LIBRARY BOOKS: MARTYROLOGIES
|
The Hail & Fire Books Library is a FREE online Christian resource for Christian books, Puritan, Reformed and Protestant exhortative works, Catholic and Protestant polemical and apologetical works, bibles, histories, martyrologies, and works on |
eschatology; in real text, PDF, and scanned image formats. By using the Hail & Fire Library you agree to the following. By using the Hail & Fire Library you agree to the following copyright notice. |
|
|
"'Drunken of the blood.' It is plain, that this woman signifieth the whole corp of all the persecutors that have and shall shed so much blood of the just: of the Prophets, Apostles, and other Martyrs from the beginning of the world to the end. The Protestants foolishly expound it of Rome, for that there they put Heretics to death, and allow of their punishment in other countries: But their blood is not called the blood of Saints, no more than the blood of thieves, mankillers, and other malefactors: for the shedding of which by order of justice, no commonwealth shall answer." ~ 1582 Rheims New Testament, annotation on Apocalypse 17:6.
(The 1582 Rheims New Testament was a Counter-Reformation Catholic Bible translated and annotated by the Jesuit Priests at the English College of Rheims, France; the translation became part of the Douay-Rheims Bible.) |
"Why relate such atrocities? more than one voice will exclaim with emotion. To inspire horror of the odious principles which have produced them. Do you suppose that an account of the blood which was shed will never be called for? Nay; these vile oppressors of mankind, tyrannizing by the sword, tyrannizing by deceit, tyrannizing by cupidity - these heroes of superstition and intolerance, who would have put an end to Christianity a thousand times over, if it could have been destroyed - these authors of so may wounds still bleeding in the world - must endure history to the last." ~ Alexis Muston ("The Israel of the Alps", a Vaudois martyrology-history).
American Sunday School Union (publisher)
Find this publisher under:
Find this author under:
Histories - The Waldenses or Protestant Valleys of Piedmont, Dauphiny, and the Ban De La Roche
Eugène Bersier was a French Protestant Christian Pastor (Pasteur Français).
Free Online Books:
Quelques Pages de L'Histoire des Huguenots
par Eugène Bersier
préface par Auguste Sabatier
French Edition (en Français) 
.
Prefaced by Auguste Sabatier. 1891 French Edition.
"C'est une juste et heureuse pensée qui a fait recueillir en un même volume les conférences, les discours et les autres morceaux consacrés par Eugène Bersier, dans la dernière partie de sa vie, à l'histoire des Huguenots. Ces pages que des circonstances diverses semblaient avoir fait naître presque au hasard, une fois rangées dans l'ordre chronologique, se sont rejointes et réunies d'ellesmêmes pour former un ensemble d'une belle suite et d'une frappante unité. Elles tracent à travers toute l'histoire du protestantisme français, comme un large et magnifique sillon de lumière."
Henry Fliedner is also known as Henri Fliedner and Heinrich Fliedner.
Free Online Books:
The Martyrdom of a People: or The Vaudois of Piedmont and their History
by Henry Fliedner
Translated from the German Edition by Constance Cheyne Brady.
"About the year 1140, the Provost of Steinbach wrote as follows to the Abbot Bernard de Clairvaux: - 'Recently, in the neighborhood of Cologne, we have seen certain heretics, some of whom have voluntarily returned to the Church. On the other hand, one of their Bishops dared to speak in an assembly where there was an Archbishop and a great number of nobles. He openly defended his heresy, using the words of Christ and of the Apostles. They despise earthly grandeur, and aspire to be the foremost in imitating Jesus, so as to form the only true Church of Christ on earth. They endeavour to lead a pure life. They make a great deal of their temperance and the simplicity of their worship, and they compare themselves to the ancient martyrs, who fled from town to town like sheep among wolves. They blame the priests for their worldliness, and call them false prophets, accusing them of having destroyed the Word of God, and for being strangers to the sanctity of their vocation. They consider Purgatory a fable, reject the adoration of saints as blasphemy, and refuse to obey the Pope. In a word, everything in the Church which was not instituted by Christ, or the Apostles, they treat as superstition.'"
H&F Paperback Republications:
The Martyrdom of a People: or The Vaudois of Piedmont and their History (Paperback)
by Henry Fliedner
A 2010 Illustrated Paperback Edition published by Hail & Fire from the 1914 Edition. Translated from the German by Constance Cheyne Brady. Preface from the 1914 Edition by J. Forbes Moncrieff.
"The Light Shines in Darkness."
A Christian History and Martyrology
Henry Fliedner's work offers a concise history of those known as the Vaudois or Waldensians—Christians of the pre-Reformation era. Fliedner traces their Bible only (Sola Scriptura) faith, and the horrific persecutions they endured, from ancient times to the early 1900's.
"They often travelled on horseback in different countries as hawkers, and, thanks to their bales of goods, obtained access to the rich and poor. ... While the merchant was doing business, he would observe the character of his customers, and when, at the end, they asked if he had anything else to sell, he would reply, 'Certainly, I have treasures much more precious than those which you have seen. ... a jewel which shines with such brightness, that it enables one to see, and to come to the knowledge of God.' ... The merchant then drew out of his pocket, or from a secret drawer of his travelling chest, a Gospel, and commenced to read." ... In this way the Vaudois found a means of spreading the Word of God more and more. ... What wonderful results might this seed-time have produced, if the storm of persecution had not broken out, reducing almost to naught the people of God."
This work is also available under:
John Foxe or John Fox was an English Protestant Christian and Martyrologist.
Free Online Books:
The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, A New and Complete Edition: with a Preliminary Dissertation
by John Foxe
Originally published in 1563 under the title: "Acts and Monuments of these latter and perillous days, touching matters of the Church, wherein are comprephended and described the great persecutions and horrible troubles, that have been wrought and practised by the Romish Prelates, specially in this Realm of England and Scotland, from the year of our Lord a thousand, unto the time now present. Gathered and collected according to the true copies and writings certificatory as well of the parties themselves that suffered, as also out of the Bishops Registers, which were the doers thereof."
1838-1841 Edition in 8 Volumes: "A New and Complete Edition: with a Preliminary Dissertation, by the Rev. George Townsend, M.A." "Edited by the Rev. Stephen Reed Cattley, M.A."
"Parsons observes, - 'John Tudson, falling to be a ghospeller, was so obstinate and arrogant as the bishop of London was forced at length to condemne and burne him, under queen Mary.' And of another poor victim he says, - 'being obstinate in divers hereticall opinions, but especially about the sacrament of the altar, he was burnt also for the same, in Smithfield, after many means first used to reclayme him.' And again, - 'a poor labouringe man, borne at Histon, ... becoming a ghospeller, fell to be so forward in sowing and defending Calvinian opinions, as lastly he was burnt for the same, in Smithfield.' And again, we read of 'a poor woman burned at Canterbury, under queen Mary;' the next were 'two willfull poore women, also burned at Canterbury.' Of other victims, 'the first was an artificer, the second a poore ignorant woman, and burned for like opinions with the former.' And so we might go on, page after page, noticing the poor ignorant men and women put to death. No fact recorded by Foxe is denied. The victims are ridiculed and despised (That is, by Parsons. - H&F) , because they were poor, vulgar, mean, and low. The wretched bigot could not see, that whom the world most scorns, God most honours; whom the world most hates, Christ most loves." - the Editor.
The Book of Martyrs or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs from the Introduction of Christianity to the Latest Periods of Pagan, Popish, and Infidel PersecutionsOriginally published in 1563. An 1850 Edition, abridged, modernized, and expanded to include: "The recent persecutions in the cantons of Switzerland; and the persecutions of the Methodist and Baptist Missionaries in the West India Islands; and the narrative of the conversion, capture, long imprisonment, and cruel sufferings of Asaad Shidiak, a native of Palestine. Likewise a sketch of the French Revolution as connected with the persecution compiled from Foxe's Book of Martyrs, and other authentic sources."
"Elizabeth Cooper ... had recanted; but, tortured for what she had done by the worm which dieth not, she shortly after voluntarily entered her parish church during the time of the popish service, and standing up, audibly proclaimed that she revoked her former recantation, and cautioned the people to avoid her unworthy example. She was taken from her own house by Mr. Sutton the sheriff, who very reluctantly complied with the letter of the law, as they had been servants and in friendship together. At the stake, the poor sufferer, feeling the fire, uttered the cry of Oh! upon which Mr. Miller, putting his hand behind him towards her, desired her to be of good courage, “for (said he) good sister, we shall have a joyful and a sweet supper.” Encouraged by this example and exhortation, she stood the fiery ordeal without flinching, and, with him, proved the power of faith over the flesh."
Read prayers of John Foxe in:
Prayers, Hymns and Poetry - Clay, William: Private Prayers of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth
Michael Geddes was a Doctor of Laws and Chancellor of the Church of Sarum.
Free Online Books:
Miscellaneous Tracts
by Michael Geddes
An 1709 Edition. Viz.: I. The History of the Expulsion of the Moriscoes, or Mahometans of the Moorish Race, out of Spain, in the Reign of Philip III. II. The History of the Wars of the Commons of Castile, in the Beginning of the Reign of the Emperor Charles V. III. A View of the Spanish Cortes, or Parliament. IV. An Account of the Manuscripts and Reliques found in the Mountains of Granada, 1588. V. A View of the Inquisition of Portugal; with a List of the Prisoners which came out of the Inquisition of Lisbon, in an Act of the Faith, celebrated Anno 1682. And Another in 1707. VI. A Narrative of the Proceedings of the Inquisition in Lisbon, with a Person now living in London, during his Imprisonment there. VII. A Spanish Protestant Martyrology.
"About the year 1440, great numbers of people were, at the instigation of the Inquisitors, driven by the King's musqueteers out of the Highlands of Duringo in Biscay, to Valedolid and Domingo de Calcada, who were burnt alive at those places for refusing to abjure divers doctrines which are condemned as Heretical by the Roman Church.
We are not told what the doctrines were (that) such multitudes of people were thus put to death for professing; but it is more than probable, that they were the same with those of the Vaudois among the Alps; the primitive faith having, until about this time, been preserved entire in some mountainous and almost inaccessible countries by reason of their having never been before haunted by any Popish Friars or Inquisitors to corrupt it, or to punish its steadfast professors with death."
Janet Gordon also authored "Champions of the Reformation."
Free Online Books:
The Spanish Inquistion: It's Heroes and Martyrs
by Janet Gordon
An 1882 Edition.
"The Inquisition ... was a tribunal established for the discovery and punishment of all who might hold opinions ... differing in any degree from those religious dogmas which the Church of Rome has imposed ... she had the power, to punish with the utmost severity ... repressing all progress and freedom of thought ... One after another, the busy merchant, the eloquent preacher, the enlightened savant, the noble, ... were seen to disappear, to reappear again upon some morning of doom, ... at the fatal place of burning ... haggard, enfeebled, with limbs distorted by the rack and pulley, the trembling, shuddering actors in the ghastly auto-da-fé."
Young French Huguenot caught up in the persecution of the Protestant Christians in 1700 after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. At sixteen years of age he was imprisoned for the Reformed faith and when he would not convert to Catholicism, he was sentenced to slavery for life on the French Royal Galleys. After being freed through the intercession of the Protestant princes of Europe, he wrote his Memoirs recounting his experiences.
Free Online Books:
The Huguenot Galley Slaves. A Story for the Young
by Jean Martielhe
An 1882 Edition. As included in a history of the French Protestants by Johann Jacob Rambach (1693-1735), Published Originally in French (1759). Edited and abridged by Rev. Christian G. Barth, D.D. (1799-1862).
H&F Paperback Republications:
The Huguenot Galley Slaves (Paperback)
from the Memoirs of Jean Martielhe
Featuring additional footnotes and illustrations by Hail & Fire.
A 2011 Illustrated Paperback Edition published by Hail & Fire. Taken from the Memoirs of Jean Martielhe, as included in a history of the French Protestants by Johann Jacob Rambach (1693-1735). Published Originally in French (1759). Edited and abridged by Rev. Christian G. Barth, D.D. (1799-1862). Edited, updated, and footnotes and illustrations added by Hail & Fire. Translated from the German by Constance Cheyne Brady. Preface from the 1914 Edition by J. Forbes Moncrieff.
The captivating true story of Jean Martielhe, who, at sixteen, was forced to flee home and country in search of religious freedom. In the year 1700, a fresh revival of persecution against the Huguenots was storming across southern France under the command of the Duke de la Force.
King Louis XIV had issued the infamous “Revocation of the Edict of Nantes” in 1685 and 15 years later, still finding no end to the number of adherents to the Reformed faith, unleashed yet another wave of dragoonades in a determined effort to abolish Protestantism and unite France under Pope, creed, and King. Bibles were burned, children were taken from their parents, conversions were forced by every means, and the citizens were subjected to outrages, torture, and death. Such an unbridled fury against the Protestants excited an exodus of France’s most productive and pious citizens, and no further threat of penalty, imprisonment, slavery for life, torture, or execution, could stop it.
Follow our young Christian as he perseveres through imprisonments, attempts to bring him to renounce his faith, and ultimately his enslavement on the French Royal Galleys.
This work is also available under:
Sermons for Children and Young Adults
Antoine Monastier was a Waldensian or Vaudois Christian Pastor in the Cantone De Vaud, Native of the Vaudois Valleys of Piedmont.
Free Online Books:
A History of the Vaudois Church from its Origin, and of the Vaudois of Piedmont to the Present Day
by Antoine Monastier
An 1848 Edition.
"To demonstrate their close connexion with the primitive church founded by the apostles, to establish their right to call themselves a faithful church, and even to be regarded as forming the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the evangelical churches appeal to the conformity of their doctrines, their worship, and their internal life with the picture the New Testament gives us of the primitive church, and with the precepts, rules, and regulations taught by this same word. This internal argument is, in fact, the most important on this question; it has an irresistible force, and is of itself sufficient. Yet there is an external argument, which, without being conclusive, has a certain value; and which, if we are to believe the enemies of the evangelical churches, is altogether wanting to them, namely, antiquity of existence. ... The Vaudois church is a link that unites them to the primitive church. By means of it they establish the anterior existence of their constitution, doctrine, and worship, to that of the papistical idolatries and errors. Such is the object of the work we now lay before the public. It is intended to prove by the fact of the uninterrupted existence of the Vaudois church, the perpetuity of the primitive church, represented in the present day not only by the church of the Vaudois valleys of Piedmont, but by all her sister evangelical churches, founded solely on the word of God."
Alexis Muston was Pastor of the Protestant Christian Church at Bourdeaux, Drôme, France.
Free Online Books:
The Israel of the Alps; History of the Vaudois of Piedmont and their Colonies: prepared in great part from unpublished documents
by Alexis Muston
An 1857 Edition in 2 volumes, translated by the Rev. John Montgomery.
"'Why relate such atrocities?' more than one voice will exclaim with emotion. To inspire horror of the odious principles which have produced them. Do you suppose that an account of the blood which was shed will never be called for? Nay; these vile oppressors of mankind, tyrannizing by the sword, tyrannizing by deceit, tyrannizing by cupidity - these heroes of superstition and intolerance, who would have put an end to Christianity a thousand times over, if it could have been destroyed - these authors of so may wounds still bleeding in the world - must endure history to the last."
Jean Paul Perrin was Pastor of a Protestant Christian Church in France.
Free Online Books:
The History of the Waldenses
by Jean Paul Perrin
An 1624 Edition. Containing: "The History of the Waldenses commonly called in England Lollards: The First Book," "The Second Book of the History of the Waldenses: Containing that which is come to our knowledge, of the grievous persecutions, which they have endured for their Faith, for the space of more than four hundred and fifty years," "The First Book of the History of the Albigenses," and "The Third Part of the History of the Waldenses and Albigenses. The First Book containing the Doctrine and Discipline that hath been common among them. The Second Book containing the Discipline under which they lived. The Third Book containing a refutation of sundry Doctrines of the Church of Rome."
The Third Part, the Second Book, on the Discipline under which the Waldeneses and Albigenses lived: En qual modo lo poble se deo aver a aquilli que son de fora. Non amor le mond. After what manner a man must converse with those that are without. "Not to love the world. To fly evil company. If it be possible to have peace with all. Not to contend in judgment. Not to revenge. To love our enemies. To be willing to suffer labors, slanders, threats, contempts, injuries, all manner of torments for the truth. To possess our weapons in peace. Not to be coupled in one yoke with infidels. Not to communicate with the wicked in their evil ways, and especially with those that smell of idolatry, referring all service thereunto, and so of other things." Jean Paul Perrin, 1624
Peyran, Jean Rodolphe (1752-1823)
Jean Rodolphe Peyran was a Protestant Christian Pastor of Pomaret and Moderator of the Waldensian Church.
Find this author under:
Free Online Books:
A 1930 Edition in English. Originally published in 1523.
"'Alas, drag my poor carcass to death, so that you cannot sin any longer against an innocent victim!' cried the derided man [John Hus]. 'Leave the mercy or punishment of my soul to Him who is a just judge and not like you unfortunate blind ones. My trust is in the Almighty God and in my Lord Jesus Christ, who has redeemed me and has called me to preach His Gospel to the last breath of life. I fervently hope that he may have mercy upon me and receive me in grace and that he will hand to me the cup of eternal salvation and will never take it from me. I also truly believe that he will hand me this cup today, out of which I shall drink bliss and my salvation in eternity. His blessed name be praised by all!'"
Religious Tract Society (publisher)
Free Online Books:
Historical Tales for Young Protestants
"Fact is as attractive as fiction, and is of much higher moral value. The pages of history contain incidents which equal in thrilling interest the most successful efforts of the human imagination. From its ample records, the following short stories, connected with the rise and progress of Scriptural Protestantism, have been selected. If it has been found necessary to advert to the dark deeds of the papacy, it is from the conviction that the principles and spirit in which they originated in former ages are not extinct in the present day. In supplying books for the young, it may be well to make them the means of fortifying their minds against soul-destroying error, and of establishing them in those great doctrines in the defence of which their forefathers suffered and died."
The Lollards; or Some Account of the Witness for the Truth in Great Britain, Between the Years 1400 and 1546; with a Brief Notice of Events Connected with the Early History of the ReformationAn 1826 Edition. Originally published as a Series of Tracts.
"One circumstance appears plain from the Registers of their persecutors, and is well worthy of being noted: that these martyrs do not appear to have held a variety of doctrines and opinions, as the Roman Catholics contend is always the consequence of leaving that communion; their doctrines were uniform; and scarcely one that is not now held by every true Protestant."
Free Online Books:
The Vaudois (article)An 1870 Article about the persecution and slaughter of the Vaudois Protestant Christians.
"The early pastors of the Vaudois were called 'barbes' (uncle); and in a deep recess among the mountains, hidden from the persecutor's eye, a cave is shown where in the Middle Ages a throng of scholars came from different parts of Europe to study the literature of the valleys. The barbes were well qualified to teach a purer faith than that of Rome: a Vaudois poem, written about 1100, called the "Noble Lesson," still exists, and inculcates a pure morality and an apostolic creed; a catechism of the twelfth century has also been preserved; its doctrines are those of modern Protestantism. The Vaudois church had no bishop; its head was an elder, majorales, who was only a presiding officer over the younger barbes. But in that idyllic church no ambition and no strife arose, and each pastor strove only to excel his fellows in humility and in charitable deeds."
Free Online Books:
The Council of Constance to the Death of John Hus, being Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in 1900
by James H. Wylie
A 1900 Edition. Originally delivered as lectures at the University of Oxford.