MarginaliaAn. 1557. August.it more plaine how it came to passe accordingly.

The ij. day of August. 1557. betwixt vj. and vij. of the clocke in the morning, was brought frō Mote Hall vnto a plat of ground hard by the towne wall of Colchester on the outward side, Williā Bongeor, W. Purcas, Thomas Benold, Agnes Siluerside, aliâs Smith, Helene Ewring, & Elizab. Folkes, afore named, which being there, and all thinges prepared for their Martyrdome, at þ^e last these said cōstant persons kneeled down and made their humble prayers to God, but not in such sort as they would: for the cruell tyrantes would not suffer them: especially one Maister Clere among the rest (who sometime had bene a Gospeller) shewed him selfe very extreme vnto them: the Lorde geue hym repentaunce (if it be hys good will) and grace to be a better man. Whē they had made their prayers, they rose and made them ready to þ^e fire. And Elizabeth Folkes when she had pluckte of her peticote, would haue geuen it to her mother (which came and kist her at the stake, and exhorted her to be strong in the Lorde) but the wicked there attending, would not suffer her to geue it. Therefore takyng the sayd peticote in her hand, she threw it away frō her, saying: farewell all the world, farewell fayth, farewell hope: and so taking the stake in her hand, sayd: welcome loue. &c. Now she being at the stake, and one of the officers nayling the chaine about her, in the striking of the staple, he mist the place, & stroke her with a great stroke of the hammer on the shoulder bone: wherat she sodainly turned her head, lifting vp her eyes to the Lorde and prayed smilingly, and gaue her selfe to exhorting the people agayne.

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A repeat of the woodcut used for seven martyrs of Canterbury.

When all vj. were also nailed likewise at their stakes, and the fire about them, they clapped their handes for ioye in the fire, that the standers by (which were by estimation thousandes) cried generally all almost: the Lorde strengthen them, the Lorde comfort them, the Lord poure hys mercies vpon thē, with such like wordes, as was wonderfull to heare. Thus yelded they vp their soules and bodies into the Lordes handes, for the true testimonie of hys truth. The Lord graunt we may imitate the same in the lyke quarell (if he so vouch vs worthy) for hys mercies sake, Amen.

MarginaliaW. Munt, Alice hys wife, Rose Allin theyr daughter, Iohn Iohnson, burnt the same day at afternoone.In like maner, the sayd day in the afternoone, was brought forth into the Castell yarde, to a place appoynted for the same, William Munt, Iohn Iohnson, Alice Munt, and Rose Allin aforesayd, which godly cōstant persons, after they had made their prayers, and were ioyfully tyed to the stakes, calling vppon the name of God, and exhorting the people earnestly to flie from Idolatry, suffered their Martyrdome with such triumph and ioy, that the people dyd no lesse showte therat to see it, then at the other that were burnt the same day in the morning.

MarginaliaThe ages of these ten made the summe of 406.Thus ended all these glorious x. soules that day, their happy liues vnto the Lorde, whose ages all dyd grow to the summe of 406. yeares or thereaboutes. The Lord graunt we may well spend our yeares and dayes likewyse, to hys glory, Amen.

¶ Iohn Thurston dyed in Colchester Castle.  

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John Thurston

John Thurston is the husband of Margaret Thurston who was burned in Colchester in September 1557 (see 1563, pp. 1631-33; 1570, pp. 2215-16; 1576, p. 1912, and 1583, pp. 2020-21). This account was printed in the 1563 edition and unchanged in subsequent editions.

MarginaliaIohn Thurston a confessor of Christ.BEfore you haue heard of the takyng of one Iohn Thurston at Muchbentley in the house of one William Munt of the same towne: which sayd Iohn Thurston afterward, about the moneth of May, in the yeare aforesayd, dyed in Colchester Castle, a constant confessor of Iesus Christ.

The story and death of George Eagles, otherwise termed Trudgeouer, a most paynefull trauailer in Christes Gospell, who for the same Gospell most cruelly was Martyred by the cruell Papistes.  

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George Eagles

Foxe's first account of George Eagles appeared in the Rerum on pp. 726-28. (This was the last narrative of a Marian martyr which would appear in the Rerum. Because of Foxe's having to complete the Latin martyrology in haste, the work concluded with a list of those executed from March 1556 until the end of Mary's reign).

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The Rerum account of Eagles was faithfully translated in the 1563 edition. This account was based entirely on information from individual informants. More material from individual informants was added in the 1570 edition. These accounts were on two themes: more detailed and graphic accounts of the physical torments which Eagles had to endure (which demonstrated his constancy and stoicism) and equally detailed and graphic accounts of the divine punishments inflicted on those responsible for Eagles' death (demonstrating that he died a martyr and not a traitor). The account of Eagles was unchanged after the 1570 edition.

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MarginaliaAugust. 2.MarginaliaGeorge Eagles Martyred. AMong other Martyrs of singular vertue and constancie, one George Eagles deserueth not þ^e least admiration, but is so much the more to be cōmended, for that he hauing litle learning or none, most manfully serued & fought vnder the bāner of Christes Church. For oftentimes þ^e will and pleasure of God is to beautifie and adorne hys kingdome with the weake and simple instrumentes of thys world: such as in the olde Testament Amos was, who with many other of obscure and vnknowen names, were called from the heardes and foldes to the honour of Prophets: as likewise we read of the Apostles that were called from fishermens craft, and put into Churches. Wherefore this George Eagles is not to be neglected for hys base occupation, whom Christ called thence to set forth and declare abroad hys Gospell. Rather we ought to glorifie God the more therby in hys holines, which in so blinde a tyme inspired hym with the gift of preaching, and constancie of suffering: who after a certaine tyme he had vsed the occupation of a Taylor, being eloquent and of good vtteraunce, gaue and applied hym selfe to the profite of Christes Church.

Which man, as before in those most bright & cleare dayes of K. Edward the 6. hee had not vnfruitfully shewed and preached the power and force of the Lord: so afterward in the tempestuous tyme and fall of the Church (at what tyme the confessors of Christ and his Gospell were turmoyled, diuers of them murthered, part banished, and other some constrayned for feare not to shew their heades) he expressed and vttered hys manly stomacke. For he wandring abroad into diuers and farre countreyes, where he coulde finde any of hys brethren, he did there most earnestly encourage and comfort them, now tarying in thys towne, and sometime abyding in that certaine monethes together,MarginaliaThe painfull trauell of George Eagles. as occasion serued, lodging sometime in the countrey about, and sometime for feare liuing in fieldes & woods, who for hys immoderate and vnreasonable going abroad, was called Trudgeouer. Oftentimes did he lie abroad in the night without couert, spending the most part therof in deuout and earnest prayer. His diet was so aboue measure spare & sclender, that for the space of 3. yeares, he vsed for þ^e most part, to drinke nothing but