N20568:6430
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.
1. THAT the said Thomas Watts is of Billerica, and so of the jurisdiction of the bishop of London.
1. THAT the said Thomas Wats is of Billerica, and so of the jurisdiction of the bishop of London.
2. ITEM, That he believeth not in the sacraments of the holy and catholic church, as the catholic church of Rome, and all other churches, members of the same, ever hitherto have believed, and is taught by all good and faithful people; nor hath allowed the sacraments, rites, usages, or ceremonies of the said church, but hath despised the same.
3. ITEM, That he believeth, and also hath taught others, that the substance of material bread and wine do remain in the sacrament of the altar after the consecration, and that the said material bread and wine are the signs and tokens of Christ's body hanged upon the cross, and of his blood there shed; and that in the said sacrament there is only a memory or remembrance of Christ's body and blood, and nothing else.
4. ITEM, That he believeth, and doth precisely affirm, that the very true presence of Christ's body and blood in substance, is not in the sacrament of the altar, but only in heaven, and no where else.
5. ITEM, That he believeth, affirmeth, and saith, the mass now used in the church of Rome, here in England, and other places, is full of idolatry, abomination, and wickedness, and that Christ did never institute it, nor ordain it, nor yet allow it as a good and laudable thing to be used in his church.
6. ITEM, That he believeth, and affirmeth, that auricular confession to be made unto the priest is not necessary, but superfluous: and that it is enough for a man to believe only, and to confess himself unto God, without any priest or minister at any time, though he may have the priest to confess him unto.
6. ITEM, That he believeth, and affirmeth, that auricular confession to be made unto the priest is not necessary, but superfiuous: and that it is enough for a man to believe only, and to confess himself unto God, without any priest or minister at any time, though he may have the priest to confess him unto.
7. ITEM, That he believeth that Luther, Wycliffe, Dr. Barnes, and all others that have held against the sacrament of the altar, and suffered death by fire or otherwise for the maintenance of the said opinion, were good men, and faithful servants and martyrs of Christ in so living and dying.
7. ITEM, That he b•lieveth that Luther, Wickliffe, Dr. Barnes, and all others that have held against the sacrament of the altar, and suffered death by fire or otherwise for the maintenance of the said opinion, were good men, and faithful servants and martyrs of Christ in so living and dying.
8. ITEM, That he hath and doth believe, that to fast, pray, or to do alms-deeds, is a thing utterly unprofitable; for if a man shall be saved, he shall be saved without doing of them; and if he shall be ⟨p. 601⟩damned, they shall not help him, or do him any good at all.
9. ITEM, That the said Watts of late coming into open court at the sessions before the lord Rich, sir Henry Tyrel, knight, Anthony Brown, esquire, and others, and being then and there examined, did openly confess, that he had refused to come to the church, and to hear there the divine service, and to receive the sacrament of the altar, according to the order of the church: because that like as the service of the church set out in the days of the late king Edward VI. was said and alleged to be abominable, heretical, schismatical, and altogether naught; so he the said Thomas Watts, then and there said openly before the said commissioners, that all that is now used and done in the church, is abominable, heretical, schismatical, and altogether naught: and that he did also then utter, before the said commissioners, other erroneous and arrogant words, to the hurt of his soul, and to the evil example of the people there present.
9. ITEM, That the said Wats of late coming into open court at the sessions before the lord Rich, sir Henry Tyrel, knight, Anthony Brown, esquire, and others, and being then and there examined, did openly confess, that he had refused to come to the church, and to hear there the divine service, and to receive the sacrament of the altar, according to the order of the church: because that like as the service of the church set out in the days of the late king Edward VI. was said and alledged to be abominable, heretical, schismatical, and altogether naught; so he the said Thomas Wats, then and there said openly before the said commissioners, that all that is now used and done in the church, is abominable, heretical, schismatical, and altogether naught: and that he did also then utter, before the said commissioners, other erroneous and arrogant words, to the hurt of his soul, and to the evil example of the people there present.
10. ITEM, That the said Thomas, by reason of the premises, was, and is to be taken, had, reputed, and judged as an heretic, and for the same, by order of the ecclesiastical laws, is to be declared accursed; and being obstinate and incorrigible, is to be delivered to the secular power, to be punished as an heretic▪
11. ITEM, That he, over and above all these offences and trespasses aforesaid, had also added this trespass, namely, That he had believed and deliberately said, that the church of Rome, in her rites, ceremonies, sacraments, institutions, and traditions, is the synagogue of Satan; and therefore that he had assented and agreed in opinion with one John Tooly, of late hanged at Cha•ing cross, who at the time of his execution desired the people to pray to be delivered from the tyranny of the bishop of Rome, with all his enormities; as much as to say, that his authority and doings were tyranny, and had all enormities and iniquities in them.
12. ITEM, That the premises and every part thereof be true, notorious, manifest, and openly spoken and talked of amongst the honest and credible persons in great multitude; and that of all and singular the same within Billerica aforesaid, and other places thereabout, being of the diocese of London, there is a common voice and fame thereof.
TO the first he said and confessed the same to be true in every part thereof.
