N20568:1138
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.
WHEN the inquisitors have taken umbrage against an innocent person, all expedients are used to facilitate condemnation; false oaths and testimonies, founded on perjury, are directed by the virulence of prejudice to find the accused guilty; and all laws, divine and human, all institutions, moral and political, are sacrificed to bigoted revenge.
WHEN a person accused is taken and imprisoned, his treatment is deplorable indeed. The gaolers first begin by searching him for books or papers which might tend to his conviction, or for instruments which might be employed in self-murder, or breaking from the place of confinement. But it is to be observed, that the obvious articles of the search are not the only things taken from a prisoner; for the conscientious gaolers make free with money, rings, buckles, apparel, &c. under various pretences, such as, that money or rings may be swallowed, to the great detriment of the prisoner's health, the prongs of buckles may be used to take away life; by means of a neckcloth or a pair of garters, a prisoner may hang himself, &c. &c. Thus he is robbed under the plausible pretext of humanity, and used ill through pretended tenderness.
WHEN the prisoner has been searched under the name of ca•e, and robbed beneath the mask of justice, he is committed to prison by way of security. "He•e▪ says an authentic […] conveyed to ⟨p. 126⟩a dungeon, the sight of which must fill him with horror, torn from his family and friends, who […] not allowed access, or even to send him one consolatory letter, or take the least step in his favour in order to prove his innocence. He sees himself instant•• abandoned to his inflexible judges, to melancholy and despair, and even often to his most inveterate enemies, quite uncertain of his fate. Innocence on such an occasion is a weak […], nothing being easier than to ruin an innocent person."