Calais was the last English outpost left from the Hundred Year's War. It was governed by the King's Deputy, directly answerable to the King. Since 1533, this had been Arthur, Viscount Lisle, whose religious inclinations were conservative and who sponsored, to the best of his ability, conservative clerics and officials in Calais. Spiritual jurisdiction, however, was held by Thomas Cranmer, the evangelical archbishop of Canterbury, who used his patronage to place evangelical preachers in livings in the town. Moreover, Cranmer's commissary for Calais, John Butler, was aggressively evangelical. Supporting Cranmer, was Thomas Cromwell, the vice-gerent for Spiritual affairs and, effectively, Henry VIII's chief minister. The tensions that developed from this division of authority and confessional allegiance were exacerbated by the conservative efforts in the years 1538-43, to oust Cromwell and Cranmer from power and the energetic responses of both minister and prelate to these threats. (On the situation in Calais see A. J. Slavin, 'Cromwell, Cranmer and Lord Lisle, a study in the politics of reform', Albion 9 [1977], pp. 316-36; Philip Ward, 'The politics of religion: Thomas Cromwell and the Reformation in Calais, 1534-40', Journal of Religious Religious History 17 [1992-3], pp. 152-71 and The Lisle Letters, ed. Muriel St. Clair Byrne, 6 vols. [Chicago, 1981]). Also of significance was Henry's open enmity towards Reginald Pole, his kinsman and, since 1535, the major spokesman against the king. Henry's wrath and paranoia towards Pole would be exploited by both conservatives and evangelicals.

Foxe's sources for the complicated, intertwined, narratives which follow were varied. The story of William Callaway and Dr. London first appeared in the Rerum, as did the account of the execution of Germain Gardiner (Rerum, pp. 143-4). The first came from Edward Hall, The union of two noble and illustre famelies of Lancastre and Yorke (London, 1550) STC 12734a, fo. 257r, the second probably was related to Foxe by John Bale. Both of these stories were repeated in all editions of the A&M. In the 1563 edition, Foxe added accounts of Adam Damplip (from unknown informants), Thomas Broke's speech against the Six Articles, accounts of the 1539 persecution of heresy in Calais, which came from informants, and accounts of the 1540 persecution of heresy in Calais, also obtained from informants, almost certainly including Thomas Broke's wife, who supplied the detailed narrative of her husband's ordeals. The 1563 edition also contained an account of an earlier heretic, William Button, who was forced to do penance in Calais sometime before 1532; Foxe states that this account was derived from informants in the town. And Foxe also added the recantations of John Athee and John Heywood, which he obtained from Bishop Bonner's register (Guildhall MS 9531/12, fos. 61r and 254v).

In the second edition, Foxe eliminated much of the material he had printed in the 1563 edition, including Thomas Broke's oration against the Six Articles, much of the interrogations of Broke and the recantation of John Heywood. But he also added material on Adam Damplip's 1541 arrest, imprisonment and death, obtained, as Foxe declares from John Marbeck. Foxe also added material on the persecution of William Smith and also on the 1540 persecution in Calais, which was obtained, as Foxe notes, from informants in Calais, including some of those who had been persecuted. They were also the source for the account Foxe added on the persecution of an unnamed labourer and a man named Dodd. There was no change to any of this material in subsequent editions, except that John Heywood's recantation was restored in the 1583 edition.

Thomas S. Freeman

In order to provide a link with the preceding narrative (on the three martyrs at Windsor in 1543), Foxe is beginning this account out of chronological order. Foxe is beginning, in 1543 (not 1544), with Damplip's execution.

Damplip was re-arrested in 1541 in the command of Stephen Gardiner, the bishop of Winchester. But Gardiner did not, as Foxe's wording implies, order Damplip's execution. That was done by royal command.

Foxe is indicating that John Marbeck is his source for the description of Damplip's imprisonment and execution.

This verbose denunciation of the papacy was omitted after the first edition of the A&M.

Lord Lisle was Lord Deputy of Calais, the governor of the city and representative of Henry VIII. John Butler was Thomas Cranmer's commissary for Calais and represented the archbishop.

In other words, Damplip preached against the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament. Henry VIII would have regarded such sermons as heresy.