Foxe's Book Of Martyrs
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“After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification.” |
Chapter I -- History of Christian Martyrs to the First General Persecutions Under Nero
Chapter II -- The Ten Primitive Persecutions
Chapter III -- Persecutions of the Christians in Persia
Chapter IV -- Papal Persecutions
Chapter V -- An Account of the Inquisition
Chapter VI -- An Account of the Persecutions in Italy, Under the Papacy
Chapter VII -- An Account of the Life and Persecutions of John Wickliffe
Chapter VIII -- An Account of the Persecutions in Bohemia Under the Papacy
Chapter IX -- An Account of the Life and Persecutions of Martin Luther
Chapter X -- General Persecutions in Germany
Chapter XI -- An Account of the Persecutions in the Netherlands
Chapter XII -- The Life and Story of the True Servant and Martyr of God, William Tyndale
Chapter XIII -- An Account of the Life of John Calvin
Chapter XIV -- Prior to the Reign of Queen Mary I
Chapter XV -- An Account of the Persecutions in Scotland During the Reign of King Henry VIII
Chapter XVI -- Persecutions in England During the Reign of Queen Mary
Chapter XVII -- Rise and Progress of the Protestant Religion in Ireland
Chapter XVIII -- The Rise, Progress, Persecutions, and Sufferings of the Quakers
Chapter XIX -- An Account of the Life and Persecutions of John Bunyan
Chapter XX -- An Account of the Life of John Wesley
Chapter XXI -- Persecutions of the French Protestants in the South of France
Chapter XXII -- The Beginnings of American Foreign Missions
Baptist Preachers Prosecuted For Their Faith
The following is a list of a great host of 58 Baptist preachers who endured “cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment” (Hebrews 11:36) in eighteenth-century Virginia for the cause of their current religious liberty:
John Afferman - Cruelly beaten, incapacitated for work
Joseph Anthony - Jailed for preaching three months
Elijah Baker - Pelted with stones, jailed for preaching, fifty-six days, banished by ship
David Barrow – Dunked and nearly drowned by 20 men
James Chiles – Jailed for preaching, forty-three days
John Corbley – Frequently hauled out of the pulpit and beaten, jailed on several occasions
Elijah Craig – Jailed repeatedly
Lewis Craig – Jailed for preaching, four weeks
John Delaney – Jailed for permitting a man to pray
Augustine Eastin – Jailed for unknown duration
William Fristoe – Repeatedly threatened at the point of a gun
James Goolrich – Jailed repeatedly for preaching
James Greenwood – Jailed for preaching, forty-six days
Thomas Hargate - Jailed for preaching
Samuel Harris – Door broken down by enraged mob during preaching service, jailed repeatedly
James Ireland – Jailed for preaching, five months, tried to suffocate him with smoke, tried to blow him up with gunpowder, tried to poison him, injured for life (his daughter died from the poison), drunken rowdies put in the same cell with him (he led them to the Lord), horses ridden over his hearers at jail (many of the imprisoned Baptist ministers preached through the grates to their congregations outside their cell windows), “men made their water in his face,” opposition everywhere
Martin Kaufman – Severely beaten with a stick
John Koontz –Severely beaten with butt end of a large cane
Dutton Lane – Endured much persecution
Ivison Lewis – Met with violent opposition
William Lovall – Jailed for preaching, sixteen days
Lewis Lunsford – His preaching interrupted by mob violence and legal proscription
William McClannahan – Jailed for preaching
Richard Major – Mob so outrageous, nearly pulled him to pieces
Daniel Marshall – Endured much affliction
William Mash – Jailed for preaching, forty-three days
Thomas Mastin – presented by grand jury
Thomas Maxwell – Jailed for preaching
Edward Mintz – dunked and driven away in his wet clothes
Anderson Moffett – Jailed for preaching
Jeremiah Moore – Brutally assaulted by a mob, jailed on three occasions
Elijah Morton – Ousted as a Justice because he was a Baptist
William Mullins – Presented before Magistrate for being absent from state church
Joseph Murphy – Arrested for preaching
John Pickett – Great opposition from mobs and magistrates, jailed three months or more
Hipkins Pitman – Arrested and threatened with whipping
James Pitman – Jailed for preaching, sixteen days
Younger Pitts – Arrested and abused
James Reed – Dragged off stage, kicked and cuffed about, jailed for preaching, forty-three days
Nathaniel Saunders – Jailed for preaching
John Shackelford – Jailed for preaching, eight days
Joseph Spencer – Jailed for preaching
Philip Spiller – Jailed for preaching
Henry Street – Whipped for preaching
John Tanner – Jailed for preaching, shot with a shotgun, suffered the rage of mobs
David Thomas – Violent opposition from ruffians with bludgeons; worship prevented, pulled down while preaching, dragged out amidst clenched fists, attempts made to shoot him, pitched battle ensued
David Tinsley – Jailed for preaching, four months and sixteen days
Andrew Tribble – Presented for preaching
Thomas Waford – Severely beaten with a whip
Jeremiah Walker – Opposed by state church pastor, jailed for preaching, sued for baptizing two boys
John Waller – Hauled about by the hair of his head, almost rent asunder by friend and foe, jerked off stage, head beaten against the ground, whipped severely by the Sheriff, jailed four times for a total of one hundred and thirteen days
James Ware – Jailed for preaching, sixteen days
Robert Ware – Presented for not going to church, annoyed by men drinking and playing cards, jailed twice for preaching, fifty-four days
John Weatherford – Jailed for preaching, five months (leaving a wife to provide for their fifteen children, twelve of whom were girls), hands slashed by guards as he gestured to sinners through his cell window (so many people were getting saved from his preaching, known as “denying the prison bounds”, that incensed magistrates constructed a massive brick wall nearly twelve feet high directly in front of his window and even took the desperate measure of lining the top of the wall with glass bottles set in mortar so as to prevent the more determined listeners from employing the strategic perch; the aforementioned efforts being frustrated by a faithful congregation that devised the counter measure of raising a handkerchief on a pole as a signal that the brethren were now assembled and ready to hear), salvations and baptisms continued, Patrick Henry secured the pastor’s release by personally paying his fine.
William Webber – Jailed twice for preaching, four months
Anderson Weeks – Arrested for preaching
Allen Wyley – Jailed for preaching, for considerable duration
John Young – Jailed for preaching, six months
Most so-called Bible scholars these days are woefully ignorant of the faithful preachers who've suffered for their faith, even to the point of death. As “truth is stranger than fiction,” even the secular New York Times was aware of Colonel Samuel Harris, noting on January 20, 1884...
“On one occasion, while a Baptist preacher was preaching in Orange County, Va., he was dragged out of the pulpit by the hair of his head and kicked; and he was about as roughly handled in many other portions of Virginia. And yet that Baptist preacher was never heard to complain of not being appreciated. R. B. Semple says of him, ‘Colonel Samuel Harris’s manners were of the most winning sort, and perhaps even Whitfield did not surpass him in addressing the heart.’”
The preceding important historical information was researched diligently and authored by Dr. William P. Grady. These 58 Baptist preachers were all persecuted and prosecuted in one city in one year.
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