Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

As one of the few small woodcuts that seem tailor-made for a specific event, this image, with its blank banderole and Bonner's name attached to the official with the flail, seems clearly misplaced. CUL copy: both men are depicted as very pale indeed, wearing nothing more than white linen cloths around their midriffs. They are being beaten by a cleric dressed entirely in black. Touches of orange are added to their knees, perhaps to suggest wounds. Additional wounds are also displayed on their backs. The penitent on the left has further wounds added freehand to his right arm. There is a scroll in the upper right portion of the illustration, though the smoke and wall details continue across its outline. The illustrator of this volume has continued the colour of the wall over the scroll also. WREN: the men are depicted in the same manner, although the wounds added to the figures use a deeper, more blood-like red. The scroll in this is covered over with the background colour.

cause why they shoulde not be excommunicate for theyr manifest offence in thys behalfe committed, according to the forme and order of law, and further to receyue suche punishment, as iustice shall prouide in that behalfe. And what you haue done in the premisses, whether the sayde Thomas and Iohn haue obeyed your admonitiōs, and performed the sayd penaunce or no: we wyll that you or one of you, which hath receiued our sayde commaundement, for the execution therof, do distinctly certify vs betwene this and the last day of Nouember next cōmyng. Dated at our palace of Norwich vnder our Commissaries seale, the. viii. day of October. an. 1428.

This (gentle Reader) was for þ^e most part, the order of their whole penaunce: how be it, some were oftentimes more cruelly handled, & after their penance they were banished out of the dioces, and other some more straightly vsed by longer imprisonment, wherof we wil briefly rehearse one or two for example.

MarginaliaIohn Beuerley.lOhn Beuerley alias Battild, a laborer, was attached by the Vicar of Sowthcreke, the parish priest of VVaterden, and a lawyer, and so deliuered vnto maister VVilliam Bernam the Bishops Commissary, who sent him to the Castell of Norwich, there to be kept in irons: where as afterward he being brought before the commissary, and hauing nothing proued agaynst hym, he tooke an othe, that euery yeare afterward he should confesse hys synnes once a yeare to hys Curate, and receiue the Sacrament at Easter, as other Christians did: and for hys offence he was enioyned that the Friday and Saterday next after, he should fast bread and water, and vpon the Saterday to be Marginalia* alias fustigated.* whipped frō the pallace of Norwich, going round about by Tomelands, and by S. Mychels church, by Cottell Rew, and about the market, hauyng in hys hand a waxe candle of. ij. pence, to offer to the Image of þ^e Trinitye, after he had done his penance. And for somuch as he confessed that he had eaten fleshe vpon Easter day, and was not shriuen in all Lent, nor receaued vpon Easterday, the Iudge enioyned hym that hee should fast Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday in Whitsonweke, hauing but one meale a day of fishe and other whitte meates, and after his penance so done, he should depart out of the dioces, & neuer come there any more.

MarginaliaIohn Skilley.IOhn Skilley of Flixton Miller being apprehended and brought before the bishop of Norwich the. xiiij. dayeof March. 1428. for holding and maintayning the articles aboue wrytten, was thereupon conuicte and forced to abiure: and after his abiuration solemnly made (which here to auoyd tediousnes we omit) he had a most sharpe sentence of penaunce pronounced agaynst hym, the effect wherof being briefly collected, was thys: That for so much as the sayd Skilley was cōuict by his own confession, for holding and maintaining the articles before written, and for receauing certaine good and godly men into hys house, as sir VVilliam VVhite priest, & Iohn VVadden, whom they called famous, notorious, and damnable heretickes, & had now abiured the same, being fyrst absolued from the sentence of excommunication which he had incurred by meanes of hys opinions, he was enioyned for penance. MarginaliaThe penaunce of Iohn Skylley.vij. yeares imprisonment in the monastery of Langley, in the dioces of Norwich. And forsomuch as in times past, he vsed vpon the Fridayes to eate fleshe, he was enioyned to fast bread & water euery Fridaye, by the space of that seuen yeares to come, and that by the space of two yeares next immediatly after the. vij. yeares expired, euery Wednisday in the beginning of Lent, and euery Maundy thursday, he should appeare before the bishop, or hys successor, or cōmissary for the tyme being, in the cathedrall Churche of Norwich, together with the other penitentiaries, to doo open penaunce for hys offences.

Besides these there were diuers other of the same company, which the same yeare were forced to like abiuration & penaunce. And so, to procede to the next yere followyng, which was 1429. there ensueth a great nūber in þ^e same register, which were examined & dyd penaunce in like sorte to the number of xvi. or xvij. In the number of whom was Iohn Baker, otherwyse called Vsher Tunstall, who for hauyng a booke with the Pater noster, the Aue and Creede in English, and for certaine other articles of fasting, confession and inuocation contrary to the determination of the Romish church, after much vexation for the same, was caused to abiure and sustain such penance, as the other before him had done.

MarginaliaMargery Backster.AN other was Margery Backster, wyfe of VVilliam Backster wright in Martham, the same yeare accused: MarginaliaA woman brought in for witnes in the popes courte.against whom, one Ioane Cliffeland was brought in by the bishop, and compelled to depose, & was made to bryng in, in forme followyng.

First, that the sayde Margery Backster dyd informe this deponent that she shoulde in no case sweare, saying to her in Englishe, MarginaliaThe Bee will stinge.dame beware of the Bee, for euerye Bee will styng, and therfore take heede you swere not, neyther by God, neither by our Lady, neyther by none other saint: and if ye do the contrary, the Bee will styng your tounge, and venome your soule.

Item, this deponent beyng demaunded by the sayde Margery, what she dyd euery day at churche, she answered that she kneled downe and sayde v. Pater nosters, in worship of the crucifixe, & as many Aue Maries in worship of our Lady. MarginaliaAgaynst Images.Whō Margery rebuked, saying: you do euil to knele or pray to such images in the churches, for God dwelleth not in suche churches, neyther shall come downe out of heauen, and will geue you no more rewarde for such prayer, then a candell lighted and set vnder the couer of the foont, will geue light by nyght to those which are in the church: saying moreouer in Englishe, leude wrightes, of stocks hew & forme such crosses and Images, and after that, leude painters gleir them with colours. And if you desire so much to see the true crosse of Christ, I wyl shew it you at home in your own house. Which this deponent being desirous to see, the sayd Margery stretching out her armes abrode, sayd to thys deponent, this is the true crosse of Christ, and thys crosse thou oughtest and mayest euery day beholde and worship in thine own house, and therefore it is but vain