The Anabaptist Network

by Alan and
Eleanor Kreider

Introduction

The first Mennonite who made
England his home, the Canadian John Coffman, arrived in London during an air
raid in 1940. For the next five years, he distributed food and clothing and took
care of orphans as a representative of the Mennonite Central Committee, the
relief and development agency of the North American Mennonite Churches. In this
he was assisted by Eileen Pells Coffman, whom he met and married in London.
After the war John and Eileen worked as Mennonite missionaries with the Finsbury
Mission and the Free Gospel Hall; in 1967 they retired in Highgate. They were
much-loved parental figures among English Mennonites, and died in 1990 and 1999
respectively.

John Coffman enjoyed taking
tourists to sites in London that the tour-buses missed. The typical tourist,
John knew, visited sites associated with privilege, royalty and military might.
But there was another history – a Nonconformist history – that had left more
obscure monuments in the area to the north of the City where John and Eileen had
worked in the bleak, ration-ridden post-war years.

So John devised the
itinerary that we have followed in the following pages. Several times John took
us with him on his walk; to our delight it always involved stopping for tea at a
well-chosen restaurant! We have built on his itinerary, inserting a few
additional stops, biographical information and literary materials that we hope
will evoke something of the spirit of the people whom the places will recall.

Most of the people whom the
walk commemorates were not Anabaptists (who were almost entirely absent from
England after 1575); and one of them, the Protestant John Bradford, probably
would have been willing to see the Anabaptists burned. Yet all of the following
were nonconformists, for the sake of Jesus Christ, to the dominant forms of
Christianity of their time; all of them were people of courage and imagination.
All of them have been examples to us of the freedom and joy that comes to those
who follow Jesus. We believe that they will also be an inspiration to other
Christians, including Anabaptists.

Enjoy the walk!

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1. Wesley’s Chapel

Arriving at Bank tube
station by train, follow the ‘Way Out’ sign that points to ‘Lombard Sreet’
(rather than ‘Monument’). If yours was a southbound Northern Line train, then go
left upon exiting the train. After passing through turnstiles, continue straight
along corridor to Exit 2, ‘Princes St’. This passage will curve to the left
before the exit appears.

You will emerge at the
intersection of Threadneedle, Cornhill, Lombard and Princes Streets. The Royal
Exchange and a statue of the Duke of Wellington are to your left. Turn to the
right, going north, along Princes St. After crossing Lothbury St, the road name
changes to Moorgate. After crossing South Place, the name changes to Finsbury
Pavement, becoming Finsbury Square after one block. One block later, the street
becomes City Road. The road forks after 50 yards or so, with Tabernacle St on
the right. Keep left on City Road.

Having thus walked for ten
minutes northwards along Moorgate, Finsbury Square and City Road, the Wesley
buildings will emerge on the right.

Wesley House & Chapel

John Wesley (1703–1791) was the
founder of the Methodist movement. Fifteenth child of Revd Samuel and Mrs
Susannah Wesley (see below), John Wesley studied at Oxford where he, with other
earnest and scholarly undergraduates, met with a group variously called ‘The
Holy Club’ and ‘Methodists’. After a period of activity as a missionary in the
colony of Georgia, Wesley associated with pietists in London, including
Moravians, among whom in 1738 he had an experience of God’s grace, which
impelled him to ‘promote as far as I am able vital practical religion and by the
grace of God to beget, preserve, and increase the life of God in the souls of
men’. For the rest of his life he tirelessly toured throughout England, Ireland,
Wales and Scotland – to Scotland alone he paid 22 visits. The global Methodist
church was not his original intention; but he was passionately committed to
realising the values of the New Testament church through voluntary ‘Class
Meetings.’

It can scarce be conceived what advantages have
been reaped from this little prudential regulation [of Class Meetings]. Many now
happily experienced that Christian fellowship of which they had not so much as
an idea before. They began to 'bear one another's burdens,' and naturally to
'care for each other.' As they had daily a more intimate acquaintance with, so
they had a more endeared affection for, each other. And 'speaking the truth in
love, they grew up into Him in all things, who is the Head, even Christ.'
(Wesley, Works, Vol. 8, p. 254)

Wesley's Chapel

Wesley Chapel:
imposing and immaculately maintained, the
‘cathedral of Methodism’. Note especially Wesley’s pulpit (which used to be 15ft
high) and the dove of peace and serpent of wisdom motif around the balcony. The
stained glass (of which Wesley would not have approved) was added much later,
and the roof is a reconstruction of the original design.

Foundery Chapel:
intimate and retaining the feel of early Methodist
chapels, with simple pews and a tiny baptismal font. At the front is the organ
belonging to Charles Wesley, on which some of his famous hymns were composed.

Burial Ground:
behind the chapel is the burial site of John
Wesley and five ministers, one of whom, Thomas Oliver (died 1779), wrote the
hymn ‘The God of Abraham praise’.

The Museum of Methodism:
a wonderful collection of Wesleyan memorabilia,
giving an indication of the global character of Methodism.

Wesley’s House:
revealing the piety, the simplicity of life and
the wide-ranging intellect of John Wesley.

NB: The buildings are open 10 a.m. to 4
p.m. Monday to Saturday. There is an admission fee for the Museum and for
Wesley’s House.

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2. Bunhill Fields Burial
Ground

From the Wesley buildings cross City Road
and enter the burial grounds. October to March, these are open weekdays 7.30
a.m. to 4.30 p.m. and weekends/bank holidays 9.30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; April to
September, weekdays 7.30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and weekends/bank holidays 9.30 a.m. to
4 p.m. To view enclosed areas, ring 020 8472 3584, or on weekdays contact an
attendant.

Entrance to Bunhill Fields

Bunhill Fields (‘bonehill
fields’) were leased by the corporation of London from 1315 to 1867 as burial
ground that was not consecrated by the Church of England; hence it was an
important burial place for religious nonconformists and freethinkers. By the
19th century it had become overcrowded; the final burial, of a 15-year-old girl,
was in 1854.

It currently is a public open space, with
large trees and interesting vistas, and is a good place to sit down to rest and
eat sandwiches.

Turn left into
the first alcove.

 

 

 

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John Bunyan (1628–88):

pastor, evangelist, writer. After fighting in the
parliamentary armies in the Civil War, Bunyan joined an Independent congregation
in Bedford and soon became well known as a preacher. After the Restoration of
the Stuart monarchy in 1660, Bunyan was imprisoned for his nonconformist
religious activities. He spent 12 years in Bedford gaol, during which time he
wrote Grace Abounding. His later life was filled with preaching and
wide-ranging evangelistic activity, as well as with writing Pilgrim’s
Progress and The Holy War.

John Bunyan

It is not every suffering
that makes a martyr, but suffering for the Word of God after a right manner;
that is, not only for righteousness, but for righteousness’ sake; not only
for truth, but for love of truth; not only for God’s Word, but according to
it; to wit, in that holy, humble, meek manner, as the Word of God requireth.
It is a rare thing to suffer aright, and to have my spirit in suffering bent
only against God’s enemy, sin; sin in doctrine, sin in worship, sin in life,
and sin in conversation. I have often thought that the best of Christians
are found in the worst of times. And I have thought again that one reason
why we are no better, is because God purges us no more. Noah and Lot, who so
holy as they in the time of their afflictions? And yet who so idle as they
in the time of their prosperity? (‘Mr. Bunyan’s Dying Sayings’: The Works
of John Bunyan, Vol. 1 Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1977, pp. 65-66)

Turn right into
the first alcove. On the wall on the right is a map, showing the location of the
graves of various famous nonconformists, including the Puritans John Owen and
John Gill and the founder of the old nonconformist Dr Williams’ library, Daniel
Williams. Continue into this alcove.

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William Blake (1757–1827): artist, poet, seer. Author of profound
poems, full of imagery and illustrated with his own drawings and engravings,
including Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience. His poem
‘Milton’ contains the words of ‘Jerusalem’, commonly sung as an English national
hymn. His work is pervaded by his religious convictions, which express his
impatience with dogma and law and his compassionate and imaginative celebration
of the God of love and nature. He was an inheritor of the radical strand of
17th-century nonconformity, but as far as we know did not regularly attend any
church.

See also Daniel Defoe (1660–1731), author
of Gulliver’s Travels, in same alcove. Continue along the central walkway
to the very white gravestone on the left.

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Susanna Wesley (1669–1742):
the wife of Samuel Wesley, rector of
Epworth, Lincs, and mother of 19 children, including John Wesley and Charles
Wesley. Her husband was often absent in London for meetings of Convocation (an
assembly of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Canterbury in the Church of
England), leaving the parish for extended periods of time in charge of a curate.
During her husband’s absence, Mrs Wesley paid especial attention to the
education of her children. This led to Sunday evening meetings in the rectory,
to which large numbers came, to the discomfiture of her absent husband. Her
response to him is dated 6 February 1712.

I heartily thank you for
dealing so plainly and faithfully with me in a matter of no common concern.
The main of your objections against our Sunday evening meetings are, first,
that it will look particular; secondly, my sex; and lastly, your being at
present in a public station and character …

Bunhill Fields

To your second, I reply,
that as I am a woman, so I am also mistress of a large family. And though
the superior charge of the souls contained in it lies upon you, as head of
the family, and as their minister; yet in your absence I cannot but look
upon every soul you leave under my care as a talent committed to me, under a
trust, by the great Lord of all the families of heaven and earth. And if I
am unfaithful to him, or to you, in neglecting to improve their talents, how
shall I answer unto him when he shall command me to render an account of my
stewardship?

As these and other such
like thoughts made me at first take a more than ordinary care of the souls
of my children and servants; so, knowing that our most holy religion
requires a strict observance of the Lord’s day, and not thinking that we
fully answered the end of the institution by only going to church, but that
likewise we are obliged to fill up the intermediate spaces of that sacred
time by other acts of piety and devotion; I thought it my duty to spend some
part of the day in reading to and instructing my family, especially in your
absence, when, having no afternoon’s service, we have so much leisure for
such exercises …

This was the beginning of
my present practice: other people coming and joining with us was purely
accidental. Our lad told his parents – they first desired to be admitted;
then others who heard of it begged leave also; so our company increased to
about thirty, and seldom exceeded forty last winter; and why it increased
since, I leave you to judge after you have read what follows.

Soon after you went to
London, Emily found in your study the account of the Danish missionaries,
which having never seen, I ordered her to read it to me. I was never, I
think, more affected with anything than with the relation of their travels;
and was exceeding pleased with the noble design they were engaged in. Their
labours refreshed my soul beyond measure; and I could not forbear spending
good part of that evening in praising and adoring the divine goodness for
inspiring those good men with such an ardent zeal for his glory, that they
were willing to hazard their lives, and all that is esteemed dear to men in
this world, to advance the honour of their Master, Jesus. For several days I
could think of speaking of little else. At last it came to my mind, though I
am not a man nor a minister of the gospel, and so cannot be employed in such
a worthy employment as they were; yet, if my heart were sincerely devoted to
God, and if I were inspired with a true zeal for his glory, and did really
desire the salvation of souls, I might do somewhat more than I do. I thought
I might live in a more exemplary manner in some things; I might pray more
for the people, and speak with more warmth to those with whom I have an
opportunity of conversing. However, I resolved to being with my own
children; and, accordingly, I proposed and observed the following method. I
take such a proportion of time as I can best spare every night to discourse
with each child by itself, on something that relates to its principal
concerns.

With those few neighbours
who then came to me I discoursed more freely and affectionately than before.
I chose the best and most awakening sermons we had, and I spent more time
with them in such exercises. Since this our company has increased every
night, for I dare deny none that ask admittance. Last Sunday, I believe we
had above two hundred, and yet many went away for want of room …

Samuel Wesley at first
responded favourably, but then, upon objection of the curate and a few
others, he became alarmed and wrote to Susannah to discontinue the meetings.
On 25 February she responded:

Bunhill Fields

I shall not inquire how it
was possible that you should be prevailed on by the senseless clamours of
two or three of the worst of your parish, to condemn what you so lately
approved. But I shall tell you my thoughts in as few words as possible. I do
not hear of more than three or four persons who are against our meeting, of
whom Inman [the curate] is the chief. He … may call it a conventicle; but we
hear no outcry here, nor has any one said a word against it to me. And what
does their calling it a conventicle signify? Does it alter the nature of the
thing? … If its being called a conventicle, by those who know in their
conscience they misrepresent it, did really make it one, what you say would
be somewhat to the purpose; but it is plain in fact that this one thing has
brought more people to church, than ever anything did, in so short a time.
We used not to have above twenty to twenty-five at evening service, whereas
we have now between two and three hundred; which are more than ever came
before to hear Inman in the morning …

If you do, after all, think
fit to dissolve this assembly, do not tell me that you desire me to do it,
for that will not satisfy my conscience; but send me your positive command,
in such full and express terms as may absolve me from all guilt and
punishment, for neglecting this opportunity of doing good, when you and I
shall appear before the great and awful tribunal of our LORD JESUS CHRIST.
(Adam Clarke, (ed.), Memoirs of the Wesley Family, 2nd ed., New York,
1848, pp. 387-393)

Walk down a
short path on the right.

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Isaac Watts (1674–1748):
the son of a respected Southampton schoolmaster,
who was twice imprisoned for his nonconformist convictions. Local benefactors,
who observed Isaac Watts’ gifts, offered him education at one of the
universities with a view to ordination in the Church of England; Watts refused
this, and chose instead to study at a nonconformist academy in Stoke Newington,
London. He soon began writing hymns, which he continued to do after his
ordination as a Congregational minister. His many hymns include ‘O God, our help
in ages past’, ‘When I survey the wond’rous cross’, and ‘Jesus shall reign where
e’re the sun’.

Turn right into the second alcove, where
there is a large tomb standing on its own.

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Dame Mary Page (died 1728, aged 55):
note her epitaph:

In 67 months she was tapped 66 times,

Had taken away 240 gallons of water

Without ever repining at her care

Or ever fearing the operation.

Return to the main walkway and turn right.
Leave Bunhill Fields, turning right (north) into Bunhill Row. Walk past
Moorfields Primary School on the right.

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3. Bunhill Meeting House

Turn left
(west) into Banner Street, walk 100 yards on the left side of the street. At a
signpost pointing left, turn under an archway in a block of flats to Bunhill
Meeting House. George Foxe is buried near the far wall of an enclosed (locked)
garden at the rear of the small meetinghouse, but the grave is clearly viewable
from outside the gates. Nearby is a small park, well equipped with playground
equipment and benches.

George Fox (1624–91):
the founder of the Quakers. The son of a weaver
and apprenticed to a shoemaker, Fox at 19 gave up a settled existence and began
an itinerant search for religious illumination. Three years later, after
receiving assurance of the Inner Light of the living Christ, he began to preach
and to attract followers. He was frequently imprisoned, both by the
nonconformists under the Protectorate and by the Anglicans after the
Restoration. His missionary journeys took him all over England, as well as to
Ireland, Holland and the New World. His followers, called ‘Friends of Truth’,
became established into a network of meetings on both sides of the Atlantic. The
following extract gives the flavour of his Christocentric radicalism and his
Spirit-inspired impromptu preaching.

Bunhill Meeting House

Then I asked, ‘Am I at
liberty and free from all that hath ever been done against me in this
matter?’ ‘Yes,’ said the judge, ‘you are free from all that hath been done
against you.’ But then, starting up in a rage, he said, ‘I can put the oath
to any man here, and I will tender you the oath again.’ I told him he had
examples enough yesterday of swearing and false-swearing, both in the
justices and the jury; for I saw before mine eyes that both justices and
jury had forsworn themselves.

The judge asked me if I
would take the oath. I bid him do me justice for my false imprisonment all
this while; for what had I been imprisoned so long for? And I told him I
ought to be set at liberty. ‘You are at liberty,’ said he, ‘but I will put
the oath to you again.’ Then I turned me about and said, ‘All people, take
notice, this is a snare, for I ought to be set free from the jailer and from
this Court.’ But the judge cried, ‘Give him the book’; and the sheriff and
the justices cried, ‘Give him the book.’ Then the power of darkness rose up
in them like a mountain; and a clerk lifted up a book to me. I stood still
and said, ‘If it be a Bible, give it me into my hand.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ said the
judge and justices, ‘give it him into his hand.’ So I took it and looked in
it, and said, ‘I see it is a Bible; I am glad of it.’

Now he had caused the jury
to be called, and they stood by; for after they had brought in their former
verdict, he would not dismiss them, though they desired it; but told them he
could not dismiss them yet, for he should have business for them, and
therefore they must attend and be ready when they were called. When he said
so, I felt his intent that if I was freed he would come on again. So I
looked him in the face, and the witness of God started up in him, and made
him blush when he looked at me again, for he saw that I saw him.

Nevertheless, hardening
himself, he caused the oath to be read to me, the jury standing by; and when
it was read, he asked me whether I would take the oath or not. Then said I,
‘Ye have given me a book here to kiss and to swear on, and this book which
he have given me to kiss, says, ‘Kiss the Son’; and the Son says in this
book, ‘Swear not at all’; and so says also the apostle James. Now, I say as
the book says, and yet ye imprison me; how chance ye do not imprison the
book for saying so? How comes it that the book is at liberty amongst you,
which bids me not swear and yet ye imprison me for doing as the book bids
me? Why don’t ye imprison the book?’ Now as I was speaking this to them and
held up the Bible open in my hand, to shew them the place in the book where
Christ forbids swearing, they plucked the book out of my hand again; and the
judge said, ‘Nay, but we will imprison George Fox.’ Yet this got abroad over
all the country as a by-word that they gave me a book to swear on that
commanded me not to swear at all; and that the Bible was at liberty, and I
in prison for doing as the Bible said.

Walk back
through archway into Banner Street. Turn left, and then turn left again into
Whitecross Street, site of the Whitecross Street Market. At Chequer Street look
left, noting the Peabody Trust buildings, erected for ‘artisans’, on both sides.

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Postwar residence of John & Eileen Coffman

From 1947 to 1955 John and
Eileen Coffman, who worked as Mennonites with the Finsbury Mission, lived with
their two sons on the fifth floor of building T and the second floor of building
N.

Continue south
on Whitecross Street past a supermarket, where you can buy food for lunch.

You are now approaching The
Barbican, a ‘comprehensively modern environment’ of three residential towers,
many walkways and flats, theatres and a concert hall constructed on the site of
buildings bombed in World War II.

Cross Chiswell Street at the zebra crossing
(the King’s Head pub is on the left); go forward into Silk Street. Enter the
Barbican Centre at the Silk Street Reception (open 24 hours a day); go past the
porter’s desk, go up the steps (or take the lift); go left along the corridor.
Follow the yellow line on the pavement and signs for Museum of London – Gate 7
(each ‘gate’ is an access to the lower pavement and street). As you view the
church of St Giles, Cripplegate, which you can visit, on your right, the yellow
line will fork to the left. Keep to the right-hand passage, going more-or-less
straight. Follow directions for Gate 7. As you approach Gate 7 you will also see
remains of the City wall, including a medieval bastion tower. You will come to a
crossroads of sorts, with a café on the left. Go right along Bastion Highwalk.

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4. Monument to John Wesley’s
Conversion

Museum of London:
a remarkable collection of artefacts, models,
pictures and displays concerning London’s history; there is an especially fine
scale model of London during the fire of 1666. In the courtyard in front of the
museum, there is ‘The Aldersgate Flame’ – a monument to John Wesley’s conversion
experience in nearby Aldersgate Street on 24 May 1738.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
May 21, 22, 23 (1738) I had continual sorrow and heaviness in my heart.

Wednesday May 24 – I think
it was about five this morning that I opened my Testament on those words,
‘There are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, even that ye
should be partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1.4). Just as I went out,
I opened it again on those words, ‘Thou art not far from the kingdom of God’
(Mark 12.34). In the afternoon I was asked to go to St. Paul’s. The anthem
was, ‘Out of the deep have I called unto Three, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice.
Oh, let Thine ears consider well the voice of my complaint. If Thou, Lord,
wilt be extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who may abide it? For
there is mercy with Thee: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is
plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from all his sins.’

In the evening I went very
unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading
Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine,
while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through
faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in
Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He
had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and
death.

I began to pray with all my
might for those who had in a more especial manner despitefully used me and
persecuted me. I then testified openly to all there what I now first felt in
my heart. (The Journal of John Wesley, ed. H.P. Hughes, Chicago:
Moody Press, n.d. pp. 62-63)

Church of St Botolph, Aldersgate

From the museum
and the monument, go straight until you come to the café. Then keep to the left,
curving around to Gate 7, going across the footbridge and down the stairway to
the street. Go right and right again into Aldersgate Street.

Pause at the Church of St
Botolph, Aldersgate; in its garden, there are finely executed ceramic tiles
by the Victorian artist G. F. Watts, devoted to ‘unsung heroes’, commemorating
their acts of bravery and self-sacrifice. On the front fence is a tablet
memorialising the conversion of John and Charles Wesley.

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5. Smithfield

Just before the
church, turn right into the street called Little Britain. Straight ahead is the
bulk of St Bartholomew’s Hospital. At the T-junction, cross at the pedestrian
light (looking left you will see St Paul’s Cathedral), and go right along a wall
in Little Britain, continuing left in Little Britain along a pedestrian walkway.
The ornate Smithfield Market looms ahead. Enter West Smithfield Square: walk a
few metres along the right side, and then go through a medieval gateway (exposed
in 1915 by a bomb dropped from a Zeppelin) to the churchyard.

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Church of St. Bartholomew the Great

St Bartholomew the Great (founded
1123): This is one of the few churches
that survived the great fire of 1666, and is a medieval treasure. It was much
reduced in size at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s,
but its chancel survives with a perfectly executed Norman apse. In the 18th
century the Lady Chapel was a print shop in which American leader Ben Franklin
worked as an apprentice.

Open Monday to Friday 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m.;
Saturday 10.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.; Sunday 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.;
closed Mondays in August.

West Smithfield Square:
carnivores look right to the Smithfield Meat
Market, beloved of connoisseurs of Victorian architecture. On the left in the
wall by the hospital is a slightly recessed marble monument to the Protestant
Reformers: John Rogers, John Bradford, John Philpot ‘and other servants of God
[who] suffered death by fire in the faith of Christ in the years 1555, 1556 and
1557. The noble army of martyrs praise thee!’ This memorial to the more than 200
Protestants who were executed in the 1550s under the reign of Catholic Queen
Mary was erected in 1870 by the Protestant Alliance, London.

John Bradford (1510–55):
from Lancashire, he was educated at the Inner
Temple and Cambridge, where he taught before being ordained and serving as
chaplain to Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, with whom he worked closely as a
committed Protestant and a gifted preacher. Under Queen Mary he was imprisoned
for 18 in the Tower of London, before being burned at Smithfield on 1 July 1555.
Shortly after his imprisonment he wrote the following letter to his mother,
brothers, sisters and friends in Manchester.

Good mother and brethren,
it is a most special benefit of God to suffer for his name’s sake and
gospel, as now I do. I heartily thank God for it, and am sure that with him
I shall be partaker of his glory; as Paul saith, ‘If we suffer with him, we
shall reign with him.’ Therefore, be not faint hearted, but rather rejoice,
at the least for my sake, which now am in the right and high way to heaven …

As for my preaching, I am
most certain it is and was God’s truth, and I trust to give my life for it,
by God’s grace. Indeed I thank him more for this prison than of any parlour,
yea, than of any pleasure that ever I had; for in it I find God my most
sweet good God always. The flesh is punished, first to admonish us now
heartily to live as we profess; secondly to certify the wicked of their just
damnation, if they repent not …

Marble Monument to Protestant Reformers

Wherefore fear God; stick
to his word though all the world swerve from it. Die you must once; and
when, or how, you cannot tell. Die therefore with Christ; suffer for serving
him truly and after his word: for sure may we be, that of all deaths it is
most to be desired to die for God’s sake. This is the most safe kind of
dying: we cannot doubt but that we shall go to heaven, if we die for his
name’s sake. And that you shall die for his name’s sake, God’s word will
warrant you, if you stick to that which God by me hath taught you. You shall
see that I speak as I think; for, by God’s grace, I will drink before you of
this cup, if I be put to it …

Happy may he be which of
conscience suffereth loss of life or goods in disallowing [the mass]. Come
not at it. If God be God, follow him; if the mass be God, let them that
will, see it, hear, or be present at it, and to the devil with it. What is
there as God ordaineth? His Supper was ordained to be received of us in the
memorial of his death, for the confirmation of our faith, that his body was
broken for us, and his blood shed for pardon of our sins; but in the mass
there is no receiving, but the priest keepeth all to himself alone. Christ
saith, ‘Take, eat.’ ‘No,’ saith the priest, ‘Gape, peep.’ There is a
sacrificing, yea, killing of Christ again as much as they may. There is
idolatry in worshipping the outward sign of bread and wine. There is all in
Latin; you cannot tell what he saith. To conclude, there is nothing as God
ordained. Wherefore, my good mother, come not at it …

Rejoice in my suffering,
for it is for your sakes to confirm the truth I have taught. (6 October
1553, in John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, Vol. 7, pp. 107-198)

Cross the road into centre of the square.
Walk past the entrance to an underground car park and through the gate (noting
the drinking fountain by the entrance, erected by the Metropolitan Drinking
Fountain and Cattle Trough Association) into a garden.

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Smithfield Square:
this area, on the edge of the City of London, was
called ‘smethefelde’ or ‘smooth-field’, and was used for jousts, tournaments,
for the famous Bartholomew’s Fair and for executions. This is a good place to
recall the execution of Anabaptists, for which there is no monument:

The religious changes in
mid-16th-century England led to Catholics burning Protestants and Protestants
executing Catholics. Note that the Protestants in power executed the Anabaptists
by the same method – burning – that the Catholics had used in killing
Protestants; note also that the burning of the two Anabaptists by Protestants
occurred just 20 years after the burning of Protestant John Bradford by
Catholics. The Anabaptists were forerunners of all who, as a result of Jesus’
teaching and way, repudiate persecution.

Smithfield Square

On Easter Sunday 1575 a group
of 26 Anabaptists, all apparently refugees from The Netherlands, were arrested
while meeting near Aldgate. Over the next months they were imprisoned in severe
conditions, both in solitary confinement ‘in a deep dungeon’ and among common
criminals, whom Church of England Bishop Sandys of London was concerned ‘should
not be seduced’ by the Anabaptists. Some of the prisoners (all men) recanted; 15
women, two men and a boy were deported; one died in prison; and two men – Jan
Pieterss and Hendrik Terwoort – were burned at the stake, on 22 July 1575.

During their imprisonment, the
Anabaptists met many prominent people, trying to intimidate them, to convert
them, to exorcise them. They also were visited by ‘S. B.’, an English man who
confessed them ‘to be among the children of God, and such as follow the life of
Christ most near, and I may so esteem of them that I think them worthy of
reverence, yea thinking myself if I may be but a hewer of wood and drawer of
water among them’. The imprisoned Anabaptists left several letters, of which one
is excerpted here:

We poor and despised
strangers, who are in persecution for the testimony of Jesus Christ, wish
all men, of whatever race or office, from God, that the Lord would grant
them a long peace, so that we may live in peace among one another, in all
godliness, to the praise and glory of the Lord, and the salvation of the
soul …

We are not addressed, and
interrogated concerning our faith, with a meek spirit, as the holy
Scriptures teach; but reproach is heaped upon reproach, and lie upon lie, to
increase and augment our afflictions and sorrows … Our country and kindred,
and our property, we had to leave … and fled as lambs before wolves, only
for the true evangelical truth of Jesus Christ, and not for any sedition or
heresy … We fain would that our whole faith and life were written on our
forehead, so that everyone might know and see what we believe, and what we
seek and desire here upon earth. There should nothing be found but a true
faith in full accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and an unblamable
life … Oh that our persecutors knew that this is the desire of our hearts,
they certainly could … have compassion upon us, as the prophet says: Bring
the poor that are afflicted to thy house.’ Isa 58.7. Moses says: ‘If a
stranger sojourn with thee in your land … the stranger shall be unto you as
one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself.’ Lev 19.33-34. Mark
well that God commands to love the stranger as ones own self … Oh that they
would deal so with us, according to natural equity, and the evangelical
truth (of which our persecutors so greatly boast), how soon should the
persecutors cease, and the lying and slandering moths be stopped. For Christ
and his own persecuted no one, but in his true Gospel taught the contrary,
as he says: ‘Love your enemies, and bless them that curse you, do good to
them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in
heaven.’ Matt 5.44 …

This is the doctrine left
by Christ and his apostles …even as Paul says: ‘Being reviled, we bless;
being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat: we are made as
the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this
day.’ 1 Cor 4.11-13. Paul further says: ‘All that will live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution.’ 2 Tim 3.12. From all this it is
demonstrable, that those who have the true evangelical doctrine and faith
will persecute no one, but will themselves be persecuted. (T.J. Van Braght,
Martyrs’ Mirror, ed. J. Sohm, Scottdale, PA, 1951, pp. 1012-1013)

Exit the Square along Giltspur Street; turn
left into Newgate Street, which leads (on the right) to St Paul’s Cathedral and
(straight ahead) to the St Paul’s tube station.