Christs Victory over Satans Tyranny, Book 11 · Part 39 – Part 47
The second Examination.
Boner.
THou saést there is no Catholick Church on earth: I said I hauehave answered you the contrarie, and it is written he said yea: but I must aske you this Question.
Smith.
Must you begin with a lye, it seemeth you determine to end with the same: but no lyer shall enter into the kingdome of God: I hauehave con…essed a church of God, as well in earth as in heauen, and yet all one Church, and one mans members, euen Christ Iesus.
Boner.
Well what saist thou by auricular Confession.
Smith.
It is needfull in Christs Church, but if it be needfull in your Church. it is to pick folkes purses, and such pick…purse matters is the whole rabblemene of your ceremonies, for all is but money matters that you maintaine: he said thou maist be ashamed to say so: I said I speake by experience, for I hauehave heard & seene the fruits of Confession, it hath béene a betrayer of Kings secrets▪ and others who b…ing glad to be discharged of their sinnes hauehave giuen to Priests great summes of money to absolue them, and sing Masses for their so…les health.
Boner.
By the Masse if the Queene were of my minde, you should not talke before any man, but should be put in a S…ck, and a Dog tyed vntounto the sam…, you should be throwne into the water.
Smith.
You and your predecessors hauehave sought by all meanes to kill Christ secretly, as appeareth by Master Hunne, whom your predecessor caused to be thrust into the nose with ho…e burning needles, and then hanged him, and said he hanged himselfe: and another of your predecessors, when he could not ouercome an innocent man by Scripture, he made him priuily to be snarled, and his flesh to be torne away with pincers, and told the people the rats had eaten him.
Bonner.
Then came in M. Mordant, and then he said, How sayest thou Smith to the seuen Sacraments?
Smith.
I beleeue that in Gods Church there be but two Sacraments, Baptisme and the Lords Supper: as for your Sacrament of the Altar, and all your other Sacraments, they may well serue your Church, but Gods Church hath nothing to do with them.
Bonner.
Why, is Gods order changed in baptisme?
Smith.
Yes, in hallowing the water, in coniuring of the same in baptising children, with annointing and spitting in their monthes, mingled with salt, and with many other lewd ceremonies: then be said, by the masse I was the shamelest hereticke that euer he heard speake: I said well sworne my Lord, you keepe a good watch.
Bonner.
Well M…ister Controller, you catch me at my words, but I will watch thée as well I warrant you: then quoth Mordant, I neuer heard the like in my life. I pray my Lord marke well his answer for Baptisme, he disaloweth therein holi… oyntment, salt, and other lawdable ceremonies.
Smith.
It is a shamefull blasphemy against Christ, to vse such mingle mangle in Baptisme.
Boner.
I beléeue if a child die without Baptisme, he is damned.
Smith.
You sha…l neuer be saued by that beléefe, I pray are we saued by water or by Christ: he said, by both. I said then, the water died for our sinnes? and must you say that the water hath life, and it being our seruant, and created for vsus, it is our Sauiour. This is a good doctrine, is it not.
Bonner.
How vnderstand you these words, Except a man bee borne of Water and the Spirit, and Christ saith; Suffer little Children to come vntounto me, and if thou wilt not suffer them to be baptised according to the lawdabl… order, thou lettest to come vntounto Christ.
Smith.
Paul to the Galathians, asheth whether they rec…iued the Spirit by the deeds of the law, or by the preaching of fai…h, and concludeth that the Holy Ghost accompanieth preaching of faith, and with the word of faith entereth into the heart; so if Baptisme preach vntounto me the washing in Christs bloud, the holy Ghost doth accompanie it: and Christ saith Suffer little children to come vntounto me, and not vntounto water; then if you suffer them not to com to Christ without the necessity of water, but condemne them if they die before baptisme, you condemne both the merits and the words of Christ.
Bonner.
Thou makest the water of no… effect, and then thou mayest put away water.
Smith.
Peter saith It is not the washing away of the filth of the flesh, but in that a good conscience consenteth vntounto God: and onelyonly water bringeth not the Holy Ghost, for Simon receiued water, but would hauehave giuen money for the Holy Ghost, and Iohn had the Holy Ghost in his mothers wombe before Baptisme, and Cornelius, Paule the Queen of Candaces seruant, with many others, receiued the holy Ghost before baptisme: and although your generation hauehave set at naught the word of God, and turned it vpside downe, yet must his Church keepe the same order which he left them, which his Church dareth not breake: and to iudge children da…ed dying without baptisme is wicked.
Bonner.
What say you to the Sacrament of Orders?
Smith.
You must call it the Sacrament of misorders, for all orders are appointed of GOD, but your shauing, annointing, greasing, poling, and rounding, no such things are appointed in Gods book: and my Lord, if you had grace or intelligence, you would not so disfigure your selfe as you do.
Boner.
What say you to holy bread, and holy water, the Sacrament of annointing, and the rest of such Ceremonies of the Church.
Smith.
They be bables for fooles to play withall, and not for Gods children: then Boner and Mordant departed, then certaine Doctors baited me halfe an houre: of whom I asked, where were all you in the daies of King Edward, that you spake not that which you speake now? they said, they were in England: I said, but then you had the faces of men, but now you hauehave put on Lions faces; you hauehave for eueryevery time a visar: if another King Edward should arise, you would then say, down with the Pope, for he is Antichrist, and so are all his Angels, then I was all to reuil…d.
Doctor.
You allow not Auriculer confession; I said, it is, because the word of GOD alloweth it not: He said, it is written, Thou shalt not hide thy sinnes. I said, no more doe I when I confesse them to God: Hee said, you cannot hide them from God; therefore you must vnderstand, it is spoken to bee vttered vntounto them that do not know them.
Smith.
Then must the Priest confesse himselfe to me▪ as I to him, for I know his faults no more then …e knoweth mine: but if you confesse to a Priest, and not to God, you shall hauehave the reward that Iudas had: for hee confessed himselfe to the Priest, and yet went and hanged himselfe, and those that acknowledge not there faults to God, are said to hide them.
Doctor.
What did they that came to Iohn Baptist, I said that they confessed to God; he said, and not to Iohn: I said if it were vntounto Iohn, as you cannot proue, yet it was to God before Iohn and the whole congregation: he said Iohn was alone in the wildernes.
Smith.
Yet hee made many Disciples, and many Saduces, and Pharisies came vntounto his Baptisme: therefore if they confessed themselues to Iohn, it was vntounto all the congregation, as Paul confessed openly in his Epistle to Timothy, that hee was not worthy t… bee called an Apostle, because hee had been a tyrant, but as for eare Confession you neuer heard it allowed by the Word of God: For as Dauid saith, I will confesse my sinnes vntounto the LORD, so all his Children doe and euer did: Then they called mee Dogge, and said I was damned: Then I said you are Dogges, because you will …ay your friends for offering vntounto you all things. I may say with Paul, I hauehave fought with beasts in the likenes of men, for I hauehave béene baited this two daies of my Lord, and his great Buls of Basan, and in the hall I hauehave béene baited with the rest of his band.
Bonner.
Then he came and asked the Doctors whether they had done him any good, and they said no. And I said, How can an euill Tree bring forth good fruit: He said, Wilt thou neither heare me nor them? Thou shalt bee burned in Smithfield.
Smith.
And you shall burne in hell if ye repent not, I perceiue you and your Doctors will not come vntounto me, and I am not determined to come to you: then with many rayling sentences I was sent away.
The last examination.
Smith.
THen I with my Brethren were brought into the Consistory, before Bonner, the Lord Mayor, and the Sheriffes.
Bonner.
By my faith my Lord Mayor, I hauehave shewed as much fauour as any man liuing might do: but I perceiue all is lost …n him, and all his company. I said, My Lord you must not sweare; then he said, I was Maister Controller, and pointed to my Brother Tankerfield, and said, This is Maister speaker.
Mayor.
Thou speakest against the blessed Sacrament of the Altar.
Smith.
I deny it to be any Sacrament, and I stand here to make probation of the same: if my Lord or any of his Doctors can proue the name or vsage of the same, I will recant then. Then spake my Brother Tankerfield, and defended the probation which they call heresie.
Bonner.
By my troth Maister speaker, you shall preach at a stake: Then I said, well sworne my Lord, you kéepe a good watch; he said, well Maister Controller I am no Saint.
Smith.
No my Lord, nor yet a good Bishop: a Bishop saith Saint Paul, Should be faultlesse, and a dedicate vessell to God: and are you not ashamed to sit in i…dgment, and be a blasphemer, condemning Innocents. My Lord Mayor, I would require you in Gods Name, that I may hauehave Iustice: we are heare to day a great many of Innocents, wrongfullie accused of heresie. I require but the fauour that Festus and Agrippa, Heathen men, shewed to the Apostle, which gaue him leaue to speake for himselfe, and heard the probation of his cause: then the Lord Mayor hanging downe his head, said nothing.
Bonner.
Thou shalt preach at a stake, and so Sheriffe Woodroffe cried with the Bishop, away with them. Thus came I in foure tim… before them, desiring Iustice to be heard, but could hauehave none: at length, my Friends required with on… voyce the same, and could not hauehave it, so we were condemned, because they all ten held the same opinions in effect.
Smith.
When the sentence began to be read in Dei nomine. I answered he began in a wrong name, for he could not finde in Scriptures to giuegive sentence of death against any man for his conscience. He was burned at Uxbridge, when hee was come to the stake, he mightily comforted the people, and told them; he doubted not …ut God will shew you some token that I die in a good cause: at length he being …ell-nigh halfe burned all blacke with fire, clustered together in a lump like a black …le, all men thinking him dead, suddenly he arose vpright, lifting vp the stumpes of his armes, clapping them together, declaring a reioycing heart to them, and so di…d. He also wrote many godly Letters, as you may sée in the Booke more at la…ge.
Stephen Harwood was burned at Stratford, and Thomas Fust was burned at Ware.
When William Hayle of Thorpe in Essex was condemned: O good people said he, …eware of this I…olater and Antichrist, pointing to Bonner. He was burned at Bar…et.
George King, Thomas Leyes, and Iohn Wade, sickned in Prison and dyed, and were cast into the fields, and buried by night of the faithfull, when none durst doe it in the day.
Ioane Lashford, the Daughter of Iohn Warne, and Elizabeth Warne Martyrs, was repréeued to a longer day: her martirdome was next yeare.
William Andrew.
HE was sent out of Horsie in Essex by the Lord Rich, and Sir Richard Southwell, and being twice examined before Boner, he stood manfullie in the defence of his Religion: at length, through straight handling in the Prison in Newgate, he died, and after the Popish manner hee was cast into the fields, and in the night secretly buried by the faithfull.
Robert Samuell.
IUstice Foster of Cobdocke in Suffolke, a deadly hater of the Professors of the truth, amongst many others that were also troubled by him, this Robert Samuell, a godly Preacher in King Edwards daies, was one: Hee was Minister of Barford in Suffolke, and beeing put from the Ministry, as others were, he taught priuilie, and when that the order came vp, that Priests should put away their Wiues, and bee compelled to single life, Samuell would not agrée thereto. Maister Foster sent out espials to apprehend him, and carry him to Prison if hée were found to come vntounto his Wife: whereby he was taken, and put into Ipswich Iayle, from thence he was carried to Norwich, where Doctor Hopton the Bishop, and Doctor Donnings his Chancellor, exercised great crueltie against him. They kept in him strait prison, where he was chained bolt vpright vntounto a great post, that hee was …aine to beare all his bodie on tip-toe, and kept him without meat and drinke, onelie he had eueryevery day two or thrée mouthfuls of Bread, and thrée spoonefuls of Water. He would often hauehave drunken his owne Water, but his bodie was so dried vp, that he was not able to make water. When he was brought forth to be burned, he reported, that after he had béen famished with hunger two or thrée daies together, he fell into a slumber, at which time one clad all in white, seemed to stand before him, which said; Samuell, Samuell, be of good cheere, for after this day thou shalt neuer be hungry or thirstie, which was performed: for spéedily after he was burned, and from that time vntill he suffered he felt neither hunger nor thirst: and he said, he declared this, that all might sée the wonderfull workes of God. He said, he could vtter many such comforts, as he had of Christ in his afflictions, which modesty would not suffer him to vtter.
As he was going vntounto the fire, a Maid named Rose Notingham, took him about necke and kissed him, who being marked, the next day was sought for to bee had to Prison, and burned, yet by Gods goodnesse the escaped: yet two honest Women fell into the rage of that time; the one a Brewers wife, the other a Shoe-makers Wife, who were burned the next day after Samuell: the one was called Anne Potten, the other Ioane Trunchfield.
The report of them which saw Samuell burned, is, that his body in burning did …hine as bright and white as new tryed Siluer in the eies of them that stood by. In the booke at large thou maist sée a godly Letter of his, and a godly confession of his Faith.
William Allen.
HE was a labouring man, sometimes Seruant to Iohn Houghton of Somerset, he was burned at Walsingham: he was imprisoned, for saying he would neuer follow the crosse on procession. The Bishop bad him returne vntounto the Catholique Church: he answered, he would turne vntounto the Catholike Church, but not to the Romish Church; and said, if he saw the King and Quéene, and all other follow the Crosse, and knéele downe to the Crosse, he would not.
Roger Coo.
HE was of Melford in Suffolke, a Sheare-man, an aged Father: after his sundry conflicts with his Aduersaries, he was burned at Yexford in Suffolke, for denying the Sacrament of the Altar, and when the Bishop said he must obey the King, whether his command agrée with the word of God or no. He answered: If Sidrach, Misaach, and Abednago had done so, Nabuchadnezzer had not confessed the liuing Lord: and when the Bishop said he had charge of his Soule, he answered, if you go to the Diuell for your sinnes, where shall I become.
Thomas Cobbe.
LIkewise Thomas Cobbe of Hauehill,1555. Butcher, was burned by the said Bishop of Norwich, for denying the reall presence in the Sacrament, and for saying he would be obedient to the King and Quéenes commaundement, as the Law of God would suffer, and no further.
George Catmer, and Robert Streater of Hyth, Anthony Burward of Calete, George Brodbridge of Bromfield, James Tutty of Breachley.
THese were brought before Thorton Bishop of Douer,1555. where they being examined, they did all affirme the Sacrament of the Altar to be an abhominable Idoll, and George Brodbridge said, he would not be confessed of a Priest, because he could not forgiue his owne sinnes. And moreouer, as for holy Bread and holy Water, and the Masse, I do (quoth he) vtterly defie them, therefore they were all fiue burned as Heretickes at Canterbury.
Thomas Heyward, and Iohn Gorway.
VVE finde they were condemned and burned at Lichfield, in the Dioces of Lichfield and Couentry.