Why the Martyrs were Burned at the Stake | Born-Again-Christian.Org

© 03 Colin Melbourne

Summary of the message in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

Why Catholics burned the English Reformers

Discover how Catholics have corrupted editions of
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.

And they over came him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb (The LORD Jesus Christ) and the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death.

Holy Bible, Rev. 12:11 KJV

Overview of this Article

Almighty God revealed His Word to a handful of English Reformers and, at the cost of their lives, pulled Britain out of the grip of Satan’s false church

The principal martyrs are described, with the reasons why they were falsely condemned as ‘heretics’. The effect of their stand for Christ is outlined, and how Roman Catholics have changed strategy to regain control of people through the Ecumenical and Interfaith Movements. The message of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is summarized, and a call is made for a further reformation today.

Background

Rome held a stranglehold on Europe from Nero’s first century persecution of apostolic Christians until the Reformation of the sixteenth century. God’s Word was locked in Latin, a tongue incomprehensible to the majority of people. Papal authority extended over kings, nations, and rulers, and was fiercely enforced on pain of death. Anybody who dared question Roman Catholic doctrine was branded a ‘heretic’, excommunicated, tortured, and killed. The Spanish Inquisitors boasted of butchering more than three million people in Spain alone. The pope’s dictums were elevated above the Holy Bible, and even when they contradicted God’s Word, nobody dared to challenge them.

In the midst of the Dark Ages, the Lord raised up valiant light bearers. Men and women who read the Holy Bible for themselves and believed it enough to confront Catholicism’s heresies and expose its glaring falsehoods. Men such as John Wickliffe, John (Jan) Huss, Jerome of Prague, Martin Bucer, Calvin and Luther, began to proclaim the simple truths of the Gospel which today we take for granted, but at their time were forbidden as ‘heresies’. For this they were ruthlessly persecuted by the ruling Catholic powers, but the Truth outlives all lies, and their influence spread to England, Wales and Scotland. The Lord opened the eyes of Englishmen to see the Glory of the Gospel, and they too began to preach the Truth. Like Europe, Britain was in the grip of Rome, but the Lord used King Henry the Eighth to sever England’s tie with Papal authority, and establish the ‘Church of England’ with himself as its head. Henry was an intelligent, but ungodly man, his motivation was fuelled by frustration at his inability to sire a male heir, though he understood, and finally assented to the doctrinal position of his Protestant advisors who pointed out the errors and unbiblical teachings of Rome.

His only son became King Edward the Sixth, who, for a brief period, ruled with humility and the wisdom of God before his weakly body succumbed to illness, and he died aged sixteen. He was the first real Christian monarch of England for centuries, and his dying prayer was: “O Lord God, defend this realm from papistry and maintain thy true religion.”

After his death, a clumsy attempt was made to install a Protestant Queen, Lady Jane Grey, but ‘Bloody Mary’ seized the throne, and immediately had Jane beheaded for treason. (Pictured above)

Queen Mary re-established Roman Catholic authority in the realm. Parliament turned back to Rome, the pope absolved England, and sent Cardinal Pole to advise the Queen. She eagerly undid the work of her father and Edward, thrusting Satan’s papal yoke upon English necks. The lawful forms of service of Henry and Edward’s time were made illegal. Ministers were once again put in Catholic bondage, forbidden to marry, and commanded to administer the idolatrous Roman Catholic Mass in English churches.

Nominal ‘Christian’ ministers had no scruples about switching allegiance from Christ to Satan, a simple and lucrative business as Judas Iscariot discovered, but for a genuine Christian it was an eternal life or death decision, with the honour of Christ and His Gospel at stake. Ministers who were legally married before Mary came to power, were forced to disown their wives and children to continue as priests, or face the consequences.

It is a fact of history that during Bloody Mary’s brief reign at least 288 people were burned alive for their Protestant faith. Hundreds more Protestants died in appalling conditions in prisons whilst awaiting examination or execution. Pregnant believers were jailed with common criminals, and after giving birth, both mothers and babes perished in the squalor. These martyrs were not villains, thieves, murderers, drunkards or rebels. In fact, they were amongst the holiest Christians in the land. They included the Archbishop of Canterbury, several Bishops and scholars, dozens of clergymen, 55 women, and four children. Their ‘trials’ were a travesty of justice, in which they were bullied and questioned after torture and long confinement. Even women were repeatedly tortured upon the rack for upholding the testimony of Christ. Uneducated bystanders were shocked by such barbarity, and it became plain to all not blinded by Satan, that the cruel Catholic ‘church’ could not possibly be the true Church of God.

Let us now briefly recap twelve martyrs in order of their murder. Most are household names amongst Protestants to this day, and rightly so. But for their brave stand in preserving the integrity of the Gospel, you and I would probably be counted amongst Catholic idolaters on Judgment Day.

Twelve Martyrs of the English Reformation

John Rogers John Bradford
Laurence Saunders John Leaf
John Hooper Nicholas Ridley
Rowland Taylor Hugh Latimer
William Hunter John Philpot
Robert Farrar Thomas Cranmer

John Rogers

Mark the name of John Rogers you Christians, and seek him out when you reach the Glory, for he was first to be burned under ‘Bloody Mary’s’ inquisition. He drew the line beyond which a true Christian cannot venture, and sealed it with his blood.

Rogers was educated at Cambridge University and appointed Chaplain in Antwerp where he met William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale in exile. From them he understood the Gospel and repented of his Catholic beliefs, fully embraced the true Gospel, and henceforth was of the Reformed Faith, a Protestant. He was a gifted linguist and helped them to translate the New Testament into English, indeed he was known after this translation by the name ‘Rogers, alias Matthews’. He married, and pastored a large Dutch fellowship until, during Edward’s reign, he was invited back to England by Bishop Ridley, and appointed Vicar of St. Sepulchre’s, and Reader of Divinity at St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, where he thrived.

When Mary came to power she banished the true faith, and insisted on the restoration of Catholic superstition to English pulpits. Rogers valiantly resisted, and continued to proclaim Christ, for which he was swiftly imprisoned, cruelly treated, and interrogated by Stephen Gardiner the unctuous Lord Chancellor.

Rogers stood his ground by answering his accusers according to God’s Word, and confounding their false accusations. You can read his account of the dialogue here. Nevertheless, he was condemned as a ‘heretic’, and sentenced to death by being burned alive, which was carried out on the 4th of February 1555 in Smithfield.

He was led on foot, within sight of the Church of St. Sepulchre, where he was Vicar, and through the streets of the parish in which he’d faithfully proclaimed Christ. His wife and ten children (one a baby) watched him go to Glory. Catholic Bishop Bonner, with typical spiteful cruelty, flatly refused Rogers the chance to meet with his wife and children throughout his long imprisonment.

Rogers wrote to John Day, the printer of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, “You will live to see the alteration of this religion, and the Gospel freely preached again. Therefore, have me commended to my brethren, as well in exile as here, and bid them be circumspect in displacing the Papist, and putting good ministers into Churches, or else their end will be worse than ours.”

Huge crowds filled the streets, witnesses of the gory spectacle took every available spot in Smithfield. For, until then men did not know how English Reformers would behave in the face of death, and could hardly believe that such high Churchmen and dignitaries would allow themselves to be burned for the faith. But when they saw my brother John Rogers, the first martyr, walking unflinchingly to the stake, the enthusiasm of the crowd knew no bounds. They roared and cheered him for his courage. The French Ambassador wrote that Rogers went to death, “As if he was walking to his wedding.”

By God’s great mercy he died with comparative ease. And so the first Marian martyr paved the way. What a man, what a believer, what a Great God we serve.

Laurence Saunders

Four days later, on the 8th. of February, the Rev. Saunders was taken to Coventry and burned alive for daring to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and denounce Catholic superstition. Like Rogers he was highly educated, being schooled at Eton and King’s College Cambridge. During King Edward’s reign he preached freely in Leicester and London, warning people against Catholic false-teachings, and was highly respected for his pious life and doctrine.

In his final message as a free man, soon after Queen Mary was enthroned, he likened the Catholic teachers to the serpent that beguiled Eve, trying to turn people from Christ to idols. He taught true Christian doctrine, through which believers are coupled to Christ, and receive from him free justification through faith in his Blood. He made a contrast between the voice of God and the voice of the popish serpent, noting the difference between the Church service set forth by King Edward in the English tongue, and comparing it with the popish service in the Latin tongue.

The first, he said, was good, because it was according to the word of God, and the order of the primitive church. The other, he said, was evil, and though in that evil were mingled some good Latin words, it was but as a little honey or milk mingled with a great deal of poison to make them drink it all. That was enough, Bonner, the Bishop of London interrupted him, by sending an officer for him, and so Saunders was brought before Bonner, who charged him with treason for breaking the Queen’s proclamation, and heresy and sedition for his sermon. Later, we will examine the precise points of his condemnation, which were common to all the martyrs.

John Hooper

The following day, the 9th. of February, the Bishop of Gloucester and Worcester was burned alive in sight of Gloucester Cathedral, amidst a crowd of 7,000 of his parishioners. He was an exemplary Christian, the like of whom the Church of England gravely needs today. Bishop Hooper was highly respected for his sincere faith and Biblical preaching. When he asked King Edward to allow him leave not to wear the silly Catholic ceremonial costumes, the King readily assented in a touching personal letter to him that you can read here. Though he had the ear of the king, Hooper regularly invited the poor to eat at his house, and would not eat himself until they had been fed. John Foxe highlights this godly habit, as a noble example to all Church leaders.

Hooper was an uncompromising Protestant, firm, stern, and unsparing in his denunciation of sin, so was sure to make many enemies. He was one of the first marked for destruction when Popery was restored, and summoned to London at a very early stage of Bloody Mary’s persecution. After spending eighteen months in prison, and enduring the ‘trial’ by Bonner, and Gardiner, Bishop Hooper was stripped of his office, and sentenced to be burned as a ‘heretic’.

At the scene of his martyrdom one of Hooper’s converts, the well meaning Sir Anthony Kingston, pleaded with him to spare himself, by urging him to remember that “Life was sweet, and death was bitter.” To this the martyr replied, “Eternal life was more sweet, and eternal death was more bitter.”

Then a box containing a full pardon was put in front of Hooper, as a final temptation to recant, disown Christ, and his conscience. Which Hooper dismissed with, “Away with it; if you love my soul, away with it.” He was then fastened to the stake with iron straps round his waist, and bags of gunpowder hung on his body. But the fire was so poorly set that he survived for 45 minutes amidst the flames, his legs and left arm being burned off while he yet lived. Of all the martyrs, none suffered more than the noble Bishop Hooper. One of the most touching entries in Foxe’s Martyrs is John Hooper’s letter to his wife, which you may read here.

Rowland Taylor

The same day, the 9th. of February, on the other side of England, Dr. Rowland Taylor was burned in Suffolk at the order of the Roman Catholic authorities. Taylor was highly educated, a Vicar and Doctor of Law, friend of Archbishop Cranmer and stout-hearted Protestant. His parish of Hadleigh (Hadley) was one of the first to receive the Gospel in England, and as its leading ‘divine’ Taylor was a marked man.

He refused the opportunity to escape, preferring instead to stand for Christ, and face his accusers, which he did with the heart of the Lion of Judah. Read his stirring replies to Gardiner, and ask God for the same bold spirit so that you too can stand in these final days.

At the scene of his murder he told his parishioners, “Good people, I have taught you nothing but God’s holy word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God’s blessed book, the Holy Bible, and I am come here this day, to seal it with my blood.” His dying prayer was, “Merciful Father of Heaven, for Jesus Christ my Saviour’s sake, receive my soul into thy hands.” And Almighty God was not ashamed to be called his Father.

William Hunter

Hebrews 11 and 12 remind us we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses from Abel to Abraham, and Moses to David, encouraging believers to throw off everything that hinders, and run the race marked out for us by fixing our eyes on Christ. You can be sure that God is adding to those witnesses daily as the end of all things approaches. There’s one in that cloud named William Hunter, whose courage, testimony and example never fails to move me to tears, and inspire me to stand firm on the Rock of Ages.

The Lord Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, thought that by butchering the pillars of the Protestant Reformation he would stop the Church in its tracks. But the same month in which they killed the leaders, six more willing martyrs were brought before him. It was too much for Gardiner, so Bonner, the bloodthirsty Catholic Bishop of London, took over.

One of this group was an apprentice, only nineteen years old, called William Hunter. He had not studied at Oxford or Cambridge, nor was he destined for high office. He was just a lad, taught by his parents in the true Gospel from God’s Word during the reign of Edward. The Easter after Queen Mary was crowned she ordered the priests of every parish to summon their parishioners to receive Catholic Communion at Mass. What would you do? William refused to obey the summons, he refused to go against God’s Word, and his conscience. His employer became nervous, and sent William home to his parents in Essex.

One day he entered his local chapel in Brentwood and began to read the English Bible to himself. The Catholic enforcers seized on this ‘crime’ to upbraid him, and being asked his opinion concerning the corporeal presence in the sacrament of the altar (meaning the actual bodily presence of Christ in the wafer and wine), he replied, that he believed the bread and wine to be figures, and looked upon the sacrament as an institution in remembrance of the death and sufferings of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He was then declared a heretic for not believing in the sacrament of the altar, and imprisoned in stocks before being examined by the notorious Bonner.

We will describe what happened next in more detail elsewhere. It’s a classic confrontation between another ‘David and Goliath’, the outcome was William’s condemnation as a ‘heretic’, and public burning which he endured with the grace and authority of a true saint of God, leaving an example which thunders down the years to all who have ears to hear.

Robert Farrar

Four days after Hunter, on the 30th. of March, Robert Farrar the Bishop of St. David’s was burned alive in Carmarthen market place for his testimony of Christ. Farrar had been arraigned before the Lord Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, along with Rogers, Hooper, Saunders, and John Bradford for his defiance of popish doctrine, and was sent to Wales to be made an example of.

Bishop Farrar was a godly Yorkshire man who in his high office had been persecuted by enemies and falsely accused during King Edward’s reign. Though clearing himself of every charge, being still imprisoned when Mary came to power, opportunity was taken to examine him according to his faith, which was stoutly Protestant. Foxe records his trial here. His accuser, Gardiner, had taken an oath before God, King Henry, and King Edward, as had Farrar, never to assent to popish doctrine. Gardiner broke his oath, but Farrar refused to do so, and paid for it with his life. To Gardiner’s enticements, he replied,

“I cannot break my oath, which your lordship yourself made before me, and gave in example, the which confirmed my conscience. Then I can never break that oath whilst I live, to die for it.”

Shortly before his martyrdom, the son of a knight came to console Farrar, and grieved for the awful pain he was about to undergo. Farrar assured him that God would enable him to endure, adding that if he once saw him stir in pain amidst the flames, then his teaching could be ignored. As he believed, so he spoke, and God endorsed his faith mightily. Farrar stood without flinching as his uplifted arms burned to stumps, only dying after being struck down in mercy by an onlooker. And so the noble martyr rose to glory from the heart of Wales.

John Bradford

If you were to name four cornerstones of the Reformation, they would be Bradford, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. It was John Bradford who, on seeing a thief go to the gallows, said in humility, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” A phrase now firmly established in the English tongue.

John Bradford was a Lancashire man whom God raised up to become a Fellow of Cambridge University, friend of Martin Bucer, and trusted Chaplain to King Edward VI. So well grounded was he in Protestant doctrine, and so effective in preaching, that he was sent to proclaim the true Gospel in Lancashire and Cheshire, a commission he carried out with tremendous zeal and effectiveness. He proclaimed Christ from Manchester to Liverpool, from Chester to Bolton, down to Bury, Wigan, Warrington, Ashton, Stockport and Middleton. It was as if he knew his time was short, for within a month of Bloody Mary being crowned, Bradford was in prison, and never left it until on July 1st. 1555, he was led out to Smithfield to be burned alive.

During his long imprisonment, he resisted every attempt to persuade him to recant and deny Christ, and used his time to encourage the faithful by letters, and preaching Christ to the common criminals with whom he shared prison.

On his Glory-day, he came to the stake, held up his hands, and looking up to Heaven, said,

“0 England, England, repent thee of thy sins! Beware of idolatry; beware of false Antichrists! Take heed they do not deceive you!”

And so England’s greatest Gospel preacher of the day was murdered in his prime by Roman Catholics for upholding Christ and resisting the doctrine of the devil.

John Leaf

Bound to the same stake, and burned in the same fire, for the same cause as Bradford, was a valiant Yorkshire youth named John Leaf. He’d been apprenticed to a candle-maker in London, listened attentively to the preaching of John Rogers, and been born again. No doubt confronting everyone he met with the need to repent and believe the Gospel, he was soon in trouble with the new ruling Catholic authorities, and brought as a prisoner before Bishop Bonner.

I marvel at the people God uses, don’t you? He loves to take that which is nothing in the eyes of men, and use them to shame the wise, defeat the strong, and turn the world right side up. John was an unschooled, nineteen year-old fat-renderer, on trial for his life facing the Queen of England’s hand-picked Bishop of London.

Bonner wasted no time and quizzed the lad about his opinion of the Catholic doctrine of the Sacrament of the altar. John boldly answered that after the words of consecration, spoken by the priest over the bread and wine, there was not the very true and natural body and blood of Christ in substance, and the sacrament of the altar was idolatrous and abominable. He added that he believed, that after the words of consecration spoken by the priest over the material bread and wine, there is not the actual substance of Christ’s body and blood in them, but bread and wine as before, and the communicants do receive the same in remembrance of Christ’s death and passion, and spiritually, in faith, they receive Christ’s body and blood, but not under the forms of bread and wine.

Bonner tried abuse, threatening, bribery and false-promises to subvert Leaf from the Rock on which he stood, and when he saw that the youth was unbending, Bonner condemned him as a heretic to burn with John Bradford. To which Leaf responded,

“My lord, you call my opinion heresy; but it is the true light of the word of God.”

And so shall it be proven to all on Judgment Day.

Foxe records in the final chapter of this Lionheart’s life on earth, an event that takes my breath away, and raises Leaf’s testimony to the Heavens. While John was in the lock-up awaiting his execution, two legal notices were sent to him, one containing a recantation, the other his confessions. He was asked to choose which of them he would agree to and sign. John was faced with a problem, you see, he could not read or write. All he had learned of God’s Word had come through hearing it proclaimed. He’d never read a Bible in his life.

So his accusers read aloud to him the notice of recantation, which he refused. Upon hearing the second notice, his confession of Christ, he heartily approved, instead of signing it with a pen he took a pin, pricked his finger and sprinkled the notice with his blood. This was returned to Bonner to show him that John had already sealed his Christian testimony with his blood.

What would you have done in John’s shoes? Given in to fear and temptation and been snuffed out by Satan, or would you like John the candle-maker have become a candle of the Lord, on fire for Him?

(Moses) esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Heb. 11:26 KJV

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Mtt. 10:28 KJV

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