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ALthough in such an innumerable company of godlye Martyrs, which in sundry quarters of this Realme were put to torments of fire in Q. Maries time, it be hard so exactly to recite euery perticular person that suffred, but that some escape vs eyther vnknowen, or omitted: yet I
can not passe ouer a certaine poore woman, and a sely crea∣ture, burned vnder the sayd queenes reigne, in the City of Exeter (whose name I haue not yet learned:) who dwel∣ling sometime about Cornewall, hauing a husbande and childrē there,* 1.2 much addicted to the superstitious sect of po∣pery: was many times rebuked of thē, & driuē to go to the church, to their Idols and ceremonies, to shrift, to follow the Crosse in Procession, to geue thankes to God for resto∣ryng Antichrist agayne into this Realme. &c. Which when her spirit could not abide to do, she made her prayer vnto God, calling for helpe and mercy, and so at length lying in her bed, about midnight, she thought there came to her a certaine motion and feeling of singuler comfort.* 1.3 Wherup∣on in short space, she beganne to grow in contempt of her husband and children, and so taking nothing from them, but euen as she went, departed from them, seeking her ly∣uing by labor & spinning as well as she could, here & there for a time. In which time notwithstanding she neuer cea∣sed to vtter her minde, as well as she durst: howbeit she at that time was brought home to her husband agayn. Wher at last she was accused by her neighbours, and so brought vp to Exeter, to be presented to the Bishop and his Cler∣gy. The name of the Bishop which had her in examinati∣on, was Doctour Troubleuile. His Chauncellour (as I gather) was Blackstone. The chiefest matter whereupon she was charged and condemned, was for the Sacrament (which they call of the Aultar) and for speaking against I∣dols, as by the declaration of those which were present▪ I vnderstand, which report the talk betwene her and the bi∣shop on this wise.
* 1.4Thou foolish woman (quoth the Byshop) I heare say that thou hast spoken certayne words of the most bles∣sed Sacrament of the Aultar, the body of Christ. Fye for shame. Thou art an vnlearned person and a woman: wilt thou meddle with such highe matters, whiche all the Doc∣tours of the worlde can not define? Wilt thou talke of so high misteryes? Keepe thy worke, & medle with that thou hast to do. It is no womans matters, at cardes and towe to be spoken of. And if it be as I am infourmed, thou art worthy to be burned.
My Lord (sayde she) I trust your Lordship will heare me speake.
Yea mary (quoth he) therfore I send for thee.
I am a poore woman & do liue by my hands, get∣ting a peny truely & of that I get I geue part to the poore.
That is well done. Art thou not a mans wife?
And here the Bishop entred into talke of her husband.
To whom she answered againe, declaring that she had a husband and children: and had them not. So long as she was at liberty, she refused not, neyther husband, nor chil∣dren.* 1.5 But now standing here as I doe (sayd she) in ye cause of Christ & his trueth, where I must either forsake Christ, or my husband, I am contēted to sticke onely to Christ my heauenly spouse, and renounce the other.
And here she making mention of the words of Christ: He that leaueth not father or mother, sister or brother, husband. &c. the Byshop inferred that Christ spake that of the holy martyrs, which dyed because they would not doe sacrifice to the false Gods.
Sikerly syr, and I will rather dye then I will do any worship to that foule Idoll, whiche with your Masse you make a God.
Yea, you callet, will you say that the sacrament of the aultar is a foule Idoll?
* 1.6Yea truly, quoth she: there was neuer such an Idoll as your sacramēt is, made of your priestes, & cōmaūded to be worshipped of al mē, with many fōd phantasies, where Christ did commaund it to be eaten & drunken in remem∣braunce of his most blessed passion our redemption.
See this pratling woman. Doest thou not heare, that Christ did say ouer the bread: This is my body, & ouer the cup: This is my bloud?
Yes forsooth, he sayd so, but he meant that it is hys body and bloud not carnally, but sacramentally.
Loe, she hath heard pratling among these new prea∣chers, or heard some peeuish book. Alas poore womā, thou art deceiued.
No, my Lorde, that I haue learned, was of Godly preachers,* 1.7 & of godly books which I haue heard read. And if you will geue me leaue, I will declare a reason why I will not worship the sacrament.
Mary say on, I am sure it will be goodly geare.
Truely such geare as I will loose this poore life of mine for.
Then you will be a martyr good wife.
In deed if the denying to worshippe that bready God be my martyrdome, I will suffer it with all my hart.
Say thy minde.
You must beare with me a poore woman, quoth she.
So I will, quoth he.
I will demaunde of you, whether you can denye your creed, which doth say, that Christ perpetually doth sit at the right hand of his father both body & soule, vntill he come againe, or whether he be there in heauē our aduocate & do make prayer for vs vnto God his father. If it be so, he is not here in the earth in a piece of bread. If he be not here, & if he do not dwel in temples made with hands, but in heauen, what shall we seeke him here? if he did offer his body once for all, why make you a new offering? if wt once offring he made al perfect, why do you with a false offring make al vnperfect? if he be to be worshipped in spirite and truth, why doe you worship a piece of bread? if he be eaten & drunkē in faith & truth, if his flesh be not profitable to be among vs, why do you say, you make his body and fleshe, and say it is profitable for body & soule? Alas, I am a poore woman: but rather then I would do as you doe, I would liue no longer. I haue sayd syr.
I promise you, you are a iolly protestant, I pray you in what schooles haue you bene brought vp?
I haue vpon the sondayes visited the sermons, and there haue I learned suche thinges, as are so fixed in my brest that death shall not separate them.
O foolish woman, who wil wast his breath vpō thee or such as thou art? But how chaunceth it that thou wen∣test away from thy husbande? if thou were an honest wo∣man, thou wouldest not haue left thyne husband and chil∣dren, and runne about the country like a fugitiue.
Syr, I laboured for my liuing: And as my mayster Christ counselleth me, when I was persecuted in one city, I fled vnto another.
Who persecuted thee?
My husband and my children.* 1.8 For when I woulde haue him to leaue Idolatry, and to worship God in hea∣uen, he would not heare me, but he with his children rebu∣ked me, and troubled me. I fled not for whoredom, nor for theft, but because I would be no partaker with him & his, of that foule Idoll the Masse. And whersoeuer I was, as oft as I could vpon sondayes and holy dayes I made ex∣cuses not to go to the popish church.
Belike thē you are a good houswife, to flee from your husband, and also from the church.
My houswifry is but small but God geue me grace to go to the true church.
The true church: what doest thou meane?
Not your Popish Church, full of Idolles and a∣bominations, but where three or foure are gathered toge∣ther in the name of God, to that Church wil I go as long as I liue.
Belike then you haue a Church of your owne. Well, let this mad woman be put down to prison, vntil we send for her husband.
No, I haue but one husband, which is here already in this city and in prison with me, from whom I will ne∣uer depart: and so theyr communication for that day brake of. Blackstone and others perswaded the Bishop that she was a mazed creature, and not in her perfect wit (which is no new thing, for the wisedome of God to appere foolish∣nes to carnall men of this world) & therfore they consulted together, that she should haue liberty and go at large. So the keper of the bishops prison had her home to his house, where shee fell to spinning and carding, and did all other worke as a seruant in the said kepers house & went about the city, when and whither she would, and diuers had de∣light to talke with her. And euer shee continued talking of the sacrament of the aultar. Which, of all thing they coulde least abide. Then was her husband sent for, but she refused to go home with him, with the blemish of the cause and re∣ligion, in defence wherof she there stood before the Bishop and the priestes.
Then diuers of the Priestes had her in handling,* 1.9 per∣swading her to leaue her wicked opinion about the sacra∣ment of the aultar, the naturall body and bloud of our Sa∣uiour Christ. But she made them aunsweare, that it was nothing but very bread and wine, and that they might be ashamed to say, that a piece of bread should be turned by a man into the naturall body of Christ, which bread doth vi∣now, and Mice oftentimes do eate it, and it doth ••ould & is burned: And (sayde she) Gods owne body wyll not be so handled, nor kept in prison, or boxes, or aumbries. Let it be your God: it shall not be mine: for my Sauiour sitteth on the right hand of God, & doth pray for me. And to make that sacramētal or significatiue bread instituted for a remē∣brance, the very bodye of Christ, and to worship it, it is ve∣ry foolishnes and deuillish deceit.
Now truly (sayd they) the deuill hath deceiued thee.
No (sayd she) I trust the liuing God hath opened mine
eyes, and caused me to vnderstand the right vse of the bles∣sed sacrament, which the true church doth vse, but the false church doth abuse.
Then stept forth an old Frier, and asked what she said of the holy Pope.* 1.10
I (sayd she) say that he is Antichrist and the deuill.
Then they all laughed.
Nay (sayde she) you had more neede to weepe then to laugh, & to be sory that euer you were borne, to be the cha∣pleines of that whore of Babilon. I defie him and all hys falshood: and get you away frō me: you do but trouble my conscience. You would haue me folow your doinges: I will first loose my life. I pray you depart.
Why, thou foolish woman (sayd they) we come to thee for thy profite and soules health.
O Lord God (sayd she) what profite riseth by you that teach nothing but lyes for trueth? how saue you Soules, when you preach nothing but damnable lyes, and destroy soules.
How prouest thou that (sayd they?)
Do you not damne soules (sayd she) when you teache the people to worship Idolles, Stockes, and Stones, the worke of mens handes? and to worship a false GOD of your owne making, of a piece of breade, and teach that the Pope is Gods Uicar, and hath power to forgeue sinnes? and that there is a Purgatory, when Gods sonne hath by his Passion purged all? and say, you make God and sa∣crifice him, when Christes bodye was a Sacrifice once for all?* 1.11 Doe you not teach the people to number theyr sinnes in your eares, and say they be damned, if they confesse not all: when Gods word sayth: Who can number hys sinnes? Do you not promise them Trentals and Diriges, & mas∣ses for soules, and sell your prayers for money, and make them buy pardons, and trust to such foolish inuentions of your owne imaginations? Do you not altogether against God? Doe you not teache vs to pray vpon Beades, and to pray vnto Sayntes, and say they can pray for vs? Do you not make holy water and holy bread to fray Deuils? Doe you not a thousand more abhominatiōs? And yet you say, you come for my profite and to saue my soule. No, no, one hath saued me. Farewell you with your saluation. Muche other talke there was betwene her and them, which here were too tedious to be expressed.
In the meane time during this her monethes libertye graunted to her by the Byshop, which we spake of before, it happened that she entring in saynt Peters Church, be∣held there a cunning Dutchman how he made new noses to certayne fine Images whiche were disfigured in Kyng Edwardes time: What a madde man art thou (sayde she) to make them new noses, which within a few dayes shall all lose theyr heades. The Dutchman accused her, & layde it hard to her charge. And she sayd vnto him: Thou art ac∣cursed, and so are thy Images. He called her Whoore. Nay (sayd she) thy Images are Whoores, and thou art a Whore hunter: for doth not GOD say: You go a whoryng after straunge Gods, figures of your owne making? and thou art one of them. Then was she sent for, and clapped fast: and from that time she had no more liberty.
Duringe the time of her imprisonment, diuers resor∣ted to her,* 1.12 to visit her, some sent of the byshop, some of their owne voluntary will: amongest whō was one Daniell a great doer and preacher sometimes of the Gospell, in the dayes of king Edward, in those parties of Cornewall and Deuonshyre, whom after that she perceiued by his owne confession, to haue reuolted from that whiche he preached before, through the grieuous imprisonmentes (as he sayd) and feare of persecution, whiche he had partly susteined by the cruell Iustices in those parties, earnestly she exhorted him to repent with Peter, and to be more constant in his profession.
Moreouer, there resorted to her a certeine worthy gen∣tlewoman, the wife of one Walter Rauley, a womā of no∣ble wit, and of a good & godly opinion, came to the prisō & talked with her: she sayd her creede to the gentlewoman, & when she came to the Article· He ascended: there she stayed, and bade the Gentlewoman to seeke his blessed bodye in heauen, not in earth, & told her playnly that God dwelleth not in temples made with handes, & that sacrament to be nothing els but a remembrance of his blessed passion, & yet (sayd she) as they now vse it, it is but an Idoll, & far wide from any remembrance of Christes body? which (sayd she) will not long continue, & so take it good maistres. So that as soone as she came home to her husband, she declared to him, that in her life, she neuer heard a woman (of such sim∣plicity to see to) talk so godly, so perfectly, so sincerely, & so earnestly: in so muche that if God were not with her, shee could not speak such things: to the which I am not able to answere her (sayd she) who can read, and she can not.
Also there came to her one William Kede,* 1.13 and Iohn his brother, not onely brethren in the flesh, but also in the truth, and men in that Country of great credite, whose fa∣ther Robert Kede, all his life suffered nothing but trou∣ble for the Gospell. These two good and faythfull brethrē were present with her, both in the hall and also at the pri∣son, & (as they reported) they neuer heard the like woman: of so godly talke, so faythfull, or so constant, & as godly ex∣hortations she gaue them.
Thus this good matrone, the very seruant and hand∣mayd of Christ,* 1.14 was by many wayes tried both by harde prisonment, threatninges, tauntes, and scornes, called an Anabaptist, a madde woman, a drunkard, a whoore▪ a run∣nagate. She was prooued by liberty to goe whither she would: she was tryed by flattery, with many fayre promi∣ses: she was tryed with her husband, her goodes and chil∣dred, but nothing could preuayle: her hart was fixed, shee had cast her anker, vtterly contēning this wicked world: A rare ensample of constancy to all professors of Christes holy Gospell.
In the bill of my Information, it is so reported to me, that albeit shee was of suche simplicity and without lear∣ning, yet you could declare no place of Scripture, but she would tell you the Chapter: yea, she woulde recite to you the names of all the bookes of the Bible. For whiche cause one Gregory Basset a rancke Papist, sayd, she was out of her wit, and talked of the Scripture,* 1.15 as a dogge rangeth farre of from his mayster whē he walketh in the fieldes, or as a stolen sheepe out of his maisters handes, she wist not wherat, as all heretickes do, with many other such taūtes, which she vtterly defyed.* 1.16 Whereby as almightye God is highly to be praysed, working so mightely in such a weake vessell: so men of stronger and stouter nature, haue also to take example how to stand in like case: whē as we see this poore woman, how manfully she went through with such constancy and pacience.
At the last, when they perceiued her to be past remedy, and had consumed all theyr threatninges, that by neyther prisonmēt nor liberty, by manaces nor flattery, they could bring her to sing any other song, nor win her to their va∣nities and superstitious doinges, then they cryed out, An Anabaptist, an Anabaptist. Then at a daye they brought her from the Bishops prison to the Guildhall,* 1.17 & after that deliuered her to the tēporall power, according to their cu∣stome, where shee was by the Gentlemen of the countrey exhorted yet to call for grace, & to leaue her fond opinions: And go home to thy husband (sayd they:) thou art an vn∣learned woman, thou art not able to answere to such high matters.
I am not, sayd she: yet with my death I am content to be a witnes of Christs death: and I pray you make no lō∣ger delay with me: my hart is fixed, I will neuer other∣wise say, nor turne to theyr superstitious doinges.
Then the bishop sayd, the deuill did lead her.
No my Lord (sayd she) it is the spirite of God whiche leadeth me, and which called me in my bed, & at midnight opened his truth to me. Thā was there a great shout and laughing among the priestes and other.
During the time that this good poore woman was thus vnder these priestes handes, amongest many other baytinges and sore conflictes whiche she susteyned by thē, here is moreouer not to be forgotten, howe that Mayster Blaxton aforesayd, being treasurer of the Church, had a concubine which sundry times resorted to him, with other of his gossips: so that alwayes when they came, this sayde good woman was called forth to his house, there to make his miniō with the rest of the company some myrth, he ex∣amining her with suche mocking & gyruing, deriding the truth, that it would haue vexed any christian hart to haue seene it. Then when he had long vsed his foolishnes in this sort, & had sported himselfe enough in deriding this chri∣stian martyr: in the end he sent her to prison agayne, and there kept her very miserablye, sauing that sometimes he would send for her, when his foresayd guest came to him, to vse with her his accustomed folly aforesaid. But in sine, these vile wretches (after many combates and scoffing per¦swasions) whē they had played the part of the cat with the mouse, at length condemned her, and deliuered her ouer to the secular power.
Then the Indictment beyng geuen and read, whiche was, that she should go to the place whence she came,* 1.18 and from thence to be led to the place of execution, then & there to bee burned with flames till shee shoulde bee consumed: shee lifted vppe her voyce and thanked GOD, saying: I thanke thee my Lord my God, this daye haue I founde that which I haue long sought. But such outcries as ther were agayne, and such mockings were neuer seene vpō a poore seely woman: Al which she most paciently took. And
yet this fauour they pretended after her iudgement, that her life should be spared, if she would turne & recant. Nay, that will I not (sayd she:) God forbyd that I shoulde loose the life eternall for this carnall and shorte life. I wyll ne∣uer turne from my heauenly husband, to my earthly hus∣band: from the feloshippe of aungels, to mortall children: And if my husband and children be faythfull, then am I theirs. God is my father, God is my mother, God is my Sister, my Brother, my Kinsman, God is my frend moste faythfull.
Then was she deliuered to the Shiriffe, & innumera∣ble people beholding her,* 1.19 she was led by the officers to the place of executiō, without the walles of Exeter, called So∣thenhey, where agayne these superstitious priestes assaul∣ted her: and she prayed them to haue no more talke wyth her, but cryed still, God be merciful to me a sinner, God be mercifull to me a sinner. And so whiles they were tying her to the stake, thus still she cried, and would geue no an∣swere to thē, but with much pacience tooke her cruel death, and was with the flames and fire consumed: and so ended
Touching the name of this woman (as I haue nowe learned) she was the wife of one called Prest, dwelling in the Dioces of Exeter, not farre from Launceston.
The story of a poore woman bur••ed at ••xcestor i•• Queene Marye•• tyme.
Her de∣parting from her husband & returning agayne.
The poore woman sent vp to Excestor. D. Trou∣bleuile B. of Excestor, Blackstone persecutors.
Talke be∣tweene the woman & the Bishop.
The wyfe renouncing her husband for Christes sake.
The Sacra∣ment of the Altar made an Idoll.
••easons ••••ewing why the Sacrament of the Lordes body is not to be wor∣shipped.
The wyfe perse∣cuted by hus∣band and chil∣dren.
Talke betweene The woman and the Priestes a∣bout the Sacra∣ment.
Talke betweene the woman and a Fryer.
False doctrine of the Papistes re∣prooued.
The reuolting of one Daniell a minister, from the Gospell to Popery in Q. Maryes tyme
William & Iohn Kede, two godly brethren.
The con∣••••••ncy of woman 〈◊〉〈◊〉 wayes 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
Gregory Basset a rayling Pa∣pist▪
The con∣stant pa••i∣ence of this woman and Martyr to be noted.
The woman brought 〈◊〉〈◊〉 make Bishops prison to the Guild Hall.
Exhortati∣ons to haue her recant. The con∣stant stan∣ding of this woman. Blasphemy of the By∣shop.
How God reueled his truth vnto her.
Iudgement geuen a∣gaynst this good wo∣man.
Shee than∣keth God for her iudgement 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
The womā deliuered to the Shrieffe and led to the place of execution.
The patient Martyr∣dome of a poore wo∣man at Ex∣eter, being the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 wyfe.