Appendix. with me; the rather also because I utter them unto you as from the queen's majesty by commandment, who doth require of us all a more diligence in execution of laws, than is spied commonly abroad: whereby we shall do our duties to Almighty God the better, declare our allegiance to our sovereign, regard the majesty of the laws, love the quiet of our country, and procure the safety of ourselves. God save the queen. And here I trust, we are now come to an end of all our English martyrs which hitherto have been burnt for the verity of the gospel, if we add besides to the same a godly countryman of ours, one named Richard Atkins, a Hertfordshire man, who of late, about two years past, in the reign of this our gracious queen, anno 1581, most miserably was tormented at Babylon, that is, in the city of Rome. The cause and manner of whose suffering and martyrdom here ensue, taken out of a certain late printed story, and testified by such as were present, witnesses and beholders of the same most tragical execution. The purport of which story in words as it is put down by the said reporter, hereunder followeth. A true Report of the horrible and merciless Martyrdom of one WITH EXTREME TORMENTS, AND MOST CRUEL RAGE OF FURIOUS TYRANTS, PERSECUTORS, PUT TO DEATH AT ROME. About the month of July, anno 1581, one Richard Atkins, born in Hertfordshire, an Englishman, came to Rome, and having found the English college, knocked at the door; to whom divers of the students there came out, to welcome him, understanding that he was an Englishman. Among other talk had with him they willed him to go to the hospital, and there to receive his meat and lodging, according as the order was appointed: whereunto he answered, “I come not, my countrymen, to any such intent, as you judge; but I come lovingly to rebuke the great misorder of your lives, which I grieve to hear, and pity to behold. I come likewise to let your proud Antichrist understand, that he doth offend the heavenly majesty, rob God of his honour, and poisoneth the whole world with his abominable blasphemies; making them do homage to stocks and stones, and that filthy sacrament, which is nothing else but a foolish idol." When they heard these words, one Hugh Griffin, a Welchman, and student in the college, caused him to be put in the Inquisition; where, how they examined him, and how he answered them I know not, but after certain days he was set at liberty again. And one day, going in the street, he met a priest carrying the sacrament, which offending his conscience, to see the people so crouch and bow down to it, he caught at it to have thrown it down; but, missing of his purpose, and it being judged by the people, that he did catch at the holiness that (they say) cometh from the sacrament, upon mere devotion, he was let pass, and nothing said to him. A few days after he came to St. Peter's church, where divers gentlemen and others were hearing mass, and the priest at the elevation; he using no reverence, stepped among the people to the altar, and threw down the chalice with the wine, striving likewise to have pulled the cake out of the priest's hands; for which divers rose up and beat him with their fists, and one drew his rapier, and would have slain him: so that in brief, he was carried to prison, where he was examined wherefore he had committed such a heinous offence: whereunto he answered, that he came purposely for that intent, to rebuke the pope's wickedness, and their idolatry. Upon this he was condemned to be burned; which sentence, he said, he was right willing to suffer, and the rather because the sum of his offence pertained to the glory of God. During the time he remained in prison, sundry Englishmen came unto him, willing him to be sorry for that he had done, and to recant from his damnable opinion; but all the means they used were in vain, he confuted their dealings by divers places of scripture, and willed them to be sorry for their wickedness, while God did permit them time; else they were in danger of everlasting dam- Appendix. nation. These words made the Englishmen depart; for they could not abide to hear them. Within a while after, he was set upon an ass without any saddle, he being from the middle upward naked, having some English priests with him to talk with him; but he regarded them not, but spake to the people in so good language as he could, and told them they were in a wrong way, and therefore willed them, for Christ's sake, to have regard to the saving of their souls. All the way as he went, there were four that did nothing else but thrust at his body with burning torches, whereat he never moved, nor shrunk one jot, but with a cheerful countenance laboured to persuade the people, often bending his body to meet the torches, as they were thrust at him; and would take them in his own hand, and hold them burning still upon his body, whereat the people not a little wondered. Thus he continued almost the space of half a mile, till he came before St. Peter's, where the place of execution was. When he was come to the place of execution, there they had made a device, not to make the fire about him, but to burn his legs first, which they did, he not dismayed any whit, but suffering all marvellously cheerfully; which moved the people to such a quandary as was not in Rome many a day. Then they offered him a cross, and willed him to embrace it, in token that he died a Christian; but he put it away with his hand, telling them that they were evil men, to trouble him with such paltry, when he was preparing himself to God, whom he beheld in majesty and mercy, ready to receive him into eternal rest. They seeing him in this mind, departed, saying, "Let us go and leave him to the devil, whom he serves." Thus ended this faithful soldier and martyr of Christ, who is, no doubt, in glory with his Master: whereunto God grant us all to come, Amen. This is faithfully avouched by John Young, who was at that time and a good while after in Rome, in service with master doctor Morton; who seeing the martyrdom of this man, when he came home to his house, in presence of master Smith his son, master Creed, and the said John Young, spake as followeth ; "Surely this fellow was marvellous obstinate, he nothing regarded the good counsel which was used to him, nor shrank all the way when the torches were thrust at his naked body. Beside, in the place of execution he did not faint nor cry one jot in the fire, albeit they tormented him very cruelly, and burnt him by degrees, as his legs first, to put him to the greater pain; yet all this he did but smile at. Doubtless, but that the word of God cannot but be true, else we might judge this fellow to be of God; for who could have suffered so much pain as he did? but truly I believe the devil was in him." THE CURSED LIFE, AND BLOODY END, of dr. stoRY, A CRUEL and birth. I had thought, christian reader, here to have made an end, and to have concluded the volume of this book, had not the remembrance of Dr. Story, an arch-enemy to Christ's gospel, and bloody persecutor of God's people, come into my mind. The discourse of whose life and doings, I thought good here briefly to lay open to the view of the world, as followeth. This Dr. Story, being an Englishman by Story's birth, and from his infancy not only nursled in papistry, but also education even as it were by nature earnestly affected to the same, and growing somewhat to riper years, in the days of queen Mary became a bloody Story a tyrant, and cruel persecutor of Christ in his members; as all the persecustories in this book almost do declare. Thus he raging all the reign of the foresaid queen Mary against the infallible truth of Christ's gospel, and the true professors thereof, never ceased till he had consumed to ashes two or three hundred blessed martyrs, who willingly bloody tor. venting ments for the mar tyrs. Story Appendix: gave their lives for the testimony of his truth. And thinking their punishment in the fire not cruel enough, he went about to invent Story in new torments for the holy martyrs of Christ, such was his hatred new tor to the truth of Christ's gospel. But, in the end, the Lord God, looking upon the affliction and cruel bloodshedding of his servants, took away queen Mary, the great pillar of papistry. After whom succeeded lady Elizabeth, now queen of England, who staying the bloody sword of persecution from raging any further, caused the same Dr. Story to be apprehended, and committed to ward, with many other hended. his complices, sworn enemies to Christ's glorious gospel. The said Story, having been a while detained in prison, at the last, by what means I know not, brake forth of hold, and conveyed himself over the seas, where he continued a most bloody persecutor, still raging against God's saints with fire and sword. Insomuch as he, growing to be familiar and right dear to the duke of Alva in Antwerp, received special commission from him to search the ships for goods forfeited, and for English books, and such like. appre He conveyeth himself over the Search eth for English books. And in this favour and authority, he continued there for a space, by the which means he did much hurt, and brought many a good man and woman to trouble and extreme peril of life through his blood-thirsty cruelty: but at the last the Lord (when the measure of his iniquity was full) proceeded in judgment against him, and cut him off from the face of the earth, according to the prayers of many a good man; which came to pass in order as followeth. It being certainly known (for the bruit thereof was gone forth into all lands) that he not only intended the subversion and overthrow of his native country of England, by bringing in foreign hostility, if by any means tendeth he might compass it; but also daily and hourly murdered God's throw of people, there was this platform laid (by God's providence no doubt), England. that one master Parker, a merchant, should sail unto Antwerp, and by some means convey Story into England. the over A platform laid hend Story. searching hended, brought land. This Parker arriving at Antwerp, suborned certain to repair to to appre- Dr. Story, and to signify unto him, that there was an English ship come, fraught with merchandise, and that if he would make search thereof himself, he should find store of English books, and other Story, things for his purpose. Story, hearing this, and suspecting nothing, the Eng- made haste towards the ship, thinking to make the same his prey; for books, and coming abroad, searched for English heretical books (as he called is appre- them); and going down under the hatches, because he would be and sure to have their blood if he could, they clapped down the hatches, into Eng- hoisted up their sails, having (as God would) a good gale, and sailed away into England; where they arriving, presented this bloody butcher, and traitorous rebel Story, to the no little rejoicing of many an English heart. He, being now committed to prison, continued there a good space: during all which time he was laboured and solicited daily, by wise and learned fathers, to recant his devilish and erroneous opinions, to conform himself to the truth, and to acknowledge the queen's supremacy. All which he utterly denied to the death, saying, that he was sworn subject to the king of Spain, and was no subject to the queen of England, nor she his sovereign queen; and therefore (as he well deserved) he was condemned as a traitor to God, the queen's majesty, and the realm, to be drawn, hanged, hanged, and quartered; which was performed accordingly, he being laid upon Appendix. a hurdle, and drawn from the Tower along the streets to Tyburn, story, a where he, being hanged till he was half dead, was cut down and traitor stripped; and (which is not to be forgotten) when the executioner drawn, had performed his last office, he, rushing up upon a sudden, gave tered. him a blow upon the ear, to the great wonder of all that stood by. + And thus ended this bloody Nimrod his wretched life, whose judgment I leave to the Lord. *QUEEN MARY'S SCOURGE OF PERSECUTION. Considering the great and terrible scourge of persecution in the time of queen Mary, and recounting the number of them that, under some part or other of the cross, were at that time afflicted and molested, I suppose from the highest to the lowest under the queen. herself, no condition, state, degree, age, or calling of person or persons, can be reckoned, which, at the same time, escaped free and untouched without some print of the Lord's cross upon them. In the number and catalogue of whom, first, to begin with the most noble and renowned, the only sister of the queen herself, also the only and next heir then, now just possessor of the crown of England, queen Elizabeth (whose shoulders sustained then no small portion of that cross of Christ), and so, from her majesty, descending to all and singular states inferior; what vocation or condition here was excepted! whether he or they were archbishop, duchess,2 bishops, archdeacons, deans, priests, ministers, deacons, gentlemen, lawyers, merchants, artificers, soldiers, rich, poor men, women, wife, widow, virgin, old men, young men, boys, infants, blind, halt, and lameand what state else can be reckoned of men, which, from some touch of this scourge, was exempted-and so, what condition, I say, of men escaped the papists' hands, in the time of queen Mary, without affliction and danger, insomuch that, coming to the lowest of all other, one poor hermit (being but one then, as I think, in all the realm), could not pass their hands without open penance and other molestations, as, in the story here following, to the reader may appear. THE EXAMINATION AND TROUBLE OF THOMAS PARKINSON, A BY THE PAPISTS. In the last year of queen Mary, anno 1558, Thomas Parkinson, of the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, being of the sect of Anchorite, was produced before Dr. Draycot, upon the suspicion to have a wife he was examined as followeth. Being asked what age he is now of, he saith, that he shall be, at Whitsuntide next, seventy years old, and was born and christened in a town called Bedale in Yorkshire; and was son to one Thomas Parkinson, bailiff of Thirsk in the same county of York; and when he was twelve years old, he was set to the tailor's craft, to one Thomas Dent, of Thirsk, and served (1) This story, displaying the errors of the Romish system, from the hermit to the prelate, is introduced from the First Edition, pp. 1679, 1681.-ED. (2) It is probable that these observations are not original, from the following note of Foxe: "He meaneth the lady Frances, duchess of Suffolk, who, hazarding both life, lands, and so great possessions, fled her country with her husband in cause of her conscience."-ED. and quar Appendix. him for seven or eight years, as his apprentice and, after that, before he was twenty years old he took to wife, one Agnes, the daughter of Hugh Hallywell, dwelling in the franchise of Ripon, being a maid of twenty-four years; and was married to her in Thirsk, by one sir William Day, then curate there; and, within two years after their marriage together, his wife was delivered of a manchild, which, although while it was in her body, did stir and live (as she and other perceived), yet, after the birth, it was dead, so as it could not be christened; insomuch as the midwife, and other women with her, buried the said child, as they said, in the fields-where, he (this examinate) cannot tell. And, within three weeks after, it chanced that a raven had gotten up the said child out of the ground, and torn the clothes from about the same child, and had begun to break into the said child, to feed upon it; and had brought it into a tree, near unto the churchyard of Thirsk, upon a Saturday, a little before even-song time. And, as the people and the priest before named, saw the same child, they made means to drive away the raven, and to get the child from him; so that, they, reasoning among themselves whose child it should be, did judge that it was this examinate's child that was dead-born, and buried in the fields. "And the said William Day came home to this examinate and asked him for his child, and he showed him that the women had buried it in the fields, which the priest also examined of the women, and found it to be true; and then he showed this examinate of the bringing of the child by the raven. Whereupon this examinate and his wife were therewithal stricken with repentance to Godward, and each of them vowed themselves from thenceforth to live chaste and solitary, insomuch as, this examinate, when he was but twenty-two or twentythree years old, professed the order of Saint Francis at Richmond, five miles from Madlam, and was a hermit or penitentiary at Thirsk, and kept the chapel of Saint Giles at the end of the town of Thirsk. And his wife also was sister of Saint Francis's order, and had a beadwoman's room at Northallerton, by the help of sir James Strangeways, knight; and after he had kept the order of Saint Francis two or three years, he determined to live a more hard and strait life, and to be an Anchorite, and to seclude himself from the company of the world. And, thereupon, he was first closed up in a little house in the church-porch at Thirsk, where he lived, by the help of good people, two years, before he was professed; and when it was perceived that he liked that kind of life and could endure the same, there was a chapel, and a place provided for him in the Mount of Grace, above the Charter-house, by queen Katherine, and he was professed in that house by one Dr. Makerel, then suffragan to cardinal Wolsey, and the suffragan had of this examinate's friends, for his profession, five pounds; and there this examinate remained twelve years and more in that house, and his wife would sometimes take one of his sisters, and come over and see how this examinate did; but she died six or seven years before this examinate came out of his house, and, after this, came doctor Lee, and he pulled this examinate out of his house, and the monks also out of the charterhouse, so as this examinate was driven to go abroad to get his living of good people; and when he could get any work to get a penny, to |