1570 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1196 
CloseThis refers to 'nasturtium' or watercress, a leaf vegetable known for its peppery flavour.
CloseA reference to a 'black mass' or 'satanic mass', which is a ceremony supposedly developed in mediaeval European witch circles as a parody of the Christian ceremony featuring the profanation of the Host.
CloseMatthew 8.12 or 25.30.
CloseThomas More was executed on 6 July 1535.
CloseAnother reference to Thomas More's The Supplycatyon of Soulys (October 1529) written over two books.
After that the Clergie of Englād, and especially the Cardinall, vnderstode these bookes of the Beggars supplication aforesaid, to be strawne abroad in the streetes of London, and also before the kyng, the sayd Cardinall caused not onely his seruauntes diligently to attend to gather them vp, that they should not come into the kynges handes, but also when hee vnderstode, that the kyng had receaued one or two of them, he came vnto the kynges Maiesty saying: If it shall please your grace, here are diuers seditious persons whiche haue scattered abroad bookes conteynyng manifest errours and heresies, desiryng his grace to beware of them. Wherupon the kyng puttyng his hand in his bosome, tooke out one of the bookes & deliuered it vnto the Cardinall. MarginaliaProuision by the Byshops, agaynst Englishe bookes.Then the Cardinall, together with the bishops, consulted, how they might prouide a spedy remedy for this mischief, and thereupon determined to giue out a Cōmission to forbid the readyng of all English bookes, and namely this booke of Beggars, and the new Testament of Tyndals translation: whiche was done out of hand by Cutbert Tonstall Byshop of London, who sent out his prohibition vnto his Archdeacons, with all spede, for the forbidding of that booke and diuers other more: the tenor of which prohibition here foloweth.
CloseIt is difficult to pin down precisely which index of forbidden books Foxe is referring to here as there were many at the time. See Susan Brigden, London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989), p. 179. If the list was produced after Fish's death, which seems to the tenor of Foxe's argument, than it could not have been Tunstal's list, but one of Stokesley's, of 3 December 1531 - see Andrew A Chibi, Henry VIII's Conservative Scholar (Berne, 1997), p. 122.
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CloseIn concentrating upon the prohibition of the circulation of the scriptures in English, issued by Cuhbert Tunstall on 23 October 1527 (not 24 October 1527, as Foxe states) were crystal-clear. It was a golden opportunity to emphasise the opposition to the spread of evangelical truth among the English ecclesiastical hierarchy on the eve of the events that Foxe will shortly describe, and which led to the reformation. Cuthbert Tunstal, bishop of London, had been consecrated there on 19 October 1522 (provided on 10 September and the temporalities assigned 7 October). He would be translated to the see of Durham on 21 February 1530. The archdeacon, to whom the prohibition was addressed, was Geoffrey Wharton, collated 29 March 1526 (see Tunstal's register at London Guildhall MS, 9531/10: Episcopal Register Tunstal: 1522-29/30, fol.14b). Wharton died two years later on c.30 October 1529 (fol.28). His vicar-general, also mentioned in the prohibition, was Richard Foxford. The translated and printed New Testament, whose circulation it sought to prevent was Tyndale's New Testament, completed by February 1526 at the Peter Schoeffer printer in Worms, the first to be printed in the English vernacular. It is interesting that, for all the trouble Chancellor Thomas More and Bishop Stokesley would put him through, the major influence upon Tyndale's translation had been Erasmus' own Greek New Testament, which was available to him in its third edition of 1524 (with its Latin translation and notes). Stokesley had defended an earlier edition of Erasmus before Henry VIII in 1521 (Collected Works of Erasmus, 67 vols. (Toronto, 1974-91), vi, p.63 (no.855), viii, pp.8ff, 19; L&P, ii/ii, 4340) while More's relationship with Erasmus is well known. Tyndale had also used Luther's 1521 September Testament (see, Brian Moynahan, William Tyndale [London, 2002], p.6). Tyndale would make much of the fact that Erasmus had been his major influence.
[Back to Top]Andrew ChibiUniversity of Leicester
MarginaliaA prohibitiō against Englishe bookes.CVtbert by the permission of God, Byshop of Londō, vnto our welbeloued in Christe the Archdeacon of London, or to his Official, health grace and benediction. By the duety of our pastorall office, we are bounde diligently with all our power, to foresee, prouide for, roote out, and put away all those thynges, which seme to tend to the perill and daunger of our subiectes, and specially the destruction of their soules. Wherfore we hauyng vnderstandyng by the reporte of diuers credible persons, and also by the euident apparaunce of the matter, that many children of iniquitie, mainteiners of Luthers secte, blynded throughe extreme wickednes, wandryng from the way of truth and the Catholicke fayth, craftly haue translated the new Testament into our English tōgue, entermedlyng therwith many hereticall Articles and erronious opinions, pernicious and offensiue, seducyng the simple people, attemptyng by their wicked and peruerse interpretations, to prophanate the maiestie of the Scripture, whiche hetherto hath remayned vndefiled, and craftely to abuse the most holy word of God, and the true sense of the same: of the whiche translation there are many bookes imprinted, some with gloses & some with-out, conteynyng in the Englishe tongue that pestiferous and most pernicious poyson dispersed throughout al our dioces of London in great number: whiche truly without it be spedely foresene, without doubt, will contaminate and infect the flocke committed vnto vs, with most deadly poyson and heresie, to the greuous perill and daunger of the soules committed to our charge, and the offence of Gods diuine maiestie. Wherfore we Cuthbert, the Bishop aforesaid, greuously sorowing for the premisses, willyng to withstand the craft and subteltie of the aūcient enemy and his ministers, whiche seke the destructiō of my flocke, and with a diligent care, to take hede vnto the flocke committed to my charge, desiryng to prouide spedy remedies for the premisses, doe charge you ioyntly and seuerally, and by vertue of your obedience, straightly enioyne and commaunde you, that by our authoritie, you warne or cause to be warned, all and singular, aswell exempt as not exempt, dwellyng within your Archdeaconries, þt within. xxx. dayes space, whereof x. daies shalbe for þe first. x. for the second, &. x. for the third & peremptory terme, vnder payne of excommunication, and incurryng the suspicion of heresie, they do bryng in and really deliuer vnto our vicare generall, all and singular such bokes as conteyne the translation of the new Testament in the Englishe tongue, and that you do certifie vs or our sayd Commissarye, within ij. monethes after the day of the date of these presentes, duely, personally or by your letters, together with these presentes, vnder your seales, what you haue done in the premisses, vnder payne of cōtempt, geuen vnder our seale the. xxiij. of October, in the v. yeare of our consecration. an. 1526.
[Back to Top]¶ The lyke Commission in lyke maner and forme, was sent to the three other Archdeacons of Middlesexe, Essex, and Colchester, for the execution of the same matter, vnder the Byshops seale.
CloseIn October 1527, according to Le Neve's Fasti Ecclesiae, the archdeacons referred to here are Richard Rawson (Essex, collated on 24 January 1503, died c.29 October 1543), Richard Eden (Middlesex, collated on 11 August 1516, died c.9 April 1551) and Edward Lee (Colchester, collated on 19 November 1523, created archbishop of York in 1531). (See, Joyce M Horn [ed.], Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541: volume 5: St Pau's, London [1963], pp.9-14).
[Back to Top]¶ The names of the bookes that were forbidden
CloseThere was certainly no scarcity of indexes of forbidden or condemned works at this time. Bishops Fitzjames, Tunstal and Clerk (twice) had issued lists of heretical books, as had the Chancellor's office (twice in 1530) - see, Susan Brigden, London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989), p.179.] None of these list was comprehensive enough for Stokesley, who released another on 3 December 1531(see, Andrew A Chibi, Henry VIII's Conservative Scholar [Berne, 1997], p.122). Sometimes these lists are mixed up or wrongly credited. Foxe here describes two lists, of which the first is probably an official proclamation from the archbishop's office (a Clerk list) while the second is probably Stokesley's [However, cf. Tudor and Stuart Proclamations 1485-1714. 2 vols [Oxford, 1910], i, p.13 [no.114 of 6 March 1528] and p.14 [no.122 of June 1530] and L&P, v, Appendix no.768 (xviii)]. [Back to Top]tyme, together with the new Testament. |
MarginaliaBookes condemned and forbidden.THe supplication of beggers.
CloseThe works mentioned in this list include Simon Fish, The Supplicacyon for the Beggars (1529); a 1521 English publication, The Pope confounded and his kingdom exposed of Revelation of Antichrist (a work of Martin Luther which featured a number of woodcuts on the proposition that Rome is the new Babylon and the pope is now the Antichrist), or (alternatively) John Frith, Revelation of Antichrist published at Antwerp in 1529. There were, of course, numerous treatises on the subject of Antichrist available. The 1521 treatise is mentioned in William A Clebsch's article, 'The Earliest Translations of Luther into English', The Harvard Theological Review 56:1 (January 1963), pp. 75-86. The three other treatises mentioned here are Tyndale's The Parable of the Wicked Mammon (1528) - which is an 'elaboration and translation of Luther's exposition of the parable of the unjust steward' (William A. Clebsch, op.cit., p.75)]; The Obedience of a Christian man (1528) and Compendious introduction un to the pistle off Paul to the Romayns, which is sometimes known as Prologue to the Epistle to the Romans (1526) - and generally regarded as a direct translation of Martin Luther's Preface to St Paul's Epistle to the Romans (1522). (Leonard J Trinterud, 'A reappraisal of William Tyndale's debt to Martin Luther,' Church History 31 [1962], pp. 24-43 provides a comprehensive and comparative examination of the two treatises). For the 'Dialogue between the father and the son', There are several possible identifications. The most likely is William Roye's translation from the Latin of an anonymous German tract A Brefe Dialoge bitwene a Christen father and his stubborn Sonne (1526-7) (see William A. Clebsch, op.cit., p. 79) The next treatise in the list is Justus Menius, Economica christiana (1529). Menius, also known as Jost or Just Menig, was a Lutheran theologian, a student of Melanchthon's at Wittenberg, and had been heavily influenced in his opinions by Luther. He was variously a teacher, preacher and official church visitor for Duke John of Electoral Saxony. The following work is Unio dissidentium; Libellus ex praecipuis ecclesiae Christianae doctoribus selectus, per venerabilem petrum Herman. Bodium, an anthology of patristic works addressing a number of reformation related topics (e.g., the Eucharist, good works, etc.) Tyndale, in his disputations with Thomas More, made reference to a book entitled The Union of Doctors, which Foxe also seems to have appreciated. It is quite likely that this is the work to which he was referring. The Precationes Piae variis usibus, temporibus, et person is accommodatae was an anthology of prayers taken out of scripture, devotional poems and hymns. This had been recently translated in English by Geoffrey Lome, the porter of St Anthony's School and friend of soon to be executed heretics Thomas Bilney and Thomas Garrard (see John F Davis, 'The Trials of Thomas Bylney and the English Reformation', The Historical Journal 24 [1981], pp.775-90). The following treatise in the list is Martin Luther's famous Babylonian captivity of the church (1520). There follows Johannes Hus in Oseam (mentioned in Craig D'Alton, 'William Warham and English Heresy Policy after the Fall of Wolsey', Historical Research 77 [2004], pp.337-357). Then comes Huldrich Zwingli's notorious In catabaptistarum strophes elenchus (1527). The following work in the list probably refers to Wolfgang Capito, De pueris instituendis ecclesiae Argentinensis Isagoge (1527) which was translated into the English vernacular by William Roye in the same year. The next work is Johann Brenz (var: Brentz or Brentius) De administranda pie republica ac subditorum erga Magistratus justa obedientia libellus. Then comes a series of published works of Martin Luther, which include his famous Commentary on St Paul's Epistle to Galatians (1519); On the freedom of a Christian (1520) and A brief and sound explanation of the Lord's Prayer (1519). [Back to Top]The reuelation of Antichrist, of Luther. The new Testament of Tindall. The wicked Mammon. The obedience of a Christen man. An introduction to Paules Epistle to the Romanes. A Dialogue betwixt the father and the sonne. Oeconomicæ Christianæ. Vnio dissidentium. Piæ precationes. Captiuitas Babilonica. Ioannes Hus in Oseam. Zwinglius in Catabaptistas. De pueris instituendis. Brentius de administranda Republica. Luther ad Galatas. De libertate Christiana. Luthers exposition vpon the Pater noster. |
¶ Besides these bookes here before mētioned, within a short tyme after, there were a great nomber more
CloseThere were a number of lists of indexed books around this point in the early 1530s and D'Alton has done some interesting research into the problem of separating them (see Craig D'Alton, 'William Warham and English Heresy Policy after the Fall of Wolsey', Historical Research 77 [2004], pp.337-357. According to D'Alton, Bishop John Clerk (of Bath and Wells) had assembled a list for Archbishop William Warham's anti-Luther initiative of 1529. Clerk's list of 29 November, although no longer extant, may well have been the basis of subsequent lists, as preserved in David Wilkins, Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae. 4 vols. (London, 1737), 3, p.706 and L&P, iv, no.2607. From this, it is possible to reassemble the Clerk list. Bishop Tunstal (of London) is often credited with another booklist of 1531/2, but this was actually the much more comprehensive Bishop Stokesley list, which was made with the cooperation of the Lord Chancellor Thomas More (see, Andrew A Chibi, Henry VIII's Conservative Scholar (Berne, 1997), p.122). A great many Lutheran works, treatises and letters, seemed to have been in circulation in London at this time and several of these are listed here, along with an edition of John Wyclif's four treatises on church doctrine (which had been collected together into a single volume). The Wyclif work is Johannis Wiclevi Trialogus (1525) which had been published in Basel (and in the same year at Worms as Dialogorum Libri quattuor). The many Luther works mentioned are A treatise on good works (1520), Letter to Pope Leo X (30 May 1518) - which includes his Resolutions to the Ninety-five thesis - and De quatuodecim spectris (1520) - which was also known by the more formal title Tessaradecas Consolatoria pro laborantibus et oneratis (and which was translated into German by Georg Spalatin). This last was a pastoral work written as a comfort to the sick and was much praised by Erasmus, and translated into English (STC 10868). The list also includes Luther, On the freedom of a Christian (1520), Sermons on the First Epistle of St Peter (1523), and Ad Librum eximii magistri nostri Mag. Ambrosii Catharini defensoris Silv. Prieratis acerrimi, responsio M. Lutheri (1521). In 1520 Ambrosius Catharinus Politus had been commission by Giulio de' Medici (future Pope Clement VII) to write a defense of the church against Luther (which was eventually published as the Apologia of 1520, in which Politus listed eleven ways in which Luther - identified as Antichrist - deceived the people). The treatise mentioned here is Luther's rather angry response (See Patrick Preston, 'Catharinus versus Luther, 1521', History, 88 [2003], 364-78. Also listed here is Luther's Deuteronomium Mosi cum annotationibus (1523) translated as The Deuteronomy of Moses with notes, Large Catechism (1530), his Commentary of the book of Jonah (1526) and his Commentary on St Paul's Epistle to Galatians (1519). This last may refer to the published edition of Luther's lectures of the 1518-19 period which was subsequently reprinted in a second edition of 1523. The final Luther work mentioned at this point is Operationes in Psalmos (1519-1521). The problem with the many mentions made of Luther's commentaries in Foxe is that the works were spread out over a number of volumes (see Richard Marius, Martin Luther: the Christian between God and death [London, 1999], p.192) making it difficult to pin-point exact publishing details. At all events, one other work mentioned on this list is list is Martin Borrhaus (Cellarius), De operibus dei (1527). This treatise was published in Strasbourg and featured a preface written by Capito. Cellarius was a friend of Melanchthon and Luther who had been influenced into a more spiritual doctrine by the Zwickau prophet Marcus Stübner, after which he moved to Zürich and joined the Swiss Brethren, only to subsequently make peace with Luther in 1525. His book acknowledged the various justifications for temporal government, repudiated free will and spelled out a doctrine of election similar to Zwingli's.
[Back to Top]¶ Libri Sectæ siue factionis Lutherianæ importati ad ciuitatem London. per fautores eiusdem Sectæ, quorum nomina & auctores sequntur. |
IOannis VVycleffi viri piissimi dialogorū libri quatuor, quorum primus diuinitatem & ideas tractat. Secundus vniuersarum creationem complectitur. Tertius de virtutibus vitiisq̀ ipsis contra- riis copiosissimè loquitur. Quartus Romana Ecclesia sacramenta, eius pestiferam dotationem, antichristi regnum, fratrum fraudu- lentam originem atque eorum hypocrisim demonstrat. De bonis operibus doctoris Ma. Lutheri. Epistola Lutheri ad Leonem: x. summum Pontificem. Tessaradeca consolatoria pro laborantibus & oneratis Mart. Lutheri. Tractatus Lutheri de libertate Christiana. Sermo doctoris Martini Lutheri. Enarrationes M. Lutheri in epistolas D. Petri. Responsio Martini Lutheri ad librum Magistri Bartholomei Ca- tharini defensoris Siluestri Pontificis eum exposita visione Danielis 8. de an. Christi. |