MarginaliaAnno. 1557. Nouember.Yes sayth he: that I can.

Then sayd I: if you can proue me by the word of God, that you should haue any grauen MarginaliaImages.Images made to set in your churches for lay mens bookes, or to worship God by them, or that ye should haue any ceremonies in your churche as you haue, proue them by the word of God, and I will doe them.

Then sayd he: it is a good and decent order to furnish the church: as when you shall goe to dinner, you haue a cloth vpon the table to furnish the table before the meate shall come vpon it: so are these ceremonies a comely decent order to be in the church among Christen people.

These sayd I, are inuentions and imaginations out of your owne brayne, without any word of God to proue them. For God sayth: looke what you thinke good in your owne eyes, if I commaund the contrary, it is abominable in my sight. And these Ceremonies are against Gods lawes: for Saint Paul saith they be weake and beggarly, and rebuketh the Galathians for doing of them.

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Well, sayd he: if you will not doe them, seing they be the lawes of the realme, you are an hereticke and disobedient: and therefore come home agayne and confesse your fault with vs, that you haue beene in errour &c. Will you doe so?

And I sayd no, I haue bene in no error: for the spirituall lawes were neuer truelyer set forth then in my maister K. Edwardes time, and I trust vnto God I shall neuer forsake them whiles I liue.

Then came a Gentleman to me and sayd: are ye wiser then all men? and haue ye more knowledge then all men? will you cast away your soule willingly? my Lord and other men also would fayne you would saue your selfe: therefore choose some man where you will, eyther spirituall or temporall, and take a day: my Lord will geue it you.

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Then said I: if I saue my life I shall loose it, and if I loose my life for Christes sake, I shall finde it in life euerlasting. And if I take a day, when the day commeth, I must say thē euen as I doe now, except I will lye, and therefore that needeth not.

Well, then haue him away, sayd the Byshop.

This aboue named Thomas Spurdance, was one of Quene Maryes seruauntes, MarginaliaTho. Spurdance by whom he was apprehended.and was taken by two of his fellowes, the sayd Queenes seruauntes, named Iohn Haman otherwise called Barker, and George Looson,  

both dwelling in Codnam in the Countie of Suffolke, who caried hym to one maister Gosnall, dwelling in the sayd Codnam, and by him he was sent to Bury where he remayned in prison.

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MarginaliaNouemb. 18.MarginaliaThe story and martyrdome of Iohn Hallingdale, William Sparrow, Richard Gibson.NOt long after the Martyrdome of the twoo good womē at Colchester, aboue named, were three faithful witnesses of the Lordes Testament tormented, and put to death in Smithfield at London, the xviij. day of Nouember, in the yeare aforesayd, whose names hereafter folow.

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Iohn Hallyngdale.
William Sparow.
Richard Gybson.

Which three were produced before Boner Byshop of London, the v. day of Nouember. 1557. and had by hym and his Officers certaine Articles ministred, the summe wherof hereafter followeth.

MarginaliaArticles against Iohn Hallingdale.Marginalia1.FIrst, that the saied Iohn Hallyngdale is of the Dioces of London, and so subiect to the iurisdiction of the Bishop of London.

Marginalia2.Secōdly, that the said Iohn, before the tyme of the reigne of kyng Edward the sixte late kyng of Englande, was of the same faithe and Religion that was then obserued, beleued, taught, and sette forthe here in this Realme of Englande.

Marginalia3.Thirdly, that duryng the reigne of the saied kyng Edward the sixt, the said Ihon Hallingdale, vpon occasion of the preachyng of certaine ministers in that tyme, did not abide in his former faithe & Religion, but did depart from it, and so did & doeth continue til this present day,

and so determineth to do (as he saieth) till his liues ende.

Marginalia4.Fowerthly, that the saied Iohn Hallyngdale, hath thought, beleued, & spoken diuerse tymes, that the faithe Religion, and Ecclesiasticall seruice, receiued, obserued and vsed now in this Realme of Englande, is not good & laudable, but against Gods cōmaundement and worde, especially concernyng the Masse, and the seuen Sacramētes: and that he the saied Iohn, will not in any wise conforme him self to the same, but speake and thinke against it, duryng his naturall life.

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Marginalia5.Fiftly, that the said  

Iohn absenteth hym self cōtinually from his owne Parishe church of S. Leonardes, neither hearing Mattins, Masse, nor Euensong, nor yet confessyng his synnes to the Prieste, or receiuyng the Sacramente of the Altar at his handes, or in vsyng other Ceremonies as they are nowe vsed in this Churche and Realme of Englande: and as he remembreth, he neuer came but once in the saied Parishe Churche of sainct Leonard, & careth not (as he saith) if he neuer come there any more, the seruice being as it is there, and so many abuses being there, as he sayth there are, especially the Masse, the Sacramentes, and the ceremonies and seruice set forth in Latin.

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Marginalia6.Sixtly, that the sayd Iohn, when his wife, called Alyce, was brought in bed of a mā child, caused the sayd child to bee christened in English, after the same maner and forme in all points, as it was vsed in the time of the reigne of Kyng Edward the vj. aforesayd, and caused it to be called Iosue, & would not haue the said child christened in Latin after the forme and maner as it is now vsed in the Church and Realme of England, nor will haue it by his will (as he sayth) to be confirmed by the Byshop.

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MarginaliaHis aunsweres to the Articles.Vnto all the which Articles the said Iohn Hallingdale made aunswere, confessing them all, and euery part of them to be true, and saying that he would not reuoke his sayd answeres, but stand vnto them accordyng as it was in euery Article aboue written.

Furthermore, the sayd Iohn Hallingdale, being demaūded by the sayd Boner, whether he did firmely beleue that in the Sacrament commonly called the sacramēt of the altar, there is really and truly the very body and bloud of our Sauiour Christ, or no: MarginaliaThe Reall presence denied.made aunswere that he neither in the tyme of the sayd King Edward vi. nor at that present did beleue, that in the said Sacrament there is really the very body and bloud of Christ. For he sayd, that if he had so beleued, he would (as other had done) haue receiued the same, which he did not because he had and thē did beleue that the very body of Christ is onely in heauen, and no where els. And furthermore the sayd Iohn Hallingdale sayd that Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and generally all that of late haue bene burned for heretickes, were no heretickes at al, because they did preach truly the Gospell: vpon whose preachyng, he grounded his faith and conscience, as he sayd, accordyng to the saying of S. Iohn in the xviij. Chap. of his Reuelation, where he saith, that the bloud of the Prophetes & of the Saintes, and of all that were slayne vpon earth, was found in the Babilonicall church, by the which, he said, is vnderstand the church where the Pope is the head.

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After which examination, the sayd Iohn was sent vnto prison agayne. MarginaliaIohn Halingdale againe brought before the bishop.And the next day, being the vi. day of the sayd moneth, he was called before the Bishop agayne, who perswading him with some wrested sentences of the Scripture, the said Ioh. Hallingdale answered: Because I wil not (saith he) come to your Babilonicall church, therfore (speaking vnto Boner) you go about to cōdemne me. And being of Boner further demaunded, whether he would perseuer & stand in his opinions or no, he made answere that he would continue and persist in them vnto þ^e death. MarginaliaSentence red against Iohn Hallingdale by Bishop Boner.Then Boner red the bloudy sentence of condēnation. At which time the said Iohn affirmed openly that (thanking God) he neuer came into the church since the abomination came into it: and so he was sent to prison againe.

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Vpon the same vi. day also, in the forenoone, was produced before the Byshop, the forenamed William Sparrow, and had layed vnto him certayne articles, which hereafter followeth.

MarginaliaArticles against William Sparrow.FIrst, that thou William Sparrow wast in times past detected and presented lawfully vnto thy Ordinarye the Byshop of London, called Edmund, who also is nowe thine Ordinarie of the sayd dioces: and thou wast pre-