account which does honour enough to the Spirit and Wit of him that made it Would to God he would take as exact an account of his own Heart Our Sheet being full you shall have no Answer to these Juggles till the following Letters March 15. 1687. The FIFTEENTH PASTORAL LETTER AN Article of Antiquity The Birth of the religious Worship of Creatures in the Fourth and Fifth Ages The proofs of the Novelty of this Worship An Article An Answer to the Reasons of the new Converts on the Subject of Schism and Separation Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ SInce we entred into the Fourth Age we found there three great Innovations Monnachism General Councils and the Hierarchy The fourth important Change which altered the form of the Church happening in the Fourth and Fifth Ages is the Worship of Creatures the Adoration of Relicks and the Invocations of Saints If there be any thing certain in the World it is that this Worship was wholly unknown in the preceding Ages and no man can give attention to those few Proofs that heretofore we have made thereof without being convinced of it 't is certain that we have seen the Occasions and if I may so say the Blossoms thereof in that excessive respect which they had for the Persons of their Confessors in the regards which they had for their Intercessions and in the care that they took to collect their Bones and to bury their Bodies honourably and this is it which gave occasion to the Pagans of accusing the Christians for worshiping their Martyrs as we have seen that the Jews of Smyrna did accuse the Christians thereof on the occasion of the Body of Polycarpus which they hindred from being given unto them This is that which caused the Pagans under the Persecution of Dioclesian to dig up the Bodies of those two Martyrs Dorotheus and Gorgonius and throw them into the Sea For fear saith Eusebius * Lib. 8. Hist Eccl. cap. 6. that if they continued in their Tombs they should be adored and taken for Gods according to the Opinion they had concerning us We have seen how the Christians of Smyrna and Eusebius who transcribes their Epistle did refute this calumny Moreover Eusebius saith in this last Passage According to the Opinion that they have concerning us This makes it appear that the Opinion was false They had therefore in the beginning of the Fourth Age a very great respect for the Tombs of Martyrs but 't was a thing unheard of to open them take out their Bones and put them in Chests and Boxes to the end that they might be scattered over all the World yea long before in the fourth Age St. Anthony being about to dye declared that it was his Will that his Body should be buried and not kept upon a Bed after the manner of the Egyptians Because says he 't is an affront and a Violation of the Laws not to bury the Bodies of the Dead how holy soever they might be These were the last Words of dying Truth for afterwards Men began to search all Places and to disinterr the Bodies of Saints The deceit of Priests the Innocence of the People and the malice of the Devil advanced this unhappy Superstition Persons ran about in the search of Relicks nor would they build any Temple or Church without them they feigned Visions and devious Dreams which revealed unto them where the Bodies of Saints were laid and they took the pretended Bodies of Apostles and Martyrs from their Tombs three hundred and four hundred Years after their Death As it was impossible that this foolish Superstition should not soon degenerate into Idolatry so it did not fail to come to pass for these Relicks drawn from their Tombs wrought Miracles these Miracles were ascribed to the Saints whose Relicks they were Men could not fail of invoking those Saints which they believed did work Miracles in favour of those who did venerate and honour their Relicks We see no sensible marks of the Invocation of Saints till after the year of our Lord 360 and the most ancient Authors that speak thereof are St. Ambrose and St. Basil not that we are not persuaded that the People the Authors of this Superstition did not practise it a long time before as in the time of St. Austin we observe the Worship of Images to have taken its birth by the Superstition of some ignorant People notwithstanding the generality of the People and Pastors did not suffer themselves to be carried away to this unhappy Idolatry till a long time after In like manner it may not be doubted but that from the beginning of the Fourth Age there were some ignorant Persons among the People who ran into excess in the respect which they gave to the Ashes of the Martyrs But the practice did not become universal till the Fifth Age and the Doctors and Teachers began not to be born down thereby till about the end of the Fourth And yet there was but little of it for in all the former part of the Fourth Age we see very few Monuments or Footsteps thereof in the Authors of those times but in the Fifth Age this Torrent ran with a prodigious swiftness in such a manner that in less than Fifty Years this Superstition became as it were the reigning Religion of the People Behold then a matter of Fact which we dispute not with the Papists 't is that about the end of the Fourth Age some Examples of the Invocation of Saints are seen and a great many more in the Fifth so that it is to no purpose that they quote to us Passages from S. Austin S. Basil Chrysostom and Theodoret to prove the Invocation of Saints in that Age for 't is a Point we do not dispute with them But we do maintain these Two things 1. That the Worship of Saints took its original from that of Relicks and that Men only invoked the Martyrs whose Relicks they had 2. That this Worship was new in that Age and that it was unknown in the Ages preceding The first Point will serve in what follows for a proof of the second which is the important Point we have to prove viz. The novelty of this Worship in the Fourth and Fifth Ages 1. We prove the novelty of this Worship by the silence of Christian Authors during the space of three Hundred or four Hundred Years 'T is a thing impossible that so many Writers having so much occasion to speak of the Martyrs and Saints and having said so much concerning them did never find it convenient to speak one word concerning the Worship and Honour that was to be given them after their death The lesser Doctors among the Papists such is that from whom Mr. Pelisson produces a Latin Fragment treat this negative Argument with Contempt but no Man of good Sense will treat it so and no wise Man will ever perswade himself that for the space of three
M. de Meaux I was tempted to believe that the Reformed of his Diocess had all fallen only under the fear of evil for I was not able to imagin that any one should write falsely concerning a matter of Fact whereof there are thirty or forty thousand Witnesses But behold the Letters which teach us what we ought to believe concerning it There are others by which it appears that all those Violences have been done in the Diocess of Meaux which have been committed elsewhere It is also known by an Eye-witness that M. de Meaux himself made use of the Kings Declaration to prevail with a sick person to Communicate which Declaration appoints that those who do not Communicate in their sickness shall be sent to the Gallies if they recover their health These things which precede are not reported but accidentally for we do not make it our duty to report to you the Violences and Cruelties that have been done and which shall be done if it be not in such degree and measure as shall be necessary to give you example of the courage and strength of our Martyrs For the design that we have in these Letters is not to irritate and provoke you against your Persecutors but to comfort and edifie you by the constancy of those which Suffer Upon this consideration and with this intention we will report some Histories which have been communicated to us which will learn you that thanks be to God our Enemies have not accomplished the cruel design which they had formed against us which was to hinder us from having Martyrs We ought not to refuse this Name and Honor to those which after they had been so weak as to sign I know not what form of Abjuration of our Religion have had the courage to raise themselves and to persevere even unto death in the profession of the Truth We owe also the same honor to those which are dead amidst the torments which the Dragoons and Persecutors have inflicted on them and which have persevered even to the last breath in the bold profession of the Truth To conclude it seems to me that without extending the signification of the word Martyr too far we may give it to those who after suffering long and cruel torments have seen death as very near them and have beheld it as certain without being the least shaken thereby So that without reckoning those that are dead by the hand of the Hangman or by the Sword of the Soldier formerly for the sake of Religion behold three sorts of Martyrs whereof we ought to have some estimation and of every one of these three Orders we will repoot unto to some Examples which have been writ unto us An Eye-Witness hath written to us that in a Village of Poictou called Gods Town Dannai an honest Man called M. Palmenteir after having suffered all the first violences by the Dragoons to wit Blasphemies Threatnings Plundering of all his Goods and other things of like nature not yielding was treated as you shall understand and in conclusion dyed amidst the torments The Archbishop of Bourdeaux returning from the Assembly of the Clergy at Paris about the end of the month September in the year past comes into the House of the said Palmenteir and asked the Dragoons why they had done their duty no better and whether there were no fire to warm this Gouty old Man After he had given this order he went up the Chamber on high and the Dragoons dragged the weak old Man out of his Bed full of the Gout for many years They dragged him on the floor they applied an Iron Plate red hot to the bottom of his Feet and to his Hands In this torment he uttered dreadful cries the Archbishop in the Chamber above laughed at it and diverted himself with it The Wife of the said Palmenteir came to the succour of her Husband they knocked her down with blows of their Daggers and the butt end of their Pistols she fell-into a Swoon In this estate they bathed her with two or three Buckets of Water This punishment being indured a long time this poor Man was so weak not to Abjure his Religion but to promise to use means for his instruction and information The Archbishop desired at least that he would sign this promise but the condition his hands were in not permitting him to move them the Archbishop signed for him and sent the writing to the Bishop of Poicters intreating him to send Missionaries to Convert this Family This poor sick person had no sooner consented to this Signature but he retracted it and caused a person to write to the Bishops that he had no need of instruction and would dye in his Religion In the mean time the Wounds of his burning wherewith he was covered all over grew to inflammation and resisted all remedies a Fever joyns it self thereunto and he dyed within a few days after bewailing without ceasing his weakness and repeating every moment those words of Psalm 51. God be merciful to me a sinner and repelling couragiously the temptations of a Carmelite and a Jesuite which persecuted him to the last breath I see no reason why we should refuse the honor of Martyrdom to this Man since he dyed confessing the name of God amidst the cruel Wounds that had been given him because he would not abjure it We ought not to refuse a place in the Catalogue of our Martyrs to M. de Villiers a younger Brother of the House Juigne a Family sufficiently known This Gentleman was arrested at Francy near to Bolonia indeavouring to save himself by flight They carried him to Calice from whence the Intendant sent him to Paris by the Provost where he was put in prison in Bishop-Fort there he continued from Jan. 8. till the 22. of August last During the whole time of his Imprisonment he preached by his actions and words after a manner the most efficacious in the world He was both Learned and Pious that he confounded all the Converters after a manner that edified the other Prisoners which suffered for the same Cause The chief President took the pains one day to come and see him They entered into Discourse but there was found that inequality betwixt him and Monsieur de Villiers that he was constrained to leave him saying what formerly a Cardinal said to Ariosto on occasion of his Poem called Orlando Furioso Oh God! where have you gotten so much Roguery An Answer well worthy the Gravity of a chief Magistrate about so serious an Affair M. de Villiers had to do with all sorts of persons Men of the Church and Men of the Sword assaulted him and he disingaged himself from all their Attacks always with an admirable success The inconveniences of the Prison caused him to fall into a Bloody Flux whereof he died at the end of six weeks During his Sickness they denyed him all commerce with the other Prisoners of his own Religion he saw none but Persecutors and Tempters But nevertheles
Hundred and sixty Years Justin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus Ireneus Cyprian Eusebius Athanasius Hillary and so many others should not speak one word of this religious Worship of Creatures if it had been then in use Besides this negative Proof we make use of all those positive Proofs which we have proved from the Second and Third Age by which it appears that the Primitive Christians invoked none but God and that they did not invoke even Angels 'T is that which Origen hath plainly told us and 't is that which Ireneus had said before him * Iren. lib. 2. cap. 58. That the Church doth nothing by the Invocation of Angles nor by any other wicked Curiosity but by Addressing purely plainly and openly her Prayers to the Lord the maker of all things Among these positive Proofs we have seen some of them which formally tell us that the Church neither worships invokes nor adores Martyrs such is the Epistle of the Christians of Smyrna about the Martyrdom of Polycarpus Is it not therefore an amazing boldness in your Converters to mantain to you that there was no change in the Doctrine and Practice of the Church thereon in the Fourth Age 'T is clear that Men did not invoke Saints in the Third Age it is clear that they began to do it about the end of the Fourth it is therefore clear that a Change did happen But they will say where is the Author of this Change Where is the Innovator This Question is absurd 'T was not one single Person that introduced this alteration in Worship 't was the superstitious People the great respect which the People saw Men had for the Tombs of Martyrs carried some Dotards to advance that the Souls of Martyrs were about their Tombs And 't is apparently according to the conjecture of Albespinus that which the Thirty fourth Canon of the Council of Eliberis hath respect unto * Albasp Annot in Concil Eliberitan That we ought not to light up Torches in the day time in the Coemetaries lest we disturb the Spirits of the Saints They imagined that these Spirits fluttering about their Tombs might suffer inconvenience by the Smoak of Torches and Candles Is not this a pleasant Imagination S. Jerome writing against Vigilantius doth also say That the Souls of Martyrs love their Ashes hover about then and are always present with them We know that the Vulgar are naturally inclined to Superstition and 't is easie to conceive how the People instructed in such an Opinion should conceive an extraordinary respect for those places where were the Bodies and Souls of Martyrs And conceiving that these Souls which conversed about their Tombs had also the liberty of flying back to Heaven when they thought good it was very easie for ignorant People to fall into a perswasion that it was very good to recommend themselves to their care and intercession There was therefore no need of an Innovator or a new Preacher nothing more was needful but to let the People do as they pleased Mark this well all Heresies have been introduced by Doctors for there is need of Wit and Knowledg to innovate in Opinions but all Superstitions have been introduced by the People For nothing more is needful to become superstitious than Sottishness Simplicity and Ignorance therefore the Authors of Innovation in Doctrine may be observed for they are ordinarily single Persons but we cannot observe the first Innovators in matter of Superstition because they are the People But it will be said why did not the Doctors oppose themselves to the Superstition of the People First it is not true that the Doctors did not oppose themselves to Superstitions at their birth S. Austin and S. Jerome himself blamed the Superstitions which began to take place in their Age and which afterwards overcame all Contradiction But nevertheless 't is true that they did not oppose them as they ought to have done yea that they suffered themselves to be carried away with them as others did because that these Superstitions were established by little and little and that the beginnings which the Doctors did easily suffer because 't was but a small matter gave place to the toleration of that which was introduced afterwards which nevertheless was altogether intolerable To conclude 't is of little importance to us how and why the Doctors suffered themselves to be carried into Errors and popular Superstitions The matter of Fact is certain and ought to be indisputable by the proof that we have made thereof and by that which we shall make thereof in what follows Our Second Proof of the novelty of this Worship in the Fifth Age is that then Men did not invoke all the Saints as 't is done at this day yea they did not invoke those Saints which are most eminent such were the Apostles excepting S. Peter and S. Paul whose Relicks were believed to be at Rome others had no Churches Temples Memorials nor Persons devoted to them S. Basil the most ancient of all those which speak of the Invocation of Saints celebrates the Memory only of the Forty Martyrs that of Julitta and the Martyr Mamas In this Homily upon Julitta the Martyr there is nothing that teaches us they did invoke her In the Homily upon the Forty Martyrs he says indeed that Persons fled to them for refuge and that the pious Wife prayed there for her Children that she there desired the return of her absent Husband and his Health when he was sick First it appears that this was the Devotion of Women who are inclined to Superstition Secondly 't is not very clear that these Prayers were addressed to Martyrs for in the beginning these Prayers are addressed to the God of Martyrs with respect to the Merits and Sufferings of Martyrs to whom God would do Honour by Miracles 'T is true that in the Homily on the Martyr Mamas the Invocation of the Saint appears more express But observe that this Julitta this Mamas and these Forty Martyrs were obscure Saints and of little Reputation in comparison of the Apostles concerning the Invocation of whom S. Basil speaks not one word This is a strange thing and that whereof they know not how to give us a reason Make the same observation upon the Passages of S. Austin which they quote unto you for the Invocation of Saints He there speaks of the Invocation of S. Protais and of S. Garvais Good God! what Saints are these in comparison of S. Matthew and S. John. 'T is true that this Father speaks of the Invocation of S. Stephen the first Martyr But however eminent this great Saint was he was but a Deacon and we ought not to make him equal with the Apostles Nevertheless there appears no Invocation of the Apostles in the Writings of S. Austin I call not this a simple Proof 't is a Demonstration of the Novelty of this superstitious Worship If the Worship and Invocation of Saints were ancient if they were from the time of the Apostles why
read the Continuation of the Cruelties which are exercised in Languedock you have there seen that they fill Vessels with Confessors to send them to America The last News from that Country doth inform us That two of these Vessels are gone for Martinique and among other eminent persons there is Monsieur the Barron of Verliac with Madam his Wife but with this augmentation of Cruelty that they have put then in divers Vessels to the end that whether they liâ—â— or die in the Voyage they may be no Consolation to each other Monsieur Matthew an Advocate of Durass of whom we have spoken heretofore one of our most illustrious Confessours is also of that number How sad soever the lot of these exiled Confessours which are carried into another World I do not think that they have so much reason to complain as those that abide in the Kingdom For the most cruel Hang-men remain there to put the Constancy of those which persevere in their Religion to the utmost tryal Above all Rapine continuing in France the New World cannot boast to have a more cruel Tormentor This Monster nevertheless would be very proper to revive the Cruelties which the Spaniards exercised heretofore upon the poor Indians We have promised you a History of the horrible Actions of this Villane and we will not fail to give it you when it shall be sent unto us We thought even at this time to have given you the memorable History of the Martyrdom of which he caused Monsieur Menuret to suffer the most illustrious Martyr it may be that the Church hath ever seen and also the History of some other Women martyred by the same Rapine the most cruel Rrascal in the World But this Letter which comes to be communicated to us must go before it it comes very opportunely to acquaint you with the News of the Confessors which are sent to America and whereof we speak but now From Cadez April 17th 1687 MOnsieur I don't doubt but you are informed of what passes in France with respect to our Families which groan under the Yoak of cruel Persecution but it may be you are not yet informed of a new kind of Persecution which they have lately invented After they had tired out the Constancy of an infinite number of unhappy persons for seeing that they had made no farther progress in the Work of Conversion they send them to the Islands of America in the King's ships to be sold to them who give most for them These things are an abhorrence of Nature that those who are called Christians should sell other Christians for Money 't is a thing that was never heard of till this miserable Age in which we live The Tears which I have and do pour out every moment permits me not to tell you all that I have seen being accompanied by Monsieur your Son and an Officer which escaped and is now in our Vessel a tempestuous Wind hath caused us to put in and refresh our selves in the Haven of Almaria which is in the Kingdom of Granada and hath kept us there five Weeks and every day we see Vessels arrive there from some Nation or other which this tempestuous season doth oblige to seek some place of safety On the sixth of April a Vessel bearing the Admiral 's Flag of France arrived there As soon as the stormy season was over Monsieur the Count of Stirum sent one of his Lieutenants to the said French Vessel to inform himself whence it came and whither it went we learnt that it came from Marseilles and that it went to carry them for Slaves to America This obliged me to desire a Challoupe that I might satisfie myself in the doubt wherein I was suspecting there might be in it men of our Religion and indeed it proved two true After we had been on Board the French Vessel they brought us a Collation and soon after we saw some Gentlewomen appear upon whose Countenances Death was drawn who came upon the Deck to take the Air We asked them upon what account they went to America they answered us with an Heroick Constancy Because they would not Worship the Beast nor Prostrate ourselves before Images Behold say they our Crime We enquired of them if there were any from Cevennes they answered there was two from thence the one of fifteen the other of sixteen years of Age who were below and they were of a Village called St. Ambrose This increased my Curiosity to see them the one was sick unto Death the other was with her to assist her in what she could At my desire the Captain granted that she who was not sick should come up as soon as she appeared on the Deck I well perceived that her countenance was not unknown to me Monsieur your Son askt her Made-moiselle from whence are you She said I am from St. Ambrose What is your Name I am named Peirique I needed no more to assure me that they were my Cosin Germaines I had resolved to permit her to speak a while but the tears which began to run from my eyes would not suffer it I drew near to her and said Madam do you not know me At that very moment casting her eye upon me falling on my neck she said Is it possible my dear Cosin that I should see you once again in my Misfortunes She added a hundred other things so affecting that there was not a person in the Ship which did not pour out a river of tears at least of those who had the guard and keeping of them I desired leave of the Captain to see her Sister which was not able to come upon the Deck which he freely graâ—â—ed me I was no sooner below but I saw fourscore Women or Maids lying upon Matts overwhelmed with Miseries my mouth was stopped and I had not one word to say They told me the most moving things in the World and instead of giving them Consolation they comforted me and I not being able to speak they told me with one common voice We put our hands upon our mouths and say that all things come from Him who is King of Kings and in Him we put our trust On the other fide we saw a hundred poor miserable persons oppressed with old Age whom the torments of Tyrants had reduced to their last gasp We saw there of all sorts of all ages and of all qualities for they spare none They told me when they left Marseilles they were two hundred and fifty persons Men Women Girls and Boys and that in fifteen days eighteen of them died There is but one Gentlewoman that is of Poictou all the rest are of Nismes or Mompellier and the Countries in the Neighbourhood thereof A Country-man who lived about a League and half from St. Ambrose who had suffered all that he could suffer upon whom these Barbarians could gain nothing was put on board among others and is since dead in the Harbour of Granada his Son who was in the same Ship
the year 1606 was made the Treaty called the Pacification between Rodolphus Emperour and King of Hungary and Stephen Bothskey Kis-ma-ria The first Article whereof grants That the Reformed Hungarians should not in any thing be troubled in the exercise of their Religion and that all the Churches taken from them during the Troubles should be restored to them All the Kings of Hungary which have been since Matthias Ferdinand the Second and Ferdinand the Third have confirmed these Priviledges by their Declarations To conclude the present Emperour in the year 1655 when he was crowned King of Hungary confirmed by an express Declaration all that his Predecessours had done The eleventh Article of that Declaration concedes That for the Conservation of Peace amongst all the Orders and States of Hungary the business of Religion shall remain free without receiving any Disturbance according to the Constitution of Vienna and the Articles published before the Coronation in such sort that the exercise of Religion shall be entirely free for the Barons Lords Nobles free Citizens and generally for all Estates and Orders of Hungary as also for the Towns and Villages which will embrace it so that no person of what estate or condition soever may be hindered by his Majesty or other Temporal Lords in any manner or under any pretence whatsoever from the free use and exercise of the said Religion Things were in this estate in the year 1671 when a Jesuite named George Barze Titular Bishop of Warradine calling himself Counsellour to his Imperial Majesty published a Book with this Title Truth declared to all the World which makes it appear by three Arguments that his Imperial Majesty is not obliged to Tollerate the Lutheran and Calvinist Sect in Hungary It is easie to understand what a Work of this Title that has a Jesuite for its Author doth contain The design thereof was to justifie the Persecutions which had been already made against the Protestants of Hungary as well as those they were preparing to make For already a long time before the publication of this Writing some particular Lords had set up for cruel Persecutors Among others Francis Nadasti Paul Esthersiazy and many others at the instigation of the Priests and Jesuites had employed both fire and sword they had massacred the Reformed in their Churches hanged them up on the bars of their Church-doors and many others they had thrown head-long from Turrets The Arch-bishops Bishops and Popish Gentlemen had thus used them and also pulled down the Churches in the Countries which held and depended on them The free Cities and those who depended only on the Emperour were exempt from this storm but they shall have their turn on the occasion following Many great Hungarian Lords of the Popish Religion as the Nadasties the Serinies the Frangipanes joyn themselves to Francis Rakotsqui and took Arms against the Emperour for private Quarrels The Troops of Austria on this occasion entred into Hungary on the year 1670 and defeated these Rebels The Arch-bishops Bishops and Jesuites of Hungary thought they must not let slip the opportunities they now had to persecute the Protestants They served themselves of these insolent victorious Troops in all the free Cities to do the same Violences which had been done by particular Lords against the Reformed Without form of Process they took away their Churches they banished the Ministers they put them in Prison they massacred a great number they charged the People and even the Nobility with Taxes Souldiers and Garisons they offered a thousand and a thousand Violences to oblige people to change their Religion All the Ecclesiasticks every one by himself acted like unbridled Furies The Prisons were filled with these miserable Wretches the Churches were razed every-where in the most places there were horrible Massacres and even whole Villages burnt because they were wholly inhabited by Protestants they hung the Ministers at the Doors of their Churches There was one named John Baki a Minister of the Church of Comana who was burnt At Cassovia and Posonium they put to death a great number of persons of all Sexes of all Ages and all Qualities They banished all those whom they dare not kill In one word all Hungary became a place like Hell for the Reformed where death punishments and torments presented themselves every-where before their eyes To give some colour of Justice to these Violences they established a Chamber at Posonium made up of all such as were found most cruel Enemies to the Protestants They summon'd the people before they summon'd their Pastors hoping that they would fall the more easily by the Temptation and that fear would cause them to change their Religion those which appeared and supported themselves on their innocency were cast into Prisons oppressed with Fines persecuted after a hundred manners and constrained at last to change their Religion To those which had courage enough not to renounce the Truth they presented a Writing to be subscribed by which they made them promise they would forsake their Pastors that they would not protect them and that they would not oppose the Priests in taking possession of their Churches On which Condition they promised to let them live in peace in hope and expectation that the Spirit would enlighten and Convert them Some fell and made their subscriptions others perished through misery famine and torments in the prisons When they had thus subdued and abused the people they turn themselves to their Pastors they established three Chambers of Justice the one at Tinew and two at Posonium before whom they summoned at first a small number of Pastors of the Confession of Ausburgh They appeared to the number of thirty two or thirty three the 25th of September 1673 they presented them a Writing to be subscribed importing That it was their will and pleasure that they should say that to escape the sentence which might be pronounced against them for their Rebellion they did consent to one of these three things Either to Renounce all exercise of their Office for ever and to live as good Subjects privately in the Realm or to go voluntarily into Exile with promise never to return again into the Estates of the Emperour or to embrace the Catholick Religion in which case they might remain in the Kingdom and enjoy all sorts of Advantages there The providence of God permitted this unjust and altogether unrighteous procedure to the end that these poor accused persons might have an opportunity to justifie themselves from the Crime of Rebellion whereof they were accused Is it so that men used to proceed against those that are Traytors And has it been usual to punish them with a voluntary Exile or by a simple Renunciation of their Offices and Charges They did all that they could to oblige the Pastors to subscribe this Writing and the most part of them fearing death did subscribe confessing themselves culpable though they were innocent and went voluntarily into Banishment Section This attempt having succeed sufficiently well