agreued withall, they should gently be heard, and their reasonable peticions graunted, and that their Articles should be presentend to the kynge, that by hys hyghnes authoritie, and wisedome of hys Counsayll, al thynges should be brought to good ordre and conclusion: and with this ordre euery man quietly departed, and those which before were bent as hote as fyre, to fyght, beyng letted thereof by God, went now peaceably to their houses, and were as colde as water. A domino factum est istud.

MarginaliaPopishe priestes rebelling against the kyng.In the tyme of this ruffle in Yorkeshyre, and the kyng lying the same tyme at Windsore, there was a Butcher dwellyng within v. myles of the sayd towne of Wyndsore, whiche caused a Priest to preach, that all they that tooke part with þ^e Yorkshyre men, whō he called Gods people, did fight in Gods quarell: for þ^e which both he and the priest were apprehended, & executed.

Diuers other Priestes also, with other, about the same tyme, committing in lyke sorte treason agaynst the kyng, suffered the lyke execution. Such a busines had the kyng then to ridde the realme from the seruitude of the Romish yokes.

Tantæ molis erat Romanam euertere Sedem.

But Gods hand dyd still worke with all, in vpholdyng hys Gospell and troden truth, agaynst all seditious slurres, commotions, rebellions, and what soeuer was to the contrary, as both by these storyes afore passed, and by such also as hereafter followe, may notoriouslye appeare.

Marginalia1537.The yeare next after this, whiche was of the Lord. 1537. after that great execution had ben done vpō certeine rebellious Priests and a few other lay men, with certeine noble persons also and Gentlemen, amongest whom was the Lord Darcy, the Lord Hussy, Syr Robert Constable, Syr Thomas Percy, Syr Fraunces Bygot, Syr Steuen Hamelton, Syr Iohn Bulmer, and his wife, Williā Lomley, Nicolas Tempest, with the Abbottes of Ierney, & of Ryuers &c. MarginaliaPrince Edward borne.in the moneth of October, þ^e same yeare folowyng, was borne Prince Edward. MarginaliaQueene Iane dyed in childbed.Shortly after whose byrth, Queene Iane hys mother, the second day after, dyed in childbed, and left the kyng agayne a wydower, which so continued the space of ij. yeares together. Vppon the death of which Queene Iane, & vpon the byrth of Prince Edward her sonne, these ij. verses were made, which followe.

Here is by the way to be vnderstand, that duryng all this season, since the tyme that the kyng of England had reiected the Pope out of þ^e realme, both the Emperour, the Frenche kyng, and the kyng of Scottes, with other foreine potentates (whiche were yet in subiectiō vnder the Pope) bare to hym no great good fauour inwardly, what soeuer outwardly they pretended. Neither was here lackyng preuy setters on, nor secret workyng among them selues, how to compasse vngracious mischiefes, if God by contrary occasions had not stopped their intended deuises. MarginaliaThe Pope styrreth warre agaynst Englād by Cardinall Poole.For first the Pope had sent Cardinall Poole to the Frenche kyng, to styrre hym to warre agaynst the realme of England.

Secondly where as the Frenche kyng, by treatie of perpetuall peace, was bound yearly to pay to the kyng of England at the first dayes of May, and Nouember about xcv. thousand crownes of the sonne, and odde money: and ouer that, x. thousand crownes at the sayd ij. termes, for recompēce of salt due, as the treates therof did purport: that pension remayned now vnpayed iiij. yeares and more.

MarginaliaThe Emperour, the French kyng, and the kyng of Scottes set agaynst the kyng of England.Furthermore, the Emperour and the French kyng both, reteyned Grancetor a traiterous rebell agaynst the kyng, and condemned by Acte of Parlament, with certeine other traytors moe, and yet would not deliuer hym to the kyng at his earnest suite and request.

The French kyng also digressyng frō hys promise & treaty, made allyance with the Byshop of Rome Cle-ment, in marying the Dolphine to hys Niece, called Katherine de Medicis.

The sayd Frenche kyng moreouer, contrary to hys contracte made, maryed his daughter to the kyng of Scottes. All which were preiudiciall, and put the king, (no doubt) in some feare and perplexitie (though other wise a stoute and valiaunt Prince) to see the Pope, the Emperour, the Frenche kyng, and kyng of Scottes so bent agaynst hym.

And yet all this notwithstandyng, the Lord still defended the iustnes of his cause agaynst them all. For although þ^e French king was so set on by the Pope, & so lynked in mariage with the Scottes, & lacked nothyng now but onely occasion to inuade the realme of England: yet notwithstandyng he hearing now of the byrth of Prince Edward, the kynges sonne by Queene Iane, and vnderstandyng also by the death of þ^e sayd Queene Iane, that the kyng was a wydower, and perceauyng moreouer talke to bee that the kyng woulde ioyne in mariage with the Germaines, beganne to waxe more calme and cold, and to giue much more gentle wordes, & to demeane hym self more curtuously, labouring to mary þ^e Queene of Nauare hys sister to þ^e kyng.

The Ambassadours resident thē in Fraunce for the kyng, were Ste. Gardiner, with Doctor Thyrleby, &c. Whiche Steuen Gardiner, what hee wrought secretly for the Popes deuotion, I haue not expressely to charge hym. Whether he so dyd, or what he did, the Lord knoweth al. But this is certeine, that whē Doct. Boner Archedeacon then of Leicester, was sent into Fraunce by the kyng (through the meanes of the Lord Cromwell) to succede Steuen Gardiner in Ambassie, MarginaliaAn. 1538.whiche was about the yeare of our Lord. 1538. hee found such dealing in the sayd Byshop of Winchester, as was not greatlye to bee trusted, beside the vnkynde partes of the sayd Byshop agaynst the foresayd Boner, MarginaliaDoct. Boner the kings Ambassadour in Fraunce.commyng then frō the kyng and the Lord Cromwell, as was not to be lyked.  

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Edmund Bonner's career

The letter from Tyndale to Frith obviously came into Foxe's hands after the first edition was published, and the original of it has now been lost. It was printed by Henry Walter in the Parker Society edition of Tyndale's Works [1848] (vol 1, p. liiii [54]). Wilkins cites Corpus Christ College, Cambridge MS 8, fol 401 - and Foxe is known to have had access to Parker's collection.

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The king's answer to the rebels of Lincolnshire, and the story of the rising there, are taken from Hall (fols 229-232). The source of Bonner's letter is now known, but Foxe was clearly working from originals or a close copy. They are calendared in the Letters and Papers¸ but the editor cites Foxe as their source [XII, 2, 144; 269]. The Articles devised by the Kynges Highnes Maiestie to stablyshe Christen quietnes and vnitie amonge vs, and to auoyde contentious opinio[n]s (London: Thomas Berthelet, 1536 - STC 10033) would have been available to Foxe in the printed edition. There is a copy of Bonner's oath against the pope in BL Add MS 38656 fol 3b, although this was probably not the copy which Foxe used. The form of oath was common to all bishops. The description of the 'evil behaviour' of Stephen Gardiner 'in trembling and leaping of his flesh' in the 1583 edition carries the comment that Bucer had also noted it in De Coelibatu. This is a reference to Martin Bucer's Gratulatio … ad Ecclesiam Anglicanam de Religionis Christi ... Angli conviciatrices Epistolas, De coelibatu sacerdotum et coenobitarum. The work was published in 1548, and promptly translated into English by Thomas Hobye, then residing with Bucer as a pupil in Strasbourg (the translator signing off 'At Argentyne, Kalendis Februarii'), and published by Richard Jugge under the title: The gratulation of the mooste famous clerke M. Martin Bucer: a man of no lesse learninge and lyterature, then godlye studie and example of lyuing, vnto the churche of Englande for the restitucion of Christes religion. And hys answere vnto the two raylinge epistles of Steue[n], Bisshoppe of Winchester, concerninge the vnmaried state of preestes and cloysterars, wherein is euidently declared, that it is against the lawes of God, and of his churche to require of all suche as be and must be admitted to preesthood, to refrain from holye matrimonie (STC - 3963). The issue at stake was the theological and scriptural justification for celibacy, discussed at length, and with reference to the disputation in Strasbourg to which Foxe refers. In the treatise, Bucer answered Gardiner with progressively greater demonstrations of righteous anger, giving as good as he got; 'Herin therefore let Wynchester do the office of a bishop, & shewe (yf he can) thy trewe arguments that we are in an erroure, and cease to depraue by suche trifling and ungodly tawntes the dyuine and holie fathers sentences and to peruerte and mistake with his rayling sophistrie … & to scrape together with moche a do (wynking at our perfecte & sounde arguments here and there a worde by his scoffinges …. with that currishe and dogishe eloquence, whereof he coulde in thes his writings against me, make no ther measure nor ende' [no sig]. Bucer accused Winchester of having accused him of 'ignoraunce and arrogantye' [sig. G] in attributing interpretations of Greek pre-Christian writers that he had not advanced. He finally contended, in the passage to which Foxe no doubt referred, that Gardiner had not written or acted in a manner becoming a bishop during their disputation in Strasbourg: 'He denieth that he made anye contention with me, in thys disputation. But I sawe hym in suche an heat throughe consention, that his verye vaynes in hys hands shooke and trembled (whyche I never saue in all my luye tyme in anie man before) as oft and he herde ought of us that offended and myslyked hym ….' [sig. Giiii vo].

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David Loades

Long it were to recite from the beginnyng, and few men peraduenture would beleue þ^e braulyng matters, the priuie cōplaintes, the contentious quarels, and bitter dissensions betwene these two, and especially what despitefull contumelyes Doct. Boner receaued at the handes of Winchester. MarginaliaDoct. Boner in the beginning, a fauourer of þ^e truth, and a Lutheran.For vnderstand (good reader) that this Doct. Boner all this while remayned yet (as he seemed) a good man, and was a great furtherer of the kynges procedynges, and a fauourer of Luthers doctrine, & was aduaunced onely by the Lord Cromwell. Whose promociōs here to rehearse: first he was Archdeacon of Leycester, person of Bledon, of Dereham, Cheswicke, & Cheryburton. Thē was made bishop of Hereford, & at last preferred to be B. of London. MarginaliaL. Cromwell the onely setter vp of Doctor Boner.The chiefe of which prefermentes and dignityes were conferred vnto hym only by the meanes and fauour of the Lord Cromwell, who was then hys chief & onely Patrone, and setter vp: as the sayd Boner hymselfe in all hys letters, doth manyfestly proteste and declare. The copies of which his letters I could here produce and exhibite, but for prolongyng my story with superfluous matter. Yet that the world and all posteritye maye see, MarginaliaD. Boners comming vp was by the Gospell.how the comming vp of Doct. Boner was onely by the Gospell (how so euer he is now vnkynd vnto the Gospell) this one letter of his, whiche I will here inferre, written to the Lord Cromwell out of France, maye stand for a perpetuall testimonie, the tenour whereof here ensueth.

MarginaliaOut of Boners owne hand writing.MY very singular especiall good Lord, as one most boūden, I most humbly cōmend me vnto your honorable good Lordship. And where as in times passed it hath liked the same, without any my desertes or merites, euen onely of your singular excedyng goodnes, to be-