11. George Marsh
Explanatory Notes
121 swing: control.
the good old man . . . than the best: White actively assists in building his own pyre.
122 invection: invective.
clerkly: in the manner of a cleric.
'Do this in the remembrance of me': Luke 22: 19.
11. GEORGE MARSH
126 unquieted: disturbed.
128 Bishops of London and Lincoln: the Edwardian bishops, Nicholas Ridley (see Narrative 14) and John Taylor, whom the Marian regime had deprived of episcopal office on the ground of heresy.
as the four symbols, or creeds: derived from the Greek word for 'mark', symbol is an alternative term for a creed that constitutes a formulation of orthodox Christian doctrine. The Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian creeds constitute the chief Christian doctrinal formulations. The other creeds were formulated by Sts Ambrose and Augustine, the fourth-century bishops of Milan and Hippo. Roman Catholics and Protestants shared them in common.
Apostolorum: Latin for 'Of the Apostles' (i.e., the Apostles' Creed).
Austen: St Augustine of Hippo.
129 'Foolish and unlearned questions . . . engender strife': 2 Timothy 2: 23.
130 enterprise: attempt.
with a lock upon his feet: his feet were in chains.
book: presumably Marsh's Bible, although it might have been a devotional volume.
12. THOMAS HAUKES
133 because his execution . . . tractation thereof: because Foxe organizes martyrologies in obituary fashion (i.e., by the date of death), he inserts the 'tractation' (i.e., written account) concerning Thomas Haukes at a point different from that where he included accounts of the men with whom he was arrested.
nobilitate: to bestow nobility upon.
as Saint Ambrose doth . . . write: a citation from the writings of the fourthcentury Bishop of Milan, who was a major patristic authority.
134 Lord of Oxford: John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford, a wealthy nobleman with a dissolute reputation. After originally supporting the succession of Lady Jane Grey, he went over to the side of Mary I and appears to have assisted in the burning of alleged heretics in Essex.
that old wicked Serpent: the Devil (see Revelation 20: 2).