Search York

ous sight. The cord being plucked hard, and cut with a

twitch, lay at the church-door. At last they fell to search-

ing; but Mr. Ford, most suspected, was found in his bed.

This happened about the year 1535, or 1536. Mr. Ford

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 277

afterwards had a dog's life among them, (I use the words CHAP,

of my MS.) Mr. White the schoolmaster, the fellows of the XXL

house, and the scholars, crying out and railing at him, byAnnoi554.

supportation of their master. Lewd men lay in wait for
him many times; and one night going into the town, he
must needs come home to the college by the town walls, the
gates of Trinity college being shut. This was espied ; he 1 /5
was watched, and when he came to a blind dark corner, by
King's-gate, there they laid on him with staves. He clapped
his gown-collar, furred with foxfur, round about his head
and neck. They laid on him some strokes, but, by God's
providence, the most part, in that great darkness, did light
upon the ground. So they ran away, and left Mr. Ford
for dead. But he tumbled and rolled himself to the gates,
(for they made him past going,) and then cried for help,
and people came in, who took him up and bare him to his
lodgine-.
But to come down to Queen Mary's dismal days : when

this Ford lived with Mr. Richard Whalley, at Welbeck,

whom one day he accompanied, by command, to Sir George

Perpoint's, knight, dwelling at Wedhouse, a mile off, there

he heard chanting, singing; and there he saw torch-bear-

ing in daylight at mass. But upon this he fell into a mis-

liking of himself. The Devil tempted him continually, espe-

cially in the night, as many knew. At last George Petit,

the son of Mr. John Petit, that great patriot of the city of

London, told John Loud, how his old friend and scholar

was tempted of Satan to kill himself, upon a small occasion,

as some thought. Whereupon he did, from Adenborow in

Nottinghamshire, write a comfortable letter by the said Pe-

tit to Mr. Ford. At the reading of Avhich letter he greatly

rejoiced, and took spiritual comfort, ofttimes kissing the let-

ter, giving thanks to God and his servant for it. And so

at last, being well comforted, he was made parson of New-

bury, by the means of Mr. Fortescue, sometime his scholar

in humanity, rather than follower in religion. And with

continual pains teaching the granunar school there, and

t 3

278

MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

Rich. We

ver.

CHAP, preaching, he changed this life for a better, in great feeble-

_J____ ness of body, more than of soul and mind.
Anno 1554. But sadder was the end of one Richard Wever, of Bris-

tol, who fell into like temptation for hearing mass. A cer-

tain preacher undertook great and tedious travail with him,

to administer comfort to him in his disconsolate condition :

whereby at length, for a great space, he conceived much

comfort : yet, at last, being to go home, he ran to the in-

famous mills of Bristol, and catching - up a child of seven

years of age in his arms, leaped into the water, and both

were drowned. It is not to be concealed, that this poor

miserable man, tempted mightily and almost choaked of the

fiend, for none other cause than is rehearsed, found a long

time unspeakable comfort from the saying of St. Paul,

Christ came into the world to save sinners, of the which I

am the greatest. He pretended a great reverence and love

to the preacher that took pains with him, and ever would

be reciting the said sentence. But being brought to the

Popish service in the fourth year of the Queen, he was

clean altered, and that love turned into a servile fear and

terror of the preacher, seeking occasion to steal from behind

him; but being of him espied, he would be marvellously

abashed, and, as it were, tremble for fear : though of the

preacher he had all the fairest and pleasantest words he

could devise.
In May was arraigned and condemned, and executed for

treason, William Thomas, a very wise man, clerk of the

Council to King Edward, and by him much valued and

used, having writ several treatises of state policy for the

use and exercise of the young King. The crime laid to

his charge was, that he designed the murder of the Queen,

or, as Bale writeth, of Stephen Gardiner, the lord chan-

l76cellor. Fowlis supposeth, that he was warped toward Chris-

topher Goodman's judgment, against the rule of women ;

(which the said Fowlis had from Parsons, in his Three

Conversions, who writes so ;) and that he was of more mis-

guided zeal, than true religion. Others, who have read di-

William

Thomas

Romish

treasons

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 279

vers of his writings, have a greater opinion of his wisdom CHAP,

and religion, and are apt to suspect Thomas had foul play, XXI -

and that it was a trick of state, to get a man so dangerous Anno 1554.

to their designs out of the way. He was arraigned and

condemned one day, and hastily executed the next. He

made a right, godly end; and in his imprisonment wrote

many pious letters, exhortations, and sonnets. He wrote a His books

little book of the Vanity of the World, printed, I think, f n n g S wrLt "

1545. He made an Italian dictionary and grammar at Pa-

dua, printed afterwards, 1567, by the appointment of Sir

Walter Mildmay; and a short and methodical history of

Italy, printed 1549 ; reprinted 1561. And translated some

books out of Italian.
Besides which in print, there be several treatises of his others re-

preserved in a MS. volume of the Cotton library ; which h, ms.

were chiefly drawn up for the use and study of his master, Vespas.

King Edward ; viz. common places of state : whereof these yid. Me-

were some of them ; Whether it be convenient to vary with morials of

t • twtj n • 1 . . 7 „„ -, . , , K. Edward.

the time ; What Prince s amity is best ; Whether it be better
for a commonwealth, that the pozver be in the nobility or in

the commonalty. A discourse touching the reformation of

the coin. His private opinion touching his Majesty's out-

ward affairs, and for this realm here within itself. Pelerin

Inglisc, that is, The English Pilgrim. It was writ in

Italian, but translated into English. For this book Thomas

is most famous. It is an account of a discourse that hap-

pened between him and some Italians, in his travels in

Italy, concerning King Henry VIII. and his affairs : wip-

ing off the aspersions that were cast thereon in those coun-

tries, and giving a truer relation of the transactions in Eng-

land. Yet the reader must have a care how he believes all

he writes: as in his granting Queen Anne Bolen to have

been guilty of incest with her brother, the Lord of Roch-

ford, and too familiar with the other four executed with

her. He hath these words of her ; " whose liberal life

" were too shameful to rehearse." He dedicated this book

to Peter Aretine, the poet, because the King, in whose de-

fence, he said, he made it, had remembered the said Are-
t 4

280 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP, tine with an honourable legacy by his testament. The

which, however, his enemies pretend was clone out of the

Auno i554.f ear f] le Xing had, lest he should defame him after his

death. This book was put into print 1552 ; but the MS.

thereof is more known than the print.

His sup- But as to Thomas's treason, I find these particulars of
S0I1 it; which is all that I can see alleged against him. Sir
Nicholas Arnold, in trouble upon Wyat's plot, did say,

that Sir Nicholas Throgmorton did shew him, that Thomas

did devise that one John Fitzwilliams should kill the Queen,

in Throg- But when this was charged upon Throgmorton, he utterly

tr j al denied that he said any such thing, but that Arnold rather
spake it to save himself, being charged with that matter, to

transfer that device upon the said Thomas. And to justify

what he said, Throgmorton urged, that Fitzwilliams, who

was hard by, might be called, to depose his knowledge of

the matter. And Fitzwilliams appeared. But (as though

it were likely to turn to the vindication of Throgmorton or

Thomas) the Attorney General prayed the court, that Fitz-

1 77 w il nams might not be sworn, nor suffered to speak. And

he was forthwith commanded by Stamford, the judge, to

depart the court. Yet not to conceal one thing more :

when, at Sir Thomas Wyat's trial, Sir Edward Hastings

had asked him, whether he was privy to a device to murder

the Queen, in a certain place where she should walk ; he

answered, that it was William Thomas's invention, whom he

ever after abhorred for that cause. But it must be observed,

that Wyat said this when he was earnestly suing for the

Queen's pardon, and had spoken several other things rather

acceptable to the court, than true ; as declaring himself then

much satisfied with the Spanish match, against which he

had taken up arms ; and falsely accusing the Lady Eliza-

beth, and the Lord Courtney, to have been privy to his

doings: which he revoked at his execution. It is certain

Thomas was a man of great experience in matters of state,

of a shrewd head, and much used in the court of King

Edward : for which cause the present court might have the

greater jealousies of him, and might be the more willing to

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 281

be rid of him. And probably he had contracted enemies in C H A P.

the former reign, which were now in place. XXI -

Concerning this gentleman, I cannot but make this obser- Anno 1554.

vation, that on the top of his epistle dedicatory before his

book of the Pilgrim, at least that copy of it that is in the

Cotton library, he wrote this verse out of the Psalms ; Cas-

tigans castigavit me Dom'mus, et morti non tradidit. W. T.

Hinting thereby at the great troubles that had befallen him,

which, it seems, were the occasion of his travelling abroad.

For so he began ; " Constrained by misfortune to abandon

" the place of my nativity, and to walk at the liberty of the

" wide world, in the month of February, and after the

" Church of England, 1546, happened me to arrive in the

" city of Bononie," &c. On the head of the page that be-

gan his book, he wrote another sentence, as though he fore-

saw his own destiny, however he had escaped before : and

it was this ;
He that dyeth with honour livethjbr ever,

And the defamed dead recovereth never.

The greatest blur I find sticking upon this gentleman His fault,

was, that in King Edward's time he was guilty of endea-

vouring to get a spiritual benefice to himself, and thereby

to defraud the clergy of the livings appropriated to them ;

a fault too common and epidemical in those days: for he

made means to obtain to himself a very good prebend of St.

Paul's, called Cantrels, of 34*1. and better in the King's

books. He set the Council upon Bishop Ridley, not long

after his coming to that bishopric, to join with one Lay-

ton, the present prebendary, to make an alienation of it to

Thomas and his heirs : but Ridley would not yield. Yet

the Council were so importunate with him, that they made

him promise, that when it next fell void, he should acquaint

the King therewith, before he disposed of it; on purpose,

I suppose, that they might then presently beg it of the

King for Thomas. In the year 1551, Layton the preben-

dary died, and Thomas knowing Ridley's mind, that he

would not bestow the prebend upon him, (which indeed he

intended for his chaplain Grindal,) procured letters from

282 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP, some of the Council, that Ridley should not collate to it,

because the King would make use of it for his stables: that

Anno 1554. so, as it seems, Thomas getting some office in the stables,

might thereby twist in himself to the enjoyment of the pre-

bend. Of this the good Bishop made a complaint, in a let-

178 ter to Cheke, and desired him to stop it. This letter, no-

No . XXV. tably written, may be found in the Catalogue : wherein, for

this attempt of Thomas, he called him by the name of an

ungodly man.

CHAP. XXII.

The condemnation of Bishop Hoper, Rogers, Taylor, Saun-

ders, eminent divines and preachers.

Bishop J.N the month of February, John Hooper, or Hoper, (as

burned. he writ himself,) bishop of the diocese of Worcester and

Gloucester, united under King Edward, was for his con-

stant faith burnt to death at Gloucester, and sealed his

holy doctrine with his blood. In his younger years he had

been a monk of Clive, of the Cistercian order, saith one.

About the year 1535, or 1536, 1 meet with one John How-

per, a Black friar of Gloucester, whether our John Hoper,

or no, I cannot affirm ; who, with six monks more of the

same house, desired licence from Crumwel, then lord privy

seal, and the King's vicar spiritual, to change their habit.

In whose behalf one Richard Deverex, a visitor in those

parts, under Crumwel, writ his letter to the said vicar ge-

neral. The holy martyr was a man of a truly apostolical

spirit, and one that for learning, and courage, and zeal in

promoting God's truth, and for painfulness in his vocation,

and other abilities, may justly be placed in the first rank

of the Protestant reformers. His history is at large set

His books, down by Fox, in his Acts and Monuments ; who speaks of

twenty-four books and treatises, which he wrote in prison,

but names them not. I will mention a few of them. He

wrote an epistle to the inhabitants of the counties of Glou-

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 283

cester and Worcester, whose diocesan he had once been ; CHAP,

another to Cardinal Pole; another to Day, bishop of Chi- xxn -

chester; another to the Parliament, contra Neotericos. To Anno 1554.

which I add another, wrote to the bishops, deans, arch-

deacons, and others of the clergy, of the synod met at

London, 1554. He wrote also a book in Latin, for the

doctrine of the Lord^ supper; and another against the

mass ; and a third against the corporeal presence ; and,

lastly, another, being a discourse shewing the right way for

the finding out false doctrine and avoiding it. It is entitled

in my MS. thus : Joannis Hoperi AngH, nuper JEpiscopi

Wigorniensis et Glocestrensis, de vera ratione invenienda

et fugienda falsa doctrince, breve syntagma. This was

designed by the author for the press, and was in the hands

of John Fox, when he was at Basil, for that purpose : but

whether printed or no, I cannot tell.
The discourse is grounded upon this principle, that all His treatise

true doctrine must be fetched from the holy Scripture, and out f a i s ' e ns

from no human authority, whether of the Popes or the doctrine *

Church : and that all doctrines must be tried by the word

of God, and nothing else ; much less that the certainty of

our faith is to be fetched from the ignorant collier. He

meant the colliers' 1 faith, to believe as the Church believes.

It is dedicated, To all the brethren that adhere to the true

religion. And in his epistle to them, he gave his reasons

why he wrote in Latin ; namely, " that because no printer

" in those days dared to print in English ; and that the

" presses in England were employed in printing either 1 79

" fables or nothing ; and that, had the tract come forth in

" English, it might the more have exasperated the perse-

" cutors against the true professors : and being in Latin,

" all the godly brethren throughout the world might un-

" derstand and know his faith, which he and they in Eng-

" land did profess, and in which they resolved to persevere

" undauntedly unto the death, in spite of the gates of hell.

" That what he writ, he writ to the godly only. That, for

" his own part, he cared not for the carping of envy ; nor

" did he any more value the swords and flames of the Pa-

284 MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP. " pists, than a lion doth for the barking of a young whelp.

" For they could not kill the body, but the soul immediately

Anno 1554." entered into everlasting joy with Christ.'" Such was the

man, and such his spirit. This was writ in prison, and

dated Dec. 1, 1554. The epistle dedicatory to this treatise,

whence these passages before are taken, I have placed in the
N°. xxvi. Catalogue, to preserve, as much as may be, all the monu-

ments of such eminent martyrs of Christ.

Another Another of these twenty-four pieces wrote by this re-
tract of his i i • i • i i
writ in verend man, while a prisoner, was that tract he wrote m
prison. vindication of the religion against the calumny of Bishop

Gardiner, viz. That it drove to desperation ; occasioned by

Judge Hales's laying violent hands upon himself, spoken

of before. This was writ in English, as those before men-

tioned were in Latin.
Another. Yet, another in English, by way of a letter to a congre-

gation of professors that were taken on new-year 1 s-day, in

Bow churchyard, while they were assembled together, and

at their prayers, and imprisoned and used very hardly.

Which though I find it among the Martyrs' Letters, yet

meeting with a better copy of it among the Foxian MSS. I

N°.XXVII.have laid it in the Catalogue.
His letters. Several other letters of his writ in prison are preserved in

Fox's Acts and Monuments, and in the volume of the Mar-

tyrs' Letters.
other He wrote also divers other things before his restraint,
bispfinted. unc ^er King Henry and King Edward. Several whereof
were printed, some in his lifetime, and some after he was
dead, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. What these books
were, may be seen partly in Bale's Centuries, and partly in
the Athena Oxonienses, under John Hoper's name.
His rigor- This good Bishop was extremely hated by Bishop Gar-

ous im- ill o *

prison- diner, not only because he was a very earnest reformer of
religion from Papal superstitions, but having been one of

the witnesses against him in his troubles under King Ed-

ward. So now, in his prosperity and power, he was resolved

to revenge himself. And poor Hoper was used very hardly

in prison by Babington, the warden of the Fleet, who was

ous im
prisoi

ment

UNDER QUEEN MARY I. 285

one of Bishop Gardiner's creatures. Hoper was first com- CHAP,

mitted to the Fleet from Richmond, where the Council then XXI1 -

was, with order, that liberty should be allowed him; yet, Anno 1554.

six days after, he paid 51. for the liberty of the prison to

the Warden. Who presently went and made some com-

plaint of him to Winchester, and so this liberty was re-

strained again, notwithstanding his money and the Council's

order. And, by the order of Winchester, he remained in

close confinement, and was extremely used for a quarter of

a year. Afterwards, by intercession and money, he had li-

berty to come down to dinner and supper, but not so much

as to speak then with any of his friends ; and dinner and

supper ended, he was to go up to his chamber again. And 180

yet he paid after the quality of a baron, as well in fees, as for

his board, that is, twenty shillings a week, besides his man's

table. And when he was deprived of his bishopric, he paid

after the rate of the best gentleman in his house. Yet, not-

withstanding, the Warden dealt with him worse than the

veriest slave that came to the hall commons. For he put

Hoper into the wards, where he continued a long time;

and had nothing for his bed but a pad of straw, a rotten

covering, with a tick and a few feathers therein : the cham-

ber where he lodged, vile and stinking; on one side of

which was the sink and filth of all the house, and on the

other side the town ditch. So that, by this usage, he con-

tracted divers diseases. And while he was sick, all his doors

were barred, and none suffered to come in to administer any

succour to him : and when he was ready to die, and called

out for somebody to come to him, yet the Warden com-

manded his chamber to remain locked, and that none should

be admitted, though the poor men of the wards, hearing his

cries, had, out of mere pity, moved the Warden to go or send

to him : when he would say, " Let him alone, it were a good

" riddance of him." All this I have extracted out of one of

Hoper's own letters : wherein he calls Gardiner, " God's

" enemy and mine."
Having in my hands the judiciary acts of the proceed- B P- Ga f-

ings against him, I shall from hence briefly recite the man- judfcialiy in

28G MEMORIALS ECCLESIASTICAL

CHAP, ner thereof the two last days only, especially having been

omitted by Mr. Fox. Jan. 28, being Monday, the Bishop

An110 1554 of Winton, by his ordinary authority, sat judicially in St.

trial 6 ' * Mary Overy's church, assisted on his right hand with Ed-
Foxii mss. mund bishop of London, Nicolas bishop of Worcester,

Thomas of Ely, Gilbert of Bath and Wells, James of Glou-

cester, John of Bristol: on his left hand sat Cuthbert bi-

shop of Durham, Robert of Carlile, John of Lincoln, Henry

of St. David's, William of Norwich, Ralph of Coventry and

Litchfield ; Anthony Husey, Robert Johnson, and William

Say, public notaries, being appointed actuaries in this affair.

Besides, there were present also the Duke of Norfolk, An-

thony Lord Mountague, Thomas Lord Wharton, Richard

Southwel, Erancis Englefield, Christopher [perhaps mis-

taken for Robert] Rochester, Thomas Wharton, John Hurle-

ston, John Tregonwel, Philip Draycot, and John Ger-

nyngham, knights; William Coke, Thomas Martyn, Ri-

chard Dobbes, knights ; besides a very great multitude

more present.
His speech In this solemn audience, the said Bishop of Winchester