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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2015
At the beginning of his essay entitled ‘How To Be a Counter-Reformation Saint’, Peter Burke observes
This article derives from a paper read at the Hagiography and Cults of the Saints in England, 600–1600 Conference, University of St. Andrews (4–6 April 1995).
2 Burke, p. 45.
3 Burke, p. 48.
4 Burke, p. 48. In a recent study, Simon Ditchfield argues the most important factor in counter-reformation canonisation processes was ‘whether a candidate could satisfy more purely legal criteria’: Simon, Ditchfield, ‘How Not To Be A Counter-Reformation Saint: The attempted Canonization of Pope Gregory X, 1622–45’, Papers of the British School at Rome, 60 (1992), pp. 379–422;Google ScholarPubMed p. 422.
5 Retha, Mary Warnicke, Women of the English Renaissance and Reformation (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1983), pp. 69 and 68.Google Scholar
6 25 Henry VIII, cl2, printed in Statutes vol. 3, pp. 446–451; p. 446.
7 CSP Spain vol. 4, part 2, no. 1154.
8 The best short narrative accounts of Elizabeth Barton's life and prophecies are those by David, Knowles, The Religious Orders in England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948–1959) vol. 3, pp. 182–191;Google Scholar and Cheney, A. D., ‘The Holy Maid of Kent’, Transactions of the Royal. Historical Society ns. vol. 18 (1904), pp. 107–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar With the exception of a short biography by the Rev. McKee, J. R. of the London Oratory, Dame Elizabeth Barton, O.S.B., the Holy Maid of Kent (London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1925)),Google Scholar the only book-length study is Alan, Neame, The Holy Maid of Kent: The Life of Elizabeth Barton, 1506–34 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1971).Google Scholar
9 Roger, B. Merriman, ed., Life and Letters of Thomas Cromwell (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), vol. 1, pp. 373–379.Google Scholar
10 Rogers, pp. 480–488; p. 480. MED sv. leued; OED sv. lewd.
11 Rogers, p.466. More transcribed his letter to Barton in his letter to Cromwell (Rogers prints the letter to Barton separated, pp. 464–466). An unsigned testimony made by one of the witnesses confirms the contents of More's letter to Barton: L&P vol. 6, no. 1467.
12 Rogers, p. 486.
13 William, Rastell, ed., The workes of Sir Thomas More … wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge ([c.1557]); cf Rogers, p. 480.Google Scholar
14 Rastell, op.cit., sigs. XX4r-XX5r; cf. Rogers, pp. 489 and 500; and James, K. McConica, ‘The Recusant Tradition of Sir Thomas More’ in Sylvester, R. S. and Marc'hadour, G. P., eds., Essential Articles for the Study of Thomas More (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1977), pp. 136–149,Google Scholar pp. 139–140.
15 Nicholas, Harpsfield, The life and death of Sir Thomas Moore, knight, sometymes Lord high Chancellor of England, ed. Hitchcock, E. V., intro. Chambers, R. W. (London: EETS os 186, 1932), pp. 155–164;Google Scholar and William, Roper, The Lyfe of Sir Thomas Moore, knighte, ed. Hitchcock, E. V. (London: EETS os 197, 1935), pp. 59–71.Google Scholar
16 Nicholas, Sanders, De origine progressu schismatis Anglicani (Cologne: 1585), SIG. K2v.Google Scholar
17 Thomas, Bayly, The life and death of that renowned John Fisher Bishop of Rochester (1655), sigs. K3r–K5v.Google Scholar
18 Neame, loc.cit., p. 351.
19 Thomas, Bourchier, Historia ecclesiastica de martyrio fratvm ordinis divi Francisci (Paris, 1582), sigs. B3r–B6r.Google Scholar
20 Richard, Rex, ‘The Execution of the Holy Maid of Kent’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 64 (1991), pp. 216–220;Google Scholar pp. 219–20. Rex finds evidence for the suggestion that Edward Bocking was also executed for refusing the Oath of Succession in Richard Morison's claim that Bocking was the only other doctor to die besides Fisher and More. However, it seems more probable that Morison was attempting to defame Fisher and More by associating them with such a notorious figure as the Holy Maid's confessor than that he ‘in effect conceded that Bocking was killed for much the same reasons as Fisher and More’ (p. 220).
21 Richard, Hall, Vie du bienheureux martyr Jean Fisher, ed. van Ortoy, Fr. (Brussels: Polleunis & Ceuterick, 1893), p. 247.Google Scholar
22 ‘The Image of Ypocresye’, part 3,11. 1687–1695 in Frederick, James Furnivall, ed., Ballads from the Manuscripts (London: Ballad Society, 1868–1873), vol. 1, part 1, pp. 233–4.Google Scholar
23 Thomas Gold, one of Barton's principal associates, conveyed a message to her other supporters that she has only retracted at the command of God: ibidem; and Statutes, vol. 3, p. 450.
24 Whatmore, L. E., ‘The Sermon against the Holy Maid of Kent and her Adherents, delivered at Paul's Cross, November the 23rd, 1533, and at Canterbury, December the 7th’, English Historical Review vol. 58 (1943), pp. 463–475;CrossRefGoogle Scholar p. 474.
25 CPS Spain, vol. 4, part 2, no. 1153.
26 Geoffrey, Elton, Policy and Police: the Enforcement of the Reformation in the Age of Thomas Cromwell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 210–211 Google Scholar and n. 3. The Act was presented as a petition from the Houses of Parliament to the King, a form which would suggest public outrage at the offences described therein: Stanford, E. Lehmberg, ‘Parliamentary Attainder in the Reign of Henry VIII’, Historical Journal 18 (1975), pp. 675–702;Google Scholar p. 682.
27 CSP Spain, vol. 4, part 2, no. 1154.
28 Statutes, vol. 3, p. 451.
29 Camille, Naish, Death Comes to the Maiden: Sex and Execution 1431–1933 (London: Routledge, 1991), p. 9.Google Scholar
30 See Muriel, St. Clare Byrne, ed., The Lisle Letters (Chicago University Press, 1981) vol. 2, p. 130 Google Scholar (L&P vol. 7. no. 522).
31 See Michael, Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. Alan, Sheridan (London: Allen Lane, 1975), pp. 3–69.Google Scholar
32 Statutes, vol. 3, p. 451.
33 Public Records Office, State Papers 1/82, ff.70r-71v (L&P, vol. 7, no. 303).
34 Thomas, Cranmer, A Confutation of Unwritten Verities in Jenkyns, H., ed., The Remains of Thomas Cranmer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1833) vol. 4, pp. 240–241;Google Scholar Richard, Morison, Apomaxis calvmniarum (1537) sigs. T1r–V2v;Google Scholar Hall, E., Hall's Chronicle; containing the History of England, ed. Ellis, H. (London: For J. Johnson et al, 1808) pp. 806–814;Google Scholar Joshua, Pratt, ed., The Acts and Monumentsof John Foxe (London: The Religious Tract Society, [1877]) vol. 5. pp. 62–63;Google Scholar and William, Lambarde, A perambulation of Kent (1576), sigs. T2v–T5r.Google Scholar
35 Morison, loc.cit., sig. T3v.
36 Hall, E., loc.cit.., p. 814.Google Scholar
37 Diane, Watt, ‘The Prophet at Home: Elizabeth Barton and the Influence of Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena’ in Rosalynn, Voaden, ed. The Prophet Abroad: the Reception of Continental Holy Women in Medieval England (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell and Brewer, 1996), pp. 161–76.Google Scholar
38 Burke, pp. 51–52.
39 Barton's communications with the Pope are mentioned in a number of sources, for example Cox, J. E., ed., The Works of Thomas Cranmer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1846), vol. 2, p. 273.Google Scholar
40 Statutes, vol. 3, pp. 449–50.
41 Morison, loc.cit., sig. T4v; Public Records Office, State Papers 1/143, f.205r (L&P vol. 14, part 1, n. 402).
42 Wright, p. 20.
43 Cox, loc.cit., vol. 2, p. 273; Wright, p. 16.
44 CSP Spain, vol. 4, part 2, no. 1149.
45 L&P, vol. 6, no. 1445; CSP Spain, vol. 4, part 2, no. 1153.
46 Wright, pp. 17–18.
47 See, for example, Mariá Vela y Cueto, discussed by Milagros, Ortega Costa in ‘Spanish Women in the Reformation’, in Sherrin, Marshall, ed., Women in Reformation and Counter-Reformation Europe: Public and Private Worlds (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989) pp. 89–119;Google Scholar pp. 103–105. See also Jodi, Bilinkoff, ‘A Spanish Prophetess and Her Patrons: The Case of Maria de Santo Domingo’, Sixteenth Century Journal vol. 23 (1992): pp. 21–34.Google Scholar
48 Burke, p. 50.
49 Merry, E. Wiesner, Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), p. 198.Google Scholar
50 Ibidem, pp. 199–200.
51 William, Monter, ‘Women and the Italian Inquisition’, in Mary, Beth Rose, ed., Women in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Literary and Historical Perspectives (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1986) pp. 73–87;Google Scholar p. 85.
52 Burke, p. 53.
53 Rogers, p. 484.
