The Marian Persecutions were carried out against religious reformers, Protestants, and other dissenters for their beliefs during the reign of Mary I of England. The excesses of this period were recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. English Protestants developed a lasting hatred of the queen they called "Bloody Mary," as well as Bishop Bonner, the Bishop of London, for their involvement in the persecution.
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Historical context
The English Reformation resulted in the end of Roman ecclesiastical governance in England, the assertion of royal control over the Church, the suppression of Catholic institutions such as monasteries and chantries, the prohibition of Catholic worship and the institution of Protestant services and clergy. During the Reformation in England, many people were caught in the middle of a religious war between Catholic and Protestant ascendancy. An important year in the English Reformation was 1547, when Protestantism became a powerful force under Edward VI, England’s first professed Protestant ruler. Edward died in 1553 leaving the throne to Lady Jane Grey who ruled for less than two weeks before Edward's Catholic half-sister Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, deposed and later executed her, becoming Queen in her stead. Mary ruled from 1553 to 1558. During her reign, she repaired the severed relationship with Rome and returned England to Catholicism. Many Protestants opposed Mary’s actions. Many people were exiled, and nearly 300 dissenters were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname “Bloody Mary”.[1]
Persecution
Troubles for Protestants
After the accession of Queen Mary I to the English throne in 1553, and Mary’s subsequent decree of Catholicism, Protestants faced a choice: exile, conversion, or punishment.[2] Several of those who remained in England to profess and defend their Protestant beliefs would be burned as martyrs in the four-year-long Marian Persecutions. All told, some 284 Protestants (56 of them women) were executed; 30 died in prison, but the majority of the 284 were burned alive.[3] While the so-called “Marian Persecutions” began with four clergymen,[4] relics of Edwardian England’s Protestantism, the detailed record of events Foxe’s Book of Martyrs illustrates the full extent of the burnings, which branched well beyond the anticipated targets - high-level clergy. Tradesmen were also burned, as well as married men and women, sometimes in unison; at least one couple was burned alive with their daughter.[5]
Judicial Process
However bloody the end, the trials of Protestant “heretics” were judicial affairs, adhering to a strict legal protocol.[6] During the session which restored the realm to “papal obedience” parliament reinstated the heresy laws. [7] From 20 January 1555 Marian England could legally punish those judged guilty of heresy against the Catholic faith.[8] Thus it became a matter of establishing the guilt or innocence of an accused heretic in open court – a process which the Catholic authorities employed to reclaim “straying sheep” and to set a precedent for “authentic Catholic teaching.”[9]
If found guilty, the accused were first excommunicated, then handed over to the secular authorities for execution.[10] The official records of the trials are limited to formal accusations, sentences, and so forth; the documents to which historians look for context and detail are those written by the accused.[11] In these accounts, unique literature written and distributed to Protestant sympathizers in hope of rallying support against Marian religious laws, the authors detail their arrests and examinations, providing an eye-witness account of the process; it is from these documents, in conjunction with the manuscripts of Foxe, that historians derive their most personal view of the persecution, though the subjective nature of the material should be held in the context of its creation.[12]
The Marian Martyrs
The First Four Martyrs
- John Rogers, preacher, biblical translator, lecturer at St. Paul’s Cathedral – burned at Smithfield, 4 Feb. 1555.[13]
- Lawrence Saunders, preacher, rector of London church of All Hallows – burned at Coventry, 8 Feb. 1555.[14]
- John Hooper, King Edward-era bishop of Gloucester and Worcester – burned in Gloucester, 9 Feb. 1555.[15]
- Rowland Taylor, rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk – burned at Aldham Common, 9 Feb. 1555.[16]
Notable Martyrs of the Persecution (1555-1558)
This is not a complete list
1555
- William Hunter, burnt 27 March, Brentwood
- Robert Ferrar, burnt 30 March, Carmarthen
- Rawlins White, burnt, Cardiff
- George Marsh, burnt 24 April, Chester
- John Schofield, burnt 24 April, Chester
- William Flower, burnt 24 April, Westminster
- John Cardmaker, burnt 30 May, Smithfield
- John Warne, burnt 30 May, Smithfield
- John Simpson, burnt 30 May, Rochford
- John Ardeley, burnt 30 May, Rayleigh
- Dirick Carver of Brighton, burnt 6 June, Lewes
- Thomas Harland of Woodmancote, burnt 6 June, Lewes
- John Oswald of Woodmancote, burnt 6 June, Lewes
- Thomas Avington of Ardingly, burnt 6 June, Lewes
- Thomas Reed of Ardingly, burnt 6 June, Lewes
- Thomas Haukes, burnt 6 June, Lewes
- Thomas Watts
- Nicholas Chamberlain, burnt 14 June, Colchester
- Thomas Ormond, burnt June 15, 1555, Manningtree, Buried in St. Micheals & All Angels Marble placed in 1748
- William Bamford, burnt 15 June, Harwich
- Robert Samuel, burnt 31 August, Ipswich
- John Newman, burnt August 31, Saffron Walden
- James Abbes Shoemaker, of Stoke by Nayland burnt at Bury St Edmunds August 1555
- William Allen, Labourer of Somerton burnt at Walsingham September 1555
- Nicholas Ridley, burnt 16 October outside Balliol College, Oxford
- Hugh Latimer, burnt 16 October outside Balliol College, Oxford
- John Philpot, burnt
1556
- Agnes Potten, burnt 19 February, Ipswich, Cornhill
- Joan Trunchfield, burnt 19 February, Ipswich, Cornhill
- Thomas Cranmer, burnt 21 March, outside Balliol College, Oxford
- Thomas Hood of Lewes, burnt about 20 June, Lewes
- Thomas Miles of Hellingly, burnt about 20 June, Lewes
- John Tudson of Ipswich, burnt at London
- Thomas Spicer of Beccles, burnt there 21 May
- John Deny of Beccles, burnt there 21 May
- Edmund Poole of Beccles, burnt there 21 May
- Joan Waste, 1 August, burnt at Derby
1557
- William Morant, burnt at end of May, St. George's Field, Southwark [17]
- Stephen Gratwick, burnt at end of May, St. George's Field, Southwark [17]
- (unknown) King, burnt at end of May, St. George's Field, Southwark [17]
- Richard Sharpe, burnt 7 May, Cotham, Bristol
- William and Katherine Allin of Frittenden and five others, burnt 18 June at Maidstone
- Richard Woodman of Warbleton, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- George Stevens of Warbleton, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- Alexander Hosman of Mayfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- William Mainard of Mayfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- Thomasina Wood of Mayfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- Margery Morris of Heathfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- James Morris, her son, of Heathfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- Denis Burges of Buxted, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- Ann Ashton of Rotherfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- Mary Groves of Lewes, burnt 22 June, Lewes
- John Noyes of Laxfield, Suffolk, burnt 22 September
1558
- Roger Holland, burnt at Smithfield with seven others
- William Pikes or Pickesse of Ipswich, burnt 14 July, Brentford with five others
- Alexander Gooch of Melton, Suffolk, burnt 4 November, Ipswich Cornhill
- Alice Driver of Grundisburgh burnt 4 November, Ipswich Cornhill
- P Humphrey, burnt November, Bury St Edmunds
- J. David, burnt November, Bury St Edmunds
- H. David, burnt November, Bury St Edmunds
Irony of John Rogers' Execution
John Foxe, one of the few clerics of his day who was against the burning of even obstinate heretics, approached Rogers to intervene on the behalf of Joan Butcher, an Anabaptist who was sentenced with burning.[18] Rogers, a Protestant preacher and royal chaplain, refused to help, as he supported burning of heretics. Rogers claimed the method of execution was “sufficiently mild” for a crime as grave as heresy.[19] Later, after Mary I came to power and converted England to Catholicism, John Rogers spoke quite vehemently against the new order and was burned as a heretic.[20]
Legacy
Throughout the course of the Persecutions, Foxe contends that 300 individuals were burned for their faith. However, no complete list of these names has ever been documented. These people are commemorated with an elaborate gothic memorial in Oxford, England.[21] They are known as the “Marian Martyrs.”
References
- Baker, Margaret (2003). Discovering London Statues and Monuments. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications.
- Blanchard, Amos (1844). Book of Martyrs: Or, A History of the Lives, Sufferings and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive and Protestant Martyrs from the Introduction of Christianity to the Latest Periods of Pagan, Popish, Protestant, and Infidel Persecutions. Compiled from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and other Authentic Sources.. N. G. Ellis.
- Duffy, Eamon (2008). Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor. New Haven: Yale.
- Haigh, Christopher (1987). The English Reformation Revised. London: Cambridge.
- Richards, Judith M. (2009). Mary Tudor. London: Routledge.
Footnotes
- ^ Haigh, The English Reformation Revised, Cambridge 1987
- ^ Richards, Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009, p. 186
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 79
- ^ Richards, Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009, p. 196
- ^ Richards, Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009, p. 196
- ^ Richards, Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009, p. 195
- ^ Richards, Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009, p. 196
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 91
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 102
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 102
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 102
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 103
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor", Yale 2008, p. 113
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor", Yale 2008, p. 98
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor", Yale 2008, p. 98
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor", Yale 2008, p. 98
- ^ a b c Blanchard (1844), p.272
- ^ Richards, Mary Tudor, Routledge 2009, p. 193
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 87
- ^ Duffy, Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor, Yale 2008, p. 97
- ^ [Baker, Margaret. Discovering London Statues and Monuments. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications, 2003. Print.], additional text.
See also
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