Dissidents1
Plaque
stating in 1153 King Stephen granted to Bishop Durdent the right to hold a
market on Sunday.
In 1387, Richard II granted an
ordinance for a Guild of St Mary and St John the Baptist (really two Guilds brought
together) with a declared aim to
maintain divine
service and works of charity and to suppress vice and evil deeds ... so that
peace, tranquillity, concord and unity should be promoted in the town.
Richard II. There are at least 10 dates in 1398 when Richard stayed at
Lichfeld, presumably to consult his friend, Bishop Scrope.
For this, the king received £30. The ordinance banned subversive gatherings and strengthened the
hand of the bishop as sole Lord of the town. It did not stop a riot in 1436 when
townsfolk surrounded the Close and assaulted some residents. Around 50 members,
men and women, joined the Guild after payment (3 pence a quarter was a standard
rate). One of the Guilds’ responsibilities was to maintain the water supply
which fed to taps near the Friary and in the Market Square. Another was to
collect fines and rents and keep in a box with three keys. On occasions, the three
key-holders opened the box and gave to the poor. The Guild appointed its own
chaplains and they served in St Mary’s church. The Guild was terminated with
Dissolution in 1547; it must have lost much of its property to the crown.
In 1530, a market cross shaped as
a shelter was constructed in the square, replacing an open area with a high
cross atop some steps. Eight pillars held up a vaulted roof with sculptures of
apostles atop each pillar. A central turret contained a market bell. Within the
canopy were stocks. It was destroyed in the first siege of the Civil War.
Market square[2]
 |
| Dean Denton's Market Cross |
During the reign of Queen Mary,
in the1550s,[3]
several dissidents were burned for their faith in the market square. John
Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’[4]
gives little information on the first two executions. Thomas Hayward and John
Goreway were executed sometime in mid-September 1555 for, in Foxe’s words being
condemned as heretics for the confession of a good faith. They were said to
have sung praises in the flames. Robert Glover and Cornelius Bongey or Bungey
were tried for heresy in the cathedral Consistory Court and burned at Coventry
in September 1555. Joyce Bowes was burned in August 1557 at ‘Litchfield’ and
Joyce or Jocasta Lewis in the following December. Joyce of Mancetter was part
of a privileged Catholic family. Her uncle, Hugh Latimer, was burnt at Oxford
in 1555. Her irreverent behaviour was reported to the Bishop of Lichfield who sent a citation which it is said, Lewis
forced the official to eat! The bishop then bound her husband to a sum of £100
to bring his wife to trial within a month, which he did in spite of pleading
from her friends. Joyce was sentenced to a year in jail and with no subsequent recanting
was burned. Eleven of her supporters were summoned to account for their actions
and all recanted.
The last burning in Lichfield was
Edward Wightman on 11 April 1612 who had preached an extreme form of heresy in
the time of James I.[5]
Throughout his trial in the cathedral Consistory Court Wightman made no attempt to defend himself. With the first
attempt of burning in the Market square, 20 March 1612, local people pulled
away the wood and saved him, claiming he recanted. He was jailed for three
weeks, but refused to recant, so was put to a fire on Easter Saturday at an
unknown public space in the town. Wightman was the last heretic in England to
perish. His chaplain was William Laud, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, an
autocratic High Church priest who was later executed, 1645, for his beliefs. For
a greater account of Edward Wightman see Patrick Comerford’s Blog for 2012
entitled ‘Remembering the last heretic burned at the stake 400 years ago’.
Plaque in Market Square recording burnings.Edmund Gennings, 1567–1591, was
born in Lichfield and ordained priest at the age of 23 in 1590. He was caught
saying Mass in the house of Saint Swithun Wells at Gray’s Inn in London on 7
November 1591. For this he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Gray’s Inn
Fields. He was canonised as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales by
Pope Paul VI on 25 October 1970.
An
act was passed in 1677 forbidding the burning of heretics.
Eleanor Davies, 1590–1652, wrote
around 70 pamphlets describing prophesies based on confused biblical references.
After her release from prison, she was arrested again and sent to Bedlam, London.
She then poured tar over the altar in
Lichfield Cathedral, sat on the bishop’s throne and called herself an
archbishop in 1637. She was placed in the Tower, 1638, and released in 1640.
Plaque in Market Square recording Fox's visit.In 1651, George Fox, 1624–1691, the
founding Quaker, entered the Market Place shouting Cry, Woe unto the bloody city of Lichfield. He envisaged with prophetic judgement
that through the town ran a channel of blood and he likened the market square
to a pool of blood. He harkened to the massacre fable of a thousand
Christians (as well as be aware of the recent Civil War slaughter) and wrote, so the sense of this blood was upon me. There
is a plaque in the market place which states shortly after his release from
prison in Derby, at the beginning of the winter of 1651, (Fox) stood without
shoes on a market day in the Market Place and denounced the City of Lichfield.
Painting by
Robert Spence, 1897, of George Fox ranting in the market Square. The painting
is in the Heritage Centre (Hub) in the market square.
Fox had recently been released after spending a miserable year in Derby
Gaol, the first of eight imprisonments and it is thought he was suffering from
some kind of mania. Perhaps, he saw this as an exorcising of the past misdeeds
of the city.
[6]
George Fox reputedly from a painting by
Peter Lely. Wikimedia.
[1]
The mid-16th century meaning of Dissident is merely differing in opinion
or character.
[2]
Taken from J. Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield. (London:
1805).
[3]
It is thought around 300 people were executed in a five-year period (Foxe’s
estimation). They are known as the Marian Martyrs.
[4]
Originally published 1563 and titled Actes and Monuments of these latter and
perillous days. Touching matters of the church. Later editions had the
title A history of the lives, sufferings and triumphant deaths of the
primitive Protestant Martyrs.
[5]
James I believed witches existed and wrote a book on how to find them.
[6]
Detractors have said the whole performance was contrived.
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