Note 1. There were several prisons which bore this name, one of them in London. The most horrible of all was that at Woburn, and was, I believe, the only one constructed on this cruel principle.
Chapter Thirteen.
Appendix.
Historical Notes.
Bernher, Augustine.
By birth a German-Swiss, probably from the neighbourhood of Basle. In contemporary notices often called Latimer’s servant; but if the meaning of the word at that time be borne in mind, and the kind of service noted, it will be seen that he was only a servant in the sense of being in receipt of a salary from his employer. He was ordained in or before the reign of Edward the Sixth; and during the persecution under Mary, no man was more fervid and fearless than he. At many martyrdoms we find him consoling the martyr; visiting the condemned prisoners, and forming the recognised means of communication between them. His safety through all can only be attributed to the direct interposition of his Almighty Master. “Mine own good Augustine,” wrote Bradford, “the Lord of mercy bless thee, my dear brother, for ever... The keeper telleth me that it is death for any to speak with me, but yet I trust that I shall speak with you.” (Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, eight 262). At the commencement of the persecution, Bernher lived at Baxterley, near Mancetter; but for a time during its height, he was minister of a small London congregation, which assembled secretly, sometimes in very curious places, and often on board some vessel in the Thames. Bernher was a married man. After the accession of Elizabeth, this Christian hero was presented by the Crown to the rectory of Southam, county Warwick (Richings’ Narrative of Sufferings of Glover, etcetera, pages 10-12). But only for a very few years did Bernher survive the persecution. The scaffolding had served its purpose, and was taken down; the servant of God had done his work in aiding the brethren at risk of life, and the summons was issued to himself, “Come up higher.” On April 19, 1566, Bartholomew Greene was presented to the rectory of Southam, “vacant by the death of Augustine Barnehere.” (Dugdale’s Warwickshire, page 339).