de or keep secret any Englishman
or any part of their goods. By means whereof we were all soon
apprehended in all places, and all our goods seized and taken for the
Inquisitors' use, and so from all parts of the country we were conveyed
and sent as prisoners to the city of Mexico, and there committed to
prison in sundry dark dungeons where we could not see but by
candlelight, and were never more than two together in one place so that
we saw not one another, neither could one of us tell what was become of
another. Thus we remained close imprisoned for the space of a year and
a half, and others for some less time, for they came to prison ever as
they were apprehended. During which time of our imprisonment at the
first beginning we were often called before the Inquisitors alone, and
there severely examined of our faith, and commanded to say the pater
noster, the Ave Maria, and the creed in Latin, which God knoweth a
great number of us could not say otherwise than in the English tongue.
And having the said Robert Sweeting who was our friend at Tescuco
always present with them for an interpreter he made report for us in
our own country speech we could say them perfectly, although not word
for word as they were in Latin. Then did they proceed to demand of us
upon our oaths what we did believe of the sacrament, and whether there
did remain any bread or wine after the words of consecration, yea or
no, and whether we did not believe that the Host of bread which the
priest did hold up over his head, and the wine that was in the chalice,
was the very true and perfect body and blood of our Saviour Christ, yea
or no, to which if we answered not yea, then was there no way but
death. Then would they demand of us what we did remember of ourselves,
what opinions we had held or had been taught to hold, contrary to the
same whiles we were in England; to which we for the safety of our lives
were constrained to say that we never did believe, nor had been taught
otherwise than as before we had said. Then would they charge us that
we did not tell them the truth, that we knew to the contrary, and
therefore we should call ourselves to remembrance and make them a
better answer at the next time or else we should be racked and made to
confess the truth whether we would or no. And so coming again before
them the next time, we were still demanded of our belief whiles we were
in England, and how we had been taught, and also what we thought or di