Background
The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but at all events it was not before 1495. The place - Norfolk, England, United Kingdom.
The exact date of his birth is uncertain, but at all events it was not before 1495. The place - Norfolk, England, United Kingdom.
Thomas Bilney was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, was ordained in 1519, and became a fellow of Trinity Hall that same year.
Thomas Bilney's most famous convert was Hugh Latimer. On July 23, 1525, Bilney obtained permission to preach in the diocese of Ely.
In 1527, however, after delivering some sermons in which he denounced image worship and the adoration of saints, Bilney was arrested and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was formally tried before Cardinal Wolsey, the archbishop of Canterbury, and several other bishops at Westminster and convicted of heresy; he only escaped death by recanting.
In 1531, however, he left Cambridge to preach in the fields of Norfolk. But he was soon placed under arrest and convicted of heresy again. He refused to recant this time and was burned to death at Lollard's Pit near Norwich, crying sometimes "Jesus" and sometimes "Credo."
Bilney stands at the head of the Reformation movement in Cambridge. He never renounced the Mass and he was not a robust leader like John Wycliffe, but he was the first of the Cambridge scholars to accept the doctrine of justification by faith, and his work was done in the school of friendship and conversation. The reformation of the Church of England must be traced back to the simple faith and guidance of Bilney.
During his life he was nicknamed Little Bilney because of his short stature.
