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John Day

(1522 - 1584)

Printer. Of London. [See Elizabeth Evenden, 'Patents and Patronage: The Life and Career of John Day, Tudor Printer', (unpublished PhD thesis, York University, 2002).]

John Day was imprisoned in Mary's reign for religion. John Rogers predicted to Day, when they were both in prison, that the gospel would be restored to England. 1563, p. 1037; 1570, p. 1663; 1576, p. 1419; 1583, p. 1492.

William Cooke was sent to prison for persuading John Day to print Gardiner's De Vera Obedientia. 1563, p. 1681.

Drainer went to see the printer John Day and verbally attacked him for his portrayal in Foxe's work. Day derided him by calling him Justice Nine Holes and saying that he knew that Drainer had denied his real reason for drilling the holes. Drainer was alleged to have claimed in Cheapside to have drilled the holes to look on women. Drainer denied drilling all the holes and said that the parson drilled some also. . 1563, p. 1730, 1576, p. 2002, 1583, p. 2113.

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John Peter said on many occasions that if things were not true God should let him rot. He died of a disease that caused his body to rot. John Day the printer was witness to this. 1570, p. 2300, 1576, p. 1992, 1583, p. 2101.

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John Whiteman

Martyr. Shoemaker. Married man. Of Brabant but moved to Rye, Sussex. 1583, p. 2113.

John Whiteman travelled by ship to Ostend in 1572 where he objected in Dutch to a catholic service he attended. 1583, p. 2113.

Whiteman was arrested and sentenced to have his hand cut off, his body scorched and hanged. 1583, p. 2113.

Witnesses to the death of John Whitman were Cuthbert Carr and Bartholomew Bellington. 1583, p. 2113.

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Rye

Rie, Rye, [Ryd]

NGR: TQ 920 206

A Cinq Port, borough and parish, having separate jurisdiction, locally in the hundred of Gostrow, rape of Hastings, county of Sussex. 76 miles south-east by east from Chichester, 63 miles south-east by east from London. The living is a discharged vicarage in the Archdeaconry of Lewes, Diocese of Chichester.

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English information from Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England (S. Lewis & Co: London, 1831)

Scottish information from Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (S. Lewis & Co: London, 1846)

Welsh information taken from Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales(Lewis & Co: London, 1840)

The reason for the use of these works of reference is that they present the jurisdictional and ecclesiastical position as it was before the major Victorian changes. The descriptions therefore approximate to those applying in the sixteenth century, after the major changes of 1535-42. Except for the physical locations, which have not changed, the reader should not therefore take these references as being accurate in the twenty-first century.

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MarginaliaAnno 1558.held not vp his hands therto: which persōs so not doing, he would trouble & punish very sore. Wherby he purchased a name ther, & is called to this day Iustice nine holes: who now (God be thanked) is Iohn out of office, & glad of his neighbors good will.

It so fell out, that since this was published, the sayde Drayner came to the Printers house, with other associate, demaunding: Is Foxe here? to whome aunswere was geuen, that maister Foxe was not within. Is the Printer within (quoth Drayner? It was aunswered, yea: Wherevpon being required to come vp into his house, was asked what his will was. Mary, sayth he, you haue printed me false in your booke: Why sayth the Printer is not your name M. Drayner, otherwise called Iustice nine holes? It is false sayth he: I made but v. with a great Augure, and the Parson made the rest. It was answered: I haue not read that a Iustice shoulde make him a place in the Roode loft to see if the people held vppe theyr handes. He sayd where as you alleadge, that I did it to see who adored þ^e sacrament, or who not, it is vntrue: for I set as litle by it, as the best of you all. In deede sayth the Printer, so we vnderstand now, for you being at a supper in Cheapside among certaine honest company, and there burdened with the matter, sayd then, that you did it rather to looke vpon fayre wenches, then otherwise. He being in a great rage, sware to the purpose, saying: Can a man speake nothing, but you must haue vnderstāding therof? But sayth he, did I any man any hurt? It was aunswered, that hee meant litle good to M. Doddes aforesayd, especially procuring a secret witnesse behinde his doore, to catche some wordes that might tend to Doddes destruction. Whiche thing Drayner sware, as before, was not true. MarginaliaDrayner conuict of falsehood.To whō the printer replied, that it was most true, for that the party there secretly hidden, hath since vpon his knees, asking forgeuenesse for his intent, confessed the same to Doddes himselfe. I will hang that knaue sayth he: And so he departed in a rage: and since is deceased, whose death & order ther of, I referre to the secret Iudge.

MarginaliaA lamentable history of Iohn Whiteman showmaker.IOhn Whiteman Shoomaker, being about the age of 49. yeares, borne in Tinen a towne in Brabant. After hys comming ouer into England, dwelt in Rye in the County of Sussex, maryed xxiij. yeares: alwayes a professour of the Gospell, as well in the time of the freedome therof, as in time of persecution. About Candlemas in the yeare 1572. vnknowne to his frendes in Rye, vnderstanding of shipping in Rye, which was ready bound for Ostend in Flaunders, went aboorde the Saterday morning and arriued at Ostend that night, where he lodged wyth one of his kinsmē there dwelling. The next day being Sonday, in the morning, he accompanyed with his sayd kinsman, tooke his iourney as it were to haue passed hither into the countrey.

When they were about three mile on theyr way out of the Towne, sodeynely Whitman stayd, and would go no further: but immediatly returned back againe to Ostend, whither so soone as he was come, it being seruice tyme in theyr Church, he forthwith addressed himselfe thither, and at the time of the heaue offering stept to the sacrificer, and tooke from ouer his head his Idoll, saying these words in the Dutch tongue. Is this your God? and so breaking it, cast it downe vnder his feet and trode theron. MarginaliaIohn Whitman coulde not suffer the abhominable idolatry of the Papists. Forthwith the people in an vprore came to lay holde on him, and hardly in the Church escaped he death by the souldiers there present, but being rescued by some, to the intent to be further examined and made a publicke spectackle, he was carryed immediatly to prison. MarginaliaIohn Whitman apprehended. Vpon the next day, being monday, the Iudges & other Counsellers being assembled, MarginaliaIohn Whitmā brought before the Iudges.he was brought forth into the common hall, and examined of hys fact, the intent, the counsell, and abettors thereof, and also of his fayth: where he very cōstantly in defence of his christian fayth, & great detestation of Idolatry, demeaned him selfe in such sort, that he wrong teares from the eyes of diuers, both of the chiefe, & others present. So was he committed agayne to prison. The next day being Tuesday, he was brought out agayne before the Iudges into the same place. And being examined as before, he no whit abated, but increased in his cōstancy. MarginaliaSentence geuen agaynst Iohn Whitman.Whereupō sentēce was geuē vpō him, to haue his hand cut of, and his body scorched to death, & after to be hāged vp. So the day folowing, being Wednesday, he was brought out of prisō to the towne hal, standing in the market place, all thinges belōging to execution being made ready there. Which when they were al

ready, the hangman went into the hall, & with a cord tyed þ^e hands of Whitman, & came out leadyng him thereby: so soone as Whitman was out of the house, he made such hast & as it wer ran to the place of execution, þ^t he drew þ^e hangman after him. There was a post set vp with sparres frō the top therof, aslope downe to the ground, in maner of a Tent, to the end that he shoulde be onely scorched to death & not burned. When he was come to the place, þ^e hangmā commaunded him to lay downe hys right hand vppon a block, which he immediately w^t a hatchet smote of, the good man stil cōtinuing constāt, þ^e hangman stept behind him, & bid him put out his tonge, which he forthw^t did, as far as he could out of his mouth, through þ^e which he thrust a lōg instrument like a Packe needle, and so let it sticke. MarginaliaThe Martyrdome and death of Iohn Whitman.Then the Iudges standing by in the common Hall, read agayne his fact and sentence. Wherunto hee coulde make no aunswere, his tongue hāging out of his head: so was he stripped out of his Cassocke, his hose being put of in prison: & put w^tin his Tent, & made fast with two chaynes, and fire and put round about, which broyled and scorched his body most miserably, al blacke, he not being seene, but heard to make a noyse within the Tent. When he was dead, hee was caryed out to be hāged vpon a gybbot beside þ^e town.

Spectatores præsentes, Cutbert Carr, Bartholo-meus Bellington, Nautæ Rienses.

IT hath bene a long perswasion gendred in the heades of many men these many yeares, that to ground a mans fayth vpō Gods word alone, and not vpon the See and Churche of Rome, following all the ordinaunces and constitutions of the same, was damnable heresie, and to persecute such men to death, was hygh seruice done to God. Whereupon hath risen so great persecutions, slaughters, and murders, with such effusion of Christē bloud through all partes of Christendome, by the space of these 70. yeares, as hath not before bene seene. And of these men Chryst himselfe doth full well warne vs long before, true prophesiyng of such times to come, when they that slea his Ministers and seruantes, shuld thinke themselues to do good seruice vnto God. MarginaliaIohn. 16.Ioh. 16. Now, what wicked seruice, and howe detestable before God this is, which they falsly perswade themselues to be godly, what more euident demonstrations can we require, then these so many, so manifest, & so terrible examples of Gods wrath pouring down from heauen vpon these persecuters, whereof part we haue already set forth: for to comprehend all (which in number are infinite) it is vnpossible. Marginalia3. Argumentes agaynst the Papistes.Wherfore, although there be manye whiche will neyther heare, see, nor vnderstand, what is for theyr profite, yet let al moderate & wel disposed natures take warning in time. MarginaliaGods worde.And if the playne word of God will not suffice thē, MarginaliaBloud of Martyrs.nor the bloud of so many martirs wil moue thē to embrace the truth and forsake errour, MarginaliaGods punishment.yet let the desperate deathes & horrible punishments of their own papistes perswade thē, how perillous is the end of this dānable doctrine of papistry. MarginaliaThe plagues of God, set against pretensed antiquitye.For if these papistes which make so much of their painted antiquitie, do thinke theyr proceedings to be so Catholick, & seruice so acceptable to God, let thē ioyn this withal, & tel vs, how commeth then theyr procedings to be so accursed of God, & their end so miserably plagued, as by these examples aboue specified, is here notoriously to be seene? Agayne, if the doctrine of them be such heresie, whom they haue hetherto pesecuted for heretickes vnto death, howe then is almighty God become a mayntayner of heretickes, who hath reuenged theyr bloud so greeuously vppon theyr enemyes and persecuters?

MarginaliaHenry. 2. the French king and king Fraūces his sonne stricken, the one in the eyes, the other with an impostume in the eare.The putting out of the French kinges eyes, which promised before with his eyes to see one of Gods true seruauntes burned who seeth not with his eyes to be the stroke of Gods hand vpon him? Then his sonne Frances after him, not regarding his fathers stripe, would needes yet proceed in burning the same man: and did not the same God whiche put out his fathers eyes, geue hym suche a blow on the eare, that it cost him his life? if the platform of Steuen Gardiner had bene a thing so necessary for the church and so gratefull vnto God, why then did it not prosper with him nor he with it: but both he and his platforme lay in the dust, and none left behinde him to build vpon it? After the tyme of MarginaliaStephen Gardiner.Steuen Gardiner, and at the Councell of Trent, what conspiracies and pollicies were deuised? what practises and traynes were layde through the secret confederacy of princes and prelates, for the vtter subuersion of the Gospell and all Gospellers, which if God had seen to haue bene for his glory, why then came they to none effect? yea, how or by whome were they disclosed and foreprised but by the Lord himself, which would not haue them come forward?

MarginaliaQueene Mary.The vehement zeale of Queene Mary, whiche was like to haue set vp the Pope here agayne in England for euer, if it had so much plesed the Lord God as it pleased her self: or if it had bene so godly as it was bloudy, no doubt but Gods blessing woulde