DEATH-BED SCENES. £ WASHINGTON, D. C. DEATH-BED SCENES; OB, DYING WITH AND WITHOUT RELIGION: DESIGNED TO ILLUSTRATE THE TRUTH AND POWER OF CHRISTIANITY. EDITED BY Warn* llV Clark. \B. tD PUBLISHED BY LANE & SCOTT, 20 Mul berry- street. JOSEPH LONG KING. PRINTER. 1851. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by G. LANE & L. SCOTT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. Gift Judge and Mrs.lsaac R.Hltt July 6, 1931 PREFACE. This volume ernes its origin to a season of calamity. While the cholera was raging in the city of New- York during the summer of 1849, the author was called to witness a great variety of " death-bed scenes." At the same time his own health was too much shaken to admit of any severe literary pursuit. Under those circum- stance^ the work was suggested to his mind as one likely to subserve a useful purpose; and during that season most of the material for the work was collected and arranged. Since then, it has occupied the hours of respite from more imperious duties, in revision and preparation for the press. In now presenting it to the public, the author would express the hope that it may promote the great interests of true religion. The selection of examples has been made with great care, from a wide range, so far as age, place, avocation, condition, character, and opinions are concerned. It has been the aim of the author to give a condensed view of the character and life of each individual, as preparatory to the delineation of the closing scene. Everything ex- traneous has been carefully excluded. The subjects naturally range themselves into two classes ; and to correspond with this, the work has been divided into two 6 PREFACE. parts, one picture exhibiting the close of a life of righte- ousness, the other of a life of sin. Part first — The Dying Christian — comprises six sections under the following heads: — Christian Martyrs — Christian Min- isters — Christian Men — Christian Women — Christian Children and Youth — Dying Regrets of Worldly- minded Professors. Part second — Dying Without Religion — comprises five sections, as follows: — The Dying Sinner — The Dying Backslider — The Dying Persecutor — The Dying Infidel — Insensibility in the Hour of Death. Under each of these heads the most striking and instructive examples that have occurred are presented ; the whole forming the most complete array of facts ever embodied in any one work, on a subject of universal and most weighty concern. D. W. Clark. POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y., Sept. 1, 1851. CONTENTS, PART I. ®f)* 3§2tnjj Ctmttart. Section I. — The Christian Martyrs. Christian Martyrs Page 25 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ 27 2. St. Stephen 33 3. Ignatius 36 4. Symphorsa and her Sons 37 5. Polycarp 38 6. Justin Martyr 39 7. Epipodius and Alexander 40 8. Vivia Perpetua 42 9. Blandina 45 10. Laurentius 47 11. Julian of Cilicia 48 12. Cyprian of Carthage 49 13. John Huss 51 14. Jerome of Prague 56 15. Esch and Voes 60 16. Henry Zuphten 63 17., The two Wirths 66 18. John Leclerc 70 19. Schuch 73 20. The Hermit of Livry 75 21. John Lambert 77 22. Ann Askew ; 80 23. Adam Wallace 84 24. Hugh Laverick and John Aprice 86 25. Bishops Ridley and Latimer 87 26. Archbishop Cranmer 91 8 CONTENTS. 27. John Rogers Page 97 28. Lawrence Saunders KM 29. John Hooper, Bishop of Worcester and Gloucester 105 30. Dr, Rowland Taylor 108 31. Mr. Thomas Tomkins 112 32. Mr. Thomas Haukes 113 33/Mr. Christopher Waid 114 34. Mr. Dirick Carver 115 35. Mr. Robert Glover 116 36. Mr. John Philpot 117 37. Mrs. Cicely Ormes 120 38. Mr. Thomas Hudson 120 39. Lord Viscount Winceslaus 122 40. Lord Harant 122 41. Sir Gasper Kaplitz 123 42. Mr. Christopher Chober 124 43. Rev. George Wishart 124 44. Hugh McKail 129 45. Monsieur Homel 130 46. A Negro Martyr 132 Section II. — Ministers of the Gospel. 1. Risdon Darracott 133 2. Edward Payson, D. D 140 3. Richard Baxter 148 4. Dr. Doddridge 150 5. John Wesley 157 6. Richard Watson 167 7. Rev. W. Day 170 8. Mr. M'Laren, of Edinburgh 171 9. Dr. Henry Peckwell 171 10. Bernard Gilpin 172 11. Henry Martyn 175 12. Rev. Thomas Scott 181 13. Richard Cecil 186 14. Claudius Buchanan 189 15. Rev. R. Hall 195 16. Rev. John Ely 197 17. Rev. Dr. Hamilton 199 18. Rev. David Simpson 200 19. Dr. Wilbur Fisk 205 20. Rev. S. B. Bangs 211 CONTENTS. 9 21. John Fletcher Page 213 22. Dr. Isaac Watts 218 23. Rev. Charles Wesley 220 24. The Venerable Bede 222 25. Rev. Charles Simeon 224 26. Matthew Henry 225 27. Rev. A. M. Toplady 226 28. Ziegenbalg 228 29. John Elliot 230 30. Thomas Tregoss 232 31. Joseph Alleine 233 32. James Hervey 238 33. Dr. Donne 243 34. Christian F. Swartz 243 35. Jeremiah Evarts 245 36. Rev. W. Thorp..... 245 37. Bishop Bedell 248 38. John Knox 253 39. Robert Bruce 253 40. Samuel Rutherford 254 41. Dr. Wm. P. Chandler 255 42. Wm. Romaine 257 43. An Aged Minister 257 Section III. — Christian Men. 1. Robert Boyle 258 2. John Howard 260 3. Curaens, a German Physician 263 4. Sir William Jones 264 5. Sir Philip Sidney 265 6. Lord Teignmouth 267 7. Joseph Addison 270 8. George Moir 273 9. John Holland 273 10. Boerhaave 275 11. Sir Matthew Hale 277 12. John Locke 279 13. Joseph Hardcastle 282 14. Sir Walter Raleigh .• 284 15. Louis IX., King of France 288 16. Blaise Pascal 290 17. Louis, Duke of Orleans 291 I* 10 CONTENTS. 18. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton Page 293 19. Sir Isaac Newton 294 20. Dr. James Hope 297 21. Lord Harrington 298 22. Petumber 299 23. Ferrao 300 24. " Me," a Blind Warrior 301 25. Donald Morrison 304 26. Lord William Russell 307 27. Lord Bacon 307 28. John Welch 308 29. Bergerus 308 30. Zuniger 309 31. Lieut. Daniel Murray 309 32. Col. David Mack 313 33. Dr. T. W. Cowgill 314 Section IV. — Christian Women. 1. Harriet Newell... 319 2. Hannah More 331 3. Felicia Hemans 334 4. Charlotte Elizabeth 337 5. Mrs. Elizabeth Fry 339 6. Elizabeth Mortimer 341 7. Hannah Housman 349 8. Elizabeth Rowe 353 9. JaneRatcliff 356 10. Lady Rachel Russell 359 11. Queen Mary 361 12. Lady Jane Grey 364 13. Jane, Queen of Navarre 368 14. Countess of Huntingdon 369 15. Mrs. Legare 372 16. Lady Elizabeth Hastings 373 17. Margaretta Klopstock 375 18. Mrs. Fletcher 384 19. Mrs. Would 387 20. Catharine Bretterg 388 21. Mrs. Elizabeth James 389 22. Agnes Morris, a poor Negro Woman 391 23. A Negro Slave in Antigua 392 24. Anna Maria Schurman 394 CONTENTS. 11 25. A Young Woman Page 396 26. Isabella Graham 397 27. Mrs. Mary Francis 399 Section V. — Christian Children and Youth. 1. Wilberforce Richmond 402 2. Eliza M 408 3. Eliza Cunningham 412 4. Ellen Foulds 419 5. Sophia Trentham 422 6. The Little Boy's Last Prayer 423 7. Mary Frances Right 424 8. "I have a Great High Priest " 425 9. Son of the Duke of Hamilton 426 10. The Dying Miner Boy 427 11. The Mountain Boy 428 12. Spiritual Recognitions 429 13. "Franky" *. 430 Section VI. — Dying Regrets of Worldly-Minded Professors. 1. Cardinal Richelieu 434 2. Cardinal Wolsey 435 3. Csesar Borgia 437 4. Hugo Grotius 437 5. Sir John Mason 438 6. Salmasius 439 7. Pope Eugenius 440 8. Cardinal Beaufort 441 9. Dr. Johnson.... 442 10. A Dying Nobleman 443 12 CONTENTS. PART II. Section I. — The Dying Sinner. 1. Louis XV., of France Page 449 2. A Dying Follower of the World 450 3. Lord Chesterfield 453 4. Philip III., King of Spain 456 5. Terrors of Death 457 6. Sir Thomas Smith 460 7. Duke of Buckingham 461 8. A Sceptical Physician 463 9. A Young Lady 464 10. "IWon'tDie" 466 11. Talleyrand 467 12. John Nisbet 467 13. Sir Thomas Scott 468 14. William Emmerson 469 15. Dying Without Hope 469 16. Dying Regrets 473 17. A Rich Man 474 18. Louisa 475 19. Madame De Pompadour 481 Section II. — The Dying Backslider. 1. William Pope 483 2. The Mother of David Hume 493 3. Death of an Aged Backslider 494 4. The Apostate 498 5. Peter Dean 503 6. Francis Spira 504 7. A Young Woman 507 Section III. — The Dying Persecutor. 1. Some of the Early Persecutors 510 2. Death of several Persecutors in the Reign of Mary 511 3. Maximin 514 CONTENTS. # 13 4. Galerius Page 515 5. Julian the Apostate 517 6. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester 518 7. George John Jeffreys 518 8. Antiochus IV 519 9. Philip II, of Spain 519 10. Alexander Campbell 519 11. Charles IX., of France 520 12. Rockwood 521 13. Bishop Bramble 522 Section IV. — The Dying Infidel. 1. Voltaire 523 2. Thomas Paine 526 3. Francis Newport .«. 529 4. Servin 533 5. Edward Gibbon 535 6. Hobbes 536 7. Diderot 537 8. D'Alembert 537 9. Madame Du Defiant 538 10. A Dying Infidel _. 539 11. Altamont 540 12. Antitheus 542 13. LordP 544 Section V. — Insensibility in the Hour of Death. 1. David Hume 546 2. Eousseau 552 3. Horace Walpole 554 4. Frederic of Prussia 555 5. Cardinal Mazarine 555 6. Lord Byron 557 7. Robert Burns 559 8. Mirabeau 559 INTRODUCTION. From the earliest ages the dying expressions of men have excited peculiar attention, and been preserved with peculiar care. Even the sacred Scriptures give their sanction to that feeling which would hallow the last words of the departed. How emphatic the record of the dying expressions of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph ; of David, Elijah, and Elisha ; of Simeon, Stephen, and Paul ; and, above all, the dying expressions of our Lord himself! From whatever cause this desire to receive and to treasure up these dying expressions may arise, whether from the promptings of natural sympathy, from a simple desire to know their state of mind at the last moment, or from a presentiment that the dying receive a clearer revelation of truth and a supernatural insight into the future, it is scarcely necessary for us to inquire. Certain it is, that the patriarchs at that season were gifted with the divine power of prophecy, and foretold the destinies of their posterity. It seems, indeed, to have been a sentiment prevalent from the earliest antiquity, that the nearer men approach to their dissolution, the more spiritual do they become, and the greater insight do they have into the future. Thus the dying Socrates is represented as saying, that he is desirous of prophesy- ing to the Athenians what should afterwards happen ; "For," says he, "I am now arrived at that state in which men prophesy most, viz., when they are about to die." Xenophon, the Grecian historian, also represents 16 INTRODUCTION. Cyrus as declaring, when at the point of death, " That the soul of man at that moment appears most divine, and then also foresees something of future events." Diodorus declares this to have been the opinion of the wise men of his, and of preceding ages. He also says, that " Pythagoras, the Samian, and others of the ancient naturalists, have demonstrated that the souls of men are immortal, and, in consequence of this opinion, that they also foreknow future events, at the time they are making their separation in death." Shakspeare, in the language he ascribes to the dying Percy, gives utter- ance to the same sentiment : — " 0, 1 could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies heavy on my tongue." Schiller, a little before his death, with a reviving look, said, "Many things are becoming to me plainer and clearer." The idea that departing spirits, and especially the spirits of good men, receive supernatural manifestations, must often occur to those who are called to witness dying scenes, and who are accustomed to meditate thoughtfully upon them. Nor does any high improbability attach it- self to this idea. The dying linger for a moment upon the confines of both worlds ; and why may they not, when just leaving the one, catch some glimpses of the other ? " Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view Who stand upon the threshold of the new." In death the natural and the supernatural meet. The two worlds here bound upon each other. The saints of God are divinely prepared for their exit. Heaven was opened to the vision of the dying Stephen. Angels gathered around the dying Lazarus. It was divinely revealed to Peter, that he was shortly to put off the mortal tabernacle ; and to Paul, that he was shortly to INTRODUCTION. 17 be offered up, and that the time of his departure was at hand. And is there not a large class of facts — some of which are recorded in this volume — which have a most obvious connexion with this general thought, and a most distinct and impressive bearing upon the relation that exists between the present and the eternal world and the revelations that may be made to the soul while in its transition state? Said a dying Sunday-school scholar from my flock, while in the very article of death, but with perceptive and reasoning powers still unimpaired, " The angels have come." The pious Blumhardt ex- claimed, " Light breaks in ! Hallelujah !" and expired. Dr. McLain said, " I can now contemplate clearly the grand scene to which I am going." Sargent, the biog- rapher of Martin, with his countenance kindled into a holy fervour, and his eye beaming with unearthly lustre, fixed his gaze as upon a definite object, and exclaimed, " That bright light !" and when asked what light, an- swered, " The light of the Sun of righteousness." The Lady Elizabeth Hastings, a little before she expired, cried out, with a beaming countenance and enraptured voice, "Lord, what is it that I see?" and Olympia Morata, an exile for her faith, as she sank in death, ex- claimed, " I distinctly behold a place filled with ineflable light!" Dr. Bateman, a distinguished physician and philosopher, died exclaiming, " What glory ! the angels are waiting for me !" In the midst of delirium, Bishop Wilson was transported with the vision of angels. Not unfrequently the mind is filled with the most strik- ing conceptions of the presence of departed friends. A most affecting instance of such " spiritual recognitions " is given in the subsequent pages of this volume. Most touching is the story of Carnaval, who was long known as a lunatic wandering about the streets of Paris. His reason had been unsettled by the early death of the ob- ject of his tender and most devoted affection. He could 18 INTRODUCTION. never be made to comprehend that she was dead; but spent his life in the vain search for the lost object of his love. In most affecting terms he would mourn her absence, and chide her long delay. Thus life wore away ; and when its ebbing tide was almost exhausted, starting as from a long and unbroken revery, the counte- nance of the dying man was overspread with sud- den joy, and stretching forth his arms, as if he would clasp some object before him, he uttered the name of his long- lost love, and exclaiming, " Ah, there thou art at last!" expired. The aged Hannah More, in her dying agony, stretching out her arms as though she would grasp some object, uttered the name of a much-loved deceased sister, cried "Joy!" and then sank down into the arms of death. We are far, however, from thinking, with the poet philosopher, Young, that " Men may live fools, but fools they cannot die." For instances are not wanting which afford striking illus- trations of Pope's " ruling passion strong in death." Thus the dying warrior, when life and animation are almost extinct, may exclaim, " One charge more, my braves," and then sink in the conflict with his last foe. The cold speculatist, whose very heart has become seared and frozen by the ungenial abstractions that have puzzled and bewildered the intellect, dying, may still be absorbed in the thought, " I am now going to satisfy my curiosity on the principle of things, on space, on infinity, on being, on nothing." The drunkard, brought by dis- sipation to life's last hour, may resolve with his latest breath to " curse God and die drunk." The miser — who can better describe his " ruling passion " than Pope, himself? " ' I give and 1 devise/ old Enclio said, And sigh'd, ' my lands and tenements to Ned.' INTRODUCTION. 19 * Your money, sir V ' My money, sir, what, all ? Why, if I must/ then wept, ' I give to Paul.' ' The manor, sir V ' The manor ! hold V he cried, ' Xot that — I cannot part with that V — and died." The " ruling passion strong in death " is drawn in another picture, equally true and graphic, by the same master hand : — " ' Odious ! in woollen ! 'twould a saint provoke V Were the last words that poor Xarcipsa spoke. 4 Xo ! let a charming chintz and brussels lace Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face. One need not, sure, be frightful, though one's dead ; And, Betty, give my cheek a little red/ ;; The poor, frivolous, sceptical Rabelais, on his death-bed, said, "I am going to try the great Perhaps!" Anne Boleyn, the mistress of Henry VIII., vain of her finely- turned and beautiful neck, just before her execution said to the lieutenant of the Tower, " I hear that the execu- tioner is very good, and I have a little neck ;" at the same time clasping it with her hands and laughing. Sir Thomas More, equally vain of his beard, when he had laid his head upon the block, and the executioner was about to aim the blow of death, said to him, " Stay, friend, till I put aside my beard, for that never com- mitted treason." Fabre d'Eglantine, when preparing for the guillotine, only regretted that he was compelled to leave unpublished a comedy which he had written, and which he apprehended Vananes would publish as his own. Talma, the French tragedian, during his dying moments, continually called on the name of Vol- taire, as if he knew no other divinity. It is certainly possible, then, to hug one's delusion even in a dying hour — to die i; as dieth the fool." Nor, on the other hand, can we fully receive — though the exceptions are still more unfrequent — that expression of Augustine — "Non potest male mori, qui bene vixerit" — No man 20 INTRODUCTION. can die ill who has lived well. For we believe it possi- ble, from some idiosyncrasy of the individual, some peculiarity of temperament, some peculiar effect of the physical malady, or even from some morbid state of the moral and religious feelings, for one who has lived well to die gloomy and wretched. The poet Cowper, though once possessed of the consolations of religion, afterwards became subject to despondency, which at length deepened into despair. He believed himself forsaken of God and destined to eternal ruin. This lamentable state of mind cast a gloomy shade over his later years, and it was hardly lifted up even at the closing scene of his life. When a friend sought to encourage him with the pros- pect of a speedy release from suffering, and of an entrance upon the glorified state, he besought him to desist; and the night of death as it was gathering around him seemed only to deepen the darkness of that delusion that had embittered his life. Yet no one could doubt the genuine- ness of his piety, or the security of his future state. These statements are not made to lessen in the mind the importance of the spiritual phenomena exhibited while in the dying state; but to guard against undue and improper reliance upon them, and to prepare the way for an inquiry into their true value. But to pass from these facts to the general conclusion, that the dying scene is unaffected by the moral and religious character, the past history, or the future prospects of the individual, would be unwarranted either by reason or facts. We might say that the state of the mind in the hour of death is not an infallible test of truth ; and even that it is not an in- fallible test of the religious state of the individual. The Hindoo widow will sit down with tranquil composure upon the funeral pyre ; and the Indian savage, while the fire of his enemies is kindling and burning around him, will hurl a frenzied exulting triumph in their teeth. But these were instances of minds acted upon by some INTRODUCTION. 21 mighty impulse — a height of enthusiasm or an excite- ment of passion, that for the moment held in check every other instinct or impulse. A sublime exhibition of this was given in the Girondists who went forth to execution chanting their national hymn, and as one after another continued to fall under the blade of death, the others continued their song till the last victim was heard alone. Seneca truthfully said, that "Not only the brave and wretched, but even the fastidious can wish to die." And Lord Bacon, also, said, " Revenge triumphs over death ; love slights it ; honour aspires to it ; grief flies to it ; fear preoccupates it." But widely different are all these from the scenes of triumph exhibited by the Christian in the hour of death ; or, on the other hand, from those scenes of despair and woe exhibited by the dying sinner, from whose eye no rank delusion or frenzied enthusiasm has shut out the light of God's truth, and the appalling retributions of the future state. The Holy Scriptures do unquestionably make an em- phatic distinction between the death of the righteous and that of the wicked ; and human experience is found in strict . accordance with divine revelation. " The sting of death is sin ; but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." Of the righteous it is said, "he hath hope in his death," and that his end is " peace ;" but of the wicked, that he " is driven away in his wickedness." The righteous is represented as "in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ ;" while again it is said that " when the wicked man dieth, his expectations shall perish." The dying saint is heard to exclaim, " We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord ;" — " Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me ;" — " My flesh and my heart faileth. but 22 INTRODUCTION. God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever :" but of the wicked it is said, " Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away," and " he would fain flee out of God's hand." With these facts of revela- tion before us, who can doubt but that there is a moral and religious significance in the phenomena of life's closing scene ! It is here, in the light of revealed truth, that we learn why the righteous, " with heaven full in view," can meet death with the song of triumph — " The festal morn, my God, is come, That calls me to thy hallow'd home." While, on the other hand, the mental agonies of the wicked, stung with remorse, wrought up to desperation by " a fearful looking-for of judgment," conscience- smitten and dismayed, " Tell what lesson may he read Beside a sinner's dying bed." These death-bed scenes constitute a part of "the portable evidence of Christianity." It is the concen- trated light of earthly experience reflected from the future back upon the disc of time. It is at this moment that the dying sinner seems to anticipate the horrors of the damned — the dying saint to receive a foretaste of the felicities of the redeemed. fkrt 5xr0t, THE DYING CHRISTIAN. * THE DYING CHRISTIAN. SECTION I. (El)e Christian illarttirs. Patriots have toil'd, and in their country's cause Bled nobly; and their deeds, as they deserve, Receive proud recompense. We give in charge Their names to the sweet lyre ; the' historic muse, Proud of the treasure, marches with it down To latest time ; and sculpture, in her turn, Gives bond in stone and ever-during brass To guard them, and to' immortalize her trust But fairer wreaths are due, though never paid, To those, who, posted at the shrine of Truth, Have fallen in her defence. Q ° 3 ° ° ° ° a Their blood is shed In confirmation of the noblest claim — Our claim to feed upon immortal truth, To walk with God, to be divinely free, To soar and to anticipate the skies ! Yet few remember them. They lived unknown, Till persecution dragg'd them into fame, And chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew — Xo marble tells us whither. With their names Xo bard embalms and sanctifies his song ! And history, so warm on meaner themes, Is cold on this. She execrates indeed The tyranny that doom' d them to the fire, But gives the glorious sufferers little praise. — Cowpee. The history of Christian martyrdom at once illus- trates the depth of man's depravity, and the richness and power of Divine grace. The first three centuries of the Christian era was an age illustrious for the per- secutions suffered by Christians, no less than for the signal triumphs of Christianity. In the ten persecu- tions that mark that age, the millions that suffered for the cause of Christ will never be numbered on earth. The variety and cruelty of their torments almost tran- 9 26 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. scend the power of belief. Robanus thus enumerates the modes of torture they suffered : " Some were slain with the sword ; some burnt with fire ; some scourged with whips; some stabbed with forks of iron; some fastened to the cross or gibbet; some drowned in the sea; some had their skins plucked off; some their tongues cut off; some stoned to death; some killed with cold ; some starved with hunger ; some their hands cut off, or otherwise dismembered, have been so left naked to the open shame of the world." The very re- finement of cruelty seemed to have been attained under Nero. He had some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then worried by dogs till they expired. He had others dressed in garments made stiff with wax, fastened them to axle-trees in his gardens, and then set them on fire. In the persecution under Domitian, rack- ing, searing, broiling, burning, scourging, and worrying, were resorted to. Some were torn piecemeal with red- hot pincers, and others thrown upon the horns of wild bulls. In other persecutions, many were obliged to walk, with their already wounded feet, naked, upon thorns, nails, and sharp shells. Others were scourged till their sinews and veins lay bare, and after suffering the most excruciating tortures, they were destroyed by the most terrible deaths. But Saint Augustine says of all these martyrs, that diverse and terrible as were their deaths, their constancy and firmness were one. These were they who " had trial of cruel mockings, and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonments ; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheep- skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." By these sufferings did they " declare plainly, that they sought a country " — a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. / SEC. L] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 27 In all these persecutions, they realized the fulfilment of the words of their Lord, " Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake." But in the severest and most fearful conflict, the consolations of the Gospel sustained them ; and the crown of glory now constitutes their eter- nal and abundant reward. The martyrs are an innumerable host. In almost every land has their blood been shed; and in almost every clime have the slaughtered followers of our Lord borne witness to the truth, that religion is better than life. On earth, the Church will hold them in everlast- ing remembrance ; in heaven, their souls yet cry from beneath the altar, " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth!" 1. OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. The first martyr to Christianity was Christ himself. After closing his public ministry in Jerusalem, he cele- brated the Passover with his disciples, and instituted that sacred rite which was to be observed by his fol- lowers as a perpetual memorial of himself. Conscious that his end was drawing nigh, he predicted the events that were to happen to him, and continued till a late hour to instruct and console his disciples — holding up before them his own love for them as an example of the affection that should ever unite their hearts together. The affecting and impressive scene was closed by a fervent and solemn prayer to the Father, in behalf of his followers in the world. This being concluded, the whole company, with the exception of Judas, who had already gone away to betray his Master, went forth to the Mount of Olives. Then exclaimed he to his disciples, " All ye shall be offended because of me this night; for it is 28 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. •written, I will smite the shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." Though they all pro- tested that though they should die with him, yet would they not deny him ; yet he, knowing the weakness of human courage, said to the boldest and most confident of them, " Verily I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice." They then entered into Gethsemane, a garden beyond the brook Kidron, where he had often resorted with his disciples. Having entered the garden, he said to the disciples, " Sit here while I go and pray yonder." Then taking with him Peter, and James, and John, he said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face and prayed, saying, " my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." Return- ing to the disciples, he found them asleep, and said to Peter, " Simon, sleepest thou ? Couldest not thou watch with me one hour ?" Again he went away and prayed in the same language. On returning;, he found them again asleep, for their eyes were heavy ; and they were perplexed what to answer him. And the third time he went away and prayed, saying, " my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." " And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly ; and his sweat was ? as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Rising from prayer, he returned a third time to his disciples and found them again asleep. Then said he to them, " Behold the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners ; he is at hand that doth betray me." And while he was yet speaking, Judas, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 29 Pharisees, approached, with lanterns and weapons. The salutation of Judas was to be the sign to the multitude whom they should arrest. Then, coming immediately to Christ, he exclaimed, "Hail, Master; and kissed him." But Jesus, beholding the perfidious traitor, ex- claimed, " Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss ¥■ Then said he also to the captains of the band, " Be ye come out as against a thief, with swords and staves ? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me; but this is your hour, and the power of darkness." After this he sub- mitted himself to them, and the officers took him and bound him. Then the disciples forsook him and fled. Jesus is led to the palace of the high priest, where were assembled the chief priests, the elders, and the council. There they sought false witnesses against him without success, till the high priest adjured him by the living God to tell whether he were " the Christ, the Son of God." Then Jesus replied, " Thou hast said ;" and im- mediately the high priest adjudged him guilty of blas- phemy, and the whole multitude declared him worthy of death. Then they spit in his face and buffeted him ; they blindfolded his eyes, and smote him with the palms of their hands, and called upon him to prophesy who it was that smote him. As soon as it was morning, the whole multitude carried away Jesus to the hall of justice, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate, the governor. Then the chief priests accused him of many things, but he made no reply, inso- much that Pilate was greatly astonished. Learning, however, that he was of Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod who Avas then at Jerusalem. While in the presence of Herod, though vehemently accused, he maintained the same silence that he had observed be- fore Pilate. Then Herod and his men of war set him at naught, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorge- 30 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. cms robe, and sent him back to Pilate. But Pilate, when he had called the accusers of Christ together, and re- hearsed their accusations against him, said to them, " I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him. No, nor yet Herod — for I sent you to him ; and lo, nothing worthy of death has been done by him ; I will therefore chastise him and release him." But the assembled Jews, instigated by the priests and elders, all cried out, "Away with this man !" And as Pilate spoke again unto them, and said, " I find in him no fault at all," the w T hole multitude cried out, " Crucify him, crucify him !" Pilate the third time remonstrated w T ith the people, and in- quired, " Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him." But the people were only the more vehement that he should be crucified. Then Pilate took water and washed his hands before the multi- tude, saying, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person; see ye to it." Blinded and infuriated, the multitude cried out, " His blood be on us, and on our children." Then sentence of death w T as pronounced upon Christ, and he was delivered over to be crucified. The grand and awful tragedy was now rapidly draw- ing to its consummation. Jesus was led into the common hall, and the whole band of soldiers was gathered around him. And they stript him of his clothes, and put on him a scarlet robe. They also platted a crown of thorns, and put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand. Then they bowed the knee before him, and cried, " Hail, King of the Jews I" They also spit upon him, and took the reed and smote him on the head. After they had thus derided and mocked him, they took off the robe, put on his own raiment, and led him forth to crucify him. And there followed a great company of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, / SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 31 weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. If they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" Two malefactors were also led forth to be crucified with him. And, bearing his cross, Jesus went forth to a place called Calvary. On arriving at the place of execution, they offered him vinegar mingled with gall to drink, but he refused it. Then they crucified him between the two thieves; and the Scripture, which says, " He was numbered with transgressors," was thus fulfilled. The four soldiers that crucified him parted his garments among them, and cast lots for his coat which was without seam. Over the cross was placed, by Pilate, the inscription — Jesus of JNazareth, Kin a of the Jews. The people stood aghast at the spectacle ! But the rulers derided him, crying aloud, Thou that destroyest the temple and re- buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou art the Son of God, as thou hast pretended, come down from the cross and save thyself. The soldiers also mocked him, and in his thirst offered him vinegar to drink. Then said Jesus, " Father, forgive them ; for they know not what they do." From twelve o'clock till three in the afternoon, a supernatural darkness overspread the land. At this moment Jesus cried out, with a loud voice, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Some of those who heard his cry, said, He calleth for Elias ; and others said, Let us see whether Elias will come to save him. And one of them, filling a sponge with vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. Then, when Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished; Father, into thy hands I com- mend my spirit." He then bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Thus closed a scene of indignity and torture, of mental and bodily suffering protracted through eigh- teen hours ; and to which, when we consider who it is that suffers and dies, the earth furnishes no parallel. o2 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. The omens of that solemn moment were grand and awful. The veil of the temple was rent asunder from top to bottom, the earth was shaken by an earthquake, the rocks were rent, the graves were opened, and the bodies of many holy persons arose and appeared to many in the city. No wonder that the centurion, and those with him who were guarding Jesus, were led to exclaim, " Truly this was the Son of God ;" and that the people who had witnessed the awful spectacle returned to Jeru- salem smiting upon their breasts in anguish. Such was the tragic end of our Lord. No wonder that infidelity itself has been forced to the confession that the " life and death of Jesus Christ were those of a God."* ° The following encomium upon our holy religion and its Divine Founder, was given by Rousseau, one of the most profligate and hardened infidels of the French school : — " I will confess to you, that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers with all their pomp of diction ; how mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the Scripture ! Is it possible, that a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be merely the work of man ? Is it possible, that the sacred per- sonage, whose history it contains, should be himself a mere man ? Do we find that he assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary ? What sweetness, what purity in his manner ! What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery ! What sublimity in his maxims ! What profound wisdom in his discourses ! What pre- sence of mind, what subtlety, what truth in his replies ! How great the command over his passions ! W r here is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live, and so die, without weakness, and without ostentation ! When Plato described his imaginary good man, loaded with all the shame of guilt, yet meriting the highest rewards of virtue, he describes exactly the character of Jesus Christ ; the resemblance is so striking, that all the Fathers perceived it. "What prepossession, what blindness must it be, to compare the son of Sophroniscus to the son of Mary ! What an infinite dis- proportion there is between them ! Socrates, dying without pain SEC. I.J CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 33 2. ST. STEPHEN. Soon after the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the disciples had become so multi- plied, that the Apostles became burdened with the care of the needy among them. To aid them St. Stephen, and six others, " men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," were set apart as deacons, and ap- pointed over that work. St. Stephen was an able and or ignominy, easily supported Ms character to the last ; and if his death, however easy, had not crowned his life, it might have been doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was anything more than a vain Sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of morals. Others, however, had before put them in practice ; he had only to say therefore what they had done, and to reduce their examples to precepts. Aristides had been just, before Socrates denned justice ; Leonidas had given up his life for his country, before Socrates de- clared patriotism to be a duty ; the Spartans were a sober people, before Socrates recommended sobriety ; before he had even denned virtue, Greece abounded in virtuous men. But where could Jesus learn, among his competitors, that pure and sublime morality, of which he only hath given us both precept and example ? The greatest wisdom was made known among the most bigoted fanati- cism, and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues did honour to the vilest people upon earth. The death of Socrates, peaceably philosophizing with his friend, appears the most agreeable that could be wished for ; that of Jesus, expiring in the midst of agoniz- ing pains, abused, insulted, and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that could be feared. Socrates, in receiving the cup of poison, blest indeed the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, in the midst of excruciating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors. Yes : if the life and death of Socrates were those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God. Shall we suppose the evangelic history a mere fiction? Indeed, my friend, it bears not the marks of fiction ; on the contrary, the history of Socrates, which nobody presumes to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty without obviating it; it is more inconceivable 2* 34 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. successful preacher ; and being full of faith and power, he did great wonders and miracles among the people. The principal persons of the different synagogues entered into repeated altercations with him ; but they found themselves unable to resist the force of his argu- ments, or the wisdom and power with which he spake. This so exasperated them, that they bribed false wit- nesses to accuse him of speaking blasphemous words against God, and against Moses. On these charges, he was arrested and carried before the Council. Here he had everything to fear from the furious rage of the peo- ple and the blind prejudice and enmity of his judges ; but his confidence did not forsake him, nor was his tranquillity disturbed. Conscious innocence, firm faith in his Redeemer, and the confident expectation of im- mortal bliss, sustained him in this trying hour. A Di- vine splendour overspread his very countenance ; so that the whole council were attracted with steadfast gaze to him, and they beheld " his face as it had been the face of an angel." When permitted to speak for himself, he made a most noble defence. He ran through a detail of the Divine dispensations to the patriarchs and their posterity, till he came down to the days of Solomon. Then, perceiv- ing the impatience of the men who had already deter- mined upon his destruction, and that they were about to interrupt him, he suddenly changes his discourse, and addresses his audience in the language of accusation and reproach. " Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; as your that a number of persons should agree to write such a history, than that one only should furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to the morality, con- tained in the Gospel, the marks of whose truth are so striking and inimitable, that the inventor would be a more astonishing charac- ter than the hero." SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 35 fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets Lave not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them -which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers. Who have received the law by the agency of angels, and have not kept it." Such was the strain of sublime invec- tive with which the man of God charged home their sins upon the infuriated multitude. Their rage now knew no bounds. They literally " gnashed upon him with their teeth." That was a critical, an awful moment. An or- dinary man, unsustained by religious faith, would have had recourse to tears and supplications that the hearts of his persecutors might be melted and they induced to spare ; or, pale with fear, stupified with horror, he would in the very sullenness of despair yield to his fate. Not so with the suffering saint. Calmly he lifts his eyes above the scene around him, high up to the place of his help. Just then a vision of heaven was opened to his view ; and he said, " Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." The multitude could bear no more. " They cried out with a loud voice," that they might drown the voice of the blasphemer ; they " stopped their ears," lest they should hear more of his words. Disregarding all the decencies of a court of justice, and all the integrity of judicial proceedings, they rushed upon him with one ac- cord, thrust him out of the city, and stoned him. The few moments of life that remained to Stephen were spent in commending his soul to God, and in the utterance of that ever-memorable prayer for his murderers: "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." As the last syllable of that prayer fell from his tongue, the mortal blow was inflicted by his murderers, and the martyr "fell asleep." Noble, illustrious servant of God ! Martyred hero of the cross ! Nobly didst thou illustrate the power and 36 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART. I. excellence of the Gospel of Christ! Glorious was thine example, set before the martyrs of every suc- ceeding age ! * 3. IGNATIUS. During the third primitive persecution, Ignatius, the celebrated bishop of Antioch, suffered martyrdom. He received the Gospel from St. John, the Evangelist ; was deeply imbued with his spirit ; and, in spite of all dan- gers and persecutions, continued, with untiring zeal, to preach * Christ. In a letter to Poly carp, he describes some of his adventures, his sufferings, and his purposes. "From Syria, even till I came to Rome, had I to battle with beasts, as well by sea as land, both day and night, being bound in the midst of ten cruel libards, (i. e., soldiers,) who, the more benefits they had received at my hands, became so much the worse unto me. But now, being well acquainted with their injuries, I am taught every day more and more. And would to God I w T ere once come to the beasts that are prepared for me ; which also I wish, with gaping mouths, were ready to come upon me. Now begin I to be a scholar; I es- teem no visible things, nor yet invisible things, so that I may obtain Christ Jesus. Let the fire, the gallows, the devouring of wild beasts, the breaking of bones, the pulling asunder of my members, the bruising or pressing of my whole body, and the torments of the devil or hell itself come upon" me, so that I may win Christ !" Nor was this an empty boast. When brought before the emperor, he boldly vindicated the faith of Christ. For this he was cast into prison, and there tormented in ° The death, of Stephen was succeeded by a persecution at Jeru- salem, in which Nicanor, another deacon, and over two thousand other Christians, suffered martyrdom, and multitudes were obliged to flee abroad, and seek refuge in other countries. SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 37 a manner shocking to humanity. After being dread- fully scourged, he was compelled to hold fire in his hands, and at the same time papers dipped in oil were applied to his sides and set on fire. His flesh was then torn with red-hot pincers ; and at last he was delivered over to the wild beasts, and by them torn in pieces. Through all this torture the venerable bishop passed with the utmost self-possession and constancy of faith ; and thus attained the martyr's crown. 4. SYMPHORSA AND HER SONS. This lady and her seven sons had become Christians. Having been commanded by the emperor to sacrifice to the heathen gods, they promptly and unanimously re- fused to comply with the impious mandate. The empe- ror, in a rage, threatened their destruction ; but this not shaking their constancy, he immediately put his threat into execution. The mother was taken to the temple of Hercules, where she was first fearfully scourged, and afterwards hung up for some time by the hair of her head. After the savage monsters had thus glutted their vengeance upon her, a large stone was fastened to her neck, and she was thrown into the river. The sons were fastened to seven posts, and being drawn up by pulleys, their limbs were dislocated. But these tortures, and even the indignities and cruelties practised upon their mother, had no power to affect their resolution. Their tortures were at length terminated. The eldest was stabbed in the throat, the second in the breast, the third in the heart, the fourth in the navel, the fifth in the back, the sixth in the side, and the seventh was sawn asunder. Thus was the whole family exter- minated by the most cruel and relentless persecution.* 9 About this time (the beginning of the second century,) not less than ten thousand Christians suffered martyrdom in Rome. 38 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. 5. POLYCARP. Polycaiip was the hearer and pupil of John the Evan- gelist ; and by him was constituted bishop of Smyrna. He was venerable for years, as well as for long and dis- tinguished service in the cause of Christ, having been a follower of Christ for eighty- six years, and active in the ministry about seventy. During the fourth primitive persecution, this eminent servant of God was called to wear the crown of martyrdom. Germanicus, a young and true Christian, when delivered over to wild beasts on account of his faith, behaved with such astonishing courage, that several Pagans became converts to Chris- tianity. This so enraged the persecutors that they began to cry out, " Destroy the wicked men ; let Poly- carpus be sought for." A great uproar and tumult then ensued. Polycarp, hearing that persons were after him to apprehend him, escaped ; but he was discovered by a child. From this circumstance, and having dreamed that his bed had suddenly taken fire and was consumed in a moment, he concluded that it was God's will that he should suffer martyrdom. He therefore did not attempt to make a second escape when he had an opportunity of so doing. Those who arrested him were amazed at his serenity of countenance and gravity. After supply- ing food to the soldiers who had arrested him, he re- quested that he might have an hour for prayer; which being granted, he prayed with such fervency and power, that his guards began to repent that they had been in- strumental in taking him. When he was brought before the tribunal, the pro- consul, struck with his great age and venerable appear- ance, besought him, saying, " Have pity on thine own great age; swear by the fortune of Caesar ; repent, ab- SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 39 jure the atheists," — meaning Christians. Polycarp, cast- ing his eyes solemnly over the multitude, waving his hand towards them, and looking up to heaven, said, " Take away these atheists," — meaning the idolaters and persecutors around him. The pro-consul still continued to urge him : " Swear, and I will release thee ; reproach Christ." The venerable bishop calmly replied : " Eighty and six years have I served him, and he hath never wronged me ; and how can I blaspheme my God and King who hath saved me!" "But I have wild beasts," said the pro-consul, " and I will expose you to them un- less you repent." "Call them," said the martyr. "I will tame your spirit by fire," said the Roman. "You threaten me," said Polycarp, "with the fire which burns only for a moment, but are yourself ignorant of the fire of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly." The pro-consul, finding it impossible to shake his steadfast- ness, adjudged him to the flames. But in their midst he sung praises to God, and exclaimed, " Father of thy beloved and blessed Son, Jesus Christ ! God of all principalities and of all creation ! I bless thee, that thou hast counted me worthy of this day and this hour, to receive my portion in the number of the martyrs — in the cup of Christ." 6. JUSTIN MARTYR. This celebrated Christian philosopher and martyr suf- fered not long after Polycarp. He had been favoured with the best education the times could afford. He was a great lover of truth, and a universal scholar. He had investigated the different systems of philosophy then in vogue ; and had also travelled into Egypt, where the polite tour for improvement was made in that age. He was especially conversant with the Platonic philosophy, 40 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. which he had embraced, and in which he took great de- light. When about thirty years of age, he became a convert to Christianity, and soon after wrote an elegant epistle to the Gentiles, to convert them to the Christian faith. He likewise employed his talents to convince the Jews of the truth of the Christian doctrines. After travelling for some time, he a,t length fixed his residence in Rome. Here he addressed to the emperor Antonius, to the Senate and people, an apology in favour of the persecuted Christians. This apology, it is said, dis- plays great learning and genius, and induced the empe- ror to publish an edict in favour of the Christians! A short time after, he entered into a controversy with Crescens, a person of vicious life, but a celebrated cynic philosopher. His arguments only exasperated the phi- losopher, and he determined upon his destruction. An occasion to accomplish this was soon offered. Two Christians being put to death, Justin wrote a second apology, commenting upon the severities exercised to- wards them. His cynic antagonist seized upon the op- portunity to prejudice the mind of the emperor against him. He was accordingly apprehended, and commanded to deny his faith and to sacrifice to the gods. This he firmly refused to do ; and, after being scourged, he was finally beheaded, and thus suffered martyrdom for the truth. 7. EPIPODIUS AND ALEXANDER. Among the martyrs of Lyons, in the year of our Lord 177, were Epipodius and Alexander, celebrated for their strong Christian affection for each other. When the persecution began first to rage at Lyons, they were in the prime of life, and to avoid its severities they thought proper to withdraw to a neighbouring village. Here they were for some time concealed by a Christian SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 41 widow. But their malicious persecutors sought after them with indefatigable industry, and pursued them to their place of concealment, whence they were committed to prison without examination. At the expiration of three days, when brought before the governor, they were examined in the presence of a crowd of heathen : here they boldly confessed Christ, upon which the enraged governor exclaimed, " What signifies all the former per- secutions, if some yet remain w T ho dare to acknowledge Christ." " They were then separated, that they should not con- sole Avith each other, and he began to tamper with Bpi- podius, the youngest of the two. He pretended to pity his condition, and entreated him not to ruin himself by obstinacy. 'Our deities,' continued he, 'are wor- shipped by the greater part of the universe, and their rulers ; we adore them with feasting and mirth, while you adore a crucified man; we, to honour them, launch into pleasures — you, by your faith, are debarred from all that indulges the senses. Our religion enjoins feasting, yours fasting ; ours the joys of licentious blandishment, yours the barren virtue of chastity. Can you expect protection from one who could not secure himself from the persecution of a contemptible people ? Then quit a profession of such austerity, and enjoy those gratifica- tions which the world affords, and which your youthful years demand. ' Epipodius, in reply, contemning his compassion : ' Your pretended tenderness,' said he, ' is actual cruelty; and the agreeable life you describe, is replete with everlasting death. Christ suffered for us, that our pleasure should be immortal, and hath prepared for his followers an eternity of bliss. The frame of man being composed of two parts, body and soul, the first, as mean and perishable, should be rendered subservient to the latter. Your idolatrous feasts may gratify the mor- tal, but they injure the immortal part: that cannot, 42 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. therefore, be enjoying life which destroys the most valuable moiety of frame. " ' Your pleasures lead to eternal death, and our pains to eternal happiness.' "For this rational speech, Epipodius was severely beaten and then put to the rack, upon which being stretched, his flesh was torn with iron hooks. Having borne his torments with incredible patience and forti- tude, he was taken from the rack and beheaded. Alex- ander, his companion, was brought before the judges two days after his execution ; and on his absolute refusal to renounce Christianity, he was placed on the rack and beaten by three executioners, who relieved each other alternately. He bore his sufferings with as much forti- tude as his friend had done, and at length was crucified." 8. VIVIA PERPETUA. MPv. Milman says, that " of all the histories of martyr- dom, none is so unexaggerated in its tone and language — so entirely unencumbered with miracle ; none abounds in such exquisite touches of nature, or, on the whole, from its minuteness and circumstantiality, breathes such an air of truth and reality, as that of Perpetua and Fe- licitas," who suffered martyrdom at Carthage, about the year of our Lord 202. Vivia Perpetua was a woman of good family, liberal education, about twenty-two years of age, honourably married, and her first-born child still an infant at the breast. When her father, who alone of all the family continued a heathen, heard that his daughter was in- formed against, he sought, by every art of persuasion, and even resorted to compulsion, to induce her to sur- render her faith. Soon after, she was thrown into prison. Here the darkness of the prison, the dreadful heat occa- SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 43 sionecl by the crowd of the prisoners, and the rude in- sults of the soldiers, greatly terrified her. She was also wrung with solicitude about her infant. Through the kindness of those who had charge of her she was per- mitted to inhale the fresh air, and to nurse her infant for several hours each day. She addressed a letter of con- solation and encouragement to her mother, and com- mended her infant child to the care of her brother. Upon her examination, her faith and constancy were subjected to a most fearful trial. After her fellow-pri- soners had all confessed that they were Christians, and before Perpetua had opportunity to do it in the custom- ary form, her father appeared before her with her infant in his arms. He drew her down the step, and besought her, for his sake, for the sake of her mother, for the sake of her helpless offspring, and for the sake of the whole family, to abjure Christ. Hilarianus, the procurator, moved by the deeply affecting scene, joined in the entreat- ies of the father. " Spare," said he, " spare the gray hairs of your parent; spare your infant ; offer sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor." Great was the struggle in her breast; but grace triumphed over nature, and she said, " I am not in my own power, but in that of God." Then said the procurator, " Art thou a Christian ?" Calmly and distinctly she answered, "I am a Christian." She was then condemned to be given up to the w^ild beasts. But she returned to her prison filled with joy. Her child w T as now taken entirely away from her, but she bore the privation with uncommon fortitude. In her confinement, she was filled with unspeakable comfort, and her soul often ravished with visions of coming glory. As the day of execution drew near, her father again visited her. He was haggard with affliction, he plucked out his beard, fell before her with his face in the dust, and with the most pathetic and heart-rending exclama- 44 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. tions, besought her to save her life by renouncing Christ. But her determination was unalterably fixed. She had counted the cost, and she could say, "None of these things move me." When the day of execution arrived, the prisoners, consisting of Perpetua and Felicitas, and three men who had been condemned, walked forth with erect and cheerful countenances. On reaching the gate of the amphitheatre, the officers, according to custom, began to clothe the men in the dresses of the priests of Saturn, and the women in those of the priestesses of Ceres. But when they remonstrated against the in- justice of being compelled by force to do that, for refus- ing which they were willing to lay down their lives, the tribune granted them the privilege of dying in their own habits. They then entered the amphitheatre ; when Perpetua advanced singing hymns, and her three male companions solemnly exhorting the people as they went along. Coming in view of the pro-praetor, they said, " You judge us, but God will judge you." This so enraged the populace, that, at their request, all the three were scourged ; but in this they rejoiced, as having the hon- our to share in one part of the sufferings of their Saviour. When the wild beasts were let loose upon the three men, the first was instantly killed by several rushing upon him at once ; the second was killed by a leopard and a bear. The third was first dragged about by a wild bull, then delivered over to a leopard; and when a stream of blood gushed out at one of his bites, the multi- tude ridiculed him, and cried out, that he was baptized with blood ! Not being quite killed he was taken away and was next day beheaded, continuing steadfast to the end. The two females were stripped naked and enclosed in nets to be gored by a wild cow. But even the excited SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 45 populace shrank with horror at the spectacle of two young and delicate women in that state. They were recalled by acclamation, and brought forward again in loose robes. Perpetua was first tossed in the air by the beast ; but her injuries were not mortal, and she soon arose, adjusted her dress, and then raised up her faint- ing and mortally wounded companion. She seemed now to be in an ecstacy of soul, and inquired how long before the scene would close. Her last words were tenderly addressed to her brother, exhorting him to be steadfast in the faith. She and her companion then gave to each other the kiss of charity, and resignedly submitted them- selves to the stroke of the executioner. Who can behold young and delicate women passing unmoved through such a scene as this without being filled with wonder and astonishment ? What courage of the hero upon the battle-field can compare with this ? Moral heroism is always sublime, but this is the most sublime form of its manifestation. How inestimable and glorious the riches of that grace that can effect such signal triumphs ! 9. BLANDESTA. The following account of the martyrdom of Blandina of Vienne, about the close of the second century, is taken mainly from Lardner's translation of the history of the sufferings of the martyrs of that time. " When her friends and fellow-pilgrims in the kingdom and patience of Christ were all in pain for her, lest, upon account of the infirmity of her body, she should not be able to make an open confession, she was furnished with such strength, that they, who by turns tortured her all man- ner of ways from morning to evening, became feeble and faint, and acknowledged themselves overcome, there 46 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. being nothing more that they could do to her. And they wondered that she had any breath left, her whole body having been torn and mangled ; declaring that any one kind of torture, used by them, was sufficient to deprive her of life, much more so many and so great. But she seemed to renew her strength ; and it was a re- freshment and an abatement of the torments inflicted upon her to say, ' I am a Christian : nor is there any wickedness practised among us.' " Afterwards she was brought into the amphitheatre ; and having been hung upon a stake, w T as left for a prey to wild beasts, which were let out upon her. Here she seemed like one hanging upon the cross, and earnestly prayed unto God. None of the wild beasts touching her at that time, she was taken down from the stake, and sent again to prison, being reserved for another combat ; that, having overcome in many encounters, she might be an encouragement to the brethren, when she, who w T as of little account, infirm, and despicable, being clothed with the great and invincible champion, having often overcome the enemy, obtained an incorruptible crown of glory. " After all these, on the last day of the shows, Elan- dina was again brought in, with a young man named Ponticus, about fifteen years of age ; who had also been every day successively brought in to see the sufferings of the others. They now were required to swear by their idols ; but, as they remained firm, and set their gods at naught, the multitude was greatly incensed against them, so that they had no compassion on the age of the young man, nor any respect for the sex of the other, but exposed them to all manner of sufferings, and made them go through the whole circle of tortures, at times calling out to them to swear, without being able to effect it. For Ponticus, animated and established by his sister, as the Gentiles also perceived, after having SEC. L] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 47 courageously endured every kind of torment, expired. But the blessed Blandina, the last of all, having, like a good mother, encouraged her children, and sent them before her, victors to the King ; after having again mea- sured over the same course of combats that her sons had passed through, hastened to them, rejoicing and exulting at her departure, as if she had been invited to a wedding- supper, and not cast to wild beasts. After she had been scourged, after she had been exposed to wild beasts, and after the iron chair, she was enclosed in a net, and thrown to a bull : having been often tossed by the beast, she was at length run through with a sword. 10. LAURENTIUS. Laurentius, generally called St. Laurence, the princi- pal of the deacons, who taught and preached under Sextus, followed him to the place of execution.* when Sextus predicted that he should meet him in heaven three days after. Laurentius considering this as a cer- tain indication of his own approaching martyrdom, at his return collected all the Christian poor, and distributed among them all the treasures of the Church, which had been committed to his care, thinking the money could not be better disposed of, or less liable to fall into the hands of the heathen. His conduct alarmed the perse- cutors, who seized on him, and commanded him to give an immediate account to the emperor of the Church treasures. Laurentius promised to satisfy them, but begged a short respite to put things in proper order ; when three days being granted him he was suffered to depart; whereupon, with great diligence, he collected together a great number of aged, helpless, and impotent poor, and ° Sextus, bishop of Rome, suffered martyrdom, A. D. 258. 48 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. repaired to the magistrate, presenting them to him, say- ing, " These are the true treasures of the Church." Provoked at the disappointment, the governor ordered him to be immediately scourged. He was then beaten with iron rods, set upon a wooden horse, and had his limbs dislocated. He endured these tortures with such fortitude and perseverance, that he was ordered to be fastened to a large gridiron, with a slow fire under it, that his death might be the more tedious. But his as- tonishing constancy during these trials, and his serenity of countenance wiiile under such excruciating torments, gave the spectators so exalted an idea of the dignity and truth of the Christian religion, that many immediately became converts. Having endured this torture for a long time, and hav- ing been turned once upon the gridiron, he at length cheerfully lifted his eyes to heaven and calmly yielded his spirit to the Almighty. 11. JULIAN OF CILICIA. Julian, according to St. Chrysostom, having been ap- prehended for being a Christian, and frequently tortured, remained inflexible in his determination to die rather than renounce Christ. He was frequently brought from prison, but as often remanded to suffer still greater cruelties. He was at length obliged to travel for twelve months together, from town to town, to be exposed to the insults of the populace. When all these efforts to make him recant his religion had failed, and he seemed as fixed as ever in his faith, he was brought before the judge, stripped naked, and scourged in a most terrible manner. But all without effect : nor did he shrink even when he was thrust into a leather bag, together with a number of scorpions, serpents, and other venomous rep- SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 49 tiles. In this, the most shocking of all conditions, he was thrown into the sea. In the midst of all, and to the very last, his constancy was unshaken. 12. CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE. The martyrdom of Cyprian conferred a melancholy celebrity on the persecution of Valerian. He was, at that time, the most distinguished prelate of Western Christendom. He was supposed to be of honourable birth; but his learning and talents had raised him to eminence and wealth. He was already advanced in life ' when he embraced Christianity. He entered upon his new career with the mature reason of age, and with the ardour and freshness of youth. His wealth w as devoted to pious and charitable purposes ; his style of delivery was warm and impassioned, while his rhetorical studies gave order and clearness to his language. When the bishopric of Carthage became vacant, his reluctant diffidence was overpowered by the acclama- tions of the whole city, who environed his house and almost compelled him to assume the functions of the distinguished office. The fearful times which arose dur- ing his episcopate tried most thoroughly, but did not shake the firmness of his faith. The first rumour of per- secution designated the bishop of Carthage for its vic- tim ; and the first cry of the pagans was, " Cyprian to the lions — Cyprian to the beasts !" When he received a summons to appear before the pro-consul, he would not listen to the earnest solicitations of his friends, who en- treated him again* to consult his safety by withdrawing ° During the persecution of Decius, Cyprian had retired from the city and spent some years in a retreat, from which he ad- dressed encouraging and consolatory letters to the Church ; and where also he wrote an affecting account of the persecutions suf- 50 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. to some place of concealment. His trial was postponed for a day; and he was treated, while in custody, with respect and even delicacy. But the intelligence of the apprehension of Cyprian drew together the whole city — the heathen to behold the spectacle of his martyrdom ; the Christians to w T atch in their affectionate zeal at the doors of his prison. In the morning he had to walk some distance, and w T as violently heated by the exer- tion. A Christian soldier offered to procure for him some dry linen, apparently from mere courtesy, but in reality to obtain some precious relics, steeped in the " bloody sweat " of the martyr. C^yprian intimated that it was useless to seek remedy for inconveniences which perhaps would that day pass away forever. When the pro-consul appeared, he inquired, " Art thou Thasicus Cyprian, the bishop of so many impious men? The most sacred emperor commands thee to sacrifice." Cyprian calmly replied, " I will not sacri- fice." The pro-consul then besought him to consider, whether he had not better cast a grain of incense into the fire, in honour of idols, than to die so degraded a death. His noble reply was, " Execute your orders ; the case admits of no consideration." Galerius then con- sulted with his council, and finding all their efforts vain to induce the bishop to recant, reluctantly delivered his sentence in the following terms : — " Thascius Cyprian, thou hast lived long in thy im- fdety, and assembled around thee many men involved in the same wicked conspiracy. Thou hast shown thyself an enemy alike to the gods and the laws of the empire ; the pious and sacred emperors have in vain endeavoured to recall thee to the worship of thy ancestors. Since, then, thou hast been the chief author and leader of these fered by it. A second time lie was banished from the city instead of being executed. SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 51 most guilty practices, thou shalt be an example to those whom thou hast deluded to thy unlawful assemblies. Thou must expiate thy crime with thy blood." On hearing his sentence, Cyprian said, " God be thanked !" He was soon after carried into a neighbour- ing field and beheaded: his serene composure was maintained to the last. 13. JOHN HITSS. John Huss was born at Hussenitz, in Bohemia, in the year 1380; and early in life gave evidence of uncom- mon endowments. He became bachelor of divinity in 1398, and was soon after chosen pastor of the church of Bethlehem, in Prague, and dean and rector of the uni- versity. He enjoyed here the highest reputation — as well for the sanctity of his life and the purity of his doctrines, as for his sound acquirements in knowledge. The light of reformation which Wiclif had kindled in England, had shone into Bohemia ; and great numbers of the people received the doctrines he taught with joy and gladness. In the breast of Huss they found a ready and earnest response ; and in 1407, he began openly to preach them to his flock. The archbishop of Prague, finding the reformists daily increasing, issued a decree for the suppression of Wiclif 's writings ; but this only stimulated the friends of reform to still greater activity. Huss, . in particular, opposed the decree of the arch- bishop, and with some other members of the university appealed from his decision. The affair being made known to the pope, he granted a commission to Cardinal Colonna, to cite John Huss to appear personally at the court of Rome, to answer the accusations laid against him — of preaching both errors and heresies. Huss desired to be excused from a per- 52 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. sonal appearance, and was so greatly favoured in Bo- hemia, that king Winceslaus, the queen, the nobility, and the university, desired the pope to dispense with such an appearance. Three proctors appeared for Huss before cardinal Colonna. They endeavoured to excuse his absence, and said, they were ready to answer in his behalf. But the cardinal declared Huss contumacious, and excom- municated him accordingly. From this unjust sentence, Huss appealed to a future council, but without success ; and, notwithstanding so severe a decree, and an expul- sion in consequence from his church in Prague, he re- tired to Hussenitz, his native place, where he continued to promulgate his new doctrine, both from the pulpit and with the pen. In the month of November, 1414, a general council w r as assembled at Constance, in Germany, in order, as was pretended, for the sole purpose of determining a dispute then pending between three persons who con- tended for the papacy ; but the real motive was, to crush the progress of the reformation. John Huss was summoned to appear at this council ; and, to encourage him, the emperor sent him a safe- conduct : the civilities, and even reverence, which Huss met with on his journey, were beyond imagination. The streets, and sometimes the very roads, were lined with people, whom respect, rather than curiosity, had brought together. He was ushered into the town with great acclamations ; and it may be said, that he passed through Germany in a kind of triumph. He could not help expressing his surprise at the treatment he re- ceived : " I thought," said he, " I had been an outcast. I now see my worst friends are in Bohemia." As soon as Huss arrived at Constance, he immedi- ately took lodgings in a remote part of the city. When it was known that he was in the city, he was immedi- SEC. LI CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 53 ately arrested, and committed prisoner to a chamber in the palace. This violation of common law and justice was particularly noticed by one of Huss's friends, who urged the imperial safe-conduct ; but the pope replied, he never granted any safe-conduct, nor was he bound by that of the emperor. "While Huss was in confinement, the council acted the part of inquisitors. They condemned the doctrines of Wiclif, and even ordered his remains to be dug up, and burnt to ashes; which orders were strictly com- plied with. In the mean time, the nobility of Bohemia and Poland strongly interceded for Huss; and so far prevailed as to prevent his being condemned unheard, which had been resolved on by the commissioners ap- pointed to try him. When he was brought before the council, the articles exhibited against him were read : they were upwards of forty in number, and chiefly extracted from his writings. After his examination, he was taken from the court, and a resolution was formed by the council to burn him as a heretic if he would not retract. He was then com- mitted to a filthy prison, where, in the daytime, he was so laden with fetters on his legs, that he could hardly move ; and every night he was fastened by his hand to a ring against the walls of the prison. After continuing some days in this situation, many noblemen of Bohemia interceded in his behalf. They drew up a petition for his release, which was presented to the council by several of the most distinguished nobles of Bohemia ; a few days after the petition was presented, four bishops and two lords were sent by the emperor to the prison, in order to prevail on Huss to make a recantation. But he called God to witness, with tears in his eyes, that he was not conscious of hav- ing preached, or written, against the truth of Gpd, or the faith of his orthodox Church. 54 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. On the fourth of July, Huss was brought, for the last time, before the council. After a long examination he was desired to abjure, which he refused without the least hesitation. The bishop of Lodi then preached a sangui- nary sermon, concerning the destruction of heretics, — the prologue to his intended punishment. After the close of the sermon, his fate was determined, his vindication disregarded, and judgment was pronounced. Huss heard this sentence without the least emotion. At the close of it he knelt down, with his eyes lifted towards heaven, and, with all the magnanimity of a primitive martyr, thus exclaimed: "May thy infinite mercy, my God, pardon this injustice of mine enemies ! Thou knowest the injustice of my accusations — how deformed with crimes I have been represented ; how I have been oppressed with worthless witnesses, and a false condem- nation ; yet, my God, let that mercy of thine, which no tongue can express, prevail with thee not to avenge my wrongs !" These excellent sentences were esteemed as so many expressions of treason, and tended to inflame his adver- saries. Accordingly, the bishops appointed by the council stripped him of his priestly garments, degraded him, and put a paper mitre on his head, on which was painted devils, with this inscription, " A ringleader of heretics." Our heroic martyr received this mock mitre with an air of unconcern, which seemed to give him dig- nity rather than disgrace. A serenity, nay, even a joy, appeared in his looks, which indicated that his soul had cut off many stages of a tedious journey in her way to the realms of everlasting peace. After the ceremony of degradation was over, the bishops delivered Huss to the emperor, who put him into the hands of the duke of Bavaria. His books were burnt at the gates of the church ; and on the sixth of July he was led to the suburbs of Constance, to be burnt SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 55 alive. On his arrival at the place of execution, he fell on his knees, sung several portions of the Psalms, looked steadfastly towards heaven, and repeated these words : " Into thy hands, Lord, do I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, most good and faithful God. Lord Jesus Christ, assist and help me, that, with a firm and present mind, by thy most powerful grace, I may under- go this most cruel and ignominious death, to which I am condemned for preaching the truth of thy most holy Gospel." When the chain was put about him at the stake, he said, with a smiling countenance, "My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of this rusty one ?" When the fagots were piled up to his very neck, the duke of Bavaria was so officious as to desire him to ab- jure. " No," said Huss, " I never preached any doctrine of an evil tendency ; and what I taught w T ith my lips I now seal with my blood." He then said to the execu- tioner, " You are now going to burn a goose, (Huss sig- nifying goose in the Bohemian language,) but in a cen- tury you will have a swan, whom you can neither roast nor boil." If this were prophetic, he must have meant Martin Luther, who shone about a hundred years after, and who had a swan for his arms. The flames were now applied to the fagots, when our martyr sung a hymn, w T ith so loud and cheerful a voice, that he was heard through all the crackling's of the com- bustibles, and the noise of the multitude. At length his voice was interrupted by the severity of the flames, which soon closed his existence. 56 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. 14. JEROME OF PRAGUE. Jerome was the intimate friend and companion of Huss, and suffered martyrdom about one year later. He was educated at the university of Prague, had travelled abroad, visiting most of the countries and universities of Europe, and was distinguished for his virtues, no less than for his uncommon learning and eloquence. On his return from his travels he openly professed the doctrines of Wiclif, and became an assistant to Huss in the great work of reformation. On the fourth of April, 1415, Jerome arrived at Con- stance, about three months before the death of Huss. He entered the town privately, and consulting with some of the leaders of his party, whom he found there, was easily convinced he could not be of any service to his friend. Finding that his arrival at Constance was publicly known, and that the council intended to seize him, he thought it most prudent to retire. Accordingly, the next day he went to Iberiing, an imperial town, about a mile from Constance. From this place he wrote to the emperor, and proposed his readiness to appear before the council, if he would give him a safe- conduct; but this w T as refused. He then applied to the council, but met with an answer no less unfavourable than that from the emperor. After this he set out on his return to Bohemia. He had the precaution to take with him a certificate, signed by several of the Bohemian nobility, then at Constance, testifying that he had used all prudent means in his power to procure a hearing. Jerome, however, did not thus escape. He was seized at Hirsaw, by an officer belonging to the duke of Suits- SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 57 bach, who, though unauthorized so to act, made little doubt of obtaining thanks from the council for so ac- ceptable a service. The duke of Sultsbach, having Jerome now in his power, wrote to the council for directions how to pro- ceed. The council, after expressing their obligations to the duke, desired him to send the prisoner immediately to Constance. The elector palatine met him on the way, and conducted him into the city, himself riding on horseback, with a numerous retinue, who led Jerome in fetters by a long chain ; and immediately on his arrival he was committed to a loathsome dungeon. Jerome was treated nearly in the same manner as Huss had been, only that he was much longer confined, and shifted from one prison to another. At length, being brought before the council, he desired that he might plead his own cause, and exculpate himself; which being refused him, he broke out into the following elegant exclamation : — " What barbarity is this ! For three hundred and forty days have I been confined in a variety of pri- sons. There is not a misery, there is not a want, that I have not experienced. To my enemies you have allowed the fullest scope of accusation— to me you deny the least opportunity of defence. Not an hour will you now indulge me in preparing for my trial. You have swallowed the blackest calumnies against me. You have represented me as a heretic, without know- ing my doctrine ; as an enemy to the faith, before you knew what faith I professed; as a persecutor of priests, before you could have an opportunity of understanding my sentiments on that head. You are a general coun- cil : in you centre all this world can communicate of gravity, wisdom, and sanctity : but still you are men, and men are seducible by appearances. The higher your character is for wisdom, the greater ought your 3* 58 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. care to be not to deviate into folly. The cause I now plead is not my own cause : it is the cause of men ; it is the cause of Christians ; it is a cause which is to affect the rights of posterity, however the experiment is to be made in my person." This speech had not the least effect ; he was obliged to hear the charge read, which was reduced under the following heads : 1. That he was a derider of the papal dignity; 2. An opposer of the pope; 3. An enemy to the cardinals ; 4. A persecutor of the prelates ; 5. A hater of the Christian religion. The trial of Jerome was brought on the third day after his accusation, and witnesses were examined in support of the charge. The prisoner was prepared for his de- fence, which appears almost incredible, when we con- sider he had been three hundred and forty days shut up in loathsome prisons, deprived of daylight, and almost starved for want of common necessaries. But his spirit soared above these disadvantages, under w T hich a man less animated would have sunk ; nor was he more at a loss for quotations from the fathers. and ancient authors, than if he had been furnished with the finest library. The most bigoted of the assembly were unwilling he should be heard, knowing what effect eloquence is apt to have on the minds of the most prejudiced. At length, however, it was carried by the majority, that he should have liberty to proceed in his defence, which he began in such an exalted strain of moving elocution, that the heart of obdurate zeal was seen to melt, and the mind of superstition seemed to admit a ray of conviction. He made an admirable distinction between evidence as rest- ing upon facts, and as supported by malice and calumny. He laid before the assembly the whole tenor of his life and conduct. He observed that the greatest and most holy men had been known to differ in points of specula- tion, with a view to distinguish truth, not to keep it con- SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 59 cealed. He expressed a noble contempt of all his ene- mies, who would have induced him to retract the cause of virtue and truth. He entered upon a high encomium of Huss ; and declared he was ready to follow him in the glorious track of martyrdom. He then touched upon the most defensible doctrines of WicKf ; and concluded with observing that it was far from his intention to ad- vance anything against the state of the Church of God — that it was only against the abuse of the clergy he com- plained, and that he could not help saying, it was cer- tainly impious that the patrimony of the Church, which was originally intended for the purpose of charity and universal benevolence, should be prostituted to the pride of the eye, in feasts, foppish vestments, and other re- proaches to the name and profession of Christianity. The trial being over, Jerome received the same sen- tence that had been passed upon his martyred country- man. In consequence of this, he was, in the usual style of popish affectation, delivered over to the civil power : but as he was a layman, he had not to undergo the cere- mony of degradation. They had prepared a cap of paper painted with red devils, which being put upon his head, he said, " Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he suffered death for me, a most miserable sinner, did wear a crown of thorns upon his head, and for his sake will I wear this cap." Two days were allowed him in hopes that he would recant ; in which time the cardinal of Florence used his utmost endeavours to bring him over. But they all proved ineffectual. Jerome was resolved to seal the doctrine with his blood ; and he suffered death with the most distinguished magnanimity. In going to the place of execution he sung several hymns, and when he came to the spot, which was the same where Huss had been burnt, he knelt down, and prayed fervently. He embraced the stake with great 60 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. cheerfulness, and when they went behind him to set fire to the fagots, he said, " Come here, and kindle it before my eyes ; for if I had been afraid of it, I had not come to this place." The fire being kindled, he sung a hymn, but was soon interrupted by the flames; and the last words he was heard to say were these : " This soul in flames 1 offer, Christ, to thee." 15. ESCH AND VOES. The convent of the Augustines at Antwerp contained within it many monks, who hailed with joy the truths of the Gospel as taught by Luther. Several of them had passed some time in Wittemberg ; and subsequently to 1519, the doctrine of salvation by grace alone had been preached in their churches with unusual power. Toward the close of the year 1521, the prior and one of the most distinguished of the monks were arrested. The prior recanted, while the other found means to appease his judges, and escaped condemnation. These proceedings no way overawed the monks ; but they con- tinued to preach the Gospel with earnestness. The people crowded to their church in such numbers that it was unable to contain them. In October, 1522, the storm of persecution burst forth upon them — the convent was closed ; the monks im- prisoned, and sentenced to die. The sacred vessels were publicly sold, the entrance to the church barri- caded, and the holy sacrament carried forth as if from a place of pollution. An order was given that not one stone should be left upon another of that heretical monastery. " The cause," said Luther, when he heard of these things, "is no longer a mere trial of strength; it demands the sacrifice of our lives, and must be ce- mented by our blood." Esch and Voes, two of the SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 61 younger monks, evaded for a time the search of the inquisitors ; but were at length discovered, put in chains, a,nd conducted to Brussels. When summoned into the presence of the inquisitors, it was demanded, " Do you retract your opinion that the priest has no power to for- give sins, but that that power belongs to God alone V and then several other Gospel truths they were required to abjure, were enumerated. They firmly replied, "No, we will retract nothing; we will not disown God's word ; we will rather die for the faith.'' " Confess that you have been deceived by Luther," said the inquisitor. They replied, " As the apostles were deceived by Jesus Christ." The inquisitors then said, "We declare you to be heretics, worthy of being burned alive ; and we deliver you over to the secular arm." The council having delivered them bound to the exe- cutioner, Hockstratin, and three other inquisitors, ac- companied them to the place of execution. Arriving at the scaffold, the young martyrs contemplated it with calmness. Their constancy, their piety, and their youth, drew tears from the inquisitors themselves. When they were bound to the stake, the confessors drew near, — " Once more we ask you if you will re- ceive the Christian faith?" "We believe," said they, "in the Christian Church, but not in your Church." Half an hour then elapsed. It was a pause of hesi- tation. A hope had been cherished that the near pros- pect of such a death would intimidate these youths. But alone tranquil of all the crowd that thronged the square, they began to sing psalms, — stopping once in a while to declare that they were resolved to die for the name of Jesus Christ. 62 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. " Be converted ! be converted I" cried the inquisitors, " or you will die in the name of the devil." " No," answered the martyrs ; " we will die like Chris- tians, and for the truth of the Gospel." The pile was then lighted. While the flame slowly ascended, a heavenly peace dilated their hearts; and one of them could even say, " I seem to be on a bed of roses." The solemn hour was come ; death was at hand. They cried with a loud voice, " Lord Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on us !" and then be- gan to recite their creed. At last the flames reached them ; but the fire consumed the cords which fastened them to the stake before their breath was gone. One of them feeling his liberty, dropped upon his knees in the midst of the flames, and clasped his hands, exclaim- ing, " Lord Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us !" When their bodies were wrapped in flame, they shouted aloud, " Te Deum laudamusT Soon their voices were stifled, — and their ashes alone remained. The execu- tion occurred on the 1st of July, 1523, and lasted four hours. These were the first martyrs of the Refor- mation. All good men shuddered when they heard of these events. The future was big with fearful anticipations. " The executions have begun," said Erasmus. " At length," exclaimed Luther, " Christ is gathering some fruits of our preaching, and preparing new martyrs." A noble harvest, says the historian, sprung up from the blood of these martyrs. Brussels manifested a willing- ness to receive the Gospel. This occasioned Erasmus to remark, " Wherever Alexander lights a pile, there it seems as if he had sowed heretics." SEC. L] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 63 16. HENRY ZUPHTEN. When the convent at Antwerp was broken up, Henry Zuphten was rescued by the courage of some women, from the hands of the executioners. Subsequently he was engaged in preaching the Gospel at Bremen. Nicholas Boye, pastor at Mehldorf, in the country of the Dittinarches, and several devout persons of the neighbouring districts, having invited him to come over and declare Jesus Christ, he complied. Immediately, the prior of the Dominicans and the vicar of the official of Hamburg concerted measures. " If he is allowed fco preach, and the people give ear," said they, "we are undone." The prior passed a disturbed night; and, rising early in the morning, repaired to the wild and barren heath on which the forty- eight regents of the country were accustomed to hold their meetings. " The monk from Bremen is come among us," said he, ad- dressing them, " and will bring ruin on the Dittmarches." Those forty- eight simple-minded and unlearned men, deceived into the belief that they would earn imperish- able renown by delivering the world from the heretical monk, decided on putting him to death without so much as giving him a hearing. It was Saturday — and the prior was bent on prevent- ing Henry's preaching on the following Sunday. In the middle of the night he knocked at the door of the pastor Boye, armed with the mandate of the forty- eight regents. " If it be the will of God that I should die among the Dittmarches," said Henry Zuphten, " heaven is as easily reached from thence as from anywhere else. I will preach." He ascended the pulpit, and spoke with earnestness. His hearers, moved and roused by his Christian elo- 64 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. quence, had scarcely quitted the church, when the prior delivered to them the mandate of the forty-eight regents forbidding the monk to preach. <£Fhey immediately sent a deputation to the heath, and the Dittmarches, after long discussion, agreed that, considering their total ignorance, further measures should be deferred till Easter. But the prior, irritated at this, approached certain of the regents, and stirred up their zeal afresh. " We will write to him," said they. "Have nothing to do with him," replied the prior; " if he begins to speak, we shall not be able to withstand him. We must seize him during the night, and burn him without giving him time to open his lips." Everything was arranged accordingly. The day after Conception Day, at nightfall, Ave Maria was rung. At the signal, all the peasants of the adjacent villages assembled, to the number of five hundred, and their leaders having broached three butts of Hamburg beer, by this means stimulated their resolution. The hour of midnight struck as the party entered Mehldorf ; the peasants were under arms ; the monks carried torches ; all went forward in disorder, exchanging shouts of fury. Arrived at the village, there was a deep silence lest Henry, receiving intimation of danger, should effect his escape. Of a sudden the gates of the parsonage were burst open — the drunken peasantry rushed within, striking everything in their way — tossing pell-mell, dishes, ket- tles, cups, and articles of apparel. They seized any money that they could find, and then rushing on the poor pastor, they struck him down, shouting, " Kill him! kill him!" and then threw him into the mud. But Henry was their chief object in the attack. They pulled him out of bed, tied his hands behind him, and dragged him after them, naked as he was, in the piercing cold. " What are you come here for ?" cried they ; and SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 65 as Henry answered meekly, they exclaimed, "Down with him ! down with him ! if we listen to him we shall become heretics like himself.''* They had dragged him naked over ice and snow, his feet were bleeding pro- fusely, and he begged to be set on horseback. " A fine thing, truly," said they, "for us to furnish horses for heretics. On, on !" — and they continued dragging him behind them till they arrived at the heath. A woman, who stood at the door of the house just as the servant of God was passing, burst into tears. " My good wo- man," said Henry, "weep not for me." The bailiff pronounced his sentence. Then one of his ferocious escort, with a sword, smote the preacher of Jesus Christ on the head. Another struck him with a club. A monk was ordered to approach and receive his con- fession. "My brother," said Henry, "have I done you any wrong?" ".None," replied the monk. " Then," returned Henry, " I have nothing to confess to you ; and you have nothing to forgive." The monk retired in confusion. Many attempts were made to set fire to the pile ; but the wood would not catch. For two hours the martyr stood thus in pre- sence of the infuriated peasantry — calm, and lifting his eyes to heaven. While they were binding him, that they might cast him into the flame, he began to confess his faith. "First burn," said a countryman, dealing him a blow with his fist on the mouth; "burn; and after that, speak." They threw him on the pile; but he rolled down on one side. John Holme, seizing a club, struck him upon the breast, and laid him dead upon the burning coals. 66 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. 17. THE TWO WIRTHS. Stammheim was the residence of the deputy-bailiff Wirth, whose two. eldest sons, John and Adrian, young priests, full of piety and courage, were zealously en- gaged in preaching the Gospel. Anna, the mother, had reared a numerous family in the fear of God, and was herself revered for her virtues the whole country round. The deputy-bailiff and his two sons had long been ob- jects of special dislike on account of their faith. Upon some trifling pretext, a band of soldiers was sent from Zurich to arrest them. Rutiman, the bailiff of Nuss- baum, shared their confinement. By the authority of Zurich they were surrendered to the Diet, and conveyed to Baden. This was in August, 1524. On the evening, the prisoners arrived at Baden, where an immense crowd was awaiting to receive them. They were taken first to an inn, and afterwards to the jail. The people pressed so closely round to see them that they could scarcely move. The father, who walked first, turned round toward his sons, and meekly said, — " See, my dear children, we are like those of whom the apostle speaks — men appointed to death, a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." (1 Cor. iv, 9.) Just then he chanced to observe among the crowd the bailiff Am-Berg, his mortal enemy, and the prime author of all his misfortunes. He went up to him, held out his hand, and, grasping Am-Berg's, — though the bailiff would have turned awaj^, — said, with much composure, " There is a God above us, and he knows all things." The examination began the next morning. Wirth, the father, was the first who was brought before the tribunal. Without the least consideration for his cha- racter or for his age, he was put to the torture ; but he SEC. LI CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 67 persisted in declaring that he was innocent both of the pillage and the burning of Ittingen. A charge was then brought against him of having destroyed an image re- presenting St. Anne. As to the other prisoners, no- thing could be substantiated against them, except that Adrian Wirth was married, and that he was accustomed to preach after the manner of Zwingle and Luther ; and that John Wirth had given the holy sacrament to a sick man without candle or bell." But the more conclusively their innocence was esta- blished, the more furious became the excitement of their adversaries. From morning till noon of that day, the old man was made to endure all the severity of torture. His tears were of no avail to soften the hearts of his judges. John Wirth was still more cruelly tormented. " Tell us," said they, in the midst of his agonies, "from whom didst thou learn thy heretical creed? Was it Zwingle, or who else, that taught it thee?" And when he was heard to exclaim, " merciful and everlasting God, grant me help and comfort!" "Aha!" said one of the deputies, "where is your Christ now?" When Adrian was brought forward, Sebastian von Stein, a deputy of Berne, addressed him thus: — "Young man, tell us the truth ; for if you refuse to do so, I swear by my knighthood, — the knighthood I received on the very spot where God suffered martyrdom, — we will open all the veins in your body, one by one." The young man was then hoisted up by a cord ; and while he was swing- ing in the air, " Young man," said Stein, with a fiend- ish smile, "this is our wedding-gift;" alluding to the marriage which the youthful ecclesiastic had recently contracted. The examination being now concluded, the deputies returned to their several cantons to make their report, and did not assemble again until four weeks had ex- pired. The bailiff's wife — the mother of the two young 68 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. priests— repaired to Baden, carrying a child in her arms, to appeal to the compassion of the judges. John Escher, of Zurich, accompanied her as her advocate. The latter recognised among the judges Jerome Stocker, the landamrnan of Zug, who had twice been bailiff of Frauenfeld. "Landamrnan," said he, accosting him, "you remem- ber the bailiff Wirth ; you know that he has always been an honest man." "It is most true, my good friend Escher," replied Stocker; "he never did any one an injury: country- men and strangers alike were sure to find a hearty wel- come at his table; his house was a convent, — inn, — hospital, all in one. And knowing this, as I do, had he committed a robbery or a murder, I would have spared no effort to obtain his pardon ; but since he has burned St. Anne, the grandmother of Christ, it is but right that he should die." " Then God take pity on us !" ejaculated Escher. The gates were now shut, (this was on the 28th of September,) and the deputies of Berne, Lucerne, Uri, Schwitz, Underwald, Zug, Glaris, Friburg, and Soleure, having proceeded, agreeably to usage, to deliberate on their judgment with closed doors, sentence of death was passed upon the bailiff Wirth, his son John, who, of all the accused, was the firmest in his faith, and who ap- peared to have gained over the others, and the bailiff Rutiman. They spared the life of Adrian, the younger of Wirth's sons, as a boon to his weeping mother. The prisoners were now brought forth from the tower in which they had been confined. "My son," said the father to Adrian, "we die an undeserved death ; but never do thou think of aveng- ing it." Adrian wept bitterly, SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 69 " My brother," said John, " where Christ's word comes his cross must follow." After the sentence had been read to them, the three Christian sufferers were led back to prison ; John Wirth walking first, the two bailiffs next, and a vicar behind them. As they crossed the castle bridge, on which there was a chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, the vicar called out to the two old men, — " Fall on your knees, and invoke the saints." At these words, John Wirth, turning round, said, " Father, be firm. You know there is but one Mediator between God and man — Christ Jesus." "Assuredly, my son," replied the old man; "and by the help of His grace I will continue faithful to him, even to the end." On this, they all three began to repeat the Lord's prayer, " Our Father who art in heaven." . . . And so they crossed the bridge. They were next conducted to the scaffold. John Wirth, whose heart was filled with the tenderest solici- tude for his father, bade him a solemn farewell. "My beloved father," said he, "henceforth thou art my father no longer, and I am no longer thy son ; but we are brothers still in Christ our Lord, for whose name's sake we are doomed to suffer death. So now, if such be God's will, my beloved brother, let us depart to be with him who is the father of us all. Fear no- thing !" "Amen!" answered the old man, "and may God Almighty bless thee, my beloved son, and brother in Christ." Thus, on the threshold of eternity, did father and son take their leave of each other, with joyful anticipations of that unseen state in which they should be united anew by imperishable ties. There were but few among the multitude around whose tears did not flow profusely. 70 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. The bailiff Rutiman prayed in silence. All three then knelt down " in Christ's name," — and their heads were severed from their bodies. 18. JOHN LECLERC. On the 12th of April, 1523, an ordinance of the bishop deprived the evangelical ministers of Meaux of their licenses to preach, and compelled them to seek safety abroad. Those who had received the truth then sought to edify one another. Prominent among them for piety, intelligence, boldness, and zeal, was Leclerc, a poor wool- comber. He was one of those men whom the Spirit of God inspires with courage, and places foremost in the rank of a religious movement. He began to visit from house to house, strengthening and confirming the disciples in their faith. Having rashly posted a placard against antichrist at the door of the cathedral, the priests were excited to the highest degree of indignation. u What !" exclaimed they, " shall a base wool-comber be allowed to assail the pope?" The Franciscans were furious. They insisted that at least on this occa- sion a terrible example should be made. Leclerc was first thrown into prison, then condemned to be pub- licly whipped through the city three successive days, and on the third day to be branded on the forehead. The mournful spectacle began. Leclerc was led through the streets, his hands bound, his back bare, and receiving from the executioners the blows he had drawn upon himself by his opposition to the bishop of Rome. A great crowd followed the martyr's progress, which was marked by his blood: some pursued the heretic with yells; others, by their silence, gave no doubtful signs of sympathy with him ; and one woman SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 71 encouraged the martyr by her looks and words— she was his mother. At length, on the third day, when the bloody pro- cession was over, Leclerc was made to stop at the usual place of execution. The executioner prepared the fire, heated the iron which w T as to sear the flesh of the minis- ter of the Gospel, and, approaching him, branded him as a heretic on his forehead. Just then a shriek was uttered — but it came not from the martyr. His mother, a witness of the dreadful sight, wrung with anguish, endured a violent struggle between the enthusiasm of faith and maternal feelings; but her faith overcame, and she exclaimed, in a voice that made the adver- saries tremble, " Glory be to Jesus Christ and his wit- nesses." Thus did this Frenchwoman of the sixteenth century have respect to that word of the Son of God, " Whosoever loveth his son more than me is not worthy of me." So daring a courage at such a moment might have seemed to demand instant punishment; but that Christian mother had struck powerless the hearts of priests and soldiers. Their fury was restrained by a mightier arm than theirs. The crowd falling back and making way for her, allowed the mother to regain, with faltering step, her humble dwelling. Monks, and even the town- Serjeants themselves, gazed on her without moving; "not one of her enemies," says Theodore Beza, " dared put forth his hand against her." After this punishment, Leclerc, being set at liberty, withdrew, first to Rosay en Brie, a town six leagues from Meaux, and subsequently to Metz, in Lorraine. " And there," says Theodore Beza, "he acted on the example of St. Paul, who/while labouring at Corinth as a tent-maker, persuaded both the Jews and the Greeks." Having his spirit stirred within him at the idolatry of the people, he broke down the images in one of their chapels, and scattered the fragments before the altar. This passage 72 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. had been impressed upon his mind as though uttered by the voice of God to him, " Thou shalt not bow down to their gods ; but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images." Exod. xxiii, 24. And he did not doubt but that he was moved by the special inspiration of the Spirit of God to perform this apparently rash act. The excitement was intense. "Death — death to the sacrilegious wretch," resounded on all sides. Leclerc was seized ; but instead of attempt- ing to defend himself, he exhorted the people to worship God alone. This appeal only inflamed the fury of the multitude to a still higher pitch, and they would will- ingly have dragged him to instant execution. When placed before his judges, nothing daunted, he coura- geously declared that Jesus Christ — God manifest in the flesh — ought to be the sole object of worship. He was sentenced to be burnt to death, and conducted to the place of execution. Here an awful scene awaited him: his persecutors had been devising all that could render his sufferings more dreadful. At the scaffold, they were engaged heating pincers, as instruments of their cruelty. Le- clerc heard with calm composure the savage yells of monks and people. They began by cutting off his right hand; then taking up the red-hot pincers, they tore away his nose; after this, with the same instrument, they lacerated his arms ; and having thus mangled him in many places, they ended by applying the burnings to his breasts. All the while that the cruelty of his enemies was venting itself on his body, his soul was kept in perfect peace. He ejaculated solemnly, — " Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not ; eyes have they, but they see not ; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 73 they walk not ; neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them ; so is every one that trusteth in them. Israel, trust thou in the Lord; he is their help and their shield." The enemies were awed by the sight of so much composure ; be- lievers were confirmed in their faith; and the people, whose indignation had vented itself in the first burst of anger, were astonished and affected. After undergoing these tortures, Leclerc was burned by a slow fire in con- formity to the sentence. Such was the death of the first martyr of the Gospel in France. 19. SCHUCH. Towards the end of the year 1524, information was conveyed to "Anthony the Good" that a pastor, named Schuch, was preaching the evangelical doctrine in St. Hippolyte. " Let them return to their duty," was his stern reply, " or I will march against the town, and lay it waste with fire and sword." The faithful pastor re- solved to sacrifice himself for his flock, and forthwith repaired to the city of Nancy, where the duke resided. Immediately on his arrival, he was lodged in a noisome prison, under the custody of brutal and cruel men. Bonaveiiture, the infamous confessor of the duke, now had the heretic in his power. He presided at the tri- bunal before which Schuch was examined. Addressing the prisoner, he cried out, " Heretic ! Judas ! ! Devil ! ! !" Schuch, preserving the utmost tranquillity and com- posure, made no reply to these insults ; but holding in his hand a little Bible, all covered with notes which he had written in it, he meekly and earnestly confessed Jesus Christ and him crucified. On a sudden, he as- sumed a more animated mien, — stood up boldly, raised his voice as if moved by the Spirit from on high, — and, 4 74 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. looking his judges in the face, denounced against them the fearful judgments of God. Brother Bonaventure and his companions, inwardly- appalled, yet agitated with rage, rushed upon him at once with vehement cries, snatched away the Bible, from which he read those menacing words, — and "raging like so many mad dogs," says the chronicler, " because they could not wreak their fury on the doc- trine, carried the book to their convent, and burnt it there." The whole court of Lorraine resounded with the ob- stinacy and presumption of the minister of St. Hippo- lyte ; and the prince, impelled by curiosity to hear the heretic, resolved to be present at his final examination, secretly, however, and concealed from the view of the spectators. But as the interrogatory was conducted in Latin, he could not understand it ; only he was struck with the steadfast aspect of the minister, who seemed to be neither vanquished nor abashed. Indignant at this obstinacy, Anthony the Good started from his seat, and said, as he retired, " Why dispute any longer? He de- nies the sacrament of the mass ; let them proceed to execution against him." Schuch was immediately con- demned to be burned alive. When the sentence was communicated to him, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and mildly made answer, " I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." On the 19th of August, 1525, the whole city of Nancy was in motion. The bells gave notice of the death of a heretic. The mournful procession set out. It must pass before the convent of the Cordeliers, and there the whole fraternity were gathered in joyful expectation before the door. As soon as Schuch made his appear- ance, Father Bonaventure, pointing to the carved images over the convent gateway, cried out, "Heretic, pay honour to God ; his mother, and the saints." SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 75 " hypocrites !" replied Schuch, standing erect before those pieces of wood and stone, " God will destroy you, and bring your deceits to light." When the martyr reached the place of execution, his books were first burnt in his presence, and then he w T as called upon to recant : but he refused, saying, " Thou, God, hast called me, and thou wilt strengthen me to the end;" and immediately he began, with a loud voice, to repeat the fifty-first Psalm, " Have mercy upon me, God, according to thy loving-kindness l" Having mounted the pile, he continued to recite the Psalm until the smoke and flames stifled his voice. 20. THE HERMIT OF LIVRY. In the forest of Livry, three leagues distant from Paris, and not far from the site of an ancient abbey of the order of St. Augustin, lived a hermit, who, having chanced in his wanderings to fall in with some of the men of Meaux, had received the truth of the Gospel into his heaxt. The poor hermit had felt himself rich indeed that day in his solitary retreat, when, along with the scanty dole of bread which public charity had af- forded him, he brought home Jesus Christ and his grace. He understood from that time how much better it is to give than to receive. He went from cottage to cottage in the villages around, and as soon as he crossed the threshold, began to speak to the poor peasants of the Gospel, and the free pardon which it offers to every burdened soul, — a pardon infinitely more precious than any priestly absolution. The good hermit of Livry was soon widely known in the neighbourhood of Paris ; many came to visit him at his poor hermitage, and he dis- charged the office of a kind and faithful missionary to the simple-minded in all the adjacent districts. 76 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. It was not long before intelligence of what was doing by the new evangelist reached the ears of the Sorbonne, and the magistrates of Paris. The hermit was seized, — dragged from his hermitage — from his forest — from the fields he had daily traversed, — thrown into a dun- geon in that great city which he had always shunned, — brought to judgment, — convicted, — and sentenced to "the exemplary punishment of being burnt by a slow fire." In order to render the example the more striking, it was determined that he should be burnt in the close of Notre Dame — before that celebrated cathedral, which typifies the majesty of the Roman Catholic Church. The whole of the clergy were convened, and a degree of pomp was 'displayed equal to that of the most solemn festivals. A desire was shown to attract all Paris, if possible, to the place of execution. " The great bell of the church of Notre Dame swinging heavily," says an historian, "to rouse the people all over Paris." And accordingly from every surrounding avenue, the people came flocking to the spot. The cleep-toned reverbera- tions of the bell made the workman quit his task, the student cast aside his books, the shop-keeper forsake his traffic, the soldier start from the guard-room bench, — -and already the close was filled with a dense crowd, which was continually increasing. The hermit, attired in the robes appropriated to obstinate heretics, bare- headed, and with bare feet, was led out before the doors of the cathedral. Tranquil, firm, and collected, he replied to the exhortations of the confessors, who pre- sented him with the crucifix, only by declaring that his hope rested solely on the mercy of God. The doctors of the Sorbonne, who stood in the front rank of the spectators, observing his constancy, and the effect it produced upon the people, cried aloud, " He is a man foredoomed to the fires of hell." The clang of the great SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 77 bell, which all this while was rung with a rolling stroke, w T hile it stunned the ears of the multitude, served to heighten the solemnity of that mournful spectacle. At length the bell was silent, — and the martyr having an- swered the last interrogatory of his adversaries by say- ing that he was resolved to die in the faith of his Lord Jesus Christ, underwent his sentence of being " burnt by a slow fire." And so, in the cathedral close of Notre Dame, beneath the stately towers erected by the piety of Louis the younger, amidst the cries and tumul- tuous excitement of a vast population, died peaceably, a man whose name history has not deigned to transmit to us, — " the hermit of Livry." 21. JOHN LAMBERT. John Lambert was born in Norfolk, educated at Cam- bridge, and became a preacher to the English merchants at Antwerp. Here he was ensnared by the minions of popery and conveyed to London about the year 1532. After undergoing an examination before the archbishop Warham, he was confined in prison, where he remained till after the death of the bishop. In 1538, his opinion of the nature of the Lord's sup- per became a subject of public notoriety. Gardiner, then bishop of Winchester — a man of infamous memory — seized upon the occasion to instil into the mind of the King, Henry VIII., that he had now an opportunity to clear himself from the aspersions which his opposition to the Romish hierarchy had brought upon him, if he would proceed vigorously against John Lambert for heresy. The king hearkened to this advice, and sent out a general commission, commanding his nobles and bishops to assemble in London to assist him against heretics and heresies, upon which he himself would sit 78 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. in judgment. When all things were prepared, a day was appointed for Lambert's appearance, many of the nobility were there, and all the scaffolds were filled with spectators. At length the faithful servant of Christ was brought from prison w T ith a guard of armed men, and was placed opposite the king's seat, who came as the judge of that controversy; on his right hand sat the bishops, behind the lawyers, and on the left hand the peers of the realm. Henry, turning to his counsellors, commanded the bishop of Exeter to declare to the peo- ple the cause of their assembling. He informed the multitude, that though the king had abolished the autho- rity of the bishop of Rome, yet that he would not have any suppose he intended to extinguish religion, or to give liberty to heretics to disturb the Church's peace ; and that his purpose was to refute the heresies of the prisoner then before them, and other similar heretics, and openly to condemn them in the presence of them all. The bishop having ended his oration, the king stood up, and with bent brows looking upon Lambert, de- manded of him what was his name. Kneeling down, he meekly said, "My name is John Nicholson, though ordinarily I am called Lambert." After various ques- tions and answers, Henry ordered him to declare his opinion about the sacrament of the altar ; he then gave God thanks, who had inclined the heart of the king him- self to hear, and understand the cause of religion : but the king with an angry voice interrupted him, saying, "I came not hither to hear mine own praises, therefore briefly go to the matter, without any more circum- stances." Alarmed by these angry words, he paused awhile, considering what he should do in such an ex- tremity. The king, still more incensed at his delay, cried out in great fury, "Why standest thou still? Answer what thy judgment is about the sacrament of the altar." Lambert first quoted Augustine's opinion, SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 79 and then plainly denied that it was the body of Christ. Archbishop Cranmer then, at the king's command, argued the point with him ; but the answers of the pri- soner were so acute, and his arguments so conclusive, that the archbishop was unable to cope with him. This greatly excited the king and amazed the people. Gar- diner broke in upon the argument, with taunts and jeers; and also others, till no less than ten bishops had pressed the prisoner with their arguments. At length, wearied with his long standing, which had continued five hours, afflicted with the taunts and indignities he had received, and seeing no hope that the truth would prevail or have even a decent hearing, Lambert resolved to say no more. The king then said to him : " What sayest thou after all this pains taken with thee? Wilt thou live or die? What sayest thou ? Thou hast j^et free choice." He answered, " I submit myself wholly to the will of your majesty." The king replied, " Commit thyself into the hands of God, not of me." To which the martyr an- swered, " I commend my soul into the hands of God, but my body I wholly submit to your clemency.'' Then said the king, " If you commit yourself to my judgment you must die ; for I will be no patron to heretics." He then commanded that the sentence of condemnation should be read. Upon the day appointed for this holy martyr to suffer, he was brought out of prison by eight o'clock in the morning. When the hour of death came, he found much joy and comfort in his soul. Coming out of the cham- ber into the hall, he saluted the gentlemen, and sat down to breakfast with them, after which he was soon con- veyed to Smithfield, the place of execution When his legs were burned to the stumps, the wretched tormen- tors withdrew the fire from him, leaving but a small fire, and coals under him : after this two of them thrust their 80 DEATH-BED SCENES. [PART I. halberds into his sides, with which they lifted him up as far as the chain would permit. At this time of extreme misery the holy sufferer lifting up his hands, while his fingers' ends were flaming with fire, said, " None but Christ — none but Christ!" Being let down, he fell into the fire, where he ended his sorrows, and his spirit fled to the joy of his Lord. 22. ANN ASKEW. Sir William Askew, of Kelsay, in Lincolnshire, was blessed with several daughters. His second, named Ann, had received a genteel education, which, with an agreeable person and good understanding, rendered her a very proper person to be at the head of a family. Her father, regardless of his daughter's inclination and happiness, obliged her to marry a gentleman who had nothing to recommend him but his fortune, and who was a most bigoted papist. 2>!o sooner was he convinced of his wife's regard for the doctrines of the reformation from popery, than, by the instigation of the priests, he violently drove her from his house, though she had borne him two children, and her conduct was unexceptionable. Abandoned by her husband, she came up to London in order to procure a divorce; but here she was cruelly betrayed by him, and, upon his information, taken into custody, and examined concerning her faith. After undergoing an examination before an inquisitor, and also before Bonner, through the importunity of friends she was liberated upon bail. Some time after she was again apprehended, and car- ried before the king's council. The lord chancellor asked her opinion about the sacrament : she answered, that she believed, that so often as she received the bread in remembrance of Christ's death, she received the fruits SEC. I.] CHRISTIAN MARTYRS. 81 of his most glorious passion. The bishop of Winches- ter ordered her to give a more direct reply. She an- swered, she would not sing the Lord's song in a strange land. The bishop told her she was a parrot. After much other debate she was imprisoned till the next day, when they again inquired what she said to the sacra- ment : she answered, that she had said what she could say. Gardiner with some others, earnestly persuaded her to confess the sacrament to be the flesh, blood, and bone of Christ; she told two of them, that it was a great shame for them to counsel her contrary to their own knowledge : after much other arguing, they dismissed her. The Sabbath following she was very ill, and seem- ing likely to die, she desired to speak with Mr. Latimer ; but instead of granting this small request, ill as she w