Abstract

In November 1527, three scholars from the University of Cambridge were subpoenaed to appear before an ecclesiasticalcourt in Westminster to answer charges of heresy. Two presented themselvesand abjured. The third arrived late, and his tardiness sparked off a series of events that ended with his fleeing into exile within one week. Four years after he fled England, George Joye published his selfdefence, The letters which Johan Ashwel Priour of Newnham Abbey besids Bedforde sente secretely to the Bishope of Lyncolne in the yeare of our lorde M.D. xxvii. Appended to the apologia is his 'Storie of my State', one of the rare sustained autobiographical pieces surviving from this time. Joye's 'Storie' provides an account of his final days in England. It begins on Saturday, 23 November, when the subpoenas were served and the Master of Peterhouse John Edmunds received the letters ordering Thomas Bitney, Thomas Arthur, and George Joye to present themselves on the morning of the Wednesday following. Bilney and Arthur were to answer for their recent sermons preached, which (according to John Skelton) set forth 'howe it was idolatry to offre to ymages of our blessed lady, or to pray and go on pylgrimages, or to

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