Long before Voldemort or Sauron, there was Thomas Fysh of Kettering, dragged before the dreaded Star Chamber for possessing what sounds like a wizard’s notebook, which the officials called a book of “conjurations.”
But being a Conjuror was almost trivial compared to something else they found: “a book of Coverdale’s making.”
Myles Coverdale was responsible for the first complete printed edition of the English Bible. This was seen as heretical, as English Bibles were illegal under Henry VIII before 1536.
Together, these books painted a picture of a man meddling in both forbidden religion and forbidden arts.
Fysh’s story fits right into Northamptonshire’s surprisingly radical role in early English reform. This part of the Midlands had long been a hotbed of religious dissent by the Sixteenth Century.
The Lollards
Long before Henry VIII’s break from Rome, a group of ordinary English people had already been challenging the Church’s power. They were called Lollards, followers of the rogue Oxford scholar John Wycliffe, who lived in the late 1300s.
Wycliffe believed that everyone, not just priests, should be able to read the Bible in their own language. Latin, he said, should not be the barrier between ordinary people and God.
His supporters secretly translated the Bible into English and copied it by hand, passing it from reader to reader.
Wycliffe’s ideas spread like wildfire across the Midlands, especially along the route from Oxford to Leicester, including through Northampton.
By the early 1400s, Northamptonshire had become one of the movement’s strongholds. People met in barns, cottages, and even fields to read from hand-copied English Bibles, risking arrest for “possessing heretical books.”
These books were usually Wycliffe translations: handwritten copies of the English Bible made secretly by believers. Each was precious, often passed from hand to hand across the county. Reading one aloud could gather a small crowd, and copying one by candlelight could take months.
Bishop after bishop complained about “heretics” in these parts, caught with “bokes of Scripture in Englysshe.”
In towns across the county, ordinary folk met in barns and back rooms to hear the Bible spoken in their own tongue. One would read, another would listen, a third would make a new copy by flickering light.
But there were some authorities in the county who allowed or even encouraged Lollardy. A petition was raised against the Mayor of Northampton, stating that he all-but authorised Lollard meetings, and that he actively harboured prominent people in the movement.
There is no evidence he faced any punishment; was the local Lollard movement so strong, that the Mayor could survive such an accusation, and keep his Chain of Office?
By the time Henry VIII came along, the Lollards had been hunted for over a century… but they hadn’t gone. Beneath the surface, the old network still whispered and read.
We even know of one Northamptonshire woman, Dame Anne Danvers of Culworth, who owned an English New Testament and donated it to Syon Abbey in 1517.
One of the editions of the Covedale Bible was owned by the Marquess of Northampton.
In truth, Thomas Fysh (probably) wasn’t a conjuror; he was one of Northamptonshire’s many heretics of the printed word, a man whose “magic” was simply the ability to read forbidden English.
Sources
Alsford, S. (1899) Town authorities accused of abetting Lollardy
Bull, F (1891) History of Kettering, archived by Northamptonshire Records Society
Mozley, J.F. (2002) The Making of the Coverdale Bible – Miles Coverdale
Northamptonshire Battlefields Society () The Lollards
Nottidge, F.M. (1895) Memorials of the Danvers Family
Jack Preston 