This is from Five English Reformers by J.C. Ryle. This is about Roland Taylor, a martyr. Roland Taylor, Rector of Hadley in Suffolk, one of the famous Protestant martyrs in Queen Mary's days, is a man about whom the Church possesses singularly little information. Accepting the facts related by John Fox in the Book of Martyrs, We know scarcely anything about him. Enough, however, is on record to show that among the noble champions of Christ's truth who sealed their fate with their blood at the time of the English Reformation, Roland Taylor was second to none. The causes of this absence of information are easily explained. For one thing, the good man lived and labored and died in a small country town 50 miles from London. Such a position is fatal to a worldwide celebrity. It is the dwellers in large cities and the occupiers of metropolitan pulpits, whose doings are chronicled by admirers and whose lives are carefully handed down to posterity. For another thing, he wrote no books, either expository or controversial or practical. Not even a single sermon of the martyred Rector of Hadley exists in print and enables him, though dead, to speak. When he died, he left nothing behind him to keep his memory alive in libraries. These two facts must not be forgotten. The account of Taylor which Fox has supplied is so peculiarly graphic and vivid that one might almost suppose that the martyrologist was a personal friend of the martyr, or an eyewitness of his sufferings. Of this, however, I can find no evidence. Yet it is worthy of notice that Fox, after Queen Elizabeth came to the throne, resided for a considerable time with Parker's Bishop of Norwich, in whose diocese Hadley was then situated. He also seems to have had friends and acquaintances at Ipswich which is only 10 miles from Hadley. is therefore highly probable that he had frequent opportunities of visiting Taylor's parish and very likely received much information from people who were actually present when the noble martyr was burned and could supply full and accurate accounts both of his ministry and his sufferings. To condense and modernize Foxe's narrative and to present it to my readers in a convenient form is the simple object of these pages. Roland Taylor, according to Stripe, was born at Rothbury in Northumberland. the same county it may be remembered from which Bishop Ridley came. The date of his birth, the rank or position of his family, his early history and the place of his education are all things about which nothing whatever is known. We only gather from various sources that in due time he became a student at Cambridge. There imbibed the principles of the Protestant Reformation, among other means by which he was influenced at this important crisis of his life. The sermons of Bishop Latimer are especially unnamed. The first distinct fact in his life that we know is his intimacy with Archbishop Cranmer. In that great man's household he seems to have occupied some office and to have worked with him in carrying forward the mighty building of the English Reformation. How long he lived with Cranmer we have unfortunately no means of finding out. But there is strong internal evidence that he was so long and so intimately connected with him that he became a marked man among the English reformers. Upon no other supposition can we explain the peculiar entity, enmity rather, with which he was sought out and persecuted to death in Queen Mary's reign. The old parson of Hadley must surely have obtained an honourable reputation in London in the days of Edward VI. Hadley in Suffolk was the first and only piece of preferment which we know of Roland Taylor Holding. To this he was appointed by his friend Archbishop Cranmer, but at what date we have no means of ascertaining. One thing only is quite certain, as soon as he was appointed to Hadley he resigned all his offices in London and devoted himself entirely to the work of his parish. Hadley is a small town to the southwest border of Suffolk containing at the present time about 4,000 people. The character of the place in the days of Edward VI and the nature of Rowland Taylor's ministry are so well and graphically described by Fox in Acts and Monuments that I cannot do better than quote his words. The town of Hadley was one of the first that received the word of God in all England at the preaching of Master Thomas Bilney. by whose industry the gospel of Christ has such gracious success and took such root there, that a great number in the parish became exceedingly well-learned in the Holy Scriptures, as well women as men, so that a man might have found among them many that have often read the whole Bible through, that could have said a great part of St. Paul's epistles by heart, and very well and readily have given a godly learned sentence in any matter of controversy. Their children and servants were also brought up and trained diligently in the right knowledge of God's word, so that the whole town seemed rather a university of the learned than a town of cloth making or laboring people. And what most is to be commended, they were for the most part followers of God's word in their living. In this town of Hadley, Dr. Taylor was a good shepherd, abiding and dwelling among his sheep. He gave himself wholly to the study of Holy Scripture, most faithfully to endeavouring himself to fulfil that charge which the Lord gave unto Peter, saying, Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. This love of Christ so wrought in him that no Sunday nor holy day passed, nor other time when he might get the people together. But he preached to them the word of God, the doctrine of their salvation. Not only was his word a preaching unto them, but all his life and conversation was an example of unfeigned Christian life and true holiness. He was void of all pride, humble and meek as any child, so that none were so poor but they might boldly as unto their father resort unto him. Neither was his lowliness childish or fearful, but as occasion, time, and place required, he would be stout in rebuking the sinful and evildoers, so that none was so rich, but he would tell him plainly his fault, with such earnest and grave rebukes as became a good curate and pastor. He was a man very mild, void of all rancor, grudge, or evil will, ready to do good to all men, readily forgiving his enemies, and never sought to do evil to any. To the poor that were blind, sick, lame, bedridden, or that had many children, he was a very father, a careful patron, a diligent provider, insomuch that he caused the parishioners to make a general provision for them. And he himself, beside the continual relief that they always found at his house, gave an honest portion yearly to the common alms box. His wife also was an honest, discreet, and sober matron, and his children well nurtured, brought up in the fear of God and good learning. To conclude, he was a right and lively image or pattern of all those virtuous qualities described by St. Paul in a true bishop, a good salt of the earth, savourly biting the corrupt manners of evil men, a light in God's house set upon a candlestick for all good men to imitate and follow. How long Taylor's ministry lasted at Hadley we do not exactly know. Fox only says that he continued there all the days of the most innocent and holy King of Blessed Memory, King Edward VI. We may, however, safely conclude that he was there more than 10 years. When he was put in prison in Queen Mary's days, he was the father of nine children, and as it is not probable that he would marry until he left Cranmer's household and had a home of his own, it seems likely that his children were all born at Hadley. All this, however, is only a matter of conjecture. Enough for us to know that he was evidently Rector of Hadley long enough to be loved and honoured by the mass of his parishioners. Roland Taylor's quiet days at Hadley were soon brought to an end when Queen Mary came to the throne. The man of his eminence and high reputation as a Protestant was sure to be marked for destruction by the Popish party and an excuse was soon found for putting him in prison. In the best worked parishes and under the most faithful preaching of the gospel, there will always be found many who hate vital religion and remain hardened, impenitent and unbelieving. It was so in the days of the apostles. It is so at the present time in our own parishes. It was so at Hadley when Roland Taylor was rector. There were men who hated him because his doctrine condemned their own lives and opinions. And as soon as they had an opportunity of doing him an injury, they eagerly seized it. Two of these men, named Fraser and Clark, conspired to bring the worthy Rector into collision with the higher powers by hiring one John of Earth, Rector of Oldham, to come to Hadley Church and celebrate the Popish Mass. The result answered their expectations. Roland Taylor, with righteous indignation, rushed into the church as the mass was about to begin and protested warmly against the whole proceeding as illegal and idolatrous. Then followed an unseemly altercation, the forcible expulsion of the Rector Hadley from his own church, great excitement among the faithful parishioners, throwing of stones into the church, and a general ferment among the people. All this was duly reported to Stephen Gardner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England, and the upshot of the affair, as the malignance had foreseen, was a summons from Gardner to Dr Taylor to appear before him in London without delay. This summons the gallant reformer promptly obeyed and left Hadley never to return till the day of his death. When the summons arrived, Roland Taylor's many friends tried in vain to persuade him to fly to the continent to save his life as many other faithful Protestants had done. But they had no more effect on the good old man than Paul's friends had on the apostle when they entreated him not to go up to Jerusalem. This was his reply. What will you have me to do? I am now old and have already lived too long to see these terrible and most wicked days. Fly you and do as your conscience leadeth you. I am fully determined, with God's grace, to go to the bishop and to tell him to his beard that he doth not. God shall well hereafter raise up teachers of his people, which shall, with much more diligence and fruit, teach them than I have done. For God will not forsake his church, though now for a time he trieth and correcteth us, and not without just cause. As for me, I believe before God I shall never be able to do God so good a service as I may do now, nor shall I ever have so glorious a calling as I have now, nor so great mercy of God proffered me as is now at this present. For what Christian man would not gladly die against the Pope and his adherents? I know that the papacy and the kingdom of Antichrist altogether full of falsehoods so that all their doctrine is nothing but idolatry, superstition, error, hypocrisy and lies. Wherefore I beseech you and all my other friends to pray for me and I doubt not but God will give me strength and his glory and his Holy Spirit that all mine adversaries shall have shame of their doings. Armed with this frame of mind, Roland Taylor went voluntarily to London, and most manfully kept his word. The opening of his first interview with Gardiner is thus described by Fox. Now when Gardiner saw Taylor, according to his common custom, he reviled him, calling him knave, traitor, heretic, with many other villainous reproaches. All this Dr Taylor heard patiently, and at last said, My Lord, I am neither traitor nor heretic, but a true subject and a faithful Christian man. Though I have come according to your commandment, to know what is the cause why your Lordship hath sent for me. Then said the Bishop, Art thou come, thou villain? How darest thou look me in the face for shame? Knowest thou not who I am? Yes, said Dr. Taylor, I know who you are. You are Dr. Stephen Gardner, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor, and yet but a mortal man. If I should be afraid of your lordly looks, why fear you not God, the Lord of us all? How dare you, for shame, look on any Christian man in the face, seeing you have forsaken the truth, denied our Saviour Christ and his word, and done contrary to your own oath and writing? With what countenance will you appear before the judgment seat of Christ and answer to your oath made first to King Henry VIII, and afterward unto King Edward VI, his son? The interview, which began in this extraordinary manner, terminated as might have been expected. After several sharp arguments and wrangles, in which the Suffolk rector showed himself more than a match for the Bishop of Winchester, Taylor was committed to the King's Bench prison. On hearing his committal, he kneeled down and holding up both hands said, good Lord, I thank thee from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable errors, idolatries, and abominations, good Lord, deliver us. And God be praised for good King Edward. Roland Taylor lay in prison almost two years and spent most of his time in prayer, reading the scriptures and writing. He had also opportunities of exhorting and addressing the prisoners. How much he saw of the other reformers who were in prison at the same time is not quite clear. It is certain, however, that he was very often in company of the famous John Bradford and told his friends that God had sent him to a prison where he found an angel of God to comfort him. It's also highly probable that he had occasional interviews with the illustrious reformers, Hooper, Rogers, Ferrer and Saunders, who all like himself were finally burned at the stake. The end of Roland Taylor's weary imprisonment came at last. On the 22nd of January, 1555, he was brought before the Lord Chancellor, Bishop Gardiner and other commissioners and subjected to a lengthy examination. To go into the details of all that was said on this occasion would be wearisome and unprofitable. The whole affair was conducted with the same gross unfairness and partiality which characterised all the proceedings against the English reformers, and the result as a matter of course was the good man's condemnation. To use his own words, in a letter to a friend, he was pronounced a heretic because he defended the marriage of priests and denied the doctrine of transubstantiation. Never let it be forgotten in these days that the denial of any corporal presence of Christ's body and blood in the elements of bread and wine at the Lord's Supper was the turning point which decided the fate of our martyred reformers. If they gave way on that point, they might have lived. Because they would not admit any corporal presence, they died. These things are recorded for our learning. On the 30th of January, 1555, Taylor, together with Bradford, Ferrer and Saunders, was called to appear before the bishops of Winchester, Norwich, London, Salisbury and Durham. They were all forecharged with heresy and schism and required to answer determinately whether they would submit themselves to the Bishop of Rome and abjure their errors. On their refusal they were condemned to death. For this, says Fox, they gave God thanks and stoutly said unto the bishops, we doubt not but that God, the righteous judge, will require our blood at your hands and the proudest of you all shall repent, this receiving again of Antichrist and your tyranny that ye now show against the flock of Christ. On the evening of this day, Taylor was sent to the Compton prison and parted from his brethren. On the 4th of February, Bonner, Bishop of London, came to the Compton prison and formally degraded Taylor from the office of priest, with many absurd ceremonies, of which Fox supplies a ludicrous description. The night after his degradation, his wife and his sons Thomas were permitted to visit and sup with him, and after supper they parted with much affection and many tears. The next day, the 5th of February, he set out on his journey to Hadley, in order that he might be burned in the presence of his parishioners. The circumstances of his departure from London are so touchingly described by Fox that I think it best to let the old historian speak for himself. Quote, on the next morrow after that, Dr. Taylor had supped with his wife in a Compton prison, which was the fifth day of February. The sheriff of London with his officers came to the Compton by two o'clock in the morning and so brought forth Dr. Taylor and without any light led him to the Woolsack and in without Aldgate. Dr Taylor's wife, suspecting that her husband should that night be carried away, watched all night in St Botolph's church porch beside Olgate, having with her two children, the one named Elizabeth of 13 years of age, whom being left without father or mother, Dr Taylor had brought up of arms from three years old, the other named Mary, Dr Taylor's own daughter. Now when the sheriff and his company came against St Botolph's church, Elizabeth cried saying, Oh my dear father, mother, mother, here is my father led away. Then cried his wife, Roland, Roland, where art thou? For it was a very dark morning, that the one could not see the other. Daughter Taylor answered, dear wife, I am here, and stayed. The sheriff's men would have led him forth, but the sheriff said, stay a little, masters, I pray you, and let him speak to his wife, and so they stayed. Then came she to him, and he took his daughter, Mary, in his arms, and he, his wife, and Elizabeth, kneeled down and said the Lord's Prayer. At which sight the sheriff wept apace, and so did diverse others of the company. After they had prayed, he rose up and kissed his wife, and shook her by the hand, and said, Farewell, my dear wife, and be of good comfort, for I am quiet in my conscience. God shall raise up a father for my children. And then he kissed his daughter, Mary, and said, God bless thee, and make thee his servant. And kissing Elizabeth, he said, God bless thee. I pray you all stand strong and steadfast to Christ and his word, and you keep from idolatry. Then said his wife, God be with thee, dear Roland. I will, with God's grace, meet thee at Hadley. And so was he led forth to the wool sack, and his wife followed him. As soon as they came to the wool sack, he was put into a chamber wherein he was kept with four yeomen of the guard and the sheriff's men. Dr. Taylor, as soon as he was come into the chamber, fell down on his knees and gave himself wholly to prayer. The sheriff then, seeing Dr. Taylor's wife there, would in no case grant her to speak any more with her husband, but gently desired her to go to his house and take it as her own, and promised her she should lack nothing, and sent two officers to conduct her thither. Notwithstanding, she desired to go to her mother's, whether the officers led her and charged her mother to keep her there till they came again. Roland Taylor's journey from London to Hadley is minutely described by Fox. He travelled on horseback, according to the custom of those days, and stopped at Brentwood, Chelmsford and Lavenham. All the way he was joyful and merry, as one that accounted himself going to a most pleasant banquet or bridal. But we must content ourselves with the account of the closing scene in the worthy martyr's history, which shall be given in Fox's own words. On the 9th of February 1555, the same day that Bishop Hooper was burnt at Gloucester, the sheriff and his company led Dr Taylor towards Hadley, and coming within two miles of Hadley he desired for somewhat to light off his horse, which done he leaped and fet a frisk or twain, as men commonly do in dancing. Why, Master Doctor, quoth the Sheriff, how do you now? He answered, Well, God be praised, good Master Sheriff, never better, for now I know I am almost at home. I lack not past two stiles to go over, and I am even at my father's house. But Master Sheriff said he, shall we not go through Hadley? Yes, said the Sheriff, you shall go through Hadley. Then said he, oh good Lord, I thank thee. I shall yet once, ere I die, see my flock whom thou, Lord, knowest I have most heartily loved and truly taught. Good Lord, bless them and keep them steadfast in thy word and truth. When they were now come to Hadley, and came riding over the bridge, at the bridge foot waited a poor man with five small children, who, when he saw Dr Taylor, he and his children fell down upon their knees, and held up their hands, and cried with a loud voice, and said, O dear father and good shepherd Dr Taylor, God help and succour thee, as thou hast many a time succoured me and my poor children. Such witness had this servant of God of his virtuous and charitable almsgiving in his lifetime. For God would now, the poor should testify of his good deeds to his singular comfort for the example of others and confusion of his persecutors and tyrannous adversaries. For the sheriff and others that led him to death were wonderfully astonished at this and the sheriff saw rebuke the poor man for so crying. The streets of Hadley were beset on both sides of the way with men and women of the town and country who waited to see him. And when they beheld, so led to death, with weeping eyes and lamentable voices, they cried, saying to one another, Our Lord God, there goeth our good shepherd from us, that so faithfully hath taught us, so fatherly hath cared for us, and so godly hath governed us. O merciful God, what shall we poor scattered labs do? What shall come of this most wicked world? Good Lord, strengthen him and comfort him with such other most lamentable and piteous voices. Wherefore the people were sore rebuked by the sheriff and the catch poles, his men that led him. And Dr. Taylor evermore said to the people, I have preached to you God's word and truth and I've come this day to seal it with my blood. Coming against the almshouses, which he knew well, he cast to the poor people money which reminded of that which good people had given him in time of his imprisonment. As for his living, they took it from him as his first going to prison, so that he was sustained all the time of his imprisonment by the charitable arms of good people that visited him. Therefore, the money that now remained, he put in a glove, ready for the same purpose, and, as is said, gave it to the poor almsmen standing at their doors to see him. And coming to the last of the almshouses, and not seeing the poor that there dwelt ready at their doors as the others were, he asked, Is the blind man and blind woman that dwelt here alive? It was answered, yea, they are within. Then threw he glove in all at the window and so rode forth. At the last coming to Oldencommon, the place assigned where he should suffer, and seeing a great multitude of people gathered thither, he asked, What place is this, and what meaneth it that so much people are gathered together? It was answered, it is all in common, the place where you must suffer, and the people are come to look upon you. Then he said, thank it be God that I am even at home, and so alighted from his horse, and rent the hood from his head. Now was his hair cut short and ill-favoredly, and clipped much as a man would clip a fool's head, which cost the good Bishop Bonner had bestowed upon him when he degraded him. But when the people saw his reverent and ancient face, with a long white beard, they burst out with weeping tears and cried, saying, God save thee, good Dr. Taylor, Jesus Christ strengthen thee, the Holy Ghost comfort thee, with such other like godly wishes. Then would he have spoken to the people, but the yeoman of the guard was so busy about him, that as soon as he opened his mouth, one or other thrust a tipstaff into his mouth, and would in no wise permit him to speak. Dr Taylor, perceiving that he could not be permitted to speak, sat down, and seeing one named Soice, he called him and said, Soice, I pray thee, come and pull off my boots and take them for thy labour. Thou hast long looked for them, now take them.' Then rose he up, and put off his clothes unto his shirt, and gave them away. Which done, he said with a loud voice, Good people, I have taught you nothing but God's holy word, and those lessons that I have taken out of God's blessed book, the holy Bible, and I am come hither this day to seal it with my blood. With that word, a certain yeoman of the guard, who had used Dr. Taylor very cruelly all the way, gave him a great stroke upon the head with a waster. and said, is that the keeping of thy promise, thou heretic? Then he, seeing they would not permit him to speak, kneeled down and prayed. And a poor woman that was among the people stepped in and prayed with him, but they thrust her away and threatened to tread her down with horses. Notwithstanding, she would not remove, but abode and prayed with him. When he had prayed, he went to the stake and kissed it and set himself into a pitch barrel, which they had set for him to stand in. And so stood with his back upright against the stake, with his hands folded together and his eyes toward heaven, and so he continually prayed. After some painful delay and some miserable insults from the Popish helpers who were assisting, the fire was lighted. Then, says Fox, Dr Taylor, holding up both his hands, called upon God and said, Merciful Father of Heaven, for Jesus Christ, my Saviour's sake, receive my soul into thy hands. So stood he still, without either crying or moving, until one struck him on the head with a halberd so that his brains fell out and the dead corpse fell down into the fire. thus died one of the best and bravest of the English martyrs. An old rude stone still marks the spot where he was burned in the midst of an enclosed field which once formed part of Oldham Common. It bears the following quaint but pithy inscription, 1555, Dr Taylor in defending that which was good at this place left his blood. In the year 1819 another and more pretentious monument was erected on the same spot with a long poetical inscription written by the Rector of Hadley But the martyr's history is still remembered in the parish. Without the aid of stones and monuments, being dead yet he speaketh. Taylor's last parting wishes to his wife and family and parishioners were written in a book which he gave his son as a parting legacy only five days before his martyrdom. They can hardly fail to interest the reader. I say to my wife and to my children, the Lord gave you unto me and the Lord hath taken me from you and you from me. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I believe that they are blessed which die in the Lord. God careth for sparrows and for the hairs of our heads. I have ever found him more faithful and favourable than is any father or husband. Trust thee therefore in him by the means of our dear Saviour Christ's merits. Believe, love, fear and obey him. Pray to him for he hath promised to help. Count me not dead for I shall certainly live and never die. I go before you and shall follow after. and you shall follow after to our long home. I go to the rest of my children, Susan, George, Ellen, Robert and Zachary. I have bequeathed you to the only omnipotent. I say to my dear friends of Hadley, and to all others which have heard me preach, that I depart hence with a quiet conscience as touching my doctrine, for the which I pray you thank God with me. For I have, after my little talent, declared to others those lessons that I gathered out of God's book, the blessed Bible. Therefore, if I or an angel from heaven should preach to you any other gospel that you have received, God's great curse be upon the preacher. Beware, for God's sake, that ye deny not God, neither decline from the word of faith, lest God decline from you, and so do ye everlasting perish. For God's sake, beware of popery, for though it appear to have in it unity, yet the same is vanity and anti-Christianity, and not in Christ's faith and verity. Beware of the sin against the Holy Ghost, now after such a light opened so plainly and simply, truly, thoroughly, and generally to all England. The Lord grant all men his good and holy spirit, increase of his wisdom. Condemning the wicked world, hearty desire to be with God and the heavenly company. Though Jesus Christ our only mediator, advocate, righteousness, life, sanctification, and hope. Amen. Amen. Pray. Pray. Roland Taylor, departing hence, is in sure hope, without all doubting of eternal salvation. I thank God, my Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, my certain Saviour. Amen. 5th of February, Anno 1555. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom then shall I fear? God is he that justifieth. Who is he that can condemn? In thee, O Lord, I have trusted. Let me never be confounded. Does anyone wish to know whether the Church of Rome is infallible? Let him carefully study the history of such martyrdoms as that of Roland Taylor. Of all the stupid and suicidal mistakes that the Romish Church ever made, none was greater than the mistake of burning the reformers. it cemented the work of the Reformation and made Englishmen Protestants by thousands. When plain Englishmen saw the Church of Rome so cruelly wicked and Protestants so brave, they ceased to doubt on which side was the truth. May the memory of our martyred reformers never be forgotten in England until the Lord comes. Amen.