...common observation, that the severity of punishments for opinion increases the number of confessors — that " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church ?" The power of natural sympathy with unmerited suffering — the abhorrence in the mind of man at the excessive...

...common observation, that the severity of punishments for opinion increases the number of confessors — that *' the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church ?" The power of natural sympathy with unmerited suffering — the abhorrence in the mind of man at the excessive...

...the second century downwards, until, by the loss of liberty and life itself, they proved to posterity that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. The translator's Introductory Essay will * " Finally," says Bellarmine, " it is good for obstinate heretics...

...better success ? On the contrary, is there not reason, there as well as here, to say what was said of the Christians of old, That the blood of the martyrs...church ? The emperor Julian, the most formidable enemy whom Christianity ever saw, was fully sensible of the truth of this. Harassing and tormenting could...

...common observation, that the severity of punishments for opinion increases the number of confessors — that *' the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church ?" The power of natural sympathy with unmerited suffering — the abhorrence in the mind of man at the excessive...

...better success ? On the contrary, is there not reason, there as well as here, to say what was said of the Christians of old, that the blood of the martyrs...zeal which he wanted to extinguish. He had recourse t hen-lore to the expedient of ridicule and contempt ; and this he found to be more effectual. The...

...this, the number of those who embrace Christianity still increases ; verifying the truth of the adage, that " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." The measures also of the queen, which have arrived at a frightful climax, are beginning to alarm the whole...

...1087live a new life, or to leave a dying testimony in his turn ; and thus to verify die principle, that " the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the church :" — the man who can realize this scene and remain unmoved, has little of the feelings of Christianity. He may...

...Church, which testimony was the sole cause of his condemnation ? Is then the saying of Tertullian untrue, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church? The short interval between the punishment of the Italian Reformer, which occurred in May, l498, and the...

...modern church had yielded so many martyrs as the Protestant Church of France, and surely if it was true that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church, the soil of France, saturated with that martyr-blood, had yet to vield a glorious harvest to the glory...