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.
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Foxe</strong>’s <strong>Book</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Martyrs</strong><br />
After that arch-persecutor, Gardiner, was dead, others followed, <strong>of</strong> whom Dr. Morgan,<br />
bishop <strong>of</strong> St. David's, who succeeded Bishop Farrar, is to be noticed. Not long after he was<br />
installed in his bishoipric, he was stricken by the visitation <strong>of</strong> God; his food passed through<br />
the throat, but rose again with great violence. In this manner, almost literally starved to death,<br />
he terminated his existence.<br />
Bishop Thornton, suffragan <strong>of</strong> Dover, was an indefatigable persecutor <strong>of</strong> the true Church.<br />
One day after he had exercised his cruel tyranny upon a number <strong>of</strong> pious persons at<br />
Canterbury, he came from the chapter- house to Borne, where as he stood on a Sunday looking<br />
at his men playing at bowls, he fell down in a fit <strong>of</strong> the palsy, and did not long survive.<br />
After the latter, succeeded another bishop or suffragen, ordained by Gardiner, who not<br />
long after he had been raised to the see <strong>of</strong> Dover, fell down a pair <strong>of</strong> stairs in the cardinal's<br />
chamber at Greenwich, and broke his neck. He had just received the cardinal's blessing-he<br />
could receive nothing worse.<br />
John Cooper, <strong>of</strong> Watsam, Suffolk, suffered by perjury; he was from private pique<br />
persecuted by one Fenning, who suborned two others to swear that they heard Cooper say,<br />
'If God did not take away Queen Mary, the devil would.' Cooper denied all such words, but<br />
Cooper was a Proestant and a heretic, and therefore he was hung, drawn and quartered, his<br />
property confiscated, and his wife and nine children reduced to beggary. <strong>The</strong> following<br />
harvest, however, Grimwood <strong>of</strong> Hitcham, one <strong>of</strong> the witnesses before mentioned, was visited<br />
for his villainy: while at work, stacking up corn, his bowels suddenly burst out, and before<br />
relief could be obtained, her died. Thus was deliberate perjury rewarded by sudden death!<br />
In the case <strong>of</strong> the martyr Mr. Bradford, the severity <strong>of</strong> Mr. Sheriff Woodr<strong>of</strong>fe has been<br />
noticed-he rejoiced at the death <strong>of</strong> the saints, and at Mr. Rogers' execution, he broke the<br />
carman's head, because he stopped the cart to let the martyr's children take a last farewell <strong>of</strong><br />
him. Scarcely had Mr. Woodr<strong>of</strong>fe's sheriffalty expired a week, when he was struck with a<br />
paralytic affection, and languished a few days in the most pitiable and helpless condition,<br />
presenting a striking contrast to his former activity in the cause <strong>of</strong> blood.<br />
Ralph Lardyn, who betrayed the martyr George Eagles, is believed to have been afterward<br />
arraigned and hanged in consequence <strong>of</strong> accusing himself. At the bar, he denounced himself<br />
in these words: "This has most justly fallen upon me, for betraying the innocent blood <strong>of</strong> that<br />
just and good man George Eagles, who was here condemned in the time <strong>of</strong> Queen Mary by<br />
my procurement, when I sold his blood for a little money."<br />
As James Abbes was going to execution, and exhorting the pitying bystanders to adhere<br />
steadfastly to the truth, and like him to seal the cause <strong>of</strong> Christ with their blood, a servant <strong>of</strong><br />
the sheriff's interrupted him, and blasphemously called his religion heresy, and the good man<br />
a lunatic. Scarcely however had the flames reached the martyr, before the fearful stroke <strong>of</strong><br />
God fell upn the hardened wretch, in the presence <strong>of</strong> him he had so cruelly ridiculed. <strong>The</strong> man<br />
was suddenly seized with lunacy, cast <strong>of</strong>f his clothes and shoes before the people, (as Abbes<br />
had done just before, to distribute among some poor persons,) at the same time exclaiming,<br />
"Thus did James Abbes, the true servant <strong>of</strong> God, who is saved but I am damned." Repeating<br />
this <strong>of</strong>ten, the sheriff had him secured, and made him put his clothes on, but no sooner was<br />
267