Page 26 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

ANGLICAN CHURCH

desired that they undertake the revision of the English that kindness didn’t extend to the Anabaptists. In one of
Bible. Fagius began work on the Old Testament, and his sermons preached before King Edward, Latimer
Bucer started with the Gospel of John, but sickness and called the Anabaptists “poisoned heretics” and referred
death intervened to stop this project (Daiches, The King to their burnings, callously saying, “Well, let them
James Version of the English Bible, pp. 46, 47, 149). go” (Cranmer’s Sermons, Parker Society, vol. v). This
Their sacred work was so hated by Rome that their was only a few years before he was burned, in his own
bones were dug up and burned. turn, by Mary. In regard to their own martyrs, the
The suffering of Bible-believers during Rome‘s Protestants certainly have not evidenced the attitude of
resurgence in England was not limited to the torments Cranmer, “Well, let them go” — in other words, good
of death. “But martyrdom was often a relief from more riddance. By no means have they had this attitude. The
barbarous atrocities. In the sad winter months which Protestant historians, such as Foxe and Wylie and a
were approaching, the poor men and women, who, thousand others, have raised great memorials to the
untried and uncondemned, were crowded into the memory of their own martyrs, but these same historians
bishops’ prisons, experienced such miseries as the very have often raised nothing but reproach upon the
dogs could scarcely suffer and survive. They were memory of the Baptist martyrs.
beaten, they were starved, they were flung into dark Another example is Nicholas Ridley, who was burned
fetid dens, where rotting straw was their bed, their feet by Mary on October 17, 1555 (at the same time as
were fettered in the stocks, and their clothes were their Latimer). Like Cranmer, Ridley was involved in the
only covering, while the wretches who died in their death sentence of Joan Boucher (Joan of Kent) during
misery were flung out into the fields where none might the reign of Edward VI. Ridley attempted to get Boucher
bury them” (Froude, History of England, V, p. 559). to renounce her doctrine. She was an Anabaptist from
Since most histories ignore this fact, I feel Kent, a member of a small congregation in the town of
constrained to mention it, though it is sad and Eythorne. She was an intimate friend of the godly Ann
unpleasant. Many of the Protestants who were burned Askew who was burned during the reign of Henry VIII.
and otherwise persecuted under Queen Mary, had Joan was charged with “holding that Christ was not
themselves persecuted, or else supported the persecution of, incarnate of the Virgin Mary,” but the charge was not
Baptists. true. She held an eccentric and erroneous belief that
Thomas Cranmer, who was burned by Mary on March Mary had two seeds, one natural and one spiritual, and
21, 1556, convicted and burned Anabaptists both during that Christ was the spiritual seed. In reading the
the reign of Henry VIII and during that of Edward VI. accounts of the trial, it is difficult to know exactly what
Under Henry, Cranmer (who had supported the she meant by this, but this much is clear: she plainly
persecution against translator William Tyndale) had testified that Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born
been appointed to hunt out Anabaptists, to burn their and that she accepted Christ as both man and God and
books, and to turn the Anabaptists over to the secular as the virgin-born Son of God. Thus, if she believed
arm of government to be executed if they refused to some strange thing about Mary’s seed, certainly it was
repent. During the reign of Edward VI, Cranmer again not a very great heresy. The heresies of infant baptism
had opportunity to have two Anabaptists burned. One of and baptismal regeneration, both of which were held by
those burned by Cranmer was Joan Boucher (Joan of those who condemned Joan, are greater errors.
Kent), of whom we will say more in a moment. Another John Philpot, who was burned by Mary on December
of those burned by Cranmer under Edward was an 18, 1555, was also in favor of Joan of Kent’s burning.
Anabaptist preacher named Humphrey Middleton. Philpot testified, “As for Joan of Kent, she was a vain
When Cranmer threatened him with death, the intrepid woman (I knew her well), and a heretic indeed, well
Baptist replied, “Reverend sir, pass what sentence you worthy to be burnt…” (Philpot’s Work’s, Parker Society,
think fit upon us. But that you may not say that you p. 55).
were not forewarned, I testify that your turn may be Another example is John Rogers. He supported the
next” It was only a few years later that the Protestant burning of an Anabaptist named Joan Boucher during
Cranmer, who had supported the burning of the Baptists the reign of Edward VI. The historian John Foxe, who,
Boucher and Middleton and others, was himself burned to his credit, was opposed to the burning and who tried
by the Catholic Mary (Evans, Early English Baptists, to save the woman, begged his friend Rogers to help
volume 1). him. Rogers refused, saying that she ought to be burned
Hugh Latimer is another example. He was burned by and spoke of death by burning as a light thing. Foxe
Mary on October 17, 1555. Latimer was the chaplain to seized the hand of Rogers and replied, “Well, it may so
Henry VIII and the bishop of London under Edward VI, happen that you yourself will have your hands full of
and though he had the reputation of being a kind man, this mild burning” (Thomas Armitage, A History of the

26 Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity