CHAP. came not to treat, as was promised. And the suspicion they XLIV. had that the Duke of Boloign was poisoned; and that the Anno 1556. King was privy to it. For that they compelled his wife and

son to be bound for the payment of the rest of his ransom, whether the Duke lived or died. That he was found by his physicians to have been poisoned.

with others,

lier at Cam

bridge.

Some passages of Shaxton, sometime bishop of Salisbury. Hullier burned at Cambridge. An oath to be taken by such as took degrees in Cambridge.

Shaxton, I WILL under this year put in a few notes of Dr. Nicolas condemn- Shaxton; this year, in April, being the last time I meet with eth Hul- him in history; and then we find him ill-favouredly employed, embruing his hands in the blood of John Hullier, an excellent, devout man, and zealous preacher of the gospel, in the dioceses of Norwich and Ely. For having been cited to appear at St. Mary's in Cambridge, before a great rout of popish doctors, as Yong, Sedgwick, Scot, and especially, as chiefest, Dr. Shaxton, then the Bishop of Ely's suffragan, and by him sent to Cambridge for this purpose; he was on Palm Sunday condemned to the fire: which cruel judgment was executed upon him the Thursday following, or Maundy Thursday, on Jesus Green.

Some account of Shaxton.

This Shaxton was one that began well, and held on well for the most part of his life, (as hath been shewn,) but fell off at last, and made an ill conclusion. He was zealous for the gospel, when he was at Cambridge, and studied in Gonvile hall, a house noted for men affecting religion, about 1530. By means of Crumwel he was preferred to Queen Ann's service, and after, to be Bishop of Sarum, about 1535, at the same time that Latimer was preferred to Worcester: and within four years after, stood against the six articles, and with him was then imprisoned, and with him resigned. But about seven years after, viz. 1546, he fell off from the good profession, and recanted, out of fear of his life, and

XLIV.

soon after, more publicly and scandalously, did it in Smith- CHAP. field, at the burning of Ann Askue in June, when he again revoked thirteen articles: which revocation or recantation Anno 1556. was confuted in a book made by Rob. Crowley soon after.

ter of St.

Upon his compliance with Popery, he became master of He is masthe hospital of St. Giles in Norwich, to which Rugge the Giles's hosbishop was patron. Which bishop, and Shaxton the master, pital. Cok. by their deed acknowledged and enrolled, bearing date iv. p. 256. March the 6th, an. 1 reg. Edward VI. did give and grant to the King the said hospital, and the possessions and hereditaments belonging to the same. He lived obscurely under the rest of the reign of King Edward, our histories making no mention of him. But under Queen Mary he was heard of again, being often among such as were commissioned to examine and condemn the gospellers.

240 and

He that is minded to know more of him, how testy, and passionate, and hot he was in his temper, and of the occasion of his recantation, may have recourse to Bishop Bur- Vol. i. p. net's History of the Reformation. And in the Collections is 840. placed a notable letter of the Lord Crumwel to him, while Book iii. he was Bishop, taken out of the Cotton library; and the No. 8. and thirteen popish articles to which he subscribed, taken out of Bishop Boner's register.

No. 29.

trouble

Norwich.

354

extant in

I shall here represent his good zeal for religion in his Shaxton in younger days, and also when he was a member of the Uni- from the versity. About the time of Bilney's troubles, which was in Bishop of the years 1530 and 1531, Shaxton was taken notice of for his fervent preaching against superstitions, and suffered Let. of Bimuch. He preached at Westacre on St. Thomas's day: shop Nix, blind Bishop Nix of Norwich, a zealous man for Popery, Fox, first heard of the sermon, and diligently inquired of the Prior edit. p. 481. of Westacre and of the Prior of Penteney concerning it. And they, probably men well affected to him and his doctrine, shewed the Bishop, that it was a good sermon, and that there was no heresy in it. But this information did not satisfy the Bishop, who had received another character of Shaxton, living now, it seems, in his diocese: wherefore he sent an order from Hoxne, to one that officiated as the

CHAP. Bishop's chancellor at a visitation in Norwich, (in the room XLV. of Pells, then absent,) that he should give the Prior of WestAnno 1556. acre his oath upon a book; and upon that oath to inquire, whether Shaxton had taught to any of his brethren, that is, the friars, any erroneous opinion, or not. The said Bishop likewise bade one Ralph Cantrel, lately at Cambridge, to inquire of the Vice-Chancellor, and of others, of the demeanour of Shaxton: which Cantrel reported to the Bishop, that he was sore suspected of many; and that he had made a sermon ad clerum on Ash-Wednesday 1531, where the Vice-Chancellor took him in two points.

And from the ViceChancellor of Cambridge.

An oath imposed upon all

The first was, Quod malum et periculosum est publice asserere aut prædicare purgatorium non esse. Credere tamen purgatorium non esse nullo pacto est damnabile. That is, "That it is evil and dangerous publicly to assert or "preach, that there is no purgatory. Yet to believe there " is no purgatory, is by no means damnable."

The second was, Impossibile est hominem [se] continere, aut castum esse, &c. That is, " That it is impossible for a "man to be continent, or chaste, although he mortify him"self with fasting, is diligent in his prayers, and abstain "and refrain from company, sight, and thoughts, unless "God give [grace.]" Another saying he then had, "That "in his daily celebration of mass, he offered continual prayers to God, that celibacy should be wholly taken "away from the clergy, and that wedlock might be granted "and permitted them.”

For these passages in his clerum, he was convented before the heads, but he stood in them steadfastly. So that Mr. Vice-Chancellor Dr. Watson, with the assistance of Dr. Wilson and Edmunds, had much ado to bring him to forsake them; which, at length, he did at their persuasion, and to avoid open abjuration. And upon this, the Vice-Chancellor drew up an oath for him especially; but which not only he, but all others, that that year proceeded, did openly and solemnly swear. The which oath was as followeth :

"You shall swear by the holy contents of this book, "that you shall not keep, hold, maintain, and defend, at any

XLV.

"time during your life, any opinion erroneous, or error of CHAP. "Wickliff, Hus, Luther, or any other condemned of he

66

that com

resy: and that ye shall keep, hold, maintain, and defend Anno 1556. generally and especially, all such articles and points as menced de"the Catholic Church of Rome believeth, holdeth, or main-grees of di"taineth at this time: and that ye shall allow and accept, that Univinity in “maintain and defend, for their power, all traditions, in-versity, "stitutions, rites, ceremonies, and laudable customs, as the "said Church of Rome taketh them, and alloweth them, "and approveth them: and that you shall namely and 355 66 specially hold as the said Catholic Church holdeth in all "these articles, wherein lately hath been controversy, dis"sension, and error: as concerning faith and works, grace " and free-will, of sin in a good work, of the sacrifice of the "New Testament, of the priesthood, of the new law, of "communion under both kinds, of baptism and Christian "liberty, of monastic vows, of fasting and choice of meats, "of the single life of priests, of the Church, of the canoni"cal books, of the firm holding of matters not expressed in "the Scriptures, of the inerrability of general councils in "faith and manners, of the power of the Church to make "laws, of the Church's sacraments and their efficacy, of the 66 power of excommunication conferred upon the Church, of "punishing heretics, of the sacrifice of the mass, of purgatory, of worshipping saints and praying to them, of worshipping the images of saints, of pilgrimages, of evangelical precepts and councils. And likewise of all other articles, "wherein controversy or dissension hath been in the Church "before this day." This oath was an effectual bar for keeping out all from commencing in divinity, but such as were round Papists. But I suppose it lasted but this year, and was not required the next, when Simon Heyns was ViceChancellor, a man of other principles. But thus was Shaxton then hampered, when he stood for his degree of doctor.

66

66

66

It was soon after this that he had bought certain good books, and, for the better promoting of the knowledge of true religion, had conveyed and dispersed them in the diocese of Norwich: (where now it seems he lived, either as a

XLV.

CHAP. friar or a curate :) for which, especially hearing the former report of him, the Bishop took him up, and kept him a Anno 1556. prisoner; and gave commandment to Richard Hill, the Bishop's gaoler, to keep him sure, resolving that he should abjure before he departed. This was in June 1531. And so jealous was he of Shaxton, that he swore by God's mother, that he feared he had burned Abel, meaning Bilney, and let Cain go. But these depressions and sufferings of Shaxton made way for him not long after to preferment, being made master of Gonwel and Caius college, of which house he was Queen Anne's chaplain, and a prebendary of Sarum, and soon after Bishop of the said church.

But leaving Shaxton, I shall proceed to make some remarks upon another person in these times, that remained more steady and constant in his profession.

Palmer's

learning

Palmer a martyr. Some story of him. Thackham's concern therein. Boulton's sufferings. A relation of the taking of Palmer.

AMONG those many good men that suffered fire this and writ- year for the sake of pure religion, one was Julins, or Julius ings. Palmer, a young man, once of Magdalen college, Oxon, lately schoolmaster of Reading. He writ a poem, entitled, Epicedium, (for he was a man of florid learning,) against one Morwin, who had made verses in praise of the Bishop of Winchester, deceased. He wrote also certain English rhymes, by way of satire, against some persecutors unnamed. Also arguments, both in Latin and English, against the popish proceedings, and especially against their unnatural Betrayed. and brutish tyranny. Some that pretended to be his friends and favourers of the gospel, and had entered into a familiar acquaintance with him, proved false, and dealt Judas-like with him in his absence; having rifled his study, and these and other his writings. And being minded to settle a friend of theirs, whose name was Thomas Thackham, in this