Fox's Book of Martyrs: Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant; Deaths of the Primitive Protestant MartyrsFoxe, John
HistoryHistory
Fox's Book of Martyrs: Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant; Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs
Foxe, John
Church history; Martyrs; Persecution
Scoblant was first brought to his trial; when, persisting in the
profession of his faith, he received sentence of death. On his return to
prison, he earnestly requested the jailer not to permit any friar to
come near him; saying, "They can do me no good, but may greatly disturb
me. I hope my salvation is already sealed in heaven, and that the blood
of Christ, in which I firmly put my trust, hath washed me from my
iniquities. I am now going to throw off this mantle of clay, to be clad
in robes of eternal glory, by whose celestial brightness I shall be
freed from all errors. I hope I may be the last martyr to papal tyranny,
and the blood already spilt found sufficient to quench the thirst of
popish cruelty; that the church of Christ may have rest here, as his
servants will hereafter." On the day of execution, he took a pathetic
leave of his fellow-prisoners. At the stake he fervently said the Lord's
Prayer, and sung the fortieth psalm; then commending his soul to God, he
was burnt alive.
Hues, soon after, died in prison; upon which occasion Coomans wrote thus
to his friends, "I am now deprived of my friends and companions;
Scoblant is martyred, and Hues dead, by the visitation of the Lord; yet
I am not alone, I have with me the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of
Jacob; he is my comfort, and shall be my reward. Pray unto God to
strengthen me to the end, as I expect every hour to be freed from this
tenement of clay."
On his trial he freely confessed himself of the reformed religion,
answered with a manly fortitude to every charge against him, and proved
the scriptural part of his answers from the gospel. The judge told him
the only alternatives were, recantation or death; and concluded by
saying, "Will you die for the faith you profess?" To which Coomans
replied, "I am not only willing to die, but to suffer the most
excruciating torments for it; after which my soul shall receive its
confirmation from God himself, in the midst of eternal glory." Being
condemned, he went cheerfully to the place of execution, and died with
the most manly fortitude, and christian resignation.
William Nassau fell a sacrifice to treachery, being assassinated in the
fifty-first year of his age, by Beltazar Gerard, a native of Franche
Compte, in the province of Burgundy. This murderer, in hopes of a reward
here and hereafter, for killing an enemy to the king of Spain and an
enemy to the catholic religion, undertook to destroy the prince of
Orange. Having procured fire arms, he watched him as he passed through
the great hall of his palace to dinner, and demanded a passport. The
princess of Orange, observing that the assassin spoke with a hollow and
confused voice, asked who he was? saying, she did not like his
countenance. The prince answered, it was one that demanded a passport,
which he should presently have.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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