Marian persecutions

Plaque in Maidstone, Kent, commemorating those burned nearby.

The Marian persecutions were carried out against Protestant religious reformers for their faith during the reign of Mary I of England (1553-1558). The excesses of this period were recorded in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.

Protestants in England and Wales were executed under pro-Catholic legislation which punished anyone judged guilty of heresy against the Catholic faith. This legislation adopted the unusual punishment of burning the condemned, a punishment used by the Spanish Inquisition in the reign of Mary's husband Philip. The standard penalty for those convicted of treason in England at the time was execution by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Historical context

The English Reformation resulted in the end of Roman Catholic ecclesiastical governance in England, the assertion of royal supremacy over the Church, the dissolution of Catholic institutions such as monasteries and chantries, the prohibition of Catholic worship and the institution of Church of England services and clergy. During the Reformation in England, many people were caught in conflict between Catholic and Protestant ascendancy.

An important year in the English Reformation was 1547, when Protestantism became a new force under the child-king Edward VI, England's first Protestant ruler. Edward died at age 15 in 1553 leaving the throne to Lady Jane Grey, who held it for nine days before Edward's Catholic half-sister Mary deposed her and assumed the crown, as was stipulated by Henry VIII in his Third Succession Act but revoked by Edward VI. Mary reigned for five years (1553-1558) until her death. During her reign, she restored the relationship with Rome, returning Catholicism as the official religion. Protestants opposed Mary's actions. Many people were exiled, and hundreds of dissenters were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname "Bloody Mary".

Persecutions

Troubles for Protestants

After the accession of Queen Mary I to the English throne in 1553, and her repeal of all religious legislation passed under Edward VI, Protestants faced a choice: exile, reconciliation/conversion, or punishment. Several of those who remained in England to profess and defend their Protestant beliefs would be executed by burning, and thus their supporters considered them martyrs. Mary's privy council had some 284 Protestants burned at the stake (including 56 women). Thirty others died in prison. While the so-called “Marian Persecutions” began with four clergymen, relics of Edwardian England’s Protestantism, the tendentious record of events Foxe’s Book of Martyrs offers an interesting account of the executions, which branched well beyond the anticipated targets – high-level clergy. Tradesmen were also burned, as well as married men and women, sometimes in unison; at least one couple was burned alive with their daughter.

Judicial process

However bloody the end, the trials of Protestant heretics were judicial affairs, adhering to a strict legal protocol under the privy council, with Parliament's blessing. Because of her controversial accession, Mary had difficulty forming an efficient Privy Council—which eventually numbered over forty and never worked as a source of political advice, though it effectively pursued police work and enforcement of religious uniformity. During the session which restored the realm to "papal obedience" parliament reinstated the heresy laws. From 20 January 1555, England could legally punish those judged guilty of heresy against the Catholic faith. Thus it became a matter of establishing the guilt or innocence of an accused heretic in open court – a process which the lay authorities employed to reclaim "straying sheep" and to set a precedent for authentic Catholic teaching. If found guilty, the accused were first excommunicated, then handed over to the secular authorities for execution. The official records of the trials are limited to formal accusations, sentences, and so forth; the documents to which historians look for context and detail are those written by the accused.

The Marian martyrs

The first four

• John Rogers, preacher, biblical translator, lecturer at St. Paul’s Cathedral – burned at Smithfield, 4 February 1555.
• Lawrence Saunders, preacher, rector of London church of All Hallows – burned at Coventry, 8 February 1555.
• John Hooper, King Edward-era bishop of Gloucester and Worcester – burned in Gloucester, 9 February 1555.
• Rowland Taylor, rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk – burned at Aldham Common, 9 February 1555.

The following is not a complete list:

1555

• William Hunter, burnt 27 March, Brentwood
• Robert Ferrar, burnt 30 March, Carmarthen
• Rawlins White, burnt, Cardiff
• George Marsh, burnt 24 April, Chester
• John Schofield, burnt 24 April, Chester
• William Flower, burnt 24 April, Westminster
• John Cardmaker, burnt 30 May, Smithfield
• John Warne, burnt 30 May, Smithfield
• John Simpson, burnt 30 May, Rochford
• John Ardeley, burnt 30 May, Rayleigh
• Thomas Harland of Woodmancote, burnt 6 June, Lewes
• John Oswald of Woodmancote, burnt 6 June, Lewes
• Thomas Avington of Ardingly, burnt 6 June, Lewes
• Thomas Reed of Ardingly, burnt 6 June, Lewes
• Thomas Haukes, burnt 6 June, Lewes
• Thomas Watts
• Nicholas Chamberlain, burnt 14 June, Colchester
• Thomas Ormond, burnt June 15, 1555, Manningtree, Buried in St. Micheals & All Angels Marble placed in 1748
• William Bamford, burnt 15 June, Harwich
• Dirick Carver of Brighton, burnt 22 July, Lewes
• John Launder of Godstone, burnt 23 July, Steyning
• Thomas Cobbe, Roger Coe, and James Abbes, burnt 12 August, Thetford, - three of the 31 victims of Michael Dunning, the "bloody chancellor" of Norwich from 1555 to 1558.
• Robert Samuel, burnt 31 August, Ipswich
• John Newman, burnt August 31, Saffron Walden
• James Abbes Shoemaker, of Stoke by Nayland burnt at Bury St Edmunds August 1555
• William Allen, Labourer of Somerton burnt at Walsingham September 1555
• Robert Glover, burnt 20 September at Coventry
• Cornelius Bongey (or Bungey), burnt 20 September at Coventry
• Nicholas Ridley, burnt 16 October outside Balliol College, Oxford
• Hugh Latimer, burnt 16 October outside Balliol College, Oxford
• William Wolsey, one of the Wisbech Martyrs, burnt 16 October on the Cathedral Green, Ely
• Robert Pygot (martyr) of Wisbech, burnt 16 October on the Cathedral Green, Ely
• John Philpot, burnt

1556

• Agnes Potten, burnt 19 February, Ipswich, Cornhill
• Joan Trunchfield, burnt 19 February, Ipswich, Cornhill
• Thomas Cranmer, burnt 21 March, outside Balliol College, Oxford
• Thomas Hood of Lewes, burnt about 20 June, Lewes
• Thomas Miles of Hellingly, burnt about 20 June, Lewes
• John Tudson of Ipswich, burnt at London
• Thomas Spicer of Beccles, burnt there 21 May
• John Deny of Beccles, burnt there 21 May
• Edmund Poole of Beccles, burnt there 21 May
• Joan Waste, 1 August, burnt at Derby

1557

• William Morant, burnt at end of May, St. George's Field, Southwark
• Stephen Gratwick, burnt at end of May, St. George's Field, Southwark
• (unknown) King, burnt at end of May, St. George's Field, Southwark
• Richard Sharpe, burnt 7 May, Cotham, Bristol
• William and Katherine Allin of Frittenden and five others, burnt 18 June at Maidstone
• Richard Woodman of Warbleton, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• George Stevens of Warbleton, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• Alexander Hosman of Mayfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• William Mainard of Mayfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• Thomasina Wood of Mayfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• Margery Morris of Heathfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• James Morris, her son, of Heathfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• Denis Burges of Buxted, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• Ann Ashton of Rotherfield, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• Mary Groves of Lewes, burnt 22 June, Lewes
• John Noyes of Laxfield, Suffolk, burnt 22 September
• Joyce Lewis of Mancetter, burnt at Lichfield on 18 December.

1558

• Roger Holland, burnt at Smithfield with seven others
• William Pikes or Pickesse of Ipswich, burnt 14 July, Brentford with five others
• Alexander Gooch of Melton, Suffolk, burnt 4 November, Ipswich Cornhill
• Alice Driver of Grundisburgh burnt 4 November, Ipswich Cornhill
• P Humphrey, burnt November, Bury St Edmunds
• J. David, burnt November, Bury St Edmunds
• H. David, burnt November, Bury St Edmunds
• Colchester Martyrs, burnt 2 August, Colchester

Irony of John Rogers's execution

Before Mary's ascent to the throne, John Foxe, one of the few clerics of his day who was against the burning of even obstinate heretics, had approached John Rogers to intervene on behalf of Joan of Kent, a female Anabaptist who was sentenced with burning in 1550. Rogers, a Protestant preacher and royal chaplain, refused to help, as he supported the burning of heretics. Rogers claimed that the method of execution was “sufficiently mild” for a crime as grave as heresy. Later, after Mary I came to power and converted England to Catholicism, John Rogers spoke quite vehemently against the new order and was burned as a heretic.

Legacy

Throughout the course of the persecutions, Foxe contends that 300 individuals were burned for their faith. However, no complete list of these names has ever been documented. These people are commemorated with an elaborate gothic memorial in Oxford, England. They are known as the "Marian Martyrs".

See also

• Marian exiles
• Martyrs' Memorial
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• Oxford Martyrs
• List of people executed in Smithfield
• The Coventry Martyrs