N20568:15084
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.
THESE six martyrs were of the company of those who were apprehended in a Close, near Islington (as is before-mentioned), and sent to prison. Whose names here follow: Robert Mills, Stephen Cotton, Robert Dines, Stephen Wight, John Slade, William Pikes, alias Pikes, the tanner.
THESE six martyrs were of the company of those who were apprehended in a Close, near Islington (as is before-mentioned), and sent to prison. Whose names here follow: Robert Mills, Stephen Cotton, Robert Dynes, Stephen Wight, John Slade, William Pikes, alias Pikes, the tanner.
THESE six martyrs were burnt at Brentford, seven miles from London, on the 14th of July, 1558. They had their articles ministered to them by T. Derbyshire, Bonner's chancellor, at sundry times, to which they made their answers much after the same manner as others have done before.
THESE six martyrs were burnt at Brentford, seven miles from London, on the 14th of July, 1558. They had their articles ministered to them by T. Darbyshire, Bonner's chancellor, at sundry times, to which they made their answers much after the same manner as others have done before.
WHEN these good men came before Bonner's chancellor, Thomas Derbyshire, and had the articles ministered unto them, and they answered unto the same; in the end the chancellor commanded them to appear before him again the 11th day of July, at St. Paul's. Where when they came, he required of them, whether they would turn from their opinions to the holy mother church; and if not, that then, whether there were any cause to the contrary, but that he might proceed with the sentence of condemnation. Whereunto they all answered, That they would not go from the truth, nor relent from any part of the same while they lived. Then he charged them to appear before him again the next day in the afternoon, between one and two o'clock, to hear the definitive sentence read against them, according to the ecclesiastical laws then in force. At which time he sitting in judgment, talking with these godly and virtuous men, at last came into the said place, sir Edward Hastings, and sir Thomas Cornwallis, knights, two of queen Mary's officers of her house, and being there, they sat them down over against the chancellor, in whose presence the chancellor condemned those poor innocent lambs, and delivered them over to the secular power, who received and carried them to prison immediately, and there kept them in safety till the day of their death.
WHEN these good men came before Bonner's chancellor, Thomas Darbyshire, and had the articles ministered unto them, and they answered unto the same; in the end the chancellor commanded them to appear before him again the 11th day of July, at St. Paul's. Where when they came, he required of them, whether they would turn from their opinions to the holy mother church; and if not, that then, whether there were any cause to the contrary, but that he might proceed with the sentence of condemnation. Whereunto they all answered, That they would not go from the truth, nor relent from any part of the same while they lived. Then he charged them to appear before him again the next day in the afternoon, between one and two o'clock, to hear the definitive sentence read against them, according to the ecclesiastical laws then in force. At which time he sitting in judgment, talking with these godly and virtuous men, at last came into the said place, sir Edward Hastings, and sir Thomas Cornwallis, knights, two of queen Mary's officers of her house, and being there, they sat them down over against the chancellor, in whose presence the chancellor condemned those poor innocent lambs, and delivered them over to the secular power, who received and carried them to prison immediately, and there kept them in safety till the day of their death.
IN the mean time this naughty chancellor slept not, I warrant you, but that day in which they were condemned, he made a certificate unto the lord chancellor's office, from whence the next day after a writ was sent to burn them at Brentford, which accordingly was accomplished. Whereunto being brought, they made their humble prayers to the Lord Jesus, undressed themselves, went joyfully to the stake, whereunto they were bound, and the fire flaming about them, they yielded their souls, bodies, and lives into the hands of the omnipotent God, for whose cause they did suffer, and to whose protection I commend the gentle reader, Amen.
AMONG these six was one William Pikes, a tanner (as you have heard), who some time dwelt in Ipswich, a very godly man, and of a virtuous disposition, a good keeper of hospitality, and beneficial to the persecuted in queen Mary's days. In the third year of queen Mary, a little after Midsummer, he (then being at liberty) went into his garden, and took with him a Bible of Roger's translation, where he, sitting with his face towards the South, reading in the said Bible, suddenly there fell, between eleven and twelve o'clock, at mid-day, four drops of fresh blood upon the Bible, and he knew not from whence it came. At which he was sore astonished, and could by no means learn (as I said) from whence it should fall; and wiping out one of the drops with his finger, he called his wife and said, in the virtue of God, wife, what meaneth this? Will the Lord have four sacrifices? I see well enough the Lord will have blood: his will be done, and give me grace to abide the trial. Wife, let us pray, for I fear the day draweth nigh. Afterwards he daily expected to be apprehended, and it came to pass accordingly, as you have heard. Thus much I thought good to write, in order to stir up our dull minds in considering the wonderful works of the Lord, and reverently to honour the same.
WHEN he was so sick in Newgate that nobody expected him to live six hours, he expressed a great desire of martyrdom, saying, that he had been twice in persecution before, and that now he desired the Lord, if it were his will, that he might glorify⟨image ?⟩ [figure] ⟨p. 525⟩his name at the stake; and so as he prayed it came to pass at Brentford.
MUSE not so much that nature's work
Is thus deformed now:
With belly blown, and head so swoln,
For I shall tell you how:
This cannibal in three years space,
Two hundred martyrs slew:
They were his food, he so loved blood,
They were his food, he so lov'd blood,
