Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
who so builds His Church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. But alas! the very
wife of his bosom, whose heart was hardened against the truth, and whose mind was
influenced by the teachers of false doctrine, became his accuser. Brokenbery, a creature of
the pope, and parson of the parish, received the information of this wedded Delilah, in
consequence of which the poor man was apprehended. But here the awful judgment of an
ever-righteous God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil," fell upon this stone-hearted
and perfidious woman; for no sooner was the injured husband captured by her wicked
contriving, than she also was suddenly seized with madness, and exhibited an awful and
awakening instance of God's power to punish the evil-doer. This dreadful circumstance had
some effect upon the hearts of the ungodly hunters who had eagerly grasped their prey; but,
in a relenting moment, they suffered him to remain with his unworthy wife, to return her good
for evil, and to comfort two children, who, on his being sent to prison, would have been left
without a protector, or have become a burden to the parish. As bad men act from little motives,
we may place the indulgence shown him to the latter account.
We have noticed in the former part of our narratives of the martyrs, some whose affection
would have led them even to sacrifice their own lives, to preserve their husbands; but here,
agreeable to Scripture language, a mother proves, indeed, a monster in nature! Neither
conjugal nor maternal affection could impress the heart of this disgraceful woman.
Although our afflicted Christian had experienced so much cruelty and falsehood from the
woman who was bound to him by every tie both human and divine, yet, with a mild and
forbearing spirit, he overlooked her misdeeds, during her calamity endeavoring all he could
to procure relief for her malady, and soothing her by every possible expression of tenderness:
thus she became in a few weeks nearly restored to her senses. But, alas! she returned again to
her sin, "as a dog returneth to his vomit." Malice against the saints of the Most High was
seated in her heart too firmly to be removed; and as her strength returned, her inclination to
work wickedness returned with it. Her heart was hardened by the prince of darkness; and to
her may be applied these afflicting and soul-harrowing words, "Can the Ethiopian change his
skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."
Weighing this text duly with another, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," how
shall we presume to refine away the sovereignty of God by arrainging Jehovah at the bar of
human reason, which, in religious matters, is too often opposed by infinite wisdom? "Broad
is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Narrow is the
way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." The ways of heaven are indeed
inscrutable, and it is our bounden duty to walk ever dependent on God, looking up to Him
with humble confidence, and hope in His goodness, and ever confess His justice; and where
we "cannot unravel, there learn to trust." This wretched woman, pursuing the horrid dictates
of a heart hardened and depraved, was scarcely confirmed in her recovery, when, stifling the
dictates of honor, gratitude, and every natural affection, she again accused her husband, who
was once more apprehended, and taken before Sir John Mordant, knight, and one of Queen
Mary's commissioners.
Upon examination, his judge finding him fixed in opinions which militated against those
nursed by superstition and maintained by cruelty, he was sentenced to confinement and torture
in Lollard's Tower. Here he was put into the painful stocks, and had a dish of water set by
him, with a stone put into it, to what purpose God knoweth,e xcept it were to show that he
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