Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	ancient_a	king_n	time_n	3,012	5	3.4617	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55466	Popish treachery, or, A short and new account of the horrid cruelties exercised on the Protestants in France being a true prospect of what is to be expected from the most solemn promises of Roman Catholick princes / in a letter from a gentleman of that nation, to one in England, and by him made English.	Gentleman of that nation.	1689 (1689)	Wing P2958; ESTC R1443	10,181	40

first he began with retrenching by degrees all the Hugonots from his House who had any Imployment therein and the which he had given them as a recompence of their faithful service to him insomuch that in a short time there was not a Souldier in his whole Guards but what was of his own Religion Merit was no longer consider'd in their persons he no more advanc'd any of them to the places of Trust in the Kingdom he put out those he had formerly preferred thereto and he set forth divers Declarations prohibiting them all kind of Offices Arts and Trades so that none but Papists could exercise or profess any by which means vast numbers of Protestants were reduc'd to inevitable misery He took their Colledges and Schools away from them so that they had no Master of their Religion to teach their Children either to Read or Write When he had done that he then sent Troops of Missionaries into all the Towns to gain as many as they could by cunning Tricks or price of Money and 't was a strange thing to see the shameful Commerce this people made of buying those whom extream poverty oblig'd to sell themselves The misery was so great in some places that they were forc'd to turn Papists sometimes for ten Crowns sometimes for five sometimes for two sometimes for a great deal less These Missionaries walk'd about every where with Baggs of money in their Hands and for the space of two years together one saw hardly any other Traders stirring up and down the Kingdom but these Dealers for the Souls of men who bought them according to their Profession and the number of their Families At the same time Pensions or Imployments were given to those of any consideration who would turn Papists The King by a Declaration gave liberty to Children at seven years of Age to choose a Religion and the Fathers of such Children as became Papists were forced to give them yearly Pensions and always more than what they were well able by which means they seduced abundance of the younger sort bringing mourning and desolation into many Families which for the most part of the time they utterly ruin'd After this they forbad their Minister to speak any thing of Controversie or of what pass'd against them upon which prohibition and divers others of the like nature they daily made them say things that had never entred into their thoughts They hired false Witnesses to depose against them who were often reduc'd to avow their lying Testimonies and 't was frequently prov'd too the Priests and others had suborn'd them But as their ruine was absolutely sworn so nothing satisfy'd them their Estates were confiscated their persons cast into prison banish'd or condemn'd to some other shameful disgrace There was no safety for any they found ways to bring the most moderate into trouble and especially to destroy those who were capable of giving some good Example to others These are the degrees of the Desolations of this people and of the tears they have been made to shed for about twenty five years last past during which time no body possess'd in peace what they had and every one were in perpetual inquietudes for themselves and for their Children But these were only the beginnings of their Misery and the Essays of Popish fury and perfidiousness Whilst on one hand they persecuted some they assured others that the King had no design against their Liberty In almost all the Edicts which His Majesty set forth he inserted some Article to lull them asleep He said that not one Tittle of the Edict of Nantes should be violated And he insinuated that his intention was only to interdict the Religion and to stop there The Elector of Brandenburgh having had the bounty to intercede for them the King of France gave him an Answer that is to be seen in many of the Protestants Writings by which he assur'd His Highness That so long as he liv'd no wrong should be done to his Subjects of the Reform'd Religion that he acknowledged them for good ones and would maintain them in all their Priviledges In the mean time he had taken from them many of these priviledges and what is remarkable at the same time that he wrote this Letter to his Highness of Brandenburgh he in the very self same instant caused many of their Temples to be Demolish'd and others to be shut up put the Ministers into Prison oppressed private persons with heavy Injustices and made those to mourn bitterly whom he said he would protect He began a thing too which had never been heard of in any Age not even in the Savagest Nations or the most remote from Christianity that is He made Children to be taken from their Fathers and Mothers and to be put into Convents with a strict charge not to let their Parents see them not excepting even persons of the highest Birth and of Families to which he had obligations that ought never to have been forgotten by him He took away seven from the Duke de la Force an Ancient Duke and Peer of the Kingdom the Eldest not being then Twelve Years old He did the like by all those of the Count de Roy whom he had some time before permitted to go and serve the King of Denmark in Quality of General of his Armies In a word at the same time that he promised to protect the Hugonots he even then did all he could to ruine them and there was nothing but Sighs and Tears amongst them One saw every where Souls afflicted to the very Grave some bewailing the loss of their Pastors and Temples others the dispersion and ruine of their Families others the carrying away of their Children and others trembled for fear of the same or of greater Misfortunes In fine do but mark now how far their Fraud and Cruelty went that Edict of Nantes was Revoked which they had so often promis'd and so often sworn should be inviolably observ'd and this Fence being quite broke down all that great people was abandon'd to the Rage and Fury of the Souldiers But what is yet more notorious to push on the Cheat as far as the fraudulent Wit of Man could carry it in the very Act for Cessation of the forementioned Edict this King declared that he was desirous that all people should live quietly in their Families and that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion being interdicted every one might live in his own House as he pleas'd But at the same time that His Majesty solemnly Swore this promise he sent his Armies to surprize the Protestants in their Towns and Houses with orders to Plunder Burn Demolish Beat and in short to make them suffer all manner of Evils could be devis'd Death only excepted which in this circumstance would have been look'd on as a great Happiness The King Usurp'd the Throne of God and took upon him the Empire over the Conscience and in his Name whole Towns were summon'd by puissant Armies to turn Papists

and upon refusal they were abandon'd to pillage and ruine and to the same Fury as Enemy Towns are wont to be when taken by Storm They seiz'd on all the Avenues and brought back those to the persecutors who had escaped out of their hands They beat ransack'd violated and made this people suffer a thousand Evils without distinction either of Age Sex or Quality from the oldest to the youngest Male and Female Noble or Ignoble all were equally at the discretion of the Souldiers Blasphemies Impieties and Blows were the Arguments of this Infernal Mission and one may say without exaggeration that Hell seem'd to be let loose and that the Devils were come to Preach up Popery on the Earth Alas Who can reckon the Tears were shed in this sad occasion God alone knows their number who doubtless has counted and gather'd them all into his Bosom The Air ecchoed every where with grievous Lamentations and I think nothing more pittiful could be heard than the Crys and Groans of this people whilst they were in the hands of their tormentors They dragg'd many of these poor Creatures into the Popish Churches by the Feet by the hair of the Head or by Ropes tied about their Necks they hang'd them up at the tops of Rooms or out of the Windows by their Heels or by their Hands they plung'd them into deep Wells and stinking Mires with Toads and Serpents where they left them according to the time of their Constancy they lighted great Fires and Roasted some till they had changed their Religion if their patience was longer than the Cruelty of their Persecutors then they basted their Naked Legs with scalding Grease or boyling Oyl Others they made to hold red hot Coals in their Hands burnt the soals of their Feet tore the Hair from their Beards and the Nails from their Fingers and Toes by the very Roots larded their flesh all over with Pins and thrash'd them with Sticks till they left them for Dead If they were Sick they beat Drums and sounded Trumpets Night and Day in their Ears for 't was a general Rule to hinder them from sleeping and to set them in different Postures sometimes standing upon one Leg holding up a Hand in the Air sometimes down on their Knees doing the like c. If they changed Postures through weariness then they pinch'd and cudgell'd them till they were Black and Blue Sometimes they tied all the people of a Family in a Room together and in sight of one another they beat and bruis'd the Men and made the Women suffer a thousand indignities They would often carry them separately into Chambers to torment them but so as they might hear each others crys and every one in suffering suffer'd for themselves and for the rest of their Family which they either saw in torments or heard the crys thereof In short let any man but fancy to himself what vast numbers of Soulders brutal and let loose are capable to invent and act in all manner of mischief and cruelty and he will have an Idea of the method whereby the Protestants of France have been taught to become Papists O Tempora O Mores This great Fury made those that could save themselves fly into the Woods Mountains and Caves they wandred in the Fields exposed to all the injuries of the Air not having wherewith to live or to cover themselves and not daring to stir but in the Night for fear of falling into the hands of their Enemies Old and Young Men and Women all wandred in the Desarts and all these were but some Members of sad Families Fathers without Children and Children without Fathers Wives without their Husbands and Husbands without their Wives a doleful spectacle no doubt to the Eyes of Men. But this is not all the fury was so excessive that the Sea-Ports were every where shut for to hinder their flight and above 100000 Souldiers imployed to stop their passage on the Frontiers besides all the Peasants whom they had made and the Priests enjoyn'd to take up Arms against them so that it was by great good Providence if any could save themselves amidst so many Obstacles And I don't believe there was one in forty but what was taken after having gone sometimes two or three hundred Leagues with all sort of misery and difficulty The Prisons were all full of these poor Fugitives and if any of them had ever changed their Religion before they were sent to the Galleys a punishment in France more Ignominious and Cruel than any Death One saw every where in the Provinces the Chains of these Confessors which they dragg'd along from one end of the Kingdom to the other Tantaene Animis coelestibus irae The Women were Shav'd and carry'd away to Convents nor were they put in there many times till they had first been at the mercy of certain people worse than the very Dragoons and who made them suffer things that modesty and civility permit me not to name I shall only say that they shut several of them up for many months together with Murderers and Highway Men and such like Cattle Some were cast into deep Dungeons where they never saw day-light and they cloath'd them with filthy Raggs taken from the noisom Carkases of Dead persons which they stripp'd before their Faces But the height of all Evils and that which had never entred into the heart of the wickedest of all the men History tells us of was the sending whole Vessels full of them to the New World to be sold to the Savages there Men and Women Young and Old Noble or others all were treated equally alike In some places they made Assemblies to pray to God and there the Dragoons Massacred all they could light on burnt the Houses to which the Fugitives retir'd and those poor creatures with them Some they hang'd up on Trees and others they precipitated from the tops of high Rocks and they broke those on the Wheel limb after limb whom they called the heads of these Assemblies But it would be endless to particularize all the various Tortures and unheard of Cruelties which the Papists practic'd upon the Protestants in France for to force them to abjure their Religion I will only say that they carry'd them to all the excess of Fury and Inhumanity that the Devils themselves were capable to inspire So that considering this Persecution in all its circumstances it may well be reckon'd the greatest and blackest that ever was amongst Christians in any Age. After they had in this manner dispersed so many Families ruined so many Houses made so many Tears to be shed and caus'd a general Desolation they at length made a publick Spectacle and Divertisement thereof The Kings Players Acted for many months together in Paris a Comedy call'd Merlin Dragoon in which the Persecutors and the Persecuted were the Persons Represented and the Court and People went in Crowds to laugh and divert themselves at the Oppressions and Torments which the Protestants had suffer'd