THOMAS HUDSON
Thomas Hudson was a glover by trade, living in the town of Ailesham in Norfolk. Although he had little schooling, he was a great student of the scriptures and preached on Sundays to any of his neighbors who were interested in hearing the Bible read and explained.
When Queen Mary began her reign, all unlicensed ministers who publicly preached to the people became marked men. Hudson would have been among the first to be arrested and thrown into prison if he had not fled from his home. He traveled to Suffolk and, by constantly changing his lodgings from one house to another, escaped arrest.
But after a time, Hudson’s desire to see his wife and family became too strong to be resisted. In spite of the danger, he went home. Soon he heard that his enemies knew of his return, so he left his house and built a crude shelter beneath a pile of nearby firewood, only coming out in the darkness. This worked until the town’s vicar threatened to burn Mrs. Hudson for hiding her husband. Hudson left his hiding place and openly walked into town, where he was arrested.
The bishop asked Hudson a great number of questions, all of which he answered honestly; and though he wasn’t an educated man, Hudson’s arguments were very strong. Finding he couldn’t do anything with the man, the bishop finally condemned him and sent him to prison.
On May 19, 1558, Thomas Hudson was taken out of prison and led to a place called the Lollards’ Pit, just outside the bishop’s gate at Norwich, along with two other condemned men. Just before the chain around him was made fast, Hudson stopped, slipped out from under the chain, and stood a little to one side. This caused many to wonder if he was about to recant or if he was coming forward for his parents’ blessing. But no one knew the real reason: Hudson had suddenly been afflicted with doubts and felt his faith growing weak. Therefore, not willing to die while feeling this way, he fell upon his knees and prayed to God, who sent him comfort. Then he rose with great joy as a reborn man and cried, “Now, thank God, I am strong and care not what man can do unto me.” So going to the stake again, he put the chain around himself, and they were all burned together.
HISTORY OF BISHOP BONNER
Edmund Bonner, bishop of London, who took so prominent a part in the persecution of the Protestants during Queen Mary’s reign, was born at Hanley in Worcestershire about the year 1500. He was educated at Oxford and, having been admitted to the priesthood, entered the household of Cardinal Wolsey.
All through Henry’s reign, Bonner appeared to be very earnest in his opposition to the pope and strongly in favor of the Reformation. Upon Henry’s death, however, he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy for Edward and was sent to prison until he agreed to be obedient to the new king, was released, and later imprisoned once again until Queen Mary took the throne.
Mary saw just what she needed in Bonner, who threw himself into the work of persecuting the Protestants with all his energy. It’s said that two hundred of the martyrs of this time were personally tried and sentenced by him. Bonner was a harsh, persistent man, with no pity or compassion for the people brought before him. Nothing short of complete surrender would satisfy Bonner. So far did his rage against heresy carry him that he is said to have called for rods and beaten stubborn witnesses himself on several occasions.
When Elizabeth came to the throne, she singled Bonner out to mark with her disapproval, sending him to prison in her second year for refusing to accept her as the head of the Church of England. He remained there for ten years, dying in misery and wretchedness at the age of seventy. Although no one had seen Bonner for over ten years, his memory was so fresh and he was so hated by the people that he was buried at midnight to avoid a riot.
THE DEATH OF QUEEN MARY
After a long illness, Queen Mary died on November 17 at three or four in the morning, yielding her life to nature and her kingdom to her sister, Elizabeth.
Hearing her sighs before she died, her council asked if she was sad about the death of her husband. “Indeed, that may be one cause,” the queen replied, “but that is not the greatest wound that pierces my oppressed mind.”
No other king or queen of England spilled as much blood in a time of peace as Queen Mary did in four years through her hanging, beheading, burning, and imprisonment of good Christian Englishmen. When she first sought the crown and promised to retain the faith and religion of Edward, God went with her and brought her the throne through the efforts of the Protestants. But after she broke her promises to God and man, sided with Stephen Gardiner, and gave up her supremacy to the pope, God left her. Nothing she did after that thrived.
Instead, she married King Philip and made England subject to a stranger. With Philip came the pope and his Mass, monks, and the nuns, but still God prevented her from having her way.
No woman was ever more disappointed than Mary when she did not have any children, even with the help of the Catholic Church’s prayers. She seemed unable to win the favor of God, the hearts of her subjects, or the love of her husband.
At last, when nothing could sway her to stop the tyranny of her priests and spare her subjects who were being drawn daily as sheep to the slaughter, it pleased God to cut off her rule by death, giving her throne to another after she reigned for five years and five months.
I mentioned this unlucky reign of Queen Mary not to detract from her position, which she was called to by the Lord, but as a warning to men and women in authority who persecute Christ’s church and shed Christian blood so they will not stumble on the same stone as the Jews who persecuted Christ and His church to their own destruction.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
The death of Queen Mary seemed to dispel a black, gloomy cloud that for five years had hung like a pall over England. The crowning of Elizabeth was welcomed with joy by the Protestants, and their sufferings during the previous bloody reign were for a moment forgotten in the hope that better days had come.
But Elizabeth, Protestant and friend of the Reformation, loved power as much as her father, Henry VIII, and intended to be no less an absolute ruler of both church and state than he had been. Laws were speedily passed establishing Elizabeth as the supreme head of the church as well as the nation. She was empowered to create a high commission, or court, to try people accused of not taking part in the services of the established Church of England. The power of this court extended over the whole kingdom; the clergy as well as the people were subject to its rule. Any three members of this court could take measures to discover, by summoning witnesses or any other means, anyone who spoke against the queen’s supremacy or refused to observe the forms of worship of the established church. They had the power to inquire into any heretical opinions that might be held, to look for seditious books or writings, to try all cases of willful absence from services, and to punish the offenders by fines.
Aks can be seen, religious liberty, as we know it today, was almost as far as ever from being realized. More than a century would pass before persecution entirely ceased and the passage of a Toleration Act finally established complete freedom of worship in England. But at least Elizabeth was not cruel; aversion to bloodshed was as marked a feature of her character as the reverse had been in that of Mary. The dreadful fires continued for a while longer in Spain and the countries within her grasp, but with the ending of the reign of Queen Mary, the history of the English martyrdom was brought to a close.
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