A67926:5529
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. 2, part 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. 2, part 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
No title page in the transcription: set from the catalogue record.
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.
JESUS. Martinus Lutherus Christiano Lectori, gratiam Christi in salutem aeternam. FAma peruenit ad me, Christiane Lector, exijsse Bullam quandam aduersum me,1 penè in omné terrá, prius quam ad me, in quem unice fuerit, & cui maximè erat inferenda, veniret. Fortè, quod noctis & tenebrarum scilicet filia, timult lucem vultus mei. Hanc tamen ipsam noctuam, vix tandem multum adivvantibus amicis, in imagine sua, datum est videre, &c. 2¶Here followeth the same answer of Martin Luther against the execrable Bull of Pope Leo, in English. Martin Luther to the christian reader, wisheth the grace of Christ to eternal salvation.3 I heard a fanny a far of (Christian reader) that a certain Bull was past out against me, and sent almost over all the world before it came to me, against whom it was especially directed, & to whom most chiefly it appertained. For what cause I cannot tell, except peradventure it was for that the said Bull like unto a nightcrow, and as a bird of darkness hatched in the night, durst not fly in the day, nor abide to come in my sight. Notwithstanding the said night foul after long time, by help of friends was caught at length & brought unto me in his own likeness to behold. Which causeth me yet to be uncertain what to think, whether my papists do dally & jest with me, in setting out such famous libels without any name against me: or whether in truth and earnest they play the mad men so against me at Rome, or no. For first, neither do I see here the stile (as it is called) nor the process of the court of Rome observed. And again (which maketh me more to doubt) herein be brought & condemned such articles which it is plain and manifest to be most christian: whereby it seemeth to me most like, the said monster to be hatched by John Eccius, a man wholly compact and framed altogether of lies, dissimulations, errors, & heresies. 4The said suspicion this also partly confirmeth, for that I hear it so bruited abroad, that the said Eccius is thought and said to be the Apostle of such a goodly Bull. And not unlike, when none could be more meet an Apostle for such an Apostleship then he. And in deed I heard no less long since, that a Bull was in working against me at Rome, partly by the workmanship of Eccius: