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 />
Chapter IV - Papal Persecutions<br />
Thus far our history <strong>of</strong> persecution has been confined principally to the pagan world. We<br />
come now to a period when persecution, under the guise <strong>of</strong> Christianity, committed more<br />
enormities than ever disgraced the annals <strong>of</strong> paganism. Disregarding the maxims and the spirit<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Gospel, the papal Church, arming herself with the power <strong>of</strong> the sword, vexed the Church<br />
<strong>of</strong> God and wasted it for several centuries, a period most appropriately termed in history, the<br />
"dark ages." <strong>The</strong> kings <strong>of</strong> the earth, gave their power to the "Beast," and submitted to be<br />
trodden on by the miserable vermin that <strong>of</strong>ten filled the papal chair, as in the case <strong>of</strong> Henry,<br />
emperor <strong>of</strong> Germany. <strong>The</strong> storm <strong>of</strong> papal persecution first burst upon the Waldenses in<br />
France.<br />
Persecution <strong>of</strong> the Waldenses in France<br />
Popery having brought various innovations into the Church, and overspread the Christian<br />
world with darkness and superstition, some few, who plainly perceived the pernicious<br />
tendency <strong>of</strong> such errors, determined to show the light <strong>of</strong> the Gospel in its real purity, and to<br />
disperse those clouds which artful priests had raised about it, in order to blind the people, and<br />
obscure its real brightness.<br />
<strong>The</strong> principal among these was Berengarius, who, about the year 1000, boldly preached<br />
Gospel truths, according to their primitive purity. Many, from conviction, assented to his<br />
doctrine, and were, on that account, called Berengarians. To Berengarius succeeded Peer<br />
Bruis, who preached at Toulouse, under the protection <strong>of</strong> an earl, named Hildephonsus; and<br />
the whole tenets <strong>of</strong> the reformers, with the reasons <strong>of</strong> their separation from the Church <strong>of</strong><br />
Rome, were published in a book written by Bruis, under the title <strong>of</strong> "Antichrist."<br />
By the year <strong>of</strong> Christ 1140, the number <strong>of</strong> the reformed was very great, and the probability<br />
<strong>of</strong> its increasing alarmed the pope, who wrote to several princes to banish them from their<br />
dominions, and employed many learned men to write against their doctrines.<br />
In A.D. 1147, because <strong>of</strong> Henry <strong>of</strong> Toulouse, deemed their most eminent preacher, they<br />
were called Henericians; and as they would not admit <strong>of</strong> any pro<strong>of</strong>s relative to religion, but<br />
what could be deduced from the Scriptures themselves, the popish party gave them the name<br />
<strong>of</strong> apostolics. At length, Peter Waldo, or Valdo, a native <strong>of</strong> Lyons, eminent for his piety and<br />
learning, became a strenuous opposer <strong>of</strong> popery; and from him the reformed, at that time,<br />
received the appellation <strong>of</strong> Waldenses or Waldoys.<br />
Pope Alexander III being informed by the bishop <strong>of</strong> Lyons <strong>of</strong> these transactions,<br />
excommunicated Waldo and his adherents, and commanded the bishop to exterminate them,<br />
if possible, from the face <strong>of</strong> the earth; hence began the papal persecutions against the<br />
Waldenses.<br />
<strong>The</strong> proceedings <strong>of</strong> Waldo and the reformed, occasioned the first rise <strong>of</strong> the inquisitors;<br />
for Pope Innocent III authorised certain monks as inquisitors, to inquire for, and deliver over,<br />
the reformed to the secular power. <strong>The</strong> process was short, as an accusation was deemed<br />
adequate to guilt, and a candid trial was never granted to the accused.<br />
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