1570 Edition | Book 4 | Page 431 
dispised? And so the Bishop departing from the pope stroken as is sayd on the syde, lefte hym for halfe dead and so lyeng in sorrowe and lamentation. Wherupon hys chamberlens being amased hearyng these thynges, came runnyng to the Pope to knowe what hym ayled. MarginaliaThe pope disquieted in hys mynde.To whom the Pope much troubled and vexed in his spirite, sayd: that great terrours in his sleape vehemently disturbed and molested him, in such sort, that he thought he should neuer recouer it, nor be restored to him selfe againe. Oh (sayth he) how sore is my side, & how egerly it vexeth me, as being run through wt a spear. Neither dyd the pope eate or drinke all that day, but feyning him self to be sicke of a burnyng agew, kept in. And yet the indignation of þe irefull hande of God (sayth the story) so left hym not.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe reuenge of God vpon pope InnocentFor after those wholesom admonitions geuen to him by the seruaunt of God: the Pope not regardyng them, but all set vpon warre, suppression of his enemyes, and secular affaires, gaue his mynde wholy vnto them. And yet all his laboures, counsailes, and expenses bestowed vpon them, could neuer prosper after that day, in that he went about. For the pope the same tyme hauyng warre with the Apulians, MarginaliaThe popes army vanquished and confoūdedall his armye fightyng vnder the popes nephew their captaine, were slayne and confounded the number of many thousandes. Whose lamentable slaughter, all the countrey of the Romains did much bewaile. The pope not yet quiet in his minde, directeth his iourney toward Naples, although sore vexed in his side lyke a man sicke of a pleurisie, or smiten rather with a speare. Neither could any phisicke of his cardinals helpe him. For Robert of Lincolne (sayth þe story) did not spare him. And he that would not heare hym gently correcting hym, beyng a lyue, his stripes did he feale when he was dead. So that he neuer after þt enioyed any lucky or prosperous day, till tyme of his death: nor yet any prosperous or quiet night vntil the mornyng. MarginaliaThe death of pope Innocent 4.
An. 1255And so continued he vnto his death, whiche shortly after ensued, he being at Naples. an. 1255 or as N. Triuet recordeth. an. 1254. And thus haue ye the whole dicourse betwene Robert Grosted, and Pope Innocent. MarginaliaA note to the reader concerning the appearing of dead men.¶ In the whiche story is to be noted (gentle reader) that although in the story of Cestrensis, of Mathew Paris, and of Flor. histor. it is expresly testified and reported, that the Pope was smytten with the staffe of Robert þe foresaid Bishop of Lincolne: yet thou must wisely vnderstand, that how soeuer Gods hande dealeth here in this worlde in punishyng his enemies, or how so euer the image of thinges not sene but phantased, offer them selues to the secret cogitation of man (his sense being a sleepe) by the operation or permission of God, working after some spirituall influence in our imaginations: certaine it is, that no dead man materially can euer ryse againe, or appeare, before the iudgement day, to any man with his staffe or without hys staffe to worke any feate, after he haue once departed thys lyfe.
MarginaliaDissension betwene the Archbishop of Cant and the church of Lincolne.After the death of thys Robert Grosted B. of Lincolne, greate dissention fell betwene the Archbishop of Cant. Boniface, and the canons of the sayd church of Lincolne, about the ryght of geuing prebendships, and about the reuenewes of the sayd church, in time of the bishops see being now vacant. Which ryght and power the Archbishop claymed to him selfe, but the canons of that church (maintayning þe contrary side) stoode against hym, MarginaliaExcommunication abused.
Appellation made to Romeand for the same were excommunicated of the Archbishop. Among whom, one M. Wolfe resisting the Archbishop to the face, in the name of all the other canons, made vp hys appeale to Rome, where much money on both sides was spent. At length, after this Grosted, was elected Henry Lexinton in the see of Lincolne.
MarginaliaHenry Lexinton bish. of Lincolne.About which time, the wicked Iewes
CloseThese brief accounts of Jewish activities in the thirteenth century were strategically placed to make a polemical point about the superstitions of the Roman Church. As examined in Sharon Achinstein, 'John Foxe and the Jews', Renaissance Quarterly, 54:1 (2001), pp. 86-120, the tale of a Jew falling into a privy in Tewkesbury on a Sabbath day was a direct parallel to the subsequent story of Walter Gray, Archbishop of York, taken from Flores Historiarum II, pp. 406, 408-9. Grey died when he over-fasted and Foxe describes this, in parallel to the Jews of the time, as the result of the inanity of blind superstition by both Christians and Jews. For the most part Foxe concentrates here on Jewish ceremony as an example of their superstition. Various instances of blood libel are noted, such as in the story of Hugh of Lincoln taken from Walter of Guisborough, p. 185, and the Jews of Norwich taken from Matthew Paris, Chronica Maiora III, p. 305-6, and Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon VIII, p. 249. The account from Flores Historiarum II, pp. 381, 397, 407, on the removal of the Jews from France and Henry III charging the Jews 8,000 marks whether they left the kingdom or not further emphasised the characteristics of Jews as greedy and as having a destabilising influence in both kingdoms. The story of the Jews in Northampton, who planned to burn the city of London at Lent, was taken from Eulogium III, p. 120.
[Back to Top]Matthew Phillpott
University of Sheffield
Ex Cestreēs lib. 7. ca. 34
Ex Flor. hist.
The Iewes expelled out of France
A child circūcised of the Iewes and kept a whole yere to be crucified.Ex Cestrens. lib 7. Of this wicked Iewish people I finde also in the booke of Flor. hist. that aboute this yeare of our Lorde. 1255. they began first to be expelled out of Fraunce, by the commaundement of the French kyng, beyng then in Palestina, warryng agaynste the Turks: By the occasiō that it was obiected then by the Turke against him and other Christian princes, for reteyning the Iewes amongst them, which crucified our sauiour, and warring against them which did not crucifye him. Ex flor. hist. Of these Iewes moreouer kyng Henry the same yeare. 1255. exacted to be geuē vnto him viij thousand markes in payne of hanging. MarginaliaThe Iewes aske leaue to depart the realme of England.Who being much agreued therewith, & complayning that the king went about their destruction, desired leaue to bee geuen then of the kyng, that they might depart the realme, neuer to returne agayne. But the king committed the doing of that matter vnto Earle Richarde his brother, to enforce them to pay the money whether they woulde or no. Moreouer, of the same Iewes menciō is made in the story intituled Eulogium: MarginaliaEx Eulogio.
Iewes burned at Northampton.Of the Iewes in Northampton, who had among themselues prepared wilde fyre, to burne the city of London. For the which diuers of them were taken, and burned in the tyme of Lent, in the sayd citie of Northampton, which was two yeares before, about the yere of our Lord. 1253. Ex Eulogio. And for so much as mencion here is made of the Iewes, I cannot omit what some English stories write of a certain Iew: MarginaliaA Iewe fallen into a priuey would not be taken out for kepyng hys sabboth day.who not long after this tyme aboute the yeare of oure Lord. 1257. fell into a priuy at Tewkesbury vpon a sabboth day, which for the great reuerence he had to his holy sabboth, would not suffer him selfe to be plucked out. And so Lord Richard Earle of Glocester, hearing therof, would not suffer him to be drawue out on Sundaye for reuerence of the holy day. And thus the wretched superstitious Iewe remayning there tyll mondaye, was found dead in the doung.[Back to Top]
And to note þe blind superstitiō of that tyme, not onely among þe Iewes, but also among þe christiās, to omit diuers other stories as of Walter Gray, archb. of Yorke, MarginaliaSuperstitious fastyng noted in Walter archb. of Yorke.who cōming vp to the parliamēt at London an. 1255. wt vnordinate fasting, dyd so ouercharge nature, & pyned himselfe, & (as þe story mēcioneth) did so dry vp his brain: that he lesyng therby all appetite of stomache, going to Fulham, there wythin three dayes dyed, as is in the cōpiler of Flor. histo.MarginaliaEx Flor hist. is both storied & reprehēded. Let this also be adioyned, which the forenamed autor, and in the same yere is recorded of one named Peter Chaceporce, who dying in Fraunce an. 1255. left in bequest of his testament. 600. markes for landes to be purchased to the house of Merton, for God to be serued there perpetually pro anima eius, et omnium fidelium. i. for his soules helth, and all faythful soules. MarginaliaSuperstitiō in sekyng saluation by wrong meanes.As who woulde saye, Christian fayth were not the ordinary meanes sufficient to saluation of faythfull soules, without the quyre seruice of the Monkes of Merton.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe pope iniurios to the church of England.Ye haue heard it often complained before, howe the vsurped power of the Pope hath violently and presumptuously encroched vpon the church of Englande, in geuing and conferring benefices and prebendes to his Italians and straungers, to the great damage and ruine of Christes flocke manifold wayes.
CloseThe Foxe Project was not able to complete the commentary on this section of text by the date by which this online edition was compiled (23 September 2008). This commentary will become available in due course from the 'Late Additions and Corrections' page of the edition.