Van Parris George

Van Parris George

Van Parris George  of Mentz, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, was a member of the Strangers' Church, in Augustin Friars, London. His profession was that of a Surgeon ; and by a law, passed in the year 1531, strangers acting in that capacity within the realm of England, "were exempted from certain penal statutes, and not taken to be handicrafts-men." It was probably the existence of this law, which induced George Van Parris, among other reasons, to settle in England.

He was admitted, by his fellow-worshipers, to be a person of undoubted piety and virtue; and according to Burnet, a Catholic writer said of him, "that he was a man of most wonderful strict life ; that he used not to eat above once in two days; and before he did eat, would lie some time in his devotion prostrate on the ground." But being convicted of saying, that God the Father was the only God, and that Christ was not very God, and refusing to abjure, he was condemned to be burnt in Smithfield.

The Commission, under which he suffered, was issued on the 18th of January, 1551 ; and diifered but little, in its preamble and contents, from that of 1549. Both were framed upon the model supplied by judicial forms, which had been in use, when England acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. The name of Sir John Cheke, the King's Tutor, was added to those of the former Commissioners ; and an opportunity soon presented itself of carrying into execution the formidable powers, with which they were invested. Joan Bocher had suffered for denying the humanity of Christ. George Van Parris was condemned, under this new Commission, for impugning the doctrine of his divinity.

The judicial proceedings against him were held at Lambeth, on the 6th of April, 1551, before Cranmer, Ridley, Coverdale, and six other Commissioners ; but they were not instituted, till he was formally excommunicated by the Church, of which he had been a member. This fact is attested by the following entry in King Edward the Sixth's Journal. "1551, April 7. A certain Arrian, of the strangers, a Dutch Man, being excommunicated by the congregation of his country men, was, after long disputation, condemned to the fire."

Van Parris, if we are to believe Fox, was acquainted with no language but his own mother-tongue,—not even with that, in which sentence of condemnation was pronounced against him ; and being unable to speak for himself, his examination was carried on through the medium of an interpreter. This interpreter was Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter. Through him Van Parris declared his belief, that it is no heresy to call God the Father the only God, or to say that Christ is not very God ; and on being told, that it was heresy, and asked whether he would retract, and abjure it, he answered in the negative. After many attempts to shake his resolution, the Commissioners at length pronounced him an obstinate heretic ; delivered him over to the secular power ; and petitioned the King for his execution, declaring him at the same time to be "a child of the Devil, and an enemy of all righteousness."

Great intercessions were made for him, but in vain. His sentence was carried into execution at Smithfield, April 25th, 1551 ; and he suffered with great constancy, kissing the stake, and the faggots, which were to burn him.

Fox throws the blame of this cold-blooded tragedy upon the Duke of Northumberland ; and says, that it was contrary to the natural mildness of Cranmer's disposition. But Cranmer acquiesced in it ; and there was no act of that Prelate's life, which exposed him to juster, and more deserved reproach, than this. It was said, by the Catholics, that they now saw men of blameless lives might be put to death for heresy, by the confession of the reformers themselves. In all the books published during the reign of Mary, justifying her severities against Protestants, instances like that of Van Parris were constantly produced ; and when Cranmer himself was brought to the stake, they called it a just retribution. But neither arguments nor sufferings could convince the Divines of that age of the absurdity and wickedness of putting men to death, for the sake of conscience. "These things," says Burnet, "cast a great blemish on the reformers. It was said they only condemned cruelty when it was exercised on themselves, but were ready to practise it when they had power. The Papists made great use of this afterwards in Queen Mary's time ; and what Cranmer and Ridley then suffered, was thought a just retaliation on them, from that wise Providence, that dispenses all things justly to all men."

DidierLe Roux
 
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