Acts and Monuments Volume 2 Part 2, Book 12 · Account 25 – Account 26
The talke or reasoning betwene Sir Iohn Baker, Colins his chaplaine, and Edmund Allen.
BAker
Who gaue thee authority to preache & interprete?The examination of Edmund Allen before Syr Iohn Baker. Art thou a priest? art thou admitted thereunto? Let me see thy licence. Mart. Collins, sir Ihon Bakers scholemaster said, surely he is an arrāt heretike & worthy to be burned.
Alen.
And it may plese your honor to geue me leaue to answer in the cause of my faith, I am persuaded yt God hath geuē me this autority as he hath geuē to al other christiās.Priuate reading or expounding of the scriptures forbidden to no man. Why are we called christians if we do not folow Christ▪ if we do not read his law, if we do not interpret it to others yt hauehave not so much vnderstāding? Is not Christ our Father? shal not ye son folowe the fathers steps? is not Christ our master? and shal ye scholer be inhibited to lern & preach his precepts? Is not Christ our redemer? and shal not we praise his name, & serue him yt hath redemed vsus from sin & dānation? Did not christ being but 12. yeres of age dispute wt the doctors, & interprete ye prophet Esay, and notwtstā ding hee was neither of the tribe of Leuie,Luke. 4. whiche were Priestes, but of the royal tribe of Iuda, neither had taken any outward priesthode? wherfore if we be christians, we must do the same.
Col.
And it shal like your honor, what a knaue is this, yt cōpareth himself wt Christ.
Baker
Let him alone, he wil pump out anon an infinite heap of heresies. Hast thou any more to say for thy self?
Alen.
Yea yt I hauehave. Adam was licēced of God, & Abraham was cōmanded to teach his children & posteritye, & so Dauid teacheth in diuers psalmes: and Salomon also preached to ye people, as ye boke of the precher proueth very wel, where he teacheth yt there is no immortal felicity in this life, but in the next. And Noe taught them yt were disobediēt in his daies, and therfore is called the 8. Preacher of righteousnes in the 2. epistle of Peter. Also in ye 11. of Numb. where Moses had chosen 52. elders to helpe him to teach & rule the rest, Eldad & Medad preached in ye tents, wherfore Iosua being offended, cōplained to Moses ye Eldad & Medad did preach wt out licēce.Preaching without licence in the olde Testament. To whō Moses answered & wished yt al ye people could do ye like. What shuld I be long? most of ye priests were not of the tribe of Leuy & Aaron.
Col.
These are authorities of ye olde testament, & therefore abrogated, but ye art a foole, & knowest no schoole poynts. Is not ye law deuided into the lawe ceremonial, moral, & iudicial?
Allen.
I graunt yt the ceremonies ceased when Christ came, as S. Paul proueth to the Heb. & to the Col. where he saith: Let no man iudge you in any part of a sabboth day, new moone, or other ceremonies which are figures of things to come, Coloss. 1.for Christ is the body.
Collins.
And are not the iudicials abrogated by Christ?
Allin.
They are confirmed both by Christ in the 5. of Mathew, and by Paule in the 1. Epistle to Timothe 4. The law saith he is not set foorth for the vertuous & godly, but for men slayers, periured, aduouterers & such like.
Collins.
*Albeit the positiue law of Moses Iudicials do not binde the Gentiles with the same necessity absolutely in eueryevery condition, as it did the Iewes, to whom it was peculiarly geuen: yet may the Gentiles borow out of the same law, such thinges that shallbe expedient for theyr regiment. Neyther can they borow any lawes better then out of Moses. In tyme of publicke corruption, & in want of true teachers, it is not forbidden to any man to teach. Pope Gregory the 9. first restrayned lay men to teach or instruct others in Scriptures▪Thou art an hereticke. Wilt thou call the Iudicials of Moses againe? wilt thou hauehave adultery punished with death? disobedient children to their parēts to be stoned? wilt thou hauehave Legem talionis? But thou arte an Asse. Why shoulde I speake Latine to thee thou erroneous rebell? shall we now smite out eye for eye, toothe for toothe? thou art worthy to hauehave thy teeth and tonge plucked out.
Allin.
If we had that law, we should neither hauehave disobedient children, neither adulterers, neither false witnesse bearers, neither ruffians.
Baker.
Master Collins, lette vsus returne to our first matter. Why diddest thou teach ye people, whom thou saidst thou didst fede both bodely and spiritually, being no Priest?
Allin.
Because yt we are al kings to rule our affections, preests to preach out the vertues & woorde of God, as Peter wryteth: & liuely stones, to geue light to other. For as out of flint stones commeth foorthe that, that is able to set al the world on fire, so out of Christians shoulde springe the beames of the Gospell, whiche should inflame al the world. If we must geue a reckening of our faith to eueryevery man, and now to you demanding it, then must we study the Scriptures & practise them? What auaileth it a man to hauehave meate and will eate none, and apparell and will weare none, or to hauehave an occupation, and to teach none, or to be a lawyer and vtter none? Shall eueryevery artificer be suffered, yea and commended to practise his facultie and science, and the Christian forbidden to exercise his: Doth not eueryevery lawyer practise his law? Is not eueryevery christiā a folower of Christ? Shall ignorance which is condēned in al sciences be practised of christians? Doth not s. Paul forbid any mās spirit to be quenched? Doth he prohibite any man yt hath any of these giftes, which he repeateth. 1. Cor. 14. to practise the same? Only he forbiddeth womē, but no man. The Iewes neuer forbad any. Read the Acts of ye apostles. And ye restraint was made by Gre. ye 9. pope of that name, as I hard one, a learned mā preach in K. Ed. daies.
Col.
This villen (& it like your honor) is madde. By my Priesthoode, I beleeue that her wil saye, a Priest hath no more authoritye then an other man. Doth not a Priest binde and loose?
Allin.
No, my sinne bindeth me, and my repētance loseth. God forgiueth sin only, and no priest. For eueryevery Christian when he sinneth, bindeth himselfe, and when he repēteth, loseth him self.… And if any other be losed from his sinne by my exhortation, I am saide to lose him: and if he perseuere in sin, notwtstanding my exhortation, I am saide to binde him, althoughe it is God that bindeth and loseth, and geueth the increase: Therefore saith Christ. Mat. 18. Wheresoeuer 2. or 3. are gathered togither in my name, there am I in the middest of them, & whosoeuer sinnes they forgeue, they are forgeuen: and whosoeuer they retaine, they are retained. Neither hath the Pope any keies, saue the keies of error: for ye key that openeth the locke to Gods mysteries and to saluation, is the key of faith and repentāce. And as I hauehave heard learned men reason, S. Austine and Origen, with others are of this opinion. Then they reuiled him and laide hym in the stockes all the night. Wherewith certaine that were better minded, being offended with such extremity, willed Allin to keepe his cōscience to him selfe, and to folow Baruckes counsel in the 6. chap. Wherfore when ye see the multitude of people worshipping thē, …. 6.behinde and before, say ye in your harts, O Lord it is thou that ought only to be worshipped.
Wherewith he was perswaded to goe to heare Masse the next day, and sodenly before the sacring went out, and considered in the Churchyard with him selfe, that suche a litle cake betwene the priests fingers could not be Christ, nor a materiall body, neither to hauehave soule, life, sinnewes, bones, flesh, legs, head, armes nor brest, and lamēted that he was seduced by the place of Barucke,… which his conscience gaue him to be no Scripture, or els to hauehave an other meaning, and after this he was brought againe before syr Iohn Baker, who asked why he did refuse to worship the blessed Sacrament of the aultar.
Allin.
It is an Idol.
Collins.
It is Gods body.
Allin.
It is not.…
Collins.
By the Masse it is.
Allin.
It is bread.
Collins.
How proouest thou that?
Allin.
When Christ sate at his last supper, and gaue them bread to eate.
Col.
Bread knaue?
Allin.
Yea bread, which you cal Christes body. Sate he stil at the table, or was he both in their mouthes, & at the table? If he were both in their mouthes & at the table, then had he two bodies, or els had a fantasticall body: which is an absurditie to say it.…
Sir Iohn Baker.
Christes body was glorified, and might be in mo places then one.
Allin.
Then had he more bodies thē one, by your own placing of him.
Collins.
Thou ignorāt Asse, the schoole men say, that a glorified body may be eueryevery where.
Allin.
If his body was not glorified til it rose againe, then was it not glorified at his last supper, and therefore was not at the table, and in their mouthes, by your owne reason.
Collins.
A glorified body occupieth no place.…
Allin.
That which occupieth no place, is neither God, nor any thing els: but Christes body say you, occupieth no place: therefore it is neither God nor any thing els. If it be nothing, then is your religion nothing. If it be God, then hauehave we iiij. in one Trinitie, which is the persone of the father, the person of the sonne, the person of the holy ghost, the humane nature of Christ. If Christ be nothing, which you must needes confesse if he occupie no place, then is our study in vaine, our faith prostrate, and our hope without reward.
Collins.
This rebel wil beleue nothing but scripture. How knowest thou that it is the scripture but by the church? and so sayeth S. Austin.
Allin.
I cannot tell what Austine sayth, but I am perswaded, that it is Scripture, by diuers arguments.
…First, yt the law worketh in me my condemnation. The law telleth me yt of my selfe I am dāned: and this damnatiō, M. Collins, you must find in your self, or els you shal neuer come to repētance. For as this grief & sorow of cō science, wtout faith, is desperation, so is a glorious & Romish faith wtout the lamentatiōs of a mās sins presūption.
The second is the gospel, which is the power & spirit of God. This spirite (sayth S. Paule) certifieth my spirite that I am the sonne of God, and that these are the Scriptures.
The thirde, are the wonderfull woorkes of God, which cause me to beleue that there is a God though we glorifie him not as God.…. 12. Rom. 1. The sunne, the moone, ye starres and other his workes (as Dauid discourseth in the xix. Psalme) declareth that there is a God, and that these are ye scriptures, because that they teach nothing els but God and his power, maiestie and might: and because the scripture teacheth nothing dissonant from this prescription of nature. And fourthly, because that the woord of God gaue authoritye to ye church in paradise, saying that the seede of the woman should brast down the Serpents head. This sede is the gospel: this is al the scriptures, and by this we are assured of eternall life, and these words: The seede of the woman shall braste the serpentes heade, gaue authoritie to the church, and not the church to the worde.
Baker.
I hearde say that you spake against priests and bishops.
Allin.
I spake for thē, for now they hauehave so much liuing,The reuenewes of Bishops and Prelates in England. & especially bishops, archdeacons, and deanes, that they neyther can nor wil teach Gods woord. If they had a 100. pounds a peece, then would they apply their studie: now they can not for other affaires.
Col.
Who wil then set his children to schoole.
Allin.
Where there is now one set to schoole for that end, there would be 40. because that one Bishops liuing deuided into 30. or 40. partes, would finde so manye as wel learned men as the bishops be now, who hauehave all this liuing, neither had Peter or Paul any such reuenew.
Baker.
Let vsus dispatch him: he wil mar all.
Collins.
If eueryevery man had a 100. pounds, as he saith it wold make mo learned men.
Baker.
But our bishops would be angrye if that they knew it.
Allin.
It were for a common wealth to hauehave such bishoppricks deuided for the further increase of learning.
Baker.
What sayest thou to the Sacrament?
Allin.
As I sayde before.
Baker.
Away wt him. And thus was he caried to prison, and afterward burned. And thus much touching the particular storie of Edm. Allin and his wife. Who with the v. other martyrs aboue named,The Martyrdome of 5. women and 2. men at Cant. Anno. 1557. Iune. 18. being vij. to wit, v. women, and ij. men were altogether burned at Maidstone, the yere and monethmonth afore mentioned, and the 18. day of the same monethmonth.
An other storie of like crueltie, shewed vponupon other 7. Martyrs burnt at Cant. 3. men and 4. women.
AMong suche infinite seas of troubles in these most dā gerous daies,Iune. 19. The story of 7. other Martyrs. who can withhold himselfe from bitter teares, to see the madding rage of these presented Catholickes, who being neuer satisfied with bloud to maintaine their carnall kingdome, presume so highly to violate the precise law of Gods commandements in slaying the simple pore Lambes of the glorious congregation of Iesus Christ, and that for the true testimonie of a good cōscience, in confessing the immulate gospell of their saluatiō. What heart wil not lamēt the murdering mischief of these men,Vnmercifull cruelty of the Catholickes agaynst poore women. who for wāt of worke, do so wreke their tine on seely pore women, whose weake imbecillitie the more strēgth it lacketh by natural imperfection, the more it ought to be helped, or at least pitied, and not oppressed of men yt be stronger, and especially of Priests that should be charitable.
But blessed be the Lord omnipotent, who supernaturally, hath indued from aboue such weake creatures with such manly stomacke and fortitude, so constantly to withstād the vttermost extremitie of these pitilesse persecutors: as he did before strengthen the mother of the 7. sonnes in the Machabees, & as he hath done since with diuers & sondry other godly womē in these our later daies, partly before mentioned, & partly to be mētioned hereafter, & heere presently may appeare by the martyrdome of these 7. here vnderunder folowing, of the which were 4. women and 3. men, burnt together at Canterb. the 31. day of the sayde monethmonth of Iune, in the yere aforesaid, whose names are these.
Iohn Fishcocke. Nicolas White.
Nicolas Pardue.
Barbara Final, Widow.
*This Bradbridges wyfe was thought to be with childe.Bradbreges widow
Wilsons Wife.
Bendens Wife.
As it were too tedious exactly and particularly to prosecute the seuerall storie of eueryevery one of these godly Martyrs: so I can not passe ouer vntouched the cruel and vnchristian handling of Alice Benden during her imprisonment,Roger and Tho. Hall two godly brethren of Alice Benden. according as I hauehave receiued by the faithfull relation of them which best were acquainted with her, & partly also some doers in the matter, beinge her owne naturall brethren. The storie is thus.