Marginalia1558.MarginaliaSteuen Cottons Letter to his brother.BRother, in the name of the Lord Iesus I commende me vnto you, and I doe hartely thanke you for your Godly exhortation and counsell in your last Letter declared to me. And albeit I do perceiue by your Letter, you are informed, that as we are diuers persons in number, so we are of contrary sectes, conditions, and opinions, contrary to that good opinion you had of vs at your last beyng with vs in Newgate: be you most assured good brother in the Lorde Iesus, we are all of one mynde, one fayth, one assured hope in the Lord Iesus, whom I trust we altogether with one spirite, one brotherly loue, do dayly call vppon for mercy and forgeuenesse of our sinnes, with earnest repentaūce of our former liues, and by whose precious bloudsheedyng we trust to be saued onely, and by no other meanes. Wherefore good brother, in the name of the Lord, seing these impudent people, whose myndes are altogether bent to wickednesse, enuy, vncharitablenes, euill speakyng, do goe about to sclaunder vs with vntruth, beleue them not, neither let their wicked sayinges once enter into your mynde. And I trust one day to see you agayne, although now I am in Gods prison, whiche is a ioyfull schole to them that loue their Lord and God, and to me beyng a simple scholer, most ioyfull of all.

Good brother, once agayne I doe in the name of our Lord Iesus, exhort you to pray for me, that I may fight strōgly in the Lordes battaile, to be a good souldiour to my Captaine Iesus Christ our Lord, & desire my sister also to do the same: & do not ye mourne or lament for me, but be ye glad & ioyfull of this my trouble: For I trust to be loosed out of this dongeon shortly, and to go to euerlastyng ioy, which neuer shall haue end. I heard how ye were with the Commissioners for me, and how ye were suspected to be one of our cōpany. I pray you sue no more for me, good brother. But one thyng I shall desire you, to be at my departyng out of this lyfe, that you may beare witnes with me that I shall dye, I trust in God, a true Christian, and (I hope) all my companions in the Lord our God: and therfore beleue not these euil disposed people, who are the authours of all vntruth.

I pray you prouide me a long shirt agaynst the day of our deliueraunce: for the shirt you gaue me last, I haue geuen to one of my companions who had more neede then I: And as for the money and meate you sent vs, the Byshoppes seruauntes deliuered none to vs, neither he whom you had so great trust in. Brother, there is none of them to trust to: for qualis Magister talis Seruus.  

Latin/Greek Translations     Close

Letter from Steven Cotton to his brother.

Foxe text Latin

qualis Magister talis Seruus

Foxe text translation

Not translated.

Translation (Wade 2004)

As is the master so is the slave

Your Brother, Steuen Cotton.

MarginaliaIames Harris scourgedIN this societie of the scourged professours of Christ, was also one Iames Harris of Billerica in Essex, a striplyng, of the age of. xvij. yeares: who beyng apprehended and sent vp to Boner in the company of Margaret Ellis, by Syr Iohn Mordaunt Knight, and Edmund Tyrrell Iustices of peace (as appeareth by their owne Letters before mentioned, pag. 1804.MarginaliaRead before pag. 1804.) was by Boner diuers tymes straitly examined. In the which examinations he was charged not to haue come to his Parish Churche by the space of one yeare or more. Wherunto he graunted, confessyng therewithall, þ^t once for feare he had bene at the Churche, and there had receiued the Popishe Sacrament of the aultar, MarginaliaIames Harris repenteth his comming to the Popish Church.for the which he was hartely sory, detestyng the same with all his hart.

After this and such like aunsweres, Boner (the better to try him,) perswaded him to go to shrift. The Lad somewhat to fulfill his request, consented to go, & did. But when he came to the Priest, he stode still and sayd nothyng. Why quoth the Priest, sayest thou nothyng? What should I say, sayd Harris? Thou must confesse thy sinnes, sayd the priest. My sinnes (sayth he) be so many, that they can not be numbred. MarginaliaThe cause of Iames Harris scourgingWith that the Priest told, Boner what he had sayd, and he of his accustomed deuotion, tooke the poore Lad into his garden, and there with a rodde gathered out of a Chery tree, did most cruelly whippe him.

MarginaliaThe scourging of Rob. Williams.OVer and besides these aboue mentioned, was one Robert Williams, who beyng apprehended in the same company, was also tormented after the like maner with roddes in his arbour: who there subscribyng and yeldyng him selfe by promise to obey the lawes, after beyng let go, refused so to doe: whereupon he was earnestly sought for, but could not be founde, for that he kept him selfe close, and went not

abrode but by stelth: and nowe in the meane tyme of thys persecution, this Robert Williams departed this life, and so escaped the handes, of hys enemies. The Lord therfore be honored for euer, Amen.

¶ And for asmuch as I haue begon to wryte of Boners scourgyng, by the occasion therof commeth to mynde to inferre by the way, hys beatyng of other boyes and children, and drawing them naked through the nettels, in hys iorney rowyng toward Fulham. The story although it touch no matter of Religion, yet because it toucheth somethyng the nature & disposition of that man, and may refresh the reader weried percase with other dolefull stories, I thought here not to omitte.

MarginaliaB. Boner causeth certayne boyes to be beaten.BOner passing from London to Fulham by Barge, hauyng Iohn Miles and Thomas Hinshaw aboue mentioned with hym, both prisoners for Religion, by the way as he went by water, was saiyng Euensong with Harpsfield his Chapleyne in the Barge and beyng about the midle of their deuout Orisons, they espied a sort of young boies swimming and washyng them selues in the Thamis ouer agaynst Lambeth, or a litle aboue: vnto whom hee went and gaue very gentle language, and fayre speach, vntil he had set his men a land. That done, his men ran after the boyes to get them, as the Byshop commaunded them before,MarginaliaBoners pitifull hart.beatyng some with nettles, drawyng some thorough bushes of nettels naked, and some they made leape into the Thamis to saue them selues, that it was meruell they were not drowned.

Now as the children for feare did cry, and this skirmishing was betwene them, immediately came a greater lad thether, to know what the matter ment that the boies made such a noyse. Whom when the Byshop espied, hee asked hym whether he would maintayne them in their doynges or no. Vnto whome the young fellow made aunsweres stoutly yea. Then the Byshop commaunded hym to be taken also: but he ran away with speede, and thereby auoided the Byshops blessyng. Now when the Byshop saw hym to flie away, and an other man sittyng vpon a rayle in þ^e way where he ran, he willed hym likewise to stop the boy: and because he woulde not, hee commaunded his men to fet that man to hym also: but he hearyng that, ran away as fast as he could, & by leaping ouer the ditch, escaped þ^e byshop in like maner.

Then the Byshop seyng the successe of his battayle to proue no better, cryed to a couple of fery boyes to runne and holde him that last ranne away. And for that they sayd they coulde not (as in deede it was true) therefore he caused hys men by and by to take and beat them. The boyes hearyng that, leapt into the water to saue them selues: notwithstandyng they were caught, and in the water by the Byshopes men were holden and beaten.

MarginaliaBoners deuout Orasons.Nowe, after the ende of thys great skirmish, the Byshops men returned to their maister agayn into the Barge, and he and Harpsfield his Chaplayne went to theyr Euensōg a fresh where they left, & so sayd forth þ^e rest of their seruice, as cleane without malice, as an egge without meat. The Lorde geue hym repentaunce (if it be hys wll) & grace to become a new man, Amen.

MarginaliaA poore begger whipt at Salisbury, for not receauing with the Papistes at Easter.VNto these aboue specified, is also to be added the miserable whipping of a certaine poore starued sely begger, who because he woulde not receaue the Sacrament at Easter in the town of Colingborow, was brought to Salisbury with Billes and Gleiues to the Chauncellour Doctour Geffrey, who cast hym into the Dongeon, and after caused hym miserably to be whipped of two catchpoles. The sight wherof made all Godly hartes to rewe it, to see such tyranny to bee shewed vpon such a simple and sely wreth: for they whiche saw hym haue reported, that they neuer sawe a more simple creature. But what pity can moue the hartes of merciles Papistes?

Besides these aboue named, diuers other also suffred the like scourgynges and whippinges in their bodies for the faythfull standyng in the truth. Of whom it may bee sayd, as it is written of the holy Apostles in the Actes,MarginaliaActes. 5. whiche departed from the Councell, reioysing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Iesus,

¶ An other treatise of such as beyng pursued in Q. Maries tyme, were in great daunger, and yet through the good prouidence of God mercifully were preserued.  

Commentary     Close

Those Providentially Saved in Mary's Reign

For discussions of the importance of the providential judgements to Foxe and his contemporaries, and of the importance of these tales of divine protection of the faithful to Foxe's work see Alexandra Walsham, Providence in Early Modern England (Oxford: 1999), pp. 65-115 especially pages 108-09, and Thomas S. Freeman, 'Fate, Faction and Fiction in Foxe's Book of Martyrs', Historical Journal 43 (2000), pp. 601-23.

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Tales of the providential rescue of Alexander Wimshurst and of the protestant congregation at Stoke Nayland in Suffolk had already been printed in the Rerum (pp. 636-38) and were simply translated and reprinted in 1563 and all subsequent editions.

In the 1563 edition there was an important list of protestants who were non-lethally persecuted in Mary's reign (1563, pp. 1677-79). Most of this list was never reprinted because it contained the names of a number of protestant radicals - including freewillers and anabaptists - whom Foxe wished forgotten. Nevertheless a number of individual stories mixed in with these lists (the accounts of Edward Grew and William Browne) would be saved and reprinted in all editions.

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Beyond these cases, the stories of Simon Gryneaus, Thomas Christenmass and William Watts, John Glover, Dabney, Bosom's wife, John 'Moyse' (almost certainly John Noyse), the London congregation, the English at Calais, Thomas Horton, Robert Harrington, Nicholas Throgmorton and Thomas Musgrave all first appeared in the 1563 edition.

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In the next edition, some of these accounts were deleted for various reasons: the account of 'Moyse' was dropped almost certrainly because of the continuing influence of Francis Nunn, the Suffolk JP, whose persecution of 'Moyse' was graphically described, while Robert Cole's providential rescue was probably deleted because of Foxe's anger at Cole's prominent support of Archbishop Parker's vestments policy. The account of Throgmorton's successful defiance of the Marian government may have been politically sensitive by 1570. The accounts of Robert Harrington and Thomas Musgrave were also deleted for less clear reasons.

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On the other hand, numerous stories were added in the 1570 edition: the rescues of William and Julian Living, as well as that of John Lithall, and the deliverances of Elizabeth Young, John Davis, Anne Lacey, Edward Benet, Jeffrey Hurst, William Wood, Katherine Brandon (the dowager duchess of Suffolk), Thomas Sprat and William Porrege, John Cornet, Thomas Brice, Gertrude Crockhay, William Maldon, Robert Horneby and Elizabeth Sands. The account of Simon Grineaus was moved from the main body of the Acts and Monuments, where it had been in 1563 (pp. 441-42), and material was added to the story of Thomas Horton.

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In the 1576 edition, the story of Mrs Roberts was added and the account of John Davis deleted. This deletion was probably inadvertant and the account of Davis was re-inserted in the 1583 edition.