Marginalia1555. Iuly.nigh as to these? God make you wise and politicke in hart, victorious in the field of this world, to rule the nations with a rod: but kill not the Gabaonites with whō peace is taken: MarginaliaThe Gabaonites though they be but strangers, and not to be pampered, yet are they not to be cast out.but let them draw water, and hew wood, but geue them their meat and drinke due for labourers, and be glad because your disease is so remedied: for it is better and easier for a thirsty labouryng man to drinke, them for a dronken man to tell a sober wise tale. Yea, it is a token that ye haue earnestly folowed your labour, and not kept cōpany with dronkardes and belly Gods: and therfore be glad I say, yea and glad agayn: for great is your reward in heauen: yea blessed shall she be that in this your zeale shall meete you and withdraw your hād from reuengyng your selfe vppon that churlish Naball: whiche thyng I hope to do now with these sweete reasons, and frayles of Figges, I beyng of one house with your seruaunt Nabal. I dare say to you, that churlishnes is his name: but reuenge not, for the Lord shall do it in his due tyme. Farewell myne owne heart.
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Yours in bondes at West-
gate, Nicholas Sheterden.
A room above the western gate to the city of Canterbury was used as a prison.
The next day after the condemnation of these foresayd, which was the 26. day of Iuly, were also condemned for the same Articles W. Coker, W. Hopper of Crambroke, Henry Laurence, Rich. Wright of Ashford, W. Stere of Ashford. But because the execution of these Martyrs perteineth not to this moneth, more shalbe sayd (the Lord willyng) of them, when we come to the moneth folowyng of August.
[Back to Top]All that there is on these three martyrs in the Rerum is a note stating thatJohn [sic] Wade was executed at Dartford in July, that John [sic] Polley was executed at Tunbridge in July and that Nicholas Hall was executed at Rochester in the same month. This information was essentially repeated in the 1563 edition. But in the 1570 edition Foxe added all the material he would ever have on the examinations of these martyrs. Foxe stated that this material came from the Rochester diocesan records. Foxe's account of these examinations remained unchanged in subsequent editions.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIuly. 19.THe ame moneth of Iuly next after the sufferyng of the Kentish mē aboue named, folowed þt death & Martyrdome of MarginaliaNic, Hall, and Christofer Wayde, Martyrs.Nicolas Halle Brickelayer, and Christopher Wayd of Dartford, whiche both were condemned by Maurice B. of Rochester, about the last day of the moneth of Iune. The vj. Articles ministred to them were of the same ordinary course and effect, with the Articles of the other Martyrs before specified pag. 1852. the brief sūme wherof were these.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaArticles obiected agaynst Nic. Hall and Christopher Wayde.1. FIrst, that they were Christen men, and professed the Catholicke determinations of our mother holy Church.
2. That they which maintein or hold, otherwise then our holy mother the Catholicke Church doth, are heretickes.
3. That they haue and do mainteine, that in the Sacrament of the aultar vnder the formes of bread and wyne, is not very body and bloud of CHRIST. And that the sayd very body of CHRIST is verely in heauen onely & not in the Sacrament.
4. Item, that they haue and do hold and mainteine, that the Masse as it is now vsed in the Catholicke Church is nought and abominable.
5. Item, that they haue ben and be amongest the people of that Iurisdiction vehemently suspected vpon the premisses and therupon indicted. &c.
MarginaliaTheyr answers.TO these Articles they aunswered as commonly other vsed to do, which stand with CHRIST and his truth agaynst the false pretensed Catholickes and their sinister doctrine. Fyrst grauntyng them selues Christen men, and acknowledgyng the determinations of the holy Church, that is, of the congregatiō or body of CHRIST: saue that Halle denyed to cal þe Catholicke & Apostolicke church his mother, because MarginaliaThys word mother church, is not foūd in the scripture.hee found not this worde (mother) in the Scripture. To the second they graunted. To the thyrd Article as touchyng þe very body & bloud of CHRIST to be vnder þe formes of bread & wyne in substance they would not graunt, onely affirmyng the very body of hym to be in heauen, & in þe Sacramēt to be a token or remēbraunce of CHRISTES death: Nicholas Halle adding moreouer, and saying, that whereas before he held the Sa-
[Back to Top]crament to be but onely a token or remembraunce of CHRISTES death, now hee sayd, MarginaliaAnswere of N. Halle.that therein is neither token nor remembraūce, because it is now misused and cleane turned from CHRISTES Institution &c. And as concerning the Masse in the iiij. article to be abominable, Christopher Wayd with the other aunswered, MarginaliaAnswere of Chri. Wayd.that as they had confessed before so would they now not go from that they had said. To the fift Article, for the peoples suspiciō they made no great accoumpt nor stickyng to graunt to the same.
[Back to Top]And thus much concernyng the Articles and aunsweres of these good men. Which beyng receaued, immediatly MarginaliaCondemnatiō of N. Halle and Christopher Wayd, Martyrs.Sentence of condemnation was pronounced by the sayd Maurice the Byshop agaynst them, the copy of which sentēce, as it runneth much what after the cōmon course in condemnyng all other lyke seruaūtes of CHRIST, so the same beyng examplified before in the story of M. Rogers, pag. 1661. shall not greatly neede here agayne to bee repeated, but rather may bee referred ouer to the place aboue noted. Nic. Halle was burned at Rochester about the 19. day of Iuly.
[Back to Top]As touching Christopher Waide, albeit I haue no full certeintie where he suffred, yet most it is that hys martyrdome was at Dartford, about þe said xix. of Iuly.
MarginaliaEx Registro.Furthermore, with the foresaid Halle & Wayde, in the same moneth of Iuly, three other moe were condēned by Maurice Byshop aforenamed, whose names were, MarginaliaIoane Beach, Ioh. Harpolle, Margery Polley, condemned at Rochester.Ioane Beach wydow,
Joan Beach and John Harpool would not be executed until April 1556. The reason for this delay is unclear, but most unusually Joan Beach was condemned twice, once in July 1555 and once in April 1556 (PRO C/85/144 fos. 34r and 35r), suggesting perhaps that her original condemnation was invalid for some unknown reason.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaMargery Polley, Widow and Martyr.MArgery Polley wydow,
Foxe had endless trouble recording her name accurately. In the Rerum(p. 510) her name is given as John Polley and in 1563, it is given as Joan. (Foxe's early sources may well have confused Margery Polley and Joan Beech). In the 1570 edition, with the official records to guide him, Foxe corrected her name to Margery Polley.
[Back to Top]The writ for Margery Polley's condemnation reveals that she was from Pepeling, a neighbourhood of Calais (PRO C/85/144, fo. 33r).