Thomas Bilney - Part 3

by: ASH, 2010

Thomas Bilney is known as the Father of the English Reformation. He is called this because he is believed to be the first man converted by reading Erasmus' translation of the New Testament. After he was saved, Bilney encouraged others to read the New Testament. Bilney was arrested because he preached. He was put into prison, but he was not executed because he recanted. After he recanted, though, Bilney was miserable.

Two years later, Bilney began to preach again. He first preached in open fields. At Ipswich, he preached the Gospel and attacked the errors of Rome. In Greenwich, he bought New Testaments. In Norwich, he gave a New Testament to a woman who shared it with her friends. After that, Bilney was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was not sad, though. He felt that a load was taken off him.

On the night before his death, some of Bilney's friends came to visit him. They found him eating his last meal. He stuck his finger in the flame of a candle. As his finger burned, Bilney said, "I feel that fire by God's ordinance is naturally hot, but yet I am persuaded by God's Holy Word and the experience of the martyrs that when the flames consume me, I shall not feel them."

On August 19, 1531, Bilney was taken to Norwich to be executed. When he arrived, he fell upon his knees and prayed. He recited the Apostles' Creed and Psalm 143, and the spectators were moved by Bilney's words of faith. After Bilney's death, even his enemies praised him.