These godly women (before mentioned) were both of Ipswich, and suffered

about the same time with Cranmer. When in prison together, Mrs.

Trunchfield was less ardent and zealous than Mrs. Potten; but when at

the stake, her hope in glory was brighter even than that of her

fellow-sufferer.

John Maundrel, William Coberly, and John Spicer were burnt between

Salisbury and Wilton, March 24, 1556. Two died without any particular

retardation, but Coberly, from the current of wind as he stood, was a

long time in perishing. His left arm was visible to the bone, while the

right, but little injured, beat upon his breast softly, and the

discharge from his mouth was considerable. Rising suddenly erect from

hanging over the chain, as if dead, he gave up his mortal abode for one

made without hands, eternal in the heavens!

_Rev. Robert Drakes, Rev. William Tyms, Richard Spurge, Sheerman T.

Spurge, Fuller; J. Cavel, Weaver; and G. Ambrose, Fuller._

These worthies were of Essex, and in the diocese of London.--They were

all sent up to Gardiner, the chancellor, March 25, 1555; who imprisoned

them some in the king's bench, and others in the Marshalsea.

March 28, the six were brought up for condemnation in the consistory of

St. Paul's; after which sentence, they were delivered to the sheriff, to

be sent to Newgate, where they remained, patiently waiting the Lord's

time for deliverance, which took place about the 23d of April, 1556, in

Smithfield.

In the same month, perished John Harpole, of Rochester, and Joan Beach,

widow, (before mentioned) with Mr. N. Hall. They suffered under Maurice,

bishop of Rochester, in whose diocess they lived.

Rev. John Hullier. This gentleman went from Eton school to king's

college, Cambridge, and suffered under Dr. Thirlby, bishop of Ely. He

died the 2d of April, 1556.

From Kent we now turn to Colchester in Essex, where six constant

professors of the gospel were selected to witness the truth by the

sacrifice of their lives. These were, C. Luyster, of Dagenham,

husbandman; John Mace, apothecary; John Spencer, weaver; Simon Joyne,

lawyer; Richard Nichols, weaver, and John Hammond, tanner; five of

Colchester.

_Hugh Laverick and John Aprice._

Here we perceive that neither the impotence of age nor the affliction of

blindness, could turn aside the murdering fangs of these Babylonish

monsters. The first of these unfortunates was of the parish of Barking,

aged sixty-eight, a painter and a cripple. The other was blind,--dark

indeed in his visual faculties, but intellectually illuminated with the

radiance of the everlasting gospel of truth. Inoffensive objects like

these were informed against by some of the sons of bigotry, and dragged

before the prelatical shark of London, where they underwent examination,

and replied to the articles propounded to them, as other christian

martyrs had done before. On the 9th of May, in the consistory of St.

Paul's, they were entreated to recant, and upon refusal, were sent to

Fulham, where Bonner, by way of a dessert after dinner, condemned them

to the agonies of the fire. Being consigned to the secular officers, May

15, 1556, they were taken in a cart from Newgate to Stratford-le-Bow,

where they were fastened to the stake. When Hugh Laverick was secured by

the chain, having no farther occasion for his crutch, he threw it away

saying to his fellow-martyr, while consoling him, "Be of good cheer my

brother; for my lord of London is our good physician; he will heal us

both shortly--thee of thy blindness, and me of my lameness." They sank

down in the fire, to rise to immortality!

The day after the above martyrdoms, Catharine Hut, of Bocking, widow;

Joan Horns, spinster, of Billericay; Elizabeth Thackwel, spinster, of

Great Burstead; suffered death in Smithfield.

Thomas Dowry. We have again to record an act of unpitying cruelty,

exercised on this lad, whom bishop Hooper, had confirmed in the Lord and

the knowledge of his word.

How long this poor sufferer remained in prison is uncertain. By the

testimony of one John Paylor, register of Gloucester, we learn, that

when Dowry was brought before Dr. Williams, then chancellor of

Gloucester, the usual articles were presented him for subscription. From

these he dissented; and, upon the doctor's demanding of whom and where

he had learned his heresies, the youth replied, "Indeed, Mr.

Chancellor, I learned from you in that very pulpit. On such a day

(naming the day) you said, in preaching upon the sacrament, that it was

to be exercised spiritually by faith, and not carnally and really, as

taught by the papists." Dr. Williams then bid him recant, as he had

done; but Dowry had not so learned his duty. "Though you," said he, "can

so easily mock God, the world, and your own conscience, yet will I not

do so."

After the death of the above, the following three persons suffered at

Beccles, in Suffolk, May 21, 1556. Thomas Spicer, of Winston, labourer;

John Denny, and Edmund Poole.

_Preservation of George Crow and his Testament._

This poor man, of Malden, May 26, 1556, put to sea, to lade in Lent with

Fuller's earth, but the boat, being driven on land, filled with water,

and every thing was washed out of her; Crow, however, saved his

Testament, and coveted nothing else. With Crow was a man and a boy,

whose awful situation became every minute more alarming, as the boat was

useless, and they were ten miles from land, expecting the tide should in

a few hours set in upon them. After prayer to God, they got upon the

mast, and hung there for the space of ten hours, when the poor boy,

overcome by cold and exhaustion, fell off, and was drowned. The tide

having abated, Crow proposed to take down the masts, and float upon

them, which they did; and at ten o'clock at night they were borne away

at the mercy of the waves. On Wednesday, in the night, Crow's companion

died through fatigue and hunger, and he was left alone, calling upon God

for succour. At length he was picked up by a Captain Morse, bound to

Antwerp, who had nearly steered away, taking him for some fisherman's

buoy floating in the sea. As soon as Crow was got on board, he put his

hand in his bosom, and drew out his Testament, which indeed was wet, but

no otherwise injured. At Antwerp he was well received, and the money he

had lost was more than made good to him.

June 6, 1556, the following four martyrs suffered at Lewes, in Sussex:

J. Harland, of Woodmancote, carpenter; John Oswald, of the same place,

husbandmen; Thomas Avington, of Ardingly, turner; and Thomas Read.

June 20, at the same place, were burnt the Rev. Thomas Whood, and Thomas

Mills. June 24, the Rev. Wm. Alderhall; and June 28, John Clement,

wheelright, died in the King's Bench prison, and were buried on the

dunghill in the backyard. June 21, a young man, the servant of a

merchant, was burnt at Leicester.

_Executions at Stratford-le-Bow._

At this sacrifice, which we are about to detail, no less than thirteen

were doomed to the fire.

Each one refusing to subscribe contrary to conscience, they were

condemned, and the 27th of June, 1556, was appointed for their

execution at Stratford-le-Bow. Their constancy and faith glorified

their Redeemer, equally in life and in death.

_R. Bernard, A. Foster, and R. Lawson._

The first was a labourer, and a single man, of Framsden, Suffolk. He was

a shrewd, undaunted professor, and fearlessly replied to the bishop's

questions. Adam Foster was a husbandman, married, aged 26, of

Mendlesham, Suffolk. Refusing to go to church, he was sent by Sir J.

Tyrrel to Eye-Dungeon, and thence to bishop Hopton, who condemned him.

R. Lawson, of Bury, linen-weaver, a single man, aged 30, was sent to

Eye-Dungeon, and after that to Bury, where they suffered in the same

fire, praising God, and encouraging others to martyrdom.

_Rev. Julius Palmer._

This gentleman's life presents a singular instance of error and

conversion. In the time of Edward, he was a rigid and obstinate papist,

so adverse to godly and sincere preaching, that he was even despised by

his own party; that this frame of mind should be changed, and he suffer

persecution and death in queen Mary's reign, are among those events of

omnipotence at which we wonder and admire.

Mr. Palmer was born at Coventry, where his father had been mayor. Being

afterward removed to Oxford, he became, under Mr. Harley, of Magdalen

college, an elegant Latin and Greek scholar. He was fond of useful

disputation, possessed of a lively wit, and a strong memory.

Indefatigable in private study, he rose at four in the morning, and by

this practice qualified himself to become reader in logic in Magdalen

college. The times of Edward, however, favouring the reformation, Mr.

Palmer became frequently punished for his contempt of prayer and orderly

behaviour, and was at length expelled the house.

He afterwards embraced the doctrines of the reformation, which

occasioned his arrest and final condemnation. He was tried on the 15th

of July, 1556, together with one Thomas Askin, a fellow-prisoner. Askin

and one John Guin had been sentenced the day before, and Mr. Palmer, on

the 15th, was brought up for final judgment.--Execution was ordered to

follow the sentence, and at five o'clock in the same afternoon, at a

place called the Sand-pits, these three martyrs were fastened to a

stake. After devoutly praying together, they sung the 31st psalm. When

the fire was kindled, and it had seized their bodies, without an

appearance of enduring pain, they continued to cry, Lord Jesus,

strengthen us! Lord Jesus receive our souls! till animation was

suspended and human suffering was past. It is remarkable, that, when

their heads had fallen together in a mass as it were by the force of the

flames, and the spectators thought Palmer was lifeless, his tongue and

lips again moved, and were heard to pronounce the name of Jesus, to whom

be glory and honour forever!

About this time, three women were burnt in the island of Guernsey, under

circumstances of aggravated cruelty, whose names were, Catherine

Cauches, and her two daughters, Mrs. Perotine Massey, and Guillemine

Gilbert.

The day of execution having arrived, three stakes were erected: the

middle post was assigned to the mother, the eldest daughter on her right

hand, and the younger on the left. They were strangled previous to

burning, but the rope breaking before they were dead, the poor women

fell into the fire. Perotine, at the time of her inhuman sentence, was

largely pregnant, and now, falling on her side upon the flaming fagots,

presented a singular spectacle of horror!--Torn open by the tremendous

pangs she endured, she was delivered of a fine male child, who was

rescued from its burning bed by the humanity of one W. House, who

tenderly laid it on the grass. The infant was taken to the provost, and

by him presented to the bailiff, when the inhuman monster decreed it to

be re-cast into the fire, that it might perish with its heretical

mother! Thus was this innocent baptised in its own blood, to make up the

very climax of Romish barbarity; being born and dying at the same time a

martyr; and realizing again the days of Herodian cruelty, with

circumstances of bigoted malice unknown even to that execrable murderer.

Their execution took place, July 18, 1556. On the same day, were burnt

at Grinstead, in Sussex, Thomas Dungate, John Foreman, and Mother Tree.

June 26, 1556, at Leicester, was executed Thomas Moor, a servant, aged

24 years, who was taken up for saying that his Saviour was in Paradise,

and not in the popish paste or wafer.

_Joan Waste._

This poor honest woman, blind from her birth, and unmarried, aged 22,

was of the parish of Allhallows, Derby. Her father was a barber, and

also made ropes for a living: in which she assisted him, and also

learned to knit several articles of apparel. Refusing to communicate

with those who maintained doctrines contrary to those she had learned in

the days of the pious Edward, she was called before Dr. Draicot, the

chancellor of bishop Blaine, and Peter Finch, official of Derby.

With sophistical arguments and threats they endeavoured to confound the

poor girl; but she proffered to yield to the bishop's doctrine, if he

would answer for her at the day of judgment, (as pious Dr. Taylor had

done in his sermons) that his belief of the real presence of the

sacrament was true. The bishop at first answered that he would; but Dr.

Draicot reminding him that he might not in any way answer for a heretic,

he withdrew his confirmation of his own tenets; and she replied, that if

their consciences would not permit them to answer at God's bar for that

truth they wished her to subscribe to, she would answer no more

questions. Sentence was then adjudged, and Dr. Draicot appointed to

preach her condemned sermon, which took place August 1, 1556, the day of

her martyrdom. His fulminating discourse being finished, the poor

sightless object was taken to a place called Windmill Pit, near the

town, where she for a time held her brother by the hand, and then

prepared herself for the fire, calling upon the pitying multitude to

pray with her, and upon Christ to have mercy upon her, till the glorious

light of the everlasting sun of righteousness beamed upon her departed

spirit.

September 8, 1556, Edward Sharp, aged 40, was condemned at Bristol.

September 24, Thomas Ravendale, a currier, and John Hart, suffered at

Mayfield, in Essex; and on the day following, a young man, a carpenter,

died at Bristol with joyous constancy. September 27, John Horn, and a

female martyr suffered at Wooten-under-edge, Gloucestershire, professing

abjurgation of popery.

In November, fifteen martyrs were imprisoned in Canterbury castle, of

whom all were either burnt or famished. Among the latter were J. Clark,

D. Chittenden, W. Foster of Stone, Alice Potkins, and J. Archer, of

Cranbrooke, weaver. The two first of these had not received

condemnation, but the others were sentenced to the fire. Foster, at his

examination, observed upon the utility of carrying lighted candles about

on Candlemas-day, that he might as well carry a pitch fork; and that a

gibbet would have as good an effect as the cross.

We have now brought to a close the sanguinary proscriptions of the

merciless Mary, in the year 1556, the number of which amounted to above

EIGHTY-FOUR!

The beginning of the year 1557, was remarkable for the visit of Cardinal

Pole to the University of Cambridge, which seemed to stand in need of

much cleansing from heretical preachers and reformed doctrines. One

object was also to play the popish farce of trying Martin Bucer and

Paulus Phagius, who had been buried about three or four years; for which

purpose the churches of St. Mary and St. Michael, where they lay, were

interdicted as vile and unholy places, unfit to worship God in, until

they were perfumed and washed with the Pope's holy water, &c. &c. The

trumpery act of citing these dead reformers to appear, not having had

the least effect upon them, on January 26, sentence of condemnation was

passed, part of which ran in this manner, and may serve as a specimen of

proceedings of this nature:--"We therefore pronounce the said Martin

Bucer and Paulus Phagius excommunicated and anathematized, as well by

the common law, as by letters of process; and that their memory be

condemned, we also condemn their bodies and bones (which in that wicked

time of schism, and other heresies flourishing in this kingdom, were

rashly buried in holy ground) to be dug up, and cast far from the bodies

and bones of the faithful, according to the holy canons; and we command

that they and their writings, if any be there found, be publicly burnt;

and we interdict all persons whatsoever of this university, town, or

places adjacent, who shall read or conceal their heretical book, as

well by the common law, as by our letters of process!"

After the sentence thus read, the bishop commanded their bodies to be

dug out of their graves, and being degraded from holy orders, delivered

them into the hands of the secular power; for it was not lawful for such

innocent persons as they were, abhorring all bloodshed, and detesting

all desire of murder, to put any man to death.

February 6, the bodies, enclosed as they were in chests, were carried

into the midst of the market place at Cambridge, accompanied by a vast

concourse of people. A great post was set fast in the ground, to which

the chests were affixed with a large iron chain, and bound round their

centres, in the same manner as if the dead bodies had been alive. When

the fire began to ascend, and caught the coffins, a number of condemned

books were also launched into the flames, and burnt. Justice, however,

was done to the memories of these pious and learned men in queen

Elizabeth's reign, when Mr. Ackworth, orator of the university, and Mr.

J. Pilkington, pronounced orations in honour of their memory, and in

reprobation of their catholic persecutors.

Cardinal Cole also inflicted his harmless rage upon the dead body of

Peter Martyr's wife, who, by his command, was dug out of her grave, and

buried on a distant dunghill, partly because her bones lay near St.

Fridewide's relics, held once in great esteem in that college, and

partly because he wished to purify Oxford of heretical remains as well

as Cambridge. In the succeeding reign, however, her remains were

restored to their former cemetary, and even intermingled with those of

the catholic saint, to the utter astonishment and mortification of the

disciples of his holiness the pope.

Cardinal Cole published a list of fifty-four Articles, containing

instructions to the clergy of his diocess of Canterbury, some of which

are too ludicrous and puerile to excite any other sentiment than

laughter in these days.

_Persecutions in the Diocess of Canterbury._

In the year 1557, fifteen were imprisoned in the castle of Canterbury,

five of whom perished of hunger. We now proceed to the account of the

other ten; whose names were--J. Philpot, M. Bradbridge, N. Final, all of

Tenterden; W. Waterer and T. Stephens, of Beddington; J. Kempe, of

Norgate; W. Hay, of Hithe; T. Hudson, of Salenge; W. Lowick, of

Cranbrooke; and W. Prowting, of Thornham. Of these Kempe, Waterer,

Prowting, Lowick, Hudson, and Hay, were burnt at Canterbury, January 15,

1557: Stephens and Philpot at Wye, about the same time; and Final and

Bradbridge at Ashford, on the 16th. They were steadfast and immoveable

in the faith.

In the month of February, the following persons were committed to

prison:--R. Coleman, of Waldon, labourer; Joan Winseley, of Horsley

Magna, spinster; S. Glover of Rayley; R. Clerk, of Much Holland,

mariner; W. Munt, of Much Bentley, sawyer; Marg. Field, of Ramsey,

spinster; R. Bongeor, currier; R. Jolley, mariner; Allen Simpson; Helen

Ewing; C. Pepper, widow; Alice Walley, (who recanted;) W. Bongeor,

glazier; all of Colchester; R. Atkin, of Halstead, weaver; R. Barcock,

of Wilton, carpenter; R. George, of Westbarhoalt, labourer; R. Debnam,

of Debenham, weaver; C. Warren, of Cocksall, spinster; Agnes Whitlock,

of Dover-court, spinster; Rose Allen, spinster; and T. Feresannes,

minor; both of Colchester.

These persons were brought before Bonner, who would have immediately

sent them to execution, but Cardinal Pole was for more merciful

measures, and Bonner, in a letter of his to the cardinal, seems to be

sensible that he had displeased him, for he has this expression,--"I

thought to have them all hither to Fulham, and to have given sentence

against them; nevertheless, perceiving by my last doing that your grace

was offended, I thought it my duty, before I proceeded farther, to

inform your grace." This circumstance verifies the account that the

cardinal was a humane man; and though a zealous catholic, we, as

protestants, are willing to render him that honour which his merciful

character deserves. Some of the bitter persecutors denounced him to the

pope as a favourer of heretics, and he was summoned to Rome, but queen

Mary, by particular entreaty, procured his stay. However, before his

latter end, and a little before his last journey from Rome to England,

he was strongly suspected of favouring the doctrine of Luther.

_T. Loseby, H. Ramsey, T. Thirtell, Margaret Hide, and Agnes Stanley._

These persons were successively called up, condemned, delivered over to

the sheriffs of London, in April 15, 1557, were conducted to Smithfield,

there to exchange a temporal life for a life eternal with him for whose

sake and truth they perished.

In May following, W. Morant, S. Gratwick, and ---- King, suffered in St.

George's Field, Southwark.

_Executions in Kent._

The following seven were arraigned for heresy: Joan Bainbridge, of

Staplehurst; W. Appleby, Petronella his wife, and the wife of John

Manning, of Maidstone; B. Allin, and his wife Catherine, of Freytenden;

and Elizabeth ----, a blind maiden. Allin was put in the stocks at

night, and some advised him to compromise a little, and go for the

form's sake to mass, which he did next day, but, just before the

sacring, as it is termed, he went into the churchyard, and so reasoned

with himself upon the absurdity of transubstantiation, that he staid

away, and was soon after brought back again before Sir John Baker, and

condemned for heresy. He was burnt with the six before mentioned at

Maidstone, the 18th of June, 1557.

As in the last sacrifice four women did honour to the truth, so in the

following auto-de-fe we have the like number of females and males, who

suffered June 30, 1557, at Canterbury, and were J. Fishcock, F. White,

N. Pardue, Barbary Final, widow; Bradbridge's widow; Wilson's wife; and

Benden's wife.

Of this group we shall more particularly notice Alice Benden, wife of

Edward Benden, of Staplehurst, Kent. She had been taken up in Oct. 1556,

for non-attendance, and released upon a strong injunction to mind her

conduct. Her husband was a bigoted catholic, and publicly speaking of

his wife's contumacy, she was conveyed to Canterbury castle, where

knowing, when she should be removed to the bishop's prison, she should

be almost starved upon three farthings a day, she endeavoured to prepare

herself for this suffering by living upon two-pence halfpenny per day.

Jan. 22, 1557, her husband wrote to the bishop, that if his wife's

brother, Roger Hall, were to be kept from consoling and relieving her,

she might turn; on this account, she was moved to a prison called

Monday's hole; her brother sought diligently for her, and at the end of

five weeks providentially heard her voice in the dungeon, but could no

otherwise relieve her, than by putting some money in a loaf, and

sticking it on a long pole. Dreadful must have been the situation of

this poor victim, lying on straw, between stone walls, without a change

of apparel, or the meanest requisites of cleanliness, during a period of

nine weeks!

March 25, she was summoned before the bishop, who, with rewards, offered

her liberty if she would go home and be comfortable; but Mrs. Benden had

been inured to suffering, and, showing him her contracted limbs and

emaciated appearance, refused to swerve from the truth. She was however

removed from this Black Hole to the West gate, whence, about the end of

April, she was taken out to be condemned, and then committed to the

castle prison till the 19th of June, the day of her burning. At the

stake, she gave her handkerchief to one John Banks, as a memorial; and

from her waist she drew a white lace, desiring him to give it her

brother, and tell him, it was the last band that had bound her, except

the chain; and to her father she returned a shilling he had sent her.

The whole of these seven martyrs undressed themselves with alacrity,

and, being prepared, knelt down, and prayed with an earnestness and

Christian spirit that even the enemies of the Cross were affected. After

invocation made together, they were secured to the stake, and, being

encompassed with the unsparing flames, they yielded their souls into the

hands of the living Lord.

Matthew Plaise, weaver, a sincere and shrewd Christian, of Stone, Kent,

was brought before Thomas, bishop of Dover, and other inquisitors, whom

he ingeniously teazed by his indirect answers, of which the following is

a specimen.

_Dr. Harpsfield._ Christ called the bread his body; what dost thou say

it is?

_Plaise._ I do believe it was that which he gave them.

_Dr. H._ What was that?

_P._ That which he brake.

_Dr. H._ What did he break?

_P._ That which he took.

_Dr. H._ What did he take?

_P._ The text saith, "He took bread."

_Dr. H._ Well, then, thou sayest it was but bread which the disciples

did eat.

_P._ I say, what he gave them, that did they eat indeed.

A very long disputation followed, in which Plaise was desired to humble

himself to the bishop; but this he refused. Whether this zealous person

died in prison, was executed, or delivered, history does not mention.

_Execution of ten martyrs at Lewes._

Again we have to record the wholesale sacrifice of Christ's little

flock, of whom five were women. On the 22d of June, 1557, the town of

Lewes beheld ten persons doomed to perish by fire and persecution. The

names of these worthies were, Richard Woodman; G. Stephens, W. Mainard,

Alex. Hosman, and Thomasin Wood, servants; Margery Morris, and James

Morris, her son; Dennis Burges, Ashdon's wife, and Grove's wife.

These nine persons were taken a few days only before their judgment, and

suffered at Lewes, in Sussex, June 22, 1557. Of these, eight were

prematurely executed, inasmuch as the writ from London could not have

arrived for their burning. A person named Ambrose died in Maidstone

prison about this time.

Rev. Mr. John Hullier was brought up at Eton college, and in process of

time became curate of Babram, three miles from Cambridge and went

afterward to Lynn; where, opposing the superstition of the papists, he

was carried before Dr. Thirlby, bishop of Ely, and sent to Cambridge

castle: here he lay for a time, and was then sent to the Tolbooth

prison, where, after three months, he was brought to St. Mary's church,

and condemned by Dr. Fuller. On Maunday Thursday, he was brought to the

stake: while undressing, he told the people to bear witness that he was

about to suffer in a just cause, and exhorted them to believe, that

there was no other rock than Jesus Christ to build upon. A priest, named

Boyes, then desired the mayor to silence him. After praying, he went

meekly to the stake, and being bound with a chain, and placed in a pitch

barrel, fire was applied to the reeds and wood; but the wind drove the

fire directly to his back, which caused him under the severe agony to

pray the more fervently. His friends directed the executioner to fire

the pile to windward of his face, which was immediately done.

A quantity of books were now thrown into the fire, one of which (the

Communion Service) he caught, opened it, and joyfully continued to read

it, until the fire and smoke deprived him of sight; then even, in

earnest prayer, he pressed the book to his heart, thanking God for

bestowing on him in his last moments this precious gift.--The day being

hot, the fire burnt fiercely; and at a time when the spectators supposed

he was no more, he suddenly exclaimed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!

And meekly resigned his life. He was burnt on Jesus Green, not far from

Jesus College. He had gunpowder given him, but he was dead before it

became ignited. This pious sufferer afforded a singular spectacle; for

his flesh was so burnt from the bones, which continued erect, that he

presented the idea of a skeleton figure chained to the stake. His

remains were eagerly seized by the multitude, and venerated by all who

admired his piety or detested inhuman bigotry.

_Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper,_

In the following month of July, received the crown of martyrdom. Miller

dwelt at Lynn, and came to Norwich, where, planting himself at the door

of one of the churches, as the people came out, he requested to know of

them where he could go to receive the communion. For this a priest

brought him before Dr. Dunning, who committed him to ward; but he was

suffered to go home, and arrange his affairs; after which he returned to

the bishop's house, and to his prison, where he remained till the 13th

of July, the day of his burning.

Elizabeth Cooper, wife of a pewterer, of St. Andrews, Norwich, had

recanted; but, tortured for what she had done by the worm which dieth

not, she shortly after voluntarily entered her parish church during the

time of the popish service, and standing up, audibly proclaimed that she

revoked her former recantation, and cautioned the people to avoid her

unworthy example. She was taken from her own house by Mr. Sutton the

sheriff, who very reluctantly complied with the letter of the law, as

they had been servants and in friendship together. At the stake, the

poor sufferer, feeling the fire, uttered the cry of Oh! upon which Mr.

Miller, putting his hand behind him towards her, desired her to be of

good courage, "for (said he) good sister, we shall have a joyful and a

sweet supper." Encouraged by this example and exhortation, she stood the

fiery ordeal without flinching, and, with him, proved the power of faith

over the flesh.

_Executions at Colchester._

It was before mentioned that twenty-two persons had been sent up from

Cholchester, who upon a slight submission, were afterward released. Of

these, Wm. Munt, of Much-Bentley, husbandman, with Alice, his wife, and

Rose Allin, her daughter, upon their return home, abstained from church,

which induced the bigoted priest secretly to write to Bonner. For a

short time they absconded, but returning again, March 7th, one Mr.

Edmund Tyrrel, (a relation of the Tyrrel who murdered king Edward V. and

his brother) with the officers, entered the house while Munt and his

wife were in bed, and informed them that they must go to Colchester

Castle. Mrs. Munt at that time very ill, requested her daughter to get

her some drink; leave being permitted, Rose took a candle and a mug; and

in returning through the house was met by Tyrrel, who cautioned her to

advise her parents to become good catholics. Rose briefly informed him

that they had the Holy Ghost for their adviser; and that she was ready

to lay down her own life for the same cause. Turning to his company, he

remarked that she was willing to burn; and one of them told him to prove

her, and see what she would do by and by. The unfeeling wretch

immediately executed this project; and, seizing the young woman by the

wrist, he held the lighted candle under her hand, burning it crosswise

on the back, till the tendons divided from the flesh, during which he

loaded her with many opprobious epithets. She endured his rage unmoved,

and then, when he had ceased the torture, she asked him to begin at her

feet or head, for he need not fear that his employer would one day repay

him. After this she took the drink to her mother.

This cruel act of torture does not stand alone on record. Bonner had

served a poor blind harper in nearly the same manner, who had steadily

maintained a hope that if every joint of him were to be burnt, he should

not fly from the faith. Bonner, upon this, privately made a signal to

his men, to bring a burning coal, which they placed in the poor man's

hand, and then by force held it closed, till it burnt into the flesh

deeply. But to return.--

In searching Munt's house, John Thurston and Margaret his wife were

found, and conveyed to Colchester Castle; where lay J. Johnson, of

Thorp, Essex, aged 34, widower, with his three young children, all

indicted for heresy.

The following lay in Mote-hall, or town prison: Wm. Bongeor, of St.

Nicholas, in Colchester; Thomas Penold, Colchester, tallow chandler; W.

Pucras, of Bocking, Essex, fuller, 20; Agnes Silversides, Colchester,

widow, 70; Helen Ewring, wife of John Ewring, miller, of Colchester, 45;

and Eliz. Folks, a servant, Colchester.

Shortly after their condemnation, Bonner's writ arrived for their

execution, which was fixed for the 2d of August, 1557. About seven

o'clock in the morning, the town prisoners in the Mote-hall were brought

to a plot of ground on the outside of the town wall, where the stake was

erected, surrounded by fagots and fuel. Having prayed, and prepared

themselves for the fiery torment, Elizabeth Folks, as she was standing

at the stake, received a dreadful blow on the shoulder from the stroke

of a hammer, which was aimed at the staple that secured the chain. This,

however, in no wise discomposed her, but turning her head round, she

continued to pray and exhort the people. Fire being put to the pile,

these martyrs died amidst the prayers and commisseration of thousands

who came to be witnesses of their fortitude and their faith.

In the same manner, in the afternoon, the county prisoners from

Colchester castle were brought out, and executed, at different stakes,

on the same spot; praising God, and exhorting the people to avoid

idolatry and the church of Rome.

John Thurston, of whom mention was made before, died in May, in

Colchester castle.

George Eagles, tailor, was indicted for having prayed that "God would

turn queen Mary's heart, or take her away;" the ostensible cause of his

death was his religion, for treason could hardly be imagined in praying

for the reformation of such an execrable soul as that of Mary. Being

condemned for this crime, he was drawn to the place of execution upon a

sledge, with two robbers, who were executed with him. After Eagles had

mounted the ladder, and been turned off a short time, he was cut down,

before he was at all insensible; a bailiff, named Wm. Swallow, then

dragged him to the sledge, and with a common blunt cleaver, hacked off

the head: in a manner equally clumsy and cruel, he opened his body and

tore out the heart.

In all this suffering the poor martyr repined not, but to the last

called upon his Saviour. The fury of these bigots did not end here; the

intestines were burnt, and the body was quartered, the four parts being

sent to Colchester, Harwich, Chelmsford, and St. Rouse's.--Chelmsford

had the honor of retaining his head, which was affixed to a long pole in

the market-place. In time it was blown down, and lay several days in the

streets, till it was buried at night in the church-yard. God's judgment

not long after fell upon Swallow, who in his old age became a beggar,

and affected with a leprosy that made him obnoxious even to the animal

creation; nor did Richard Potts, who troubled Eagles in his dying

moments, escape the visiting hand of God.

About this time, Richard Crashfield, of Wymundham, suffered at Norwich.

Nearly about this time a person named Fryer, and the sister of George

Eagles, suffered martyrdom.

_Mrs. Joyce Lewes._

This lady was the wife of Mr. T. Lewes, of Manchester. She had received

the Romish religion as true, till the burning of that pious martyr, the

Rev. Mr. Saunders, at Coventry. Understanding that his death arose from

a refusal to receive the mass, she began to inquire into the ground of

his refusal, and her conscience, as it began to be enlightened, became

restless and alarmed. In this inquietude, she resorted to Mr. John

Glover, who lived near, and requested that he would unfold those rich

sources of gospel knowledge he possessed, particularly upon the subject

of transubstantiation. He easily succeeded in convincing her that the

mummery of popery and the mass were at variance with God's most holy

word, and honestly reproved her for following too much the vanities of a

wicked world. It was to her indeed a word in season, for she soon become

weary of her former sinful life, and resolved to abandon the mass and

idolatrous worship. Though compelled by her husband's violence to go to

church, her contempt of the holy water and other ceremonies were so

manifest, that she was accused before the bishop for despising the

sacramentals.

A citation, addressed to her, immediately followed, which was given to

Mr. Lewes, who, in a fit of passion, held a dagger to the throat of the

officer, and made him eat it, after which he caused him to drink it

down, and then sent him away. But for this the bishop summoned Mr. Lewes

before him as well as his wife; the former readily submitted, but the

latter resolutely affirmed, that, in refusing holy water, she neither

offended God, nor any part of his laws. She was sent home for a month,

her husband being bound for her appearance, during which time Mr. Glover

impressed upon her the necessity of doing what she did, not from

self-vanity, but for the honour and glory of God.

Mr. Glover and others earnestly exhorted Lewes to forfeit the money he

was bound in, rather than subject his wife to certain death; but he was

deaf to the voice of humanity, and delivered her over to the bishop, who

soon found a sufficient cause to consign her to a loathsome prison,

whence she was several times brought for examination. At the last time

the bishop reasoned with her upon the fitness of her coming to mass, and

receiving as sacred the sacrament and sacramentals of the Holy Ghost.

"If these things were in the word of God," said Mrs. Lewes, "I would

with all my heart receive, believe, and esteem them." The bishop, with

the most ignorant and impious effrontery, replied, "If thou wilt believe

no more than what is warranted by scripture, thou art in a state of

damnation!" Astonished at such a declaration, this worthy sufferer ably

rejoined, "that his words were as impure, as they were profane."

After condemnation, she lay a twelvemonth in prison, the sheriff not

being willing to put her to death in his time, though he had been but

just chosen. When her death warrant came from London, she sent for some

friends, whom she consulted in what manner her death might be more

glorious to the name of God, and injurious to the cause of God's

enemies. Smilingly, she said, "As for death, I think but lightly of.

When I know that I shall behold the amiable countenance of Christ my

dear Saviour, the ugly face of death does not much trouble me." The

evening before she suffered, two priests were anxious to visit her, but

she refused both their confession and absolution, when she could hold a

better communication with the High Priest of souls. About three o'clock

in the morning, Satan began to shoot his fiery darts, by putting into

her mind to doubt whether she was chosen to eternal life, and Christ

died for her. Her friends readily pointed out to her those consolatory

passages of Scripture which comfort the fainting heart, and treat of the

Redeemer who taketh away the sins of the world.

About eight o'clock the sheriff announced to her that she had but an

hour to live; she was at first cast down, but this soon passed away, and

she thanked God that her life was about to be devoted to his service.

The sheriff granted permission for two friends to accompany her to the

stake--an indulgence for which he was afterward severely handled. Mr.

Reniger and Mr. Bernher led her to the place of execution; in going to

which, from its distance, her great weakness, and the press of the

people, she had nearly fainted. Three times she prayed fervently that

God would deliver the land from popery and the idolatrous mass; and the

people for the most part, as well as the sheriff, said Amen.

When she had prayed, she took the cup, (which had been filled with water

to refresh her,) and said, I drink to all them that unfeignedly love the

gospel of Christ, and wish for the abolition of popery. Her friends, and

a great many women of the place, drank with her, for which most of them

afterward were enjoined penance.

When chained to the stake, her countenance was cheerful, and the roses

of her cheeks were not abated. Her hands were extended towards heaven

till the fire rendered them powerless, when her soul was received into

the arms of the Creator. The duration of her agony was but short, as the

under-sheriff, at the request of her friends, had prepared such

excellent fuel that she was in a few minutes overwhelmed with smoke and

flame. The case of this lady drew a tear of pity from every one who had

a heart not callous to humanity.

_Executions at Islington._

About the 17th of Sept. suffered at Islington the following four

professors of Christ: Ralph Allerton, James Austoo, Margery Austoo, and

Richard Roth.

James Austoo and his wife, of St. Allhallows, Barking, London, were

sentenced for not believing in the presence. Richard Roth rejected the

seven sacraments, and was accused of comforting the heretics by the

following letter written in his own blood, and intended to have been

sent to his friends at Colchester:--

"O dear Brethren and Sisters,

"How much reason have you to rejoice in God, that

he hath given you such faith to overcome this

blood-thirsty tyrant thus far! And no doubt he that

hath begun that good work in you, will fulfil it

unto the end. O dear hearts in Christ, what a crown

of glory shall ye receive with Christ in the

kingdom of God! O that it had been the good will of

God that I had been ready to have gone with you;

for I lie in my lord's Little-ease by day, and in

the night I lie in the Coal-house, apart from Ralph

Allerton, or any other; and we look every day when

we shall be condemned; for he said that I should be

burned within ten days before Easter; but I lie

still at the pool's brink, and every man goeth in

before me; but we abide patiently the Lord's

leisure, with many bonds, in fetters and stocks, by

which we have received great joy of God. And now

fare you well, dear brethren and sisters, in this

world, but I trust to see you in the heavens face

to face.

"O brother Munt, with your wife and my sister Rose,

how blessed are you in the Lord, that God hath

found you worthy to suffer for his sake! with all

the rest of my dear brethren and sisters known and

unknown. O be joyful even unto death. Fear it not,

saith Christ, for I have overcome death. O dear

hearts, seeing that Jesus Christ will be our help,

O tarry you the Lord's leisure. Be strong, let your

hearts be of good comfort, and wait you still for

the Lord. He is at hand. Yea, the angel of the Lord

pitcheth his tent round about them that fear him,

and delivereth them which way he seeth best. For

our lives are in the Lord's hands; and they can do

nothing unto us before God suffer them. Therefore

give all thanks to God.

"O dear hearts, you shall be clothed in long white

garments upon the mount of Sion, with the multitude

of saints, and with Jesus Christ our Saviour, who

will never forsake us. O blessed virgins, ye have

played the wise virgins' part, in that ye have

taken oil in your lamps that ye may go in with the

bridegroom, when he cometh, into the everlasting

joy with him. But as for the foolish, they shall be

shut out, because they made not themselves ready to

suffer with Christ, neither go about to take up his

cross. O dear hearts, how precious shall your death

be in the sight of the Lord! for dear is the death

of his saints. O fare you well, and pray. The grace

of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen,

Amen. Pray, pray, pray!

"Written by me, with my own blood,

"RICHARD ROTH."

This letter, so justly denominating Bonner the "blood-thirsty tyrant,"

was not likely to excite his compassion. Roth accused him of bringing

them to secret examination by night, because he was afraid of the people

by day. Resisting every temptation to recant, he was condemned, and,

Sept. 17, 1557, these four martyrs perished at Islington, for the

testimony of the Lamb, who was slain that they might be of the redeemed

of God.

Agnes Bengeor and Margaret Thurston were doomed to the fire at

Colchester, Sept. 17, 1557. Humbly they knelt to pray, and joyfully they

arose to be chained to the stake, uttering invocations and hallelujahs,

till the surrounding flames mounted to the seat of life, and their

spirits ascended to the Almighty Saviour of all who truly believe!

About this time suffered, at Northampton, John Kurde, shoemaker of

Syrsam, Northamptonshire.

John Noyes, a shoemaker, of Laxfield, Suffolk, was taken to Eye and at

midnight, Sept. 21, 1557, he was brought from Eye to Laxfield to be

burned. On the following morning he was led to the stake, prepared for

the horrid sacrifice. Mr. Noyes, on coming to the fatal spot, knelt

down, prayed, and rehearsed the 50th psalm. When the chain enveloped

him, he said, "Fear not them that kill the body, but fear him that can

kill both body and soul, and cast it into everlasting fire!" As one

Cadman placed a fagot against him, he blessed the hour in which he was

born to die for the truth: and while trusting only upon the

all-sufficient merits of the Redeemer, fire was set to the pile, and

the blazing fagots in a short time stifled his last words, Lord, have

mercy on me!--Christ, have Mercy upon me!--The ashes of the body were

buried in a pit, and with them one of his feet, whole to the ankle, with

the stocking on.

_Mrs. Cicely Ormes._

This young martyr, aged twenty-two, was the wife of Mr. Edmund Ormes,

worsted weaver of St. Lawrence, Norwich. At the death of Miller and

Elizabeth Cooper, before mentioned, she had said that she would pledge

them of the same cup they drank of. For these words she was brought to

the chancellor, who would have discharged her upon promising to go to

church, and to keep her belief to herself. As she would not consent to

this, the chancellor urged that he had shown more lenity to her than any

other person, and was unwilling to condemn her, because she was an

ignorant foolish woman; to this she replied, (perhaps with more

shrewdness than he expected,) that, however great his desire might be to

spare her sinful flesh, it could not equal her inclination to surrender

it up in so great a quarrel. The chancellor then pronounced the fiery

sentence, and, September 23, 1557, she was brought to the stake, at

eight o'clock in the morning. After declaring her faith to the people,

she laid her hand on the stake, and said, "Welcome thou cross of

Christ." Her hand was sooted in doing this, (for it was the same stake

at which Miller and Cooper were burnt,) and she at first wiped it; but

directly after again welcomed and embraced it as the "sweet cross of

Christ." After the tormentors had kindled the fire, she said, "My soul

doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Saviour."

Then crossing her hands upon her breast, and looking upwards with the

utmost serenity, she stood the fiery furnace. Her hands continued

gradually to rise till the sinews were dried, and then they fell. She

uttered no sigh of pain, but yielded her life, an emblem of that

celestial paradise in which is the presence of God, blessed for ever.

It might be contended that this martyr voluntarily sought her own death,

as the chancellor scarcely exacted any other penance of her than to keep

her belief to herself; yet it should seem in this instance as if God had

chosen her to be a shining light, for a twelve-month before she was

taken, she had recanted; but she was wretched till the chancellor was

informed, by letter, that she repented of her recantation from the

bottom of her heart. As if to compensate for her former apostacy, and to

convince the catholics that she meant no more to compromise for her

personal security, she boldly refused his friendly offer of permitting

her to temporize. Her courage in such a cause deserves commendation--the

cause of Him who has said, Whoever is ashamed of me on earth, of such

will I be ashamed in heaven.

In November, Thomas Spurdance, one of queen Mary's servants, was brought

before the chancellor of Norwich, who, among his interrogations, was

severely recriminated upon by the prisoner. This good man was taken by

two of his fellow-servants, dwelling at Codman, in Suffolk. He was sent

to Bury where he remained some time in prison, and in November, 1557,

braved the fiery indignation of the enemies of Christ with Christian

fortitude and resignation.

J. Hallingdale, W. Sparrow, and R Gibson, suffered in Smithfield

November 18th, 1557.

_Rev. John Rough._

This pious martyr was a Scotchman: at the age of 17, he entered himself

as one of the order of Black Friars, at Stirling, in Scotland. He had

been kept out of an inheritance by his friends, and he took this step in

revenge for their conduct to him. After being there sixteen years, Lord

Hamilton, Earl of Arran, taking a liking to him, the archbishop of St.

Andrew's induced the provincial of the house to dispense with his habit

and order; and he thus became the Earl's chaplain. He remained in this

spiritual employment a year, and in that time God wrought in him a

saving knowledge of the truth; for which reason the Earl sent him to

preach in the freedom of Ayr, where he remained four years; but finding

danger there from the religious complexion of the times, and learning

that there was much gospel freedom in England, he travelled up to the

duke of Somerset, then Lord Protector of England, who gave him a yearly

salary of twenty pounds, and authorized him, to preach at Carlisle,

Berwick, and Newcastle, where he married. He was afterward removed to a

benefice at Hull, in which he remained till the death of Edward VI.

In consequence of the tide of persecution then setting in, he fled with

his wife to Friesland, and at Nordon they followed the occupation of

knitting hose, caps, &c. for subsistence. Impeded in his business by the

want of yarn, he came over to England to procure a quantity, and on Nov.

10th, arrived in London, where he soon heard of a secret society of the

faithful, to whom he joined himself, and was in a short time elected

their minister, in which occupation he strengthened them in every good

resolution. Dec. 12th, through the information of one Taylor, a member

of the society, Mr. Rough, with Cuthbert Symson and others, was taken up

in the Saracen's Head, Islington, where, under the pretext of coming to

see a play, their religious exercises were holden. The queen's

vice-chamberlain conducted Rough and Symson before the council, in whose

presence they were charged with meeting to celebrate the communion. The

council wrote to Bonner and he lost no time in this affair of blood. In

three days he had him up, and on the next (the 20th) resolved to condemn

him. The charges laid against him were, that he, being a priest, was

married, and that he had rejected the service in the Latin tongue. Rough

wanted not arguments to reply to these flimsy tenets. In short, he was

degraded and condemned.

Mr. Rough, it should be noticed, when in the north, in Edward the VIth's

reign, had saved Dr. Watson's life, who afterward sat with bishop

Bonner on the bench. This ungrateful prelate, in return for the kind act

he had received, boldly accused Mr. Rough of being the most pernicious

heretic in the country. The godly minister reproved him for his

malicious spirit; he affirmed that, during the thirty years he had

lived, he had never bowed the knee to Baal; and that twice at Rome he

had seen the pope borne about on men's shoulders with the false-named

sacrament carried before him, presenting a true picture of the very

antichrist; yet was more reverence shown to him than to the wafer, which

they accounted to be their God. "Ah?" said Bonner, rising up, and making

towards him, as if he would have torn his garment, "hast thou been at

Rome, and seen our holy father the pope, and dost thou blaspheme him

after this sort?" This said, he fell upon him, tore off a piece of his

beard, and, that the day might begin to his own satisfaction, he ordered

the object of his rage to be burnt by half past five the following

morning.

_Cuthbert Symson._

Few professors of Christ possessed more activity and zeal than this

excellent person. He not only labored to preserve his friends from the

contagion of popery, but to guard them against the terrors of

persecution. He was deacon of the little congregation over which Mr.

Rough presided as minister.

Mr. Symson has written an account of his own sufferings, which we cannot

detail better than in his own words:

"On the 13th of December, 1557, I was committed by the council to the

tower of London. On the following Thursday, I was called into the

ware-room, before the constable of the tower, and the recorder of

London, Mr. Cholmly, who commanded me to inform them of the names of

those who came to the English service. I answered, that I would declare

nothing; in consequence of my refusal, I was set upon a rack of iron, as

I judge for the space of three hours!

"They then asked me if I would confess: I answered as before. After

being unbound, I was carried back to my lodging. The Sunday after I was

brought to the same place again, before the lieutenant and recorder of

London, and they examined me. As I had answered before, so I answered

now. Then the lieutenant swore by God I should tell; after which my two

fore-fingers were bound together, and a small arrow placed between them,

they drew it through so fast that the blood followed, and the arrow

brake.

"After enduring the rack twice again, I was retaken to my lodging, and

ten days after the lieutenant asked me if I would not now confess that

which they had before asked of me. I answered, that I had already said

as much as I would. Three weeks after I was sent to the priest, where I

was greatly assaulted, and at whose hand I received the pope's curse,

for bearing witness of the resurrection of Christ. And thus I commend

you to God, and to the word of his grace, with all those who unfeignedly

call upon the name of Jesus; desiring God of his endless mercy, through

the merits of his dear Son Jesus Christ, to bring us all to his

everlasting kingdom, Amen. I praise God for his great mercy shown upon

us. Sing Hosanna to the Highest with me, Cuthbert Symson. God forgive my

sins! I ask forgiveness of all the world, and I forgive all the world,

and thus I leave the world, in the hope of a joyful resurrection!"

If this account be duly considered, what a picture of repeated tortures

does it present! But, even the cruelty of the narration is exceeded by

the patient meekness with which it was endured. Here are no expressions

of malice, no invocations even of God's retributive justice, not a

complaint of suffering wrongfully! On the contrary, praise to God,

forgiveness of sin, and a forgiving all the world, concludes this

unaffected interesting narrative.

Bonner's admiration was excited by the steadfast coolness of this

martyr. Speaking of Mr. Symson in the consistory, he said, "You see what

a personable man he is, and then of his patience, I affirm, that, if he

were not a heretic, he is a man of the greatest patience that ever came

before me. Thrice in one day has he been racked in the tower: in my

house also he has felt sorrow, and yet never have I seen his patience

broken."

The day before this pious deacon was to be condemned, while in the

stocks in the bishop's coal-house, he had the vision of a glorified

form, which much encouraged him. This he certainly attested to his wife,

Mr. Austen, and others, before his death; but Mr. Fox, in reciting this

article, leaves it to the reader's judgment, to consider it either as a

natural or supernatural circumstance.

With this ornament of the Christian reformation were apprehended Mr.

Hugh Foxe and John Devinish; the three were brought before Bonner, March

19, 1558, and the papistical articles tendered. They rejected them, and

were all condemned. As they worshipped together in the same society, at

Islington, so they suffered together in Smithfield, March 28; in whose

death the God of Grace was glorified, and true believers confirmed!

Wm. Nichol, of Haverfordwest, Wales, was taken up for reprobating the

practice of the worshippers of antichrist, and April 9, 1558, bore

testimony to the truth at Haverfordwest, in Wales, by enduring the fire.

_Thomas Hudson, Thomas Carman, and William Seamen,_

Were condemned by a bigoted vicar of Aylesbury, named Berry. The spot of

execution was called Lollard's pit, without Bishopsgate, at Norwich.

After joining together in humble petition to the throne of grace, they

rose, went to the stake, and were encircled with their chains. To the

great surprise of the spectators, Hudson slipped from under his chain,

and came forward. A great opinion prevailed that he was about to recant;

others thought that he wanted further time. In the mean time, his

companions at the stake urged every promise and exhortation to support

him. The hopes of the enemies of the cross, however, were disappointed:

the good man, far from fearing the smallest personal terror at the

approaching pangs of death, was only alarmed that his Saviour's face

seemed to be hidden from him. Falling upon his knees, his spirit

wrestled with God and God verified the words of his Son, "Ask, and it

shall be given." The martyr rose in an ecstacy of joy, and exclaimed,

"Now, I thank God, I am strong! and care not what man can do to me!"

With an unruffled countenance he replaced himself under the chain,

joined his fellow-sufferers, and with them suffered death, to the

comfort of the godly, and the confusion of antichrist.

Berry, unsatiated with this demoniacal act, summoned up two hundred

persons in the town of Aylesham, whom he compelled to kneel to the cross

at Pentecost, and inflicted other punishments. He struck a poor man for

a trifling word, with a flail, which proved fatal to the unoffending

object. He also gave a woman named Alice Oxes, so heavy a blow with his

fist, as she met him entering the hall when he was in an ill-humour,

that she died with the violence. This priest was rich, and possessed

great authority; he was a reprobate, and, like the priesthood, he

abstained from marriage, to enjoy the more a debauched and licentious

life. The Sunday after the death of queen Mary, he was revelling with

one of his concubines, before vespers; he then went to church,

administered baptism, and in his return to his lascivious pastime, he

was smitten by the hand of God. Without a moment given for repentance,

he fell to the ground, and a groan was the only articulation permitted

him. In him we may behold the difference between the end of a martyr and

a persecutor.

In the month of May, William Harris, Richard Day, and Christiana George,

suffered at Colchester, and there humbly made an offering of themselves

to God.

_Apprehensions at Islington._

In a retired close, near a field, in Islington, a company of decent

persons had assembled, to the number of forty. While they were

religiously engaged in praying and expounding the scripture,

twenty-seven of them were carried before Sir Roger Cholmly. Some of the

women made their escape, twenty-two were committed to Newgate, who

continued in prison seven weeks. Previous to their examination, they

were informed by the keeper, (Alexander,) that nothing more was

requisite to procure their discharge, than to hear mass. Easy as this

condition may seem, these martyrs valued their purity of conscience more

than loss of life or property; hence, thirteen were burnt, seven in

Smithfield, and six at Brentford; two died in prison, and the other

seven were providentially preserved. The names of the seven who suffered

were, H. Pond, R. Estland, R. Southain, M. Ricarby, J. Floyd, J.

Holiday, and R. Holland. They were sent to Newgate June 16, 1558, and

executed on the 27th.

The story of Roger Holland is the only one of these martyrs which has

been handed down to us. He was first an apprentice to one Mr. Kempton,

at the Black-Boy, Watling-street. He was, in every sense of the word,

licentious, a lover of bad company, and, more than all, a stubborn

determined papist--one of whom it might be said, that a miracle only

could effect his conversion. Dissipated as he was, his master had the

imprudent confidence to trust him with money; and, having received

thirty pounds on his master's account, he lost it at the gaming table.

Knowing it was impossible to regain his character, he determined to

withdraw to France or Flanders.--With this resolution, he called early

in the morning on a discreet servant in the house, named Elizabeth, who

professed the gospel, and lived a life that did honour to her

profession. To her he revealed the loss his folly had occasioned,

regretted that he had not followed her advice, and begged her to give

his master a note of hand from him acknowledging the debt, which he

would repay if ever it were in his power; he also entreated his

disgraceful conduct might be kept secret, lest it would bring the grey

hairs of his father with sorrow to a premature grave.

The maid, with a generosity and Christian principle rarely surpassed,

conscious that his imprudence might be his ruin, brought him the thirty

pounds, which was part of a sum of money recently left her by legacy.

"Here," said she, "is the sum requisite: you shall take the money, and I

will keep the note; but expressly on this condition, that you abandon

all lewd and vicious company; that you neither swear nor talk

immodestly, and game no more; for, should I learn that you do, I will

immediately show this note to your master. I also require, that you

shall promise me to attend the daily lecture at Allhallows, and the

sermon at St. Paul's every Sunday; that you cast away all your books of

popery, and in their place substitute the Testament and the Book of

Service, and that you read the Scriptures with reverence and fear,

calling upon God for his grace to direct you in his truth. Pray also

fervently to God, to pardon your former offences, and not to remember

the sins of your youth, and would you obtain his favour, ever dread to

break his laws or offend his majesty. So shall God have you in his

keeping, and grant you your heart's desire." We must honour the memory

of this excellent domestic, whose pious endeavours were equally directed

to benefit the thoughtless youth in this life and that which is to come.

May her example be followed by the present generation of servants, who

seek rather to seduce by vain dress and loose manners the youth who are

associated in servitude with them! God did not suffer the wish of this

excellent domestic to be thrown upon a barren soil; within half a year

after the licentious Holland became a zealous professor of the gospel,

and was an instrument of conversion to his father and others whom he

visited in Lancashire, to their spiritual comfort and reformation from

popery.

His father, pleased with his change of conduct, gave him forty pounds

to commence business with in London. Upon his return, like an honest

man, he paid the debt of gratitude, and, rightly judging that she who

had proved so excellent a friend and counsellor, would be no less

amiable as a wife, he tendered her his hand. They were married in the

first year of Mary, and a child was the fruit of their union, which Mr.

Holland caused to be baptised by Mr. Ross in his own house. For this

offence he was obliged to fly, and Bonner, with his accustomed

implacability, seized his goods, and ill-treated his wife. After this,

he remained secretly among the congregations of the faithful, till the

last year of queen Mary, when he, with six others was taken not far from

St. John's Wood, and brought to Newgate upon May-day, 1558.

He was called before the bishop, Dr. Chedsey, the Harpsfields, &c. Dr.

Chedsey expressed much affection for him, and promised he should not

want any favour that he or his friends could procure, if he would not

follow his conceit. This was seconded by squire Eaglestone, a gentleman

of Lancashire, and a near kinsman of Holland's, who said, "I am sure

your honour means good to my cousin. I beseech God he may have the grace

to follow your counsel." Holland directly replied, "Sir, you crave of

God you know not what. I beseech of God to open your eyes to see the

light of his blessed word." After some private communication among the

commissioners, Bonner said, "I perceive, Roger, you will not be ruled by

any counsel that I or my friends can give."

The following speech of Mr. Holland we are induced to give unabridged,

as it contains a pointed charge, founded on the sins resulting from

false doctrines; and, besides, is in itself a well-digested and just

attack upon the tenets of popery.

"I may say to you, my lord, as Paul said to Felix and to the Jews, in

the 22d of the Acts, and in the 15th of the first epistle to the

Corinthians. It is not unknown to my master, to whom I was apprenticed,

that I was of your blind religion--that which now is taught, and that I

obstinately and wilfully remained in it, till the latter end of king

Edward. Having liberty under your auricular confession, I made no

conscience of sin, but trusted in the priests' absolution, who for money

did also some penance for me; which after I had given, I cared no

farther what offences I did, no more than he did after he had my money,

whether he tasted bread and water for me, or not: so that lechery,

swearing, and all other vices, I accounted no offence of danger, so long

as I could for money have them absolved. So straitly did I observe your

rules of religion, that I would have ashes upon Ash Wednesday, though I

had used ever so much wickedness at night. Though I could not in

conscience eat flesh upon the Friday, yet I made no conscience at all of

swearing, drinking, or gaming all night long: thus I was brought up, and

herein I have continued till now of late, when God hath opened the light

of his word, and called me by his grace to repent of my former idolatry

and wicked life; for in Lancashire their blindness and whoredom is much

more, than may with chaste ears be heard. Yet these my friends, who are

not clear in these notable crimes, think the priest with his mass can

save them, though they blaspheme God, and keep concubines besides their

wives, as long as they live. Yea, I know some priests, very devout, my

lord, yet such have six or seven children by four or five sundry women.

"Mr. Doctor, as to your antiquity, unity, and universality, (for these

Dr. Chedsey alleged as notes and tokens of their religion,) I am

unlearned. I have no sophistry to shift my reasons with; but the truth I

trust I have, which needs no painted colours to set her forth. The

antiquity of our church is not from pope Nicholas, nor pope Joan, but

our church is from the beginning, even from the time that God said unto

Adam, that the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head; and so

to faithful Noah; to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom it was promised,

that their seed should multiply as the stars in the sky; and so to

Moses, David, and all the holy fathers that were from the beginning unto

the birth of our Saviour Christ. All who believed these promises were of

the church, though the number was oftentimes but few and small, as in

Elias' days, who thought he was the only one that had not bowed the knee

to Baal, when God had reserved seven thousand that never had bowed their

knees to that idol: as I trust there be seven hundred thousand more than

I know of, that have not bowed their knee to that idol your mass, and

your God Maozim; in the upholding of which is your bloody cruelty while

you daily persecute Elias and the servants of God, forcing them (as

Daniel was in his chamber) closely to serve the Lord their God; and even

as we by this your cruelty are forced in the fields to pray unto God,

that his holy word may be once again truly preached amongst us, and that

he would mitigate and shorten these idolatrous and bloody days wherein

all cruelty reigns. Moreover, of our church have been the apostles and

evangelists, the martyrs and confessors of Christ, who have at all times

and in all ages been persecuted for the testimony of the word of God.

But for the upholding of your church and religion, what antiquity can

you show? The mass indeed, that idol and chief pillar of your religion,

is not yet four hundred years old, and some of your masses are younger,

as that of St. Thomas a Becket, the traitor, wherein you pray, That you

may be saved by the blood of St. Thomas. And as for your Latin service,

what are we of the laity the better for it? I think if any one were to

hear your priests mumble up their service, although he well understood

Latin, yet he would understand very few words of it, the priests so

champ them and chew them, and post so fast, that they neither understand

what they say, nor they that hear them; and in the mean time the people,

when they should pray with the priest, are set to their beads to pray

our Lady's Psalter. So crafty is Satan to devise these his dreams,

(which you defend with fagot and fire,) to quench the light of the word

of God; which, as David saith, should be a lantern to our feet. And

again, Wherein shall a young man direct his way, but by the word of

God? and yet you will hide it from us in a tongue unknown. St. Paul had

rather have five words spoken with understanding, than ten thousand in

an unknown tongue, and yet will you have your Latin service and praying

in a strange tongue, whereof the people are utterly ignorant, to be of

such antiquity.

"The Greek church, and a good part of Christendom besides, never

received your service in an unknown tongue, but in their own natural

language, which all the people understand; neither your

transubstantiation, your receiving in one kind, your purgatory, your

images, &c.

"As for the unity which is in your church, what is it but treason,

murder, poisoning one another, idolatry, superstition, and wickedness?

What unity was in your church, when there were three popes at once?

Where was your head of unity when you had a woman pope?" Here he was

interrupted, and was not suffered to proceed. The bishop said his words

were blasphemous, and ordered the keeper to take him away. Bonner

observing, on his second examination, that Holland said, he was willing

to be instructed by the church, (meaning the true church,) he ordered

the keeper to let him want for nothing, not even for money, by which

conduct he hoped to inveigle him from the truth. This, however, upon his

last examination did not produce the intended effect. Bonner spoke very

handsomely to him, and assured him his former hasty answers should not

operate against him, as he himself (the bishop) was sometimes too hasty,

but it was soon over; he further said, that he should have consigned him

to his own ordinary for examination, but for the particular interest he

took in his welfare, for his and his friends' sake. From this exordium

he proceeded to the touchstone question of the real presence in the

mass.

"Do you not believe, that, after the priest hath spoken the words of

consecration, there remains the body of Christ, really and corporeally

under the forms of bread and wine? I mean the self-same body as was born

of the Virgin Mary, that was crucified upon the cross, that rose again

the third day." Holland replied, "Your lordship saith, the same body

which was born of the Virgin Mary, which was crucified upon the cross,

which rose again the third day: but you leave out 'which ascended into

heaven;' and the Scripture saith, He shall remain until he come to judge

the quick and the dead. Then he is not contained under the forms of

bread and wine, by Hoc est corpus meum, &c."

Bonner, finding no impression could be made upon his firmness, and that

he himself could not endure to hear the mass, transubstantiation, and

the worshipping the sacrament, denominated impious and horrid idolatry,

pronounced the condemnatory sentence, adjudging him to be burnt.

During this fulmination, Holland stood very quiet, and when he was about

to depart, he begged permission to speak a few words. The bishop would

not hear him, but, at the intercession of a friend, he was permitted.

In the following speech, there is a spirit of prophecy which entitles it

to particular attention; they were not the words of a random enthusiast,

but of one to whom God seems to have given an assurance, that the

present abject state of his faithful people should shortly be altered.

_Holland._ "Even now I told you that your authority was from God, and by

his sufferance: and now I tell you God hath heard the voice of his

servants, which hath been poured forth with tears for his afflicted

saints, whom you daily persecute, as now you do us. But this I dare be

bold in God to say, (by whose Spirit I am moved,) that God will shorten

your hand of cruelty, that for a time you shall not molest his church.

And this you shall in a short time well perceive, my dear brethren, to

be most true. For _after this day, in this place_, there shall not be

any by him put to the trial of fire and fagot;" and after that day there

were none that suffered in Smithfield for the truth of the gospel.

In reply, Bonner said, "Roger, thou art, I perceive, as mad in these thy

heresies as ever was Joan Butcher. In anger and fume thou would become a

railing prophet. Though thou and all the rest of you would see me

hanged, yet I _shall_ live to burn, yea, and I _will_ burn all the sort

of you that come into my hands, that will not worship the blessed

sacrament of the altar, for all thy prattling;" and so he went his way.

Then Holland began to exhort his friends to repentance, and to think

well of them that suffered for the testimony of the gospel, upon which

the bishop came back, charging the keeper that no man should speak to

them without his license; if they did, they should be committed to

prison. In the mean time, Henry Pond and Holland spake to the people,

exhorting them to stand firm in the truth; adding, that God would

shorten these cruel and evil days for his elect's sake.

The day they suffered, a proclamation was made, prohibiting every one

from speaking or talking to, or receiving any thing from them, or

touching them, upon pain of imprisonment without either bail or

mainprize. Notwithstanding, the people cried out, "God strengthen them!"

They also prayed for the people, and the restoration of his word.

Embracing the stake and the reeds, Holland said these words:

"Lord, I most humbly thank thy Majesty, that thou hast called me from

the state of death unto the light of thy heavenly word, and now unto the

fellowship of thy saints, that I may sing and say, Holy, holy, holy,

Lord God of Hosts! And, Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit! Lord,

bless these, thy people, and save them from idolatry." Thus he ended his

life, looking towards heaven, praying to, and praising God, with the

rest of his fellow saints. These seven martyrs were consumed, June 27,

1558.

The names of the six martyrs taken in company with those who were

apprehended in the close, near Islington, were R. Mills, S. Cotton, R.

Dynes, S. Wright, J. Slade, and W. Pikes, tanner. They were condemned by

Bonner's chancellor in one day, and the next day a writ was sent to

Brentford for their execution, which took place, July 14, 1558.

_Flagellations by Bonner._

When this catholic hyena found that neither persuasions, threats, nor

imprisonment, could produce any alteration in the mind of a youth named

Thomas Hinshaw, he sent him to Fulham, and during the first night set

him in the stocks, with no other allowance than bread and water. The

following morning he came to see if this punishment had worked any

change in his mind, and finding none, he sent Dr. Harpsfield, his

archdeacon, to converse with him. The Doctor was soon out of humour at

his replies, called him peevish boy, and asked him if he thought he went

about to damn his soul? "I am persuaded," said Thomas, "that you labour

to promote the dark kingdom of the devil, not for the love of the

truth." These words the doctor conveyed to the bishop, who, in a passion

that almost prevented articulation, came to Thomas, and said, "Dost thou

answer my archdeacon thus, thou naughty boy? But I'll soon handle thee

well enough for it, be assured!" Two willow twigs were then brought him,

and causing the unresisting youth to kneel against a long bench, in an

arbour in his garden, he scourged him till he was compelled to cease for

want of breath and fatigue, being of a punchy and full-bellied make. One

of the rods was worn quite away.

Many other conflicts did Hinshaw undergo from the bishop; who, at

length, to remove him effectually, procured false witnesses to lay

articles against him, all of which the young man denied, and, in short,

refused to answer to any interrogatories administered to him. A

fortnight after this, the young man was attacked by a burning ague, and

at the request of his master, Mr. Pugson, of St. Paul's church-yard, he

was removed, the bishop not doubting that he had given him his death in

the natural way; he however remained ill above a year, and in the mean

time queen Mary died, by which act of providence he escaped Bonner's

rage.

John Willes was another faithful person, on whom the scourging hand of

Bonner fell. He was the brother of Richard Willes, before mentioned,

burnt at Brentford. Hinshaw and Willes were confined in Bonner's coal

house together, and afterward removed to Fulham, where he and Hinshaw

remained during eight or ten days, in the stocks. Bonner's persecuting

spirit betrayed itself in his treatment of Willes during his

examinations, often striking him on the head with a stick, seizing him

by the ears, and filipping him under the chin, saying he held down his

head like a thief. This producing no signs of recantation, he took him

into his orchard, and in a small arbour there he flogged him first with

a willow rod, and then with birch, till he was exhausted. This cruel

ferocity arose from the answer of the poor sufferer, who, upon being

asked how long it was since he had crept to the cross, replied, "Not

since he had come to years of discretion, nor would he, though he

should be torn to pieces by wild horses." Bonner then bade him make the

sign of the cross on his forehead, which he refused to do, and thus was

led to the orchard.

The communications that took place between Bonner and Willes are too

tedious to give in detail. The reader would smile to read the infatuated

simple reasons with which the bishop endeavoured to delude the ignorant.

He strongly urged the impropriety of his meddling with matters of

scripture; adding, "If thou wilt believe Luther, Zuinglius, and other

protestant authors, thou canst not go right; but in believing me, there

can be no error!--and, if there be, thy blood will be required at our

hands. In following Luther, and the heretics of latter days, now wilt

thou come to the place thou askest for?--They will lead thee to

destruction, and burn thy body and soul in hell, like all those who have

been burnt in Smithfield."

The bishop continued to afflict him in his examinations, in which, among

other things, he said, "They call me bloody Bonner!--A vengeance on you

all! I would fain be rid of you, but you have a delight in burning.

Could I have my will, I would sew up your mouths, put you in sacks, and

drown you!"

What a sanguinary speech was this, to proceed from the mouth of one who

professed to be a minister of the gospel of peace, and a servant of the

Lamb of God!--Can we have an assurance that the same spirit does not

reign now, which reigned in this mitred catholic?

One day, when in the stocks, Bonner asked him how he liked his lodging

and fare. "Well enough," said Willes, "might I have a little straw to

sit or lie upon." Just at this time came in Willes' wife, then largely

pregnant, and entreated the bishop for her husband, boldly declaring

that she would be delivered in the house, if he were not suffered to go

with her. To get rid of the good wife's importunity, and the trouble of

a lying-in woman in his palace, he bade Willes make the sign of the

cross, and say, In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen.

Willes omitted the sign, and repeated the words, "in the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." Bonner would have

the words repeated in Latin, to which Willes made no objection, knowing

the meaning of the words. He was then permitted to go home with his

wife, his kinsman Robert Rouze being charged to bring him to St. Paul's

the next day, whither he himself went, and, subscribing to a Latin

instrument of little importance, was liberated. This is the last of the

twenty-two taken at Islington.

_Rev. Richard Yeoman._

This devout aged person was curate to Dr. Taylor, at Hadley, and

eminently qualified for his sacred function. Dr. Taylor left him the

curacy at his departure, but no sooner had Mr. Newall gotten the

benefice, than he removed Mr. Yeoman, and substituted a Romish priest.

After this he wandered from place to place, exhorting all men to stand

faithfully to God's word, earnestly to give themselves unto prayer, with

patience to bear the cross now laid upon them for their trial, with

boldness to confess the truth before their adversaries, and with an

undoubted hope to wait for the crown and reward of eternal felicity. But

when he perceived his adversaries lay wait for him, he went into Kent,

and with a little packet of laces, pins, points, &c. he travelled from

village to village, selling such things, and in this manner subsisted

himself, his wife, and children.

At last Justice Moile, of Kent, took Mr. Yeoman, and set him in the

stocks a day and a night; but, having no evident matter to charge him

with, he let him go again. Coming secretly again to Hadley, he tarried

with his poor wife, who kept him privately, in a chamber of the

town-house, commonly called the Guildhall, more than a year. During this

time the good old father abode in a chamber locked up all the day,

spending his time in devout prayer, in reading the Scriptures, and in

carding the wool which his wife spun. His wife also begged bread for

herself and her children, by which precarious means they supported

themselves. Thus the saints of God sustained hunger and misery, while

the prophets of Baal lived in festivity, and were costily pampered at

Jezebel's table.

Information being at length given to Newall, that Yeoman was secreted by

his wife, he came, attended by the constables, and broke into the room

where the object of his search lay in bed with his wife. He reproached

the poor woman with being a whore, and would have indecently pulled the

clothes off, but Yeoman resisted both this act of violence and the

attack upon his wife's character, adding that he defied the pope and

popery. He was then taken out, and set in the stocks till day.

In the cage also with him was an old man, named John Dale, who had sat

there three or four days, for exhorting the people during the time

service was performing by Newall and his curate. His words were, "O

miserable and blind guides, will ye ever be blind leaders of the blind?

will ye never amend? will ye never see the truth of God's word? will

neither God's threats nor promises enter into your hearts? will the

blood of the martyrs nothing mollify your stony stomachs? O obdurate,

hard-hearted, perverse, and crooked generation! to whom nothing can do

good."

These words he spake in fervency of spirit against the superstitious

religion of Rome; wherefore parson Newall caused him forthwith to be

attached, and set in the stocks in a cage, where he was kept till Sir

Henry Doile, a justice, came to Hadley.

When Yeoman was taken, the parson called earnestly upon Sir Henry Doile

to send them both to prison. Sir Henry Doile as earnestly entreated the

parson to consider the age of the men, and their mean condition; they

were neither persons of note nor preachers; wherefore he proposed to let

them be punished a day or two and to dismiss them, at least John Dale,

who was no priest, and therefore, as he had so long sat in the cage, he

thought it punishment enough for this time. When the parson heard this,

he was exceedingly mad, and in a great rage called them pestilent

heretics, unfit to live in the commonwealth of Christians. Sir Henry,

fearing to appear too merciful, Yeoman and Dale were pinioned, bound

like thieves with their legs under the horses' bellies, and carried to

Bury jail, where they were laid in irons; and because they continually

rebuked popery, they were carried into the lowest dungeon, where John

Dale, through the jail-sickness and evil-keeping, died soon after: his

body was thrown out, and buried in the fields. He was a man of sixty-six

years of age, a weaver by occupation, well learned in the holy

Scriptures, steadfast in his confession of the true doctrines of Christ

as set forth in king Edward's time; for which he joyfully suffered

prison and chains, and from this worldly dungeon he departed in Christ

to eternal glory, and the blessed paradise of everlasting felicity.

After Dale's death, Yeoman was removed to Norwich prison, where, after

strait and evil keeping, he was examined upon his faith and religion,

and required to submit himself to his holy father the pope. "I defy him,

(quoth he,) and all his detestable abomination: I will in no wise have

to do with him." The chief articles objected to him, were his marriage

and the mass sacrifice. Finding he continued steadfast in the truth, he

was condemned, degraded, and not only burnt, but most cruelly tormented

in the fire. Thus he ended this poor and miserable life, and entered

into that blessed bosom of Abraham, enjoying with Lazarus that rest

which God has prepared for his elect.

_Thomas Benbridge._

Mr. Benbridge was a single gentleman, in the diocese of Winchester. He

might have lived a gentleman's life, in the wealthy possessions of this

world; but he chose rather to enter through the strait gate of

persecution to the heavenly possession of life in the Lord's kingdom,

than to enjoy present pleasure with disquietude of conscience. Manfully

standing against the papists for the defence of the sincere doctrine of

Christ's gospel, he was apprehended as an adversary to the Romish

religion, and led for examination before the bishop of Winchester, where

he underwent several conflicts for the truth against the bishop and his

colleague; for which he was condemned, and some time after brought to

the place of martyrdom by Sir Richard Pecksal, sheriff.

When standing at the stake he began to untie his points, and to prepare

himself; then he gave his gown to the keeper, by way of fee. His jerkin

was trimmed with gold lace, which he gave to Sir Richard Pecksal, the

high sheriff. His cap of velvet he took from his head, and threw away.

Then, lifting his mind to the Lord, he engaged in prayer.

When fastened to the stake, Dr. Seaton begged him to recant, and he

should have his pardon; but when he saw that nothing availed, he told

the people not to pray for him unless he would recant, no more than they

would pray for a dog.

Mr. Benbridge, standing at the stake with his hands together in such a

manner as the priest holds his hands in his Memento, Dr. Seaton came to

him again, and exhorted him to recant, to whom he said, "Away, Babylon,

away!" One that stood by said, Sir, cut his tongue out; another, a

temporal man, railed at him worse than Dr. Seaton had done.

When they saw he would not yield, they bade the tormentors to light the

pile, before he was in any way covered with fagots. The fire first took

away a piece of his beard, at which he did not shrink. Then it came on

the other side and took his legs, and the nether stockings of his hose

being leather, they made the fire pierce the sharper, so that the

intolerable heat made him exclaim, "I recant!" and suddenly he thrust

the fire from him. Two or three of his friends being by, wished to save

him; they stepped to the fire to help remove it, for which kindness they

were sent to jail. The sheriff also of his own authority took him from

the stake, and remitted him to prison, for which he was sent to the

fleet, and lay there sometime. Before, however, he was taken from the

stake, Dr. Seaton wrote articles for him to subscribe to. To these Mr.

Benbridge made so many objections, that Dr. Seaton ordered them to set

fire again to the pile. Then with much pain and grief of heart he

subscribed to them upon a man's back.

This done, his gown was given him again, and he was led to prison. While

there, he wrote a letter to Dr. Seaton, recanting those words he spake

at the stake, and the articles which he had subscribed; for he was

grieved that he had ever signed them. The same day se'night he was again

brought to the stake, where the vile tormentors rather broiled than

burnt him. The Lord give his enemies repentance!

Not long before the sickness of queen Mary, in the beginning of August,

1558, four inoffensive humble martyrs were burnt at St. Edmundsbury with

very little examination. Neglect in attending the popish service at

mass, which in vain they pleaded as a matter of conscience, was the

cause of their untimely sufferings and deaths. Their heroic names were

J. Crooke, sawyer; R. Miles, alias Plummer, sheerman; A. Lane,

wheelright; and J. Ashley, a bachelor.

_Alexander Gouch and Alice Driver._

These godly persons were apprehended by Mr. Noone, a justice in Suffolk.

They were brought to the stake at seven o'clock in the morning,

notwithstanding they had come from Melton jail, six miles off. The

sheriff, Sir Henry Dowell, was much dissatisfied with the time they took

in prayer, and sent one of his men to bid them make an end. Gouch

earnestly entreated for a little time, urging that they had but a little

while to live: but the sheriff would grant no indulgence, and ordered

the numerous friends who came to take the last farewell of them as they

stood chained to the stake, to be forcibly torn away, and threatened

them with arrest; but the indignation of the spectators made him revoke

this order. They endured the terrific conflagration, and honoured God

equally in their lives and deaths.

In the same month were executed at Bury, P. Humphrey, and J. and H.

David, brothers. Sir Clement Higham, about a fortnight before the

queen's death, issued out a warrant for their sacrifice, notwithstanding

the queen's illness at that time rendered her incapable of signing the

order for their execution.

_Mrs. Prest._

From the number condemned in this fanatical reign, it is almost

impossible to obtain the name of every martyr, or to embellish the

history of all with anecdotes and exemplifications of Christian conduct.

Thanks be to Providence, our cruel task begins to draw towards a

conclusion, with the end of the reign of Papal terror and bloodshed.

Monarchs, sit upon thrones possessed by hereditary right, should, of all

others, consider that the laws of nature are the laws of God, and hence

that the first law of nature is the preservation of their subjects.

Maxims of persecutions, of torture, and of death, they should leave to

those who have effected sovereignty by fraud or the sword; but where,

except among a few miscreant emperors of Rome, and the Roman pontiffs,

shall we find one whose memory is so "damned to everlasting fame" as

that of queen Mary? Nations bewail the hour which separates them forever

from a beloved governor, but, with respect to that of Mary, it was the

most blessed time of her whole reign. Heaven has ordained three great

scourges for national sins--plague, pestilence, and famine. It was the

will of God in Mary's reign to bring a fourth upon this kingdom, under

the form of Papistical Persecution. It was sharp, but glorious; the fire

which consumed the martyrs has undermined the Popedom; and the Catholic

states, at present the most bigoted and unenlightened, are those which

are sunk lowest in the scale of moral dignity and political consequence.

May they remain so, till the pure light of the gospel shall dissipate

the darkness of fanaticism and superstition! But to return.

Mrs. Prest for some time lived about Cornwall, where she had a husband

and children, whose bigotry compelled her to frequent the abominations

of the church of Rome. Resolving to act as her conscience dictated, she

quitted them, and made a living by spinning. After some time, returning

home, she was accused by her neighbours, and brought to Exeter, to be

examined before Dr. Troubleville, and his chancellor Blackston. As this

martyr was accounted of inferior intellects, we shall put her in

competition with the bishop, and let the reader judge which had the most

of that knowledge conducive to everlasting life. The bishop bringing the

question to issue, respecting the bread and wine being flesh and blood,

Mrs. Prest said, "I will demand of you whether you can deny your creed,

which says, that Christ doth perpetually sit at the right hand of his

Father, both body and soul, until he come again; or whether he be there

in heaven our Advocate, and to make prayer for us unto God his Father?

If he be so, he is not here on earth in a piece of bread. If he be not

here, and if he do not dwell in temples made with hands, but in heaven,

what! shall we seek him here? If he did not offer his body once for all,

why make you a new offering? If with one offering he made all perfect,

why do you with a false offering make all imperfect? If he be to be

worshipped in spirit and in truth, why do you worship a piece of bread?

If he be eaten and drunken in faith and truth, if his flesh be not

profitable to be among us, why do you say you make his flesh and blood,

and say it is profitable for body and soul? Alas! I am a poor woman, but

rather than do as you do, I would live no longer. I have said, Sir."

_Bishop._ I promise you, you are a jolly protestant. I pray you in what

school have you been brought up?

_Mrs. Prest._ I have upon the Sundays visited the sermons, and there

have I learned such things as are so fixed in my breast, that death

shall not separate them.

_B._ O foolish woman, who will waste his breath upon thee, or such as

thou art? But how chanceth it that thou wentest away from thy husband?

If thou wert an honest woman, thou wouldst not have left thy husband and

children, and run about the country like a fugitive.

_Mrs. P._ Sir, I laboured for my living; and as my master Christ

counselleth me, when I was persecuted in one city, I fled into another.

_B._ Who persecuted thee?

_Mrs. P._ My husband and my children. For when I would have them to

leave idolatry, and to worship God in heaven, he would not hear me, but

he with his children rebuked me, and troubled me. I fled not for

whoredom, nor for theft, but because I would be no partaker with him and

his of that foul idol the mass; and wheresoever I was, as oft as I

could, upon Sundays and holydays, I made excuses not to go to the popish

church.

_B._ Belike then you are a good housewife, to fly from your husband and

the church.

_Mrs. P._ My housewifery is but small; but God gave me grace to go to

the true church.

_B._ The true church, what dost thou mean?

_Mrs. P._ Not your popish church, full of idols and abominations, but

where two or three are gathered together in the name of God, to that

church will I go as long as I live.

_B._ Belike then you have a church of your own. Well, let this mad woman

be put down to prison till we send for her husband.

_Mrs. P._ No, I have but one husband, who is here already in this city,

and in prison with me, from whom I will never depart.

Some persons present endeavouring to convince the bishop she was not in

her right senses, she was permitted to depart. The keeper of the

bishop's prisons took her into his house, where she either spun worked

as a servant, or walked about the city, discoursing upon the sacrament

of the altar. Her husband was sent for to take her home, but this she

refused while the cause of religion could be served. She was too active

to be idle, and her conversation, simple as they affected to think her,

excited the attention of several catholic priests and friars. They

teazed her with questions, till she answered them angrily, and this

excited a laugh at her warmth.

Nay, said she, you have more need to weep than to laugh, and to be sorry

that ever you were born, to be the chaplains of that whore of Babylon. I

defy him and all his falsehood; and get you away from me, you do but

trouble my conscience. You would have me follow your doings; I will

first lose my life. I pray you depart.

Why, thou foolish woman, said they, we come to thee for thy profit and

soul's health. To which she replied, What profit ariseth by you, that

teach nothing but lies for truth? how save you souls, when you preach

nothing but lies, and destroy souls?

How provest thou that? said they.

Do you not destroy your souls, when you teach the people to worship

idols, stocks and stones, the works of men's hands? and to worship a

false God of your own making of a piece of bread, and teach that the

pope is God's vicar, and hath power to forgive sins? and that there is a

purgatory, when God's Son hath by his passion purged all? and say you

make God, and sacrifice him, when Christ's body was a sacrifice once for

all? Do you not teach the people to number their sins in your ears, and

say they will be damned if they confess not all; when God's word saith,

Who can number his sins? Do you not promise them trentals and dirges,

and masses for souls, and sell your prayers for money, and make them buy

pardons, and trust to such foolish inventions of your imaginations? Do

you not altogether act against God? Do you not teach us to pray upon

beads, and to pray unto saints, and say they can pray for us? Do you not

make holy water and holy bread to fray devils? Do you not do a thousand

more abominations? And yet you say, you come for my profit, and to save

my soul. No, no, one hath saved me. Farewell, you with your salvation.

During the liberty granted her by the bishop, before-mentioned, she went

into St. Peter's church, and there found a skilful Dutchman, who was

affixing new noses to certain fine images which had been disfigured in

king Edward's time; to whom she said, What a madman art thou, to make

them new noses, which within a few days shall all lose their heads? The

Dutchman accused her and laid it hard to her change. And she said unto

him, Thou are accursed, and so are thy images. He called her a whore.

Nay, said she, thy images are whores, and thou art a whore-hunter; for

doth not God say, You go a whoring after strange gods, figures of your

own making? and thou art one of them. After this she was ordered to be

confined, and had no more liberty.

During the time of her imprisonment, many visited her, some sent by the

bishop, and some of their own will; among these was one Daniel, a great

preacher of the gospel, in the days of king Edward, about Cornwall and

Devonshire, but who, through the grievous persecution he had sustained,

had fallen off. Earnestly did she exhort him to repent with Peter, and

to be more constant in his profession.

Mrs. Walter Rauley and Mr. Wm. and John Kede, persons of great

respectability, bore ample testimony of her godly conversation,

declaring, that unless God were with her, it were impossible she could

have so ably defended the cause of Christ. Indeed, to sum up the

character of this poor woman, she united the serpent and the dove,

abounding in the highest wisdom joined to the greatest simplicity. She

endured imprisonment, threatenings, taunts, and the vilest epithets, but

nothing could induce her to swerve; her heart was fixed; she had cast

anchor; nor could all the wounds of persecution remove her from the rock

on which her hopes of felicity were built.

Such was her memory, that, without learning, she could tell in what

chapter any text of scripture was contained: on account of this singular

property, one Gregory Basset, a rank papist, said she was deranged, and

talked as a parrot, wild without meaning. At length, having tried every

manner without effect to make her nominally a catholic, they condemned

her. After this, one exhorted her to leave her opinions, and go home to

her family, as she was poor and illiterate. "True, (said she) though I

am not learned, I am content to be a witness of Christ's death, and I

pray you make no longer delay with me; for my heart is fixed, and I will

never say otherwise, nor turn to your superstitious doing."

To the disgrace of Mr. Blackston, treasurer of the church, he would

often send for this poor martyr from prison, to make sport for him and a

woman whom he kept; putting religious questions to her, and turning her

answers into ridicule. This done, he sent her back to her wretched

dungeon, while he battened upon the good things of this world.

There was perhaps something simply ludicrous in the form of Mrs. Prest,

as she was of a very short stature, thick set, and about fifty-four

years of age; but her countenance was cheerful and lively, as if

prepared for the day of her marriage with the Lamb. To mock at her form

was an indirect accusation of her Creator, who framed her after the

fashion he liked best, and gave her a mind that far excelled the

transient endowments of perishable flesh. When she was offered money,

she rejected it, "because (said she) I am going to a city where money

bears no mastery, and while I am here God has promised to feed me."

When sentence was read, condemning her to the flames, she lifted up her

voice and praised God, adding, "This day have I found that which I have

long sought." When they tempted her to recant,--"That will I not, (said

she) God forbid that I should lose the life eternal, for this carnal and

short life. I will never turn from my heavenly husband to my earthly

husband; from the fellowship of angels to mortal children; and if my

husband and children be faithful, then am I theirs. God is my father,

God is my mother, God is my sister, my brother, my kinsman; God is my

friend, most faithful."

Being delivered to the sheriff, she was led by the officer to the place

of execution, without the walls of Exeter, called Sothenhey, where again

the superstitious priests assaulted her. While they were tying her to

the stake, she continued earnestly to exclaim "God be merciful to me, a

sinner!" Patiently enduring the devouring conflagration, she was

consumed to ashes, and thus ended a life which in unshaken fidelity to

the cause of Christ, was not surpassed by that of any preceding martyr.

_Richard Sharpe, Thomas Banion, and Thomas Hale._

Mr. Sharpe, weaver, of Bristol, was brought the 9th day of March, 1556,

before Mr. Dalby, chancellor of the city of Bristol, and after

examination concerning the sacrament of the altar, was persuaded to

recant; and on the 29th, he was enjoined to make his recantation in the

parish church. But, scarcely had he publicly avowed his backsliding,

before he felt in his conscience such a tormenting fiend, that he was

unable to work at his occupation; hence, shortly after, one Sunday, he

came into the parish church, called Temple, and after high mass, stood

up in the choir door, and said with a loud voice, "Neighbours, bear me

record that yonder idol (pointing to the altar) is the greatest and most

abominable that ever was; and I am sorry that ever I denied my Lord

God!" Notwithstanding the constables were ordered to apprehend him, he

was suffered to go out of the church; but at night he was apprehended

and carried to Newgate. Shortly after, before the chancellor, denying

the sacrament of the altar to be the body and blood of Christ, he was

condemned to be burned by Mr. Dalby. He was burnt the 7th of May, 1558,

and died godly, patiently, and constantly, confessing the protestant

articles of faith.

With him suffered Thomas Hale, shoemaker, of Bristol, who was condemned

by chancellor Dalby. These martyrs were bound back to back.

Thomas Banion, a weaver, was burnt on August 27th, of the same year, and

died for the sake of the evangelical cause of his Saviour.

_J. Corneford, of Wortham; C. Browne, of Maidstone; J. Herst, of

Ashford; Alice Snoth, and Catharine Knight, an aged woman._

With pleasure we have to record that these five martyrs were the last

who suffered in the reign of Mary for the sake of the protestant cause;

but the malice of the papists was conspicuous in hastening their

martyrdom, which might have been delayed till the event of the queen's

illness was decided. It is reported that the archdeacon of Canterbury,

judging that the sudden death of the queen would suspend the execution,

travelled post from London, to have the satisfaction of adding another

page to the black list of papistical sacrifices.

The articles against them were, as usual, the sacramental elements and

the idolatry of bending to images. They quoted St. John's words, "Beware

of images!" and respecting the real presence, they urged according to

St. Paul, "the things that be seen are temporal." When sentence was

about to be read against them, and excommunication take place in the

regular form, John Corneford, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, awfully

turned the latter proceeding against themselves, and in a solemn

impressive manner, recriminated their excommunication in the following

words: "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the most mighty

God, and by the power of his holy Spirit, and the authority of his holy

catholic and apostolic church, we do here give into the hands of Satan

to be destroyed, the bodies of all those blasphemers and heretics that

maintain any error against his most holy word, or do condemn his most

holy truth for heresy, to the maintenance of any false church or foreign

religion, so that by this thy just judgment, O most mighty God, against

thy adversaries, thy true religion may be known to thy great glory and

our comfort and to the edifying of all our nation. Good Lord, so be it.

Amen."

This sentence was openly pronounced and registered, and, as if

Providence had awarded that it should not be delivered in vain, within

six days after, queen Mary died, detested by all good men and accursed

of God! Though acquainted with these circumstances, the archdeacon's

implacability exceeded that of his great exemplary, Bonner, who, though

he had several persons at that time under his fiery grasp, did not urge

their deaths hastily, by which delay he certainly afforded them an

opportunity of escape. Father Lining and his wife, with several others,

thus saved their lives, who, had they been under the barbarous

archdeacon, must inevitably have perished. At the queen's decease, many

were in bonds: some just taken, some examined, and others condemned. The

writs indeed were issued for several burnings, but by the death of the

three instigators of protestant murder,--the chancellor, the bishop, and

the queen, who fell nearly together, the condemned sheep were liberated,

and lived many years to praise God for their happy deliverance.

These five martyrs, when at the stake, earnestly prayed that their blood

might be the last shed, nor did they pray in vain. They died gloriously,

and perfected the number God had selected to hear witness of the truth

in this dreadful reign, whose names are recorded in the Book of

Life;--though last, not least among the saints made meet for immortality

through the redeeming blood of the Lamb!

Catharine Finlay, alias Knight, was first converted by her son's

expounding the Scriptures to her, which wrought in her a perfect work

that terminated in martyrdom. Alice Snoth at the stake sent for her

grandmother and godfather, and rehearsed to them the articles of her

faith, and the commandments of God, thereby convincing the world that

she knew her duty. She died calling upon the spectators to bear witness

that she was a Christian woman, and suffered joyfully for the testimony

of Christ's gospel.

_William Fetty scourged to death._

Among the numberless enormities committed by the merciless and unfeeling

Bonner, the murder of this innocent and unoffending child may be ranked

as the most horrid. His father, John Fetty, of the parish of

Clerkenwell, by trade a tailor, and only twenty-four years of age, had

made a blessed election; he was fixed secure in eternal hope, and

depended on Him who so builds his church that the gates of hell shall

not prevail against it. But alas! the very wife of his bosom, whose

heart was hardened against the truth, and whose mind was influenced by

the teachers of false doctrine, became his accuser. Brokenbery, a

creature of the pope, and parson of the parish, received the information

of this wedded Delilah, in consequence of which the poor man was

apprehended. But here the awful judgment of an ever-righteous God, "who

is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," fell upon this stone-hearted

and perfidious woman; for no sooner was the injured husband captured by

her wicked contriving, than she also was suddenly seized with madness,

and exhibited an awful and awakening instance of God's power to punish

the evil doer. This dreadful circumstance had some effect upon the

hearts of the ungodly hunters who had eagerly grasped their prey; but,

in a relenting moment, they suffered him to remain with his unworthy

wife, to return her good for evil, and to comfort two children, who, on

his being sent to prison, would have been left without a protector, or

have become a burden to the parish. As bad men act from little motives,

we may place the indulgence shown him to the latter account.

We have noticed in the former part of our narratives of the martyrs,

some whose affection would have led them even to sacrifice their own

lives, to preserve their husbands; but here, agreeable to Scripture

language, a mother proves, indeed, a monster in nature! Neither conjugal

nor maternal affection could impress the heart of this disgraceful

woman.

Although our afflicted Christian had experienced so much cruelty and

falsehood from the woman who was bound to him by every tie, both human

and divine, yet, with a mild and forbearing spirit, he overlooked her

misdeeds, during her calamity endeavouring all he could to procure

relief for her malady, and soothing her by every possible expression of

tenderness: thus she became in a few weeks nearly restored to her

senses. But, alas! she returned again to her sin, "as the dog returneth

to his vomit." Malice against the saints of the Most High was seated in

her heart too firmly to be removed; and as her strength returned, her

inclination to work wickedness returned with it. Her heart was hardened

by the prince of darkness; and to her may be applied these afflicting

and soul-harrowing words, "can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the

leopard his spots? then will they do good who are accustomed to do

evil." Weighing this text duly with another, "I will have mercy on whom

I will have mercy," how shall we presume to refine away the sovereignty

of God, by arraigning Jehovah at the bar of human reason, which, in

religious matters, is too often opposed by infinite wisdom? "Broad is

the way which leadeth to death, and many walk therein. Narrow is the way

which leadeth to life, and few there be who find it." The ways of heaven

are indeed inscrutable, and it is our bounden duty to walk ever

dependent on God, looking up to him with humble confidence, and hope in

his goodness, and ever confess his justice; and where we "cannot

unravel, there learn to trust." This wretched woman, pursuing the horrid

dictates of a heart hardened and depraved, was scarcely confirmed in her

recovery, when, stifling the dictates of honour, gratitude, and every

natural affection, she again accused her husband, who was once more

apprehended, and taken before Sir John Mordant, Knight, and one of queen

Mary's commissioners.

Upon examination, his judge finding him fixed to opinions which

militated against those nursed by superstition and maintained by cruelty

he was sentenced to confinement and torture in Lollard's Tower. "Here

(says honest Fox) he was put into the painful stocks, and had a dish of

water set by him, with a stone put into it, to what purpose God knoweth,

except it were to show that he should look for little other subsistence:

which is credible enough, if we consider their like practices upon

divers before mentioned in this history; as, among others, upon Richard

Smith, who died through their cruel imprisonment; touching whom, when a

godly woman came to Dr. Story to have leave that she might bury him, he

asked her if he had any straw or blood in his mouth; but what he means

thereby, I leave to the judgment of the wise."

On the first day of the third week of our martyr's sufferings, an object

presented itself to his view, which made him indeed feel his tortures

with all their force, and to execrate, with bitterness only short of

cursing, the author of his misery. To mark and punish the proceedings of

his tormentors, remained with the Most High, who noteth even the fall of

a sparrow, and in whose sacred word it is written, "Vengeance is mine,

and I will repay." This object was his own son, a child of the tender

age of eight years. For fifteen days, had its hapless father been

suspended by his tormentor by the right arm and left leg, and sometimes

by both, shifting his positions for the purpose of giving him strength

to bear and to lengthen the date of his sufferings. When the unoffending

innocent, desirous of seeing and speaking to its parent, applied to

Bonner for permission so to do, the poor child being asked by the

bishop's chaplain the purport of his errand, he replied, he wished to

see his father. "Who is thy father?" said the chaplain. "John Fetty,"

returned the boy, at the same time pointing to the place where he was

confined. The interrogating miscreant on this said, "Why, thy father is

a heretic!" The little champion again rejoined, with energy sufficient

to raise admiration in any breast, except that of this unprincipled and

unfeeling wretch--this miscreant, eager to execute the behests of a

remorseless queen--"My father is no heretic: for you have Balaam's

mark."

Irritated by reproach so aptly applied, the indignant and mortified

priest concealed his resentment for a moment, and took the undaunted boy

into the house, where, having him secure, he presented him to others,

whose baseness and cruelty being equal to his own, they stripped him to

the skin, and applied their scourges to so violent a degree, that,

fainting beneath the stripes inflicted on his tender frame, and covered

with the blood that flowed from them, the victim of their ungodly wrath

was ready to expire under his heavy and unmerited punishment.

In this bleeding and helpless state was the suffering infant, covered

only with his shirt, taken to his father by one of the actors in the

horrid tragedy, who, while he exhibited the heart-rending spectacle,

made use of the vilest taunts, and exulted in what he had done. The

dutiful child, as if recovering strength at the sight of his father, on

his knees implored his blessing. "Alas! Will," said the afflicted

parent, in trembling amazement, "who hath done this to thee!" The

artless innocent related the circumstances that led to the merciless

correction which had been so basely inflicted on him; but when he

repeated the reproof bestowed on the chaplain, and which was prompted by

an undaunted spirit, he was torn from his weeping parent, and conveyed

again to the house, where he remained a close prisoner.