CRAN MER, 379. The misbehaviour of some people, about this time, seems Abp. Cant. to have soured the humour of the court, and brought the reformed under disfavour. For instance, one Edward Featherstone, alias Constable, counterfeited himself king Edward VI. He was seized and carried before the council, where he begged the queen's pardon, and confessed he had been importuned by a great many people to undertake the imposture. This youth had, for some time, been a footman to sir Peter Mewtass. Council Book. Stow's Annals, p. 626. Council Ibid. Ibid. The next month, the lord North, secretary Bourn, the master of the Rolls, sir Francis Inglesfield, and some others, received order from the council to proceed to a farther examination of Bingar, Cary, Dye, and Field. These men, as appears by their confessions, had been tampering with astrology or magic. They were prosecuted, in all likelihood, `for calculating the queen's nativity and foretelling her death. To this may be added, a letter sent to the lord treasurer, with another enclosed to the queen, from father Elstan, warden of the convent at Greenwich. He complains, that himself and father Peyto were stoned by several persons, in their passage from London to Greenwich. His lordship is desired by the council to get the offenders apprehended, and to require the lord mayor to make a proclamation, with a reward for those that shall discover them. To give another instance of a lower kind: one Robert Mendrain, of the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, shaved a dog, in contempt of the priests' tonsure. For this misbehaviour, he was ordered by the council to go to his parishchurch next Sunday, and there publicly confess his folly in a form prescribed. These instances of misbehaviour might very probably ruffle the court, and make the government more rugged with the reformed for, though stretching the punishment beyond the crime has nothing of justice, yet princes sometimes let loose their resentments upon such occasions. Their jealousy is apt to take the alarm: they conclude that those who profess the same religion have the same aversions and desires, and stand ready to take the same liberty of practice. This is wrong judging; but power and passion do not always distinguish; and thus a whole party sometimes suffer for the faults of a few. As for a martyrology, the reader may please not to expect it. It is wide of the design, and out of the compass, of this MARY. work. I shall only mention some few of the more distinguished persons and circumstances. Those who would be farther informed in names and particulars may consult Fox, who is full enough in the detail; and, though he is sometimes mistaken in private stories, his records and state papers may be safely relied on. A. D. 1554. burnt for To proceed the prosecution of the reformed being now determined, the bishop of Winchester, and some others of that order, had a commission from the cardinal to convent and examine those delated for heresy. Pursuant to this authority, Rogers and Bradford, bishop Hooper and Dr. Taylor, were brought before Gardiner, excommunicated, and remanded to Jan. 29. prison. Rogers was burnt in Smithfield, and suffered with Several great fortitude and Christian resolution. He was an acquaint- heresy. ance of Tindal's, and lived with him in Flanders. When Tindal was executed for religion, Rogers, being apprehensive of hard usage in England under king Henry VIII., retired to Wittenburg in Germany, where, learning the language of the country, he had the cure of a parish. He continued in this business till king Edward's reign; when he was called home, and preferred to a prebend in St. Paul's church by bishop Ridley. At the present queen's coming to the crown, the Papists, knowing him to be a person of warmth and enterprise, and strongly disaffected to their persuasion, endeavoured to fright him beyond sea. For this purpose, they gave him Feb. 4. almost a year to transport himself, charging him, at the same time, not to stir out of his own house; but when they found he despised the opportunity, and refused to withdraw, they committed him, and then brought him to the stake. He left a wife and ten children wholly unsupported, and cast upon Providence. Godwin, Soon after, Sanders, parson of All-Hallows, Bread-street, in Fox. London, was brought before Bonner. He was extracted from a gentleman's family. At his examination he called the pope antichrist, and declared himself of Wickliff's, Thorp's, and Oldcastle's church. But, notwithstanding some mistakes, he Fox, p. 136. showed a zeal for martyrdom, and desired no application might be made to save his life. He was carried down to Coventry, and burnt there. Bradford, another prebendary of St. Paul's, refusing to get CRAN MER, off, was brought before the council. He was condemned to Abp. Cant. the fire, for denying the corporal presence and transubstantiation, which were the "burning articles" through this whole reign. At a conference between him and Harpsfield, he denied the necessity of a succession of bishops. "The Church,” said he, "is not tied to succession, but to doctrine." He affirmed, the Scriptures made no difference between the order of bishops and priests. He proved the authority of the Scriptures, not from the force of tradition and the testimony of the Church, but from inward light and private conviction, supposed to come from the Holy Ghost. He seemed to assert the Church sometimes invisible. As to auricular confession, he thought it a thing indifferent, and recommended at first only by way of advice; that pressing it as a necessary duty, and resting so much upon it as is done in the Church of Rome, not to mention other circumstances, is enough to make it unlawful. He called the pope antichrist, wrote flamingly against the mass, but condemned rebellion, and pressed passive obedience to the utmost Fox, p. 293, extent. They declared him a heretic in January, but his execution was respited till July following. 294. 296. 302. 309. 347. To proceed bishop Hooper was pronounced guilty of heresy for denying the corporal presence. His episcopal character being not allowed, he was degraded to priest's orders. His being active for Bonner's deprivation, in the late reign, seems to have marked him for destruction in this: for he was sent for up, and imprisoned in the Tower, at the queen's first coming to the crown. This prelate had formerly lived a considerable time in Germany, and made an intimate acquaintance with Bullinger. After he was put into the hands of the civil magistrate, it was thought fit to convey him to Gloucester. His suffering where he preached his heterodoxy-as it was Gloucester. called-was done in terrorem, to fright the people from hearkenFeb. 9. ing to such pretended novelties. Bishop burnt at The warrant for burning him calls him a vain-glorious person, and one that delighted in talking; and therefore, having the liberty of speech, it was feared he might persuade 380. the people to persist in their errors. To prevent this, the queen's pleasure was, that he should not be suffered to deliver himself to any length as he went to execution. Biblioth. Cleop. F. V. On the other hand, Hooper was glad of the opportunity of Farrar at losing his life in his diocese, and giving his people the last MARY. proof of his integrity. He resigned himself to the stake, and went through the torture with all the firmness imaginable. Id. 147. During his imprisonment, bishop Ridley wrote him a letter, to congratulate his sufferings, to encourage his constancy, and to acquaint him, that, notwithstanding some former differences. between them in lesser matters, he had now a very affectionate regard for him. The same day, Dr. Rowland Taylor, parson of Hadley, in Suffolk, was burnt in his parish. The bishop of Winchester pronounced his doom, and put him in the sheriff's hands. He was a learned man, as appears by his defence; and, if Fox is exact in his narrative, was used with particular barbarity at his execution. Farrar, bishop of St. David's, was And bishop sent out of the world the same way: he was carried from London to Carmarthen to stand the process; he was brought before his successor Morgan, who pronounced him an heretic, for marrying after his being professed a religious, for maintaining justification by faith only, for denying transubstantiation, and the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass. In the sentence he is styled a priest, and degraded no farther. Bishop Farrar appealed from Morgan to cardinal Pole, but that application was rejected. He suffered with extraordinary courage, and March 30, put the truth of his doctrine upon a very bold test: for he told a gentleman of his acquaintance, that, if he saw him uneasy under the pain, or so much as once stir in the fire, he should not believe any of his tenets. He acted with the same greatness he talked; and, though his hands were both burnt off, he never so much as moved, till one that stood by knocked him down. Bishop Godwin describes this Farrar as a person somewhat stiff and unpolished; that the ruggedness of his manner made him enemies, and occasioned the exhibiting articles against him in the late reign. He sunk under this Fox, p. 216. impeachment, and was committed; and thus, continuing a prisoner at king Edward's death, he was brought before bishop Gardiner. And here, it is thought, if he had managed with dexterity and been smooth in his answers, he might have disengaged himself, and secured both his conscience and his life: thus many of the reformed, who had neither outraged the Papists nor appeared for the lady Jane, had either the liberty to go beyond sea, or, if they happened to be seized, were dismissed without much difficulty at their friends' intercession. 1555. CRAN MER, "But Farrar," continues Godwin, "being uncourtly in his Abp. Cant. behaviour, provoked Winchester to go through with his process, and leave him to the law.” Godwin's Annals. Bishop Coverdale sent to Den mark. Fox. The queen resolved to restore the Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, had probably shared the same fate, had it not been for the mediation of the king of Denmark. This bishop had lived in that country in the reign of king Henry VIII. His piety and learning had recommended him so far to that court, that his Danish majesty, being informed of his danger, wrote to the queen to send him thither. The queen seemed not willing to part with him. She alleged he had not satisfied some debts owing to the crown. However, being farther solicited, she gratified the request, and sent Coverdale over. To shut up this melancholy scene a little, and pass on to some other relation. The beginning of this year, the queen abbey-lands discovered her intention of restoring the abbey-lands, then in her pos session. remaining in the crown. To this purpose, she sent for William, marquess of Winchester, lord treasurer; sir Robert Rochester, comptroller; sir William Petre, secretary; and sir Francis Inglefield, master of the wards. She told them, she was fully satisfied those lands had been unjustly alienated during the schism; that her conscience would not allow her to keep them; and therefore she made a solemn and free surrender, without any reserve or condition; leaving these estates to be applied to such religious uses, as either the pope, or the lord cardinal his legate, should think fit. And if it was objected, the revenues of the crown and the dignity of the government would suffer by such a resignation, to this she replied, that she preferred the saving her soul to all the kingdoms of the world. This declaration was intimated to the cardinal by the lord chancellor, put in form, and sent to the pope. The three English ambassadors came to Rome the first day of Paul IV.'s accession to the chair. Upon their being brought into the consistory, they threw themselves at his holiness's feet, and, in the name of the kingdom, made a recital of the late misbehaviour, owned their ingratitude, and entreated for pardon. In this confession they were very particular; for the pope would not pass an acknowledgment in general. After satisfaction in this point, he took them up, and embraced them; and, as a mark of esteem to their majesties of |