Marginalia1557. Iune.are figures of thinges to come, for Christ is the body.

Collins. And are not the iudicials abrogated by Christ?

Allin. They are confirmed both by Christ in the 5. of Mathew, and by Paule in the 1. Epistle to Timothe. 4. The law sayth he is not set forth for the vertuous and godly, but for menslayers, periured, aduouterers and such like.

Collins. *Marginalia* Albeit the positiue law of Moses Iudicials do not binde the Gentiles with the same necessitye absolutely in euery condition, as it did the Iewes, to whom it was peculiarly geuen: yet may the Gentiles borow out of the same law, such thinges that shall be expedient for theyr regiment. Neither can they borowe any lawes better then out of Moses. Thou art an hereticke. Wilt thou call the Iudicials of Moyses agayne? wilt thou haue adultery punished with death? disobedient children to their parentes to be stoned? wilt thou haue Legem talionis? But thou art an Asse. Why should I speake Latine to thee thou erroneous rebell? shall we now smite out eye for eye, tooth for tooth? thou art worthy to haue thy teeth and toung plucked out.

Allin. If we had that law, we shoulde neither haue disobedient children, neither adulterers, neither false witnes bearers, neither Ruffians.

Baker. M. Collins, let vs returne to our first matter. Why diddest thou teach the people, whom thou saydst thou didst feede both bodely and spiritually, beyng no Priest?

Allin. MarginaliaIn tyme of publicke corruption, and in want of true teachers, it is not forbidden to any man to teach.Because that we are all Kynges to rule our affections, prest to preach out the vertues and word of God, as Peter writeth: and liuely stones, to geue light to other. For as out of flint stones commeth foorth that, that is able to set all the worlde on fire, so out of Christians should spryng the beames of þ^e Gospel, which should inflame all the world. If we must geue a reckenyng of our fayth to euery man, and now to you demaundyng it, then must we study the Scriptures and practise them. What auayleth it a man to haue meate and will eate none, or apparell and will weare none, or to haue an occupation, and to teach none, or to be a lawyer and vtter none? Shall euery artificer be suffred, yea & commended to practise his facultie & science, & the Christian forbidden to exercise his? Doth not euery Lawyer practise his law? Is not euery Christiā a folower of Christ? Shal ignoraūce which is condēned in all sciences be practised of Christians? Doth not S. Paule forbid any mans spirite to bee quenched? Doth he prohibite any man that hath any of these giftes,which he repeateth. 1. Cor. 14. to practise the same? Onely he forbiddeth women, but no mā. The Iewes neuer forbad any. Read þ^e Actes of the Apostles. MarginaliaPope Gregory the 9. first restrayned lay men to teach or instruct others in Scriptures.And þ^t restraint was made by Gregory the 9. Pope of that name, as I heard one, a learned man preach in Kyng Edwardes dayes.

Collins. This villaine (and it lyke your honour) is mad. By my Priesthode, I beleue that he will say, a Priest hath no more authoritie then an other man. Doth not a Priest bynde and loose?

Allin. MarginaliaSinne bindeth: Repentance loseth: God forgeueth: Man exhorteth.No, my sinne bindeth me, and my repentaunce loseth. GOD forgiueth sinne onely, and no Priest. For euery Christian when he sinneth, bindeth himselfe, and when hee repenteth, loseth him selfe. And if any other be losed from his sinne by my exhortation, I am sayd to loose him: and if he perseuere in sinne, notwithstandyng my exhortation, I am sayd to bynde him, although it is God that byndeth and looseth, and geueth the increase: Therfore sayth Christ, Mat. 18. MarginaliaMath. 18.Wheresoeuer two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middest of thē, & whosoeuer sinnes they forgeue, they are forgeuē: and whosoeuer they retaine they are retayned.MarginaliaHow man remitteth sinne or reteyneth. Neither hath the Pope any keyes, saue the keyes of errour:MarginaliaThe Popes keyes be the keyes of errour. for the key that openeth the locke to Gods mysteries and to saluation, is the key of fayth and repentaunce. And as I haue heard learned men reason. S. Austine and Origene, with others, are of this opinion. Then they reuiled him and layde him in the stockes all the night. Wherewith certaine that were better mynded, beyng offended with such extremitie, willed Allin to keepe his conscience to him selfe, and to follow Baruckes counsell in the 6. chap. MarginaliaBaruc. 6.Therfore whē ye see the multitude of people worshippyng them, behinde and before, say ye in your hartes, O Lord it is thou that ought onely to be worshipped.

Wherewith hee was perswaded to goe to heare Masse the next day, and sodenly before the sacryng went out, and considered in the Churchyard with him selfe, that such a litle cake betwene the Priestes fingers could not be Christ, nor a materiall body, neither to haue soule, life, sinnewes, bones, flesh, legges, head, armes, nor brest, and lamēted, that he was seduced by the place of Barucke, which his conscience gaue him, to be no Scripture, or elles to haue an other meanyng: MarginaliaAllē brought agayne before Syr Iohn Baker.and after this he was brought agayne before Syr Iohn Baker, who asked why he did refuse to worshyp the blessed Sacrament of the aultar.

MarginaliaTalke of the Sacrament.Allin. It is an Idoll.

Collins. It is Gods body.

Allin. It is not.

Collins. By the Masse it is.

Allin. It is bread.

Collins. How prouest thou that?

Allin. When Christ sat at his last Supper, and gaue thē bread to eate.

Collins. Bread, knaue?

Allin. Yea bread, which you call Christes body. Sat he still at the table, or was he both in theyr mouthes, and at the table? If he were both in theyr mouthes and at the table, then had he ij. bodies, or els had a fantasticall bodie: which is an absurditie to say it.

Syr Iohn Baker. MarginaliaThis Papist graunteth that Christ had a glorified body at his supper.Christes body was glorified, and myght be in mo places then one.

Allin. Then had he more bodies then one, by your one placyng of hym.

Collins. Thou ignorant Asse, the scole men say, that a glorified body may be euery where.

Allin. If his body was not glorified till it rose agayne, then was it not glorified at his last supper, and therfore was not at the table, and in their mouthes, by your owne reason.

Collins. A glorified body occupieth no place.

Allin. That which occupieth no place, is neyther God, nor any thyng els: but Christes body say you, occupieth no place: therfore it is neither God nor any thyng els. If it be nothing then is your religion nothyng. MarginaliaThe Papistes make 4. persons in one Trinitie.If it be God, then haue we iiij. in one Trinitiy, which is the person of the father, the person of the sonne, the person of the holy Ghost, þ^e humane nature of Christ. If Christ be nothing, which you must needes confesse if he occupie no place, then is our study in vayne, our fayth prostrate, and our hope without rewarde.

Collins. This rebell will beleue nothyng but Scripture. How knowest thou that it is the scripture but by þ^e church? and so sayth S. Austin.

Allin. I cannot tell what Austin sayth, but I am persuaded that it is Scripture, by diuers Argumentes

MarginaliaHow the scripture is knowen to be scripture.First that the law worketh in me my condēnation. The law telleth me that of my selfe I am damned: and this damnation, M. Collins, you must finde in your selfe, or els you shal neuer come to repentance. For as this grief and sorrow of conscience, without fayth, is desperation, so is a glorious and romish faythe without the lamentatiōs of a mās sinnes, presumption.

The second is the Gospell, which is the power and spirite of God. This spirite (sayth S. Paul) certifieth my spirite, that I am the sonne of God, and that these are the Scriptures.

The thyrd, are the wonderfull workes of God, whiche cause me to beleue that there is a God though wee glorifie hym not as God. Rom 1. The sunne, the moone, þ^e starrres and other his woorkes (as Dauid discourseth in the 19. PsalmeMarginaliaPsal. xix.) declareth that there is a God, and that these are the scriptures, because that they teach nothyng els but God & his power, maiesty & might: & because þ^t the scripture teacheth nothyng dissonant frō this prescription of nature.

And fourthly, because that the word of God gaue authority to the Church in Paradise, saying that the seede of the woman shoulde brast downe the Serpentes head. Thys seede is the Gospell: that is all the scriptures, and by thys we are assured of eternall life, and these words: The seede of the woman shall brast the Serpentes head, gaue authority to the Church, and not the Church to the word.

Baker. I heard say that you spake agaynst priestes and Byshops.

Allin. I spake for them, for now they haue so much liuing and especially Bishops, Archdeacons, and Deanes, that they neyther can nor will teach Gods worde. If they had a hundreth poundes a peece, then would they apply their study: now they can not for other affaires.

Collins. Who wil then set his children to schole?

Allin. MarginaliaThe reuenewes of Byshops and Prelates in England.Where there is now one set to schole for that ende, there would be forty, because that one Byshops liuyng diuided into xxx or xl. partes, would find so many as well learned men as the Byshops be now, who haue all this liuyng, neyther had Peter or Paule any such reuenew.

Baker. Let vs dispatch him: he will marre all.

Collins. If euery man had a hundreth poundes, as he saith it would make moe learned men.

Baker. But our bishops would be angry if þ^t they knew it.

Allin. It were for a common wealth to haue such Byshoprickes diuided for the further increase of learnyng.

Baker. What sayest thou to the Sacrament?

Allin. As I sayd before.

Baker. Away with him. And thus was he caried to prison and afterward burned.  

Commentary     Close

In the 1570 and 1576 editions, an account follows here of Allin's escape from Sir John Baker's custody - see Thomas S. Freeman, 'Notes on a Source for John Foxe's Account of the Marian Persecution in Kent and Sussex' Historical Research67 (1994), pp. 203-11.

MarginaliaThe Martyrdome of v. women and ij. men, at Cant. An. 1557. Iune. 18.Who with the fiue other Martyrs aboue named, being vij. to witte, v. women, and ij. men were altogether burned at Maydstone, the yeare and moneth afore mencioned, and the xviij. day of the same moneth.

¶ An other story of like crueltie, shewed vpon other vij. Martyrs burnt at Canterbury. iii. men and iiij. women.  

Commentary     Close

Alice Benden and Other Kentish Martyrs

In the 1563 edition, Foxe had an account of these martyrs which was based on trial documents. (In one case Foxe clearly had the confession of one of these martyrs but did not print it because the martyr admitted that he was unsure of his beliefs about the eucharist). In the 1570 edition, Foxe added a narrative of Alice Benden's imprisonment and martyrdom, which was contributed, as Foxe states, by her brothers John and Roger Hall. (On the Hall brothers and Foxe, see Thomas S. Freeman, 'Notes on a Source for John Foxe's Account of the Marian Persecution in Kent and Sussex' Historical Research 67 (1994), pp. 203-11). This account remained unchanged in subsequent editions.

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