The Burning Time

by Virginia Rounding

  And being asked … Wriothesley, Vol. 1, pp. 79–80.

  Neither fire, nor faggot … Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs, p. 320.

  There is a belief … ‘Henry VIII: April 1538, 6–10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 1, January–July 1538, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1892), pp. 260–76. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol13/no1/pp260–76 [accessed 5 May 2016].

  like a man of arms … Wriothesley, Vol. 1, p. 80.

  great wooden saint … Camm, Lives of the English Martyrs, p. 318.

  Forest the Friar … Ibid., p. 305.

  Then they began to set fire … Ibid., p. 320.

  would talk with his wife … Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas More.

  See also:

  Peter Ackroyd, The Life of Thomas More, Chatto & Windus, 1998, pp. 384–5.

  E. Berry, ‘Thomas More and the Legal Imagination’, Studies in Philology 106 (3), 2009, pp. 316–40.

  Susan, Brigden, ‘Popular Disturbance and the Fall of Thomas Cromwell and the Reformers, 1539–1540’, The Historical Journal 24 (2), 1981, pp. 259–60.

  Susan Brigden, ‘Youth and the English Reformation’, Past and Present 95, 1982, pp. 43–4.

  S. Byman, ‘Ritualistic Acts and Compulsive Behavior: The Pattern of Tudor Martyrdom’, The American Historical Review 83 (3), 1978, p. 627 (fn).

  Christian Classics Ethereal Library – www.ccel.org.

  David Daniell, ‘Frith, John (1503–1533)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/10188 [accessed 27 June 2016].

  Galloway et al., ‘Fuelling the City’, 1996, pp. 451–3.

  Brad Gregory, Salvation at Stake: Christian Martyrdom in Early Modern Europe, Harvard University Press, 1999, pp. 256–9.

  E. Hall, 1809, Chronicle; containing the History of England … (London).

  N. Harpsfield, Life and Death of Sir Thomas More, pp. 182–3.

  D. Josephson, ‘In Search of the Historical Taverner’, Tempo New Series 101, 1972, pp. 40–52.

  J. R. Knott, ‘John Foxe and the Joy of Suffering’, The Sixteenth Century Journal 27 (3), 1996, p. 731 (fn).

  Peter Marshall, ‘Papist As Heretic: The Burning of John Forest’, The Historical Journal 41 (2), 1998, pp. 351–74.

  L. Miles, ‘Persecution and the Dialogue of Comfort: A Fresh Look at the Charges against Thomas More’, Journal of British Studies 5 (1), 1965, pp. 19–30.

  M. Riordan and A. Ryrie, ‘Stephen Gardiner and the Making of a Protestant Villain’, The Sixteenth Century Journal 34 (4), 2003, p. 1045.

  J. J. Scarisbrick, ‘Warham, William (1450?–1532)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2015. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/28741 [accessed 27 June 2016].

  Three – THE MAKING OF MARTYRS

  The martyrs died … Gregory, Salvation at Stake, p. 137.

  Accordingly, in the psalm … Retrieved from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.v.vi.iv.html#fna_v.vi.iv–p13.2 [accessed 15 March 2016].

  death for true Christianity … Gregory, Salvation at Stake, p. 334.

  dying for opinions … Quoted in ibid., pp. 334–5.

  gladly go to the fire … Quoted in ibid., pp. 335–6.

  noted that if Satan … Ibid., p. 336.

  universal public opinion … Henry C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, 3 vols, Macmillan, 1922, Vol. 1, p. 234.

  before the people … See http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/heretico.html [accessed 27 May 2015].

  Heresy is an opinion … Quoted in Pierre Zagorin, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West, Princeton University Press, 2003, p. 40.

  As an exponent … Ibid., p. 20.

  This rule … Translated by Peter Holmes. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885). Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm [accessed 15 March 2016].

  a word used in the sense … Ibid.

  And these shall go … Matthew 25:46 [Matthew Bible].

  like peering through a window … M. Flynn, ‘Mimesis of the Last Judgment: The Spanish Auto de fe’, The Sixteenth Century Journal 22 (2), 1991, p. 293.

  If there arise among you … Deuteronomy 13:1–3, 5 [Matthew Bible].

  If thy brother … Deuteronomy 13:6–10 [Matthew Bible].

  Another similitude … Matthew 13:24–30 [Matthew Bible].

  What then does the Master? … Translated by George Prevost and revised by M. B. Riddle. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 10. Edited by Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888). Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200146.htm [accessed 15 March 2016].

  in whom there is yet room … Ibid.

  stopping the mouths Ibid.

  taking away … Ibid.

  breaking up … Ibid.

  O you Christians … Translated by R. G. MacMullen. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888). Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/160323.htm [accessed 15 March 2016].

  We are but men … Ibid.

  Let the good tolerate … Ibid.

  Again I ask … Retrieved from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.v.vi.iv.html#fna_v.vi.iv–p13.2 [accessed 16 March 2016].

  Moreover, she … Ibid.

  What then is the function … Retrieved from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.v.vi.v.html [accessed 16 March 2016].

  It is indeed better … Retrieved from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf104.v.vi.viii.html [accessed 16 March 2016].

  Where is what the Donatists … Ibid.

  The persecutor, said Augustine … Ronald H. Bainton, ed., Concerning Heretics: Whether they are to be persecuted and how they are to be treated. A collection of the opinions of learned men, Both ancient and modern, An anonymous work attributed to Sebastian Castellio, Octagon Books Inc., 1965, pp. 24–5.

  Convicted heretics, unless … Zagorin, pp. 38–9. See also R. I. Moore, The War on Heresy: Faith and Power in Medieval Europe, Profile Books, 2012, p. 2.

  Abraham did not wish … G. G. Coulton, The Death Penalty for Heresy from 1184 to 1917, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1924, p. 13.

  If it be urged … Quoted in Coulton, The Death Penalty for Heresy, pp. 13–14.

  For it is a much more serious … Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part, Question 11, Article 3: Aquin.: SMT SS Q[11] A[3] Body Para. 1/2. http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0023/_P7Y.HTM [accessed 16 March 2016].

  the same harsh interpretation … Zagorin, p. 43.

  Yet if heretics be altogether … Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Second Part of the Second Part, Question 11, Article 3. http://www.newadvent.org/summa/3011.xhtml#article3 [accessed 16 March 2016].

  should be admitted … Zagorin, p. 43.

  Again this Gospel … The Sermons of Martin Luther, Vol. II, p. 102. http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/luther/wheat.htm [accessed 16 March 2016].

  overcome with holy knowledge … See http://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/quotes/balthasar-hubmaier-concerning-heretics-and-those-who-burn-them-on-dealing-with-the-godless [accessed 27 May 2015].

  If a man bide not … John 15:6 [Matthew Bible].

  The ancient Britons … Parry, The History of Torture in England, p. 146.

  that such punishment … See http://www.ric.edu/faculty/rpotter/heretico.html [accessed 27 May 2015].

  An anonymous Mishnah rule … I. M. Rosenberg and Y. L. Rosenberg, ‘Of God’s Mercy and the Four Biblical Methods of Capital Punishment: Stoning, Burning, Beheading, and Strangulation’, Tulane Law
Review, 78 TUL.L. REV. 1169, 2004, pp. 27–8.

  stoning is the most severe … Ibid., pp. 28–9.

  The defendant is put in manure … Ibid., p. 51.

  speedier … less painful … Ibid., p. 54.

  As the convicted person … Ibid., pp. 34–5.

  If the arms were free … Email to author from Elayne Pope PhD, 20 January 2015.

  For extremities … Elayne Pope et al. http://www.burnedbone.com/downloads/ExplodingSkulls.pdf [accessed 27 February 2015].

  Smaller muscles of the head … Ibid.

  See also:

  Ronald H. Bainton, ‘The Parable of the Tares as the Proof Text for Religious Liberty to the End of the Sixteenth Century’, Church History 1 (2), 1932, pp. 67–89.

  C. Duncan, ‘The Persecutor’s Wager’, The Philosophical Review 116 (1), 2007, pp. 1–50.

  John Edwards, Mary I: England’s Catholic Queen, Yale University Press, 2011, pp. 255–6.

  Linda Geddes, ‘Body burners: The forensics of fire’, New Scientist, 24 May 2009. http://www.sott.net/article/185067-Body-burners-The-forensics-of-fire [accessed 27 February 2015].

  Gregory, Salvation at Stake, pp. 82–3, 139, 330–1, 332–3, 337–8.

  P. Saukko and B. Knight, Knight’s Forensic Pathology, Third Edition Arnold, 2004, p. 316.

  Latimer, ‘Fourth Sermon preached before King Edward VI’, in Sermons, p. 160.

  J. J. Megivern, ‘Capital Punishment: The Curious History of Its Privileged Place in Christendom’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 147 (1), 2003, pp. 3–12.

  Susan Wabuda, ‘Bishops and the Provision of Homilies, 1520 to 1547’, The Sixteenth Century Journal 25 (3), 1994, pp. 551–66.

  Zagorin, How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West, pp. 23, 29, 37, 39, 41, 64–5.

  Four – RECANTATIONS AND REVERSALS

  One of the most perplexing … Knowles, The Religious Orders in England, p. 205.

  for great heresy Chronicle of the Grey Friars, p. 42.

  One Lambert … ‘Henry VIII: March 1536, 11–15’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January–June 1536, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1887), pp. 182–95. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol10/pp182–95 [accessed 1 June 2016].

  This day, in the King’s Hall … ‘Henry VIII: November 1538, 16–20’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2, August–December 1538, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1893), pp. 353–69. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol13/no2/pp353–69 [accessed 23 June 2016].

  It was a wonder … ‘Henry VIII: November 1538, 26–30’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2, August–December 1538, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1893), pp. 378–409. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol13/no2/pp378–409 [accessed 18 June 2016].

  rude letter ‘Henry VIII: November 1538, 16–20’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 13 Part 2, August–December 1538, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1893), pp. 353–69. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol13/no2/pp353–69 [accessed 23 June 2016].

  causing the Gospel … Ibid.

  When breakfast was ended … Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, reproduced in Anon., The history of the worthy martyr of God the Reverend John Nicolson, better known by the name of John Lambert, who was burned in Smithfield, in the year 1538, Church of England Tract Society, 1816, p. 9.

  And the 30th day … Chronicle of the Grey Friars, p. 44.

  a trim minion friar … J. A. Muller, The Letters of Stephen Gardiner, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 165.

  Heresy is a perilous weed … John Fisher, A sermon had at Paulis by the commandment of the most reverend father in god my lord legate … [Thomas Berthelet, London, 1526?], in The English Works of John Fisher, ed. John E. B. Mayer, Early English Text Society, extra series, no. 27, N. Trubner, 1876, p. 434.

  My duty is to endeavour me … Ibid.

  Look well upon … ‘Henry VIII: November 1531, 1–30’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 5, 1531–1532, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1880), pp. 238–56. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol5/pp238–56 [accessed 2 June 2016].

  Only faith justifieth … W. D. J. Cargill Thompson, ‘The sixteenth-century editions of A Supplication unto King Henry the Eighth by Robert Barnes, DD: A footnote to the history of the Royal Supremacy’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 3 (2), 1960, pp. 135–6.

  nothing and nobody … ‘Henry VIII: May 1536, 11–15’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January–June 1536, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1887), pp. 349–71. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol10/pp349–71 [accessed 17 June 2016].

  I beg you to remember me … ‘Henry VIII: June 1536, 21–25’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January–June 1536, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1887), pp. 491–504. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol10/pp491–504 [accessed 7 June 2016].

  A private matter … ‘Henry VIII: June 1536, 21–25’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 10, January–June 1536, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1887), pp. 491–504. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol10/pp491–504 [accessed 7 June 2016].

  butterflies, fools … ‘Henry VIII: March 1540, 21–31’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15, 1540, ed. James Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (London, 1896), pp. 150–81. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol15/pp150–81 [accessed 6 June 2016].

  perplexed, he was not … Ibid.

  detestable heretics … ‘Henry VIII: April 1540, 11–20’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15, 1540, ed. James Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (London, 1896), pp. 209–51. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol15/pp209–51 [accessed 5 June 2016].

  They were brought … ‘Henry VIII: February 1541, 26–28’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 16, 1540–1541, ed. James Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (London, 1898), pp. 267–81. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol16/pp267–81 [accessed 7 June 2016].

  all Christians put no trust … Quoted in Bernard, The King’s Reformation, p. 573.

  search out the truth E. Hall, A Chronicle of England.

  And as I said before … Ibid.

  This year, the thirtieth day … Wriothesley, Vol. 1, pp. 120–1.

  Your Grace knows … ‘Henry VIII: June 1540, 11–20’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15, 1540, ed. James Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (London, 1896), pp. 364–76. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol15/pp364–76 [accessed 29 April 2016].

  My Lord, I beseech … ‘Henry VIII: March 1537, 1–5’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 12 Part 1, January–May 1537, ed. James Gairdner (London, 1890), pp. 254–67. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol12/no1/pp254–67 [accessed 24 March 2016].

  It was wonderful to see … ‘Henry VIII: August 1540, 1–10’, in Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 15, 1540, ed. James Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (London, 1896), pp. 481–8. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol15/pp481–88 [accessed 28 April 2016].

  See also:

  Anon., The history of the worthy martyr of God the Reverend John Nicolson, better known by the name of John Lambert, who was burned in Smithfield, in the year 1538, 1816, Church of England Tract Society.

  Bernard, The King’s Reformation, pp. 572–3.

  Tom Be
tteridge, ‘Lambert, John (d. 1538)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/15938 [accessed 29 June 2016].

  Susan Brigden, ‘Popular Disturbance and the Fall of Thomas Cromwell and the Reformers, 1539–1540’, 1981, pp. 266 and 277.

  Susan Brigden, London and the Reformation, Clarendon Press, 1989, pp. 317–18.

  S. Brigden and N. Wilson, ‘New Learning and Broken Friendship’, The English Historical Review 112 (446), 1997, p. 397.

  P. R. N. Carter, ‘Rich, Richard, first Baron Rich (1496/7–1567)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/23491 [accessed 25 June 2016].

  J. L. Chester, John Rogers: The Compiler of the First Authorised English Bible, the Pioneer of the English Reformation, and its First Martyr, embracing a genealogical account of his family, biographical sketches of some of his principal descendants, his own writings etc. etc., Longman, Green, Longman & Roberts, 1861, pp. 211–12 and 219–21.

  C. W. D’Alton, ‘Cuthbert Tunstal and Heresy in Essex and London, 1528’, Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 35 (2), 2003, p. 221.

  Howard Leithead, ‘Cromwell, Thomas, earl of Essex (b. in or before 1485, d. 1540)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/6769, [accessed 29 June 2016].

  David Loades, Thomas Cromwell, p. 223.

  Riordan and Ryrie, ‘Stephen Gardiner and the Making of a Protestant Villain’, 2003, p. 1049.

  Ethan H. Shagan, ‘Fetherston, Richard (d. 1540)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/9374 [accessed 29 June 2016].

  Ethan H. Shagan, ‘Powell, Edward (c. 1478–1540)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/22644 [accessed 29 June 2016].

  Susan Wabuda, ‘Latimer, Hugh (c. 1485–1555)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009. http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy2.londonlibrary.co.uk/view/article/16100 [accessed 29 June 2016].