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tlrat Strype relied in this instance on the authority of Fox , he ought undoubtedly to have cited the original authority , and his readers would then have formed their own opinion as to the credit which is due to such statements ; if , on the contrary , he was ignorant of that fact , as would appear to be the case , from his mention of the " contemporary authorities , " he has displayed a want of research by no means creditable to his
character as an historian . With regard to the reliance which we ought to place upon the writings of Fox , different opinions have been entertained . While his follower Strype , and other Protestant writers , have vouched for his accuracy and fidelity , by the Catholics he is regarded as a credulous and bigoted partizan ; and an impartial reader cannot fail to discover in his pages such strong proofs of party feeling and coloured representations , as are sufficient to prevent a judicious historian from resting with confidence upon his
unsupported assertions . In charging Sir Thomas More with participating in these cruel persecutions , the accuracy of Fox is extremely doubtful . In the passage above-cited he says , that More " at that time being Chancellor of England , " persecuted Frith . Now , in fact , Frith was not apprehended until the month of May , 1533 , ( see Burnefs Hist , of the Ref . Vol . I . p . 169 , ) and on the 16 th of that month More resigned the seals ; nor was Frith
put to death until the 4 th July , nearly two months after More had ceased to be Chancellor . To the authority of Fox we may also oppose that of Erasmus , a real " contemporary authority . " " His friend Erasmus said of him , ( More , ) that he hated the seditious tenets with which the world was then miserably disturbed ; but it is a sufficient argument of his moderation , that whilst he was Chancellor no ^ person was put to death for his disproved
opinions . "—Gen . Diet . art . More . We must also notice the very inaccurate manner in which Mr . Turner has related the anecdote of Sir Thomas More and Silver . The note in which it is contained is as follows : " More , in conveying him to be burnt , punned on his name , as if he had no
heart , at a moment so distressing to every natural sensibility—* Silver must be tried in the fire . ' It was the luck y thought of the man to answer , 'Aye ! but quick-silver will not abide it ! ' This paronomasia had the effect which reason and piety had failed to produce . More was deli g hted with it , and dismissed him . Strype , / p . 316 . So little has principle to do with persecution . "
In Strype we have no mention whatever of More " conveying" the man " to be burnt . " The words are , " examining a Protestant whose name was Silver , " &c .: but Mr . Turner would have his readers believe that More was himself conveying his victim to the faggot , and that he took advantage of " a moment so distressing to every natural sensibility" to aggravate his sufferings . According to Strype , the man n-ever appears to have been condemned , but in reading Mr . Turner ' s note we imagine that the pun saved him at the stake .
In detailing the history of More ' s trial , Mr . Turner is equally inaccurate . He argues that it was not merely for denying the King's supremacy that More and , before him , the Carthusian priests , were executed , as many writers have asserted , but for certain substantive acts of treason . As this is a point of very considerable importance , affecting the character and gor vernment of the King , our readers will , we hope , pardon us , if we enter into the question rather diffusely . As to the Carthusian priests , Mr . Turner says > t' That these men were found guilty of high treason for refusing to take the oath of supremacy , which is the allegation of their friends , cannot be true , because the statute enjoining it did not make it high treason * 1 he confusion
Untitled Article
434 Review . —English Reformation .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1827, page 434, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1797/page/42/
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