General Notes

[Vinson.FTW]



Executed as a Protestant.

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A Sermon (No. 112) Delivered on Sabbath Morning, January 11, 1857, by the REV. C.H. SPURGEON at the Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens.

".... I love my Bible because it is a Bible baptized with blood; I love it all the better, because it has the blood of Tyndal on it; I love it, because it has on it the blood of John Bradford, and Rowland Taylor, and Hooper; I love it, because it is stained with blood....."

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1530 - Educated at Cambridge in Ecclesiastical and Civil Law, LLD
May 03, 1552 - Was appointed to Archdeaconry of Cornwall for life.
February 09, 1553/54 - Beaten and burned at the stake for his religious beliefs by order of Stephen Gardemen, Catholic Archbishop of Winchester. Have also seen his date of death as March 05 1554/56

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Rowland Taylor was born in 1510 in Rothbury, Northumberland, England. He married Margaret "of the house of Tyndale". Whether she was related to John Tyndale who was martyred for translating the Bible into English is unclear.
Dr. Taylor's parish was St. Mary's, in a village named Hadleigh in Suffolk. This parish was known as a "peculiar" because Dr. Taylor reported directly to the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the time, Hadleigh was a well-to-do woolmarket town. When the writer first visited England he was pleased to even find the town of Hadleigh. Being American, where anything over forty years old is bulldozed to make way for a parking lot, he was surprised to find that the church, St. Mary's, still exists. In addition, the front portion of the rectory still stands as well as the Hadleigh Guildhall adjacent to the church. The portion of the rectory remaining was the gatehouse of a much larger residence. The guildhall was built in the 1400's. Just outside of town, at Aldham Commons, is a monument marking the spot where Rowland Taylor was martyred.
Dr. Taylor was imprisoned in London for more than a year. As he was being escorted back to Hadleigh for his execution, he was held overnight in the basement of the Guildhall of Corpus Christi in Lavenham. Lavenham is another Suffolk woolmarket town. When the English broadcloth market collapsed, prosperity left Lavenham. As a result, the village is much the same today as it was in the 1500's.
Inside St. Mary's church in Hadleigh is a chapel honoring the memory of Rowland Taylor. There is a stained-glass window depicting his trial and martyrdom. In the chapel is an ancient bronze plaque commemorating the death of Dr. Taylor. Also, there is a beautiful modern stained-glass window (see photo) in another part of this 13th Century church.

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Rowland Taylor Memorial Bronze Plaque
Gloria in altillimis deo
(Glory to God in the Highest)
of Rowland Taylor's fame and show
An excellent Divine
And Doctor of the Civil law
A preacher rare and fine
King Henry and king Edward days
Preacher and parson here
That gave to God continual praise
And kept his flock in fear
And for the truth condemned to die
He was in fiery flame
Where he received patiently
The torment of the same
And strongely suffered to the end
Which made the standers by
Rejoice in God to see their friend
And pastor so to Die
O Taylor were thy mighty fame
Uprightly here enrolled
Thy Deeds deserve that thy good name
Were ciphered here in gold
Obit Anno din. 1555
(Died in the Year of Our Lord 1555)

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WHY WERE OUR REFORMERS BURNED?
From the Book - Five English Reformers

J.C. Ryle - 1890

The third leading Reformer who suffered in Mary's reign was Rowland Taylor, Rector of Hadleigh, in Suffolk. He was burned on Aldham Common, close to his own parish, the same day that Hooper died at Gloucester, on Saturday, the 9th February, 1555. Rowland Taylor is one of whom we know little, except that he was a great friend of Cranmer, and a doctor of divinity and canon law. But that he was a man of high standing among the Reformers is evident, from his being ranked by his enemies with Hooper, Rogers, and Bradford; and that he was an exceedingly able and ready divine is clear from his examination, recorded by Foxe. Indeed, there is hardly any of the sufferers about whom the old Martyrologist has gathered together so many touching and striking things. One might think he was a personal friend.
Striking was the reply which he made to his friends at Hadleigh, who urged him to flee, as he might have done, when he was first summoned to appear in London before Gardiner: -What will ye have me to do?. I am 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 this Bishop and tell him to his beard that he doth naught. I believe before God that I shall never be able to do for my God such good service as I may do now.' 'Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," vol. iii. p.138.
Striking were the replies which he made to Gardiner and his other examiners. None spoke more pithily, weightily, and powerfully than did this Suffolk incumbent.
Striking and deeply affecting was his last testament and legacy of advice to his wife, his family, and parishioners, though far too long to be inserted here, excepting the last sentence : -"For God's sake beware of Popery: for though it appear to have in it unity, yet the same is vanity and Antichristianity, and not in Christ's faith and verity."-Foxe's "Acts and Monuments," vol. iii.p.144.
He was sent down from London to Hadleigh, to his great delight, to be burned before the eyes of his parishioners. When he got within two miles of Hadleigh, the Sheriff of Suffolk asked him how he felt. "God be praised, Master Sheriff," was his reply, "never better. For now I am almost at home. I lack but just two stiles to go over, and I am even at my Father's house."
As he rode through the streets of the little town of Hadleigh, he found them lined with crowds of his parishioners, who had heard of his approach, and came out of their houses to greet him with many tears and lamentations. To them he only made one constant address, "I have preached to you God's Word and truth, t and am come this day to seal it with my blood."
On coming to Aldham Common, where he was to suffer, they told him where he was. Then he said,-" Thank God, I am even at home."
When he was stripped to his shirt and ready for the stake, 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 the Bible; and I am come hither to seal it with my blood." He would probably have said more, but, like all the other martyrs, he was strictly forbidden to speak, and even now was struck vio- lently on the head for saying these few words. He then knelt down and prayed, a poor woman of the parish insisting, in spite of every effort to prevent her, in kneeling down with him. After this, he was chained to the stake, and repeating the 51st Psalm, and crying to God, "Merciful Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, receive my soul into Thy hands," stood quietly amidst the flames without crying or moving, till one of the guards dashed out his brains with a halberd. And so this good old Suffolk incumbent passed away.