Foxe's Book of martyrs; a complete and authentic account of the lives, sufferings, and triumphant deaths of the primitive and protestant martyrs, in all parts of the world

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Preface

Foxe's Martyrs are among our earliest recollections ; and their spirit-stirring incidents rivetted our eyes to their pages in our earliest childhood. Here we see " the great things that faith can do, and the great things that faith can suffer." Here we behold, in fact, what Bunyan has so admirably described in fiction ; here is Faithful again suffering and dying; here are graphically described the reacting in all parts of the world, and in our own country in particular, of the awful tragedies of Jerusalem, in which the Saviour of men was put to death, and the proto-martyr Stephen followed his holy example, dying by wicked hands, as a witness to the truth. Here in particular are seen anew the men of modern ages of whom the world was not worthy, " who loved not their lives unto the death," and whose cry mingles with that of the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held : " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost not thou judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth }" These are they arrayed in white robes; these are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. *

Here is "the patience of the saints," showing the influence of pure Christianity upon the mind, and the triumphs of the real believer over the world. These sufferers truly believed the word of God, and received it " not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which effectually worketh in them that believe." To them, houses and lands, wealth and honours, friends and relations, not even the dearest ties on earth, nor life itself, were of any estimation when set in competition with their love to the Saviour ; and they practically illustrated in their end, the doctrine of their Divine Master, "He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me ;" while they now reap the reward promised by Him who is " faithful and true." " And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life," Matt. xix. 29.

The present times especially call for the multiplication of copies of such a work as that of Foxe. Every one can understand facts, though every one may not be capable of following up a chain of reasonings. And "facts are stubborn things," which no subtilty can evade. The papists point us to paganism as the persecutor of the saints, but Popery is but paganism under a mask ; and while it

IV PREFACE.

mingles paganism with its Christianity, it has the heart and spirit of paganism. It is to be hoped that " the man of s>in" has arrived at the period when his strength is decayed : but perhaps his dyingstruggles will be the most violent, and they may not be short or few. He is losing much of his power in lands which he has hitherto ruled with a rod of iron, but he is aiming to redeem his losses in distant regions of the globe, and is obtaining subtle entrance into the British Isles. Under the cloak of Jesuitism and the mask of Puseyism, the inveterate foe of God and man is diligently at work, and may at length boldly show his face even in high places. The increased circulation of such a work as this may greatly assist in defeating his plans, and in throwing a fence around our common Protestant faith.

Rome indeed is ashamed of her own acts, and never admits that she is a persecutor. Hence Foxe, and all other writers who have published her crimes, are denounced as liars. It is in the creed of Jesuitism, for expediency's sake, to aver anything or deny anything. And if we are to believe the statements of the papists, those who have suffered as martyrs, have not suffered by the hands of the church, but of the civil power, to whom the church has always consigned them, that they might be punished "according to law." In the teeth of fire and fagot, they have represented themselves as merciful ; and the sanguinary murderers, glutted with the blood of the saints, have dared to assume the name of the meek and lowly Jesus. Let them tell us that there have been Protestant persecutors ; there have, to their shame. But persecution is not inherent in Protestantism, while in Popery it is an essential ingredient; and where ten have perished by the hands of Protestant persecutors, in times of darkness and ignorance preceded by Popery, whose example they copied, ten thousand have perished by those of the papists.

Let us, then, hold up the inhuman system to merited execration. Let parents teach their children, and children teach their children, to dread and to oppose this " abomination of desolation," and to shun this "pestilence that walketh in darkness." By aiding to circulate this work they will be doing an essential good ; and by the light issuing from the flames of the martyrs' funeral piles, they may help to scatter the darkness which is gathering around.

This edition, already improved by the able hands of the Rev. J. Milner, and by original communications from other learned and eminent ministers, will now be continued to the present time, and furnish the most complete as well as the cheapest Book of Martyrs which has yet been published.

Camber well, May 20, 1848.

ESSAY ON POPERY

Protestant writers often seem to take up the pen rather in self-defence than as assailants of Popery ; or, at least, they do not think of assailing it till it has assumed an imposing posture, and threatened their faith by its daring advances. Such is the relative position of Popery and Protestantism among us at the present moment, though in many other countries the former is on the decline ; and every true servant of Christ is called upon to use his best efforts to repel the artful destroyer.

Though apologies are offered for truth, truth needs no apology. We are accused by Papists as schismatics and heretics ; but the so-called schism consists in separating from their church, and not from the church of Christ; and our heresy is shunning their tradition, and not the word of God — the only standard of truth and infallible guide of our judgments. Whatever does not come from the fountain of truth in doctrine, and whatever does not accord with the practice of the primitive church before the Fathers wrote, or human creeds were invented, or Popish councils assembled, should be avoided as we would avoid the most destructive pestilence. On these grounds would we warn against Popery as the moral Upas-tree — to come within the atmosphere of which is to inhale the most deadly poison for the soul. The limits to which this Essay is restricted, require us to plunge at once into the heart of the subject, without further introductory remarks : —

The Church or Rome is erroneous in its doctrines. The Papists, with us, believe (1) in original sin, its defiling and ruinous nature, its being entailed from one child of Adam to another; but for the cure of this they have, as they imagine, a special remedy, which is baptism, " rightly administered according to the forms of the church :" in which ordinance the merits of Christ are applied, and thus what was contracted in generation is cleansed away by this sort of regeneration ! The same doctrine is now notoriously enforced by the semi-papists who have started up in the church of England — a doctrine which at once sets aside the need of a change of heart, and deludes thousands with the idea that they have by this ordinance been made Christians, instead of having only received " an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace," which if they do not afterwards possess, will cause them to fall short of that qualification which fits for the kingdom of heaven.

(2.) The doctrine of Justification lies at the root of the tree of life. Without an entire faith in the merits of a better righteousness than our own, we can never be saved. So conscious are mankind of guilt in the sight of vi ESSAY ON POPERY.

God, that all the world have virtually at least acknowledged it. Infidels themselves, in moments of danger, have trembled at the thought of eternity, and have even prayed. " How shall man be just with God?" is a question of the utmost moment; yet, deceived by the arch-adversary, men have ever been ready to prefer a religion of external forms, to a religion of the heart— an outside, to an inside cleansing : a religion in which they fancy there is much merit, rather than one in which they must be indebted wholly to Divine grace. Popery panders to this lust of pride. One article, among many others on the subject, by the council of Trent, the indisputable standard of popery, says, " If any one shall affirm that good works do not preserve and increase justification, but that good works themselves are only the fruits and evidence of justification already had, let such an one be accursed." If justification is to be preserved by us, then the justification wrought out by Christ is, at best, but a precarious justification; and if we can increase it, then it is incomplete justification. If we appeal to the Bible standard, the question there occurs, " It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemned) ?" But popery is a jumble on this great doctrine ; it makes Christ to do part and the sinner to do part, and undervalues the efficacy of the atoning blood and all-sufficient righteousness of " the Lord our Righteousness." Thus one of its acknowledged standard authors says, " These penitential works, he [the papist,] is taught to be no otherwise satisfactory, than as joined and applied to the satisfaction Jesus made upon the cross ; in virtue of which alone, all our good works find a grateful acceptance in God's sight." Here is the most complete confusion. A man's works must be joined and applied to the satisfaction of Christ; and yet it is in virtue of Christ's satisfaction that our good works can be acceptable to God ! If we ask how far the efficacy of Christ's atonement extends, we are told that it extends to all mortal sins, as if there could be any sin not mortal, and exposing us to eternal death ; but then there are sins from which we must be justified by our own deeds, venial transgressions, which prayers, fastings, almsgiving, penance, and purgatory may in the end remove. While many poor souls are deluded by this doctrine of mixed justification, partly by Christ and partly by the sinner himself, the Roman Catholic church, by working on the pride of the human heart on the one hand, and on the fears of trembling souls on the other, derives no small advantage from these misnamed meritorious labours and toils.

Moreover, in addition to his own good deeds, the papist can help himself from the stock of others, who need to perform them no longer! Those saints who have lived such immaculate lives, that they have done more than their duty to God and man, and have got safe to heaven with a treasure of works of supererogation to spare, are kind enough to allow the pope for the time being to assign to such as he thinks proper " a portion of this inexhaustible source of merit, suitable to their respective guilt, and sufficient to deliver them from the punishment due to their crimes!" This doctrine was first invented in the twelfth century, and modified and embellished by St. Thomas in the thirteenth. To suppose that a sinful creature, who is bound to love God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, could with his sinful nature perform more than is here required, is one of the most preposterous ideas that ever

ESSAY ON POPERY. vii

entered into the mind of man. The belief of such a doctrine is " the first-born of delusion;" it need be answered but very briefly from the words of our Divine Lord himself, " When ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants : we have done that which was our duty to do," Luke xvii. 10. And could we serve and worship God incessantly, with the purity and ardour of the burning seraphs around the eternal throne, we should still do no more than our duty.

(3.) Absolution is a power presumed to belong to the popish priesthood. By this the priest pronounces remitted the sins of such -as are penitent. The council of Trent and that of Florence declare the form or essence of the sacrament to lie in the words of the absolution, " I absolve thee of thy sins!" According to this, no one can receive absolution without the privity, consent, and declaration of the priest : therefore, unless the priest be willing, God himself cannot pardon any man. They found this doctrine on John xx. 23 : " Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." Had the words implied power to pardon sins, still that power could not, from this warrant, go beyond the apostles on whom it was conferred, as was the power of working miracles. But we see no such power claimed. The apostles preached the forgiveness of sins to those that repented and believed, (Acts iii. 19, etc. ;) and in all cases their theme was the same, " Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins," Acts xiii. 38. It was, therefore, no more than a declarative absolution, assuring sinners that " He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy gospel." No power here belongs to the priest; it is God only who can forgive sins.

(4.) Indulgences. Nearly allied to the doctrine of absolution, is the power of granting indulgences, or " a remission of the punishment due to sin, granted by the church, and supposed to save the sinner from purgatory." With all his absolution, the good papist stops short of heaven at last ; for the moment his breath is out of his body, he enters purgatory. But the keys of heaven being committed to St. Peter, and the popes in succession, they can unlock the gates, and let in the vilest sinners that ever corrupted the world ! For various prices souls may be redeemed out of purgatory, and any one may make his friends a present of a plenary remission of all sins ! This is too ridiculous to merit notice, but for the awful delusion with which it is connected. The popish priest having asserted his power to forgive sins, poor souls who give credit to his assertion are naturally anxious to obtain pardon from him. But in order so to do, he requires that to him they should make confession.

(5) Purgatory must here be noticed. It has been defined as " a place in which the just who depart out of this life are supposed to expiate certain offences, which do not merit eternal damnation," Now, all sin is sin ; and every sin is "the transgression of the law," 1 John iii. 4; and sin, then, must merit death, " for the wages of sin is death," Rom. vi. 23. Nor does the Scripture tell us anything about the wicked being in punishment for a limited time, or even going to an intermediate state, or passing from hell to heaven. It tells us that the duration of the misery of the wicked is like that of the happiness of the righteous, which is for vin ESSAY ON POPERY.

ever, Mark ix. 44; 1 Thess. iv. 17, etc.; that the good go instantly into the paradise of God, Luke xxiii. 43, Phil. i. 23; and that the wicked as instantly lift up their eyes in torments — torments from which escape to heaven is rendered impossible by an impassable gulf, Luke xvi. 26.

There are two scriptures on which the papists found their doctrine of purgatory, Matt. xii. 32, and 1 Pet. iii. 18 — 20. The language of the former is a strong mode of expressing the unchangeable punishment of him who sins against the Holy Ghost. " It shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." But it does not warrant us to say that any are forgiven in the world to come; and St. Paul assures us, " Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," 2 Cor. vi. 2. The second passage must be greatly wrested if we attempt to make anything more from it than what appears on its very face. Christ, who by his Spirit inspired Noah the preacher of righteousness, preached to the antediluvian sinners, now, and when the apostle Peter wrote, confined in the prison to which all unbelievers are for ever consigned. This doctrine of purgatory is, however, in harmony with the other parts of the popish creed, as it evidently leaves the work of pardon through Christ incomplete, and leaves even the best to make atonement to justice in another world !

(6.) The sacrifice of the mass is one of the peculiar doctrines of popery. For not believing in this, many a one has been sent by the papists in a chariot of fire, to join " the noble army of martyrs." The mass is similar to what Protestants call the communion service. High mass is the same thing more lengthened and showy. In the early ages of the church, the congregation was dismissed before the celebration of the Lord's Supper, none but the communicants being allowed to remain. The officiating minister said, " Ita missa est/' and the congregation Withdrew; hence in process of time arose the name. The mass is held to be a true and proper sacrifice for sin ; and a sacrifice for the living and the dead ! Here again is a reflection on the merits of the Divine Redeemer, and a vile anti-scriptural doctrine, the work of human invention. When Christ died on the cross, his work was " finished," John xix. 30; and the apostle assures us that " by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified," Heb. x. 14. Besides, a sacrifice must have a victim; but at best it is but the commemoration of the offering of the one only and spotless Victim — " the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world." Every time that mass is offered, Christ is insulted and dishonoured. There is no praise to the mass, any more than to human merit, given by the redeemed in heaven; but their song is, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing," Rev. v. 12.

(7. ) Transubstantiation is closely connected witli the preceding doctrine. A momentary glance only can here be taken of this leading article of popery. In the Romish church the belief of this doctrine was often made a test of the faith of an individual, and was admirably evaded in those memorable lines of queen Elizabeth : —

" Christ was the word that spake it ; He took the bread, and brake it ; And what that word doth make it, That I believe and take it."

ESSAY OX POPERY, ix

Revelation is often above reason ; as, for example, in describing the nature and existence of God: "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? " Job xi. 7.' Revelation is not contrary to reason, nor contrary to common sense; but nothing can be more absurd than the popish pretence of making a bit of wafer to be the body of Christ, which body, in that case, has been multiplied like th* loaves and fishes, and eaten over and over again in all places, for many ages to the present time! And the words on which this doctrine is founded are known to every scholar of the humblest pretensions to mean no more than " this represents my body." A man must want common sense to suppose that Christ really gave his body to his disciples, when he administered the last supper, and yet that the same body was afterwards crucified, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. The bread is bread that the priest gives, and the wine is wine; and what pretence soever he may make, he can make nothing more of it.

Having thus briefly touched on the leading doctrines of Popery as its ground-work, the due notice of which would furnish matter for volumes, our space will only admit of a rapid glance at its practice: —

I. The Church of Rome is arbitrary in its discipline. There is laxity enough among its priests, but woe be to the poor laity that fall within its power, even if they be monarchs on their thrones. All must lick the dust before the sentence of popes, councils, cardinals, inquisitors, and priests ! Operating on the peace of whole nations, the curse or excommunication of the pope has unseated the monarch on his throne, and sent the potentate on his knees to ask the restoration of his crown ! It will be sufficient to mention the cases of Henry IV., emperor of Germany, and of king John of England. Penances the most absurd and degrading have been submitted to by the slaves of popery, for which there is not the shadow of authority in the word of God, and which could never in their nature show real sorrow of heart, or make the least atonement for sin. What can be the real benefit derived from repeating continually as many Ave Marias, Pater-nosters, or Credos, as the priest may determine? from walking barefoot? from licking the dust? consigning the penitent to a hair-shirt, or obliging or advising the poor devotee to inflict sharp castigations on his naked body?

II. The Church of Rome is presumptuous in its claims. Its popes, besides claiming to be successors of St. Peter, claim to sit in the seat of God himself. The man who has suffered himself to be called " Dominus Deus Noster Papa' — " Our Lord God the Pope" — is surely the apostate of Scripture, who, " as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God," 2 Thess. ii. 4. No being, how great soever he may be supposed to be, can forgive sins, but God only, Mark ii. 7 ; but this the bishop of Rome and his priests, authorized by him, claim as their prerogative. With great artifice they will pretend that this is ultimately the work of God; but with the most presumptuous assumption they dare to teach their deluded votaries that it is the work of the pope and the church ! The catechism of the council of Trent declares that the Almighty has given to his church the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and that the penitent's sins are forgiven by the minister of religion, x ESSAY ON POPERY.

through the power of the keys. The arrogance that presumes to dispose at pleasure of heaven itself, may easily be supposed to claim no inferior power on earth. Hence the bull of pope Sixtus V. against Henry, king of Navarre, and the prince de Conde, claims an authority which exceeds all the powers of earthly kings and potentates. " And if," says the bull, *' it find any of them resisting the ordinance of God, it takes more summary vengeance upon them, and hurling them from their throne, debases them as the ministers of aspiring Lucifer, whatever may be their power, to the lowest abysses of the earth !" Acting under this supposed authority, pope Pius V. excommunicated queen Elizabeth, asserting that " him God hath constituted prince over all nations and kingdoms, that he might pluck up, destroy, dissipate, overturn, plant and build !" In fact, the claims of popery for its head, have gone so far as to attribute to the pontiff all power in heaven and on earth; and it has been asserted that " the pope could do all things, sin excepted;" that " the sentences of God and the pope were one ;" that his " indulgence remitted even the punishment of hell;" and that " no appeal could be made from the pope to God, because he is the Christ of God!" Accursed apostasy! where a sinful man, whose carcase must soon pay the forfeiture of sin, and rot in corruption, the best emblem of his own church, presumes to claim the homage of mankind, and the prerogatives that belong only to Deity !

III. The Church of Rome is iniquitous in its practices. And what else is to be expected from a church which gives permission to do whatever is sinful. The daring sale of indulgences by Tetzel, when they excited the abhorrence of Christendom, was publicly condemned by the nuncio of pope Leo X. Tetzel, in his zeal to raise money for the holy see, probably went further than it was thought prudent to express so publicly, for he even asserted that any one might be permitted to commit the grossest debauchery, and offer violence to the holy Virgin herself, and be forgiven by the power of the pope, whose arms were equal to the cross of Christ! But after the death of Tetzel, a. d. 1519, a list of fees to the people for absolutions, dispensations, etc., was published in Paris, a. d. 1520. Absolution for fornication in a church was to be obtained for nine shillings; for murdering a layman, seven shillings and sixpence; for killing a father, mother, or wife, ten shillings and sixpence ; for a priest keeping a concubine, ten shillings and sixpence ; for a layman keeping a concubine, the same sum ; and for other crimes the mention of which would but defile these pages. " Such is the celebrated tax-book of the Apostolic Chancery, the publication of which stamps the church of Rome with eternal infamy." This publication was indeed, at last, partially condemned, but not till it had been a hundred years in circulation.

But let us see if the holy popes have been more holy than their doctrines, licenses, or agents. No ; a worse set of men never corrupted the earth. From the time of Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, to the latest period, the popes have been more or less of abandoned principles. There have been covetous popes, proud popes, profane popes, unchaste popes, dishonest popes, murdering popes, all of whose names and characters may be seen in any impartial history of these pretended representatives upon earth of Him who was " holy, harmless, and undefiled!"

ESSAY OX POPERY. 3H

As were the popes, so we must expect to find the priesthood. The '' forbidding to marry," a gross mark of the man of sin, has led the popish clergy to practise all kinds of iniquity with greediness; and the secret interviews, at the confessional, with females of every class and character afford facilities for the indulgences of forbidden propensities, of which the priests have not failed to avail themselves. Facts in abundance could be related to justify this charge, but it is not pleasant to dwell upon them, and they are too well known to require reference to authorities. The monasteries and nunneries have been often described as the seats of iniquity; and, in fact, the latter were no better than brothels, of the very worst description. In the days of Henry VIII., when these monasteries were fully explored in England, the abbots, priors, and monks kept as many women each, as any lascivious Mohammedan could desire, and their crimes renewed the existence of Sodom and Gomorrah!

IV. The Church of Rome is cruel in its spirit. Those who are conversant with its writers know the hatred which it breeds towards heretics. The council of Trent, besides anathematizing all the great doctrines of the gospel, consigned their defenders to eternal torments. " Cursed be all heretics," cried the cardinal of Lorraine, at the close of its last session ; and " Cursed ! cursed ! " responded all the prelates. " Cursed ! cursed ! " echoed back the lofty dome of the old cathedral of Trent. Never had there been so much cursing " in any other synod, since the world was made." Here, too, the pages might be filled with specimens of this spirit. But let it suffice to remark how different from the spirit of Jesus, when he reproved his disciples for wishing to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans : " He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of," Luke ix. 55.

Carrying out her principles, the popish apostate has deluged the earth with the blood of her victims. The murders committed by queen Mary, and by the Irish papists, are facts too well known in history to be denied. Hundreds of martyrs have perished at the stake, thousands in dungeons, and millions form the aggregate of unfortunate Protestants, that have fallen under the bitter spirit of popery. Papists have imitated Saul of Tarsus, when he was the messenger of death to Damascus, and haled men and women, committing them to prison ; and are the fac-similes of those persecutors whom our Lord warns his disciples to expect : " Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service," John xvi.(J^ Torturing, shooting, hanging, strangling, burning alive, starving to death, — in short every variety of suffering that diabolical ingenuity could invent, has been employed to glut the infernal appetites of the demons of the papacy ! Among these the holy fathers of the inquisition have shared no inconsiderable part, and have become " drunk with the blood of the saints." Spain and Italy have been the slaughter-houses for the Protestants. Nor are the barbarities of popery confined to those lands ; at the present moment their horrid cruelties are not unknown in Sclavonia, and bordering countries. We may say of these blood-thirsty men, as Jacob said of Simeon and Levi, " Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united !" Gen. xlix. 5, 6.