Foxe’s Christian Martyrs (Part 5)

JOHN HUSS

Richard II had married a native of Bohemia, and through her servants, the works of Wycliffe were carried to that country, where they were effectively preached to the people by John Huss of Prague.

Pope John XXIII, seeking to suppress the Bohemians, appointed Cardinal de Columna to look into Huss’s preaching and deal with any heresy he might find, so Columna set a date for Huss to appear before him in Rome.

Huss never appeared on the designated date, but King Wenceslaus of Bohemia sent ambassadors to assure Columna that any false doctrine being preached in his country would be taken care of by him, at his expense. At the same time, Huss sent his own ambassadors to assure the cardinal he was innocent of heresy. Columna refused all their pleas and excommunicated Huss for failing to appear in person.

The Bohemians couldn’t have cared less about the proclamation of excommunication. The more they grew in knowledge of the Lord through Huss, the less they cared for the pope and his rules, especially since the church was divided at that time, with three men arguing over the office of the pope. Although the Bohemian church officials succeeded in having Huss banned from Prague, he carried on his work, spreading Wycliff’s message among the people and causing a great uproar over the church’s riches and abuses.

Wenceslaus took advantage of his subjects’ states of mind to levy heavy taxes on the clergy, silencing them in Bohemia and filling his treasury at the same time.

In 1414, a general church conference was held in Constance to resolve the problem of the three popes and also deal with the Bohemians. Assured of safe conduct by both Emperor Sigismund and one of the popes, Huss traveled to the conference, arriving in Constance on November 3. Twenty-six days later, he appeared before the bishops to defend himself but was not allowed to speak. In violation of the promises made to him, he was imprisoned for “safe keeping” and charged with eight articles of heresy.

On June 7, 1415, Huss was brought before a council and condemned as a heretic when he refused to recant his support of Wycliffe’s theology. He was stripped of all his church offices, made to wear a paper with the words ARCH-HERETIC on it, and led past a fire consuming his books.

On July 6, 1415, the hangman stripped Huss of his clothes, tied his hands behind him, then chained his neck to the stake. At that point, Huss told the hangman that he was glad to accept the chain for the Lord’s sake. Straw and wood were piled around him to his chin, and the fire was lit. As the flames rose around him, Huss was heard to say over and over, “Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, have mercy upon me,” until the flames choked him. When all the wood was burned, the upper part of his body was still hanging in the chain, so they threw it down, made a new fire, and burned it after cutting his head into small pieces. When he was totally burned, Huss’s ashes were carefully collected and thrown into the Rhone River.

JEROME OF PRAGUE

Upset by the unjust treatment of John Huss, Jerome of Prague arrived in Constance on April 4, 1415, volunteering to appear before the council if promised safe conduct. This was denied him, so Jerome wrote out his thoughts on the council’s treatment of Huss and had them hung on the gates and porches of ConstaUpset by the unjust treatment of John Huss, Jerome of Prague arrived in Constance on April 4, 1415, volunteering to appear before the council if promised safe conduct. This was denied him, so Jerome wrote out his thoughts on the council’s treatment of Huss and had them hung on the gates and porches of Constance’s churches and public buildings. Then he returned to Bohemia, where he was captured and brought back to face the council.

Jerome denied that he had done anything against the church, answering his accusers firmly and calmly, and was imprisoned for eleven days, hung by his heels with chains the whole time. Brought back before the council, he eventually gave in to their threats to save his life and agreed that John Huss had been fairly condemned as a heritic. Even then, he wasn’t freed but returned to prison under slightly better conditions. It soon became obvious that Jerome had given in to save his life, not because he had truly changed his mind about the council, and new articles of heresy were drawn up against him.

On May 24, 1416, after 340 days of imprisonment, Jerome was brought before the Council of Constance and charged with 107 offenses, all of which he denied or disproved in short order, silencing his interrogators with his strength and knowledge of God’s law. However, the outcome of the hearing was never really in doubt, no matter what Jerome said. The Saturday after Ascension Day, Jerome was brought to hear judgement passed on him. He was given one more chance to take back his support of John Wycliffe and John Huss but refused. The council condemned him as a heretic, excommunicated him, and turned him over to the secular authorities.

Jerome went to his death bravely, singing hymns, canticles, and the doxology, then embracing a drawing of John Huss that he was bound to. Before the fire was lit, he said to the assembled crowd, “What I have just sung, I believe. This creed is my whole faith, but I’m dying today because I refuse to deny that John Huss was a true preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

As the fire flared up around him, Jerome continued his singing; and even when no more sound could be heard from him, his lips continued to move and his head to shake for fifteen minutes. Finally dead in the fire, all his possessions from prison were burned, and his ashes were thrown into the Rhone River.

Henry Chicesley succeeded Thomas Arundel as archbishop of Canterbury, continuing the persecutions. Under him, King Henry VI commissioned John Exter and Jacolet Germain, the keeper of Colchester Castle, to apprehend William White and others suspected of heresies. Soon after, John Exeter attacked six people in the town of Burgay, Norwich, and sent them to the castle of Norwich.

The old records also show that a great number of people from the towns of Beccles, Ersham, and Ludney were thrown into prison and openly shamed after they recanted. From 1428-1431, about 120 men and women were taken, some only for eating meat on vigil days. Others were handled more cruelly, and some were burned; 78 were forced to recant. Many of the charges against these people were untrue or reported incorrectly by the notaries. Often the simple, uneducated people did not understand the charges brought against them or know how to answer them. Most of them seemed to have been instructed in their faith by William White, a follower of John Wycliffe.

WILLIAM WHITE

William White, a well-educated, upright, and well-spoken priest, also became a follower of John Wycliffe. He surrendered his priesthood and its salary to marry a godly young woman but continued to read, write, and preach the doctrines of Wycliffe throughout the Norfolk area, drawing many people to God and developing a reputation as a good, honest man.

That men should seek forgiveness of sins only from God, not priests.

That the pope’s wicked living made him an enemy of Christ.

That men should not worship images, other idolatrous paintings, or the saints.

That the Roman Church brought forth no true doctrine.

That all monks, friars, and priests were the soldiers of Lucifer and damned.

Brought before Archbishop Henry Chicesley in 1424, White held his ground for some time before being forced to recant. He returned to Norfolk, where he continued to teach and convert the people to the true doctrine of Christ. Captured and tried before Wiliam, the bishop of Norwich, he was condemned under thirty articles and burned in September 1424. After his death, his wife continued his work, bringing even more people to God, until she too, was captured and punished at the hands of the same bishop.

JOAN BOUGHTON

On April 28 in the ninth year of Henry VII’s reign, an eighty-year-old widow named Joan Boughton was burned at Smithfield for holding eight of Wycliffe’s opinions. She held eight of his ten opinions so firmly that all the doctors of London could not make her give up even one of them. Told she would burn for her obstinancy, Mrs. Boughton defied the threat, saying she was so loved by God that she didn’t fear the fire.

On January 17, 1497, Richard Milderdale and James Sturdy performed the penance of carrying fagots before the procession of St. Paul’s and standing before the preacher during his sermon. The next Sunday, two other men stood at Paul’s Cross during the semon. On Passion Sunday, Hugh Glover bore a fagot before the procession and stood during the sermon, as did four others the following Sunday.

Early in May 1498, the king had a priest brought before him in Canterbury. Although the priest recanted at the king’s demand, he was still burned. Also in 1498, a man named Babram was burned in July; another old man died in Smithfield on July 20.

JEROME SAVONAROLA

Savonarola was an Italian monk, very well educated, who began to preach to the people against the evil living he witnessed within his own order, demanding reforms. As Savonarola’s popularity grew, Pope Alexander VI ordered his vicar to proceed with the needed reforms in an attempt to silence the monk, but Savonarola wouldn’t be silenced.

When the pope denounced Savonarola’s testimony and ordered him to be silent, the monk finally realized the danger he was in and temporarily stopped preaching. But he took it up again in Florence in 1496 at the request of the people longing for God’s Word. Cursed as a heretic, Savonarola told the people that such curses were agaist true doctrine and should be ignored.

Savonarola was taken from his cloister in 1498, along with two other friars who supported him, and burned as a heretic on May 24, 1499.

THE STATE OF RELIGION

By reading this history, a person should be able to see that the religion of Christ, meant to be spirit and truth, had been turned into nothing but outward observances, ceremonies, and idolatry. We had so many saints, so many gods, so many monasteries, so many pilgrimages. We had too many churches, too many relics (true and fake), too many untruthful miracles. Instead of worshiping the only living Lord, we worshiped dead bones; in place of immortal Christ, we worshiped mortal bread.

No care was taken about how the people were led as long as the priests were fed. Instead of God’s Word, man’s word was obeyed; instead of Christ’s testament, the pope’s cannon. The law of God was seldom read and never understood, so Christ’s saving work and the effect on man’s faith were not examined. Because of this ignorance, errors and sects crept into the church, for there was no foundation for the truth that Christ willingly died to free us from our sins — not bargaining with us but giving to us.

Although God allowed His church to wander for a long time, at last it pleased Him to restore it to its original foundation. And here we must admire God’s wisdom, for just as the church fell into ruin because of the ignorance of its teachers, shortly after the burning of John Huss and Jerome, God gave man the art of printing, which restored knowledge to the church.

Through the grace of God, men or wisdom were now able to communicate their thoughts accurately and widely so others could distinguish light from darkness, truth from error, religion from superstition. Knowledge grew in science and in languages, opening a window of light for the world and clearing the way for the Reformation of the church. Still many were left to suffer before that reform would be complete.

JOAN CLERK

In the days of King Henry VII (1506), in the diocese of Lincoln, a faithful woman named Joan Clerk was forced to set fire to her own father, William Tylsworth. At the same time, her husband John Clerk, did penance by carrying a fagot of wood, as did between twenty-three and sixty others. Those doing penance at Tylsworth’s burning were then compelled to wear badges and travel to other towns to do further penance over the space of seven years. Several of them were branded on the cheek for their offenses. One of this group was a rich farmer named Robert Bartlett, whose farm and possessions were taken from him before he was locked in the monastery of Ashryge for seven years.

About the same time, Father Roberts was burned at Buckingham while twenty others carried fagots for penance. Following that, over the course of two or three years, Thomas Bernard and James Mordon were killed, and over thirty others were branded on the right cheek for speaking against idolatry and insisting on reading the scriptures for themselves. Those to be branded were tied to a post by the neck while their hands were held immobile and a hot iron was put to their cheeks.

THOMAS CHASE

One of those persecuted for the gospel and Word of Christ was Thomas Chase of Amersham, a good man who often spoke against idolatry and superstition. Chase was brought before the blind bishop at Woburn and examined, and although we have no record of his examination, he must have professed Christ’s true gospel against idolatry, for he was locked in the bishop’s house in Woburn. There he remained in chains, manacles, and irons, all of which he took quietly and faithfully until they lost patience with him and secretly strangeled him one day.

There would have been a public uproar if the truth came out about how Thomas Chase had died, so the church let out a rumor that the good man had hung himself. This would have been impossible, since Chase was chained in such a small area that he could neither sit nor stand, as a woman who saw him dead testified. To be sure no one would be able to examine the body, the authorities buried Chase secretly somewhere near the road between Woburn and Little Marlow.

LAWRENCE GUALE

Lawrence Guale was a tall, good-looking man who had influential friends, which for a time kept the bishops from burning him. Instead, he was locked in prison for two years while they attempted to make him recant his testimony. When he would not recant, a date was set for his burning.

Guale was a married man with seven children. When he was brought to the stake, the authorities placed his family before him, hoping they could convince him to save his own life at the last minute. His wife begged Guale to save himself, but he refused, asking her not to stand in his way for he was running a good race toward salvation. In order to follow Christ, Guale was forced to renounce not only his own life but also the family he loved.