Acts and Monuments Volume 2 Part 2, Book 12 · Account 79
¶The story and condemnation of Iohn Hunt, and Richard White, ready to be burnt, but by the death of Queene Mary escaped the fire.
BEsides these Martyrs aboue named, diuers there were in diuers other places of the Realme imprisoned,The story of Iohn Hunt, and Richard White. whereof some were but newly taken and not yet examined, some begon to be examined but were not yet condemned, certayne both examined and condemned but for lacke of the writ escaped.
Other there were also, both condemned, and the writ also was brought downe for theyr burning, and yet by the death of the Chaūcellor, the bishop, and of Queene Mary happening together about one time, they most happely & maruellously were preserued and liued many yeres after. In the number of whom was one Iohn Hunt and Rich. White imprisoned at Salisbury. Touching which historie something here is to be shewed.
First these two good men and faythfull seruauntes of the Lord aboue named, to wit, Iohn Hunt, and Richarde White had remayned long time in prison at Salisburye, & other places therabout, the space of two yeares and more. During which time, oft times they were called to examination, & manifold waies were impugned by the Bishop, and the Priestes. All whose examinations, as I thoughte not much needefull here to prosecute or to searche out, for the length of the volume: so neither agayne did I thinke it good to leaue no memorye at all of the same, but some part to expresse, namely of the examination of Richarde White before the Bishop of Salisbury, the Bishop of Glocester, with the Chauncellour and other Priestes, not vnworthy perchaunce to be rehearsed.
*The examination of Richard White, before the Byshop of Salisbury in his chamber in Salisbury, the 26. day of Aprill. an. 1557.
Examination of Richard White.THe Bishop of Salisbury at that time was Docor Capon. The Bishop of Glocester was Doctor Brookes. These with Doctour Geffrey the Chauncelour of Salisbury, and a great number of Priestes sitting in iudgemēt, Richarde White was brought before them. With whome first the Bishop of Glocester, which had the examination of him, beginneth thus.
Bishop Brookes.
Is this the prisoner?
The chauncellour.
Yea my Lord.
Brookes.
Frend, wherefore camest thou hether?
White.
My Lord I trust to know ye cause, for ye lawe saith: in the mouth of two or three witnesses things must stand.
Doctour Capon.
Did not I examine thee of thy fayth whē thou camest hether?
White.
No my Lord, you did not examine me, but cōmaū ded me to the Lollardes Tower, and that no man should speake with me. And now I do require mine accuser.
The Mayor of Marlborough persecutor.Then the Register said: the Maior of Marlborow did apprehend you for wordes that you spake there, & for that I commaunded you to be conueyed hither to prison.
White.
You had the examination of me in Marlborow. Say you what I hauehave sayd. And I will aunswere you.
Geffray.
Thou shalt confesse thy fayth ere thou depart, and therfore say thy minde freely, and be not ashamed so to do.
White.
I am not ashamed of the Gospell of Christ, because it is the power of God to saluation vntounto all that beleue, & S. Peter sayth: If any man do aske thee a reasō of the hope that is in thee, make him a direct aunswere, and that with meekenes. Who shall hauehave the examination of me?
Chaunc.
My Lord of Glocester shall hauehave the examinatiō of thee.
White.
My Lorde, will you take the paynes to wet your coate in my bloud? be not guilty thereof: I warne you before hand.
Brookes.
I will do nothing to the contrary to our law.
White.
My Lorde, what is it that you doe request at my handes?
Brookes
I will appose thee vponupon certayne articles, & principally vponupon the sacramēt of ye aultar? How doest thou beleue of the blessed Sacrament of the aulter? Beleuest thou not the reall, carnall,The Sacrament of the Aultar. and corporall presence of Christ in the same, euen the very same Christ that was borne of the virgine Mary, that was hanged on the Crosse, and that suffered for our sinnes? (and at these words they al put of their cappes and bowed theyr bodyes.)
White.
My Lord what is a Sacrament.
Brookes.
It is the thing it selfe the which it representeth.
White.
My Lord that can not be, for he that representeth a Prince can not be the Prince himselfe.
Brookes.
How many sacraments findest thou in the scriptures called by the name of Sacramentes?
White.
I finde 2. Sacraments in the Scriptures, but not called by the names of the sacramentes. But I thinke S. Augustine gaue them the first name of Sacramentes.
Brookes.
Then thou findest not that word sacramēt in the Scriptures.
White.
No my Lord.The name of Sacramentes no… found in the Scriptures.
Brokes.
Did not Christ say: This is my body? and are not his words true?
White.
I am sure the wordes are true, but you play by me as the deuill did by Christ, for he sayd, If thou be. Mat. 4. For it is. &c. Psal. 91.How the Papistes play with Scriptures, as the deuill did when he tempted Christ. But the words that folowed after he clean left out, which are these: Thou shalt walke vponupon the Lion and Aspe. &c. These woordes the Deuill lefte out because they were spoken agaynst hymselfe: and euen so doe you recite the Scriptures.
Brokes.
Declare thy fayth vponupon the Sacrament.
White.
Christ and his Sacramentes are like,Whites opinion of the Sacramēt. because of the natures, for in Christ are 2. natures, a diuine and a humane nature: so likewise in the Sacrament of Cristes body and bloud, there be two natures: the which I deuide into 2. partes, that is, externall and internal. The external part is the element of bread and wine, according to the saying of S. Austine. The internal part is the inuisible grace which by the same is represented. So is there an externall receiuing of the same Sacrament, & an internall. The externall is with the hande, the eye, the mouth, and the eare.Double receauing of the Sacrament, externall and internall. The internall is the holy ghost in the hart, which worketh in me fayth. Wherby I apprehend all the merits of Christ, applying the same wholly vntounto my saluation. If this bee truth beleue it, and if it be not, reproue it.
Doct. Hoskins.
This is Oecolampadius doctrine, & Hooper taught it to the people.
Brokes.
Doest thou not beleue that after the wordes of cō secration there is the naturall presence of Christes body?
White.
My Lord, I will aunswere you, if you wyll aunswere me to one question. Is not this article of our beliefe true: He sitteth at the right hand of God the father almighty? if he be come from thence to iudgement, say so.
Brokes.
No. But if thou wilt beleue the Scriptures, I will proue to thee that Christe was both in heauen and in earth at one time.A Popishe Paradoxe Christes body both in heauen and in earth at one tyme.
White.
As he is God, he is in all places: but as for hys manhood, he is but in one place.
Brokes.
S. Paule sayth. 1. Cor. 15. Last of all he was seene of me. &c. Here S. Paule sayth he sawe Christ, and S. Paule was not in heauen.
White.
S. Pauls chief purpose was by this place to proue the resurrection. But how do you proue that Christ when he appered to S. Paule, was not still in heauen: like as he was sene of Stephen, sitting at the right hand of God?How S. Paule saw Christ. Supra Psal. 54 S. Augustine sayth the head that was in heauen dyd crye for the body and members which were on the earth & said Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And was not Paule taken vp into the thyrd heauen where hee might see Christ▪ as he witnesseth. Cor. 15. For there he doth but onelyonly saye that he saw Christ, but concerning the place, hee speaketh nothing. Wherfore this place of scripture proueth not that Christ was both in heauen and earth at one tyme.
Brokes.
I told you before he woulde not beleeue. Here be three opinions, the Lutherans, the Oecolampadians, and we the Catholickes.B. Brookes leaueth the Scripture & proueth the Sacrament by other matter. If you the Oecolampadians hauehave the truth: then the Lutherians & we the catholickes be out of the way. If the Lutherians hauehave the truth, then you the Oecolampadians and we the Catholickes be out of the way. But if we the catholicks hauehave the truth, as we hauehave in deede, then the Lutherians and you the Oecolampadians are out of the way: as ye are in deede, for the Lutherians do call you heretickes.
White.
My Lorde, ye hauehave troubled me greatly wyth the Scriptures.
Brokes.
Did I not tell you it was not possible to remoue him from his errour? Away with him to the Lollardes Tower, and dispatch him as soone as ye can.
This was the effect of my first examination. More examinations I had after this, which I hauehave no tyme now to write out.
The trembling and shaking of Blackston at the examination of Richard White.Amongest many other examinatiōs of the foresaid Richard White, at diuers and sondry times susteined, it happened one time, that Doctour Blackston Chancellour of Exeter sa…e vponupon him, with diuers other, who alledging certayne Doctors, as Chrysostom, Cyprian, Tertullian, agaynst the sayd Richard, and being reproued by hym for his false patching of the Doctors, fell in such a quaking, & shaking (his conscience belike remorsing him) that he was fayne, …lowping downe, to laye both his handes vponupon his knees. to stay his body from trembling.
Then the sayd Iohn Hunt and Richard White, after many examinatiōs and long captiuity, at length were called for and brought before Doctour Geffrey the Byshops Chancellor,Condemnation of Iohn Hunt & Richard White. there to be condemned, and so they were. The high Sheriffe at that present was one named Syr Anthony Hungerford, who being thē at the Sessions, was there charged with these two condēned persōs, with other, malefactours there condemned likewise the same time, to see the execution of death ministred vntounto them.
In the meane tyme M. Clifforde of Boscon in Wiltshyre,The Christen zeale of M. Clifford. sonne in law to the sayd Syr Anthony Hungerford the Shiriffe, commeth to his father, exhorting him & counselling him earnestly in no case to medle with the death of these two innocent persons: and if the Chauncellour and Priestes would needes be instant vponupon him, yet he should first require the writ to be sent downe De comburendo, for his discharge.
Syr Anthony Hungerford hearing this, and vnderstanding Iustice Browne to be in the town the same time, went to him to aske his aduise & coūsel in the matter: who told him that without the writ sent downe from the superiour powers, he could not be discharged: and if the writte were sent, then he must by the law do his charge.
The Sheriffe vnderstanding by Iustice Browne how farre he might go by the lawe,Example of Christian pietye in a Shrieffe to be noted. and hauing at that time no writ for his warrant, let them alone, and the next daye after taking his horse departed.
The Chauncellor all this while maruelling what the Sheriffe ment, and yet disdayning to go vntounto him but looking rather the other should hauehave come first to him, at last hearing that he was ridden, taketh his horse and rideth after him: who at length ouertaking the said Sheriffe, declareth vntounto him, how he had committed certaine condemned prisoners to his hand, whose duty had bene to hauehave sene execution done vpō the same: which for that he had not done, the matter he sayd, was great, and therfore wylled him to look well vntounto it how he would aunswere the matter. And thus began he fiercely to lay to his charge.
Wherin note, gentle Reader, by the way, the close and couert hypocrisy of the Papistes in theyr dealinges.A note to be obserued concerning the Papists dealinges. Who in the forme and stile of their owne sentence cōdemnatory. pretend a petition vntounto the seculer power, In visceribus Iesu Christi, vt iuris rigor mitigetur, atque vt parcatur vitae, That is, That the rigour of the law may be mitigated, and that their life may be spared. And how standeth this now with their owne doinges and dealinges,The Papistes charged with manifest dissimumulation. when this Chauncellour (as ye see) is not onelyonly contented to geue Sentence agaynst them, but also hunteth here after the Officer, not suffering him to spare them, although he would? What dissimulation is this of men, goyng and doyng contrarye to their owne wordes and profession? But let vsus returne to our matt… agayne.
The Sheriffe hearing the Chaūcellours wordes, and seeing him so vrging vponupon him, tolde him agayne that he was no babe, which nowe was to be taught of hym. If he had any writ to warrant and discharge him in burning those men, then he knew what he had to do. Why, saith the Chauncellour, did not I geue you a writ, with my hande and 8. moe of the Close set vntounto the same? Well quoth the Sheriffe that is no sufficient discharge to me, and therfore as I told you, if ye hauehave a sufficient writ and warrant frō the superiour powers, I know then what I hauehave to do in my office: otherwise, if you hauehave no other writ but that, I tell you, I wil neither burne them for you nor none of you all. &c.
Where note agayne (good Reader) how by this it may be thought and supposed, that the other poore Saintes and Martyrs of God,Burning without a sufficient Writt…. such as had bene burned at Salisburye before, were burned belike without any authorised or sufficient writ from the superiours, but onelyonly vponupon the information, of the Chauncellour and of the Close, through the vncircumspect negligence of the Sheriffes, which shoulde hauehave looked more substantially vponupon the matter. But this I leaue and referre vntounto the Magistrates. Let vsus returne to the story agayne.
Doct. Geffrey
the Chauncellour thus sent away from the Sheriffe, went home, and there fel sicke vponupon the same (for anger belike) as they signified vntounto me, whiche were the partyes themselues, both godly and graue persons, who were then condemned, the one of them,Rich. White now Vicar of Malbrough in Wilshire. which is Richarde White being yet aliue.
The vnderunder Sheriffe to this Syr Anthony Hūgerford aboue named, was one M. Michell, likewise a right and a perfect godly man. So that not long after this came down the writ to burne the aboue named Rich. White,M. Mi…hell vnderunder Sheriffe b… neth the writte. & Iohn Hunt, but the vnderunder Sheriffe receiuing the said writ, sayd I will not be guilty (quoth he) of these mens bloud, & immediately burnt the writing, and departed his way. With in 4. dayes after the Chauncellour dyed. Concerning whose death this cōmeth by the way to be noted, that the…e 2. foresaid Iohn Hunt and Richard White being the same time in a lowe and darcke Dungeon, being Saterday, toward euening (according to theyr accustomed maner) fell to euening prayer. Who kneeling there together, as they should begin theyr prayer,Gods … kinges … the death … D. Geffrey Chauncellour of Salisbury. sodēly fel both to such a straūge weeping & tendernes of hart (but how they could not tell) that they could not pray one word, but so cōtinued a great space brusting out in teares. After that night was past, and the morning come, the first word they heard, was that the Chauncellour theyr great enemy was dead. The tyme of whose death they found to be the same houre, whē as they fell in such a sodeyne weeping. The Lord in all his holy workes be praysed. Amen. Thus muche concerning the death of that wicked Chauncellour.
This Richard White, and the sayd Iohn Hunt, after the death of the Chauncellour, the Byshop also being dead a litle before, continued still in prison til the happy cōming in of Queene Elizabeth: and so were set at liberty.