A67922:1209
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol.…Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol.…
Acts and monuments of matters most special and memorable, happening in the Church. [vol. 1] with an universal history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitive age to these latter times of ours, with the bloody times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions against the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperors, as now lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realm of England and Scotland. Newly revised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time again published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the help of Christ our Lord) John Fox, which desireth thee good reader to help him with thy prayer.Actes and monuments of matters most speciall and memorable, happenyng in the Church. [vol. 1] with an vniuersall history of the same, wherein is set forth at large the whole race and course of the Church, from the primitiue age to these latter tymes of ours, with the bloudy times, horrible troubles, and great persecutions agaynst the true martyrs of Christ, sought and wrought as well by heathen emperours, as nowe lately practised by Romish prelates, especially in this realme of England and Scotland. Newly reuised and recognised, partly also augmented, and now the fourth time agayne published and recommended to the studious reader, by the author (through the helpe of Christ our Lord) Iohn Foxe, which desireth thee good reader to helpe him with thy prayer.
London: printed by John Daye, 1583London: printed by Iohn Daye, 1583
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Melancia seeing that by no means she would be allured, nor by force drawn to her desire, & fearing moreover that she in detecting of her would bring her to shame, beginneth first to make an outcry of Eugenius, declaring how that she went about corruptly to deflower her, & so presented her accusation before Philippus the President, as well against Eugenius, as also against the rest of that company. This matter being heard, and the woman well known, the crime began to seem suspicious, and so much the more, because it was objected against the Christians. By reason whereof Eugenius with her fellow Christians was now not only in great hatred, but also in daū ger of present death and destruction. Then Eugenius purging herself & her honesty, although with sufficient probation, yet notwithstanding perceiving that it could take no place, what so ever she said, and seeing no time now to dissemble any longer, for the danger as well of her own self, as specially of her brethren which troubled her more: desired of the Judge place and time to make manifest to him the truth, and so showed her self what she was, and how she was his daughter, the other to be Prothus & Hyacinthus the two Eunuchs, her schoolfellows, uttering moreover to him and to her brethren the cause of her departing from them. At the narration whereof Philippus her father,1 and her two brethren coming to the knowledge of her conceived no little joy, in receiving their Eugenia again whom they thought had been lost. No less gladness was among the people, to see the evidence of the matter so plainly to try out the truth of the one,2 & the falseness of the other. Whereat the malignant accuser was to double shame confounded, first for her dishonesty falsely cloaked, secondly for the untruth of her accusation openly detected. Bergomensis addeth moreover, that the said accuser was stricken presently with lightning. Thus Eugenia trying her honestly to her parents & friends, not only was received of them again, but also by the grace of the Lord working with her in the space of time did win them to Christ. Whereby Philippus the father of her by nature,3 now by grace was begotten of his own daughter to a more perfect life, & whom once he thought to have been lost, not only he found again, but also with her found his own soul, & his own life, which before he ⟨p. 74⟩