419. THE TROUBLE OF JOHN CORNET.
Here might also be recited the hard adventures and sufferings of John Cornet, and at length his deliverance, by God's good working, out of the same; who, being a prentice with a minstrel at Colchester, was sent by his master, about the second year of Queen Mary's reign, to a wedding in a town there by, called Rough-hedge, where he, being requested by a company there of good men, the constables also of the parish being present thereat, to sing some songs of the Scripture, chanced to sing a song called "News out of London," which tended against the mass, and against the queen's mis-proceedings.
Whereupon the next day he was accused by the parson of Rough-hedge, called Yacksley; and so committed, first to the constable, where both his master gave him over, and his mother forsook and cursed him. From thence he was sent to the next justice, named Master Cannall, and then to the earl of Oxford, where he was first put in irons and chains, and after that so manacled, that the blood spirted out of his fingers' ends, because he would not confess the names of them which allured him to sing.
And marvel it was that the cruel papists were so contented, that they sent him not also to Bishop Bonner, to suffer the extremity of the fire. But God's gracious providence disposed otherwise for his servant : for after he was manacled, the earl commanded him to be brought again to the town of Rough-hedge, and there to be whipped till the blood followed, and to be banished the town for ever: and so he was, during all the time of Queen Mary.
