Fox's Book of Martyrs / Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant / Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs

by John Foxe

Many Scythian Goths having embraced Christianity about the time of Constantine the Great, the light of the gospel spread itself considerably in Scythia, though the two kings who ruled that country, and the majority of the people continued pagans. Fritegern, king of the West Goths, was an ally to the Romans, but Athanarick, king of the East Goths, was at war with them. The christians, in the dominions of the former, lived unmolested, but the latter, having been defeated by the Romans, wreaked his vengeance on his christian subjects, commencing his pagan injunctions in the year 370.

Eusebius, bishop of Samosata, makes a most distinguished figure in the ecclesiastical history, and was one of the most eminent champions of Christ against the Arian heresy. Eusebius, after being driven from his church, and wandering about through Syria and Palestine, encouraging the orthodox, was restored with other orthodox prelates to his see, which however he did not long enjoy, for an Arian woman threw a tile at him from the top of a house, which fractured his skull, and terminated his life in the year 380.

The Vandals passing from Spain to Africa in the fifth century, under their leader Genseric, committed the most unheard-of cruelties. They persecuted the christians wherever they came, and even laid waste the country as they passed, that the christians left behind, who had escaped them, might not be able to subsist. Sometimes they freighted a vessel with martyrs, let it drift out to sea, or set fire to it, with the sufferers shackled on the decks.

Having seized and plundered the city of Carthage, they put the bishop, and the clergy, into a leaky ship, and committed it to the mercy of the waves, thinking that they must all perish of course; but providentially the vessel arrived safe at Naples. Innumerable orthodox christians were beaten, scourged, and banished to Capsur, where it pleased God to make them the means of converting many of the Moors to christianity; but this coming to the ears of Genseric, he sent orders that they and their new converts should be tied by the feet to chariots, and dragged about until they were dashed to pieces Pampinian, the bishop of Mansuetes, was tortured to death with plates of hot iron; the bishop of Urice was burnt, and the bishop of Habensa was banished, for refusing to deliver up the sacred books which were in his possession.

The Vandalian tyrant Genseric, having made an expedition into Italy, and plundered the city of Rome, returned to Africa, flushed with the success of his arms. The Arians took this occasion to persuade him to persecute the orthodox christians, as they assured him that they were friends to the people of Rome.

After the decease of Huneric, his successor recalled him, and the rest of the orthodox clergy; the Arians, taking the alarm, persuaded him to banish them again, which he complied with, when Eugenius, exiled to Languedoc in France, died there of the hardships he underwent on the 6th of September, A. D. 305.

Persecutions from about the Middle of the Fifth, to the Conclusion of the Seventh Century.

Proterius was made a priest by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, who was well acquainted with his virtues, before he appointed him to preach. On the death of Cyril, the see of Alexandria was filled by Discorus, an inveterate enemy to the memory and family of his predecessor. Being condemned by the council of Chalcedon for having embraced the errors of Eutyches, he was deposed, and Proterius chosen to fill the vacant see, who was approved of by the emperor. This occasioned a dangerous insurrection, for the city of Alexandria was divided into two factions; the one to espouse the cause of the old, and the other of the new prelate. In one of the commotions, the Eutychians determined to wreak their vengeance on Proterius, who fled to the church for sanctuary: but on Good Friday, A. D. 457, a large body of them rushed into the church, and barbarously murdered the prelate; after which they dragged the body through the streets, insulted it, cut it to pieces, burnt it, and scattered the ashes in the air.

Hermenigildus, a Gothic prince, was the eldest son of Leovigildus, a king of the Goths, in Spain. This prince, who was originally an Arian, became a convert to the orthodox faith, by means of his wife Ingonda. When the king heard that his son had changed his religious sentiments, he stripped him of the command at Seville, where he was governor, and threatened to put him to death unless he renounced the faith he had newly embraced. The prince, in order to prevent the execution of his father's menaces, began to put himself into a posture of defence; and many of the orthodox persuasion in Spain declared for him. The king, exasperated at this act of rebellion, began to punish all the orthodox christians who could be seized by his troops; and thus a very severe persecution commenced: he likewise marched against his son at the head of a very powerful army. The prince took refuge in Seville, from which he fled, and was at length besieged and taken at Asieta. Loaded with chains, he was sent to Seville, and at the feast of Easter refusing to receive the Eucharist from an Arian bishop, the enraged king ordered his guards to cut the prince to pieces, which they punctually performed, April 13, A. D. 586.

Martin, bishop of Rome, was born at Todi, in Italy. He was naturally inclined to virtue, and his parents bestowed on him an admirable education. He opposed the heretics called Monothothelites, who were patronized by the emperor Heraclius. Martin was condemned at Constantinople, where he was exposed in the most public places to the ridicule of the people, divested of all episcopal marks of distinction, and treated with the greatest scorn and severity. After lying some months in prison, Martin was sent to an island at some distance, and there cut to pieces, A. D. 655.