Critical Apparatus for this Page
Commentary on the TextCommentary on the Woodcuts
Names and Places on this Page
Unavailable for this Edition
815 [791]

K. Henry. 8. The trouble and death of Tho. Man, Martyr.

MarginaliaThe popishe chauncelour woulde not seeme to consent to hys death: but yet could send hym to the Shābles to be kilde. and therefore he desired the Sheriffe that he would receyue this person as relapsed and condemned, and yet to punishe hym otherwise then by rigorous rigour. The wordes to be marked in their sentence be these: Rogamus attente in visceribus Iesu Christi, vt huiusmodi dignæ seueritatis vltio & executio de te & contra te in hac parte fienda taliter moderetur, vt non sit rigor rigidus, neq; mansuetudo dissoluta, sed ad salutem & sanitatem animæ tuæ. &c. That is: we desire in the bowels of our Lorde Iesu Christe, that the punishment and execution of due seueritie of thee, and agaynst thee in this part may so be moderate, that there be no rigorous rigor nor yet no dissolute mansuetude, but to the health and wealth of thy soule. &c. Wherin these Catholique Churchmen doo wel declare, accordyng to the words of Thomas Man before expressed, that the lawes of their Churche be grounded vppon Pilate and Cayphas. For like as Caiphas with his Courte of Pharisees, cryed agaynst Christe vnto Pilate: It is not lawfull for vs to put any man to death: But if thou let hym goe, thou art not Cæsars freende. Euen so they, first condemnyng the saints of God to death, and then deliueryng them vnto the secular Magistrate, to be thereupon executed, woulde yet couer their malignant hartes with the cloke of hypocritical holynes, and vnwillyngnes to shedde bloud. But God be thanked, which bringeth al things to light in his due tyme, and vncouereth hypocrisie, at last that shee may be seene & knowen in her right colours.

[Back to Top]

Thus Thomas Man, the māly martyr of Iesu Christ, beyng cōdemned by the vniust sentence of Hed the Chaūcelor, was deliuered to the Sheriffe of Lond. sitting on horsbacke, in Pater noster rowe,  

Commentary   *   Close

This information cannot be in the official records of More's trial; presumably Foxe had an oral source for this.

before the Bishops doore, an. 1518. protesting to the saide Sheriffe, that he had no power to put hym to death, and therefore desired the Sheriffe to take hym as a relapse and condemed, to see hym punished, Et tamen citra mortem, that is, without death as þe words stand in the Register.MarginaliaTho. Man burned of the Sheriffe without any warrant. An. 1518. mens. Mart. 29. Ex Regist. The sheriffe receyuyng neither articles to be read at his burnyng, nor any Indentures of that his deliuery, immediately caryed hym to Smithfielde,  
Commentary   *   Close

This implies that Man was executed immediately after his trial, and states that the authorities did not wait for the writ authorizing his execution. Actually the signification of Man's excommunication was sent to Chancery, dated 1 March 1518. If Foxe is correct in stating that Man was executed on 29 March, then clearly there was an interval between condemnation and execution and it is virtually certain that it was spent awaiting the proper authorization for the execution.

[Back to Top]
and there the same daye in the forenone caused hym to be put into Gods Angel,  
Commentary   *   Close

This is a slang name for a cell in Newgate where the condemned awaited execution.

accordyng to þe wordes of the said Thomas Man before, saying: that if he were taken agayne of the pylled knaue priestes, as he called them, he wyst wel he should go to the holy Angel, and then be an angel in heauē.

[Back to Top]

In the deposition of one Thomas Risby, weauer of Stratforde Langthorne, against the forenamed Martyr Tho. Man, it appeareth by the Registers, that he had bene in diuers places and countreys in Englād, and had instructed very many, as at Amersham, at Lond. at Billerica, at Chemsford, at Stratford Langford, at Oxbrige, at Burnham, at Henley vpon Thamis, in Suffolke, & Northfolk, at Newbery, and diuers places moe: where he hym selfe testifieth, that as he went Westward, he foūd a great companye of wel disposed persons, being of the same iudgement touching the sacramēt of the Lords supper, that he was of, and especially at Newbery, where was (as he confessed) a glorious and swete societie of faythfull fauourers, who had continued the space of. xv. yeares together,MarginaliaEx Regist. Rich. Fitziames. Pag. 197. tyl at last by a certaine lewd person, whom they trusted & made of their counsel, they were bewrayed, and then many of them,MarginaliaVj. score abiured, and 3. or 4. burnt about Newbery 60 yeares agoe. to the nūber of sixe or seuen score were abiured, and iij. or iiij. of them bnrnt. Frō thence he came then (as he confessed) to the forest of Windesore, where he hearing of the brethren whiche were at Hamersham, remoued thyther, where he founde a godly and a great company, which had continued in that doctrine and teaching xxiij. yeares: which was from this present tyme. 70. yeres agone. And this congregation of Buckingham shyre men, remayned tyll the time of Iohn Longland B. of Lincolne, wherof we shal (Christ willing) heare more anone.  

Commentary   *   Close

Foxe is reminding his readers of the extent and longevity of the Lollard congregations as part of his efforts to show that there was a 'True Church' before Luther.

Against these faythfull Christians of Amersham, was great trouble and persecution in the tyme of W. Smyth Bishop of Lincolne, about the yeare of our Lorde 1507. at whiche tyme diuers and many were abiured, andMarginaliaAbiuratio magna. it was called Abiuratio magna, the great abiuration, & they which were noted of that doctrine & professiō,MarginaliaKnowen men or Iust faste men of Amersham. wer called by þe name of knowen men or iust fast mē. &c. In this congregation of the faythfull brethren, were 4. principal readers, or instructers.MarginaliaW. Tilseley or rather Tylseworth, martyr.
Vide. supr. Pag. 749.
Wherof one was Tilesworth, caled then D. Tilseworth, who was burnt at Amersham, mentioned in our historie before, by the name of William Tilseley, whom I suppose rather to be called Tilseworth,  
Commentary   *   Close

William Tilesworth was excommunication and the signification of this excommunica-tion and commitment to the secular authority survives and is dated 10 August 1511 (TNA C 85/115/10). Although the date Foxe gave was incorrect, this document - which lists Robert Cosin, William Scrivener, Nicholas Collins and Thomas Man as also being condemned - shows that, in this case, apart from the date, the information from Foxe's aged informants was essentially accurate.

[Back to Top]
pag. 749.MarginaliaTho. Chase Martyr.
Vide. super. Pag. 750.
An other was Thomas Chase, called amongst them, Doctour Chase, whom we declared before to be murdered and hanged in the Bishop of Lincolnes prison at Woborne called Litle ease.  
Commentary   *   Close

There is no surviving information on Thomas Chase apart from theaccount in Foxe. This account - as Foxe makes clear - is based on testimony from contemporaries to the events and the cruelty with which Chase was treated undoubt-edly lost nothing in the telling. It seems reasonable to accept that Thomas Chase wasarrested for heresy and committed suicide in prison. There is no way of telling whathappened beyond that but claims that he was murdered seem far-fetched.

[Back to Top]
pag. 750. The third was this Tho. Man, called also Doctour Man, burnt as is here mentioned in Smythfield, ann. 1518. who, as by his own confession, and no lesse also by his trauaile appeareth, was Gods champion, and suffered muche trouble by the priestes, for the cause and the lawe of God. He confesseth hym selfe in the same Register, that he had turned seuen hundreth people to his
¶ The burnyng of Thomas Man.

woodcut [View a larger version]

Commentary on the Woodcuts   *   Close
Thomas Man, a missionary preacher who, with his wife, was credited with converting hundreds to Lollard views, was based at Amersham, though he was also went to Colchester and Newbury, before being finally arrested and burned at Smithfield in 1518. Man, who had been apprehended and examined six years earlier, was imprisoned for some time. He grew gravely ill while incarcerated, Foxe blaming his weakness for his abjuration at that point. By 1518, however, his views were well known and he was rearrested. On his way to his execution, he challenged the authority of the sheriff of London, claiming that he had no legal right to put him to death. His execution went ahead soon afterwards, despite the sheriff having no articles or indentures to read against him.
The misattribution to Thomas Man for whom this cut had been used five hundred or so pages earlier (B) p. 943 (with precisely this letter head) is peculiar since is had also thereafter served Richard Feurus (B) p. 1046, and Richard Bayfield (B) p.1165 with correct headings. This block is singular among the small woodcuts introduced in 1570 in lacking its top framing line. It was also used for WilliamTailour (B) p. 781 and Thomas Wattes (B) p. 1771

MarginaliaThomas Man a great reader among the brethren of Amersham. Religion and doctrine, for the whiche he thanked God. He conueyed also fiue couples of men and women from Amersham, Oxbrige, Burnham, and Henley vppon Thamis, where they dwelt, vnto Suffolke and Northfolk, that they might be brought (as he then termed it) out of the deuyls mouth. The fourth was Robert Cosin, named likewise among them, Doctour Cosyn.

[Back to Top]
¶ Robert Cosin martyr.

MarginaliaRobert Cosyn burnt at Buckingham. THis Robert Cosin semeth to be the same, whiche in the former part of our historie is forementioned, beyng called by the name of Father Robert, and was burnt in Buckyngham,  

Commentary   *   Close

This must be Robert Cosin, of Little Missenden, who is recorded on TNA C 85/115/10 as being condemned to death for heresy. Foxe will laterdescribe the execution of Thomas Man, but he says nothing about the executionsof William Scrivener or Nicholas Collins.

pag. 749. Of this Robert Cosine, I finde in the Registers of Lincolne,  
Commentary   *   Close

This is Foxe's most explicit reference to drawing on a court book (now missing) for Lollards persecuted by William Smith, the bishop of Lincoln.

MarginaliaThe teaching and doctrine of Robart Cosyn. that he with Thomas Man had instructed and perswaded one Ioanne Norman, about Amersham, not to go on pilgrimage, nor to worship any Images of saints. Also when she had vowed a peece of siluer to a saint for the health of her child they disswaded her from the same, & that she needed not confesse her to a priest, but to be sufficient to lyft vp her handes to heauen.MarginaliaA perilous heresye Moreouer they were charged by the bish. for teaching þe said Ioan that she might aswel drinke vpon the sonday before masse, as any other day. &c. Ex Regist. Ioan. Longland. And thus you see the doctrine of these good men, for the which they were in those dayes abiured, and condemned to death.

[Back to Top]
¶ William Swetyng, alias Clerke martyr.

MarginaliaWilliam Swetyng Martyr.
Ex Regist. Rich. Fitziames. pag. 60.
WIlliam Sweting,  

Commentary   *   Close

Andrew Hope, 'The lady and the bailiff: Lollardy among the gentry in Yorkist and Tudor England' in Lollardy and the gentry in the later Middle Ages, ed. Margaret Aston and Colin Richmond (Stroud, 1997), pp. 250-277, provides a definitive study of Sweeting and his background.

otherwise named Clerke,  
Commentary   *   Close

William Sweeting acquired the alias of 'Clerk' because he was a water clerk at the parish church at Boxted for seven years.

first dwelt with the Lady Percy at Dalyngton in the Countie of Northampton for a certayne space, and from thence went to Boxstede in the Countie of Essex, where he was the holy water Clerke the space of vij. yeres: after that was bailyffe & fermer to maistres Margery Wode the terme of xiij yeares.  
Commentary   *   Close

Lady Margery Wood was the wife of Sir John Wood, speaker of of Edward IV's last Parliament and Richard III's first treasurer. Sweeting was bailiff of Lady Margery's manor of Rivers Hall at Boxted. (See Andrew Hope, 'The lady and the bailiff: Lollardy among the gentry in Yorkist and Tudor England' in Lollardy and the gentry in the later Middle Ages, ed. Margaret Aston and Colin Richmond (Stroud, 1997), p. 256.

[Back to Top]
From Boxsted he departed and came to the towne of saint Osithe, where he serued theMarginaliaGeorge Laund Prior of Saint Osithe, abiured. Prior of saint Sythes named George Launde, the space of xvi. yeares and more. Where he had so turned the Prior by his perswasions, that the sayd Prior of saint Osithe was afterward compelled to abiure. This William Swetyng commyng vp to London with the foresayd Prior, for suspicion of heresie was committed to the Lolards tower, vnder the custody of Charles Ioseph,  
Commentary   *   Close

Charles Joseph would later become infamous as the gaoler and suspected murderer of Richard Hunne.

and there beyng abiured in the Churche of Ssaint Paul, was cōstrayned to beare his fagot at Paules Crosse, and at Colchester. And afterwarde to weare a fagot vpon

[Back to Top]
his