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John Foxe and ‘The Story of Richard Hun, Martyr’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Stefan J. Smart
Stefan J. Smart
Affiliation:
Esq., Department of History, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO9 5NH
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Extract

In a very real sense the case of Richard Hunne is far from over. Ever since Hunne was found dead in his cell on the morning of Monday 4 Decembern 1514 – hanging from a staple by his own girdle – the issue of why he died and who was responsible has been the object of furious controversy among polemicists and historians alike. Many explanations have been put forward – some convincing, others merely ingenious – and all, in one sense or another, plausible. An equally interesting facet is the controversy that surrounds the account of the case. It is to this often neglected aspect of the affair – in particular in relation to The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe – that this paper is principally directed. ‘The Story of Richard Hun’ ofers the student of Foxe remarkable scope for exploration. Here we see Foxe not only as archivist – but for his zeal various documents, such as the transcripts of Hunne's interrogation and trial for heresy, would almost certainly not have survived – but also as a commentator in his own right. Over a third of the martyrologist's account – an unprecedented amount incidentally, in Foxe's treatment of the Henrician period – was devoted to developing his own line of thought while, at the same time, he attempted to work out for himself and his reader the peculiar inconsistencies that governed the course of Hunne's life and death. The question then arises, how reliable is Foxe on Richard Hunne. Did he faithfully report the facts of the case or are there signs that he might have been biased? Clearly the first consideration when answering this question must be to ascertain the exact circumstances of Hunne's interrogation and trial and the events leading up to his death: what happened to Richard Hunne in the Lollard's Tower and why?

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 1986 , pp. 1 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 The author would like to thank Dr G. W. Bernard and G. Walker for their help and advice in the early stages of the preparation of this article.

2 The most recent of these being Ogle, A., The Tragedy ofthe Lollard's Tower, Oxford 1949Google Scholar; Thomson, J. A. F., The Later Lollards, Oxford 1965,162–71;Google ScholarWunderli, R.,‘Pre-Reformation London Summoners and the Murder of Richard Hunne’, this Journal xxxiii (1982), 209–24;Google ScholarDerret, J. D. M., ‘The affair of Richard Hunne and Friar Standish’, in Trapp, J. B. (ed.), The Complete Works of St Thomas More, New Haven, London 1979, ix. 215–46Google Scholar.

3 Foxe, John, The Acts and Monuments (hereinafter cited as A & M), London 1837, iv. 184.Google Scholar

4 Wunderli, R., ‘Pre-Reformation London Summoners’, 217–19.Google Scholar

5 Milsom, S. F. C., ‘Richar d Hunne's “Praemunire”’, EHR lxxvi (1961),80–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 Supplication of Soules in Works of Sir Thomas More, Knight, London 1557, 297–8.Google Scholar

7 A & M iv. 188-90.

8 A & M iv. 183-4.

9 , Milsom, ‘Richard Hunne's “Praemunire”’, 82.Google Scholar

10 Fish, Simon, Supplication for the Beggars in Furnivall, F. J. (ed.), Four Supplications(The Early English Text Society), London 1871, 12.Google Scholar

11 A & M iv. 194 (The deposition of John Spalding, or Bellringer); A & M iv. 201.

12 A & M iv. 183-4.

13 A & M iv. 186.

14 Ogle, Notably, The Lollard's Tower, 113–31.Google Scholar

15 Fines, J.,‘The post-mortem condemnation for heresy of Richard Hunne’, Ehr lxxviii (1963), 528–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 ‘The enquire and verdite of the quest panneld of the death of Richard Hunne wich was founde hanged in Lolars tower’, 1539 (?), S.T.C. 13970; also transcribed by Hall, Edward, The Chronicle, London 1809, 573–80,Google Scholar and Foxe in A & M iv. 190-8. References given are to Foxe.

17 Davis, E. Jeffries, ‘The authorities for the case of Richard Hunne, 1514-1515’, Ehr xxx (1915). 477–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

18 A & M iv. 204 (i).

19 The Dialogue concerning Heresies in The Works of Sir Thomas More, Knight, London 1557, 239.Google Scholar

20 More tells the story of a certain ‘Holy John’ of Paternoster Row in London who was so loath to face the scorn of his fellow citizens that he resolved to cut off his life by throwing himself down a well; while in the records of the Lincoln Commissary Court Books, Margaret Bowker has recently remarked upon the case of one Thomas Piggot of Dinton who declared in court that he would rather kill himself than undergo the shame of open penance. His judges appear to have taken him seriously: there is no record of Piggot having actually complied with this request. Trapp, J. B. (ed.), The Apology of Sir Thomas More, Knight in The Complete Works of St Thomas More ix, New Haven, London 1979, 126;Google ScholarBowker, M., ‘Some Archdeacons’ Court Books and the Commons’ Supplication against the Ordinaries of 1532’ in The Study of Medieval Records, Essays in Honour of Kathleen Major, Oxford 1971, 308Google Scholar.

21 A & M iv. 190-2.

22 A & M iv. 192-3.

23 , Wunderli, ‘Pre-Reformation London Summoners’, 223.Google Scholar

24 A & M iv. 192.

25 The matter is treated in P. J. Gwyn's forthcoming biography of Cardinal Wolsey. I am grateful to Mr Gwyn for permission to refer to his biography.

26 For example, Charles Joseph's complaint that the chancellor had him ‘put out of his office’ because he would not agree to harm the prisoner. Wunderli's assertion that Joseph's story was probably justified will not do. Joseph's ‘work-record’ in the Commissary Court Books, to which the historian refers, states that Joseph had indeed been relieved of his duties, but some months before the murder rather than, as the reading of the tract suggests, a matter of days; A & M iv.191; ‘Pre-Reformation London Summoners’, 222.

27 , Derret, ‘The affair of Richard Hunne and Friar Standish’, 246.Google Scholar

28 Mozley, J. F., John Foxe and his Book, London 1940.Google Scholar

29 A & M iv. 183.

30 Milsom, ‘Richard Hunne's “Praemunire”’.

31 , Hall, Chronicle, 573.Google Scholar

32 White, H. C., Tudor Books of Saints and Martyrs, Madison 1963, esp. 145–56.Google Scholar

33 In this way Simon Fish could write, ‘had not Richard Hunne commenced accoyn of praemunire ageinst a prast, he had bin alyve, and none eretik, a tall but honest man’, Fish, The Supplication for the Beggars; see n. 10 above.

34 A & M iv. 198.

35 A & M iv. 188.

36 See n. 11 above.

37 , Fines, ‘The post-mortem condemnation’, 531.Google Scholar

38 A & M iv. 187.

39 , Fines, ‘The post-mortem condemnation’, 529.Google Scholar

40 A & M iv. 201.

41 A & M iv 184, 190(a).

42 A & M iv. 186.

43 A& M iv. 186.

44 A & M iv. 202.

45 A & M iv. 203.

46 A & M iv. 191.

47 I hope to explore this question further.