Thomas Harding (born 1448 in Cambridge, Gloucestershire, England and died at

Chesham Chesham ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, about north-west of Charing Cross, central London, and part of the London metropolitan area, London ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England, May 1532) was a sixteenth-century English religious

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

who, while waiting to be burnt at the stake as a

Lollard Lollardy was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that was active in England from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic C ...

in 1532, was struck on the head by a spectator with one of the pieces of firewood, which killed him instantly. Harding's unconventional beliefs had placed him in jeopardy twice before. As a resident of

Amersham Amersham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, in the Chiltern Hills, northwest of central London, south-east of Aylesbury and north-east of High Wycombe. Amersham is part of the London commuter belt. There ar ...

, he had associated with other prominent Lollards, notably William Tylesworth and John Scrivener, attending their secret conventicles where prayers and readings were conducted in English, which was forbidden, rather than in Latin. In 1506 or 1511 William Smith,

Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of Nort ...

, set up an enquiry into heresy in

. Tylesworth, openly declaring his faith and refusing to recant his beliefs, was sentenced to burn, while Harding, along with many other Lollard sympathisers, agreed to recant and was given a penance. By 1521 he had returned to holding Lollard belief, and was again called before an ecclesiastical court set up by the new bishop, hardliner John Longland, personal confessor to

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

. On this occasion six Lollards, five men and one woman, were sentenced to burn at the stake, but Harding again escaped death by recanting a second time. In May 1532, now living in

, he was arrested while reading ''

The Obedience of a Christian Man ''The Obedience of a Christen man, and how Christen rulers ought to govern, wherein also (if thou mark diligently) thou shalt find eyes to perceive the crafty of all .'' is a 1528 book by the English Protestant author William Tyndale. The spellin ...

'' by

William Tyndale William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – October 1536) was an English Biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestantism, Protestant Reformation in the year ...

, and a search of his house revealed several other works by Tyndale, including ''The New Testament in English'' and ''The Practice of Prelates''. At his trial he was convicted of a series of customary Lollard

heretical Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Christianity, Judai ...

beliefs, with a small admixture that was unquestionably

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, derived, no doubt, from his reading of Tyndale. He had remained what he had for so long been – a determined Lollard, with views (on images for example) that were Lollard rather than Lutheran, but quiet study had begun to carry him on in the direction of continental Protestantism. Some consider Thomas Harding to be a Protestant martyr based on the description of his death in '' Foxe's Book of Martyrs.'' The relevant text is:

In 1532, Thomas Harding, who with his wife, had been accused of heresy, was brought before the
Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary (diocesan bishop) of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury. The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of Nort ...
, and condemned for denying the real presence in the Sacrament. He was then chained to a stake, erected for the purpose, at
Chesham Chesham ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, about north-west of Charing Cross, central London, and part of the London metropolitan area, London ...
in the Dell, near Botely; and when they had set fire to the fagots, one of the spectators dashed out his brains with a billet. The priests told the people that whoever brought fagots to burn heretics would have an indulgence to commit sins for forty days.

There are several memorials to Thomas Harding, including that pictured to the right, which can be found in the graveyard of St Mary's Church in Chesham. Another is on the turn of White Hill on the site of the former Three Tuns pub. Harding's name is also on the Amersham Martyrs Memorial in

, which also mentions William Tylesworth, John Scrivener and others. It is said that Thomas Harding spent the evening before his trial gaoled in a room known as the

parvise A parvis or parvise is the open space in front of and around a cathedral or church, especially when surrounded by either colonnades or porticoes, as at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is thus a church-specific type of forecourt, front yard or ...

, above the porch of St Mary's Church in Chesham. Today, Thomas Harding Primary School in Chesham is named after him.

References

Sources

*Lambert, Malcolm. ''Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation.'' New York: Barnes & Noble, 1977. *Baines, Arnold & Foxell, Shirley. "The Life & Times of Thomas Harding, Chesham's Lollard Martyr" Clive Foxell, 2010

External links

Thomas Harding on the Oxford Diocese website
*https://www.ancestry.co.uk/genealogy/records/sir-thomas-harding-farmer-burnt-at-the-stake-for-heresy-in-wanting-to-read-scripture-in-english-24-2f793r4 {{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Thomas 15th-century births 1532 deaths People from Chesham People from Amersham People executed for heresy People executed under Henry VIII Executed English people People executed by the Kingdom of England by burning Protestant martyrs of England Lollard martyrs