What speake I of Horace? saith not sainct Paule the same thyng? for we are members of his body and of his fleshe, and of his bloud, yea we are members one of another. Is the hande, or arme, foote, or legge a member, when it is disseuered from the body? How can we be members except we be ioined together? what is the line that coupleth vs but loue? When all thinges shal faile, loue faileth neuer. Hope hath his ende, when we get that we hoped for. fayth is finished in heauē. loue endureth for euer. Loue I say that procedeth of charity. for carnall loue (when that whiche he loued is lost) dothe perish with the flesh. Neyther was that euer but fleshly loue, which by distance of place, or seuering of bodies, is parted a sonder. If loue be the ende (or some) of the lawe, if heauen and earth shall perish, if one iote of gods word shal not decay, why shuld we think that loue lasteth not euer? I nede not to write much to you my frends, nether can I haue leysure now that the kepers ar risen: but this I say, if we kept Christes cōmaūdement in louing eche other, as he loued vs, thē should our loue be euerlasting. This frendship Paule felt when it moued him to say, that neyther length nor bredth (meaning no distaunce of place) neither height nor depth should seuer him from the loue of Christe. Wey well thys place, & mete it wt Paules mesures: so shal you finde, that if our loue wer vnfayned, it can neuer be ended. Now may you say, why wrytest thou this? Certes to the end that if our frendship be stable, you may accomplish this the last requeste of youre frende, and perfourme after my death the frendship we beganne in our lyfe, that amitie may encrease, vntil god make it perfect at our next meting together. Maister Fletewode, I besech you remember Wittrance and Cooke, two singular men amongest cōmō prysoners. Maister Fernham & maister Bel wt M. Hussey (as I hope) wil dispatche Palmer & Richardson with his companions. I pray you M. Calthorp think on Iohn Groue, an honeste poore man, Traiford, and Rice Aprice his accomplices. My Cosin Thomas Wittō (a scriuener in Lōberdstrete) hathe promised to further theyr deliuery: at the least he can instructe you which way to work. I doubt not but þt maister Boyer wil labor for the good wife Cooper (for she is worthy to be holpen) & Berard þe French man.
This is a misprint; the name is 'Gerard the Frenchman' in ECL 260, fo. 64r and Letters of the Martyrs, p. 559.
er to you al my masters & especial good frends, beseching you of al bondes of amitie, for þe precious bloud of Iesus Christ, in the bowelles of mercy, to tēder þe causes of miserable captiues: helpt to cloth Christ, visit thafflicted, comfort þe sorowful, & releue the nedy. The very God of peace guide your hartes to haue mercy on the pore, & loue faithfully together. Amē. Thys presēt monday, when I loke to die, & liue for euer.
[Back to Top]Yours as euer. B. G.
¶ Diuers other letters and matters there wer beside, which this seruāt of god did write, as namely certain notes & extracts in latin out of þe Doctors & other authours, for his memory, wherby is declared how studious he was in the serching & knowlege of þe law of god, although his profession was the temporal law. Wher I would to god he wer not among the lawyers such a Phenix þt he had very few or none which so dispose thēselues to folow his godly steppes. But god is to be praised, þt although we read of few or none amōg them, þt died as he did: MarginaliaA commendation of Lawyers.yet good wittes do spring vp daily of þt professiō, to such towardnes & godly zeale, þt it appereth shortly this godly Phenix shall not flye alone. These foresaid notes and gatherings of his, out of the Doctors, wer taken from him by Boner being found about him, which was to him no lyttle grief. he amōg the rest was first apprehended, but last of them condemned, which was the. xv dayof Ianuary, and afterwarde burned wyth thother martirs the. 27. of the same moneth.
The date of the execution of Whittle, Green and the others has been disputed. The normally reliable London diarist Henry Machyn states that it took place on 22 January (The Diary of Henry Machyn, ed. J. G. Nichols, Camden Society, original 42 [1848], p. 99). The chronicler Charles Wriothesley supports Foxe in stating that Whittle and the others were executed on 27 January. The dates of two of Green's letters further confirm the date of 27 January as that of his execution.
[Back to Top]Brown's death was merely listed in the Rerum (p. 634). This account of Brown and his martyrdom was first printed in the 1563 edition and substantially unchanged in subsequent editions. It is based entirely on official records, now lost, of Brown's trial.
MarginaliaIanuary. 15.THomas Brown, born in the parish of Histō wtin the dioces of Ely, came afterwarde to Londō, wher he dwelled in the parish of Saint Brides in Fletestrete, a maryed man of thage 37. yeres: who because he came not to his parish church, was presented by þe cōstable of the parish to Boner as touching whose articles, whervpō he was examined by Boner, wt his aunsweres to the same, mentiō goeth before, as in the general proces of him and of the rest may appere. This Thomas Brown being had to Fulham, with thother there to be examined, was required vpon Thursday beyng the. 26. day of Septēber, to come into the Chappel to heare masse, which he refusing to do, MarginaliaBrowne kneleth amonge the trees at the masse tymewent into the warrē, and ther kneled amōg the trees. For this he was greatly charged of the bishop, as for an heinous matter, because he sayde it was done in despite & contempt of theyr masse. That semed to the bishop and his chapleins no small offense. At length beyng producted to his last examinatyon before the sayde byshop, the. xv. day of Ianuarye, there to heare the sentence diffinityue against him, fyrst was requyred with many fair wordes and glosing promises to reuoke his doctryne, to whom the foresayde bishop speakinge these words. sayd: MarginaliaBoners wordes to T. BrownBrowne, ye haue ben before me many tymes and oft, and I haue trauayled
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