Marginalia1555. February.both godly and learned: they be receiued of our Maiestrate. Ten of them dwel together, the reast remain here and there with good men. Amongest the other Maister MarginaliaM. Tho. Leuer.Thomas Leuer is deare vnto me and familiar. If there bee any thing wherein I may doe any pleasure to your wife and children, they shall haue me wholy at c?maundement: whereof I will write also to youe wyfe, for I vnderstand she abideth at Franckford. Be strong and mery in Christ, wayting for his deliueraunce, when & in what sort it shall seeme good vnto him. The Lord Iesus shew pity vp? the Realme of England, and illuminate the same with his holy spirite to the glory of hys name, and the saluation of soules. The Lord Iesus preserue and delyuer you from all euyll, with all them that call vpon his name. Farewell, and farewell eternally. The. 10. of October. 1554. From Zurich.
[Back to Top]You know the hand. H. B.
Foxe did not really have an account of Rowland Taylor in the Rerum; he had a collection of a documents: Taylor's account of his examination on 22 January 1555(Rerum, pp. 418- 20); Taylor's letter defending his beliefs on clerical marriage and the eucharist (Rerum, pp. 420-22) and Taylor's last will and testament (Rerum, pp. 422-23). Grindal's team had managed to collect some important writings by Tayor but almost no information about him.
[Back to Top]Foxe remedied this in his first edition, largely through the extensive use of oral sources. The account of Taylor's parish of Hadleigh, the martyr's background and behaviour as pastor of Hadleigh, Taylor's quarrel with catholic residents of the town, his refusal to flee, his arrest and journey to London, his examinations by Stephen Gardiner and Edmund Bonner, his imprisonment and his deprivation were all added to the 1563 edition. After reprinting the Rerum documents, Foxe then also added accounts of Taylor's condemnation and degradation, his encounter with his family in prison and the very detailed accounts of his final journey to Hadleigh and his execution were also added to 1563.
[Back to Top]The account of Taylor's initial examination by Gardiner and his examination by Bonner as well as the descriptions of his deprivation and degradation are almost certainly based on Taylor's account of these events, possibly transmitted orally or more probably in letters, sent to friends or family. The account of Taylor's condemnation is taken from a copy of the official record of this, which survives in Foxe's papers (BL, Harley 421, fos. 41v-42r). All of the other material added in this edition is drawn from oral sources.
[Back to Top]In the second edition, Foxe's most important addition was a letter from Taylor to his wife, which was reprinted from the Letters of the Martyrs (pp. 641-45). Denunciations of individuals - Robert Bracher, Sir John Shelton and John King - are also added to 1570. Apart from some minor rewriting, especially involving John King's activities, the narrative of Taylor's martyrdom remained unchanged in the 1576 and 1583 editions.
[Back to Top]A distinctive feature of this section is the relatively large number of glosses in the 1563 edition. In many cases these glosses were expanded in later editions. Several glosses, including some of those present in all editions at the start of the section, emphasise Taylor's pastoral effectiveness and the misery of the people of Hadley at his death ('Hadly towne commended'; 'D. Taylour desirous to see his flocke'; 'The carefull zeale of Doctor Taylour for Hadley'). Other glosses dwell on the pernicious influence of Taylor's successor and Taylor's concern about this ('Syr Robert Brachers cōming to Hadley'; 'A popishe Sermon of Syr Robert Bracher'; 'This packet was Syr Robert Bracher preaching popish doctrine at Hadley'; 'The Popes packeware: Iustification by workes. Corporall presence, Praying for soules, Auricular confession'). Alongside his pastoral concern, the other main feature of the presentation of Taylor in the margins is his boldness, and the robustness verging on aggression of his responses to those questioning and maltreating him ('The notable answere of Doctor Taylour to the bishop of Winchester'; 'D. Taylours prayer agaynst the pope and his detestable enormities'; 'D. Taylour prayeth a gayne agaynst the Pope and his detestable enormities'). A gloss in the 1570 edition, and later dropped, draws the reader's attention to Bonner's fear of physical reprisal at striking Taylor as part of the degradation ceremony ('Cowardly Boner durst not strike according to his Canon'). Taylor's confutation of his enemies could take the form of praying against the pope and also mocking his tormentors by joking about recantation ('D. Taylor maketh a iest of death, with a meete answere for such Doctours and Councellours'; 'D. Taylor maketh a iest of death').
[Back to Top]As is common in the marginal glosses concerned with the martyrs towards the end of their lives, Taylor's joy at his impending death is mentioned more than once ('D. Taylour is ioyfull in his way'; 'D. Taylour desirous to see his flocke'). His abilities in civil law are advertised in the glosses (e.g. 'D. Taylour learned in diuinitie, and also in the ciuill lawe'), and this is perhaps because of the extensive discussion of marriage. The presentation of the popish enemy follows familiar lines. Gardiner is subjected to considerable criticism, much of it concerned with his past allegiances and the contrast with his position under Mary ('The notable answere of Doctor Taylour to the bishop of Winchester'; 'Gardiners booke de vera obedientia'); he is also attacked for 'rayling', a favourite charge used by Foxe to suggest both defeat in argument and lack of self-control ('Gardiner agayne rayling'). Foxe also uses the glosses to characterise ironically the use of force by the enemies of Taylor as 'argument', which is another way of demonstrating the unreasonable nature of popery ('The Papistes argumentes wherewith they maintaine their doctrine'; 'Winchesters strong argument cary him to prison'). Other attacks on popery are concerned with cavilling, obsequiousness, the analogy between popery and darkness and errors in debate: ('Secretary Bourne cauilleth a-agaynst the religion set forth in K. Edwardes dayes'; 'A testimony of the book of seruice set out in K, Edwardes dayes'; 'Winchester belyeth the Councell'; 'Tonstall helpeth Winchester at neede'; 'Gardyner denyeth his owne Canonist and calleth it a patched lawe'; 'Christs aduersaryes worke all by darkenes'). In a gloss in all editions ('Marke how vnwillingly the people were to receiue the papacy agayne'), Foxe presents opposition to the mass as reluctance to receive the papacy again, thus demonstrating the link between ceremonial and political allegiance; in the gloss ' The Masse the Popes youngest daughter', a reference to antichrist in the text is glossed as the pope in the margin. In a gloss with resonances for Elizabethan vestarian disputes, Foxe recalls the sending of a round cap to Taylor by Coverdale ('This cap was a roūd cap sent by M Couerdale to D. Taylor by his wyfe'). In a gloss concerned with the 'Queenes proceedings' and the nature of Satan, Foxe seems to have problems deciding how to characterise and criticise the political role of the queen in the persecutions. In this gloss and the next ('D. Taylor here playeth a right Elias. 3. Reg. 18'), Foxe steers the reader's thoughts away from political realities/authority to consider a higher law, just as the martyrs exemplify a state of being which transcends the worldly.
[Back to Top]Many glosses are better placed in 1563 and 1570 than in 1576 and 1583 in this section. The gloss 'Gardiners booke de vera obedientia' would seem to suggest that the 1583 edition was composed with reference to the 1570 edition as well as the 1576. In line with usual practice, the glosses 'Of this memoriall cloke read before in D. Ridleys disputations' [1583]; 'Of this memoriall cloke read before in D. Ridleyes disputations pag. 1377' [1576]; 'Of this memoriall cloke, read before in D. Ridleys disputacions pag. 1615' [1570] contain references to other places in the text which are accurate in 1570 and 1576 and not specific in 1583. 'D. Taylour confesseth the truth, and confirmeth the same wyth hys bloud' [1570]; 'An other Apophthegma of Doctour Taylour' [1576] shows a correction of the gloss of 1570 in 1576. A mistaken name in 1563 is corrected in later editions ('Gardiner. Clopton. Boner. Capon. Tunstall' [1563]; 'Gardiner. Hopton. Boner. Capon. Tonstall').
[Back to Top]Recently John Craig has qualified Foxe's rosy picture of Hadleigh as a model godly town. He has demonstrated that the progress of protestantism in Hadleigh was slow and that bitter divisions existed in the town between Taylor's followers and religious conservatives (Craig, pp. 169-75). Upon a careful reading of Foxe's narrative these divisions become apparent.
[Back to Top]In this towne was Doct. Rouland Taylour Doctour in both the Ciuill and Canon lawes,MarginaliaDoctour Taylour, a Doctour in both lawes, and a diuine. and a right perfect Diuine, parson. Who at his first entryng into his benefice, did not, as the common sort of beneficed men do, let out his benefice to a Farmer, that should gather vp the profites, and set in an ignoraunt vnlearned Priest to serue the Cure, and so they may haue the fleece, litle or nothing care for feeding the flocke: but contrarily he forsoke the Archbyshop of Canterbury
The phrase 'of blessed memory' appears here in the 1563 edition. Its removal from subsequent editions may be an indication that Foxe's opinion of Cranmer was more negative in later editions.
Taylor was Cranmer's domestic chaplain.
Actually Taylor was entrusted with a number of offices and assignments which necessitated his absence from Hadleigh. From at least 1552 he farmed out the rectory to two Hadleigh residents (Craig, pp. 164-65).
MarginaliaFede with example.Not onely was his word a preachyng vnto th?: but all his life and conuersation was an example of vnfayned Christian lyfe, and true holynes. He was voyde of all pride, humble and meeke, as any child: so that none were so poore, but they might boldly, as vnto their father, resort vnto him. Neyther was hys lowlynes childysh or fearefull: but as occasion, time, and place required, he would be stout in rebuking the sinfull, and euyll doers: so that none was so rich, but he would tell hym playnly his fault, with such earnest and graue rebukes, as became a good Curate and Pastor.
Craig has pointed out that Taylor's denunciations of the wealthy residents of Hadleigh created a distance between himself and the town (Craig, pp. 168-69).
wyll, ready to do good to all men, readily forgeuing hys enemies, and neuer sought to doo euyll to any.
MarginaliaFede wyth almes.To the poore that were blynde, lame, sicke, bedred, or that had many children, he was a very father, a carefull patrone, and diligent prouider: in so much that he caused the Parishoners to make a generall prouision for them: and he him selfe (beside the continual reliefe that they alway founde at hys house) gaue an honest portion yearely, to the common almes boxe. MarginaliaD. Taylours wife and his children.Hys wyfe also was an honest, discrete and sober matorne, and his children well nourtred, brought vp in the feare of God and good learning.
[Back to Top]To conclude, he was a right and liuely image or pattern of all those vertuous qualities described by Saint Paule in a true Bishop, a good salt of the earth sauourly byting the corrupt maners of euyll men, a lyght in Gods house set vpon a Candlesticke for all good men to imitate and follow.
Thus continued this good Shepheard among hys flocke, gouernyng and leadyng them thorow this wildernes of the wicked world, al the dayes of the most innocent and holy kyng of blessed memory, Edward the vj. But after it pleased God to take kyng Edward fr? this vale of misery vnto his most blessed rest, the Papistes, MarginaliaThe Papistes and their naturall workes.who euer sembled and dissembled, both with kyng Henry the eight and kyng Edward his sonne, now seyng the tyme conuenient for their purpose, vttered their false hypocrisie, openly refusing all good reformation made by the sayd two most godly kynges,
The phrase '(worthye therfore [of] eternall and blessed memory)' occurs here in 1563 but was not reprinted in the later editions. The deletion of this phrasewas probably due to Foxe's increasingly critical attitude to Henry VIII. (On Foxe'scriticism of Henry VIII in the 1570 edition, see Freeman and Wall, pp. 1186-89).
[Back to Top]In the begynnyng of this rage of Antichrist, a certaine Petigentilman after the sorte of a Lawyer, called MarginaliaFoster a lawyer, and Iohn Clerke of Hadley, two notorious Papistes.Foster, beyng Steward and keeper of Courtes, a man of no great skill, but a bitter persecutour in those dayes, with one Iohn Clerke of Hadley, which Clerke had euer bene a secrete fauourer of all Romishe Idolatrie, conspired with the sayd Clerke to bring in the Pope and his maumentrie
Idolatry (OED).
Therfore the aforesayd Foster and Clerke hyred one MarginaliaIohn Auerth a right popish priest.Iohn Auerth, Person of Aldam, a very money Mammonist,
A worshipper of money (see Luke 16:11 and 13-14).
Adulterer (OED).
When Doct. Taylour, who (MarginaliaD. Taylours custome to study.accordyng to his custome) sat at his booke studying the word of God, heard the bels ryng, he arose and went into the Church, supposing something had bene there to be done, according