Persons abiured,

with their Articles.

Iohn Me- dwell ser- uaunt to M. Carkit, Scriuener.   Commentary     Close Foxe may have obtained this material from an oral source. The detail about the conditions of imprisonment and the lack of specific dates are both atypical of material obtained from official records. Elsewhere in the Acts and Monuments, Foxe mentions that a Richard Carket copied material from the London registers for him (This is a very valuable (and rare) indication by Foxe of the assistance he received in having official transcribed. It also indicates that, even for records in London, Foxe relied on transcriptions of archival documents, rather than examining the documents himself). [Back to Top] 1532.

This Medwell lay in prison xxiiij. wekes, till he was almost lame. Hys heresies were these: That he doub- ted whether there was any Purga- tory. He would not trust in pardons, but rather in the promises of Christ. MarginaliaHeresie with the Pope, to trust onely to the merites of Christ. He doubted weether the merites of any but only of Christ did helpe hym. He doubted whether pilgrimages & setting vp of candels to images wer meritorious or not. He thought hee should not put his trust in any saint. Item, he had in his custody the new testament in english, the examination of Thorpe, the wicked Mammon, a boke of Matrimonie. Ex ipsius schedula ad Episc. Scripta.

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Christofer Fulman, seruaunt to a Goldsmith. 1532.

This yong man was attached for receiuyng certain bokes at Antwerp of George Constantine, & transpor- ting them ouer in to England, and sel- lyng them to sondry persons, beyng bokes prohibited by the proclamatiō Item, he thought then those bookes to haue bene good, and that he had bene in errour in tymes past.

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Margaret Bowgas. 1532.   Commentary     Close Margaret Bowgas had already been forced to find six compurgators to clear her of charges of heresy in Colchester in July 1528 (BL, Harley MS 421, fo. 30v). Her husband Thomas had been forced to abjure his heretical beliefs and do pennance in Colchester in 1528 (Fines).

Her heresies were these: Beyng asked if she would go on pilgrimage, she sayd, I beleue in God, and he cā do me more good, then our lady or a- ny other saint, and as for them, they shall come to me, if they wyll. &c. Thē Rich. Sharples Person of Millende by Colchester, asked her, if she sayd her Aue Maria. I say (said she) haile Mary, but I will say no further. Then said he if she left not those opi- nions, she would beare a fagot. If I do (sayd she) better then I shall: ad- ding moreouer that she would not go from that to dye therfore. To whom the priest answered & sayd, she would be burned. Hereunto Margarete a- gayn replying, asked MarginaliaTyrauntes make Martyrs. the Priest, who made martyrs? Tyrants (quoth the priest) make Martyrs, for they put Martyrs to death. So they shall or may me, quoth Margaret. At length with much ado and great persuasi?s she gaue ouer to Foxeford the Chā- celler, and submitted her selfe.

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Iohn Tyrell an Irish- man of Bil- lery key, Taylor.

His Articles were these: That the sacrament of the aultar was not the body of Christ, but onely a cake of bread. Furthermore the occasion be- yng asked, how he fell into that here- sie: he answered and sayd, that about 3. wekes before Midsomer last MarginaliaM. Latimer preaching agaynst Pilgrimages. past, he heard M. Hugh Latimer preach at S. Mary Abchurche, that men should leaue goyng in pilgrimage a- broad, & do their pilgrimage to theyr poore neighbors. Also the saide M. Latimer in his Sermon did set the Sacrament of the aulter at litle.

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William Lancaster Tailor. 1532.

The cause layd to this man was: That he had in his kepyng the boke of Wickliffes wicket. Item, that he beleued the Sacrament of the aulter after the wordes of consecration not to be the body of Christ really, &c. I- tem, vpon the day of Assumption he said, that if it were not for the speach of the people, he would not receiue the sacrament of the aulter.

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Rob. Top- ley Frier. 1532.

His articles. He beyng a frier Au- gustine, of Clare   Commentary     Close I.e., an Augustinian friar from the house at Stoke by Clare, Suffolk. Robert was the brother of Thomas Topley. , forsooke his habite, and goyng in a MarginaliaA fryer maryed. secular mans weede, x. yeres, maried a wife called Marga ret Nixon, hauing by her a child: and afterward beyng brought before the B. he was by him abiured and con- demned to be prisoned in hys former monastery: but at last he escaped out, and returned to his wyfe agayne.

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Persons abiured,

with their Articles.

Tho. Top- ley Austen Frier at Stokeclare.

By the occasion of this Rob. Top ley aforesaid, place is offred to speake something likewyse of Tho. Topley, his brother belike, and also a frier of the same order and house of Stoke- clare. This Tho. Topley had bene conuerted before, by one MarginaliaMyles Couerdale. Rich. Foxe priest of Bumstede, and Miles Co- uerdale, in so much that he beyng in- duced partly by thē, partly by reading certain bokes, cast of both hys order and habite, and went lyke a secular priest. Wherupon he was espied and brought to Cuthbert B. of London, an. 1528. before whom this confessiō he made as foloweth.

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MarginaliaThe recantation of Tho. Topley frier. ALl Christen men beware of consentyng to Erasmus fables, for by consentyng to them, they haue caused mee to shrynke in my fayth that I promised to God at my Christening, by my witnesses. Firste as touchyng these fables, I red in Colloquium MarginaliaColloquia Erasmi. by þ^e instruction of Syr Richard Foxe  

, of certeine Pilgremes, which (as the boke doth saye) made a vowe to go to S. Iames, & as they went, one of them dyed & he desired his felowes to salute S. Iames in hys name:MarginaliaEx Regist. Lond. and an other dyed homeward, and hee desired that they would salute his wyfe and hys children: & the iij. dyed at Florence, and hys felow sayd he supposed that he was in heauen, and yet he sayd that he was a great lyer.   Thus I mused of these opiniōs so greatly, that my mynde was almost withdrawene from deuotiō to Sainctes. Notwithstandyng I cōsented that the diuine seruice of th? was very good, & is though I haue not had such sweetnes in it as I shoulde haue had, because of such fables, and also because of other foolishe pastimes, as daūcing, tennes, and such other, whiche I thinke haue ben great occasions that the goodnes of God hath bene voyde in me, and vyce in strength.

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Moreouer, it fortuned thus about halfe a yeare a goe, that the sayd Syr Richard went forth and desired me to serue hys Cure for hym, and as I was in hys chamber, I found a certein boke calledMarginaliaWickleffes Wicket. Wickleffes Wicket, wherby I felt in my conscience a great waueryng for the tyme that I dyd read vpon it, and afterward also when I remembred it, it wounded my conscience very sore. Neuertheles I consented not to it, vntil I had heard hym preach, and that was vpon S. Anthonies day: yet my mynde was stil much troubled w^t the said booke (which did make the Sacrament of Christes body, in forme of bread, but a remēbraūce of Christes Passion)MarginaliaMyles Couerdale. till I heard Syr Myles Couerdale  

preach, and then my mynde was sore withdrawen from that blessed Sacramēt, in so much þ^t I tooke it then but for þ^e remembraūce of Christes body. Thus haue I wretchedly wrapped my soule with sinne, for because I haue not ben stedfast in that holy order þ^t God hath called me vnto by Baptisme, neither in the holy order that God & S. Augustine hath called me to by my religion. &c.

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Furthermore he sayd and confessed, that in the Lent last past, as he was walkyng in þ^e field at Bumstede w^t Syr Miles Couerdale late frier of þ^e same order  

, going in þ^e habite of a secular priest, which had preached the 4. sonday in Lent at Bumstede, they did commun together of Erasmus workes, & also vpō confession:MarginaliaM. Couerdale. þ^e which sir Miles sayd & did hold, þ^t it was sufficiēt for a mā to be contrite for his sins betwixt god & his consciēce, without confessiō made to a priest: which opinion this respondēt thought to be true & did affirm & hold the same at þ^t time. Also he saith þ^t at the sayd sermon made by þ^e said sir Miles Couerdale at Būstede, he heard him preach against worshipping of Images in þ^e church, saying & preaching that mē in no wise shoulde honor or worship thē: which likewyse he thought to be true, because he had no lerning to defēd it.

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Wil. Gardi- ner Austen frier of Clare.

With this Topley I may also ioyne Wil. Gardiner one of the same order and house of Clare, who likewyse by the motiō of the sayd Rich. Foxe cu- rate of Bumstede, & by shewyng him certain bookes to read was brought lykewise to the like learning & iudge- ment, and was for the same abiured by Cuthbert B. the same yeare. 1528.

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