Foxe's Book of Martyrs

by John Foxe

Because they had no way of obtaining direct knowledge of the Scriptures, most people were led into realms of darkness and doubt, and taught by the clerics that the ceremonies and practices of the church would save them.

The Holy Eucharist, after the consecration by a priest, is not the actual body of Christ. 2. The Church of Rome is not the head of all churches; nor did Peter have any more power given to him by Christ than to the other apostles. 3. The pope has no more the keys of the Church than does any other in the priesthood. 4. The Gospel by itself is a rule sufficient to rule the life of every Christian person on the earth, without any other rule. 5. All rules that are made to govern religious people add no more perfection to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than does white color to a wall.

Neither the pope, or any other *prelate, should have prisons in which to punish transgressors.

Scriptures were the foremost authority in all Church matters;

insistence on extensive reforms in the wealth, corruption, and abuses of the Roman church; his denial of the church’s doctrine of transubstantiation, which is the doctrine that says that the communion bread and wine become the actual body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ when the priest prays over them, although their appearances remain the same; and his argument that Christians should have a Bible in their own language that they could read for themselves.

“Whoever reads the Scriptures in ‘Wycliffe’s learning’ [the mother tongue, English], will forfeit land, cattle, goods, body, and life from themselves and their heirs forever; and be condemned as heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and complete traitors to England.” That was man’s reward to the true believers in Christ, but their Lord’s reward to them was an everlasting crown of righteousness.