A Letter From Jaques De Somere, Sent To His Mother, At Ghent.

968

This occurred on the twenty-fifth day of May, A. D. 1575.

A few days afterwards, when the bishop saw that the rest would not depart from their faith, he condemned them all to death, in the ecclesiastical court in St. Paul’s church (where the papistic bishop in Queen Mary’s time was wont to sentence the Christians), and delivered them over to the secular judge, by whom the women, tied hand to hand, were conducted to Newgate (which is the prison of those confined for capital crimes); together with one of the men, whom they considered to be the youngest and most innocent. But the rest of the men were taken back to their old place of confinement of the bishop’s prison, so that it was thought that the women were to be executed first, even as they also daily came and threatened them, holding up death before their eyes, if they should not renounce; so that for five or six days they suffered great distress and temptation, expecting from day to day to be burnt, and this was done even on the very day when their sentence of banishment had arrived from the Court; for at ten o’clock in the evening the Bailiff and his beadles came into prison, to make an inventory of all their property, and to apprise them, that they should prepare themselves to die the next day, which he did, in order to see whether none of them would renounce through fear. But when he saw that they all remained steadfast, he announced to them, that the Queen would show them mercy, and only banish them from the country, and cause the youth to be scourged behind a cart.

Thus, within five or six days afterwards, fourteen women or thereabouts, were conducted, by the officers of justice, from the prison which stands near St. Martin’s Church, to St. Catharine’s on ship board, and the youth was scourged behind a cart that went immediately in front; and thus all were banished from the country, on pain of death, and they are now residing in Holland and Zealand.

A few days afterwards, the five men who were still confined in the bishop’s prison were likewise sentenced by the bishop, and brought to Newgate, where one of them, through the poverty and hardship of the severe confinement, died in prison. The others, fearing that the extreme penalty should be inflicted upon them, since they had so rigorously dealt even with the women; and hearing that the Queen and the entire council were so incensed against them, that hardly any one dared intercede for them, because of an evil report that they denied God and Christ, and rejected all government and authority of magistrates and higher powers as ungodly and unchristian; ventured to present a supplication, together with their confession concerning the four articles that had been laid before them (copies of which I send here), to Her Majesty, who was so incensed against them that she would not even receive it, but severely reprimanded the maids of honor who presented it to her, as they themselves reported to those that had delivered it to them.

When they saw this they changed said articles and supplication to some extent and delivered it to My Lord of Bodley, who, having conferred with the bishop about the matter, returned them the following day with the answer that he was sorry for their sakes, but that there was no hope at all of mercy, except they were willing to sign the articles, and renounce their heresy. In the meantime, the bishop, in behalf of Her Majesty, issued several articles, one of which was That a Christian magistrate might punish obstinate heretics with the sword; commanding all strangers to subscribe to the same, or if not, to give sufficient bail that whenever it shall please the bishop they will appear before him and the Queen’s commissioners, to be more fully examined and punished according to the finding. Hence, nearly all the strangers, more through fear than otherwise, signed the same, except some who would rather be in danger, than, against their conscience, sanction, by their handwriting, the killing of the poor people; how it will end with them, is not yet known.

Shortly after, an order from the Court came to the sheriff or bailiff of London, that he should execute the oldest two, according to their sentence. One of them named Jan Pieterss, was a poor man, more than fifty years of age, with nine children. His first wife had previously likewise been burnt for her religion, here in Ghent in Flanders. And he was now married to a woman whose husband had also previously been burnt at Ghent for his religion. Hence both, on account of persecution, had fled to England, thinking that they should be able to live there without peril in the liberty of their conscience. All this he stated to the bishop, and asked for mercy to leave the country with his wife and children; but it was not granted him.