1570 Edition | Book 12 | Page 2308 
MarginaliaAn. 1558.Chaunc. It is pity that thou hast so much fauour shewed thee: yet for these honest mens sake I wyll discharge thee.
Notwithstandyng all these dissembling wordes of M. Darbyshyre, pretending for fauour of his sureties to set him at libertie, it was no such thing, nor any zeale of charitie that moued him so to doe, but onely feare of the time, vnderstandyng the daungerous and vnrecouerable sickenes of Queene Mary, which then began somwhat to assuage the cruell procedynges of these persecutors, wherby they durst not do that they would: for els Lithall was not like to haue escaped so easily.
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CloseA list of people troubled, harrassed and driven from their homes appears here in the 1563 edition (pp. 1677-79). This list was not reprinted in subsequent editions, almost certainly because it contained the names of a number of radical protestants, especially freewillers. By including these names Foxe legitimated them as confessors and even martyrs. Of course many of the names in the list were of people who were perfectly orthodox by Foxe's standards. But it was easier to discard both the wheat and the tares rather then to sort them out.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaEdward Crew, and Appline his wife.MOreouer, there was one Edward Grew priest, and Appline his wife compelled to flie from their dwellyng at a towne called Broke: and the man beyng very aged, traueiled abroad to keepe a good conscience. At the last he was taken and layd in Colchester Castle, where he remained till Queene Elizabeth came to her regall seate, and by the alteration of Religion he was deliuered. His wife, good woman, was in great care for him, & to her power did what she could to succor him.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaWilliam Browne of Suffolke.WIlliam Browne Parson of Litell Stanham, in the Countie of Suffolke, made a Sermon in the sayd towne, incontinently after the buriall of our good kyng Edward, and in his Sermon he sayd: there goeth a report, that our good kyng is buried with a Masse by the Bishop of Winchester, he hauing a miter vpon his head. But if it were so (saith he) they are all traitours that so do, because it is both against the truth and the lawes of this Realme, and it is great Idolatrie and blasphemy, and against the glorie of God: and they are no frendes neither to God, the kyng, nor yet vnto the Realme that so do. For this his preaching, one MarginaliaRobert Blomefield, persecutor.Robert Blomefield, an aduersary to the truth, being then Cōstable of the sayd towne, and Bailiffe vnto Syr Iohn Iernyngham Knight (the chief Lord of that town) immediatly rode forth, and brought home with him one MarginaliaEdward Goulding vnder Shrieff.Edward Gouldyng, which was then vnder Sheriffe, MarginaliaSyr Thomas Cornewalis high ShrieffeSyr Thomas Cornewalis beyng then high Sheriffe. So the said Gouldyng and Blomfield sent for certain men of the sayd town, and examined them for the Sermon. Whereunto they made but a small aunswere. Then the Sheriffe made a Bill, and so feared the men, that two or three of them set to their handes, and one of them neuer ioyed after, but it was grief to him till he dyed.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaW. Browne persecuted and taken.Then did they take mē with them vnto the persons house, and in the night they tooke him, and with watchmen kept him vntill it was day. Then should he haue bene caried the next day to the Counsell: but the sayd Robert Blomefield was taken so sicke, that he was like to dye: so that he could not cary him for his lyfe. Then the sayd Sheriffe sent him to Ipswich agayne, and there he was for a time. Then he was sent to Bury prison, and from thence to the Counsell, and then into the Fleete: and so he lay in prison from þe beginning of haruest till it was nigh Christmas: and he sayd God gaue him such aunsweres to make when he was examined, MarginaliaW. Browne deliuered.that he was deliuered with quietnes of conscience. And hauing his libertie, he came agayne vnto the foresayd Towne: and because he would not go to Masse, his liuing was taken away, and he and his wife were constrained to flie here and there, for his life and conscience. In the last yeare of Queene Maries reigne God did take him out of this life in peace.
[Back to Top]Where moreouer is to be noted, that this Robert Bromfield aboue named, immediatly after he had apprehended the said Browne, fel very sicke: And though at that time he was a wealthy man and of a great sub-
stance (beside his land, which was better then twenty pound a yeare) after this time, MarginaliaExample of Gods punishmēt vpon a persecutor.God so plagued his houshold, that his eldest sonne dyed, and his wife had a pinyng sicknes till she departed this life also. Then maried he an other, a richer widow: but all would not helpe, and nothing would prosper: For he had a sore pinyng sickenes, beyng full of botches and sores, wherby he wasted away both in body and goods, till he dyed. So when he died, he was aboue. ix. score poundes in debt, and it was neuer heard of any repentaunce he had. But a litle before his death, he bragged, & threatned a good man, one Symon Harlston,
CloseSimon Harlstone, whose name appears several times in Foxe's book, was Archbishop Matthew Parker's brother-in-law. Although he prudently does not labour the point, Foxe must have enjoyed recording Harlstone's opposition to wearing the surplice which the archbishop insisted all clerics had to wear.
Furthermore, out of the sayd towne were constrayned to flee Robert Boele and Iohn Trapne, because they would not go to Masse and receaue their Sacrament of the altar.
YE heard before in the treatise of the scourgyng of Tho. Greene, how he was troubled and beaten by Doct. Story, for a certeine booke called Antichrist,
CloseThe book is almost certainly John Olde's translation of Rudolph Gualter's Antichrist (STC 25009), printed in Emden in 1556.
CloseSee 1563, p. 1687; 1570, p. 2263; 1576, p. 1954; 1583, p. 2067.
CloseIn 1556.
MarginaliaThe first examination of Elizabeth Young.WHo examined her of many things: First where she was borne, and who was her father and mother.
Elizabeth Young. Syr, all this is but vayne talke, and very superfluous. It is to fill my head with fantasies, that I should not be able to aunswere vnto such thinges as I came for. Ye haue not (I thinke) put me in prison to know who is my father and mother. But I pray you go to the matter that I came hether for.
[Back to Top]M. Hussy. Wherfore wentest thou out of the realme?
Elizab. To keepe my conscience cleane.
Hussy. When wast thou at Masse?
Eliz. Not this three yeares.
Hussy. Thē wast thou not there iij. yeres before that.
Eliz. No Syr, not yet iij. yeares more before that, for and if I were, I had euill lucke.
Hussy. How old art thou?
Eliz. Forty and vpwardes.
Hussy. Twēty of those yeares thou wentest to Masse.
Eliz. Yea, and twēty more I may, and yet come home as wise as I went thether first, for I vnderstand it not.
Hussy. Why wilt not thou go to the Masse?
Eliz. MarginaliaElizab. Young refuseth to goe to Masse.Syr, my cōscience will not suffer me: For I had rather that all the world should accuse me, then myne owne conscience.
Hussy. What and if a louse or a flea sticke vppon thy skinne, and bite thy flesh? thou must make a conscience in the takyng her of: is there not a conscience in it?
Eliz. That is but an easie Argument to displace the