Marginalia1555. Ianuary. religion and honour, which is amply, fully, sufficiently, and aboundantly conteined in the holy Testament, sealed with Christes own bloud. How much be ye bounde to God, to put you in trust with so holy and iust a cause?
Remember what lookers vpon you haue, to see and behold you in your fight: God and all his holy Angels, who be ready alway to take you vp into heauen, if ye be slaine in this fight. Also you haue stāding at your backs all the multitude of the faythfull, who shall take courage, strength, and desire to follow such noble and valiaunt Christians as you be. Bee not afeard of your aduersaries: Marginalia1. Iohn. 4. for he that is in you, is stronger then hee that is in them. Shrincke not, although it be paine to you. Your paines be not now so great, as hereafter your ioyes shal be. MarginaliaComfort taken out of Scriptures. Reade the comfortable chapters to the Romaines. 8. 10. 15. Hebrues. 11. 12. And vpon your knees thanke God, that euer ye were accompted worthy to suffer any thing for his names sake. Reade the second chapter of Saint Lukes Gospell, and there you shall see how the Shepheards that watched vpon their shepe all night, as soone as they heard that Christ was borne at Bethlem, by and by they went to see hym. MarginaliaTrue obedience putteth no doubtes. They did not reason nor debate with them selues, who should keepe the Wolfe from the shepe in the meane time, but did as they were commaunded, and committed their shepe vnto him, whose pleasure they obeyed. So let vs doe now we bee called, commit all other thinges to him that calleth vs. He wil take heede that all things shall be well. He will helpe the Husband, he will comfort the wyfe, he will guide the seruauntes, hee wyl keepe the house, he wyll preserue the goods: yea rather then it should be vndone, he wil wash the dishes, and rocke the cradle. MarginaliaAll carefulnes to be cast vpon the Lord. Cast therefore all your care vpon God, for he careth for you.
[Back to Top]Besides this, you may perceiue by your imprisonmēt, that your aduersaries weapons against you, be nothing but flesh, bloud, and tyranny. MarginaliaAll the strength of the Popes religion stondeth in outward force. For if they were able, they would maintaine their wicked religion by Gods word: but for lacke of that, they woulde violently compell such as they can not by holy scripture perswade, because the holy word of God, and all Christes doings be contrary vnto them. I pray you pray for me, and I wyll pray for you. And although we be asunder after the world: yet in Christ (I trust) for euer ioyning in the spirite, and so shall meete in the Palace of heauenly ioyes, after this short and transitory life is ended. Gods peace be wyth you. Amen. The. 4. of Ianuary. 1554.
The date of the letter is given as 4 January 1555 in all manuscript versions and every printed version up to and including 1570. In 1576, p. 1412, it is changed to 14 January 1555 and the mistake is reprinted in 1583, p. 1482. Once again, we can see the pattern of careless typography in the 1576 edition going uncorrected in the 1583 edition.
[Back to Top]The frequent description of the martyrs-to-be as 'Preachers' or 'persecuted Preachers' points up the perversity of their destruction, given the essential importance of their defining function. The book ends with two procedural objections and a (perhaps symbolic) reference to Acts. An example of a mistake in 1570 being corrected occursin later editions
[Back to Top]Foxe returns to lost chronicle source(s) for material on the release of prisoners implicated in Wyatt's rebellion in January 1555 which he added in 1570.
MarginaliaIanuary. 22.Vpon the Tuesday following, being the. xxij. of Ianuary, MarginaliaThe preachers called before the B. of Winchest. at S. Mary Oueries.all the Preachers that were in prison were called before the bishop of Winchester Lord Chauncellour and certayne other, at the Bishops house at saint Mary Oueries. From whence (after communication, beyng asked whether they woulde conuert and enioy þe Queenes pardō, or els stand to that they had taught: they all aunswered that they would stand to that they had taught) they were committed to straiter prison then before they were, wyth charge that none should speake wyth them.
[Back to Top]Amongest the which nūber of prisoners, one
In every edition, Foxe recorded the death in prison, on 7 January 1555, of one James 'Gorge' (in 1563, p. 1022 and 1570, p. 1655) or James 'George' (in 1576, p. 1412 and 1583, p. 1482). This is almost certainly a confusion with James Gore, a Protestant who died in Colchester Castle around 7 December 1555 and whose death will be described in Book 11. None of the other contemporary lists of Marian martyrs - i.e., those of Brice, Crowley and Knox - list either a James Gorge or a James George dying at this time.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIanuar. 28.Vpon the Wednesday folowyng beyng the xxiij. of Ianuary,
Foxe returns to his chronicle source(s) for an account of Pole's exhortation to convocation on 23 January 1555.
mitie and rigour, and so let them depart.
MarginaliaIanuary. 25.Vpō þe Friday folowyng being the xxv. of Ianuary,
Foxe, in 1570, corrects the date of the procession through London (wrongly given as 24 January 1555 in the first edition) celebrating England's reconciliation with Rome.
Besides, there was also present the Maior,
In the 1570 edition, Foxe added more detail to his account of the festivities; probably this was taken from another chronicle source.
After the procession, there was also commaundemēt giuen to make Bonefiers at night. Whereupon did rise among the people a doubtfull talke, why all this was done. Some sayd it was that the Queene, beyng then (as they sayd) with child, might haue a safe deliuery. Others thought that it was for ioy that the Realme was ioyned agayn to the Sea of Rome, which opinion of both, seemed most true.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIanuary. 28.Vpon the Monday folowyng beyng the xxviij. of Ianuary, the Byshop of Winchester and the other Byshops had MarginaliaCommission from the Cardinall to set vpon the persecuted preachers for religion.Commission from the Cardinall to sit vpon and order accordyng to the lawes, all such Preachers & heretickes (as they termed them) as were in prisō, and accordyng to this Commissiō the same day the Byshop of Winchester and the other Bishops with certaine of the Counsell, satte in S. Mary Oueryes Church and called before thē these iij, M. Hoper , M. Rogers, & M. Cardmaker, who were brought thether by þe Shriues. From whence after communication, they were committed to prison till the next day, but Cardmaker this day submitted him selfe vnto them.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIanuary. 29.Vppon the Tuesday beyng the xxix. of Ianuary,
In the 1570 edition, Foxe added brief accounts of the examinations of John Hooper, John Rogers, Rowland Taylor, John Bradford, Edward Crome, Laurence Saunders and Robert Ferrar, by Stephen Gardiner at the end of January 1555. This is clearly based on the original court book. The book itself no longer survives, but copies of the relevant pages are still extant in Foxe's papers as Harley MS 421, fols. 36r-51v. Foxe printed the gist of these records quite accurately and omitted nothing important. But Foxe did make one statement that goes beyond what is in these records. He declared that the commission to try these protestants came from Cardinal Pole (1570, p. 1635; 1576, p. 1412; 1583, p. 1483). The records of Hooper's examination by Gardiner state, however, that the trial was held under Gardiner's authority (Harley 421, fol. 36r). This does not necessarily mean that Pole did not issue such a commission; Gardiner may well have been trying to exert his own authority. Nevertheless, there is no evidence to support Foxe's claim of Pole's culpability.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIanuary. 30.Vpō the Wednesday beyng the xxx. of Ianuary D. Taylor, Doct. Crome , M. Bradford, M. Saunders, and Doct. Ferrar sometyme Byshop of S. Dauyes were before the sayd Byshops, where iij. of them, that is to say, MarginaliaD. Ferrar, D. Taylor, & M. Saunders condemned. Doct. Taylor, M. Saunders, and M. Bradford were lykewise excommunicated and sentēce pronounced vpō them, and so committed to the Shriues. Doct. Crome desired ij. moneths respite and it was graunted hym, and M. Ferrar was agayne committed to prison till an other tyme. All these mē shewed thē selues to be learned (as in dede they were no lesse) but what auayleth either learnyng, reason, or truth it selfe, where will beareth rule.
[Back to Top]After the examination and condemnation of these good men and Preachers aboue recited, Commissions and Inquisitours were sent abroade lykewyse into all partes of the Realme, by reason whereof a great number of most godly and true Christians (out of all the quarters of the Realme, but especially Kent, Essex, Northfolke, and Suffolke) were apprehēded, brought vp to London, & cast in prison, and afterward (most of thē) eyther cōsumed cruelly by fire, or els through euyl handlyng died in the prisons, and were buried on dūghyls abroad in the fieldes, or in some backside of the prison. Of all which matters, concernyng the tragicall
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