Christs Victory over Satans Tyranny, Book 6 · Part 13
The History of Maister IAMES BAYNHAM, a Lawyer.
THis Maister Baynham was accused to Sir Thomas Moore, Chancelor, & arested with a Sergeant at Armes, and carried out of the middle Temple to his house at Chelsey, & when he saw he could not preuaile with him, he whipped him at a trée in his garden, then racked him at the tower before himselfe, vntill they had almost lamed him, because he would not accuse Gentlemen of the Temple, nor tel where his bookes lay, and because his wife denied they were at his house, she was sent to the fléet, and his goods confiscate. When they had often vsed him vponupon the tortures, then he sent him to the Bishop of London, who cast him into Lolards tower, vntill he had bin diuers times before him examined, and they were not able to resist him. He was both mighty in Scriptures and Arguments, that he was able to confound them with their owne Arguments: so he condemned him, and the Bishop sent one Doctor Symons to peruert him, and waite vponupon him to the stake, & after much communication betweene the Doctor & him, he prayed the Sheriffes to deliuer him from Satan, for he was content to confirme his faith with his blood. At the stake he lay down flat and prayed, then rising vp, he imbraced the stake: then he said, Good people, I am come hither, accused and condemned for an hereticke: these be the Articles I dye for.
I say it is lawfull for eueryevery man or woman to hauehave Gods booke in their Mother tongue.
That the Pope is Antichrist, that he knoweth no other Keyes of heau…n gate, but the preaching of the word, and that the…e is no other purgatory, then the purgatory of Christs blood, and that the soules of the faithfull imediatly go to heauen, & r…st with Christ for euermore. That Thomas Becket was no Saint, but a Traytor, and a shedder of innocent blood: th…n one M. Pauey answered, Thou liest thou heretick, thou deniest the blessed Sacrament of the altar: He answered; I do not deny the Sacrament as it was instituted of Christ, and vsed of his Apostles, but I deny transubstantiation, and your Idolatry to the bread, and that Christ, God, and Man should dwell in a piece of bread; but that he is in heauen, sitting at the right hand of God: but it is an Idoll as you vse it in the abhominable Masse, making it a sacrifice propitiatory to the quicke and the dead, and robbing the Church of one kind: then Pauey bid, Burne him Hereticke: then he said, God forgiue thee, and shew thee more mercy then thou shewest me, and God forgiue Sir Thomas Moore: and prayed the people to pray for him, and so praying died.
The next weeke after, M. Pauey went vp into a Galery, where he had a Roode before him and prayed, and bitterly wept, and his Maid finding him so doing, he …ad her take a rusty sword and make it cleane, and not trouble him, and immediatly hee tyed vp a rope and hung himselfe.
There was an Idoll named the Rood of Douer-Court,1532 many resort…d vntounto it, for it was blowne abroad, that the power of it was so great, that none could shut th… Church…doore where it stood, whereupon soure men came ten miles thither, and took the Idoll from the Shri…e, and a quarter of a … from the place fired him, who burned so bright, that he lighted them homeward one mile. After, three of them were indicted of fellony, and hanged in Chaines; one at Douer Court, called N…cholas M…sh, Robert King in Dedham, Robert Debnam, at Cottaway: which three persons a… their death, did more edifie the people in godly learning, then all the sermons preached there a long time before: the fourth escaped: the same yeare many Images were cast downe.