MarginaliaAn. 1556. May.tions, and from them good Lord deliuer vs. From this her stable and constant assertion, when the Byshop was to weake to remoue her, and to ignoraunt to conuince her, MarginaliaThe Butcherly axe of Boner.he knockt her downe with the butcherly axe of his sentence. And so the holy Virgine and Martyr committed to the shambles of the secular sworde, was offered vp wyth her other fellowes a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, in odorem bonæ fragrantiæ,
in odorem bonae fragrantiae. in the fauour of a sweete and pleasant smell. [The wordfauourin line 1 is misprinted forsauour.Cf. 1563 and later editions.] et hostiam Deo in odorem suavitatis. [Especially in view of the context of ahostiam(sacrificial victim), it would seem that Foxe is thinking of this passage in Ephesians.]
MarginaliaMargaret Ellys died in Newgate.As touching Margaret Ellys, she lykewyse perseuering in her foresayd cōfession, & resisting the false catholicke errours & heresies of the Papistes, was by þe said Boner adiudged and condemned: but before the tyme of her burning came, preuented by death in Newgate prison, departed and slept in the Lord.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaElizabeth Thackuell, Mayd and Martyr.No lesse strength in the grace of the Lord appeared in the other mayd Elizabeth Thackuell, whose hart & mynd the Lord had so confirmed in hys truth, so armed wyth patience, that as her aduersaries could by no sufficient knowledge of scripture conuict her affirmation, so by no forceable attemptes they coulde remoue her confession. Whereupon she standing to the death, being in lyke sort condemned, by the sayd vnbyshoplyke *Marginalia* i. A persecutor. πλὴκτησ, gaue her lyfe willingly & myldly for the confirmation and sealing vp of the sincere truth of Gods woorde.
[Back to Top]These three innocent and godly wemen, thus falsly and wronfully by men condemned for the iust quarell and cause of Gods Gospell, were had to Smithfield, and there cruelly bound to the stake, gaue their bodies to the tormentours, their spirites they commended to God. For whose glory they were willing and ready to suffer what soeuer the cruell handes of their enemies should worke agaynst them, dying more ioyfully in the flamyng fire, then some of that burned them, did peraduēture in their beddes. Such a Lord is God, glorious and wonderfull in all his Saintes. The Martyrdome of these Saintes of God was the 16. of May.
[Back to Top]In the 1563 edition these two martyrs were unnamed; their names were only added in the 1570 edition. And Thomas Croker's name may be incorrect; the writ authorizing his execution gives his first name as John (PRO C/85/203/2).
All Foxe had on these two martyrs in the 1563 edition, was that a bricklayer and a blind boy were burned at Gloucester around 1556 and that the blind boy was the one who had been mentioned in the narrative of John Hooper's execution. In the 1570 edition, Foxe added the names of these two martyrs. In the 1583 edition, Foxe added an account of Thomas Drowry's final examination and condemnation which Foxe obtained from John Louth, who had been chancellor of Gloucester.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaMay. 5.MarginaliaTho. Drowry a blind boy, and Tho. Croker, Martyrs.YE heard a litle before, of ij. men, the one blynd, the other lame, which suffered about þe xv. of May. And here is not to be fogottē an other as godly a couple, which suffered the lyke passion & Martyrdome for þe same cause of reli-
gion at Glocester:MarginaliaPersecutiō at Glocester. of the which two, the one was the blind boy, named Thomas Drowry,MarginaliaOf this blind boy read before pag. 1682. mencioned before in the history of Byshop Hoper, whom the sayd vertuous Bishop confirmed then in the Lord, and in the doctrine of his word.
With him also was burned an other in the same place, and at the same fire in Glocester, about the v. of May, whose name was Thomas Croker Briclayer.
In the 1563 edition, Foxe summarized the official records of the examinations of these three martyrs and presented a detailed account of their executions. He also charged that these martyrs had been burned illegally, as a writ for their execution had not been obtained. In the 1570 edition, Foxe added material from an individual informant on the arrest of Thomas Spicer. He also copied out the articles against the martyrs in full and elaborated on the reasons why the writs aurthorizing their execution were not delivered. The sentences against the three martyrs, apparently removed from the original record book, survive among Foxe's papers as BL, Harley 421, fos. 164r-165v.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of three men burned at Beckles.AFter the death of these aboue rehearsed, were three men burnt at Beckles in Suffolke, in one fire, about the xxj. day of May. an. 1556. Whose names are here vnder specified.
Thomas Spicer, of VVynston, Laborer. | Iohn Deny, and Edmund His name was given as William Poole in 1563 and corrected in 1570. |
This Thomas Spicer was a single mā,
The description of Spicer and his arrest which follows undoubtedly came from an individual informant and not from an official record.
William Mingey, the registrar for the diocese of Norwich, died in 1565. In the 1563 edition, before Mingey's death, Foxe only identifies him as 'Master M'. After his death, his full surname is given.
And there the sayd Chauncellour persuadyng what he could to turne them from the truth, could by no meanes preuaile of his purpose. Whereby mindyng in the end to giue sētence on them, he burst out in teares, intreatyng them to remēber them selues, and to turne agayne to the holy mother Church, for that they were deceaued and out of the truth, and that they should not wilfully cast away them selues, with such lyke wordes. Now, as he was thus labouryng them and semed very loth to read þe sētence (for they were the first that he cōdemned in that Dioces) the Register there sittyng by,
Note that this was passage was much more critical of Mingey in the 1563 edition and was subsequently toned down.
These articles were summarized in 1563 and printed out in full in 1570. This was probably a result simply of Foxe having more time to copy out the records, but this thoroughness should increase the reader's suspicion that Foxe is concealing something when he does not print out such records.
THe Articles obiected to these and commonly to all other condemned in that Dioces by Doct. Hoptō Byshop of Norwich, and by Dunning his Chauncelour, were these.
MarginaliaThe articles wher vpon they were condemned. 1. First, was articulate agaynst them, that they beleued not the Pope of Rome to be supreme head immediatly vnder CHRIST in earth of the vniuersall Catholicke Church.
2. Item, that they beleued not holy bread, and holy water, ashes, Palmes, MarginaliaCeremonies.and all other like ceremonies vsed in the Church, to be good and laudable for styrryng vp the people to deuotion.
3. Item, that they beleued not, MarginaliaSacramēt of the altar.after the wordes of consecration spoken by the Priest, the very natural body of CHRIST, and no other substaunce of bread and wyne, to be in the Sacrament of the altar.
4. Itē, that they beleued it to be Idolatry to worshyp CHRIST in the Sacrament of the altar.
5. Item, that they tooke bread and wyne in remembraunce of CHRISTES passion.
6. Item, that they would not folow the crosse in pro-