1555. unmerciful tyrant, without discrimination of sex or age; his fury AN.REG. 3, reaching from John Fetty1, a lad of eight years old, by him scourged to death, even to Hugh Laverock2, a cripple sixtyeight years old, whom he caused to be burned. The most eminent of all which number was Mr John Philpot, Archdeacon of Winchester3, who, though of Gardiner's diocese, was condemned by Bonner,-Gardiner being well enough contented to find out the game, and leave it to be followed by that bloody hunter. His rage not slackened by the interposing of Alphonso, a Spanish friar, inveighing sharply, in a sermon before the King, against the savage and unprofitable cruelty of the English Bishops; but, as it seems, he measured all the rest by that London tyrant, though in most other places they were far more moderate 5. He that came nearest to him was Dr John 1 Fox, viii. 510. The boy went to Bonner's house, and, being questioned by a chaplain as to his business, told him that he came to see his father, and pointed to the prison as the place where the father was. "Why," quoth the priest, "thy father is a heretic." The boy replied, "My father is no heretic; for you have Balaam's mark." The chaplain then carried him into the house,-" whether to the Bishop or not, I know not," says Fox; and he was cruelly whipped "amongst them." Bonner is described as ashamed and grieved for what had been done, and released the father in consequence; "but within fourteen days after, the child died; whether through this cruel scourging, or any other infirmity," says Fox, "I know not." It will be seen that this story does not justify Heylyn's representation of the case, which was probably taken from Fuller, iv. 186, without reference to the original authority. (This note is left as it was written before the editor had seen the more complete exposure of Fuller's statement, in Maitland, 414–420.) 2 Edd. "Lavecork." The story is in Fox, viii. 140. See Maitland, 420. 3 Fox, vii. 605-714. See Maitland, 410. * Fox, vi. 704. But this sermon appears to have been preached merely as a matter of policy, for the benefit of Philip's reputation-the English people being inclined to refer the persecution to the Spaniards. The friar, Alphonso a Castro, was at this very time preparing a new edition of a work in which he very strongly maintains the propriety of inflicting death on heretics "De Justa Hæreticorum Punitione," ed. 2. Lugd. Bat. 1556.-See Brit. Mag. xvii. 488; Massingberd's Hist. of the English Reformation, 1st ed. 399. 5 It ought to be stated, in justice to Bonner, that he was more than once admonished by the Council [Burnet, n. ii. 400. ш. 506,) to go on with the prosecution of persons charged with heresy ;-which seems to imply a slackness on his part. Fox treats the monitions of the Council 1555. AN. REG.3, Christopherson, Bishop of Chichester, who is recorded to have burnt no less than ten in one fire at Lewis, and seventeen others at several times in sundry places1. But still the nearer London, the more the heat; insomuch that Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and Thornton, the Suffragan of Dover, are said to have poured out blood like water; as was also done by Griffin of Rochester, and Downing, Chancellor of Norwich, (though somewhat further off from the scene of cruelty), in their several dioceses. Which character I find of Bishop Bayne, of Coventry and Lichfield; the gentle birth and breeding of Mrs Joyce Lewis2 not being too high for him to reach at, nor the poor condition of Joan Waste3, a blind woman in Darby, too low for him to stoop to; whom he condemned unto the fire, as he did many faithful ministers and others of the masculine sex. 13. But on the other side, in all the province of York I find none brought unto the stake but George Marsh of Chester, condemned thereto by Bishop Cotes; and not much more to have been done in the four Welsh dioceses; in which, beside the burning of Bishop Farrar at Carmarthen by Bishop Morgan, and of Rawlins White at Cardiff by Bishop Kitching, no extraordinary cruelty seems to have been acted. In the dioceses of Exeter, Wells, Peterborough, and Lincoln (though 57 this last the greatest in the kingdom) I find mention but of 227 one apiece; of two in that of Ely, and of no more than three as a trick of Bonner's own contriving. (vii. 287; comp. viii. 451.) But on 1 Fox mentions Christopherson as a violent persecutor, viii. 430; but Fuller, iv. 191. 2 Fox, viii. 401. 3 Fox, viii. 247. 5 Edd. "Coles." 6 Fox, vii. 28-33. The old editions of Heylyn make this person into two-" Rawlins and White." The error is not in Fuller, who is the immediate authority in this section (iv. 180, seqq.); but our author has misled Collier into speaking of "two more" besides Bishop Farrar as burnt in Wales, vi. 153. 1555, apiece at Bristol and Sarisbury. In those of Oxon, Glocester, AN. REG.3, Worcester, and Hereford, I find none at all; which made those countries look like the land of Goshen, where there was nothing but fair weather when there was so much thunder and lightning in the rest of Egypt. Nor were these storms and tempests in other places of a short continuance, but held on more or less till the death of the Queen, as appeareth by those five persons which were burnt at Canterbury on the 10th of November, 15581, being but one full week before the day of her own dissolution. The difference was, that these poor wretches were consumed by the rage of fire, whereas she was carried out of the world in a deluge of water; falling into a dropsy in the time of her supposed childing, of which she was never perfectly cured till she came to her grave. Nor were these all that suffered in the fury of this persecution. For besides those that suffered martyrdom in the sight of the world, many are thought to have been made away in prison; but many more, to the number of some scores or hundreds, supposed to have been killed by starving, stinks, and other barbarous usages in their several jails. To which if we should add a catalogue of all those who fled the kingdom, and put themselves into a voluntary exile, amounting to the number of 800 or thereabouts, I suppose it may be well concluded, that, though many persecutions have lasted longer, yet none since Dioclesian's time ever raged so terribly. So terribly it raged in one particular, that no persecution of the ten can afford a parallel. Katherine Gouches, a poor widow of St Peter's Port, in the Isle of Guernsey, was noted to be much absent from the church, and her two daughters guilty of the same neglect. Upon this they were presented before Jaques Amy, then Dean of the island, who, finding in them that they held opinions contrary to those then allowed about the sacrament of the altar, pronounced them heretics, and condemned them to the fire. The poor women on the one side pleaded for themselves, that that doctrine had been taught them in the time of King Edward; but if the Queen was otherwise disposed, they were content to be of her religion. This was fair, but this would not serve; for by the Dean they were delivered to Eli'er Gosling, the then I Fox, viii. 504. 2 Fuller, iv. 199. See below, vi. 3. In Fox the name is spelt " Cawches." 4 Hélier Gosselin. Fox. 1555. AN. REG. 3, bailiff, and by him unto the fire, July the 8th, 1556. One of the daughters (Perotine Massey she was called) was at that time great with child; her husband, a minister, being in those dangerous times fled the island. In the middle of the flames and anguish of her torments, her belly brake in sunder, and her child, a goodly boy, fell down into the fire, but was presently snatched up by one W. House, one of the bystanders. Upon the noise of this strange accident, the cruel bailiff returned command, that the poor infant must be cast again into the flames; which was accordingly performed'; and so that pretty babe was born a martyr, and added to the number of the holy Innocents. A cruelty not paralleled in any story, not heard of amongst the nations. But such was the pleasure of the magistrate, as once in the massacre of the younger Maximinus, viz. That not any issue should be left of an heretic parent 2. 14. But to go back again to Cranmer,-it is to be observed, that, as his death opened the way for Pole to the See of Canterbury, so it was respited the longer out of a politic design to exclude him from it. That Gardiner loved him not hath been said before, and he knew well that Cardinal Caraffa (now Pope Paul the Fourth) loved him less than he. This put him first upon an hope that the Pope might be prevailed with to revoke the Cardinal (who had before been under a suspicion in the court of Rome of having somewhat of the Lutheran in him) and to bestow the Cardinal's cap, together with the Legantine power, upon himself, who doubted not of sitting in the chair of Canterbury if he gained the rest3. Upon which ground he is supposed to have hindered all proceedings against the three Oxon martyrs from the ending of the Parliament on the 26th of January till the 12th of September then next following, the 58 Pope not sending out any commission in all that interval, with- 228 out which Cranmer was not to be brought to a condemnation. But at last, not knowing how much these procrastinations might offend the King, and perhaps pressed unto it by Karn, 1 Fox, viii. 226-241. The truth of this story was denied by Harding. Fox replied to him, and was answered by Persons; on the strength of whose argument Dr Lingard considers himself entitled to disbelieve the tale. vii. 376. 2 "Canis pessimi ne catulum relinquendum." Author, [probably from some translation of Eusebius, De Martyribus Palæstinæ.] 3 Godwin, Ann. 187. 1555. the Queen's Embassador, he found himself under a necessity to AN.REG.3, dispatch the commission, though he proceeded not to the execution of any part of the sentence till more than ten weeks after the eighty days which had been given for his appearance in the court of Rome. Gardiner. pointments. 15. During which time death puts an end to Gardiner's Death of projects, who left his life at Whitehall on the 12th of November1. From whence conveyed by water to his house in Southwark, his body was first lapped in lead, kept for a season in the church of St Mary Over-rhe, and afterwards solemnly interred under a fair and goodly monument in his Cathedral. The custody of the Great Seal, together with the title of Lord New apChancellor, was upon New-year's day conferred on Dr Nicholas Heath, Archbishop of York, a man of great prudence and moderation3; but the revenues of the bishoprick were appropriated to the use of the Cardinal Legate, who purposed to have held it in commendam with the See of Canterbury, to which he received consecration on the very next Sunday after Cranmer's death. But Dr John White, Bishop of Lincoln, having been born at Winchester5, and educated in that school, of which he was afterwards chief master, and finally warden of that College, ambitiously affected a translation thither. And so far he prevailed by his friends at court, that, on the promise of an annual pension of 1000l. to the use of the Cardinal, he was permitted to enjoy the title with the rest of the profits. Which I have mentioned in this place, though this transaction was not made, nor his translation actually performed, till the year next following'. No other alteration made amongst the Bishops of this time, but that Voysie of Exon dies in some part of the year, 1555, and Dr James Turbervile succeeds him in the beginning of the year, 15568. A man well-born and well-befriended, by means whereof he recovered some lands unto his See which had 2 Stow, 627. Godw. de Præsul. 150. 3 Ibid. 1 Godw. de Præsul. 236. The next day, March 22. Godw. de Præsul. 238. But the editor, Richardson, states, on the authority of New College Register, that he was a native of Farnham,— a place connected with the See of Winchester by the residence of the Bishop. • Godwin, 417. But Richardson dates his consecration Sept. 8, 1555. |