the English Some buried alive A Girl hang'd in her mothers hair Some hang'd on tenters Bibles burnt The Persecutions and Cruelties of the Papists upon the Protestants in Scotland and Ireland AS most Kingdoms in Europe felt the rage and fury of Romish Cruelty and Persecution so Scotland though in the frozen north was not insensible thereof For in the Year 1572. Mr. Patrick Hamilton of an Ancient and Honourable Family and called Abbot of Fern left Scotland and went into Germany where conversing with Luther and Melancton he greatly increased in godly knowledg and learning and returning home he publickly Preached concerning Faith and good works and against the Supertitions and Idolatry of the Papists This so enraged James Beaton Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews that in the absence of the King Mr. Hamilton was seized upon by the Bishops Officers and carryed to the Castle and the next day he was brought forth to Judgment and Condemned to be Burnt for the Testimony of God The Articles charged against him were about Pilgrimages Purgatory Praying to Saints and for the Dead After Dinner the Fire was prepared which some thought was only to terrifie him but it pleased God to strengthen him against the fear of Death and so he was tyed to the Stake giving his Garments to his Servant and saying thus to him These will not profit in the Fire they will Profit thee After this thou canst recieve no Benefit by me except the example of my Death which I pray thee to remember for though it be bitter to the Flesh and fearfull before men yet it is the entrance into eternall Life which none shall possess who deny Jesus Christ before this wicked Generation And the Eire being kindled he cryed with a loud voice Lord Jesus receive my Spirit how long shall Darkness overwhelm this Realm and how long wilt thou suffer the Tyranny of these men A Fryar troubling him by crying out Turn thou Heretick call upon our Lady say Salve Regina c he replyed Depart from me and trouble me not thou Messenger of Satan and speaking to one Campbel the chief among them he said Wicked man thou knowest the contrary and hast confessed the contrary to me I appeal thee before the Tribune Seat of Jesus Christ after which words he resigned up his Spirit to God and within a few days 〈…〉 Fryar dyed in a Frenzy and desperation The Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews likewise called before him two Gentlemen David Straton and M Norman Gomlay Mr. Straton being accused for Heresâ— was much troubled at it and thereupon frequenteâ— the company of Religious men and hearing thaâ— Text read He that denieth me b fore men or is ashameâ— of me in this Wicked Generation I will deny him before mâ— Father and his Holy Angels he stedfastly lift up his eyâ—â— and hands to Heaven and burst forth into these word O Lord I have been wicked and justly mayest thou witâ—draw thy Grace from me but Lord for thy Mercy sake 〈◊〉 me never deny thy Truth for fear of Death or Corporal pain Being afterwards together with Mr. Norman brougâ—â— to Judgment in Holy Rood-House where the King himself was present they were both condemned to thâ— fire and in the afternoon were first Hanged and the Burnt which they chearfully suffered There was likewise one Dean Thomas Foret whâ— who used to Preach to his parishoners every Lords daâ— out of the Epistles and Gospels as they came in ordeâ— for which being complained of to the Bishop of Dâ—keldon he reproved him for it telling him that 〈◊〉 was too much to preach every Sunday since the Peâ—ple might think they ought to do so likewise and sâ— the Bishop Is it not enough for you when you find a good Epistle and Gospel to set forth and preach the Liberty of Holy Church and let the rest alone Dean Thomas replyed that he had read them all over and knew no bad ones among them But said he when your Lordship shews me any such I will pass them by The Bishop answered I thank God I never knew what the Old and New Testament was but go your wayes and repent of these fancies ere it be too late The Dean answered My cause is good and just in the presence of God and therefore I care not what follows thereupon and so went away but he was shortly after sent for before Cardinal Beton by whom he was condemned and Burned for an Heretick The Year after Jerom Russel and Alexander Kennedy who was not above eighten years old were brought before the Arch-Bishop and his Associates who railed upon them and called them Hereticks Jerom Russel replyed This is your hour and power of darkness now sit ye as Judges and we are wrongfully accused but the day will come wherein our Innocency will appear and ye shall see your own blindness to your everlasting confusion go forward and fullfill the measure of your Iniquity A while after they were sentenced to dye and as they went to Execution Jerom comforted Kennedy saying Brother fear not greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World the pain we are to suffer is short and shall be light but our joy and consolation shall never have an end let us therefore strive to enter into our Master and Saviours Joy by the same straight way which he hath taken before us Death cannot hurt us for it is destroyed by him for whose sake we now suffer And in this manner past reason they joyfully gave up their Souls unto God in the Flaming Fire In the year 1543. Cardinal Beton coming to Edenburgh caused several Religious Persons to be brought before him and when he could prove nothing else against them he caused four men to be hanged upon suspition that they had eaten a Goose upon a Friday And a Woman with a Child sucking at her breast was drown'd for refusing to pray to the Virgin Mary Many others were likewise Banished and Imprisoned for the Gospel and among the rest John Rogers a learned and Godly Minister whom he caused to be murthered in Prison and then thrown over the Wall giving it out that by attempting to make his escape he broke his neck In the year 1546. Mr. George Wischard a Famous Minister was sent for to appear before Cardinal Beton and the other Bishops at St. Andrews where a Priest was ordered to curse him who called him Runnagate Traitor Thief c. However Mr. Wischard gave them an account of his Faith and Doctrine but they not being able to answer him immediately condemned him to be Burnt and presently a fire was prepared over against the Castle and Velvet Cushions were laid in the Castle windows for the Cardinal and the rest of the Prelates to see him suffer and for fear he should be rescued by his Friends all the Castle Guns were mounted against the place of his Execution by the Cardinals order then with a Rope about his Neck and a Chain about his middle he was fastned to
the Pope could give her therein yet she was utterly crost also in that Design Then she lost Calice in France which had been in the possession of the English during the Reign of eleven Kings that is from the Reign of King Edward the third with which loss she was so afflicted that she told some of her Courtiers If they opened her body when she was dead they would find Calice written in her heart She was reported to be with Child but it came to nothing Her beloved Husband left her in whom she placed her greatest felicity and content So that now she could neither enjoy him nor marry another About the same time the Land was grieviously afflicted with horrible Tempests Famines Plagues mortal Diseases and burning Agues so that between October and December there dyed seven Aldermen in London that had been Lord Maiors and the mortality was so great that much Corn was lost in the Fields for want of men to gather it whereby great scarcity ensued and many poor people lived upon Acorns And lastly she was struck with a lingring and pining sickness whereof she dyed having only reigned Five years and Five months a shorter time than any of the Kings of England enjoyed since the Conquest Richard the Third only excepted 2. In the next place let us consider Gods Judgments upon some other Instruments of Cruelty and among the rest Stephen Gardiner who was a most Cruel Persecutor of the Protestants In King Henry the Eighths time he was a great stickler for the divorce from the Lady Katherine of Spain and was therefore made Bishop of Winchester In King Edward the sixths time he seemed a Friend to the Gospel and preached it up but in Queen Marys days he was the greatest and most inveterate enemy against it and the professors thereof and continued so to his dying day For the same day that Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer were burnt at Oxford the old Duke of Norfolk came to dine with Gardiner The Bishop deferred his dinner till about four a Clock in the Afternoon at which time came one of his Servants posting to tell him that fire was put to these Servants of God which when he was certified of he came out rejoyceing to the Duke and said Now let us go to dinner The Table was presently set and the Bishop began to eat merrily but as soon as he had eaten a few bits he was on a sudden struck very sick and being carryed from the Table to bed he there continued in such intolerable Anguish and Torment that he could void nothing either by stool or urine His Tongue was black and swoln so big that his mouth could not contain it and his body violently Inflamed In this sad condition he lay fifteen days and then ended his miserable life In the beginning of his sickness Dr. Day Bishop of Chichester coming to see him began to speak to him about the merciful Promises of God and free Justification by the blood of Christ To whom he answered What my Lord will you open that gap now then farewell all together Open this window to the People and farewell all together And being by another Person put in mind of St. Peters denying his Master and that he ought not to despair He answered I have denied Christ with Peter but I never repented with Peter 3. Bloody Bonner though he dyed in his bed yet lay under the Spiritual Judgment of Impenitency and as he had been a Persecutor of the Light and a Child of Darkness so in darkness and at midnight his Carkass was tumbled into the Earth And as himself had been a Murderer so was he layd among Thieves and Murderers a place by Gods Judgment fitly appointed for him 4. Dr. Whittington Chancellor having condemned a Godly Religous woman to be Burnt at Chipping Sadbury a multitude of People came to see her Suffer and among the rest Whittington himself At the same time there was a Butcher in another place of the Town killing a Bull who was fast bound with a Rope ready to be knockt on the head the Butcher missing his stroke the Bull broke loose just as the people were coming from the Execution of this Holy Martyr the people seeing him coming severed themselves and made a Lane for him the Bull passed through them without hurting man woman or child till he came to the place where Whittington was against whom he ran very furiously and thrusting his Horns into his belly ran him quite through and tearing out his Guts with his horns he trayl'd them about the streets to the great astonishment of those that saw his wretched end 5. One Burton Bayliff of Crowland in Lincolnshire seemed in King Edward the Sixths days to be a zealous Protestant but as soon as Queen Mary came to the Crown he turned Papist and being forward to set up the Mass he went to Church and the Curate being then reading the English Service he went to him and said Sirrah will you not say Mass buckle your self to it you knave or by Gods Blood I 'le sheath my dagger in your shoulder The poor Curate being affrighted betook himself to the Mass Shortly after this Burton and a neighbour riding together a Crow flew over his head and voided her Excrements upon his Nose which ran down his beard and yielded such an horrible stink that it caused him to vomit in a most violent manner whereupon he got home to bed but could eat nothing the stink and vomiting still continuing which made him with dreadful Oaths and Execrations curse the Crow that had poisoned him and so he continued in extream pain till he dyed A Prayer of King Edward the Sixth a while before his Death LOrd God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life and take me among thy chosen howbeit not my Will but thy Will be done Lord I commit my Spirit to thee O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy chosens sake send me that in Life or Death I may serve thee O my Lord God Bless thy People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy chosen People of England O my Lord God defend this Land from Papistry and maintain the True Religion that I and my People may Praise thy Holy name for thy Son Jesus Christ his sake A Speech of Queen Elizabeth to her Army at Tilbury Camp in the time of the Spanish Invasion in the year 1588 MY Loving People we have been perswaded by some that are carefull of our safety to take heed how we commit our selves to armed Multitudes for fear of Treachery but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithfull and loving People Let Tyrants fear I have alwayes so behaved my self that under God I have alwayes placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the Loyal Hearts and good will of my Subjects and therefore I am come amongst you as you see at this time not for my Recreation
the most barbarous manner they could possibly devise There joyned immediately to this Army a great number of Outlaws Prisoners and other Offenders who thought to have saved their Souls and filled their Purses by killing Hereticks Six Regiments of French besides Irish likewise helped them in this good work the Country being promised to the Irish when cleared of Protestants With these and several other Troops of Highway-men and Vagabonds by the License of their General and the encouragement of Popish Priests and Monks the most unheard-of Villanies were committed upon the poor Protestants So that there was nothing to be seen through the Protestant Valleys but Churches burning Towns smoaking Houses flaming Men Women and Children massacred and murdered nothing to be heard but the confused cryes of people flying the piercing groans of others dying and the horrid shrieks of others that were tormented and indeed so dreadful was their usage that it is scarce to be expressed In one place they most cruelly tormented an hundred and fifty Women and Children and afterwards chopped off the Heads of some and dashed out the Brains of others against the Rocks they took multitudes of Prisoners and such of them who were fifteen years of age and upwards if they refused to go to Mass some of them were hanged up others had their feet nail'd to Trees with their Heads hanging down all which they constantly endured A Franciscan Fryar and another Priest set fire to all the Churches and Houses at S. Giovanni La Toure and other places so that they left not one standing In these Desolations the Mother was bereaved of her sweet Child the Husband of his dear Wife those which were richest among them were forced to beg their bread yea they lay weltring in their own blood and the pretence for all those bloody Massacres and Cruelties was that they were Rebels to their Princes Commands in not performing an absolute impossibility by immediately departing from their Habitations in so short a time and likewise for their frequent Petitioning to the Duke to take pity upon them The truth is the Cruelties which were executed would exceed the belief of man but that they are so fully proved by the Attestations of Eye-witnesses by the woful cryes of so many poor desolate Wretches who have been miserably robbed and despoiled of their Relations Friends Lands and Houses yea one of the chief Commanders of their own Army that acted these cruelties made a formal Oath of the reality thereof and Signed it with his own hand before two sufficient Witnesses and likewise the voluntary confession of one of the Souldiers who told some of his Fellows that during the heat of the Massacre he had divers times surfeited with eating the boiled Brains of Protestants The barbarous cruelties following which were exercised upon those poor people are likewise attested by divers Persons of Honour and Integrity who were for the most part eye or ear-witnesses of the same One Sarah Viâ—ues about threescore years of age was commanded to say her prayers and because she refused to say Ave Maria they ript her up alive by putting a Sickle into her privy parts and so slit up her Belly after which they dragged her about and at last cut off her Head Other Women had their Breasts Noses Privities and Hands cut off and so left to perish miserably another they stab d in the soles of his feet then cut off his Privities and fry'd them giving them their Comrades to eat as a delicate Dish then they seared his Wounds with flaming Candles cut off his Ears and tore off his Nails with burning Pincers to make him renounce his Religion but he still continuing constant they tyed one of his Legs to a Mule and so drag'd him about the Streets till he was almost dead and after all this they bound a Cord about his Head and twisted it with a Stick till his eyes and brains burst out and then cast his body into a River One Peter Simond of Angrogna they bound hand and foot and then flung him down a dreadful Rock or Precipice but he happened in his fall to hang upon the stump of an old Tree where he continued alive several days in a miserable languishing condition before he died not being able to help himself and the Precipice being so high that no other could come at him They cut the body of an old man of ninety years of age into small pieces and then cut off his head Others had their bodies torn and cut in pieces and their limbs strowed in the high-ways and hung upon Hedges An old Woman had her Hands and Nose cut off and so was left alive The body of another Woman was found in a Cave with all the flesh sliced from the bones and chopt like minced meat These bloody Papists took many little Children and tender Infants and threw them down the sleep Rocks whereby they were dashed to pieces They took a Gentlemans Daughter and put a long Stake into her body and then carried her upon their shoulders till at last being weary they stuck the Stake into the ground and so left her as a miserable Spectacle Andrea Michalin being taken Prisoner made his escape strangely having first seen three of his own Children torn limb from limb and the fourth and youngest had its brains beaten out against the Rocks They wofully tormented others by fleying off their skins alive in long slices of which they made Points The Daughter of one Peter Fontana a beautiful Girl of about ten years of age being surprized by some of these lecherous Bruits because they could not ravish her in an ordinary way they so inhumanely abused her that they left her for dead The Daughter of one Moses Long they spitted upon a Pike and roasted her alive with a fire made upon a broad stone One Jacob Michelino they took and binding his hands to his Privities hanged him upon a gate and there left him in exquisite torments in that shameful manner as they like wise did by many others in the same kind Four Brothers and a man and his Wife all at one time had their mouths crammed full of Gunpowder and so being fired their heads were torn to pieces The Schoolmaster of Roras being stript naked after they had torn off his Nails with Pincers and made a thousand holes in his hands with their Daggers they dragg'd him through the Town of Lucerna and at every turn one Souldier cut off a Collop of his flesh from one side and another from another crying What sayst thou wilt thou go to Mass thou Dog To which with admirable constancy he answered Much rather death than the Mass dispatch me quickly for the love of God At last they cut off his head and flung him into the River One Giovanni with his Wife and Child were thrown down from a very high Rock the Mother holding the Child in her arms and three days after they were found dead only the Child was alive and clasped so
greatest abhorrency and indignation for some of them were stoned to death others hanged upon a Beam and with a soft fire made under them were roasted to death others were cut piece-meal One Minister they laid on his back and ramming his mouth full of Gunpowder set fire to it and blew his head all to pieces Another they hanged up by the Privy Members being seventy years old and burnt his own Books under him and at last shot him to death after he had endured all manner of torment and pain In the year 1621. all the Ministers were banished out of the Kingdom of Bohemia and all the Provinces thereunto belonging never more to return and it was made death to harbour or conceal any of them About the same time twenty one Ministers were banished from Cuttenburg A Popish Captain caused a Ministers hand first to be stricken off and then his head his bowels to be taken out and wrapt in his shirt and his four quarters to be set upon four Stakes and his head on another At the same time likewise fifty of the Nobility were condemned some to death some to banishment and others to perpetual imprisonment twenty seven were executed who all died with great constancy of mind and fervency of spirit sealing the Protestant Cause with their blood the heads and right hands of some of them were hung upon the Tower of the Bridge but when the Valiant Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden came into Germany their heads and hands were by his Order taken down and solemnly buried Not long after there was an Edict published in Bohemia for the banishing of all Protestants in general and that their Children should be taken from them that they might be brought up in the Popish Religion Another Edict was published that all Protestant Women who had married Popish Husbands should be banished and removed away from them unless they would turn Papists and likewise that no Papists should have any Commerce with Protestants And upon this there followed a cruel Persecution so that there was scarce a City Town or Village in the whole Country but the poor Protestants suffered very great torments and barbarities In one City they slew the Mayor together with sixteen hundred men women and children and suffered their bodies to lye unburied several days in the dirt and mire and the remainders of the Citizens they cast into Prisons where they lay in a miserable condition Bibles and all manner of Religious Books were prohibited and likewise Marriages Burial and Baptism were denied to all that would not turn Papists Some Protestants were thrust into Dungeons and Vaults full of Snakes Toads and other filthy Vermin others were put into places full of Iron Spikes so that they could neither sit nor stand others were laid upon narrow Beams over deep waters that if they did but stir their bodies they were in danger to be drowned They put Gags into the mouths of some and then thrust their Host or Wafer Cake down their Throats others were beaten on the Calves of their Legs so that they could not stand nor go but were forced to fall down on their knees that they might adore their Host And thus briefly of the multitude of cruelties committed by the Papists on the Protestants in Bohemia the whole whereof would not be contained in a large Volume The next Theater where we may behold these bloody Papists acting their Tragedies is GERMANY which was miserably torn and rent to pieces by their cruelties they endeavouring by all manner of severity to have extinguished the light of the Gospel which was discovered by Martin Luther and others who were stirred up of God to expose the corruptions and superstitions of the Romish Church whereupon in the year 1523. the Pope excited the Emperour Charles the Fifth to destroy all the Protestants as Hereticks and allowed him two hundred thousand Crowns toward the raising of Souldiers to that purpose the Pope likewise further engaging to raise twelve thousand Foot and six hundred Horse at his own charge for carrying on the work and thus he began with the Sword that he might end with the Faggot The Duke of Saxony and the Lansgrave of Hessen stand up for the Protestants and are taken Prisoners in the year 1547. And where ever the Papists got the better all sorts of cruelties murders racks tortures fire and faggots followed upon the Protestants so that all Germany was as it were in a flame and combustion at once all places being in a lamentable condition some flying and others suffering death on every side for their Conscience and Religion At a Town called Meldorp they took a godly Minister named Sutphen out of his Bed and forced him to go miles on foot in Frost and Snow upon the Ice bare-footed and bare-legg'd beating cutting and flashing him and pricking him forward with their Halberts and at last they barbarously roasted him to death Many were drowned at Vienna and put to several sorts of death Ladies and Gentlewomen were yoakt together like Beasts and so were turned out into the Woods where they were ravished and abused and then had their Hair and Ears cut off and disfigured In Pomeren they forced the people to eat their own Excrements and if they refused them they thrust them down their Throats till they were choaked They cram'd the secret parts of several women with Gunpowder and so setting fire to it most barbarously tore their Bellies and Wombs Divers were hung up by the privy parts they plained the faces of others with Chisels others they caused to draw on Boots filled with scalding Oyl and so roasted their legs over the fire some men they gelt in the presence of their wives and children others had their bodies hung up by Cords and by tying great weights to their limbs all the joynts of their body were put out of joynt some had Gags put in their mouths and had stinking water and piss powred down their Throats through a Tunnel till their bellies swell'd like a Tun whereby they died in most cruel torment They sawed off the legs of some alive and one Minister they bound upon a Table and placing a great Cat upon his belly so provoked the Cat that she scratcht his guts out of his belly with her Teeth and Nails till he miserably died At Magdenbur they ravished the Wife and Daughter of a famous Minister before his face and then violently snatcht a sucking Infant from its Mothers breast and stuck it on the top of a Lance and when they had tormented his Eyes and Heart with these horrid Spectacles they brought the Minister into the Street and burnt him with his own Books Yea such was their abominable filthiness in Pomeren that they ravished the fairest Virgins before their Parents faces forcing them to sing Psalms the while one beautiful young woman they ravished and then cut to pieces hanging up her quarters in the Church Girls of ten years old and under they ravished and abused till they killed them
nay so monstrous beastly were they that they committed filthiness with the dead Corps of those women whom they had murdered At Basil and Friburg they did the like neither pitying old nor young men women nor innocent Babes whom sometimes they most barbarously used to eat even when other meat might be had yea such inhumane cruelty they used that in many places they left none remaining alive to relate the sufferings of those that were murdered Thus these Massacres and bloody murders defiled the whole Land and Germany groaned under the oppression till the peace of Munster and Osnaburg in the year 1648. which put a stop to this cruel Persecution the Papists being compelled thereto by Gods bringing in the King of Sweden who over-ran Germany in a short time and thereby revived the Protestant Cause which was almost over-run and destroyed by so many thousand violences and miseries as it had lain under for many years These bloody Tyrants vented their rage and fury not only in Germany but also in Hungary and other Countries for they committed the same Villanies in all places where they had power the Ministers were generally banished and put to death and the same Picture of their cruelties which has been represented to you in Germany was acted over again in this Kingdom which we have not room to insert only a new sort of death was invented there they tyed Hens Geese Ducks and Hares to the naked body of a worthy Minister in that Country and then set the Dogs upon him who tore and rent his flesh till he died You have beheld many sad and doleful Spectacles and Reader if thou art a Christian thy heart must almost bleed at the relation of them we will therefore Epitomize the bloody cruelties of the Papists in POLAND All the same things or worse if it be possible which we have related to be done in other places were likewise acted in Poland many thousand Protestants and good Christians have been destroyed in that Kingdom and especially at Karmin Dumbuick Shochy Carienzin and Lesna all which Cities and Towns were destroyed and burnt to the ground for the cause of Religion The City of Lesna was one of the most ancient and flourishing Cities in all the Kingdome of Poland which was wholly laid in ashes being three whole days in flames erre it was consumed in which there perished many hundred Protestants besides inestimable wealth and treasure no man resisting or opposing the fire Here they pulled off the Noses of some and put out the eyes of others and cut off the tongues hands and feet of divers giving quarter to none but killing and destroying all that came in their way They cut off the hands of a pious Matron of Lesna and then murdered three of her Children before her face cutting off their heads and laying one at each breast and the other by her side Another woman having her hands and feet cut off and her tongue cut out they sowed up in a Sack and so left her for two days in which she lived making a most miserable lamentation In the Lower Poland a multitude suffered whole Families were butchered and men and women young and old murdered without distinction And in the year 1654. there was an horrible slaughter amongst them the Papists putting to death all the Protestants they could meet with to most exquisite tortures One Mr. Samuel Cardus a Minister they used with extreme cruelties first putting out his eyes and leading him about as a miserable Spectacle then they pull'd off his fingers with Pincers and powred melted Lead down his throat and while he was yet half alive they put his Neck between two folding doors and so violently severed his head from his body They used the Minister of Dembuick and another Minister very barbarously for after they had several ways tormented them they cut their throats with a Razor and while they were breathing flung them into a Pit and covered them with filth and dung The same Cruelties the Barbarous and bloody Papists acted against the Protestants in LITHUANIA in the year 1648. slaughtering all that were not Roman Catholicks without distinction of Age or Sex Here many had their skins flead off while they were alive others their hands and feet cut off some their bowels taken out alive others had their Shin-bones bored through they powred melted Lead into the wounds of some whom they had cut in the head and other parts of their bodies some had their eyes pulled out and those that were hanged up in all places were such a multitude that they are hard to be numbered It was counted a great mercy and kindness to be shot beheaded or killed out-right without any other torment The Wives and Daughters of the Protestants were every where ravished their Houses and Goods burnt and destroyed all their Country and their Churches laid wast so that there was nothing to be seen in every place but Murders and Massacres and the blood of the poor suffering Protestants ran like Streams through the Streets of Towns and Cities and those that were left alive and escaped the slaughter were banished their Country for ever The Ministers were chiefly aimed at and always cruelly tormented among the rest one Adrian Chilmiskie who was famous for his great Piety and Learning and likewise for his Reverend Age was by these barbarous wretches roasted alive and this they did leisurely with a few Chips and Straw that he might be the longer in torment In another place above forty suffered death by several sorts of tortures Near Vilna the chiefest City in Lithuania one Smolskie and his Son both Ministers had their Heads cruelly sawed off with a Sickle Another Minister had his flesh sliced off by piece-meal till he died-And to conclude this Field of Blood there were no less than fifteen hundred poor Protestants Ministers as well as others who were bound to Stakes on the tops of Mountains in the Winter and there miserably starved to death with hunger and cold In a word no Age nor History can parallel all the several tortures and miserable deaths which these poor Protestants suffer'd from the hands of bloody Papists for no other Crime but professing and asserting the Truth and Gospel of Jesus Christ Psalm 74. Lord why hast thou abandoned O why for ever shall thine Ire Consume like a devouring Fire The Sheep within thy Pastures fed Come O! come quickly and Survey What Spoyl the Barbarous Foe hath made Lo all in heaps of Ruin laid Thy Temple their accursed Prey Like Lyons with Sharp Famine whet They in the Sanctuary roar All Purple in thy Peoples gore And there their Conquering Ensigns set It was esteem'd a great renown With Ax to square the Mountain Oaks Now they demolish with their strokes And hew the Carved Fabrick down Who lo with all-infolding Flame The Beauty of the Earth devour Profanely Prostrate on the Floor That Temple sacred to thy Name Now said they with a sudden hand We 'l give a