July 12 – Burnings in Canterbury

On this day in Tudor history, 12th July 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary I, preachers John Bland and John Frankesh, rector Nicholas Sheterden and vicar Humphrey Middleton were burned at Canterbury in Kent. They were all Protestants burned for heresy.

In his "Book of Martyrs", John Foxe recorded that Bland was examined several times before Dr Harpsfield, archdeacon of Canterbury, before being condemned and delivered to the secular authorities. He was then executed with Frankesh, Sheterden and Middleton.

Foxe writes that these Canterbury martyrs “were all burnt together at Canterbury, July 12, 1555, at two several stakes, but in one fire, when they, in the sight of God and his angels, and before men, like true soldiers of Jesus Christ, gave a constant testimony to the truth of his holy gospel.”

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