N20568:1979
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.
A soldier, attempting to ravish a young woman, named Susanna G•acquin, she made a stout resistance, and in the struggle pushed him over a precipice, when he was dashed to pieces by the fall. His comrades, instead of admiring the virtue of the young woman, and applauding her for so nobly defending her chastity, fell upon her with their swords, and cut her to pieces.
GIOVANNI PULLIUS, a poor peasant of La Torre, being apprehended as a protestant by the soldiers, was ordered by the marquis of Pianessa, to be executed in a place near the convent. When he came to the gallows, several monks attended, and did all they could to persuade him to renounce his religion. But he told them, he never would embrace idolatry, and that he was happy in being thought worthy to suffer for the name of Christ. They then put him in mind of what his wife and children, who depended upon his labour, would suffer after his decease: To which he replied, I would have my wife and children, as well as myself, to consider their souls more than their bodies, and the next world before this: and with respect to the distress I may leave them in, God is merciful, and will provide for them while they are worthy of his protection. Finding the inflexibility of this poor man, the monks cried, Turn him off, turn him off; which the executioner did almost immediately, and the body being afterwards cut down, was flung into the river.
PAUL CLEMENT, an elder of the church of Rossana, being apprehended by the monks of a neighbouring monastery, was carried to the market-place of that town, where some protestants having just been executed by the soldiers, he was shown the dead bodies, in order that the sight might intimidate him. On beholding the shocking objects, he said, calmly, You may kill the body, but you cannot prejudice the soul of a true believer; but, with respect to the dreadful spectacles which you have here shown me, you may rest assured, that God's vengeance will overtake the murderers of those poor people, and punish them for the innocent blood they have spilt. The monks were so exasperated at this reply, that they ordered him to be hung up directly, and while he was hanging, the soldiers amused themselves in standing at a distance, and shooting at the body as at a mark.