MarginaliaAn. 1558. Nouember.do. Why, sayth the Chauncellour, did not I geue you a writ, with my hand and viij. moe of the Close set vnto the same? Well quoth the Sheriffe, that is no sufficient discharge to me, and therfore as I told you, if ye haue a sufficient writ and warrant from the superiour powers, I know then what I haue to do in my office: otherwise, if you haue no other writ but that, I tell you, I wil neither burne them for you nor none of you all. &c. Where note agayne (good Reader) how by this it may be thought and supposed, that the other poore Saintes and Martyrs of God, such as had bene burned at Salisbury before, MarginaliaBurning without a sufficient writte.were burned belyke without any authorised or sufficient writ from the superiours, but onely vpon the information of the Chauncellour and of the Close, through the vncircumspect negligence of the Sheriffes, which should haue looked more substantially vpon the matter. But this I leaue and referre vnto the Magistrates. Let vs returne to the story agayne.

[Back to Top]

Doct. Geffrey the Chauncellour thus sent away from the Sheriffe, went home, and there fell sicke vpō the same (for anger belyke) as they signified vnto me, which were the parties them selues, both godly and graue persons who were then condemned, the one of them, which is MarginaliaRichard White now Vicar of Malborough in Wiltshire.Richard White, being yet aliue.  

[Back to Top]

The vnder Shrieffe to this Syr Anthony Hūgerford aboue named, was one M. Michell, likewise a right and a perfect godly man.  

So that not long after this came downe the writ to burne the aboue named Richard White, and Iohn Hunt, but the vnder SheriffeMarginaliaM. Michell vnder Shrieffe burneth the writte. receauing the sayd writ, sayd: I will not be giltie, (quoth he) of these mens bloud, and immediatly burnt the writyng, and departed his way. Within iiij. dayes after the Chauncellour dyed. Concerning whose death this commeth by the way to be noted, that these ij. foresayd Iohn Hunt and Richard White beyng the same tyme in a lowe and darke doungeon, beyng Saterday toward euening (according to their accustomed maner) fell to euenyng prayer. MarginaliaGods workinges to be noted.Who kneelyng there together, as they should begin their prayer, sodeinly fell both to such a straunge weepyng and tendernes of hart (but how they could not tell) that they could not pray one word, but so continued a great space brustyng out in teares. After that night was past, and the mornyng come, the first word they heard, was, that the Chauncellour their great enemy was dead. MarginaliaTo be noted concerning the death of D. Geffrey Chauncellour of Salisbury.The tyme of whose death they found to be the same houre, when as they fell in such a sodeine weepyng. The Lord in all his holy workes be praised, Amen. Thus much concernyng the death of that wicked Chauncellour.

[Back to Top]

This Richard White, and the sayd Iohn Hunt, after the death of the Chauncellour, the Byshop also beyng dead a litle before, continued still in prison till the happy comming in of Queene Elizabeth, and so were set at libertie.

MarginaliaThe story of Iohn Fetty, and martyrdome of hys childe.IF bloudy tormentes and cruell death of a poore Innocent sufferyng for no cause of his owne, but in the truth of Christ and his Religion, do make a Martyr, no lesse deserueth the child of one Iohn Fetty, to be reputed in þ^e Catalogue of holy Martyrs, who in the house of Byshop Boner vnmercifully was scourged to death, as by the sequele of this story here folowyng may appeare.  

[Back to Top]

Amongest those that were persecuted and miserably imprisoned for the profession of Christes Gospell, and yet mercyfully deliuered by þ^e prouidence of God, there was one Iohn Fetty, a simple & godly poore man, dwellyng in the Parish of Clarkenwell, and was by vocation a Taylor of the age of. 42. yeares, or thereabout, who was accused and complained of, vnto one Broken

[Back to Top]

bury a Priest, and Parson of the same Parish, by hys own wife, for that he would not come vnto the church, and be partaker of theyr Idolatry and superstition: and therfore through the sayd Priestes procuremēt, he was apprehended by Richard Tanner and his fellow, Constables there, and one Martin the Hedborough. MarginaliaGods dreadfull hand vpon a wife seeking the destruction of her husband.Howbeit immediatly vpō his apprehension, his wife (by the iust iudgement of God) was stricken mad, and distract of her wittes: which declared a meruelous example of the iustice of God agaynst such vnfaithfull and most vnnaturall treachery. And although this example perhaps for lacke of knowledge and instruction in such cases litle moued the consciences of those simple poore men to surcease their persecution: yet naturall pity towardes that vngratefull woman, wrought so in their hartes, that for the preseruation and sustētation of her and her ij. children (like otherwise to perish) they for that present let her husband alone and would not carry him to prison, but suffered hym to remaine quietly in his owne house. Duryng which time, he as it were forgettyng the wicked and vnkynd fact of hys wife, did yet so cherish and prouide for her, that within the space of three weeks (through Gods mercyfull prouidence) she was well amēded, and had recouered agayne some stay of her wittes and senses.

[Back to Top]

MarginaliaThe wife persecuting her husband.But such was the power of Sathā in the malicious hart of that wicked woman, that notwithstandyng his gentill dealyng with her, yet she so soone as she had recouered some health, did agayne accuse her husband: MarginaliaIoh. Fetty agayne apprehended.wherupon he was the second tyme apprehended, and caryed vnto Syr Iohn Mordaunt Knight, one of the Queenes Commissioners, and he vppon examination sent him by Cluny the Bishops Sumner, vnto Lollardes Tower: MarginaliaThe straite handling of Ioh. Fetty by Syr Ioh. Mordant.where he was (euen at the first) put into the painefull stockes, and had a dishe of water set by him, with a stone put into it. To what purpose God knoweth, except it were to show that he should looke for litle other sustenance. Which is credible inough, if we consider their like practises vpon diuers before mēcioned in this history, as (amongest other) vpon MarginaliaRichard Smith dead in prison through cruell hādling.Rich. Smith, who dyed through their cruell imprisonment. Touchyng whom, when a godly woman came vnto Doct. Story to haue leaue that she might bury him, hee asked her if he had any straw or bloud in his mouth: but what he ment therby, I leaue to the iudgement of the godly wise.

[Back to Top]

After the foresayd Fetty had thus layen in the prison by the space of xv. dayes, hangyng in the stockes, sometime by the one legge and the one arme, sometime by the other, and otherwhiles by both, it happened that one of his children (a boy, of the age of eight or nine yeares) came vnto the Byshops house to see if he could get leaue to speake with his father. MarginaliaThe cruell handling and scourging of Iohn Fettyes childe.At his commyng thether, one of the Byshops Chaplaines met with him, and asked him what he lacked, and whom he would haue. The child aunswered that he came to see his father. The Chaplaine asked agayne, who was his father. The boy then told hym and pointyng towardes Lollardes Tower, shewed him that his father was there in prison. Why (quoth the Priest) thy father is an hereticke. The child beyng of a bold and quicke spirit, and also godly brought vp and instructed by his father in the knowledge of God, aunswered and sayd: my father is no hereticke: but you are an hereticke: For you haue Baalams marke.

[Back to Top]

With that the Priest tooke the childe by the hand, and caryed hym into the Byshops house (whether to the Bishop, or not, I know not, but like inough he did) and MarginaliaThe miserable tyranny of þ^e Papistes in scourging a childe.there amongest them they did most shamelesly and without all pitie, so whippe and scourge, being naked, this tender child, that he was all in a gore bloud, and then, in a ioly brag of their Catholicke tyranny, they caused Cluny, hauyng his coate vpon his arme, to cary the child in his shyrt vnto hys father, beyng in prison, the bloud runnyng downe by his heeles.

[Back to Top]