chambersrobert

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Oates

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Crab

"His food consisted of bran, dock-leaves, mallows, and grass; and how it agreed with him we learn from a rare pamphlet, principally written by himself, entitled The English Hermit, or the Wonder of the Age. 'Instead of strong drinks and wines,' says the eccentric Roger, I give the old man a cup of water; and instead of roast mutton and rabbit, and other dainty dishes, I give him broth thickened with bran, and pudding made with bran and turnip-leaves chopped together, at which the old man (meaning my body) being moved, would know what he had done, that I used him so hardly. Then I shewed him his transgressions, and so the wars began. The law of the old man in my fleshly members rebelled against the law of my mind, and had a shrewd skirmish; but the mind, being well enlightened, held it so that the old man grew sick and weak with the flux, like to fall to the dust. But the wonderful love of God, well pleased with the battle, raised him up again, and filled him full of love, peace, and content of mind, and he is now become more humble, for now he will eat dock-leaves, mallows, or grass.'" (R.Chambers: Book of Days) www.thebookofdays.com/months/sept/11.htm

"On the 23rd of June 1626, a cod-fish was brought to Cambridge market, which, upon being opened, was found to contain a book in its maw or stomach. The book was much soiled, and covered with slime, though it had been wrapped in a piece of sail-cloth* It was a duodecimo work written by one John Frith, comprising several treatises on religious subjects. - - - The treatises contained in this book were written by Frith when in prison. Strange to say, he had been long confined in a fish cellar at Oxford, where many of his fellow-prisoners died from the impure exhalations of unsound salt fish. He was removed from thence to the Tower, and in 1533 was burned at the stake for his adherence to the reformed religion. The authorities at Cambridge reprinted the work, which had been completely forgotten, till it turned up in this strange manner. The reprint is entitled VoxPiscis, or the Book-Fish, and is adorned with a woodcut representing the stall in Cambridge market, with the fish, book, and knife. (R. Chambers: Book of Days) www.thebookofdays.com/months/june/23.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frith