Widow vvhose husband was put to death for his Religion a little corn and a third for sending his friend who was banisht in England a little money He rebaptized some children and caused some to be cut out of their mothers vvombs and stabbed with daggers Some vvives were violated in the sight of their husbands and if they resisted they were hanged as was done at Lyle teste Speculo Hisp Tyran p. 36. But it would be too long to relate all and therefore I remit my Reader ad Spec. dictum p. 36 37 38 39 c. where the tyrannies of the Spaniards at Lyle Tornay Roterdam Mecklin Zutphan Narden Harlem Owdwater Mastrickt and Antwerp are described Anno 1576. The Spaniards mutinying for want of pay took Antwerp and killed two thousand Citizens and Souldiers besides such as were drowned or burnt they hanged some Women naked with huge heavy stones at their feet drove stakes through the naturall parts of others and extended some upon the Racks by the Breasts as they also hung some men with as much immodesty as cruelty out at their vvindows by the genitals crying and howling with torment till they either ransom'd themselves with money or confest what they had hidden They rackt children before their parents and killed them c. whereby they got so much money as by the computation of such as knew it amounted to forty tuns of gold that is two millions of Pistols besides Plate Jewels and other things of price Nor was the dammage of the fire much less where they also got so much that a common Souldier would make nothing to play ten pistols a throw at Dice some made Hilts to their Swords others to their Daggers yea and some whole Corslets and Helmets of beaten Gold Thuan lib. 62. Anno 1610. The Inquisition of Spain prevailed with the King to banish all the Mores out of the kingdomes of Granada Andaluzia Valentia and Murcia and transport them into Barbary where many thousands of them perisht with hunger thirst and other cruelties cast upon them partly by the Spaniards and partly by the Barbarians Metteranus CHAP. XXVII The Cruelties and Barbarities of the Spaniards in America BEcause some may perhaps make slight of the barbarous Excesses of the Spaniards upon the Low Countrey people saying That they were the kings enemies as having revolted from him and therefore they ought to be treated like enemies as they had deserved though that vvay of correction exceeds all measure let us now see vvhether they have carried themselves more gently to the Americans the Indians and others beyond our Orb. 1. That the Spaniards had no right at all to those Countries as being so farre distant from Spain and governed by Kings of their own and never so much as in the least sense provoking them to a war the more moderate Spaniards themselves are forced to acknowledge yea and they say moreover That when the Spaniards came first thither they were received entertained and treated like Gods or sons of Gods abating them only the adoration worship and observance of their chief Gods 2. Bartholome de la Casa a Dominican Frier and a Bishop lib. de Tyran Hisp in India occident dedicated to Charles the fifth and his son Philip and printed at Sevil Anno 1552. saith That the people of that Nation were as peacefull as sheep not very covetous nor ambitious content with little solitary and almost Heremetical against whom came the Spaniards like greedy wolves and not onely like wolves but like Lyons and Tygers He further adds That in the space of forty years above twelve millions yea above fifteen millions of men were destroyed by the Spaniards in those Islands A certain Spanish Captain ravisht a Kings wife Others knockt out the brains of small children and crusht them against the Rocks and stones sindged and burnt the bodies of some Lords and Princes of the Countries and threw them to their Doggs beat down their houses and fired them and forced them out hanged queen Anacaon and another condemned some men to vvork in the Mines and their Wives to the Countrey labours affording them little or no food so that in tract of time those kingdomes grew quite dispeopled they used them in stead of Mules and Asses driving them long journeys overladen with insupportable burthens in such sort as that once of four hundred there returned no more then six they took all their victuals and provisions from them and starved above 30000 of them at once They forced the great-bellied vvomen to carry packs c. In Nova Hispania they destroyed above four millions of men in twelve years time and in the Citie of Mexico they treacherously massacred the flower of the Nobility and aftervvards many Citizens c. 3. The same Author also saith That to vvrite down all the tyrannies of the Spaniards exercised in Guatimala would require a Book of a foot and a half thick Nor vvere their proceedings otherwise in Naco and the Honduras where in 12 years compasse they destroyed above two millions of men It was to no purpose at all for the poor Indians to oblige the Spaniards for they became the more cruel by their kindness and simplicity as torturing them a thousand vvayes to make them confess vvhere their gold vvas tumbling them into deep ditches and pits upon stakes pointed vvith iron to lengthen and encrease their torments and dragging their children into slavery c. 4. In the kingdome of Guatimala in the space of sixteen years they killed above five millions by various tortures Nor gave they their prisoners any sustenance but granted them leave to catch and eat other Indians c. 5. In the kingdome of Excalisco they burnt eight hundred Villages and sold the sons of Princes to one another for slaves In Jucatano a Princes son was sold for a Cheese and a hundred Indians for a horse they hunted the Indians like wild beasts and gave them as a see to their Dogs 6. The Indians have been so ill used by the Spaniards that they abhorre the name of a Christian and had rather dye in vvar then live in slavery to the Spaniards In the kingdome of Venecula they destroyed above five millions of persons and used the like cruelty in the kingdome of Florida as overloading the people with burthens and when they fainted cutting off their heads and leaving them in the high-wayes In the Island de la Plata they killed above 1503 men at once yea and amongst the rest they also basely murthered such as came to serve them In the Isle of Cuba 7000 infants were starved in three moneths time the Spaniniards having so exhausted their mothers with continuall labour and hunger that their breasts grew dry and so the poor babes could not be nourished Bartholo de la Casa 8. Spain says de la Casa is in great danger to be invaded and destroyed by other Nations for this tyranny And again towards the end of his book Vnless the King sayes he do better preserve
anno 1582. Philip the second son to Charles the fifth confiscated all the goods of the Archbishop of Toledo and caused him to be poysoned because he had said and that constantly indeed that the said Charles last Confession was that he confided only in the merit of Christ See Baudartius lib. 16. Apoph where also is rehearsed that contemptible Epitaph made upon Charles the fifth Hic jacet intùs Carolus quintus Ora pro eo bis vel ter Ave Maria Paternoster 15. Anno 1576. in that fury and direption of Antwerp raised by the Spaniards wherein they spared none of what Religion soever they ran up and down the Markets and streets crying out as loud as they could Todo todo todo All all all Dineros y no palabras Moneys and not words They brake open gates and windows with their guns and weapons crying Fuora fuora vellacos Out Knaves out and one of the chief of them caused these words to be wrought upon his pillow Castigador de los Flamengos The Chastiser of the Flemings 16. At Mechlin they plundred all the Archbishops of that Town and all the Bishops of Namurs his Church-stuff the dammage whereof was valued at some millions of gold See Speculum Hisp Tyran in Belgio p. 41. 17. At Owdenard they threw some of the Clergy into the water Ibid. 18. The Spaniards likewise sufficiently testifyed their cruelty towards the Catholicks when the Admiral of Arragon invaded Westphalia the Bishoprick of Munster and Paterborn nor spared so much as the Bishoprick of Colein See Speculum Arragonicum Specul Hisp tyran in Belgio p. 99 100 101 c. 19. The Spaniards did more hurt in the Indies by their cruelty then good by their Religion yea they were often cause that the Religious men were murthered and ill used by the Indians as Bartholomè de la Casa teaches in his spec Hisp tyran in India And the same moreover says that the Spaniards could not endure that the said Religious men should be there and teach in regard that thereby the Indians were not so much their slaves as being better informed yea and they took it ill that any of them should be converted to the Christian Faith The same Barthol 20. The Noblemen of Catalonia discover remarkable examples of the Spanish Praevarications against the Catholicks and Clergy in their Catholick Complaint especially p. 4.10 12. See below Cap. de Cataloniae regno relata nostra 21. Nojo Moncata who first prophaned the Church in the Vatican at Rome never violated before and dedicated from the times of the very Goths and Vandals to St. Peter and Paul the Saints Guardian of the City was a Spaniard Jovius in ejus Elogio 22. The Spaniards use Churches for their safeâ—â— as Sanctuaries and yet if others flie thither for refuge they violently pull them out and carry them away without any respect to the Sacredness of the place or priviledge whereof the Reader hath an example in Perez in the Kingdom of Arragon And Anno 1640. the Vice-King of Naples drew a certain Grandee of Naples out of the Church and put him to death CHAP. IV. The Spanish Inquisition THat all mischiefs were brought into the world by this Pandora the more sincere and more prudent Catholicks themselves cannot deny how much soever the Fathers of the Council of Trent defend it and how much soever the Spaniards like some Divine Palladium as without which their Religion can hardly stand adore it Whereof Thuan. lib. 104. says thus 1. The Inquisition is a Bencâ—â—â—r Tribunal in Arragon to enervate or weaken the Rights of their Countrey-Liberty invented by the Kings against such as bore publick Offices The Inquisitors a kinde of men of a more then Scythick or barbarous nature ingenious for the invention of most unheard of torments thought nothing sharp and bitter enough to torture mens bodies without sparing either sex or age Robertus Abbatius The Citizens of Lisbone offered King Philip five and twenty hundred M as the Author of the Book of the Inquisition sayes not that the said Inquisition might be taken away but that in the terrible jurisdiction thereof this temperament might be kept That no body might be imprisoned without first knowing his accusers name and expressing the heads of his Crime that so the accused by the knowledge thereof might be able to prepare his answer before his condemnation And in short that the prisoners might be heard according to custome in other Trials before sentence were pronounced against him But the Inquisitors would not endure to have their terrible power so circumscribed for it rambles up and down to express its jurisdiction at pleasure and hath this priviledge in it to give credit to the testimonies of base and perfidious fellows of whom no account is had in other causes By this trick was weakned the liberty of Lumbardy and the Kingdom of Naples the Arragoneses priviledges broken the Lisbonezes and Portuguezes by degrees disarmed Author anonymus ad ordines Belgicos An 1605. apud Thuan. lib. 133. 2. It was the Duke of Alva's designe having reduced the Low Countries to a hard servitude and destroyed the Noblemen to build a Castle for the Spanish Inquisition or Tyranny from whence he might send Armies to destroy the Germans English and French under colour of establishing Religion but the truth is to impose their Monarchy upon the whole Christian World which the Spaniards have long had in their thoughts and for the atchievement whereof there is nothing so detestable in counsell nothing so horrible in fact nor nothing so dishonest in issue but they hold it lawful for them witness Mounts and Berghs seat upon the publick trust with leave of Margaret Dutches of Parma into Spain and unworthily put to death so many Noblemen beheaded and more then 20000 innocent persons butchered by the Hangman The States in their answer to the King of Denmark 1597. Thuan. lib. 11.9 3. The perverse and preposterous form of the Tryals of the Inquisition against all naturall equity and lawfull order is observed in the explication of that jurisdiction as also the barbarousnesse of the torments wherewith contrary to truth whatsoever the Deputies should think fit to fancie they extorted confession from the wretched and innocent prisoners whereby it hapned that they said that it was not invented so much for the maintaining of piety for which there was another way shewed by the ancient Discipline of the Church as for that by ruining the fortunes of all freemen might by this means be brought into danger Thuan. lib. 3. where he likewise recounts how the Dominican Inquisitors being ejected by the Neapolitans there arose tumults about it Anno 1542. 4. How much the Dominican Inquisitors were also hated by the people at Rome and how odious the Inquisition grew to the Romans after the death of Pope Paul 4 Thuanus teaches lib. 23. Anno 1559. 5. Charles 5. An. 1550. granted the Inquisitors power to question not only the common people but the
dâ—spatcht to some Office or employment farre from their Lordships where they may spend more then they get and if the King chance to go on progress he should do well to lodge at their houses thereby to put them to extraordinary charges And he further saith chap. 15. That as soon as the King hath conquered any Nation he must take away the immoveable goods of the people allow them only food and clothing and make them till the earth forcing their sons to be either Souldiers or Husbandmen 11. Nor must this practice of the Spaniards be past over in oblivion namely that they use to call Lords and Earles and such as are richest and most in power and favour with the people in any of their Dominions to the kings Court under any pretext whatsoever as of bearing an Embassie or commanding an Army c. out of hope whereof they are not wont to appeâ—r without great magnificence and spâ—endor and when they have made their appearance the Spaniards pretending sometimes one thing and sometimes another delay and detain them not only one but many years till by expectation they have spent and wasted the greatest part of their estates and are fain to pawn them to others And this practice they chiefly observe in the kingdom of Naples CHAP. XXX The various Apothegmes and Observations concerning the Spaniards A Certain Spaniard called Ferdinando Soto coming into the Isle of Florida said He was the son of God to whom one of the natives answered If your God whose son thou sayst thou art commands you to invade the Dominions Provinces and Estates of others and there to kill slay snatch wrest steal spoyle whore adulterate c. we tell you plainly that we cannot believe in such a God Another Indian speaking with Hieronymo Benzoon said What kind of people are these Christians They take away our bread our hony our sugar our cloathes our wives our daughters our silver our gold and what ever we hold dear They will not work they are cheaters theeves robbers plunderers before they go to Mass they brawle scuffle and hurt one another And when Benzon told him they were not all such he replied I never yet saw a good and honest Spaniard Joan. Petit. in Chron. Holland lib. 6. Martin Luther was wont to say That as the Spaniards write otherwise then they read so they think otherwise then they speak At the siege of Frankendal a certain Captain fell into the hands of the Spaniards who bidding him yeeld himself and they would give him quarter he cryed out aloud I will have no quarter of the Spaniard but quarter in heaven and so after he had received many wounds dyed with his sword in his hand The Spaniards having once petitioned Charles the fifth to remove all the drunken Germans from his Court he at length convocated all the Germans and shewing them the petition of the Spaniards pretended to go along with them which the Spaniards perceiving most earnestly besought him to stay Idem pag. 94. A certain Spanish Captain asked a subject of the Palatin why they so strongly and faithfully adhered to their Prince since he had been the cause of their being so opprest and exhausted in war by strangers The other answered Why should we not love him and stick close to him for we paid not so much to him in a whole year as to you in a moneth Znickgref p. 1. Apotheg p. 336. A certain Gascon called Pyrrhinuncule coming to his Inne and having a Ducklin oyld and garlickt set to Table a Spanish traveller suddenly stept in and casting his eye upon the Ducklin Sir quoth he may a friend be welcom to you What is your name sir said the Gascon the Spaniard strutted and answered Don Alopanzo Ansimarchides Hiberoneus Alorchides Marry out quoth the Gascon Four Spanish Lorsd to one poor little Bird God forbid here is but enough for Pyrrhinuncle alone for small things become small persons Simon Majolus in Canicularibus p. 326. The Spaniards traduced the Germans to Charles the fifth and especially the Souldlers intreating him to make a proclamation to forbid them drunkenness To whom he answered I should effect as much with them by such a Proclamation as I should with you by forbidding you fornicacation adultery and rapacity Hector Vogelman Chancellor of Wirtenbergh being asked by Duke Frederick his Master what rarities he had seen in Spain answered Mountains of pride and vallies of tears and happy is he who believes it without going to see it A Spaniard seeing a Fleming at dinner with a boyld Capon without Limmons cryed out with great vvonder What is a Capon without Limmons The Fleming answered And what are Limmons without a Capon Spinola at the treaty of the Truce between the King of Spain and the States shewed Prince Maurice some golden Apples and Citrons and bragged that they grew twice a year in Spain but the Prince shewed him a Holland Cheese and said This Fruit growes every day with us in Holland Bartholome de la Casa a Spanish Bishop so often cited in this Book lib. de Descrip Tyran Hispan in India Describes the Spaniards with various Epithets and Titles and amongst others he sayes That they are hellish Tyrants plunderers of the Empire that by too much greediness of gold they sold and still sell denyed and still deny Jesus Christ that they are not Christians but Divels Not servants of God or Ministers of their King but Traytors Destroyers Robbers and Overthrowers of the Lawes and Ordinances of their King Villains fell Tygers devouring Wolves fierce Lyons pestilent men more mischievous then any plague from heaven voracious Dragons wild Beasts Butchers Hangmen c. The Book intituled Speculum Indiae occident printed at Amsterdam in Lowe Dutch sayes thus A Spaniard is like the Divel the more good a man does him the more will he plague him but such as value him not and care not for him he lets alone The Nobility of the Kingdome of Maguara being advised by the Spaniards to render themselves to the obedience of the king of Spain and embrace the Christian Religion said amongst themselves That they could not perceive that they should receive a better Religion then they should forsake in regard say they that we see no more good nor righteousness in their actions then in our own and our faith does us no hurt as long as our Gods defend our religion and are favourably inclined thereto But their religion brings us much mischief and unsafety and therefore neither can their Gods be good nor can the Christians be any where welcom for that they endeavour to overthrow and extirpate such mercifull Gods and such a merciful Religion The Emperour Charles the fifth being to depart out of the Low-Countries for Spain most earnestly commended those Provinces and the Nobility thereof for their singular faith and loyalty towards him for vvhich indeed he extraordinarily loved them to Philip 2. his son exhorting him to love them cherish them and advance them as his most faithfull subjects and not to shew too much favour to the Spaniards vvhose natures he very well knew as having had them alwayes about him nor suffer them to contemn oppress or in any wise abuse the said Nobility and subjects For said he I very much suspect the innate haughtiness and pride of the Spaniards if they get to the helm of the Government they should convert pervert and evert all and run the ship against the Rocks And some of the Dutch Nobility standing not farre off pointing them out with his finger to his aforesaid son Seest thou my sonne said he those Lords and Gentlemen Those are they upon whose faith I have hitherto relyed and whom I have chiefly trusted rely thou also upon them and trust them c. But Philip quickly forgot this advice of his Fathers and trusted chiefly to the perswasions of the Spaniards and consequently both he and his Successors received such fruit as they desired not from them THE CONCLUSION I Have now shewed you enough and more then enough indeed of the Spaniards and yet if any body fall short of his satisfaction herewith I remit him to the various Authors which I have cited and alledged in this small Book But methinks it should suffice the courteous reader as wel as it doth me for the present to have demonstrated that there is no Nation which hath given more and greater testimonies and prejudices of prevarications and exorbitations both in this and in the other world then the Spaniards therefore have they most deservingly incurred the hatred of all other nations I will add no more but onely declare in this writing that such as either blinded by the Spaniards gold or inticed by their briberies make it no scruple of conscience to serve them to the destruction of their Countrey Religion and Liberty do not only not perform the duty of good Patriots or true-born men of their said Countrey but are rather Sinons who lay open the walls and gates thereof to the common enemy and make a bridge for the Trojan Horse to come to invade fire and destroy our Ilion ah truly Ilion But God avert that evil both from them and us Amen FINIS