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 />
Henry Smith, a student in the law, had a pious Protesant father, <strong>of</strong> Camben, in<br />
Gloucestershire, by whom he was virtuously educated. While studying law in the middle<br />
temple, he was induced to pr<strong>of</strong>ess Catholicism, and, going to Louvain, in France, he returned<br />
with pardons, crucifixes, and a great freight <strong>of</strong> popish toys. Not content with these things, he<br />
openly reviled the Gospel religion he had been brought up in; but conscience one night<br />
reproached him so dreadfully, that in a fit <strong>of</strong> despair he hung himself in his garters. He was<br />
buried in a lane, without the Christian service being read over him.<br />
Dr. Story, whose name has been so <strong>of</strong>ten mentioned in the preceding pages, was reserved<br />
to be cut <strong>of</strong>f by public execution, a practice in which he had taken great delight when in power.<br />
He is supposed to have had a hand in most <strong>of</strong> the conflagrations in Mary's time, and was even<br />
ingenious in his invention <strong>of</strong> new modes <strong>of</strong> inflicting torture. When Elizabeth came to the<br />
throne, he was committed to prison, but unaccountably effected his escape to the continent,<br />
to carry fire and sword there among the Protestant brethren. From the duke <strong>of</strong> Alva, at<br />
Antwerp, he received a special commission to search all ships for contraband goods, and<br />
particularly for English heretical books.<br />
Dr. Story gloried in a commission that was ordered by Providence to be his ruin, and to<br />
preserve the faithful from his sanguinary cruelty. It was contrived that one Parker, a merchant,<br />
should sail to Antwerp and information should be given to Dr. Story that he had a quantity <strong>of</strong><br />
heretical books on board. <strong>The</strong> latter no sooner heard this, than he hastened to the vessel, sought<br />
everywhere above, and then went under the hatches, which were fastened down upon him. A<br />
prosperous gale brought the ship to England, and this traitorous, persecuting rebel was<br />
committed to prison, where he remained a considerable time, obstinately objecting to recant<br />
his Antichristian spirit, or admit <strong>of</strong> Queen Elizabeth's supremacy. He alleged, though by birth<br />
and education an Englishman, that he was a sworn subject <strong>of</strong> the king <strong>of</strong> Spain, in whose<br />
service the famous duke <strong>of</strong> Alva was. <strong>The</strong> doctor being condemned, was laid upon a hurdle,<br />
and drawn from the Tower to Tyburn, where after being suspended about half an hour, he was<br />
cut down, stripped, and the executioner displayed the heart <strong>of</strong> a traitor.<br />
Thus ended the existence <strong>of</strong> this Nimrod <strong>of</strong> England.<br />
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