1576 Edition | Book 8 | Page 1098 
in grace and godlynes: MarginaliaSegregatus and peccatis. In so much that he was Segregatus à peccatoribus, cleane segregate from all kynde of vncleanes, from all maner of sinnes, and from sinners. Segregate from them, not from theyr company: For as Mathew writeth: MarginaliaMath. 9. Publicans and sinners came and eate and dranke wyth him and his Disciples in the house of Leui. And he also came as a Phisition, to heale the synner. And yet he was segregate from them, quantū ad participationē cum eis in peccato: as touching their ill lyuinges, not beyng participant wt them in sinne: but came onely to heale thē, & to ridde them from sinne and soores of the soule. He entred the heauens, not wyth the bloud of kydde nor goate, but wyth hys owne proper bloud. MarginaliaExcelsior cœlis. For which and for his holynes & perfecttnes, Excelsior cœlis factus est. He is extolled & exalted aboue all the Aungels, and beatitudes: aboue all the heauens, sittyng on the right hand of the father. Whom all the heauenly creatures doe worship, honour and do reuerēce vnto. Where he prayeth for his people, and is mediatour in his manhead to his father for vs.
[Back to Top]This our Byshop purgeth our consciences (as witnesseth the Apostle) he clenseth our soules, he maketh vs inwardly beautious and fayre. The Byshop of Rome lacketh many of these notable vertues. He hath fewe, or none of these properties, fewe or none of these qualities. He is (as we all are sinners) a sinner. MarginaliaMagnus. To whō thys word Magnus great, is not conuenient, nor can be in hym any wayes verified. For he cannot forgeue sinne as our Byshop doth, nor iustifie as he doth, neither enter in Sancta Sanctorum, wyth hys owne bloud, as he did. How can he then be called a great Byshop that is (as we all be sinners) a sinner, a breaker of the lawes of God, and dayly doth or may fall and sinne? And for that cause the law commaunded that euery byshop and Priest should first offer hostes and sacrifice for hys own sinnes, and afterward, for the sinnes of the people. How can he therefore be called a great Byshop or Priest?
[Back to Top]Our Byshop we speake of, is the very great byshop. No dole, no fraude, no guile was euer founde in his mouth. And when the Prince of the world the deuill came to him, he could finde no poynt of sinne in hym. Wherfore Gabriell the Archangell shewing his natiuite vnto Mary hys mother, sayd: Hic erit magnus, & filius altissimi vocabitur. MarginaliaLuke. 1. He shall be greate, and shalbe called the sonne of God. And agayne it is written of hym: Propheta magnus surrexit inter nos: MarginaliaLuke. 7. A great prophet is risen amongest vs. Sinne maketh a man smale and little: litle in reputation both afore God and man. Vertue maketh man great and of high reputation. MarginaliaNo sinner called great in the scripture. Shewe me one place in Scripture where ye haue redde, þt a sinner was called great? I trow it shall not be foūde. Will you heare who were called great in scripture? It is writtē of Isaac, quod proficiebat valde, & factus est magnus valde. MarginaliaGene 26. He profited greatly in vertue, and was made great, great in reputation of the world. Moyses was called Magnus, great for his vertue. MarginaliaExodi. 11. Abraham and Iohn Baptist likewise. MarginaliaLuke. 1. Now Iesus our Byshop is called magnus Episcopus, magnus Sacerdos. And after hym neuer Byshop called Magnus in all Scripture, neither in the reputation of man vnles it be in comparison one of an other (and so Sainctes and holy lyuers are called great in respect of sinners, or other meane liuers) but where Christ our byshop commeth: there he, not in comparison of other, but simpliciter, by hys owne magnitude and greatnes, and of hymselfe, euer was and is greate of whom it is written: A summo cœlo egressio eius: & occursus eius vsque ad summum eius. MarginaliaPsal. 18. And as the Apostle also proueth in many places by expresse wordes. But now there is no Byshop nor Priest in this worlde, that may worthely of hymselfe be called great, nor ought to take this name Magnus vpon him.
[Back to Top]This is he therfore of whom it is writtē: Magnus Sacerdos ex fratribus suis MarginaliaLeuit. 21. The great Byshop aboue all other. And as he is called and in very deede is, Pastor pastorum, Pontifex pontificum, Propheta prophetarum, Sanctus sanctorum, Dominus dominantium, Rex regum: Ita & magnus magnorum est. As he is called the heardesman of heardesmen, the Byshop of bishops, the Prophet of prophets, the Holye of holyest, the Lorde of lordes, and Kyng of kynges: euen so is he called, & verely is Episcopus magnus. Therfore, the Prophet did ad, Magnus Sacerdos ex fratribus suis. the great Byshop or Priest: great of hymselfe, great in vertue and power, great of himselfe, and great in comparison afore all other. And therfore the Apostle sayd: Habemus Pōtificem magnū, qui Penetrauit cœlos, IESVM filium DEI. We haue a great Byshop, which did penetrate the heauens, Iesus the sonne of God.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe pope encrocheth vpon Christ. Here may ye now see how the Byshop of Rome doth wrongfullye encroch vpō our great Byshop Iesus Christ, to take from hym, not onely thys name Magnus, and is not with that name yet contented, but addeth more, Videlicet, Maximus, Summus, Sanctus, Beatissimus, Vniuersalis, and such other. The greatest, the hyghest, the holyest, the blessedst and vniuersall in þe superlatiue degrees & yet there is no great byshop but Christ only, no supreme byshop, but he only, none holy, none blessed, none vniuersal, Bishop, but onely he. The B. of Rome, & all other bishops are but vnderlings & vnworthy suffragans vnto this Bishop Christ.
[Back to Top]This our Christ (as witnesseth the Apostle) is Pontifex nostræ confessionis, the Byshop whome we doe confesse to be our great byshop, our high Byshop, our supreme bishop, our holy, blessed, and vniuersall Byshop. Which names are reserued onely vnto Christ, and to no earthly Byshop. Not to the Byshop of Rome, not to the Bishop of Ierusalem, not to the Byshop of Antioch nor of Constantinople, nor to any other Byshop. No earthly bishop to presume to take vpon him these high and holy names, onely to God apropriate.
[Back to Top]God of thy goodnes thou maist and I trust wilt once make this vaineglorious byshop of Rome, first to know & knowledge thy sonne Christ to be the onely supreame and vniuersall Byshop of the world, Secondaryly to know him selfe, his weakenes, his frailtye and his presumption. To knowe his office and bounden duety vnto thee. To knowe his owne dioces, and to vsurpe no further. Thirdly to haue a low, humble, meeke harte and stomake: to feare thee God and thy iudgements, to knowledge his owne faultes, and vsurpations, and to redresse the same.
[Back to Top]Now to returne vnto our matter, it followeth in the letter first taken: De quo edere non habent potestatem qui tabernaculo deseruiunt. &c. And thus much out of Iohn Lōglands Sermon agaynst the Pope.
MarginaliaRead afore pag. [illegible text]
1538. Your heard before by the kynges Iniunctions aboue expressed, and directed out an. 1538. how all such Images & pictures, which were abused with Pilgrimage or offrings or any Idolatrie, where abolished: by vertue of which Iniunction,MarginaliaImages and pilgrimages destroyed in England. diuers Idols & especially þe most notable stockes of Idolatrie, were taken downe the same yeare. 1538. as þe Images of Walsingham, Ipswich, Worcester, the Ladye of Wilsdō, Thomas Becket, with many moe, hauing engings to make their eyes to open and role about, and other partes of their body to styrre, and many other false iugglynges, as the bloud of hayles, and such lyke, wherwith the simple people a long tyme had bene deceiued. All which were espyed out, and destroyed.
MarginaliaThe Idoll of Daruell Gatheren in Wales. Among diuers other of these foule Idols, there went also in the same rekening, a certaine olde Idolatrous Image in Wales named Daruell Gatheren: whiche in the moneth of May, in the yeare aboue mētioned, was brought vp to London and brent in Smithfield. With the which Idoll also was brent the same tyme, and hanged for treason, Frier Forest, of whome some mention was partly touched before in the story of Cardinall Wolsey.MarginaliaRead afore pag 960. pag. 960.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaFrier Forest executed for rebelling agaynst the kinges supremacie. THis Forest was an obseruaunt Frier
CloseJohn Forest has the unenviable distinction of the only Catholic executed for heresy in England during the Reformation. Forest was arrested in March or April 1538 for denying the Royal Supremacy when hearing confession. However, the authorities charged him with heresy instead of treason. Peter Marshall, who has analysed Forest's arrest and martyrdom, and the circumstances behind them, has argued that Forest's conviction for heresy was partly due to the recent papal summoning of a council at Mantua, which had heightened Henry VIII's sensitivity to denials of his supremacy over the Church. It was also partly due to anxiety that confessionals were being used to hatch treasonable plots. Marshall also argues that the decision to try Forest as a heretic was made by Cromwell in the expectation that the friar would recant and perform a humiliating recantation. At first, all went according to plan and Forest, after being convicted of heresy, agreed to abjure at Paul's Cross. However, in prison, Forest changed his mind. When Cromwell's original plan foundered on Forest's refusal to submit, the Vicegerent turned Forest's execution into a piece of political theatre. Forest was burned, on 22 May 1538, along with Dderfel Gadern, a great wooden statue that had been an object of pilgrimage at Llandderfel in North Wales. (For a detailed analysis of Forest's trial and martyrdom see Peter Marshall, 'Papist as Heretic: The Burning of John Forest, 1538', Historical Journal 41 [1998], pp. 354-74).
[Back to Top]Foxe's first account of Forest was a brief note in the Rerum (p. 148) stating that friar Forest was executed for denying the Royal Supremacy in 1538. The account notes that Forest was burned along with an idol transported from Wales. This material was abridged from Hall's chronicle. In the 1563 edition, Foxe simply reprinted Hall's account word-for-word (cf. 1563, pp. 571-2 with Edward Hall, The union of the two noble and illustre families of Lancastre and York [London, 1550], STC 12723a, fos. 232v-233r). In the 1570 edition, Foxe made some changes to this account, deleting verses describing the burning of Forest and the statue and adding a brief account of the dissolution of the monasteries.
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CloseDuring his trial, Forest admitted that he had told a penitent that when he [Forest] denyed papal supremacy, it was with an oath sworn by his outward man, but not the inward man [L&P XIII (1), no. 1043 (1)].
CloseIt is interesting to compare this denigrating account of Forest's submission, and then withdrawal of his submission, with the numerous admiring accounts, by Foxe, of Protestant martyrs - e.g. John Cardmaker and Thomas Whittle - doing exactly the same thing.
In the place of execution there was a scaffold prepared for the kynges most honorable Counsaile and the nobles of the Realme to sitte vpon, to graunt hym pardon, if he had any sparke of repentaunce in hym. There was also a pulpite prepared where the right reuerēd father Hugh Latimer B. of Worcester declared hys errors, & manifestly confuted thē by the Scripture, with many godly exhortations to moue hym to repentaūce. But he was so froward, that he neither would heare neither speake. A little before, the foresayd Image called Daruell Gatheren
CloseFoxe is deriving this spelling, or rather misspelling, from Hall. The statue was named 'Dderfel Gadern' and it was from Llanderfel, a pilgrimage site in North Wales.
ClosePeter Marshall notes that this prophecy was first recorded in Hall's chronicle, a decade after the burning and the proceedings against Forest had begun before the authorities in London had heard of 'Dderfel Gadern' (Peter Marshall, 'Papist as Heretic: The Burning of John Forest, 1538' in Historical Journal 41 [1998], p. 356). It is most likely that the 'prophecy' was an invention made following Forest's execution.
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