1
July 1555 A.D. English
Churchman & Reformer, John Bradford, Led to the Stake.
Graves, Dan. “Crowds Protested John
Bradford’s Burning.” Christianity.com. Jul
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/crowds-protested-john-bradfords-burning-11629987.html. Accessed 5 May 2014.
The sheriff feared a
riot if he moved John Bradford while most people were still out in the streets.
And so he had his soldiers transfer the condemned man to Newgate Prison around
midnight. Despite the government's attempt at secrecy and the late hour,
thousands of the good man's supporters lined the way. There was no riot.
A rumor sped through the streets
that John would be burned to death at 4 a.m. the next morning. Indignant crowds
gathered before the crack of dawn, filling the streets around Smithfield, the
place of execution. Among them were Catholics, outraged because the charges
against the Protestant preacher were so obviously trumped up.
When Mary, the Catholic queen,
had ascended the English throne after the death of Protestant Edward VI, she
immediately took steps to restore the Roman Church. Some of the Catholic
preachers were not well received. One named Bourne had a dagger hurled at him
when he spoke. Terrified, Bourne asked John to calm the crowd. John did so and
shielded Bourne with his own body. After rebuking the mob, John Bradford and
John Rogers led the trembling Bourne to safety.
"You save him that will help
to burn you!" warned one of Bourne's enemies. And that is what happened.
Three days later the crown accused John Bradford, the man who had helped calm
the situation and who had saved Bourne's life, with trying to stir up the mob!
John was imprisoned in the tower of London.
In the tower, the tender-hearted
preacher studied his Bible daily and preached often to the other prisoners. He
shared his money with them. When he saw thieves and murderers taken to the
gallows, he would say, "But for the grace of God, there goes John
Bradford." He was so trusted by the jailor that the man actually let him
out twice to tend to religious needs, simply on the strength of his word. John
always hurried back before the promised time.
In prison, John wrote
constantly--letters and sermons. The Earl of Derby complained "that he has
done more hurt [to Mary's cause] by letters, and by exhorting those that have
come to him in religion, than ever he did, when he was
abroad, by preaching."
With soldiers lining the way on
this day, July 1, 1555, John was led
to his death. He asked permission to give his clothes to his poor servant. It
was all he had left. That done, he was bound to one side of the stake and
another Protestant witness, John Lease on the other side. John Bradford turned
to his partner and said "Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a
merry supper with the Lord this night!" He prayed to be worthy of the Lord
in death and quoted Christ's words, "Strait is the way, and narrow is the
gate that leads to eternal salvation, and few there be that find
it." Soon afterward, he was in eternity. Evangelical churchman J. C. Ryle
ranked Bradford's writings up with those of the great Anglican theologians
Latimer, Hooper and Jewel.
Bibliography:
1. Forbush, William Byron, editor.
Fox's Book of Martyrs. Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1926.
2. "John Bradford."
http://www.manchester2002-uk.com/celebs/ philanthropy3.html
3. "John Bradford."
http://www.britannia.com/bios/bradford.html
4. "Life of Master John
Bradford." http://www.ccel.org/b/bradford/writings/life.html
5. Ryle, J. C. Five English
Reformers. Banner of Truth, 1961.
Last updated July, 2007
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