improbability of the story that Lambert was taken to the chambers of Cromwell on the morning of execution, in order that the pronouncer of the sentence might ask pardon of the martyr. We did not then know where the chambers of Cromwell were situate, not having then seen the second part of father Parsons' Examination; and it is not a little singular, that the learned examiner of the sixteenth century should object to this same tale as we did, but at greater length, and in more special terms, as he was acquainted with the residence of Cromwell. On this barefaced imposition father Parsons thus writes :"I leave also to recount the most foolish fabulous narration, or rather fiction of Fox, wherein he deviseth a certain circuit which this Nicholson made that morning when he was to be burned, telling us that he was brought out of the prison at Newgate by eight of the clock in the morning, and being to be burned in Smithfield (which is hard by Newgate, as you know), he took a contrary course, and crossed all London to go to my lord Cromwell's house (which was in Austin Friars, near Bishopsgate), and there being carried into Cromwell's inner chamber, the said Cromwell asked him forgiveness for that which he had done against him, and then they entered into such familiar talk and conversation as Lambert seemed to have forgotten that he was to be burned that day, till he was warned thereof by others; and that he was so pleasant and merry, as then also when he was admonished he would not go to the fire until he had first broken his fast with my lord's gentlemen. hear it, I pray you, in Fox's own words.

But

Upon the day (saith he) that was appointed for this holy martyr of God to suffer, he was brought out of the prison at eight of the clock in the morning, unto the house of the lord Cromwell into his inner chamber, where, it is reported of many, that Cromwell asked him forgiveness for that he had done, and there at last Lambert being admonished that the hour of death was at hand, he was greatly comforted and cheered, and being brought out of the chamber into the hall, he saluted the gen tlemen and sat down to breakfast with them, shewing no manner of sadness or fear, and when the breakfast was ended he was carried straitway to the place of execution in Smithfield, to offer himself unto the Lord a sacrifice of sweet savour, who is blessed in his saints for ever and ever. "This is Fox's most fabulous narration, and by this only, among five hundred other the like in these his Acts and Monuments, let the reader judge how much he is to be credited. For let any man of sense or reason consider what likelihood here is in this tale, that Nicholson, being condemned so solemnly by the king himself, and so severely, by his commandment, but to execution afterwards, as no man (to use Fox's own words) was so cruelly and pitifully handled as he,' and coming forth from Newgate at eight of the clock in the morning in winter, when all the people and nobility were gathered together in Smithfield to expect him (and divers, no doubt, of the council also), to see so solemn a spectacle as the burning of one, convicted and condemned by the king himself; let every man imagine, I say, whether it be likely or morally possible that this condemned heretic, with a public guard of justice following him, and himself going bound, as men are wont to do when they go to death, and apparelled also most contemptibly, as in such case is accustomed, whether, I say, it be likely that such a person should be

permitted to make a walking vagary throughout all London to Bishopsgate, and there to have conference so familiarly with the lord Cromwell in his inner chamber, who was at that time the chiefest and highest magistrate under the king in England, or whether the lord Cromwell would have vouchsafed or durst to have admitted any such conference with an heretic going to the fire, and condemned by the king himself; or whether it be likely that Lambert, who shewed himself so fearful at his disputation, could now be so hardy as to forget that he was to be burned that day, or would sit down so familiarly to breakfast with my lord's gentlemen, or that those gentlemen would admit him, or that he could eat, his arms being bound behind him, or that the justice and guard that waited upon him would have suffered such trifling of time in such a case; all these things, I say, are so improbable, as none but Fox or a fool would have written them. And so much be spoken of this his sweet savouring saint-martyr, John Lambert."

10. Collins and Cowbridge, Martyrs.

The first of these two holy martyrs of Fox's church, the martyrologist himself confesses was a madman, and held up a dog in the church to be adored in derision of the blessed sacrament; the other he represents to

have been mad also, and was, therefore, like his colleague, a fit subject for a Protestant saint. So very eminent, too, were these men for their great and special actions, that the martyr-maker appears to have been unacquainted with their christian names. Concerning these Protestant martyrs father Parsons tells us a secret or two worth knowing, which we shall therefore extract from his Examination. This learned critic thus writes of these two Foxian saints :

"There remain only now for end of those that were burned in this month, under king Henry the eighth, two others, which are, set down upon several days in Fox's calendar in these words, Collins, Martyr ; Cowbridge, Martyr;' and the former of the two he painteth but pitifully

in the fire together with a dog, and over his head he writeth thus : 'Collins, with his dog, burned;' and then of the second thus, 'The burning of Cowbridge at Oxford, anno 1538.' About which two martyrs, you must understand, that Fox, in the first edition of his martyrology, did set forth their martyrdoms very pitifully described both in Latin and English, as of great saints, beginning his Latin narration thus, as Alan Cope citeth it (for I have not the said edition by me): ' Me puero concrematus est Oxonii Coubrigius,' &c.; When I was a child, one Cowbridge was burned at Oxford,'' mitis Christi ovicula,' ' a meek sheep of Christ,' 'sanctus Christi servulus,' ' a little holy servant of Christ,' &c. But since that time, his false and deceitful narration being discovered and laid open by the said Alan Cope, or rather doctor Harpesfield, the true author of those learned dialogues, and the original records being cited for the wicked opinions of both these Foxian martyrs, but especially twelve most pestilent propositions of Cowbridge, for which he was condemned, John Fox blushing thereat, hath somewhat (as the saying is) pulled in his horns; and albeit of wilful obstinacy, he would not put them out quite of his calendar of martyrs, and yet he is forced to abate them so much in this his last narration, as with far less shame might he have left them out wholly, for thus he writeth of them :

"Collins being besides his wits, seeing a priest holding up the host over his head, showing it to the people, he in like manner, counterfeiting the priest, took up a little dog by the legs and held him over his head, showing him unto the people, for which he was burned in the year 1538, the same that John Lambert was.' Thus he writeth of Collins; and I would ask Fox, if this Collins was besides his wits (as he saith), how could he be a martyr, and how came he into his calendar? You shall hear the moderation that Fox now in his latter edition, being checked by Alan Cope, useth about this his saint and his dog. 'Although (saith he) I do not here recite him as in the number of God's professed martyrs, yet neither do I think him clean sequestered from the Lord's saved flock and family, notwithstanding that the bishop of Rome's church did condemn and burn him for an heretic, but rather do recount him therefore as one belonging to the holy company of saints, &c.' "Consider here, good reader, how these things hang together. For in his calendar Fox putteth him down again, as before, for a true martyr, assigning him his festival day, saying, upon the 10th of October, Collins, martyr;' and yet in his story of Acts and Monuments he saith, as you have heard, that he doth not recite him in the number of God's professed martyrs.' How can this hang together, except you will say that John Fox had some martyrs professed and some unprofessed or novice martyrs? And if it were so, yet methinketh that those that are preferred to be calendar martyrs (such as Collins and Cowbridge) ought to be professed martyrs. Mark also his cause and reason of making saints and martyrs, to wit, that Collins therefore belongeth' to the holy company of saints, for that he was condemned by the bishop of Rome and his church,' by which reason all malefactors, but especially Anabaptists, Arians, and other confessed heretics, punished in Catholic countries by authority of the said church, nay, by Fox's reason, belong to the company of Protestant saints. And so much of Collins and his dog, celebrated by Fox for a mad martyr.

But now let us pass to Cowbridge, Fox's second martyr, placed by

him upon the same day in his calendar. He beginneth his story thus: With this aforesaid Collins may also be adjoined the burning of Cowbridge, who likewise being mad, and besides his right senses, was either the same or the next year after, condemned by Longland, bishop of Lincoln, and committed to the fire by him to be burned at Oxford. What his articles and opinions were, wherewith he was charged, it needeth not here to rehearse; for as he was then a man mad and destitute of sense and reason, so his words and sayings could not be sound,' &c. Yea, father Fox, and is it so? will you run out at that hole? how happeneth it then that you made so long and pitiful a narration of him and his death in your former editions, calling him the little holy servant of God, the meek lamb of Christ,' and the like? how happeneth it that in this your last edition you put him in again for a calendar martyr, if he were a madman (as here you say), placing him on the tenth of this month, and striking out three renowned ancient martyrs, Triphon, Respitius, and Nimpha, to make him place? Is not this more than madness in yourself? You say it is needless to rehearse his opinions, but I think the contrary, and that it shall be well to recite some of them at least, thereby to make your madness and dishonest dealing more notorious to the world. Thus then they stand in the public register, subscribed by his own hand, and testified by many witnesses, and that he uttered them not in madness, but only in the madness and frenzy of heresy, by which he, being a layman, made himself a priest by his own ordination, said mass and consecrated, founding himself on the words of St. Peter, that all Christians are priests, and held besides many opinions of Wickliffe and Huss, and among many others he held these singular of his own which do ensue, taken out of the register :

Ego, Gulielmus Coubrigius, publicè asserui, &c. I, William Cowbridge, have publicly affirmed, that priests are guilty of high treason for dividing the host into three parts.

" Item. That no man ought to chasten or punish his body by fasting. "" Item. That I would not confess to any priest, except he would absolve me as I should appoint him.

" Item. That neither the apostles nor evangelists, nor the four doctors of the church, have opened the true way hitherto how sinners should be saved.

“Item. I have affirmed, that Christ was not the redeemer of the world, but rather the deceiver of the world.

Item. That I have held this name Christ for a filthy name, and have scraped the same out of my books, wheresoever I have found it. “Item. I have affirmed all those, that believed in the name of Christ, to be damned in hell.

"Item. I have interpreted those words of Christ, "This is my body which shall be given for you," in this sense-This is my body which shall deceive you, or wherein you shall be deceived or circumvented, &c. "These and other like wicked propositions held this meek lamb, and little holy saint of John Fox, for which he was condemned at the town of Wickam by the bishop of Lincoln, neither could he by any persuasion either of him or other learned men about him, be reduced from these fancies, until, in the very last end, when being in the fire, he cried, ‘Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, whereby some were induced to think that he

died repentant, as Bilney did before him. But howsoever this was, it is but a poor shift of John Fox, to say that these his two martyrs, Collins and Cowbridge, were mad; first, for that it condemneth him of more madness (if they were mad indeed) to fill his calendar with such mad martyrs: and, secondly, for that no sober men will ever believe that the bishop of Lincoln for example, and other learned men of the university of Oxford, would ever have taken such pains at sundry times, both at Oxford and Wickam, as by the public register appeareth that they did, to reduce Cowbridge from these errors, if they had held him for mad. But, as I said before, his madness was the madness of heresy, which is so desperate a frenzy, where it entereth, as nothing can cure or moderate the same, but that he that is possessed with it will die for any thing that he taketh to defend, whereof we have heard some examples before; and I myself saw one, of great admiration and compassion, in a Scotchman at Seville, in Spain, upon the year 1595, who, being unlearned, had taken so earnest an apprehension, by reading scripture in his own language, of those words of Christ, nolite judicure,'' do you not judge,' that he would not yield to the judgment or condemnation of any man, no, nor yet of the devil himself; and albeit the inquisitors of that place, being learned men of themselves, and divers others, called by them to deal with him, did allege him many texts of scripture to show that wicked men should be damned, and that Judas in particular was damned, and that heretics, among others, were sure to be damned, according to the plain testimony of St. Paul, and other such like demonstrations of damnation, and that of the devil there could be no doubt at all, and consequently also men might judge them for damned, yet would he not yield, but rather die and be burned alive (as after my departure thence he was) than grant that we may judge the devils to be damned. And albeit he was dealt withal continually to that effect for the space of two years together, and his execution deferred for this only cause, to bring him from this heretical madness, and that divers Englishmen also laboured with him in this time, to yield and grant that men may judge in some causes, yet all would not serve, but that he would suffer death for that foolish Anabaptistical heresy, that men may not judge in any case.' So that John Fox may truly say, that these his two men were mad also, but it was heretical madness, and consequently they were mad martyrs indeed."

6

The modern editors seem to have been ashamed of these two martyrs, as we cannot find they have made any mention of them in their edition; and the rector of Asterby, in his folio edition, lays more stress on the supposed martyrdom of the dog, than he does of Collins, whom he acknowledges to have been mad. The learned parson and doctor of laws says, "The same year one Collins, a madman, suffered death with his dog in Smithfield. The circumstances were as follow: Collins happened to be in the church when the priest elevated the host, and Collins, in derision of the sacrifice of the mass, lifted up his dog above his head. For this crime Collins, who ought to have been sent to a madhouse, or whipped at the cart's tail, was brought before the bishop of London; and although he was really mad, yet such was the force of Popish power, such the corruption in church and state, that the poor madman and his dog were both carried to the stake in Smithfield, were they were burned