Foxe - The Book of Martyrs
The mystery of history is not completely dark, since it is a veil which only partially conceals the creative activity and spiritual forces and the operation of spiritual laws. It is commonplace to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church yet what we are asserting is simply that individual acts of spiritual decision bear social fruit …For the great cultural changes and historic revolutions that decide the fate of nations or the character of an age is the cumulative result of a number of spiritual decisions … the faith and insight, or the refusal and blindness, of individuals. No one can put his finger on the ultimate spiritual act that tilts the balance, and makes the external order of society assume a new form… Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new community, made it only the more sensible of its own strength, and pressed it into a more compact body.
The mystery of history is not completely dark, since it is a veil which only partially conceals the creative activity and spiritual forces and the operation of spiritual laws. It is commonplace to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church yet what we are asserting is simply that individual acts of spiritual decision bear social fruit …For the great cultural changes and historic revolutions that decide the fate of nations or the character of an age is the cumulative result of a number of spiritual decisions … the faith and insight, or the refusal and blindness, of individuals. No one can put his finger on the ultimate spiritual act that tilts the balance, and makes the external order of society assume a new form… Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new community, made it only the more sensible of its own strength, and pressed it into a more compact body.
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<strong>Foxe</strong>’s <strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Martyrs</strong><br />
Pilkington, pronounced orations in honor <strong>of</strong> their memory, and in reprobation <strong>of</strong> their Catholic<br />
persecutors.<br />
Cardinal Pole also inflicted his harmless rage upon the dead body <strong>of</strong> Peter Martyr's wife,<br />
who, by his command, was dug out <strong>of</strong> her grave, and buried on a distant dunghill, partly<br />
because her bones lay near St. Fridewide's relics, held once in great esteem in that college,<br />
and partly because he wished to purify Oxford <strong>of</strong> heretical remains as well as Cambridge. In<br />
the succeeding reign, however, her remains were restored to their former cemetery, and even<br />
intermingled with those <strong>of</strong> the Catholic saint, to the utter astonishment and mortification <strong>of</strong><br />
the disciples <strong>of</strong> his holiness the pope.<br />
Cardinal Pole published a list <strong>of</strong> fifty-four articles, containing instructions to the clergy<br />
<strong>of</strong> his diocese <strong>of</strong> Canterbury, some <strong>of</strong> which are too ludicrous and puerile to excite any other<br />
sentiment than laughter in these days.<br />
Persecutions in the Diocese <strong>of</strong> Canterbury<br />
In the month <strong>of</strong> February, the following persons were committed to prison: R. Coleman,<br />
<strong>of</strong> Waldon, labourer; Joan Winseley, <strong>of</strong> Horsley Magna, spinster; S. Glover, <strong>of</strong> Rayley; R.<br />
Clerk, <strong>of</strong> Much Holland, mariner; W. Munt, <strong>of</strong> Much Bentley, sawyer; Marg. Field, <strong>of</strong><br />
Ramsey, spinster; R. Bongeor, currier; R. Jolley, mariner;<br />
Allen Simpson, Helen Ewire, C. Pepper, widow; Alice Walley (who recanted), W.<br />
Bongeor, glazier, all <strong>of</strong> Colchester; R. Atkin, <strong>of</strong> Halstead, weaver; R. Barcock, <strong>of</strong> Wilton,<br />
carpenter; R. George, <strong>of</strong> Westbarhonlt, labourer; R. Debnam <strong>of</strong> Debenham, weaver; C.<br />
Warren, <strong>of</strong> Cocksall, spinster; Agnes Whitlock, <strong>of</strong> Dover- court, spinster; Rose Allen,<br />
spinster; and T. Feresannes, minor; both <strong>of</strong> Colchester.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se persons were brought before Bonner, who would have immediately sent them to<br />
execution, but Cardinal Pole was for more merciful measures, and Bonner, in a letter <strong>of</strong> his<br />
to the cardinal, seems to be sensible that he had displeased him, for he has this expression: "I<br />
thought to have them all hither to Fulham, and to have given sentence against them;<br />
nevertheless, perceiving by my last doing that your grace was <strong>of</strong>fended, I thought it my duty,<br />
before I proceeded further, to inform your grace." This circumstance verifies the account that<br />
the cardinal was a humane man; and though a zealous Catholic, we, as Protestants, are willing<br />
to render him that honor which his merciful character deserves. Some <strong>of</strong> the bitter persecutors<br />
denounced him to the pope as a favourer <strong>of</strong> heretics, and he was summoned to Rome, but<br />
Queen Mary, by particular entreaty, procured his stay. However, before his latter end, and a<br />
little before his last journey from Rome to England, he was strongly suspected <strong>of</strong> favouring<br />
the doctrine <strong>of</strong> Luther.<br />
As in the last sacrifice four women did honor to the truth, so in the following auto da fe<br />
we have the like number <strong>of</strong> females and males, who suffered June 30, 1557, at Canterbury,<br />
and were J. Fishcock, F. White, N. Pardue, Barbary Final, widow, Bardbridge's widow,<br />
Wilson's wife, and Benden's wife.<br />
Of this group we shall more particularly notice Alice Benden, wife <strong>of</strong> Edward Bender, <strong>of</strong><br />
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