1576 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1455 
Marginalia1555. Februa.he thinketh, it was not due vnto you by the reason of your depryuation: before it was due. As concernyng your conscience in Religion, I besech God it may be lightened by the holy Ghost, and that you may haue the grace of the holy Ghost to folow the counsell of S. Paul to Timothe. 2. Recte tractare verbū veritatis. That is. To handle rightly the word of truth. Wherein your dissentyng from many holy and Catholicke men, especially in the Sacrament, maketh me in my conscience to condemne yours. For although I haue not hetherto fansyed to read Peter Martyr and other such. &c.MarginaliaIustice saith, Audi alteram partem. yet haue I had a great desire to see Theophilact and diuers others of his sorte and opinion both notable and holy Fathers (if any credite be to be giuen to the writynges of our auncient Fathers before vs) and surely the sentences and Iudgementes of two or three of them hath more confirmed my conscience then iij. C. of the Zuinglians or as many of the Lutherians can or should do. Thus in hast willing to reliefe you to the ende you might conuert, if you shall nede towardes your findyng, if you shal require it of me, you shal vnfaynedly finde my money ready, as knoweth our Lord, who send vs all thynges good for vs. Scribled this Thursday by your brother and petitioner to God.
[Back to Top]Ed. Saunders.
AS nature and brotherly loue with godly charitie requireth,MarginaliaGreeting with Protestation. I send you by these letters (quātum licet) most harty commendations, beyng sory for your fault and your disobedient handlyng of your selfe towardes my Lord Chauncellour, who I assure you, myndeth your good and preseruation, if you can so consider and take it. I would be glad to knowe whether you haue not had wyth you of late some learned mē to talke with you by my Lord Chaūcellours appointement, and how you can frame your selfe to reforme your errour in the opinion of the most blessed and our most comfortable Sacrament of the aultar: Wherein I assure you I was neuer in all my lyfe more better affected than I am at this present, vsing to my great comfort hearing of Masse,MarginaliaHe meaneth peraduēture, when the Sanctus is singing for then the Organs pipe merely and that may geue some comfort. and somewhat before the sacryng time, the meditation of S. Barnard, set forth in the thyrd leafe of this present booke. The accustomable vsing whereof I am fully professed vnto duryng my life, and to geue more fayth vnto that confession of holy Barnard, then to Luther. &c. or Latymer. &c. for that the antiquitie, the vniuersalitie of the open Church, and the cōsent of al holy Saintes and Doctors do cōfirme the same, assertenyng you that I haue bene earnestly moued in myne owne conscience these. x. or. xij. dayes past, and also betwene God and my selfe, MarginaliaThe meditations of S. Bernard sent by Iustice Saunders to his brother.to moue you to the same, most earnestly desiryng you, and as you tender my naturall, godly, or friendly loue towardes you, that you would read ouer this booke this holy tyme, at my request, although you haue already sene it, and let me know wherein you cannot satisfie your owne conscience. Thus fare you well for this tyme.
[Back to Top]By yours, from Seriants Inne.
Ed. Saunders.
CloseThere are two striking features about the life and martyrdom of Hooper in the Rerum. The first is how little information Foxe has on the martyr's life before Edward VI's reign. There are only two sentences stating that Hooper studied at Oxford and was forced to flee due to the emnity of Dr Richard Smith and that he stayed in Basel until Edward VI's reign (Rerum, p. 279). Surprisingly neither Bullinger nor Zurich are mentioned. One can only conclude that Bullinger did not supply any information about Hooper while Foxe was in exile. (J. F. Mozley argues that Bullinger supplied Foxe with Hooper's writings which Foxe published in theRerum, [John Foxe, p. 125] but he supplies no evidence for this and, in the light of Bullinger's silence at this time on his friendship with Hooper, this must remain doubtful). Hooper's meteoric rise under Edward VI, his struggle with Cranmer and Ridley over vestments (the Rerum account is markedly more hostile to bishops in general than the Acts and Monuments versions would be), his arrest over this issue and release after a grudging capitulation are all recounted in the Rerum (pp. 279-81). The Rerum also contains the praise of Hooper as a bishop, the detailed description of his arrest and examinations, and the very detailed account of his journey to Gloucester and his execution, which would be reprinted without major changes in all the editions of theActs and Monuments. This is the work of Grindal's team and reflects their editorial priorities: detailed accounts, drawn from eyewitnesses, of the final journeys and deaths of themartyrs are very much a feature of the Rerum. (The accounts of Laurence Saunders and Rowland Taylor provide excellent examples of this).
[Back to Top]The 1563 edition provides little new material. Hooper's marriage is mentioned for the first time, but that is all that is added about his exile. Two interesting documents are added, both concerning the quarrel over vestments in Edward VI's reign: Edward VI's dispensation for Hooper to be ordained as bishop without wearing vestments and Ridley's later letter to Hooper holding out an olive branch on the subject. The first edition also adds an account of Hooper's degradation and a poem by Conrad Gesner memorializing Hooper.
[Back to Top]The 1570 edition saw the inclusion of much new detail on Hooper's early years and his friendship with Heinrich Bullinger. (The farewell to Bullinger and Hooper's prediction of his own martyrdom, now added for the first time, almost certainly came from Bullinger; it is possible that Henry Bull opened the floodgates for this information.) The Earl of Warwick's letter to Cranmer on behalf of Bullinger was also added in this edition. There was no change to this account in the second or third editions of the Acts and Monuments.
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CloseMaterial similar to the glosses of the previous section can be found in the margins of this section, although they also perhaps reflect what seems to be Foxe's sense that Hooper was a somewhat grander, more confident figure than Saunders (as in the gloss 'Discretion how ministers and preachers ought to behaue themselues' which comments on Hooper's austere manner, framing the point in terms of the difficulties this presented for those who sought spiritual comfort from Hooper). Thus there are glosses linking catholicism and insanity ('This Morgan shortly after fel into a phrensy, and madnes and dyed of the same') and pointing out the catholic reliance on 'force and extremitie' ('The popes religion standeth onely vpoon force and extremitie'). Hooper endures a somewhat more thoroughgoing examination than Saunders and, as a result, some glosses in this section fulfill a similar function to those found in the Oxford disputations section; thus Foxe takes Hooper's point that the Council of Nice ruled that no minister should be separated from his wife as proving that the Council permitted clerical marriage, a rather wider point ('The coūcel of Nice permitteth Priests mariage'); also 'Gardiner exhorteth M. Hooper to returne to the Popes church', (Gardiner says 'Catholique Church' in the text), 'Queene Mary will shew no mercy but to the Popes friendes' (the text says, 'the Queene would shew no mercy to the Popes enemies'). A repetition of the term 'care' in two glosses ('The diligent care of B. Hooper in his Dioces'; 'The care of M. Hooper in instructing his family') show how the marginalia could be used to make a point with economy and subtlety; in this that there was a profound analogy between Hooper's godly governance of his home and his concern for his pastoral flock, a point which made the catholic opposition to marriage appear all the more destructive and misguided. There are also some glosses which are badly positioned in editions after 1570.
[Back to Top]Thus Maister Hooper growyng more and more by Gods grace, in rypenes of spirituall vnderstandyng, and shewyng withall some sparckels of his feruent spirite, beyng then about the begynnyng of the. vj. Articles, in the tyme of kyng Henry viij. fell eftsoones in to displeasure and hatred of certaine Rabbines
CloseFoxe is using rabbis as a prejorative term for catholic scholars. It suggests, at least to sixteenth-century Christians, a blind adherance to law and tradition, combined with an emnity to the gospel.
CloseThis is extremely unlikely. Hooper apparently left Oxford in 1519 and entered the Cistercian monastery at Cleve, Somerset. One of the commissioners in charge of suppressing Cleve was Sir Thomas Arundel, who visited the house in 1537. David Newcombe suggests that this was when Hooper entered Arundel's service. Newcombe also points out that Hooper was rector of Lidington, Wiltshire, from 1537 to 1550, a living which was in Arundel's gift. (Newcombe, pp. 12-18). Richard Rex has suggested that Hooper was a friar (Rex, p. 47); in the weight of Newcombe's evdence this seems lesslikely, but it still involves Hooper having left Oxford well before Richard Smith's heyday there.
[Back to Top]letter priuely to the Byshop, by conference of learnyng to do some good vpon hym,MarginaliaM. Hooper sent to the Bishop of Winchest. but in any case requiryng hym to send home his seruaunt to hym agayne.
Winchester after long conference with M. Hoper iiij. or v. dayes together, when he at length perceaued that neither he could do that good, which he thought, to him, nor that hee would take any good at his hand, accordyng to M. Arundels request, he sent home his seruaunt agayne, right well commēdyng his learnyng and wytte, but yet bearyng in his brest a grudgyng stomacke agaynst Maister Hoper still.
[Back to Top]It folowed not long after this (as malice is alwayes workyng mischief) that intelligence was giuen to Maister Hoper to prouide for hymselfe, for daunger that was workyng agaynst hym. Wherupon MarginaliaM. Hooper forced to auoyd the house of Sir Thomas Arundel.M. Hoper leauyng M. Arundels house, and borowyng an horse of a certaine frend (whose lyfe he had saued a litle before from the gallowes) tooke hys iourney to the Sea side, to go to Fraunce, sendyng backe the horse agayne by one, which in deede did not deliuer him to the owner. M. Hoper beyng at Paris, taryed there not long, but in short tyme returned into England agayne, and was retayned of M. Sentlow, till the tyme that he was agayne molested and layd for: MarginaliaMaister Hooper flyeth again out of England.whereby he was compelled (vnder the pretence of being Captaine of a shyp goyng to Ireland) to take the Seas,
CloseThis second flight from England can be dated to around 1544 (Newcombe, p. 26).
CloseApparently Foxe means by this that she was from Bruges, or that she was Burgundian. (The Low Countries were part of the old Duchy of Burgundy). Anna Hooper was from Antwerp.
CloseHooper returned to England in 1546 to obtain funds; he was back in Switzerland by the end of that year (Newcombe, pp. 31-36).
At length when God saw it good to stay the bloudy tyme of the. vj. Articles, and to geue vs kyng Edward to raigne ouer this Realme, with some peace and rest vnto his Gospell, amongest many other English exiles, which then repared homeward, M. Hooper also, moued in cōscience, thought not to absent hymselfe, seyng such a tyme and occasion offered to helpe forward the Lordes worke, to the vttermost of his habilitie. And so commyng to M. Bullinger, and other of his acquaintaunce in Zuricke (as duty required) to geue them thankes for their singular kyndnes and humanitie toward hym manifold wayes declared, with lyke humanitie agayne purposed to take his leaue of them at his departyng, and so dyd.
CloseHooper left for England in 1549 (see OL, I, pp. 48-49).
An other cause moreouer why we reioyce with you and for you, is this, that you shall remoue not only out of exile, into libertie: but you shall leaue here a baren, a sower, and an vnpleasaūt countrey, rude & sauage, and shall go into a land flowyng wt milke & hony, replenished wt all pleasure and fertilitie. Notwithstandyng with this our reioysing, one feare and care we haue, lest you beyng absent, and so farre distant from vs, or els commyng to such aboūdaunce of wealth and felicitie, in your new welfayre, and plenty of all thyngs, and in your florishyng honors, where ye shall come peraduenture to be a bishop, and where ye shal finde so many newe frēdes, you will forget vs your old acquaintaūce & welwillers. Neuertheles how soeuer you shall forget & shake vs of, yet this perswade your selfe, that we will not forget our old frend and fellow M. Hooper. And if you shall please not to forget vs agayne, then I pray let vs heare from you.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe aunswere of Maister Hooper to Maister Bullinger.Whereunto M. Hoper aunsweryng agayne, first gaue to M. Bullinger and the rest right harty thankes, for that their singular good will, and vndeserued affection, appearyng not onely now, but at all tymes towardes hym: declaryng moreouer that as the principall cause of hys remouyng to his countrey was the matter of Religion: so touchyng the vnpleasauntnes and barennes of that coūtrey of theirs, there was no cause therein, why he could not finde in his hart to continue his lyfe there, as soone as in any place in the world, and rather then in his owne natiue countrey, if their were nothyng els in his conscience that moued hym so to do. And as touchyng the forgettyng of his old frendes, although (sayd hee) the remembraunce of a mans countrey naturally doth delyght hym, neither could he deny, but God had blessed hys countrey of England with many great commodities: yet neither the nature of countrey, nor pleasure of commodities, nor newnesse of frendes should euer induce him to the obliuiō of such frendes and benefactours, whom he was so intirely boūde vnto: and therfore you shal be sure
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