THE ACTS AND MONUMENTS OF. THE CHURCH; CONTAINING THE HISTORY AND SUFFERINGS OF THE MARTYRS: WHEREIN IS SET FORTH AT LARGE THE WHOLE RACE AND COURSE OF THE WITH A PRELIMINARY DISSERTATION, ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CHURCH OF ROME THAT NOW IS, AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH OF ROME THAT THEN WAS. BY JOHN FOXE. WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, BY HIS SON. A NEW EDITION, WITH FIVE APPENDICES, CONTAINING ACCOUNTS OF THE MASSACRES IN FRANCE: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA : THE WHOLE CAREFULLY REVISED, CORRECTED, AND CONDENSED. BY THE REV. M. HOBART SEYMOUR, M.A. LONDON: PRINTED FOR SCOTT, WEBSTER, AND GEARY, CHARTERHOUSE SQUARE. 1838. EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE energies-exhibited of late, by the emissaries of the Church of Rome, for the re-establishment of her influence in this country-have loudly demanded the re-publication of those works with which our forefathers withered her influence, and baffled her energies. There is no volume in the range of our literature, that has been more effective in maintaining the principles of the Reformation—that noblest of all achievements-than the Acts and Monuments of Martyrs, by Master John Foxe. It is this conviction which has induced the present edition of that admirable work. When we speak of the Church of Rome, we speak of a religious, though a fatally erring community. But when we speak of the Papacy, we allude to an ecclesiastical system, which not only teaches such absurdities as Transubstantiation-such blasphemies as the Sacrifice of the Mass-such idolatry as the Worship of Saints-and such a novelty as her Creed, but also has elevated an Italian Bishop to the throne of an Italian Prince, who has territories, and broad domains, and numerous subjects of his own, and placed him in such a peculiar position, that he can bind, by solemn oaths, and demand allegiance from, a portion of the subjects of every other prince. This man—combining in himself the offices of Priest and King--has been raised to such a lofty pinnacle of secular authority, that he can control, punish, or reward a portion of the subjects of other Princes, so as to secure to himself the service and fealty of all those who, as members of the priesthood, possess either power or influence in other states. We must not regard this as a purely spiritual power, for those persons are bound by the most solemn oaths-not to defend the royalties of their liege sovereign, but―to defend, to the utmost of their power, the usurped or pretended royalties of this Italian Bishop, in the heart of every other state. It is a fearful, and a melancholy fact, that in our own fair England, palmy and beautiful England-the land of the brave, and the home of the free-there should be many hundreds of men, holding and wielding a certain influence in the land, who have been appointed by this foreign potentate, who ought to have no authority in this realm, and who have sworn-not to maintain the royalties of the sovereign of England, but-to maintain the royalties of this Italian Prince.* As loyal subjects of the sovereign of England, and as liege subjects of the King of kings, we never can consent that this Italian Potentate should possess authority in this realm. We feel that the experience of this nation, and the history of the world have proved, that he exercises his authority to minister to his own ambition, and to the degradation of mankind, and that the ecclesiastical system of Rome is a mighty * The Court of Rome has at present-A. D. 1838-above six hundred Missionary Priests in England. A |