Thomas Harding (born 1448 in
Cambridge, Gloucestershire
Cambridge ( ) is a hamlet in the district of Stroud (district), Stroud, in the county of Gloucestershire, England. It lies on the A38 road between Bristol and Gloucester. It is about 3 miles (5 km) from Dursley and about 11 miles (18 k ...
, England and died at
Chesham
Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...
,
Buckinghamshire, England, May 1532) was a sixteenth-century English religious
dissident
A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...
who, while waiting to be burnt at the stake as a
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catho ...
in 1532, was struck on the head by a spectator with one of the pieces of firewood, which killed him instantly.
Harding's unconventional beliefs had placed him in jeopardy twice before. As a resident of
Amersham, he had associated with other prominent Lollards, notably William Tylesworth and John Scrivener, attending their secret conventicles where prayers and readings were conducted in English, which was forbidden, rather than in Latin.
In 1506 or 1511 William Smith,
Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.
The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...
, set up an enquiry into heresy in
Amersham. Tylesworth, openly declaring his faith and refusing to recant his beliefs, was sentenced to burn, while Harding, along with many other Lollard sympathisers, agreed to recant and was given a penance. By 1521 he had returned to holding Lollard belief, and was again called before an ecclesiastical court set up by the new bishop, hardliner John Longland, personal confessor to
Henry VIII. On this occasion six Lollards, five men and one woman, were sentenced to burn at the stake, but Harding again escaped death by recanting a second time.
In May 1532, now living in
Chesham
Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...
, he was arrested while reading ''
The Obedience of a Christian Man
''The Obedience of a Christen man, and how Christen rulers ought to govern, wherein also (if thou mark diligently) thou shalt find eyes to perceive the crafty of all .'' is a 1528 book by the English Protestant author William Tyndale. The spelling ...
'' by
William Tyndale
William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – ) was an English biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execu ...
, and a search of his house revealed several other works by Tyndale, including ''The New Testament in English'' and ''The Practice of Prelates''.
At his trial he was convicted of a series of customary Lollard
heretical
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...
beliefs, with a small admixture that was unquestionably
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Cathol ...
, derived, no doubt, from his reading of Tyndale. He had remained what he had for so long been – a determined Lollard, with views (on images for example) that were Lollard rather than Lutheran, but quiet study had begun to carry him on in the direction of continental Protestantism.
Some consider Thomas Harding to be a Protestant martyr based on the description of his death in ''
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The ''Actes and Monuments'' (full title: ''Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, Touching Matters of the Church''), popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, is a work of Protestant history and martyrology by Protestant Engli ...
.'' The relevant text is:
In 1532, Thomas Harding, who with his wife, had been accused of heresy, was brought before the Bishop of Lincoln
The Bishop of Lincoln is the ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.
The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and ...
, and condemned for denying the real presence in the Sacrament. He was then chained to a stake, erected for the purpose, at Chesham
Chesham (, , or ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, north-west of central London, and part of the London commuter belt. It is in the Chess Valley, surrounded by farmla ...
in the Dell, near Botely; and when they had set fire to the fagots, one of the spectators dashed out his brains with a billet. The priests told the people that whoever brought fagots to burn heretics would have an indulgence to commit sins for forty days.
There are several memorials to Thomas Harding, including that pictured to the right, which can be found in the graveyard of
St Mary's Church in Chesham. Another is on the turn of White Hill on the site of the former Three Tuns pub. Harding's name is also on the
Amersham Martyrs Memorial in
Amersham, which also mentions William Tylesworth, John Scrivener and others. It is said that Thomas Harding spent the evening before his trial gaoled in a room known as the
parvise
A parvis or parvise is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or church, especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is thus a church-specific type of forecourt, front yard or a ...
, above the porch of St Mary's Church in Chesham. Today, Thomas Harding Primary School in Chesham is named after him.
References
Sources
*Lambert, Malcolm. ''Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation.'' New York: Barnes & Noble, 1977.
*Baines, Arnold & Foxell, Shirley. "The Life & Times of Thomas Harding, Chesham's Lollard Martyr" Clive Foxell, 2010
External links
Thomas Harding on the Oxford Diocese website*https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/sir-thomas-harding-farmer-burnt-at-the-stake-for-heresy-in-wanting-to-read-scripture-in-english-24-2f793r4
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Thomas
15th-century births
1532 deaths
People from Chesham
People from Amersham
People executed for heresy
Executed British people
People executed under Henry VIII
Executed English people
People executed by the Kingdom of England by burning
Protestant martyrs of England
Lollard martyrs