Socialism and the Pope

In 1554, the Papal Supremacy having been established by Act of Parliament, and the celibacy of the priests being re-introduced, Coverdale, who was married and unwilling to part from his wife, was deprived from his bishopric. He retired to the Continent and returned to England in 1558. He officiated at the consecration of Dr. Parker, who was the successor of Cardinal Pole, in the See of Canterbury. But he refused to wear episcopal dress. Coverdale was not restored to his bishopric. Archbishop Grindal endeavored to secure him a Welsh bishopric, and finally appointed him Rector of St. Magnus, London Bridge, in 1564. He resigned this living two years later because he could not conform. He died in February, 1569, and was buried in St. Bartholomew's Church, behind the Exchange. He was the strange product of a period of crisis: pioneer, man of scruple, coward and persecutor.

Of the bigotry of the persecuted reformers, a remarkable and curious incident is recorded in the case of Archdeacon Philpot, who spat upon some of his anti-papist fellow prisoners under the Marian persecution. He endeavoured to to vindicate himself in a pamphlet entitled:-

"An apology of John Philpot, written for spitting upon an Arian; with an invective against the Arians, the very natural children of Anti-Christ, with an Admonition to all that be faithful in Christ to beware of them, and of other late sprung heresies, as of the worst Enemies of the Gospel."

In 1575, twenty-seven foreign Baptists were indicted for denying the Trinity and the Deity of Christ. Only four of them recanted their opinions under terror of the stake. Shortly afterwards two Dutchmen were burnt to death in Smithfield for a like offense. Fox, the Martyrologist, addressed an eloquent expostulation to Queen Elizabeth. His apology resembles the modern pleas for substituting penal servitude for the death penalty on shell-shocked soldiers. He asked that some milder form of death should be the penalty for heresy. He thus conceded the right of persecution for opinion to the fullest extent. Fox's plea carried little wight, as the following cases show:-

Burned at Norwich for believing in the simple humanity of Jesus and denying the Trinity and the Deity of the Holy Spirit:-
1579: Matthew Hamont, a plough-wright, of Hetherest.
1583: John Lewis. The historian declares that Lewis "died obstinately without repentance or any speech."
1587: Peter Cole. A tanner of Ipswich, and Francis Kett, a fellow of Corpus College, Cambridge.

This brings us to the case of Bartholomew Legate, the last of the Smithfield martyrs, and Edward Wightman, the last English martyr.

Legate was born about 1575. His enemies admitted that Legate possessed a fine personal appearance, high character, and scholarly attainments. He was a fluent speaker. He was a native of Essex.