John Kurde the Syresham Martyr

**Hippo** · 11-01-2008 03:14 PM

As a child I used to visit the Weslyan chapel in my grandfathers home village of Syresham (a village near Oxford in England) and the one thing that I always remembers was a small plaque on the back of the church. This plaque commemorated the death of a local shoemaker by the name of John Kurde who was burned at the stake by Mary in 1557 for denying transubstantiation. This small plaque proudly records that Kurde "died for the truth".

I recently purchased an 1800's edition of Foxes Book or Martyrs and I was saddened to find that Kurde had been removed from the edition, presumbably because his martyrdom was not interesting enough.

This is understandable but in my mind it is very sad, I know that our eyes should be on Christ and not on men but Kurde honoured both the Church and his saviour. I apologise for any self indulgency but I would like to reproduce Foxe's original record of Kurdes death as he was a simple man with no station or education whose death is not now even recorded in the modern texts of his times but who continues to inspire me throgh lifes troubles:

" His name was John Kurde, a shoemaker, late of the parish of Syresham, in Northamptonshire, who was imprisoned in Northampton Castle for denying the popish transubstantiation, for which cause William Binsley, Bachelor of Law, and Chancellor unto the Bishop of Peterborough, and now Archdeacon of Northampton, did pronounce sentence of death against the said Kurde, in the church of All Saints, in Northampton, in August, anno 1557. And in September following, at the commandment of Sir Thomas Tresham, Sheriff then of the shire, he was led by his officer within the North Gate of Northampton and in the stone pits was burnt. A popish priest standing by, whose name was John Rote, vicar of St. Giles in Northampton did declare unto him that if he would recant, he was authorised to give him his pardon. His answer was that he had his pardon by Jesus Christ."