LII. added, "Blessed am I, that am cursed at your hands. We CHAP. "have nothing now for law, but Thus will I. For as the "Bishop saith, so must it be." He valiantly underwent Anno 1557. the cruel death of burning, in the month of November, Is burnt. with two more in Smithfield, named Halingdale and Spar row. 413 racter. By all the foregoing relations, we may note the boldness His chaand great abilities of this man. For as he was a personable, stout, and comely man of body, so he was of vigour and activity of mind too. This and many other excellent men did the Bishop of London bring to their ends. CHAP. LIII. The persecution hot still. Ralph Allerton, martyr. Dr. FOR the heat of the persecution abated not at all (as was The per- Essex. CHAP. ence. That they assembled upon the Lord's days in time LIII. "of service, sometimes in one house, and sometimes in anAnno 1557.“ other, and there kept their schools of heresy, as he wrote. "Nor did the officers care to do what was enjoined them "for discovery. The jurats said, the commission was "out, and that they were discharged of their oaths.' That "the quest-men in the archdeacon's visitation alleged, that "forasmuch as the two-and-twenty had been once presented "and sent home, they had no more to do with them.” These two-and-twenty were sent up to Boner from Colchester side, upon the charge of heresy laid against them by the commissioners; but, upon a slight submission, by means, as is said, of Cardinal Pole, dismissed, and sent home again: but herein the Council, now in a good mood, had the chief hand. For one Boswel, secretary to Bishop Boner, said, "The Council sent them not home without good con"sideration." ed. Colchester, Ty wrote also, "That at Colchester (where but a little how affect- "before ten had been burnt) the rebels, as he called them, "were stout. That the parish priests were hemmed at in "the open streets, and called knaves; the sacrament blas414" phemed and reviled at in every house and tavern; prayer "and fasting not regarded; seditious talk and noise was "rife both in town and country, in as ample and large "manner, as though there had been no honourable lords "and commissioners sent for the reformation thereof." This information was writ December 18. This letter provoked much, and set the bloodhounds upon a new scent and search after good men and women; and ended in the burning of nine more in one day in Colchester. Ralph Al tyr. And which was to be remarked, the friends and relations lerton, mar- of these Essex men imprisoned, instead of exhorting them to comply, subscribe, and recant, and so save their own lives, and restore themselves to their liberty; wives and children did, on the contrary, earnestly persuade them to hold out, and that even to death. A letter of this nature I find written to one Ralph: whom I conclude to be Ralph Allerton, that suffered martyrdom with three Essexians more at Islington this year, and lived at Bentley aforesaid CHAP. on Colchester side. He was a tailor by trade, as I con- LIII. jecture by Boner's often calling him pricklouse, according Anno 1557. to his rude way of misnaming such as came before him: but having good learning, did use to read the English Testament, and other good books, and to pray with the welldisposed professors, meeting together in houses and woods, and sometimes in churches too: which Allerton continued to do, till he was taken by the Lord Darcy in the year 1556, and brought up to the Council, who sent him to Bishop Boner; when out of fear he subscribed, and made a recantation at Paul's Cross; but was exceedingly afflicted in his mind in what he had done; and soon recovered, and went on in the same course he had done before, but with more zeal and constancy: insomuch that almost all the inhabitants of those parts became professors. He being taken again in the beginning of this year by the information of Ty, and some other sworn men, boldly stood to the confession of the truth. And being in prison, he writ his examinations, with some letters, with his own blood instead of ink; which are preserved in Fox. During this last imprisonment, a spiritual brother named Foster, and a spiritual sister named Tyms, (the wife of the one and the husband of the other dying in the flames,) wrote him the letter aforesaid, for his confirmation, and it had its effect; for he made a good confession and a resolute end. This letter, among other such like monuments, I have preserved in the Cata- N°. LXIX. logue. Essex. Several other pious men in the said county of Essex, Several dethat preached and exhorted, and travelled about for the tected in benefit and edification of the professors of the gospel in those parts, whom Ty also discovered to the Bishop, were these; Mr. Laurence of Barnhall, John Barry, his servant, John Jeffrey, Robert Coles, and John Ledley. These two last named were great concealers and harbourers of good men; and resorted to the King's Bench, to the prisoners there, about matters of religion. And they went over sea to some of the Protestants in exile, to carry intelligence of LIII. CHAP. the state of religion at home, and to propound certain questions concerning religion, and to know their advice and Anno 1557.judgment. There were also these: William Punt, who wrote books concerning some pious confessors and martyrs in these days, their doings, sayings, and sufferings; and caused them to be printed abroad, and brought over hi415 ther; and among the rest, a book against the errors of Anabaptists: John Kemp, a great traveller into Kent for furthering religion: William Pulleyn, alias Smith; William a Scot; these two travelled over to the Duchess of Suffolk, having been her chaplains: Henry Hart, he was the principal of the free-will men; so they were termed by the predestinators. This man drew up thirteen articles to be observed among his company; and there came none into their brotherhood, except he were sworn. Bensfield an informer. Professors Besides this Ty, the priest aforenamed, there was also, among others, one Denys Benfield, of this county, a busy informer against the gospellers. Of this man, I find this memorial, written by John Fox, on the backside of one of his letters: "Denys Benfield stricken black on one side, "and speechless." This for Essex. And in London, notwithstanding all the burning in in London. Smithfield, during the three years last past, yet great were the numbers there that professed the gospel, increasing considerably, as it seemed, or at least shewing themselves more boldly towards the latter end of the Queen's reign. A long catalogue of their names, procured by Boner's spies, his chancellor Darbishire had gotten, and read them to one Lyving, a priest, and prisoner for the gospel; for this end and purpose, to make him acknowledge how many of them he knew, that he might accuse and bring others. into a snare. In the said city they met frequently this year and the following in great numbers. And it was one of the articles put to Sympson, once a tailor, now deacon_of a congregation, and a martyr, "That he and others had "been at assemblies and conventicles, where there were "considerable numbers of people gathered together to hear "the English service set forth in King Edward's reign, "and to hear God's word, and to have the communion CHAP. "ministered." LIII. under dis Chron. But to turn to some other matters. Westminster church Anno 1555. Dr. Weston, being last year turned into a monastery, consisting of an dean of abbot and monks, when Dr. Weston, the dean, was required Windsor, to resign up the church for that use, and he to be removed pleasure. to the deanery of Windsor, he refused so to do: but being Cooper's hereby under the displeasure of the Cardinal and the Bishops, at last he did it unwillingly, moved thereunto by importunate suit. He was a man, that though he maintained the Church of Rome, yet he was no friend to monks and religious men. About this time at Windsor he was taken in adultery; for which the Cardinal deprived him of all his spiritual preferments: but he appealed to Rome, as dealt unjustly with, and would have fled out of the realm, but was taken in the way, and cast into the Tower of London and there remained till Queen Elizabeth was proclaimed, when he was delivered: but soon after fell sick, and died. It was the general opinion, that if he had lived, he would, out of his anger towards the bishops and clergy of Queen Mary, have revealed a purpose of theirs, which was, to have digged up the body of King Henry at Windsor, and burned it for an heretic. ; racter. To speak the truth of him, he cannot be represented well His chato posterity; he was a mercenary man. Being a man of boldness, and of some learning, much use was made of him in the beginning of the Queen's reign. He was appointed prolocutor in the first convocation. He was the chief commissioner sent down to Oxford, when Cranmer, Ridley, and 416 Latymer were to be baited; and there he domineered, and in the end cried victory. As soon as that job was done, away he comes to London; and was at the execution of Wyat; who, when he, upon the scaffold, had cleared the Lady Elizabeth and the Lord Courtney from having any hand in his business, (though before the Council, upon hope of his pardon, he had charged them to have been privy to it,) Weston stood up, and cried to the people, not to believe him, and that he had confessed otherwise before |