N20568:1136
The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being…
The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being Fox's Book of martyrs, revised and corrected, with additions and great improvements. : Containing an authentic account of the lives, persecutions and sufferings of the holy martyrs; and the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ in all parts of the world, by pagans, Jews, Turks, papists, and others, from earliest ages of the church to the present period. ... The whole forming at once a general Christian martyrology, and a complete history of persecutions. / By the Rev. Mr. John Fox, M.A. late of Magdalen College, Oxford. ; Now revised, corrected and improved, with many additional articles, relating to the acts and monuments of the church. By Paul Wright, D.D. ; Embellished with forty elegant copper plate engravings. ; In two volumes. Vol. I[-II].The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being Fox's Book of marytrs, revised and corrected, with additions and great improvements. : Containing an authentic account of the lives, persecutions and sufferings of the holy martyrs; and the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ in all parts of the world, by pagans, Jews, Turks, papists, and others, from earliest ages of the church to the present period. ... The whole forming at once a general Christian martyrology, and a complete history of persecutions. / By the Rev. Mr. John Fox, M.A. late of Magdalen College, Oxford. ; Now revised, corrected and improved, with many additional articles, relating to the acts and monuments of the church. By Paul Wright, D.D. ; Embellished with forty elegant copper plate engravings. ; In two volumes. Vol. I[-II].
New-York: printed by William Durell, 1794
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Volume 1 › Chapter 4 › An Account of the Rise, Progress, &c. of the INQUISITION.
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.
HENCE we may judge how critically dangerous must be the situation of persons who reside in countries where there is an inquisitorial tribunal; and how carefully cautious all states ought to be who are not cursed with such an arbitrary court, to prevent its introduction. In speaking of this subject, an elegant author pathetically says, "How horrid a scene of perfidy and inhumanity? What kind of community must that be, whence gratitude, love, and mutual forbearance with regard to human frailties are banished! What must that tribunal be, which obliges parents not only to erase from their minds the remembrance of their own children, to extinguish all those keen sensations of tenderness and affection wherewith nature inspires them, but even to extend their inhumanity so far as to force them to commence their accusers, and consequently to become the cause of the cruelties inflicted upon them▪ What ideas ought we to form to ourselves […] tribunal, which obliges children not only to […] every soft impulse of gratitude, love, and respect, due to those who gave them birth, but even for••• them, and that under the most rigorous penalties, •o be spies over their parents▪ and to discover to […] set of merciless inquisitors, the crimes, the erro•• ▪ •nd even the little lapses to which they are exposed by human frailty. In a word, a tribunal which will not permit relations, when imprisoned in its horrid dungeons, to give e•ch other the succours, or perform the duties which religion enjoins, must be of an infernal stamp. What disorder and confusion must such conduct give rise to, in a tenderly affectionate family? An expression innocent in itself, and perhaps, but too true, shall, from an indiscreet zeal, or a […] of fear, give infinite uneasiness to a family; shall ruin its peace entirely, and perhaps cause one or more of its members to be the unhappy victims of the most barbarous of all tribunals. What distraction must necessarily break forth in a house where the husband and wife are at variance, or the children loose and wicked! Will such children scruple to sacrifice a father, who endeavours to restrain them by his exhortations, by reproofs, or paternal corrections? Will not they rather, after plundering his house to support their extravagance and riot, readily deliver up their unhappy parent to all the horrors of a tribunal, founded on the blackest injustice?