1563 Edition | Book 3 | Page 656 
But if he hadde lyued,
She had prouided
With suche goodes as she wan,
Though he neuer had worked
But lyke an Idoll lurked
To fynde hym lyke an honest man.
And the rode had a gyfte
To make great shyfte,
With his bowget
CloseI.e., a wallet.
To haue gotten their lyuing
Euen with false iuglyng
Thoug she had neuer erned grote.
Also Deluer gathaerne
As saieth the Welcheman,
Brought outlawes out of hell
Is come with spere and shelde
In harneys to burne in smythfielde,
For in wales he may not dwell.
Then Forest the Fryer
That obstynat lyer
That wyllingly is dead,
In his contumacy
The Gospell dyd deny,
And the kyng to be supreme head.
At saynt Marget patens
CloseOn 22 May 1538, the rood in St. Mararet Paten in London was broken into pieces - not taken down - by a gang of iconoclasts (Charles Wriothesley, A Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the Tudors, 1485-1539, ed. W. D. Hamilton, 2 vols., Camden Society, new series 11 and 20 (1875-77), I, p. 81.
The roode is gone thens
And stoele away by nyght,
With his tabernacle and crosse
With all that there was
And is gone away quyght.
Yet haue we thought
That these Idols haue wrought
Myracles in many a place
Vpon age and youth
When of very truth
They were done by the deuils grace.
For the cursed deuyll
The mayster of euyll,
To get vs vnder his wynges
Hath suche a condicion,
By Gods permission
To worke ryght wonderful thinges.
For when they bored holes
In the Roodes backe of Poles
Whiche as some men saye dyd speake
Then lay he still as a stocke,
Receyued there many a knocke
And did not ones crie creake.
Yet offer what ye wolde
Were it Otes, Syluer or Golde
Pyn, Poynt, Broche or Rynge
The churche were as then
Suche charitable men
That they would refuse nothyng.
But now may we see
What Goddes they be,
Euen puppets, māmats
CloseI.e., an idol.
Throw them downe thryse
They can not aryse
Not ones to helpe them selues.
Thus were we poore soules
Begyled with Idolles,
With fayned myracles and lyes
By the deuyll and his docters
The Pope and his Procters,
That with such haue blerid our eyes.
For they were the souldiers
Of those Idols and wonders
In euery Abbey and Towne
Lyke a syght of false Deacons
Wherfore all men rekyns
For suche iuglyng they shall downe.
For it was great reuth
CloseIt was a great pity.
To se age and yeuth
To be blynde after this facion
But thanke we our Lorde,
That them hath abhorde
And had vpon vs compassion.
Besydes these stockes and stones
Haue we not had of late traytors bo-nes
CloseThis is another reference to the shrine of Thomas Becket, who was declared a traitor in 1538.
Thus their tropery to maintain
Whiche is a token verely
They go about moste earnestly,
To bryng in superstition again.
With dyuers other trickes
Whiche sore in mens cōsciences stickes
But to Christ let vs all pray
To plucke it vp by the hard rote
Seyng there is none other bote
And vtterly to banyshe it away.
And now to make an ende
Lorde we beseche thee to sende
Vs peace and tranquillitie
And that of thy mere mercy & grace
Within short tyme and space,
to illumine vs with thi sincere veritie[Back to Top]
¶ Thus ended this litle treatise made & compyled by Bray.
CloseThis lengthy section narrates the lives and deaths of the three most prominent evangelicals executed for heresy by Henry VIII after the break with Rome, on each of whom see the ODNB. It is also a section which was extensively rewritten by Foxe between the 1563 and 1570 editions, although after 1570 only one, very minor change was made to the text. The account of Barnes in the 1563 edition drew principally on three sources. First was Barnes' autobiographical account in his A supplicacion vnto the most gracyous prynce H. the .viij. (STC 1471: London, 1534), sigs. F1r-I3r. This was extended, and slightly altered, from the account given in the 1531 edition of the Supplication, a text which Foxe apparently did not know. Alongside this was Edward Hall and Richard Grafton, The vnion of the two noble and illustrate famelies of Lancastre & Yorke (STC 12721: London, 1548), part II, fos. 241v-243r; and Barnes' protestation from the stake, found in John Standish, A lytle treatise composyd by Johan Standysshe, against the protestacion of R. Barnes (STC 23209: London, 1540) and reproduced in full by Foxe. In the 1570 rewriting, a new section was added, based on the detailed narrative in Stephen Gardiner, A declaration of such true articles as George Ioye hath gone about to confute as false (STC 11588: London, 1546).The main source for the account of Thomas Garret is a lengthy testimony of events in 1528 written by Anthony Dalaber, apparently specifically for Foxe's use. As Foxe tells us (1583, p. 1197), Dalaber died in Salisbury diocese in 1562, leaving his account unfinished. His text is reproduced apparently in full in 1563. There are some minor abridgements of Dalaber's account in 1570 and subsequent editions, mostly to omit digressions, lists of names or personal details apparently irrelevant to Garret's case. The remainder of Foxe's account of Garret is far sketchier and is assembled from the accounts of unnamed 'auncient and credible persones'.The source for the short account of William Jerome, which only appears in 1570 and subsequent editions, is unclear. Almost all of the information here can be substantiated from three documents in the State Papers (National Archives, SP 1 / 158 fos. 50-2, 120, 124-5 (LP XV 354.1, 411.2, 414), but these do not appear to be Foxe's sources, not least because none of them refer to Dr. Wilson's role, which is otherwise unrecorded. The account appears to be based entirely on a summary of Jerome's recantation sermon, given at St. Mary Spital on 29 March 1540, the Monday of Easter week.Alec Ryrie
[Back to Top]LIke as in forein battailes the chief point of victory consisteth in the sauitie of the generall or captayne: euen so the valiant stāderd bearer of the church of England, Cromewell being lost, it is not so much to be maruailed at, as to be sorowed for, the great wounde which the Gospel suffred, & thextreame slaughter of good men that ensueth therupon. Albeit it is not so muche to be lamēted for Englands sake alone, as for the vniuersall Christian cōmon wealth, for so muche as Christianitie is now at this point, that such as beare the name of Christ, & professe all one faith, are so deuided into two partes: that either part being mighty and strong of it selfe, neither of them can be in sauetie without the ruyne and destruction of þe other. And in this lamentable calamitie thys was greatly to be marueled at, that they in a maner were the chief autors in mouing dissention and discorde, whom it had bene most mete, to haue ben the ministers of peace & quietnes. But now to reduce the story to our matter & purpose. Whē as Cromwel was dead
CloseA typical example of Foxe's chronological confusion in the 1563 edition. Barnes, Garrett and Jerome were in fact executed only two days after Cromwell, as the 1570 rewrite noted.
MarginaliaBarnes prior of the house of Augustines in CambrygeThis man Barnes, after he came from the vniuersitie of Louayne, he came to Cambrige, and was made prior and maister of the house of the Augustines, and at that time al Barbarousnes was in the vniuersitie, sauing in few that were secreat, but he by and by in his house began to reade Terence, Plautus, & Cicero, & what with his industrie paynes & laboures, & with the help of MarginaliaThomas Parnell a Londiner borne scholer to Barnes. Thomas Parnel his scholler, that he brought from Louayne with him, reading Copia verborum & terum, caused þe house shortly to floryshe with good letters, & made a great part of the house learned, whiche before ware drowned in filthy doctrine:MarginaliaCambray Bacheler of deuin. maister F. bach. of D. M. Col. bach. of D. Couerdall, B. of deu. as M. Cambryge, M. Felde, M. Colman, M. Burley, M. Couerdal, with diuerse other of the vniuersitie, þt soiurned there for learnyngs sake. And after these foundations layde, then did he rede openly in the house, Paules Epistles, and put by Douns and Dorbel, & yet he was a questionary
CloseAn undergraduate.