A certain nobleman offered him his life if he would recant.
"If so," said he, "thou wilt dwell with me. And if thou wilt set
thy mind to marriage, I will procure thee a wife and a farm, and
help to stuff and fit thy farm for thee. How sayst thou?"
Palmer thanked him very courteously, but very modestly and
reverently concluded that as he had already in two places
renounced his living for Christ's sake, so he would with God's
grace be ready to surrender and yield up his life also for the
same, when God should send time.
When Sir Richard perceived that he would by no means relent:
"Well, Palmer," saith he, "then I perceive one of us twain shall
be damned: for we be of two faiths, and certain I am there is but
one faith that leadeth to life and salvation."
Palmer: "O sir, I hope that we both shall be saved."
Sir Richard: "How may that be?"
Palmer: "Right well, sir. For as it hath pleased our merciful
Savior, according to the Gospel's parable, to call me at the
third hour of the day, even in my flowers, at the age of four and
twenty years, even so I trust He hath called, and will call you,
at the eleventh hour of this your old age, and give you
everlasting life for your portion."
Sir Richard: "Sayest thou so? Well, Palmer, well, I would I
might have thee but one month in my house: I doubt not but I
would convert thee, or thou shouldst convert me."
Then said Master Winchcomb, "Take pity on thy golden years,
and pleasant flowers of lusty youth, before it be too late."
Palmer: "Sir, I long for those springing flowers that shall
never fade away."
He was tried on the fifteenth of July, 1556, together with one
Thomas Askin, fellow prisoner. Askin and one John Guin had been
sentenced the day before, and Mr. Palmer, on the fifteenth, 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
Thirty-first 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!" until
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 as lifeless, his tongue and lips again moved, and were
heard to pronounce the name of Jesus, to whom be glory and honor
forever!
Joan Waste and Others
This poor, honest woman, blind from her birth, and unmarried,
aged twenty-two, 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 sophisitcal arguments and threats they endeavored 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, until the glorious light of the
everlasting Sun of righteousness beamed upon her departed spirit.
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 Stonc, 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 pitchfork; 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, etc., etc. 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 Cambrdige,
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 centers, 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 honor of their
memory, and in reprobation of their Catholic persecutors.
Cardinal Pole 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 cemetery, and
even intermingled with those of the Catholic saint, to the utter
astonishment and mortification of the disciples of his holiness
the pope.
Cardinal Pole published a list of fifty-four articles,
containing instructions to the clergy of his diocese of
Canterbury, some of which are too ludicrous and puerile to excite
any other sentiment than laughter in these days.
Persecutions in the Diocese of Canterbury
In the month of February, the following persons were committed
to prison: R. Coleman, of Waldon, laborer; 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 Ewire, 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
Westbarhonlt, laborer; 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 further, 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 honor which his
merciful character deserves. Some of the bitter persecutors
denounced him to the pope as a favorer 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 favoring the doctrine of Luther.
As in the last sacrifice four women did honor to the truth, so
in the following auto da 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, Bardbridge's
widow, Wilson's wife, and Benden's wife.
Of this group we shall more particularly notice Alice Benden,
wife of Edward Bender, of Staplehurst, Kent. She had been taken
up in October, 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 endeavored to prepare herself for this
suffering by living upon twopence halfpenny per day.
On January 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 not otherwise relieve her, than
by putting soe 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!
On 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 until the nineteenth 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 to her brother, and tell him that 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 teased 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 as that?
P. That which He brake.
Dr. H. What did He brake?
P. That which He took.
Dr. H. What did He take?
P. I say, what He gave them, that did they eat indeed.
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.
Rev. John Hullier
Rev. 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 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 until the
thirteenth of July, the day of his burning.
Elizabeth Coope, 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 a 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 Colchester, who upon a slight submission, were afterward
released. Of these, William 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 returniong again, March 7, one 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 being 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, until the
tendons divided from the flesh, during which he loaded her with
many opprobrious 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, until it burnt into the flesh deeply.
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 William 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 Savior. 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 street, until it was
buried at night in the churchyard. God's judgment not long after
fell upon Swallow, who in his old age became a beggar, and who
was 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.
Mrs. Joyce Lewes
This lady was the wife of Mr. T. Lewes, of Manchester. She had
received the Romish religion as true, until the burning of that
pious martyr, 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 became weary of her former sinful life and
resolved to abandon the Mass and dilatrous worship. Though
compelled by her husband's violence to go to church, her contempt
of the holy water and other ceremonies was 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. Lewest 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 honor and glory of God.
Mr. Glover and others earnestly exhorted Lewest 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 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 Scriptures, 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 Savior, 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 until the fire rendered them powerless, when her
soul was received int o 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 everyone who had a heart not
callous to humanity.
Executions at Islington
About the seventeenth of September, 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 bloodthirsty tyrant thus
far! And no doubt He that hath begun that good work in you, will
fulfill 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 Coalhouse, 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 heart,
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 Savior, 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 "bloodthirsty
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 on September 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.
John Noyes, a shoemaker, of Laxfield, Suffolk, was taken to
Eye, and at midnight, September 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
Fiftieth 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 chanellor, 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 Savior." 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 until 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 forever.
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 until 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 apostasy, and to convince the
Catholics that she meant to 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."
Rev. John Rough
This pious martyr was a Scotchman. At the age of seventeen, 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 until 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, etc., for subsistence. Impeded
in his business by the want of yarn, he came over to England to
procure a quantity, and on November 10, 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.
On December 12, 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 twentieth)
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
VI'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 born 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, 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 he labored 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
he cannot detail better than in his own words:
"On the thirteenth of December, 1557, I was committed by the
Council to the Tower of London. On the following Thursday, I was
called into the ward-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 forefingers 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, to Mr. Austen, and others, before his
death.
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!
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
Bishipsgate, 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 chains, and came
forward. A great opinion prevailed that he was about to recant;
others thought that he wanted further time. In the meantime, 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 thathis Savior'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 ecstasy 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-humor, 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.
The Story of Roger Holland
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 Roger Holland. They were sent to Newgate, June 16,
1558, and executed on the twenty-seventh.
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