Thys father Rogers was in the Byshops prison xiiij weekes together night and daye, where he was so cruellye handled, with colde, hunger, and yrons, that after his commyng out of the sayd prison, he was so lame in hys backe that hee could neuer go vpright as long as he lyued, as can testifie diuers honeste men that be nowe lyuyng. MarginaliaMen of Amarsham burnt in the cheeke for Gods worde. Also there was xxx. moe burned in the right cheeke and bare fagots the same tyme. The cause was, that they would talke against supersticion and Idolatry, and were desirous to here and read the holye Scriptures. The maner of their burnyng in the cheeke was this: Their neckes were tyde fast to a post or stay, with towels, and their handes holden that they might not styrre, and so the yron beyng hoate was put to their cheekes, and thus bare they the printes and markes of the Lord Iesus about them.
[Back to Top]Marginalia1506.
Thomas Chase Martyr.AMong these aforesayd, whiche were so cruelly persecuted for the Gospell & worde of Christ, one Thomas Chase of Amersham, was one of them that was thus cruelly handeled.
There is no surviving information on Thomas Chase apart from theaccount in Foxe. This account - as Foxe makes clear - is based on testimony from contemporaries to the events and the cruelty with which Chase was treated undoubtedly lost nothing in the telling. It seems reasonable to accept that Thomas Chase was arrested for heresy and committed suicide in prison. There is no way of telling what happened beyond that but claims that he was murdered seem far-fetched.
[Back to Top]Acts 12:1-3.
Matthew 5:7.
After that these styngyng vipers beyng of the wicked broode of Antichrist, had thus moste cruellyeand impiouslye murthered this faithfull Christian, they were at their wittes ende, and could not tell what shift to make, to cloke their shamefull murther withall. At last to blynd the ignoraunt sely people, MarginaliaThomas Chase falsely slaundered to hange him selfe.these bloudy butchers most slaunderously caused by their ministers, to be bruted abroad, þt the foresaid Thomas Chase had hanged him selfe in prison: whiche was a most shamefull and abhominable lye, for the prison was such, that a man could not stand vpright nor lye at ease but stoupyng, as they do reporte that did know it. And besides that, this man had so many manacles and yrons vpon him, that he could not well moue neither hand nor foote, as the women did declare that sawe him dead, in somuch that they confessed that his bloudbolke was broken by reason they had so vilye beaten hym and brused hym: And yet these holy catholiques had not made an ende of their wicked acte in this both killyng & slaunderyng of this godly martyr, but to put out þe remēbraunce of hym, they caused hym to be buried in the woode called Norlandwoode, in the hye waye betwixt Wooburne and litle Marlow, to the entent he should not be taken vp agayne to be seene: And thus commonlye are innocent men layd vp by these clerklye clergye men. But he that is effectuallye true of hym selfe, hath promised at one tyme or at an other, to cleare his true seruauntes, not with lyes and fables, but by hys owne true worde. MarginaliaGod bringeth to light the secret murthers of the papistes.
Math. 10.
Luk. 12.No secret
Matthew 10:26; Luke 12:2.
Thomas Hardyng beyng one of this company, thus molested and troubled as is aforesayd, in the towne of Amersham, for the truth of the Gospell, after his abiuratiō and penaunce done, was agayne sought for, and brought to the fire, in the dayes of kyng Henry viij. and vnder D. Langlond thē bishop of Lyncolne, succeeding after Cardinall Wolsey. Of whose death & martyrdome, we shall likewise recorde (Christ willing and graunting) in order when wee shall come to the tyme and yeare of hys sufferyng.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThomas Noryce, Martyr.
1507.After the martyrdome of these ij. I read
Foxe's source for this is John Bale, Scriptorum Illustrium maiorisBrytanniae…Catalogus (Basel, 1557), p. 644. Bale has an additional detail not inFoxe: Noris was from Brockforth, Suffolk.
MarginaliaElizabeth Sampson.
1508.In the next yeare folowyng, whiche was. an. 1508. In the consistory of London was conuented Elizabeth Sampson, of the parishe of Aldermanberie, vpon certain Articles,
Foxe's source for these articles was the register of Bishop Fitzjamesof London (Guildhall MS 9531//9, fo. 4r-v). The register reveals that Elizabeth was was the wife of John Sampson, a carpenter of St. Mary Aldermanbury. Sampson's abjuration took place on 31 March 1510, not 1508 as Foxe declares. Foxe omits twoof the articles against her (the rest he prints accurately). One of the articles Foxedeleted charged that she had declared that 'moo soules than is in hevyn all ready shall come to hevyn'; the other charged that she denied the bodily resurrection of Christ.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaLaurence Ghest, Martyr.LAmentable it is to remember, and a thyng almost infinite to comprehende the names, tymes, and persons of all them whiche haue bene slayne by the rigour of the Popes clergie, for the true maynteinyng of