If you aske when we will leaue preaching of workes, euen when they do leaue to preach that workes do merite, & suffer Christ to be a whole satisfier, & onely meane to our iustification, & til thē, we wil not cease in gods cause to set forth only Christ to be a full and perfite, and onely satisfaction.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaGood workes how they be rewarded. If you aske, if good workes shall be rewarded, I say yea, and with no lesse then eternall glory, but for no merite that they deserue, for they deserue nothing: but only because god hath promised, not for the merite of the worke, but for hys promise sake, and he will not breake his promyse.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaOther articles out of Setons sermons. TOuching reconciliation spoken of by Doct.Smith, preaching in þe forenoone at Paules crosse, Alexander Setō preaching at afternoone, at s. Anthonies, & recityng hys sayings & scriptures, reproued him for alledging this saying, Recōciliamini Deo
2 Corinthians 5:20.
MarginaliaD. Smyth reproued for naughtye preaching. Also reprouing the sayd D. Smith, for that the said D. sayd, that man by his good workes might merite. Which saying of Doctor Smyth, the said Alexander Seton reproued in the pulpit at s. Anthonies, the 13. day of Nouember, the yeare of our lord. 1541. as naughtely spoken.
[Back to Top]Moreouer the sayd Alexander Seton said in the same place, that it was shame that any such preacher should be suffered so openly to preach such erroneous doctrine, as to say that workes should merite, adducyng: non sunt condignæ passiones, etc.MarginaliaRom. 8. Et postquam feceritis omnia. &c.MarginaliaLuke. 17.
Finally Seton said, peraduenture ye wil say the church hath determined this matter touching workes. And I say (quoth he) that it is Ecclesia malignantium
Vulgate Psalm 26:2: a term used by John Wyclif, and following him many others, to describe the 'false church' which existed in opposition to the true Church. Richard Bauckham, Tudor Apocalypse: sixteenth century apocalypticism, millenarianism and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1978), esp. pp. 32, 57-8.
[Back to Top]To these pretensed obiections of his aduersaries, he made his aunswer againe by writing, first denying many thinges there presented, taking vpon hys conscience, that he neuer spake diuers of those wordes: and agayn many things, that he neuer ment to such end nor purpose, as in the said register may appeare. But all this notwithstanding, for all that he could say for himself, the ordinary proceded in his consistory iudgement, ministring to him certaine Interrogatories (after the popish course) to the number of x. articles. The greatest matter layd against him was for preaching free Iustification by faith in Christ Iesu, against false confidēce in good workes, & mans fre wil. Also it was layd vnto him, for affirming þt priuate masses, & diriges, & other prayers profited not þe soules departed:MarginaliaSeton bearing a fagot at Paules Crosse. So that in the ende, he with Tolwing aforesaid was caused also to recant at Paules Crosse. an. 1541.
[Back to Top] Adde to these aforesaid, D. Taylor person of S. Peters in Cornehill. South This is a mysterious case which does not appear in this form in any of the subsequent lists of Six Articles victims. 1570 and subsequent editions do list 'South, Parishe Priest of All halovves in Lumbardstreete' as one of those who was imprisoned for the Six Articles (1570, p. 1380), but this Nicholas South was plainly a layman. [Back to Top]Some, Priest. Giles Listed above. Katherines. Tho. Lancaster Also listed above. wise for the vj. Articles. |
MarginaliaAll prisons in London to litle to holde them that were taken for the 6. Articles. To be short, such a nomber out of all parishes in London & out of Calice, and diuers other quarters, were thē apprehended through the said Inquisition, that all prisons in Lēdon were to litle to hold them, in so much that they wer fain to lay thē in the Halles.MarginaliaThe Lord Audley L. Chaūcellour of England. At þe last by þe meanes of good Lord Audley, such pardon was obteyned of the king, that þe sayd L. Audley, then L. Chancellor, beyng cōtent that one should be bound for another, they were all discharged, being bound only to appeare in the starre chamber the next day after All soules, there to answer if they were called: but neither was there any person called, neither did there any appeare.
[Back to Top]Foxe's sources for this narrative are unclear, although it appears he had more than one. A much briefer account of Porter was given in 1563. The statement here that Porter is 'in the number of these aforenamed' suggests that this case, too, draws on London diocesan records which are now lost. However, Foxe also had some information from a kinsman of Porter's, also named Porter, living without Newgate in 1570: this is possibly Porter's brother, also John Porter, who attempted to secure his brother's release in 1542 (Trinity College, Cambridge, MS R3.33 fo. 134r). This kinsman may or may not also be the source for Foxe's account of Porter's torment and death, which he claims was 'signified unto us by credible information'. He could have gathered dark conspiracy theories about Porter's death, if not this level of gruesome detail, from Bale, Yet a course at the romyshe foxe, fos. 41r-v, 66r.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaA story of Iohn Porter Marytr. IN the number of these afore named, commeth the remēbraunce of Iohn Porter, who in the same yeare 1541.
1542.
The Bibles thus standyng in Paules by the commaundement of the kyng, and the appointment of Boner þe Byshop, many well disposed people vsed much to resorte to the hearyng therof, especially when they could get any that had an audible voyce to read vnto them, misdoubtyng therin no daunger toward them: and no more there was, so long as the dayes of Cromwel lasted.Marginalia1541.
I. Porter a great reader in the Bible at Paules. After he was gone, it happened amongest diuers and sondry godly disposed persons, which frequented there the readyng of the foresayde Bible, that one Iohn Porter vsed sometymes to bee occupyed in that godly exercise, to the edifiyng as well of hym selfe, as of other. This Porter was a freshe young man, and of a bygge stature. Who by diligent readyng of the Scripture, and by hearyng of such Sermons as then were preached by them that were the setters forth of Gods truth, became very experte. The Bible then beyng set vp by Boners commaundement vpon diuers pillers in Paules Churche, fixed vnto the same with chaines for al men to read in them þt would, great multitudes woulde resort thether to heare this Porter, because he could read well and had an audible voyce.MarginaliaBoner & hys Chapleines greued with the Bybles which he before caused to be set vp himselfe. Boner and his chappleines beyng greued withal (& the worlde begynnyng then to frowne vppon the Gospellers) sent for the sayd Porter, and rebuked hym very sharpely for his readyng. But Porter aunswered hym that hee trusted he had done nothyng contrary to the law, neither cōtrary to his aduertisementes which he had fixed in print ouer euery Bible.
Boner then layd vnto his charge, that he had made expositions vppon the texte, and gathered great multitudes about him to make tumultes. He aunswered: hee trusted þt should not be proued by hym.MarginaliaI. Porter sent to Newgate by Boner. But in fine Boner sent him to Newgate, where he was miserably fettred in yrons both legges and armes, with a coller of yron about his necke fastened to the wall in the dungeon, beyng there so cruellye handled, that he was compelled to send for a kinsman of his whose name is also Porter, a man yet aliue and can testifie that this is true, and dwelleth yet without Newgate, Who seyng hys kinsman in this miserable case, intreated Iewet, then keper of Newgate, that hee might be released out of those cruell yrons, and so through frendship and money, had him vp among other prisoners, whiche lay there for felony and murder: where Porter beyng amongest them, hearyng and seing their wickednes and blasphemie exhorted them to amendment of life, and gaue vnto them such instructions as he had learned of the Scriptures:MarginaliaThe cruell handlyng of I. Porter in Newgate. for whiche his so doyng hee was complayned on and so caried downe, and layd in the lower dungeon of all, oppressed with boltes and yrons, where within vi. or viij. dayes after, he was found dead.
[Back to Top]It is signified vnto vs by credible information, that the same night before he was found dead, they that dwelt neare to the same place of the prison where Porter lay, dyd heare hym piteously to grone and make aMarginaliaThe death & Martyrdome of I. Porter. lamentable noyse, where some suppose that he was put in certaine strait yrons which be there in the house, called The deuill on the necke, beyng after an horrible sort deuised, streinyng and wrenchyng the necke of a man with his legges together, in such sorte, as þe more hee sturreth in it, the strayter it presseth hym, so that within 3. or 4. houres, it breaketh & crussheth a mans backe and body in peeces. In whiche deuilishe torment, whether Iohn Porter was slayne or no, it is not certayn. But how so euer it was, this is knowen, that he was found dead (as is aforesayd) in the dungeon, with such gronyng and piteous noyse heard the night before in the sayd dungeon, as is declared.
[Back to Top]There is no indication of Foxe's sources for this narrative, although it is possible that its placement here - out of chronological order, as Foxe states - is due to its being found in the same London diocesan records which furnished so much additional detail in the previous few pages.
MarginaliaThe penance of Thomas Sommers Marchaunt. AMongest these Londiners thus troubled by the clergie wee will adde also (although a litle out of place)
Sommers' recantation was on 29 November 1530. British Library, Harleian MS 540, fo. 7v.