indulgences, sounds oddly to the ear of a Catholic; and really this poor gentleman seems to have been hardly dealt with; for if he liked good things himself, he also liberally gave the same at the Parish Feasts; and was even so considerate as to bestow a quantity of venison annually upon the poor; all this liberality. was nevertheless forgotten when he wished to regale himself in Lent: then the demand was, give us two pounds, and you may eat flesh meat. Surely such entries as these, should silence the protestant; lest he be proved to have actually practised himself that with which he falsely charges the Catholic. We have now, Mr. Editor, come to the end of our perambulation; and we fear, not before we have exhausted the patience of yourself and of your readers. W. Y.

FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS.

LETTER III.

For the Catholic Miscellany.

MR. EDITOR,-The character given by the protestant Docter Pocklington of that portion of Fox's Martyrs, which suffered death in the reign of Mary, will, I fear, upon examination, equally apply to those who forfeited their lives in the earlier reigns. The Doctor styles them " Schismatical heritics; factious fellows; traitors, and rebels, &c." And to commence with the Martyr of Fox, John Wickliffe, whose name graces the calander in the old editions of the Acts and Monuments, printed in red letters, as a Martyr of superior excellence; surely the annalist proves himself a blunderer ab origine; for the man died a natural death, in his bed, on the thirty first of December, 1384, and not on the second of January, 1387. But it suited Fox to commence his Calendar with the name of one, who at least, although long before the establishment of the Reformation had obtained great notoriety by the novelty and extravagance of his opinions and doctrines. This personage was a Catholic Priest, brought up at Oxford, and afterwards Rector of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire, where he performed the

duties of his station; saying mass, hearing confessions, &c. Being deprived of the Wardership of Canterbury Hall, Oxford, in a suit which had been referred to the court of Rome, and a learned monk having been appointed in his place, it appears, that he became vehemently irritated against the members of every religious order, and he was not backward in attacking them whenever an opportunity offered. Relying upon the support of the Duke of Lancaster, he by degrees both published and preached heterodox doctrines, and was occasionally censured for the same; particularly at Oxford, where some of his opinions were formerly condemned: but still proceeding in his course, he was at length summonsed before the Bishop of London; in whose presence he carried himself with great haughtiness, in consequence of the support he received from the Duke of Lancaster, Lord Percy, and others: this, his professed admirer and apologist, the Rev. H. H. Baber, M. A. unwillingly adınits. Nevertheless he returned again to his rectory without any further molestation. I cannot in this letter find sufficient space to enter into the peculiarities of his doctrines. I shall therefore content myself with giving the opinion of his fellow Saint Melanthon, and of Fox himself. The former, writing to a friend says, "I have looked over Wickliffe, who behaves himself tumultuously in the controversy of the Lord's Supper, and more than this, I have found many errors in him, by which a man may form a judgment of his spirit. It is certain he neither understood, nor held the justice of faith; he foolishly confounds the gospel and civil affairs, the one with the other. He contends, that it is not lawful for priests to possess property: he brawls sophistically and seditiously concerning the civil magistrate, &c." (See Melan. Ep. ad Fredericum Meconium.) And again the same Melanthon writes in his Apol, "Wickliffe was plainly deranged when he denied that it was not lawful for priests to possess property." Thus, one of Fox's saints writes of the first martyr of the same annalist, who while labouring to rescue his character, permits the following sentence to escape him. "That albeit he had those blemishes, yet did he not fight directly against Christ our Saviour." And now, Mr. Editor, what are we to think of Protestants who are daily

and hourly railing against the practises of Catholics, and who hold up to derision our attachment to the remains of eminently holy persons, and who even accuse us of idolatry for possessing a print or portrait of some one, who has laid down his life for the cause of christianity; when we find these same Protestants bribing the sexton of the parish of Lutterworth, to cut from the cassock of a man who did not fight directly against Christ our Saviour," a small relict to be preserved with reverential scrupulosity. When we know that the eloquent and popular Doctor Collyer, boasts that he is in possession of a precious fragment of more than ordinary dimensions. When we know that this now mutilated cassock is prized more than gold, and silver and precious stones.-When we see his portrait adorn the mantlepiece of many a serious christian, must we not blush at their inconsistency, and pity their infatuation. The next name upon the Calendar is John Aston, confessor. He was a priest who vehemently supported the doctrines of Wickliffe, and was his first disciple. He underwent several examinations upon oath, and publicly retracted every opinion which might appear heterodox: his last examination was taken before the Archbishop of Canterbury, where, according to Fox himself, he exhibited very little of the Christian character; however, he again made a public recantation of his errors. On the fourth, we have William Sawtree, priest-martyr. He was a parish priest of Saint Seith the Virgin, in London, and preaching "certaine fantasticall doctrines," was cited to appear before Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose presence he retracted every error, one by one, which he had before preached: this was on the twenty-second of February, 1400. He nevertheless relapsed into his former opinions, and was again summonsed before the Archbishop, when he was condemned to suffer death, as appears from the Archbishop's sentence, the King's writ, and an act of Parliament, all registered by Fox. It however appears that the poor man wished once more to recant-but it was too late. We now come to William Swinderby, priest and martyr, and a strange martyr he was, for Fox himself, thus writes of him. "What afterwards became upon him, I have not certainly to say or affirm."-" This remaineth out of doubt, that during

the time of King Richard the Second, no great barme was done unto him, which was in the year 1401." It appears, that he was a priest of Lincolnshire, and that he was cited before the Bishop of Lincoln, upon an accusation of holding very extravagant doctrines. It is also upon record, that he made a public recantation before the Bishop, and began the condemnation of his former opinions in the following words. "I, William Swinderby, Priest, do revoke the same and every one of them, some as heretical, some as erroneous and false." He afterwards publicly declaimed against the same errors in several churches in Lincolnshire and Leicestershire; but going afterwards into / Herefordshire, he again broached the same doctrines which he had so frequently condemned, and was consequently again accused before the Bishop and other ecclesiastical judges. We are, however, furnished with no proofs or documents which shew that any punishment followed this accusation.

An extraordinary company of martyrs now present themselves, namely Rebel martyrs!! We have the first of these on the seventh, Sir Roger Acton, knight; and on the following day, John Brown, gentleman. Then comes John Beverly, priest, on the ninth and on the tenth we have Richard Silbeck, all of whom were seized in a wood, near St. Giles's Fields, and were executed for treason in conspiring the death of their sovereign. Of this set, John Stowe thus writes. "The king keeping his Christmas at Eltham, six miles from London, was warned, that certaine had conspired to have taken, or suddenly slain, him and his brethren, on the twelfth day at night, to wit; Sir John Oldcastle, Sir Roger Acton, and others. Whereupon he sent to the Major of London, that he should arrest all such suspicious persons, &c. and thereupon removed himself privately to Westminster, went into the field of St. Giles's at midnight, where divers were taken, &c. and on the twelfth of January 69 were condemned of treason at Westminster, and on the morrow after, thirty-seven of them were hanged in Giles's fields, &c. And shortly after, Sir Roger Acton was taken, who, on the tenth of February, was drawn, hanged, and buryed under the gallowes, &c." These men were mostly Waldensians, therefore Fox, after endeavouring to extenuate their crimes, says, "If all this will

not serve, that albeit these men were traytors, and put to death for that fact: yet being of the true religion, they may as well be called martyrs, as the theefe on the crosse may be called a saint." On the eleventh, follows a martyr of a different description, John Castellane, doctor, martyr. This individnal was a French Augustinian Friar, but no doctor. He ran away from his convent, and cohabited with a woman whom be took with him to Metz, where he commenced preaching Lutheranism, and stirred up the people to sedition; at last he was taken up, under a warrant granted by the Cardinal of Lorraine, governor of the country, and brought to his trial, condemned, and executed. We have on the twelfth, Thomas Wittle, minister, martyr: an apostate priest of Essex, in King Edward the sixth's time, who taking a wife, was expelled the county, and after wandering about in different countries, instilling into the minds of the people, Calvanistic doctrines, was apprehended in the reign of Queen Mary, and brought to the Bishops' prison in London, when he publicly retracted his opinions. But afterwards following, as he himself declared, the advice of the Devil, he again fell into his former errors, and suffered for his obstinacy.

The next martyr in succession is, Bartlet Green, gentleman. This young man had been brought up a Catholic, and had attended diligently to the duties of his religion, but becoming acquainted at Oxford with Peter Martyr, he imbibed his sentiments, and coming to London, he was for a time, in one of the inns of court, where he formed a connection with Christopher Goodman. This man was accused of being engaged in a plot to take away the life of queen Mary, he consequently fled the country, and sought an asylum at Geneva. A correspondence being intercepted between Green and Goodman, the former was apprehended and sent to the Tower. The Lords of the counsel finding, that besides the presumption against him for treason, he also held certain heteredox religious opinions, remitted him to the Bishop's prison, where he was visited by Doctor Fecknam and others, who charitably used their endeavours to save his life by convincing him of his errors. They did not however succeed; and he was consequently convicted: he suffered the sentence of the law when only twenty-five years old. On the fourteenth we