in these Countries they know GOD no better and it may be a great deal worse than in Turky The sacred Histories are utterly unknown to them they know nothing of Christianity but what we find thereof in their Catechism mingled and confounded with the Errours and Superstitions of Popery Instead of the true Gospel what do they preach in those places that are under the Dominion of Popery And what have they preacht in the times when it did Rule and prevail without contradiction They did there preach 1. Corrupt Morality according to which a man might commit Murder to save a Crown to defend his Honour and secure himself from some small Affront according to which a man might Rob when a person did not think himself sufficiently recompensed for his labours according to which a man might exercise Usury and infamous Monopolies according to which a man might keep Concubines and abandon himself to Sodomy without mortal Sin according to which a man might Lye by Equivocation and mental Reservations according to which he might live all his life without the Fear of God without performing one act of Contrition or the Love of God to his death and he might be Dispensed with that at the point of death provided he exercised an act of the fear of Hell when he receives the Sacrament of Penance Popery hath produced this detestable Morality it hath taught it where it could inspired it into private persons and suffered it where it durst not teach it For Holy History instead of the pious and sacred Histories of the Scripture which might turn mens minds towards Devotion they entertain the people with Fabulous Legends Instead of speaking to them of the Miracles and Greatness of Jesus Christ they speak of the Greatness of the Virgin they say that she was conceied without sin that her Father and her Mother had been advertised of her Birth by an Angel that at her Birth the Angels assembled together and formed a Quire and Consort in the Air that this Celebration of the Birth of the Holy Virgin is repeated every year on the same day that many Saints have heard them in the Air that this Holy Virgin was bred and brought up in the Temple and in the most holy Place called the Sanctuary that when she conceived Jesus Christ it was by three drops of her Bloud which the holy Spirit took from her heart that after she had lived most holily she died in the presence of all the Apostles whom the Holy Spirit brought in the Air from all parts of the World whither they were gone to preach the Gospel that three days after she rose again and was carried up into Heaven with charming Musick made by the Voices of Jesus Christ and the Angels and that she was set very near to Jesus Christ above all the Seraphims After the Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven they made her do a thousand and a thousand ridiculous Miracles upon Earth sometimes she appeared to a Monk sometimes to a Pilgrim sometimes to some one of her devoted Servants she kisses them she makes them kiss her she opens her bosom to them she gives them suck from her breasts she appoints them to build a Chappel to her in such a place and that they should perform such or such Devotions to her she fixes herself in certain places and there makes her choice to dwell and do Miracles All those which come thither for Sickness Blindness Palsie loss of Bloud Deafness loss of Members return thence safe and sound when one of her Houses formerly frequented ceased to be so she transported it beyond the Seas and fixed it in another Country to draw thither new Servants to her Devotion she forgets nothing that may favour those which serve her In one Convent she takes the place office and figure of a debauched Nun which ran to the places of Prostitution because this Nun when she was going did devoutly commit the Convent into her hand In another place because an Abbess did most devoutly commend herself to her when she had polluted herself with her Domesticks she delivered her in private of her great Belly and restored her Virginity in such sort that those who had accused her remained ashamed and confounded Instead of entertaining the people with the Miracles and Vertues of true Saints as were the Apostles to oblige them to an imitation of them Popery hath substituted unto them new Saints which were Fools and wicked Fools too St. Francis St. Dominick St. Hyacinth St. Vincent Ferrerius or imaginary Saints as St. Christopher and the eleven thousand Virgins or modern and unknown Saints such as St. Milorus St. Alldem St. Colganus and a thousand others To which they attribute ridiculous and impertinent actions for Vertues and such sottishnesses for Miracles as are unworthy of those little Demons called Hobgoblins One to testifie his Humility made himself to be tossed in a Sieve by little Children another to draw upon himself contempt counterfeited the Fool and the Ideot another fouled the Bed of his Host that he might be despised of him another kept company with Beasts Wolves and Swallows another preached to Fishes or Birds another stripped himself naked and in that condition exposed himself to publick view another made himself Women of Snow and embraced them to cool and extinguish his Lust another through great Mortification lay with the fairest Women without touching them another made himself a Bed of Stones and Sticks and crowns of Nails and Girdles of Iron another thrust Thorns into his Body washed his hands in quick Lime and covered his face with an eating Powder which made the flesh thereof one intire Ulcer Behold a small part of the Idea that Popery gives us of the Vertue of its Saints As to Miracles they produce to the people faithful Chronicles as they say by which it appears that some of these Saints for their parts have raised fifty two dead persons another thirty another twelve another six three or four They have healed desperate Diseases raised Dogs Parrots and other Animals from the dead The Water in which they washed their hands cured all sorts of Diseases the clippings of their Hair and the parings of their Nails put into the craks of Walls closed them up again and have made Houses ready to fall firm and strong When these Saints preached to the Birds these Animals reached out their bills and clapt their wings when they preached to the Fishes they gathered together on the top of the Water that they might hear when they pleased they drove away not only evil Spirits which troubled them but also living Creatures which interrupted their Discourse They made Angles serve them not only at Mass but also they used them as Grooms to dress their Horses They caused themselves to be carried by the Devil to places whither they would go they made him hold the Candle till he burnt his fingers therewith if the Devil turned himself into a Cat they put him into such distress that
off Heads to hang and burn therefore it ought not to be imputed to her A Sovereign Magistrate contents himself to be Judg and to condemn to Death but he doth not execute he leaves that to the Hangman by consequence if he condemn the Innocent and cause them to die it ought to be imputed to the Hangman and not to him The Church doth a very fine honour to Magistrates she makes them her Hangmen she herself doth not kill but she constrains Princes to kill and burn She constrains I say by Excommunications Censures Exhortations Seductions Sollicitations and the end thereof is she would be able to say The Church dips not her hand in Blood the Church by it self never makes use of force Did the Devil ever cheat after a more impudent and frontless manner I will not say after a more fine and subtil manner for it is to lye without any hope to deceive the Snare is so broad and so ridiculous It were better without Craft to take the way that the Bishop of Meaux takes at last and to maintain that Christian Princes as such have right to punish pretended Hereticks with Death Understand you says he That Princes who are Sons of the Church never ought to make use of the Sword to abuse the Enemies thereof Do you dare to say contrary to the opinion of your Doctors which have maintaind by so many Writings that the Republick of Geneva had power and right to condemn Servetus to the Fire for having denied the Divinity of the Son of God It must be avowed that these Gentlemen are admirable in their confidence Do you dare to say Yes we dare to say it since we say it with most part of the Ancients and with the wisest and most understanding of the Moderns We dare say that the Doctrine which the B. of Meaux maintains here is bloody and cruel and that the Church ought to leave it in share to him who was a Liar and Murderer from the beginning Servetus was burnt at Geneva therefore it is lawful to burn Hugonots and the Calvinists God forgive these unhappy men which have the Cruelty to compare us with Servetus This man was not only an Enemy of the Divinity of Jesus Christ but he was an Enemy of all Divinity he was impious he was a Blasphemer And although he made profession of believing one God the irreverent manner wherewith he speaks of Holy Mysteries makes it plain enough that he had renounced all Religion as well as all Shame It ought to be permitted us to quit our hands of such men They object unto us the Sentiment of our Doctors I answer Our Doctors never did believe that we ought to persecute and burn men that confess God and Jesus Christ according to the three Creeds They never put Papists to Death for the sake of their Religion But although some of our first Writers should have gone too far in speaking concerning the punishment of Hereticks it ought to be known that our Authors are not our Teachers we have but one only Teacher and that is Jesus Christ speaking by his Prophets and Apostles We swear to no mans words but to those of God. And without serving my self of the Examples and Authority of your Doctors tell me in what place of Scripture Hereticks and Schismaticks are excepted from the number of those Malefactors against whom S. Paul hath said that God hath armed Kings and Princes It appertains not to us to shew you that Hereticks are not of the number of those against which God hath put a Sword in the hands of Princes 'T is for you Gentlemen Persecutors to prove to us that they are comprehended there For we have sense reason piety and humanity on our side and besides we have the consent of sound Antiquity for more than four hundred years How could the Church be able to put the Sword in the hand of Magistrates for the punishment of her Enemies in a time when the most scrupulous Christians found it difficult to consent to the Death of those Criminals that disturbed the publick peace and that of particular persons and did maintain that Christians without exception never ought to dip their hands in Blood. In what Dictionary hath Monsieur de Meaux found that evil thinkers and evil doers are the same thing Princes have right to punish evil doers with Death therefore they have also right to punish evil thinkers with Death They have right to punish those whose Crimes are apparent to the publick ruine therefore they have right to burn men whose Crime is in the Conscience the Empire whereof appertains only to God. If the Church have right to call in the Secular Power for the punishment of Hereticks why did S. Paul say simply A man that is an Heretick reject after the first and second admonition Why did he not say Deliver him to the secular Power that he may be burnt Did he not know that in a few Ages Princes would become Christians and have the Sword in their hands Did he only give Precepts for the present time and state Hath this Cruelty of Massacring honest well-meaning but mistaken Persons any affinity with the Precepts of Jesus Christ which commands us to serve our selves with Sweetness Humanity Prayers Exhortations and reasons for the reduction of them It is then permitted to Massacre the Jews for there are none greater Enemies to the Church than they are Is that the Spirit of the Gospel which promises a return and conversion to that Nation How shall they return if they be destroyed Will men never be ashamed of this Antichristian Barbarity Will they never know that it is the Beast in the Revelations who makes himself drunk with the Blood of Saints devours their Flesh makes War upon them and overcomes them and is therefore called Beast Lion Bear and Leopard For he must have renounced reason and humanity and be transformed into a Savage Beast that behaves himself towards Christians as the Church of Rome behaves it self towards us Monsieur de Meaux affirms that what they do against us at this day is nothing but a lawful exercise of the Power that Princes enjoy by Authority from God for the punishment of Offenders And I will prove to him in three words that it is false 1. Princes in the use of the Sword against Malefactors design their ruin that publick Societies be no more troubled with them 'T was the end that was heretofore proposed in Persecutions for Religion 'T was the end that Charles the Ninth pretended to have in the Massacre of S. Bartholomew 'T is the end of the Inquisitors who burn all those that are suspected of Heresie It hath been the end of all Persecutors in past Ages But this is not their end at this day they intend not the Destruction of the pretended Hereticks but their Conversion Therefore although it should be true that Hereticks are not eccepted out of the number of those Malefactors against whom God hath armed Princes this will
do not see there in the Prayers for the Dead any Prayer for the deliverance of Souls out of Purgatory According to the Liturgies of that time they requested two things for the Dead 1. Pardon all his sins voluntary and involuntary give him Angels for his guard For the believed that in these separate places they were assisted by Angels 2. Place them in the Bosom of the Patriarchs and Apostles and of all those that have been acceptable to thee from the beginning of the World where there is neither sorrow nor sighing It is the separate place where according to them Souls rest to the day of Judgment To conclude will you have any thing more than all this Behold it in the Book of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of the false Dionysius the Areopagite It is to do him great honor to quote him among the Authors of the third Age since he is much more modern But at least in teaching us what was done in the following Ages he will learn us what was not done in the Ages preceding He says 1. That when a Man was dead hi Relations and Friends sung Praises to God that had given him the Victory and caused him to arrive at the end he desired 2. Afterwards they carried him to the Bishop as if it were to receive the Sacred Crown 3. The Bishop caused him to be carried if he were a Laick to the entrance of the Quire of the Church and there they performed the Office of Prayers which began with Praises afterwards they read the Promises of the Resurection and sung Psalms before they passed farther they caused the Catechumens to go out after which they mentioned all the Saints heretofore dead in whose Praises they thought the deceased might have some part They exhorted all those which were present to breath after a happy end in Christ Jesus and in conclusion the Bishop made Prayers for the Dead he saluted the deceased person and after him all the living But what did these Prayers for the Dead contain It is says he that all the sins which they have committed through human frailty might be forgiven them and that God would conduct them into the Land of the Living into the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to the place where there is neither grief sorrow nor sighing In all this there is nothing of Purgatory To conclude For the third and last difference of the Sacrifice of the Mass at this day where they make mention of the Dead and the services which the Christians of the third and fourth Age did for them it must be known that at this time they distinguished the Dead whereof they make two sorts there are those which they put in the Liturgy to Pray for them for their rest and deliverance from Purgatory and others whereof they make mention to present their merits to God and to be aided by their Intercession For in the Mass they make mention of the Holy Virgin of the Apostles Martyrs Confessors c. to be aided by their Prayers and to partake in their Merits that is to say they Prayed to them instead of Praying for them but this was a thing unheard of in those Ages It was a thing so impossible that they should Invoke God by the Merit of the Apostles and Martyrs that they Prayed to God even for them just in the same manner as for the least Believers This may be seen in the Liturgies that we have quoted where we have seen they Prayed for all Saints from Abel to this present day and the Liturgy of St. Mark makes express mention of Apostles Martyrs Confessors as of persons for which it says Cause them to rest in the Bosom of Abraham This by the way makes it appear that these good Men make little reflection upon what they say for they request on the behalf of the Apostles and Martyrs that God would set them in a place of rest nevertheless it is one of the Articles of their Faith that they are there already and that they had been there from the moment of their death But as Bellarmin hath well observed their Prayers for the Dead were conceived in the same terms as if they had been made at the instant of time when their Souls left their Bodies an instant which is the precise time of Praying for the forgiveness of their sins and the rest of their Souls If after this the new Converts through their prejudice and blindness will find the Sacrifice of the Mass in the third Age we know not how to help it let them only know that this heap of Prayers for the Dead and Oblations for the Deceased which were added to the Celebration of the Eucharist in the third Age was the unhappy Seed which the Spirit of Lies and Superstition did Sow in the Church that he might cause from thence to spring the false Sacrifice of the Mass Propitiatory both for the Living and the Dead so that they ought not to be astonished if there be some shadow of likeness between these Oblations for the Dead and the Sacrifice of the Mass since the one is the Seed and the other the Fruit the one the beginning and the other the end This Article might suffice not only for the Sacrifice of the Mass and for Prayers for the Dead but also for Purgatory for what we have said proves that Prayer for the Dead was by no means established upon the Opinion that Souls were in fire after death from whence they might be drawn by Masses And you may my Brethren boldly defie your Seducers to shew you in that Age any passage in the Ancients that say so Suffer not your selves to be abused by the Word Refrigerium which signifies refreshment as if they had desired for Souls some abatement of the heat of the flames for this Word signifies no other thing in the Authors of those times than pleasure and locus refrigerii a place of pleasure Beware also of the Knavery of your Translators who in those places where they find offerre pro dormitione that is to offer for those asleep they Translate it to offer for their repose as if the Souls for which they Prayed had been in some Pain and Travel For to offer for those asleep is simply to offer for the Dead Sleep according to the Style o Scripture signifies nothing but Death and to offer for the Dead or for those asleep was to offer by making mention of the deceased Behold that which was added to the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the third Age which began to give it some appearance of the Mass but they yet wanted three great things the Elevation the Adoration and the refusal of the Cup. We do not find the least trace of these three things take it for granted and put your Converters upon the necessity of proving the contrary and you will reduce them to what is impossible As for us if we would bring you Proofs that they did Communicate under both Kinds that they did not
Clairac he could have no other Title seeing he appeared at the Synod on the behalf of the Church which he then served It must be confessed that never were there so many Falshoods heaped together For a Fifth Argument we produced the Marginal Note of Mr. Soulier A fifth Argument of Falshood Soulier's Impertinencies thereon Cromwel was yet alive Now he had been dead almost a year To this he answers that he might say that Cromwel was yet alive For that could not be referred to any one but his Son which succeeded him in the Government For this I remit him to the Letter of Mr. Le Feure which we have seen above This is curious and will give very fair advantage to the Learned to resolve the difficulties of History Such a one was yet alive 't is true he was dead some ten years since but that signifies nothing his Son was alive and reigned in his stead 'T is the same thing At the most says Mr. Soulier this can be no more than a mistake of the Historian which cannot prejudice the truth of the Act which speaks not of Cromwel or his Son but of the English in general By your favour Mr. Soulier 't is a great prejudice to the Act For if it had been made whilst Cromwel lived it would have been much more probable because 't is known that Cromwel did very much concern himself or appeared so to do in the preservation of the Reformed Churches of France Besides his Throne was so well established at home that he could attempt any thing abroad 'T is also known that France never feared any man so much as He. So that whilst he lived the English were in condition to attempt and it may be to execute the Project which they charge upon them but after his death it was no longer so the Scene changed from white to black If the Priest Soulier did put Cromwel in the Margin under this apprehension as it 's very probable he did this makes it appear that he was not altogether a Beast He thought it was much more reasonable to make the Ministers of Guyenne treat with Cromwel than with that Chaos of Government that came after him there was only this little difficulty in the way that Cromwel was dead But this is a small matter with these Gentlemen who have done in our days that which we thought impossible A sixth Argument of Falshood the leud Answer of Soulier Among the Arguments we said that it was to invent without judgement to suppose that an affair of this nature could be treated of in a Synod where there was a hundred and fifty Deputies that it was to put a Rope about all their necks and deliver their lives into the first Fool or Traytor To this he answers what he had already answered elsewhere 'T is that there is nothing more easie than to cause an Act to be signed by those who preside in these Assemblies without passing it by a plurality of Voices and above all then when the Moderator is in the Conspiracy as he was upon this occasion where Ricottier was one of the principal Instruments thereof But this is called reasoning like Soulier the Priest and like Doctor Shoemaker We are not disputing about signing an Act or causing it to be signed We know very well that nothing is more easie than to get Acts signed by the Presidents in a Chimney-corner That which is disputed is about the execution of an Act and of putting it into a condition to be executed For this 't is necessary not only that it pass all the Voices of the Synod but also that it be debated and considered in all the Consistories otherwise the Signatures of Ricottier and three others would serve as little to give assurance to the English for the pretended delivering up of places as the word of the poor men of the Hospital of Quinzevint in Paris Now we demand once more whether in such a time as this there were men foolish enough to make such a deliberation pass before a thousand or twelve hundred persons for there were not less in all the Consistories of Guyenne Surely this were to expose their lives at a very cheap price A seventh Argument of Falshood and the Fooleries that Soulier speaks thereon For a new Argument we had said that these men of Montpazier had lost their sense to engage to deliver places to the English in the year 1659. when for almost forty years they had had no places or Town which they could deliver to Strangers Soulier the Priest makes very judicious Reflections thereon First he saith that they make this Act speak what they please to render it ridiculous But the men of the Synod did not engage precisely by this Act to deliver places to the English We know not whether this man dotes or hath a design to make himself ridiculous The men of the Synod did not promise to deliver places what then do those words signifie The English require that we give them assurance to put into their possession all the Cities and Town whereof we can dispose What did the Synod thereupon It gave command to Mr. Durel to know what assurances they desired and of what of the delivery of places for there was nothing else under dispute At the same time they give order To promise on our part all the assurances that were possible I understand not the Language of the Synod of Montpazier if this be not in formal words to promise the delivering up of places so then in despite to the exceptions of Mr. Soulier behold four or five Ministers and it may be so many Elders promise to the English to deliver them Bourdeaux Blage c. and other places of Guyenne In truth this is so absurd that the Priest Soulier cannot hinder himself from seeing the absurdity thereof and for that reason he gives a ridiculous gloss to this Act. The second thing which Soulier answers is that we need not be amazed that this Act took no effect the Act says he was in the month of July in the years 1659. Now immediately after two things happened which hindered the execution the one was the Peace of the Pyreneans the other that the Minister Durel arriving in England found many differing Factions there But Mr. Soulier ought to remember that the two things which according to him hindered the execution ought to have hindered the project and the deliberation for they happened not after but before We have made it appear that these Factions happened in England immediately after the death of Cromwel and for the Peace of the Pyreneans it's true it was concluded after but the Negotiation thereof was begun and the success certain many months before the Synod of Montpazier The third Answer of Soulier is taken from a Book intituled The last Efforts of afflicted Innocency Where to that which the Author objects that the Hugenot party was in no condition to make themselves feared he answers Remember what
advantage upon the Abyssines because they were very ignorant But King Claudias interposing therein had almost as much advantage on the Missionaries of Portugal as they had on the Ecclesiasticks of Aethiopia because he was without comparison the most able man of his Kingdom as well in Divinity as in the Art of Government Oviedo seeing that he got nothing by these ways resolved to employ those which were more violent He left the Court to testifie his displeasure and published a Writing injurious to the Abyssine Church in which he accused it of many Heresies and forbad the Portugese to have any Communion with it The King was angry also on his part but a little while after he was slain in a Battel and left his Brother Adamus Saghed Successor to his Realm This Prince used more rigour against Oviedo and his Companions he revoked all those Acts of Grace which his Predecessors had granted to them He forbad them upon pain of death to trouble his Estates by their new Gospel The Bishop withdrew to Fremone upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom and there abode thirty years with the Portugese under the Title of the Patriarch of the Abyssines which he took after the death of John Barrett Adam Saghed died and his Son Malec Saghed succeeded him He treated the Portugese more kindly and they being reformed by the correction they had received acted more wisely and with greater moderation Nevertheless this Mission was extinct because they had no way of sending Successors the Turks having possessed the Ports of the Red-Sea which gave admission into Aethiopia And the Portugese which would have converted all the Nation were found without Priests to give them the Communion But in the beginning of this Age in the year 1604. a Jesuit named Peter Pais was more happy than all those who had preceded them He entered into Aethiopia and made himself admired by an Ability which although it were but very indifferent seemed extraordinary among people which knew nothing He came to the Court of Zadengel who was then King of Aethiopia and managed him so well that he obtained an express Promise from him that he would submit to the Pope and the Religion of the Romans This Prince began with an Ordinance which forbad the observation of Saturday or the Sabbath which the Abyssines venerate as the Lord's Day The Great Men of the Realm being provoked by this Enterprize conspired against him and slew him after a Battel in which he was not successful Behold already the death of one King which Papery caused in Aethiopia This death cost the Jesuit Converters nothing on the contrary they found in Susneus the Successor of Zadengel a Protector much more proper to make the Minister of their Violence Susneus permitted himself to be managed by these Missionaries of Portugal in such a manner that they prevailed with him to declare openly that he would change the Religion of the Country and submit the Abyssine Church to the Pope He wrote concerning it to Clement the Eighth and to Philip King of Spain who was then also King of Portugal Many Great Lords of the Court and Officers of the Army out of complaisance to their King embraced the Religion of the Romans and communicated with them Susneus having received many kind Letters from Paul the Fifth writ to him again another Letter dated the 31th of January 1613. by which he acknowledges him for Pastor of the Universal Church and desires his assistance to confirm his Religion This Prince guided by the Jesuits to the end that they might do things a little in form caused many Conferences to be held upon the Question of the two Natures in Christ Jesus For the Aethiopians following the Schism of Eutyches acknowledge in him but one But the truth is there is at this day nothing but a dispute of words thereon for the Eutychians acknowledge the Divinity and Humanity in Christ Jesus but it pleases them to say this Union makes but one Nature compounded of two as the Body and Soul in Man make but one Compound so that 't is certain that we may very well give our selves indulgence therein but 't is not of the Spirit of Popery to tollerate any thing The King at the sollicitations of the Jesuits made an Edict by which he ordained That henceforward they should believe two Natures in Christ Jesus The Abyssine Monks which fell in the Dispute sustained themselves in their ignorance with obstinacy in their Opinion but one of them having spoken a little too freely was brought before the King and was beaten with a stirrup-leather Behold the Spirit of Popery which began to discover it self without disguise This first Violence awakened their sleeping Spirits Simeon the Metropolitan of the Abyssines came to Court he complains That without consulting him they had done such things upon Religion The King answered That for his satisfaction there should yet be a Conference on that subject The consequence was that after the Conference the Jesuits obtained an Edict by which it was forbidden on pain of death to say there was but one Nature in Christ Jesus This frightful Decree was a clap of Thunder which seemed to reduce the whole Empire of the Abyssines into powder and Aethiopia knew then by experience what Evils the Spirit of Popery drew along with it all the Realm was alarmed and the most moderate lost their moderation and considered that in truth the Controversie about two Natures in Christ in the estate in which now it was was of no importance but that such a severity was unheard of in Aethiopia since the times of the Apostles and that it was wholly opposite to the nature of the Christian Religion for which Religion they concluded they must not suffer such Violence Jamanaxus Brother by the Mothers side of the Emperour puts himself at the head of a very powerful Confederation into which many great Lords entered with all the Church-men and a great part of the People The Metropolitan Simeon who strove less against the two Natures in Jesus Christ than for his Dignity which they would have taken from him in favour of him whom it should please the Pope to name excommunicated all those which followed the Religion of the Franks for so they call the Religion of the Romans This boldness caused some fear to the Emperour he grew a little moderate and made another Edict in which he gave Liberty of Conscience to all his Subjects and in all appearance he had continued so to do if he had followed his own Inclinations But at the instigation of the Jesuits he returned to more violent Counsels The Queen-Mother the Metropolitan the Church-men and the Monks threw themselves at his feet in favour of the ancient Religion but he rejected them all with violence so that there was no more hopes of Peace Jamanaxus the King's Brother Elias his Son-in-Law Governour of the Province of Tygris with a great Party resolved to oppose the Violence by force The Metropolitan
to the Persecutors the year following in the Month of February 1674 they summon'd before their Tribunals generally all Ministers Regents Professors and Masters of Schools of the Reformed Religion in Hungary as well those of the Confession of Ausburgh as those of the Confession of Switzerland part of them refuse to appear others fled and others tarried at home under the protection of their Lords who were Protestants Nevertheless there were to the number of two hundred and fifty which had the courage to appear at the day appointed These were they which God had appointed to be the Objects of the most cruel Rage that ever was exercised Of these two hundred and fifty they chose out six to answer in the name of all to the Accusation which was thus formed against them That renouncing the fear of God and Men they had accused all the Members of the Catholick Kingdom of Hungary and by consequence the King himself of being Idolaters that they had spoken insolently in their Sermons against the Blessed Virgin the Saints departed and against their Images and those of Jesus Christ that they had violated the Oath of Fidelity made to their Prince given Succours to his Enemies opened the way to the Turks to the end they might possess themselves of the Kingdom of Hungary and by consequence that they were guilty of Treason against GOD and Man and worthy to lose both their Goods and Lives The first part of the Accusation was an Affair purely of Religion and 't was that alone for which these poor afflicted persons suffered Persecution For the fault of Rebellion there was not the least ground to suspect them guilty of it their Judges themselves justified them therein and Forgatz the President of the Chamber said to some that did sollicite him In the Name of God trouble me no more for before God I myself am in no security for if I speak but one word on their behalf they will accuse me of Rebellion and cast me into Prison But in truth they were ready to discharge them of the punishments which these horrible Crimes deserved and whereof they were accused provided they would sign the Writing which others had signed confess themselves guilty and go into voluntary Exile Yea they offered to give them Money to conduct them whithersoever they would go There is a great deal of probability that persons who had caused the Turk to enter into the Country should be permitted to quit it by a voluntary Banishment Moreover this Accusation seems so absurd that I can see no reason why they should choose it for a pretence 'T is a hellish Wickedness to determine Banishment to persons only for Religion and yet make them confess a Fault of which every one knows they were innocent to the end they might have opportunity to say that they were punished for a Crime against the State. 'T is the Spirit that hath always reigned among Persecutors The Pagans made the Christians suffer horrible punishments only for their Faith Nevertheless to deprive them of the glory of Martyrdom they would make them confess these enormous Crimes whereof they were accused On this pretended Crime or to speak better upon the refusal of these Hungarian Pastors to quit their Ministery their Churches and their Country on the fourth of April 1674 they were condemned to dye And happy had they been if the Sentence had been executed upon them since never were Martyrs and Confessors under the first ten Persecutions of the Pagans exposed to such cruel tryals and temptations Leopold of Colonitsch Bishop of Newstadt the Jesuite Nicholas Kellion Monsters of barbarity and cruelty were the chief Ministers of those horrible torments which they caused these glorious-Confessors of Jesus Christ to suffer whereof we shall give you a very short Abridgement They had no design to put them to death according to the sentence pronounced against them that had been to deliver them too soon and it 't was in their design to make them pass through a thousand deaths successively Some of them they put into Irons giving liberty to others thereby to oblige them to renounce the truth through fear of the Chastisement which they saw fall upon their Companions For the space of eight whole Weeks they employed all sorts of Artifice to get them to sign the Writing and to go voluntarily into Banishment confessing themselves guilty But seeing they encouraged each other to bear the tryal they separated them and put the Ministers of the Confession of Ausburgh by themselves Many fell subscribed confessed themselves guilty and went into Exile There was forty six which refused and were cast into prisons and a few hours after they fetched them thence and transported them some by Waggon and some by the Danube into divers Fortresses of the Kingdom They carried twenty to Comarine eight to Sawarine eight to Berenstchine and nineteen to Leopolstadt all of them laden with Chains and Irons They gave for Conductor to those nineteen carried to Leopolstadt a Hangman which carrying Halters in his hand throughout the whole Journey threatned to hang them on the first Gibbet if they did not yield to what he demanded of them The Reformed Pastors of the Confession of Switzerland had more courage than the most part of the Lutheran Pastors for except two they all resolv'd to suffer all things rather than sign that Writing by which it was intended they should sully their innocence by confessing a pretended Rebellion and that they should renounce their Ministry Upon their refusal they distributed them as the others to divers Cittadels of the Kingdom They carried seven of them to Sawarine as many to Kapuwarin six to Eberard-Castle and the twenty one that remain were sent to Leopolstadt they were all chained and put into deep and dark Dungeons In all these places they received unheard of Treatments those which were conducted to Berentschin were coupled two and two as they yoke Oxen. They put Irons on their feet all filled with Nails which passed through their shoes and stockings and pierced their very flesh The Prison where they were put was as dark as Hell 't was a low stinking Dungeon full of Excrements Mud Man's Dung Serpents and Toads into which they could not enter but on their hands and knees The Governour of the Cittadel having represented to Colonitsch the Bishop of Newstadt that these Prisoners had not strength enough to suffer such torment and that they would die under it 'T is no matter said the Bishop when they be dead earth enough will be found in the Fields to cover them They took them not thence but to make them carry Wood for the use of the Cittadel and to draw Water from a deep Well Of those which had been conducted to Comorin the most part having suffered the most horrible Prison during the space of many months were so weak as to suffer themselves to be overcome and abandon their Confession There were not in this place above three Confessors that persevered