and sometimes would be entertained by him there. Meanwhile the ardour of Thornden and Harpsfield began another terrible year by burning ten men in his diocese six in the city of Canterbury, in Ashford two, and two in Wye. The historian of martyrs has declined to transcribe the answers of any of these sufferers to the Articles that were ministered the same to all: whereupon his censurer has based a large charge against both him and them, that he omitted their examinations rather than divulge their diversity of opinion, that they died with a mad obstinacy which was equal to nothing but their mutual disagreement.* The roll of the names of these intrepid men of humble calling is headed by a second John Philpot, who was an artificer. Another wholesale combustion followed in the same region a few months later, when in Maidstone seven persons were burned alive on June 18, and on June 19 as many more in Canterbury. Of the former seven five were women, of whom two furnished the complement in their husbands three men and four women composed the latter. One of the former, Allen a miller who was * Fox, iii. 655. He says that he rehearsed not their answers because they were all much alike, "though not in the same form of words." Parsons on this affirms that "he liked them not as disagreeing, and contradicting one the other": that they were ignorant and fond madmen, and so on. He says (which is not in Fox) that they affirmed that none could with a safe conscience receive the Sacrament in an unknown tongue and replies to that at some length, supposing the case of one of them going into a Dutch church and finding an unknown tongue there. Three Conversions, pt. iii. 228. The question was what an Englishman found when he went into an English church. Ashford, where two of these martyrs suffered, was a place of great religious opinions. See Vol. III. 210 of this work. + Burned alive in Canterbury diocese. John Philpot, Wye Matt. Bradbridge, Ashford, Jan. 16 Wm. Waterer, Canterbury, Jan. 15 Thos. Stephens, Wye burned along with his wife, was first brought into trouble by the procurement of the parson of his parish and a neighbouring parson, and carried before Sir Richard Baker: but made shift to get away, probably by submission, and fled to Calais : but there disdaining the safety of exile, returned, and was soon in trouble again. He had made progress in the Scriptures, for he had got as far as Eldad and Medad: his opinion that no bishop ought to have more than a hundred pounds a year denoted progress also: his examination before Baker and Baker's theological assistant, a fiery schoolmaster, was curious, and vivacious, and displayed an original mind. Alice Bendon, among those who suffered at Canterbury, was rescued from her first danger by a pitying priest, who feigned, though she stood silent to Thornden's question, that she had promised in a whisper to go to church she was brought again into captivity by her husband's weak or designed loquacity concerning her conduct as to church: she had suffered a very cruel imprisonment of two years, living on an allowance of three farthings a day in Pole's prisons, before she was brought to the fire.* Canterbury was now become the hottest diocese in England, next after London. The superiority of London was maintained by virtue of extent and populousness. To Smithfield five were * The case of this poor woman is one of the worst in Fox and it seems from him that three farthings a day was the usual allowance in the prisons of the Bishop of Canterbury. Burned at Maidstone, June 18. Joan Bradbridge The wife of John Manning Burned at Canterbury, June 19. John Fishcock Nicolas White Nicolas Pardue Barbara Final Bradbridge's Widow Wilson's wife Alice Bender brought in April, three men, two women: who had been apprehended by Lord Rich and other justices on charge of not coming to their parish churches: sent to London, and examined by Darbyshire, Bonner's Chancellor, upon the same Articles that had been ministered to Whittle, Green, and others. Then Bonner had taken the matter into his own hands, and ministered to them other Articles, thirteen in number, which deserve attention for their plain and downright character, and which, with the answers returned, show that Bonner either mistook these persons, who were Anglicans, for fatalists and Anabaptists, or that he was unapprehensive of any difference between such and such. "Thou hast thought, believed and spoken," said Bonner, "within some part of the city and diocese of London, that the Faith, religion, and ecclesiastical service here observed and kept, as it is in this realm of England, is not a true and laudable faith, religion and service, especially concerning the Mass and the seven Sacraments; nor is agreeable to God's Word and Testament, and that thou canst not find in thy heart without murmuring, grudging, or scruple, to receive and use it, and conform thyself unto it, as other subjects of this realm customably have done and do: That the English Service set forth in the time of King Edward the Sixth here in this realm of England was and is good, godly and Catholic in all points, and that it alone ought here in this realm to be received, used, and practised, and none other: That thou art not bound to come to thy parish church, and there to be present, and hear Matins, Mass, Evensong, and other divine service sung or said there: That thou art not bound to come to procession in the church upon days appointed, and to go therein with others of the parish singing or saying the accustomed prayers, nor to bear a taper or candle on Candlemas day, palms on Palm Sunday, ashes on Ash Wednesday, nor to creep to the cross, nor kiss the pax, nor receive holy water or holy bread, nor accept the ceremonies of the Church used in this realm: That thou art not bound to confess thy sins at any time to any priest, and to receive absolution at his hands as God's minister, nor to receive at any time the blessed Sacrament of the altar, especially as it is used in this Church of England: that prayers to the saints or prayers for the dead are not available, and not allowable by God's Word, or profitable in any wise, and that the souls departed straightways do go to heaven or hell, or else do sleep till the day of doom, so that there is no place of purgatory at all: That all such as in the time of King Henry or Queen Mary in England have been burned as heretics were no heretics at all, but faithful and good Christian people, especially Barnes, Garret, Jerome, Frith, Rogers, Hooper, Cardmaker, Latimer, Taylor, Bradford, Philpot, Cranmer, Ridley, and such like; and that thou dost allow, like and approve all their opinions, and mislike their condemnations and burnings: That the sacrament of the altar is an idol, and to reserve and keep it, and to honour it, is plain superstition and idolatry; and likewise of the Mass and elevation of the Sacrament." To all these they assented and granted, merely excepting that about souls sleeping till doomsday. "Thou hast thought," proceeded Bonner, "that in matters of religion thou must follow and believe thine own conscience only, and not give credit to the determination and common order of the Catholic Church and the See of Rome, nor any member thereof." They answered they were bound to believe the true Catholic Church so far forth as it instructed them according to God's Word; but not to follow the determinations of the erroneous and Babylonical Church of Rome. "Thou hast thought," added the Bishop, "that fasting and prayers, used in this Church of England, and especially in time of Lent, are hypocrisy and foolishness, and that men ought to have liberty to eat at all times all kinds of meat." They agreed that a faithful man might eat at all times: but that true fasting and prayer were allowable and available. "Thou hast taught that all things do chance of an absolute and precise mere necessity, so that whether man do well or evil, he could not choose but do so, and that therefore no man hath any freewill at all: that the fashion and manner of christening infants is not agreeable to God's word, and that none can be effectually baptised, and thereby saved, except he have years of discretion to believe himself, and so willingly accept or refuse baptism at his pleasure: and thou hast thought that thou and any else, convented before an ecclesiastical judge concerning matters of belief and faith, are not bound to make answer at all, especially under an oath upon a book." Hereto they answered that they utterly denied that they were ever of any such absurd opinions:* though, as to freewill, they held that "man of himself without the help and assistance of God's Holy Spirit hath no power to do any good thing acceptable in God's sight:" which was consonant with the Fathers, and with the English formularies of the Faith both of Henry and Edward.† * It may be worth observing that Parsons makes these martyrs affirm these opinions, and that it was only Fox who said that they denied them. "Which Anabaptistical opinions, albeit Fox for shame doth say that they denied afterward, confessing all the rest, yet doth he not prove it." Three Conversions, Part iii. p. 441. What proof could Fox give more than quoting their own words? He says nothing of their afterwards denying the opinions, but that they denied them in their answers; that is once for all and from the first. + It may be worth observing that the article on freewill in Henry's Necessary Doctrine claimed with justice to be Catholic: "Which thing of the Catholic Fathers is called freewill; which if we will describe, we may call it conveniently in all men a certain power of the will joined with reason, whereby a reasonable creature, without constraint in things of |