ADAM WALLACE
Adam Wallace was tried in the Blackfriars Church in Edinburgh before a large panel of priests, bishops, archbishops, professors, and civil authorities. His accuser was John Lauder, parson of Marbottle, clad in a surplice and red hood.
Wallace looked like a simple, poor man when he was brought in.
Lauder began: “Adam Wallace, you are accused of the following heresies. First, you have taught that the bread and wine on the altar are not the body and blood of Christ after consecration.”
Wallace turned to the panel of judges. “I never taught or said anything but what I found in this book, which is the Word of God. If I was wrong, I will accept your punishment, but everything I saw is from this book.” Then he quoted Matthew 26:26-28 and Luke 22:19.
The charge was read again, and Wallace was told to answer yes or no to it. “I only taught those who asked me to, and even then, not very often. What I said was that if the sacrament were truly administered and used as the Son of the living God instituted it, God was there.
Asked the same question once more, Wallace used scripture to show why he did not believe the host could possibly be the physical body and blood of Christ.
The accuser went on to the second article. “You taught that the Mass is idolatry, hated by God.”
Wallace replied, “I’ve read the Word of God in three languages, yet I never once saw the word Mass in it. If the Mass is not founded on the Word, it’s idolatry, which God hates. But if someone can show me in the scripture, I’ll admit that I’m wrong and submit to correction and punishment.”
The accuser continued. “You openly taught that God is just bread, sown of corn, grown in earth, and baked by men. Nothing more.”
“I worship the Fataher, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three persons in the one Godhead, who made and fashioned the heaven and earth and all in it. I don’t know what God you worship, but if you show him to me, I’ll be able to tell you what he is.”
Wallace remained firm in his testimony, was sentenced, and returned to prison. On the day of his death, his guards warned him not to speak to the crowd, but many people said, “God have mercy on you,” as he passed, to which he replied, “And on you, too.” At the stake, he said to the crowd, “Don’t be offended by my dying for the truth’s sake. The disciple is not greater than his Master.” The guards threatened him for speaking, so Wallace looked up to heaven. “They will not let me speak.” The fire was lit, and Adam Wallace went faithfully to God.
WALTER MILNE
Among the martyrs of Scotland, Walter Milne was pivotal, for out of his ashes sprang thousands of others holing the same opinions, which forced the Church of Scotland to debate true religion with the French and the Catholic Church.
Milne was a parish priest of Lunan who embraced the doctrines of the Reformation and was condemned in the time of Beaton. He was able to escape safely from prison and hid in the country of Scotland until the leniency of the queen dowager allowed him to resume his preaching. Forced into hiding a second time, he was captured and tried for heresy at St. Andrews at the age of eighty-two.
The following dialogue took place between Milne and Andrew Oliphant, one of the bishop’s priests, at his April 1551 trial.
“What do you think of priests marrying?” Oliphant asked Milne.
“I hold it a blessed bond; for Christ Himself maintained it, approved of it, and made it available for all men. But you don’t think it’s available for you. You abhor it while taking other men’s wives and daughters, not respecting the bond God made. You vow chastity and break it. St. Paul would rather marry than burn, which I have done, for God never forbade marriage to any man.”
“You say there are not seven sacraments.”
“Give me the Lord’s Supper and Baptism, and you can divide the rest among yourselves. If there are seven, why have you omitted one of them — marriage — and given yourself to immorality?”
“You are against the sacrament of the altar. You say the Mass is idolatry.”
“A lord or king calls many to a dinner; then when the hall is ready, he rings a bell to summon the crowd, turns his back on his guests, eats alone, and mocks them. This is what you do, too.”
“You deny the sacrament of the altar is the actual body of Christ.”
“The scripture of God is not to be taken carnally, but spiritually, and stands in faith only. As far as the Mass, it is wrong. Christ was offered once on the cross for man’s sins and will never be offered again. He ended all sacrifice.”
“You deny the office of bishop.”
“Those you call bishops don’t do a bishop’s work as defined by Paul’s letter to Timothy. They live for sensual pleasure and don’t care for their flock. They don’t honor the Word of God but seek honor for themselves.”
“You speak against pilgrimages.”
“They are not commanded in scripture. There is no greater immorality committed in any place than at your pilgrimages.”
“You preach secretly in houses and openly in the fields.”
“Yes. And on the sea, too, in a ship.”
“Will you recant? If not, I will sentence you.”
“I am accused of my life. I know I must die once and therefore, as Christ said to Judas, what thou doest, do quickly. I will not recant the truth. I am corn, not chaff; I will not be blown away with the wind or burst by the flail. I will survive both.”
Andrew Oliphant ordered Milne given to a secular judge to be burned as a heretic, but the provost of the town, Patrick Learmont, refused to be Milne’s secular judge, as did the bishop’s chamberlain. The whole town was so offended at the sentence that they wouldn’t even sell the bishop’s servants a rope for tying Milne to the stake or a tar barrel. Finally Alexander Summerwail, more ignorant and cruel than the rest, acted as a secular judge and sent Milne to the stake.
When Milne was brought to be executed, Oliphant ordered him to climb up to the stake. “No,” Milne replied. You put me up there and take part in my death. I am forbidden by God’s law from killing myself. But I go up gladly.”
Oliphant put the old man up himself.
Then Milne addressed the crowd. “Deaqr friends, I suffer today for the defense of the faith of Jesus Christ, set forth in the Old and New Testaments. I praise God that He has called me to seal up His truth with my life, which, as I have received it from Him, I willingly offer to His glory. If you would escape eternal death, do not be seduced by the lies of priests, monks, friars, priors, abbots, bishops, and the rest of the sect of antichrist. Depend only on Jesus Christ and His mercy to save you.”
There was great mourning and crying among the crowd as Milne died, and their hearts were so inflamed by his death that he was the last religious martyr to die in Scotland.
JOHN ROGERS
John Rogers was educated at the University of Cambridge then served as chaplain to the English merchants living in Antwerp, The Netherlands. There he met William Tyndale and Miles Cloverdale, both of whom had previously fled England. Converted to Protestantism, Rogers aided the two in translating the Bible into English, married, and moved to Wittenberg, where he was given a congregation of his own.
Rogers served his congregation for many years before returning to England during the reign of King Edward VI, who had banished Catholicism and made Protestantism the state religion. He served in St. Paul’s until Queen Mary took the throne, banished the gospel, and brought Catholicism back to England.
Even then, Rogers continued to preach against the queen’s proclamation until the council ordered him to remain under house arrest in his own home, which he did, even though he could easily have left the country. Protestantism was not going to flourish under Queen Mary. Rogers knew he could find work in Germany; and he did have a wife and ten children to think of, but he refused to abandon his cause to save his life. He remained a prison in his own house for a long time, but eventually Bonner, bishop of London, had Rogers imprisoned in Newgate with thieves and murderers, and Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester condemned him to death.
Early on the morning of Monday, February 4, 1555, the jailer’s wife woke Rogers and told him to hurry and dress; this was the day he was to burn. His wife and eleven children me him on the way to Smithfield, but Rogers still refused to recant. Arriving at Smithfield, he was given one more chance by Sheriff Woodroofe.
“That which I have preached I will seal with my blood,” Rogers replied.
“Then,” said Woodroofe, “you are a heretic.”
“That will be known on the day of judgment.”
“Well, I’ll never pray for you!”
“But I pray for you.”
A little before the burning, a pardon arrived, but Rogers refused to recant and accept it, becoming the first martyr to suffer death during the reign of Queen Mary.
LAWRENCE SANDERS
After Queen Mary prohibited Protestant preaching in the first year of her reign, several ministers continued to preach the gospel as private pastors. One of these was Lawrence Sanders.
Sanders, from a prosperous noble family, studied at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. His widowed mother wanted him to become a merchant, so he apprenticed himself to a merchant named Sir William Chester. But soon Sa nders realized that he really wanted to be a preacher, and his master, who was a good man, set him free from his contract so Sanders could return to Cambridge as a divinity student.
Sanders began to preach during the reign of King Edward, when Protestantism became the official religion of England. After holding several positions, he became a preacher in the countryside of Leicestershire, where he taught diligently until being offered a church in London named Allhallows. Just as he was about to give up his position in the country to concentrate on hios london parish, Queen Mary made her bid for the throne. Seeing that Mary would bring hard times on all Protestants, Sanders kept both positions. If he had given one of them up, he would certainly have been replaced by a Catholic.
So he traveleed back and forth to serve both parishes until it became illegal to preach from the gospel. Sanders continued to preach to his rural congregation until he was forcibly prevented from doing so. Since he couldn’t work there, he traveled back to London.
As he entered the city on Saturday, October 14, Sanders was met by Sir John Mordant, an advisor of Queen Mary, who warned him against preaching the next day. Sanders ignored his advice and gave his morning sermon, then, as he was preparing for the afternoon one, he was taken from his church and brought before the bishop, Sir John Mordant, and some chaplains. The bishop asked Sanders to write out his beliefs concerning transubstantiation and sent him to see the lord chandcellor, who put him in prison.
After being imprisoned for fifteen months, during which he stayed loyal to his conscience, Sanders was brought to trial before the lord chancellor on charges of treason, heresy, and sedition. Presented with the paper he’d written earlier on transubstantiation, Sanders replied, “What I have written, I have written. I won’t accuse myself of anything else. There’s nothing you can bring against me.”
After he was excommunicated and turned over to the legal authorities, the bishop of London came to prison to strip Sanders of his offices on February 4. When he was done, Sanders told him, “I thank God I’m not of your church.” On February 8, Sanders embraced the stake and kissed it, saying, “Welcome to the cross of Christ. Welcome everlasting life.”
JOHN HOOPER
During the reign of King Edward, John Hooper served as bishop of two dioceses, always acting as Paul instructed bishops to act in his Epistle to Timothy. He never looked for personal gain, only for the care and salvation of his flocks, giving away any money that came his way. Twice I [Foxe] saw Hooper’s house filled with beggars and poor people who were eating at a table filled with meat, an event a servant told me took place every evening before Hooper sat down to eat his own dinner.
Hooper served as bishop for more than two years under Edward. When Edward died and Mary was crowned queen, Hooper was one of the first ordered to report to London and imprisoned. He remained there for eighteen months, gravely ill most of the time, forced to spend his own money to obtain food. On March 19, 1554, Hooper was called before the bishops of Winchester, London, Durham, Llandaff, and Chichester and deprived of his bishoprics. On January 22, 1555, the bishop of Winchester called him in to demand he forsake his Protestant beliefs and accept the pope as the head of the Church of England. If he did so, he would be pardoned — as many other English churchmen had been, Hooper refused.
On January 28, 1555, Hooper appeared before the bishop of Winchester and others was given another chance to accept the Catholic Church. This was the same day that Rogers was appearing and they met outside as they left the church with their guards.
“Brother Rogers!” Hooper exclaimed. “Should we take this matter in hand and begin to fry these fagots?”
“Yes, sir,” Rogers replied, “by God’s grace.”
“Be sure, God will give strength.”
Hooper was returned to Newgate Prison for six days on January 29; on February 4 the bishop of London stripped him of all church offices, and Hooper was transported to Gloucester to be burned.
On February 5, Hooper was brought to the stake. He had been given packages of gunpowder by the guard to hasten his death and lessen his suffering. These he put under his arms and between his legs. Three irons were brought to fasten him to the stake — but Hooper said they weren’t necessary. Just the one around his waist was used.
After Hooper forgave the men who made the fire, it was lit, but the fire builder had used green wood, and even when it finally caught, the wind blew the flames away from Hooper. A second fire was lit, but it only burned low, not faring up as it should have. When the fire was lit the third time the funpowder on Hooper went off, but even that didn’t do much good because of the wind.
Even when Hooper’s mouth was black and his tongue swolllen, his lips continued to move until they shrank to the gums. He knocked on his breast with his hands until one of his arms fell off. Then he knocked with the other — fat, water, and blood dropping off the ends of his fingers — until his hand stuck to the iron around his waist.
Hooper was in the fire for over forty-ive minutes, suffering patiently even when the lower part of his body burned off and his intestines spilled out. Now he reigns as a blessed martyr in the joys of heaven that are prepared for the faithful in Christ.
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