Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
pope. Justification by faith. Purgatory. Transubstantiation. Mass. Auricular confession.
Prayers for the dead. The host. Prayers for saints. Going on pilgrimages. Extreme unction.
Performing services in an unknown tongue, etc., etc.
All these he confirmed from Scripture authority. The pope, upon this occasion, for
political reasons, spared him for the present, but soon after had him apprehended, and put to
death, he being first hanged, and his body burnt to ashes, A.D. 1553.
The year after, Francis Gamba, a Lombard, of the Protestant persuasion, was
apprehended, and condemned to death by the senate of Milan. At the place of execution, a
monk presented a cross to him, to whom he said, "My mind is so full of the real merits and
goodness of Christ that I want not a piece of senseless stick to put me in mind of Him." For
this expression his tongue was bored through, and he was afterward burnt.
A.D. 1555, Algerius, a student in the university of Padua, and a man of great learning,
having embraced the reformed religion, did all he could to convert others. For these
proceedings he was accused of heresy to the pope, and being apprehended, was committed
to the prison at Venice.
The pope, being informed of Algerius's great learning, and surprising natural abilities,
thought it would be of infinite service to the Church of Rome if he could induce him to
forsake the Protestant cause. He, therefore, sent for him to Rome, and tried, by the most
profane promises, to win him to his purpose. But finding his endeavors ineffectual, he
ordered him to be burnt, which sentence was executed accordingly.
A.D. 1559, John Alloysius, being sent from Geneva to preach in Calabria, was there
apprehended as a Protestant, carried to Rome, and burnt by order of the pope; and James
Bovelius, for the same reason, was burnt at Messina.
A.D. 1560, Pope Pius the Fourth, ordered all the Protestants to be severely persecuted
throughout the Italian states, when great numbers of every age, sex, and condition, suffered
martyrdom. Concerning the cruelties practiced upon this occasion, a learned and humane
Roman Catholic thus spoke of them, in a letter to a noble lord: “I cannot, my lord, forbear
disclosing my sentiments, with respect to the persecution now carrying on: I think it cruel
and unnecessary; I tremble at the manner of putting to death, as it resembles more the
slaughter of calves and sheep, than the execution of human beings. I will relate to your
lordship a dreadful scene, of which I was myself an eye witness: seventy Protestants were
cooped up in one filthy dungeon together; the executioner went in among them, picked out
one from among the rest, blindfolded him, led him out to an open place before the prison,
and cut his throat with the greatest composure. He then calmly walked into the prison again,
bloody as he was, and with the knife in his hand selected another, and despatched him in the
same manner; and this, my lord, he repeated until the whole number were put to death. I
leave it to your lordship's feelings to judge of my sensations upon this occasion; my tears
now wash the paper upon which I give you the recital. Another thing I must mention-the
patience with which they met death: they seemed all resignation and piety, fervently praying
to God, and cheerfully encountering their fate. I cannot reflect without shuddering, how the
executioner held the bloody knife between his teeth; what a dreadful figure he appeared, all
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