Rowland Taylor

Aside from the fact that Taylor had supported Lady Jane Grey, Mary's rival, he was also charged with heresy for having preached a sermon in Bury St Edmunds denouncing the Roman Catholic practice of clerical celibacy, which required that a priest in holy orders be unmarried.

Taylor also denounced the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, which is the belief that the two elements (bread and wine) taken during Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, actually become the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Since the Roman Catholic position is that the Eucharist (and the miracle of transubstantiation) is a sacrament commanded by God, anyone denying it, particularly a cleric or pastor, is considered a heretic.

This teaching was opposed universally by the Reformed and Protestant Churches, who maintained that, since a sacrament is a sign, it cannot also be the thing signified.

For similar reasons relating to the problem of idolatry, Taylor took issue with the Roman Catholic form of the Mass and received much support from the people of Hadleigh.

However, the English clergy and Anglican faithful, whose hopes for a Protestant royal succession had been dashed by Mary's imprisonment and execution of Lady Jane Grey, saw it as a matter of English Christian duty to resist this backlash, not least to resist the political ambitions of the king of Spain (Philip II, whom Mary married) to draw England within the sphere of the Holy Roman Empire and its Roman Catholic satellites.

Although Mary, as Henry VIII's eldest daughter, was a legitimate successor to Edward VI, England was no longer minded to tolerate a Roman Catholic monarch, and the courage and endurance unto death of men such as Taylor provided the public example which ensured that the Reformation was not in fact overturned, but became established in the realm of England.

On 22 January 1555, Rowland Taylor (rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk) and several other clergy, including John Hooper, were examined by a commission of leading bishops and lawyers.

Taylor gave a fervent defence of clerical marriage, which put him at odds with the Roman Catholic Church.

His wife awaited him in the early morning hours at St Botolph's Aldgate churchyard in London; they exchanged a few last brief words and Margaret promised to be present for his burning in a couple of days.

Trust ye therefore in Him by the means of our dear Saviour Christ's merits: believe, love, fear, and obey Him: pray to Him, for He hath promised to help.

Flee from whoredom, and hate all filthy lying, remembering that I thy father do die in the defense of holy marriage.

A perhaps sympathetic guard, named Warwick, struck Taylor's head with a halberd, which apparently killed him instantly.

An unhewn stone, probably dating from the early 17th century, marks the place of Taylor's death at Aldham Common, where the B1070 Lady Lane meets the A1071 Ipswich Road.