which they persecuted these " Brethren in Christ;" and let it be remembered, that it is from their own Registers that Strype, Fox, and others, have drawn the greater part of the particulars they relate. How great, then, is the effrontery of those writers who attempt to persuade us that the accounts given by Fox are forgeries of his own devising! In his preface to the later editions of the "Acts and Monuments of the Church," " he tells us, that "no English Papist, almost in all the realm, thought himself a perfect Catholic, unless he had cast out some word or other, to give that book a blow." The same outcries are again raised at the present time; but, as a modern ecclesiastical historian observes, "These writings have not proved, and it never will be proved, that John Fox is not one of the most faithful and authentic of all historians. We know too much of the strength of Fox's book, and the weakness of those of his adversaries, to be further moved by such censures than to charge them with falsehood. All the many researches and discoveries of

7

This great work was begun about 1552; it occupied Fox eleven years, although he had many assistants; among them was Bishop Grindal, then an exile for religion, as well as Fox, who kept up a constant correspondence with England, and received accounts of the sufferings of most of the martyrs in Queen Mary's reign, as they occurred. After their return to England, Fox employed himself in collecting further information from persons who had themselves witnessed and suffered in the scenes he describes, and in examining the Bishops' Registers and other records. The first edition of his work was published in 1563, in one volume, having been delayed till that time from the anxiety of both Fox and Grindal, to examine carefully into the truth of the various narratives it contains: it was afterwards enlarged by additional documents, and many subsequent editions were printed. The cavils and false assertions of Popish writers caused him to revise his work the more scrupulously, and to state the authorities for his narrations: many of his accounts were derived from living witnesses, who bore on their bodies marks which indisputably proved the truth of their statements.

The author of a recent biographical work observes, "The effect of Fox's work in promoting, or rather confirming, the principles of the reformation to which we owe all that distinguishes us as a nation, is universally acknowledged. It is proved even by the antipathy of his enemies, who would not have taken such pains to expose his errors, and inveigh against the work at large, if they had not felt that it created, in the public mind, an abhorrence of the persecuting spirit of popery, which has suffered little diminution even to the present day.'

later times, in regard to historical documents, have only contributed to place the general fidelity and truth of Fox's melancholy narrative, on a rock which cunnot be shaken." (See the Preface to Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography.)

The real fact is thus stated by Fox himself: “ Considering with myself what should move them thus to rage, I began with more circumspect diligence to overlook again what I had done. In searching whereof, I found the fault, both what it was and where it lay, which was not so much in the book itself, as in those who being ashamed to hear of their past conduct, sought by all possible means to stop the same; and because they could not effect this by public authority, they renewed again an old practice of theirs, as they did with the Holy Bible in the days of King Henry, telling the people there were a thousand lies in it. With like facing brags (impudent assertions,) they think now to dash out all good books, and amongst others these monuments of Martyrs; which godly Martyrs they could not abide when living, and now cannot suffer their memories to live after their death, lest it might bring their wicked acts and cruel murders to destruction. Even so these men deal also with me; for when they themselves altogether delight in untruths, and have filled the Church of Christ with feigned fables, lying miracles, false visions, and miserable errors, &c.; yet notwithstanding, as if they were a people of much truth, and as if the world did not perceive them, they pretend a face and zeal of great verity; and, like Sophisters, who, when an argument cometh against them which they cannot meet, endeavour to shift off the matter with stout words." Reader, this passage was written two hundred and fifty years ago; but are not the believers in the modern miracles of the Church of Rome pursuing the like course in our own times, boldly and unblushingly denying what they know cannot be refuted?