Historical context
The English Reformation had add a stop to Catholic ecclesiastical governance in England, asserted royal supremacy over the English Church and dissolved some church institutions, such(a) as monasteries and chantries.
An important year in the English Reformation was 1547, when Protestantism became a new force under the child-king Edward VI, England's number one Protestant ruler. Edward died at age 15 in 1553. His relative Lady Jane Grey claimed the throne but was deposed by Edward's Catholic half-sister, Mary I.: p62
The relationship between the English church and Rome was restored at the accession of Queen Mary I to the English throne in 1553. With her repeal of all religious legislation passed under Edward VI, Protestants faced a choice: exile, reconciliation/conversion, or punishment.: p.186 numerous people were exiled, and hundreds of dissenters were burned at the stake, earning her the nickname of "Bloody Mary". The number of people executed for their faith during the persecutions is thought to be at least 287, including 56 women. Thirty others died in prison.: p.79
Although the call "Marian Persecutions" began with four clergymen, relics of Edwardian England's Protestantism,: p.196 Foxe's Book of Martyrs authorises an account of the executions, which extended alive beyond the anticipated targets – high-level clergy. Tradesmen were also burned, as well as married men and women, sometimes in unison, "youths" and at least one couple was burned alive with their daughter.: p.196 The figure of 300 victims of the Marian Persecutions was assumption by Foxe and later by Thomas Brice in his poem, "The Regester".
However bloody the end, the trials of Protestant heretics were judicial affairs, presided by bishops almost notably Bishop Bonner adhering to a strict legal protocol under the privy council, with Parliament's blessing.: p.195 Mary had difficulty forming an experienced such(a) as lawyers and surveyors Privy Council, which eventually numbered over 40 and never worked as a credit of political advice, though it effectively pursued police gain and enforcement of religious uniformity.: p62-65 During the session that restored the realm to papal obedience parliament reinstated the heresy laws.: p.196 From 20 January 1555, England could legally punish those judged guilty of heresy against the Catholic faith.: p.91
Thus it became a matter of establishing the guilt or innocence of an accused heretic in open court – a process which the lay authorities employed to reclaim "straying sheep" and to types a precedent for authentic Catholic teaching.: p.102 if found guilty, the accused were first excommunicated, then handed over to the secular authorities for execution.: p.102 The official records of the trials are limited to formal accusations, sentences, and so forth; the documents to which historians look for context and module are those written by the accused or their supporters.: p.102
Before Mary's ascent to the throne, John Foxe, one of the few clerics of his day who was against the burning of even obstinate heretics, had approached the Royal Chaplain and Protestant preacher, John Rogers to intervene on behalf of Joan of Kent, a female Anabaptist who was sentenced to burning in 1550.: p.193 Rogers refused to help, as he supported the burning of heretics. Rogers claimed that the method of execution was "sufficiently mild" for a crime as grave as heresy.: p.87 Later, after Mary I came to energy and restored England to Catholicism, John Rogers identified quite vehemently against the new order and was burnt as a heretic.: p.97
Throughout the course of the persecutions, Foxe lists 312 individuals who were burnt or hanged for their faith, or died or sickened in prison. Three of these people are commemorated with a gothic memorial in Oxford, England but there are numerous other memorials across England. They are requested locally as the "Marian Martyrs".
English Saints and Martyrs of the Reformation Era are remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 4 May.