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 />
knowledge <strong>of</strong> the Latin, the study <strong>of</strong> the Greek and Hebrew tongues, and gave himself up to<br />
the study <strong>of</strong> the Holy Scriptures, the better to qualify himself for the <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> preacher.<br />
In the beginning <strong>of</strong> King Edward's reign, when God's true religion was introduced, after<br />
license obtained, he began to preach, and was so well liked <strong>of</strong> them who then had authority<br />
that they appointed him to read a divinity lecture in the College <strong>of</strong> Forthringham. <strong>The</strong> College<br />
<strong>of</strong> Fothringham being dissolved he was placed to be a reader in the minster at Litchfield. After<br />
a certain space, he departed from Litchfield to a benefice in Leicestershire, called Churchlangton,<br />
where he held a residence, taught diligently, and kept a liberal house. <strong>The</strong>nce he was<br />
orderly called to take a benefice in the city <strong>of</strong> London, namely, All-hallows in Bread-street.<br />
After this he preached at Northhampton, nothing meddling with the state, but boldly uttering<br />
his conscience against the popish doctrines which were likely to spring up again in England,<br />
as a just plague for the little love which the English nation then bore to the blessed Word <strong>of</strong><br />
God, which had been so plentifully <strong>of</strong>fered unto them.<br />
<strong>The</strong> queen's party who were there, and heard him, were highly displeased with him for<br />
his sermon, and for it kept him among them as a prisoner. But partly for love <strong>of</strong> his brethren<br />
and friends, who were chief actors for the queen among them, and partly because there was<br />
no law broken by hbis preaching, they dismissed him.<br />
Some <strong>of</strong> his friends, perceiving such fearful menacing, counselled him to fly out <strong>of</strong> the<br />
realm, which he refused to do. But seeing he was with violence kept from doing good in that<br />
place, he returned towards London, to visit his flock.<br />
In the afternoon <strong>of</strong> Sunday, October 15, 1554, as he was reading in his church to exhort<br />
his people, the bishop <strong>of</strong> London interrupted him, by sending an <strong>of</strong>ficer for him.<br />
His treason and sedition the bishop's charity was content to let slip until another time, but<br />
a heretic he meant to prove him, and all those, he said, who taught and believed that the<br />
administration <strong>of</strong> the Sacraments, and all orders <strong>of</strong> the Church, are the most pure, which come<br />
the nearest to the order <strong>of</strong> the primitive Church.<br />
After much talk concerning this matter, the bishop desired him to write what he believed<br />
<strong>of</strong> transubstantiation. Lawrence Saunders did so, saying, "My Lord, you seek my blood, and<br />
you shall have it: I pray God that you may be so baptised in it that you may ever after loathe<br />
blood-sucking, and become a better man." Upon being closely charged with contumacy, the<br />
severe replies <strong>of</strong> Mr. Saunders to the bishop, (who had before, to get the favour <strong>of</strong> Henry VIII<br />
written and set forth in print, a book <strong>of</strong> true obedience, wherein he had openly declared Queen<br />
Mary to be a bastard) so irritated him that he exclaimed, "Carry away this frenzied fool to<br />
prison."<br />
After this good and faithful martyr had been kept in prison one year and a quarter, the<br />
bishops at length called him, as they did his fellow-prisoners, openly to be examined before<br />
the queen's council.<br />
His examination being ended, the <strong>of</strong>ficers led him out <strong>of</strong> the place, and stayed until the<br />
rest <strong>of</strong> his fellow- prisoners were likewise examined, that they might lead them all together to<br />
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