John Forest

John Forest was born in about 1470. Little is known about his early life but in 1512 he had joined the Observant Franciscans at their Greenwich convent, and in 1525 at St Paul's Cross he announced the excommunication of nineteen of his brethren who had fled the convent rather than submit to the demands of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. (1)

It has been claimed by Alison Weir that Forest was close to Catherine of Aragon and was her "confessor". (2) He opposed the attempt by Henry VIII to divorce Catherine. He was denounced in a series of letters to Thomas Cromwell by two fellow Observants, John Lawrence and Richard Lyst. (3) As a result he was arrested. When Queen Catherine heard the news she wrote to Forest, signing herself "your very sad and afflicted daughter". He replied saying her words had "infinitely comforted me" and asking for her prayers, "that I may fight the battle to which I am called." He added that in "justification of your cause, I am content to suffer all things". (4) However, it has been suggested by Peter Marshall that these letters may have been forged by Thomas Bourchier in a book published in 1582. (5)

John Forest was released after he recanted in 1534. For some years he would continue to assert that Catherine had been the Kings's true wife and in March 1538, he was arrested again. According to Jasper Ridley he was tried for heresy and convicted "because he refused to accept the Protestant interpretation of certain passages in the Bible." (6) Forest recanted but at St Paul's Cross on 12th May he refused to read out his confession. It was now decided to burn him at the stake. (7)

Bishop Hugh Latimer agreed to preach the sermon at Forest's execution on 22nd May 1538. His sermon lasted for three hours while he waited for death. Latimer told Cromwell that he made it a long sermon to increase Forest's suffering. Forest was "suspended by chains about his arms and waist, a slow-burning fire, and slowly roasted to death". (8) His execution was attended by Thomas Cromwell, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk and Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk and Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford. (9) John Forest was the only Roman Catholic who was burnt for heresy in Tudor England. (10)

Primary Sources

(1) Peter Marshall, John Forest : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

By early 1538 Forest was in London, based at the house of the Conventual Franciscans, and his conservative teaching in the confessional brought him again to the attention of Cromwell. By March or early April he was under arrest, and a decision was made to try him for heresy. The principal charge against him was that of identifying the Catholic church of the creed with the Church of Rome. He was convicted and ordered to abjure his opinions at Paul's Cross. However, while incarcerated in Newgate with the Carmelite Laurence Cooke and the Carthusian William Horne, Forest's resistance stiffened. At Paul's Cross on 12 May he refused to read the recantation, laying himself open to the fate of relapsed heretics, death by burning. This took place at Smithfield on 22 May, in the presence of a crowd of thousands, including Cromwell, Cranmer, the dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the earls of Sussex and Hertford, and the bishop, mayor, and sheriff of London.

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References

(1) Peter Marshall, John Forest : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(2) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 282

(3) Peter Marshall, John Forest : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(4) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 282

(5) Peter Marshall, John Forest : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(6) Jasper Ridley, Bloody Mary's Martyrs (2002) page 20

(7) Peter Marshall, John Forest : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(8) Alison Weir, The Six Wives of Henry VIII (2007) page 283

(9) Peter Marshall, John Forest : Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004-2014)

(10) Jasper Ridley, Bloody Mary's Martyrs (2002) page 20