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 />
accomplishments <strong>of</strong> the gentleman, he blended the virtues <strong>of</strong> a Christian. His doctrines were<br />
orthodox and pure; his language easy and elegant; and his manners graceful and winning: in<br />
fine, he was both the pious and polite preacher. In his youth he was educated in the principles<br />
<strong>of</strong> Gentilism, and having a considerable fortune, he lived in the very extravagance <strong>of</strong><br />
splendour, and all the dignity <strong>of</strong> pomp.<br />
About the year 246, Coecilius, a Christian minister <strong>of</strong> Carthage, became the happy<br />
instrument <strong>of</strong> Cyprian's conversion: on which account, and for the great love that he always<br />
afterward bore for the author <strong>of</strong> his conversion, he was termed Coecilius Cyprian. Previous<br />
to his baptism, he studied the Scriptures with care and being struck with the beauties <strong>of</strong> the<br />
truths they contained, he determined to practise the virtues therein recommended. Subsequent<br />
to his baptism, he sold his estate, distributed the money among the poor, dressed himself in<br />
plain attire, and commenced a life <strong>of</strong> austerity. He was soon after made a presbyter; and, being<br />
greatly admired for his virtues and works, on the death <strong>of</strong> Donatus, in A.D. 248, he was almost<br />
unanimously elected bishop <strong>of</strong> Carthage.<br />
Cyprian's care not only extended over Carthage, but to Numidia and Mauritania. In all his<br />
transactions he took great care to ask the advice <strong>of</strong> his clergy, knowing that unanimity alone<br />
could be <strong>of</strong> service to the Church, this being one <strong>of</strong> his maxims, "That the bishop was in the<br />
church, and the church in the bishop; so that unity can only be preserved by a close connexion<br />
between the pastor and his flock."<br />
In A.D. 250, Cyprian was publicly proscribed by the emperor Decius, under the<br />
appellation <strong>of</strong> Coecilius Cyprian, bishop <strong>of</strong> the Christrians; and the universal cry <strong>of</strong> the pagans<br />
was, "Cyprian to the lions, Cyprian to the beasts." <strong>The</strong> bishop, however, withdrew from the<br />
rage <strong>of</strong> the populace, and his effects were immediately confiscated. During his retirement, he<br />
wrote thirty pious and elegant letters to his flock; but several schisms that then crept into the<br />
Church, gave him great uneasiness. <strong>The</strong> rigor <strong>of</strong> the persecution abating, he returned to<br />
Carthage, and did everything in his power to expunge erroneous opinions. A terrible plague<br />
breaking out in Carthage, it was as usual, laid to the charge <strong>of</strong> the Christians; and the<br />
magistrates began to persecute accordingly, which occasioned an epistle from them to<br />
Cyprian, in answer to which he vindicates the cause <strong>of</strong> Christianity. A.D. 257, Cyprian was<br />
brought before the proconsul Aspasius Paturnus, who exiled him to a little city on the Lybian<br />
sea. On the death <strong>of</strong> this proconsul, he returned to Carthage, but was soon after seized, and<br />
carried before the new governor, who condemned him to be beheaded; which sentence was<br />
executed on the fourteenth <strong>of</strong> September, A.D. 258.<br />
<strong>The</strong> disciples <strong>of</strong> Cyprian, martyred in this persecution, were Lucius, Flavian, Victoricus,<br />
Remus, Montanus, Julian, Primelus, and Donatian.<br />
At Utica, a most terrible tragedy was exhibited: three hundred Christians were, by the<br />
orders <strong>of</strong> the proconsul, placed round a burning limekiln. A pan <strong>of</strong> coals and incense being<br />
prepared, they were commanded either to sacrifice to Jupiter, or to be thrown into the kiln.<br />
Unanimously refusing, they bravely jumped into the pit, and were immediately suffocated.<br />
Fructuosus, bishop <strong>of</strong> Tarragon, in Spain, and his two deacons, Augurius and Eulogius,<br />
were burnt for being Christians.<br />
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