N20568:389
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.
MAXIMIAN, about this time, ordered a general sacrifice, at which the whole army were to assist; and likewise he commanded, that they should take oaths of allegiance, and swear, at the same time, to assist him in the extirpation of christianity in Gaul.
ALARMED at these orders, each individual of the Theban legion, absolutely refused either to sacrifice, or take the oaths prescribed. This so greatly enraged Maximian, that he ordered the legion to be decimated, that is every tenth man to be selected from the rest, and put to the sword.
THIS bloody order having been put into execution, those who remained alive were still inflexible, when a second decimation took place, and every tenth man of those living were again put to death.
THIS second severity made no more impression than the first had done; the soldiers preserved their fortitude and their principles, but by the advice of their officers, drew up a remonstrance to the emperor, in which they told him, "that they were his subjects and his soldiers, but could not at the same time forget the Almighty; that they received their pay from him, and their existence from God.— While your commands (said they) are not contradictory to those of our common master, we shall always be ready to obey, as we have been hitherto; but when the orders of our prince and those of the Almighty differ, we must always obey the latter. Our arms are devoted to the emperor's use, and shall be directed against his enemies; but we cannot submit to stain our hands with the effusion of christian blood: and how, indeed, could you, O emperor! be secure of our allegiance and fidelity, should we violate our obligation to our God, in whose service we were solemnly engaged before we entered in the army? You command us to search out and to destroy the christians: it is not necessary to look any farther for persons of that denomination, we ourselves are such, and we glory in the name. We saw our companions fall without the least opposition or murmuring, and thought them happy in dying for the sake of Christ. Nothing shall make us lift up our hands against our sovereign; we had rather die wrongfully, and by that means preserve our innocence, than live under a load of guilt: whatever you command we are ready to suffer; we confess ourselves to be christians, and therefore cannot persecute christians, nor sacrifice to idols."