A new martyrology, or, The bloody assizes now exactly methodizing in one volume comprehending a compleat history of the lives, actions, trials, sufferings, dying speeches, letters, and prayers of all those eminent Protestants who fell in the west of England and elsewhere from the year 1678 ... : with an alphabetical table ... / written by Thomas Pitts.
About this Item
- Title
- A new martyrology, or, The bloody assizes now exactly methodizing in one volume comprehending a compleat history of the lives, actions, trials, sufferings, dying speeches, letters, and prayers of all those eminent Protestants who fell in the west of England and elsewhere from the year 1678 ... : with an alphabetical table ... / written by Thomas Pitts.
- Author
- Tutchin, John, 1661?-1707.
- Publication
- London :: Printed (according to the original copies) for John Dunton,
- 1693.
- Rights/Permissions
-
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- Subject terms
- Jeffreys, George Jeffreys, -- Baron, 1644 or 5-1689.
- Bloody Assizes, 1685.
- Martyrs -- Great Britain.
- Cite this Item
-
"A new martyrology, or, The bloody assizes now exactly methodizing in one volume comprehending a compleat history of the lives, actions, trials, sufferings, dying speeches, letters, and prayers of all those eminent Protestants who fell in the west of England and elsewhere from the year 1678 ... : with an alphabetical table ... / written by Thomas Pitts." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A63966.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 17, 2024.
Pages
Page [unnumbered]
TO GEORGE Lord JEFFREYS. LATE Lord Chancellour of ENGLAND.
My Lord,
I Know not to whom I could more properly Dedicate a Treatise of this Nature, than to your Lordship, who lately was Lord Chief Justice of England, and have set such remarkable Copies to inferiour Ma∣gistrates. What is here offered may serve as a Mir∣rour, in which future Administrators of Publick Ju∣stice would do well to look; for you may remember, my Lord (if your Lordships present Afflictions have not made you forget as much Law as you ever learnt) Com∣mon Law ••uns much upon Presidents: And if a Man happen to have none of the best Physiognomies, there is no reason why he should streight grow angry, and fling stones, to break all the Looking-Glasses he meets with, only because they represent the true Figure of the Object.
My Lord, The following Treatise is a true Account of your Lordships Life and Actions (most of which are ready to be attested upon Oath) of your unheard of Cru∣elties and barbarous Proceedings in your whole We∣stern Circuit: In which all may see at what dear rates our Western Martyrs puchased their Religion, and how that it cost those glorious Sufferers tha•• so lately went off the Stage (under your Lordships Sentence)
Page [unnumbered]
both Whippings and cruel Impriso••ments, ••nd the most exquisite Tortures which none could invent or inflict but your Lordship (whose good nature is sufficiently expe∣rienced) nor any endure but they whose gallant and noble Souls were born up with heavenly Cordials, and a Power from on high. But, my Lord, rest assured, that their Bl••od still cries for Vengeance, and will be a last∣ing Monument of your Lordships C••uelties, whilst Hi∣story can speak or transmit to incredulous Posterity the Remarkables of elapsed Ages; for Hang, Draw and Quarter, and Try Men afterwards, (Witness Sir Thomas Armstrong's death, &c.) has been your pecu∣liar Talent. But you Lordship will now ••t last do well to remember that King Alfred caused fourty four Judges in one year to be hang••d as murderers, for their false Judgments.
I hope your Lordship will pardon this present Address, seeing 'tis a priviledge we modern Authors hold by Pre∣scription, to put any great Body's Name in the Front of our Book: Princes have not been able to exempt them∣selves or their Families from the Persecution of Dedi∣cations; nor ever was there (I humbly conceive) any Rule made in your Lordships Court to forbid them.
Suffer then, I beseech your Lordship, this Address to remain a Monument to Posterity, of the sentiments this Age has of your Lordships Conduct and Merits; and Witness to all the World how much its Author is,
Your Lordship's Most humble Servant, JAMES BENT.