Marginalia1556. Iuly.fant Baptised in his owne bloud, to fill vp the number of Gods innocent Saintes, was both borne and dyed a Martyr, leauing behind it to the world, which it neuer

saw, a spectacle wherein the whole world may see the Herodian crueltie of this graceles generation of Catholicke tormentors, Ad perpetuam rei infamiam.  

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Foxe text narrative

Foxe text Latin

Ad perpetuam rei infamiam.

Foxe text translation

Not translated.

Translation (Wade 2003)

For the everlasting ill repute of the matter.

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Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

The dreadful account of the three Guernsey martyrs and the baby born and burned in the fire lost nothing in the telling, visual and verbal. This image, one of the most horrific in the book, comes from the hand recognizable in various of the smaller woodcuts (Type 1). The image is not a close transcription of Foxe's text (that of 1570 adding to 1563), which states that the women were tied to three stakes, the mother, Katherine Cawches being in the middle, and her elder daughter Perotine Massey, who was pregnant, on the right. Insecurely chained, the victims collapsed into the fire, and Perotine fell on her side before she gave birth. The steely detachment of the officials at the fire - two on the right positively debonair in their stance, while the two priests on the left seem to be giving dire instructions - could have done nothing to assuage the angry opponents who impugned Foxe's veracity and good faith in telling this story. This is a scene in which spectators play no part, their presence being only suggested by the line of heads behind the staves of the halberdiers. The framing line of this cut was already damaged in 1570.

Now for somuch as this story percase, for the horrible straūgenes of the fact wilbe hardly beleued of some, but rather thought to be forged or els more amplified of me, then truth will beare me out, therfore to discharge my credite herein, I haue not onely foretold thee a litle before, how I receaued this story by þ^e faithfull relation both in French and English, of them which were there present witnesses and lookers vpon: but also haue hereto annexed the true supplication of the sayd inhabitants of Garnesey, and of the brother of the sayd two sisters,  

Commentary     Close

Foxe must have beeen working in haste in the 1563 edition because, while he had a copy of Mathieu Cauches's petition, he got confused and stated that Mathieu was the brother of Massy and Gilbert, whereas the petition clearly states that he was the brother of Catherine Cauches (and thus the uncle of Massy and Gilbert). He corrected this error in the errata of the 1563 edition, but left it uncorrected in subsequent editions.

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MarginaliaA supplication.MOst lamentably and wofully cōplainyng, sheweth vnto your gratious & honorable Lordships, your poore and humble Oratour Mathew Cauches, of the Isle of Garnesey, that where Iaques Amy Clerke, Deane of the Isle aforesayd, assisted by the Curates there, agaynst all order, law, and reason, by colour of a sentence of heresie, pronoūced agaynst Katherine Cauches, the Sister of your honours sayd suppliant, & Perrotine and Guillemine, her two daughters, did cause the same Katherine, beyng a poore widow, and her sayd two daughters, most cruelly to be burned, although the sayd persons, ne any of othem did hold, mainteine, or defend any thing directly agaynst the ecclesiasticall lawes then in place, vnder the raigne of the late Queene Mary, but in all thinges submitted them selues obediently to the lawes then in force, and yet the crueltie of the sayd Deane and his accomplices in perpetratyng such murther as aforesayd, raged so farre, that where as, whilest the sayd persons did cōsume with vio-

lent fire, the wombe of the sayd Perrotine beyng burned, there did issue from her a goodly man child, which by the Officers was taken vp and handled, and after in a most despightfull maner, throwne into the fire, and there also with the sely mother most cruelly burnt. In tender consideration wherof, and for so much as this bloudy murther was not in due order of any law, or in any maner accordyng to iustice, but of mere malicious hatred, as the true copie of the whole procedings in this matter, by the sayd Deane and his accōplices, here ready to be shewed to your honours, wil make very plaine and manifest: It may therfore please your good & gracious Lordships, of the zeale that you beare to Iustice, and for our Lord Iesu Christes sake, to haue due consideratiō in Iustice of such horrible murther, so cruelly committed as aforesayd, accordyng to the right demerite therof. And that it may please your honorable Lordships to order and decree also, that all the goodes of all the sayd parties, by pretence aforesayd wrongfully taken as confiscate, may be deliuered to your said poore besecher, to whom of right they do belong. And your honours sayd Suppliant will dayly pray to God for your long preseruatiō, to his glory, and your euerlastyng health.

This supplication beyng presented in maner aforesayd, to the Queenes honorable Commissioners in the yeare. 1562. such order therin was taken, that the matter beyng returned agayne downe, to the sayd countrey further to be examined, MarginaliaIaques Amye the Deane dispossessed of his liuinges.the Deane therupon was committed to prison, and dispossessed of all his liuinges.  

Commentary     Close

In the 1563 edition, Foxe admits that he is uncertain about the outcome of the case. Helier Gosselin, the baliff of Guernsey (the island's chief judicial and administrative official) under Mary, was dismissed in 1563 as a result of the Massy burning and Mathieu Cauches's petition. He was elected as a jurat in 1565 but was dismissed with six other jurats over various offenses. Jacques Amy, thedean of Guernsey, was also dismissed from office in 1563. He, Gosselin and the others involved were pardoned for their Marian offences in February 1566. (All of the preceding is described in detail in A. J. Eagleston, 'The Dismissal of the Seven Jurats in 1565,' Transactions of la Société Guernesiaise 12 [1936], pp. 508-16).

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