Frith, which was in the Tower in prison,[1] was appointed by the King's Grace to be examined before me, my Lord of London, my Lord of Winchester, my Lord of Suffolk, my Lord Chancellor, and my Lord of Wiltshire; whose opinion was so notably erroneous that we could not dispatch him, but were fain to leave him to the determination of his ordinary, which is the Bishop of London. His said opinion is of such nature, that he thought it not necessary to be believed as an article of our faith that there is the very corporeal presence of Christ within the host and sacrament of the altar; and holdeth on this point much after the opinion of Œcolampadius.
'And surely I myself sent for him three or four times to persuade him to leave that imagination. But for all that we could do therein, he would not apply to any counsel. Notwithstanding now he is at a final end with all examinations; for my Lord of London hath given sentence, and delivered him to the secular power, when he looketh every day to go unto the fire. And there is also condemned with him one Andrew a tailor for the self- same opinion; and thus fare you well.'[2]
These victims went as they were sentenced, dismissed to their martyr's crowns at Smithfield, as Queen Anne
- ↑ Cromwell had endeavoured to save Frith, or at least had been interested for him. Sir Edmund Walsingham, writing to him about the prisoners in the Tower, says:—'Two of them wear irons, and Frith weareth none. Although he lacketh irons, he lacketh not wit nor pleasant tongue. His learning passeth my judgment. Sir, as ye said, it were great pity to lose him if he may be reconciled.'—Walsingham to Cromwell: MS. State Paper Office, second series, vol. xlvi.
- ↑ Ellis, first series, vol. ii. p. 40.
