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the noble army of English martyrs, many of whom "lived unknown, till persecution dragged them into fame, and chased them up to heaven."

It was a common custom in ancient times for men to go forth on pilgrimage to places hallowed by religious associations; and in modern times we have had published some interesting records of visits to the haunts and homes of poets and patriots, of philosophers and philanthropists. If this spirit of visitation should come largely over our people they may do well to repair to some of the spots where English mar.. tyrs lived and suffered for God's truth; and which, without any leanings to superstition, may well be supposed to have an attraction for the friends of evangelical piety and the advocates of religious liberty. Many of our towns were during the times of the Marian persecution the scenes of cruel martyrdom. The imprisonments, torturings, and burnings of those who dissented from the Queen's belief have given these localities a painful, and yet instructive notoriety. Their names are associated with those of men of whom the world was not worthy. Lutterworth, and Wycliffe; Norwich, and Bilney; Gloucester, and Hooper; Oxford, and Ridley, are designations which connect the places with the men in the memories of all students of English Church history. A visit to the localities where these meek and sainted

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repay any amount of time and attention employed in searching them out; and the United Kingdom as a whole, including the Emerald Isle, possesses objects of superlative attraction, in sylvan glades and undulating surface, in beauteous lakes and noble mountains, which possess a freshness and a charm not to be approached by many of the hackneyed, visited, and revisited scenes of Continental travel. Such home wanderings, while improving and gratifying the taste of travellers generally, would intensify the patriotic feeling of many who write themselves citizens of the world; and visits to many spots which became memorable in by-gone ages of oppression, would serve to increase our Protestant zeal, and to awaken proper veneration for

VOL. XXXVI.

men were tried, condemned, and put to death; and where Divine strength was made so perfect in their weakness that they willingly and cheerfully laid down their lives for His sake, who loved them and gave Himself for them, could scarcely fail to induce thankfulness for our privileges, and deepen our attachment to the truths for which they bled.

We mean, then, with this object in view, to conduct our readers to the pleasant town of Hadleigh, in Suffolk. It consists of one long wide street of ancient houses, interspersed with a few of modern form, with two other streets branching off at right angles from the high street; and it contains about four thousand inhabitants. The parish church is a noble and spacious edifice, without much architectural beauty. It contains the tomb of Guthrun, the Dane, who was converted to Christianity by King Alfred, in the end of the ninth century. Its ancient rectory and tower dating from the reign of Henry the Seventh, and its picturesque almshouses, are relics of the past; while its spacious Congregational Chapel is a monument of the religious zeal and intelligence of the present age. There Rowland Taylor lived. Low, sloping hills rise on almost every side of this ancient place, and from their summits may be seen the winding river and the green meadows, the substantial bridge, and the ancient houses of the town. A steep lane, with banks on either side, leads up to Aldham-common: there Rowland Taylor was burnt. An old rude stone marks the spot on which this servant of Christ stood erect at the stake, and an inscription on it, still legible, reads thus :-" 1555, D. Taylor in defending that was good at this plas left his Blode." Some account of this joyous-hearted and innocent man, drawn from "Foxe's Book of Martyrs," and other sources, though modern researches have brought little or nothing additional to light respecting him, we now proceed to give.

Of the parentage, birth, and early life of Rowland Taylor we have no account.

He was educated at Cambridge, and long continued a resident of that University. The holy life and hallowed influence of Thomas Bilney, and the plain and faithful preaching of Latimer, became, under the blessing of God, the means of his true conversion to the faith of Jesus Christ. He imbibed much of the spirit of these sainted confessors; resembling Bilney in his modesty and learning, and Latimer in the dauntless spirit and hearty simplicity of his character. He took his degrees in that seminary of learning, and became a doctor of civil and canon law. Being a powerful and attractive preacher, he was appointed by Archbishop Cranmer as one of the University preachers, and, by his enlightened and persuasive exhibitions of Divine truth, won over many from the error of their ways to a subjection to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. In the year 1544, Cranmer presented the living of Hadleigh to his domestic chaplain, Dr. Taylor, who immediately left the Archbishop's palace, and took up his residence in the midst of his future parishioners. Here as elsewhere, he was an example in word and deed to believers. The character which Foxe gives of him is beau tiful and instructive :

"The love of Christ so wrought in him, that no Sunday or holyday passed, nor other time when he might get the people together, but he preached to them the Word of God, the doctrine of their salvation. Not only was his word a preaching unto them, but all his life and conversation was an example of unfeigned Christian life and true holiness. He was void of pride, humble, and meek, as any child; so that none were so poor but they might boldly resort unto him: neither was his lowliness childish or fearful, but as occasion re quired he would be stout in rebuking the sinful and evil doers; so that none was so rich but he would plainly tell him his fault. He was a man very mild, void of all rancour, ready to do good to all men, and readily forgiving his enemies."

The husband of a godly wife, the father of a happy and numerous family, and the pastor of an attached flock, he lived in comfort and usefulness for many years in Hadleigh. The town itself had long been highly favoured. The county of Suffolk was the first in England in which the principles of the Protestant Reformation took deep root. On the active persecution of the followers of Wickliffe, many of them visited it, and preached the Gospel. Here Sir George Sautre, an early martyr for these doctrines, preached them fully and faithfully. Here, too, Bilney laboured, and Hadleigh was one of the first towns to receive the truth as it is in Jesus from his lips. The profiting of the people was evident to all. They were eminently moral and devout. Many of them obtained a large knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, and could readily give "a godly learned sentence in any matter of controversy." Their children and servants were well instructed in a knowledge of the Bible, and "the whole town seemed rather a university of the learned than a town of cloth-making and labouring people." After the martyrdom of Bilney, a godly minister, of the name of Thomas Rose, kept up the preaching of the Gospel at Hadleigh, till he was arrested on a charge of heresy and committed to the Bishop of Lincoln's prison in Holborn. He afterward returned to a village about six miles from Hadleigh, and many of his former friends resorted to him for the benefit of his teaching in public and private. To such a prepared people Taylor was privileged to minister the word of life.

their principles, and dissembled during the reign of Edward the Sixth, to set up the Mass in the parish church. Dr. Taylor earnestly opposed it, but in vain; for he was driven forcibly by armed men out of the sacred edifice, and had the mortification and grief of knowing that the place in which he had preached Christ crucified was defiled by popish idolatry. He was immediately accused of traitorous conduct against the Queen's authority, and was forthwith summoned to appear before Gardiner, the Bishop of Winchester, to answer a complaint of contumacy. His friends, aware that the meditated result of these proceedings was his death, entreated him to escape by flight. He, however, while thanking them for their anxiety on his behalf, and admitting that imprisonment and a cruel death were before him, resolved that as truth was on his side he would, by God's grace, go and meet his accusers, and resist their false doing. Leaving his parish in the care of a faithful old divine, Richard Yeoman, who had been his curate, and who was afterwards martyred, when more than seventy years of age, he set forth on his journey to London, attended by a faithful servant, John Hull. This domestic, like others, entreated him to fly for his life while he could, proffering his services wherever his beloved master would go ; but the resolve of the good man to follow Christ even to prison and death could not be shaken. To his servant he said, "Good John, pray for me; and, if thou seest me weak at any time, comfort me; and discourage me not in this my godly enterprise and purpose."

At the end of his lengthened and painful journey, Dr. Taylor was ushered into the presence of Gardiner, who reviled him as a knave, traitor, and heretic, and redoubled his reproaches when the doctor observed that he had come by his commandment, and quietly asked the cause why his lordship had sent for him. The confessor unabashed, looked his judge coolly in the face; told him in reply to the question, Knowest

Soon after the accession of Queen Mary to the throne, as she had determined to restore the nation to Rome, or die in the attempt, the work of an exterminating persecution began. No part of the country was exempt from the effects of her bigotry and aversion to divine truth, and the storm fell with severity on the pastor and flock at Hadleigh. An attempt was made by some Romanists at heart, who had concealed