AN ACCOUNT OF THE INQUISITION; THE BARTHOLOMEW MASSACRE; THE XIV; THE MASSACRES OF THE IRISH REBELLION IN THE YEAR 1641; AND THE RECENT PERSECUTIONS OF ORIGINALLY COMPOSED BY THE REV. JOHN FOX, A. M. NEW EDITION: EMBELLISHED WITH FIFTY-FOUR ENGRAVINGS. PHILADELPHIA: JAMES M. CAMPBELL, 98 CHESTNUT STREET. 1845. EDITOR'S PREFACE ΤΟ THE LAST ENGLISH EDITION. Is preparing the present Edition for the press, the greatest diligence has been used in collecting from various sources the best information on the subjects of which it treats. Well aware how difficult it is to fix attention by a tedious account of theological disputations, we have excluded the detail, while we have carefully preserved the spirit, of those controversies which had for their object the establishment of truth, or the refutation of error. The language, which had been corrupted and barbarized in successive impressions, has, in this, been corrected and polished; and, we trust, we may say, without the imputation of vanity, that it is, in all respects, better worthy of a place in the library of every Protestant family, than any of its predecessors. Indeed, if the unexampled patronage of the public be a proof of the excellence of a work, ours must rank high indeed; to state the real number of the circulation of previous editions would look like exaggeration; we shall therefore merely say, that while it exceeded our most sanguine hopes, it gratified our warmest wishes, by demonstrating that there still exists a truly Protestant spirit among our countrymen—and while this spirit survives, we know that they can never become the dupes of Popery and its abettors. iii |