MarginaliaAn. 1556. Aprill.Submit your selues therfore vnder the mighty hand of God, that he may exalte you when the tyme is come. Cast all your care on him, for he careth for you. Be sober and watch, for your aduersary the deuill like a roryng Lion walketh about, seking whom hee may deuour, whom resiste stedfast in faith: remembring that ye doe but fulfil the same afflictions that are appointed to your brethren that are in the world. The God of all grace that called you vnto his eternal glory, by CHRIST IESVS, shall his owne selfe, after you haue suffered a litle affliction, make you perfite, shall setle, strengthē, and stablish you. To him be glory and dominion for euer and while the world endureth, Amen.

Grete one an other with the holy kisse of loue. Peace be with you all which are in CHRIST IESVS. I pray you all say, Amen. These be in the same pryson where I am: the Byshop of S. Dauies, Doct. Taylour of Hadley,  

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Taylor was sent to the Clink on 31 January 1555; this letter was written while Taylor was confined in the King's Bench, therefore it was written before 31 January 1555.

I desyre some good brother to wryte this new, for I wrote it (as I do many times) with feare. For if the keepers had found me, they would haue takē it from me, and my pen and incke also.

MarginaliaExperiment of Gods comfort in the prisonment of hys seruauntes.Good brethren, I am kept alone and yet I thanke God he comforteth mee past all the comfort of any man: for I thanke hym I was neuer merier in CHRIST.

By me William Tyms prisoner in
the Kynges Bench.

About this tyme or somewhat before, came downe certayne Commissioners assigned by the Queene and Counsell, to Norfolke and Suffolke (as to other countryes els besides) to inquire of matters of religion: vnto the which Commissioners, there was a Supplication then exhibited by some good and well disposed men (as by the same may appeare) dwellyng about those parties. Which supplication, as I thought it not vnworthy to be red, bearing the date of this present yeare  

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The Norfolk Petition

While the copy of the document Foxe saw may have been dated 1556, Nicholas Tyacke has argued that this letter should be dated to 1555 (England's Long Reformation, 1500-1800, ed. Nicholas Tyacke [London: 1998], p. 21).

MarginaliaA supplication exhibited to the Cōmissioners in Norfolke.IN most humble and lowly wise, we besech your honours right honorable Commissioners, to tender and pitie the humble sute of vs poore men, and true, faithfull, and obedient Subiectes: Who as we haue euer heretofore, so intend we with Gods grace, to continue in Christian obedience vnto the ende, and (according to the holy word of God) with all reuerent feare of God to do our bounden dutye to all those superiour powers, whom God hath appointed ouer vs, doing as S. Paule saith: MarginaliaRom. 13.Let euery soule be subiect to the superiour powers. For there is no power but of God: but those powers that are, are ordained of God. VVherefore, whosoeuer resisteth the powers, the same resisteth God, and they that resist, get themselues iudgemēt. These lessons (right honorable Commissioners) we haue learned of the holy word of God in our mother toung:

MarginaliaThe Authoritie of kinges and Queenes approued.First, that the authority of a King, Queene, Lord and other their officers vnder them, is no tirannicall vsurpation, but a iust, holy, lawfull and necessary estate for man to be gouerned by, and that the same is of God, the fountaine and authour of righteousnes.

Secondly, that to obey the same in all thinges not against God, is to obey God: and to resist them, is to resist God. Therefore as to obey God in hys Ministers and Magistrates, bringeth life: so to resist God in them, bringeth punishment and death. The same lesson haue we learned of S. Peter, saying: Marginalia1. Pet. 5.Be ye subiect to all humane ordinances for the Lords sake, whether it be to the king, as to the most highest, or to the Lieutenants sent from him to the punishment of euyll doers, but to the prayse of such as do well.MarginaliaChristen men bound to obey God in his Magistrates. For so is the wyll of God, that with well doing ye should stop the mouthes of foolish and ignorant men, as free, and not as hauing the liberty to be a cloke to malice, but as the seruantes of God. Wherfore, cōsidering with our selues both that the Magistrates power is of God, and that for the Lordes sake, we be bound to Christian obedience vnto them, hauing now presently a commaūdement as though it were from the Queenes maiestye: with all humble obedience due to the regall power and

authority ordayned of God (which wee acknowledge to stand whole and perfectly in her grace) and with due reuerence vnto you her Graces Commissioners, we humbly besech you with patience and pitie to receiue this our aunswer vnto that commaundement, geuen vnto vs.

First, right honorable Commissioners, wee haue considered our selues to be, not onely English men, but also Christians, and therefore bound by the holy vowe made to God in our Baptisme, MarginaliaThe honour of God to be preferred before all regall honour and power.to preferre Gods honour in all thinges, and that all obedience (not onely of vs mortall men, but euen of the very Angels and heauenly spirits) is due vnto Gods word: in so much that no obedience can be true and perfect, either before God or man, that wholy and fully agreeth not with Gods word.

Then haue we weyed the commaundement concerning the restitution of the late abolished latin seruice geuen vnto vs, to discent and disagree from Gods worde,MarginaliaQueene Maryes Iniunctions disagreeing frō Gods word, how and wherin. and to commaund manifest impietie, and the ouerthrow of godlines and true religion, and to import a subuersiō of the regall power of this our natiue countrey & realme of Englād, with the bringing in of the Romish bishops supremacy, with all errours, supersticions, and idolatry, wastyng of our goods and bodies, destroying of our soules, bringing with it nothing, but the seuere wrath of of God: which we already feele, and feare lest the same shalbe more fearcely kyndled vpon vs. Wherfore we hūbly protest, that we cānot bee perswaded, that the same wicked commaundement should come from the Quenes maiesty, but rather frō some other, abusing the Queenes goodnes and fauour and studying to worke some feate against the Quene, her crowne, and the realme, to please with it the Romaine bishop, at whose handes the same thinketh hereafter to be aduaunced.

MarginaliaHest. 3.As the Agagite Aman wrought maliciously against the noble king Assuerus: & as the Princes of Babel wrought against the good king Darius:Marginalia1. Esd. 4. so thinke we the Quenes most gentle hart to be abused of some, who seeking them selues & their own vaine glory, procure such commaundements as are against the glory of God. MarginaliaQueene Mary euill incensed.For we cānot haue so euill an opinion in her Maiestye, that she would subuert the most godly & holy religion (so accordingly to Gods word set forth by the most noble, vertuous, and innocent King, a very Saint of God, our late most deare king Edward, her Graces brother) except she were wonderfully abused: who as hating reformation, wyl rather the destruction of all others, then acknowledge their errours, & to be according to Gods word, refourmed. MarginaliaReligion set forth in King Edwardes time, commended.For truly the religion lately set forth by king Edward, is such in our consciences, as euery Christian man is bound to confesse to bee the truth of God: and euery member of CHRISTES church here in England must needes embrace the same in hart, and confesse it with mouth, and (if nede require) lost and forsake, not onely house, land, and possessions, riches, wyfe, chyldren, and frendes: but also (if God wil so call them) gladly to suffer all maner of persecution, and to lose their lyues in the defence of Gods word and truth set out amongest vs. For our Sauionr CHRIST requireth the same of vs, saying: MarginaliaLuke. 9.VVho soeuer shall be ashamed of me and my word before this adulterous and sinful generation,the sonne of man will also be ashamed of him, when he shal come in the glory of his father with the holy Aungels. And againe saith he: MarginaliaMath. 10.whosoeuer wyll confeße me before men, I wil confesse him before my father that is in heauen. And who soeuer wyll deny me before men, I wyll also deny him before my father that is in heauen. MarginaliaMath. 12.And whosoeuer shall speake a word against the sonne of man, it shall be forgeuen him: but whosoeuer shall rayle against the holy Ghost, it shall not be forgeuen him.

MarginaliaAn honest petition to Queene Mary.We humbly besech the Queenes Maiestye, and you her honorable Commissioners, be not offended with vs for confessing this truth of God, so straitly geuen vs in charge of CHRIST: neither bryng vpon vs that great synne that shal neuer be forgeuen, & shall cause our Sauiour IESV CHRIST in the great day of iudgement, before hys heauenly father and all hys Aungels, to deny vs, and to take from vs the blessed price and raunsome of his bloudshed, wherewith we are redemed. For in that day neyther the Quenes highnes, neither you, nor any man shall be able to excuse vs, nor to purchase a pardon of CHRIST for this horrible synne and blasphemie of castyng asyde and condemning his woord. We cannot agree nor consent vnto this so horrible a synne: but we besech God for his mercy to geue vs & all men grace, most earnestly to flye from it, and rather (if the wyll of God be so) to suffer all extremity and punishment in this world, then to incurre such damnation before God.

Manasses, who restored againe the wickednes of Ido-