1570 Edition | Book 11 | Page 2128 
Marginalia1556. Aprill.and ioyne not your selues to their vnlawful assemblies: yea, do not once shew your selues with the lest part of your body, to fauour their wicked doynges, MarginaliaThe body must adioyne with the spirite in seruing of God.but glorifie God (as most right is) so well in your whole body outwardly, as inwardly in your spirite, or els you can do neither of both well: for your body doth belong to God, so well as your spirite. At the dreadfull day of iudgemēt we shall all receiue the workes of our bodyes, accordyng to that we haue done, whether it be good or bad.
[Back to Top]Therefore whatsoeuer we do, we may not bryng the spirite in bondage to the body, but cōtrarywise we must subdue the body and the will of the flesh to the spirit, that the spirite may freely accomplishe the will of God in all thinges: for otherwise we shall neuer be partakers of his promise, with the true children of Abraham. For as S. Paul sayth: They which are the children of the fleshe, are not the children of God. If we shall lyue accordyng to the flesh, we shall dye. For to be carnally mynded, is death: but to be spiritually mynded, is lyfe and peace, because that the fleshly mynded is enmitie to God: for it is not obedient to the law of God, neither can be. So then they that are in the flesh can not please God. Now chuse you which way you will take: eyther the narrow way that leadeth vnto lyfe, which CHRIST hymselfe and hys fathfull followers haue gone through before: or els the broad path way that leadeth to destruction, which the wicked worldlinges take their pleasure in for a while. MarginaliaFaithfull admonition.I for my part haue now written this short admonition vnto you of good wyll (as God be my witnes) to exhort you to that way which at length you your selues should proue and find to be best, yea and reioyce thereof. And I do not onely wryte this, but I will also with the assistance of Gods grace) ratify, and confirme, and seale the same wyth the effusion of my bloud, when the full tyme shall be expyred that he hath appoynted: which (so farre forth as I may iudgde) must nedes be within these few daies. Therefore I now byd you all most hartely farewell in the Lord, whose grace be with your spirite, Amē. Watch and pray, watch and pray, pray, pray. Sobeit.
[Back to Top]Iohn Hullier.
Besides these letters the sayd Iohn Hullier left also a godly prayer, which if any be disposed to peruse, it is extant in the old boke of Actes to be foūd, pag. 1515.
CloseThis prayer was first printed in Rerum, pp. 540-42 and then in 1563. It was never printed in Letters of the Martyrs or any subsequent edition of the Acts and Monuments. BL, Harley 416, fos. 18v-20r is a copy of this letter.
CloseThe entire account of these martyrs first appeared in the 1563 edition; there were no changes to it in subsequent editions. All of this material came from official records, probably from a court book of Bishop Bonner's which is now lost.
MarginaliaAprill. 28.MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of sixe men at Colchester.NOt long after the death of Robert Drakes, William Tyms, and the other Essex Martyrs, executed in Smithfield, as is aboue specified, followed in the same order lykewyse of Martyrdome, at one lyke fyre in the towne of Colchester, (where the most part of them did inhabite) sixe other blessed Martyrs, whose names be these:
[Back to Top]
Christopher Lister, of Dagneham, husbandman.
Iohn Mace, of Colchester, Poticary.
CloseJohn Mace was a figure of some prominence in Colchester; he had been sergeant-at-arms of the city until the end of Edward's reign. He was also the brother-in-law of Thomas Dybney, a Colchester alderman who was brought before the privy council in May 1556 and forced publicly to recant his religious convictions.
[Back to Top]Joan Dybney, Thomas Dybney's daughter-in-law, was harassed for her protestant beliefs in Mary's reign and fled into exile (Laquita M. Higgs, Godliness and Governance in Tudor Colchester [Ann Arbor, MI: 1998] pp. 170-71 and 1563, p. 1678). Joan Dybney was also the mother, by a previous marriage, of Thomas Firefanne who would be one of 22 protestants arrested in Colchester and brought to London for trial (Higgs, Godliness and Governance, pp. 224-25).
[Back to Top]Iohn Spenser, of Colchester, VVeauer.
Simon Ioyne, Sawyer.
Richard Nicols, of Colchester, VVeauer.
CloseNichols was one of the protestant prisoners in Newgate, led by William Tyms, whom Henry Hart, the leader of the freewillers, tried to convert. Nichols joined the other prisoners in denouncing Hart. (See ECL 260, fo. 87r-v; also see 1563, p. 1530. For a discussion of the episode see Thomas Freeman, 'Dissenters from a DissentingChurch: The Challenge of the Freewillers, 1550-1558' in Peter Marshall and Alec Ryrie,eds., The Beginnings of English Protestantism [Cambridge: 2002], pp. 140-41).
[Back to Top]Iohn Hamond, of Colchester, Tanner.
CloseIn 1530, John Hammond had been forced to recant his religious covictions (Laquita Higgs, Godliness and Governance in Tudor Colchester [Ann Arbor, MI: 1998], pp. 111 and 172).
MarginaliaRoger Grasbroke.Wyth these. vj. was also ioyned an other, whose name was Roger Grasbroke, but hee afterward submitted him selfe. These aboue named, the Byshop, because he (as it seemeth by the short processe recorded by hys Register) waxed now weery, made a very quicke dispatch. For soone after that, they were deliuered vnto one MarginaliaIohn Kingston B. Boners Cōmissary in Essex.Iohn Kingstone, Bacheler of ciuill law, and then Commissary to the Bishop, by the Earle of Oxford and other Commissioners (as appeareth by a byll endented, made betwene the Commissioners, and the sayd Commissary,MarginaliaThese Martyrs were deliuered by þe Earle of Oxford to the Commissary, and by the Cōmissary to the Bishop. for the recept of the sayd prisoners, dated the. xxviij. day of March, Anno regni Regis & Reginæ, Philippi & Mariæ, secundo & tertio.
Anno regni Regis & Reginae, Philippi & Mariae, secundo & tertio. Not translated. in the second and third year of the king and queen, Philip and Mary
Close
the same articles, that were propounded vnto Bartlet Grene and others, mencioned before pag. 2015.MarginaliaThese Articles reade before pag. 2015. To the which they made their seuerall aunsweres, agreeing all together in one truth, as by the sūme and effect thereof here ensuing, more playnely appeareth.
MarginaliaTheir answeres to the Bishops articles.1. To the first article they all consented and agreed: Iohn Spenser adding further thereto, that the church malignant, MarginaliaThe church of Rome no part of Christes Catholicke Church.(which is the church of Rome) is no part of CHRISTES Catholicke church: and that hee neyther hath, nor doth beleue the doctrine and religion, taught and set forth in the sayd Romish and malignant Church.
[Back to Top]2. To the second they aunswered: that they beleued that in the true Catholicke church of CHRIST, MarginaliaTwo Sacramentes.there be but two Sacraments: that is to say, the Sacrament of baptisme, and the Sacrament of the body and bloud of CHRIST.
3. To the thyrd article they all agreed, confessing that they were baptised in the fayth and beliefe of the catholick church, and that their godfathers and godmothers had professed and promised for them as is conteyned in the same article.
4. To the fourth they aunswered, that they alwaies were, and yet did continue in the fayth and profession, MarginaliaProfession of Baptisme.wherein they were baptised: Richard Nicols adding also: that hee had more playnely learned the truth of his profession by the doctrine set forth in king Edward the sixt his dayes, and thereupon he had builded hys fayth, and would continue in the same to hys lyues ende, God assisting hym.
[Back to Top]5. To the fift they answered, that they neyther swarued nor went away from the catholicke faith of Christ. MarginaliaTo deny the beggerly vsages of the Popes church, is not to deny the Catholike faith of Christ.Howbeit they confessed, that wythin the tyme articulate (and before) they had mislyked and earnestly spoken agaynst the sacrifice of the Masse, and agaynst the Sacrament of the aultar, affirming that they would not come to heare or bee partakers thereof, because they had and then dyd beleue, that they were set forth and vsed contrary to Gods word and glory. And moreouer they did graūt that they had spokē against þe vsurped autority of he Byshop of Rome, as an oppressour of CHRISTES church, and Gospell, MarginaliaThe Pope ought to haue no authority in England.and that he ought not to haue any autority in England. For all which sayings they were no whit sory, but rather reioyced and were glad.
[Back to Top]6. To the sixt they aunswered, that they neuer refused, nor yet then presently dyd refuse to be reconciled to the vnity of CHRISTES catholicke church, but they sayd they had, and then did, and so euer would hereafter vtterly refuse to come to the church of Rome, or to acknowledge the autority of the sea thereof, MarginaliaThe church of Rome to be abhorred.but did vtterly abhorre the same, for putting downe þe booke of God the Bible, and setting vp the Babylonical Masse, wyth all other of Antichristes marchaundise.
[Back to Top]7. To the seuenth article, the effect thereof they all graunted. And Simond Ioyne declared further, MarginaliaAgainst the Popes trumpery.that the cause of hys refusing to be partaker of their trumpery, was for that the commaundements of God were there broken, and CHRISTES ordinances chaunged and put out, and the Byshop of Romes ordinances in steede threof put in. Moreouer, as touching the Sacrament of CHRISTES body, Christopher Lister affirmed MarginaliaAgaynst transubstantiation.that in the sayd Sacrament there is the substance of bread and wyne, as well after the wordes of consecration as before, and that there is not in the same the very body and bloud of CHRIST really, substantially, and truely, but onely sacramentally and spiritually by fayth in the faythfull receiuers, MarginaliaAgainst the Masse.and that the Masse is not propitiatory, for the quicke or for the deade, but mere idolatry and abomination.
[Back to Top]8. To the eight they sayd, that they were sent to Colchester prison by the king and Queenes Commissioners, because they would not come to their parish churches, and by them sent vnto the Bishop of London, to be thereof further examined.