A Godly Woman
A GODLY WOMAN
Of all the people who suffered for Christ and His truth, I know of none so admirable as the godly woman put to death in Chipping Sodbury about this time. Her constancy was glorious to behold, especially when contrasted to the character of the chancellor who condemned her, one Dr. Whittenham.
When she was condemned for heresy and brought to the place of execution, a great crowd of people gathered, including Dr. Whittenham. This faithful woman persisted in her truthful testimony to the end, committing her cause to the Lord and refusing no pain, to keep her conscience clear. Her suffering finally over, the people began to disperse to their homes.
Meanwhile, as the church was slaughtering this innocent lamb just outside the town, a butcher in town was preparing to slay a bull. Having tied him with ropes, the butcher attempted to hit the bull on the head and kill him, but he missed his killing blow—not being as skilled at killing as the church’s persecutors. The bull, somewhat put out at being hit, broke loose as the people returned from the execution, scattering the townspeople but harming no one until he came to Dr. Whittenham, whom he immediately gored through and killed to everyone’s wonder.
1520–1521
As the light of the Gospel began to appear and its number of supporters grew, the bishops became more vehement in their persecutions, causing much suffering in the land. Especially affected were the areas of Buckinghamshire, Amersham, Uxbridge, Henley, and Newbury in the diocese of London, as well as areas in Essex, Coulcester, Suffolk, and Norfolk.
It must be understood that this move toward reformation began before the name of Luther was even known. England had always had godly people who were dedicated to the Word of God, sitting up all night reading and hearing and going to great expense to purchase the few books that were available in their tongue. Some would pay as much as a load of hay for a few translated chapters of St. James or St. Paul. Considering the scarcity of books and teachers, it’s amazing how the Word of Truth spread as far as it did, neighbor teaching neighbor, sharing books and truth and so passing on the knowledge of God.
There were four main areas in which these early reformers disagreed with the church of Rome:
They denied the value of pilgrimages.
They refused to worship the saints.
They insisted on reading scripture for themselves.
They did not believe the physical body of Christ was present in the sacramental bread.
These were simple, honest people who studied and spoke openly of their beliefs, so it was easy for church examiners to trap them into heretical statements they barely understood and make them implicate others who studied God’s Word with them.
In the diocese of Lincoln, Bishop John Longland renewed the old persecution by bringing in one or two men who had previously recanted and reexamining them. These implicated others, until a great number of people were brought before the bishop for the crime of assembling together to read the scriptures. Those who were found to have relapsed were burned; the rest were so burdened with penance that they either died from grief or survived in shame.
King Henry VIII made the bishop of Lincoln’s task even easier by ordering all his secular legal authorities to give the bishop any aid and assistance he needed. Now both the law of the land and law of the church were against any who studied the scriptures and upheld their truth.