pray for me: for I am the vnmetest man for thys high office that euer was appointed to it: but my gracious god & deare father is able to make me strong enough. That same night he was put into the common gayle among the other prisoners, where he slept litle, but spet the night in praier, & instructing others. The next day whiche was the 8. of February he was led to the place of execution in the parke without the city, he going in an olde goune, and a shert barefoted, and oft tymes fell flat on the ground, and prayed, 

Commentary    Close

There is a considerable similarity to Hugh Latimer's costume at his execution. This suggests that Saunders's garb was part of a deliberate strategy of self-presentation, probably designed to evoke Christ's passion.

thee. To whome Saunders answered, it is not I, nor my fellow preachers of gods trueth, that haue hurte the Queenes realme, but it is your selfe and suche as you are, which haue alwayes resisted gods holye worde: it is you whiche haue and do marre the Quenes realme. I do holde no heresies, but the doctrine of god, the blessed gospell of Christe that holde I, that beeleue I, that haue I taughte, and that will I neuer reuoke: with that this tormentour cried, away with him and awaye from hym wente Saunders wyth a merye courage towardes the fyre: he fell to the grounde, and prayed, he rose vp againe, and toke the stake, to whiche he shoulde be chayned in hys armes, and kissed it, saying: Welcome the crosse of Christe, welcome euerlastyng lyfe: and beyng fastened to the stake, and fyre put to hym, full swetely he slept in the lorde.

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Commentary on the Woodcuts    Close

Lawrence Saunders, burned in a park outside the city of Coventry, is depicted being chained to the stake which he had embraced and kissed as the cross of Christ. There are armed guards all round (their pikes punctuate the background), ready to restrain supportive onlookers like the man on the left. But the stony-faced man below Saunders on the right, given the ugly features of friars and persecutors in other illustrations, shows that not all present were of this cast. The victim's agony was increased (as John Hooper's was to be) by the green wood of the still unlit fire. Foxe could not resist the comparison with St Lawrence, who featured among the 'old martyrs of Christ's church', whose sufferings were portrayed in the large print of the ten first persecutions of the primitive church, first included in 1570. As in other cases the woodcut gives the martyr's last words even though showing him before the fire was kindled. In 1563, the banderole is blank, perhaps (as in the similar case of the seven Smithfield martyrs 1563, p. 1451) indicating doubts or lack of information on the blockmakers' part. This deficiency was made good in the copy now in Ohio State University Library, in which an early hand has inserted 'O lord resieve my soule'. The words added to the scroll in 1570, were 'Welcome life', in italic, thereafter recut in 1576, and 1583, respectively in roman and italic. The missing edge of the scroll is a tell-tale clue to these alterations.

And thus haue ye the full history of Laurence Saunders, whom I may wel compare to s. Laurence, MarginaliaA comparison betvvene Laurence Saunders and S. Laurence. or any other of the old martyrs of Christs church: both for the feruēt zeale of the truth and gospell of Christ, and the most constant pacience in his suffryng: as also for the cruell tormentes that he in his pacient body didde susteyne in the flame of fyre: for so his cruell enemies handled hym, that they burned hym with greene woode, and other smothteryng rather then burnyng fewel, which put hym to much more pain, but that the grace and most plentiful consolaiton

of Christ, which neuer forsaketh his seruantes, and gaue strength to Saint Laurence, gaue also patience to this Laurence, about all that his torments could worke against: Which well appeared by his quiet standing, and sweete slepyng in in the fier, as is aboue declared.

ANd to the intent to geue to the reder to vnderstād the better, what the grace of Christ worketh in his seruantes: and agayne, how feable and weake man is of himselfe, without thys grace geuen from aboue, though he seme otherwise neuer so stoute in hymselfe: here therefore