us one Master instructed us c. Therefore no longer prolong the time in vain I came to suffer not to speak use all the Tyranny that possibly you can against my body yet have you no power over my soul. This so moved the Tyrant that he devised new torments beyond the reach of humane wit and commanding a globe to be brought he caused him to be tied about it in such sort that all his bones were put out of joint hanging one from another in a most pitifull manner yet was the holy Martyr nothing dismaid then the skin of his head and face was pulled off and then was he put upon the wheel but he could be racked no worse for all his bones were dislocated before the blood issuing from him abundantly he said We O Tyrant endure this torment for the love of God and thou the Author of such cruelty shalt be punished with everlasting pain Then was his tongue cut out and he being put into a fiery frying pan resigned his spirit unto God Next followed Judas the fourth brother whom all the people perswaded to obey the King But he said Your fire shall not separate me from the Law of God nor from my brethren To thee O Tyrant I denounce destruction but to such as believe salvation Try me thou cruel wretch and see if God will not stand by me as he did by my three brethren now in glory c. The cruel Tyrant hearing this was so inraged that he leaped down from his chaire to torment this Martyr himselfe He commanded also his tongue to be cut out to whom Judas said Thy cruelty will nothing avail thee our God needs not by voice to be awaked c. he heareth such as call upon him with their hearts and know's our thoughts afar off c. Cut out my tongue if thou please would thou wouldst so sanctifie all the parts of my body c. and think not that thou shalt long escape unpunished Then was his tongue cut out and he bound to a stake was beaten with ropes ends which torments he bore with admirable patience After which he was put upon the wheel where he ended his life and went to the rest of his brethren Then spake Achas the fift brother Behold O Tyrant I come to be punished before thou commandest me therefore hope not to alter his minde that desireth to be tormented The bloud of my innocent brethren hath condemned thee to hell I shall make up the fift that by it thy torments may be increased What offence have we committed that thou thus ragest against us c. All that thou canst alledge against us is that we honour God and live in obedience to his Laws and therefore we esteem not punishment which is an honour to us though no part of us be left untormented yet we shall be the more rewarded by God Then at the command of the Kings the executioner cast him into a brazen pot where he was prest down with his head to his feet and afterwards he sufferred all the torments inflicted on his brethren but he was so far from being discouraged that suddenly starting up he said Cruel Tyrant how great benefits dost thou though against thy will bestow upon us yea the more thou ragest the more acceptable to God shalt thou make us therefore I shall be sorry if thou shewest me any mercy by this temporall death I shall go to everlasting life And having thus finished his sufferings he died Then was Areth the sixt brother brought to whom the Tyrant proferred the choise of honour or punishment But he being grieved at this profer said O Tyrant though I be younger in years then my brethren yet the constancy of my minde is not inferiour as we have lived so we will die together in the fear of God Hasten therefore thy torments and what time thou wouldest spend in exhorting me spend it in devising torments for me Whereupon Antiochus in a rage commanded him to be tied to a pillar with his head downwards Then caused he a fire to be made at such a distance as might not burn but rost him Then he made them prick him with awles that the heat might pierce the sorer In these torments much bloud like froth gathered about his head and face yet said he O noble fight O valiant warre O strife between piety and impiety My brethren have past through their Agonies whose crown of Martyrdom is the punishment of their Persecutors I willingly follow them that as by blood I am conjoyned to them so by death I may not be separated from them Devise O Tyrant some new torment for I have overcome these already O Master of cruelty enemy of piety and persecutor of Justice we young men have conquered thy power thy fire is cold and heateth not thy weapons are bended and blunted in our bodies our God giveth us more courage to suffer then thou hast to punish c. As he thus spake they pulled out his tongue with an hot pair of tongs and lastly frying him in a frying pan he gave up the ghost There being now only the youngest brother left called Jacob he presenting himself before the Tyrant moved him to some compassion wherefore he called the Child to him and taking him aside by the hand he said By the example of thy brethren thou seest what to expect if thou disobeyest me therefore deliver thy self from these torments and I will give thee what honour my Kingdom can afford thou shalt be a Ruler Generall of my Army my Counceller c. But when this prevailed not he called his mother who coming and standing by her son the Tyrant said to her O worthy woman where now are all thy Children yet thou hast one remaining advise him therefore not to ruine himself and to leave thee childless by his obstinacy c. The mother bowing her self to the King said to her child in Hebrew that she might not be understood of others Pity and comfort thy sorrowfull mother O my son who bare thee nine moneths in my womb gave thee suck with my brests three years and with great care have brought thee up hitherto I pray thee dear son consider the heavens and earth and remember that God created them all of nothing c fear not therefore these pains and torments but imitate thy brethren and contemn death that in the day of mercy I may receive thee with thy brethren again in heaven Then did he desire to be unbound which being granted he immediately ran to the torments and coming where was a frying pan red hot he said to the King Cruel Tyrant I now know thee not only to have been cruel to my brethren but even cruelty it self Wretch that thou art who gave thee these purple robes who exalted thee to thy Kingdom Even he whom thou in us dost persecute whose servants thou tormentest and killest for which thy self
afterwards she recovered so much strength as to get upon her knees and as she was praying to God the bloody enemy dispatched her Giovanni Salvagiot as he was returning from Bagnol after the peace was concluded as he passed by a Chappel because he put not off his hat and made obeysance thereto was murthered and his body left unburied Giovanni Gayo and divers other men women and children hid themselves in a Cave where for a time they continued in safety but at last were discovered by some of these Bloodhounds whereupon they fell upon their knees and begged their lives of them most of the murtherers having been their neighbours and familiar acquaintance and such as had pretended great friendship to them But the mercy of these men proved extreme cruelty For the kindest salute they could afford their old acquaintance was with Swords Musquets and Pistols which the poor people perceiving and not desiring to behold the lamentable misery each of other they kneeled down in a Ring and thrust their heads into Ferne and such like stuffe as they had prepared to lie upon in which posture they were all miserably shot to death and their dead bodies afterwards horribly mangled and cut in pieces Jacob Barral and his wife having been taken prisoners by the Earle of Saint Secondo were three or four dayes after carried forth and having first cut off the womans breasts they shot them to death Antony Guiguo went to Periero with a purpose to change his Religion but it pleased God so to touch his heart that he repented of the resolution and sought to make an escape But as he was flying some Troops of the Marquesse of Galeas caught him and used him most cruelly because he would not yield to go to Masse and as they carried him prisoner towards Praly passing by a Precipice the poor man to avoid his tormentors leaped down from the Rock and so was dashed in pieces Very many others there were which might here have been inserted whereof some were drowned some burnt some slaine with the sword some shot to death some starved some smothered in the Snow some pined some killed with staves some cut in pieces but I am weary with reckoning up their names and I suppose the Reader also is tired with these cruelties yet are their names written in red letters in the Kalender of Heaven though their Popish adversaries would have them written in the dust and whosoever desires to see more may finde a larger Catalogue in Master Moorlands History of the Peresecutions in the Valleys of Piemont CHAP. XLV A true Narrative of the War in the Valleys of Piemont between the Popish and Protestant party upon the occasion of the Massacre IN the former Chapter you have a faithful Narration of what cruelties were exercised against the Reformed party in the Valleys of Piemont from the first arrival of the Marquesse of Pianessa's forces at St. Giovanni which was April 17. 1655. to the 21. of the same by which time they had made such havock of the poor people that there was now onely the little Communalty of Roras which was left entire and untouched But that they also might in all things be made like unto their suffering brethren of the other Churches and that it might appear that the destruction was designed to be universal the Earle of Christophle upon that very day being April 21. sent three hundred Souldiers secretly by the way of Villaro to surprize them of Roras and to put them all to the sword This party being got upon a little hill called Rumer belonging to Roras it pleased God that they were met with by some Souldiers belonging to Captaine Joshua Gianavel whom God raised up at that time as a choice Instrument for the preservation of the poor scattered remnant of his people These Souldiers being but seven or eight of them yet having been beforehand placed in ambuscado at a convenient Post to prevent the inrode of the enemy they fired upon them and plyed them so hard that many of them were killed upon the place and the rest supposing by the great number of bullets that flew about their eares that the men in Ambuscado were sixe times more in number than indeed they were they fled back in great disorder and confusion which the others perceiving they fell upon their Rear and chased them at least three quarters of a League amongst the Rocks and Woods doing notable execution upon them in their flight The Members of this little Church of Roras to take away all occasions of exceptions presented their complaints to the Marquesse of Pianessa who that he might have the better opportunity to deceive and surprize them answered that those of his Souldiers that went to Roras were but Thieves Robbers and Out-lawes that herein had wholly disobeyed his Orders adding that they had done him a singular favour in driving them out of their Countrey and that he would take a course to prevent their being disturbed for the future and hereupon he published an Order whereby he straightly charged his Souldiers not to give them any further causes of complaints nor to molest them in any kind hereafter Yet perfidiously the very next day he sent a party of five hundred chosen men to put his first bloody designe in execution As these men were passing over a little hill of Roras they were so saluted by eleven Musqueteers of the Protestants and six men with slings under the conduct of Captaine Gianavel who had divided them into three Squadrons that the enemy was soone put to flight and this poor handful of despicable men pursued them for an whole League slaying a very great number of them without the losse or hurt of any one of themseves which shews the admirable Providence of God in preserving and prospering those that fight his battels The Marquesse of Pianessa though he had failed this second yet was resolved to make a third attempt and still to deceive them he made new promises and protestations that no injury in the world should be offered them and that in regard of the Intercession of the Earle of Christophle their Lord and Patron he would protect and defend them yet the very morrow after he sent a party of seven hundred men who first seized upon and secured all the passes that none might escape their bloody hands and then most barbarously burnt and destroyed whatsoever they met with thorow all the Communalty of Roras Hereupon seventeen housekeepers whose hearts God had marvelously strengthened and encouraged for their poor Brethrens preservation seeing what they must expect and that nothing but death and destruction waited for them unlesse some admirable providence prevented it as also calling to mind those signal deliverances which God had vouchsafed to his ancient people of the Jewes in their greatest straits they unanimously resolved to cast themselves with their lives and estates into the hands of the same God resting upon his gracious promises and freely
and comfort Tentation Constancy of a boy An excellent example of an Heathen Profaness of Hereticks The destruction of the persecuting Vandals Sin the forerunner of persecution The fâ—â—st Reformers Peter Valdo Charity Popish malice Christian courage Pope Alexander raiseth persecution Godâ— Providence Persecution spreads the Gospel King of France persecutes them Many burnt The spreading of the Gospel Malicious slanders Vindication The greate encâ—ease of the Waldenses Popish rage and malice Five burnt at Collen A bloody Edict against the Waldenses They defend themselves by Arms. Valdo's Zeal and Courage Sangâ—iâ— Martyrum semen Ecclesia Dominicans instituted Inquisitors begun An. Chri. 1176· Injustice Prodigious cruelty A Knight burned A Disputation between the Popelings and the Waldenses The Popelings bafled Horrible cruelty The number of the Waldenses Their godly lives Good Pastors Persecution raised Popish cruelty In Pragela Popish malice Infants starved to death Popish cruelty Frassiniere Popish cruelty The King forbids the persecution Yet the Arch-Bishop continues it Popish malice Slanders Ja Pateneri The Arch-Bishops cruelty Gods judgement on persecutors Popish lies Gods providence Popish subtilty Barbarous crueltie A girevous persecution The Lieutenant repulsed Plain dealing Popish uncleannesse In Dauphine The weaknesse of a woman The innocency of the Waldenses Popish subtilty and injustice A speciall providence In Piedmont Love Popish malice Slanders Persecution in Piedmont Cruelty Cat. Girard Popish malice Prayer Profanenesse A just judgement A specall prouidence Gods judgement on persecutors Gods mercy Slanders Zeole and courageth Persecution renued Constancy The antiquity of the Faith Unity Zeal The first French Bibles printed One of them drowned A speciall providence The Pope stirs up persecution Courage A special providence Bar. Hector Persecution renewed Profanenesse Prudence Popish malice The German Prince interceds for them Popish malice A great persecution Humane infirmity Popish malice A speciall providence Treachery Prodigious villany A miracle of Mercy A special providence Popish subtilty Popish dissimulation and perfidiousness Fasting and Prayer A special providence Power of Prayer Profaneness A special providence A just reward Prayer A speciall providence Popish subtilty Perfidiousness Papist trechery A notable story A speciall providence Barbarous cruelty Gods judgement on persecutors Uncleannesse Popish Perfidiousness Their Ministers sent away Cruelty Barbarous cruelty Prayer in danger A League A good resolution Images demolished A speciall providence Popish subtilty A special providence Gods Providence Joy in tribulations Prayer in danger Speciall providences Thanksgiving A speciall providence Prayer The enemies every where beaten Prayer in danger A speciall providence Scorners punished Subtilty Perâ—idiousnesse The Spaniardsâ—epulsed â—epulsed Peace obtained Bar. Copin Zeal Christ best of all Tentation Constancy His exhortation to his wife and children Copin murthered Gods providence Their holy lives Their godly conversation The Pope persecutes them Popish lies Humane frailty Popish cruelty A speciall providence Barbarous cruelty Prodigious wickednesse Zeal Horrible cruelties Their totall extirpation Devilish slanders Note P. Masson martyred A cruel decree K. Francis the first Called Miâ—â—irs Barbarous cruelty Prodigious cruelty A bloody speech Gods judgement on persecutors Miniers his horrible death Gods judgement on persecutors Popish uncleannesse Profanenesse A godly Book-seller burnt Popish subtlity Popes rage against Earl Remund He goes to the Popes Legate The Earl whipt naked Beziers besieged Faith and courage Beziers stormed Barbarous cruelty Carcasson besieged Popish cruelty A brave speech Popish cruelty and unleannesse Carcasson stormed The Pilgrims repulsed with great losse Popish Profaanenesse and perfidiousness The Earl made a prisoner A speciall providence Carcasson taken Simon of Montfort made Generall Eearl of Beziers dieth The King of Arragon encourageth the Albingenses Earl Simons pride abated Prodigious cruelty Menerbe taken Courage and constancy The Castle of Termes taken Six thousand Pilgrims slain Horrible cruelty Popish subtilty The Legate dies The English help the Albingenses Popish pride Popish hypocrisie Articles against Earl Remund Earl Remund in danger His brother betrays him Tholouse besieged The Pilgrims beaten The siege raised Popish perfidiousnessâ— and cruelty Popish perfidiousnesse Subtilty Prince Lewis retires Earl Simon beaten Young Remunds successe Earl Simon honoured And disgraced A Council against the Albingenses Popish cruelty A new Army of Pilgrims Cruelty A popish brag E. Sâ—mon beaâ—en Thanksgiving Many Pilgrims slaine E. Simon slain by a woman Prince Lewis his cruelty Earl Guido slaine The Emperours cruell edict against them The Gospellers dispersed Persecuted The Gospellers encrease The King of France against them Avignion besieged A Famine in the Kings Army A dreadfull Judgement Many of them drowned The French beaten The Kâ—ng removes further from the City A plague in the French Camâ— The King of France dyeth Avâ—gnion taken by treachery The young â—ing of France persecuts them His armies beaâ—en Tholouse besieged A great Famine Popish treachery Unreasonable terms put upon the Earl of Tholouse Pope Gregories Counsells against them Persecution continued A cruell Edict against them The bones of one of them burnt A brave answer Albingenses in Spaine Persecuted and destroyed Trancavell and others defend them He prevailes exceedingly A dying woman burnt Earl Remund escapes He is forced to submit Persecution in Italy 1240. Earl Remund prospers Persecution in Millan Earl of Provence beaten A great Persecution Pope Urban Persecutes them Another Persecution A cruel Edict They increase and are persecuted Lollard Christianity brought into Bohemia Persecution begun Tyranny Persecution in Prague A speciall providence The Christians prevaile Subtilty 300. Christians slain Gods judgement on persecutors Wenceslaus reigns Ludomilla murthered Wenceslaus murthered Gods judgement on persecutors Woytich banished The Pope usurps over the Bohemians John Melicius The Pope Antichrist Melicius imprisoned M. Mathias Mathias banished John Husse Jerome 〈◊〉 Prague Popish malice and subtilty The Pope excommunicates the Bohemians Multitudes martyred Encouragment Apostacy Constancy Unnaturall cruelty Many drowned A loving wife Cruelty A Minister and others burned Profanenesse and blasphemy Martin Loquis Prodigious cruelty Some beheaded Schism Calixtines Popish subtilty Thaborites destroyed Reformation begun Popish malice A Minister racked A wicked Edict Popish cruelty Elders chosen A Synod Ordination of Ministers The Waldenses· Admonition The Waldenses persecuted The Church increaseth Popish subtilty Slanders Confession The Brethren banished Persecution Popish malice Gods judgement on persecutors Anno 1510. A cruel Edict Devillish wickednesse Tentation resisted Gods judgement on persecuâ—ors Anno. 1523. Luther Zahere an Apostate Popish lies and slanderous Persecution Two burnt A godly woman burnt Two godly men burnt Comfort in death Gods judgement on persecutors A new persecution Popish malice Charles the fifth warres against the Protestants A great persecution Persecution causeth reformation A speciall providence Popish malice Ministers persecuted A speciall providence Conversion John Augusta Popish lies and slanders A wicked Edict Two hundred Ministers banished The Baron of Schanow Jesuites first brought into Prague Maximilian Emperour Rodulphus Emperour Sin the forerunner of persecution Mathias Emperour Ferdinand
of the Kings house into Egypt And again under Asa by Baasha King of Israel 1 King 15.16 and by Zerah the Ethiopian who came against Judah with an Army of a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots 2 Chron. 14.9 Yea so malicious and subtile is Satan that he sometimes stirs up one Saint to persecute another as he stirred up good King Asa to persecute the Prophet of the Lord who dealt plainly and faithfully with him by casting him into prison 2 Chron. 16.10 Michaiah also was persecuted and imprisoned by Ahab 2 Chron. 18.25 26. Under Jehosaphat the Church of God was persecuted by the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites whom God destroyed by setting of them one against another 2 Chron. 20.23 Elijah was persecuted by Ahab and Jesabel 1 King 18.10 and 19.2 The Prophets of the Lord were slain by Jesabel 1 King 18.13 Elisha was hated and persecuted by Jehoram 2 King 6.31 in the reign of this Jehoram the Philistines and Arabians mightily oppressed Judah 2 Chro. 21.16 17. Then Athaliah by murthering the Kings seed usurpeth the Kingdom and tyrannizeth five years 2 Chro. 22.10 Joash in his reign slayeth Zechariah for reproving him 2 Chron. 24.21 The Church was oppressed at the same time by the Syrians ver 23. and afterwards also in the reign of Ahaz 2 Chron. 28.5 and about the same time the King of Israel slew of Judah a hundred and twenty thousand and carried away captive two hundred thousand men women and children Judah was also oppressed by the Edomites ver 17. and by the Philistines ver 18. and by the King of Assyria ver 20. and chap. 32.1 Manasses persecuted the Prophet Isaiah for reproving him and caused him to be sawn a sunder with a wooden saw Josephus Afterwards Pharaoh Necho tyrannized over Judah 2 Chron. 36.3 and after him Nebuchadâ—ezzar v 6 c. and so the sins of Judah being come to the full the good figgs were carried away captive to Babylon and the land afterwards was wholly laid waste and destroyed which being foretold by the Prophet Jeremiah the wicked Jews first persecuted him with the tongue Jer. 18.18 then was he smitten and put into the stocks Jer. 20.2 then was he indanger of death by the Preists and false Prophets Jer. 26.8 then was he imprisoned by Zedekiah Jer. 32.2 3. then he is beaten and again put into prison Jer. 37.15 and after that cast into a dungeon where he stuck in the mire Jer. 38 6. then by the wicked Captains he was carried into Egypt Jer. 43.6 7. What grievous afflictions the Church and people of God endured about this time see it set forth to the life in the book of the Lamentations In the time of the Captivity the three Children were persecuted by Nebuchadnezzar and thrown into the fiery fornace for refusing to worship his golden Image Dan. 3.23 Daniel was persecuted by Darius his Courtiers and cast into the Lions den Dan. 6.16 Mordecai was hated and persecuted by Haman and a Decree procured for the murthering of all the people of God in one day Esth. 3.13 After the return of the Jews from captivity the people of the Land laboured to weaken the hands of the men of Judah and troubled them in the building of the Temple and hired Counsellors against them to accuse them to Cyrus and Ahasuerus they wrote also against them to Artaxerxes that they were a rebellious people and that if they should be suffered to build Jerusalem they would neither pay toll tribute nor custom to the King Ezra 4.4 c. and having by this malicious suggestion gotten authority they came upon the poor people of God and enforced them to give over thâ—ir worke Yea and afterwards when by the command of the Lord the Jews had again set upon the building Tatnai and Shether-Bosnai came up to discourage and discharge them from it and when this prevailed not they wrote against them to King Darius Again when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem and began to build the wall of the City how were they scorned and jeered by Sanballat Tobiah and Geshem And when the work prospered in their hands and jeers would not prevaile to stop it they then conspired to fight against Jerusalem and so to hinder it but neither that prevailing by reason of the prudent carriage of Nehemiah they then sought to entrap him and by destroying him to hinder the work Nehe. 6.2 Then they accused the people of God of treason and rebellion ver 6 c. Then they hired a false Prophet to terrefie Nehemiah ver 10 12. Then they corrupted and held intelligence with some of the Nobles of Judah to betray him notwithstanding all which designes God preserveth Nehemiah and the building of Jerusalem is finished And thus farre the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament have given us a certain Register of the Persecutions Martyrdomes and sufferings of the Church and children of God for the space of about three thousand five hundred years from the creation of the world to the Restauration of the Jewish Polity under Nehemiah CHAP. II. The Persecution of the Church from Nehemiah to Antiochus his time AFter the death of Eliashib the High-Priest Judas his sonne succeeded and after him John his sonne which John had a brother called Jesus who was much favoured by Bagoses Generall of Artaxerxes who promised him the Priesthood which made him take occasion to quarrel with his brother John who thereby was so much provoked against him that he slew him in the Temple Bagoses being informed hereof came with his Army to Jerusalem and kept the Jews in bondage seven years making them tributaries so that before they could offer their daily sacrifice they were compelled to pay for every Lamb fifty Drachmes After the death of John Jaddus his sonne succeeded in the priesthood in whose time Alexander the Great passed over the Hellespont and having overcome the Lieutenant of Darius he conquered many countries in Asia minor intending suddenly to come upon Jerusalem Jaddus being informed of his intention was sore afraid he therefore offered sacrifice and commanded the people to make their prayers unto God for direction and protection in this common danger and when he heard that Alexander approached he caused the Priests and people to put on white garments and himself attired in his Priestly robes went before them when Alexander espied them he himself marched before the rest of his company and coming to the High-Priest he fell down on his face before him then did all the Jews circle him in round about and with one voice saluted him Alexanders chief Commanders were wonderfully astonished at this deportment of the King and thought he was out of his wits and Parmenio stepping to him asked him what he meant thus to adore the High-Priest of the Jews when as all other men adored him Alexander answered I doe not adore him but that God whom the
High-Priest worshipeth for in my sleep I saw him in such an habit when I was in Macedonia consulting with my self how I might conquer Asia and he bad me to make no delay assuring me that he would both guide me and my Army and would deliver the Empire of the Persians into my hands Then gave he the High-Priest his hand and went with him to the City and comming to the Temple he offered sacrifice according to the direction of the High-Priest then did Jaddus shew him Daniels Prophecy wherein his victories over the Persians and his Monarchy were foretold which much rejoyced Alexander then did he command the Jews to ask some favours at his hands the High-Priest requested onely that they might live after the Ordinances of their forefathers and that every seventh year they might be exempted from taxes and tributes which he fully granted they besought him likewise that the Jews which were in Media and Babilon might be permitted to live after their own Laws which he willingly promised and so departed this was about the year of the world 3632. and before Christs nativity 332. After the death of Alexander his Kingdom was divided amongst his Captains amongst whom Ptolemy the son of Lagus held Egypt who falling out with Antigonus that held Asia minor there grew great wars between them wherein Ptolemy won from him all Syria and going to Jerusalem on a Sabbath day under pretence to offer sacrifice the Jews suspecting nothing he surprised the City carrying away many of the Jews into captivity into Egypt but after his death his son Ptolemy Philadelphus at his owne cost redeemed an hundred and twenty thousand of them paying twelve Crowns apeece for each of them and sent them back into their owne countrey He sent also by them fifty talents of gold for the temple and obtained of Eleazer the High Priest the Law of the Jews and 72 Interpreters out of every Tribe some who translated it into Greek in 72 daies and having finished their work Ptolemy returned them with great rewards for themselves and with many rich presents to Eleazer Antiochus and Ptolemy being at war each against other the Jews suffered much by them Mach. 1. Collected out of Josephus CHAP. III. The persecution of the Church of God under Antiochus Epiphanes before the nativity of Christ about 168 years AFterwards the Jews being divided amongst themselves one part of them went to Antiochus telling him that their purpose was to forsake the Religion and Ordinances of their forefathers and to follow that of the Kings and to live after the manner of the Greeks entreating him to license them to live in Jerusalem which Antiochus assenting to they went to Jerusalem where they behaved themselves very wickedly but finding opposition from the other party of the Jews they sent for Antiochus who led his army against Jerusalem and encamped before it and by his faction within had the gates opened and the City betraied to him about the year of the world 3796. and before the nativity of Christ 168. Being entred Jerusalem he slew many of the faithfull Jews and having taken great spoils he returned back to Antioch Two years after he came to Jerusalem again and having seen what quantity of gold was in the Temple and what a huge number of Presents and precious Ornaments were in the same he was so overcome with covetousness that he violated all conventions and conditions formerly made equally raging against his own and the adverse party sparing neither friend nor foe then he spoiled the Temple and carried away the Vessels dedicated unto God the golden Table the golden Candlestick the Censers c. leaving nothing behind him of any value yea he inhibited the godly Jews from offering their usual and dailie sacrifices to God and having spoiled the whole City he slew many of the Inhabitants and carried the rest away into Captivity with their Wives and Children to the number of ten thousand He also burned the fairest buildings of the City and brake down the wals and raised a Fortress in the lower City and having inclosed it with high wals he planted a Garison of Macedonians therein with whom remained the scum of the Apostate Jews He also caused an Altar to be erected in the Temple on which he commanded swine to be offered in Sacrifice contrary to the Law He constrained the Jews to forsake God and adore those Idols which himself vvorshiped he forbad them to circumcise their Children and appointed Over-seers to constrain them to fulfill his Commandments so that many for fear of punishment conformed themselves to his will But such as were of upright hearts and valiant minds little respected his menaces whereupon they were beaten and exposed to cruel punishment many days together in the midst of which they yielded up the ghost for after they were whipt and maimed in their bodies they were tortured and crucified the women vvere strangled and the circumcised children vvere hung up about the necks of their parents and vvhere any books of the sacred Scriptures vvere found they defaced and burnt them and such with vvhom they vvere found vvere put to most cruel deaths At this time there dvvelt at Modin a Village of Jury one vvhose name was Matthias a Priest of the rank of Joarib that had five sons John called Gaddis Simon called Matthes Judas called Maccabeus Eleazer called Aaron and Jonathan called Apphas This Matthias often complained to his sons of the miserable state of their Countrey of the sacking of their City the profanation of the Temple and the miseries of the people telling them that it was better for them to die for the Law then to live in Ignominy When therefore the Kings Commisaries came unto Modin and commanded the people to sacrifice according to the Kings Edict they first applied themselves to Matthias as to the most Honourable person amongst them requiring him first to offer sacrifice that others might follow his example promising that the King vvould much honour him for it Matthias ansvvered that he vvould by no means commit that Idolatry assuring them that though all other Nations either for love or fear should obey the Edicts of Antiochus yet that he nor his children could be induced to forsake the Religion of their fathers As soon as he had thus spoken a certain Jew stepped forth to offer sacrifice according to the command of the King wherewith Matthias inflamed with zeal was so displeased that he and his sons fell upon him and with their swords hewed him to pieces he also slew Apelles the Kings Captain and some other souldiers who would have withstood him Then he overthrew the Altar and with a loud voice he said If any one be affected to the Laws of their fathers and to the service of God let him follow me and so he retired into the deserts with his sons the like did the rest with their wives and children hiding themselves in caves and
and then marching to Malla a City of the enemies he surprised it slew all the men therein and burnt it with fire after which he destroyed Chaspomo Bosor and divers other places Shortly after Timothy leavied another great Army hired many of the Syrians and drew forth all his allies to his assistance with these he marched to Jordan exhorting them valiantly to oppose the Jews and to hinder their passage over the river telling them that if the Jews gat over they were sure to be put to the worst Judas hearing hereof marched hastily against his enemies and having passed the river he presently set upon them killing some and grievously affrighting the rest who casting away their arms immediately fled some of them to save themselves fled into a Temple called Carnain but Judas having taken the City and Temple slew them and burnt the same Then did he lead away with him all the Jews that lived in Galaad together with their wives children and substance and brought them into Judaea When he drew near to the town of Ephron they had baricadoed up his way that he could not pass then did he send Ambassadors to them to desire them to open his passage which when they refused he besieged the City took it by assault burned it down and slew all the men that were therein After having passed over Jordan they came into Judaea with great joy and gladnesse praising God and offering sacrifices of thanksgiving to him for the safe return of his Army for that in all those battels and encounters he had not lost one Jew But whilest Judas and Simon were gone upon these expeditions the two Captains which he had left to command the Garisons of Judaea being desirous to obtain the reputation of valiant men tooke their forces and went towards Jamnia against whom Gorgias Governor of that place issued out and slew two thousand of them the rest fled to Judaea Afterwards Judas and his brethren warred against the Idumaeans took divers of their Cities and with a great booty returned home with great joy Antiochus in the meane time being in Persia heard of a wealthy City called Elymais in which was a rich Temple of Diana c. thither he went and besieged it but the inhabitants sallied out and with great losse drave him from thence whereupon he returned to Babylon there also news was brought unto him of the overthrow of his Captains in Judaea and that the Jews were grown strong which together with his former defeat so wrought upon him that he fell sick and finding no hope of recovery he called his most familiar friends to him and told them that his sicknesse was violent and desperate and that he was plagued with this grevous affliction for that he had tormented the people of the Jews destroyed their Temple committed horrible sacriledge and contemned the reverence of God but now he vowed that if it would please the Lord to restore him he would become a Jew and do many great things for the people of God as also that he would goe through all the known world to declare the power of God Notwithstanding which the Lord knowing his hypocrisie continued to plague him after a terrible manner he had a remedilesse pain in his bowels and intollerable torments in all his inward parts His body bred abundance of worms which continually crawled out of the same yea he so rotted above ground that by reason of the intollerable stink no man could endure to come near him neither could he himselfe indure the same and thus this vile person who had formerly in a proud and insolent manner protested that he would make Jerusalem a common burying place and the streets thereof to run with the bloud of Gods people by Gods just judgement ended his life in extream misery but before his death he called Philip one of his chief Captains and made him governour of his kingdom requiring him to be very carefull of his son Antiochus Then was Antiochus proclaimed King and sirnamed Eupator About which time the Garisons and Apostates that were in the Fortress at Jerusalem did much mischief to the Jews for setting unawares upon those that came to the Temple to worship and to offer their sacrifices they slew them Hereupon Judas resolved to cut off these Garisons and to that end he assembled all the people and besieged them and having made certain Engins and raised divers Rams he earnestly prosecuted the siege but divers of those Apostates escaping by night went to Antiochus desiring him not to suffer them to perish who for his fathers sake had forsaken their Religion c. Then did Antiochus send for his Captains commanding them to raise a mighty Army which accordingly they did gathering together a hundred thousand footmen and twenty thousand horsemen and thirty two Elephants with these Forces he departed out of Antioch and made Lysias Generall of his Army Then did he besiege Bethsura a strong City but the inhabitants valiantly resisted him and sallying out burned his Engines which he had prepared for battery The King continuing the siege for a longe time Judas hearing of it raised his siege from before the Castle of Jerusalem and marched towards Antiochus his Army and when he came neer to the enemies Camp he lodged his Army in certain streights called Beth-zacharia The King hearing thereof raised his siege from Bethsura and marched to wards the streight where Judas with his Army was The King first caused his Elephants to march thorow the streight about each Elephant were a thousand Footmen and a hundred Horsemen for his guard each Elephant carried a Tower on his back furnished with Archers the rest of his Forces he caused to march two waies by the mountaines commanding them with huge shouts and cries to assail their enemies and to uncover their golden and brazen bucklers that the reflection thereof might dazle the eies of the Jews yet was not Judas at all amated but entertained the Army with a noble courage slaying about six hnundred of the forlorn hope But Eleazer Judas brother seeing a huge Elephant armed with royall trappings supposing that the King was upon him he ran against him with a noble courage and having slain divers that were about the Elephant he thrust his sword into the belly of the beast so that the Elephant falling upon him slew him with his weight Judas seeing the great strength of his enemies retired back to Jerusalem and Antiochus sent back part of his Army against Bethsura and with the rest he marched on towards Jerusalem The Bethsurites despairing of relief and their provisions failing them surrendred their City having the Kings oath that no out-rage should be offered to them yet he thrust them out of the City and placed a Garison in it He spent also along time in besieging the Temple at Jerusalem they within defending it gallantly for against every Engine that the King erected they set up
his torments yet could he not hear such profane counsel without answering whereupon he cryed out We Hebrews are not so effeminate as to forsake the way of salvation wherein we walk to our old-age neither are we taught for feare of contumely which will not long endure to give others an occasion and example to sin c. Wilt thou O Tyrant esteem of us if we should yield unto thee nay thou mightst justly reprove our inconstancy Then did the souldiers by the Kings command cast him into the fire and poured stinking and loathsome liquors into his nostrils all which he patiently suffered till he was consumed in the flames Yet when nature began to fail lifting up his dazled eyes to Heaven he said Thou O God art he from whom life and salvation proceedeth Behold I die for observing thy Laws Be mercifull to this thy Nation and forsake not them whom hitherto thou hast protected in thy bosom and under the shadow of thy wings let my death end all misery c. and so he joyfully yielded up the ghost Antiochus was but more incensed hereby and therefore he caused seven Children of the Hebrews to be brought to Antioch who being young and therefore as he thought weak and unable to endure torments he presumed that either by perswasion or fear he should enforce them to forsake their Religion Then he commanded these seven together with their mother Salamona now aged to be brought before him They were of excellent beauty and worthy children of so vertuous a mother The Tyrant beholding them with a merry countenance craftily spake unto them I wish your good O admirable young men do not therefore like mad men resist my commands Avoid not only torments but death also I desire not only to exalt you to honour but to encrease your riches and possessions Contemn therefore your own superstition and embrace our Religion If you refuse this as I hope you will not I will devise all torments that by a lingring and painfull death I may consume you And to terrifie them the more he caused all sorts of Instruments for torment to be brought forth before them as Wheels Rods Hooks Racks Cauldrons Cages Gridirons c. with Engines to torment the fingers and hands as Gauntlets Auls Bellows Brazen-pots and Frying-pans c. Then said he Obey me O prudent young men for if I command that which is a sin yet do not you offend being compelled to it But these holy young men inflamed with a divine spirit contemned these torments and despised both threats and flateries denying to eat of the sacrificed Swines flesh and saying Wherefore O Tyrant dost thou persecute us that are innocent We desire to die and will till death expels life firmly keep that which God commanded and Moses taught us and therefore seek not O Tyrant to seduce us by protesting thy unfeigned love Thou lover of in justice master of cruelty deviser of iniquity the pardon thou proferrest is more painfull to us then punishments We contemn death and esteem not thy words our master Eleazer having taught us to despise them Why dost thou expect such pusillanimity in us young men when of late thou foundest such courage in an old man Thou canst not know our minds except by tearing our bodies thou searchest them out We will willingly for our God suffer any thing and expect Heaven whilst thou for thy cruelty to innocents shalt be reserved to eternal fire The Tyrant greatly moved herewith caused them to be beaten with Buls-pizels first commanding Maccabeus the eldest to be stripped and stretched out upon a Rack and his hands to be bound and so to be most cruelly beaten who so wearied his tormentors by sufferring that they rather desired to give over then he requested it Then was he put upon a Wheel and a weight hanged at his feet and so stretched round about it that his sinews and entrails brake yet all this while he called upon God and then said to the Tyrant O bloudy Tyrant who persecutest the Majesty of God I whom thou thus tormentest am no witch nor murtherer but one who dies for observing Gods Law And when the tormentors overcome with compassion willed him to submit to the Kinges pleasure he said O ye wicked ministers of Tyranny Your Wheels are not so sharp and cruel that I thereby will be forced to forsake Heaven whereon my minde is fixed Tear my flesh yea if you please rost it at the fire torture each parcel of my body with severall cruelties yet you shall not be able to force us young men to impiety As he thus spake a fire was kindled he thus racked on the Wheel was thrown into it and by flames was so burned that his bowels appeared yet was his minde unmoved and in the midst of his torments he cryed thus to his brethren O beloved brethren make me your example despise the alluring baits of this world obey God rather then this Tyrant who can if he please humble the proud and mighty and exalt the dejected Then was he taken from the fire and slain alive his tongue was pulled out of his head and he put into a frying pan and so he departed out of this life to the admiration of his enemies and the joy of his mother and brethren Then was the second brother called Aber haled by the souldiers and the Tyrant shewed him all those instruments of torment and asked him if he would eat of the sacrifice which he denying to do his hands were bound with iron chains and being hanged up thereby the skin of his body was slain from the crown of his head to his knees so that the entrails in his brest were seen Then was he cast to a cruel Libard greedily thirsting after blood but the beast smelling at him forgat his cruelty and went from him without doing him any harm This increased the Tyrants rage and Aber by his torments grew more constant crying aloud O how pleasant is that death to me which is caused by all sorts of torments for Gods sake yea the more pleasant because I know I shall be rewarded in heaven Let these torments O Tyrant satisfie thy cruelty for my pain is not increased by them but my pleasure as thou shalt find by my patience in these sufferings I am more willing to suffer then thou to punish yet my pain is less in suffering then thine by inflicting I am tormented for keeping the Law thou by Gods Justice shalt be banished from thy Regal seat yea eternal torments are prepared for thee which neither thy prophane mind is able to endure nor thy power to decline c. And so shortly after he yielded up his soul to God Then Machir the third son was brought whom all pitied and exhorted by his brothers examples to forsake his opinion and so decline the punishment but he being angry at such Counsel replied One Father begat us one Mother bore
shalt suffer eternal torments though thou art above others yet he that made other men made thee also of the same nature for all are born and must die alike He that kils another sheweth that he himself may be killed thou tearest and tormentest thine own Image all in vain In thy fury thou killest him whom God created like thy self c. thou pullest out our tongues tearest our bodies with flesh-hooks and consumest us with fire but they that have already suffered have received everlasting joyes and everlasting punishments attend thee Think not that I expect any favour I will follow my brethren and remain constant in keeping Gods Law The Tyrant herewith inraged caused him to be tormented but his mother comforted him and with her kind hands held his head when through violence of the torturers the blood issued out of his mouth nose and privy parts the tormentors not ceasing till his life was almost spent but then giving over God gave him strength to recover and to endure more then any of his brethren had done At last his hands and arms being cut off with his eyes lift up to heaven he cryed O Adonai be mercifull unto me and receive me into the company of my brethren c. Then was his tongue pulled out and he of his own accord going into the fiery frying pan to the great admirarion of Antiochus died The mother seeing all her Children dead was inflamed with a holy zeal to suffer Martyrdom also and despising the Tyrants threats she offered her motherly brest to those torments which her Children had suffered before her Indeed herein she excelled them all in that she had suffered seven painfull deaths before she came to suffer in her own person and feared in every one of them lest she should have been overcome She alone with dry eyes did look upon them whilst they were torn in pieces yea she exhorted them thereunto rejoycing to see one torn with flesh-hooks another racked upon the wheel a third bound and beaten a fourth burned and yet she exhorted the rest not to be terrified thereby and though her grief in beholding their torments was greater then that which she had in child-birth yet did she frame a chearfull countenance as if it had been one triumphing wishing rather the torments of their bodies then of their souls for she knew that nothing was more frail then our lives which are often taken away by Agues Fluxes and a thousand other ways Therefore when they were first apprehended she thus exhorted them in the Hebrew tongue O my most dear and loving Children let us hasten to that Agony which may credit our profession and be rewarded by God with eternal life Let us fearlesly present our bodies to those torments which aged Eleazer endured Let us call to mind our father Abraham who having but one only son willingly sacrificed him at Gods command and feared not to bring him to the Altar whom with many prayers he had obtained in his old age Remember Daniel the three Children c. Antiochus being enraged against her caused her to be stripped naked hanged up by the hands and cruelly whipt then were her dugs and paps pulled off and her self put into the red hot frying pan where lifting up her eyes and hands to heaven in the midst of her prayers she yielded up her chast soul unto God But God suffered not the cruel Tyrant to escape unpunished for in his wars against the Persians the Lord struck him with madness his intrals were devoured with worms and stinking like a Carrion in the extremity of his torments he gave up the ghost Concerning this Antiochus Daniel chap. 8.9 10. c. saw in the vision that there came forth a little horn which waxed exceeding great towards the south and towards the East and towards the pleasant Land and it waxeth great even towards the host of heaven and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them Yea he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away and the place of the Sanctuary was cast down And an host was given him against the daily Sacrifice by reason of transgression and it cast down the truth to the ground and it practised and prospered Which afterwards is thus interpreted by the Angel unto Daniel verse 23. c. In the latter time of their Kingdom when the Transgressors are come to the full a King of fiery countenance and understanding dark sentences shall stand up and his power shall be mighty but not by his own power and he shall destroy wonderfully and shall prosper and practise and shall destroy the mighty and holy people And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand and he shall magnifie himself in his heart and by peace shall destroy many He shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes but he shall he broken without hand Collected out of Josephus and the Books of the Maccabees Here place the first Figure CHAP. VI. The Persecution of the Church from Christs time to our present Age and first of those mentioned in the New Testament HErod the great hearing by the wise men of one that was born King of the Jews and being informed by the chief Priests and the Scribes that the place of his birth should be Bethlehem of Judah he sent forth souldiers and slew all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under hoping thereby to have destroyed Christ for which cruel fact the Lord gave him over to such a spirit of phrensie that he slew his own wife his Children and nearest kins-folks and familiar friends And shortly after Gods heavy Judgement fell upon him by a grievous sickness which was a slow and slack fire in his inward parts and withal he had a greedy appetite after food and yet nothing sufficed him he had also a rotting in his Bowels and a greivous flux in his fundament a moist and running humour about his feet and the like malady vexed him about his bladder his privy members putrified engendring abundance of worms which continually swarmed out He had a short and stinking breath with a great pain in breathing and through all the parts of his body such a violent cramp as humane strength was not able to endure Yet longing after life he sent for Physitians from all parts by whose advice he went to the hot bathes of Calliroe but finding no ease thereby his torments still encreasing he sought to lay violent hands upon himself if he had not been prevented by his friends and so in extream misery he ended his wretched life Then Herod the less having married the daughter of Aretas King of Arabia put her away and took Herodias who had forsaken her husband Philip brother to Herod for which incestuous and adulterous marriage John Baptist
plainly reproved him whereupon at the instigation of Herodias Herod first imprisoned him and afterwards cut off his head but the Lord left not this murther long unpunished for Aretas raising an Army against Herod for that ignominious dealing with his daughter in a pitched battel wholly overthrew him and cut off all his hoast not longe after Herod falling into disgrace with the Roman Emperour he with his incestuous Herodias were banished to Vienna in France where they ended their wretched lives with much shame and misery After the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ Peter and John having cured a man that was born lame and preaching Jesus to the people upon that occasion they were apprehended and cast into prison by the Priests and Captain of the Temple who the next day having examined them threatned to punish them if they spake any more in that name and so dismissed them Yet afterwards the high-Priests and the Sadduces again laid hands on the Apostles and cast them into the common prison but in the night time the Angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and released them Ast. 5.18 19. The next day as they were preaching to the people they were again apprehended and carried before the Counsel ver 26 27. at whose command they were beaten and so dismissed ver 40. Then were false witnesses suborned against Steven who accused him for speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God Act. 6.11 for which being apprehended and brought before the Councel he was there condemned led out of the City and stoned to death chap. 7.58 After this there was a general persecution raised up against the Church of Christ in Jerusalem whereby all the faithfull were scattered abroad throughout the Regions of Judea and Samaria except the Apostles chap. 8.1 Saul also made great havock of the Church entring into every house haling both men and women and committing them to prison verse 3. Then Saul after his Conversion preaching Christ boldly the enraged Jews took Counsel and lay in wait to kill him watching the Gates of Damascus where he then was both day and night but the Disciples took him by night and let him down over the wall in a basket whereby he escaped Act. 9.23 c. Then rose up a third Herod called also Agrippa who not taking warning by his predecessors calamities fell to persecuting the Church of Christ and sending for James the brother of John before him he condemned him to be beheaded Concerning whom Clemens reports that he which drew James before the Tribunal seat when he saw him so cheerfully embracing the sentence of death was exceedingly moved therewith and voluntarily confessed himself to be a Christian and so was condemned to be beheaded with him As they went in the way to execution he requested the Apostle James to pardon him who after a little pause turning to him said Peace be unto thee and kissed him and so they were beheaded both together Herod seeing that the death of James pleased the Jews he took Peter also and delivered him to four quaternions of souldiers to keep him in prison intending after the passover to put him to death But the night before he should suffer as he was sleeping bound with two chains to tvvo souldiers and the Keepers watching before the prison doors an Angel came and awaked him causing his chains to fall off and so going before him he led him out of prison causing the iron gate to open to them and having brought him out of danger left him But this cruel persecuting Herod scaped no better then his Predecessors had done for being arraied in glistering and royal apparel and sitting upon his Throne he made an Oration to his people who like flattering Court Parasites gave a shout saying It is the voice of a God and not of a man Whereupon the Angel of the Lord immediately smote him and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost verse 21 c. in the fifty fourth year of his age and the seventh of his reign and under Claudius Caesar. Then the wicked Jews stirred up the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas at Iconium so that being in danger to be stoned to death they fled into Lycaonia Act. 14.2 5 6. Again at Lyâ—tra they stirred up the Gentiles against them whereupon Paul was stoned and drawn out of the City and left for dead but it pleased God that he revived and so escaped to Derbe ver 19.20 Afterwards Paul and Silas for casting a spirit of divination out of a Damosel at Philippi were dragged before the Rulers who caused them to be whipt and cast into prison But the Magistrates afterwards hearing that they were Romans were much afraid as having done more then they could answer and therefore they came to them released them out of prison and besought them to depart out of their City Act. 16 2â— 39. Presently after at Thessalonica the Jews again stirred up the people against Paul and Silas and raising up an uproar they sought for them in the house of Jason and not meeting with them there they drew forth Jason himself and some brethren before the Rulers who giving security for their forth-coming were dismissed Yet these wretched Jews followed Paul to Berea also and there stirred up a persecution against him whereby he was forced to depart At Corinth also they made an insurrection caught Paul and brought him before Gallio Deputy of Achaia and when he would be a Judge of no such matters they took Sosthenes the chief Ruler of the Synagogue and beat him before the Judgement seat Acts 18.12 17. Afterwards at Ephesus Demetrius that made silver shrines for Diana raised an uproar and having caught Caius and Aristarchus Pauls companions they with them rushed into the Theatre but this tumult being allayed by the wisdom of the Town-Clark Paul hasted away into Macedonia cap. 19.29 c. Paul at last returning to Jerusalem the Asian Jews finding him in the Temple stirred up all the people and laid hands on him but as they were about to kill him he was rescued by the chief Captain of the Romans chap. 21.31 32. Then being brought forth before the Counsel of the Jews he was first smitten by the Command of the High-Priest chap. 23.2 And afterwards being in danger of being pulled to pieces he was again rescued by the Captain ver 10. Then above forty of those desperate Jevvs bound themselves under a curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed him ver 12 13. Hereupon he is sent to Faelix at Caesarea who kept him in prison till his Accusers came ver 24 35. Then being accused by Tertullus he clears himself yet because he vvould not bribe Faelix he is kept prisoner still Festus succeeding Faelix the Jews importune him also for sentence against Paul or that he might be sent for to Jerusalem laying wait in
condemned and saith he We glory on the behalf of our sufferings that they had such a dedicator as he but this great Persecution like a blast did spread the Religion that it blew and having continued four years from the first rising is expired in two most shining blazes viz. in the Martyrdom of the two great Apostles Peter and Paul Peter was crucified with his head down-wards which manner of death himself made choice of and whilst he thus hung upon the Cross he saw his wife going to her Martyrdom whereupon he much rejoyced and calling her by her name he bad her remember the Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time also Paul before Nero made a confession of his faith and of the Doctrine which he taught whereupon he was condemned to be beheaded and the Emperor sent two of his Esquires Ferega and Parthemius to bring him word of his death they coming to Paul heard him instruct the people and thereupon desired him to pray for them that they might believe who told them that shortly after they should believe and be baptized then the souldiers led him out of the City to the place of execution where he prayed and then gave his neck to the sword and so was beheaded This was done in the fourteenth which was the last year of Nero. Collected out of the life of Nero Caesar Eusebius and the Book of Martyrs CHAP. VIII The second Primitive Persecution which began Anno 96. AFter the death of Nero there succeeded first Vespasian and then his son Titus in the Empire under both whom the Church had rest but Titus associating to himself his brother Flavius Domitian in the Government of the Empire This wicked Monster first slew his brother and then raised the second persecution against the Church of Christ. His pride was so great that he commanded himself to be worshiped as God and that Imaâ—es of gold and silver should be set up for his honour in the Capitoll His cruelty was unmeasurable The chiefest Nobles of the Roman Senators either upon envy or for their goods he caused to be put to death Having also heard some rumors of Christs Kingdom he was afraid as Herod had been before him and thereupon commanded all of the linage of David to be sought out and slain At last two poor Christians that came of Judas the brother of Christ according to the flesh were brought before Domitian and accused to be of the Tribe of Juda and of the line of David Then did the Emperour demand of them what stock of money and possessions they had To whom they answered that they two had not above thirty nine Acres of land out of which they payed Tribute and relieved themselves by their labour and industry withal shewing him their hard and brawny hands by reason of their labour Then did he ask them of Christ and of his Kingdom to whom they answered that Christs Kingdom was not of this world but spiritual and celestial and that he would come at the last day to judge the quick and the dead Hereupon he despised them as simple and contemptible persons and so dismissed them He punished an infinite company of Christians that were famous in the Church with exile and loss of their substance Under this persecution it was that St. John the beloved Disciple was first put into a vessel of boiling oyl and coming safe without hurt out of the same he was then banished into the Isle of Patmos Anno 97. where he continued till after the death of Domitian but was released under Pertinax At which time he returned to Ephesus where he lived till he was a hundred and twenty years old During his abode there he was requested to repaire to some place not farre off to order their Ecclesiasticall affairs and being in a certain City he beheld in the Congregation a young man mighty of body of a beautifull countenance and fervent minde whereupon calling the chief Bishop unto him he said I commend this man unto thee with great diligence in the witness here of Christ and of the Church The Bishop having received this charge and promised his faithfull diligence therein John spake the like words to him the second time also after which he returned unto Ephesus The Bishop having received this young man thus committed to his charge brought him home kept nourished instructed and Baptized him and the young man so profited under him that at last he was made the Pastor of a Congregation But having by this means more liberty then before some of his old companions began to resort unto him who first drew him forth to sumptuous and riotous banquets then inticed him to go abroad with them in the nights to rob and steal and to much other wickedness And he being of a good wit and stout courage ran like an unbridled horse to all manner of disorders and outrage And associating to himself many loose and dissolute companions he became their Head and Captain in committing all kindes of murther and felonies Not long after upon some urgent occasions St John was again sent for into those parts where having decided those controversies and dispatched those businesses for which he came meeting with the afore-mentioned Bishop he required of him the pledge which before Christ and the Congregation he had committed to his custody The Bishop herewith amazed supposing that he meant it of some money committed to him which yet he had not received not daring to contradict the Apostle he thereupon stood mute Then John perceiving that he was not understood said The young man and the soul of our brother committed to your custody I do require Whereupon the Bishop with many tears said He is dead To whom John replyed How and by what death The Bishop answered He is dead to God for he is become a wicked and vicious man and a thief and now he doth frequent these mountains with a company of thieves and villains like himself c. The Apostle rending his garments with a great lamentation said I left a good keeper of my brothers soul get me an horse and guide presently which being done he went strait to the mountains and was no sooner come thither but he was taken by the thieves that watched for their prey to whom he said I came hither for this cause Lead me to your Captain and so being brought before him the Captain all armed looked fiercely upon him and soon coming to the knowledge of him he was striken with such shame and confusion that he began to flie but the old man followed him as fast as he could crying My son why dost thou flie from thy father an armed man from one naked a young man from an old man Have pity upon me my son and feare not there is yet hope of salvation I will answer for thee to Christ I will die for thee if need be as Christ died for us I will give my life for thee Believe me Christ hath
in mount Ararath were ten thousand Christians crucified crowned with thorns and thrust into the side with sharp darts after the example of the Lords passion Eustachius a noble Captain who Trajan had sent out to war against the Barbarians after through Gods Mercy he had valiantly subdued his enemies was returning home with victory Hadrian for joy went to meet him and to bring him home with triumph but by the way he would needs sacrifice to Apollo for the victory obtained willing Eustachius to do the same with him but when by no means he could be perswaded thereto coming to Rome he with his wife and Children suffered Martyrdom by the command of the ingratefull Emperour Also Faustinus and Jobita Citizen of Brixia were martyred with many torments which caused one Calocerius beholding their admirable patience in the midst of their cruel torments to cry out Vere magnus est Deus Christianorum Verily great is the God of the Christians whereupon being apprehended he was made Partaker of their Martyrdom Also Eleutherius Bishop in Apulia was beheaded together with his mother Anthea Also Symphorissa a godly Matron was often cruelly scourged afterwards hanged up by the hairs of her head at last had a huge stone fastened to her and so thrown into the river after which her seven Children in like manner with sundry and divers kinds of torments were all of them martyred by the Tyrant These seven Children of Symphorissa were fastened to seven stakes then racked up with a pully afterwards thrust thorow Crescens in the neck Julianus in the breast Nemesius in the heart Primitivus in the navil Justinus was cut in every joint of his body Statteus run thorow with spears and Eugenius cut asunder from the breast to the lower parts and then all of them were cast into a deep pit Adrian being at Athens sacrificed to the Idols after the manner of the Grecians and gave free leave to whomsoever vvould to persecute the Christians which should refuse it whereupon Quadratus bishop of Athens a man of admirable zeal and famous for learning exhibited to the Emperour a learned and excellent Apology in defence of the Christian Religion The like also did Aristides an excellent Philosopher in Athens There was also one Serenus Granius a man of great nobility who writ pithy and grave Letters to Hadrian shewing that it was neither agreeable to right nor reason that the blood of innocents should be given up to the rage and fury of the people and be condemned for no other fault but for their opinions Hereupon the Emperour became more favourable to them writing also in their behalf to Minutius Fundanus Proconsul of Asia that if they had no other crime objected against them but their Religion they should not be put to death Yet notwithstanding all this the rage of the heathen multitude did not disquiet and persecute the people of God imputing to them whatsoever mischief and judgements befell them yea they invented against them all manner of Contumelies and false crimes to accuse them of whereby many in sundry places vvere molested and put death After Hadrian succeeded Antoninus Pius vvho being informed of the cruel sufferings of the Christians vvrote this Letter to his Commons of Asia forbidding them to persecute the Christians any further which Epistle he thus concludes If any hereafter shall offer any vexation and trouble to Christians having no other cause but because they are such let him that is appeached be released and freely discharged and let his Accuser sustain the punishment c. By this means then the tempest of persecution began in those days to be appeased through the mercifull providence of God who would not have his Church to be utterly overthrown and rooted up thereby The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the lot of the righteous Psalm 125.3 Here place the second Figure CHAP. X. The fourth Primitive Persecution which began Anno Christi 162. AFter the death of that quiet and mild Prince Antoninus Pius his son M. Antoninus Verus succeeded in the Empire a stern and severe man by nature who raised the fourth persecution against the Christians wherein a great number of them who truly professed Christ suffered most cruel punishments and torments especially in Asia and France amongst whom was Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna who was burnt at a stake at Smyrna together with twelve others that came from Philadelphia Also Germanicus a young man did most constantly persevere in the Doctrine of Christ whom when the Proconsul of Asia desired to remember his age and to favour himself he would by no flatteries be with-drawn from his stedfastness but remaining constant was thrown to the wild beasts whom he allured and provoked to come upon him and devour him that he might be the more speedily delivered out of this wretched life Also in this persecution suffered Metrodorus a Minister who was consumned by fire and Pionius who after much boldness of speech with his Apologies exhibited and his Sermons made to the people in defence of the Christian faith and after much relieving and comforting such as were in prisons and distress at last was put to cruel torments and then burned in the fire Also at Pargamopolis in Asia suffered Carpus Papilus and Agathonica a woman who after their most constant and worthy confessions were put to death At Rome Felicitas with her seven Children were martyred whereof her eldest son after he vvas whipt and grievously scourged with rods vvas prest to death with leaden weights the two next had their brains beaten out with mawls the fourth was thrown down head-long from an high place and brake his neck the three youngest were beheaded and lastly the mother was slain with the svvord Also Justin Martyr a man that excelled in learning and Philosophy and a great Defender of the Christian Religion who had delivered to the Emperor and Senate an Apology in defence of the Christians suffered Martyrdom in this persecution There was in Egypt a certain woman married to a husband that was given much unto laciviousness whereunto she her self also had been formerly addicted but being instructed in the Christian Religion she became a chast and godly Matron and endeavoured to perswade her husband also thereunto But he continuing in his filthy life she resolved to be divorced from him yet at the request of her friends she forbore to try if by any means he would be reclaimed But he going to Alexandria and living more licenciously then before she sued out a bill of Divorce and so was separated from him then did this malicious wretch accuse her to be a Christian which was no lesse then death whereupon she being in great perill delivered up a supplication to the Emperour craving but so much favour that she might go and set her family in order and then she would be ready to answer to all such crimes as should
weak and feeble woman in the faith to damn her soul by blaspheming God brought her to the place of Execution but she in the midst of her torments returning to her self and by those pains remembring the torments of hell said to her tormentors How should we Christians eat our own Children as you report of us when we eat not the blood of any beast and so confessing her self to be a Christian she was martyred with the rest Yet here did not the rage of the enemies cease for when the Christians were cast into prison they were shut up in dark and ugly dungeons and drawn by the feet in a rack even unto the fifth hole some of them were strangled and killed in the prisons others remaining in prison destitute of all humane help were so strengthned by the Lord both in body and mind that they were a great comfort to the rest The younger sort whose bodies had not yet felt the lash of the whip were not able to endure the sharpness of their imprisonment but died under the same Photinus Deacon to the Bishop of Lyons about eighty nine years old weak and feeble by reason of age and sickness yet of a lively spirit and courage by reason of the great desire which he had of martyrdom being brought to the Judgement seat and being there demanded of the chief Ruler What was the Christian-mans God he answered If thou beest worthy to know thou shalt know the Ruler being enraged herewith caused him to be extreamly beaten also such as stood next him did him all the despight they could beating and kicking him without any regard to his reverend gray hairs others that were further off threw at him vvhatsoever came next hand and thus whilst he vvas gasping after life they threw him into prison where after tvvo days he died They also vvhich in the first pesecution had denied Christ vvere apprehended cast into prison and made partakers of the others afflictions yea they had twice so much punishment as the other had and whereas they which had been constant were refreshed with the joy of Martyrdom with the hope of Gods Promises and with the love of Christ and his holy Spirit the other Apostates being full of guilt went out to death with dejected and ill-favoured countenances and were filled with shame so that the very Gentiles reviled them as degenerous persons and worthy to suffer as evil-doers whereas in the mean time they which had remained constant went to their Martyrdom with cheerfull countenances adorned with glory and grace yea their very bonds wherewith they were tyed set them out as brides when they are decked in gorgious aray and withal they had such a redolent smell as if they had been anointed with some sweet balm by which sights the rest were confirmed and being apprehended confessed Christ without any staggering The Martyrdom of the Saints was of divers kinds as the offering to God a Garland decked with sundry kinds of colours and flowers Maturus Attalus and Blandina were again brought forth to the publick Scaffold where Maturus and Sanctus suffered again all manner of torments as if they had suffered nothing before They were scourged torn of wild beasts set in red hot iron chairs in which their bodies were dried as on a grid-iron and their tormentors raged more and more against them labouring to overcome the patience of the Saints yet could they get nothing out of Sanctus's mouth but that he was a Christian These holy men having been thus made a spectacle all the day to the people were at last slain Then Blandina being fastened to a stake was cast to the wild beasts but they as being more mercifull then men would not come near her then they cast her again into prison where she though a weak woman yet armed with invincible courage by Christ mightily encouraged her brethren Then was Attalus brought forth with this inscription This is Attalus the Christian against whom the people were much enraged but the Governour understanding that he was a Roman remanded him to prison till â—he understood the Emperors pleasure Many that had before denied Christ through Gods Grace recovered themselves again and tasted the sweetness of him that desired not the death of a sinner c. and of their own accord came to the Judgement seat to be examined then did the Judge when a great concourse of people was met together sâ—nd for all the Christian prisoners and as many as were Free-men of Rome he beheaded the Residue he gave to be devoured of wild beasts amongst whom also they which had before denied Christ joyfully suffered Martyrdom Whilst the Christians were examining at the Bar one Alexander a Physitian by signs and becks perswaded those which were examined boldly to confess Christ which the people taking notice of accused him to the Judge who asking him what Religion he was of he answered I am a Christian whereupon he was immediatly adjudged to be devoured of the beasts The next day was Attalus and this Alexander brought forth to the Scaâ—fold where they had all manner of torments inflicted upon them and having endured the greatest agony that possibly they could be put to they were at the last slain Alexander never so much as sighed but prayed to and praised God all the while he was tormented Attalus when he was set in the iron chair and the frying savour of his burning body began to smell said to the people Behold this which you do is to eat mans flesh for we neither eat men nor commit any other wickedness And being demanded what was the name of their God he said Our God hath no such name as men have then said they Let us see whether your God can help you and take you out of our hands Then was Blandina again brought forth and with her one Ponticus a youth of fifteen years old who defying their Idols and constantly cleaving to Christ were put to all the torments their enraged enemies could devise the youth having suffered all kinds of torments at last gave up the ghost Blandina was first pitifully whipped then thrown to the wild beasts then tormented upon the grid-iron then put into a net and thrown to the wild Bull and when she was tossed gored and wounded with his horns she was at last slain but was so filled with ravishing joyes of the H. Ghost that she felt no pain during all her torments Such as were strangled in prisons were afterwards thrown to dogs and had keepers both day and night set to watch them lest their bones and members should be buried In the mean time the Gentiles extolled their Idols mocking and flouting the Christians saying Where is your God that you so much boast of and what helpeth this your religion for which you give your lives The bodies of the Martyrs were thus made a gazing-stock for six days in the open streets and then were burned and their Ashes
Conversion to the true faith and so with admirable patience she suffered Martyrdom Shortly after Basilides being required to give an oath in the behalf of his fellow-souldiers he denied the same plainly affirming that he vvas a Christian and therefore he could not swear by the Idols c. They vvhich heard him thought that he jested at first but when he had constantly affirmed it they had him before the Judge vvho committed him to vvard the Christians vvondring at it vvent to him and enquiring the cause of his Conversion he told them that Potamiena had prayed for him and so he savv a Crovvn put upon his head adding that it should not be long before he received it and accordingly the next day he was beheaded As many suffered death in this persecution so others there were who through Gods providence suffered great torments and yet escaped vvith life of whom there vvas one Alexander vvho for his constant confession and torments suffered vvas afterwards made Bishop of Jerusalem Also Narcissus against vvhom three vvicked persons conspired to accuse him binding their accusations vvith oaths and curses one vvishing to be destroyed vvith fire if it vvere not true another to be consumed vvith a grievous disease the other to lose both his eyes Narcissus being unable to vvith-stand so vvicked an accusation retired himself into a desert In the mean time Gods vengeance follovved these perjured Wretches for the first by a small spark of fire vvas himself vvith all his family and goods burned the second vvas taken vvith a grievous sickness vvhich tormented him from the top to the toe whereof he died the third being vvarned by these Judgements confessed his fault but by reason of his abundant sorrovv and vveeping he lost both his eyes Narcissus being hereby cleared from their false accusation returned home and vvas received into his Congregation again Also one Andoclus vvas sent by Polycarp into France vvho because he spread there the Doctrine of Christ vvas apprehended by the command of Severus and first beaten vvith staves and bats and aftervvards beheaded Asclepiades also aftervvards Bishop of Antioch suffered much in this Persecution Then did Irenaeus and many others vvith him suffer Martyrdom and shortly after Tertullian also Perpetua and Felicitas tvvo godly vvomen vvith Revocatus their brother and Satyrus vvere throvvn to the vvild beasts and devoured by them Saturninus vvas beheaded Secundulus cast into prison where he died all these suffered Martyrdom at Carthage Also Zepherinus and after him Urbanus both Bishops of Rome vvere martyred in this Persecution This Urbanus by preaching and holiness of life converted many heathens unto Christ amongst vvhom vvere Tiburtius and Valerianus tvvo noble men of Rome vvho both suffered Martyrdom Also Cecilia a Virgin vvho vvas espoused to Valerian vvas apprehended carried to the Idols to offer sacrifice vvhich she refusing to do should have been carried to the Judge to receive the sentence of condemnation but the Serjeants and Officers beholding her excellent beauty and prudent behaviour began vvith many persvvasions to solicit her to favour her self c. but she so replied vvith wisedom and godly exhortations that by the grace of Almighty God their hearts began to relent and at length to yield to that Religion which before they persecuted which she perceiving desired leave to go home and sending for Urbanus the Bishop to her house he so grounded and established them in the faith of Christ that about four hundred persons believed and were baptized amongst whom was Gordianus a noble man Afterwards this blessed Martyr was brought before the Judge by whom she was condemned then she was enclosed in an hot bath for twenty four hours yet remaining alive she was there beheaded At Preneste in Italy was one Agapetus of fifteen years old apprehended and because he refused to sacrifice to Idols he was first scourged with whips then hanged up by the feet and had scalding water poured on him then he was cast to the wild beasts but because they would not hurt him he was lastly beheaded Antiochus that executed these torments on him suddenly fell down from his judicial seat crying out that all his bowels burned within him and so he died miserably Calepodius a Minister of Christ in Rome was first dragged thorow the streets and after cast into Tyber Pamachius a Senator of Rome with his wife and Children and other men and women to the number of forty two vvere all beheaded in one day together with another noble man all whose heads vvere hung up over the gates of the City to deter others from the profession of Christianity Also Martina a Christian Virgin having suffered many other bitter torments vvas at last slain vvith the sword CHAP. XII The sixth Primitive Persecution which began Anno Christi 237. THe Emperor Maximinus raised the sixth persecution against the Christians especially against the Teachers and Leaders of the Church thinking that if these Captains were removed out of the way he should the easilier prevail against the rest In the time of this Persecution Origen vvrote his book De Martyrio vvhich being lost the names of most that suffered Martyrdom in those times are buried in oblivion yet were they very many Amongst whom Urbanus Bishop of Rome and Philippus one of his Ministers were banished into Sardinia where they both died About this time one Natalius that had formerly suffered great persecution for the cause of Christ was seduced by Asclepiodotus and Theodorus two Sectaries to be the Bishop of their Sect promising to pay him a hundred and fifty crowns of silver every moneth and so he joined himself to them but the Lord in mercy not intending to lose him that had suffered so much for his sake admonished him by a vision to adjoin himself to the true Church again which the good man for the present blinded with lucre and honour did not regard as he ought to have done The night after he was scourged by Angels whereupon in the morning purting on Sack-cloth with much weeping and lamentation he went to the Christian Congregation praying them for the tender mercies of Christ that he might be received into their Communion again which request was accordingly granted unto him Hippolitus was drawn thorow the fields with wild horses till he died Many others were martyred and buried by sixty in a pit CHAP. XIII The seventh Primitive Persecution which began Anno Christi 250. DEcius the Emperor raised this seventh terrible persecution against the Christians which was first occasioned by reason of the treasures of the Emperor which were committed to Fabian the Bishop of Rome who thereupon by the command of Decius was put to death and moreover his Proclamations were sent into all quarters that all which professed the name of Christ should be slain In the time of this Persecution Origen suffered many and great torments for
which Dioclesian would needs be worshipped as God saying that he was brother to the Sun and Moon and adoring his shoes with gold and precious stones he commanded the people to kiss his feet Then also did he raise a great and grievous Persecution against the Church of God and the Feast of Easter drawing nigh he commanded all the Churches of the Christians to be spoiled and cast down and the books of the holy Scriptures to be burnt which was executed with all rigour and contempt that might be Then he sent forth his Edicts for the displacing of all Christian Magistrates and put all others out of their Offices imprisoning such of the common people as would not abjure Christianity and subscribe to the heathen Idolatries Then were cruel Edicts sent abroad for the imprisoning of the Elders and Bishops and constraining them by sundry kinds of torments to sacrifice to the Idols whereupon insued a great persecution against the Governors of the Church amongst whom many of them manfully passed through exceeding bitter torments Some were scourged all over their bodies with whips some with racks and tearings of their flesh were exceedingly cruciated some one way others another way were put to death Some were violently drawn to the impure sacrifices and as though they had sacrificed when indeed they did not were let go Others neither coming to their Altars nor touching any piece of their sacrifice yet were born in hand by those which stood by that they had sacrificed and so being defamed by their adversaries were let go Others as dead men were carried out and cast away being but half dead Some were cast down on the pavement and trailed a great space by the legs and the people made to believe that they had sacrificed Others with-stood them stoutly affirming with a loud voice that they had not sacrificed withal saying that they were Christians and glorying in the profession of that name Some cryed that they neither had nor ever would be partakers of that Idolatry who were buffetted on the face and mouth by the souldiers that they might hold their peace But if the Saints seemed never so little to do what their enemies would have them they were made much of yet none of these devices prevailed against the constant servants of Jesus Christ but of the weaker sort through frailty many fell at the first brunt When these Edicts were first set up at Nicomedia a Christian a noble man born moved with an holy zeal ran and took them down and tare them in pieces though the Emperors were present in the City for which he was put to a most bitter death which with great constancy and patience he endured to the last These furious Tyrants Dioclesian in the West and Maximian in the East raged exceedingly against the poor Saints of Christ. But Dioclesian proceeded more subtilly first beginning with the souldiers in his Camp to whom the Marshal of the field proposed that they should either offer sacrifice or leave their places and offices and lay down their arms whereunto the Christians resolutely answered that they were not only ready to lay down their weapons but to suffer death if it was imposed upon them rather then so to sin against God In the beginning of this persecution few were tormented but afterwards the Emperor grew to greater cruelty It cannot be expressed what number of Martyrs suffered what blood was shed through all Cities and Regions for the name of Christ. In Tyre certain Christians were given to the most cruel wild beasts which would not hurt them and the Lions Bears and Leopards which were kept hungry for the purpose would not touch them Yet did they vehemently rage against those that brought the Christians into the stage who though they stood as they thought without their reach yet were they caught and devoured by them Afterwards these Martyrs were slain with the sword and cast into the sea Silvanus Bishop of Gazenses with thirty nine more were slain in the Mettal-Mynes Pamphilus of Caesarea dyed a glorious Martyr In Syria all the chief Pastors were first cast into prison together with the Bishops Elders and Deacons Tiranion was throwen into the sea Zenobius a Physitian was slain with Brickbats At Antioch two young Maidens were thrown into the sea Also an aged Matron and her two beautifull daughters being sought after and at last found rather then they would be drawn to do sacrifice threw themselves head-long into a river Sylvanus Bishop of Emissa with some others were thrown to the wild beasts The Christians in Mesopotamia were tormented divers ways some of them were hanged up by the feet and with the smoak of a small fire strangled So out-ragious was the Emperor in the beginning of this Persecution that in Nicomedia he slew the chiefest Princes of his Court whom a little before he prized as his own Children Also one Peter was hoisted up naked and so beaten and torn with whips that his bones might be seen then they poured upon him salt and Vinegar and lastly rosted him with a soft fire Dorotheus and Gorgonius men of great Authority under the Emperor after divers torments were strangled with an halter Anthimus Bishop of Nicomedia with divers others having made a good confession were beheaded Yea Serena the wife of Dioclesian the Emperor was martyred for her Religion Some others were bound hand and foot to a post and so burnt Also many Christians of all ages and sorts being met together in a Church to celebrate the memorial of Christs Nativity Maximian the Emperor sent some to fire the Church and burn them all But first they commanded a Cryer to proclaim that whosoever would have life should come out and sacrifice to Jupiter otherwise they should be all burnt then one stepping up boldly in the name of all the rest said We are all Christians and believe that Christ is our only God and King and we will sacrifice to none but him hereupon the fire was kindled and some thousands of men women and children were burnt in that place In Arabia many Martyrs were slain with Axes In Phrygia the Emperor sent his Edicts to a City commanding them to sacrifice to the Idols but the Major and all the Citizens professed themselves to be Christians whereupon the Emperor made his Army environ the City and set it on fire whereby all the inhabitants were burnt together in it Eustratius an Armenian and skilfull in the Greek tongue highly honoured and advanced by the Emperor who also had executed many Christians beholding the marvellous constancy of the Martyrs privately learned the Christian Religion burned exceedingly with a desire of Martyrdom and not staying for Accusers professed himself to be a Christian openly execrating the vanity and madness of the heathens Being therefore apprehended he was tied up and bitterly beaten afterwards he was parched with fire put
to his bowels then basted with salt and vinegar then scraped and bemangled with sharp cutting shels that his whole body seemed to be but one wound yet afterwards through Gods goodness it was restored again whole And lastly was he burned In Alexandria Peter the Bishop and his Deacons constantly suffered Martyrdom as also many other Bishops in Egypt together with many famous and excellent men suffered about the same time A whole legion of Christian souldiers that lay at Thebes in Egypt under their Christian Col Mauritius because they refused to sacrifice to Idols were first tithed over by the Emperours command once and again and afterwards by the exhortation of Mauritius they died all together constant Martyrs The persecution raged not only in Asia and Africa but also in Italy France Spain c. in all which countries an innumerable company of Christians were martyred by sundry kindes of death In Trevers were so many Christians slain that their bloud ran like small brooks and discoloured great rivers yet this sufficed not the Tyrant but he sent abroad his horsemen to command all those which had apprehended any Christians immediately to put them to death At Collen also and in Rhetia many were martyred yea this persecution extended into our Britan where all the Christians were put to death Besides the kindes of death the punishments were so great and horrible as no tongue is able to express as whippings scourgings rackings horrible scrapings sword fire shipboats whereinto many were put and sunk into the sea Also hanging upon crosses binding some to the bodies of trees with their heads hanging downward hanging others by the middle upon gallowses till they died of hunger throwing others alive to Lions Bears Leopards wilde Buls c. Pricking others with bodkins and talons of beasts till they were almost dead In Thebaide they hanged up women naked by one of their feet the rest of their body hanging downwards with many other sorts of punishments most cruell to be thought of Some were bound to the boughs of trees and had their members torn asunder others were mangled with axes some choaked with smoak over a slow fire some had their hands ears and feet cut off others were scorched and broiled upon coals yet not to death but had the torment renued every day In Pontus the Martyrs had other horible torments inflicted on them Some had their fingers-ends under the nails thrust in with bodkins Some were sprinkled all over with boiling lead having their necessary members cut from them others suffred most filthy and intolerable torments in their bowels and privy members what the outrage of this persecution was in Alexandria Phileas a Bishop thus writeth Because saith he every man might torment the holy Martyrs as he listed some beat them with cudgels some with rods some with whips some with thonges some with cords some having there hands bound behind them were lifted upon timber-logs and with certaine instruments had their members and joints stretched out where their bodies hanging were subjected to the will of the tormentors who were commanded to afflict them with all manner of torments on their sides bellies thighs legges they scratched them with the claws of wilde beasts some were hanged but by on hand one the engine that they might feel the more grievous pulling out of the rest of their members Some were bound to pillars having no stay under their feet that wâ—th the weight of their bodies being drawn out they might feel the greater torment and these torments endured all day long the Judge commanding that they should not be let down till either by the extremity of torment or by the cold they were near death and then they were let down and haled upon the ground They devised also another greater torment for when the Christians were lamentably beaten they had a new kinde of rack wherein they lying upright were stretched by both the feet above the fourth hole with sharp shels strawed under them Others were cast down upon the pavement where they had so many torments inflicted upon them that their sufferings cannot be imagined what they were In the midst of which torments some died their enemies being confounded with their singular patience Some half dead were thrust into prisons where with their wounds and pain they ended their lives Others being cured of their wounds were again put to their choice whether they would sacrifice to the Idols and have their liberty or have the sentence of death pass upon them who did willingly chuse death for Christs sake rather then to sin against him In Nicomedia a Christian pulling down and tearing the Emperors Edict was stript and beaten till the bones appeared and then washed in salt and vinegar under which torments he died Yet notwithstanding the horribleness of these tortures the Christian Martyrs were so farre from being dismaied that they were confirmed and strengthned thereby merrily and joyfully undergoing whatsoever was inflicted upon them Eusebius saith that himself saw the cruel Persecution in Thebade where the swords of the Persecutors were blunted with the great slaughter of the Christians and they sat down with weariness to rest them whilest others took their places Yet still the Christians shewed their willingness and with courage joy and smiling received their sentâ—nce of death from the Judge and to the last gasp sang Psalms and Hymns of praise to God In Alexandria the holy Martyrs led with the love of better rewards did not only bear the menaces of the cruel souldiers wherewith they threatned them but also whatsoever torments they could devise for their destruction Yea saith Sulpitius then the Christians with more greedy desire pressed and sought for Maryrdom then now they do for Bishopricks Yet some through infirmity in this Persecution fell back for which they were excommunicated by the Church Damasus and others witness that there were slain in thirty daies seventeen thousand persons besides a great number that were condemned to the Metall-mines and quarries with the like cruelty In Alexandria were slain with axes three hundred At Collen three hundred Mauritius with his Christian legion six thousand six hundred sixty six whose story deserving perpetually to be remembred is this Maximian sent for his Mauritius with his legion of Thebane souldiers under a pretence of imploying them against his enemies When they came to Rome Marcellus the Blessed bishop laboured to confirm them in the truth to whom they promised perseverance in the faith unto the death Then they followed they Imperial army into France and when they were cowe thither Maximian offered sacrifice to the devils and called all his souldiers to the same strictly charging them to fight against his enemies and against the Christians which were enemies to his gods These Christian Thebans resolved rather to die then to sacrifice or to bear arms against the Christians wherewith the Tyrant being enraged commanded every tenth man of the legion to be put
to the sword hereupon they strove who should submit their necks to the stroke Mauritius encouraged them greatly hereunto and being called before the Emperour he said Wee O Emperour your souldiers and yet the servants of God owe thee service of war but to him innocency of thee we receive wages but of him life therefore we cannot obey thee to deny God our Lord and yours also will ye nil ye We are ready to obey you if you enforce us not to disobey him Otherwise we will rather obey him then you We offer here our hands against any other enemies but to defile our hands with the bloud of innocents we may not These hands of ours have â—kil to fight against wicked enemies but not to murther godly friends c. We have engaged our faith to God we cannot be true to you if we break covenant with him c. We see our brethren and fellows in arms cruelly put to the sword which we rejoyce in that they have been counted worthy to suffer for Christs sake c. Behold here we cast down our weapons and had rather to be killed then to kill and to die guiltlesse then to live guilty We are ready to suffer what more you shall appoint yea bâ—th fire sword or any other torments We confesse our selves to be Christians wee cannot persecute Christians nor sacrifice to your devillish Idols The Emperour being highly incensed with this answer commanded the second time the tenth man to be slain which being accomplished when the Christian souldiers would not yet condescend to his minde he set upon them with his whole host both of foot and horse charging them to kill them all the Christians made no resistance but throwing down their arms offered their naked necks to the persecutors and so were all slain At that time one Victor an old souldier that for his age was dismissed coming to the Army as they were banquetting and making merry with the spoils of the Martyrs was bidden to sit down with them but he asked them what was the cause of there mirth and understanding the trutâ— he detested them and refused to eat with them and being thereupon demanded whether he were a Christian he answered that he was and ever would be Then they rushed upon him and made him partaker of the lik Martyrdom and honour When Dioclesian and Maximian notwithstanding all the slaughter which they made saw the number of Christians rather increased then diminished so that they were out of all hope of utter rooting them out and having now even their fill of blood they ceased at last of their own accord from putting any more Christians to death Yet of a great multitude they thrust out their right eies and maimed their right legs at the ham with a searing iron condemning them to the Metal-mynes not so much for their labour as desirous to afflict them thereby and so having raigned together about one and twenty years Dioclesian divested himself of the imperial Dignity and lived a private life and the like did Maximian also resigning the Empire to Galerius Maximinus and Constantius Maximinus was of a cruel Nature a great Enchanter vicious in his life and a great enemy to the Christians and therefore continued the Persecution of them yet at length was revoked from his cruelty by the just Judgement of God upon him For he was suddenly taken with an horrible and filthy disease which first began outwardly in his flesh and then proceeded more inwardly his privy members putrified with a botchy corrupt boil and a fistula consuming and eating up his Entrails whence swarmed forth an innumerable company of lice with such a pestiferous stink that no man could abide him he being also very gross his fat putrified and stank intollerably and because his Physitians could not abide the stink he commanded them to be slain others of them because they could not cure his incurable disease he put them to cruel deaths At last being told that his disease came from God he began to bethink himself of all the cruelty which he had shewed to the Saints confessed his offences to God and gave command that the Persecution against the Christians should cease requiring his Officers likewise to re-edifie their Temples and requesting them to pray to their God for him This Edict much comforted and refreshed the Christians who thereupon gathered together in every City called their Synods and Councels yea the Infidels themselves extolled and magnified the true God of the Christians But this Tyrant Maximinus scarce suffered this peace to continue six moneths together but again he forbad the Christians to meet and privately stirred up the Athenians to petition him that none of them might be suffered to live in their City Also a Conjurer in Athens made an Image of Jupiter which uttered these words Jupiter commandeth the Christians to be banished out of this City and Suburbs because they are enemies to him Also certain harlots were suborned to say that they formerly were Christians and privy to the wicked and lascivious acts which they exercised amongst themselves upon Sabbath daies c. And thereupon the Emperor commanded that they should put them to death by all means possible Then did the Persecution grow as great as ever it was and the Governors of every Province fell upon the Christians banishing some and putting others to death Silvanus Bishop of Emissa a very old man and three others with him were condemned to death So was Lucianus an Elder at Antioch At Alexandria Peter the Bishop was beheaded Quirinus Bishop of Scescanus had an hand-mill tied about his neck and was thrown head-long into a river where yet he floted a great while exhorting the lookers on not to be dismaid with his punishment and so with much ado was at last drowned At Rome many Bishops Ministers and Elders were put to death In sundry other places very many others suffered martyrdom with fire wild beasts drowning in the sea c. Some were crucified some were slain with the sword some endured the cutting and burning of their members some had their eyes thrust out some were starved in prisons and whatsoever other cruelty the Magistrates could devise All which the people of God endured rather then they would offer sacrifice to the Idols The like miseries did the women also endure for being inticed to the filthy use of their bodies some rather chose banishment and others to prevent it killed themselves Neither could Christians live safely in the wilderness but even from thence they were drawn to torments and death And whereas the Tyrant in his Edict had boasted of the plenty and prosperity of all things in the time of his persecuting of the Saints God to confute him presently sent great drought famine and pestilence besides the wars with the Armenians by which calamities the people were miserably wasted corn was sold at an unreasonable rate so that exceeding great multitudes died of hunger
them to undergo Romanus answered Thy sentence O Emperour I willingly embrace I refuse not to be sacrificed for my brethren and that by as cruel torments as thou canst invent c. The Captain being much enraged with this his stout Answer commanded him to be trussed up and his bowels drawn out whereupon the Executioners said Not so Sir this man is of noble parentage and therefore he may not be put to so ignoble a death Scourge him then quoth the Captain with whips with knobs of lead at the ends but Romanus sang Psalms all the time of his whipping requiring them not to favour him for nobilities sake Not the bloud of progenitors saith he but the Christian profession makes me noble then did he earnestly inveigh against the Captain and derided their Idoll gods c. but this further enraged the Tyrant so that he commanded his sides to be lanced with knives till the bones were laid open yet still did the holy Martyr preach the living God and the Lord Jesus Christ to him then did the Tyrant command them to strike out his teeth that his speech might be hindered also his face was buffeted his eye-lids torn with their nails his cheeks gashed with knives the skin of his beard pulled off by litle and little c. yet the meek Martyr said I thank thee O Captain that thou hast opened to me so many mouths as wounds whereby I may preach my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ look how many wounds I have so many mouths I have lauding and praising God The Captain astonished at his constancy bad them give over tormenting him yet he threatned to burn him reviled him and blasphemed God saying thy crucified Christ is but a yesterdaies God the gods of the Gentiles are of greatest antiquity But Romanus taking occasion from hence declared to him the eternity of Christ c. withall saying Give me a child of seven years old and thou shalt hear what he will say hereupon a pretty boy was called out of the multitude to whom Romanus said Tell me my pretty babe whether thou think it reason that we worship Christ and in Christ one Father or else that we worship infinite gods the child answered that certainly what we affirm to be God must needs be one which with one is one and the same and inasmuch as this one is Christ of necessity Christ must be the true God for that there be many gods we children cannot beleeve The Captain amazed at this said thou young villain and traitor where and of whom learnedst thou this lesson of my mother said he with whose milk I sucked in this lesson that I must believe in Christ The mother was called and she gladly appeared the Tyrant commanded the child to be horsed up and scourged the standers by beholding this mercilesse act could not refrain from tears the joyfull and glad mother alone stood by with dry cheeks yea she rebuked her sweet babe for desiring a cup of cold water charging him to thirst after the cup that the babes of Bethlem once drunk of She willed him to remember little Isaac who willingly proferred his neck to the â—int of his fathers sword c. Then did the cruell tormentor pull off the skin hair and all from the crown of the childes head the mother crying Suffer my child anon thou shalt passe to him that will adorn thy head with a crown of eternall glory thus the mother councelleth and encourageth the childe is encouraged and receiveth the stripes with a smiling countenance The Captain seeing the childe invincible and himself vanquished commands him to be cast into the stinking prison whilest the torments of Romanus were renewed and encreased Then was Romanus brought forth again to receive new stripes upon his old sores the flesh being torn and the bare bones appearing yet the cruell Tyrant raging like a mad man quarelling with the tormentors for dealing so mildely with him commanding them to cut prick and pounce him and then he passed sentence upon him together with the childe to be burned to death to whom Romanus said I appeal from this unjust sentence of thine to the righteous throne of Christ that upright Judge not because I fear thy cruell torments and mercilesse handling but that thy Judgements may be known to be cruell and bloudy When they came to the place of execution the tormentors required the childe of his mother for she had carried it in her arms from the prison She kissing it delivered it to them and as the executioner was striking off his head she said farewell my sweet childe All laud and praise with heart and voice O Lord we yeeld to thee To whome the death of all thy Saints We know most dear to be The childes head being cut off the mother wrapt it in her garment laid it to her brest and so departed Then was Romanus cast into a mighty fire which being quenched with a great storm the Tyrant commanded his tongue to be cut out and afterwards caused him to be strangled in the prison Gordius a Centurion in Caesarea in the heat of this persecution left his charge living a solitary life in a wilderness for a long time at last when a solemn feast was celebrated to Mars in that city and multitudes of people were assembled in the Theatre to see the games he came and gat up into a conspicuous place and with a loud voice said Behold I am found of those which sought me not c. the multitude hereupon looked about to see who it was that spake this and Gordius being known he was immediatly brought before the Sheriff and being asked who and what he was and why he came thither he told him the whole truth professing that he believed in Christ valued not their threatnings and chose this as a fit time to manifest his profession in then did the Sheriff call for scourges gibbets and all manner of torments to whom Gordius answered that it would be a losse and damage to him if he did not suffer divers torments and punishments for Christ and his cause the Sheriff more incensed hereby commanded all those torments to be inflicted on him with which Gordius could not be overcome but sang The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man can do unto me and I will fear no evill because thou Lord art with me c. then did he blame the tormentors for favouring him provoking them to do their uttermost then the Sheriff not prevaling that way sought by flattery to seduce him promising him preferment riches treasures honour c. if he would deny Christ but Gordius derided his foolish madness saying that he looked for greater preferment in heaven then he could give him here upon earth then was he condemned and had out of the city to be burnt Multitudes followed him and some Kissing him with tears entreated him to pity himself to whom he answered Weep
but he provoking them to make quicker speed they fastened him to the crosse where he finished his Martyrdom Augustine writes of one Vincentius a Spaniard who by Dacianus the President was first laid upon the rack till all the joints of his body crackt then were all his members slasht and indented with deadly wounds then they miserably scratched all his body with iron combs filed very sharp then they laid his body being all out of joint upon an iron grate opened it with iron hooks seared it with fiery plates and then besprinkled it with hot burning salt lastly they drew him and cast him into a vile dungeon the floore whereof was thick-spread with the sharpest shels his feet were fast locked in the stocks and so left him without all wordly comfort but the Lord his God was with him the holy Spirit of God whose office it is to comfort the afflicted filled his heart with joy unspeakable so that he there ended his life with much comfort Also Procopius in Palestine after his conversion brake his Images of gold and silver and distributed them amongst the poor whereupon he had all sorts of torments inflicted on him racking cording tearing of his flesh firing goring stabbing and lastly had his head cut off George a young man of Cappadocia stoutly inveighing against the impious Idolatry of the Emperor was apprehended torn with hooked irons burnt with hot lime stretched out with cords after had his hands and feet cut off and lastly was beheaded Hermogenes the President of Athens being converted by beholding the patience and constancy of two Martyrs in their torments suffered himself for the same faith In Portugall a noble virgin named Eulalia not much above twelve years old had profers of great marriages made unto her but she seeing the fâ—rious rage of this Persecution had a great minde to join her self to the number of the Martyrs for which end she poured out her heart in prayer to God for strength and faith to enable her thereunto But her godly parents fearing that her ready minde to die for Christs cause might make her guilty of her own death they kept her close at their country-house a great way from the City there she lived quietly for a while but at last detesting to make such dealy she stole out of her fathers house in the night and travelled all alone through by-waies with much difficulty and wearinesse towards the City whither she came in the morning and going before the Judge she with a loud voice said I pray you What a shame is it for you thus wickedly to kill mens souls and to breake their bodies in pieces to compell them to deny the omnipotent God Would you know what I am I am a Christian and an enemy to your devilish sacrifices I spurn your Idols under my feet I confesse God omnipotent with my heart and mouth c. Go to therefore thou hangman burne cut and mangle these my earthly members thou maist easily break a brittle substance but thou canst not hurt my inward minde by any thing thou canst doe The Judge enraged herewith said to the hangman Take her and pull her out by the hair of her head to torments let her feel the power of our gods and know what we can do But yet O sturdy girl I would fain have thee before thou diest to revoke thy wickednesse Remember the honourable house of which thou art come and thy friends tears Wilt thou kill thy self in the flower of thy youth so near honourable marriages Doth not the glistering pomp of the bride-bed move thee c. Behold here the engines prepared for thy death either thou shalt be beheaded with the sword or torn with wilde beasts or consumed with fire to ashes c. yet this thou maiest escape if thou wilt What greate matter is it for thee with thy fingers to put a little incense into the censers yet thereby thou shalt be delivered To this Eulalia answered not being in a great passion but spit in the Tyrants face and spurned abroad the heap of incâ—nse Whereupon without further delay the hangmen with both their strengths pulled out her joints scratched her with the talons of wilde beasts to the hard bones she singing and praising God in the mean time saying Behâ—ld O Lord I will not forget thee What a pleasure is it for them O Christ that remember thy triumphant victories to ataine to these high dignities c. Yea when as out of a warm fountain her fair and white skin was discoloured with the purple bloud that flowed from her torn members she wept not but chearfully sang praises unto God then they gored her mangled body with the iron grate terribly harrowed her flesh and burned her brest with flaming torches then setting fire to her long hair which covered her naked body when it came to her face she opened her mouth and sucked in the flame and so peaceably slept in the Lord. Also Agnes a young virgin being accused for a Christian was brought before the Judge who first laboured by flatteries then by threatning her with cruell torments to draw her to the deniall of her faith but she being strengthened by Christ told him that she feared not his torments which she was willing to undergo yea and death it self for Christs sake then said the Judge if it be so easie with thee to undergo torments yet I know that thou prizest thy virginity therefore it is fully determined that except thou sacrificest to the gods thou shalt be put into the common Stews Then did many youths flock together craving that Agnes might be exposed as a prey to there filthy lusts to whom she said Christ is not forgetfull of those that are his neither will he leave me destitute of his help nor suffer my unspotted chastity to be defiled by you c. you shall willingly bathe your swords in my blood but you shall not defile my body with filthy lust for any thing that you can do Then the Judge commanded that she should be â—et naked at the corner of a street whereupon the multitude sorrowed and were ashamed to see so shamelesse a sight turning away their face and so departing but one amongst the rest looking upon her in a shamelesse manner behold a flame of fire like a flash of lightining struck out both his eies and he falling down wallowed in the kennell dirt whereupon Agnes sang praises unto God Then the cruel Tyrant enraged hereby commanded the executioner to draw out his sword and dispatch her She seeing a sturdy souldier coming towards her with a naked sword rejoyced saying This O this is he that I love I will make hast to meet him and no longer protract my longing desires I well willingly receive the length of his sword into my breast O eternall father vouchsafe to open the gates of heaven to my soul that seeketh thee
enchantments they had procured her sickness to revenge the death of Simeon This accusation being beleived they were both condemned and with a Saw cut in sunder by the middle whose quarters were hung upon stakes the Queen going betwixt them thinking thereby to be freed of her sickness Then ensued a great Persecution against the Bishops and Ministers who were daily dragged forth to the slaughter but first they cruelly scourged them and put them to other great torments because they would not worship the Sun Miserable and almost innumerable were the slaughters under this Sapores of Bishops Ministers Deacons and other religious men and holy virgins so that the Persians themselves reckon up above sixteen thousand men and women that suffered Martyrdom The report of the miserable condition of the Christians coming to the ears of Constantine the Great put the good Emperour into great heaviness who studying how to relieve them it so fell out that about that time there came Ambassadors to him to Rome from Sapores whom he entertained courteously and granted all their requests and then by them wrote his Letters to Sapores in the behalf of the Christians whereby he did something mitigate the heat of the Persian Persecution Yet afterwards it was renewed again at which time suffered Andas the Bishop and Hormisda a noble mans son of great reputation amongst the Persians whom when the King understood to be a Christian and resolute in his profession he condemned him to keep his Elephants naked afterwards the King looking out and seeing him all swart and tanned with the sun he commanded that a shirt should be put upon him and that he should be brought before him Then did the King ask him if he would yet deny Christ Hormisda hearing this tare off his shirt and cast it from him saying if you think that I will deny my faith for a shirt have here your gift again c. whereupon he was banished the Countrey Also Suenes a noble man that had under him one hundred servants because he would not deny his Christian Profession was so hated by the King that he made the worst of his servants Lord over him and over all that he had and coupled his wife to him and made Suenes himself to serve him Also Benjamin a Deacon was thrust into prison where he was kept two years but at the length at the request of the Roman Ambassadors he was released yet afterwards when contrary to the Kings Commandment he preached and taught every where the Gospel of Christ he was again apprehended and miserably tormented having twenty sharp reeds thrust under the nails of his fingers and toes but he laughing at it had a sharper reed thrust into his yard with horrible pain and lastly and a long ragged thorny stalk thrust through his fundament into his bowels whereof he died These Primitive Persecutions are collected out of Eusebius Socrates Scholast Evagrius Nicepho Theod. the Imperial History and the Magd. History CHAP. XVIII The Persecution of the Church under Julian the Apostata 365· IUlian was Nephew to Constantius the son of Constantine and was by him made Caesar and sent against the Germans where after some smaller victories having overcome his enemies in a great and bloody battel he was by his Army made Augustus and after Constantius his death succeeded in the whole Empire both of the East and West He was brought up in the Christian Religion and was endowed with excellent parts but when be came to the Empire he Apostatized from his former profession and turned Heathen and became a deadly enemy to the Church of Christ and a great persecutor of it The first thing that he did was to open the Idol Temples shut up by his Predecessors and to suffer the Gentiles to commit their superstitious Idolatries and publickly to adore their Idols Then his next design was to supplant the true Christian Religion being induced thereto by the devil and his own wickedness And the better to effect the same he practised a means never before used by any which was to shew himself pitifull and not cruel perceiving that by means of the torments inflicted on the Martyrs the holy Christian Faith was greatly increased and therefore he took a contrary course and sought by gifts favours flatteries and by bestowing offices and dignities to draw them to renounce the Christian Faith and to sacrifice to false gods and by this means there were not a few who being covetous and ambitious desiring to be rich and honoured fell from their Christian profession Then did he make Laws and general Decrees that no Christian should be Master of any Arts or Sciences neither should study in any Schools that so through the desire of Learning they might turn Idolaters or else they should remain ignorant and illiterate and so be insufficient to preach the Christian faith He also ordained that no Christian should have any charge or hold any office of Justice neither should be a Captain in the Wars nor enjoy any other dignity Thus he used all the inventions that possibly he could devise to make War against Jesus Christ without shedding any Christian blood that so he might take the Crown from the holy Martyrs which they formerly obtained by the persecution of the sword and indeed this was the greatest and most dangerous Persecution that ever the Church endured Amongst other of his subtill devises to bring Christianity into contempt this was one He entertained about him many witty but wicked persons who made it their business to scoff at and deride the Christians with all manner of base jears and those which excelled most in this wicked practise he most loved and honoured advancing them to offices both in his Court and Army During his short reign though himself put none to death as is before specified yet the heathen Idolaters in sundry places proceeded far otherwise especially in Palestine where they burnt many Christians alive others they stripped naked and tying cords to their feet dragged them up and down the paved streets till their flesh was torn from their bones Upon others they poured scalding water Some they stoned or beat out their brains with clubs and having thus murthered them they burnt their bodies and then took their bones and mingled them with the bones of Camels and Asses that they might not be known for mens bones The Christians in Alexandria were most cruelly used by the Ethnicks or Pagans Some were slain with the sword some were fastned to the Cross some brained some stoned and such was their rage against Christianity that one brother spared not another nor parents their children nor children their parents Emilianus was burned in Thracia Domitius was slain in his cave Theodorus for singing a Psalm at the removing of the body of Babilas being apprehended was examined with exquisite torments and so cruelly excruciated from morning till almost noon that hardly he
sent an Earl after him to bring him back again who pursuing him with sails and ores had almost overtaken his ship whereupon the Marriners would have run her ashore and fled into a wilderness that was hard by to whom Athanasius said Quid turbamini filii quin in occursum eamus persecutori nostro ut intelligat quia longe major est qui nos defendit quam qui persequitur My sons why are you thus affrighted Let us rather turn and meet our pursuer that he may know that he is greater which defends us then he that follows to apprehend us Hereupon the Marriners turned back again and the Earl supposing nothing less then that Athanasius was in the ship that came towards him he only called to them and enquired whether they had not heard of Athanasius they answered that they had seen Athanasius a little before whereupon he hastned forward to overtake him and Athanasius in his ship returned back privately into Alexandria where he lay hid till that persecution was over Julians Officers in exacting the fines of the Christians demanded more then they were assessed at and sometimes tormented their bodies also of which wrongs when they complained to the Emperour he scoffingly answered them It s your part when you are injured to take it patiently for so your God commandeth you At Meris in Phrygia the Governor Commanded the Idol-Temple to be set open and cleansed and began himself to worship the Idols Whereupon some Christians inflamed with zeal in the night time brake into the Temple threw down the Idols and stamped them to powder The Governour being wonderfully incensed herewith purposed to execute some Christian Citizens which were innocent and guiltless whereupon the Authors of their own accord presented themselves before him chusing rather to die for the truth then that others should suffer for their sakes Thereupon the Governor commanded them to sacrifice to the Idols or else he would severely punish them but they setting at nought his threats prepared themselves to suffer what he could inflict Then did he assay them with all kinds of torments and at last laid them on the grid-iron and broiled them to death to whom they said If thou long O Tyrant for broiled meat turn up the other side lest in eating the blood run about thy teeth When Julian went against the Persians of very malice and hatred against the Christians whom scornfully he called Galilaeans he made a vow that if he obtained the victory he would sacrifice to his gods the blood of those Christians which would not sacrifice to the Idols But what the issue of that exepdition was See in my second part in the Life of Jovianus Collected out of the imperial History and Socrates Scholasticus Theodor. and the Magd. Hist. Cent. 4. CHAP. XIX The Persecution of the Church under the Arrian Hereticks which began An. Christi 339. COnstantine the Great dying divided his Empire amongst his three sons Constantius Constans and Constantine Constantius that governed the East was seduced by an Arrian Presbyter who had been in his fathers Court with his Aunt Constantia So pernicious a thing it is to have deceitfull Hereticks lurking in Princes Courts and Ladies Chambers This Presbyter complained to Constantius that the Return of Athanasius from banishment was very dangerous to the peace of the Common-wealth Yea he so far incensed the Emperour against him that he sent a Captain with five thousand armed men to slay him but the Lord delivered him miraculously out of their hands for the armed souldiers being placed round about the Church where he was he went safely through the midst of them undiscerned though many Arrians were present on purpose to point him out to the souldiers as a sheep ordained for the slaughter But neither in banishment could he enjoy peace and safety for this Arrian Emperour sent to all the officers in his Army to search him out wheresoever he was proposing a great Reward to those that could bring Athanasius to him either alive or dead whereupon he was forced to hide himself in a deep pit where he lay six years never so much as seeing the light of the Sun till at last a Maid that used to carry him his food was corrupted by those which sought for him to betray him to them but it pleased God by his Spirit to reveal to him his danger whereby he escaped a little before they came to apprehend him Afterwards Constans forced his brother Constantius though much against his will to restore Athanasius to his Church at Alexandria But after the death of that good Emperour Constans Constantius drave him into banishment again yet the Lord stirred up a godly woman to hide him in her house till the death of Constantius In Alexandria in the room of Athanasius was George an Arrian Bishop placed who also was furnished with armed souldiers to assist him in his devillish devices Thereupon he caused a great fire to be made took many Christian Virgins caused them to be stripped naked requiring them to renounce their faith or else they should be burned but when the sight of the fire could not terrifie them he caused their faces to be so dashed with strokes that their countenances were disfigured yet like patient souldiers of Christ they endured all kind of rebuke for his names sake Thirty Bishops of Egypt and Lybia were slain in the fury of this Arrian Persecution Fourteen Bishops were banished whereof some of them died in the way the rest in exile Forty Orthodox Christians in Alexandria were scourged with rods because they would not communicate with the Arrian Bishop George and so pitiously handled that some pieces of the rods were so deeply fixed in their flesh that they could not be drawn out and many through excessive pain of their wounded bodies died The like cruelty did the Arrians exercise in Constantinople Paul the good Bishop was banished to Cucusus where he was strangled by the Arrians Macedonius a notable heretick was placed in his room who used no less cruelty in forcing men to communicate with him then was used formerly to force them to sacrifice to Idols These Hereticks used also great diligence in procuring Councels to establish their Errors But not long after the Emperor died sorrowing much that he had changed the form of the Nicene faith After the death of Jovian Valentinian succeeded in the Empire who associated to himself his brother Valens and made him Emperor of the East This Valens was an Arrian and raised up a cruel Persecution against the Orthodox Concerning which Greg. Nazianzen in his Oration of the praise of Basil thus writeth Insurrexit repente nebula grandine plena perniciose stridens quae omnes Ecclesias in quas incidit contâ—ivit postravit Christi Cultor pariter osâ—r qui post persecutorem persecutor fuit post Apostatam non quidem Apostata sed
afflicted what evil have we done If we be called to dispute Why are we spoiled of all we have Why are we slandred Why are we forced to remain here amongst the dung-hills afflicted with hunger and nakedness far from our Churches and houses Herewith the Tyrant was so enraged that he commanded his horsemen to ride over them whereby many of them were sore bruised and wounded especially the aged and weak men Then did he command them to meet him at the Temple of Memory and when they came thither they had this writing delivered to them Our Lord King Hunrick lamenting your obstinacy in refusing to obey his will and to embrace his Religion yet intends to deal graciously with you and if you will take this oath he will send you back to your Churches and houses Then they all said with one consent We are all Christians and Bishops and hold the Apostolical and only true faith and thereupon they made a brief confession of their faith But the Kings Commissioners urged them without any further delay to take the oath contained in that paper Whereupon they answered Do you think us bruit beasts that we should so easily swear to a writing wherein we know not what is contained Then was the Oath read unto them which was this You shall swear that after the death of the Lord our King his son Hilderick shall succeed him in the Kingdom and that none of you shall send letters beyond the seas If you take this oath he will restore you to your Churches They that were plain-meaning men amongst them were willing to take it but others that saw further into the subtilty of it refused it Then were those which would take it commanded to separate themselves from the other which being done a Notary presently took their names and of what Cities they were he did the like also by the Refusers and so both parties were committed to ward and shortly after the King sent them word first to those that would have taken the oath Because that you contrary to the rule of the Gospel which saith Thou shalt not swear at all would have sworn The Kings Will is that you shall never see your Churches more but shall be banished into the wilderness and never perform any Ministerial office again and there you shall till the ground But to the Refusers of the oath he said because you desire not the reign of our Lords son you shall therefore be immediately sent away to the Isle of Corse there to hew timber for the ships He also sent abroad through all Africk his cruel tormentors So that no place no house remained free from lamentation screeching and out-cryes They spared neither age nor sex but only such as yielded to their will Some they cudgelled with staves some they hung up others they burned Women and especially gentlewomen they openly tortured stark naked without all shame Amongst whom was Dionysia whom when they saw bolder and more beautifull then the rest they first commanded her to be stript naked and made ready for the cudgels who spake boldly to them saying I am assured of the love of my God vâ—x me how you will only my woman-hood disclose you not But they with greater rage set her naked upon an high place for a publick spectacle Then did they whip her till the streams of blood flowed all over her body Whereupon she boldly said Ye Ministers of Satan that which you do for my reproach is to me an honour And beholding her only son that was young and tender and seemed fearfull of torments checking him with a motherly Authority she so encouraged him that he became much more constant then before To whom in the midst of his terrible torments she said Remember O my child that we were baptized in the name of the holy Trinity Let us not lose the garment of our salvation least it be said Cast them into outer darkness where is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth For that pain is to be dreaded that never endeth and that life to be desired that alwayes lasteth The youth was so encouraged hereby that he persevered patient in all his sufferings till in the midst of his torments he gave up the Ghost Many by her exhortations and example were gained to God and animated in their sufferings Not long after Cyrillas the Arrian Bishop at Carthage stirred up the Tyrant against the Christians telling him that he could never expect to enjoy his Kingdom in peace so long as he suffered any of them to live Hereupon he sent for seven eminent Christians from Capsa to Carthage whom he first assaulted with flattery and large promises of honour riches c. if so be they would imbrace his faith But these servants of Christ rejected all those profers crying out One Lord one faith one Baptism saying also Do with our bodies what you please torment them at your will it s better for us to suffer these momentary pains then to endure everlasting torments Hereupon they were sent to prison loaded with great iron chains and thrust into a stinking Dungeon But God stirred up the hearts of many godly persons by great bribes to the Jayler to procure daily access to them and by their exhortations they were so corroborated in the faith that they much desired to suffer the like things for Christ with these men and would willingly have laid down their necks to the Persecutors swords The Tyrant hearing of it was exceedingly enraged caused them to be kept closer loaden with more chains and to be put to great torments Then did he cause a ship to be filled with combustible matter commanding that these holy Martyrs should be put into it and fast bound in the same and fire to be set to the ship in the sea that they might be burned to death When they were brought out of the prison the multitude of Gods people accompanied them to the ship who as innocent Lambs were led to be sacrificed looking upon their weighty irons as rare Jewels and Ornaments With chearfulness and alacrity they went towards the place of execution as if they had gone to a banket singing with one voice unto the Lord as they went along the street saying This is our desired day more festival then any feâ—â—ivity Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation when for the faith of our Lord God we endure death that we may not loose the garment of obtained faith The people also with one voice cried Fear not O servants of God neither dread the threats of your enemies Die for Christ who died for us that he might redeem us with the price of his saving blood Amongst these was a pretty boy to whom a subtil Seducer said Why hastest thou my pretty boy unto death let them go they are mad Take my counsel and thou shalt not only have life but great advancement in the
as the salvation of mens souls wherein he must obey God rather then man Then did the Arch-Bishop seek to have him apprehended but could not effect it Valdo having many great friends and being generally beloved whereby he continued though closely in Lions three years Pope Alexander the third being informed that divers persons in Lions questioned his soveraign Authority over the whole Church cursed Valdo and his Adherents commanding the Arch-Bishop to proceed against them by Ecclesiastical censures to their utter extirpation whereupon they were wholly chased out of Lions Valdo and his followers were called Waldenses which afterwards spread themselves into divers Countries and Companies The opinions of these Waldenses for which they were so declaimed against and cruelty persecuted by the Romanists were these 1. That holy oyl is not to be mingled in Baptism 2. That all such prayers are superstitious and vain which are made over the oyl salt wax incense boughs of Olives and Palms Ecclesiastical garments calices Church-yards and such like things 3. That time is spent in vain in Ecclesiastical singings and saying the Canonical hours 4. That flesh and eggs may be eaten in Lent and that there is no merit in abstinence at such times 5. That when necessity requires all sorts of persons may marry Ministers as well as others 6. That auricular confession is not necessary 7. That Confirmation is not a Sacrament 8. That Obedience is not to be performed to the Pope 9. That Ministers should live upon Tithes and Offerings 10. That there is no difference between a Bishop and a Minister 11. That it is not the dignity but deserts of a Presbyter that makes him a better man 12. That they administer the Sacrament without the accustomed form of the Roman Church 13. They say that Images are to be taken out of Churches and that to adore them was Idolatry 14. They contemned the Popes indulgences and say that they were of no vertue 15. They refused to take any oath whereby they should be enforced to accuse themselves or their friends 16. They maintained their Ministers out of their own purses thinking it unreasonable that such should be diverted from their studies whilst they were forced to get their livings with their own hands 17. They held that the Miracles done in the Church of Rome were false Miracles 18. That the Religion of the Frier Mendicants was invented by the Devil 19. That the Pope of Rome was not to be obeyed 20. That whoredom and stews were not to be permitted under pretense of avoiding Adultery and Rapes 21. That there is no Purgatory wherein the souls of the deceased are to be purged before they be admitted into heaven 22. That a Presbyter falling into scandalous sin ought to be suspended from his office till he had sufficiently testified his Repentance 23. That the Saints deceased are not to be worshiped and prayed unto 24. That it matters not for the place of their burial whether it were holy or no. 25. They admitted no extream unction amongst the Sacraments of the Church 26. They say that Masses Indulgences and prayers do not profit the dead 27. They admitted no prayers but such as did correspond with the Lords prayer which they made the rule of all their Prayers 28. Lastly Though their adversaries charged them with holding that every lay-man might freely preach to the people yet they had Bishops and orders amongst themselves as the Order of Bulgarie the order of Druguria and they who were their Ministers were ordained thereunto though they were not of the Romish Institution as Nicolus Viguierius and others report of them Valdo himself went into Dauphiney conversing in the mountains of the same Province with certain rude persons yet capable of receiving his belief his Disciples also spread into Picardy whence they were called Picards against whom afterwards K. Philip enforced by the Ecclesiastical persons took arms and overthrew three hundred gentlemens houses that followed their part and destroied some walled Towns pursuing them into Flanders whether they fled and causing many of them there to be burnt to death This persecution caused many of them to flie into Germany and Alsatia where they spread their Doctrine and shortly after the Bishops of Mayence and Strasburg raised up a great persecution against them causing five and thirty Burgesses of Mayence to be burnt in one fire and eighteen in another who with great constancy suffered death At Strasburg eighty were burnt at the instance of the Bishop yet multitudes of people received such edification by the exhortations constancy and patience of the Martyrs that Anno 1315. in the County of Passau and about Bohemia there were above eighty thousand persons that made profession of the same faith Anno Christi 1160. some of them came into England and at Oxford were punished in the most barbarous and cruel manner as ever were any Christians for Religion-sake before the time as you may see in my English Martyrologie And three years after in the Council of Turon or Towers in France viz. 1163. Pope Alexander the third made a decree that these Gospellers and all their favourers should be excommunicated and that none should sell them any thing or buy any thing of them according as it was fore-prophesied Rev. 13.17 But notwithstanding all these devises they had goodly Churches in Bulgary Croatia Dalmatia and Hungary The Popish Monks to make them odious and to have the better occasion to persecute them raised up many foul slanders of them as they were sorcerers buggerers c. that they assembled themselves in the night time and that the Pastors commanded the lights to be put out saying Qui potest capere capiat catch who catch can whereupon they committed abominable incest the son with the mother the brother with the sister the father with his daughter c. they charged them also with many foul and false opinions from which accusations they by a publick Apology and vindication cleared themselves which they published both in French and their own language Rainerus the Monk saith of them that amongst all those which have risen up against the Church of Rome the Waldenses were the most dangerous in regard of their long continuance for some say that it hath continued from the time of Pope Silvester and some say from the Apostles time and because this Sect saith he is more general and there is scarce any Countrey in which it hath not taken footing and because it hath a great appearance of piety for they carry themselves uprightly before men and believe rightly touching God in all things holding all the Articles of the Creed only they hate and revile the Church of Rome and therein saith he they are easily believed of the people Cesarius saith that this Heresie so encreased that in a short time it infected usque ad mille civitates a thousand Cities Parsons saith that they had an Army of seventy thousand men to fight for
Inquisitors for process was thereby framed without party without witness or without other Law then the pleasure of the Inquisitors To be rich was a crime near to Heresie and he that had any thing to lose was in the way to be undone either as an Heretick or as a favourer of them yea bare suspition stopped the mouths of parents kinsfolk and friends that they durst not intercede each for other If any did but convey a cup of cold water or a pad of straw to the poor Saints that lay in stinking dungeons he was condemned as a favourer of the Hereticks and brought to the same or worse extremities No Advocate durst undertake the defence of his nearest kinsman or friends no Notary durst receive any Act in his favour yea death it self made not an end of their punishment for sometimes they passed sentence against the bones of the dead to dis-inter and burn them it may be thirty years after the death of the party accused Such as were heirs had nothing certain for if their fathers or kindred were accused they durst not undertake the defence of their own right possess their own inheritance without the crime or suspition of Heresie The greatest and richest amongst the people were constrained even to adore these Monks Inquisitors and to give them great sums for the building of their Convents houses for fear to be accused of Heresie And the better to keep the people in aw these Inquisitors would sometimes lead in Triumph their prisoners in their processions enjoyning some of them to whip themselves others to go in their shirts bare-foot and bare-headed having a With about their necks and a torch in their hands for the greater terrour to the beholders seeing persons of all estates and sexes in so miserable a condition Some of these accused persons were sent into the holy Land or enrolled for some other expedition against the Turks and Infidels where they were to serve for a certain time at their own charge in the mean time these Fathers Inquisitors took possession of their houses and goods and when they returned home they must not so much as enquire whether these Monks had in their absence lain with their wives lest they would be condemned as back-sliders and unworthy of favour Anno Christi 1201. A gallant Knight that was one of these Waldenses called Enraudus whom Henry Earl of Nivers had made Gonour of his land was accused of Heresie and brought before the Popes Legat who called a Common Council at Paris against him consisting of the Arch-Bishop Bishops and Ministers of Paris who after examination of witnesses condemned him for an Heretick and so delivered him to the secular power by whom he was burned in the flames Chron. Rol. Altissiodorensis In Octo. Anno Christi 1207. in the Town of Mont-royal near Carcasson in the Earldom of Tholouse there was held a famous disputation between Didacus Bishop of Oxon a Spaniard Frier Dominick Peter of the New Castle the Popes Legat and Raph his Colleague on the one party and Arnold Hot Pastor of the Albingenses with some other of his fellow-labourers on the other party The Arbitrators were two noble men viz Bernard de villa nova and Pernail of Arras and two Plebians viz. Raimond Godius and Arnold Riberia The Questions disputed upon were these First that the Church of Rome is not the Spouse of Christ nor an holy Church but an impure one and instructed by the Doctrine of Satan Secondly That their Ecclesiastical Polity is not good nor holy nor established by Jesus Christ. Thirdly That the Mass as it is celebrated therein was not instituted by Christ or his Apostles The Bishop undertook to prove the contrary but after three days disputation he desired fifteen days to commit his Arguments to writing and Arnold Hot required eight days to put in his Answer At the day appointed the Bishop brought in a very long writing and Hot desired to answer by word of mouth intreating his Auditors that he might not seem troublesom to them if he were long in answering so long a discourse and it was granted that he should be heard with patience without interruption and so he discoursed for divers hours four days together to the great admiration of all that heard him and so ready was he therein that all the Bishops Abbats Monks and Priests wished themselves elsewhere For he framed his answer to each point in order as it was set down in the writing and that with such plainness and perspicuity that he gave all that were present to understand that this Bishop though he had writen much yet had he concluded nothing that might truly turn to the advantage of the Church of Rome against his Assertions Then did Arnold request that forasmuch as the Bishops and himself in the beginning of the conference were bound to prove whatsoever they affirmed by the Word of God only it might now be imposed upon the Bishops and Priests to make good their Mass as they sing it part by part to have been instituted by the son of God and so used by the Apostles c. But the Bishops were not able to prove that the Mass or any part of it was so ordained or used whereupon they were much discontented and ashamed Arnold proceeded to prove that it was not instituted by Christ or his Apostles For said he if the Mass were the holy Supper instituted by our Saviour there would remain after the consecration that which was in the supper of our Lord viz. Bread But in the Mass there is no bread For by transubstantiation the bread is vanished therefore the Mass is not the holy Supper of the Lord c. The Bishops Legats Monks and Priests having nothing to answer to these things retired themselves not being willing to here any more and fearing least these Gospellers should work such an impression on the hearts of those that were present as might shake their beliefe touching the Masse they dessolved the Assembly Nich Vignerius Between the years 1176. which was the time when this Inquisition was first erected to the year 1228. there was so great a havock made of poor Christians that the Arch-Bishops of Aix Arles and Narbonne being assembled at the request of the said Inquisitors to conferre with them about divers difficulties in the execution of their offices had compassion of the great number that were accused cast into prison saying We hear that you have apprehended such a multitude of the Waldenses that it is not only impossible to defray the charge of their food but to provide lime and stone to build prisons for them we therefore advise you to forbear this rigour till the Pope be advertised and direct what he will have done in this case c. Yet notwithstanding all this cruelty there was in the year 1260. according to the report of George Morrel in his memorials p. 54. above eight hundred thousand persons that made profession
the effecting of it but as soon as the men were in Arms it pleased God by the death of King Francis to put an end to that design whereby the Waldensian Churches in Dauphine enjoyed peace and were well furnished with godly Pastors who held them in the exercise of religion though they were in continuall danger of being persecuted to the death for the same The Waldenses in Dauphine many years before being multiplyed so that the countrey could not feed them dispersed themselves abroad into divers parts whereof some went into Piedmont who lived in great love with those of Daâ—phine and though they were alwaies oppressed with troubles yet with hearty love and charity they ever-succoured one another not sparing their lives and goods for their mutuall conservation The first Persecution in Piedmont were occasioned by the Preists who complained to the Arch-Bishop of Turin that these people lived not according to the manner and belief of the Church of Rome that they offered not for the dead cared not for Masses Absolutions or to get any of theirs out of the pains of Purgatory c. Hereupon the Arch-Bishop persecuted them complaining of them to their Princes to make them odious But the Prince enquiring of their neighbours heard that they were of a good conversation fearing God without deceit or malice loving plain dealing alwaies ready to serve their Prince with alacrity c. He therefore purposed not to molest them But the Priests and Monks gaining nothing by their belief charged them with an infinite number of calumnies and ever and anon catching one or other of them they delivered them to the Inquisitors and the Inquisitors to the executioners so that there was scarce a Town or City in Piedmont wherein some of them had not been put to death At Turin one of them had his bowels torn out of his belly and put into a bason before his face and then was he cruelly martyred At Revel in the Marquisat of Saluces one Catelin Girard being on the block whereon he should be burnt requested his Executioner to give him two stones which he refused to do fearing least he would throw them at some body but he protesting the contrary at last they gave him two stones which he held in his hands and said When I shall have eaten these stones then shall you see an end of our Religion for â—hich you now put me to death and so he threw them on the ground and died cheerfully Thus they burnt many of them in the fire till Anno 1488. and then they resolved to assault them by open force because they saw that otherwise they should never be able to extirpate them besides their constant sufferings converted many to the faith Hereupon they levied an Army of eighteen thousand men besides many inhabitants of Piedmont who ran to the pillage from all parts These marched all at once to Angrogne Lâ—cerne La Perouse c. They raised also forces in Dauphine where with they over-ran the Valley of Pragela so that they being put to defend themselves could not assist their friends in Piedmont But the enemy by this division of his forces being weakned was every where beaten especially in the Valley of Angrogne where the VValdensians having been informed of the levies of their enemies against them prepared themselves to receive and resist them keeping the strait passages where few men might defend themselves against many They defended themselves with long Targets of wood whereby they covered themselves from the hurt of their enemies arrows Whilst they were thus bickering with their enemies the women and children upon their knees cried out O God help us The enemies made themselves merry with this fight and amongst them one Capt. Saquet who as he was imitating the woman was slain and tumbled down into a very deep valley Another Captain crying out to the women in derision was killed with the shot of an arrow in the throat Hereupon the souldiers betook themselves all to their heels and the greatest part slew themselves by tumbling down from the rocks Another providence of God was this that the enemies approaching to the stongest entrance by nature might their have fortified themselves and so made themselves masters of that Valley But God sent so thick a cloud and dark a fog that they could scarce see one another whereby they wanted opportunity to discover their advantage and therefore departed which the VValdenses seeing couragiously pursued them and by that means the enemy being dispersed and not seeing which waies they went the greatest part fell headlong down the mountains quitting their arms and booty which they had gotten at their first entrance into the Valley by which means the Waldenses recovered it again Then it pleased God to move the Princes heart which was Philip the seventh Duke of Savoy and Lord of Piedmont with pity towards these poor people saying That he would not have that people which had been alwaies true faithfull and obedient to him to be unjustly destroyed by Arms being content that twelve of the Principall should come to him to Pignerol to crave pardon for all the rest for taking arms in their own defence without his authority These he entertained lovingly forgiving all that was past during the warre And having been informed that all their children were born with black throats with foure rows of teeth and all hairy he caused some of them to be brought to him and seeing them fair and perfect creatures he was much displeased with himself for beleeving so easily the reports which were brought to him against them giving command that none should hereafter molest them but that they should enjoy all the priviledges which they rest of his subjects in Piedmont did Notwithstanding which the Monks Inquisitors daily sent out processe against them lay in wait for them and as they could aprehend any of them delievered them over to the secular power This Persecution lasted to Anno. 1532. at which time the Waldenses ordered that there exercises of religion should be performed no more in covert as formerly they had been but in publick that every one might know them and that their Pastors should preach the Gospell openly not fearing any persecution that might happen unto them The prince being advertised hereof was highly offended with them and thereupon caused one of his Commanders to hast with his Troops into the said Vallies which was performed with such diligence that he was entred with five hundred horse and Foot before they were aware ransacking plundering and wasting all before them Then did the Waldenses leave their ploughs putting themselves into passes and with their slings charged their enemies with such multitudes of stones that they were constraned to flie and to abandon their prey many remaining dead upon the ground This news was presently carried to the Prince and withall he was told that these people were not to
the King to go to Masse upon pain of forfeiting their lives and goods but they answered that they could not obey such commands against the command of God Then he commanded that twelve of the Principal of them together with all their Ministers and Schoolmasters should presently yeeld up their bodies to the prisons of Turin c. They answered that they could not obey that command or appear at Turin because they should thereby endanger their lives The Parliament was so incensed at this answer that as many as they could apprehend they burnt amongst whom was Jeffery Varnegle Minister of Angrogne Anno 1557. by whose death the people that were present were much edified seeing his constancy of invocating God to the last The Protestant Princes of Germany hearing of this great Persecution interceded in their behalf to King Henry the second of France Who promised to have regard to this request of theirs and indeed they enjoyed peace afterwards till the peace was concluded betwixt the Kings of France and Spain and that the Duke of Savoy was restored to his Estate which was Anno 1559. The year after the Popes Nuntio reproved the Duke for that with all his power he had not persecuted the Waldenses and that if he did not now endeavour to reduce them to the Romish Church or to root them out his Holinesse should have cause to suspect that he was a favourer of them Hereupon the Duke presently commanded them to go to Mass upon the pain of their lives But the not obeying him he set upon them by open force and yet at the same time he caused them to be pursued by the Monks Inquisitors also So that a great Persecution was raised against the poor Christians Some were taken and burnt who shewed invincible constancy in all their torments and death To recite all the outrages cruelties and villanies practised against them would be too tedious Many fled and their houses and goods were ransacked and spoiled One of their Ministers was apprehended and put to a shamefull and cruell death but he shewed such admirable patience therein as astonished his very adversaries Some also were taken and sent to be Gally-slaves Yet some through weakness yeelded to the adversaries and were more cruelly handled then those that remained constant in the truth Three of the most cruel persecutors of these faithfull servants of Jesus Christ were first Thomas Jacomel a Monk an Apostate that had renounced the known truth and persecuted mortally and maliciously the poor Christians against his own conscience he was a whoremonger and given over to all villanies and filthy living a Sodomite c. his delight was to spoil rob and torment the captives of these Waldenses The second was a collaterall called Corbis who in the examination of the prisoners was very rigorous and burnt many of them but in the end feeling a remorse in his conscience he protested that he would meddle with them no more The third was the Provest of Justice who lay in wait in the high waies to apprehend them when they went abroad in the morning or as they went to the Market The Monks also of Pignorol vexed the Churches near about them grievously some they took prisoners and kept them in their Abbies then they assembled a company of Ruffians sending them to spoil the Churches and to take prisoners men women and childen of whom some by torments they forced to abjure others they sent to the Galleys others they burnt The gentlemen of the valley of S. Martin vexed their tenants grievously spoiling some of their goods imprisoning others and vexing them by all means Two of those gentlemen getting some Ruffians to them in the night time set upon a village called Renclaret which the Inhabitants perceiving fled into the mountains covered with snow naked and without victuals in the morning these villains took a Minister of that Valley who was coming to visit these people of Renclaret and burnt him but three nights after they of Pragela pitying their friends of Renclaret sent four hundred men against the Ruffians who fought with them and without the losse of one man put them to flight and restored their friends to their houses A year after one of these gentlemen called Truchet with a company of Ruffians arrested the Minister of Renclaret as he was at his sermon but the people were so moved at his outragious dealing especially the women that they had almost strangled Truchet and so canvased the rest of his company that they had no minde to come any more Shortly after they took another Minister as he was going to preach in a parish a mile from his house but the people hearing of it speedily pursued them and recovered their Minister again but when the villains saw that they were like to lose their prey they so wounded him that they left him for dead The Monks of Pignerol sent some Ruffians by night to the Ministers house of S. Germain who were conducted by a Traitor that knew the house and formerly had frequented it this fellow knocking at the door and the Minister knowing his voice opened the door but perceiving himself to be betrayed he fled at a back-door yet was quickly taken and sorely wounded notwithstanding which they pricked him with halberds to hasten his pace as they carried him away they also slew and hurt many others The Minister after sore imprisonment endured a cruel death with much constancy at his death the Inquisitors caused two poor women that they kept in prison to carry faggots to burn him and to say to him their Pastor Take this thou wicked Heretick in recompence of that naughty Doctrine that thou hast taught us To whom he replied Aâ— good women I have taught you well but you have learned ill In brief they so persecuted these poor people that they forced them to forsake their houses and to fly into the mountains loosing all their estates so that many that had lived well and relieved others were now fain to crave relief and succour of others The Monks with their Troops of Ruffians continued thus to molest and persecute these poor people They asked of their Ministers Whether it were not lawfull for them to defend themselves against such violence The Ministers answered that it was only they advised them to avoid blood-shed as much as might be This question being resolved they of Luserne and Angrogne sent some to aid their friends of St. Germain against the Monks In June divers of these Waldenses went out into the country to reap their harvest and in sundry places were all taken prisoners not knowing of each others calamity but God so wrought that miraculously they all escaped out of prison to the great astonishment of their adversaries At the same time also others who had been long in prison and longed for nothing but death through Gods providence were delivered after a wonderful sort In July they of Angrogne being at their
having taken fourteen men they bound them and were leading them away prisoners but their wives and children pursued them so fiercely with stones that they were glad to let their prisoners go and had much ado to save themselves Two others that they caught they hung up by the heels and hands and having tormented them almost to death at last released them for a great sum of money Another Garison in the night went to Tailleret brake in at the windows and tops of houses spoiling all and took also fourteen prisoners whom they bound two and two together and were carrying them to the Fortress but two of them getting loose so valiantly assaulted the souldiers and beat them with stones that they forced them to let go their other prisoners Yet two others they took and carried them to the Fort one was but a child whom the Captain strangled with his own hands the other was sixty years old whom they bound and took a crature that lives in horse-dung and put into his navel covering them with a dish which in a short space did eat into his belly and killed him The Waldenses were in great perplexity by reason of these Garisons but especially for the want of their Ministers whereupon they resolved to call them back yet to have preaching only in private because they would not imbitter the souldiers till their messengers returned from the Duke These messengers were cruelly handled at the Court and at last sent back with a command that they should entertain Priests to say Mass c. When this Report was made to their brethren that sent them there was wonderfull lamentation weeping and mourning Then did they send two of their Ministers to the Church of Pragela to shew them of the pitifull condition of the Churches in Piedmont and to ask their advice how to prevent the danger and in the next place they all fell to prayer and having long called upon God for counsel and direction in so great a strait they resolved upon debate that the people in Piedmont and Dauphine should joyn in a League together wherein they promised through Gods grace and assistance to maintain the pure preaching of the Gospel and administring the holy Sacraments to yeeld obedience to their superior so farre as they were commanded by the Word of God and one to be aiding and assisting to the other that none should conclude any thing touching the estate of Religion without the consent of the rest of the Vallies During this Treaty all the housholders were required to be present at Masse and such as would do it should live in peace but such as refused should be condemned to be burnt or sent to the Gallies so that the people were constrained to fly die or renounce the Gospel The first they would have chosen but could not do it by reason of the great snow Whereupon they exhorted one another saying We shall be all called for to morrow to renounce God and to return to Idolatry let us therefore make a solemn protestation that we will live and die in the confession of Gods holy Word let us in the morning hear a sermon and then cast down to the ground all the Idols and Altars and to this all agreed In the morning they put their resolutions into execution beating down the Images and casting down the Altars Then they went to Villars to do the like there but by the way they encountred with a band of souldiers who where going to spoil a village and to fetch away the inhabitants prisoners These souldiers seeing them so ill provided mocked them and discharged their guns at them but they taking courage with stones beat the souldiers pursuing them to the Fortresse Then did they go to Villars and having destroyed the Idols and Altars there they returned to besiege the fortresse demanding the prisoners that were therein The Judge with many Gentlemen came that day to enroll their names that would go to Masse but seâ—ing the resolution of the people they fled into the Castle where they were besieged for ten daies Then did the Captain of Toâ—r go with a company of souldiers thinking to raise the siege but by those which kept the passages some of them were slain the rest were driven back again Then came they back with three bands which caused a furious fight wherein many of the souldiers were slain and hurt and not one of the besiegers was hurt The Waldenses attempted often to have taken the Fortresse but without Ordinance it was impossible also the Lord of Trinity was come back with his army and the next day would have raised the siege But it pleased God that very night that the souldiers in the Castle desired leave to depart with bag and baggage which was easily granted to them and the souldiers whiâ—h before had so cruelly persecu the Ministers were now fain to request them to protect their lives and to conduct them to a place of safty which the Ministers did willingly and the souldiers were very thankfull for it that night the Fort was razed to the ground The next day the Lord of Trinity cunningly sent to them of Angrogne that if they would not aid the other they should be gently dealt with but they knowing his fraud agreed with the rest to defend their Religion with their lives and that no one should make an agreement with out the consent of the rest Then did the Lord of Trinity assay with his Army to enter into the borders of Angrogne by certaine streights but the people having raised up some breast-works valiantly defended themselves and offended their enemies Trinities souldiers being weary fresh ones were brought in their stead so that the fight endured untill night wherein many of the enemies were slain more hurt and but two of the Waldenses and so the battell ceased for the present The next day the Army marched towards Angrogne five severall waies and there were none to resist but only a few that kept the Watch who valiantly fought for a space but seeing themselves in danger to be inclosed they retreated to an high place where the combate was renued with greater fiercenesse then before The Lord of Trinity seeing the losse of many of his men sounded a retreat and went to Angrogne but the people were fled into the medow of Tour therefore he burned and spoiled all before him He also oft set fire upon the two Churches where the word used to be preached but could not burne them and so he did to the Ministers house and yet it remained whole Amongst them of Angrogne there were but two that were enemies to the word of God and they were both slain that day Then did the Lord of Trinity send some to burn Rosa but the souldiers were driven back four daies together by them that kept the passages whereupon he sent his whole Army yet they valiantly withstood them from morning till night At last a party
neither young nor old Other souldiers that ransacked the houses found many poor persons who had hid themselves in secret places whom they flew upon crying Kill kill the souldiers without the Town killed all they could meet with so that above a thousand men women and children were slain in this place Many persons which were escaped into the mountains sent by some that had most interest in Miniers to desire him to give them leave to go whither the Lord should please to leade them with their wives and children though they had nothing but the shirts on their backs to whom he answered thaâ— he knew what he had to do he would send them to dwell in hell amongst the devils Then did he send part of his Army unto Costa which they overcame and committed there great slaughter Many of the inhabitants fled into an Orchard where the souldiers ravished many women and maidens and having kept them there a day and a night they used them so beastly that the women with childe and younger maidens died presently after Many of these Merindolians hid themselves in rocks and dark caves where some were famished others were choaked with fire and smoak set to their caves mouths Many more were the outrages and cruelties which this wicked Opede committed but the Lord found him out at last striking him with a strang kinde of bleeding at the lower parts neither was he able to void any urine so that by degrees his guts rotted within him No remedy could be found for this terrible disease worms bred in his bowels which continually gnawed him Then did he send to Arles for a famous Chyrurgion who cured him of his difficulty to make water after which desiring all to depart the room the chyrurgion in private exhorted him to repent of his former cruelty and bloud-shed telling him that this his strange bleeding was Gods just hand upon him for shedding so much innocent bloud But these words pierced the impure conscience of this wicked wretch and more troubled him then the torments of his disease so that he cryed out to lay hands on the Chirurgion as an Heretick Whereupon he conveyed himself away and returned to Arles Yet not long after he was sent for again and great promises were made for his security But when he came back he found Miniers past cure raging and casting out most horrible blasphemous words feeling a fire within him which burnt him from the navel upwards which was accompanied with extream stink of his lower parts and so he ended his wretched life In the beginning of this Persecution there was one John de Româ— a Monk who gat a Commission to examine those whom he suspected to be Hereticks whereupon he afflicted the faithfull with all kindes of cruelty Amongst other horrible torments that he used this was one he filled boots with boiling grease and put them upon their legs tying them backwards over a form and their legs hanging down over a soft fire Thus he tormented very many and in the end most cruelly put them to death Francis the French King being informed of the hellish cruelty of this wicked Monk sent to his Parliament at Provence that they should apprehend and condemn him but he being informed of it fled to Avignion where he hoped to enjoy all that wealth which so mercilesly and unjustly he had extorted from the poor Christians But shortly after he was robbed of all that he had by his own servants and then he fell sick of a most horrible and strange disease unknown to the Physitians He was intollerably tormented with pains all over his body so that no means could give him ease for one minute of an hour neither was their any man that could tarry near him no not of his nearest friends so great was the stink that came from him Then was he removed to an Hospital but the stink and infection so encreased that no man durst come near him no nor he himself was able to abide the horrible stink of his own body full of ulcers and sores and smarwing with vermine and so rotten that the flesh fell from the bones by piece-meal In these torments he often cried out in great rage O who will deliver me VVho will kill and rid me out of these intollerable paines which I know I suffer for the oppressions which I did to the poor men Oft-times he himself endeavoured to destroy himself but he had not the power In this horrible anguish and fearful despair he miserably ended his accursed life When he was dead no man would come near to bury him till at last a young novice caught hold of his stinking carcase with an iron hook and so dragged him into an hole that was made for him In the time of this Persecution the Bishop of Aix with some other Bishops and their courtizans walking along the streets of Avignion saw a man selling baudy Images and Pictures with filthy rimes and ballades annexed to them All these goodly Pictures the Bishops bought up When they had gon a little further there was a Book-seller that had set to sale certain Bibles in French which the Prelates were greatly moved at saying to him Dar'st thou be so bold as to sell such merchandise in this Town The Book-seller replied Is not the holy Bible as good as these goodly Pictures that you have bought for these gentle-women Then said the Bishop of Aix I renounce my part in Paradise if this fellow be not a Lutheran take him away to prison Then did his attendants cry out A Lutheran a Lutheran To the fire with him to the fire with him and one gave him a blow with his fist another pulled him by the hair another by the beard so that the poor man was all imbrued in bloud before he came to prison The next day he was brought before the Judge where by the instigation of the Bishops he was condemned to be burned the same day and so was carried to the fire with two Bibles about his neck one before and another behinde where he made a most Christian end The Waldenses were dispersed also into several other Countries as Bohemia Austria Germany Flanders England Poland Italy Spain Dalmatia Croatia Sclavonia Grecia Philadelphia Livonia Sarmatia Bulgaria c. In all which places at one time or other they suffered persecutions concerning which there is not much left upon Record and something will be spoken again of it in other places of this book and therefore this may suffice for the present CHAP. XXIV The Persecution of the Albingenses THese were the same with the Waldenses differing only in name from their habitation in the Country of Albi. Divers of Waldo's disciples going into this Country and amongst them one Arnold from whom they were called Arnoldists laboured with so good successe that in a short time there was scarce any found that would go to Masse Pope Alexander the third was much moved to anger when he saw
fire casting them into the same and burning them God fridi Annales Also after his taking of the said Castle he caused a Frier to preach to the people and to exhort them to acknowledge the Pope and Church of Rome but they not staying till he had done cried out We will not forsake our faith you labour but in vain for neither life nor death shall make us abandon our beliefe Then did the Earl and Legate cause a great fire to be made and cast into it a hundred and fourscore men and women who went in with joy giving God thanks for that he was pleased so to honour them as to die for his Names sake They also told Earl Simon that he would one day pay dear for his cruelties All that saw their valour and constancy were much amazed at it Then did the Earl besiege the Castle of Termes which also at last was taken for want of water yet they within the Castle when they perceived that they could hold out no longer one night quit the place and passed away undiscovered The Castle de la Vaur was also besieged in which there were many godly people Thither came many Pilgrims to the Legate from all Countries and amongst others six thousand Germanes of whose coming the Earl of Foix hearing he laid an ambush for them overthrew and slew them all not one escaping but an Earl that carried the news to Earl Simon After six moneths siege the Castle of Vaur was taken by assault where all the souldiers were put to the sword save eighty Gentlemen whom Earl Simon caused to be hanged and the Lord Aimeri on a gibbet higher then all the rest the Lady his sister was called Girauda was cast into a ditch and there covered with stones And for the rest of the people a very great fire was made and they were put to their choise whether they would forsake their opinions or perish by the flames There were scarce any of them found that would doe the first but exhorting one another they went into the kindled fire of their own accord saith Altisiodore but more probably they were forced into the same where joyfully they resigned up their spirits unto God Some say that they were about foure hundred persons that thus perished by fire After the return of the Earl Remund from the Pope the Legate still fought to entrap him but the Earl would not come againe within his reach Then did the Legate send the Bishop of Tholouse to him who pretended a great deal of love and friendship to the Earl and by his subtilty at last prevailed with him to profer his strong Castle of Narbonnes to them to lodge in as they passed that way but as soon as the Legate and his company were entred they seised upon it and put into it a garison which was a continuall vexation to all his subjects Then did the Legate resolve upon the utter extirpation of Earl Remund and all his house as the head of the Albingenses but presently after this Legate dying Earl Simon was frustrated of this hope About this time the English who now possessed Guienne which bordereth upon the Earldom of Tholouse began to help the Albingenses being stirred up thereto by Reinard Lollard a godly and learned man who by his powerfull preaching converted many to the truth and defended the faith of the Albingenses for which they were so eagerly pursued and constantly suffered Martyrdom And this they did the rather not only for their neighbour-hoods sake or for that Simon Earl of Lecester was a rebell and traitour to their King but because this Remund Earl of Tholouse whom they so cruelly whipped and other wise abused and had now also excommunicated was brother in law to King John For his former wife was Joane sometimes Queene of Sicilie which Joane was Kâ—ng Johns sister and bare to the Earl of Tholouse Remund who succeeded his father both in the Earldome and in his troubles John le Maier much commendeth this Lollard saying that he foretold many things by Divine Revelation which saith he came to passe in my time and therefore he putteth him into the rank of holy prophets And for his learning it is evident by his comment upon the Revelation where he setteth forth many things that are spoken of the Roman Antichrist This worthy man was afterwards apprehended in Germany and being delivered to the secular power was burnt at Collen Anno 1211. A new Legate called Theodosius was appointed to succeed who excommunicated Earl Remund and the Bishop of Tholouse thereupon sent the Earl word that he must depart out of the City for that he could not say Masse whilest an excommunicated person was in the City The Earl returned this answer being netled at his insolency that he the Bishop should presently depart out of his Territories and that upon pain of his life accordingly the Bishop departed and took with him the Canons of the Cathedrall Church with the Crosse Banner and Host and all of them barefooted in Procession Coming thus to the Legates Army they were received as persecuted Martyrs with the teares of the Pilgrims and generall applause of all Then the Legate thought that he had sufficiâ—nt cause to prosecute Earl Remund as a relapsed and impenitent man but first he sought by craft to get him into his power and with his fair flatering letters he at last drew him once again to Arles The Earl had requested the King of Arragon to meet him there When they were both come the Legate commanded them upon the pain of his high indignation that they should not depart but with his leave Whilest they were there the Earl was privately shewed by a friend The Articles of the Legate to which he would enforce him to subscrib which were these 1. That the Earl of Tholouse should presently dismiss and cashiere all his men at Armes not restraining one 2. That he shall be obedient and subject to the Church and repaire all the costs and damages which the Church hath been at 3. That in his lands no man should eat of more then two sorts of flesh 4. That he shall expell out of his territories all the Hereticks and their allies 5. That he shall deliver into the hands of the Legate and of Earl Simon all those persons that shall be named unto him 6. That no man in his lands whether noble or ignoble shall were any costly apparell but black course clokes 7. That All his Castles of defence shall be razed to the ground 8. That no Gentlemen of his shall live in any City or Castle but in country houses or villages only 9. That he shall not levie in his land any taxes or tolls but such as in old time were accustomed 10. That every Master of a family shall pay yearly four Tholousian pence to the Legate 11. That when Earl Simon shall passe through his countries he shall beare their charges 12. That after
of Tholouse sent some Deputies to Earl Simon to profer him the keyes of their City whom he received honourably and presently wrote to Lewis son of King Philip that the City of Tholouse was offered to him but his desire was that he should come and have the honour of taking it The Prince went thither immediately and had Tholouse delivered to him Yet the Legate resolved that the pillage of it should be given to his Pilgrims and the City dismantled which was presently executed though contrary to the promise made to the Citizens that no wrong should be done to the City Then came there a new Legate of the Popes called Bonaventure with those that had taken on them the Crosse. Viz. the Earle of Saint Paul the Earle of Savoy the Earle of Alenzon the vicount of Melun Mathew de Montmorency and other great Lords The Legate seeing so many Pilgrims feared least Prince Lewis should take upon him to dispose of divers places held by the Albingenses to the prejudice of the Church Whereupon he presently sent to all those places Absolution and protection so that when the Prince came against them they shewed that they were under the protection of the Church Yea the Legate told the Prince that since he had taken upon him the Crosse he was to be subject to his commands because he presented the person of the Pope whose Pardons saith he you come to obtaine by obeying the Church and not by commanding as the son of a King The Prince dissembled his displeasure at this audaciousnesse and the poore Albingenses were so oppressed by new Armies of Pilgrims that they sunk under the burthen of it The Prince when his fourty daies service were expired retired himself being much discontented to see so much tyranny exercised against the Albingenses Then did Earl Simon besieg the Castle of Foix but having lain ten dayes before it he found to his cost that the place was not to be won by him For where as Earl Simons brother quartered at varilles the Earl of Foix dislodged him and slew him with his launce putting to flight all his men News hereof being brought to Earl Simon he swore that he would drive the Earl of Foix behinde the Pyrenaean Mountaines but presently he had intelligence that a great Army of the Arrogonois and Catalunians were come into the Earldom of Beziers threatning to be revenged on him for the death of their good King where upon he levied his siege in hast and marched thitherwards But the Earle of Foix who knew the passages better then he lay in ambush for him in a place fit for his turne and suddenly setting upon his Pilgrims slew a great number of them only Earl Simon with a few others escaped and went to Carcasson but before he came thither the Arrogonois were gone else might they easily have discomfited him yet shortly after they returned again and Earle Simon was foundly beaten by them so that he was forced to shut himself up in Carcasson till he had a new supply of Pilgrims Shortly after came Remund the son of Earl Remund out of England where he had been bred under his uncle King John with an Army and quickly made himself Master of the City of Beaucaire and almost famished them that held the Castle so that they yeelded it up to depart with their baggage There Earl Simon lost a hundred Gentlemen that he had laid in ambush neer unto the City whom young Remund in a sally cut in pieces Anno 1214. The Legate called a Councel at Montpelier for renuing of the Army of the Church and to confirm the authority of Earle Simon where they declared him to be Prince of all the Countries conquered from the Albingenses which title was confirmed to him by the Pope also Who stiled him the active and dexterous soldier of Jesus Christ and the invincible defender of the Catholick Faith But whilest Earl Simon was in the Council receiving this his new honour a great rumour was heard in the City and a messenger brought word that the people hearing that Earl Simon was there betook themselves to their Arms purposing to kill him whereupon he stole away by the walls of the City on foot without any company and so escaped so that in one houre he saw himself honoured as a God and flying disguised hiding himself like a base scoundrell for feare of the rascall multitude Anno Christi 1215. Their was a Councill held by the Pope at Lateran where they gave the Inquisitors such power against the Gospellers that poor people were every where horribly tortured that were but suspected for Heresie and as Tritemius saith Frier Conradus of Marpurg the Popes Inquisitor if he but suspected any as guilty of Heresie vsed to trie them by the judgment of red hot irons and such as were burned by the irons he delivered as Hereticks to the secular power to be burned in the flames whereupon most of those that were accused were by him condemned to be burnt few escaping the hot irons In so much as Noble Ignoble Clerks Monks Nuns Burgesses Citizens and countrymen were under the name of Heresie by too headlong a sentence of the Inquisitor on the same day where on they were accused cast into the cruell flames no refuge of appeale or defence doing them any good By the same Lateran Councill Earle Simon had the forementioned lands of the Albingenses confirmed to him and thereupon he hastened to the King of France to receive investiture and as he went saith the Monk of Sernay in every City and towne the Popish Clergy and people met him crying Blessed is he that commeth to us in the name of the Lord and every man thought himself happy that could but touch the hem of his garment When he had recived his Investiture from the King of France being attended with an hundred Bishops that had preached the Crosse in their Diocess and with an exceding great Army of Pilgrims he hasted to make himself Lord of all those countries which the Pope had given him So that all men trembled at his reproach and with this great Army of Pilgrims he took in divers places using great cruelty putting men women and children to the sword Then was he marching to Tholouse purposing to pillage and raze it to the ground But by the way his wife sent him word that he must speedily come to her relief being besieged in the Castle of Narbonnes by the Earl of Tholouse but by this time many of his Pilgrims were returned into France Yet Earl Simon hasted to the relief of his wife and being come before Tholouse the people by their frequent sallies made that place too hot for his abode The Legate perceiving that he was much astonished at it said unto him Fear nothing we shall quickly recover the City and then we will destroy all the inhabitants and if any of our Pilgrims are in the fight they
to be of their opinion whereupon Conradius Bishop of Portua the Popes Legate wrote to the Arch-Bishop of Roan and his Suffragan Bishops to meet with others Bishops at a Councill to be held at Sens against the said Bartholmew who saith the Legate in his letters stiles himself servant of the servants of God and runs about Creating Bishops and endeavoring perfidiously to gather Churches Mathew Paris Anno Christi 1226. saith the same Author the Crosse was preached all over France by Romanus the Popes Legate against the Albingenses where in he commanded all that were able to beare arms to signe them selves with the signe of the Crosse against the Earl of Tholouse and his people and at his preaching a great multitude of Prelates and Lay men tooke upon them the signe of the Crosse yet more for fear of the King of France and for favour of the Legate then induced by the justness of the cause But the King of France being signed with the Crosse would not take upon him the expedition unlesse the Pope would forbid the King of England under paine of excommunication to move war against him for any land that he possessed at that present either iustly or unjustly which accordingly the Pope did and our King Henry the third upon receipt of the Popes letters assembled his Nobles to consult with them what he should do upon this inhibition at which time their was present one Mr William Perepund skilfull in Astronomy who constantly affirmed before the King That if the King of France took upon him this expedition he should either never returne alive or else should meet with as greate confusion as might be both of his person estate and followers The King of France having thus settled his affaires at home he together with the Legate appointed a Peremptory day for the Crossed-souldiers to come to a rendevous with their horses and Arms at Lyons from which at the time appointed he began his expidition with an huge Army which was accounted Invincible whom the Legate followed with Arch-Bishops Bishops c. In the Army there were reckoned to be fifty thousand Knights and men at Arms on horsback besides an innumerable company of footmen and then did the Legate publickly excommunicate the Earl of Tholouse putting all his favourers and lands under Interdict The King thus marching with his glittering Arms and terrible Army on Whitson-Eve came to Avignion the first City in Tholouse purposing to destroy the whole land of the Earl from one end to the other and utterly to root out the Inhabitants thereof yet very cunningly the King and the Legate sent to the Citizens only desiring passage through the City that they might follow their iourney the neerest way The Citizens consulting together returned answer That they suspected fraud neither would they admit them into the City where upon the King in a great rage swore that he would not depart thence till he had taken the City The Citizens valiantly defended themselves so that the sieg lasted long and the Earl of Tholouse being a skilfull warrior before the comming of the French Army had withdrawne all kind of victualls together with the women children and cattell into places of safety Hereupon the Kings Army fell into great wants so that multitudes perished by famine Their horses and beasts also were starved for the Earl had caused all the meddowes to be plowed up in the whole country so that they had no fodder but what was brought out of France And their wants daily increasing many Legions went out of the Kings Camp to seek for food and fodder but the Earl of Tholouse with a flying Army many times lay in ambush for them and cut off multitudes of them They also that lay in the siege before the City were miserably wasted by darts and stones shot in ingines from the walls by the Citizens valiantly defending themselves and a generall famine overspread all but it raged most amongst the poorer sort who had neither food nor money Also out of the dead carkasses of men and beasts their bred certaine great and blackflies which comming into there tents by swarms with an horible humming infected their meat and drink and when they were not able to drive them from their cupps and dishes many of the Pilgrims perished suddenly by their meanes But the King and Legate were especially troubled and confounded to think what reproach it would be to them and to the Church of Rome that so gallant and numerous an Army should vndertake such an expedition and be able to effect nothing Then the chiefe Princes and Captains being weary of the long siege amongst so many deaths sollicit that a generall storme might be given to the City hoping by their multitudes to oppresse the Citizens which being resolved upon such a great multitude of Armed men thronged upon the bridge that goes over the river of Rhodanus that the bridge breaking under them three thousand of them were drowned in that swift river Presently after as the French were one day at dinner the Citizens discovering there carlesness suddenly sallied forth violently setting upon them suddenly slew Twenty thousand of them with out any losse to themselves and so retired and the King of France commanded the dead bodies to be throwne into the River affording them no other buriall Then did he also remove his sieg to afarther distance and to prevent the like attempts caused a great ditch to be cast up between the City and his camp and the Legate with his Prelates not knowing how otherwise to reveng themselves Anathematized the Earl of Tholouse and all the subjects But whom they cursed the Lord blessed For shortly after he sent a very great plague into the French campe so that king Lewis to escape the same retired himself into the neighbouring Abbey of Monpensier where he resolved to remain till the City should be taken unto whom came Henry Earl of Compaigne desiring to be dismissed having now sereved his fourty daies but the King denyed his request To whom the Earl said that having performead what was injoyned he neither might nor would be staid any longer The King being very angry hereat swore that if he departed he would wast his whole land with fire and sword yet the Earl according to his former resolution went his waies and shortly after the Lord struck the King with sickness whereof he dyed The Legate and great Captaines concealed his death for a month together and in the interim sent messengers laboring to draw the Citizens to a composition and Commissioners being sent to the Camp the Legate perswaded them to resigne up their City to him upon promise that they should injoy their lives estates and liberties in a better manner then they had formerly but they answered that they would not live under the power of the Frenchmen whose pride and insolency they had often tryed After along Parlee the Legate desired that himself and the
the space of two or three moneths he caused fifty of them saith Mathew Paris either to be burnt or burned alive Anno Christi 1239. the King of France having garisoned divers Castles within the country of Albingenses who greatly oppressed them they betook themselves to Armes besieging those Garisons whereupon they sent to the King of France craving that present aid might be sent to them Then did the King of France send the Lord Iohn of Bellemont with a great Army to aid them who comming into that Country besieged the strong Castle of Mont-reall and at last took it together with divers others belonging to the Albingenses whereby the were suppressed for that â—ime But the year after the Earl of Tholouse took Armes againe and assaulted the Earl of Provence who presently sent to the French King for aid and the French that were about Avignion hasted to the reliefe of the Earl of Provence which the Earl of Tholouse hearing of he lay in Ambush in their way and suddenly setting upon them slew many and dispersed the rest and the war so prospered in his hand that in a short space he recovered to his former dominion above 20. Castles from the French and Earl of Provence and sharply punished his Rebels About the same time the Citizens of Millan being provoked thereunto by the Pope and Emperor burnt many of the Albingenses who were their fellow-Citizens Anno Christi 1241. The Earl of Tholouse continuing his warrs against the Earl of Provence almost beat him out of his country so that the Earl of Provence was feigne to send to the Kings of England and France who had married his second daughters to mediate for him and they writing to the Earl of Tholouse obtained peace for their Father in law Anno Christi 1242. the Bishops of Narbonne and Albium and the Seneschall of Carcasson apprehended two hundred of the Albingenses in a certaine Castle of Tholouse who had Bernard Martine of Cathavell and Raimund Agulbuerus for their Pastors and Ministers All these upon examination adhering constantly to the true faith without wavering were cruelly burnt in the flames Vignier Hist. Eccles. And the year following there were 224. more of them burnt likewise Shortly after it pleased God that great contentions arose between the Pope and Emperor whereby the Gospellers enjoyed some breathing time from their former miseries yet Anno Christi 1262. Pope Vrban hearing that through that peace their Doctrine was spread exceedingly he made a Decree in this tenour Albeit we be bound by our office alwaies to endeavour the rooting out the deadly poison of Hereticall pravity from all parts in the Christian world yet now in a speciall manner this duty is incumbent upon us when we perceive this plague to be growne up in our neighborhood through the iniquity of the times to the detriment of the Catho-Faith That therefore the office of the Inquisition may be the more effectually executed against the Hereticks in the province of Lombardy and parts adjacent we enjoyne you upon remission of your sins that you doe your uttermost endeavours for the extirpation of it and that you see that all Papall and Imperiall Lawes be executed against them and for my owne part I will implore the aid of Christian Kings and Princes that Heaven and Earth may be moved against them Anno Christi 1270 Petrus Cadarita and Gulielmus Calonicus were sent as Inquisitors from the Pope into the Kingdom of Arragon severely to punish those that had imbraced the Faith of the Albingenses and amongst others they condemned Arnaldus Castlebonius the viscount and his daughter Ermesenda Countess of Foix They also decreed their memory to be detestable commanding their bones to be digged out of their graves and to be burned They also called Roger the nephew of Ermesenda into judgement for the same crime Anno Christi 1281. There was a great persecution raised against the Gospellers in the Country of Albi by one William de gurdon Captain and president of Carcasson under Phillip the French King who by a proclamation commanded all the Albingenses to be extirpated and searched out of their dens and lurking holes and all such as favoured them to be utterly rooted out as also that the innumerable company of their children which would not be reduced to the Catholike faith and unity of the Church of Rome should not be admitted unto the City of Realmont or the territory thereof nor to the place of any honour or office That such likewise as favoured or concealed any of them should be banished forever from the City of Realmont and their goods wholly confiscated and their children be excluded from all honours and dignities Yet notwithstanding the severity of this Edict God hid and preserved many of them even in Realmont it selfe as Diamonds in dunghils though many of them fled into Arragon and Sicily where they might enjoy more freedom of Conscience Anno Christi 1285. Gareldus and Segarellus of Parma and Dulcinus of Noudria preached and spread the Doctrine of the Albingenses in Parma and in many cities of Lumbardy whereupon Pope Honorius by a publick Edict condemned their Doctrine and commanded them to be rooted out Bzorius Anno Christi 1300. Pope Boniface commanded Guido the Inquisitor to dig up the bodie of Hermanus one of the Albingenses and to condemne and burn it in Ferrara twenty yeares after his death Anno Christi 1315 The Friers Inquisitors raised a great persecution against the Gospellers in Passaw in Austria and burned many of them who continued very constant in the faith took their death very cherefully Amongst the rest one of them that was burnt at Vienna confessed that their were eighty thousand of them in Bohemia and Austria at that time their cheifest Ministers were Bartholomew Faustus Iames Iustus Bononatus William and Gilbert of whom James was murthered between two walls by the Mercilesse Inquisitors Bononatus was burned alive and William Gilbert and Bartholomew were condemned after their death the house where they used to preach was pulled to the ground and all that adhered to them were Anathematized Anno Christi 1322. Lollard Walterus from whom our English professors were called Lollards was taken at Collen where he had privately preached and through Gods blessings drawne many from ignorance and errors to imbrace the truth persisting constantly in his opinions he was condemned and burned alive Yet notwithstanding all cruelties used against them their enemies could never prevail to a totall extirpation of them but they still lay hid like sparkles under the ashes desiring and longing to see that wich now through Gods grace their posterity do injoy viz. The liberty to call upon God in purity of conscience without being inforced to any superstition and idolatry and so instructing their children in the service of God the Lord was pleased to preserve a Church amongst them in the middest of the Romish corruptions as a Diamond
then this To whom she answered seeing his inexorablenesse You shall never more espouse me to any and so beating her breast and tearing her hair she followed amongst the rest When the Martyrs came to the river whilest Ferries were preparing they with loude voices call heaven and earth to witnesse their innocency and so taking their leave of their wives children and friends exhorting them to constancy and zeal for the truth they were carried and cast into the middest of the river with their hands and feet bound together and so drowned and if any were driven to the banks they were stabbed with iron forks and pikes The Majors daughter seeing her husband thrown into the river leaped in to him caught him about the middle but being unable to draw him forth they were both drowned the next day they were found embracing one another and were both buried in one grave Anno 1421. About the same time a company of souldiers going towards Prague seized upon a godly Minister and four other men and four boys the eldest not being aboue eleven years old for administring and receiving the Sacarament in both kindes and carried them to their Colonel the Colonel sent them to the Bishop who required them to abjure or else he would burn them the Minister stoutly answered But the Gospel teacheth otherwise so that you must either approve what we do or blot it out of your Bible Hereupon one of the troopers smote him so violently on the face with his gantlet that the bloud ran out of his mouth and nose The Bishop made this Minister the subject of his mirth and scorn all that night and the next day being the Sabbath he burned them all in one fire and when the Bishop would have perswaded them to abjure the Cup in the Sacrament the Minister answered That he would rather suffer a thousand deaths then deny a truth so clearly revealed in the Gospel Another Captain violently entring into a Church where many godly people were met together he killed some and took others prisoners and going to the Communion Table he took the Cup being full of wine and drunk to his horse who having pledged him he said his horse was now one of the communicants in both kindes About the same time also a Godly Tayler was burned at Prague Also one Martin Loquis should have suffered the like death but his life was begged by the Thaborites Afterwards taking another associate with him he was travelling towards Moravia but by the way they were taken by a Captain who manacling them with irons examined them about the Sacrament Martin answered The body of Christ is in heaven and he hath but one not many bodies Hereupon the Captain gave him a box on the ear as not enduring such blasphemy and would have had him presently burned Then did a Priest beg him to see if he could convert him but when that succeeded not he thrust them into a dark stinking dungeon for two moneths Then did he torment them with fire till their bowels came forth to extort from them who were their companions Afterwards they were both shut up in a tub and so burned Anno 1421. A godly and eloquent Preacher in Prague was together with twelve more apprehended by a Captain carried into the common-hall and there privately beheaded but their bloud running out caused a great tumult in the City wherein some of the Senators were slain and others saved themselves by flight Not long after there sprung up a Schism amongst those that were called Hussites for some of them began in other things to comply with the Pope only they insisted upon the Cup in the Sacrament whence they were called Calixtines Others of them stuck close to Husse his doctrine and cried down all superstition And this contention was cunningly fomented and increased by some that sought thereby the advancement of the Pope and Emperour And to make the professors of the pure Doctrine odious they branded them with the hatefull name of Piccards by which name the Waldenses in Piccardy were called Yet both these parties when they were assaulted by the Emperour joyned together in opposing him and obtained many great victories against him Yet Anno 1444. the Thaborites were utterly oppressed by fraud and force Anno 1459. There were divers godly people in Bohemia Ministers Nobles and Commons who being much pressed in conscience about the superstitions in the Church of Rome obtained of their King George Pogiebracius a place in the hilly Countrey near to Silesia to inhabit where throwing off all superstious practices they applied themselves to the form of the Primitive simplicity calling themselves Brethren and Sisters The beginning of this Church displeased the Devil and therefore he raised a sudden and violent tempest to overthrow it For the same of it being spread abroad the Priests in every pulpit stirred up the hatred of the people against them crying out Blow out these sparks blow them out before they grow into a flame Anno 1461. One of their Ministers with some others of them coming to Prague to visit their friends were betrayed and some Officers coming to apprehend them said to them All that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution therefore come forth and follow us to prison which they did The King believing the slanders that were raised against them as that they were attempting some sedition c. he commanded the aged Minister to be tortured but he falling into an extasie felt no pain at all the tormentors supposing him to be dead took him down from the rack but after some hours he came to himselfe and by the intercession of a friend was dismissed Presently after their came forth from the King an Edict forbidding all Pastors to administer holy services without ceremonies and withall threatning death to those that should administer to the brethren called now by the hateful name of Piccards The brethren hereupon were brought into great extremity being like sheep destitute of shepherds Yet presently came forth a new Edict that none of them should be suffered to live either in Bohemia or Moravia Hereupon they were dispersed amongst the woods and mountains dwelling in caves where yet they were scarce safe so that they were forced to make no fire nor dresse any meat but in the night time least the smoak should betray them In the cold winter nights sitting by the fire they applied themselves to the reading of the Bible and holy discourses When in the snow they went abâ—â—ad to provide them necessaries they went close together and lest their foot-steps should betray them the hindermost of them did draw after him a great bough to cover the prints which their feet had made These brethren chose by suffrage certain Elders to whom they promised obedience and by the advice of these Elders the chiefest of the brethen in Bohemia and Moravia were
called together in a Synod in the mountaines to ordain Ecclesiastical Laws whereby they should be governed they appointed also sundry daies of Fasting and Prayer for themselves and their dispersed friends taking counsell from Gods Word concerning those things which were required to the fuller Reformation both of life and doctrine That which most afflicted them was for want of Pastors not knowing where they should have new ones after those were dead who then lived with them but after debate they resolved that Christ had given this authority to his Church that such as were ordained themselves might ordain others Yet some scruple arose whether such as were but Presbyters might ordaine without a Bishop For which cause they met together and with fasting prayers and teares they sought unto God to reveal his will to them in this difficulty and afterwards making a scrutiny by lot the Lord answered them that it was lawfull for Presbyters to ordain Presbyters which occasioned great joy unto them Then did these Brethren deliberate among themselves whether they should joyn with the Waldenses in Moravia and Austria and so be one people with them and one Church The purity of their Doctrine and Christian Conversation did much please but again it much displeased them that they concealed the truth not openly professing it as they ought but to avoid persecution they frequented the Churches of the Papists and so communicated with Idolaters Therefore they concluded to admonish them of this evil and for this end they sent some able men to them to acquaint them with it The Waldenses answered that to be in unity with them was very gratefull and for the evils objected against them they were not ignorant of them nor would defend them but rather would labour to amend them Concluding that they desired to have a sixt day of meeting with the Brethren in which they would take some further order about this businesse But before the time came the Papists having some intelligence of it raged so violently against the Waldenses that they burnt one of the chiefest of them at Vienna and so persecuted the rest that they were fain to provide for their own safety by flight Anno 1468. There came out a new Decree against these Brethren requiring all the Nobles of Bohemia within their severall jurisdictions to apprehend as many as they could and to proceed against them Many therefore were apprehended and put into prison where they were kept for a long time But thrâ—â—gh the wonderfull working of God the more the enemies laboured to put out this spark the more it brake forth into a great flame for many of their Peers submitted to the Discipline of the Brethren building Churches for them in their Towns and Villages so that Anno 1500. they had in Bohemia and Moravia about two hundred Churches After the death of Pogiebracius Uladislaus a Polonian succeeded in the Kingdom to whom the Brethren wrote an Apology by reason of many foul accusations that were carried to him against them This so exasperated their enemies that they endeavoured by a most impudent invention to stir up the hatred of all men against them The way they used was this They suborned a wicked villain to say that he came from amongst them and that he had been an Elder but had therefore forsaken them because in their meetings they used to blaspheme God the Virgin Mary and the Saints to traduce the Sacraments to mingle themselves incestuously after the manner of the Adamites to commit murther and practise witchcraft c. This man they led through the Townes and Cities as a spectacle they brought him to their Church where he must abjure his errors and beseech the people to pray for him a most miserable sinner and to take heed by his example of the wicked Piccards They also published his confession in writing being confirmed with the seals and subscripâ—ons of some Deans and Priests causing them to be read in the Churches to the people But the devil was befooled herein for the Brethren by publick writings did confute these lies and the villain trembling so often to forswear himself in the sight of the people confessed at last that he was suborned to do what he did and that he knew not any of the Piccards Yet thus far it made for good that some to make experience of so great villanies began privately and disguised to frequent the Assemblies of the Brethren and finding it to be farre other wise then it was reported did associate themselves with them as with true Christians Anno 1488. Mathias King of Hungary banished the Brethren from Moravia which caused some hundreds of them taking a Minister along with them to go into Moldavia Whereupon the Brethren in Bohemia sent one of their Elders to them to exhort them unto patience under this persecution which was for the truth Shortly after the restless enemies of God and his Church raised another persecution against the Brethren in Bohemia for some Bishops consulting together suborned the Queen great with childe so that they conceived that the King would deny her nothing in that state to request of him that he would severely punish the Piccards The King displeased at her request only nodded his head but gave no answer at all Yet the Bishops in his presence began to draw up the Edict The King going into his chamber fell down on his knees and with tears besought God to forgive the guilt of those bloudy counsels and to grant no successe to them and God heard his prayers and shewed some examples of his severe judgements on the Authors of this conspiracy The Queen who proposed to her fancy what gratefull spectacles she should have in seeing the Piccards brought to Prague and there some burnt some beheaded and others drowned in the water presently fell in travell and when she was not able to bring forth the Physitians advised that the childe should be cut out of the mothers womb which was accordingly done whereby the childe lived but the mother died Two years after the Bishops by their importunity prevailed with the King that sharp remedies should be used against those growing evils as they were pleased to call them whereupon an Edict was sent forth that all the Piccards without distinction of sex age or quality should be slain This Mandate was brought to the Assembly of States at Prague by two Bishops but divers of the chiefest Nobles opposed it so that eighteen moneths were spent in debate before any thing was done but at last by the cunning artifice of the Chancellor and his bloudy associates it was confirmed by the greatest part of the Nobility in the presence of the King and a mutuall confederacy was entred into that it should be prosecuted with an armed power but God following some of the chiefe contrivers of it with sundry judgements it almost came to nothing Yet in these troubles
most of the Ministers were turned out of their places so that they durst not preach nor pray but in private And a certaine Noble man having apprehended six of the Brethren cast them into prison and when they were brought forth to be burnt they went chearfully to the fire and when the chief officer taking affection to one of them offered him his life if he would recant his error profering him withall to give him a years time to consider of it he pawsed a while but by and by answered It is too much by such a delay to lose my Brethrens company and so going along with them they were burned together Shortly after the Chancellor that had procured the passing of the Edict against the Brethren as he returned from the Parliament visiting a certaine Noble man by the way he with great pleasure reported to him what was agreed upon against the brethren The Noble man having a servant by that was much edicted to the discipline of the Brethren asked him how he liked it the servant answered that all were not agreed The Chancellor suspecting some new conspiracy asked him who durst oppose the States of the Kingdom c the servant said In heaven there is one who if he were not present at your counsels you have consulted in vain The Chancellor replied Thou knave thou shalt finde that as well as the rest And rising up in fury immediately a Carbuncle rose upon his foot which turned to a disease called Ignis sacer whereof he died miserably Another of the great sticklers in this businesse returning homewards as he was a lighting out of his Chariot to make water he struck his member on a sharp nail that was in the boot whereby he drew out his entrails with him and not long after he gave up the ghost Also D· Augustine who by slanderous libels had endeavoured to stirre up the King against the Brethren died suddenly as he was at supper Another Noble man of these persecutors as he was hunting his horse threw him and his arrow ran into his thigh and came out at his loins whereby he died a most paineful death Many others of them felt the like judgements of God so that it grew into a proverbe amongst them If you be weary of your life attempt something against the Piccards and you shall not escape a year to an end About this time God stirred up in Germany undaunted Luther the thunderbolt against the Pope which occasioned many of the Calixtines to resolve to embrace the purer Doctrine of the Gospel and to seek for the Ordination of their Ministers from Wittenberg rather then from Rome But amongst these there was one Zahere an Apostate who to ingratiate himselfe with the King and Pope would enforce the Pastors and Citizens of Prague to subscribe to sundry Articles or else they must be proscribed And first of all six Pastors were banished then sixty five of the chiefest Citizens Then to colour greater cruelty a rumour was spread abroad of a conspiracy made by the Brethren against the Calixtines and to extort a confession hereof three Citizens were brought to the rack who rather chose to suffer all torments then falsly to accuse the innocent Yet divers were persecuted Amongst others a Cutler that had found an Orthodox Book about the Sacraments was whipped openly in the market-place and banished Another was branded in the forehead a third was thrust into prison and there murthered Then in the Assembly of Estates it was decreed that the Mandate of the King should be put in execution against the Piccards Whereupon a new persecution was raised against the Brethren their Churches being shut up and their Exercises forbidden Anno 1526. A godly and learned man together with his Hostesse with whom he lodged a widow of sixty years old were both burnt in the fire for Picardism together with the books that were found about them Another godly woman being brought before the Magistrate made a hold profession of her faith and then being required to prepare her garments to be burnt in she answered They are ready leade me away when you please The Crier declaring openly that she had blaâ—phâ—med she with a loud voice denied it saying It is false I am condemned because I deny the Reall presence of Christ in the Sacrament give no credit to these Priests they are dissembling Hypâ—crites Adulterers Sodomites Epicures c. Being commanded to pray to the Crucifix she turned her back to it and lifting up her eyes to heaven she said There is our God thither we must look and so chearfully mounting the pile she was burned Anno Christi 1527. The year after two German tradesmen were caught at Prague accused by the Monks of Lutheranism and condemned to be burnt As they went to execution such gracious words proceeded out of their mouths as drew tears from the spectators eyes When they came to the pile they exceedingly encouraged one another onâ— of them saying Since our Lord Christ hath suffered such grievous things for us let us chearfully suffer for him and rejoyce that we have found so much favour with him that we are counted worthy to die for the Law of God The other said I in the day of my marriage found not so much inward joy as I do now When fire was put to them with a loud voice they said Lord Jesus thou in thy sufferings prayedst for thine enemies therefore we also do the like Forgive the King the men of Prague and the Clergy for they know not what they do and their hands are full of bloud and so they slept in the Lord. But one of their chief persecutors who wished that all the Piccards were hanged beheaded or burnt by his own hands had all these befall himself by Gods just judgement For being much in debt he hanged himself and when his friends had privately buried him the common people hearing of it digged up his carcasse and cast it away which by the Magistrates command was ordered to be burnt but when the woodstack was consumed and the carcasse only scorched his head was stricken off Zahera the Apostate when under colour of an Inquisition against the Piccards he raised up civil commotions was by the King banished where he died miserably The like befell another of those cruel persecutors Anno 1535. Ferdinand the first succeeding in the Kingdom the Popish party cunningly stirred up the Calixtines to persecute the Brethren Whereupon they suffering many grievous things sent a petition together with a confession of their Faith to Ferdinand at Vienna subscribed by twelve Barons and thirty three Knights complaining how unjustly they were accused by their enemies and that the Priests ordinarily cried out that the Piccards might be slain without controul and that a lesse sin was thereby committed than if one killed a dog Ferdinand returned answer that he had not leisure to consider of their Papers yet promised
notable Papist was ran thorow with a spear But all this was done through military licentiousnesse Now we come to what was acted by processe of Law Anno 1621. Six Articles were exhibited to the Protestant Congregations in Prague 1. That they should lend some thousands of pounds to Caesar for the paiment of his Army 2. That they should publickly renounce the coming in of Frederick 3. That they should bring into the Church the Popish Rites and Ceremonies 4. That their Ministers should be ordained anew 5. That the Ministers should leave their wives or get a dispensation from the Archbishop 6. That such as would renounce their Ecclesiasticall functions should have publick promotions and the favour of Caesar. But they answered unanimously that they would doe nothing against their consciences Then came forth an Edict wherein the blame of all the former rebellion as they called it was laid upon the Ministers of Prague because they had stired up by their seditious and lying Sermons as they pleased to stile them and by their writings not only the common people but the Nobles also against Caesar and that they were the authors of the choice of Frederick and that they still laboured to stirre up in the people an hatred against Caesar. Thereupon all the Ministers within Prague were required within three daies to depart out of Prague and within eight daies to depart out of all the Kingdom and the Provinces belonging thereto and never to return again and if any under what pretence soever should stay or returne again or if any should presume to harbour or conceal any of them that both the one and the other should suffer death this was Anno 1621. Then were their Churches in Prague given to the Jesuits It can not be expressed what lamentations and mournings there were amongst the people when thus they must leave their Pastors and that for ever Yet the German Ministers whereof there were two were suffered to continue in favour to the Duke of Saxony Then did as many as understood Dutch flock to their Congregations which so vexed the Jesuits that they obtained not a banishment but a gracious dismission of them as they would have it called Multitudes of people followed them with great lamentations and tears and in the field they heard their farewell sermon The next design was to remove the Ministers out of other free Cities and the Commissioners of Reformation were imployed herein One of them with a Troop of horse coming to Slana and going to Church the Minister a godly and learned man was reading the Gospel The Commissioner sent a souldiers to him to bid him give over but the Minister still going on himself went to him with his sword drawn crying out Thou foolish Preacher leave off thy babling and withall he dashed the Bible out of his hand with his sword The Minister with eies hands and voice lift up to heaven repeated often Woe woe unto you you enter not into heaven your selves and forbid them that would Woe woe woe unto you But they mocking at these words presently laid hands on him justling him to and fro whereupon he said I for the name of my Lord Jesus Christ am ready to suffer all this and what else you shall impose The people were much affrighted but the chief Magistrates and many good women interceding for him he was at last dismissed provided that he should depart the City within three daies and thus was this faithfull shepherd not without the greate lamentations of his people banished where about three years after he died In a neighbouring City the Minister for fear of these barbarous proceedings went a way of himself yet the Commissioners extorted a great summe of money from his Church and banished him in his absence In another place they commanded the Minister to depart from his Parish within three daies and from the City within eight daies he modestly asking the reason of his banishment they told him Caesar by conquest was Master of all the Churches and that therefore he would put into them whom he pleased But into the rooms of these godly Preachers were put in unclean men wicked blasphemers and men illiterate and of no worth and yet they could not provide for all places so that one of their hirelings supplied divers Churches and in stead of the wholesome food of Gods Word he fed them with poison Then brought the ignorant Monks out of Poland unprofitable burthens to the earth yet fit enough to be scourges to unprofitable and common Gospellers Then a Commissioner with some Troops of horse entring into Ctutenburg a place famous for maintaining the Orthodox Faith cals before him the Ministers casts them out of their places and puts Jesuits into their Churches And these Jesuits urging it the Ministers were commanded to depart out of the City gates before break of day and out of the Kingdom within eight daies Hereby were twenty one Ministers driven away many Citizens accompanying them One of them at the parting preached upon that Text They shall cast you out of the Synagogues exhorting them to perseverance All the multitude much bewailed their losse and with great lamentations wailing and kissing each other they recommended themselves to the blessing and protection of the Almighty In every place the Ministers were cast out of their livings some imprisonned and after a while dismissed and all commanded to depart the Kingdom upon pain of death Some were stifled with stink whilest they lay in prison At last Anno 1624. an other Decree came forth from the King whereby all the Ministers of the Gospel were commanded to depart the Kingdom by a peremptory day prefixed because as was alledged they were seditious men and seducers of the people Yet herein they used this Artifice that in most places this Edict was concealed till the time was almost or altogether elapsed so that by this means the Ministers not having time to communicate their counsels together went into severall Provinces and some were faigne to hide themselves in caves dens and those either returned privately and visited their auditors or comforted such as came to them in the mountains and woods preaching and administring the Sacraments to them But as soon as the enemies understood it they presently published a new decree wherein a punishment was preposed to those that should conceal the Ministers and a rewarde to such as should betray them Whereupon some of the Ministers were taken and cast into prison Then by the Jesuits were they by all waies sollicited to Apostacy and fear of death hunger cold the stink of the prison c. prevailed with some to renounce their Ministery But most bore up couragiously against all storms and at last some by paying great fines others by giving it under their hands that they would never returne into Bohemia were dismissed One godly Minister was examined by tortures when where and to whom he had administred
commending his soul to Christ his head was cut off and set on the Tower The next was the Lord Harant a man that had gained much experience by his travels in Asia Africa and Europe his crime was that he had taken an oath to be true to Frederick and durst not violate it As he was going to suffer he called the Minister to him and told him that he much feared his wives inconstancy in Religion and therefore desired him to exhort her to constancy and not to suffer her self to be drawn from her Religion by any allurements assuring her that it is the infallible way to salvation Then to exhort her to use more clemency to his subjects rather easing then over-charging them with burthens Lastly to require her to have a care of his children and to bring them up in the pure Religion c. Being called to execution he said I have travelled through many Countries through many barbarous Nations escaped many perils by sea and land and now suffer innocently in my own Countrey and by them for whose sake I and my forefathers have spent our Estates and Lives Father forgive them Then he said In thee O Lord have I hoped let me not be confounded On the Scaffold he said Into thy hands O Lord I commend my spirit In the O Lord have I trusted from my youth I am confident that I shall be accepted by that ignominious death of my Saviour and falling upon his knees he said To thee O Lord I commend my spirit for thou O God just and true hast redeemed me and so he received the fatall stroke with the sword The next was Casper Kaplitz a Knight of eighty six years old When the Minister came to him after his condemnation he said See me a miserable old man who have often intreated my God that he would have mercy upon me and take me out of this miserable life but have not obtained it for God hath reserved me to be a spectacle to the world and a sacrifice to himselfe Gods will be done My death indeed is disgracefull in the eyes of men but glorious in the sight of God for God will account that death precious in his sight which I suffer for his glory and truth And when it was told him that he might have his life if he would ask pardon he answered That he would ask pardon of him against whom he had committed many sins all his life but he never offended the Prince and therefore would not give occasion to suspect that he had committed some crime for which he had deserved death c. God forbid therefore said he that I should be separated from this holy company of Martyrs As he was going to the Scaffold being feeble with age he said Oh my God strengthen me lest I fall down and become matter of scorn to the enemies Being crooked with age and hanging down his head the executioner could not well come at his neck whereupon the Minister said to him My noble Lord as you haâ—e commended your soul to Christ so now offer up your heavy head chearfully to God and lift up your selâ—e towards heaven Then lifting up his head as well as he could he said Lord Jesus into thy hand I commend my spirit and so is head was cut off The next was Procopius Dorzecki who after his condemnation said to the Minister I haâ—e had a great contention all night with old Adam so that it made me sweat againe but thanks be to my God by whom my soul hath overcome all tentations saying further O Almighty God strengthen thy servant that I may not be made a derision to mine enemies by any fear of death and as thou waâ—â— wont to encourage thy holy Martyrs so I â—trongly beleeâ—e thou wilt comfort me When he was called forth to execution he said Thanks be to my God who doth now call me to himselfe to him I have lived and for him I will die for my Saviour hath therefore died and risen again that he might be Lord both of the living and the dead I know that my soul shall liâ—e and my body shall be raised like to his glorious body Upon the Scaffold he said to the Imperiâ—ll judges Tell Caesar that we are now under his â—udgement buâ— he shall undergoe a more grievous yet just judgement of God And seeing a gold Medal hanging about his neck wherein was ingraven the Coronation of Frederick he delivered it to one that stood by saying I require â—hee that when my dear King Frederick shall recover the Throne of this Kingdom thou deliver him this and tell him that for his sake I wore it till my death and that now I lay down my life willingly for God and my King and so presently after he lost his head The next was the L. Frederick de Bile who suffered death likewise patiently and piously The next was the L. Hen. Otto a man of great judgment who having received the sentence of condemnâ—tion said O Caesar do you indeed establish your Throne by our bloud but what account will you make to God of it in the day of judgement c. kill my body dispâ—â—se my members whither you please yet dâ— I beleeâ—e â—hat my Saviour will gather them together againe and clothe 〈…〉 so that with thâ—sâ— eyes I shall see hâ—m with these ears I shall hear him with â—his toâ—gue I shall praise him and rejoyce with this heart fâ—reâ—er Afterwards when the Minister came to him amongst other 〈◊〉 he saiâ— I was â—roubled but now I feel a wonderfull refreshing in mâ— heart adding with his hands lift up to heaven I give thee thanks O most mercifull Saviour who hast beâ—n pleased to fill me with so much 〈◊〉 now I fear death no longer I will die with joy As he was going to the â—caâ—fold he said to the Ministâ—r I am sure that Christ Jesus will meet my soul with his Angels that he may bring it to an everlasting marriage where I shall drink of a new cup a cup of joy for ever This death I know shall not separate me from him Upon the Scaffold lifting up his eyes to heaven he said Behold I see the Heavens open pointing with his hand to the place where others also observed a certain brightnesse which dazled their eyes after he had prayed silently he said Into thy hands O Lord God I commend my spirit have pitty on me through Jesus Christ and receive me that I may see thy glory and so he received the stroak of the sword The next was Dionysius Zervius formerly a Papist but being told of the promises made to the people of God concerning the pardon of sins and assurance of salvation to those that believe in Christ he struck his breast and with tears in his eyes cried out This is my faith and in this I die I rest in the grace of Christ and I
he said Why do you create unprofitable labour to your selves and trouble to us Then said they one to another they are hard rocks and will not suffer themselves to be removed to whom he answered You saâ— true Christ is an hard rock and we are firmly fixed on him Afterwards he said to his fellow-Martyrs I understand that I must be hanged but whether by the neck middle or feet I know not nor caâ—e not this only is my grief that my bloud may not be mingled with yours that we might be made one sacrifice to God When he was called forth to execution he was besprinckled with the tears of his friends to whom he said Play the men brethren and refrain fron weeping I go before but it is but a short time and we shall meet in the heavenly glory When he was upon the ladder he said I have plotted no Treason committed no murder I have done nothing worthy of death but I die because I have been faithfull to the Gospel and my country O God pardon my enemies for they know not what they do but thou O Christ have pity on me for I commit my soul unto thee and so he slept in the Lord. The next was Simeon Sussickey who when he saw the Jesuites comming he said to his companions These birds of prey are flying hither but they shall not feed on these carcasses but return hungry For God hath promised to perserve his own as the apple of his eye and therefore he will not suffer us to be seduced The last night he had a great conflict with the flesh because the Scripture saith Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree but when the Minister told him that that curse was taken away by the death of Christ he was well satisfied He went to his death praying and singing and being hanged next to Kutnaur which was his son in law after he was dead he turned towards him and so near that their mouths touched each other so that their enemies said These were such obstinate Rebels that they cease not to plot after death The next was Nathaneel Wodnianskey who when the Jesuites sollicited him to Apostacy he said to them You take away our lives under pretence of Rebellion and not content with that you seek to destroy our souls Glut your selues with sight of our bloud and be satisfied with that but we shall leave a sting in your consciences Afterwards his own son saying to him My Father if hope of life should be proffered you upon condition of Apostacy I pray you be mindefull of keeping your faith to Christ He answered It is very acceptable to me my son to be exhorted to constancy by you but what makes you to suspect me I rather advise and exhort you to follow your fathers steps and to exhort your brethren sisters and children to that constancy whereof I shall leave you an example and so he patiently ended his life upon the Gallows The next was Wenceslaus Gisbitzky to whom were given great hopes of life but the Minister fearing Satans stratagems advised him to take heed of security and to prepare himself for the encounter of death Upon the Scaffold seeing his hopes frustrate he fell on his knees and said We are prostrate before thee O eternal Father do not forsake us have pity on us through Jesus Christ We would say more but we are not able to expresse it Into thy hands doe we commend our souls perfect that which thou hast begun to work in us Render to us our inheritance that we may sing Holy Holy Holy c. and so in the midst of his prayers he ended his life There was also one Martin Fruin an eminent Citizen of Pâ—ague who being taken in his own house was scoffed at by the souldiers beaten with their fists and afterward cruelly tortured and so burnt in the privy parts that for six moneths he was troubled with most grievous pain he was shut up in prison from all company and at last was found dead in the Castle ditch under the Tower Presently after the execution of these holy Martyrs all their goods were confiscated as also of those that were driven into banishment Then was a Proclamation published wherein a generall pardon of all crimes was offered to all the Inhabitants of the Kingdom only their goods were confiscated either in whole or in part which must be brought into his Majesties Treasury to pay his debts which were contracted by this necessary war besides which they were to make a confession of their faults in a form prescribed before Cardinall Lichtenstein who was Caesars Viceroy and if any did not appear he should lose this favour Hence it was that the enemies publikely boasted that none were punished but such as were convicted by their own confession Then by Edict all were forbidden to diminish or waste their goods by selling them or conveying them over to others and if any man should send away his goods to another place all should be lost and whosoever received such goods should pay so much of his own to the Emperour Yet the merry Judges turned all this to a jest saying to divers that pleaded their innocency from having any hand in bringing in Frederick That though they had not actuall sins yet they were infected with the Original sin of heresie and wealth and therefore could not be exempted from punishment Then did they proceed to take from the Protestants all their Castles Towns and Villages whereby they were deprived of their livelihoods and driven into strange places Some were forced to cast themselves upon their Popish friends others to become servants to their own destroyers Afterwards all their personall Estates were sequestred scarce leaving so much as a garment for them wherewith to cover their nakedness And lest any man should should have money at use they commanded all to bring in all their bonds upon pain of losing all their debts if they concealed the least And when any considerable sum was brought in the Kings Treasurers were at hand who protesting that the Emperour had need of it to defray his charges of war took it away giving to the party a note that so much was due to him from the Emperour which yet was never repaied And thus the Protestants being commanded to depart the Kingdom the Popish party divided their confiscated goods and lands amongst themselves and as it lay commodious for any of them they added this or that Village Town Castle or Lordship to their own but the greatest part fell to strangers shares Spaniards Italians or Germans which were Commanders in the Imperiall Army instead of their pay If any widows or Orphans had lands or goods not taken away their popish neighbours would either circumvent them by craft or weary them out by quartering souldiers upon them and so enforced them to sell them their lands at what prices themselves listed
repentance obtained mercy of God Thereupon he cried unto God a whole year together night and day watering his bed with his tears because he thought himself damned but at last God saith he sent his Angel to me and I saw this glory brighter then the sun and I had gods Spirit bestowed upon me c. After which he was apprehended beheaded and quartered The pictures of John Husse and Jerom of Prague they defaced all the Bibles that they could meet with they burned the graves of the Ministers they opened took out their bones and burnt them The Statutes of King Frederick they beat in pieces and trampled them under their feet One man they fined at five hundred Dollars for giving his son the name of Frederick Before these calamities befell the Bohemians God gave them warning by sundry Prodigies In severall places divers Suns were seen together At Prague the Sun seemed to dart out bals of fire Also a flying Dragon flaming horribly was seen throughout all Bohemia and Silesia Also a spring flowed with bloud for an whole moneth together In another place a Fish-pond was wholly turned into bloud for the space of three daies A great flock of Crows and Daws fought together for a whole daies space whereby multitudes of them were slain At Prague it rained brimstone and the Image of the crucifix being set up was struck down with a thunderbolt The gates of some Cities opened of their own accord Many Bibles being thrown into a great fire were untouched only the margin a little scorched Many Apostates tormented by the sting of conscience cried out They were damned Some to avoid these terrors hanged themselves others drowned themselves Some died in fearfull despaire others died suddenly One as he was about to abjure was stricken dumb and being carried home was possessed with a great trembling all over and gnawing his own tongue he died miserably Dr Knapper a great persecutor was slain by the appointment of his wife an adultresse for which she was afterwards hanged Another vomited out his ungodly soul with bloud Another ran mad and cast him self down from the top of his house and so roaring fearfully he breathed his last Another shot himself to death with his own Pistoll Another ran mad fell into such a disease that none could come near him for stink and at last was choaked with vomiting up abundance of bloud Another being taken with a sudden disease waxed as black as a cole uttered his speech like the barking of a dog and within three daies died with terrible pains Another by the breaking of a great gun was torn all to pieces Another had a terrible disease in his throat his tongue rotted many holes were eaten in his throat whereout his food and medicines came so that he died myserably Collected out of a Book called Historia Persecutionum Ecclesiae Bohem. written by some Bohemian exiles HAving thus given you a brief Narrative of the Persecutions of the Church in Bohemia from the first planting of the Gospel amongst them to our present times Before I proceed any further let us a little look back to see how God fought for them against their Popish adversaries and thereby after a wonderfull manner plagued their persecutors Much may be read hereof in my second Part in the Life of Zisca but after his death there was a great fear and sorrow seized on his Army and the souldiers being divided amongst themselves one part of them chose for their Captain Procopius Magnus who still retained the name of Thaborites The other part thinking none worthy to succeed Zisca named themselves the Orphanes by reason of the losse of their Captain yet whensoever their Popish adversaries came against them they both joyned together to defend themselves and the liberty of the Gospel in Bohemia About this time Pope Martin perceiving the Gospel and the Professors of it to increase daily in Bohemia he sent the Cardinall of Winchester an English man into Germany to stirre up the Emperour and German Princes to make war against the Bohemians Hereupon three Armies were levied one under the Duke of Saxony the second under the Marquesse of Brandenburg the third under Otho Archbishop of Trevers These three Armies entred Bohemia three waies and at last joyning all into one besieged the City of Misna which but the night before was won from the Papists by one Prichicho a learned and zealous Protestant and therefore the Popish Armies resolved to take that place before they marched any further But so soon as news came that the Protestants had raised an Army and were hasting to the relief of Misna they speedily fled before they ever saw an enemy leaving all their Engines of warre and a great booty behinde them The Cardinall meeting them in their flight used all the arguments that possibly he could to the Nobles and Captains to turn them back again magnifying their number and prowesse and vilifying their enemies but when nothing would prevail himselfe was fain to accompany them in the flight Presently the Bohemians pursuing fell upon their rereward which made their flight much more fearfull and disordered then it was before neither did they leave flying till the Bohemians left pursuing of them The Emperour hearing of this shamefull flight went to Noremberg and by the assistance of the Cardinall a new Army was raised under the Command of Frederick Marquesse of Brandenburg which entred Bohemia one way and another great Army under Albert Arch-Duke of Austria which entred another way In these two Armies were all the chiefest Nobles and Bishops in Germany being above fourty thousand horsemen besides foot The Bohemians as soon as they heard of their enemies approach gathered their Host with all speed to encounter them But God marvellously fought for them for before the Bohemians came near them the Popish Army was struck with such a marvellous sudden fear that they began most shamefully to run away the Cardinall wondering at it went up and down to the Captains exhorting and encouraging of them telling them that they were to fight for their Lives Honour Religion and the salvation of souls c. but notwithstanding all that he could say and do the Ensignes were suddenly snatched up and every man ran headlong away so that the Cardinall was forced to do the like The Protestants encouraged hereby speedily pursued them and obtained a very great booty This so astonished both the Pope and Emperour that afterwards they sought rather by subtilty to entrap them then by force to compell them to forsake their religion as we have seen in the foregoing story CHAP. XXVI The Persecution of the Church in Spaine which began Anno Christi 1540. ANno 1540. there was one Francis Romane sent by the Spanish Merchants of Antwerp to Breme to take up some money that was due to them where being at a Sermon through the marvelous working of Gods Spirit he was so effectually wrought upon that after
confer of amongst themselves and so when he had gotten out of her what possibly he could like a perfidious Villain contrary to his vows promises and oath he caused her to be racked again to get more out of her yea they put her also to the intolerable pain of the trough and through extremity of pangs and torments they at last extorted from her a betraying of her own Mother Sisters and divers others which were immediately apprehended tortured and at last burnt with fire But when they were brought in great pomp upon the Scaffold and had the sentence of death passed upon them this maid went to her Aunt who had instructed her in the principles of Religion and boldly without change of countenance gave her hearty thanks for that great benefit which she had received by her means intreating her to pardon her for what she had offended her at any time for that she was now to depart out of this life Her Aunt comforted her stoutly bid her be of good cheere for that now ere long they should be with Christ. This woman was openly whipt and kept in prison during her life the rest were all presently burned Another device that they have is this when they think that Prisoners which are together do talk together of Religion exhorting and comforting one another as they have occasion or opportunity the Inquisitors commit to prison under a colour a crafty knave whom they call a Flie who after two or three dayes will cunningly insinuate himself into the bosoms of the other Prisoners and then pretending a great deal of zeal to Religion he will proffer discourse to them and by degrees get out of their mouths something whereof he may accuse them Then doth he move for a day of hearing and so getting to the Inquisitors he peaches the Prisoners who shall be sure afterwards to hear of it to their smart Yea these Flies as soone as they are out of one prison for the hope of gain will be content presently to be put into another and then into a third where they will lie in chains as the other Prisoners do enduring hunger cold stink and the loathsomnesse of prison and all to betray others And this mans accusation is as strong and valid as the testimony of any other witnesse whatsoever Other Flies also there be that serve the holy Inquisition abroad slily insinuating themselves into the companies of the common people who are suspected to be Lutherans and when they can pump any thing out of them they presently betray them They have yet this other device when they can catch any man that is noted for Religion or a Minister that hath instructed others after he hath been in prison awhile they give it out that upon the Rack he hath discovered all his disciples and acquaintance and they suborn others to averr that they heard it and this they do to draw the simple people to come of their own accord and to confesse their faults to the Inquisitors and to crave pardon whereupon they promise them favour The Inquisitors and their Officers use to call their Prisoners Dogs and Hereticks and indeed they use them much worse than most men do their Dogs For first the place where usually each of them is laid by reason of the straitnesse ill air and dampnesse of the earth is liker a grave than a prison and if it be a loft in the hot weather it is like a hot Oven or Fornace and in each of these holes usually two or three are thronged together so that they have no more room than to lie down in in one corner is a stool of easement and a pitcher of water to quench their thirsts In these Cels they have no light but what comes in at the Key-hole or some small crany other some there are much worse not being long enough for a man to lie in so that such as are put into them never likely come out till they be half rotted away or die of a consumption Their diet is answerable to their lodging The rich pay large fees to the holy house and every Prisoner is rated as the Inquisitors please but such as are poor the King allows them three pence a day out of which the Steward Landresse and some other necessary charges are deducted so that one half of it comes not to the Prisoners share and if any be moved with compassion to relieve them it is counted such an hainous offence that it will cost him a scourging till blood come at least It once happened that there was a Keeper appointed for their prison in the Castle of Triana in Sivil that was of a courteous disposition by nature who used the Prisoners well and closely for fear of the Inquisitors shewed them some favour at which time there was a godly Matron and her two daughters committed to prison which being put into several rooms had a great desire to see each other for their mutual comfort in their distresses whereupon they besought the Keeper to suffer them to come together if it were but for one quarter of an hour the Keepe yielded and so they were together about half an hour and then returned to their former prisons Within a few dayes after these women being racked in a terrible manner the Keeper fearing lest they would confesse that little favour which he had shewed them of his own accord went to the Inquisitors confessed his fact and craved pardon but they deemed this so hainous an offence that they presently commanded him to be haled to prison where by reason of the extremity shewed him he fell mad Yet this procured him no favour for after he had been a whole year in a vile prison they brought him upon their triumphing stage with a Sambenito upon him and a rope about his neck and there they censured him to be whipt about the City and to have two hundred stripes and then to serve in the Gallies for six years The next day one of his mad fits coming upon him as he was set on an Asses back to be scourged he threw himself off snatched a sword out of the officers hand and had slain him if the people had not immediately laid hold on him whereupon he was bound faster on the Asses back had his two hundred stripes and was for this offence condemned four years longer to the Gallies Another Keeper at another time had a maid who seeing how miserably the prisoners were used pitying their distressed condition who were hunger-starved and almost pined she would sometimes speak to them at the grate exhort and comfort them as well as she could and sometimes would help them to some good and wholsome food yea by her means the Prisoners came to understand one anothers condition which was a great comfort to them But this at last coming to the inquisitors ears they enjoyned her to wear the Sambenito to be whipped about the streets to receive two hundred stripes and to be banished
years no man being suffered to come to him yet at last by the mediation of some friends he was again released and went to Ravenna where he preached the Gospel of Christ with such affections that he never spake of Jesus Christ but tears dropped from his eyes After a short time he was again cast into prison but foure persons of quality proffering to be his Bail through Gods mercy he was released after which so many flocked to him that his adversaries consulted to kill him lest his doctrine should spread further and apprehending him they sent him bound to Rome where again he was cast into prison for eighteen moneths in which time he was often assaulted sometimes with flatteries and faire promises sometimes with terrible threats but his constancy could not be shaken by either whereupon he with some others were brought forth to receive the sentence of condemnation at which time with great earnestnesse he confirmed his former doctrine affirmed the Pope to be Antichrist c. citing them to appear before the Tribunal of Christ. Being condemned and carried to the place of execution he exhorted the People to have no Saviours but Christ alone the only Mediatour betwixt God and man and so he was first hanged and then burned This was Anno Christi 1553. The year after Francis Gamba born in Lombardy having through Gods grace received the knowledge of the Gospel went to Geneva where he was much confirmed in the truth and received the Sacrament with them then returning into his own country he was apprehended and cast into prison whither many Nobles Doctors and Priests resorted to him labouring by all means to disswade him from his opinions But he disputing with them constantly affirmed that what he held was consonant to the Word of God and the evident doctrine of Jesus Christ and necessary for all men to believe if they would be saved Assuring them that rather than he would be found false to Christ and his Word he was there ready to shed his blood He was long assailed by the intreaties of his friends and threatenings of his enemies but could by no means be discouraged yea he gave thanks to God for accounting him worthy to suffer rebukes and death for the testimony of Jesus Christ and so by order of the Senate of Millain he was had forth to execution He went with a great deal of chearfulnesse and when a Crosse was brought him by a Friar he said that his mind was so replenished with joy and comfort in Christ that he needed neither his Crosse nor him then because he declared many comfortable things to the people his tongue was bored through and he was first strangled and then burnt undergoing death with admirable patience and constancy Anno 1555. There was one Algerius a Student in Padua a young man of excellent learning who having attained to the knowledge of the truth ceased not by instruction and example to inform others that he might bring them to the saving knowledge of Christ for this he was accused of heresie to the Pope by whose command he was apprehended and cast into prison at Venice where he lay long during which time he wrote an excellent letter to the afflicted Saints wherein amongst many other excellent expressions he thus writeth I cannot but impart unto you some portion of my delectations and joyes which I feel and find I have found hony in the intrals of a Lion Who will believe that in the dark dungeon I should find a Paradise of pleasure In a place of sorrow and death dwells tranquillity and hope of life· In an infernal Cave I have joy of soul where others weep I rejoyce where others shake and tremble there is strength and boldnesse c. All these things the sweet hand of the Lord doth minister to me Behold he that was once far from me is now present with me whom I could scarce feel before now I see more apparently whom once I saw afarre off I now behold near at hand whom once I hungred for he now approaches and reaches his hand to me he doth comfort me and fills me with gladness he drives away all sorrow strengthens encourageth heals refresheth and advanceth me O how good is the Lord who suffers not his servants to be tempted above their strength Oh how easie and sweet is his yoke c. learn therefore how amiable and merciful the Lord is who visiteth his servants in tentations and disdains not to keep them company in such vile and stinking dungeons c. And in conclusion he subscribes his letter From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine prison c. After this the Pope sent for him to Rome where by manifold perswasions and allurements he was tempted to desert and deny the truth which not prevailing he was adjudged to be burnt alive which death he most constantly endured to the great admiration of all that beheld him Anno 1559. John Aloysius being sent from Geneva to be a Pastor in Calabria was thence sent for by the Pope to Rome where he suffered Martyrdome Also James Bovellus a godly Minister in the same place and at the same time was sent for by the Pope by whom he was sent to Messina and there Martyred Pope Pius the fourth raised an hot persecution against the people of God in all the Territories of the Church of Rome whereby many constant Christians suffered Martyrdome Yea this persecution was so hot in the Kingdome of Naples that many Noblemen with their wives and divers others were there slain Anno 1560. A Papist writing to a Noble Lord about the cruelty shewed to some Christians hath these expressions When I think upon it I verily quake and tremble for their manner of putting to death may fitly be resembled to the slaughter of Calves and Sheep for eighty eight of them being thrust up together in one house as in a sheepfold the Executioner cometh in taketh one and blindfoldeth him and so leads him forth to a larger place adjoyning where commanding him to kneel down he cuts his throat and leaving him half dead he takes his Butchers knife and muffler all gore blood and goeth back to the rest and so leading one after another he dispatches them all How sad this spectacle was I leave to your Lordship to judge for my own part I cannot but weep to think of it neither was there any of the Spectators which seeing one to dye could endure to behold another But truly so humbly and patiently they went to their death as is almost incredible to believe All the aged Persons went to death more cheerfully the younger were something more timerous I tremble and shake to remember how the Executioner held his bloody knife between his teeth with the bloody muffler in his hand and his armes all gore blood up to the elbows going to the fold and taking every one of them one
Popish Clergy preached that the way to pacifie Gods wrath and to remove the plague was to cut off Hereticks whereupon these two godly men were brought out and condemned and presently after burned Also one Nicholas a godly man was apprehended at Antwerp bound up in a sack cast into the river and drowned Also Pistorius a learned and godly Preacher coming from Wittenburg into Holland preached against the Masse Popish pardons c. Whereupon he was cast into prison amongst Malefactors whom he instructed and much comforted in their distressed condition and one of them being half naked he gave him his gown His father visiting him in prison encouraged him to constancy At last he was condemned and carried forth to execution with a fools coat on his back when he was tied to the stake he said O death where is thy victory and so he was first strangled and then burned Another for speaking against the Masse and Reliques was hanged in Suevia Another godly Minister being commanded to go to sixteen men that were to be beheaded to counsel and comfort them at their death when they were executed was himself bidden to kneel down and so they cut off his head Also George Scherter a godly Minister that took great pains in instructing his people in the knowledge of the Gospel in a town near Salizburg was apprehended and cast into prison where he wrote a Confession of his faith and afterwards was condemned first to be beheaded and then burned As he went to the execution he said to the Spectators That you may know that I die a true Christian I will give you a signe and accordingly when his head had been cut off so long as whilst a man might eat an egge his body all the while lying upon the belly it turned it self upon the back crossing the right foot over the left and the right hand over the left by which miracle many were induced to believe the Gospel Another godly man was burned at Dornick Anno 1539. A godly minister not far from Basil was murthered in his own house by a Popish Priest whom he had kindly entertained many other Ministers about that time were some drowned some beheaded Anno 1543. Notice was taken that there were divers godly persons in Lovain whereupon an Inquisitor came from Bruxels thither and having gotten a company of souldiers in the night time he brake into their houses plucking men and women out of their beds from their children and casting them into prison Thither the Doctors of Lovain came thinking either to convert them or confound them but the spirit of God assisting his Saints the doctors went away confounded themselves Then did they cruelly torment every one of them by themselves amongst these an aged Minister of about sixty years old was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in a dark and stinking dungeon where he could neither read nor write nor might any man come to him and he was fed onely with bread and water Two were burnt alive in the fire an aged man was beheaded Two aged women were buried quick others for refusing to do pennance were burned also All which took their death very patiently and cheerfully The year after in the same University of Lovain was one Master Persival a very learned and godly man cast into prison and because he could by no means be brought to recant he was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment and there to be fed only with bread and water neither would they suffer the Citizens to send any relief to him shortly after he was made away in prison Also one Justus Insberg in the same city for having a New Testament and some of Luthers Sermons found in his house was cast into prison and command given that none should speak with him At the same time there were prisoners in a room under him Aegidius and Encenas metioned before whose door being left open accidentally they went to this poor man and much confirmed and strengthned him in the faith insomuch as when the Lovain Doctors came to perswade him to recant he before them all made a bold confession of his faith from which he would not be disswaded whereupon he was condemned and beheaded About the same time there was one Giles Tilleman a Cutler at Bruxels who by diligent reading of the Scriptures through Gods grace was converted and became very zealous for the truth he was also very humble mild and merciful whatsoever he could spare from his own necessity he gave it to the poor living by his trade himself Some he refreshed with meat others with cloathing to others he gave shooes to others houshold-stuffe to others he ministred godly exhortations for their edification One poor woman being delivered of a child and wanting a bed to lye on he sent her his bed and himself was content to lie on the straw At last he was discovered and cast into prison where much pains was taken to bring him back to Popery but alwayes his adversaries went away with shame After eight months imprisonment he was sent to Bruxels to be judged in which place he comforted many that he found in prison there exhorting them to constancy that they might attain the Crown Most of his food he divided amongst them contenting himself with some few scraps He was so ardent in Prayer kneeling by himself in some secret place that often he forgat himself and being many times called to his meat he neither heard nor saw them that stood by him till he was lifted up by the armes Divers Friars coming to reduce him he would still request them to go their wayes for he was at a point and when they reviled him he would not answer them again insomuch as they reported abroad that he had a dumb Devil in him But when they spake of matters of Religion he answered them freely mightily confuting them by the Scriptures Often he might have escaped the prison doors being set open but he would not that he might not bring his Keeper into trouble Afterwards he was removed to another prison where they sought by torments to enforce him to recant and when all would not prevail he was condemned to the fire which when he heard of he gave hearty thanks to God for that the hour was come wherein he might glorifie his name Seeing a great pile of wood prepared for his burning he desired that most of it might be taken away and given to the poor for a little said he will serve to burn me and seeing a poor man by that lacked shoos he gave him his Being tied to the stake the hangman would have strangled him but he refused saying It needs not I fear not the fire and so in the midst of the flames he gave up the Ghost Anno 1543. and 1544. There was a great persecution all over Flanders so that there
was neither town nor City in all the Countrey wherein some were not banished beheaded or condemned to perpetual imprisonment neither was there any respect either of age or sex But especially at Gaunt many of the chief men were burned for Religion Also at the Emperours going to Bruxels there was a terrible persecution and slaughter made of Gods People in Brabant Artois c. so that two hundred men and women were apprehended at one time whereof some were drowned some buried quick some privily made away others sent to perpetual prison yea so many others were put to death that the hands of the hangman were tired with slaying of men Anno 1545. There was one Martin at Gaunt a Fishmonger who lived very dissolutely to his old age but it pleased God by a Sermon that he heard to bring him to the knowledge of the truth and to repentance for his former sins whereupon he left Gaunt and sought out the company of godly Christians who used much reading of the Scriptures by whom he was further instructed and grounded in the truth Then after three moneths he returned to the City again where he visited the Captives in prison comforted them in persecution and confirmed them in the truth which were led to the fire The Friars seeing this though formerly he had been very bountiful to them yet now they conspired against him whereby he was laid in bands and by sharp and cruel torments they would have enforced him to recant but not prevailing he was condemned and his goods confiscated as he stood at the stake a Friar said to him Martin except thou dost turn thou shalt go from this temporal to everlasting fire to whom he answered It is not for you to judge me and so he quietly slept in the Lord. The next day after two other men were burned and a woman buried alive for the same cause who joyfully and cheerfully suffered Martyrdome At Delden two Virgins of a noble stock who frequently and diligently attended Sermons being apprehended and examined couragiously confessed and maintained the truth whereupon they were condemned and the younger was first burned In the fire she prayed so ardently for her enemies that the Judges greatly marvelled at it Then did they exhort the elder that if she would not recant yet at least that she would petition to have her punishment changed into beheading instead of burning whereupon she answered that she held no errour of which she had cause to repent but the truth which was consonant to the Scriptures in which she trusted to persevere unto the end And for the kind of her punishment she feared not the fire but would rather follow the example of her dear sister and so being put into the fire she quietly slept in the Lord. But this was marvellous that after their death the bodies of them both remained white and unhurt by the fire whereupon some Christians privily in the night buried them Anno Christi 1545. There was in Mechlin one Andrew Thiessen who had three sonnes and a daughter whom he carefully brought up in the knowledge of the truth after which he went into England and there died Two of his sonnes went into Germany to study there and after a time returned home again instructing their mother brother and sister in the right knowledge of Christ which being taken notice of they were all carried before the Magistrate and exhorted to returne to the Church of Rome again The younger brother and sister being not so throughly grounded in the truth by reason of their yeares yielded something and so were sent home again the mother who remained constant was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment the two elder brethren defended the truth stoutly against the Friars Disputation not prevailing they proceeded to torments endeavouring to know of them who was their Master and what fellows they had they answered that their Master was Christ who bare his Crosse before them and for fellows they had innumerable dispersed in all places At last they were condemned to the fire and at the place of execution they began to exhort the people whereupon bals were put into their mouths which through vehemency in desiring to speak they thrust out again intreating them for the Lords sake that they might have leave to speak and so singing with a loud voice they were fastened to the stake where they prayed for their Persecutors exhorted one another and endured the fire patiently One of them feeling the violence of the flame said O what a small pain is this compared with the glory to come and so committing their spirits into the hands of God they finished their race Anno 1545. There was a great persecution in Dornick and amongst others there was one Adrian Tailor and his Wife apprehended and upon their examination the man being somewhat timorous relented something and so was beheaded but the woman being more constant was put into an iron grate and so buried alive There was also one Master Peter Bruly about the same time sometimes a Preacher in Strasburg but now at the request of the faithful in Dornick a diligent Preacher there He used to preach in houses the door standing open the Magistrate hearing of it laid wait for him shutting up the City gates and searching three days for him but the brethren in the night time let him down in a basket over the wall and when he was down one of them leaning over the wall to bid him farewel unawares threw down a loose stone which falling upon his leg brake it in pieces He complaining of his hurt the watchmen heard him and apprehended him Then did he give thanks to Almighty God who by that providence staid him there to bear witnesse to his truth whilst he was in prison he ceased not to instruct and confirm all them that came to him in the Word of grace after four moneths imprisonment he was condemned to be burnt and his ashes to be cast into the river The Friars took care that he should have but a small fire that his pain might be the more increased yet he constantly and chearfully suffered Martyrdom God made the Ministry of this good man very powerful to many amongst others there was one Peter Mioce who had lived long in all manner of wickedness and licenciousness but being through Gods grace converted he excelled all the rest of the brethren in zeale and holinesse at last he was apprehended and being asked whether he was one of Peter Brulies disciples he said that he was and that he had received much benefit by his Doctrine withall professing that his doctrine was consonant to the holy Scriptures whereupon he was let down into a deep dungeon full of Toads and other vermine Afterwards he was brought forth before the Senate who had provided some Friars to convert him To whom he said When I lived an ungodly life in all manner of
that she began to waver and let go her first faith this the adversaries much rejoyced in and the poor flock of Christ in that place hearing of it were as much afflicted with the news but God left them not in this mournful condition long For a Monk one day going to her perswaded her to draw her sonne Martin to the same recantation with her self which she promised to do but when they came together Martin perceiving the grievous Apostacy of his Mother bewailed it with many tears saying to her Oh Mother what have you done have you denied him that redeemed you Alas what injury hath he done you that you should requite him with so great an injury and dishonour Now am I plunged into that woe which I most feared Ah good God that I should live to see this which pierceth me to the very heart His mother hearing his pittiful complaints and seeing him drowned in tears for her sake began again to renew her strength in the Lord and with tears cryed out Oh Father of mercies be merciful to me miserable sinner and cover my transgression under the righteousnesse of thy blessed Son Lord enable me with strength from above to stand to my first confession and make me to abide stedfast therein even to my last breath Presently in came the seducers hoping to finde her in the same minde that they left her but she no sooner saw them but cryed Avoid Satan get thee behind me for henceforth thou hast nether part nor portion in me I will by the help of God stand to my first Confession and if I may not sign it with ink I will seal it with my blood and so after this time through Gods gracious assistance she grew stronger and stronger Then were they both condemned to be burnt alive and their ashes to be sprinkled in the aire When the sentence was passed as they returned to prison they said Now blessed be God who causeth us thus to triumph over our enemies This is the wished hour our gladsome day is come let us not therefore forget to be thankfull for that honour that God doth us in thus conforming us to the image of his Sonne Let us remember those that have troden this path before us for this is the high-way to the Kingdom of heaven c. Hereupon some of the Friars being ready to burst for anger said unto Martin that was most valiant We see now Heretick that thou art wholly possest body and soul with a Divel as were thy father and brother who are now in hell Martin answered As for your railings and cursings God will this day turn them into blessings in the sight of himself and all his holy Angels When they came into prison there came to them two persons of great quality of whom one of them said to Martin Young man I have compassion on thee if thou wilt be ruled by me and return to the Church of Rome thou shalt not only be freed from this shameful death but I will also give thee an hundred pounds Martin presently replyed Sir you present before me many temporal commodities But alas do you think me so simple as to forsake an eternal Kingdome for the enjoyment of a short temporal life No Sir it s now too late to speak to me of worldly commodities I will hearken to no other speech but of those spiritual commodities which I shall enjoy this day in Gods Kingdome c. Soon after Martin and his mother were carried to the place of their Martyrdome and being bound to the stake the woman said We are Christians and that which we now suffer is not for murther nor theft but because we will believe no more than the Word of God teacheth us The fire being kindled the heat of it did nothing abate the fervency of their seal but they continued crying Lord Jesus into thy hands we commend our spirits and so they blessedly slept in the Lord. A Friar at Gaunt called Charles Coninck being through Gods mercy converted to the truth left his Friars weed and joyned himself to the brethren for which he was apprehended and remaining constant was condemned then came a special friend perswading him to recant and he would procure him a Cannonship To whom Charles answered Sir I thank you for your good will and kind offer but I cannot accept them without offending God and that rest is no true rest and quietnesse which is obtained against the peace of a good conscience Shortly after his death one of his adversaries which had the greatest hand in procuring of it fell into grievous terrour and horrour of conscience whereof within a few dayes he died The Persecution of the Duke de Alva in the Netherlands WHen the light of the Gospel was much spread abroad in the Netherlands King Philip of Spaine sent the Duke de Alva with a great Army to root out the Professors of it who exercised unparalell'd cruelty against all sorts of persons both of the Nobility and Commons permitting his souldiers to ravish honest Matrons and Virgins many times causing their husbands and Parents to stand by and behold it This Duke on a time boasted at his own table that he had been diligent to root out heresie for that beside those which he had slain in war in the space of six years he had put into the hands of the common hangman above eighteen thousand persons His sonne also Don Frederick being sent by him to Zutphen was re-received by the Bourgers without any opposition yet was he no sooner entred but he fell to murther hang and drown a number of the inhabitants with infinite cruelties shewed upon wives and virgins yea not sparing the very infants From thence marching to Naerden in Holland the inhabitants made an agreement with him and he entred the town peaceably but never did Turks or Scythians or the most barbarous and inhumane Nations in the world commit more abominable cruelties than Don Frederick did in this town for when the Bourgers had given the best entertainment that they could to him and his souldiers he caused it to be proclaimed that they should all assemble themselves together in the Chappel of the Hospital where they should be made acquainted with such Laws according to which they should hereafter govern themselves but when these poor people were thus assembled he commanded his souldiers to murther them all without sparing any one the men were massacred the women were first ravished and then murthered most cruelly the children and infants had their throats cut and in some houses they tied the inhabitants to posts and then set fire on the houses and burnt them alive so that in the whole town neither man wife maid nor child old nor young were spared and then the town was wholly razed to the ground without pity or mercy After this Don Frederick besieged Harlem which held out against him for a long time
and shortly after three Suns appeared in the Heavens In the beginning of April Anno 1619. and Anno 1621. in March in the same Country of Austria were two Armies seen in the Heavens by clear day-light fighting furiously together with great thundering of Ordnance and Canons In the same Country Anno 1623. in the moneth of January just over the City of Lintz two swords were seen one over against the other and two great Armies fighting a pitched battel together which caused great terrour to the beholders At Heidleberg in February Anno 1622. were seen three Suns and three Rainbows Shortly after which that City was besieged by the Inperialists and at last taken where a grear slaughter was made of the Imhabitants and in Neckergemund three miles off all the inhabitants Men Women and Children were put to the sword In April Anno 1622. In the Country of Darmstad were trees whose leaves drop't blood and the year after in the same Country in divers Towns and Villages were seen bloody signes on Houses and stone-walls About Meyenfield and Malants as men were reaping their Corne their Hands and Sickles were all bloody In July Anno 1622. In the Dukedome of Wittemburgh it rained so much blood that it fell upon the hands and cloaths of people in the fields and was seen upon Trees Stones and other places May the twelfth Anno 1624. in the Dukedome of Anhalt there appeared a strange prodigie in the Heavens which continued from six till eight a clock at night First there came out of the clouds an Ancient-bearer After him came forth a grave man in the same habit then came forth a Chariot drawn with two particouloured Horses Then another Chariot with four armed Horses Then suddenly there brake out of the Clouds an infinite number of people like a swarm of Bees After them followed a man sitting on horseback with a long Robe putting the people before him A quarter of an houre after came forth another Army consisting of many horse and foot c. The two Armies fought till one of them was routed and presently after all vanished away Anno 1624. In May a strange tempest happened at Ratisbone The weather being very calme with little raine two dark clouds met together which suddenly belched out a great wind mingled with fire which raised such a tempest that near to the City it tore up trees by the roots and in a moment drave them into divers places and thence extending it self to the City it overturned above two hundred houses in the Towne and Suburbs not leaving a Chimney standing nor a roof to cover an house The Church of Emerans besides the shattered windows had one of the steeples laid flat to the ground and the other broke off in the middle two other of the chiefest steeples in the City were also broken down This tempest lasted not above a quarter of an hour nor extended beyond the City neither were there above four men slain by it Anno 1625. Near Troppash a great multitude of Jack-dawes met in the aire where they fought a great battel and that with so great eagernesse that many of them fell down dead so that the Countrey-men gathered up whole sackfuls of them Anno 1628. In Pomerland the heavens seemed to open and an Army came forth of the Northern part the Avauntguard consisting of Pioneres Musqueteres then followed great peeces of Ordnance and in the Reare came the Cavalry Another Army came forth on the other side and betwixt them there became a cruel battel The victory inclining to the Northern Army And at last a fiery beame followed upon the Northern Conquerour which continued for the space of some hours Anno 1631. At Hall in Saxony the water was turned into blood to the great astonishment of the inhabitants During the siege of Magdenburg a Captains wife being in travel when she could not be delivered and was near death she desired that when she was dead her body might be opened which being done there was found in her womb a boy almost as big as one of three years old with an head-piece and breastplate upon him great boots after the French fashion and a bag by his side with twoo things in it like musket bullets June the nineteenth Anno 1631. In the lower Saxony two great Armies appeared in the aire one in the North the other in the South which fought a great battel together After long fighting the Northern Army obtained the victory After the battel was ended there appeared a man in a long coat bearing a bow with which he shot at and overthrew the Commander of the Southern Army In the same Countrey a woman having bought a loafe of bread when she came home was dividing it and in the cutting of it there came forth blood Anno. 1633. In the Countrey of Altenburgh a fish-pond was turned into blood which stank so extreamly that if any Passengers did but touch it they could not wash off the stink thereof in three days space Anno 1634. At Berlin in Brandenburg it rained blood and brimstone Anno 1635. In Hessen there met two armies of strange birds which fought a set battel And not far off about that same time a multitude of dogs had their Randevouz which fought so eagerly that they would not be reconciled and when the Governour of a neighbour Garrison sent out four companies of Musqueteers against them they seeing a common enemy joyned together and in despight of their guns beat them away and devoured nine of them Here place the eighth Figure CHAP. XXXIII The Persecution of the Church in France which began Anno Christi 1524. ANno Christi 1209. There were certain learned men in France disciples of one Almericus at Paris whose names were Master William a sub-deacon of Poictiers well studied in the Arts and Divinity Bernard another sub-deacon William Goldsmith Steven a Priest Steven of the Seller and one John a Priest who upon examination held That God was no otherwise present in the Sacramental bread than in any other bread That it was Idolatry to build Altars to Saints or to cense their Images They mocked those that kissed the Reliques They said that the Pope was Antichrist and Rome Babylon That God was not seene in himself but by his creatures For which when they could not be drawn to recant they were condemned to be burnt at Paris which accordingly was executed Bzorius out of Caesarius And Almenneus who had been their Master had his body digged up in the Church-yard and was buried in the field And all French books of Divinity were for ever condemned and burned Anno Christi 1524. At Melden in France there was one John Clark who set up a Bill upon the Church-door against the Popes pardons lately come thither wherein he called the Pope Antichrist for which being apprehended he was adjudged three several days to be whipt then to have
a mark burned in his forehead as a note of infamy his mother a good woman when she saw her son so pitiously scourged branded encouraged him crying with a loud voice Blessed be Christ and welcome be these marks for his sake Afterwards he removed from thence and went to Metz in Lorrain where for a time he followed his calling of a Woolcarder But the people of the City used once a year all of them to go forth into the Suburbs to worship some Idols there whereupon John Clark inflamed with an holy zeal went the night before and brake down all those images The next morning when all the Clergy and people came to the place to worship them they found all their Idols broken upon the ground This set all in a tumult and great searching there was after the Author of this deed and quickly was John Clark suspected and apprehended he presently confessed the fact and told them the reasons why he did it The people hereupon cried out against him in a great rage Before the Judges he professed the pure doctrine of the Sonne of God and thereupon was condemned to a cruel death which he sustained with admirable patience and constancy First his right hand was cut off then was his nose with sharp pincers pulled violently from his face then were his armes and breasts pulled off with the same instrument yet he through Gods grace endured all with great quietnesse pronouncing the while that of Psalm 115. Their Idols are silver and gold the works of mens hands Lastly he was cast into the fire and there consumed Not long after Master John Castellane Doctor in Divinity borne at Tourney being through Gods mercy called to the knowledge of the truth became a zealous fervent and faithful Preacher of it in divers places and at last he was taken Prisoner by the Cardinal of Lorrains servants by whom he was carried to the Castle of Nommenie where he endured much cruel usage yet still he persevered in confessing the true doctrine of the Sonne of God then was he carried to the Castle of Vik and after a time was condemned degraded and delivered over to the secular power with this hypocritical speech My Lord Judge we pray you as heartily as we can for the love of God and the contemplation of tender pity and mercy and for respect to our Prayers that you will not in any point do any thing that shall be hurtful to this miserable man or tending to his death or the maiming of his body Then was he burnt alive which death he underwent with much patience and comfort At Paris one James Panane a Schoolmaster was burnt for the truth Also at Melda Dennis de Reux was burned for saying that the Masse was a plain denial of the death and passion of Christ He used often to meditate of and to repeat those words of Christ He that denies me before men him will I deny also before my Father he was burnt in a slow fire and so abode much torment John de Cadurco preaching to his Countrymen of Limosine was apprehended and degraded The Friar that was to preace at his degradation took that text 1 Tim. 4. The spirit speaks expresly that in the latter dayes men shall depart from the faith giving heed to lying spirits and doctrines of errors Then did John call to him to read on but the Friar stood dumb and could not speak a word more Then did John read on Teaching false doctrine in hypocrisie having their consciences seared with an hot iron forbidding to marry and to eat meats created by God to be received with thanksgiving c. Presently after he was burned About the same time five men for scattering about certain papers against the Masse and other popish superstitions were apprehended and burnt at Paris One of them for speaking freely had his tongue burned through and with a wire tied fast to one of his cheeks Alexander Canus a godly Minister for preaching and confessing the truth of Christ was burned at Paris with a small fire whereby he endured great paine Also John Pointer a Chirurgeon had his tongue first cut out and then was burnt about the same time Peter Gaudet living at Geneva was by a popish Uncle trained into France apprehended condemned and after many and long torments sustained in prison was burned Divers others were apprehended condemned and burned at Arras A godly Virgin was burned at Fountains Anno 1534. As also one John Cornon an husbandman but one endowed with such wisdome by God that all his Judges were amazed at it yet was he condemned and burned Martin Gonin was cast into the river and drowned Anno 1540. One Claudius endeavouring to convert his friends and kinsfolk in Paris was by them betrayed adjudged to have his tongue cut out and then burned Stephen Brune at Rutiers being for the constant Profession of his faith condemned to be burned when the fire was kindled a great winde so drave away the flame from him that he stood for ean hours space exhorting and instructing the people Then did they bring oile vessels and more fagots yet still was the flame driven from him Whereupon the hangman took a staffe and struck him on the head to whom he said I am condemned to be burned and do you strike me with staves like a dog with that the hangman with a pike thrust him through the belly and threw him down into the fire and afterwards scattered his ashes in the wind At Roan four Christians were condemned to be burned and being carried to the stake in a dung-cart they said Blessed be God we are here reputed as the excrements of this world but yet our death is a sweet savour unto God John de Beck a godly Minister being condemned for the doctrine of the Gospel constantly endured the torment of the fire at Troyes Aymond de Lavoy a godly Minister preaching the truths of God faithfully was complained of by the Popish Clergy to the Magistrates of Bourdeaux who sent to apprehend him hereupon some of his friends perswaded him to flie but he refused saying that thereby he might cause the People to think that he had fed them with dreames and fables and not with the pure Word of God whereas he feared not to yield up both soul and body in the quarrel of the truth which he had taught saying That with Paul he was ready not onely to be bound for the testimony of Christ in the City of Bourdeaux but to die also After the Sumner came he stayed three dayes and preached three Sermons and whereas the people would have rescued him out of the Sumners hand he desired them not to stop his Martyrdome for said he Since it is the Will of God that I shall suffer for him I will not resist his will At Bourdeaux many witnesses came in
way to God and therefore he desired them to let him go and so he quietly slept in the Lord. Anno 1553. There was apprehended at Lions one Peter Bergerius who for his bold and constant confession was cast into prison and put into a dungeon where was a thief that had lain there seven or eight moneths who being in great pain and torment cryed out of God and cursed his Parents that begat him being almost eaten up with lice and fed with such bread as dogs and horses had refused to eat but it pleased Almighty God of his goodness through the instructions and prayers of Bergerius that he was converted and brought to the knowledge of the truth after which the very next day his lice which before extreamly abounded so went away that he had not one remaining and God so stirred up the hearts of good men that he was fed plentifully and that with white bread so that with much patience and joyfulness he bore his imprisonment and had great comfort afterwards in his soule About the same time three godly men were apprehended at Lions and being condemned for the truth when they were to be led forth to execution two of them had ropes put about their necks the third having served the King in his wars was favoured to have none whereupon he said to the Lieutenant that he also desired to have one of those precious chains about his neck in honour of his Lord the which being granted they all went singing to the fire where with much patience they yielded up their spirits unto God Not long after in the same place was apprehended one Matthew Dimonet who formerly had lived a most wicked life full of all filthiness and abominations he had been also a searcher out of the Professors of the Gospel and a great Persecutor of them yet at last it pleased God to shew him mercy and he was converted to the knowledge of the truth after which being apprehended and examined he made a stout profession of his faith and during his imprisonment he had great conflicts with the infirmity of his own flesh but especially with the temptations of his Parents kindred and friends yet the Lord did so strengthen him that he endured constant to the end At his burning he spake much to the people and was hearkned to with great attention Simon Laloe coming upon some occasions from Geneva into France was apprehended by the Bayliffe of Dyon by whom he was imprisoned and racked to force him to confesse what fellows he had but that not prevailing he was condemned to be burned At his death the Executioner seeing his great faith patience and constancy was so wrought upon therereby that he fell into great terrors of conscience so that he was neer to utter despair and all the promises of the Gospel could scarce comfort him yet at last through Gods mercy receiving comfort he with all his family removed to the Church of Geneva where he afterwards lived till his death Nicholas Naile carrying some good books to Paris was there apprehended and made a bold confession of the faith for which he was cruelly tormented sundry wise and racked all his joynts asunder and lastly being condemned when he was carried to the stake they put a gag into his mouth vvhich they tied in so hard vvith a rope about his head that blood gushed out of his mouth they also besmeared all his body vvith oyle and brimstone so that at the first taking of fire all his skin vvas shrivelled together vvhilst his invvard parts vvere untouched the cord being burnt in sunder and the gag falling out of his mouth he praised God in the midst of the fire till he yielded up his spirit unto God Peter Serre vvas at first a Priest but God of his mercy revealing his truth to him he vvent to Geneva and there learned the Shoomakers craft vvhereby he maintained himself and having a brother at Tholouse out of a singular love to his soule he vvent thither to instruct him his brothers vvife being not vvell pleased herevvith revealed it to one of her Gossips vvho informed the Officiall against him hereupon he vvas apprehended and carried before the Inquisitor to vvhom he made an excellent declaration of his faith and so vvas delivered to the Judge vvho asked him of vvhat occupation he vvas He said that of late he was a Shoomaker then did the Judge ask him of vvhat Occupation he had formerly been he said he had been of another formerly but he was ashamed to utter it or to remember it being the worst and vilest Science of all others in the world the Judge and people supposing that he had been some Cutpurse or thief were more importunate to knovv vvhat it vvas but shame and sorrovv so stopped his mouth that he could not declare it at last through their importunate clamour he told them he had been a Popish Priest this so incensed the Judge that he presently condemned him to be degraded to have his tongue cut out and to be burned vvhich vvas accordingly executed In the fire he stood so quiet looking up stedfastly to heaven at the time of his burning as if he felt no pain at all which caused wondeful admiration in the people and one of the Parliament said that it was not the best way to bring the Lutherans to the fire for it would do more hurt then good Anno 1554. There were two godly men with one of their sons and daughter going towards Geneva whom a Lieutenant overtaking by the way like a Judas he insinuated himself into their company pretended great favour to them and to that Religion which he said he supposed them to be of and so with fair words he circumvented them and drew out of them that they were Protestants and their wives at Geneva whither they were now travelling Then did he apprehend them and carry them to the Castle of Niverne During their imprisonment they were examined of many Articles to which they made a full and clear answer according to their faith after this they were racked extreamly for three houres together to force them to recant which they bore with admirable patience being therefore condemned as they went to execution the Officer bound a woodden crosse between their hands but they pulled it out with their teeth and threw it away whereupon their tongues were cut out notwithstanding which God gave them utterance so that they spake plain saying We bid sin the flesh the world and the devil farewel for ever with whom we shall never have more to do hereafter and much more to the like purpose When the Officer came to besmear them with brimstone and gunpowder they said Go to salt on salt on the stinking and rotten flesh and so persisting constant in the flames they finished their Martyrdome Anno 1557. Philbert Hamlin a Priest was through Gods
a young Gentleman named John Poltrot who watching his opportunity shot him with his pistol laden with three bullets whereof he shortly after died and Poltrot declared at his death that he did it to deliver France and especially the City of Orleance from the violence of the Duke of Guise After whose death peace was shortly after concluded between the Queen-mother and the Protestants But before this peace took place those of the Religion suffered much in sundry parts of the Realm In Paris they were persecuted cruelly the Popish people being wholly set upon blood and the Parliament there sparing neither great nor small that fell into their hands either of that City or such as were brought thither upon appeal or summons At Senlis many godly Christians suffered much some were beheaded some murthered in a popular tumult some were whipt some imprisoned some fined and others sent to the Gallies not sparing the simple women Yet through Gods mercy some escaped amongst whom was one Iohn Gardens and his Wife who living with his Wife and child in the fileds at length determined to go back into the City casting themselves upon Gods providence but when they came into the suburbs they met some who bade the souldiers to put them to the sword The woman kneeling down begged of the souldiers that if they must needs dye they would kill her child first saying that so she should die with the more comfort which speech of hers so wrought upon the souldiers that they spared all their lives In Chaalons there was a godly Minister called Fournier apprehended and spoiled of all that he had They stripped him also of his apparel instead whereof they put on him a thredbare cloak and so carried him away in a Cart by reason of an hurt that he had gotten in one of his feet by the way they did nothing but jeere and scoffe at him and every moment he was in danger of his life the rude people also had almost pulled him in pieces but it pleased God that he was preserved by those which had designed him to death When he came to Munchon he was cast into prison and after a while there came a Captain to him with many souldiers who mixing mocks and threatnings together sware that within three houres he should be hewen in pieces After them came in some of the Judges commanding the Jailor to load him with irons saying to him You are no better I am sure then Saint Peter whom they laid in irons but if you have as much faith as he God will then deliver you as he did him by sending an Angel to you I will not said Fournier compare my self with Saint Peter yet it is not twelve years ago since for preaching the same doctrine that Peter did I was imprisoned at Tholouse and there was admirably delivered And though Peter was delivered out of prison yet in the end he glorified God by his death and if I should be counted worthy with him to suffer for the truth may it not be said that I have the like precious Faith with Saint Peter When they were gone the Jailor forbore putting bolts upon him because of his sore legg yet did he put him into a straiter prison Afterwars the Duke of Guise being made Governour in that place he was put to the torture where first they strained his thumbs so hard with a small cord that blood came forth Then turning his armes behind his back they hoisted him up with a rope put between his thumbs twitching him up and letting him down five or six times they tied also great stones to both his great toes and let him hang till his spirits failed then they let him fall with such violence upon his face that he was grievously hurt thereby Then was he thrown into prison and they would not suffer him to have a Chirurgion to cure him of the gashes which the cords had made in his flesh even to the bare bones so that his torment and anguish was very great neither could he lift his hands to his mouth which he was likely to lose the use of But it so fell out by Gods Providence that after he was condemned news coming of the Duke of Guise his death his enemies began to tremble and some of his Judges coming to him in prison asked him if he did not bear them ill will He answered that men of his Profession and Religion ought not to bear malice to any being enjoyned by God to love and pray for those that persecuted them Shewing also that whatsoever troubles had befallen him were none other but such as God had fore-ordained for the setting forth of his own glory for which he esteemed himself most happy yet he warned them to lay to heart the wrong that they had done him lest the vengeance of God did sooner or later overtake them for it The next day Bussi one of his persecutors having received letters from the Constable of France to release him swore that he should be delivered indeed but into the hands of the multitude But it pleased God that just at that time there came by the Prince of Portion with his Germane Souldiers which were for the Protestants who sent word that they would not leave so much as a house standing except they would deliver Fournier This so affrighted his enemies that they released him out of prison protected him from the violence of the multitude and conveyed him in safety to the Prince There he was kindly welcomed and entertained all grieving for the miseries which he had endured and two dayes after he preached before the Prince and his followers and the day after at the instant request of the Protestants of Vitri he went to them to preach and baptize their children and shortly after was called to Ver where he gathered a Congregation and spent some time amongst them with wonderful fruit but by reason he was so extreamly weakned by his strait imprisonment and tortures being above fifty years old he soon after finished his course and quietly resigned up his soul unto God At Amiens all Bibles New Testaments and Psalm-books were sought for and openly burnt as also the Ministers Pulpit Then did the Guisians proceed to killing of the Christians and casting them into the River some they shot to death and others they hanged At Abbevilli they slew the Lord of Haucourt with divers others one Beliart they dragged along the streets with his face downwards and then drowned him in the river At Meaux the Protestants were the stronger Party and therefore continued the free exercise of their Religion for a while but the Parliament of Paris gave judgment against them and exposed them to the spoil of such as would undertake it Then a company of Souldiers entring the Town disarmed the Citizens and slew about foure hundred of the Religion Then Mounsieur de Boisy entring with more Souldiers committed a
apart a day of publick thanksgiving to God in the Church of St. Lewis and published a Bull of extraordinary Indulgences to such as should pray for the heavenly assistance to the King and Kingdome of France Strada The common people cut off the Admirals hands and privy members drawing his body about the streets three days and then hung it by the feet upon the Gallows All the Attendants of the King of Navar and Prince of Conde which lay in the Kings Palace were massacred the like was done to the Lords and Gentlemen that lay about the Admirals lodging and then through all the City were the Protestants murthered so that that night and the two next days there were slain in Paris about ten thousand persons of all ranks ages and sexes yea they spared not children in the Cradle nor infants in their mothers wombs But to colour this their villany they gave it out that the Huguenots had conspired to kill the King They boasted also that they had in one day done that which Processes sentences of Justice and open Warre could not do in twelve years The Lords and Gentlemen were most inhumanely muâ—thered some in their beds others on the roofs of their houses and in all other places wheresoever they were found There were at this time in Paris about sixty thousand men with pistols pikes curtelaces poinards knives and such other bloody instruments that ran up and down swearing and blaspheming the sacred Majesty of God cruelly massacring all that they met with The streets were covered with mangled bodies gates and doors defiled with blood Shoutings howlings of the murtherers mixed with the cries and groans of the dying the breaking open of doors and windows with the noise of guns and pistols all which made an hellish noise multitudes of dead bodies were thrown into the Seine which was died red with their blood The King certified the King of Navar and the Prince of Conde of all that was done saying that he saved their lives upon condition that they should renounce their Religion and turn Papists The King of Navar desired him not to force his conscience but to remember the Alliance so lately contracted betwixt them The Prince of Conde with more zeal told him that his body and estate were in his power to do with them what he pleased but for his Religion he was fully purposed not to forsake it but to remain constant therein to the losse of his life he put the King in minde also that he had given his faith to him and to those of the Religion and therefore he hoped he would not falsifie his oath c. This so enraged the King that he called him rebel and the sonne of a rebellious person with horrible threatnings that he should lose his head if within three days he altered not his mind The King and his Confidents perceiving that this Massacre would not quench the fire but rather stirre up the Protestants in other parts of the Kingdome to defend themselves they presently dispatched away letters to the Governours of Towns with expresse commands to masscacre all the Protestants yet at the same time the King wrote other letters wherein he laid the fault of the murther of the Admiral upon the Duke of Guise pretending that he had quieted all things in Paris and intended that his Edicts of pacification should hold inviolably Upon the receipt of the first letters the Papists fell upon the Protestants at Meaux Trois Orleance and other places and murthered them without all pity besides such as were massacred in Villages and Fields where they thought to save themselves so that in a few weeks there were above thirty thousand persons massacred in France But besides this general account some particulars deserve remembrance which are these that follow Monsieur de la Place President of the Court of Requests had a Captain armed that came into his house telling him that the Duke of Guise had slain the Admiral at the Kings appointment with many other Huguenots and that he was come to protect him in that common destruction only he desired a sight of the Gold and Silver that was in his house The L. de la Place amazed at his audaciousnesse asked him whether he thought that there was a King or no The Captain blaspheming willed him to go with him to know the Kings pleasure Hereupon the Lord went from him to secure himself Then did the Captain rifle his house taking above one thousand Crowns The Lord would have secured himself in three several houses all which refused to entertain him which caused him to go back to his own house again where he found his wife very heavy whom he rebuked discoursed to her of the promises told her that we must through many afflictions enter into the Kingdome of God c. which much comforted her Then calling his family together he made an exhortation to them went to prayer and began to read a chapter in Job with Calvins Exposition upon it Then went he to Prayer again resolving to suffer all torments or death rather than to do any thing that might be dishonorable to God Then came the Provost-Marshal with many Archers to his house pretending to secure him and safely to convey him to the King who would speak with him De la Place told him that he was most willing to do it but saw it impossible in regard of the horrible massacres committed every where without apparent danger of his life In brief presently after came the Provost of Merchants who would needs also have him to the King yet he would have excused it as before but the Provost would have no nay wherefore resolving upon death which he saw he could not avoid he embraced his wife wishing her above all things to continue in the fear of God and so went on his way boldly but in the street some murtherers that attended there for his coming with their daggers stabbed him and then pillaged him carrying his body into a stable and covering his face over with dung and the next day they threw him into the river Peter Ramus also the Kings Professor in Logick was not forgotten the murtherers breaking into the Colledge of Priests where he was massacred him then cast him out of the chamber-window so that his bowels issued out on the stones then was his body trailed through the streets and whipt by certain young Scholars who were set on by their Popish Tutors to do it A godly young man going early abroad on the Sabbath morning and hearing of the death of the Admiral and seeing the insurrection out of a singular child-like affection to his mother he hasted home informed her of the danger secured her in a place of great secresie after which he shut himself up in his study by Prayer to fit himself for death into which the murtherers breaking with battleaxes and staves so loaded him with blows on the
purged him but to no purpose for by degrees he so faded away as caused great astonishment to many He long strugled against his disease but at last was faine to betake himself to his bed and the two last weeks of his sicknesse much blood issued from divers parts of his body and once he rolled himself in his own blood and a little before he died he desired his mother to pursue his enemies to the uttermost with great vehemency reiterating his speeches saying Madam I pray you heartily to do it and so he breathed forth his soul May the thirtieth Anno Christi 1574. I shall here adde a few words also of the great miseries which the people of God endured in Rochel Anno Christi 1628. expecting help from England which proved but a staffe of reed which whilst they leaned upon it ran into their hands The City being besieged by the King of France his Army the inhabitants were brought to such extremity that for want of other meat the Citizens and Souldiers having eaten up all the horses dogs cats rats and mice lived two moneths with nothing but Cow-hides and Goats-skins boiled then did they eat up all the old gloves and whatsoever was made of leather yea the poor people cut off the buttocks of the dead and did eat them Young maids of fourteen or sixteen years old did look like old women of one hundred years old All the English that came out after the surrender of the City looked like Anatomies The prizes of things were as followeth a Bushel of Wheat twenty pounds A pound of bread twenty shillings a quarter of mutton above sixe pounds A pound of butter thirty shillings An egge eight shillings An ounce of Sugar two shillings and six pence A dried fish twenty shillings A pint of French wine twenty shillings A pint of milk thirty shillings A pound of grapes three shillings c. Anno 1593. There was one Margaret Pierron of the Town of Sansay in France who by her maid-servant was accused to the Jesuites for not going to Masse and for keeping a Bible in her house in reading whereof was her whole delight The Jesuites complaining hereof to the Magistrate caused her to be apprehended yet had she some notice of it before-hand from her friends that advised her to flie from the danger but God had a purpose that she should bear witness to his truth so that she was taken and cast into prison After a while the Judges sent for her saying Margaret Are you not willing to returne home to your house and there to enjoy your husband and children Yes said she if it may stand with the good Will of God Then said they if thou wilt do but a small matter thou shalt be set at liberty If said she it be not contrary to Gods glory and mine own salvation you shall hear what I will say to you No such thing said they for all that we require is but this that a Scaffold being set up in the chief part of the City you shall there crave pardon for offending the Law and a fire being by you shall burne your Bible in it without speaking a word I pray you my Masters said she Tell me is my Bible a good Book or no Yea said they we confesse it is Why then said she would you have me cast it into the fire Only said they to give the Jesuites content imagine it to be but paper and then you may burne it and you may buy you another Bible at any time and hereby you may save your life Thus they spent above two hours in perswading her that thereby she might do a lesse evil and a greater good would come of it But she confidently answered that by the help of God she would never do it What will the people say said she will they not say Yonder is a wrethed woman indeed that burns the Bible wherein all the Articles of Christian Religion are contained I will certainly burne my body rather than my Bible Then did they commit her close prisoner fed her only with bread and water and her friends were debarred from coming to her but when nothing could remove her from her constancy she was condemned to be set upon a scaffold to have her Bible burnt before her face her self to be strangled and her body to be dragged through the streets to a dunghil which sentence she underwent cheerfully and so slept in the Lord. Collected out of the History of the Tragical Massacres of France under Henry the second Francis the second Charles the ninth Henry the third and Henry the fourth Translated out of French Here place the ninth Figure CHAP. XXXVII The Persecution of the Church of Christ in the Valtoline Anno Christi 1620. THe Grison Lords who were the Soveraign Magistrates of this Countrey had by sundry Decrees granted liberty to the Protestants to exercise their Religion freely But when as the Minister of Tell with his Congregation were met together about the service of God the bloody Papists rising in arms set upon them slew one and beate others so cruelly with staves that they were forced to desist from their purpose Shortly after they murthered some others and conspiring with some other bloody villaines they set guards upon all the passages of the valley that so none of the Protestants should escape them then ringing their bells they raised all the Countrey and if any Protestants stirred out of their houses they murthered them in the streets they also brake into the houses of others drew them out of their beds and murthered them Some of the Protestants retired to the houses of Papists that were neer of kin or otherwise engaged to them to secure themselves but there they were betrayed and murthered Some they strangled some they shot Of some they beate out their brains and others they drowned in the river Alba. A noble Gentleman that had hid himself in the river was found by them who requested them to spare his life for his dear childrens sake But they told him that this was no time for pity except he would abjure his faith and swear by the Popes Bull Nay said he God forbid that to save this temporal life I should deny my Lord Jesus Christ who with his precious blood upon the Crosse redeemed me at so dear a rate and having through his grace so long freely and publikely professed him that I should now hazard the losse of eternal life to which I was elected before the foundation of the world I say God forbid Hereupon in a barbarous and savage manner they murthered him They brake also into the Palace of the Governour and murthered him women and maidens they defloured and of all the Protestants in that part of the Countrey there were onely three that escaped over the horrid and vast mountains of the Alps into Rhetia These wicked villaines having thus dispatched the Protestants in this place they
the Laird of Sheld was converted by it and his eyes ran down with such abundance of tears that all men wondred at it Presently news was brought to Wischard that the plague was broke out in Dundee which began within four dayes after he was prohibited preaching there and raged so extreamly that it s almost beyond credit how many died in twenty foure houres space This being related to him notwithstanding the importunity of his friends he would needs go thither saying They are now in trouble and need comfort Perhaps this hand of God will make them now to magnifie and reverence that Word of God which before they lightly esteemed Coming to Dundee the joy of the faithful was exceeding great and without delay he signified that the next day he would preach and because most of the inhabitants were either sick or imployed about the sick he chose the East-gate for the place of his preaching so that the whole were within and the sick without the gate His text was Psal. 107. He sent his Word and healed them c. wherein he comfortably intreated of the profit and comfort of Gods Word the punishment that comes by the contempt of it the readinesse of Gods mercy to such as truly turn to him and the happinesse of those whom God takes from this misery c. By which Sermon he so raised up the hearts of those that heard him that they regarded no death but judged them more happy that should then depart rather than such as should remain behind considering that they knew not whether they should have such a Comforter with them He spared not to visit them that lay in the greatest extremity and to comfort them He provided all things necessary for such as could take food the Town being very bountiful to them through his instigation But whilst he was thus busying himself for the comfort of the afflicted the Devil stirred up the Cardinal who corrupted a desperate Popish Priest called John Weighton to slay him And on a day the Sermon being ended and the people departed suspecting no danger the Priest stood waiting at the bottome of the stairs with a naked dagger in his hand under his gown but Master VVischard being of a sharp piercing eye seeing the Priest as he came down said to him My friend what would you have and withal clapping his hand upon the dagger took it from him The Priest herewith being terrified fell down upon his knees confessed his intention and craved pardon A noise being hereupon raised and it coming to the ears of those which were sick they cryed Deliver the Traytor to us or we will take him by force and so they burst in at the gate but VVischard taking him in his armes said VVhosoever hurts him shall hurt me for he hath done me no mischief but much good by teaching me more heedfulnesse for the time to come and so he appeased them and saved the Priests life When the plague was almost quite ceased he took his leave of them saying that God had almost put an end to the battel and that he was now called to another place for the Gentlemen of the West had written to him to meet them in Edinburgh where he should dispute with the Bishops and should be publickly heard which he willingly assented to but first he went to Montrosse to salute the Church there where he sometimes preached but spent most of his time in private meditation in which he was so earnest that night and day he continued in it during which time the Cardinal again conspired his death causing a letter to be sent to him as if it been from his familiar friend the Laird of Kinnur desiring him with all possible speed to come to him for that he was taken with a sudden sicknesse In the mean time he had provided sixty men armed to lie in wait within a mile and na hall of Montrosse to murther him as he passed by that way The letter coming to his hands by a boy who also brought him an horse to ride on accompanied with some honest men his friends he set forwards but suddenly stopping and musing a space he returned back again which they wondring at asked him the cause to whom he said I will not go I am forbidden of God I am assured there is treason Let some of you go to yonder place and tell me what you finde which they doing found out the treason and hastily returning back they told master Wischard of it whereupon he said I know that I shall end my life by that blood-thirsty mans hands but it will not be on this manner The time approaching wherein he should meet the Gentlemen at Edinburgh he took his leave and departed by the way he lodged with a faithful brother called James Watson of Inner Gowry in the night time he gat up and went into a yard which two men hearing privily followed him There he walked in an Alley for some space breathing forth many sobs and deep grones then he fell upon his knees and his grones increased Then he fell upon his face Those that watched him hearing him weeping and praying in which posture he continued near an hour then getting up he came to his bed again Those which attended him making as though they were ignorant of all came and asked him where he had been but he would not answer them the next day they importuned him again saying Be plain with us for we heard your mourning and saw your gestures then he with a dejected countenance said I had rather you had been in your beds but they still pressing upon him to know something he said I will tell you I am assured that my warfare is near at an end and therefore pray to God with me that now I shrink not when the battel waxeth most hot When they heard this they fell a weeping saying This is small comfort to us Then said he God shall send you comfort after me This Realme shall be illuminated with the light of Christs Gospel as clearly as any Realme since the dayes of the Apostles The house of God shall be built in it yea it shall not lack in despite of all enemies the top-stone Neither will it be long before this be accomplished Many shall not suffer after me till the glory of God shall appear and triumph in despight of Satan But alasse If the people shall afterwards prove unthankful then fearful and terrible shall the plagues be that shall follow Then went he forward on his journey and came to Leith but hearing nothing of those Gentlemen that were to meet him he kept himself private a day or two then did he grow very pensive and being asked the reason of it he said What do I differ from a dead man but that I eat and drink Hitherto God hath used my labours for the instruction of others and to the disclosing of darknesse and now I
lurk as a man ashamed that dare not shew his face hereby they perceived that his desire was to preach whereupon they said to him It 's most comfortable to us to hear â—ou but because we know the danger wherein you stand we dare not desire it But said he if you dare hear let God provide for me as best pleaseth him and so it was concluded that the next day he should preach in Leith his text was of the Parable of the Sower Mat. 13. The Sermon ended the Gentlemen of Louthâ—â—â— who were earnest Professors of Jesus Christ would not suffer him to stay at Leith because the Governour and Cardinal were shortly to come to Edinburgh but took him along with them and so he preached at Brunstone Languedine and Ormstone then was he requested to preach at Eneresk neer Muscelbrugh where he had a great confluence of people and amongst them Sir George Dowglas who after Sermon said publickly I know that the Governour and Cardinal will hear that I have been at this Sermon but let them know that I will avow it and will maintain both the doctrine and the Preacher to the uttermost of my power This much rejoyced those that were present Amongst others that came to hear him preach there were two Gray-friars who standing at the Church door whispered to such as came in which Wischard observing said to the people I pray you make roome for these two men it may be they come to learn and turning to them he said Come neer for I assure you you shall hear the Word of truth which this day shall seale up to you either your salvation or damnation and so he proceeded in his Sermon supposing that they would be quiet but when he perceived that they still continued to disturb all the people that stood near them he said to them the second time with an angry countenance O Ministers of Satan and deceivers of the souls of men will ye neither hear Gods truth your selves nor suffer others to hear it Depart and take this for your portion God shall shortly confound and disclose your hypocrisie within this Kingdom ye shall be abominable to men and your places and habitations shall be desolate This he spake with much vehemency and turning to the people he said These men have provoked the Spirit of God to anger and then he proceeded to the end of his Sermon Afterwards he preached in divers other places the people much flocking after him In all his Sermons foretelling the shortnesse of time that he had to travel and the near approaching of his death Coming to Haddington his auditory began much to decrease the cause as it was conceived was this The Earle Bothwell who had great observance in those parts by the instigation of the Cardinal had inhibited both those of the Town and Countrey from hearing him Presently after as he was going to Church he received a letter from the West-countrey Gentlemen and having read it he called John Knox who had diligently waited upon him since he came into Lothaine to whom he said that he was a weary of the world because he saw that men began to be weary of God for saith he the Gentlemen of the West have sent me word that they cannot keep their meeting at Edinburgh John Knox wondring that he should enter into conference about these things so immediately before his Sermon contrary to â—his custome said to him Sir Sermon-time approaches I will leave you for the present to your meditations Then did Master Wischard walk up 〈◊〉 down about half an hour his sad countenance declaring the grief of his mind at last he went into the Pulpit and his Auditory being very small he began on this manner O Lord how long shall it be that thy holie Word shall be despised and men shall not regard their own salvation I have heard of thee O Haddington that in thee there used to be two or three thousand persons at a vain and wicked play and now to hear the Messenger of the eternal God of all the Parish can scarce be numbred one hundred present Sore and fearful shall be the plagues that shall ensue upon this thy contempt with fire and sword shalt thou be plagued yea thou Haddington in special strangers shall possesse thee and you the present inhabitants shall either in bondage serve your enemies or else you shall be chased from your own habitations and that because ye have not known nor will know the time of your visitation This Prophesie was accomplished not long after when the English took Haddington made it a garrison enforced many of the inhabitants to flie oppressed others and after awhile a great plague breaking forth in the Town whereof multitudes died the English were at last forced to quit it who at their departure burnt and spoiled great part of it leaving it to be possessed by such as could first seize upon it which were the French that came as Auxiliaries to Scotland with a few of the ancient inhabitants so that Haddington to this day never recovered her former beauty nor yet men of such wisdome and ability as did formerly inhabit it That night was Master Wiseheart apprehended in the house of Ormeston by the Earle Bothwel suborned thereunto by the Cardinal The manner was thus After Sermon he took his last farewel of all his friends in Haddington John Knox would faine have gone with him but he said Return to your children and God blesse you One is sufficient for one sacrifice Then went he the Laird of Ormestons with some others that accompanied him After Supper he held a comfortable discourse of Gods love to his children then he appointed the 51. Psalm to be sung and so retired to his chamber Before midnight the house was beset and the Earle Bothwell called for the Laird of the house and told him that it was in vain to resist for the Governour and Cardinal were within a mile with a great power but if he would deliver Master Wischard to him he would promise upon his honour that he should be safe and that the Cardinal should not hurt him Master Wischard said Open the gates the Will of God be done and Bothwell coming in Wischard said to him I praise my God that so honourable a man as you my Lord receive me this night for I am perswaded that for your honours sake you will suffer nothing to be done to me but by order of Law I lesse feare to die openly than secretly to be murthered Then said Bothwel I will not only preserve your body from all violence that shall be intended against you without order of Law but I also promise in the presence of these Gentlemen that neither the Governour nor Cardinal shall have their will of you but I will keep you in mine own house till I either set you free or restore you to the same place where I receive you Then said the Lairds My Lord
Then turning to the people he said Christian brethren and sisters I beseech you be not offended at the Word of God for the torments which you see prepared for me but I exhort you that ye love the Word of God for your salvation and suffer patiently and with a comfortable heart for the Words sake which is your undoubted salvation and everlasting comfort I pray you also shew my brethren and sisters which have often heard me that they cease not to learne the Word of God which I taught them according to the measure of grace given to me for no persecution or trouble in this world whatsoever and shew them that the doctrine was no old wives fables but the truth of God for if I had taught mens doctrine I had had greater thanks from men but for the Word of Gods sake I now suffer not sorrowfully but with a glad heart and minde For this cause I was sent that I should suffer this fire for Christs sake behold my face you shall not see me change my countenance I feare not the fire and if persecution come to you for the Words sake I pray you fear not them that can kill the body and have no power to hurt the soul c. Then he prayed for them which accused him saying I beseech thee father of heaven forgive them that have of ignorance or of an evil mind forged lies of me I forgive them with all my heart I beseech Christ to forgive them that have condemned me this day ignorantly Then turning to the people again he said I beseech you brethren exhort your Prelates to learn the Word of God that they may be ashamed to do evil and learn to do good or else there shall shortly come upon them the wrath of God which they shall not eschew Then the Executioner upon his knees said Sir I pray you forgive me for I am not the cause of your death and he calling him to him kissed his cheeks saying Lo here is a token that I forgive thee My heart do thine office and so he was tied to the stake and the fire kindled The Captain of the Castle coming near him bade him be of good courage and to beg for him the pardon of his sin to whom Master Wischard said This fire torments my body but no whit abates my spirits then looking towards the Cardinal he said He who in such state from that high place feeds his eyes with my torments within few dayes shall be hanged out at the same window to be seen with as much ignominie as he now leans there with pride and so his breath being stopped he was consumed by the fire This Prophesie was fulfilled when after the Cardinal was slain the Provost raising the Town came to the Castle gates crying What have you done with my Lord Cardinal Where is my Lord Cardinal To whom they within answered Return to your houses for he hath received his reward and will trouble the world no more But they still cryed We will never depart till we see him Then did the Leslies hang him out at that window to shew that he was dead and so the people departed But God left not the death of this holy man long unrevenged for the people did generally cry out of the cruelty used against him especially John Lesley brother to the Earle of Rothes and Norman Lesley his Cousin fell foul upon the Cardinal for it but he thought himself strong enough for all Scotland saying Tush a fig for the fools and a button for the bragging of Hereticks Is not the Lord Governour mine witnesse his eldest sonne for a pledge at my table Have I not the Queen at my devotion Is not France my friend why should I fear any danger yet he had laid a designe to cut off such as he feared and hated which was discovered after his death by letters and memorials found about him He kept himself for his greater security in his Castle and on a Friday night there came to the Town of Saint Andrews Norman Lesley William Kircaldy John Leslley and some others and on the Saturday morning they met together not far from the Castle waiting till the gate was opened and the draw-bridge let down for the receiving in some lime and sand to repair some decays about the Castle which being done Kircaldy with six more went to the Porter falling into discourse with him till the Leslies came also with some other company the Porter seeing them would have drawn up the Bridge but he was prevented and whilst he endeavoured to keep them out at the gate his head was broken and the Keys taken from him The Cardinal was asleep in bed for all night he had for his bedfellow Mistris Mary Ogleby who was a little before gone from him out at the Postern gate and therefore the Cardinal was gone to his rest There were about one hundred workmen in the Castle which seeing what was done cried out but without hurt they were turned out at the wicket gate Then VVilliam Kircaldy went to secure the Postern lest the Cardinal should make an escape that way The rest going to the Gentlemens chambers who were above fifty without hurting them they turned them all out at the gate They which undertook this enterprise were but eighteen men The Cardinal being awaked with the noise asked out at the window what was the matter Answer was made that Norman Lesley had taken his Castle Then did he attempt to have escaped by the Posterne but finding that to be kept he returned to his chamber and with the help of his Chamberlain fell to barrica-doing up the door with chests and such things Then came up John Lesley and bids open the door The Cardinal asked who was there He answered John Lesley The Cardinal said I will have Norman for he is my friend Content your self said the other with those that are here and so they fell to breaking open the door in the mean time the Cardinal hid a box of gold under some coales in a secret corner Then he said to them Will ye save my life John Lesley answered It may be that we will Nay said the Cardinal sweare unto me by Gods wounds that you will and then I will open the door then said John that which was said is unsaid and so he called for fire to burn down the door whereupon the door was opened and the Cardinal sate him down in his chair crying I am a Priest I am a Priest ye will not slay me Then John Lesley and another struck him once or twice But Master James Melvin a man that had been very familiar with Wischard and of a modest and gentle nature perceiving them both to be in choler plucked them back saying This work and judgement of God although it be secret ought to be done with great gravity And so presenting him the point of his sword he said Repent thee of thy former wicked life but especially
of sheding the blood of that notable Instrument of God Master George Wisheart who though he was consumed by the fire before men yet cries it for vengeance upon thee and we from God are sent to revenge it for here before my God I protest that neither the hatred of thy person the love of thy riches nor the feare of any hurt thou couldst have done me moveth me to strike thee but onely because thou hast been and still remainest an obstinate enemie against Jesus Christ and his holy Gospel and so he thrust him through the body who falling down spake never a word but I am a Priest I am a Priest Fie Fie all is gone The death of this Tyrant was grievous to the Queen Mother with whom he had two much familiarity as with many other women as also to the Romanists though the people of God were freed from their fears in a great measure thereby Anno 1550. There was one Adam Wallace a man that had no great learning but was zealous in Godlinesse and of an upright life him the Bishop of Saint Andrews caused to be apprehended and carried to Edenburgh where after a while he was brought to judgement before Duke Hamilton Huntly and divers others The Bishops and their instruments accused him First that he took upon him to preach to which he answered that he never judged himself worthy of so excellent a Vocation and therefore never took on him to preach yet he denyed not that in private places he used to read the Word and out of it to exhort such as were willing to hear him Knave quoth one What have you to do to meddle with the Scriptures I think said he it s every ones duty to labour to know the will of God and to get assurance of his salvation which is to be found in the Old and New Testament What then said another shall we leave to the Church-men to do To whom he answered their work is publickly to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to feed the flock which he hath redeemed with his own blood as all true Pastors are commanded to do c. The Bishops being angry hereat caused his charge further to be read as that he denyed Purgatory praying to Saints and for the dead c. To which he answered that he had oft read over the Bible and yet found no mention of Purgatory nor command to pray to the Saints or for the dead Therefore I believe said he they are but meer inventions of men devised for covetousnesse sake Then did they ask him what he thought of the Masse He answered I say as my Lord Jesus Christ said That which is greatly esteemed before men is abomination before God Then cryed they all out Heresie Heresie and so and so adjudged him to the fire which he patiently underwent the same day upon the Castle-hill Anno 1553. Henry Forrest was accused of Heresie but when they brought him to trial nothing could be proved against him whereupon they sent him to Friar Langius to be confessed The Friar amongst other questions asked him what he thought of Patrick Hamilton who had been formerly burned for Religion He answered that he was a good man and that his Articles were to be maintained This wicked Friar discovered his Confession which was taken as a sufficient proof against the poor man who thereupon was condemned to be burnt As he went to the place of execution he complained of the Friar who had betrayed him saying Let no man trust the false Friars after me They are despisers of God and deceivers of men and so in the flames he resigned up his spirit unto God Anno 1558. Andrew Oliphant accused one Walter Mill formerly a Priest who being at Prayer Oliphant said to him Rise up Sir VValter But when he had ended his prayers he said My name is VValter I have been too long one of the Popes Knights Then said Oliphant Thou keepest my Lords too long here therefore make an end He answered I must obey God rather than men When he was brought forth to judgement they asked him concerning Priests marriage he answered It is Gods Ordinance that they which cannot abstain should marry But you abhor it vowing chastity which you cannot keep but take other mens wives and daughters Then they asked him if there were not seven Sacraments he answered Give me two and take you the rest after other questions they asked him if he would recant He answered I am corn and not chaffe I will not recant the truth Then they commanded him to go to the stake but he said By the law of God I am forbidden to lay hands on my own self therefore do you put me into the fire and you shall see my resolution Having made his Prayer to God he said to the people Although I have been a great sinner yet it is not for that but for Gods truth contained in his VVord of the Old and New Testament that I now suffer and God out of his abundant mercy doth honour me so farre as to make me amongst other of his servants seale his truth with my blood Dear friends as you would escape eternal death be no more seduced with lyes of Archbishop Bishops Abbots Priors c. but only trust in God and so he quietly slept in the Lord and was the last man that died for Religion in Scotland Collected out of the History of the Reformation in Scotland CHAP. XL. The Persecution of the Church in Ireland Anno Christi 1642. THough the barbarous cruelty used by the Irish against the English go usually under the name of Rebellion yet I rather look upon it as and chuse to call it a persecution because their cruelties were exercised upon Protestants only so farre as ever I could hear neither were the English Papists murthered yea they joyned with the Irish in murthering of their brethren Besides the Jesuites Priests and Friars were the chief instigators to these murthers stirring up continually all sorts both of the Gentry and Communalty to shew the utmost of their zeal therein and when their designe was so surely laid that they thought it impossible to be prevented they did in their publick devotions recommend by their Prayers the good successe of a great designe tending much to the advancement of the Catholick cause and that they might stir up the people with the greater animosity and cruelty to put it in execution they everywhere declaimed loudly against the Protestants saying That they were Hereticks not to be suffered any longer to live amongst them that it was no more sin to kill one of them than to kill a dog and that it was a mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them They also with much acrimony represented the severe courses taken by the Parliament of England to suppresse the Romish Religion and utterly to extirpate the Professors of it They told
was stript seven times in one day and they bade her go and look for her God and bid him give her cloaths again In Kilkenny they cruelly beat an English woman till they forced her into a ditch where she died then they took her child a girle of about six years old ript her belly and let out her guts One they forced to go to Masse with them yet afterwards wounded him ript his belly took out his guts and so left him alive A Scottish man they stripped and knocked on the head who afterwards coming to himself went into the Town naked Then did they again take him and hewed him all to pieces They also ript up his Wives belly so that a Child dropped out of her womb Many other women great with childe they hung up then ript their bellies and let the Infants fall out Sometimes they gave their children to be devoured of Swine and Dogs One John Stone with his son two sons in law and their wives they took and hung them all up and one of the young women being great with child they ript her belly took forth her child and used such beastly barbarous actions to her as are not fit to be mentioned At the Newry they ript up a womans belly that was great with two children throwing them to be devoured of swine Also another woman being delivered of a childe in the fields they which had formerly killed her Father and Husband killed her also with two of her children and gave the new-born infant to be devoured of Dogs In the County of Armagh they Robbed stripped and murthered abundance of Protestants whereof some they burned some they slew with the sword some they hanged and some they starved to death and meeting Mistris Howard and Mistris Frankland with six of their children and themselves both great with child with their pikes they killed and murthered them all ript open the Gentlewomens bellies took out their children and threw them into a ditch A young Scottish womans child they took by the heeles and dashed the braines out against a tree the like they did to many other children Anne Hill going with a young child on her back and four more by her side these cruel persecutors pulled the child off her back trod on it till it died stripped her self and the other four children starke naked whereby they died of cold Some others they met with hanged them up upon a Windmill and before they were half dead cut them in pieces with their Skeins Many other Protestants especially women and children they pricked and stabbed with their Skeins Forks and Swords slashing cutting and mangling them in their heads faces breasts armes and other parts yet killed them not but left them wallowing in their blood to languish starve and pine to death and when they desired them to kill them out of their paine they refused yet sometimes after a day or two they would dash out their braines with stones or clubs which they accounted as a great favour One goodwife Harvey at Kilkenny was forced to go to Masse yet afterwards together with her children was stripped and one of her daughters had her belly ripped that her intrails fell out and her self was so beaten and wounded that she hardly escaped with life The Castle of Lisgoole being set on fire by these mercilesse Papists a woman leaped out at a window to save her self from burning but they presently murthered her the next morning her child was found sucking at her breast which they murthered also And whereas many Protestants with their wives and children fled into vauls and cellars to hide themselves they were all murthered there One Jane Addis they stabbed and then putting her child of a quarter old to her breast bid it suck English bastard and so left it to perish there One Mary Barlow had her husband hanged before her face and her self with six children were all stript stark naked in frost and snow after which sheltring themselves in a Cave they had nothing to eat for three weeks but two old Calves skins which they beat with stones and so eat them hair and all her children crying to her rather to go out and be killed than to famish there In the cold weather many thousands of Protestants of all ranks ages and sexes being turned out stark naked perished of cold and hunger thousands of others were drowned cast into ditches bogs and turf-pits Multitudes were inclosed in houses which being set on fire they were burnt miserably Some that lay sick of feavors they drew out of their beds and hanged them Some men women and children they drove into boggie pits and if any of them endeavoured to get out they knockt them on the heads Some aged men and women these Barbarians enforced their own children to carry them to the river where they were drowned yea some children were compelled unnaturally to be the Executioners of their own Parents wives were forced to help to hang their own husbands and mothers to cast their own children into the water after all which themselves were murthered In Sligo they forced a young man to kill his own father and then hanged him up In another place they forced a woman to kill her husband then caused her son to kill her and then immediatly hanged the son and this they did that they might destroy both soul and body Yea such was their detestable malice against the English Protestants that they taught their children to kill English children One of these Villains wives was very angry with their souldiers because they did not bring the grease of a fat Gentlewoman whom they had slaine with them for her to make candles of The Irish women that followed the Camp egged on the men to cruelty always crying out kill them all spare neither man woman nor child They took the child of one Tkomas Straton being about twelve years old and boiled him to death in a Cauldron One Goodwife Lin and her daughter were carried into a Wood where they first hanged the mother and then the daughter in the hair of the mothers head Some women and children of the Irish meeting an English woman great with child stript her to her smock then pulled off her smock and so rent and abused her that the poor woman falling into labour both she and her child died under their hands In some places they plucked out the eyes and cut off the hands of the Protestants and so turned them out into the fields to wander up and down till they perished The very women in some places stoned the English women to death together with their children One man they shot through both his thighs then digging a hole in the ground they set him in it upright upon his feet and then filled up the hole leaving out only his head where they left him till he pined and languished to death Of another man they held his feet in the fire till he was
in a most cruel manner saying If you come to morrow you shall heare the like Sermon They took the Bible of a Minister called Master Eâ—ward Slack and opening it they laid it in a puddle of water and then stamped upon it saying A plague on it this Bible hath bred all the quarrel and that they hoped within a few weeks all the Bibles in Ireland should be used as that was or worse They did most despitefully upbraid the Profession of the truth to those blessed souls whom neither by threats nor terrours pains nor torments they could draw to forsake their Religion And though some by extreme torments were drawn to professe the change of their Religion yet did they finde no more favour with these hell-hounds who with great scorn used to say That it was fit to send them out of the world whilst they were in a good mood At Claslow a Priest with some others drew about forty or fifty English and Scottish Protestants to be reconciled to the Church of Rome and then he told them that they were in a good faith and for fear they should fall from it and turn Hereticks he with his companions presently cut all their throats John Nicholson and Anne his wife being received into the Protection of one Fitz Patrick he laboured to perswade them to go to Masse and to joyn in the present massacre but they professed that rather than they would forsake their Religion they would die upon the swords point Then he would have had the woman burn her Bible but she told him rather than she would burn her Bible she would die the death whereupon the Sabbath morning after they were both of them cruelly murthered but he that acted the villany was so tormented in conscience and dogged with apparitions of them as he conceived that with inward horror he pined away In the County of Tipperary near the Silver works some of these barbarous Papists met with eleven English men Protestants ten women and some children whom they first stripped off their cloaths and then with stones poleaxes skeins swords c. they most barbarously massacred them all this was done on a Sabbath evening the day having been very fair and clear but just at that time God sent a fearful storme of thunder lightning wind haile and rain so that the murtherers themselves confessed that it was a signe of Gods anger against them for this cruelty yet they persisted in their bloody act hacking hewing flashing and stabbing them so that most of them were cut in pieces then tying wit hs about their necks they threw them into an hole which they made for the purpose yet it pleased God that one Scottish and an English man though they had many grievouous wounds and were left for dead after a while revived and with much difficulty escaped with their lives but as God shewed his great mercy in preserving them so he shewed his just judgment upon Hugh Kennedy the chief of those murtherers who presently fell into a most desperate madnesse and distraction neither resting day nor night till about eight days after he drowned himself In the County of Mayo about sixty Protestants whereof fifteen were Ministers were upon Covenant to be safely conveyed to Galway by one Edmund Burk and his souldiers but by the way this Burk drew his sword teaching thereby the rest of his company to do the like and so they began to massacre these poor Protestants some they shot to death some they stabbed with their skeins some they thrust through with their pikes some they cast into the water and drowned the women they stript stark naked who lying upon their husbands to save them were run through with pikes so that very few of them escaped with life In the town of Sligo fourty Protestants wete stript and locked up in a Cellar and about midnight a Butcher provided for the purpose was sent in amongst them who with his axe knocked them all on the heads In Tirawly thirty or fourty English who had formerly yielded to go to Masse were put to their choyce whether they would die by the sword or be drowned they chose the latter and so being driven to the Sea-side these barbarous villaines with their naked swords forced them into the Sea the mothers with their children in their armes wading to the chin were afterwards overcome by the waves where they all perished But present death was counted too great a favour and therefore of some they twisted wit hs about their foreheads till the blood sprang out at the crown of their heads Others they hanged and let down several times c. The sonne of Master Montgomery a Minister aged about fifteen years met with one of these blood-suckers who formerly had been his schoolmaster who drew his skein at him whereupon the boy said Good Master whip me as much as you will but do not kill me yet this mercilesse Tyger barbarously murthered him without all pitie A Scottish man was first wounded and then buried alive in a ditch In the Towne of Sligo all the Protestants were first stript and robbed of all their estates afterwards they were summoned to go into the Goale and such as refused were carried in and then about midnight they all were stripped stark naked and there most cruelly and barbarously murthered with swords axes skeins c. some of them being women great with child their infants thrust out their armes and legs at their wounds after which execrable murthers they laid the dead naked bodies of the men upon the naked bodies of the women in a most immodest posture where they left them till the next day to be looked upon by the Irish who beheld it with great delight Also Isabel Beard great with childe hearing the lamentable cries of those that were murthered ran forth into the streets where she was barbarously murthered and was found the next day with the childs feet coming out of the wounds in her sides many others were murthered in the houses and streets But by Gods just judgment the river of Sligo which was before very full of fish whereby many were nourished for a long time after it afforded no fish at all A Prior also that had a hand in the murther of Isabel Beard and of casting her into the river presently after fell mad About Dungannon were three hundred and sixteen Protestants in the like barbarous manner murthered About Charlemount above four hunâ—dred about Tyrone two hundred and six One Mac Crew murthered thirty one in one morning Two young Villains murthered one hundred and fourty poor women and children that could make no resistance An Irish woman with her own hands murthered forty five At Portendowne Bridge were drowned above three hundred At Lawgh were drowned above two hundred In another place three hundred were drowned in one day In the parish of Killamen there were murthered one thousand and two hundred Protestants Many young children they cut
blow at them One of the heads being a Ministers a woman struck so hard with her fist that the same night her hand grew black and blew and so rankled that she was lame of it a quarter of a year after Another woman that looked on those heads with much rejoycing presently after fell so distracted that neither night not day she could rest but cryed out continually that she saw those heads before her eyes One English Protestant saying that he would believe the Divel as soon as the Pope they presently hanged him up in an Apple Tree till he dyed A poor Protestant woman with her two children going to Kilkenny upon businesse these bloody miscreants baited them with Dogs stabbed them with skeins and pulled out the guts of one of the children whereby they dyed and not far off they took divers men women and children and hanged them up and one of the women being great with child they ripped up her belly as she hanged so that the child fell out in the cawle alive Some after they were hanged they drew up and down till their bowels were torn out How many thousands of Protestants were thus inhumanely murthered by sundry kinds of deaths in that one Province of Ulster we have heard before What the number of the slain was in the three other Provinces I find not upon Record but certainly it was very great for I finde these passages in a general Remonstrance of the distressed Protestants in the Province of Munster We may say they compare our woe to the saddest Parallel of any story Our Churches are demolished or which is worse profaned by Sacrifices to Idols our habitations are become ruinous heaps No quality age or sex priviledged from Massacres and lingring deaths by being robbed stript naked and so exposed to cold and famine The famished Infants of murdered Parents swarme in our streets and for want of food perish before our faces c. And all this cruelty that is exercised upon us we know not for what cause offence or seeming provocation its inflicted on us sin excepted saving that we were Protestants c. We can make it manifest that the depopulations in this Province of Munster do well near equal those of the whole Kingdome c. And thus in part we have heard of the mercilesse cruelties which the bloody Papists exercised towards the Protestants Let us now consider at least some of Gods judgements upon the Irish whereby he hath not left the innocent blood of his servants to be altogether unrevenged Some particular instances have been mentioned before as also the apparitions at Portendown Bridge which affrighted them from their habitations concerning which it is further testified that by their own confession the blood of those that were knocked on the head and then thrown into the River at that Bridge remained for a long time upon the stones and could not be washed away as also that ofttimes they saw apparitions sometimes of men sometimes of women rising breast-high above the water which did most extreamly screech and cry out for vengeance against the Irish that had murdered them there Catherine Coke testified upon oath that when the Irish had barbarously drowned one hundred and eighty Protestants men women and children at Portendown Bridge about nine days after she saw the apparition of a man bolt upright in the River standing breast-high with his hands lift up to heaven and continued in that posture from December to the end of Lent at which time some of the English Army passing that way saw it also after which it vanished away Elizabeth Price testified upon oath that she and other women whose husbands and children were drowned in that place hearing of these apparitions went thither one Evening at which time they saw one like a Woman rise out of the River breast-high her haire hanging down which with her skin was as white as snow often crying out Revenge Revenge Revenge which so affrighted them that they went their way Divers Protestants were thrown into the river of Belterbert and when any of them offered to swim to the Land they were knocked on the head with Poles after which their bodies were not seen of six weeks but after the end thereof the murtherers coming again that way the bodies came floating up to the very Bridge where they were Sir Con mac Gennis with his company slew Master Turge Minister of the Newry with divers other Protestants after which the said Mac Gennis was so affrighted with the apprehension of the said Master Turge his being continually in his presence that he commanded his souldiers not to slay any more of them but such as should be slain in battel A young woman being stript almost naked there came a Rogue to her bidding her give him her money or he would run her through with his Sword Her answer was You cannot kill me except God give you leave whereupon he ran three times at her naked body with his drawn Sword and yet never pierced her skin whereat he being confounded went his way and left her This was attested by divers women that were present and saw it But besides these forementioned judgements of God which befel them for their inhumane cruelties we may observe how the hand of God hath been out against them ever since and that in a special manner by emasculating and debasing of their spirits whereby it hath come to passe that ordinarily a few English Souldiers have chased multitudes of them and generally in all the battels and fights that have been betwixt them they have always been beaten though the ods was great of their side And as they made themselves formerly drunk with the innocent blood of the unresisting Protestants so now God hath given them their fill of blood in jealousie and fury Many thousands of them have perished by the Sword of War And how heavy hath the hand of God lain further upon them this present year 1650. in that terrible and universal plague that hath been scattered all over the Nation whereby many thousands more of them have perished and God is still fighting against and probably will continue their destruction till they either shall truly be humbled for their horrid sins or be utterly consumed from the face of the earth Amen Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly These particulars were attested upon Oath by sundry persons before Commissioners appointed to take their Examinations Here place the tenth Figure CHAP. XLI A continuation of the History of the Waldenses from the year 1560. ending with the late persecution in the Valleys in PIEMONT ANNO Christi 1561. the Duke of Savoy published an Edict in favour of the Evangelical Churches in the Vallies of Piemont wherein he granted an indemnitie to the people of the Vallies of Angrognia Bobio Villaro Valguicchiardo Rora Tagliaretto and La Rica di Boneti at the end of La Torre Saint Martino Perosa Roccapiatta and Saint Barthelemo from
all former actings and restoring them into his favor as if they had never acted any thing against his Highness receiving them into his safegard and protection He granted them also to have preaching Assemblies and other Ministerial Offices according to their Religion in their wonted places c. But in the year 1565. Another Edict was published at the instigation of the Popish party whereby all men who lived in the Duke of Savoy's Dominions and would not conform to the Romish Religion were enjoyned to come and declare the same to their respective Magistrates within ten dayes after the publication thereof and two moneths after to leave the Country having one years time given them to dispose of their goods movable and unmovable during which time they should enjoy the revenue thereof c. The tidings of this cruelty so wrought upon the hearts of the Protestant Princes of Germany that they sent an Embassie to the Duke of Savoy to intercede in their behalf Amongst whom the Prince Elector Palatine was exceeding zealous sending one of his Counsellours of State a person of singular worth to the Duke of Savoy to mediate in their behalf at whose return the Prince being informed by him of the unworthy dealing of that Court and finding that notwithstanding all their faire promises they did not at all cease from persecuting these poor people he wrote a very smart and pathetical letter to the said Duke challenging him for breach of promise to himself and the other Germane Princes in that he suffered his Ministers still to persecute and banish those poore innocent people meerely upon the account of Religion concluding that such severity was neither pleasing to God nor man neither saith he is it the way to bring men to the true knowledge of God which should be done by perswasions and Scripture-proofs not by persecutions c. Wherefore I pray your Highnesse that you will give us an evidence of that which you have for us by delivering those poor people who are now in the Gallies and by recalling those who have been lately banished as you promised by your Letters Have compassion upon so many poore wandring Exiles deprived of all their goods and estates Call them home and restore them to their habitations and grant them and the other inhabitants of your Highness Countries the publick exercise of their Religion which they prefer before their necessary food Free them from their false accusations that they may live in peace under your Highnesse Government c. If your Highness will grant me this request I doubt not but you shall experimentally finde the favour and blessing of God and you shall oblige us to you in all things If otherwise you will both provoke God to lift up his hand against you and estrange from you the affections of those who desire to do you pleasure and service c. Dated 1566. Now that you may see upon what occasion the Prince wrote this letter you are to understand that Castrocaro one of their Popish Governours being extreamly troubled that the Prince Electors Ambassador had obtained several promises at the Court for the poor peoples advantage did immediately after the said Ambassadors departure publish through the Valley of Lucerna two Ordinances By the one he commanded all the inhabitants throughout his Government that were not Natives to depart within a day after the publication thereof upon paine of death and confiscation of their goods By the other he prohibited upon the same penalty those of the reformed Religion inhabiting Lucerna Bubbiana Campiglione and Fenile to hear Sermons at Saint Giovanni and for their not submitting he imprisoned and tormented a great number of them in the Castle of La Torre which dealing made the poor people to make their addresse to the Dutchess of Savoy who pittying their condition wrote to the said Castrocaro in their behalf commanding him in the Dukes name to set at liberty the imprisoned and to cease to molest them in the enjoyment of their ancient habitations and priviledges This Letter stopped the fury of Castrocaro for the present but it was far from working any change of affections in him as was evident by his after-actings For in the year 1571. he did so incense the Governour of Bobio against the poor inhabitants of the Valley that he did not only grievously molest them upon all occasions as they came under his clutches but also wrote bitter Letters to the Duke against them improving the uttermost of his parts and power for their ruine and extirpation and certainly Castrocaro had then effected his designe had not the Dutches upon the joynt supplications of the Evangelical Churches very effectually interposed for them and procured the continuation of their just and undoubted priviledges Anno 1571. Many of the poor Protestants of the Valleyes were grievously molested under pretext that in the former War of France against those of the Religion they had joyned themselves to the Protestant Troops But King Charles the 9th being moved with compassion towards them wrote a Letter to the Duke of Savoy in their behalf requesting him to receive them with gentleness into his grace and favour and to re-establish them in their estates c. The subject of which Letter was not only satisfactory to those for whom it interceded but also to all other faithfull ones of the Valleyes out of the great hopes they had of future tranquillity But it endured no longer than till their Enemies had an opportunity of molesting them which they greedily embraced upon the news of the horrible massacres in France For Castrocaro did thereupon so threaten the poor Protestants that they retired themselves with their families and movables to the tops of the neighbouring Mountains and into all other places where they hoped for safety But the Duke of Savoy not approving the cruelties exercised against the Protestants in France sent to those his Subjects who were thus withdrawn commanding them to return to their houses and habitations promising that they should suffer no prejudice nor incur the least danger thereby Neither indeed were their sufferings great afterwards so long as Madam the Dutchess was living who was a refuge to them upon all occasions After the death of this Princess which happened Octob. 19. 1574. the Popish party came forth like Lions improving the uttermost of their endeavours to devoure and destroy this poor people upon all occasions but the goodness of God was so great towards them that they always found some considerable friends about the Duke who inclined his heart to gentleness and moderation But after the death of this 〈◊〉 Emanuel who died Aug. 30. 1580. Charles Emanuel his son having invaded the Marquisate of Saluces Monsieur L' Esdiguierâ—s by way of retaliation seized upon the Valleys of Piemont But the French Army was no sooner gone home than there was a rumour spread throughout the Valleys that the Duke was resolved to take this occasion to
which I pray thee to amend with thy pen before thou readest the Book ERRATA in the general MARTYROLOGIE PAge 29 line 14 read him for them l 40 r India for Indian p 36 l 25 r whom for who p 37 l. 17. put in cease to l 21 put in to p 45 l 6 r were for was l 14 r Decree for degree p 62 l 22 r adorning for adoreing p 67 l 4 r this for his l 5 r com for cow l 8 r they for the. p 79 l 16 r that for the p 81 l 29 r stake for stalk p 84 l 41 r also for all p 94 l 28 r Torturers for tortures l 36 r Courtiers for Countries p 106 l ult put in whosoever p 114 l 37 r they for the. p 115 l 10 r was for were l 15 r Prince for Princes p 117 l 17 r which for with l 23 r belief for relief p 118 l 3 r edified for edifying p 120 l 1 r they for the p. p 121 l 25 put in whereupon p 122 l 26 r enjoyned for enjoyed p 128 l 41 r slaying for staying p 132 l 31 r children for child p 133 l 17 r receiving for receive p 135 l 32 r sixty for sixtly p 137 l 39 r opened for opening p 147 l 34 put out was p 149 l 7 r retaining for restraining p. 151 l 16 r their for they p 152 l 11 r represented for presented p 153 l 37 r approach for reproach p 154 l 1 r die for are l 31 r Bertrand for Bâ—trand p 156 l 1 r Bosnia for Bosina l 7 r when for where p. 158 l 41 r root for rout p 159 l ult r delivered for discovered p 160 l 15 r Maundy for munday p 161 l 29 r upon for of Cities for City p 163 l 5 r buried for burnt l 14 r they for the. l 29 r two for second p 164 l 1 r Catholick for Cathe p 186 l 42 r they for the. p 189 l 2 r breast for breasts l 8 r was for were p 193 l 8 r hoary for heavy p 198 l 7 put out should p 202 l 9 r were for was p 139 l 15 r this for his l 17 r for never no man r no man ever p 271 l 41 put in free p 279 l 8 put in one l 28 r sent for set p 297 l 16 r zeal for seal p 303 l 24 put in her p 304 l 13 put in took p 308 l 7 r girls for gilts l 11 r burnt for burn l 16 r goodly for godly l 30 r macerating for macecrating p 309 l 28 put in of p 334 l 3 r mouth for mouta p 351 l ult r Parisians for Persians p 375 l 18 put in brought p 378 l 9 put out and so p 383 l 21 r short for shot p 387 l 35 r leave for have p 404 l 12 r whom for where p 468 l 6 for Infections r Infractions Other literal faults are easily amended Sanguis Martyrum semen Ecclesiae Act. 14.22 1 Thes. 1.4 Lam. 3.33 34 Isa. 10.12 1 Pet. 4.17 Micha 7.9 1 Tim. 3.12 Heb. 12.7 Luk. 23.31 Praemonitus praemunitus Gen. 3.5 Gen. 4.8 Abel Noah Gen. 6.11 Gen. 9.22 Lot Isaac Jacob. Joseph Thâ— Israelites in Egypt Moses Moses and Aaron Israel in the time of the Judges Jsrael in Saul's time David 1 King 14.25 26. Judah under the Kings Asa persecutes a Prophet Michaiah Gods judgement on Persecutors Elijah Elisha Zechariah 2 Chron. 28.8 Isaiah Jer. 24.1 c. Jeremiah The 3 Children Daniel Mordecai Israel after the Captivity Nehe. 2.19 and â— 2 3 8. Nehemiah The Jews persecuted by Bagoses Prayer in times of danger Apostates Antiochus entred Jerusalem Antiochus robs the Temple Forbideth the daily sacrifice His Cruelty Christian courage The Scriptures burnt Matthias his zeal A noble Resolution Zeal The Jews murthered refusing to fight on the Sabbath day Matthias his sickness His counsel to his sons His death Apollonius slain Judas encouraged his souldiers Seron slain Antiochus his â—rpel command Fasting and prayer before the battel His exhortation to his Army A wonderfull vâ—ctory Gorgias flies Thanksgiving Prayer Lysias beaten The Temple cleansed The service of God restored The Edomites overcome The Ammonites overcome Simons victories in Galile Judas taketh Bozra Overcometh Timothy Timothy again overcome Ephron destroyed Thanksgiving for victory A miracle of mercy Vain-glory punished The Idumaeans overcome Antiochus his horrible death Gods judgemente on Persecatorâ— Antiochus Eupaâ—tor Bethsura besieged Eleazer slew and is slain by an Elephent Bethsura surrendred The Temple besieged A speciall providence Perfidiousness A just judgement Antiochus slain by Demetrius The wickednes of Apostates Bacchides sent against Judas Perjury Perfidiousness Alcimus his subtilty and cruelty Nicanor sent against Judas His subtility Judas in danger Judas forced to retreat Nicanors blasphemy A terrible battel Nicanor slain A just judgement Judas sends to the Romans A league between the Jews and Romans Bacchides sent â—gainst Judas twenty thousand Judas his resolution A terrible battel Judas slain Antiochus his cruel Edict Constancy Subtilty Courage Eleazer cruelly beaten His admirable patience His zeal His prayer at death Antiochus his subtilty The seven brethrens courage Maccabeus his torments His resolute speech His Martyrdom His speech at death Abers torments Or Leopard Hâ—s speech at death Machir brought forth His courage His torments His speech at death Judas his courage His torments His speech at death Achas his courage His torments His speech at death Areth his courage His torments His speech at death Jacob brought forth Antiochus his subtilty His mother encourageth him His noble courage His torments * Lord. His last words Salamona's zeal Her speech to her Children Her torments and death See more of this before Mat. 2.2 5 16. Gods Judgement on Persecutors Herods miserable death John Baptist beheâ—ded Mat. 14.10 Gods Judgements on Herod for it Caius Caligula Act. 4.1 17. The Apostles beaten Steven stoned Paul persecuted Act. 12.1 2. A Persecutor converted James beheaded Peter escapeth death Gods Judgement on Herod Paul and Barnabas persecuted Paul stoned Paul and Silas whipt Paul and Silas again persecuted Act. 17.5 13 14. Sosthenes beaten Paul in danger Acts 24.27 Pauls Martyrdom The Martyrdom of James His constancy in prayer Andrews martyrdom Philips Martyrdom Bartholemew Thomas Matthew Simon Zel. Judas Matthias Mark Nicanor Quinquennium Neronis Nero sets Rome on fire The Circus burnt down Nero charged it upon the Christians Raiseth the first Persecution Several kinds of torments Beastly cruelty Tertullians speech Peter and Paul martyred Domitians character He destroyes Davids seed St. John put into boiling oyl Banished into Patmos An excellent story â—f a young man Simâ—on crucified Flavia banished A cruel death Christians slandered Charged with Sedition and Rebellion and the causers of all publick Calamities Christianos ad Leones The Oath ex officio Variety of torments Burial denied them Protasius Gervasius Timothy and Dionysius martyred Trajans persecution Pliny writes in the Christians behalf
and so was led from the stage to the stake with a merry and chearful countenance where by the notable example of his repentance at his death he made satisfaction to the Church of Christ for all his former unfaithful and hypocritical dealing with them and so quietly slept in the Lord. The Life of Doctor Aegidio DR Aegidio who is before mentioned was brought up in the University of Alcala where he took all his degrees and was a hard Student in School-divinity but the study of the holy Scriptures was there so neglected and contemned that if any one read it he was in contempt and scorn called a good Bibler Afterwards being publick Reader of Divinity in that University he grew famous all over Christendome and was sent for to Sivil to be Divinity-Reader in the Cathedral Church where he was so highly esteemed that soon after he was chosen Sub-Deane yet did he not attempt to preach openly nor had once so much as opened the Bible to read and study the Scriptures And therefore the first time that he came into the Pulpit contrary to all mens expectations he was found so unfit for such a function that he grew out of conceit with himself and was contemned by others insomuch as they fell to repent themselves the one for admitting him so unadvisedly the other for taking upon him that office so arrogantly But having passed over some time it so fell out that he met with a plain man which gave him such instructions that after a few hours conference he learned by him what the office and duty of a Preacher was and by what means he might attain thereto and through Gods blessing his advice was so effectual that now Dr. Aegidio was quite altered and become a new man thinking all his former life and labour ill spent and therefore he resolved to steer another course He also fell into acquaintance with Doctor Constantino a man excellently well learned by whose conference and advice he profited marvellously in his studies fell to the reading of good Authors and grew to profound knowledge in the holy Scriptures so that after a time he began to preach as learnedly godly and zealously as he had before done coldly foolishly and unskilfully Then did his hearers finde the marvellous force of that doctrine which was taught them by these three worthy men Aegidio Constantino and Varquia so that the more they crept out of their former ignorance and grew in knowledge the more they esteemed and honoured them Hereupon there were daily complaints made against them to the Inquisitors especially against Doctor Aegidio who did more openly than the rest inveigh against the adversaries of the truth But it so fell out by Gods Providence that just at the same time the Emperour Charles the fifth in respect of his singular learning and integrity of life elected him to the Bishoprick of Dortois Then did those hypocritical Inquisitors bestir themselves on all hands citing him to come before them where articles were exhibited against him and thereupon they cast him into prison and examined him But the Emperour who had elected him to the Bishoprick and the whole Chapter of the Cathedral Church in Sivil became very earnest Sutors to the Inquisitors in his behalf It fell out also that just at the same time whilst Aegidio was in prison three of his greatest adversaries amongst the Inquisitors and the prime enemies against the truth sickned and died shortly one after another whereby he was released and lived foure or five years after at the end whereof he was sent upon an Embassie in which journey he visited the brethren that professed the truth in Validolid and much comforted and confirmed them but in his return home his aged body being sore shaken in that long journey having not been used to travel of a long while before he sickned and within a few days departed out of this troublesome life to everlasting rest But within three years after the new Inquisitors thinking that the former had dealt too gently with him digged him out of his grave and buried in his place a puppet of straw then they brought his corps upon the Scaffold and used it in the same sort as they would have used himself if he had been alive The life of Doctor Constantino Doctor Constantino of whom mention hath been made before was a most famous Divine and endued by God with such rare abilities as the like were hardly found in that age he was a man of a very pleasant wit and wondrous facetious which he especially used against the hypocritical Monks and Friars and though he lived in a barbarous age wherein all good learning was almost lost yet by his wit and industry he attained to a great deal of skill both in Latin Greek and Hebrew and was also an excellent Oratour and studied the Scriptures so hard that he grew very exquisite therein He was also so eloquent in his own language that all his Auditors were brought into a great admiration of him He was very discreet in all his doings which parts he attained to both by his study and long practice and experience but especially by profound knowledge in the holy Scriptures Whensoever he preached there was so great a resort to his Sermons that three or foure houres before he began there was scarce a place in the Church to be gotten He was farre from covetousnesse and ambition insomuch as having a good Canonship in the Church of Toledo proffered him he refused it together with divers other Preferments In his Ministry in Sivil he did so plainly set forth and so sharply rebuke those hucksters that sold indulgences pardons c. That they were much incensed against him fearing that he would prove a plague to the whole generation of them so that they hated him deadly yet could finde nothing whereof to accuse him but what would redound to their own shame But for all this he neglected not to preach the truth faithfully though he knew that they lay at catch waiting for an opportunity to ensnare him And it was the singular Providence of God that that City should enjoy such preaching when there were so many powerful and malicious enemies to oppose it For at this time Varquio read upon the Gospel according to Matthew and upon the Psalmes Aegidio preached daily and Constantine though not so often yet to as great fruit and edification thus continuing till God sent storms to try each mans faith In the midst of which tempest Varquio dyed and Constantine was sent for by the Emperour to be his houshold Chaplain only Aegidio was left alone like a Lamb amongst wolves to be the object of their fury of whose end we have heard before after whose death Constantine left the Emperours Court and returned to Sivil where he preached the Gospel with as much zeale as ever he did before Then was he chosen to preach every other day in
the Cathedral which he refused because of a great fit of sicknesse which had made him very weak but he was forced to undertake it though he was so weak a creature that sometimes he was fain to be carried to Church and by reason of his faintnesse was necessitated once or twice in a Sermon to drink a draught of wine to refresh himself About this time there was one Scobario a man famous for life and learning chosen by the Magistrates of the City to the Government of the Colledge of Children who out of his zeal to promote the Gospel converted his Stipend to the erecting of a Divinity-lecture in the Cathedral Church and Constantine having recovered his health was chosen to read it who performed it excellently well beginning with the Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Canticles which having passed through very learnedly he began upon the book of Job and proceeded to expound more than half of it But some evil spirit envying the Progresse of the Gospel in that City under a pretence of fervent zeal caused him to forsake this course and encombred him so many ways that he was never clear of those troubles to his dying day For not long after he was brought before the Inquisitors and had many things laid to his charge yet by his quick and ready answers he easily avoided them and they could not by any means bring him to make an open Protestation of his faith by which all their hope was to circumvent him and so he might have escaped had not God by a special Providence compelled him as it were briefly and plainly to confesse his faith The occasion was this There was one Isabel Martin apprehended in whose house Constantine had hid some special books for fear of the Inquisitors This womans goods being sequestred her son conveyed divers chests of her best goods away to another place This coming to the Inquisitors ears by means of an unfaithful servant they sent their Officer immediately to demand those Chests The womans sonne supposing that the Officer came for Constantines books said unto him I know what you come for and therefore if you will promise me upon your honest word to depart quietly I will bring you to them the Officer supposing that he meant the Chests promised him so to do Then did he carry him into a secret place and plucking forth a stone or two in the wall shewed him Constantines Jewels of paper indeed but farre more precious than gold or pearle the Officer astonished to finde that which he looked not for told him that he came for no such thing but for certain Chests of his mothers goods which he had purloined from the Sequestrators and that notwithstanding his promise he must carry both him and his books to the Inquisitors Thus came Constantines writings into the Inquisitors hands out of which they quickly found matter enough against him Then did they send for him before them and demanded if he knew his own hand he shifted it off at the first but afterwards perceiving that it was the Will of God that he should bear witnesse to the truth he confessed it to be his own writing protesting openly that all things therein contained were full of truth and sincerity Therefore said he trouble your selves no further in seeking Witnesses against me seeing you have so plain and apert a Confession of my judgment and faith but deal with me as you shall please Then was he cast into prison and kept there two whole years where partly by occasion of his corrupt dyet but chiefly of grief to see such havock made of the poor Church of Christ which himself and his brethren had with so great pains and care planted and watered he began first to be crazy and then not being able to endure the extream heat of the Sunne which made his prison like an hot house he was forced to strip himself to his very shirt wherein he lay day and night by occasion whereof he fell into the bloody flux and within fifteen days died in the stinking prison rendring up his soul to Christ for promoting of whose glory he had oft times manfully adventured it He never indeed felt those cruel torments which the Inquisitors used to inflict upon others but it was not because they regarded such a man of eminency as he was but because they intended to delay his punishment by keeping him long in prison not expecting that he should so suddenly have been taken out of their hands Yet did these Imps of Satan spread abroad a report that before his death upon the Rack he had confessed to them who were his disciples and this they did to make men come in and accuse themselves upon hope to finde the more favour with the Inquisitors They reported also that he opened one of his veins with a broken glasse whereof he died that so he might avoid the shame and punishment of his heresies And against the day of their solemn triumph his corps was taken out of his grave and set in a Pulpit with one hand resting on the Desk and holding up the other just as he used to do when he preached Then they passed sentence upon him and so afterwards caused him to be burned Thus we have seen in some few examples the rage of these bloody Inquisitors against the poor Saints and Servants of Jesus Christ whereof a great number were cruelly murthered in a few years space in that one City of Sivil whereby we may partly guesse how great numbers have suffered in all other places since the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ brake forth untill this day under their cruel and bloody tyranny Collected out of a book called The Discovery of the Spanish Inquisition c. First written in Latin by Reynold Gonsalvius Montanus and afterwards translated into English The Persecution of Nicholas Burton Englishman by the Inquisitors in Spain Anno 1560. THis Burton was a Citizen of London who being about his merchandise at Cadiz in Spain there came to his lodging one of the Familiars desiring to take lading to London in the ship which Burton had fraited and this he did that he might learn where his goods were Presently after came a Serjeant who apprehended Burâ—ton and carried him away to the Inquisitors who though they could charge him with nothing spoken or written against them since he came to Spain yet they sent him to the filthy common prison where he remained in irons fourteen dayes amongst Thieves In which time he so instructed the poor Prisoners in the Word of God that in short space he had well reclaimed many of those ignorant and superstitious souls which being known to the Inquisitors they presently removed him laden with irons from thence to Sivil and put him into the more cruel prison in the Castle of Triana where the Inquisitors proceeded against him after their accustomed cruel manner by racking c. Neither could he