A67922:889
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.
Of which Evaristus next Bishop of Rome, thus we find in Irenaeus, 1Lib 3. cap. 3. Peter and Paul (saith he) committed the charge of that church to Linus. After whom came Anacletus, then succeeded Clemens, next to Clemens followed Evaristus, after whom came Alexander, and then Sixtus the vj. Bishop of Rome after the Apostles. After Sixtus sate Telesphorus, then Higinus, then Pius, then Ani•etus. And when Soter took the place after him, then the xij. Bishop of Rome was Eleutherius. Thus after Clement followed (as is said) Evaristus in the second or third year of Traianus as saith Eusebius, or as Nicephorus saith, the fourth year of the said Emperor. But howsoever the count of the years stand, little or nothing remaineth of the Acts and Monuments either of this, or of other Bishops of Rome in those days. Whereby it may appear that no great account was then made of Roman Bishops in those dais, whose acts and deeds were then either so lightly reputed, or so slenderly committed to history. Notwithstanding certain Decretal Epistles are remaining,2 or rather thrust upon us in their names, containing in them little substance of any doctrine, but all together stuffed with laws, injunctions, and stately decrees, little to the purpose, and less savouring of the nature of that time then present. Amongest whom also are numbered the two epistles of this Evaristus. And when he had given these orders, & had made vi. Priests, two Deacons, and five Bishops, for sundry places (saith the story,) he suffered Martyrdom, but what kind of death, for what cause he suffered, what constancy he showed what was the order or conversation of his life, is nothing touched, and seemeth therefore the more to be doubted that which our new histories do say: because the old ancient writers have no remembrance thereof, which otherwise would not have passed such things over in silence, if they had been true.3 Again, neither do the authors fully agree in the time of his martyrdom, which Nauclerus witnesseth to be in the last year of Traianus: but Platina thinketh rather that he suffered under. Hadrianus:
Of which Euaristus next Bishop of Rome, thus we find in Irenaeus, 1