* A London jail so named from its proximity to the Fleet Stream, an estuary (now covered) of the Thames.
* The chief source for the Marian persecution is John Foxe’s Rerum in ecclesia gestarum commentarii (1559), translated into English as Acts and Monuments (1563), and familiarly known as The Book of Martyrs. This vivid description of the trials and deaths of the Protestants became, next to the Bible, a cherished household possession among the Puritans; and though the Jesuit Father Parsons published (1603) five volumes assailing its accuracy, it had a powerful influence in forming the mood of Oliver Cromwell’s England. Many Protestant churchmen have criticized it for exaggeration, misquotation, prejudice, and carelessness with details; 55 a Catholic historian compares it, in reliability, with medieval legends of the saints, but concludes that, though many details are dubious, “no one doubts that these events did so happen.” 56