1563 Edition | Book 5 | Page 1610 
At my retourne into England agayne, my chaunce was to meete with Palmer in Paules, where a roode was set vp. (This our meting was in the beginning of Quene Maryes reigne, and our myserable departing not longe before thende of Kinge Edwardes days). Then after our greting, thus sayd Palmer. Bullingham, is this our god, for whome we haue smarted? No Palmer (quod I): it is an image of him. An Image quod he? I tel the plainely Bullingham, Ihon Caluine (whose institutions I haue perused sith our departure) telleth mee plainly by Gods worde that it is an Idole, and that the Pope is Antichrist, and his clergy the fylthy sink hole of hell: and now I beleue it. For I feele it sensibly. O that God had reueled these matters vnto me in times past. I woulde haue bequeathed this romish religion or rather irreligion to the Deuil of hel from whence it came. Beleue them not Bullingham. MarginaliaBeholde his earnestnes nowe he is turned to the truth.I wyl rather haue these knees pared of, then I wil kneele to yonder iacknapes (meaning the rode) God healpe me I am borne to trouble and aduersity in this world. Wel Palmer (sayd I) is the wind in that corner with you? I warrant you it wyl blow you to litle ease
CloseThis was the name of a notorious dungeon in the Tower of London.
By mee Ihon Bullingham.
Albeit that we know not, nor can herebye gather certainely whether he was conuerted before the visitors did restore him to his felowship agayne or after, yet in these letters among many things els besides, we may note that in Qnene Maryes reigne he became of an obstinate papist, an earnest Gospeller, which thing is confirmed by farther reporte of those that did then knowe hym wel. For they saye þt he neuer hated the truth more stubbernely then he embraced the trueth willingly, when it pleased God to open his eyes, and to shew vnto him the light of his word. And now agayne, when he should come to church at this time, there to be occupied among the reste in singing of respondes, reding of legendes, and suche like duties as were allotted vnto hym, he had as much pleasure to be at them as a beare to bee bayted and vexed with dogges. When he cam, it was more to auoyd displeasure and suspicion, then for any good wil and ready affection. When he should kepe his bowing measures at the Confiteor, in turninge of him selfe vpward and downward, and knock his brest with idolatrous adoration at the eleuation tyme, his hart dyd so vehemently ryse against it, that euen then he wold get him out of the church to auoid those vngodly gestures. To be short, because he would not ioyne quietnes of conscience and that liuing together
[Back to Top]he addresseth him selfe to departe the house, only requiring maister Cole (then president)
CloseNote that in 1563 Foxe credited Cole with a desire to aid Palmer and 'agood civill disposition'. As Foxe become more aware of Cole's Marian activities, this praise was removed.
CloseAlmost from the moment it was printed, the veracity of Foxe's account of this horrible episode was challenged. The reader seeking to understand both this episode, and the context in which it occurred, can do no better than consult D. M. Ogier, Reformation and Society in Guernsey (Woodbridge, Suffolk: 1996), esp. pp. 55-83.
[Back to Top]Foxe's basic account of this tragedy first appeared in the 1563 edition. It was based on the petition of Mathieu Cauches (the brother of Catherine Cauches) made to the privy council asking for the punishment of those who burned his sister and his nieces (see Cal. of State Papers Domestic Add. VI, p. 484). Someone on the privy council, probably William Cecil, supplied Foxe with a copy of this document.
[Back to Top]In 1567, the catholic polemicist Thomas Harding printed a brief but stinging attack on Foxe's account of the incident, which accused Foxe of lying and the three women who were executed as being immoral criminals who received a deserved punishment (Thomas Harding, The Reiondre to Mr Jewels replie against the sacrifice of the Masse [Louvain: 1567], STC 12761, fos. 184r-185v).
[Back to Top]In the 1570 edition, Foxe responded to this, first by adding additional documentation, which confirmed the accuracy of his first account. (It also enabled him to add the names of the martyred women and of Jacques Amy). Most of this documentation sprang from the successful efforts of Thomas Effart, a Guernsey jurat (one of twelve people who, under the baliff, formed Guernsey's royal court, which administered the internal affairs of the island) to secure a pardon for JacquesAmy and the other officials responsible for the burnings, and from the pardon itself. In response to Harding's claims that Massy was unmarried and her son illegitimate, Foxe obtained testimony from a Huguenot minister living in London who had conducted Massy's marriage. (This, by the way, is a good example of the ways in which catholic attacks on the first edition spurred Foxe on to greater research). Foxe then added a direct rebuttal of Harding's arguments.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIuly. 18.AMong al and singular histories touched in this booke before, as there be many pitifull, diuers lamentable, some horryble & tragicall: so is there none almoste to bee compared
CloseThis is a rare example of the language of a passage being less restrained in the 1570 edition than in the 1563 edition; this is another result of Foxe responding to Harding.