euery trifle yet they beleeue our othes no farther then is for their seruice and our affliction for I haue heard Norton him self say that svveare they neuer so fast he vvil not trust them except they goe to the Church meaning their schismatical seruice This same man not discouered onely of il affection but iustly put into the Tovver for seditious wordes plaine treason so much as would haue hāged an hundereth Catholikes honest men yet much complained that he vvas so vnkindely dealt withal M. Norton tooke great vnkindnes that a fevve rashe wordes which of many wise men were not misliked of as he saith could not be forgiuen but with such difficultie Specially to him that was so necessarie for their seruice that neither the citie of Lōdon to which he was a feed man nor the parliament wherein he did many good offices alvvaies nor the Prince in her commissions for religion wherein he was much emploied could spare him And M. Nortons wife if she wil be as plaine to the Counsel as she is to some of her neighbours can tel if M. Secretarie him self remember it not vvho put vnto this same Norton being then for the said treasons in the Tovver and iustly in disgrace with her M. to pen matters of state to set dovvne orders and articles to be treated of against Catholikes in the parliament and other places the said persons can tel you perhaps what he meant by these wordes often vttered in his disgrace Norton his suspicious vvordes VVORTHY WORTHY Marreth al but GRACIOVS GRACIOVS may make VVISER VVISER to amend al. the rack would picke as good matter out of this as out of any poore Catholikes breast in Englād And he to whom he vvrote these wordes Defend me and spare me not according to the Irish prouerbe can read the riddel The said Mistris Norton can tel also where her husband did lay vp Stubbs booke Stubbs his booke against her M. for a secret treasure which geare vvel sifted vvould bevvray vvorse affection and intention to then they shal euer find in Catholikes whilst they liue This Stubbs being the Q deadly enemie then in the Tovver for his traiterous booke vvas of M. Lieutenants Counsel in al things M. Lieutenants frendlines tovvardes the Q. ennemie far better entreated for his comfort and diet then the earle of klanrickard vttering to him al examinations of Catholikes vvhat other secresies soeuer to vvhom also Charke Stubs pervsed Charkes booke one that vvas once put to silence for puritanisme or a vvorse matter if worse can be sent his booke against F. Campion to be perused vvhich things the Lieutenant vvould neuer haue done or permitted if he had borne that good affection to her M. as he requireth in Catholikes or if he and his fellovves might be posed in their thoughts and of the time future and their intentions to come And it may be one of these fellovves deuises or some other of like spirit and inuention An other nevv practise and persecution to send the poore Catholikes whom they haue ruined at home to Terra Florida there to exercise their religion and to haue freedom of conscience a strange coozenage and craft to be rid of the poore gentilmen vnder pretence of their prefermēt but most men of the realme wish rather the puritans there as an humor that our cōmonvvealth had more need to be purged of Vvho are also better acquainted in those parts as being once sent thither out of Geneua by Caluin when the french made the like attempt vvith as good successe as I feare these shal haue which in truth can not by the lavv of God and good conscience if I take it right possesse those partes which by former composition and by decree of Alexander the vj pertaineth to an other Prince It is the Catholikes that haue iustly possessed England these thousand yeres it is no reason they should be thrust into the Indes for their dwelling but this is their art to weaken our side against the day of their ful reueng which may be reckoned amongest the greatest of our persecutions and to proceed of a shrevvder head then Nortons But al these deepe distresses calamities and iniuries The conclusion of the preface vvith an exhortation praier which we suffer not so much at her M. handes or her grauest Counsellers as by these sinful irreligious persons their il enformers vve do from the bottome of our harts forgiue and desire God of his vnspeakable mercie to turne avvay his heauie hand of iustice from the Realme and from euery one that either procured or consented to the deaths of these his blessed Saints or the trouble of his holy Israel vvhose blood and death most deare in our Lords sight I pray CHRIST IESVS they cal not for vengeance but for mercie and grace tovvards their persecutors that they may rather with penance consider in this life against vvhom they haue pricked then see and feele it to their confusion in the next But whatsoeuer fal through this great sinne or our other offenses either to their ennemies or to vs their frends that are yet left in this vvretched world in the worst daies that were this thovvsand yeres and in the heauiest and most douteful condition of our countrey that was since the cōuersion these Martyres are blessed The blisse of these martyrs soules safe free past al mortal miseries in the hands and garde of God vvhere the torment of malice can not touch them nor such reach them of whom our Sauiour said Be not afraid of them that kill the body and after that haue no more to do They are exceding happy certs that liue not these dooleful daies but a thousand times more happy that haue the grace and priuiledge to yeld any drop of bloud for the appeasing of Gods wrath and assvvaging this publike rage of sinne and heresie Their deaths precious their soules in glorie their memories in benediction their names eternal The honor of their bodies yea euen their bodies vvhich were the infirme part of these noble Machabees though hanging on ports pinnacles poles gibbets though torne of beasts and birdes yet rest in peace and are more honorable sacreed and soueraine then the embaumed bodies of vvhat worldly state soeuer in their regal sepulchres That day and hovver they stoode in the carte in misery and desolation as it seemed to the simple yet euen then were they more happy then al the multitude that beheld them neuer a wise man that there stoode thought othervvise though the present paines and briefe ignominie seemed to fooles carnal men to be extreeme miserie but al those were so momentaine that their better part was in heauens blisse before their bodies were cold or out of the bouchiers hand their soules praied vnto both by their happy fellovves openly and by many a good man secretly before their bonnes were cold Because S. Augustine geueth vs that rule That we must
not pray for Martyrs but pray to them Vvhat honor shal they be in hereafter in Gods Church and in our coūtrey specially The honor they be in already when malice and enuie shal be worne out it is easie to coniecture Vvhen euen in the daies of their persecutors and in as sharpe punishment diligence and watchfulnes that their memories be not recommendable to the vvorld as euer was vsed of the old heathen persecutors against S. Policarp S. Albon and other auncient Martyrs yet their renoume hath passed through al the Christian world and hath pearsed the very heretikes harts in Fraunce Geneua and Germany No talke as I am credibly enformed more common there then of this late double slaughter first of F. Campion and his tvvo fellovves then of these vij Machabees And for the Catholikes of Italie Spaine Fraunce and namely which is lesse to be marueled at of England The great desire men haue of their reliques more then the vveight in golde would be geuen and is offered for any peece of their reliques either of their bodies haire bones or garments yea or any thing that hath any spot or staine of their innocent and sacred bloud Vvherein surely great diligence and honorable zeale hath been shevved by diuers noble gentilmē verteous people that haue to their great daūger obtained some good peeces of them to satisfie presently the godly greedy appetite of holy persons of diuers nations making extreeme sute for them The deuotiō of the people tovvards their bodies already Marry that is most notable and memorable that diuers deuoute people of our nation that can get no part of their sacred reliques yet come as it were on pilgrimage to the places vvhere their quarters or heades be set vp vnder pretence of gasing and asking vvhose heades or bodies they be and what traitors they were whose heades are set highe aboue others there to do their deuotion praiers vnto them vvhose liues they knevv to be so innocent and deathes so glorious befor God and the world IESV what a pleasur what honor and blessednes haue their ennemies done vnto them thus soddenly and euerlastingly to make them numbred in glorie amongest the saints we and al their frends and al the princes of the world if they could haue yelded to them al the Kingdomes of the earth and the glorie thereof could not haue benefited them so much vvitingly as their ennemies haue done against their intention but by the prouidence of God who turneth the wicked iniustice of man to the eternal good and honor of his Church and Saints O good God CHRIST IESVS geue these thy their and our persecutors for thy deaths sake and for this fresh bloud of thy MARTYRS and for the grones sighes and teares of so many thovvsand thy chained Imprisoned and afflicted Saints geue them mercie and grace to see that they goe not the right vvay to saue our coūtrey them selues from perdition either temporal or eternal humble their harts to the obedience of thy Lieutenant general and to thy holy spovvse in earth that so vnder thee and not against or aboue thee our Prince ELIZABETH as a mēber of thy Church and not as head of the same may reduce her Realme to the vnitie of the Christian vvorld and so rule and gouerne our temporal ciuil state in long peace much honor and securitie Amen Prouerb 17. Qui iustificat impium quim condemnat iustum abominabilis est vterque apud dominum that is He that iustifieth the impious and he that condemneth the iust both are abominable before God A TRVE REPORT OF the death and Martyrdom of F. Campion Iesuite and Priest M. Shervvin and M. Bryan Priestes Boetius li. 1 de consol philosoph Pro verae virtutis premijs falsi sceleris poenas subimus And first of F. Edmund Campion Priest of the societie of the name of IESVS Bachiler of Diuinitie and sometime fellovv of S. Iohn Baptists Colledge in Oxford THESE three glorious Confessors learned meeke godly and constant Priests vpon the first day of December in the yere of our Lord 1581 vvere vnder pretence of high treason most iniuriously to the great lamentation generally of al good men dravven from the Tovver to Tyborne there to be Martyred for the CATHOLIKE FAITH and RELIGION F. Campion was alone on one herdle the other tvvo together on an other all molested by Ministers and others calling vpon them by the vvay for their subuersion and by some also as opportunitie serued and as in a case of so great daunger it conueniently might be comforted and F. Campion specially by one consulted in some cases of conscience and religion and the myre wherevvith he vvas al to be moyled most courteously vviped his face Vvhen they vvere come to the place of execution where diuers of her M. honorable Counsel vvith many honorable personages and Gentilmen of vvorship and good accompt beside an infinit multitude of people attended their cōming F. Campion vvas first brought vp into the carte where after some smale pavvse and after the great rumor of so many people somevvhat appeased with graue countenance and svveet voice stovvtly spake as follovveth Spectaculum facti sumus c Mundo in the text Deo Angelis hominibus saying these are the wordes of S. Paule Englished thus Vve are made a spectacle or a sight vnto God vnto his Angels and vnto men verified this day in me who am here a spectacle vnto my Lord a spectacle vnto his Angels and vnto you men And here going forvvard in his text They would not suffer him to speake in religion lest he should haue persvvaded the people vvas interrupted and cut of by Sir Frauncis Knovvles and the Sherifes ernestly vrging him to cōfesse his treason against her M. to acknovvledge him self guiltie To whom he ansvvered saying For the treasons which haue been laid to my charge and I am come here to suffer for I desire you al to beare witnesse with me that thereof I am altogether innocent Vvherevpon ansvver was made to him by one of the Counsel that he might not seeme to deny the obiections against him hauing been proued so manifestly to his face both by sufficient witnes and euidence Vvel my Lord quoth F. Campion I am a Catholike man a Priest in that faith haue I liued hitherto and in that faith I do entend to dye and if you esteeme my religion Treason then of force I must graunt vnto you as for any other treason I neuer committed God is my Iudge But you haue now what you do desire I beseech you to haue patience and suffer me to speake a worde or tvvo for discharge of my conscience But being not suffered to goe forvvard he vvas forced to speake onely to that point which they most vrged His INNOCENCIE protesting that he was guiltles and innocent of al treason and conspiracie crauing credit to be giuen to his ansvvers as to the last ansvvere made vpon
his death and soule A time whē such a man vvould neuer lye adding that touching this point both the Iurie might easely be deceiued and more also put into the euidence then was true Notwithstāding he forgaue as he would be forgiuen Great charitie desiring al them to forgeue him whō he had cōfessed vpon the rack for vpon the cōmissioners othes that no harme should come vnto them he vttered some persons vvith vvhom he had been He expoundeth his letter falsely cōstrued by the aduersaries Further he declared the meaning of a letter sent by him self in time of his imprisonement to M. Pound a captiue then also in the Tovver in which he vvrot he vvould not disclose the secrets of some hovvses vvhere he had been entertained affirming on his soule that the secrets he meāt in that letter vvere not as it vvas misconstred by the ennemie treason or conspiracie or any matter els any way entented against her M. or the state but saying of Masse hearing of confession Vvhich in these miserable daies must be done as secretly as murder or treason preaching and such like dueties and functions of Priesthod this he protested to be true as he vvould ansvver before God Then he desired Sir Frauncis Knovvles and some other of nobilitie to heare him touching one Richardson condemned about a booke of his and earnestly besought them to haue consideration of that man saying he was not that Richardson vvhich brought his booke and this he affirmed vvith vehement protestation vpon his death This notvvithstanding Richardson was executed one man for another quid pro quo like il poticaries A nevv practise to coulor their iniustice Then one Hearne a schole Maister as I lerned after red the nevv aduertisement openely vvith loude voice to the people published only to coulor so manifest and expresse iniurie F. Campion al the time of his reading deuoutely praying Notvvithstanding vvhich aduertisement or defence of theirs as vvel because they distrusted their ovvne pollicie in publication thereof as that they did also desire some better coulor or faster visard for their procedings pressed him to declare his opinion of Pius quintus Bul concerning the excōmunication of the Q. To which demaund he gaue no ansvvere But being asked whether he renounced the POPE said he was a Catholike wherevpon one inferred saying Catholicisme is treason in Atheisme In your Catholicisme I noted the worde al treason is conteined In fine preparing him self to drinke his last draught of Christs cup was interrupted in his praier by a Minister willing him to say Christ haue mercie vpon me or some like praier with him vnto whom he loking backe with milde countenance humbly said Catholikes may not pray vvith Heretikes You and I are not one in religion vvherefore I pray you content your self I barre none of praier only I desire them of the houshold of faith to pray vvith me and in my agonie te say one CREEDE for a signification that he died for the confession of the Catholike faith therein contained Some also called on him to pray in English to whom he ansvvered that he vvould pray in a language that he wel vnderstood And God to At the vpshot of this conflict he was willed to aske the Q. forgeuenes and to pray for her He meekely ansvvered Vvherein haue I offended her In this I am innocent this is my last speach INNOCENCIE in this giue me credit I haue and do pray for her Then did the Lord Charles Hovvard aske of him For which Queene he praied whether for Elizabeth Q. To whom he ansvvered Yea for Elizabeth your Queene and my Queene And the carte being dravven avvay he meekly and svveetly yelded his soule vnto his Sauiour protesting that he died a perfect Catholike Vvhich his mylde death and former sincer protestations and speaches of his innocencie In the booke printed in Mundaies name of his death moued the people to such compassion and teares that the aduersaries in their printed bookes were glad to excuse the matter So gratiously and gloriously this blessed man ended and ouercame in Christ al these mortal myseries novv enjoying in heauen the triumphant crovvne of his happy confession and Martyrdom F Campion martyred by Gods prouidence in the citie of his natiuitie made by Gods prouidence before all London the place of his natiuitie That such of his citizens as were not vvorthie to enioy the life and labours of one of the famousest persons that their citie hath bredde in our memorie may yet either by his sacred innocent bloude He praieth for his frēds and ennemies povvred out here amonge them or by his holy praiers which he novv doubtles maketh both for his louing frendes and deadly persecutors be conuerted from their damnable and palpable errors His age He liued in this worlde about fortie and tvvo yeres after his childhod and education in London he was brought vp in S. Iohns colledge of Oxford passingly beloued for his singular graces of the founder thereof Sir Thomas Vvhite of worthie memorie at whose burial he made an eloquent oration in latine hauing made the like before in English at the funerals of my L. Dudley late wife to the Earle of Leicester Vvhere after he had passed with al commendation through such exercises degrees and offices as the vniuersitie yeldeth to men of his condition He passed through al offices in the vniuersitie though he vvere neuer wholy inclinable to the sectes of this time yet by the importunate persvvasions of some of his frendes much desirous for his vvorldly honor and aduancement to haue him come to the pulpite and take liuinges he suffered him selfe to be made deacon after their nevve maner not wel knovving then hovve odible to God that and the rest of their schismatical degrees be But for al that our Lord mercifully vvith held him frō that ambitious course vvhich is the goulfe that many goodly wittes haue perished in He vvent into Irland vvrot the storie therof eloquently in these daies Therefor spending some more time in study and trauailing into Irland the historie of which countrey he vvrotte very truly and eloquently hearing that there vvas a Seminary not longe before begonne in Dovvay thither he went where after a yeres great diligence and many excercises done booth in house and publike scholes He vvent to the Seminarie at Douay he proceded bachilier of diuinitie He proceeded Bachiler of Diuinitie to his great comendation and the honor of our nation Neuerthelesse al this while specially being novv of more deuotion zeale lerning and iudgement then before the continual cogitation of that Schismatical order of English deaconshipe which he had taken did so sore oppresse his minde His trouble of minde for taking scismatical orders and the conceite of the greatnes of that sinne so burdened his conscience that no counsel of lerned frendes could geue him satisfactiō nor othervvise deliuer him of the fearful
vvith al to goe to the â—câ—ismatical Church he vvas called before the LieutenaÌ„t as likevvise al his fellovv prisoners vvere vvho demaunded of him by commission from the Counsel vvhether he vvould goe to their heretical seruice vvho refusing the Lieutenant told him the danger of a late statute made in that behalfe and that farther he should be endited vpon that statute with in ij or iij daies so that at that time as it should seeme The treason as then not hatched they had no such matter to lay against him as after vvas pretended for it vvas not as then throughly hatched The order of his life in his spare diet his continual praier and meditation Euen the Protestants did admire his vertues his long vvatching vvith ofte sharpe discipline vsed vpon his body causâ—d great admiration to his keeper who vvould alvvaies cal him a man of God and the best and deuoutest Priest that euer he savv in his life Vvhen he came out of the Lieutenants hal vvith other of his fellovves tvvo daies or there about before he vvas Martyred hauing talked vvith a Minister vvho was neuer so holden vp to the vval in his life His noâ—able spâ—ach to F. Campion by report of such as stoode by he vttered these vvordes Ah F. Campion I shal be shortely aboue yonder fellovv pointing to the sunne vvith such a courage that some said he vvas the resolutest man that euer they savv He vvil neuer be forgotten in the Tovver for some vvords which he spake when he vvas ready to goe to execution attending F. Campion vvho was lodged further of Charke the Minister can best report them The very Ministers iudge him innocent vvho stoode harde by him Some of Charkes fellow Ministers said those vvordes could not come from a guiltie conscience THE COPIE OF A LETTER WRITTEN out of the Tovver by M. Shervvine to his frendes iij or iiij of the latter lines are vvanting BEING vvearie of vvel doing and yet desirous not to do nothing my deare companions I chose rather by vvritting vnto you to performe my duetie then othervvise to recreate my head vvith cogitations lesse necessarie Your liberalitie I haue receiued and disposed thereof to my great contentation when hereafter at the pleasure of God vve shal meet in heauen I trust you shal be repaied Cum foenore Delay of our death doth somevvhat dull me it vvas not vvithout cause that our Maister him selfe said Quod facis fac cito Truth it is I hoped ere this casting of this body of death to haue kissed the pretious glorified vvoundes of my svveete Sauiour sitting in the throne of his fathers ovvne glorie Which desire as I trust descending from aboue hath so quieted my minde that since the Iudicial sentence proceded against vs neither the sharpnes of the death hath much terrified me nor the shortnes of life much troubled me My sinnes are great I confesse but I flee to Gods mercie my necligences are vvithout number I graunt but I appeale to my redeemers clemencie I haue no bouldnes but in his bloud his bitter passion is my only consolation It is comfortable that the Prophet hath recorded which is that he hath vvritten vs in his handes Oh that he would vouchsaffe to vvrit him self in our harts hovv ioyful should we then appeare before the tribunal seat of his Fathers glorie the dignitie whereof vvhen I thinke my flesh quaketh not sustaining by reason of mortal infirmitie the presence of my creators Maiestie Our Lord perfect vs to that ende vvherevnto we vvere created that leauing this world vve may liue in him and of him vvorld without ende It is thought that vpon Munday or Tevvsday next vve shal be passible God graunt vs humilitie that we follovving his fotesteps may obteine the victorie AN OTHER LETTER VVRITTEN BY him the day before his Martyrdom to his vncle M. Iohn Vvodvvard a venerable Priest abiding at Roan Absit vt gloriemur nisi in CRVCE Domini IESV CHRISTI c. MY dearest vncle after many conflicts and worldly corrasies mixed with Spiritual consolations and Christian comfortes it hath pleased God of his vnspeakable mercie to cal me out of this vale of miserie To him therefor for al his benefits at al times and for euer be al praise and glorie Your tender care alvvaies had ouer me and cost bestovved on me I trust in heauen shal be revvarded My praiers you haue stil had and that vvas but duetie other tokens of a grateful minde I could not shevv by reason of my restrained necessitie This very morning vvhich is the festiual day of S. Andrevv I vvas aduertised by superior authoritie that to morovv I was to ende the course of this life God graunt I may do it to the imitation of this noble Apostle and seruant of God and that with ioy I may say rising of the herdle Salue sancta CRVX c. Innocencie is my only comfort against al the forged villanie which is fathred on my fellovv Priests and me Vvel when by the high Iudge God him self this false visard of treason shal be remoued from true Catholike mens faces then shal it appeare vvho they be that carry a vvel meaning and who an euil murdering minde in the meane season God forgeue al iniustice and if it be his blessed vvil to conuert our persecutors that they may become professors of his truth Praiers for my soule procure for me my louing patrone and so hauing great neede to prepare my self for God neuer quieter in minde nor lesse troubled tovvards God bynding al my iniquities vp in his precious woundes I bid you fare vvel yea and once againe the louingest vncle that euer kinsman had in this vvorld fare wel God graunt vs both his grace and blessing vntil the ende that liuing in his feare amd dying in his fauour vve may enioy one the other for euer And so my good old Iohn fare wel Salute al my fellow Catholikes and so without farther troubling of you my sweetest benefactor farevvel On S. Andrevves day 1581. Your cosen Raph Shervvine Priest M. Alexander Brian Priest and graduat AFTER these tvvo glorious martyrs vvas brought vnto his Martyrdome M. Alexander Brian a man not vnlerned M. Brians rare giftes of a very svveet grace in preaching but of passing zeale patience constancie and humilitie of whose pressures in prison and tortures strange I dare say among heathens more monstruous among Christians I vvil speake a none Being in the carte prepared to death he begane first to declare his bringing vp in the Catholike faith and religion his being in Oxford vpon which word he was staid by one saying what haue vve to do with Oxford come to the purpose and confesse thy treason INNOCENCIE Vvherevpon he ansvvered I am not guiltie of any such death I vvas neuer at Rome nor then at Remes vvhen D. Saunders came into Irland To this ende he spake and protested as he would ansvvere before God He spake not much but where
as he was vrged more then the other to speake vvhat he thought of the said Bul of Pius quintus This Bul is stil reuiued he said he did beleeue of it as al Catholikes and the Catholike faith doth and therevpon protesting him selfe to die a true Catholike as he was saying Miserere mei Deus was deliuered of the carte vvith more paine by necligence of the hangman then either of the other who after his beheading him self dismembred his hart bovvels and intrailes burned to the great admiration of some being laid vpon the blocke his belly dovvnevvard lifted vp his whole body then remayning from the ground and this I adde vpon report of others not mine ovvne sight Of this mans life vve wil not speake though it vvas alvvaies for al vertue grace most spectable but adde onely a fevv wordes of the things that he endured for his faith in the time of his imprisonment He is taken and his chaÌ„ber riffeled About the 28. of April he was apprehended in his chamber at midnight by Norton his chamber riffeled three poundes of money taken from him for that is a principal verbe in al apprehensions of Catholikes his apparel and other things especially a trunke vvherein was a siluer Chalice much other good stuffe which vvas not his but committed to his custodie taken avvay also and he sent close prisoner to the Counter with commaundemeÌ„t to stay al that asked for him He vvas almost famished that he should haue neither meat nor drinke who in such order continued vntil he was almost famished In fine by frendship or what meanes I knovv not he gott a peny vvorth of hard cheese and a litle broken bread with a pinte of strong beare which brought him into such an extreme thirst that he assaied to take with his hatte the dropps of raine from the house eeues but could not reach them The morrow after the Ascension day he vvas remoued to the Tower vvhere he verely thought He is remoued to the Tovver he should haue been vtterly famished therefore caried vvith him a litle peece of his hard cheese His feare of famine there vvhich his keeper in searching him found about him but M Brian humblie entreaded his keeper not to take it from him His ordinarie allovvance in drinke vvhich vvas at euery meale a potel-potful could not for a great vvhile suffice him such vvas his exceding thirst Vvithin tvvo daies after his comming to the Tower he vvas brought before the Lieutenant His examination M. D. Hammon and Norton vvho examined him after their common maner first in tendering an othe to answere to al c. And because he vvould not confesse vvhere he had seene F. Parsons hovv he was maÌ„teined vvhere he had said Masse A cruel kind of TormeÌ„t and whose confessions he had hard they caused needles to be thrust vnder his nailes vvhereat M. Brian vvas not moued at al but vvith a constant minde and plesant countenance said the Psalme Miserere desiring God to forgeue his tormentors Vvhereat D. Hammon stampt and stared as a man half beside him selfe saying Vvhat a thing is this if a man vvere not setled in his religion this vvere inough to conuert him He vvas euen to the dismembring of his body rent and torne vpon the rack He vvas pitifully racked because he vvould not cofesse vvhere F. Parsons was vvhere the print was vvhat bookes he had sould and so vvas returned to his lodging for that time His racked againe almost to death Yet the next day follovving notvvithstanding the great distemperature and sorenes of his vvhole body his senses being dead and his bloud congealed for this is the effect of racking he was brought to the torture againe and there stretched with greater seueritie then before supposing vvith him self that they vvould plucke him in peeces and to his thinking there vvas a vaine broken in his hand and that bloud ishued out there a pase he put on the armor of patience resoluing to dye rather then to hurt any creature liuing and hauing his minde raised in coÌ„templation of Christs bitter PASSION he sounded that they vvere fame to sprinckle cold vvater on his face to reuiue him againe yet they released no part of his paine The POPE not the Queene is head of the Church And here Norton because they could get nothing of him asked him vvhether the Queene vvere supreme head of the Church of England or not to this he said I am a Catholike and I beleeue in this as a Catholike should do Vvhy said Norton They say the POPE is And so say I ansvvered M. Brian So vvas CHRIST and S. Paul vsed by the like men Here also the Lieutenant vsed railing and reuiling vvords and bobd him vnder the chinne and flapt him on the cheekes after an vncharitable maner And al the commissioners rose vp and vvent their vvay geuing commaundement to leaue him so al night at vvhich vvhen they savv he vvas nothing moued they vvilled he should be taken from the torment This is a terrible Dongeon and sent him againe to Vvalesboure vvhere not able to moue hand nor fote or any part of his body he lay in his clothes xv daies together vvithout bedding in great paine and anguish Vvhen he vvent to vvestminster hal to be condemned He vvas not ashamed of his Masters Badge he made a Crosse of such vvodd as he could gett vvhich he caried vvith him openly he made shifte also to shaue his crovvne because he vvold signifie to the prating Ministers vvhich scoffed and mocked him at his apprehension saying that he vvas ashamed of his vocation that he was not ashamed of his holy orders nor yet that he vvould blush at his religion Vvhen he vvas condemned yrons â—vere coÌ„maunded vpon him and the rest as sone as they came home to the Tovver and they vvere neuer taken of til they vvere fetch furth to be martyred These torments and the mans constancie are comparable truly to the old strange sufferings of the renommed Martyrs of the primatiue Church in the daies of Nero Decius and Diocletian vvhich he could neuer haue borne by humane streingth if God had not geuen his singular and supernatural grace Him self confessed that by a vovv he made and other special exercises he had great coÌ„solation in al these vexations whereof I wil set dovvne his ovvne vvordes in an Epistle that he vvrot to the Fathers of the societie in England YET novv sith I am by the appointement of God depriued of libertie so as I can not any longer employe my selfe in this profitable exercise my desire is eftsones reuiued my spirit vvaxeth feruent hote at the last I haue made a vovv and promise to God not rashly as I hope but in the feare of God not to any other ende then that I might therby more deuoutly and more acceptably serue God to my more certain saluation and to a more gloriouse triumphe ouer