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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B11843	The tragedies of tyrantes Exercised vpon the church of God, from the birth of Christ vnto this present yeere. 1572. Containing the causes of them, and the iust vengeance of God vpon the authours. Also some notable comfortes and exhortations to pacience. Written by Henrie Bullinger, and now Englished.; Von der schweren, langwirigen Verfolgung der heiligen Christlichen Kirchen. English	Bullinger, Heinrich, 1504-1575.; Twyne, Thomas, 1543-1613.	1575 (1575)	STC 4078; ESTC S106917	68,333	200

there amonge them enie that lacked Likewise They continued euerie day with one accord in the temple praisinge God and giuinge thankes beefore all the people In this Church Congregation and fellowship were the Apostels of our Lorde and his threscore and ten disciples Ioseph of Arimathie Barsabas or Barnabas Nicodemus with other woorthie men moe but cheifly the holy and vndefiled virgin Marie mother of the Lorde Iesus Christe with diuerse other vertuous and deuout wemen whose vertue and renoume is disciphered in the Euangelicall history In this Church there were no diuisions no schismes and the numbre of them that béeléeued was aboue fiue thousande To conclude there was no Church in the Earth more excellent holy perfect or more acceptable to God. Howbeit god which suffred his owne sun to bée crucified suffred also this holy Church to fall into sutch afflictions and so general a persecution as we haue declared béefore And who is now so wicked and curious the in respect of this persecution dare step foorth and dispute against God and question with him wherfore he suffred his dearly beloued frends to bée so gréeuously afflicted whiche had deserued much better and so many good godly persons amonge whom christes mother was one whose most pure hart the sharp sword of sorow and heauines had perced through why likewise god gaue vnto the faithlesse Iewes hipocrites so great power ouer godly and iust men why raught he not his helpynge hand to his Church to help it causing the neither Steeuen should bée stoned neither the Church beinge spoyled of their goods be made poore or banished nether they which liued in sutch concorde togither with great sorow so miserably bée plucked a sundre and scatred abroad It pleased God it should be so who is the eternal wisdom doth no vniust thing And that which pleased God pleased also the holly Church which nether murmoured neither disputed agaynste the lord but receaued persecution willingly and by the grace of God endured it paciently knowyng and beléeuing that God who was omnipotent and mercifull would so moderate the persecution that it should tende to the commoditie of the Church as it also came to pas In the same minde it béehoueth all the faythfull to bée in all maner persecutions and patiently to submit themselues to the pleasure of God. Mutchlesse héerby may the reasoning of somme men take place who gather out of persecutions that if the doctrine were true and faith right God would ayde them and not deliuer thē ouer into their power y are altogether out of y way concernyng doctrine and béeléefe For in the persecution of the primitiue church these men as apperteinyng to y body had the victorie whose faith was false and they y were soundly persuaded suffred persecution were driuen away slain which slaughter calamity notwithstāding dyd nothing in damage the true faith And in our age also the case standeth none otherwise neyther for the persecutions which the Churche induereth the faith and doctryne therof is lesse to be regarded or worse therfore to be iudged The true faith and doctrine d●pend vpon no victory but onely vpon God and his worde Of the fourth Tragical Acte or persecution in which Saincte Iames the Apostle was slayne and Peter cast into Prison Chapter iiii ABout the yeare of Christe 45. Herode surnamed Agrippa sunne to Herode the great brother to Antipas moued the fourth persecution against the Churche wherof Luke speaketh in the Actes the. 12. Chapter There he declareth how Herod had decréed to molest certen of the Churche that he had alredy slaine with the sword Iames the brother of Iohn the Euangelist who also was one of the three whome the lord vsed most familiatly and to whom hee opened his secretes and not content with this cruell déed procéeded farther and call Peter into prison to the intent to put him also to death And because these twaine were the cheefest amonge the Apostles the whole Church was strooken in great sorowe and heauines for this persecution and specially Iohn who was mutch greeued for his brothers death The Church feared also least they should lease their faithfull pastor Peter as they had doone Iames wherfore Luke writeth that dayly they powred foorth prayers vnto God for Peter which prayers were not without effect For the Angell of the lorde came into the prison to Peter and deliuered him out of y souldiours hold losed his theines bandes opened the iron gate and set him at libertie in the open streete from whence by ● and by hee departed out of Ierusalem This great affliction the Church indured pacientlye neither murmured against Christ expostulatyng with hym why he gaue vnto Herod that wicked verlet sutch power against his dearly-beloued ones why he suffred his whole Church and specially Iohn his best beloued of all the Disciples to be touched with such heauenesse why he deliuered not Iames as he dyd Peter they knew that God dyd nothing rashly nor without cause but euery thīg wel rightly Wherfore the faithfull in persecutions must likewise be semblably persuaded For if euer men had nede to make their complaynt to God then had they néede neuerthelesse there were heard no complaynts no murmurings but earneste and humble praiers Wherfore in aduersitie let the faithful flie vnto God in praier requiring his grace y hée would gouerne al thing to y glory of his name and vnto our saluation and whatsoeuer he doth that wée submit our selues willingly to his holy will and pleasure Moreouer no man in the Primitiue Church called the doctrine of y Apostles into question because Iames was slaine with the sword and Peter cast into prison For none of them said thus if the apostles doctrine were true iust God would not haue suffered them to haue bin oppressed of y kings which erred in the faith leadyng also a filthy and wicked lyfe Therefore at this day lykewise the doctrine of the Gospell is not to be doubted of for that the teachers and followers therof are by the Lorde delyuered ouer into the enemies hands of the Gospell and miserably and cruelly by them intreated for the truth notwithstandyng is euerlasting inuincible Paul in the same cause writeth that he was afflicted for the gospel euen vnto hands but y word of god was not boūd The cause that stirred Herod to persecute the church was his owne peruerse minde which lothed christ his word Moreouer the Iewes gréedely thirsted the Apostles bloud wherfore Herod to currie fauour with them shed y bloud of the Apostles This Luke witnesseth in these words And when he saw this namely when he had slain Iames with y swoord to be acceptable to the Iewes hee proceeded also to apprehende Peter meaning after Easter to bringe him forth to the people Like as in our age many princes do persecute the faithfull for none other cause but that with their cruel butcherous Tragedies they might gratefie those Fathers

kigdoms of Iuda Israel it mai be known by the tyrannical déeds of Saul Abner Iereboam Athalia such lyke And in our age manie of the clergie and ecclesiasticall ordre hauinge obtained great honours do feare least their glory pompe ritches pleasures prefermentes and honours should decay if the Gospell were fréely preached Sutche therfore for their kingdome and pleasures with Herod oppose themselues against Christe and his woord and are not stroken with horrour in eggynge foorth vnto or executinge a cruell déede so that themselues may lurke safe and quiet in their neastes To conclude like as this gréeuous and cruell persecution of Christe béegan immediatly after his incarnation by slaughter of the innocent babes so is there nothing that the churche of Christe must looke for vntill the last iudgment but persecutions Of the second Tragical Acte or persecution wherein Iohn the Baptist was beheaded Jesus Christ the Sunne of God crucified and his Disciples dispersed Chapter ii THe second persecution began at one time with the preaching of the Gospell Iohn the Baptiste firste preached the Gospell as S. Marke witnesseth writting how that the Gospell of Jesus Christe the Sun of God began so as it was foretold by the prophets namely by the forerunner of of Christ who prepared his waies and made the mindes of men apt and ready to receaue Christe Whiche Iohn the Baptist pointed vnto Christ as it were with his finger testefinge that he was the Lambe of God that shoulde take away the sinnes of the world The same exhorted men to beléeue in Christe and sent his disciples from him to Christe as vnto him in whome dwelled al fulnesse and through whom only the way was open vnto euerlastinge life affirminge that hée was the verie Sunne of God into whose hande the father committed all thinges and whosoeuer béeléeued in him should haue euerlastinge life and whoso béeleeued not vppon him remained the wrath of god Therewith also he sharply rebuked the vices of men exhortinge all to repentance pronouncinge vnto the impenitent and vnbéeléeuinge the wrath of God and destructiō to hang ouer them These are mētioned by the Euangelistes Mathew 3. chap. Iohn 1. and. 3. chap. and Luke 3. chapter For this doctrines sake when as manie hated John and his disciples and specially the high byshoppes and priestes who by messengers sent vnto him required an accoumpt of his doctrine endeuoringe to stoppe and hindre him from that function Afterwarde when he had rebuked Herode called Antipas of incest which was sun to Herod surnamed the great that slew the children for the same Antipas had taken away his owne brother Philippes wife and his daughter and kept her openly for his owne wife when as I say hée had preached against that wicked déede mutch blaminge the filthines of the fact was by the sayd Herode apprehended and cast into prison Then on a time when Herod had made a solemne feast for his nobles and courtiars amonge his greate and manie cuppes beinge ouerséene and merie with wine promised large rewardes vnto Herodiadas the daughter a strumpet béecause shée had daunced in his presence where shée beinge instructed by the ould harlot her mother required the head of John the Baptist Herod although hée knew● John to bée a godly and holy man yet sending the executioner commaunded the innocent man without iudgment his cause beinge vnhearde shamefully and through tyranicall lust to bée slayn in the prison The daughter presented the Head of John to the incestuous harlot her mother in the feast and euen as shée was sitting at the table Which cruell déede what greife and sorow it brought to Johns disciples and al other godly men euerie faithfull man maye easely repute with himself Wherfore this persecution by Herode committed not only touched Iohn but was greenous also to the rest of the faithful Doubltesse su●ch carnall reasons as these are perplexed the mindes of manie that time why God suffred that man to be afflicted that was so dear vnto the Lorde and greater then whome there was none borne of a woman Why permitted hée him by incestuous persons so miserablye to bée slayne in prison and they the meane time drowned in riotinge drounkennes and dauncinge why hée suffred that holye head disdainfully to be touched and abused by the handes of a filthie harlot These thinges are straunge in the sight of men and the fact it self is horrible yet no wyse man ought to accuse God in permittinge the same which doth all thinge in iudgment and iustice yea if hée chaunce at these dayes to sée verteous and godly men miserably slayne by the vngodly and wicked and rereprochefully vsed thus hée reasoneth with himself if God could beehold it that so holy a man Gods freende the first minister of the Gospell should so dispightfully bée murthered in prison and his head also reprochfully handled wée ought lesse to merueyle if now like wise hée suffre the like to béefall to his fréences who are not yet in so great estimation and dignitie as John was But like as Johns cause was not therfore vniuste and Herodes iuste in that hee preuailed and oppressed and slew John in our age likewise their doctrine and faith which abide persecution and are wofully slayn for Christ and his woordes sake is not therfore the woorse nether the faith of the persecucions and murthers for that cause the better Semblably as there was none other cause that mooued Herod to this persecution and greeuous slaughter then that hée would not bée rebuked in his wickednes neither offend his bousinge mates and incestuous harlot so manie persecutions are raised by those that will not bée reproued for Idolatrie for their sins and wickednesse persecuting the innocent that they may please wicked men which prouoke them vnto it In the same age after John the baptist vnder Tyberius the Emperour our lorde Jesus Christ béegan to preache the gospel and to pronounce remission of sinnes and life euerlastynge through faith in him and also béegan sharply to withstande and speake against the false doctrin of the Teachers namely of the Pharises Scribes and preistes seuerely accusinge their hypocrisie couetousnes and other crimes warnings them also of the wrath of God which hunge ouer them and exhortinge moreouer all men to repentance Hée declared this doctrine and deuine power by sundrie wounders and miracles wherby it is set clere and vndoubted and as a man should say shewed with handes that hée was the sunne of the liuinge God the lorde that had power ouer satan sinne death and hell But the high bishops those Teachers or religious men as they call them which alonely ruled the roste and were of greatest auctoritie in the counsell of the Jewes the priestes likewise and Leuits acknowledged not Jesus as indéede he was to be the true Messias but they maliced him and laid waite to take away his life And at somtimes they called him Samaritane somtime they said hée

all these things patiently and ouercame them and continued alwaies constant vnder y crosse The cause why the Iewes were enemies to Paul to y church surely was none other then y wherwith being before mooued they persecuted Christ y apostles as we haue declared before Moreouer hystories beare recorde that the twelue Apostles in all their life time and durynge the tearme of their administration in the gospel sustayned gréeuous afflictions and were all of them for Christe and his woords sake persecuted and put to death Although all writers doo not agrée of their kinds of death yet they al cōstanly affirme y thei were miserably slain Peter and his brother Andrew were both crucified Iames the elder as wée haue shewen before was béeheaded by Herod surnamed Agrippa Whose brother Iohn the Euangelist the béeloued disciple of Christ only of them al is reported to haue died a naturall death Notwithstandyng hée was apprehended and brought bounde out of Asia to Rome and conuented béefore Domitiā th'emperour and there as Tertullian writeth plunged ouer head and eares in hot boylinge oyle But after that the lorde graciously prouiding for him this cruell déede nothing indamaged his life hée was banished into y Isle Pathmos Phillip was nayled to a crosse there hangynge was stoned to death Barthelmew thei say was by his enemies most horribly flayne and afterward béeheaded Othersome say hée was burnt The enemies of Christe thrust Thomas through with a sworde and so as it is reported they dealt with Mathew Iames the younger the pastor doctor of the church of Ierusalem was throwne downe headlonge from an high place and afterwarde slayne beinge buffeted with stones vntill hée died Likewise both Apostles Simon and Iudas Thaddaeus ended their liues beinge by the heathen slain in a certen temple of Idols Some also say that Mathias was crucified others say hée was stoned and béeheaded Al these bare witnes of Christe not with their mouth and doctrine only but with ther blood also and for the trueth of the gospell which they preached were contented to die with wel willing and moste valient courage Now for as mutch as all the Apostles were slayn by the enimies of God who obtayned the souerainitye ouer them as apperteyninge to the bodye shall wée therfore say that superstitions of Gods enemies were right and the Apostles religion and doctrine false and erroneous who shall accuse God bycause hée deliuered not his seruantes from a reprochfull death but that hée gaue to the worst men in the whole worlde sutch power agaynst his holly Apostles Who although they were ministers of the trueth and innocent men yet were they put to death for the greatest enemies of God as malifactours and wicked persons for sutche were they accused to bée and therefore at this our age in the lyke cause wee must iudge so of their beléefe doctrine who ar shamefully executed for christs sake as indéede the trueth standeth in the sight of Christe ¶ Of the. 6. Tragicall Acte or persecutiō which was vnder Nero and of the seuenth which was vnder Domitian and of the eight vnder Vlpius Traian Emperours Chapter VI. PAulus Orosius an olde historician who liued in the time of Austine and wrote vnto hym seuene bookes of Storyes beginneth the recitall of the persecutyon of the Christian Churche from the persecution whiche Nero had moued which hée accounteth the first whose order the later Historicians also insued And we lykewise in describing the Tragedies persecutions committed against the Church wyll follow the same order as consequently they follow one another But since it is manifest y the fiue aboue recited persecutiōs were before these as the scriptures do shew that which Orosius maketh the firste we make the sixt although the matter be of no great importāce in this respect Orosius writeth that Nero firste that is to say among the Roman Emperours gaue forth commaundement that at Rome and in al other prouinces belonging to the Roman Empire the Christians shoulde bee molested and slayne And y this was his determination to roote oute the Christian faith all Christians wheresoeuer they were The causes that moued Nero to persecute y Christians are not so dilygentlye set downe by christian historicians as they are by prophane writers Suetonius Tranquillus in the lyfe of Nero and Cornelius Tacitus in the. 15. booke of the lyues of the Emperours Nero y emperour was y sinke of al beastly sinfulnesse fulnesse chiefly of lechery and vnspeakable incest defilyng himselfe against al course of nature so y in all Histories of you shal not finde his match This horrible wickednesse he openly committed at Rome without al shame in sight of y Senate and people But there was no man that durste speake against hym mutch lesse to reproue him or assay to punish hym but euery man winked at hym the most filthy beast in the meane time doyng what he list Wherfore God being offended with the citie of Rome punished it with fire as he did Sodome Gomorrha euen by Nero himself when as for his Sodomitical beastlinesse hée deserued to be burned himself And séeing Rome winked at his naughtinesse and did not y which it ought to haue done the horryble Sodomite Nero caused the citie to be set on fire For being certen places in the cittie wherewith Nero mislyked and the streates and passadges there verye narrow he caused the houses to be sette on fire that after they were brent they might be builded againe more faire and sumptious He himselfe beheld the fire out of Mecoenas tower saying that he much desired to se the burning of Troy which he beheld now som what resembled by that burning of the citie singing therwhiles the destruction of Troy and delighting himselfe with beholdyng the great fire Suetonius reporteth that from that time that Rome was firste built it neuer sustayned so much hurte by fire for it continued alwayes burnning the space of six dayes and so manye nights The same is also diligentlye described by Tacitus But when the fire through the wrath of God had brent farther then Nero had thought it shoulde and indamaged the Citie with an vnrepayrable losse and hinderaunce the citizens which had sustained so great harme were very much moued and ●ffended Wherefore the Emperour Nero to the intent that hee might put ouer from himself the 〈◊〉 of the déede raised a rumour among the commons that this whole mischeif was long of the Christians that they were aduersaries to the Gods and Religon of the Romans and wicked burners of cities and townes who also in that sort had defaced the citie And that this report might séeme to carie some trueth and auctoritie hée cast manie Christians into prison and examined them by tortures and tormentes that they should confesse how the citie was set on fire by them And in dede there were some fownd who not beinge able to abide tormentes

hollie man and Seruant of God the Crosse affliction and persecution from god Vnto which purpose God vsed Satan as an instrument prescribing him bonds how farre he should persecute Iob. And Satan through his malice stirred vp the rauenous and gredie people of the Chaldees to breake in vpon Iobs goodes to spoile him and bringe him to pouertie Then Iob although hée vnderstood y ● ●through the instigation of Satan hée was in sutch sort endamaged by wicked and rauenous men notwithstandinge hée tooke regard vnto the principall cause of persecution and hée saide not as the maner is now a daies that hée was sore afflicted by Satan and maliciouslye spoiled by the Chaldees but said hée the Lorde hath giuen and the Lord hath taken away y name of the Lorde bée blessed for euer Likewise the scripture in the same signification calleth Nabuchodonosor the seruaunt of God which persecuted his people and lead them captiue into Babilon for so it is writē in the second booke of Paralipomenon the last Chap. wherfore God sent his Prophetes vnto them exhorting thē to repent but they mocked at them And therfore the lorde béeinge displeased with them brought vpon them the king of Chaldees which was Nabuchodonosor and diliuered then into his hands Likewise in Daniel the. 9. y Lorde watched for a shrewd turne and hath brought it vpon vs Our Lord God is iust in all his woorkes which hée hath doone And although they were the Chaldees which lead away the people of God into hard and sharpe captiuitie notwithstandinge the Prophets of God Ieremie Ezechiel Daniel with many other hollie men which sawe and felt these thinges chose rather with Iob to ascribe their affliction persecution vnto God and his iustice then vnto the vnbéeléeuing and wicked men So likewise at this day the faithfull had rather to suppose y they abide their afflictions at the handes of God then of men For they know that men can do nothing vnlesse God permitt them And in that he permitteth them againe thereby they know béeléeue y all thinges are done suffred by him to bée doone by his iust iudgment and for the profit of his people Wherfore by all these thinges we mai vnderstand that the crosse afflictions persecutions ar sent frō God laid also vpon holy and Godly men And as touching Iob God himself bereth witnes that hée was a single and righteous man fearing God and eschewing euell whose like was not vpon the earthe Moreouer all men acknowledge and confesse that the Prophetes Iohn the Baptiste and the Apostles were holly men and the seruantes of God and yet notwithstanding they al suffred persecutiō Besides this S. Peter writeth that Christians should not suffer as théeues or malefactours but only for God and the truethes cause The first epistle of Peter the. 4. chapter Secondly God sendeth persecution vnto sutch as ought to bée the people of God and partly also are indéede and so are named but are not so innocent pure and holly as of duetie they should bée as wée sayd erewhile of the people of God which were lead away into Babylon And Cyprian testifieth that the cause of the persecution at his time vnder the Emperour Decius was the dissolute life of the faithfull Eusebius sheweth the like causes where hée describeth the persecution of Dioclecian And it is séene that booth giltie and vngiltie good and bad altogither are subiect to the crosse I call vngiltie those whiche béeynge vnlike to the children of this worlde are not defiled with all kynde of wickednesse neuerthelesse haue their imperfections and as it were certein moales and staynyngs Wherefore they confesse their faultes and defectes vnto God and glorie nothyng of themselues Accordyng vnto which sence and opinion Iob sayth Surely I know it is true that no man is iust if hee be compared to god If hee will striue with him hee is not able to aunswere him vnto one for a thousand And althogh I haue doone some iust deede yet will I not answere but intreate my iudge And Dauid in the. 142. Psalme saith Enter not into iudgment with thy seruant O Lorde for there shall no liuing creature bee iustified in thy sight Wherfore those which bée giltlesse although they bée subiect to persecution with the most wicked men notwithstandinge they murmur not against y Lorde but accordinge to the scriptures they confesse and say Thy iudgements are iust O Lorde and all thy waies are trueth and holinesse Thirdly persecutions are sent from god vnto the Church to declare his glorie and Maiestie For when the Disciples vpon a time had enquired of the Lorde touching the man that was borne blind whether hée or his parentes had deserued the same by their offences the lorde answered them as appéereth in Iohn the ix chapter that this was doone that the glory of God might bée declared in him The like also hée said of the sicknes of his frend Lazarus in Iohn the 12. that the infirmitie was not vnto death but sent to the glorye of God that the sun of God might bée glorified therby For in persecutions the power of God is declared wherby hée preserueth his in the midst of afflictions and when hée séeth time deliuereth them with great glory as it is euidently expressed in the stories of Daniell Hester and Esdras Wherfore it is writen by Saint Paule wée haue the treasure of the Gospell in earthen vesselles that the excellencie of the power therof may be Gods and not our owne while in althinges wée ar pressed but not wronge we are in trouble but wée do not want wée suffer persecution but wée are not therin forsaken caste downe nor perishe wée carie the mortification of our Lorde Iesus Christe about with vs in our body to the intente that the lyfe which commeth by Iesus Christe may bée made manifest in our body the .ii. to the Corinthians the. 4. Chapter For which cause the same Apostle writeth how it was said vnto him by the Lorde my grace is sufficient for thée for my strength is made perfect through weaknesse the 2. to the Corinthias the xii chapter There is also another cause of persecutions for that it pleaseth God through them to reueale the trueth vnto men namely when the faithfull béeing apprehended in persecutiōs and brought into iudgment do plainly and openly professe the Gospell And our sauiour christ saith you shalbée brought béefore Lieutenantes and kinges for my sake that this may bée a testimonie to them and the Gentiles Mathew the x. Chapter Moreouer by persecutions whiche God layeth vpon the Church hée prooueth the same how strong and constant it is purgynge those that are vncleane like as Goldsmithes vse to trie clense their golde and siluer in the fier For if the fleash continue in rest and idlenesse féelyng no maner of aduersitie oftentimes it waxeth wanton and lasciuious wherfore God exerciseth his seruantes with persecutions to awake them that they should not