Foxe, Martyrs 63-137 and Narcissism

OK, we're trying to
have a little fun with the
picture. Especially
in view of the serious topic
at hand.

Foxe, John. The New Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Gainesville, FL: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 2001.

Foxe, Martyrs, Persecution, & Narcissism.  This is a tribute to Mr. Joel Osteen and we call it Mr. Osteen's Polycarp Version of Your Best Life Now.

We are doing some counting. The numbers may be off, but we at least are getting some sense of it. Ephesians 2.1ff. speaks of "dead" men, but they are very much alive and demonically-energized in Paul's "anthropology and harmartiology."

Revelation 6.9-10

9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The march continues through Mr. (rev.) John Foxe, a non-Conforming Anglican whom Elizabeth 1 loved and left unmolested. He wasn't about to yield either, but that's for another day. He returned from exile and died in England.

The numbering is our’s, not Mr. Foxe’s. The intent is simply to get a “handle” and “sense” of the numbers. It will not have the mathematical precision that would satisfy Rene Descarte or Albert Einstein. But, it gives a strong flavor of things.

Sixth Persecution. Emperor Marcus Clodius Pupienus Maximus (164-238 A.D.) He ordered Christians to “be hunted down and killed.”

63. Pontianus, a bishop of Rome. Exiled to Sardinia, he preached against idols. Killed in the island of Sardina, off Italy’s western coast.
64. Anteros, successor of Pontianus, murdered for compiling a martyriology.
65. On the same day as Anteros was killed, a Roman Senator, his entire family and 42 Christians—beheaded. We’ll assume the Senator has a family of four children and a wife. Ergo, we added 48 to 65 to equal 113.
113. Caleopodius. Dragged through streets of Rome and thrown into the Tiber with a millstone on his neck.
114. Martina. Rome. Beheaded.
115. Hippolitus. Dragged by horses to death.

Maximus died. Succeeded by Gordian.

116. In Alexandria, a violent persecution breaks out. Metrus, an elderly man, beaten to death.
117. Quinta. Stoned to death.
118. 70-year old Appolonia beaten to death.

Seventh Persecution. Decius (249-251 A.D.) He was angry that Christianity was growing and that pagan worship was in decline. He ordered Christians to be killed. Mr. (rev.) John Foxe says there were “too many in Rome to number.” Ergo, 119 is way off but we persist with the general idea...to get a sense of it.

119. Julian, a Cicilian, was put in a leather bag with snakes and scorpions and tossed into the sea. This story comes from Chyrsostom, 398 A.D. We use Mr. Chrysostom's closing prayer in Morning and Evening Prayer of the old Book.
120. Peter, beheaded. He refused to sacrifice to Venus. Foxe reports the following: “I am amazed that you sacrifice to an infamous woman, whose debaucheries your own writers record, and whose life consisted of such perverted actions as your laws would punish. No, I shall offer the true God the acceptable sacrifice of praises and prayers.”
121. Denisa. Beheaded.
122. Andrew. Stoned to death.
123. Paul. Stoned to death.
124. Again, back in Alexandria, Alexander is burned to death. Alexandria, the famous town, is to the left.
125. Epimachus. Alexandria. Burned to death.
126. Nice, France. Two prominent Christian men. Trypho, scourged, dragged through streets, burned, beheaded.
127. See 126. Respicius, suffered the same death.
128. Quintain, Governor of Sicily, is offended by a woman who is beautiful, a Christian, and who refuses sexual advances. Several efforts result in her imprisonment where she died of injuries resulting from assault and battery...er, beatings for non-compliance.
129. 84-year old Cyril. Burned at the stake. Lucius, the Governor of Crete, ordered the Elder to offer a sacrifice to the gods.
130. Context. Decius ordered and erected the pagan temple in Ephesus. 7 Roman soldiers are ordered to arrest the Christians, but they are themselves Christians. They refuse, sequester themselves in a cave, and Decius orders the cave sealed. They die there. The first is Constantius.
131. Dionysius. See 130.
132. Joannes. See 130.
133. Malchius. See 130.
134. Martianus. See 130.
135. Maximianus. See 130.
136. Seraios. See 130.
137. Back to Alexandria, Leonidus, the father of Origen, killed. Origen himself will suffer imprisonment at age 64, but Emperor Decius dies and there is a respite. The respite is due to the successor, Gallus, having a more urgent call… a call to repel a Goth invasion. Origen obtained release, repaired to Tyre, Syria, and died there in 254 A.D.

Again, Paul's Biblical anthropology in Eph. 2.1ff. is about "dead men" who are "demonically energized" and who serve the "lusts of the flesh and mind." Er, um, sorta like Mr. Martin Luther outlined in The Bondage of the Will.  The Greeks don't like this "Westernized" anthropology. Nor does the bishop of Rome.  Nor do Arminian pietists in American evangelicalism.  And horrors no for the 19th-20th century liberals.  The brutal savageries against Christians as recounted by Mr. "(rev.) John Foxe are empirical evidences of the manifold wickednesses and demonic-energizations of dead, but very lively, human beings.   

Fallout over Koran burning continues in Afghanistan

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1481571168001/fallout-over-koran-burning-continues-in-afghanistan/?playlist_id=87937

Feb 29, 2012. Bret Baier talks to Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. John Allen. 

First, Karzai is demanding U.S. military personnel be tried based on Afghan law.  That will not happen.  Second, why isn't Karzai prosecuting the murderers of four U.S. troops--a COL, MAJ and two enlisted men?  Karzai's "apology" does not cut it.  Third, the General does not say much.  "Morale is good..." he assures us.  As they generally say. 

Rev. Youcef Nadarkhani: A Christian Martyr? If so, One Amongst 1000s

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1474541504001/a-martyr-for-christianity/?playlist_id=87937&intcmp=obinsite


Tertullian famously noted that "the blood of the martyrs' was the seedplot of the Church."  He spoke of the persecutions of Imperial Rome.  One must read Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History or John Foxe's Book of Martyrs.  Queen Mary 1 solidified the Reformation amongst the laity by her burnings of 300 English Reformers.  We hope the current pressures on this totalitarian regime will prevent this Martyrdom of Rev. Yousef Nadarkhani.

Part Two. Foxe's Acts and Monuments, Vol.8: Thomas Cranmer

Part Two beginneth.

The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, Vol. VIII (London: R.B. Seely and W. Burnside, 1839). This volume contains a preliminary dissertation by the Rev. George Townsend, M.A., Prebendary of Durham and Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire.

Why Americans tolerate these abridged versions of John Foxe disserves God's True Church. John Foxe was a principle means by which English families learned their facts about the Reformation.

Volume Eight starts in bloody Mary’s reign,1556, and concludes in the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, 1559.

The storyline is summarized thus: “…from the bloody murderings of God’s saints with the particular processes and names of such Godly martyrs, both men and women, as in this time of Queen Mary, were put to death.”

This eighth volume is freely available at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=uRMXAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA470&dq=john+foxe&as_brr=1&ei=kxJISreuHqa6zgTNz8Vk

The first 140 pages of this 805-page pdf-document pertains to Thomas Cranmer, the illustrious, studied and imperfect English Reformer. Imperfect, but of vast importance to the West and the Church of England. We left several questions pending last time and we resume the story.

Cranmer was reared in the schoolsmen's medieval approaches. At about age thirty, he gave himself over to theological studies. Prior to an extensive re-review of secondary literature in its vast reaches, Thomas gave a full three years to the study of Scriptures alone.[1] He desired to come to no premature conclusions, but was ever cautious, judicious and learned. He gave himself to the Scriptures like a “merchant greedy of all good things.”

He was a slow reader, but an avid note-taker and marker. We note that Dr. Cranmer fell out with the friars because they were studied in the school authors with no regard for the authority of Scripture; prior to proceeding with any study, he required these students to master the Scriptures first; he earned opprobrium at first but in the end would gain the thanks of his students as they matured.

Remaining at Cambridge and declining an invitation by Cardinal Wolsey to Oxford, the great question of Henry’s arose regarding Catherine. The time frame here is 1529, twelve years after Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses. We will skip some of the Henrician and Romish issues in connection with the marriage. Foxe includes details on the movement of the Romish cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio. We’ll briefly note that a dinner at which Cranmer was present was the occasion for one of the participants to recommend Cranmer to Henry on this issue, to Henry’s liking.

Cranmer was sent for and he languished, seeking to avoid the Court; Henry however, bid Cranmer to his presence, a bidding that was not to be disobeyed. Cranmer came. Upon giving an answer to Henry's good pleasure, he was dispatched to Durham and given access to any and all books needed for the directed composition of his own opinion; this was to be submitted to Henry in writing. Cranmer was successful in moving Henry to have his question heard at Oxford and Cambridge.

Another consequence of Cranmer's statements: learned men were sent abroad for opinions from the great Continental universities. The learned conclusion at Oxford and Cambridge was that Henry’s first marriage was unlawful.

About 1530, Dr. Cranmer and several others were deputed to visit Bologna, the famed centre for studies in canonical law, and to Rome. When an audience was given to the English Churchmen, the Pope in high regality and millinery, offered his foot to be kissed. Not a single Englishman participated in the “idolatry,” a word Foxe employs. Foxe then tells the story that the Pope had an English spaniel at court that opportunely interceded and bit the Pope’s foot—the story has an apocryphal ring to it, although, if true, it is utterly delightful and it surely illustrates exactly what England would later do...not merely bite the Pope's foot, but extinquish his very presence from English soil (the best source for this are the Edwardean and Elizabethan injunctions vis a vis Gerald Bray's Historical Documents.) The Pope was forever done in England following the English Reformation.

The English ambassadors returned to England while Cranmer remained in Europe and would visit the Emperor; Cranmer convinced the Emperor of the justness of Henry’s cause and, in turn, the Emperor was “satisfied in the matter.”[2] Cranmer traveled with the Emperor’s entourage from Vienna into Germany; he consulted with many scholars in the entourage, successfully. One huge proposition was the “invalidity of the bishop of Rome’s authority” to dispense with Scripture. One begins to discern that Cranmer's view of Scripture is not only "High," but governing and supreme.

Archbishop Warham had died while Cranmer was traveling. Upon return to England, Cranmer was appointed as Cantaur.

The marriage-issue was one question; the pope’s authority in England was another and, in consequence, “in so much that in the parliament it was doubted of the primacy of the church of Rome.”[3] Cranmer was becoming the “go-to-fellow” on these two matters, the marriage and papal authority. As an assiduous note-taker, he became a Reference-Bookman on the issues.

As to the pope, Cranmer demonstrated that “the pope’s lordship was brought in by no authority of the Scripture, but by affected and ambitious tyranny of men.” Cranmer also put the Churchmen under the authority of magistrates.[4] Wycliffe had taught similarly. We regret the Erastianism, however, that would continue in the True Church of England.

Part Two endeth.

Footnotes:
[1] John Foxe. The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, Vol. VIII (London: R.B. Seely and W. Burnside, 1839), 27-28.
[2] John Foxe, op.cit., 33
[3]John Foxe, op.cit., 33.
[4] The background here is that Church leaders could and were exculpated when they violated the laws of their respective realms. The canonical thinking was the offenders were to be tried by Roman authorities, not civil magistrates. This appears to be a rehash of the Becket scandal. Ecclesiastical corruption was long known for at least two centuries prior to the English Reformation. This issue would re-appear in the pedophilia scandals in the USA and elsewhere, where Papist Cardinals did as they were canonically bidden...to hide the matter and refer all case files to Rome. The media did not explore this dimension fully.