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cause_n	bishop_n	matter_n	rome_n	1,644	5	6.7338	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67363	The tragical history of Jetzer, or A faithful narrative of the feigned visions, counterfeit revelations, and false miracles of the Dominican fathers of the covent of Berne in Switzerland, to propagate their superstitions for which horrid impieties, the prior, sub-prior, lecturer, and receiver of the said covent were burnt at a stake, Anno Dom. 1509 / collected from the records of the said city by the care of Sir William Waller, Knight ; translated from his French copy by an impartial pen ...	Waller, William, Sir, d. 1699.; Impartial pen.	1679 (1679)	Wing W548; ESTC R18749	85,978	50

quite tyred out with the delayes of the Bishops proceedings who began to cool in the prosecution through the suggestions of some Clergy-men who insinuated that a through discovery would reflect severely upon the Church They remanded Jetzer to Berne and sent for the most eminent Fathers of the Dominicans that were within their Call that they might seem not to have done just nothing with that mighty noyse which had raised all mens expectations The Bishop of Lausanne and the Deputy of Berne however judg'd it adviseable to transmitt a true Copy of the Cause and their proceedings thereupon to Rome to beg advice from the infallible Oracle how they might behave themselves in a matter of so great Importance In the beginning of the year 1509. Dr. Paul Hug with many other knowing Persons arrived at the Dominicans Covent in Berne who were not Ignorant of the Intrigue and were hugely concern'd in the Issue knowing that not only their whole Order but themselves in particular might suffer deeply in their Reputations if the secret were discover'd to the bottom They therefore formally took from Jetzer the Habit of his Order upon the Feast of the three Kings being the very day on which he enter'd into it Jetzer now appears before the Council in the Quality of a mere Lay-person where he stands to his Confession made at Lausanne and discover'd further how he had several times snapt these holy Fathers ranting and rioting with their Whores in the Covent and for Confirmation of what he had said desired he and they might be deliver'd up to the Secular Power but the Fathers stoutly pleaded their own Innocence alleadging that he was not a competent witness against them having formerly asserted their Innocence in full Council and because they were able to prove him a notorious Lyer and there were many evident self-contradictions in his testimony and that he had been guilty of Sacrilege of most horrid Impostures and particularly that the appearance of the B. Virgin crowned with Stars was merely a forgery of his own head wherein they had no hand The Prior denyed the whole Plott The Receiver pleaded that it was false that ever Jetzer had wounded him in the thigh with his knife and brought in the Chirurgeon to testifie that it was an old Ulcer and all the Fathers begg'd their Honours to proceed advisedly in the case that Innocence might not suffer nor Wickedness escape due punishment In conclusion Jetzer was committed to the Marshalsea and the Fathers under suspicion remanded to their Covent Eight days after upon the Return of the Lecturer and Sub-prior from Rome where they had been during this troublous affair they were all brought again before the Council Jetzer as before justified his Confession and further open'd the counterfeit Vision of St. Cicily to which though the Fathers made a zealous defence the Knavery came out daily to the satisfaction of the people But upon the fifth of February Jetzer was by order of the Council brought to be examin'd upon the Rack where he again more particularly laid open the whole villanous design humbly praying that the Fathers might come under the same way of Examination hoping that the Principals should have the same Measure with him that was but an Accessory and indeed a poor blind Tool to serve their Malice protesting that the main Reason why he had been so hardly brought to discover the whole truth was a respect he had to the Credit of that Order and some checks of Conscience about his Oaths of Secresie which they had imposed upon him And that he believed that most of the Fryers in the Covent were perfectly Innocent except the aforesaid Fathers and some few others that were their Confederates and Accomplices in the Design This last discovery set the City in such a rage against the whole Covent that the Council feared lest they should Rise and pluck down the House about their Ears and tear in pieces those Religious Persons for prevention of which they placed a strong Guard upon all the Avenues both to secure the Fathers from the Rage of the Multitude at present and that they might not escape the Punishment due to their horrid Impieties for the future And being Resolved to come to some issue they sent to the Bishop of Lausanne that he would Favour them with his Presence As also to the Vniversity of Basil to send them some of the Ablest Divines and Civilians in their City to Advice with them And that they might be fully empowred to proceed to Judgment they dispatch'd Lewis Oubli with full Instructions and a Humble Supplication to his Holiness with a Narrative of the Case depending before them who upon the 13th of March lest Berne and upon the 25th of May got a Brief from the Pope Directed to the Bishops of Lausanne and Sion the Provincial of the Dominicans of the Province of Strasburgh as Judges upon the whole Matter and one the 21st of June he return'd to Berne The Lords of Berne immediately sent their Letters to these Judges intreating them to lose no time but to meet on the 26th day in the Cathedral Church where being Assembled the Apostolique Commission with all due Reverence was presented to them and the Records of all the proceedings with Jetzer The Papal Brief being read and Jetzer Examined punctually of all his Confession these Judges Commanded their Secretaries viz. Francis de Vermettis for the Bishop of Lausanne John de Proux for the Bishop of Sion exactly to Register the Confession with all its Circumstances that from thence they might have matter from which to draw a Lagal Process or Indictment against Jetzer and the four Fathers At this Examination besides the Chief Judges there were several Assistants Baptist de Aicarde a Native of Lausanne John Grand Official of Sion Michael de Sancto Cyriaco Peter Magnus all Doctors in Law and Chanons in Lausanne with other eminent and worthy Persons The Judges constituted Lewis Oubli afore-said and Conrade Vimman Procurators of the Faith Ordering them Legally to Summon Jetzer and the Fathers to appear before them their competent Judges After a tedious proceeding Jetzer still affirming and the Fathers denying the Villanies whereof they were accused upon the 7th of August the Bishops of Lausanne and Sion Decreed that the four Indicted Fathers should be put to the Rack and there Examined Criminally upon such Questions and Interrogatories as should be drawn up A Cellar on the back-side of the Marshalsey was chosen as the fittest place for the Execution and each of them being stript of the Habit of his Order were arrayed in a Frock of coarse Cloath and so waited for the Torture And so upon the 19th of the said Moneth of August at the instance of the Procurator of the Faith the Lecturer was first put into the Rack He Pleaded hard to be Excused as that he was as Innocent as when he came out of his Mothers Womb that he was a Doctor of Divinity and did protest that all

you How dare you Swear so audaciously that you are Innocent and challenge the Devil to take you Body and Soul if you be Guilty How dare you undergo the Rack with such Resolution and Justifie your self as clear of all sin when St. John says If any Man saith he hath no sin he makes God a Lyar Penitent Magdalene durst not approach her dear Lord and Saviour to wash and kiss his Feet without Confession and why then tremble not you at the Majesty and Terrour of that God before whom the Devils tremble And though the Confession which is now required of you be not Sacramental but Judicial yet it is necessary to your Salvation But you think if you do but Confess to your Confessor you may then stand out and deny your sins before all the World Oh wipe off the scandal which you have brought upon our Holy Religion which must either be expiated by your Tears or your Blood and so you shall be an Example of Repentance to those to whom you have been scandalous Examples of Transgression I do therefore again and again charge and conjure you by the Bowels of Gods Mercy and the Flames of his wrathful Indignation that you trifle no longer with God with your Judges with your own Souls but acknowledge your sins that we may not be compelled to proceed to further Torture This Discourse wrought so far on the Prior to whom in particular he applyed his Discourse that falling down on his Face before the Judges with Sighs and Groans he cryed out for Pardon and Forgiveness and enlarging upon what he dubiously and very imperfectly confessed before his Process was drawn up and finish'd in seven sheets of Paper the 4th of September The Sub-prior yet stood out and hoped to Weather the point he Muster'd up all his Spirits and was resolv'd to be a Martyr and though all the World should Condemn him as a Malefactor he would not make himself Criminal And he endured the Racking with the Cord stoutly but when they added Weights he saw there was no Remedy he followed the Example of the Prior and his Process was draw up and finish'd in nine sheets of Paper The Judges being set upon the seventh of September the Procurator of the Faith appeared before them and demanded final Judgment upon the Delinquents But the Advocate for the Prisoners stood up and Pleaded that the whole procedure was Null and Void in Law and that he did on the behalf of his Clients Appeal to the Holy See this being a special Case and ought to be reserved to his Holiness and prayed that his Appeal might be entred in due form of Law All the other Prisoners submitted to the Court onely the Prior stood to the Appeal The Judges were dubious how to proceed and at last after mature Debate and Deliberation amongst themselves not daring to intrench in the least upon the Prerogative of the Pope they drew up the whole Process of all these Criminals in Latin Signed by the Secretaries of the Bishops of Lausanne and Sion the Original whereof was transmitted to Rome and an Authentick Copy Attested and Signed and Sealed by a Publick Notary was laid up in the Records of the City of Berne out of which this present History was Compiled the Copy of which Certificate word for word here followeth Collationavi ego Salvator de Meligotis Jurium doctor Canonicus Ecclesiae Sanctus Petronii Bononiensis publicusque Apostolica Imperiali Authoritatibus Notarius praesentem processum cum suo Originali penes me existente ita auscultatus concordat in omnibus per omnia ut in dicto Originali continetur ad fidem hic me subscripsi signum meum apposui consuetum S. de M. meligot In English I Salvator Meligot Doctor of Law and Chanon of the Church of St. Petronius in Bononia and also a Publick Notary Authorized by Papal and Imperial Authority have compared this present Process with its Original which is now in my hands and it doth most exactly agree therewith In Witness whereof I have hereunto put my Hand and accustomed Seal S. de M. The Bishop of Sion a great Statesman at the earnest Sollicitation of the States of Berne was the main Wheel that gave motion to the expediting this tedious Affair for the Bishop of Lausanne being a Flegmatick and heavy piece moved slowly and was herb John in the whole proceeding The other Judge viz. the Provincial had withdrawn himself and went to Constance where shortly after he died and indeed he was Sick of the business all along easily perceiving that his dear Order would have small Comfort in it or Credit by it The very day of the conclusion of the Process all the Jewels Ornaments and other moveables of the Covent were seized for the use of the City all their Rights and Priviledges and Patents were also sequestred into their Hands the Monks turn'd out who must else starve the State peremptorily refusing to give them their usual Allowance of Corn and Wine and other Necessaries without which they could not subsist The States also directed their Supplicatory Letters to his Holiness desiring that he would cause the Delinquent Fathers to be Sentenced in their City which Letters together with the whole Process were transmitted to Rome by Order of the afore-said Judges with sufficient Credentials and Instructions to sollicit the Cause and committed to care of Conrade Vimmau Priest of Spiers And for dispatch of his Negotiation he was recommended to several Cardinals to Nicholas Diesbach and the Captain of the Swiss-guards with other Persons of Interest Vimmau Arrived at Rome the 26th of October following and by the Interest of the Provost of Soleure the Captain of the Guards and others he obtain'd a speedy Audience The Captain offered his Service to facilitate the Business and was exceeding zealous for his Countrey in it but he told them they would need to make all the Friends they could and to entertain the ablest Counsel they could get for as the Affair was Extraordinary so they must expect that the Dominicans who were Powerful at Court would turn every stone and set themselves with all their might to oppose it That they had already misrepresented the City as disaffected to the Catholick Religion and that their proceedings were a down-right Persecution of their Order and that therefore they ought not to be admitted to Audience but rather slighted and their cause dismissed Yet notwithstanding the Process was comitted to the Auditor and the whole world ringing thereof some condemn'd though the most commended the zeal of Bern that were resolv'd to drive the matter as far as it would go On the part of the Dominicans there appeared the Cardinal of Naples Protector of their Order Cajetan General of the Order the Popes Confessor the Embassadors of some Kings and Princes sollicited by Dr. Hug who came an Express from the German Fathers of that Order and they Laboured by Bribes and others Engines to suppress the Process

or however to delay it that time might cool the zeal of the Prosecutors or the excessive charge weary out their Purse or their Patience All this Practise could not so far obstruct the Affair but that the Process was read in the Consistory and referred to the Cardinal of Sengall one of the Order of the Discalceated Friers a Worthy Person and Doctor in Divinity to make a Report thereof in a full Assembly of the Cardinals when and where it was Decreed to dispatch a Commissary to Berne who with the Assistance of the Bishops of Lausanne and Sion might by final Judgment and Sentence put an end to this Affair The Negotiation meeting with so happy Success Conrade Vimmau the Envoy return'd to Berne in the Moneth of March 1509. and in April following Achilles de Grassis of Bologn Bishop of Castel Commissary for his Holiness a Person of great Age and as great Learning arrived there also By the way the Reader may know that this Person was afterwards created Cardinal and some are of Opinion that he had been Elected Pope at the next vacancy but that the Cardinals in the Conclave judged the multitude of Bastards that he had then alive would eat up the Revenues of the Papacy and establish a most ruining Nipotismo However he was a back-friend to the Dominicans and was over-heard once to say to the Bishop of Lausanne Hi fratres toti quanti quanti sunt Poltroni Ecclesiae Sanetae devoratores These Friers are every Mothers Son of them great Rogues and the Devourets of the Holy Church This Commissary being now at Berne Lodged at the Crown where Attended him the Bishops of Lausanne and Sion to whom he shewed the Papal Commission whereby he was empowred to hear and determine the depending cause non obstante whatever Exemption Priviledge or pretence of Right given to the Order in general or to that Covent in particular might be pleaded to the contrary The Guild-Hall of the City was appointed for the place of the Session and they first swore their Clerks or Notaries For the chief Commissary Salvator de Meligotis for the Bishop of Lausanne Francis de Vermettis for the Bishop of Sion George Collet Priest of Geneva all three Publick and sworn Notaries by Papal and Imperial priviledge The Court being set The new Prior Elect for the Dominican Covent of Berne John Ornant and the new Sub-prior George Sadler Humbly prayed that Letters of safe conduct might be granted to some of the Fathers of their Order and others to appear on the behalf of the prisoners and they shewed a Missive from Frier Paul of Vlm in favour of this petition to the Bishop of Castel The Judges easily granted their petition and yet Resolved to make them exemplary in punishment whoever should be found to have had a finger in this accursed design Then was Conrade Vimmau aforesaid sworn Procurator of the Faith John Murer a Prior was also sworn Interpreter to whom as Deputies were added John Dubi Sacristane and Martin Lairer both Chanons and also Petrus Magni of Sion so that two of them at least were always to be present in the Court. The same day was Jetzer Examined upon Oath touching each Article of his confession which he Explained and added some Remarkable matters to them without retracting a word and appear'd before the Judges upon this point the second fourth and fifth of May on which last day the four Accused Fathers now in hold appear'd before them and after the Reading of the Commission and their charge they were ask'd what they had to say for themselves They prayed that they might be allowed their Procurators and Advocates and the Court assigned them Docter Paul Hug Doctor Jacob and Doctor Heintzman The Lecturer was first set to the Bar who freely acknowledged that he had nothing to oppose to his former Confession and when he had Explained several of the Articles and opened the whole Intrigue to the Satisfaction of the Court he was set aside and his process finish'd on the seventh of that Moneth Upon which seventh day the other three Fathers appeared who all continued to own their particular Confessions and the Process of the Receiver was concluded on the eighth and ninth of the said Moneth The Judges then issued out a Warrant to Balthazar de Catancis of Bologne Humbert Praroman of Fribourgh and to Marshall Schaller to seize the person of the Novice Megerlin but this crafty Knave aware of the danger had a year before made use of his heels and was reported to lye lurking about Noremberg Upon the 10th and 11th of May the Process of the Prior was finisht but he the last day of his Examination began to boggle and would fain have eaten his words and particularly being examin'd about the red-colour'd Hoste he was so off and on so inconstant and uncertain in his Answers that the Judges knowing they had already enough against him promised that whatever he should now further discover should not come in Judgement against him Hereupon he falls down on his knees begging their Grace and Mercy saying that indeed he had but two of those red-colour'd Hostes in all which he had consecrated one of which was for ought he knew in the Cabinet where he put it in the room of that which the Sub-prior threw in the fire that for those Druggs wherewith they attempted to destroy Jetzer by Poyson they had them of one Nicholas Alber an Apothecary That the Sub-prior had such a rare Art in Poysoning that he could leave one part of a Wafer free from poyson that he could both touch and if need were eat the innocent part without the danger to himself when all the rest should be mortal Poyson On the 14th day the Sub-prior was examin'd upon the former Confessions who answer'd That his first Confession which he made without torture was the truth that the second which he had made was false and only extorted from him by the Rack That the Fathers and Jetzer perhaps were conscious to themselves of wickedness but for his part he was perfectly Innocent of their contrived Villanies and hoped his Judges would not look upon him as an Accomplice or Accessary in such a foul and odious matter Upon this the Officials of Lausanne and Sion were order'd to deal seriously with him and this good effect it had that it brought him to himself again and falling down on his knees he humbly begg'd mercy and so his Process was concluded the 15 and 16 of the same Month. Before and after the conclusion of their Processes divers Witnesses were sworn and their Testimonies received upon several particulars relating to the Cause depending before the Court. As Anthony Noll Martyn Franck Goldsmith William of Dirsbach Knight and Advocate Peter Miller a Carthusian John Miller Procurator of the discalceated Friers John Frisching one of the Council Thomas Peters Chanter of the Cathedral Bennet Vingarten Captain and one of the Council Nicholas Armbroster Nicholas d' Arm Lewis