cord, and suffered himself to fall down upon an old shed or penthouse, which, with the weight of his body, fell in with great noise. He was very much hurt and stunned by the fall, and broke his right leg and right arm, but the watermen ran in immediately to his assistance, and carried him away to their boat. Here he soon came to himself, and, feeling the cord, remembered his coat which he had left in the fall, which he desired one of the watermen to go and bring him. And when they were now advanced in their way, he bethought himself of the cord, and told the watermen, that if they did not return to fetch it, the poor gentlewoman that had given it him would certainly be put to trouble. But it was now too late, for the noise having alarmed the jailor, and others in the neighbourhood, they came to the place, and finding the cord, immediately suspected what the matter was, and made what search they could to find the priest, but in vain, for the watermen who had carried him off took proper care to conceal him and keep him safe till he was cured: but God was pleased, that, instead of one who thus escaped from prison, two others, upon this occasion, should meet with the crown of martyrdom, as we shall now see. For the jailor seeing the cord, and being convinced that no one but Mrs. Ward could have brought it to the prisoner, and having before found out where she lived, sent early in the morning justices and constables to the house, who, rushing in, found her up, and just upon the point of going out in order to change her lodgings. They immediately apprehended her and carried her away to prison, where they loaded her with irons, and kept her in this manner for eight days. Dr. Champney and father Ribadaneira add, that they hung her up by the hands, and cruelly scourged her, which torments she bore with wonderful courage, saying," they were preludes of martyrdom with which, by the grace of God, she hoped she should be honoured. After eight days she was brought to the bar, where, being asked by the judges if she was guilty of that treachery to the queen and to the laws of the realm, of furnishing the means by which a traitor of a priest, as they were pleased to call him, had escaped from justice, she answered, with a cheerful countenance in the affirmative, and that she never in her life had done any thing of which she less repented, than of the delivering that innocent lamb from the hands of those bloody wolves. They sought to terrify her by their threats, and to oblige her to confess where the priest was, but in vain, and therefore they proceeded to pronounce sentence of death upon her, as in cases of felony; but, withal, they told her that the queen was merciful, and that if she would ask pardon of her majesty, and would promise to go to church, she should be set at liberty, otherwise she must look for nothing but certain death. She answered, that as to the queen, she had never offended her majesty, and that it was not just to confess a fault by asking pardon for it where there was none: that as to what she had done in favouring the priest's escape, she believed the queen herself, if she had the bowels of a woman, would have done as much, if she had known the ill-treatment he underwent. That as to the going to their church, she had, for many years, been convinced that it was not lawful for her so to do, and that she found no reason now to change her mind, and would not act against her conscience, and therefore they might proceed, if they pleased, to the execution of the sentence pronounced against her, for that death, for such a cause, would be very welcome to her, and that she was willing to lay down not one life only, but many, if she had them, rather than betray her conscience, or act against her duty to God and his holy reli gion. She was executed at Tyburn, August 30, 1588, shewing to the end a wonderful constancy and alacrity, by which the spectators were much moved and greatly edified. Whilst these things were acting, Mr. Watson was under cure in the waterman's house, who, as soon as he was recovered, thought proper to withdraw further from danger; and that he might be the better disguised, changed cloaths with the waterman, who joyfully accepted the change, and put on, with great devotion, the cloathes of one whom he regarded as a confessor of Christ. But not long after, walking in the streets, he met the jailor, who took notice of the clothes, and caused him to be apprehended and carried before a justice of the peace, where, being examined how he came by those clothes, he confessed the whole truth, upon which he was committed, prosecuted, and condemned; and making the same answers as Mrs. Ward had done with regard to the begging the queen's pardon and going to church, he endured the same death with much spiritual joy in his soul, and a constancy which many admired, and were very much edified by it. 389 1598 4 Richard Horner, Priest, Martyr. 1605 5 William Browne, Layman, Mart. 1644 7 John Duckett, Priest, Martyr. Ralph Corby, Priest, S. J. Mart. 1641 10 Edward Barlow, Priest, O.S. B. 1585 15 Thirty-two Priests and two Laymen, banished. 1604 16 Lawrence Baily, Layman, Mart. 1588 23 William Wray, Priest, Martyr. 1589 24 William Spencer, Priest, Martyr. Robert Hardesty, Layman, Mart. Thos. Jenison, Priest, S. J. Conf. William Pikes, Layman, Mart. Thomas Greenway, Priest, Mart. John Stone, Priest, O.S. B. and two others, Martyrs. 1679 27 11 Geo. Bradbridge and Jas. Tutty, 1591 1535 12 Thos. Hayward and John Gorey, 1538 13 Robert Glover, Martyr. 14 Cornelius Bungay, Martyr. 1556 15 Edward Sharpe, and a nameless 16 John Hart and Thomas Ravens- 17 John Horne & a Woman, Marts. 18 John Curd and Cecily Ormes, 1557 19 Ralph Allerton, Richard Roth, In this month Fox has introduced a few more of the Wickliffiau martyrs, and three confessors. He has also left two days of the ancient calendar, namely, St. Matthew, the apostle and evangelist, and St. Michael, the archangel, on which latter day the Catholic church honours all the angels of God. 1. Father Abraham, Martyr. He was a poor old man of Colchester, burned for Lollardism and Wickliffianism in the time of Henry the sixth. His particular opinions are not known nor recited by Fox. 2. William White, Priest, Martyr. He was an apostate priest, who, imbibing Wickliffe's doctrine, forsook his priestly state and took a young woman for a companion; for which he was apprehended, but recanting his opinions and promising future good behaviour, he was released from confinement. Relapsing, however, into his former ways, he was again seized and burned at Norwich. 3. John Waddon, Priest, Martyr. He was another Wickliffian priest, who suffered in the reign of the same king. The only authority stated by Fox for inserting the three foregoing saints in his calendar is, that he found their names in a certain old register whereof the greater part could not be read. Fox cites the king's letters to John Exeter, keeper of Colchester castle, and others, bearing date the 6th of July, and sixth of his reign, for the apprehension of persons suspected of heresy and Lollardy. Now if we consider the condition and circumstances of that time, it will be found that England was much occupied in wars with France, and had had to endure a long continuance of civil war between the two houses of York and Lancaster, besides seditions and rebellions occasioned by the doctrines of Wickliffe. The eastern parts of the kingdom were much infected by the Lollards, of whom numbers were apprehended, but abjuring publicly their opinions were set at liberty. Some few, however, of the ringleaders remaining obstinate and daring were made examples of, not so much on account of their heresy as on account of the treason and sedition that lodged in their opinions. Why Abraham is stiled a father is not related by Fox, who gives no other account of him than "that father Abraham of Colchester was burned for like opinions that the two priests White and Waddon were." These opinions, however, might have been as distant as the poles, since we are only left to conjecture about them. Of the priest White Fox thus writes:-"This William White, being a follower of John Wickliffe, and a priest, not after the common sort, but as the scripture saith, 'a morning star in the midst of a cloud,' &c. he gave over his priesthood and benefice, and took unto him a godly woman to his wife, named Joan, notwithstanding he did not therefore cease or leave his former office and duty, but continually laboured to the glory of his spouse Christ, by reading, writing, and preaching. Whereupon he being attacked at Canterbury under the archbishop, Henry Chichesley, in the year of our Lord 1424, he there, for a certain space, stoutly and manly witnessed the truth which he had preached," &c. After writing thus of this William White, Fox confesses that he publicly abjured and recanted all his former opinions; but that some time after he relapsed into the same, for which " he was brought before William bishop of Norwich, by whom he was convicted and condemned of thirty articles, and there was burned in Norwich in the month of September, anno 1424." "Which number of years," remarks father Parsons, "notwithstanding cannot agree either with that which himself setteth down in his calendar, that he was martyred upon the year 1428, or with that which the king's letters beforementioned for the apprehension of this William White doth testify, naming the sixth year of his reign, which was indeed the aforesaid year 1428. So that Fox never commonly is found true or exact in his account of time, if you compare one place with another. And this (continues father Parsons) is all in effect that he writeth of this William White, priest, and his fellow John Waddon, like priest to himself, but only that he addeth, that sir William White's young wife was so kind to her husband, and so forward and zealous inc teaching and preaching, as she would never leave him, nor he her.→ 'He going into Norfolk (saith Fox) with bis said wife Joan, and there occupying himself busily in teaching, he was at length apprehended,' &c. And again, Whose said wife Joan, following her husband's footsteps according to her power, teaching and sowing abroad the same doctrine, confirmed many men in God's truth,' &c. And Fox finally, having told us how this said William White and his woman Joan, (for his wife she could not be, he having a solemn vow to the contrary) had their most abode at the house of one Thomas Moone, of Ludney, and from thence spread the gospel, he addeth, for a proof of his great holiness, these words: That all the people had him in such reverence, as they desired him to pray for themn, insomuch that one Margaret Wright confessed, that if any saints were to be prayed to, she would rather pray to him than to any other,' &c. All this relateth Fox of this Wickliffian abjured martyr, which I cannot see why, or for what cause or reason, he may be accounted for so great a saint of John Fox's church at all, but only for taking to himself the young woman Joan against his vow of chastity, for in all other articles (or the most part) he was opposite and contrary. So as the making a good Protestant of a priest, consisteth, by Fox, in taking a young woman when he groweth lascivious," 4. William Gardener, Martyr. This William Gardener was the servant of a merchant at Bristol, who sent him to Portugal in the reign of Edward the sixth, and in the 26th year of his age, to act as factor to his master. Here he committed one of the most desperate and atrocious acts that ever was heard of in any Christian country, for which he is honoured by Fox, having been burned for the same, as a true Protestant martyr. "The fact was," writes father Parsons, "that he (Gardener) being come from England unto Lisbon upon the year 1552, drunken with heresy, as many young apprentices of profession were at that time, being towards the end of king Edward's reign, and finding the use of Catholic religion in great honour and celebrity there, according to the devotion of that excellent city, this young English proselyte, pricked on with pride, thought to make himself famous by some notable wicked attempt against the same, as Erostratus in old time, by setting fire to the temple of Diana; and to this effect, seeing one day a great solemnity in Lisbon, at the marriage of the king of Portugal's eldest son, viz. prince John, son of king John the 3d, with the daughter of Charles the emperor, the miserable wretch, getting into the church, and creeping near to the high altar, unespied among so great a multitude of princes and people as that day were present, did, whilst mass was saying by prince Henry, cardinal (afterwards king of Portugal), rush suddenly to the said altar, and overthrowing the |