Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Foxe's Book of Martyrs is in Tudor Books.
Tudor Books, Foxe's Book of Martyrs Volume 8
Andrew Hemet burned with Master Frith
Andrew Hewet, born in Feversham [Map], in the county of Kent, a young man of the age of four and twenty years, was apprentice with one Master Warren, a tailor in Watling Street. And as it happened that he went upon a holyday into Fleet Street, towards St. Dunstan's, he met with one William Holt, which was foreman with the king's tailor, at that present called Master Malte; and being suspected by the same Holt, which was a dissembling wretch, to be one that favoured the gospel, after a little talk had with him, he went into an honest house about Fleet Bridge, which was a bookseller's house. Then Holt, thinking he had found good occasion to show forth some fruit of his wickedness, sent for certain officers, and searched the house, and finding the said Andrew, apprehended him, and carried him to the bishop's house, where he was cast into irons; and being there a good space, by the means of a certain honest man, he had a file conveyed unto him, wherewith he filed off his irons, and when he spied his time, he got out of the gate. But being a man unskilful to hide himself, for lack of good acquaintance, he went into Smithfield, and there met with one Withers, which was a hypocrite, as Holt was. Which Withers, understanding how he had escaped, and that he knew not whither to go, pretending a fair countenance unto him, willed him to go with him, promising that he should be provided for; and so kept him in the country where he had to do, from Low Sunday till Whitsuntide, and then broughthim to London, to the house of one John Chapman in Hosier Lane beside Smithfield, and there left him by the space of two days.
Then he came to the said Chapman's house again, and brought Holt with him. And when they met with the said Andrew, they seemed as though they meant to do him very much good; and Holt, for his part, said that if he should bring any man in trouble, (as the voice was that he had done the said Andrew,) it were pity but that the earth should open and swallow him up: insomuch that they would needs sup there that night, and prepared meat of their own charges. At night they came, and brought certain guests with them, because they would have the matter to seem as though it had come out by others. When they had supped, they went their way, and Holt took out of his purse two groats, and gave them to the said Andrew, and embraced him in his arms. As they were gone out, there came in one John Tibauld, which was banished from his own house by an injunction, for he had been four times in prison for Christ's cause. And within an hour after that Holt and Withers were gone, the bishop's chancellor, and one called Sergeant Weaver, came, and brought with them the watch, and searched the house, where they found the said John Chapman and the before-named Andrew, and John Tibauld, whom they bound with ropes which Sergeant Weaver had brought with him, and so carried them to the bishop's house: but Andrew Hewet they sent unto the Lollard's Tower, and kept Chapman and Tibauld asunder, watched by two priests' servants. The next day Bishop Stokesley came from Fulham, and after they were examined with a few threatening words, Chapman was committed to the stocks, with this threat, that he should tell another tale, or else he should sit there till his heels did drop off, &c.: and Tibauld was shut up in a close chamber; but, by God's provision, he was well delivered out of prison, albeit he could not enjoy his house and land because of the bishop's injunction, but was fain to sell all that he had in Essex; for the tenor of his injunction was, that he should not come within seven miles of his own house. And the aforesaid Chapman, after five weeks' imprisonment, (whereof three weeks he sat in the stocks,) by much suit made unto the lord chancellor, which at that time was Lord Audley, after many threatenings, was delivered: but the said Andrew Hewet, after long and cruel imprisonment, was condemned to death, and burned with John Frith. The examination of Hewet here followeth.
20 Apr 1533. On the twentieth day of the month of April, Andrew Hewet was brought before the chancellor of the bishop of London, where was objected against him, that he believed the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration, to be but a signification of the body of Christ, and that the host consecrated was not the very body of Christ. Now, forasmuch as this article seemed heinous unto them, they would do nothing in it without the consent of learned counsel: whereupon the bishop of London, associated with the bishops of Lincoln and Winchester, called him again before them; where, it being demanded of him what he thought as touching the sacrament of the last supper; he answered, "Even as John Frith (age 30) doth." Then said one of the bishops unto him, "Dost thou not believe that it is really the body of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary?"
"So," saith he, "do not I believe." "Why not?" said the bishop. "Because," said he, "Christ commanded me not to give credit rashly unto all men, who say, Behold, here is Christ, and there is Christ; for many false prophets shall rise up, saith the Lord."
Then certain of the bishops smiled at him; and Stokesley, the bishop of London, said, "Why, Frith is a heretic, and already judged to be burned; and except thou revoke thine opinion, thou shalt be burned also with him." "Truly," saith he, "I am content therewithal." Then the bishop asked him if he would forsake his opinions; whereunto he answered, that he would do as Frith did: whereupon' he was sent unto the prison to Frith, and afterwards they were carried together to the fire. The bishops used many persuasions to allure this good man from the truth, to follow them; but he, manfully persisting in the truth, would not recant. Wherefore on the fourth day of July, in the afternoon, he was carried into Smithfield with Frith, and there burned.
When they were at the stake, one Doctor Cook, a parson in London, openly admonished all the people, that they should in no wise pray for them, no more than they would do for a dog; at which words Frith, smiling, desired the Lord to forgive him. These his words did not a little move the people unto anger, and not without good cause. Thus these two blessed martyrs committed their souls into the hands of God.
Tudor Books, Foxe's Book of Martyrs Volume 10
Tudor Books, Foxe's Book of Martyrs Volume 12
Foxe's Book of Martyrs Volume 14
This martyr was the son of a knight, born in Hampshire, and brought up at New College, Oxford, where for several years he studied the civil law, and became eminent in the Hebrew tongue. He was a scholar and a gentleman, zealous in religion, fearless in disposition, and a detester of flattery. After visiting Italy, he returned to England, affairs in King Edward’s days wearing a more promising aspect. During this reign he continued to be archdeacon of Winchester under Dr. Poinet, who succeeded Gardiner. Upon the accession of Mary, a convocation was summoned, in which Mr. Philpot defended the Reformation against his ordinary, Gardiner, again made bishop of Winchester, and soon was conducted to Bonner and other commissioners for examination, October 2, 1555, after being eighteen months’ imprisoned. Upon his demanding to see the commission, Dr. Story cruelly observed, “I will spend both my gown and my coat, but I will burn thee! Let him be in Lollard’s tower, (a wretched prison,) for I will sweep the king’s Bench and all other prisons of these heretics!’
Upon Mr. Philpot’s second examination, it was intimated to him that Dr. Story had said that the lord chancellor had commanded that he should be made away with. It is easy to foretell the result of this inquiry. He was committed to Bonner’s coal house, where he joined company with a zealous minister of Essex, who had been induced to sign a bill of recantation; but afterward, stung by his conscience, he asked the bishop to let him see the instrument again, when he tore it to pieces; which induced Bonner in a fury to strike him repeatedly, and tear away part of his beard. Mr. Philpot had a private interview with Bonner the same night, and was then remanded to his bed of straw like other prisoners, in the coal house. After seven examinations, Bonner ordered him to be set in the stocks, and on the following Sunday separated him from his fellowprisoners as a sower of heresy, and ordered him up to a room near the battlements of St. Paul’s, eight feet by thirteen, on the other side of Lollard’s tower, and which could be overlooked by any one in the bishop’s outer gallery. Here Mr. Philpot was searched, but happily he was successful in secreting some letters containing his examinations.
In the eleventh investigation before various bishops, and Mr. Morgan, of Oxford, the latter was so driven into a corner by the close pressure of Mr. Philpot’s arguments, that he said to him, “Instead of the spirit of the Gospel which you boast to possess, I think it is the spirit of the buttery, which your fellows have had, who were drunk before their death, and went, I believe, drunken to it.” To this unfounded and brutish remark, Mr. Philpot indignantly replied, “It appeareth by your communication that you are better acquainted with that spirit than the Spirit of God; wherefore I tell thee, thou painted wall and hypocrite, in the name of the living God, whose truth I have told thee, that God shall rain fire and brimstone upon such blasphemers as thou art!” He was then remanded by Bonner, with an order not to allow him his Bible nor candlelight.
On December 4, Mr. Philpot had his next hearing, and this was followed by two more, making in all, fourteen conferences, previous to the final examination in which he was condemned; such were the perseverance and anxiety of the Catholics, aided by the argumentative abilities of the most distinguished of the papal bishops, to bring him into the pale of their Church. Those examinations, which were very long and learned, were all written down by Mr. Philpot, and a stronger proof of the imbecility of the Catholic doctors, cannot, to an unbiased mind, be exhibited.
On December 16, in the consistory of St. Paul’s Bishop Bonner, after laying some trifling accusations to his charge, such as secreting powder to make ink, writing some private letters, etc., proceeded to pass the awful sentence upon him, after he and the other bishops had urged him by every inducement to recant. He was afterward conducted to Newgate, where the avaricious Catholic keeper loaded him with heavy irons, which by the humanity of Mr. Macham were ordered to be taken off. On December 17, Mr. Philpot received intimation that he was to die next day, and the next morning about eight o’clock, he joyfully met the sheriffs, who were to attend him to the place of execution.
Upon entering Smithfield, the ground was so muddy that two officers offered to carry him to the stake, but he replied: ‘Would you make me a pope? I am content to finish my journey on foot.” Arriving at the stake, he said, “Shall I disdain to suffer at the stake, when my Redeemer did not refuse to suffer the most vile death upon the cross for me?” He then meekly recited the One hundred and » seventh and One hundred and eighth Psalms, and when he had finished his prayers, was bound to the post, and fire applied to the pile. On December 18, 1555, perished this illustrious martyr John Philpot (age 39), reverenced by man, and glorified in heaven!
John Lomas, Agnes Snoth, Anne Wright, Joan Sole, and Joan Catmer
These five martyrs suffered together, January 31, 1556. John Lomas was a young man of Tenterden. He was cited to appear at Canterbury, and was examined January 17. His answers being adverse to the idolatrous doctrine of the papacy, he was condemned on the following day, and suffered January 31.
Agnes Snoth, widow, of Smarden Parish, was several times summoned before the Catholic Pharisees, and rejecting absolution, indulgences, transubstantiation, and auricular confession, she was adjudged worthy to suffer death, and endured martyrdom, January 31, with Anne Wright and Joan Sole, who were placed in similar circumstances, and perished at the same time, with equal resignation. Joan Catmer, the last of this heavenly company, of the parish Hithe, was the wife of the martyr George Catmer.
Seldom in any country, for political controversy, have four women been led to execution, whose lives were irreproachable, and whom the pity of savages would have spared. We cannot but remark here that, when the Protestant power first gained the ascendency over the Catholic superstition, and some degree of force in the laws was necessary to enforce uniformity, whence some bigoted people suffered privation in their person or goods, we read of few burnings, savage cruelties, or poor women brought to the stake, but it is the nature of error to resort to force instead of argument, and to silence truth by taking away existence, of which the Redeemer himself is an instance.
The above five persons were burnt at two stakes in one fire, singing hosannahs to the glorified Savior, until the breath of life was extinct. Sir John Norton, who was present, wept bitterly at their unmerited sufferings.