until it be proved by scripture.-IX. What ground had they to maintain this opinion; who was of the same opinion with them; what conference had they with any thereupon; what comfort and relief therein by any of them; and what were their names, surnames, and dwelling-places? Ans. They have no ground to maintain their said opinions but the truth; which has been persuaded by learned men, as Dr. Taylor of Hadleigh, and such other.

Here then, we have the gist of what the Romish church could urge upon these simple men; consisting of the blindness of their parents, kinsfolk, and sponsors, together with a multitude doing evil; the question begged, that the church of Rome was the catholic church, and therefore kept by the power of God in the truth; the pompous authority of bishops and other dignitaries; the example of royalty, aristocracy, and priesthood, leading the kingdom into error: and, lastly, a cunning snare whereby to entrap such as should have instructed or confirmed these martyrs in the faith of the gospel. To every article they answered wisely and truly; admirably parrying the last, by referring to those teachers who had already yielded their lives for the faith of Christ.

The prisoners were remanded until next day, when the bishop sent for Pygot and Knight to his own chamber, probably thinking he could by flattery, sophistry or menaces, prevail with a butcher and a barber: but his efforts proved fruitless, through the constancy of their faith. Laurence being a priest, he communed with him separately, on the doctrine of the sacrament, and priests' marriage. Laurence declared himself to have been a priest eighteen years; and though not yet wedded, he was betrothed. Transubstantiation he utterly repudiated; and after one more general attempt to shake their steadfast minds, sentence was passed on them the same afternoon; Laurence being degraded, and all condemned to the flames, in Essex. Pygot was burned at Braintree, Knight at Maldon, and Laurence at Colchester. The latter was so debilitated by his privations in Newgate, and his legs so crippled by the heavy irons that fettered him, as to oblige the manslayers to carry him in a chair, and in that posture to fasten him to the stake, where he joyfully yielded his life. While sitting in the midst of the burning flames, a number of very young children gathered around, weeping, and exclaiming as well as they could articulate,--" Lord, strengthen thy servant and keep MARTYROLOGY.-VOL. I. 20

thy promise! Lord, strengthen thy servant, and keep thy promise!" A striking instance both of the spirit of their parents, who had thus taught and thus ventured their little ones: and of the courage with which the Lord inspired these babes, to testify, under circumstances so appalling, their faith in the God of the martyrs.

CHAPTER XVI.

BISHOP FARRAR-RAWLINS WHITE-MARSH-FLOWER.

ROBERT FARRAR, bishop of St. David's, was promoted to that dignity by the discerning favour of the lord protector Somerset, early in king Edward's reign. After the death of his patron, he underwent great persecution, through the malice of some enemies, who laid to his charge sundry abuses of authority, and connivance at various irregularities; all of which he disproved, together with some articles of ludicrous absurdity, likewise alleged, such as that he whistled to his child, and so forth. However, by the persevering spite of a few unprincipled individuals, among whom was a chaunter of his cathedral, afterwards promoted to be archbishop of York, Dr. Farrar was made to endure much trouble; and was actually detained in prison from the duke of Somerset's death to the accession of Mary. This event, instead of restoring him to his diocese, brought him under new tribulation; for he was well known to hold the pure doctrines of protestantism; and was accordingly brought before Winchester as a heretic, along with bishop Hooper, Rogers, Saunders, and the rest. His condemnation was deferred at the pleasure of the persecutors, until the month of February, when he was again examined be. fore them. The particulars preserved, are scanty; but it appears that he witnessed a good confession, convicting his accusers of untruth in every charge advanced against him, save that of being married; and when they sent him into Wales, to be tried by Morgan, who usurped his see, and Constantine, one of the most active of his ancient enemies, he denied the lawfulness of such commission sitting in judgment on him, and refused to answer their interrogatories.

Another appearance before these men being equally fruitless, through the bishop's repeated protest against their assumed authority, they adjudged him guilty of contumacy, and sent him back to prison. Four days afterwards, he was again summoned; and waiving his former objection, demanded a copy of the articles to which they required his subscription, with time to consider them: in these articles he was required to renounce matrimony; to grant the natural presence of Christ in the sacrament under the forms of bread and wine; to acknowledge the mass as a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead; to admit the infallibility of general councils; to declare that faith alone would not justify; and to confess the visibility of the church, as the sole expounder of Scripture, and supreme authority in matters of doctrine and discipline. On a final examination, the bishop being asked by Morgan whether he would sign these articles, and renounce his former opinions, delivered a written answer; and appealed from their authority as incompetent judges, to cardinal Pole. Disregarding this, the usurper Morgan proceeded to pass sentence of degradation and of death upon this godly and innocent bishop, and delivered him to the secular power, by whom he was brought to the stake in the town of Caermarthen, beside the market cross, and there burned, on the 30th of March, 1555.

A friend of bishop Farrar, named Richard Jones, the son of a Welsh knight, expressing to him his grief, and lamenting the painful nature of the death that he was about to suffer, the bishop told him that if he saw him once stir during his burning, he might then give no credit to the doctrine that he had taught. Nor was his holy confidence in the divine help vain; for it is attested that he stood in the flames without moving, holding up the stumps of his halfconsumed arms, until one Richard Gravell struck him on the head with a staff, and dashed him into the burning coals beneath.

We now have to record another instance of the marvellous work achieved by the Holy Spirit, in and through one of the most unlettered men. RAWLINS WHITE was a poor fisherman of Cardiff, who, after passing his earlier years in the darkness of Romish error and superstition, became, with many others, enlightened by means of the true gospel preached under the blessed government of king Edward. Having heard the word of God, he became so diligent a

searcher into the doctrine of salvation, that the study thereof seemed to be the main business of his life; and being altogether illiterate, he put his little son to school, that he might learn to read. Every night, all the year round, might the spectacle be witnessed in the humble cot of Rawlins White, of this young boy at the supper-table, after their evening meal, reading a portion of God's word to his attentive father; with sometimes a little from the writings of godly, though uninspired men. It was the joy of the old fisherman's heart to listen; and so greatly did he profit thereby, that he became an eminent preacher, among his neighbours, of that truth which he learned from the lips of his child. The boy was his companion on these missionary occasions, bearing the blessed book from which it was his privilege to prove what his father asserted. So wonderfully accurate was the fisherman's memory, and so intimate his acquaintance with Scripture, that he was able, in alleging it, to point out the book, the page, the very sentence that he quoted, although unable to read a word of it himself.

Thus he continued, openly teaching and exhorting wherever he came, during the last five years of Edward's reign: but when with Mary the fatal errors of popery again crept in, Rawlins used some caution, assembling together such friends as he could confide in, and with them bitterly lamenting the evil that was come upon the land; uniting in earnest prayer for their church and country. These meetings were singularly blessed to many souls, greatly increasing the number of converts who had embraced the truth through the simple, fervent exhortations of Rawlins White. The storm of persecution, however, waxed fierce, and many were dismayed by it; and not a few endeavoured to persuade Rawlins to escape the vengeance which his zealous service in the gospel of Christ could not but provoke against him. He heartily thanked them for their good will, telling them that he had learned one lesson touching the confessing or denying of Christ; and that if he, by their persuasions, should presume to deny his Master, Christ at the last day would utterly deny and condemn him: "Therefore," said he, "I will, by favourable grace, confess and bear witness of him, before men, that I may find him in everlasting life."

His friends redoubled their entreaties, but Rawlins was immovable; and at length, as they expected, the officers of