poral court ;; so one night his neck was broken with an iron chain, "and he was wounded in other parts of his body, and then knit up in his "own girdle, and it was given out that he had hanged himself; but the "coroner's inquest, by examining the body, and by several other evi"dences, particularly by the confession of the sumner, gave their ver"diet, that he was murdered by the bishop's chancellor, Dr. Horsey, "and the bell-ringer. The spiritual court proceeded against the dead "body, and charged Hun with all the heresy in Wickliffe's preface to "the bible, because that was found in his possession; so he was con"demned as an heretic, and his body was burnt. The indignation of "the people was raised to the highest pitch against this action, in which " they implicated the whole body of the clergy, whom they esteemed no more their pastors, but barbarous murderers. The rage went so high that the bishop of London complained, that he was not safe in "his own house. The bishops, chancellor, and sumner were indicted "as principals in the murder. In parliament an act passed, restoring "Hun's children; but the commons sent up a bill concerning his murder, which was laid aside by the peers, where the spiritual lords had "the majority."

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This account, we find is not from Fox, reader, though it is fastened upon him by the modern editors; but is extracted from "The Abridg"ment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England, by "GILBERT BURNET, D.D." an author of equal veracity as Fox, and as great a liar and romancer. The event is here said to have been productive of great consequences, yet so little was the death of Hun thought of by our most popular historians, that Rapin, who was a Calvinist, and has enlarged a great deal on the supposed persecutions of the Catholic clergy, takes no notice of the circumstance at all; neither does Mr. Echard, who was a divine of the established church, make mention of Hun's death; and Dr. Lingard in his recent admirable history notices it but slightly, as a legend unauthenticated. Stow says nothing of the barbarous circumstances narrated by Burnet, nor of the trial of the bishop, &c. He merely says,-" Richard Hun, a merchant tailor, of London, "dwelling in the parish of St. Margaret, in Bridge-street, who (for deny"ing to give a mortuary, such as was demanded by the parson for his "child being buried) had been put in the Lollards tower, about the end " of October last, was now the 6th of December, found hanged with his "own girdle of silk in the said tower, and after he was burned in Smithfield." This was in the year 1514, and the 6th of Henry's reign. We are not going to justify the treatment of this man, because the circumstances are not clearly before us, and the authority of Burnet, who, by the by, was a bishop of William the Dutchman's making, we believe, and the originator of that huge debt which now presses the country to the ground, and steeps the people in misery and poverty, is no authority at all, seeing he neither gives dates nor names. Is it to be supposed that a murder so circumstantially related by Burnet, and attended with such horrid cruelties, would not have been more minutely detailed by Stow, if the circumstances had been true? There cannot be a doubt bnt he would have noticed it more fully, especially if the indignation of the people had been so great as to implicate the WHOLE BODY of the clergy. The story is evidently a tissue of falsehoods, interwoven

with a simple fact, and fabricated for the express purpose of inflaming the people against the ancient religion of the country. That our conjecture is true there is every reason to suppose, and we are sure the reader will agree with us when he has read the following article from this Book of Martyrs.

"PERSECUTION OF THE LOLllards.

"In the beginning of this reign, several persons were brought into "the bishops' courts for heresy, or Lollardism. Forty-eight were ac"cused: but of these, forty-three abjured, twenty-seven men and six"teen women, most of them being of Tenterden; and five of them, "four men and one women, were condemned; some as obstinate he"retics, and others as relapses: and, against the common laws of nature, the woman's husband, and her two sons, were brought as witnesses against her. Upon their conviction, a certificate was made by the archbishop to the chancery: upon which, since there is no pardon upon record, the writs for burning them must have been is"sued in course, and the execution of them is little to be doubted. The "articles objected to them were, that they believed that in the eucha"rist there was nothing but material bread; that the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, confession, matrimony, and extreme unction, were neither necessary nor profitable; that priests had no more power than laymen; that pilgrimages were not meritorious, and that "the money and labour spent in them were spent in vain; that images ought not to be worshipped, and that they were only stocks and stones; that prayers ought not to be made to saints, but only to God; "that there was no virtue in holy water, or holy bread. By this it will appear, that many in this nation were prepared to receive those doc"trines which were afterwards preached by the reformers, even before "Luther began first to oppose indulgences."

This is as pretty a piece of trickery as we have met with in the course of our review of this Book of Martyrs, and proves the shifts to which our modern editors are reduced to make out their charge of persecution. This extract we find in Burnet's Abridgment, almost verbatim, with the following passage, however, suppressed. "Those who ab

jured, did swear to discover all that held those errors, or were suspected of them; and they were enjoined to carry a fagot in proces“sion, and to wear on their clothes the representation of one in flames, as a public confession that they had deserved to be burnt. There were "also four in London that abjured almost the same opinions; and FOX "SAYS, that six were burnt in Smithfield, who MIGHT be PERHAPS "those whom Warham had condemned; for there is no mention of any "that were condemned in the registers of London." This passage should come in between the words "holy bread." and "By this," in the 4th line of the extract above from the bottom. So, then, here are charges made of proceedings "against the common laws of nature," and burnings taking place, upon mere conjecture. There are no registers in the regular courts, and yet they "MIGHT be PERHAPS" burned, because Fox says there were six that suffered in Smithfield.-Dr. Lingard writes, "In Henry's third and thirteenth years the teachers of Lollardism had "awakened by their intemperance the zeal of the bishops; and the

"king by proclamation, charged the civil magistrates to lend their aid to "the spiritual authorities. Of the numbers brought before the primate " and the bishops of London and Lincoln, almost all were induced to abjure; a few of the more obstinate, forfeited their lives." And the authorities the doctor relies upon are Fox and Burnet, as we judge by a reference, so that, on the whole, we may conclude, for want of better evidence, that the number of sufferers, while the bishops continued faithful to their creed, were trifling indeed. Here let it be understood that we are not justifying the act of burning for heresy, but only detecting the extravagant and unfounded tales, so basely coined by Fox and his followers, to delude the credulous, and excite hatred against truth. What can we think of the veracity of the writer, and the gullibility of his readers, when such narratives as we have just recorded; are published and believed, and believed too by a people hitherto priding themselves as the most enlightened in the world! Here, as we have frequently remarked, are neither dates nor names, whereby the accuracy of the circumstances can be ascertained or detailed; it is even confessed by the original writer, though that fact is suppressed by the modern editors, a few plain Christians," that there is no mention of any persons being condemned in the registers of London; it is stated, that there is no record of pardon, and yet it is brazenly insinuated, that because there is no pardon there must have been executions!!! But we trust the time is now come, when the people of England will think for themselves, and not take every shallow and inconsistent narrative that dwells upon the supposed cruelties of ancient Catholic times for gospel truths. Is it not more probable, that since there were no regis ters of executions, and no record of pardon in the chancery, and the authors and editors were unable to give a name to the sufferers, that these martyrs are only victims of straw-phantoms of the imagination, conjured up for the basest of purposes, and reflecting indelible disgrace on those who have been so besotted as to give credit to such villanous fabrications?

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With regard to the doctrinal articles which are here objected to, we have proved beyond dispute, in our first volume of this work, from the testimony of the fathers of the first five ages of the church, when she is allowed by Protestants to have been pure, that they were taught and believed by that church, as derived from the apostles; they were received by the Saxons, when Catholicism was first planted in the island, by St. Augustin; they continued to be believed by the people from that time to Henry's reign; and is it consistent with common sense, that a few ignorant men, unversed in history, uninformed of the real sense of scripture, and unacquainted with the sentiments of the fathers and doctors of the church, whose writings were then confined to the libraries of the colleges and bishops? Is it consistent, we say, with common sense, that these illiterate people should set up their silly and vain notions in opposition to the genenal voice of the kingdom? Is it consistent with common sense to believe that they only were right and all the rest of the world were wrong? But what shall we think of such men as Fox and Burnet, who both held benefices in the Church of England, applauding fanatics who held, among other opinions," that priests "had no more power than laymen?" If this were true, why did Fox

OF

For's Book of Martyrs,

CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL.

No. 32. Printed and Published by W. E. ANDREWS, 3, Chapter- Price 3d. house-court, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.

EXPLANATION OF THE ENGRAVING.-This cut represents the martyrdom of the learned and virtuous John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, for refusing to acknowledge the lustful Henry the Eighth supreme head of the Church of England,

and Burnet officiate as clergymen? We will not say as priests, because they were not entitled to that sacred character, as both disavowed the great Christian sacrifice of the Mass, which was celebrated by the apostles, by the command of their Divine Master, and has been celebrated by the priests of the Catholic church from that time to this. These two worthies would, no doubt, have sent Master John Wickliffe to the stake with very little ceremony, had he been alive in their time and endeavoured to oust them of their livings; but as he was opposed to the then order of things, that is, to a Catholic establishment and some doctrines of the Catholic church, though he held the chief of what Fox and Burnet deny, these rogues in grain seized the opportunity of making him an instrument to blind the people of England by misrepresenting facts, and making him the apostle of truth, when he was the preacher of error. For example; the Lollards are represented as objecting to the sacrament of baptism, as being neither profitable nor necessary. Now Fox and Burnet's church by law established expressly says in her Catechism, that baptism IS necessary to salvation.

Could

then these Lollards preach a true doctrine, and the church of England be right at the same time? But enough has been said to shew the palpable discrepancies amongst these reformers, or rather deformers, of religion, and pretended martyrs to truth.

PROGRESS OF LUTHER'S DOCTRINE.

We must here remind the reader that we are not Reviewing the work of John Fox, but of the right reverend father in God, GILBERT BURNETT, bishop of Sarum, who wrote a History of his own Time, which work for lying and misrepresentation was a counterpart of John Fox's notorious Acts and Monuments of the Church, commonly called the Book of Martyrs. This History by Burnett being too bulky and expensive for general circulation, he made an abridgment of it, and it is from this abridgment the "few plain Christians" have extracted the account of the

are well

progress of the Reformation," as coming from Fox's pen.. These things premised, let us now see what this famous, or rather infamous, writer and church of England bishop had to say on Luther's preaching. "The rise and progress of the doctrines of Luther," he says, known; the scandalous sale of indulgences gave the first occasion to "all that followed between him and the church of Rome; in which, "had not the corruptions and cruelties of the clergy been so visible "and scandalous, so small a cause could never have produced so great

:

a revolution. The bishops were grossly ignorant; they seldom re"sided in their dioceses, except on great festivals; and all the effect "their residence at such times could have, was to corrupt others by "their ill example. They attached themselves to princes, and aspired to the greatest offices. The abbots and monks were wholly given up "to luxury and idleness; and their unmarried state gave infinite scan"dal to the world for it appeared, that the restraining them from having wives of their own, made them conclude that they had a right "to all other men's. The inferior clergy were no better: and not having places of retreat to conceal their vices in, as the monks had, they became more public. In short, all ranks of churchmen were so "universally despised and hated, that the world was very easily pos"sessed with prejudice against the doctrines of men whom they knew "to be capable of every vice; and the worship of God was so defiled "with gross superstition, that all men were easily convinced, that the "church stood in great need of a reformation. This was much increased when the books of the fathers began to be read, in which the differ"ence between the former and latter ages of the church, did very evidently appear. It was found that a blind superstition came first in "the room of true piety; and when by its means the wealth and in"terest of the clergy were highly advanced, the popes had upon that "established their tyranny; under which all classes of people had long

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groaned. All these things concurred to make way for the advance"ment of the reformation; and, the books of the German reformers "being brought into England, and translated, many were prevailed on by them. Upon this, a furious persecution was set on foot, to such a degree, that six men and women were burnt in Coventry in passionweck, only for teaching their children the creed, the Lord's prayer, "and the ten commandments in English. Great numbers were every