Marginalia1557. August.mother: & as she came backe agayn through the house, Tyrrell met her, & willed to geue her father & mother good counsell, and to aduertise them to be better Catholicke people.

MarginaliaTalke betwene Edmund Tyrrell and Rose Allin.Rose. Syr, they haue a better instructour then I. For the holy Ghost doth teach them I hope, which I trust will not suffer them to erre.

Tirrell. Why sayd Maister Tyrrell, art thou still in that mynde, thou naughty houswife? Mary it is tyme to looke v-

pon such heretickes in deede.

Rose. Syr, with that which you call heresie, do I worship my Lord God, I tell you trouth.

Tirrell. Then I perceiue you will burne, gossyp, with the rest, for companies sake.

Rose. No Syr, not for companies sake, but for my Christes sake, if so I be compelled, and I hope in his mercies, if he call me to it, he will enhable me to beare it.

Commentary on the Woodcuts     Close

As the Marian persecution reaches its peak, Bishop Bonner, Foxe's arch-villain, receives an increasing coverage of pictorial denigration and caricature. Readers learned how to recognize his features, as well as his grotesque activities. This event is a close parallel to the earlier burning of Tomkins' hand, carried out by Bonner himself. The actor here is Thomas Tyrrell, presented as a man of murderous bloodline. He holds the sufferer's hand in the candle flame - just as Bonner had held Tomkins' - till the household could hear the sinews crack. The girl triumphantly endures, though she might have attacked her torturer with the pitcher of water her bedridden mother is waiting for. The inset scene of three martyrs praying in flames makes visually explicit the obvious links between two sorts of trial by fire, and Foxe's text returns to his earlier parallel in Livy of King Porsena and the burning of M. Scaevola's hand, and gives yet another example of Bonner's hand burning.

Tirrell. So he turnyng to his company, sayd? Sirs this gossip wil burne: do ye not thinke it? Mary Sir, quoth one, proue her, and you shall see what she will do by and by.

Then that cruell Tyrrell takyng the candell from her, MarginaliaTyrrell burneth Rose Allins handheld her wriest, and the burnyng candell vnder her hand, burnyng crosse wise ouer the backe thereof, so long till the very sinnowes crackt asunder. Witnes hereof Williā Kandler then dwellyng in Muchbently, whiche was there present and sawe it. Also Mistres Bright of Romford, with Anne Starky her mayde, to whom Rose Allin both declared the same,  

Commentary     Close

These are clearly Foxe's informants for this story.

In which tyme of his tyranny, he sayd often to her: why whore, wilt thou not cry? Thou young whore, wilt thou not cry? &c. Vnto whiche alwayes she aunswered, that she had no cause, she thanked GOD, but rather to reioyce. He had, she sayd, more cause to weepe then she, if he considered the matter well. In the ende, when the sinnowes (as I sayd) brake that all the house heard them, he then thrust her from him violently and sayd: ha strong whore, thou shamelesse beast, thou beastly whore. &c. with such like vile words. MarginaliaThe pacience of the faythfull.But she quietly suffering his rage for the tyme, at the last, sayd: Sir, haue ye done what ye will do? And he sayd, yea, and if thou thinke it be not well, then mend it.

Rose. Mend it? nay, the Lord mend you, and giue you repentaunce, if it be his will. And now if ye thinke it good, begin at the feete, and burne to the head also. MarginaliaThe deuill payeth the persecutors their wages.For hee that set you a woorke, shall pay you your wages one day I warrant you: & so she went and caried her mother drinke as she was commaunded. Furthermore, after the searchyng of the house for more company, at the last they founde one Iohn

Thurston and Margarete his wife there also, whom they caried with the rest to Colchester Castell immediatly.

And this sayd Rose Allin beyng prisoner, told a frend of hers this cruell act of the sayd Tirrell, and shewyng him the maner thereof, she sayd: MarginaliaShee reuengeth not euill for euill.while my one hand (quoth she) was a burnyng, I hauing a pot in my other hand, might haue layd him on the face with it, if I had would: for no mā held my hand to let me therein. But I thanke God (quoth she) with all my hart, I did it not.

Also beyng asked of an other how she could abyde the paynefull burnyng of her hand, she sayd, at first it was some grief to her, but afterward, the longer she burned the lesse she felt, or well neare none at all.

And because Maister Tirrell shall not goe alone  

Commentary     Close

This disgression into the story of Valentine Dingley was added in the 1570 edition.

To whom the blynd mā sayd: that if euery ioynt of him were burnt, yet he trusted in the Lord not to flye. Then Boner signifying priuilie to certaine of his men about him what they should do, they brought to him a burnyng coale. Whiche coale beyng put into the poore mans hand, they closed it fast agayne, and so was his hand pitiously burned. Amongest the doers wherof was the sayd Maister Valentin Dyngley, witnes and reporter hereof, as is afore declared.

We read in the story of Titus Liuius of king Porsenna: