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Protestant Reformers

Print
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Print depicting the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, alongside Rowland Taylor, John Hooper and John Bradford. The names are inscribed above each sitter. Before Latimer is a copy of the Bible, open on the table in front of him. A candle in the centre of the table shoots beams of light at a collection of figures crouching in the foreground, comprised of a cardinal, a pope, a monk and a demon. Four verses are also inscribed below the image.


Object details

Category
Object type
TitleProtestant Reformers (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Engraved print
Brief description
Print depicting prominent Marian Martyrs, including the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, alongside Rowland Taylor, John Hooper and John Bradford.
Physical description
Print depicting the Oxford Martyrs, Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer, alongside Rowland Taylor, John Hooper and John Bradford. The names are inscribed above each sitter. Before Latimer is a copy of the Bible, open on the table in front of him. A candle in the centre of the table shoots beams of light at a collection of figures crouching in the foreground, comprised of a cardinal, a pope, a monk and a demon. Four verses are also inscribed below the image.
Subjects depicted
Bibliographic reference
The following is an excerpt by Susan Wabuda, ‘Marian martyrs (act. 1555–1558)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press: 'The Marian martyrs were more than 300 men and women who were executed for heresy during the reign of Mary Tudor between 4 February 1555 and mid-November 1558. The most prominent of the Marian martyrs were the bishops, some of whom had been architects of reform since Henry VIII's reign. The most famous of the bishops to die were the ‘Oxford martyrs’, who suffered in that city: Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer. Latimer and Ridley were burnt at one fire on 16 October 1555. Their deaths constituted arguably the most famous incident of the Marian persecution. Cranmer, from the walls of Balliol College, was forced to watch them perish. Over the next five months he agonized alone in his confinement, until on 26 February 1556 he was induced to recant. But when it became clear that he would be killed no matter what he did or said, he managed to make a public withdrawal of his recantation, for when he went to the stake, on 21 March, he held his right hand in the fire, to punish it for ‘writing contrary to my heart’
Collection
Accession number
29719:2

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Record createdJune 30, 2009
Record URL
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