his week’s Monday Martyr is Thomas Hawkes who was burnt at the stake on 10th June 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary I, at Coggeshall in Essex.

Hawkes ended up being brought before the Earl of Oxford because he hadn’t had his son baptised, because, as martyrologist John Foxe records, “he would not suffer him to be baptised after the popish manner”. The earl referred Hawkes on to Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, who, with others also questioned Hawkes on his beliefs regarding the mass, the sacrament, the holy creed, holy water and other Catholic practices. These he also rejected, stating that they were contrary to the word of God.