MARTYRS Church History CBU CST360 Quiz 1

Ignatius

Bishop of Antioch who, on his way to Rome under guard, wrote seven letters showing early church structure and urging unity against heresies. He longed to imitate Christ in death and asked Christians not to interfere with his likely martyrdom.

Polycarp

The elderly bishop of Smyrna, likely taught by John, calmly submitted to arrest and refused to recant before Roman officials. At the stake he said God would keep him steadfast without nails, and he was burned and killed.

Perpetua

A young noblewoman from Carthage who kept a prison diary, she refused repeated pleas (even from her father) to deny Christ. She faced beasts and the sword with composure, trusting everything to God's will.

Boniface

English monk-turned-missionary who evangelized Germanic regions, felled Thor's sacred oak, founded monasteries, and reformed church life under Roman order. He was later martyred in Friesland with his companions, remembered as the "Apostle of Germany."

Thomas Becket

Once Henry II's ally, he became archbishop of Canterbury and defended the church's independence against royal control. He was murdered in his own cathedral in 1170 and quickly venerated as a martyr.

Jan Hus

Bohemian preacher and professor influenced by Wycliffe, he championed Scripture's authority, clerical reform, and limits on papal power. Condemned at Constance and burned in 1415, he sparked movements that shaped later reform and the Moravians.

thomas Cranmer

Archbishop of Canterbury and chief shaper of Anglican worship and doctrine through the Book of Common Prayer and the Forty-Two Articles. Under Mary I he was executed by burning after publicly renouncing earlier forced recantations, thrusting his "offending" hand into the flames.

Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley

Leading English Reformers who defended Protestant teaching (Latimer as a famed preacher, Ridley as a scholar-bishop who reshaped communion practice). Tried under Mary I, they were burned together at Oxford, with Latimer's "play the man" line becoming emblematic of their witness.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

German pastor-theologian who opposed the Nazi regime, trained pastors in the underground, and aided resistance efforts. Arrested and later hanged at Flossenbürg in 1945, he is remembered for "costly discipleship" and steadfast courage.