famous Assembly I neither ought nor could any longer suffer it neither could I forbear doing what you have seen which thing most noble Prince was not done in contempt of your Presence God is my witness but to seek the salvation of this People The King hearing that he was an Englishman and considering what alteration of Religion King Edward had made presently conceited that he was suborned by some body to do this in scorn to their Religion wherefore he asked him who was the Authour and procurer of this act Gardiner answered that he was not moved thereunto by any man but only by his own conscience For saith he there is no man under heaven for whose sake I would put my self into such manifest danger but that I owed this service first to God and then to your salvation and if I have done any thing which is dispeasing to you you ought to impute it to no man but to your self who so iâ—reverently use the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper to so great Idolatry c. Whilst he thus stoutly spake to the King by reason of the losse of much blood by his wound he was ready to faint Whereupon Chirurgions were sent for to cure him that he might be reserved for further torments Then were all other Englishmen in the City clapped up in prison especially his bed-fellow who was grievously tormented and examined more then all the rest and scarcely delivered after two years imprisonment the rest got off sooner They searched also all his writings and letters to see if they could find out any confederates then they went to him seeking by torments to extort the Author of this fact They also invented a new kind of torment exceeding Phalaris his brazen Bull which was this They made a ball of linnen cloth which with violence they thrust down his throat to the bottom of his stomack and with a string fastned to it they pulled it up again and this they did divers times which caused as bitter pains as the pains of death but when by this means they could get no confession from him they asked him if he did not repent of his wicked fact whereto he answered that he was so far from repenting that if it were to do again he should do it yet was he somewhat sorry that it was done in the Kings presence to his disturbance but they were not to blame him for it but the King was rather to be blamed who having power would not prohibit so great Idolatry When they had used all kinds of torments and that he was so weakned thereby that he was not like to live long they first cut off his right hand then carried him into the market-place where they cut off his other hand also then fastning a rope about his middle with a Pully they hoisted him up an high and making a great fire under him they let him down so that his feet only felt the fire and so often pulling him up and down they burned him by degrees and yet in all these great torments he remained constant and the more terribly that he burnt the more earnestly he prayed When his feet were consumed they asked him whether he yet did not repent him of his deed exhorting him to call upon our Lady and the Saints He answered that what torments soever they used the truth was the same that which he had confessed in his life he would not deny at his death and that when Christ ceased to be our Advocate he would pray to our Lady c. And when they laboured to stop his pâ—aying to and praising of God he with a loud voice reheased the 34. Psalm which being almost ended the rope was burned in sunder so that his body fell down into the fire where he changed his momentany pains for eternal rest But the Lord suffered not this cruelty to go altogether unpunished in this life for a spark of the fire wherewith he was burned was driven by the wind into the Haven where it set on fire one of the Kings great ships and consumed it The new-married Prince also died within half a year and the King himself not long after The Martyrdom of a Christian Jew in Constantinople Anno Christi 1528. THis Jew dwelling ar Constantinople through Gods grace was there converted baptized and became a good Christian which the Turks understanding were vehemently exasperated against him for it fearing lest his conversion should prove very prejudicial to their Mahumetan Religion and therefore they apprehended and cruelly murthered him and for his greater infamy they cast out his dead body into the open streets forbidding all strictly to bury it Thus his dead body lay in the streets nine dayes yet through the power of God it corrupted not at all yea there proceeded from it a certain delectable sent or odour which much astonished the Turks so that at last they took it up and carried it out of the City and buried it CHAP. XXX The Persecution of the Church in Germany which began Anno Christi 1523. THe Gospel being spread abroad in Germany by the means and ministry of Luther and his fellow-labourers the Pope having tried all other means for the suppressing of it and finding them ineffectual he at last provokes the Emperour Charles the fifth by war to destroy the Protestants and for that end gives him two hundred thousand crowns in money for the maintenance of these Wars and ties himself at his own cost to maintain twelve thousand foot and five hundred horse for six moneths yea out of his zeale for the cause he allows the Emperour the one half of the Revenues of the Clergy and gives him leave to sell off Abby-lands to the value of five hundred thousand crowns whereupon great preparation was made for this War both in Germany Spain and Italy the consideration wherereof caused the confederate Protestant Princes to raise a great Army also for their own defence upon which occasion they were proclaimed guilty of high treason by the Emperour The two Armies lay near together and the Protestants offered battel to the Emperour but he refused assuring himself that they could not long continue together The Army of the Protestants was commanded by the Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave of Hessen who did not concur very well in their counsels besides they wanted both victuals and money so as they were forced to dislodge and retire further off the Emperour following forced the Elector to fight with disadvantage and God who doth not alwaies prosper the better cause gave the victory to the Emperour the Duke of Saxony and the Lantgrave being taken prisoners Anno 1547. Presently after ensued a great persecution in many places authority armed with laws and rigour striving against simple verity It was lamentable to hear how many poor men were troubled both Ministers and Christians some tossed from place to place others exiled out of their own Countryes some driven into
vice and wickedness you never said word to me but now for savouring and favouring the Word of God you seek my blood Then did they examine him about sundry Articles of Religion to which whilst he was making a full answer they cut him off bidding him answer in two words Yea or No Whereupon he said If you will not give me leave to answer fully to things of such importance send me again to my dungeon amongst the Toads and Frogs who will not interrupt me whilst I talk with my Lord my God Shortly after he was condemned to be burned and having a bag of powder hung about his neck when the fire came to it it gave a crack whereupon the Friars told the People that the Divel came out of him and carried away his soul to hell A tyrannous Prince in Germany apprehended a godly Minister and for his constancy in the truth put out both his eyes and kept him a long time in prison afflicting him with divers kinds of torments Then did he cause him to be degraded shaving the skin off his head and rubbing it with salt till the blood ran down his shoulders and paring off the ends of his fingers so that four days after he patiently yielded up the Ghost Not long after there was a godly Minister in Antwerp called Christopher Fabri that was betrayed by a woman who pretended a great zeal to Religion and was cast into prison where he lay for a long time and endured much misery at last he was brought forth and condemned to be burnt alive And when the Margrave brought him forth to execution the people having first sung Psalmes fell to casting of stones against the Executioner so as the poor Prisoner being bound and fire set to him the Margrave durst stay no longer but ran away and so did the executioner but before he fled by the command of the Margrave he took a hammer and beat out Fabrie's brains and stabbed him into the back with a dagger so that the people running to save him from the fire found him dead after which by the command of the Margrave he had a great stone tied about his neck and was thrown into the river Anno 1549. One Nicholas and Barbara his wife and one Austin and Marrian his wife Germans by birth went to Geneva where they lived for a space then returning through Germany they intended to go into England but having passed through Dornick they were discovered to the Lieutenant thereof who speedily pursuing them overtook them yet at that time God delivered Austin out of their hands but Nicholas and the two women were apprehended and carried back by the souldiers Coming to an Inne by the way at table Nicholas gave thanks whereat the wicked Captain swearing grievously said Let us see thou lewd Heretick if thy God can deliver thee out of my hand Nicholas replyed Hath Christ ever offended you that by your blasphemous swearing you thus tear him in pieces Pray you if you have any thing against Christ rather wreak your anger upon this poor body of mine and let the Lord alone Then did he bind them hands and feet and carried them to Burges and cast them into the dungeon Divers Friers coming to them Nicholas in disputing with them so confounded them that they went away ashamed saying that he had a divel crying To the fire with the Lutherane Afterwards the Magistrate sought to pump out of Nicholas what acquaintance he had in that City but not prevailing with him he went to his wife and by flattering speeches and fair promises he wrought so upon her weaknesse that he gat out all that she knew whereupon ensued a great persecution Shortly after Nicholas was condemned to be burned at the hearing of which sentence he blessed the Lord who had counted him worthy to be a witnesse in the cause of his dear and wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ At the place of execution hew a commanded not to speak to the People for if he did he should have a woodden ball thrust into his mouth yet as he was binding to the stake forgetting the command he cryed out O Charles Charles how long shall thy heart be hardned With that one of the Souldiers gave him a great blow Then he said Ah miserable People who are not worthy that the Word should be preached to you The Friars crying out that he had a Divel he answered them in the words of David Depart from me all ye wicked for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping and so commending his spirit into the hands of God he ended his life in the midst of the flames Marrian was condemned to be buried quick and when some earth was thrown upon her the hangman stamped upon her with his feet till she died Afterwards Austin that had before escaped was apprehended and being examined though by nature he was a very timorous and weak man yet did he stand to the defence of the truth valiantly and answered his adversaries very boldly Being condemned to be burnt as he was going to execution a Gentleman drank to him in a cup of wine exhorting him to pity himself at least not to destroy his soule Austin thanked him saying What care I have of my soule you may see by this in that I had rather give my body to be burned then to sin against my conscience Being tyed to the stake and fire set to him he heartily prayed to the Lord and so patiently departed Anno 1551. The Emperour Chales the fifth having obtruded the Interim upon Germany many godly Ministers were persecuted and driven from their places for opposing the same as may be seen in my first part of Lives The city of Magdenburg also for refusing it had an army sent against it which besieged it for a whole year together whereby many of the godly Citizens lost their lives and others endured great miseries But at last Gods providence so ordering of it warre arose betwixt the Emperour and the King of France whereupon peace was granted unto Magdenburg upon good terms and the inhabitants enjoyed their former Religion quietly Anno 1555. There was one Hostius born at Gaunt who for some time was a member of the French Church here in London in King Edwards days but in the beginning of Queen Maries reign he went vvith his family to Norden in Frizeland and aftervvards having some businesse to Gaunt he went thither where he instructed many of his friends in the truth and hearing that a Friar used to preach good doctrine he went to hear him but the Friar that day defended transubstantiation which so grieved him that he could scarce refrain from speaking till the Sermon was ended When the Friar was come down from the Pulpit he charged him for preaching false doctrine perswading the people by the Scripture that the bread was but the Sacrament of the
to live with him for ever and so they all quietly slept in the Lord. Four others about the same time were condemned and cruelly burnt at Paris for the same cause Anno 1548. There was one Blondel a Merchant of precious stones that frequented many great Fairs in France and was well-known both in Court and Countrey he was a man of singular integrity and a Favourer of Gods Word being at an Inne in Lions he freely reproved the filthy talk and superstitious behaviour which he there heard and saw hereupon the Host complained of him to an officer withal informing him of his rich Coller of Jewels These two suborned one to borrow money of him which because Blondel refused to lend the fellow caused him to be apprehended for heresie thinking thereby to attach his goods but Blondels friends prevented it privily conveying them away Blondel being examined of his faith gave a plain and full Confession of it whereupon he was sent to prison in which he did much good amongst the Prisoners paying the debts of some and so loosing them feeding others cloathing others c. At length through the importunity of his Parents and friends he changed his Confession yet was he sent to the High Court at Paris where being examined again concerning his faith he adhered to his first Confession much bewailing his former fall Then was he condemned to be burnt and great haste was made for his execution left his friends at Court should save his life Anno 1549. One Hubert a young man of nineteen years old was so constant in the faith that neither the perswasions of his Parents nor the threats of his adversaries could remove him from his stedfastnesse for which he was burned at Dyion The same year there was a godly Minister called Florent Venote cast into prison at Paris where he lay above four years in which time there was no kind of torment which he did not endure and overcome amongst others he was put in to so narrow a place that he could neither stand nor lieâ— in which he remained seven weeks whereas there was never any Malefactor that could endure it fifteen dayes but he either grew mad or died At last when a great shew was made at the Kings coming into the City and divers other Martyrs in sundry places of it were put to death Florent also having his tongue cut out was brought forth to see their execution and lastly was himselfe burnt About the same time one Anne Audebert as she was going to Geneva was apprehended and brought to Paris where she was adjudged to be sent to Orleance and burned there when she was had forth to execution a rope being put about her she called it her wedding girdle wherewith she should be married to Christ and being to be burried upon a Saturday she said On a Saturday I was first married and on a Saturday I shall be married again She much rejoyced when she was put into the dung-cart and shewed such patience and constancy in the fire as made all the Spectators to wonder at it Not long after the Coronation of Henry the second King of France at whose coming into the City of Paris divers godly Martyrs were burned there was a poor Tailor that dwelt not farre from the Kings Palace apprehended for working upon an holy day Being by the Officer asked why he wrought upon that day He answered that he was a poor man living only upon his labour and that he knew no day but the Sabbath whereupon he might not work his necessity requiring it Then was he clapt up in prison this being noised in the Court some would needs have the Tailor sent for that the King might have the hearing of him Then was the Tailor brought thither and the King sitting in his chair of State commanded the Bishop of Mascon to question with him The Tailor being nothing amated at the Kings presence after he had done reverence to his Prince gave thanks to God for honouring him so greatly being such a wretch as to bring him where he might bear witnesse to his truth before so great a Prince The Bishop questioned with him about the greatest matters of Religion and he with an undaunted spirit so answered for the sincere truth and with such pregnant proofs of Scripture as was wonderfull and though the Nobles that were present jeered and taunted at him yet could they not dash him out of countenance but that still with much liberty and freedome of speech he defended the truth of Christ neither flattering their persons nor fearing their threats The King seeming to muse much within himself that so mean and simple a person should shew such audacity in such a presence the Bishop and Popish Lords taking notice of cryed out that he was an obstinate and impudent Heretick and therefore remanded him back to prison and within a few dayes after he was condemned to be burnt alive and left the King should be affected with what he heard from the Tailor the Bishops often suggested that the Lutherans were such as carried a vaine smoake in their mouthes which being put to the fire would soon vanish They also would needs have the King present at his execution but it pleased God to give such strength and courage to the Tailor at his execution as much more astonished the King than all his former carriage for having espied the King in the window where he sate he beheld him with so stedfast a countenance that his eyes were never off him yea when the fire was kindled about him he still kept his eyes so fixed upon the King that the King was constrained to leave the window and to withdraw himself and was so wrought upon thereby that he confessed that he thought the shadow of the Tailor followed him whithersoever he went and for many nights after he was so terrified with the apparition thereof that he protested with an oath that he would never see nor hear any more of those Lutherans though afterwards he brake his oath as it follows in the story of Anne Du Bourg About the same time one Claudius a godly man was apprehended as he came from Geneva and burned at Orleance Anno 1551. One Thomas a young man of about eighteen years old coming from Geneva to Paris rebuked one for swearing whereupon he was apprehended for a Lutherane and carried before the high Court by them he was committed to prison and cruelly racked to confesse his companions which he still refused to do whereupon they continued to rack him till one of the bloody Inquisitors turned his back and wept and till the Hangman was a weary then was he carried to be burned and was let down with a pully into the fire and after a while being pulled up again they asked him if he would yet turn To whom he said That he was in his
given to her and after her death the Chirurgions were not suffered to open her head where the mischief lay whereby it was the better concealed The Admiral was again advertised of his danger but he resting upon the testimony of a good conscience and the providence of God misinterpreted those advices as if they proceeded from men desirous of new troubles Many Lords and Gentlemen of the Religion accompanied the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde to Paris The King of France the better to delude the Protestants spake openly that he gave not his sister to the King of Navar only but as it were to the whole Church of the Protestants to joyn with them in an indissoluble union and as a tie to their peace and safety August 17. Anno 1572. The King of Navar and the Lady Margaret were married by the Cardinal of Bourborn upon a scaffold in the sight of all the people and that day was spent in banquets dances and masks with a strange mixture of Protestants and Papists together but in the mean time the Queen mother with her Privadoes as also the Duke of Anjou with the Guises consulted about killing the Admiral and dividing the Protestants Five dayes after as the Admiral came from the Court accompanied with about fifteen Gentlemen reading a petition as he went one shot at him with a Caliver the bullet taking away his right fore-finger hurt him in the left arm he that shot had a Spanish Jennet at the back-door of his lodging upon which he immediately mounted and escaped The door being burst open it was found that the Caliver left behind was brought to the house the day before by one Chally steward of the Kings house and a great dealer for the Duke of Guise the Admiral being conveyed to his lodging shewed most admirable piety patience and constancy The King complained of the mischief swearing and promising to execute such justice upon the offendor that the Admiral and all his friends should thinke themselves well satisfied He caused also all the gates of Paris to be shut swearing and blaspheming that he would not that they which had done the fact should escape he also appointed many Lords and Gentlemen of the Protestants to lodge in the Admirals quarter the better as he pretended to secure themselves against any danger After noon the King went to visit the Admiral and there with many Oaths and protestations assured him of his love to him care over him and them of the Religion and that he would severely punish the Authors of his present hurt Presently after the Vidame of Chartres John de Ferriers advised the King of Navar the Prince of Conde the Admiral and other chief Lords of the religion presently to depart out of Paris assuring them that that blow was but the beginning of the Tragedy which was soon to ensue but they trusting to the Kings word rested secure That day also the King wrote to the Ambassadors of forrein Princes and to the Governours of all his Provinces how much he was offended at the Admirals hurt how severely he would punish it yea he desired that all the world might know how much he was offended at it and the Queen-mother wrote the like In the mean time the Dukes of Anjou and Guise employed some to go from house to house to take the names of all the Protestants and to return the Catalogue to them so that presently after they of the Religion began to discover that some bloody intentions were hatching against the Admiral and his friend For the King set a guard of fifty Harquebushires at the Admirals gate Great store of Armes were carried into the Loure and about evening all the people were in Armes The chief of the Protestants hereupon assembled again in the Admirals lodging where the Vidame of Chartres advised as before that they should essay presently to carry the Admiral out of Paris and that the rest should presently dislodge yet all the rest refused this counsel resolving to relie upon the Kings word who had promised them Justice In the evening some Protestant Gentlemen proffered to watch with the Admiral but he would not suffer them At night the Duke of Guise sent for the Captain of the Switzers shewing him his Commission to kill the Admiral and all his partakers exhorting him and his men to be couragious in shedding of blood At midnight the Provost Sheriffs and Captains of every Ward had the same shewed them with assurance that through the whole Realm the like should be done to all the Protestants and that the watchword for the general Massacre should be the tolling of the Bell in the Palace to be rung at the break of day and the Badge of the Executioners should be a white Handkerchif tied on their armes and a white Crosse in their hats The Duke of Guise and his Associates were to begin at the Admirals lodging Some of the Protestants being awakened with the noise in the streets of men running up and down in armes and with torches gat up to enquire what was the matter but presently the Bell rung and the Duke of Guise with his cutthroats hasted to and knocked at the Admirals gates he that opened them was presently stabbed The Admiral hearing the noise gat out of bed and joyned with his Minister Master Merlin in fervent prayer commending his soul into the hands of God Then said he It is long since I disposed my self to die save you your selves if it be possible for you cannot save my life I commit my soul into the hands and mercy of God Then did Merlin his Minister and the rest get up to the top of the house and crept out of windows into the gutters to hide themselves yet most of them were slain in the next house Then seven or eight men brake into the Admirals chamber and one of them went to him with his naked sword offering him the point to whom he said Young man thou oughtest to respect any age and infirmity yet shalt thou not shorten my life with that he thrust him into the body and all the rest laid at him so that he fell to the ground where he lay gasping The Duke of Guise below called to them to throw his body out at window which they did his face being all bloody the Duke of Guise wiped it and looking on it said Now I know him it is he and so kicked him on the face with his foot whom all the murtherers in France feared so much when he was alive Then went he out into the streets crying Courage my fellows we have here made a good beginning let us now fall upon the rest the King commands it it is his expresse pleasure he commands it The Admirals head was sent to the King and queen-mother and by them sent to the Pope and Cardinal of Lorrain as a grateful present The Pope when he heard the newes set
apart a day of publick thanksgiving to God in the Church of St. Lewis and published a Bull of extraordinary Indulgences to such as should pray for the heavenly assistance to the King and Kingdome of France Strada The common people cut off the Admirals hands and privy members drawing his body about the streets three days and then hung it by the feet upon the Gallows All the Attendants of the King of Navar and Prince of Conde which lay in the Kings Palace were massacred the like was done to the Lords and Gentlemen that lay about the Admirals lodging and then through all the City were the Protestants murthered so that that night and the two next days there were slain in Paris about ten thousand persons of all ranks ages and sexes yea they spared not children in the Cradle nor infants in their mothers wombs But to colour this their villany they gave it out that the Huguenots had conspired to kill the King They boasted also that they had in one day done that which Processes sentences of Justice and open Warre could not do in twelve years The Lords and Gentlemen were most inhumanely muâ—thered some in their beds others on the roofs of their houses and in all other places wheresoever they were found There were at this time in Paris about sixty thousand men with pistols pikes curtelaces poinards knives and such other bloody instruments that ran up and down swearing and blaspheming the sacred Majesty of God cruelly massacring all that they met with The streets were covered with mangled bodies gates and doors defiled with blood Shoutings howlings of the murtherers mixed with the cries and groans of the dying the breaking open of doors and windows with the noise of guns and pistols all which made an hellish noise multitudes of dead bodies were thrown into the Seine which was died red with their blood The King certified the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde of all that was done saying that he saved their lives upon condition that they should renounce their Religion and turn Papists The King of Navar desired him not to force his conscience but to remember the Alliance so lately contracted betwixt them The Prince of Conde with more zeal told him that his body and estate were in his power to do with them what he pleased but for his Religion he was fully purposed not to forsake it but to remain constant therein to the losse of his life he put the King in minde also that he had given his faith to him and to those of the Religion and therefore he hoped he would not falsifie his oath c. This so enraged the King that he called him rebel and the sonne of a rebellious person with horrible threatnings that he should lose his head if within three days he altered not his mind The King and his Confidents perceiving that this Massacre would not quench the fire but rather stirre up the Protestants in other parts of the Kingdome to defend themselves they presently dispatched away letters to the Governours of Towns with expresse commands to masscacre all the Protestants yet at the same time the King wrote other letters wherein he laid the fault of the murther of the Admiral upon the Duke of Guise pretending that he had quieted all things in Paris and intended that his Edicts of pacification should hold inviolably Upon the receipt of the first letters the Papists fell upon the Protestants at Meaux Trois Orleance and other places and murthered them without all pity besides such as were massacred in Villages and Fields where they thought to save themselves so that in a few weeks there were above thirty thousand persons massacred in France But besides this general account some particulars deserve remembrance which are these that follow Monsieur de la Place President of the Court of Requests had a Captain armed that came into his house telling him that the Duke of Guise had slain the Admiral at the Kings appointment with many other Huguenots and that he was come to protect him in that common destruction only he desired a sight of the Gold and Silver that was in his house The L. de la Place amazed at his audaciousnesse asked him whether he thought that there was a King or no The Captain blaspheming willed him to go with him to know the Kings pleasure Hereupon the Lord went from him to secure himself Then did the Captain rifle his house taking above one thousand Crowns The Lord would have secured himself in three several houses all which refused to entertain him which caused him to go back to his own house again where he found his wife very heavy whom he rebuked discoursed to her of the promises told her that we must through many afflictions enter into the Kingdome of God c. which much comforted her Then calling his family together he made an exhortation to them went to prayer and began to read a chapter in Job with Calvins Exposition upon it Then went he to Prayer again resolving to suffer all torments or death rather than to do any thing that might be dishonorable to God Then came the Provost-Marshal with many Archers to his house pretending to secure him and safely to convey him to the King who would speak with him De la Place told him that he was most willing to do it but saw it impossible in regard of the horrible massacres committed every where without apparent danger of his life In brief presently after came the Provost of Merchants who would needs also have him to the King yet he would have excused it as before but the Provost would have no nay wherefore resolving upon death which he saw he could not avoid he embraced his wife wishing her above all things to continue in the fear of God and so went on his way boldly but in the street some murtherers that attended there for his coming with their daggers stabbed him and then pillaged him carrying his body into a stable and covering his face over with dung and the next day they threw him into the river Peter Ramus also the Kings Professor in Logick was not forgotten the murtherers breaking into the Colledge of Priests where he was massacred him then cast him out of the chamber-window so that his bowels issued out on the stones then was his body trailed through the streets and whipt by certain young Scholars who were set on by their Popish Tutors to do it A godly young man going early abroad on the Sabbath morning and hearing of the death of the Admiral and seeing the insurrection out of a singular child-like affection to his mother he hasted home informed her of the danger secured her in a place of great secresie after which he shut himself up in his study by Prayer to fit himself for death into which the murtherers breaking with battleaxes and staves so loaded him with blows on the
High-Priest worshipeth for in my sleep I saw him in such an habit when I was in Macedonia consulting with my self how I might conquer Asia and he bad me to make no delay assuring me that he would both guide me and my Army and would deliver the Empire of the Persians into my hands Then gave he the High-Priest his hand and went with him to the City and comming to the Temple he offered sacrifice according to the direction of the High-Priest then did Jaddus shew him Daniels Prophecy wherein his victories over the Persians and his Monarchy were foretold which much rejoyced Alexander then did he command the Jews to ask some favours at his hands the High-Priest requested onely that they might live after the Ordinances of their forefathers and that every seventh year they might be exempted from taxes and tributes which he fully granted they besought him likewise that the Jews which were in Media and Babilon might be permitted to live after their own Laws which he willingly promised and so departed this was about the year of the world 3632. and before Christs nativity 332. After the death of Alexander his Kingdom was divided amongst his Captains amongst whom Ptolemy the son of Lagus held Egypt who falling out with Antigonus that held Asia minor there grew great wars between them wherein Ptolemy won from him all Syria and going to Jerusalem on a Sabbath day under pretence to offer sacrifice the Jews suspecting nothing he surprised the City carrying away many of the Jews into captivity into Egypt but after his death his son Ptolemy Philadelphus at his owne cost redeemed an hundred and twenty thousand of them paying twelve Crowns apeece for each of them and sent them back into their owne countrey He sent also by them fifty talents of gold for the temple and obtained of Eleazer the High Priest the Law of the Jews and 72 Interpreters out of every Tribe some who translated it into Greek in 72 daies and having finished their work Ptolemy returned them with great rewards for themselves and with many rich presents to Eleazer Antiochus and Ptolemy being at war each against other the Jews suffered much by them Mach. 1. Collected out of Josephus CHAP. III. The persecution of the Church of God under Antiochus Epiphanes before the nativity of Christ about 168 years AFterwards the Jews being divided amongst themselves one part of them went to Antiochus telling him that their purpose was to forsake the Religion and Ordinances of their forefathers and to follow that of the Kings and to live after the manner of the Greeks entreating him to license them to live in Jerusalem which Antiochus assenting to they went to Jerusalem where they behaved themselves very wickedly but finding opposition from the other party of the Jews they sent for Antiochus who led his army against Jerusalem and encamped before it and by his faction within had the gates opened and the City betraied to him about the year of the world 3796. and before the nativity of Christ 168. Being entred Jerusalem he slew many of the faithfull Jews and having taken great spoils he returned back to Antioch Two years after he came to Jerusalem again and having seen what quantity of gold was in the Temple and what a huge number of Presents and precious Ornaments were in the same he was so overcome with covetousness that he violated all conventions and conditions formerly made equally raging against his own and the adverse party sparing neither friend nor foe then he spoiled the Temple and carried away the Vessels dedicated unto God the golden Table the golden Candlestick the Censers c. leaving nothing behind him of any value yea he inhibited the godly Jews from offering their usual and dailie sacrifices to God and having spoiled the whole City he slew many of the Inhabitants and carried the rest away into Captivity with their Wives and Children to the number of ten thousand He also burned the fairest buildings of the City and brake down the wals and raised a Fortress in the lower City and having inclosed it with high wals he planted a Garison of Macedonians therein with whom remained the scum of the Apostate Jews He also caused an Altar to be erected in the Temple on which he commanded swine to be offered in Sacrifice contrary to the Law He constrained the Jews to forsake God and adore those Idols which himself vvorshiped he forbad them to circumcise their Children and appointed Over-seers to constrain them to fulfill his Commandments so that many for fear of punishment conformed themselves to his will But such as were of upright hearts and valiant minds little respected his menaces whereupon they were beaten and exposed to cruel punishment many days together in the midst of which they yielded up the ghost for after they were whipt and maimed in their bodies they were tortured and crucified the women vvere strangled and the circumcised children vvere hung up about the necks of their parents and vvhere any books of the sacred Scriptures vvere found they defaced and burnt them and such with vvhom they vvere found vvere put to most cruel deaths At this time there dvvelt at Modin a Village of Jury one vvhose name was Matthias a Priest of the rank of Joarib that had five sons John called Gaddis Simon called Matthes Judas called Maccabeus Eleazer called Aaron and Jonathan called Apphas This Matthias often complained to his sons of the miserable state of their Countrey of the sacking of their City the profanation of the Temple and the miseries of the people telling them that it was better for them to die for the Law then to live in Ignominy When therefore the Kings Commisaries came unto Modin and commanded the people to sacrifice according to the Kings Edict they first applied themselves to Matthias as to the most Honourable person amongst them requiring him first to offer sacrifice that others might follow his example promising that the King vvould much honour him for it Matthias ansvvered that he vvould by no means commit that Idolatry assuring them that though all other Nations either for love or fear should obey the Edicts of Antiochus yet that he nor his children could be induced to forsake the Religion of their fathers As soon as he had thus spoken a certain Jew stepped forth to offer sacrifice according to the command of the King wherewith Matthias inflamed with zeal was so displeased that he and his sons fell upon him and with their swords hewed him to pieces he also slew Apelles the Kings Captain and some other souldiers who would have withstood him Then he overthrew the Altar and with a loud voice he said If any one be affected to the Laws of their fathers and to the service of God let him follow me and so he retired into the deserts with his sons the like did the rest with their wives and children hiding themselves in caves and
afflicted what evil have we done If we be called to dispute Why are we spoiled of all we have Why are we slandred Why are we forced to remain here amongst the dung-hills afflicted with hunger and nakedness far from our Churches and houses Herewith the Tyrant was so enraged that he commanded his horsemen to ride over them whereby many of them were sore bruised and wounded especially the aged and weak men Then did he command them to meet him at the Temple of Memory and when they came thither they had this writing delivered to them Our Lord King Hunrick lamenting your obstinacy in refusing to obey his will and to embrace his Religion yet intends to deal graciously with you and if you will take this oath he will send you back to your Churches and houses Then they all said with one consent We are all Christians and Bishops and hold the Apostolical and only true faith and thereupon they made a brief confession of their faith But the Kings Commissioners urged them without any further delay to take the oath contained in that paper Whereupon they answered Do you think us bruit beasts that we should so easily swear to a writing wherein we know not what is contained Then was the Oath read unto them which was this You shall swear that after the death of the Lord our King his son Hilderick shall succeed him in the Kingdom and that none of you shall send letters beyond the seas If you take this oath he will restore you to your Churches They that were plain-meaning men amongst them were willing to take it but others that saw further into the subtilty of it refused it Then were those which would take it commanded to separate themselves from the other which being done a Notary presently took their names and of what Cities they were he did the like also by the Refusers and so both parties were committed to ward and shortly after the King sent them word first to those that would have taken the oath Because that you contrary to the rule of the Gospel which saith Thou shalt not swear at all would have sworn The Kings Will is that you shall never see your Churches more but shall be banished into the wilderness and never perform any Ministerial office again and there you shall till the ground But to the Refusers of the oath he said because you desire not the reign of our Lords son you shall therefore be immediately sent away to the Isle of Corse there to hew timber for the ships He also sent abroad through all Africk his cruel tormentors So that no place no house remained free from lamentation screeching and out-cryes They spared neither age nor sex but only such as yielded to their will Some they cudgelled with staves some they hung up others they burned Women and especially gentlewomen they openly tortured stark naked without all shame Amongst whom was Dionysia whom when they saw bolder and more beautifull then the rest they first commanded her to be stript naked and made ready for the cudgels who spake boldly to them saying I am assured of the love of my God vâ—x me how you will only my woman-hood disclose you not But they with greater rage set her naked upon an high place for a publick spectacle Then did they whip her till the streams of blood flowed all over her body Whereupon she boldly said Ye Ministers of Satan that which you do for my reproach is to me an honour And beholding her only son that was young and tender and seemed fearfull of torments checking him with a motherly Authority she so encouraged him that he became much more constant then before To whom in the midst of his terrible torments she said Remember O my child that we were baptized in the name of the holy Trinity Let us not lose the garment of our salvation least it be said Cast them into outer darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth For that pain is to be dreaded that never endeth and that life to be desired that alwayes lasteth The youth was so encouraged hereby that he persevered patient in all his sufferings till in the midst of his torments he gave up the Ghost Many by her exhortations and example were gained to God and animated in their sufferings Not long after Cyrillas the Arrian Bishop at Carthage stirred up the Tyrant against the Christians telling him that he could never expect to enjoy his Kingdom in peace so long as he suffered any of them to live Hereupon he sent for seven eminent Christians from Capsa to Carthage whom he first assaulted with flattery and large promises of honour riches c. if so be they would imbrace his faith But these servants of Christ rejected all those profers crying out One Lord one faith one Baptism saying also Do with our bodies what you please torment them at your will it s better for us to suffer these momentary pains then to endure everlasting torments Hereupon they were sent to prison loaded with great iron chains and thrust into a stinking Dungeon But God stirred up the hearts of many godly persons by great bribes to the Jayler to procure daily access to them and by their exhortations they were so corroborated in the faith that they much desired to suffer the like things for Christ with these men and would willingly have laid down their necks to the Persecutors swords The Tyrant hearing of it was exceedingly enraged caused them to be kept closer loaden with more chains and to be put to great torments Then did he cause a ship to be filled with combustible matter commanding that these holy Martyrs should be put into it and fast bound in the same and fire to be set to the ship in the sea that they might be burned to death When they were brought out of the prison the multitude of Gods people accompanied them to the ship who as innocent Lambs were led to be sacrificed looking upon their weighty irons as rare Jewels and Ornaments With chearfulness and alacrity they went towards the place of execution as if they had gone to a banket singing with one voice unto the Lord as they went along the street saying This is our desired day more festival then any feâ—â—ivity Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation when for the faith of our Lord God we endure death that we may not loose the garment of obtained faith The people also with one voice cried Fear not O servants of God neither dread the threats of your enemies Die for Christ who died for us that he might redeem us with the price of his saving blood Amongst these was a pretty boy to whom a subtil Seducer said Why hastest thou my pretty boy unto death let them go they are mad Take my counsel and thou shalt not only have life but great advancement in the
the effecting of it but as soon as the men were in Arms it pleased God by the death of King Francis to put an end to that design whereby the Waldensian Churches in Dauphine enjoyed peace and were well furnished with godly Pastors who held them in the exercise of religion though they were in continuall danger of being persecuted to the death for the same The Waldenses in Dauphine many years before being multiplyed so that the countrey could not feed them dispersed themselves abroad into divers parts whereof some went into Piedmont who lived in great love with those of Daâ—phine and though they were alwaies oppressed with troubles yet with hearty love and charity they ever-succoured one another not sparing their lives and goods for their mutuall conservation The first Persecution in Piedmont were occasioned by the Preists who complained to the Arch-Bishop of Turin that these people lived not according to the manner and belief of the Church of Rome that they offered not for the dead cared not for Masses Absolutions or to get any of theirs out of the pains of Purgatory c. Hereupon the Arch-Bishop persecuted them complaining of them to their Princes to make them odious But the Prince enquiring of their neighbours heard that they were of a good conversation fearing God without deceit or malice loving plain dealing alwaies ready to serve their Prince with alacrity c. He therefore purposed not to molest them But the Priests and Monks gaining nothing by their belief charged them with an infinite number of calumnies and ever and anon catching one or other of them they delivered them to the Inquisitors and the Inquisitors to the executioners so that there was scarce a Town or City in Piedmont wherein some of them had not been put to death At Turin one of them had his bowels torn out of his belly and put into a bason before his face and then was he cruelly martyred At Revel in the Marquisat of Saluces one Catelin Girard being on the block whereon he should be burnt requested his Executioner to give him two stones which he refused to do fearing least he would throw them at some body but he protesting the contrary at last they gave him two stones which he held in his hands and said When I shall have eaten these stones then shall you see an end of our Religion for â—hich you now put me to death and so he threw them on the ground and died cheerfully Thus they burnt many of them in the fire till Anno 1488. and then they resolved to assault them by open force because they saw that otherwise they should never be able to extirpate them besides their constant sufferings converted many to the faith Hereupon they levied an Army of eighteen thousand men besides many inhabitants of Piedmont who ran to the pillage from all parts These marched all at once to Angrogne Lâ—cerne La Perouse c. They raised also forces in Dauphine where with they over-ran the Valley of Pragela so that they being put to defend themselves could not assist their friends in Piedmont But the enemy by this division of his forces being weakned was every where beaten especially in the Valley of Angrogne where the VValdensians having been informed of the levies of their enemies against them prepared themselves to receive and resist them keeping the strait passages where few men might defend themselves against many They defended themselves with long Targets of wood whereby they covered themselves from the hurt of their enemies arrows Whilst they were thus bickering with their enemies the women and children upon their knees cried out O God help us The enemies made themselves merry with this fight and amongst them one Capt. Saquet who as he was imitating the woman was slain and tumbled down into a very deep valley Another Captain crying out to the women in derision was killed with the shot of an arrow in the throat Hereupon the souldiers betook themselves all to their heels and the greatest part slew themselves by tumbling down from the rocks Another providence of God was this that the enemies approaching to the stongest entrance by nature might their have fortified themselves and so made themselves masters of that Valley But God sent so thick a cloud and dark a fog that they could scarce see one another whereby they wanted opportunity to discover their advantage and therefore departed which the VValdenses seeing couragiously pursued them and by that means the enemy being dispersed and not seeing which waies they went the greatest part fell headlong down the mountains quitting their arms and booty which they had gotten at their first entrance into the Valley by which means the Waldenses recovered it again Then it pleased God to move the Princes heart which was Philip the seventh Duke of Savoy and Lord of Piedmont with pity towards these poor people saying That he would not have that people which had been alwaies true faithfull and obedient to him to be unjustly destroyed by Arms being content that twelve of the Principall should come to him to Pignerol to crave pardon for all the rest for taking arms in their own defence without his authority These he entertained lovingly forgiving all that was past during the warre And having been informed that all their children were born with black throats with foure rows of teeth and all hairy he caused some of them to be brought to him and seeing them fair and perfect creatures he was much displeased with himself for beleeving so easily the reports which were brought to him against them giving command that none should hereafter molest them but that they should enjoy all the priviledges which they rest of his subjects in Piedmont did Notwithstanding which the Monks Inquisitors daily sent out processe against them lay in wait for them and as they could aprehend any of them delievered them over to the secular power This Persecution lasted to Anno. 1532. at which time the Waldenses ordered that there exercises of religion should be performed no more in covert as formerly they had been but in publick that every one might know them and that their Pastors should preach the Gospell openly not fearing any persecution that might happen unto them The prince being advertised hereof was highly offended with them and thereupon caused one of his Commanders to hast with his Troops into the said Vallies which was performed with such diligence that he was entred with five hundred horse and Foot before they were aware ransacking plundering and wasting all before them Then did the Waldenses leave their ploughs putting themselves into passes and with their slings charged their enemies with such multitudes of stones that they were constraned to flie and to abandon their prey many remaining dead upon the ground This news was presently carried to the Prince and withall he was told that these people were not to
be subdued with Arms they knowing bettter the straits of their Country then the assailants and that the skin of one of the Waldenses would cost him the lives of a dozen of his other subjects where upon he vsed Arms no more against them but as any of them was caught in Piedmont he put them to death if they changed not their belief Notwithstanding with rigour they persisted in their resolution and that things might be carried on in the better order they assembled out of all their Vallies to Angrogne Anno 1535. viz. the heads of all their families with their Pastors where they heard that their brethren of Provence and Dauphine had sent two of their Pastors George Morrell and Peter Masson into Germany to confere with Oecolampadius Bucer and others about their relief which they had held from father to son time out of minde Where also the Germane Divines acknowledged that God had been very mercifull and gracious to them in preserving them undefiled in the midst of so many superstitions which had defiled all Christendom under the tyranny of Antichrist encouraging and exhorting them not to bury those Talents which God had given them onely they blamed them for delaying so long to make a publick profession of their adhering to the Gospel and causing it to be preached publickly leaving the success to God c. Then were the Letters of Oecolampadius and Bucer which they sent to them openly read together with the Propositions and Articles of Religion which they had agreed upon which were all approved signed and sworn to by all the assistants with one consent to perform observe beleeve and retain amongst them inviolably as being conformable to the Doctrine which they had been taught from their fore-fathers for many hundred years and all taken out of the Word of god When this Agreement came abroad to the ears of the Priests they were much astonished despairing to see these people reclaimed and brought back to the Church of Rome whereupon they retired from amongst them without speaking a word The Waldenses because they had only the New Testament and some books of the old amongst them in the Waldensian Tongue resolved speedily to send the whole Bible to the Press all their books hitherto being but Manuscripts and those but a few They sent therefore some to Newcastle in Suitzerland where they gave 1500. Crowns in gold to a Printer who brought to light the first Impression of the Freâ—ch Bible that was seen in France They sent also to Geneva to make a large supply of books fit for the instruction of the people but their messenger as he passed over the hill de Gap was apprehended for a spy by the Lord of Champelion and as soon as they knew him to be a Waldensian they sent him to Grenople where he was first imprisoned and then in the night drowned in the river least he should speak of his belief before the people Shortly after there happened warres between King Francis the first and the Princes of Piedmont which through Gods grace turned to the great peace and quiet of these poor people which peace continued till Pope Paul the third sollicited the Parliament of Turin to persecute them as pernicious Hereticks Whereupon the Parliament caused a great number of them to be burnt at Turin Then these Waldenses petitioned the King that they might not be persecuted for their Religion in which they and their Ancestors had lived for many hundred years But the King reiected their petition commanding them to live according to the Laws of the Roman Church upon pain of being punished as Hereticks adding that he did not burn the Lutherans through his whole Kingdom of France to let them amongst the Alps escape Hereupon the Parliament of Turin commanded them presently to send away all their Ministers and receive the Priests to sing Masse c. To which they answered that they could not receive any such commandment it being contrary to Gods Word whom they would rather obey then men But through Gods mercy the King had other imploiments elsewhere whereby they wanted leasure to prosecute these servants of Christ and therefore they only proceeded by the Inquisition receiving such as the Monks condemned to the fire Anno 1555. They increased the persecution condemning to the fire Bartholmew Hector a Stationer to be executed at Turin who died with admirable constancy and so edifying the spectators that they wept and compassionated him justifying him in their speeches and praying for him Hereupon the Parliament resolved wholly to extirpate them and for that end sent two men with authority either to reform or root them out These persons went first to Perouse where by Proclamation in the Kings name they command all to go to Masse upon pain of loosing their lives Then they went to Pignorol where they cited many to appear before them and amongst others a poor simple labouring man appeared whom the President commanded to have his childe re-bapzed by a Priest The man requested respite to pray to God before he answered him which with great laughter was granted Then falling down on his knees he prayed unto God and when he had done he said to the President I will cause my child to be rebaptised upon condition that you will give me a bill signed with your own hand that you will discharge me of the sin which I shall commit hereby and bear one day before God the punishment and condemnation which should befall me for the same taking this iniquity upon you and yours The President hearing this commanded him out of his presence and pressed him no further The President framed diverse Indictments against sundry persons in the Vallies and collected whatsoever he thought might hurt them and going to one of their Churches he caused a Monk that he brought along with him to preach in the presence of the people and when he had ended the people desired that some one of their Pastors there present might answer his discourse but that was denied by the President whereupon there was such a murmur amongst the people that the President without any more speech gat him away to Turin where he reported all to the Parliament and withall told them that if they sought by violence to reclaime this people they were resolued to defend themselves and that the places of their abode were of such strength that it was a work for a King of France to root them out Thereupon this report and the Indictments were sent to the King who having other occasions returned no answer that year Only the Inquisitors proceeded as they could catch any to deliver them to the secular power At the years end the King commanded the Parliament to cause them to do that by force which they would not by words be brought to Then did the Parliament send the President again to Angrogne where he commanded them in the name of
requested the Albingenses to yield to this but the Albingenses answered that they would not forsake their religion for the base price of their frail life that God was able if he pleased to defend them but if he would be glorified by the confession of their faith it should be a great honour to them to die for his sake that they had rather displease the Pope who could but kill their bodies then God who could cast both body and soul into hell c. Then did the Popish party send their Bishop to the Legate beseeching him not to include them in the chastisement of the Albingenses and that the best way to win the others was by gentle means not by rigour the Legate grew into great choler at this swearing that if all the City diâ— not acknowledg their fault they should all taste of one cup without distinction of religion sex or age and accordingly he summoned the City presently to yield to his discretion which they refusing he caused that his Engines should play and that a generall assault should be given It was impossible for them within the City to resist so great violence being assaulted by above an hundred thousand Pilgrims so that the enemies entred and slew a great multitude and set the City on fire and burnt it to ashes When the City was first taken the Priests and Monks came forth of the great Church with Banners and Crosses singing Te Deum laudamus but the Souldiers who were commanded by the Legate to kill all ran upon them made their heads and arms to fly about the streets so that they were all cut in pieces In this City of Beziers they slew sixty thousand persons the Popes Legate saying to the Captains and souldiers Caedite eos omnes novit enim Dominus qui sunt ejus Kill them all Catholicks and Hereticks for the Lord knoweth who are his Then were these Pilgrims presently conducted to Carcasson before the fourty daies of service which they had vowed to the Church of Rome were expired The Earl of Beziers when he saw that he could obtain no favour of the Legate before the City was taken left his charge to the Bishop and went to Carcasson endeavouring to prepare and furnish it for a long siege but the Legates Army followed him presently unto which there came a new supply of crossed souldiers out of sundry Countries so that his Army now consisted of three hundred thousand fighting men Near to the City of Carcasson was a Town of the same name the City was seated on an hill and fenced with a double wall yet the Pilgrims thought to take it at the first sight and therefore ran with great violence upon the first Rampier filling the ditch with fagots but they were beaten back with such courage that the ground was covered with their dead bodies The young Earl of Beziers won much honor in this first encounter encouraging his men and telling them that it was better to die fighting then to fal into the hands of such cruel and merciless enemies c. The Albingenses much encouraged hereby swore to him that they would spend their lives for the preservation of the City The next morning the Legate commanded a general assault to be made upon the Town of Carcasson which was two miles from the City The people valiantly defended themselves but being oppressed with multitudes the souldiers entred the Town putting all to the sword and fire as they had done at Beziers Then came the King of Arragon to the Camp and told the Legate that he understood that his kinsman the Earl of Beziers was in the City and that with his leave he would go to him not doubting but that he should prevail with him to do his duty to the Pope and Church The Legate gave him leave and the King approaching to the Rampier called for the Earl who came to him then said the King that he desired to know of him what moved him to shut up himself in that City against so great an Army of Pilgrims the Earl answered that it was to defend his life goods and Subjects that he knew well that the Pope under the pretence of religion resolved to destroy his Uncle Remund and himselfe that he saw the cruelty which they had used at Beziers even against the Priests themselves adding also what they had done to the Town of Carcasson and that they must look for no mercy from the Legate or his Army and that therefore he rather chose to die defending himself with his subjects then to fall into the hands of so inexorable an enemy as the Legate was that though he had in his City some that were of another religion yet they were such as had wronged none and were come to his succour in his greatest extremity and for their good service he was resolved not to abandon them and that his trust was in God the defender of the oppressed that he would assist them against that world of ill advised men who forsook their own houses to burn sack and ransack and kill in their houses other men without reason judgement or mercy The King returning to the Legate told him that his cozen was much discontented with his former dealings against his Subjects of Beziers Carcasson that he believed seeing they spared not the Romish Priests their war was not for Religion but a kinde of theevery that he would not yield himselfe to the descretion of such mercilesse men c. The Legate after some debate told the King that for his sake he would receive the Earl of Beziers to mercy and that with him twelve more might come out with bag and baggage but for the rest he would have them wholly at his discretion and that they should all come forth stark naked men women maids and children without shirts smocks or other covering and that then they might hope well of his mercy he being the Popes Legate c. The King much distasted this propositions yet reported it to the Earl of Beziers who returned answer that he would not come forth upon such unreasonable and unjust propositions but would defend himself and his Subjects as God should enable him Then did the Legate cause all his Engines to play commanding that they should take the City by storm but he was little pleased when he saw the losse of a great number of his Pilgrims for they in the City threw down stones fire pitch brimstone and boiling water wherewith they so galled the assailants that the earthâ—â—s covered and the ditches filled with their deads bodies which 〈◊〉 a wondrous noysom stink both in the City an Camp This overthrow caused divers of the crossed souldiers having accomplished their fourty daies service and thereby gained Paradise to refuse to conquer more after so faire a purchase and therefore they returned home The Legate being much troubled to see his Army so decreased thought of this Stratagem he sent for
departure the popish Bishops Clergy and Nobles began to vex his Subjects for Religion contrary to that assurance which the King had given to them They attempted also the like in Prague the Jesuites daily threatning that their Liberty in Religion should not last long Then did they strictly prohibit the Protestants from printing any thing unlesse licensed by the Chancellor of the Kingdom themselves in the mean time divulging their own slanderous pamphlets and dangerous writings against the Protestants Then instructions were given to the Captains and Judges that they should suffer no meetings in Churches except themselves were present and except they had a Popish Priest to administer only in one kinde Then the Burgrave who had the custody of the Crown and priviledges of the Kingdom was apprehended because in the late Parliament he had stood for the free election of a King and delivered prisoner to one of the bitterest enemies of the Protestants In other places they destroyed the Churches of the Protestants In the begining of the year 1618 The Governors of the University and Consistory met together having formerly had power given them so to do and choosing six persons two Barons two Knights and two Citizens to consult what was best to be done in this time of their enemies insolency there presently came an injunction in Caesars name to inhibit them to call any together and that if any man was called he should not dare to appear upon the pain of high Treason Notwithstanding which the major part of the States met and when as new prohibitions and threats were spread abroad and the States were informed that those thunderbolts came not from the King but from the castle of Prague their abused patience was turned into severity and being guarded with a great Troop they went to the Castle and apprehended two of the chief Authors of these troubles and threw them headlong out of the Castle windows together with their Secretary that was privy to all their designs but God intending to preserve them to be the Bohemians scourges they caught no hurt in the fall falling upon the grasse and greate store of papers Hereupon a great tumult was raised in Prague but the States appeassed it the first thing they did was to banish the Jesuits out of Bohemia as the chief contrivers of these mischiefs then did they write to Caesar that they had no intention against his Royall Majesty but only to bring to punishment the disturbers of the publick peace being authorized thereto by his Majesties Letter and bound by their protestation yet he resolved to revenge this Treason as he called it by force of Arms and the Bohemians on the other side resolved to defend themselves and for that end they chose thirty Directors and the Moravians and Silesians resolved to joyn with them when they perceived Religion to be the cause of the quarrell And indeed this was that which the enemies aimed at and therefore they provoked the Bohemians by all waies that so they might make a conquest of Bohemia and for this end an Imperial Army presently entred the Kingdom under Dampier and a Spanish Army under Bucquoy In the mean time the States resolved not to admit Ferdinand to be their King who was so open an enemy both to their Religion and Liberties and who was obtruded upon them without a due election They sent also Embassadors to Franckford where the Electors were met together to choose a new Emperour desiring that Ferdinand might not be admitted amongst them as King of Bohemia notwithstanding which he was admitted and chosen Emperour The Bohemians in the mean time choosing Frederick Elector Palatine for their King This more enraged their enemies so that they sent another Army under Maximilian of Bavarie which took two Protestant Towns by storm and put all to the sword and every where made great slaughter of the Protestants Then the Imperiall Armies came to Prague which being struck with a Pannick fear the Protestant Army being overthrown in a set battell under the wals and their new King fled they delivered up the City to them the Conqueror promising to keep Articles agreed upon but performing nothing lesse For they did more mischief to the Church of Christ by their subtile and slow proceedings then lately by their outragious fury when the sword fire and wheel were the instruments of their rage against the faithfull For a little before when it was debated at Rome how they should deal with the Bohemians and Germans after the Conquest it was agreed that seeing their former strong purges which they had used to expell Hereticall humours had not proved effectuall they therefore resolved not to put them to death wherein they did glory as in Martyrdom but rather to weary them and to change the hatefull name of Inquisition into the milder name of Reformation And whereas there was a debate amongst the Imperialists at Prague whether all the protestants should be presently banished the negative was resolved on because they would then carry much away with them and so spoil the Province and indure their banishment with greater ease therefore they concluded that they must first be squeezed and deprived of their goods and for this end the souldiers at Prague were authorrized to plunder the houses of Noblemen and Citizens yet this was done at several seasons and mostly in the night by which meanes as the enemies boasted they took from the Protestants some millions of gold For indeed hither were all their riches brought in the time of war as to a place of the greatest security But as this fell to the Commanders shares so the neighbouring places were exposed to the fury of the rest the common souldiers robbing and spoyling Villages Towns and Churches burning and killing without any restraint The souldiers that were placed in Garrisons would not only have Free-quarter but extorted mony from their Landlords every day Then were Comissions sent abroad promising security to those Noblemen Knights Corporations and Ministers that would bring in a good Sum of money to pay the Army which yet they would not receive as a free gift but only desired to borrow it Caesars protection was also promised to those that were liberall the rest were threatned to be plundred by the souldiers They set down also what sums they expected from every one within such a time they promised also that when that was paid the Souldiers should be removed which made every one to bring in their Plate Money and Jewels the more willingly Then were Commissioners sent to require certain Cities that belonged to the Protestant Noblemen to mantaine the standing Forces of the Kingdome and to contribute corn for their publicke granaries but whilest they were fed with a vaine hope of lessening and removing the souldiers there were more listed which raised the taxes so high as was impossible for the people to pay
to make thereof and yet afterwards not paying that neither Then did the Emperour call for the ancient Charters of the Kingdom which he immediately rent and threw into the fire The Ministers being all banished the noble Lord Charles de Zerotine did yet not onely retain his houshold-Chaplaine but he sustained also many others privately in their Caves with bread and water and not fearing man he did not only give liberty to his own subjects but to divers others in neighbouring places to resort to the holy exercises which were performed in his Castle Then did the enemies by a new Edict publish that all such Barons Noblemen and Citizens as kept any Protestant Tutor for their children should presently dismisse him otherwise he should be taken and punished Then by another Edict all the Protestants were cast out of protection of the Laws and were to have no benefit by them The enemies being every day puffed up with their successes and victories made a Decree that all the Protestant Noblemen should presently depart out of the Kingdom and the Emperour published a Proclamation that to prevent all divisions which were dangerous to the Kingdom and Magistrates therefore he was resolved no longer to tollerate any of the inferiour much lesse of the superiour estates of either sex who was infected with hereticall errours And withall he granted to the superiour States the term of six moneths to learn the holy Roman Catholick faith and for that end he appointed Commissioners of Reformation to instruct them requiring them to be obedient to his will and to be diligently instructed by them otherwise they should not be suffered to stay in the Kingdom much less to possesse their goods and therefore he required all those which at the end of that term of six moneths did not turn Catholicks immediately to depart the Kingdom and never to returne again Hereupon they which loved Religion at their hearts did presently separate themselves by banishment Others sollicited Caesar by petitions either to change the decree or to grant them a longer time Others there were that thinking to deceive the Emperour and Pope did buy false testimonies of the Priests that they had been at Confession and communicated in one kind and so made shew of a dissembled Apostacy thereby to avoid banishment Then was the fore-named Act extended unto widows and the Protestants children were commanded to be delivered to the care and instruction of Chatholicks or else to be shut up in Monasteries and this caused extream grief and groanes when Noble-mens sons and daughters even maids that were marriageable were pulled from their parents and friends and thrust into Jesuites Colleges or Monks Cels their Goods being taken also from them and committed to Papists The cunning craftinesse of those seducing Reformers deceived many unwary persons whilest they told them that they might hold their former opinions only for order sake they must acknowledge the Roman Bishop to be the visible head of the Church Hereby the simpler sort thinking that they were not constrained to any other faith but what they had formerly learned thought that they might with a safe conscience promise that outward obedience And if these seducers saw any one of more Nobility then ordinary they presently suggested to them how much it grieved Caesar that those ancient families which had formerly been the ornaments and props of the Kingdom should cast themselves out into banishment through there unadvisedness when they might remaine and flourish under the favour both of God and Caesar and this ruined many of the Protestants Nobility who preferred their earthly before the heavenly country Yet above a hundred Families leaving their inheritances and all their possessions went away Amongst these was the Lord de Zerotine who might have lived in his countrey if he would have deprived himself of the worship of God by the losse of his Minister or if he would have used it covertly yet he rather chose to suffer affliction with the people of God then to continue the enjoyments of his earthly possessions And whereas many of these Protestants were gone into Silesia and Lusatia the Emperour set forth a Proclamation wherein he protested that it was not his intention to remove them out of Bohemia and Moravia and to suffer them in the incorporated Provinces and therefore he commanded them to depart from thence also or else they should be brought to punishment requiring them also to send back their children which they had carried with them upon penalty of losing all the goods which any of them could demand in his countrey Presently after he published another Edict wherein he required all the Protestant wives of the Catholicks either to reform or to go into banishment But when many of the chief Officers of the Kingdom had Protestant wives and they would not indure that they should be thus divorced from them he set forth another Edict whereby they were tolerated till the death of their husbands and then they should be excluded from their inheritances and sent into banishment And required that in the mean time they should absent themselves from all festivall and nuptiall solemnities or else should take the lowest places after the Catholicks And whereas some of the Protestants did privately teturn or stay to make the best of that little that did remain unto them Proclamation was sent out that all such should be apprehended and imprisoned and to warn all such as had harboured any of them upon their allegiance to appear before the chief Officers in the Castle of Prague requiring that if any knew where any of them lay hid they should secretly and suddenly attach them and bring them to prison Then did the Emperour repeal and disannull diverse of the ancient Statutes of the Kingdom that made most for the peoples Liberties as concerning their free Election of a King c. that he might the better every where oppresse them Then in all the free Cities men of base and mean quality were appointed to determine aâ—l businesse and to be the chief Officers and to these were added some of the chief of the souldiery the better to procure subjection These Cities also they impoverished by taxes and contributions which continued divers years and were extorted by the Souldiers power Then Masse-Priests were put into the places of godly Ministers and people were compelled to frequent the Masse Marriages were forbidden except amongst the Catholicks Such as turned Apostates were promoted to all places of Magistracy in the Cities though men of no judgement nor experience Then were these Articles given to the Captains of Distresses 1. That whosoever is not of the Kings Religion all traffick and commerce shall be debarred him 2. Whosoever shall suffer private Preaching Baptism or Matrimony in his house shall pay a great Fine or suffer six moneths imprisonment but if he harbour a Preacher he shall lose goods and Life 3. If
any shall work upon Catholick holidaies he shall be imprisoned and pay ten Florences 4. It shall not be lawfull for any Non Catholick to make a Will if he do it shall be null 5. No youth shall be bound Apprentice or learn any Art or Trade unlesse he learn the Catholick Religion 6. The poor people in Hospitals except they be converted by such a day shall be turned out c. After the taking of the City of Prague Papists were examined upon oath to declare what they knew or heard that the Protestants had spoken or done against Caesar. Then was an Act published to the rest of the Citizens that though they had forfeited their whole estates yet they should not be wholly sequestred but every one should contribute part of his Estate to support the Army all men also were required upon oath to discover what their Estates were according to which they were injoyned to pay a ransome to obtain a pardon yea all trading inhibited to such as were not Catholicks In the City of Kutterberg were abundance of silver mines and the Inhabitants generally were zealous professors hereupon so soon as they began to be molested for Religion the Kings Revenue began to diminish most of the workmen giving over the work The King seeing this he farms his Revenues to the Citizens for ten years promising that in the interim they should not be troubled with souldiers nor for their Religion and hereto he set his hand and seal But Satan envying their place and liberties stirs up the Jesuits to move the King to break his Covenant within four mouths after and the souldiers were sent thither again and they began again to be questioned about their religion The Citizens astonished at this manifest breach of Covenant humbly petition that no violence might be offered to them which would overthrow the mettall-works But instead of answer the Major and chief Aldermen had twenty Musquetiers apiece put into their houses upon free quarter till they had shriven themselves to a Priest the Souldiers domineered exceedingly wasting these mens estates by their profuseness and abusing them divers other waies at their pleasure yet the patience of the one overcame the tyranicall behaviour of the other These godly men so long as they had it provided for the souldiers but when all was gone some of them withdrew themselves from danger by flight others resigned their houses and goods to these domineering villains delivering the keys to them and so departing When yet this prevailed not the task of reforming that City was committed to Don Martin who accompanied with a Troop of Curiassiers and himself brandishing a naked sword entred into the City the Citizens trembling at his coming hearing of the cruelty which he had exercised in other places whereupon that very night multitudes of them betook themselves to flight thinking to hide themselves in neighbouring villages this caused Don Martin to get an Edict that none should harbour exiles upon a great penalty The year after a Senate at Kutterberg was elected out of the Apostates the Major being a base and illiterate person so that all the Citizens being still oppressed with the souldiers either fled with their wives and children leaving all behinde them or else were fain to submit their necks to the Antichristian yoke The next City whither these reformers went was Bolislavia where the Orthodox Religion had continued for two hundred years and it was the Principall seat of the brethren The Ministers being ejected they placed in their rooms two crafty Friers that by all means sought to pervert the people but when this prevailed not they brought in three companies of souldiers to quarter upon them Then were some of the Citizens banished others cast into prison and three of the principal was sequestered to strike a terror into the rest the cause pretended was because they said as was alledged That none had power to command their consciences c. But when yet the Citizens remained constant they were all warned to appear in the Court and being come they were shut up in severall rooms and called out and examined one by one The first was the Town-clerk a weak and timorous man and therefore they had set a Ruffian in a corner with a sword in his hand whom the fearfull man seeing was so terrified that he promised to turn Catholick they so rejoyced at this beginning that they dismissed all the rest bad them consider of it and do as the Town-clerk had set them an example Amongst these there were two Burgomasters learned men who exhorted their fellow Citizens not to be affrighted with these imaginary terrors Afterwards one of them being called for was partly with threats partly with flatteries so wearied out that at last he tooke time to consider of it The other being called for an old man proposing the others example to him he spit in his face saying Traytor is this your constancy And so both he and the rest of the Citizens remained as unmoveable as a Rock The first Burgomaster considering what he had done and being ashamed of it came and gave them such a positive answer as that with the rest he was sent to prison One Bartholomew Lang told them to their faces that he had rather die by the sword then deny his faith whereupon with divers others he was thrust into a stinking dungeon where they kept them prisoners for seventeen weeks their houses in the meane time being possessed by the barbarous souldiers One of these godly persons died in prison And about that time Bethlem Gabor warring with the Emperour and Count Mansfield entring Silesia with the King of Denmarks Army these Tyrants were struck with such a terrour that presently Proclamations came forth that it was not his Majesties pleasure that any man should be forced to the faith by violent meanes by which Proclamation the inhabitans of Bolislavia had some respit But the year after when Gabor was retired and the King of Denmark beaten out of Silesia their tyranny againe revived and a new Proclamation came forth to inhibit the Protestants all Trade and Commerce and to command them to abjure their Heresies under pain of the severest and inevitable punishment Hereupon some were banished others voluntarily went into exile others were denied traffique the Friers taking away such commodities as they set to sale so that the Citizens which stayed were forced to take the mark of the Beast that they might buy and sell. In the City of Litomericia Anno 1517. there was an unanimous agreement amongst the Citizens that none should be made free amongst them but such as professed the reformed Religion and that whosoever should move for the nulling of this act should be disfranchised This continued inviolate for a hundred years till two Jesuites sued to be made free men of the City which being denied they entred their complaint in the Chancery whether some of
down before and behind powdred with red crosses and having burning tapers in their hands and Miters upon their heads painted with Devils were placed in their rankes Then was a Sermon preached after which an Oath was administred to the Princes and Nobles by the Inquisitors that they should favour the holy Inquisition and consent to the same and that they should employ their uttermost endeavour to see all them executed which should swerve from the Church of Rome and adhere to the Lutherans without respect of persons of what degree quality or condition soever and that they should compel their subjects to submit to the Church of Rome and to obey all its lawes c. Then was Doctor Cacalla called forth a man of excellent learning who had often preached before the Emperour whilst he was a Friar but being now accounted to be the Standard-bearer to the Lutherans he was called forth to hear his sentence which was that he should be degraded and presently burnt and his goods confiscated The like sentence of condemnation was pronounced upon his brother Francis a Preacher also who having spoken boldly against the Inquisition they so stopt his mouth that he could not speak a word Then Blanch their sister received the like sentence and so did most of the other only some few of them were condemned to some years imprisonment and to wear their Sambito's all their life time c. Then was the Coffin of the dead Lady with her picture it upon condemned likewise to be burnt This good woman whilst she lived was a worthy maintainer of the Gospel of great integrity of life and one that had divers assemblies in her house for the true preaching of the Word of God wherefore her house was also sentenced to be razed down and a Pillar to be set up in the place thereof with an inscription shewing the cause Then were all these that were sentenced to death together with the Coffin delivered to the secular Magistrate and so every one of them being set upon an Asse with their faces towards his taile they were guarded by many souldiers to the place of execution at which place there was for each of them a stake set up to which every of them were bound and so they were first strangled and then burnt to ashes only one of them who had been most vehement against them was burnt alive and his mouth stopped that he should not speak to the people All men marvelled at their constancy and quiet end At the same time also there were in prison at Validolid thirty seven others which were reserved for another Tragedy and Spectacle of the bloody Inquisition But seeing much mention is made of the Spanish Inquisition and of the cruelty exercised thereby against the poor servants of Jesus Christ I shall here set down the first Original and Progresse thereof as hereafter followeth CHAP. XXVII The Original Progresse and Practice of the Spanish Inquisition WHen King Ferdinand and Isabel had expelled the Turks out of the City and Territories of Granata and other places of Spaine who had lived there seven hundred seventy and eight years they set upon the Reformation of Religion and granted the conquered Moors liberty to stay to enjoy all their goods provided that they would turn Christians and whereas also there were very many Jews who had continued there since Titus conquered Jerusalem they gave them leave to stay upon the same condition but all such as refused were commanded presently to depart out of Spaine Yet afterwards finding that those Persons were only Christians in name and had submitted only to save their estates instead of providing godly Ministers with meeknesse to instruct them and to draw them from their errours by the advice of the Dominican Friers they erected the Inquisition wherein the poor wretches in stead of instructions were robbed of all their estates and either put to most cruel deaths or else suffered most intolerable torments by whipping c. and leading the rest of their lives in ignominy and poverty Neither was this only inflicted upon such as blasphemed Christ but for the observation of the least Jewish or Moorish ceremony or the smallest errour in the Christian Religion But this Inquisition at first erected against Jews and Moors was afterwards turned against the faithful servants of Jesus Christ and for the suppressing of the Gospel and the Profession of it and thus briefly you have the Original of it let us now see what their practice and exercise is As soone as information is given in against any one though but for a very small matter they do not presently cite the person to appear before them but they suborn one of their Officers called a Familiar to insinuate himself into his company who taking occasion to meet the paâ—ty accused uses thus to greet him Sir I was yesterday by accident at my Lords Inquisitors who said that they had occasion to speak with you about certain of their affairs and therefore they commanded me to summon you to appear before them to morrow at such an hour The party not daring to refuse goes to the place sends in word that he is come to attend them and so when he is called in they ask him what suit he hath to them and when he answers that he comes upon summons they enquire his name For say they we know not whether you be the same man or not but since you are come if you have any thing to inform this Court of either concerning your self or any other you may let us hear it for the discharge of your own conscience The Parties safest way is constantly to deny that he hath any thing to declare to them But if through simplicity he doth accuse himself or any other they rejoyce as having attained their desires and so presently commit him to prison If nothing be confessed they dismisse him pretending that for the present they know not whether he be the Party or no after his departure they let him alone for some space and then send for him again exhorting him that if he know or hath heard any thing that concerns their holy Court to disclose it to them For say they we know that you have had dealing with some persons suspected in Religion and therefore remember your self well if you confesse you shall fare the better and you shall but do therein as a good Christian ought to do If still he refuse they threaten and so dismisse him Yet they have alwayes one or other to keep him company to creep into his bosome and grope his conscience who under the colour of friendship shall visit him daily and have an eye to all his dealings observe what company he keepeth with whom he conferres c. So that without Gods special assistance it is not possible to escape their snares The Inquisitors also if they meet him speak courteously to him promise to befriend him c. and all to
that did bear the Host and then stepping forwards he plucked it out of his hands threw it to the ground saying aloud Ye wretched Idolaters do ye fall down to a morsel of bread This so provoked the People that they had almost torn him in pieces and yet they spared him and sent him to prison Complaint being made to Pope Clement the eighth he was so incensed that he appointed him to be burnt the same day but some of the Cardinals advised that he should rather be kept in prison and examined by exquisite torments to find out his abettors and setters on This accordingly was put in practice yet could they draw nothing from him but these words Such was the will of God Then was he adjudged to be led from the Capitol naked to his middle and to wear on his head the form of a Devil his breeches to be painted over with flames of fire and so to be carried all about the City and then to be burnt alive When he heard this sentence he lift up his eyes to heaven and implored the help of Almighty God As he passed through the streets he was mocked and derided of all the People but he continued his fervent Prayers to God At last he spake something against the filthy lives of the Cardinals which so enraged them that they caused him to be gagged which cruelty he patiently endured When he came before the Church where he cast down the idol the hangman cut off his right hand and set it on a pole in the Cart to which he was tied then did two Tormentors with flaming torches scorch and burn his flesh all the way as he went through the City of Rome all which he bore with admirable patience By that he came to the place where he was to be executed his body was all over scorched blistred and bloody having no part free but his head Then was he taken from the Cart and seeing the Post to which he should be tied he went of himself to it and kneeling down kissed the chains which should bind him to it The Friars urged him to worship an idol which they presented to him but he turning away his face shewed his detestation of it holding on his Christian course unto the end and when the flames of fire seized on him he bowed his head and quietly yielded up his soul to God The same year there was an old godly man that had long lain in the Inquisitors dungeons who was at last brought forth and condemned after which the Friars brought to him a Crucifix importuning him to kisse and adore it He seeing their impudence said unto them If you take not this idol out of my sight ye will constrain me to spit upon it The Friars hearing this sent him away immediately to the fire where with great courage and constancy he resigned up his spirit unto God CHAP. XXIX The Life and Martyrdom of William Gardiner in Portugal Anno Christi 1552. WIlliam Gardiner was born at Bristol and well educated and when he was grown up was placed with one Master Paget a Merchant by whom when he was twenty six years old he was sent into Portugal to Lisbone the regal City to be a Factor there he learned the countrey language and became a profitable servant both to his Master and others He was careful to keep close to God and to avoid the superstitions of that countrey and there being divers good men in that City he associated himself with them used good conference and often bewailed to them his own weaknesse as being neither sufficiently humbled for his sins nor yet enflamed with a love of godlinesse as he ought he had also good books which privately he made much use of Now whilst he was here abiding it so fell out that a great marriage was to be solemnized betwixt the King of Portugals sonne and the King of Spains daughter Great preparations were made for it and a great concourse there was of Persons of all Ranks that came to it and upon the wedding day they went to Church in great pomp and amongst multitudes of Spectators William Gardiner made one rather for the novelty of the businesse than for any desire that he had to see their Ceremonies and going to Church early in the morning he got a convenient place to hear and see in When all were come to Church a Cardinal began to say Masse The People standing with great silence and devotion The fight of these superstitions did wonderfully grieve the mind of William Gardiner not so much to see the folly of the common People as to see that the King himself and so many sage Nobles should be led away with such abominable idolatry wherewith he was so exceedingly moved in his spirit that he had much ado to refrain himself from doing something whereby he might manifest his dislike but the great throng that he was in hindred him that he could not come neere to the Altar When all was ended he returned home very sad seeking out solitary places where falling down prostrate before God with many tears he bewailed the neglect of his duty and studied how he might revoke that People from their impiety and superstition At length his mind was fully setlet not to defer the matter any longer whereupon he renounced the world exactly made up all his accounts both what he owed and what was owing to him to a farthing Then did he continue night and day in Prayer unto God and in continual meditation of the holy Scriptures so that he would scarce take any meat by day or sleep by night as one Pendigrace his bed-fellow testified The Sabbath following Masse was to be celebrated with the like solemnity Whereupon William Gardiner went early in the morning handsomely apparalled to Church setting himself neer to the Altar After a while the King and States came Gardiner with a New Testament in his hand stood near the Altar privately reading it all the while A Cardinal began the Masse consecrated the Host lifted it up an high shewed his God to the people they adored it yet Gardiner contained himself all this while Then the Cardinal took the Host tossed it to and fro about the Chalice made divers circles c. With that Gardiner stept to him took the Host out of his hand and trampled it under his feet and with his other hand overthrew the Chalice At first all that were present stood amazed then arose a great tumult and one drawing his dagger wounded Gardiner in the shoulder and as he was about to have slain him the King commanded him to forbear whereby his life was saved for the present the tumult being ceased the King demanded of him what Countryman he was He answered Most noble King I am not ashamed of my Countrey I am an Englishmam by birth and Religion and came hither as a Merchant and seeing so great idolatry committed in this
and abolished the Masse and other superstitious practices from amonst them which much enraged their Popish neighbours about them so that they complained to the Duke that they had not only fallen from the Pope but went about to cast off their obedience to him and to shake off his authority This so provoked the indignation of the Duke that he threatned utterly to destroy the town with fire and sword Wolfgang being informed hereof wrote to the Duke in most humble wise defending his Ministry and the doctrine which he taught and the whole cause of the Gospel he also excused the People as innocent and guiltlesse confuted the slanders of their malicious adversaries and professed their ready and willing subjection to that authority which God had placed over them But this Epistle prevailed nothing by reason of the virulent accusations of their enemies Whereupon to save the town from ruine he went of his own accord to the Duke to render an account of his doctrine thereby deriving all the Odium and danger upon himself As soon as he came thither he was apprehended and cast into a straight and stinking prison where he was most cruelly handled by the churlish Jailor In this plight he remained a whole year and yet would not shrink from his constancy though besides his hard usage he had a wife and five or six small children to care for Then was he called to justifie his faith which he did wittily and learnedly confuting all that did oppose him and though they called him Heretick Judas Divel c. yet he regarded it not but went on confirming his doctrine by the Scriptures But when his adversaries could not make their part good against him they took his Bible and burned it and proceeded to condemn him to be burned which sentence when he heard pronounced against him he sang the 122. Psalm When he came to the place of his Martyrdom they asked him if he would have his pain shortned he answered No for saith he God that hath been with me hitherto I trust will not now leave me when I have most need of him When faggots were heaped about him he sang the 51. Psalm and so continued singing till the flame and smoak took away his voice and life Shortly after the Commendator that sate as chief Judg upon him died suddenly Also his fellow Judge hearing the sudden noise of some guns that went off at the coming of the King of Denmak into the town was so overcome with fear that he suddenly fell down and died One John Huglin a Minister was burned at Mersperg for Religion Anno Christi 1526. At Munchen in Bavaria one George Carpenter was apprehended and cast into prison for his Religion and at last was brought forth before the Judges where he stoultly defended the truth refusing to recant Then came a Schoolmaster to him saying My friend dost thou not feare death wouldst thou not fain return to thy wife and children To whom he answered Were I at liberty whether should I go but to my dear wife and children Then said the Schoolmaster Recant your errours and you shall be set at liberty George answered My wife and my children are so dear to me that they cannot be bought from me with all the riches and possessions of the Duke of Bavaria but for the love of my Lord God I willingly forsake them all When he went to execution being again perswaded to recant he said I will confesse Christ this day before the whole world for he is my Saviour and in him do I believe When he was bound to the Ladder some Christian brethren desired him that as soon as he was cast into the fire he would give them some sign of the truth of his faith to whom he said This shall be my signe that so long as my tongue can wag I will not cease to call upon the name of Jesus He never changed his countenance but chearfully went to the fire and crying continually Jesus Jesus he joyfully yielded up his spirit unto God Also one Leonard Keyser a Bavarian being a Student at Wittenburg was sent for to come home his father lying upon his death-bed but so soon as he was come he was apprehended at the command of the Bishop and though the Duke of Saxony and his own friends solicited very earnestly to the Bishop for his life yet he proceeded to condemn him and delivered him over to the secular Magistrate As he was led to the place of execution he said O Lord Jesus remain with me sustain and help me and give me strength When the fire was ready to be kindled he cryed out with a loud voyce O Jesus I am thine have mercy upon me and save me and so he quietly slept in the Lord. The Martyrdome of a godly Minister in Hungary A Cruel Bishop in Hungary took a godly Minister for preaching the truth and caused Hares Geese and Hens to be tied round about his naked body and then set dogs upon him that cruelly rent and tore whatsoever they could catch so that he died thereof but God left not this cruelty unrevenged for shortly after the Bishop fell mad and raving died miserably CHAP. XXXI The Persecutions of the Church in the Low-Countries IN Holland there was a grave widow called Wendelmuta to whom it pleased God to reveal his truth and she became a zealous Professour of it for which she was apprehended and cast into prison and afterwards brought forth at the Sessions where many Monks perswaded her to recant but could not prevail Many also of her kindred and other women were suffered to perswade with her amongst which was a noble Matron who coming to her said My Wendelmuta Why dost thou not keep those things which thou believest secret in thy heart that thou mayest prolong thy life To whom she answered Truly you know not what you say for with the heart man beleeves to righteousnesse but with the tongue confession is made to salvation Then was she condemned to be burnt to ashes and her goods to be confiscated which sentence she took patiently and quietly At the place of her execution a Monk brought her a Crosse and bade her to kisse and worship her God to whom she said I worship no woodden God but only that God which is in heaven and so with a merry and joyful countenance she went to the stake desiring the Executioner to knock it in fast that it might not fall Being bound to it she ardently commended her soul into the hands of God when she was to be strangled she modestly closed her eyes and bowed down her head as one that went to sleep after which she was burned to ashes Anno 1529. There were two godly and learned men apprehended in Colen and cast into prison where they were kept a year and an half and the sweating sicknesse raging exceedingly at that time in Germany the
that were in prison to execution and procured a Commission from the King to certain Judges to hasten their trial But it fell out by Gods Providence that at this time the Protestant Princes of Germany were met at a Colloquy at Wormes to whom divers learned men resorted from Geneva requesting them to send their Ambassadors to the French King in the behalf of these poor Christians thus imprisoned by whose mediation and the Kings other business who was now in war with the King of Spain many of them were delivered yet some of them were executed before the coming of the Ambassodors Amongst them were Nicholas Clivet and one Granvelle both of them elders of the Congregation who stoutly defended the truth against the Sorbone Doctors and afterwards patiently resigned up their soules to God in the cruel flames Also a young Gentlewoman of about twenty three years old which came from Gascoigne to joyn her self to the Church at Paris was brought forth with the former and endured many conflicts with the Judges and Sorbonists who when she was urged to recant said That she had learned her faith from the Word of God and therefore therein she would live and die Her neighbours testified against her that there was much singing of Psalms in her house and that sometimes they had seen abundance of people come out of it and that at the death of her husband no Priest was called for c. But presently after two of these witnesses fell out and one slew the other with a knife The Cardinal of Sens much hastened this Gentlewomans death that he might have her estate When she was condemned she had her tongue cut as the two former also were served Going to execution she dressed her self like a Bride being that day to be married to her Spouse Jesus Christ she went to the fire without ever changing countenance and so quietly yielded up her spirit to God Divers others of this Congregation suffered in the like sort the rest at the mediation of the Prince Elector Palatine and the Protestant Switzers were released In other parts of France also sundry faithful Christians were imprisoned cruelly racked had their tongues cut out and finally were burned concerning whom because I find nothing extraordinary I have forborn to mention them Anno 1559. The King of France Henry the second coming into the the Parliament in Paris there was one Anne Du Bourg a noble Counsellour a man of singular understanding and knowledge bred and nursed up in the bosome of the Church of Christ who made a bold speech before him wherein he rendred thanks to Almighty God for moving the Kings heart to be present at the decision of so weighty a cause as that of Religion was humbly intreating him to consider well thereof being the cause of Christ himself which of good right ought to be maintained by Princes c. But the King instead of hearkening to his good advice was so far incensed against him that he caused him to be apprehended by the County of Montgomery Constable of France and to be carried to prison protesting to him in these words These eyes of mine shall see thee burnt and presently after he sent a Commission to the Judges to make his processe During his imprisonment there was a godly woman who was Prisoner also in a Chamber just over against his who at her window sometimes by words other sometimes by signes did much encourage him to persevere constantly in the truth whereby he was so comforted that when some of his friends perswaded him to recant he said God forbid for a woman hath taught me my lesson how I ought to carry my self in this business He was often examined about sundry points of Religion and being once asked whether he had conferred with any one about them he answered that he had conferred with his books especially with the holy Scriptures Having drawn up a confession of his Faith he intended to present it to the Parliament but some Advocates that belonged to that Court who pretended great love to him laboured to draw him to make another confession not contrary to the truth but in such ambiguous terms as might satisfie his Judges who would not stand strictly to examine it Du Bourg long resisted but at last was prevailed with to draw up such a confession supposing it sufficient that himself knew his own meaning So soon as this his confession came into the hands of his Judges great hopes were conceived of his enlargement but when the Christian Congregation had gotten a copy of it they were much grieved whereupon they ordered Master Augustine Marlorate a learned and godly Minister to write a large discourse concerning the duty of such as were called to bear witnesse to the truth of God before Magistrates wherein he set down Gods threatnings and judgements against such as either directy or indirecty deny the truth exhorting him more highly to prize the glory of God then his own liberty the truth of his Gospel then a short and transitory life shewing that he ought not now to give over having made so happy a beginning and progresse in his Christian course That the same of his constancy was spread not only through France but all Christendom over that he had been a means to confirm many weak ones and caused others to enquire after the means of salvation that all mens eyes were fixed on him to enquire by what means he gat out of prison so that if through fear and faint-heartedness he should enterprize ought that should contradict his first Profession he would give much scandal and offence and therefore he exhorted him to give glory to God to edifie his Church telling him that then he might assure himself that God would neither leave nor forsake him These Letters brought Du Bourg to a sight of his sin for which asking pardon of God without any further delay he wrote to the Judges retracting his last and protesting to stand to his first confession so that shortly after he was condemned In the mean time great feasts were preparing in the Court for joy of the marriages that should be of the Kings daughter and sister The day whereof being come the King imployed all the morning in examining the President and other Counsellors of the Parliament against Du Bourg and other his companions that were charged with the same doctrine intending to glut his eys in seeing their execution and then went to dinner After dinner the King being one of the Defendants at the Tilting which was near the prison where Du Bourg and his fellows lay entred the lists and behaved himself valiantly breaking many spears against Count Montgomery and others whereupon he was highly commended of the Spectators and all thinking that he had done enough desired him to give over with praise But he being puffed up with their commendations would needs run another course with Montgomery who kneeling
on his knees craved pardon refusing to run against him the King being eagerly set on commanded him upon his Allegiance to run and put the spear into his hands Montgomery thus enforced addressed himself to the course and the King and he meeting together brake their spears and the Kings Heâ—met falling down at the same instant one of the splinters of Montgomeries spear entred just into his right eye and so pierced his head that the brains were perished which wound despising all means of cure killed him within a eleven dayes whereby his hope of seeing Du Bourg burned was frustrated and thereupon Du Bourg his execution was deferred for six moneths longer at the end whereof he having constantly persevered in the confession of his faith was first degraded and the next day carried out to execution The Judges appointed six or seven hundred Horse and Foot well armed to guard him he was first hanged and then his body was burnt to ashes Presently after divers others were burnt in Paris and in many other places for their Religion many also were massacred as they passed along the streets for not doing reverence to the images which were then newly set up in the corner of every street such also as refused to contribute money to buy wax candles to burn before them it cost them their lives Notwithstanding which cruelties those of the Religion increased daily both in zeal and number in all parts of the Realm This much incensed the Duke de Guise in his Government of Dauphine whereupon he sent Mangiron a cruel man and great enemy to the Protestants with charge wholly to root them out This Mangiron first played his part very subtilly but at last he fell upon Valence lacking the houses of the Protestants as if he had taken the Town by assault and the more to strengthen him in his mischief he had many Troops of Horse and some Lanciers sent him Truchon also President of Grenoble cast sixty of the chiefest of the Protestants into prison at Valence whilst Mangiron pillaged those of Montelimart to whom he had promised and sworn to do no wrong Truchon caused two Ministers at Valence to be hehaded and three of the principal Citizens to be hanged the rest he punished with great fines whippings and banishments At Roan he hanged two men whipt one and afterwards sent him to the Gallies Anno 1559. In Provence a godly Gentleman was traiterously massacred for his profession of Religion Those of the Religion seeing themselves destitute of all humane aid resolved in all their dangers instead of seeking to man for help to pray to God to hear his Word to continue in true obedience unto it living in great love and concord one with another whereby abundance of Papists were so edified that by whole Troopes they left the Masse and made open profession of the Protestant Religion Anno 1561. There happened a great mutiny in the City of Paris raised by some Priests which rang a Bell while those of the Religion were hearing a Sermon from which proceeded wounds murthers and imprisonments foure of the Protestants were hanged to please the people and the rest paid a fine CHAP. XXXIV The Persecution in the time of the Civil Wars ANNO 1562. The Duke de Guise passing towards Paris and coming near to Vassy understanding that the Bell rang to a Sermon which was to be preached in a Barn in which place there were assembled about twelve hundred men women and children he presently went vvith all his Troops to the barn and entring into it they cryed out Death of God kill kill these Huguenots then did some of them shoot at those vvhich vvere in the Galleries others cut in pieces such as they met with Some had their heads cleft in twain others had their Armes and hands cut off so that the Walls and Galleries of the Barne were died with the blood of the slain The Duke with his sword drawn stood amongst them charging his men to kill without sparing especially the young men Some of these godly persons getting upon the roof hid themselves there but at length some of this bloody crew spying them shot at them with long pieces whereby many of them were slain falling down from the roof like Pigeons Then they fell to murthering of them all without distinction the poor Saints of God made no resistance only praying unto God and every one running to save himself as it pleased God to direct him many men and women were slain others being sore wounded escaped which died shortly after the poor mans box was taken and emptied The Minister in the beginning of the Massacre ceased not to preach still till one discharged his Peece against the Pulpit Then falling upon his knees he intreated the Lord to have mercy upon him and upon his poor persecuted flock and so coming down from the Pulpit attempted to escape but by the way he received divers wounds whereupon finding himself as he thought mortally hurt he cryed Lord into thy hand I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth yet before he was slain some took him and carried him before the Duke Who said to him who made thee so bold thus to seduce the People Sir said the Minister I am no seducer but have faithfully preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them Then did the Duke curse and swear saying Death of God doth the Gospel teach sedition and calling the Provost he said Take this Varlet and hang him upon a Gibbet Then was the Minister delivered to two Pages who basely abused him The popish women also threw dirt at him and could scarce be restrained from tearing him to pieces He was kept close Prisoner none being suffered to bring him necessaries and he was oft threatned to be sown up in a sack and drowned yet at last through Gods mercy he was released at the earnest request of the Prince of Portion The pulpit was broken down the slain stript stark naked and so the Duke departed with his bloody Troops sounding his trumpets as if he had obtained a great victory When he came to Paris he with the Constable and Marshal of Saint Andrews seized upon the King defaced and overthrew the places where they of the Religion used to assemble which so encouraged the Popish party that in every place they so abused those of the Religion as the most cruel Barbarians would have been ashamed to do the like This caused a Civil War wherein the Duke of Guise having taken Roan sacked it for three dayes space and executed many of the Citizens Not long after he went to Orleance boasting that within twenty four houres he would win the Town and neither spare man woman nor child in it and that he would so destroy the Town that the memory of it should be extinct for ever But mans purposes and God disposes for the same night there was
thousand villanies women and maids were ravished in the open market-place and streets some were beaten and hailed to Masse children were re-baptized others married again houses were pillaged and plundred Some that fled into the field died with hunger and cold Many men women and children were massacred and drowned infants were dashed against the walls and some others were hanged The Executioners running into divers places committed a world of mischief and divers Priests amongst them slew some of the Protestants with their own hands At Troys Bibles and Divinity-books were rent and torn in pieces They of the Religion were murthered and their houses sacked Eighteen men were hanged women were dragged through the streets and cast into the river and Infants were pulled from their Mothers breasts and re-baptized At Bar the Popish enemies entring the Town committed such cruelties as never were seen especially against women and little children Some of their breasts they cut open pulled out their hearts and gnawed them with their teeth rejoycing that they had tasted of an Huguenots heart A young Counsellor they hanged at the request of his own father with most horrible blasphemies they ravished women and girls Mounsieur de St. Esteen with his two brothers were cruelly stabbed by their own Cousin germane their wives were spoiled of all they had and led away prisoners The Pesants in some places committed infinine murthers and mischiefs against those of the Religion Monsieur de Vigney with his wife and servants they massacred in his own house which afterward they pillaged and spoiled In Crant the Pesants entring the Town murthered many one young child together with his father they burnt In Sens one hundred Protestants were cruelly murthered and their naked bodies thrown into the River one hundred houses were plundered the Church where they preached was defaced At Auxerre one Cosson was barbarously massacred a faire young Gentlewoman was stabbed and cast into the River many other outrages and robberies were committed At Nevers the Ministers were cast into prison whereof one perished miserably there Another miraculously escaped Children were re-baptized marriages reiterated and many houses plundred The Popish party entring Chastillon left no kind of cruelty un-exercised neither upon Women nor Children old nor young yea not sparing the women with childe that were ready to be delivered At Guyen they used all the cruelty that possibly could be invented and some Italians in hatred of the Religion cut an infant in two pieces and eat his liver At Montargis there lived the Lady Rene Dutchesse Dowager of Ferrara and daughter to King Lewis the twelfth The Duke of Guise sent thither one Malicorn a Knight of the Order who entring the Town murthered some of the Religion and committed other outrages Then he proceeded so far as to threaten the Lady to batter her Castle with Canon-shot if she would not deliver up those of the Religion which were with her To whom the Princesse bravely answered I charge you look what you enterprize for no man in the Realm can command me but the King only and if you proceed to your battery I will stand in the breach to try whether you dare kill the daughter of a King neither do I want means or power to be revenged on your boldnesse even to the infants of your rebellious race This stout answer made Malicorne to pull in his hornes and depart At Monlius Monsieur de Montare used all extremity against the Protestants and without any form of Law he hanged up two Artificers drave others out and plundred their houses and murthered many At Mans two hundred persons were put to death men women and children the houses of the Protestants were pillaged such as were fled were executed by their pictures their goods confiscated and their children made uncapable of their offices and estates yea of inheriting their Lands Some they beheaded Others they hung up Others they massacred and being half dead threw them into the River Above one hundred and twenty men women and children were murthered in the neighbouring Villages One Captain threw above fifty persons into his fishpond to feed his Pikes and above as many more were thrown into Ditches One godly man a Weaver had his throat cut and his moutastuffed with leaves of a New Testament which they found bouth him At Anger 's they murthered a godly Minister cast many into prison robbed the houses of others and slew such as they found therein In a Merchants house finding many books of the holy Scriptures they openly burnt them in the middle of the Town One fair guilt Bible they hung upon an Halberd and carried it in Procession saying Behold truth hanged the truth of the Huguenots the truth of all the Divels Behold the mighty God behold the everlasting God will speak and when they came to the Bridge they threw it into the River crying louder Behold the truth of all the Divels drowned Above eighty other persons were executed An aged Gentlewoman of the age of seventy years was beaten to death with their pistols then drawn through the dirty streets and thrown into the River terming her the mother of the Divel that preached to the Huguonets A Counsellors wife that lay bed-rid was murthered women and maids were ravished Two young maids were ravished before their Fathers face who was forced to look on the while All that were but suspected to be of the Religion were massacred and their houses pillaged A valiant Captain contrary to their faith given to him they broke upon a Crosse and so they left him hanging in great misery till he died Anno 1562. a Decree was made by the Parliament of Paris commanding all Catholicks presently to rise in Armes to sound the Bells in every place to destroy all those of the Religion without respect of quality sex or age to spoyle their Houses and utterly to root them out This encouraged all sorts of rascals to rise up in Armes forsaking their Vocations and to march against the Protestants In Ligueul they hanged up some put out the Ministers eyes and then burnt him in a small fire In other places they committed infinite villanies One young man they flayed alive The Village of Aze they burnt down and massacred thirty persons therein A godly Minister was drowned called John de Tour at seventy five years old At Tours one hundred and forty were murdered and cast into the River divers others were drowned sparing neither man woman nor child The President being suspected to favour them of the Religion was beaten with staves stript to his shirt hanged up by one foot his head in the water up to the breast and whilst he was yet living they ript up his belly pluck't out his guts and threw them into the River and sticking his heart upon the point of a Lance they carried it about saying It was the heart of
a most detestable manner The Minister was slain two Gentlemen and sixty others were hanged A widdow of great account redeemed the virginity of her only daughter with a great summe of mony but the villain that promised to defend her ravished her in her Mothers presence and then killed them both Yea after peace was proclaimed fourteen of the Religion coming thither were all slain In Nonnay Monsieur Chaumont having surprised the Town murthered many Protestants spitting out infinite and horrible blasphemies against God himself A Locksmith being commanded to despite and blaspheme God because he refused to do it was presently hewen in pieces for the same cause another was brained with the butt end of a musket A Naylor because he would not give himself to the Divel was drawn about his shop by the ears then being laid on his Anvile they beat his head in pieces with hammers yea all manner of cruelty was used that could be devised Three of the principal in the Town were thrown down from an high Tower many other were thrown down to make sport Some were burnt in their houses others thrown out at windows others stabbed in the streets women and maids were most shamefully handled a young woman that was found hid in an house with her husband was first ravished before her husbands face then forced to hold a Rapier wherewith one thrusting her arme made her kill her own husband In Foix many Protestants were cast into prison of whom some had their armes and legs cut off and then were beheaded Some burnt some hanged and others sent to the Gallies In Aurange they killed the Protestants without distinction of age sex or quality Some they stabbed others they threw upon the points of Halberds Some they hanged others they burnt in the Churches Of some they cut off their privy members sparing neither old nor bedrid nor the diseased in the Hospitals Women and maids were killed others hanged out at windows were harquebushed sucking children massacred at their mothers breasts girls of five or six years old ravished and spoiled the wounds of the dead were filled with leaves torne out of Bibles Those in the Castle yielding upon oath and promise of safety were all stabbed or thrown over the wals being one hundred and ninety of them In Grenoble they slew many of the Religion and others they cast from the Bridge into the River In Cisterno the men that were of the Religion being fled the popish party fell upon the women and children whereof they slew three or foure hundred Some women with child were rip 't up many were buried quick Some had their throats cut like sheep others were drawn through the streets and beaten to death with clubs In Beaune they were bereaved of the exercise of Religion their three Ministers imprisoned many were driven out of the Town to the number of eight hundred persons with women and children their houses were filled with souldiers who made spoile of all such as were found in their houses were vilely abused and some were slain In Mascon the bloody Persecutors having apprehended a godly and learned Minister called Bonnet Bor who was of a very unblameable life having served twenty years in the Ministry and in that time had been put to his ransome three times they carried him along the streets with a thousand scoffs and scorns smiting him with their fists thrusting him up and down and then made a Proclamation That whosoever would hear this holy man preach should come to the slaughter-house at which place they again buffeted and mocked him two hours together Hereupon he requested them that before his death they would permit him to pray to God Then one stepping to him cut off half his nose and one of his ears saying Now pray as long as thou wilt and then we will send thee to all the Divels and so this holy man kneeling down prayed with such fervency of spirit that drew sighs from some of the Murtherers and aftervvards directing his speech to him that had cut off his nose he said Friend I am now ready to suffer what thou hast further to inflict upon me But I intreat thee and thy companions to bethink you well of the outrages committed by you against this poor City for there is a God in heaven before whose Tribunal you must shortly give an account of these your cruelties A Captain passing by cryed send that wretched man to the Divel which one of them hearing took him by the hand pretending to have him to the river to wash off his blood but when he came thither he threw him into it battering him with stones till he was drowned CHAP. XXXV The History of the Massacre at Paris ANNO 1571. After the end of the third Civil War in France great means was used to draw the chief of the Protestants to Paris under pretence of a marriage between the Prince of Navar and the Lady Margaret sister to the King of France but in the mean time the Papists in Roan murthered divers Protestants as they came from a Sermon and grievously beat others this seemed much to displease the King and three or four were executed for the mutiny then were the Articles of marriage agreed upon The place for it Paris and the Admiral sent to by the King to be present at the wedding and to prevent all Jealousies those of the house of Guise were sent away whereat they seemed much discontented The Admiral was allowed to bring with him fifty Gentlemen armed for his greater security When he came to Paris he was honourably received and conducted to the King who calls him his Father protesting that in all his life he had not seen any day more agreeable to his mind than that wherein he assured himself to see the end of all troubles and the beginning of firm peace and quietness in his Realm the Queen-mother and the rest of the great Courtiers received him with greater favour than he expected Then did the King send him one hundred thousand Franks out of his treasury for the losses which he had received in the wars c. The Admiral had divers advertisements of the intended treachery yet God so blinded him at that time though a very prudent man that he gave little heed to them Yea such a general stupidity seized upon the Protestants that their minds were very wavering and few there were that shewed themselves zealously bent to Religion but all both great and small thinking deeply upon worldly matters built them goodly Castles in the aire Then was the Queen of Navar sent for by the King of France to Paris to prepare all things against the wedding but presently after her coming she fell sick of a Feavor made her will in a most Christian manner had much inward joy and comfort and at five dayes end died not without suspition of poison from certain perfumes
head that he received his blood into his own hands and when they had killed him they threw him into the river Two Ministers belonging to the King of Navar were also murthered and thrown into the river God miraculously preserving all the other Ministers in the City A Jeweller being in bed with his wife who at that time had the midwife with her being near the time of her delivery these bloody Villains came knocking at the door and in the Kings name demanded entrance the woman as ill was she was opened the door whereupon rushing in they stabbed her husband in his bed the Midwife seeing that they were bent to murther the woman also earnestly entreated them to tarry at least so long till the infant which would be the twentieth child that God had given her was born but notwithstanding her request they took the woman and thrust a dagger into her fundament up to the hilts the woman finding her self mortally wounded yet desirous to bring forth her fruit fled into a corn-loft whither these tygers persuing her gave her another stob into the belly and so cast her out of the window into the street and upon the fall the childe came forth of her body the head formost gaping and yauning in a pitiful manner One of these murtherers snatching up a little childe in his armes the poor babe began to play with his beard and to smile upon him but instead of being moved to compassion this villain whose heart was harder than the rocks wounded it with his dagger and cast it all gore blood into the river The Kings letters being come to Meaux upon the same Sabbath to Cosset the Kings Atturny there upon the sight of them he presently went about to his cutthroats warning them to come to him armed at seven a clock at night withal causing the gates of the City to be shut up The hour being come he with his Partizans went up and down cruelly murthering the innocent servants of Jesus Christ in which bloody employment they spent all that night The next day they pillaged their houses and took above two hundred Protestants more and shut them up in prison the next day towards evening Cosset with his companions went to the prison where having a Catalogue of the prisoners names Cosset called them out one by one and then they murthered them till they were aweary Then they went to supper that so they might breath and refresh themselves and then filling themselves with wine they went back to glut themselves with blood also They took with them butchers axes that they might dispatch them the more easily with which as they called them forth they knocked them down and murthered them Amongst those that were thus butchered was an Elder of the Reformed Church who praying for his enemies they laughed him to scorn and because he had a Buffe-coat on which they were loth to spoil they opened it before and stabbed him into the breast Another was an ancient man that had been sheriffe of the City him they were not content to kill out-right but first cut off his nose ears and privy members then they gave him several small thrusts into the body tossing him up and down till through losse of blood he fell down calling upon the name of the Lord and so with many wounds he was slain The Kings letters being come to Troys the Protestants were all shut up in prison Then did the Bailiffe send for the common Hangman to murther them but he refused saying That his office was only to execute such as were legally condemned and so went his way Then was the Keeper of the prison sent for who being sick he sent one Martin to know what the businesse was to whom the Bailiffe imparted the matter wishing him to murther all the Prisoners and that their blood might not run out into the street he bade him to make a great trench in the midst of the prison and to cause certain vessels to be set into it to receive the blood This Martin going back with abhorrency of the fact concealed it from the Jailor The next day the Bailiffe came to the prison and smiling asked the Jailor if it was done but he being ignorant of his meaning asked him what should be done Hereupon the Bailiffe was so enraged that he was ready to strike him with his dagger till he promised to perform his Will Then did the Jailor go to the Prisoners who were in the Court recreating themselves and shut them up one by one in their several Cels which made them suspect that they were destinated to slaughter and therefore they betook themselves to prayer The Jailor called his companions about him acquainted them what was given him in charge and caused them to swear to execute it but when they approached to the prisoners they were so surprized with feare that they stood gazing one upon another having not hearts to act so horrid a deed whereupon they returned to the Jailors Lodge and sent for eight quarts of the strongest wine with other things to intoxicate their brains then they took a Catalogue of all their prisoners and gave it to one Martin to call them forth in order The first prisoner being called for presented himself with a cheerful countenance calling upon the name of the Lord then opened his breast to them receiving the mortal stroke whereof he died Another being called forth one of them thrust at him several times with the point of his Halbard wounding but not killing him whereupon the prisoner took the point of the Halbard and set it against his heart saying with a stedfast voice Here souldier here right at the heart right at the heart and so finished his life The rest were all murthered in the like manner after which the murtherers made a great pit in the back-side of the prison into which they cast the bodies one upon another some of them yet breathing yea one of them raised up himself above his fellows whereupon they threw in earth and so smothered him But the Bailiffs order of making a trench being not observed the blood of the slain ran so abundantly out of the prison door that thence through the channel it ran into the river and turned it into the colour of blood which bred an horror in the very Papists themselves which saw it At Orleance the Kings Edict for observing the Treaty of Peace was solemnly published which made those of the Religion very secure whereupon above three hundred of them men women and children met together at a Sermon but the same night came the Kings letters for the massacring of them all Then did the Major and Sheriffs raise the companies in Armes to put it in execution One of these murtherers with some of his companions went to a Noble Counsellors house bidding themselves to supper The Counsellor ignorant of their intents made them good cheere but when supper was ended with
extirpate all the Protestant Churches because they had taken an Oath of fidelity to the French King neither was it groundless for the thing was really propounded in the Dukes Councel but it pleased God so to order affairs that the leading men amongst them did not at all approve of the business yea the Duke himself did extreamly mislike it and after he had retaken Mirebuc he did not a little revive the spirits of the Representatives of the Protestants of Lucerna who met with him at Villaro on purpose to assure his Highness of their fidelity and to beg the continuance of his grace and favour to whom in the presence of a great number of his Lords he returned this Answer Be but faithfull unto me and I will be sure to be a good Princâ— nay a Father unto 〈◊〉 and as to the liberty of your Conscience and the exercises of your Religion I shall be so far from innovating any thing against those liberties in which you have lived unto this present that if any offer to molest you have recourse to me and I shall effectually relieve and protect you These words being spoken in such a presence and in so obliging a manner were very advantagious to the poor peoples interest for some time after they served to counterballance the threats of their fiercest Enemies Yet were there some amongst the Popish party that thought it an unpardonable sinne to suffer them to live one year in peace and on the contrary an acceptable service to molest them either by secret stratagems or by open force and violence Such was the condition of this poor people from the year 1595. to the year 1602. at which time all the Masters of Families in the Valley of Lucerna professing the Protestant Religion were cited to appear before Count Charles of Lucerna the Governour Ponte the Arch Bishop Broglia and others and were by them commanded in the Dukes name either to go to Masse or to quit Lucerna and all their pretensions thereto without the least hopes of ever obtaining favour to return or in case of disobedience to prepare themselves for inevitable mischiefs and calamities which threats were pressed with so much violence that it caused many of the poor creatures to submit at least seemingly to the change of their Religion though many others of them were the deeplier rooted by these shakings From Lucerna the aforenamed Lords removed their seat to Bubiana where they found the Reformed so stiff in their Principles that they could not remove them an hairs bredth from the same wherefore they caused the chief of them to be summoned to appear at Turin thinking that the Dukes presence might prevaile more with them than all their threatning speeches The persons thus summoned were Master Valentine and Mr. Boules his brother with one Peter Morese and Samuel Falc who were brought one after another before hi Hisghnesse Mr. Valentine was the first whom the Duke perswaded to embrace the Roman Catholick Religion and to draw others to do the like promising him great rewards and preferments if he obeyed c. To this Mr. Valentine answered that next to the service of God he had no greater desire then to obey and please his Highness in whose service he would willingly adventure his person and estate when ever there should be occasion But as for his Religion which he knew to be true and confirmed by the Word of God he could not abandon it without disobeying God and wounding his own Conscience so as never to enjoy any comfort in his soul afterwards and therefore he humbly intreated his Highness to be satisfied with what he could do with a good conscience and to leave him to the liberty of his Religion which he valued above his life the Duke replyed that he also doubted not of the truth of that Religion which he professed and that such as embraced it should find how much they had gratified him in so doing yet would he not force the Conscience of any man and so he gave them leave to depart CHAP. XLII The Marquisate of Saluces described with its several troubles and Persecutions THe Marquisate of Saluces is on the South side of the Valleys of Predmont containing in it several Cities and considerable Valleys very fruitfull in all sorts of fruits It s most Northerly Valley is that of Po where the famous River Po hath its rise and source one onely Mountain separates this from the Valley of Lucerna on the North side In this Valley were those ancient Churches viz. Pravillem Biolets and Bietone who retained the purity of Christian Religion for several hundreds of years and lived in great union with their neighbouring Churches Anno Christi 1561. The Church of Dronier which was one of the most flourishing understanding that the publick exercise of the Reformed religion was permitted in France obtained Letters from the Kings Council to Sieur Lovis of Birague Governour of that Country in the Duke of Nevers absence whereby he was ordered to provide for the Petitioners a convenient place for the publick exercise of their Religion But not long after their Adversaries by their importunity prevailed so far that the said letters were revoked This occasioned the said Church to send Monsieur Francis Galatee their Minister into France with some others to recover if it were possible their former priviledges But this falling out in the time of their troubles in France all that they could obtaine was only bare promises In the mean time they received many hortatory and consolatory letters from the chief Ministers in the Churches of France and amongst others from those of Grenoble Lions c. to perswade them to patience and perseverance in that truth which they had embraced which accordingly they did notwithstanding all the malice and subtilty of their adversaries So that their Churches were continued and upheld convenient order being had for the preaching of the Word administration of the Sacraments exercise of their discipline c. only there wanted in some places liberty of having General Assemblies and publick Sermons For the better safety of their Ministers in the places that were most dangerous one Pastor had the charge of the faithful in several Cities and Communalties which rendred their residence and exercises less visible to their Adversaries Hereby the Gospel through Gods mercy made a very considerable progress at Dronier Verzo and some other places of moâ—e noâ—e The Church of Aceil in the Valley de Mairi was extraordinarily peopled and enjoyed more liberty than the others by reason of the scituation of the place but Satan the Enemy of Christs Church and Kingdom perceiving such a growth of the reformed Religion in those places ceased not to imploy all his power and policy to hinder the same and therein he made use of instruments for the effecting of it viz. first the Anticodemites whose ringleader was Baronius who lived at Valgrane and thereabouts accommodating himself to
the times For when the Church had rest and ease he wrote strange things and cryed out of the abuses in Popery But in times of persecution he usually played the Hypocrite and laboured to draw others to do the same by which means he had a multitude of followers and amongst them the Lord of Valgrane and Maximilian de Saluces who set his name to Baronius to add luster to his writings against the Ministers reproaching them for that they would not give way to any dissimulation in their Disciples whereby they exposed them to great extremities This Lord had some learning and knowledge of the truth but to avoid the bearing of the Cross he thought it convenient to dissemble and condemned those who any way gain said the Papists Yet Monsieur Gelido Minister of Aceil opposed them both very learnedly in several letters that he wrote unto them So did Monsieur Truchi Minister of Dronier together with other Pastors of the Neighbouring places demonstrating both by Scripture Testimonies and by the Example of the Primitive Church that they had done nothing but what they ought to do and what every faithful Christian was bound to and consequently that the opinion of Baronius and his followers was pernicious to the Church in times of persecution The other instruments that Satan made use of to the prejudice of the Church were the Roman Clergy with their passionate Proselites who would faine have done to these godly Christians as their brethren in iniquity had done to their neighbours in the Dukedom of Savoy viz. Banish imprison kill and confiscate the goods of the Protestants But through Gods mercy they were hindred by the Kings Edicts confirming to those his Subjects of Saluces a peaceable habitation without being molested for their Conscience and religion or questioned for any thing they did in their private houses provided they abstained from the publick exercise of it by which means their Ministers had opportunitie of assembling in small Companies baptizing marrying comforting the sick and instructing every one in particular which provoked their adversaries to bend themselves chiefly against the Ministers thinking that if they could find out any meanes to extirpate them they should easily prevaile upon the common people having none to animate and instruct them Accordingly they published an Edict of Octob. 19. 1567. in the name of the Duke of Nevers Governour for the King on this side the mountains injoyning all of the religion there inhabiting or abiding that were not the Kings natural Subjects to depart together with their families within the space of three dayes and never to return thither to inhabit pass or otherwise to abide without a special safe conduct upon pain of life and confiscation of their goods Now the greatest part of the Ministers not being natural subjects to the King by this Edict were to quit the Marquisate oâ— to obtain a safe conduct or lastly to incur the penalty A safe conduct they could not obtain and yet they thought themselves bound in Conscience not to abandon their people wherefore continuing with their Congregations two of them were apprehended and imprisoned viz. Monsieur Francis Truchi and Monsieur Francis Soulf where they were detained four years four moneths and odd dayes the poor people being not able by any means to obtain their deliverance though they continually sollicited de Berague their Governour and others that had undertaken the management of these affairs yet the Lord was so pleased to restrain the power of their Enemies that they could not take away their lives yea by degrees they obtained for them a more spacious and convenient prison than that whereunto they were at first confined To procure their full deliverance the Churches of the Marquisate sent their supplications to the King by the aforesaid Minister Galatâ—e and another who set out July 27. 1571. and went as far as Rochel to implore the intercession of the Queen of Navar as also to intreat the assistance of divers others in several places and the great Patrons of the reformed religion disputed their case before the King and in the end obtained Letters under the Kings own hand for their enlargement Octob. 14. 1571. which was accordingly effected but it was four moneths after before it could be done When Sieur Galatee returned he was overjoyed as well for the prosperous successe of his negotiations as for the great hopes of a profound peace founded upon the smooth promises of his Majâ—sty and upon the alliance which he had made by the marriage of his sister to the King of Navar who professed the reformed religion But this joy lasted but from the moneth of May 1572. to the beginning of Septemb. at which time there arived the lamentable news of the massacre of many noble persons and multitudes of others who were most inhumanely murthered in divers places of France to the great astonishment of all the faithful in those parts About the same time there arived letters from the King to the Governour Birague by which he was required to have an eye that at the arival of the news of what happened at Paris they of the Religion should make no combustion remitting the rest of his pleasure to those instructions which he had sent him by the bearer the contents whereof were that he should put to death all the chief of the Protestants within his jurisdiction whose names he should find in the Roll that should be presented to him Birague having received this command together with the Roll aforementioned was much troubled and immediately called his Council together whom he acquainted with the Kings Orders whereupon some were of opinion that they should be immediately executed But others seeing the King in his late Patents not many moneths before had enlarged the Ministers that were imprisoned and had ordered that those of the reformed Religion should not be any wayes molested for their Conscience sake as also upon consideration that nothing had occurred since that time worthy such a change they therefore thought it sufficient to secure the persons of such as were enrolled and to defer execution for a while and in the mean time to inform the King that they were persons of Honour faithful to his Majesty living peaceably with their neighbours and inoffensive in their lives adding that in case his Majesty was resolved that they should be put to death there was yet time enough to execute his pleasure therein This advice Birague approved of and accordingly apprehended some but others escaped and concealed themselves and in the mean time he dispatched a Messenger to the King to inform him as abovesaid and to know his further pleasure This Messenger met another at Lions where the King had sent to Birague to advertise him that in case his former Order was not already executed he should desist from it and only have a special care that those of the Religion should make no insurrection nor have any publick exercises But they
Pomerania in the agreement of Uscia and had delivered to them expressely and by name the chief Cities Posnania Kalisch Fraustat Meseritz and Lesna and the rest after some weak resistance had yielded themselves up to the Swedes yet while the King of Sweden was slowly and as it proved dangerously busied in Prusia they took counsel together for the resuming of their armes to fight for the liberty of their Countrey and the Catholick Religion as they call it to drive the Swedes out of the Countrey and to root out all the dissenters in grosse That this their purpose might make the quicker progresse and be set on the more strongly there were Jesuites and Monks sent out every way to intimate these things to the multitude and to encourage them to so glorious an undertaking compelling those that were slow with the thunderbolt of Excommunication and promising the relaxation of the pains of Purgatory and eternal rewards to them that were forward To this end King Casamire being recalled out of Silesia they commanded the Nobility to flock to him and to give the King of Sweden a meeting in his return out of Borussia The Commonalty also they stirred up against the Professors of the Gospel making themselves their furious leaders and such was their successe that in lower Poland a great number of families it is not yet known how many because the furious tumult still continues almost within the compasse of a moneth in February and March were miserably butchered men and women young and old being murthered without distinction all save such as could escape into the neighbouring parts of Hungary and so save their lives by flight But the Nobility of the greater Poland most of them having retired themselves into Silesia began there to gather themselves into small companies in the beginning of April and to break forth by whose coming the rest being encouraged made a great slaughter of the Swedes that were garrison'd in the small towns so that General Muller was fain to go forth with an army of Swedes to restrain them As for Lesna the hereditary Lord thereof the Treasurer of the Kingdome was gone into Borussia to salute the King of Sweden some way to take care for the safety of his Countrey But about the beginning of April he returned to Lesna without seeing him the King then being full of action and ranging up and down This businesse procured much more envy both to himself and the City as if he had plotted with the Swedes against his Countrey having never been true and faithful either to the Church or his Countrey therefore they breathed out flames and belched out threats so much the more fiercely both against him and his City However there were not wanting such as by private messages gave him hope of pardon if he would but withdraw himself from them as afterwards he did But the enemies prepared themselves to destroy that so populous a City by force if they could or else by flames furnishing themselves with many sorts of weapons for that purpose Of this doing although the inhabitants of Lesna had notice by several messengers yet a fatal security prevailed with them to think that there was no fear of such an enemy as was not furnished either with Infantry or Artilery for such a designe Upon Easter day a 〈◊〉 of Poles broke into some territories belonging to an eminent Professor of the Gospel neer Lesna for whom they made diligent search but finding that he was from home for he had retired himself to Lesna for Religion sake they plundered all his movable goods and took his â—ervant Martin Multz a Bohemian and hanging a great stone about his neck threw him into the river that ran by and so drowned him On the third Holy-day in Easter the report was very hot that the Swedes had lost all and that the King was slain upon which account when the Lord Treasurer did betake himself to Wratislavia in Silâ—sia the Citizens of Lesna were something afraid although the Commanders of the Swedes that were there in Garrison being three coâ—ours of horse did encourage them as did also the Administrator of the City and County of Lesna who requiring anew the oath of fidelity from the Citizens did promise them to stay with them and bid them be of good courage Being lifted up with this hope and drawn on with the promises of new Auxiliary forces to come very suddenly to them they promised themselves all manner of security so that no man took any care to get out of the way or to carry any thing of his goods to a safer place yet they kept strong guards night and day sometimes the third part of the Citizens and sometimes half being upon duty The Swedish horse also ever and anon made excursions to see what the enemy was a doing and whether they were neer But they never brought back any other news but that there were no footsteps or signes of any enemy appearing Yea even that very day in which the Poles came in the afternoon the Swedes returned with good booty but not a word of the enemy But about three dayes after upon Thursday April the 27. an army of the Polonian Nobility mixed with a rout of peasants shewed themselves unexpectedly out of the Woods and anon they drew forth into the open field and so set themselves within sight of the City about five or six furlongs from the Suburbs When this was perceived the alarm was given and the Citizens hasten to their armes and place themselves on the walls yet not knowing who they were and with what intent they came and wondring much why according to the custome they did not send forth a Trumpeter For that which they did bruit abroad afterwards and many perhaps beleeved that the Lesnians gave the occasion of hostility by killing their Trumpeter is just nothing Heaven and earth will bear witnesse that this was devised meerly to colour over the hainousness of the fact At length they begin their work with firing a Brick-kiln that stood not far from the Suburbs Then the Swedish Troopers about one hundred and fifty in number which were already mounted gone out of the City going a little farther encountered with the Enemy in light skirmishes for the space of two hours in which many of the Poles and some of the Swedes were slain But while the Swedes were earnest with the Citizens for some help as it were to defend the Suburbs from further burning some were drawn forth about seventy of the younger Citizens who mixed themselves rashly and confusedly among the Horse-men which when the Poles saw they feighned a flight returning towards the Wood But as soon as they perceived that they had drawn them far enough from the Walls they wheeled about some fetching a compass to come behind the Lesnians and so to get between them and home and the rest returning straight upon them fell on in a full body The Swedish Horse when they saw this turned their backs
interpreted it and divers others can bear witness to the truth hereof and the Lord of the place laid it up among his rarities What now should Sion do but cry out under the cruel oppression of the Enemy Render unto them a recompence O Lord according to the works of their hands Lament 3.64 And indeed God began to revenge his peoples wrongs the fourth day after when they furiously assaulted Costena a Town four miles from Lesna where they were often repulsed stoutly by the Swedish Garrison and having suffered a great slaughter about five hundred of them being wanting they were forced to retire in great confusion The like also they met withall at Kalissia and other places being slain and put to flight by the Swedes Herein it hapned unto them much after the same manner as it did to Tilly formerly when he had ruined Magdeburg the God of vengeance manifesting himself the avenger of his people And now they begin to acknowledge and upbraid one another with their folly the Nobles in that they have spoiled their mart and treasury and the Clergy in that it is hapned otherwise than they intended For their purpose was utterly to ruine the Hereticks as they term them with their nest but now that they see the nest spoiled and the birds saved it is much more matter of grief and vexation than of joy to them For here God performed what he promised of old to Baruch I will give thee in the midst of thy Countryes ruines thy life for a prey Jer. 45.5 So God gave to thousands of his worshippers who were snatched out of the midst of those ruines their life for a prey having set bounds to the fury of the Devil which he could not pass as he did of old when he gave Job into his hands as to all that he had but so that he should spare his life Blessed be the name of the Lord. Truly we have cause to say with David Psalm 124. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul then the proud waters had gone over our soul Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth Oh the wonderfull providence of our God! which then saves when he seems to have forsaken and then makes alive where he seems to have killed We had been undone if we had not been undone We had been undone in our lives those furies gathering together soon after in far greater troops if we had not been undone in our estates which were left to them for a prey by our flight which the fatherly providence of God fore-seeing greater evils procured by sending that fright among us Blessed be the Name of the Lord again and again We notwithstanding with other afflicted ones in what Nation soever whom that proudest Babylonian flood of waters seeks to swallow up will not cease to cry How long O Lord wilt thou be angry with thy people How long shall thy jealousie burn like fire O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us c. Psalm 79. And with the souls of those that were slain for the word of God that lie under the Altar of Christs merits for whose faith we are killed How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.9 10. The Delegates of these poor persecuted Protestant Churches coming over into England to move for a Contribution towards the relief of their distressed Brethren Published this ensuing Narrative The utmost Fury of Antichrist against the Protestants or Reformed Church of the Bohemian Confession in Poland set down in a brief but faithful Narrative and according to the truth of the matter THe Spouse of Jesus Christ she who in the Cradle was besprinkled with the blood of a Protomartyr hath alwayes brought forth into the world men like Abel or Stephen that so there might never be wanting to cry from the earth unto God and that the wounds of that Rose which lies among the Thorns of Persecution might not be concealed Every age and every year in each age and every moneth and day in each year hath produced new inundations of blood unto this day and yet the little flock of the Lord hath alwayes encreased under persecutions one while here another there shifting their seats and habitations While it pleased God by the means of Wicklef to kindle the light of the Gospel in Great Britain John Huss asserted the truth of Jesus Christ in the midst of thick darknesse of Popery in Bohemia many thousands being stirred up by God to receive it who despising all the cruelty of Tyrants received it with joy untill by Gods assistance they took rooting in the Kingdom and grew up into flourishing Churches In a short time after Antichrist breathing out his fury the Truth was banished out of Bohemia and the Confessors being driven out transplanted the Gospel into Poland where being favourably entertained by King Sigismond they in a short time encreased to so great a number that being little inferiour to the Papists they were able to boast of an equal authority and priviledges with them Hence it came to passe that the Kings at their Coronations were wont not only to promise but solemnly to swear protection to such as disagreed from the Roman Religion and therefore they proceeded not to open persecutions save only in those Cities where the Jesuits had seated themselves in power to wit Cracovia Posen Lublin Vilna c. where by their disciples and by stirring up the common people to fury the Churches of the Reformed Professors were a good while ago demolished and divers Ministers cruelly massacred Neverthelesse the malice of the Enemies being no whit allayed they were many ways afflicted first indirectly afterwards by pretences under colour of Law until those Churches being worn out by degrees and overthrown were not many years ago reduced to a very inconsiderable number especially when as in the Reign of the late King the Enemies being confident they might do any thing brought things to this passe at length that there were no more than twenty one Congregations remaining in the Greater Poland and those also ready to perish But among these twenty one remaining Churches the chief and as it were the Mother of them all was that of Lesna which was divided into three Congregations the Bohemian the Polonian and the German each of which had their own Pastors but the Communicants joyntly were about two thousand Therefore it was that this Church was in the first place exposed to the Enemies malice and of late designed
of sheding the blood of that notable Instrument of God Master George Wisheart who though he was consumed by the fire before men yet cries it for vengeance upon thee and we from God are sent to revenge it for here before my God I protest that neither the hatred of thy person the love of thy riches nor the feare of any hurt thou couldst have done me moveth me to strike thee but onely because thou hast been and still remainest an obstinate enemie against Jesus Christ and his holy Gospel and so he thrust him through the body who falling down spake never a word but I am a Priest I am a Priest Fie Fie all is gone The death of this Tyrant was grievous to the Queen Mother with whom he had two much familiarity as with many other women as also to the Romanists though the people of God were freed from their fears in a great measure thereby Anno 1550. There was one Adam Wallace a man that had no great learning but was zealous in Godlinesse and of an upright life him the Bishop of Saint Andrews caused to be apprehended and carried to Edenburgh where after a while he was brought to judgement before Duke Hamilton Huntly and divers others The Bishops and their instruments accused him First that he took upon him to preach to which he answered that he never judged himself worthy of so excellent a Vocation and therefore never took on him to preach yet he denyed not that in private places he used to read the Word and out of it to exhort such as were willing to hear him Knave quoth one What have you to do to meddle with the Scriptures I think said he it s every ones duty to labour to know the will of God and to get assurance of his salvation which is to be found in the Old and New Testament What then said another shall we leave to the Church-men to do To whom he answered their work is publickly to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to feed the flock which he hath redeemed with his own blood as all true Pastors are commanded to do c. The Bishops being angry hereat caused his charge further to be read as that he denyed Purgatory praying to Saints and for the dead c. To which he answered that he had oft read over the Bible and yet found no mention of Purgatory nor command to pray to the Saints or for the dead Therefore I believe said he they are but meer inventions of men devised for covetousnesse sake Then did they ask him what he thought of the Masse He answered I say as my Lord Jesus Christ said That which is greatly esteemed before men is abomination before God Then cryed they all out Heresie Heresie and so and so adjudged him to the fire which he patiently underwent the same day upon the Castle-hill Anno 1553. Henry Forrest was accused of Heresie but when they brought him to trial nothing could be proved against him whereupon they sent him to Friar Langius to be confessed The Friar amongst other questions asked him what he thought of Patrick Hamilton who had been formerly burned for Religion He answered that he was a good man and that his Articles were to be maintained This wicked Friar discovered his Confession which was taken as a sufficient proof against the poor man who thereupon was condemned to be burnt As he went to the place of execution he complained of the Friar who had betrayed him saying Let no man trust the false Friars after me They are despisers of God and deceivers of men and so in the flames he resigned up his spirit unto God Anno 1558. Andrew Oliphant accused one Walter Mill formerly a Priest who being at Prayer Oliphant said to him Rise up Sir VValter But when he had ended his prayers he said My name is VValter I have been too long one of the Popes Knights Then said Oliphant Thou keepest my Lords too long here therefore make an end He answered I must obey God rather than men When he was brought forth to judgement they asked him concerning Priests marriage he answered It is Gods Ordinance that they which cannot abstain should marry But you abhor it vowing chastity which you cannot keep but take other mens wives and daughters Then they asked him if there were not seven Sacraments he answered Give me two and take you the rest after other questions they asked him if he would recant He answered I am corn and not chaffe I will not recant the truth Then they commanded him to go to the stake but he said By the law of God I am forbidden to lay hands on my own self therefore do you put me into the fire and you shall see my resolution Having made his Prayer to God he said to the people Although I have been a great sinner yet it is not for that but for Gods truth contained in his VVord of the Old and New Testament that I now suffer and God out of his abundant mercy doth honour me so farre as to make me amongst other of his servants seale his truth with my blood Dear friends as you would escape eternal death be no more seduced with lyes of Archbishop Bishops Abbots Priors c. but only trust in God and so he quietly slept in the Lord and was the last man that died for Religion in Scotland Collected out of the History of the Reformation in Scotland CHAP. XL. The Persecution of the Church in Ireland Anno Christi 1642. THough the barbarous cruelty used by the Irish against the English go usually under the name of Rebellion yet I rather look upon it as and chuse to call it a persecution because their cruelties were exercised upon Protestants only so farre as ever I could hear neither were the English Papists murthered yea they joyned with the Irish in murthering of their brethren Besides the Jesuites Priests and Friars were the chief instigators to these murthers stirring up continually all sorts both of the Gentry and Communalty to shew the utmost of their zeal therein and when their designe was so surely laid that they thought it impossible to be prevented they did in their publick devotions recommend by their Prayers the good successe of a great designe tending much to the advancement of the Catholick cause and that they might stir up the people with the greater animosity and cruelty to put it in execution they everywhere declaimed loudly against the Protestants saying That they were Hereticks not to be suffered any longer to live amongst them that it was no more sin to kill one of them than to kill a dog and that it was a mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them They also with much acrimony represented the severe courses taken by the Parliament of England to suppresse the Romish Religion and utterly to extirpate the Professors of it They told
them that in England they had caused the Queens Priests to be hanged before her face and that they held herself under a most severe discipline and that the like cruel Laws should be made against Popery in Ireland c. When their plots were ripe for execution we finde their first proceedings against the English very various some of the Irish only stripping and expelling them others murthering man woman and childe without mercy yet all resolving universally to root out all the Protestants out of Ireland yea so deeply malicious were they against the English Protestants that they would not endure the very sound of that language but would have all such punished as spake English and the names of all English places they would have changed into old Irish. In many places they killed the English Cowes and Sheep meerly because they were English sometimes they cut off their legs or cut out a piece of their buttock and so left them to live in pain yea in some places what they could not devoure they killed and left in great multitudes stinking in the fields The Priests gave the Sacrament unto divers of the Irish upon condition that they should neither spare man woman nor childe of the Protestants saying that it did them a great deale of good to wash their hands in their blood One Halligan a Priest read an excommunication against all those that from thenceforth should relieve or harbour any English Scotch or VVelch man or give them almes at their doores whereby many were famished to death The Friars with tears exhorted them not to spare any of the English they boasted that when they had destroyed them in Ireland they would go over into England and not leave the memorial of an English man under heaven They openly professed that they held it as lawful to kill a Protestant as to kill a sheep or a dog One of their Priests said that it was no more pity or conscience to take their lives or estates from them than to take a bone out of a dogs mouth The day before this Massacre was to begin the Priests gave the people a dismisse at Masse with free liberty to go out and take possession of all their lands which they pretended to be unjustly detained from them by the English As also to strip rob and despoil them of all their goods and cattel the Protestants being as they told them worse than Dogs for they were Divels and served the Divel and therefore the killing of such was a meritorious act and a rare preservative against the pains of Purgatory for that the bodies of such of them as died in this quarrel should not be cold before their soules should ascend up into heaven so that they should not need to feare the paines of Purgatory and this caused some of these Murtherous Cains to boast after they had slain many of the English that they knew that if they should dye presently they should go strait to Heaven The chief Gentlemen of the Irish when this persecution first began perswaded many of their Protestant neighbours that if they would bring their goods and cattel to them they would secure them from the rage of the common people and hereby they got abundance peaceably into their hands whereof they cheated the Protestants refusing to restore them again yet so confident were the Protestants at first of their good dealing in regard of former familiarity that they gave them Inventories of all they had nay digged up such of their best things as they had hidden in the ground and deposited them in their custody They also gat much into their hands by fair promises and deep oaths and engagements that if they would deliver them their goods they would suffer them with their wives and children quietly to depart the Country yet having got what they could they afterwards murthered them Having thus seised upon all their goods and cattel ransack't their houses and gotten their persons under their power the next work was to strip man woman and childe stark-naked and so to turn them out of doors not suffering them so much as to shelter themselves under bushes or in the woods strictly prohibiting all the Irish under great penalties not to give them any relief as they passed in the high wayes and their great designe herein was that they on whom they would not lay their hands and cruelly murther in cold blood might miserably perish through cold nakednesse and want and therefore if any of them gat any old rags to cover their nakednesse with they stripped them again and again sometimes twice or thrice over the Irish women being very active herein yea they taught their very children to do the like yea they would not leave to the women so much as a smock or an hairlace So that many of them being starved fell down dead in the high wayes Others that gat to any English town by reason of famine and cold suffered by the way died so soon as they came thither In the town of Colerain of these miserable people that fled thither for succour many thousands died in two dayes so that the living being not able to bury them laid the Carkasses of those dead persons in great ranks in waste and wide holes piling them so close and thick as if they had packed up herings together One Magdalen Redman deposed that she and divers others Protestants amongst whom were twenty two widows were first robbed and then stripped stark-naked and when they had in an house covered themselves with straw the bloody Papists threw burning straw in amongst them on purpose to burn them Then did they drive them so naked in to the wilde woods in frost and snow so that the snow covered their skins where a long time it lay unmelted and some of their Children died in their armes with the extremity of the cold and whereas some of these poor soules went towards the Burre for shelter the cruel Irish turned them back again saying they should go to Dublin and when they went towards Dublin they beat them back saying they should go to the Burre and so tossed them to and fro that some of them died those which through many difficulties gat to the Burre many of them died there and those that survived lived miserably by reason of their many wants Yet though these bloody Villaines exercised such inhumane cruelties towards the poor Protestants they would commonly boast that these were but the beginnings of their sorrows and indeed they made it good for having disarmed the English robbed them of their goods and cattel stript them of their cloathes and having their persons in their power they furiously broke out into all manner of abominable cruelties horrid massacres and execrable murthers so that it would make any Christians eare to tingle and his heart to ake to hear the mention of them For there were multitudes murthered in cold blood some whilst they were at plough others as they sate
Villa Secca comprehends three little Communalties viz. Maneglia Machel and Salsa All are in a mountainous place but exceeding fruitful in Corne Pasture c. except only in the highest parts thereof The Church of Prali is situated in the uppermost part of the Valley of Saint Martino and contains two Communalties viz. Prali and Rodoret bounded on the South with the Alps and the Valley of Lucerna On the West by the Valley Queyras in Dauphine and on the North by the Valley of Pragela Here is nothing but Hay and Grasse Generally in all these Churches except on the tops of the mountains there are plenty of Fruits especially of Chestnuts and in some places there are vast spaces of Ground yielding almost nothing else as in the little Hills of Bubiana and all along the Valley of Lucerna and in the South parts of the Valley of Perosa So that the Inhabitants in those places dry and clense great quantities of them part whereof they keep for their own use and the rest they sell or exchange for Corne and that quantity for quantity with the Inhabitants of the Plaine it being a great part of their food in Piemont They also dry these Nuts in an Oven or on a Kilne and make thereof an excellent sort of Bisquet which they first string as they do their Beades and so hang them up in a moist place the better to preserve them These they frequently make use of instead of Maqueroons and such sweetmeats Of the late Persecution of the Church of Christ in Poland Anno Christi 1656. THe All-wise and holy God whose wayes of Providence are alwayes righteous though often secret and unsearchable hath made it the constant lot and portion of his people in this world to follow his Sonne in bearing his Crosse and suffering persecutions For they that are borne after the flesh do alwayes persecute them that are borne after the spirit But scarcely have any sort of the Churches enemies more clearly followed the pernicious way of Caine herein than hath that Antichristian faction of Rome that Mother of Harlots and Abominations whose garments are died red with the blood of Saints which they have alwayes cruelly shed and made themselves drunk with And amongst those chosen and faithful witnesses the Lord seemeth very signally to have raised up those Christians who though dispersed in divers Countreys have been commonly known by the name of Waldenses who for some Centuries of years have lived amongst their enemies as Lambs amongst Wolves to bear their testimonies to the Truths of Christ against the Apostasies and Blasphemies of Rome for which they have been killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter One part of this little flock and remnant which the Lord hath left reserved are scattered partly in the Valleys of Piemont of whose Tragical sufferings you have had a faithful account in the precedent Chapter the other part of this poor but precious remnant have been dispersed in the Kingdomes of Bohemia and Poland whose sufferings together with the Lords signal Providences about them are now to be spoken of as they have been related to the Lord Protector O.C. and the State here by two godly persons delegated by those persecuted Churches which are now the sad Monuments of their enemies rage and of the Lords sparing mercy These sometime flourishing Churches were by degrees worne out by the constant underminings and open outrages of the Antichristian party being first driven out of Bohemia into Poland and then after their taking root and spreading in Poland into a numerous company they were forced out of their chiefest Cities there and at last by the Jesuited and enraged Popish Army were persecuted in their few hiding places with fire and sword Their Ministers were tortured to death by most exquisite and unheard of Barbarisme by cutting out of the tongues of some pulling out the eyes and cruelly mangling the bodies of others Yet did not their rage and brutish cruelty reach only to the Ministers but to private persons also yea even to women and to young children whose heads they cut off and laid them at their dead mothers breasts Nay their rage brake out not only against the living not one of whom they spared that fell into their hands but also against the dead plucking the bodies of Honorable persons and others out of their graves tearing them to pieces and exposing them to publick scorne But the chiefest eye-sore and object of their fury was the City of Lesna which after plundering and murthering of all whom they found therein they burned to ashes and laid it in the rubbish Only the Lord in mercy having alarm'd the City by the report of their enemies approach the greatest part of the Inhabitants being three famous Churches saved themselves by flight and are now wandring up and down in Silesia the Marquisate of Brandenburg Lusatia and Hungary poor destitute afflicted and naked the relation whereof you have in this ensuing Narrative written in Latin by some of themselves and called Lesnae Excidium The History of the destruction of Lesna faithfully related LEsna a City of great Poland almost thirty years ago began to be famous both far and near but now being suddenly and utterly razed hath nothing left beside the name and fame thereof For the fuller discovery of this businesse from the beginning we must briefly relate the Original and progresse of this town When above seven hundred years ago Mieczislaus then Duke of Poland took to wife the daughter of Boleslaus Duke of Bohemia and together with her received the Christian Faith it happened that among those of the Bohemian Nobility that accompanied him there was one Peter de Bernstein whom because he was a person endowed with many vertues Mieczislaus was willing to detain him in Poland and to that end bestowed upon him rich possessions the chief whereof was a Village called Lezsyna i. e. a grove of hasle-trees upon the very confines of the lower Silesia being situate twelve miles from Wratislavia five from Glogaw and ten from Posnania From this place therefore of his residence Peter de Bernstein taking the rise of his denomination according to the custome of the Nation he and all his posterity were called Lezscynii and were afterwards admitted to all sorts of Dignities in the Realm so that of this family there were never wanting some or other that were Captains Governours of Castles Palatines Marshals Chancellours Bishops or Archbishops even to this day and besides this for their noble management of affairs in several Embassyes to the Roman Emperour they were adorned with the title of Earles of the Empire which they still enjoy But Leszcyna it self begun by little and little to change its name and by contraction was called Lessna and their neighbour Germans called it Lissa This Village something above one hundred of years ago had the dignity and title of a market town granted to it by the famous King Sigismund and tradesmen were invited
hither out of the neighbouring Silesia and so the use of the German tongue was brought in together with them As for Religion it was reformed in Lesna about the same time by the most illustrious Count Andrew Palatine of Bernstien according to the rites of the Bohemian Confession which it hath retained to this day and became as it were the Metropolis of the Churches of that Confession throughout all the greater Poland And when after the year 1620. a very sharp persecution was raised against the Professors of the Gospel in Bohemia and not long after the Ministers and Nobility were banished they were fain to seek refuge in Poland whom that most pious Noble man the Lord Raphael de Lesna Palatine of Belse received under his protection appointing Lesna Wlodava Baranovia for their places of refuge But for as much as the greater part did seat themselves at Lesna because of the neernesse thereof and not long after a far greater company flocked thither out of Silesia for there also the butchery of souls grew wonderful fierce in the years 1628. and 1629. it came to passe that Lesna by the addition of many streets grew into a large City having three market places four Churches a large School above twenty streets one thousand six hundred houses two thousand freemen of the City and abundance of other company There was built also a very fair Church for the service of God according to the rites of the Augustane Confession which had over it three Pastors learned men and a School for the mother tongue with some Schoolmasters beside the Free-schoole which had a learned man of the forementioned Confession appointed over it by the title of Prorector The Citizens also having ordered themselves according to the best policy they could there were found out handsome wayes for a publick revenue that made no noise and were little felt and without any mans dammage or burden so that they were able for some years to maintaine workmen for the compassing of the City about with a Bulwark and Trench and for the building of gates with walls and faire turrets And lastly there was built a very fair Court-house in the middle of the market-place of the old City there was scarce the like in all great Poland except at Posnania In a word Civility trading merchandize for all things were here bought and sold and Religion did so flourish here that this City did not come behinde any City in Poland for its admirable pleasantnesse All this was matter of joy not only to those pious Christians that were scattered out of several places for the Gospels sake and here gathered together under the protection of God but to others also that came hither from all parts as strangers but it galled the enemies of the Gospel extremely so that it made them leave no designe unassayed for the overthrow of this City of refuge for the godly At the first Annis 1628 1629. they made use of several accusations and slanders to King Sigismund the third suggesting to him that it was a confluence of all sorts of men that were enemies and traytors to his Majesty that it was good to nip them in the bud c. But through the prudence of that great Senator the Lord of the place whose wisdome went beyond their envy and who knew well enough how to counter-work all malicious projects of that kinde all those their battering-rams were at that time used in vain But Anno 1653. after that the Swedes were broken by the Emperours army in Germany and were driven out of Silesia new plots were hatched at Glogaw to send out one or two of the Emperours regiments who should suddenly invade Lesna sack the town and put the inhabitants to the sword or at least scatter them But it pleased God so to order it that this plot was discovered by some of themselves two days before the appointed time and so vanished into smoak though the smoak of their devices did not yet cease to rise For after the death of the most illustrious Prince Palatine of Belse when his estate was divided amongst his sons and heirs and the County of Lesna fell to the illustrious Lord Boguslaus his third son then newly returned from travelling the Plotters were not wanting so to lie in wait to insnare this candidate of great wisdome and vertue that after they had wearied him for some years with the promises of honours unto which there was no door of entrance but by entertaining the Roman-Catholick Religion at last they enticed him to professe Popery But however they heaped many honours upon him procuring him some Captainships afterwards the Generalship of great Poland and lastly the Arch-treasurership of the Realme yet could they not procure his hatred of the Professors of the Gospel and the dissipation of his subjects which was the thing they hoped for but he still preserved intire to his Lesna those priviledges both Civil and Religious which his father of blessed memory had promised offered or confirmed to them They attempted therefore this other device The Bishop of Posnania ventured to redemand the old Parish-Church because it was of ancient foundation and pretended that it might not any longer be left to the use of Hereticks The Lord Treasurer answered that his Grandfather Andrew Palatine of Brenstien had built another Church for the Catholicks whose number was very small in the town scarce ever above three or four Citizens to exercise their Religion in and endowed it with revenues to that purpose that the greater number of Citizens might enjoy the greater Church But all was in vain though he doubled the maintenance of the Roman Parish-priest for Anno 1652. they brought the Lord Count before the tribunal of the Realme where the cause must needs go against him the very same persons being accusers witnesses and Judges yet he obtained that this Church should not suddenly be taken away from his Subjects the inhabitants of old Lesna until they had built themselves a new one This building they presently set about with the help of forrein Churches according as they were in a capacity to help things being every where in confusion But when the adversaries saw that it went on apace and that this was like to be bigger than the other for so great now was the multitude of Citizens of this Confession that the old Church was not able to contain them they began again to mutter and threaten that this might not be endured that the Hereticks should have a bigger Church than the Catholicks that they did but build this also for the Catholicks c. At length the irruption of the Swedes into Poland Anno 1655. gave them the long wished for occasion of oppressing and rooting out not only the Lesnians but also all the Professors of the Gospel or as they were wont to be called the Dissenters from the Roman Religion throughout Poland For although the Papists themselves had transacted with the Swedes at their coming out of