網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

*

burning or hanging, pointed out, when the design of invading and over-running England should be accomplished. By order of Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Fox's History of the Martyrs was placed in the common halls of archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, and heads of colleges, and in all churches and chapels throughout the kingdom.+

On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, our learned divine returned from exile, and was cordially received and courteously entertained by his noble pupil, the Duke of Norfolk; who maintained him at his house, and settled a pension upon him at his death. Afterwards, in 1572, when this unhappy duke was beheaded on Tower-hill, for his treasonable connections with the Queen of Scots, Mr. Fox and Dr. Nowell, dean of St. Paul's, attended him upon the scaffold.§

Mr. Fox lived many years highly esteemed and favoured by persons of quality. Bishops Grindal, Parkhurst, Pilkington, and Aylmer; also Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Thomas Gresham, and many others, were his powerful friends. By their influence, they would have raised him to the highest preferment; but, as he could not subscribe, and disapproved of some of the ceremonies, he modestly declined their offers. Indeed, he was offered almost any preferment he pleased, but was more happy in declining them, excepting a prebend in the church of Salisbury.

For the space of three years after his return from exile, Mr. Fox had no preferment whatever: and in a letter to his friend Dr. Lawrence Humphrey, he says, "I still "wear the same clothes, and remain in the same sordid con"dition that England received me in, when I first came "from Germany: nor do I change my degree or order, "which is that of the mendicants, or, if you will, of the

Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 271, 272.

+ Mr. Fox's Acts and Monuments of the Martyrs, and Bishop Jewel's Reply to Harding, continued to be thus honoured till the time of Archbishop Laud. This domineering prelate no sooner understood that the learned authors maintained, "That the communion table ought to stand among the people in the body of the church, and not altar-wise, at one end of it," than he was displeased, and ordered their books to be taken out of the churches.-Wood's Athena, vol. i. p. 187.-Prynne's Cant. Doome, p. 88.† Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 132.

Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 208.
Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 186.

"friars preachers." Thus did this grave and learned divine pleasantly reproach the ingratitude of the times. He continued without the least preferment till the year 1563, when Secretary Cecil procured him the above prebend; which, with some difficulty, he kept to his death. This was all the preferment he ever obtained.

In the year 1564, the Bishop of London having preached the Emperor Ferdinand's funeral sermon, in the cathedral of St. Paul's, it was ordered to be printed, and to be translated into Latin, "by the ready and elegant pen of John Fox."+ During the same year, Archbishop Parker attempted to force the clergy into a conformity to the established church; for which purpose he summoned all the London ministers to appear at Lambeth, when they were examined upon the following question: "Will you promise conformity to the apparel by law established, and testify the same by the subscription of your hands?" Those who refused were immediately suspended, and after three months, deprived of their livings. To prepare the way, Mr. Fox was summoned first, that the reputation of his great piety, might give the greater countenance to their proceedings. When they called him to subscribe, he took his Greek Testament out of his pocket, and said, To this I will subscribe. And when the commissioners required him to subscribe the canons, he refused, saying, "I have nothing in the church but a prebend in Salisbury, and much good may it do you, if you take it from me." His ecclesiastical judges, however, had not sufficient courage to deprive so celebrated a divine, who held up the ashes of Smithfield before their eyes. It ought here to be observed, that Mr. Strype is guilty of a twofold mistake, when he says, that, in 1566, Mr. Fox had no ecclesiastical living; and that though he was no approver of the habits, he was not summoned before the ecclesiastical commissioners.

Though Mr. Fox refused subscription and conformity to certain ecclesiastical ceremonies, he behaved with great moderation, and disapproved of the warmth of the more

*The remains of popish superstition were so prevalent in the church of England, especially among the ruling prelates in the time of Queen Elizabeth, that for many years, the eating of flesh was prohibited, during the weeks of Lent; yet, in certain cases, dispensations were granted. Accordingly, Mr. Fox being a man of a weak and sickly constitution, this favour was conferred upon him by Archbishop Parker!!-Strype's Parker, p.112, 178. +Churton's Life of Nowell, p. 106. Strype's Grindal, p. 98.

$ Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 76. Heylin's Hist. of Refor. p. 337. Strype's Parker, p. 223.

rigid and zealous puritans. And while he expressed his dislike of separation, he was exceedingly grieved about those things which gave the occasion.* Speaking of Blumfield, a wicked persecutor of the pious Mr. Harelson, for not wearing the surplice, he said, "It is a pity that such baits "of popery are left to the enemies, to take christians in "God take them away from us, or us from them. For God "knoweth they are the cause of much blindness and strife 66 among men.”+

At the above period, Mr. Fox presented a Latin panegyric to the queen, for having granted indulgence to several nonconformist divines. But in the year 1575, he addressed her majesty on a very different occasion. During this year a most severe persecution was raised against the anabaptists in London, ten of whom were condemned, eight ordered to be banished, and two to be executed. Mr. Fox, therefore, wrote an excellent Latin letter to the queen, in which he observes, "That to punish with the flames, the bodies of those who err rather from ignorance, than obstinacy, is cruel, and more like the church of Rome, than the mildness of the gospel. I do not write thus," says he, "from any bias to the indulgence of error; but to save the lives of men, being myself a man; and in hope that the offending parties may have an opportunity to repent, and retract their mistakes." He then earnestly entreats that the fires of Smithfield might not be rekindled; but that some milder punishment might be inflicted upon them, to prevent, if possible, the destruction of their souls, as well as their bodies. But his remonstrances were ineffectual. The queen remained inflexible; and though she constantly called him Father Fox, she gave him a flat denial, as to saving their lives, unless they would recant their dangerous errors. They both refusing to recant, were burnt in Smithfield, July 22, 1575; to the great and lasting disgrace of the reign and character of Queen Elizabeth.§

* Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 106.-Strype's Parker, p. 223, 224. + Baxter's Second Plea, p. 56.

Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 104, 105.

On Easter Sunday in this year, a congregation of Dutch anabaptists was discovered, without Aldgate, London; when twenty-seven persons were apprehended and cast into prison, four of whom, bearing fagots at Paul's cross, recanted their dangerous opinions. The two who were executed were John Wielmaker and Hendrick Ter Woort; or, as some of our historians call them, John Paterson and Henry Terwoordt. Previous to their execution, they suffered sixteen weeks imprisonment. The Dutch congregation in London made earnest intercession to the lords of the council, to obtain their pardon; but all to no purpose. The two unhappy

Mr. Fox was a man of great humanity and uncommon liberality. He was a most laborious student, and remarkably abstemious; and a most learned, pious, and judicious divine, and ever opposed to all methods of severity in matters of religion. But as he was a nonconformist, he was shamefully neglected. "Although the richest mitre in England," says Fuller, "would have counted itself preferred by being placed upon his head, he contented himself with a prebend of Salisbury. And while proud persons stretched out their plumes in ostentation, he used their vanity for his shelter; and was more pleased to have worth, than to have others take notice of it. And how learnedly he wrote, how constantly he preached, how piously he lived, and how cheerfully he died, may be seen at large in his life prefixed to his book." And even Wood denominates him a person of good natural endowments, a sagacious searcher into antiquity, incomparably charitable, and of an exemplary life and conversation, but a severe Calvinist, and a bitter enemy to popery.+

This celebrated man, having spent his life in the most laborious study, and in promoting the cause of Christ and the interests of true religion, resigned his spirit to God, April 18, 1587, in the seventieth year of his age. His death was greatly lamented; and his mortal part was interred in the chancel of St. Giles's church, Cripplegate, London; where, against the south wall, was a monumental inscription erected by his son,‡ of which the following is a translation:

In memory of JOHN Fox,

the most faithful Martyrologist of our English Church,
a most diligent searcher into historical antiquities,
a most strong bulwark

and fighter for Evangelical Truth;
who hath revived the Marian Martyrs
as so many Phoenixes,
from the dust of oblivion,
is this monument erected,
in grief and affection,

by his eldest son SAMUEL Fox.
He died April 18, An. Dom. 1587,
in his seventieth year.

men must perfume Smithfield with their ashes. It is, however, extremely surprising that Fuller attempts to palliate, and even to justify, the cruel barbarity exercised upon these unhappy men.—Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 380.-Brandt's Hist. of Refor. vol. i. p. 315. Edit. 1720.-Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 105.

Fuller's Abel Redivius, p. 381. + Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 186.
Stow's Survey of London, b. iii. p. 83.

Mr. Fox, during his residence at Basil, preaching to his fellow exiles, confidently declared in his sermon, "Now is the time for your return to England, and I bring you the news by the command of God." For these words he was sharply reproved by some of his brethren; but, remarkable as it may appear, they afterwards found that Queen Mary died the very day preceding the delivery of this sermon, and so a way was open for their return home.*

It was Mr. Fox who had the memorable interview with Mrs. Honiwood, often related by historians. This pious lady was under most distressing doubts and fears about the salvation of her soul, and her sorrow became so grievous, that she sunk in despair. This so affected her bodily health, that she appeared to be in a deep consumption, and even on the very brink of death, for about twenty years. In vain did the ablest physicians administer their medical assistance; and in vain did the ablest ministers preach comfort to her soul. At length, Mr. Fox was sent for; who, on his arrival, found her in a most distressed and languishing condition. He prayed with her, and reminded her of the faithfulness of God's promises, and of the sufferings of Christ for her soul. But all he could say appeared ineffectual. Not in the least discouraged, he still proceeded in his discourse, and said, "You will not only recover of your bodily disease, but also live to an exceeding great age; and which is yet better, you are interested in Christ, and will go to heaven when you die." She, looking earnestly at him as he spake these words, with great emotion, answered, "Impossible; I am as surely damned, as this glass will break," and immediately dashed a Venice glass, which she had in her hand, with great violence to the ground; but the glass received not the smallest injury. The event, indeed, proved according to the words of Mr. Fox. Though Mrs. Honiwood was then sixty years old, she recovered from her sickness, and lived the rest of her days, being upwards of thirty years, in much peace and comfort.+

* Fuller's Abel Red. p. 380.-Clark's Marrow of Eccl. Hist. p. 793. + Mrs. Honiwood, in the days of Queen Mary, used to visit the prisons, and to comfort and relieve the confessors. She was present at the burning of Mr. John Bradford in Smithfield, and was resolved to see the end of his sufferings. But the press of the people was so great, that her shoes were trodden off her feet; and she was obliged to go barefoot from Smithfield to St. Martin's, before she could procure a new pair for money. This excellent lady had three hundred and sixty-seven children lawfully descended from her sixteen from her own body, one hundred and fourteen grandchildren, two hundred and twenty-eight great-grandchildren, and nine

[merged small][ocr errors]
« 上一頁繼續 »