Therfore when by no meanes nor waies he could be driuen from the truth of that professiō which he maintained, the bishop vsing a strāge but a cruell practise, determined to begyn the matter another way, that although he coulde not teache hym by argumentes, yet he myghte ouerthrow hym by a certain fore feelyng and horror of death. For expressyng vnto vs as it were the old ymage of king Porsenna,
This is Lars Porsenna, an Etruscan king, who was said to have besieged Rome in an attempt to restore the deposed king Tarquinus Superbus.
But contrarywise he through the great courage of his mynde, & burning inwardly with greater heate, dyd so despise, abyde, & endure that burninge,
Once again, Foxe is eager to emphasize the stoicism of the Marian martyrs when subjected to agonizing pain. On the polemical importance of the stoicism of the martyrs, see Collinson (1983) and Freeman (1997).
This is Caius Mucius Scaevola, a legendary Roman hero, who attemped to kill Lars Porsenna. Captured and threatened with torture, he thrust his hand into the flame until it was consumed, in order to demonstrate his disdain for the threat.
This document is reprinted from Bonner's official records, probably from a court book now lost.
Thomas Tomkins of Shordich, and of the diocesse of London, hath beleued, and doth beleue, that in the Sacrament of the aultar, vnder the forme of bread and wine, there is not the very body and bloud of our sauiour Iesus Christ in substaunce, but onely a token and a remembraunce thereof, the verye bodye and bloud of Christ onely being in heauen and no where els. By me Thomas Tomkins.
[Back to Top]WHereupon he was asked: whether he did acknowledge the same subscription, to
be of his owne hand. To the which he graunted, confessing it so to be. This being don, the Byshop went about to perswade hym, (with words, rather thē with reasons) to relinquish his opinions, and to return agayne to the vnity of the Catholicke church, promysing if he would so do, to remytt all that was past. But he constantly denyed so to do. When the Byshop sawe he could not so peruince hym, he brought forth and red to him another writing contayning articles & interrogatories, whervnto he shoulde come the next day & answer. In the meane tyme he should deliberate with him selfe what to do, and so the next day, being the. ix. day of March, at eyght of the clocke in the mornynge, to bee present in the same place agayn, to geue hys determinate answer what he would do therein, and then eyther to reuoke and reclayme hym selfe, or els in the after noone the same daye to come agayne and haue iustice (as hee called it) ministred vnto him, the copy of which articles here foloweth
[Back to Top]This document is reprinted from Bonner's official records, probably from a court book which is now lost.
THou dooste beleue that in the Sacrament of the aulter vnder the formes of breade and wyne there is not, by the omnipotent power of almightye God, and his holy woorde, reallye, truely and in very deede the very true and naturall bodye of oure sauyoure Iesus Christ, as touchynge the substaunce thereof whyche was conceyued in the wombe of the virgin Mary, and hanged vpon the crosse, suffringe passion and deathe there for the life of the worlde.
[Back to Top]I do so beleue.
Thou doest beleue that after the consecration of the breade and wine, prepared for the vse of the sacrament of the altar there dothe remayne the verye substaunce of materiall breade and material wyne, not changed nor altered in substaunce by the power of almightye God, but remayninge as it did before.
[Back to Top]I do so beleue.
Thou doest beleue that it is an vntrewe doctrine and a fals belefe to thinke or say that in the sacramente of the aultar there is after the consecration of the breade and wyne the substaūce of Christes natural body and blood by the omnypotent power of allmightye God and his holye woorde.
I do so beleue.
Thou doest beleue that thy parentes, kinsfolkes, frendes, and acquaintaunce, and also thy Godfathers and Godmothers, and al people did erre, and were deceyued, if they did beleue that in the sacrament of the altar, there was after the consecration the bodye & bloude of Christ, and that there did not remayne the
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