THIS WEEKS GREAT DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 47, 25 February 1929, Page 6

THIS WEEKS GREAT DAY.

FEB. 25.—THE FIRST ENGLISH PROTESTANT MARTYR. (Copyrighted.) On February •!:■>, 1401, the first Kngii-h Protestant to die for the sake of his faith waburned at the stake, the victim being William Chatrys. whose name is pronounced and generally spelt Sawtrey. Considerably more than a century prior to the publication of Martin Luther'a epoch -ma rki u ; doctrines, which led to the establishment of the Protestant faith in Ureat Britain. Kngland wathe scene of a revolution against the teaching- ot the Church of P.,me started by the follower- ot' John Wycliffe, who were known as Pollard-. Thinanie, which was derived from the Dutch word "lollen," to sing softly, was originally applied to the members of an association for burying the dead which had been founded in Antwerp in l.'uo and was later used in Kngland to de.-cribe th.disciples of Wycliffe. who were supposed to conceal turbulent motives under a guise of religion. The Lollard movement "reached its height m England during the ten years following the dead of Wycliffe. which took place in L'iS4. ""and dining that period it is said that about half the nation were Lollards. Although the doctrines of the Lollards were gradually suppressed, they undoubtedly paved the way for the Reformation of the sixteenth centurv.

Chatrys, who was a parish prie-t in Norfolk, became imbued with the Lollard doctrines, with the result he was summoned before the Bishop •>;' King's Lynn early in 1400 to answer charge., ~f heresy, but he secured a full pardon bv making a public recantation and was transferred to the Church of St. Osyth. in London, where he 5,„.-, began to preach (.pinions similar to those which he had denounced as heresy in his recantation.

He was placed on trial'before the Convocation and admitted the eight charges preferred again-t him, which were as follows:" (!) That he would not adore the Cross on which Christ -nffered. but only the Christ who suffered upon it. (-J) That he would rather bow to a temporal king than a wooden cross. (3i That lie would rather honour the bodies of saints than the true Cross, -uppo-ing it were before him. (4) That he would rather worship a man confessing and repentant than the Cross of Christ. (.">) That he was more bound to worship a man whom he knew to he predestined than an angel of God. (C) That if anv person had made a vow to visit the holy placeat Rome or Canterbury, or anywhere 'else, to obtain some temporal benefit he'was not bound to fulfil his vow literally, but might spend hi.money on the poor. (7) That any prie-t or deacon is more bound to preach the word of God than to say the hours. And (S) that after the words of consecration in the Eucharist the bread remained bread and nothing more. Chatrys was found guilty on all counts and was condemned to death under a statute know'., as De Haeretico Comburendo. which had been passed by Henry IV.. and which nerniiue,] the ecclesiastical authorities to burn at the .-take anv persons whom they chose to find guilt v of here>v Ihis statute, however, had not " become law At the time of Chatrys' conviction, and the sentence passed upon him was therefore an illegal one. but it was speedily carried out. and he met'his terrible death at the historic St. Paul's (Yoss.

Ihe fact that many historians referred to the martyred priest a- Sir William has led to the erroneous belief that he was a knight, hut such was not the ease. In his dav m.mv cbu-vme,, were styled "Sir.'' and several instances of thieustom appear in Shakespeare's plavs. where we iind Sir Hugh Kvans in "Twelfth" Xighf " *-ir Olher Martext in "As You Like It." and Nathaniel in "Love's Labour Lost." all of whom were ecclesiastics.