Thomas Bilney | |
|---|---|
 Illustration fromFoxe's Book of Martyrs, 1563 | |
| Born | c. 1495 Norfolk, England |
| Died | 19 August 1531 (agedc. 36) Lollards Pit, Norwich |
| Cause of death | Martyrdom |
| Alma mater | Trinity Hall, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Clergyman |
Thomas Bilney (c. 1495 – 19 August 1531) was an English Christianmartyr.
Thomas Bilney was born around 1495 in Norfolk, most likely inNorwich. Nothing is known of his parents except that they outlived him. He enteredTrinity Hall, Cambridge at a young age, around the year 1510. During his life he was nicknamedLittle Bilney because of his short stature.[1]
At Cambridge, he studied law, graduating LL.B. and takingholy orders in 1519.[2] Finding no satisfaction in the mechanical system of theschoolmen, he turned his attention to the Greek edition of theNew Testament published byErasmus in 1516.[3]
During his reading in the Epistles, he was struck by the words of1 Timothy 1:15, which in English reads, "This is afaithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am the chief." "Immediately", he records, "I felt a marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones lept for joy, Psal. 51:8. After this, the Scripture began to be more pleasant unto me than the honey or the honeycomb; wherein I learned that all my labours, my fasting and watching, all the redemption of masses and pardons, being done without truth in Christ, who alone saveth his people from their sins; these I say, I learned to be nothing else but even, as St. Augustine saith, a hasty and swift running out of the right way".
The Scriptures now became his chief study, and his influence led other young Cambridge men to think along the same lines. Among his friends wereMatthew Parker, the futureArchbishop of Canterbury, andHugh Latimer. Latimer, previously a strenuous conservative, was completely won over, and a warm friendship sprang up between him and Bilney. "By his confession", said Latimer, "I learned more than in twenty years before".[3]
In 1525 Bilney obtained a licence to preach throughout thediocese of Ely. He denouncedsaint andrelic veneration, together withpilgrimages toWalsingham and Canterbury, and refused to accept the mediation of the saints.[4] The diocesan authorities raised no objection, considering his diverging views to be of minor relevance to the essentials of the Christian faith, and he was orthodox on the authority of the Pope and Church, and ontransubstantiation.[3]
Cardinal Wolsey took a different view. In 1526 he appears to have summoned Bilney before him. On his taking anoath that he did not hold and would not disseminate the doctrines ofMartin Luther, Bilney was dismissed. But in the following year serious objection was taken to a series of sermons preached by him in and near London, and he was dragged from the pulpit while preaching inSt George's ChapelIpswich, arrested and imprisoned in theTower. Arraigned before Wolsey,William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and several bishops in the chapter-house atWestminster Abbey, he was convicted ofheresy, sentence being deferred while efforts were made to induce him to recant, which eventually he did.[5]
After being kept for more than a year in the Tower, he was released in 1529, and went back to Cambridge. Here he was overcome with remorse for hisapostasy, and after two years he was determined to preach again what he had held to be the truth. The churches being no longer open to him, he preached openly in the fields, finally arriving inNorwich, where the bishop,Richard Nix, caused him to be arrested. Articles were drawn up against him byConvocation, he was tried, degraded from his orders and handed over to the civil authorities to beburned.[6] Protestant writer D'Aubigne's 1882Martyrs of the Reformation relates that BishopCuthbert Tunstall "who was not a cruel man, was deeply moved, and then a strange struggle took place—a judge wishing to save the prisoner, the prisoner desiring to give up his life."[7]: 82
The sentence was carried out at Lollards Pit, Norwich on 19 August 1531.[4] After witnessing Bilney's death, Bishop Nix is reported to have said, "I fear I have burned Abel and let Cain go".[8]
A parliamentary inquiry was threatened into this case, not becauseParliament approved of Bilney's doctrine but because it was alleged that Bilney'sexecution had been obtained by the ecclesiastics without the proper authorisation by the state. In 1534 Bishop Nix was condemned on this charge to the confiscation of his property.[6]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Pollard, Albert Frederick (1911). "Bilney, Thomas". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 945–946.
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