interview (November 21, 1538) :
1 B. Mus. Arundel MS. 152, f. 235 d. Cf. Van Ortroy's Vic de
Fisher. The evidence of Seyncler, Trovvman, and Nuthake, to
be quoted below, confirm, when taken together, every particular of
this story.
'^ Letters and Papers, xiii. pt. ii. n. 764.
392 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON,
" Yesterday, being the 20th day of November, I
was with the Abbot of Saint John of Colchester,
who asked of me what the Abbot of Saint Osyth's
did as touching his house, for the bruit was the
King would have it. To the which I answered him
that he did like an honest man, for he saith, ' I am
the King's subject, and I and my house and all is
the King's, wherefore if it be the King's pleasure, I
as a true subject shall obey without grudge.' To
the which the Abbot of Saint John answered, ' I
will not say (so) for the King shall never have my
house but against my will and against my heart,
for I know by my learning that he cannot take it
by right and law;^ wherefore in my conscience I
cannot be content nor he shall have it with my
heart and w^ill.' To the which I said, ' Beware of
such learning, for if ye hold such learning as ye
learned in Oxenford when ye were young, ye will
be hanged, and ye are worthy ; but I will advise
you to conform yourself as a true subject or else you
shall hinder your brethren and also yourself.' My
Lord, I like not the man. I fear he hath a cankered
heart, for he was accused but of late of traitorous
words by one William Hall, but he had no witness.""^
" Here was treason enough," remarks Mr. Moore,^
"to hang an archbishop in those days, let alone a
mere abbot." Shortly afterwards, and probably on
this information (according to the same writer), the
^ This was of course perfectly true. The King's action was as
illegal as it was immoral.
2 Letters and Papers, vol. xiii. pt. ii. n, 8S7. ^ Op. cit. p. xxvi.
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 393
Abbot was committed to the Tower on a charge of
treason, and was a prisoner there up to the 20th of
March, 1539.^ There seems to be no doubt that he
clung to the Church of Rome and was strongly
opposed to the Reformation and in sympath}' with
the Northern insurrection — treason amply sufficient
in the eyes of Cromwell to seal his fate.
The date of Abbot Marshall's final arrest is not
clear, but, in any case, he was in custody before
the ist of November, 1539.
From the ist to the 4th of this month at
Brentwood,- John Ryther and Henry Polsted were
examining witnesses as to the i\bbot's alleged
treasonable speeches. They examined Edmund
Trowman, who w^as the Abbot's servant, as to the
concealment of plate and money by his master, as
well as to his speeches. He testified that the Abbot
had said that he would as lief die as forsake his
living, that it could not stand with his conscience
to surrender his house, and that would to God
every abbot was of his mind. He had also heard
the Abbot say : " Well, God will take vengeance
for the putting down cjf these houses of religion ; "
and again, "Two or three of the King's Council hath
brought his Grace to such a covetous mind that if
all the water in Thames did fiow gold and silver,
1 Letters ami Papers, vol. xiv. pt. ii. nn. 438, 439, 454, 458, 459-
I give these details of the Abbot's first imprisonment on Mr. Moore's
authority, and quote the references as he gives them. But I must
add that they do not confirm the statement in the text, and I have
not been able to discover from what source this writer can have got
his information as to the alleged fact of a first imprisonment.
'^ Letters and Papers, xiv. pt. ii. nn. 438, 439, 458, 459.
394 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON.
it were not able to quench his Grace's thirst."
Speaking of Fisher and More, he had said, " They
died Hke good men and it was pity of their deaths,
for the}' were great learned men and wise men."
. On the 3rd of November, Thomas Nuthake,
physician and mercer of Colchester, aged forty-four,
was examined. He deposed among other things that
the Abbot had said that the reason why the King
forsook the Bishop of Rome, was in order to marry
Anne Bo]e}'n, " and therefore his Grace refused to
take the Bishop of Rome for Supreme Head of the
Church, and made himself the Supreme Head."
'He added that those who held with the new acts
against the Bishop of Rome were accursed.
Arguing against the Royal Supremacy, the Abbot
exclaimed : " Those who made the King Supreme
Head of the Church were false heretics, and cursed
by God's own mouth," asking a vengeance on the
Archbishop of Canterbury [Cranmer], the Lord
Chancellor [Audley] , and on other the King's
Council, saying they were arch-heretics, and do go
about to destroy the King and the law of God,
rehearsing these words: " Eccc, Douiiiie, lapides
sanctuarii tni jacciit in plateis," meaning that God
should take vengeance on such as destroyed abbeys.
^^â– hen the Abbot heard of the deaths of the Bishop
of Rochester and Sir Thomas More, he said to
Nuthake, they being walking in the garden together
a little before dinner, " Nuthake, alas, what wretched
tyrants and bloodsuckers be these that have put to
death and martyred those blessed clerks and best
learned men that were in this realm. They died
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 395
martyrs and saints in my conscience for holding
with our Holy Father the Pope for the right of all
Holy Church '" — which word this examinate hearing
did say : " My Lord, I pray you speak no more of
that."" Then the Abbot went in to dinner all heavy,
sad and pensive. ... At dinner the Abbot spoke
further of the rights of the Holy See, which the
King could not lawfully usurp. His words, accord-
ing to Nuthake, were, " The Bishop of Rome is only
Supreme Head of the ChnrcJi by tJie laics of God
immediately after Christ, and none other.''
On the 4th of November, Robert Rouse, mercer of
Colchester, was examined. His evidence is printed
in full by Gasquet.^ He gave almost precisely the
same testimony as Nuthake as to the Abbot's words
against the Royal Supremacy, " that the whole
authority was given by Christ unto Peter and to
his successors, Bishops of Rome, to bind and to
loose, and to grant pardons for sin, and to be chief
and Supreme Head of the Church through all
Christian realms, immediate and next unto Christ,
and that it was against God's commandments and
His laws that any temporal prince should be head
of the Church."
His evidence too as to the Abbot's speeches
about the King's covetousness, the martyrdom of
Fisher and More, the insurrection in the north, c\:c.,
most closely concurs with that of the last writers.
Many people in those days must have agreed with
the Abbot (though few dared express their thoughts)
when he said, " Would to God the northern men
' i'p. 169—172.
395 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON,
had " Cranmer, Audley, and Cromwell in their
hands, " for then we should have a merry world, for
they are all arch-heretics."
Meanwhile the venerable Abbot w'as being him-
self tortured with interrogations. It is sad that he
did not come scatheless out of the trial. For a
time at least his courage failed him, and he made a
piteous attempt to save his life. W^hen interro-
gated^ as to these accusations he tried to deny or
explain them away. Asked what he had said
" concerning the King's supremacy," and " con-
cerning the Bishop of Rome's usurped authority,"
he replied, "As concerning the first and second
interrogatories, for as much as I have read in an
epistle of Saint Jerome where he saith that all
bishops have like authority, but o( schis}}iatis remeduim
in those parties, elegernnt cpiscopnm Romamim in
snuvntun : by the which saying I take and understand
that the Bishop of Rome had his supremacy jure
huiiuDio and afterwards usurped much more authority
than ever was given to him by any law\ Wherefore
now I affirm that our most godly prince elected by
the free consent of all his whole realm hath good
authority to be, and is supreme head of the same,
and this I have said as I am well remembered."
In the like manner the unfortunate Abbot dealt
with the other accusations,- ending this miserable
^ Letters and Papers, xiv. pt. ii. n. 459. I have consulted the
original, which is unhappily all in the Abbot's own handwriting.
- He actually brought himself to say that if he stood out some-
what against the suppression of his house, it was in order that he
should secure a larger pension ! We may add that Mr. Moore is
mistaken in saying that Abbot Gasquet should have noticed this
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 397
document with the piteous appeal : " And here is
all that I have said (as I do remember) most
meekly beseeching the King's most gracious Majesty
and his most honourable Council to be good to me
for the love of God, — per me, Thomam Beech, alias
Marciall."
This was indeed a sad falling off from the spirit
of Fisher and More, and it. would neither be honest
nor wise to attempt to suppress or even to palliate
it. Let us rather thank God Abbot Beche was per-
mitted to wash out the stain in his own life-blood.
It is evident that the Abbot was weakly trying to
save his life, at the expense of all he held most dear
and sacred ; and that there is no reason whatever
to doubt the truth of the evidence against him.
Nuthake and Rouse were the Abbot's intimate
friends, and Trowman his old servant ; their
accusations against him are far more to his
credit than his piteous attempts to deny them.^
How thankful he must have been if, when he came
to his trial, he was able to retract his words ; how
thankful these attempts had not succeeded, and that
he had after all the opportunity of winning the
martyr's palm !
The Abbot was sent down to Colchester to be
tried' by a special commission, consisting of Henry,
damaging paper in his account of the Abbot. For when Abbot
Gasquet wrote it had not been discovered. He has, however,
alluded to it in the second edition of Ileiny VIII. and the English
Monasteyies, p. 395.
> So Mr. Gairdner : " There could be little doubt of the general
truth (of the accusations) and as little of what would be the
result." (Introd. to Letters and Papers, xiv. pt. ii. p. xxxvii.)
■•= Letters and Papers, xiv. pt. ii, nn. 459 and 494, App. n. 43.
398 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON.
Earl of Essex, Sir Christopher Jenny, one of the
judges of the Court of Common Pleas, Sir John
Seyncler and others. There was impanelled a jury of
eighteen to inquire, and a jury of eight esquires and
eleven gentlemen to tr}^ him, and it would appear
that John Lucas, barrister of the Temple, who
subsequently bought the abbey, ^ was the principal
prosecuting counsel for the Crown. " We have no
official record of the trial," says Mr. Moore, "but the
Abbot appears to have practically pleaded guilty to
the indictment, and was convicted." In a letter evi-
dently written shortly after the trial. Sir Christopher
Jenny reports the proceedings to Cromwell : ' I
have no special cause to confirm your Lordship con-
cerning the King's business at Colchester otherwise
than Mr. Brown or Mr. Sheriff will declare unto
your Lordship at large. . . . The prisoner after his
judgment asked the King's Highness, your lordship's
and my Lord Chancellor's forgiveness, and acknow-
ledged himself in substance to be guilty according
to the effect of the indictment, and showed himself
to be very penitent, saving he stood somewhat in his
own conceit that the suppression of abbeys should
not stand with the laws of God, and thereby, and
by other circumstances, I thought him an evil man
in mine own conscience and opinion, if there had
appeared no more but his own confession.""^
1 From Francis Jobson, one of the visitors of the monasteries in
Essex and Hertfordshire, and receiver-general of their possessions
while they were in the hands of the Crown, June 6, 1548. See Letters
and Papers, xiv. pt. ii. App. n. 43.
-Ibid. App. n. 45.
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 399
It appears therefore that the x\bbot's assertion
of principle was considered by Jenny as more
important than his waverings and partial weakness.
Blessed I'homas Marshall was martyred at Col-
chester, the ist of December, 1539. A drawing repre-
senting the Earl of Essex taking him to execution
occurs as the heading of a summary of the posses-
sions of the monastery taken after the martyrdom
by Richard Pollard and Thomas Moyle, general
surveyors of the King's lands. It is reproduced as
the frontispiece to the second volume of Mr. Moore's
valuable work. The Earl rides on horseback out of
the abbey-gate. He is in great state with trumpeters
before him. Behind him walks the Abbot between
two men, and guarded by soldiers. In the distance,
on a hill, is seen the execution.
There still exists a beautiful relic of the Abbot in
the form of a pectoral cross. Dom Gasquet gives
illustrations of it in his work, with the following
description :^ " The enamelled pectoral cross of the
venerable martyr has been preserved, and is now in
possession of the Lord Clifford of Chudleigh. On
one side it bears the emblems of the Five Wounds,
in the centre the Sacred Heart of our Lord, sur-
rounded by the crown of thorns, above which is
the inscription 'I. N.R.I.,' and below the sacred
monogram ' I.H.S.,' with the wounded hands and
feet of our Saviour. On the back the instruments
of the Passion are engraved.
" The following inscriptions in Latin appear in
and about the Cross, ' May the Passion of our
1 Op. Cit. pp. 173, ijq.
400 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON,
Lord Jesus Christ bring us out of sorrow and
sadness.'
' This sig-n of the Cross shall be in the heavens
when our Lord shall come to judgment.'
' Behold, O man ! Thy Redeemer suffers for
thee. He who will come after Me, let him take
up his cross and follow Me.' The cross opens
and within is seen the figure of the Crucified, with
a large skull beneath His feet."
It only remains to quote a few words of the
libeller whose abusive harangue has been so often
cited here. " Is it not to be thought, trow ye,"
he says, " that forasmuch as these trusty traitors
have so valiantly jeopardized "a joint for the Bishop
of Rome's sake, that his Holiness will after their
hanging canvass them, canonize them, I would say,
for their labours and pains ? It is not to be doubted
but his Holiness will look upon their pains as upon
Thomas Becket's, seeing it is for like matter."
Thus is the malice of the wicked turned to the
glory of God and of His elect : and thus does the
malicious slanderer become at once the prophet
of the martyrs' future glory, and the most explicit
witness as to the cause for which the}- gave their
lives.
Ed.
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 401
Appendix A.
The Oath of Supvcmacy.
Some account of the documents in which the
monks of Glastonbury and Colchester made the
fatal act of acknowledgment of the Ro3-al Supremacy
may be interesting. They still exist in the Public
Record Office. (As we said in the text, that of
Reading is not to be found.)
The student will find them by referring to the
Deputy Keeper's Report, n. vii. App. ii. n. g.
Augmentation Office. Acknowledgments of Supre-
macy, n. 34 (Colchester) and n. 57 (Glastonbury).
They are engrossed on parchment, with the
fine conventual seals attached, and are preserved
in small circular wooden boxes. This has not
improved their condition, for the parchment has
to be much folded and creased to get it into the
box, and this has had the further disadvantage of
injuring the seals.
That of Colchester is written \evy clearly and
well in long lines on a strip of parchment more than
twice as broad as deep, in a clerkly hand, with
many abbreviations. The initial word Quiiui and
Henrico are in large bold black letters.
The seal is circular. On the obverse is St. John
Baptist enthroned with SS. Peter (?) and Paul on
either side, and underneath a shield. On the
reverse side appears St. John the Evangelist between
AA
402 BB. RICHARD WRITING, HUGH FARINGDON,
two angels. Above the angels are eagles. The
seal is unhappily broken.
The deed is dated July 7, 1534. It is signed :
Per mc Thomam Monasterii Sci. Joannis 'baptiste
iu.xta Colcestriani Abbatem.
Per vie Joanncm Melford pviorem, &c.
As we said, the renunciation of Papal Supremacy
is most explicit.
The document begins :
" QUUM en sit non solum Christiaiie Rcligionis et
pietatis ratio sed nrc etiam obedientie rcgiila Duo Regi
nro HENRICO eius noniinis octavo {cui uni et soli
post Christum Jcsuui servatorem nostrum dcbemus
universn) non uwdo onininiodani in Christo et eandeui
sinceram integrani perpetuamque aniuii devotioneni fideni
observantiaui honorein cultum reverentiam prcBstenius,
sed etiam de eadem fide et observantia nra rationeni
{quotiescumque postulahitur) reddamus et palam omnibus
si res postnlat libentissime testemur. . . .
" Item quod confirmatum raimnque habcmus semper
et perpetuo habitur[i] sumus quod predictus Rex noster
Henricus est caput EcclesicB AnglicancB. Item quod
Epus Romanus qui in suis bullis papa nomen usurpat
et summi pontificis principatum sibi arrogat non
habet maiorem aliquam iiirisdictionem collatam sibi
a Deo in sacra scriptura in hoc regno AnglicB quam
quivis alius externus episcopus,'' etc., etc.
The Glastonbury document is identical in terms
mutatis mutandis. But it is engrossed on a much
larger piece of parchment, of folio size, with the
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 403
signatures in three columns. It is not nearly so
well written. It is curious that it adds after the
words, " Regi nostro Henrico Octavo," " fimdatori
nostra prcsexcellentissimo.'" In what possible sense
can Henry have been called 2l founder of Glastonbury ?
The signature of the Abbot, "Per me Ric. Abb.'''
is that of a very feeble old man. However, it is
probable that emotion made the writer's hand shake
far more than usual, and this is natural enough
under the circumstances. On a letter of the Abbot's
written later than this date, and still preserved in
the Record Office, the signature is comparatively
firm and bold. These trembling syllables, on the
other hand, suggest the agony of mind under which
the unhappy Abbot must have laboured when he
affixed his signature to the great act of renunciation.
It may be noted that most of the monks sign
with two Christian names, but without family name.
The first is the baptismal, the second the religious
name. Thus, for instance, we have, Thomas Dunstan,
Johannes Bennett, Johannes Benignns, Richardus
Beda, Johannes Ceolfvidus, Thomas Appolynnr,
Johannes Arthur, Johannes ab araniathia, Wyllmus
Joseph, Johannes Anibrosius, Johannes Oswaldns,
Jacobus Anselmus, Johannes Elphegns, Symon Edgar,
Johannes Pantaleon.
It will be noticed that many of the religious
names have special reference to Glastonbury tradi-
tions. Even King Arthur, whose grave was shown
at Glaston, becomes the name-patron of one of the
monks. One of the names, it may be added, is very
extraordinary, " Aristoteles Abu/immyn " ! It is
404 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON,
perhaps that of a Greek who instructed the brethren
in his language.
The seal is most magnificent, and is fortunately
in excellent preservation. On the obverse side we
have our Lady, holding in her right hand the
Glastonbury thorn (?) and in her left our Lord,
standing. On her right is St. Catherine, and on
the left St. Margaret of Antioch. These figures
stand beneath splendid Gothic canopies. Below is
the church of Glaston, between two ravens. On
the reverse St. Dunstan stands between St. Patrick
and St. Benignus. Below is St. Dunstan holding
the devil by the nose according to the famous
legend, and some fishes (?). This seal is figured in
the 1817 edition of Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. i.
Appendix B.
TJic cause of inartyrdoui.
There is much obscurity, as we have seen, as to
the exact charges brought against the Blessed
Abbots, since the indictments and all accounts of
the trial have disappeared.
Even at the time people were in a good deal of
perplexity as to the matter. " The nature of the
charges on which Abbot Whiting was condemned,"
says Mr. Gairdner, " must be a matter for specula-
tion." So well informed an observer as Marillac,
the French Ambassador, writing a fortnight after
the martyrdom of the Abbots of Glaston and
Reading (November the 30th), admits he could learn
no particulars of what they were charged with, except
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 405
that it was " les reliques " of the late Lord Marquis
[of Exeter] ,^ This is not particularly clear, but
seems to show that it was for den3'ing Royal
Supremacy.
Of course the real reason for their martyrdom
was that the King might seize their abbeys, which
they refused to surrender. He could only do so by
having them attainted of treason. And it is pretty
evident that the " treason " brought against them
was their well-knowai attitude as to the Royal
Supremacy. This is quite clear in the case of the
Abbot of Colchester. It had been made high treason
to deny " maliciously " the King's right to be
Supreme Head, and the Abbot did deny it. Abbot
Cook of Reading also denied it at the gibbet, and
no doubt had done so previously. There is no direct
evidence, so far as I know, as to Abbot Whiting,
because the " book of his treasons " is unhappily
lost.
But the opinion of contemporary writers and of
all the early authorities on the subject is unanimous.
They echo the libeller's statement that the xAbbots
died " in the quarrel of the Bishop of Rome."
1 " Ces jours passez ont este executez deux abbez actaints du
crime de leze-majeste, ung au-devant de la porte de son abbaye.
L'un estoit abbe de Classimbury (sic) a cinquante mille d'icy,
I'autre de Reading a six vingts mille. Je n'ay peu entendre aucune
particularite de ce dont ilz estoient chargez, sinon qu'on diet que
c'estoient les reliques du feu milord Marquis. La peine qu'ilz ont
soufferte a este d'estre penduz, au quel estat [ont este] laissc leurs
corps [charges] de grosses chaynes de far en memoire et horreur
de leurs meffaictz." (Correspondance politique de MM. de Castillon et de
Marillac, publiee par M.Jean Kaulek, Paris, 1885, p. 145.)
4o6 BB. RICHARD WHITING, HUGH FARINGDON,
We may cite a few as examples :
Bartholomew Traheron, writing to Bullinger,
February 20, 1539-40,^ says : " Three of the most
wealthy Abbots were led to execution a little before
Christmas, for having joined in a conspiracy to restore
the Pope."
Nicholas Partridge, writing to the same Bullinger
from Dover, February 26, 1539-40,- says : "There
does not exist here a single monk, at least in name.
Punishment has lately been inflicted upon three
principal Abbots, who had secreted property to a
great extent, and had conspired in difterent ways
for the restoration of popery. Good pastors are
freely preaching the truth. . . The King, who is
exceedingly merciful (!), would willingly desire the
promotion of the truth."
Butler wrote to Bullinger the same good news
on February the 24th :^ " The monasteries, wonder-
ful to relate, are all destroyed, or will be before
Shrovetide. Of the more wealthy the two Abbots of
Glastonbury and Reading have been condemned
for treason and quartered, and each of them is now
rotting on a gibbet near his abbey-gate, a worthy
recompense for their imposture."
The chroniclers agree as to the cause of martyr-
dom. Hall, who wrote in 1548, says:'* '"'The xiii
day of November, Hugh Feringden, Abbot of
Redyng, and two Priestes, the one called Rugg,
and the other named Onyon, were attainted of
1 Original Letters (Parker Society). Letter cxlviii. vol. i. p. 13G.
'- Ibid. vol. ii. p. 614. ' " Ibid. p. G27.
â– * Hall's Chronicle, Edition of 1809, p. 832.
JOHN BECHE, AND FOUR COMPANIONS 407
high treason, for denying the King to be supreme head
of the Churche, and was drawen, hanged, and
quartered at Redyng. This Abbot was a stubborne
monk and utterly without learning. The same day
was Richard Whityng, Abbot of Glascenbury, like-
wise attainted and hanged on Tower [Tor] hyl
besyde hys monastery, for the said case and other
gret treasons, which also was quartered : and the
first day of December was John Beche, Abbot of
Colchest, put to execution for the same confederacy
and treason."
Grafton (whose chronicle goes down to 1568)
copies Hall word for word.
Charles Wriothesley, Windsor Herald, is an
independent witness. His chronicle is synchronous
with the events described and independent of other
chroniclers from the eleventh year of Henry VHI.