Abbes VINDICATED by a Bully’s Madness
[Above: Title page of John Foxe's Book of Martyrs, 1563 Edition.]
NOW AND THEN the Bible recorded instances in which God supernaturally executed his opponents. Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah foretold the deaths of lying prophets. The earth swallowed forty opponents of Moses. Bible readers will recall other instances.
Rarely does God intervene so drastically. Still, instances are on record nearer our own time, in biographies of William Wadé Harris, Amanda Smith, Charles Finney, and Harriet Tubman to name a few.
John Foxe recorded a sobering incident in his Actes and Monuments (aka, The Book of Martyrs) published in 1563.
James Abbes was a Protestant believer in sixteenth century England. The Bishop of Norwich persuaded him to cease preaching and gave him money. Abbes’s conscience tormented him so much that he went to the Bishop and returned the bribe, throwing down the coin. Unable to get the young man to change his mind, the bishop ordered him burned. Abbes submitted to the flames on this day 2 August, 1555. Here is Foxe’s account of the event, with a few changes to make it more readable to a modern audience. This is adapted from the text printed by John C. Winston.
As James Abbes was going to execution, and exhorting the pitying bystanders to adhere steadfastly to the truth, and like him to seal the cause of Christ with their blood, a servant of the sheriff’s interrupted him, and blasphemously called his religion heresy, and the good man [Abbes] a lunatic.
Scarcely however had the flames reached the martyr, before the fearful stroke of God fell upon this hardened wretch [the sheriff’s servant], in the presence of him he had so cruelly ridiculed. The man was suddenly seized with lunacy, cast off his clothes and shoes before the people (as Abbes had done just before, to distribute among some poor persons), at the same time exclaiming, “Thus did James Abbes, the true servant of God, who is saved but I am damned.” He repeated this often. The sheriff had him secured and made him put his clothes on, but no sooner was he alone, than he tore them off, and exclaimed as before. Being tied in a cart, he was conveyed to his master’s house, and in about half a year he died.
Other Events on this Day
- SAMUEL DAVID FERGUSON BUILT THE LIBERIAN CHURCH ON EDUCATION
- For the Sake of New Christians, Jogues Gave Himself up to Torture