The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Bio 03 Thomas Hitten (Hitton) Martyr


I'm still reading, rather slowly, Brian Moynihan on William Tyndale. Page 205 refers to Thomas Hitton as 'the first Reformation martyr'. The barebones of the story are that Hitton, a Tyndale supporter, was arrested near Gravesend, Kent, 1529 en route to Antwerp, examined by Warham and Fisher, and burned to death, 1530, in Maidstone, Kent. Chancellor Thomas More, who had a bloodthirsty mania for pursuing Evangelical Christians, was behind Hitton's death.

Unlike Bilney and Frith, the next martyrs, Hitton seems rather forgotten though the first. Tyndale writes somewhere 'From the blood of Stephen the first martyr to the blood of Thomas Hitton'. Thomas More called him the 'new saint of Tyndale's canonisation'. If you can find him in Foxe (there's an excellent online edition available here) you'll find references here and here. (Scroll down to see the reference, both times).
J H Merle D'Aubigne (1794-1892) later wrote
Thomas Hitton, a poor and pious minister of Kent, used to go frequently to Antwerp to purchase New Testaments. As he was returning from one of these expeditions, in 1529, the Bishop of Rochester caused him to be arrested at Gravesend, and put to the cruellest torture, to make him deny his faith. But the martyr repeated with holy enthusiasm: "Salvation cometh by faith and not by works, and Christ giveth it to whomsoever he willeth." On the 20th of February 1530 be was tied to the stake and there burned to death.

No comments: