5. Lawrence Saunders
Explanatory Notes
5. LAWRENCE SAUNDERS
42 as the private pastors of particular flocks: as unauthorized ministers who led conventicles (i.e., clandestine religious gatherings at private locations).
43 fantasize: anticipate with pleasure.
well-exercised: well-employed.
then was his company marvellous comfortable: then was it profitable to be in his company.
College at Fotheringhay: a religious house in Northamptonshire that was dissolved during the reign of Edward VI.
44 nothing meddling with the estate: having nothing to do with affairs of state (i.e., his behaviour is not treasonable).
a just plague . . . offered unto them: Saunders preaches that the change in religion and suffering of Protestants and under Mary I constitutes a punishment for English backsliding of the kind encountered in Deuteronomic history, a term that refers to a cyclical pattern of religious infidelity, divine wrath, catastrophic punishment, renewal of faith, and providential restoration. It informs Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2
Kings.
46 as the apostles were brought . . . unto the rulers of the priests: Acts 5: 19 – 32.
47 Lord Chancellor: Bishop Stephen Gardiner.
as Annas sent Christ to Caiaphas: John 18: 24. Protestants attacked Roman Catholic clergy by identifying them with Caiaphas, the high priest at the time of Jesus' trial.
utter: outer.
tables: the game of backgammon.
admonished . . . by Ezekiel the prophet: Saunders claims that he is a mouthpiece for Ezekiel's prophetic warnings concerning divine judgement
(Ezekiel 7: 1 – 27).
48 commanded rather to obey God than man: Acts 5: 29.
a book of true obedience: Protestants mocked Stephen Gardiner for writing De vera obedientia (1535), a Latin defence of Henry VIII's exercise of royal supremacy over church and state. The bishop retracted this position after the accession of Mary I.
prettily nipped and touched: wittily mocked.
49 Weston: Hugh Weston, Dean of Westminster, Archdeacon of Colchester, and a leading figure in the prosecution of alleged heretics.
50 Master Grimald: Nicholas Grimald, poet and chaplain to Bishop Nicholas Ridley, was a co-religionist of Saunders who recanted his beliefs.
had more store of good gifts, than of great constancy: he had greater personal aptitude than he did religious fidelity. Narrative 3 recounts a comparable story about how Nicholas Shaxton preached, following his recantation, at the burning of Anne Askew and her fellow martyrs.