James Bainham

Last updated

James Bainham (died 30 April 1532) was an English lawyer and Protestant reformer who was burned as a heretic in 1532.

Contents

Life

According to John Foxe he was a son of Sir Alexander Bainham, who was sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1497, 1501, and 1516; and a nephew of William Tracy. [1] He was a member of the Middle Temple, and practised as a lawyer. He married the widow of Simon Fish, author of the Supplication of Beggars. In 1531 he was allegedly accused of heresy to Sir Thomas More, then Lord Chancellor of England. John Foxe alleges that More imprisoned and flogged Bainham in his house at Chelsea, and then sent him to the Tower of London to be racked, in the hope of making him name names. This, however, is doubted by later historians.

On 15 December he was examined before John Stokesley, Bishop of London, concerning his belief in purgatory, confession, extreme unction, and other points. His answers were couched in words of Scripture, [2] but were not satisfactory to the court, who believed that his approval of the works of William Tyndale and John Frith (whose books he possessed [3] ) was evident. The following day, being threatened with sentence, he partially submitted, pleading ignorance, and was again committed to prison. In the following February he was brought before the bishop's chancellor to be examined as to his fitness for readmission to the church, and after considerable hesitation abjured all his errors, and, having paid a fine and performed penance by standing with a faggot on his shoulder during the sermon at Paul's Cross, was released.

Within a month, however, he openly withdrew his recantation during Mass at St. Austin's Church. He was apprehended and brought before the bishop's vicar-general on 19 and 20 April. One of the articles alleged against him was that he asserted Thomas Becket to be a thief and murderer. He was sentenced as a relapsed heretic and burned at Smithfield on 30 April 1532. In the Calendar of State Papers of Henry VIII there is a contemporary account of an interview between him and Hugh Latimer, the day before his death. Robert Demaus records that conversation. He writes that Bainham informed Latimer of the articles for which he was dying. "Bainham recapitulated the articles. He had spoken of Thomas-à-Becket, the great patron saint of the South East of England, as a traitor. 'That,' said Latimer emphatically, 'is no cause at all worthy for a man to take his death upon.' 'I spoke also against purgatory,' Bainham proceeded, 'that there was no such thing; but that it picked men's purses; and against satisfactory masses' (i.e., against the doctrine that the mass was an atonement or sacrifice for sins). 'Marry,' said Latimer, ' in these articles your conscience may be so stayed, that you may seem rather to die' [i.e., it may seem your duty rather to die] 'in the defence thereof, than to recant both against your conscience, and the Scriptures also. But yet beware of vain-glory; for the devil will be ready now to infect you therewith, when you shall come into the multitude of the people.' After thus cautioning him against the imaginary danger of sacrificing his life simply out of pure vanity, Latimer encouraged him to take his death quietly and patiently. Bainham thanked him heartily, and having doubtless perceived Latimer's own weak point, he added, 'I likewise do exhort you to stand for the defence of the truth; for you that shall be left behind had need of comfort' [strength] 'also, the world being so dangerous as it is'; and so spake many comfortable works to Latimer. After some further converse they departed; and the next day (April 30) Bainham was burned, constant and undaunted to the end." [4]

In modern fiction

Bainham was a character in the "Anna Regina" episode of the Wolf Hall miniseries made in 2014, and was played by Jonathan Aris.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 12 July 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ↑ Peter Marshall, Beliefs and the dead in Reformation England (2002), p. 62.
  3. ↑ G. W. Bernard, The King's Reformation (2007), p. 279.
  4. ↑ Robert Demaus, Hugh Latimer (1904), p. 156-157.

Related Research Articles

Thomas Cranmer 16th-century English Archbishop of Canterbury and Protestant reformer

Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which was one of the causes of the separation of the English Church from union with the Holy See. Along with Thomas Cromwell, he supported the principle of royal supremacy, in which the king was considered sovereign over the Church within his realm.

Thirty-nine Articles Doctrinal statement of the Church of England and other Anglican churches

The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines and practices of the Church of England with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. The Thirty-nine Articles form part of the Book of Common Prayer used by both the Church of England, the U.S. Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) among other denominations in the worldwide Anglican Communion and Anglican Continuum.

John Rogers (Bible editor and martyr) English Bible translator (c. 1505–1555)

John Rogers was an English clergyman, Bible translator and commentator. He guided the development of the Matthew Bible in vernacular English during the reign of Henry VIII and was the first English Protestant executed as a heretic under Mary I of England, who was determined to restore Roman Catholicism.

Hugh Latimer English bishop, Reformer, and martyr (c.1487–1555)

Hugh Latimer was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, and Bishop of Worcester during the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555 under the Catholic Queen Mary I he was burned at the stake, becoming one of the three Oxford Martyrs of Anglicanism.

Nicholas Ridley (martyr) Bishop of London; Anglican Saint

Nicholas Ridley was an English Bishop of London. Ridley was burned at the stake as one of the Oxford Martyrs during the Marian Persecutions for his teachings and his support of Lady Jane Grey. He is remembered with a commemoration in the calendar of saints in some parts of the Anglican Communion on 16 October.

John Frith (martyr) English Protestant priest, writer, and martyr

John Frith was an English Protestant priest, writer, and martyr.

Jerome of Prague 14/15th-century Czech reformist theologian and scholastic philosopher

Jerome of Prague was a Czech scholastic philosopher, theologian, reformer, and professor. Jerome was one of the chief followers of Jan Hus and was burned for heresy at the Council of Constance.

Rowland Taylor

Rowland Taylor was an English Protestant martyr during the Marian Persecutions.

The Supplication against the Ordinaries was a petition passed by the House of Commons in 1532. It was the result of grievances against Church of England prelates and the clergy. Ordinaries in this Act means a cleric, such as the diocesan bishop of an episcopal see, with ordinary jurisdiction over a specified territory.

Nicholas Shaxton was an English Reformer and Bishop of Salisbury.

Thomas Harding English religious dissident

Thomas Harding was a sixteenth-century English religious dissident who, while waiting to be burnt at the stake as a Lollard in 1532, was struck on the head by a spectator with one of the pieces of firewood, which killed him instantly.

Walter Milne

Walter Milne, also recorded as Mill or Myln, was the last Protestant martyr to be burned in Scotland before the Scottish Reformation changed the country from Catholic to Presbyterian.

Simon Fish was a 16th-century Protestant rebel and English propagandist. He is best known for helping to spread William Tyndale's New Testament and for writing the vehemently anti-clerical pamphlet Supplication for the Beggars which the Roman Catholic Church condemned as heretical on 24 May 1530. His pamphlet can be seen as a precursor to the English Reformation and the Protestant Reformation. Fish was eventually arrested in London on charges of heresy, but he was stricken with bubonic plague and died before he could stand trial. His widow married vocal reformer James Bainham, and then became a widow again in April 1532 when Bainham was burned at the stake as a heretic.

John Forest 16th-century English Franciscan friar and martyr

John Forest was an English Franciscan Friar and martyr. Confessor to Queen Catherine of Aragon, Forest was burned to death at Smithfield for heresy, in that he refused to acknowledge the King as head of the church.

English Reformation 16th-century separation of the Church of England from the Catholic Church

The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Roman Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Reformation, a religious and political movement that affected the practice of Christianity in western and central Europe.

William Tracy was an English justice of the peace and prominent early Lutheran convert. After his death both his will and his remains became caught up in the struggle around the Protestant Reformation in England.

Edward Crome was an English reformer and courtier.

Henry Forrest (martyr)

Henry Forrest or Forres, was a Scottish martyr.

John Tewkesbury was a Paternoster Row leather merchant in London and Protestant reformer, convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in West Smithfield, London, on 20 December 1531.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.