24. George Eagles
Explanatory Notes
Doctor Story: Doctor John Story, whom Henry VIII had appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law, was imprisoned and went into exile during the reign of Edward VI, and then returned to England under Mary I. As Chancellor of London and Oxford and Dean of Arches, he played an active role in the prosecution of Protestants.
214 carnal gospellers: Protestant jargon for hypocritical Christians who fail to act upon knowledge of the New Testament.
God . . . oven: Exodus, Daniel 6, Daniel 3. These texts contain prefigurations of divine deliverance.
215 king: Philip of Spain.
216 battle: a psychomachia (i.e., a conflict within the mind).
217 flight shot: an arrow shot.
Baal's priests: Canaanite priests (Protestant jargon for Roman Catholic priests).
till the hour was full come: an allusion to John 12: 23.
218 preyed: preyed upon.
'Auri . . . pectora?' Virgil : 'Accursed desire for gold, to what do you not drive mortal hearts?' Virgil, Aeneid, 3. 56.
219 shift: a means for accomplishing a goal.
saving of: while avoiding.
220 errandless: without success.
but woe . . . been born: Matthew 26: 24.
'For the father . . . brother to death': Matthew 10: 21.
221 'The dog . . . mire': 2 Peter 2: 22.
slip: a leash.
I am sure . . . love and fear him: an allusion to Romans 8: 28.
23. ROSE ALLIN AND OTHER COLCHESTER MARTYRS
222 prelates . . . of the church: Roman Catholic clergy.
224 Judasly: treacherously.
who came of the house . . . his brother: who was a relative of Sir James Tyrrell, the putative murderer of Edward V and his brother, Prince
Richard, at the Tower of London (c.1483).
hundred: district of a county or shire with a law court.
228 sea: with a sarcastic pun on the papal see.
24. GEORGE EAGLES
231 Amos: a shepherd whose prophesying is recorded in the Book of Amos.
Apostles . . . churches: Matthew 4: 18 – 22.