A67922:1493
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.
About the time and year of the Lord. 180. king Lucius son of Coilus, 1which builded Colchester, king of the Britons, who then were the inhabitants & possessors of this land (which now we Englishmen call England) hearing of the miracles & wonders done by the Christians at that time in divers places (as Monumetensis writeth) directed his letters to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome, to receive of him the Christian faith. Although about the computation of the year and time: great difference there is in authors, when this should be. Nauclerus saith it was An. 156. but that cannot be, forsomuch as Eleutherius was not yet Bishop by the space of 20. years after that. Henricus de Erfordia sayth,2 it was An. 169. in the 19. year of Verus Emperor, but that agreeth not with approved histories: which all consent, that Verus reigned not 19. years, and if he had, yet that year cometh not to the year of our Lord. 169. but to the year. 181. Some other say, that Eleutherius was made Bishop, in the 6. year of Commodus, which was the year of our Lord. 186. but that seemeth to go to far, but let the authors agree as they can. Let us return to Eleutherius the good Bishop, who hearing the request of this king, & glad to see the godly towardness of his well disposed mind: sendeth him certain teachers & preachers,3 called Fugatius, or by some Faganus, and Damianus, or Dimianus: which converted first the king and people of Britain, and Baptised them with the Baptism and Sacrament of Christs faith. The Temples of Idolatry and all other Monuments of Gentility they subverted, converting the people from their divers & many gods to serve one living God. Thus true religion with sincere faith increasing, superstition decayed, with all other rites of Idolatry. There were then in Britain 28. head Priests, which they called Flamens, & 3. Archpriests among them, which were called Archflamines: having the oversight of their manners,4 & as Judges over the rest. These 28. Flamens they turned to 28. Bishops. And the 3. Archflamines, to 3. Archbishops, having then their seats in three principal Cities of the Realm: that is, in London, in York, and in Glamorgantia, videlicet, in Urbe legionum, by Wales. Thus the Countries of the whole Realm, being divided every one under his own Bishop, and all things settled in a good order: