# Thomas Harding > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Thomas_Harding > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Thomas_Harding.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harding > Source revision: 1330782877 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|English religious dissident}} {{About||the Catholic controversialist|Thomas Harding (1516–1572)|other people of this name|Thomas Harding (disambiguation)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{More footnotes|date=June 2010}} '''Thomas Harding''' (born 1448 in [Cambridge, Gloucestershire](/source/Cambridge%2C_Gloucestershire), England and died at [Chesham](/source/Chesham), [Buckinghamshire](/source/Buckinghamshire), England, May 1532) was a sixteenth-century English religious [dissident](/source/dissident) who, while waiting to be burnt at the stake as a [Lollard](/source/Lollard) 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](/source/Amersham), 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](/source/Bishop_of_Lincoln), set up an enquiry into heresy in [Amersham](/source/Amersham). 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](/source/Henry_VIII). 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. [[Image:Thomas Harding memorial.jpg|thumb|right|Harding's Memorial on White Hill in [Chesham](/source/Chesham)]] In May 1532, now living in [Chesham](/source/Chesham), he was arrested while reading ''[The Obedience of a Christian Man](/source/The_Obedience_of_a_Christian_Man)'' by [William Tyndale](/source/William_Tyndale), 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](/source/heresy) beliefs, with a small admixture that was unquestionably [Lutheran](/source/Lutheran), 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](/source/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](/source/Bishop_of_Lincoln), and condemned for denying the [real presence in the Sacrament](/source/real_presence_in_the_Sacrament). He was then chained to a stake, erected for the purpose, at [Chesham](/source/Chesham) 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.{{cite book|last1=Foxe|first1=John|title=Actes and Monuments of these Latter and Perillous Days, touching Matters of the Church|date=1563|publisher=John Day|edition=1926|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Martyrs_(Foxe)/Chapter_XIV|accessdate=29 May 2015}}
thumb|Thomas Harding Memorial at St. Mary's Church in Chesham 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](/source/St._Mary's_Church%2C_Chesham) 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](/source/Amersham_Martyrs_Memorial) in [Amersham](/source/Amersham), 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](/source/parvise), above the porch of St Mary's Church in Chesham. Today, Thomas Harding Primary School in Chesham is named after him. ==References== {{Reflist}} ==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== *[http://www.oxford.anglican.org/about-the-diocese/calendar-of-commemoration/thomas-harding-martyr-30th-may-1532.html Thomas Harding on the Oxford Diocese website]{{Dead link|date=January 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }} *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}} Category:15th-century births Category:1532 deaths Category:People from Chesham Category:People from Amersham Category:People executed for heresy Category:People executed under Henry VIII Category:Executed English people Category:People executed by the Kingdom of England by burning Category:Protestant martyrs of England Category:Lollard martyrs --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Thomas Harding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harding) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Harding?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.