Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bland, John (d.1555)
BLAND, JOHN (d. 1555), Marian martyr, was born at Sedbergh on the north-west border of Yorkshire, was educated by Dr. Lupton, provost of Eton, and took the degree of M.A. at Cambridge University. He was for some time a 'bringer-up of youth, perhaps in the school of Furness Abbey, one of his pupils being Edwin Sandys, afterwards archbishop of York. Eventually he entered the ministry and became rector of Adisham in Kent. On Mary's accession his church-warden, heading the papists in his parish, procured in December 1553 a priest from a neighbouring parish to say mass. Bland intefered before the celebration, and explained to the people the 'misuse of the sacrament in the mass.' He was immediately arrested, and in May 1554, having spent ten weeks in prison, was examined before Harpsfield, arch-deacon of Canterbury, and Collins, the commissary of Cardinal Pole. This examination and many others led to no result, and for some ten months Bland was kept in close confinement 'within the bar amongst the felons, and irons upon our arms.' His chief 'enemy was Thorneden, suffragan bishop of Dover, who superseded him in his living. Both Collins and Thorneden had turned with the times, and Bland was able to remind them both to their faces publicly how he had heard them make profession of the opinions they were now persecuting. After many and tedious examinations, in which Bland gallantly held his foes at bay, he finally, in June 1555, confessed his denial, firstly, of the corporal presence; secondly, of the legality of administration of the sacraments in an unknown tongue; and, thirdly, of the legality of administration of the eucharist in one kind; he was consequently condemned, and on 12 July 1555 burned at Canterbury, along with John Sheterden, vicar of Rolvenden, and two laymen, John Prankish and Humfrey Middleton.
[Foxe's Acts and Monuments; Strype's Memorials. iii. 211; Allen's History of Yorkshire, 357.]