the Governors under this Prince have no other answer but that the Ministers were Rebels and that they ought not to concern themselves for them lest they incur themselves for it his Electoral Highnesses Displeasure What the Memorials at Ratisbon about this matter and the Interpositions of several Protestant Kings and Princes in their behalf have signify'd the World now knows that Prince wonders at the Impudence of his Subjects for such complaint declares he will go on in his own way which by what ha been practis'd there already can end in nothing less than the Extirpation of the Protesant Religion out of the Palatinate What Changes in SAXONY SAXONY the perversion of that Elector to the Popish Religion is like to produce must be left to time Saxony is a Countrey where if their Laws are to be regarded Popery was never to take root or grow again However a Popish Governour has been put over this Countrey by their Elector and Mass appears publickly at Dresden The Election and settlement of their Elector as King of Poland has no little exhausted Saxony of it's Wealth its Arms and Ammunition but if its Laws and Religion must be given up for it too it will be the dear4est price that ever was paid for the Crown of Poland and that this is to be the price of it there is too much reason to fear The Poles are dissatisfied about the reality of his Conversion his German Forces are hated there and knock't on the head more for being Protestants than Saxons they refuse the Crowning his Queen except she will become Papist What will not this King then do to appease the Poles and please the Pope and those of that Religion If the Queen should be perverted also which God avert the Electoral Prince will questionless be brought up in that way and then if not sooner Father Vota and the Jesuits of Poland can teach their Prince how to trample upon all Laws and Liberties and to ruine the Protestant Religion in Saxony as well as the Jesuits of Dusseldorp have taught the Elector Palatine to do in the Palatinate The Popish party never want will opportunity is all they want to subvert the Protestant Interest where-ever they can and assoon as they can get this in Saxony we shall be sure to hear of their Persecutions and Barbarities And for the late PEACE at RESWICK whatever Repose it has given to Europe the Protestant Interest is very little indebted to it That Peace has taken from its Strength and from its Security It has lost by it the Great City of Strasburgh which the French King glories in as restor'd to the Church of Rome and the 4th Article of it is like to be a perpetual bone of Contention by giving Popery such an handle to usurp upon the Protestants wherever they have a power The Elector Palatine has begun in part of his Dominions the Prince of Salm has by Dragoons and Arms brought Popery into and usurpt some Churches in the Dominions of the Landgravine of Daun and the Rhingraves of Chamback and Growiler have carried to Ratisbone as grievous complaints against this New Persecutor the Prinoe of Salm who is a Subject of the Emperors The Usurpations and Violences of the Popish party against the Protestants have been so many and so unjust that they have become the Subjects of several Memorials to the Diet at Ratisbone and the Protestant Princes Ministers have received so little Justice and so little Satisfaction from the Popish ones that all business whatever is at a stand in the Diet and the Protestants have now generously resolved they will treat no more about any business whatever of the Empire till they have had satisfaction for these unjust Vsurpations upon the Protestant Interest And it is certainly time for the Protestant Princes and States to look well about them when the Emperor for all his Obligations to the Protestant Allies could so readily sign such an Article with the French King This Article was a trick fitter for a Popes Nuncio than for the Baron de Zeiler the Emperor's Minister there but what better could be expected from a Renegado We have seen how the Zealots of the Rmish Church have by their Usage of the poor Protestants in Bohemia and Hungary deserved that black Character of Ravening Wolves in Sheeps Clothing with which our Blessed Saviour Stigmatized the Scribes and Pharisees But there is no Nation wherein they have so filled up the measure of their Fathers as in the Kingdom of France This Country is so spacious a Field of Blood FANCE that to take an exact Survey of it as such would be an endless Work But we shall abundantly expose the Bloody Spirit of Popery as it hath shewed it self there by that time we have reflected upon tho' with all possible brevity the Bartholomew Massacre under Charles the 9th and the Methods that have been taken for the extripation of the Reformed Religion from time to time in the Reign of the present King As to that Master-piece of Devilish Cruelty next to the Gun Powder Plot here we will take the Account thereof from Mezerai who cannot be suspected of exceeding the Truth because he was'a Romanist and Historiographer of France It lasted saith he seven whole days that is in the City of Paris the three first viz. from Sunday a Blessed day to begin such a work upon the Feast of St. Bartholomew till Tuesday in its greatest fury the four other with somewhat more of abatement During which time were murthered near five Thousand Persons by divers sorts of Deaths and many by more than one and among others five or six hundred Gentlemen Neither the Aged nor the tender Infants were spared nor Women great with Child Some were stabbed others hewn in pieces with Halberts or shot with Musquets or Pistols Some thrown head-long out of the Windows many dragged to the River and drowned and divers had their Brains beaten out with Mallets Clubs or such like Instruments Seven or Eight hundred had thrust themselves into Prisons hoping to find Shelter under the wings of Justice but the Captation appointed for this Execution caused them to be hauled out and brought to a place near Lavaleé de Misere or the Valley of Misery where they knockt out their Brains with Pole-Axes and cast them into the River A Butcher going to the Louvre on Tuesday told the King that he had dâ—â—â—atched one hundred and fifty the night before and a Gold Wiredrawer often boasted shewing his Arm that he had killed four hundred for his Share Opon Tuesday the third day of the Massacre the King heard Mass to return Solemn Thanks to God for the Precious Victory obtained over Heresie and Commanded that Medals should be Coined to preserve the Memory thereof And there was wonderful need of a Memorial for that which can never be forgot while any thing is remembred During two Months proceeds Mezerai this Horrible Tempest over-ran all France more or less
AN APPEAL TO ALL Protestant Kings Princes and States Concerning the Apparent Danger of the Protestant Religion And the Great Decay of its Interest in EUROPE With a most Awakening Account of the Unjust and Cruel Methods for the Destruction thereof that are Practised in several Countries LONDON Printed for Brabazon Alymer at the Three Pigeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1700. AN APPEAL TO ALL Protestant Kings Princes and States c. NExt to the Blessing of Christianity it self we have reason to Thank God for the Reformation upon many Accounts Hereby the Holy Scriptures were restored to us which for many Ages were kept from the Laity or lockt up in an unknown Tongue Hereby was our Holy Religion restored to its Native Purity all those gross Corruptions having been purged from it with which the Church of Rome had so defiled it that it became in Abundance of Instances a quite different Religion from that which the Apostles Preached and for which they suffered Martyrdom and in too many even a perfectly Contrary Religion And hereby Consequently our hopes of Heaven are confirmed and better grounded We are hereby put into a much better and surer way of Pleasing God and of Saving our Souls And are not these Unvaluable Blessings In short it was the Reformation that restored to us true Christianity and after our Blessed Sviour's Mind and free us from a Religion which was devised merely to serve the Secular Interests of the Bishop and Church of Rome Nay we may Urge farther that all good and useful Learning Reviv'd and now Flourisheth under it And we may say also that it hath greatly benefited the World by establishing Men in their just Rights those which they were born to and which God and Nature most manifestly designed for them by discountenancing Arbitrary Power and Tyranny Nothing hath been more observed than that where the Reformation is embraced the Government hath kept more within its due bounds as where Popery prevails Arbitrary Power doth most bear sway And no Wonder for if Moral Men can dispose Arbitrarily of Heaven it self much more allowable is it that they should Absolutely dispose of the things of this Life And before the Reformation the Church of Rome had so abused the World that whatsoever she defined was a Law to all Christians though never so contrary to Scripture or Reason And she being sensible of the Power she had got had no Mercy or Moderation in the exercise thereof but Abrogated Old Doctrines and Practices taught and enjoyned by the Apostles and their Successors and made and established new ones as she pleased and found it her Interest to do And Mankind were so captivated in their Understandings that she could Coin no Doctrine so Absurd or Extravagant but the People were as ready to swallow it Witness the Enormous Doctrines of Indulgences for Sins as they were then Preached and Transubstantiation And though it pleased God even in the darkest times to preserve some few as in the days of Ahab who did not submit to the Romish Churches Monstrous Doctrines did not bow the knee to Baal but were pure as to most of them as Primate Vsher has most Learnedly shewed that so there might be a visible Church or Nmber of Christians together free from such Errours which hath been a great satisfaction to those who think such a visibility necessary to the Being of a True Church and to the fulfilling of our Blessed Saviour's Promises concerning it yet most part of the Western World was greatly tainted and corrupted with Her Errours And instead of growing better she grew every day worse and worse New Doctrines were Coined and worse Practices built upon them and little left but outward Pomp and Splendour exorbitant Riches and Authority which our Saviour disclaimed and no Account was made of that inward Purity Humility and Meekness of Spirit which he commended to his Disciples to follow him in But it pleased God in his good Time to raise up Martin Luther and other Reformers to oppose the great Corruptions of the Romish Church not by Humane Power not by Fire and Faggot or any other such Means as she useth but by dint of Argument and the force of Truth by the Sword of the Spirit the Word of God and by those very means by which Christianity it self prevailed against Heathenism And in little more than Forty Years a Reformation was Established in Four Kingdoms viz. England Scotland Sweden and Denmark and in many Dukedoms Principalities and Free Cities in Germany so that about Two Thirds of that large and populous Country were become Reformed And the Reformation had got also great footing in other Countries where the Government was still Popish as in France Poland Hungary and Benemia c. But as it was with Christianity in general that for the first Four or Five Centuries it did spread farther than it hath done in above a Thousand Years since Nay it has lost much of that ground which it had in that time gotten viz. in Persia ARabia Africa and in all the Turks Dominions just so fares it with the Reformation The wonderful Progress it made at first is now stopped and it plainly goes backward Which we cannot but ascribe to the just judgment of God on the gross Carelesness and Unthankfulness of Protestants they being so far from sufficiently valuing so mighty a Blessing as neither to take care to propagate it to others norsincerely to practise it themselves And next it is to be ascribed to the Cunning and Unjust and Cruel Methods of our Romish Adversaries for the Ruining of the Protestant Religion and Interest every where Some of their Methods we call Cunning in which it is to be wished that the Protestant Princes and States would imitate them as their Uniting intirely for the support of their Religion However they disagree on Secular accounts they agree against all Protestants of all denominations Those Popish Princes who are Mortal Enemies to each other perfectly agree in supporting Popery and running down the Reformation So the Emperour and French King during the late long and bloody War have as it were laid their Heads together and taken the same Measures to establish Popery and destroy the Reformation in their Dominions and every where else Whereas the Protestant Princes if they at all think of their Religion generally only mind that part which themselves are concerned in without regarding what becomes of others as hath been too sadly experimented But they use not onely cunning Methods but even the most Cruel and Unjust imaginable And Protestants read of them in the News Papers and from time to time hear of them but how few lay them to heart or so much as Remember in their Prayers the deplorable Condition of other Churches When they understand the Ruin of the Protestant Religion and Interest in some Places by Cruel Persecution Falsehood and Breach of Faith or the decay thereof in other places by Undermining Arts and diligent Applications they
grow never the Wiser nor consider how soon this may be their own Case Nay they will scarce so open their Eyes as to take notice of those very Arts that are using against themselves by which others have been destroyed And now to Awaken all if possible out of this Lethargy we will as briefly as may be give an Account of what they of the Church of Rome have done in other Countries for the Ruining of the Protestant Religion and Interest and perhaps afterwards of what they are now doing against our own Church To give Instances of their Cruelties and Plicies and of their Success against the Protestant Interest in the several parts of Europe is as easie as it is a Melancholy Task As for those beginnings of a Reformation which were entertain'd and which spread not a little in ITALY and SPAIN the Inquisition was let loose upon them and that bloudy and barbarous Tribunal soon extinguish'd them In BOHEMIA the Reformation was reciv'd with so much readiness BOHEMIA that in a short time the Protestant Religion became almost the Religion of the Countrey Bohemia indeed was ready for it having struggl'd for some Ages before against the Usurpations of the Church of Rome and been prepar'd not onely by the Doctrine but by the Sufferings of their two Countreymen John Huss and Jerome of Prague who had been burnt for their Religion by the Popish Council at Constance expresly contrary to the Faith given them by the Emperor Sigismund This flourishing of the Protestant Religion in Bohemia was a mighty Eye-sore to the Church of Rome and the Ruin of it was their great aim and that which one might have hop'd to have been the Eternal Establishment of it there became the fatal opportunity of the Ruin of it viz. the Election of a Protestant Prince from Germany to be their King To understand how this became the Ruin of the Protestant Interest in Bohemia it will be necessary to look a little into their sad History That Kingdom hd been by their Constitution for many Ages Elective as that great Statesman who had been so often Embassador abroad and to Vienna it self Sir Thomas Roe has demonstrated in a Book of his call'd Regnum Bohemiae Electivum The Emperors of Germany had among others been sometimes elected their King by the States of the Countrey but when the Austrian Family became greater and had Three of them Ferdinand Maximilian and Rodolphus successively chosen Kings of Bohemia they had a mind to joyn it to their other Dominions by making it Hereditary In order to this Matthias who had himself been nominated upon the surrender of the Emperour Rodolphus with the Consent of the States of the Countrey declares his adopted Son Ferdinand Successor to the Crown of Bohemia without any Election from the States at all This the States of that Kingdom looking upon as a manifest infraction and subversion of the Liberties of their Nation They reject Ferdinand as their States had formerly done to Vladislaus 3d. for the same reasons and Elect Frederick 5th Count Palatine of the Rhine a Protestant Prince to be their King This Act of the States is immediately call'd Rebellion and the whole Popish Party catch at this opportunity not onely of being reveng'd on the new King and his Party but of Extirpating the Protestant Religion out of Bohemia upon it Popery Flyes to its best Argument that of Arms. Ferdinand that bitter Enemy of the Protestant Religion puts the new King under the Imperial Ban raises a too potent Army against him and discomifits him at the Battle of Prague Thus Success puts an end to the New King's Power ruines all his Friends and the Protestant Religion in Bohemia and I cannot but say it 's the greatest blot upon the Memory of all the Protestant Princes of that time but especially of King James the First of England He having been so shamefully wanting to so just a Cause and to his own Son in Law in it Thus fatal was this War to the Protestant Interest in Bohemia and to convince the World what Regard Popery has to Rights and Laws the Protestant Religion and the Civil Rights and Liberties of that Countrey were ruin'd together and both buried in the same Grave The Jesuits who had before been expell'd out of that Kingdom for their wicked Pranks the great Governours of that Emperor Ferdinand have reason to triumph in that success against the Protestant Interest since it not only ruin'd the Protestant Religion but restor'd them there and gave them for their pains in it such a share of the forfeited Estates of the Exil'd Barons and Protestants as is almost incredible They that self-denying Order which minds nothing but the Glory of God possessing more Lands and Lordships in Bohemia than the Duke of Tuscany does in Italy They began with Bohemia where the Protestant Religion is quite destroy'd and this success encourag'd them to persecute the same Religion in HVNGARY where it is almost in the same condition The Reformation was so well receiv'd in Hungary HUNGARY and so well settled there in the Year 1567 that there were ten Protestants to one Papist before their late Persecutions and at least 2500 Protestant Churches in that Kingdom The Free exercise of it was establisht by their Laws and their Kings sworn in their Coronation Oaths to maintain and preserve the same but what Laws or Oaths signifie against the persecuting and bloudy Principles of Popery the present State of the Reform'd Religion there will plainly tell us It looks like madness to attack a Religion when it is become the Religion of the Countrey when it has the establishment of the Laws and of the Constitution but the Popish Clergy were resolv'd to leave no way untry'd to ruin the Protestant Religion in Hungary for all that They onely want a tolerable pretext to begin their persecutions of them and such an one they thought they had got in the Year 1670. There was an Insurrection that year in Hungary the Heads whereof Serini Nadasti Frangipani the two Barkoksys c. were known and profest Papists and though it was about matters purely Civil and nothing relating either to the one Religion or the other yet this opportunity was laid hold on by the Jesuits and others the Protestants are accus'd vehemently as being guilty or at least complices in it and assoon as the Emperor had upon this Insurrection Garrison'd all the strong places of the Kingdom with his Popish German Soldiers which was contrary to the Laws and Liberties of their Countrey it was thought high time to begin their Persecution of the Protestants there They began with the chief Patrons of the Protestants that were of the Nobility and afterwards with the Generality of the Gentry and Citizens imprisoning the Persons of such as did not fly and confiscating their Estates as guilty of Rebellion which they prov'd themselves altogether innocent of The rest of the Principal Protestants seeing that Innocence was no Protection
auri mihi effunderetis non tamen Vos sub Episcopatu meo tolerarem nam dico Bovem Asinum omnia reptilia aquatilia animalia imo etiam Diabolum infernalem humiliandum citius Salutem aeternam adepturum quam unum Calvinistam Whether the late Coronation of the Emperor's Son King of Hungary does prognosticate any Tranquillity to the Protestant Religion there we must leave to time to determine where He was neither Elected solemnly by the States as the Laws and Constitution of that Kingdom did use to require nor took the Old Coronation Oath wherein among other things their Kings used to Swear to maintain and preserve the Free exercise of the Protestant Religion establisht by the Laws there We cannot think it had been unworthy of the care of those Protestant Princes or Ambassadors who were the Mediators of the late Peace betwixt the Emperor and the Turks to have interpos'd their good Offices for the Security and Quiet of the Poor Remains of the Protestant Interest now left in Hungary Another terrible blow to the Protestant Interest is the loss of one of the Protestant Electorates in GERMANY and the appearent danger of losing another we speak of the PALATINATE and SAXONY By the devolution of the PALATINATE to a Popish Family PALATINATE the Protestants have lost a Vote in the Electoral College of the Empire and though such a loss is great yet the Practices of this present Elector who had been yet as meer a Titular Prince without any Dominions as He was during the War but for the Protestant Princes Interest and Care of Him makes the World apprehend much greater Mischiefs to the Protestant Interest from him Tho' He is descended from Protestant Ancestors and when his Father was named Successor by the last Protestant Elector Charles He gave Charles the most solemn Assurances that there should be no Alterations made in Religion in the PALATINATE and tho' by the Constitution of the Empire the Protestant Religion is the establisht Religion of the PALATINATE all the Churches Schools Church-lands Tithes and other Ecclesiastical Revenues being fixt in the Protestants hands by the Treaty of Westphalia and the Popish Religion cannot so much as be exercis'd there without a Toleration of the Government yet this present Prince could no sooner be restor'd to his Dominions by the Protestant Interest than he set himself to banish the Protestant Religion out of his Country It was great Gratitude to the Protestant Mediator and Princes in the late Peace to turn Persecutor of their Religion which was also by the Laws of the Empire the establisht Religion of his Country but what Actions how ungrateful or unjust soever will Popery boggle at to Ruin the Remains of the Reformation What can Duty and Interest Faith or Gratitude signify to any Prince that is Govern'd by Jesuites and the rest of the fry of Popish Priests When this Prince was restor'd to his Dominions by the late Peace and came into the PALATINATE He promis'd and assured the Protestants both Laity and Clergy that He would maintain all their Priviledges and how he has made good his word we can already shew He began with a Proclamation that the New Stile should be observ'd and the Popish Holidays kept thro' the whole Palatinate and that the Protestant Burying places should be common He has taken from the Protestants the Cloyster and Church at Heidelburg and the Seven Latin Schools and is erecting Cloysters for the Franciscans Augustins and Capuchins and a Seminary for the Jesuits These are busie to get into their Clutches the Cathedral Church there and the Collegium sapientiae He has taken away from the Protestants the Cathedral Churches at Weinham Frankendale and Ladenburg and other places and from the Ecclesiastical Council who are reduced to Two tho' they should be Six with a President and the Verwaltung their ancient Priviledges and Rights and the Revenues Liberties and Properties and the freedom of disposing the Ecclesiastical Incomes and has given to the Romish Priests all Incomes Lands and Tithes which belonged to the Ministers and allows now only to each Minister for the Maintenance of himself and Family Yearly one hundred Gilders which is not Ten Pounds Sterling Twenty Sacks of Corn and a Fudder of Wine By such an allowance He cannot but hope to starve the Ministers out of his Country and make them leave their Flocks for a Prey to the Popish Wolves At Creutznach He has taken away the Church with the Latin Schools which were built and endow'd but Thirty Years ago for their Ministers and School-masters all the Houses that belong to Protestant Alms and Hospitals are taken away by force with those belonging to Protestant Ministers and School-masters It is forbidden upon pain of Death to expound the 80th Question in the Palatinate Catechism which treats of the difference betwixt the Lords Supper and the Popish Mass He has publisht a Declaration for Liberty of Conscience which is the Ape of that we had in England and is as much an infraction of the Treaty of Westphalia as ours was of the Laws of England From this one would expect his people might espouse or be of which Religion they should think fit It 's so far from that that they will not suffer any Papist to turn Protestant and have already put several persons into prisons for having agian embraced the Protestant Religion which they had been forc'd to feign to quit by the violent Persecutions of the French while they were in the late War in possession of the Palatinate The Minister of Sekenheim was committed close Prisoner and fin'd 200 Florins because he had at the Request of the Mother admitted a young Woman to the Holy Communion though she had been bred a Protestant and all because her Father was a Papist The Minister of Wiselock to omit more instances hundreds of which they write from thence they could furnish us with was carried to Heidelburg kept close Prisoner there and forc'd to pay a Fine of 50 Florins to get out because he had baptiz'd at the request of both the Parents their Child the Father being a Papist In short for all this Jesuitical Declaration about Liberty of Conscience it 's already Law there that if either of the Parents be Popish the Children shall be brought up Papists and compelled to embrace the Popish Religion and the Ministers are forbid under pain of imprisonment and a Fine of Fifty Rixdollars to admit any such to their Communion Such a Violation of their Laws and Liberties and such Usages were sure to beget Complaints from the Protestants to their Prince and how have they been redress'd some of the Complainants have been most cruelly beaten and thrown into Prisons and others have had the Elector's Dragoons quarter'd upon them who have broken their Doors and Windows to make forcible entrance and have turn'd their Wives and Children out of doors and the Inspectors themselves when they have complain'd of such Barbarities to
according to the dispositions of the Countreys and their Governours And he computes that those who were destroyed in the several Countreys were above Twenty Five Thousand whereas there are other Historians who will have them together with those Murthered in Paris to be no fewer than Seventy Five Thousand nay some at the least One hundred Thousand Then Mezerai tells us what Entertainment the News of this Massacre met with in Rome and in Spain The Court of Rome saith he and the Council of Spain were filled with inexpressible joy upon the Tidings of the S. Bartholomew The Pope viz. Gregory the 13th went in procession he should have said on foot too as he did to shew the greater Piety and Devotion upon a so extraordinary Religious occasion to the Church of St. Lewis to render Thanks to God for so happy a success And a Panegyrical Act thereof was Represented before King Philip under the Title of the Triumphs of the Church Militant And a Church Militant she is indeed There was also a Panegyrick made upon this Glorious Atchievment which Mezerai omits by the famous Muretus before the Pope in which he thus Complements His Holiness What more acceptable News could you have received and what more Auspicious beginning of your Pontificate could we have wished for And among other flights of his Rhetorick he makes the Stars to have seemed brighter than Ordinary that night when the Massacre began and the River Sein to have swelled it self to carry off the Carcases of the impure Wretches with the greater rapidity There was likewise another Medal Ordered by the Pope many of which may be seen in the Closets of those who are Curious in Coins the Inscription of which is Strages Vgonottorum The Slaughter of the Hugonots And a destroying Angel with a Sword in his hand From this horrible Massacre we pass over about Eighty Years to the time when the Claws of the Popish Clergy were grown longer than they had been for many Years before and especially during the Reign of Henry the 4th whose favour to the Protestants at last procured him His fatal Stab And to the Conclusion of the Minority of the King now Reigning and till his affairs were such as would make it Consistent with his Politicks to give ear to the Advice and pressing importunities of his Clergy And whereas there are large Accounts published of the Methods that were from this time taken to destroy the Protestant Religion by degrees because the Protestants were much too considerable a Party for the Overhastily adventuring upon Violent proceedings those Methods are comprized by a very late Author under twelve Heads In his History of the Persecutions of tâ—â— Reformed Church of France c. Printed in London 1699. with Enlargments upon each he saying that it would be a difficult matter to give an exact account of these Methods Humane Malice having never produced such a Multiplicity and every day having brought forth new ones for Twenty Five Years together That is to the Revocation of the Edict of Nants The brevity we are confined to permits the Instancing in but a very sew of them One most cruel method was the puting down of all Protestant Judges in contradiction to the Thirtieth Article of the Edict which establisheth an equal number of Popish and Protestant ones And by this infraction thereof innumerable Protestant Families were utterly ruined by the Partiality of the Judges Those of them who were honestly inclined not daring to do them Justice in Causes between Protestants and Papists for the Clamour that was still made in their Ears by the Priests and Monks especially of their being Hereticks and of a Religion which the King abhors Another Method of Persecution was the making them uncapable of holding any Dignities Publick Offices or Employments whatsoever And afterwards of following any Professions even that of Midwifry Which greatly scared the poor Protestants as apprehending that the Cruel design of the Egyptian Midwives Laying the Israelitish Women was now to be executed by the Popish ones upon their Infants But afterwards they did more than apprehend by another of their Methods a design against their dear Children which was unspeakably more terrifying This was their taking the most effectual Courses they could devise to scare the younger to the Popish Religion and to corrupt the Elder viz. 1. By prohibiting their Parents to send them abroad before they were full Sixteen Years Old 2. By seizing of Children in many places to put them into their Seminaries 3. By ordering that the Children of Fourteen Years Old and under of all such as had by any means whatever embraced Popery should be Educated therein and that no Protestant Minister should dare to receive any such into his Church on pain of Banishment and Confiscation 4. By including in the same Declaration the Children of those who should be reported by Priests to have changed their Religion on their Death-Beds from which 't was impossible to exclude them And what Priest of them can be true to his Religon and boggle at any lye which tends to its Service 5. By impowering the Popish Midwives to Christen the Children of Protestants By which means the Priests could lay claim to them from their Infancy 6. By ordering the Admission of them even at Seven Years Old to abjure the Religion of their Fathers without any hinderance or molestation 7. By ordering that those Children shall have their Choice either to live with their Parents or elsewhere their Parents paying a Pension for their Education proportionable to their Estates to which the Declaration Obligeth them And it is strange if the Priests could not find out effectual ways more than enough to perswade such poor young things to say or swear any thing and then to Inveagle them from their Parents 8. By ordering Protestant Parents who have any Children in Foreign Countrys to recall them home upon pain of being deprived of the Profits of their Estates Here are Instances of Persecution with a vengeance We will mention but one more of their Methods and that is the Quartering of Souldiers upon the Protestants And the Outrages committed by these Instruments of Conversion upon their Land-Lords and their Families which we have certain accounts of are not only too many to be Enumerated but also a very great part of them not to be related without horrour Their first converting Pranks were plaid in Poicton and Saingtone in 1681 and the Toun of Bergerac where Capuchin Friars were quartered with the Souldiers to animate those of them who might happen to be too tender hearted in the Execution of their Office And inexpressible Cruelties were exercised on Persons of both Sexes and all Ages The poor Wretches in Poicton that were overcome by intolerable Torments did quickly after protest against what they had done as that which ought not to pass for an Abjuration of their Religion and this brought on them a Second Persecution The Protestants of Languedoc Guienne and very many other