MarginaliaAnno. 1556. August. September.MarginaliaNote here the difference betwene the conscience of the Protestant, and of the Papist.Doctor Draycot his Chauncelour, hearyng that, said: My Lord, you know not what you doe: you may in no case aunswere for an heretike. And immediatlie he asked the poore woman whether she would recant or no, and said she should aunswere for her selfe. Vnto whose saynges the Bishop also reformed himself.

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MarginaliaThe Bishop & his Chauncellor durste not take vpon their conscience, to aunswere before GOD for their doctrine.The poore woman perceauyng this, aunswered againe, that if they refused to take of their conscience that it was true they woulde haue her to beleue, shee would answere no further, but desired them to do their pleasure, and so after certein circumstances, MarginaliaSentence pronoūced against Ioane Waste.they pronounced sentence againste her,  

and deliuered her vnto the Baliffes of the saide towne of Darby afore named. Who after they had kept her about a moneth or fiue wekes, MarginaliaThe writte brought doune for the burning of Ioane Waste.at length there came vnto them a writ De heretico comburendo:   by vertue wherof, they were appointed by the said Bishop to bring her to the parish church of all Sainctes at a daie appointed where D. Draycot should make a Sermon.

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MarginaliaDoctor Draicot appointed to preache at the burnyng of Ioane Waste.When the daye and tyme was come that this innocēt Martyr should suffer, first commeth to the Churche Doct. Draycot accompanied with diuers gentlemen, as M. Thomas Powthred, M. Henry Vernon, M. Dethicke of Newall, and diuers others. This done, and all thinges now in a readines, at laste the poore blinde creature and seruaunt of God was brought and set before the Pulpit, MarginaliaD. Draycottes railyng Sermon againste Ioane Waste.where the said Doctour beyng entred into his Sermon, and there inueiyng againste diuers matters, whiche hee called Heresies, declared vnto the people that that woman was condemned for deniyng the blessed Sacramente of the Altar to bee the verie body and bloud of Christ really and substancially, and was thereby cut of from the bodye of the Catholicke church: and said, that she was not onely blind of her bodily eyes, but also blind in the eyes of her soule.MarginaliaBlessed are you when men shal reuile you, and saie all euill againste you, for my names sake. Matth. V. And he said, that as her body should be presently cōsumed with materall fire: so her soule should be burned in hel with euerlastyng fire, as sone as it should be separated from the body, and there to remaine world without end, and saide it was not lawfull for the people to pray for her: and so with many terrible threates he made an ende of his Sermon, and commaunded the Bailifes and those gentlemen to see her executed. And the Sermon thus ended, eftsones the blessed seruaunt of God was caried awaye frō the saied churche, MarginaliaIoane Waste brought to the place of execution.to a place called the windmill Pit, neare vnto the saide towne, and holdyng the foresaid Roger Wast her brother by the hand, she prepared her selfe, and desired the people to pray with her, and saide suche praiers as she before had learned, and cried vpon Christe to haue mercy vpon her as long as life serued.MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of Ioane Waste. In this meane season, the said D. Draycot went to his Inne, for greate sorrowe of her death, and there layed him downe, and slept during all the time of her execution. And thus much of Ioane waste.

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Now, for so much as I am not ignoraunt (faithful reader) that this, and other stories moe, set forth of the Martyrs, shall not lacke carpers and markers enowe,  

readye to seeke all holes and corners, how to diffame the memory of Gods good Sainctes, and to condemne these histories, of lyes and vntruthes: especially histories wherein they see their shamefull actes and vnchristian cruelty detected and brought to light: therfore for better confirmation of this historie aboue written, and to stop the mouthes of such Momes, this shalbe to admonish all & singular readers hereof, that the discourse of this poore blinde womans life and death, in suche sort as is aboue prefixed, hath beene confessed to be very true, by diuers persons of worthy credit and yet liuing: and also hath beene specially perused and examined by W. Baynbridge, tofore mentioned, Bayliffe then of Darby: who aswell of his owne knowledge, as by speciall enquirie and conference, by hym made, with diuers others, hath certified vs the same to be vndoubted: besides the Testimoniall of Iohn CadmanCurate of the said towne,   and of other also, vpoon whose honestie well knowen, and their report herein nothing differyng from such as were best acquainted with that matter, I haue bene here the more bold to commit this storie to posteritie, for all good men to consider and to iudge vpon.

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MarginaliaSeptēb. 8.ABout the beginning of the next moneth following, whiche was September, a certain godly, aged, deuout, and zelous person of the Lordes glory, borne in Wiltshire named Edwarde

Sharpe, of the age of. lx. yeares, or thereaboute, was condemned at Bristow to the like Martyrdome,MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of Edward Sharpe at Bristowe.wher he constantly and manfully persistyng in the iust quarell of Christes Gospell, for misliking and renouncing the ordinaunces of the Romish Churche, was tried as pure golde, and made a liuely Sacrifice in the fire: in whose death, as in the death of al his other saintes, the Lord be glorified and thanked for his greate grace of constancie: to whom be praise for euer, Amen.

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MarginaliaSeptēb. 24.MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of fower at Maifielde in Sussex.NExt after the martyrdome of Edward Sharp aboue saide, followed. iiij. whiche suffered at Mayfield in Sussex, the. xxiiij. day of September. an. 1556, Of whose names. ij. wee finde recorded, and the other twoo we yet know not, and therefore accordyng to our register, here vnder they be specified, as we find them.

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Iohn Hart. Thomas Rauēsdale.

A Shomaker. And a Coriar.

Which said. 4. being at the place where they should suffer, after they had made their praier, and were at the stake, ready to abide the force of the fire, they constantlie and ioyfullie yelded their liues for the testimonie of the glorious Gospell of Iesus Christe, vnto whom be praise for euer and euer, Amen.

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MarginaliaSeptember. 25. MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of a Carpenter at Bristowe.The daie after the martyrdome of these foresaid at Mayfield, which was the 24. of September. an. 1556. was a young man (which by science was a Carpenter, whose name we haue not)  

put to death for the like testimony of Iesus Christ at Bristow, where he yelding hym selfe to the torments of the fire, gaue vp his life into the handes of the Lord, with such ioyfull constancy and triumphe, as all the Church of Christ haue iust cause to praise God for hym.

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MarginaliaSeptember. 27. MarginaliaThe Matrydome of Iohn Horne, and a womā, at Wottō vnder hedge in Glocestershire.NOw, not long after the death of the said yoūg man at Bristow, in the same moneth were two mo godly Martyrs consumed by fire at Wotton Vnderhedge in Glocestershire, whose names are aboue specified, whiche died verie gloriously in a constant faith, to the terrour of the wicked, and comfort of the Godly. So graciously did the Lorde worke in them, that death vnto them was life, and life with a blotted conscience was death.

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MarginaliaThe cruell hādelyng of W. Dangerfield and Ioane his wife in prison.WHen I had written and finished the story of the Garnsey women, with the yong infant there with them burned, and also had passed the burnynge of the poore blinde woman Ioane Wast at Darby, I well hoped I shoulde haue found no mo such like stories of vnmercifull cruelty shewed vppon sely  

women with their children and young infants: but now commyng to the persecution of Glocestershire about the partes of Bristow, I finde an other storie of such vnmercifulnes shewed against a woman in childbed, as farre from all charitie and humanitie, as hath beene any other story yet hetherto rehearsed, as by the sequele hereof may appeare.

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In the Parishe of Wotton Vnderhedge, not farre from Bristow, was dwellyng one W. Dangerfield a right honest and godly poreman, who by Ioane Dangerfield his wife had ix children, and she nowe liyng in childbed of the tenth. This William after he had bene abroad from his House a certaine space, for feare of persecution, hearing that his wife was brought to bed, repayred home to visite her, as naturall duetie required, and to see his children, shee beyng nowe deliuered foure dayes before.

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The retourne of this man was not so soone knowen