19. Three women, with the infant bursting from the mother's womb
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
Then the fourteenth day of the said month of July, in the year aforesaid, after the examination above specifi ed before Helier
Gosselin bailiff, in the presence of Thomas Devicke, Pierres Martin, Nicholas Cary, John Blondel, Nicholas de Lisle, John
Laverchaunt, John le Fever, Pierres Bonnamy, Nicholas Martin, John de la March jurates, Sir Jacques Amy dean, and the curates, did deliver before the justice under the seal of the dean, and under the signs of the curates, a certain act and sentence, the sum whereof was that Katherine Cawches and her two daughters were found heretics, and such they reputed them, and have delivered them to justice, to do execution, according to the sentence. . . .
The names of the persecutors which sat upon* the death of the three women.
When this was done, commandment was given to the king's offi cers, to go to the castle to fetch the said women, to hear the sentence against them in the presence aforesaid. And they appearing before them, said in the ears of all the auditory, that they would see their accusers, and know them that have deposed* against them, because they might make answers to their sayings and personages and to have their libel accordingly: for they knew not to have offended the majesties of the king and queen, nor of the church, but entirely would obey, observe and keep the ordinances of the king and queen, and of the church, as all good and true subjects are bound to do. And for any breach of the
19. Three women, with the infant bursting from the mother's womb
The Guernsey Martyrs
king and queen's laws that they had done, they required justice.
All which their reasons and allegations notwithstanding, the said poor women were condemned, and adjudged to be burnt, until they were consumed into ashes, according to a sentence given by Helier Gosselin bailiff. . . .
The three women willing to be conformed to the queen's ordinances, were notwithstanding condemned.
After which sentence pronounced, the said women did appeal unto the king and the queen, and their honourable council, saying that against reason and right they were condemned, and for that cause they made their appeal: notwithstanding they could not be heard, but were delivered by the said bailiff, to the king and queen's offi cers, to see the execution done on them, according to the said sentence.
The mother and the two daughters made their appeal to the king and queen but could not be heard.
The time then being come, when these three good servants and holy saints of God, the innocent mother with her two daughters should suffer, in the place where they should consummate their martyrdom, were three stakes set up. At the middle post was the mother, the eldest daughter on the right hand, the youngest on the other. They were fi rst strangled, but the rope break before they were dead, and so the poor women fell in the fi re. Perotine, who was then great with child, did fall on her side, where happened a rueful sight, not only to the eyes of all that there stood, but also to the ears of all true hearted Christians, that shall read this history: For as the belly of the woman burst asunder by vehemency of the fl ame, the infant being a fair man child, fell into the fi re, and eftsoons being taken out of the fi re by one William House, was laid upon the grass.
Then was the child had to the provost, and from him to the bailiff, who gave censure, that it should be carried back again and cast into the fi re. And so the infant baptized in his own blood, to fi ll up the number of God's innocent saints, was both born, and died a martyr, leaving behind to the world, which it never saw, a spectacle wherein the whole world may see the Herodian cruelty* of this graceless generation of Catholic tormentors.