Thematic Divisions in Book 11
1. The Martyrdom of Rogers 2. The Martyrdom of Saunders 3. Saunders' Letters 4. Hooper's Martyrdom 5. Hooper's Letters 6. Rowland Taylor's Martyrdom 7. Becket's Image and other events 8. Miles Coverdale and the Denmark Letters 9. Bonner and Reconciliation 10. Judge Hales 11. The Martyrdom of Thomas Tomkins 12. The Martyrdom of William Hunter 13. The Martyrdom of Higbed and Causton 14. The Martyrdom of Pigot, Knight and Laurence 15. Robert Farrar's Martyrdom 16. The Martyrdom of Rawlins/Rowland White17. The Restoration of Abbey Lands and other events in Spring 155518. The Providential Death of the Parson of Arundel 19. The Martyrdom of John Awcocke 20. The Martyrdom of George Marsh 21. The Letters of George Marsh 22. The Martyrdom of William Flower 23. The Martyrdom of Cardmaker and Warne 24. Letters of Warne and Cardmaker 25. The Martyrdom of Ardley and Simpson 26. John Tooly 27. The Examination of Robert Bromley [nb This is part of the Tooly affair]28. The Martyrdom of Thomas Haukes 29. Letters of Haukes 30. The Martyrdom of Thomas Watts 31. Mary's False Pregnancy32. Censorship Proclamation 33. Our Lady' Psalter 34. Martyrdom of Osmund, Bamford, Osborne and Chamberlain35. The Martyrdom of John Bradford 36. Bradford's Letters 37. William Minge 38. James Trevisam 39. The Martyrdom of John Bland 40. The Martyrdom of Frankesh, Middleton and Sheterden 41. Sheterden's Letters 42. Examinations of Hall, Wade and Polley 43. Martyrdom of Christopher Wade 44. Martyrdom of Carver and Launder 45. Martyrdom of Thomas Iveson 46. John Aleworth 47. Martyrdom of James Abbes 48. Martyrdom of Denley, Newman and Pacingham 49. Richard Hooke 50. Martyrdom of William Coker, et al 51. Martyrdom of George Tankerfield, et al 52. Martyrdom and Letters of Robert Smith 53. Martyrdom of Harwood and Fust 54. Martyrdom of William Haile 55. George King, Thomas Leyes and John Wade 56. William Andrew 57. Martyrdom of Robert Samuel 58. Samuel's Letters 59. William Allen 60. Martyrdom of Roger Coo 61. Martyrdom of Thomas Cobb 62. Martyrdom of Catmer, Streater, Burwood, Brodbridge, Tutty 63. Martyrdom of Hayward and Goreway 64. Martyrdom and Letters of Robert Glover 65. Cornelius Bungey 66. John and William Glover 67. Martyrdom of Wolsey and Pigot 68. Life and Character of Nicholas Ridley 69. Ridley's Letters 70. Life of Hugh Latimer 71. Latimer's Letters 72. Ridley and Latimer Re-examined and Executed73. More Letters of Ridley 74. Life and Death of Stephen Gardiner 75. Martyrdom of Webb, Roper and Park 76. William Wiseman 77. James Gore 78. Examinations and Martyrdom of John Philpot 79. Philpot's Letters 80. Martyrdom of Thomas Whittle, Barlett Green, et al 81. Letters of Thomas Wittle 82. Life of Bartlett Green 83. Letters of Bartlett Green 84. Thomas Browne 85. John Tudson 86. John Went 87. Isobel Foster 88. Joan Lashford 89. Five Canterbury Martyrs 90. Life and Martyrdom of Cranmer 91. Letters of Cranmer 92. Martyrdom of Agnes Potten and Joan Trunchfield 93. Persecution in Salisbury Maundrell, Coberly and Spicer 94. William Tyms, et al 95. Letters of Tyms 96. The Norfolk Supplication 97. Martyrdom of John Harpole and Joan Beach 98. John Hullier 99. Hullier's Letters 100. Christopher Lister and five other martyrs 101. Hugh Lauerocke and John Apprice 102. Katherine Hut, Elizabeth Thacknell, et al 103. Thomas Drury and Thomas Croker 104. Thomas Spicer, John Deny and Edmund Poole 105. Persecution of Winson and Mendlesam 106. Gregory Crow 107. William Slech 108. Avington Read, et al 109. Wood and Miles 110. Adherall and Clement 111. A Merchant's Servant Executed at Leicester 112. Thirteen Burnt at Stratford-le-Bow113. Persecution in Lichfield 114. Hunt, Norrice, Parret 115. Martyrdom of Bernard, Lawson and Foster 116. Examinations of John Fortune117. John Careless 118. Letters of John Careless 119. Martyrdom of Julius Palmer 120. Agnes Wardall 121. Peter Moone and his wife 122. Guernsey Martyrdoms 123. Dungate, Foreman and Tree 124. Martyrdom of Thomas More125. Examination of John Jackson126. Examination of John Newman 127. Martyrdom of Joan Waste 128. Martyrdom of Edward Sharpe 129. Four Burnt at Mayfield at Sussex 130. John Horne and a woman 131. William Dangerfield 132. Northampton Shoemaker 133. Prisoners Starved at Canterbury 134. More Persecution at Lichfield
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Quene Mary. iij. wemen burnt in Smithfield. ij. men at Glocester. iij. men at Beckles.

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,  

Latin/Greek Translations   *   Close
Foxe text narrative, possibly citing Ephesians, 5. 2.
Foxe text Latin

in odorem bonae fragrantiae.

Foxe text translation

in the fauour of a sweete and pleasant smell.

[The wordfauourin line 1 is misprinted forsauour.Cf. 1563 and later editions.]

Actual text of Ephesians, 5. 2. (Vulgate)

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.]

in the fauour of a sweete and pleasant smell.

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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.

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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.

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MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of Katherine Hutte, Ioane Hornes, Elizabeth Thackuell, in Smithfield. An. 1556. May. 16.The Martyrdome of three wemen.

woodcut [View a larger version]

Commentary on the Woodcuts   *   Close
The woodcut (Type 1) seems to portray the description of the three young women dying 'joyfully in the flaming fire'. The image was not reused.

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.

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¶ Thomas Drowry a blynd boy, and Thomas Croker  
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Thomas Drowry and Thomas Croker

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).

Briclayer, Martyrs.  
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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.

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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.

¶ Persecution in Suffolke. Three burnt at Beckles. May. 21.  
Commentary   *   Close
Spicer, Denny and Poole

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.

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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  
Commentary   *   Close

His name was given as William Poole in 1563 and corrected in 1570.

Pole.

This Thomas Spicer was a single mā,  

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The description of Spicer and his arrest which follows undoubtedly came from an individual informant and not from an official record.

of the age of xix. yeares, and by vocation a Labourer, dwellyng in Wynston in the County of Suffolke, and there taken in his masters house in Sommer, about or anone after the rising of the sōne (beyng in his bed) by MarginaliaIames Ling, Iohn Keretch, William Dauies, persecutors.Iames Ling and Iohn Keretch of the same Towne, and William Dauies of Debnam, in the sayd County. The occasion of his takyng was, for that he would not go to their Popish Church to heare Masse, and receiue their Idole at þe cōmaundement of Sir Iohn Tyrrell knight, of Gyppyng hall in Suffolke, & certeine other Iustices there, who sent both hym & them to Eay dungeon in Suffolke, till at lēgth they were all 3. together brought before MarginaliaDūning, Minges, persecutors.Dunning then Chauncellour of Norwich, and M. Mynges the Register,  
Commentary   *   Close

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.

sittyng at the Towne of Beckles to be examined.

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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,  

Commentary   *   Close

Note that this was passage was much more critical of Mingey in the 1563 edition and was subsequently toned down.

beyng weery, belyke, of tarying, or els perceauyng the constāt Martyrs to be at a point, called vpon the Chaūcelour in hast to rid them out of the way, and to make and end. At which wordes the Chauncellour red the condemnation ouer them with teares, and deliuered them to the secular power.

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¶ Their Articles.  
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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-

cession