true God If they say with them That the Son is dead for our Sins do not they say also That he rose again from the dead Had the French King been so canticus as Dioclesian that is had he consulted the holy Word of his God he would have seen how contrary the Meekness and Charity of that is to his Cruelty and Persuecution And I dare say that if he had consulted Innocent the XI who was to have been his God upon Earth I doubt very much whether he would have advised him to be so barbarous towards his own Subjects I 'll add but a Reflection about the Books of the Holy Scripture which have been burnt by the Ancient and Modern Persecutorss and I say that the Maximians the Dioclesians c. looking upon those Books as Impious and Blasphemous against their Gods they were less criminal in condemning them to the fire than the French King who if he be a Christian cannot look upon the Protestant Bibles without some Respect and Reverence being the Law and the Will of his God notwithstanding the few in considerable Alterations they pretend we have made in our Translation The Persecution of the French Protestants having been so violeâ—t as we have seen according to this Vulgar Axiom Nihil violentum est diuturnum it should not have lasted a very long time and yet it hath continued some five and twenty years or more but especially since the late King Charles's Death without abating any thing of its Rigour and Cruelty It was thought also that the French King being so taken up in defending himself against so many Enemies might have cool'd his Anger for a while but we were mightily mistaken for he every day increases his Rage and Fury against them because he looks upon them as his nearest and so worst Enemies believing that after the many Persecutions and Hardships he hath made them suffer they would soon joyn with the English in case of any Descent Every new year affords new Barbarities and especially this for the Protestants have been dealt with more severely in all parts of France this last than they had been the three or four years before It seems however that the Lower Aquitaine has been the Scene of their greatest Inhumanities and a true Relation thereof being come into my hands I am desired to publish it and as willing to gratisy so reasonable a Request The Account is as follows A Faithful Account of the Renewed Persecution of the Protestants in Lower Aquitaine Collected out of several Letters written by known Persons from that Province and taken from the Deposition made by a Gentleman newly arrived from those Parts who for his Religion sake has had his House pulled down and razed to the Ground and himself hung up in Effigy SAintefoy and Gensac are Two Towns scituated upon the River Dordoigne and Duras upon the little River Drot This last is not so considerable as the other Two for the Number of the Inhabitants but it is no less in all other points being a Dutchy and the principal seat of the Duke of Duras Brother to the Earl of Feversham Saintefoy had before the repealing of the Edict of Nants a Church of about Three thousand Communicants Gensac Two thousand and Duras only but Five hundred but these were the most considerable of the Town Those Churches with the others fell under the Merciless violence of the Dragoons and for three or four Years together shewed a very weak fearfulness but since that time it hath pleased God they have recovered their Spirits as many others have done in that Province and have denied going to Mass Being however unsatisfied in their Consciences and weary of being longer withhold from their spiritual Devotions of praying to God together they made the last Year several Assemblies in some private Houses where they performed all the exercises of their Religion with one of those couragious Ministers that were sent thither to Preach undâ—r the Cross And they continued their Meetings for some time but in a very peaceful way and with a mind as far from all sedition as the Witnesses against them have since testified and declarâ—d though after this discovery they have been dealt with as Criminals of State The Assembly of Duras was the first discovered whereupon Mr. ' Duquesne Lieutenant Criminal of Nâ—â—as was sent thither by the Intendant of the Province Many Informations were brought in before that Magistrate and Warrants Issued out against the most considerable Inhabitants who wisely foreseeing what was like then to besal them endeavoured to make their escape Three men however were unhappily taken viz. Messieurs Constans Bescete and la Roche who was formerly the Reader and Schoolmaster of the said Church with Three Gentlewomen viz. Mrs. Elizabeth and Mary Gentillot Sisters and one Mrs. Barbote These Six Prisoners were brought into the Prison of the Town-house of Bordeaux and thence into the Gaol of the Parliament where that la Roche being a fearful man in his Temper was easily frighted by the Judges insomuch that under promise of Pardon he was prevail'd with to discover all those who had been in those Meetings Whereupon so many Warrants were issued out that the Town of Duras was almost become a Desert by the flight of the Protestants who were to be seized The Intendant with the Seneschal of Aquitaine Condemned the said Constans and Bescete to the Gallies the first for his Life and the last for Five Years only But before both of them were to make as they call it L'amende honnorable the Three Women were Condemned to this last Punishment To be shaven by the Hangman and afterwards shut up for their Lives in the Manufacture which is a kind of Bridewell Messieurs Constans and Bescete made their Honourable Amend at Bordeance but because this Punishment is unknown here in England I think it not amiss to relate the manner of it These poor Gentlemen bare headed and bare feeted and almost Naked having but a course linnen Shirt upon their back having besides a Halter on their necks a burning Torch in their hands the Hangman at their heels were lead in that Garb from the Jail of the Palace through the streets as far as the Square of St. Andrews Church which is as far as from Charing-Cross to Ludgate the Hangman telling them that he was to Hang them at his return Notwithstanding these hard usages and the rigors of the Season they shewed nevertheless an humble modest and chearful Constancy and Patience which made so great an impression upon the very Enemies of their Religion that they could not for bear their Tears and some of them said they are called to Glorifie God by their Martyrdom Mr. Constans seemed still more firm than his Fellow-sufferer for being asked by the Judges Whether he had not been in those unlawful Assemblies He did not deny it but answered undauntedly That he had been there many times and that he would go again if he could which was the
things That the King his Master being persuaded of their obstinacy in continuing thier Separation from the Church without any grounds he was resolved out of his Royal Mercy to reconcile them to her Holy Communion and that therefore they must either voluntarily renounce their Heresy or they should be compelled to do it according to the precept of the Gospel One may easily guess what a cruel Stab these words were to the hearts of these poor Inhabitants and yet with a noble Bravery they return'd him this Answer That their Estates and Lives being in the power of the King they were resolved to undergo all manner of hardships as to them but God alone being the Master of their Consciences they would rather suffer a thousand Deaths than renounce his true Religion which they professed 5. I have observed how the Primitive Persecutors seeing that notwithstanding all their Persecutions the Christians still stood firm to their Rules practised more and more upon them all manner of Cruelties and Lactantius gives this following Description of the horrid Punishments they condemned many Christians to They were says he first chained to a Post then there was a gentle Fire set under the Soles of their Feet by which all the Callus of the Foot was shrivel'd up till at last it fell off from the Bones then Flambeaux were lighted and put out and while they were not clapt to all the parts of their Bodies that so they might be tortured all over and care was taken to keep them alive as long as was possible by throwing cold Water on their Faces and every now and then giving them somewhat to cool and refresh their Mouths lest otherwise the Violence of the Misery they suffered should quite dry up their Throats and so choak them Thus their Sufferings were lengthned out whole days till at last their Skin being quite consumed by the Fire it reached their Vitals and then a great Fire was kindled into which they were thrown and so their Bodies were burnt to Ashes and their Bones that were not wholly destroyed were gathered and grounded to Powder and then thrown into some River or else into the Sea Truly the lively Picture of this horrid Torment is very dismal and hideous And were I as Eloquent as Lactantius or at least capable of putting what Monsieur Claude hath said of the Sufferings of the French Protestants into a graceful Turn in English I would undertake to make as frightful a Portraicture as this of that famous Writer The Infernal Missionnaries set on foot says he to convert the French Protestants did with a thousand Blasphemies and execrable Oaths hang up Men and Women by their Hairs of their Head or downwards by their Feet in the smoak of wet Hay where they were almost choaked to Death and when they had taken them down and let them come a little to themselves if they would not then turn Papists they hung them up again They pinched their Beards off and their Hairs of their Heads till they had made an absolute Depilation They threw them into great Fires and when they were half roasted took them up again and tying them under the Arm-pits dipped them in cold Water again and again till they had made them promise to renounce their Heresy They tied up some others like Criminals who were to suffer the Rack and then with a Funnel poured strong Wines down their Throats till its Vapours getting up into their heads had almost drowned their Reason and then they asked them to be reconciled to the Church They strip'd them stark naked and after a thousand horrid Indignities they stuck all their Bodies with Pins They mangled others in a most strange manner with Pen-knives and their Inhumanity went so far as to take them by the Nose with hot Tongs till they forced them to a compliance They struck others with Sticks and when they were almost dead carried them into the Churches where their bare Presence was taken for a formal Abjuration They kept them from sleeping for seven or eight days together either by throwing fresh Water on their Faces or by making a horrid Noise with Drums or Kettles If they could find any Sick they caused the Drums to be beat round their Beds and so obliged those miserable Creatures to renounce their Religion Sometimes they tied Parents and Husbands to Bed-posts and then would attempt to Ravish their Daughters and their Wives before their faces They pulled their Nails off their hands and Feet which is the most acute and sensible Pain imaginable and if any of them died they were drawn to the common Lay-stalls and there eaten up by Dogs and other Beasts I should never have done if I were to give in Retail an Account of all the Barbarities committed on the French Protestants therefore I will content my self with these particulars which I hope are sufficient to prove that I could make as gastly a Picture of the Persecution of our Age as Lactantius has done of that of the Primitive Christians But if this be not enough I refer my Reader to a Book called The Complaints of the persecuted Protestants in France at which the French King was so offended that at the desire of his Minister here at our Court it was publikly burnt in the late King's time 6. To make an exact Parallel between the Modern and Ancient Persecutors it remains only to inquire further whether the Books of the Holy Scripture have not been burnt by the French King's orders as well as by Maximians But this I think will be out of question since we have here so many thousand Witnesses who can all attest the truth of that horrid Impiety for tho I have seen it with my own Eyes yet I do not desire to be believed upon my single Word or Testimony I have sufficiently made out the Parallel I promised between the French King and the Persecutors of the Primitive Church I have shewed that they were alike in their Tempers and in their Actions that the pretences of their Persecution have been the same and that they have made use of the like Methods to compass their design I must nevertheless observe that those Ancient Monsters cannot pretend to come up to the late heights of Cruelty but must yield therein to the French King they persecuted the Christians because they denied their Gods to be Gods and maintained that some of them had never been and that the others were vicious Men and dead long ago We know says Tertullian to them where some of your Gods are buried Besides they were not prohibited by the Laws of their Gods to be cruel towards the Christians but on the contrary Lactantius observeth That Apollo being consulted by Dioclesian advised him to persecute them with the last Severity which maketh their Persecution a little excusable But what can excuse the French King's Cruelty Do the Protestants deny the God the Papists worship I mean the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost to be the
A FAITHFUL ACCOUNT OF The Renewed Persecution OF THE CHURCHES OF Lower Aquitaine in France In the YEAR 1692. To which is prefixed A Parallel between the Ancient and New Persecutors or the Portraicture of LEWIS XIV in some of his Cruelties and Barbarities With some Reflections upon the unreasonable Fondness of a certain Party amongst us for the French King LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1692. A PARALLEL Between the Ancient and New Persecutors OR THE Portraicture of LEWIS XIV In some of his CRUELTIES and BARBARITIES IT was in the heat of the Persecution of the Protestant Churches of France that I first read Lactantius's Relation of the Death of the Primitive Persecutors The Cruelties practised in his Age upon the Christians and revived in ours with so much inhumanity upon our Brethren in France put me upon the thoughts of making a Parallel between the Ancient Persecutors Lactantius speaks of and our worse Modern ones under Lewis XIV And indeed I was the more tempted to it by the great likeness I found there was between them and the French King 's Cruel Instruments but having read over the ingenious Preface to that Book written by the now Learned Bishop of Sarum I then altered my Design because I thought such a Parallel was sufficiently done already very concisely in that Preface And I had continued still in the same mind but that an Account of the new Barbarities committed in France upon the Protestants of the Lower Aquitaine being come to my hand and being so earnestly solicited to publish it I think it will not be amiss to prefix to it a much larger Comparison between those Tyrants that we may see how like the French King is to the Ancient Persecutors and that he follows their steps not only in the Persecution but also in all their other Vices if he does not far exceed them I have been so much the more induced to this by the strange proceedings of a certain Party amongst us who yet pretending to be Protestants are yet nevertheless eager to fall down and Worship the Golden Image of such a Monster as this and forgetting what they owe to their God to Their Majesties under whom they lead quiet and peaceable Lives and to their Country are fond of having for their King the Enemy of Mankind the Invader of the Liberties of Europe and the greatest Persecutor of the Christian Religion that ever was in the World I intend in the first place to set the Characters Lactantius gives of the Persecutors of the Primitive Church with the Method they made use of in their Persecution and afterwards I 'll shew that those Characters do perfectly agree with the French King and that he has taken the very same Measures to destroy the Christian Religion in his Kingdom as the former took to abolish it in the Roman Empire But because the World tends always to a greater perfection I 'll shew also that this French King has exceeded Maximian Valerian and other Persecutors in Barbarity The Characters Lactantius gives of his Persecutors are these 1. That they were addicted to the Brutalities of several Pleasures 2. That they ruined their Subjects by severe Impositions and heavy Taxes for maintaining vast Armies 3. That they shewed in their Wars some Pusilanimity or at least more care than was decent for preserving themselves from all danger 4. That they were so weak as to be fondly pleased with the most excessive Flatteries could be made them and assumed undeservedly the most glorious Titles even some to Blasphemy it self 5. That they were profuse in the raising of costly Buildings 6. That they were successful for many Years together in their undertakings And Lastly That they had Fearful Superstitious and Cruel Tempers These are the Characters of those Ancient Persecutors I must observe now what was the pretence of their persecutions and the method they made use of to compass their horrid design What the pretence of their Persecutions was we may read in an Edict of Maximian himself quoted by Lactantius and Evsebius in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 8. Chap. 1. in which 't is said That the Christians having forsaken the Religion of their Forefathers and framed new Laws to govern themselves by the Emperors thought themselves obliged to Publish their Edicts to force them to return to their first Institutions The measures they took to compass their Design were these 1. They pulled down the Christian Churches 2. They declared the Christians incapable of all Honours Trusts or Offices either Civil or Military 3. They put them out of the protection of the Law insomuch that they could not sue for any injuries done them 4. Afterwards they commanded all the Christians to abjure their Religion 5. But seeing that they stood firm to their Rules they practised all the Cruelties imaginable upon them 6thly and Lastly All the Books of the Sacred Scripture they could find were burnt by their Orders Having thus observed the Characters of those Primitive Persecutors the pretence of their Persecution and the method they made use of to destroy the Christian Religion I must give you now a plain Idea of this French King and shew what has been his pretence in Persecuting with so much Inhumanity his Protestant Subjects and what measures he has taken to abolish the Protestant Religion in his Kingdom 1. I think it will be very needless to shew how that the French King has delivered himself up to the Brutalities of sensual Pleasures For who is unacquainted with his many Adulteries Aud who has not heard of the famous Ladies La Valiere Fontange and Montespan and of the many Children he has got by them But I cannot pass over this Subject without observing That the Lady Montespan being Married to a Noble French man and the French King Married too he has committed the blackest of all Adulteries I do not read in History that those Monsters Lactantius speaks of have been guilty of such a Crime as this But supposing they had they were less Criminal than the French King because they could plead in their defence the examples of their Gods Whereas Lewis the XIVth cannot have such an excuse living under the seeming Profession of a Christian Religion which though very much corrupted yet informs him that Adultery is one of the horridst Crimes in the sight of God and that it is in express terms forbidden in his Law I hope this is enough without being obliged to speak of the Lady Maintenon some believing that she is really his Wife 2. I am next to prove That the Fremch King has ruined his Subjects by Severe Impositions and heavy Taxes for maintaining his vast Armies and this I can make out with as much ease as I have done his Vices Though Charles the great was Emperor of Germany King of Italy and of France yet he never maintained in time of Peace near Four hundred thousand men as this French King has done Every body knows how vast