ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



the Christian Brotherhood. They were chiefly East Anglians, and on their 

 dispersal from Cambridge in 1525, Thomas Bilney, a fellow of Trinity Hall, 

 and Thomas Arthur, a fellow of St. John's, betook themselves to Norwich 

 diocese, and became itinerant preachers of the new doctrines in Norfolk and 

 Suffolk. Bilney was the most able and by far the most aggressive of the 

 two. Foxe gives a curious account of a vehement dispute between Thomas 

 Bilney and Friar Bruisyard in St. George's Chapel, Ipswich. 1 Bilney gained 

 many adherents to his Zwinglian views, among them being Anthony Yaxley, 

 of Rickenhall in this county, who formally recanted before Bishop Nykke at 

 Hoxne, on 27 January, 1 525-6.* Eventually Bilney and Arthur were 

 brought before a great assembly of bishops, divines, and lawyers, under the 

 presidency of Cardinal Wolsey, on 27 November, 1527, and formally charged 

 with heresy. Both the offenders solemnly recanted. Penance was assigned to 

 Arthur, and he was confined for some time at Walsingham. Bilney, after 

 carrying a faggot in procession at St. Paul's, was kept in prison for a year, 

 and on his release returned to Cambridge. Repenting of his abjuration, he 

 left Cambridge after eighteen months' sojourn, and betook himself again to 

 preaching and the dissemination of Zwinglian literature from the continental 

 presses. On 3 March, 1531, he was apprehended in London, and sent down 

 to Norwich for trial, when he was degraded from his orders, condemned as a 

 relapsed and obstinate heretic, and burnt at the stake on 19 August. 3 



It is estimated that during the reign of Henry VIII at least thirty 

 persons were tried and burnt as heretics for holding Zwinglian and Lutheran 

 views, and for ' depraving the Eucharist,' whilst a far larger number saved 

 themselves by recantation. 4 No small share of those who lost their lives 

 in this persecution were burnt in this county, or were immediately connected 

 with Suffolk. 



Notwithstanding their stringent rules, heresy found its way into the 

 religious houses. William Blomfield, a monk of St. Edmunds, abjured in 

 1529. Richard Bayfield, chamberlain of that abbey, came under the influence 

 of Dr. Barnes the ex-Austin prior, a well-known reformer. Barnes made 

 him a present of a Latin New Testament, and from others he received 

 Tyndale's Testament 6 in English, and other of Tyndale's condemned books. 

 On Bayfield's heresy being detected ' hee was cast into the prison of his 

 house, there sore whipped, with a gagge in his mouth, and then stocked, and 

 so continued,' says Foxe, ' in the same torment three quarters of a yeare.' 

 He was released through Barnes's influence, and after visiting Cambridge was 

 apprehended in London, abjured, recanted his abjuration and then perished 

 at the stake. 6 Three Austin friars of Clare abjured in 1532. Some years 

 later according to Foxe, ' one Puttedew was condemned to the fire about the 

 parts of Suffolk,' and William Leiton, an ex-Benedictine monk of Eye, 

 suffered a like death about 1537 'for speaking against a certain Idoll which 

 was accustomed to be carried about the Processions ' there, and for his views 



1 Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townsend), iv, 628-30. * East Count. Collectanea, i, 42. 



3 See Foxe, Acts and Monts. (Townsend), iv, 619-56, for the general story of Bilney and his associates. 



4 Wakeman, Hist. ofCb. of Eng. 256. 



5 It is but fair to remember that not only did Tyndale's version show a strong Zwinglian bias, but he 

 prefixed to each part as it issued from the press violent attacks on the Church and its system. The bias of the 

 translation is obvious to any scholar, thus Ecclesia is turned into ' congregation ' instead of ' church.' See 

 Sir Thomas More, English Works, 419, &c. " Foxe, iv, 680-3. 



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