hands by the Inquisitors This Parliament caused a great number to be burnt at Turin in immitation of other Parliaments in France who burnt in those times those they called Lutherans They had recourse vnto the King presenting vnto him their petition that they might not be persecuted by the said Parliament for the profession of that Religion in the which they and their ancestors had liued for many hundred yeeres and that by the permission of their Princes But they made it worse with them then it was before for the King enioyned them to liue according to the laws of the Church of Rome vpon paine to bee chastised as Heretickes He likewise commanded the Court of Parliament at Turin to cause all his Subiects within their iurisdiction to professe his religion Adding withall that he did not burne the Lutherans throughout his whole Kingdome of France to make a reseruation of them among the Alpes The Parliament endeuoured speedily to put the commandement of the King in execution and for that cause enioyned them vpon paine of their liues to quit themselues presently of their Ministers and to receiue Priests to sing Masse liuing after the manner of other the Kings subiects They answered that they could not obey any such commands against the commandement of God whom in what belonges vnto his seruice they would rather obey then men But had not the King at that time had other imployments elsewhere without all doubt this Parliament would haue made them doe that by force which they would not be brought vnto by simple commands They therefore contented themselues to prosecute them by the Inquisition and to receiue from the Monkes those they condemned to the fire But afterwards in the yeere 1555 they increased the persecution For hauing condemned to the fire one Barthelmew Hector a Stationer who was executed at Turin because hee died with admirable constancy insomuch that hee edified the assistants and standers by in such manner that he drew teares from their eyes and words of compassion from their mouthes iustifying him with a mutuall applause which they gaue of his good speeches and prayers vnto God The Parliament tooke occasion herupon to do their best endeauor to ouerthrow this profession in the very source and to vse the authority of the King to enforce this people to liue vnder the lawes of the Church of Rome In the Booke of the martyrs of our time lib. 8. fol 122. or miserably to perish To this end and purpose the Parliament of Turin deputed a certaine President of Saint Iulian and a Collaterall named de Ecclesia to transport themselues vnto those places and there to put in practice whatsoeuer they thought good either to reduce or to exterminate the said people with promise to assist them with whatsoeuer shall be needfull to this purpose according to the aduise and counsell they should receiue from them This President with his Collaterall ttooke their iourney to Perouse and caused Proclamations publikly to be made in the name of the King that euery one of the Inhabitants was to goe to Masse vpon paine of his life Afterwards they came to Pignerol where they cited many to appeare before them Amongst others there appeared a poore simple labouring man whom the President commanded to cause his child to be re-baptized which had lately been baptized by the minister of Saint Iohn neere Angrongne This poore man requested so much respite as that he might pray vnto God before hee answered him Which being granted with some laughter he fell downe vpon his knees in the presence of all that were there and his prayer being ended he said to the President that hee would cause his childe to be re-baptised vpon condition that the said President would discharge him by a bill signed with his owne hand of the sinne which he should commit in causing it to be re-baptized and beare one day before God the punishment and condemnation which should befall him taking this iniquity vpon him and his Which the President vnderstanding hee commanded him out of his presence not pressing him any farther Now hauing framed diuers indictments against some particular persons of the said Valleys and made some collections of whatsoeuer the President could imagine might hurt the people hee assayed also to winne them by the preachings of the Monkes whom he brought with him into the Valley of Angrongne Being therefore come vnto the place where their Temple was he caused one of his Monkes to preach in the presence of the people who made vnto them a long exhortation to returne vnto the Church of Rome of which hee reported many things which the people beleeued not After that the Monke had said as much as he would and that he held his peace the greatest number of the people required that the Pastors that were there present or some one of them for all might be permitted louingly and mildly to answer to the discourse that had been made by the Preacher but the President by no meanes would giue way thereunto whereupon there followed a certaine rumour or muttering among the people which strooke the President and his Monkes with an astonishment in such sort that they could haue been content to haue been elsewhere but dissembling their feare the President retired himselfe without a word speaking to Turin whether being come hee related to the Parliament what hee had done and withall signified vnto them the difficulties that were to winne this people by extremities because if any attempt should bee made to take them by violence they were resolued to defend themselues and the places of their abode being fauourable vnto them it was to bee feared it would cost a great deale of labour and much blood would bee shed before they could either bee brought into the Church of Rome or out of the world That is was the worke of a King to roote them out and a King of Franc and therefore it was necessary to send the reports and to commit vnto his owne will and pleasure the issue of so troublesome an enterprise This aduice was followed the indictments and reports were sent to the King but as the affaires of the Court cannot be finished but with long time there passed a whole yeere before there was any other course spoken of or taken against them then that of the Inquisitors who alwaies deliuered some one or other to the secular power but the yeere being expired there came from the Court expresse commands of the King to make them to doe that by force which they would not be brought vnto by words or friendly vsage The Parliament re-sent the said President of Saint Iulien who so soone as hee was arriued at Angrongne he commanded them in the name of the King to goe to the Masse vpon paine of Confiscation of bodies and goods They demanded a Copy both of his commission and his speech promising to answere him in such a manner that he should haue reason to rest contented but nothing could
death he was condemned to be burnt and so being brought out of prison his sentence was read in the same place and cast into the fire And this was the last of the Waldenses that is come to our knowledge that hath been persecuted to the death for his beliefe CHAP. V. Of the Waldenses inhabiting in the Valleys of Meane and Maites and the Marquisate of Saluces and the last persecutions that they suffered AT what time the Waldenses of Dauphine dispersed themselues in Piedmont there were some that made their abode in the Marquisate of Saluces in the Valleys Maties and Meane and the parts thereabouts These were not forborne during the grieuous persecutions which their brethren of the Valleys of Angrongne Saint Martin and others suffered All their refuge was to flie into the said Valleys namely when the said Gouernours of the said Marquisate persecuted them by the commandement of the Kings of France who condemned to death within their Realmes all such as made profession of the same beliefe that they did Now the deceased King of Happy memory Henry the Great and fourth of that name hauing giuen to his Subiects an edict of pacification the Waldenses that liued in the Marquisate inioyed the same priuiledges that the other Subiects did of the same Realme but when afterwards by the treaty with the Duke of Sauoy la Bresse was changed for the Marquisate of Saluces the poore Waldenses were depriued of the free exercises of their Religion within the iurisdiction of the said Marquisate for at the instance of the Nuntio of Pope Clement the eight the free liberty of their Religion was not onely interdicted but by a new edict all they were banished that within the said Marquisate made profession of any other Religion then that of the Church of Rome and for the better furtherance of their speedy departure there were sent to the said Valleys and Marquisate a great number of Monkes Inquisitors who went from house to house examining the consciences of euery one by which meanes there were aboue fiue hundred families banished who retired themselues into the Realme of France but especially into Dauphine And to the end that in those places into which they were come it might not be cast in their teeth that they were banished out of their Countries for some wickednesse that they had committed but that it was onely the zeale they bare to their religion that had made them wanderers in the world they made this Declaration following in the yeere 1603. The Declaration of the VValdenses of the Valleys Maties and Meane and the Marquisate of Saluces made in the yeere 1603. FOrasmuch as time out of minde and from the father vnto the sonne our Predecessors haue been instructed and nourished in the doctrine and Religion whereof from our infancy we haue made open profession and haue instructed our families as we haue learnt of our fore-fathers As also that during the time that the King of France held the Marquisate of Saluces it was lawfull for vs to make profession not being disquieted or molested as our brethren of the Valleys of Lucerna la Perouse and others who by an expresse treaty and agreement made with our Soueraign Prince Lord haue inioyed vnto this present the free exercise of the reformed religion but his Highnesse being perswaded by euill councell and ill affected people rather then his owne will hath resolued to molest vs and to that end hath published an edict To the end therefore that it may be made known to all men that it is not for any crime committed either against the person of our Prince or for any rebellion against his edicts or the committing of any murthers or thest that wee are thus tormented and spoiled of our goods and houses Wee declare that being certainly assured and perswaded that the doctrine and Religion taught and followed in the reformed Churches as well of France Switserland Germany Geneua England Scotland Denmarke Suâ—dia Polonia as other Realmes Countries and Signories whereof we haue vnto this present time made open profession vnder the obedience of our Princes and Soueraigne Lords is the onely true doctrine and Christian religion ordained and approued of God which onely can make vs agreeable vnto him and conduct vs to saluation Wee are resolued to follow it with the losse of our liues goods and honours and to continue therein the remainder of our liues And if any shall pretend that we are in an error we require him to make vs see our error and offer incontinently to abiure and do likewise promise to follow that which shall be proued vnto vs to be the better desiring nothing so much as with an assured and safe conscience to follow the true and lawfull seruice which we poore creatures owe vnto our Creator and by that meanes to attaine to the true and eternall felicity But if any shall goe about by force and constraint to cause vs to forsake and abandon the true way of our saluation and to enforce vs to follow the errours and superstitions and false doctrines inuented by men wee desire a great deale rather to abandon our houses our goods and liues too We therefore humbly beseech his Highnesse whom we acknowledge to bee our lawfull Prince and Lord not to suffer vs to molested without cause but rather permit vs to continue so long as wee liue and our children and posterity after vs in that obedience and seruice which vnto this day wee haue rendred vnto him as faithfull and loyall Subiects and so much the rather because we demand no other thing of him but that we yeelding faithfully vnto him that which we are bound vnto by the expresse commandement of God it may likewise bee lawfull for vs to render vnto God that homage and seruice which wee owe vnto him and he requires at our hands in his holy word Beseeching in the meane time in the middle of our exile and calamity the Reformed Churches to hold vs and acknowledge vs to bee true members therereof being willing to seale withour blood if God will haue it so the Confession of faith made and published by them which we acknowledge in all things and throughout conformable to the doctrine taught and written by the holy Apostles and therefore truely Apostolicall Wee promise to liue and die therein And if so doing we be afflicted and persecuted we yeeld hearty thanks vnto God who hath done vs that honour to suffer for his name leauing the issue of our affaires and the iustice of our cause in the hands of his diuine prouidence who will deliuer vs when and by what meanes it pleaseth him Humbly beseeching him that as he hath the hearts of Kings and Princes in his hands he will be pleased to mollifie the heart of his Highnesse to take pitty of those that haue neuer offended him or purpose to offend him to the end hee may hold and acknowledge those to be more faithfull loyall and obedient to his seruice then they are that
there remaine in peace both of body and soule he returned into his Country and perswaded many to goe to Bohemia and to inhabit there who were louingly entertained and after that time there haue been no assemblies of the Waldenses in particular but they haue ioyned themselues vnto the Churches of the Hussites CHAP. XI Of the Waldenses inhabiting in Germany and the persecutions that there they suffered whereof we haue the proofes NOtwithstanding that incontinently after that Peter Waldo with those that followed him came into Germany there was so great a persecution along vpon the Rhine by the incitement and instigation of the Archbishops of Mayence and Strasbourg that there were burnt in one day in one fire Dubranius in the history of Bohemia to the number of eighteene yet wee find that in the time of the Emperor Frederic the second about the yeere one thousand two hundred and thirteene Germany and especially Alsatia was full of the VValdenses The searchers were so diligent and exact Coistans vpon the Reuel that they were inforced to disperse themselues into other places to auoide the persecution This flight turned to the great benefit of the Church because hereby many learned Teachers were scattered here and there to make knowne vnto the world the purity of their Religion In the yeere one thousand two hundred thirty a certaine Inquisitor named Conrad de Marpurg Vigâ—ier in the 1. part of his Bibli Historiale was ordained by the Pope Superintendent of the Inquisition He exercised this charge with extreame cruelty against all sorts of persons without any respect euen of the Priests themselues Trithem in Chron. Hirsaugiensi Godefridus Monan Aunalâ—bus whose bodies and goods he confiscated He tried men with a hot iron saying that they that could hold an iron red hot in their hands and not be burnt were good Christians but on the contrary if they felt the fire he deliuered them to the secular power In these times the Waldenses had in the Diocesse of Treues many Schooles wherein they caused their children to be instructed in their beliefe and notwithstanding all the Inquisitions persecutions executed vpon their flockes yet they aduentured to preach Krautz in Metropol l. 8. §. 18 in Saxon l. 8. ca. 16. calling their assemblies by the sound of a bell maintaining in publica statione saith the Historiographer publikly that the Pope was an hereticke his Prelates Simonaicall and seducers of the people That the truth was not preached but amongst them and that had not they come amongst them to teach God before he would haue suffered their faith to perish would haue raised others euen the stones themselues to enlighten his Church by the preaching of the word Vntill these times say they our Preachers haue buried the truth and preached lyes we on the contrary preach the truth and bury falshood and lyes and lastly we offer not a feined remission inuented by the Pope but by God alone and according to our vocation Mathew Paris an English writer obserueth that about the yeere 1220 Math Paris in Henry 3. anno 1220. there were a great number in a part of Germany that tooke armes where the Waldenses were cut in peeces being surprised in a place of great disaduantage hauing on the one side a marish ground and on the other the sea in such sort that it was impossible for them to escape About the yeer 1330 they were strangely vexed in many parts of Germanie Vignier in his third part of his Historicall Biblio in the yeere 1330. by a certaine Iacobin Monke Inquisitor named Echard but after many cruelties executed vpon them as hee pressed the Waldenses to discouer vnto him the reasons for which they were seperated from the Church of Rome being vanquished in his owne conscience and acknowledging those defects and corruptions which they alleaged to be in the Church of Rome to bee true and not being able to disproue the points of their beliefe by the word of God he gaue glory vnto God and confessing that the truth had ouercome him hee became a member of that Church which hee had a long time before persecuted to the death The other Inquisitors being aduertised of this alteration were much displeased and they sent presently so many after him that in the end hee was apprehended and brought to Heidelberg where he was burnt maintaining that it was iniustice and wrong to condemne so many good men to death for the righteousnesse of Christ against the inuentions of Antichrist In the yeere 1391 the Monkes Inquisitors tooke in Soxony and Pomerania foure hundred forty three VValdenses Krautzin Metrop l. 8. p. 18. in â—ax l. 8. cap. 16. who all confessed that they had been instructed in that beliefe for a long time by their ancestors and that their teachers came from Bohemia In the yeere one thousand foure fifty seuen the Monkes Inquisitors of the Diocesse of Eisten in Germany discouered many VValdenses which they put to death They had amongst them twelue Pastors that instructed them We must not ouerpasse the thirty fiue Burgesses of Mayence that were burned in the Towne of Bingue because they were knowne to be of the beliefe of the VValdenses nor the fourescore which the Bishop of Strasbourg caused to be burnt in one fire nor that which Trithemius recounts that they confessed in in those times that the number of VValdenses was so great that they could goe from Cologne to Milan and lodge themselues with hostes of their owne profession and that they had signes vpon their houses and gates whereby the might know them But the most excellent instrument amongst them that God imployed in his seruice was one Raynard Lollard who at the first was a Franciscan Monke and an enemy of the VValdenses but yet a man carried with a sanctified desire to finde the way of saluation wherein he had so profited that his aduersaries themselues were constrained to commend him Iohn le Maire in the 3. part of the diff of Schismes in the 24. scisme For Iohn le Maire puts him in the ranke of those holy men that haue foretold by diuine reuellation many things that haue come to passe in his time This worthy man taught the doctrine of the VValdenses was apprehended in Germany by the Monkes Inquisitors and being deliuered to the secular power was burnt at Cologne This man hath writ a Commentary vpon the Apocalipse where hee hath set downe many things that are spoken of the Romane Antichrist This was he of whom the faithfull in England were called Lollards where he taught witnesse that Towre in London which at this present is called by his name Lollards Tower where the faithfull that professed his Religion were imprisoned CHAP. XII Of the VValdenses that haue been persecuted in England ENgland hath been one of the first places that hath been honoured for receiuing the Gospell for not long after that VValdo departed from Lion there were many condemned to
aboue fiftie yeeres Vnder this name wee comprehend all the subiects of the Earles Remonds of Toulouze father and sonne and the subiects of the Earles of Foix and Comminge and all those that haue taken part with them that haue fought for their Religion and suffered the selfesame persecutions They receiued the beleefe of the Waldenses a little after the departure of Waldo from Lion The instruments that were imployed in this worke were Peter Bruis one Henry one Ioseph one Esperon and Arnold Hott of whom they were afterward called Pierrebruisiens or Petrobrusiens Henriciens Iosephists Esperonists and Arnoldists but aboue all the rest Henry and Arnold trauelled in the Countrey of Albi and that with so good successe that in a short time there were found but a few and in some places not any that would goe any more to Masse affirming that the sacrifice of the Masse was onely inuented to enrich the Priests and to make them to be more esteemed in the world as making the Body of Christ by their words and sacrificing him to God the Father for the sinnes of the liuing and of the dead which was an impierie destroying the sacrifice of the Sonne of God and annihilating the merit of his death and passion There were many that gaue eare to their reasons in the diocese of Rhodes Cahors Agen Toulouze and Narbonne Iaques de Riberia in his collections 〈◊〉 the Citie of Toulouze because the Doctors that taught amongst the Waldenses were learned men conuersant in the reading of the holy Scriptures whereas on the other side the Priests who studied nothing more than the sacrifices of the Masse and how to receiue their oblations for the dead were altogether ignorant and therefore contemned of the people Pope Alexander the third Claud. de Rubis in his History of the Citie o◠Lion Lib. 3. pa◠269. being much mooued with anger because he saw many great Prouinces to shake off the yoke of the Romish Church and to dispence with their obedience condemned them for Heretikes in the Councell of Latran Neuerthelesse they were in such a manner multiplied that in the yeere 1200. they possessed the Cities of Toulouze Apamies Montauban Villemur Saint Antonin Hologaray in his History of Foix. Puech Laurence Castres Lambes Carcassonne Beziers Narbonne Beaucaire Auignon Tarascon the Count Venecin and in Dauphine Crest Arnaud and Monteil-Amar And which is more they had many great Lords who tooke part with them that is to say the Earle Remond of Toulouze Remond Earle of Foix the Vicount of Beziers Gaston Lord of Bearne the Earle of Carmain the Earle of Bigorre the Lady of Lauaur and diuers others of whom we shall make mention in their deu place And besides all these the Kings of Aragon and of England haue many times defended their case by reason of that alliance that they had with the Earle Remond of Toulouze The doctrines that they maintained against the Church of Rome were these 1 That the Romish Church is not the holy Church and Spouse of Christ but a Church watered with the Doctrine of Deuils That Babylon which Saint Iohn hath described in the Apocalypse the mother of fornications and abominations couered with the bloud of Saints 2 That the Masse was not instituted by Christ nor by his Apostles but that it is the inuention of men 3 That the prayers of the liuing profit not the dead 4 That Purgatorie maintained in the Church of Rome was a humane inuention to glut and satisfie the couetousnesse of the Priests 5 That Saints are not to be praied vnto 6 That Transubstantiation is the inuention of men and an erroneous doctrine And that the adoration of the Bread is a manifest Idolatry And that therefore they were to forsake the Church of Rome wherein the contrary was affirmed and taught because a man may not bee present at the Masses where Idolatry is practised nor attaine saluation by any other meanes than by Iesus Christ nor transferre vnto the creatures the honor that is due to the Creator nor say of the Bread that it is God and adore it as being God without the incurring of eternall damnation for Idolaters shall not inherit the Kingdome of Heauen For all these things affirmed by them they haue beene hated and persecuted to the death CHAP. II. Pope Innocent the third of that name made shew of a desire to winne the Albingenses to the Church of Rome by preaching and conference A famous disputation at Montreal To what end the Pope permitted disputation in matter of Religion POpe Innocent the third of that name seemed to be carried with a desire to reduce the Albingenses vnto the Church of Rome by preachings and reasons or to oppresse them and vtterly root them out by violence of armes and by crueltie of punishments But before he would come to extremities he thought in necessary for the better iustification of his proceedings to begin with words and after wards to come to blowes Hee sent therefore amongst them certaine Preachers who endeuoured to draw them by gentle perswasions See here how the Compiler of the treasure of Histories speakes of those times The Comp. of the Treasure of Histories in the yeere 1206. When there came newes saith he to Pope Innocent the third that in his Prouince of Narbonne the traiterous Heresie was spread abroad not onely amongst the poore but Earles Barons and Knights he sent the Abbot of Cisteaux and two Monkes with him to preach against those disloyall buggerers When they had trauelled some little way preaching throughout the Countrey they came to Mompelier where they met with a worthy man that was Bishop of Cestre This honest man asked the Abbot of Cisteaux what hee did there He answered that the Pope had sent him thither against those Sodomites but that he could not conuert them This good man was nothing astonied at it but he still maintained the worke of the Lord valiantly and went on foot to giue good example to others and they stayed and went on foot with him Afterwards the Abbot returned to the Chapter or generall assembly but the Bishop and the two Monkes passing a long time through the Countrey and preaching they conuerted many of the meaner sort of people but of the great ones and richer sort there were few or none that returned to the true faith The Abbot came backe into the Countrey and brought with him another Abbot and diuers Monkes and came all on foot whereupon the Bishop of Cestre began to thinke with himselfe how to returne into his Countrey but dyed by the way The Monkes who preached throughout the Countrey found the Princes so obdurate in their malice that they resolued to stay no longer there but returned into their Countries except one good man who was called Frier Peter of Chasteauneuf who continued preaching with one of his companions When the Albingenses knew the intention of the Pope which was to prerend that he was not the cause why they whom
the walls and so entred the towne calying themselues towards the inhabitants thereof after the same manner as they had done before to those of Beziers for they put them all to the sword and fire Whilest those things were in doing the king of Aragon arriued at the army of the Legat and went first to the tent of the Earle Remond who was constrained to giue his assistance at this siege against his owne Nephew From thence he went to the Legat and told him that hauing vnderstood that his kinsman the Earle of Beziers was besieged within Carcassonne hee was come vnto him to doe his best endeuour to make the said Earle to vnderstand what his duty was towards the Pope and the Church which hee presumed hee should the more easily doe because hee knew well that the said Earle had alwaies made profession of the Romish religion The Legat gaue him leaue to vndertake what hee had said The king of Aragon made his approach to the Rampiers The Earle of Beziers came to parley with him The king of Aragon desired to know of him what had moued him to shut vp himselfe within the citie of Carcassonne against so great an Army of Pelerins The Earle answered that it greatly stood him vpon hauing so necessary and so iust cause to defend his life his goods and his subiects That hee knew well that vnder the pretence of religion the Pope had a purpose vtterly to ouerthrow the Earle Remond his vncle and himselfe That he found by that mediation which he had made for his subiects of Beziers the Romish Catholikes whereof he would not receiue into grace and fauour neither had spared the Priests themselues who were all cut in peeces euen adorned with their Priestly ornaments and vnder the banner of the Crosse That this example of cruell impietie added vnto that which had passed in the towne of Carcassonne where they were all exposed to fire and sword without distinction of age or sex had taught him not to looke for any mercy either at the hands of the Legat or his Pelerins And that therefore he chose rather to die with his subiects defending himselfe than to bee exposed to the mercy of so inexorable an enemy as the Legat was And that notwithstanding there were within the city of Carcassonne diuers of his subiects that were of a contrary religion to that of the Church of Rome yet they were such a kinde of people as had neuer wronged any that they were come to succor him at his greatest extremity and for this their good seruice he was resolued not to abandon them as they had promised for their part to expose their liues and goods for his defence to all hazard and danger whatsoeuer That his trust was in God who is the defender of the oppressed that he would bee pleased to assist them against that world of men ill-aduised who vnder the colour of meriting heauen haue forsaken their houses to burne and pill and sacke and ransacke and kill in the houses of other men without either reason iudgement or mercy The King of Aragon returned to the Legat who assembled together diuers of his great Lords and Prelates to heare and vnderstand what the King of Aragon would relate vnto him who told him that hee found the Earle of Beziers his kinsman much discontented with the former proceedings against his subiects of Beziers and the Towne of Carcassonne which gaue him reason to beleeue that forasmuch as they had not spared the Romish Catholikes nor the Priests that it was not a warre vndertaken for the cause of Religion but vnder the colour of Religion a kind of theeuery that his hope was that God would giue him the grace to make him know his innocencie and the iust occasion he had to defend himselfe that they should no longer hope they would yeeld themselues to their discretion because they saw their discretion was no other but to kill as many as should yeeld themselues thereunto And that therefore if it would please the Legat to grant vnto the Earle of Beziers and his subiects some tollerable composition that gentlenesse and mercy would sooner ioyne the Albingenses to the Church of Rome than extreme crueltie and that aboue all they should remember that the Earle of Beziers was young and a Romish Catholike who might doe good seruice for the reducing of those that did any way relie or put their trust in him The Legat answered the King of Aragon that if hee would retire himselfe a little they would consult together of that which should be fittest to be done The King being recalled the Legat gaue him to vnderstand that for his sake and in consideration of his intercession he would receiue the Earle of Beziers vnto mercie and with him some dozen might likewise come forth with their bag and baggage if hee thought good but for the people that were within the Citie of Carcassonne they should not depart but at his discretion The Monke of the Valley Sernay Chap. 20. Du Hailan in his History of France touching the siege of Carcassenne whereof they should hope well and haue a good opinion because hee was the Popes Legat and that they should all come forth naked men women maids children without shirts or smocks or other couering to hide their nakednesse Also that the Earle of Beziers should be deliuered to sure guard and all his goods to remaine to the future Lord of that Countrey which should be chosen for the preseruation thereof The King of Aragon though he saw this composition to be vnworthy the proposing to the Earle of Beziers yet neuerthelesse thought good to discharge his office herein to whom the Earle of Beziers answered That he would neuer come forth vpon conditions so seasoned and so vniust and that hee was resolued to defend himselfe with his subiects by such meanes as it should please God to giue vnto him The King of Aragon retired himselfe not without shew of the great discontent he receiued by this vniust proceeding The Legat hereupon commanded all his engins of warre to play and that they should take the Citie by force But it was a spectacle little pleasing vnto him for hee was an eye-witnesse of the losse of a great number of his Pelerins For they of the Citie threw downe such a quantitie of great stones with fire and pitch and brimstone and boyling water and gauled the assaylants with such infinite numbers of arrowes that the earth was couered and the ditches filled with the dead bodies of the Pelerins which caused a wonderfull noysome stench both in the Campe and in the Citie This rude vnwelcome ouerthrow caused many of his Souldiers of the Crosse to forrage and seeke for booty abroad as hauing accomplished their tearme of fortie daies during the which they had gained Paradice and refusing to conquer any more after so faire a purchase for feare they should change their former felicitie for blowes The Legat being much troubled to see his
therefore they should consult with themselues to cast their eyes vpon some one of the Lords of the Crosse to whom the conquered Countries might be committed and the care for the direction of this holy warre vntill it might be otherwise determined by the Pope This charge was first offered to the Duke of Burgongue afterwards to the Earle of Enneuers and to the Earle of St. Paul who did all refuse it Which the Legat seeing and perceiuing it would be a difficult matter to agree in the nomination of a Captaine with one mutuall consent they named two Bishops with the Abbot of Cisteaux Legat of the Apostolike Sea and foure men of Armes to whom they gaue power to choose him that hereafter should leade the Armie of the Church They named the Earle Simon of Montfort neere Paris notice whereof being giuen vnto him hee excused himselfe alledging his incapacitie and vnhabilities but in the end he accepted of it after that the Abbot of Cisteaux had laid his commandement vpon him enioyning him by vertue of obedience to accept of the said nomination The Treasure of Histories in the Treat of Albingenses whereupon hee promised saith the Compiler of the Treasure of Histories to doe his best endeauour to vex the enemies of our Lord for so they tearme the Albingenses The Earle Simon of Montfort being Generall of the Armie of the Church made his abode at Carcassonne with foure thousand of his Pelerins which as yet remained of that great Leuy of three hundred thousand men Montreal Fauiaux and Limons contributed great summes of money for the Garison For they were not to harbour those Pilgrims that were not bound to any seruice their time of fortie daies being expired but such Souldiers as were well affected for the guard of that place In this meane time the Earle Remond of Toulouze went to King Phillip Dieu-donne to get his letters of Commendation to the Pope to the end he might bee fully cleered and iustified touching the death of the Monke Frier Peter de Chasteauneuf of the which hee was iniustly forced to confesse himselfe guilty onely because the murder was committed within his territories for which the Legat Milon had imposed an vniust penance vpon From the Court of the King of France he trauelled to Rome where he did immediatly receiue his absolution of Pope Innocent the third as if it had beene ready and prouided for him The Pope receiued him with all the curtesie that might be giuing him for a present a rich Cloke and a Ring of great price and granting vnto him full remission and absolution touching the said murder and declaring that he held him in this regard sufficiently instified The Earle of Beziers being prisoner at Carcassonne dyed shortly after the Earle Simon of Montfort was put in possession of his Lands not without great suspition of poison The Earle Simon made shew to be much grieued therewith and caused him to be interred in the great Church of Carcassonne with great pompe and with his face vncouered to the end that none of his Subiects might afterwards doubt of his death Presently after he made challenge to the inheritance and whole estate of the said Earle by vertue of those donations which the Legat of the Pope had conferred vpon him and that charge that was laid vpon him for the Church In pursuit whereof hee demanded of the King of Aragon the inuestiture of the Earledome of Beziers and the Citie of Carcassonne The King of Aragon would not yeeld thereunto bewraying much discontent to see this house ouerthrowne vnder a pretence of Religion The like discontent did the Duke of Bourgongue shew at what time the charge of the Generall was offered vnto him saying Chassag pag. 126. That hee had Lands and Lordships enough without the accepting of those of the Earle of Beziers and the spoiling him of his goods adding therewithall that he had alreadie suffered wrong enough All the bordering neighbours of the Earle Simon began to feare him vpon a report which he gaue forth that at the spring following he would haue a great Armie of Pelerins at his command and that then hee would chastise those which had not acknowledged the authoritie wherein the Church had placed him Castres sent vnto him the Keyes of their Citie by some of their Bourgesses The Castle of Pamies was yeelded vnto him euery one submitted themselues to his command round about Carcassonne and the Vicountie of Beziers But he receiued a back-blow in the middest of his prosperitie which was a presage vnto him of some euill For the King of Aragon keeking secretly the Gentlemen of the Vicountie of Beziers in breath encouraged them to bring vnto equall termes this petty-tyrant who was brought in for the good of another saying That if he were not constrained to haue alwaies a world of Pilgrims for his conquests he would abuse this his rest to take heart to inuade the goods of all those that are neere adioyning vnder a pretence of that charge hee hath from the Pope but if he once knew how dangerous it would be for him to want his Souldiers of the Crosse hee would be better aduised considering that it is not possible that he should alwaies haue so great a number of Pilgrims that should alwaies make him fearefull for there must be time for the leuying of them time for the conducting of them from farre Countries and if he should make no vse of them within fortie daies of their arriuall hee would be more weake than before after the expiration of their Pilgrimage That to hurt and hinder him there can be no better course taken than to keepe themselues locked vp in their Garrisons at the comming of the Pilgrims and at their departure when they were weake to set vpon him on euery part that at the last he will be so weary of his great trauels that he will thinke he hath bought at a deare rate the good which he beleeued he had gotten by the title of a Donation of those that had nothing to giue The King of Aragon added hereunto that he had neuer heard of any so vniust a vsurpation for if this war were made to take away the goods and liues of the Albingensens by what title had the Legat confiscated the goods of the Earle of Beziers who had alwaies liued and also died in the beleefe of the Church of Rome That he therefore perceiued that the greatest crime they could finde in the said Earle was that they found him to be young and no way powerfull That if God gaue him life he would make it appeare that he loued the Earle of Beziers and that he was his Kinsman and would likewise shew himselfe a true friend to those that had any feeling of those wrongs and outrages that were offered him Those hopes to be succoured by the King of Aragon gaue heart and courage vnto those that with great impatiency bare the dominion and power of the Earle Simon of Montfort
And which was more seeing that the King persisted in this opinion that such promises were to bee made to reobtaine their goods to the end they might neuer engage themselues for that they could not performe knowing that the King of Aragon the Earle of Toulouze and Comminge were assembled at Toulouze to prouide for their affaires he came thither and thus he spake vnto them Sir Holagaray in his hist of Foix and you my Masters Friends Forasmuch as ambition can teach men both valour and temperancy and auarice can plant in the heart of a Shop-boy brought vp in the shade and in idlenesse an assurance to depart from his houshold harth and to commit himselfe to the billowes of the Sea and the mercy of angry Neptune in a small and fraile vessell it shall be great weaknesse and litherly negligence in vs who by the renowned Acts of our Trophees are knowne euen to the Confines of Arabia if we shall now come by a seruile and treacherous acknowledgement to ouerthrow the Tables and Registers of our valours so highly eleuated No no mine arme shall neuer consent thereunto we are not now in bondage I and my sonne chuse rather to make triall of the inconstant hazzard of warre than to bring vpon vs and ours so great and so notable an infamy And therefore for the honour of God quit vs of that shame that men take no notice of our lamentable estate mourning sighing after our losses like Distaffe-bearers If we must needs bow let it be when we haue first done the parts of good and braue Captaines It is an aduenturous and high enterprise you will say but it was resolued vpon by your selues Que ie voy maintenant les ressors qui lui donnent le branle de sa cheute Fare ye well Sir We yeeld not our consent in any thing Come what come may The King of Aragon was much moued with this discourse of the Earle of Foix wherein hee layeth an imputation vpon him that hee was the cause of their ruine because he had animated them against the Legat and the Earle Simon and that now hee left them as a prey by procuring a peace worse than a bloudy warre You haue Sir saith hee opened a doore to our enemies to tyrannize ouer vs if they had accepted of it and to a glorie more great than they could hope to attaine by Armes for we had beene all their Subiects without any other charge than your owne instant request As for my selfe saith he I had rather haue giuen my selfe the stab than to haue drunke of that cup. And after many examples produced by him of those that haue changed a miserable life for a present death killing themselues before they would serue for Trophees to their enemies he continued his discourse as followeth For mine owne part I had rather follow these great Spirits than hauing so often giuen testimony of my valour for another preferre life before honour by being lazie and negligent in a businesse that concernes my selfe And though Fortune deny me all meanes to make opposition against that wrong that another shall offer mee yet my courage will neuer giue way that I should make my selfe the speech of the people or a triumph for men more vnworthy than my selfe This their deniall of what you demanded doth comfort me and it vpholds our honor for we must either haue broken our faith or played the Cowards like needy beggers and liued a life more cruell more intollerable than any torment of Phalaris like miserable men yeelding our neckes to the yoake of the enemie and confessing our selues beaten sell our owne libertie and our childrens after vs and that for euer Good God what a blow were this Sir For asmuch therefore as the tempest is growen so great and wee are driuen to so extreme a necessitie imbrace vs in your armes be our head seruing vs for an example a watch-tower a conduct So shall we engage our wills and our liues to shew our selues your most humble seruants in time of need and valorous Souldiers when occasion shall be offered And though I be now worne with yeares yet neuer had I greater courage or better resolution The Earle Remond on the other side intreated the King of Aragon not to abandon their cause offering vnto him both his goods and his life to fight vnder his authoritie The King of Aragon being ouercome with these intreaties and moued with compassion towards the afflicted in the end tooke armes and sent this ticket of defiance to the Earle Simon by two Trumpetters Indeuour without delay to execute the will of the Pope or to fight with your Lord and if you fall into my hands you shall pay for it It is your dutie and I will haue it so and I rather desire it than to put my selfe to the charge of a great Army for your ruine The Earle Simon made good vse of this Letter of defiance for hee sent it into diuers parts of Europe shewing by the Bishops and Monkes that preached the Croisade that the care was not now for the Earle of Toulouze Foix Comminge or the Prince of Bearne but for a puissant King who had made himselfe the Generall of the Albingenses and that if he were not assisted extraordinarily the cause of the Church was at an end and therefore he entreated all good Christians especially the King of France to giue his best assistance in these holy warres and extreme necessitie On the other side the King of Aragon writ to the King of France that the Earle Simon of Montfort had a spirit puffed vp with high conceits farre exceeding both the capacitie of his vnderstanding and his forces That al his intentions were no other than plaisterings vnder the pretence of Religion and in the meane time he intended nothing so much as to bee a King in deed and Simon by name He beseecheth the King by Letters and by his Agents that hee would not interpose himselfe in this warre neither on the one part nor the other Which he obtained of the King insomuch that it troubled him to see his Subiects continually drawne to the shambles of this warre of the Albingenses vnder a pretence of the Popes pardon and to see so many of his great Lords his Kinsmen so vexed by the Earle Simon When the Earle Simon vnderstood that the King of France was made a Neuter he was much afflicted therewith hauing now no other recourse but to the threats of the Legat to excommunicate him if he should proceed any farther The Legat sent him an Ambassage and Letters The King of Aragon returned this answer Goe speedily and tell your Master that I will come and see him and giue him an answer with ten thousand fighting men and will him to defend himselfe for I will teach him to play with his Peere Euery one makes preparation The Monke of the Valleis Sernay Chap. 89. The Earle Simon sent into France to the Archdeacon of Paris and Master
Vaur Montpelier and Lotran had granted vnto him and in recompence thereof King Lewis created him Constable of France in the yeare 1224. To put himselfe into possession King Lewis the eight came into Languedoc and comming to the gates of Auignon he was denied entrance because professing the Religion of the Albingenses they had beene excommunicated and giuen by the Pope to the first Conquerour for then Auignon was no chiefe Citie of the Earldome of Venessin as at this present but belonged to the King of Naples and Sicily The King being much moued with this deniall resolued to besiege it which continued for the space of eight moneths in the end whereof they yeelded themselues about Whitsontide in the yeare 1225. During this siege almost all the cities of Languedoc acknowledged the king of France by the mediation of Mr. Amelin Archbishop of Narbonne The King established for Gouernour in Languedoc Imbert de Beauieu and tooke his way to France but hee died by the way at Montpensier in September in the yeare 1226. The young Remond Earle of Toulouze was bound by promise to the king to goe to receiue his absolution of Pope Honorius and afterwards he should giue him peaceable possession of all his lands but the death of the king in the meane time happening he saw the Realme of France in the hands of king Lewis a childe and in his minority and the regency in the power and gouernment of his mother Hee thought that hauing to deale with an infant king and a woman regent he might recouer by force that which he had quit himselfe of by agreement He therefore resolued to take armes being encouraged thereunto by the succours of the Albingenses his subiects who were in great hope to maintaine their part in strength and vigor during the Non-age of the King of France but they were deceiued in their proiect For though Lewis the ninth were in his minoritie yet he was so happie as to haue a wise and a prudent mother if euer there were any For King Lewis the eighth before his death had appointed her the Tutrix or Gardianesse of his sonne and Regent of the Realme knowing very well her great capacity and sufficiency Besides Imbert de Beauieu maintained the authority of the king in Languedoc tooke armes and made opposition against the Earle Remond and the Albingenses The History of Languedoc sol 31. The Queene sent him diuers troopes by the helpe whereof he recouered the Castle de Bonteque neare to Toulouze which was a great hinderance to Imbert and his portizans All the Albingenses that were found within the Castle were put to death and a certaine Deacon with others that would not abiure their Religion by the commandement of the said Imbert Amel the Popes Legat and the aduise of Guyon Bishop of Carcassonne they were burnt aliue in the yeare 1227. suffring death with admirable constancy The more the persecution increased the more the number of the Albingenses multiplied which Imber of Beauieu perceiuing he went to the Court to let them vnderstand that without succours he could no longer defend the countrey and the places newly annexed to the Crowne and patrimony of France against the Albingenses and the Earle Remond In the meane time whilest he was absent the Earle Remond tooke the Castle Sarrazin one of the strongest places that Imbert had in his keeping and holding the field did much hurt to his enemies Imbert came from France at the spring of the yeare one thousand two hundred twenty eight accompanied with a great Armie of the Crosse in which there was the Archbishop of Bourges the Archbishop of Aouch and of Burdeaux euery one with the Pilgrims of their iurisdiction The Earle Remond retired himselfe into Toulouze where he was presently shut vp and all the country round about euen haruest and all spoiled and wasted Being brought to this extremitie Hist of Lang. fol. 33. the Abbot of Grandselue named Elias Garin came from Amelin the Popes Legat to offer peace to the Earle Remond and the Toulouzains He was receiued with great ioy offering peace and plenty to those that were almost famished and wearied with warre Neuerthelesse the wisest amongst them who better foresaw the euent of things knew well enough that so soone as they had gotten the Earle Remond into their hands they would make vse of him to persecute them that they would establish the inquisition and kindle their fires againe and so vtterly destroy them both bodies and soules but the reasons of these men were ouercome by the importunate cries of the common people almost famished who could not see the time wherein they were fettered with the halter that should strangle them Besides the enemie wanted not people in Toulouze that were willing to terrifie the Earle Remond saying that he was not now to deale with Americ of Montfort but with a king of France who had power sufficient to ouerthrow him that continuall feuers kill men and long warres would at the last burie them all The Earle Remond passed his word to the Abbot to be at a certaine day at Vasieges there to resolue vpon that which was to bee done to bring the peace to a perfection In the meane time a truse was agreed vpon with the Toulouzains for certaine daies The Earle Remond came at the day to the place appointed and so did the Abbot of Grandselue After much discourse and communication touching a peace the Abbot made him beleeue that it would be for his greater aduantage to bee in France than in that place and that forasmuch as the businesse concerned the King that it was necessary that the Queene-mother being Tutrix vnto him and Regent of France should be present and that more would be done in a few daies than in a whole yeare the businesse requiring so many iournies and goings and commings which peraduenture would bee long and vnprofitable and so pawned his faith that hereby he should receiue all contentment Being vanquished by these promises he consented to come into France whethersoeuer the Queene-mother should appoint Meaux was the place she made choise of and his time was appointed He came thither but he was no sooner arriued but he repented and acknowledged his great ouersight in that he had giuen credit to the words of a Priest especially knowing that his deceased father had alwaies sped so ill by trusting to those that hold this for a maxime that Faith is not to be kept with Heretikes or their fauourers That he being held for such a one had no reason to looke for better successe There was therefore now no more question of treaties or communications but of submission to whatsoeuer should be enioyned him He had now no longer freedome of speech but he was carefully guarded for feare least he should fly to the Albingenses The Historiographer of Languedoc The Hist of Lang. fol. 34. though in other matters much animated against the Albingenses yet hee could not write of this without
that they made no great account of their Clergie and Prelates And for this cause being excommunicated and chased out of the countrey they dispersed themselues into many and diuerse places as into Dauphiney Prouence Languedoc Piemont Calabria Bohemia England and other places Some haue written that one part of the Waldenses retired themselues into Lombardie where they multiplyed in such a manner that their doctrine was dispersed throughout all Italie and came as farre as Sicile Neuerthelesse in this great dispersion they alwayes kept themselues in vnion and fraternitie for the space of foure hundred yeares liuing in great sinceritie and the feare of God The Author of the Historie of the State of the Church writes of them thus The Historie of the Estate of the Church p. 336. After that Waldo saith he and his followers were driuen out of Lions one part of them retired to Lombardie where they multiplied in such a manner that their doctrine began to disperse it selfe into Italie and came into Sicile as the Patents of Fredericke the second giuen out against them whilest he reigned do witnesse Vesembecius saith Vesemb in his oration of the Waldenses p. 3. that when the Pope and his catchpoles saw that the Romane Hierarchie receiued great detriment by meanes of the Waldenses insomuch that there were certaine Princes that had taken their defence amongst whom was the King of Aragon and the Earles of Toulonze in those dayes puissant Princes in France they began to oppresse them vpon most vniust occasions bringing them into hatred with the people and especially of Kings to the end that by this meanes they might be vtterly exterminated Vignier makes mention of the Waldenses in his Historical Bibliotheke Vignier in his Historicall Bibliothec p. 130. and saith that they haue endured many long and grieuous persecutions and yet notwithstanding there was neuer any thing that could hinder them from retaining that doctrine which they had receiued from the Waldenses deliuering it as it were from hand to hand vnto their children Hologaray affirmes Hologaray in his History of Foix p. 120. 121. that the Waldenses and Albigenses were of a contrary opinion to the Bishop of Rome in all those maximes or principles that were publickly preached commanded by his authoritie that is that were inuented by him and contrary to the word of God And he witnesseth withall that there were amongst them wise men and very learned and sufficient to defend their beliefe against the Monkes Mathias Illyricus writes Math. Illyricus in his Catal. of the witnesses of the truth p. 134. that he finds by the writings of Waldo which lay by him in certaine ancient parchments that Waldo was a learned man and that he did not cause the bookes of the Bible to be translated into the vulgar tongue but that he tooke paines therein himselfe It is most certaine that the aduersaries of Waldo and the Waldenses make no great account of these aboue named testimonies because they hold them to be both of one and the same ranke and order both the witnesses and those to whom they beare witnesse that is all for hereticks but this Historie is not onely for the enemies of the truth but to the end the louers thereof may see that that which is here produced doth not intend onely our owne particular commendations but to shew that there haue bene before vs certaine great personages whose memorie they reuerence that haue spoken of the Waldenses as of the true Sacraments of God who haue maintained the truth with the losse of their liues and earnestly desired in their times to see the reformation we enioy in ours And as le Sieur de S. Aldegonde saith In the first table of his differences the third part p. 150. the occasion why they were condemned for heretickes was no other but because they maintained that the Masse was an impious corruption of the holy Supper of the Lord. That the Hoste was an idoll forged by men That the Church of Rome was wholly adulterated and corrupted and full of infidelitie and idolatrie That the traditions of the Church were but superstitions and humane inuentions That the Pope was not the head of the Church and for other points of this nature And as the said Aldegonde obserues it was a great worke of God that how diligent soeuer the Popes with their Clergie haue bene vsing likewise the assistance of secular Princes and magistrates to roote them out yet they could neuer do it neither by proscriptions nor banishments nor excommunications nor publications of their Bulles nor Indulgences and Pardons to all those that shall make warre against them nor by any manner of torments fire flames gibets or other cruell effusion of bloud could they euer hinder the current of their doctrine but it hath spread it selfe almost into all the corners of the earth This hath le Sieur de Saint Aldegonde writ of the Waldenses But forasmuch as doubt may be made whether we haue in these dayes any proofes in the world of their beleefe it is necessary that we produce hereabouts an inuentorie of bookes which they haue left vnto vs to the end that when there shall be any question of their doctrine euery one may vnderstand what the writings are out of which we haue gathered that which they taught CHAP. VII That Peter Waldo and the Waldenses haue left bookes which make proofe of their beliefe and what they are THat Waldo left something in writing vnto vs In the former Chap. it appeares by that which Math. Illyricus saith that he hath certaine parchments of his which shew him to be a learned man Historie of the Estate of the Church p. 307. The Author of the Historie of the Estate of the Church giues this testimonie that followeth Waldo at the same time saith he made a collection in the vulgar tongue of sundry passages of the ancient Fathers to the end he might defend his opinions not onely by the authoritie of the holy Scripture but also by the testimonie of the Doctors against his aduersaties About fortie yeares since le Sieur de Vignaux Pastor of the Churches of the Waldenses in Piemont writ as followeth in his memorials that he made Of the beginning Antiquitie Doctrine Religion Manners Discipline Persecutions Confessions and progresse of the people called Waldenses I that write saith he can witnesse that being sent vnto these people to preach the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ which I did about some fortie yeares together I had no need to take much paines to win them from the ceremonies of the Church of Rome nor to roote out of their minds the Pope the Masse Purgatory and such other things wherein they were a long time Doctors before my coming although the greatest part of them knew neither A nor B. It is to this seruant of God to whom we are much bound for the multitude of bookes written by the Waldenses For as oft as he lighted vpon any
those Latine verses which were written a gainst the said Alexander the sixth Vendit Alexander cruces altaria Christum Emer at ille prius vendere iure potest Pope Alexander sold altars Christ and his crosse He bought them had he not sold had liued by the losse Againe Templa Sacerdotes Altaria Sacra Coronae Ignis Thura Preces Caelum est venale Deúsque Temples Priests Altars Crowns they sell for pelfe Fire Frankincense Prayers heauen and God himselfe which is to be vnderstood of their breaden god in the Masse The Arch-bishop therfore was the cause why others kept still those goods in their possession without any restitution and though some particular persons were afterwards called into question as namely Le Sieur de Montainar de Rames and others yet they could neuer haue any remedy In the yeere one thousand fiue hundred sixty the Waldenses of Frassiniere and Pragela had their Churches furnished with Pastors who held them in the exercise of their religion at that time wherein they persecuted vnto death all those that made profession of reformation The President Truchon made an Oration to the States of Prouence assembled the same yeere the sixt of Nouember of purpose to exterminate the said Waldenses of Frassinieres and Pragela saying that it was necessary to purge the old and ancient Leuen likely to make soure the whole Country of Dauphine if some course were not taken to preuent it By these States it was rerefolued by open force to extirpate them and by armes and to this purpose Commissions were giuen forth to leuy troopes of men and to passe into the said Valleies but so soone as the drumme was strooken vp and the men in armes throughout Prouence the vnexpected death of King Francis the second of that name altered the designe and afterwards the said Waldensian Churches in Dauphine continued as still they doe by the singular fauour of God CHAP. IIII. Of the Waldensian Churches in Piedmont and those persecutions they endured that are come to our knowledge THE Waldenses haue had famous Churches in the Valleis of Piedmont Angrongne la Perouse the Valley Saint Martin Lucerna and other bordering places for time out of minde It is held for certaine amongst them that they are a part of the Waldenses of Dauphine Pragela Frassinieres and other places their neere neighbours and that in time being multiplied in so great abundance that the Country could not feed them they were constrained to disperse themselues at length and at large where they might best settle themselues So deare like brothers haue they been one to another and notwithstanding they haue been alwaies oppressed with troubles yet with a most hearty loue and charity they haue euer succoured one another not sparing their liues and goods for their mutuall conseruation The first troubles that the Waldenses of Piedmont endured came from the report of certaine Priests sent thither by the Arch-bishop of Turin who informed that the people that were committed to their charge liued not according to the manners and be liefe of the Church of Rome neither offering for the dead nor caring for Masses or absolutions nor to get any of theirs out of the paines of Purgatory by any of their vsuall meanes The Arch-bishops of Turin haue persecuted them as much as lay in their power making them odious to their Princes who vnderstanding of the good report that their neighbours gaue of their milde honest conuersation Vignaux in his memorials fol. 7. and that they were a simple people fearing God of a good carriage without deceit or malice louing integrity and plaine dealing alwaies ready to serue their Princes and that very willingly they yeelded vnto them all dutifull obedience and that with alacrity Being in such grace and fauour with the people their neighbours that they endeauoured to bring into Piedmont to their seruice their young people and to prouide their nurses amongst them to bring vp their yong infants the said Princes continued a long time in a purpose not to molest them but the Priests and Monkes that were frequent amongst them gaining nothing by this their beliefe charged them with an infinite number of Calumnies and whensoeuer they went into Piedmont vpon occasion of businesse they alwaies caught one or other and deliuered him to the Inquisitors and the Inquisitors to the executioner In such manner that there was hardly any Towne or Citty in Piedmont in which one or other of them was not put to death For Iordan Tertian was burnt at Suse Hypolite Roussier was burnt at Turin Villermin Ambroise was hanged at Meane as also Anthony Hiun Hugh Chiampe de Fenestrelles being taken at Suse was conueied to Turin where his bowels were torne out of his belly and put into a bason and hee afterwards cruelly martyred among which the seruants of God there were some who haue maintained that truth which they haue knowne for aboue two hundred and fifty yeeres and others aboue a hundred and fifty But amongst all the rest the constancy of one Catelin Girard is worthy the remembrance who being vpon the blocke whereon hee should bee burnt at Reuel in the Marquisate of Saluces he requested his executioners to giue him a coupple of stones into his hands which they refused to doe fearing he had a purpose to fling them at some one or other but hee protesting the contrary at the last they deliuered them vnto him Vignaux in his memorials fol. 7. who hauing them in his hands said vnto them when I shall haue eaten these stones then shall ye see an end of that religion for which you put me to death and so cast the stones vpon the ground The fires were kindled vntill the yeere one thousands foure hundred eighty eight at what time they resolued to assault them by open force because besides that they perceiued that the constancy of those whom they did publikely put to death drew a great number of others to the knowledge of God they likewise found that by this meanes they should neuer come to their purposed designe And therefore they leuied men to ioyne with Albert de Capitaneis one put in Commission by Pope Sixtus the fourth and Innocent the eight There were eighteene thousand souldiers mustered besides a great number of the Inhabitants of Piedmont who ran to the pillage from all parts They marched all at once to Angrongne Lucerne la Perouse Saint Martin Prauiglerm and Biolet which is in the Marquisate of Saluces as also they raised troopes in Vaucluson in Dauphine ouerrunning the Valley of Pragela to the end that being bound to their owne defence they might not be able to fauour their neighbours the Waldensian Churches in Piedmont All this was guided by the singular prouidence of God in that they diuided their troopes by bands rather out of their pride then for their better expedition For notwithstanding they were all imployed in their owne defence and could not succor one another yet the enemy by this diuision did
wickednesse they were as precious stones in a common sinke and therefore both enuied and admired but yet alwaies maintained by their Lords who comparing these subiects and vassals with others that they had could not satiate themselues with their praises Thus were they maintained by their Lords against all enuy and that maugre the Priests vntill the yeere 1560 at what time they could no longer defend them against the Popes thunderbolts The occasion was because they then vnderstood that in their Valleys of Pragela and Piedmont there were Pastors that with a loud voyce did preach the Gospell For they had sent to Geneua to be furnished with teachers and they sent them two that is to say Steuen Negrin and Lewis Paschal who at their arriuall did their best endeauours to establish the exercise of their Religion Pope Pius the fourth of that name being aduertised hereof the Colledge of Cardinals was assembled and presently concluded and resolued vpon the vtter ruine and ex irpation of this people who so neere the Popes Seate durst to plant the Religion of the Lutherans The charge of this persecution was giuen to Cardinall Alexandrin a violent man if there were euer any amongst the Cardinals Hee chose two Monkes of his owne humour to be his Informers that is to say one Valerio Maluicino and a Dominican Monke named Alphonsus Vrbin who began with the Inhabitants of Saint Xist Being in the place they assembled the people giuing them good speeches and protesting that their comming thither was not any way to molest them but onely louingly to aduertise them that they were not to heare any other Doctours and teachers then those which should be giuen vnto them by the Prelats of their Diocesse That they knew well that they had receiued teachers from Geneua but by quitting themselues of them and liuing hereafter according to the lawes of the Church of Rome they should haue no cause to feare any thing but if they presumed to keepe their said teachers amongst them they did put themselues in danger to lose their liues their goods and honours because they were to be condemned for Heretickes And that they might the better know who they were that had wholly forsaken the lawes of the Church of Rome they caused a bell to be rung to Masse inuiting the people to goe thither but in steed of going to the Masse they quit themselues of their houses and with their wiues and children that could follow them they did flie into the woods leauing onely within the Citty some few decrepit men and women and little children The Monkes dissembled this flight that they might the better intrap them all at once They went to la Garde not threatning any one of those that stayed in Saint Xist Being there they caused the gates of the Towne to be locked and the people to be assembled They told them that they of Saint Xist had abiured their Religion and being gone to the Masse had asked pardon at Gods hands promising them if they would doe the like that no man should offer the least hurt that might be These poore people thinking the Monkes had spoken a truth vnto them they were content to yeeld to whatsoeuer they would haue them doe But when they had vnderstood that their brethren of Saint Xist had refused to goe to Masse and that they were fled into the woods they were ashamed of their weaknesse and much displeased with their reuolt and therefore instantly resolued with themselues to goe with their wiues and children to their bretheren of Saint Xist but the Lord of the place Saluator Spinello would not suffer them to retire themselues in so miserable a manner promising to defend them against whomsoeuer prouided saith he that they caried themselues like good Romish Catholikes In the meane time the Monkes sent after those of Sainc Xist two Companies of foote-men who ran after these poore people as after wild beasts crying out Amassa amassa that is kill kill They slew diuers of them But they that could get to the top of the mountaine being on the hight of the rockes intreated they might be heard which being granted they beseeched them to haue pitty vpon them and vpon their wiues and children that they would call to minde that they had inhabited in those Countries from the father to the sonne for some ages and that in all that time there was not any that could complaine of their conuersation and yet neuerthelesse if they could not continue in their houses in that beliefe wherein they had liued to this present if they might be permitted to betake themselues either by sea or by land to the protection of God with their onely persons and some few commodities and so retire themselues whether it should please the Lord to conduct them they would very willingly forsake all their goods rather then to fall into any idolatry promising both for themselues and all theirs neuer to returne to their houses againe They beseeched them euen for Gods cause not to driue them to such necessities as that they must be enforced to defend themselues for if they should be once out of all hope of mercy it would be dangerous for themselues who had driuen them to these extremities The souldiers were the more stirred vp against them and presently made a violent assault vpon them which bound these poore people to a iust defence and so being assisted by God they slew the greatest part of the Souldiers that pursued them and put the rest to slight The Monkes the Inquisitors writ to the Vice-roy of Naples that he should speedily sendsome companies of Souldiers to apprehend cetaine Heretickes of Saint Xist and la Garde who were fled into the woods and that in so doing he should doe that which was pleasing to the Pope and meritorious to himselfe if he shall deliuer the Church from such contagion The Vice-roy came himselfe with his troupes Being arriued at Saint Xist he caused to be proclaimed by the sound of a trumpet that the place was condemned to be exposed to fire and sword But in the meane time before his arriuall the women had leasure to returne to Saint Xist whether they ran together to seeke for victuall to feede their husbands and children which were in the wood The Viceroy caused it to be proclaimed throughout the Realme of Naples that all banished people that would come to the warres against the Heretickes of Saint Xist should be pardoned all their offences formerly committed whereupon great numbers gathered themselues together and were conducted to the woods where the fugitiues of Saint Xist were and they gaue them the chase in so rigorous a manner that in the end after the slaughter of diuers of these poore people the rest of them being sore wounded retired themselues into the caues vpon the high rockes where the greatest part of them died with famine The Monkes Inquisitors made shew of much discontent and that they were much displeased with that which had happened
of Calabria soiourned in in Prouence that is to disburden their Valleys of the great multitudes of people that were there And though in the beginning of their arriuall in Prouence the Country where they made their abode was a desart yet they made it in few yeeres fertile and fit by the blessing of God to yeeld Corne Wine oyle of Oliues Chestnuts and other fruits and that in great aboundance The first persecutions which they suffered are not come to our knowledge notwithstanding we finde ouen at this day the Commissions that haue been giuen by the Popes and Anti-popes residing in Auignon very neere to the place of their abiding against the Waldenses inhabiting in Prouence as that of the Arch-deacon of Cremona See before in the 3. Chap. Albert de Capitaneis and of the Monke frier Minor Francis Borelli hauing Commission against them in the yeer 1380 to make inquiry of the Waldenses in the Diocesse of Aix in Prouence Arles and Selon As also when they were retired into the said Prouince in the yeere 1228 when the Arch-bishop of Aix Arles and of Narbonne were assembled at Auignon to giue aduice to the Inquisitors touching the Waldenses See Chap. 2. who then said as you haue heard before that the Inquisitors had apprehended so great a number that there was not onely a want of victuall to feed them but of lyme and stone to build their prisons It is most certaine that then the Waldenses of Prouence dwelling as it were in the very gates of the Popes Palace and about their Earledome of Auignon were not forgotten But forasmuch as we haue no Copies of instruments that may make good the said persecutions we will insert into this discourse nothing but what we shall be able sufficiently to proue The first persecution is that whereof we haue the History in the time of King Lewis the twelfth about the yeere 1506 That is that this good King being informed that there were in Prouence a certaine kind of people that liued not according to the lawes of the Church of Rome but were an accursed people committing all manner of wickednesse and villanies euen such as the very memory of them strooke a horrour into mens hearts and the Christians in the primitiue Church had been vpbraided with he gaue Commission to his Court of Parliament in Prouence to take knowledge thereof and to chastise them according to their merit Whereunto the said Court hauing diligently attended so soone as the King vnderstood that diuers innocent persons were put to death he limited the authority of the said Court and would not suffer them to continue their executions vntill he were truely informed Vesembecius in Oratione de Waldensibâ—s what kind of people they were that to him had been reported to be so wicked To this purpose he sent Master Adam Fumee his Master of requests who told him at his returne that what had been giuen him to vnderstand touching the Waldenses of Prouence was very vntrue for they were not any way tainted either with sorcery or whoredome but that they liued like honest men doing hurt to no man they caused their children to be baptized taught them the Articles of their beliefe and the Commandements of God they carefully kept the Lords day and the word of God was purely expounded vnto them Vesembecius in Orotione de Waldensibus His auditis Rex iureiurando addito me inquit caetero populo meo Catholico meliores illi viri sunt A certaine Iacobin Monke named Parui confessor to the King witnessed as much who by the King was ioyned in Commission with the said Master of Requests Which the King hauing vnderstood he said and bound it with an oath that they were honester men then himselfe or the rest of his Catholike people This persecution being stained by King Lewis the twelfth they continued in peace vnto the raigne of King Francis the first of that name and at what time there was some speech in France of a reformation of Religion they sent two of their Pastors that is to say George Morel of Frassinieres in Dauphine and Peter Masson of Burgundy to Oecolampadius Minister at Basse to Capito and Martin Bucer at Strasbourg and to Berthand Haller at Berne to conferre with them about matters touching their Religion and to haue their aduice and counsell about many points wherein they desired to be better satisfied The Letters which Oecolampadius and Bucer sent vnto them are set downe at length in the first Booke of this History the Sixt Chapter where I endeauoured to make it appeare vnto the world that many great personages amongst them that made profession of reformation haue giuen testimony of their piety and probity which is the reason why we insert them not againe in this discourse onely we will produce those of the Waldenses in their own language and afterwards in English Salut a Monseignor Oecolampadio CAr moti racontant a sona a nostras oreillas que aquel que po totas cosas c. The Letter of the Waldenses of Prouence to Mr. Oecolampadius Health to Master Oecolampadius FOrasmuch as diuers haue giuen vs to vnderstand and the report is come vnto our eares that he that is able to doe all things hath replenished you with the blessings of his holy Spirit as it well appeares by the fruites we who liue farre distant from you haue thought good to haue recourse vnto you and with ioyfull hearts we hope and trust that the holy Ghost will illuminate vs by your meanes and will satisfie vs concerning many things whereof we are now in doubt and are hidden from vs because of our ignorance and negligence and as it is to be feared to 〈…〉 and the people whom we teach with great insufficiency For that you may know at once how matters stand Wee such as we are weake instructers of this little flocke haue remained for aboue foure hundred yeeres in the middest of sharpe and cruell thornes and yet in the meane time not without the great fauour of Christ as all the faithfull can easily testifie for this people hath many times been deliuered by the fauour and mercy of God being gored and tormented by the said thornes And therefore we come vnto you to be counselled and confirmed in our weaknesse They writ another Letter to the same purpose to Martin Bucer the which for breuities sake we omit wherein they relate that they had addressed themselues for the selfe same cause to their brethren of Newcastle Morat and Berne which shewes how carefull the Waldenses were to seeke out all manner of meanes that their vnderstandings might be enlightned in the mysteries of piety for the saluation of their soules especially seeing that then they sought the meanes to aduance and order their Church in the open view of the world when the fires were kindled throughout all France against those of the same Religion that they were who in those times were called Lutherans The greater
death as VValdenses that is to say eleuen yeeres after the dispersion of the VValdenses of the Citty of Lion For Waldo departed out of Lion in the yeere one thousand one hundred sixty three Math. Paris in his History of England the said yeere and Mathew Paris reports that the Monkes Inquisitors caused some of the Waldenses to be burnt in England in the yeere 1174. And Iohn Bale makes mention of a certaine man that was burnt at London in the yeere 1210 that was charged with no other matter then that hee professed the Religion of the Waldenses Iohn Basle in the Chronicles of London Thomas Walden in his sixt volume of things sacramentall tit 12. chap. 10 Thomas Walden an English man hath writ that in the time of Henry the second the Waldenses were grieuously persecuted and that they were called Publicans And as for those in whom they found not cause enough to condemne vnto death they marked them in forhead with a burning key to the end they might be knowne of euery man This beliefe of the Waldenses was better known in the time of the wars against the Albingenses insomuch that as le Sieur de la Popeliniere hath well obserued the proximity of the lands and possessions of the Earle Remod of Tholouze La Popiliniere in his History of France l. 1. with Guienne then possessed by the English and the aliance of the King of England brother in law of the said Remond made the way more easie to the English not onely to succour one another in their wars but also to take knowledge of the beliefe of the said Albingenses which was no other but that of the Waldenses to the end that they might support them though the violence were vniust and extreame against those whom the English were many times constrained to defend against those who vnder the pretence of Religion inuaded his lands Frier Rainard Lollard was then the most powerfull instrument which God vsed by exhortations and sound reasons to giue knowledge to the English of the doctrine for which the VValdenses were deliuered to death This doctrine was receiued by Wicklif as it is noted in the Booke of the Beginning and confession of the Churches of Bohemia who thereby obtained much helpe for the increase of his knowledge in the truth He was a renowned Theologian in the Vniuersity of Oxford and parson of the parish of Luterworth in the Diocesse of Lincolne an eloquent man and profound Scholler He won the hearts of many English euen of most honorable of the land as the Duke of Lancaster vncle to King Richard Henry Percy Lewes Gifford and the Chancellor the Earle of Salisbury By the fauour of of these great personages the doctrine of the VValdenses or of Wicklif tooke footing and had free passage in England vntill Gregory the eleuenth persecuted those that receiued it with allowance by meanes of his Monkes the Inquisitors the fiers being kindled in England for many yeeres to stay the course thereof but it was all in vaine for it hath been maintained there maugre Antichrist vntill his yoke was wholly shaken off True it is that the bones of Wicklif were dis-interred aboue thirty yeeres after his death and condemned to be burnt with such bookes as his aduersaries could recouer but he had before enlightned so great a number that it was beyond the power of his enemies altogether to depriue the Church of them For by how much the more they indeauoured to hinder the reading and knowledge of them by horrible threats and death it selfe the more were the affections of many sharpned to reade them with greater ardency It is likewise said that a certaine Scholler hauing carried into Bohemia one of the books of the said Wicklif intituled His Vniuersals and deliuering it to Iohn Hus he gathered that knowledge from it that made him admirable in Bohemia and edified all those who together with him did very willingly free themselues from the seruile yoke of the Church of Rome Lib. de Origine Confes Eccl. Bohemiae Wiclefus à Waldensibus adiutus Hussium nostrum excitauit pa. 264. From hence it was said to the Husites that Wicklif had awakened their Iohn Hus. This Wicklif writ aboue a hundred volumes against Antichrist or the Church of Rome the Catalogue whereof is in the booke of the Images of famous men that haue combated with Antichrist CHAP. XIII Of the Waldenses that did flie into Flanders and were there persecuted AFter the great persecution of the Waldenses in the time of Phillip the faire S. Aldeg in his 1. Table of the diff fol. 149. Iohn Dubrauius in the Hstory of Bohemia lib. 14. Historigraphers make mention of their repaire into Flanders whether he pursued them and caused a great number to bee burnt And because they were constrained to retire themselues into the woods to flie from those that pursued them they were called Turlupins that is See before l. 1. c. 1. dwellers with wolues as you haue heard before in that Chapter where we haue shewed what names were giuen vnto them Mathew Paris saith that a certaine Iacobin Monke Math. Paris in the life of Henry 3. named Robert Bougre had liued amongst the Waldenses making profession of their Religion but hauing afterwards forsaken them became a Monke and a very violent persecuter in such sort that he caused many to be burnt in Flanders Now his owne friends hauing taken knowledge that he much abused the power and authority of his office laying to their charge many things whereof they were innocent and executing his authority against many that were altogether ignorant of the beliefe of the VValdenses he was not only depriued of the office of an Inquisitor but cast into prison and being conuicted of diuers crimes was condemned to perpetuall prison CHAP. XIV Of the VValdenses that were persecuted in Poland ABout the yeere of our Lord 1330 there were many that made profession of the Religion of the Waldenses in the Kingdom of Poland The Bishops had recourse to the meanes established by the Pope that is to say Flac. Illy in his Catol of the wit pa. 539. the Inquisition whereby they deliuer many of them into the hands of the executioner The Author of the Catalogue of the witnesses of the truth hath written that he hath lying by him the forme of the Inquisition which the Inquisitors made vse off in this persecution Vignier saith Vignier in his Biblio pa. 130. In his History lib. 1. that at their departure out of Picardy many of them that were persecuted there retired themselues into Poland Le Sieur de Popeliniere hath set downe in his History that the Religion of the Waldenses hath spred it selfe almost into all parts of Europe euen amongst the Polonians and Lutherans and that after the yeer one thousand one hundred they haue alwayes sowed their doctrine little differing from that of the moderne Protestants and maugre all the powers and Potentates that haue
he iudged to be wanderers did not returne to the bosome of the Church of Rome by gentle meanes and force of reason they began to thinke that it stood them vpon to maintaine their beleefe by such conference otherwise they should giue occasion to the aduersaries to thinke that there was in their Religion some weaknesse if there were not any Pastor that would take vpon him the defence thereof It was therefore concluded amongst the Albingenses to giue the Bishops to vnderstand that their Pastors or any one of them for the rest were ready to maintaine their beleefe by the word of God prouided that the conference were well ordered and moderated that is to say that there may be moderators that are men of authoritie both on the one side and the other that may haue wherewithall to hinder all tumult and sedition Prouided also that it be in a place vnto which there may be free accesse and the place secured for all persons that may assist or be present at the said conference Moreouer that there bee some matter or subiect chosen by common consent not to bee giuen ouer before it be determined and that he that cannot defend it by the word of God is to bee reputed and held to be vanquished The Bishops and Monkes did all allow of the said conditions The place was Montreal neere Carcasonne This disputation was the most famous that hath bin betweene the Albingenses the Bishops and Priests the time in the yeere one thousand two hundred and six The Arbitrators agreed vpon by the one part and the other B. de Villeneufue and B. Auxerre for the Bishops and for the Albingenses R. de Bot and Antony Riuiere Arnold Hott was the Pastor for the Albingenses Chassagnon maketh mention in his first booke of the History of the Albingenses pag. 72. accompanied with those that were accounted fit for such an action He was the first that arriued at the place and day assigned Afterwards came the Bishop Eusus and the Monke Dominique a Spaniard with two of the Popes Legats that is to say Also Iaques de Riberia in his collect of the Citie of Toulouze Peter Chastel and Racul de Iust Abbot of Candets P. Bertrand Prior d' Auteriue as also the Prior de Palats and diuers other Priests and Monkes The Theses or tenerall questions proposed by Arnold This disputation was sent me from the Albingēses by Mr. Rafin Pastor of the Church of Realmont in old Manuscripts were these That the Masse with the Transubstantiation was the inuention of men not the ordinance of Christ nor his Apostles That the Romish Church is not the Spouse of Christ but the Church of tumult and molestation made drunken with the bloud of Martyrs That the policie of the Church of Rome is neither good nor holy nor established by Iesus Christ Arnold sent these Propositions to the Bishop who demanded a respit of fifteene dayes to answer which was granted him At the day appointed the Bishop failed not to appeare with a long and large writing Arnold Hott desired to bee heard by word of mouth saying That he would answer to all that was contained in the said writing intreating his auditorie that it might not be troublesome vnto them if he were long in answering to so long a discourse It was granted that he should bee heard with attention and patience and without interruption He discoursed at diuers houres for foure dayes together and with such admiration of those that were present and readinesse for his part that all the Bishops Abbots Monkes and Priests had reason to desire they had beene elsewhere For he framed his answer according to the points set downe in the said writing with such order and plainnesse that hee gaue all that were present to vnderstand that the Bishop hauing written much had neuerthelesse concluded nothing that might truly turne to the aduantage of the Church of Rome against his Propositions Afterwards Arnold made a request that forasmuch as the Bishops and himselfe in the beginning of their conference were bound to proue whatsoeuer they affirmed by the onely word of God it might bee imposed vpon the Bishops and Priests to make good their Masse such as they sing it part by part to haue beene instituted by the Sonne of God and sung in the like manner by his Apostles beginning at the entrance vnto the Ile Missa est as they terme it but the Bishops were not able to proue that the Masse or any part thereof was ordained in such an action either by Iesus Christ or his Apostles With this the Bishops were much discontented and ashamed For Arnold had brought them to the onely Canon which they pretended to be the best part of their Masse touching which point he proued That the holy Supper of our Lord was n ot the Masse For if the Masse were the holy Supper instituted by our Sauiour there would remaine after the Consecration all that which was in the Supper of the Lord that is to say Bread but in the Masse there is no bread for by Transubstantiation the bread is vanished away therefore the Masse saith he without bread is not the holy Supper of the Lord for there is bread Iesus Christ brake bread The Priest breakes the body not the bread St. Paul brake the bread The Priest breakes the body not the bread Therefore the Priest doth not that which Christ Iesus hath done and St. Paul Vpon these Antitheses which Arnold made touching the Supper of the Lord and the Masse to proue that it came not from Christ nor his Apostles the Monkes Bishops Legats and Priests retired themselues not being willing to heare any more and fearing lest they should worke such an impression in those that were present as might shake their beleefe touching the Masse The Monke of the Valley Seruay The Monke of the Valley Seruay in his Hist of the Albing chap. 5. endeuoureth to bring this action into suspition affirming that at what time the Hereticall Iudges exceeded in number seeing the badnesse of their cause and the wretchednesse of their disputation they would not saith hee giue any iudgement thereof nor deliuer their writings to their aduersaries for feare lest they should come to light and render to the Heretikes their owne But how should two Legats of the Pope the Bishops Abbots Monkes and Priests put themselues into any such place where they could bee thus ouercharged with number This Monke saith in the same place that the principall Arch-heretikes came to the Catholikes at the Castle of Montreal to dispute with them So that they held then the Castle and therefore there was no occasion of doubt or any such violence And furthermore how could it be that the Bishops should request the moderators to giue iudgement in a point of disputation when they hold that there needs no other sentence than the Popes who cannot erre Againe how did the Monke know that the Albingenses were ouercome if there
were no iudgement or sentence giuen against them There were about the same time many other disputations as at Serignan Pannies but this was onely to delay the Albingenses from further proceeding For in the meane time whilest the Bishop of Toulouze and the Bishop of Onezimonde disputed at Pamies and the Popes two Legats with Arnold at Montreal B. of Villeneufue Arbitrator and Moderator for the Bishops signified That there could bee nothing determined or agreed vpon by reason of the comming of those Armies that were to fight vnder the badge of the Crosse This was the subtiltie of the Pope Hilagaray in his Hist of Foix pa. 126. to entertaine them in conferences touching matter of Religion that in the meane time he might prepare great Armies to roote out if hee could both themselues and their Religion CHAP. III. The end of the disputation touching Religion it was not long continued by the Pope and his Legats The presence of the Pope to publish the expedition against the Albingenses The Earle Remond humbleth himselfe before the Popes Legat he is whipped by the Legat and depriued of his Earledome of Venessin by the Pope hee is made chiefe Leader of the Armie of those that fought vnder the badge of the Crosse at the siege of Beziers NOw when Pope Innocent had prepared his Armies of the Crosse So tearmed because euery one that vndertaketh the iourney weares on his Cassocke or Coate-armour the badge of the Crosse and had dispersed them here and there about the Countries of the Albingenses there were no longer any disputations except it were with Fire and Faggots the chiefe disputers being the Executioners and the Monkes Inquisitors the Harpies or rauenous birds which the Pope made vse of for the extirpation of the Albingenses The pretence of this so famous an expedition was made against the Earle Remond of Toulouze about the death of a certaine Iacobin Monke who was slaine by the Albingenses For the Pope tooke from thence occasion to send throughout all Europe Preachers to assemble men together to take vengeance of the innocent bloud of Frier Peter de Casteauneuf who had beene slaine by the Heretikes promising Paradice to whomsoeuer would come to this warre and beare armes for fortie daies This warre he called the holy warre and for which he gaue the selfe-same Pardons the selfe-same Indulgences as he did vnto those who went to the warres of the holy Land for the conquest thereof He likewise termed it the warre for the Crucifixe and the Army of the Church And as for the Earle Remond heare with what termes he thundered against him in his Bull. We ordaine saith hee that all Archbishops and Bishops A Bull giuen at Latran in the yeer 1208. are to denounce throughout all their Dioceses the Earle Remond accursed and excommunicated as being murderer of a good seruant of God and that with the sound of the Bell and the extinction of Candles euery Sunday and Festiuall daies Wee promise moreouer to all those that shall take armes to reuenge the said murder forgiuenesse of their sinnes seeing that these pestilent Long Slops seeke nothing else but to take away our liues And forasmuch as according to the Law of the holy Canons faith is not to be kept to him that keepes not his faith to God we would haue all to vnderstand that euery man that is bound to the said Earle by oath of fidelitie societie alliance or otherwaies by the A postolicall authoritie is absolued from any such bands and it shal bee lawfull for euery Catholike man not onely to pursue the person of the said Earle but also to hold and possesse his land c. And as touching the Albingenses see how hee handleth them Wee therefore admonish you more carefully and exhort you more speedily as being a matter of great necessitie c. That yee endeuour to vnderstand by all the meanes that God shall reueale vnto you and studie to abolish the Hereticall prauitie and these Sectaries and that more seuerely then the Sarasines impugning them with a strong hand and a stretched-out arme as being worse than they c. Driuing them out of the field of the Lord taking from them their lands and liuings in which the Heretikes being banished let Catholike inhabitants be substituted in their roome The Pope writ to all Christian Princes to frame themselues for the obtaining of that pardon against the Albingenses that they obtained if they passed beyond the Seas against the Turkes and particularly the author of the Treasure of Histories saith That the Pope intreated King Philip and diuers Barons that they would vndertake with him that enterprise against the Heretikes and get their pardons And that the King answered that hee was to bee excused by reason of his warres with the Emperour Otho and King Iohn of England Of the Barons saith hee there were many that yeelded to the enterprise for their pardon The Earle Remond being aduertised what was plotted against him in Europe at the instance of the Pope sent vnto him humbly beseeching him not to condemne him before he had heard him speake assuring him that he was no way culpable of the death of Frier Peter de Casteauneuf and that it was sufficiently verified that the murderer was fled to Beaucaire hee complained of the malice of his enemies who had made false informations against him touching the said murder But all was in vaine for before his excuses came to Rome the troopes of the Croises that is those that beare the badge of the Crosse vpon their coat-armour were come to powre downe their vengeance vpon him and his lands that is to say the Duke of Burgundy Earle of Enneuers the Earle of St. Paul the Earle of Auxerre the Earle of Geneua the Earle of Poitiers the Earle of Forests and the Earle Simon of Montfort The Lord of Bar Ginchard of Beauieu and Ganchier of Ioigui As also the Ecclesiasticall persons who had leuied in their Diocese a number of Pilgrims and wandering people they were the Archbishop of Seus the Archbishop of Rouan the Bishop of Clermond the Bishop of Enneuers the Bishop of Lizieux the Bishop of Bayeux and the Bishop of Chartres with diuers others Pelerins euery Bishop with the Pilgrims of his iurisdiction to whom the Pope promised Paradice in Heauen but gaue them not one peny vpon earth onely hee did let them know that in such a warre there were more blowes than pardons This Leuy of Pilgrims or wandering persons was in the yeere 1209. There was now a necessitie either of opposing violence against violence or to come to submissions The latter was thought the more easie but yet dangerous For to yeeld himselfe to the discretion of his enemies was to bring himselfe into the danger of his owne ruine The Count Remond therefore came to Valence before the Popes Legat named Milo Being entred the toile he began to excuse himselfe saying That it seemed strange vnto him that so great a
The Monke of the Valley Sernay Chap. 33. in such sort that the said Earle being one day gone from Carcassonne to Montpelier he found at his returne that diuers had taken Armes to shake off their yoake hauing besieged certaine of his Souldiers in a Tower neere to Carcassonne He speedily made his returne to succour them but too late for not being able to passe a Riuer called Sarasse and being gone to Carcassonne to passe by the bridge the Tower was taken before hee came This small affront brought him into some contempt and gaue heart to others to offer the like About this time Captaine Boucard for the said Earle Simon at the Castle of Seissac attempted the surprise of the strong Castle of Cabaret whereof mention hath beene made heretofore for this end and purpose he made his approach vnto the said Castle as closely as he could Captaine Roger who was within the said Castle for the Earle Remond was come forth with fourescore horse to forrage and seeke for bootie Boucard vpon the sudden and vnlooked for charged him and had well-neere discomfited him but Roger hauing taken knowledge of the enemy doubled the charge vpon him in so furious a manner that he ouercame the troops of Boucard and brought him Prisoner to that Castle which he said he came to surprise At this very time Gerard of Pepios tooke part with the Albingenses and seized vpon Puisorignier and the Castle of Menerbe Now the warre began to grow very cruell for if it be true that the Monke of the Vallies Sernay hath written Gerard caused the eyes of all the Souldiers of the Earle Simon which he could take to be pluckt out and cut off their eares and their noses with their vpper lip sent them all naked to the Earle Simon of Montfort leauing one for a guide vnto the other with one eye On the other part whensoeuer the Earle Simon was victorer in any place he caused a great fire to bee made and cast into it as many of the Albingenses as he could take All they of the Romish Church did as much that bare Armes for the Albingenses for William of Rochford Bishop of Carcassonne caused the Abbot of Cisteaux to be slaine meeting him neere vnto Carcassonne his body being found murdered with six and thirtie wounds and the Monke which accompanied him with foure and twentie Then the Citie of Carcassonne saith the Monke and the Souldiers that were in it were stricken with such feare That they had little hope to defend themselues but by flight for they saw themselues saith he enuironed on all sides with infinite enemies From these miseries which did much moue the patience of the Earle Simon hee tooke occasion to write to all the Prelats throughout Europe that if in the Spring following he were not assisted with new succours of Pilgrims it was impossible for him to hold out for his enemies finding his weaknesse tooke the aduantage thereof witnesse that after the last departure of the Pilgrims he had lost aboue forty townes Castles of which the people had before brought him the keyes and were now all reuolted from him and the Church being beyond his power to remedy it for want of men Hee therefore intreated them in the name of God to giue their helping hand otherwise he must be enforced to yeeld vp the rights of the Church and the Countrey altogether Now matters thus standing the Earle Simon attending new succours tooke the Castle of Beron neare Montreal where he caused the eies of aboue a hundred Albingenses to bee pulled out and cut off their noses leauing onely one with one eye to bee a guide to the rest and to conduct them to Cabaret This stirred vp the Albingenses in such sort Chass pag. 136. that had not succours instantly come they had shut him vp on euery side CHAP. VII New succours of Pilgrimes come to the Earle Simon conducted from France by his Wife The Earle Simon by them recouereth the Castles of Menerbe and Termes and the Towne De la Vaur The Earle Remond is cited before the Legat He refuseth to appeare Folquet the Bishop of Toulouze ouer-reacheth him causeth him to lose the Castle Narbonnes The Legat Milon dieth IN the yeare one thousand two hundred and ten the Earle Simon being shut vp saith the Treasure of Histories within Carcassonne for want of Pilgrims he vnderstood that the Countesse his Wife came from France and brought with her a great number of Pelerins which gaue him great comfort and he went out to meet her A pleasant warre it was wherein Priests leuied the Souldiers and a woman conducted them to the warres The Pelerins were imployed in the recourerie of the Castle of Menerbe a place very strong by nature vpon the Frontiers of Spaine This siege was procured by the intreatie of Ameri Lord of Narbonne and the Inhabitants thereof who complained that alwaies in former times this place had beene as a thorne in their feet They yeelded themselues for want of water to the discretion of the Legat who caused the Pilgrims to enter the place with the Crosse and the Banner and singing Te Deum laudamus The Abbot of Vaux would needs preach to those that were within the Castle and to exhort them to acknowledge the Pope and to sticke to the Romish Church but they not staying till he had ended his Discourse they all of them cryed out The Monk of the Vallies of Sernay chap. 47. Chass lib. 3. chap. 7. saying We will not forsake our faith we reiect the Romish you labour but in vaine for neither life nor death shall make vs to abandon our beleefe Vpon this answer the Earle Simon and the Legat commanded a great fire to bee made and cast into it a hundred and fortie persons as well women as men who went into it with ioy giuing thankes vnto God for that it pleased him to doe them the honour to suffer and to dye for his names sake Thus did these true Martirs of Christ Iesus finish their fraile liues in the midst of the flames to liue eternally in heauen And thus did they triumph ouer the Legat of the Pope resisting him to his face and threatning the iust iudgement of God vpon the Earle Simon and that one day hee would pay dearely for his cruelties howsoeuer he seemed now to commit them scotfree yet he would pay for all when the bookes should be opened There were a number of Priests and Monkes that did exhort them to take pitty on themselues promising them their liues if they would liue according to the beleefe of the Church of Rome There were only three women that accepted of the condition that is to say to liue by abiuring their religion all the rest died constantly but they were vanquished by the allurements of the mother of Richard de Marsiac After this expedition Termes The Lord of Tholo in the hist of his times pa. 459. the Earle Simon besieged the Castle of
downe all trees that bare fruit plucked vp the Vines by the roots at what time the President of Ageues came forth of Toulouze with a great number of the inhabitants thereof who seeing them to spoile their possessions ranne vpon the Pilgrims with violence scattered here and there through the fields and slew a great number of them On the other side the Earle of Foix conducting some troopes of horse and foot slew as many as hee met with The Earle of Bar held his troopes in better order and seeing the disorder especially of those that were flying away hee cryed out a Bar a Bar which the inhabitants of Toulouze vnderstanding charged them so brauely before any of them could gather themselues vnto him that he was discomfited with the rest The Earle Remond retired his troopes into Toulouze and commanded solemne thankes to bee giuen vnto God for so admirable a victorie ouer his enemies The fame of the Earle Remonds victories being spread abroad there came vnto him diuers succours from all the parts round about him for they were all weary of the troopes of the Pilgrims and willingly offered both their goods and their liues to driue them out of the Countrey Chass lib. 3. chap. 14. pag. 169. The Earle Simon being in some scarsitie of victuall because the wayes whereby they should be releeued were stopt was constrained to raise his siege And besides the Earle of Chalons the Earle of Bar The Monke of the Valley Sernay Chap. 79. and certaine other Germaine Earles retired themselues their quarantaines or fortie daies being expired but yet he would not bee altogether idle that Autumne Hee therefore marched into the Countries of the Earle of Foix to refresh the rest of his Armie and to possesse himselfe of some places Hee went as farre as the Towne of Foix made spoyle of all that was about it and then set fire to the Towne Being at Panies the Legat tooke the one halfe of the Armie to accompanie him to Roquemaure where hee went to passe the winter and in his way being in the Earledome of St. Felix of Caraman he tooke the Tower of Cassas and about one hundred men therein and caused them all to be burnt aliue and laid the place leuell with the ground In the meane time the Earle Simon ruinated the Countries of the Earle of Foix as long as the said Earle kept his bed being visited with a grieuous sicknesse during the which his seruants that were about him durst not tell him of his losses that is to say of Pamies Sauerdun Mirepoix and Prissant which had beene likewise battered a place very strong neere Carcassonne Being recouered of his sicknesse and vnderstanding what hauocke the Earle Simon had made of his houses and what ruine his poore subiects had endured he went to the Armie and desired to speake with the Generall and thus hee deliuered his minde vnto him The inconstancie of tottering fortune my masters and most renowned Lords is the cause why I am not astonished to see my selfe thus infinitely afflicted by this cruell Step-mother Hologoray in his Hist of Foix. pag. 133. I haue heretofore braued mine enemies fought in the field amongst those that would resist my power entertained the great and mightie Monarches as my friends None haue threatned me much lesse offended me neither could my sword euer beare it I haue beene imployed in publike negotiations which carry with them as their attendants infinite discommodities neither haue I gotten any dishonor thereby and I should haue held my labor ill imployed if they had not bin vpon worthy occasions neuer hauing desired to bee accounted an honest man by those vnworthy and vniust meanes that some men purpose vnto themselues For he that is not an honest man but because other men should know him to bee so and that hee might be the better esteemed after knowledge taken thereof he that will not doe good but vpon condition that his vertue may be knowne by other men he is not the person from whom any great seruice can be expected Wee must saith the Maxime goe to war out of dutie and attend the reward which is neuer wanting to all honorable actions be they neuer so secret yea euen our vertuous cogitations being the onely contentment which a conscience well ordered receiueth in it selfe for well doing Hauing therefore my masters and friends my courage still lodged in a firme and assured place against all the assaults of Fortune my conscience cleere in this that I neuer gaue you any occasion to rise vp against me I haue made no doubt to appeare before you in this assembly and to bring with me my head not my treasures to expose them to the mercy of the Souldier or my commodities to plant them as Barriers about my lands and territories which you haue begunne without reason to bring into a lamentable estate to be iudged by your Counsell and according thereunto to condescend to that which shall be determined For I had rather neuer to haue beene borne than to suruiue my reputation neither can I suffer that honor and glory which in my yonger yeeres I haue iustly wonne to be extinguished Haue you euer knowne me to be an enemie to the Realme of France If it be so let me lose both life and honour with shame and dishonour And who dares speake it to my face Haue I conspired against the Church What haue I done that any man should haue that conceit of me And doe you thinke that for the poore remainder of this fantasticall imaginary life which I haue to liue I will lose the essentiall life and purchase to my selfe to please any mans appetite an eternall death The wise men of the world haue proposed to themselues a more honourable and iust end to so important an enterprize There is no man of honour that chooseth not rather to lose his honour than his conscience It is that which I hold to bee the dearest Iewell within my Cabinet Keepe me I pray you in that range which the Kings of France haue giuen mee that is to bee thought faithfull as they haue heretofore censured me when they haue had occasion to deale in the affaires of my House to the end saith he that being offended I be not constrained to defend my selfe and to offend you which shall bee much against mine owne will and intention And this by oath I vow vnto you Roger the sonne of the Earle of Foix was much afflicted with the submission of his father as being an action too base for the greatnesse of their house The King of Aragon did likewise distaste it For notwithstanding he were allied to the Earle Simon yet hee did not feare to let him vnderstand that he could not approue of his vsurpations vnder the pretence of religion The Earle Simon on the other side Holag pag. 133. said with a loud voice That the conquests were iust and lawfull that he had his right from the Pope that there was
for shame than for any ill hee conceiued thereof because the report had beene euery where spread abroad that the Generall was in the Cage and that he should not come forth but bare-headed the halter about his neck and begging mercy They complained one of another The Earle of Foix that they had left him without succour in so dangerous a flight The Earle Remond that he would put himselfe into so great danger without knowledge giuen vnto any In the end they resolued to raise the siege because of Winter and a great leuy of Pilgrims marching towards them whose liues the Earle Simon did not greatly tender because hee had the Popes Bull that whosoeuer should lose his life in that warre should goe presently to Paradice as neat from all sinne as a Hen-roost from ordure The Earle Simon was strangely puft vp with pride making himselfe merry with that great preparation of warre altogether vnprofitable to the Albingenses especially that they had suffered him to make an escape being twelue to one Vpon this retrait they in Castlenau would needs follow the Armie but it cost them deare For Roger made a furious returne vpon them killing many of them and beating them backe euen to the gates of the Citie The Monke of the Valley Sernay tells this Fable That notwithstanding there were a hundred thousand fighting men in the Armie of the Albingenses yet they of Castlenau d' Arri went forth to their Vintage and gathered their Grapes as if there had beene no enemy before the Citie and that their seruants went to water their Horses halfe a league from the Citie the Albingenses not dating to charge them See here the truth of a Monkish Historiographer So likewise when he falls into outrages they are without measure or end In this Discourse he growes very chollerick against one Sauari of Mauleon President to the King of England at Guienne who had conducted some troops before Castlenau d' Arri in fauour of the Albingenses he cals him Infidell Expugner of the Church a dangerous poyson a wicked forlorne person enemy to God the Prince of Apostacy artificiall in cruelties the author of all peruersenesse a diabolicall man nay the Deuill himselfe Doubtlesse he had either giuen him a hard chase or his stile is very Monkish After this retreat all the Lords of the Albingenses retired themselues into their quarters The Earle of Foix vnderstanding that the Earle Simon was gone to Pamies where he much troubled his Subiects he departed from Toulouze with two thousand men and came to the gates of Pamies offering battell to the Earle Simon but he would by no meanes harken thereunto finding his Pilgrims too weake And doubting that at the Spring following the Albingenses would take the field the Earle Simon all the Winter thought of nothing so much as to strengthen the places which he held to maintaine the sieges Among the rest being desirous to prouide for Faniaux a place of great importance Roger perceiuing it lay in Ambush in such manner and to such purpose that he discomfited all those that brought either victuals or munitions In the meane time the Earle Simon who doubted nothing so much as the King of Aragon caused the Legat to write vnto him that he should no more meddle with the affaires of the Albingenses except he would intangle himselfe in the same miseries with them and include himselfe in the same excommunication He likewise caused Philip King of France to write vnto him intreating him not to fauour those that were enemies to the Pope and to the Church The Legat likewise caused him to write to the Pope touching the same matter These intreaties of the Pope and the French King were vnto him as expresse Commands and therefore when the Earle of Foix Toulouze and Comminge pressed him to assist them he told them he would doe it but it was fit hee should first doe his endeuour to obtaine that by gentle and peaceable meanes which by warre could not be obtained without danger That the Legat was in counsell with all those of his part that he would write vnto them and that if hee could not obtaine what he desired by Letters he would enforce them to do him reason by Armes He writ therefore to the said Councell beseeching them to end these deadly warres enterprised vnder a pretence of Religion offering for the Earles their obedience to the Pope and the Church of Rome but yet that they should neuer promise any peace before restitution was made vnto the said Earles of all their lands and goods The Councell de la Vaur returned this answer We haue vnderstood the requests that heretofore you haue made in the behalfe of the Earle of Toulouze The Monke of the Valley Sernay fol. 113. his son his Counsel the Earle of Foix and of Comminge the Lord of Bearne wherein you name your selfe the humble deuoted son of the church for which wee giue thankes to our Lord God and to your Highnesse Assure your selfe that in respect of that loue you beare to the Church wee giue our best attention vnto them with our eares and receiue them with gladnesse from our hearts but touching the answer we are to make to your Greatnesse and the request made by the Earle of Tolouze his Counsell and his sonne we certifie you that the cause and denotation thereof belongs to our Soueraigne Father hauing reserued it to his Holinesse You may call to minde if you please the infinite offers grants and graces which our holy Father the Pope hath offered vnto him after innumerable cruelties and horrible outrages You may likewise remember the kinde entertainment which hee found in the Archbishoprick of Nerbonne by the Abbot of Cisteaux Legat at Montpelier two years since as also the offers which were made vnto him which he would not accept of Which grace and fauour he so much scorned that he made it appeare confidently and with all oft that he was not only enemy to God but to his Church for which cause he hath deserued to be banished for euer from God his Grace and his Church Touching the requests of the Earle of Foix Comminge and Lord of Bearne they haue infringed the oathes giuen by them and in stead of accommodating themselues to that kinde and courteous admonishment they are filled with that abominable heresie for which to their great shame and ignomie they were excommunicated And this is all the answer wee can giue to the demand of your Greatnesse Giuen at La Vaur 15. Kalend. Febr. 1212. The King of Aragon being much moued with this answer sent againe to the Counsell demanding truce for the said Earles vntill they had receiued an answer from the Pope but it was denied The Earle of Foix was well contented that the Councell had yeelded nothing to the requests of the King of Aragon because he must haue beene engaged by promise for him that he should acknowledge his tenure of the Pope and the Church of Rome
had beene giuen them that nothing should be altered within the citie This good vse did the Earle Simon make of the presence and forces of Prince Lewis for otherwise he durst not haue enterprised the saccage and dismantling of this goodly and great citie without the endangering of his fortunes were his forces neuer so great At this very time arriued Bonauenture the Popes new Legat and of those that tooke on them the Crosse the Bishop of Beauuois the Earle of Saint Paul the Earle of Sauoy the Earle of Alençon the Vicount of Melun Mathew de Montmorenci and other great Lords that accompanied him The Legat seeing so many Pilgrims began to feare lest Prince Lewis should dispose of diuers places which the Albingenses held to the preiudice of the Popes authoritie vnder whose name all those conquests were made for the auoiding whereof he sent vnto all those places that held for the said Albingenses the absolution and safeguard of the Church in such sort that the Prince thinking to make an assault vpon any of them they produced their absolution and shewed that they were vnder the protection of the Church And this Legat grew so audacious as to tell Prince Lewis that since he was become a souldier of the Crosse he was subiect to his commands because he did represent the person of the Pope whose pardons he was come to obtaine by obeying the Church not by commanding as the sonne of a King reproching him besides that the King his father made no account to contribute to the extirpation of the Albingenses when the time and season serued and there was best opportunity but now after those victories miraculously obtained he came to gleane the eares of that glory which was due vnto those only that had prodigally spent their liues for the Church The Prince dissembled this audacious boldnesse Narbonne was dismantled by the agreement of the said Prince which neither the Legat nor the Earle Simon would not haue durst to enterprise without his presence The Bishop of Narbonne did what he could to hinder the dismantling of it affirming that it did much import that a place in the frontiers of Spaine should bee preserued with the walles and rampiers thereof but the Earle Simon and the Legat were very instant to the contrary they obtained their desires Here endeth the good fortune of the Earle Simon for in the end of this leuy of Pilgrims which Prince Lewis brought with him he had enough to doe to defend himselfe from blowes notwithstanding the Albingenses were also wearied with continuall warres and visited from time to time with new expeditions insomuch that they sunke vnder the burthen of them Now forasmuch as this warre changeth countenance in the person of the chiefe Leaders and that from hence forward we shall speake more of the sonne of the Earle Remond of Toulouze another Remond and of Roger the sonne of the Earle of Foix then of the old Earles We here make a second booke of the actions of the children succeeding their fathers miserably afflicted only for that they had for in effect there was not any of these great Lords that was deseruedly assaulted for Religion for many times they had their recourse to the Pope as to the fountaine of all their euills and in all respects to a poore remedy neuer bringing with them from Rome other thing than good words with very dangerous effects The end of the first booke THE SECOND BOOKE OF THE HISTORY OF the WALDENSES called ALBINGENSES containing the warres which they maintained after the yeare one thousand two hundred and thirteene vntill they were vtterly exterminated CHAP. I. The warre is renewed against the Earle of Foix the Aragonians make hostile incursions vpon the Lands of the Earle Simon he is discomfited by the Earle of Foix Simon is called into Dauphine The Legat Bonauenture perswades the Earle of Foix and of Toulouze to goe to Rome they further their cause nothing at all the sonne of the Earle Remond came from England thither but in vaine THE Prince Lewis sonne of Philip King of France his quarantine or fortie daies being expired retired himselfe not without much discontent to see in those warres against the Albingenses so much tyranny The Earle Simon endeuored to get a pardon for those last Pilgrims come from France against the Earle of Foix. Hologaray in his Hist of Foix pag. 157. Hee besieged the Castle of Foix but with his great losse for there died before it many gallant men Hauing laine before the Citie ten daies hee raised his siege finding to his great cost that the place was inexpugnable The Earle Simon his Brother kept his quarter at Varilles the Earle of Foix vnlodged him slew with his Lance the said Brother of the Earle Simon and put to flight his whole troope This was a counterpoise to Monfort his prosperitie which had made him ouer-insolent And as one vnhappy chance comes seldome alone euen then when he did grinde his teeth against the Earle of Foix swearing that hee would make him flie ouer the Pereney mountaines a messenger brought him tidings of the arriuall in the Earledome of Beziers and about Carcassonne of diners troopes of Arragonians and Catalans who put all they met to sword and fire saying That they would reuenge the death of their good King Alphonsus Hee was therefore aduertised that if hee did not speedily succour them the whole Country would be lost He departed therefore from Foix with great diligence Idem fol. 158. The Earle of Foix who better knew the streights and by-waies of his Country than he stopped his passage and lay in ambush for him in a place so fitting for his ouerthrow that he slew a great part of his troopes without any Alarum Hee saued himselfe with a few of his people Being come to Carcassonne it was well for him that he found not a man to speake a word vnto for the Arragonians had retired themselues Whereas had they attended his comming they might easily haue discomfited him considering the small number that were with him At this very time other Letters were brought vnto him whereby he was called into Dauphine where there was one Ademar of Poitiers and one Ponce of Monlaur who hindred the passage of the Pilgrims who came downe by the Riuer Rhosne and were conducted by the Archbishops of Lion and Vienne There were likewise the Cities of Monteil-Aimar and Crest Arnaud who tooke part with the Albingenses who were a great hindrance to the Pilgrims Simon came to treatie and composition with Ademar of Poitiers and Monlaur not hauing power to encounter so many enemies Againe he was giuen to vnderstand that the Arragonians were returned about Carcassonne and thither he came and was well beaten insomuch that he was constrained to shut vp himselfe within Carcassonne hauing not wherewithall to keepe the field before hee had new supply of Pilgrims to succour him Seeing at the last that he got nothing of the Earle of Foix by
Roger de Leni The Earle of Comminge his lands which one named Ioris detained from him An aduantagious encounter for the Albingenses in Lauragues Expeditions of small effect after the death of the Earle Simon The Prince Lewis tooke Marmande and returned into France hauing summoned Toulouze to yeeld it selfe THe Earle Remond followed the victory making himselfe Master of the Castle of Narbonnes and fortifying it against the Pilgrims which hee knew very well would come the yeere following in the meane time hee sent his sonne into Agenois who brought vnto the obedience of his father Condon Holagaray in his history of Foix. 162. Marmande Aguillon and other places adioyning On the other side the Earle of Foix besieged Mirepoix summoned Roger de Leni to restore it vnto him telling him that hee was not now to hope any longer in the Earle Simon for he was dead that it must content him that he had now long enough and vniustly kept that which was his That if he changed his patience into furie he would lose both his life and Mirepoix altogether It troubled much the Marshall of the Faith for that was the vaine title which the Legats had giuen him to yeeld vp this place but in the end he deliuered it into the hands of the Earle of Foix. The Earle of Comminge had also his right of one Ioris to whom the Legats had giuen all that the Souldiers of the Crosse had taken in his Countries for he tooke them all from him yea life and all At the spring of the yeere following 1219. Almaric or Aimeri of Montfort came into Agenois with some troopes of Souldiers of the Crosse to recouer that which his father had there possessed and for this cause hee besieged Marmande The young Earle Remond of Toulouze went to succour the besieged when the Earle of Foix writ vnto him that hee had gotten a great bootie in Lauragues both of people and beasts but he feared hee should not bring it to Toulouze and not be fought withall by the way by the Garrison of Carcassone and therefore hee entreated him to succour him Young Remond tooke his iourney towards him and came in so good an houre to the Earle Foix that being vpon the point of losing his booty being followed by the Vicount of Lautrec and the Captaines Faucant and Valas. Being come to the combat Chass lib. 4. chap. 13. the said Foucant and Valas encouraged with a loud voice their Pilgrims saying that they fought for Heauen and for the Church The young Earle Remond hearing it cryed vnto his as loud as he Courage my friends for we fight for our Religion and against theeues and robbers vnder the name of the Church They haue robbed enough let vs make them vomit it vp againe and pay the arrerages of their thefts which they haue heretofore freely committed And hereupon they gaue the Charge The Vicount of Lautrec fled Foucant was taken prisoner and all their troopes cut in peeces Seguret a Captaine and professed robber was taken and hanged in the field vpon a tree Thus victorious and laden with bootie they came to Toulouze with their prisoners and cattell The siege of Marmande continued but vnprofitably and without any aduantage For Almaric hauing caused a generall assault to be made the inhabitants defended themselues with such valour and resolution that the ditches were full of the dead bodies of the Pilgrims This was at that time when the great expedition of Prince Lewis arriued who brought with him thirtie Earles An expedition for the leuying whereof the Legat Bertrand writ in these termes to King Philip Faile you not to be in the quarters of Toulouze for the whole moneth of May in the yeere 1219. with all your forces and powers to reuenge the death of the Earle Montfort and I will procure that the Pope shall publish and preach the Croisade or expedition of Christians throughout the world for your better aid and succours Thus you see how the Legat commands the King of France His sonne arriued at Marmande and summoned those within to yeeld They compound with him and he promiseth them their liues Almaric complaines thereof saying that they were not worthy of life that tooke away his Fathers He assembleth the Prelats declareth vnto them the discontent which he receiued by this composition in that life was granted vnto those who were the murderers of his Father The Prelats were all of opinion that notwithstanding the word giuen they should all die Prince Lewis his will was that the composition should hold Almaric neuerthelesse caused his troopes to slip into the Citie with charge to kill all men women and children They doe it whereat the Prince being offended departed from the Legat and Almaric and passing along summoned those of Toulouze to yeeld They defend themselues against him Hee receiueth newes of the death of his father which caused him to retire Thus you see all the effects of this great expedition which should haue buried all the Albingenses aliue and vanished without any assault giuen CHAP. IIII. The warre of the Albingenses changeth countenance because of the death of Pope Innocent the third of the change of the Legat the death of the Earle Remond of Toulouze of the disease of Remond Earle of Foix and the Lady Philippe de Moncade mother to the Earle of Foix and of the Monke Dominick THe Legat Bertrand Bonauenture being weary of the long labours of this warre and perceiuing that therein the danger was greater than either the pleasure or the profit tooke occasion vnder a pretence of his decrepit age to retire himselfe to Rome euen at that time when Pope Innocent the third being departed Pope Honorius his successour who had not managed this warre by his authoritie from the beginning thereof knew neither the importance thereof nor what direction to giue and therefore had need to be enformed by his Legat touching the meanes of the continuance thereof and the commoditie that might arise vnto his Seat Bonauenture entreated him to depute another Legat and told him that the necessitie of this warre was such that it concerned not onely the losse of all those Lands of the Albingenses which were conquered because they might be easily recouered by them if no opposition were made but also the ruine of the Church of Rome because the Doctrine of the Waldenses and Albingenses did directly shake the authoritie of the Popes and ouerthrow the Statutes of the Church That this warre had beene very chargeable and cost them deere for within the space of fifteene yeares and lesse there had died aboue three hundred thousand souldiers of the Crosse that at diuers times had come to end their liues in Languedoc as if there were not enough else-where to burie them or as if there were a necessitie in those times to be borne in France and to dye encountring the Albingenses That all this would be lost if they continued not to spend and weaken them vntill they were
vtterly destroyed The Pope delegated one named Contat who went thither Now albeit Almeric were very valiant yet he had not gotten that authoritie which his Father had who had made himselfe at the charges of the Albingenses a great Captaine loued of the Souldier of an admirable valour patient in affliction inuincible in his trauels diligent in his enterprises fore-seeing and prouiding for the necessities of an Armie affable but of an vnreconcileable enmitie against his enemies because he hated them onely to haue their goods and that he could not haue but after their death which he procured and hastned as much as he could and that vnder the mantell of a plausible pretence of religion His sonne was a true inheritor of the hatred of his father but slow and sluggish louing his ease and no way fit for an action of great importance Besides he was depriued of the Monke Dominique of whom his Father had made very profitable vse for lodging him in the conquered Cities he gaue him in charge to finish that destruction by his inquisition which he could not doe by warres He died in the yeare 1220. the sixt of August so rich that notwithstanding he were the author of an order mendicant that is to say of Iacobin Monkes or Iacobins yet he made it knowne before his death that a scrip well ordered was better than a rent ill assigned for hee left many houses and much goods shewing thereby that he vsed his scrip but for a shew and outward appearance of pouertie but in effect he thought it good to haue wherewithall to liue else-where witnesse the Protection which the Earle Simon gaue him a little before his death whereof this is the tenure Simon by the Grace and prouidence of God Duke of Narbonnes Earle of Toulouze Vicount of Licestre Beziers and Carcassonne wisheth health and dilection After the Historie of the Monke of the valley Sernay We will and command you to haue a speciall care to keepe and defend the houses and goods of our most deare brother Dominick as our owne Giuen at the siege of Toulouze Decemb. 13. The death of this Monke was a great comfort to the Albingenses who had persecuted them with such violence but yet they were more weakned by the death of the Earle Remond of Toulouze the Earle Remond of Foix and the Ladie Philippe of Moncade Wife to Remond Earle of Foix. The Earle Remond of Toulouze died of a sicknesse much lamented of his Subiects if euer man were He was iust gentle valiant and couragious but yet too easie to giue eare vnto those that gaue him counsell for his ruine Hee was carried at the first by a true loue and charitie onely towards those his Subiects that made profession of the Religion of the Albingenses but afterwards hauing beene basely and dishonorably handled by the Legats of the Pope he knew both the crueltie of the Priests and the falshood of their doctrine by those conferences that had beene in his presence with the Pastors of the Albingenses His Epitaph was written in two Gascon verses Non y a home sur terre per grand Segnor que fous Qu'em iettes de ma terre si Gleisa non fous He that writes the Historie of Languedoc saith That he died a sudden death and that hee was carried into the house of the Friers of the Hospital S. Iohn and that he was not buried because he died an excommunicate person There was shewed not long since at Toulouze a head which some did beleeue was the head of the Earle Remond which was said to be alwaies without a sepulture but there is no likelihood that he that died amongst his owne and being Ruler ouer them should not haue so much credit after his death as to bee put into a Sepulcher Holaga pag. 164 that he that by his valour had restored all his Subiects to their houses and their Citie to it former greatnesse he whose death they lamented as a Father should be cast out like a Dogge It is neither true nor hath it any resemblance of truth that they should deny him this last office of charitie which they haue not refused to bestow vpon their greatest enemies for it was neuer heard of that the Albingenses haue denied sepulture vnto any As touching the Earle of Foix Remond he was a Prince of whom the Historie giues this testimony that he was a Patron of Iustice clemency prudence valour magnanimitie patience and continency a good Warriour a good Husband a good Father a good House-keeper a good Iusticer worthy to haue his name honoured and his vertues remembred throughout all generations When this good Prince saw that he was to change the earth for heauen he defied death an assured constant carriage and tooke comfort in forsaking the world and the vanities thereof and calling his sonne Roger vnto him hee exhorted him to serue God to liue vertuously to gouerne his people like a Father vnder the obedience of his Lawes and so gaue vp the ghost His Wife the Lady Philippe of Moncade followed him shortly after notwithout suspition of poyson by some domesticall enemy of the Albingenses whose religion she professed with all deuotion A Princesse of a great and admirable prouidence faith constancy and loyaltie She vttered before her death many excellent sentences full of edification as well in the Castilian tongue as the French in contempt of death which she receiued with a maruellous grace fortifying her speeches with most Christian consolations to the great comfort and edification of all that were present and in this estate she changed her life All these deaths made a great alteration in the wars of the Albingenses both on the one side and the other CHAP. V. Almaric of Montfort restored to King Lewis the eight the conquered Countries of the Albingenses the siege of Auignon the King appointeth a Gouernor in Languedoc The warre continues against the Albingenses Toulouze is besieged a treatie of peace with the Earle Remond and the Toulouzains ALmaric of Montfort had not the fortune of his Father in the warres of the Albingenses For he had neither King Philip Auguste who permitted the leuie of the Pilgrims nor Pope Innocent the third to appoint them Moreouer there was neither Citiâ—nor Village in France where there were not widowes and fatherlesse children by reason of the passed warres of the Albingenses And besides all this the Prelats were many times put into great feares by those cruell combats that were ordinarily made and many of them left behinde them their Miters and some Abbots their Crosses The speech of the expeditions of the Crosse was not so common This was the cause why Almaric did not long enioy his conquered Countries wherewith being much afflicted hee went into France Inuentary of Serres in the life of Lewis the eight and deliuered vp vnto Lewis the eight of that name King of France all the right that he had to the said Countries which the Pope the Councels of
Egyptians It is called Antichrist because being couered and adorned vnder the colour of Christ and of his Church and the faithfull members thereof it oppugneth the saluation purchased by Christ and truely administred in the Church of Christ whereof the faithfull are partakers by Faith Hope and Charity Thus it contradicteth the truth by the wisedome of the world by false religion by counterfeited holinesse by spirituall power secular tyrannie riches honours dignities and the delights and delicacies of the world Forasmuch therefore as it is manifest to euery one that Antichrist cannot come in any forme or fashion whatsoeuer but so as that all these things aboue mentioned must bee ioyned together to make a perfect hypocrisie and falsehood that is to say with the wise of the world the Religious Pharises Ministers Doctors with the secular power with the people of the world ioyned all together who then altogether make the man of sinne and errour fully compleate For notwithstanding Antichrist were long since conceiued in the Apostles times yet it was then in the infancie and it wanted members both inward and outward And therefore it was the more easily knowne and destroyed and keptvnder and being but rude and rusticall as yet was dumbe For it had not the wisedome nor the reason to excuse it selfe to define and pronounce sentence It had not as yet Ministers without truth it wanted humane Lawes and Statutes and outwardly it had no religious followers And therefore though it were fallen into errour and sinne yet it had nothing wherewith to couer its villany and the shame of errour and sinne for hauing neither riches nor doctations it could not winne Ministers for seruice nor multiply and preserue and defend its owne for it was destitute of secular power and helpe and could not inforce or constraine any from the trueth to falsehood And forasmuch as many things were wanting it could not pollute nor scandalize any with its trumperies and therefore being as yet tender and feeble could obtaine no place in the Church But afterwards growing in its members that is to say in its blinde Ministers and hypocrites and the vassals of the World it is growen to a perfect man in the fulnesse of age that is to say when the spirituall and secular louers of the World blinde in faith were multiplied in the Church with all power These being wicked and willing to be entreated and honoured touching things spirituall they haue couered their maiesty malice and sinnes by making vse of the wise men of the World and the Pharises to this purpose as it is said before Now this is a great wickednesse to couer and to adorne that iniquity worthy excommunâ—cation and to establish it by such a meanes as cannot by man bee giuen to man but belongs onely vnto God and to Iesus Christ as he is Mediator Most deceitfully and by rapine to take these things from God and to transferre them to it selfe and it workes seemes to be a great robbery as when it attributeth to it selfe the power to regenerate to forgiue sinnes to distribute the graces of the holy Spirit to make Christ and other the like things And in all these to couer it selfe with the cloake of authority and of the Word deceiuing by this meanes the rude people who follow the World separating themselues from God and the true Faith and the reformation of the holy Spirit from true repentance and the powerfull operation of perseuerance in good forsaking charity patience humility and that which is worst of all departing from the true hope and putting their trust in the vaine confidence of the World making themselues seruants to ceâ—emonies which make for these things fraudulently causing the people to fall downe and to worship the Idols of the World vnder the name of Saints and reliques in such sort that men wandring wickedly from the way of truth thinke they serue God and doe well and so they are moued to hatred and malice against those that loue the truth commit diuers murders of soules as the Apostle speakes truly This is that compleat man of sinne which exalteth himselfe aboue all that is called God and that oppugneth all truth who sits in the Temple of God that is in the Church shewing himselfe as if hee were God who is come with all falshood and lying for those that perish And forasmuch as he is truly come wee neede no longer expect him for hee is already olde by the permission of God yea he is already in the wayne and his power and authority much diminished for the Lord hath long since slaine this man of sinne with the breath of his mouth by sundry good and godly persons giuing them a power contrary to his and those that loue him and hath brought vnto naught his place and his possessions and diuided this City of Babylon in which all manner of wickednesse is in his full strength and vigour What the workes of Antichrist are THe first worke of Antichrst is to take away the truth and to change it into falsehood and errour and heresie The second to couer falsehood with the truth and to confirme an vntruth by seeming faith and by vertue and to mingle falsehood with things spirituall amongst those people that are subiect vnto him whether it bee by meanes of his Ministers or the Ministerie Now this two-fold manner of proceeding containeth a perfect and most accomplished malice which could not bee in any tyrant or powerfull Potentate from the beginning of the world vntill the time of Antichrist Neither hath Christ had any enemy before this which could so change the way of truth into falsehood or that had power to peruert those that make profession either of the one or the other that is to say of truth or falsehood In such sort that our holy Mother the Church with her true children is trodden vnder-foot especially for the true seruice of God and the Ministery thereof inso much that shee and her members breake out into those mournefull complaints of the Prophet Ieremy How doeth the Citie sit solitary that was full of people How is shee become a widdow that is destitute of the trueth of her Spause Shee that was great among the nations because of that power shee had ouer sinne and errour and the Princesse among the Prouinces by that part shee had in the world and the things in the world Mourne and behold with a carefull eye and thou shalt finde all these things accomplished euen in these times For the holy Church is reputed a Synagogue and the Synagogue of the wicked is acknowledged to bee the mother of those that beleeue in God and obey his Lawes Falsehood is Preached for truth wrong for right Iniustice is held for Iustice errour for faith sinne for vertue vanity for verity Obiect But what other workes proceed from these first Answer These that follow The first worke is that hee turneth that seruice and worship which is onely proper and due vnto God to himselfe and
deep resentment hereof and will endeavour the consolation and reestablishment of many thousands of persons escaped from this Butchery who have chosen rather to quit their Houses and Goods than to make shipwrack of their Faith This also is an occasion which God by his providence hath set before your Highness to shew the incomparable zeale which you have for his service and Glory and to give to the Protestants an evident prof of the affection your Highness bears them and to confirm them in the confidence they have conceived of your Highnes Protection This all the Israel of God expects from your Highness upon this occasion looking upon your Highness as a Zerubbabel whom God hath sent for the repairing of his Hierusalem I beseech the Lord who by the marveilous dispensations of his Providence hath rais'd your Highnes to this great dignity that he would grant you to be the Protector of the people of God in all Nations as he hath in this and that he would long preserve your Highness to the end you may imploy the power he hath given your Highness for the accomplishment of his great Works for the defence of his whole Church the preservation of them which remain and the reestablishment of the desolate and afflicted for the propagation of his Gospell the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Glory of his great name Which is the Prayer My Lord of Your Highness's most humble faithfull and obedient servant J. B. Stouppe TO THE CHRISTIAN READER AMongst all the Churches of Christ that do profess the pure holy Religion which he hath taught in his Word that of the Waldenses is the most considerable as well for her Antiquity as for the sharp and continuall persecutions it hath suffred Her Antiquity is such that no man can truly find out her beginning so that even her Adversaries say that the Heresie of the Waldenses thus they call their Doctrine began in the Apostles dayes and allwaies hath been in the Valley of Angrogna But of all the Certificates which many Papists have given of the antiquity of the Waldenses and of their Doctrine that of Reynerius a Roman Inquisitor whose VVritings have been procured to us by Gretserus the Jesuite is most remarkable for thus he speakes of them Amongst all the Sects that are in the World there is none that hath been or is still more perncious than that of the VValdenses or Leonistes for three Reasons First because it hath lasted longer than all others some saying it began in Sylvester his time others deriving them from the Apostles Secondly because it is so Universall that there is no Countrie where it is not Thirdly because the Professors of it live more uprightly before men and hold all the Articles of the Apostles Creed blaspheaming onely against the Church of Rome and hating it But however this Reynerius living about the end of the Eleventh age of the Church and the beginning of the twelfth and so there being above 400. years since he did call the Waldenses an old Sect he shew's cleerely they had then been a time in the Church Besides it is certain as we find in many credible Historians that 1160. a great number of faithfull souls call'd then the poor of Lions or Waldenses because they had been taught by Peter Waldus a man of great Erudition and singular pietie being persecuted at Lions by the Roman Clergie by reason of the Reformation which he procur'd unto the Church they retir'd into those Vallies where finding the Natives to be of their own opinions they compos'd together those reform'd Churches of the Waldenses which have ever since subsisted Which proves that the reformed Religion profest in those Vallies did not begin within an age or two of this as some ignorant adversaries say but that it hath been either from the very Apostles or from the * Bishop Usher de Successione c. Pag. 151. and 210. first ages and that the Waldenses found there the seed of the true Religion having nothing to do on either side but to encourage each other to do better and better and to set up the banner of truth in the view of the world Since that time those poor Churches have always been the mark for worldlings to shoot at and spend against them all the arrows of their malice Sathan hath done all he could against them and Antichrist hath spar'd nothing to destroy them fires have been kindled and flames blown up to reduce them into ashes they have had experiments of the barbarous crueltie of men And as there is no war so bloudie as that which is undertaken in hatred of Religion so to suffer proscriptions and exiles confiscations of goods and imprisoning torturing and killing of bodies have been the ordinary excercises of the faithfull in those Countries Yet notwithstanding the great Massacres acted therein from age to age God by his Providence hath allwaies preserved a considerable number of them which made up many fine and flourishing Churches although they were alwaies under the Cross I will not enlarge my discourse to make a description of the perjecutions they have suffered since a large Volume would not suffice for that I will only say something of those evills they have been exposed to these two lest years There was great probability they should of late in the time of their Princes Coronation enâ—oy some quietness and tranquillity since they had obtained the confirmation of their Possessions and old Priviledges but they were soon frustrate of their hope For the Court of Rome and the Popes servants and Agents did work so cunningly that they were deprived of the benefit of those Priviledges Commerce was forbidden them many men driven out of their Habitations and finally after the publication of a Croisade they were 1653. assaulted by a great Army which had wholly extirpated them if God had not assisted them by an extraordinary Rain which did oppose the endeavours of their Adversaries and made them vain And because this bloody Design did not succeed them well they endeavoured afterwards to ruin wholly those faithfull persons by extraordinary Impositions and Burthens much above their own strength and which were not set upon the Papists in those parts Thus they did engage them unto great expences to obtain again the Confirmation of their Priviledges and being obtained their Enemies exacted from them prodigious summes of mony to have it sealed Yea the matter was brought to that height of injustice to make them bear the charges of those who were come to fight and ruin them Besides all that there being a French Army in those parts it was sent to take its winte quarters in the midst of those Churches which thus were wholly deprived of what remained for their subsistence But all that was but a beginning of greater sorrow for if they had then cause to grone and sigh they have had since occasions to shed whole streames of teanes since they have try'd how far the crueltie of
even in this that the poor Protestants through the influence of their Adversaries and accusers upon the Magistrate were without hearing or the least Summons sentenced to banishment upon pain of death without giving them any respite or admitting them to make any Protestation or Appeal unlesse their Petitions were drawn in such form as might please the Commissioner who is the great Protector of this persecution and according to the mind of their Adversaries in such termes as they should prescribe whereby they must necessarily betray themselves and their Cause and then after execution of the foresaid penalty they have been pleased to give some of the poor Exiles a hearing and permitted them to plead their Cause and that onely by a Popish Advocate or Proctor who had been so charmed and terrified by the Clergy that before he entered upon the Cause he was faign to crave pardon upon his knees for undertaking to plead it And as for the pleading it was not managed before competent and lawfull Judges but the Protestants chiefest adversaries sat in judgment the Arch-Bishop of Turâ—n the Dukes Confessor the Abbot de la Monta the Prior of Rorene and some others devoted to the Court of Rome yea and in the Arch Bishops own house Moreover whereas according to certain Grants made by the Prince leave was given to the Protestants to dwell in their wonted habitations where they had a Toleration and it remaines on their part to be proved that those were the accustomed places of their habitation the matter was so handled by the Romish Clergie that they endeavoured as much as in them lay to hinder the Papists from giving any testimony on the behalfe of their Neighbours of the Reformed Religion concerning this their habitation which at length our brethren made a hard shift to wrest out of them to the exceeding regret and indignation of the Clergy and so proved at last by those authentick testimonials under the hands of their Popish Neighbours that all those places out of which they were driven have been places inhabited by Protestants time out of mind But to the end that it may more fully and clearly appear upon what account of right or wrong the Popish adversaries do incite their Soveraign the Duke of Savoy who is yet but young to the driving of the poor Protestants out of their antient patrimonies and places of abode in the midst of a sharp and terrible winter and this upon pain of death unlesse within three daies after publication of that decree of perpetuall banishment they immediately quit their native Country or else abjure the true and devote themselves and their families to the Romish Religion It is to be observed omitting the mention of their more antient rights and priviledges and the long possession which they have held beyond the memory of man that in the * They are to be seen in the History of the Martyrs set forth in French to the year 1561. Edicts set forth by the Dukes of Savoy and the agreements made for the Protestants enjoying a liberty of Religion the limits appointed for the publick preaching of the Reformed Religion do not extend so far as the dwellings of those men that professe it nor are the limits of their dwelling to be contracted into so narrow a compasse as the places limited for preaching But that the reformed professors have a right of habitation in those places out of which they are now expelled is evident not only by an antient prescription of many ages seeing their Fathers Grandfathers Great-Grandfathers and other their Ancestors have inhabited there before them but also by those very Grants and Concessions confirmed by Duke Charles Emanuel wherein it was acknowledged by publick Edict that this habitation was derived to them from their fathers For when he through the instigation of the Court of Rome had by a surreptitious dâ—cree commanded them to depart thence towards the latter end of the year one thousand six hundred and two afterward being well informed of their right he by an authentick Charter gave them leave to dwell there again for the confirmation of which Charter they paid six thousand Ducatoons into the Duke's Exchequer upon the 17th day of August Anno 1620. and it was confirmed again by the Prince now raigning upon the 29th of Decemberr Anno 1655. And yet now contrary to faith given upon the 25th of January last in the depth of winter not sparing even women with child near delivery nor those that had Infants hanging on their breasts they were all without distinction both men women and children driven out to wander through frost and snow in a most bitter season without the least warning or delay And no sooner had these old inhabitants quitted their antient inheritances for the saving of their lives but those savage Theeves that gaped after the prey presently fell to plundering and spoiling their houses driving away their Cattle felling and cutting down trees or else rooting them up In a word they destroy all and by this means attempt to drive these poor wretches to the utmost point of desperation and if any man endeavour to withstand or oppose them they immediately crie out he is a Traitour So I commend these miserable exiles to the mercy of God and the compassion of their brethren of the reformed Churches Andreas Galstaldus Doctor in Law Conservator and ordinary Auditor sitting in the Honourable Chamber of accounts of his Royall Highnesse and Generall Conservator of the holy Faith appointed to put in execution all orders which are published against the pretended Reformed Religion in the Valleys of Lucerne Perouse and St. Martin and particularly appointed by his said Highnesse for this speciall businesse ACcording to the power given us by his Highnesse by his Letters dispatched to us in due form signed Violetta and sealed bearing date of the thirteenth of this Month and in performance of the instructions given us as also at the instance made to us by Master Barth lomew Gastaldus intervening in the behalfe of the Royall Exchequer we ordain and command the first Sergeant or Bailiffe sworn to make command and injunction to all the heads of Families and to each particular of the pretended Reformed Religion of whatsoever estate condition and degree no inhabitant excepted possessing any goods in the territories of Lucerne Lucernette Saint John la Tour Bobiane Fenill Campiglion Bricheras and St. Seeond within three daies next after the publication hereof to relinquish and abandon with their Families the said places and to transport themselves into those places and limits which by the good pleasure of his Royall Highnesse are prescribed unto them viz. Bobiane the valley of Angrogne Rorata and Country of Bonetti under pain of life and confiscation of their houses possessous and goods which are extant without the said limits in case they cannot within twentie daies make proofe before us that they are Catholiques or that they have sold their estates unto some Catholiques His Royall Highnesse
Law of God and common Justice so also by several Decrees of the Dukes of Savey made in favour of the Protestants September 29. 1603. and June 4. 1653. it is prohibited that the innocent should not suffer for the guilty so the Professors of the Reformed Religion do not desire to hinder but make it their humble and earnest Request that such as are guilty may be brought to punishment From hence then it is obvious enough to any man upon what account it is that the enemies of the Reformed Churches have not onely driven very many of them out of their native Countrey and ancient dwellings into banishment but goe on stil to persecute them by a most cruel and bloody war which they have cause to believe is not carried on against them by the proper inclination and direction of the Prince himselfe but through the perswasion and instigation of the Congregation for propagating the Faith and extirpation of Hereticks who have usurped the cognizance of this Controversie being the onely persons that have hindred the Protestants from being heard by the Prince when they have presented their Petitions or made any Addresses to his Royal Highnesse But yet they so ordered the matter that they directed divers Courtiers their creatures to feed the poore Protestants with hope that the eares of the Prince being wearied out with continued Petitions they might at length obtaine the favour to have their businesse brought to a triall before competent Judges while in the mean time they prepared Forces underhand with which they make it their businesse to fall upon them unawares and oppresse and destroy them It is against this unjust violence that the Protestants endeavour to defend themselves They struggle not against their Prince but with the said Congregation for extirpating Hereticks who as in the hearing and judging of this Cause so also in the bloody execution of their sentence by the sword have for the covering of their injustice made use of the name and Authority of the most illustrious Prince Moreover they with the like injury blame those Churches in the Valleys of Piedmont about those Letters of intercession written on their behalf to the Duke of Savoy by forrein Magistrates of the Reformed Religion as if they applied themselves to States Princes abroad for protection whereas those Letters are no more but friendly offices writtten without the privity of those Churches much lesse upon their intreaty and sent by those Magistrates of their own accord induced thereto by a Pious and Zealous affection and out of a brotherly commiseration of that most grievous calamity which might have moved even stocks and stones and whereof they had sufficient notice from other Parts seeing the turning of so many men women children Infants and sick persons out of dores to the wide world in the midst of winter at three daies warning upon pain of death was become a most notorious businesse which cried out aloud of it self and by reason of the wandring of those miserable Exiles who were forced to rove up and down like vagabonds to beg their bread Nor could they be ignorant how unjustly those their Protastant brethren of the Valleys of Piedmont were oppressed by their Adversaries in the Congregation for propagating the Faith who had openly arrogated to themselves the judging of the Cause of those our brethren in the Archbishop of Turin's house contrary to all the Rules of judicial proceeding and abused the Authority of the Duke of Savoy to oppresse and destroy them An Appendix to the foregoing Apologie AS we are informed by severall Letters the ruine long intended by the enemies of the truth of the Churches of Piedmont by the permission of God being angry because of our sinnes is now executed Indeed they had put off the execution by fained shewes and hopes of reconciliation that they might the while provide all necessaries to compasse their ends But against our expectation upon the 16. of April 1655. the Army made up of the Forces of the Duke of Savoy and of the King of France amongst which were some Irish Regiments fell upon the Churches of the Valley of Lucerna and with them the Militia of Piedmont and a crew of banished theeves felons and other malefactors let on purpose out of prison and from all parts flocking together in hope of prey whose incursions in an hostile manner the Reformed mistrusting at first and fearing to be crushed ere they could be heard when all means of approach by supplication to his Highnesse the Duke of Savoy was taken from them they withdrew themselves into the mountaines But the Commander of that Army the Marquesse of Pianesse sewing the Fox skin to that of the Lyons feigned he had no other intention then to intreate the Reformed that they would approve to the Prince their faith and obedience not by bare words but by reall facts viz. by quartering onely for three daies three Regiments of the Army viz. one at Angrogne another at Villars and a third at Boby which if they did he faithfully promised that no harme to them or theirs should be done which when it was granted by the Reformed and they had received the three Regiments presently the whole Army rushed upon them no difference made of men women children or sucking babes dashing them against stones some laying hold on them by the legges and either dismembring them or hurling them headlong into precipices with such fury that the very rocks were wet bloody with their brains and that in sight of the mothers who after the murther committed upon their children were themselves likewise murthered as it was done in the Borrough of Villars and Boby with such horrible butchery that some appeared to be indeed partakers of the crosse of Christ by being nailed to trees and put to imgring deaths am ongst whom one Paul Clement a man of a very upright life who being nailed the head downward did undergoe with great constancy the butchery and continued in holy prayers to God to the very last others especially of the weaker age and sex striving to flie from the fury of the souldiers being driven through Precipices into the mountaines full of snow died of cold and of other accidents as the numerous family of the L. Scipion Bastia In the Countries of St. John and la Tour they fell with fire and Sword upon Churches and private houses this holy fire being kindled by a Priest and a Franciscan Frier thereby to prove himselfe a Seraphin with his St. Francis to whom his Disciples give the seat of Lucifer This disaster being made in the Churches of Lucerne the Commander of the neighbour Valleys under the Duke of Savoy namely in that of Perouse St. Martine and Rupelate as glorying at the thing done commanded the Inhabitants of those places in case they did not turn Papists to leave the Countrey Whereupon those who perferred the richesses of Christ and Heaven to the earthy Country chearfully went out carrying his shame and followed him