John Badby

d.1410. Lollard* martyr. A tailor of Evesham, Badby denied transubstantiation, asserting that the consecrated host remains material bread (although a sacramental sign of the living God). He declared that one John Rackier of Bristol had as much power as any priest to make God. Declared an incorrigible heretic by the bishop of Worcester, he spent more than a year in prison. Tried thereafter before Archbishop Arundel and found to be obdurate, he was committed to the secular arm. Henry, Prince of Wales, was present at his execution in Smithfield. Hearing cries which he took to be pleas for mercy, he ordered the fire to be quenched and offered Badby pardon if he would recant. On his refusal he was burnt to death.