under the Sword when Jerusalem was taken by Storm and eleven Hundred Thousand perished by the Sword Famine and Pestilence during the Siege and at the taking of the City Some of the Prisoners were carried to Rome to grace their Triumph Others were slain in divers Places at the Conquerors Will Some were torn in pieces and devoured by wild Beasts Others were compelled to march in Troops against their Fellows and to kill one another to make the Spectators sport The Reliques of this wretched People were dispersed into all Nations under Heaven having no Magistrates of their own to protect them but were and still are altogether at the will and discretion of the Lords of those Countries where they sojourn So that no Nation under Heaven is so vile and contemtible as the Jews 26. Yet here was not an end of their misery For in the Reign of the Emperor Trojan these wretched People rebelled against the Romans in Egypt and Cyprus and falling upon the Inhabitants used unheard-of cruelties towards them whereupon Trajan sent against them Martius Turbo who slew many Thousands of them And fearing lest the Jews in Mesopotamia should break forth into the like Outrages he commanded Lucius Quintus to destroy them utterly who so diligently executed his Will that the Emperor to recompence his service made him President of Judaea Dion 27. After him Adrian the Emperour sent Severus his General against these wretched Jews who by reason of their multitude would not trie it out in a pitched Battle but proceeding more warily and taking his opportunities he by degrees took fifty of their Strong Castles razed nine Hundred and fourscore of their best Towns and slew five Hundred and eighty Thousand of them Besides multitudes that perished by Famine Diseases and Fire so that almost all Judea was made desolate He also by an Edict prohibited the Jews from coming near to Jerusalem or from any high place to look towards the same Dion 28. Salmaticensis testifieth that this Adrian destroyed twice as many Jews as Moses brought out of Egypt That he razed Jerusalem and not far from it built another City which after his own Name he called Aelia and over the Gates of it he placed Statues of Swine which were faithful Porters to prohibit the Superstitious Jews from entrance 29. St. Hierom tells us that in his time on that Day wherein Jerusalem was taken by the Romans you might see decrepit women and old ragged Women and old ragged men and many wretched People but pitied of none with blubbered cheeks black Arms dishivelled Hair howling and lamenting for the desolations of their Sanctuary in their Bodies and Habits bearing and wearing the sad Characters of Divine Vengeance of whom also the Soldiers exacted their Fees for granting them liberty of farther weeping So that they who formerly sold the Blood of Christ and his Members were then fain to buy their own Tears Gods Judgments on Persecutors during the ten Primitive Persecutions under the Heathen Emperors 30. Nero that monster of men that raised the first bloody Persecution against the Christians caused them to be clad in the skins of wild Beasts and torn in pieces with Dogs Others he Crucified Of some he made Bone-fires to light him in his Night-sports In brief such horrible cruelties he used against them as made them to be pitied of their very Enemies But God at last found out this wretched Persecutor For being adjudged by the Roman Senate to be an Enemy to mankind he was condemned to be whip'd to Death To avoid which shameful end he cut his own throat 31. Domitian the Author of the second Persecution against the Christians grew to that prodigious height of Pride that he would be adored as a God But God raised up his own houshold Servants against him who by the consent of his Wife slew him with Daggers in his privy Chamber His Body was buried without honour His memory accursed to all Posterities and his Arms and Ensigns were thrown down and defaced 32. Trajan though a prudent Prince and good civil Magistrate yet by the instigation of Satan and his Instruments raised the third Persecution against the Church For which the vengeance of God and his heavy hand fell upon him For first he fell into a grievous Palsie then lost the use of his Senses and lastly fell into a Dropsie and dyed in great anguish and misery 33. Adrian who raised the fourth Persecution causing ten thousand Christians to be crucified in Armenia and afterwards stirred up a hot and cruel Persecution against them in other places was stricken by God with an issue of blood from his Lungs which exceedingly disquieted and weakened him Then he fell into a Consumption of the Lungs which he spat out continually And in the mean time he was afflicted with an insatiable Dropsie whereupon finding himself so variously tormented he would have taken Poison or cut his throat with a Knife But his Friends preventing him he was forced to die a lingering and painful Death 34. Marcus Antonius Verus who continued the fourth Persecution exercising exceeding great cruelties against the Christians in all parts of his Empire especially at Lions and Viene in Dalphine For which cause the Lord struck him with a grievous Apoplexy of which after he had lain speechless three days he dyed 35. Comodus the Emperor who continued also this fourth Persecution against the Christians was given over to such abominable wickedness that he kept three hundred Concubines and as many boys for unnatural and delectable uses and for his cruelty was poisoned by his Friend Marcia which caused him to fall into extreme and deadly vomiting in which he was slain by Narcissus one of his Chamberlains 36. Severus the Author of the fifth Persecution never prospered after he began the same but fell into diverse calamities And at length was stricken by God with such an extreme pain through all the parts of his Body that being in misery therewith he would fain have poisoned himself but being prevented by his Friends he dyed a languishing and painful death 37. Under him Claudius Herminianus Governour of Cappadocia out of hatred to his wife who was a Christian extremely persecuted and afflicted many of Gods children he was stricken by God with a Pestilential Carbuncle and had Vermine bred in his bowels which devoured him alive after a most horrible manner which extorted a confession from him that those Plagues fell justly upon him for his persecuting the Christians 38. Maximianus the Empreor who raised the sixth Persecution against the people of God especially against the Pastors of the Church was himself together with his Son slain by his own Soldiers 39. Decius who raised the seventh Persecution labouring by all means utterly to destroy the Church of Christ exercising all the cruelty and torments that the wit of man could invent against them For this cause God raised up the Scythians against him who in a bloody battel routed and overthrew his Army and himself and Son
Friar called Lambert a Dr. and Prior in the City of Lieg and one of the bloody Inquisitors as he was one day preaching bitterly against the Protestants was stricken speechless and being carried out of his Pulpit into his Cloister he was shortly after found drowned in a Ditch 94 Augustine Marlorat a Learned painful and holy Preacher in Roan was condemned to be hang'd and drawn on a Hurdle to the place of execution The Constable of France loaded him with a thousand reproaches and outrages as also did Monsieur Monbrun the Constables son who shortly after was slain in the battel of Dreux Also one Villibon gave him a switch with a wand adding many reproachful speeches therewith which Marlorat bore with admirable patience and meekness And when he was executed and dead the malice of his Adversaries rested not there For one of the Soldiers struck on his Legs with his Sword But speedy vengeance from God pursued his Persecntors For the Popish Captain that apprehended him was slain within three weeks after by the basest Soldier in all his Company And two of his Judges dyed very strangely soon after namely the President of the Parliament by a flux of blood which could by no art nor means be stopped The other being a Counsellor voided his Urine at his Fundament which was accompanied with such an intollerable stink that none could endure to come near him Villebon also who switched him sped no better For a while after the Marshal Vielle Ville coming to Roan about publick Affairs invited Villebon to dinner and in discourse lamenting the miseries of that City he exhorted him to reform many abuses seeing he was the Kings Lievtenant there Villebon took this so ill that he said If any man dare tax me for not behaving my self as I ought in my place I would tell him to his face that he lyed These words he repeated over so often that the Marshal being much urged struck at him with his Sword with such violence that had he not received the blow with his Arm his head had been clest to the Teeth Thus for the present he escaped with the loss of that hand wherewith he had stricken Marlorat in so disgraceful a manner at the place of Execution 95. A young Gentlewoman of about three and twenty years old came from Gascoine to Paris to join her-self to the Protestant Church there And after a while she among others was apprehended imprisoned and condemned to be burnt which she endured with admirable patience and constancy but presently two of them that bore witness against her falling out the one slew the other with a knife 96. Gharles Cominck who had been a Friar in the City of Gaunt after his conversion was apprehended and condemned but after his execution one of his greatest Adversaries who had a chief hand in his Death fell into such grievous horrors and terrors of Conscience that he dyed within a few days 97. Dr. Aegidio a godly Preacher in Sevil being brought into the Inquisition and used miserably by them before they proceeded to condemn him it pleased God that three of the Inquisitors who were his greatest adversaries dyed by which good Providence he was released and lived some years after 98. The Emperor Ferdinand the second was a great Persecutor of the Protestants in Bohemia and Germany who after his Victory over Frederick Prince Palatine and the Bohemian States made it his work to root out the Protestant Religion in those Countries and turned them into a very shambles of Blood sparing neither Age Sex nor Rank that refused to abjure the Truth But whilest he was in his full Carier God brought in against him a contemptible people the Swedes under whose Swords most of those bloody wretches fell who were the Bohemian Scourges so that much of Germany and of the Emperors Country was a very Aceldama a Field of Blood The Emperor 's great Army consisting of twenty four thousand that had given Laws to Germany for many years together and were looked upon as so many Captains by reason of their long practice and experience was broken in the plain Field And the Emperor himself being broken with breach upon breach was forced to such terms as the Enemies could be drawn to Examples of Gods Judgments upon Popish Persecutors in England and Scotland 99. Sir Thomas Moor and Fisher Bishop of Rochester who were great Persecutors of the Protestants in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth were themselves not long after condemned for Treason and beheaded 100. Philips who betrayed Mr. Tindal to the Emperors Secretary fell into a grievous Disease and was caten up of Lice 101. Pavier The Town-clerk of London a cruel Enemy to the true Professors of the Gospel swore a great Oath that if he thought the King would set forth the Scriptures in English rather than he would live to see it he would cut his own Throat But he brake Promise saith the Author for instead thereof he hanged himself Foxford Chancellour to Stokesley Bishop of London a bloody Persecutor and the common Butcher of Gods Saints dyed suddenly sitting in his Chair his Belly breaking and his Guts falling out before him 102. Rockwood who was a great stirrer up of the Persecution against Gods people in Calis suddenly fell sick staring raging and crying out All to late For I have maliciously sought the Death of many godly Persons and that against mine own Conscience and therefore all to late All to late and thus he continued unto his end 103. The under Marshal also who at the same time was a Persecutor fell down dead in the Council Chamber and never spake word after 104. Adam Damlip a godly Preacher in Calis was falsly accused of Treason for which he was condemned and executed and when he would have purged himself Sir Ralph Ellerker would not suffer him to speak but commanded him to be carried away to execution saying That he would not depart till he saw the Traitors heart out But shortly after in a skirmish against the French this Ellerker was slain and after they had stripped him naked they cut off his Privy Members and pulled out his Heart which they did not to any other of the slain 105. Dr. Story a Bloody Persecutor in Queen Marys Days when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown could not forbear to curse her dayly in his Grace at Board for which trayterous practice he was deservedly hanged 106. John Twiford a furious Papist that used to set up Stakes for them that were burnt in Smithfield dyed rotting above ground so that none could endure to come near unto him by reason of his horrible stink 107. William Gardiner an English Merchant being present in Lisbon at the marriage of the King of Portugal's Son with the King of Spain's Daughter and seeing the abominable Idolatry then used in the presence of the King and of all the States there assembled he stepped to the Cardinal who was celebrating of Mass and plucked the Cake out of his
in Prison And God paid him home in his own coin For according to his Imprecation his Body rottted away by piece-meal till he dyed 133. One Lever of Brightwel in Barkshire jeeringly said That he saw that ill-favoured Knave Latimer when he was burned at Oxford and that he had Teeth like an Horse But the Lord suffered not this profane scoff to go unpunished For about that very same Hour wherein Lever spake those words his Son hanged himself 134. All ages have cause to admire and adore the Exemplary Judgments of God poured out upon Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in Queen Marys days who upon the day wherein Reverend Latimer and Learned Ridley were to be burnt at Oxford though some great Peers came to dine with him that day yet would not sit down to dinner till one of his Servants about four a Clock in the Afternoon coming Post from Oxford brought word that Execution was done upon them Then did he hast to Dinner and was very merry but ere he had eaten many bits a sudden stroke of Gods hand fell upon him so that he was carried immediately to his Bed in which he continued for fifteen days in intollerable anguish and torments rotting above ground during all which time he could void nothing that he received neither by Stool nor Urine his Tongue also hung out of his mouth swoln and black and so he languished and pined away in great anguish and misery 135. King James the Fifth of Scotland by the instigation of the Popish Clergy was a great Persecutor of the Truth that then brake forth in that Kingdom and for that end he gave Commission to Sir James Hamilton natural Brother to the Earl of Arran who was his Treasurer to call and convent all that were suspected of Heresie and to inflict upon them the punishment which after tryal they should be found to deserve In Execution of which Commissiion he was most fierce and cruel not sparing some that were of his near Kindred But when he was in his greatest heighth and made it his work to suppress the Gospel one of his own Friends whom he pursued upon the account of Religion accused him of Treason and notwithstanding the mediation of the Popish Clergy for him as their greatest Patron he was arraigned condemned executed and quartered in the streets of Edenburg This King James also was heard to say that none of that way should expect any favour at his hands nay nor his own Sons if they should be found guilty But shortly after War breaking forth with England he found his Nobility averse to those Incursions which he intended to make into England which much vexed him These thoughts and some fearful Visions which he had by Night terrified him exceedingly For at Linlithgow on a night as he slept it seemed to him that Thomas Scot Justice Clerk came unto him with a company of Devils crying Wo worth the day that ever I knew thee or thy Service For serving thee against God and his Servants I am now adjudged to Hell torments Hereupon awaking he called for Lights and told his Servants what he had heard and seen The next morrow by the light of day news was brought him of the death of the said Justice Clerk which fell out just at the same time when the King had this Vision and almost in the same manner For he dyed in great horror often reiterating those words By the righteous Judgment of God I am condemned And this manner of his death answering so exactly to the Kings Dream made it the more terrible The King also had another Dream in the same place a few nights after which did more affright him Whilest he lay sleeping he thought that Sir James Hamilton aforesaid came unto him with a naked Sword in his Hand and therewith cut off both his Arms threatening to return within a short time and to deprive him of his life With this he awaked and as he lay musing what this Dream should import news was brought him of the death of his two Sons James and Arthur the one dying at S. Andrews the other at Strivling at one and the very same hour The next year which was 1542. being overwhelmed with grief he dyed at Falkland in the two and thirtieth year of his Age. A little before he dyed word was brought him that his Queen was delivered of a Daughter whereupon he brake forth into a Passion saying It came with a Lass meaning the Crown and will go with a Lass. Fie upon it 136. One Friar Campbell in Scotland did bitterly rail upon that man of God Mr. Patrick Hamilton whilest he was burning at S. Andrews to whom Mr. Hamilton said with much earnestness Thou wicked man thou knowest the contrary and hast sometime made a Profession of the truth I appeal thee to answer it before the Judgment Seat of Christ A few days after Campbel fell sick and in great horror of Conscience dyed distracted 137. Anno 1568. There was in Breda one Peter Coulogue a godly man who by his Popish Adversaries was cast into Prison and his Maid-servant daily carried him his Food confirming and comforting him out of the word of God as well as she was able for which they imprisoned her also Not long after Peter was put to the torment of the Rack which he endured patiently After him the Maid was fetch'd to be racked whereupon she said My Masters wherefrre will ye put me to this torture seeing I have no way offended you If it be for my Faith-sake ye need not torment me For as I was never ashamed to make a Confession thereof no more will I now be at this present before you but will if you please freely shew you my mind therein Yet for all this they would have her to the Rack whereupon she again said If I must needs suffer this pain pray you give me leave to call upon my God first This they assented to and whilest she was fervently pouring out her Soul unto God by Prayer one of the Commissioners was surprised with such fear and terror that he fell into a swoon out of which he could never be recovered by which means the poor Maid escaped racking 138. In the Reign of King Henry the Second of France there was a godly Tailor condemned to be burnt for Religion and some about the King would needs perswade him to be present and to see the Execution himself And God gave the Tailor such strength and conrage in the fire as astonished the King to behold it And the poor Tailor having espied the King in a window where he sate fixed his Eyes so stedfastly upon him as they were never off and the King was thereby constrained to leave the window and to retire into his Chamber and was so affected therewith that he confessed the shadow of the Taylor followed him whither soever he went and for many Nights after he was so terrified with the Apparitions of the Taylor that he protested with an
the Protestants began to meet more publickly and to profess the Truth more openly than before The Arch-Bishop thereupon renews his former Suit to the Son as he had before successfully pressed upon the Father In particular he first aimed at the destruction of Sir John Oldcastle See his Life in my second Volume of Lives who had most affronted him He by reason of his great Alliances and the favour of his King who called him His Knight might have expected exemption from their Tyranny But they prevailed with the King as saith Arch-Bishop Parker Rex virum clarum sibique familiarissimum Episcoporum potestati carnisioinae permisit The King gave up this famous man and who was dear to himself to the power and destruction of the Bishops And yet it pleased God that he outlived this persecuting Arch-Prelate two years at least For the Arch-Bishop having murthered many godly Saints in King Henry the Fourths time and being a great stickler in state affairs having long before procured himself to be made Lord Chancellour of England and lastly in a Synod held by himself at Rochester having forbidden the reading of the Scriptures in English and limited Preachers under an heavy censure what they should treat of in the Pulpit was soon cut off himself by the immediate hand of God after he had condemned that warlike Kinght Sir John Old-Castle Lord Cobham before he could see him executed For his Tongue was so swoln and benummed that he could neither swallow nor speak some days before his Death It being saith one the just Judgment of God upon him and may be a warning to all other wicked Popish Prelates that as he had muzled up the mouths of Preachers and kept the Scriptures from the knowledge of the people being their spiritual food So he should neither be able to swallow nor speak from that very minute that this Judgment fell upon him and so he dyed within a few days after in great torment and extremity by a languishing silence and famishment A later Example we have in the admirable punishment of James Beton Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in Scotland who was also a member of the purpurated Conclave at Rome He had for diverse years been an inveterate Enemy to the Gospel and the Professors of it in that Kingdom under King James the Fifth And after his Death taking the advantage of the infancy of the Princess Mary the Hereditary Queen of that Realm he thought it a work worthy of himself to double die his Purple Robes in the Blood of the Saints And to make a full and clear way for that his sanguinary Project he forged a Will of the deceased King whereby he was established the chief Regent there during the young Ladies incapacity to Reign From which yet his false play being discovered he was removed and for a while imprisoned Yet was he no sooner delivered but he presently endeavoured to raise a new and a fatal war between England and Scotland and to root out the Professors of the Truth by a violent and bloody Persecution And among others whom he cited imprisoned or exiled in the year 1545. he seized upon Mr. George Wiseheart a very eloquent and learned Preacher who by the Latin writers of that age is called Sophocardius and contrary to their own Popish Canons adjudged him to present death himself which is never done except by the hellish Inquisition of Spain but by delivering the Martyrs into the power of the Civil-Magistrate And in his Court before the Castle of S. Andrews caused that bloody Sentence to be executed the said Mr. Wiseheart being first strangled and his Body afterwards burnt to Ashes The Cardinal in the mean time had a Chamber prepared for him with Carpets and Cushions in the Windows out of which he was a Triumphant Spectator of this godly mans Martyrdom From which window he departed not more delighted than as himself thought secured and presently he began to fortify his Castle against all Assaults But Gods Judgment from Eternity awarded against him for this later as well as former cruelties exercised upon his faithful Servants slep'd not For within a few weeks after the Cardinal having falsified his Promise to the Lord Norman Lesly Son of the Earl of Rothsay a zealous Romanist He upon the thirteenth day of May the same year with about fourteen resolute Gentlemen in his company entred the said Castle of S. Andrews where the Cardinal lay having had a whore with him all that night and having first assured himself of all within and the Gates without he slew the bloody Prelate by his Bed-side without Law or Justice who had but a little before most unjustly condemned and murthered the aforesaid Mr. Wiseheart and being willing to expose the dead Carcass of that cruel Persecutor all weltring and besmeared with blood unto the view of the People who abhorred his Butcheries and rejoiced at his fall casually they laid it along to be seen of all men in that very window out of which a little before leaning at his ease upon rich Cushions he had proudly beheld the death of that precious Martyr 161. It s very observable which Historians take notice of that generally the greatest Persecutors are most drenched in the sin of uncleanness and Epicurism What was Escovedo that great Instrument of the King of Spain's cruelties against the Evangelical Party in the Low-Countries but a a very Lump of Lust which in the end proved fatal to him 162. Peter Espinac A Bishop of Lions in France was a great Persecutor and one that lived in incest with his own Sister 163. John Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews in Scotland spent the greatest part of the Revenues of his See and the seisure of the Protestants Estates whose mortal Enemy he was upon his Whores and Revellings 164. The Cardinal of Granvels Veneries were so manifest and numerous as when Anno Christi 1574. the Kingdom of Tunis and the strong Fort of Gulette formerly esteemed impregnable were won by the Turks the Spaniards made a jest of it said openly That the Cardinals Breeches had occasioned that loss meaning thereby that King Philip the Second relying chiefly upon his advice in that and in most of the rest of his important affairs the Cardinals Lusts so took him up that he had not leisure to advise the King for the best 165. Cardinal Beton aforementioned wallowed at home with pollution among his Harlots and raged abroad with the blood and slaughter of the innocent Servants of Christ. 166. In that Hellish Massacre on S. Bartholomew's Day in Paris it self The Murtherers there were for the most part brutish and lustful Soldiers or profane Varlets of the scum of the City and though their Leaders were more noble yet less virtuous The Duke of Guise and Aumale Albert Gondy Earl of Rets Tavanne and others of them that were bred up in Lust Revellings and all manner of Debaucheries 167. The next place that came nearest to the cruelties exercised at Paris was the
his Body which was accompanied with such an intollerable stink that none were able to come near him neither could he himself endure the same which forced him to say It is meet to submit to God and for man which is mortal not to set himself in competition with God Thus this vile Person who formerly in a proud and insolent manner had Protested that he would make Jerusalem a common burying place and the Streets thereof to run with the blood of God's People by God's just Judgment ended his life in extream misery in a Strange Land upon the Mountains of Parata near Babylon 20. Probably under him it was that the Saints endured most of those Persecutions which are mentioned by the Apostle in that little Book of Martyrs Heb. 11. 36 37 38. Others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and imprisonment They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the Sword They wandred about in Sheepskins and Goatskins being destitute afflicted tormented Of whom the World was not worthy They wandred in Desarts and Mountains and in Dens and Caves of the Earth Of God's Judgments upon Persecutors under the New Testament Herod surnamed the Great hearing by the Wise men that came out of the East that there was one who was born King of the Jews and being informed by the Chief Priests and the Scribes that the place of his Birth should be Bethlem of Judah he sent forth his Soldiers and to make sure work he slew all the Children that were in Bethlem and in all the Coasts thereof from two years old and under hoping thereby to have destroyed Christ. But presently after the Lord gave him over to a Spirit of Phrensie that he slew Maryamne his Beloved Wife and his Children which made Augustus Caesar say That it was better to be Herod's Dog than his Son and his nearest Kinsfolk and familiar Friends And shortly after God's terrible Judgment fell upon him by a grievous Disease which was a slack and slow Fire in his inward parts He had also a greedy and Dog like appetite after Food which yet was insatiable He had also a rotting in his Bowels and a grievous Flux in his Fundament A moist and running humor in his Feet and the like Malady vexed him about his Bladder His Privy Members putrified engendring abundance of Worms which continually crawled and swarmed out of the same He had a short and a stinking Breath with a great pain in breathing And through all the parts of his Body such a violent Cramp as no human strength was able to endure Yet longing after Life he sent for Physicians from all parts by whose advice he went to the hot Baths at Calliroe But finding no ease by the use thereof and his torments still encreasing he endeavoured to lay violent Hands upon himself had he not been prevented by his Friends about him and so at last having had some foretastes of the torments of Hell in extream anguish he ended his wretched Life 22. Herod the Less surnamed Antipas having married the Daughter of Aretas King of Arabia after a while put her away and took Herodias who had forsaken her Husband Philip Herod's Brother For which Incestuous and Adulterous Marriage John the Baptist plainly reproved him saying It is not lawful for thee to have her Matth. 14. 4. Hereupon at the instigation of Herodias he first cast John into Prison and afterwards cut off his Head But the Lord suffered not this wicked Murther to go long unpunished For Aretas raising an Army against Herod for his ignominious dealing with his Daughter in a pitch'd Battle wholly overthrew him and cut off his whole Host. And not long after Herod falling into disgrace with Augustus the Roman Emperor he together with his Incestuous Herodias were banished to Vienne in France where they ended their wretched lives with much shame and misery 23. After this there arose a third Herod surnamed Agrippa who not taking warning by his Predecessors calamities fell to Persecuting the Church of Christ and conventing James the Brother of John before him he condemned him to be beheaded And seeing the Death of James pleased the Jews he took Peter also and delivered him to four Quaternians of Soldiers to keep him in Prison intending after the Passover to put him to Death Acts 12. 1. c. But neither did this Bloody Persecuting Herod escape any better than his Predecessors had done For upon a great Festival day he being arraied in glittering and Royal Apparel Sat upon his Throne and made an Oration to the People which being ended the People gave a shout saying It is the Voice of a God and not of a Man Whereupon the Angel of God's Immutability smote him and he was eaten of Worms and gave up the Ghost in the fifty fourth year of his Age and the Seventh of his Reign under Claudius Caesar. 24. Now the Sins of the Jews being ripe especially that heynous Sin of Persecuting the Prophets and Messengers of God cried aloud for Judgment according as Christ had foretold them Matth. 23. 34 35 36. c. Behold saith he I send unto you Prophets and Wise men and Scribes and some of them you shall kill and crucifie and some of them ye shall scourge in your Synagogues and persecute them from City to City that upon you may come all the righteous Blood shed upon the Earth from the Blood of the Righteous Abel unto the Blood of Zacharias Son of Barachias whom ye slew between the Temple and the Altar Verily I say unto you all these things shall come upon this Generation And that you may know more particularly what those Judgments were our Saviour Christ sets them down Matth. 23 38. Your House is left unto you desolate And more plainly Chap. 24. 21 22. Then shall be great Tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the World to this time No nor ever shall be And except those Dayes should be shortened their should no Flesh to wit of the Jews be saved But for the Elects sake those Dayes shall be shortened 25. These Predictions of our Saviour were fulfilled by the Roman Armies under Vespasian and Titus his Son For besides the Afflictions which befel them in divers other Countries being tossed up and down by the Roman Deputies there were slain in Caesarea twenty thousand in one day At Alexandria fifty Thousand another Day At Zabulon and Joppa eight Thousand and four Hundred At Damascus ten Thousand had their Throats cut In the Siege of Jerusalem they were so miserably pinched with Famine that Oxen's Dung was accounted good meat Others fed upon old Leather and some Women boiled their own Children and did eat them Many hoping to save their Lives by flying to the Romans had their Bowels ript up to search for Gold and Jewels in their Stomacks and Guts Two Thousand of them thus perished in one Night Ninty seven Thousand of them were taken Prisoners besides what fell
were cruelly slain or as others say to avoid falling into his Enemies hands he leap'd his horse into a Whirlpit after which his body was never found 40. Presently after the death of this Tyrant a grievous Plague and Pestilence fell upon the bloody persecuting Gentiles in every of the Roman Provinces which lasting ten years together made such havock among them as is horrible to hear and almost incredible to believe And it was observed that where the Emperors Edicts had been put in Execution with most severity there it raged most insomuch that many places became utterly desolate 41. Gallus the Emperor who continued the seventh Persecution was himself with his Son slain by one of his own Captains 42. Valerian the Emperor in the beginning of his Reign was very mild towards the Christians But afterwards being stirred up by the Devil and his Instruments proved a terrible Persecutor of them in all his Dominions But not long after he was overthrown by the Persians in a bloody Battel wherein himself was taken Prisoner being seventy years old and made so vile a slave that Sapores the King of Persia used his back as a Block whereby to mount on Horse-back and afterward he caused him to be flayed alive and powdered with Salt so that he dyed in cruel torments Eusebius 43. Claudius a President and one of his Ministers of cruelty was possessed by the Devil and so grievously tormented that biting off his tongue in small bits he dyed miserably This was the eighth Persecution 44. Aurelian who raised the ninth Persecution being about to send out an Edict for renewing the Persecution against the Christians as he was about to sign it a Thunderbolt fell at his Feet which so terrified him that for the present he forbore But afterward renewing it again God stirred up his Servants to cut his throat Niceph. Eutropius 45. Dioclesian the Author of the tenth Persecution First used all Politick ways to cause all the Christians in his Armies to renounce their Faith Then by Proclamation he commanded all their Churches to be beaten down their Bibles to be burnt or torn in pieces That all Christians in any Office should be ejected That Christian Bondmen who would forsake their Profession should be made free But when notwithstanding this he saw that the number of Christians still increased being satiated with blood he resigned and gave over the Empire But shortly after God struck him with diverse and strange diseases His house was burnt down by Lightning from Heaven And himself was so affrighted with a dreadful Thunder that he ran mad and killed himself Ruffinus 46. Maximinian also his Fellow-Emperor raged exceeding cruelly and outragiously against the Christians For when twenty thousand of them upon a Solemn Festival Day were assembled in a Temple at Nicomedia to serve God he caused it to be environed with some Bands of Soldiers to be set on fire and to be burnt with all that was in it And a City of Christians in Phrygia taking it after a long Siege he caused it to be burnt and razed to the ground with all that were in it But shortly after God struck him with a grievous and incurable Disease wherein Vermin bred abundantly in his Body which was accompanied with such an horrible stink that not being able to endure it he hanged himself 47. Maximinus that next succeeded in the Eastern Empire was a cruel and implacable Persecutor of the Saints For which God struck him with an uncoth and loathsome Disease In his Privy Members there grew a sudden putrefaction and at the bottom of the same there arose a botchy corrupt Bile with a Fistula consuming and eating up his Entrails out of which came swarming and innumerable company of Lice which was attended with such a pestiferous stink as none were able to abide it And being a corpulent man all his fat so putrified and stank so horribly that some of his Physicians not being able to endure it he commanded to be slain and others of them were cruelly put to death because they could not cure him But at last being told that it was Gods just revenging hand upon him for persecuting his people he seemed to relent and commanded the Persecution to cease and God was pleased in some measure to ease him of his grievous torments But about six months after he sent forth a new Proclamation for the utter rooting out of the very name of Christians whereupon his disease returned again and assaulted him in greater extremity than before so that his body being all rotten and full of corruption and worms he dyed an accursed and miserable Death Chrysostom saith that the Apples of his eyes fell out before he dyed 48. Galerius a chief Instrument of the Persecution under Dioclesian fell into a grievous Disease in the nether part of his belly there arose a spreading sore which consumed his Privy Members from whence there crawled abundance of worms bred of the putrefaction which neither Chyrurgeons nor Physicians could cure This made him to acknowledge that it was a just hand of God upon him for his cruelty to the Christians and so he dyed miserable or as others write he flew himself Languets Chron. 49. Licinius the Eastern Emperor a bloody and merciless Enemy to the Christians was in two great Battels overthrown by Constantine the Great and slain by his Soldiers 50. Antiochus who passed sentence upon Agapetus a godly young man that was but fifteen years old fell down suddenly as he sate upon the Seat of Judicature crying out that all his bowels burned within him and so he dyed in great torment 61. Mamuca a Saracen being a cruel Persecutor of the people of God like unto Pharoah met also with the like stroke of Gods vengeance For as he was returning by Sea with his Army in a hundred Ships from the slaughter of the Christians God sent such a Storm upon them that few or none of them escaped drowning Paulus Diaconus Lib. 3. c. 12. Julian surnamed The Apostate was first a Christian yet afterward became a Heathen and proved one of the most dangerous and deadly Persecutors that ever the Christian Church had First he began to undermine the Christian Religion by Policy and afterwards proceeded to downright blows letting loose the Gentiles and his Governours upon the Christians wherein neither Arian nor Orthodox is spared from Imprisonment Banishment Tortures and what not And when complaints were made hereof to the Emperour he answered That their Religion taught them to bear all patiently He would not endure that Christians children should be trained up in humane Learning because he saw the Christians did beat the Gentiles with their own weapons and made Philosophy an Instrument to serve Divinity He took away the Ministers maintenance thereby destroying not so much Presbiters as the Presbytery But whilest he was thus busie against the Church he was called to an expedition against the Persians whereupon he made a solemn Protestation that when he returned from
by the King against those ancient Christians the Waldenses who used much cruelty against them burning some killing others driving others into Woods and Mountains whereby they perished of Famine and depopulated whole Towns and Villages Not long after the Lord smote him with a terrible Disease so that he felt like a burning fire within him from the Navel upward and his lower parts rotted and were consumed with Vermin which mortification was attended with a grievous stink he had also a profusion of Blood instead of his Urine and in those extreme Torments he ended his wretched Life 78. Simon Monfort Earl of Leicester was a cruel Persecutor of the godly Albingenses under the King of France and by the instigation of the Pope But as he was besieging some of them in Tholous his head was stricken off by a Stone which a woman let flye out of an Engine 79. Lewis King of France besieging Avignion a City of the Albingenses vowed that he would never depart till he had taken it But suddenly after God sent a dreadful Pestilence into his Army which daily wasted great numbers of his men and the King himself was forced to quarter at a distance in an Abby to avoid the infection where shortly after he dyed out of his wits 80. Truchetus an old expert Captain was imployed by the Duke of Savoy against the Waldenses who were a naked and unarmed people But whilest he was prosecuting of them he was first sore wounded with Stones and afterwards slain with his own sword by a poor Shepherd who was keeping Cattel in the Field 81. The Lord of Revest Chief President of the Parliament at Aix in France put many godly Persons to death but shortly after himself was put out of his Office and was stricken by God with such an horrible Disease as made him run mad that none of his Friends durst come near him and so he perished miserably 82. After him succeeded in his Office one Bartholomew Cassinaeus who proved also a pestilent Persecutor whom the Lord struck with a fearful and sudden Death 83. Johannes de Roma a Monk was a bloody and implacable Persecutor of the Waldenses His manner was to fill Boots with boiling Oil and put their Legs into them tying them backward over a Form their Legs hanging down over a soft fire and afterwards cruelly to put them to Death and seized upon their Goods But not long after his own Servants rob'd him of those ill-gotten Goods and he fell into a horrible Disease unknown to any Phisician the pains and torments whereof did so incessantly vex him that he could by no means have one minutes rest neither could any endure to come near him by reason of his horrible stink His body was full of Sores and Ulcers which swarmed with Vermin so that rotting his flesh fell of by piece-meal In which torment he often cryed out O! who will deliver me who will kill me and deliver me out of these intollerable torments and so languishing in anguish and despair he ended his cursed Life 84. John Martin another great enemy to the Waldenses used to boast every where that he would slit the nose of one of their chief Ministers but before he could effect it a Wolf meeting him bit off his Nose whereupon he ran mad and died miserably 85. The Cardinal of Lorrain a principal Pillar of the House of Guise a crafty and cruel Persecutor of the people of God as he was coming from Rome with a purpose of stirring up the Kings of France and Poland utterly to root out the Protestants in their Dominions It pleased God to work so wonderfully for his peoples safety that by the way he fell mad at Avignion and dyed in the Flower of his youth At the instant of whose Death there fell out such a dreadful Tempest as made all to be amazed at it 86. Bellemont a Counsellor of the Parliament of Provence was so hasty to condemn the poor people of God that he went not from the Judgment Hall from Morning till Night causing his Dinners to be brought to him But whilest he was so busie in this way of Persecution there began a little Sore to rise upon his Foot which quickly grew red and full of pain and so encreased the first day that by Judgment of Chyrurgeons there was no hope of cure but by cutting off his Foot which he refusing they used all other means they could devise yet the second day the whole Leg was infected and the third day his whole Thigh and the fourth day his whole Body upon which day he dyed His dead Body was all over parched as if it had been roasted by a fire 87. A Judge of the City of Aix who was a great Persecutor of the Protestants drowned himself in the River A chief Judge who was a principal Instrument in condemning the Waldenses in Merindol and Cabriers died suddenly not living to see his bloody Sentence executed 88. John Cranequin a Lawyer of Bourges who was a great Informer against the People of God to bring them into the cruel Inquisition was stricken by God with a marvellous strange Phrensie so that whatever he saw seemed to him to be crawling Serpents And having in vain used all sorts of Medicines yea and wicked Sorcery too at length was quite bereaved of his Senses and so ended his wretched Life in much misery 89. Chancellour Prat who put up the first Bill in the Parliament of France against those of that Religion and gave out the first Commissions for the putting of them to death dyed himself not long after fearfully swearing and blaspheming the name of God and had his Stomach gnawn in pieces by worms in a strange manner 90. John Morin a mighty Enemy to the Professors of the Truth who made it his whole business to apprehend and accuse them dyed himself in most grievous and horrible torments 91. The Chancellor Oliver who had been himself a Professor of the truth apostatizing from the same was restored to his Office in which he spared not to shed much innocent Blood But whilest he was thus busied a fearful Judgment befel him as was foretold by some of those Innocents whom he condemned for falling into extreme terrors of Conscience he betook himself to his bed sighing and sobing without intermission and breathing forth murmurings against God yea his horrors were so violent that he shaked the Bed under him as if a young man with all his Strength had done it And a certain Cardinal coming to visit him he could not endure his sight crying out that it was that Cardinal that had brought him to Damnation He continued long under these dreadful torments and dyed at last in despairing fear and anguish 92. Poncher Arch-Bishop of Tours who condemned many godly persons to the Fire was himself seized upon with a fire from God which beginning at his heel could by no means be cured till one Member after another being cut off he dyed in much misery 93. An Austin
hand and trampled it under his Feet and overthrew the Chalice For which by most exquisite torments in a horrible manner they put him to death by degrees and then burned him a Spark of whose Fire was driven by the wind a great way into one of the Kings Ships lying in the Haven and quite consumed it and within half a year after the new married Prince dyed and the year after the King himself dyed also 108. Cardinal Woolsey after much opposition against the Light of the Gospel which brake forth in his time and much cruelty used against the Professors of it fell into disgrace with King Henry the Eighth who sent for him up out of Yorkshire and in his journey suspecting the issue he took such a strong Purge as his rotten Body not being able to bear he dyed at the Abby of Lecester His dead Body was as black as Pitch and so heavy that six men could scarcely bear it and it stank so intollerably that they were fain to hasten the Burial of it in the Night at which time there was such an hiddeous Tempest as blew out all the Torches and the Storm was accomponied with such a stink that they were glad to throw him into his Grave and so to leave him 109. Judge Morgan who passed Sentence of Condemnation upon the incomparable Lady Jane Dudley shortly after ran mad and in his raving fits cryed out continually to have the Lady Jane taken away from him and so he continued till he dyed 110. Morgan Bishop of S. Davids in Wales who condemned the Blessed Martyr Mr. Ferrar and unjustly usurped his Bishoprick not long after was stricken by God in a most strange manner For his food would not go down but pick up again sometimes at his Mouth sometimes blown out at his Nose most horrible to behold and thus he continued a Spectacle of Gods displeasure till he dyed 111. Mr. Leyson also who was Sheriff at the burning of Mr. Ferrar having fetched away his Cattle and put them into his own Grounds diverse of them would never eat any meat but continued bellowing and roaring till they dyed 112. Dr. Duning Chancellour of Norwich who was a Bloody Persecutor in the Reign of Queen Mary was stricken suddenly as he sate in his Chair and dyed 113. Berry Commissary of Norfolk another Bloody Persecutor as he was walking with one of his Concubines fell down suddenly with a heavy groan and never stirr'd after 114. A persecuting Suffragan of Dover having been with Cardinal Pool for his Blessing coming out of the Cardinal's Chamber fell down the stairs and brake his Neck 115. Bishop Thornton another cruel Persecutor as he was looking upon his men at Bowls upon a Sahbath-Day fell suddenly into a Palsie and being carried to his Bed and willed to remember the Lord yea said he So I do and my Lord Cardinal too and so he dyed 116. Dr. Jeffery Chancellour of Salisbury a wretched Persecutor who had appointed to call before him ninety godly Persons and to examine them by Inquisition the Day before as he was looking upon his Buildings fell down suddenly and dyed 117. Thomas Blaver a Privy Counsellor to the King of Scots was a great Persecutor of the Faithful in that Land But being by God struck with sickness he fell into Despair crying out That he was damned and a Cast-away That he was damned without remedy In which miserable condition he dyed without any sign of true repentance 118. Henry Arch-Bishop of Mentz a godly and religious man was accused as being guilty of Heresie to the Pope who sent two of his Cardinals to examine the matter and they most unjustly deposed him and cast him out of his place whereupon he said unto them If I should from your unjust Sentence appeal unto the Pope 't is like I should find no redress from him wherefore I appeal to the Lord Jesus Christ that just and righteous Judge of all the world and cite you to answer me before his Judgment Seat for this unjust act of yours To which they scoffingly answered Go you first we will follow after Not long after this the good Arch-Bishop dyed which when the Cardinals heard of they said jestingly one to another Behold he is now gone before and we must follow after according to our Promise And indeed shortly after they both dyed upon one day The one sitting upon a Jakes voided out his Entrails The other gnawing his own Fingers and having made himself deformed with devouring himself he dyed miserably 119. About the year 1507. there was at Chipping Sadbury a godly woman convented before the Chancellour Dr. Whittington by whom she was condemned to be burnt And against the day of her Execution multitudes of people flocked to the Town and among the rest Dr. Whittington came to see her burnt At the same time there was a Butcher in another part of the Town that was killing a Bull But the Butcher somewhat missing his blow the Bull broke loose just as the people were coming from seeing the Execution of the Martyr The people seeing the Bull coming divided themselves and made a lane for him to pass through the Bull went through without hurting man woman or child till he came to the place where the Chancellour was against whom he ran very furiously and with his Horns hitting him on the Belly ran through it and tearing out his Guts with his Horns trailed them about the Streets to the great astonishment of all that beheld it 120. At the burning of Alexander Goug and Alice Driver Martyrs there was one Bate a Barber that was a very busie man about burning them but presently after Gods severe Judgment fell upon him so that within three or four weeks after he dyed in much misery 121. In the Reign of Queen Mary one of the Sheriffs of London called Mr. Woodrose used Mr. Bradford very churlishly at the time of his Execution as he had dealt with Mr. Rogers before He used also to laugh and make himself sport at the sufferings of these innocent persons and used to beat away the people who were desirous to shake them by the hand before their Death but the Lord who usually punisheth such bloody Persecutors shortly after struck him with lameness upon one side that he could never after turn him in his Bed He had also a Dog-like Appetite that could never be satisfied with Food and in this misery he continued by the space of eight years even till he dyed 122. Adam Foster of Mendlesham in Suffolk was apprehended by one Thomas Mouse and George Rivet for not coming to Mass and by them was carried before Sir John Tyrel who sent him to the Bishop of Norwich But it pleased God that Mouse was immediately after stricken with a grievous disease whereof he shortly after dyed And Rivet not warned thereby but persevering in his persecuting ways had a great swelling that rose in his Legs which grievously vexed and tormented him and at last falling into a
Oath that he would never hear nor see any more of those Lutherans burned 139. In the late Rebellion and Persecution of Ireland John Nicholson and Anne his wife were received into the Protection of one Fitz-Patrick who would have perswaded them to change their Religion and to go to Mass But they professed that before they would do that they would dye upon the Swords point Then he laboured to prevail with the woman to burn her Bible but she said that before she would do it she would dye the death whereupon the Sabbath morning following they were both of them cruelly murthered But he that acted that villany was so tormented in Conscience and dogged with their Apparitions that he pined away and dyed 140. In the late Irish Massacre wherein the bloody Papists spared none of what Age Sex or quality soever O! how visibly did the Judgments of God follow them And for that savage Blood-shed gave them Blood to drink in great measure For Mac-Guir Mac-Mahun and Sir Philem Oneal being taken Prisoners were publickly executed Most of the rest were consumed by the Sword either in their own Countrey or in Foreign parts and their spirits were generally so debased and their courage emasculated that a few English or Scottish Soldiers would chase multitudes of them and Gods Judgments did so eminently follow them that within a few years most of that cruel Generation were rooted out Of Gods Judgments upon Persecutors in Germany Spain and France 141. The Electoral House of Saxony upon the devesting of that brave and pious Prince John Frederick the true Heir by the Emperor Charles the Fifth and the investing the younger House to usurp that Honour hath ever since proved a greater Friend to the Popish Party than to the purer Church of the French and Helvetick Confession Maurice that usurped the Dutchy and Electorate upon the captivating of the said John Frederick his Cousin first ruined the Princes of the Smalcaldick Union to which himself had subscribed and then casting an ambitious eye upon the Empire it self broke his Faith with the Emperor that had raised him and having patched up the defection by the help of Ferdinand of Austria King of Bohemia afterwards Emperor he lastly perished by a violent death in a pitch'd Battel fought against his Fellow-Protestants A just Judgment of God upon him 142. Charles the Fifth having obtained the Empire by the help and monies of our King Henry the Eighth was the most potent Emperor that ever Germany had as long as he maintained the peace of Religion But having yielded to the Popes instigations and prospered a while in his intended extirpation of the Truth he found at last by sad experience what his brave and valiant General Castaldus had foretold him that these violent proceedings would in the end prove fatal to himself For having first fled away at Midnight in a cold and rainy season from Onspurch for fear of the Protestant Army he was afterward instead of setling his Son Philip in his Imperial Throne as he had intended forced to surrender the Empire to his Brother Ferdinand who diverse years before had entred into a secret League with the Protestant Princes of Germany and so having lived a few years in a despised and disconsolate condition he at last ended his life most ingloriously in a Monastery 143. His Son Philip the Second King of Spain the most inveterate Enemy of the Gospel that ever lived did not only erect Shambles for Gods Saints in most of his large Dominions by his bloody Inquisitors but still aided the Rebels in France England and Ireland against their lawful Sovereigns and plotted to invade all other Protestant Dominions in Christendom so at last by one general Carriage of them all he and his holy Father the Pope might have shared the Christian World by a double Monarchy of the Church and Empire between them But did this bloody Prince prosper in these his ambitious and cruel Designs Nothing less For what got he by his invading France by Land and England and Ireland by Sea and by his large Pensions conferred upon the Traitors and secret Enemies of either States Truly nothing For having wasted about thirty millions of Money upon those fruitless Designs and not gained a Foot of Land in any of those Realms but the loss of a great part of the seventeen Provinces with whom having broken his Oath solemnly sworn to them in his Inauguration they by the Aid of England and France freed themselves from his unjust Oppression and Tyranny Neither did the Divine Justice suffer him so to escape but raised a Fire in his own House For whereas he had Issue by his first Wife Mary the Daughter of John the Third King of Portugal one only Son called Charles a Prince of admirable towardliness He during the Life of our Queen Mary his second Wife treated a Marriage for his Son with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Henry the Second King of France during which Treaty our Queen Mary dying he himself married her who was designed for his Son a Lady of admirable Beauty and Parts They often in private never forgetting their old affections lamented their unhappy loss each of other The Son also detested his Fathers cruelty and butchery by the merciless Inquisitors This so enraged his jealous Father that he imprison'd him and delivered him over into the Inquisitors Hands by whom he was condemned Anno Christi 1568. and a few days after he sent to him to choose his own Death who in a warm Bath caused his Veins to be opened and so dyed A while after though she was great with child he caused his Queen to drink a Cup of poison which soon dispatched her 144. King Philip's fourth Wife was Anne the Daughter of Mary the Empress his own natural Sister by whom he had Issue Ferdinand and James both cut off by Death in their Infancy and Philip who being the only surviving Issue of this incestuous match succeeded his Father in his Dominions but not altogether in his cruelties 145. Rodulph the Second Emperor of Germany not following the steps of the wise Maximilian his Father but of the aforesaid Philip his Brother in Law sought by all secret and hostile means to enervate and root out Religion in the Empire What got he by it but to have Gods curse denounced in Scripture fulfilled upon him That the elder should serve the younger For Mathias the Arch-Duke of Austria raising an Army in the year 1608. and joining his Forces with those of the oppressed Protestant in Bohemia hem'd up his Brother Rodulph in Prague got the Kingdom of Hungary from him in present possession and the Empire in reversion leaving him nothing but the complement of Majesty which he did not long survive and could never revenge that affront 146. We need not look into ancient Histories of Gods Judgments upon Heathen persecuting Emperors we may see the sad successes of the Princes of the house of Valois in France King Henry the
and destroy them The same Council was again held in the house of Hieronimo de Gondy at S. Clou and the time and order of the bloody Marriage Banquet to be served in at the Nuptials of the King of Navar with the Lady Margaret the French Kings Sister almost in the same manner and order as it was afterwards put in execution on Bartholomews Day Anno Christi 1572. In which were most inhumanely murthered of men women and children many also of them being great and honourable Personages of either Sex about thirty thousand And while the Duke of Guise was prosecuting that most inhumane Butchery a Cabinet Council was held in the Queen-Mothers Chamber whether it were not necessary that both the Duke and the rest of his Family who were then present should not be dispatched at the same time in that disorderly tumult King Charles himself never saw good day after this bloody Massacre though the Court-Sycophants had promised him that it should prove the first happy day of his absolute Monarchy For though he had been long drenched in Lust a sin seldom separated from a Persecutor by his ordinary Adultery with a mean Wench of Orleance of whom he begat Charles of Engolism afterwards Earl of Auvern And though he had been trained up by his Mother to see the slaughter of Beasts and ever in his Chases had been accustomed to bath his hands in the Blood of the slain Game which might have served to stupifie his Conscience as they did inflame his fierce and cruel nature yet a very stinging remorse in his Conscience did ever pursue and haunt him after that merciless slaughter brought about chiefly by his own swearing and forswearing by which the King of Navar and the Admiral Coligni were deceived His eyes ever rolled up and down uncertainly in the Day-time with fear and suspition and his sleep was usually interrupted in the night with dismal Dreams and Apparitions like our King Richard the Third of England after he had murthered his two Nephews in the Tower Nay though he survived that Massacre not fully two years yet had he in that time plotted the death of the said Henry Duke of Guise and the removal of the Queen-Mother and her Instruments from the Helm of State But as he a little before the Massacre had poisoned that incomparable Princess for Learning and Piety Joan Queen of Navar So did his Mother or the Duke of Guise by way of prevention or anticipation minister to him his fatal sharp Phisick of which after many and grievous torments he deceased upon Whitsunday Anno Christi 1574. being not full twenty five years old 150. The Queen-Mother the Kings two Brethren the Cardinal and the Duke of Guise that had not only joined with him in his Persecution but encouraged him to it they still survived and for ought men saw were firmly setled in Peace and Prosperity Though Guise might have taken warning by the Death of Claude Duke of Aumal his Brother slain with a Musket-Bullet from the walls of Rochel as he lay in Siege before it Anno Christi 1573. 151. Henry his Brother who succeeded King Charles was not long before chosen King of Poland where he then was but hearing of the Death of his Brother he clandestinly stole away from that Kingdom to return to France In his return the good Emperor Maximilian the Second and the Venetian State earnestly advised him to maintain the former Edicts of Pacification inviolably and not force the Consciences of men in matters of Religion Of the same Opinion also were all his wisest Councellors who saw plainly that the encreasing of the Protestants was the only means now left under Heaven to draw the Pope and his Conclave to yield some Reformation of the Church which it needed exceedingly But his Mother advised him by all means to root out the Professors of the truth by Fire and Sword And others there were of loose and Atheistical Lives as Henry Duke of Guise Lewis the Cardinal of Guise Renalt Villoclare A man saith the incomparable Monsieur de Thou fatally preferr'd to be an attendant upon this King by his Mother and diverse others who perswaded the King to break the aforesaid Edicts for Pacification and never to sheath his Sword till he had utterly ruined all the Protestants in France And the King being of a weak and degenerate Spirit the House of Guise being the Arch-enemies of the Gospel became at length so potent and triumphed so notoriously over the impotency of the King that at last they forced him to seek to those very Protestants for support against whom he had taken a Solemn Oath for their utter destruction Infinite almost were the Treasures which he spent upon his Minions and Pleasures His expenses upon his Dogs only amounted in those times to twenty thousand pounds yearly at the least but most was exhausted in the prosecution of his Wars against the Protestants 152. Guise and his Faction now grown strong and assured of support from King Philip the Second of Spain after he had expelled his King out of Paris and heaped a world of other insolent affronts upon him was drawn by him Anno Christi 1588. to the Assembly then held at Blois He came thither with his Brother Lewis Lorainer Cardinal of Guise and Charles Prince of Ionvile his Son upon the same Royal Assurance of safety with which Charles the Ninth had by his advise deceived the Protestants before the abhorred Massacre in the year 1572. But during this Assembly this Duke of Guise was slain against the Publick Faith given him not only within the Castle of Blois but in that very room wherein sixteen years before he had advised the bloody Massacre of Paris to be executed Two circumstances also do add much horror to the punishment it self One was that he was but newly risen from the bed of his adulterate Lust having not been able before this night to conquer the chastity of a Gentlewoman that waited on the Queen-Mother and therefore was so eager in reaping the fruits of his long Siege that he came not to the Council Chamber till he was oft sent for and even then scarcely ready The other was in the manner of his first wound which was given him in his Throat and immediately caused the Blood so abundantly to stream out of his Mouth as he never had time so much as to call upon God for mercy or forgiveness but spent his last minute in endeavouring to revenge himself upon his Murtherers 153. A while after the Cardinal of Guise his Brother who had been a great Gamester at Cards and Dice perished also in the same Castle of Blois by a violent Death Katherine de Medices the Queen-Mother who had been the chief cause for thirty years together of the shedding of so much innocent Blood being present at the same time in the said Castle stormed secretly that so great an action should be entred into and effected without her advice And when she heard that
Charles Lorainer Duke of Main was escaped being the younger Brother to the murthered Duke of Guise she presaged to the King her Son the sad Issue of that rash attempt which he as it seems interpreting to be rather the expression of her wishes than her fears and having by many woful experiences seen the effects of her revengful Italian Spirit took a course to pacify her wrath For not long after she there ended her unhappy Life by poison saith Elias Reusner in the same Castle also where she held the first secret and bloody Council for the execution of the aforesaid bloody Massacre Francis her youngest Son dyed before her June the tenth Anno 1584. in the one and thirtieth year of his Age of a violent poison probably ministred to him by some of the Hispaniolized Guisards so that it caused very much Blood to issue out of his Body in several places the sight of which purple streams might well call upon him to remember with what inhumane Pride he trampled upon the bloody streets of Paris in the great slaughter committed upon Gods Saints and Martyrs about twelve years before 154. There now only remained Henry the Third the French King alive of all the first contrivers and principal Executioners of that inhumane Massacre which no Age no Time no Action of the most Barbarous Nations of the world could ever parallel till that horrid Massacre of the bloody Irish upon the English Protestants in the year 1641. October 23. wherin above one hundred and fifty thousand perished in one of the four Provinces of that Kingdom after the most savage and barbarous manner that ever was read of 155. Charles Lorainer Duke of Main was presently upon the death of his Brother made General of the Holy League as they stiled it And Paris it self and in a manner all the Popish Cities beyond the Loiâ— giving up their Names and Forces to that Faction supported from Rome by Pope Sixtus the Fifth and from Spain by Philip the Second 156. When the King saw that neither his acting the Monk with the Flagellators nor his playing the Devil against the Prostants could secure him from a speedy ruine by the violent hands of Rebels He sent to the victorious King of Navar his Brother in Law and to the Protestant Army before whose known valour the Popish Forces hastened back from the Loyer to the Seine Henry the Third pursued them and pitched his Royal Pavilion at S. Clou not far from the Gates of Paris But his former cruelties and persecutions of the godly were doubtless the hinderances of his new expected Victories and the Divine Providence so ordered it that in the very place where the last resolution was taken by himself his Mother his Brethren and others for the speedy Execution of that brutish Massacre about seventeen years before nay in the very same House of Jerom de Gondy and in the very same Room and Chamber saith John de Serres was murthered by James Clement a Jesuited Monk Anno Christi 1589. and in the nine and thirtieth year of his Age. This Assasination was promoted by Pope Sixtus the Fifth by the seditious Sermons of Jesuits Priests and Friars and by the persecution of Katherine Mary Duchess of Mompensier Sister of the slain Duke of Guise who was so horribly transported with malice against the Protestants and with desire of revenge upon the King as she prostitued her Body to that Jesuited Goat to encourage him the more to that horrid murther and by that means to stupify and harden his Soul by his filthy Lust that it might not startle at any other wickedness whatsoever Yet as this King some Months before his Death had altered his former bloody resolution against the Protestants so did the Divine Providence at his Death afford him some hours of Repentance after the bloody knife had been sheathed in his Belly in which time he acknowledged his sin and his error in having been so long miss-lead by his ambitious and malicious Counsellors and his sin in having persecuted his Protestant Subjects and for having enforced the Conscience of many to submit to Popery against the known Truth by threats and cruelty 157. Our Queen Mary began her Reign with the breach of her Publick Faith For whereas the Crown was set upon her head by the Gentry and Commons of Suffolk although they knew her to be a Papist which shews that the godly Protestants whatsoever is suggested to the contrary by Lustful Prophane and Popishly affected Persons are the best Subjects that any Sovereign can be happy in yet she in one of her first Acts of Council took order for their restraint long before the Mass and Latine Service were generally received in London and caused that Diocess to tast the sharpest Inquisition and Persecution that raged during her Reign which was happily shortened by her Husbands contemning her Person and her Enemies conquering her Dominions neither of which she had power either to recover or revenge So that though she dyed not by any outward violence yet was her end as inglorious and miserable as her Reign had been turbulent and bloody She might have taken warning by the sudden and immature Death of King James the Fifth of Scotland her Cousin German who raising a persecution there against his Loyal and innocent Subjects that were Protestants Anno Christi 1539. burning some exiling and imprisoning others and forcing many to blaspheme in abjuring the known truth and all by advice and procurement of James Beaton Arch-Bishop of S. Andrews and David Beaton Abbot of Arbroth his Brother never saw good day after For two brave young Princes his Sons were the year following cut off by untimely ends in their Cradles Wars to his great disadvantage and loss were raised between him and our King Henry the Eighth his Uncle and all things fell out so cross to his haughty and vast mind as that it hastened his Death which fell out Anno Christi 1542. See more of him before Many also are the Examples of Gods severe but righteous Judgments of God upon Popish persecuting Prelates whereof you have store of instances in my two Martyrologies and in my two Vollumes of Examples I shall content my self for the present with two or three which though briefly set down there yet here more largely 158. Thomas Arundal Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having been the successful Traytor by the help of his Reverend Follow-Bishops to estabish Henry the Fourth in the Throne of King Richard the Second his Liege Lord and Cousin German pressed the new King whose broken Title needed the supportments of his Prelates to use his temporal Sword for the destruction of the Disciples of John Wickliff whose numbers at that time were so encreased that they even filled the Kingdom The King assented and having by their cruel instigation shed the blood of many of Gods Saints his Reign proved neither long nor prosperous 159. King Henry the Fifth his Son a brave and marshal Prince succeeding him
in the mean time those very Enemies of the Truth themselves cannot deny that the lives of such as profess this Doctrine which they so hate are full of integrity and virtue And therefore although the profane and bloody Prelates could never be drawn to pity Gods Children much less to love them for their piety and innocency being therein more inhumane than diverse of the Heathen Emperors themselves who upon the information of the virtuous and harmless deportment of the Christians by their Governours of Provinces caused their Persecutions to be slacked and ceased Yet diverse Princes and moderate Pontificians have been moved by the upright and honest lives of Gods Children to further their Liberty of Conscience and to abhor the cruelties which other Papists have practised upon them 175. Maximilian the Emperour son of Ferdinand the Second and Francis the First the French King were hence perswaded to grant unto their own subjects freedom of Conscience 176. The Earl of Egmont and Horn though zealous Papists laboured with the Dutchess of Parma that the Low-Country Protestants might be free from Fines imprisonments and all other manner â—f Persecutions in respect of Religion 177. Under Francis the Second the French King Anno Christi 1560. by the excellent and learned speeches of Charles Marillack Arch-Bishop of Vienne and John de Monlu Bishop of Valence freely spoken before the King himself in behalf of the French Protestants all Persecution against them was restrained The said Bishop among other particulars affirming boldly that a great encrease of the Sectaries proceeded from the ignorance and evil lives of the Bishops who having laid aside the care of their Flocks had for many years made it their business to enhanse their Fines and Rents and to live deliciously and loosely so as there were sometimes forty of them seen at once together wasting their time in Luxury and idleness in Paris the care of their Churches being in the mean time turned over to young and ignorant Fellows And so the Bishops becoming blind and useless the Parish Priests also following the Example of their Diocesans were only intent upon spoiling and vexing their people about their Tithes but were wholly unskilful and negligent in preaching to them And that therefore it was no wonder though diverse of the Nobility as well as of the common people did so readily hearken to new Opinions and Doctrines The same Counsel that the Conscience ought not to be forced nor any to be persecuted for matters of Religion meerly did Michael Hospitalius Chancellour of France give unto Charles the Ninth the same year that he succeded to the Crown after the death of the said Francis his Brother 178. By these foregoing Examples we may plainly see that their self-love and wallowing in all manner of sensuality is the great cause of their hatred to the godly whose lives and principles oppose their wickedness and errors The persecutions of the Arrians against the Orthodox exceeded the cruelty of the Heathen Emperours but this of the Romanists far surpasseth and exceeds them both being joined together 179. Pope Paul the Third left this bloody Legacy to his Conclave when he dyed Anno Christi 1359. as is testified by Mounsieur de Thou For having called diverse of the Cardinals into his Bed-chamber he exhorted them by all means to continue and maintain the Office of the Inquisition as the only means left upon earth to establish the Romane Religion 180. It may cause wonder in any serious man to consider that amongst the Turks Jews Indians yea and the Papists themselves the most zealous strict and precise in their several Religions are the most esteemed and honoured and only in the greater part of the Protestant Churches the most knowing and resolute retainer of the truth and the most strict and godly in their lives are most hated nick-named disgraced and persecuted And Grace which should add a lustre to Learning Riches Honours Noble Extraction and all other outward endowments whether natural or acquired that alone obscures all the rest and brings the contempt not only of great ones but even of the scum and dregs of the multitude upon the persons so qualified 181. Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham in the Reign of our King Henry the Fifth being convented before Thomas Arundel Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and diverse other lustful and bloody Bishops spake thus unto them Whilest I was said he a Swearer a Rioter and every way else vicious you never reproved me nor questioned me But since I have embraced this despised Doctrine of John Wickliff which hath taught me how to conquer my Sins and to lead an honest and a godly life now you are enraged against me with malice and seek my destruction 182. The same observation was made by Annas du Bourg that brave Senator of Paris Anno Christi 1559. under King Henry the Second of France That there were many Adulteries Perjuries Oaths and other infamous offences dayly committed and already punishable by the Laws and yet such as were guilty of all or any of those crimes were countenanced and advanced But against the Professors of the Truth all cruelty was practised who were guilty of no other offence but of embracing the truth of the Gospel revealed unto them by the Spirit and Word of God and of discovering by the same Light the horrible vices and errors of the Popish power that so there might follow an amendment 183. Experience sufficiently manifests that Persecution hath never been a way to suppress the Truth and surely it s against the Dictates of Charity and Christianity to enforce the conscience without a full and clear conviction This was confessed by King Henry the Third of France one of the most impotent Princes saith a learned Gentleman that ever swayed that Scepter and the most inveterate Enemy that ever the Protestants had having been instructed to hate betray and persecute them by Katherine de Medices his bloody Mother even from his very cradle yet when James Clement a Jesuited Monk had sheathed a knife in his Bowels and that he saw himself near to the Minute in which he was to give an account of all his cruelties to the supreme Judge of Heaven and Earth he made an effectual speech to the chief Commanders of his Army being most of them Papists wherein he exhorted them to acknowledge and obey the King of Navar then a Protestant as their lawful Soveraign and the undoubted Heir of the French Crown and to know this undoubted truth for the future That Religion which is instilled into the Souls of men by God himself cannot be forced by man 184. The same Truth also and almost in the same words did the Lord Brederode and the other Protestants in the Low-Countries alledge for their just excuse in their joint Apology published in the year 1566 and farther added That if the Papists did conceive their Religion to be the Truth they should instead of Blood Fines Imprisonings and Banishments take the good and seasonable