Thomas Hitton
Template:Short description Template:Refimprove Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Thomas Hitton (died February 1530) is generally considered to be the first English Protestant martyr of the Reformation, although the followers of Wycliffe—the Lollards—had been burned at the stake as late as 1519.[1]Template:Full
Hitton was a priest who had joined William Tyndale and the English exiles in the Low Countries, returning to England briefly in 1529—to contact the supporters of Tyndale, and to arrange for the distribution of smuggled books such as the upcoming first English Psalter translated by George Joye.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Hitton believed in the supremacy of the Scriptures and denied the authority of bishops; only Scripture in good conscience was the basis for spiritual law (i.e. what is sinful), and all breaches of this law were mortal sins.[2]Template:Rp He also argued that baptism "would be much better if it were spoken in English".
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He was seized near Gravesend on his way to the coast to take a ship, and found to be in possession of letters from the English exiles. He was then arrested on the grounds of suspected heresy by a bailiff of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was put through a formal series of five interviews by Archbishop William Warham at various intervals of a month or a week, forthrightly confirmed his belief in various heresies, given opportunities to amend the trial record to ensure it was accurate, admitted to previously importing two banned Tyndale New Testaments and Joye's Primer, would not say whom he had given them to, called the Pope the Anti-Christ, and refused to accept promises of mercy if he abjured or to be convinced otherwise. He was passed to Rochester Bishop John Fisher who confirmed with him again all the evidence and records, in English, and the consequences and ways to escape them, but Hitton refused to abjure. He was therefore determined to be a persistent heretic, outside the protection of the Church, and passed to the secular authority for punishment according to English law.[2]Template:Rp
He was burned at the stake at Maidstone on 23 February 1530.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
When Joye's second Primer (entitled Hortulus animae) appeared a year later, he included the feast of "Sainte Thomas mar." (referring to Hitton) in the calendar; new Lord Chancellor Thomas More had followed the case and saw this as an insult against his hero and name-saint,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". Thomas Becket,[3]Template:Full and described Hitton as "the devil's stinking martyr".
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Tyndale also referred briefly to Hitton's execution:
John Foxe does not allege torture, or the involvement of More.[2]Template:Rp[4]
See also
Notes
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- ↑ Michael Farris, "From Tyndale to Madison, 2007".Template:Full
- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". This volume has become popularly known as "Foxe's Book of Martyrs". The original title of 1563, which an online source source states to be "a slightly abridged reprint of the 1563 edition with the language and spelling modernised", is "ACTS AND MONUMENTS of these latter and perilous Days, touching Matters of THE CHURCH; wherein are Comprehended and described the great Persecutions and horrible Troubles that have been wrought and practised by the Roman Prelates, especially in these Realms of ENGLAND and SCOTLAND, from the Year of our Lord a thousand, unto the time now present. Gathered and collected according to the true Copies and Writings, Certificatory as well of the parties themselves that suffered, as also out of the Bishops' Registers who were the Doers thereof" [title style and emphasis of the original].
- ↑ Roberts, Colin & Morris, Peter (2002) Pilgrimage, the English Experience from Beckett to Bunyan ,Template:Full
- ↑ Note: there were strict rules on Inquisitional torture, limiting it to a single, short session attended by a doctor, with no blood or threat to life or limb, if the defendant was suspected but not known to be guilty of a serious crime, but known to be lying; this would presumably not match Hitton's forthrightness.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
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