was never in arms yet he was prepared for death esteeming himself most happy to sâ—ffer for the name of Jesus Christ At length the Monks and Friers found out Judges though many refused to be concerned who were willing enough to condemn him to death The day he was executed his Sentence was pronounced in the presence of many Monks which he received with a Christian resignation without any emotion fear or trouble in his countenance The Monks would not leave him though he oft desired them but accompanied him to the Scaffold where he made an excellent Prayer and died so edifying a Death that they themselves were forced to avouch he died like a Saint In fine all the Heathenish and Popish Barbarities of former Ages were revived and acted over again upon these blessed Martyrs that it is scarce possible to believe those who bear the name of Christians should be so inhumane whereby above Eight Thousand Persons have expired and a multitude more even all the Protestant Inhabitants of those once flourishing Valleys of Piedmont driven into banishment though kindly received by the Switzers and those of Genevâ— who with Christian compassion treated them with all manner of kindess and tenderness Let us all who have been so lately delivered from the like treatment which was designed for us never forget so wonderful a Salvation but be truly thankful to God and our most gracious King and Queen whom the Almighty hath been pleased to make the glorious Instruments of our redemption from Popery and Slavery To which let all good Protestants and Englishmen say Amen Gods Judgments upon Popish Persecutors discovered in some eminent Examples 1. FRom the First plantation of the Christian Religion in this Nation under King Lucius there was never any King or Queen of England in whose Reign so much Christian blood was spilt as in four years space during the Reign of Queen Mary But as she was prodigal of the Lives of the best of her Subjects and a Persecutor of the Gospel so it pleased God to follow her with Plagues and Judgments all her life for nothing prospered which she took in hand of which we shall give some few Instances The fairest and greatest Ship she had called the Great Harry was burnt by Lightning from Heaven the Christian World at that time not affording such another Then she would needs marry Philip King of Spain thereby Subjecting England to Strangers yet with her utmost endeavour she could never set the English Crown on his head Then did she attempt the Restitution of Abby Lands and had all the assistance that the Pope could give her therein yet she was utterly crost also in that Design Then she lost Calice in France which had been in the possesion of the English during the Reign of eleven Kings that is from the Reign of King Edward the third with which loss she was so afflicted that she told some of her Courtiers If they opened her body when she was dead they would find Calice written in her heart She was reported to be with Child but it came to nothing Her beloved Husband left her in whom she placed her greatest felicity and content So that now she could neither enjoy him nor marry another About the same time the Land was grievously afflicted with horrible Tempests Famines Plagues mortal Diseases and burning Agues so that between October and December there died seven Aldermen in London that had been Lord Mayors and the mortality was so great that much Corn was lost in the Fields for want of men to gather it whereby great scarcity ensued and many poor people lived upon Accorns And lastly she was struck with a lingring and pining sickness whereof she died having only reigned Five years and Five monthâ— a shorter time than any of the Kings of England enjoyed since the Conquest Richard the Third only excepted 2. In the next place let us consider Gods Judgments upon some other Instruments of Cruelty and among the rest Stephen Gardiner who was a most Cruel Persecutor of the Protestants In King Heary the Eighths time he was a great stickler for the divorce from the Lally Katherine of Spain and was therefore made Bishop of Winchester In King Edward the sixths time he seemed a Friend to the Gospel and preached it up but in Queen Mary's days he was the greatest and most inveterate enemy against it and the professor thereof and continued so to his dying day For the same day that Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer were burnt at Oxford the old Duke of Norfolk came to dine with Gardiner The Bishop deferred his Dinner till about four a Clock in the Afternoon at which time came one of his Servants posting to tell him that fire was put to these Servants of God which when he was certified of he came out rejoyeing to the Duke and said Now let us go to dinner The Table was presently set and the Bishop began to eat merrily but as soon as he had earen a few bits he was on a sudden struck very sick and being carried from the Table to Bed he there continued in such intolerable Anguish and Torment that he could void nothing either by Stool or Urine His Tongue was black and swoln so big that his mouth could not contain it and his body violently Inflamed In this sad condition he lay fifteen days and then ended his miserable life In the beginning of his sickness Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester coming to see him began to speak to him about the merciful Promises of God and free Justification by the blood of Christ To whom he answered What my Lord will you open that gap now then farewell all together Open this window to the People and farewell all together And being by another Person put in mine of St. Peters denying his Master and that he ought not to despair He answered I have denied Christ with Peter but I never repented with Peter 3. Bloody Bonner though he died in his bed yet lay under the Spiritual Judgment of Impenitency and as he had been a Persecutor of the Light and a Child of Darkness so in darkness and at midnight his Carkass was tumbled into the Earth And as himself had been a Murderer so was he laid among Thieves and Murderers a place by Gods Judgment fitly appointed for him 4. Dr. Whittington Chancellor having condemned a Godly Religious woman to be Burnt at Chipping Sadbury a multitude of People came to see her Suffer and among the rest Whittington himself At the same time there was a Butcher in another place of the Town killing a Bull who was fast bound with a Rope ready to be knockt on the head the Butcher missing his stroke the Bull broke loose just as the people were coming from the Execution of this Holy Martyr the people seeing him coming severed themselves and made a Lane for him the Bull passed through them without hurting man woman or child till he came to the place where Whittington was against
the Beast and the Kings and Princes of Christendom established the Authority of the Pope and Church of Râ—mâ— appointing to slaughter and destruction such as denied the horrid Blasphemies and Errors maintained by them it occasioned many good Christians to detest their Superstitions as unknown to the Apâ—stles and the Primitive Church And the first we reâ—d of was one Berengarius who boldly and faithfully published the True Religion contained in the Scripture and discovered the falseness of the Romish He lived about the time of William the Conqueror his coming into England about which time his Followers being taken notice of as dissenting from many of the Common received Opinions of those times they were branded with all the odious Name of Hereticks About Twenty years after this one Peter Bruis was a famous Preacher among them who taught them publickly a long time at Tholouse in Savoy in a short time after they were grown to so great a multitude that the Popes of Rome were resolved if possible by any means to extirpate and destroy them to which end they at first incited several of the most Learned of their Party to write against them and warned divers Princes to have a care of them and to banish them out of their Territories The first then that flung away the Spiritual Keys and began valiantly to brandish the bloody Sword of Persecution against them was Pope Alexander the Third who began therewith to hack hew and murther the poor Waldenses so named from Peter Waldo or Waldo of Lyons in France who appeared very couragious in opposing the many Corruptions of the Romish Church as Holy Oyl Consecrated Images Popes Indulgences Candles Merits Auricular Confession the Supremacy of the Pope False Miracles Purgatory Praying for the Dead Prayers to Saints extream Unction and many other Fopperies of the Popish Communion This Persecution of Waldo and his Followers who were encreased to a very great number began in France in the Year 1060. Waldo being compell'd to fly into the Mountains of France among the Savage Inhabitants to whom he taught his Doctrine others fled into Picardy from whence they were called Picards several into Flanders and Alsatia and thereby for the safety of their Lives they spread their Doctrine into all places King Philip of France being incited by the Ecclesiasticks raised Arms against them and destroyed Three Hundred Gentlemens Houses and likewise several Walled Towns And those that fled into Flanders escaped little better for they were pursued and many of them for their Religion put to Death And the Bishops of Mayence and Strasburgh raised great persecutions against those which fled thither there being Five and Thirty Citizens of Mayence burned in one Fire and Eighteen in another who suffered Death with very great constancy and at Strasburgh at the instance of the Bishop Fourscore were likewise burnt for professing the same Truth and yet by the exhortations constancy and patience of these Martyrs there were such multitudes who entertained their Doctrines that in a few Years after in the County of Passau and in Bohemia there were above Fourscore thousand persons that made profession of the same Faith Some of them likewise fled into England for shelter but were more barbarously and cruelly put to death at Oxford by the Papists there than ever any Christians were before that time for matters of Religion and Three years after Pope Alexander the Third made a Decree in the Council of Tours in France that these Gospellers and all their Favourers should be Excommunicated and that none of them should buy or sell according as it was foretold in Revelat. 13.17 At Colen in Germany Four Men and Two young Women were discovered hid in a Barn and the Papists not being able to disswade them from the Truth The Men were all tyed to the Stake to be burnt but the Râ—manists pretending to pity the young Women perswaded them to recant but they perceiving their design got out of the hands of those that held them and voluntarily leapt into the Fire where they were burned with thâ—m about this time a Proclamation was published in Aragon whereby it was made Treason to relieve these poor Christians or to suffer them to live in that Country and liberty was given to all people to abuse them at pleasure without being punished for the same But these people still encreasing the Pope was resolved to suppress them by all means possible and therefore about the Year 1201. he set up the Bloody Inquisition which with its Racks Tortures Fire and all manner of Cruelty hath destroyed an innumerable company of Good and Holy Men. And in the same Year a noble Knight called Emandus and one of the Waldenses was burnt at Paris and the persecution still continuing the people of Dat phine flying from their barbarous Enemies sheltred themselves in â—he Caves upon the Mountains but their cruel Adversaries having notice thereof pursued and destroyed many of them and the rest fled higher into the Mountains which were all covered with Snow together with their Wives and Children the Mothers carrying some in their Arms and others in Cradles and the Night coming on and having no means to make a Fire for their tender Infants they were so benummed with cold that in the morning above Fourscore of them were found dead in their Cracles and most of their Mothers died likewise Many also were burnt in the same Country of Dauphin and the Fire of Persecution raged through the whole Land so that there was scarce a Town or City in Pâ—edmont but many were put to death therein and at Turin one of them had his Bowels taken out of his Bâ—lly and put into a Bason and was afterward cruelly Martyred One Gerrard being at the Stake to be burnt requested the Hangman to give him Two or Three Stones which he at first refused thinking he would have thrown them at some body but afterwards did and Gerrard taking them up into his hands said When I shall have eaten up these Stones then shall you see an end of our Religion for which you now put me to death and then throwing them on the Ground he chearfully died These Countries being so hot with the Fire of Persecution many of these poor People fled into Calabria where they began to plant build Towns as Saint Xist La Gard and divers others where they continued till the year 1560. at which time they were most grievously persecuted by Pope Pius the Fourth and were forced to leave their Houses and Habitations and to fly into the Woods for the saving of their Lives but being there pursued by order from the Vice-Roy of Naples most of them were cruelly and barbarously murdered by the Souldiers and some flying into fortified places were so straitly besieged that they died with Famine And at the same time one Charlin was rackt in so horrible a manner that his Guts came out of his Belly Another was tormented upon the Rack Eight hours together to force him
Beasts and so were turned out into the Woods where they were ravished and abused and then had their Hair and Ears cut off and disfigured In Pomeren they forced the people to eat their own Excrements and if they refused them they thrust them down their Throats till they were choaked They cram'd the secret parts of several women with Gunpowder and so setting fire to it most barbarously tore their Bellies and Wombs Divers were hung up by the privy parts they plained the faces of others with Chisels others they caused to draw on Boots filled with scalding Oyl and so roasted their legs over the fire some men they gelt in the presence of their wives and children others had their bodies hung up by Cords and by tying great weights to their limbs all the joynts of their body were put out of joynt some had Gags put in their mouths and had stinking water and piss poured down their Throats through a Tunnel till their bellies swelled like a Tun whereby they died in most cruel torment They sawed off the legs of some alive and one Minister they bound upon a Table and placing a great Cat upon his belly so provoked the Cat that she scratcht his guts out of his belly withher Teeth and Nails till he miserably died At Magdenburg they ravished the Wife and Daughter of a famous Minister before his face and then violently snatcht a sucking Infant from its Mothers breast and stuck it on the top of a Lance and when they had tormented his Eyes and Heart with these horrid Spectacles they brought the Minister into the Street and burnt him with his own Books Yea such was their abominable filthiness in Pomeren that they ravished the fairest Virgins before their Parents faces forcing them to sing Psalms the while one beautiful young woman they ravished and then cut to pieces hanging up her quarters in the Church Girls of ten years old and under they ravished and abused till they killed them nay so monstrous beastly were they that they committed filthiness with the dead Corps of those women whom they had murdered At Bastl and Friburg they did the like neither pitying old nor young men women nor innocent Babes whom sometimes they most barbarously used to eat even when other meat might be had yea such inhumane cruelty they used that in many places they left none remaining alive to relate the sufferings of those that were murdered Thus these Massacres and bloody murders defiled the whole Land and Germany groaned under the oppression till the peace of Munster and Osnaburg in the year 1648. which put a stop to this cruel Persecution the Papists being compelled thereto by Gods bringing in the King of Sweden who over-ran Germany in a short time and thereby revived the Protestant Cause which was almost over-born and dâ—stroyed by so many thousand violences and miseries as it had lain under for many years These bloody Tyrants vented their rage and fury not only in Germany but also in Hungary and other Countries for they committed the same Villanies in all places where they had power the Ministers were generally banished and put to death and the same Picture of their cruelties which has been represented to you in Germany was acted over again in this Kingdom which we have not room to insert only a new sort of death was invented there they tyed Hens Geese Ducks and Hares to the naked Body of a worthy Minister in that Countrey and then set the Dogs upon him who tore and rent his Flesh till he dyed You have beheld many sad and doleful Spectacles and Reader if thou art a Christian thy heart must almost bleed at the relation of them we will therefore Epitomize the bloody cruelties of the Papists in POLAND All the same things or worse if it be possible which we have related to be done in other places were likewise acted in Poland many thousand Protestants and good Christians have been destroyed in that Kingdom and especially at Karmin Dumbuick Shochy Carienzin and Lesna all which Cities and Towns were destroyed and burnt to the ground for the cause of Religion The City of Lesna was one of the most ancient and flourishing Cities in all the Kingdom of Poland which was wholly laid in ashes being three whole days in flames ere it was consumed in which there perished many hundred Protestants besides inestimable wealth and treasure no man resisting or opposing the fire Here they pulled off the Noses of some and put out the Eyes of others and cut off the Tongues Hands and Feet of divers giving Quarter to none but killing and destroying all that came in their way They cut off the Hands of a pious Matron of Lesna and then murdered three of her Children before her Face cutting off their Heads and laying one at each Breast and the other by her side Another Woman having her Hands and Feet cut off and her Tongue cut out they sowed up in a Sack and so left her for two days in which she lived making a most miserable lamentation In the Lower Poland a multitude suffered whole Families were butchered and Men and Women Young and Old murdered without distinction And in the year 1654. there was an horrible slaughter amongst them the Papists putting to death all the Protestants they could meet with by most exquisite tortures One Mr. Samuel Cardus a Minister they used with extream cruelties first putting out his Eyes and leading him about as a miserable Spectacle then they pull'd of his Fingers with Pincers and poured melted Lead down his Throat and while he was yet half alive they put his Neck between two folding doors and so violently severed his Head from his Body They used the Minister of Dembnick and another Minister very barbarously for after they had several ways tormented them they cut their Throats with a Razor and while they were breathing flung them into a Pit and covered them with filth and dung The same Cruelties the barbarous and bloudy Papists acted against the Protestants in LITHUANIA in the year 1648. slaughtering all that were not Roman Catholicks without distinction of Age or Sex Here many had their Skins flead off while they were alive others their Hands and Feet cut off some their Bowels taken out alive others had their Shin-bones bored through they poured melted Lead into the wounds of some whom they had cut in the Head and other parts of their Bodies Some had their Eyes pulled out and those that were hanged up in all places were such a multitude that they are hard to be numbred It was counted a great mercy and kindness to be shot beheaded or killed outright without any other torment The Wives and Daughters of the Protestants were every where ravished their Houses and Goods burnt and destroyed and their Countrey and their Churches laid waste so that there was nothing to be seen in every place but Murders and Massacres and the Blood of the poor Suffering Protestants ran like Streams through
hundred persons in and about London either died in prison or were burnt in Smithfield In the Year 1541. Damlip Dod Saxy were Slain One Henry at Colchester Kerby and Clark at Ipswich and Bury were burnt In the Year 1546. Mistriss Ann Askew one of the Ladies belonging to Queen Katherine Parr because she would not confess any other Ladies was put upon the Rack and the Lord Chancellor himself being more Cruel he acted then the Executioner ordered her to be racked to the utmost she was afterward Burnt in Smithfield and at the same time and place were likewise Burnt Nicholas Belerrian a Minister iâ— Shropshire John Adams a Tailor and John Lacels a Gentleman belonging to King Henry the Eighth these beholding the Invincible Constancy and Patience of Mistriss Askew were thereby much incouraged in their Sufferings About the same time Sir John Blage of the Kings Privy Chamber was falsly accused to have spoken against the Mass upon which he was condemned to be burnt in Smithfield whereupon the Earl of Bedford begged his pardon of the King who Commanded it to be drawn immediately After his release Sir George coming to the King Ah my Pig said he for so he usually called him Yea said Blage if your Majesty had not been better to me than your Bishops were your Pig had been roasted before this time Presently after Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and his Confederates set forth a Cruel Proclamation in the Kings Name for abolishing the Scriptures and all other English Books that discovered the Truth to the people and having obtained this they very much rejoyced therein hoping that they had now for ever suppressed the Gospel so that it should never rise again and to strike the greater terror into mens minds they made a diligent search after the Professors of the Truth of whom they took the names of some drove away others and hereby doubted not but to attain their ends But it pleased God that in the midst of these subtil Contrivances for the destruction of his Gospel and Servants to take away King Henry the Eighth within four Months after the Proclamation and thereby all their hopes and projects were utterly disappointed King Henry the Eighth being dead his only Son Prince Edward our English Josiah ascended the Throne under whom the Protestant Religion was established and Popery and Superstition abolished for he caused all Images to be demolished and as Idolatrous to be taken out of all Churches within his Dominions the Learned mâ—n of his time he encouraged and commanded them to open and expound the Scriptures 〈◊〉 abolished the Mass and ordered the Service to be read in the English Tongue and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be administred in both kinds to the People But it pleased God in a short time to take him to himself for in the Seventh Year of his Reign and the Seventeenth Year of his Age he was taken with a lingring sickness during which time a Marriage was concluded between the Lord Guilford Dudley eldest Son to the Duke of Northumberland and the Lady Jane the Daughter of the Duke of Suffolk whose mother being then alive was Daughter to Mary King Henry the Eighths second Sister The Marriage being finisht and the King every day more sick than other so that he seemed past Recovery the Duke of Northumberland being ambitious to advance his Family perswaded the King that the Church and the True Religion would be in great danger if he did not choose a pious Successer and that it was the part of a good Prince to set aside all other respects when the Glory of God and the good of his Subjects were concerned The King partly for his great desire to have the Protestant Religion confirmed and partly for the intire love which he bore to his Cousin the Lady Jane signed Letters Patents under the Broad Seal to appoint the Lady Jane to succeed him in the Kingdom although her Title were excluded by the Lady Mary who was always a zealous Papist and the Lady Elizabeth This was afterwards confirmed by the Nobility and Chief Lawyers of the Kingdom and was subscribed to by all the Kings Council the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London who upon the Death of King Edward which happened in a short time after proclaimed the Lady Jane Queen in London and Westminster The Lady Mary being in Hartfordshire and hearing of it presently sent to the Lords of the Council commanding and requiring them to Proclaim her Queen which if they refused to do she threatned to recover her Right by force of Arms. The Lords returned answer That the Lady Jane was invested and possessed of the Crown by just Right and Title both by the Ancient Laws of the Land and by Letters Patents signed and sealed by the late King before his death and therefore they declared they would adhere to her and to none other requesting the Lady Mary that she would not upon any pretence endeavour to disturb the peace of the Kingdom promising her that if she would carry her self as a dutiful Subject they would be ready to do her any service The Lady Mary having received this answer withdrew further from the City and the Council being sensible of her stout and unquiet disposition they raised an Army which was commanded by the Duke of Northumberland The Lady Mary went into Suffolk and Norfolk gathering such aid of the Commons as she could and kept her self in Framingham Castle to whom the Suffolk men first resorted who being always forward in promoting the Gospel promised her their aid and assistance provided she would make no alteration of the Protestant Religion as it was established by her Brother King Edward To this she readily agreed and confirmed it with such Vows and Protestations that none could suspect her whereupon they joined with her and thus by the help of the Protestants she vanquished the Duke of Northumberland and his Army and was settled in the Kingdom but she soon forgot her promises for these very Suffolk men observing that Popery would be re-established they Petitioned to her to perform her word to them at which she was extreamly displeased and told them Forasmuch as you who are Members desire to rule your Head you shall one day find that Members must obey not seek to rule Yea one of the chief of these men Mr. Dob by name she caused for the Terror of others to be set in the Pillory several times and divers others that presented Supplications to her not to set up Popery she caused to be sent to prison Queen Mary being setled in the Kingdom the Lady Jane her Father the Duke of Northumberland and her Husband the Lord Guilford Dudley were soon after Beheaded and the Queen soon discovered her disaffection to the Protestant Religion by displacing all the Orthodox Bishops as Poinet Ridley Scorie Hooper Coverdale and by releasing out of the Tower Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester whom she made Lord Chancellor of England◠〈◊〉 Bonner who was
be so sensible that he made a publick Declaration of it at St Germains in 1652. And every one endeavoured to proclaim loudest the merits of the Protestants the Queen Mother her self acknowledging That they had preserved the State Though to shew the little faith is to be given to men of that Religion the Kings Ministers instilled into his mind That since the Protestants were so potent to set up the King they night likewise upon another occasion remove him again From this Diabolical reasoning it was resolved they must be suppressed and ruined and therefore when the Kingdom was setled in peace three Protestant Towns Rochel Montauban and Millan which had shewed the greatest zeal 〈◊〉 the Kings Service were plundered by the Souldiers and otherwise impoverisht These were the forerunners of that general destruction designed against these innoâ—ent People which were every day succeeded by others â—n order to their utter extirpation They first condemned their Churches and Exercises of Religion by establishing Commissioners who pretended the Protestants had exceeded the grants that were allowed them though their Proceedings herein were so very unjust that the Judges often received order to condemn them when by the great evidence of their right they declared they could not in Conscience do it Yea in civil affairs and controversies about Lands Houses or Debts Religion was always urged the Monks Priests and the rest of that Crew crying out in Courts of Justice I plead against an Heretick against an Enemy to the State and to the Kings Religion whom he would have to be destroy'd So that the Judge durst not declare in their favour though never so much wronged lest he should be counted a Favourer of Hereticks And upon complaint the Protestants were told You have your remedy in your own hands why don't you turn Catholicks After this succeeded Processes to all the Cities Towns and Parishes in France to impower the Curates and Church-Wardens to inquire exactly what had been said or done for twenty years past by the Protestants about Religion or any other matters and to inform the Justices of the place who were to punish them with the utmost severity whereby the Prisons were soon fillâ—d there being no want of false witnesses and which was most horrible though the Judges were very sensible they were perjured villains yet they countenanced and incouraged them in swearing things that they knew were absolutely false whereby many innocent and virtuous persons were whipt and sent to the Gallies for Slaves But the Ministers suffered most thereby who seldom preached a Sermon but that a Troop of Priests and Monks were present as Informers and Observators who charged them with things they never thought of by turning them into a contrary meaning Yea pretended to divine their thoughts and make them criminal For if a Minister spake of Egypt Pharaâ—h the Israelites or of good and bad people These Spies report that by Egypt and the wicked they meant the Catholicks and by the Israelites the Protestants Yea the Judges and Ministers of state incouraged these Rascals so that they filled the Jayls with poor Protestants where they were kept whole years together and sometimes suffered corporal punishment They then proceeded to deprive Protestants of all Publick Offices and Imployments directly contrary to the Edict of Henry the great who made an express Article to the contrary Yea to hinder them from excercising several Arts and Trades whereby to maintain their Families This was in 1669 and in 1680 and 1681. all Lords and Gentlemen were ordered to discharge all their Protestant Officers and Servants Nay they would not suffer any Protestant Mid-Wives to do their Office but expresly ordained that no Women should receive any assistance in that condition but from Popish Mid-Wives by these strange and unheard of Methods many thousand Persons and Families were reduced to misery and ruin But because some could still sustain themselves there was an Order of Council that the New-Converts as they call them that is those who turned from Protestants to Papists should not be obliged to pay their debts in three years which fell heavily upon the Protestants who were generally concerned with them and hereby they found the secret to recompence the Apostates at the charge of those who continued constant who were likewise prohibited to sell or alienate their Estates to support themselves the King making void all contracts of that kind Yea to add to their misfortunes they were forbid by divers Edicts under severe penalties not to go out of France to get their Bread in other Countrys which reduced them to the horrible necessity of dying with hunger in their own Country Their Cruelty ceased not here for they laid unreasonable and severe Taxes upon the Protestants so that he who before was charged at Forty or Fifty Livers was now raised to seven or eight hundred which if not instantly paid they quartered Dragoons upon them till they had discharged the utmost farthing In 1681 an Edict came out that Children at seven years of age might abjure the Protestant Religion forcing their Parents to give them yearly allowances above their ability which occasioned the seducing of many young people and brought ruin to a multitude of Families yea they took Children from their Parents and put them into Covents with strict charge not to let their Fathers or Mothers see them even Persons of the best Quality were so â—â—ed the ancient Duke De la Force having seven of his Chilâ—ren taken from him the eldest not exceeding twelve years and the like was done to other Noblemen a barbarity never heard of in the most Savage Nations They prohibited the Protestant Ministers to be School-Masters and suppressed three Universities which were absolutely granted by the Edict of Nants They forbid Papists to marry Protestants or Ministers to hinder their people directly or indirectly from imbracing the Roman Religion These and a murtitude of Grievances more they groaned under when the Elector of Brandenburgh being pleased to intercede on their Behalf the King assured him He was very well satisfied with the behaviour of his Protestant Subjects and that so long as he lived no wrong should be done them And yet at the same instant according to the usual perfidy of that party he gave order for demolishing several of their Churches and shut up others imprisoning their Pastors and using divers manifest injustices against those he pretended to protect Yea in 1682. When they had much advanced the work of their destruction the King declared That he had not the least intention to infringe the Edict of Nantes but would most religiously observe it Though at the same time he had treacherously resolved in Council to Ruin and Destroy it And accordingly in 1684. He absolutely concluded to cancel and make void that Edict and to banish all their Ministers out of the Kingdom yet still declaring That other Protestants might live peaceably till it should please God to enlighten and convert them Which was only designed