hich the sufferings of the martyrs were mitigated; and
as St. Luke tells us of the centurion entreating Paul courteously, so
does Fox relate of Saunders, that when his wife came to the prison gate,
with her young child in her arms, to visit her husband, the keeper,
though he durst not suffer her to enter the prison, yet took the little
babe out of her arms and brought him to his father, to his exceeding
great joy: and of Hooper's guard, that they interceded with the sheriffs
of Gloucester on behalf of their charge, that he might not be sent to
the common gaol, they declaring at large how quietly, mildly, and
patiently he had behaved himself in the way, and adding, that they would
rather themselves be at the pains to watch with him than that he should
be so handled: and of Rowland Taylor, that his wife and son Thomas were
permitted to sup with him in the Counter, "by the gentleness of his
keepers;" and afterwards, that of his guard three out of the four used
him friendly. It was to be expected that a work which, had it been
published a few years sooner (supposing this possible), would probably
have added its author to the catalogue of his own martyrs, should
excite no small stir amongst the Catholics, and so it came to pass. But
they weakened the force of their attack by betraying prematurely the
spirit which animated them, sarcastically inquiring, even before its
publication, when the "Golden Legend" was to appear, and denouncing the
"Calendar of Saints," which they had heard was to be prefixed to it, as
blasphemy against their own. But Fox went on, as he says, without fear
and without favour; and no sooner was Elizabeth, to whom he dedicated,
out of the way, than an examination of the book appeared, by Parsons the
Jesuit, in his "Three Conversions of England," which has furnished more
modern objectors with most of the weapons of their warfare. But Parsons
writes in a temper which defeats itself. He deals in vague vituperation,
rather than in specific accusations of error; or where he ventures upon
the latter, he often either wilfully or ignorantly misreads Fox, as in
the vapid pleasantry wasted upon Joan Lashford, a married maid, as he is
pleased to call her;[20] or he triumphs over him by exposing some flaw
in the character of a martyr with an _eureka_, which the honest
martyrologist himself did not affect to conceal, and for the knowledge
indeed of which Parsons is altogether indebted to him, as where he makes
himself