Foxe drew all of his information on John Athee from Bishop Bonner’s register (Guildhall MS 9531/12, fo. 254v).

John Heywood had been condemned to death along with Germain Gardiner and John Lark, but he recanted on the way to the scaffold and was reprieved (he was More’s brother-in-law). He did public penance in July. Foxe obtained his material, including Heywood’s public recantation from Bishop Bonner’s register (Guildhall MS 9531/12, fol. 61r).

George Wishary was, in fact, executed in 1546.

The Rerum contains a brief narrative that might be a garbled account of the burning of Roger Clarke. In a few sentences, Foxe related that a layman of Norfolk (not Suffolk) named Roger was burned for sacramentarian heresy (Rerum, p. 144). By the time the 1563 edition was printed, Foxe had learned a great deal more about the burnings of John Kerby and Roger Clarke; most of his detailed account of their trials and executions first appeared in this edition. This material was contributed by unnamed eyewitnesses. In the 1570 edition, Foxe added details to the account of the martyrdoms of Kerby and Clarke, which were also obtained from informants, probably including the Ipswich gaoler John Bird (Richard Bird, also an Ipswich gaoler, would be denounced by Catholics in Mary's reign for encouraging prisoners in their heresy (1576, p. 1981 and 1583, p. 2089). Were the Birds a family of evangelical gaolers? In any case, John Bird was probably the source the interview between Kerby and Robert Wingfield). In the 1570 edition, Foxe also added an account of Henry VIII's oration to Parliament on Christmas Eve 1545. Foxe printed this speech from Edward Hall, The union of the two noble and illuste famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (London, 1560), STC 12734a, fos.260r-262r. His purpose in including the speech was to criticize appeal for compromise for the sake of concord and religious unity. In 'notes' upon the speech, Foxe argued instead - in passages clearly intend to goad Elizabeth and her magistrates into further reformation of the Church - that correct doctrine and religious purity were more important than peace or unity.

Thomas S. Freeman

The chronicler Wriothesly reports that a priest in custody at the bishop of Winchester's house in Southwark, was found hung on 12 April 1540. Wriothesly also reports that the priest was of 'the new sect' and had been brought to the bishop's house for examination. (A Chronicle of England…by Charles Wriothesley, ed. William Douglas Hamiliton, 2 vols., Camden Society new series 11 and 20, [London, 1875-7), I, p. 115). Protestant polemicists rapidly turned what was probably a suicide into a murder carried out (of course) at Stephen Gardiner's orders: see Henry Brinklow, The Complaynt of Roderick Mors, ed. J. Meadows Cooper, EETS 22 (London, 1874}, p. 29 and John Bale, The epistle exhortatorye of an English Christiane (Antwerp, 1544?), STC 1291, fo. 13v.

Nothing futher is known of Henry or his servant.

This is the Monday of the Minor Rogations, i.e., the Monday before Ascension Day.

Kirby and Clarke were tried before a commission, headed by Lord Wentworth, to enforce the Six Articles.

Richard Bird, also an Ipswich gaoler, would be denounced by Catholics in Mary's reign for encouraging prisoners in their heresy (1576, p. 1981 and 1583, p. 2089). Were the Birds a family of evangelical gaolers? In any case, John Bird was probably the source the interview between Kerby and Robert Wingfield.

Foxe is explaining the elevated status of the bishop's commissary, of near equality to Lord Wingfield, the head of the commission, in what was essentially a lay tribunal.

William Foster was a lawyer, minor magistrate, staunch Catholic and zealous persecutor who appears several times in the pages of Foxe. His name is first mentioned in the narrative of the Kerby and Clarke martyrdoms, in the 1570 edition.

Thomas Wentworth, first baron Wentworth, had been a prominent and enthusiastic Sufflok evangelical; John bale credited Wentworth with having converted him. (See the biography of Wentworth in the ODNB). Clearly, from Foxe's account, Wentworth was acting with considerable reluctance in prosecuting Kerby and Rogers.