¶ The residue of the French Martyrs. |
Anne du Bourge, Coūsailer of Paris. Andrewe Coiffier, Iohn Isabeau, Iohn Indet, Mar- tyrs of Paris, Geoffrey Guerin, Iohn Morell, Iohn Barbeuille, Peter Cheuet, Marin Ma- rie, Margarete Riche, Adrian Daussi, Gillesle Court, Philippe Parmentier, Marin Ros- seau, Peter Milot, Iohn Berfoy: Besides the tumulte of Amboise, the persecution of Vassy, Austen Marlorat, Master Mutonis. |
¶ The residue of the Dutch Martyrs |
Iames de Lo, of the Ile of Flanders, Iohn de Buissons At Antwarpe, Peter Petit, Iohn Denis, Symon Guilmin, Simeon Herme of the Ile of Flanders, Iohn de Lannoy At Tournay. |
¶ The Dutche Martyrs. |
Andrew Michell, a blynd man, at Tournay, Fran ces Varlut, at Tournay, Alexander Dayken of Bramchastle, William Cornu in Henault, Antony Caron of Cambray, Renaudine de Francuile, Certeine suffered at Tournay, Mi- chell Robilart of Aras, Nicaise de le Tombe at Tornay, Roger du Mont. |
¶ To the Catalogue of French Martyrs aboue re- MarginaliaTouching the story of Merindoll Vid. infr.hearsed, the story of Merindoll and Cabrieres, with the lamentable handlyng of them, were also to be adne xed. But because the tractation therof is prolixe, and can not well be contracted into a shorte discours, ther- fore we haue differred the same to a more conuenient ronme, after the Table here folowing next, of the Spa- nishe and Italian Martyrs. Where better oportunitie shalbe geuen, to prosecute more at full that Tragicall persecution, the Lord so permittyng. |
Foxe's Table of martyrs from Spain was introduced for the first time into the 1570 edition. It was clearly an attempt to complement the much richer and more fully developed tables that preceded it of the 'German' and 'French' martyrs. Like them, Foxe sought to impose order upon his disparate material by organising it in tabular form - as he had already done elsewhere in the volume - under 'Persecutors', 'Martyrs' and 'The Causes'. The typographical complexity of these pages continued to impose extraordinary demands on his printers, with double-columned ruled tables, each column broken into three parts on occasion, incorporating headers and catch-words into the table, and including glosses to one side.
[Back to Top]Foxe was seeking to situate the events in England within a wider European perspective - his claim here has often been ignored by later commentators. He attempted to bring together into an ambitious organised compilation all that had been discovered about those who had suffered for the faith, at least in respect of the continental protestant martyrological circles in which he situated himself. He also wanted to say something to his contemporaries about the Spanish Habsburg dynastic empire, a point which implicitly underpins the narrative. For Foxe was an important source in creating the Elizabethan 'Black Legend' of Spain (see A. G. Kinder, 'Creation of the Black Legend: literary contributions of Spanish protestant exiles' Mediterranean Studies 6 (1996), 67-78).
[Back to Top]Only one Spanish martyr account - that of the Flemish sculptor, working in Sanlucár, known as 'Roque' ['Rochus'] - had appeared in the 1563 edition. That text - evidently a 'filler' to complete the final page of the volume - was (as Foxe states) 'taken oute of a booke of Franciscus Enzinas written to Phillip Melanton' (1563, p. 1041). This is an unambiguous reference to Francisco de Enzinas [=Franciscus Dryander], Historia de statu belgico deque religione hispanica, which Foxe tells us in the subsequent 1570 edition, he had consulted in the Oporinus print-shop, where he used it to furnish his account of the life and martyrdom of Francisco de San Román: 'The storye hereof is at large set forth by Francis Encenas, a notable learned man, who also himself was prisoned ye same time at Bruzels: whose booke written in Latine, I myselfe have sene and read, remaining in the hands of John Oporin at Basill'. The same source had probably also been consulted by Heinrich Pantaleon, and it therefore presumably informs his material on the Spanish martyrs, upon which Foxe also draws.
[Back to Top]In the 1570 table of Spanish martyrs, Foxe broke off to furnish, by way of introduction to the auto de fé at Valladolid, a description of the 'execrable Inquisition of Spayne'. Foxe could hardly have resisted making something of the potentially emotive and rich material furnished by the Inquisition. In Foxe's eyes it could hardly be other than the exemplification of catholic cruelty, clerical overlordship and injustice. By 1570, Foxe had already been sensitised to the issue of the Inquisition, perhaps through the 'history' of Francisco de Enzinas (=Dryander), in which the judicial proceedings, rituals and cruelty of the Inquisition had been emphasised, but also through his 'memoirs', which Foxe apparently also knew (e.g. J. de Savignac [ed.] Francisco de Enzinas. Les Mémorables de Francisco de Enzinas [Brussels: Les editions de la Libraire encyclopédique, 1963], pp. 180-3). Foxe's direct source for the passage on the inquisition and the subsequent Valladolid auto de fé (Foxe does not actually use the term) on 21 May 1559 was the French edition of Crespin. He tells us so: 'Ex quinta parte Marti Gallic Impresse pag 474'. This constitutes an initial problem, since Crespin's passage in the French 1564 edition of the martyrology (Crespin [1564]) was in book 7, pp. 904-5; and in the 157 French edition (Crespin [1570]) it was in book 6, fols 536B-538B. This seems to be one of the comparatively rare occasions where Foxe mis-references his text. This may not, however, have been his only source. He also refers to 'the story of the sayde Inquisition being set out in the French tongue'. This can only refer to Reinaldo Gonzales de Montes [Montanus], Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae Artes aliquot detectae, ac palam traductae (Heidelberg, 1567), which enjoyed considerable popularity in the later sixteenth century, including at least one in French (1568), three further Latin, three English, four Dutch and three German editions before the end of the century. Quite why Foxe did not refer directly to the Latin edition is a mystery, although it seems possible that John Day was a considerable promoter of the Montanus text, and may even have been responsible for a good number of these editions himself, including the French translation. In its English translation of 1568, (A discovery & playne declaration of sundry subtill practises of the holy inquisition of Spayne […]) its translator, Vincent Skinner, mentioned that its publication was something of a 'taster' for the new edition of Foxe's martyrology ('as a taste in the meane space, whiles the booke of Martires be finished, wherein thou shalt have a most plentifull and notable History of the like matter and argument' (cited Kinder, p. 114).Foxe was certainly aware of the discrepancies of the sources to note that they tallied different numbers of martyrs from the Valladolid Inquisition, from which he inferred (correctly) that some of the victims had been returned to prison. At all events, the passage serves as a notable example of the proceedings of the Inquisition.
[Back to Top]Crespin's description (like Montanus') includes the notable presence at the auto de fé of Princess Joanna ('Dame Iane'), widow of the prince of Portugal and sister to Philip II as well as Don Carlos ('Prince Charles'), the king's son and the Comte de Buendia. Crespin (along with Montanus) describes the 'sanbenito' or yellow garment worn by the prisoners and the 'coroza' ('coracas') or paper mitres that they were obliged to wear on their heads. Foxe emphasises (as do Montanus and Crespin) the role of the Spanish clergy in the spectacle - Melchior Cano, the famous Dominican preacher who had been bishop in the Canary Islands, the archbishop of Seville ('Senille'), and the bishops of Palencia ('Valence').and Orense. The names of the martyrs recorded by Foxe reveal with what difficulty he struggled to transliterate the sometimes very different renditions of names in Crespin and Montanus. The official record of the Valladolid auto de fé survives in numerous copies. The comparison with Foxe's account reveals that he includes some individuals as martyrs who, in reality, were relaxed and returned to prison (Pedro Sarmiento, Luís de Rojas and Juan de Ulloa).
[Back to Top]Foxe was certainly aware how patchy and incomplete his treatment of protestant prosecution in the Spanish peninsula had been. Even in the case of the Valladolid trial, he mentions at the end of the account that 37 other prisoners in Valladolid were 'reserved to another tragedy and spectacle of that bloody inquisition', the number and phrase coming directly from Crespin's 1564 French edition (Actes des martyrs, p. 906: Actiones et monimenta (1570), p. 1065). How Crespin arrived at the figure of '37' is a mystery. There were 7 further autos de fé in Valladolid through to 1565, where 241 protestants were paraded, of whom 89 were burned, 23 of them in effigy (figures from Kinder, op. cit., p. 114). Foxe's supply of materials on the Spanish peninsula was much more restricted. He used extensively what was available to him in Heinrich Pantaleon (lib. 5), supplementing it with information from Crespin and Montanus, especially on the Valladolid martyrs of 1559. He realised, however, that there was probably much of which he was probably ignorant. He intimated as much: '…divers others haue bene in the sayd countrey of Spayne, whose hartes God had marvellously illuminated and stirrup up, both before and also since the coming in of the Inquisition …. Albeit theyr names are as yet are vnknowne, for that the storyes of that countrey bee not yet come to light, but I trust shortly shall, as partly some intelligence I haue thereof' ([1570], p. 1062; [1583], p. 930). He added for good measure: 'By the vigour and the rigour of thys Inquisition, many good and true servauntes of Jesus Christ have been brought to death, especially in these latter dayes …The names and stories of whom, partlye we will here recite…..The other which be not yet come to our knowledge we will differre, till further intelligence and oportunitie, by the Lordes ayde shall serve hereafter ([1570], p. 1062; [1583], p. 931). Foxe must have been acutely aware that the lack of an organised evangelical community, let alone formed churches in the Spanish peninsula, acted as a crippling weakness in his information flows. That said, the table remained unchanged thereafter for the 1576 and 1583 editions. This was despite the fact that a further edition of his key source, Jean Crespin, had appeared in 1582. He appears to have made no effort to make, or exploit, contacts with the small Spanish protestant exile community in London that would have provided him with valuable information on these matters in the later editions.
[Back to Top]M. Greengrass
University of Sheffield
Persecuters. | Martyrs. | The Causes. |
MarginaliaFrances San Romane, Martyr.Spanishe marchāts in An- twerpe. The Fri ers of An twerpe. | Francis- cus San Roman9 At Bur- gis in Spayne. an. 1542. | AN. 1540. this Frances was sent by certain Spanish mar chantes of Antwerpe, to Breme, to take vp money due to be payd of certaine marchauntes there. Where hee beyng at a Sermon, hearing M. Iacobus Priour some tymes of the Austen Friers of Antwerpe, preache, was so tou- ched and drawen (throughe the meruelous working of Gods spi- rite) at the hearing therof, albeit hauing no perfect vnderstādyng of the Dutche tongue, that not onely he vnderstode al that there was sayd, but also cōmyng to the preacher, & accompanying him home (all his other worldly busi- nes set a part) there recited the whole contentes of his Sermon, euery thyng (as they sayd, which heard the said minister of Breme preach) in perfect forme & order, MarginaliaThe conuersion of San Romane.as he had preached. After this li- tle taste, & happy beginnyng, he proceded further, searchyng and cōferryng with learned mē, that |
in short space, he was growen in great towardnes, and rype knowledge in the word of life. The Minister meruelīg at the sodeine mutation of the man, and also seyng the vehemencie of his zeale ioyned withall, began to exhort him, how to tem- pere him selfe with circūspection, and discretiō, still more & more instructing him in the word and knowledge of the Gos pell, whiche he so gredely did receaue, as one that could neuer bee satisfied: and so remained he with the minister iij. dayes together, cōmitting his worldly busines and message that hee was sent for, vnto his felow which came with him. Thus be- ing inflamed with an other desire, he ceased to seke for tēporal trifles, seking rather for such French or Dutch bokes, which he could get, to read: and agayne, read the same so diligently, that partly by the readyng therof, partly by M. Iacobus, and also by M. Machabeus (whiche was there the same tyme) he was able in short time, to iudge in the chiefe Articles, of our religiō: In somuch, that he toke vpō him to write letters vnto his countreymē the Marchants of Antwerpe, in the which letters, first he gaue thankes to God for the knowledge of his |
Persecuters. | Martyrs. | The Causes. |
MarginaliaFrances writeth to the Marchaunts of Antwerpe.holy word, which he had receaued. Secondly he bewayled the great crueltie, and grosse blindnes of his countreymen, desi- ryng God to open their eyes and eares, to see and vnderstand the worde of their saluation. Thirdly he promised shortly to come to them at Antwerpe, to conferre with them, touchyng the grace of God, whiche he had receaued. Fourthly decla- reth to them his purpose in goyng also to Spayne, intendyng there likewise to imparte to his parentes, and other frendes at Burges, the holesome doctrine, whiche the Lord had be- stowed vpon him. MarginaliaFrances writeth to the Emperour.Beside this, he addressed other letters also to Charles the Emperour, opening to him the calamities and miserable state of Christes Church, desiryng him to tēder the quietnes therof, especially that he would reforme the miserable corruption of the Church of Spayne, &c. Ouer and besides all this, he wrote there a Catechisme, and diuers other treatises in the Spanish tōge. And all this he did in one monethes space. In the meane tyme the Spanish marchantes of Antwerpe, vnderstandyng by his letters, both his chaunge of religion, and also his pur- pose of comming to Antwerpe, sent him letters agayne, pre- tendyng outwardly, a fayre countenance of much good will, MarginaliaFrances betrayed by Spanishe Marchauntes.but secretly practising his destruction. For at the day appoin ted of his comming, certaine Friers were set ready to receaue him, whiche tooke him commyng downe from his horse, ry- fled his bookes, had him into a marchantes house nere hand, where they examined him: with whom hee agayne disputed mightly, & whē they found him not agreyng to their faith, they bound him hand & foote, crying out vpō him, & calling him Lutherane, and burnt his bookes before his face, threat- ning to burne him selfe also. At this disputation within the house, diuers Spaniardes were present, which made the friers more bold. Beyng demaunded to shew of what faith and reli- MarginaliaThe fayth and confession of San Romane.gion his was: My faith (sayd he) is to confesse and preache Christ Iesus onely and him crucified, whiche is the true faith of the vniuersall Church of Christ through the whole world. But this faith and doctrine you haue corrupted, taking an o- ther abhominable kinde of life, and by your impietie haue brought the most part of the world, into blindnes most mise- rable: and to explane his fayth to them more expressely, he recited all the Articles of the Crede. Whiche done, then the Friers asked whether he beleued the Bishop of Rome to be Christes vicare, and head of the Churche, hauyng all the treasures of the Church in his owne power, being able to bind & loose: also to make new articles, and abolish the old, at his owne will and arbitriment. Here- unto Frances aunswered agayne, that he beleued none of all MarginaliaThe Pope Antichrist.this, but contrary did affirme, that the Pope was Antichrist, |