have been divers who have ewned the 〈…〉 in the City of Rome it selâ— and 〈…〉 places in Italy For in the time of Pope Adrian the Fourth who was an Englishman one Arnald of Brixia came to Rome and preached publickly and boldly against the Corruptions of the Romish Church and found great favour among the â—enators and People insomuch that when the Pope commanded them to drive Arnald out of the City for an Heretick they resisted his command and defended Arnaâ—d upon which the Pope thundered out 〈◊〉 Excommunication against the whole City of Rome so that upon the importunity of the Clergy they were forced to send him away but he was entertained by the Lords of Câ—mpanâ—a who were subject to the Emperour of Germany with whom he remained and preached the Gospâ—â— to them The Emperour coming afterwards into Italy to be Crowned the Poâ—â— disned him to deliver up Arnald into his honds whereupon the Emperour seized upon one of the Lords of Campaâ—ia which so â—â—rified the other that he delivered up Arnald who being sent to the Pope he used him most cruelly and then ordered him first to be hanged and then burnt as anâ— Arch Heretick His Chief Heresies were That he preached against the Pride and Covetousness of the Monks and Clergy that he inveighed against the Errors in the Sacrament that he expounded the Scriptures c. In the year 1546. there was one Eucenas or Driander a Spaniard born who being bred up in Rome yet came at last to the knowledg of the Truth and having discovered his dislike of the false Doctrine of Popery he was betrayed by his own Countreymen and Acquaintance and being brought before the Cardinals he was committed close Prisoner and was afterwards brought forth to declare his Judgment where he gave a Notable Testimony to the Truth upon which when he refused to recant the same he was condemned to be burnt and suffered Martyrdom with great patience and constancy In the year 1550 One Faninus of Ferrara in Italy being by the Grace or God and reading of good books converted to the Gospel and began to instruct others privately therein but this coming to the ears of some of the Popes Blood-hounds they seized him and committed him to Prison where by the earnest Importunities of his Wife Children and Friends hâ— was perswaded to deny the Truth and wâ— thereupon released out of Prison He had nâ— been long at liberty but he was extreamly troubled in mind for preferring the Love of his Relations and Friends before the service of Jesus Christ neither could he by any means be free from these Tortures till he had fully resolved to venture his Life for the Gospel Being thus inflamed with holy Zeal he went about the Country teaching and Instructing the People wherever he came Whereupon he was apprehended and cast into Prison and was condemned to be burnt but he told his Judges That his time was not yet come and so it happened for he was removed to Ferrara where he continued in Prison for Two years and afterwards Eighteen Months in another Prison and was again condemned by the Popes Inquisitors but still his death was one way or other prevented His Wife and Sister came to him in Prison and weeping pitifully intreated him to remember and consider his poor Family To whom he answered That his Lord and Master had commanded him not to deny the Truth for his Families sake and that it was too much that for their sakes he had once fallen already and therefore desired them not to sollicite him any more in that matter for he knew his end drew near and therefore he commended them to the Lord. In a short time after the Pope sent word Faninus should be burnt at which he very much rejoyced and thanked the Messenger Being still offered Life if he would recant and thereby prevent the misery of his Wife and Children He said He would leave them to a careful and sufficient Overseer and being asked who that was he answered Even the Lord Jesus Christ a faithful Keeper of all that are committed to him As he was going to Execution one that saw him so merry and cheerful asked him what the reason of it was since Jesus Christ before his death swate Water and Blood To whom he answered That Christ sustained all the sorrows and conflicts with Hell and Death which were due to us that by his sufferings we might be free from the sorrow and fear of them all At the place of Execution after having earnestly prayed to God he went patiently to the stake and was first strangled and then burnt There was likewise one Dominious a Souldier under Charles the First in Germany who having received the Gospel grew so much in knowledge in a short time that he was able to instruct others whereupon he returned into Italy and taught the People in Naples Placentia and several other places In a little time after he was apprehended and readily obeyed the Magistrate saying That he wondered that the Devil had let him alone so long And being asked whether he would renounce his Doctrine He said That he maintained no Doctrine of his own but the Doctrine of Christ which he was also ready to seal with his blood Being therefore condemned to death he was brought into the Market-place where he most heartily prayed for his Enemies Instructed the People and then was hanged resting in peace in the Lord. In the City of Pavia in Italy one Galleacius Trecius a Gentleman of good Quality very rich and bountiful to the poor embraced the Gospel for which being persecuted he fled from thence but being afterwards apprehended he was brought before the Lords Inquisitors where he boldly and couragiously asserted the Truth whereupon he was condemned to be burnt next morning he was bound to a stake in the Market-place where he continued till noon to be gazed at by the People during which time many of his Friends perswaded him to recant but nothing could alter the firm mind of this constant Martyr and Fire being put to him he quietly slept in the Lord. A little before his Execution he heard there were some Differences between the Bishop and the Mayor of the Town who should be at the cost of wood to burn him but to end the Quarrel he sent them word he would be at the cost out of his own Goods In the year 1553. one John Mollius a famous Preacher was hanged and burnt for preaching the Gospel and the next year Francis Gamba was condemned upon the same account and because he made admirable discourses to the People his Tongue was bored through and he was first strangled and then burnt undergoing death with great Patience and Constancy The next year after there was one Algerius a Student in Padua a young man of Excellent Learning 〈◊〉 having attained the knowledge of the Truth he endeavoured by Example and Instruction to bring in others for which being accused of Heresie he was apprehended at Venice
and was afterwards sent for to Rome by the Pope where many endeavours were used to tempt him to desert and deny the Truth which not prevailing he was Condemned to be burnt alive which he constantly suffered to the Admiration of all that saw him In the year 1559. John Aloysius a Minister being sent from Geneva to Calabria was sent for to Rome by the Pope where he suffered Martyrdom and at that time James Bovellus a worthy Minister was Martyred by the Popes Order at Messina Pope Pius the Fourth ralsed in hot persecution against the Protestants in all he Territories of the Church of Rome which was the destruction of many faithful Christians yea the Persecution was so hot in the Kingdom of Naples that many Noblemen and their Wives with divers others were slain And a Papist writing to a Noble Lord about the Cruelties shewed to some Christians â—n Calabria in the year 1560 hath these expressions When I think upon it I verily quake and tremble for their manner of putting to death may be fitly resembled to the slaughter of Calves and Sheep for Fourscore and Eight of them being thrust up together in one House as in a Sheepfold the Executioner cometh in takes one and blindfolds him and then leading him forth to a larger place commands him to kneel down and then cuts his Threat and leaving him half dead he takes his Butchers Knife and Muffler all goâ—e blood and fetches the rest and so one after another dispatches them all How sad this spectacle was I leave to your Lordship to Judge for my own part I cannot but weep to think of it neither were there any Spectators who seeing one to die could endure to behold another But truly so humbly and patiently they went to their deaths as is almost incredible to believe All the Aged Persons went more cheerfully the younger were something more timorous I tremble and shake to remember how the Hangman held his bloody Knife between his Teeth and his bloody Muffler in his hand and his Arms all gore blood up to the Elbows going to the Fold and taking every one of them one after another by the hand and so dispatching them all no otherwise than a Butcher doth his Calves and Sheep The City of Venice kept it self free a long time from this Plague of the Inquisition so that multitudes of Christians flocked thither from other places but in the year 1542 the Pope so far prevailed as to introduce it there likewise and then began a Terrible Persecution of the poor protestants there and they found out a new kind of death for them â—hich was to drown them in the bottom of the 〈◊〉 in the manner following when they â—ere condemned to die by the Inquisitors â—here was an Iron Chain fastened round their waste and a heavy stone was tyed thereto then they were laid upon a Plank between two Boats and so rowed to an appointed place in the Sea where the Boats parting asunder the Person immediately sunk into the Sea and was drowned notwithstanding which divers good Christians met together and had a Minister who preached the Gospel Administred the Sacrament to them but some false brethren creeping in among them betrayed them upon which many of them were apprehended and cast into the Sea others were imprisoned at Rome till they died Among others who were condemned to be drowned at Venice there was one Seignior Anthony Ricetto To whom after his condemnation his son of about Twelve years of Age came and with Tears beseeched his Father to recant for the saving of his own Life and that he himself might not be left fatherless To whom his Father answered A good Christian is bound to forgo Children goods yea and Life it self for the maintenance of Gods Honour and Glory for which cause said he I am now resolved with Gods assistance to lay down my Life When he came to the place where he was to suffer the Stone and Chain were fastned to him whereupon lifting up his Eyes to Heaven he said Father forgive them they know what they do Lord Jesus into thy hands I do commend my Spirit And so he ended his Life in the Sea A while after one Francis Spinola was apprehended and committed to Prison and being called before the Inquisitors he boldly reproved the Popes Legate and the other Judges in that contrary to their Consciences they persecuted the Truth of God and told them they were the Off-spring of the Pharisees c. Whereupon he had sentence passed upon him That he should be drown'd as an Heretick to whom he answered I am no Heretick but the Servant of Jesus Christ At which words the Popes Legate bid him be silent and told him that he lied The night after he was conveyed into the Sea and there drowned blessing and praising God with invincible Constancy In the year 1595 There was a young English Protestant at Rome who going into a Church and seeing their gross Idolatry he was so moved that he could not endure the sight of those impieties and therefore as the Procession passed by him he stept to him that bare the Host and Sacrament and plucking it out of his hands threw it on the Ground saying Ye wretched Idolaters do ye fall down to a Morsel of Bread This so provoked the People that they were like to have torn him in Pieces but he escaped death was sent to Prison complaint thereof being made to Pope Clement the 8th he was so inraged that he commanded him to be burnt the same day but his Cardinals advised to have him kept in Prison and Examined with Exquisite Tortures who set him on This they accordingly practised tormenting him with the utmost severity but could get nothing from him but these words Such was the will of God Then was he adjudged to be led from the Capitol naked to his middle and to wear on his head the form of a Devil his breeches to be painted over with Flames of Fire and so to be carried all about the City and then burnt alive This was Executed upon him and as he passed through the Streets he was mocked and derided of the People but he prayed fervently to God and at last uttered something against the debauched Lives of the Cardinals which so inraged them that they gagged him When he came before the Church where he threw down the Idol his Right hand was cut off by the Hangman and set upon a Pole in the Cart to which he was tyed Then two Tormentors with flaming Torches scorcht and burnt his Flesh all the way so that his body was all over blistered and bloody having no part free but his head then was he taken from the Cart and went himself to the stake kissing the Chains that should bind him The Fryars urged him to worship an Idol but he turned away his Face and shew'd his Detestation of it and when the Fire seized on him he bowed his head and quietly resigned up his Spirit
that usually in the head of these infernal Dragoons there Marched a Squadron of Bishops and Priests to see that the Souldiers executed the full Vengeance they desired upon the Protestants who upon all occasions did provoke and stir up the Souldiers to cruelty and barbarity if they found they had the least compassion and pity toward these poor Innocents If at any time the Master of an house had signed what they required in hope to get rid of the Dragoons yet he was not freed from them for all this if his Wife Children or the meanest of his Servants did not do the same and when any of them fled they continued to torment the Master or Father till he forced them to come back which being oft impossible for him to do the change of his Religion did not at all avail him When the poor Souls fancied they should be at rest by signing a form of abjuration of the Protestant Religion yet a while after these cruel men made them sign another which threw many into the very depth of despair Nay after all these barbarous Usages and Compulsions they forced these wretched people to acknowledge That they imbraced the Roman Religion of their own accord without being induced thereto by any violent means Though all these Frauds violences and cruelties and infinite numbers more have been acted toward the Protestants in the face of the Sun and before Millions of eye-witnesses and are notorious to all Europe Yet this is another method that their Persecutors have taken to shelter themselves from publick condemnation by denying the Fact and perswading the World That force and violence have had no share in the Conversions but that they were Soft Calm and Voluntary and that if there were any Dragoons concerned therein it was because the Protestants themselves desired them that they might have a handsom pretence to change their Religion Was there ever so much impudence seen or heard of what will they not deny who are arrived to such a height of boldness The revoking the Edict of Nants which was the Mâ—gna Charta of the Protestants formerly resolved on was put in Execution Oct. 8. 1685. Whereby all their Ministers were banished out of France being commanded to depart the Kingdom in fifteen days and supressing all Protestant Books whatsoever 'T is said the Chancellor of France shewed extraordinnry joy at the sealing this Edict but it lasted not long this being the last thing he did for as soon as he came home from Fountain Bleau he fell sick and died in a few days By this Edict the King declares That he had resolved upon this design ever since his coming to the Crown but had been hindred by his Wars against the Enemies of the State but being now at peace with all the Princes of Europe he wholly gave himself to unite all his Subjects in the Catholick Religion commanding that all the Protestant Churches should be pluckt down and demolished That those who will turn Papists shall be rewarded and prefer'd That no Children shall be educated in the Protestant Religion That those who are fled shall have four months to return and recant if not their Goods and Estates to be confiscate That no Protestant presume to depart the Kingdom under the penalty of the men being sent to the Gallies and the women to forfeit their Bodies and Goods The very day this was published in Paris they began to demolish the Church of Charenton and the chief Minister was commanded to leave the City in twenty four hours the rest in fifteen days but were neither permitted to dispose of their Estates nor to carry any of their effects with them nor to take along with them Father Mother Brother Sister or any of their kindred though many were infirm decayed poor and could not subsist but by their means yea they denied them their own Children if above seven years old nay some they took from them under that age yea those that hanged on their Mothers breasts refusing to allow Nurses for their new born Infants to whom the Mothers could not give suck Soon after the former barbarities or greater if possible were revived of which I shall give some few instances amongst many others and so conclude this dismal scene of sorrow The Dragoons that quartered with Monsieur Solignac at Montauban made his dining room a Stable for their Horses though the furniture thereof was valued at a thousand Livers and forced him to turn the Spit till his arm was almost burnt by their continual throwing Wood on the fire They beat an old man almost to death to force him to go to Mass whilst the constant Martyr to his last breath cryed He would never do it and only requested they would dispatch and make an end of him Monsieur de Garrison one of the chief men of the City and an intimate Friend of the Intendant went and cast himself at his feet imploring his protection and conjuring him to rid him of the Troopers that he might have no force put upon his Conscience adding That in recompence of the favour he begged of him he would give him all he had which was to the value of about a Million of Livres but all his intreaties were so far from prevailing that he ordered him for terror to be worse used than the rest by dragging him along the Streets Some of the lustiest Souldiers took their Land-lords or others in the house and walking them up and down continually tickled and tossed them about like a ball from each other without giving them the least intermission and keeping them in that condition three days together without Meat Drink or Sleep When they were so faint as not able to stand any longer on their Legs they laid them on a bed continuing to tickle and torment them as before and when a little recovered forced them to rise again lashing them with Rods to prevent their sleeping When one party of these cursed Tormentors were tyred and wearied out their Companions relieved them by which infernal invention many became distracted and mopish and so continue Isaâ—â— Faim a Citizen of Negreplisse was hung up by the armpits and tortured a whole night by pinching and tearing off his Flesh with Pincers though thereby they were not in the least able to shake his constancy The Wife of one Roussion a Joiner being violently drag'd by the Souldiers along the Streets to force her to hear Mass died of this cruel and inhumane treatment as soon as she reached the Church Porch They made a fire about a Boy of ten years of age who continually with hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven cryed My God help me And when they saw the Lad resolved to die rather than renounce his Religion they snatcht him from the fire when he was at the very point of being burnt In divers places they have indeavoured to tire out the Patience of the poor Protestants and overcome their constancy by applying red hot Irons to the hands and feet
of the Irish only stripping the English Protestants and turning them out of Doors naked in the cold and snow others cruelly Murdering man woman and child without the least compassion but they all resolved upon this point that by all manner of ways and means they would universally destroy and root the English out of Ireland Nay the Irish were so inveterately malicious against them that they would not endure the very sound of their Language but punished those that spake English and the names of English places they changed into Old Irish In some places they killed the Cows and Sheep meerly because they were English and sometimes they cut off their Legs or a piece out of their Buttocks and so left them to live in pain and in other places those English Cattel that they could not devour they kill'd them and left them in great multitudes stinking upon the Ground The Popish Priests gave the Sacrament to divers of the Irish upon Condition that they should neither spare Man Woman nor Child of the Protestants saying That it did them a great deal of good to wash their hands in their Blood Some of their Priests Excommunicated all that should from thenceforth relieve or harbour any English Scotch or Welshman or give them Alms at their Doors whereby many were Famished to Death Yea the Popish Monks and Fryers exhorted them with Tears not to spare the English but utterly to destroy them nay they boasted that when they had made an end of them in Ireland they would go over into England and would not leave the memorial of an Englishman under Heaven and their Priests told them It was as lawful to kill an English man as to kill a Sheep or a Dog and that it was no more Pity or Conscience to take their Estates from them than to take a Bone out of a Dogs mouth The day before this Horrid Massacre began the Priests gave the people a dismission at Mass with full liberty to go out and take Possession of all their Lands which they pretended weâ—â— unjustly detained from them by the English aâ—though they were justly forfeited by their repeated Rebellions and Treasons against the Government They further told them that they might lawfully strip rob and despoil them of all their Goods and Chattels The Protestants being as they said worse than Dogs for their were Devils and worshiped the Devil and therefore that the Killing of such was meritorious and an Excellent Preservative against the Pains of Purgatory since the Bodies of such Catholicks as should die in this Quarrel would not be cold before their Souls should ascend up into Heaven so that they need not fear the Pains of Purgatory which occasioned some of these Murthering Villains to boast after they had massacred many of the English That if they should die presently they should go straight to Heaven When this Horrid Rebellion first began several Irish Gentlemen pretended great kindness to some of their Protestant Neighbours and perswaded them to put their Goods and Cattel into their hands engaging that they would secure them from the rage of the Rabble which made the Protestants so confident because of former familiarity that they gave them Inventories of all they had nay they digged up some of their best things which they had hidden in the grounds and put them into their hands whereby they got vast quantities of Goods into their hands and yet like True Papists they cheated them of it all nay which was more barbarous they promised the English that if they would be contented to lose their Goods they and their Wives and Children should peaceably depart the Country and yet when they had got all they had they inhumanely â—â—urthered them In one place there was no less than Twenty two Widdows who were first robbed and then stript stark naked and when in a house they had covered themselves with Straw the bloody Papists threw in burning Straw among them on purpose to burn them together And in a while after they brake forth into such abominable Cruelties bloody Massacres and Murders as would make the heart of any Christian to ake and his Ears to tingle at the Relation of them In the Castle of Lisgol above an hundred and twenty Men Women and Children were burnt together Another Castle was delivered to one of the Popish Commanders upon condition their lives should be saved but as soon as he entred he cruelly murdered and destroyed them all without mercy At Portendown Bridge a thousand Men. Women and Children were drowned in the River and it was testified upon Oath that nine days after there was the Apparition of a Man bolt upright in the Water breast-high with his hands lifted up to Heaven and that he was seen several times in that posture from December to the end of Lent at which time some of the English Army passing that way saw it likewise after which it vanished away One Elizabeth Price made Oath that she with other Women whose Husbands and Children were drowned in that place hearing of those Apparitions went thither one Evening at which time they saw a Woman rise out of the River breast-high her hair hanging down which was as white as Snow and so was her skin and that she often cryed out Revenge Revenge Revenge which so affrighted them that they went away In Queens County an English-man his Wife five Children and a Maid were all hanged together and then cut down and put into a hole the youngest Child though it was hanged was not quite dead when it was put in but put up its hands and cryed Mammy Mammy and yet these Villains without mercy buried it alive They stripped a Scotch-man and knocked him down for dead but he afterwards recovering went into the Town naked whereupon they hewed him all to pieces They also ript up his Wifes belly so that the Child dropped out They likewise hanged up divers other Women with Child and ripping them up they gave their Infants to be devoured by Dogs and Swine In one place they set a Castle on fire wherein were many Protestants and then rejoycingly said among themselves Oh how sweetly do they fry In one place they burnt two English Bibles and said it was Hell-fire they burnt they cut other Bibles to pieces and burnt them threatning to do the like to all English Bibles And in one place they took a Bible and laid it in a â—uddle of Water and then stamping on it said A Plague on it this Bible hath bred all the Quarrel A Papist would have perswaded a man and his Wife to have joyned with them in the Massacre but they protested That rather than they would forsake their Religion they would die upon the Swords point then he would have had the Woman burn her Bible but she told him Rather than she would burn her Bible she would die the Death whereupon they were both cruelly murthered These barbarous Villains caused some Children to carry their Aged Parents to the River
and drown them some Wives were forced to help to hang their Husbands in one Town they caused a young Man to murther his own Father and then hanged him up in another place they forced a Woman to kill her Husband and then caused her Son to kill his Mother and then immediately hanged her Son and their cursed malice was thereby shewn that they might as much as in them lay destroy Soul and Body together Yea so detestable was their Cruelty that they taught Irish Children to kill English Children and two Boys boasted that they had at several times murthered and drowned thirty six English Women and Children The Irish Women followed this Army of Murtherers and provoked the Men to Cruelty crying out Kill them all spare neither Man Woman nor Child and many of them stoned the English Women and their Children to Death and cryed Slay them all the English are fit meat for Dogs and their Children are Bastards Yea so Implacable was their malice that one of them was very angry with her Husband because he did not bring the Grease of a Fat Gentlewoman whom they had slain for them to makes Candles of which was commonly practised by them in other places Yea they boasted that the day was their own and that ere long they would not leave one Protestant Rogue living but would utterly destroy every one that had but a drop of English Blood in him yea they vowed they would not leave one English beast alive nor any of their breed Alas who can comprehend the Sighs the Groans the trembling and astonishment of these poor Innocent Souls to sind themselves so suddenly surprized and that without remedy What Schrieks Cries and bitter Lamentations were there of Husbands Wives Children Servants and Friends howling and weeping finding themselves without all hope of deliverance from their present woful Miseries and Calamities For by these and all manner of Cruelties and Barbarities which Hell it self could invent the Irish and English Papists murdered and destroyed in a few Months near Three Hundred Thousand Protestants as it is commonly computed without any manner of provocation but only because they were Protestants whose deaths the Divine Vengeance in a short time after recompensed upon several of the Murtherers many thousands perishing by the Sword and the plague that followed it and the rest without doubt unless they heartily repent will receive the reward of their wickedness The Cruelties Plots and Treasons of the Papists against the Protestants in England AFter having briefly Epitomized the bloody Cruelties and slaughters of this Monster of Rome and his Vassals throughout Europe let us now return home and see if our own Countrey has escaped betterthan our Neighbours Englishmen are generally accounted to be of a merciful nature and pitiful disposition apt to be touched with the miseries of others are not in their own natures bloody barbarous or Cruel what then may be the cause of those dreadful marks of Rage and Fury that have been seen among us How has this Fair Island been made an Accldama a Field of Skulls and Martyrs bones All this we shall sind proceeds from corrupt principles of Religion I doubt not says a worthy Divine but Papists are made like other men Nature hath not generally given them such Savage and Cruel Dispositions but their Religion hath made them so I am loth to say it and yet I am confident it is true that many Papists would have been excellent Persons and very good men if their Religion had not hindred them if the Doctrines and Principles of their Church had not spoiled their natural Disposition Good God! that any thing that is called Religion should so presently strip men of all Humanity and transform the mild and gentle Race of Mankind into Wolves and Tigers It is Popery that alters the Nature of Englishmen and makes them act like Turks Infidels or Barbarians its principles infect the Blood and invenom the Soul instead of being Meek and humble it makes them Proud and Arrogant instead of performing the Commands of Christ it makes men obey the Pope though never so contrary to Religion If our Blessed Saviour says Hurt no man pray for your Persecutors submit to Magistrates and Governours The Pope and his Doctrines say Kill every man that is not of your Religion Curse those that disobey your Commands Kill Stab or depose your Kings or Governours This is the Doctrine and these are the Principles and Commands of the Romish Church It is some hundreds of years since this Bloody Beast of persecution began to shew his Fangs and armed Claws in this Kingdom and it was almost as soon perceived and testified against by some good men in those times For in the Year one Thousand Two Hundred John of Salisbury declared against the Corruptions and Superstitions of the Romish Church and plainly discovered the oppression of the burden of the Pope and his Ravenous Clergy and after him John Grostead Bishop of Lincoln wrote to the Pope and admonished him for which he had like to have lost his life yet the Pope did only hitherto shew his Teeth and could not take his full swing in Blood and Murther which he afterward attained to But since the Papists impertinently urge against us the Newness of our Religion and that it was not known before Martin Luthers days we shall produce much more early Testimonies against the Errors and Abuses in the Romish Churchâ— For we find in the Year 884. John Patrick Erigena a Britan who was ordained the first Reader in Oxford by King Alfred was afterward Condemned and Martyred by the Pope for writing a Book concerning the Sacrament And in the year 960. many Ministers and Divines wore the Mark of the Beast in their faces being by the Popes order Branded in the Faces with hot Irons for Dissenting in many things about the Mass Purgatory Monkery and the like and for saying that Rome was Babylon and that Cloisters were the Nurses of Sodomy In the year 1126. one Arnold an Englishman and a Preacher of the Gospel was Butchered at Oxford for Preaching against the Pride of the Prelates and the wicked lives of the Priests In the Year 1160 the poor Persecuted Waldenses came hither for succour but instead thereof they were Persecuted Condemned Burnt Whipt and Stigmatiz'd for their Religion both at Oxford and other places After which almost in every Year it pleased God to raise up several learned and worthy men to testify against the Horrid Corruptions of Rome both by Speaking Writing and Disputing against them As in the Year 1170. Gualo and Gilbert Foliot Doctors of Divinity and after them Silvester Gerald Alexander a Divine Gualter Maxes Arch-Deacon of Oxford Sebald Archbishop of York William Stringham Doctor of Divinity Roger Bacon Fellow of Merton Colledge a divine and Mathematican John Scotus the Great Scotch-man and about the same time Doctor John Wickliff Jeoffery Chaucer William Wickham Bishop of Winchester and many other Learned men All these gave