A procession to St. Mary's Church, Cambridge, and the burning of Protestant books in Cambridge marketplace. Etching by G. Terry.

Apparently the visit of Cardinal Reginald Pole to Cambridge in 1556-1557. he orderd that, in order to cleanse Cambridge of Protestant influence, the bodies of the reformers Martin Bucer and Paulus Phagius be dug up the from the churches of St. Mary and St. Michael, where they lay, and be burnt; and that their writings be publicly burnt. On 6February 1557, the bodies, enclosed as they were in chests, were carried into the midst of the market place at Cambridge, accompanied by a vast concourse of people. A great post was set fast in the ground, to which the chests were affixed with a large iron chain, and bound round their centres, in the same manner as if the dead bodies had been alive. When the fire began to ascend, and caught the coffins, a number of condemned books were also launched into the flames, and burnt. (Foxe, op. cit.)