MarginaliaAn. 1557.. Ianuary.sides with stakes, and bound to the Post with a long yron Chayne, as if they had bene alyue. Fyre beyng forthwith put to, as soone as it beganne to flame round about, a great sort of bookes that were condemned with them, were caste into the same.

MarginaliaThe talke of the countreyfolke of the burning of M. Bucer and Paulus Phagius.There was that day gathered into the towne, a great multitude of countrey folke (for it was market day) who seeing men borne to executiō, and learnyng by inquirie that they were dead before, partly detested and abhorred the extreme cruelty of the Commissioners toward the rotten carcasses, and partly laughed at their folly in makyng such preparature. For what needeth any weapon, saide they? as though they were afrayd that the dead bodyes which fealt them not, would doo them some harme? Or to what purpose serueth that chayne wherwith they are tyed, sithens they might be burnt loose without peryll? for it was not to be feared that they would runne away.

Thus euery body that stood by, found fault with the cruelnes of the deede, either sharply or els lightly, as euery mans mynd gaue hym. There were very fewe that liked their doyng therin.

MarginaliaWatsons Sermon at the burning of Bucer and Phagius.IN the meane tyme that they were a rostyng in the fyre, Watson went into the Pulpite in Saint Mary church, and there before his audience railed vpon their doctrine as wicked & erronious: saying that it was the ground of all mischiefe that had happened of a long tyme in the common weale. For behold (sayd he) as well the prosperitie as the aduersitie of these yeares that haue ensued, and ye shall finde that all thynges haue chaunced vnluckely to them that haue folowed this newe found fayth: as contrary all thynges haue happened fortunately to them that haue eschewed it. MarginaliaAs though in these dayes of Q. Mary had bene raysed no subsidies at all.What robbyng and polyng (quoth he) haue we seene in this Realme, as long as Religion was defaced with sectes, the common treasure (gathered for the maintenaunce of the whole publike weale) and the goodes of the Realme shamefully spent in waste, for the mayntenaunce of a few folkes lustes: all good order broken: all discipline cast aside: holy dayes appoynted to the solemnising of ceremonies, neglected: and that more is the places them selues beaten downe, fleshe and other kynde of prohibited sustenaunce eaten euery where vpon dayes forbydden, without remorse of conscience: the Priestes had in derision, the Masse rayled vpon: no honor don to the Sacraments of the Church: all estates and degrees geuen to such a licencious libertie without checke, that al thynges may seeme to draw to their vtter ruine and decay.

And yet in the meane tyme, the name of the Gospell was pretended outwardely, as though that for it men ought of duetie to geue credite to their erroneous opinions: whereas in deede there is nothyng more discrepant, or more to the sclaunder of Gods woorde then the same. MarginaliaWatson sclaunderously depraueth the doctrine of the Protestantes.For what other thyng taught they to remayne in that moste blessed and mysticall Sacrament of the body of our Lorde, then bare vnleauened bread? And what els doo the remnaunt of them teach vnto this day? Wheras Christe by expresse wordes doth assure it to be his very body. How perilous a doctrine is that which concerneth the fatall and absolute necessitie of Predestination? And yet they set it out in such wise, that they haue leaft no choyse at al in thyngs. As who should say, it skilled not what a man purposed of any matter, sithens he had not the power to determine otherwise then the matter should come to passe. The which was the peculiar opinion of them that made God the authour of euyll, bringing men through this perswasion into such a careles securitie of the euerlasting eternitie, that in the meane season, it made no matter either toward saluatiō, or toward damnation what a man dyd in this lyfe. These errours (which were not euen among the Heathen men) were defended by them with great stoutnes.

These and many such other thynges be sclaunderously and falsely alledged agaynst Bucer, whose doctrine (in such sorte as he hym selfe taught it) eyther he would not vnderstand, or els he was mynded to sclaunder. And yet he was not ignoraunt, that Bucer taught none other thynges, MarginaliaWatson and Scot had both subscribed to the doctrine of the Gospell in the raigne of K. Edwarde the vjthen the very same whereunto both he and Scot in the raigne of kyng Edward the sixt had willyngly assented, by subscribing therto with their owne handes. While he talked in this wise before the people, many of them that had written verses before, dyd set vp other new, in the which like a sort of water frogges, they spued out their venemous malice against Bucer and Phagius. MarginaliaThe reconciling of the Churches that were interdicted.This was the last act

of this Enterlude, and yet there remayned a fewe thynges to be done, among the which was the reconcilyng of two churches, of our Lady, and of S. Michael, whiche we declared to haue bene enterdicted before.

This was done the next day folowyng by the aforesayd Byshop of Chester, with as much ceremoniall solemnitie as the law required. But that impanate God, whom Bucers carcasse had chased from thence, was not yet returned thyther agayne: neyther was it lawfull for hym to come there any more, but if he were brought thyther with great solemnitie. As I suppose, duryng all the tyme of his absence, he was enterteined by the Commissioners at Trinitie Colledge, and there continued as a soiourner. For thyther came all the Graduates of the Vniuersitie, the eyght day of February, of gentlenes and courtesie to bryng hym home agayne.MarginaliaA solemne Procession of the Vniuersitie and of the townesmen. Amongest the which number, the Bishop of Chester (worthy for his estate to come nearest to hym, because he was a Bishop) tooke and caryed him cladde in a long Rochet, and a large Typpet of Sarcenet about his necke, wherin he wrapped his Idol also. Ormanet Datarye had geuen the same a litle before to the Vniuersitie, for that and such like purposes.

When this Idoll should returne home, he went not the straightest and nearest way, as other folkes are woont to goe, but he fetched a compasse about the most parte of the towne, and romed through so many of the streates, that it was a large houre and more, ere he could find the way into his Church agayne. I beleue the auncient Romanes obserued a custome not much vnlike this in their Procession, when they made supplications at the Shrines of all their Gods. MarginaliaThe order of Procession in Cābridge.The order of which Procession was this: the masters Regentes went before singyng with a loude voyce: Salue festa dies. &c.  

Latin/Greek Translations     Close

Foxe text narrative

Foxe text Latin

Salue festa dies, etc.

Foxe text translation

Not translated.

Translation (Wade 2004)

Hail, festive day, etc.

Scot of Chester prayed with many wordes, that that day might be luckie and fortunate to hym selfe, and to all that were present, and that from that day forward (nowe that Gods wrath was appeased, and al other thynges set in good order) all men would make them selues comformable to peace and quietnes, namely in matters apperteynyng to Religion. MarginaliaCertaine of the Vniuersitie amerced and punished.After this they bestowed a fewe dayes in punishyng and amercyng such as they thought had deserued it. Some they suspended from geuyng voyces eyther to their owne preferment or to the preferment of any other. Some they forbad to haue the charge of pupilles, least they should infect the tender youth (beyng pliable to take what print soeuer shoulde be layde vppon them) with corrupt doctrine and heresie, others they chastised wrongfully without any desert, and many a one they punished, contrary to all right and reason.

Last of all they set foorth certayne Statutes, by the which they would haue the Vniuersitie hereafter ordered. Wherin they enacted many thynges as concernyng the election of their Officers of the Vniuersitie, of keepyng and administryng the goodes of the Vniuersitie, and of many other thynges. But especially they handled the matter very circumspectly for Religion. In the which they were so scrupulous, that they replenished all thynges, eyther with open blasphemie, or with ridiculous supersitition. MarginaliaThe decrees of the Inquisitors.For they prescribed at howe many Masses euery man should be day by day, and howe many Pater nosters and Aues euery man should say, when he should enter into the Churche, and in his entraunce, after what sort he should bowe hym selfe to the aultar, and howe to the Maister of the house, what he should doo there, and how long he should tary, how many, & what prayers he should say, what and how he should sing. what meditations other should vse while the Priest is in his Memento mumblyng secretly to hym selfe, what tyme of the Masse a man should stand, and when he should sit downe, when he should make curtesie, when exclusiuely, when inclusiuely, and many other superstitious toyes they decreed, that it was a sport then to behold their superstitions, and were tedions nowe to recite them.

Moreouer, these masters of good order, for fashions sake, ordeined that euery mā should put on a Surplice, not torne nor worne, but cleane forbyddyng them in any wise to wipe their noses theron.

These thynges thus set at a staye, when the Commis-

Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

Alternative title: 1583: The order and maner of burning M Martin Bucers and Paulus Phagius bones, and also their bookes, with a solemne general procession. At Cambridge. This scene provided an opportunity to display, through the 'general procession', the rejected pomp of papal ritual, as depicted in small in the title-page. Here too we see tonsured priests processing with service-books, the holy sacrament under its canopy adorned with crosses, banners of the Trinity and (at the head) St George, the blazing torches, bell-ringing and candles all presented as comparable to a rite of pagan Rome. At the centre the burning of whole panniers of large volumes (leaves floating away in the air) emphasise the literary heritage of the two men whose boxed bones are chained to the stake. The arc of people surrounding the pyre is comparable to the woodcut of 'The solemne procession of the triumphant Church of Rome, used at the execution of poore Christians', illustrating an auto-da-fé of the Spanish inquisition in John Day's 1569 edition of Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus, A discovery and playne declaration of sundry subtill practises of the holy inquisition of Spayne (STC 11997). In 1569 Day also printed a Dutch edition, which was intended to carry the illustration. The English version was translated by V. Skinner with a dedication to Archbishop Parker, and the rarity of surviving copies of the large fold-out woodcut (270 x 360) is doubtless explicable by its removal for wall posting. The tipping in of Foxe's woodcut allowed such use for the Bucer-Fagius illustration, except in the 1570 edition. A relationship between the Gonsalvius woodcut and the earlier Bucer-Fagius one is made more likely by the passage of a woodcut from Day's Dutch edition into 1570, p. 1724, and by the fact that the same cutter was responsible for both the 'Solemn Procession ' and the 'Ten Persecutions' woodcut in 1570. There is also a distinct family resemblance between the two figures in the fire at the centre of the 'Solemn Procession' and Acts and Monuments burnings (e.g. small cut (f) of Type 2 with bearded martyrs wearing loin cloths). The links between these images is suggestive of Day's active participation in the illustrative programme.