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 />
him <strong>of</strong>f! turn him <strong>of</strong>f!" which the executioner did almost immediately, and the body being<br />
afterward cut down, was flung into the river.<br />
Paul Clement, an elder <strong>of</strong> the church <strong>of</strong> Rossana, being apprehended by the monks <strong>of</strong> a<br />
neighboring monastery, was carried to the market place <strong>of</strong> that town, where some Protestants<br />
had just been executed by the soldiers. He was shown the dead bodies, in order that the sight<br />
might intimidate him. On beholding the shocking subjects, he said, calmly, "You may kill<br />
the body, but you cannot prejudice the soul <strong>of</strong> a true believer; but with respect to the dreadful<br />
spectacles which you have here shown me, you may rest assured, that God's vengeance will<br />
overtake the murderers <strong>of</strong> those poor people, and punish them for the innocent blood they<br />
have spilt." <strong>The</strong> monks were so exasperated at this reply that they ordered him to be hanged<br />
directly; and while he was hanging, the soldiers amused themselves in standing at a distance,<br />
and shooting at the body as at a mark.<br />
Daniel Rambaut, <strong>of</strong> Vilario, the father <strong>of</strong> a numerous family, was apprehended, and,<br />
with several others, committed to prison, in the jail <strong>of</strong> Paysana. Here he was visited by<br />
several priests, who with continual importunities did all they could to persuade him to<br />
renounce the Protestant religion and turn papist; but this he peremptorily refused, and the<br />
priests finding his resolution, pretended to pity his numerous family, and told him that he<br />
might yet have his life, if he would subscribe to the belief <strong>of</strong> the following articles:<br />
1. <strong>The</strong> real presence <strong>of</strong> the host.<br />
2. Transubstantiation.<br />
3. Purgatory.<br />
4. <strong>The</strong> pope's infallibility.<br />
5. That masses said for the dead will release souls from purgatory.<br />
6. That praying to saints will procure the remission <strong>of</strong> sins.<br />
M. Rambaut told the priests that neither his religion, his understanding, nor his<br />
conscience, would suffer him to subscribe to any <strong>of</strong> the articles, for the following reasons:<br />
1. That to believe the real presence in the host, is a shocking union <strong>of</strong> both blasphemy<br />
and idolatry.<br />
2. That to fancy the words <strong>of</strong> consecration perform what the papists call<br />
transubstantiation, by converting the wafer and wine into the real and identical<br />
body and blood <strong>of</strong> Christ, which was crucified, and which afterward ascended into<br />
heaven, is too gross an absurdity for even a child to believe, who was come to the<br />
least glimmering <strong>of</strong> reason; and that nothing but the most blind superstition could<br />
make the Roman Catholics put a confidence in anything so completely ridiculous.<br />
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