1570 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1788 
Marginalia1555. Aprill.nothing at all to say. For I haue already sayd vnto you all that I haue to say: and that I haue sayd, I will not go from, and therfore do what ye will. &c.
Which when he had spoken, the Byshop proceded to the sentence, MarginaliaSentence of condemnation and degradatiō pronounced agaynst William Flower.condemnyng and excommunicating him for an hereticke, and after pronounced him also to bee disgraded, and so committed hym to the secular power. Vpon the. xxiiij. day of the foresaid moneth of Aprill, which was S. Markes euen, he was brought to the place of martyrdome, which was in S. Margarets churchyard at Westminster where the fact was committed, and there cōming to the stake where he should be burned, first he maketh hys prayer to almighty God with a confession of hys Christian fayth in maner as followeth.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaFlowers Prayer.OH eternall God, most mightye and mercyfull father, who hast sent downe thy Sonne vpon the earth, to saue me and all mankinde: who ascended vp into heauen againe,
and left hys bloud here vpon the earth behinde him for the redemption of our sinnes, haue mercy vpon me, haue mercy vpō me, for thy deare sonne our Sauiour Iesus Christes sake, in whom I confesse onely to be al saluation and iustification, and that there is none other meane, nor way, nor holynes, in which or by which any mā can be saued in this world. This is my faith, which I besech all men here to beare witnes of. Then he sayd the Lordes prayer, and so made an end.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaTalke betwen W. Flower and Maister Cholmley.Then Maister Cholmley came to hym, willing him to recant hys heresie, whereby he might doe good to the people, or els he would be damned.
Flower aunswered as followeth. Syr, I beseech you for Gods sake, be contented: for that I haue said, I haue sayd, and I haue bene of this fayth from the beginning: and I trust to the liuing God he wyll geue me hys holy spirite to continue to the end. Then hee desired all the world to forgue him, whom he had offended, as he forgaue all the world.
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CloseThis done, first his right hand being held vp against the stake, was stroocken of, hys left hand being stayed behynde hym. At the which strikyng of hys hand, certayne that were present beholders of the matter, and purposely obseruing the same, credibly enfourmed vs, that he in no part of his body did once shrincke at þe striking thereof, but once a litle hee sturred his shoulders.
CloseOnce again, Foxe is concerned to emphasize the stoicism of his martyrs, even when they were undergoing excruciating physical pain. This is also the reason for Foxe's detailed, graphic, even disgusting, account of Flower's death. On the polemical importance of the stoicism of the martyrs see Collinson (1983) and Freeman (1997).
[Back to Top]And thus fire was set vnto hym, who burning therin, cryed with a lowd voyce: Oh the Sonne of God haue mercy vpon me, Oh the Sonne of God receaue my soule,
CloseCuriously Foxe gives a different version of these words in the 1563 edition than he does in later editions. Presumably he altered these words but why he did so remains unclear.
And thus endured thys constant wytnes and faithfull seruaunt of God, the extremitye of the fyre, beyng therein cruelly handled by reason that to his burning lytle wood was brought, so that for lacke of fagots there not sufficient to burne hym, they were fayne to strike hym down into the fyre. Where he lying along (which was doulfull to beholde) vpon the ground, hys neather
[Back to Top]part was consumed in the fire, whilest hys vpper part was cleane without the fyre, hys toung in all mens sight still mouing in hys mouth.
CloseOnce again, Foxe is concerned to emphasize the stoicism of his martyrs, even when they were undergoing excruciating physical pain. This is also the reason for Foxe's detailed, graphic, even disgusting, account of Flower's death. On the polemical importance of the stoicism of the martyrs see Collinson (1983) and Freeman (1997).
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CloseThe executions of Cardmaker and Warne mark a point at which the Marian persecution began to go wrong in two ways. In the case of Cardmaker, the effort to secure a recantation from a prominent evangelical was initially succesful, only to backfire and produce a martyr instead. In the case of Warne, the persecution was beginning to turn away from prominent clerics to ordinary layfolk, although admittedly in Warne's case, layfolk with long-standing heretical views which were outspokenly expressed. Foxe does not say exactly what brought Warne to the attention of the authorities in Mary's reign, although the articles brought against Warne suggest he publicly derided the Marian religious reforms.
[Back to Top]In the Rerum, Foxe printed an account of Cardmaker's arrest with William Barlow, of Barlow's refusing to recant, thanks to the persausive influence of Laurence Saunders, Cardmaker's debates in prison with Thomas Martin and of Cardmaker's execution along with John Warne, a citizen of London (Rerum, pp. 442-43). This material was reprinted, with only minor changes, in all editions of the Acts and Monuments. It was derived from a narrative account of these events which was probably sent from a protestant in London to a co-religionist in exile and which was obtained by Grindal or one of his associates. This narrative - or more accurately, a copy of it - survives among Foxe's papers as BL, Harley 425, fol. 68r-v. There was also a passage in the Rerum (p. 443), stating that Warne had made a confession of faith which commented on the Apostle's Creed. Foxe probably had the document at this time, but he did not print it.
[Back to Top]In the 1563 edition, Foxe added the articles put to Cardmaker and Warne, along with their answers as well as an account of Bishop Bonner's examination of Warne. All of these were obtained from Bonner's records. Foxe also printed the confession of faith to which he had alluded in the Rerum.
In the second edition, Foxe added details of Cardmaker's background - that the martyr had been an Observant Franciscan and that he was a reader in St Paul's - undoubtedly obtained from oral sources. This may well have included the unnamed friend to whom Cardmaker sent a letter, which was printed for the first time in 1570. Foxe also added a note relating a final attempt, by Thomas Beard, to secure a recantation from Cardmaker. Cardmaker probably sent this account to a friend, possibly the same one to whom he had sent the letter.
[Back to Top]There were no changes made to the narrative of Cardmaker and Warne in the third or fourth editions of the Acts and Monuments.
CloseMost of the glosses in this section are the usual narrative pointers. There are glosses mocking the articles alleged against the martyrs ('The beliefe of the Popes Catholicke church'; 'To speake naturally of the naturall body of Christ, these two canot stād together at one tyme, vnles we graunt Christ to haue 2. bodyes'; 'That Christ neuer willed, neyther can the Scriptures beare it'; 'Heresye for laughing at a Spaniell shorne on the head'). A gloss which records that Warne was pardoned under Henry VIII makes the useful (implicit) point that the religious policy of his daughter was even more conservative. As ever, constancy is the signature of the martyrs as portrayed in the glosses ('Iohn Warne constant agaynst the Bishops persuasions'; 'Iohn Cardmaker standeth constantly to the fier'; 'The reioycing of the people at Cardmakers constancye'), and there is also a gloss recording the (as it emerged, groundless) fears of the people about Cardmaker's constancy ('The people afrayd at Cardmakers recanting').
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CloseI.e., Cardmaker was an Observant friar. These were members of the Franciscan order who claimed to be observing the original, and more rigorous, rules laid down by St Francis of Assisi, the order's founder.