1563 Edition | Book 5 | Page 1199 
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Flower's assault posed problems for English protestants. Smith was clearly anxious to establish Flower's orthodoxy to his own satisfaction. Having done so, he then wrote an account of his interview with Flower presumably to reassure fellow protestants of Flower's orthodoxy (and perhaps sanity). Foxe printed the interview for the same reasons.
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Flower's mind does not seem to have been entirely balanced, and Foxe's notes seek to steer the reader away from this conclusion to the belief that he was a genuine, if somewhat confused martyr (with a penchant for physically attacking priests). Thus, the gloss which describes him leaving his monastic house says he 'turned his religion', but as the next gloss records that he went on to be a mass priest, one must doubt the assertion; the gloss plants the suggestion that Flower underwent a conversion to the truth when no solid evidence exists for when that occurred: the gloss supplies a generic necessity in a case where empirical proof is lacking. Several of the glosses show that Foxe was keen to play down the violent aspects of the story: Flower's regret at the violence is highlighted and distinguished from regret about his religious principles ('W. Flower repenteth his acte in striking'; 'W. Flower constant in his fayth'), while another gloss asks the reader to bear in mind that Flower later revised his opinion about the violence (with the implication that his regret increased) ('Note that the sayd W. Flower afterward in his next appearaunce, corrected & reformed this aunswere'). Foxe's difficulties with Flower can perhaps be seen most clearly at the gloss 'Extraordinary zeales are no generall rules to be followed': the text it is next to is Flower's slightly confused assertion that God sometimes acts through individuals (which would seem to be a justification for his violent actions) followed by the assertion that he had been willing to suffer before striking the priest; Foxe's gloss notes that extraordinary zeals should not be followed as general rules, which would seem to be a warning to his readers not to do likewise. As such, this gloss marks the limits of the imitation of the martyrs which Foxe makes so much of elsewhere. Indeed, it would seem that Flower's status as a martyr is all that stops the reader seeing him as an unbalanced ruffian with an iconoclastic bent. As often happens, Foxe greets a popish text with some adversarial glosses ('In the latter dayes certayne shall depart frō the fayth, forbidding mariage and eating of meates'; '1. Tim. 4'). Despite his somewhat unconventional route to the stake, the marginal glosses accord Flower the usual honour of emphasising his constancy ('W. Flower refuseth to reuoke his fayth and doctrine'; 'W. Flower standeth to his doctrine'; 'W. Flowers constancie'; 'Cōstancy' [1563]).
[Back to Top]MarginaliaW.F.I praise god for great goodnes, in shewing me the light of his holy worde: & I geue you harty thankes for your visitatiō: intēding by gods grace to declare all the truth þt ye shall demaūde lawfully of me, in all thinges.
MarginaliaR.S.Then I desire you shew me the truth of your dede, committed on Iohn Shelton priest, in the church, as nere as ye can, that I maye heare of your owne mouth how it was.
MarginaliaW.F.I came from my house at Lambeth, ouer the water, & entring into s. Margarets churche, (so called) and there seyng the people falling down before a most shameful & detestable Idole,
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I.e., the Host elevated by the priest.
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A dagger (OED).
MarginaliaR.S.Did ye not know the person that ye strake, or were ye not zelous vpon him for any euil will, or hatred betwene you at any tyme?
MarginaliaW.F.No verely: I neuer to my knowledge saw the person before þe presēt, nother ought him or any man aliue euill will, or malice: for if he had not had it, another shoulde, if I had any time come where the like occasiō had bene ministred, yf god had permitted me to do it.
MarginaliaR.S.Do ye thinke the thing to be wel done, and after the rule of the gospell?
MarginaliaW.F.I do confesse all flesh to be subiect to the power of almighty god, whom he maketh his ministers to do his wil, and pleasure: as in example Moses Aarō, Phinees, Iosua, Zimrie, Thobie, Iudith Mathathiah
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These are all examples from the Old Testament of divinely approved violence. See Exodus 2: 11-15; Numbers 25: 6-8; Joshua 6-12; 1 Kings 16: 8-12; 2 Kings 10: 18-28; Judith 13: 4-20 and 1 Maccabees 2: 23-28.
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See Romans 11:33.
MarginaliaR.S.Thinke you it conueninent for me, or any other to do the like by your ensample?
MarginaliaW.F.No verely: neither do I know if it were to do again, whether I could do it againe or no: for I was vp very early at Paules churche (so called) on Christes day in the morning, to haue done it in my ielousie: but when I came in place, I was no more able to do it, thē now to vndo þt is done: and yet now being compelled by the spirit, not only to come ouer the water, & to enter þe church
[Back to Top]but beyng in mynd fully contented to die for the lord, gaue ouer my flesh willingly, without all feare, I praise god: wherfore I cannot learn you to do the like. First for because I know not what is in you. Secondly because the rules of the Gospell commaundeth to suffer with pacience all wronges, and iniuries: yet neuertheles, if he make you worthy that hath made me zelous, ye shall not be letted, iudged, nor condemned: for he doth in his people his vnspeakable workes, in all ages, which no man can comprehend: and I humbly beseche you to iudge the best of the spirite, and condemne not gods doinges: for I can not expresse with my mouth the greate mercies that god hath shewed on me in this thing, which I repent not.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaR.S.Are you not assured to haue death ministred vnto you for the same acte committed, and euen with extremitie?
MarginaliaW.F.I did before the deede committed, adiudge my body to dye for the same: wherupon I caryed about me in writing myne opinion of god, & the holy scriptures: that if it had pleased god to haue geuen them leaue to haue killed my body in the church, they might in the said writing haue sene my hope, which (I praise god) is laid vp safe wtin my brest, notwithstanding any death, þt may be ministred vnto my body in this worlde: being ascertayned of euerlasting life, thorough Iesus Christ our lord: being most hartely sorye for all mine offēses, committed in this flesh, & trusting shortly through his mercy, to cease frō þe same.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaR.S.It is no nede to examine or common wt you of the hope, that ye haue any farther: for I perceiue (god be praised) ye are in good estate, & therfore I beseche god for his mercies, spread his wings ouer you: that as for his loue you haue bene zelos, euē to þe losse of this life, so he may geue you his holy spirit to conducte you out of this deth, into a better life, which I thinke wilbe shortly.
[Back to Top]I hunger for the same (deare frend) being fully a:certained that they can kil but the body which I am assured shall receiue life again euerlasting and se e no more death, entierly desiring you, & al that feare the lord to pray with me to almighty god, to performe the same in me shortly. And thus we departed. I left him in the dongeō and went again to my warde: and this (gentle Reader) is the truth, as nere as I could write it.
[Back to Top]And thus much concerning the talke betwene him and R. S. in Newgate concerning his fact in striking the priest. Now to return again to þe matter of his examination, where we left. We shewed before how this w. Flower after his striking þe priest, first was laid in þe Gatehouse: thē beīg examined before Boner, had articles ministred against him, þe copy wherof here foloweth.
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The articles alleged against Flower and his answers to them are taken from Bishop Bonner's records, very probably from a court book which is now lost.
FIrste that thou being of lawfull age and discretion, at the least of seuentene yere old, was