N20568:5180
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.
I. The HISTORY and MARTYRDOM of THOMAS TOMKINS, a Weaver in Shoreditch, who, having first his Hand burned by the bloody Bishop of LONDON, was afterwards burnt in Smithfield, March 16th, 1555.
THIS plain honest christian was by trade a weaver, and lived in the parish of Shoreditch, till he was summoned before the inhuman Bonner, ⟨p. 497⟩and confined with many others, who renounced the errors of popery, in a prison in that tyrant's house at Fulham.
UNDER his confinement, he was treated by the bishop, not only unbecoming a prelate, but even a man: for the savage, because Tomkins would not assent to the doctrine of transubstantiation, had bruised him in the face, and plucked off the greatest part of the hair of his head.
ON another occasion, this scandal to humanity, because our martyr remained inflexible, nor would deviate in the least point from the pure and uncorrupted truths of the gospel, in the presence of several who came to visit him at his seat at Fulham, took this poor honest man by the fingers, and held his hand directly over the flame of a wax candle, having three or four wicks, supposing that, being terrified by the smart and pain of the fire, he would leave off the defence of the doctrine which he had received.