28 Saffron Walden, West Ham, Markshall. And after lifting up his hands to heaven, not removing the same until such time as the devouring fire had consumed them, most mildly this happy martyr yielded up his spirit into the hands of his heavenly father.' * The fire thus early kindled, was not extinguished until Mary passed to her account; and Effex was one of the five parts upon which the rage and vehemency of this terrible persecution did chiefly light.' On the 24th of October the Queen assembled her first parliament; and in November, an act was past declaring that all the laws that had been made in King Edward's time concerning religion were now repealed,' and enacting that from the 20th of December next, there should be no other form of divine service used, but what had been used in the last year of Henry VIII.' + While this parliament was sitting, Thomas Rose, then Vicar of West Ham, was apprehended in London. 'He was a Devonshire man, and was brought from his native county, shortly after he became priest, by one Fabian, Parson of Polsted in Suffolk, by whose means he was settled at Hadleigh.' Rose was implicated in the destruction of the rood at Dovercourt, for which offence he had been imprisoned for several months in the house Anderson, Newcourt i. 196. Annals i. 568; ii. 258. 393, 543, 588, 591 — 602. Life of Rogers, the Protomartyr, 1862. Cooper, Ath. Cant. i. 121, 122. John Bradford was at one time minister at Saffron Walden. Fox vii. 208. Cooper, Ath. Cant. i. 127-129. Among the witnesses of Bradford's martyrdom, was Mary Waters, afterwards wife of Robert Honeywood, of Charing, in Kent, and Markefhall, in Essex. This remarkable lady was one of the daughters and co-heirs of Robert Attwater or Waters, of Royton, near Lenham, in Kent. She used to visit the prisons, and to comfort and relieve the poor persecuted Protestants . . . she resolved to see the end of (Bradford's) suffering.. though the press was so great, that her shoes were trodden off, and she was forced to go barefoot from Smithfield to St. Martin's-le-Grand, before she could furnish herself with a new pair.' It is also said of her, that being much afflicted in mind, many minifters repaired to her, and among the reft John Fox, the martyrologist .. in the agony of her soul, having a Venice-glass in her hand, she burst out into this expreffion, 'I am as surely damned as this glass is broken,' which she immediately threw upon the ground; but the glass rebounded again, and was taken up whole and entire, being still preserved by the family. She died 16th May, 1620, at the age of 93. Morant ii. 170. The glass, unhappily, was broken some time since. Parliamentary Hift. i. 610-615. of Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, in London. On his release from prison, he preached at Stratford, near Dedham, for three years, whence he came to London, and was in trouble under the six articles. He escaped, however, and fled to the Continent; after he had been in exile for three years, he attempted to return to England, but was imprisoned at Dieppe for several months. He again escaped, and ultimately settled at Attleborough. On the death of Henry he came to London, and was shortly after presented by Edward VI. to the living of Weft Ham. Rose was apprehended, together with thirty others, at a house in Bow Churchyard, at the Communion.' Two days after his apprehenfion he was brought before Gardiner, then Lord Chancellor, and committed to the Clink. There he remained for some time, but at length escaped and passed over the seas, where he remained until the acceffion of Elizabeth, when he returned to England.* In December parliament was dissolved, and shortly afterwards another was called for the 20th of February, 1554, which having met, was also dissolved on the 5th of May following. Mary now married Philip (July 25), and a new parliament was called in September, to meet on the 11th of November. By this time Cardinal Pole had arrived, and on the meeting of parliament he was introduced as the Pope's legate. On the 18th of December an Act was past reviving the statutes made by Richard II., Henry IV., and Henry V. against the heretics, and on the 26th of December, an Act for the repeal of certain Acts made against the supremacy of the See of Rome.' This was carrying matters with too high a hand for even some of the papifts. Accordingly, in this parliament some seven and thirty members seeing the majority inclined to sacrifice everything to the ministry, voluntarily left the house. Among them was Robert Brown, the then member for Colchester.+ Numbers perceiving the extremities to which the Queen was thus pro • Fox viii. 581; vi. 529, 584; vii. Strype, Cran. 393, 395, 906. E. M. ii. i. 523; ii. 267; iii. i. 329, 77. 401; ii. 147. Rood of Dovercourt, 11. ceeding, soon fled the country. One of these was Thomas Swinnerton, not long before this Vicar of Dovercourt. He had taken orders in the reign of Henry, and having seen the light of the gospel, he had given himself much to itinerant preaching.' He had lately assumed the name of John Roberts. After his flight he took refuge on the Continent, where he died, at Emden, in Eaft Friefland. * Mary and Bonner loft no time in taking advantage of the measures already carried to execute their purpose. On the 28th February, 1554, the bifhop issued a monition to all the clergy of his diocese, charging them to note all their parishioners who fhould not come to confession' and to the sacrament' by the 6th of April following, that he might proceed against them; and in that same week all such priests, within the diocese of London, as were married were deprived of their livings, and commanded to bring their wives within a fortnight that they might be likewise divorced from them.' This laft 'the bifhop did,' says Fox, of his own power.' In March the Queen issued Articles' enjoining the speedy execution of all such canons and ecclesiastical laws' as had been in use in the time of Henry VIII. And shortly afterwards Bonner sent out certain Articles' preparatory to a general visitation of his diocese. The visitation took place in September, and was completed by the time that Mary's third Parliament had assembled. As the result of it, nearly one hundred clergymen who beneficed in Essex were deprived, the greater part of them, for no other crime than that of being married men. The general persecution now commenced, and among the first to suffer were William Piggot, Stephen Knight, Thomas Hawkes, John Lawrence, and William Hunter, all of whom were brought up out of Essex. ⚫ Wood Ath. Ox. i. 91. Cooper, Ath. Cant. i. 124- He appears in Newcourt ii. 220, i. 257, as John Roberts. Swinnerton wrote: 1. A Mufter of Schismatic Bishops, otherwise naming themselves Popes, 8vo. 2. The Plots of Papifts. 3. De tropis Scripturarum. 4. He also tranflated Benno's Life of Hildebrand, and 5. The Life of the Emperor Henry IV. At the time of his flight Swinnerton was Vicar of All-Hallows on the Wall, London. ↑ Fox vi. 426, 427, 545; Strype, E. M. iii. i. 217. Thomas Hawkes, who is described as a 'gentleman,' was of Coggeshall. He had been in the service of the Earl of Oxford at the court of Edward VI. As he was examined before Bonner previously to the midsummer of 1554, it should appear that he had been apprehended shortly after the issue of the bishop's monition, and probably at the instance of the then vicar of his parish, Hugh Vaughan. After his first examination, Hawkes was remanded to prison. On the 3rd of September he appeared before the bishop a second time, when he was again remanded. On the 8th of February, 1555, he was publicly arraigned, in company with his fellow prisoners, and on the 9th he was sentenced to death. He was then remanded to prison once more, and there remained until he was taken to Coggeshall, where he was led to the stake by the Lord Rich and his afsistants. . . . After he had spoken many things, especially unto the Lord Rich, reasoning with him of the innocent blood of the saints; at length his fervent prayer first .. poured out unto God, the fire was put under him. In the which, when he had continued long, and when his speech was taken away by the violence of the flame, his skin was drawn together and his fingers consumed in the fire, so that now all men thought certainly he had been gone; suddenly, and contrary to all expectation, the blessed servant of God reached up his hands, burning in a light fire, to the living God. . . . (and) struck or clapped them three times together. At the sight whereof there followed such applause and outcry of the people that you would have thought heaven and earth to have come together.' In Fox's narrative of Hawke's examinations, mention is made of one Baget as his fellow-prisoner. This was Samuel Baghett, or Baghott, Vicar of Fordham. Baghett recanted, escaped, and continued in his living until his death, before July, 1558. Thomas Hawkes left a wife, and also several children. His eldest son he committed to the care of Clement Throgmorton. Fox vi. 704; vii. 97, 115, 116; see infra, note; Strype, E. M. iii. p. 442. Vaughan had been presented to the vicarage by Bonner in 1545. He resigned before 6th May, 1558. Newcourt ii. 160. Baghett was admitted rector of Fordham 16th June, 1644. Newcourt ii. 207. The Lord Rich was Richard, 23. William Hunter was an apprentice to one Thomas Tayler, of the city of London, a silk weaver. His father lived at Brentwood. Before his apprehension (he being already a suspected person) he had left his mafter, at his request, and returned to his father. While residing with his father he had gone into the chapel of Brentwood, and finding a Bible there had read it. Then he fell in conversation with one Attwell, a Sumner.' Attwell, leaving the chapel, brought Thomas Wood, then Vicar of Southwell, to him.' Wood communicated with 'Master Brown.' Brown, the next day afterwards, sent Hunter up to Bonner, who committed him to prison. After several previous examinations, Hunter was condemned at the same time with Hawkes, and in the presence, among others, of his own brother Robert. On the 23rd of March, 1555, he was brought to Brentwood to await his execution on the Tuesday following. After his arrival his father and mother came to him, and desired heartily of God that he might continue to the end in that good way which he had begun; and his mother said to him that she was glad that ever she was so happy to bear such a child, which could find it in his heart to lose his life for Christ's name's sake. Then William said, 'For my little pain which I shall suffer (which is but a short braid), Christ hath promised me, mother, a crown of joy. May you not be glad of that, mother?' With that his mother kneeled down, saying, 'I pray Christ strengthen thee, my son, to the end. Yea, I think thee as well bestowed as any child that ever I bear.' At the which words Master Higbed took her in his arms, saying, 'I rejoice to see you in this mind, and you have good cause to rejoice.' This incident took place at an inn then known as the Swan. On the Tuesday when the sheriff, Edward Brockett, came to conduct him to the stake, Hunter's father embraced him, saying, William, be not afraid." Hunter answered, I am not afraid.' Then,' says Fox, 'the sheriff's son could not speak to him no more for weeping.' Robert, his brother, was also present at his execution, and when the fire was kindled, William cast his psalter right into his brother's hand, who said, 'William, think on the holy paffion of Christ, and be not afraid of death;' and William answered, |