CHAP. tested this, being one and twenty years of age apiece. He XXI. also procured Mr. Candish, a justice of peace, as it seems, Anno 1561. and the wife of Cooper, to meet at Ipswich; whom, with 254 the children, they minded to bring before Candish and Fox thank ed for his book. By John others; and so to make a true certificate thereof with their hands, as witnesses of their words; and then would send it up with speed; as Punt wrote up to London, to Fox's brother, living at the duke of Norfolk's house by Aldgate. He wrote also, that Mr. Sutton had and would take great pains therein. And so I leave the matter undecided to the reader's judgment and discretion. I have set down all this at this length, to shew what diligence and care was used that no falsehood might be obtruded upon the readers; and Fox and his friends' readiness to correct any mistakes that might happen. Fox, as he had thus several that clamoured against him, so on the other hand he had many encouragers; and many letters and applications made to him, giving him thanks for his great and useful pains, and exhorting him to go forward. One of these was John Loud, an eminent man in his time; who wrote him a letter to this purpose in the year 1579, and withal furnished him with many other remarkable passages of the sufferings and stories of the professors of religion under king Henry and queen Mary, and of the judgments of God upon persecutors. This Loud, however his very name is now lost, yet in his time made a figure, being an earnest professor of religion in the reign of king Henry VIII. and a companion with Mr. Philpot the martyr, both in Oxford, Winchester, and London. He studied also in Bene't college in Cambridge, where he was tutor to sir Richard Southwel, a man advanced to be a privy counsellor, and dwelt in the Charter-house, London. Here Loud dwelt with him, and instructed his son in Latin, and in the laws civil and temporal. For Loud, after his leaving the university, had been a student of the laws in Lincoln's-inn. Besides this letter of Loud's before mentioned, I have other learn- seen these letters likewise concerning Mr. Fox's said book: one in the year 1565, from Morice (once the famous secre And several ed men. Penes me. XXI. tary of archbishop Cranmer) to John Day, Fox's printer: CHAP another, anno 1567, from Dr. Turner, dean of Wells, to Fox: another to him writ anno 1565, from Dr. Humfrey, Anno 1561. of Oxford, concerning Alan Cope, and other popish adversaries of this book, and disparagers of his martyrs, exciting him to answer them sharply: another to him from the same Humfrey and one Parret, from Oxford, anno 1582: and lastly, another from Richard Taverner, signifying his sending to Fox cardinal Pole's last will. In which letters are some things worth the reading. invited into Peter Martyr, the great divine, and public professor of P. Martyr divinity in the university of Oxford under king Edward, England. upon the new establishment of religion here in England, was ardently invited to come again hither. And that this invitation might have the greater force with him, one unnamed, but entitled by P. Martyr in his answers illustrissimus princeps, (whom therefore I believe to be Thomas duke of Norfolk, and he set on by his tutor John Fox,) wrote a kind and earnest letter to him to come over, and sent it by his friend Julius, that then was in England about some business: whom this nobleman had assisted in his affair with 255 much humanity. In his letter to Martyr he signified to him, how he had suggested to the queen, that he might be recalled into England, and had spoke to her in his favour. In his said letter he expressed exceeding good will towards Martyr; and that the reason he loved him was only his piety and religion. He promised him all the favour and benefit from him that he could do; and added, that it was the love of this his own country, and his care to have the word of God furthered, that were the causes of his affection to him. This endeavour of getting Martyr into England proceeded, no question, from an order made by the archbishop and bishops at Lambeth, where they sat by commission; which was, to raise a contribution out of their own revenues for learned strangers to be placed readers in the universities, both for their stipends, and for the defraying of their expenses in their journey. But Martyr excused his coming, partly because he was CHAP. obliged to the city and church of Zurick, (whence he wrote XXI. his letter, July 22, 1561,) and so not his own man. And Anno 1561. therefore with them, both magistrates and ministers, he had But declines consulted: who indeed very readily, for the good of EngPeter Mart. land, were willing he should depart thither; but on the Epist. 223. other hand they considered his age and weakness, and how it, and why.. Archdeacon sermon, and death. he was not able to bear such a journey. They considered also the great danger he might run in divers places through which he should pass; and moreover, how he was called into England to bear greater labours by far than there he had: and therefore they concluded it best for him to tarry with them; and that there, both by teaching, writing, and publishing what he had ready, he might serve them in England, and others also. And so Martyr, taking this advice, stayed at Zurick, and there died in peace. The pulpits sounded every where with the approaching Wright's happiness of this nation, under the influence of so gracious and well educated a princess, and under the joyful expectation of the entrance of God's true worship into England again. And even in Oxford, where, to all outward appearance, every the least footstep of pure religion was utterly worn out, was a very notable sermon preached; and that by a person of as great eminency as any there. It was Dr. Wright, archdeacon of Oxon, and head of a college there. He was vice-chancellor when Dr. Richard Smith made his challenge to P. Martyr to dispute with him; and in that dangerous hurlyburly he conveyed Martyr away, through the rout and crowd at that time assembled, to his own house. Upon the turn under queen Mary, he made a shift to comply and for his wisdom and learning was one of the visitors of Magdalen college, Oxon, when both the president and so many of the fellows were put out, soon after that queen's access to the crown; and was noted to be the equalest in hearing, and the readiest to absolve. He was also afterwards one of cardinal Pole's visitors of that university, complying with the time and orders then in force, and concealing his opinion during her five years' reign; with what conscience himself best knew. But as occasion served, he XXI. per Hum 256 would speak favourably of the gospellers. So when they of CHAP. Corpus Christi college had expelled Mr. Jewel, he, knowing the worth of that Jewel, told some of the college what an Anno 1561 ornament he was to `them. He had but one eye, yet, saith Vita Juel. my author, he was homo oculatus. But the reason I have fred. here taken occasion to mention him is this: that at queen Elizabeth's first coming to the crown, he openly, in All Saints, preached with a great spirit, though with a weak voice, "that Christ was not mixed nor leavened, but simple "and crucified." In the same sermon he commended to the clergy the liturgy of the church of England, the celebration of prayers and sacraments in the English tongue; Monarch. and learnedly and solidly asserted it out of scripture, and Origen against Celsus. Saunders added, in his relation of De Visibili him, that alleging that place of St. Paul, He gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; he said, "Ye see here is not a "word of the pope." And May the 10th, being eight days after this public and godly confession, he died. The foresaid famous popish calumniator said of him, "That his recantation "of the pope was the cause of his death, and the beginning "of the defect of his understanding :" though he had his understanding and memory to the last, making his will; as many could attest, that were then present. upon the This year, 1561, came forth an hundred sermons upon Bullinger's the Apocalypse, made by Henry Bullinger, chief pastor of sermons Zuric; translated out of Latin into English, by John Daus, Revelations printed. of Ipswich; dedicated to sir Thomas Wentworth, lord Wentworth, lieutenant of the county of Suffolk: set forth and allowed according to the queen's order appointed in her injunctions. Bullinger's preface was, "To all the exiles of "France, England, Italy, and other realms and nations in 66 Germany and Switzerland, for the name of Christ; and "to all the faithful, wheresoever they be, abiding and look"ing for the coming of Christ, our Lord and Judge.” This preface was writ by him in the year 1557. The publishing of these sermons in these persecuting times was very seasonable, considering the sum and end of this revelation of XXI. CHAP. Jesus Christ to his servant John was, as the learned author shewed, "that he would never fail his church on earth, but Anno 1561,"would govern it with his Spirit and word through the ec"clesiastical ministry: but that the church itself, whilst it "remained in this world, should suffer many things, and "that for Christ, and the truth of his gospel professed. "And that it opened all and singular evils, in a manner, "that the church should suffer; shewing how it must be "exercised with common calamities, as war, plague, famine, "&c.: what it should privately suffer of the false brethren "through heresies and schisms, and grievous and continual "strifes, contentions, and corruptions in the matter of reli"gion: finally, how terribly it should be vexed by the "most cruel persecution of the old Roman empire: and lastly, by the wicked crafts and extreme tyranny of Anti"christ. All which things appertain to this end, that all "his chosen, being sufficiently warned before, and provided "in all ages, whilst this world shall endure, might with "true faith cleave unto Christ our Redeemer, King, and High-priest, &c. and in innocency of life serve him, and patiently attend him, coming to judgment, &c. And chiefly, that they should flee Antichrist, which should 257" come in the end of the world, usurping unto himself most unjustly the kingdom and priesthood of Christ, grievously persecuting the church of Christ even to the last judgment." Calvin of Relics translated. 66 66 66 66 66 This year also was translated out of French into English, by Steven Withers, a treatise of Relics, writ by another learned foreigner, viz. Mr. Calvin. It began, "St. Augus“tine, in the book which he entituled, Of the Labour of “Monks, complaining of certain trifle-bearers, who already "in his time did exercise a most villainous and filthy kind "of carrying hither and thither relics of martyrs, addeth, "yea, if they be relics of martyrs. By the which word "he signifieth, that even then the abuse and deceit herein "was committed, in making the poor simple people to be"lieve, that bones gathered here and there were the bones "of saints. But seeing the original of this abuse is of such |