There was a great deal of confusion about the names of these martyrs. In the Rerum, there is a note stating that 'Richard Smith' and George 'Bing' died in Lollard's Tower in September 1555 (Rerum, p. 525). John Wade and Thomas Leyes are not mentioned in the Rerum. The 1563 edition corrects the name 'Bing' to King but it still names the non-existant 'Richard Smith'. Wade is still not named but Leyesis mentioned and described as having died in Newgate. In the 1570 edition, their names are finally correctly rendered as George King, Thomas Leyes and John Wade and they are all stated to have died in Lollard's Tower. Foxe probably obtained his scant information on this trio from oral sources: since they were not brought to trial or even examined, there was no accessible official record of them. The 1563 account was unchanged in subsequent editions.

The Rerum has a note stating that William Andrew died in Lollard's Tower in September 1555 (Rerum, p. 525). Foxe's complete account of Andrew, including Southwell's letter, first appeared in the 1563 edition. All of this material was drawn from official records, now lost, of the London diocese. The account of William Andrew was substantially unchanged in later editions.

John Motham's name was only introduced in the 1570 edition; it may have come from oral sources or it may have been a detail from the official documents which had been previously overlooked.

This letter had probably originally been copied into a court book of Bishop Bonner which contained the examinations of Andrew. This court book is now lost.

Andrew must have been quite effective in proselytizing for word of it to have reached the privy council. This was one of the dangers of the long incarceration of protestants; it gave them an opportunity to convert fellow prisoners. The martyr Richard Gibson was a prisoner converted to protestantism.

This is one of a number of examples of the privy council prodding Bonner to move faster in bringing heretics to trial. This would be especially apparent in the case of John Philpot.

The full account of Robert Samuel's background, arrest, visions and martyrdom appeared in the Rerum along with the mentions of the martyrdom of Agnes Potten and Joan Trunchfield (pp. 523-25). This material was reprinted without change in the 1563 edition. Details, particularly the names of people involved, were added in the 1570 edition; after this the account of Samuel's martyrdom was unchanged. Foxe built this account on the testimony of protestantsfrom Ipswich whose accounts he obtained during his exile, particularly Rose Nottingham whom he cited as a source.

Robert Samuel's two letters to a congregation of protestants, one exhorting them to constancy in the face of persecution and the other providing a statement of doctrine, were both first printed in Letters of the Martyrs and were then printed in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions. The first letter was printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 504-11.

Belial is a demon mentioned several times in the Bible, but this usage is derived from 2 Corinthians 6: 15-16, where Belial's followers are characterized as idolators as contrasted with the followers of Christ. Epicureans are technically followers of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus who saw the attainment of pleasure as the chief human goal, but in the sixteenth century the term was a synonym for atheism and unbelief. The term Cretian is obscure.

Playthings [OED].

This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 511-16. ECL 260, fos. 38r-39r is a copy of this letter.

This paragraph is especially intended to rebut anti-trinitarian radical protestants.

This paragraph is particularly intended to rebut Anabaptists and those who denied the Incarnation.

I.e., the senses are not able to perceive the purely spiritual transformation taking place in the bread and wine. Note that while denying transubstantiation, this passage also denies a sacramentarian interpretation of the eucharist as simply a memorial in which no change at all takes place in the bread and wine.

Wasted [OED].

An interesting indication of sympathy for Samuel, if not for the protestants, in Ipswich.

Neither Dunning or Hopton were named in Rerum (p. 523). Note that Foxefirst names Dunning in 1563 and Hopton in 1570.

Note that the statement in the 1563 edition that rage of the 'papists' was worse than the devils in hell was replaced with a somewhat less inflamatory statement in the 1570 edition. This is one of a number of examples of Foxe toning down his language in his second edition.

Foxe had a copy of Samuel's condemnation (BL, Harley 521, fos. 205r-206v), but he did not print or even refer to it. It is not because there was anything embarrassing to Foxe in it, but that he preferred to draw on sympathetic personal testimony, such as he obtained for Samuel, over official records.

Foxe relates the story of the maid kissing Samuel in the Rerum (pp. 524-25), and he stated that she had told the story of this encounter to Foxe himself in 1563, but Foxe did not name the woman as Rose Nottingham until 1570.

This story first appeared in the Rerum and is another indication that RoseNottingham furnished Foxe with her account of Samuel during Foxe's exile in Basel.

Anne or Agnes Potten was named in 1563, but Joan Trunchfield was not named until 1570.

This interesting story was only added to the account of Samuel in the 1570 edition.

The Rerum simply has a note stating that William Allen was burned at Walsingham in September 1555 (Rerum, p. 525). In the 1563 edition, Foxe wrote a very brief account of Allen's martyrdom, stating that at his execution he was allowed to go to the stake untied. This almost certainly was the personal testimony of an eyewitness. In the 1570 edition, Foxe added details of Allen's examinations and condemnation drawn from Norwich diocesan records. Happily Foxe's copies of these documents - the accusations made of Allen, questions put to Allen along with his answers and his condemnation - survive (BL, Harley 421, fos. 187v, 188v, 201r-202r and 214r). This account was unchanged in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

Allen did indeed say these things, although he did not make quite the stark contrast between the catholic church and the Roman church that Foxe attributed to him. In reality, Allen promised to obey the laws of the church, but only according to the word of God and not the laws of the present church (BL, Harley 421, fo. 214r). Foxe's selectivity in printing these articles is interesting: Allen also refused to go to church because the sermons were not edifying, he objected to holy water and holy bread, and he declared that after the consecration bread remained bread. He also refused to go to confession (BL, Harley 421, fo. 214r). None of these statements was completely objectionable to Foxe, but some would have required some explanation to be completely acceptable and Foxe probably found it easier to omit them.

Foxe got this date from his copy of Allen's condemnation (BL, Harley 421, fos. 201r-202r).

Foxe is anxious, as he commonly is, to emphasize the stoicism of his martyrs. On the polemical importance of this stoicism see Collinson [1983] and Freeman [1997].

In the Rerum, Foxe simply stated that 'Thomas' Coo was burned at Yoxford on 3 September 1555 (Rerum, p. 525; the month was correct, the date was not. His name was given as 'Thomas' in 1563 and Foxe seems to have confused him with Thomas Cobb. But in this edition Foxe did print what is either Coo's own account of his examination by Bishop Hopton of Norwich, or an account of it by a protestant sympathiser. In Foxe's papers are the sentence and accusations against Coo from Norwich official reords (BL, Harley 421, fos. 186v and 197r-198r. The sentence was the original document and not a copy). Foxe did not print these documents (once again we see Foxe's preference for personal narratives over archival sources for the trials of the martyrs) but they apparently gave him Roger Coo's true name which appears correctly in the 1570 edition. There were no further changes to this account in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

The last seven words were added in the 1570 edition. Foxe would have known that Coo's sentence was dated 30 August 1555 (BL, Harley 421, fos. 197r-198r); he would not have known that the writ for his execution was dated 7 September 1555 (PRO C/85/141, fo. 4r).

In the Rerum there is merely a note that Thomas Cobb was burned at 'Chetford' [i.e., Thetford] in September 1555. This note is essentially repeated in the 1563 edition. Foxe printed his full account of Cobb in the 1570 edition and it was drawn from Norwich official documents: the sentence against Cobb and an interrogation of Cobb. (These documents remain in Foxe's papers: the sentence is BL, Harley 421, fos. 203r-204r and the interrogation is fo. 217r-v. The sentence is the original document, but the interrogation is a copy made in Foxe's handwriting). There were no changes to this account in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

While Foxe is entirely correct in his reports of what Cobb said, he is very selective in his reporting of it. He did not report Cobb's remark 'that he cannot rede in scripture that Baptisme shuld be a Sacrament' nor did he report that Cobb declared that 'he cannot fynde in goddes worde that any Sacrament is in the Church' (BL, Harley 421, fo. 217v). Foxe would have found both views completely unorthodox. It is worth repeating that Foxe must have known what Cobb actually said; he had taken the statements of Cobb which he printed from the interrogation of Cobb, and the copy of the interrogation found in Foxe's papers is in the martyrologist's handwriting.

Foxe obtained the date of Cobb's condemnation from his sentence; the original sentence is in Foxe's papers (BL, Harley 421, fos.203r-204r).

A note in the Rerum relates that George Brodbridge, James Tutty, GeorgeCatmer, Robert Streater and Anthony Burwood were burned together at Canterbury on 6 September 1555 (Rerum, p. 525). Foxe's complete account of these martyrs appeared in the 1563 edition; it seems to be drawn from a description of the examination of the six martyrs by a sympathetic observer, although it is possible that it is drawn from an official record. There are no substantial changes in the account of these martyrs in the 1570, 1576 and 1583 editions.

Note that a savage denunciation of Nicholas Harpsfield as 'a whelpe of Bonners owne hear[t]e' which appeared in the 1563 edition was replaced by this bland introductory sentence. This is a good example of Foxe tending to moderate some of his more inflamatory rhetoric in the second edition of the Acts and Monuments.

In 1551, it was testified that George Brodebridge had stated that predestination was conditional (BL, Harley 421, fo. 134r). It is unclear whether or not Brodebridge held these views when he died.

A note in the Rerum states that Thomas Hayward and Thomas [sic] Goreway were burned at Lichfield in September 1555. Apart from correcting Goreway's name, this note was repeated in the 1563 edition. In the 1570 edition, Foxe added a statement that while the persecution was concentrated in London, East Anglia, Essex and Kent, other parts of the realm were affected as well.

Robert Glover was married to Hugh Latimer's niece Mary and was closely tied to people in Latimer's circle, most especially Augustine Bernher, Latimer's amanuensis and confidante. For important background on Mary Glover and her close relationship to her uncle see Susan Wabuda, 'Shunamites and Nurses of the English Reformation: The Activities of Mary Glover Niece of Hugh Latimer' in Diana Webb, ed., Women in the Church, Studies in Church History 37 [Oxford, 1990], pp. 335-44. Richard Bott, Mary Glover's second husband, testified that Hugh Latimer arranged the marriage of Mary to Robert Glover (Wabuda, 'Shunamites,' p. 340). If this is true, it is a powerful indication that Robert Glover held strong evangelical convictions from an early date.

Robert Glover's letter to his wife, describing his arrest and imprisonment, which is the main source for Foxe's account of his martyrdom, was printed in the Rerum (pp. 525-30 and 533-37). Foxe interrupted the letter to compare Robert Glover with his brother John (Rerum, pp. 530-32). This material was reprinted in the 1563 edition, with Foxe only adding comments that Robert Glover wrote nothing else in prison except this letter and that Glover was burned at Coventry on 19 September (it was actually 20 September). An account of Glover's sudden elation as he walked to the stake came to Foxe while the 1563 edition was being printed and was placed in an appendix to this edition. Augustine Bernher, who is mentioned in the story, was almost certainly Foxe's source for it.

Glover's letter to his wife was reprinted in the Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 527-42). (A letter to the mayor of Coventry which was part of Robert's letter was printed separately inthe Letters of the Martyrs [p. 542]). A farewell letter from Glover to his wife and children was also printed in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 542-43), but was never printed by Foxe. In the 1570 edition, Foxe rearranged this material so that the discussion of John and Robert Glover preceded Robert's letter instead of interrupting it. The description of Glover's elation on the way to the stake was expanded and incorporated into the account of Robert Glover. Aware that Bull had uncovered another letter written by Glover in prison, Foxe dropped his statement that Glover had written nothing else in prison and instead declared that he was unable to find official records of Glover's examinations, trial and condemnation. The 1570 account of Robert Glover was printed without change in subsequent editions.

The authorities did not waste time with Glover; he was condemned on 30 August 1555 (PRO C/85/64, fo. 12r) and burned on 20 September 1555.

BL, Harley 421, fo. 80r-v is the original of the articles charged against Bungay. The version Foxe printed is accurate; unfortunately there is no surviving copy of Bungay's answers to the articles.

Foxe is paraphrasing Horace (Epistles I, no. 6, line 31): 'virtutem verba putas et Lucum ligna' [you think that virtue is (merely) words and a sacred grove (merely) trees]. Foxe's version makes little grammatical sense but if one assumes that 'ut' is a printer's error for 'et' then Foxe's version reads: 'who think that virtue is [merely] words and a sacred grove [merely] trees'.

The narratives of the excommunications and deaths of John and William Glover first appeared in the 1570 edition. This account was based entirely on information supplied to Foxe by informants: for the account of John Glover, he states that Mary Glover, the wife of John's brother Robert, was his source and for the account of William Glover he lists a number of informants. There were no changes to these accounts in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

It is interesting that Foxe was able to find records for Cornelius Bungay, who was executed along with Glover, but not for Glover himself.

The original document of the articles alleged against Agnes Glover survives among Foxe's papers (BL, Harley 421, fos. 67r-68r), as does the original of her abjuration of these articles (BL, Harley 421, fos. 85r-86r).

A fever.

Mary Glover, the wife of the martyr Robert Glover, was Foxe's source for the excommunication and death of John Glover.

The letter was probably copied by one of Foxe's informants and the copy sent to Foxe.

Lands, precincts

Ralph Baynes, the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.

Broom is a wild shrub.

George Torpelly was Foxe's source for the refusal to bury both William Glover and Edward Burton.

In the errata printed in the 1576 edition, Foxe printed a correction stating that Burton's body was not actually sent to the church but that a messenger, one John Torperly (probably a relative of George Torpelly), was sent to ask if Burton would be allowed a Christian burial and that permission was denied. Probably the curate of St Chad protested to Foxe or Day about the account of this which appeared in the 1570 edition. This correction was never added to the story of Burton in Foxe's text.

Elizabeth I.

This terse account is all the information known about the obscure Oliver Richardine.

This brief story must have been given to Foxe as the 1570 edition was being printed and he inserted it into the text (far out of chronological order) as soon as he could.

Foxe's accounts of both Robert and John Glover are very preoccupied with the issue of the spirtual despair into which the godly fell. For Foxe's concern with this problem, see the introductory essay to this edition on Foxe's life.

Bernher was the amanuensis and confidante of Hugh Latimer, the uncle of Robert Glover's wife Mary. Bernher was undoubtedly Foxe's source for this story.

This is a fascinating autobiographical titbit. Foxe either was in the Coventry area briefly in 1547 or he might have traveled to Warwick during Edward VI's reign; he could have met John in either period.

Refreshment, revival [OED].

It is fascinating that Foxe is equating the torments of a guilty conscience with martyrdom.

I.e., a secret warning.

Immediately.

BL, Harley 416, fos. 8r-13r. This letter was printed in Rerum, pp. 525-30 and 533-37). The wording of this letter was somehat changed when it was printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 527-42. (Cf. the 1563 version with the version in later editions). This was undoubtedly due to Bull's editing. The versions of the letter in 1570 and subsequent editions followed Bull's version.

This salutation does not appear in the Rerum version of this letter.

This is 'Catherine Phinehas' in Rerum, p. 529 and 'Katherin Phines' in the1563 edition. In the Letters of the Martyrs, this is arbitrarily changed to 'Maister C. Phinehas', apparently because Bull felt that it was inappropriate for a woman to be advising Glover on what he should do. (For other examples of Bull rewriting letters so that female figures appeared as males see Thomas S. Freeman, '"The Good Ministrye of Godlye and Vertuouse Women": The Elizabethan Martyrologists and the Female Supporters of the Marian Martyrs,' Journal of British Studies 39 [2000], pp. 8-33). Foxe followed Bull's emendation: it was 'M. C. Phinehas' in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions.

Nicholas Hopkins in Rerum, p. 529 and 1563. In the Letters of the Martyrs and in the second, third and fourth editions of the Acts and Monuments, the name Nicholas is replaced with the initial 'N'.

Importune, persistant.

Excuses, pretexts.

The summoner, a minor episcopal official charged with collecting fines and conveying those charged with ecclesiastical offences to court.

Robert was arrested while the authorities were searching for his brother John.

I.e., Judgement Day.

Usually this word means impartially; here it means equally, with no difference between them.

Innocent, blameless.

There was some dispute over which diocese Glover lived in and thus some ambiguity over which bishop had jurisdiction to try him.

Glover is normally considered to have been resident at Baxterly, Warwickshire (letters survive which are addressed to him there), which would put him in the diocese of Coventry, but an inquisition post mortem lists him as being at Newhouse Grange, Leicestershire, which would put him in the diocese of Lincoln.

Glover probably copied the text of this letter into his own letter. It was printed as a separate letter in Letters of the Martyrs, p. 542.

I.e., a side chamber.

This more cautious declaration replaced a more sweeping statement in the 1563 edition that Glover wrote nothing in prison besides the letter to his wife. Bull, however, had found another letter of Robert Glover to his family (Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 542-43).

The Rerum simply has a note stating that William Wolsey, weaver, and Robert Pygot, painter, were burned on 19 September 1555 (Rerum, p. 538). In the 1563 edition this note was repeated, mistakenly giving Wolsey's first name as 'Thomas' and correcting the date of their execution to 4 October 1555. (The actual date was 16 October 1555). Foxe provided his full account of Wolsey and Pygot in the 1570 edition. It appears to have been based on personal testimony for the background and examinations of Wolsey and Pygot; some of Foxe's informants were listed in his account. (Fortunately the official records for the trials of Wolsey and Pygot survive - Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fos. 81r-84r - and they confirm the accuracy of Foxe's account at several points. However, it is pretty evident that Foxe did not have access to these materials but to an independent source of information, as his account contains material not in the official records). Foxe also obtained a description of the execution of Wolsey and Pygot from the famous Cambridge puritan divine William Fulke. The account of Wolsey and Pygot was not altered in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

I.e., good behaviour.

Wolsey had drawn attention to himself in Ely by denying the mass and by not attending church for six months before his arrest (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 81r).

The book was Thomas Watson, Twoo [sic] notable sermons made'before the quenes highness, concernynge the reall presence (London, 1554), STC 25115. This was considered by contemporaries to have been a very effective defence of transubstantiation.

Wolsey mentioned writing in Watson's book during his trial (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 81v).

Pygot confessed to not having attended church for three months before his arrest (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 83r).

I.e., they wept.

This answer appears word-for-word in the trial register (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 82r).

Wolsey's exchange with Shaxton and Fuller's remark do not appear in the trial record.

Nicholas Shaxton had been a high-profile evangelical, and bishop of Salisbury, who had very publicly recanted his beliefs in 1546. Shaxton was villified by fellow evangelicals for his recantation; see Robert Crowley, The confutation of .xiii. articles, wherunto N. Shaxton, late byshop subscribed and caused to be set forth in print M.C.xlvi. when he recanted (STC 6083).

John Fuller, the chancellor of the diocese, had visited Wolsey numerous times in prison in the hope of making him recant (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 81r-v).

The trial register records Pygot as making this very denial, but it does not mention Christopherson (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 83r).

Thomas Peacock had visited both Wolsey and Pygot in prison to try to induce them to recant (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 81r-v and 83r-v).

Either Foxe or his sources probably edited Peacock's comments. The judges accused Wolsey of being an Anabaptist at his trial (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 82r) and Peacock's 'malicious reporting' probably included similar remarks. In fact, Wolsey's statements at his trial may well have been edited by Foxe or his informants; Wolsey declared that the word 'trinity' could not be found in scripture and denied that baptism affected salvation (Ely Diocesan Register G 1/8, fo. 81v). Foxe would have regarded both statements as heretical.

These were Foxe's sources for much, if not all, of the account of Wolsey and Pygot up to this point.

Fulke must have gone out and got Hodilo's testimony and sent it on to Foxe. This is an excellent example of Foxe's friends acting as unpaid research assistants for him. This is one reason why Foxe obtained such extensive information from personal sources.

Wolsey was worried that Pygot might be persuaded to recant.

Foxe would later include Denton's death by fire among a collection of cases of providential retribution printed at the end of the Acts and Monuments. (See 1570, p. 2303; 1576, p. 1994 and 1583, p. 2103).

Perhaps rather surprisingly there is no account of Nicholas Ridley's life in theRerum. This can be explained by the pressure Foxe was under to complete the Rerum in time for the Frankfurt book fair in September 1559. Those martyrs executed after the summer of 1555 received, with one or two exceptions, little notice in the Rerum because Foxe was running close to his September deadline. Foxe made up for this neglect in the first edition of the Acts and Monuments. Most of the account of Ridley's life and behaviour first appeared in the 1563 edition and was clearly based on the testimony of those who knew the bishop. (It is worth remembering that Ridley ordained Foxeas a deacon in 1550 and that Edmund Grindal was one of those closest to the martyredbishop). Additions were made to this account in the 1570 edition which were clearly derived from the testimony of Ridley's brother-in-law George Shipside. No changes were made to this material in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

Spiritually.

The changes in this phrase from the 1563 to the 1570 edition are interesting. In the first edition Ridley was described as being from 'gentlestock' and he was promoted to being from 'stock right worshipful'. William Turner, a leading protestant divine and writer, wrote a letter to Foxe, dated 26 November 1564, in which, among other things, he described Ridley's background and early life.In the letter, Turner declared that Ridley was 'e nobili Ridleiorum prosapia prognatus' [descended from the noble family of Ridley] and pointed out that one of Ridley's uncles was a knight and another a famous divine (BL, Harley 416, fo. 132r). Foxe did not use any other information about Ridley which Turner supplied but this passage in Foxe's text may have been changed because of Turner's emphasis on the high status of the Ridley family. (Turner's letter is printed, with an English translation, inThe Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed., Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], pp. 487-95).

Henry VIII did not create Ridley bishop of Rochester. Henry died on 28 January 1547, while Ridley was appointed bishop of Rochester at the end of August 1547 and consecrated in September of that year.

Pleasantly.

In the first edition, the word here is 'detented' which means held back or obstructed [OED]. In subsequent editions this word was replaced with the word'letted' which means hindered.

Carnal desires.

Nicholas Heath had been deprived of the bishopric of Worcester in 1551 and placed in Ridley's custody. In Mary's reign he was restored to his bishopric and then promoted to the archbishopric of York. Foxe refers to him as the late archbishop because he was deprived of the office in 1559.

I.e., Ridley's brother-in-law George Shipside and his sister (and Shipside's wife) Alice.

I.e., chess.

Note that in the 1563 edition, Foxe accused Bonner of imprisoning Alice Shipside, Nicholas Ridley's sister. Foxe was much less specific about this in the 1570 edition but much more detailed about the ordeals of George Shipside. As the source for the 1570 account was Shipside himself, this version of events is more accurate. Although Foxe does not say so, Shipside was not persecuted out of unmotivated malice, he was arrested when he was caught delivering works which Ridley had written while incarcerated to one of the bishop's former chaplains (see ECL 260, fo. 115r - printed in Letters of the Martyrs, p. 54 - also see Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 56-57).

In the 1570 edition, Foxe states that George Shipside was the source for this material. The reference to Bonner 'extorting' possesions is to Bonner's refusal to accept the validity of leases which Ridley had made, as bishop of London, granting episcopal property to Alice Ridley and her husband. These leases were a subject of vital importance to Ridley; almost his last act on earth was to petition Mary toconfirm them.

Impartial, unbiased.

This is the De corpore et sanguine Domini of the medieval theologian Ratramnus of Corbie. This work was translated, probably by William Hugh, in 1546, as The booke of Barthram priest intreating of the bodye and bloude ofChrist (STC 20748.5).

Foxe's wording is unclear as to what 'the conference' with Cranmer and Martyr was, but he is probably referring to the disputations on the eucharist held at Oxford in May 1549, in which Cranmer and Martyr played leading roles.

A Bocardo is a type of syllogism whose logic was supposed to be impossible to escape. The Oxford gaol, on the north gate of the city, was nicknamed the Bocardoin consequence.

This 'conference' is not really a conference at all. This is the second (with a portion of the first) of two 'conferences' written by Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer while they were imprisoned in the Tower of London from September 1553 until March 1554. Although the work would be published posthumously (as A copy of Certain godly learned and comfortable conferences'between Latimer and Ridley [Emden, 1556], STC 21047.3), its original purpose was more private and pragmatic. It was written by the two bishops to prepare themselves for imminent examinations and debates. It should be remembered that Ridley and Latimer were confined separately when this work was written and were not actually talking together; instead the writings of one bishop would be taken to the other bishop for comment, probably by Augustine Bernher, Latimer's amanuensis, who is known to have been present in the Tower with Latimer (see APC IV, pp. 345-46).

In the first 'conference' Ridley penned eleven reasons why he had refused to attend mass. He then sent these to Latimer, who wrote down his comments after each of the reasons and added an exhortation not to attend mass at the end. The second 'conference' was written in the expectation that the two bishops would shortly be examined by 'Diotrephes and his warriors' (possibly Stephen Gardiner and his adherents). This time Ridley anticipated fourteen objections to his earlier argumentsand sent his responses, with an explanatory note at the end of the piece, to Latimer. Latimer added comments to nine of Ridley's answers. Ridley's purposes in this exercise were apparently, as Latimer suspected, not only to obtain Latimer's approval for Ridley's arguments but also to prime the older and less academically learned man with responses for imminent debates.

Foxe printed the second 'conference' in its entirety, but added much of Latimer's exhortation against attending the mass, from the first 'conference' to the end of the second 'conference'. The resulting 'conference' was not printed in the Rerum but appeared in the 1563 edition. It was dropped from the 1570 and 1576 editions, but re-inserted in the 1583 edition. A manuscript copy of both 'conferences' survives among Foxe's papers (BL, Lansdowne 389, fos. 147r-170v).

'Homoousion' is the term used in the Nicene Creed (it means 'of one substance') to describe the relationship of God the Father and Christ within the Trinity. This term is a rejection of the Arian belief that Christ was of an inferior nature and substance to God the Father. Ridley is pointing out that numerous local councils rejected the trinitarian theologians of the Nicene Council, whom both heand his catholic opponents regarded as orthodox.

This is not a real person but a figure created by Ridley to voice possible objections to Ridley's arguments. As Ridley explained, the name was taken from that of an Arian bishop who persecuted Trinitarian Christians in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa during the fifth century. Ridley may also have intended a dig at Stephen Gardiner, who had used the pen name 'Marcus Antonius'.

This is puzzling. The 'Bishop's Book' (properly titled The Institution of aChristian Man), compiled in 1537, was a fairly 'liberal' formulation of faith, which never received royal authority. It was replaced in 1543 by the 'King's Book' (properly titled Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man) which was more conservative and outspoken in its defence of traditional religion. Ridley probably made a mistake here and meant to write 'King's Book'.

Victor was a Trinitarian historian of the late fifth century who wrote the Historia persecutionis Africanae provinciae, an account of the persecution of Trinitarian Christians by the Arian authorities in fifth-century North Africa.

The Council of Florence (1438 - 1445) was convened in an effort to unite the Roman catholic and Greek orthodox churches. In desperate need of assistance against the advancing Ottoman Empire, the Greek delegates to the council and the Byzantine emperor reluctantly accepted papal primacy over all the bishops in the Greek, as well as catholic, church.

Cowardly, faint-hearted.

This is Edward Foxe's De Vera Differentia (London, 1537), STC 11218,which provided historical precedents for the supremacy of the English crown overthe English church.

Probably Stephen Gardiner; the name is a malicious reference to 3 John 9.

A jack was a leather coat, sometimes plated with armour, worn by soldiers (OED).

Apart from being a fascinating autobiographical reference to the conversion of Latimer in Cambridge by the evangelical preacher Thomas Bilney (d. 1531), this passage also indicates that Latimer suspected that Ridley was subtly coaching him.

Augustine Bernher.

Latimer is advising Ridley not to rely too much on argument during his examinations because their adversaries will quibble and insult them. This remark is interesting in light of the behaviour of Latimer during the disputations at Oxford in April 1554 and during his trial.

Foxe deletes passages here in which Ridley explains that the 'Antonian' was a reference to Antonius, an Arian bishop who persecuted catholics in the Vandal kingdom of North Africa during the fifth century. (The deleted passages are printed in The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 147).

I.e., Novatian a third century heresiarch. The Novationists separated from the church because they refused to recognize bishops and clergy who had compromised with the pagan authorities during the Decian persecution.

To vex, harrass, oppress (OED).

The Cathari, or Cathers, were a religious sect which flourished from the late eleventh into the fourteenth centuries in western Germany, northern Italy and southern France.

To vex or harrass severely (OED).

The Augsburg Interim (1548) was a doctrinal formula creating a religious settlement between catholics and protestants in the Holy Roman Empire. It was rejected by Calvinists and Swiss and English protestants, who particularly objected to its eucharistic theology. (It was also denounced by the pope).

I.e., a sheet anchor. This was the largest of a ship's anchors and was only used in an emergency. It signifies something relied on as a last resort when all else fails.

Augustine is being taken a bit out of context here; he was saying that even the misdeeds of an unworthy priest did not defile the sacrament.

The second 'conference' ends here. What follows is most of Latimer's concluding exhortation from the end of the first 'conference'; Foxe arbitrarily transposed the text of the original work.

I.e., the essence.

The drinking bowl of the master of the house, conferring the authority to set toasts, etc.

Supporters, adherents.

A warning or admonition.

Secret, clandestine (OED).

Nicholas Shaxton had resigned the bishopric of Salisbury in 1538 in protest at the Six Articles. He recanted his evangelical beliefs in 1548.

I.e., meaning, definition.

Latimer is saying that he is in prison and out of touch with these controversies.

Tyconius (died c. 400 CE) was a Donatist theologian whose chief work was a Liber Regularum (c. 380), much of which St Augustine incorporated in his De doctrina Christiana. Ridley is quoting, via Augustine, the second of Tyconius's rules which stated that the church contained a mingling of both the saved and damned (Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, III, cap. 32).

Weight, influence, power.

A figure in rhetoric in which a more comprehensive term is used for a less comprehensive term or vice versa, as whole for part or part for whole, genus for species or species for genus (OED).

Obstinately.

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.

Arius (c. 250 - c. 336) maintained that the persons of the Trinity were not equal and that Jesus Christ was inferior in nature to God the Father. His beliefs were declared heretical at the Council of Nicea, but his followers, the Arians, were influential for centuries. The Arian emperor Constantius banished Pope Liberius (pontiff from 352 - 366) from Rome because Liberius refused to condemn anti-Arian teachings. Ridley is pointing out that the righteous were persecuted by the religious and secularauthorities throughout history.

The Franciscan theologian Nicholas of Lyra (1270 - 1340).

Papal letters collected and systematized by canon lawyers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; these texts provided the basis for canon law.

Articles enacted by Henry VIII in 1539 which maintained transubstantiation, communion in one kind, clerical celibacy and, with qualifications, auricular confession.

Edward VI.

Political.

None of these letters appeared in the Rerum, but this may have been due to the pressure on Foxe to finish the Rerum in time for the Frankfurt book fair in September 1559. (It is worth noting that Foxe printed one of Ridley's 'farewell' letters in November 1559, but he did not print it in the Rerum). In any case, out of the ten letters of Ridley's which Foxe printed - this does not count the two 'farewell' letters - six first appeared in the 1563 edition. The remaining four letters were first printed in the Letters of the Martyrs and added to the 1570 edition. These letters were reprinted in the 1576 and 1583 editions without change.

The people whom Ridley wishes to thank are very probably Joan Wilkinson and Anne Warcup who are known to have aided Ridley, Bradford and Hooper.

The preceding passages, translated into English, read: 'all the reformations of studies and statutes [which were] recently accomplished are now again deformed and abolished and everything reduced to its original chaos and ancient popery: all the heads of colleges who favoured the sincerity of the gospel, or who were married, are removed from their places and replaced by others of the popish faction and I hear this also of those fellows who could not bow their knees to Baal. This is not surprising, for this has happened throughout the kingdom of England, to all archbishops, bishops, deans, prebendaries, ministers of churches and all the clergy'.

Ridley was moved from the Tower to Oxford in March 1554; this letter was written after 8 May of that year. This letter was first printed in the 1563 edition, then in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 58-60).

In the sixteenth century, the word 'crazed' could mean to become ill or infirm as well as to become insane; clearly in this case the first meaning is intended.

'Papistry reigns everywhere among us in all of its ancient strength'.

This is a reference to the letter of 8 May 1554 sent by Rowland Taylor and other imprisoned protestants to Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer (see 1563, pp. 1001-03;1570, pp. 1640-41; 1576, pp. 1399-1400 and 1583, pp. 1469-71).

This letter was obviously written after the execution of John Rogers on 4 February 1555. It was first printed in the 1563 edition and was reprinted in Letters of the Martyrs(pp. 63 [recte 68]-69). It was subsequently reprinted in all editions of the Acts and Monuments.

Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor.

I.e., situation.

Edward Crome had been imprisoned in the Fleet since January 1554; he would recant and be released around February 1555. Edwin Sandys had been imprisoned since January 1553, but was released in the spring of 1554 and arrived in Antwerp in May. Laurence Saunders had been imprisoned since October 1553. Jean Veron had been imprisoned since August 1553; he would remain in prison throughout Mary's reign. Thomas Becon had been imprisoned in the Tower since August 1553, buthe was released on 24 March 1554 and fled to Stasbourg. John Rogers was placed under house arrest in July 1553 and committed to Newgate in January 1554.

I.e., Lancashire. The words 'county' and 'country' were synonyms in the sixteenth century.

Phillip, the consort of Queen Mary.

Mary was going into confinement, or seclusion, because she was believed, inaccurately, to be pregnant and this was the custom before giving birth.

I.e., Ridley expects that he Latimer and Cranmer will be martyred.

Treatment.

A Latin version of this letter was first printed in 1563. This English translation was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 32-34) and then in all editions of the Acts and Monuments. A Latin version of this letter is ECL 262, fo. 99r-v. The final folio of a copy of the English translation of this letter is ECL 262, fo. 246r-v.

Sir John Cheke had been imprisoned at the start of Mary's reign but had been released in the spring of 1554 and arrived in Strasbourg on 14 April. He journeyed on, reaching Padua in July and would remain in Italy until the spring of 1555. William Turner had fled England in September 1553 and went to Emden and subsequently traveled throughout Germany. Thomas Sampson's movements are mysterious although he eventually arrived in Strasbourg. Thomas Lever, on the other hand, arrived in Frankfurt in February 1555 and took a prominent role in the disputes there. Richard Chambers, the moneyman for the Marian exiles, settled in Zurich in 1554, but his movements would have been known to Grindal. Richard Cox was committed to the Marshalsea on 5 August 1553 but was released into house arrest two weeks later. He made his escape in May 1554, arriving in Strasbourg in June 1554. He arrived in Frankfurt in March 1555, becoming the chief opponent of John Knox in the dispute over whether the Book of Common Prayer or the Genevan liturgy would be used by the English congregation there.

Oxford University paid for the maintenance of Ridley, Cranmer and Latimer. Ridley is saying that it was expensive for Oxford to pay for the upkeep of the three prisoners.

Devices.

The preceding two paragraphs read, in translation: 'Some of our great magistrates, Chancellor Winchester [Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor], the earl of Arundel, and Lord Paget, are joined overseas with Cardinal Pole on an embassy to negotiate (as they say) peace between the emperor, our king [Phillip, the consort of Queen Mary], and the king of France. After the return of the magistrates and the confinement of the queen, which we now expect anyday, indeed we have expected it for some time - and which may God for the glory of his name undertake to make fortunate for her - we then expect nothing more than the triumphal crowns of our confession immediately from our ancient enemy [i.e., Ridley, Cranmer and Latimer expect to be martyred].

I commend myself in all humility and with all my heart to the prayers of all of you; in you primarily, Grindal, a most dear and cherished brother in Christ, and of those most dear brothers to me, the Lord's beloved, Cheke, Cox, Turner, Lever, Sampson, Chambers and all our brothers and countrymen who abide among you and love our Lord Jesus Christ in truth. I also commend to you the most reverend fathers, and my fellow captives in the Lord, Thomas Cranmer, now truly most worthy of the name of chief pastor and archbishop, and that veteran, the true apostle of the English people and of Christ, Hugh Latimer. Forgive me, brother, for the verbosity of this letter, for after this, I believe, most dear brother, that you will never again be troubled with letters of mine'.

Acted bravely.

This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 34-38 and was reprinted in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments. BL, Add. 19400, fos. 52r-56r is a copy of this letter corrected and initialed by Ridley. Other copies of the letter are ECL 260, fos. 109r-110r and 280r-v.

From the reference to the burning of John Rogers this letter must have been written fairly soon after 4 February 1555. This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 72-73 and was reprinted in the 1570 edition, and all subsequent editions, of the Acts and Monuments. The orginal letter survives in Foxe's papers (ECL 260, fo. 278r-v); copies of the letter are Harley 416, fo. 16v and ECL 260, fos. 269r-270r and 283r.

An escape.

Notice the quasi-official tone of this heading and of this letter: Ridley is not sending this missive to friends but to imprisoned protestants in general.

Ridley is refering to the examinations of John Hooper, Laurence Saunders and Rowland Taylor by Stephen Gardiner at the end of January 1555 and their refusal to recant.

The bishop of Worcester, Nicholas Heath, had been held in Ridley's custody.

This letter is clearly a reply to a letter West sent to Ridley urging him to recant. It was first printed in the 1563 edition and reprinted in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 40-43 and then reprinted in all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments. Copies of this letter are BL, Lansdowne 389, fos. 126v-129v, ECL 260, fos. 281r-282v and ECL 282, fos.162r-165v.

I believe

A Bocardo was a syllogism whose conclusion was supposed to be inescapable. As a joke the prison in Oxford, in the north gate of the town, was commonly called the Bocardo.

Judging from the preceeding paragraph, West had written to Ridley urging him to recant.

Obviously this passage was written after the execution of Rogers on 4 February 1555.

A quondam is the former holder of an office. Ridley is calling the Bocardo a college of 'quondams' because he, Latimer and Cranmer who were imprisoned there were all former bishops.

West must have been urging Ridley to write to those in authority to seek a pardon.

Rogers was a prebend of St Paul's in London. Grindal had been precentor of the cathedral. Ridley is anticipating the martyrdom of John Bradford (another prebend) and of himself (the bishop) to make up a trinity of martyrs from St Paul's.

Grow, increase.

A cure was usually the benefice for which a clergyman was spiritually responsible; Ridley is saying that he was thus responsible for West and the other members of his household.

The meaning of this passage is made clear from the original letter. Short of paper, Ridley wrote this letter to Bernher on the back of a letter which Bernher had sent to him.

This letter was first printed in 1563 and then in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 79-80. It was then reprinted in every edition of the Acts and Monuments.

Example.

This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 62-63 and then in the 1570 edition, and all subsequent editions, of the Acts and Monuments. BL, Harley 416, fo. 32v and ECL 260, fo. 116r are copies of this letter in Foxe's papers.

This letter was a response to a letter which Edmund Grindal, Ridley's close friend and protégé, had sent to Ridley from exile. (Grindal's letter is printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 49-51, and in The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], pp. 386-88). Grindal's letter was dated 6 May 1554 and Ridley's reply, judging by a reference to the execution of John Cardmaker, was written in early June. This letter was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 51-56) and was reprinted in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments. Bull and Foxe deleted an important section of this letter. ECL 260, fos. 114*r-115v is a copy of this letter.

I.e., the Roman catholic church.

In his letter, Grindal had reported that John Scory was head of an English exile congregation at Emden and that Richard Cox was head of the English congregation at Frankfurt. (Letters of the Martyrs and The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 387. Unfortunately only Bull's version of Grindal's letter survives; judging from the manuscript copy of Ridley's response, Bull deleted passages from Grindal's letter about the disputes in the English church at Frankfort).

Aimed.

Actually Grindal may not have had much information on some of these old friends of Ridley. Sir John Cheke had been imprisoned at the start of Mary's reign but had been released in the spring of 1554 and arrived in Strasbourg on 14 April. He journeyed on, reaching Padua in July and would remain in Italy until the spring of 1555. William Turner had fled England in September 1553 and went to Emden and subsequently traveled throughout Germany. Thomas Sampson's movements are mysterious although he eventually arrived in Strasbourg. Thomas Lever, on the other hand, arrived in Frankfurt in February 1555 and took a prominent role in the disputes there. Richard Chambers, the moneyman for the Marian exiles, settled in Zurich in 1554, but his movements would have been known to Grindal.

At this point in the letter Bull and Foxe deleted passages from the letter in which Ridley disapproved strongly of John Knox's determination to use the Geneva liturgy rather than the Book of Common Prayer in the English congregation's services there. (ECL 260, fos.114*r-v. The deleted passages are printed in The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], pp. 533-35, although Christmas does not indicate that these passages were deleted from this letter). It is worth pointing out that Foxe himself was in Frankfurt at this time and was a prominent supporter of Knox (see the introduction to this edition on Foxe's life).

The date given to this letter by Foxe is almost certainly incorrect, as this letter was written partially in response to Rowland Taylor's letter of 8 May 1554, signed by other leading protestants, protesting a planned disputation to be held in Cambridge. The letter is probably from May or early June 1554. It first appeared in the 1563 edition and was reprinted in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 60-62) and subsequently in every edition of the Acts and Monuments.

Grindal had informed Ridley that he had a copy of Ridley's answers in the Oxford disputation (Letters of the Martyrs, p. 50, and The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 388). Ridley is saying that unless Grindal had Ridley's version of his answers the versions which Grindal did have were inaccurate.

According to Foxe's marginal notes these papers were Bradford's treatise on the Lord's Supper which he sent to Ridley for the bishop's comments.

Grindal had informed Ridley that he had a copy of Ridley's attack on transubstantiation (Letters of the Martyrs, p. 51, and The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas [Parker Society, 1841], p. 388). Ridley wrote his answer to this in Latin because it was particularly sensitive. His reply reads: 'I can scarcely be persuaded to believe that it is worth translating into Latin. Moreover, whatever may happen, I wish that nothing be published in my name in any way until it is certainly known to you what it may have pleased God to determine be done to us'. What Ridley is saying is that he did not want any works published in his name until his fate was settled; the bishop feared that such publication might trigger reprisals against Cranmer, Latimer and himself.

Ridley apparently added some passages to the treatise Bradford had sent him.

Wyatt's rebellion.

Rowland Taylor and Nicholas Ridley were both from Northumbria.

Separate.

Since Ridley refers below to Bradford consulting him about the proposed Cambridge disputation, Taylor's 'confession' was almost certainly the letter of 8 May 1554, signed by Taylor and other protestants, protesting against the disputation.

'Formerly your fellow prebendary'.

To bait someone was to taunt or provoke them; what Ridley means is that Bradford has not been examined yet. Since Bradford was examined repeatedly from the end of January 1555 onwards, this is yet another reason to doubt Foxe's dating of this letter to 1555.

John Cardmaker and his fellow martyr John Warne were burned on 30 May 1555; this passage dates this letter to the early days of June.

'We' means Cranmer and Latimer as well as Ridley. Foxe's marginal gloss states that Bradford wished to consult the Oxford bishops about the proposed disputation in Cambridge.

I.e., Grimoald recanted.

'Indifferent' means impartial, not apathetic. Ridley is saying that Bradford and the others should not participate in the proposed disputation unless they were sure that the authorities presiding over the disputation were reasonably impartial.

The wise man is Solomon; Ridley is quoting Proverbs 19:14 and 31:28 in the Vulgate.

The scholars of Oxford were paying a greater share of the cost in maintaining Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer than the townspeople were.

Ridley is advising Bradford that the commisioners who conducted the Oxford diaputations were biased and unfair, but that if a disputation was held in Cambridge that they might make a favourable impression on the spectators regardless of the ways in which the disputation might be rigged.

Margaret Irish, the wife of Edmund Irish, the mayor of Oxford, who had custody of Ridley.

The preceding paragraph, in translation, reads: 'either because the man in whose house I am detained, is dominated by his wife (even though he is the mayor), an old woman, bad-tempered and very superstitious, who takes it as praise for herself that she is said to guard me most strictly and with the greatest care. The man himself, who is named Irish, is on the other hand, easy-going enough but overly obedient to his wife. As you know, I have never had a wife, but from the daily association which I have had with this couple, I am able to understand somewhat how serious an evil and heavy a yoke it is to be joined in wedlock with a bad woman. Truly therefore has the wise man said, A good wife is the gift of God and again, blessed is the husband of a good woman. Whether it is for this reason, I say, or whether they have been commanded by higher powers, for whatever reason, when I complain about the severity of my imprisonment, it is a fact that [then] they frequently and zealously persecute me anew'.

This unfair characterization of the Irishes is corrected by Carl I. Hammer, 'The Oxford Martyrs in Oxford: The Local History of their Confinements and Keepers', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 50 (1999), pp. 238-44. It also should be noted that Margaret Irish seems to have been genuinely distressed by Ridley's impending execution.

The account of Latimer's life appeared in the 1563 edition. (There is nothing on Latimer's life in the Rerum, which is a powerful indication of the pressure on Foxe to sacrifice material in order to complete the work on time). Foxe's sources for the 1563 account are largely Latimer's own sermons and letters, Latimer's own descriptions of his early life (it is worth remembering that Foxe knew Latimer personally) and Augustine Bernher's dedication to the collection of Latimer's sermons which he edited. Bernher also probably contributed his own memories of Latimer and this may well have also been true of Mary Glover, Latimer's niece.

Even by the low standards of the 1563 edition, the account of Latimer was poorly organised, and one major difference between it and the 1570 account of Latimer was the rearranging of the materials in it into a logical and chronological order. Another major difference was the pruning back of documents: Latimer's 'card' sermons, the citation sent to him by the bishop of Salisbury, Latimer's letter to Archbishop Warham, the ban on his preaching and the articles imputed to him were all dropped from this edition. But if documents were deleted, information from individual informants was added on Latimer's disputes with various friars in Cambridge.

The 1570 version of Latimer's life was printed without change in 1576. In the 1583 edition, with paper in abundant supply, all of the documentation removed from the account of Latimer's life in the 1570 edition was restored, although the second 'card' sermon was relegated to an appendix.

Foxe is basing this claim on a passage in Latimer's first letter to Sir Edward Baynton.

Latimer preached a series of sermons in Bristol in March 1553 which enjoyed great success and aroused enormous controversy. One of the opponents of Latimer, who crticised the sermons, was Dr Edward Powell, prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral and chaplain to Katherine of Aragon. Powell was sent to the Tower in 1534 as a result of his criticisms of Latimer. In one of the most infamous events of Henry VIII's reign, Powell would be executed for treason, along with Thomas Abell and Richard Featherstone on 30 July 1540, on the same day that Latimer's evangelical associates, Robert Barnes, Thomas Garrad and William Jerome, were burned for heresy.

A somewhat different account of Latimer's conversion, which Foxe did not use, was sent to Foxe by Ralph Morrice, Cranmer's private secretary and a friend of Latimer's (BL, Harley MS 422, fos. 84r-87r).

'Two years' in 1563, corrected to three years in 1570.

This sermon has not survived.

This first 'card' sermon was printed in 1563, dropped from the 1570 and 1576 editions, but was restored in the 1583 edition. The two 'card' sermons printed by Foxe were part of a longer series of sermons 'on the card' which Latimer preached at Cambridge in Advent and Christmas 1529. (Their name derived from Latimer's using the traditional card games played during these holidays as props and themes to his sermons). Interestingly, these two sermons did not appear in any of the compendious editions of Latimer's sermons which were printed by John Day. Just as the Acts and Monuments was intertwined with, and yet distinct from the Letters of the Martyrs, so Foxe's account of Latimer and his writings was intertwined with, but distinct from, Day's editions of Latimer's sermons.

This second of the 'sermons of the card' was printed in the 1563 edition, deleted from the 1570 and 1576 editions and was re-inserted in the 1583 edition, but only in the appendix (1583, pp. 2142-43). In other words, this was only reprinted in the 1583 edition when Foxe and Day were sure that they had enough paper.

Robert Buckenham was the prior of the Dominican convent in Cambridge and a noted champion of orthodoxy. In 1527, he had been licensed to preach against Thomas Bilney, the great evangelical preacher and Latimer's spiritual mentor.

In answering Latimer, Buckenham also used a games theme to his sermon: where Latimer used card metaphors, Buckenham responded with dicing metaphors. Unfortunately Buckenham's sermon has not survived.

This account of Latimer's disputes with various friars in Cambridge was added in the 1570 edition.

There is only one hill in Cambridge: Castle Hill, an artificial mound on a small rise just across the Cam from Magdalen College. In Latimer's day, this would have been open countryside just outside the city.

This story is related by Latimer in Sermons by Hugh Latimer, ed. G. E.Corrie, Parker Society (Cambridge: 1844), p. 452.

For a discussion of Redman and his considerable reputation among contemporaries see Ashley Null, 'John Redman, the Gentle Ambler' in Westminster Abbey Reformed 1540-1640, ed. C. S. Knighton and Richard Mortimer (Aldershot: 2003), pp. 38-74. The exchange of letters between Latimer and Redman is discussed on pp. 42-43.

The original Latin version of this letter is only in the 1563 edition.

Foxe is drawing his knowledge of this episode from a letter sent to him by Ralph Morrice, Latimer's friend and Archbishop Cranmer's secretary (BL, Harley MS 422, fos. 84r-87r).

Latimer was collated to the living of West Kingston in the diocese of Salisburyon 14 January 1531, probably at the behest of Anne Boleyn.

This harassment of Latimer in 1532 was but a stage in a long campaign directed against him by John Stokesley, bishop of London (1530-1539), in defense of the role of good works in the economy of salvation. That Latimer had preached a sermon in the London parish of St. Mary Abchurch, without Stokesley's permission, only increased the bishop's fury. Stokesley pursued Latimer even after Latimer became bishop of Salisbury.

This citation was printed in the 1563 edition, deleted from the 1570 and 1576 editions, and reprinted in the 1583 edition.

I.e., to the bishop with jurisdiction over Latimer; in this case the bishop of Salisbury.

This epistle was printed in the 1563 edition, dropped from the 1570 and 1576 editions, and restored in the 1583 edition.

The original of these articles is found in the register of Bishop John Stokesley of London, Guildhall Library MS 9531/10, fo. 127v. It was copied by Foxe in BL, Harley MS 425, fos. 13r-14r.

A note by Foxe on BL, Harley MS 425, fo. 13v (see C113-T) states that these articles were registered, but not signed by Latimer. But that is not uncommon with articles copied into the register and it does not mean, as Foxe argues, that Latimer did not recant.

This is printed in Sermons by Hugh Latimer, ed. G. E. Corrie, Parker Society (Cambridge: 1844), pp. 294-95.

Hugh Latimer resigned as bishop of Worcester and Nicholas Shaxton resigned as bishop of Salisbury, both on 1 July 1539, in protest at the Act of Six Articles.

During an offensive against evangelicals in 1546, the final year of Henry VIII's reign, Anne Askew, John Lascelles and two others were burned at the stake, and other prominent evangelicals were arrested. Some, notably Nicholas Shaxton and Edward Crome, recanted. Latimer remained in prison until pardoned when Edward VI came to the throne.

Foxe copied the remainder of his life of Latimer, from this passage through to the prayer that God assist Elizabeth, and her subjects, to build and keep up his temple, from Augustime Bernher's dedicatory epistle (to Katherine Brandon, the dowager duchess of Sufolk) to his 27 Sermons Preached by the ryght Reverende father in God and constaunt Martir of Iesus Christ Maister Hugh Latimer (London: 1562), STC 15276, sigs. A2r-C2r.

There are surprisingly few letters of Hugh Latimer and, apart from his note to Joan Wilkinson, none from Mary's reign. Whether it was due to age, illness, or strict confinement, Latimer did not produce the extensive correspondence of other Marian prisoners. As a result, Foxe's section on Latimer's letters consists largely of Henrician writings.

Latimer's letters were first printed in the 1563 edition. In 1570, Foxe addeda disgression on Latimer's adversary Hubberdine, drawn from individual informants. He also added a conclusion to an incomplete letter which Latimer wrote to Henry VIII. As with the life of Latimer, material was deleted from the 1570 edition to save paper: the first letter to Sir Edward Baynton and a 1530 proclamation banning heretical books were removed . In the 1583 edition, the first letter to Sir Edward Baynton was reprinted.

Ralph Morrice, Archbishop Cranmer's secretary, was one of Foxe's most important informants. Interestingly, this letter was not sent to Foxe by Morrice. Morrice first began sending material to Foxe in 1566, while this letter first appeared in the 1563 edition.

For the 'miraculous' blood of Hailes Abbey and for Latimer's involvement in the dissolution of the abbey, see Ethan H. Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation (Cambridge: 2003), pp. 162-96.

This 'disgression' first appeared in the 1570 edition and must have been supplied to Foxe by an informant.

Sir Edward Baynton was vice-chamberlain to Anne Boleyn, Latimer's most important patron.

Foxe is basing this claim on a passage in Latimer's first letter to Sir Edward Baynton.

In the 1563 edition, Foxe stated that this letter was incomplete. The passages from here to the end of the letter were added to the 1570 edition. Did Foxe invent the conclusion to the letter or did he find a complete copy of it?

ECL MS 260, fo. 276v.

This implausible story first appeared in an appendix to the 1563 edition (p. 1734) and was integrated into the section containing Latimer's letters in the 1570 edition.

There were relatively brief accounts of the examinations of Ridley and Latimer, on both 30 September and 1 October, in the Rerum (pp. 705-08). These accounts were clearly based on the commission to examine the two bishops, the articles on which they were interrogated and brief versions of their replies. Foxe obviously had copies of the first two documents in exile, supplemented with what may well have been a copy one of the notarial records of the examinations. Curiously, there was nothing in the Rerum on the condemnation and degradation of Ridley and Latimer and only a terse note of their executions (Rerum, p. 538).

This deficiency was made good in the 1563 edition. The entire accounts of the examinations, condemnations, and executions of the two martyrs were first printed in this edition as well as the accounts of Ridley's degradation and his behaviour on his final night on earth. These accounts, apart from one famous, almost certainly apocryphal, remark first attributed to Latimer in the 1570 edition,were substantially unchanged in subsequent editions.

What were Foxe's sources for this wealth of information? Ridley's examinations may have been written by Ridley himself; if not, they were certainly written by a co-religionist. But Ridley could not have recorded Latimer's examinations as he was not present at them; they were probably recorded by a sympathetic observer, quite possibly at Ridley's instruction. (They do not appear to have been written by Latimer himself; for one thing, the detailed descriptions of Latimer's dress and appearance suggest that the bishop did not describe his own examinations). Ridley's condemnation, degradation, behaviour in his final days and his execution were all recounted to Foxe by George Shipside, Ridley's devoted brother-in-law. (Shipside is specifically mentioned as being present on each of these occasions and the accounts frequently address a concern of his: Ridley's efforts to have leases bestowing property on Shipside's wife honoured by Mary). Augustine Bernher, Latimer's amanuensis, was very probably present at the bishops's execution and he may well have been a source for Foxe as well.

White seems to be implying that a council that would reprieve Latimer was a long time away.

Ridley and Margarert Irish seem to have become much closer since June 1555 when Ridley had written scathingly of her to Grindal.

A bill was a long pole with a curved scythe at the end. When this was used to pull some of the logs off the top of the pile, the remaining logs finally caught fire.

Technically the church could not spill blood and thus could not execute a heretic. It excommunicated the heretic and remanded him or her to the secular authorities who carried out the execution.

Except

From here down to the words 'all such heresy and schism' Foxe is clearly quoting from the commission to examine the bishops.

I.e., everyone was struggling to try to enter the church

A tippet is a clerical garment covering the neck and shoulders. Ridley, in contrast to Latimer, dressed for his execution as befitted his status. Also note Foxe's rewriting of this passage in the 1570 edition; this is a sign of the care and attention which Foxe gave to the account of the martyrdoms of Ridley and Latimer.

St Vincent of Lérins (d. before 450). Ridley is quoting from St Vincent's Communitorium, a guide to discerning true and orthodox doctrine.

Final, definite.

There are three types of papal (personal representatives of the pope): a legatus natus, a nuncio and a legate à latere. A legatus natus is the holder of an office (e.g., the archbishopric of Canterbury before the reformation) which automatically confers legatine status on the officeholder. Today a numcio is a diplomatic representaive from the Holy See, but in the sixteenth century he was a papal official with the authority to collect revenue due to the papacy from a particular province. Legates à latere acted as deputies for the pope on important missions. They have full papal power in much the same way as a viceroy has royal powers. The trials of Ridley and Latimer were conducted under Cardinal Pole's legatine authority.

Latimer's attire is a complete contrast to Ridley's dress. But it is also worth observing that Latimer's costume had the effect of generating sympathy for the former bishop. Far from indicating a mental breakdown, Latimer's dress and demeanour seem to have been shrewd self-presentation.

Ranted, abused.

Mary's government refused to accept the validity of ordinations conducted under the 1550 ordinal, which included the episcopal ordinations of Latimer and Ridley.

In custody.

Foxe's account is verified, and supplemented, here by Hicholas Harpsfield's account of Thomas Cranmer's imprisonment and execution. Cranmer was indeed disputing with de Soto, but before the executions commenced he was taken to the tower of the north gate at Oxford overlooking the site of the executions and witnessed the last moments of Ridley and Latimer (Bishop Cranmer's Recantacyons, ed. Lord Houghton [Philobiblion Society Miscellanies 15, 1877-84], pp. 48-50). Interestingly the woodcut of the execution in the Acts and Monuments depicts Cranmer in the tower watching the execution although this seemingly contradicts what is said in this passage.

Strangled; the reference is to Hebrew dietary law which prohibits the eating of animals that are not killed in the prescribed manner.

The seats were arranged in a square to keep the crowd at a distance from the defendants and the judges.

The period between Henry VIII's break with Rome and Mary's accession.

Foxe altered this passage in the 1570 edition in order to make it absolutely clear that the degradation happened on the day before Ridley was executed.

See 1570, p. 1606; 1576, pp. 1370-71 and 1583, p. 1441.

The reference is to Acts 15: 20 and 29 and 21: 25 in which Paul commanded Gentile Christians to observe Jewish dietary laws.

Gaol delivery was the periodic delivery of all prisoners in a jail for trial. The Oxford assizes met in St Mary's, Oxford. At the time Ridley and Latimer were examined, the Michaelmas court term had just started.

Did not apply to succeeding generations.

The bishops trying Ridley and Latimer: Bishop White of Lincoln, Bishop Brooks of Gloucester and Bishop Holyman of Bristol.

Foxe's glosses opposite this passage are patently disingenous. Foxe made it seem as if Ridley were opposed to the wearing of vestments. Nothing could be further from the truth; as Foxe recounted, Ridley got into an unpleasant dispute with John Hooper when the latter refused to wear vestments at his consecration as bishop (1563, pp. 1050-52; 1570, pp. 1676-77; 1576, pp. 1403 [recte 1430]-1431 and 1583, pp. 1504-05).

A motto or personal slogan.

Separately.

Phillip Melancthon, Loci Communes Rerum Theologicae (Wittenberg, 1521). This was an extremely popular reference book for theologians which went throughnumerous editions.

Separately.

Constrained, forced.

Immediately.

A proclamation was issued on 13 June 1555 ordering that this, and other heretical books, be burned (1563, pp. 1146-47; 1570, pp. 1772-73; 1576, pp. 1513-14 and 1583, p. 1597).[Husghes and Larkin, II, no. 422.]

Repeatedly.

A term for the Host which arose because of the chanting at mass.

A clerical garment worn about the neck and shoulders. In a gloss Foxe tries to maintain that this did not indicate support for the clerical vestments. Actually Ridley did not share Foxe's animus against clerical vestments, despite the martyrologist's best efforts to cast him in that light.

A rebuttal made by reversing the propositions of an earlier argument.

I.e., Despite everything I can do; Ridley is being ironic.

The receiving of the eucharist.

Contempt, disrespect.

I.e., a priest who celebrated mass.

A rase is an archaic unit of measurement.

Reserved.

Advanced protestants such as Ridley celebrated communion on tables erected in the middle of the church instead of altars at the east end. Bishop White is derisively calling the communion table an oyster board.

The medieval theologian Ratramnus of Corbie (d. 868). Ridley credited Ratramnus's De corpore et sanguine Domini with influencing his rejection oftransubstantiation.

A sundial.

Ridley, as bishop of London, had taken down the altars in the churches and replaced them with communion tables.

I.e., Ridley's cap.

Laces.

Repeatedly.

Reflection, deliberation (OED).

I.e., Alice Ridley and her husband, George Shipside. Shipside was present at the degradation of Ridley and at all the final events of Ridley's life. Shipside was almost certainly Foxe's source for Ridley'smartyrdom and the events leading up to it.

A close-fitting body garment or jacket (OED).

Support, buttress.

Of justification by faith only: i.e., protestantism.

This is another mention of the property which Ridley had leased to the Shipsides. This topic will keep surfacing in Foxe's account of Ridley's martyrdom and it is an important indication that Shipside was Foxe's source for this material.

Ridley is asking that he be tied firmly to the stake for fear that might appear to shrink or flee from the fire, thus discrediting his cause by seeming to die without the requisite fortitude of a martyr. (On the propaganda importance of this fortitude see Collinson [1983] and Freeman [1997]).

Edmund Irish; Ridley was being held in Irish's custody.

These were all considered to be heretical sects. The Arians, who flourished in the fourth to the eighth centuries, denied that Christ was equal to God the Father. Manicheanism was a dualistic religion founded by Mani (c. 215 - 275); it flourished throughout the fourth century, especially in North Africa. Eutyches (c. 378 - 454) denied the humanity of Christ; his followers were absorbed by the Monophysites, who flourished in the Byzantine empire until the eighth century.

This is Stephen Gardiner; he was not lord chancellor when the conversation took place.

George Shipside.

Throughout his examination, Latimer is clearly trying to present himself as a feeble old man, being persecuted by the authorities. Latimer was old, but the evidence suggests that he was far from overawed and was able to mount a vigorous defence. It was very different, however, from Ridley's defence, which relied on the bishop's theological knowledge and skill in argument. Latimer relied on his skills in informal agument and self-dramatisation.

Judgement.

Ridley is asking to answer the points as they were raised, so that he will not forget them.

Foxe's printing of this document was a favour to his source for the final events of Ridley's life, George Shipside. There were undoubtedly a number of reasons why Shipside co-operated with Foxe, but one of them was to use the pressure Foxe's text could generate in order to recover the property Ridley had leased to him. As one of Foxe's glosses indicates, this effort was not unsuccessful. BL, Harley 590, fos. 70r-75r is a copy of this petition among Foxe's papers.

Promptly, speedily.

A gown of light cloth, with a pattern worked into the fabric.

Pope Gregory the Great (c. 540 - 604).

This is short for covenance; i.e., an agreement or contract.

Latimer's biographer has argued that the martyr's 'eccentricities of dress and behavior' were symptoms 'of mental and nervous collapse' (Alan G. Chester, Hugh Latimer, Apostle to the English [Philadelphia, 1954], p. 209). However, Latimer's skill in turning the tables on his interrogators suggests that there was nothing wrong with Latimer's mental processes. Suggestively, Latimer wore the same costume at his execution and it had the effect of generating sympathy for theformer bishop.

Led, guided.

Ridley is arguing that the pope (as bishop of Rome) had authority over the churches in Europe but not over the sees of Constantinople, Antioch or Alexandria. As a result, the pope could not claim supremacy over the entire church.

Alice Ridley was Nicholas Ridley's sister who married George Shipside, a member of Bishop Ridley's household. She was expelled from diocesan property which her brother had leased to her.

For the final time, a mention of Ridley's wishes that his leases of diocesan property to the Shipsides be confirmed is pulled into the narrative.

Latimer is quoting John 21: 16-17 in the Vulgate, but the phrase 'rege oves meas,' crucial to Latimer's argument, does not appear in the Bible.

The bishopric of Oxford was created by Henry VIII in 1542 out of territory which was previously part of the vast diocese of Lincoln.

Ridley is saying that after Edmund Bonner, Ridley's predecessor, was deprived of his bishopric, Ridley did not seize any of Bonner's movable property.

A mediator or intercessor.

The word 'inculk' in the first edition was replaced in later editions with 'repeat'.

Obstinate, stubborn, willful (OED).

Use, utility.

This remark was only added in the 1570 edition, although the remainder of this account of Ridley and Latimer's martyrdom appeared in the 1563 edition. Since George Shipside was undoubtedly a source for this account and he would hardly have overlooked such a striking remark, the authenticity of this quotation must be questioned. It is suggestive that the remark echoes Eusebius's account of the martyrdom of Polycarp. (These points, and other examples of spurious remarks being invented for martyrs by their co-religionists, and then printed by Foxe, are in Freeman [1997]).

I.e., had finished.

Cited.

Luke 23: 46 in the Vulgate; these were Christ's last words on the cross and were often uttered by those about to be executed.

Actually a proconsul, not bishops; see the Vita Cypriani.

Twist or distort the meaning of quotations.

After he was deprived of the bishopric of Worcester, Nicholas Heath was confined in Ridley's custody.

Gorse. A prickly shrub; here it was being used as kindling to help ignite the wood about the two martyrs.

This quotation is taken from Cyprian, De exhortatione martyrii, cap. 11.

'Through all'.

A northern form of the word burst (OED); this also suggests that the sources for this story were the Shipsides who, like Ridley, were from Northumbria.

There was too much wood on top of the gorse and it partially smothered the burning gorse which did not burn hotly enough to ignite the wood. Ridley is being scorched by the burning gorse and is calling for his executioners to let the fire spread and finish him off.

The book in question was: James Brooks, A sermon very notable, fruictefull, and godlie, made at Paul's Cross 1553 (London, 1554), STC 3839, sigs. B4r-B5r. Latimer has shrewdly embarassed his judges by citing the work of one of them in his arguments and getting the other judge to admit his unfamiliarity with the book.

This word was added in the 1570 edition, undoubtedly to make it clear that it was Latimer, not Cyprian, who asked the ensuing questions.

In the tying or attaching of the church to specific places.

This is a slight misquotation of Luke 6: 25: 'Vae vobis qui ridetis nunc, quia lugebitis et flebitis'.

Obstinate, stubborn.

In the 1563 edition, Foxe states that 'one master Warner' was the warden who denounced Ridley. This would have been John Warner, the warden of All Souls. But Warner was not only a powerful figure in Elizabeth's reign - he became dean of Winchester - he was also considered to be a staunch protestant and had, indeed, been deprived of his position at All Souls under Mary. In later editions Foxe simply says that the warden's name was uncertain.

Shipside, with the best of intentions but calamitous results, heaped more wood on the fire which made the gorse burn hotter but which further impeded the fire from igniting the wood. Ridley was burned severely, but not fatally, below the waist while the upper part of his body (and the bags of gunpowder around his neck) were untouched.

Latimer is saying that he has been a long time in prison. Latimer used this same image in one of his prison 'conferences' with Ridley.

Reserved.

Acquiesence, satisfaction.

Latimer is protesting that the conditions in which he and Ridley have to debate makes the contest grossly unequal.

The word 'sacrifice' was added in the 1570 edition to make Latimer's meaning clear.

Treatises.

Aaron, the brother of Moses, was considered to be the protype of the Jewish priests (e.g., see Hebrews 5:4 and 7:11). In this context, the allusion is derogatory; Ridley is comparing the catholic priests to Jewish priests in their devotion to ceremonial and ritual.

John Rogers and John Bradford, both martyrs had been prebends of St Paul's, while Edmund Grindal, who had been precentor of St Paul's, was in exile.

Ridley is quoting from the litany of the Book of Common Prayer.

In 1559, almost immediately after his return from exile, Foxe published one of the 'farewell' letters of Nicholas Ridley. (Nicholas Ridley, A frendly farewell which master doctor Ridley did write unto all his lovers and frendes in God, a little before that he suffered, ed. John Foxe [London, 1559], STC 21051). It was not reprinted in the first edition of the Acts and Monuments. A portion of this letter was reprinted in Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 80-103). This portion was reprinted in the 1570 edition and the remainder of the original letter was reprinted as well (misleadingly headed 'another farewell'). And a second (or third) farewell letter was also added. This is one of the very few letters written by one of the Marian martyrs which eluded the diligent researches of Bull and Foxe. It was first printed, and anonymously edited, as A pituous lamentation of the miserable estate of the church of Christ in Englande. (London, 1556), STC 21052.

'A friend of Caesar', i.e., one obedient to the authorities.

Ridley is complaining that his personal property had been illegally confiscated and never returned to him.

Ridley is referring to the taking down of communion tables under Mary and the restoration of the mass, in which the clergy alone drank the communion wine.

This letter is reprinted from sigs. A2r-E3v of Ridley's Frendly farewell. ECL 260, fos. 98r-108r is an incomplete copy of this letter.

Hinderances, obstacles.

As bishop of London, Ridley had taken down the altars at the east end of the church where the mass was celebrated and replaced them with communion tables erected in the chancel; Ridley is deploring the fact that Mary's government reversed the process.

Endowed.

I.e., requited.

I.e., innnocent.

Ridley is referring to the re-enactment of De heretico comburendo, the act against heresy, in January 1555.

The leading sheep of a flock on whose neck a bell is hung [OED].

St Athanasius (c. 296-373) was the de facto leader of the trinitarian theologians at the Council of Nicea. He was repeatedly deposed of his offices and driven into exile by Arian rulers.

I.e., the Host.

I.e., the Host.

Announced.

The Arians, who flourished from the fourth through the eighth centuries, denied that Christ was equal in substance and nature to God the Father. Ridley would have regarded this belief as heretical.

A harlot or prostitute.

Ridley is referring to the restoration of the mass under Mary, in which the eucharist was celebrated in one kind - i.e., the laity was fed the bread (or wafers) but the wine was reserved for the clergy. Under Edward VI, communion had been celebrated in two kinds - i.e., the laity partook of both bread and wine.

Ridley was to have been bishop of Durham but Edward VI's death prevented this.

Blandina was a Christian martyr executed in Lyons in 177. Eusebius gave a vivid description of her constancy during her protracted martyrdom (HE V.1. 3-63).

I.e., their mayoral years. Sir Rowland Hill was lord mayor of London 1549 - 1550 and Sir George Barnes was lord mayor of London 1552 - 1553.

In Edward VI's reign, this verse (the second commandment) was painted on the walls of most churches.

Northumbrians; Ridley was born and raised in Northumbria. In the sixteenth-century the the words 'county' and 'country' were synonyms.

'Let us to jeopard', i.e., prevent us from risking.

Dobb's hospitals were established on the sites of former monastaries; Ridley is saying that the charitable use of these buildings made them truly religious houses for the first time.

I.e., regarded.

The regions on the borders of England and Scotland.

Burdened.

Sir Richard Dobbs, Lord Mayor of London from 1551 - 1552, helped found Christ's Hospital, St Bartholomew's Hospital, the hospital of Bethlehem (later known as Bedlam) and the workhouse at Bridewell. All of this took place while Ridley was bishop of London.

At one blow (OED).

Deed.

Note that Foxe changed this passage in the 1583 edition, deleting the reference to his planned appendix of the writings of the martyrs. By this time, the planned appendix had been abandoned.

Barnes succeeded Dobbs as mayor and continued work on his charitable foundations.

A drab is a harlot or prostitute. Ridley is referring to the whore of Babylon (see Revelation 17 and 18). In common with most sixteenth-century protestants, Ridley associated the whore with the papacy.

Insult or revile Ridley because he was executed as a criminal.

I.e., complete.

Wealth, possessions.

Welfare, benefit.

Bridewell was originally a royal palace; Edward VI gave it to the city of London and it was transformed into a workhouse.

And on account of

Do you believe

The verses refer to Pope Alexander VI and are taken from the Italian poet and satirist Baptista Mantuanus.

Spiritual

Ridley is saying that the London authorities are complicit in the Marian persecution and will be held accountable on the Day of Judgement.

A trivial matter.

Acknowledge, admit.

Intelligent, knowledgeable.

Nimrod, a 'mighty hunter,' according to Genesis 10:9.

Insult, abuse.

A multitude.

Groups of prayers, sold in sets of thirty, recited for the dead.

Advantages, profits.

Moderate, quiet, restrain (OED).

Northumbria.

I believe.

Literally, 'as many as, as often as', this was a clause removing certain limitations in indulgences.

Since

Brothels.

Actually the person whom Ridley will not name is himself. Apparently Cranmer and Reidley both earned the duke of Northumberland's displeasure by trying to prevent the duke of Somerset's execution (see Diarmaid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer [New Haven and London, 1996], pp. 497-98).

Ploughed fields.

'From punishment and guilt'; this was the formula used in indulgences.

Sore, irritated.

I believe; I trust.

This was a separate letter first printed in Nicholas Ridley, A frendly farewellwhich master doctor Ridley did write unto all his true lovers and frendes in God, a little before that he suiffered, ed., John Foxe, (London, 1559), STC 21051, sigs. E4r-F7v. This letter was not reprinted in Letters of the Martyrs and was first reprinted in the 1570 edition.

Charitable deeds.

This is an interesting insight into Ridley's conversion to evangelical beliefs; Ridley was vicar from Herne from 1538 - 1549, but he was present in the living only until 1540, when he became master of Pembroke College.

Disadvantage.

The word 'sely' meaning innocent or simple was replaced in the 1570 edition with the word 'little' in the 1583 edition.

I.e., the chief see of an ecclesiastical province.

Advantages, profit.

The following paragraph is an attack on Nicodemism: i.e., the belief that a person could legitimately conceal their true religious convictions and outwardly conform with the authorities. In the Marian context, this meant attending mass and here Ridley, like John Bradford, John Philpot, John Careless and other martyrs, vehemently denounces such behaviour. For the a general discussion of this issue in its Marian context see Andrew Pettegree, 'Nicodemism and the English Reformation' in Marian Protestantism: Six Studies (Aldershot, 1996), pp. 86-117.

Foxe omitted a section from Ridley's letter, in which the bishop apologized to Soham (a Cambridgeshire parish of which he was vicar from 1547 - 1552), for never having resided in the parish (cf. Nicholas Ridley, A friendly farewell, which master doctor Ridley did write unto all his lovers and true lovers and frendes in God, a little before he suffered, ed. John Foxe [London, 1559], STC 21051, sig. C2r-v with ECL MS 260, fos. 98r-108r).

Hinder

A gallery at the top of the screen separating the nave from the choir. A cross (the rood) was placed on the gallery and surrounded by candles.

Henry created a short-lived diocese of Westminster, which was subsequently combined with the diocese of London. Fromm 1550 - 1553 Ridley was simultaneously bishop of London and of Westminster.

This letter is one of the very documents written by one of the Marian martyrs which eluded the researches of Foxe and Bull. It was first printed in A pituous lamentation of the miserable estate of the church of Christ in Englande. (London, 1566), STC 21052. It was then reprinted in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments.

I.e., be arrested.

Dighel is only mentioned in the 1563 edition. Was his omission in subsequent editions due to an accident in the print shop or did Foxe come to doubt his information on Dighel?

This confession of faith, issued at the Diet of Piotrków in 1555, only appears in the 1563 edition. How Foxe got this document is unknown, but he may have obtained it directly or indirectly from Jan Laski, a leading Polish protestant, who resided in England from 1548 - 1553 and headed the Stranger's Church (i.e., a church for non-English people) in London. He and Foxe were also inFrankfurt in 1555. Laski returned to Poland in 1556 and took a leading part in the progress of the reformation there.

Piotrków, a city in central Poland. Church synods and national diets were traditionally convened there.

In 1555, powerful protestant nobles succeeded in getting the diet assembled at Piotrków to agree to the confession of faith which Foxe prints below and to a settlement which would have placed protestantism on a basis of full equality with catholicism, suspended episcopal jurisdiction and permitted priests to marry. Unsurprisingly, neither Pope Paul IV nor the Polish bishops accepted this settlement. (The Cambridge History of Poland to 1696, eds. W. F. Reddaway, J. H. Penson, O. Halecki and R. Dyboski [Cambridge, 1950], pp. 336-45).

The account of Gardiner's character and career first appeared in the 1563 edition along with Ridley's treatise on the theological differences between Gardiner and other catholics. In the 1570 edition, Foxe expanded this account with a diatribe of his own on Gardiner's inconstancy. He also moved Gardiner's sermon from Book IX, where it had been placed in the 1563 edition, to here. He also added quotations from Gardiner's works which appeared to attack catholic doctrines, and William Turner's attack on Gardiner. Enzinas?s letter describing Gardiner's hostile reception at Louvain was also moved from Book IX, where it had been printed, to this section of the book. There was no changemade to this material in 1576, but in 1583, material was added to show Henry VIII's distrust of Gardiner. Another account of Stephen Gardiner's death was also added to this edition.

I.e., in testimony at Gardiner's trial in 1550; see 1563, pp. 814-18.

This quotation is taken from Richard Smith, A confutation of a certain booke (Paris: 1550), STC 22819.

Readiness, energy.

Foxe persistantly, and unfairly, claimed that Gardiner was largely responsible for the imprisonment of Elizabeth and that the bishop sought to have her killed. For a discussion of this see Thomas S. Freeman, 'Providence and Prescription: The Account of Elizabeth in Foxe's "Book of Martyrs"' in Susan Doran and Thomas S. Freeman (eds.), The Myth of Elizabeth, (Basingstoke, 2003), pp. 30-31.

This is taken from Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica.

Willingness to learn.

In classical mythology Daedalus was a brilliant inventor and engineer.

William Peryn, Three godlye and notable sermons of the Sacramente (London: 1546), STC 19785.5.

Of a proud spirit.

I.e., plot.

Proud, arrogant, haughty (OED).

Gunpowder.

I.e., the second part of William Turner, The rescuinge of the romish fox.

Stephen Gardiner, De vera obedientia (London, 1535), STC 11584. This work argued that the English king, and not the pope, was the legitimate head of the English church. It was frequently cited by protestants as proof of Gardiner's opportunism and lack of principle.

See 1570, p. 1326; 1576, p. 1996 and 1583, p. 2166.

William Turner, The rescuynge of the romish fox other wyse called theexamination of the hunter (London: 1545), STC 24355. Foxe prints a digest of statements attributed to Gardiner from throughout the second part of this book.

Foxe is indicating that he obtained this story from an oral source, whom he later identifies as one Mrs Munday. This story, introduced in the 1583 edition, was, as contemporaries observed, demonstrably untrue - the third duke of Norfolk had been dead for months before Stephen Gardiner died.

Edward Seymour, duke of Somerset, who was Lord Protector during the first part of Edward VI's reign.

Gardiner's answers to the articles the privy council charged against him in 1550 are printed in 1563, pp. 755-68; 1570, pp. 1524-32; 1576, pp. 1300-06 and 1583, pp. 1550-06.

I.e., Thomas Howard, the third duke of Norfolk (d. 1555).

I.e., the 1563 edition.

See 1563, pp. 1384-86; 1570, pp. 1956-59; 1576, pp. 1683-86 and 1583, pp. .

This passage first appeared in the 1570 edition; Edmund Bonner died that same year.

In the 1563 edition, this letter was printed in Book IX (pp. 802-03) and it was moved to Book XI in the 1570 edition. For a complete discussion of this letter see Ignacio J. Garcia Pinilla and Jonathan L. Nelson, 'Una carta de Franciso de Enzinas (Dryander) en el martyrologio de John Foxe', Bibliothéque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 61 (1999), pp. 515-28.

Stubborn, obstinate.

In the 1563 edition this sermon is printed on pp. 771-76; it was moved to this section in Book 11 in the 1570 edition.

Foxe derived this colourful, if spurious, piece of gossip from John Ponet, A shorte treatise of politike power (Strasburg, 1556), STC 20178, sig. I4r. Notice thatFoxe does not say that this information is true, he merely repeats it by saying that he will not repeat it.

I.e., in the first edition (see 1563, pp. 804-61).

Unscrupulous butchers sometimes increased the apparent size of their wares by inflating the entrails.

Foxe added this section of passages culled either from De vera obedientia or testimony given at Stephen Gardiner's trial in 1550 in the 1563 edition. Fascinatingly he retained this section even though, due to a shortage of paper for the 1570 edition, he had been compelled to eliminate the depositions in Gardiner's trial which had been printed in the first edition (on pp. 804-61). This section allowed him to present some particularly embarrassing evidence from the depositions. The purpose of this section was to depict Gardiner as an opportunist without real religious convictions by presenting passages where he attacked, or was alleged to have attacked, catholic beliefs and practices. Yet the result was that in all editions of the Acts and Monuments from 1570 onwards, the reader was referred back to the first edition for the actual quotations - even in the 1684 edition, printed over 120 years later.

I.e., Anne Boleyn.

I.e., in 1563, p. 802.

Foxe's account is confused here. Gardiner was sent on two missions to Clement VII, one in 1528 and one in 1529, as part of Henry VIII's efforts to secure a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. But Gardiner was not sent on an embassy to Charles V until 1540, years after Anne Boleyn was dead, and the purpose of this embassy had nothing to do with advancing the protestant cause.

I.e., the 1563 edition. Foxe printed the depositions from Gardiner's trial in the first edition (pp. 804-61) and, because of their length, he never reprinted them. But he was unwilling to give up the opportunity to use this testimony against Gardiner and, in later editions, he simply referred the reader back to the relevant pages of the first edition.

The cross-references, here and following, are to the pages in the 1563 edition where this material occurs.

Ambitious rivalry (OED).

John Elder, The copie of a Letter sent to Scotlande (London: 1555), STC7552.

See Glyn Redworth, In Defence of the Church Catholic: The Life of StephenGardiner (Oxford: 1990), pp. 83-84 on Gardiner's animosity towards Bonner at this point in their lives.

John Elder, The copie of a Letter sent to Scotlande (London: 1555), STC 7552, sig. F3r-v. According to Elder, the other two people with unsullied consciences were Queen Mary and Cardinal Pole.

I.e., the Spanish theologian Martin Perez de Ayala.

This attack on Gardiner was written by Ridley during Mary's reign, probably in 1554 or 1555. It was never printed and Foxe must have printed it from a manuscript copy. In this treatise Ridley sought to demonstrate that the catholics disagreed amongst each other on key theological points and, in particular, that Stephen Gardiner disagreed with fellow catholics. Generally, Ridley contrasted the views of Richard Smith with Gardiner, although he also observed disagreements between Gardiner and William Peryn, Thomas Aquinas and Peter Lombard.

Note that a passage which appeared here in the 1563 edition, conceding that Gardiner was 'in tong and utterance somewhat perchaunce praiseworthy' was dropped in later editions. Because it is so grudging, this is an impressive testimony to Gardiner's eloquence.

Wilhelmus Lindanus (1525-1588), catholic theologian, inquisitor and bishop of Roermund and Ghent.

Sir Thomas Smith, lecturer in Greek, and John Cheke had, since themid-1530s, been teaching Greek with an 'ancient' pronunciation (i.e., the pronunciation putatively used in ancient Greece rather than the modern Greek pronunciation). This 'ancient' pronunciation was championed by many humanists, notably Erasmus, but Gardiner favoured the modern pronunciation which had been traditionally taught in universities. In his capacity as chancellor of Cambridge, Gardiner banned the 'ancient' pronunciation from being taught at the University. Cheke and Smith wrote Latin treatises attacking Gardiner's position and Gardiner defended his position in lengthy Latin letters. (See J. A. Muller, Stephen Gardiner and the Tudor Reaction [London: 1926], pp. 121-23.

The reliability of Paget's testimony on this point has been questioned by J. A. Muller, Stephen Gardiner and the Tudor Reaction (London: 1926) pp. 198-200and Glyn Redworth, In Defence of the Church Catholic: The Life of Stephen Gardiner (Oxford: 1990), pp. 245-47.

Albertus Pighius (1490? - 1542), Dutch catholic theologian and polemicist.

The episode which Foxe describes at length is taken from testimony at Gardiner's trial in 1550 (see 1563, pp. 816-18) and analyzed in Glyn Redworth, In Defence of the Church Catholic: The Life of Stephen Gardiner (Oxford: 1990), pp. 152-55.

I.e., Regensburg.

This quotation is taken from Stephen Gardiner, An explication and assertion of the true catholique faith (Rouen: 1551), STC 11592.

I.e., Cardinal Contarini, the papal legate.

Stephen Gardiner, An explication and assertion of the true catholique faith(Rouen: 1551), STC 11592.

'Most reverend'.

This is taken from Stephen Gardiner, A detection of the devils sophistrie (London: 1546), STC 11591.

Impartial.

These quotations are taken from Richard Smith, A confutation of a certain booke (Paris: 1550?), STC 22819 and Marcus Antonius [Stephen Gardiner], Confutatio Cavillationem (Paris: 1552).

I.e., Henry VIII

This quotation is taken from Marcus Antonius [Stephen Gardiner], Confutation Cavillationem (Paris: 1552).

There is a note in the Rerum that Webb, Roper and George 'Pictor' wereburned at Canterbury in October 1555 (Rerum, p. 538). Foxe printed the account of the trial in the 1563 edition; this was clearly derived from oral sources, not from official records. In the 1570 edition, Foxe added the story of Roper leaping on his way to the stake; this was also derived from oral sources. There were no further changes to this account in the 1576 and 1583 editions.

Place, position.

There is a note in the Rerum that William Wiseman, at an unspecified date,died in Lollards' Tower and was buried in the fields (Rerum, p. 538). Foxe printed his complete account of Wiseman's death, derived from oral sources, in the 1563 edition. It was reprinted, without change, in all subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments.

Tobit, the eponymous hero of the apocryphal Old Testament book, was conspicuously zealous in good works such as almsgiving and burying the dead.

There is a note in the Rerum that one Gore died in prison in Colchester(Rerum, p. 538). A somewhat expanded account, giving the date of Gore's death as 7 December 1555, was added in the 1563 edition. It was unchanged in subsequent editions of the Acts and Monuments.

On 1 August 1556, Grindal sent Foxe a letter in which he stated that his friends in Strasburg had collected some material on Grindal and expected to collect more (Remains of Edmund Grindal, ed. William Nicholson [Parker Society, 1843], p. 223). While in exile, Foxe translated Philpot's examinations into Latin and printed them as a separate work. (No copy of this work survives, but see Remains of Edmund Grindal, ed. William Nicholson [Parker Society, 1843], p. 223 and John Strype, Memorials of Thomas Cranmer, 2vols. [Oxford, 1840], II, pp. 515-16). He also printed his Latin translation of Philpot's examinations in the Rerum (pp. 543-631). There was also a note in the Rerum giving a sketch of Philpot's life (p. 631). These materials were reprinted in the 1563 edition. In this edition, Foxe also added two letters of Philpot's which Bonner had intercepted (Foxe must have obtained these from Bonner's records) and a petition which Philpot had sent to the queen. He also added an account of Philpot's condemnation and martyrdom, apparently based on eyewitness accounts. Foxe also added a prayer which Philpot said at the stake. This account was substantially unchanged in future editions.

The preceeding clause was added by Foxe (parroting the Book of Common Prayer); it is not found in John Philpot, The examinacion of that constaunt martir of Christ, J. Philpot (Emden: 1556?), STC 19892, fo. 59r.

If Bonner was being paranoid in thinking that the knife was intended to be used in killing him, Philpot was being disingenuous in suggesting that the knife was to be used for eating.

A false priest. Balaam was a false prophet in the Old Testament; see Numbers 22-24.

Churchmen were forbidden to shed blood. Technically, after the clerics had sentenced a heretic to death, he or she was remanded to the secular authorities for execution.

Philpot is so weighed down with chains, that a gaoler has to carry him to his cell.

Ireneaus (130? - 200?) opposed the Gnostics and was the author of the first patristic work against heresy which has survived.

John Fisher, Confutation Assertionis Luthernae (Antwerp: 1523).

Fertile, inventive.

The preceeding six words are another indication that Philpot wrote these examinations in instalments.

Disrespect.

I.e., a common-place book.

A copy of this prayer survies in Foxe's papers as ECL 261, fos. 17v-18v. In this manuscript this prayer is attributed to John Bradford.

Rather.

Deluded, given to fantasy.

The preceding biographical details were printed in the Rerum (p. 631). Most of them can be gleaned from Philpot's examinations.

John Dee's name was removed in the 1576 edition; see Julian Roberts, 'Bibliographical Aspects of John Foxe' in David Loades (ed.), John Foxe and the English Reformation (Aldershot: 1997), pp. 36-37 and 49.

24 November 1555.

Philpot is taking a dig at Bonner; although imprisoned and obviously marked for death, Cranmer had not been deprived and was still legally archbishop of Canterbury.

Twist.

Justinian I (483-565) compiled a law code in 529, which became one of the essential components of the Corpus Iuris Civilis and a basis for canon law. Bonner is quoting from Title 1, Book 1 of the code which forbids clergy and laity from publicly disputing Christian doctrine outside a synod.

Insulting, abusive.

A living or benefice to which John Ponet as bishop of Winchester had the right of appointment.

This examination is taking place nearly two weeks after the examination by various nobles. In this examination, Bonner seems to be starting to proceed formally against Philpot but then gets bogged down in argument. Whether this was a calculated attempt to intimidate Philpot or Bonner changed his mind is difficult to say, but a week of informal examinations, in which efforts are made to convince to recant, followed.

Stephen Gardiner, who had died on 12 November 1555.

I.e., glared at me.

Labour, work.

The purpose of the council of Florence (1438 - 1445) was to affect a re-union between the Greek and Latin churches. This re-union was theoretically achieved but the settlement was rejected by both the laity and clergy of the Greek church.

This is hardly an unbiased or accurate description of Ridley's behavior at his trial, but it is interesting to have a catholic perspective on it.

A scribe from the consistory court of the province of Canterbury.

Windowless.

Struck dumb, speechless.

30 November 1555.

Wishes to.

Philpot is counting all non-Roman catholic Christians, not only protestants, as followers of the Gospel.

This is the first indication of a tendency that will become progressively noticeable during Philpot's examinations; the impatience of the Marian authorities with the length of time Bonner was spending in trying to get Philpot to recant.

This suspicion was justified; there is no doubt that John Philpot was the author of The trew report of the disputacyon had in the convocacyon hows at London (Emden: 1554), STC 19890. Significantly, Philpot does not actually deny his authorship of the work.

I.e., to supply them with food clothing and other necessities.

Narrow passages.

Very courteously.

Narrowly, strictly.

This note reveals two things: that Philpot wrote his examinations at the request of another protestant (or protestants) and that he wrote them in sections which were then smuggled out of prison.

This is the first of Philpot's examinations in which his interrogators are laymen not clerics. This examination is still relatively informal, and the goal is still Philpot's recantation, rather than his condemnation. But the presence of these peers is a significant indication of the importance of Philpot's case.

The bishop who had jurisdiction over an accused heretic because the accused resided in his diocese. In Philpot's case, this was Stephen Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester.

Advantages, profits.

Pencase.

Compelled.

This comment is revealing of Foxe's preference for accounts by the martyrs over official records and the reasons for this: the terse and formulaic nature of official records and their hostility to the defendants.

I believe.

Wish.

Transcribed.

Officially, formally.

Toilet.

See Acts 8; 9-24.

The two preceding sentences are Foxe's and are not of from an official record or an oral source.

Apparently Philpot, who was arrested following the publication of his account of the debate in convocation in October 1553, was examined by royal commissioners, as well as by Gardiner, before being sent to Bonner.

Foxe's marginal note, that heretics in the early church were exiled, has nothing to do with Philpot's argument; it is a reflection of Foxe's deep-seated opposition to using the death penalty against heretics. (See the biography of Foxe which introduces this edition).

A tower at the northwest corner of St Paul's cathedral. Accused heretics were occasionally held here because it was a secure place convenient to both the bishop of London and the consistory court of St Paul's.

A piece of paper.

One of these was a letter from Bartlett Green to Philpot and another was a letter from Lady Fane to Philpot. Bonner would piece these letters together and produce them at Philpot's trial.

Arius (250? - 336?) denied that Christ was equal in nature and substance to God the Father.

Bonner is referring to the debate in convocation in October 1553, which was held at St Paul's.

Once again, Philpot is stating that Bonner has no jurisdiction to try him.

Story was quite correct to worry about heresy sweeping through the King's Bench prison; the fact that many Marian protestants were confined there, combined with the protestant sympathies of the marshal of the King's Bench, Sir William Fitzwilliam, ensured that the prison was a centre of protestant activity.

By the authority of Bonner as the bishop of the diocese in which Philpot resided; Philpot is protesting that Bonner is not his ordinary.

Strategy, device, expedient.

John Philpot, An Apologie of Iohan Philpot written for spitting upon anArian; this was printed along with STC 19892.

The preceding sentence is Foxe's insertion.

Officially, in his capacity as bishop.

Foxe appears to have altered this passage. The original printed version of Philpot's examinations reads 'I do confesse the sacrament bothe to be a signe and the thing it selfe' (John Philpot, The examinacion of that constaunt martir of Christ, J. Philpot [Emden: 1556?], STC 19892, fo. 45v). Philpot's wording could be read as an admission of the Real Presence.

I do not care.

The privilege of sanctuary was of two types: that belonging to consecrated ground and that belonging to a franchise and liberty to which the king had granted exemption from certain of his jurisdictional rights. Philpot is referring to the latter type of sanctuary.

Stricter, harsher, more rigorous.

Almost completely tore.

Perverse, refractory, ungovernable (OED).

Actually the reverse was true; Bonner was desperately seeking Philpot's recantation, while the privy council was pressuring Bonner to conclude the matter as swiftly as possible, if necessary with Philpot's condemnation.

Sir William Fitzwilliam, the marshal of the King's Bench.

25 November 1555.

Philpot described this incident.

This last sentence is an indication that Foxe is drawing on an eyewitness account as well official records.

Bonner had already cited this law in Philpot's fourth examination.

As long as.