Marginalia1555. Aprill.now to vndo that is done: and yet now beyng compelled by the spirit, not onely to come ouer the water, and to enter the Church, but being in mynd fully contēted to dye for the Lord, gaue ouer my flesh willingly without all feare, I prayse God: wherfore I cannot learne you to doe the lyke: First, because I know not what is in you. Secondly, because the rules of the Gospell commaundeth vs to suffer with patience all wronges and iniuries: yet neuertheles, if he make you worthy that hath made me zelous, ye shal not be letted, iudged, nor condemned: for he doth in his people his vnspeakable workes in all ages, which no man can comprehend: I humbly besech you to iudge the best of the spirite, and condemne not Gods doynges: for I cā not expresse with my mouth the great mercyes that God hath shewed on me in this thing, which I repent not.

Sm. Are ye not assured to haue death ministred vnto you for the same Act committed, and euen with extremitie?

Flo. I did before the deede committed, adiudge my body to dye for the same: MarginaliaWilliam Flower prepared hymselfe to death before the fact committed.wherupon I caried about me in writyng myne opinion of God and the holy Scriptures: that if it had pleased God to haue geuen them leaue to haue killed my body in the Church, they might in the sayd writing haue seene my hope, which (I praise God) is layd vp safe within my brest, notwithstandyng any death that may be ministred vnto my body in this world: beyng ascertained of euerlastyng life through Iesus Christ our Lord, & being most hartely sory for all myne offences committed in this flesh, and trusting shortly through his mercy, to cease from the same.

Sm. It is no nede to examine or common with you of the hope, that ye haue any farther: for I perceiue (God be praysed) ye are in good estate, and therefore I besech God for his mercyes, spread his winges ouer you, that as for his loue you haue bene zelous, euen to the losse of this lyfe, so he may geue you his holy spirite to conducte you out of this death, into a better lyfe, which I thinke wilbe shortly.

Flo. I hunger for the same (deare frend) beyng fully ascertained that they can kill but the body, which I am assured shall receiue life agayne euerlastyng and see no more death: entierly desiring you and all that feare the Lord, to pray with me to almighty God, to performe the same in me shortly. And thus Rob. Smith departed leauyng him in þ^e dungeon & went agayne to his ward. And this (gētle Reader) is the truth, as nere as the said Smith could report it.

And thus much concernyng the talke betwene hym and Rob. Smith in Newgate cōcerning his fact in strikyng the Priest. Now to returne agayne to the matter of his examination, where we left, we shewed before how this Williā Flower after his strikyng the Priest, first was layd in the Gatehouse: then beyng examined before Boner, had Articles ministred agaynst him: the copy wherof here foloweth.

¶ Articles obiected and ministred by B. Boner, agaynst W. Branch, Aliâs Flower, late of Lambeth in the County of Surrie.  

Commentary     Close

The articles alleged against Flower and his answers to them are taken from Bishop Bonner's records, very probably from a court book which is now lost.

MarginaliaArticles obiected agaynst William Flower by Byshop Boner.FIrst, that thou being of lawfull age and discretion, at the least of xvij. yeare olde, was professed a Monke in the late Abbey of Ely, wherein after thy profession thou remaynedst vntill the age of 21. yeares, vsing all the meane tyme the habite and religion of the same house, and wast reputed and taken notoriously  

Commentary     Close

The word 'notoriously' did not have negative connotations in the sixteenth century; the article is merely saying that Flower was widely known as a monk.

Item, that after the premisses, thou wast ordered and made priest, according to the laudable custome of the catholike church, and afterward, thou didst execute and minister as a priest, and wast commonly reputed, named and taken for a priest.

Item, that after the premisses, thou forgetting God, thy conscience, honesty, and the laudable order of the catholike church, diddest MarginaliaIn the latter dayes certaine shall depart from the fayth, forbidding mariage & eatyng of meates. 1. Tim. 4.contrary to thy profession & vow, take as vnto thy wife, one woman, commonly called Alice Pulton in the parish church of Tewkesbery in þ^e Dioces of Glocester, with whom thou haddest mutuall cohabitation and carnall copulation, as man and wife, and

begattest of her two children.

MarginaliaA great heresy.Item, that thou being a religious man and a priest, diddest, contrary to the order of the ecclesiasticall lawes, take vpon thee to practise in diuers places wythin the Dioces of London, phisicke and surgery, whē thou wast not admitted, expert, nor learned.

Item that vpon Easter day last past, that is to wit, the 14. day of this present month of Aprill, wythin the parishe church of S. Margaretes at Westmynster, wythin the Countie of Middlesex and Dioces of London, thou didst maliciously, outragiously, and violently pull out thy weapon, that is to witte, thy wodknife or hanger. And wheras the priest and minister there called Syr Iohn Cheltham, was executing hys cure and charge especially in doyng hys seruice, & ministryng the sacrament of the aultar to the cōmunicantes, then didst thou wickedly & abominably smite wyth thy sayd weapō þ^e said priest, first vpō the head very sore, and afterwards vpon his hands or other partes of hys body, drawing bloud abundantly vpon hym: the sayd priest then holding the sayd sacrament in hys hand, and geuing no occasion, why thou shouldest so hurt hym: the people greuously beyng offended therewith, and the sayd church polluted thereby, so that the inhabitantes were compelled to repayre to an other Church to communicate, and to receiue the sayd Sacrament.

Item, that by reason of the premisses, thou wast and art by the ecclesiasticall lawes of the church, amongst other penalties, excommunicate and accursed ipso facto, and not to be companyed wythall, neither in church, nor otherwhere, but in speciall cases.

Item, that thou concerning the verity of Christes naturall body & bloud in the Sacrament of the aultar, hast bene by þ^e space of these yeares. 20. 19. 18. 17. 16. 15. 14. 13. 12. 11. 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. and 1. or any one of them, & yet art at thys present of the opinion, that is to say: MarginaliaHis fayth in the Sacrament.That in the sayd Sacrament of the aultar, after the wordes of consecration, there is not really, truely, and in very deede, cōtayned (vnder the formes of bread) the very true & naturall body of our Sauiour Iesus Christ.

Item, that thou for the hatred and disdayne, that thou hadst and didst beare agaynst the sayd sacrament, and the vertue thereof, and agaynst the sayd priest ministring the same (as before) didst smite, wound, and hurt hym in maner and forme as before is declared.

Item, that thou ouer and besides the paynes due vnto thee, for the doyng of the cruell fact, art also by the order of the ecclesiasticall lawes of the church, and the laudable custome and ordinaunce of the same, to be reputed, taken, and iudged (as thou art in deede) a very heretike, and to be punished, by and with the paynes due for heresy, by reason of thy sayd heresie and damnable opinion.

Item, that all the premisses be true, manifest, and notorious and famous, and that vpon the same, and euery part thereof, there was and is within the sayd parish of S. Margarets and other places thereabout, a publicke voyce and fame.

¶ The aunswer of W. Flower made to the articles aforesayd.  

Commentary     Close

The articles alleged against Flower and his answers to them are taken from Bishop Bonner's records, very probably from a court book which is now lost.

MarginaliaFlower answereth to the articles.TO the first article hee aunswereth, and confesseth the same to bee true in euery part thereof, except that he sayth and confesseth that he neuer cōsented and agreed in hys hart to be a Monke.MarginaliaFlower made Monke against hys wyll.

To the second article he aunswereth, and confesseth the same to be true in euery part thereof. Howbeit he sayth, that he neuer did nor yet doth esteme the said order of priesthood according to the sayd order of the Catholicke church, because he was offended therewith in hys conscience.

To the thyrd article he aunswereth, and confesseth that he intending to lyue in godly matrimony, and not forgetting God, did marry with the sayd Alice Pulton named in thys article: MarginaliaFlower confesseth hys matrimony to be honest and lawfull.wherein he beleueth that he did well, and according to Gods lawes. Further, confessing and beleuing, that all the tyme when he was professed Moonke, and made Priest, he did thereby vtterly forget God: MarginaliaW. Flower more deuout to God beyng in the state of matrimony, then before.but when he dyd so marry the sayd Alice Pulton, and in continuing wyth her, dyd beget. 3. chyldren, he did remember God, as he saith, and beleueth that he did then lawfully.

To the fourth article he answereth, and beleueth the