1576 Edition | Book 11 | Page 1862 
MarginaliaAnno. 1556. Iuly.good and godly, of once they be wonne.
Thus as this Spirituall father was commendyng his carnall child, and rather preferryng him to hel fire, then vnto the sincere word and commaundementes of God, it chaunced amongest many others in the chamber, was one of the portmen of the same towne named Sharpe,
CloseRichard Smart, a baliff of Ipswich and an MP, will be mentioned again by Foxe as having interrupted the prayers of the martyr Alexander Gouch at the stake.
This portman aforesaid, perceauing the Bishoppe thus, as it were, at an end with the said Moone, and so he like to be discharged, said vnto the bishop: MarginaliaSharpe accuseth Moones wife.my Lord, in dede I haue a good hope in the man, and that he wil be conformable: but my Lorde, he hath a perillous woman vnto his wife. For I will tell you my Lorde, she neuer came to Church yet, since the Queenes reigne, except it were at Euensong, or when shee was churched. And not then vntill Masse were done. Wherfore your good Lordship might doe a good deede to cause her to come before you, and to see if ye could doe anie good. And therefore I beseeche your good Lordship to commaund him to pray her to come before your Lordship.
[Back to Top]At the which wordes, Moone was somwhat stirred in that he said, commaund him to praie her to come before your Lordshippe. And he sayd vnto him, vnder my Lordes correction I speake, I am as able to cōmaund her to come before my Lorde, as ye are to commaunde the worst boy in your house. Yea my Lorde, said the other, I cry your Lordshippe mercy: I haue informed your Lordship with an vntroth, if this be so. But if he be so able as he saith, he might haue commaunded her to haue come to Churche in all this tyme, if it had pleased him. Well said the Bishop, looke ye come before me again at after noone, MarginaliaPeter Moone commaunded to bring his wife before the Bishop.and bring your wife with you: I will talke with her.
[Back to Top]As my Lordes dinner at that tyme was seruyng vp, Moone departed and taried not to take part therof hauing such an hard breakfast giuen him before to digest. At after none Moone delaid and waited his time, bethinkyng when he might moste cōueniently come, especially when his accuser and his wiues should not haue beene there. And accordyng to commaundement came with his wife, whiche was not so secretly, but his accuser had knowledge thereof, and came with all expedition in such post speede, that in a maner he was wyndlesse entryng into the Bishops chamber.
[Back to Top]The Bishop hearing that Moone and his wife were come, called for them, MarginaliaMoone & hys wife brought before the Bishop.and said to Moone: is this your wife Moone? Yea my Lord, said he. O good Lord (said the Bishop) howe a man may be deceaued in a woman. I promise you a man woulde take her for as honest a woman, by all outward appearaunce, as can bee. Why my Lord, said Moones wife, I trust there is none that can charge me with any dishonestie, as concernyng my body, I defie all the world in that respect.
[Back to Top]Nay (quod the Bishoppe) I meane not, as concernyng the dishonestie of thy bodie: but thou hadst bene better to haue geuen the vse of thy bodie vnto xx. sondry men, then to doe as thou hast done. MarginaliaB. Hopton preferreth xx. men committing adultery, before one woman transgressyng the Popes ordinaunces.For thou haste done as much as in thee lieth, to plucke the King and the Quenes Maiesties out of their royall Seates, through thy disobedience, in shewyng thy selfe an open enemy vnto Gods lawes, and their procedinges.
[Back to Top]Then began the Bishop to examine the said Moone again, with the aforesaid articles, & his wife also. And hearyng her husband relent, did also affirme the same, whiche turned vnto either of them no small trouble of minde afterwarde, but yet neither were they like thus to escape, but that in the meane time Dunning the Bishops Chaūcelour came vp in great hast, and brought newes to the Bishop, that there were suche a nomber of Heretickes come, of whiche some came from Boxford, some from Lanham, and about from the Clothe countrey, that it woulde make a man out of his wittes to heare them, and there are among them both heretickes and Anabaptistes, said he. And thus Doct. Dun-
[Back to Top]nyng with his blostering wordes interruptyng Moones examination, went doune againe as the deuill had driuen him, to kepe his sturre among them, and to take order what should be done with them.
The Bishop beginnyng to bewayle the state of the countrey, in that it was so infected with such a number of Heretickes and rehearsing partly their opinions to those that were at that tyme in the chamber, Moones wife had a young child, whiche she her selfe nursed, and the childe beyng brought into the yeard vnder the Bishops chamber cryed, so that she heard it, and then said: My Lorde, I trust ye haue doone with mee. MarginaliaMoones child a part of Gods prouidence in their deliueraunce frō further trouble.My childe crieth beneth, I muste goe giue my childe sucke, with such like words. And the Bishop beyng, as it were, out of mind to talke with thē any more, said: go your way, I will talke with you in the morning: looke ye be here againe in the mornyng: with this they both departed.
[Back to Top]And beneath in the stone Hall of the same house, the Chauncelour Dunnyng beeyng very busie about his bloudy busines, espied Moone and his wife commyng, and must needes passe by the place where he stode, and said: Nay soft, I must talke with you both: for ye are as euill as any that are here to day. To whō Moones wife answered: My Lord hath had vs in examination, and therfore ye shall haue nought to do with vs. Nay, quod he, ye shall not so escape. I must talke with you also. Vnto whom Moone answered: MarginaliaMoones aunswere to the Bishoppes Chauncelour.In the presence of the more, the lesse hath no power: My Lorde hath taken order with vs, and therfore we are as his Lordship hath appointed, and must repaire before hym againe to morow. MarginaliaMoone and his wife escaped from the Bishop and his Chauncelour.At the which he let them go, although he was earnestly procured by the partie aboue specified, to haue shewed his qualitie, which was nothing els but tyrāny.
[Back to Top]So departed Moone and his wife without hurt of body: MarginaliaMoone and his wife confounded in cōscience for their deniall.but afterward when they with Peter the Apostle behelde the face of Christe, they were sore wounded in conciences, ashamed of their doynges, and also at the doore of desperation. In so muche, that when the sayd Moone came home to his House, and entryng into a parlour alone by him selfe, cōsidering his estate, & sawe where a sword of his did hang against a wall, was earnestly allured by the enemie Sathan to haue taken it downe, MarginaliaMoone seeketh to kill him self, but by Gods mercifull prouidence was preserued.and therwith to haue slaine hym selfe: but God, who casteth not away the penitent sinner repenting his fall with harte, defended his vnworthy seruaunt from that temptation, and hath (I truste) lefte hym to the amendement of life by the assistaunce of his holie spirite and to make him one among the elect that shalbe saued.
[Back to Top]The morow they both remained and kept house with no small grief of conscience waityng and lookyng with feare, when to be sent for to the Bishop, rather then offeryng their diligence to kepe the Bishoppes appointment, MarginaliaGods prouidence in sending awaie the Bishop.but God so wrought, that when the tyme drewe neare that they feared callyng forth, the bels ronge for the bishops departure out of the towne.
CloseBishop Hopton seems to have left Ipswich in considerable haste. Was he troubled by the resistance he encountered during his visitation?
CloseAlmost from the moment it was printed, the veracity of Foxe's account of this horrible episode was challenged. The reader seeking to understand both this episode, and the context in which it occurred, can do no better than consult D. M. Ogier, Reformation and Society in Guernsey (Woodbridge, Suffolk: 1996), esp. pp. 55-83.
[Back to Top]Foxe's basic account of this tragedy first appeared in the 1563 edition. It was based on the petition of Mathieu Cauches (the brother of Catherine Cauches) made to the privy council asking for the punishment of those who burned his sister and his nieces (see Cal. of State Papers Domestic Add. VI, p. 484). Someone on the privy council, probably William Cecil, supplied Foxe with a copy of this document.
[Back to Top]In 1567, the catholic polemicist Thomas Harding printed a brief but stinging attack on Foxe's account of the incident, which accused Foxe of lying and the three women who were executed as being immoral criminals who received a deserved punishment (Thomas Harding, The Reiondre to Mr Jewels replie against the sacrifice of the Masse [Louvain: 1567], STC 12761, fos. 184r-185v).
[Back to Top]In the 1570 edition, Foxe responded to this, first by adding additional documentation, which confirmed the accuracy of his first account. (It also enabled him to add the names of the martyred women and of Jacques Amy). Most of this documentation sprang from the successful efforts of Thomas Effart, a Guernsey jurat (one of twelve people who, under the baliff, formed Guernsey's royal court, which administered the internal affairs of the island) to secure a pardon for JacquesAmy and the other officials responsible for the burnings, and from the pardon itself. In response to Harding's claims that Massy was unmarried and her son illegitimate, Foxe obtained testimony from a Huguenot minister living in London who had conducted Massy's marriage. (This, by the way, is a good example of the ways in which catholic attacks on the first edition spurred Foxe on to greater research). Foxe then added a direct rebuttal of Harding's arguments.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of three women with a young Infant, burnt in the Isle of Gernesey. MarginaliaIuly. 18.AMong all and singular Hystories touched in this booke before, as there bee many pitifull, diuers lamentable, some Horrible and Tragicall: so is there none almost either in cruelty to be compared
CloseThis is a rare example of the language of a passage being less restrained in the 1570 edition than in the 1563 edition; this is another result of Foxe responding to Harding.