of thorns till they were torn in pieces and these newly converted Moors he caused their naked bodies to be haled backwards and forwards thorow bushes and brambles and others of them to be tied to wild beasts and so to be rent in sunder the poor Christians saying thus each to other O brother pray for me God hath fulfilled our desire O this is the way to the kingdom of heaven Genserick further raging against the Orthodox sent one Proculus into the Zeugian Province to dispoil all the Churches of their Ornaments and the Ministers of their books that thereby they might be disabled to holy services which command was executed with all rigour and whereas the Bishop of Habensa refused to deliver them up he was expelled the City and all men at great penalty were forbidden to harbour him so that being above eighty years old he lay naked for a long time under the open skie About Easter when the Christians were met together in a Church to celebrate the remembrance of Christs Resurrection the Arrians with a great power of armed men set upon this innocent company who with their naked swords slew many The Minister that was preaching they shot through the throat with an arrow and such of them as escaped death were by the command of the King executed by sundry kinds of torments In other places when the Christians were administring the Sacrament the Hereticks rushed in amongst them taking the bread and wine and trampling them under their profane feet Then did Genserick command that none but Arrians should bear any office either about himself or his children And a Bishop called Armogastes they took and first nipped his fore-head and legs with bow-strings then did they hang him up by one foot with his head downward yet did he seem to all men as if he slept in a feather-bed which so enraged Theoderick the Kings son that he commanded him to be beheaded but some about him disswaded him from it because said they he will be accounted a Martyr Then was he banished to dig in Mynes yet afterwards he was sent for again and made a Cow-heard near to Carthage that he might be a continual object of scorn There was also one Saturus a noble man eminent for holiness whom the Tyrant much laboured to draw to the Arrian profession but he refusing the King told him that if he presently consented not he should forfeit his house and goods that his Children and slaves should be sould and his wife should be given to the Camel-driver Yet no menaces could shake his faith His wife hearing of her doom went to her husband as he was praying with her garments rent her hair disheveled her Children at her heels and a sucking infant in her hands whom she cast at her husbands feet and took him about the knees saying Have compassion O my sweetest of me thy poor wife and of these thy Children look upon them let them not be made slaves let not me be yoaked to a base Marriage c. that which thou art required to do thou dost it not willingly but by constraint and therefore it will not be laid to thy charge He gave her an answer in the words of Job Thou speakest like a foolish woman thou actest the devils part if thou lovest thy husband thou wouldst never seek to draw him to sin which will procure the second death I am resolved therefore as my Lord commands me to forsake wife children lands house c. that I may be his Disciple and accordingly he was dispoiled of all and turned out a begging yet all were forbidden to harbour him Genserick having reigned thirty seven years and three moneths died Genserick being dead his son Hunrick succeeded him who at first was more moderate to the Christians insomuch as they began to hold their meetings as before time The Manichaean Hereticks he sought out and though most of them were of his own Religion yet he burnt some and banished others At the request of the Emperour Zeno and Placidia his wife he suffered the Church of Carthage to chuse their own Bishop having been destitute of one for twenty four years Then they chose Eugenius an humble holy and charitable man whose fame increasing the Arrian Bishops much envied him and put into the Kings head to forbid him to preach and not to suffer any to enter into the Church that were attired after the manner of the Vandals To which command Eugenius thus answered The house of God is free for all those which enter no man may drive forth The King being incensed with this answer placed tortures at the Church door who when they espied any man or woman in a Vandals habit about to go into the Church clapping flesh-hooks on their heads and twisting them in their hair with a strong twitch they pulled off hair scalp and all whereby some lost their eies and some their lives The women besides these torments they carried thorow the streets to be made a publick laughing-stock yet could they not force them to altar their Religion Then did Hunrick ordain that none of his Countries which dissented from his Religion should receive their ordinary pensions and salaries Then did he send many of them who had been delicately brought up to Utica in the parching heat of the sun to dig the land for corn yet they went cheerfully and comforted themselves in the Lord. Then did he command that no man should be a Knight or bear any publick office except he turned Arrian whereupon very many with invincible courage forsook their honours and offices rather then their faith Many Virgins he caused to be proved by the Midwives in a most shamefull manner hanging them up from the ground with mighty weights at their feet and putting to their sides breasts back and bellies red hot plates of iron to compell them to confess that their Bishops and Ministers lay with them that so he might from thence have an occasion to persecute them Many of these died under the pain and others remained lame and crooked all their lives after yet would they not confess any such thing Then did he banish into the wilderness of Bishops Ministers Deacons and other Members of Christ four thousand nine hundred seventy six some of them being lame with the gout others blind with age Amongst whom also was Foelix Bishop of Abiris possessed with a dead palsie and therefore unable either to go or ride which the cruel King being informed of and requested that he might be suffered to stay he answered if he be not able to ride let wild bulls be coupled to drag him to the place appointed So that they were fain to carry him on a Mules back across as if he had been a sack Then were all these holy Confessors brought to the City of Sicca where the Moors were to receive them and transport them thence to
Conversion to the true faith and so with admirable patience she suffered Martyrdom Shortly after Basilides being required to give an oath in the behalf of his fellow-souldiers he denied the same plainly affirming that he vvas a Christian and therefore he could not swear by the Idols c. They vvhich heard him thought that he jested at first but when he had constantly affirmed it they had him before the Judge vvho committed him to vvard the Christians vvondring at it vvent to him and enquiring the cause of his Conversion he told them that Potamiena had prayed for him and so he savv a Crovvn put upon his head adding that it should not be long before he received it and accordingly the next day he was beheaded As many suffered death in this persecution so others there were who through Gods providence suffered great torments and yet escaped vvith life of whom there vvas one Alexander vvho for his constant confession and torments suffered vvas afterwards made Bishop of Jerusalem Also Narcissus against vvhom three vvicked persons conspired to accuse him binding their accusations vvith oaths and curses one vvishing to be destroyed vvith fire if it vvere not true another to be consumed vvith a grievous disease the other to lose both his eyes Narcissus being unable to vvith-stand so vvicked an accusation retired himself into a desert In the mean time Gods vengeance follovved these perjured Wretches for the first by a small spark of fire vvas himself vvith all his family and goods burned the second vvas taken vvith a grievous sickness vvhich tormented him from the top to the toe whereof he died the third being vvarned by these Judgements confessed his fault but by reason of his abundant sorrovv and vveeping he lost both his eyes Narcissus being hereby cleared from their false accusation returned home and vvas received into his Congregation again Also one Andoclus vvas sent by Polycarp into France vvho because he spread there the Doctrine of Christ vvas apprehended by the command of Severus and first beaten vvith staves and bats and aftervvards beheaded Asclepiades also aftervvards Bishop of Antioch suffered much in this Persecution Then did Irenaeus and many others vvith him suffer Martyrdom and shortly after Tertullian also Perpetua and Felicitas tvvo godly vvomen vvith Revocatus their brother and Satyrus vvere throvvn to the vvild beasts and devoured by them Saturninus vvas beheaded Secundulus cast into prison where he died all these suffered Martyrdom at Carthage Also Zepherinus and after him Urbanus both Bishops of Rome vvere martyred in this Persecution This Urbanus by preaching and holiness of life converted many heathens unto Christ amongst vvhom vvere Tiburtius and Valerianus tvvo noble men of Rome vvho both suffered Martyrdom Also Cecilia a Virgin vvho vvas espoused to Valerian vvas apprehended carried to the Idols to offer sacrifice vvhich she refusing to do should have been carried to the Judge to receive the sentence of condemnation but the Serjeants and Officers beholding her excellent beauty and prudent behaviour began vvith many persvvasions to solicit her to favour her self c. but she so replied vvith wisedom and godly exhortations that by the grace of Almighty God their hearts began to relent and at length to yield to that Religion which before they persecuted which she perceiving desired leave to go home and sending for Urbanus the Bishop to her house he so grounded and established them in the faith of Christ that about four hundred persons believed and were baptized amongst whom was Gordianus a noble man Afterwards this blessed Martyr was brought before the Judge by whom she was condemned then she was enclosed in an hot bath for twenty four hours yet remaining alive she was there beheaded At Preneste in Italy was one Agapetus of fifteen years old apprehended and because he refused to sacrifice to Idols he was first scourged with whips then hanged up by the feet and had scalding water poured on him then he was cast to the wild beasts but because they would not hurt him he was lastly beheaded Antiochus that executed these torments on him suddenly fell down from his judicial seat crying out that all his bowels burned within him and so he died miserably Calepodius a Minister of Christ in Rome was first dragged thorow the streets and after cast into Tyber Pamachius a Senator of Rome with his wife and Children and other men and women to the number of forty two vvere all beheaded in one day together with another noble man all whose heads vvere hung up over the gates of the City to deter others from the profession of Christianity Also Martina a Christian Virgin having suffered many other bitter torments vvas at last slain vvith the sword CHAP. XII The sixth Primitive Persecution which began Anno Christi 237. THe Emperor Maximinus raised the sixth persecution against the Christians especially against the Teachers and Leaders of the Church thinking that if these Captains were removed out of the way he should the easilier prevail against the rest In the time of this Persecution Origen vvrote his book De Martyrio vvhich being lost the names of most that suffered Martyrdom in those times are buried in oblivion yet were they very many Amongst whom Urbanus Bishop of Rome and Philippus one of his Ministers were banished into Sardinia where they both died About this time one Natalius that had formerly suffered great persecution for the cause of Christ was seduced by Asclepiodotus and Theodorus two Sectaries to be the Bishop of their Sect promising to pay him a hundred and fifty crowns of silver every moneth and so he joined himself to them but the Lord in mercy not intending to lose him that had suffered so much for his sake admonished him by a vision to adjoin himself to the true Church again which the good man for the present blinded with lucre and honour did not regard as he ought to have done The night after he was scourged by Angels whereupon in the morning purting on Sack-cloth with much weeping and lamentation he went to the Christian Congregation praying them for the tender mercies of Christ that he might be received into their Communion again which request was accordingly granted unto him Hippolitus was drawn thorow the fields with wild horses till he died Many others were martyred and buried by sixty in a pit CHAP. XIII The seventh Primitive Persecution which began Anno Christi 250. DEcius the Emperor raised this seventh terrible persecution against the Christians which was first occasioned by reason of the treasures of the Emperor which were committed to Fabian the Bishop of Rome who thereupon by the command of Decius was put to death and moreover his Proclamations were sent into all quarters that all which professed the name of Christ should be slain In the time of this Persecution Origen suffered many and great torments for
subtilty allured to him three or four holy men that had been Confessors Then he entised three weak Bishops that lived in Italy to come to Rome and there perswaded them by imposing hands upon him to make him Bishop for which fact two of them afterwards were suspended and the third upon his repentance vvas re-admitted Novatus being thus made a Bishop grew proud and sought by all means to with-draw the people from Cornelius to himself yea he made many of them to swear that they would not leave him to go to Cornelius But the holy Confessors before mentioned vvhen they perceived the crafty subtilty of Novatus left him and much grieving for their sin were reconciled to Cornelius again Novatus held this opinion that they which once renounced the faith and for fear of torments had offered incense to the Idols although they repented yet could never be re-admitted into the Church of Christ again To suppress this error there was a Synod called at Rome of sixty Bishops Anno 255. who condemned it Cyprian also relates of Aurelius a godly and valiant young man who for his constancy in the cause of Christ suffered great and many torments and afterwards was banished And of Mappalicus who the day before he suffered in the midst of his torments told the Proconsul Videbis cras agonem to morrow you shall see the running for a Wager and accordingly the next day being brought forth to his Martyrdom he with no less constancy then patience endured faithfull unto the death But Decius the Author of this persecution escaped not the revenging hand of God for warring against the Goths and being overcome by them lest he should fall into their hands he leaped vvith his horse into a whirlpit where he was drowned and his body was never found after Yea God avenged the blood of his Saints upon the whole Roman Empire by sending a general plague of pestilence upon it which continued ten years together and Dionysius saith that in Alexandria vvhere he vvas Bishop there vvas scarce any house clear and though some Christians died in this plague yet it fell most heavy upon the Gentiles The Christians also in this plague shewed much brotherly love each to other by visiting comforting and relieving one another Whereas the Idolaters being stricken with extream fear of the plague none considered his Neighbour but every man shifted for himself and of those that were infected some they cast out of doors half dead to be devoured of dogs and wild beasts some they let die in their houses without all succour others they suffered to lie unburied and durst not come near them notwithstanding vvhich the pestilence followed them whithersoever they vvent and miserably consumed them so that the most part of the Inhabitants were consumed by it in every Country especially in those Provinces where had been the greatest persecutions raised against the Christians After the death of Decius there succeeded Gallus and Volusianus in the Empire Anno Christi 255. who continued this persecution against the Christians which fell most heavy upon the Pastors and Ministers of the Congregations for about this time Cyprian and many other Ministers were banished others were put into the mettal Mines to whom Cyprian wrote an Epistle consolatory wherein he writes thus Wounds and scars are an Ornament to a Christians brest such as bring not shame but honoureth them before the Lord and though in the Mynes there be no beds for their bodies to rest on yet they have rest in Christ and though their weary bones lie on the cold ground yet it 's no pain to lie with Christ. Their feet are fettered with chains but he is bound of man whom the Lord Christ doth loose he lies tied in the stocks whose feet thereby are made swifter to run to heaven neither can any man tie a Christian so fast but he runs so much the faster for his garland of life They have no garments to save them from cold but he that puts on Christ is sufficiently clothed Doth bread fail to their hungry bodies Man lives not by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Your deformity shall be turned to honour your mourning to joy your pain to pleasure and felicity infinite And if this grieve you that you cannot serve God in your places as formerly yet your daily sacrifice ceaseth not which is a contrite and humble heart and though your travel be great yet shall your reward be greater for God beholding them which confess his name approveth their willing minds in their strivings helpeth them in their victory crowneth them rewarding that in us which he hath performed and crowning that which he hath in us perfected Again he tells them that they are now in a joyfull journey hasting apace to the mansions of the Martyrs there to enjoy after darkness durable light and comfort above all their sufferings c. About the same time also Lucius Bishop of Rome was banished After the death of Gallus and Volusianus there succeeded Valerianus who ceased the persecution and carried himself exceeding friendly to the Christians so that his whole Court was replenished with holy Saints and servants of Christ whereby his house seemed a Church of God But the Devil envying the peace of the Church by the means of an Egyptian Enchanter who was hindred from doing his feats by the presence of the Christians stirred up the Emperor against them who grew to such impiety himself that he sacrificed young infants to his Idols quartered their bodies divided the Entrails of young Children new born c. as hereafter follows CHAP. XIV The eighth Primitive Persecution which began An. Christi 259. VAlerianus being seduced by the Egyptian Inchanter as is before related stirred up the eighth persecution against the Church of Christ concerning which Cyprian writeth thus We must confess that this great calamity which hath wasted for the most part all our Churches and still dayly consumes us ariseth chiefly from our own wickedness while we walk not in the way of the Lord nor observe his precepts as we ought whilst we are full of lucre pride emulation dissention void of simplicity and faithfull dealing renouncing the world in word but not in deed every man pleasing himself and displeasing others and therefore we are thus worthily scourged For what stripes do we not deserve when the Confessors themselves do keep no Discipline c. Concluding Non venissent fratribus haec mala si in unum fraternitas fuisset animata These evils had not happened to the brethren if they had joyned together in brotherly unanimity A little before this persecution began God by a vision revealed it to Cyprian saying to him Be quiet and of good comfort for peace will come albeit a little stay there is for a while for that some remain yet to be proved and tried c. The crimes and accusations that were laid
nihilo tamen meliorem se Christianis praebens Christi nomen prae se ferens Christum mentiebatur Miletius Bishop of Antioch he banished to Armenia Eusebius Bishop of Samosata to Thrace Pelagius Bishop of Laodicea to Arabia He was exceedingly filled with wrath against the Bishops assembled in the Counsel of Lampsacum because they adhered to the Nicene faith In Constantinople he banished all the Orthodox In Edissa he commanded them all to be slain as they were assembled together in the Church The Lieutenant that had received this charge from him being more mercifull then his Master gave private notice to the Christians that they should not assemble at that time but they neither regarding his advice nor fearing his threats flocked to the Church in great companies and whilst the Lieutenant with many armed souldiers hasted thitherward to fulfill the Emperors command a woman leading a child in her hand all in haste brake the ranks and thrust into the armed troops the Lieutenant being moved therewith called the woman before him saying Thou fond and unfortunate woman whither runnest thou so rashly Thither said she whither others hasten Hast thou not heard said he that the Lieutenant will slay as many as he finds there I heard it said she and therefore I make the more haste to the place But whether said he leadest thou this child That he also said she may be accounted in the number of Martyrs Hereupon the Lieutenant returned back to the Emperor and told him that all the Christians from the highest to the lowest prepared themselves to die in the defence of their faith and withal he shewed him what a rash thing it was to murder so great a multitude c. and so with his reasons perswaded the Emperour that he appeased his wrath and prevented the mischief at that time In Constantinople the Arrians favoured by the Emperor crowed insolently over the Christians they scourged reviled imprisoned amerced and laid upon them all the intollerable burthens they could devise Hereupon eighty godly Ministers in the name of all the rest addressed themselves to the Emperour complaning of the out-rages that were done to them craving some relief But this cruel Tyrant commanded Modestus the General of his Army to embark them all in a ship as if he would have sent them into banishment but secretly he gave direction to the Marriners to set the ship on fire and to retire themselves into a boat and so these holy Martyrs glorified the Name of Christ by patient suffering of a double death burning and drowning In all the Eastern parts he tormented many with sundry sorts of grievous torments put many to death drowned many in the sea and in rivers About this time he consulted with Necromancers to know who should succeed him in the Empire The devil answered ambiguously that his name should begin with Th. Whereupon he put to death as many as were called Theodorus Theodotus Theadosius or Theodulus Athanasius being dead at Alexandria there succeeded him a godly and holy man named Peter but the Emperour presently sent souldiers which clapt him in prison and the rest of the Ministers were banished some to one place some to another After this he sent forth an Edict for the persecuting of all the Orthodox in Egypt Whereupon many were stript of their raiment scourged fettered in prisons crushed in pieces with stones beheaded driven into deserts where they wandred in sheeps-skins and goats-skins destitute of aid and succour Many hid themselves in mountains in dens caves and hollow rocks Terentins and Trajan two worthy Captains used some liberty in admonishing the Emperour to abstain from persecuting of the innocent but the Lord was minded to destroy him and therefore he could receive no wholesome admonition For many of the Goths whom he entertained as souldiers to assist him against his enemies turned against himself so that he fled and was overtaken in a village which the Goths set on fire whereby he died miserably leaving none to succeed him and his name a curse and execration to all ages Collected out of Magd. Hist. Socrates and Theod. The Persecution by the Donatists ABout the year of our Lord 410. there sprang up in Africk the Donatists and Circumcellions who first made a great Schism in the Church and afterwards raised up a great persecution against the Orthodox concerning which St Austine complains in sundry places And in his 50. Epistle to Earl Boniface he thus writes of it In hoc labore multi Catholici maxime Episcopi Clerici horrenda dura perpessi sunt quae commemorare longum eâ—t c. In this disturbance the Orthodox especially the Bishops and Ministers suffered hard and horrible things the particulars whereof are long to recite for some of them had their eies put out Some Bishops had their hands and tongues cut off and some were slain out-right To speak nothing of the cruel slaughter of others that were sound and sincere of the plundering of their houses of the out-ragious burning not only of their private habitations but of their Churches also yea so vile and violent were they that they sticked not to burn the sacred Scriptures Optatus in his second book tells us that when Julian the Apostate came to the Empire the Donatists preferred a petition to him wherein they desired leave to return to their places in Africk from whence formerly they had been banished Julian knowing what furious and turbulent spirits they were of and how prejudicial their Return would be to the Catholick Church easily assented to their petition and so they returned full fraught with malice and revenge and presently imployed all their abilities partly by subtilty to seduce the common people partly by violence to oppress the Orthodox Bishops and Ministers of whom some they thrust out of their Churches others they slew Some of their chief Bishops taking armed souldiers with them went to the Castle of Lemella where finding the Church shut against them they commanded their attendance to get upon it to uncover the roof and so having broken into it they set upon some Deacons whom they found there wounded some and slew two of them outright In all places where they came they profaned all holy things The Sacramentall bread they threw to their dogs but behold the just judgement of God against these profane schismaticks those very dogs shortly after running mad fell upon their own Masters and tore them in pieces Virgins they defloured and wives they defiled So usual a thing it is for those which adulterate the holy truths of God to be given over to corporal uncleanness These furious persons dispersed themselves all over Africk and would not suffer the Orthodox to preach the truth against their Errors By their violent assaults thieveries rapines burnings and murthers they destroyed many and afrighted all c. CHAP. XX. The Persecution of the Church in Africk by
lands yet seeming very fertil fit for corn wine oyl and chestnuts and that the hils were fit for cattel and to furnish them with fuell and timber they came therefore to the Lords of those places to treate with them touching their abode there The Lords received them lovingly agreed to orders much for the advantage of these new inhabitants agreed about rents tenths tolls penalties c. and so assigned to them certain parts of the Countrey Then did they return to their parents shewing how it fared with them and so receive what they pleased to bestow upon them and many of them marrying they returned into Calabria where they built some Towns and Cities as St Xist la Garde c. The Lords of those Countries thought themselves happy in that they had met with such good subjects as peopled their waste lands and made them to abound with all manner of fruits but principally because they were honest men and of good conscience yeelding all those duties and honours which they could expect from good subjects Only the Priests complained of them that they lived not after their religion made not their children Priests and Nuns loved not Tapers Masses c. that they adorned not their Churches with Images went not on Pilgrimage c. Hereupon the Lords feared that if the Pope should take notice that so near his Seat there were people that contemned his Laws they might chance to lose their subiects They therefore perswaded the Priest to be silent since in other things they shewed themselves honest men inriched the Country yea and the Priests themselves by their Tithes These Lords also stopped the mouths of their neighbours who exceedingly murmured because by no means they could draw them into alliance with them and because all that they had prospered exceedingly They were wise and temperate not given to drinking dancing swearing c. and living in a Country where the inhabitants were given to all manner of wickednesse they were as precious stones in a common sink Thus they were preserved in peace by their Lords till Anno 1560. At which time these Waldenses resolving to make a publick profession of their Religion sent for two Ministers from Geneva who did much establish the exercise of Religion amongst them Pope Pius the fourth hearing of this presently concluded their utter ruine and extirpation giving the same in charge to Cardinal Alexandrino a violent man who chose two Monks Inquisitors of his own humour and sent them first to begin with the inhabitants of St. Xist There they assembled the people gave them good words promising that they should receive no violence if they would accept of such Teachers as the Bishops should appoint which if they refused they would lose their lives goods and honors and would be condemned for Hereticks And further to prove them they appointed a Mass to be sung but the people with their wives and children presently quit their houses and fled into the woods From thence the Monks went to la Garde where they caused the Town-gates to be locked and the people to be assembled telling them that they of St. Xist had adjured their Religion and went to Mass c. promising that if they would do the like no man should injure them These poor people believing what was told them were content to do what they would have them but when they heard that their friends of St. Xist refused to go to Mass and were fled into the woods they were exceedingly grieved at their own revolt and resolved with their wives and children to go to their brethren In the meane time the Monks sent two companies of souldiers after them of St. Xist who ran after them as after wilde beasts crying kill kill and so slew divers but such as could get to the top of the mountain called to the souldiers beseeched them to have pity on them their wives and children telling them that they had been inoffensive in their conversations c. yet if they would not suffer them to continue in their habitations that at least they would license them to depart either by sea or land that they might retire themselves whether the Lord should be pleased to conduct them beseeching them also for Gods sake not to force them to defend themselves But this more enraged the souldiers who presently violently assaulted them Then did they so defend themselves that by Gods assistance they slew the greatest part of the souldiers and put the rest to flight Hereupon the Inquisitors wrote to the Viceroy of Naples speedily to send some Companies of souldiers to apprehend the Hereticks of St. Xist and la Garde whereby he should do a work very pleasing to the Pope and meritorious for himself Then did the Viceroy come himself with his Troops in the mean time the Waldensian women came home to seek for food for their husbands and children that were in the woods The Viceroy proclaimed through all Naples that all such banished persons as would come to fight against the Hereticks of St. Xist should be pardoned all their offences Whereupon great numbers resorted to him and were conducted to the woods where they chased these poor people slaying some wounding others the rest fled into caves where most of them died of famine Then were they of la Garde cited before the Inquisitor and many fair Promises were made unto them if they would appeare but contrary thereunto thirty of them were apprehended and put to the rack One Charlin was racked with such violence that his bowels brake out of his belly and all to extort from him a confession that in the night the candles being put out they committed whoredome and abominable incest yet would he never confesse any such wickednesse Another with extreame pain upon the rack promised to go to Masse the Inquisitor seeing that he had shewed such weaknesse urged him to confesse the forementioned wickednesse which because he refused he left him eight hours together upon the rack yet could he not get from his mouth so foul a slander Another was stripped stark naked whipt with rods of iron drawn through the streets and burnt with firebrands One of his sons was killed with knives Another thrown down from an high Tower because he would not kisse a Crucifix Another was condemned to be burnt alive and as he went to the fire he threw to the ground a Crucifix which the executioner had fastened to his hands whereupon they covered him all over with pitch and so burnt him The Inquisitor Panza cut the throats of eighty as butchers do their sheep's then causing them to be divided into four quarters he set up stakes for the space of thirty miles and appointed a quarter to be fastned to every stake Four of the principall men of la Gard he caused to be hanged Another young man because he would not confesse himself to a Priest was thrown from an high tower The Vice-roy
especially the Ministers Amongst the Prisoners was a Captain called La-mothe whom Monluc meeting with gave him divers stabs with a dagger and thrust him through with a rapier saying Villain thou shalt die in despite of God but he proved a lyar for the man being carried away though he had many mortal wounds yet he was wonderfully cured and lived after In Guillac the murthers committed upon the Protestants were many and horrible and amongst other this was one of their practices There was by the City the Abbey of St. Michael built upon a very high rock under which ran a swift and deep river called Tar. Many of the Protestants they forced to go up to the top of this rock whom they threw headlong down into the river by the way there was another rock upon which most of the bodies falling were dashed and broken all to pieces and if any escaped with life into the river they had their cut-throats waiting upon the river in boats to knock them on the head Amongst others there was one Peter Domo an Apothecaries servant who seeing them bent to murther him requested that he might have leave to cast himself down from the top of the Abbey provided that if God should preserve him in the fall they would suffer him to escape with life this they promised whereupon having made his Prayers to God he fetched his leap from the top of the Abby and flew so far that missing the rocks under him he fell safely into the river and endeavoured to swim out with life but these perfidious Villains contrary to their promise made knocked him on the head and slew him In Souraize there was one Captain Durre who with his souldiers going into the house of a godly widow called Castille Roques he caused her to be bound with cords and a rope to be put about her neck by which he haled her up and down almost strangling her then he asked her how oft she had played the whore with those of her Religion She answered That in their Christian meetings they had no such villanies committed Durre fretting and fuming at this answer took her by both the cheeks and oft dashed her head with such violence against the wall that he had almost beaten out her brains Then he required her to give him the seven hundred pieces of gold which she had hidden she told him that she was a poor woman and had onely one French penny This more enraged him whereupon he drew her again about by the neck and applyed burning hot egges to her arm-pits till they were all blistred bidding her in derision to cry to her Father which was in heaven She answered I will not cry aloud for thee and yet my God can hear me well enough and when his pleasure is he will deliver me out of thy hand This made him so to blaspheme that the poor woman was more afflicted to hear his blasphemies than with all her pains Then did he call her Huguenote whore telling her that these were but the beginnings of her sorrows except she fetched him out her gold which if she refused he would draw her cheeks and breasts with Lard and so roast her quick and afterwards throw her headlong from the highest steeple in the town Well said she If you throw my body never so low that shall not hinder my soul from ascending into heaven This her courage and constancy did still further enrage him Then did he open her mouth with his dagger and crammed lime down her throat after which he made her drink a glasse of Urine which himself had made before her withal throwing the glasse with the remainer into her face After this he carried her to his quarters where with strange cruelties he intended to have slain her but some of the neighbours pitying her sad condition redeemed her from him with ten Crowns and so conveyed her to her house where shortly after she finished her dayes Some other of these hell-hounds meeting with one Peter Roch constrained him to dig his own grave and then to try how it fitted him which whilst he was doing they buried him alive In Saint Martins in Castillon they took the wife of one Andrew Renaud stripped her stark naked and would have violated her chastity which she resisting they whipt her most cruelly wounded her with their swords crowned her with thorns and lastly shot her to death They took also one Ianetta Calvin whom they carried into the City of Brignole stripped her whipt her cruelly crowned her with thorns and first stoned and afterwards burned her In Mont de Marsan six of the principal men had their heads stricken off otheres were executed divers wayes One was buried quick and a young woman being pursued to be ravished threw her self out of a window and died In Tholouse the Papists fell upon the Protestants hurt many killed some outright divers they threw into a Well Then did some Counsellors proclaim that they should not spare to kill and spoil all them of the religion for that they were licensed by the King and Pope This soon ran through all the Villages and the Papists rang their bells In Tholouse were about thirty thousand Protestants so that there began one of the most horrible Massacres that was in those parts The prisons were presently filled and many were knocked on the head at the prison-doors because they could hold no more the river in a short space was covered with dead bodies many were thrown into the streets out at the windows if any sought to escape out of the water they were presently slain with swords or stones Some of the Protestants gat into the town-house where they stood upon their guard and at last it was agreed that leaving their Arms they should depart in safety and so after they had received the Sacrament commended themselves to God with prayers and tears they came forth but contrary to the faith and promise made to them the Popish party seised upon as many as they could whom they cast into prison of such as gat out of the City some escaped to Montaubon others in the way were spoiled and killed by the Souldiers and Pesants At Carcasson those of the Religion being gone out of the Town to hear a sermon when they returned the gates were shut and the Papists shot at them who afterwards issuing out against them slew some and hurt others One they beat down cutting off his nose and ears and pulling out his eyes some they took prisoners whom they hanged one they beheaded and put others to great ransomes One they took blacked his face hands and feet and gave it out that he had a Divel within him then hanged him and threw his body to the dogs Others they banished or condemned to the Gallies In Limoux the Papists used all manner of cruelty deflouring women and very girls in