1570 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1177 
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1. Persecution in Coventry2. Patrick Hamilton3. Patrick's Places4. Lincolnshire martyrs5. Thomas Wolsey6. Humphrey Monmouth and Thomas Hitten7. Thomas Bilney8. Defence of Bilney9. George Stratford and Simon Fish10. Supplication of Beggers11. Tunstall's anti-heresy edicts12. London evangelical martyrs13. Wiltshire martyrs14. Dovercourt rood15. John Frith16. Thomas Benet17. Bishop Stokesley's persecution18. Henry VIII's divorce19. Royal Supremacy20. William Tyndale21. Events of 1536-822. Edmund Bonner's career23. Royal articles and injunctions24. Bishop Longland's sermon25. John Forrest26. John Lambert27. Murders and martyrdoms28. Henry VIII's letter to Charles V29. Destruction of Becket's shrine30. Act of Six Articles31. Allegations against Six Articles32. Thomas Cromwell33. Great Bible34. Barnes, Garrett and Jerome35. Persecution for Six Articles36. Fire in Oxford37. Katherine Howard and Katherine Parr38. Testwood, Filmer, Marbeck and Person39. Persecution in Calais40. Persecution in 154541. Anne Askew42. Katherine Parr and George Blage43. Proclamation of 154644. Heresies charged against Protestants45. Scottish martyrs46. Archbishop Warham's persecution47. London martyrs in 153948. Papal sentence on Henry VIII's divorce49. Exsurge Domini50. Death of Henry VIII51. Persecution in Orleans in 153452. John Browne
K. Henry. 8. Articles. M. Bilney twise plucked from the Pulpit.
| Persecuters | Martyrs. | The Causes. |
MarginaliaS. Frances cowle remitteth 4. parts of penance: What remaineth then for Christ to remitte.Cowle, 
CloseFor the practice of burying the dead in the cowls of Franciscan friars, see Susan Wabuda, Preaching during the English Reformation (Cambridge, 2002), pp. 108, 122-139. left to our Sauiour Christ, which taketh awaye the sinnes of the worlde? This I will iustifie to bee a great blasphemie to the bloud of Christ. MarginaliaAgainst pilgrimage.Also that it was great folly to go on pilgrimage, and that preachers in tymes past haue bene Antichristes, and now it hath pleased God somewhat to shewe forth their falshode and errours. |
| Persecuters | Martyrs. | The Causes. |
MarginaliaAgainst blind miracles.Also, that the miracles done at Walsinghā,
CloseThe famous pilgrimage shrines to the Blessed Virgin Mary at Walsingham in Norfolk (which was established soon after the Norman Conquest in the eleventh century); St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury (Becket was murdered in the Cathedral in 1170), and the shrine to Our Lady of Grace in Ipswich (dating from the 1100s). Willesden also had an important pilgrimage site in its shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary. [Back to Top]and there in Ipswitch, were done by the deuill, through the sufferaunce of God, to blind the poore people: and that the Pope hath not the keys that Peter had, except he folow Pe- ter in his lynyng. Moreouer, it was deposed agaynst hym, that he was noto- riously suspected as an hereticke, and twise pulled out of the Pulpit in the dioces of Norwich.
CloseThe interesting details of these episodes remain obscure. |
MarginaliaMaister Bilney, twise plucked downe from the Pulpit, by the friers.
Commentary on the Woodcuts
Close
CloseThe woodcut shows Thomas Bilney being manhandled by two ugly visaged friars who pull him out of the pulpit (a portable wooden one) outside the church of St George in Ipswich. (Bilney is known to have preached at Christchurch in Ipswich). The words in the banderoles in 1563 and 1570 respectively caption the scene as 'p[f]riers pulling Bilney out of the pulpit' and 'M. Bilney twice plucked from the pulpit'. He was accused of having preached in 1527 against false belief in the spiritual value of being buried in a Franciscan habit. This illustration is related both in style and content to a woodcut of Envy that appeared in 1569 in Stephen Bateman's A christall glasse, also published by John Day. CUL copy: detail is added to this illustration in black ink. The additional detail in one figure, dressed in blue (second from the right), has, however, made him cross-eyed. WREN copy: the trees to the right are coloured in a very bright green. The figure in blue (same figure as that in blue in the CUL copy) is not cross-eyed in this copy.
Also it was deposed agaynst him, that he should, in the Parishe Churche of Willesdone
CloseBilney was accused of preaching at Willesden in the week of Pentecost in 1527. away their Gods of siluer and gold, and leaue their offringes vnto them, for that such thynges as they offered, haue bene knowen oftentimes afterward, to haue bene geuē to whores MarginaliaThe Idolatry of the papists is a lette to the Iewes and Turkes, why they are not conuerted.of the stewes. Also that Iewes and Sarazens would haue be- come Christen mē long a go, had it not bene for the Idolatry of Christen men in offring of candels, waxe, and money, to stockes and stones. |
Ouer and besides these cauillyng matters, articuled and deposed agaynst him, here folow certeine other Ar ticles, wherupon he was detected, gathered out of hys Sermon, whiche he preached in the Parish Churche of S. Magnus, in Whitsonweke, in the yeare of our Lord. 1527. |
¶ Certeine other Articles producted agaynste Maister Thmas Bilney. |
MarginaliaArticles.FIrst, he sayd, pray you only to God, & to no Saintes, rehearsyng the Letany, and when hee came to Sancta Maria ora pro nobis, he said, stay there. He sayd that Christian men ought to woorshyp God onely and no Saintes. He sayd that Christian people should set vp no lights before the Images of Saintes, for Saintes in heauen nede no light, and the Images haue no eyes to see. Hee said, as Ezechias destroyed the brasen Serpent that Moyses made by the Commaundement of God, euē so should kynges and Princes now a dayes, destroy and burne the Images of Saintes set vp in the Churches. These v. hūdreth yeres there hath ben no good Pope, MarginaliaOne fiftie good popes since Christ.nor in all the tyme past, we cā finde but fifty, for they haue neither preached, ne liued wel, or cōformably to their dig nitie: Wherfore til now, they haue borne the keys of Sy- mony. Agaynst whom good people, we must preach and teach vnto you. For we can not come to them, it is great |
pitie: they haue sore sclaundered the bloud of Christ. The people hath vsed foolishly of late, pilgrimages, whiche for them had bene beter to haue bene at home. Many haue made certeine vowes, which be not pos- sible for them to fulfill, and those nothyng meritorious. The preachers before this, haue ben Antichristes, and now it hath pleased our Sauiour Christ, to shewe theyr false errours, and to teach an other way & maner of the holy Gospell of Christ, to the comfort of your soules. MarginaliaThe prophesye of Bilney.I trust that there shall and will come others besides me, whiche shall shewe and preache to you, the same faith and maner of liuyng, that I do shew and preache to you, whiche is the very true Gospell of our Sauiour Christ, & the minde of þe holy fathers, wherby you shalbe brought from their errours, wherin you haue bene long seduced: for before this, there haue bene many that haue sclaūde- red you, and the Gospell of our Sauiour Christ, of whō spake our Sauiour. Math. xviij. Qui scandalizauerit vnū de pusillis istis, qui in me credit. &c. |
These and many other such lyke depositions were deposed agaynst hym by the deponentes and witnesses before sworne, which wholy to recite, would be to long and tedious: wherefore these shall suffice at this tyme, beyng the principall matters, and in maner the effecte of all the reast. But nowe, before we will returne a- gayne to the order of hys examination, we thincke it MarginaliaA Dialogue.good here to inferre a certeyne Dialoge contaynyng a communication betwene a Frier named Iohn Bru- sierd,
CloseDetails concerning the identity and career of Friar John Brusierd continue to be sparse. Craig W. D'Alton, 'The Suppression of Lutheran Heretics in England, 1526-1529', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 54 (2003), pp. 228-53. thought mete for this place, because it was done in Ip- switch, & also about þe time of these examinations: the copy wherof we haue writtē with þe Friers owne hand in Latin, & haue expressed þe same in our former editiō. Wherfore referring þe reader for þe Latin copie, vnto þe editiō aforesayd, pag. 475. it shal suffice here to expresse þe same in English: the copie wherof here ensueth. |
¶ A