1570 Edition | Book 6 | Page 887 
MarginaliaRadul. Agricola.
Weselus lamenteth the darkenes of the church.faith, why S. Paul so oftentimes did inculcate, that mē be iustified by faith and not by woorkes, the same Iosquine also reported, that they did openly reiecte and disproue the opiniō of Monkes, whiche say that men be iustified be their workes. Item, concernyng mens traditons their opinion was, þt all such were deceaued, who so euer attributed vnto those traditions any opinion of Gods worship, or þt they could not be broken. And thus much for the storie of doctour VVesellianus & VVeselus.
By this it may be sene and noted, how by the grace of God and his gifte of Printyng, first came forth learnyng:
CloseOnce again, Foxe takes the opportunity to associate the invention ofprinting with the advent of Protestantism.
About the very same tyme and season, when as the Gospel began thus to braunch & spring in Germanie: the hoste of Christes Churche begā also to muster & to multiplie likewise here in Englād, as by these histories here consequente maye appeare.
CloseThese histories of English martyrs are all derived from London Guildhall MS 3313 (now printed as The Great Chronicle of London), which belongedto John Stow and possibly was loaned by him to Foxe (certainly Foxe consulted the work at some point). Foxe attributes this work (probably correctly) to the chronicler Robert Fabyan.
[Back to Top]Ione Boughton mother to the lady Yong Martyr.in the yeare of our Lorde. 1494. and in. 9. yeare of the reigne of K. Henry. vij. the 28. Aprill, was burned a very olde womā named Ioane Boughton widowe, & mother to the lady Young, which Lady was also suspected to be of that opinion which her mother was.
CloseThere is actually no evidence that Lady Jane Young, the wife of Sir John Young, a wealthy draper and Lord Mayor of London, was ever burned.Andrew Hope has argued that Joan Baker confused Jane Young with her motherJoan Boughton, who was burned at Smithfield on on 28 April 1494. It is true,however, that Jane Young was herself suspected of heresy. (See Andrew Hope,'The lady and the baliff: Lollardy among the gentry in Yorkist and early TudorEngland' in Lollardy and the Gentry in the Middle Ages, ed. Margaret Aston and Colin Richmond [Stroud, 1997], p. 260 and J. A. F. Thomson, The Later Lollards,1414-1520 [Oxford, 1965}, pp. 156-7).
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CloseSee The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley (London, 1938), pp. 252-3. It should be noted that Foxe is putting apositive spin on the account in The Great Chronicle, whose author regarded Joan Boughton as a deluded heretic.
CloseThe Great Chronicle records that Boughton's ashes were removed'and kepyd ffor a precious Relyk, In an erthyn pott' (The Great Chronicle of London,ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley [London, 1938], p. 253). Foxe is careful todisguise the suggestion that her remains were regarded as relics.
Marginalia1497.
Richard Milderale. Iames Sturdye.SHortly after the Martyrdome
CloseThe following accounts of Londoners punished for heresy are drawn from The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley (London, 1938), pp. 261, 262 and 264.
CloseI.e., 17 January 1497.
Marginalia1498.FVrthermore the next yeare folowyng, whiche was þe yere of our lord. 1498.
CloseActually 1499; Foxe was misled by the author of the Great Chroniclereckoning years by the Lord Mayor's term of office which began in the spring. This account is from The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley(London, 1938), p. 286.
MarginaliaThe quene was remoued to Calys at the beheadyng of her cousin Edward PlātagenetIN the same yeare aboue mentioned, whiche was the yeare of our Lord. 1499.
CloseActually 1500; Foxe was misled by the author of the Great Chroniclereckoning years by the Lord Mayor's term of office which began in the spring.
CloseFoxe made a mistake error, there was no such person. In the Great Chronicle, it reads that in July there 'was a town in Norfolk [sic] namyd Babramconsumed the more part therof with fire' (The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley [London, 1938], p. 294). This reference to burning is followed immediately by the account of the execution of a heretic in Smithfield. In the manuscript Foxe consulted a marginal note reads: Babram hereticus (London Guildhall MS 3313, fo. 273v).
[Back to Top]Reading rapidly Foxe must have thought that Babram was the name of a heretic andthat he was burned. By the way, Babraham is a village in Cambridgeshire, notNorfolk.
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CloseFoxe is referring to the Great Chronicle, which he believed was written by the chronicler Robert Fabian. These histories of English martyrs are all derived from London Guildhall MS 3313 (now printed as The Great Chronicle of London), which belonged to John Stow and possibly was loaned by him to Foxe (certainly Foxe consulted the work at some point). Foxe attributes this work (probably correctly) to the chronicler Robert Fabyan.
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CloseFoxe is referring to the version of Fabian.s chronicles in print, incontrast to the Great Chronicle, which Foxe believed was written by Fabian, butwhich was in manuscript. These histories of English martyrs are all derived from London Guildhall MS 3313 (now printed as The Great Chronicle of London), which belonged to John Stow and possibly was loaned by him to Foxe (certainly Foxe consulted the work at some point). Foxe attributes this work (probably correctly) to the chronicler Robert Fabyan.
[Back to Top]ABout whiche yeare lykewise or in the yeare next folowyng the. xx. day of Iuly, was on old man burnt in Smithfield.
CloseThis is from The Great Chronicle of London, ed A. H. Thomasand I. D. Thornley (London, 1938), p. 294. The execution of an unnamed old man at Smithfield is recorded in a number of sources (e.g., The Great Chronicle of London, ed. A. H. Thomas and I. D. Thornley [London, 1938], p. 294 and Fabyan's Chronicle, ed. H. Ellis [London, 1911], p. 687). None of the surviving sources supply the details of the man's attempted escape and injury, so it must be assumed that whatever the source that Cary supplied to Foxe was, it was subsequently lost.
[Back to Top]Marginalia1499.
Hieronymus Sauonarola with two fryers, Martyrs.IN the same yeare also, which was of the Lord. 1499 fell the Martyrdome
CloseFoxe had an account of Savanorola in his Commentari (fo. 177r-v)but this account is conflated from two sources. The first is the admiring accountof Philippe de Commynes, whose praise of Savanorola as a prophet who foresawthe future and who was dedicated to the reform of the Church, helped establishSavanorola as a proto-Protestant to the Reformers (see Philippe de Commynes,De Carlo Octavo…et bello Neapolitano Commentarii [Paris, 1561], pp. 105-7). The other source was the account of Savanorola in Matthias Flacius,Catalogus testium veritatis (Basel, 1562), p. 565.
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