Orders I come to the third kind such to whom they have presented death as present and certain and who have courageously offered themselves thereunto For 't is a divertisement that the Persecutors often give themselves and a kind of temptation which they have often exercised to declare to our Confessors that the Sentence of Death is pronounced against them and that they must die if they did not change their Religion immediately And we have not heard that any one has faln under this kind of tryal M. de Voutron a Gentleman in the Neighborhood of Rochel hath given us within a few days a great example of this kind of Constancy He indured for the space of a year the most cruel Imprisonment that could be imagined he suffered hunger and thirst he lay upon the ground with Irons on his feet in a Dungeon dark and deep without light without fire in the winter and without other nourishment than a little Bread and Water whereof oftentimes they did not give him the half of what was necessary for his nourishment At last in the end of the year the Governor of S. Martin de Re where he was Prisoner came to see him and told him that it was with extreme grief that he was constrained to tell him very unhappy news 'T was that the King had appointed that all those that were Rebels on the Subject of Religion should be put to death the Gentlemen were to be beheaded and the others hanged that he would very willingly have been excused from this Commission but could not avoid it that nevertheless he felt some joy in this that at this time he might be the Instrument whereof God might serve himself to rescue him from Heresie and the Precipice from which he was about to fall that he had but one step to make to deliver himself from it to gain Paradise to establish his Fortune and that of all his Family Our Confessor believed the thing in good earnest and it is not difficult to believe that they would prosecute their cruelty to the uttermost when they had continued it to an imprisonment so long and so barbarous But he was not moved thereby the least in the world unless by emotions of Joy. He answered Monsieur this news is so far from afflicting me that it rejoyces and comforts me since it will end all the troubles of my Imprisonment and I shall enjoy the sight of my God. I have made my choice and when it shall please you to cause me to mount the Scaffold I am ready The favour that I beg of you is that if you cause any one to die before me you will permit me to accompany him to his Execution Instead of executing the Threatning within two days after they drew him out of the Dungeon and gave him the Castle at large for his prison with liberty to see his Kindred and Friends We shall see how long this will last It is written also from Picardy that two Damosels of inferior Rank of Laon Seamstresses by their Profession saw the little that they had wasted without being moved or shaken after which they imprisoned them in places where they passed the whole Winter without fire or covering but one single Coat During the space of eight months they made use of all that which the craft and rage of Persecutors in these last days could invent to vanquish and overcome them They resisted all In conclusion they pronounced their Sentence which condemned them to death they carried on the Play to the last for they led them to the place of Execution and caused them to see a Pile of Wood inkindled to burn them Nothing struck them they persevered they undressed and prepared themselves to be bound to the Post The chief Magistrate laughed at what astonished all the world and said These are fools enough to suffer themselves to be burnt They released them and drove them out of the City they forbad all the world to entertain or feed them For my part I do not see why this may not be called Martyrdom seeing God regards the intentions and dispositions of the Soul much more than external actions we can't doubt that he doth not reckon those for Martyrs which have offered him their life and put it into his hands with so much resignation altho death did not follow as they expected and believed If we will have Martyrs according to the most perfect Rules and Laws the Constancy of our Brethren in Cevennes will not fail to furnish us with a very great number if we may believe some Letters that come from Nismes The Governor and Intendant have within a few days caused 75 Men and one Woman to be hanged at S. Hyppolite This Butchery appears to me so terrible that I am resolved not to give a full belief to it till further confirmation We may see in one of our precedent Letters the perseverance of these honest Men to assemble for Prayers to God notwithstanding the Punishments and Dragoons The severe Declaration of July 12. which condemns to death all those which exercise the Reformed Religion has not at all abated this heat and zeal For know that they assemble every day and that they cause them every day to suffer Martyrdom The publick News Printed at Amsterdam are sufficiently true and exact on this point because they are published from Memorials that come from persons that are upon the place These Memorials have told us that 40 persons were killed upon the place at an Assembly that they have seised on a very great number of other persons and that they have discovered and surprised these Assemblies That a young Gentleman of the House of M. Julian named M. de Frumey-rolle had his Head cut off and that he received death with a piety and constancy in nothing inferior to that of the greatest Martyrs His Brother the eldest of the House was sent to the Prison of Ayques Mortes They have hanged of Men and Women a number that can't be determined because the reports concerning it are something various But 't is certain that Executions are done every day and that they die with all the Characters of the Martyrs of God and of his Truth A favour for which we are to give eternal Praises to our dear Saviour The Martyrs of the Valleys of Piedmont alone would deserve a large Chapter But we must delay it till we can receive exact Memorials concerning them That which we know of them is that some of the Ministers made Prisoners by the Duke of Savoy were hanged Among others M. Leydet whose constancy did astonish and make the whole Court of the Duke to tremble the poor Prisoners suffered unheard of Cruelties in their Imprisonment The Duke's People have published abroad that they were very well treated and that they gave to them the same quantity of Provisions which they gave to their Soldiers that they oftentimes gave them fresh Straw that they suffered the sick to take the air and also that they gave
those that were baptised both before their Baptism and it may be after But it is ridiculous to make a Sacrament of this Imposition of Hands Concerning which my Brethren you ought to know 1. That Imposition of Hands is a Ceremony descended from the Jews our Lord approved and practised it for which reason he laid hands on all the Children they brought to him when he blessed them 2. You ought to be advertised that Imposition of Hands was an Appendage of Prayer and that they served themselves of that Ceremony as often as they would implore the extraordinary assistance of God upon any one When any one was sick they prayed and laid their hands on them When any one was reconciled to the Church they begged of God pardon of sins for him laying their hands on him When any one was admitted to a publick Office they prayed to obtain that assistance that was necessary for him and laid on him their hands When they sent any one upon a difficult Commission they laid hands on him and prayed as may be seen in Acts 13. The fathers after they had fasted and prayed laid hands on Paul and Barnabas to the end they might go preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles They were already Presbyters and had received Mission from God and the Church When they married they received also Prayer and the Benediction of the Church with Imposition of Hands annex'd unto it 'T is a prodigious Blindness to make of these differing Impositions of Hands so many Sacraments I should as soon chuse or rather sooner chuse to make of these differing Prayers which were made on sundry occasions so many Sacraments For 't is certain that Prayer over the baptised the penitent the sick those that took Office those that were sent on Commission those that were married was the chief of the Action and Imposition of Hands was but a decent Gesture and a Rite which signified that they desired the Grace of God and his assistance on the person that was concerned therein 'T is a pityful thing that Men lay hold alway on the Skin and meddle not with the Marrow and if the principal Action be accompanied with some little Ceremony which is but accessory the love of that which is external and easie to practise presently changes the principal into accessory and the accessory into principal Bowing the Knee and Imposition of Hands are two Rites of the same kind and of the same necessity To bend the Knee and lift up the Hands have been two signs which almost always accompanied Prayer the first signifies the Humiliation of the Spirit the second the Elevation of the Heart and when this Elevation of the Hands is made on the Head of any one 't is to signifie that the Heart lifts up it self according to the desire and intention of him over whom they lift up their hands Behold the whole Mystery of this Ceremony whereof they have made four or five Sacraments And 't is the first original of the Sacrament of Confirmation of Penance of Marriage of Orders and of Extreme Unction If the Humor of Popery and Superstition had turn'd on the other hand we had had it may be fourteen Sacraments instead of seven For of the Genuflection which is made in praying for the whole and sound of that which is made in praying for the sick for hardened Sinners and for those that are penitent c. Of these Genuflections say I they might have made as many Sacraments with as much reason as they have made five Sacraments of the five Orders of Prayers to which Imposition of Hands has been annexed Let this serve my Brethren to make you understand that nothing is more absurd that to make a Sacrament of Confirmation because in the first and second Age they laid hands on those which had been baptised The Apostles practised it also because they had power to obtain the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost for those which had received Baptism The Bishops affirming themselves Succession of the Apostles appropriated to themselves afterward a Ceremony which became vain and empty because they had not the power to cause the Holy Ghost to descend upon those on whom they laid hands Jesus Christ laid hands not only on Children brought to him but also on the sick as it appears in the Gospel of S. Mark * Mark 6.5.8.13 and that of S. Luke †Luke 4.40 When he healed the Woman that had been bowed together during the space of eighteen years he also ‖ Luke 13.13 laid his Hands upon her When * Act. 9.17 Ananias would give sight to Saul he laid his hands on him When S. Paul would heal the Father of Publius Prince of Malta of his Fever and Bloody Flux he laid his hands on him To conclude a Man must have a Spirit prejudiced beyond all that can be imagined not to see that Imposition of Hands is a simple Ceremony annexed to Prayer Concerning Extreme Unction i. e. the Ceremony of anointing the dying to obtain for them Vigor and Strength necessary to overcome death 't is that whereof there is not found the least footstep in all the Authors of this second Age. We do not doubt at all but that they did serve themselves of that Unction of which the Evangelist and Apostle speak an Unction wherewith they served themselves for the miraculous Cure of Diseases As in the second and third Ages there continued in the Church some Remainders of the Gift of Healing they might also serve themselves with the Ceremony of Unction But boldly defie your Converters to shew you any Example of a Man dying that was anointed with Oil in the second Age with this intent to make the passage of death more easie to him Press them with the same confidence about their other false Sacraments Orders Penance and Marriage and oblige them to shew you by antiquity in the second Age that the Doctors of the Church did regard them as Sacraments Purgatory in Popery is a Foundation upon which they build an infinite number of idolatrous and superstitious Worships for which reason 't is of importance to see what Men believed of it in the second Age of the Church The State of Souls after death hath always been an Abyss in which Men have seen nothing without Revelation And for that reason the Pagans fell in this regard into prodigious Errors and the Jews before our Saviour floated about in great Uncertainties The Primitive Christians fell close to that which our Lord said to the good Thief This day shalt thou be with me in paradise To that which S. Paul had taught 1 Cor. 5. Phil. 1. That if our earthly house of this tabernacle c. And that when we depart from hence we shall be with Christ Jesus To that which the Holy Spirit hath said in the Revelations that those which die in the Lord are happy and their works follow them About the middle of the second Age a Christian apparently come over
not exactly understand Nevertheless what your Apologist hath advanced is very rash and very criminal for he supposeth with Monsieur Nicolas Monsieur de Meaux and your other Convertors That all those that live in the Romans Church and which were saved there did partake in all her Superstitions This is false and we are perswaded that an infinite number received Christianity there without taking part in Antichristianity or that they repented of it before their death Because they do not comprehend how this may be done was it not therefore done This is to put bounds to the Divine Power God hath his ways which are known to none but himself Fifthly But I have almost no need of all this that I have said in the present Affair for I declare to you that although all your Ancestours should be saved in the Roman Church whilst they pertook in her Worships although all the honest Papists at this day should be saved nevertheless you would not be in the way of Salvation in the way in which now you are and I will convince you thereof in two words the first is That your own Apologist condemns you Your Father saith he were born and bred up in a Religion and never heard any other Doctrines discoursed on How dare you compare your state to that Although he should have mercy for such persons would he have it for such who have been brought up in the Bosom of Truth who have not forsaken the Faith but only the Profession of it who have subscribed to Errours against their Conscience who adhere to Worships whereof the strong and the weak do know the Filthiness and Impurities I have already said unto you and I do say it over again To act contrary to Conscience hath something so aggravating in an evil action that it makes a moderate Superstition become a kind of Sin against the Holy Ghost You do well perceive this when you go to Mass with such terrible regret and reluctancy it is your Conscience that accuses and condemns you The other circumstance which puts you absolutely out of all condition to compare with your Ancestours is That by your weakness you have ruined the greatest Works of the Grace and Providence of God which hath appeared since the Establishment of Christianity that is to say the Work of Reformation 'T is a thing past doubt that since the death of the Apostles there hath nothing happened so great as this magnificent Work whereby God at one shock did overthrow almost half the Antichristian Empire and very much weakned the other half God is jealous of his Works and he cannot but look with a Soveraign Indignation upon the lapse of those who by their fall runied the late glorious Reformation and who proceeded so far as to blame it and say as you say to us We must not Separate we must tolerate Abuses we must expect the Separation that Jesus Christ will make at the Day of Judgment Oh criminal Imagination We must live in the Dirt and Slime we must not restore to the Church her primitive Beauty we must not disengage the Truth from a hideous Mass of Lyes that do oppress it we must not restore to God that Worship that hath been ravished from him we must not remove from before his eyes so many Idols of Jealousie Have you never no holy Compunction for entertaining such thoughts Do not you perceive that your weakness in suffering yourselves to be led to Mass will ruine the Reformation if God don't bring a speedy Remedy thereunto The Protestants of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland will have the same Complaisance for their King that you have for yours Popery re-united will confederate against all Protestant States and then behold them speedily tumbling into Superstition by your Principles and by your Conduct So that by following you we shall soon see the fruit of much Blood so many Martyrs and so many glorious Confessions perish and come to nothing If you give attention to this you will no more compare yourselves to those poor miserable Ignorants which went whither they were led who being placed in a night of deep Superstition saw not a beam of better Light which way soever they turned their eyes on one hand they saw behind them a multitude of Ages corrupt as their own a Corruption which came by so long a descent to them that it appeared a natural state on the other hand they saw before them an Authority which swallowed them up a Clergy Magnificent Powerful Tyrannical Numerous rich and abounding in Spiritual and Temporal Thunders all this amazed them in such a manner that they could not distinguish the state in which they were We do not think them savable in this state but we think you far less so in the estate in which you are God by a blow from Heaven the most miraculous that ever was seen hath broken this dismal Charm he hath thundred he hath lightned from Heaven and dispersed this Darkness See whether you who have been Partakers of this Heavenly Light be in an estate to flatter yourselves with a Tolleration which God might have for your Ancestours so then if you gain any thing by your reasonings it will not be for you but for your Children for 't is of them concerning whom we may say it seems they were born in that Religion they were educated therein 't is probable God will save them although they do communicate in a Worship Impure and full of Superstitions But in truth you gain nothing either for your Children or yourselves The past time will return no more the times of Darkness and Ignorance may indeed return but the times of Tolleration and Sufferance will never return again That which is done can never be undone The Light of the Reformation hath cast abroad a very great Lustre and although at this day men endeavour to stifle it the memory thereof will never be extinguished and the Truth which we have set in so great a light can never be abolished For which reason both we and our Posterity in all following Ages are obliged to see follow and entertain this Light If we do otherwise there will be neither Excuse nor Illusion which will be able to save us out of the hands of the Judge of the World. IN the preceding Letter we sent you some News from Languedoc Behold a Letter that will tell you more we will give it you without any change or mutation You have heard of the Death of Monsieur de Cross Monsieur Brousson had bailed him seeing him sick in the Vessel which was to carry him with others into America He was an Example without Equal The Bishop of Marseilles told him Monsieur If your Religion be true I must confess that you are a Saint Let him die in his Religion and be buried in a Dormitory of the Turks He had not the grief to understand the death of his youngest Daughter who had been carried some little time since from the
knew me at first sight he is called Griollet and the Village of his abode Ceurla There are yet six Vessels upon their departure from Provence laden with these poor Men who expect nothing but a fair Wind to hoist sail I was willing to have encouraged my Kinsewoman she told me Dear Cosin 't is not Death that I fear if God will call me hence I shall escape a great many Miseries which I have yet to suffer but I am resigned to whatever he shall please to lay upon me A young Gentleman which the Captain entertained at his own Table died of Grief about some eight days since After I was returned to our Vessel and had given a particular account of what I had seen Monsieur the Count of Stirom signified a great deal of trouble at it and sent me back again with some Fowls Wine and other things together with some Money for their refreshment and if it had been in his power to have rescued them from their Misery I am sure as he would have spared nothing to have done it Mademoiselle your Sister is yet wandring about as my Kinsewomen informed me they themselves lay hid a long while in the Woods of Dâ—forfre and Arowbac They told me so many things that I have not power to express them to you The day after we drew up our Anchor at the point of day to my very great trouble I went to bid them Farewel and in that little time that I was there with one voice they repeated to me We intreat you to remember us in your Prayers that God would give us Grace to persevere unto the end that we may obtain the Crown of Life You will take it in good part Monsieur that I desire on the behalf of these poor unhappy persons the same thing which they desired of me I assure myself that you will intreat Monsieur d' Marais to be mindful of them they repeated it to me a hundred times after the most moving manner in the World. I conclude in professing my self The Mother of a Minister and her Sister who are also in the same Ship intreated me to give intelligence concerning them to her Son who is a Minister in Holland he is called Monsieur Arnolt of Languedock Monsieur your Son would have written to you but we have thought that this will suffice for us all As soon as this Letter was communicated to us we have not delayed one moment to give it you that it may be scattered all over Europe and that all the Reformed Churches may answer the Wishes and Desires of these illustrious Confessours by praying to God for them by Name and that without ceasing We see by this Letter what false Zeal and Cruelty animated by a Spirit of Superstition may do this is an example thereof which has no president It cannot be said that these were Rebels and such as defended themselves by Arms they were poor innocent Women and such as had no other Faults but that of desiring to Worship God without serving the Creature 'T is a voice that cries loud towards Heaven Oh God of Vengeance when wilt thou awake We intreat all those who have Friends in divers parts of the World to disperse this Letter among them without delay that the Voices of all Believers united together may pierce the very Heavens and render God favourable to these poor Victims who bear our Iniquities into another World and suffer the Evils of a Persecution which our Sins have caused They are the Innocent and the most Just which suffer the Criminal and Faulty withdraw themselves from Sufferings either by their Apostasie or by their Dissimulations Those among them who are of this number ought to make serious Reflections thereon The first of June 1687. The Twentieth PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity Concerning the Sacrifice of the Mass in the fourth and fifth Ages An Article of Controversie A Conclusion of the Matter of Schism A Description of the Corruption of Popery which engaged us to a Separation Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given unto you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ IN the preceding Letters we have Examined the divers Alteration which have happend in Religion in the fourth and fifth Ages and we have there found five very considerable ones 1. The Original of the Monastick Life 2. That of Oecumenical Councils to which at this day some men ascribe Infallibility 3. The Hierarchy which hath been changed into a Government purely Monarchical 4. The Invocation of Saints and Worship of Reliques 5. And to conclude the Introduction of Images into Churches I will not speak of other Changes such are the Establishment of Lent and Fasts which took their utmost perfection in these Ages because these things are of less importance and were not the Causes of our Separation I will conclude the History of these two Ages with four or five things which were not changed 1. The Sacrament without Sacrifice 2. The Opinion of the Real Absence 3. The Communion under both Kinds 4. The kind of Veneration men had for the Sacrament 5. The Opinion touching the State of Souls after Death 1. The remained in the Opinions in which the Church was with respect to the Sacrifice which at this day is called the Sacrifice of the Mass The Heresie of the Church of Rome about it is one of the most novel and also of those which have had the longest time to digest and compleat itself it received not its highest perfection till the Council of Trent In the fourth and fifth Ages men continued to speak of the Sacrament as of a Sacrifice the exteriour form of Sacrifice did augment by the addition of some Ceremonies and because the Liturgy did always enlarge itself by some new Prayers Nevertheless at the bottom they understood that it was no new Sacrifice but improperly so called a Sacrifice of Bread and Wine a Sacrifice of Commemoration the Image of a Sacrifice a Sacrifice as the other parts of the Worship of Christian Religion are Sacrifices We need no more than hear the Authors of those Ages upon this subject Eusebius saith a Lib. 1 c. 10. Demonst Evang. That Jesus Christ hath appointed us to offer unto God the Memory of his Sacrifice St. Chrysostome b Homil. 17. in Heb. saith That we every day offer the same Sacrifice or rather the Commemoration of the same Sacrifice St. Austine c Lib. Quest 83. Quest 61. That we Celebrate the Image of this Oblation in memory of his Passion d Lib. 20. Cont. Faust cap. 21. That we Celebrate the Sacrifice of our Lord by a Sacrament of Commemoration Theodoret e Euseb Dem. Evan. lib. 5. c. 3. That we offer no other Sacrifice but we celebrate the Memory of that only Saving Sacrifice of the Cross c. to the end that by the Contemplation of the Figure we might call to mind that which he hath suffered for us I do not know whether a man can say
flames before they gave up the ghost they were made to live by skill and art in the most cruel torments sometimes many days and sometimes many weeks together and never did one word of murmuring or impatience escape from them they prayed for their Hangmen they gave Thanks to God they sung his Praises and to their last breath called upon his Name When they tell you at this day If your Religion were true you would adhere more closely unto it answer them If our Religion had been false they had never had so invincible an Adherence to it and so strong a Passion for it nor had they ever suffered death for the defence of it or if there have been some heady persons that have maintained their Opinions with obstinacy even to punishment and death their pains and death hath not been accompanied with an humility so profound a patience so exemplary a love and sweetness so perfect a zeal so ardent a piety so pure and undefiled a submission so entire a joy so firm solid bright and shining The Spirit of Lies and Delusions doth not produce such effects These are the Characters of the Spirit of God they are the effects of Grace and of that Grace that is not given to Reprobates and Martyrs of falshood and imposture My Brethren these Objects are at a distance they are behind you and you will find some difficulty in reflecting on them but you will find none in considering those that are before your eyes they are sufficient to defend you against the scandal of that Facility wherewith they reproach you and wherewith they affirm that your Brethren have forsaken their Religion Oppose thereunto above one hundred thousand persons that have left the Realm within the space of one year last past without counting almost as many more that have forsaken it within twenty years that this Persecution hath continued tho not in its height and rage There are among them those that have forsaken all those things which are called Goods Honours Ease and the convenient Accommodations of Life certainly they did not find it a thing so easie to enter with a satisfied mind into the bosom of the Roman Church Oppose thereunto more than forty thousand Prisoners that are in the Goals and Cloisters of the Realm which chuse to suffer all sorts of miseries and calamities there rather than to embrace the Popish Religion Oppose thereunto Persons of Quality such are the Marquess of Bordage condemned to the Galleys and afterwards to perpetual Imprisonment the Marquess of Musse who every day expects the same condemnation the Marquess of Rochegade and the Gentlemen his Sons the Marquess of Cagni Monsieur Beringhen and all his Family the Marquess of Lunge the Marquess of the Isle of Gast who is in the Citadel of Anger 's and an infinite number of other Gentlemen who prefer the Galleys or a Prison before the pleasure to which the Bishop of Meaux invites them that is of rejoining themselves to that Church in which their Fathers served God. Oppose thereunto a considerable number of Martyrs and Confessors whereof some are in Dungeons that are really the Images of Hell they being deep obscure dark and a hundred feet under ground such are the Reformed of Diepe Haure and other places which are in the Prisons of Aumale of whom we shall be able to tell you particular stories at some other time Add to these more than six hundred persons that are now actually in the Galleys for their Religion This is no hyperbolical Computation but one made by a Roman Catholick a maritime Officer now living at Marseilles we have his Letter and without naming him we shall be able to produce it at a convenient season behold a line or two thereof at present Here are six hundred Gally-slaves of the Religion called Protestant who by their patience move compassion from the most hard-hearted and unpitiful of their Officers The number of them must needs be augmented since that time for the Letter was dated from Marseilles the 27th of June 1686. that is to say more than two months since and without doubt there are more arrived there 'T is newly reported that at this time there are to the number of two thousand some say four thousand in that miserable state and case The famous Monsieur Lewis of Marolles Advocate of Stemenehaud was not then arrived there for he parted not from Paris with the other Prisoners under the same condemnation with himself till the 20th of July and came not to Dijon till the 30th of the same Month from whence at last he arrived at Marseilles laden with a Chain of fifty pound weight about his neck and a violent Fever which never left him during the time of that sad Journey He is a Confessor of Jesus Christ which all Paris beheld at the ‖ Tournello loaden with Chains of an extraordinary weight A Court of Judicature in Paris and also a Prison and preaching in the midst of his Irons All France have their eyes turned upon him as on the greatest example of Courage Piety and tenderness of Conscience that this Age hath seen We shall one day give you the History of his Confession and make you to understand his Sentiments by his own Letters where you will see the Spirit and Character of the ancient Martyrs He is one of our most illustrious Confessors but he is not alone God raises up others every day as you shall learn hereafter The same Sea-Officer that wrote from Marseilles that there were already six hundred Gally-slaves of the Reformed Religion there adds 'T is fifteen days since that Monsieur de Lezan a Gentleman of Quality was condemned to the Gallies being accused and convicted of having been at a Meeting The day after many persons were put to the Rack to oblige them to accuse some men of Name These unhappy Wretches endured both the ordinary and extraordinary Rack with such a constancy as affrighted the Judges and softned the Spirit of the Hangman to that degree that the chief Magistrate was forced to stand over him with a Cane to oblige him to turn the Wheel Behold here truth in matters of fact which can never be doubted seeing they are attested by a person of a contrary Religion who is upon the place and in the Country where these cruelties are committed Behold Confessors which make it apparent that the Church of Rome does not find it a thing so facile as the Bishop of Meaux reports it to cause the Reformed to enter into their Communion Behold Examples of Constancy that are worthy of your most attentive Consideration Death is more easie to be endured than the ordinary and extraordinary Rack and those illustrious Confessors do well deserve the Title of Martyrs But will you oppose to that Facility which your Converters find and whereof they make an Argument to draw you into the Roman Religion will you I say oppose to your Seducers Martyrs in all forms Oppose to them Monsieur Teissier
answered to all these people with firmness and an admirable presence of mind which touched them with admiration and compassion a sentiment which is not ordinary with persons of this Character when they are Persecuting true Christians They saw well that seeing the Monks were touched with his Discourses they might produce the same effect upon others for which reason they forbad all persons to see him A few days after they took him from the Prison of Alez to remove him to that of Nismes Those that had been hindred from seeing him when he was in Prison were willing to recompence the loss which they had sustained an incredible multitude of people of all Ages and Sexes pouring out tears followed him on the Road accompanying him with their Prayers and good wishes he returned them blessings and added vehement Exhortations to rise speedily from their fall and to glorifie God as he did by their Sufferings Whilst he was in Prison at Alez there were no ways imaginable which were not employed to oblige him to change his Religion The Ecclesiasticks served themselves of ways of Seduction the Judges with that of Authority They promised him not only impunity for what was past but all kinds of Favours and Advantages He equally resisted all and with the same courage surmounted these different temptations Whilst they carried him From the Prison of Alez to that of Nismes approaching the place of his Nativity and that where his Father and Kindred dwelt he felt some movings of his Bowels which made him fear lest that should be the place where he was to endure the strongest temptations through the softness and tenderness of nature He earnestly desired of the Judges that they would not let him see neither his Father nor his Relations Therefore he did not see them but was content to let them know that they might be assured of his stability of his constancy and perfect resignation to the will of God. They kept him but a few days in the Prison of Nismes the Monks and Ecclesiasticks of that City engaged him in new Combats but 't was with as little success as those that went before They had no intention to put him to death at Nismes because that City was full of Men of the Reformed Religion They feared either some emotion or at least that the beholding the Martyrdom of this young Man and his Constancy should waken the Conscience of a great many People who preserving the truth in their Heart hid it under the veil of Dissimulation They carried him therefore from Nismes to Beaucaire a Village where all the People are of the Roman Religion 'T was there his Process was to be made and he to receive the Crown of Martyâ—dom 'T was there also he was to sustain the most terrible Assaults The Intendent was present who began by Engines of Sweetness and Promises adding thereunto all that which is most terrible in death But to his Promises he answered I love not the world nor the things of the world I esteem all those advantages whereof you speak as dung I tread them under my feet Unto the threatnings of punishment he said My life is not at all dear to me if so be I may finish my course with joy and gain Jesus Christ whatsoever death is prepared for me it will be always glorious if I suffer it for God and for the same cause for the which my Saviour died An incredible company of other people came to see him in the Prison all to the same end and nothing was forgotten of all that which might soften the mind and weaken the firmness of his courage All these means being unsuccessful in conclusion the Intendent proceeded to his condemnation He appeared at the Bar when he was there the Intendent said to him Mr. Rey there is yet time for your preservation Yea my Lord answered he and for that reason I will employ the time that remains in endeavouring my salvation He replyed to him But you must change and you shall have life Yea saith he I must change but 't is to go from this miserable world and go to the Kingdom of Heaven where a happy life attends me which I shall speedily enjoy don 't promise me the present life I am intirely disengaged from it death is much more eligible If I had been afraid of death you had not seen me here God hath caused me to understand his truth and does me the honor to die for it Speak no more to me of the good things of the world they have no savour or taste with me for all the Treasures of the Earth I will not renounce that which I expect in Heaven When the Judges saw him thus firm and stedfast they gave over vexing him about his Religion and proceeded to make his Process He answered to all their Questions with a respect sweetness and moderation which melted all the Auditors When they were ready to pronounce his Sentence they solicited him anew to have pity on himself and not by an unhappy obstinacy sacrifice a Life which was given him to preserve I am no more says he in condition to advise about what I am to do I have made my choice here is no farther place for bargains I am ready to die if God hath so appointed it All the promises which can be made will never be able to shake me nor hinder me from rendering what I owe to my God. Therefore they read his Sentence by which he was condemned to be hanged and put to the Rack before he was led to the Gibbet He heard his Sentence read without any commotion and when it was ended he said They treat me more gently than they treated my Saviour in condemning me to so easie a death I had prepared my self to be broken on the wheel or be burnt And lifting up his eyes to Heaven he added I give thee thanks Lord of Heaven and Earth for all the Blessings that thou hast bestowed upon me I give thee thanks that thou hast found me worthy to suffer for thy Gospel and die for thee I give thee thanks also for that thou hast called me to suffer so easie a death after I had prepared my Heart to suffer the most cruel death for thee In execution of the Sentence he was put upon the Rack he suffered it without any complaint or one word of murmuring answering no other thing but that he had said all and had nothing more to answer And when he was taken from the Rack turning to the Judges he told them I have not suffered the pain which you would have made me suffer I believe that you have suffered more than I I have had no sense of pain I do profess before you 'T is an extraordinary effect of Grace for altho we should not give credit to those relations which tell us that the Rack was so violent that it was believed that he could not have made use of his Legs to go to execution it is nevertheless certain that
naturally it cannot happen that a person should be on those Instruments of Torment without feeling very great pains But 't is a Miracle which hath a hundred and a hundred Examples in the History of the Martyrs both of the ancient Church and that of the Reformation They bring back our Martyr to the place where he was to prepare himself for death he dined because they would have it so and whilst he was eating he said to those that gave him his meat very calmly Others eat to live and I eat to die this is the last Repast that I shall take upon earth but against the Evening there is prepared a Banquet in the Heavens to which I am invited and whither I shall be conducted by the Angels These happy Spirits will suddenly remove me to make me partaker with them of the Delights of Paradise The rest of the day they let loose upon him many Monks who received no other Fruits of their Assaults but disappointment and confusion Amidst all those Distractions into which they endeavoured to cast him he employed himself in singing of Psalms in lifting up his Soul to God and presenting fervent Prayers to him About the Evening as he went forth of the Prison to go to Execution two Monks drew near to him saying We are here to accompany and comfort you He answered them I have no need of you I have a Comforter that is more faithful and which is within me for my Consolation I have a Guard of Angels round about my Person and which have assured me they will be with me to my last Breath He marched toward the place of Execution with an appearance of satisfaction and tranquillity of Spirit visible to all the Spectators and having observed some of our Brethren that were fallen pouring out floods of tears while they saluted him said to them Weep not for me but weep for your selves I shall be soon out of Sufferings and far from this Vale of Tears but I see and leave you there In the name of God recover and repent and he will have pity upon you When he was in a place and distance that he could see the Gibbet where he was to end his Combat he cryed out with transport of Joy Be strong be strong this is the place which I long since proposed to my self and for which God himself hath prepared me how welcome doth this place appear to me I there see the Heavens open to receive me and Angels coming to accompany me thither He would afterward have sung a Psalm as he drew near to the Gibbet but the Judges which saw that the Crowd was moved and pierced by the signs and tokens of his constancy imposed silence on him and forbad him to sing He obeyed because they constrained him and arriving to the Foot of the Ladder he said Oh how welcome is this Ladder to me sine it must serve me as a step to finish my course and mount to Heaven They permitted him to say his Prayers at the Foot of the Ladder And when he was ascended he saw Monks ascending after him which obliged him to repel them saying Retire I have told you and I tell you again I have no need of your succor I receive enough from my God to enable me to take the last step of my Journey He would have gone on and given a Reason of his Faith to that innumerable Crowd of People above which he was raised But they feared the effect of a Sermon preached from such a Pulpit and by such a Preacher They well foresaw that he would speak and therefore had set round about the Gibbet many Drums which they appointed to be beaten at once 'T is a new kind of Gag which is not altogether so frightful as that of another kind but produces the same effect The Spirit of Hell is always the same and hath always the same fears He hath often felt the force of those Preachers which preach from Gibbets and out of the Piles of Wood he fears their Eloquence and judges it most safe to impose silence on them Our Martyr therefore speaks not but for himself but his Countenance his Eyes his Hands bespeak his Courage his Faith and Constancy and this Language was so effectual that the Village of Beaucaire altho wholly plunged in darkness and prejudices for Popery was moved thereby in an extraordinary manner I do very earnestly wish that three or four sorts of persons would make Reflections on this death 1. The Enemies of Truth Is it possible that they cannot observe therein the Character of true Religion I do conjure them to consider what most resembles Jesus Christ and his Apostles whether a Man that dies as we have seen this young Man die or persons which cause him to die for his Religion and because he would not renounce it 2. I set this Object before the Eyes of the new Converts who being seduced either by their Passions or Illusions behold the Religion which they have left as abominable and such wherein the Spirit of God is not to be found can they well persuade themselves that so much Courage so much Piety so much Constancy so much Moderation so much Sweetness doth proceed from him who is the Father of Lies and the Fountain of Abominations If it be the Spirit of God which produces these miraculous effects in our Martyrs then our Religion is not deprived of it then God has not forsaken us then we are not out of his Church out of which there is neither Grace nor Holy Spirit To conclude I demand here the attention of the weak of those Men who bless themselves because they yet preserve the Truth in their Hearts and which perswade themselves that the Fault which they have committed in subscribing is very light I demand of them are not you obliged to do what this Martyr has done Has he given to God more than he owed him Who is he that is not obliged to seal and confirm the Truth by his Sufferings You have withdrawn your selves from paying that which you have received from God in the opportunities which he has offered you And you have withdrawn your selves by a faulty weakness and negligence by a lye both of Heart and Hand In what estate should we be if God had not left us a Remnant We should be like unto Sodom and Gomorrah we should not have had one Martyr i. e. one Witness of the Truth of our Lord Jesus You will say all are not capable of suffering Martyrdom At least confess then that you are in this respect in a great degree of Imperfection and that your Fault is great Don't justifie your selves at all recover your selves by Repentance if you would that God should pardon you I have given you the History of the Vigor which our Brethren of Languedoc have had to continue their Assemblies without interruption and thereby expose themselves to Martyrdom and Death with design to convince you of that which I have proved in
from Judaism but bred up in the Schools of the Greeks having suck'd the Spirit of Fables and Lies wherewith those two Nations are justly reproached forged the Oracles which he attributes to the Sybils he caused to enter there as Oracles of those ancient Prophetesses all that which he believed proper to support the Christian Religion and render it plausible to the Pagans The better to persuade the Greeks he there mingled their Fables and to please the Philosophers he entered their Dreams there making himself all things to all Men that he might gain some Among other Philosophick Dreams he inserts two in his Work The first was drawn from the Platonick Philosophy 'T was that there was a certain separate place into which he pretended the Souls of the Faithful were carried after death and where they were lodged till the Day of Judgment without enjoying the happy vision of God. The other was this that at the end of the World there would be a great Fire through which all Men must pass that should be saved An imagination which seems to have some likeness to the Stoick Philosophy which teaches that the World would be burnt after which it would return into the State wherein it was at the beginning and in a continual vicissitude pass through the same Revolutions and Changes Or rather 't is taken from what the Holy Scripture says that the World at last must be burnt by Fire We are not able to say how these two Opinions the one concerâ—â—ng the separate state of Souls and the other concerning the Torrent of Fire through which they ought to pass did readily diffuse themselves among those which had any Learning and read any thing besides the Sacred Volumes The Ancients good Men and credulous being ravished to find Books under the name of Pagan Prophesies which foretold the coming of Jesus Christ his Names his Passion the Circumstances of his Birth of his Life Death and Resurrection much more clearly than the true Prophets embraced with greediness what they found in these false Prophesies Justin Martyr who wrote well nigh in the same time that these false Oracles were forged falls into the persuasion that Souls after death are in a separate place where even in some sort they are subject to the Power and Persecution of the Devil From thence it comes to pass that he said it was the Devil that caused the true Samuel to ascend by the Charms of the Witch of Endor ‖ Dial. cum Tryph. For which reason says he when a person is near death you ought to pray that his Soul don't fall under such a power S. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons the most considerable Writer of this second Age was of the same opinion concerning this separate place where all Souls must be inclosed until the Day of Judgment without seeing the Face of God. * Advers Haeres lib. 5. He calls this place Paradise whither Enoch and Elias were transported but he also calls it Hades Hell and a place invisible Note that this Opinion is universally at this day rejected by the Papists and passes among them for an Error Pope John XXII having been accused to be of this Persuasion there was a terrible noise about it and he was forced to retract it Now this Opinion is the original of Purgatory For as we shall see afterward this place changes by little and little its-nature until at length they made of it a place of Torments and Punishments for the purging of Souls This separate state produced a little while after Prayer for the Dead which we shall see had its original about the beginning of the third Age. But whereof nevertheless we see nothing in the second unless it be towards its end On the contrary Justin Martyr tells us that we must pray for dying Souls to the end that in the place of their Separation they fall not under the Power of Devils He would not have failed to have added that we must pray for Souls after death to the end that we might draw them from under the power of Devils if Prayers for the dead had then been in use On the Subject of this praying for the Dead whereof they make such great boasts in Antiquity tell them these three things 1. That it was not in use in the first and second Age. 2. That the Reason why they began to pray for the Dead is very different from that which causes Prayers for them at this day At this day 't is to draw them from Purgatory then it was to the end that in the terrestrial Paradise or other place of Separation where they were God would increase their rest and joy for it was believed that they were there in the beginning of Happiness 3. To conclude tell them that these Prayers for the Dead are no important business in Religion and that they are not the Reason of our Separation After that press them to shew you in the second Age the least footsteps of this place of Torments whither penitent Souls must go after Death to pay the remainder of those punishments which they could not satisfie during their life Demand proofs from them that in this Age the Church prayed for Souls that they might quickly get out of torment and you will see them forced to confess that there are none I come to the Worship and Adoration of Creatures such as are Relicks Images the Blessed Virgin Saints and Angels They treat this as a small business we shall have occasion to prove to you one day that without running into any extravagance 't is a Pagan Idolatry But for the present we will content our selves to shew you that we do not find the least footsteps of these worships in the second Age wherein we now are If they did invoke Saints the Blessed Virgin and Angels if they had Images if they did kiss and adore Relicks let them shew it you let them cause you to read one Author that speaks of it Bellarmine hath the impudence to produce the words of Justin Martyr to prove the Worship of Angels We adore and venerate the Father and the Son which is come to us from him who hath taught us both us and others which follow him and the Army of good Angels by the Spirit of Prophecy c. Apol. 2. He refers the word we adored to that of Angels as if the design of Justin Martyr had been to say that they adored Angels Whereas he ought to refer Angels to the word teach his Sense being that Jesus Christ hath taught the Angels as well as us the Mystery of the Gospel according to what S. Paul says To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 It is so clear that this is the Sense of S. Justin that at this day none of your new Doctors dare quote these words to prove that they worshiped Angels in the second Age. This passage being
set aside let them produce you another Was there therefore no Saints in these Ages Had they no Martyrs Why did they not invoke the Apostles that had newly received their Crowns Why did they then neglect the Intercession of the Virgin Was it that her Credit was not well established in Heaven at that time and that she wanted time to obtain the Empire which at this day she possesses But why have the Authors of this Age been so impudent to say that they adore God alone and that they adore none but He Justin Martyr says speaking of Jesus Christ He hath taught us that we must adore but one only God when he said This the great commandment thou shalt worship God and him only shalt thou serve Apol. 2. And a little after having quoted those other words of Jesus Christ Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods He adds 't is for this reason that we adore but one only God. And as to what concerns you we give you our Services with gladness in all other things Let not your Eyes be dazled by crafty Tricks upon the word Adore as if Justin Martyr spake of Soveraign Adoration which they give to none but God according to your Converters for you ought to be advertised that he serves himself of the word Proskunoumen which signifies all sorts of Worship and Religious Service A word which signifies properly to prostrate our selves and wherewith the second Council of Nice serves it self when it appoints the Worship of Images So the sense is We do not prostrate our selves we do not give any Religious Worship but to God. See if they can say so at this day in the Church of Rome Theophilus of Antioch and Author of the same Age says * Lib. 1. ad Autol. The King will not that they call those Kings which command under him For King is his name and it is not permitted to another to take it So it is not permited to adore any other but God. St. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons speaking of the God which gave the Law †Lib. 5. cap. 22. It is he alone to whom the Disciples of Jesus Christ ought to perform worship c. And a little after The Law commands us to praise the Creator and serve him alone But hear a Testimony which will instruct you sufficiently concerning the opinions and practice of that Age about it They are the Acts of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarpus Bishop of Smyrna After the death of this Holy Bishop ⸫ Euseb lib. 4. cap. 15. his Church writ to that of Pontus an excellent Letter which is one of the most precious monuments that we have of Primitive Antiquity In this Letter the Believers of Smyrna having reported all the circumstances of the death of Polycarpus their Bishop say that the Devil used endeavours that our Brethren might not obtain his body which many among us did very much desire to the end they might participate of that sacred body Some therefore suggested to Nicetas Father of Herod and Brother of Dalces to go find out the Proconsul to advise him not to give us the body for fear say they that having abandoned Christ the Christians may come to Worship him it was at the suggestion of the Jews and at their pressing sollicitation that these Men thus represented the matter For they were the Jews that observed our Brethren when they endeavoured to take the body from the Pile of Wood. Fools which know not that we can never forsake Jesus Christ who hath suffered death for all those that must be saved nor serve any other For we Adore him as the Son of God and as for the Martyrs we love them and are kind to them as Disciples and imitators of the Lord because of the great love which they have shewn to their King and Master and we wish to be their Associates and fellow Disciples The Centurion therefore seeing the obstinacy of the Jews caused the body to be burnt upon the place according to the custom After which we gathered together his Bones more precious than the most precious Stones and more pure than Gold and laid them up in a convenient place In which place if it be possible for us and God permit it we will hold our Assemblies to Celebrate with joy and gladness the Birth day of his Martyrdom in memory of those who have undergone this glorious Combat and to instruct and confirm our descendents by such an example The passage is altogether such as we would wish for we there see all which we search after and what was the Religion of the ancient Christians with respect to Relicks and Saints and from whence began the Superstition and Idolatry which after appeared in the World. First of all you see that in the second Age they served no other but God we serve no other but God. Secondly That the Worship given to the Martyrs was a Worship of love and simple imitation we love them and have a kindness for them These people had lost all sense not to have added and we pray to them if so be they had them prayed to the Martyrs Thirdly That they had no regard to the merits of Saints and Martyrs nor did they pray to God to make us partakers of them we wish to be their Companions and fellow Disciples They might as easily have said as they say now adays we desire to be made partakers of their merits Fourthly That they did not assemble at the Tombs of the Martyrs that they might invocate and serve them but only with design to celebrate the Birth-day of their Martyrdom and the memory of their Sufferings It is an amazing stupidity not to have added and to recommend our selves to their prayers and intercession if any such thing had been in use Fifthly That they did not rend the Bodies of Martyrs in pieces nor distribute their Bones to fill Reliquaire's For they took the bones of Polycarpus and laid them in a convenient place that is to say they laid them honorably in a Tomb. In all this we see the innocence of the worship of the ancient Christians But in that which follows we see the first bloomings from whence afterward proceeded Idolatry 1. We see here an excessive love which Christians did shew towards the bodies of Martyrs they say that they are more precious than the most precious Stones and more pure than the purest Gold. 2. They assembled upon their Tombs and their burying places served them as Temples not simply through necessity for they might have assembled more conveniently in Houses but because they believed those places more Holy and more proper to excite Devotion because of the memory of the Martyrs 3. They Consecrated certain days to remember the Passion day of the Martyrs Indeed they did not Invoke or Pray to them but nevertheless this was done in their honor as we Celebrate the Birth-day of a Prince to whom we give no kind of
it was known by themselves that he never ceased to praise God and to bless him that he died in and for the Defence of his Truth and Gospel his Soul was always raised towards Heaven his Discourses were full of Piety Disingagement from the World and of ardent Desires for the Kingdom of Heaven I have told you already that I do not believe that we ought to refuse the Glory of Martyrdom to those who through weakness made their Subscriptions Nevertheless without partaking in any Idolatrous Worship did afterwards recover and die between the fear of being sent to the Gallies if they returned to health and the horror of being dragged all naked upon a Hurdle after their Death This Fear and the Horror are true Punishments so that I reckon those Women which surmount the horror of nakedness to which their dead Bodies were to be exposed after death as dying in the midst of Torments for the Faith. Nothing makes a more violent impression on the Spirit of a modest Woman And all the World knows the History of the Christian Damosels which were cured of a certain melancholick Distemper which put them upon hanging themselves Nothing could give check to this rage In conclusion they thought it adviseable to draw some of them stark naked through the Streets in the view of the People The fear of being thus prostituted to the Eyes of Men staid others and hindered them from being their own Executioners Of this sort of Martyrs we have an infinite number For of all the new Converts which are dead in great numbers within a year past particularly in Poytou where by a just Judgment of God Death hath made such Spoils that great Parishes are intirely depopulated of all these new Converts I say there are not it may be one of an hundred which have given way to their Threatnings and permitted themselves to communicate after the Roman Manner Thus 't is also in Languedoc there have been Women which they have affrighted with this punishment But they answered courageously that what they threatened as an evil they desired as an advantage and that they would offer this shame which they prepared for them to their Saviour as an Expiation of their Crime This great Resignator has not at all mollified the rage of their Persecutors At Montpellier hath been seen the Body of a venerable Woman named Mademoiselle Cauquet Wife of M. Samuel Cauquet a Physician exposed all naked through the Streets besmearing the Pavement with her Blood and Entrails poured out thereon And when she was left at the Dunghil there came two Dragoons which caused their Horses to pass and repass over this poor body an hundred times But that which is most edifying is to know that during her Sickness the Answers that this holy Woman made to her Judges and which are mentioned in her process bear the marks of a profound humility and of an extraordinary goodness It may be they may be found one day in the Registers if the malice of the Devil does not cause those precious Monuments to be suppressed as they have almost intirely blotted out the Procedures against the ancient Waldenses to the end that the proofs of their Innocency might be all made void We have seen the Carcase of one named Peter Crousel the Son of a Merchant of Clermont of Lodeve dying a Confessor in the City of Montpellier dragged at a Horses Tail and a Prisoner taken from the same Prison where the Martyr died leading the Horse and a Hangman striking the Body of the living person more frequently than the Horse which dragged the dead The number of this kind of Martyrs being so great we cannot make a Catalogue of them without the assistance of those which are scattered in divers places in France and have been eye-witnesses thereof I will only report here two which are more particularly come to my knowledge and which have something peculiar in them because of the Quality of the Persons The first is M. Robert d' Ully Vicount d' Nouion of the Church of Couci in Picardy an old Gentleman of about eighty years of age who had been Master of Camp to a Regiment of Infantry and Governor of a place called La Motte au Bois all covered with Wounds and Scars that he had received in the Service of the King during forty years space and having yet a Bullet in his Knee which could not be taken thence This old Man was so weak as to make his Subscription as many others did but he had also the courage to retract it not only by word of mouth but also by a Writing signed with his own hand They caused a Hangman with a Hurdle to come before his door and told him he must be dragged M. de Novion told them that they should not tarry for him for he was ready to go to the place of Execution He arose from his Bed altho he had not been able to walk for many years the Provost being astonished at this constancy paid the Hangman and others for their Journey and sent them back This Gentleman a few days after was dragged from his House and put into a Convent of the Order of the Premonstrants where the Monks discharged themselves so well of the Commission that they killed him by harassing him without ceasing They made him lose his Voice many days before he lost his Life by speaking eagerly to him and he repelling them with vehemence He died continually thrusting them from him with his hand and lifting up his Hands and Eyes to Heaven when he was no longer able to lift his Voice thither As soon as he was dead the Monks caused his Body to be cast into a Dog's Kennel and gave notice thereof to the chief Magistrate of Couci he came and caused his Body without so much as a Shirt to be laid upon a Cart to carry it to that City A frightful Spectacle was there seen the Head of this poor Man hung out of the Cart all bloody All the Wounds that he had formerly received reopened all at once and became so many mouths which vomited Blood and demanded Vengeance that after so long Services they were so rewarded When the Body was arrived at Couci they cast it in this condition into the Sink of the Prison they caused his Bowels to be torn out by a Chirurgeon they threw them to Dogs upon the Walls of the City This Body lying in the dirt continued some weeks expecting that his Process would be made At the end of fifteen days Sentence was pronounced and executed the Carcase was drawn through all the Streets of the City and in conclusion thrown into the Ditch whither the Rabble went and pelted it with Stones till they left not one whole Bone and for fear lest any one should take him by night and bury him they set a Sentinel upon the Wall of the City for many nights together near the place where they had cast him And they added a Prohibition upon pain of death
year on the day of the Death of a Martyr Oblations for the dead saith Teruillian Behold from whence comes Masses for the dead and the shadow of resemblance with what is done in the Church of Rome is capable of dazling ye But observe these great Differences The first is that the Sacrifices that were offered for the dead so they call them were not accounted true Sacrifices much less propitiatory Sacrifices 2. That they did not beg of God deliverance from the pains of Purgatory For Purgatory was not known at that time The third is that they did not commemorate Saints and Martyrs as they do at this day to have part in their Merits or to offer their Merits to God. First of all it is indisputable that the Church of the third Age did not think that Prayers for the dead joyned to the Sacrament of the Eucharist were a true Sacrifice I will not repeat the proofs those that please may see them in the preceding Letters For since we have proved that they did not at all account the Eucharist in general a true Sacrifice altho they gave it that name t is clear that they could not account as a true Sacrifice the Prayers which were joyned to the Eucharist for the repose of the dead So that the Ancients did not call that part of their Worship which they called Oblations for the dead Sacrifice for any other reason than because the Offerings which were consecrated upon the holy Table were there placed on the behalf of the dead either by their order or according to their will and intention And because these Prayers for the dead were joyned to the Sacrament which is a Sacrifice of Praise and the Commemoration of the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Cross Secondly we say that the end for which they make mention of the dead in the Celebration of the Eucharist was not for deliverance from Purgatory whereof no Discourse had been yet heard To be assured thereof there needs no more than to hear the Ancients concerning it 1. At the beginning they were only simple Commemorations of the dead to give thanks that they died in the Lord and in the fear of God. 'T was wholly to this end that they made mention of the Martyrs S. Cyprian speaking of two Men of War who had suffered death says that they were true and spiritual Soldiers of Jesus Christ and that in overthrowing the Devil by the Confession of the name of Jesus Christ They had by a generous suffering been worthy to receive the Palms and Crowns of the Lord. Now you may remember says he that we offer Sacrifices for them Observe the S. Cyprian says expresly that these two Martyrs were crowned in Heaven Nevertheless he says that they offered Sacrifice for them therefore it was not to fetch them from Purgatory How could it be that S. Cyprian and the Ancients should offer a Sacrifice to fetch the Martyrs from Purgatory when they believed they were in a state of Blessedness 'T was to do an injury to Martyrs to pray for them say they according to that saying so much known among the Ancients Injuriam facit Martyri qui orat pro Martyre For 't was to doubt of his happiness The same S. Cyprian says in another place Observe well the days on which they died speaking of the Martyrs to the end that we may remember them when we celebrate the Memories of the Martyrs Altho Terullian our most faithful and devout Brother hath written to us and doth write to inform us of the days in which our blessed Brethren which were in Prison passed to a glorious immortality to the end that we may here celebrate Oblations and Sacrifices for their Memory expecting that with the help of God we shall celebrate them with you That which he calls in the beginning Remembring the Martyrs he calls afterwards Oblations and Sacrifices for the memory of them But if to the Commemorations that is to say to the Praises which they gave to God for the glorious death of the departed they added some Prayers to God it was with respect to the Opinions then prevailing touching the state of Souls after death And these Opinions were such as had their Birth in the end of the second Age and was almost generally established and received in the third 1. That Souls did not enter into the Heavenly Paradise till after the Resurrection 2. That they remained in a separate place and state till that day 3. That they might go thence sooner or later by a quicker or slower Resurrection for they thought that the Resurrection was not accomplished in a day but continued the space of a thousand years at many and divers times 4. That at the day of Judgment the Souls pass through that fire which shall consume the World. 5. That in conclusion they present themselves in the day of Judgment either to be Absolved or Condemned There is not a learned and upright Man which doth not acknowledge this was the Divinity of the third Age yea and of those that follow So that with respect to these Opinions then prevailing they begged of God for the Dead 1. That he would fix them in the place of Repose which they call locus refrigerii or the Bosom of Abraham 2. That he would increase their happiness in that place and moderate the desire they have to go from thence 3. That they may go early thence and partake in the first Resurrection 4. That they may pass through the fire at the last-day without receiving and damage 5. And to conclude that they may be Absolved when they present themselves before the Throne of God all this was not expressed in the Prayers of the Church On the contrary they were conceived in general terms it was the intention of those which made Prayers for the Dead But to what purpose is it to dispute farther whether they offered Masses for the repose of Souls in Purgatory at that time since we have ancient Liturgies where we may see what they begged of God for the Dead There are two Liturgies of which one bears the name of St. James the other of St. Mark. We shall do them a great honor if we put them among the Writings of the third Age. The Liturgy attributed to St. James says Lord God of the Spirits of all flesh remember the Orhtodox of which we have made mention and whereof we have made none from Abel the Righteous unto this day cause them to rest in the Land of the Living in the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in thy Kingdom in the delights of Paradise And that of St. Mark Cause the Souls of our Fathers and of our Brethren which are dead in the Faith of Christ Jesus to rest c. Cause them to rest in the Tabernacles of thy Saints and give them the Kingdom of Heaven That Composition which is called the Constitutions of the Apostles is a Work of the fourth and it may be of the fifth Age. Nevertheless we
do not see there in the Prayers for the Dead any Prayer for the deliverance of Souls out of Purgatory According to the Liturgies of that time they requested two things for the Dead 1. Pardon all his sins voluntary and involuntary give him Angels for his guard For the believed that in these separate places they were assisted by Angels 2. Place them in the Bosom of the Patriarchs and Apostles and of all those that have been acceptable to thee from the beginning of the World where there is neither sorrow nor sighing It is the separate place where according to them Souls rest to the day of Judgment To conclude will you have any thing more than all this Behold it in the Book of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of the false Dionysius the Areopagite It is to do him great honor to quote him among the Authors of the third Age since he is much more modern But at least in teaching us what was done in the following Ages he will learn us what was not done in the Ages preceding He says 1. That when a Man was dead hi Relations and Friends sung Praises to God that had given him the Victory and caused him to arrive at the end he desired 2. Afterwards they carried him to the Bishop as if it were to receive the Sacred Crown 3. The Bishop caused him to be carried if he were a Laick to the entrance of the Quire of the Church and there they performed the Office of Prayers which began with Praises afterwards they read the Promises of the Resurection and sung Psalms before they passed farther they caused the Catechumens to go out after which they mentioned all the Saints heretofore dead in whose Praises they thought the deceased might have some part They exhorted all those which were present to breath after a happy end in Christ Jesus and in conclusion the Bishop made Prayers for the Dead he saluted the deceased person and after him all the living But what did these Prayers for the Dead contain It is says he that all the sins which they have committed through human frailty might be forgiven them and that God would conduct them into the Land of the Living into the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob to the place where there is neither grief sorrow nor sighing In all this there is nothing of Purgatory To conclude For the third and last difference of the Sacrifice of the Mass at this day where they make mention of the Dead and the services which the Christians of the third and fourth Age did for them it must be known that at this time they distinguished the Dead whereof they make two sorts there are those which they put in the Liturgy to Pray for them for their rest and deliverance from Purgatory and others whereof they make mention to present their merits to God and to be aided by their Intercession For in the Mass they make mention of the Holy Virgin of the Apostles Martyrs Confessors c. to be aided by their Prayers and to partake in their Merits that is to say they Prayed to them instead of Praying for them but this was a thing unheard of in those Ages It was a thing so impossible that they should Invoke God by the Merit of the Apostles and Martyrs that they Prayed to God even for them just in the same manner as for the least Believers This may be seen in the Liturgies that we have quoted where we have seen they Prayed for all Saints from Abel to this present day and the Liturgy of St. Mark makes express mention of Apostles Martyrs Confessors as of persons for which it says Cause them to rest in the Bosom of Abraham This by the way makes it appear that these good Men make little reflection upon what they say for they request on the behalf of the Apostles and Martyrs that God would set them in a place of rest nevertheless it is one of the Articles of their Faith that they are there already and that they had been there from the moment of their death But as Bellarmin hath well observed their Prayers for the Dead were conceived in the same terms as if they had been made at the instant of time when their Souls left their Bodies an instant which is the precise time of Praying for the forgiveness of their sins and the rest of their Souls If after this the new Converts through their prejudice and blindness will find the Sacrifice of the Mass in the third Age we know not how to help it let them only know that this heap of Prayers for the Dead and Oblations for the Deceased which were added to the Celebration of the Eucharist in the third Age was the unhappy Seed which the Spirit of Lies and Superstition did Sow in the Church that he might cause from thence to spring the false Sacrifice of the Mass Propitiatory both for the Living and the Dead so that they ought not to be astonished if there be some shadow of likeness between these Oblations for the Dead and the Sacrifice of the Mass since the one is the Seed and the other the Fruit the one the beginning and the other the end This Article might suffice not only for the Sacrifice of the Mass and for Prayers for the Dead but also for Purgatory for what we have said proves that Prayer for the Dead was by no means established upon the Opinion that Souls were in fire after death from whence they might be drawn by Masses And you may my Brethren boldly defie your Seducers to shew you in that Age any passage in the Ancients that say so Suffer not your selves to be abused by the Word Refrigerium which signifies refreshment as if they had desired for Souls some abatement of the heat of the flames for this Word signifies no other thing in the Authors of those times than pleasure and locus refrigerii a place of pleasure Beware also of the Knavery of your Translators who in those places where they find offerre pro dormitione that is to offer for those asleep they Translate it to offer for their repose as if the Souls for which they Prayed had been in some Pain and Travel For to offer for those asleep is simply to offer for the Dead Sleep according to the Style o Scripture signifies nothing but Death and to offer for the Dead or for those asleep was to offer by making mention of the deceased Behold that which was added to the Sacrament of the Eucharist in the third Age which began to give it some appearance of the Mass but they yet wanted three great things the Elevation the Adoration and the refusal of the Cup. We do not find the least trace of these three things take it for granted and put your Converters upon the necessity of proving the contrary and you will reduce them to what is impossible As for us if we would bring you Proofs that they did Communicate under both Kinds that they did not
Converters are not men of Fidelity to press you by Principles the falseness whereof they themselves confess for in the Pastoral letter of Monsieur de Meaux in his Catholick Exposition and every where else to hear him speak of the centre of Unity you would say that the Pope possessed this Title by divine Right and behold these Gentlemen profess to us That 't is by a handsome Usurpation tolerated and by the concession of Councils That which Councils have given him they may take away from him This makes it apparent how little of honesty there is in the Quotations which these Monsieurs make from St. Câ—prian who without doubt had a false Idea of the Unity of the Church so false and so ill formed that your Converters themselves will not dare to warrant it We have treated this matter at large in our Answer to Monsieur Nicholas where we have made it apparent that this false Idea of the Unity of the Church which St. Cyprian did communicate to St. Augustine did put the latter to that perplexity and confusion from which he could not withdraw himself on the subject of the validity of the Baptism of Hereticks In the following Letter we must say something as well on the point of Antiquity as that of Controversie and we will make it evident also in the same Letter that supposing this Roman Idea of Unity to be false all their Arguments and Sophisms vanish and come to nothing 15. January 1687. The ELEVENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity the end of the History of the Christianity of the Third Age concerning Tradition and the Primacy of the Bishop of Rome An Article of Controversie Reflections upon a Writing lately addressed to the Reformed of France A Continuation of the matter concerning the Unity of the Church Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ I Have not obliged my self to acquaint you with all the sad Accidents that do betide us in our Exile and Persecution but the death of the excellent Mr. Claud is an event so grievous that I cannot forbear speaking one word concerning it God hath taken him to himself since our last Letter He was the Father of our Prophets and we may well cry after him My Father my Father the Chariot of Israel and the Horseman thereof God had formerly affixed him in a particular manner to the conduct of the most considerable of your Congregations but Providence made him become in a manner your universal Pastor by the care that he took to defend you from the dangerous Sophistry of those that endeavoured to seduce you and he was herein successful in â—uch a manner as might cover all our Enemies with shame and confusion I acquaint you with the loss that you have sustained that you may lament and look on it as a mark of the continuation of God's displeasure against you His Justice was not yet satisfied the Arrows of his Quiver were not all drawn forth this stroke was still owing to us I pray God this may be the last If you be grieved your Enemies you may be sure rejoyce at it but they must know that if the Ashes and Blood of the Martyrs hath been the seed of the Church the Tombs of the Prophets do preserve their Spirit which passeth to their Disciples If the Grave inclose the Flesh and Bones of this great Man his Writings will preserve his Wit Knowledge and Illuminations and God will not suffer a failure of Persons which shall prophesie on his Tomb for the maintenance of those Victories that he hath gained for the Truth God will do his work in your fight and you shall see this Church which is dead rise again after four days but it may be he will do this work himself and when you see those fall and drop away one after another whose Writings and Discourses might be of use to ruine the success and triumph of Lyes be persuaded that God will derive his Praise from the mouths of Children and that he that laid the Foundation of the Kingdom of his Son by Fishermen will re-establish the Ruines thereof by earthen Vessels into which he will pour his Treasures He whose loss we lament was whilst he lived one of those Instruments which God served himself of for your Edification and Defence Whilst you pour out tears upon his Grave and throw your showers there you may gather sweetness thence Out of the Eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetness Death that devours and takes all things from us cannot hinder us from searching and finding our Edification in the Remains of this great Man. His last Words will serve as a Support to our Faith. It was not the pleasure of God that he should shed his Blood for the defence of his Truth but he hath made his last Words which are the effusion of his Spirit and of his Soul give Testimony to those Truths which he had preach'd and defended I have says he laboured all my life in the search of the best Religion and being now about to give up my Soul to God I do declare That I have not found any but our own which I have so often defended and in which I am now about to dye which is the true way to Heaven The Words of dying men are the proper Voice of Conscience for in that last moment Dissimulation has no place so that they are the Seal of all the Truths which he hath so gloriously defended My design will not permit me to speak all on this Subject which it were necessary you should know I shall leave it to some other Person and return to the matter of our preceding Letters This shall consist of one point of Antiquity and another of Controversie We are to finish the History of the Christianity of the Third Age. And after we have fortified you against the Illusions which your Seducers frame upon some Passages of the Writings of St. Cyprian and Tertullian on the Subject of Repentance Auricular Confession and Satisfaction I must also fortifie you against the Snares that they compose for you from the Writings of the same Tertullian on the Subject of Tradition for they do not fail to tell you That the Fathers nearest the Apostles had a great respect for the unwritten Word that they did often dispute against Hereticks by Tradition and that Tertullian himself did maintain That there was no other way of disputing against them But to secure you from this Snare Learn First That when Tertullian disputes and proves that which he advances by Tradition it is almost alway about indifferent Ceremonies and matters of practice As in the Book concerning the Soldiers Crown where he proves by Tradition the bearing of no Crown upon the Head of Dipping three times in Baptism of giving Milk and Honey to be eaten by the newly baptized of giving Alms and Oblations for the Dead of not Washing seven days after Baptism 'T
years without having one word of General Councils she passed without them during all that time Nevertheless she had never more need of them supposing them to be infallible means of ending Controversies and suppressing Heresies For in the first three Hundred years the Church was plagued with near Fifty differing Heresies Now judg you whether it be likely that God should appoint an infallible Judg to his Church and a sure way of knowing the Truth and that he should deny her the use of this means for the space of well near two Hundred and fifty years that is to say from the death of S. John the last of the Apostles till the Council of Nice So that in the Ages of greatest purity it will be found that the Church did not derive this purity from any other Fountain but from the simple and pure word of God it makes it evident that the Church may be pure without an infallible Judg in the midst of her Now if the Church may continue pure for the space of two Hundred and twenty five years without a General Council that is to say without an infallible Judg why may she not continue pure three four or five Hundred years For my part I call this a Demonstration that the Church may very well make a shift without those Judges that are called Infallible Let them answer it when they please Observe also that the Church was tormented with Fifty horrible Heresies which thought to have overwhelmed and sunk her and having no Councils she was then left to a Spirit of Error in those times that she had greatest need of a Guide for she had no other Rule but the Writings of the Apostles which according to our Adversaries are Medals with two Faces which may be looked on in a various manner and which all men expound in favour of their own Perswasions It is not amiss to bring hither Tertullian's Book of Prescriptions of which they make use with such success to deceive those that are weak among us It appears by this Book that the Orthodox were in the greatest distress in the World to convince and stop the mouths of Hereticks The Hereticks gave themselves to expound the Scripture after their own manner and in a sense contrary to the truth Tertullian complains thereof and says That false Interpretations do as much injury to Truth as the boldness of those that corrupt the Scriptures He adds That the weak find themselves confounded seeing Hereticks as well as Catholicks dispute from the Scripture To get out of this perplexity he recurs to the Succession of Bishops by whom it might be proved that they taught nothing but what the Apostles had taught before them he found no other way of escape this man had a Mind very much straitned or he was very ignorant Why did he not think of General Councils who are the only infallible means of knowing the sense of the Scriptures Neither he nor any of the Writers of this Age and of that which followed it had any knowledg of them Nevertheless as it is said it was a means established and appointed by God and yet for the space of two Hundred years it must be acknowledged that God hid this means from the whole Church and that he left her in a streight given up to the Humors of Hereticks and to their lewd and false Interpretations No reasonable Man will ever swallow such a Prodigy 3. I intreat you my Brethren to consider if it be likely that God should place Infallibility in Assemblies whose Original was wholly casual and accidental The occasion which gave birth to General Councils was the Conversion of the Roman Emperors to Christianity and the great extent of that Empire For if the Emperors had continued Pagans Councils from all parts of the Empire had never been assembled the Emperors would have looked upon it as a Conspiracy and would never have permitted it Besides if the Roman Emperors by becoming Christians had lost half the Provinces of the Empire there had never been any General Councils neither For the divers Princes which had possessed themselves of the Provinces of the Empire would not have permitted their Subjects to assemble with those who continued under the Rule of the Romans for fear lest these Conferences should be designed to search out ways of returning under the Government of their first Masters Now judg if a Tribunal which in the purpose of God was to be the Fountain of the Oracles of the Church in all Ages ought to owe its birth to a concourse of Affairs and Mundane Circumstances that were wholly and purely so Ought not God to have established this Tribunal without dependance on the World and the Affairs thereof as from the beginning he established Presbyteries so S. Paul calls the Assemblies of Pastors is every City and in every particular Church He must have a very obdurate Mind I think who is not moved and touched with this Discourse and Reason 4. What may be the assurance that a Man may have of such an Article of Faith which is founded on a Matter of Fact notoriously false 'T is that the Councils of the Fourth and Fifth Ages were assembled from the whole Universal Church That say I is notoriously false there were not above three Hundred and eighteen Fathers in the Council of Nice the most ancient and the most venerable of all the Councils What are three Hundred and eighteen Bishops for the whole vast extent of the Roman Empire where there was an infinite number of them It does not appear that all the Churches did depute their Bishops thither nor that all the Provinces of the Roman Empire did assemble to choose some one out of their Body who should carry their Counsel and Advice Constantine called together all the Bishops in general those that could and those that would appeared there none appeared there but those of the Eastern Church there were not Twelve of the Latin Church there out of all Spain none were seen but Hosius Bishop of Corduba out of all France none but Nicasius Bishop of Die or Dijon Besides this there were Churches out of the Roman Empire it may be there were Churches even in the Indies at least those which tell us that S. Thomas carried the Gospel thither ought to believe so 'T is certain at least that there were large Churches in Persia Ecclesiastical History speaks of a great Persecution which was raised at that time against the Christian Churches of Persia by the Impudence or ill guided Zeal of Maruthas a Bishop who burnt one of the Temples which the Persians had consecrated to the Honor of the Fire These Churches of Persia were not called to this Council nor did they appear there All the World are at an Agreement that the first Council of Constantinople held under Theodosius the Great was not General There were none but Eastern Bishops there yea two Hundred years after in the time of Gregory the first Bishop of Rome the Western
fill them on the other A Letter written abâ—â—â— three Months since says That they had conducted from thâ— Country of Castres to Montpellier more than five hundred Prisoners who without doubt must travel into the New Found World as well as others How sad soever the lot of these poor People that are carried into another World may seem I reckon it more easie than the state of those who are in the Prisons of the Province of Languedoc where they treat them as cruelly as they can do the worst of Criminals and Parricides yea they insult over them in a more insolent manner It hath been written within a few Months That one of the Prisoners of Aigrie-mortes having had license to go out of his Dungeon to take the Air for a few moments and having delayed to return to it a little longer than a Souldier which stood Centinel thought he ought to have done immediately he discharged his Musquet at him and killed him upon the place 'T is an action like that which I think I may have reported else-where concerning one named Moliere a gallant man and a very good Christian Prisoner in the same Tower of Constance who was taken thence to assist at the drawing of one of his Brethren to the Dung-hill his heart failing him he fell down and a Souldier that was near him knockt him on the head without giving him leisure to return or recover from his langour and weakness We have also Letters that of many Prisoners transported from Nismes to Aigue-mortes three finding themselves very ill desired that they might be visited by Physitians to the end it might be certainly known that they were not in a condition to undertake the Journey They laught at them and on the evening when they arrived there they cast them into a hideous Prison where not being able to obtain so much as a little Water to moderate the Fire which devoured them they fell into Delivation and died the day after And this is exactly that which they desire for they don't tire them by these Transportations and hideous Prisons to any other end but that they may make them die without noise but after a manner more sad and lamentable than a death upon a Gibbet or the Wheel would be If they excuse some Women from the Voiage to Canada 't is to put them into the hands of Rapine the most wicked of all the Hang-men Converter to the Bishop of Valence The Punishment to which he exposes those Women is to whip them night and day till the blood come none hath escaped his hands except one that died in the Dungeon To the end that the new Converts whose Conscience is a kind of Hell may receive no Consolation by any Communication which their Brethren they have established a new kind of Inquisition upon Letters They have not only granted Commission to Persons at all Post-houses to open Letters but on the sixteenth of February they made a general Inquisition in all the Houses of the new Catholicks to find not only persons that might be hid there but also the Letters which discovered the Commerce which they held with those which were gone out of the Kingdom By this Search the City was in the state of a place where they were about to make a Massacre and indeed all the Inhabitants were under the fears thereof and every one believed himself at the point of Death for all the quarters of the City and all the corners of the Streets were filled with Souldiers and Guards and men were forbidden upon great Penalties to go out of their Houses Thus the Persecutors tempt the Weak by fear and the horrours of Death which they set before their eyes this Tragedy ended in the Imprisonment of a great number of persons To conclude as the Rage of Persecutors never went farther so the Fear and Terrour that hath seized the minds of Men was never greater All the Attempts of our Enemies would be vain if we had the Spirit of Martyrdom and Feared God more than Men. This is that my Brethren which you must endeavour to obtain and to that end set always before your eyes the great difference that God proposes and promises to those which shall suffer Martyrdom we know not how sufficiently to express them Consider the glorious Rewards that God promises in the two first Chapters of the Revelations the Crowns the Thrones the hidden Manna the new Name the Rule over Nations the Iron Scepter to Subdue them and the White Garments 'T is true that all true Believers will have part in these advantages but 't is true nevertheless that 't is of Martyrs only that God speaks there and 't is certain that they shall possess these advantages in a degree of pre-eminence above others The Peace of GOD be with you all The 15th of April 1687 The Seventeenth PASTORAL LETTER An Article of Antiquity Three new Proofs of the Invocation of Saints in the Fifth Age. An Article of Controversie A Continuation of the Answer to the Illusions which the New Converts put upon themselves on the Subject of Schism Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ THere is not a Point of Practice in the Roman Church concerning the Antiquity whereof your Converters make so much boast as that of the Invocation of Saints which they find in the Fifth Age. For which reasons you ought not to think it strange that we heap Proof upon Proof to make it evident to you that this unhappy Superstition did not descend from the Apostles nor their Successors but that it had its birth about the end of the Fourth Age. Behold yet a new Mark of the Novelty of this Worship 'T is that at the beginning men prayed only to the Martyrs and not to the other Saints What is the meaning of this At this day there is no necessity of being a Martyr to obtain a Canonization There are a hundred and a hundred persons in the Popish Calendar which were no Martyrs We must not do that injury to the Church to believe that she hath had no persons of eminent Sanctity except such as have suffered Martyrdom The Principles upon which the Invocation of Saints is established are That the Faithful see God that in him they can know all our needs and wants and understand and hear our Prayers and that being near to God they can intercede for us Now these Principles ought to establish an Invocation of other Saints as well as of the Martyrs There were without doubt in the four first Ages of the Church many holy persons which were not martyred but they never prayed to any of them and we desire your Converters to shew us any instance thereof 'T is necessary that you know that they did not Invocate even all the Martyrs they prayed only to those whose Reliques they had in possession Examine well all the passages which you quote from St. Basil St. Gregory St. Austin St. Jerrome
Castle of Saumiere to Valence with another of her Sisters and four Daughters of Monsieur Audemane's and Mademoiselle de la Farelle All these persons are a thousand times worse treated than if they were among Barbarians At their arrival in the Hospital he which hath the Government thereof caused them to be shaven afterwards he caused them to be stripped of their Shifts to give them others of Hair which made Sores and Ulcers on them to their fingers ends They give them little Food and a great many Blows Mademoiselle de la Farelle received a blow with a Cudgel over her Face which beat out all her fore-teeth They seize on persons every day of the Reformed Religion on the Borders of Lyons and Geneva Some days since they killed Monsieur Quista who was conveying his Wife and Child out of the Kingdom Meeting some Country-men and finding himself well horsed he made opposition to them but one of them gave him a knock with a Flint which overturned and killed him His Wife and Child are now Prisoners On this Accident the Wife of M. Bonigoll escaped and is now at Geneva April the 5th 1687. HE which commits these Cruelties of which this Letter speaks is the famous Rapin of whom we have already told you something The Cruelties which he exercises in the Prisons of Valence deserve a particular History which we will give you as soon as we can I hope that Marseilles which has seen the last hours of the Martyrdom of Mr. Du Crosse will become more famous by the number of Martyrs than by its Antiquities and other Singularities We have been informed that two good old men of Vassi in Champagne have there received their Crowns One of them is called Monsieur Chantguyon of seventy four years of age of which he employed thirty four in the service of that Church in quality of an Elder which great care and fidelity This good old man was arrested on the Frontiers of Champagne endeavouring to go out of the Kingdom he was condemned to the Gallies he appeals to the Parliament of Mets whither he was transmitted his Sentence was confirmed and there he received that glorious Chain under which he breathed his last he was so oppressed with Age and Infirmities that he was so far from being able to bear a Chain that he was not able to bear himself His Judges were touched and afflicted with it but they said they must make Examples He went from Mets about the end of September with his Brother-in-Law Mr. Chemet who was Sixty nine years of age and also in Chains and much more infirm than he having both a Rupture and an Asthma They were both full of joy and gloried that they were found worthy to suffer for the Name and Truth of God. In all the places through which they passed upon the Road they found persons which have given Testimony to their Constancy and Courage These two Martyrs bore their Chain to Marseilles but the end of their Journey was the end of their Race and the time of their Coronation They both died within a few days of each other giving glory to God and confessing his Truth having never had any inclination to deny it to deliver themselves out of this sad condition Mr. Chantguyon is of the Bloud of the Martyrs for he had for Grandfather Peter Chantguyon who was one of those that suffered death in the Massacre of Vassi which was the Signal to the Civil War of the past Age. How sad soever the state of these Confessors which suffer for the Name of Christ may seem to be 't is nevertheless infinitely less calamitous than that of those who are lapsed and fallen whose Conscience makes them feel those torments which cannot easily be expressed We have thought our selves obliged to communicate to you on this subject the Letter of a Person of great Quality Wife to one of our most famous Confessors She had imitated the courage of her Illustrious Husband for the space of above a whole year but the Tempter assailed her at an ill season and caused her to lose her Crown Behold how bitter the Tear are which dropped from this unfortunate Gentlewoman Alas my dear Mr. blame me not if I have not acquainted you with the unhappy State in which I am so great is my Confusion by reason of my Fall that I have not the boldness to publish it my self It is impossible to express unto you my Grief 't is such that I am not able to bear up against it I am oppressed by the weight thereof I am neither able to live nor die no body can conceive how lamentable my State is I was so content with my Tryal and so resigned to the Will of God that I could willingly have suffered death if he had called me thereunto I was acceptable and in good reputation among all persons and enjoyed a wonderful rest and repose of mind 'T is true it was a little disturbed by the coming of my Son who tormented me extreamly but all was to no purpose God bestowed those Mercies on me that I did not deserve nor did I make any suitable returns for them I presumed too much on my self yet I was not altogether without suspicion Alas how do I find true in experience that the Spirit is ready but the Flesh is weak and that it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an offended God! How great are my sins since the castigation of them is so terrible Whilst I write I pour out tears I do assure you and they flow from me night and day I repent O my God help my weakness I forgive you that upon the first hearing of this thing you cried out to all against me and did judge that it was the World Estate and Ease and to conclude whatsoever you please that was the cause thereof I do not justifie my self at all nor do I plead any thing for my excuse I was weak and feeble my Faith failed me in a time of need and God did not inable me to suffer for his Name In my unhappy state I have nevertheless this perfect confidence in the mercy of my great God that he will raise me up and I shall glorifie him whether it be in life or death and that my Christ will be always gain to me whether I live or die He desires not the death of a sinner but his conversion and life My God draw me and I will run after thee and do thou lead me to the Haven of Happiness Thou seest my heart O my God 't is intirely thine as well as my mouth I will confess thee every-where For the space of four hours I was tormented by fifteen persons I cried with all my strength begging the Gallows and Death I was nigh unto death and how happy had I been if I had died I had not one moment of rest I knew not where I was by reason of the great noise that was made They made use of this great trouble
following in the Year 1683 by me Francis Senilh heretofore Minister of Lavardac in Guyenne and chosen to Collect the Acts of the said Synod who have the said Papers in my possession Given at Amsterdam the five and twentieth of April 1687. F. Senilh Secretary of the said Synod The Priest Soulier hath made his Reflections upon this Motion and Act of the Synod of Thonniens after his manner we will examine them by and by The Court of France being under no disposition to hear the Justifications which they could produce on this subject they were obliged to justifie themselves to the Publick And because France was no place nor had been for a long time in which it was permitted to defend the cause of God and the Innocent they were forced to Print what they had to say thereon in a strange Country The Author of a Book intitled The Spirit of Monsieur Arnold inserts in his Work the Arguments by which this pretended Act might be proved false and he finds no less than Nine which he calls invincible and which indeed are so and will always be so in the opinion of every equal and disinterested Judge At the said time he there makes a little History of the divers Gradations by which the Priest Soulier hath passed to become an Author since he was either a Taylor or a Shooe-maker at Paris to shew what credit ought to be given to the Reports of such a man who owes his Advancement to his Missionary Spirit i. e. to a Spirit of Violence Passion and Falshood against the Reformed For behold exactly the Spirit of Mercers Shooe-makers and Cutlers who have left their Trades and Shops to ascend the Bench and to run about France with the Memoirs of Veron The Priest Soulier who had been very well recompensed for his History of the Edicts of Pacisication by a Pension which the Clergy had assigned unto him being allured by the Bait judged it convenient to make a great Book exactly on the same subject upon which he had made a little one 'T is no longer the History of the Edicts of Pacification 't is at this day The History of Calvinism containing its Birth its Progress its Decay and End in France But don 't mistake yourselves 't is the same thing the first was in little this is in great 't is nevertheless the same Countenance the same Picture as well as the same Author and the whole Dedicated to the King that is to say Monsieur Soulier is willing to raise himself Successour to Monsieur Maimburgh He had put his Calumnies against the Reformation of France into an Abridgment in his first Work this got him only a moderate Pension his knowledge and his parts are very mean and limited to turn to some other subject and make a new Book against the Calvinists to gain a new Pension this was not very easie therefore he judged it more convenient to make again the same Book under a new form much larger than the former hoping that this would procure for him a much more ample Reward Nor was he mistaken for as a Recompence of this last Work they have procured for him an Abbacy in Xaintonge so that from hence forth 't will be no longer Soulier the Prist 't is Monsieur the Abbot and I hope for his next work it will be My Lord the Bishop And then we shall see the Proverb exactly turned it will not be from a Bishop to a Miller but from a Miller to a Bishop In the Preface of this new Book which we expect and which must promote Monsieur Soulier to a Bishoprick he will say no more as he hath in the Preface of this I content myself to answer these passionate Writers that my Conscience doth not reproach me about any of these matters of Fact and that I have so little laboured for temporal Considerations that I assure myself the Minister Jurien how able soeven he seems in his Searches and Inquiries will not find my name in the distribution of Rewards nor of that of Benefices The Ministers without being very able in Searches and Inquiries will then easily find the name of Monsieur Soulier among the Distributions of Rewards and Benefices and they hope that this lucky Historian will suddenly have a new degree of Honour when he shall have put the History of Calvinism under a third form In expectation of this new Dignity and without regarding what he has at present we shall not take notice of this honest man under any other appellation but that of Soulier the Priest as hath been customary unto him So then Monsieur Soulier the Priest hath thought good to give Calvinism a hundred Blows after its Death and to covet it with Infamy by a great Book of seven hundred Pages in Quarto He must be an Enemy to his own Repose and search out business out of briskness of Humour that will trouble himself to Answer the Accusations and Falsities wherewith this great Volumne is filled for excepting a few matters of Fact there is nothing in it but what Monsieur Arnold and Monsieur Maimburgh and others have said to which it is believed that the Calvinist of Holland as Monsieur Soulier calls them have answered very well and very much at large But we cannot nor ought not to neglect this business of the Conspiracy of Montpazier because 't is a new thing and because Soulier in pursuit of a Commission granted him by the King hath made a furious expence of Wit to defend the Truth of what he had affirmed As he hath repeated in his History of Calvinism all which was in his History of Edicts but dressed up after a more magnificent and ample manner he hath likewise repeated the Conspiracy of Montpazier with all the circumstances and reasons which may support the truth of it We have seen the first Act without Form and without Subscriptions we must see it such as it is at present in this new History corrected and augmented by the Author corrected in the name Daret which is changed into Durel augmented by four Subscriptions which are here below But after all maimed of three Marginal Annotatiods which do a great deal of Honour to the Piece and him that produced it Behold it therefore according to its new Edition The Pastors and Elders of the Churches of Lower Guyenne Assembled in a Synod at Montpazier the first of July 1659 and some days following The Conspiracy of the Synod of Montpazier ON the Report made by Monsieur Ricottier of the care that the took with Monsieur Vignier now absent at the desire of some of the Society to obtain that some of our Brethren of England should concern themselves in the Preservation of our Liberties which they endeavour every day to destroy wherein they think he hath laboured happily by the interposition and assistance of Monsieur Durel And having learnt from the Mouth of the said Durel and seen by Letters which were written to him and whereof he had
by the King in our Assemblies who hath suffered or dissembled such undertakings Would not the Justice of the King have prosecuted a person guilty of such a Crime with the utmost severities of punishment The King knew saw and was informed of all this Conspiracy and the Court kept silent both with respect to St. Blancard the pretended Commissary and with respect to the Synod Be it St. Blancard or de Vivans the one and the other were yet in the Land of the Living in the Year 1677 when this forged Piece was put into the hands of the King and yet they were never prosecuted We see this man hath lost all judgment and understanding The third thing which Soulier says is That although the Commissary were faithful to the King they might act in this Affair without his knowledge or participation because in Affairs of this nature the secret is not committed but to some principal persons and the other Members of the Assembly have no part therein Behold another Conjecture well worthy the contrivance of Soulier the Priest that is to say that there are four persons which made this great Conspiracy and without communicating it to the Pastors or the Elders they treat about introducing an Enemy and a foreign Nation into France And how could four Ministers give Assurances in an Affair which depends upon so many without communicating it to them Four Ministers attempt to manage a whole great Province We know the Jealousie which reigns among all men of what Character soever they be Is it imaginable that a hundred Ministers and so many Elders should think themselves obliged to follow the Inspirations and discharge the Obligations of four Ministers in an Affair wherein they were not trusted and in which there is no less than their Life and being broken alive upon the Wheel at stake In truth a man would think that a clap of Thunder had astonished this miserable Calumniator The second Argument of Falshood and the Justification thereof The second Argument that we employed to prove the Falshood of this Impostour was That there was no likelihood that the Reformed of Guyenne should attempt a thing which might have such mischievous Consequences in a time when they had no reason to complain of the Court because they enjoyed their Liberties peaceably enough To this Soulier says two things First That in our Conduct there are many examples of Unfaithfulness in the very times that we peaceably enjoyed the Favours that had been granted to us and therefore we have been very silly in desiring to justifie ourselves from this Treason because we had no occasion that should prompt us to commit it Thereupon he reckons up the proofs of this Accusation For Example saith he they enjoyed peaceably all the Priviledges which had been granted them by the Edict of January in the Year 1561 they had the publick Exercise of their Religion in the Subburbs of Paris c. this did not hinder but that they treated three Months after with the English and delivered unto them Haure de Grace Another Example These Gentlemen enjoyed peaceably the Edict of Peace which was granted them before Orleans in the Year 1563 nevertheless to the prejudice of this Peace and the Edict which the Calvinists did very peaceably enjoy they took Arms again in cold Blood. He adds many other Examples to prove his Accusation but in truth my patience is spent and for the ease and quiet of my mind I cannot resolve to follow this Calumniator to the end Who can endure without Indignation that which he hath the boldness to affirm That it was the Hugenot Party which began the War after the Edict of January All the World knows that it was the Princes of the House of Guise who caused the Massacre at Vassy in the midst of that Peace which we did so quietly enjoy He who answered Maimburgh's History of Calvinism hath made it appear by the clearest light that the first Civil War which came after the Edict of January was no War of Religion that it had its source in the implacable Hatreds which were between the Houses of Guise and Montmorrency Mizeray Castalnau le Labourreur Cardinal d' Ossat Daubigne that it was caused in part by an infinite number of Discontents which the Tyrants of the Court had made in the Kingdom and in part by an infinite number of cashiered Souldiers and disbanded Troops which had been accustomed to live in disorder that the principal spring thereof was the Resentment of Lewis of Burbon Prince of Condy who had received the utmost Outrages from the Guises seeing they had caused him to be condemned to death and had procured his Execution had it not been prevented by the death of Francis the Second To conclude it was the enormous Ambition and detestable Policy of Catherine de Medices who united and knit together this Party and set all the great Men of the Kingdom together by the ears that she might Reign in the midst of these Dissentions and Ruine the one by the other All this hath been made good by Witnesses that cannot be reproached it hath been made evident that Religion was only the pretence which the great men made use of to mutinie the people It hath been proved that during this pretended Peace which the Calvinists did quietly enjoy under the shadow of the Edict of January saith Soulier there were above three thousand persons which perished by Massacres or by Courts of Justice that the Duke of Guise came to Paris with twelve hundred Horse that he seized of the King and the Regent which were at Fountainblean and that 't was properly there that the Declaration of War was made And this villanous Calumniator hath the boldness to tell us that we were the Aggressours in this first War and Aggressours in full Peace It must be observed here that this man follows none of the Rules of an Historian he generally dissembles and passes over all those matters of Fact which give light to a History and shew the original of an Evil he insists only on those things by which he may be able to give a very ill aspect to the Actions of the Protestant Party Maimburgh and other Popish Writers have not carried their Unfaithfulness so far The Unfaithfulness of Soulier is not greater on occasion of the second War which broke the Peace of Orleans We were saith he in full Peace when we made that hideous Attempt which is called the Conspiracy of Meaux Lying costs this man nothing All the Authors of that time who have any thing of Honour of Conscience do agree that never was there War more mischievous than this pretended Peace of Orleans They oppressed the Protestants every-where by the utmost Violences no Justice was to be had for them they Massacred them with Impunity they conspired their Ruine they treated about it with the Duke of Alva Mezeray Lâ— Labourreur La Noue the House of Austria and the Pope they killed a great
he left behind him a matter which infected the Air When Birds were roasted and set upon the Table with signs of the Cross they made them fly away Another nourished a Child in a Desart by making him suck the clapper of a little Bell another hung his clothes upon the shaddow of a Tree or on a ray of the Sun as upon a Peg another made whole again a Basket of Eggs that had been broken another made a golden Cup of a pound of Butter another by sucking a leprous person drew from his Navel three great lunchions of fat matter whereof he made so many Ingots of Gold To conclude there are no Impeâ—tinencies nor ridiculous things which Popery doth not make its Saints to do and behold the History which they put in the place of the Evangelical Story As to what concerns Doctrine they speak but little of the August Misteries of Religion to the People such as are those of the Divine Attributes the Persons of the Trinity the Incarnation and Redemption of Christ Jesus These Misteries were laid by and neglected or if they spake any thing of them 't was after a Scholastical manner and method 't was by mingling with it a barbarous Philosophy of entities and quiddities with obscure and unintelligible distinctions 't was by raising foolish questions on the subject of the most venerable Mysteries For example Whether God could make matter without form whether he could command sin whether this proposition God is a Beetle or a Gourd could be as true as this God is a Man whether the number of three Persons in God ought to be referred to the first or second intentions whether the second Person in the Trinity could take the nature of a Devil or of an Ass as he took the nature of Man The Books which contain these fine questions are not yet destroyed At least they entertain people with the false Doctrines of Popery Instead of speaking to them of the efficacy of the venerable Sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the Cross they speak nothing to them but of the greatness and utilities of the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar called the Mass It was good for every thing for the sound and for the sick to cure all diseases for Travellers for those who undertook great things to find Silver Horses Asses and Hogs that were lost 'T was good for the Dead as well as for the Living 't was excellent to fetch Souls from Purgatory or to abate their Sufferings for which reason they could not tell how to say too many for that purpose 100. 200. 300. 1000. 2000. 3000. 4000. and all with design to draw by this practice Maintenance for a million of Sluggards who have nothing to live upon but these Masses Instead of exalting the divine Vertue of the Bloud of Jesus Christ they spoke nothing but of Purgatory of a certain Fire which was to burn Souls after Death but of what sort of Men of those who had not made pious Foundations who had not left great Revenues to Convents and who had not left great Alms to the Monks to say Masses And upon this account they had always some Soul in pickle which came from Purgatory bringing News from thence who desired Masses and Suffrages and who complained lamentably that his Friends had forsaken him Amongst the means of appeasing the wrath of God true repentance which consists in contrition and amendment of life was passed over very lightly But they insisted mightily upon Satisfactions Mortifications Whippings hair Cloaths and Pilgrimages they advanced the value of these things they spake of them with prodigious Excesses and ascribed Salvation wholly to them And because all the World were desirous to be saved but few were capable of these hard penances they found out ways more easie and commodious If you give money to a Monk he will whip himself for you and you shall go to Heaven for him If you give great Alms to a Convent of the Frior Minors or the Preachers or the Augustines or the Carmelites if you take the Cord-girdle or the Rosary of the Fraternity and bestow great bounty and liberality on them and get the Letters of Adoption of St. Francis or St. Dominick by these means you partake in the merit i. e. in all the scourgings and macerations of the Monks of that Order scattered all the World over For greater security they have established a lovely good and inexhaustible Treasure of Indulgencies made up of all the superabundant scourgings of the good Monks mingled with the infinite merit of the passion of Jesus Christ And from this Treasure the Bishops and the Popes as Soveraign Dispensers fetch Indulgencies and Remission for all Sins for 40000 years for a 100000 years for 500000 years and all this by paying well for it So that if a man had committed so many enormous Crimes that they could not be expiated under less than 500000 years pennance he becomes discharged of them in a moment by his Money And there was no distinction of Sins Incests Adulteries Paricides Sodomies Brutalities all fell under the grace of Indulgencies Instead of abasing man before God by speaking nothing to him but of Grace and the forgiveness of sins instead of saying to him perpetually you are saved by Grace through Faith which is the Gift of God instead of making him understand that his good Works could merit nothing before God because they were very imperfect instead say I of doing all this they endeavoured to fill man with himself they spake nothing to him but of the merits of his Works and of the profitableness of humane satisfactions They made him believe that above all in matter of satisfactions he could do more than he was obliged unto that he had merit remaining and that he did works of supererogation and there are found even in this age devout persons so foolish and proud as to say to their Friends that they will give them their Merits They never speak any thing to them but of their power of their free will of their good works of their merits of the crowns which are prepared for them above others And above all these works to which they affix these Crowns are not prayers devotions severe Morals or holy lives Charity and alms to the poor But they are sack-cloaths and hare-cloaths 't is to shut themselves up in Covents and there make vow of Virginity 't is to abstain from certain Meats 't is to live in Retirement without seeing or speaking to any one 't is to wear a Frock without a Shift With this Furniture of good Works these men look on Heaven as an Inheritance by full Right and according to all the Laws and Rigour of Justice And for other men these pretended righteous persons full of pharisaical pride lookt on them with a great contempt by saying Come not near me for I am Holy. Instead of instructing men in the true way of possessing and uniting ourselves to Christ Jesus they have invented a carnal and corporeal
advantage upon the Abyssines because they were very ignorant But King Claudias interposing therein had almost as much advantage on the Missionaries of Portugal as they had on the Ecclesiasticks of Aethiopia because he was without comparison the most able man of his Kingdom as well in Divinity as in the Art of Government Oviedo seeing that he got nothing by these ways resolved to employ those which were more violent He left the Court to testifie his displeasure and published a Writing injurious to the Abyssine Church in which he accused it of many Heresies and forbad the Portugese to have any Communion with it The King was angry also on his part but a little while after he was slain in a Battel and left his Brother Adamus Saghed Successor to his Realm This Prince used more rigour against Oviedo and his Companions he revoked all those Acts of Grace which his Predecessors had granted to them He forbad them upon pain of death to trouble his Estates by their new Gospel The Bishop withdrew to Fremone upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom and there abode thirty years with the Portugese under the Title of the Patriarch of the Abyssines which he took after the death of John Barrett Adam Saghed died and his Son Malec Saghed succeeded him He treated the Portugese more kindly and they being reformed by the correction they had received acted more wisely and with greater moderation Nevertheless this Mission was extinct because they had no way of sending Successors the Turks having possessed the Ports of the Red-Sea which gave admission into Aethiopia And the Portugese which would have converted all the Nation were found without Priests to give them the Communion But in the beginning of this Age in the year 1604. a Jesuit named Peter Pais was more happy than all those who had preceded them He entered into Aethiopia and made himself admired by an Ability which although it were but very indifferent seemed extraordinary among people which knew nothing He came to the Court of Zadengel who was then King of Aethiopia and managed him so well that he obtained an express Promise from him that he would submit to the Pope and the Religion of the Romans This Prince began with an Ordinance which forbad the observation of Saturday or the Sabbath which the Abyssines venerate as the Lord's Day The Great Men of the Realm being provoked by this Enterprize conspired against him and slew him after a Battel in which he was not successful Behold already the death of one King which Papery caused in Aethiopia This death cost the Jesuit Converters nothing on the contrary they found in Susneus the Successor of Zadengel a Protector much more proper to make the Minister of their Violence Susneus permitted himself to be managed by these Missionaries of Portugal in such a manner that they prevailed with him to declare openly that he would change the Religion of the Country and submit the Abyssine Church to the Pope He wrote concerning it to Clement the Eighth and to Philip King of Spain who was then also King of Portugal Many Great Lords of the Court and Officers of the Army out of complaisance to their King embraced the Religion of the Romans and communicated with them Susneus having received many kind Letters from Paul the Fifth writ to him again another Letter dated the 31th of January 1613. by which he acknowledges him for Pastor of the Universal Church and desires his assistance to confirm his Religion This Prince guided by the Jesuits to the end that they might do things a little in form caused many Conferences to be held upon the Question of the two Natures in Christ Jesus For the Aethiopians following the Schism of Eutyches acknowledge in him but one But the truth is there is at this day nothing but a dispute of words thereon for the Eutychians acknowledge the Divinity and Humanity in Christ Jesus but it pleases them to say this Union makes but one Nature compounded of two as the Body and Soul in Man make but one Compound so that 't is certain that we may very well give our selves indulgence therein but 't is not of the Spirit of Popery to tollerate any thing The King at the sollicitations of the Jesuits made an Edict by which he ordained That henceforward they should believe two Natures in Christ Jesus The Abyssine Monks which fell in the Dispute sustained themselves in their ignorance with obstinacy in their Opinion but one of them having spoken a little too freely was brought before the King and was beaten with a stirrup-leather Behold the Spirit of Popery which began to discover it self without disguise This first Violence awakened their sleeping Spirits Simeon the Metropolitan of the Abyssines came to Court he complains That without consulting him they had done such things upon Religion The King answered That for his satisfaction there should yet be a Conference on that subject The consequence was that after the Conference the Jesuits obtained an Edict by which it was forbidden on pain of death to say there was but one Nature in Christ Jesus This frightful Decree was a clap of Thunder which seemed to reduce the whole Empire of the Abyssines into powder and Aethiopia knew then by experience what Evils the Spirit of Popery drew along with it all the Realm was alarmed and the most moderate lost their moderation and considered that in truth the Controversie about two Natures in Christ in the estate in which now it was was of no importance but that such a severity was unheard of in Aethiopia since the times of the Apostles and that it was wholly opposite to the nature of the Christian Religion for which Religion they concluded they must not suffer such Violence Jamanaxus Brother by the Mothers side of the Emperour puts himself at the head of a very powerful Confederation into which many great Lords entered with all the Church-men and a great part of the People The Metropolitan Simeon who strove less against the two Natures in Jesus Christ than for his Dignity which they would have taken from him in favour of him whom it should please the Pope to name excommunicated all those which followed the Religion of the Franks for so they call the Religion of the Romans This boldness caused some fear to the Emperour he grew a little moderate and made another Edict in which he gave Liberty of Conscience to all his Subjects and in all appearance he had continued so to do if he had followed his own Inclinations But at the instigation of the Jesuits he returned to more violent Counsels The Queen-Mother the Metropolitan the Church-men and the Monks threw themselves at his feet in favour of the ancient Religion but he rejected them all with violence so that there was no more hopes of Peace Jamanaxus the King's Brother Elias his Son-in-Law Governour of the Province of Tygris with a great Party resolved to oppose the Violence by force The Metropolitan
the year 1606 was made the Treaty called the Pacification between Rodolphus Emperour and King of Hungary and Stephen Bothskey Kis-ma-ria The first Article whereof grants That the Reformed Hungarians should not in any thing be troubled in the exercise of their Religion and that all the Churches taken from them during the Troubles should be restored to them All the Kings of Hungary which have been since Matthias Ferdinand the Second and Ferdinand the Third have confirmed these Priviledges by their Declarations To conclude the present Emperour in the year 1655 when he was crowned King of Hungary confirmed by an express Declaration all that his Predecessours had done The eleventh Article of that Declaration concedes That for the Conservation of Peace amongst all the Orders and States of Hungary the business of Religion shall remain free without receiving any Disturbance according to the Constitution of Vienna and the Articles published before the Coronation in such sort that the exercise of Religion shall be entirely free for the Barons Lords Nobles free Citizens and generally for all Estates and Orders of Hungary as also for the Towns and Villages which will embrace it so that no person of what estate or condition soever may be hindered by his Majesty or other Temporal Lords in any manner or under any pretence whatsoever from the free use and exercise of the said Religion Things were in this estate in the year 1671 when a Jesuite named George Barze Titular Bishop of Warradine calling himself Counsellour to his Imperial Majesty published a Book with this Title Truth declared to all the World which makes it appear by three Arguments that his Imperial Majesty is not obliged to Tollerate the Lutheran and Calvinist Sect in Hungary It is easie to understand what a Work of this Title that has a Jesuite for its Author doth contain The design thereof was to justifie the Persecutions which had been already made against the Protestants of Hungary as well as those they were preparing to make For already a long time before the publication of this Writing some particular Lords had set up for cruel Persecutors Among others Francis Nadasti Paul Esthersiazy and many others at the instigation of the Priests and Jesuites had employed both fire and sword they had massacred the Reformed in their Churches hanged them up on the bars of their Church-doors and many others they had thrown head-long from Turrets The Arch-bishops Bishops and Popish Gentlemen had thus used them and also pulled down the Churches in the Countries which held and depended on them The free Cities and those who depended only on the Emperour were exempt from this storm but they shall have their turn on the occasion following Many great Hungarian Lords of the Popish Religion as the Nadasties the Serinies the Frangipanes joyn themselves to Francis Rakotsqui and took Arms against the Emperour for private Quarrels The Troops of Austria on this occasion entred into Hungary on the year 1670 and defeated these Rebels The Arch-bishops Bishops and Jesuites of Hungary thought they must not let slip the opportunities they now had to persecute the Protestants They served themselves of these insolent victorious Troops in all the free Cities to do the same Violences which had been done by particular Lords against the Reformed Without form of Process they took away their Churches they banished the Ministers they put them in Prison they massacred a great number they charged the People and even the Nobility with Taxes Souldiers and Garisons they offered a thousand and a thousand Violences to oblige people to change their Religion All the Ecclesiasticks every one by himself acted like unbridled Furies The Prisons were filled with these miserable Wretches the Churches were razed every-where in the most places there were horrible Massacres and even whole Villages burnt because they were wholly inhabited by Protestants they hung the Ministers at the Doors of their Churches There was one named John Baki a Minister of the Church of Comana who was burnt At Cassovia and Posonium they put to death a great number of persons of all Sexes of all Ages and all Qualities They banished all those whom they dare not kill In one word all Hungary became a place like Hell for the Reformed where death punishments and torments presented themselves every-where before their eyes To give some colour of Justice to these Violences they established a Chamber at Posonium made up of all such as were found most cruel Enemies to the Protestants They summon'd the people before they summon'd their Pastors hoping that they would fall the more easily by the Temptation and that fear would cause them to change their Religion those which appeared and supported themselves on their innocency were cast into Prisons oppressed with Fines persecuted after a hundred manners and constrained at last to change their Religion To those which had courage enough not to renounce the Truth they presented a Writing to be subscribed by which they made them promise they would forsake their Pastors that they would not protect them and that they would not oppose the Priests in taking possession of their Churches On which Condition they promised to let them live in peace in hope and expectation that the Spirit would enlighten and Convert them Some fell and made their subscriptions others perished through misery famine and torments in the prisons When they had thus subdued and abused the people they turn themselves to their Pastors they established three Chambers of Justice the one at Tinew and two at Posonium before whom they summoned at first a small number of Pastors of the Confession of Ausburgh They appeared to the number of thirty two or thirty three the 25th of September 1673 they presented them a Writing to be subscribed importing That it was their will and pleasure that they should say that to escape the sentence which might be pronounced against them for their Rebellion they did consent to one of these three things Either to Renounce all exercise of their Office for ever and to live as good Subjects privately in the Realm or to go voluntarily into Exile with promise never to return again into the Estates of the Emperour or to embrace the Catholick Religion in which case they might remain in the Kingdom and enjoy all sorts of Advantages there The providence of God permitted this unjust and altogether unrighteous procedure to the end that these poor accused persons might have an opportunity to justifie themselves from the Crime of Rebellion whereof they were accused Is it so that men used to proceed against those that are Traytors And has it been usual to punish them with a voluntary Exile or by a simple Renunciation of their Offices and Charges They did all that they could to oblige the Pastors to subscribe this Writing and the most part of them fearing death did subscribe confessing themselves culpable though they were innocent and went voluntarily into Banishment Section This attempt having succeed sufficiently well