This is a reproduction (Facsimile) Of the original book published in 1874.The spectacle of human beings suffering for the truth is the sublimest sight that can be witnessed on earth. In the providence of God this has been the means of strengthening and spreading the very principle which has at times seemed to expire with the martyr. It was thus with Christianity in the days of the primitive Church, the history of which is an almost unbroken record of martyrdom. The proudest and most fruitful triumphs of that Church were won at the stake, in the arena, and on the scaffold.As it was with primitive Christianity, so it was with Protestantism, the reassertion of the great and simple truths of that pure epoch against the errors with which the Roman Church, for its own selfish ends, had obscured the faith delivered by our blessed Saviour to his Apostles, and by them to the early Church. The precious heritage which we enjoy of Gospel truth and religious freedom was won for us by our fathers with blood and suffering. Papal Rome, following the example of her Pagan predecessor, struggled fiercely to crush the truths which the Reformers, after much labor, succeeded in rescuing from the dungeons of superstition and ignorance, to which they had been consigned.