1570 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1191 
This once done, hee put of hys gowne, and went to the stake, & kneelyng vpon a litle ledge commyng out of the stake, whereon hee should afterwarde stand to bee better seene, MarginaliaTho. Bilney praying at the stake.he made hys priuate prayer with such earnest eleuation of his eyes and handes to heauen, and in so good quyet behauiour, that hee semed not much to consider the terror of hys death, & ended at the last, hys priuate prayers with the. 143. Psalme begynnyng Domine exaudi orationē meā, auribus percipe obsecrationē meā. &c.
ClosePsalm 143.1
ClosePsalm 143.2
And while he thus stoode vpon the ledge at the stake, certaine friers, Doctors & Priors of their houses beyng there presēt (as they were vncharitably & maliciouslye present at his examination & degradation &c.) came to hym and sayd: MarginaliaThe Fryers desire Bilney to speake for them.O M. Bilney the people bee persuaded that we be the causers of your death, and that we haue procured the same, & therupon it is lyke that they will withdraw their charitable almes frō vs all, except you declare your charitie towardes vs, & discharge vs of þe matter. Whereupon the sayd Thomas Bilney spake with a loude voyce to the people, and sayd: I pray you
CloseA paraphrase of Luke 23.34.
Then the officers put reede and Fagottes about his body and set fire on the reede, which made a very great flame, whiche sparcled and deformed the visour of hys face, he holding vp his hands & knocking vpō his brest, crying sometymes Iesus, sometymes Credo. Whiche flame was blowen away from hym by the violence of the wynde, whiche was that day and. ij. or iij. dayes before, notable great, in whiche it was sayd that þe fieldes were meruellouslye plaged by the losse of corne: and so for a litle pause, hee stoode without flame, the flame departyng and recoursing thrise ere the woode tooke strength to be the sharper to consume hym: MarginaliaThe pacient death & Martyrdome of M. Bilney.and then he gaue vp the Ghost, and his body beyng withered bowed downeward vpon the chaine. Then one of the officers with his halbard smitte out the staple in the stake behinde him, and suffered his body to fall into the bottome of the fire, laying woode on it, and so he was consumed.
[Back to Top]Thus haue ye (good readers) the true historye, and Martyrdome of this good man, MarginaliaSaint Bilney.that is, of blessed Saint Bilney (as M. Latimer doth call hym)
CloseLatimer uses such phraseology at least twice in his sermons. In his 'Seventh sermon before Edward the sixth (1549)', the phrase 'that blessed martyr of God' appears, while in his 'First sermon on the Lord's Prayer, 1552', Latimer says '… or rather Saint Bilney, that suffered death for God's word sake.' [See, Sermons and Remains of Hugh Latimer, sometime bishop of Worcester, martyr, 1555, 2 vols., ed. by George E Corrie (Cambridge, 1844), 1, pp. 222 and 334 respectively].
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CloseThe story of George Stratford, appearing for the first time in the 1570 edition of the martyrology, followed on and reinforced the revised material that Foxe had introduced that year upon Thomas Bilney. Stratford's conversion and martyrdom was presented as additional proof of the efficacity of Bilney's message. The text of Simon Fish's famous, and virulently anti-clerical 'Supplication of Beggars' had been printed in the 1563 edition of the martyrology as 'A certaine Libell or boke intituled the Supplycation of beggers throwen and scattered at the procession in Westminster vpon Candelmas day…' - i.e. 2 February 1529 (1563, pp. 445-448). When it came to the 1570 edition, Foxe tucked it in, with evident embarrassment, after the Stratford narrative: 'before the tyme of M. Bilney, and the fall of the Cardinall, I should haue placed the story of Symon Fish with the booke called the Supplication of beggars […]' but by placing it where he did, he was able to recover the forward momentum of his reformation narrative. The theme of the 'Supplication' was (as Foxe put it) 'the reformation of many thinges, especially of the Clergy'. Fish had written it during his second exile in Antwerp. The sixteen-page pamphlet accused the church of almost everything - from avarice to treason. The printer of the subversive pamphlet was most likely to have been Johannes Grapheus of Antwerp. From Antwerp the 'Supplication' was smuggled into England, penetrating the country's borders despite its prohibition. It was dedicated to Henry VIII.
[Back to Top]Andrew ChibiUniversity of Leicester
MarginaliaM. Bilney the chiefe conuerter or apostle of Cambridge.AS the death of this godly Bilney did much good in Northfolke where he was burnt: so his diligēt trauaile, in teachyng and exhortyng other, and example of lyfe correspondent to hys doctrine, left no small frute behinde him in Cambridge, beyng a great meanes of framyng that Vniuersitie, and drawyng diuers vnto Christ. By reason of whom, and partly also of an other called M. Stafford, the word of God began there most luckely to spread, and many towarde wittes to florish. In the company of whom was M. Latimer, Doctour Barnes, D. Thistell of Penbroke hal, M. Fooke of Benet Colledge, and M. Soude of the same Colledge, Doct. Warner aboue mentioned, with diuers other moe.
[Back to Top]This M. Stafford was then the publicke reader of the Diuinitie lecture in that Vniuersitie. Who, as he was an earnest professour of Christes Gospell: so was he as diligent a folower of that whiche he professed, as by this example here folowyng may appeare.
MarginaliaThe notable zeale of M. Stafforde, in sauing a damnable priest.For as the plage was then sore in Cambridge, and amongest other, a certeine Priest called Syr Henry Coniurer
CloseThis refers to events of 1528 when the famous magician was in the town, and was used to illustrate Stafford's attention to his duties as a priest. Thomas Becon, chaplain to Cranmer, notes that Stafford set out to convert this man - resulting in the burning of his books - but that Stafford caught the plague and died before the effort was completed. See Writings of the Rev. Thomas Becon, chaplain to archbishop Cranmer, and prebendary of Canterbury, ed. by William M Engles (Philadelphia, 1890), p. 7.
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CloseThis repeats the details of his death. I can find no mention of Stafford in the letters of Ridley.
Concernyng whiche M. Stafford, this moreouer is to be noted how that M. Latimer beyng yet a feruent and a zelous Papist, stādyng in the Scholes when M. Stafford read, bad the scholers not to heare him: and also preachyng against hym, exhorted the people, not to beleue him, MarginaliaM. Latimer asketh M. Stafforde forgeuenes.and yet the sayd Latimer confessed hym self, that he gaue thankes to God, that hee asked him forgeuenes before he departed.
CloseStafford and Latimer had an initially stormy relationship as Stafford lectured on the Bible from study of the original languages (influenced by Erasmus) while Latimer was opposed to this, thinking students should study the schoolmen and glosses, as was more traditional. See Hugh Latimer, 'Seventh sermon on the Lord's Prayer, 1552', in Sermons and Remains of Hugh Latimer, sometime bishop of Worcester, martyr, 1555, 2 vols., ed. by George E Corrie (Cambridge, 1844), 1, pp. 440-1.
[Back to Top]And thus much by the waye of good M. Stafford, who for hys constant and godly aduenture in such a cause, may seme not vnworthy to go with blessed Bilney, in the felowshyp of holy and blessed Martyrs.
MarginaliaM. Simon Fyshe, author of the booke, called the Supplication of Beggars.BEfore the tyme of M. Bilney, and the fall of þe Cardinall, I should haue placed the story of Symon Fish with the booke called the Supplication of beggars, declaryng how and by what meanes it came to the kyngs hand, and what effecte therof followed after, in the reformation of many thinges, especially of the Clergy. But the missyng of a few yeares in this matter, breaketh no great square in our story, though it be now entred here which should haue come in vi. yeares before. The maner and circūstance of the matter is this:
[Back to Top]After that the light of the Gospell workyng mightly in Germanie, began to spread his beames here also in England, great styrre and alteration folowed in the hartes of many: so that colored hypocrisie, and false doctrine, and painted holynes began to be espyed more and more by the readyng of Gods word. The authoritie of the Byshop of Rome, and the glory of his Cardinals was not so hygh, but such as had fresh wyttes sparcled with Gods grace, began to espye Christ from Antichrist, that is, true sinceritie, from counterfait religiō. In the nūber of whom, was þe; sayd Symon Fishe, a Gentlemā of Grayes Inne. It happened þe first yeare that this Gentleman came to London to dwell, which was about þe yere of our Lord. 1525. that there was a certeine play or interlude made by one M. Roo of the same Inne Gentleman
CloseIn the winter of 1527 Jack Roo had produced a masque (written twenty years earlier) which Wolsey took to be aimed at himself. Foxe has Fish playing the offending role. Roo spent time in the Fleet prison as a result of the play, and Fish escaped to Antwerp. However, Foxe may have placed Fish into the play without any real justification as Edward Hall, a barrister of Gray's Inn and eye-witness to the events, does not mention Fish, although one Thomas Moyle was also imprisoned (for which, see Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre & York [London, 1547], fol. 154v). These events are examined closely in Rodney M Fisher, 'Simon Fishe, Cardinal Wolsey and John Roo's Play at Gray's Inn, Christmas 1526', in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, 69 (1978), pp. 293-8 and in Peter Gwyn, The King's Cardinal: The rise and fall of Thomas Wolsey (London, 1990), pp. 136-7.
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