Foxe - The Book of Martyrs
The mystery of history is not completely dark, since it is a veil which only partially conceals the creative activity and spiritual forces and the operation of spiritual laws. It is commonplace to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church yet what we are asserting is simply that individual acts of spiritual decision bear social fruit …For the great cultural changes and historic revolutions that decide the fate of nations or the character of an age is the cumulative result of a number of spiritual decisions … the faith and insight, or the refusal and blindness, of individuals. No one can put his finger on the ultimate spiritual act that tilts the balance, and makes the external order of society assume a new form… Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new community, made it only the more sensible of its own strength, and pressed it into a more compact body.
The mystery of history is not completely dark, since it is a veil which only partially conceals the creative activity and spiritual forces and the operation of spiritual laws. It is commonplace to say that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church yet what we are asserting is simply that individual acts of spiritual decision bear social fruit …For the great cultural changes and historic revolutions that decide the fate of nations or the character of an age is the cumulative result of a number of spiritual decisions … the faith and insight, or the refusal and blindness, of individuals. No one can put his finger on the ultimate spiritual act that tilts the balance, and makes the external order of society assume a new form… Persecution, powerless to destroy or even to shake this new community, made it only the more sensible of its own strength, and pressed it into a more compact body.
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<strong>Foxe</strong>’s <strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Martyrs</strong><br />
confession he was committed close prisoner to a dungeon for several days.<br />
Being brought to a second examination, he charged the pope's legate, and the inquisitors,<br />
with being merciless barbarians, and then represented the superstitions and idolatries<br />
practised by the Church <strong>of</strong> Rome in so glaring a light, that not being able to refute his<br />
arguments, they sent him back to his dungeon, to make him repent <strong>of</strong> what he had said.<br />
On his third examination, they asked him if he would recant his error. To which he<br />
answered that the doctrines he maintained were not erroneous, being purely the same as<br />
those which Christ and his apostles had taught, and which were handed down to us in the<br />
sacred writings. <strong>The</strong> inquisitors then sentenced him to be drowned, which was executed in<br />
the manner already described. He went to meet death with the utmost serenity, seemed to<br />
wish for dissolution, and declaring that the prolongation <strong>of</strong> his life did but tend to retard that<br />
real happiness which could only be expected in the world to come.<br />
An Account <strong>of</strong> Several Remarkable Individuals Martyred in Italy<br />
John Mollius was born at Rome, <strong>of</strong> reputable parents. At twelve years <strong>of</strong> age they placed<br />
him in the monastery <strong>of</strong> Gray Friars, where he made such a rapid progress in arts, sciences,<br />
and languages that at eighteen years <strong>of</strong> age he was permitted to take priest's orders.<br />
He was then sent to Ferrara, where, after pursuing his studies six years longer, he was<br />
made theological reader in the university <strong>of</strong> that city. He now, unhappily, exerted his great<br />
talents to disguise the Gospel truths, and to varnish over the error <strong>of</strong> the Church <strong>of</strong> Rome.<br />
After some years residence in Ferrara, he removed to the university <strong>of</strong> Behonia, where he<br />
became a pr<strong>of</strong>essor. Having read some treatises written by ministers <strong>of</strong> the reformed religion,<br />
he grew fully sensible <strong>of</strong> the errors <strong>of</strong> popery, and soon became a zealous Protestant in his<br />
heart.<br />
He now determined to expound, accordingly to the purity <strong>of</strong> the Gospel, St. Paul's Epistle<br />
to the Romans, in a regular course <strong>of</strong> sermons. <strong>The</strong> concourse <strong>of</strong> people that continually<br />
attended his preaching was surprising, but when the priests found the tenor <strong>of</strong> his doctrines,<br />
they despatched an account <strong>of</strong> the affair to Rome; when the pope sent a monk, named<br />
Cornelius, to Bononia, to expound the same epistle, according to the tenets <strong>of</strong> the Church <strong>of</strong><br />
Rome. <strong>The</strong> people, however, found such a disparity between the two preachers that the<br />
audience <strong>of</strong> Mollius increased, and Cornelius was forced to preach to empty benches.<br />
Cornelius wrote an account <strong>of</strong> his bad success to the pope, who immediately sent an<br />
order to apprehend Mollius, who was seized upon accordingly, and kept in close<br />
confinement. <strong>The</strong> bishop <strong>of</strong> Bononia sent him word that he must recant, or be burnt; but he<br />
appealed to Rome, and was removed thither.<br />
At Rome he begged to have a public trial, but that the pope absolutely denied him, and<br />
commanded him to give an account <strong>of</strong> his opinions, in writing, which he did under the<br />
following heads:<br />
Original sin. Free-will. <strong>The</strong> infallibility <strong>of</strong> the church <strong>of</strong> Rome. <strong>The</strong> infallibility <strong>of</strong> the<br />
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