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 />
was committed to a dark dungeon, and lay deprived <strong>of</strong> the consolation <strong>of</strong> any one (for all were<br />
afraid to relieve or communicate with him) until the day appointed came that he should suffer.<br />
<strong>The</strong> sheriffs <strong>of</strong> the city, Amry and Couper, with their <strong>of</strong>ficers, went to the north gate, and took<br />
out Mr. George Marsh, who walked all the way with the <strong>Book</strong> in his hand, looking upon the<br />
same, whence the people said, "This man does not go to his death as a thief, nor as one that<br />
deserveth to die."<br />
When he came to the place <strong>of</strong> execution without the city, near Spittal=Boughton, Mr.<br />
Cawdry, deputy chamberlain <strong>of</strong> Chester, showed Mr. Marsh a writing under a great seal,<br />
saying that it was a pardon for him if he would recant. He answered that he would gladly<br />
accept the same did it not tend to pluck him from God.<br />
After that, he began to speak to the people showing the cause <strong>of</strong> his death, and would<br />
have exhorted them to stick unto Christ, but one <strong>of</strong> the sheriffs prevented him. Kneeling down,<br />
he then said his prayers, put <strong>of</strong>f his clothes unto his shirt, and was chained to the post, having<br />
a number <strong>of</strong> fagots under him, and a thing made like a firkin, with pitch and tar in it, over his<br />
head. <strong>The</strong> fire being unskilfully made, and the wind driving it in eddies, he suffered great<br />
extremity, which notwithstanding he bore with Christian fortitude.<br />
When he had been a long time tormented in the fire without moving, having his flesh so<br />
broiled and puffed up that they who stood before him could not see the chain wherewith he<br />
was fastened, and therefore supposed that he had been dead, suddenly he spread abroad his<br />
arms, saying, "Father <strong>of</strong> heaven have mercy upon me!" and so yielded his spirit into the hands<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Lord. Upon this, many <strong>of</strong> the people said he was a martyr, and died gloriously patient.<br />
This caused the bishop shortly after to make a sermon in the cathedral church, and therein he<br />
affirmed, that the said 'Marsh was a heretic, burnt as such, and is a firebrand in hell.' Mr.<br />
Marsh suffered April 24, 1555.<br />
William Flower<br />
William Flower, otherwise Branch, was born at Snow-hill, in the county <strong>of</strong> Cambridge,<br />
where he went to school some years, and then came to the abby <strong>of</strong> Ely. After he had remained<br />
a while he became a pr<strong>of</strong>essed monk, was made a priest in the same house, and there<br />
celebrated and sang Mass. After that, by reason <strong>of</strong> a visitation, and certain injunctions by the<br />
authority <strong>of</strong> Henry VIII he took upon him the habit <strong>of</strong> a secular priest, and returned to Snowhill,<br />
where he was born, and taught children about half a year.<br />
He then went to Ludgate, in Suffolk, and served as a secular priest about a quarter <strong>of</strong> a<br />
year; from thence to Stoniland; at length to Tewksbury, where he married a wife, with whom<br />
he ever after faithfully and honestly continued. After marriage he resided at Tewksbury about<br />
two years, and thence went to Brosley, where he practiced physic and surgery; but departing<br />
from those parts he came to London, and finally settled at Lambeth, where he and his wife<br />
dwelt together. However, he was generally abroad, excepting once or twice in a month, to<br />
visit and see his wife. Being at home upon Easter Sunday morning, he came over the water<br />
from lambeth into St. Margaret's Church at Westminster; when seeing a priest, named John<br />
Celtham, administering and giving the Sacrament <strong>of</strong> the alter to the people, and being greatly<br />
<strong>of</strong>fended in his conscience with the priest for the same, he struck and wounded him upon the<br />
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