MarginaliaAn. 1556. Iuly.burned, notwithstandyng that she for safegard of their lyues had (as I sayd) recanted. And yet so partiall is he, that in all this inuectiue crying out so intemperatly agaynst the woman and the child that were burned, hee speaketh neuer a word of their condemners and true murderers in deede.

MarginaliaMurder in the spiritual Clergie noted.Thirdly, for somuch as M. Hardyng is here in hād with infanticide, and with castyng away yong childrēs liues, I would wishe, that as he hath sifted the doynges of this woman to þ^e vttermost, who was rather murdered then a murderer, so he would with an indifferent eye loke on the other side a litle vpon them of his owne clergie, and see what he could finde there among those wilfull contemners of immaculate mariage. Not that I do accuse any of incontinencie, whose liues I know not, but there is one aboue, that well knoweth and seeth all things, be they neuer so secret to man, and most certainely will pay home at length with fier and brimstone when he seeth his time. I say no more, and not so much as I might, following herein the Painters, which when theyr colours will not serue to expresse a thing that they meane, they shadow it with a veile. MarginaliaGod knoweth what spilling and murdering of infātes there is in the world.But howsoeuer the matter goeth with them, whether they may or may not bee suspected touching this crime aforesaid of infanticide, most sure and manifest it is, that they are more then worthely to be accused of homicide in murdering the children and seruauntes of God, both men and women, wyues and maydes, old & yong, blind and lame, madde and vnmadde, discreete and simple innocentes, learned with the vnlearned, and that of all degrees from the hye Archbishoppe to the Clarke and Sexten of the church, and that most wrongfully and wilfully, with such effusion of innocēt Christian bloud,as cryeth vp dayly to God for vengeance.

And therfore M. H. in my minde should do well, to spare a litle tyme frō those his inuectiues wherwith he appeacheth þ^e poore Protestantes of murder, whom they haue murdered them selues, and exercise his penne with some more fruitfull matter, to exhorte these spirituall fathers first to cease frō murdering of their own children, to spare the bloude of innocentes, and not to persecute Christ so cruelly in his members, as they doo: and furthermore to exhorte in like maner these MarginaliaAgamistæ of ἄγαμος, which signifieth mē vnmaried, or against mariage.Agamistes, and wilfull reiecters of matrimonie, to take themselues to lawfull wiues, and not to resist gods holy ordinance, nor encounter his institution with an other contrary institution of their owne deuising, lest perhaps they preuented by fragilitie, may fall into daunger of such inconueniences aboue touched: which if they be not in them, I shalbe glad: but if they be, it is neither theyr rayling agaynst the poore protestantes, nor yet theyr secrete auricular confession, that shall couer their iniquities from the face of the Lord, when he shall come to reuele abscondita tenebrarum, & iudicare sæculum per ignem.  

Latin/Greek Translations     Close

Foxe text narrative

Foxe text Latin

abscondita tenebrarum, & iudicare saeculum per ignem.

Foxe text translation

Not translated.

Translation (Wade 2003)

(to reveal) the obscurities of the darkness, and to judge the age by fire.

And thus for lacke of further laysure, I end with M. H. hauing no more at this tyme to say vnto him, but wish him to feare God, to embrase his truth, to remember him selfe, and to surcease from this vncharitable raylyng and brawlyng, especially agaynst the dead which can not aunswere him: or if he will nedes continue still to be such a vehement accuser of other, yet that he will remember what belongeth to the part of a right accuser: MarginaliaThe partes of a true accuser.First, that his accusation be true: secondly, that no blynd affection of partialitie be mixt withall: thirdly, who soeuer taketh vpon them to carpe and appeach the crimes of other, ought them selues to be sincere & vpright, and to see what may be written in their owne foreheades. Whoredome and murder be greuous offēses, and worthy to be accused. But to accuse of murder the parties that were murdered, and to leaue the other persons vntouched which were the true murde-

rers, it is the part of an accuser, whiche deserueth hym selfe to be accused of partialitie. As verely I thinke by this woman, that if she had bene a Catholicke Papist & a deuout follower of their Church, as she was a Protestant, she had neither bene condemned then aliue of them, nor now accused beyng dead of M. H. But God forgeue him, and make him a good man, if it be his will.

¶ Three Martyrs burned at Grenestede in Sussex.  

Commentary     Close

Dungate, Foreman and Tree

This terse account first appeared in the 1563 edition and would never be changed. The stability of this account is due to the lack of information Foxe was able to obtain about martyrs in the diocese of Chichester. The original sentence against Anna Tree remains in Foxe's papers (BL, Harley MS 421, fos. 109r-110v).

[Back to Top]

MarginaliaIuly. 18.MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of two men & one women at Grenested in Sussex.NEre about the same tyme that these three wōmen with the infant were burned at Garnesey, suffered other three likewise at Grenested in Sussex, two mē and one womā, the names of whom were Tho. Dungate, Iohn Forman, and mother Tree, who for rightousnes sake, gaue them selues to death and tormentes of the fire, paciently abidyng what the furious rage of man could say or worke agaynst them, at the sayd Towne of Grenested endyng their liues, the xviij. of the sayd moneth of Iuly, and in the yeare aforesayd.

The burnyng and Martyrdome of Thomas Moore in the towne of Leycester. Iune. 26. the yeare. 1556.  

Commentary     Close

Thomas Moor

This is the same person decribed as unnamed servant earlier in the Acts and Monuments (1563, p. 1523; 1570, p. 2095; 1576, p. 1808 and 1583, p. 1914). The reason for thisconfusing duplication is that Foxe obtained these different accounts from different sources and did not realise that they described the same person. The source for this account was the official record from the diocese of Lincoln; it had probably been copied and sent to Foxe by a friend.

[Back to Top]

Marginalia
Iune. 26.
The burning of Thomas Moore a simple innocent, at Leycester.AS the bloudy rage of this persecutiō spared neither man, woman, nor child, wife, nor maide, lame, blind, nor creple, and so through all men & women, as there was no difference either of age or sexe considered: so neither was there any condition or qualitie respected of any person: but who soeuer he were that held not as they did on the Pope, and Sacrament of the altar, were he learned or vnlearned, wise or simple innocēt, all went to the fire. As may appeare by this simple poore creature, and innocent soule named Tho. Moore, reteinyng as a seruaunt to a Marchant mans house in the towne of Leicester, about the age of 24. and after in maner of an husband mā, for speakyng certeine wordes that his maker was in heauen and not in the pixe, was therupon apprehended in the countrey, beyng with his frendes. MarginaliaThomas Moore examined before the Byshop.Who commyng before his Ordinary first was asked, whether he did not beleue his maker there to be, poynting to the high altar. Which he denyed.

Then asked the Byshop, how then, sayd he, doest thou beleue.

The young man aunswered agayne: as his Crede did teach him.

To whom the Byshop said: and what is yonder that thou seest aboue the altar? He answeryng, sayd: forsoth I cannot tell what you would haue me to see. I see there fine clothes, with golden tassels, and other gay gere hāgyng about the Pixe. What is within I cannot see.

Why? doest thou not beleue, sayth the Bishop, Christ to be there, flesh, bloud, and bone? No, þ^t I do not, said he.

MarginaliaThe condemnation and Martyrdome of Thomas Moore.Wherupon the Ordinary makyng short with hym, red the sentence, and so comdemned þ^t true and faithfull seruaunt of Christ to death in S. Margaretes Church in Leycester:  

Commentary     Close

Moor was condemned on 20 April 1556 (PRO C/85/116/9).

¶ To this Tho. Moore, we haue also annexed the aunsweres and examination of one Iohn Iackson before Doct. Cooke one of the Commissioners, for that it belongeth much vnto the same tyme.