out of the chamber, the sergeant who brought me thither having me by the arm.

Then the bishop of Worcester turned his face towards me, and said that I wist not where that church was or is.

I said, yes, that I could tell where it was-but therewith went the sergeant with me out of the door.

This was the very true effect of all that was spoken unto me, and of all that I answered thereunto.

And here would I gladly make a more perfect answer to all the former objections, as also a due proof of that which I had taken in hand; but at this present I was informed that I should to-morrow come to further answer. Wherefore I am compelled to leave out that which I would most gladly have done, desiring here the hearty and unfeigned help of the prayers of all Christ's true members, the true sons of the unfeigned Catholic Church, that the Lord God of all consolation will now be my comfort, aid, strength, buckler, and shield; as also of all my brethren that are in the same case and distress, that I and they all may despise all manner of threats and cruelty, and even the bitter burning fire, and the dreadful dart of death, and stick like true soldiers to our dear and loving captain, Christ, our only Redeemer and Saviour, and also the true head of the Church; that doeth all in us all, which is the very property of a head, and is a thing that all the bishops of Rome cannot do; and that we do not traitorously run out of his tents, or rather out of the plain field from him, into the most jeopardy of the battle; but that we may persevere in the fight, if he will not otherwise deliver us, till we be most cruelly slain of his enemies. For this I most heartily, and at this present with weeping tears, most instantly and earnestly desire, and beseech you all to pray; and also, if I die, to be good to my poor and most honest wife, being a poor stranger, and all my little souls, hers and my children; whom with all the whole faithful and true catholic congregation of Christ, the Lord of life and death, save, keep, and defend in all the troubles and assaults of this vain world, and bring at the last to everlasting salvation, the true and sure inheritance of all crossed Christians. Amen. Amen. The 27th day of January, at night.

JOHN ROGERS.

THE SECOND CONFESSION OF JOHN ROGERS, Made, and that should have been made, if I might have been heard, the 28th and 29th days of January, 1555. First, Being asked again by the lord Chancellor, Whether I would come into one church with the bishops and whole realm, as now was concluded by parliament, in the which all the realm was converted to the Catholic Church of Rome, and so receive the mercy before proffered me, arising again with the whole realm out of the schism and error in which we had long been, with recantation of my errors-I answered, that before I could not tell what his mercy meant, but now I understand that it was a mercy of the Antichristian Church of Rome, which I utterly refused, and that the rising, which he spake of, was a very fall into error, and false doctrine. Also that I had and would be able, by God's grace, to prove that all the doctrine which I had ever taught was true and catholic, and that by the Scriptures, and the authority of the fathers who lived four hundred years after Christ's death. He answered, that should not, might not, and ought not to be granted me: for I was but a private man, and might not be heard against the determination of the whole realm. Should, quoth he, when a parliament hath concluded a thing, one or any private person have authority to discuss, whether they have done right or wrong? No, that may not be.

I answered shortly, that all the laws of men might not, neither could, rule the Word of God; but that they all must be discussed and judged thereby, and obey thereunto; and neither my conscience, nor any Christian man's, could be satisfied with such laws as disagreed from that Word. And so was willing to have said much more, but the lord Chancellor began a long tale to very small purpose, concerning mine answer, to have debased me, that there was nothing in me wherefore I should be heard, but arrogancy, pride, and vainglory. I also granted mine ignorance to be greater than I could express, or than he took it; but yet that I feared not, by God's assistance and strength, to be able by writing to perform my word; neither was I, I thanked God, so utterly ignorant as he would make me, but all was of God, to whom be thanks rendered therefore; proud man was I never, nor yet vain-glorious. All the world knew well, where and on what side, pride, arrogancy, and vain-glory was. It was a poor pride that was or is in us, God knoweth it. Then he said, that I at the first dash condemned the Queen and the whole realm to be of the church of Antichrist, and he burdened me highly therewithal. I answered, that the Queen's Majesty, God save her grace, would have done well enough, if it had not been for his counsel. He said, the Queen went before him, and it was her own motion. I said without fail, I neither could, nor would I ever believe it.

Then said doctor Aldrich, the bishop of Carlisle, that they the bishops would bear them witness. Yea, quoth I, that I believe well; and with that the people laughed: for that day there were many, but on the morrow they kept the doors shut, and would let none in but the bishops' adherents, and servants in a manner, yea, and the first day the thousandth man came not in. Then master Comptroller and secretary Bourn would have stood up also to bear witness and did so.

I said it was no great matter; and to say the truth, I thought that they were good helpers thereto themselves; but I ceased to say any more therein, knowing that they were too strong and mighty of power, and that they would be believed before me, yea, and before our Saviour Christ, and all his prophets, and apostles too, in these days.

Then after many words he asked me what I thought concerning the blessed sacrament, and stood up, and put off his cap, and all his fellow-bishops, of which there were a great sort, new men, of whom I knew few, whether I believed the sacrament to be the very body and blood of our Saviour Christ, that was born of the Virgin Mary, and hanged on the cross, really and substantially.

I answered, I had often told him that it was a matter in which I was no meddler, and therefore was suspected of my brethren to be of a contrary opinion. Notwithstanding, even as the most part of your doctrine in other parts is false, and the defence thereof only by force and cruelty: so in this matter I think it to be as false as the rest. For I cannot understand, "really and substantially," to signify otherwise than corporeally; but corporeally Christ is only in heaven, and so cannot Christ be corporeally also in your sacrament. And here I somewhat set out his charity after this sort. My lord, quoth I, ye have dealt with me most cruelly; for ye have put me in prison without law, and kept me there now almost a year and a half; for I was almost half a year in my house, where I was obedient to you, God knows, and spake with no man. And now have I been a full year in Newgate, at great cost and charges, having a wife and ten children to find, and I had never a penny of my livings; which was against the law.

He answered, that Dr. Ridley, who had given them me,

1 Sort, company.

was a usurper, and therefore I was the unjust possessor of them.

Was the king then an usurper, quoth I, who gave Dr. Ridley the bishopric ?

1

Yea, quoth he, and began to set out the wrongs that the king had done to the bishop of London, and to himself also. But yet I do misuse my terms, quoth he, to call the king usurper. But the word was gone out of the abundance of the heart before; and I think that he was not very sorry for it in heart. I might have said more concerning that matter, but I do not.

I asked him wherefore he put me in prison? He said, because I preached against the Queen.

I answered, that it was not true; and I would be bound to prove it, and to stand to the trial of the law, that no man should be able to prove it, and thereupon would set my life. I preached, quoth I, a sermon at the cross, after the Queen came to the Tower; but therein was nothing said against the Queen, I take witness of all the audience, which was not small. I alleged also that he had, after examination, let me go at liberty after the preaching of that sermon.

Yea, but thou didst read thy lectures after, quoth he, against the commandment of the Council.

That did I not, quoth I; let that be proved, and let me die for it. Thus have you now against the law of God and man handled me, and never sent for me, never conferred with me, never spoken of any learning, till now that ye have gotten a whip to whip me with, and a sword to cut off my neck, if I will not condescend to your mind. This charity doth all the world understand.

I might and would have added, if I could have been suffered to speak, that it had been time enough to take away men's livings, and thereto to have imprisoned them, after they had offended the laws: for they are good citizens that break not laws, and worthy of praise and not of punishment. But their purpose is to keep men in prison, until they may catch them in their laws, and so kill them. I could and would have added the example of Daniel, who by a crafty-devised law was cast into the lion's den.

Also, I might have declared, that I most humbly desired to be set at liberty, sending my wife to him (Gardiner) with a supplication, being great with child, and with her eight honest women, or thereabout, to Richmond, at Christmas was a twelvemonth, while I was yet in my house.

Also, I wrote two supplications to him out of Newgate, and sent my wife many times to him. Master Gosnold also, that worthy man, who is now departed in the Lord, laboured for me, and so did divers other worthy men also take pains in the matter. These things declare my lord Chancellor's Antichristian charity, which is, that he hath and doth seek my blood, and the destruction of my poor wife and my ten children.

This is a short sum of the words which were spoken on the 28th day of January at afternoon, after that master Hooper had been the first, and master Cardmaker3 the second,

1 Yea, in answer to an affirmative question. (See note 3, page 35.) 2 Till ye have gotten a whip. and a sword. The laws of Richard IL., Henry IV., and Henry V. against heretics had been repealed, but were revived by an Act which was brought into the House of Commons on the 12th of December, 1554, and was passed by the Lords six weeks afterwards, that is to say, about six weeks before the date of Rogers's reference to it.

* John Hooper, Bishop of Worcester, had been brought before Gardiner at his house in Southwark on the 22nd of January, refused to acknowledge the Pope's supremacy, and was recommitted to the Fleet. On the 28th he had been summoned again before the Commissioners in the Church of St. Mary Overies, Southwark, then committed, like Rogers, to the Counter in Southwark till next morning, the 29th,

The Lord grant us grace to

in examination before me. stand together, fighting lawfully in his cause till we be smitten down together, if the Lord's will be so to permit it: for there shall not a hair of our heads perish against His will, but with His will. Whereunto the Lord grant us to be obedient unto the end, and in the end. Amen. Sweet, mighty, and merciful Lord Jesus, the Son of David and of God. Amen, Amen, let every true Christian say and pray.

Then the clock being, as I guessed, about four, the lord Chancellor said that he and the church must yet use charity with me; what manner of charity it is, all true Christians do well understand, namely, the same that the fox does with

BISHOP FOX. (From Queen Mary's Prayer Book; British Museum.) the chickens, and the wolf with the lambs, and he gave me respite till to-morrow, to see whether I would remember myself well to-morrow, and whether I would return to the Catholic Church, for so he called his Antichristian false church again, and repent, and they would receive me to mercy.

I said, that I was never out of the true Catholic Church, nor would be: but into his church would I by God's grace

never come.

Well, quoth he, then is our church false and Antichristian? Yes, quoth I.

And what is the doctrine of the sacrament? False, quoth I; and cast my hands abroad.

Then said one, that I was a player. To whom I answered not; for I passed not upon his mock.

Come again, quoth the lord Chancellor, to-morrow, between nine and ten.

I am ready to come again, whensoever ye call, quoth I. And thus was I brought by the sheriffs to the compter in Southwark, master Hooper going before me, and a great multitude of people being present, so that we had much to do to go in the streets.

Thus much was done the 28th day of January.

The second day, which was the 29th of January, we were sent for in the morning, about nine of the clock, and by the sheriffs fetched from the compter in Southwark to the church again, where we were the day before in the afternoon. And when master Hooper was condemned, as I understood afterwards, then sent they for me. Then the lord Chancellor said unto me:

Rogers, here thou wast yesterday, and we gave thes liberty to remember thyself this night, whether thou

the second day also of this second examination of John Rogers. Both cases were then disposed of, by excommunication and delivery to the secular armi. Rogers was burnt at Smithfield on the 4th of the next February, Hooper at Gloucester on the 9th, and Cardmaker, who had been prebendary of Wells, was burnt in Smithfield on the 30th of May. Yes. Replying to the negative proposition, not true and not Christian.

wouldest come to the holy Catholic Church of Christ again, or not. Tell us now, what thou hast determined, whether thou wilt be repentant and sorry, and wilt return again and take mercy.

My lord, quoth I, I have remembered myself right well, what you yesterday said to me, and desire you to give me leave to declare my mind, what I have to say thereunto; and that done, I shall answer you to your demanded question.

When I yesterday desired that I might be suffered by the Scriptures, and authority of the first, best, and purest Church, to defend my doctrine by writing, meaning not only of the primacy, but also of all the doctrine that ever I had preached, ye answered me, that it might not, and ought not to be granted me, for I was a private person; and that the parliament was above the authority of all private persons, and therefore the sentence thereof might not be found faulty and valueless by me, being only a private person. And yet, my lord, quoth I, I am able to show examples, that one man hath come into a General Council, and after the whole had determined and agreed upon an act or article, some one man coming in afterwards, hath by the Word of God, declared so pithily that the Council had erred in decreeing the said article, that he caused the whole Council to change, and alter their act or article before determined. And of these examples, I am able to show two.

I can also show the authority of Augustine; that when he disputed with a heretic, he would neither himself nor yet have the heretic to lean unto the determination of the two former Councils, of the which the one made for him, and the other for the heretic that disputed against him; but said that he would have the Scriptures to be their judge, which were common and indifferently for them both, and not proper to either of them.

Also, I could show, said I, the authority of a learned lawyer (Panormitanus),' who saith, that unto a simple layman who brings the Word of God with him, there ought more credit to be given, than to a whole Council gathered together. By these things will I prove that I ought not to be denied to say my mind, and to be heard against a whole parliament, bringing the Word of God for me and the authority of the old Church four hundred years after Christ, albeit that every man in the parliament had willingly and without respect of fear and favour agreed thereunto, which I doubt not a little of; especially seeing the like had been permitted in that old Church, even in general Councils, yea, and that in one of the chiefest Councils that ever was, unto which neither any acts of this parliament, nor yet any of the late general Councils of the bishops of Rome, ought to be compared. For, said I, if Henry the Eighth were alive, and should call a parliament, and begin to determine a thing (and here I would have alleged the example of the act of making the Queen a bastard, and of making himself the superior head; but I could not, being interrupted by one whom God forgive), then will ye (pointing to my lord Chancellor), and ye, and ye, and so ye all (pointing to the rest of the bishops), say Amen; yea, and if it like your grace, it is meet that it be so enacted.

Here my lord Chancellor would suffer me to speak no more, but bade me sit down, mockingly saying, that I was sent

1 Panormitanus. Antonio Beccadelli, of Palermo, lawyer, orator, and poet, died in 1471 When serving Alfonso of Arragon, King of Naples, he was sent in 1451 on a mission to Venice to obtain an armbone of Livy, in which negotiation he succeeded. He is said also to have sold an estate that he might buy for himself a discovered text of Livy.

for to be instructed of them, and I would take upon me to be their instructor.

My lord, quoth I, I stand and sit not-shall I not be suffered to speak for my life?

Shall we suffer thee to tell a tale, and to prate? quoth he. And with that he stood up, and began to face me, after his old arrogant proud fashion; for he perceived that I was in a way to have touched them somewhat, which he thought to hinder by dashing me out of my tale, and so he did. For I could never be suffered to come to my tale again, no, not to one word of it; but he had much like communication with me, as he had the day before, and as his manner is, taunt upon taunt, and check upon check. For in that case, being God's cause, I told him he should not make me afraid to speak.

See, what a spirit this fellow hath, said he; finding fault at mine accustomed earnestness, and hearty manner of speaking.

I have a true spirit, quoth I, agreeing and obeying the Word of God; and would further have said, that I was never the worse, but the better, to be earnest in a just and true cause, and in my Master Christ's matters; but I could not be heard.

And at length he proceeded towards his excommunication and condemnation, after that I had told him that his Church of Rome was the Church of Antichrist, meaning the false doctrine and tyrannical laws, with the maintenance thereof by cruel persecutions used by the bishops of the said church, of which the bishop of Winchester and the rest of his fellowbishops that are now in England are the chief members: of the laws I mean, quoth I, and not all the men and women which are in the Pope's Church.

Likewise, when I was said to have denied their sacrament, whereof he made his wonted reverent mention, more to maintain his kingdom thereby than for the true reverence of Christ's institution; more for his own and his popish generation's sake, than for religion or God's sake—I told him after what order I did speak of it; for the manner of his speaking was not agreeing to my words, which are before recited in the communication that we had on the 28th of January; wherewith he was not contented, but he asked the audience whether I had not simply denied the sacrament. They would have said and done what he listed, for the most of them were of his own servants at that day; the 29th of January I mean. At the last I said, I will never deny what I said, which is, That your doctrine of the sacrament is false; but yet I tell you after what order I said it.

To be short, he read my condemnation before me, particularly mentioning therein but two articles; first, that I affirmed the Romish Catholic Church to be the Church of Antichrist; and that I denied the reality of their sacraments. He caused me to be degraded and condemned, and put into the hands of the laity, and so he gave me over into the sheriffs' hands, which were much better than his.

[Rogers here adds in Latin, and I give in English, with omission of a central lump of verbiage,]

The Sentence.

In the name of God, Amen. We, Stephen, by the permission of God, bishop of Winchester, lawfully and rightly proceeding, with all godly favour, by authority and virtue of our office, against thee, John Rogers, priest, alias called Mathew, before us personally here present, being accused and detected, and notoriously slandered of heresy; having heard, seen, and understood, and with all diligent deliberation, weighed, discussed, and considered the merits of the

cause, all things being observed, which by us in this behalf in order of law ought to be observed, sitting in our judgmentseat, the name of Christ being first called upon, and having God only before our eyes: Because, by the acts enacted, propounded, and exhibited in this matter, and by thine own confession, judicially made before us, we do find that thou hast taught, holden, and affirmed, and obstinately defended, divers errors, heresies, and damnable opinions, contrary to the doctrine and determination of the holy church; as, namely, these, that the Catholic Church of Rome is the Church of Antichrist; also, that in the sacrament of the altar there is not, substantially nor really, the natural body and blood of Christ. We therefore, albeit, following the example of Christ, which would not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should convert and live, we have gone about oftentimes to correct thee, and by all lawful means that we could, and all wholesome admonitions that we did know, to reduce thee again unto the true faith and unity of the Universal Catholic Church, notwithstanding have found thee obstinate and stiff-necked, willingly continuing in thy damnable opinions and heresies, and refusing to return again unto the true faith and unity of the holy mother church; and as the child of wickedness and darkness thou hast so hardened thy heart, that thou wilt not understand the voice of thy shepherd, which with a fatherly affection doth seek after thee, nor will be allured with his fatherly and godly admonitions.-We, therefore, Stephen, the bishop aforesaid, not willing that thou, which art wicked, shouldst now become more wicked, and infect the Lord's flock with thy heresy, which we are greatly afraid of, with sorrow of mind and bitterness of heart do judge thee, and definitively condemn thee, the said John Rogers, otherwise called Mathew, thy demerits and defaults being aggravated through thy damnable obstinacy, as guilty of most detestable heresies, and as an obstinate impenitent sinner, refusing penitently to return to the lap and unity of the holy mother church, and that thou hast been and art by law excommunicate, and do pronounce and declare thee to be an excom. municated person. Also we pronounce and declare thee, being a heretic, to be cast out from the church, and left unto the judgment of the secular power, and now presently do leave thee as an obstinate heretic, and a person wrapped in the sentence of the great curse, to be degraded worthily for thy demerits (requiring them, notwithstanding, in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ, that this execution and punishment worthily to be done upon thee, may so be moderated, that the rigour thereof be not too extreme, nor yet the gentleness too much mitigated, but that it may be to the salvation of thy soul, to the extirpation, terror, and

conversion of the heretics, to the unity of the catholic faith), by this our sentence definitive, which we here lay upon and against thee, and do with sorrow of heart promulgate in this form aforesaid.

After this sentence being read, he sent us, master Hooper, I mean, and me, to the Clink, there to remain till night; and when it was dark they carried us, master Hooper going before with the one sheriff, and I coming after with the other, with bills and weapons enough, out of the Clink, and led us through the bishop's house, and so through St. Mary's churchyard, and so into Southwark, and over the bridge, in procession to Newgate, through the city. But I must show you this also, that when he had read the condemnation, he declared that I was in the great curse, and what a vengeable dangerous matter it was to eat and drink with us that were accursed, or to give us any thing; for all that did so, should be partakers of the same great curse.

Well, my lord, quoth I, here I stand before God and you, and all this honourable audience, and take Him to witness, that I never wittingly or willingly taught any false doctrine; and therefore have I a good conscience before God and all good men. I am sure that you and I shall come before a Judge that is righteous, before whom I shall be as good a man as you; and I nothing doubt but that I shall be found there a true member of the true Catholic Church of Christ, and everlastingly saved. And as for your false church, you need not excommunicate me forth of it. I have not been in it these twenty years, the Lord be thanked therefore! But now ye have done what you can, my lord, I pray you yet grant me one thing.

What is that? quoth he.

That my poor wife, being a stranger, may come and speak with me so long as I live. For she hath ten children that are hers and mine; and somewhat I would counsel her what were best for her to do.

No, quoth he; she is not thy wife.

Yes, my lord, quoth I, and hath been these eighteen years. Should I grant her to be thy wife? quoth he.

Choose you, quoth I, whether you will or not, she shall be so, nevertheless.

She shall not come at thee, quoth he.

Then I have tried out all your charity, said I. You make yourself highly displeased with the matrimony of priests, but Thereto he answered not, but looked, as it were, a-squint at it; and thus I departed, and saw him for the last time.

1 Here follows a plain statement of what stood in place of marriage among many of the clergy.

THE chief strength of our literature was still in its verse during Elizabeth's reign, but the growing energies of the country, spent abundantly on thought that touched men to the quick, added their own beauty and force also to English prose. A fashion spread from Italy through Europe which caused nearly all writing to be overlaid with ingenuities of thought and style; but in England the fresh life of the time gave dignity to any dress. Men slit their clothes for ornament, and padded them into deformity; they caught from abroad arts of false dignity, but had at home the true; no art, but a possession native to the soil and time. In literature, and in many of the outward forms of life, our fashions in Elizabeth's time came from Italy. Roger Ascham, who remained under Elizabeth still Latin Secretary, died in 1568, aged fifty-three. His widow two years after his death published his chief prose work, "The Schoolmaster." It was begun in 1563, for a reason which is thus told by his own preface to the book:

ROGER ASCHAM'S PREFACE TO 66 THE SCHOOLMASTER."

When the great plague was at London, the year 1563, the queen's majesty, Queen Elizabeth, lay at her castle of Windsor, where, upon the tenth day of December, it fortuned, that in Sir William Cecil's chamber, her highness's principal secretary, there dined together these personages: Mr. Secretary himself, Sir William Petre, Sir J. Mason, D. Wotton, Sir Richard Sackville, treasurer of the exchequer, Sir Walter Mildmay, chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Haddon, master of requests, Mr. John Astley, master of the jewel-house, Mr. Bernard Hampton, Mr. Nicasius, and I. Of which number the most part were of Her Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, and the rest serving her in very

-A.D. 1558 TO A.D. 1603.

good place. I was glad, then, and do rejoice yet to remember, that my chance was so happy to be there that day, in the company of so many wise and good men together, as hardly then could have been picked out again out of all England beside.

Mr. Secretary1 hath this accustomed manner; though his head be never so full of most weighty affairs of the realm, yet at dinner-time he doth seem to lay them always aside; and findeth ever fit occasion to talk pleasantly of other matters, but most gladly of some matter of learning, wherein he will courteously hear the mind of the meanest at his

table.

Not long after our sitting down, "I have strange news brought me," saith Mr. Secretary, "this morning, that divers scholars of Eton be run away from the school for fear of beating." Whereupon, Mr. Secretary took occasion to wish that some more discretion were in many schoolmasters in using correction, than commonly there is; who many times punish rather the weakness of nature than the fault of the scholar; whereby many scholars, that might else prove well, be driven to hate learning before they know what learning meaneth; and so are made willing to forsake their book, and be glad to be put to any other kind of living.

Mr. Petre,2 as one somewhat severe of nature, said plainly.

1 Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, was 43 years old in 1563. Born in Lincolnshire, and educated at Cambridge, he began life with the study of law, but made his way at Court and became a Secretary of State under Edward VI. Though he held no office under Mary, he escaped persecution. Elizabeth, upon her accession, took him for her chief political adviser, as Secretary of State and Privy Councillor, and firmly trusted him until his death, in 1598.

Sir William Petre was about 60 in 1563. He was William Petre. son of a rich tanner, of Tor-Bryan, in Devonshire, entered to Exeter College, Oxford, but became Fellow of All Souls in 1523. He afterwards became successively Principal of Peckwater's Inn, one of the Visitors of Religious Houses when they were being dissolved, Master of the Requests and a Knight, Secretary and one of the Privy Council to