ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



The ancient heresy laws, aboHshed by Somerset, were revived in 

 December 1554, and in 1555 the punishment of death by burning was 

 again enforced. Hertfordshire was singularly free from these dreadful 

 spectacles ; it may be that its general conformity with the religious fashion 

 was considered warranty of orthodox faith. On 31 August ' whent out of 

 Nugatt a man of Essex unto Barnett for herese, by the shereyfF of Medyllsex, 

 to borne ther ' ^° ; he was William Hale of Thorp," and had no apparent 

 connexion with this county. In the same month Thomas Fust was burned 

 at Ware." Of George Tankerfield, their fellow-martyr, more is known. 

 He was a Yorkshireman under thirty, who had settled in London as a 

 cook." He was arrested on a charge of heresy in February 1555, and was 

 examined and condemned with Hale and Fust.^" He was sent down to 

 St. Albans for execution and was lodged at the Crosskeys Inn. A ' great 

 concourse of people ' had come from curiosity to see him, but opinion was 

 divided in his favour." The execution was not until the afternoon of 

 26 August, and Tankerfield met death with great resolution ; ' there was a 

 certain knight by, who went unto Tankerfield, and took him by the hand 

 and said, " Good brother, be strong in Christ " ; this he spake softly ; and 

 Tankerfield said, " O sir, I thank you, I am so ; I thank God." Then fire 

 was set unto him.' ^^ The government could not hide from itself the 

 unpopularity of its religious policy and redoubled its efforts at repression. 

 In I 557 royal injunctions were issued to Bonner and his fellow-commissioners 

 to search for heretics and heretical books, to deal with persons who would 

 not attend mass or the litany, and with those withholding goods and lands 

 from the Church.''' How easy it was to excite suspicion or fall a victim to 

 malice is evident from the order issued to all vicars and curates in April of 

 this year.^* The clergy were directed to make ' the beste and mooste 

 diligente searche ye canne concerninge all and singular persons within every 

 your severall parisshes who obstinatelye at any tyme hearetofore have or 

 heareafter shall commonlye absente thereselves from there severall parisshe 

 churches and in comminge thither doo not heare mattens, masse and even- 

 songe, goo in procession, make there confession to the preiste, receave the 

 blessed sacramente of the altare at any time appointed and accustomed for the 

 same or doo not reverently use the ceremonies of the churche as in takinge 

 hoUye breade, hollye water, kyssinge the paxe,' &c. Delinquents were to 

 appear before the bishop.^^ 



On 22 March 1556 Cardinal Pole was consecrated Archbishop of 

 Canterbury,^^ and at Easter he began his metropolitical visitation of the 

 diocese of Lincoln. The discovery of the Dudley conspiracy to kidnap the 

 queen and set Elizabeth on her throne was serving to emphasize the danger 

 of obscure meetings such as the heretics were forced to frequent. All the 

 articles of Pole's visitation,^' with but three exceptions, were accordingly 

 bent towards the discovery of heretics, malcontents, or those disobedient to 

 the ecclesiastical law. The remaining inquiries dealt with the condition of 

 the fabric of the church, chancel and dwelling-house, the insistent question 



18 Machyn, Diary (Camden Soc), 94. 1^ Foxe, Jets and Monum. (ed. 1847), vii, 370. 



18 Ibid. " Ibid. 343. 20 Ibid. 370. 21 Ibid. 345. 22 Ibid. 346. 



23 Lond. Epis. Reg. Bonner, fol. 425-6. 24 ibid. fol. 419. ^5 ibid. 



26 Stubbs, Reg. Sacrum Angl. 27 printed by Strype, Eccl. Mem. ii (2), 411. 



317 



