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 />
It was on the afternoon <strong>of</strong> the day when those faithful soldiers <strong>of</strong> Christ, Ridley and<br />
Latimer, perished, that Gardiner sat down with a joyful heart to dinner. Scarcely had he taken<br />
a few mouthfuls, when he was seized with illness, and carried to his bed, where he lingered<br />
fifteen days in great torment, unable in any wise to evacuate, and burnt with a devouring fever,<br />
that terminated in death. Execrated by all good Christians, we pray the Father <strong>of</strong> mercies, that<br />
he may receive that mercy above he never imparted below.<br />
Mr. John Philpot<br />
This martyr was the son <strong>of</strong> a knight, born in Hampshire, and brought up at New College,<br />
Oxford, where for several years he studied the civil law, and became eminent in the Hebrew<br />
tongue. He was a scholar and a gentleman, zealous in religion, fearless in disposition, and a<br />
detester <strong>of</strong> flattery. After visiting Italy, he returned to England, affairs in King Edward's days<br />
wearing a more promising aspect. During this reign he continued to be archdeacon <strong>of</strong><br />
Winchester under Dr. Poinet, who succeeded Gardiner. Upon the accession <strong>of</strong> Mary, a<br />
convocation was summoned, in which Mr. Philpot defended the Reformation against his<br />
ordinary, Gardiner, again made bishop <strong>of</strong> Winchester, and soon was conducted to Bonner and<br />
other commissioners for examination, October 2, 1555, after being eighteen months'<br />
imprisoned. Upon his demanding to see the commission, Dr. Story cruelly observed, "I will<br />
spend both my gown and my coat, but I will burn thee! Let him be in Lollard's tower, (a<br />
wretched prison,) for I will sweep the king's Bench and all other prisons <strong>of</strong> these heretics!"<br />
Upon Mr. Philpot's second examination, it was intimated to him that Dr. Story had said<br />
that the lord chancellor had commanded that he should be made away with. It is easy to<br />
foretell the result <strong>of</strong> this inquiry. He was committed to Bonner's coal house, where he joined<br />
company with a zealous minister <strong>of</strong> Essex, who had been induced to sign a bill <strong>of</strong> recantation;<br />
but afterward, stung by his conscience, he asked the bishop to let him see the instrument again,<br />
when he tore it to pieces; which induced Bonner in a fury to strike him repeatedly, and tear<br />
away part <strong>of</strong> his beard. Mr. Philpot had a private interview with Bonner the same night, and<br />
was then remanded to his bed <strong>of</strong> straw like other prisoners, in the coal house. After seven<br />
examinations, Bonner ordered him to be set in the stocks, and on the following Sunday<br />
separated him from his fellow- prisoners as a sower <strong>of</strong> heresy, and ordered him up to a room<br />
near the battlements <strong>of</strong> St. Paul's, eight feet by thirteen, on the other side <strong>of</strong> Lollard's tower,<br />
and which could be overlooked by any one in the bishop's outer gallery. Here Mr. Philpot was<br />
searched, but happily he was successful in secreting some letters containing his examinations.<br />
In the eleventh investigation before various bishops, and Mr. Morgan, <strong>of</strong> Oxford, the latter<br />
was so driven into a corner by the close pressure <strong>of</strong> Mr. Philpot's arguments, that he said to<br />
him, "Instead <strong>of</strong> the spirit <strong>of</strong> the Gospel which you boast to possess, I think it is the spirit <strong>of</strong> the<br />
buttery, which your fellows have had, who were drunk before their death, and went, I believe,<br />
drunken to it." To this unfounded and brutish remark, Mr. Philpot indignantly replied, "It<br />
appeareth by your communication that you are better acquainted with that spirit than the Spirit<br />
<strong>of</strong> God; wherefore I tell thee, thou painted wall and hypocrite, in the name <strong>of</strong> the living God,<br />
whose truth I have told thee, that God shall rain fire and brimstone upon such blasphemers as<br />
thou art!" He was then remanded by Bonner, with an order not to allow him his Bible nor<br />
candlelight.<br />
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