1576 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1039 
not minish the least heire of your hed without his will: vnto the which will, submitte your selfe, and reioyce: for the Lord knoweth how to deliuer the godly out of temptation, and how to reserue the vniust vnto the day of iudgement to be punished
2 Peter 2: 9. 1 Peter 5: 7. Hebrews 12: 2. See Acts 23: 3. Actually this is a reference to Acts 23: 27-8. This is a somewhat unusual interpretation of Matthew 18: 20. I Timothy 5: 19.
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What is a Sentaue by S. Paule. A Seniour in this place is any man that hath an house to gouerne. And also their owne lawe is agreeable to this. Wherfore seing it is agreable to the worde of God, that in accusations such witnesses should be, you may with a good conscience require it. And this the God of grace which hath called you vnto his eternall glory by Christ Iesu, shall hys owne selfe after a little affliction, make you perfect, shal settle, strengthen, and stablish you, that to him may be glory & prayse for euer. Amen.
Thus ye haue heard the letter deliuered to Tho. Philip. Now followeth the Testament of William Tracey.
CloseThe account which follows is word-for-word from Edward Hall'schronicle. (See Edward Hall, The union of the two noble and illustre famelies ofLancastre and York [London, 1548], STC 12721, fo. 211r-v).
CloseWilliam Tracy was a prominent member of a leading Gloucestershire family and he was a former sheriff of the county. His will aroused considerablecontroversy because of its outspoken declaration of justification nby faith without theassistance of works. Manuscript copies of the will circulated extensively. (See John Craig and Caroline Litzenberger, 'Wills as Religious Propaganda: The Testament of William Tracy', Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44 [1993], pp. 415-31). In 1535, a copy of the will, with commentaries by William Tyndale and John Frith, was printedin Antwerp: the testament of master William Tracie esquier (Antwerp, 1535), STC 24167.
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CloseFoxe (following Hall's chronicle) is condensing extemely complex and protracted proceedings. Convocation debated Tracy's will in different sessions for fifteen months before Tracy was finally condemned (posthumously) as a heretic and the exhumation of his body ordered. (See John T. Day, 'William Tracy's Posthumous Legal Problems' in William Tyndale and the Law, ed. John A. R. Dick and Anne Richardson [Kirksville, MO, 1994], pp. 108-10).
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CloseI.e., Parker, the chancellor of the diocese, claimed that he was acting on the orders of the archbishop of Canterbury.
CloseMatthew Parker, the chancellor of the diocese of Worcester (not to be confused with the Elizabethan archbishop of Canterbury of the same name) burned Tracy's body in addition to exhuming it. This burning - but not the exhumation - was a violation of the statute De heretico comburendo, which mandated the punishments for heresy. Under this statute, it was illegal to burn a heretic, livingor dead, without receipt of a writ from Chancery and, in any case, the burning wasto be managed by secular officials. Whether Tracy's body was burned on the orders of the Archbishop Warham or not (Parker, the chancellor of the diocese, claimed that he was acting on the orders of the archbishop of Canterbury), Parker did not have a writ and he conducted the burning himself. Richard Tracy, William's son, petitioned the king, asking that Parker be punished for this violation of the law. Ultimately Parker was fined £100. (See John T. Day, 'William Tracy's Posthumous Legal Problems' in William Tyndale and the Law, ed. John A. R. Dick and Anne Richardson [Kirksville, MO, 1994], pp. 110-11).
[Back to Top]Marginalia The Testament of William Tracie. IN the name of God, Amen. I William Tracy of Todyngton in the Countye of Glocester Esquyre, make my Testament and last will, as here after foloweth. First and before all other thynges, I commit my selfe vnto God and to hys mercy, beleuing without any doubt or mistrust that by hys grace and the merites of Iesus Christ, and by the vertue of his Passion and of hys resurrection, I haue and shall haue remissiō of all my sinnes and resurrection of body and soule, accordyng as it is written: I beleue that my redemer lyueth, and that in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and in my fleshe shall see my Sauiour: thys my hope is layde vp in my bosome.
Job 19: 25.
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CloseI.e., the health.
CloseIt is this statement, declaring that faith, without works, was allthat was necessary salvation, which made this will hertetical.
CloseMark 16: 16.
As touchyng the burying of my body it auayleth me not what soeuer be done thereto, for S. Austen sayth De cura agenda pro mortuis, MarginaliaFuneral pompes serue only for the liuing and geue no helpe to the dead. that the funerall pompes are rather the solace of them that lyue, then the wealth and comfort of them that are dead, and therfore I remitte it onely to the discretion of myne executours.
CloseTracy's lack of concern over his burial arrangements was not heretical, but it was very unconventional.
And touchyng the distribution of my temporall goodes, my purpose is, by the grace of God, to bestowe them to bee accepted as the frutes of fayth, so that I doe not suppose þt my merite shalbe by þe good bestowing of them, but my me MarginaliaOur merites be onely our fayth in Christ. rite is the faith of Iesus Christe onely, by whō such workes are good accordyng to the wordes of our Lord: I was hungry and thou gauest me to eate. &c.
CloseMatthew 25: 35.
CloseMatthew 25: 45.
CloseThis is a rather free reading of Romans 14: 17-23.
And all my temporall goodes that I haue not geuen or deliuered, or not geuen by writyng of myne own hand, bearyng the date of this present writing, I doo leaue and geue to Margaret my wyfe, and to Richard my sonne whom I make myne Executors. Witnes hereof myne owne hand þe x. of October in the xxij. yeare of the reigne of kyng Henry the eyght.
[Back to Top]This is the true copie of hys will, for the which, as you heard before, after he was almost ij. yeares dead, they tooke him vp and burned hym.
| Persons abiured, | with their Articles. |
| Iohn Peti- man, Skin- ner.
CloseApparently Periman was also selling heretical books. 1531. | His Articles: were much lyke vn- to the others Paules Crosse, preached nothyng but lyes and flatteringes, and þt there was neuer a true preacher but one: namyng Edward Crome
CloseAlthough none of his sermons survive, Edward Crome was one of the most outspoken and popular evangelical preachers in London. Crome himself was charged with heresy in 1531 and escaped by recanting. He subsequently retracted his recantation. |
Rob. Gold ston, Gla- sier.
CloseAn unnnamed glazier did pennace at Paul's Cross on 22 October 1531('Two London Chronicles', ed. C. L.. Kingsford in Camden Society Miscellany XII, third series 18 [London, 1910}, p. 5). This was probably Goldstone. 1531. | Hys Articles: That men shoulde pray to God onely, & to no Saintes. That Pilgrimage is not profitable. That men should gyue no worshyp to Images. Item, for saying, that if he had as much power as any Car dinall had, he would destroy all þe I- mages that were in al the Churches in England. |
| Laurence Staple, Ser uing man. 1531. | Hys Articles: For hauyng þe Te- stament in Englishe. the v. bookes of Moses, the practise of Prelates, the summe of Scripture, the A. B. C. Item, about þe burnyng
CloseJames Bainham was the youngest son of Sir Alexander Bainham, who was the head of the most prominent family in the Forest of Dean and who had been sheriff of Gloucestershire five times. James Bainham's mother was the sister of William Tracy. On the Bainham family, see Caroline Litzenberger, The English Reformation and the Laity: Gloucestershire, 1540-1580 (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 30-31. [Back to Top]for saying: I woulde I were wyth Baynhā, seing that euery m n hath forsakē hym, that I might drinke wt hym, and he myght pray for me. I- em, that he moued Henry Tompsō to learne to read the new Testamēt callyng it the bloud of Christ. Item, in Lent past when he had MarginaliaEatyng of egges made heresie. no fish, he did eate egges, butter, & chese. Also about 6 wekes before M. Bil- ney was attached, the said Bilney de- liuered to hym at Grenewich. 4 new testamentes of Tindals translation, which he had in hys sleue and a bud- get besides of bokes, which budget he shortly after riding to Cambridge deliuered vnto Bilney. &c. Item, on Fridayes he vsed to eate egges
CloseThe eating of eggs, like the eating of meat, was traditionally forbidden on Fridays. thought, that it was no great offence before God. &c. |
| Henry Tompson Taylor.
CloseThe sentence of life imprisonment against Tomson was severe, but it is confirmed by a contemporary chronicler ('Two London Chronicles', ed. C. L. Kingsford in Camden Society Miscellany XII, third series, 18 [London, 1910], p. 5). 1531. | His Articles: That which þe priest lifteth ouer hys head at the sacryng tyme, is not the very body of Christ, nor it is not God, but a thyng that God hath ordayned to be done. This poore Tompson although at the first he submitted hymselfe to the bishop: yet they with sentence condem ned hym to perpetuall prison. |
| Iaspar Wet- zell of Co- len. 1531. | His Articles: That he cared not for goyng to the church to heare Masse, for he could say Masse as wel as the Priest. That he would not praye to our lady, for she could do vs no good. |