31-10-2018, 07:42 PM
From English Recusant Literature, Volume 281 (1603):
"There is a certaine stone, or substance, whiche we Grecians* calle Amianthon, of that nature, that it is not with fire to be consumed. For being put in the flame, it semeth to be burnt unto coles, but being taken out of the fier, it appereth more pure, as doth water being clarified. Such were the bodies of those three children in Babylon, having thorough fasting, the unconsumptible nature of the Amianthon. For in the great flame of the fornaise, they, being as of the nature of golde, did overcome all the force of the fier. Yea they appeared to be of muche more excellenencie, then golde. For the fire dyd not mealt them, but preserved them whole. Yea and that, when nothing inthe worlde did stay or keepe backe the flame. But contrary, Naptha, a kinde of naturall, and unquencheable lime, pitche, and small twygges, dyd so nourrishe it, that it was spread the length of xlix cuites, and so seeding rounde about consumed many of the Chaldeans. The children then being entred, with bodies purified by fasting, ded treade under their feete, and overcomme that deadly fier, breathing a moiste aire, as it were a sweet dewe, upon that vehement fier whiche yet durst not touche so muche as their heare, bicause the same had ben bred and nourished by fasting."
"There is a certaine stone, or substance, whiche we Grecians* calle Amianthon, of that nature, that it is not with fire to be consumed. For being put in the flame, it semeth to be burnt unto coles, but being taken out of the fier, it appereth more pure, as doth water being clarified. Such were the bodies of those three children in Babylon, having thorough fasting, the unconsumptible nature of the Amianthon. For in the great flame of the fornaise, they, being as of the nature of golde, did overcome all the force of the fier. Yea they appeared to be of muche more excellenencie, then golde. For the fire dyd not mealt them, but preserved them whole. Yea and that, when nothing inthe worlde did stay or keepe backe the flame. But contrary, Naptha, a kinde of naturall, and unquencheable lime, pitche, and small twygges, dyd so nourrishe it, that it was spread the length of xlix cuites, and so seeding rounde about consumed many of the Chaldeans. The children then being entred, with bodies purified by fasting, ded treade under their feete, and overcomme that deadly fier, breathing a moiste aire, as it were a sweet dewe, upon that vehement fier whiche yet durst not touche so muche as their heare, bicause the same had ben bred and nourished by fasting."