Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
he alone, than he tore them off, and exclaimed as before. Being tied in a cart, he was conveyed
to his master's house, and in about half a year he died; just before which a priest came to
attend him, with the crucifix, etc., but the wretched man bade him take away such trumpery,
and said that he and other priests had been the cause of his damnation, but that Abbes was
saved.
One Clark, an avowed enemy of the Protestants in King Edward's reign, hung himself in
the Tower of London.
Froling, a priest of much celebrity, fell down in the street and died on the spot.
Dale, an indefatigable informer, was consumed by vermin, and died a miserable spectacle.
Alexander, the severe keeper of Newgate, died miserably, swelling to a prodigious size,
and became so inwardly putrid, that none could come near him. This cruel minister of the law
would go to Bonner, Story, and others, requesting them to rid his prison, he was so much
pestered with heretics! The son of this keeper, in three years after his father's death, dissipated
his great property, and died suddenly in Newgate market. "The sins of the father," says the
decalogue, "shall be visited on the children." John Peter, son-in-law of Alexander, a horrid
blasphemer and persecutor, died wretchedly. When he affirmed anything, he would say, "If it
be not true, I pray I may rot ere I die." This awful state visited him in all its loathsomeness.
Sir Ralph Ellerker was eagerly desirous to see the heart taken out of Adam Damlip, who
was wrongfully put to death. Shortly after Sir Ralph was slain by the French, who mangled
him dreadfully, cut off his limbs, and tore his heart out.
When Gardiner heard of the miserable end of Judge Hales, he called the profession of the
Gospel a doctrine of desperation; but he forgot that the judge's despondency arose after he
had consented to the papistry. But with more reason may this be said of the Catholic tenets,
if we consider the miserable end of Dr. Pendleton, Gardiner, and most of the leading
persecutors. Gardiner, upon his death bed, was reminded by a bishop of Peter denying his
master, "Ah," said Gardiner, "I have denied with Peter, but never repented with Peter."
After the accession of Elizabeth, most of the Catholic prelates were imprisoned in the
Tower or the Fleet; Bonner was put into the Marshalsea.
Of the revilers of God's Word, we detail, among many others, the following occurrence.
One William Maldon, living at Greenwich in servitude, was instructing himself profitably in
reading an English primer one winter's evening. A serving man, named John Powell, sat by,
and ridiculed all that Maldon said, who cautioned him not to make a jest of the Word of God.
Powell nevertheless continued, until Maldon came to certain English Prayers, and read aloud,
"Lord, have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy upon us," etc. Suddenly the reviler started, and
exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy upon us!" He was struck with the utmost terror of mind, said
the evil spirit could not abide that Christ should have any mercy upon him, and sunk into
madness. He was remitted to Bedlam, and became an awful warning that God will not always
be insulted with impunity.
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