Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/366

 346 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 66. woman at last yielded. The rest were banished, but enough had not been done to vindicate Anglican orthodoxy. One of the first four, Hendrick Ten wort, had relapsed, and with another of the remainder, John Wielmacher, was selected for a sacrifice to the Spanish alliance. The sentence was not carried out without protest. John Foxe the martyrologist, who was occupied at the time on the history of the Marian persecution, wrote to Elizabeth to remonstrate. 1 He obtained a month's re- prieve to give the unfortunate creatures time to abjure, but they persevered in impenitence, and they were burnt on the 22nd of July, ' in great horror, crying, and roaring/ 2 The propositions for which they suffered, with the counter-propositions of the orthodox, have passed away and become meaningless. The theology of the Anabaptists may have been ridiculous, their theories of civil government mischievous ; but they were not punished in the service even of imagined truth ; the friends of Spain about the Queen wished only to show Philip that England was not the paradise of heresy which the world believed. A high-born offender of the opposite kind had a near escape at the same time, from the second edge of Eliza- beth's sword of justice. The story is curious as illus- trating the character of many of the English adven- turers, who were wandering on the Continent. Among 1 ' Id unum valtie deprecor, lie piras ac flammas Smithfieldianas, jam diu faustissimis tuis auspiciis nuc urque sopitas, sinas nunc re- candescere.' Foxe SOAMES, p. 216. 2 Stowe. to Elizabeth