Thomas Hitton

Thomas Hitton is generally considered to be the first English martyr of the Reformation, although the followers of Wycliffe, the Lollards had been burnt at the stake as recently as 1519. Michael Farris, "From Tyndale to Madison, 2007". Hitton was a priest who had joined William Tyndale and the English exiles in the Low Countries. He returned to England on a brief visit in 1529 to contact the supporters of Tyndale and to arrange for the distribution of smuggled books such as the first English Psalter translated by George Joye. He was seized near Gravesend on his way to the coast to take a ship Review in Sunday Times, 19 May 2002, and found to be in possession of letters from the English exiles. He was then arrested on the grounds of heresy, interrogated and probably tortured. He was condemned by Archbishop William Warham and by Bishop John Fisher and burnt at the stake at Maidstone on 23 February, 1530. When Joye's second Primer (entitled Hortulus animae) appeared a year later, he included the feast of "Sainte Thomas mar." (referring to Hitton) in the calendar. 
 Tyndale also referred briefly to Hitton's execution: Tyndale, The practyse of Prelates, sig. R6r.
Thomas More described Hitton as "the devil's stinking martyr" and took a personal interest in the case Pilgrimage, the English Experience from Beckett to Bunyan, Colin Roberts and Peter Morris, 2002. He criticized George Joye for canonizing Hitton: More, The confutacyon of Tyndales answere, sigs. Bb2r, Bb3r.
Hitton believed in the supremacy of the Scriptures. He also argued that, whilst baptism was necessary and marriage was good, neither had to be done by a priest or in a church, and that baptism "would be much better if it were spoken in English".
==See also==
* William Tyndale
* Thomas More
* John Fisher
* English Reformation
==Notes==
Category:English Reformation
Category:Tudor clergy
Category:People executed for heresy
Category:1530 deaths
Category:People executed by burning
Category:Executed English people
Category:16th-century Protestant martyrs