Vaur Montpelier and Lotran had granted vnto him and in recompence thereof King Lewis created him Constable of France in the yeare 1224. To put himselfe into possession King Lewis the eight came into Languedoc and comming to the gates of Auignon he was denied entrance because professing the Religion of the Albingenses they had beene excommunicated and giuen by the Pope to the first Conquerour for then Auignon was no chiefe Citie of the Earldome of Venessin as at this present but belonged to the King of Naples and Sicily The King being much moued with this deniall resolued to besiege it which continued for the space of eight moneths in the end whereof they yeelded themselues about Whitsontide in the yeare 1225. During this siege almost all the cities of Languedoc acknowledged the king of France by the mediation of Mr. Amelin Archbishop of Narbonne The King established for Gouernour in Languedoc Imbert de Beauieu and tooke his way to France but hee died by the way at Montpensier in September in the yeare 1226. The young Remond Earle of Toulouze was bound by promise to the king to goe to receiue his absolution of Pope Honorius and afterwards he should giue him peaceable possession of all his lands but the death of the king in the meane time happening he saw the Realme of France in the hands of king Lewis a childe and in his minority and the regency in the power and gouernment of his mother Hee thought that hauing to deale with an infant king and a woman regent he might recouer by force that which he had quit himselfe of by agreement He therefore resolued to take armes being encouraged thereunto by the succours of the Albingenses his subiects who were in great hope to maintaine their part in strength and vigor during the Non-age of the King of France but they were deceiued in their proiect For though Lewis the ninth were in his minoritie yet he was so happie as to haue a wise and a prudent mother if euer there were any For King Lewis the eighth before his death had appointed her the Tutrix or Gardianesse of his sonne and Regent of the Realme knowing very well her great capacity and sufficiency Besides Imbert de Beauieu maintained the authority of the king in Languedoc tooke armes and made opposition against the Earle Remond and the Albingenses The History of Languedoc sol 31. The Queene sent him diuers troopes by the helpe whereof he recouered the Castle de Bonteque neare to Toulouze which was a great hinderance to Imbert and his portizans All the Albingenses that were found within the Castle were put to death and a certaine Deacon with others that would not abiure their Religion by the commandement of the said Imbert Amel the Popes Legat and the aduise of Guyon Bishop of Carcassonne they were burnt aliue in the yeare 1227. suffring death with admirable constancy The more the persecution increased the more the number of the Albingenses multiplied which Imber of Beauieu perceiuing he went to the Court to let them vnderstand that without succours he could no longer defend the countrey and the places newly annexed to the Crowne and patrimony of France against the Albingenses and the Earle Remond In the meane time whilest he was absent the Earle Remond tooke the Castle Sarrazin one of the strongest places that Imbert had in his keeping and holding the field did much hurt to his enemies Imbert came from France at the spring of the yeare one thousand two hundred twenty eight accompanied with a great Armie of the Crosse in which there was the Archbishop of Bourges the Archbishop of Aouch and of Burdeaux euery one with the Pilgrims of their iurisdiction The Earle Remond retired himselfe into Toulouze where he was presently shut vp and all the country round about euen haruest and all spoiled and wasted Being brought to this extremitie Hist of Lang. fol. 33. the Abbot of Grandselue named Elias Garin came from Amelin the Popes Legat to offer peace to the Earle Remond and the Toulouzains He was receiued with great ioy offering peace and plenty to those that were almost famished and wearied with warre Neuerthelesse the wisest amongst them who better foresaw the euent of things knew well enough that so soone as they had gotten the Earle Remond into their hands they would make vse of him to persecute them that they would establish the inquisition and kindle their fires againe and so vtterly destroy them both bodies and soules but the reasons of these men were ouercome by the importunate cries of the common people almost famished who could not see the time wherein they were fettered with the halter that should strangle them Besides the enemie wanted not people in Toulouze that were willing to terrifie the Earle Remond saying that he was not now to deale with Americ of Montfort but with a king of France who had power sufficient to ouerthrow him that continuall feuers kill men and long warres would at the last burie them all The Earle Remond passed his word to the Abbot to be at a certaine day at Vasieges there to resolue vpon that which was to bee done to bring the peace to a perfection In the meane time a truse was agreed vpon with the Toulouzains for certaine daies The Earle Remond came at the day to the place appointed and so did the Abbot of Grandselue After much discourse and communication touching a peace the Abbot made him beleeue that it would be for his greater aduantage to bee in France than in that place and that forasmuch as the businesse concerned the King that it was necessary that the Queene-mother being Tutrix vnto him and Regent of France should be present and that more would be done in a few daies than in a whole yeare the businesse requiring so many iournies and goings and commings which peraduenture would bee long and vnprofitable and so pawned his faith that hereby he should receiue all contentment Being vanquished by these promises he consented to come into France whethersoeuer the Queene-mother should appoint Meaux was the place she made choise of and his time was appointed He came thither but he was no sooner arriued but he repented and acknowledged his great ouersight in that he had giuen credit to the words of a Priest especially knowing that his deceased father had alwaies sped so ill by trusting to those that hold this for a maxime that Faith is not to be kept with Heretikes or their fauourers That he being held for such a one had no reason to looke for better successe There was therefore now no more question of treaties or communications but of submission to whatsoeuer should be enioyned him He had now no longer freedome of speech but he was carefully guarded for feare least he should fly to the Albingenses The Historiographer of Languedoc The Hist of Lang. fol. 34. though in other matters much animated against the Albingenses yet hee could not write of this without
armes he had recourse to his ordinary wiles and subtilties hoping to worke his ruine vnder a pretence of amitie He caused therefore the Legat Bonauenture to write vnto him that he had compassion on him for that he was so obstinate in so great a warre to his great charge and the losse of the bloud of his Subiects which if he would he might end in a short time by taking his iourny to Rome declaring his innocency to the Pope that he would giue him his best assistance as far forth as possibly he could to procure the restitution of all his Lands But yet it was very necessarie that the Church should haue some gages of his fidelitie that is that he should deliuer into his hands the Castle of Foix the one onely meanes to take away all shadow and shew of false play and that incontinently after his returne turne it should be restored vnto him with the rest of his houses He suffered himselfe to be cheated and gulled by these promises deliuered vnto him the Castle of Foix and tooke his iourney to Rome but if he went a foole thither a foole he returned For the Legat had written to Rome to the Conclaue and to the Pope that the Earle of Foix was one of the most dangerous Heretiques that was amongst the Albingenses a man of great courage and valiant and most to be feared that if he were subdued the Earle of Toulouze would be much weakned that he had gotten from him the meanes to doe any hurt by obtaining by faire words those places which the Church would neuer haue gotten by armes namely the Castle of Foix and that they were to take heed that they made no restitution of his lands which if they did it would bee impossible that the Church should euer bring the Albingenses to their vtter ruine The Pope was willing enough to ioyne in his ouerthrow but because hee came vnto him with submissions he feared least it might bee a meanes to hinder others from euer putting any confidence in the Pope He was prodigall of his Crosses his Bulls and his Words but in effect he commanded his Legat that he should not restore vnto him those places vntill hee had giuen good proofes of his obedience and iustification Presently vpon his returne hee addressed himselfe to the Legat to enioy the effect of his faire promises The Legat gaue him to vnderstand that his hands were bound by the Pope because there were some clauses in his Bulls that did binde him to a new proceeding and to know in good earnest what his innocency was but yet he should assure himselfe of his affection and that he should not attribute to him if he receiued not his full content and that he would doe his best endeuour to make loue and friendship betwixt the Earle Simon and himselfe The Earle of Foix by little and little with-drew himselfe fearing to be arrested walking about the fields and houses of his Subiects as for his owne they were all in the hands of the Earle Simon There he cursed his owne facilitie to suffer himselfe to be gulled by a Priest bites his singers for anger to see himselfe so blockishly abused after so many trickes and stratagems plaid against him The Earle of Toulouze and the King of Aragon resolue to make a leuy of their Subiects and presently to build a Fort at Montgranier a place very strong by nature In a few daies they made it a place of defence by the means labours of their poore subiects who bewailing their own miseries their Lords trauelled day night very willingly to bring the work to an end This place being built he put therin a garison left there his son Roger. The Earle Simon besieged it in the end took it by famine The cōposition was that Roger should not beare armes for one whole yeare against the Church An Article that troubled much this valiant Lord. For he withdrew himselfe for the same yeare into a house where he counted the moneths and the daies till the time was expired wherein he might either die valiantly in fight or vanquish his enemies And to this purpose he many times conferred with the sonne of the King of Aragon lately slaine how he might carrie himselfe to finde a meanes to be reuenged of his Fathers death The Legat Bonauenture in the meane time vseth the same subtletie with the Earle Remond of Toulouze He perswadeth him to goe to Rome to determine his affaires with the Pope more peaceably than with the Earle Simon The Monke of the Valley Sernay Chap. 133. especially because he was charged with the death of his owne Brother the Earle Baudoin taken in the Castle d'Olme in the Country of Cahors because he had there borne Armes against him an action that had made him odious both to God and men and which his enemies did exaggerate to the end they might stirre vp the Pilgrims to take vengeance on him saying That at the very point of death they had denied him a Confessor and that the said Bodoin prayed vnto God that he would raise vp some good Christians to reuenge the wrong done vnto him by his brother as by another Caine. The son of the Earle of Toulouze named also Remond vnderstanding that his Father was to take his iourney to Rome he went with letters from his Vncle the King of England to the Pope intreating him to doe iustice to his brother in Law The young Lord had beene brought vp vntill then in England where he could no longer spend time seeing his Father oppressed with warres and continuall trauels he therefore resolued to vse his best endeuours for his deliuerance either by composition or by armes The cause of the Earle Remond was debated before the Pope There was a Cardinall that maintained Idem Chap. 152. that great wrong had beene offered those Lords who had many times giuen of their best lands to the Church to witnesse their obedience The Abbot of St. Vberi also tooke their part with great courage and resolution The Earle Remond likewise defended his owne cause charging the Bishop of Toulouze with many outrages and that if hee had beene constrained to defend himselfe he must accuse those that had driuen him to that necessitie for had he not made resistance he had long agoe beene vtterly ouerthrowne That the Bishop of Toulouze had many times caught vnto him the fairest of his reuenewes and being neuer satisfied did still continue to vex him parting his goods with the Earle Simon of Montfort and that their onely auarice had beene the cause of the death of ten thousand men of Toulouze and of the pillage of that faire and great Citie a losse which could neuer be repaired The Charterie of Lion did also shew vnto the Pope that the Bishop of Toulouze had alwaies kindled the fire and warmed himselfe at the flame Arnaud de Villemur did also present himselfe before the Pope demanding Iustice for that the
of the valleys Seruay What the sect of Geneua doth admit Th'hereticke Albigeois doth commit Anthony d'Ardene of Tholouse in the same booke saith Ibid. Wherewith our Hugonites seasoned were The same intention the selfesame care We need not therefore dispute any longer of the antiquitie of this doctrine but onely of the puritie thereof since that not onely by the affirmation of those that were aduersaries to the Waldenses and the last resormation there are whole ages during the which the substance of that beleefe hath remained in diuers persons who crying out against the abuses which haue crept into the Church haue bene oppressed by persecutions And for as much as it is denied that we haue had a succession of such instruments who haue opposed themselues from time to time against those corruptions and errours which haue borne sway we will produce in the Chapter following a catalogue both of those which our aduersaries haue named and put to death and of those whom the Waldenses haue had for their Pastors for these foure hundred and fiftie yeares last past at leastwise of as many as haue come to our knowledge CHAP. IX The names of those Pastours of the Waldenses who haue instructed them for foure hundred yeares last past and haue come to our knowledge WAldo from whom the Waldenses tooke their name began to teach the people in the yeare of our Lord a thousand one hundred and sixtie Le Sieur de Sancte Aldegonde obserueth In his first table of Differ pa. 150. that at the same time that Waldo began to shew himselfe and to teach at Lions God raised others in Prouence and Languedoc among whom the principall were Arnold Esperon and Ioseph of whom they were named Arnoldists Iosephists Esperonists though because their doctrine was first receiued in Albi in the countrie of the Albigeois they were commonly called Albigeois in such manner that on the one side the Waldenses and on the other the Albigeois were as the two Oliues or the two lampes which Saint Iohn speaketh of whose light did spread it selfe through all the corners of the earth At the same time saith he followed Peter Bruis whereupon many called them Peter Brusiens To whom there succeeded in doctrine one Henry the one being a Priest the other a Monke and they taught in the Bishoprickes of Arles Ambrun Die and Gap from whence being chased away they were receiued at Tholouse There was a certaine man saith he called Barthelmew borne at Carcassonne Idem ibid. p. 15â— that ordered and gouerned the Churches in Bulgaria Croatia Dalmatia Hungaria and appointed Ministers as Mathew Paris reports naming him their Pope or Bishop and alledging to that purpose the letter which the Bishop of Portuense Legate to the Pope in the parts thereabouts writ to the Archbishop of Roan and his suffragans demanding succours and assistance against them insomuch that they were at the last constrained to retire themselues into desarts following that prophesie in the 12 of the Reuelation which saith that the woman great with child that brought forth a man child which is the true Church of God should in such sort be persecuted by the Dragon which cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood so that she was constrained to flie into the wildernesse where she should be nourished for a time and times and halfe a time or for the space of forty two moneths or a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Rainerius makes mention of two famous Bishops of the Waldenses viz of one Belazinanza of Verona one Iohn de Lugio who taught amongst them after the abouenamed about the yeare a thousand two hundred fifty Arnold Hot pastor amongst the Waldenses maintained the disputation at Mont Real whereof we shall make mention in his due place Lollard was also in great reputation amongst them both for a Commentary which he had written vpon the Reuelation as also for that he had giuen knowledge of their doctrine in England of whose name the Waldenses were called Lollards The Waldenses of the valleys of Angrongne of Dauphiney Prouence and Calabria haue had for their Pastors these whose memories they haue preserued for aboue three hundred yeares past that is to say in Piemont Paul Gignons de Bobi It appeares by the memories of Vignaux fol. 14. Peter the lesse Anthony of the valley of Suse Iohn Martin of the valley Saint Martin Mathew dc Bobi Philip of the valley Lucerna George of Piemont Steuen Laurence of the valley Saint Martin Martin de Meane Iohn of the valley of Lucerna who for some offence was suspended from his office for seuen yeares during which time he remained at Gennes where the Pastors had a house as they had also another very faire one at Florence Iohn Girard de Meane surnamed with the great hand Of the valley of Angrongne Thomas Bastie who died in the seruice of the Waldenses Churches at Pouille Sebastian Bastie who died in Calabria Iohn Bellonat of the same valley who was the first amongst the Pastors that married a wise Of the valleys of Perouse Iames Germain Benedict Gorran Paul Gignous de Bobi Iohn Romagnol of Sesena in Italie Of Dauphiney Francis of the valley of Fraissiniere Michel Porte of the valley Loyse in Briançonnois Peter Flot of Pragela Of Prouence Angelin de la Coste Daniel de Valentia and Iohn de Molines These two were sent into Bohemia to serue in the Churches of the Waldenses gathered together in the said Realme but they betrayed the Churches and brought much mischiefe vpon them by discouering vnto the enemies of the said Waldenses whatsoeuer they knew of their troupes and meetings whereby there happened a great persecution which occasioned the Churches of Bohemia to write to the Waldensian Churches of the Alpes from thence forward not to call to such vocations any persons whose faith honestie and zeale was not throughly knowne by long proofe and experience The last Pastors which they had were George Maurel and Peter Masçon who in the yeare of our Lord 1530. were sent into Germany to confer of religion with Oecolampadius Bucer and others Peter Masçon was taken prisoner at Dijon Steuen Negrin and Lewis Paschal were sent into Calabria in the yeare 1560. to the Waldensian Churches at Montald Saint Xist and other places thereabout Steuen Nâ—egrin was taken prisoner and sent to Cosence where he died in prison for want of sustenance Lewis Paschal was sent to Rome where he was condemned and burnt aliue Pope Pius the fourth of that name being present and his Cardinals whom he summoned to appeare before the throne of the Lambe to giue an account of their cruelties There are a great number of others as may appeare by the processe commenced against the Waldenses of Dauphiney which are come to our hands wherein mention is made of diuers Pastours which they haue had It appeareth by that
de Chateauneuf was slain in this busines and for that canonized for a Saint Dominique continued in his persecution of the Waldenses both in deed and word This Monke seeing himselfe to bee in authority Moynes qui mandient instituted an Order of begging Monkes who after his name were callad Dominicans and the said Monke was canonized and his Order confirmed by Pope Honorius being warned saith hee to doe it by a dreame For it seemed to him that the Church of Rome was falling and that Dominique vpheld it with his shoulders in recompence whereof the said Pope commanded that the said Order should haue the first place among the Mendicants Mandians It is said of this Monke The Martirologe in the life of Dominique that his mother when shee went with childe with him shee did dreame that shee had in her wombe a dogge that cast out flames of fire out of his throat His followers interpret this to his aduantage as if hereby we were giuen to vnderstand that hee should be that dogge that should vomit out that fire which should consume the Heretikes But on the contrary they whom hee euery day deliuered vnto death might well say that hee was the dogge that had set on fire all Christendome and that the flames that came out of his throat doe note vnto vs those fiery and infernall sentences which he pronounced against the Christians Howsoeuer hee caried himselfe so well in these affaires that before hee died he built many goodly houses in Languedoc Prouence Dolphine Spaine and elswhere by which hee had obtained great reuenewes either from the liberality of those that affected his Order or the Confiscations of the Waldenses by which the Count Simon of Montfort gaue him great priuiledges and almes as cutting large thongs of another mans leather He laboured in the Inquifition as the chiefe with such contentment to the Popes that from that time forward the Monkes of his Order haue been alwaies imployed in the Inquisition The power giuen to these Monkes Inquisitors was without limits For they could assemble the people whensoeuer it pleased them by the sound of a bell proceed against the Blshops themselues and send out proces if there were need to imprison and to open the prisons without controle All manner of accusations was auailable enough A Sorcerer a Harlot were sufficient witnesses without reproch in the fact of pretended heresie It was no matter who did accuse or whether by word of mouth or by tickets cast in before the Inquisitor for without any personall appearance or confronting one another the the proces were framed without party without witnesse and without other law then the pleasure of the Inquisitor To be rich was a crime neere vnto heresie and he that had any thing to lose was in the way to bee vndone either as an Hereticke or at the least as a fauourer of heretikes One bare suspition stopped the mouthes of fathers and mothers and kinsfolke that they durst not intercede for punishments to come and he that did intreat for the conuey of a cup of cold water or a little straw to lye vpon in some stinking dungeon was condemned for a fauourer of Heretickes and brought to the same or worse extremities There was no Aduocate that durst vnder take the defence of his nearest kinsinan or friend or Notary that durst receiue any act in his fauour And that which was more after that a man was once intangled within the snares of the Inquisition he could neuer liue in any assurance for hee was alwaies to beginne againe For if any man were set at liberty it was only for a time till they might better consider of it Death it selfe made not an end of the punishment for they haue left vnto vs certaine coppies of their sentences against the bones of the dead to dis-interre and to burne them yea thirty yeeres after the decease of the party accused They that were heires had nothing certaine for vpon any accusation of their fathers or kindred they durst not vndertake the defence of their owne right or possesse their owne inheritance without the crime or suspition of Heresie and that they rather inherited their bad faith and opinions then their goods The people yea the most mighty and richest amongst them were constrained in a manner to adore these Monkes the Inquisitors and to bestow vpon them great Presents for the building of their Couents and dotations of their houses for feare to bee accused of Heresie and not to be estemed zealous for the faith of those holy fathers And the better to entertaine men with an apprehension of these things they sometimes made shewes and brauadoes of their prisoners leading them in triumph at their Processions some being enioyned to whip themselues others to goe couered after the manner of St. Benedicts that is to say with certaine red Cassockes with yellow crosses to signifie that they were such as had been conuinced of some errour and that at the first offence they should afterward commit they were already condemned for Heretickes Others appeared in their shirts bare-foote and bare-headed with a with about their neckes a torch in their hands that being thus prepared and furnished they might giue terror to the beholders to see such persons of all estates and sex brought to so miserable a condition being all forbid to enter into the Church but to stay in the porch or to cast an eye vpon the Hoste when it was showed by the Priest vntill it was otherwise determined by the Fathers the Inquisitors And for the full accomplishment of the contentment of the said Fathers their accused were exiled for a penance into the holy Land or enrolled for some other expedition against the Turkes or other Infidels leuied by the command of the Pope to serue the Church for a certaine time at their owne charge and in the meane time the said holy Fathers tooke possession of the goods of the poore Pilgrims and that which was worst of all at their returne they must not enquire whether the said Monkes had in their absence any priuate familiarity with their wiues for feare lest they should be condemned for back-sliders impenitent and altogether vnworthy of any fauour Now these violences being executed from the yeer a thousand two hundred and six which was baout the time that Dominique erected his Inquisition to the yeere one thousand two hundred twenty eight there was so great a hauock made of poore Christians that the Archbishops of Aix Arles and Narbonne being assembled together at Aingou in the said yeere 1228 at the instance of the said Monkes the Inquisitors to confer with them about diuers difficulties in the execution of their charge had compassion of the misery of a great number that were accused and kept in prison by the said Monkes the Inquisitors saying It is come to our knowledge See the Catal. of the Test of the truth pag. 53â— that you haue apprehended so great a number of the Waldenses
that it is not only not possible to defray the charge of their nourishment but to prouide lyme and stone to build prisons for them we therefore counsell you say they that you defer a little such imprisonments vntill the Pope may bee aduertised of the great numbers that haue been apprehended and that he doe aduise what pleaseth him to bee done if not there is no reason you should take offence for those that are impenitent and incorigible Vous tuissies or that you should doubt of their relaps or that they should escape away or hauing their liberty should infect others because you may condemne such persons without delay There needs no other proofe then this of the aforesaid Prelats to make it appeare that the number of those whom the Inquisition had deliuered vnto death was very great For touching the question moued by the said Inquisitors whether they that haue frequented the company of the Waldenses and haue receiued the Supper of the Lord with them are to be excused because they say they offended out of ignorance not knowing that they were Waldenses The the answer of the said Prelats was that they were not to be excused Because say they who is so great a stranger as not to know that the Waldenses haue been punished and condemned for these many yeers since and who knoweth not that for a long time they haue been pursued and persecuted at the charge and trauell of Catholikes this pursuit being sealed by so many persons condemned to death if it cannot be called into doubt And yet neuertheles the speech of the said Prelats being conferred with that which George Morell in the yeer a thousand fiue hundred and thirty hath written it would be none of the least wonders that God hath wrought that notwithstanding the bloody persecutions after Waldo his time in the yeere a thousand one hundred sixty George Morel in his memorials pa. 54. there were according to the report of Morel aboue eight hundred thousand persons that made profession of the faith of the said Waldenses As touching the subtleties of the said Inquisitors we should not haue had any knowledge thereof but from such as haue escaped from the Inquisition of Spaine but that it was the will of God that their cunning trickes should not bee so closely hid but that wee had examples thereof euen from themselues Behold then the crafty subtleties of the Inquisitors which serued them for a rule in the framing of their proces against the Waldenses It is not expedient to dispute of matter of faith before lay-people No man shall be held for a penitent man if he accuse not those that he knowes to be such as himselfe He that accuseth not those that are like vnto himself shall be cut off from the Church as a rotten member for feare lest the members that are sound should be corrupted by him After that any one hath been deliuered to the secular power great care must bee taken that hee bee not suffered to excuse himselfe or to manifest his innocencie before the people because if be he deliuered to death it is a scandall to the lay-people and if hee make an escape there is danger of his loyalty Good heed must bee taken not to promise life vnto him that is condemned to death before the people considering that an Heretike will neuer suffer himselfe to bee burnt if hee may escape by such promises And if he shall promise to repent before the people if he haue not his life granted vnto him there will arise ascandall amongst them and it will be thought that he is wrongfully put to death Note say they that the Inquisitor ought alwaies to presuppose the fact without any condition and is onely to enquire of the circumstances of the fact as thus how often hast thou confessed thy selfe vnto Heretickes In what chamber of the house haue they layen and the like things The Inquisitor may looke into any booke as if he found there written the life of him that is accused and of all that he enquires of It is necessary to threaten death to the accused if he confesse not and to tell him the fact is too manifest that it is fit he should thinke of his soule and renounce his Heresie for he must die and therefore it shall bee good for him to take patiently whatsoeuer shall light vpon him And if he shall answer since I must die I had rather die in that faith I professe then in that of the Romish Church then conclude for certaine that before he made but a shew of repentance and so let him suffer iustice Wee must not thinke to vanquish Heretickes by learning or by the scriptures inasmuch as men that are learned are rather confounded by them whereby it comes to passe that the Heretickes fortifie themselues seeing they are able to delude the most learned Againe great heed must bee taken that the Heretikes neuer answer directy and when they are pressed by frequent interrogations they haue a custome to alledge for themselues that they are simple and foolish people and therefore know not how to answere And if they shall once see the assistants to bee moued with compassion towares them as if they should doe them wrong thinking them to be simple people and therefore not culpable then they gather heart and make a show of shedding teares like poore miserable creatures and flattering their iudges they endeauour to free themselues from the Inquisition saying Sir If I haue been faulty in any thing I will willingly doe penance but yet giue me your aide and assistance to deliuer me from this infamy into which I am fallen by the malice of others not mine owne fault But then the couragious Inquisitor must not yeeld for all these flatteries nor giue any beliefe to those dissimulations Moreouer the Inquisitor must tell them that they shall gaine nothing by swearing falsly because they haue enough to conuince them by witnesses and therefore they must not thinke that by meanes of their oath they shall auoide the sentence of death but they must promise them say they that if they will freely confesse their error they shall haue mercy for in such perplexities there are many that confesse their error in hope to escape Thus you see the subtilties of the Monkes the Inquisirors such as they practised in times past against the Waldenses throughout all Europe It remaines that we now see what their practise hath been in euery particular Realme and Prouince so far forth as is come to our knowledge And first we will begin with Dauphine because it is the Prouince into which Waldo and his followers retired themselues at their departure from Lion CHAP. III. Of the Waldensian Churches in Dauphine and the persecutions which they haue suffered which are come to our knowledge THe Waldensian Churches in Dauphine haue been for these many hundred yeeres spread abroad throughout diuers parts of the Prouince For they haue had Churches in Valentia
those Latine verses which were written a gainst the said Alexander the sixth Vendit Alexander cruces altaria Christum Emer at ille prius vendere iure potest Pope Alexander sold altars Christ and his crosse He bought them had he not sold had liued by the losse Againe Templa Sacerdotes Altaria Sacra Coronae Ignis Thura Preces Caelum est venale Deúsque Temples Priests Altars Crowns they sell for pelfe Fire Frankincense Prayers heauen and God himselfe which is to be vnderstood of their breaden god in the Masse The Arch-bishop therfore was the cause why others kept still those goods in their possession without any restitution and though some particular persons were afterwards called into question as namely Le Sieur de Montainar de Rames and others yet they could neuer haue any remedy In the yeere one thousand fiue hundred sixty the Waldenses of Frassiniere and Pragela had their Churches furnished with Pastors who held them in the exercise of their religion at that time wherein they persecuted vnto death all those that made profession of reformation The President Truchon made an Oration to the States of Prouence assembled the same yeere the sixt of Nouember of purpose to exterminate the said Waldenses of Frassinieres and Pragela saying that it was necessary to purge the old and ancient Leuen likely to make soure the whole Country of Dauphine if some course were not taken to preuent it By these States it was rerefolued by open force to extirpate them and by armes and to this purpose Commissions were giuen forth to leuy troopes of men and to passe into the said Valleies but so soone as the drumme was strooken vp and the men in armes throughout Prouence the vnexpected death of King Francis the second of that name altered the designe and afterwards the said Waldensian Churches in Dauphine continued as still they doe by the singular fauour of God CHAP. IIII. Of the Waldensian Churches in Piedmont and those persecutions they endured that are come to our knowledge THE Waldenses haue had famous Churches in the Valleis of Piedmont Angrongne la Perouse the Valley Saint Martin Lucerna and other bordering places for time out of minde It is held for certaine amongst them that they are a part of the Waldenses of Dauphine Pragela Frassinieres and other places their neere neighbours and that in time being multiplied in so great abundance that the Country could not feed them they were constrained to disperse themselues at length and at large where they might best settle themselues So deare like brothers haue they been one to another and notwithstanding they haue been alwaies oppressed with troubles yet with a most hearty loue and charity they haue euer succoured one another not sparing their liues and goods for their mutuall conseruation The first troubles that the Waldenses of Piedmont endured came from the report of certaine Priests sent thither by the Arch-bishop of Turin who informed that the people that were committed to their charge liued not according to the manners and be liefe of the Church of Rome neither offering for the dead nor caring for Masses or absolutions nor to get any of theirs out of the paines of Purgatory by any of their vsuall meanes The Arch-bishops of Turin haue persecuted them as much as lay in their power making them odious to their Princes who vnderstanding of the good report that their neighbours gaue of their milde honest conuersation Vignaux in his memorials fol. 7. and that they were a simple people fearing God of a good carriage without deceit or malice louing integrity and plaine dealing alwaies ready to serue their Princes and that very willingly they yeelded vnto them all dutifull obedience and that with alacrity Being in such grace and fauour with the people their neighbours that they endeauoured to bring into Piedmont to their seruice their young people and to prouide their nurses amongst them to bring vp their yong infants the said Princes continued a long time in a purpose not to molest them but the Priests and Monkes that were frequent amongst them gaining nothing by this their beliefe charged them with an infinite number of Calumnies and whensoeuer they went into Piedmont vpon occasion of businesse they alwaies caught one or other and deliuered him to the Inquisitors and the Inquisitors to the executioner In such manner that there was hardly any Towne or Citty in Piedmont in which one or other of them was not put to death For Iordan Tertian was burnt at Suse Hypolite Roussier was burnt at Turin Villermin Ambroise was hanged at Meane as also Anthony Hiun Hugh Chiampe de Fenestrelles being taken at Suse was conueied to Turin where his bowels were torne out of his belly and put into a bason and hee afterwards cruelly martyred among which the seruants of God there were some who haue maintained that truth which they haue knowne for aboue two hundred and fifty yeeres and others aboue a hundred and fifty But amongst all the rest the constancy of one Catelin Girard is worthy the remembrance who being vpon the blocke whereon hee should bee burnt at Reuel in the Marquisate of Saluces he requested his executioners to giue him a coupple of stones into his hands which they refused to doe fearing he had a purpose to fling them at some one or other but hee protesting the contrary at the last they deliuered them vnto him Vignaux in his memorials fol. 7. who hauing them in his hands said vnto them when I shall haue eaten these stones then shall ye see an end of that religion for which you put me to death and so cast the stones vpon the ground The fires were kindled vntill the yeere one thousands foure hundred eighty eight at what time they resolued to assault them by open force because besides that they perceiued that the constancy of those whom they did publikely put to death drew a great number of others to the knowledge of God they likewise found that by this meanes they should neuer come to their purposed designe And therefore they leuied men to ioyne with Albert de Capitaneis one put in Commission by Pope Sixtus the fourth and Innocent the eight There were eighteene thousand souldiers mustered besides a great number of the Inhabitants of Piedmont who ran to the pillage from all parts They marched all at once to Angrongne Lucerne la Perouse Saint Martin Prauiglerm and Biolet which is in the Marquisate of Saluces as also they raised troopes in Vaucluson in Dauphine ouerrunning the Valley of Pragela to the end that being bound to their owne defence they might not be able to fauour their neighbours the Waldensian Churches in Piedmont All this was guided by the singular prouidence of God in that they diuided their troopes by bands rather out of their pride then for their better expedition For notwithstanding they were all imployed in their owne defence and could not succor one another yet the enemy by this diuision did
and being retired to Cossence where the Sindic of Saint Xist appeared before them they wished him speedily to withdraw himselfe for feare lest the Viceroy should know of his being there and so apprehend him This brought those of la Garde a sleepe who being cited by a publike proclamation to appeare before the said Inquisitors at Cossence or before the Viceroy at Folcade they were easily perswaded to beleeue the promises and faire speeches of the said Inquisitors For being arriued at Folcade there were seuenty of them apprehended and being bound were brought to Montaud before the Inquisitor Panza who put them all to the racke Amongst others he tormented one Steuen Charlin with such violence that his bowels brake out of his belly and all to extort from him this confession and imposture that is that they sometimes assembled themselues by night to commit whoredomes and damnable incestes the candles being put out But notwithstanding his extreame torture they could neuer get from him the confession of so great a wickednesse There was another called Verminel who with the extreame paine he endured vpon the racke promised to goe to Masse The Inquisitor thinking that since the torment of the racke had enforced him to forsake his Religion that redoubling the violence thereof he might draw from this feeble and tired person the confession of the former imposture And so caused him to be tormented in such a manner that many times he left him eight houres together vpon the racke but yet could neuer get from his mouth so horrible a calumnie Another named Marcon being stript starke naked was beaten with rods of iron afterwards drawen through the streets and burnt with fire-brands One of his sonnes was killed with kniues the other was brought to a high tower where there was offered vnto him a Crucifix with promise that if he would kisse it his life should be saued He answered that hee would rather die then commit idolatry and though he were cast headlong from that tower as he was threatned yet he had rather his body should be broken to peeces here on earth then by denying Christ and his truth his soule should be cast into hell The Inquisitor being much enraged with this answere commanded him to be cast from the tower to the end saith he we may see whether his God will protect him Bernard Conte was condemned to be burnt aliue and as he was led to the fire he cast to the earth a certaine Crucifix which the Executioner had fastened to his hands The Inquisitor hereupon commanded him to be sent backe to prison to the end his paine might be aggrauated and so sent him to Cossence where he caused him to be couered with pitch and so burnt Besides this Inquisitor Panza cut the throats of fourescore as a butcher doth his muttons afterwards he caused them to be diuided into foure quarters and commanded that the high waies from Montald to Chasteau Vilar should be set with stakes for the space of thirty miles and caused a quarter to be fastened to euery stake and in a place called Moran he caused to be hanged and strangled foure of the principall men of la Garde that is to say Iames Ferner Anthony Palomb Peter Iacio and Iohn Morglia who died very constantly A certaine yong man named Samson defended himself a long time against those that would haue apprehended him but in the end being wounded he was taken and led to a high tower where he was willed to confesse himselfe to a Priest that was there present before he should be cast from the tower which he refused to doe saying that he had confessed himselfe to God So the Inquisitor commanded him to be cast ouer The next day the Viceroy passing below by the tower he found this poore man languishing hauing his bones broken and imploring the mercy of God to whom he gaue a kicke on the head with his foote saying Is this dogge yet aliue cast him out to the hogges Threescore women of Saint Xist were brought to the racke and vsed with such violence that the cordes pierced into their armes and legges in such sort that in their wounds there were ingendred a great quantity of wormes which fed vpon them being aliue they not knowing how to remedy it vntill some one or other hauing compassion on them gaue them secretly lyme which caused them to fall from them They died almost all miserably in prison Nine of the chiefe and hansomest amongst them were lost and it was neuer knowne what became of them after they were deliuered to the Fathers of the Inquisition This Inquisitor retired himselfe to Saint Agathe where hee deliuered a great number to the secular power and if any man offered to intercede for them he caused him to be put to the racke as a fauourer of Heretickes in such sort that in the end there was not any that durst to open his mouth in their behalfe Pope Pius the fourth of that name sent for their destruction the Marquis of Butiane with promise that if he would doe that good office to the holy Sea as to cleere Calabria of those Waldenses that had there taken footing he would giue vnto his sonne a Cardinals hat The Marquis tooke no great paines to execute his Commission for the Monkes the Inquisitors and the Viceroy of Naples had almost put all to death that they could apprehend hauing sent to the Galleys of Spaine the strongest of them and condemned to perpetuall banishment the fugitiues sold and killed woman and children As touching their Ministers Steuen Negrin was sent to prison at Cossence were he died with famine Lewis Paschal was carried to Rome where he was condemned to be burnt aliue Pope Pius the fourth would needs feede his eye with this last punishment of him that had maintained him to be Antichrist being present at his death with many of his Cardinals But the Pope could haue wished himselfe elswere or that Paschal had been mute or the people deafe For he spake many things against the Pope out of the word of God which gaue him a great deale of discontent Thus did this good man die calling vpon God with an ardent zeale that he much moued the standers by and made the Pope and his Cardinals to gnash their teeth for anger Thus haue you seen the end of the Waldenses of Calabria who were wholly exterminated For if any of the fugitiues be returned it is vpon condition that they liue according the lawes of the Church of Rome CHAP. VIII Of the Waldenses inhabiting in Prouence and the persecutions which they haue suffered THe Waldenses inhabiting in Prouence in the parts of Cabrieres Meriadol la Coste and other places neere adioyning haue been held for the originall of-spring of the Waldenses inhabiting in Dauphine and Piedmont as it may very well appeare by the families of the same name as also there are amongst them that can proue their progeny or of-spring And vpon this occasion it was that they
therefore that their zeale was the more they stirred vp their enemies against them and plunged themselues into the greater dangers But as all are not victorious by faith but there are alwaies some weake who take counsell of the flesh and perswade themselues without reason that they can crooch and bow themselues in those places where God is offended by idolatry and yet keepe the heart pure and neate vnto God Oecolampadius from thence takes occasion to write that which followeth to be deliuered to those dissemblers which walke not with an vpright foote before God The Letter of Occolampadius written to the VValdenses of Prouence who thought they could serue God by prostituting their bodies before Popish Idols Written in the yeere 1530. Oecolampadius desires the grace of God the Father by his Sonne Iesus Christ and his holy Spirit to his well-beloued Brethren in Christ who are called VValdenses WEe vnderstand that the feare of persecution hath made you to dissemble in your faith and that you hide it Now we beleeue with the heart to righteousnesse and confesse with the mouth to saluation but they that feare to confesse Christ before the world shall not bee receiued by God the Father For our God is truth without any dissimulation and as he is a iealous God he cannot endure that they that are his should ioyne together vnder the yoake of Antichrist for there is no communiō of Christ with Belial And if you communicate with the infidels in going to their abominable Masses you cannot but perceiue their blasphemies against the death and passion of Christ For when they glory in themselues that by the meanes of such sacrifice they satisfie God for the sinnes of the liuing and the dead what can follow but that Iesus Christ hath not sufficiently satisfied by the sacrifice of his death and passion and consequently that Christ is not Iesus that is a Sauiour and that he died for you in vaine If then we haue communion at this impure table we declare our selues to be one body with the wicked how irkesome so euer it be vnto vs. And when we say Amen to their prayers doe we not deny Christ What death should we not rather chuse What paine and torment should we not rather suffer Nay into what hell ought we not rather to plunge our selues then to witnesse by our presence that we consent vnto the blasphemies of the wicked I know that your weaknesse is great but it is necessary that they that haue learned that they are bought by the blood of Christ should be more couragious and alwaies feare him that can cast both body and soule into hell And what shall it suffice vs to haue a care of this life onely shall that be more precious vnto vs then that of Christ And are we contented to haue tasted the delights of this world onely Crownes are prepared for vs and shall we turne backe againe And who will beleeue that our faith hath been true if it faile and faint in the heat of persecution Let vs therefore pray vnto God to increase our faith For certainly it shall be better for vs to die then to be ouercome by temptations And therefore brethren we exhort you to diue into the bottome of this businesse For if it to be lawfull to hide our faith vnder Antichrist it shall be likewise lawfull to hide it vnder the Empire of the Turke and with Dioclesian to adore Iupiter and Venus nay it had been lawfull for Tobit to adore the calfe in Bethel And what then shall our faith towards God be If we honour not God as we should and if our life be nothing but Hipocricy and dissimulation he will spew vs out of his mouth as being neither hot nor cold And how doe we glorifie our Lord in the middest of our tribulations if we deny him Brethren it is not lawfull for vs to looke backe when our hand is at the plough neither is it lawfull to giue care to our wiues entising vs to euill that is to say to our flesh which notwithstanding it indure many things in this world yet in the hauen it suffereth shipwracke These godly admonitions preuailed much for the confirmation of the more weake and they came in very good time for those who presently after were sifted with many tempestuous outrages and euen one of those that brought the Letters made good vse of them that is to say Peter Masson who was apprehended at Diion where he was condemned to death for a Lutheran George Morel saued himselfe with his letters and papers and came sound and safe into Prouence where he bestowed much paines and with happy successe in the establishing of the Churches of the Waldenses of which the Court of Parliament at Aix did euery day apprehend one faithfull member or other whom they either condemned to the fire or sent to the gibbet or dismissed with markes in their foreheads vntill that in the yeere 1540 the Inhabitants of Merindol were summoned in the person of fiue or six of the principall at the earnest importunity of the Kings Atturney in the Parliament of Aix and the sollicitation of the Arch-bishop of Arles the Bishop of Aix other Ecclesiasticall persons A sentence was giuen against them the most exorbitant cruell and inhumane that euer was in any Parliament like in all things to that edict of King Assuerus granted at the instance of Aman against the people of God as it is written in the History of Hester For besides that the men and women that were summoned for contumacy were condemned to be burnt aliue by the said sentence their children and families outlawed it was decreed that the place of Merindol should be altogether made vnhabitable the woods cut downe two hundred paces round about it and all this without any audience or leaue granted to any to speake a word The King being informed of the rigour of this Edict sent into Prouence the Lord du Langeai to enforme him of the manners and beleefe of the said Waldenses and vnderstanding that many things were laid to the charge of this people which they were not guilty of King Francis the first of that name sent Lett es of grace and fauour not onely in behalfe of those that had offended by contumacy but all the rest of the Country of Prouence expresly commanding the Parliament from thence forward not in that case to proceed so rigerously as they had done in times past These Letters were supprest They that were personally summoned made request that it might bee lawfull for them to answere by a Proctor Francis Chai and William Armand appeared for all the rest requesting in their names that it might be made to appeare vnto them in what they had erred and that by the word of God being ready to abiure all heresie if once they might know that they were fallen into any And for this cause they deliuered vnto them in writing a confession of their faith to the end if they found any thing worthy
reprechension by the holy Scriptures they might be instructed concerning that which they were to recant or if they found nothing that they could reprehend that they might be no more molested by so many and so grieuous persecutions for feare lest thinking they made warre onely against men it should appeare that they made it against God and his truth and those that maintained it All their petitions serued to no other end then to prouoke them the more for the Iudges being possessed with an opinion that they were Heretikes refusing to take the paynes to know and examine the truth they made all their Acts in fauour of the Priests that accused them In such sort that when the Cardinall of Tournon had obtained at a high price Letters from the King for the execution of the aforesaid Decree notwithstanding the pardon and reuocation before obtained it was executed This was in the yeere 1545 that the President of Opede Gouernour of Prouence in the absence of the Earle of Grignan deputed for Commissioners the President Francis de la Fon Honoré de Tributiis and Bernard Badet Counseller and the Aduocate Guerin in the absence of the Procurator Generall He dispatched sundry Commissions and proclaimed the warre with sound of trumper both at Aix and at Marseilles So the troopes being leuied and the fiue ensignes of the old bands of Piedmont ioyned with them the army marched to Pertuis and the next day being the fourteenth of Aprill they went to Cadinet and the sixteenth they began to set fire to the Villages of Cabrieres Pepin la Mothe and Saint Martin belonging to the Lord of Sental then vnder age There the poore labourers without any resistance were slaine women and their daughters rauished some great with childe murdered without any mercy The breasts of many women were cut off after whose deaths the poor infants died with famine d'Opede hauing caused Proclamation to be made vpon paine of the with that no man should giue any reliefe or sustenance to any of them All things were ransacked burnt pilled and there were none saued aliue but those that were reserued for the Galloys The seuenteenth day Opede commanded the old bands of Piedmont to draw neere and the day following hee burnt the Villages of Lormarin Ville Laure and Trezemines and at the same time on the other side of Durance le Rieur de la Rocque and others of the Towne of Arles burnt Gensson and la Roque Opede being come to Merindol he found not any there but onely a yong lad called Morisi Blanc a very simple fellow who yeelded himselfe prisoner to a Souldier with promise of two crownes for his ransome d'Opede finding none other vpon whom he might wreake his anger payed the two crownes to the Souldier and so commanding him to be bound to a tree caused him to be slaine with hargubuse shot Afterwards he commanded the said Towne to be pilled sacked and vtterly razed and laid leuell with the ground where there were aboue two hundred houses There remained the Towne of Cabrieres compassed with walles which were beaten with the Cannon These poore people being sicke within who were about some threescore boores or Pesants of the Country called vnto them that they needed not to spend so much powder and paines to batter the Walles because they were ready to open the gates vnto them and to quit themselues of the place and Country and to depart to Geneua or into Germany with their wiues and children leauing all their goods behind them onely that their passage might be free The Lord of Cabrieres treated for them that their cause might be determined by iustice without force or violence But Opede being within the Town he commanded the men to be brought into a field and to be cut in peeces withswords these valiant executioners striuing who could shew the best manhood in cutting off heads armes and legges He caused the women to be locked vp in a barne full of straw and so put fire vnto it where were burnt many women great with childe Wherewith a Souldier being moued to compassion hauing made an ouerture for them they were beaten backe into the fire with pikes and holberds The rest of these men that were found hidden in the caues were brought into the Hall of the Castle where they were horribly massacred in the presence of the said Opede As for the women and children that were found in the Temple they were exposed to the chiefe Bauds and Ruffians of Anignon who slew about eight hundred persons without distinction of age or sexe About the end of this execution le Sieur de la Coste kinsman to Opede came thither who intreated him to send him some men of warre offering to bring all his souldiers into Aix and to make as many breaches in the wall as hee would which was granted by word of mouth but not wholly performed For three Ensignes of foot men were sent thither who pillaged whatsoeuer seemed good vnto them burnt a part of the Towne rauished women and their daughters and killed some Boores not finding any resistance In this meane time the rest of those of Merindol and other places were in great extremities in the mountaines and rockes persecuted by Opede and his army They intreated him that hee would permit them to retire themselues to Geneua with the rest of their wiues and children promising to leaue behind them all their goods Hee answered that hee would send them all to dwell in the Country of hell with all the diuels them their wiues and children in such a manner that there should be no memory left of them King Francis being aduertised of those cruelties that were executed in pursuit of the said arrest was much displeased therewith in such sort that at the very point of death being wounded with some remorse of conscience principally because it had all passed vnder his name and authority being sorry because hee could inflict no punishment vpon them before his death that had shed so much innocent blood hee gaue in charge to his sonne Henry to bee reuenged on them in prosecution whereof after the decease of his father hee sent out his Letters Patents in the yeere one thousand fiue hundred forty nine by which hee tooke vnto himselfe and into his owne hands the cause of the said Waldenses of Prouence but there was none but the Aduocate Guerin that was hanged because hee had falsty informed the King when hee kept backe the reuocation of the first retention of the cause of those of Merindoll whereupon presently followed the execution of the Arrest of the Court of Parliament of Aix And all the rest that were faulty escaped vpon this consideration that it was to no purpose to attempt any more against the Lutherans at that time Touching the rest that escaped this massacre some there were that retired themselues to Geneua others into Switzerland others into Germany and others continued neere thereabouts tilling their land by stealth and so by little
there remaine in peace both of body and soule he returned into his Country and perswaded many to goe to Bohemia and to inhabit there who were louingly entertained and after that time there haue been no assemblies of the Waldenses in particular but they haue ioyned themselues vnto the Churches of the Hussites CHAP. XI Of the Waldenses inhabiting in Germany and the persecutions that there they suffered whereof we haue the proofes NOtwithstanding that incontinently after that Peter Waldo with those that followed him came into Germany there was so great a persecution along vpon the Rhine by the incitement and instigation of the Archbishops of Mayence and Strasbourg that there were burnt in one day in one fire Dubranius in the history of Bohemia to the number of eighteene yet wee find that in the time of the Emperor Frederic the second about the yeere one thousand two hundred and thirteene Germany and especially Alsatia was full of the VValdenses The searchers were so diligent and exact Coistans vpon the Reuel that they were inforced to disperse themselues into other places to auoide the persecution This flight turned to the great benefit of the Church because hereby many learned Teachers were scattered here and there to make knowne vnto the world the purity of their Religion In the yeere one thousand two hundred thirty a certaine Inquisitor named Conrad de Marpurg Vigâ—ier in the 1. part of his Bibli Historiale was ordained by the Pope Superintendent of the Inquisition He exercised this charge with extreame cruelty against all sorts of persons without any respect euen of the Priests themselues Trithem in Chron. Hirsaugiensi Godefridus Monan Aunalâ—bus whose bodies and goods he confiscated He tried men with a hot iron saying that they that could hold an iron red hot in their hands and not be burnt were good Christians but on the contrary if they felt the fire he deliuered them to the secular power In these times the Waldenses had in the Diocesse of Treues many Schooles wherein they caused their children to be instructed in their beliefe and notwithstanding all the Inquisitions persecutions executed vpon their flockes yet they aduentured to preach Krautz in Metropol l. 8. §. 18 in Saxon l. 8. ca. 16. calling their assemblies by the sound of a bell maintaining in publica statione saith the Historiographer publikly that the Pope was an hereticke his Prelates Simonaicall and seducers of the people That the truth was not preached but amongst them and that had not they come amongst them to teach God before he would haue suffered their faith to perish would haue raised others euen the stones themselues to enlighten his Church by the preaching of the word Vntill these times say they our Preachers haue buried the truth and preached lyes we on the contrary preach the truth and bury falshood and lyes and lastly we offer not a feined remission inuented by the Pope but by God alone and according to our vocation Mathew Paris an English writer obserueth that about the yeere 1220 Math Paris in Henry 3. anno 1220. there were a great number in a part of Germany that tooke armes where the Waldenses were cut in peeces being surprised in a place of great disaduantage hauing on the one side a marish ground and on the other the sea in such sort that it was impossible for them to escape About the yeer 1330 they were strangely vexed in many parts of Germanie Vignier in his third part of his Historicall Biblio in the yeere 1330. by a certaine Iacobin Monke Inquisitor named Echard but after many cruelties executed vpon them as hee pressed the Waldenses to discouer vnto him the reasons for which they were seperated from the Church of Rome being vanquished in his owne conscience and acknowledging those defects and corruptions which they alleaged to be in the Church of Rome to bee true and not being able to disproue the points of their beliefe by the word of God he gaue glory vnto God and confessing that the truth had ouercome him hee became a member of that Church which hee had a long time before persecuted to the death The other Inquisitors being aduertised of this alteration were much displeased and they sent presently so many after him that in the end hee was apprehended and brought to Heidelberg where he was burnt maintaining that it was iniustice and wrong to condemne so many good men to death for the righteousnesse of Christ against the inuentions of Antichrist In the yeere 1391 the Monkes Inquisitors tooke in Soxony and Pomerania foure hundred forty three VValdenses Krautzin Metrop l. 8. p. 18. in â—ax l. 8. cap. 16. who all confessed that they had been instructed in that beliefe for a long time by their ancestors and that their teachers came from Bohemia In the yeere one thousand foure fifty seuen the Monkes Inquisitors of the Diocesse of Eisten in Germany discouered many VValdenses which they put to death They had amongst them twelue Pastors that instructed them We must not ouerpasse the thirty fiue Burgesses of Mayence that were burned in the Towne of Bingue because they were knowne to be of the beliefe of the VValdenses nor the fourescore which the Bishop of Strasbourg caused to be burnt in one fire nor that which Trithemius recounts that they confessed in in those times that the number of VValdenses was so great that they could goe from Cologne to Milan and lodge themselues with hostes of their owne profession and that they had signes vpon their houses and gates whereby the might know them But the most excellent instrument amongst them that God imployed in his seruice was one Raynard Lollard who at the first was a Franciscan Monke and an enemy of the VValdenses but yet a man carried with a sanctified desire to finde the way of saluation wherein he had so profited that his aduersaries themselues were constrained to commend him Iohn le Maire in the 3. part of the diff of Schismes in the 24. scisme For Iohn le Maire puts him in the ranke of those holy men that haue foretold by diuine reuellation many things that haue come to passe in his time This worthy man taught the doctrine of the VValdenses was apprehended in Germany by the Monkes Inquisitors and being deliuered to the secular power was burnt at Cologne This man hath writ a Commentary vpon the Apocalipse where hee hath set downe many things that are spoken of the Romane Antichrist This was he of whom the faithfull in England were called Lollards where he taught witnesse that Towre in London which at this present is called by his name Lollards Tower where the faithfull that professed his Religion were imprisoned CHAP. XII Of the VValdenses that haue been persecuted in England ENgland hath been one of the first places that hath been honoured for receiuing the Gospell for not long after that VValdo departed from Lion there were many condemned to
death as VValdenses that is to say eleuen yeeres after the dispersion of the VValdenses of the Citty of Lion For Waldo departed out of Lion in the yeere one thousand one hundred sixty three Math. Paris in his History of England the said yeere and Mathew Paris reports that the Monkes Inquisitors caused some of the Waldenses to be burnt in England in the yeere 1174. And Iohn Bale makes mention of a certaine man that was burnt at London in the yeere 1210 that was charged with no other matter then that hee professed the Religion of the Waldenses Iohn Basle in the Chronicles of London Thomas Walden in his sixt volume of things sacramentall tit 12. chap. 10 Thomas Walden an English man hath writ that in the time of Henry the second the Waldenses were grieuously persecuted and that they were called Publicans And as for those in whom they found not cause enough to condemne vnto death they marked them in forhead with a burning key to the end they might be knowne of euery man This beliefe of the Waldenses was better known in the time of the wars against the Albingenses insomuch that as le Sieur de la Popeliniere hath well obserued the proximity of the lands and possessions of the Earle Remod of Tholouze La Popiliniere in his History of France l. 1. with Guienne then possessed by the English and the aliance of the King of England brother in law of the said Remond made the way more easie to the English not onely to succour one another in their wars but also to take knowledge of the beliefe of the said Albingenses which was no other but that of the Waldenses to the end that they might support them though the violence were vniust and extreame against those whom the English were many times constrained to defend against those who vnder the pretence of Religion inuaded his lands Frier Rainard Lollard was then the most powerfull instrument which God vsed by exhortations and sound reasons to giue knowledge to the English of the doctrine for which the VValdenses were deliuered to death This doctrine was receiued by Wicklif as it is noted in the Booke of the Beginning and confession of the Churches of Bohemia who thereby obtained much helpe for the increase of his knowledge in the truth He was a renowned Theologian in the Vniuersity of Oxford and parson of the parish of Luterworth in the Diocesse of Lincolne an eloquent man and profound Scholler He won the hearts of many English euen of most honorable of the land as the Duke of Lancaster vncle to King Richard Henry Percy Lewes Gifford and the Chancellor the Earle of Salisbury By the fauour of of these great personages the doctrine of the VValdenses or of Wicklif tooke footing and had free passage in England vntill Gregory the eleuenth persecuted those that receiued it with allowance by meanes of his Monkes the Inquisitors the fiers being kindled in England for many yeeres to stay the course thereof but it was all in vaine for it hath been maintained there maugre Antichrist vntill his yoke was wholly shaken off True it is that the bones of Wicklif were dis-interred aboue thirty yeeres after his death and condemned to be burnt with such bookes as his aduersaries could recouer but he had before enlightned so great a number that it was beyond the power of his enemies altogether to depriue the Church of them For by how much the more they indeauoured to hinder the reading and knowledge of them by horrible threats and death it selfe the more were the affections of many sharpned to reade them with greater ardency It is likewise said that a certaine Scholler hauing carried into Bohemia one of the books of the said Wicklif intituled His Vniuersals and deliuering it to Iohn Hus he gathered that knowledge from it that made him admirable in Bohemia and edified all those who together with him did very willingly free themselues from the seruile yoke of the Church of Rome Lib. de Origine Confes Eccl. Bohemiae Wiclefus à Waldensibus adiutus Hussium nostrum excitauit pa. 264. From hence it was said to the Husites that Wicklif had awakened their Iohn Hus. This Wicklif writ aboue a hundred volumes against Antichrist or the Church of Rome the Catalogue whereof is in the booke of the Images of famous men that haue combated with Antichrist CHAP. XIII Of the Waldenses that did flie into Flanders and were there persecuted AFter the great persecution of the Waldenses in the time of Phillip the faire S. Aldeg in his 1. Table of the diff fol. 149. Iohn Dubrauius in the Hstory of Bohemia lib. 14. Historigraphers make mention of their repaire into Flanders whether he pursued them and caused a great number to bee burnt And because they were constrained to retire themselues into the woods to flie from those that pursued them they were called Turlupins that is See before l. 1. c. 1. dwellers with wolues as you haue heard before in that Chapter where we haue shewed what names were giuen vnto them Mathew Paris saith that a certaine Iacobin Monke Math. Paris in the life of Henry 3. named Robert Bougre had liued amongst the Waldenses making profession of their Religion but hauing afterwards forsaken them became a Monke and a very violent persecuter in such sort that he caused many to be burnt in Flanders Now his owne friends hauing taken knowledge that he much abused the power and authority of his office laying to their charge many things whereof they were innocent and executing his authority against many that were altogether ignorant of the beliefe of the VValdenses he was not only depriued of the office of an Inquisitor but cast into prison and being conuicted of diuers crimes was condemned to perpetuall prison CHAP. XIV Of the VValdenses that were persecuted in Poland ABout the yeere of our Lord 1330 there were many that made profession of the Religion of the Waldenses in the Kingdom of Poland The Bishops had recourse to the meanes established by the Pope that is to say Flac. Illy in his Catol of the wit pa. 539. the Inquisition whereby they deliuer many of them into the hands of the executioner The Author of the Catalogue of the witnesses of the truth hath written that he hath lying by him the forme of the Inquisition which the Inquisitors made vse off in this persecution Vignier saith Vignier in his Biblio pa. 130. In his History lib. 1. that at their departure out of Picardy many of them that were persecuted there retired themselues into Poland Le Sieur de Popeliniere hath set downe in his History that the Religion of the Waldenses hath spred it selfe almost into all parts of Europe euen amongst the Polonians and Lutherans and that after the yeer one thousand one hundred they haue alwayes sowed their doctrine little differing from that of the moderne Protestants and maugre all the powers and Potentates that haue
he was sure he should repent it but it was now too late to recall it He cursed his owne imprudency and his friends and subiects his too great facility for he saw them incontinently to fortifie his Castle that it might serue them for a canesson and bridle for his owne subiects As also from the time of their entrance into that place he found that they grew bold to speake all the ill they could of the Earle Remond and that with open mouth saying that he had mocked the Pope giuing him to vnderstand that which was false and promising that which he would neuer performe insomuch that he was as great an heretike as he was before his abiuration That in the ruine and punishment of the Earle Remond the destruction of the Albingenses did consist but on the contrary though the ground were couered with the dead bodies of the Albingenses if the Earle Remond should remaine they would alwaies bud and spring vp againe and therefore it was resolued to exterminate and vtterly to destroy the house of Remond from the bottome to the top But when men purpose that which God hath otherwise disposed they come many times short So it was with the Earle Simon who was frustrated of this hope by the sudden vnexpected death of the Legat Milon which changed the face of the affaires of the said Earle Milon for he was faine to spend many yeares in the ruinating of that house of the Earle Remond and his adherents which hee had promised to doe in a few daies CHAP. VIII Theodosius succeedeth the Legat Milon proceedeth against the Earle Remond excommunicateth him and frames very violent articles against him The Earle Remond retireth himselfe from St. Giles and Arles with the king of Aragon lest they should be apprehended by the Legat Simon besiegeth Montferrand Baudoin reuolteth The king of Aragon allieth himselfe with the Earle Simon IN the yeere of our Lord 1211. Thedize gaue the Earle Remond to vnderstand that he should haue what was iust and right touching his affaires and with faire words perswaded him to come to St. Giles Being there he ript vp the businesse touching the murder of the Monke Frier Peter de Chasteauneuf from the beginning without consideration of any precedent iustification and excommunicated the said Earle Remond not as being guilty of the death of the said Monke but because he had not driuen the Albingenses out of his countrey as he was bound by promise The Earle Remond hauing felt the blast of the said excommunication retired himselfe to Toulouze not speaking a word before the Legat had meanes to publish the sentence The Bishop of Toulouze knowing hee was excommunicated sent one to certifie vnto him that hee was to depart out of the citie of Toulouze so long as the Masse was singing because he might not say Masse there being an excommunicated person within the citie The Earle Remond being much moued with the audacious boldnesse of the Bishop sent a Gentleman one of his followers to tell him that hee was to depart and that speedily out of his territories vpon paine of his life The Bishop departed and sent to the Prouost of the Cathedrall Church and to the Canons that they were to depart with them and that with the Crosse and the Banner and the Hoast and for the greater deuotion they should goe barefoot and in procession In this equipage they arriued at the Armie of the Legat where they were receiued as Martyrs persecuted for the Masse euen with teares of the Pilgrims and the generall applause of euery one The Legat thought now that he had sufficient cause to prosecute the Earle Remond as a relapse and impenitent man but yet he desired much to get hold of him because if he could once apprehend him hee would quickly make him to conclude that businesse as the Earle of Beziers did To this purpose hee flattered him by Letters full of testimonies of his great loue towards him by this meanes drew him once againe to Arles The Earle entreated the King of Aragon that he would be there to hinder if need should be any foule play that might bee offered Being come to the place the Legat commanded the King of Aragon and the said Earle Remond that they should not depart the city without his leaue vpon paine of indignation and to be prosecuted as rebells to the Church Some friend of the Earles vsed the meanes to giue him a sight of the Articles of the Sentence which the Legat had a purpose to publish against the said Earle Remond which were these that follow That the Earle of Toulouze shall incontinently dismisse and casheere all his men of Armes not retaining any one of them That he shal be obedient and subiect to the Church of which he shall repaire the damages and satisfie all costs and charges That throughout all his lands no man shall eat more than two sorts of flesh That he shall expell out of his countries and territories all the heretikes and their allies That he shall deliuer into the hands of the Legat and the Earle of Montford all those that shall bee named vnto him to doe with them as they please and that within one yeare That no man within his lands noble or ignoble shall weare any apparell of great price but blacke and course clokes That all the strong places and castles of defence belonging vnto him shall be ouerthrowne and laid euen with the ground That no Gentleman of his shall remaine or dwell in any City or Castle but shall make his abode in the fields and countrey houses as a villager That he shall not leuy in his lands any tolles but those that haue beene of old time imposed That euery master of an house shall pay yearely to the Legat foure Toulouzian pence That when the Earle of Montford or any of his people shall passe through his countries they shall pay nothing for any thing they take or spend That hauing performed all things as aboue he shall trauell beyond the Seas to make warre against the Turkes neuer returning againe into these parts but by the commandement of the Legat. That after all these things the Legat and the Earle of Montfort should restore vnto him all his Lands and Signories when it should please them These Articles being communicated to the King of Aragon he found them so vniust that he would stay no longer in that place but counselled the Earle of Toulouze presently to mount on horse-backe for feare lest they should ceaze vpon his person euen to the full execution of those Articles who it should seeme went about to enrich themselues by his spoyles And forasmuch as the said King of Aragon had perswaded the said Earle that hee should put no more confidence in the Legat and Earle Simon hee cast in his teeth his too great facillitie saying vnto him in Gascongne tongue Pla bous an pagat that is to say They haue well payed you The Legat and the Earle Simon being much
Roger de Leni The Earle of Comminge his lands which one named Ioris detained from him An aduantagious encounter for the Albingenses in Lauragues Expeditions of small effect after the death of the Earle Simon The Prince Lewis tooke Marmande and returned into France hauing summoned Toulouze to yeeld it selfe THe Earle Remond followed the victory making himselfe Master of the Castle of Narbonnes and fortifying it against the Pilgrims which hee knew very well would come the yeere following in the meane time hee sent his sonne into Agenois who brought vnto the obedience of his father Condon Holagaray in his history of Foix. 162. Marmande Aguillon and other places adioyning On the other side the Earle of Foix besieged Mirepoix summoned Roger de Leni to restore it vnto him telling him that hee was not now to hope any longer in the Earle Simon for he was dead that it must content him that he had now long enough and vniustly kept that which was his That if he changed his patience into furie he would lose both his life and Mirepoix altogether It troubled much the Marshall of the Faith for that was the vaine title which the Legats had giuen him to yeeld vp this place but in the end he deliuered it into the hands of the Earle of Foix. The Earle of Comminge had also his right of one Ioris to whom the Legats had giuen all that the Souldiers of the Crosse had taken in his Countries for he tooke them all from him yea life and all At the spring of the yeere following 1219. Almaric or Aimeri of Montfort came into Agenois with some troopes of Souldiers of the Crosse to recouer that which his father had there possessed and for this cause hee besieged Marmande The young Earle Remond of Toulouze went to succour the besieged when the Earle of Foix writ vnto him that hee had gotten a great bootie in Lauragues both of people and beasts but he feared hee should not bring it to Toulouze and not be fought withall by the way by the Garrison of Carcassone and therefore hee entreated him to succour him Young Remond tooke his iourney towards him and came in so good an houre to the Earle Foix that being vpon the point of losing his booty being followed by the Vicount of Lautrec and the Captaines Faucant and Valas. Being come to the combat Chass lib. 4. chap. 13. the said Foucant and Valas encouraged with a loud voice their Pilgrims saying that they fought for Heauen and for the Church The young Earle Remond hearing it cryed vnto his as loud as he Courage my friends for we fight for our Religion and against theeues and robbers vnder the name of the Church They haue robbed enough let vs make them vomit it vp againe and pay the arrerages of their thefts which they haue heretofore freely committed And hereupon they gaue the Charge The Vicount of Lautrec fled Foucant was taken prisoner and all their troopes cut in peeces Seguret a Captaine and professed robber was taken and hanged in the field vpon a tree Thus victorious and laden with bootie they came to Toulouze with their prisoners and cattell The siege of Marmande continued but vnprofitably and without any aduantage For Almaric hauing caused a generall assault to be made the inhabitants defended themselues with such valour and resolution that the ditches were full of the dead bodies of the Pilgrims This was at that time when the great expedition of Prince Lewis arriued who brought with him thirtie Earles An expedition for the leuying whereof the Legat Bertrand writ in these termes to King Philip Faile you not to be in the quarters of Toulouze for the whole moneth of May in the yeere 1219. with all your forces and powers to reuenge the death of the Earle Montfort and I will procure that the Pope shall publish and preach the Croisade or expedition of Christians throughout the world for your better aid and succours Thus you see how the Legat commands the King of France His sonne arriued at Marmande and summoned those within to yeeld They compound with him and he promiseth them their liues Almaric complaines thereof saying that they were not worthy of life that tooke away his Fathers He assembleth the Prelats declareth vnto them the discontent which he receiued by this composition in that life was granted vnto those who were the murderers of his Father The Prelats were all of opinion that notwithstanding the word giuen they should all die Prince Lewis his will was that the composition should hold Almaric neuerthelesse caused his troopes to slip into the Citie with charge to kill all men women and children They doe it whereat the Prince being offended departed from the Legat and Almaric and passing along summoned those of Toulouze to yeeld They defend themselues against him Hee receiueth newes of the death of his father which caused him to retire Thus you see all the effects of this great expedition which should haue buried all the Albingenses aliue and vanished without any assault giuen CHAP. IIII. The warre of the Albingenses changeth countenance because of the death of Pope Innocent the third of the change of the Legat the death of the Earle Remond of Toulouze of the disease of Remond Earle of Foix and the Lady Philippe de Moncade mother to the Earle of Foix and of the Monke Dominick THe Legat Bertrand Bonauenture being weary of the long labours of this warre and perceiuing that therein the danger was greater than either the pleasure or the profit tooke occasion vnder a pretence of his decrepit age to retire himselfe to Rome euen at that time when Pope Innocent the third being departed Pope Honorius his successour who had not managed this warre by his authoritie from the beginning thereof knew neither the importance thereof nor what direction to giue and therefore had need to be enformed by his Legat touching the meanes of the continuance thereof and the commoditie that might arise vnto his Seat Bonauenture entreated him to depute another Legat and told him that the necessitie of this warre was such that it concerned not onely the losse of all those Lands of the Albingenses which were conquered because they might be easily recouered by them if no opposition were made but also the ruine of the Church of Rome because the Doctrine of the Waldenses and Albingenses did directly shake the authoritie of the Popes and ouerthrow the Statutes of the Church That this warre had beene very chargeable and cost them deere for within the space of fifteene yeares and lesse there had died aboue three hundred thousand souldiers of the Crosse that at diuers times had come to end their liues in Languedoc as if there were not enough else-where to burie them or as if there were a necessitie in those times to be borne in France and to dye encountring the Albingenses That all this would be lost if they continued not to spend and weaken them vntill they were
vtterly destroyed The Pope delegated one named Contat who went thither Now albeit Almeric were very valiant yet he had not gotten that authoritie which his Father had who had made himselfe at the charges of the Albingenses a great Captaine loued of the Souldier of an admirable valour patient in affliction inuincible in his trauels diligent in his enterprises fore-seeing and prouiding for the necessities of an Armie affable but of an vnreconcileable enmitie against his enemies because he hated them onely to haue their goods and that he could not haue but after their death which he procured and hastned as much as he could and that vnder the mantell of a plausible pretence of religion His sonne was a true inheritor of the hatred of his father but slow and sluggish louing his ease and no way fit for an action of great importance Besides he was depriued of the Monke Dominique of whom his Father had made very profitable vse for lodging him in the conquered Cities he gaue him in charge to finish that destruction by his inquisition which he could not doe by warres He died in the yeare 1220. the sixt of August so rich that notwithstanding he were the author of an order mendicant that is to say of Iacobin Monkes or Iacobins yet he made it knowne before his death that a scrip well ordered was better than a rent ill assigned for hee left many houses and much goods shewing thereby that he vsed his scrip but for a shew and outward appearance of pouertie but in effect he thought it good to haue wherewithall to liue else-where witnesse the Protection which the Earle Simon gaue him a little before his death whereof this is the tenure Simon by the Grace and prouidence of God Duke of Narbonnes Earle of Toulouze Vicount of Licestre Beziers and Carcassonne wisheth health and dilection After the Historie of the Monke of the valley Sernay We will and command you to haue a speciall care to keepe and defend the houses and goods of our most deare brother Dominick as our owne Giuen at the siege of Toulouze Decemb. 13. The death of this Monke was a great comfort to the Albingenses who had persecuted them with such violence but yet they were more weakned by the death of the Earle Remond of Toulouze the Earle Remond of Foix and the Ladie Philippe of Moncade Wife to Remond Earle of Foix. The Earle Remond of Toulouze died of a sicknesse much lamented of his Subiects if euer man were He was iust gentle valiant and couragious but yet too easie to giue eare vnto those that gaue him counsell for his ruine Hee was carried at the first by a true loue and charitie onely towards those his Subiects that made profession of the Religion of the Albingenses but afterwards hauing beene basely and dishonorably handled by the Legats of the Pope he knew both the crueltie of the Priests and the falshood of their doctrine by those conferences that had beene in his presence with the Pastors of the Albingenses His Epitaph was written in two Gascon verses Non y a home sur terre per grand Segnor que fous Qu'em iettes de ma terre si Gleisa non fous He that writes the Historie of Languedoc saith That he died a sudden death and that hee was carried into the house of the Friers of the Hospital S. Iohn and that he was not buried because he died an excommunicate person There was shewed not long since at Toulouze a head which some did beleeue was the head of the Earle Remond which was said to be alwaies without a sepulture but there is no likelihood that he that died amongst his owne and being Ruler ouer them should not haue so much credit after his death as to bee put into a Sepulcher Holaga pag. 164 that he that by his valour had restored all his Subiects to their houses and their Citie to it former greatnesse he whose death they lamented as a Father should be cast out like a Dogge It is neither true nor hath it any resemblance of truth that they should deny him this last office of charitie which they haue not refused to bestow vpon their greatest enemies for it was neuer heard of that the Albingenses haue denied sepulture vnto any As touching the Earle of Foix Remond he was a Prince of whom the Historie giues this testimony that he was a Patron of Iustice clemency prudence valour magnanimitie patience and continency a good Warriour a good Husband a good Father a good House-keeper a good Iusticer worthy to haue his name honoured and his vertues remembred throughout all generations When this good Prince saw that he was to change the earth for heauen he defied death an assured constant carriage and tooke comfort in forsaking the world and the vanities thereof and calling his sonne Roger vnto him hee exhorted him to serue God to liue vertuously to gouerne his people like a Father vnder the obedience of his Lawes and so gaue vp the ghost His Wife the Lady Philippe of Moncade followed him shortly after notwithout suspition of poyson by some domesticall enemy of the Albingenses whose religion she professed with all deuotion A Princesse of a great and admirable prouidence faith constancy and loyaltie She vttered before her death many excellent sentences full of edification as well in the Castilian tongue as the French in contempt of death which she receiued with a maruellous grace fortifying her speeches with most Christian consolations to the great comfort and edification of all that were present and in this estate she changed her life All these deaths made a great alteration in the wars of the Albingenses both on the one side and the other CHAP. V. Almaric of Montfort restored to King Lewis the eight the conquered Countries of the Albingenses the siege of Auignon the King appointeth a Gouernor in Languedoc The warre continues against the Albingenses Toulouze is besieged a treatie of peace with the Earle Remond and the Toulouzains ALmaric of Montfort had not the fortune of his Father in the warres of the Albingenses For he had neither King Philip Auguste who permitted the leuie of the Pilgrims nor Pope Innocent the third to appoint them Moreouer there was neither Citiâ—nor Village in France where there were not widowes and fatherlesse children by reason of the passed warres of the Albingenses And besides all this the Prelats were many times put into great feares by those cruell combats that were ordinarily made and many of them left behinde them their Miters and some Abbots their Crosses The speech of the expeditions of the Crosse was not so common This was the cause why Almaric did not long enioy his conquered Countries wherewith being much afflicted hee went into France Inuentary of Serres in the life of Lewis the eight and deliuered vp vnto Lewis the eight of that name King of France all the right that he had to the said Countries which the Pope the Councels of
Lay-people shall take example by those Images and figures of the liues of Saints it is most certaine that it is impossible For the Virgin Mary was an example of humility pouerty and chastity and they adorne her Image rather with vestments of pride then humility So that the Lay-people doe not reade in their habits humility but pride and auarice if they conforme themselues to the said Bookes corrupted and ill written For the Priests and the people in these dayes are couetous proud and luxurious and therefore they cause their Images to be pictured like themselues And therefore saith Dauid Thou thinkest foolishly that I am like vnto thee Obiect But there are others that say We worship the visible Images in honour of the inuisible God Answer This is false For if wee will truly honour the Image of GOD by doing good vnto men we serue and honour the Image of GOD For the Image of GOD is in euery man but the resemblance or likenesse of God is not in all but onely in those where the thought is pure and the soule humble But if we will truly honour God wee giue place vnto the truth that is to say wee doe good vnto men that are made after the Image of God we doe honour vnto God when we giue meate to those that hunger drink to those that thirst cloath to those that are naked And therefore what honour doe wee giue vnto God when we serue him in a stock or a stone when we adore idle Figures without soules as if there were some diuinity in them and contemne man who is the true Image of God Saint Chrysostome vpon Mathew saith That the Image of God cannot be painted or pictured in gold but figured in man The Money of Caesar is gold but the money of God is man And therefore if the Iewes were commanded vnder the Law that they should destroy all the figures and Images and addict themselues to one onely God as it is written in the first Booke of the Kings But Samuel said to all the House of Israel If you turne vnto the Lord with all your heart and remoue from you all your strange Gods and keepe your heart vnto the Lord and serue him onely he will deliuer you from the hands of the Philistines Much lesse then ought Christians to depend vpon such signes and Images which the Iewes did not but they ought rather to lift vp their affections vnto Christ who sitteth at the right hand of God An Exposition of the 3. Commandement Tu ne prendras point le nom du Seigneur ton Dieu en vain c. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vaine c. IN this Commandement we are forbidden to sweare falsly vainely and by custome as it is written Leuit. 19. The man that is accustomed to sweare shall bee filled with iniquity and the plague shall not depart from his house An oath confesseth God to know the truth and it is to confirme a thing doubtfull for an oath is an act of Gods seruice and therefore they that sweare by the Elements doe sinne This is the reason why Christ Iesus forbiddeth vs to sweare by any thing neither by the heauen nor by the earth or any thing else but that our speech bee Yea yea and No no and whatsoeuer is otherwise is sinne And Saint Iames in the fift Chapter of his Epistle saith Aboue all things my brethren sweare not neither by heauen neither by the earth neither by any other oath lest ye fall into condemnation An Exposition of the 4. Commandement Souuienne toy du iour du repos c. Remember thou keepe holy the Sabbath day c. THey that will keepe and obserue the Sabbath of Christians that is to say Sanctifie the day of the Lord must be carefull of foure things The first is to cease from all earthly and worldly labours The second not to sinne The third not to be idle in regard of good workes The fourth to doe those things that are for the good and benefit of the soule Of the first it is said In sixe dayes shalt thou labour and doe all that thou hast to doe but the seuenth is the Sabboth of the Lord thy God in it thou shalt doe no manner of worke and in Exodus it is said Keepe my Sabbath for it is holy he that polluteth it shall die the death and in the Booke of Numbers we reade that one of the children of Israel being seene to gather stickes vpon the Sabbath day hee was brought vnto Moses who not knowing what course to take therein the Lord said vnto Moses This man shall die the death all the people shall stone him with stones and he shall die God would that his Sabbath should be kept with such reuerence that the children of Israel durst not to gather Manna therein when it was giuen them from heauen The second thing which we are to obserue is to preserue our selues from sinne as it is said in Exodus Remember to sanctifie the day of rest that is to obserue it by keeping thy selfe carefully from sinne And therefore saith Saint Augustine It is better to labour and to dig the earth vpon the Lords day then to bee drunke or to commit any other sinnes for sinne is a seruile worke by which a man serues the deuill Againe he saith that it is better to labour with profit then to range and roame abroad idly For the day of the Lord was not ordained to the end that a man should cease from worldly good workes and giue himselfe vnto sinne but to the end he should addict himselfe to spirituall labours which are better then the worldly and that hee repent himselfe of those sinnes he hath committed the whole Sabbath throughout for idlenesse is the Schoole-master of all euill Seneca saith It is a sepulchre of a liuing man The fourth thing is to doe that which may be good and profitable to the soule as to think on God deuoutly to pray vnto him dilligently to heare his Word and Commandements to giue thankes vnto God for all his benefits to instruct the ignorant to correct the erroneous and to preserue our selues from all sinne to the end that saying of Esay might bee accomplished Repent you of your sinnes and learne to doe good for rest is not good if it bee not accompanied with good workes An Exposition of the 5. Commandement These Commandements tell vs how we are to carry our selues towards our neighbours Non sentend tant solament de la reuerentia de fora c. Honour thy father and thy mother c. WEe are not to vnderstand these words as if the question were onely touching outward reuerence but also concerning matter of complement and things necessary for them and therefore wee are to doe that which is enioyned in this Commandement for that honour which is due vnto fathers and mothers for we receiue from them three excellent gifts that is to say our Being our