her conteined, amy ioyfully come from her in to this worlde, and receyue the blessed Sacramentes of Baptisme and Confirmation, enioying therwith dayly encrease of all princely and gratious giftes, bothe of body and soule, but that also she (the mother) through thy speciall grace and mercy, may in tyme of her trauayll auoyde all excessiue dolour and payne, & abide perfite and sure from al perill and daunger of death, with longe and prosperous lyfe, through Christ our Lorde. Amen.

A lamentable example of crueltie shewed vpon Iohn Bolton, a mā of Reading, imprysoned for the true testimonie of a Christian conscience.  

Commentary     Close

In the 1563 edition (only), Foxe printed the account of the ordeals of John Bolton. Clearly, Foxe"s source for the story, as Foxe himself states, was Bolton, although Bolton's account was apparently supported by 'sufficient and credible testimonies, as well of the inhabitours of the sayd towne of Reading, whose letters at this present, for the certification therof we have to shewe' (1563, p. 1018). This is a good example of Foxe's efforts to secure testimony for an episode he knew might be controversial. However, for neither the first nor the last time, the ground of apparently solid testimony gave way beneath Foxe's feet. Bolton's story became intertwined with a heated dispute between Thackham, a resident of Reading who claimed to have aided Julins Palmer and Elizabeth Fane, and his critics who denounced him as a self-serving liar (see J. G. Nichols (ed.), Narratives of the Days of the Reformation, Original Series 77 (London, 1859), pp. 85-98). In the ensuing controversy, several different accounts of Bolton's ordeal were told, some of which suggested that Bolton had recanted to save his skin (Strype, EM III, 2, pp. 427-30). If this were not enough, Bolton also emerged in 1567 as a prominent member of the separatist group meeting in Plumber's Hall in London (Patrick Collinson, The Elizabethan Puritan Movement (London, 1967), p. 90). For these reasons, all mention of Bolton was eradicated from future editions of Foxe's book.

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THe Lent followyng the coronation of Quene Mary, whiche Lent was in An. 1554. there was a wryting sette, vpon the church dore at Reading in Barkeshere, conteining matter against the Masse: but thautor therof then and a long tyme after was vnknowen, although now certaynly knowen to be in dede one Iohn Moyer, who afterward confessed the fact, recanted, and is nowe made minister. Great inquisitiō was in euery place thereaboutes: but nothyng as I sayde, could be founde certainly: Amongest many others, one Iohn Bolton was suspected, and beyng asked his mynde of the Masse, answered that he toke it to be against the worde of God, and contumelious to Christe. Vpon the which wordes, he was by the Mayer (whose name was Boyer, and by science a Tanner) with other officers, cōmitted to the Gaole about. iii. weakes before Easter, where beynge kepte by the space of a weke or fortnighte, in the vnder pryson or dungeon, afterwardes was had vp to a chāber of the Gaolors (whose name was Welche) hauinge his bed & other necessaries, to helpe him selfe withal, and so continued vntill Gardiner the Bishop of Winchester, came through the towne, with kyng Phylippe and Quene Mary, streight vpon their mariage at Wynchester.

Then the sayde Byshop, hearing of the said Iohn Bolton, sent for him, to talke with him, perswading him what he could, to relent from the truthe. But he stode stedfast, and most boldly reproued the sayde byshop to his face, and replied moste earnestly against his perswasiōs, wherby the byshop being greatly moued, commaunded he should be had to pryson againe, & there to be kept with bread and water, and no thing els. Charging further, that whosoeuer came to him, should in anywyse immediatly be set by him. Well Iohn Bolton therevpon was caried again to the Gaole, and put into þ^e Dungeon, or vnderpryson, where he was before, whiche is vnder the grounde about xii.

foote depe, compassed about with moste thicke walles, without any lyght, sauing that onely whiche cometh downe at the entrie. But (whiche is the best) bothe aboue the head, and vnder foote, it is bourded. And (alas) to no purpose, poore Iohn Bolton might saye: for he was not once suffered to walk any part therin but moste cruelly stocked, and cheyned, as hereafter followeth.

In the sayd Dungeon is a maruelouse euill sent, or odour, and the whole proportion most terrible to see. In the midst thereof be a huge payer of stockes, of a great height, wherein they did put both his handes and his feete. On the other side of the Stockes, were his legges tied with a great chayne of Iron, being surely fastned to a great mighty block vnmoueable. And hanging on this sorte, by the handes and feete, some times a daie and a night together, his body not touching any part of the groūde, the Gaolour often woulde ease hym, and lese his handes sometimes at night, but his feete he would kepe in the stockes styll, whole three or foure daies together.

And being in this woful, and moste miserable case, the Gaolour and his familie, woulde wyckedly in the night season oftentymes (to trouble the good poore man) cast squibbes of fier into the Dungeon, whereby his emptye and careful head might be troubled with vayn and fond phantasies, whiche came to passe as hereafter shalbe shewed.

Nowe his honest good neighbours hearyng of his perplexitie, were not a litle carefull for hym, and sent their beneuolence liberally to hym: as wholsome meates and drinkes to comfort his weake body, whiche alwayes was eyther eaten vp, by the Gaolour & his housholde, or els brought to the grate of the pryson, and there geuen to dogges before his face: so cruell and vnmercifull was this wicked Gaolour, whereby the sayde poore Iohn Boulton was inforced (alas the pitie) to eate his owne excrementes for very hunger, some thinketh for the space of sixe dayes, some thynketh more, some lesse: but although howe long, the time is vncertaine, yet that he did it, is moste true.

Thus was he in the lower pryson iust xii. monethes and x. wekes, hauing sometymes his hand and feete in the stockes, somtimes his feete onely, sometimes neither, sometimes hauing checkes, tauntes, skorninges, threateninges, and mockinges, otherwhyles hauing meate, otherwhiles his owne ordure, vntil at the last, with terrible tormentes, solytarie sighinges, lacke of lybertie, meate, drynke, with suche lyke, and also eating that whiche nature moste abhorreth, and that neuer was heard of before in any Tyrauntes daies, beganne, I saye at the last, to be ful of rauinges & straūge phantasies, in suche sorte, that men toke hym,