The Cruel Torturing of Robert Samuel during the reign of Queen Mary I

On this day in church history, 31st August 1555, in the reign of Queen Mary I, the queen who has gone down in history as “Bloody Mary,” Robert Samuel, a former minister, was burned at the stake in Ipswich, Suffolk.

The English clergy under the Roman Catholic Church had been celibate but under the influence of the Reformation had been allowed to marry. Now adding insult to injury, the queen ordered all married clergymen to leave their wives and return to celibacy. Samuel was not willing to leave his wife. In his judgment he would be breaking God’s law if he left her and was not willing to break God’s law for man’s tradition. As a result, he risked arrest and refused to leave his wife.

One night when he returned home to his wife, the authorities were waiting for him and arrested him. He was immediately taken to prison, never to see his wife again.

While in prison the bishop ordered that he be tortured with the cruelest techniques of the times. Many prisoners succumbed to such torture and either renounced their faith or lost their minds. Samuel was chained upright to a post, so that he had to support his weight with only the tips of his toes. At the same time, he was deprived of food and drink, given only two or three mouthfuls of food and a few sips of water each day; just enough to keep him alive to endure more pain. Samuel nevertheless showed great tenacity in enduring the pain, and remained true to his faith.

On August 31, 1555, Samuel was taken from prison to be burned at the stake. He was eager to put an end to his torment and to be with his Savior. Before his execution, he told the assembled crowd how, after he had been deprived of food and water for a few days, he had fallen asleep and a man dressed all in white appeared to him and said, “Samuel, take a good heart unto thee; for after this day shalt thou never be either hungry or thirsty.”

Robert Samuel was burned as a heretic, a Protestant martyr.