1570 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1293 
ners) a sinner, a breaker of the lawes of God, and dayly doth or may fall and sinne? And for that cause the law cōmaunded that euery Byshop and Priest should first offer hostes and sacrifice for hys owne sinnes, and afterward for the sinnes of the people. How can he therefore be called a great Bishop or Priest?
[Back to Top]Our Byshop we speake of, is the very great Byshop. No dole, no fraude, no gyle was euer founde in his mouth. And whē the Prince of the world, the deuill came to him, he could finde no point of sinne in him. Wherfore Gabriel the Archangel shewing his natiuite vnto Mary his mother, sayd: Hic erit magnus, & filius altissimi vocabitur. Marginalialuce. 1.He shall be greate, and shall be called the Sonne of God. And agayne it is writen of hym: Propheta magnus surrexit inter nos:MarginaliaLuce. 7. A great Prophet is rysen amongest vs. Synne maketh a man small and litle: lytle in reputation both afore God and man. Vertue maketh man great and of hygh reputation. MarginaliaNo sinner called great in the scripture.Shewe me one place in Scripture where ye haue redde, that a synner was called great? I trowe it shall not be founde. Will you here who were called great in scripture? It is writen of Isaac, quod proficiebat valde, & factus est magnus valde. MarginaliaGene. 26.He profited greatly in vertue, and was made great, great in reputation of the world. Moyses was called Magnus, great for hys vertue. MarginaliaExodi. 11.Abraham and Iohn Baptist likewyse. MarginaliaLuce. 1.Now Iesus our Bishop is called magnus Episcopus, magnus Sacerdos. And after him neuer Bishop called Magnus in all Scripture, neyther in the reputation of man, vnles it be in cōparison one of an other (and so Sainctes and holy lyuers are called great in respecte of synners, or other meane liuers) but where Christ our Bishop commeth, there he, not in comparison of other, but simpliciter, by his own magnitude and greatnes, and of hymself, euer was and is great, of whome it is wrytten: A summo cœlo egressio eius, & occursus eius vsque ad summū eius. MarginaliaPsal. 18.And as þe Apostle also proueth in many places by expresse wordes. But nowe there is no Bishop nor Priest in this worlde, that may worthely of hym selfe be called great, nor ought to take this name Magnus vpon hym.
[Back to Top]This is he therfore of whom it is wryten: Magnus Sacerdos ex fratribus suis. MarginaliaLeuit. 21.The great Bishop aboue al other. And as he is called and in very dede is, Pastor pastorum, Pontifex pontificum, Propheta prophetarum, Sanctus sanctorum, Dominus dominantium, Rex regum: Ita & magnus magnorum est. As he is called the herdesman of herdesmen, the Bishop of bishops, the Prophet of prophets, the Holye of holyest, the Lorde of lords, and kyng of kyngs: euen so is hee called and verilye is Episcopus magnus. Therfore, the Prophete did adde, Magnus Sacerdos ex fratribus suis, the great Bishop or Priest: great of hym selfe, great in vertue and power, great of him self, and great in comparison afore all other. And therfore the Apostle said: Habemus Pontificem magnum, qui penetrauit cœlos, IESVM filium DEI. We haue a great Bishop, which did penetrate the heauens, Iesus the sonne of God.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe Pope encrocheth vpon Christ.Here may ye now see how the Bishop of Rome doth wrongfullye encroch vppon our greate Bishop Iesus Christ, to take from hym, not onely thys name Magnus, and is not with that name yet contented, but addeth more, videlicet, Maximus, Summus, Sanctus, Beatissimus, Vniuersalis, and such other. The greatest, the hyghest, the holyest, the blessedst and vniuersall, in the superlatiue degrees. And yet there is no greate Byshop, but Christ onely, no supreme Bishop, but he onely, none holy, none blessed, none vniuersall Bishop, but onely he. The Bishop of Rome, and all other Bishops are but vnderlings and vnworthy suffraganes vnto this Bishop Christ.
[Back to Top]This our Christ (as witnesseth the Apostle) is Pontifex nostræ confessionis, the Bishop whome we doe confesse to bee our great Bishop, our hygh Bishop, our supreme Bishop, our holy, blessed, and vniuersall Bishop. Which names are reserued onely vnto Christ, and to no earthly Bishop. Not to the Bishop of Rome, not to the Bishop of Ierusalem, not to the Bishop of Antioch, nor of Constantinople, nor to any other Bishop. No earthly bishop to presume to take vpon him these hygh and holy names, onely to God apropriate.
[Back to Top]God of thy goodnes thou maist and I trust wilt once make this vaynglorious bishop of Rome, firste to knowe & knowledge thy sonne Christ to be the onely supreme & vniuersall Bishop of the world. Secondarylye to know hymselfe, his weaknes, hys frayltye and his presumption. To knowe hys office and bounden duetye vnto thee. To knowe his owne dioces, and to vsurpe no further. Thyrdlye to haue a lowe, humble, meeke harte and stomacke: to feare thee God & thy iudgements, to know-ledge his owne faultes, and vsurpations, and to redresse the same.
[Back to Top]Now to returne vnto our matter, it followeth in the letter firste taken: De quo edere non habent potestatem qui tabernaculo deseruiunt. &c. And thus much out of Iohn Longlands Sermon agaynst the Pope.
MarginaliaRead afore pag. 1547.
1538.Your heard before by the kynges Iniunctiōs aboue expressed, and directed out an. 1538. how all such Images and pictures, whiche were abused with Pilgrimage or offeringes, or any Idolatrie, were abolished: by vertue of which Iniunction, MarginaliaImages and Pilgrimages destroyed in England.diuers Idols and especially the most notable stockes of Idolatrie, were takē downe the same yeare. 1538. as the Images of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the Lady of Wilsdone, Th. Becket, with many moe, hauing engines to make their eyes to open and role about, and other partes of their body to styrre, and many other false iugglynges, as the bloud of hayles, and such like, wherewith the simple people a long tyme had bene deceiued. All which were espyed out, and destroyed.
MarginaliaThe Idoll of Daruell Gatheren in Wales.Among diuers other of these foule Idoles, there went also in the same rekenyng, a certeine old Idolatrous Image in Wales named Daruell Gatheren: whiche in the moneth of May, in the yeare aboue mētioned, was brought vp to Lōdon, and brent in Smithfield. With the whiche Idoll also was brent the same tyme, and hanged for treason, Frier Forest, of whom some mention was partly touched before in the story of Cardinall Wolsey, MarginaliaRead afore pag. 1121.pag. 1121.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaFryer Forest executed for rebelling agaynst the kinges supremacie.THis Forest was an obseruaunt Frier
CloseJohn Forest has the unenviable distinction of the only Catholic executed for heresy in England during the Reformation. Forest was arrested in March or April 1538 for denying the Royal Supremacy when hearing confession. However, the authorities charged him with heresy instead of treason. Peter Marshall, who has analysed Forest's arrest and martyrdom, and the circumstances behind them, has argued that Forest's conviction for heresy was partly due to the recent papal summoning of a council at Mantua, which had heightened Henry VIII's sensitivity to denials of his supremacy over the Church. It was also partly due to anxiety that confessionals were being used to hatch treasonable plots. Marshall also argues that the decision to try Forest as a heretic was made by Cromwell in the expectation that the friar would recant and perform a humiliating recantation. At first, all went according to plan and Forest, after being convicted of heresy, agreed to abjure at Paul's Cross. However, in prison, Forest changed his mind. When Cromwell's original plan foundered on Forest's refusal to submit, the Vicegerent turned Forest's execution into a piece of political theatre. Forest was burned, on 22 May 1538, along with Dderfel Gadern, a great wooden statue that had been an object of pilgrimage at Llandderfel in North Wales. (For a detailed analysis of Forest's trial and martyrdom see Peter Marshall, 'Papist as Heretic: The Burning of John Forest, 1538', Historical Journal 41 [1998], pp. 354-74).
[Back to Top]Foxe's first account of Forest was a brief note in the Rerum (p. 148) stating that friar Forest was executed for denying the Royal Supremacy in 1538. The account notes that Forest was burned along with an idol transported from Wales. This material was abridged from Hall's chronicle. In the 1563 edition, Foxe simply reprinted Hall's account word-for-word (cf. 1563, pp. 571-2 with Edward Hall, The union of the two noble and illustre families of Lancastre and York [London, 1550], STC 12723a, fos. 232v-233r). In the 1570 edition, Foxe made some changes to this account, deleting verses describing the burning of Forest and the statue and adding a brief account of the dissolution of the monasteries.
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CloseDuring his trial, Forest admitted that he had told a penitent that when he [Forest] denyed papal supremacy, it was with an oath sworn by his outward man, but not the inward man [L&P XIII (1), no. 1043 (1)].
CloseIt is interesting to compare this denigrating account of Forest's submission, and then withdrawal of his submission, with the numerous admiring accounts, by Foxe, of Protestant martyrs - e.g. John Cardmaker and Thomas Whittle - doing exactly the same thing.
In the place of execution, there was a scaffold prepared for the kynges most honorable Counsaile and the nobles of þe Realme to sitte vpon, to graunt him pardō, if he had any sparke of repentance in him. There was also a Pulpite prepared where the right reuerend father Hugh Latimer Byshop of Worcester declared hys errours, & manifestly confuted them by the Scripture, with many godly exhortations to moue him to repentaunce. But hee was so froward, that hee neither would heare neither speake. A litle before, the foresayd Image called Daruell Gatheren
CloseFoxe is deriving this spelling, or rather misspelling, from Hall. The statue was named 'Dderfel Gadern' and it was from Llanderfel, a pilgrimage site in North Wales.
ClosePeter Marshall notes that this prophecy was first recorded in Hall's chronicle, a decade after the burning and the proceedings against Forest had begun before the authorities in London had heard of 'Dderfel Gadern' (Peter Marshall, 'Papist as Heretic: The Burning of John Forest, 1538' in Historical Journal 41 [1998], p. 356). It is most likely that the 'prophecy' was an invention made following Forest's execution.
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CloseThese verses are part of the 'Fantasie of Idolatrie', printed on 1563, pp. 590 [recte 599]-589 [recte 600]. The stanzas here were included in the account of Forest in Hall's chronicle.
In the moneth of October and Nouember the same