{{Short description|1557 burning of Protestant woman}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Use British English|date=December 2025}} {{Coordinates|52.63180|1.30961|display=title}}
The '''execution of Elizabeth Cooper''' took place on 13 July 1557 at Lollards Pit in Norwich, England. Cooper, a Protestant, was accused of heresy. She was sentenced to death under laws against heresy instituted by the third Parliament of Mary I, and as such was a victim of the Marian persecution.<ref name=":15">{{Citation |last=Mcclendon |first=Muriel C. |title=Women, Religious Dissent, and Urban Authority in Early Reformation Norwich |date=2008 |work=Violence, Politics, and Gender in Early Modern England |pages=125–146 |editor-last=Ward |editor-first=Joseph P. |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9780230617018_6 |access-date=2025-12-22 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9780230617018_6 |isbn=978-1-349-37623-0|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Cooper was the first of only two residents of Norwich to be burned at the stake as part of this persecution, the other being Cicely Ormes who had spoken out during Cooper's execution.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Houlbrooke |first=Ralph |title=Medieval Norwich |last2=McClendon |first2=Muriel C |date=2004 |publisher=Hambledon and London |isbn=978-1-85285-449-2 |editor-last=Rawcliffe |editor-first=Carole |location=London |pages=265 |chapter=The Reformation |editor-last2=Wilson |editor-first2=R. G.}}</ref> Cooper's story is covered in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.<ref name=":15"/>
== Background == Following the creation of a Protestant church in England under Edward VI, his Catholic successor Mary I made attempts to quickly reverse the English Reformation. This included the passing of legislation during her third Parliament to criminalise heresy against the Catholic Church under punishment of death.<ref name=":15"/>
Cooper was the wife of a pewterer.<ref name=":2" /> It is not clear how she first encountered or embraced Protestantism.<ref name=":15" /> She appears to have initially recanted her Protestant beliefs,<ref name=":2" /> though this it not clear; she may have not publicly renounced her faith and instead have considered a conformity to the new laws against Protestantism as a rejection of her faith.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=McClendon |first=Muriel C. |date=2020-03-01 |title=Women, the Courts, and Urban Government in Early Reformation Norwich |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1353/emw.2020.0034 |journal=Early Modern Women|language=en |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=79–100 |doi=10.1353/emw.2020.0034 |issn=1933-0065|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
One day in 1557, Cooper went into St Andrew's Church,<ref name=":15" /> interrupting a service to publicly repudiate her recantation, which had also happened "in that place".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> She stated that her actions had caused her to be "greatly troubled inwardly", that she was "heartily sorry" for them, and that they should not "take her doings before for an example".<ref name=":0" /> She then left the church,<ref name=":15" /> and returned to her home.<ref name=":0" />
Following her announcement, a member of the congregation only referred to as "one Bacon," and thus not definitely identifiable,<ref name=":15" /> demanded that Thomas Sotherton, the Sheriff of Norwich and a parishioner of St Andrew's, take her into custody,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":15" /> exclaiming, "Master sheriff! Will you suffer this?"<ref name=":15" /> It appears that she was only arrested as a result of this demand.<ref name=":2" /> Sotherton came to Cooper's house;<ref name=":0" /> she came down to the door when he knocked, and he placed her under arrest before turning her over to the local ecclesiastical authorities.<ref name=":15" /> Shortly after her arrest,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":15" /> Cooper was condemned to death by the chancellor of Norwich diocese Michael Dunning.<ref name=":15" />
== Execution == Cooper's execution, on 13 July 1557 at Lollards Pit ({{Ordnance Survey coordinates|TG 2406 0892}}),<ref name=":15" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Former execution site, Lollards Pit |url=https://www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/record-details?MNF26322 |access-date=24 December 2025 |website=Norfolk Heritage Explorer}}</ref> took place alongside that of Simon Miller of King's Lynn,<ref name=":2" /> a fellow Protestant who had been betrayed to the authorities after asking a group of people leaving a church "where he might go to have the communion," indicating a desire to attend a Protestant service.<ref name=":15" />
The execution was attended by one Cicely Ormes. Ormes declared her support for Cooper and Miller, shouting that "she would pledge them of the same cup they drank on."<ref name=":0" /> This was noticed by former city official and Catholic religious conservative John Corbet from Sprowston,<ref name=":15"/> who seized Ormes and took her to the Norwich diocesan chancellor, Michael Dunning.<ref name=":0" /> Ormes would later be executed herself in September 1558 after nearly a year's imprisonment.<ref name=":15"/><ref name=":2" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:1557 deaths Category:People executed under Mary I of England Category:Executed people from Norfolk