Friar called Lambert a Dr. and Prior in the City of Lieg and one of the bloody Inquisitors as he was one day preaching bitterly against the Protestants was stricken speechless and being carried out of his Pulpit into his Cloister he was shortly after found drowned in a Ditch 94 Augustine Marlorat a Learned painful and holy Preacher in Roan was condemned to be hang'd and drawn on a Hurdle to the place of execution The Constable of France loaded him with a thousand reproaches and outrages as also did Monsieur Monbrun the Constables son who shortly after was slain in the battel of Dreux Also one Villibon gave him a switch with a wand adding many reproachful speeches therewith which Marlorat bore with admirable patience and meekness And when he was executed and dead the malice of his Adversaries rested not there For one of the Soldiers struck on his Legs with his Sword But speedy vengeance from God pursued his Persecntors For the Popish Captain that apprehended him was slain within three weeks after by the basest Soldier in all his Company And two of his Judges dyed very strangely soon after namely the President of the Parliament by a flux of blood which could by no art nor means be stopped The other being a Counsellor voided his Urine at his Fundament which was accompanied with such an intollerable stink that none could endure to come near him Villebon also who switched him sped no better For a while after the Marshal Vielle Ville coming to Roan about publick Affairs invited Villebon to dinner and in discourse lamenting the miseries of that City he exhorted him to reform many abuses seeing he was the Kings Lievtenant there Villebon took this so ill that he said If any man dare tax me for not behaving my self as I ought in my place I would tell him to his face that he lyed These words he repeated over so often that the Marshal being much urged struck at him with his Sword with such violence that had he not received the blow with his Arm his head had been clest to the Teeth Thus for the present he escaped with the loss of that hand wherewith he had stricken Marlorat in so disgraceful a manner at the place of Execution 95. A young Gentlewoman of about three and twenty years old came from Gascoine to Paris to join her-self to the Protestant Church there And after a while she among others was apprehended imprisoned and condemned to be burnt which she endured with admirable patience and constancy but presently two of them that bore witness against her falling out the one slew the other with a knife 96. Gharles Cominck who had been a Friar in the City of Gaunt after his conversion was apprehended and condemned but after his execution one of his greatest Adversaries who had a chief hand in his Death fell into such grievous horrors and terrors of Conscience that he dyed within a few days 97. Dr. Aegidio a godly Preacher in Sevil being brought into the Inquisition and used miserably by them before they proceeded to condemn him it pleased God that three of the Inquisitors who were his greatest adversaries dyed by which good Providence he was released and lived some years after 98. The Emperor Ferdinand the second was a great Persecutor of the Protestants in Bohemia and Germany who after his Victory over Frederick Prince Palatine and the Bohemian States made it his work to root out the Protestant Religion in those Countries and turned them into a very shambles of Blood sparing neither Age Sex nor Rank that refused to abjure the Truth But whilest he was in his full Carier God brought in against him a contemptible people the Swedes under whose Swords most of those bloody wretches fell who were the Bohemian Scourges so that much of Germany and of the Emperors Country was a very Aceldama a Field of Blood The Emperor 's great Army consisting of twenty four thousand that had given Laws to Germany for many years together and were looked upon as so many Captains by reason of their long practice and experience was broken in the plain Field And the Emperor himself being broken with breach upon breach was forced to such terms as the Enemies could be drawn to Examples of Gods Judgments upon Popish Persecutors in England and Scotland 99. Sir Thomas Moor and Fisher Bishop of Rochester who were great Persecutors of the Protestants in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth were themselves not long after condemned for Treason and beheaded 100. Philips who betrayed Mr. Tindal to the Emperors Secretary fell into a grievous Disease and was caten up of Lice 101. Pavier The Town-clerk of London a cruel Enemy to the true Professors of the Gospel swore a great Oath that if he thought the King would set forth the Scriptures in English rather than he would live to see it he would cut his own Throat But he brake Promise saith the Author for instead thereof he hanged himself Foxford Chancellour to Stokesley Bishop of London a bloody Persecutor and the common Butcher of Gods Saints dyed suddenly sitting in his Chair his Belly breaking and his Guts falling out before him 102. Rockwood who was a great stirrer up of the Persecution against Gods people in Calis suddenly fell sick staring raging and crying out All to late For I have maliciously sought the Death of many godly Persons and that against mine own Conscience and therefore all to late All to late and thus he continued unto his end 103. The under Marshal also who at the same time was a Persecutor fell down dead in the Council Chamber and never spake word after 104. Adam Damlip a godly Preacher in Calis was falsly accused of Treason for which he was condemned and executed and when he would have purged himself Sir Ralph Ellerker would not suffer him to speak but commanded him to be carried away to execution saying That he would not depart till he saw the Traitors heart out But shortly after in a skirmish against the French this Ellerker was slain and after they had stripped him naked they cut off his Privy Members and pulled out his Heart which they did not to any other of the slain 105. Dr. Story a Bloody Persecutor in Queen Marys Days when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown could not forbear to curse her dayly in his Grace at Board for which trayterous practice he was deservedly hanged 106. John Twiford a furious Papist that used to set up Stakes for them that were burnt in Smithfield dyed rotting above ground so that none could endure to come near unto him by reason of his horrible stink 107. William Gardiner an English Merchant being present in Lisbon at the marriage of the King of Portugal's Son with the King of Spain's Daughter and seeing the abominable Idolatry then used in the presence of the King and of all the States there assembled he stepped to the Cardinal who was celebrating of Mass and plucked the Cake out of his
in Prison And God paid him home in his own coin For according to his Imprecation his Body rottted away by piece-meal till he dyed 133. One Lever of Brightwel in Barkshire jeeringly said That he saw that ill-favoured Knave Latimer when he was burned at Oxford and that he had Teeth like an Horse But the Lord suffered not this profane scoff to go unpunished For about that very same Hour wherein Lever spake those words his Son hanged himself 134. All ages have cause to admire and adore the Exemplary Judgments of God poured out upon Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in Queen Marys days who upon the day wherein Reverend Latimer and Learned Ridley were to be burnt at Oxford though some great Peers came to dine with him that day yet would not sit down to dinner till one of his Servants about four a Clock in the Afternoon coming Post from Oxford brought word that Execution was done upon them Then did he hast to Dinner and was very merry but ere he had eaten many bits a sudden stroke of Gods hand fell upon him so that he was carried immediately to his Bed in which he continued for fifteen days in intollerable anguish and torments rotting above ground during all which time he could void nothing that he received neither by Stool nor Urine his Tongue also hung out of his mouth swoln and black and so he languished and pined away in great anguish and misery 135. King James the Fifth of Scotland by the instigation of the Popish Clergy was a great Persecutor of the Truth that then brake forth in that Kingdom and for that end he gave Commission to Sir James Hamilton natural Brother to the Earl of Arran who was his Treasurer to call and convent all that were suspected of Heresie and to inflict upon them the punishment which after tryal they should be found to deserve In Execution of which Commissiion he was most fierce and cruel not sparing some that were of his near Kindred But when he was in his greatest heighth and made it his work to suppress the Gospel one of his own Friends whom he pursued upon the account of Religion accused him of Treason and notwithstanding the mediation of the Popish Clergy for him as their greatest Patron he was arraigned condemned executed and quartered in the streets of Edenburg This King James also was heard to say that none of that way should expect any favour at his hands nay nor his own Sons if they should be found guilty But shortly after War breaking forth with England he found his Nobility averse to those Incursions which he intended to make into England which much vexed him These thoughts and some fearful Visions which he had by Night terrified him exceedingly For at Linlithgow on a night as he slept it seemed to him that Thomas Scot Justice Clerk came unto him with a company of Devils crying Wo worth the day that ever I knew thee or thy Service For serving thee against God and his Servants I am now adjudged to Hell torments Hereupon awaking he called for Lights and told his Servants what he had heard and seen The next morrow by the light of day news was brought him of the death of the said Justice Clerk which fell out just at the same time when the King had this Vision and almost in the same manner For he dyed in great horror often reiterating those words By the righteous Judgment of God I am condemned And this manner of his death answering so exactly to the Kings Dream made it the more terrible The King also had another Dream in the same place a few nights after which did more affright him Whilest he lay sleeping he thought that Sir James Hamilton aforesaid came unto him with a naked Sword in his Hand and therewith cut off both his Arms threatening to return within a short time and to deprive him of his life With this he awaked and as he lay musing what this Dream should import news was brought him of the death of his two Sons James and Arthur the one dying at S. Andrews the other at Strivling at one and the very same hour The next year which was 1542. being overwhelmed with grief he dyed at Falkland in the two and thirtieth year of his Age. A little before he dyed word was brought him that his Queen was delivered of a Daughter whereupon he brake forth into a Passion saying It came with a Lass meaning the Crown and will go with a Lass. Fie upon it 136. One Friar Campbell in Scotland did bitterly rail upon that man of God Mr. Patrick Hamilton whilest he was burning at S. Andrews to whom Mr. Hamilton said with much earnestness Thou wicked man thou knowest the contrary and hast sometime made a Profession of the truth I appeal thee to answer it before the Judgment Seat of Christ A few days after Campbel fell sick and in great horror of Conscience dyed distracted 137. Anno 1568. There was in Breda one Peter Coulogue a godly man who by his Popish Adversaries was cast into Prison and his Maid-servant daily carried him his Food confirming and comforting him out of the word of God as well as she was able for which they imprisoned her also Not long after Peter was put to the torment of the Rack which he endured patiently After him the Maid was fetch'd to be racked whereupon she said My Masters wherefrre will ye put me to this torture seeing I have no way offended you If it be for my Faith-sake ye need not torment me For as I was never ashamed to make a Confession thereof no more will I now be at this present before you but will if you please freely shew you my mind therein Yet for all this they would have her to the Rack whereupon she again said If I must needs suffer this pain pray you give me leave to call upon my God first This they assented to and whilest she was fervently pouring out her Soul unto God by Prayer one of the Commissioners was surprised with such fear and terror that he fell into a swoon out of which he could never be recovered by which means the poor Maid escaped racking 138. In the Reign of King Henry the Second of France there was a godly Tailor condemned to be burnt for Religion and some about the King would needs perswade him to be present and to see the Execution himself And God gave the Tailor such strength and conrage in the fire as astonished the King to behold it And the poor Tailor having espied the King in a window where he sate fixed his Eyes so stedfastly upon him as they were never off and the King was thereby constrained to leave the window and to retire into his Chamber and was so affected therewith that he confessed the shadow of the Taylor followed him whither soever he went and for many Nights after he was so terrified with the Apparitions of the Taylor that he protested with an
the Protestants began to meet more publickly and to profess the Truth more openly than before The Arch-Bishop thereupon renews his former Suit to the Son as he had before successfully pressed upon the Father In particular he first aimed at the destruction of Sir John Oldcastle See his Life in my second Volume of Lives who had most affronted him He by reason of his great Alliances and the favour of his King who called him His Knight might have expected exemption from their Tyranny But they prevailed with the King as saith Arch-Bishop Parker Rex virum clarum sibique familiarissimum Episcoporum potestati carnisioinae permisit The King gave up this famous man and who was dear to himself to the power and destruction of the Bishops And yet it pleased God that he outlived this persecuting Arch-Prelate two years at least For the Arch-Bishop having murthered many godly Saints in King Henry the Fourths time and being a great stickler in state affairs having long before procured himself to be made Lord Chancellour of England and lastly in a Synod held by himself at Rochester having forbidden the reading of the Scriptures in English and limited Preachers under an heavy censure what they should treat of in the Pulpit was soon cut off himself by the immediate hand of God after he had condemned that warlike Kinght Sir John Old-Castle Lord Cobham before he could see him executed For his Tongue was so swoln and benummed that he could neither swallow nor speak some days before his Death It being saith one the just Judgment of God upon him and may be a warning to all other wicked Popish Prelates that as he had muzled up the mouths of Preachers and kept the Scriptures from the knowledge of the people being their spiritual food So he should neither be able to swallow nor speak from that very minute that this Judgment fell upon him and so he dyed within a few days after in great torment and extremity by a languishing silence and famishment A later Example we have in the admirable punishment of James Beton Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in Scotland who was also a member of the purpurated Conclave at Rome He had for diverse years been an inveterate Enemy to the Gospel and the Professors of it in that Kingdom under King James the Fifth And after his Death taking the advantage of the infancy of the Princess Mary the Hereditary Queen of that Realm he thought it a work worthy of himself to double die his Purple Robes in the Blood of the Saints And to make a full and clear way for that his sanguinary Project he forged a Will of the deceased King whereby he was established the chief Regent there during the young Ladies incapacity to Reign From which yet his false play being discovered he was removed and for a while imprisoned Yet was he no sooner delivered but he presently endeavoured to raise a new and a fatal war between England and Scotland and to root out the Professors of the Truth by a violent and bloody Persecution And among others whom he cited imprisoned or exiled in the year 1545. he seized upon Mr. George Wiseheart a very eloquent and learned Preacher who by the Latin writers of that age is called Sophocardius and contrary to their own Popish Canons adjudged him to present death himself which is never done except by the hellish Inquisition of Spain but by delivering the Martyrs into the power of the Civil-Magistrate And in his Court before the Castle of S. Andrews caused that bloody Sentence to be executed the said Mr. Wiseheart being first strangled and his Body afterwards burnt to Ashes The Cardinal in the mean time had a Chamber prepared for him with Carpets and Cushions in the Windows out of which he was a Triumphant Spectator of this godly mans Martyrdom From which window he departed not more delighted than as himself thought secured and presently he began to fortify his Castle against all Assaults But Gods Judgment from Eternity awarded against him for this later as well as former cruelties exercised upon his faithful Servants slep'd not For within a few weeks after the Cardinal having falsified his Promise to the Lord Norman Lesly Son of the Earl of Rothsay a zealous Romanist He upon the thirteenth day of May the same year with about fourteen resolute Gentlemen in his company entred the said Castle of S. Andrews where the Cardinal lay having had a whore with him all that night and having first assured himself of all within and the Gates without he slew the bloody Prelate by his Bed-side without Law or Justice who had but a little before most unjustly condemned and murthered the aforesaid Mr. Wiseheart and being willing to expose the dead Carcass of that cruel Persecutor all weltring and besmeared with blood unto the view of the People who abhorred his Butcheries and rejoiced at his fall casually they laid it along to be seen of all men in that very window out of which a little before leaning at his ease upon rich Cushions he had proudly beheld the death of that precious Martyr 161. It s very observable which Historians take notice of that generally the greatest Persecutors are most drenched in the sin of uncleanness and Epicurism What was Escovedo that great Instrument of the King of Spain's cruelties against the Evangelical Party in the Low-Countries but a a very Lump of Lust which in the end proved fatal to him 162. Peter Espinac A Bishop of Lions in France was a great Persecutor and one that lived in incest with his own Sister 163. John Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in Scotland spent the greatest part of the Revenues of his See and the seisure of the Protestants Estates whose mortal Enemy he was upon his Whores and Revellings 164. The Cardinal of Granvels Veneries were so manifest and numerous as when Anno Christi 1574. the Kingdom of Tunis and the strong Fort of Gulette formerly esteemed impregnable were won by the Turks the Spaniards made a jest of it said openly That the Cardinals Breeches had occasioned that loss meaning thereby that King Philip the Second relying chiefly upon his advice in that and in most of the rest of his important affairs the Cardinals Lusts so took him up that he had not leisure to advise the King for the best 165. Cardinal Beton aforementioned wallowed at home with pollution among his Harlots and raged abroad with the blood and slaughter of the innocent Servants of Christ. 166. In that Hellish Massacre on S. Bartholomew's Day in Paris it self The Murtherers there were for the most part brutish and lustful Soldiers or profane Varlets of the scum of the City and though their Leaders were more noble yet less virtuous The Duke of Guise and Aumale Albert Gondy Earl of Rets Tavanne and others of them that were bred up in Lust Revellings and all manner of Debaucheries 167. The next place that came nearest to the cruelties exercised at Paris was the
Oath that he would never hear nor see any more of those Lutherans burned 139. In the late Rebellion and Persecution of Ireland John Nicholson and Anne his wife were received into the Protection of one Fitz-Patrick who would have perswaded them to change their Religion and to go to Mass But they professed that before they would do that they would dye upon the Swords point Then he laboured to prevail with the woman to burn her Bible but she said that before she would do it she would dye the death whereupon the Sabbath morning following they were both of them cruelly murthered But he that acted that villany was so tormented in Conscience and dogged with their Apparitions that he pined away and dyed 140. In the late Irish Massacre wherein the bloody Papists spared none of what Age Sex or quality soever O! how visibly did the Judgments of God follow them And for that savage Blood-shed gave them Blood to drink in great measure For Mac-Guir Mac-Mahun and Sir Philem Oneal being taken Prisoners were publickly executed Most of the rest were consumed by the Sword either in their own Countrey or in Foreign parts and their spirits were generally so debased and their courage emasculated that a few English or Scottish Soldiers would chase multitudes of them and Gods Judgments did so eminently follow them that within a few years most of that cruel Generation were rooted out Of Gods Judgments upon Persecutors in Germany Spain and France 141. The Electoral House of Saxony upon the devesting of that brave and pious Prince John Frederick the true Heir by the Emperor Charles the Fifth and the investing the younger House to usurp that Honour hath ever since proved a greater Friend to the Popish Party than to the purer Church of the French and Helvetick Confession Maurice that usurped the Dutchy and Electorate upon the captivating of the said John Frederick his Cousin first ruined the Princes of the Smalcaldick Union to which himself had subscribed and then casting an ambitious eye upon the Empire it self broke his Faith with the Emperor that had raised him and having patched up the defection by the help of Ferdinand of Austria King of Bohemia afterwards Emperor he lastly perished by a violent death in a pitch'd Battel fought against his Fellow-Protestants A just Judgment of God upon him 142. Charles the Fifth having obtained the Empire by the help and monies of our King Henry the Eighth was the most potent Emperor that ever Germany had as long as he maintained the peace of Religion But having yielded to the Popes instigations and prospered a while in his intended extirpation of the Truth he found at last by sad experience what his brave and valiant General Castaldus had foretold him that these violent proceedings would in the end prove fatal to himself For having first fled away at Midnight in a cold and rainy season from Onspurch for fear of the Protestant Army he was afterward instead of setling his Son Philip in his Imperial Throne as he had intended forced to surrender the Empire to his Brother Ferdinand who diverse years before had entred into a secret League with the Protestant Princes of Germany and so having lived a few years in a despised and disconsolate condition he at last ended his life most ingloriously in a Monastery 143. His Son Philip the Second King of Spain the most inveterate Enemy of the Gospel that ever lived did not only erect Shambles for Gods Saints in most of his large Dominions by his bloody Inquisitors but still aided the Rebels in France England and Ireland against their lawful Sovereigns and plotted to invade all other Protestant Dominions in Christendom so at last by one general Carriage of them all he and his holy Father the Pope might have shared the Christian World by a double Monarchy of the Church and Empire between them But did this bloody Prince prosper in these his ambitious and cruel Designs Nothing less For what got he by his invading France by Land and England and Ireland by Sea and by his large Pensions conferred upon the Traitors and secret Enemies of either States Truly nothing For having wasted about thirty millions of Money upon those fruitless Designs and not gained a Foot of Land in any of those Realms but the loss of a great part of the seventeen Provinces with whom having broken his Oath solemnly sworn to them in his Inauguration they by the Aid of England and France freed themselves from his unjust Oppression and Tyranny Neither did the Divine Justice suffer him so to escape but raised a Fire in his own House For whereas he had Issue by his first Wife Mary the Daughter of John the Third King of Portugal one only Son called Charles a Prince of admirable towardliness He during the Life of our Queen Mary his second Wife treated a Marriage for his Son with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Henry the Second King of France during which Treaty our Queen Mary dying he himself married her who was designed for his Son a Lady of admirable Beauty and Parts They often in private never forgetting their old affections lamented their unhappy loss each of other The Son also detested his Fathers cruelty and butchery by the merciless Inquisitors This so enraged his jealous Father that he imprison'd him and delivered him over into the Inquisitors Hands by whom he was condemned Anno Christi 1568. and a few days after he sent to him to choose his own Death who in a warm Bath caused his Veins to be opened and so dyed A while after though she was great with child he caused his Queen to drink a Cup of poison which soon dispatched her 144. King Philip's fourth Wife was Anne the Daughter of Mary the Empress his own natural Sister by whom he had Issue Ferdinand and James both cut off by Death in their Infancy and Philip who being the only surviving Issue of this incestuous match succeeded his Father in his Dominions but not altogether in his cruelties 145. Rodulph the Second Emperor of Germany not following the steps of the wise Maximilian his Father but of the aforesaid Philip his Brother in Law sought by all secret and hostile means to enervate and root out Religion in the Empire What got he by it but to have Gods curse denounced in Scripture fulfilled upon him That the elder should serve the younger For Mathias the Arch-Duke of Austria raising an Army in the year 1608. and joining his Forces with those of the oppressed Protestant in Bohemia hem'd up his Brother Rodulph in Prague got the Kingdom of Hungary from him in present possession and the Empire in reversion leaving him nothing but the complement of Majesty which he did not long survive and could never revenge that affront 146. We need not look into ancient Histories of Gods Judgments upon Heathen persecuting Emperors we may see the sad successes of the Princes of the house of Valois in France King Henry the