By the time of his death in April 1587 Foxe had been intimately concerned with events in the capital

for nigh
on 40 years, perhaps until then the most momentous in its long history. London had provided the backdrop
for the lion's share of the narratives which he put into print and yet in the last analysis there is a sense of
detachment from it on Foxe's part. There is no real sense in his pages that the most outward-looking
metropolis in Europe teemed with wealthy and influential citizens and merchants who helped to launch the
reign of the 'godly imp', 'sustained' protestantism under Mary and then, under Elizabeth, ensured that the new
regime and its leading ecclesiastics were adequately financed. Foxe was concerned solely with The Truth -
the universality of the protestant message - ignoring the uncomfortable fact that money was a vital ingredient
in its dissemination and ultimate survival. The ministrations of Mammon might be heartily welcomed in
private but they were not to be celebrated on the printed page.

The London laymen who would prove the most valuable sources of information and contact with friends and
relations outside the capital were almost to a man prosperous (and in some cases prodigiously wealthy)
members of London's great livery companies. The steady evangelization of the Great Twelve during Henry's
last years and then during Edward's reign can be plotted retrospectively by an analysis of the Elizabethan
exchequer records. Here we find a remarkably exact correlation between those 'sustainers of ... prisoners of
the gospel, and of such as fled abroad ... by money, clothes and provisions ...' whom John Strype enumerated
in his Ecclesiastical Memorials, while at the same time observing that many names had been 'studiously
concealed'.[40]. Strype derived his list largely from the names of the recipients of the published letters of
Bradford, Careless, Hooper, Saunders, Philpot and Whittle, as published in Certain comfortable letters of
such true saints as in the late bloody persecution gave their lives, which, compiled by Henry Bull in
collaboration with Foxe, appeared with a preface by Miles Coverdale in 1564 and was thereafter
incorporated into later editions of Actes and Monuments.[41] But what led Strype to notice that names had
been 'studiously concealed'? Scrutinizing Foxe's papers, he perhaps took particular note of a letter from
Thomas Upcher, former freewiller and now a minister in Colchester, Essex, who in conveying letters from
John Careless to Henry Bull requested that 'yf you put any of those in prynt that are derected to me leue out
my name in any wyse. Let this be the most …'.[42]
Altogether the essential point to grasp about the Elizabethan Settlement, and then the strain of defiant
nonconformity which sprang up in the aftermath of the Vestiarian Controversy, is the extent to which it was
supported financially by the London godly community who had formerly 'sustained' protestantism under
Mary. Susan Brigden asserted that over sixty such sustainers could be identified by name.[43] The evidence
of the Exchequer Composition books suggests that this number can be doubled if not tripled. Whilst a
checklist of those who came forward as sureties at the Exchequer for the protestant survivors of the Marian
Reaction who were rewarded with major ecclesiastical promotion in the early years of Elizabeth would run
perhaps to 400 names, to assume that all of these men had watertight protestant credentials would
nevertheless be hazardous. Clearly many were relatives of the cleric in question while a number of parochial
leaders who backed their new incumbent may simply have wished to make the transition from Mary to
Elizabeth without fuss. It remains possible, however, to isolate about 250 men whose activities as protestant
'angels' merit serious attention. 200 of these were members of the Great Twelve livery companies, of the
dozen who follow them in order of precedence, or of the Stationers' Company (whose rank of 47th scarcely
reflects its influence on civic life). The financial dealings at the exchequer of 136 of these leading merchants
have been tabulated in print.[44] They point unswervingly to a committed coterie who were to prove a vital
factor in propelling their fellow liverymen into the age of Elizabeth, either as loyal subjects who accepted her
settlement of religion without reservation or else as supporters of those many committed preachers who
wished to widen its horizons.
At the apex of this important group stand Richard Hilles, prime mover in founding Merchant Taylors'
School,[45] and John Abell, described by Christina Garrett, the first to gather up the scattered threads of his
career, as a 'merchant-banker'. In fact he was a prominent member of the Haberdashers' and, in company
with Sir Thomas Hoby, had been received in Strasburg by Martin Bucer as early as August 1547. He was
evidently on a government mission, initiated by Archbishop Cranmer, for he shepherded back to England not
only Bernardo Ochino but also Peter Martyr Vermigli. As an exile in Strasburg from 1554, he is found
closely associated with such prominent fugitives as Anthony Cooke, John Cheke, Miles Coverdale and
Francis Knollys. As late as January 1559 he was appointed temporary guardian of Archbishop Cranmer's son
and namesake and this circumstance prompted Miss Garrett to assert that he did not 'hurry back to England'
and is not found re-established in London until 1563.[46] In reality he returned in plenty of time to 'sustain'
two of the most prominent clerical members of the secret congregation of London, Thomas Bentham and
William Lyving. On 24 April 1560, as haberdasher of St Bartholomew the Less, he stood surety at the
exchequer with seven other influential citizens for Bentham's first fruits on his elevation to the bishopric of
Coventry and Lichfield. On 15 December 1561, by then of the parish of St Swithin, he stood surety for
William Lyving, presented to the rectory there by John Hart, citizen and alderman of London.[ 47] Little else
is known of his activities for the short remainder of his life beyond the fact that references to him by Grindal
and Robert Home are 'constant and affectionate'. Grindal reported his death to Heinrich Bullinger on 12
August 1569.[48]
Of the godly connections under Elizabeth of Richard Springham, mercer, nothing can be said with certainty
except that on his return from Strasburg in May 1559 he also settled in the parish of St Bartholomew the
Less ('Bread Street'), standing surety for the Frenchman Jean Veron when he received St Martin Ludgate the
following year.[49] The brothers George and Thomas Heton, by contrast, are well documented in the
Elizabethan records.[50] George (died c1588), father of Martin Heton, bishop of Ely, chose to remain in
London under Mary, managing the remarkable feat of combining his role as 'sustainer' with the mastership of
the Merchant Taylors' Company in 1556-7. In 1559 he was assessed in the High Assessment for London
among the city's 700 wealthiest citizens but by 1563, when he was appointed Chamberlain of London, had
suffered a series of financial reverses. Heton recovered his losses by 1572 but in December 1577, once again
in debt, he was dismissed from the chamberlainship in circumstances which remain mysterious. Whilst never
appearing at the exchequer as surety for any of his clerical friends it was presumably he himself who
supplied Bull and Foxe with two letters addressed to him by the martyr John Bradford as his 'dear friend and
brother in the Lord'.[51]
Thomas Heton, free of the Mercers' Company since 1539, chose exile, keeping open house for fellow-
fugitives in Strasburg and forming a life-long friendship with Thomas Sampson in the process. Settling in the
parish of St Lawrence Jewry on his return, Heton was one of the many who stood surety for Edwin Sandys'
first fruits as bishop of Worcester on 12 April 1560. Ten years later he guaranteed Sampson's first fruits for
his prebend in St Paul's when Sandys, now bishop of London, collated him to the office of penitentiary.[ 52]
It was also presumably Thomas rather than his brother George to whom John Jewel was referring when he
wrote in October 1560 that his 'frende Mr Heton' had loaned him the ₤307 necessary to discharge his initial
instalment for the first fruits of the bishopric of Salisbury.[53]
Heton remained a hyperactive influence among the London godly for the rest of his life. He was involved in
the re-establishment of the French Church in London in June 1560 and in 1562 was a prime mover in the
(finally abortive) negotiations designed to adopt the port of Emden as England's outlet for the export of
English cloth in place of Antwerp. In 1569, along with John Bodley, Heton and Thomas Sampson were
appointed overseers of the will of the haberdasher Nicholas Culverwell, an early patron of John Field.
Thereafter appointed Governor of the English Merchant Adventurers in Antwerp, Heton was present there in
November 1576 when the city was sacked by Spanish troops. The poet George Gascoigne, who wrote an
eyewitness account of events, described him as 'a comely aged man ... whose hoary hairs might move pity ...
especially the uprightness of his dealing considered'.[54. ] Heton survived to return to St Lawrence Jewry by
1582 and in 1586-7 served out a full year as Master of the Mercers' Company but disappears from the
Mercers' records after a stray entry in November 1587. His support of the evangelical cause over more than
thirty years is incalculable and the fact that no will has ever been located possibly represents a huge loss to a
full appreciation of the inner workings of the godly network.[55]
Thomas Sampson's connections with the London godly were many and varied after his arrival there under
Edward as perhaps the most eloquent of all the new generation of evangelical preachers. He was to write that
he had 'oftentimes ... sitten at dinner and supper' with the martyred John Bradford 'in the house of that good
harbourer of many preachers and servants of the Lord Jesus ... Mr Elsyng'.[56] Henry Elsing was a baker of
St Dunstan-in-the-West, Henry Bull's home parish, and stood surety for Sampson at the exchequer when he
received the rectory of All Hallows Bread Street from Archbishop Cranmer in March 1552.[ 57] He never
appeared again as a surety at the exchequer but after the early death of Augustine Bernher he 'kepte
ofcharitie' his daughter Ursula, bequeathing her a handsome ₤6 13s. 4d. in his will of 1577. He also endowed
studentships in divinity at both universities worth the generous sum of ₤10 per annum to the recipients.[58]
One of the Marian 'sustainers' whose name was 'studiously concealed' was that of William Winthrop, a
member of the Clothworkers' Company, whose half-brother Adam was the father of John Winthrop, first
Governor of Massachusetts. William supplied Foxe with papers which had belonged to the martyr John
Philpot and had obviously been an active member of the secret London congregation. He stood surety at the
exchequer on several occasions, the last (in 1569) being for one of the congregation's former leaders, Robert
Cole.[59]
Another route by which it is possible to trace the activities of the London godly is provided by T. S. Willan, a
first-rate (and now unjustly neglected) historian of the Manchester School. Willan had no interest whatsoever
in religion, concentrating his attentions solely on the trading interests of late Tudor merchants and their
aristocratic associates. His researches into London mercantile ventures nevertheless throw much incidental
light on the family and godly connections of many of those under discussion. The Muscovy Company was
established during Mary's early months on the throne and its leading light appears to have been Sir George
Barne, Lord Mayor of London at the time of her accession.[60] Uncle of Nicholas Culverwell, who served
his apprenticeship under him, Barne was praised by Bishop Ridley in his Farewell for his benefactions while
the funeral service of his wife Alice was preached in early 1559 by the newly-returned exile and future
bishop of Winchester, Robert Home.[61]
Willan's checklist of the Muscovy merchants includes the Heton brothers and Richard Springham as well as
Barne's son-in-law 'the good' Alexander Carleill, a future Master of the Vintners' Company, whose widow
Anne later married Sir Francis Walsingham.[62] Other names which invite attention include the mercer John
Eliot(t), factor and agent to Sir Thomas Gresham. Amongst his apprentices during Mary's reign was Richard
Culverwell and in 1560 Eliot was one of a quartet of godly Londoners who stood surety for William Barlow's
first fruits as bishop of Chichester.[63] Anthony Gamage was to become a patron of the radical Genevan
exile Percival Wiburn, a chaplain and eminence grise of Sir Nicholas Bacon.[64] Anthony Hickman, yet
another well-heeled mercer, was later to decamp to Antwerp with his wife Rose, who at the end of her life
penned an account of her early experiences in temporary exile, incidentally mentioning that her husband had
lent Michael Reniger money (which he repaid) to finance his escape abroad.[65] Sir Andrew Judd, founder
of Tonbridge School and last Master of the Staple in Calais, had a daughter Alice who married Thomas
'Customer' Smith.[66] Their son, the future Sir Thomas Smith, first governor of the East India Company,
took as his first wife Judith, only daughter of Richard Culverwell.
John Kempe may have been the draper of St Antholin who stood surety for Alexander Wimshurst's rectory of
All Hallows Bread Street in early 1560 or else his brother (also John) whose bequests included a total of
₤200 to the two universities.[67] John Marsh, M.P. for London and patron of William Lydd, has already been
mentioned. The immensely rich John Quarles, twice Master of the Drapers' Company, was a friend and
patron of Robert Crowley.[68] The equally wealthy Geoffrey Walkden, twice Master of the Skinners', was
one of only two men challenged and debarred from the jury at the trial of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton in
1554. He confirmed his protestant credentials by standing surety for John Veron's prebend of Mora in St
Paul's in 1559 and for Thomas Bentham's first fruits as bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in 1560.[69]
If the Muscovy Company cannot and should not be written up as a 'godly' enterprise - many hard-headed
business men who had no more interest in reformed religion that Willan himself displayed were members of
it - it provides many an insight into the ways of London protestantism under Edward and Mary, as well as a
distinct pointer towards the manner in which the London mercantile community would be deploying its
energies, and forming family alliances, under a revived protestant regime during the following decades.
One of the most striking aspects of Actes and Monuments, in its later recensions, is Foxe's almost complete
refusal to engage with the reminiscences of those who had contrived to survive the Marian persecution. The
first edition was in part an omnium gatherum of protestant fortunes under Mary in which the names of many
who had experienced narrow escapes at the hands of the authorities, both central and local, were briefly
chronicled.[70] In his later editions Foxe systematically expunged these terse accounts. Indeed, he simply
ceased to be interested in survivors, concentrating ever more single-mindedly on the martyrs rather than
upon the collective experience of those who had endured the Marian years.[71]
For that reason, perhaps, he declined even in the first edition to capitalize on the widely-available oral
testimony of those who had been members of London's secret protestant congregation.[72] His meagre (and
dubious) chronology of the congregation's succession of clerical leaders is encapsulated in a single sentence,
… from the first beginning, which was about the first entry of Quene Maries reygne, they had diuers
ministers, firste maister Schamlere, then Thomas Fowle, after him maister Rowgh, then maister Austen, and
last maister Bentam, …[73]
No corroborating evidence for the involvement of Scambler and Foule (Fowle) has ever been unearthed
while the suggestion that Scambler, Elizabeth's first bishop of Peterborough, and Bentham, her first bishop of
Coventry and Lichfield, were the alpha and omega of the congregation subtly conveys the impression that
the congregation was merely a sliver of the disbanded Edwardian church, meeting under quasi-episcopal
control. As Foxe perfectly well knew it was in reality nothing of the kind but rather a self-governing and
increasingly radical operation. It probably took its cue from the reformed church order which, as
superintendent of London's Strangers' Church after 1550, John à Lasco had been allowed by the privy
council to practice and develop and which in 1555 he put into print as Forma ac Ratio.[74] It is also possible
that the London Marian congregation experienced precisely the same kind of wrangling over discipline as
shattered the English exile colony in Frankfurt. In 1563, therefore, when Elizabeth had yet to set her face
irrevocably against modification of the 1559 settlement, it would no doubt have been impolitic to expose all
its activities to detailed scrutiny in print.
Foxe accordingly suppressed vital information - principally, that the congregation's quasi-episcopal
succession of pastors had been supported (perhaps in certain circumstances challenged?) by other fugitive
ministers. The point is graphically illustrated by the fact that the deacon Thomas Simpson is now known to
have been ordained priest by an 'evangelical rite' in the redundant city church of St Mary Axe at the end of
1557 in the 'presence' not only of 'Mr Austen' (that is, Augustine Bernher) but also of the ministers William
Lyving and Robert Cole and of a layman, Avery Brierton, who proves to have been a merchant tailor of the
parish of St Martin Vintry, home parish of the Culverwell family.[75]
Although in 1563 Foxe accorded Lyving and his wife Juliana a modicum of space as brave souls who had
courted martyrdom in the dying months of the Marian regime, he says nothing about their subsequent
fortunes. There are scattered references to Robert Cole, one to Thomas Simpson as a deacon; none at all to
Avery Brierton.[76]. Only John Rough, the congregation's leader for a mere month, is given his due, for the
very good reason that he was swiftly caught, indicted and burnt in December 1557[77]
But a conundrum remains: if it was advisable in 1563 to present the congregation as 'orthodox', why did
Foxe never choose to tell more of the truth about its activities in his later editions, which in other respects
manifest his growing disillusion with the conservatism of the Elizabethan regime? Why not, for example, let
the cat out of the bag concerning Thomas Simpson's ordination, as a sop to the surviving radicals and as a red
rag to the bishops? It was perhaps Foxe's residual loyalty to Edwin Sandys (bishop of London 1570-77) and,
despite their differences of opinion on the subject of conformity, his residual friendship with John Aylmer
(bishop of London 1577-94) that stayed his hand.
There may also be a hidden agenda on Foxe's part over and above his gradual disengagement with the
fortunes of Marian survivors. His deepening disillusion as the arteries of the Elizabethan regime appeared to
be hardening by the mid-1560s may have run parallel with a deepening disgust with those protestant heroes
of the 1550s whose arteries appeared to be hardening along with it. Robert Cole's efforts under Mary were
swiftly rewarded by Archbishop Matthew Parker with the London rectory of St Mary-le-Bow, mother church
of Canterbury's peculiar jurisdiction within the city (the deanery of the Arches). During the Vestiarian
controversy he acted as mannequin at Parker's behest, parading in the prescribed clerical vestments before
the city ministers whom the archbishop had summoned to Lambeth. In 1569 he received a second city living
at Parker's hands. Likewise, Crowley, Lyving and Thomas Simpson all ended their days as (apparently
conformist) pluralists.[78] In sum, the gradually unfolding realities of the Elizabethan years perhaps placed
many an old friendship under strain, separating conforming sheep from radical goats.