N20568:5182
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.
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.
TOMKINS thinking no otherwise, but there presently to die, began to commend himself unto the Lord, saying, O Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit, &c. In the time that his hand was burning, the same Tomkins afterwards reported to one James Hinse, that his spirit was so wrapped, that he felt no pain. In which burning he never shrunk, till the veins shrunk, and the sinews burst, and the waters did spurt in Mr. Harpsfield's face: insomuch that Mr. Harpsfield, moved with pity, desired the bishop to stay, saying, that he had tried him enough.
TOMKINS thinking no otherwise, but there presently to die, began to commend himself unto the Lord, saying, O Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit, &c. In the time that his hand was burning, the same Tomkins afterwards reported to one James Hinse, that his spirit was so wrapt, that he felt no pain. In which burning he never shrunk, till the veins shrunk, and the sinews burst, and the waters did spurt in Mr. Harpsfield's face: insomuch that Mr. Harpsfield, moved with pity, desired the bishop to stay, saying, that he had tried him enough.
AFTER that Thomas Tomki•s had been half a year in prison, about the •th of February he was brought with several others before bishop Bonner sitting in his consistory, to be examined. To whom first was brought forth a certain bill or schedule subscribed •a• appeareth with his own hand, the 5th day of the same month, containing these words following.
"THOMAS TOMKINS of Shoreditch, and of the diocese of London, hath believed and doth believe, that in the sacrament of the altar, under the forms of bread and wine, there is not the very body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ in substance, but only a token and remembrance thereof, the very body and blood of Christ being only in heaven and no where else. By me Thomas Tomkins."
WHEREUPON he was asked, whether he did acknowledge the same subscription to be of his own hand. To which he granted, confessing it so to be. This being done, the bishop went about to persuade him with fair words, rather than with reasons, to relinquish his opinions, and to return again to the unity of the catholic church, promising if he would do so, to remit all that was past. But he constantly refused so to do. When the bishop saw he could not so convince him, he brought forth and read to him another writing, containing articles and interrogatories, whereunto he should come the next day and answer; in the mean time he should deliberate with himself what to do: and so the next day, being the 9th day of March, at eight o'clock in the morning to be present in the same place again, to give his determinate answer what he would do in the premises, and then either to revoke and reclaim himself, or else in the afternoon of the same day to come again and have justice (as he called it) administered unto him. The copy of which articles here followeth.
WHEREUPON he was asked, whether he did acknowledge the same subscription to be of his own hand. To which he granted, confessing it so to be. This being done, the bishop went about to persuade him with fair words, rather than with reasons, to relinquish his opinions, and to return again to the unity of the catholic church, promising if he would do so, to remit all that was past. But he constantly refused so to do. When the bishop saw he could not so convince him, he brought forth and read to him another writing, containing articles and interrogatories, whereunto he should come the next day and answer; in the mean time he should deliberate with himself what to do: and so the next day, being the 9th day of March, at eight o'clock in the morning to be present in the same place again, to give his determinate answer what he would do in the premises, and then either to revoke and reclaim him•elf, or else in the afternoon of the same day to come again and have justice (as he called it) administered unto him. The copy of which articles here followeth.
THOU dost believe, that in the sacrament of the altar, under the forms of bread and wine, there is not by the omnipotent power of Almighty God, and his holy word, really, truly, and in very deed, the very true and natural body of our Saviour Jesus Christ as touching the substance thereof, which was conceived in the womb of the virgin Mary, and hanged upon the cross, suffering death there for the life of the world.
I do so believe.
THOU dost believe, that after the consecration of ⟨p. 498⟩the bread and wine prepared for the use of the sacrament of the altar, there doth remain the substance of material bread and material wine, not changed nor altered in substance by the power of Almighty God, but remaining as it did before.
I do so believe.
THOU dost believe, that it is an untrue doctrine, and a false belief, to think or say, that in the sacrament of the altar there is, after consecration of the bread and wine, the substance of Christ's natural body and blood, by the omnipotent power of Almighty God, and his holy word.
