Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
should look for little other subsistence: which is credible enough, if we consider their like
practices upon divers before mentioned in this history; as, among others, upon Richard Smith,
who died through their cruel imprisonment touching whom, when a godly woman came to
Dr. Story to have leave she might bury him, he asked her if he had any straw or blood in his
mouth; but what he means thereby, I leave to the judgment of the wise.
On the first day of the third week of our martyr's sufferings, an object presented itself to
his view, which made him indeed feel his tortures with all their force, and to execrate, with
bitterness only short of cursing, the author of his misery. To mark and punish the proceedings
of his tormentors, remained with the Most High, who noteth even the fall of a sparrow, and
in whose sacred Word it is written, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." This object was his
own son, a child of the tender age of eight years. For fifteen days, had its hapless father been
suspended by his tormentor by the right arm and left leg, and sometimes by both, shifting his
positions for the purpose of giving him strength to bear and to lengthen the date of his
sufferings. When the unoffending innocent, desirous of seeing and speaking to its parent,
applied to Bonner for permission to do so, the poor child being asked by the bishop's chaplain
the purport of his errand, he replied he wished to see his father. "Who is thy father?" said the
chaplain. "John Fetty," returned the boy, at the same time pointing to the place where he was
confined. The interrogating miscreant on this said, "Why, thy father is a heretic!" The little
champion again rejoined, with energy sufficient to raise admiration in any breast, except that
of this unprincipled and unfeeling wretch-this miscreant, eager to execute the behests of a
remoseless queen-"My father is no heretic: for you have Balaam's mark."
Irritated by reproach so aptly applied, the indignant and mortified priest concealed his
resentment for a moment, and took the undaunted boy into the house, where having him
secure, he presented him to others, whose baseness and cruelty being equal to his own, they
stripped him to the skin, and applied their scourges to so violent a degree, that, fainting
beneath the stripes inflicted on his tender frame, and covered with the blood that flowed from
them, the victim of their ungodly wrath was ready to expire under his heavy and unmerited
punishment.
In this bleeding and helpless state was the suffering infant, covered only with his shirt,
taken to his father by one of the actors in the horrid tragedy, who, while he exhibited the heartrending
spectacle, made use of the vilest taunts, and exulted in what he had done. The dutiful
child, as if recovering strength at the sight of his father, on his knees implored his blessing.
"Alas! Will," said the afflicted parent, in trembling amazement, "who hath done this to thee!"
the artless innocent related the circumstances that led to the merciless correction which had
been so basely inflicted on him; but when he repeated the reproof bestowed on the chaplain,
and which was prompted by an undaunted spirit, he was torn from his weeping parent, and
conveyed again to the house, where he remained a close prisoner.
Bonner, somewhat fearful that what had been done could not be justified even among the
bloodhounds of his own voracious pack, concluded in his dark and wicked mind, to release
John Fetty, for a time at least, from the severities he was enduring in the glorious cause of
everlasting truth! whose bright rewards are fixed beyond the boundaries of time, within the
confines of eternity; where the arrow of the wicked cannot wound, even "where there shall be
no more sorrowing for the blessed, who, in the mansion of eternal bliss shall glorify the Lamb
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