Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
While the state of Venice was free from inquisitors, a great number of Protestants fixed
their residence there, and many converts were made by the purity of the doctrines they
professed, and the inoffensiveness of the conversation they used.
The pope being informed of the great increase of Protestantism, in the year 1542 sent
inquisitors to Venice to make an inquiry into the matter, and apprehend such as they might
deem obnoxious persons. Hence a severe persecution began, and many worthy persons were
martyred for serving God with purity, and scorning the trappings of idolatry.
Various were the modes by which the Protestants were deprived of life; but one
particular method, which was first invented upon this occasion, we shall describe; as soon
as sentence was passed, the prisoner had an iron chain which ran through a great stone
fastened to his body. He was then laid flat upon a plank, with his face upwards, and rowed
between two boats to a certain distance at sea, when the two boats separated, and he was
sunk to the bottom by the weight of the stone.
If any denied the jurisdiction of the inquisitors at Venice, they were sent to Rome, where,
being committed purposely to damp prisons, and never called to a hearing, their flesh
mortified, and they died miserably in jail.
A citizen of Venice, Anthony Ricetti, being apprehended as a Protestant, was sentenced
to be drowned in the manner we have already described. A few days previous to the time
appointed for his execution, his son went to see him, and begged him to recant, that his life
might be saved, and himself not left fatherless. To which the father replied, "A good
Christian is bound to relinquish not only goods and children, but life itself, for the glory of
his Redeemer: therefore I am resolved to sacrifice every thing in this transitory world, for
the sake of salvation in a world that will last to eternity."
The lords of Venice likewise sent him word, that if he would embrace the Roman
Catholic religion, they would not only give him his life, but redeem a considerable estate
which he had mortgaged, and freely present him with it. This, however, he absolutely refused
to comply with, sending word to the nobles that he valued his soul beyond all other
considerations; and being told that a fellow-prisoner, named Francis Sega, had recanted, he
answered, "If he has forsaken God, I pity him; but I shall continue steadfast in my duty."
Finding all endeavors to persuade him to renounce his faith ineffectual, he was executed
according to his sentence, dying cheerfully, and recommending his soul fervently to the
Almighty.
What Ricetti had been told concerning the apostasy of Francis Sega, was absolutely
false, for he had never offered to recant, but steadfastly persisted in his faith, and was
executed, a few days after Ricetti, in the very same manner.
Francis Spinola, a Protestant gentleman of very great learning, being apprehended by
order of the inquisitors, was carried before their tribunal. A treatise on the Lord's Supper was
then put into his hands and he was asked if he knew the author of it. To which he replied, "I
confess myself to be the author of it, and at the same time solemnly affirm, that there is not
a line in it but what is authorised by, and consonant to, the holy Scriptures." On this
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