a happy ending

The Lollard's Pit in Norwich, England was one of the sites used for the burning of martyrs, those who were judged heretics by the Imperial Church of Rome; Smithfield was another. Images:

here, here, here and here (this last image is of the martyrdom of William Tyndale whose final prayer was "Lord, open the king of England's eyes". He wanted an English translation of the Bible for the common folk; this could only be done by the authority of the king.

While the images seem stylized, they nevertheless convey the experience of these martyrs. And Thomas Bilney was to be counted among them. He was convicted of heresy, but his friends pressured him and felt he would be throwing his life away just when he was spreading the gospel so successfully.

So he recanted; he was then paraded around a public area carrying fagots***** to remind him he had recanted and thus would not burn in an inferno of fagots. (See the images linked above to see the twigs and sticks bound together to provide this furnace of torture.) He was then returned to prison. *****At the site of Paul's Cross, he had to use his fagots to ignite and burn a stack of William Tyndale's Bibles.

However, the punishment of being burned at the stake was nothing compared to what was to come. The burning of William Tyndale's Bibles absolutely shattered him.

"After he spent a year in the Tower he returned to Cambridge, but he was so tortured by remorse that he had denied his Christ, that he could not bear to have anyone, not even his old friend Latimer, read or mention the Scriptures him. 'His mind wandered, the blood froze in his veins, he sank under his terrors; he lost all sense, and almost his life, and lay motionless in the arms of his astonished friends.' He could obtain no consolation."

"...he resolved to rectify the great wrong he had done. He determined never again to renounce the truth of God's Word."

He returned to Norfolk the town where he had first preached. He no longer had a license to preach and was soon apprehended.

"The night before [his] execution, friends who came to comfort, reminded him, 'Though the fire would be hot, God's spirit would cool it.' To show them his lack of fear he put his finger in the candle flame, leaving it there until it was burned off to the first joint. He told them, ' I feel by experience, and have known it long by philosophy, that fire by God's ordinance is naturally hot; but yet I am persuaded by God's Holy Word, and by the experience of some mentioned in the Word, that in the flame they felt no heat, and in the fire they felt no consumption; and I can constantly believe, however the stubble of this my body shall be wasted by it, yet my soul and spirit shall be purged thereby, a pain for the time, whereon, notwithstanding, followeth joy unspeakable.' He referred them to Isaiah 43:2 'When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.'"

"'Little' Bilney was executed at Lollard's Pit..." faithful to his Christ and to the Truth of God's Word.

Like Little-Faith, Bilney faltered and stumbled in his Christian walk, but by God's grace and the Holy Spirit coming along side, he persevered to the end to give glory to his Savior and praise to his God.



quoted material taken from the Friends of William Tyndale site.