A67922:2067
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.
1Hardeknoutus, being king of Denmark, and second son to Canutus by his last wife Emma, was next King of England. In the time of these Danish kings, there was one Godwin an earl in England,2 which had been before in great favour with Canutus, for his acts done in Denmark against the Norwegians: and afterward married y• sister (some say the daughter) of Canutus. This Godwin was of a cruel and subtle wit, as he declared no less by the two sons of king Egelred: For when these two aforesaid (whose names were Alfride, and Edward) came from Normandy into England, to visit their mother Emma, and brought with them a great company of Normans: this Godwin (having a daughter called Godith, whom he thought to marry to Edward, & set him up to be King, to bring his purpose about) used this practise: that is, to persuade king Hardeknove, & the Lords not to suffer those Normans to be within the realm for jeopardy, but rather to punish them for example. By which means he gat authority to order the matter himself:3 wherefore he […] them on Guild down, and there most wretchedly murdered, or rather Martyred the most number of the Normans, and that innocently. For as Swanus before had tithed the Monks of Canterbury: so he• with the cruel company of english soldiers, slew ix. of the said Normans and saved the x. And yet passing the fury of Swanus (as not contented with that tyranny) he tithed again the said tithe, and slew every x. knight, and that by cruel torment, as winding their guts out of their bodies, as writeth Ranulphus. And among other, put out the eyes of the elder brother Alfridus, and sent him to an Abbey of Ely: where he being fed with bread and water, endured not long after. Of some writers it was recorded, that he was there slain with the forenamed torment, and Edward was conveyed by some other to his mother. Who fearing the treason of Godwin, sent him soon over the sea to Normandy again. This cruel fact of Godwin and his men against the innocent Normans, whether it came of himself, or of the kings setting on: seemeth to me to be the cause, why the justice of God, did shortly after revenge the quarrel of these Normans, in conquering & subduing the english nation by William Conqueror, and the Normans which came with him.