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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Of all the early but non-contemporary works which throw light on the history of Lollardy, the Acts and Monuments of John Foxe is undoubtedly the most important. Although it contains many tendentious comments, the products of an age when religious passions burned fiercely, comments which are of greater value to the historian of sixteenth-century propaganda than to the student of fifteenth-century heresy, it would be unwise to reject its source-value on these grounds. Besides Foxe’s comments, it also contains material, sometimes no longer extant in other records, which Foxe claimed to draw from the original accounts of the heresy trials, and, for the early sixteenth century, memories of observers, and it is some of this material which I wish to consider today. Because Foxe is noted as a propagandist, his reliability has sometimes been questioned, so the first task of the historian is to subject his excerpts from documents and his other source-material to a more than usually careful scrutiny. In cases where the original sources are still extant, these can be used to reach some estimate of his accuracy in general; in cases where they are not, other records can sometimes serve as a cross-check.
page 251 note 1 The edition cited is that with a vindication of Foxe by G. Townsend, London 1843-9, the text being a reprinting of the edition by S. Cattley, London 1837-41. All references will be cited as A. & M.
page 252 note 1 A. & M. v, 647-52. Lambeth Palace Library, Reg[ister of Archbishop] Warham, ff. 159r-75v.
page 252 note 2 Reg. Warham, ff. 150r, 159v, 160r.
page 252 note 3 Mozley, J. F., John Foxe and his Book, London 1940, 218-20Google Scholar. Mozley argues that the Kent Lollards were accused of this article, but not found guilty on that particular charge. This opinion is based on conjecture only.
page 252 note 4 Reynolds’ Chapel, Norwich, Reg. Alnwick, ff. 108r-9v.
page 252 note 5 Westminster Cathedral MS B.2.8. I am grateful to Mr J. Fines for drawing my attention to this MS and to Fr B. Fisher for arranging the supply of a microfilm of it to me.
page 252 note 6 Ussher’s transcripts from this and other MSS are preserved in T[rinity] C[ollege] D[ublin] MS D.3.4. The neatness of the Westminster Cathedral MS suggests that it cannot be the original court-book, and a duplication in the text at f. 82r suggests a copyist’s error. It seems possible that the MS may have been sent to Archbishop Chichele as a certification of action taken against heretics, in accordance with his request in the convocation of 1428. Reg. Chichele, ed. Jacob, E. F., Canterbury and York Society, Oxford 1938-47, III, 190 Google Scholar.
page 253 note 1 T.C.D. MS D.3.4, ff. 119r, 122v, 128v.
page 253 note 2 Fasciculi Zizaniorum, ed. Shirley, W. W., RS 1858, 417-32Google Scholar. A. & M. III, 591. A footnote reference in Foxe says ‘ex Waldeno,’ and it is more probable that this refers to the Fasciculi than to the Doctrinale.
page 254 note 1 My italics, J.A.F.T.
page 254 note 2 A. & M. in, 589-90. Westminster Cathedral MS B.2.8, passim.
page 254 note 3 Since this paper was delivered, this article has appeared; Fines, J., ‘The Post-Mortem Condemnation for Heresy of Richard Hunne, in EHR LXXVIII, 528-31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
page 255 note 1 T.C.D. MS D.3.4, f. 122v. Guildhall Library, London, Reg. Fitzjames, ff. 25r-6v. A. & M. iv, 175.
page 255 note 2 Reg. Fitzjames, f. 4r. A. & M. iv, 126. Ussher’s transcripts throw some additional light on the case, but do not enable any further check to be made on Foxe. Mozley, op. cit. 217-18, attempts to argue round Āis charge, and while he is not completely con vincing, his arguments have some degree of force.
page 255 note 3 A. & M. iv, 174. The names found in T.C.D. MS D.3.4 include those of John and Thomas Forge, and Thomas Goodred, f. 123r, Thomas Walker alias Talbot, John Cal verton, and Richard Woolman, f. 123v, Roger Hilliar, f. 124r.., George Browne, f. 124v, and Robert Rascal, f. 125r.
page 255 note 4 A. & M. iv, 123, 214.
page 255 note 5 P[ublic] R[ecord] O[ffice] Significations (C. 85), file 115, no. 10.
page 256 note 1 A. & M. iv, 123.
page 256 note 2 Ibid. iv, 123, 208-9.
page 256 note 3 P.R.O. Significations (C. 85), file 115, no. 13.
page 256 note 4 T.C.D. MS D.34, f. 128v. ‘Known man’ was a term used among the Lollards to describe themselves.
page 256 note 5 A. & M. iv, 227.
page 256 note 6 Joint Record Office, Lincoln, Episcopal Court Book C.j/2, ff. 23v-4r.
page 257 note 1 A. & M. IV, 235. Diocesan Registry, Salisbury, Reg. Audley, f. 163r.
