then doubt whether we are in the straight way or no when ye behold our sufferings would you have a better signe then this to know whether we are in the right way or no Compare our Doctrine with that of your Priests and Monkes we for our parts are determined to have but one Christ and him crucified we onely embrace the Scriptures of the old and new Testament Are we deceived in beléeving that which the holy Prophets and Apostles have taught One of the Fryers turning towards Martin said youngman be well advised for thy father and thy brother have acknowledged the seven Sacraments of the Church together with us and thou poore silly youth hast heard some wicked Heretique who hath deluded thée thinkest thou thy selfe wiser then so many learned Doctors as have lived in so many ages Martin answered I pray you Sir doth not Christ our Lord tell us that his Father hath hid the secrets of his Kingdome from the wise and prudent and revealed them to Mat. 11. 25. Iob 5. 13. babes And doth not the Lord oftentimes catch the wise in their owne craftinesse And whereas you say my Father and Brother have confessed seven Sacraments I well perceive by this that I ought not to give credit to ought you say knowye not that the Devill is the father of lies and all liers Is it not sufficient that I acknowledge so many Sacraments as God himselfe hath instituted and ordained to wit Baptisme and the Supper of the Lord Then came there into the prison two men of great authority in the City of Lisle the one called Mounsieur Barras the other Beaufremes who promised Martin great matters if he would recant and returne to the Roman Church Beaufremes among other spéeches said thus unto him Young man I have compassion on thy tender yéeres if thou wilt be ruled by us I will 100 〈◊〉 amount to two hundred crownes but this faithfull Martyr of Christ was not like Iudas who for love of money sold his Master promise thée thou shalt not die this shamefull death moreover I will give thée one hundred pounds sterling Martin gave him this answere Sir you present before me many temporall commodities but alas doe you thinke me so simple as to forsake an eternall Kingdome for enioying of a short transitory life No sir it is too late to speake to me now of worldly commodities but of those spirituall which God hath prepared for me today in his Kingdome nor doe I purpose to hearken after any other onely I pray you let me crave one houres respite to give my selfe to prayer and calling upon the Name of my God for you know now it is eight daies since my father departed this world and hitherto I have scarce enioyed an hours rest That which I have had hath rather béen to slumber in then have any quiet sléepe having continually had eight or nine persons invironing me about and talking unto me After these great men were forced to goe even as they came Martin declared the effect of this his combat to certaine Brethren who were there detained with him in prison saying moreover Let us lift up our heads Brethren the brunt is over this I hope is their last assault forget not I pray you the holy doctrine of the Gospell nor those good lessons which you have learned from our Brother Guy It is very likely hee meanes Guy de Brez a godly Minister of whom you shall read more God willing hereafter Manifest it now to all that you have received them not only into your eares but also into your hearts follow me we leade you the way feare not God will never leave nor forsake you farewell Brethren said he and so departed from them Soone after Martin and his mother were bound and brought to the place of their Martyrdome His mother having ascended the scaffold cryed to Martin Come up Come up my sonne And as he was speaking to the people she said Speake out Martin saith she that it may appeare to all that we die not Heretiques Martin would have made a confession of his faith but could not be suffered His mother being bound to the stake spake in the hearing of the Spectators We are Christians and that which we now suffer is not for murther or theft but because we will beléeve no more than that which the Word of God teacheth us Both reioycing that they were counted worthy to suffer for the same The fire being kindled the vehemency thereof did nothing coole or abate the fervency of their zeale but they continued constant in the faith and with lifting up their hands to heaven in an holy accord said Lord Iesus into thy hands we The happy death of the mother and her sonne commend our spirits And thus they blessedly slept in the Lord. These were the fruits which these holy assemblies in the City of Lisle brought forth None néed to enquire whether the rest were suffered to live in peace for what other spectacles were to be espied in the high waies and fields but poore fugitives flying hither and thither for safegard of their lives So great was the cruelty which was then and there exercised among them and yet when all is done God will be glorified in his Saints and children ¶ Iohn Rebec Martyr burned at Aniers in France the 24 of Aprill 1556. THis Robert had his tongue cut out because he A Martyrs tongue cut out for refusing to call upon the virgin Mary would not pronounce Iesus Maria to joyne them both in one prayer for being urged thereunto with great threats he boldly answered that if his tongue should but offer to utter those words at their bidding himselfe would bite it asunder with his téeth ¶ Bartholomew Hector Martyr was burned according to the sentence of the parliament of Turin in Piedmont in the yeer 1556. Iune the 19. BEing called before Authority to be examined ' The Martyr would not answer the Adversary till he had first craved assistance from God he would answer them to nothing before he had made his prayer to God Whereupon falling downe there on his knées he besought him to open his mouth and to direct his spéech onely to utter that which might tend to his honor and glory and to the edification of his Church Afterwards when he was bound to the stake gunpowder and brimstone was brought to be placed about him he lifing up his eyes to heaven and saying Lord how sweet and welcome is this to me ¶ Charles Covincke or le Roy de Gand once Anno 1557. a Friar Carmelite at Gand in Flanders was apprehended and executed at Bruges in the same Countrey Anno 1557. Aprill 27. BEing perswaded by his brother to returne Charles would none of his popish habit which he had once rejected againe to his Order and take upon him his fryers habit he made him this direct answer what néeds that saith he now I have cast off that popish wéed I
when the time was now come that God had given them power to prove and try his Church they foreflowed not to exercise their cruelty upon if which long before they had plotted and contrived Upon Saturday then the sixth of March Ann. 1556. betwéene nine and ten of the Clocke in the night the Provost of the City with his Sergeants armed themselves to make search if they could finde any met together â—t houses but as then there was no assembly Therfore they came to the house of one whose name was Robert Oguier which was a little Church for all both great and small men-servants and maâ—ds were familiarly instruded thers in the knowledge of God as the issue well manifested Being violently entred into the said house and séeking here and there for their prey they found certaine bookes which they carried away But he whom they principally aimed at was not then in the house viz. Baudicon the sonne of the said Robert Oâ—â—uler who at that time was gone abroad to commune and talke of the word of God with some of the brethren as he oft used to do Returning home he knocked at the dore Martin his younger brother watching his conunting bad him be gone willing him not to come in But Baâ—dicon thinking his brother mistooke him for some other said it is I open the dore with that the sergeants approching nigh unto it opened the same and causing him to enter in said Ah Sir you are well met to whom he answered I thank you my friends you also are welcome hither Then said the Provost I arrest you all in the Emperors name and with that commanded each of them to be bound to wit the husband his wife with their two sons leaving their two daughters to looke to the house Now as they conveied them along through the stréets Baudicon with a voice somewhat extended which might easily be heard The prayer which Baudicon made as he was led to prison at that time of the night said O Lord assist us by thy grace not onely to be prisoners for thy name sake but to confesse thy holy truth in all purity before men so farre as to seale the same with our blouds for the edification of thy poore Church Thus were they brought into severall prisons where they were severally handled yet ceased they not to praise and blesse the Lord with one consent within a few daies after the prisoners were presented before the Magistrates of the City and examined as touching their course of life who directed their spéech first to Robert Oguier in these words It is told us that you never come to masse yea and also dissuade others from comming thereto wee are further informed that you maintain conventicles in your house causing erroneous doctrines to be preached there contrary to the ordinance of our holy Mother the Church whereby you have transgressed the lawes of the Imperiall Maiesty Robert Oguier answered whereas first of all you lay to my charge that I goe not to Masse I refuse so to do indéed because the death and pretious bloud of the sonne of God and his sacrifice is utterly abolished there and troden under foot For Christ by one sacrifice hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified The Apostle saith by Heb. 10. 14. one offering For do we read in all the scriptures that either the Prophets Christ or any of his Apostles ever said masse for they knew not what it meant Christ indéed instituted the holy Supper in which all Christian people doe communicate together but they sacrificed not If you please to read the Bible over you shall never finde the Masse once mentioned therein And therefore it is the méer invention of men You know then what Christ saith In vain do they worship me Mat. 15. 9. teaching for doctrines the commandements of men If either my selfe or any of mine had béene at Masse which is ordained by the commandement of men Christ would have told us we had worshipped him in vaine As for the second accusation I cannot nor will deny but there have met together in my house honest people fearing God I assure you not with intention to wrong or harme any but rather for the advancement of Gods glory and the good of many I knew indéed that the Emperor had forbidden it but what then I knew also that Christ in his Gospell had commanded it Where two or Mat. 18. 20. three saith he are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them Thus you sée I could not well obey the Emperour but I must disobey Christ In this case then I choose rather to obey my God then man One of the Magistrates demanded what they did when they met together To which Baudicon the eldest son of Robert Oguier answered if it please you my Masters to give mée leave I will open the businesse at large unto you The Sheriffes séeing his promptnes looking one upon another said well let us heare it then Baudicon lifting up his eies to heaven began thus when we méet together in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ to heare the word of God we first of all prostrate upon our knées before God and in the humility of our Spirits doe make a confession of our sinnes before his divine Maiestie Then we pray that the word of God may be rightly divided and purely preached wee also pray for our Soveraigne Lord the Emperour and for all his honourable Counsellors that the Common-wealth may be peaceably governed to the glory of God yea we forget not you whom we acknowledge our superiors intreating our good God for you and for this whole City that you may maintaine it in all tranquility Thus I have summarily related unto you what we do thinke you now whether wée have offended so highly in this matter of our assemblies Moreover if you will not be offended to heare the tenour of the prayers we make there I am ready to recite the same unto you One of the Magistrates gave him a signe by which hée might understand that they desired to heare it Baudicon then knéeling downe before them prayed with such fervency of affection that the like ardency of zeale never appeared in him in so admirable a maner as at that time Insomuch that the Magistrates were forced to burst forth into tears beholding what a gratious Spirit the yong man was endued withall Then standing up hée said now your Masterships may take a scantling by this how wée are imployed in our méetings Whilst they were thus examined ech of them made an open confession of the faith which they held After this being returned againe into prison they not long after were put to the torture to make them confesse who they were that frequenteÌ„d their house but they would discover none unlesse such as were well knowne to the Iudges or else were at that time absent About foure or five daies after they were convented againe before their Iudges namely the
one astonished causing the executioner to finish out the rest of this Tragedy Notes upon the occasion of a sedition at Paris the fifth of March 1559. THe fifth day of March there was a great vprore raised in the church of Saint Innocents in Paris The preachers all the Lent neuer ceased to moue the people to kill all the Lutherans they could méet withall not leaue the execution thereof to the Magistrates Amongst the rest a Minorite who preached in the said Church spent all his Sermons upon that subiect The same day taking his text out of the eight of Saint Iohns Gospel concerning the woman taken in adultery being brought to Iesus Ch he vttered execrable things against the Magistrate shewing that it was no wonder if the Iudges did not cast the first stone at the Lutherans because they themselues were also Lutherans and therefore the people were not to attend them any longer but to rise make open war against them yea upon the chiefest of them which were but suspected to hold that doctrine In this garboile a poore Priest with a brother of his a Captain passing by and thinking by faire language to pacifie the disordered tumult had his foot no sooner out of the Church dore but he was set upon by this blood-thirsty crue who although he asked forgiuenesse in the name of the Saints desiring to be confessed and And thus thinking to martyr the Christians by the prouidence of God it fell on those of their owne side shewed all outward signes of being one of their owne side yet could he of this headlesse beast the multitude obtaine no fauour but was stabbed into the belly with a dagger and fell downe dead And yet they were not satisfied so but the very meanest among them had a blow at him raking with their hands in his wounds and then in Triumph lifting him vp bragged that they had bathed their hands in the blood of a Lutheran The Captain with much adoe getting into the Vicars house they beset the house lest he should escape their fingers And hearing that the magistrate was comming to deliuer him they feared not with one voice to say that they would spare none no not the King himselfe though hée came in his owne person If any more pitifull than the rest vttered but so much as the least word tending to compassion they were cruelly handled on all sides so as many met with hard vsage euen for that Not fully a yeare before this there fell out the like if not a worse spectacle of cruelty in the Church of Saint Eustate For a Doctor of the Sorbonists commonly called the soule of Picardy who in his sermons preached out nothing but fire and fagots incouraged the Parisians to slaughter the Lutheranes making many goodly promises to all such as would vndertake such a bloody designe which was not so soone propounded as accepted of by the people For a poore scholler who out of deuotion was present at the sermon happening upon some accident to laugh at his fellow Pupill an old turnecoate sitting by and observing it cryed out forthwith that a Lutherane mocked the Preacher The people at the sound of this voice began to stir not knowing upon what ground and haling him out of the Church miserably massacred him till they had forced both his eyes out of his head buffeting him with their fists and one among the rest caused his horse to trample upon him thrice Iohn Barbeville of Normandy being questioned by thrée of the Counsell about the sacrament answered that in the holy Supper being administred according to Christs institution hée received by faith the body and blood of the Lord but not after any carnall manner forasmuch as being now ascended into heaven hée shall See here what mock◠gods these be who cōdemne the poore christians not returne thence till he come to iudge the quicke and the dead Upon which article one of the Counsell added this scoffe which ascended into heaven and drew the ladder up after him Upon some occasion they said unto him that he was but a silly asse and therefore could not understand the Scriptures Well saith he be it that I am an asse yet did you never reade that God opened the mouth of the Prophet Balaams Asse A resorting speech well applyed to reprove him for loading him with stripes when he was going to utter his lies against the Children of God If God opened the Asses mouth doe yée now wonder if he opens mine to cause me to speake against the falsehood and lies which you spread abroad against the people of God For as the Asse spake being overchanged with blowes which the false Prophet gave him so now in regard of the heavie burden wherewith in times past you have oppressed me by your traditions I am constrained to speak as I doe Another inquisitor a Monke called Benedict told him that he was come to comfort and instruct him in the truth How can you said Barbeville say you come to instruct me in the truth when your selfe doth weare the habit of a lyar I cannot expect it from you for no man can gather figs of thistles nor grapes of thornes ¶ God so wrought here and the truth so prevailed that though it was plainly confessed yet the Prisoners were delivered Anno 1559. THe court of the parliament of Paris willing to moderate the cruelties used against those of the reformed religion sollicited them what they could to dissemble and to yéeld in some points wherein the well minded of that side were not yet rightly informed but to this their aduice they would by no meanes consent Then they tooke another course and that was simply to examine them touching the manner of eating Christs bodie in the Sacrament without mentioning Transubstantiation or any carnall presence hoping this way to frée them from the crime of sacramentaries upon which point for the most part the sentence of death was pronounced séeing they had heard formerly from the prisoners That the churches of France held how the body of Christ was receiued by the faithfull not in imagination but truly and indéed and that the signes were neither naked nor empty elements but exhibited that whereof they were signes This was propounded to foure yong men who were in the flowre of their age and lying prisoners in the Consciergerie of the palace if it might be to satisfie them Now when this confession was presented to the Court all that were well affected were glad of it in regard it was drawne so favorably some being of opinion that it would work their deliverance Others there were which opposed this proiect and requested they might be examined what they thought of the Masse it being so necessarie an article provided that there might be some moderation in the ordinary course of such interrogations Notwithstanding it was thought that this would rather hinder than further their deliverance yet did the better part persist in their purpose of fréeing them Being
up his eyes to heaven said twice or thrice Lord God heavenly father into thy hands I commend my spirit And then againe Lord forgive their sin who have put us to death Iames and the maide made the like prayer But because Iames was last strangled and the people moved with compassion began to stir the hangman kindled the fire upon Iames being but halfe strangled The people séeing him to die in the midst of the fire were yet more moved so as the tormentor being in a maze got a staffe out of a Boat headed with iron and smote the Martyr twice or thrice on the right side to make an end of him These thrée having a while lien in the fire they were carried thence in a cart to the gibbet where being put apart upon thrée poles they were afterward taken downe and buried Nicaise of Tombe born in Tournay Martyr Whose constancy is to be imitated and followed of every good Christian in suffering for the truth of the Gospell NIcaise dwelling in Tournay and following the trade of Say-making towards the end of his life was then by the mercy of God brought to the knowledge of true religion Now that he might be the more throughly instructed therein he went with his wife and family into the City of Wesell in base Almaine In which City there was at that time an assembly of strangers and especially of those who are called Wallons exercising themselves in hearing the word of God purely preached and in receiving the holy sacraments But Satan the mortall enemy of Gods children envying their happinesse soon after troubled this assembly in such wise with sundry questions that some retyred to Frankfort others to Strausburg and some to other places Nicaise returned to Tournay whence he came not to communicate there with the superstitions and abhominations in which he had formerly béen inwrapped but to joyne himselfe to the Christian assembly which met together in that place to manifest the truth of that heavenly knowledge which he had received out of the word of God Where notice being taken of him they received him into their society amongst whom he carried himselfe in so Christian a sort as they well perceived him to be a man of an holy conversation joyned Anno 1566. with an earnest desire to advance the glory of God and the kingdome of Christ in the edification of his Church Now forasmuch as affliction 2 Thes 2. 9. 10. is the true touchstone whereby the faithfull are discerned from Hypocrites Nicaise then shewed outwardly what he was within For being importuned to take an oath from those who were deputed thereunto by the King of Spaine to live according to the custome of the Romish Church and to observe the traditions invented by her he notwithstanding the threats and injuries done unto him constantly held out against the said oath not casting how deare it might cost him in the end Some of his kindred wished him at leastwise to withdraw himselfe aside for awhile into another City till the urging of this oath was over as also that his wife should change her lodging in his absence To this counsell he consented but the Lord who governes all our intentions and purposes had otherwise determined of him namely to set him forth as an example of constancy unto others and to beare witnesse so farre to the truth of the Gospell as to seale the same with his bloud by staying him at that time in the City For being ready to take his journey a néere neighbour of his being an enemy of the Gospell accused him to the commissioners for one that neither had nor would take the oath according to the forme appointed Nicaise requiring to heare the tenour of the oath before he would make them an answer they told him that he must sweare to kéep observe all antient customes to receive in the sacrament of the altar his creatour thrice in the yeare and on Sundaies and Holidaies to heare Masse morning and evening As soone as hée had understood their meaning hée told them hée intended not at all to take any such oath nor to wound his conscience in consenting to things so manifestly contradicting the word of God therewithall yéelding them the reasons of this his resolution accusing as well them for urging such an oath as those also who gave their consents thereto Upon this he was committed and laid amongst fellons in the Gaole called Pipigne untill Friday the twelfth of November on which day he received sentence of death namely to be bound and so led into the Market place of the City and there upon a Scaffold to be burned and consumed to ashes Having heard this sentence as he rose up hée said now praised be God and as he was about to have spoken more at large the Procurer fiscall bing present prevented him and thrusting him forward bad him march on By and by they brought him to the place of execution and as it well fell out having no Priest accompanying him when he was come downe to the Market place a néere friend of his comming to him commended him to God and so they kissed each other Being come nigh to the * Which is a watch tower standing bofore the City hall where the Clocke is Befroy of the City séeing there a great multitude of people who were assembled together to sée him passe by lifting up his voice he spake thus O yee men of Tournay open your eyes awake ye that sleepe and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give you light He also prayed all whom he had any way offended to forgive him as he for his part was ready to forgive all the world The people hearing him say so began to be moved and to make a great muttering The multitude also that were come together were so many that the souldiers who incompassed the Patient being now ready to suffer could neither march nor kéep ranke so as they were about to shoot Which the people perceiving began to be moved so much the more so as there had like to have béen a great tnmult But going on they drew nigh to the place where the scaffold was Nicaise all the while spent the time in prayer unto God and being at the place of execution hée uttered these words Lord they have hated mee without a cause and ascended up joyfully to the scaffold where the Tormentors readily received him and led him to the stake and as they were fastening him to it he said Eternall Father have pitty and compassion upon me according as thou hast promised to all that aske the same of thee in thy sonnes name Other prayers he made there to his God and so continued to his last gaspe And albeit the multitude made such a noise and the beating of the drummes hindred his words from being all fully heard yet he so often pronounced and that with such vehemency the word Iesus that it notwithstanding might plainly be understood as long as the breath
performe my vowes unto the Lord my God and so he was led bound fast to the wherry A certaine Priest who accompanied him presented unto him a wodden crucifix exhorting him to returne and to die in the favour of God reconciling himselfe unto the Church of Rome the holy Spouse of Christ But Ricetto rejecting that Crucifix besought the Priest and those that followed them to come out of the snare of the Devill to cleave to Iesus Christ and to live not according to the flesh but after the spirit for if you doe otherwise said he assure your selves your unbeliefe will bring you into that lake of fire that shall never be quenched For though you confesse with your mouth that you know Iesus Christ yet you not only deny him by your works but you persecute him in his members being seduced and 〈◊〉 by the Pope who is the open enemy of the Sonne of God When they were come nigh to the two castles the Captaine bound his hands now because it was very cold hée called for his cloke which they had taken from him Then said the wherry man fearest thou a little cold What wilt thou do when thou art cast into the Sea Why art thou not carefull to save thy selfe from drowning Doest thou not sée that the poore flea skippes hither and thither to save her life To whom hée answered And I am now flying to escape eternall death Being arrived at the place where he was to suffer the Captaine put a chaine of yron about his middle with a very heavy stone fastened thereto Then Ricetto lifting his eyes to heaven said Father forgive them for they know not what they doe And being laid on the planke hée said Lord Iesus into thy hands I commend my spirit then pulling this weighty stone towards him not waiting till the boats were sundred one from another as in such kind of executions they were wont to doe this holy man slept in the Lord which was no small terrour to the Magistrate in that there was never any that died this kind of death before with so much constancy and resolution ¶ Master Francis Spinola Martyr THe Sunday following Master Francis Spinola of Milaine being about the age sixe and forty yeares was apprehended and brought into the prison called Des cless de dix That of ten keyes where he found poore Francis Sega Two Francis Sega Martyr daies after which as the eight and twentieth day of February Spinola was brought before his Iudges where they delivered into his hands a little Treatise of the Lords Supper of which he fréely confessed he was the author shewing that the opinion which he there maintained was this That the bread and wine were the signes and not the things signified and therefore must not bée adored He was questioned with as touching the power of the Pope prayer to saints and about Purgatory He answered that the Popes power was from man which the Romane Consistory and certaine Princes had given him but that God the Father had given Iesus Christ to be the Mat. 28. 18. Head of the Church and to have all power in heaven and earth What is Peter then or what is Paul He further added that he would not worship nor pray to any other but to God only as it is written The memoirall of the Saints he well approved Luke 4. 8. Iohn 15. 5. as of those who were the true branches ingrafted into the Vine Christ Also for his part he acknowledgeth none other Heb. 1 3. Purgatory but the bloud of Christ as it is manifest in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in the first 1 Iohn 1. 7. Epistle of Iohn Then as Spinola was returned into his prison Francis Sega whom he was ignorant of waited his comming holding a candle in his hand and passing by with his Kéeéeper saluted him by his name whence it came to passe that they two conferred together about the doctrine of the Gospell Now howsoever Sega differed from The consancy of one martyr puts life into another Spinola touching the number of sacraments yet he referred himselfe to the judgement of the true Church of Christ in that behalfe But after that he had learned that Spinola had constantly stood to the defence of the truth he was very joyfull and much comforted saying That God had reserved him for such a time as this to make him partaker with him of so great consolation Hée wrote consolatory letters to Spinola committing his writings into his hands whereof some were preserved and the rest lost by the carelesnesse of a false brother Upon the thrée and twentieth day of February 1567. the Kéepers of the prison told Sega that he was to die within one houre after the shutting in of the evening At the hearing of which newes hée intreated Spinola to pray with him After prayer Sega telling him that his soule was heavy to the death Spinola gave him this answer Feare not for it will not be long before it shall feele those joyes which shall endure for ever Being brought out of his darke dungeon according to the time limited hée tooke his leave of Spinola and the rest of the prisoners As hée was entred into the boat a certaine frier began to perswade him to returne into the right way Sega answered that he was already in the way of our Lord Iesus Christ and passing on he called upon the name of God He séemed not to be much moved at the binding of his hands but was a little amazed at the fastening of his body to the chaine Yet by and by taking unto him a Christian resolution he tooke whatsoever they did unto him patiently Being laid upon the bourd or planke hée commended his soule into the hands of God Anno 1568. and being left of the two boats upon the edges whereof the planke was stayed the one declining this way and the other that way he fell into his spulchre the sea and died patiently Spinola soone after was presented the second time before his Iudges namely the tenth of March where he reproved the Popes Legate with his clergy there present as also the Lords of Venice who sat in judgement upon him because contrary to their consciences they so persecuted the truth of God calling them the offspring of the Pharisées Caiphas and the Gentiles who now As he did the first time hee was convented before them laid he kill Iesus Christ in his members The nine and twentieth of March following hée was the third time brought before them where they asked him if he would not recant his errors He answered that the Doctrine he maintained was not erroneous but the very same truth which Iesus Christ and his holy Apostles taught and preached and for which all the Martyrs as well of old time as now have willingly layd downe their lives and endured the paines of death After all this Spinola became so weake that Spinola begins to waver he determined to strike
when his will is he will also deliver mee out of thy hands being more afflicted with the blasphemies which this varlet uttered then with all the torments which she endured on her body He having bemauled her shinnes with the pattents shée wore upon her féet shée told him his cruelty farre excéeded that of the Turkes and Infidels Whereupon he calling her a Huguenot whore told her That these were but the beginnings of her sorrowes so as if she did not disclose unto him her seven hundred pieces of gold hée would draw her chéeks and breasts with Lard and then fasten her to a forme and burne her quicke and after mount her up to the highest stéeple in the City and cast her thence downe headlong Well said she though my body fall never so low that shall not let my soule from being carried up into heaven This Captaine being herewith more inflamed with ire than before séeing that none of these cruelties could shake the faith and constancy of this poore woman he said unto her eat this Sugar taking loame or mortar from off the wall causing her to open her mouth with his dagger and to swallow it downe But not contenting himselfe herewith the villaine forced her to drink a glasse of Vrine which himselfe had made in her presence and then threw the glasse with what remained therein in her face Lastly he caused her to passe along through the troups of souldiers with intention to have had her slaine among them yet compassion moving them to spare her he brought her into his lodging where this inraged Wolfe by strange cruelties would have caused her to lose her life had not some of the inhabitants by giving him ten crownes redéemed her and so conveyed her to her owne house where within a short time after she finished her dayes One buried alive PEter Roch servant to the Lievtenant of Dignes being met withall in the countrey was buried alive they constrained him to dig his owne grave himselfe and so try whether it were large enough or no unto which he was compelled by Bartholomew Chause-grosse and his complices Provence Two women crowned with thornes THe wife of Andrew Renaud being brought through Saint Martins of Castillon was stripped stark naked and resisting such as would have violated her chastity she was whipped outragiously Anno 1566. then wounded with swords crowned with thornes then cast into the river and lastly shot to death with harquebuses Iannenta Calvin of the place of Cella being of the age of eighty yeres brought into the city of Brignole with a crowne of thornes platted upon her head being whipped till the bloud came excéedingly was first stoned and then burned alive Mascon THe Murtherers in this city having seised upon the body of Bonnet Bor in Mascon one of the most noble houses of the same a man of great learning and of an unblameable life who in other places had served in the Ministry twenty yeares having béen ransommed thrée severall times was carried along with a thousand scoffes and frâ—nps smitten with fists through the corners of the stréets with crying That whosoever would heare this devout and holy man preach should come to the slaughterhouse Whither having brought him they buffeted and mocked him two full houres Hée onely requested before hée died that they would permit him to make his prayers to God Whereupon cutting off the one halfe of his nose and one of his eares they said Now pray as long as thou wilt and then wee will send thee to all the Devils Then he knéeled down and lifting up his eies to Heaven prayed with such fervency of spirit that hée caused some of his murtherers to sigh within themselves Then directing his spéech to him who had cut off his nose he said Friend I am here ready to suffer what thou hast yet further to inflict upon me But this I intreat of thee and thy companions to bethinke you well of the outrages committed by you against this poore city for know there is a God before whose Tribunall you must give an account of these your cruelties At these words the bloud issued so fast out at his nose that it hindred him from procéeding on in that hée was about to have said A Captaine passing by cryed to the souldiers Send this wretched man to the Devill Which one of them hearing tooke him by the hand and brought him to the brimme of the river Saone somewhat above the slaughter house pretending to wash and cleanse him from the bloud wherwith his visage was besmeared conducting him to a boat for this purpose into which he was no sooner entred but he there presently turned him over into the river wherein he striving for life and crying to God for mercy these tyrants battered him with stones till he sunke under the water and so died Sée here in part saith the Historiographer the lamentable estate of the poore churches of France during the first troubles which ended with the end of the Duke of Guise the principall actor therein who was slaine at the siege of Orleance not without the immediate hand of God in the yeare 156â— by a poore gentleman whose name was Iohn Poltrot a man very desperate but of small stature and therefore commonly called the little Spaniard who shooting the Duke into the shoulder with a pistoll as he was riding to his tent in an evening uaon a little negge was for the same fact adiudged to be drawne in pieces by foure horses his head to be cut off and his torne body to be burnt to ashes ¶ A very comfortable Letter written by Wouter Oom Prisoner and Martyr in the City of Antwerpe and full of consolation against the feare of persecution directed to a Brother and Sister of his Grace and peace from God the Father and from his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen WElbeloved brother and sister whom I love dearely for the truths sake and for your faith in Christ Iesus These are to certifie you that I am in bodily health and enjoy the comfort or a good conscience I praise my Lord God therefore who is able to increase the same more and more by the powerfull operation of his holy spirit Whosoever they be that will forsake this present evill world and become followers of their Captain Christ must make account to méet with many persecutions and afflictions for Christ hath told us aforehand that we should be hated persecuted Mat. 10. 12. and banished out of the world for his names sake And this they will doe saith he because they have neither knowne the father nor Iohn 16. 3. me But be not afraid saith he for I have overcome the world Saint Paul also witnesseth the 2 Tim. 3. 12. same thing saying all that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution And again to you it is given for Iesus Christ not onely to beléeve in him but also to suffer for his sake And Phil. 1. 24. Mat. 5. 11 12.
this chaine and thus fettered with Irons I doubt not but they have given such a reason of their faith that whosoever shall read their answers and weigh the same without partiality must néeds judge thereof even as wée doe And for my owne part I am ready to make it good before any whom it conceres that the doctrine I now hold and 1. Tim. 6. 3. Deut. 12. 32. teach is according to godlinesse taken out of the pure fountaines of the holy scriptures without adding diminishing or varying any way therefrom Bishop We reade that in all times men have béen wont to shelter themselves under the Title of Gods word in so much that all the old heresies maintained by heretiques have run to this covert so as great héed is to be taken lest under this pretence men rush into errors La Grange I am not ignorant sir hereof in regard that Satan knows how to transform himselfe into an Angel of light thereby to establish his delusions causing darknesse thereby to be taken 2. Cor. 11. 14. Iohn 14. 17. for light But the holy Ghost who is the Spirit of truth hath in such wise discovered his jugglings that none are deluded thereby but those who at noone day close their eyes that they may 2 Cor. 4. 4. not behold the light Bishop Doe you thinke that the holy Ghost hath given you such an illumination that the truth should only be revealed to you and to none other La Grange God forbid sir I should have any such thought I am not of the minde of those dreamers who at this day bragge of their having particular revelations of the holy Spirit He means the Anabaptists and their like Eph. 2. 20. But I speake of an ordinary and generall revelation such as is taught us out of the Bible which we call the holy Scriptures according as it is therein declared unto us by the Prophets and Apostles This was the effect of the Bishops first communication with de la Grange after which hée was heard to say twice or thrice to the Kings Commissioners that hée had no will to meddle any further with him Being called for to be examined elsewhere before the said Commissioners Peregrine tooke his leave of the Bishop entreating him to intercede for him that hée might be eased of his irons alledging that the Prison was strong enough and sufficiently garded The second time they met together the Bishop having a prompt memory made a rehearsall of what passed betwéen them the day before and after began thus with the said Peregrine Bishop Séeing that which I hold as touching the Sacrament of the Altar is agréeable to the Scriptures confirmed so long since by the consent of all the ancient fathers wherefore doe you not agrée with us therein Had you rather hold with these Novelists as with Calvin and with the confession of Auspourge Grange Sir I am neither Calvinist nor Papist I am a Christian and what I hold concerning religion is taken out of Christs doctrine who to the only Doctor of his Church What Calvin hath taught conformable to the word of God I am of the same minde with him and whereas you call your Religion the old Religion and ours the new it troubles me not at all since the Father of lies hath long since forged the same to disgrace the truth and to establish and maintaine the multitudes of falshoods and absurdities of your Tenents which you hold For example because Christ in giving his disciples bread in the Sacrament said This is my body thence they would make us beléeve that the bread is become the body of Christ as if the verbe est signified a change of the bread into another substance which is found in no language whatsoever Bishop We maintaine not the Transubstantiation of the bread from this Verbe est knowing that the Hebrews use the Participle of the Present tense in stead of a Verbe but rather from hence because Christ said This is my body La Grange I told * For they had many disputes touching this point which are not here inserted you that Iesus Christ in his Supper gives us that body which was conceived by the holy Ghost in the wombe of the virgin Mary which was crucified dead and buried raised againe the third day and is ascended into heaven yet wee utterly deny that there is any change made of the bread Therefore if you would have us beéeve it let us have some proofe of scripture for it Bish To speake properly the Transubstantiation of the bread cannot be proved by the Word of God and yet we must beléeve it for the reasons above said La Grange Your glorying then that you have the Word of God on your side is as you sée come to nothing And why have you then burned so many of Gods saints for denying that which you cannot maintaine by the scriptures For our parts we should blush to affirme that the substance of bread remaines after the words of consecration if we could not prove the same from the very forme of the institution of the sacrament wherein Christ tooke bread and having given thankes hee brake bread and gave to his Disciples bread and they tooke and did eat bread yea Saint Paul rehearsing 1 Cor. 11. 23 26. 17. the institution calls it bread thrice Bish You know that in the Hebrew Tongue bread is taken for the remainders of what was eaten Paul therefore in that place speakes of those viands which the Corinthians did eate in their Love-feaste reproving their abuse So also howsoever Paul calls it bread there and that in the second of the Acts of the Apostles mention is Act. 〈◊〉 42. made of the breaking of bread all this serves not your turne La Grange I grant that bread is taken in the Scripture in this sence but be it that bread be taken for the meat that was left yet you reade not that the substance was changed into the substance of other meate or lost the property thereof It is certaine that the Scripture useth not this phrase of breaking of bread in the use of the Lords supper for nothing for thereby we are given to understand that it is not a signe onely in appearance or shew but the true substance of bread Bish Let it be what it will wee hold close to the words of Iesus Christ where he saith This is my body and therefore also beéeve what wee speake I care not if I be deceived in this matter nor for bearing reproofe for the same either Vnderstand the words sacramentally and all is wel before God or men for before God himself I will pleade thus Lord thou hast said it and I beleeve it La Grange We rest in the same thing also but withall we have an eie unto Christs meaning and intent which was to establish a sacrament we also receive from his mouth the same words as well as you but sacramentally where the outward signe beares the name
at Gand tooke him thence bound him girding and straining him strangely with cords and would néeds have him burned As he was led thither they abused him shamefully with mockes thrusting him forward and striking him cruelly The Captaine of the band gave him a blow over the face with his Gantlet which much disfigured him Finally these tyrants handled him worse then any dog only because his patient and constant carriage of himselfe tormented and enraged them Being come to the place they thrust him into his little Cabbin piled up with fagots and wood and then set fire unto him where he was heard distinctly and plainly to use these words albeit they had gagged him Father into thy hands I commend my spirit Thus this faithfull witnesse of Ieuss Christ dyed quiently and constantly in the Lord April the fourth Anno 1568. ¶ Among these sad relations a little to quicken and refresh the spirit of the reader I will here insert a Letter full of consolations written out of prison to the faithfull by one William Touart Merchant who had his dwelling in the City of Lisle in Flanders THis honourable personage being come to the age of eighty yeares or thereabouts used his house for the space of fourtéene or fiftéene yeares as a Church wherein the assembly in the City of Lisle commonly met Being chased and banished thence in the yeare 1561. he withdrew himself for a while to Tournay whence he was constrained to flie and to goe to Amiens and Moundedier Cities of Picardy that there he might enjoy the pure preaching of the Gospell Afterward returning into his owne countrey he came to reside in the City of Antwerpe where after he had continued many yeares he was at length imprisoned and condenmed to be burned with two others who suffered for the same cause But it pleased God so to dispose of him that he dyed another kinde of death to shew that his chosen servants have to triumph over the same some one way and some another For being plunged into a cisterne or tub full of water he was drowned in prison and then they carried his body out of the City to a place called Berken where the dead bodies of the condemned are laid upon the whéels or crutch Among many letters which he wrote during the time of his imprisonment my author hath selected out this one which here followeth DE are brethren and sisters in Iesus Christ I most humbly thank my good God that he hath so fortified and comforted me by his grace that I féele my selfe more cheared by lying in this darke prison then if I were walking in the open stréets or fields I say this I féele according to the spirit for as touching the flesh what doth it apprehend here but stinking vapors and smoke Wherefore my beloved if it so fall out that you be apprehended for the name of Iesus Christ feare not the prison nor those that have power to kill the body for having done that they can goe no further Be yée not afraid then séeing it is the reward which our good Captaine Iesus Christ hath promised to all his faithfull soldiers and servants He who turnes his backe in this conflict goes by the losse but whosoever fights manfully obtaines in the end the crowne not a crowne of gold but of glory immortall We here lay downe Rev. 2. 10. a fading life filled with griefes and troubles to change the some for a life everlasting we put off the ragges of this mortall flesh to be clothed with robes immortall we forsake a loathsome life for joy and felicity eternall ought any gaine or exchange to be compared with this O swéet and happy Martyrdome how dost thou dignifie and enrich us in despite of the world devill and our owne flesh And which of us now can complaine séeing our Soveraigne Lord and Master hath Anno 1569. so expressely foretold it to all his followers will any man come after me saith he Let him then Mat. 16 24. take up his crosse and follow me Let us beare Oh let us then beare the crosse chéerefully and with ioyfulnesse that we may be received in the presence of his heavenly Father for it is not only Phil. 1 21. 1 Tim. 2. 12. given us to beleeve in Christ but also to suffer for his sake and if we suffer with him then wée shall also raigne with him Oh that wée could admire his bounty who no sooner imployes us in his worke but hath the wages ready in his hand wherewith to recompence Iohn 16. 20. Heb 12. 1. us Your sorrow saith he shall be turned into joy Let us then cast off every weight that presseth downe and whatsoever else that stands in our way to heaven-ward be if father mother Mat. 19 29. Mat. 13 45 46. brother sisters husband childe yea and our own life also Let us with the wise Merchant man sell all that with him we may purchase that pretious pearle How happy doe I estéeme them who are called to suffer and leave their life for confessing the name of Iesus Christ For the eternall Son of God will confesse their names before his heavenly Mar. 10. 23. Luke 12. 8. Father and his holy Angels They shall be clad with white robes and shine as the Sunne in the kingdome of Heaven filled with gladnesse in the presence of the Lambe They shal eat of the fruit of the trée of life which is in the midst of the Rev. 27. Paradise of God Let us fixe the eyes of our minds upon these so great pretious promises of Iesus Christ which he hath made to all those which persevere in well doing unto the end O how happy shall wée be when we are delivered from these bodies of death to live for ever with our God Let us continually pray then with the Disciples Lord increase Luke 15. 7. our faith O deare brethren remember mée alwayes in your prayers who am bound here in the Heb. 13. 3. bonds of Antichrist Remember those also who are in bonds as if you were bound with them pray Pet. 4. 5 I say without ceasing for our adversary the Devill is alwayes compassing us about with his fetches to cause our hearts to faint And you are not ignorant what a potent enemy our owne flesh Gal. 5. 17. Phil. 1. 6. is unto us But I confidently beléeve that our good God who hath begun this good worke in me will perfect the same even unto the day of Christ Fare ye well It was strange to see what spectacles of dead bodies saline by the bloudy Inquisition were to be gazed on in a manner in every place especially in the Cities of Tournay and of the Valencians in regard of the multitudes of beléevers both of men and women who had long languished in sundry prisons in great misery and necessities Now that we may not forget what fell out in the beginning of this yeare 1569. thus it happened In the City
the head of the visible Church 9 Now O Christian brethren Iudge you of that which I have said and sée if you can discerne Truth from Error Truth leads you to life honour and blessednesse Error and lies to death and destruction Be now either servants of Truth or the slaves of Error For my part I will cleave to the truth of the Gospell and doe condemne all errors and lies let Montalchin die and live thou O Lord Iesus Then threw he downe his two burning torches one this way and another that way offering his hands to be tyed and bound which caused a great tumult among the people Montalchin was returned back again to prison Now Reader it will not be hard for thée to imagine what entertainment he found there whether or no the Popes * Which was to put the martyrs to death privily as was noted in the beginning of this history Decrée was executed to the full upon this worthy Confessor who in the face of the world did so nobly triumph over Satan and Antichrist his Lieutenant Conclusion ¶ The invincible constancy of the Martyrs tyred the Persecutors their fiery burning zeale dryed up the Rivers the slaughter of mens swords séemed to be blunted the Hangmens halters to be utterly spent and wasted c. A TRVE NARRATION Of a bloody massacre committed upon the Protestants by the Papists in the greater part of the Valtoline in the yeare 1620. after the new stile Published for a necessary admonition to all Estates wherein the Gospell is professed amongst the Papists and for an example to all true Christians of constancy in the Profession of the Holy GOSPELL MAT. 5. 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousnesse sake for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven ¶ The true declaration of the Massacres of the Valtoline ALbeit that the Grison Lords being as it were the Soveraigne Magistrates had by sundry Decrées according to the common liberty of the two Religions in those countries granted that in the Countrey of Boalez a place belonging to thâ— territory of Tell there should be established a Church for the Religion which should receive the ordinary stipend which at that present was alloweâ—â—o other Churches of the Valtoline An. 1619. aâ— the moneth of May The Minister of the Church of Tell with the Ministers of Irian and Bruse together with the assistance of the principall Lords of Tyrano and Tegly did méet together in the said place of Boalez to preach in the Church of that place But so great was the multitude and concourse of the papists in that place in Armes that they were of necessity inforced to give over their purpose and at that time was Master Gaudentius Taches the Pastor of Bruse alâ—â—â—â— beaten to death with staves a young man â—â— Tyrano was slaine outright and others very cruelly handled by some of these villaines who by that occasion may worthily be called the first martyrs of the Country of Tyrano Within a short time after was murdered a servant of the Governour of that place where the rage and fury of those murderers grew unto that height that they did not only contemne the Proclamations published by the Governor but in Anno 1620. scorn and despite thereof they passed up and downe before the Palace threatening to kill the said governor and other principall persons of the Church of France Now for that the ordinary Magistrate of that place was not strong enough to represse the outrages and insolencies of those villaines from whom none could bee secure either in their houses or abroad by reason of the frequent attempts which they made upon the Protestants the rather for that they bordered néere upon a forraine jurisdiction to which they had recourse when they had committed any mischiefe the Governour was constrained to make his addresse for justice to the soveraigne Dabe of the countrey who about the midst of February anno 1620 granted a commission wherein were named these commissioners viz. the Lords Ioachinas Montalta at this time Vicar of the Valtoline Iohn Baptista of Salichi a Doctor of Law Ia. Rumel a captain Salomon Candeamma Buoli Landlaine of Tavos in the ten jurisdictions Dieteganus Fertmannus captaine of the Lordship of Meienfield and Iohn Andrea Miniardino for the Chancellorship c. By these persons besides the processes framed already by the Lords Iohn of Cappaul Governour of Tyrano and Andreo Enderlino of Tegly there were againe divers processes framed anew and upon the imprisonment and revealing of certain persons it was discovered and confessed there was a resolution made in the same place of Boalty to put to the sword not only the Preacher if he had preached but also all the people as many as professed the Gospell as they could light upon yea even the magistrate himselfe besides there were divers persons discovered and those of principall ranke who were the authors of those wicked and barbarous practises and had promised all possible ayde and assistance unto them And therefore the importance of the businesse being of great consequence it was thought expedient that those Lords Commissioners should return to Tavoz and report to the Court of justice which there resided all the businesse which resulted of these processes which they accordingly did about the midst of April last past Moreover they were intreated by divers noble persons of the protestant Church of the Valtoline that they would with all possible spéed provide a garrison of Grisons for the defence of the vally in regard that by the foresaid discovery they had great reason to feare a generall rebellion in case they should procéed to chastise the authors of those tumults and disorders and that such a businesse could not be without intelligence with the Spaniard and that so much the more likely that some certaine yeares agoe such another practise had bin discovered and attempted to be put in practise as came to passe 1584. and since of late All these businesses were considered but it was not possible to put same in effect for many reasons had it not béen that they received intelligence that a number of Spaniards approached néere to the thrée pleves which were places adjoyning to the Valtoline by which occasion the Magistrate and governors of the Valtoline were constrained to put a guard néere the trenches of Trahona and Morben about the Calends of Iuly 1620 thinking to secure the valley from the forraine enemy and that guard consisted of the Countrey-men and dwellers in the Valtoline this course wrought no other effect but that the Protestants by this meanes were inclosed in of all sides that they could not flée away on that side by the way already concluded but anticipated within eight daies which was the Sabboth day The ninth of Iuly 1620 followed the massacre in the countrey of Tyrane and Teglio as now since in Sondres a principall countrey of this Valley ¶ The massacre of Tyrane wherein were murthered about threescore persons THe beginning of their murthers was