Franke, Peter (d. 1538)
Peter Franke, an Anabaptist leader and preacher in Flanders and England, was burned at the stake with his wife and Jan Mathijsz van Middelburg in Smithfield (London) on 29 November 1538. He is probably identical with Pieter de Bontwerkere (Peter the Furrier), who led Pauwels Vermaete, a Flemish preacher and martyr, to the Anabaptist faith.
Franke is included with the English Reformers in a Catholic satirical poem, "A Genealogye of Heresye," written by John Huntington about 1540:
Next after him (that is, John Lambert)
Came in a limb
Of Antichrist
An Anabaptist
One Peter Franke
Which said full rank
That Christ and God
Take not manhood
Of Mary the Virgin
Which was without sin.
John Bale in A Mysterye of Inyquyte (1542), which is a refutation of Huntington's verses, declares that Franke's life was pious, for his death was "godly and perfect." His "patient suffering" was instrumental in converting some at Colchester from "papism into true repentance, whereas nothing before could convert them." "For in his death confessed he the Lord Jesus Christ to be his only saviour and redeemer, which is the true seal of the servant of God." Although the Melchiorite view of the Incarnation was prevalent among Anabaptists in England, Bale claims Franke "died in no such wicked opinion as many have credibly reported."
Bibliography
Bale, John. A Mysterye of Inyquyte. 1542: fols. 53 recto—57 recto.
Chronicon ab anno 1189 ad 1556 in the Monumenta Franciscanae, The Rolls Series. 1858: 202.
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic of the Reign of Henry VIII: Vol. XIII/2, 374.
Verheyden, A.L.E. Het Brugsche Martyrologium (12 October 1527-7 Augustus 1573). Brussels, [1944]: 45.
| Author(s) | Irvin B Horst |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1956 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Horst, Irvin B. "Franke, Peter (d. 1538)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1956. Web. 16 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Franke,_Peter_(d._1538)&oldid=80938.
APA style
Horst, Irvin B. (1956). Franke, Peter (d. 1538). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 16 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Franke,_Peter_(d._1538)&oldid=80938.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, pp. 372-373. All rights reserved.
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