John Tewkesbury
John Tewkesbury was a Paternoster Row leather merchant in London and Protestant reformer, convicted of heresy and burned at the stake in West Smithfield, London, on 20 December 1531.
Protestant conversion
In 1512, Tewkesbury came into the possession of a manuscript copy of the Bible. He later bought an English language translation of the New Testament by William Tyndale. "He was a clever and eloquent man and a man of influence in London. He was one of the most knowledgeable of the Scriptures of all the evangelicals." He was converted by reading Tyndale's New Testament and The Parable of the Wicked Mammon.First arrest
Arrest and discovery
On Wednesday 21 April 1529 Tewkesbury was arrested and brought before Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, and his assistants, Henry Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, and John Islip, abbot of Westminster. Tewkesbury's eloquence stunned the bishops. Realizing that he could effectively argue through Scripture, they decided further inquiry was in order.Examination
Later that month, Tewkesbury was examined before the bishops Cuthbert Tunstall of London, Nicholas West of Ely, John Longland of Lincoln, and John Clerk of Bath and Wells regarding The Wicked Mammon, which he had sold. He was questioned regarding nineteen articles from the book. His final reply was, "I pray you reform yourself, and if there be any error in the book, let it be reformed. I think it is good enough."He was ordered to appear the following day, before John Cox, vicar-general to the archbishop of Canterbury, Galfride Warton, Rowland Philips, William Philow, and Robert Ridley, professors of divinity. Tewkesbury appeared again and was examined on five articles from The Wicked Mammon. The consensus among the inquisitors was that knowledge and independent thinking by the laity was even more dangerous than the heresy of some priests.
Punishment
On 8 May, he was ordered to carry a bundle of sticks at St. Paul's Church on the following Sunday. He was to carry a bundle of sticks other places on the following week and wear sticks embroidered on both sleeves. He was also ordered to enter the monastery of St. Bartholomew's on Whitsunday eve and remain there until released by the Bishop. Following his incarceration at the monastery, he renounced his prior beliefs and was released.Second arrest
Betrayal
In close co-operation with Cuthbert Tunstall's successor, John Stokesley, Sir Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England, arrested George Constantine, a Protestant book dealer, for heresy in 1531. Before escaping in early December, Constantine revealed the names of several fellow reformers.Arrest and discovery
Following his betrayal by Constantine, Tewkesbury was immediately arrested and held in the porter's lodge at More's Chelsea house.The popular anti-Catholic polemicist John Foxe claims More had Tewkesbury pinioned "hand, foot, and head in the stocks" for six days before having him whipped at "Jesu's tree" in his garden, "and also twisted his brows with small ropes, so that the blood started out of his eyes".
More himself, however, denied such claims in his "Apology", which were circulating in continental Protestant at the time: