those colours of the Church vnder which I serue should thus reuolt from the discipline to which he is sworne for Kinges forsake their dignitie and forget themselues to win what I seeke the loue of a woman blindeth the eyes of deuotion bridleth the head of authoritie beateth downe ceremonie makes a foole of wisdome and a mad-man of son Pardon me therefore if I submit my selfe to a poure so vniuersall and bee contented to yéelde vnto my affections since they fight not to triumph ouer you but to be your flanes If you fears to commit the sinne I can absolue you if you feare your parents anger I haue strength by vertue of my Order to defend you from thom if you feare the scandall of the world I can plucke out the stings of enuie that they shall not hurt you and stop vp the mouth of slander that she shall not dare to name you With these and such other forces of spéeche did this holy diuell set vpon her that at the length what by violent detaining her day and night in his chamber and what by the temptation of gifts and hopes of promotion shee yéelded and became a slaue to his lust being a sister so long to the Societie that in the end shee proued great with childe of a young Iesuite During all which time she could neuer odtaine of her Louer to sée or send to her parents or to goe forth into the Citie but was locked vp by him like a close prisoner And as this tyrannous inuader assulted her chastitie on the one side and made spoile of it so did the other foure by seueral parlées onsets stratagems and treasons both set vppon the other maidens and ouercome them Fiftéene fellowes had she more in a short time that like lambes lay in the dennes of the Lion The vailes of modesty were torne from before their faces and they were glad to be strumpets to those that by profession were bound to be their fathers They are now no more maidens but holy-mens hariots no more are they frée but bond women to villaines That loue or rather that lust which inticed them to sell away their libertie doeth now make their libertie more seruile then Turkish slauerie for their chambers were vnto them like so many prisons They had the nightly embracements of their Louers and in the day the horrours of an afflicted conscience All of them were great with childe and more great with calamitie Whereupon these infortunate wretches that were neither maides wines nor widdowes but were robbed of all honours due vnto women séeing to what base seruitute they were made subiects and into what strange miserie they had fallen by their owne weakenesse when so euer any of them could spie fit opportunitie She wooed her Louer as hard now that he had made shipwracke of her body to detaine her no longer in that imprisonment as before hee had wooed her to yéelde her bodie to his pleasure She intreated if shee might not be suffered to beholdâ—â—he face of her parents any more nor to breathe that ayre in which she was borne that then hee would commit her to the handes of any hard hearted men who so they might not kill her should bee inioyned to set her vpon any forreigne shoare were it neuer so farre from her owne natiue Countrie To these prayers did she often adde teares and with the teares did mingle kisses and embracements the better to winne her libertie but neither the one nor the other preuailing all of them though they seldome came together had secret intents in their bosomes to worke the meanes of their particular deliueries Which being perceiued by their fiue Iaylers whose iealous eyes were alwaies fixed vppon them they laid their heads together how to ease their shoulders of that burthen which they had laid so heauy vpon themselues They could haue béene contented to bee rid of their guests but all the daunger would haue beene when they had beene rid of them To send them to the Citie had beene to call so many executioners to cut them in peeces for their Rapes as were people in the Citie To deliuer them backe to their parents was to deliuer the inselues to Lyons that had beene robbed of their young ones To conuey them into any other Countrey was assured danger and no policie for so might their infamie slie round about the world No path therefore had they that led vnto safetie but one and that was the way that Murther vseth to walke in A Tragedie must conclude all they fiue were actors enough to beginne it and end it They fiue should write but fiue acts euery man his act though the Epilogue of all should bee their damnations This Tragedy was plotted in the day time and was to be presented in the night darkenesse was appointed to hang the Stage all in blacke of her owne making lust to speake the Prologue murther to hold the booke and to prompt them the diuels to be the Chorus Iesuites the Tragedians Innocents to be slaine God vowed to be the reuenger and the Angells of heauen who were sworne to publish it the spectators This Blacke-worke being thus put to weaueing in their braines they partie casting a thousand wayes how with most conuenience to finish it And as these bloudie Priestes were preparing to set forth their vnhallowed sacrifice on the one side so on the other the Parents of these Sixteen vnhappie Children did nothing but spend their dayes in searching and their nights in passionate lamentations for the losse of their faire daughtters The Citie could tell no newes of them the whole Dukedome knewe nothing of their misfortune the whole Empire of Geâ—…ie afforded no comfort to these who sought for them Yea oftentimes did these Fiue Hell-hounds hâ—…e the complaintes of the Fathers and Mothers and beheld the teares of brethren and kinsfolke as they walked by their doores yet made they but a mockery of all their sorrowes their heartes being hardned the more to keepe them still as their Prisoners by how much the more grieuous they saw their absence was taken In the mean time in the very Interim betwéen the plotting of their intended Tragedy and the Acting of it behold what a Watch man heauen had picked out to stand Centinell in the night of such horred mischiefe a poore and silly man was ordained to confound these great Polliticians in their owne inuentions It happened that a Post who vsed to ride with letters vp and downe the Country being wearie with trauailing came into the Church of which these fiue Iesuites had with others the rule and authority with purpose of deuotion But his deuotion belike being not so great as his wearinesse he fell into so sound a sléepe that the doores of the Church were locked vpon him no man suspecting that any creature had béene left within it The nap he tooke was so long that he waked not all the night following till towards one or two of the clocke the next morning at
A BLOODY Tragedie OR Romish Maske Acted by fiue Iesuites and sixteene young Germaine Maides Presented in a Church within the Dukedome of Bauaria at the high Altar in the Citie of Miniken in Germanie in March 1607. Translated out of the High-Dutch and Printed at Noremberg by Iohn Lankenberger LONDON Printed for E. E. and are to be sold at the little shop at the Exchange 1607. TO THE Reader THe Circle of the yeare is closed vp with Christmas to celebrate vvhich time onely wâ—…h more magnificence and solemnitie It is a custome in the Courts of Kings to make preparation for Maskes Playes and Reuolts But the Jesuites who are the only Reuellers in the Court of Rome disdaining to be tied to order time or ceremonie haue taken vpoÌ„ them to play the Lordes of Misse-rule in the very midst of this yeare 1607. as if it had bin their yeare of Iubile At Lyons in Fraunce did they in person Act a Play at Minâ—ken in Gâ—…many did they set forth a Maske The Play was full of State the Maske full of Sratagemes In the Play a newe God-amightie had a part in the Maske the old Diuell was a Torch-bearer The Play was stuft with blasphemy irreligion scandall the Maske was apparrelled with suites of Lust prophanation bloud and Treason Thunder claps from heauen strucke the Players yet the Iesuites called them Plaudities A common Hangman desrobed the Masquers and discouered them to bee diuells yet the Iesuites say they are Saints Since then God himselfe brands this Iesuited flocke with letters of infamie to shew it is none of his and sincs as being giuen ouer they set markes on their owne forebeads to make them odious and ridiculous to the world vvho vvould not detest their pride vvho does not euen at hand see their dovvnefall The scarlet-coloured beast of Rome hath had many of her heads strucke off shee hath walked vpon a number offeete vvhich gaue her strength to tread vpon the neckes of Kinges but a number of those feete are fallen lame many haue beene cut off and those vpon vvhich shee novv stands are but vveake for your Francistan Dominicans Benedictines Mendicants Jacobines and many a rabbie more of the Romish Armie vvere nor long since the very sinevves to the legs of that Papall Monster and the ribs to her body but novv like leaues shaken by the breath of Autume hang they quiuering and haue but little hold else lye they scattered on the earth the tree from vvhich they drop tottering euery day more and more and ready with her fall to bruise them for euer The Iesuites onlie are the Pillers against which shee leanes if they shrink shee shrinkes for euer And that their great sudden swelling vp in the Romaine Sea shall be but as bubbles in a Riuer who doth not see it who doth not laugh at it France did of late driue them out of her dominions yet like the Horse of Troy were they pulled in againe and she feares alreadie they will proue as fatall Italia knovves them to be Machiauels Germany to be monsters Spaine to be diuels Portugal knovves theÌ„ to be bloudily ambitious vvitnesse Sebastian vpon vvhom they vvould haue strangly vvrought Ireland knovves them to be seditious Scotland knovves them to be treacherous England knovves them to be Iesuiets All couÌ„tries you see haue taken their pictures yet because al countries haue not seene them in all their true collours I present to the vvhole vvorld this one Protraiture more vvhich you may behold a far off because it is penciled dovvne in bloud Vale A MASKE OF FIVE Iesuites THe Nest of Iesuites like a bed of Serpents that when their egges are hatched are full of nothing but poison is now opened to the eyes of the world and their venimous tallants haue drawne blâ—…d almost of all the Kingdomes in Christendome Their feathers which at the first comming forth were thin as not able to couer their backes weake and sickely as not â—f force to make them flie are now spread into large mightie and dreadfull wings so that they dare presume to kéepe flight with the Falcon and to pearch side by side with the princely Eagle the beating of their pinneons in the ayre is so lofty and so lewd that it affcighteth all Nations who know not of what breeding they are But God who with a spurne of his foote can at his pleasure breake the neckes of proud and ambitious climbers hath a little of late shaken them the wings of their insolence hath hee plucked and will in time turne them out naked and discouer their vilenesse This Iniesuated Fratry thinke themselues worthy to be companions with Kings they looke to bee Lordes ouer Cities to controle States with the bending of their browes to bee as Gods Porters vpon earth carrying in their hands the keyes of heauen and to let in none but whom they shall like But listen vnto mee O you people of the Germaine Empire and all the Nations vpon earth beside listen vnto mee and I will in few words giue you the pedegrée of these Iesuiticall Aspirers that comparing the basenesse of their birth with their present bearing themselues and their brauings because they serue in chiefe place vnder the Romaine Empire you may take héede how you let such dangerous enemies into your gates or lay such snakes in your warme bosomes Vnderstand therefore that Ignatius Layola a Spaniard borne in Biscay was the father and first founder of them This Layolo being befiedged among others by the French happened in an assault to be wounded in the thigh with a Gunne and so grieuously to bee hurt in the other that at length hee was taken prisoner But being not worth the kéeping for hee had neither any command among the Spaniards hee was of no birth that might challenge a ransome neither had hee any friends that were able or willing to lay downe money to redéeme him he was in the end therefore set frée for nothing Being then as he was lame and vnfit for the warres he thought himselfe a man not fit for the world and thereupon making away all the goods and wealth which hee had he betooke himselfe to the Church of our Ladie in Mount Serrat resoluing there to mortifie the flesh and to dedicate the remainder of his daies to the seruice of deuotion Whilst thus he continued it is said that hee had a vision forsooth of a strange light which descended from heauen and shonevpon him wrapt with which apparition hee vowed to make a pilgrimage to Ierusalem and to kisse the Sepulchre of Christ Hée did so and then returned into Spaine where hee gaue himselfe being but young to his booke knowing that the authoritie of learning would carry him out in the enterprise which in his minde he had to himselfe purposed From Spaine he came into France and studied ten yeares in Paris in which space hee got companions and fellowes who trauailed with him backe againe into his owne Country from whence hee went
which houre rubbing his eyes to looke what time of day it was but sâ—…ing no light at length he began to remember in what Inne he had taken vp so cold a lodging and knowing it to be a Church he presently fell into a feare by reason of the place his minde ranne vpon nothing but graues which way soeuer he turned his head hee imagined hee spied men and women sitting in winding shéetes with the knots of the shéetes nodding too and fro on their heads as if they shooke with cold as well as himselfe did the least noise he heard made him beléeue it was the voice of a ghost if a mouse did but stirre in the next pew hee trembled as if hée had séene a spirit hee often felt the bench vpon which he sat and thought verily it had béene a coffin and did as often féele himselfe round about his body being no otherwise perswaded but that he was a dead man and had no cloathes on but such as men haue that are buried But to be sure it was not so he would speake to himselfe softly and knowing that he was certainely aliue he lift vp his hands to heauen which hee could not sée by reason of darknesss and praied coldly for the night was not warme that God would if it were his will turne him out of his doores hee cared not how soone Sitting in this perplexitie and conching downe lowe but not daring to lift vp his head yet sweating with the very selfe same feare which presently made him shiuer as much againe Behold hee heard the lockes of a doore flie backe at which noise his very téeth chattered in his head with the terror Anon he might heare the shufling of féete and the lamentable sound of a voyce strugling to vtter somewhat but he could not perfectly tel what by reason as hee imagined it was often stopt by some violence whilst it laboured to speake The poore Post being not willing to die hee knew not how for hee looked still to be knocked on the head as he sat péered vp by little and little with his eyes and spied round about the Church the glimpse of a candle the light put him into comfort but the noise that followed it went more colde to his heart then the panges of death it selfe They that were thus entered into the Church so early for it was now about thrée of the clocke in the morning were the fiue bloody Tragedians the Scaene was now on foote The Maske which the Iesuites intended for this nights Reuells was now newly come in The principall of them of whom in the beginning of this discourse we spake first being the chiefs Torch-bearer for he led the way carried a light before all the rest Those that were to dance their last heauie measures hand in hand with death were the firtéene young Damsells great with childe who were thus led in one by one for more state to the murther This first whose name was Elizabeth being she whose courting I told you of before Her did three of the Iesuites like three Furies hale in two by drawing her violently by the armes two behind her driuing her as forcibly forward with one of their handes euer and anon as she offered to cry-out stopping her mouth whilst the fift Fiend held a candle before the Diuell and lighted the other Foure who continued in this barbarous halling of the poore wretch till they had draged her vp to the High Alter The Post ventured to see all this and could haue sighed to see it but that he feared the wind of his breath would betray him Now stood the miserable condemned Prisoner on the Scaffold where shee was to suffer her executioners stood round about her there was no hope of a pardon there was no helpe to saue her from the Block The Lecherous Villaine that had deslowred her was the first that bid her kneele downe She with a trembling voice and a piteous looke asking why and desiring to knowe in what shee had offended him to bee thus torue in peices and to be haled like a sheepe to a slaugter-house Her Rauisher bid her bee patient to vse few words not to dally with her foule but to settle her thoughts to meete death like a Christian and demaunded of her if she could be content to dye I am quoth she content to dye but I befeech you my Lords play not you the cruell hangmen nor lay my blood vpon your reuer end heads If God say this is my last houre his message is welcome but bee not you the Murderers of an Innocent Maiden Oh I haue lost the honour of that name amongst you which was as â—eare to me as life it selfe Let me not lâ—…e my life amongst you least you 〈◊〉 too many sinnes vpon your soules I sweare vnto you my Lordes if you will giue me life it is a wretched gift which I bâ—gge at your handes for it is a miserie for me to liue but if you will graunt me life I will renounce my Câ—…y forsake my Parents flye from my kinred and acquaintance or if I â—…te with any so vnhappy as to knowe me I will deny my owne name or if I cannot do that yet will I neuer publishe yours nor what you haue done vnto mee And you most Holy Sir that haue pulled the fruites of my Chastitie looke vpon mee with an eye of pittie I coniure you by the Religion which you professe by your Sâ—…ietie by the loue which at the first you â—are me and by the Babe in my Wombe of which you are the Father spare mee Oh spare mee if not for my owne sake for happylie I haue wrâ—nged you or 〈◊〉 not now gratious in your â—ight yet for the Infants sake within mee who euen strugleth at this instant in my body to get away aâ— hauing knowledge I thinke what is comming towards it saue that which is part of your selfe that neuer offended you Not a word which shee spake but came forth with such abundance of teares that euen the Marble in which thee kneeled sweate droppes of water because it bare vppe men that were harder then that on which they trode In this manner did shee pleads for life in this manner did shee complaine But they that had made a Couenant with Hell which they could not now breake remembred what state of daunger they stoode in if shee and the rest liued and therefore one of them casting a Corde a bout her neck to pull her body downe to the ground the rest held her whilest hee that had before the vse of her faire bodie was now the destroyer of it and with a greate Iron Bullet beate out her braines This first Scaene of Death being Acted the rest of the big bellied Damosells were in the same manner fetched forth of their Chambers which had beene their Iayles and were ledde to the Church to bee married to Death Their lamentations were a like because their wronges were a like but all pittie and pyetie being hid in the darknesse of so foule a night and crueltie vsurping their hearts of purpose to giue grace to so hortâ—… a Tragedie and to make it more full in the end the last of the â—…rtâ—…e closed vp the Iesuites Play Whilest in stead of an Epilogue their bodies which as they were murdered were throwne behind the Alter and were in one graue behinde the Alter buried By this time the Sunne who cannot abide to bee present at murders arose and looked red with anger that his pale sister the Queene of the night should suffer such damned impieties to bee done in her dominion chéering therfore the miserable Post with his golden beames which hee sent into the Church to reuiue him that was more than halfe dead with the sight which he had seen At the length when the Murderers were fled to their nests like Owles at the approching of day his light both called vp the morning and called out the poore fellowe out of the polluted Temple who with his hayre halfe an ende went home and related to his Host the circumstance of all thinges in which hee had beene the onely sad speetator The Host vpon this relation tooke the Post along with him to the Citizens house who had lost his Daughter whose name was Elizabeth the Father albeit his childe whome he loued déerely had béene for a long time missing being informed of the bloodie Night-worke of the Iesuites woulde hardlie beléeue that men so reuerenced for their Religion coulde descende into such basenesse and godlesse acts To the Magistrate therefore was the Post carried before whome hee constantly â—…ing in his former discourse was notwithstanding committed to prison because a matter of such moment was not to bee published for trueth from the report of so meane a person when it concerned the liues and repulation of men so great as the Iesuites The fellow being thus committed the Magistrates went discréetely to worke and at last â—…iring to the Church which had béene stained with the blood of Innocents and made a Shambles vppon some farther presumptuâ—… probabilities the ground behinde the Altar was broken vp and the murthered bodies found as the Post had discouered Thereupon the Iesuites were sent for to the Bâ—…e-house and after many inquities and 〈…〉 the Post likeâ—…se â—…ua voce â—…ing to their faces and accusing thâ—… the fact was openly conâ—… for which they were by order of the lawes of the Countrie adiâ—…ed to die the 〈…〉 their 〈◊〉 and death being thâ—… All the fiue Iesuites being placed in a Wagon and drawne through the Citie had their flesh at nine seuerall times pinched with hot burning pincers from them and in three seuerall parts of their bodies great peeces sliced away with kniues then were their armeâ— and legges broken on the Wheele and 〈◊〉 were they left languishing till they expired the Post being rewarded for his watching all night out of the common purse of the Citie FINIS