that usually in the head of these infernal Dragoons there Marched a Squadron of Bishops and Priests to see that the Souldiers executed the full Vengeance they desired upon the Protestants who upon all occasions did provoke and stir up the Souldiers to cruelty and barbarity if they found they had the least compassion and pity toward these poor Innocents If at any time the Master of an house had signed what they required in hope to get rid of the Dragoons yet he was not freed from them for all this if his Wife Children or the meanest of his Servants did not do the same and when any of them fled they continued to torment the Master or Father till he forced them to come back which being oft impossible for him to do the change of his Religion did not at all avail him When the poor Souls fancied they should be at rest by signing a form of abjuration of the Protestant Religion yet a while after these cruel men made them sign another which threw many into the very depth of despair Nay after all these barbarous Usages and Compulsions they forced these wretched people to acknowledge That they imbraced the Roman Religion of their own accord without being induced thereto by any violent means Though all these Frauds violences and cruelties and infinite numbers more have been acted toward the Protestants in the face of the Sun and before Millions of eye-witnesses and are notorious to all Europe Yet this is another method that their Persecutors have taken to shelter themselves from publick condemnation by denying the Fact and perswading the World That force and violence have had no share in the Conversions but that they were Soft Calm and Voluntary and that if there were any Dragoons concerned therein it was because the Protestants themselves desired them that they might have a handsom pretence to change their Religion Was there ever so much impudence seen or heard of what will they not deny who are arrived to such a height of boldness The revoking the Edict of Nants which was the Mâ—gna Charta of the Protestants formerly resolved on was put in Execution Oct. 8. 1685. Whereby all their Ministers were banished out of France being commanded to depart the Kingdom in fifteen days and supressing all Protestant Books whatsoever 'T is said the Chancellor of France shewed extraordinnry joy at the sealing this Edict but it lasted not long this being the last thing he did for as soon as he came home from Fountain Bleau he fell sick and died in a few days By this Edict the King declares That he had resolved upon this design ever since his coming to the Crown but had been hindred by his Wars against the Enemies of the State but being now at peace with all the Princes of Europe he wholly gave himself to unite all his Subjects in the Catholick Religion commanding that all the Protestant Churches should be pluckt down and demolished That those who will turn Papists shall be rewarded and prefer'd That no Children shall be educated in the Protestant Religion That those who are fled shall have four months to return and recant if not their Goods and Estates to be confiscate That no Protestant presume to depart the Kingdom under the penalty of the men being sent to the Gallies and the women to forfeit their Bodies and Goods The very day this was published in Paris they began to demolish the Church of Charenton and the chief Minister was commanded to leave the City in twenty four hours the rest in fifteen days but were neither permitted to dispose of their Estates nor to carry any of their effects with them nor to take along with them Father Mother Brother Sister or any of their kindred though many were infirm decayed poor and could not subsist but by their means yea they denied them their own Children if above seven years old nay some they took from them under that age yea those that hanged on their Mothers breasts refusing to allow Nurses for their new born Infants to whom the Mothers could not give suck Soon after the former barbarities or greater if possible were revived of which I shall give some few instances amongst many others and so conclude this dismal scene of sorrow The Dragoons that quartered with Monsieur Solignac at Montauban made his dining room a Stable for their Horses though the furniture thereof was valued at a thousand Livers and forced him to turn the Spit till his arm was almost burnt by their continual throwing Wood on the fire They beat an old man almost to death to force him to go to Mass whilst the constant Martyr to his last breath cryed He would never do it and only requested they would dispatch and make an end of him Monsieur de Garrison one of the chief men of the City and an intimate Friend of the Intendant went and cast himself at his feet imploring his protection and conjuring him to rid him of the Troopers that he might have no force put upon his Conscience adding That in recompence of the favour he begged of him he would give him all he had which was to the value of about a Million of Livres but all his intreaties were so far from prevailing that he ordered him for terror to be worse used than the rest by dragging him along the Streets Some of the lustiest Souldiers took their Land-lords or others in the house and walking them up and down continually tickled and tossed them about like a ball from each other without giving them the least intermission and keeping them in that condition three days together without Meat Drink or Sleep When they were so faint as not able to stand any longer on their Legs they laid them on a bed continuing to tickle and torment them as before and when a little recovered forced them to rise again lashing them with Rods to prevent their sleeping When one party of these cursed Tormentors were tyred and wearied out their Companions relieved them by which infernal invention many became distracted and mopish and so continue Isaâ—â— Faim a Citizen of Negreplisse was hung up by the armpits and tortured a whole night by pinching and tearing off his Flesh with Pincers though thereby they were not in the least able to shake his constancy The Wife of one Roussion a Joiner being violently drag'd by the Souldiers along the Streets to force her to hear Mass died of this cruel and inhumane treatment as soon as she reached the Church Porch They made a fire about a Boy of ten years of age who continually with hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven cryed My God help me And when they saw the Lad resolved to die rather than renounce his Religion they snatcht him from the fire when he was at the very point of being burnt In divers places they have indeavoured to tire out the Patience of the poor Protestants and overcome their constancy by applying red hot Irons to the hands and feet
Executed for the Mutiny then were the Articles of Marriage agreed upon at Paris the Admiral Coligni was invited to the Wedding and those that belong'd to the Family of the Duke of Guise were forbid the Court which was very acceptable to the Protestants as judging it an assured pledg of the Kings fidelity since he declared much satisfaction in the Marriage saying That it was not so much for the Wedding as that it was a strong knot of Peace and would be for the good of the whole Nation The Admiral for his security was allowed to bring with him fifty Gentlemen armed and being come to Paris he was honourably received of the King who called him Father and protested that in his whole life he had not been better pleased as judging this day would end all his troubles and settle firm peace and quietness in his Kingdom Notwithstanding this the Admiral had several Intimations of some Treachery intended against him but though very wise yet he took little notice of it The Queen Mother likewise entertained him with great favour and the King sent him One Hundred Thousand Franks out of his Treasury for the loss which he had received in the Wars And the King to delude the People spake publickly That he did not give his Sister in Marriage to the King of Navarr only but as it were to the whole Church of the Protestants to joyn with them in an indissoluble union and as a tye to their peace and safety The Seventeenth of August the King of Navarr and the Lady Margaret were married with great Solemnity before the great Church of Paris on a Scaffold in the sight of all the People by the Cardinal of Bourbon the King of Navarrs Unkle and the Wedding was solemniz'd with Banquets Dancing and Masques with a strange mixture of Protestants and Papists together after which the Bride was led into the Church to hear Mass with great solemnity but the King of Navarr her Bridegroom the Prince of Conde and other Protestant Noblemen walked without the Church door till her return as misliking their Religion and Ceremonies In the mean time the Queen Mother and her bloody Councellors together with the Duke of Anjou and Guise contrive the Marder of the Admiral and the dividing the Protestants The Admiral after the Marriage moved the King for his departure home but the continual complaints of the Protestants still detained him at Court and going some days after thither in his return home while he was reading a Petition with divers Noblemen and Gentlemen about him He was shot by a Harquebuzie the Bullet taking off the forefinger of his right-hand and hurting him in the left Arm he feeling himself shat said without alteration of Countenance It came thorough yonder Window what kind of Ireachery is This The door of the House being brâ—ke open they understood that he which shot presently mounted upon a Spanish Jennet at a back door and made his escape leaving his Gun behind him and upon Examination it was found that the Harquebuz was brought to the house the day before by one Chally Steward of the Kings House and an acquaintance of the Duke of Guise The King having notice of this Villany seemed to be extreamly concerned causing all the Gates of Paris to be presently shut and swore to the Admirals Friends that those that had committed this horrid Fact should not escape the Queen Mother likewise seemed much discontented at it The King went to visit the Admiral assuring him of his love and care over him However the King of Navaâ—r Prince of Conde and other Protestants had private advice to depart speedily out of Paris and to look upon this but as the beginning of the Tragedy which was to follow but they trusting to the Kings word would not go The Dukes of Cuise and Anjâ—u imployed some to go to every house and bring them a Catalogue of all the Protestants and the King set a Guard of Fifty Harquebuzies at the Admirals Gate and abundance of Arms were sent into the Kings Pailace of the Louvre and in the Evening of the same day all the Papists were in Arms the Protestants observing all this many of them assembled at the Admirals Lodgings where it was advised that the Admiral should be Immediately conveyed out of Paris and the rest should change their Lodgings but this was again refused they still relying upon the Kings word who promised them Justice In the Evening divers Protestant Gentlemen offered to watch with the Admiral but he refused it and the same night the Duke of Guise sent for the Captain of the Switzers and shewed him his Commission to kill the Admiral and the rest of the Protestants and exhorted him and his Souldiers to be couragious in shedding their blood At midnight the Provost Sheriffs and Captains of every Ward had the same Orders given them with assurance that the like should be Executed upon the Protestants through the whole Kingdom of France and that the Signal for the General Massacre would be the ringing of the Bell in the Kings Pallace which would be about break or day and that the Murderers should have a white hand kerchief tyed about their Arms and a white Cross in their hats and Candles to be lighted in every house At the time appointed the Bell rung and the Duke of Guise hasted to the Admirals Lodging with his Cut-throats and knocking at the Door he that opened it was murdered the Admiral hearing the noise got out of his Bed and there being a Minister in the Room they both went to Prayers and the Admiral fervently commended his Soul to God and then said to those about him It is long since I disposed my self to die save your selves if it be possible for you cannot save my life I commit my Soul into the hands and mercy of God The Minister and the rest of his attendants got up to the top of the house and crept out of the Windows to save themselves yet most of them were slain in the next House Presently seven or eight men broke into the Admirals Lodgings and one of them set his Naked Sword to his Breast saying Art thou the Admiral To whom with a Christian Constancy he answered I am called so and withal said Young man thou oughtest to consider my Age and the weak condition I am now in but do what thou wilt for thou canst not shorten my life but a very little But the Wretch blaspheming God thrust him through the Breast and afterward strook him on the head another shot him with a Pistol and a third wounded him in the Thigh so that he lay gasping for life the Duke of Guise was below and with a loud voice cryed Have you done It was answered Yes the Duke replyed Our Chevalier which was the Kings Bastard Brother will not believe it unless he see it which being done his Face was all bloody which the Duke of Guise wiping said Now I know it is he and then kicked
him on the Face with his Foot whom all the Murtherers of France feared so much when he was alive Then the Duke and his bloody Train went into the Streets crying Arm Arm we have had good success and a happy beginning Let us now proceed to the rest for it is the Kings Command which words he repeated often This is the Kings Commandment this is his Will this is his express pleasure therefore courage my Fellows Then the great Bell of the Pallace which was the bloody token of the General Alarm began to ring out aloud and presently a Report was spread That the Protestants had conspired against the King Queen and Court and were just going to Execute their Design After this the Admirals head was cut off and sent to the King and Queen Mother and being by them preserved with Spices it was sent to the Pope and the Cardinal of Lorrain at Rome as a very grateful present The Pope when he first heard the News of the Massacre appointed a day of Publick Thanksgiving to God where Te Deum was sung for joy in the Church of St. Lewis He likewise Published a Bull of Pardons and extraordinary Indulgences to such as should pray for the Heavenly assistance to the King and Kingdom of France for rooting out of Hereticks The Râ—scally Rabble cut off the Hands and Privy Members of the Admiral dragging his mangled body besmeâ—â—ed with blood and filth through the Sâ—reets three days together and then hanged it by the Feet upon the Gallows All the Attendants of the King of Navarr and Prince of Conde which lay in the Kings Pallace were murdered and likewise all the Lords and Gentlemen about the Admiral 's Lodgings and among the rest his Son Teligny and then through all the City and Suburbs were the poor Protestants Massacred with all manner of Cruelties Nothing was then to be heard but the Terrible noise of Horses and Arms Guns and Pistols mingled with the doleful sad and woful Screeches and miserable complaints of Men Women and Children Rich and Poor crying for mercy to these bloody Hell-hounds howling and lamenting at their miserable Condition to be thus wretchedly murdered for they knew not what And all this intermâ—xt with the groans of the dying and the merciless shouts of the Cruel Murtherers continually crying Kill kill for the King commands it that it seemed as if Heaven and Earth had met together or as if the Heavens had rent with Thunder So that in that night and the Two next days there was slain in Paris above Ten Thousand Persons of both Sexes and all Ranks and Ages the bloody Papists not sparing the Children in the Cradle nor the Infants in their Mothers wombs insomuch that the Streets Market-place and Rivers were dyed with Blood and the Murtherers boasted that they had in a few days put an end to that Quarrel that neither Pen Paper Decrees of Justice nor open War could accomplish in Twelve years This horrid Mâ—ssacre was committed on St. Bartholomews day being the 24 of August 1571. which was the Sabbath day and is made samous for ever by the Effusion of so much precious Innocent blood as no Age nor time can parallel for there were at this time in Paris Threescore Thousand men with Pistols Poinards Swords Knives and such other Bloody Instruments who ran up and down swearing and blaspheming the Sacred Majesty of God cruelly massacring all they met So that the Streets were covered with mangled Bodies and the Gates and Doots defiled with blood the Lords and Gentlemen were Inhumanely murdered some in their Beds others on the top of their Houses and in all other places where they were found and such a multitude of dead Bodies were thrown into the River Sein that the water was dyed Red with their Blood In the Heilish Assembly wherein this bloody Massacre was concluded on it was debated whether the King of Navarr and Prince of Conde should not be destroyed with the rest the Duke of Guise pâ—euded for it but others were against it and argued how abomiâ—able it would be to destroy two young Princâ—s of 〈◊〉 blood in the Flower of their Age and one of them in the imbraces of his young Bride and the Kings own Sister and therefore it was concluded That they should be threatued violâ—â—tly with death and all manner of Torments if they would not turn Papists And thereupon the King commanded them to be brought into his presence and told them That now he had cut off all the Instruments of the late Civil Wars which he hoped would prevent future troubles for by his Command the Admiral was slain and all the rest of the Hereticks and that the like should be Executed in all other places throughout the Kingdom and that if they would now save their Lives they must turn Catholicks for he was resolved to have but one Religion in his Kingdom The King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde humbly beseeched his Majesty to Remember his Oaths Promises and solemn Vows and Protestations that they should have the free Exercise of their Religion and withal told the King That he might do as he pleased with their Bodies and Estates but their unspotted Souls were in the hands of God and that they were resolved to remain stedfast in their Religion though with the loss of their lives which answer so inraged the King that he called the Prince of Conde Rebel and the Son of a Rebellious Person horribly threatning him That if within three days he did not obey his Command he should die for it and then with a furious Countenance left them with these three Terrible Words Death Mass or the Bastile Many Gentlemen that were attendants upon them as likewise their Schoolmasters and Tutors were thrust out of the Chamber among the Murtherers that is among the Kings Guard of Switzers who stood in two Ranks with their Swords drawn ready for Blood and Cruelty These Gentlemen crying out of the Kings Oaths Promises and Fidelity were yet by the Kings Command and in his own Sight unmercifully hewen and cut in peices In this Butcherly Massacre at Paris there were above four Thousand Houses robbed and plundered and above Five Hundred Barons Knights and Gentlemen who were chief Officers in the War with abundance of Noble young Gentlemen Ladies and Gentlewomen Inhumanely murthered who little expected such a bloody Fate for they came from all parts to rejoyce in honour of the marriage of the King of Navarr and instead of Jollity and pleasures they here met with an untimely death from Bloody and Cowardly Papists who murther like Devils but dare not fight like men The King and his Considents searing that this Massacte would not end the Quarrel but rather stir up the Protestants in other places to stand upon their own defence He therefore sends Messengers by Post to all parts of the Kingdom often shifting Horses for more speed with express Commands to the Governours of all other Towns and Cities
hundred persons in and about London either died in prison or were burnt in Smithfield In the Year 1541. Damlip Dod Saxy were Slain One Henry at Colchester Kerby and Clark at Ipswich and Bury were burnt In the Year 1546. Mistriss Ann Askew one of the Ladies belonging to Queen Katherine Parr because she would not confess any other Ladies was put upon the Rack and the Lord Chancellor himself being more Cruel he acted then the Executioner ordered her to be racked to the utmost she was afterward Burnt in Smithfield and at the same time and place were likewise Burnt Nicholas Belerrian a Minister iâ— Shropshire John Adams a Tailor and John Lacels a Gentleman belonging to King Henry the Eighth these beholding the Invincible Constancy and Patience of Mistriss Askew were thereby much incouraged in their Sufferings About the same time Sir John Blage of the Kings Privy Chamber was falsly accused to have spoken against the Mass upon which he was condemned to be burnt in Smithfield whereupon the Earl of Bedford begged his pardon of the King who Commanded it to be drawn immediately After his release Sir George coming to the King Ah my Pig said he for so he usually called him Yea said Blage if your Majesty had not been better to me than your Bishops were your Pig had been roasted before this time Presently after Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and his Confederates set forth a Cruel Proclamation in the Kings Name for abolishing the Scriptures and all other English Books that discovered the Truth to the people and having obtained this they very much rejoyced therein hoping that they had now for ever suppressed the Gospel so that it should never rise again and to strike the greater terror into mens minds they made a diligent search after the Professors of the Truth of whom they took the names of some drove away others and hereby doubted not but to attain their ends But it pleased God that in the midst of these subtil Contrivances for the destruction of his Gospel and Servants to take away King Henry the Eighth within four Months after the Proclamation and thereby all their hopes and projects were utterly disappointed King Henry the Eighth being dead his only Son Prince Edward our English Josiah ascended the Throne under whom the Protestant Religion was established and Popery and Superstition abolished for he caused all Images to be demolished and as Idolatrous to be taken out of all Churches within his Dominions the Learned mâ—n of his time he encouraged and commanded them to open and expound the Scriptures 〈◊〉 abolished the Mass and ordered the Service to be read in the English Tongue and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to be administred in both kinds to the People But it pleased God in a short time to take him to himself for in the Seventh Year of his Reign and the Seventeenth Year of his Age he was taken with a lingring sickness during which time a Marriage was concluded between the Lord Guilford Dudley eldest Son to the Duke of Northumberland and the Lady Jane the Daughter of the Duke of Suffolk whose mother being then alive was Daughter to Mary King Henry the Eighths second Sister The Marriage being finisht and the King every day more sick than other so that he seemed past Recovery the Duke of Northumberland being ambitious to advance his Family perswaded the King that the Church and the True Religion would be in great danger if he did not choose a pious Successer and that it was the part of a good Prince to set aside all other respects when the Glory of God and the good of his Subjects were concerned The King partly for his great desire to have the Protestant Religion confirmed and partly for the intire love which he bore to his Cousin the Lady Jane signed Letters Patents under the Broad Seal to appoint the Lady Jane to succeed him in the Kingdom although her Title were excluded by the Lady Mary who was always a zealous Papist and the Lady Elizabeth This was afterwards confirmed by the Nobility and Chief Lawyers of the Kingdom and was subscribed to by all the Kings Council the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London who upon the Death of King Edward which happened in a short time after proclaimed the Lady Jane Queen in London and Westminster The Lady Mary being in Hartfordshire and hearing of it presently sent to the Lords of the Council commanding and requiring them to Proclaim her Queen which if they refused to do she threatned to recover her Right by force of Arms. The Lords returned answer That the Lady Jane was invested and possessed of the Crown by just Right and Title both by the Ancient Laws of the Land and by Letters Patents signed and sealed by the late King before his death and therefore they declared they would adhere to her and to none other requesting the Lady Mary that she would not upon any pretence endeavour to disturb the peace of the Kingdom promising her that if she would carry her self as a dutiful Subject they would be ready to do her any service The Lady Mary having received this answer withdrew further from the City and the Council being sensible of her stout and unquiet disposition they raised an Army which was commanded by the Duke of Northumberland The Lady Mary went into Suffolk and Norfolk gathering such aid of the Commons as she could and kept her self in Framingham Castle to whom the Suffolk men first resorted who being always forward in promoting the Gospel promised her their aid and assistance provided she would make no alteration of the Protestant Religion as it was established by her Brother King Edward To this she readily agreed and confirmed it with such Vows and Protestations that none could suspect her whereupon they joined with her and thus by the help of the Protestants she vanquished the Duke of Northumberland and his Army and was settled in the Kingdom but she soon forgot her promises for these very Suffolk men observing that Popery would be re-established they Petitioned to her to perform her word to them at which she was extreamly displeased and told them Forasmuch as you who are Members desire to rule your Head you shall one day find that Members must obey not seek to rule Yea one of the chief of these men Mr. Dob by name she caused for the Terror of others to be set in the Pillory several times and divers others that presented Supplications to her not to set up Popery she caused to be sent to prison Queen Mary being setled in the Kingdom the Lady Jane her Father the Duke of Northumberland and her Husband the Lord Guilford Dudley were soon after Beheaded and the Queen soon discovered her disaffection to the Protestant Religion by displacing all the Orthodox Bishops as Poinet Ridley Scorie Hooper Coverdale and by releasing out of the Tower Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester whom she made Lord Chancellor of England◠〈◊〉 Bonner who was
made Bishop of London Then the Queen publisht a Proclamation that she was resolved to observe and maintain the Catholick Religion wherein she was bred up requiring all her Subjects quietly to embrace the same A while after this Bonner and Gardiner begun a cruel and bloody persecution upon the Protestants and made them fall in heaps For Mr. Hooper Mr. Rogers Mr. Taylor Mr. Bradford Mr. Saunders all famous men were condemned and burnt for Heresie In the Year 1555 Thomas Tomkins whose hand B. Bonner burnt in Prison to try his constancy was afterward burnt in Smithfield William Hunter was cruelly handled and then burnt Mr. Higbed and Mr. Causton were burnt in Essex William Piggot Stephen Knight and John Lawrence were examined before Bishop Bonner and then burnt in several places in Essex Dr. Farrar Bishop of St. Davids was burnt there and Rawlins White was burnt at Cardiff George Marsh at Chester William Flower at Westminster John Cardmaker a godly Minister in Smithfield and with him John Warn About this time came a Letter from King Philip and Queen Mary to Bishop Bonner that Hereticks were not prosecuted with such severity as they ought to be which easily prevailed with Bonner who was ready enough for Cruelty and thereupon condemned John Symson and John Ardeley of Essex who were burnt there Thomas Hawks Thomas Watts Thomas Osmund William Bamford Thomas Osburn all of Cogshall in Essex being sent up to Bonner for not receiving the Sacrament at Easter they were condemned and burnt in several places in Essex John Bland Nicholas Shetterden Humfrey Middleton John Frankesh were all burnt And a few days after Nicholas Hall Christopher Wade John Harpole and Margery Boley were burnt in Kent Dirick Carver John Launder Thomas Iveson James Abbies John Denley John Newman Patrick Packingham Richard Hook and John Newman were likewise burnt for Hereticks The Prisons were now full in every place and six men were Condemned and burnt at Canterbury and no thing but Cruelty and Oppression was to be seen through the whole Land Whereupon the Queens Commissioners for the more quick dispatch took out ten of the Prisoners whom they sent to B. Bonner and being examined by him about the Sacrament they constantly adhering to the Truth were condemned and burnt in several places Robert Samuel a Minister suffered Martyrdom at Norwich two others at Ipswich five more in the Diocess of Canterbury the famous Ridley and Latimer at Oxford and Mr. Philpot in Smithfield In the year 1556. their wicked and bloody rage still continued the Land was all in a Flame and Blood and Cruelty reigned in every place For there were seven burnt in Smithfield in one fire four more in Canterbury and Dr. Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury was burnt in Oxford And to conclude though the Reign of Queen Mary was the shortest of any Prince since the Conquest except King Richard the Third yet in her days there was more Christian blood spilt for Religion than in any Kings Reign whatsoever since Lucius the first Christian King established Christianity in this Land for in the five years of her Reign there perished in the consuming Flames for the Profession of the Protestant Religion no less than two Hundred seventy seven persons of all Ages and both Sexes there suffered five Bishops and Archbishops twenty one Divines eight Gentlemen four Tradesmen an hundred Husbandmen Servants and Labourers twenty six Wives twenty Widows and Virgins two Boys and two Infants one in the Isle of Guernsey who springing out of his Mothers Womb as she was burning at the Stake was most inhumanely thrown in again and burnt for a young Heretick And besides these there were sixty four persecuted for their Religion whereof seven were whipt sixteen perished in Prison twelve were buried in Dunghills and many more lay condemned but were saved by the Death of Queen Mary The Succession of Queen Elizabeth put a stop to the cruel rage of the Papists for the Power and Authority of the Pope vanished and Peace Rest and Liberty for all the good People of the Nation ensued But the Papists out of their extreme Loyalty to the Pope thought it a sin to live peaceably under an Heretical Prince Especially when two Popes had thundered out Excommunications against her cursing her and freeing her Subjects from their Allegiance towards her and threatning them under danger of the Wrath of God not to assist her but to imploy all their Power to bring her to condign punishment and promising rewards to all persons who should lay hands upon this proscribed Woman which was to be paid out of the Treasury of the Church together with a full pardon of all their sins who should engage against her But when the Pope and his Accomplices saw that all this would not effect their desires the Queens Subjects being too faithful to engage in any such villanous designs they then proceed to secret Plots and Attempts against her As that wherein the Duke of Norfolk and Robert Biddulph were engaged in the year 1566. and for which Northumberland Suffered at York and after that Leonard Daves designed mischiefs against her with the like ill success In the year 1578. the Invasion of Ireland at the great charges of the Pope was happily prevented The next year James Fitz-morris is sent into Ireland with Saunders who carried consecrated Banners to them The next year after San Joseph was likewise sent thither with seven hundred Spanish and Italian Souldiers and the Popes promise of ten hundred thousand Crowns to carry on the work of Rebellion and to them joined the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers but they were all happily defeated But these projects likewise failing they conspire the death of the Queen and make several Attempts to murther her first by one Somervile and Hall Priests and one of them being condemned was found secretly murdered for fear he should discover others After this followed the practices of Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador here with Throgmorton and Parry who had Letters of plenary Indulgence Pardon Remission of all their sins sent them by the Pope for killing the Queen And the same year Savage made the like vow to murder the Queen being instigated thereto by Gifford and Hodgson two Popish Priests A while after Babington upon the same principles ergaged to commit the like wicked act by the procurement of one Ballard a Jesuit but being happily discovered divers of them were condemned and justly executed for the same and were registred for Saints and Martyrs in the Romish Calender Yet by the means of the French Ambassador one Stafford and Moody were dealt withal to commit the like Villany Moody proposing to lay a bag of Gun-powder under the Queens Bed-Chamber But this like the rest being happily prevented the Pope stirs up his Dear Son Philip the Second King of Spain openly to invade England which he did in the Year 1588. who though in Queen Marys time he pretended great kindness to the Queen yet now in hopes
be so sensible that he made a publick Declaration of it at St Germains in 1652. And every one endeavoured to proclaim loudest the merits of the Protestants the Queen Mother her self acknowledging That they had preserved the State Though to shew the little faith is to be given to men of that Religion the Kings Ministers instilled into his mind That since the Protestants were so potent to set up the King they night likewise upon another occasion remove him again From this Diabolical reasoning it was resolved they must be suppressed and ruined and therefore when the Kingdom was setled in peace three Protestant Towns Rochel Montauban and Millan which had shewed the greatest zeal 〈◊〉 the Kings Service were plundered by the Souldiers and otherwise impoverisht These were the forerunners of that general destruction designed against these innoâ—ent People which were every day succeeded by others â—n order to their utter extirpation They first condemned their Churches and Exercises of Religion by establishing Commissioners who pretended the Protestants had exceeded the grants that were allowed them though their Proceedings herein were so very unjust that the Judges often received order to condemn them when by the great evidence of their right they declared they could not in Conscience do it Yea in civil affairs and controversies about Lands Houses or Debts Religion was always urged the Monks Priests and the rest of that Crew crying out in Courts of Justice I plead against an Heretick against an Enemy to the State and to the Kings Religion whom he would have to be destroy'd So that the Judge durst not declare in their favour though never so much wronged lest he should be counted a Favourer of Hereticks And upon complaint the Protestants were told You have your remedy in your own hands why don't you turn Catholicks After this succeeded Processes to all the Cities Towns and Parishes in France to impower the Curates and Church-Wardens to inquire exactly what had been said or done for twenty years past by the Protestants about Religion or any other matters and to inform the Justices of the place who were to punish them with the utmost severity whereby the Prisons were soon fillâ—d there being no want of false witnesses and which was most horrible though the Judges were very sensible they were perjured villains yet they countenanced and incouraged them in swearing things that they knew were absolutely false whereby many innocent and virtuous persons were whipt and sent to the Gallies for Slaves But the Ministers suffered most thereby who seldom preached a Sermon but that a Troop of Priests and Monks were present as Informers and Observators who charged them with things they never thought of by turning them into a contrary meaning Yea pretended to divine their thoughts and make them criminal For if a Minister spake of Egypt Pharaâ—h the Israelites or of good and bad people These Spies report that by Egypt and the wicked they meant the Catholicks and by the Israelites the Protestants Yea the Judges and Ministers of state incouraged these Rascals so that they filled the Jayls with poor Protestants where they were kept whole years together and sometimes suffered corporal punishment They then proceeded to deprive Protestants of all Publick Offices and Imployments directly contrary to the Edict of Henry the great who made an express Article to the contrary Yea to hinder them from excercising several Arts and Trades whereby to maintain their Families This was in 1669 and in 1680 and 1681. all Lords and Gentlemen were ordered to discharge all their Protestant Officers and Servants Nay they would not suffer any Protestant Mid-Wives to do their Office but expresly ordained that no Women should receive any assistance in that condition but from Popish Mid-Wives by these strange and unheard of Methods many thousand Persons and Families were reduced to misery and ruin But because some could still sustain themselves there was an Order of Council that the New-Converts as they call them that is those who turned from Protestants to Papists should not be obliged to pay their debts in three years which fell heavily upon the Protestants who were generally concerned with them and hereby they found the secret to recompence the Apostates at the charge of those who continued constant who were likewise prohibited to sell or alienate their Estates to support themselves the King making void all contracts of that kind Yea to add to their misfortunes they were forbid by divers Edicts under severe penalties not to go out of France to get their Bread in other Countrys which reduced them to the horrible necessity of dying with hunger in their own Country Their Cruelty ceased not here for they laid unreasonable and severe Taxes upon the Protestants so that he who before was charged at Forty or Fifty Livers was now raised to seven or eight hundred which if not instantly paid they quartered Dragoons upon them till they had discharged the utmost farthing In 1681 an Edict came out that Children at seven years of age might abjure the Protestant Religion forcing their Parents to give them yearly allowances above their ability which occasioned the seducing of many young people and brought ruin to a multitude of Families yea they took Children from their Parents and put them into Covents with strict charge not to let their Fathers or Mothers see them even Persons of the best Quality were so â—â—ed the ancient Duke De la Force having seven of his Chilâ—ren taken from him the eldest not exceeding twelve years and the like was done to other Noblemen a barbarity never heard of in the most Savage Nations They prohibited the Protestant Ministers to be School-Masters and suppressed three Universities which were absolutely granted by the Edict of Nants They forbid Papists to marry Protestants or Ministers to hinder their people directly or indirectly from imbracing the Roman Religion These and a murtitude of Grievances more they groaned under when the Elector of Brandenburgh being pleased to intercede on their Behalf the King assured him He was very well satisfied with the behaviour of his Protestant Subjects and that so long as he lived no wrong should be done them And yet at the same instant according to the usual perfidy of that party he gave order for demolishing several of their Churches and shut up others imprisoning their Pastors and using divers manifest injustices against those he pretended to protect Yea in 1682. When they had much advanced the work of their destruction the King declared That he had not the least intention to infringe the Edict of Nantes but would most religiously observe it Though at the same time he had treacherously resolved in Council to Ruin and Destroy it And accordingly in 1684. He absolutely concluded to cancel and make void that Edict and to banish all their Ministers out of the Kingdom yet still declaring That other Protestants might live peaceably till it should please God to enlighten and convert them Which was only designed
the Beast and the Kings and Princes of Christendom established the Authority of the Pope and Church of Râ—mâ— appointing to slaughter and destruction such as denied the horrid Blasphemies and Errors maintained by them it occasioned many good Christians to detest their Superstitions as unknown to the Apâ—stles and the Primitive Church And the first we reâ—d of was one Berengarius who boldly and faithfully published the True Religion contained in the Scripture and discovered the falseness of the Romish He lived about the time of William the Conqueror his coming into England about which time his Followers being taken notice of as dissenting from many of the Common received Opinions of those times they were branded with all the odious Name of Hereticks About Twenty years after this one Peter Bruis was a famous Preacher among them who taught them publickly a long time at Tholouse in Savoy in a short time after they were grown to so great a multitude that the Popes of Rome were resolved if possible by any means to extirpate and destroy them to which end they at first incited several of the most Learned of their Party to write against them and warned divers Princes to have a care of them and to banish them out of their Territories The first then that flung away the Spiritual Keys and began valiantly to brandish the bloody Sword of Persecution against them was Pope Alexander the Third who began therewith to hack hew and murther the poor Waldenses so named from Peter Waldo or Waldo of Lyons in France who appeared very couragious in opposing the many Corruptions of the Romish Church as Holy Oyl Consecrated Images Popes Indulgences Candles Merits Auricular Confession the Supremacy of the Pope False Miracles Purgatory Praying for the Dead Prayers to Saints extream Unction and many other Fopperies of the Popish Communion This Persecution of Waldo and his Followers who were encreased to a very great number began in France in the Year 1060. Waldo being compell'd to fly into the Mountains of France among the Savage Inhabitants to whom he taught his Doctrine others fled into Picardy from whence they were called Picards several into Flanders and Alsatia and thereby for the safety of their Lives they spread their Doctrine into all places King Philip of France being incited by the Ecclesiasticks raised Arms against them and destroyed Three Hundred Gentlemens Houses and likewise several Walled Towns And those that fled into Flanders escaped little better for they were pursued and many of them for their Religion put to Death And the Bishops of Mayence and Strasburgh raised great persecutions against those which fled thither there being Five and Thirty Citizens of Mayence burned in one Fire and Eighteen in another who suffered Death with very great constancy and at Strasburgh at the instance of the Bishop Fourscore were likewise burnt for professing the same Truth and yet by the exhortations constancy and patience of these Martyrs there were such multitudes who entertained their Doctrines that in a few Years after in the County of Passau and in Bohemia there were above Fourscore thousand persons that made profession of the same Faith Some of them likewise fled into England for shelter but were more barbarously and cruelly put to death at Oxford by the Papists there than ever any Christians were before that time for matters of Religion and Three years after Pope Alexander the Third made a Decree in the Council of Tours in France that these Gospellers and all their Favourers should be Excommunicated and that none of them should buy or sell according as it was foretold in Revelat. 13.17 At Colen in Germany Four Men and Two young Women were discovered hid in a Barn and the Papists not being able to disswade them from the Truth The Men were all tyed to the Stake to be burnt but the Râ—manists pretending to pity the young Women perswaded them to recant but they perceiving their design got out of the hands of those that held them and voluntarily leapt into the Fire where they were burned with thâ—m about this time a Proclamation was published in Aragon whereby it was made Treason to relieve these poor Christians or to suffer them to live in that Country and liberty was given to all people to abuse them at pleasure without being punished for the same But these people still encreasing the Pope was resolved to suppress them by all means possible and therefore about the Year 1201. he set up the Bloody Inquisition which with its Racks Tortures Fire and all manner of Cruelty hath destroyed an innumerable company of Good and Holy Men. And in the same Year a noble Knight called Emandus and one of the Waldenses was burnt at Paris and the persecution still continuing the people of Dat phine flying from their barbarous Enemies sheltred themselves in â—he Caves upon the Mountains but their cruel Adversaries having notice thereof pursued and destroyed many of them and the rest fled higher into the Mountains which were all covered with Snow together with their Wives and Children the Mothers carrying some in their Arms and others in Cradles and the Night coming on and having no means to make a Fire for their tender Infants they were so benummed with cold that in the morning above Fourscore of them were found dead in their Cracles and most of their Mothers died likewise Many also were burnt in the same Country of Dauphin and the Fire of Persecution raged through the whole Land so that there was scarce a Town or City in Pâ—edmont but many were put to death therein and at Turin one of them had his Bowels taken out of his Bâ—lly and put into a Bason and was afterward cruelly Martyred One Gerrard being at the Stake to be burnt requested the Hangman to give him Two or Three Stones which he at first refused thinking he would have thrown them at some body but afterwards did and Gerrard taking them up into his hands said When I shall have eaten up these Stones then shall you see an end of our Religion for which you now put me to death and then throwing them on the Ground he chearfully died These Countries being so hot with the Fire of Persecution many of these poor People fled into Calabria where they began to plant build Towns as Saint Xist La Gard and divers others where they continued till the year 1560. at which time they were most grievously persecuted by Pope Pius the Fourth and were forced to leave their Houses and Habitations and to fly into the Woods for the saving of their Lives but being there pursued by order from the Vice-Roy of Naples most of them were cruelly and barbarously murdered by the Souldiers and some flying into fortified places were so straitly besieged that they died with Famine And at the same time one Charlin was rackt in so horrible a manner that his Guts came out of his Belly Another was tormented upon the Rack Eight hours together to force him
of Angrognea Bobio Villaro Valguicharda Roras Tagliacetto and divers others in all which most of their Inhabitants are Protestants and had been long indulged in their Religion by the Princes of Savoy to whom they were Subjects but in the year 1565. a cruel Edict was published that all such as would not comply with the Church of Rome and go to Mass should within ten days be banished from their Country and Habitation but by the Intercession of the French King and the Elector Palatine of the Rhine this Edict was recalled and they continued quiet till the year 1655. wherein that late horrible Massacre was committed upon them for the sake of their Religion The Papists had all along by many cunning Plots and contrivances endeavoured their subversion by using all Arts to stir them up to Rebellion and by planting Jesuits Colledges among them which like Goads in their sides still annoyed them and prov'd a great trouble and affliction to them for they often procured some cruel and harsh Edict or Proclamation by their Complaints and Lyes which they raised in the Duke of Savoys Court against them As in the year 1602. they got an Edict for banishing all private and publick Protestant Schoolmasters as Enemies to the Government and disturbers of the Peace and likewise another Edict 1622. that no strangers either Ministers or others should be entertained among them In 1634. an Edict came out that all the Protestants of Compiglione should be banished and in 1654. the same was done against those of Martino and Perosa These Missionary Fathers behaved themselves among them more cruelly than Turks or Barbarians But at last resolving utterly to root out the Protestants from among them and throughly to perform the will of their Unholy Father the Pope they procured an Order in the midst of Winter that is January 25. 1655. which is very sharp in those Countries for the banishing of all Protestants out of the Valleys of Lucerna Lucernetta and seven other places within three days after publication unless they would turn Roman Catholicks and this extended to all in general none being excepted of what Rank Degree or Condition soever they were And thus these poor Creatures were forced in compliance with this cruel Edict to fly for the security of their Lives and Consciences in the depth of the Snow and when all the Valleys were covered with water there being among them some Women with-Child others newly delivered young children crying and lamenting old women and decrepit men leaning on their Staves all dragged over the lce through Rain Snow Waters and a thousand inconveniencies and hardships 〈◊〉 that it would have grieved the heart of a 〈◊〉 to have seen them leaving their Goods behind them or selling them for little to the Papists who took no pity of their bitter tears sighing wringing of Hands beating of Breasts mourning complaining and lamenting but all these calamities were but as the bleating of Sheep or the lowing of Oxen to Popish Ears and they rather rejoyced at than commiserated the condition of these poor Wretches They were no sooner gone but their Houses were pillaged rifled and ransackt of all that was left and then pull'd to the ground yea the Trees were cut down and such havock and devastation made as all was turned into a Wilderness This cruel Edict was put in execution by one Gustaldo and others but this was not all the Design was for the utter extirpating and rooting out Hereticks as they called these Religious Souls it would not satisfie them to have banished these few and the poor Protestants could have no redress at Court for all their humble Petitions and Remonstrances could not be heard The Papists had yet more wicked and bloody Designs against them and to that purpose they imployed some Romish Agents who had great influence over the Duke and Dutchess of Savoy It is next to impossible to reckon up the variety of Cruelties and Murders committed up 〈◊〉 â—hese poor Innocent Souls we shall therefore only give a brief Abstract of some remarkable passages that happened therein Upon the seventeenth of April 1655. whilst the Protestant Deputies were detained at Turin and delayed with hopes of redress some Souldiers were sent on purpose to fall unexpectedly upon the Protestants who peaceably attended the issue of their Petitions which caused some bustle for the poor people being prompted by the Law of Nature stood upon their defence and the Papists lost fifty men the Protestants only two Wednesday April 22. The Marquess of Pianessa the Popish General came to the Valley of Lucerna and promised them there should be no violence offered to them provided they would but quarter a few Souldiers as a Token of their Obedience which the well-meaning people consented to but no sooner were these Troops entred but they put all to Fire and Sword slaying all they met with that had but the likeness of Mankind and that in the most barbarous manner they could possibly devise There joyned immediately to this Army a great number of Out-laws Prisoners and other Offenders who thought to have saved their Souls and filled their Purses by killing Heretioks Six Regiments of French besides Irish likewise helped them in this good work the Country being promised to the 〈…〉 cleared of Protestants With 〈…〉 other Troops of Highway-men and Vagabonds by the Licence of their General and the encouragement of Popish Priests and Monks the most unheard-of Villanies were committed upon the poor Protestants So that there was nothing to be seen through the Protestant Vallies but Churches burning Towns smoaking Houses flaming Men Women and Children Missacred and Murthered nothing to be heard but the confused cries of people flying the piercing groans of others dying and the horrid shrieks of others that were tormented and indeed so dreadful was their usage that it is scarce to be expressed In one place they most cruelly tormented an hundred and fifty Women and Children and afterwards chopped off the Heads of some and dashed out the Brains of others against the Rocks they took multitudes of Prisoners and such of them who were fifteen years of Age and upwards if they refused to go to Mass some of them were hanged up others had their Feet nail'd to Trees with their Heads hanging down all which they constantly endured A Franciscan Fryar and another Priest set fire to all the Churches and Houses at S. Giovanni La Toure and other places so that they left not one standing In these Desolations the Mother was bereaved of her sweet Child the Husband of his dear Wife those that were richest among them 〈…〉 to beg their Bread yea they lay weltring in their own blood and the pretence for all those bloody Massacres and Cruelties was that they were Rebels to their Princes Commands in not performing an absolute impossibility by immediately departing from their Habitations in so short a time and likewise for their frequent Petitioning to the Duke to take pity upon them The truth is
of admirable wisdom and understanding who when the King came one time into his Parliament at Paris made a bold speech before him wherein he gave thanks to Almighty God for moving the Kings Heart to be prefent at such a weighty matter as that of Religion which it seems was then to be debated humbly intreating him to consider well thereof it being the Cause of Christ himself which of good Right ought to be maintained by Princes but the King was so far from bearkening to him that being in raged he commanded him to be committed to Prison and protested to him in these very words These Eyes of mine shall see thee burnt And a while after he was condemned to die In the mean time great Triumphs were preparing for the Marriage of the Kings Sister Daughter the day being come he spent all the morning in Examining matters against Du Bourg and some others charged with the same Doctrines intending to glut his Eyes with their Execution and then went to Dinner After Dinner the King ran at Tilt near the Prison where Du Bourg was and brake many Spears against the Count Montgomery and others and all thinking he had done enough desired him to give over with praise But the King being inflamed with their Commendations would needs run another course with Count Montgomery who upon his knees begg'd his Majesty pardon but the King being resolved commanded him to do it upon his Allegiance Montgomery being compel'd addrest himself to it and the King and he meeting broke their Spears and the Kings Helmet 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 his brains were perished which wound being incurable he died thereof within Eleven days after whereby his great hopes of seeing the Death of Du Bourg were frustrated And the Execution of Du Bourg was deferr'd for six Months longer all which time persevering constantly in the truth he was first degraded and then accompanied with six or seven hundred Horse and Foot well arm'd he was guarded to Execution being first hang'd and then burnt to Ashes At Amiens in France all the Bibles Testaments and â—salm Books were burnt the Ministers Pulpit and several Men and Women At Abbeville they slew the Lord of Harcourt and dragg'd some along the Streets with their their faces in the Kennel At Meux above Four hundred Religious Citizens were slain the Women and Maids were openly ravished in the Streets and Market-places Men Women and Children were Massacred the very Popish Priests themselves slaying divers with their own hands At a place called Bar the same if not worse Villanies were committed for the Papists pull'd out the hearts of these poor Protestants and most barbarously gnawed them with their Teeth rejoycing that they tasted of an Hugâ—nots heart At another place seven Hundred Protestants were inhumanely massacred and their naked Bodies thrown into the River Their Houses and Church being likewise plundered and Burnt At Angies they murthered a Godly Minister and many others and finding a Fair Bible gilt they hung it upon an Halbert and carried it in procession blasphemously crying Behold Truth hang'd the Truth of the Hugonots The Truth of all the Devils 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 Devils drown'd At Tours an hundred and forty were murdered and cast into the River and neither Man Woman nor Child spared nay the President of the City being only suspected to be a Favourer of the Protestants was first beaten with Staves then stript to his shirt hang'd up by one Foot his Head in the Water up to the Breast and whilst he was yet alive they ript up his Belly pluckt out his Guts threw them into the River and sticking his heart on a Lance they carried it about saying This is the Heart of the President of the Hugonots A Poor Woman whose Husband was a while before drown'd having a young Infant sucking at her Breasts and a beautiful Daughter of about sixteen years old in her hand these bloody Villains drove them to a River and taking the Daughter aside some of the Rascals endeavoured to seduce her to Popery and one of them who was finer than the rest promised to marry her so that the poor Maid began to doubt which her Mother who was just going to be thrown into the River perceiving she earnestly exhorted her Daughter to persist in the Truth whereupon the Daughter cryed out I will live and die with my Mother whom I know to beâ—d Virtuous Woman and as for your Threats and Promises I regard them not do with me what you please Before the Mother was quite drowned the Daughter was likewise thrown in who making toward her Mother they mutually embraced each other and so yielded up their Souls into the hands of God In the same City of Tours there was a very Religious Woman who being brought before the Captain she there gave an Account of her Faith which she confirmed by Scripture insomuch that the Fryers who discoursed with her could not return any answer but only told her That she was in a damnable condition It seems so indeed said she being in your hands And being then committed to prison she declared her mind freely and comforted the other Protestant Prisoners she was afterward condemn'd to be hang'd and the Rope being put about her neck she kneeled down praising and magnifying the name of God in shewing her so much mercy as by that death to deliver her out of this wretched world and that she was so far honoured as to die for the Truth and to wear Gods Livery as she reckoned the halter to be she then brake her fast with the rest of the Company and exhorted them to be of good courage and to trust in the free mercy of God to the end As she went to Execution one of her kindred brought her own little Children to see her and perswaded her to recant and save her life to provide for these Innocent Babes This was a very great Temptation and wrought so upon her Motherly affection as drew plenty of Tears from her Eyes But a while after resuming her former Courage and Constancy she said I love my Children dearly yet neither for love to them nor for any thing else in this World will I renounce my God or his Truth God will be a Father to these my Children and will provide better for them than I could have done and therefore to his providence and protection I commend and leave them After which she went cheerfully to the place of Execution and having there prayed to and praised God she quietly resigned up her Spirit to him A while after the City of Roan was besieged and two of the Forts taken wherein they put all the Protestants to the Sword and the Queen Mother being at
in France to follow the Example of Paris and to destroy and kill all the Protestants which were amongst them and yet at the same time the King writes other Letters wherein he laid the fault of the murder of the Admiral and the rest upon the Duke of Guise As soon as this Command was published and that the Kings Letters came the Papists fell with all imaginable fury upon all the Protestants at Meaux Troys Orleans and other places murthering them without any manner of pity and Compassion And among the rest Monsieur De la Place President of the Court of Requests being in his house a Captain came to him and told him that the Duke of Guise had killed thâ— Admiral by the Kings appointment and many other Hugonots but however he was willing to secure him but desired to see his Gold The Lord De la Place câ—â—â—rving his Impudence asked him whether hâ— thought there were a King or no the Captain bâ—aspheming bid him go to know the Kings pleasure The Lord De la Place thinking there was danger near went from him to secure himself and the Captain thereupon plundered his House The poor Gentleman seeking shelter in three Houses for his life was denied and was at last forced to return home again where finding his wife very sorrowful he rebuked her and discourst with her of the Promises of God telling her That through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and then calling his Family together he made an Exhortation to them went to prayer and then read a Chapter in Job with Calvins Exposition and then praying again he resolved by Gods assistance to suffer all kind of Torments rather than to fly for it Presently after the Provost of the Merchants comes to his House with many Archers and an Order to bring him to the King and would not admit of any Excuse whereupon the Lord supposed what would happen and therefore embracing his Wife he desired her never to forsake the truth of God And so going toward the Palace some Murtherers waited for him and immediately stab'd him with their Daggers so that he fell down dâ—ad and then stripping him cast his Body into the River After this there followed the like Cruclties and Murders upon the Protestants in the Cities of Lyons Tholouse Burdeauâ— Angiers where the Protestants were most barbarously killed destroyed as likewise in most other Cities and Towns so that in a few Months there were murdered above threescore Thousand Protestants in France for no other Crime but only for being Protestants Yet in the midst of these dangers it pleased God to provide some places of refuge for them as Rochel Montalbon Wismes Saucerre Privus c. whither many Protestants fled from other places In the year 1573. the Town of Saucerre was besieged by the Lord of Chastre who with his Cannon played incessâ—ntly upon the place so that the Stones Pavements and Splinters of Timber flew about continually and yet it pleased God that only one young Woman was slain thereby though sometimes the Coats Breeches and Hats of the Inhabitants were shot thorough The Siege being long there was great scarcity insomuch that the People were forced to eat Horses Asses and Mules which lasted a Month afterwards they cat all the Dogs Cats Rats Mice and Moles that they could get and then they were forced to eat Parchments Horses and Beasts-Hoofs Horns Lanthorns Hasters Girdles of Leather Herbs wild Roots and Furniture for Horses this being all spent and no bread in the City they made bread of Linseed Herbs mixt with Bran Straw Meal Powder of Nut-shells yea Slates Sewet old Ointments and other Grease served to make Pottage and therewith they likewise fryed the Excrements of Horses and Men which they eat yea the very filth in the Streets was not spared During this Extremity a labourer and his wife were put to death for cating the Head Intrails and Brains of their own Child a Girl of three years old who died with Famine having likewise dressed the rest of her body to eat at other times Those that went out of the City Walls were forced to live upon the Spriggs of Vines Black-berries Snails and Herbs and many of them were killed by the Enemy And among other lamentable Spectacles a poor man and his Wife were found dead among the Vines and two of their Children crying by them the youngest being not above Six weeks old whom a Charitable Widow took home and relieved c. Many died of this terrible Famine in their Houses and others fell down dead in the Sâ—reeâ—â— Most of the Children under Twelve years old died and most lamentable it was to see their poor Fathers and Mothers lamenting their misery and yet could not relieve them yet most of them did wondâ—rfully encourage themseâ—veâ— in Gods help and assistance as may appear by this strange Example A Boy about five years old being famisht for Hunger running along the Streets fell down for dead in the presence of his Father and Mother who wept over him and felt his Arms and Legs which were as dry as a Stick To whom the Child said Why do you weep to see me die of hunger I ask you no Bread Mother for I know you have none but since it is Gods will that I should die in this manner I must take it thankfully Had not the Hâ—ly man Lazarus Hunger have I not read it in my Bible and saying thus he yielded up his Spirit And that which preserved the rest from perishing was because there were six Cows kept alive to give Milk to some few Intants and some Horses of service reserved for extremity were killed and their flesh sold and some little Corn was brought into the Town by stealth which was sold for half a Crown a pound There died by the War but Eighty four Persons but the Famine destroyed Five Hundred and the rest were brought so low that they hardly recovered Divers voluntarily went out of the Town chusing rather death than such misery whereof some were slain and others Imprisoned and Executed And now when all humane help failed the King having sworn He would make them eat one another and the Papists threatning to Massacre them all it pleased God strangely to deliver these poor Protestants For Ambassadors coming from Poland to fetch the Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother thither whom they had chosen for their King They having notice of this terrible siege obtained by their Sollicitations that all the Towns in France which were molested for Religion should have their Liberty by which means the poor Saucerreans half dead with hunger obtained their freedom and were quietly suffered to depart with their Arms and Goods and those that would stay not to be questioned for what was past About the same time the Town of Rochel was likewise besieged the Townsmen often sallying out and divers hot skirmishes past among the rest a young Gentleman boasted with horrible blasphemies that he was one of
to God The same year there was an Ancient Religious man that had lain long in the Inquisition who was at last brought forth and condemned after which the Fryars brought a Crucifix to him importuning him to kiss and adore it He seeing their importunity said to them If you take not this Idol out of my sight I shall spit upon it The Fryars hearing this sent him away immediately to the Fire where with great Courage and Constancy he resigned up his Spirit to God Of the Spanish Inquisition Since mention is often made of the Spanish Inquisition It may not be amiss to give a brief Account of the Original and Practice thereof Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain having expelled the Moors or Turks out of the Kingdom of Granada who had inhabited there Seven Hundred Seventy Eight years they resolved to Reform Religion and granted the Conquered Moors Liberty to continue there and enjoy their Goods if they would turn Christians and because there were many Jews that had likewise continued there ever since Titus conquered Jerusalem they had also leave to remain there upon the same Conditions but all that refused were commanded presently to go out of Spain Yet afterwards observing that those who staid were only Christians in name and had submitted meerly to save their Estates instead of providing Religious men who with Gentleness and meekness might instruct and reduce them from their Errors they by the advice of the Dominican Fryars erected a Court of Inquisition whereby the poor wretches instead of Instruction were robbed of all their Estates and either put to most cruel deaths or else suffered intolerable whippings and other Tortures and spent the rest of their lives in shame and misery neither was this only Inflicted upon such as blasphemed Christ but for observing the least Jewish or Moorish Ceremony or holding the smallest Error in the Christian Religion But this Holy Inquisition as they call it which was first erected against Jews and Moors was afterwards turned against the faithful Servants of Jesus Christ and for suppressing the Gospel and the True Professors thereof and thus you have briefly the Original of it let us a little observe the Method of their proceeding therein As soon as Information is given against any Person they do not presently cite the party to appear before them but send one of their Informers who taking opportunity to meet with him usually greets him thus Sir I was yesterday by Accident at my Lords Inquisitors who said that they had occasion to speak with you about certain Affairs and therefore they command me to summon you to appear before them to morrow at such an Hour The party not daring to refuse goes to the place and sends in word That he is come to attend them and being called in the Inquisitors ask him What suit he hath to them and when he Answers That he is come upon Summons they enquire his Name For say they we know not whether you be the man but since you are come if you have any thing to inform the Court of either concerning your self or any other you may let us hear it for the discharge of your Conscience Now in this Case it is the safest way constantly to deny that he hath any thing to declare to them For if through simplicity 〈◊〉 man doth accuse himself or any other they rejoyce as having attained their desires and so presently commit him to Prison If any chance to make his escape they have many devices to fetch him and find him again one of them is by making his Picture to the Life and sending it about by their Apparitors and Promoters who are commonly the greatest Villairs in the Countrey and will swear any thing against the Prisoner After the Prisoner has been six or eight Months in Gaol he is brought before the Inquisitors who tell him that they have deeply considered his case and have found that he doth not declare the whole Truth and therefore they are resolved he shall be rackt that they may draw from him by force what by fair means he will not acknowledge and then they advise him rather to confess voluntarily and thereby avoid that pain and danger that attends him but whether he confess or not it is the same thing for to the rack he must go to be compelled to confess more Then is the poor Prisoner led into a deep and dark Dangeon under Ground where the Rack standeth passing through many doors before he come to it because the terrible cryes and schreiks of the tormented should not be heard Then the Lords Inquisitors set themselves upon a Scaffold hard by the Rack and the Torches being lighted the Hangman or Tormenter comes in all clothed from Head to Foot in black Canvas and a long black hood likewise which covereth his Face having only two holes in it to look out at which sight doth many times very much affright the poor Soul to see one in the likeness of a Devil come to Torment him The Inquisitors being seated near him again perswade him to confess freely and Voluntarily and then with very sharp words command him to be stript stark naked yea though it be the modestest Virgin or chastest Matron in the Countrey whose grief is not so much the pain as to be seen naked by so many persons and yet these wicked Villains without any regard of honesty will not by the utmost prayers or Intreaties of the most virtuous Women or Maidens be perswaded to forbear one jot of this barbarous Impudence As if a Shirt or Shift could hinder the Rack from cruelly tormenting them The party being stript naked the Lords Inquisitors signify their pleasure how they will have him Tormented and the first kind of Torment is usually the Gibbet or Pully First one comes behind him and binds his hands together with a Cord Eight or Ten times about and then his Thumbs in the same manner the Inquisitors bidding him every time to bind them harder than other and then both hands and Thumbs are fastned to a Pully which hangs to the Gibbet they then fasten great and heavy bolts to his heels and hing upon those bolts divers Iron weights and so hoise the poo◠wretch up from the ground Having continued thus for some time they let him down and hang twice as much more to his heels and then hoising him up they let him slip half way dow◠of a sudden which rends and tears Arms Shoulders Back Leggs and all his whole body out of joynt by reason of the sudden Jirk and the weights hanging at his heels If the party schreik or cry out they roar out as fast and call him Heretick Rogue and Dog and if in his cruel pangs he call upon Jesus Christ for his aid and assistance they mock and deride him saying Why callest thou on Jesus Christ Let Jesus Christ alone and tell us the Truth c. After they have tormented him about three hours the Inquisitors ask the
good Protestant who after his Majesty 's repeated Proclamations for the discovery and apprehension of the Plotters after the Execution of so many of the Conspirators upon the clearest Evidence imaginable and after the Votes and Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament thereupon shall in the least doubt of the reality of this horrid and damnable Popish Plot as it is fully exprest in the Vote of both Houses March 15. 1679. Resolved Nemine Contradicente by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament Assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied by the Proofs they have heard that there now is and for divers years last past hath been an horrid and treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion for the Murdering of his Majesties Sacred Person and for Subverting the Protestant Religion and the Ancient and Established Government of this Kingdom John Brown Cleric Parliam NOtwithstanding the clear and plain discovery of these Popish Intrigues yet the Papists and their adherents were still resolved if possible to stifle their horrid Plot and many Arts and Tricks were used to suppress it and several sham Plots were set up to ensnare and ruin the soberest part of the Kingdom For the better managing whereof witnesses were raked out of Prisons and Jails to swear against Persons the freest both in reputation and life from the suspicion of all such crimes as were laid to their charge and Juries were likewise tampered with so that innocent people were frighted thereat since villains were so easily credited if they swore against any that stood in the Papists way upon this account fell the Noble L. Russel Coll. Sydney Mr. Cornish and several others so that every man was afraid of another and men durst hardly converse with each other After this followed the seizing of the Charter of London and divers others in the chief Cities and Towns in England The Bishops were imprisoned for Petitioning Maudlin Colledge had its legal Possessors turned out and was filled with none but Papists and divers other outragious acts were committed against all Law and Right in order to the perfecting the great work of converting these three Kingdoms to Popish superstition and reducing them to slavery and arbitrary Government But the People of England haâ—ing suffered these and many other indignities they at length were so extreamly provoked that they resolved if possible to free themselves from the Chains they say prepared for them and therefore the principal Nobility and Gentry sent an invitation to his Highness the Prince of Orange to intreat him to come to their assistance who accordingly landed in England and with his preserce only by the Almightys help put all our Popish Enemies to flight and restored to us our former state of happiness and tranquillity for which the whole Nation by their Representatives made it their humble request that his Highness with his Royal Consort would be pleased to accept of the Crown and they were accordingly Proclaimed King and Queen with all manner of Joy and satisfaction Feb. 13. 1688. For which unspeakable blessing let us conclude with the Thanksgiving of the Church of England set forth by Authority upon the discovery of that Hellish Popish Plot called the Gunpowder Treason in 1605. NOT unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name be ascribed all honour and glory in all Churches of the Saints â—roughout all Generations for thou Lord hast discovered the Snares of Death thou hast broken them and we are delivered be thou still our mighty Protector and scatter our Cruel Enenies which delight in Blood Infatuate their Counsel and root â—â—t that Babylonish and Antichristian â—ect which say of Jerusalem Down with it down with it even to the Ground and to this end strengthen the hands of our Gracious King the Nobles â—â—d Magistrates of the Land with Judgment and Justice to â—ut off these workers of Iniquity whose Reliâ—ion is Rebellion whose Faith is Faction whose Practice is Murthering of Souls Bodies and to root them out of the Consines and Limits of this Kingdom that they may never prevail against us and Triumph iâ— the ruin of thy Church And give us grace by true and seriâ—us Repentance to avert these and the like Judgments from us This Lord we earnestly crave at thy merciful hands together with the continuance of thy powerful Protection over our Dread Soveraign the whole Church and these Realms and the speedy confusion of our Implocable Enemies And that for thy dear Son's sake our only Mediator and advocate Amen An Abslract of the late Persecutions and Inhumane Oppressions of the Protestants in France in 1686 and 1687. THough the barbarous cruelty and Treachery of of the Romanists is already sufficiently demonstrated and the World thereby fully convinced that Popish Treaties are not to be relled on yet their new and horrid Barbarities in France since the Massacre at Paris and those other Violations of the most Sacred Oaths and Ingagements may convince the most obstinate that they make it a point of Religion to destroy Protestants over whom that Church pretends to have a Soveraign and Absolute Dominion of which Thousands of French Protestants now in England confirm the truth who having felt the smart of a severe Persecution in France are fled from thence to avoid the extream fury and insupportable violence thereof But though the generality may have heard much discourse of the French Persecutions and have been very bountiful in relieving these miserable People yet I suppose few know the particular Barbarities and Inhumanities which they have suffered from their merciless Enemies To inform them therefore I have thought fit to make a brief abstract of some notorious Villanies committed by the Papists against them since a large Volume would not contain the innumerable Cruelties they have exercised upon these innocent Souls It is known to all intelligent Persons that for the great Services which the Protestants performed to Henry the Fourth called the Great King of France and Grandfather to the present King in asserting his Rights to the Crown against the Papists who were then in Rebellion against him that great Prince being willing to demonstrate his gratitude to them confirmed to them an entire Liberty of Conscience by a Law called the Edict of Nants whereby they were to enjoy all mâ—nner of Liberty and Priviledges both in Religious and Civil matters with his other Subjects which he declared should be perpetual and inviolable and which was confirmed by his Son Lewis the 13th and likewise by the present King at their coming to the Crown Lewis the 14th was very young when he ascended the Throne and soon after the Prince of Conde raised a Civil War in the Kingdom against him being assisted by the Papists but the Protestants by their Signal Loyalty to him overthrew the designs of his Enemies and setled that Crown on his head which he wears to this day and of which he pretended then to
to insnare and amuse them at present till they had by degrees incensed the Mobile against them to diminish the horror they naturally have to Cruelty to which end several young Priests were sent about the Kingdom to inflame the multitude in their Sermons and Orations and by publishing Scandalous Satyrs and Lyes against them And for those of greater Quality some Volumes were written against Calvinism and the Reformation one of whom affirmed highly That the Catholick Faith must be planted by Fire and Sword alledging for proof thereof the example of a King of Norway who converted the Nobles of his Countrey by threatning them to slay their Children before their eyes if they would not consent to have them baptiz'd and to be baptized themselves The Protestants were very sensible of these things and that further mischief was designed against them and therefore presented frequent Addresses to the King wherein they exposed their grievances with all humility and submission the last-being presented to the King himself by their Deputy General in March 1684. Exprest in Terms most capable of moving pity yet produced no other effect but the hastening what they had long before resolved on which was the using of open force to accomplish their ruine which was effectually done some months after in a manner so terrible and violent that there are few in Christendom who have not heard the report of it At first they quartered Souldiers in all the Provinces almost at the same time but chiefly Dragoons the most desperate Troops in the Kingdom Terror and Dread marched before them and all France was filled with the news That the King would no longer suffer any Protestants in his Kingdom and that they must resolve to change their Religion or else suffer the utmost cruelty that could be inflicted upon them They first summoned the Cities and Commonalties and affembling the Inhabitants of the Reformed Religion told them It was the Kings pleasure they should without delay become Catholicks and if they would not do it freely they must force them The poor people surprized at the proposal answered They were ready to Sacrifice their Estates and Lives to the King but their Consciences being Gods they could not in the same manner dispose of them Such answers immediately brought the Dragoons who were near hand upon them who instantly seized on all the Gates and Passages of the City where they placed Guards who came off with their Swords in their hands crying Kill Kill or else be Catholicks They lay upon the Protestants at free quarter strictly forbidding any to go out of their Houses or to conceal any of their Goods or Estates under great penalties the Papists were fordid to receive or any way relieve them the first days were spent in consuming all the Provisions the house afforded and Robbing them of Money Rings Jewels or any thing of Value After this they seized of all their goods in general inviting the Papists to come and buy them Lastly they fell on their Persons wherein they forbore no wickedness nor Villany to oblige them to change their Religion Amidst a thousand hideous cryes and blasphemies they hung Men and Women up by the hair of the head or by the Feet to the Roofs of their Chambers or else to 〈◊〉 Hooks within the Chimneys smoaking them with wâ—â—ps of wet straw till they were no longer able to bear it and when they were taken down if they would not recant their Religion they immediately hung them up again They threw them into great fires purposely provided and pulled them not out till half roasted They tyed Ropes under their Arms and plunged them up and down into Wells from whence they would not take them till they had promised to turn Papists They tyed them as Criminals to the Rack and with a Funnel poured Wine down their Throats till the fumes of it deprived them of their reason and then made them say they would be Catholicks They stript them stark naked and after a thousand indignities they larded or stuck them with pins from head to foot They cut them with Penknives and pluckt them by the Nose with Red hot Pincers and dragged them about the Rooms till they promised to be Catholicks or that for weariness they let the poor wretches go They beat them with Staves and dragged them all bruised to the Churches where their forced presence was reckoned their abjuring the Protestant Religion They kept them from sleeping seven or eight nights and days together relieving one another to keep them waking They threw buckets of Water on their Faces and tormented them several ways by holding kettles over their Heads turned downwards whereon they made a continual noise till these poor creatures had even lost their sences If they found any sick in bed they had the cruelty to bring several Drums sounding an Alarm about their beds for whole weeks together without intermission till they had promised to recant In some places they tyed Fathers and Husbands to the bed-posts and ravished their Daughters and Wives on the bed before their eyes In other places Rapes were publickly permitted for many hours together They pluckt off the Nails from the hands and toes of others with most intolerable pain They burnt the feet of others They blew up men and women with bellows even till they were ready to burst If after these horrid Usages any refused to turn they imprisoned them in Close Dark and Stinking Dungeons exercising on them all manner of inhumanity In the mean time they demolished their Houses destroyed their hereditary Lands cut down their Woods and seized their Wives and Children to imprison them in Monasteries When the Souldiers had consumed and destroy'd all in the House the Tenants of their Lands furnisht them with subsistance to whom they likewise sold the Lands If any endeavoured to escape by flight they were pursued and hunted in the Fields and Woods and Shot at like Wild Beasts The Justices and Magistrates rode about the highways stopping all without exception and using them like Prisoners of War Neither fell this Storm only on the common sort Noblemen and Gentlemen were not exempted from it who had Souldiers also quartered on them that plundred their houses wasted their Goods razed their Castles cut down their Woods yea their very Persons were exposed to the insolence and barbarity of the Dragoons as well as others which to avoid many Ladies and Persons of Quality hoped to find some retreat in Paris or at the Court not imagining the Dragoons would come to seek them so near the Kings presence but they soon found their mistake for immediately there was an Order of Council commanding them to leave Paris in fifteen days and return without delay to their own dwellings prohibiting all persons to entertain or lodge them in their houses And some addrossing to the King with complaints of such cruel usage and beseeching his relief had no other answer but being sent Prisoners to the Bastile It is observable
was never in arms yet he was prepared for death esteeming himself most happy to sâ—ffer for the name of Jesus Christ At length the Monks and Friers found out Judges though many refused to be concerned who were willing enough to condemn him to death The day he was executed his Sentence was pronounced in the presence of many Monks which he received with a Christian resignation without any emotion fear or trouble in his countenance The Monks would not leave him though he oft desired them but accompanied him to the Scaffold where he made an excellent Prayer and died so edifying a Death that they themselves were forced to avouch he died like a Saint In fine all the Heathenish and Popish Barbarities of former Ages were revived and acted over again upon these blessed Martyrs that it is scarce possible to believe those who bear the name of Christians should be so inhumane whereby above Eight Thousand Persons have expired and a multitude more even all the Protestant Inhabitants of those once flourishing Valleys of Piedmont driven into banishment though kindly received by the Switzers and those of Genevâ— who with Christian compassion treated them with all manner of kindess and tenderness Let us all who have been so lately delivered from the like treatment which was designed for us never forget so wonderful a Salvation but be truly thankful to God and our most gracious King and Queen whom the Almighty hath been pleased to make the glorious Instruments of our redemption from Popery and Slavery To which let all good Protestants and Englishmen say Amen Gods Judgments upon Popish Persecutors discovered in some eminent Examples 1. FRom the First plantation of the Christian Religion in this Nation under King Lucius there was never any King or Queen of England in whose Reign so much Christian blood was spilt as in four years space during the Reign of Queen Mary But as she was prodigal of the Lives of the best of her Subjects and a Persecutor of the Gospel so it pleased God to follow her with Plagues and Judgments all her life for nothing prospered which she took in hand of which we shall give some few Instances The fairest and greatest Ship she had called the Great Harry was burnt by Lightning from Heaven the Christian World at that time not affording such another Then she would needs marry Philip King of Spain thereby Subjecting England to Strangers yet with her utmost endeavour she could never set the English Crown on his head Then did she attempt the Restitution of Abby Lands and had all the assistance that the Pope could give her therein yet she was utterly crost also in that Design Then she lost Calice in France which had been in the possesion of the English during the Reign of eleven Kings that is from the Reign of King Edward the third with which loss she was so afflicted that she told some of her Courtiers If they opened her body when she was dead they would find Calice written in her heart She was reported to be with Child but it came to nothing Her beloved Husband left her in whom she placed her greatest felicity and content So that now she could neither enjoy him nor marry another About the same time the Land was grievously afflicted with horrible Tempests Famines Plagues mortal Diseases and burning Agues so that between October and December there died seven Aldermen in London that had been Lord Mayors and the mortality was so great that much Corn was lost in the Fields for want of men to gather it whereby great scarcity ensued and many poor people lived upon Accorns And lastly she was struck with a lingring and pining sickness whereof she died having only reigned Five years and Five monthâ— a shorter time than any of the Kings of England enjoyed since the Conquest Richard the Third only excepted 2. In the next place let us consider Gods Judgments upon some other Instruments of Cruelty and among the rest Stephen Gardiner who was a most Cruel Persecutor of the Protestants In King Heary the Eighths time he was a great stickler for the divorce from the Lally Katherine of Spain and was therefore made Bishop of Winchester In King Edward the sixths time he seemed a Friend to the Gospel and preached it up but in Queen Mary's days he was the greatest and most inveterate enemy against it and the professor thereof and continued so to his dying day For the same day that Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer were burnt at Oxford the old Duke of Norfolk came to dine with Gardiner The Bishop deferred his Dinner till about four a Clock in the Afternoon at which time came one of his Servants posting to tell him that fire was put to these Servants of God which when he was certified of he came out rejoyeing to the Duke and said Now let us go to dinner The Table was presently set and the Bishop began to eat merrily but as soon as he had earen a few bits he was on a sudden struck very sick and being carried from the Table to Bed he there continued in such intolerable Anguish and Torment that he could void nothing either by Stool or Urine His Tongue was black and swoln so big that his mouth could not contain it and his body violently Inflamed In this sad condition he lay fifteen days and then ended his miserable life In the beginning of his sickness Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester coming to see him began to speak to him about the merciful Promises of God and free Justification by the blood of Christ To whom he answered What my Lord will you open that gap now then farewell all together Open this window to the People and farewell all together And being by another Person put in mine of St. Peters denying his Master and that he ought not to despair He answered I have denied Christ with Peter but I never repented with Peter 3. Bloody Bonner though he died in his bed yet lay under the Spiritual Judgment of Impenitency and as he had been a Persecutor of the Light and a Child of Darkness so in darkness and at midnight his Carkass was tumbled into the Earth And as himself had been a Murderer so was he laid among Thieves and Murderers a place by Gods Judgment fitly appointed for him 4. Dr. Whittington Chancellor having condemned a Godly Religious woman to be Burnt at Chipping Sadbury a multitude of People came to see her Suffer and among the rest Whittington himself At the same time there was a Butcher in another place of the Town killing a Bull who was fast bound with a Rope ready to be knockt on the head the Butcher missing his stroke the Bull broke loose just as the people were coming from the Execution of this Holy Martyr the people seeing him coming severed themselves and made a Lane for him the Bull passed through them without hurting man woman or child till he came to the place where Whittington was against