N20568:5807
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.
SMITH. Are you not assured to have death ministered unto you for the same act committed, and even with extremity?
FLOWER. I did, before the deed committed, adjudge my body to die for the same: whereupon I carried about me, in writing, my opinion of God and the holy scriptures; that if it had pleased God to have given them leave to have killed my body in the church, they might in the said writing have seen my hope, which (I praise God) is laid up safe within my breast, notwithstanding any death that may be ministered upon my body in this world; being ascertained of everlasting life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and being most heartily sorry for all my offences committed in this flesh, and trusting shortly, through his mercy, to cease from the same.
SMITH. I need not examine or commune with you of the hope that you have any further: for I perceive (God be praised) you are in good state, and therefore I beseech God, for his mercies, spread his wings over you, that, as for his love you have been zealous, even to the loss of this life, so he may give you his Holy Spirit to conduct you out of this world into a better life, which I think will be shortly.
FLOWER. I hunger for the same, dear friend, being fully ascertained that they can kill but the body, which I am assured shall receive life again everlasting, and see no more death; entirely desiring you and all that fear the Lord, to pray with me to Almighty God, to perform the same in me shortly. And thus Robert Smith departed, leaving him in the dungeon, and went again to his ward. And this is the truth, as near as the said Smith could report it.
FLOWER. I hunger for the same, dear friend, being fully ascertained that they can kill but the body, which I am assured shall receive life again everlasting, and see no more death; intirely desiring you and all that fear the Lord, to pray with me to Almighty God, to perform the same in me shortly. And thus Robert Smith departed, leaving him in the dungeon, and went again to his ward. And this is the truth, as near as the said Smith could report it.
Now to return again to the matter of his examination. We showed before, how this William Flower, after his striking the priest, first was laid in the Gatehouse; then, being examined before bishop Bonner, had articles ministered against him, the copy whereof here followeth.
Now to return again to the matter of his examination. We shewed before, how this William Flower, after his striking the priest, first was laid in the Gatehouse; then, being examined before bishop Bonner, had articles ministered against him, the copy whereof here followeth.
1. THAT thou being of lawful age and discretion, at the least seventeen years old, wast ⟨p. 559⟩a professed monk in the late abbey of Ely, wherein after thy profession thou remainedst until the age of twenty-one years, using all the mean time the habit and religion of the same house, and was reputed and taken notoriously for such a person.
2. THAT thou wast ordained and made priest, according to the laudable custom of the catholic church, and afterwards thou didst execute and minister as a priest, and wast commonly reputed, named, and taken for a priest.
3. THAT after the premises thou, forgetting God, thy conscience, honesty, and the laudable order of the catholic church, didst, contrary to thy profession and vow, take, as unto thy wife, one woman, commonly called Alice Pulton, in the parish church of Tewksbury, in the diocese of Gloucester, with whom thou hadst mutual cohabitation, as man and wife, and had by her two children.
4. THAT thou being a religious man and a priest, didst, contrary to the order of the ecclesiastical laws, take upon thee to practise in divers places within the diocese of London, physic and chirurgery, when thou wast not admitted expert or learned.
5. THAT upon Easter day last past, that is to wit, the 14th of April, within the parish church of St. Margaret's, at Westminster, within the county of Middlesex, and diocese of London, thou didst maliciously, outrageously, and violently pull out thy wood-knife or hanger. And whereas the priest and minister there, called John Cheltam, was executing his cure and charge, especially in doing his service, and administering the sacrament of the altar to communicants, then didst thou wickedly and abominably smite with the said weapon, the said priest, first upon the head, and afterwards upon his hands or other parts of his body, drawing blood abundantly from him; the said priest then holding the said sacrament in his hand, and giving no occasion why thou shouldst so hurt him: the people being grievously offended therewith, and the said church polluted thereby, so that the inhabitants were compelled to repair to another church to communicate, and receive the said sacrament.
5. THAT upon Easter day last past, that is to wit, the 14th of April, within the parish church of St. Margaret's, at Westminster, within the county of Middlesex, and diocese of London, thou didst maliciously, outragiously, and violently pull out thy wood-knife or hanger. And whereas the priest and minister there, called John Cheltam, was executing his cure and charge, especially in doing his service, and administering the sacrament of the altar to communicants, then didst thou wickedly and abominably smite with the said weapon, the said priest, first upon the head, and afterwards upon his hands or other parts of his body, drawing blood abundantly from him; the said priest then holding the said sacrament in his hand, and giving no occasion why thou shouldst so hurt him: the people being grievously off•nded therewith, and the said church polluted thereby, so that the inhabitants were compelled to repair to another church to communicate, and receive the said sacrament.
6. THAT by reason of the promise• thou wast and art by the ecclesiastical laws of the church, amongst other penalties, excommunicated and accursed, in very deed, and not to be accompanied withal, neither in the church nor elsewhere, but in special cases.
7. THAT thou, concerning the truth of Christ's natural body and blood in the sacrament of the altar, hast been by the space of one or more years, and yet art at this present, of this opinion, That in the sacrament of the altar, after the words of consecration, there is not really, truly, and in very deed, contained (under the forms of bread) the very true and natural body of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
8. THAT thou for the hatred and disdain that thou hadst and didst bear against the said sacrament, and the virtue thereof, and against the said priest administering the same, (as before) didst smite, wound, and hurt him in manner and form as before is declared.
9. THAT thou, over and besides the pains due unto thee for the doing of the cruel fact, art also by the order of the ecclesiastical laws of the church, and the laudable custom and ordinance of the same, to be reputed, taken, and adjudged (as thou art indeed) a very heretic, and to be punished by and with the pains due for heresy, […] of the said heresy and damnable opinion.
9. THAT thou, over and besides the pains due unto thee for the doing of the cruel fact, art also by the order of the ecclesiastical laws of the church, and the laudable custom and ordinance of the same, to be reputed, taken, and adjudged (as thou art indeed) a very heretic, and to be punished by and with the pains due for heresy, 〈…〉 of the said heresy and damnable opinion.
10. THAT all the prem••• be […], manifest, notorious and famous, and that upon the same, and every part thereof, there was and in within the said parish of St. Margaret's, and thereabouts, a public voice and fame.
10. THAT all the prem••• be 〈…〉, manifest, notorious and famous, and that upon the same, and every part thereof, there was and in within the said parish of St. Margaret's, and thereabouts, a public voice and fame.
