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YORK.
A policy of extermination was ere long decided
upon ; nor was it long before it was carried out in
the most ruthless manner.
It would be a repulsive
task to recapitulate the horrors of the persecution
which took place, and happily, as far as Yorkshire is
concerned, it is needless, for it is all but absolutely
free from the atrocity of the stake and the faggot.
One sufferer only is recorded. A page of the parish
register of Richmond contains a brief entry of a
poor man named Snell, who was " brent " there in
September, 1558.
That Mary had great provocation from the fanaticism
of the more extreme adherents of the reforming
party is unquestionable. " They heaped on the
queen, her bishops, and her religion every indecent
and irritating epithet which language could supply.
Her clergy could not exercise their functions without
danger to their lives ; a dagger was thrown at one
priest in the pulpit, a gun was discharged at another,
and several wounds were inflicted on a third while he
administered the communion in his church. The
chief supporters of the treason of Northumberland,
the most active amongst the adherents of Wyatt,
professed the reformed creed ; an impostor was
suborned to personate Edward \T. ; some congregations
prayed for the death of the queen ;
tracts filled
with libellous and treasonable matter were transmitted
from the exiles in Germany ; and successive insurrections
were planned by the fugitives in France."^
Evidence enough exists of the truth of these words
> Lingard's " Hist. Engl.," v. p. 239.