bury, A.D. 1563, and was buried there. A list of Bale's writings, which were numerous, is given in Bishop Tanner's "Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica."-Vide Parker Society's Publications.

THOMAS BECON, D.D., Chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, Prebendary of Canterbury, &c., was born in 1511 or 1512. Became a member of St. John's College, Cambridge. Graduated B.A. in 1530, proceeding to D.D. Ordained about the year 1538. Was Vicar of Brensett, Kent, temp. Henry VIII. On Edward VI.'s accession became Rector of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, A.D. 1547; also appointed Chaplain to Cranmer and one of the six preachers in Canterbury Cathedral, also Chaplain to the Protector Somerset. On the death of Edward, Becon was one of the first of the Reformed preachers whom Mary endeavoured to silence. "He was committed to the Tower by an Order of Council, continuing in confinement there until 22 March, 1554." He was also ejected from all his preferments. Having made his escape he is next heard of at Strasburgh, addressing a letter of condolence to the afflicted people of God at home. On the accession of Elizabeth, 1558, Becon returned home and was restored to his preferments, and also appointed to Christ Church, Newgate Street, and in 1563 to the Rectory of St. Dionis Backchurch. His death is supposed to have occurred in A.D. 1567 or 1570. It has been said that we may read his character by his favourite maxim, "If you know all things besides, but know not Christ, you know nothing; if you know Christ, you know enough." While at Cambridge Becon was a frequent hearer of Bishop Latimer, and to his teaching he ascribes all his knowledge of God and of true religion. He appears to have been a very powerful and favourite preacher.

JOHN BRADFORD, Martyr, 1555, a native of Manchester. In 1547 a student of law in the Temple, but inclining towards the Church entered (1548) at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and graduated M.A. Ordained Deacon in 1550. Bishop Ridley appointed him to a Stall in St. Paul's Cathedral. He was also made one of the royal Chaplains. On Mary's accession his doom was sealed. Bold, zealous, and eloquent in defence of truth, he was one of the first victims of this blood-stained reign. In 1554, after eighteen months' confinement in prison he was brought before Bonner and Gardiner, Bishops of London and Winchester, and after numerous meetings with a view to induce him to recant his expressed opinions on Transubstantiation, which efforts all proved fruitless, he was committed to the flames at Smithfield on 1st July, 1555. "When the time of his determined death was come" (writes Foxe) "he

was suddenly conveyed out of the Compter where he was prisoner, in the night season to Newgate; and from thence he was carried the next morning to Smithfield, where he, constantly abiding in the same truth of God, which before he had confessed, earnestly exhorting the people to repent, and to return to Christ, and sweetly comforting the godly young springal of nineteen or twenty years old (John Lyefe), which was burned with him, cheerfully ended his painful life to live with Christ." "How faithfully Bradford walked, how diligently he laboured, many parts of England can testify. Sharply he opened and reproved sin, sweetly he preached Christ crucified, pithily he impugned heresies and errors, earnestly he persuaded to godly life."-Foxe, vol. vii. p. 144.

HENRY BULLINGER, the celebrated Swiss Reformer, was born in 1504 at Bremgarten, near Zurich, of which his father was Roman Catholic Priest and Dean. He entered the University of Cologne, where he read Luther's writings, and was induced to forsake his father's religion (?) for that of the Protestant Faith. In 1523 he was invited by the Cistercian Abbot of Cappel to accept the office of Lecturer on Divinity in that monastery. It seems that he remained there six years, and composed many of his most valuable works. At this time he made acquaintance with Zwinglius and other Reformers. In 1528 he undertook the pastoral office, and preached for some time at Bremgarten, his father having renounced popery. Bullinger subsequently removed to Zurich, and there succeeded Zwinglius as preacher in the Cathedral, which office he held until his death. He assisted in drawing up the first Helvetic Confession of Faith at Basle, in 1536. After suffering from a painful disease for some years, he was gathered to his rest, at Zurich, in 1575- His Sermons in five Decades have been published by the Parker Society, and many valuable extracts have been taken from them, as will appear in the following pages. Bullinger was undoubtedly a man of much eloquence, deep piety, and Christian amiability.—Vide “Universal Biography" (Bullinger).

MILES COVERDALE, D.D., Bishop of Exeter, 1551, is supposed to have been born in 1488, at Coversham, Yorkshire; but much obscurity exists as to his early life. He was a most zealous preacher of the doctrines of the Reformation. Coverdale published, between 1528 and 1535, his translation of the Bible. The printer is supposed to have been Froschover, a learned bookseller at Żurich. In 1537 two other editions were published by James Nyelson, a bookseller in Southwark. In 1538 another edition at Paris was carried through the press, but the printing was suddenly stopped

by the Inquisition. In 1539 Coverdale was resident at Newbury, Berks, and engaged under Lord Cromwell's directions in the detection of Popish books, &c. In 1540 Cranmer set forth his Bible, and in the same year was Lord Cromwell executed. Coverdale is supposed to have at or about this time left for Germany, where he supported himself by teaching, and by his pastoral charge, living there in very straitened circumstances until the accession of Edward VI. On his return to England, Coverdale was, on 30th August, 1551, consecrated Bishop of Exeter. On Edward's death he was with other bishops deprived of his bishopric, and by order summoned before the Council at Richmond; his release, however, was effected in February, 1555, when he retired to Denmark. 1558 we find him at Geneva, Basle, &c., the same year returning to England. In 1564 he was instituted to the living of St. Magnus, London, which he resigned in 1566. He died in February 1569, æt. eighty-one, and was buried in the church of St. Bartholomew, London.

In

Canterbury, and
Was Fellow and
While there, the

THOMAS CRANMER, D.D., Archbishop of Martyr, 1556, was born at Aslacton, Notts. Divinity Lecturer of Jesus College, Cambridge. divorce of Henry VIII. came into question. Cardinals Campeius and Wolsey protracting the matter, caused the King to call in Dr. Cranmer for advice and counsel, who advised the trial and examination of the matter by the Word of God, unto the best learned men of both Universities, Cambridge and Oxford. Hence the dissolution of the King's marriage. Cranmer is now appointed Archbishop of Canterbury (20th March, 1553). Then arose the question of the Pope's Supremacy, and the final determination which led to our country's casting off the yoke of the Bishop of Rome. During the reign of Edward, Cranmer, though maligned most cruelly by his persecutors, was protected by the King; but when Mary came to the throne, she proved his most bitter enemy. Cranmer, who was acquitted of treason, was accused of heresy, and sent to the Tower, and from thence to Oxford, there to dispute with the doctors and divines. The anticipated result shortly followed, and he was condemned on 12th September, 1555. His martyrdom, however, was not completed until 21st March, 1556. Foxe relates, that "when he came to the place where the holy Bishops, Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burnt before him for the confession of the truth, kneeling down he prayed to God, and not long tarrying in his prayers, putting off his garments to his shirt, he prepared himself to death. Then was an iron

chain tied about Cranmer, whom, when they perceived to be more stedfast than that he could be moved from his sentence, they commanded the fire to be set unto him. And when the wood was kindled, and the fire began to burn near him, stretching out his arm, he put his right hand into the flame, which he held so stedfast and immovable (saving that once with the same hand he wiped his face) that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched. His body did so abide the burning of the flame with such constancy and stedfastness, that standing always in one place without moving his body, he seemed to move no more than the stake to which he was bound; his eyes were lifted up into heaven, and oftentimes he repeated 'my unworthy right hand,' so long as his voice would suffer him; and using often the words of Stephen, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' in the greatness of the flame he gave up the Ghost."-Foxe.

JOHN FRITH, Martyr, 1533, a native of Sevenoaks, Kent. Studied at Cambridge under Stephen Gardiner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester, as his tutor. From Cambridge he migrated to Christ Church, Oxford; and when there, being suspected of favouring Luther's doctrines, was committed to prison. Being released, Frith came to London, and made the acquaintance of William Tyndale. He removed to Flanders, where he remained about three years, and wrote against Purgatory, &c. Driven through lack of means, he returned to England, and to his quondam friend the Prior of Reading. Persecuted by Sir Thomas More, then Chancellor of England, Frith fruitlessly endeavoured to pass over into Flanders. He was captured and sent to the Tower. Plots having successfully been laid to entangle him, he was brought to Lambeth, and afterwards to Croydon, where his old friend (?) and tutor, Gardiner, treated him with great malice and tyranny. Sentence having been pronounced against him, he was delivered over to the secular arm for punishment. He was committed to Newgate, and from thence removed to Smithfield, and on the 4th July, 1553, was burned at the stake. "When the fire was set on he embraced it, and with all patience committed his spirit unto Almighty God, dying at the early age of thirty."

WILLIAM FULKE, D.D. Parentage unknown, but he incidentally informs us that he was born before 1538, and it is presumed in London. He is supposed to have been educated at Christ's Hospital, and from thence transferred to St. John's College, Cambridge, A.D. 1555. He took his degree of B.A., and then entered as student of the legal profession at Clifford's Inn, London.

We next hear of his returning to his University, and proceeding to his M.A. degree, and at the same time being elected to a Fellowship in his College, A.D. 1564. He then proceeds to the degree of B.D. Dissensions, however, arising in his College, upon his being suspected of favouring Puritanical opinions, he is ejected from his post. About this time it appears that the Earl of Leicester, having discovered and appreciating his merits, singled him out for preferment. Through the Earl's means he was (10th August, 1571) presented to the Rectory of Warley, Essex, and in 1573 to Dennington, Suffolk. Fulke now is enabled to proceed to his D.D. degree, and is advanced to the Mastership of Pembroke College, Cambridge (1578). Having filled the office of Vice-Chanceller, and governed his College for eleven years, he died in August, 1589, and was buried in the chancel of his church at Dennington.

EDMUND GRINDAL, D.D., Archbishop, 1570, was born in 1519 at the parish of St. Bees, Cumberland. Was intimate friend of Archbishop Sandys. Was Fellow and subsequently President and Master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Graduated B.A. about 1538-ordained in 1544. Bishop Ridley appointed him one of his Chaplains, with Bradford and Rogers, both martyrs in Mary's reign. În 1551 Grindal was appointed Precentor of St. Paul's, and the same year nominated a Chaplain to Edward VI. On 6th July, 1553, Edward died, and with him the hopes of the Reformers. Grindal now takes refuge in Strasburgh, and on Mary's death (17th November, 1558,) returned to England. We shortly find him engaged in the revision of the Book of Common Prayer. In 1559 he was nominated to the See of London, and consecrated by Archbishop Parker at Lambeth Palace Chapel. In 1570 he is promoted to the Archbishopric of York, and in 1575, on the death of Archbishop Parker, becomes his successor at Canterbury. Unfortunately Grindal fell under the Queen's displeasure, from which it seems he never fully emerged. Afflicted with blindness, he proposed retiring from his post, but "the Queen, commiserating his condition, was graciously pleased to say, that as she had made him, so he should die an Archbishop, as he did, 6th July, 1583." He was buried according to his desire, in the chancel of Croydon Church.

JOHN HOOPER, Bishop and Martyr, 1555, was a native of Somersetshire. He graduated at Oxford, embracing the monastic life, which he shortly renounced, zealously supporting the principles of the Reformation. This soon attracted notice and incurred displeasure. Hooper now escapes to Strasburgh, and at Zurich enjoys the friendship of Bullinger. In 1549 he returns under a sense of