N20568:1206
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.
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.
AFTER having mentioned the barbarities with ⟨p. 133⟩which the persons of prisoners are treated by the inquisitors, we shall proceed to recount the severity of their proceedings against books.
AS soon as a book is published, it is carefully read by some of the familiars belonging to the inquisition. These wretched critics are too ignorant to have taste, too bigoted to search for truth, and too malicious to relish beauties. They scrutinize, not for the merits, but for the defects of an author, and pursue the slips of his pen with unremitting diligence. Hence they read with prejudice, judge with partiality, pursue errors with avidity, and strain that which is innocent into an offensive meaning.
THEY misunderstand, misapply, confound, and pervert the sense; and when they have gratified the malignity of their disposition, charge their blunders upon the author, that a prosecution may be founded upon their false conceptions, and designed misinterpretations.