1570 Edition | Book 11 | Page 2125 
MarginaliaAn. 1556. Aprill.ring losse of goods, punishmēt or death, do outwardly in body that thing, that their harts & consciences inwardly abhorreth: & so outwardly disobey God, & in hart dissemble wyth man. MarginaliaFalse dissemblers worthy to be hated of all men.Which dissimulation we thinke worthy hate of all men, and most vncomely for Christian men.
[Back to Top]Wherefore wee humbly besech the Queenes maiesty, wyth pity and mercy to tender the lamentable sute of vs her poore subiectes, which be by this commaundement sore hurt and wounded in our consciences, and driuen to many miseries, and by the malicious attemptes of wicked men, suffer great wrongs and iniuries, sclaunders, losse of goodes, and bodily vexations. We thynke not good, by any vnlawfull sturre or cōmotion, to seeke remedy: but intend by Gods grace, to obey her maiesty in all thinges not agaynst God and his holy word. But vnto such vngodly Byshoplyke commaundementes as are against God, we aunswere wyth the Apostels: God must obeyed rather then man. If persecution shall ensue (which some threaten vs wyth) we desyre the heauenly father, according to hys promise, to looke from heauen, to heare our cry, to iudge betwene vs and our aduersaries, and to geue vs fayth, strength, and patience, to continue faythfully vnto the end, and to shorten these euill dayes for his chosens sake: and so we faythfully beleue he wyll.
[Back to Top]Notwithstanding, wee trust the Queenes gracious and merciful hart will not suffer such tyranny to be done agaynst her poore innocent, faythfull, and obeident subiectes, that dayly pray vnto God for her: which haue no remedy in this world, but to sue vnto her highnes, our most gracious and benigne soueraigne: whom we pray and besech, for the deare bloud of CHRIST, to pity our lamentable case and hurt of conscience, MarginaliaQueene Maryes authority striuing agaynst mens consciences.and to call backe all such commaundementes, as are agaynst Gods honour, as the good king Darius, Assuerus, Traianus, Theodosius, and diuers other haue done: and to permit the holy worde of God and true religion (set foorth by our most holy and innocent K. Edward, a very saint of God) to be restored agayn vnto our churches, to be frequented amongst vs. So shall we grow & increase in the knowledge of God & of CHRIST, in true repentance & amendment of lyfe: so shall we exhibite true obedience to our lawfull magistrates and all superiors ordained of God: so shall loue and charity (of late thorow thys commaundement so decayed) bee agayne restored, the honour of her regall estate the more confyrmed and established, and godlynes and vertuous lyfe among her louing subiectes increased and mayntayned.
[Back to Top]And we most hartely pray you (right honorable commissioners) to bee meanes vnto the Queenes hyghnes, and to her honorable Counsaile, that this our humble sute may be fauourably tendred, and graciously hearde and graunted. And we shall not cease day and nyght, to pray vnto the heauēly father, long to preserue her grace, and all other magistrates, in his feare & loue, & in prosperous peace and wealth, wyth long lyfe and honour, Amen.
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Your poore Suppliantes, the louers of Christes true
Religion, in Norffolke and Suffolke.
CloseAccording to the writ authorizing his execution, Harpole was from Tunbridge, not Rochester (PRO, C/85/144, fo. 34).
CloseIn the 1563 edition, Foxe just stated that Harpole and Beach were burned in Rochester on 1 April 1556. This entire account first appeared in the 1570 edition and was based entirely on material taken from the register of Maurice Griffins, bishop of Rochester, which Foxe must have consulted between 1563 and 1570 (see 1570, p. 2086; 1576, p. 1700 and 1583, p. 1406). Only fragments of this register survive andthese documents are now lost.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaJoh. Harpole, Ioane Beach, Martyrs.TOuching þe examinatiō of Ioane Beach widow, and of Iohn Harpole wythin the dioces of Rochester, by Maurice byshop of the sayd dioces, remembrance was made before in the story of Nicholas Halle, pag. 1829. wherein was declared the. iiij. Articles consistoriall of the bishop, obiected and laid, as vnto the sayd Nich. Halle & his cōpany, so also to thys Ioane Beach widdow: whereof the first was this.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaEx Regist. Articles layd to Ioane Beach.1 That she was of the parishe of Tunbridge in the dioces of Rochester.
2 Item, that all persons which preach, teach, beleue, or say otherwyse or contrary to that their mother holy catholicke church of CHRIST, are excōmunicate persons and heretickes.
3 Item, that the sayd Ioane Beach hath, and yet doth affirme, maintaine and beleue contrary to the said mo-
ther holy church of CHRIST, vidz, that in the blessed Sacrament of the aultar, vnder forme of breade and wyne, there is not the very body and bloud of our Sauiour in substance, but onely a token and memoriall therof: and that the very body and bloud of CHRIST is in heauen, and not in the sacrament.
4 Item, that she hath bene, and yet is, amongest the parishioners of Tunbridge, openly noted, and vehemently suspected, to be a sacramentary, and hereticke.
MarginaliaAnsweres of Ioane Beach, to the articles.TO the which foresayd Articles her aunswers were these: First, that she was and is of the sayd parish of Tunbridge, in the Dioces of Rochester.
2 That all persons which doe preach or holde otherwyse and contrary to that, which the holy catholycke church of CHRIST doth, are to be reputed for excommunicate and heretickes: MarginaliaThe Catholike church no mother.Adding withall, that neuertheles she beleueth not the holy catholicke church to be her mother, but beleueth onely the father of heauen to be her father.
[Back to Top]3 Thirdly, that she hath, and yet doth verily beleue, holde, and affirme, in the Sacrament of the aultar vnder formes of bread and wyne, not to bee the very body and bloud of our Sauiour in substance, but onely a token and remembrance of his death to the faythfull receauer, and that his body and substance is onely in heauen, and not in the Sacrament.
[Back to Top]4 Lastly, as touching how she hath bene or is noted and reputed among the parishners of Tunbridge, she sayd, she could not tell: howbeit she beleued, she was not so taken and reputed.
THe lyke matter, and the same. iiij. articles were all so the same present tyme & place, ministred to Iohn Harpole by the foresayd bishop Maurice: who, after the lyke aunswers receaued of him, as of the other before, adiudged and condemned them both together to death, by one forme of sentence, according to the tenor and course of their vsuall sentence, which ye may reade before in M. Rogers story, pag. 1661.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of Ioh. Harpole, and Ioane Beach, at Rochester. An. 1556. Aprill.And thus these two Christian Martyrs coupled in one confession, being condemned by the bishop, suffered together at one fire in the towne of Rochester, where they together ended their lyues about the fyrst day of this present moneth of Apryll.
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CloseAll the 1563 edition does is to state that Hullier was burned in Cambridge about 2 April 1556. This brief introduction to Hullier's letters shows that by the time the 1570 edition was being printed, Foxe had acquired no firther information on Hullier's life and death. Eventually he would acquire such information, which came from witnesses to Hullier's execution (see 1570, pp. 2196-7; 1576, and 1583, p. 2004).
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIohn Hullier, Martyr.NExt after these ensueth the Martyrdome of Iohn Hullier Minister, who first being brought vp in the schoole of Eaton, was afterward scholer, & then Conduct in the kings Colledge at Cābridge, and in the same vniuersitie of Cambridge suffered vnder D. Thurlby bishop of Ely, and hys Chauncellour, for the sincere setting out of the lyght of Gods gracious Gospell reuealed in these our dayes. In whose behalfe this is to be lamented, that among so many fresh wits and styrring pens in that vniuersity, so little matter is left vnto vs touching the processe of hys iudgemēt and order of his suffering, which so innocently gaue hys lyfe in such a cause amonge the myddest of them.
CloseShortly after this appeal was written, and before it was even printed, Foxe did receive an account of Hullier's martyrdom apparently gathered by none other than one of Cambridge's most famous scholars, William Fulke (see 1570, pp. 2196-7; 1576, and 1583, p. 2004).