mean time great Triumphs were preparing for the marriage of the Kings Sister and Daughter and the day being come He spent all the morning in Examining matters against Du Bourg and some others charged with the same Doctrines intending to glut his Eyes with their Execution and then went to Dinner After Dinner the King ran at Tilt near the Prison where Du Bourg was and brake many Spears against the Count Montgomery and others and all thinking he had done enough desired him to give over with praise But the King being inflamed with their Commendations would needs run another course with Count Montgomery who upon his knees beg'd his Majesty pardon but the King being resolved commanded him to do it upon his Allegiance Montogomery being compel'd addrest himself to it and the King and he meeting broke their Spears and the Kings Helmet falling down at the same Instant one of the Splinters of Montgomeries Spear entred just into his right eye and so pierced his head that his brains were perished which wound being incurable he dyed thereof within Eleven days after whereby his great hopes of seeing the Death of Du Bourg were frustrated And the Execution of Du Bourg was deferr'd for six Months longer all which time persevering constantly in the truth he was first degraded and then accompanied with six or seven hundred Horse and Foot well armed he was guarded to Execution being first hang'd and then burnt to Ashes At Amiens in France all the Bibles Testaments and Psalm Books were burnt the Ministers Pulpit and several Men and Women At Abbevilla they slew the Lord of Harcourt and dragg'd some along the Streets with their faces in the Kennel At Meux above Four Hundred Religious Citizens were slain the Women and Maids were openly ravished in the Streets and market-places Men VVomen and Children were Massacred the very Popish Priests themselves slaying divers with their own hands At a place called Bar the same if not worse Villanies were committed for the Papists pull'd out the hearts of these poor Protestants and most barbarously gnawed them with their Teeth rejoycing that they tasted of an Hugonots heart At another place seven Hundred Protestants were inhumanely massacred and their naked Bodies thrown into the River Their Houses and Church being likewise plundred and Burnt At Angies they murthered a Godly Minister and many others and finding a Fair Bible guilt they hung it upon an Halbert and carried it in procession blasphemously crying Behold Truth hanged the Truth of the Hugonots The Truth of all the Devils behold the Mighty God behold the Everlasting God will speak and when they came to the Bridge they threw it into the River crying lowder Behold the Truth of all the Devils drown'd At Tours an hundred and forty were murdered and cast into the River and neither Man VVoman nor Child spared nay the President of the City being only suspected to be a Favourer of the Protestants was first beaten with Staves then script to his shirt hang'd up by one Foot his Head in the water up to the Breast and whilst he was yet alive they ript up his Belly pluckt out his Guts threw them into the River and sticking his heart on a Lance they carried it about saying This is the Heart of the President of the Hugonots A Poor VVoman whose Husband was a while before drown'd having a young Infant sucking at her Breasts and a beautiful Daughter of about sixteen years old in her hand these bloody Villains drove them to a River and taking the Daughter aside some of the Rascals endeavoured to seduce her to Popery and one of them who was finer then the rest promised to marry her so that the poor Maid began to doubt which her Mother who was just going to be thrown into the River perceiving she earnestly exhorted her Daughter to persist in the Truth whereupon the Daughter cryed out I will live and dye with my Mother whom I know to be a Virtuous Woman and as for your Threats and promises I regard them not do with me what you please Before the Mother was quite drowned the Daughter was likewise thrown in who making toward her Mother they mutually embraced each other and so yielded up their Souls into the hands of God In the same City of Yours there was a very Religious Woman who being brought before the Captain she there gave an Account of her Faith which she confirmed by Scripture insomuch that the Fryers who discoursed with her could not return any answer but only told her That she was in a damnable condition It seems so indeed said she being in your hands And being then committed to prison she declared her mind freely and comforted the other Protestant Prisoners she was afterward condemn'd to be hang'd and the Rope being put about her neck she kneeled down praising and magnifying the name of God in shewing her so much mercy as by that death to deliver her out of this wretched world and that she was so far honoured as to dye for the Truth and to wear Gods Livery as she reckoned the halter to be she then brake her fast with the rest of the Company and exhorted them to be of good courage and to trust in the free mercy of God to the end As she went to Execution one of her kindred brought her own little Children to see her and perswaded her to recant and save her life to provide for these Innocent Babes This was a very great Temptation and wrought so upon her Motherly Affection as drew plenty of Tears from her Eyes But a while after refusing her former Courage and Constancy she said I love my Children dearly yet neither for love to them nor for any thing else in this World will I renounce my God or his Truth God will be a Father to these my Children and will provide better for them then I could have done and therefore to his Providence and protection I commend and leave them After which she went cheerfully to the place of Execution and having there prayed to and praised God she quietly resigned up her Spirit to him A while after the City of Roan was besieged and two of the Forts taken wherein they put all the Protestants to the Sword and the Queen Mother being at the Siege she led the young King Charles the Ninth who was then but twelve years old to shew him the Naked Bodies of several poor Women who weltred in their Blood At last the City was taken wherein all sorts of monstrous Cruelties were used massacring all they met with and divers English and Scotch Souldiers were hanged and the Sick and wounded were cast into the River In Valogues divers Persons of good Quality were massacred and among the rest a Godly Minister whose body they stripped and with many scoffs and scorns dragged it about the House and at last bringing it into a Room where he used to preach they kickt and spurn'd his Corps saying Now pray to God and preach if thou
nay so monstrous beastly were they that they committed filthiness with the dead Corps of those women whom they had murdered At Basil and Friburg they did the like neither pitying old nor young men women nor innocent Babes whom sometimes they most barbarously used to eat even when other meat might be had yea such inhumane cruelty they used that in many places they left none remaining alive to relate the sufferings of those that were murdered Thus these Massacres and bloody murders defiled the whole Land and Germany groaned under the oppression till the peace of Munster and Osnaburg in the year 1648. which put a stop to this cruel Persecution the Papists being compelled thereto by Gods bringing in the King of Sweden who over-ran Germany in a short time and thereby revived the Protestant Cause which was almost over-run and destroyed by so many thousand violences and miseries as it had lain under for many years These bloody Tyrants vented their rage and fury not only in Germany but also in Hungary and other Countries for they committed the same Villanies in all places where they had power the Ministers were generally banished and put to death and the same Picture of their cruelties which has been represented to you in Germany was acted over again in this Kingdom which we have not room to insert only a new sort of death was invented there they tyed Hens Geese Ducks and Hares to the naked body of a worthy Minister in that Country and then set the Dogs upon him who tore and rent his flesh till he died You have beheld many sad and doleful Spectacles and Reader if thou art a Christian thy heart must almost bleed at the relation of them we will therefore Epitomize the bloody cruelties of the Papists in POLAND All the same things or worse if it be possible which we have related to be done in other places were likewise acted in Poland many thousand Protestants and good Christians have been destroyed in that Kingdom and especially at Karmin Dumbuick Shochy Carienzin and Lesna all which Cities and Towns were destroyed and burnt to the ground for the cause of Religion The City of Lesna was one of the most ancient and flourishing Cities in all the Kingdome of Poland which was wholly laid in ashes being three whole days in flames erre it was consumed in which there perished many hundred Protestants besides inestimable wealth and treasure no man resisting or opposing the fire Here they pulled off the Noses of some and put out the eyes of others and cut off the tongues hands and feet of divers giving quarter to none but killing and destroying all that came in their way They cut off the hands of a pious Matron of Lesna and then murdered three of her Children before her face cutting off their heads and laying one at each breast and the other by her side Another woman having her hands and feet cut off and her tongue cut out they sowed up in a Sack and so left her for two days in which she lived making a most miserable lamentation In the Lower Poland a multitude suffered whole Families were butchered and men and women young and old murdered without distinction And in the year 1654. there was an horrible slaughter amongst them the Papists putting to death all the Protestants they could meet with to most exquisite tortures One Mr. Samuel Cardus a Minister they used with extreme cruelties first putting out his eyes and leading him about as a miserable Spectacle then they pull'd off his fingers with Pincers and powred melted Lead down his throat and while he was yet half alive they put his Neck between two folding doors and so violently severed his head from his body They used the Minister of Dembuick and another Minister very barbarously for after they had several ways tormented them they cut their throats with a Razor and while they were breathing flung them into a Pit and covered them with filth and dung The same Cruelties the Barbarous and bloody Papists acted against the Protestants in LITHUANIA in the year 1648. slaughtering all that were not Roman Catholicks without distinction of Age or Sex Here many had their skins flead off while they were alive others their hands and feet cut off some their bowels taken out alive others had their Shin-bones bored through they powred melted Lead into the wounds of some whom they had cut in the head and other parts of their bodies some had their eyes pulled out and those that were hanged up in all places were such a multitude that they are hard to be numbered It was counted a great mercy and kindness to be shot beheaded or killed out-right without any other torment The Wives and Daughters of the Protestants were every where ravished their Houses and Goods burnt and destroyed all their Country and their Churches laid wast so that there was nothing to be seen in every place but Murders and Massacres and the blood of the poor suffering Protestants ran like Streams through the Streets of Towns and Cities and those that were left alive and escaped the slaughter were banished their Country for ever The Ministers were chiefly aimed at and always cruelly tormented among the rest one Adrian Chilmiskie who was famous for his great Piety and Learning and likewise for his Reverend Age was by these barbarous wretches roasted alive and this they did leisurely with a few Chips and Straw that he might be the longer in torment In another place above forty suffered death by several sorts of tortures Near Vilna the chiefest City in Lithuania one Smolskie and his Son both Ministers had their Heads cruelly sawed off with a Sickle Another Minister had his flesh sliced off by piece-meal till he died-And to conclude this Field of Blood there were no less than fifteen hundred poor Protestants Ministers as well as others who were bound to Stakes on the tops of Mountains in the Winter and there miserably starved to death with hunger and cold In a word no Age nor History can parallel all the several tortures and miserable deaths which these poor Protestants suffer'd from the hands of bloody Papists for no other Crime but professing and asserting the Truth and Gospel of Jesus Christ Psalm 74. Lord why hast thou abandoned O why for ever shall thine Ire Consume like a devouring Fire The Sheep within thy Pastures fed Come O! come quickly and Survey What Spoyl the Barbarous Foe hath made Lo all in heaps of Ruin laid Thy Temple their accursed Prey Like Lyons with Sharp Famine whet They in the Sanctuary roar All Purple in thy Peoples gore And there their Conquering Ensigns set It was esteem'd a great renown With Ax to square the Mountain Oaks Now they demolish with their strokes And hew the Carved Fabrick down Who lo with all-infolding Flame The Beauty of the Earth devour Profanely Prostrate on the Floor That Temple sacred to thy Name Now said they with a sudden hand We 'l give a
to Remember his Oaths Promises and solemn Vows and Protestations that they should have the free Exercise of their Religion and withal told the King That he might do as he pleased with their Bodies and Estates but their unspotted Souls were in the hands of God and that they were resolved to remain stedfast in their Religion though with the loss of their lives which answer so inraged the King that he called the Prince of Conde Rebel and the Son of a Rebellious Person horribly threathing him That if within three days he did not obey his Command he should dye for it and then with a furious Countenance left them with these three Terrible VVords Death Mass or the Bastile Many Gentlemen that were attendants upon them as likewise their School-Masters and Tutors were thrust out of the Chamber among the Murtherers that is among the Kings Guard of Switzers who stood in two Ranks with their Swords drawn ready for Blood and Cruelty These Gentlemen crying out of the Kings Oaths Promises and Fidelity were yet by the Kings Command and in his own Sight unmercifully hewen and cut in pieces In this Butcherly Massacre at Paris there were above four Thousand Houses robbed and plundred and above Five Hundred Barons Knights and Gentlemen who were chief Officers in the VVar with abundance of Noble young Gentlemen Ladies and Gentlewomen Inhumanely murthered who little expected such a bloody Fate for they came from all parts to rejoyce in honour of the marriage of the King of Navar and instead of Jollity and pleasures they here met with an untimely death from Bloody and Cowardly Papists who murther like Devils but dare not fight like men The King and his Confidents fearing that this Massacre would not end the Quarrel but rather stir up the Protestants in other places to stand upon their own defence He therefore sends Messengers by Poast to all parts of the Kingdom often shifting Horses for more speed with express Commands to the Governours of all other Towns and Cities in France to follow the Example of Paris and to destroy and kill all the Protestants which were amongst them and yet at the same time the King writes other Letters wherein he laid the fault of the murder of the Admiral and the rest upon the Duke of Guise As soon as this Command was published and that the Kings Letters came the Papists fell with all imaginable fury upon all the Protestants at Meaux Troys Orleans and other places murthering them without any matter of pity and Compassion And among the rest Mounsier De la Place President of the Court of Requests being in his house a Captain came to him and told him that the Duke of Guise had killed the Admiral by the Kings Appointment and many other Hugonots but however he was willing to secure him but desired to see his Gold The Lord De la Place observing his Impudence asked him whether he thought there were a King or no the Captain blaspheming bid him go to know the Kings pleasure The Lord De la Place thinking there was danger neer went from him to secure himself and the Captain thereupon plundred his House The poor Gentleman seeking shelter in three Houses for his life was denied and was at last forced to return home again where finding his wife very sorrowful he rebuked her and discourst with her of the Promises of God telling her That through many Tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of God and then calling his Family together he made an Exhortation to them went to prayer and then read a Chapter in Job with Calvins Exposition and then praying again he resolved by Gods assistance to suffer all Torments rather than to fly for it Presently after the Provost of the Merchants comes to his House with many Archers and an Order to bring him to the King and would not admit of any Excuse whereupon the Lord supposed what would happen and therefore embracing his Wife he desired her never to forsake the truth of God And so going toward the Palace some Murtherers waited for him and Immediately stab'd him with their Daggers so that he fell down dead and then stripping him cast his Body into the River After this there followed the like Cruelties and Murders upon the Protestants in the Cities of Lyons Tholouse Burdeux Angiers where the Protestants were most barbarously kild and destroyed as likewise in most other Cities and Towns so that in a few Months there were murdered above threescore Thousand Protestants in France for no other Crime but only for being Protestants Yet in the midst of these dangers it pleased God to provide some places of refuge for them as Rochel Montalbon Wismes Saucerre Privas c. whither many Protestants fled from other places In the year 1573 the Town of Saucerre was besieged by the Lord of Chastre who with his Canon played incessantly upon the place so that the Stones Pavements and Splinters of Timber flew about continually and yet it pleased God that only one young VVoman was slain thereby though sometimes the Coats Breeches and Hats of the Inhabitants were shot thorough The Siege being long there was great scarcity insomuch that the People were forced to eat Horses Asses and Mules which lasted a Month Afterwards they eat all the Dogs Cats Rats Mice and Moles that they could get and then they were forced to eat Parchments Horses and Beasts-Hoofs Horns Lanthorns Halters Girdles of Leather Herbs wild Roots and Furniture for Horses this being all spent and no bread in the City they made bread of Linseed Herbs mixt with Bran Straw-Meal Powder of Nut-shells yea Slates Sewet Old Ointments and other Grease served to make Pottage and therewith they likewise fryed the the Excrements of Horses and Men which they eat yea the very filth in the Streets was not spared During this Extremity a labourer and his wife were put to death for eating the Head Intrials and Brains of their own Child a Girl of three years old who died with Famine having likewise dressed the rest of her body to eat at other times Those that went out of the City VValls were forced to live upon the Spriggs of Vines Black-beries Snails and Herbs and many of them were killed by the Enemy And among other lamentable Spectacles a poor man and his Wife were found dead among the Vines and two of their Children crying by them the youngest being not above Six weeks old whom a Charitable Widow took home and relieved c. Many dyed of this terrible Famine in their Houses and others fell down dead in the Streets Most of the Children under Twelve years old dyed and most lamentable it was to see their poor Fathers and Mothers lamenting their misery and yet could not relieve them yet most of them did wonderfully encourage themselves in Gods help and assistance as may appear by this strange Example A Boy about five years old being famisht for Hunger running along the Streets fell down for dead
in the presence of his Father and Mother who wept over him and felt his Arms and Legs which were as dry as a Stick To whom the Child said Why do you weep to see me dye of hunger I ask you no Bread Mother for I know you have none but since it is Gods will that I should dye in this manner I must take it thankfully Had not the Holy man Lazarus Hunger have I not read it in my Bible and saying thus he yielded up his Spirit And that which preserved the rest from perishing was because there were six Cows kept alive to give Milk to some few Infants and some Horses of service referred for extremity were killed and their flesh sold and some little Corn was brought into the Town by stealth which was sold for half a Crown a pound There dyed by the War but Eighty four Persons but the Famine destroyed Five Hundred and the rest were brought so low that they hardly recovered Divers voluntarily went out of the Town chusing rather death then such misery whereof some were slain and others Imprisoned and Executed And now when all humane help failed the King having sworn He would make them eat one another and the Papists threatning to Massacre them all it Pleased God strangely to deliver these poor Protestants For Ambassdors coming from Poland to fetch the Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother thither whom they had chosen for their King They having notice of this terrible siege obtained by their Solicitations that all the Towns in France which were molested for Religion should have their Liberty by which means the poor Saucerreans half dead with hunger obtained their fredom and were quietly suffered to depart with their Arms and Goods and those that would stay not to be questioned for what was past About the same time the Town of Rochel was likewise besieged the Townsmen often sallying out and divers hot skirmishes past among the rest a young Gentleman boasted with horrible blasphemies that he was one of the horrible Murderers of the Admiral shewing his Sword which he said he brought from that exploit to slash the Rochellers but upon Tryal his heart failed him and he ran away and one of the Rochellers pursuing him slew him stript him and left his body in the Field and before next morning the had torn his Face In one Months space the Papists discharged above Thirteen Thousand Shot against the Town and made many assaults but always came off with loss The Siege continued two Months and the Famine much increaseh upon them but by Divine Providence when all other Provision failed them there came a multitude of small Fishes into the Haven which were never seen there before and was a very great relief to them who continued during the siege but presently after the publishing the Edict of Peace they went away and were never seen more A while after the Rochellers were likewise freed from the siege by means of the Poland Ambassadors and enjoyed their ormer Privileges It is very remarkable that most of those Persons which were employed in the Massacre of Paris and other Places were killed at this siege for there were slain before this Town Three Masters de Camp divers Lords and Gentlemen above Threescore Captains as many Lieutenants and Ensigns and above Twenty Thousand Common Souldiers The next year after the King himself who was at least the Countenancer of all these horrible Massacres being in the prime of his Youth not above Twenty five years old fell sick of a languishing disease his Physicians let him blood and purged him to no purpose for he consumed away so strangely as astonished many He long strugled against his Disease but at last betook himself to his Bed for about fourteen days before his death and was sore tormented with a great Effusion of blood which issued from all parts of his body and one time to the terror of those about him he rouled himself in his own blood A while before he died he desired his Mother to pursue his Enemies to the utmost repeating the same and with great eagerness and saying Madam I pray you heartily to do it and so expired May 30. 1574. And it was observed that the rest of the Chief Agents were strangely cut off The Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother afterwards King Henry the Third was stabbed by a Jacobine Monk in the same Chamber where he sate in Councel for contriving the late Tragedies The Duke of Guize was murdered in the Kings own Chamber Five and Forty Persons waiting with Swords and Daggers to do it The Queen Mother broke her heart and dyed the first of January after And in short it hath been observed by a good Author that since the year of our Lord 1560 of a Thousand Murderers that remained unpunished by men there was not ten who escaped the Divine hand of God but came to deserved and wretched Ends suitable to their bloody and wicked Lives At a Town called Sansay in France in the year 1593 one Margaret Pieron was by her maid accused to the Jesuits for not going to Mass and for keeping a Bible in her house who complaining thereof to the Judges they sent for her and said Margaret are you not willing to return home to your house and there 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 if it be not contrary to Gods glory and my own Salvation you shall hear what I will say to it 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 Town you shall there crave pardon for offending the Law and a fire being made you shall burn 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 Yes said they we confes it is only to please the Jesuits we would have thee throw it in the Fire Imagine it to be but Paper and then you may burn it and you may buy another at any time and thereby you may secure your Life They spent two Hours in perswading her that she might commit a less Evil to do a greater good But she couragiously answered them That by the help of God she would never do it Will not the People say said she This is a wretched Woman indeed that burns the Bible wherein all the Articles of Christian Religion are contained I will certainly burn my Body rather then I will burn my Bible Upon this she was committed to Prison and fed only with bread and water and her Friends forbad to come to her but continuing stedfast in the Truth she was thereupon condemned to be set upon a Scaffold to have the Bible burnt before her Face her self to be strangled and her body to be dragged through the Streets to a Dunghil
Cacalla a man of Excellent Learning and one Rochus a skilful Graver of Images who turned Protestants and died for the same also one John Pontio Gónsalvo a Priest Juliano Leon Arias Losada a Physician Together with a Lady and several VVomen and Virgins who were burnt at several times in divers places and Twenty others besides who were burnt in one Fire after they had endured all the horrid torments of the Rack the Pully the Trough the Barnacle the Twisting Cord and the rest of the barbarous Tortures and Inventions of the cursed Inquisition Nay divers English men being betrayed by the Insinuation of wicked Informers were likewise burnt in Spain as Nicholas Burton Merchant of London was burnt at Sevil and another English man with him and not long after two more named John Baker and Villiam Burgate and about the same time William Burges Master of an English Ship was burnt there likewise and one William Hooker a youth of about sixteen years old was stoned to death for the bold profession of the Truth As Portugal is but a little Kingdom and the power of the Pope and his Clergy very considerable there as well as in Spain they have wonderfully supprest the power of the Truth with their Tortures yet some have their likewise suffered for the Gospel and among others William Gardner an English man whom they put to death with most exquisite Tortures at Lisbon in the year 1552 for taking the Host out of a Cardinals Hand and stamping it under his Feet He boldly asserting to the King himself That he did it out of Conscience as not being able to endure to see the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper irreverently used to so great Idolatry and although all manner of cruelty was used toward him yet he dyed with extraordinary Constancy singing Psalms in the Flames to the very last moment of his life The Rage and Fury of Papists in the Low-Countreys or Netherlands was no less then in other places For the Inquisition being introduced there it was accompanied with all manner of cruelty At Antwerp one Nicholas an Holy good man was bound up in a Sack and drown'd In Holland a Learned Preacher called Pistorius was burnt being carryed to the stake with a Fools Coat on his back Wendel muta a Widow likewise suffered death with much Constancy Several Ministers were beheaded among the rest one George Scherter who after his head had been cut off for some time and his body lying on his Belly he turning himself on his Back and crossing his Right Foot over the left and his right hand over the left continued so to the great admiration of the Spectators and the Conversion of many Several were drowned others were made away in Prisons others shut up in dark and noisom places and none suffered to come at them being fed only with Bread and Water till they were famished At Lorain several were Martyred some by Fire others beheaded There was a very great Persecution all over Flanders about the year 1544 so that there was hardly a Town or City in all the Countrey wherein some were not banished beheaded or condemned to perpetual Imprisonment neither was there any respect either to Age or Sex but especially at Gaunt many of the chief Persons were burned for being Protestants and several others in Brabant and Artois insomuch that Two Hundred Men and VVomen were cruelly destroyed at one time some of them being drowned some burned alive and some privately murdered so that the Hangman began to be tyred and wearied out with such continual Executions At the Town of Mecklin Dornick and Delden several were put to death and among the rest two Noble Virgins who were Sisters and likewise a Mother and her three Sons who all dyed owning the Gospel and zealously exclaiming against the Cruelty and Idolatry of the Papists And about the same time they miserably tormented one Bertrand for trampling the Host under his Feet whom they thrice put to the Rack and because he would not recant in the Market place of Dornick they put a Ball of Iron into his Mouth to keep him from speaking and then crushed his Right hand between two flat Red hot Irons till the form of it was changed and then did the like by his Foot which he endured with admirable patience then tying him round the wast by a Pully and making a Fire underneath they hoisted him up and down till he was burnt to Ashes which they cast into the River There were several Martyred at Valence and Lisle and one of the Judges pronouncing sentence against these good People said This Day you shall go to dwell with all the Devils in Hell Fire But the greatest Instrument of the Devil in those Countreys was the Duke of Alva who was sent by the King of Spain to Root the Protestants out of the Low-Countreys This Duke boasted one time at his own Table That he had been diligent to root out Heresie for besides those he had slain in the Wars He had put into the hands of the Common Hangman to be Executed within the space of six years no less then Eighteen Thousand Persons And to complete this sad Catastrophe we may also remember that William of Nastaw Prince of Orang was shot by a Villain called Joanville who was encouraged by a Jacobine Fryar to do it the Rascal was thrust through with an Halbert and the Fryar was hang'd But this wound not proving mortal they hired one Gerard a Burgundion who standing behind the Pillar in a Room shot the Prince dead as he past by PSALM 105. WE nothing can of merit claim Not for our sakes thy aid afford But for the Honour of thy Name Thy Mercy and unfailing Word Why should th' insulting Heathen cry Where 's now the God they vainly Praise Our Lord inthron'd above the Sky All underneath at pleasure swayes Their Gods but Gold and Silver be Made by a frail Artificer For they have eyes that cannot see Dumb Mouths and Ears that cannot hear Fools on their Altars Incense throw Who nothing smell their feet are bound Nor have they Power to move or go Their throats give Passage to no sound Their hands can neither give nor take Unapt to punish or defend As senseless they who Idols make Or to their carved Statues bend Your hopes in God O Israel place He is your help and strong defence Be he you Priests of Aarons Race The Object of your Confidence In him all you that fear him Trust He shall protect you in destress The Lord is of his Promise Just And will his Faithfull Servants Bless He in the Heaven of Heavens resides And over all his Creatures reigns Among the Sons of men divides The Earth and all that Earth contains Who sleep within the Vaults of Death No Offerings to his Altars bring O Praise his Name while we have Breath And loudly Halelu-jah sing Mr. Wischard burnt A 1000 drown in a River Candles made of Mens fatt Irish Children Kill
seven Acres of Ground within the Walls and sixty three Acres three Roods without besides eighty nine Parish Churches the most spacious Cathedral of St. Paul the Royal Exchange the Great Guild-hall the Custom House Many magnificent Halls of Companies several principal City Gates and other publick Edifices which was accompanied with the loss of vast quantities of rich Household-stuff and Goods of all sorts but especially four or five that is Books of which alone were lost near the value of an hundred and fifty thousand pound Tobacco Sugar Wines and Plumbs being heavy goods So that the whole loss is computed by an Ingenious Person to be Nine Millions and nine hundred thousand pounds and yet not above six or eight persons through Gods Providence were burnt in this vast desolation Upon the Eighteenth of September the Parliament met and the Commons appointed a Committee to examine into the Causes of the fire and to take Informations concerning it and in a short time so many and such very considerable Informations were brought in that it was no longer doubtfull but the Papists were the Contrivers and Managers of this dreadful Fire For among other things it plainly appeared that divers of the Popish Party were made acquainted with it before it happened for Mr. Light of Ratcliff deposed That being in discourse with Mr. Richard Langhorn since Executed for High Treason in February before the Fire concerning Religion Langhorn took him by the hand and said to him You expect great things in sixty six and think that Rome will be destroy'd but what if it be London A French man told one Elizabeth Styles in April before the fire that the English Maids would love the Frenchmen better when there was not an house left standing between Temple-Bar and London-Bride to which she replyed She hopes his eyes would never see that he said This will happen betwixt June October Dr. Oats in his Narrative pag. 22. says That in July 1678. being in discourse with one Strange a Jesuit Strange told him that they had got fourteen thousand pound by the Fire of London in 1666. and that they spent seven hundred fireballs to effect their Villany and that when the Fire-Merchants were at work then other Papists both men and women were imployed by them to plunder what they could that they had a Warehouse in Wild-street where some of their stollen Goods were laid and other Goods they concealed in Somerset-House as Hollands Cambricks Fine Cloth and some considerable quantities of Plate and a Box of Jewels Dr. Oats asked Strange How the King came to escape for it seems his death was designed then Strange replyed Indeed they were resolved to have cut him off but seeing him so Industrious about Quenching the Fire they could not find in their hearts to do it Strange said there were about Fourscore and six employ'd in it and John Grove since Executed for high Treason told Dr. Oats that he fired Southwark and that the Society of Jesuits got two thousand pound by that Fire Robert Hubert a French Papist of Normandy began this Fire in London being Hired thereto by Stephen Peidelow likewise a papist and Hubert observing the Ruin and desolation that followed could not be quiet till he had freely discovered the whole matter Affirming that by Peidelows directions he put a Fire-ball to the end of a long pole and lighting it with a piece of Match put it into the Bakers window and stayed till the house was in a Flame A French Merchant went to Hubert in the White Lyon Prison in Southwark and told him He did not believe him Guilty of what he had confessed Hubert replyed Yes Sir I am guilty of it and have been brought to it by the instigation of Mr. Peidelow but not out of any malice to the English Nation but from a desire of reward which he promised me upon my return into France A while after Hubert was Tryed and Executed for this horrid Fact owning and acknowledging to the last his doing thereof by the Instigation of Piedelow But this not doing their work they took divers other methods for carrying on their designs which they had very near brought to perfection in the year 1678. had not the Divine Providence most eminently made use of Dr. Titus Oats in the discovery thereof who notwithstanding the reproaches of his Popish adversaries was liberally Educated in St. John's Colledge in Cambridge where he took his Degree and afterward proceeded Doctor in Divinity at Salamanca in Spain no contemptible University In the year 1672. he was Vicar of Bobbing in Kent but the Air not agreeing with him he left it and was for some time Minister near Chichester in Sussex and afterwards came to be Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk with an ample testimony of his sober Life and Conversation and whilst he was there he overheard some whisperings among the Popish Priests who were very conversant in that Family that there was some Great Design in hand but could not learn the particulars He had heard from his Protestant Friends and had read in Sir Hamond L'Stranges History of King Charles the First and other Judicious Authors That the Papists had for many years carried on a design to Introduce Popery once more into these Kingdoms which made him desire to know the bottom thereof and if it were possible to prevent it To this end he more freely conversed with that Party than he formerly used to do and seemed dissatisfied in some things concerning our Church and desired to discourse with some Jesuits who are accounted the most learned Men of the Popish faction This upon some Cautions he obtained and after divers Conferences with them in which he suffered himself to be overcome he was formally reconciled to the Church of Rome and a while after seeming to aspire to a higher degree of Perfection he desired to be admired into the Order of the Jesuits which after three dayes consideration they consented to and because he was a man of years being about Twenty eight they would not imploy him as a Novice but made him a Messenger of the Society This being the mark he aimed at they sent him with Letters to Valedolid in Spain which he judging to contain something of their Hellish contrivances dexterously opened by the way and thereby made some discovery of their wicked Intentions however he managed their Affairs with so much satisfaction that in a short time they made him privy to their most secret Consultations and keeping short Notes of all things of Concernment he was thereby in a capacity to give an account of so many several particulars as he has discovered which have had the happiness to be confirmed by other Circumstances and Evidence and have not the least contradicted one another nor those other Papers which have been found elsewhere nor differed from the Informations that have been given in by Mr. Bedlow Mr. Dugdale Mr. Jennison Mr. Mowbray Mr. Baldron and others whom God hath since raised