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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	country_n	great_a	time_n	3,204	5	3.1404	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A22462	The copie of a double letter sent by an English gentilman from beyond the seas, to his frende in London containing the true aduises of the cause, and maner of the death, of one Richard Atkins, executed by fire in Rome, the seconde of August 1581.	Parsons, Robert, 1546-1610.	1581 (1581)	STC 888; ESTC S112708	11,224	24

THE COPIE OF A DOVBLE LETTER SENT BY AN ENGLISHE GENtilman from beyond the seas to his frende in London containing the true aduises of the cause and maner of the death of one Richard Atkins executed by FIRE in Rome the seconde of August 1581. THE COPIE OF A DOVBLE LETTER SENT BY AN ENGLISHE GENTILMAN from beyond the seas to his frende in London cōtaining the true aduises of the cause and maner of the death of one Richard Atkins executed by FIRE in Rome the second of August 1581. GOOD SIR I thanke you hartely for the two printed papers of maister Euerard Hanses executiō bothe which though penned by hys aduersaries in some pointes not agreeing together yet giue sufficient testimonie and knowledge to the indifferent reader of the trew causes matter and maner of his death neither the simplicitie of the former reporter nor the suttletie of the second much darkening the light and truth thereof in any wisemans sense though they bothe and specially the latter as all such as had to do with the partie either in iudgement or other wise vniustly seeke after their maner by craftie questiō and collection and by racking his speaches against equitie and his owne interpretation to inforce the case to statute and treason rather then to matter of faith religion for which only and not for any other disloialtie to his prince the world well wotteth the innocent man suffred Therfore I maruel not that the faithfull there amōg you should with so great diligence and deuotion as you write gather vp such peeces of his body or garmentes as they could without daunger come by for that was the maner of the first and best Christians towardes the Martyrs of their time which caused their aduersaries to throw their bones and asshes into the sea or other wise to desace them Euseb. hist. li. 4 ca. 14. Sozom. li. 5. cap. 7. For my part I thanke you vnfainedly for his tooth which came safely to my handes about tenne daies after the saide bookes and your frind arriued Much they make of the matter in these partes I assure you not Englishe only but strāgers most of all being so enamoured of the thing that I shall haue inoughe a doe to keepe it for your sake as you desire me some at the sight thereof that were lately his familiares equals with godly emulatiō in a sort enuying his incomparable preferment before them and wondering at his so speedy felicitie many bewayling our contries calamitie that so often maketh Martyrs other glorifying god that by his grace it breedeth men fit to be Martyrs one in Religious mirth saying that they which had destroied the old memories would now make vs new my selfe most admiring in the matter gods inscrutable choise in the giftes of his graces to one rather then another promoting almost in a momente this poore plaine humble man knowing nothing but Christ and the dueties of his priesthod to that dignitie which diuers greater Clerkes of the same faith there among you after all their disputes and some yeres trauaile can not yet attaine vnto Into these cogitations your new relike induceth vs now and then of the leaping of his hart you talke of whether it wer natural or miraculous no great matter for we neede no miracles to trye Martyrs I promes yow I pray not for him following the knowen rule of S. Augustine hat we should not pray for such but rather sesire them to pray for me tract 9. in Ioan. But now to requite your courtesie euē in the same kinde though in the men and the matter there be great difference I send you the copie of a letter lately written hither from Rome containing the true causes circumstances and maner of the execution of a certain frantike or 〈◊〉 possessed person done in that Citie within two or three daies of Maister Hanses suffering in London by which you shall plainely be 〈◊〉 into what desperat miseries and fantasies 〈◊〉 may fall that hath forsaken the Catho●●● Church therfore is forsaken of Christs spirit and protection and giuen vp to the Diuils drift and all deception of error and eftso●es see the great difference betwixt the cōstant patience of trew Confessors and the peruers obstinacie of heretikes in all ages by Sathans subornatiō falsely imitating the same To omit therfore other wordes of common courtesie in the beginning of my frindes letter the sooner to come to the narration thus it is written by one that I know will not for all the world wittingly report of the man an vntruth and was present at the whole action and if neede be can iustifie euery worde by the recordes and publīcke actes of the Courts in which the matter passed BVT now Sir saith he for newes I can not forbeare to imparte vnto you the pitifull storie of the impious fact lately cōmitted here by a Contreiman of ours and the condigne punishment that he suffred for the same and other his damnable purposes and opinions the which I will tell you more partieularly for that the report thereof may come vnto you as it commonly happith by same farre carriage much altered and corrupted the matter being euen here in the Citie diuersly of diucts men told either of ignorance or ill meaning and the rigor of the Iustice towardes the fellow compted of some also of our Contrey that come hither of bone viages very extreme 〈◊〉 dare say the like propositions of infidelit 〈◊〉 England where heresies be otherewise much priuileged should yet at this day be ●●nished by fire of late yeres certaine Douchmen being burned in London for sarre lesse matters and no Englishman in all this Popes time not his predecessors euer touched for the protestāt vulgare errors onely though great number both of Gentilmen Marchantes and Mariners haue bene in the inquisitiō for the same wher they all found as them selues will confesse passing extraordinarie courtesie and so small rigor that a good fellow of our natiō not many monethes sithence lacking meanes to liue accused him self of heresie and put him self so into the inquisition that there at lest for a season he might haue his finding till God sent better fortune Where if the reportes be trew that commeth out of England hither the imprisonned for the Catholike faith there are often in great danger of staruing through the feare the protestants put their charitable relieuers in for their almeses bestowed vpon them but to the matter ABOVT two moneths since there came to this Citie one Richard Atkins borne or dwelling latly in a towne named Rosse foure miles from Chepstow one that perchance you haue heard of before for he had bene whipped openly and either thrust into Bridewell or Bedlem in London for certaine lewde speaches against the Quene and had suffered death as is thought had he not bene deemed a mad man He was of no great yeres of a meane stature an alborne buss he and readiss he bearde by occupation a nailer or a nailesmithe

wherewith his handes were as hard and dried as might be altogether vnlettered sauing that he could write his owne name which it seemed he learned very lately he did it so slowly and so rudely and read a litle Englishe specially of the booke which he was acquainted withall which was a litle new testament tourned out of Beza his latin into our tonge For his religion he said that till he was xix yeres old he was a Catholike or papist for he vsed the termes indifferently after that xix yeres a protestant after the Englishe vse and now at last three yeres of this forther faithe some pointes whereof you shall heare anone The mad fellow made him self as a prophet and partly for shew thereof put himself into strange and figuratiue attire Next his body he had a ragged wollen garment then a dublet and breeches of hard bourned rude lether aboue that a leuse wede of a calues skinne like to a Cassock or rather like a scapuler of the religious reaching no farther then his midback behynd and his nauill before hauing the figure of a paire of gallowes sowde fast vpon the same in redde clothe bothe on the backe and the brest aswell for signification that he sought to be persecuted for the gospel as for prophecie that he should die vpon the gallowes for his faith Aboue all this furniture he had a side beggers cloke of very course stuffe as a man should see So that for this apparell only he was much gazed at in euery corner And in that sort he went not long after his arriuall into S. Peters Church where among all the people ther assembled he did raue and rage with lowe exclamations they could not tell against what or whom and all in Englishe none vnderstanding him but euery one pitying him and conceiuing him to be distract of his wit some coniecturing him to be an Englisheman mads speedy relation thereof to the Cardinall of S. Sixtus who is the protector of our nation that by his order the miserable man might be prouided for as in this Citie thereis the spediest relief for all sortes that is in the world Immediatly the Cardinall commaunded he should be brought to the Englishe College and so he was the same forenone hauing at the same time besides his other maladies of mind a very feruent feuet Where they cherished him with meate and other things plentifully some of the elder sort also questioning with him of his meaning and the causes of his comming to Rome To whom he vttered for answer many blasphemies against God and furiously railed against the Pope and the Sacraments and other holy things of our Christianitie professing that he came to that place purposely that he might be killed for Christ and that he would from thence into Turkie if he could not attaine the same in Rome All which the studentes attributed to furie and phrensie and therfor made no matter of his execrable wordes but made much of the miser till the next day towardes euenning at which time order was giuen that he should be remoued for the better curing of his agew to the Hospitall of S. Spirit as he was where he was kept well for certaine daies till his feuer was past But being from thence dimissed and fully recouered of his disease he walked the streates and haunted publike places of resorte continually crying out in his owne language against the Catholike religion the Pope and he Citie affirming to Englishmē that he somtimes mett with all others that vnderstoode our language that he would tary so long in Rome till he had learned so much Italian as to charge the Pope publikely with his sinnes ashe said he had boldly reprehended the Quene of Englād also for her ill life with such and such whom the seditious sclanderer named The which things bothe against God and his Ministers in earthe being at sundry times heard of diuers and the wise fearing the euent of the matter and that it wold be sclanderous to the natiō if remedie were not had came vnto the College and namely to Maister william Good the confessor of the house a very graue godly father praying him and the Rector of the College to consider for the honor of the Contrey what way might best be taken with him because the Italians began already to mutter and murmur that he was not kept in order or punished saying that the desperat villaine might be suborned or easely induced by wicked men of the new sect to do some outrage or attempt some what against his holines person The said fathers therefor thought best he should be put into the Hospital of the patzí which is for the cure and keeping of mad me and fooles but after the rulers of that howse who haue great experience in suche cases had by good triall discerned him not to be distracted they refused plainly to take charge of him Wherevpon pregnāt suspition more and more grew in all mēs mindes that al that furie of the fellow was but the phrenesie of heresie driuen by Sathan into that extraordinarie seruor of speach and behauior to procure his distructiō so the case was referred at lēgthe to the holy inquisition which wold not for all this take knowledge of the matter but still deemed it a distraction in the partie notwithstanding the officers thereof were forewarned that some notorious scandale might very wel ensew thereof if the man were not one way or other looked to restrained betimes this was the xviij of Iuly They feared it not for all that and the fellow wente abroade and plaied his partes as before till sunday following being the xxiij of the same Moneth which day in the forenone he came into S. Peters Church againe and ther approched neare vnto a priest that was at Masse a great number of gentilmen and other of all sortes assisting and when the time of consecration was come and after the eleuation of the former kind the diuel moued the wretches hart and gaue him courage to enter soddenly before them all within the rales or closure that the Altare was compassed with and to seaze vpon the holy Chalice and to hurle it among the people which he did to the great horror of all the assistāts so barbarous and sacrilegious a crime not lightly reade nor heard of but to be done in the cheef Church of Rome among them that are so perfect Catholikes and zelous of Gods honor it was trewly deemed in maner inexpiable though otherwise then the damnable beast intended the Chalice was not then consecrated because he tooke it immediatly after the eleuation of the former part before the second sacerd wordes were said ouer it not being so well acquainted with that diuine action as to discerne the times thereof This desperat facte thus done the priest standing in great feare amazed much muttering through the whole Church the commō people would haue torne the man of perdition in peeces if certain gentilmen of the wiser sort

had not staied them who gaue counsel and tooke vpō them rather to deliuer him owt of hand to the Inquisition and thither was he brought the same houre the howse of the office and the commissaries lodging not far of Thither also was the foresaid Confessor of the Englishe College with one other called to be interpretors to bothe partes in the examination of the Heretike where as wel for his said notorious Sacrilege committed as for diuers damnable speaches and opinions which he auouched and in which he persisted euen before the sacred office they proceded against him according to the holy Canons had bene straight committed to the secular power and executed the people instantly vrging that the Citie might be deliuered of that monster and expiated of so impious an act by the death of the malefactor had not the good Cardinall of S. Seuerin of his charitable compassion humbly asked of his holines and obtained some daies of delay for the poore Caitife that all meanes possible might be assaied for his repentance and saluation He was conuicted of a number of hereticall articles ouer and aboue all the heresies of the new Englishe Churche as that the Pope was a deuil that there was no Sacramēts that there ought to be no authoritie or superioritie of one man ouer an other among the faithfull that a Christian man should not sweare at all neither in iudgement nor otherwise that there should be no holy daies at all that none should beare or vse weapē that his heade being couered he would not nor ought not put of his cap to any man because honor was due to God alone that a man should not pray but in secret not kneeling but prostrate or groueling that none could be saued but such as suffred persecution that both the people of the Este vnder the Turke and the Catholikes in England not with standing their errors might be saued because they suffer persecution that 〈◊〉 persecution was a proofe sufficient of the trew Church of the elect For all which sond absurdities and other his fantasies he alleaged scriptures continually as the Caluinists do and applied them with like grace that is as iust as Germans lippes yet not lacking vulgar sleightes shiftes euasions and winding of wordes to auoide the Scriptures and reasons wherewith he was pressed by the learned of the nation that earuestly dealt with him for conuersion from such pernicious illusions of the deuil Mary within two sentences and ●rtē with one breath he would contradict him 〈◊〉 affirme and deny and start from one hole to an other for all the world like the protestāts ●oft horse in England that will passe you such answers without a bait to any Catholik booke that commeth in his way When we asked him how he knew that booke which he bare about with him to be gods worde or to be treuly translated or to haue that meaning for which he so often and so confidently alleaged it seing he was not learned to examine the translation or sense thereof but should yeld to the learned in such matters and giue ouer his owne fantasticall singularities The more learned quoth he the more damnation that you liue not accordingly but are of ill life as the protestants and puritans be that this booke is gods word well translated I am warrāted by the spirit When we opposed to his particular spirit the generall spirit promised to the Catholik Church he answered that him self was the church and often that he knew no man to be of his faith but him self that the Church could not be seene nor knowē to any sauing to God alone being the hid cōpanie of the elect onely And some times that he was not assured whether him self was of the Church or no other whiles that the Church was in heauen onely euer since Christes Ascension specially sith the kinges of the earthe be came Christians and endewed it with rich●●● for which they should be damned euery 〈◊〉 as all other riche men should likewise 〈◊〉 That the sword was put into their handes by God as vnto wicked persons that so wickednes according to the scripture might ha●● the ouer hand which sentence euen so translated he often vsed and the elect be persocuted by them and by that persecution be faued yet notwith standing sodenly he would tourne his talke and alleage out of the old testament that princes should vse their sword against malefactors and contrary streight out of the new that no man should strike with the sword When we cited S. Paule against him he answered by the authoritie of S. Peter that in Paules writings many things were hard which the ignorant abused cite him Peter I am quoth he Christes disciple not Peters Being demaunded of the number and force of the Sacraments some time he affirmed there was none no count to be made of baptisme or the supper Christs passion only to be a Sacrament otherwhiles he said all the workes of the Iust were Sacraments and that it was a small matter what faith a man were of so that he liued well and that euery Iust man was a priest and might minister all Sacraments pray and do what els he list to saluation that him self somtimes as a sinner could not pray at Other times that he could pray fast and tame his fles he He affirmed that most part of the world specially the learned should be damned for that they did not reproache and charge openly he kinges with their faults as he had done the Quene of England and that he was ordeined of God to do it as Iohn Baptist and the prophets were and that he wold speake to the three tirants specially the Turke the Pope he Quene whom he lightly named together where vnto whē some replied that he should shortly see it was not the spirit of trew prophesie but the suggestion of the ennemie that droue him to these folies for that he was not to be hāged as by the figure of the galowes on his coate and by his wordes he prophetically professed but should be bourned for an Heretike to which he said nothing neither was any whit moued by the reasons praiers persuasions or teares of the godly priests and fathers that dealt with him cōtinually for seuen daies together during his imprisonment in the inquisition nor shewed all that while any signe of distraction otherewise then by that phrensie which is incident to heresie and pitiful execation and obduration of hart whereat not only for the compassion of the wretches damnable miserie but also for the dishonor of our contrey we all excedingly sorowed seing the strangers measure the common condition of our state in England by the brutishe calamitie of this one sauage man of whose opinions iust say they though al there be not because heretikes neuer agree yet being all a like out of the Church of God they are neither lesse sure of damnation nor lesse subiect to fantasie nor more ledde by reason and religion