John Capgrave Doctor of Divinity at Oxford 1470. Henry Parker All these grave ample testimonies by their publique writings against their many corruptions and evil Doctrines and supâ—rstitions worship of the Romish Church with the hazard of their lives Honours Liberties Estates and Fortunes So that many were persecuted and some burnt under King Henry the 2d 1174. and 1380. Vtred Bolton and John Ashwerly endured persecution 1382. John Ashton 1390. Walter Brute and John Pateskul 1392. Doctor Crump were persecuted 1400. William Sawtree a Divine of Oxford was Martyr'd 1401. William Swinderly was burnt in Smithfield 1407. William Thorp suffer'd 1420. Lawrence Redman and six others grieviously persecuted 1417. Lord Cobham was burnt in St. Giles's fields 1421. John Purvey Martyr'd 1428. William White burnt and the same year Richard White 1433. Peter Clark a Divine of Oxford for maintaining publiquely the Doctrin of Wickliff was fain to fly but was taken beyond the Seas and his tongue cut out then hang'd and afterwards burnt 1442. Roger Ovely was hang'd and quarter'd 1447. Humphry Duke of Gloster was Murthered in prison by the Popish party for being a favourer of the preachers of the purer Religion And several others that were divers ways persecuted for the sake of Religion before the rising up of Luther God having in ages raised up some to testify to the truth and to maintain the purity of his Gospel We have mentioned to you only the Divines learned and great men that suffered by the cruelty of persecution but there were also sundry and diverse lay men that then openly owned the truth and suffered for it for 1409. John Badly a Taylor was burnt in Smithfield William Thorp John Ashton John Purvy and others suffered for Wicklifs Doctrin And as the number of the faithfull increased who now began to be called Lollards so persecution grew hotter and the rage and malice of the Papists were augmented 1413. In the Reign of King Henry the 5th Sir Roger Acton John Brown and John Beverly were put to death in t. Giles's fields and divers others to the number of 36. 1436. John Claydon a Coriar of London was burnt and with him Richard Turning a Baker 1416 Benedict Vlleman was Martyr'd and several others to a great number imprison'd 1422. in the Reign of King Henry the 6th William Taylon a Wickliffian was burnt in Smithfield 1422. Henry Web and John Florence were cruelly whipt 1428. and 1431. about 120 men and women suffer'd many of them burnt 1428. William White was Martyr'd and at the same time two were burnt at Colchester 1430. Richard Hoveden a Citizen of London was Martyr'd for the same cause near the Tower and divers more cruelly whipped and handled 1431. Thomas Bayly Minister was burnt in Smithfield 1439. Richard Wiche a Minister burnt at Tower-hill 1433. In the Reign of King Edward the 4th John Goose was burnt 1494. In the time of HJenry the 7th one Joan Boughton 80. years old was burnt in Norfolk and another in Smithfield 1506. Several were stigmatised and many did penance and William Tilsworth was burnt in the Town of Amershant where they forced his own daughter to set fire to the faggots that were to burn her Father And two years after Thomas Bernard and James Melton were burnt in the same place and one Roberts at Buckingham 1506. Thomas Chase after many and cruel usages and hardships in prison was there murthered 1507. One Thomas Norris was burnt at Norwich and Lawrence Gust at Salisbury and a woman at Coippingsadbury with divers other per2ons in the Reign of King Henry the 7th In the Reign of Henry the 8th the flame began to encrease and abundance suffered in every place 1511. William Sweeting and John Brewster were burnt in Smithfield The same year William Carder Robert Harrtson and Agnes Grebyl were burnt they forcing the husband and daughters of the woman to come in as withesses against her Also Mr. Style with his Book of Revelations in English 25. burnt and 5. other persons accused for reading an Heretical Book which contained many damnable opinions being the Evangelists in English 1514. Richard Hune murther'd in the Lollards Tower and afterwards burnt 1517. John Brown was burnt 1518. John Stylman was burnt in Smithfield about the same time Thomas Man in Smithfield and Robert Cousin in Buckingham were burnt 1518. Christopher Shoemaker at Newbery Richard and Robert Bartlet and John Scrivener burnt the children of the last mentioned being forced to set fire to their Father And it was most usual to compel children to accuse their parents parents their children Husbands their wives wives their husbands bosome friends and Brothers and Sisters one another And many hundreds were forced to abjure against their Consciences or else be burnt But now two things greatly encreased the professors of the truth in England which were the bold owning the Gospel and the true profession thereof by Martin Luther in Germany and the Art of Print ing whereby it was more easily promulgated and dispersed thorow every County and in all Languages And now the beast began to rage and lay about him persecution and slaughter was raised every where thorowout the Kingdome against the Lutherans and 1519. many Prorestants were apprehended in Coventry imprison'd in nasty dungeons and 6. burnt And two years after in the same place Robert Silkeb 1423. Thomas Harding was burntat A Chesham in Bucking ham-shire 1529. One Sigal Nicholson was hung up by the privy members for having Luthers Books in his house being a Stationer at Cambridg Several were abjured William Tracy Esq burnt two years after his death 1530. Thomas Hitton was Martyr'd at Maidstone 1532. Richard Bayfield a Monk of Berry after he had been whipt and most cruelly handled in Prison gag'd beaten bound and degraded after a shamefull manner he was burnt with much druelty in London continuing half an hour alive in the flames for want of fewel and when his left Arm was burned off he rubbed that side with his right till it fell also in the fire And about the same time John Tewksbury was burnt also in Smithfield Several imprisoned and fed with bread made of sawdust Many set in the stocks with Iron collars about their necks and several racked till they were lamed 1532. James Baynham was also burnt in Smithfield John Bent at the Devises and one Trapnel at Broadford in the County of Wilts Three were hanged in chains for burning the Image or Rood of Dover-Court John Frith Andrew Hewet and divers others were burnt Thomas Bennet William Tyndal John Lambert William Leiton and Collins a Lawyer burnt and Robert Packington Murther'd And one Peck burnt at Ipswich Doctor Barns and Thomas Garrat in Smithfield and also William Hieron in the same place John Potter Murther'd in Prison Thomas Bernard and James Morton 1544. Robert Testwood Anthony Parker Henry Filmer at Winasor 1541. about 500 in and about London either dyed in Prison or fryed in the fire in Smithfield Danlip Dod Saxie and others slain
distinction of Age or Sex In the year 1213. near Muret a Town upon the Garronne Muret. there were slain in battle in the pursute and afterwards about two Millions of Albingenses with the King of Araagon who then took their parts In the year 1215. Fryer Conradus of Marpurg the Popes inquisitor most horribly tortured all that made profession of the Gospel or were but suspected marking them with red hot Irons and then giving them to the secular power to be burnt so that neither Noble nor Ignoble Clerks Monks Nuns Burgesses Citizens and Country people escaped the slames by the-means of this bloody Inquisitor The Town of Miromand being taken by Prince Lewis of France Miromand he destroyed there of the Albingenses for the same cause to the number of five thousand men women and children In the year 1234. many of these Albingenses being fled into Spain Spain the Pope caused a Croisado to be preached against them whereby a great Army of Pilgrims assembled together were sent by Pope Gregory against the Albingenses whom they slew with their Bishops and Teachers burnt their houses destroyed their Towns and plunderd and carried away their goods And about the same time those who retired into a fenny place on the borders of Germany were also all slain At the same time also many of them were slain and burnt in Millain and other parts of Italy beyond the Alpes In the year 1242. there were burnt in Tholouse 200. of these Albingenses Tholouse being taken in a certain Castle hard by and the year following 220. more in the same place In the year 1281. a great persecution was raised against them in Albi by one Gourdon so that they were almost all extirpated and rooted out and forced to fly for safety of their lives to all parts Albi. At the same time by the Popes Order many of the chief preachers of the Albingenses bones were dug up and burnt 20. and 30. years after they had been buried Luthers Forerunners and Cades Justification The perse cution of the Bohimians Ex-Hist Persecutionum Ecclesiae Bohem The persecution of the Bohemians begun betimes even neer the year 977. by Pope Hildebrand and afterwards by Celestine continuing down to the times of Mathias of Frague 1375. and to John Hus and Jerome of Prague who were both burnt in defence of the Gospel at Constance notwithstanding the publique faith of Germany given them for their security At Cuttenburg where there are many deep Mines in the year 1420. they threw into one of them 1700. persons and into another 1038. and into â— third 1334. persons In the year 1421. at Litomeritia twenty four of the chief Citizens among whom was the Son-in-Law of the chief persecutor and Magistrate of the City were thrust into a great Tower and almost famished to death from whence being at last drawn because they would not abjure their Religion they were condemned to be all drowned in the River Albis which was accordingly done their hands and feet being bound and so thrown into the midst of the River and if the stream brought any of them to the sides of the bank they were goared to death with Iron forks and Pikes The daughter of the chief persecutor seeing she could not move her Father by her tears and prayers to save the Life of her Husband flung her self after him into the River and embracing his body perished with him and was found the next day with him fast in her Armes and were buried in one grave About the same time at Prague 4. men 4 boys and a Minister were then burnt in one fire because they administred and received the Sacrament in both kindes Many and indeed innumerable were the Murthers and torments and unheard of babarities executed both publiquely and privately on those poor wretches by those bloody Executioners About the year 1523. Martin Luther began to shine as a great light in Germany and his Doctrine to overspread those parts even to Bohemia which caused more violent persecutions wherein multitudes of Saints lost their Lives by the means of Ferdinand the first and Charles the 5th so that it wou'd be almost endless to enumerate every particular In the year 1549 there were no less then 200. Ministers banished out of this Kingdom and the Baron of Schanow because a Lutheran but under the pretence of a Conspiracy was laid upon the Rack but he magnanimously cut out his own Tongue and being asked the reason he wrote that it was lest the torments of the Rack should make him speak falsly against himself or others In the year 1617. Ferdinand the Second being obtruded upon by the Bohemians he siding with the Papists raised up a very great persecution against the Protestants which was the cause of Electing Frederick Palatine of the Rhine King of Bohemia and the cause of all those Wars and embroylments In which suffered many a godly Minister and other holy pious and harmless men by the sapistical Souldiers with that barbarous cruelty that Christian Ears cannot hear nor Tongue relate without indignation and abhorrency For some of them were stoned to death others hanged upon a beam with a soft fire made under them rosted to death others cut peace-meal And one Minister they laid on his back ramming his mouth full of Compowder set fire to it and blew his head all to peeces Another they hanged up by the privy Members being 70. years old and burnt his own books under him and at last shot him after he had endured a world of torment and pain In the year 1621. all the Ministers were banished out of Prague and out of the Kingdome of Bohemia and all the provinces thereunto belonging never more to return and made it death to harbour or conceal any one of them Also at Cuttenburg 21. Ministers were banished about the same time Anno 1624. a Popish Captain caused a Ministers hand first to be stricken off and then his head his bowels to be taken forth and wrapt in his shirt and his 4. quarters to be set on 4 stakes and his head on another At that time also 50. of the Nobility were condemned some to death some to perpetual banishment and some to perpetual Imprisonment 27. were executed some of their right hands and heads were hung upon the Tower of the Bridge who all dyed with great constancy of minde and fervency of spirit sealing to the Protestant cause with their blood whose heads were afterwards solemnly buried by Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden Next came forth an Edict to banish all the Protestants and to take away the children from them that they might be bred in the Romish Religion And then another to banish all the Wives of such as were Catholicks from their Husbands unless they would turn Then they enacted that those who were not Catholicks should be prohibited all traffick and commerce with them There was hardly a City or Town that escaped their barbarous cruelties And at Prachatice
they slew the Major and 1600 men women and children letting their bodys lye unburied for divers days in the dirt and mire and all the remainders they cast into prisons keeping them in a miserable condition several Months Bibles and godly Books were prohibited also marriages and burials and Baptism deny'd all such as would not turn Catholicks Some were thrust into Cellars and holes full of Snakes and Toads and such like creatures Others into places full of spikes so that they could neither sit nor stand Others into narrow places over water so that if they but moved their bodys they would fall into the water others they gag'd and thrust the host down their throats others again were beaten on the calves of their legs till they could not stand but fall down on their knees that they might adore the Host And thus much for their cruelties acted on this Stage The next Theater The persecution of the Protestant in Germany by the Papists Out of D. Vincents Collections where we may behold these sort of people acting their bloody parts is Germany miserably torn and rent to pieces by their doings and endeavours to extinguish the light of the Gospel shining forth through Luther and others then stirred up by God to perfect the work of Reformation This persecution began Anno Christi 1523. by the Popes stirring up the Emperor Charles the 5th to destroy the Protestants as Hereticks allowing him 200000 Crowns towards the raising Soldiers for that end with an engagement also to raise at his own cost 12000 foot and 600 Horse Thus he began with the sword that he might end with the fagot The Duke of Saxony aud the Lantgrave stand up for the Protestants and are taken prisoners 1547. and whereever they got the day all sorts of Cruelties murthers torments racks sire and fagot followed So that all Germany was at once in a flame and combustion and in a most miserable condition flying and dying in all places for their Conscience and Religion At Meldrop they took the Minister a godly man out of his bed and forced him to go many miles on foot in frost and snow upon the ce bare-footed and bare-legg'd beating cutting and flashing him and pricking him with halberds and at last they barbarously roasted him on coals to death his name was Sutphen At Vienna many were drowned and put to several sorts of death At the sacking of Miltenburg many suffer'd one Minister they hung up by the hands with a mighty stone fastned to his seet where he remained 6 hours in that great torment Death was accounted a mercy and hanging they thought to easie a punishment At Schalt at Merspurg and Munchen and several other places the rage of their malice and spite was shown in putting to death many poor Souls At Pasewalk they committed many villanies ravishing the women deslouring the maids killing the men burning the houses and smothering the children with straw set on fire in the cellers whether they had crept for safety At Mudenburg they did the like 1631 where they burnt the whole City to ashes and where they put at least 20000 persons to death 6000 were drowned in the River Elb. Ladys and Gentlewomen were yoaked together like beasts and so turned out to the woods where they were ravished and abused and then had their hair and ears cropt off and disfigured At Hocster 1634 they spared none neither man woman nor child but put all to sword and then threw their bodys into the Weser At Grippenbourg they tormented the Senators and chief of the place to death with smoak and starving At Heildeburg they shut up in prison a great many Ministers seeding them only with bread and water At Frankendale contrary to agreement and Articles they put many to death and others to unreasonable ransoms In Saxony they tortured the Protestants by pressing their Thumbs between wheels In Pomeren they forced them to eat their own excrements and if they refused them they thrust them down their throats till they were choaked Some they tormented with cords about their heads till they twisted their eyes out and that the blood run out at their ears noses and mouths To others they tyed burning matches between their fingers yea to their eyes ears noses tongues cheeks breasts legs and secret parts Yea they cram'd the secret parts of several women with gunpowder and so setting fire to it blew up their bellies and wombs most barbarously Others they tormented with Bodkins and Knives and to some they made holes thorow the sleshy part of their Armes thighs and Legs and so thrusting cords thorow them tormented them after that fashion Some they hung up in the smoak drying them with small fires and sometimes giving them small drink or water to refresh them that they might not dye too soon and be freed from their torments Some they roasted with fire made of straw others had their hands and feet bound so hard till the blood sprung forth of the ends of their fingers and toes Some had their hands and feet bound backwards together and their mouths stopped with rags to hinder them from praying And several they hung up by their 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 they gelt in the presence of their wives and Children Others had their bodys hung up by cords and every joynt dislocated by tying of weights to their several limbs Some were gag'd and with Tunnels had stinking water and piss powred down their throats till their bellies swelled like Tuns whereby they dyed with most horrid torment Then they thrust down the throats of some knotted clouts with a string fastened to them whereby they pull'd them out again and puting them to miserable torment by misplacing their bowels that many became blinde dumb deaf and lame for ever Some they sawed off their legs alive one Minister they bound upon a Table and placing a great Cat upon his belly so provoked the Cat that she scratched his guts forth of his belly with its teeth and nails till he dyed At Madenburg they ravished the wife and daughters of one of the Ministers before his face and tore from the Mothers breast a sucking infant and stuck it on the top of a Lance and after they had made him see all this they brought him into the street and burnt him with his own Books Yea such was the abominable beastliness commited at this time that no pen can write it In Pomeren they made the Parents sing Psalms whilst they ravished their daughters before their faces Nay they spared not their dead Corpses but lay with the women after they had out their throats At Basil and Friburg and other places they did the like eating the young children and wearing the noses and ears as a bravery in their Caps Thus these Massacres and bloody Murthers defiled the whole Land and Germany groaned under the
could not stifle him they stab'd him with daggers and so both kill'd and drowned him at once In the same place abundance more were martyr'd for the Truth and cleaving to their Religion embraed death cheerfully Also at Breda divers suffered for the same cause and indeed all Flanders over their dead Bodies being cast forth to be gazed on in every place and multitudes both men and women were imprisoned for their belief and Conscience In the City of Valence they executed 57. persons most of them Burgesses only because they professed the true Faith of Jesus Christ and dissented from the Religion of the Papists And to conclude the sad Catastrophe Strada we may also remember that Prince William of Nassaw Prince of Orange was shot by a villain called Joanville encouraged thereto by a Jacobine Friar who was hang'd for the Fact though it proved not mortal But that attempt not being enough to satisfie these blood-suckers and Prince-killers they hired one Gerard a Burgundian who taking better aim shot this Prince the head of the protestants so that he dyed immediatly as he was coming from dinner at Delf in Holland 1584. Let us now stept into France France Histr of France Hist of the Tragical Massacres in France and see whether the gospel has any freedome there from their persecutions you will then behold the same picture of cruelty murther and Blood they change not their principles with the aire of the Country they are not bloody and cruel because they are Spanyards but because they are Papists t is infused into them by the Priests and as principles of their Religion and not sucked into them from without they are the same in France as elsewhere bloody and murtherous persecutors of such as fall not down and worship the Idoll of their setting up meer Nebuchadnezzars and cruel Tyrants They began there ill the year 1209. with several learned and good men at Paris who dissenting in some points were burnt At Metz in Lorraine for professing the Gospel and throwing down some Images they caused one John Clark who denyed not the fact to have his right hand cut off his nose to be pulled from his Face with snarp pincers and his arms and breasts pulled off by the some instrument and then cast into the fire and consumed to ashes At Paris at Melda in Limosine at Fountains Rutiers Roan Troyes Bourdeaux St. Michael Lions Meaux and Fera and in several other places a great number were burnt rack'd whipt beaten and divers ways tormented to death at last they made a Law that all that were condemned to be burnt if they recanted not at the stake should have their tongues cut out that they might not with their holy and dying speeches move others And this was dilligently observed In Paris one Florent Venote a Minister was imprisoned in so narrow a place that he could neither stand nor lye in it in which they kept him 7. weeks whereas there was never a malefactor that could endure it 15 days without growing mad or dying Afterwards they cut out his Tongue and lastly was so mercifull as to execute him The Duke of Guise another of the Popes Instruments of persecution upon the Hugonots as they call the Protestants in those parts committed with his Soldiers many bloody and barbarous murthers among the rest at Vessy he put several hundreds to death of men women and children that were assembled to hear a Sermon mangling their Limbs and strewing them about the seats and galleries of the Church At Sentis many suffer'd some were beheaded some murther'd some whipt some beaten and sent to the Gallies not sparing the simple women And the same also at Charlons where they tortur'd one Fournier a minister by straining his thumbs with a small cord till the blood came out at the ends of them being so tyed fast behind his back with another Rope they hoist him up by the Thumbs twitching him up and down then tying great stones to his great Toes let him hang so till his Spirits failed him and then suddenly loosing the rope let him fall with all the weights on his face upon the hard floor and then casting him into prison would not let him have the benefit of a Chirurgion with which barbarous usage being above 50 years old he not long after dyed At Amiens all the Bibles Testaments and Psalm-books were burnt and the ministers Pulpit with divers persons men and women At Abbeville they slew the Lord of Harcourt and dragged some along the streets with their faces in the kennell At Meaux there were about 400. of the religious Citizens slain besides a 1000. villanies committed the women and maids ravished openly in the streets and market-place men women and children massacred some forced to be remarried and others to be rebabtized The very Priests slaying divers with their own hands At Bar the same cruelties and murthers were committed if not worse for some pulled out the hearts of these poor wretches and most inhumanely gnawed them with their teeth rejoycing that they tasted of an Hugenots Heart At Sens an hundred protestants were barbarously massacred and their naked bodies thrown into the River their houses plundered and then burnt together with the Church At Crant the like many murthered At Auxerre the like At Nevers and Chastillen the like horrid murthers were committed where they left no manner of cruelty unacted neither upon women or Children old nor young not sparing the children in their mothers bellies but ripping them out and dashing their brains against the pavement At Guyen they used all the cruelties could be invented where some Italians cut a child in two and eat the Liver in hatred to its Religion At Montargis they committed many outrages against those of the Religion and had done more but that they were opposed by the Lady Rene Daughter of King Lewis the 12th and Dutchess Dowager of Ferrara At Monlins many suffered At Mans 200. men women and children were put to death and such as fled had their houses pillaged and were executed in Effigy and their children made incapable of inheriting their goods or lands Above 120. men women and children Murthered in the Neighbour-Villages some hang'd some beheaded some drowned And one Captain flung above 50. persons into his fish-ponds to feed his pikes and as many more were drowned in the ditches At Anger 's they committed the like cruelties and above 80. persons executed at one time and an aged Gentlewoman of above 70. years of age beaten to death with pistols And one Gentleman they broke upon a Cross and so left him hanging with many other unspeakable Villanies At Liguel they did the like putting out the Ministers eyes and then burning him with a small fire The Village of Aze they burnt to the ground drowned the Minister of 70. years old and Massacred 30. persons In Tours they Murthered an 140. and cast them into the river sparing not so much as the president because he favour'd them for
a bushel of Wheat was sold for 20 l. a pound of bread 20 s. a quarter of Mutton 6 l. a pound of Butter 30 s. an Egg 8 s. an ounce of Sugar 2 s 6 d. a dry'd Fish 20 s. a pint of French Wine 20 s. a pint of Milk 30 s. a pound of Grapes 3 s. c. Nor speak of the persecutions of the Protestants since by pulling down their Churches grievous fines imprisonments and banishment being still wearied and oppressed groaning under the yoak of their Egyptian bondage I am almost weary with writing and perhaps thou art with reading these Massacres and slaughters therefore I will here mention no more but briefly proceed We will now leave the Kingdome of the most Christian King Spain and passing over the Pyrennes see if the Gospel can have any harbour Gonsalvus Montanus Discovery of the Spanish Empress or its professors peace in that of the most Catholick King But alas the same Tyrannic cruelty if not worse we shall finde exercised against all that dissent from the Church of Rome Spain cannot afford so many Martyrs as France because there the professors of the Gospell were but few being kept from thence by the terror of the Inquisition They have been here so carefull as to crush all appearance of the Gospell in the Bud and such care and inspection is taken and such diligent search made and such horrid punishments inflicted by these inquisitors that it is almost impossible any Protestant should be in the Kingdome of Spain and not to be found out and punished Yet in the year 1545. several Protestants at St. Lucar Validolid Siril and other places in Spain suffer'd death 30 at one time and 1550 man more There were Francis Romanes Rochus Calculla a Doctor John Pontio Gonsalvo a Priest Juliano Leon Arias Losada a Physitian with a Lady and several women and Virgins burnt at several times in several places and 20. others in one fire after they had endured all the horrid torments of the Rack the Pully the Trough the Barnacle the twisting Cord and the like horrid inventions of tortures in the Prison of the inquisition Burton Bakere Burgat Burges and Hooker Englishmen were there burnt and horridly tormented by these cursed Inquisitors who have their Agents in every corner to finde out and betray all such as they have but the least suspition of for favoring Hereticks as they call Protestants These Agents they name Familiars who like spirits insinuate into the bosome of people to deceive and betray them and others Flys who are also busy in taking up such as their Familiars betray So that by these cruelties subtle arts and sly practises they have stifled the Protestant Faith in Spain and though there are privately many who own the truth they are forced to keep it so private as scarce to communicate their minds to a Brother or a Sister for fear of the torments of the Inquisition which is much more feared then death As Portugal is but a little Kingdome Portugal and the power of the Pope and his Instruments great there as well as in Spain they have mightyly supprest the truth with their tortures yet some have there also suffer'd and among others one William Gardner an English man whom they put to death with most exquisit torments at Lisbon 1552. We will pass over the Alpes into Italy Italy which being so neer the particular Inspection of the Pope we may well suppose it does not harbour many Protestants at least such as dare appear to be such and to own the profession publiquely by reason of the same strict Court of Inquisition Clerks Martyrology at first instituted against the Moors and Jews in Spain and now used only for the finding out of good Christians and for their torture and punishment yet there have been severall that have owned the Gospell even in Rome it self and in severall Cittys of Italy and have sealed their profession with their Blood as Arnold of Brixia Fannius at Ferrara Dominicus at Placentia Gelacius Tricius at St. Angelo John Mollins at Rome 1553. Francis Gamba at Milan Algerius at Padua 1555 Aloysins at Rome Bovellus at the same place all martyred for their Faith Pope Pius the 4th raised up a very hot persecution in all the Terriitorys of the Church of Rome wherein many suffered And it grew so hot in the year 1560. in the Kingdome of Naples that many noble men and their wives and divers others were slain and butchered 88. at one time being thurst up in a close pen and one by one being taken forth and being blindfolded and led a little way from the place the executioner commanded them to kneel down and so cut their throats one after another like sheep leaving them half dead on the ground returning with the bloody knife in his mouth and muffler in his hand goes to the rest till he had cut all their throats This was in Calabria 1560. The City of Venice kept it self free for a long time Venice from this plague of the Inquisition till the year 1542 at which time the Pope so far prevailed as to set up there the Inquisition and then began a terrible persecution wherein many a servant of Jesus Christ suffer'd Here they found out a new way of murthering them that they condemned to dye which was accounted the more merecifull Judgment than their Racking whipping beating and water torments they fastned and Iron Chain about their middles with a very heavy stone tyed at it then were they laid upon a plank between two Gondelo's or small boats and rowed to an appointed place in the Sea where the boats parting asunder they immediately sunk to the bottom and were drowned In the year 1566. a minister and many others suffer'd after this manner and divers sent to Rome where they ended their days by slaughter or else more miserably in stinking and nasty dungeons not being permitted to have any thing to lye on but straw About that time suffer'd also at Venice by drowning Anthony Bicetto Francis Spinola Sega and others And 1595. a young Englishman at Rome whom they used cruelly having led him from the Capitol his upper parts naked on his head a cap made in shape of a devil his Breeches painted like Hell-fire with devills in it and thus being brought to the place of execution they cut off his right hand alive and because he began to praise God they gagged him and then seared all his flesh with hot Irons and at last burnt him at the Stake It is not the Rocks nor the fastnesses of the Alpes that can keep out this monster of persecution he even ascends those precipices The Valtoline and in the Valtoline or the Country of the Grisons he scratches graves for the faithfull with his murtherous Claws There had been for a long time a free exercise of the Religion which invited many to fly into those mountains for safety but when the power of Rome got
the English who also contributed above 30000 l. to the relief of their distresses the breach is made up and a peace made but so as these poor Protestants remaining live under the Tyranny of their Popish task-masters and are forbid all manner of traffic they rob them of their goods and Estates often times forcing them to sell their birth rights for little or nothing banishing their Ministers ravishing their Virgins reviling and mocking the Matrons beating and abusing the men so that their vailies are become like dungeons in which they are kept as slaves kept in and secured by strong Forts possessed by the Papists Thus you see a brief prospect of what this monster of persecution this Antichristian spirit hath committed in these places We will proceed You have beheld many sad and doleful spectacles and if thou art a Christian Poland Lesnae Exccidium And Adam Hartuians Declaration thy heart must bleed at the relation we will therefore epitomise their bloody cruelties in Poland for there is no place where they have fixed themselves with any power but they have also set up the standard of persecution The Churches of Christ in Poland have likewise sufficiently tasted of the Cup and have drank deep of the dregs thereof especially whereover the Jesuites those wicked Incendiaries and Boutfeaus of Religion had any residence for there is scarce any massacre Firing and devastation but they have a hand in it or it is projected by their secret plots and Contrivances They are still going about like so many Lions seeking whom they may devour Their Garments are dyed red with the blood of the Saints They are evermore stiring up the common people to fury Rage and Combustion against all that do profess the Gospell All the same things that we have related to be done in other places are acted also in this we will not use tautologies and repeat the same things over again nor grow tedious But we cannot but tell you that many thousands of the Protestants and professors of the Gospell have been destroyed in this Kingdome and especially at Karnun Dumbnick Skocky Carieuzin and Lesnio all destroyed and burnt for the cause of their Religion The last mentioned City being one of the most ancient and most flourishing in all the Kingdome of Poland wholly ruined and laid in Ashes which was three whole days in Flames ere it could be consumed in which perish'd many hundred souls besides an inestimable treasure and wealth no man resisting or opposing Here they pull'd off the noses of some and put out the eyes of others cut off the tongues hands and feet of many gave quarter to none but kill'd and destroy'd all that they could any ways come at They pull'd the dead out of their graves rifled the Tombs abused their dead bodies and committed all the outrges could be devised by the wicked heart of man scarce to be match'd by Infidells Turks or Barbarians The Goths and the Vandals could not exceed them In the lower Poland many suffer'd whole families were butcher'd men women young old murthered without distinction And in the year 1654. fell a grievious slaughter among them putting to death with exquisiti Torments all they could lay hands on One Samuel Cardus the Pastor of the Church at Czaertzinon they used cruelly first putting out his eyes and so leading him about for a miserable spectacle then pulling off his fingers ends with pincers then they powred down his mouth molten Lead and while he was yet half alive clapt his neck between two folding doors and so violently severed his head from his Body So they served the Minister of Dembnick and his Colleague after having several ways tormented them cut their throats with a Razor and then while breathing flung them into a pit and dung and filth upon them They chopt off the head of another young Minister with a Sythe At Lesna they cut off the hands of a pious matron and three children which she had they murther'd before her face cutting off their heads 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 enclosed in a Sack and so left her for two days in which she lived making a most miserable lamentation At Zichâ—â—n they dragg'd many out of their Graves sparing not so much as the bodys of Noblemen and brave Commanders because they were not Catholicks The same cruelties Lithuania John de Kyaino Krainski 's Relation the barbarous and bloody Cossacks acted against the Protestants in Lithuania in the year 1648. slaughtering all that were not Catholicks without distinction of Age or Sex Here many had their Skins pulled over their ears whilst they were alive others their hands and feet cut off Some their bowels taken out alive Others had their Shinbones bored thorow To some they powred melted Lead in at the wounds made in their Heads and Bodies Some their eyes were pull'd out and those that were hanged up and down in every place were not to be numbred That was accounted a mercy to be shot or beheaded and kill'd outright Their wives and Daughters were every where ravished their houses and goods fired and all their Country and Churches laid waste and those that were left alive and escaped the slaughter were banished in every place was seen nothing but massacres and the blood of suffering Christians ran like streams through the streets of Towns and Citys The Ministers were chiefly aimed at and always cruelly tormented among the rest one Adrian Chylnisky noted for his great piety learning and reverenc'd for his age was roasted alive by these barbarous wretches having his hands and leggs tyed together and that leasurely that he might feel the more torment In another place there were above 40. suffered several sorts of deaths Neer Vilna the chiefest City in Lithuania both Father and Son Ministers called Smolsky had their heads sawed off with a Sickle Another at Holowczen had his flesh cut off by peeces till he dyed And Ministers and others to the number of 1500 were bound to stakes on the tops of mountains in the winter and so starved to death with cold and hunger All the several tortures which these poor and miserable Souls endured and the several deaths they were put to no History can describe Thus you have beheld the rage and flame of persecution abroad The Islands of Great Brittain and â—eland all Europe full of Slaughters Blood Massacres and Cruelties by reason of this Antichristian principle every land and Region desiled fire and fagot in every place burning and consuming those that dissent from the doctrine of Rome But this perhaps seems but a Landskip things done at a distance you may not be so much concerned as if at home and before your doors and eyes perhaps it may not affect you so much as the sufferings of your own Countrymen The sire is but painted it does not heat and scorch you the smoke does not
were accursed and condemned to hell and detestation These were the pious benedictions of these Holy Fathers and Brothers the Priests and Fryers so that it was no wonder that the rascally rish were so merciless and cruel believing they merited Heaven thereby though afterwards some of them met with a halter for their pains All things being prepared by the opish Agents and this Massacre long before secretly plotred and cunningly contrived on the 23d of October 1641. it broke forth at once thorow all parts of Ireland Dublin excepted where the conspirators were discovered and prevented But in all places else the whole Land was in a combustion and nothing but blood murthers rapes robberys and barbarous usages of the Protestants in every County Village Town and City that it is not to be expressed As it would be too tedious to give you a full relation of it and which hath been formerly done by others so we cannot pass it altogether in silence without remembring some of their most horrid and unparralel'd cruelties Multitudes were kill'd by the Sword in cold blood some in their beds some in their houses some in the fields in all places whereever they could light on them At Lisgol there were above 150. men women and children consumed with fire At Moehan above an 100. knock'd on the head At Tullagh after fair quarter given they were put to the Sword and murthered without mercy At Lisnaskey they hung above an 100. most of the Scottish Nation at which place Mac Guire made the keeper of the Castle Mr. Middleton to hear Mass and to swear he would never alter from it and then immediately caused him his wife and children to be hanged There were a 1000. men women and children drowned at one time at Portadown Bridge and in several places of that County 4000. more driving them into the loughs and Rivers pricking them forward being all stark naked with their skenes and butcherly knives Many to whom they had given passes to go to some place of shelter or to Dublin when they had let them go to some convenient place they sent Soldiers after them Many Towns they laid waste and in ashes among the rest Armagh and the Cathedral Church there and in some parishes two hundred Families were murthered and a common butchery was through the whole County and in all parts of it many thousands perisâ—ed by Sword Famine Fire Water and all other manner of deaths that rage and malice could invent Nay they would not spare the very cattle horses beasts sheep were all destroyed not to eat but out of spight leting thousands lie stinking and rotting up and down in the fields and high-ways In Colrain the living could not bury the dead and the slain carcases were flung in wide and waste holes and packed one upon another like herrings In Killoman were 48. Families murther'd In one house 22. Protestants burned In Kilmore 200. Families Massacred The villains were so wicked that they would not give them leave to pray before they dyed Some they buried alive and some they half buried others they set up into the Earth and so left them to starve Some they put into deep dungeons to perish at leasure others they mangled and left languishing in the high ways Some being grievously wounded they hung upon tenter hooks some thrown into bogs others hang'd up by the arms whilst they slash'd their bodys with their skenes to know how many cuts an Englishman would endure ere he dyed Many women great with child were hanged up others ript up and their guts pull'd out and their children thrown to the dogs and swine Some they cut to peeces by gobbets and collops Multitudes were drowned in Turf-pits and thousands were starved to death with cold in the bogs whether they were driven or sled for shelter Children were forced to execute their parents and parents their children and brothers and sisters one another The women were as barbarous as the men and as ready in their bloody executions nay they taught their children to kill and shewed them to kill an Englishman Some they boyled to death in Cauldrons and they hang'd one woman near Caterlaugh on a tree and her daughter in the mothers hair another had his feet burnt off by a slow fire their spight and malice reached to the graves and Tombs which they opened and dispightfully mangled the dead carcases of all they could meet with It is impossible to recollect or express the abominable wickedness of their mischievous inventions or the horror of their bloody executions performed with all kinds of circumstances that might aggravate the heighth of their cruelty towards them and that did express their inveterate malice to our Religion Alas who can comprehend the fears terrors anguish bitterness and perplexities of the souls of these suffering wretches their dispairing passions and consternations of minde or relate truly their deep groans heavy sighs loud schreches sad lamentations bitter tears and horrid trembling and astonishment Their reviling speeches and wicked boasts and brags increased their misery To see candles made of the fat and grease of thoir friends and kindred to burn before them and to hear them cry they are almost tired with slaughtering and that a young Cow-boy should boast to have slain 36. Protestants as a meritorious Act they never dispatched any without expressing great malice and hatred and usually with this their ordinary sarewell anim a duel they soul to the devil They used several blasphemous speeches against God and the Scriptures At Kilkenny on a Marketday they brought 7 Protestants heads and set them in the Market place one of them being a Ministers they slit from the mouth to the ears and puting a leaf of a Bible before it they bid him preach for his mouth was wide enough Another they took and riping up his belly took out the end of his guts and tying it to a post whipped him and prick'd him with their skins round the post drawing forth his guts by that means that they might see how long his puddings were Some women in Labour and with their children half born they flung into the Rivers and bogs without any pity or regard Some they burnt to death with seting fire to the straw that the poor wretches had tyed about them to hide their nakedness Others they worried to death with dogs The number was great of all those that fell under their many cruelties About Dangannon were 316. Protestants slain At Charlemont â—00 about Tyre was 6. barbarously murther'd At Laugh 200. drowned In another place 300. drowned and in the Parish of Kallamen were murther'd 1200 Protestants They roasted one Mr. Watson alive and cut collops out of his Buttocks They broke the back bone of a poor youth and so left him in the fields and some days after he was found having knawn all the grass round about him and eaten it for sustenance not being able to wag from the place yet they would not kill him out right but remov'd him to