The Life And Martyrdom Of John Frith
The Sower 1880:
The subject of our present paper was a bosom friend of William Tyndale, and a very able and clever scholar at Cambridge University. John Frith was the son of an innkeeper at Seven-oaks, in Kent, where he was born about the year 1503. At a very early age he manifested a strong inclination for learning, and his abilities attracted the notice of Cardinal Wolsey, who selected him as one of the new members of his college at Oxford, which he had founded on a very magnificent scale. In the year 1525, Tyndale being in London, Frith paid him a visit; and this appears to have been the time when he was brought, under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and through the instrumentality of Tyndale, to a knowledge of the truth. On his return to Oxford, Frith and several of his companions soon evinced a love and attachment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and this fact aroused the anger of the Papists, who imprisoned them in the cellar where the salt fish of the college, used in Lent, and on Fridays and fast days, had hitherto been kept. The stench of this dungeon, however, having caused the death of four of their number, orders were given for the dismissal of the survivors, Frith amongst them, on condition that they should not go ten miles from Oxford. But the Papal party becoming so very zealous in their persecution of witnesses for the truth, Frith determined to leave England, and join his former companion, Tyndale, who was then busily employed on the Continent in translating the New Testament into the English tongue. Here he received a hearty welcome, for Frith being not only a genuine Christian, but also a brilliant genius, he was able to give his friend material assistance in his glorious and beneficent undertaking.
Hearing that Sir Thomas More, who had been a very bitter persecutor of “heretics,” had resigned the Great Seal in May, 1532, Frith, with that love for his native land that characterises the majority of his countrymen, returned to England; but he soon found himself in great danger, so that he resolved again to flee. This, however, he found impracticable, for great rewards had been offered for his arrest, and spies had been placed in the seaport towns to prevent his escape. Frith had already written an admirable tract against Purgatory, which was the main cause of the fury of his enemies; and now he drew up in manuscript a short treatise, in which he gave his opinion on the Lord’s Supper, and against the Romish dogma of transubstantiation, for the use of a friend. A copy of this writing fell into the hands of William Holt, a London tailor, who carried it to Sir Thomas More, probably the most zealous advocate of the Romish Mass in the country. This statesman at once ordered the arrest of the intrepid writer, who was found in Essex, on his way to the Continent. Having been brought before Sir Thomas More and the bishops, he was committed to the Tower.
During his imprisonment, several important changes took place in the country, many of which were favourable to the Reformation, so that it seemed possible that Frith might be set at liberty. One of these favourable events was the appointment of Cranmer to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, vacant by the death of Warham. Cranmer, although he still tenaciously held many of Rome’s dogmas, yet it was well known that he had some leanings towards the “new opinions,” as the ancient and Scriptural views of the Reformers and martyrs were often termed. But the zeal of Sir Thomas More for the Papacy was of such an earnest nature as to damp all hopes of Frith’s escape. He wrote a reply to Frith’s tract against the Real Presence, declaring that it contained “all the poison that Wycliffe, Tyndale, and Zuinglius had taught concerning the Blessed Sacrament of the altar; not only affirming it to be very bread still, as Luther does, but also, as these other beasts do, that it is nothing else.” The high position and lofty attainments of the retired statesman did not daunt the heroic Frith, who answered his opponent with such profound learning and argumentative skill as that Cranmer, in after years, bore testimony to its worth, by saying that it was this reply especially that convinced him of the errors of Rome concerning the Lord’s Supper. Frith gained great favour with his jailors on account of his good behaviour and sterling honesty, so they permitted him to go in and out of the Tower during the night, to consult with other godly and pious men, whilst preparing his reply to More; nor did he fail to come freely back after such glimpses of liberty, though to return was, as he knew, to die at the stake.
Frith’s enemies were becoming very anxious that he should be rigorously dealt with, and that no time should be lost in erecting his stake. One of the royal chaplains, in a sermon before king Henry and his court, fiercely inveighed against the leniency with which “heretics” were treated, and he particularly complained of one who, at that moment, was a prisoner for writing against the dogma of transubstantiation. Frith was thus clearly pointed out, and Henry was too jealous of his orthodoxy to let the complaint be repeated. Cranmer and Cromwell were accordingly ordered to examine Frith concerning his views, so he was brought to the episcopal palace at Croydon for that purpose. From the Tower he was conveyed up the river to Lambeth, and during this journey he was told that his life would be spared if he would only yield a little. Both Cranmer and Cromwell were very anxious that he should not suffer, and they tried, by various means, to move Frith from his steadfastness, or to aid him in effecting his escape to the Continent. But Frith felt himself bound, no matter what the cost, to stand by the sentiments he had written, so he resisted all the well-meant counsel of his friends. “If I should now run away,” said he, “from my God, and from the teaching of His holy Word, worthy then of a thousand hells.”
On the 20th of June, 1533, Frith was brought before Stokesly, Longland, and Gardiner, bishops of London, Lincoln, and Winchester, all of them fierce opponents of God’s truth, and malicious enemies to those who were witnesses for it. Here the undaunted Gospel soldier displayed the same heroic spirit that had characterised him all through the various trials and persecutions he had passed, and now, in the very jaws of death, he courageously and zealously defended what he had written, because he firmly believed his opinions to be based on the only immutable and infallible foundation, the Word of God; and also because they were in accordance with the teaching and practice of the primitive Christian Churches. He was condemned by the Bishop of London to be burnt; and, on July 4th, 1533, he was brought to the stake at Smithfield. On arriving there, Frith hugged the faggots, being transported with joy because he was counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake. A young Kentish lad, an apprentice tailor in London, was burnt with him. A priest, named Cook, called to the people not to pray for them, no more than they would do for a dog. At this Frith smiled and prayed God to forgive him; after which the fire was kindled, and these two blessed and happy martyrs were consumed in the flames.
John Frith (1503-1533) was an English Protestant Reformer and martyr. He supported the principle of religious toleration on a national level, clinging not only to his own convictions, but freely attacking those of others, eventually leading to his martyrdom. He took a specific stand against the Romish doctrines of Purgatory and Transubstantiation.
