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Thoughtful Thoughts 7.2.25 by John Dunning. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs…
“FOXE’S BOOK OF MARTYRS”.
Introduction…
The cost of the gospel being passed on down to us has been extraordinary…
Habakkuk speaks of the primary importance to God of “faithfulness”.
Hebrews 11 is a chapter remembering the sacrifice of those Jews who were murdered by their own people, because they stood up for the truth that God was messaging, (like Isaiah who was sawn in two, by a wicked Jewish King.)
Jesus reminded us of those who stood up sacrificially for the truth. Revelation mentions such people, with a reward in heaven awaiting those who were martyred.
The names of Bible translators, printers and publishers who were tortured to death by the church are taught in theological colleges and in Oxford there is a memorial in the form of a monument.
Less well known are the men and women who were the next link in the chain of passing the baton of truth down to us. Those who didn’t drop the baton out of fear of torture and death by the church for their faithfulness. John Foxe wanted us to remember those who passed on the truth to us at the cost of their own lives, so he wrote Foxe’s Book of Martyrs… and so today, we mention just a few…
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IN MEMORIUM
i). Agnes Potten and Mr. & Mrs. Trunchfield…
Agnes Potten & Joan Trunchfield were two young mothers. In 1556 they were burned at the stake on Ipswich Cornhill, in England, accused of bringing food to the jailed Protestant minister, Robert Samuel, who was burned alive on 31st August 1555. His imprisonment led to his to torture, part of which was starving him, but ensuring he survived long enough to satisfy his church captors, waiting to see him being burned alive, as the protestant minister, John Huss, was in 1415.
Agnes and Joan spent five and half months in prison before being burned alive. The husband of Joan Trunchfield, a shoemaker, was also thrown into the flames for good measure. In the Ipswich area alone, there were nine such martyrs, during Queen Mary’s reign, between 1556-1558. Just in Ipswich alone, there were nine such martyrs, and they became known as “The Ipswich Nine”, and a monument was erected in their honour in 1903 in Ipswich…
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ii). Alice Driver…
Alice was the wife of a farmer and she worked as a farmer alongside her husband in Grundisburgh, Suffolk, England.
Farming in the days without machinery was a hard enough life, but being a Christian in the days of Queen Mary was another level.
Alice was caught attending an “underground” service in a barn conducted by a protestant minister… (Queen Mary only permitted Catholic services, and even at her coronation got the Church of England Archbishop to hold a Catholic Mass.)
Alice Driver had her ears cut off and under the authority of Queen Mary 1st, she was burned alive at the stake on 4th Nov. 1558.
Ten days later, Queen Mary 1st died of cancer. She had only been on the throne for five years, and the public quite literally rejoiced by partying.
iii). “THE IPSWICH SEVEN”.
The names of the Ipswich seven were;- Robert Samuel, N. Peke, Kerby (Christian name unknown), Agnes Potten, Joan Trunchfield, John Tudson, William Pikes, Alexander Gooch and Alice Driver.
iv). The Lewes Martyrs…
Between 1555-1557, seventeen protestants from Lewes in Sussex, (England), were burned alive, as a result of Queen Mary’s church-sanctioned murders.
Derek Carver, a Flemish immigrant, was the first to be burned, after having been tortured for 8 months. His crime was to read the Bible at home in English to others. He was burned inside a beer barrel, as a nod to his profession. As a result, 800 protestants fled to Germany and Switzerland, where it was safer as the reformation had taken hold.
– How do we know all this?
i). Records…
A Christian historian and diarist called John Foxe was so incensed by people being burned alive, that he published the story like a journalist in “Foxe’s Book of Martyrs”, to ensure future generations remembered what the church had done.
ii). Parliament…
After Mary died, priests were exiled in anger for the church behaving worse than barbarians, and Catholics were forbidden by Act of Parliament from ever being given the throne again. Secular powers had to stop the church from being such a force of evil. Before judging the world for expelling the church, imagine it was your children who were being burned alive by the church.
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