Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
felt sorrow, and yet never have I seen his patience broken."
The day before this pious deacon was to be condemned, while in the stocks in the bishop's
coal-house, he had the vision of a glorified form, which much encouraged him. This he
certainly attested to his wife, to Mr. Austen, and others, before his death.
With this ornament of the Christian Reformation were apprehended Mr. Hugh Foxe and
John Devinish; the three were brought before Bonner, March 19, 1558, and the papistical
articles tendered. They rejected them, and were all condemned. As they worshipped together
in the same society, at Islington, so they suffered together in Smithfield, March 28; in whose
death the God of Grace was glorified, and true believers confirmed!
Thomas Hudson, Thomas Carman, and William Seamen
Were condemned by a bigoted vicar of Aylesbury, named Berry. The spot of execution
was called Lollard's Pit, without Bishipsgate, at Norwich. After joining together in humble
petition to the throne of grace, they rose, went to the stake, and were encircled with their chains.
To the great surprise of the spectators, Hudson slipped from under his chains, and came
forward. A great opinion prevailed that he was about to recant; others thought that he wanted
further time. In the meantime, his companions at the stake urged every promise and exhortation
to support him. The hopes of the enemies of the cross, however, were disappointed: the good
man, far from fearing the smallest personal terror at the approaching pangs of death, was only
alarmed thathis Savior's face seemed to be hidden from him. Falling upon his knees, his spirit
wrestled with God, and God verified the words of His Son, "Ask, and it shall be given." The
martyr rose in an ecstasy of joy, and exclaimed, "Now, I thank God, I am strong! and care not
what man can do to me!" With an unruffled countenance he replaced himself under the chain,
joined his fellow-sufferers, and with them suffered death, to the comfort of the godly, and the
confusion of Antichrist.
Berry, unsatiated with this demoniacal act, summoned up two hundred persons in the
town of Aylesham, whom he compelled to kneel to the cross at Pentecost, and inflicted other
punishments. He struck a poor man for a trifling word, with a flail, which proved fatal to the
unoffending object. He also gave a woman named Alice Oxes, so heavy a blow with his fist,
as she met him entering the hall when he was in an ill-humor, that she died with the violence.
This priest was rich, and possessed great authority; he was a reprobate, and, like the
priesthood, he abstained from marriage, to enjoy the more a debauched and licentious life.
The Sunday after the death of Queen Mary, he was revelling with one of his concubines,
before vespers; he then went to church, administered baptism, and in his return to his
lascivious pastime, he was smitten by the hand of God. Without a moment given for
repentance, he fell to the ground, and a groan was the only articulation permitted him. In him
we may behold the difference between the end of a martyr and a persecutor.
The Story of Roger Holland
In a retired close near a field, in Islington, a company of decent persons had assembled,
to the number of forty. While they were religiously engaged in praying and expounding the
Scripture, twenty-seven of them were carried before Sir Roger Cholmly. Some of the women
245