Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
gave him a prebend in his cathedral Church of St. Paul.
In this preaching office Mr. Bradford diligently laboured for the space of three years.
Sharply he reproved sin, sweetly he preached Christ crucified, ably he disproved heresies and
errors, earnestly he persuaded to godly life. After the death of blessed King Edward VI Mr.
Bradford still continued diligent in preaching, until he was suppressed by Queen Mary.
An act now followed of the blackest ingratitude, and at which a pagan would blush. It has
been recited, that a tumult was occasioned by Mr. Bourne's (then bishop of Bath) preaching
at St. Paul's Cross; the indignation of the people placed his life in imminent danger; indeed a
dagger was thrown at him. In this situation he entreated Mr. Bradford, who stood behind him.
to speak in his place, and assuage the tumult. The people welcomed Mr. Bradford, and the
latter afterward kept close to him, that his presence might prevent the populace from renewing
their assaults.
The same Sunday in the afternoon, Mr. Bradford preached at Bow Church in Cheapside,
and reproved the people sharply for their seditious misdemeanor. Notwithstanding this
conduct, within three days after, he was sent for to the Tower of London, where the queen
then was, to appear before the Council. There he was charged with this act of saving Mr.
Bourne, which was called seditious, and they also objected against him for preaching. Thus
he was committed, first to the Tower, then to other prisons, and, after his condemnation, to
the Poultry Compter, where he preached twice a day continually, unless sickness hindered
him. Such as his credit with the keeper of the king's Bench, that he permitted him in an evening
to visit a poor, sick person near the steel-yard, upon his promise to return in time, and in this
he never failed.
The night before he was sent to Newgate, he was troubled in his sleep by foreboding
dreams, that on Monday after he should be burned in Smithfield. In the afternoon the keeper's
wife came up and announced this dreadful news to him, but in him it excited only thankfulness
to God. At night half a dozen friends came, with whom he spent all the evening in prayer and
godly exercises.
When he was removed to Newgate, a weeping crowd accompanied him, and a rumor
having been spread that he was to suffer at four the next morning, an immense multitude
attended. At nine o'clock Mr. Bradford was brought into Smithfield. The cruelty of the sheriff
deserves notice; for his brother-in-law, Roger Beswick, having taken him by the hand as he
passed, Mr. Woodroffe, with his staff, cut his head open.
Mr. Bradford, being come to the place, fell flat on the ground, and putting off his clothes
unto the shirt, he went to the stake, and there suffered with a young man of twenty years of
age, whose name was John Leaf, an apprentice to Mr. Humphrey Gaudy, tallow-chandler, of
Christ-church, London. Upon Friday before Palm Sunday, he was committed to the Compter
in Bread-street, and afterward examined and condemned by the bloody bishop.
It is reported of him, that, when the bill of his confession was read unto him, instead of
pen, he took a pin, and pricking his hand, sprinkled the blood upon the said bill, desiring the
reader thereof to show the bishop that he had sealed the same bill with his blood already.
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