1570 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1793 
MarginaliaAn. 1555. May.the Lord strengthen you, me and all his elect. My riches and pouertye is as it was wont to be, and I haue learned to reioyce in pouertye, as well as in riches: for that count I now to be verye riches. Thus fare ye well in Christ. Salute all my brethren in my name. I haue cōferred with some of my aduersaries, learned men, and I fynde that they be but Sophistes and shadowes.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaA note concerning the talke betwene M. Cardmaker and Beard a Promoter.MAister Cardmaker being cōdemned and in Newgate, one Beard a Promoter came to hym two or three dayes before he was burned, and sayd vnto hym: Syr, I am sent vnto you by the Counsayle, to knowe whether ye wyll recant or no?
Cardmaker. From which Counsaile are ye come? I thynke ye are not come, nor yet sent from the Quenes Counsaile, but rather from the Commissioners, vnto whō (as I suppose) ye belong. And where as ye would know, whether I wyll recant or no, thus I pray you report of me, to those whom ye sayd, sent you. I know you are a Taylor by your occupation, and haue endeuored your selfe to be a cunning workeman, and thereby to get your liuing: so I haue bene a Preacher these xx. yeares, and euer since that God by his mercy hath opened myne eyes to see hys eternall truth, I haue by hys grace, endeuoured my selfe to call vpon hym, to geue me the true vnderstanding of hys holy word, and I thanke hym for hys great mercy, I hope I haue dyscharged my conscience in the setting forth of the same, to that litle talent that I haue receiued.
[Back to Top]Beard. Yea Syr, but what say you to the blessed Sacrament of the aultar?
Card. I say, and marke it well, that Christ the nyght before hys bytter passion, ordayned the holy and blessed Communion, and hath geuen commaundement, that hys death should be preached before the receiuing therof, in the remembraūce that hys body was broken, and hys precious bloud shed for the forgeuenes of our sinnes, to as many as faithfully beleue & trust in hym.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe sentence and iudgement of Maister Cardmaker touching the Sacrament.And furthermore, to conclude the matter briefly with him, he asked of hym, whether the sacrament, he spake of, had a beginning or no? Whereunto when he had graunted and affirmed the same so to be, then M. Cardmaker agayne thus inferred thereupon: If the sacrament (sayd he) as you confesse, haue a begynning and an ending, then it can not be God: for God hath no beginning nor ending, & so willing him well to note the same, he departed from hym.
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CloseThe usual narrative pointers are given in the glosses in this section, along with glosses giving summaries of the contents of articles alleged against the martyrs and their answers. As it often does, 1563 uses numbers in the margin to mark out the articles and the answers to them; this is in line with its generally (though not universally) less ambitious attitude to annotation in comparison with later editions. Two notes continue Foxe's campaign to portray Bonner as the slave to his passions: 'Q. Mary stirreth Boner to shedde innocent bloud' and 'A note of the sodaine fear of Boner'. The first of these is an interestingly unreserved comment on the role of the Queen in the persecutions: she is portrayed as the principal agent in the stirring up of Bonner, even though the letter was also from her husband.
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CloseThere is some evidence that John Simpson was a more important figure among the Marian protestants then even Foxe realized. He had been one of the organizers of the Bocking conventicle, a major meeting of evangelicals from Kent, Essex and Suffolk during Edward VI's reign (see Freeman [2002], pp. 130-31). There are also a number of manuscript copies of a letter which Simpson wrote to followers in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Kent (BL, Lansdowne 389, fos. 144v-145v and 243r-v as well as ECL 260, fos. 47r-48v, 55r-v and 252v-253v). Interestingly, two other martyrs, John Denley and John Newman, were apprehended journeying from Kent to visit Simpson and Ardley in Essex.
[Back to Top]In the Rerum, however, Foxe confused John Simpson with another Marian martyr, Cuthbert Simpson (Rerum, p. 462). The Rerum also states that Simpson and Ardley were both burned on 11 June 1555 (the correct date is 10 June 1555) at Rochford and Rayleigh respectively (Rerum, p. 462). The Rerum (p. 462) also contains a story of a false rumour of a riot causing a panic at the condemnation of Ardley and Simpson which would be reprinted in every edition of the Acts and Monuments.
[Back to Top]Foxe added a great deal of material in his 1563 edition; in fact, all of the information Foxe printed on Ardley and Simpson appears in his first edition. In 1563, Foxe added the letter from Philip and Mary to Bonner, which was copied from Bonner's register. He also added the articles charged against the two martyrs, their answers and an account of their condemnation, all taken from a now lost official record. probably a court book. And in the appendix of the 1563 edition, Foxe added a short account of the defiance of Ardley and Simpson at their condemnation. This came from an eyewitness while the first edition was being printed.
[Back to Top]In the second edition, Foxe did not add any material but he rearranged it. First he placed the overall narrative of Ardley and Simpson in its proper chronological place. Then Foxe conflated the articles and answers of the two martyrs, and he moved the story of the defiance of the two martyrs at their condemnation from the appendix. This version of the account of Ardley and Simpson was printed unchanged in the third and fourth editions of the Acts and Monuments.
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CloseFoxe copied this letter from Bonner's register; see GL, 9531/12, fol. 363r.
MarginaliaThe King and Queenes letter to Byshop Boner.RIght reuerend father in God, right trusty and welbeloued, we greete you well. And where of late we addressed our letters to the Iustices of peace within euery of the Counteis of this our Realme, wherby amongest other instructions geuen them for the good order and quyet gouernement of the Countrey about thē, they are willed to haue a speciall regard vnto such disordred persons, as forgetting their dutyes towardes God and vs, do leane to any erroneous and hereticall opinions, refusyng to shew thēselues conformable to the Ca-
[Back to Top]tholicke religiō of Christes church: wherin if they cā not by good admonitiōs & fayre meanes reforme them, they are willed to deliuer them to the Ordinary, to be by hym charitably trauayled withall, and remoued (if it may be) from their noughty opinions, or els if they continue obstinate, to be ordred accordyng to the lawes prouided in that behalfe: vnderstandyng now, to our no litle maruaile, that diuers of the said disordred persons, beyng by the Iustices of the peace for their contempt and obstinanacie, brought to the Ordinaryes
CloseAn ordinary was any person exercising authority by virtue of holy orders, in this case the bishop in charge of the diocese to which the accused person belonged.
ClosePhilip and Mary were claiming that the bishops were failing to prosecute the heresy cases brought before them and were ordering their bishops to take a tougher line against them.
This letter thus cōming from the Court to the Bishop, made hym the more earnest and hastye to the condemnation, as wel of others, as of these men, of whom now we haue presently to entreate, of Iohn Symson I meane, and Iohn Ardeley. MarginaliaIoh. Ardeley & Ioh. Symson both husbandmen in the towne of Wigbarow.Which both being of one coūtrey, and of one towne together, and of one trade, that is, being both husbandmen in the towne of Wygborow in Essex, and also almost both of one age, saue that Symson was of the age of xxxiiij. the other of. xxx. were brought vp together by the vnder Sheriffe of Essex to Boner bishop of London, vpon the accusation (as in that tyme it was called) of heresy.
[Back to Top]As touching the order and maner of their examinatiōs before the bishop, as the articles ministred against them, were much lyke: so their aunswers againe vnto the same were not much discrepant in maner & forme, as out of the Bishops owne Registers here followeth, expressed.
CloseThe articles and answers of Ardley and Simpson were taken from an official record of Bonner's which is now lost, probably a court book. Note that in the second edition Foxe conflated the two sets of identical articles and nearly identical answers.
MarginaliaArticles ministred agaynst Ioh. Symson, and Ioh. Ardley.1. FIrst, that thou Ioh. Symson (or Ioh. Ardley) husbādman, of the age of 34. yeare, or thereabout, wast and art of the Parish of great Wigborow, within the Dioces of London, and thou hast not beleued, nor doest beleue that there is here in earth one catholicke and vniuersal whole Church which doth hold and beleue all the fayth and Religion of Christ and all the necessary Articles and Sacramentes of the same.
[Back to Top]2. Item, that thou hast not beleued, nor doest beleue, that thou art necessarily bounden vnder þe paine of damnation of thy soule, to geue full fayth and credence vnto the sayd Catholicke and vniuersall Church, and to the Religion of the same, in all necessary poyntes of the sayd fayth and Religion, without waueryng or doubtyng in the sayd fayth and Religion, or in any part therof.
[Back to Top]3. Itē, that thou hast not beleued, nor doest beleue, that that fayth and Religiō, which both MarginaliaThe Church of Rome, Italy, Spayne, and other forrayne countreyes in Europe.the Church of Rome, Italy, Spayne, England, Fraunce, Ireland, Scotland, and all other Churches in Europe, beyng true members & partes of the sayd Catholicke and vniuersall Church do beleue and teach, is both agreyng with the sayd Catholicke and vniuersall Church, and the fayth and Religion of Christ, and also is the very true fayth and Religion, which all Christē people ought to beleue, obserue, folow and kepe, but contrariwise thou hast beleued, and doest beleue, that that faith and Religion, which the sayd Church of Rome, and all the other Churches aforesayd haue heretofore beleued, and do now beleue, is false, erroneous and nought, and in no wise ought to be beleued, obserued,
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