Marginalia1558.your neighbours shall enter into bondes for you, or not?

Lith. By my mynde they shall not. MarginaliaLithall refuseth to put in bonde.Wherefore I desire you that you would not bynde me, but let me serue God with my conscience freely. For it is written: MarginaliaApoc. 13.They that lead into captiuitie shall go into captiuitie, and they that strike with the sword shall perish with the sword.

Also it is written in the Gospell of our Sauiour Iesus Christ: MarginaliaMath. 18.that who so doth offēd one of these litle ones which beleue in me, it were better for him that a milstone were hāged about his necke, and that he were cast into the depth of the sea. Of the which I am assured by his holy spirite that I am one. Wherfore be you well assured that such mercy as you shew, vnto you shall be shewed the like.

Chaunc. You are a madde man. I would not bynde you, but that I must needes haue somewhat to shewe for your deliueraunce. Then he called two of my neighbours, Thomas Daniell and Saunders Maybe, which offered themselues to be bounde, and called me before them, and sayd: I haue a letter of his owne hand writyng with his name and seale at it, with a booke also agaynst the Regiment of women, for the whiche I could make him to be hanged, drawen, & quartred, but on my fayth I will him no more hurt, then I meane to myne owne soule.

Lith. I desire you that be my neighbours and frendes, that you will not enter into bondes for me: for you know not the daunger therof, neither I my selfe: It goeth agaynst my cōscience that ye should so do.

Chaūc. Why I will not bynde you to do any thyng against your conscience.

Neighboures. Then they made the bondMarginaliaHis neighbours enter into bonde for him. and sealed to it, and willed me that I should seale to it also: and I sayd that I would not, neither could I obserue the bonde, and therfore I would not set to my hand.

Chaunc. It is pitie that thou hast so much fauour shewed thee: yet for these honest mēs sake I will discharge thee.

Notwithstanding all these dissemblyng wordes of Maister Darbyshyre, pretendyng for fauour of his sureties to set him at libertie, it was no such thyng, nor any zeale of charitie that moued him so to do, but onely feare of the tyme, vnderstandyng the daungerous and vnrecouerable sickenesse of Queene Mary, which then began somewhat to asswage the cruell proceedynges of these persecutours, whereby they durst not do that they would: for els Lithall was not lyke to haue escaped so easily.  

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A list of people troubled, harrassed and driven from their homes appears here in the 1563 edition (pp. 1677-79). This list was not reprinted in subsequent editions, almost certainly because it contained the names of a number of radical protestants, especially freewillers. By including these names Foxe legitimated them as confessors and even martyrs. Of course many of the names in the list were of people who were perfectly orthodox by Foxe's standards. But it was easier to discard both the wheat and the tares rather then to sort them out.

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MarginaliaEdward Grew, and Appline his wyfe.MOreouer, there was one Edward Grew Priest, & Appline his wife compelled to fly from their dwellyng at a Towne called Broke: and þ^e man beyng very aged, traueiled abroad to keepe a good conscience.

At the last he was taken and layd in Colchester Castle, where he remayned till Queene Elizabeth came to her regall seate, and by the alteration of Religion he was deliuered. His wife, good woman, was in great care for him, and to her power did what she could to succour him.

MarginaliaW. Browne of Suffolke.WIlliam Browne Parson of Litell Stanham, in the Countie of Suffolke, made a Sermon in the sayd Towne, incontinently after the buriall of our good kyng Edward, and in his Sermon he sayd: there goeth a report, that our good kyng is buryed with a Masse by the Bishop of Winchester, he hauyng a miter vpon his head. But if it were so (sayth he) they are all traytours that so do, because it is both agaynst the truth and the lawes of this Realme, and it is great Idolatrie and blasphemy, and agaynst the glory of God: and they are no frendes neither to God, the kyng, nor yet vnto the Realme that so do. For this his preachyng, one MarginaliaRobert Blomefield, persecutor.Robert Blomefield, an aduersary to the truth, beyng then Constable of the sayd Towne, & Bailiffe vnto sir Iohn Iernyngham Knight (the chief Lord of that Towne) immediatly rode forth, & brought home with him one MarginaliaEdward Goulding vnder Shrieffe.Edward Gouldyng, which was then vnder Sheriffe, MarginaliaSyr Thomas Cornewalis high ShrieffeSyr Thomas Cornewalis beyng then high Sheriffe.

So the sayd Goldyng and Blomfield sent for certaine men of the sayd Towne, and examined them for the Sermon. Wherunto they made but a small aunswere. Then the Sheriffe made a Bill, and so feared the men, that two or three of them set to their hands, and one of them neuer ioyed after, but it was grief to him till he dyed.

MarginaliaW. Browne persecuted and takē.Then did they take men with them vnto the Parsons house, and in the night they tooke him, and with watchmen kept him vntill it was day. Then should he haue bene caried the next day to the Counsell: but the sayd Robert Blomefield was taken so sicke, that he was like to dye: so that he could not cary him for his life.

Then the sayd Sheriffe sent him to Ipswich agayne, and there he was for a tyme. Then he was sent to Bury prison, and from thence to the Councell, and then into the Fleete: and so he lay in prison from the begynning of haruest till it was nigh Christmas, and he sayd God gaue him such aunsweres to make when he was examined, MarginaliaW. Browne deliuered.that he was deliuered with quietnesse of conscience. And hauyng his libertie, he came agayne vnto the foresayd Towne: and because he would not go to Masse, his liuyng was taken away, and he and his wife were constrained to fly here and there, for his life and consciēce. In the last yeare of Queene Maryes raigne God did take him out of this life in peace.

Where moreouer is to be noted, that this Robert Blomfield aboue named, immediatly after he had apprehended the sayd Browne, fell very sicke: And though at that tyme hee was a wealthy man and of a great substaunce (beside his land, whiche was better then twenty pounde a yeare) after this tyme, MarginaliaExample of Gods punishment vpon a persecutor.GOD so plagued his houshold, that his eldest sonne dyed, and his wife had a pinyng sicknesse till she departed this life also.

Then maryed he an other, a richer widow: but all would not helpe, and nothyng would prosper: For he had a sore pinyng sickenesse, beyng full of botches and sores, whereby he wasted away both body and goodes, till he dyed.

So when he dyed, hee was aboue. ix. score poundes in debt, and it was neuer heard of any repentaunce he had. But a litle before his death, he bragged, and threatned a good mā, one Symon Harlston,  

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Simon Harlstone, whose name appears several times in Foxe's book, was Archbishop Matthew Parker's brother-in-law. Although he prudently does not labour the point, Foxe must have enjoyed recording Harlstone's opposition to wearing the surplice which the archbishop insisted all clerics had to wear.

Wherefore it is pitie such baytes of Popery are left to the enemyes to take Christians in. GOD take them away, or els vs from them: for God knoweth they be the cause of much blyndnesse and strife amongest men.

Furthermore, out of the sayd Towne were constrayned to flye Robert Boele and Iohn Trapne, because they would not goe to Masse and receaue their Sacrament of the aultar.

YE heard before in the treatise of the scourgyng of Thomas Greene, how hee was troubled and beaten by Doctour Story, for a certaine booke called Antichrist,  

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The book is almost certainly John Olde's translation of Rudolph Gualter's Antichrist (STC 25009), printed in Emden in 1556.

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See 1563, p. 1687; 1570, p. 2263; 1576, p. 1954; 1583, p. 2067.

This woman was one Elizabeth Young, who commyng from Emden to England, brought with her diuers bookes and sparsed them abroad in London, for the whiche she beyng at length espyed and layd fast,  

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In 1556.

Wherein how fiercely she was assaulted, how shamefully she was reuiled, how miserably handled, and what aunsweres she made vnto the aduersaries in her owne defence, and finally after all this, how she escaped and passed through þ^e pikes (being yet, as I heare say, alyue) I thought to giue the Reader here to see and vnderstand.

MarginaliaThe first examination of Elizabeth Young.WHo examined her of many thynges: First where she was borne, and who was her father and mother.

Elizabeth Young. Syr, all this is but vayne talke, and very superfluous. It is to fill my head with fantasies, that I should not bee able to aunswere vnto such thynges as I came for. Ye haue not (I thinke) put me in prison to know who is my father and mother. But I pray you goe to the matter that I came hether for.

M. Hussy. Wherfore wentest thou out of the Realme?

Elizabeth. To keepe my conscience cleane.

Hussy. When wast thou at Masse?

Elizabeth. Not this three yeares.

Hussy. Then wast thou not there iij. yeares before that.

Elizabeth. No Syr, not yet iij. yeares more before that, for and if I were, I had euill lucke.

Hussy. How old art thou?

Elizabeth. Fourty and vpwardes.

Hussy. Twenty of those yeares thou wentest to Masse.

Elizabeth. Yea, and twenty more I may and yet come home as wise as I went thether first, for I vnderstand it not.

Hussy. Why wilt not thou go to the Masse?

Elizabeth. MarginaliaElizabeth Young refuseth to goe to Masse.Syr, my conscience will not suffer me: For I had rather that all the world should accuse me, then myne owne conscience.

Hussy. What and if a louse or a flea sticke vpon thy skinne, and bite thy flesh? thou must make a consciēce in the takyng her of: is there not a conscience in it?

Elizabeth. That is but an easie Argument to displace the