FRITH, John, English Protestant martyr: b. Westerham, Kent, 1503; d. Smithfield, 4 July 1533. He was educated at Eton and at Cam bridge, where he was graduated in 1525, and in the same year on the advice of Wolsey removed to Cardinal (now Christ Church) College, Ox ford. Here he assisted Tyndal in his transla tion of the New Testament. Because of his leanings toward the Reformers he was for a time imprisoned at Oxford but Wolsey pro cured his release and he went to the Continent, where he was associated with Tyndal at the Protestant University of Marburg. He re turned to England in 1532 and warrants were issued for his arrest without delay. He evaded arrest for several months but was at last taken at Milton Shore, Essex, when about to depart to Flanders. After the manner of the time his imprisonment in the Tower was rigorous, miti gated a trifle under the chancellorship of Sir Thomas Audley. Just at a time when Cranmer and Cromwell were disposed to be lenient in his regard, Frith's enemies circulated a manuscript (Lytle Treatise on the Sacraments,' which he had written for the information of a friend and with no view to publication. He was charged with denying the necessity as articles of faith of the doctrines of purgatory and transsubstan tiation. He was found guilty, was turned over to the secular power 23 June 1533, and 11 days later was burned at Smithfield, London. Frith's
works include a translation of Patrick Hamil ton's 'A Pistle to the Christen Reader,' under the pseudonym of Richard Brightwell; 'Antithesis wherein are compared togeder Christes Actes and our Holye Father the Popes' (1529) ; 'Disputacyon of Purgatorye' (1531) directed against Rastell, Sir T. More and Fisher of Rochester. During his captivity he wrote several letters, a reply to More and some tracts. Frith is important in ecclesiastical history as having been the first to maintain the doctrine concerning the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, which ultimately was incor porated in the communion office of the Church of England. Later Cranmer, one of Frith's judges, was sent to the stake for the same be lief and three years after the latter's death it became the professed faith of the English Church. Frith's works were published by Foxe (London 1573) and again in 1631. Consult Burnet, G., 'History of the Reformation of the Church of England) (1865) • Richmond, L., 'The Fathers of the English thurch) (1807) ; 'Life and Martyrdom of John Frith) (London 1824) ; Alcock, Deborah, 'Six Heroic (London 1906).