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ACTS AND MONUMENTS.

BOOK VII.

BEGINNING WITH

THE REIGN OF KING HENRY THE EIGHTH.

KING HENRY VII. died in the year 1509, and had by Elizabeth his wife four sons, and as many daughters. Three only survived, to wit, Prince Henry, Lady Margaret, and Lady Mary: of whom King Henry the Eighth succeeded his father; Lady Margaret was married to James IV., king of Scotland; and Lady Mary was affianced to Charles king of Castile.

Not long before the death of King Henry VII., Prince Arthur his eldest son espoused Lady Catherine daughter to Ferdinand, when fifteen years of age, and she was about the age of seventeen; shortly after this marriage, within five months he died at Ludlow, and was buried at Worcester. After his decease, the succession to the crown fell to King Henry VIII., who at the age of eighteen years, commenced his reign A.D. 1509, and shortly after married Catherine, the widow of his late brother Prince Arthur, in order that her dowry which was great, should not be transported out of the land. For this marriage, which was more politic than scriptural, he received a dispensation from Pope Julius, at the request of Ferdinand her father. The reign of this king continued with great nobleness and fame the space of thirty-eight years. During his time there was great alteration of things, in the civil state of the realm, and especially in the ecclesiastical state, and in matters appertaining to the church. For by him the usurped power of the bishop of Rome was exiled and abolished out of the realm, idolatry and superstition somewhat repressed, images defaced, pilgrimages abolished, abbeys and monasteries pulled down, monkish orders rooted out, the scriptures translated into the vernacular tongue, and the state of the church and religion redressed. Concerning all which things, we will endeavour (Christ willing) to discourse particularly and in order, after we first touch on a few matters, which are to be noted in the beginning of his reign.

Then first comes to our hands a turbulent tragedy, and a fierce contention which had long before troubled the church, and now was renewed afresh in this present year 1509, between two orders of begging-friars, to wit, the Dominican and the Franciscan friars, about the conception of the Virgin Mary the mother of Christ.

The Franciscans held of St. Francis, and followed the rule of his testament, commonly called gray-friars or minorites. Their opinion was this, that the Virgin Mary, prevented by the grace of the Holy Ghost, was so sanctified, that she was never subject one moment in her conception to original sin. The Dominican friars hold

| ing of Dominick, were commonly called black-friars, or preaching-friars. Their opinion was this, that the Virgin Mary was conceived as all other children of Adam; so that this privilege only belongs to Christ, to be conceived without original sin: notwithstanding, the blessed Virgin was sanctified in her mother's womb, and purged from her original sin, as was also John the Baptist, Jeremiah, or any other privileged person. This frivolous question kindling and engendering between these two orders of friars, burst out into such a flame, that it occupied the heads and wits, schools and universities, almost through the whole church; some holding one part with Scotus, some the other part with Thomas Aquinas. The Minorites holding with Scotus their master, disputed and concluded, that she was conceived without all spot or stain of original sin; and thereupon caused the feast and service of the Conception of St. Mary the Virgin to be celebrated and solemnized in the church. On the other hand the Dominican friars taking part with Aquinas, preached, that it was heresy to affirm that the blessed Virgin was conceived without the guilt of original sin; and that they who celebrated the feast of her conception, or said any masses in honour of it, did sin grievously and mortally.

At the time when this fantasy waxed hot in the church, one side preaching against the other, Pope Sixtus the Fourth, A. D. 1476, who joining side with the Minorites or Franciscans, first sent forth his decree by authority apostolic, willing, ordaining, and commanding all men in holy church for evermore to solemnize this new-found feast of the Conception: offering to all men and women, who devoutly frequenting the church, would hear mass and service from the first evensong of the feast, to the octaves of the same, as many days of pardon, as Pope Urban IV. and Pope Martin V. granted for hearing the service of Corpus Christi day. And this decree was given and dated at Rome, A.D. 1476.

Moreover, the pope, in order that the devotion of the people might be the more encouraged in the celebration of this feast of the conception, added a new clause to the Ave Maria, granting great indulgence and release of sins to all such as would invocate the blessed Virgin with the addition, saying thus: "Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ; and blessed is Anna thy mother, of whom thy virgin's flesh hath proceeded without blot of original sin. Amen."

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Wherein the reader many note for his learning three things: first, how the pope turns that improperly into a prayer, which was sent by God for a message or tidings. Secondly, how the pope adds to the words of the scripture, contrary to the express precept of the Lord. Thirdly, how the pope exempts Mary the blessed Virgin, not only from the seed of Abraham and Adam, but also from the condition of a mortal creature. For if there be in her no original sin, then she bears not the image of Adam, neither does she descend of that seed, of whose seed evil proceeds upon all men and women to condemnation, as St. Paul teaches, Rom. v. 14-16. Wherefore if she descend of that seed, then the infection of original evil must necessarily proceed to her. If she descend not thereof, then she comes not of the seed of Abraham, nor of the seed of David, &c. Again, seeing that death is the effect and wages of sin, by the doctrine of St. Paul, Rom. vi. 23. then she would not have had to suffer the curse and punishment of death, and so should never have died, if original sin had no place in her. But to return to our history: this constitution of the pope being set forth for the feast of the Conception of the blessed Virgin, A. D. 1476, it was not long after that Pope Sixtus, perceiving that the Dominican friars with their accomplices would not conform thereto, directed forth, by the authority apostolical, a bull in effect as follows:

"Whereas, the holy church of Rome hath ordained a special and proper service for the public solemnization of the feast of the Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary; certain orders of the Black Friars in their public sermons to the people in divers places, have not ceased hitherto to preach, and yet daily do, that all they who hold or affirm the glorious Virgin to have been conceived without original sin, be heretics; and they who celebrate the service of her conception, or do hear the sermons of them who so affirm, do sin grievously: also not contented herewith, do write and set forth books, maintaining their assertions to the great offence and ruin of godly minds. We, therefore, to prevent and withstand such presumptuous and perverse assertions which have risen, and more hereafter may arise, by such opinions and preachings, in the minds of the faithful; by the authority apostolical, do condemn and reprove the same; and by the motion, knowledge, and authority aforesaid, decree and ordain, That the preachers of God's word, and all other persons, of what state, degree, order, or condition soever they be, who shall presume to dare affirm or preach to the people these opinions and assertions to be true, or shall read, hold, or maintain any such books for true, having before intelligence hereof, shall incur thereby the sentence of excommunication, from which they shall not be absolved otherwise than by the bishop of Rome, except only in the time of death."'

This bull, being dated A. D. 1483, gave no little heart and encouragement to the Gray-Friars Franciscans, who defended the immaculate conception of the holy Virgin against the Black Dominican Friars, holding the contrary side. By the authority of this bull, the Gray Order had got such a conquest over the Black Order of the Dominicans, that the Dominicans were compelled at length, for a perpetual memorial of the triumph, both to give to the glorious Virgin every night an anthem in praise of her conception, and also to subscribe to their doctrine; in which doctrine these, with other points, are contained.

1. That the blessed Virgin Mary suffered the griefs and adversities in this life, not for any necessity inflicted for punishment of original sin, but only because she would conform herself to the imitation of Christ.

2. That the Virgin, as she was not obliged to any punishment due for sin, as neither was Christ her son; so she had no need of remission of sins, but instead thereof had the divine preservation of God's help, keeping her from all sin, which was the only good she needed, and she had it.

3. That though the body of the Virgin Mary was sub

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ject to death, and died; this is to be understood to come not for any penalty due for sin, but either for imitation of and conformity to Christ, or else for the natural constitution of her body, being elemental, as were the bodies of our first parents: who, if they had not tasted of the forbidden fruit, would have been preserved from death, not by nature, but by grace, and the strength of other fruits and meats in paradise: which meats, because Mary had not, but did eat our common meats, therefore she died, and not for any necessity of original sin.

4. The universal proposition of St. Paul, who saith, "That the scripture hath concluded all men under sin," is to be understood thus, as speaking of all them who are not exempted by the special privilege of God, as is the blessed Virgin Mary.

5. If justification be taken for reconciliation of him that was unrighteous before, and now is made righteous: then the blessed Virgin is to be taken, not as justified by Christ, but just from her beginning by preservation.

6. If a Saviour be taken for him which saves men fallen into perdition and condemnation; then Christ is not the Saviour of Mary, but is her Saviour only in this respect, as saving her from not falling into condemna. tion, &c.

7. Neither did the Virgin Mary give thanks to God, nor ought to do so, for expiation of her sins, but for her preservation from sinning.

8. Neither did she pray to God at any time for remission of her sins, but only for the remission of other men's sins she prayed many times, and counted their sins for hers.

9. If the blessed Virgin had died before the passion of her Son, God would have reposed her soul not in the place among the patriarchs, or among the just, but in the same most pleasant place of paradise where Adam and Eve were before they transgressed.

These were the doting dreams and fantasies of the Franciscans, and of other papists, then commonly held in the schools, written in their books, preached in their sermons, taught in their churches, and set forth in pictures. So that the people was taught nothing else almost in the pulpits all this while, but how the Virgin Mary was conceived immaculate and holy, without original sin, and how they ought to call to her for help, addressing her with special titles as "The way of mercy, -The mother of grace,-The lover of piety,-The comforter of mankind,-The continual intercessor for the salvation of the faithful, and an advocate to the King her Son, who never ceases," &c. And although the greatest number of the school-doctors were of the contrary faction, as Peter Lombard, Thomas Aquinas, Bernard, Bonaventure, and others: yet these new papists shifted off their objections with frivolous distinctions and blind evasions.

The Dominican Friars, for their part, were not all silent, having great authorities, and also the scripture on their side. But yet the others having the apostolical see with them, had the better hand, and got the victory triumphantly, to the high exaltation of their order. For Pope Sixtus, by the authority apostolic, after he had decreed the conception-day of the Virgin to be sanctified perpetually, and also with his terrible bull had condemned for heretics all who withstood the same; the Dominican friars were driven to two inconveniences: the one was, to keep silence; the other was, to give place to their adversaries the Franciscans. Although, where the mouth durst not speak, yet the heart would work; and though their tongues were tied, yet their good-will was ready by all means possible to maintain their quarrel and their estimation.

It happened in this year, 1509, after this dissension between the Dominican and the Franciscan Friars, that certain of the Dominicans, thinking, by subtle sleight, to work in the people's heads that which they durst not attempt by open preaching, devised a certain image of the Virgin made so artificially, that the friars by private springs made it move, make gestures, lament, complain, weep, groan, and give answers to those that asked it;

so that the people were brought into a marvellous per- | suasion, till at length the fraud being detected, the friars were taken, condemned, and burnt at Berne in the year above-mentioned, 1509.

In the history of John Stumsius, this story partly appears: but in the registers and records of the city of Berne, the order and circumstance is more fully expressed and set forth, and is thus declared.

In the city of Berne there were certain Dominican friars, to the number chiefly of four principal actors and chiefs of that order, who had inveigled a certain simple poor friar, who had newly planted himself in the cloister: when the friars had so infatuated him with sundry superstitions, and feigned apparitions of St. Mary, St. Barbara, and St. Katherine, and imprinted, moreover, in him the wounds of St. Francis, he believed fully, that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him, and had offered him a red host consecrated with the blood also of Christ miraculously, that the blessed Virgin also had sent him to the senators of Berne, with instructions, declaring to them from the mouth of the virgin, "That she was conceived in sin; and that the Franciscan Friars were not to be credited nor suffered in the city, who were not yet reformed from that erroneous opinion of her conception." He added, moreover, "That they should resort to a certain image there of the Virgin Mary, (which image the friars by engines had made to weep) and should do their worship, and make their oblations to the

same."

This feigned device was no sooner forged by the friars, but it was believed by the people; so that a great while the red-coloured host was undoubtedly taken for the true body and blood of Christ, and certain coloured drops of it sent abroad to noble personages and states for a great relic, and that too not without considerable cost in return. Thus the deceived people came flocking in great numbers to the image, and to the red host, and coloured blood, with many gifts and oblations. In short, the Dominican friars so had managed the matter, and had so swept all offerings to their own order from the order of the Franciscans, that all the alms came to their box. The Franciscans seeing their reputation decaying, and their kitchen waxing cold, and their coffers becoming empty, not able to abide that misery, and being not ignorant or unacquainted with such counterfeited doings, (for, as the proverb saith, "It is all halting before a cripple,") soon discovered the crafty juggling, and detected the fraudulent miracles of the Dominicans. Whereupon the four chief leaders above-named were apprehended and burned, of whom the provincial of the order was one.

And thus much touching the beginning and end of this tumultuous and popish tragedy, wherein it may evidently appear to the reader, how these turbulent friars could not agree among themselves, and in what frivolous trifles they wrangled together. But to let these ridiculous friars pass with their trifling phantasies, which deserve to be derided by all wise men: this is, in the mean time, to be lamented, to behold the miserable times of the church, in which the devil kept the minds of Christ's people so attentive and occupied in such friarly toys, that scarcely any thing was taught or heard in the church, but the commendation and exaltation of the Virgin Mary: but of our justification by faith, of grace, and of the promises of God in Christ, of the strength of the law, of the horror of sin, of the difference between the law and the gospel, of the true liberty of conscience, &c. little mention was made. Wherefore, in so blind a time of darkness it was very needful and requisite, that the Lord of his mercy should look upon his church, and send down his gracious reformation, which he did. For shortly after, through God's gracious raising him up, came Martin Luther, of whom the order of history now requires that we should treat, and we will do so (Christ willing) after the history of Richard Hunne, and a few other things premised, for the better opening of the history to follow.

Mention was made before of the doings of Pope Julius II., and of his warlike affairs, for which he was

condemned, and not unjustly, in the council of Tours in France, (A. D. 1510,) and yet all this could not assuage the furious spirit of this pope, but the same year he invaded the city of Mutina and Mirandula, in Italy, and took them by force of war. Pope Julius, not long after, in the year 1512, refusing the peace offered by Maximilian the emperor, was encountered by Lewis the French king about Ravenna, upon Easter-day, where he was vanquished, and had of his army slain to the number of sixteen thousand. And the year following, (A. D. 1513,) this apostolic warrior, who had resigned his keys to the river Tiber before, made an end together both of his fighting and living, after he had reigned and fought ten years. After him succeeded next in the see of Rome, Pope Leo X.; about this time great changes began to work, as well in the temporal states, as in the state of the church. At which time the following potentates were reigning in their several kingdoms :

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In the time of the above mentioned potentates, great alterations, troubles, and changes of religion were wrought in the church, by the mighty operation of God's hand, in Italy, France, Germany, England, and all Europe; such as have not been seen (although much groaned for) many hundred years before: as in the course of this history shall more manifestly appear.

But before we come to these alterations, taking the time as it lies before us, we will first speak of Richard Hunne, and certain other godly-minded persons here in England, who were afflicted for the word of Christ's gospel in great multitudes, as they be found and taken out of the registers of Fitzjames, bishop of London.

The History of some good Men and Women, who were persecuted for Religion in the City and Diocese of the Bishop of London; briefly extracted out of the Registers of Richard Fitzjames.

Beside the great number of the faithful martyrs and professors of Christ, that constantly, in the strength of the Holy Ghost, gave their lives for the testimony of his truth, I find recorded in the register of London, between the years 1509 and 1517, the names of many persons, both men and women, who, in the fulness of that dark and misty time of ignorance had also some portion of God's good Spirit, which induced them to the knowledge of his truth and gospel, and were troubled, persecuted, and imprisoned for the same: notwithstanding, by the proud, cruel, and bloody rage of the Romish see, and through the weakness and frailty of their own nature, (not then fully strengthened in God) they were for the time suppressed and kept under, as appears by their several abjurations made before Richard Fitzjames, then bishop of London, who was a most cruel persecutor of Christ's church, or else before his vicar-general deputed for that purpose. And, as many of the adversaries of God's truth have of late days disdainfully and braggingly cried out, and demanded in their public assemblies, asking, "Where was this your church and religion fifty or sixty years ago?" I have thought it not altogether vain, somewhat to stop such questioners, both by mentioning the names of those who suffered for the truth of this religion, and likewise opening some of the chief and principal matters for which they were so unmercifully afflicted: thereby to make known the continuance and consent of the true church of Christ in that age, touching the chief points of our faith, and also to shew what fond and frivolous matters the ignorant prelates in that time of blindness, were not ashamed to object against the poor and simple people, accounting them as heinous and great offences, yea, such as deserved death both of body and soul.

They were forty in number who were persecuted in

the time between the years 1510 and 1527; and here follows the particular examination of them all.

There were several particular articles (besides the common and general sort used in such cases) privately objected, such as they were accused of either by their curate, or their neighbours. And as I think it superfluous to make any large recital of all and every part of their several processes, I purpose therefore only to touch briefly on so many of the articles as may be sufficient to induce the christian reader to judge the sooner of the rest.

The chief objection against Joan Baker was, that she would not only herself not reverence the crucifix, but had also persuaded a friend of hers lying at the point of death, not to put any trust or confidence in the crucifix, but in God who is in heaven, and not in the dead images, which are but stocks and stones, and therefore she was sorry that ever she had gone so often on pilgrimage to St. Saviour and other idols. Also, that she held that the pope had no power to give pardons, and that the Lady Young (who was not long before that time burned) died a true martyr of God, and therefore she wished of God that she herself might do no worse than the Lady Young had done.

Against William Pottier, besides other false and slanderous articles (as that he denied the benefit and effect of Christ's passion) it was alleged, that he affirmed there were six Gods: the first three were the holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the fourth was a priest's concubine being kept in his chamber; the fifth was the devil; and the sixth, that thing that a man sets his mind most upon.

The first part of this article he utterly denied, confessing most firmly and truly, the blessed Trinity to be only one God in one unity of deity. As to the other three he answered, that a priest delighting in his concubine made her as his god; likewise a wicked person, persisting in his sin without repentance, made the devil his god; and lastly, he granted, that he once heard of certain men, who by the singing and chattering of birds superstitiously sought to know what things were to happen either to themselves or others, said, that those men esteemed their birds as gods.

Among the articles objected against Thomas Goodred, Thomas Walker, Thomas Forge, Alice Forge, John Forge, John Calverton, John Woodrof, Richard Woolman, and Roger Hilliar, (as that they spoke against pilgrimages, praying to saints, and such like) this was principally charged against them, that they all denied the carnal and corporal presence of Christ's body and blood in the sacrament of the altar; and further, had concealed and consented to their teachers and instructors in that doctrine, and had not, according to the laws of the church, accused and presented them to the bishop or his ordinary. Also great and heinous displeasure was conceived against Richard Woolman, because he called the church of St. Paul a house of thieves, affirming, that the priests and other ecclesiastical persons there were not liberal givers to the poor (as they ought) but rather were takers away from them what they could get.

Likewise as Thomas Austy, Joan Austy, Thomas Grant, John Garter, Christopher Ravins, Dyonise Ravins, Thomas Vincent, Lewis John, Joan John, and John Web, were of one fellowship and profession of faith with those before recited, so they were almost all apprehended about one time, and chiefly charged with one opinion of the sacrament. Which declares evidently, that notwithstanding the dark ignorance of those corrupted times, yet God did ever in mercy open the eyes of some to behold the manifest truth, even in those things of which the papists now make the greatest vaunt, and boast of long continuance. Many of them were charged with having spoken against pilgrimages, and having read and used certain English books opposing the faith of the Romish church, as the four Gospels, Wickliff's Wicket, a Book of the Ten Commandments of Almighty God, the Revelation of St. John, the Epistles

of St. Paul and St. James, with others, which those Romish divines could never abide : and good cause why, for as darkness could never agree with light, no more can ignorance, the maintainer of that kingdom, with the true knowledge of Christ and his gospel.

It was further objected against Joan John, the wife of Lewis John, that she learned and maintained, that God commanded no holy-days to be kept, but only the sabbath-day, and therefore she would keep none but it; nor any fasting-days, affirming, that to abstain from sin was the true fast. That she had despised the pope, his pardons and pilgrimages, so that when any poor body asked an alms of her in the name and for the sake of the lady of Walsingham, (i. e. the image of the Virgin Mary at Walsingham,) she would answer in contempt of the pilgrimage, "The lady of Walsingham help thee!" and if she gave anything to him, she would then say, "Take this in the name of our lady in heaven, and let the other go." Which shews, that for lack of better instruction and knowledge, she yet ignorantly attributed too much honour to the true saints of God departed, though otherwise she abhorred the idolatrous worshipping of the dead images. By which example, as also by many others, I have just occasion to condemn the wilful subtlety of those, that in this bright shining light of God's truth, would yet, under colour of godly remem brance, still maintain the having of images in the church, craftily excusing their idolatrous kneeling and praying to them, by affirming, that they never worshipped the dead images, but the things that the images represented. But if that were their only doctrine and cause of having those images, why then would their predecessors so cruelly compel these poor simple people thus openly in their recantations to abjure and revoke their speaking against the gross adoration of the outward images only, and not against the thing represented, which many of them (as appears partly by this example) in their ignorant simplicity confessed might be worshipped? However, God be thanked, their hypocritical excuses cannot now have such place in the hearts of the elect of God as they have done heretofore, especially seeing the word of God so manifestly forbids as well the worshipping of them, as the making or having them for purposes of religion.

It was alleged against William Cowper, and Alice Cowper his wife, that they had spoken against pilgrimages, and worshipping of images; but chiefly the woman, who having her child hurt by falling into a pit or ditch, and earnestly persuaded by some of her ignorant neighbours to go on pilgrimage to St. Lawrence for help to her child, said, that neither St. Lawrence, nor any other saint could help her child, and therefore none ought to go on pilgrimage to any image made with man's hands, but only to Almighty God; for pilgrimages were worth nothing worth, except to make the priests rich.

To John Houshold, Robert Rascal, and Elizabeth Stamford, the article against the sacrament of the altar was objected, as also that they had spoken against praying to saints, and had despised the authority of the bishop of Rome, and of his clergy; but especially John Houshold was charged with having called them antichrists, and the pope himself " the great whore," who with his pardons had drowned in blindness all christian realms for money.

Also among other articles against George Browne, these were counted very heinous and heretical. First, that he had said, that he knew no cause why the cross should be worshipped, seeing that the same was the cause of pain to our Saviour Christ in the time of his passion, and not any ease or pleasure to him; alleging for example, that if he had had a friend hanged or drowned he would never after have loved that gallows or water by which his friend died. Another objection was, that he had erroneously, obstinately, and maliciously said (for so are their words), that the church was too rich. This matter, I may tell you, touched somewhat the quick,

and therefore no marvel that they counted it erroneous and malicious; for take away their gain, and farewell to their religion. They also charged him with having refused holy water to be cast about his chamber, and likewise with having spoken against priests.

The greatest matter with which they charged John Wikes, was, that he had often and for a long time kept company with persons suspected of heresy, and had received them into his house, and there did hear them read erroneous and heretical books, contrary to the faith of the Romish church; and did also himself consent to their doctrine, and had many times secretly conveyed them away from such as were appointed to apprehend them.

lawful for a temporal man to have two wives at once, as for a priest to have two benefices. Also, that he had in his custody a book of the four evangelists in English, and often read therein; and that he favoured the doctrines and opinions of Martin Luther, openly pronouncing, that Luther had more learning in his little finger than all the doctors in England in their whole bodies; and that all the priests in the church were blind, and had led the people the wrong way. Likewise it was alleged against him, that he had denied purgatory, and had said, that while he was alive he would do as much for himself as he could, for after his death he thought that prayers and almsdeeds could little help him.

With these and such like matters these poor and simple men and women were chiefly charged, and were excommunicated and imprisoned as heinous heretics, and at last compelled to recant; and some of them in utter shame and reproach, besides the ordinary bearing of fagots before the cross in procession, or else at a sermon, were enjoined for a penance (as they termed it) to appear once every year before their ordinary, as also to wear the sign of a fagot painted upon their sleeves, or other part of their outward garment, during all their lives, or so often and long as it pleased their ordinary to appoint. By which long, rigorous, and open punishing of them, they meant utterly to terrify and keep back all others from the true knowledge of Jesus Christ and his gospel. But the Lord be evermore praised, what little effect their wicked purposes had, these our most lightsome days of God's glorious gospel most joyfully declare.

Besides these, others more simple and ignorant were also troubled, who having but a very small taste of the truth, did yet at first gladly consent to the same; but being apprehended, they quickly again yielded, and therefore had only assigned them for their penance, the bearing of a little candle before the cross, without any further open abjuring or recanting. Among whom I find two especially; the one a woman, called Ellen Heyer, to whom it was objected, that she had neither confessed herself to the priest, nor yet received the sacrament of the altar for the space of four years, and had every year eaten flesh at Easter.

John Southake, Richard Butler, John Sam, William King, Robert Durdant, and Henry Woolman, were charged with speaking words against the literal and carnal presence of Christ's body in the sacrament of the altar, and also against images, and the rest of the seven sacraments. They charged them with the reading of certain English heretical books, naming most blasphemonsly the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the four evangelists, to be of that number, as appears evidently by the eighth article objected by Thomas Bennet, doctor of law, chancellor and vicar-general to Richard Fitzjames, then bishop of London, against Richard Butler, the very words of which article, for a more declaration of truth, I have thought good here to insert, which are these:-"Also we object to you, that divers times, and especially upon a certain night, about the space of three years last past, in Robert Durdant's house of Iver Court, near unto Staines, you erroneously and damnably read in a great book of heresy of the said Robert Durdant's, all that same night, certain chapters of the gospels in English, containing in them divers erroneous and damnable opinions and conclusions of heresy, in the presence of the said Robert Durdant, John Butler, Robert Carder, Jenkin Butler, William King, and divers other suspected persons of heresy, then being present, and hearing your said erroneous lectures and opinions." To the same effect and purpose tended some of the articles propounded against the other four; whereby we may easily judge what reverence they, who yet desire to be counted the true and only church of Christ, bow to the word and gospel of Christ, when they are not ashamed to blaspheme it with most horrible titles of erroneous and damnable opinions and conclusions of heresy. But why should we marvel at this, when the Holy Ghost in several places of the scripture declares, that in the latter days there should come such proud and cursed talkers, who shall speak lies through hypocrisy, and have their consciences seared with an hot iron? Let us, therefore, now thank our heavenly Father for revealing them to us; and let us also pray him, that of his free mercy in his Son Christ Jesus, he would, if it be to his glory, either turn and soften all their hearts, or else, for the peace and quietness of his church he would in his righteous judgment take them from us. About this time Richard Fitzjames ended his life, after whose death Cuthbert Tonstall (afterwards bishop of Durham), succeeded in the see and bishopric of London, who soon upon his first entry into the room, minding to follow rightly the footsteps of his predecessor, The Death and Martyrdom of William Sweeting and eansed Edmund Spilman, priest, Henry Chambers, John Higgins, and Thomas Eglestone to be apprehended, and so to be examined upon articles; and in the end, either for fear of his cruelty, and the rigour of death, or else through hope of his flattering promises (such was their weakness), he compelled them to abjure and renounce their true professed faith touching the holy sacrament of Christ's body and blood, which was, that Christ's corporal body was not in the sacrament, but in heaven; and that the sacrament was a figure of his body, and not the body itself.

Moreover, about the same time there were certain articles objected against John Higges, alias Noke, alias Johnson, by the bishop's vicar-general, among which were these:-First, that he had affirmed, that it was as

The other was a man named Robert Berkeway, who (besides most wicked blasphemies against God, which he utterly denied) was charged to have spoken heinous words against the pope's holy and blessed martyr, Thomas Becket, calling him thief, for that he wrought by crafts and imaginations.

Thus have I, as briefly as I could, summarily collected the principal articles objected against these weak and infirm earthly vessels; not meaning hereby either to excuse or condemn them in these their fearful falls and dangerous defections, but leaving them to the immea. surable rich mercies of the Lord, I wish only to make manifest the insatiable bloody cruelty of the pope's kingdom against the gospel and true church of Christ, for nothing would mitigate their envious rage, which they showed even against the very simple idiots, and that sometimes in most frivolous and irreligious cases. But now leaving them, I will (by God's grace) go forward with other more serious matters.

John Brewster.

In searching and perusing the register, for the collection of the names and articles before recited, I find that within the compass of the same years there were also some others, who after they had once shewed themselves as frail and inconstant as the rest, (being either pricked in conscience, or otherwise overcome with the manifest truth of God's most sacred word) became yet again as earnest professors of Christ as they were before, and for the same profession were the second time apprehended, examined, condemned, and in the end were most cruelly burned. Of which number were William Sweeting and John Brewster, who were both burned together in Smithfield the eighteenth day of October, A.D. 1511. The chief case alleged against them in their articles, was their

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