give the spectators some token in support of his
own cause.
This actually happened, for when he was nearly half-burned, and supposed to be
dead, he suddenly rose up, moved the remaining parts of his arms, and praised
God.
Then, hanging over the fire, he sweetly slept in the Lord Jesus.
Mr. Stephen Harwood and Mr. Thomas Fust suffered about the same time with Smith
and Tankerfield, with whom they were condemned.
Mr. William Hale, also of Thorpe in Essex, was sent to Barnet, where about the same
time he joined the ever-blessed company of martyrs.
George King, Thomas Leys, and John Wade, falling sick in Lollard's Tower,
were removed to different houses and died.
Their bodies were thrown out in the common fields as unworthy of burial, and lay
until the faithful conveyed them away at night.
Mr. William Andrew, of Horsley, Essex, was imprisoned in Newgate for
heresy, but God chose to call him to himself by the severe treatment he endured
in Newgate, and thus to mock the sanguinary expectations of his Catholic
persecutors.
His body was thrown into the open air, but his soul was received into the
everlasting mansions of his Heavenly Creator.
The Reverend Robert Samuel.
This gentleman was minister of Bradford, Suffolk, where he industriously taught the
flock committed to his charge, while he was openly permitted to discharge
his duty.
He was first persecuted by Mr. Foster, of Copdock, near Ipswich, a severe and
bigoted persecutor of the followers of Christ, according to the truth in the
Gospel.
Notwithstanding Mr. Samuel was ejected from his living, he continued to exhort
and instruct privately, nor would he obey the order for putting away his wife,
whom he had married in King Edward's reign, but kept her at Ipswich,
where Foster, by warrant, surprised him by night with her.
After being imprisoned in Ipswich jail, he was taken before Dr. Hopton,
Bishop of Norwich, and Dr. Dunnings, his Chancellor, two of the most sanguinary
among the bigots of those days.
To intimidate the worthy pastor, he was in prison chained to a post,
in such a manner that the weight of his body was supported by the points of his
toes.
Added to this, his allowance of provision was reduced to a quantity so insufficient
to sustain nature that he was almost ready to devour his own flesh.
From this dreadful extremity there was even a degree of mercy in ordering him to
the fire.
Mr. Samuel suffered August 31, 1555.
Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer These reverend prelates suffered October 17,
1555, at Oxford on the same day Wolsey and Piggott perished at Ely.
Pillars of the church and accomplished ornaments of human nature, they were the
admiration of the realm, amiably conspicuous in their lives and glorious in
their deaths.
Dr. Ridley was born in Northumberland, was first taught grammar at Newcastle,
and afterward removed to Cambridge, where his aptitude in education raised him
gradually until he came to be the head of Pembroke College, where he received the
title of Doctor of Divinity.
Having returned from a trip to Paris, he was appointed chaplain by Henry VIII
and Bishop of Rochester, and was afterwards translated to the Sea of London
in the time of Edward VI.
To his sermons the people resorted, swarming about him like bees, coveting the
sweet flowers and wholesome juice of the fruitful doctrine, which he did not only
preach but showed the same by his life as a glittering lantern to the eyes and
senses of the blind, in such pure order that his very enemies could not reprove
him in any one jot.
His tender treatment of Dr. Heath, who was a prisoner with him during one
year in Edward's reign, evidently proves that he had no Catholic cruelty in his
disposition.
In person he was erect and well-proportioned, in temper forgiving,
in self-mortification severe.
His first duty in the morning was private prayer.
He remained in his study until ten o 'clock, and then attended the daily prayer
used in his house.
Dinner being done, he sat about an hour conversing pleasantly or playing at chess.
His study next engaged his attention, unless business or visits occurred.
About five o'clock prayers followed, and after he would recreate himself at
chess for about an hour, then retire to his study until eleven o'clock,
and pray on his knees as in the morning.
In brief he was a pattern of godliness and virtue, and such he endeavoured to make
men wherever he came.
His attentive kindness was displayed particularly to old Mrs. Bonner,
mother of Dr. Bonner, the Cruel Bishop of London.
Dr. Ridley, when at his manor at Fulham, always invited her to his house,
placed her at the head of his table, and treated her like his own mother.
He did the same by Bonner's sister and other relatives.
But when Dr. Ridley was under persecution, Bonner pursued a conduct diametrically
opposite, and would have sacrificed Dr. Ridley's sister and her husband,
Mr. George Shipside, had not Providence delivered him by the means of Dr. Heath,
Bishop of Worcester.
Dr. Ridley was first in part converted by reading Bertram's book on the sacrament,
and by his conferences with Archbishop Cranmer and Peter Martyr.
When Edward VI was removed from the throne, and the Bloody Mary succeeded,
Bishop Ridley was immediately marked as an object of slaughter.
He was first sent to the Tower, and afterward, at Oxford, was consigned to
the common prison of Boccardo with Archbishop Cranmer and Mr. Latimer.
Being separated from them, he was placed in the house of one Irish, where he
remained until the day of his martyrdom, from 1554 until October 16, 1555.
It will easily be supposed that the conversations of these chiefs of the
martyrs were elaborate, learned, and instructive.
Such indeed they were, and equally beneficial to all their spiritual
comforts.
Bishop Ridley's letters to various Christian brethren in bonds in all parts,
and his disputations with the mighted enemies of Christ, alike proved the
clearness of his head and the integrity of his heart.
In a letter to Mr. Grindle, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, he mentions with
affection those who had preceded him in dying for the faith, and those who were
expected to suffer.
He regrets that Popery is re-established in its full abomination, which he
attributes to the wrath of God, made manifest in return for the
lukewarmness of the clergy and the people, in justly appreciating the blessed light
of the Reformation.
The old practised soldier of Christ, Master Hugh Latimer, was the son of one
Hugh Latimer of Thurkeson in the county of Leicester, a husbandman of a good and
wealthy estimation, where also he was born and brought up until he was four years of
age or thereabout, at which time his parents, having him as then left for their
only son, with six daughters, seeing his ready, prompt and sharp wit, purposed to
train him up in erudition and knowledge of good literature, wherein he so profited in
his youth at the common schools of his own country, that at the age of fourteen years
he was sent to the University of Cambridge, where he entered into the study
of the school divinity of that day, and was from principle a zealous observer
of the Romish superstitions of the time.
In his oration when he commenced Bachelor of Divinity, he inveighed against the
reformer Melanchthon, and openly declaimed against good Mr. Stafford, divinity
lecturer in Cambridge.
Mr. Thomas Bilney, moved by a brotherly pity towards Mr. Latimer, begged to wait
upon him in his study and to explain to him the groundwork of his Mr. Bilney's
faith.
This blessed interview effected his conversion, the persecutor of Christ
became his zealous advocate, and before Dr. Stafford died, he became reconciled to
him.
Once converted, he became eager for the conversion of others, and commenced to be
public preacher and private instructor in the University.
His sermons were so pointed against the absurdity of praying in the Latin tongue,
and withholding the oracles of salvation from the people who were to be saved by
belief in them, that he drew upon himself the pulpit animad versions of several of
the resident friars and heads of houses, whom he subsequently silenced by his
severe criticisms and eloquent arguments.
This was at Christmas 1529.
At length, Dr. West preached against Mr. Latimer at Barwell Abbey, and prohibited
him from preaching again in the churches of the University, notwithstanding which
he continued during three years to advocate openly the cause of Christ.
And even his enemies confessed the power of those talents he possessed.
Mr. Bilney remained here some time with Mr. Latimer, and thus the place where they
frequently walked together obtained the name of Heretic's Hill.
Mr. Latimer at this time traced out the innocence of a poor woman accused by her
husband of the murder of her child.
Having preached before King Henry VIII at Windsor, he obtained the unfortunate
mother's pardon.
This, with many other benevolent acts, served only to excite the spleen of his
adversaries.
He was summoned before Cardinal Wolsey for heresy, but being a strenuous supporter of
the King's supremacy in opposition to the Pope's, by favour of Lord Cromwell and Dr.
Butts, the King's physician, he obtained the living of West Kingston in Wiltshire.
For his sermons here against purgatory, the immaculacy of the Virgin and the
worship of images, he was cited to appear before Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
and John, Bishop of London.
He was required to subscribe certain articles expressive of his conformity to
the accustomed usages, and there is reason to think, after repeated weekly
examinations, that he did subscribe, as they did not seem to involve any
important article of belief.
Guided by providence, he escaped the subtle nets of his persecutors,
and at length, through the powerful friends before mentioned, became Bishop of
Worcester, in which function he qualified or explained away most of the papal
ceremonies he was, for form's sake, under the necessity of complying with.
He continued in this active and dignified employment some years.
Beginning afresh to set forth his plough, he laboured in the Lord's harvest most
fruitfully, discharging his talent as well in divers' places of this realm as before
the King at the court.
In the same place of the inward garden, which was before applied to lascivious and
courtly pastimes, there he dispensed the fruitful word of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, preaching there before the King and his whole court to the edification of
many.
He remained a prisoner in the Tower until the coronation of Edward VI, when he was
again called to the Lord's harvest in Stamford and many other places.
He also preached at London in the Convocation House and before the young
King.
Indeed he lectured twice every Sunday, regardless of his great age, then above
sixty-seven years, and his weakness through a bruise received from the fall of
a tree.
Indefatigable in his private studies, he rose to them in winter and in summer at
two o'clock in the morning.
By the strength of his own mind, or of some inward light from above,
he had a prophetic view of what was to happen to the Church in Mary's reign,
asserting that he was doomed to suffer for the truth, and that Winchester,
then in the Tower, was preserved for that purpose.
Soon after Queen Mary was proclaimed, a messenger was sent to summon Mr. Latimer
to town, and there is reason to believe it was wished that he should make his escape.
Thus Master Latimer, coming up to London through Smithfield, where merrily he said
that Smithfield had long groaned for him, was brought before the Council,
where he patiently bore all the mocks and taunts given him by the scornful Papists.
He was cast into the Tower, where he, being assisted with the heavenly grace of
Christ, sustained imprisonment a long time, notwithstanding the cruel and
unmerciful handling of the lordly Papists, which thought then their kingdom would
never fall.
He showed himself not only patient, but also cheerful, in and above all that
which they could or would work against him.
Yea, such a valiant spirit the Lord gave him, that he was able not only to despise
the terribleness of prisons and torments, but also to laugh to scorn the doings of
his enemies.
Mr. Latimer, after remaining a long time in the Tower, was transported to Oxford
with Cranmer and Ridley, the disputations at which place have been already mentioned
in a former part of this work.
He remained imprisoned until October, and the principal objects of all his
prayers were three, that he might stand faithful to the doctrine he had professed,
that God would restore his gospel to England once again, and preserve the Lady
Elizabeth to be queen.
All of which happened.
When he stood at the stake without the Boccardo gate Oxford, with Dr. Ridley,
and fire was putting to the pile of faggots, he raised his eyes benignantly
towards heaven and said, God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that you are able.
His body was forcibly penetrated by the fire, and the blood flowed abundantly from
the heart, as if to verify his constant desire that his heart's blood might be
shed in defence of the gospel.
His polemical and friendly letters are lasting monuments of his integrity and
talents.
It has been before said that public disputation took place in April 1554,
new examinations took place in October 1555, previous to the degradation and
condemnation of Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer.
We now draw to the conclusion of the lives of the two last.
Dr. Ridley, the night before execution, was very facetious, had himself shaved,
and called his supper a marriage feast.
He remarked upon seeing Mrs. Irish, the keeper's wife, weep, Though my
breakfast will be somewhat sharp, my supper will be more pleasant and sweet.
The place of death was on the north side of the town opposite Balliol College.
Dr. Ridley was dressed in a black gown, furred, and Mr. Latimer had a long shroud
on, hanging down to his feet.
Dr. Ridley, as he passed Boccardo, looked up to see Dr. Cranmer, but the
latter was then engaged in disputation with a friar.
When they came to the stake, Mr. Ridley embraced Latimer fervently, and bid him,
Be of good heart, brother, for God will either assuage the fury of the flame,
or else strengthen us to abide it.
He then knelt by the stake, and after earnestly praying together, they had a
short private conversation.
Dr. Smith then preached a short sermon against the martyrs, who would have
answered him, but were prevented by Dr. Marshall, the vice-chancellor.
Dr. Ridley then took off his gown and tippet, and gave them to his
brother-in-law, Mr. Shipside.
He gave away also many trifles to his weeping friends, and the populace were
anxious to get even a fragment of his garments.
Mr. Latimer gave nothing, and from the poverty of his garb, was soon stripped to
his shroud, and stood venerable and erect, fearless of death.
Dr. Ridley, being unclothed to his shirt, the Smith placed an iron chain about their
waists, and Dr. Ridley bid him fasten it securely.
His brother, having tied a bag of gunpowder about his neck, gave some also
to Mr. Latimer.
Dr. Ridley then requested of Lord Williams, of fame, to advocate with the
Queen the cause of some poor men, to whom he had when Bishop granted leases,
but which the present Bishop refused to confirm.
A lighted faggot was now laid at Dr. Ridley's feet, which caused Mr. Latimer to
say, be of good cheer, Ridley, and play the man.
We shall this day, by God's grace, light up such a candle in England as I
trust will never be put out.
When Dr. Ridley saw the fire flaming up towards him, he cried with a wonderful
loud voice, Lord, Lord, receive my spirit.
Mr. Latimer, crying as vehemently on the other side, O Father of Heaven,
receive my soul, received the flame as if it were embracing of it.
After that he had stroked his face with his hands and, as it were, bathed them a
little in the fire, he soon died, as it appeareth, with very little pain or
none.
Well, dead they are, and the reward of this world they have already.
What reward remaineth for them in heaven, the day of the Lord's glory, when he
cometh with his saints, shall declare.
In the following month died Stephen Gardner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord
Chancellor of England.
This papistical monster was born at Bury in Suffolk and partly educated at
Cambridge.
Ambitious, cruel and bigoted, he served any cause.
He first disposed the King's part in the affair of Anne Boleyn, upon the
establishment of the Reformation he declared the supremacy of the Pope an
execrable tenet, and when Queen Mary came to the Crown he entered into all her
papistical bigoted views and became a second time Bishop of Winchester.
It is conjectured it was his intention to have moved the sacrifice of Lady
Elizabeth, but when he arrived at this point it pleased God to remove him.
It was on the afternoon of the day when those faithful soldiers of Christ,
Ridley and Latimer perished, that Gardner sat down with a joyful heart to dinner.
Scarcely did he take in a few mouthfuls when he was seized with illness and
carried to his bed, where he lingered fifteen days in great torment,
unable in any wise to evacuate, and burnt with devouring fever that
terminated in death.
Execrated by all good Christians, we pray the Father of Mercies that he may
receive that mercy above he never imparted below.
Mr. John Philpott This martyr was the son of a knight, born in Hampshire and brought
up at New College, Oxford, where for several years he studied the civil law and
became eminent in the Hebrew tongue.
He was a scholar and a gentleman, zealous in religion, fearless in
disposition, and a detester of flattery.
After visiting Italy, he returned to England, affairs in King Edward's days
wearing a more promising aspect.
During this reign he continued to be Archdeacon of Winchester under Dr. Poinet,
who succeeded Gardner.
Upon the accession of Mary, a convocation was summoned in which Mr. Philpott
defended the Reformation against his ordinary Gardner, again made Bishop of
Winchester, and soon was conducted to Bonner and other commissioners for
examination, October 2, 1555, after being eighteen months imprisoned.
Upon his demanding to see the commission, Dr. Storey cruelly observed, I will spend
both my gown and my coat, but I will burn thee.
Let him be in Lollard's Tower, a wretched prison, for I will sweep the
King's Bench and all other prisons of these heretics.
Upon Mr. Philpott's second examination, it was intimated to him that Dr. Storey
had said that the Lord Chancellor had commanded that he should be made away
with.
It is easy to foretell the result of this inquiry.
He was committed to Bonner's coal house, where he joined company with a zealous
Minister of Essex, who had been induced to sign a bill of recantation, but
afterwards, stung by his conscience, he asked the Bishop to let him see the
instrument again when he tore it to pieces, which induced Bonner in a fury to
strike him repeatedly and tear away part of his beard.
Mr. Philpott had a private interview with Bonner the same night, and was then
remanded to his bed of straw, like other prisoners in the coal house.
After seven examinations, Bonner ordered him to be set in the stocks, and on the
following Sunday separated him from his fellow prisoners as a sower of heresy,
and ordered him up to a room near the Battlements of St. Paul's, eight feet by
thirteen, on the other side of Lollard's Tower, and which could be overlooked by
anyone in the Bishop's outer gallery.
Here Mr. Philpott was searched, but happily he was successful in secreting
some letters containing his examinations.
In the eleventh investigation, before various Bishops and Mr. Morgan of
Oxford, the latter were so driven into a corner by the close pressure of Mr.
Philpott's arguments, that he said to him, Instead of the spirit of the gospel which
you boast to possess, I think it is the spirit of the buttery which your fellows
have had who had drunk before their death, and went, I believe, drunken to it.
To this unfounded and brutish remark, Mr. Philpott indignantly replied,
It appeareth by your communication that you are better acquainted with that spirit
than the spirit of God.
Wherefore I tell thee, thou painted wall and hypocrite, in the name of the living
God whose truth I have told thee, that God shall rain fire and brimstone
upon such blasphemers as thou art.
He was then remanded by Bonner with an order not to allow him his Bible nor
candlelight.
On December 4, Mr. Philpott had his next hearing, and this was followed by two
more, making in all fourteen conferences, previous to the final examination,
in which he was condemned.
Such were the perseverance and anxiety of the Catholics, aided by the argumentative
abilities of the most distinguished of the papal bishops, to bring him into the pale
of their church.
Those examinations, which were very long and learned, were all written down by Mr.
Philpott, and a stronger proof of the imbecility of the Catholic doctors cannot
to an unbiased mind be exhibited.
On December 16, in the consistory of St. Paul's, Bishop Bonner, after laying some
trifling accusations to his charge, such as secreting powder to make ink,
writing some private letters, etc., proceeded to pass the awful sentence upon
him, after he and the other bishops had urged him by every inducement to recant.
He was afterward conducted to Newgate, where the avaricious Catholic keeper
loaded him with heavy irons, which by the humanity of Mr. Maitcham were ordered to
be taken off.
On December 17, Mr. Philpott received intimation that he was to die next day,
and the next morning, about 8 o'clock, he joyfully met the sheriffs, who were to
attend him to the place of execution.
Upon entering Smithfield, the ground was so muddy that two officers offered to
carry him to the stake, but he replied, Would you make me a pope?
I am content to finish my journey on foot.
Arriving at the stake, he said, Shall I disdain to suffer at the stake,
when my Redeemer did not refuse to suffer the most vile death upon the cross for me?
He then meekly recited the 107th and 108th Psalms, and when he had finished his
prayers, was bound to the post, and fire applied to the pile.
On December 18, 1555, perished this illustrious martyr, reverenced by man,
and glorified in heaven.
John Lomas, Agnes Snowth, Anne Wright, Joan Soul, and Joan Catmar.
These five martyrs suffered together, January 31, 1556.
John Lomas was a young man of Tenterden.
He was cited to appear at Canterbury, and was examined January 17.
His answers being adverse to the idolatrous doctrine of the papacy,
he was condemned on the following day, and suffered January 31.
Agnes Snowth, widow of Smardon Parish, was several times summoned before the
Catholic Pharisees, and rejecting absolution, indulgences,
transubstantiation, and auricular confession, she was adjudged worthy to
suffer death, and endured martyrdom January 31, with Anne Wright and Joan
Soul, who were placed in similar circumstances, and perished at the same
time with equal resignation.
Joan Catmar, the last of this heavenly company, of the parish Hithe, was the wife
of the martyr George Catmar.
Seldom in any country, for political controversy, have four women been led to
execution, whose lives were irreproachable, and whom the pity of
savages would have spared.
We cannot but remark here, that when the Protestant power first gained the
ascendancy over the Catholic superstition, and some degree of force in the laws was
necessary to enforce uniformity, when some bigoted people suffered
privation in their person or goods, we read a few burnings, savage cruelties,
or poor women brought to the stake.
But it is the nature of error to resort to force instead of argument, and to silence
truth by taking away existence, of which the Redeemer himself is an
instance.
The above five persons were burnt at two stakes in one fire, singing hosannas to
the glorified Saviour, until the breath of life was extinct.
Sir John Norton, who was present, wept bitterly at their unmerited
sufferings.
Archbishop Cranmer Dr. Thomas Cranmer was descended from an ancient family,
and was born at the village of Arslacton in the county of Northampton.
After the usual school education, he was sent to Cambridge, and was chosen
Fellow of Jesus College.
Here he married a gentleman's daughter, by which he forfeited his fellowship,
and became a reader in Buckingham College, placing his wife at the Dolphin Inn,
the landlady of which was a relation of hers, whence arose the idle report that he
was an Osler.
His lady, shortly after dying in childbed, to his credit, he was re-chosen a Fellow
of the College before mentioned.
In a few years after, he was promoted to be divinity lecturer, and appointed one of
the examiners over those who were ripe to become bachelors or doctors in divinity.
It was his principle to judge of their qualifications by the knowledge they
possessed of the scriptures, rather than of the ancient fathers, and hence many
popish priests were ejected, and others rendered much improved.
He was strongly solicited by Dr. Capon to be one of the fellows on the foundation of
Cardinal Wolsey's College, Oxford, of which he hazarded the refusal.
While he continued in Cambridge, the question of Henry VIII's divorce with
Catherine was agitated.
At that time, on account of the plague, Dr. Cranmer removed to the house of a Mr.
Cressy at Waltham Abbey, whose two sons were then educating under him.
The affair of divorce, contrary to the King's approbation, had remained undecided
above two or three years from the intrigues of the canonists and civilians,
and though the Cardinals Campeus and Wolsey were commissioned from Rome to
decide the question, they purposely protracted the sentence.