John Frith

John Frith (1503–1533) was an English Protestant priest and martyr. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge and after graduating in 1525 became a junior canon at Wolsey's College, Oxford. He was imprisoned for helping William Tyndale translate the New Testament into English, and on his release in 1528 went to Marburg, where he translated Places by Patrick Hamilton. He also wrote Disputacion of Purgatorye, combating the writings of Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. After returning to England in 1532 he was arrested and tried for heresy. While imprisoned in the Tower of London he formulated the first Protestant views on the Sacraments. He was sentenced to death and offered a pardon if he answered positively to two questions: Do you believe in purgatory, and do you believe in transubstantiation. He replied that neither purgatory nor transubstantiation could be proven by holy scriptures. He was burned at the stake on July 4, 1533 at Smithfield, London. (King Henry VIII was excommunicated one week later.) Frith's works were finally published in 1573 by John Foxe.

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