Book Description

FOXS BOOK OF MARTYRS- A HISTORY OF THE LIVES, SUFFERINGS AND TRIUMPHANT DEATHS OF THE EARLY CHRISTIAN AND THE PROTESTANT MARTYRS Edited by WILLIAM BYRON FORBUSH. Originally published in 1926. FOXS BOOK OF MARTYRS: When one recollects that until the appearance of the Pilgrims Progress the common people had almost no other reading matter except the Bible and Foxs Book of Martyrs, we can understand the deep impression that this book produced and how it served to mold the national character. Those who could read for themselves learned the full details of all the atrocities performed on the Protes tant reformers the illiterate could see the rude illustrations of the various instruments of torture, the rack, the gridiron, the boiling oil, and then the holy ones breathing out their souls amid the flames. Take a people just awakening to a new intellectual and religious life let several generations of them, from childhood to old age, pore over such a book, and its stories become traditions as individual and almost as potent as songs and customs on a nations life DOUGLAS CAMPBELL, The Puritan in Holland, England, and America. c If we divest the book of its accidental character of feud between churches, it yet stands, in the first years of Elizabeths reign, a mon ument that marks the growing strength of a desire for spiritual freedom, defiance of those forms that seek to stifle conscience and fetter thought HENRY MORLEY, English Writers. After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early-Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our own time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification. JAMES MILLER DODDS, English Prose. Contents include: SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR ix-xiv CHAPTER PAGE I HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MARTYRS TO THE FIRST GENERAL PERSECUTION UNDER NERO The Glorious Company of the Apostles .... 1-II THE TEN PRIMITIVE PERSECUTIONS Nero Burns Christians in the Imperial Gardens Ignatius, The Wheat of Christ Polycarp Re fuses to Deny Christ The Beheading of Justin, Martyr Christians in the Catacombs Origen Suffers by Fire Saint Lawrences Bed of Iron Sebastian is Pierced with Arrows 5 III PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHRISTIANS IN PERSIA The Emperor Constantine Protests The Fury of Julian the Apostate The Goths and Vandals The Last Roman Triumph The Noble Gothic Prince The Sacrificing of Boniface Bishop Alphege Defends Canterbury 33 IV PAPAL PERSECUTIONS Persecutions of the Brave Waldenses The Pope Wars against the Albigenses The Massacres of Saint Bartholomew Sufferings after the Revoca tion of the Edict of Nantes Martyrdom of John Galas 43 V AN ACCOUNT OF THE INQUISITION The Fierce Zeal of Dominic The Hounds of the Lord A Typical Inquisitory The Cruel Handling of Nicholas Burton Some Private Enormities of the Inquisition The Persecution of Dr. JEgidio The Tormenting of Dr. Gardiner The Sufferings of William Lithgow The Story of Galileo Summary of the Inquisition ... 60 CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE VI AN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS IN ITALY UNDER THE PAPACY The Courageous End of Arnold of Brescia Hounding of Calabrian Peasants Extermina tions at St. Xist Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont Remarkable Individuals who were Martyred The Piedmontese War Persecutions of Michael de Molinos of the Quiet Life .....