Grzymaltowsky with many of the Nobility to the same Gate and when the aforesaid Kolechen with another in his company had gone out to them and scarcely perswaded them that the City was forsaken and that there was no treachery they went in and when they were disposed into the next fair houses they were entertained with a noble supper which was prepared to sweeten them a little if it might be and had plenty of Wine out of Dlugosses Cellar who was a rich Senator At last when they were half Drunk they set upon Kolechen with threats and would have made him their Prisoner but that he escaped wonderfully out of their hands and saved himself by flight But they durst not stay all night in the City for fear the Swedes and Citizens should set upon them unawares out of some Ambuscado and so they returned to their own company and in the morning with many hundred Waggons they came back killing all they met and setting themselves to plunder the City Here then you might have seen strange examples of barbarous cruelty on the one side and blockish folly on the other For though no man made resistance yet like Mad Dogs they flew upon all that either came out or were drawn out of the holes wherein they had hid themselves Of some they pulled out their eyes Of some they cut off their Noses and Tongues Of others they cut off their Hands and Feet others they stabbed and slashed and so butchered them with innumerable wounds that it could not be known who they were And which was more they spared not his Highness Prince Frederick Landgrave of Hassia though dead whom they had slain half a year before at Costena and who was decently Embalmed by the Lessians and kept laid up in the Chappel of the New-Church upon a Scaffold till he might be transported to his own Country They first rifled his Coffin which was handsomely adorned taking away his silver and guilt keyes and all the silk that was about it then they set upon the Princes corps and took away his silk robe lined with Ermines and so left him once again naked and lying on the ground But after the burning of the City his body being found in the same place untouched by the fire he was cloathed again by the ancient Lesnians and put up in his Coffin and buried in a certain place where he is still honourably kept But that mad rabble shewed abundance of folly in this that whereas they might have made Lesna their nest the Swedes having Garrisoned themselves in the strongest places of the Province or at least might have gathered together the richest of the plunder for there was such abundance of victuals wares housholdstuff of all sorts and treasure that was brought hither from other places as to a place of safety that a thousand Waggons could scarce have carried it away in many dayes yet such was their over-eager desire of their destroying this hated City that the very same day yea before noon they set fire to the City and Suburbs in every street for the Waggons which they brought with them were not empty but loaded with Torches Pitch Straw and such other combustible matter and so cruelly destroyed that most pleasant City together with all that abundance of all sorts of things that was in it This fire lasted three whole dayes and there were those that took care that nothing should scape it for when the New-buildings of the New-churches did not easily take fire they brought Straw Pitch and dry wood and put under the roofs and the in-side of the steeples and so forced them to take fire And they came again upon the third day 1. May and whatsoever was left they set fire to again They burnt also the very Wind-mills whereof there were seventy about the City and a very pleasant Park of the Countesses which lay close by the Castle that every place might be filled with spectacles of cruelty and at length it might come to be said En cineres ubi Lesna fuit Where fairest Lesna stood of old Now nought but Ashes we behold The Citizens sadly beholding these flames some miles off ran thither next day by Troops whether out of a desire of quenching the fire if it were possible or else to save something out of the flames for most through fear had gone away empty handed but the Enemy came upon them and although they stoutly defended themselves and slew many of their Enemies yet many of themselves were slain and many others also on the dayes following when some Villages that belonged to the County of Lesna and were inhabited by professors of the Gospel were in like manner burnt down There perished in these flames many aged and sick people that could not get away besides such abundance of houses houshold-stuff of all sorts precious wares corn many thousand bushels whereof were brought hither libraries and other things that the loss would amount to many Tuns of gold and many thousands were thereby reduced to meer beggery But that which was saddest of all was that the Church of the faithful that was here gathered together out of divers places and Countryes to enjoy the pure worship of God was so utterly overthrown that it cannot but cry out with Sion of old when it was rased by the Babylonians Lament 1. and 3. O all ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger For he hath sent a fire into my bones and it prevaileth against me he hath made me a desolation so that I am not able to rise up my children are desolate because the Enemy prevailed Sion spreadeth forth her hands and there is none to comfort her I called for my lovers but they deceived me Mine Enemies chased me sore like a Bird without cause They have cut off my life in the Dungeon Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee Thou saidst Fear not It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not It must not be concealed what wonder hapned the first day of the burning of the City about evening at Czirna which is the first Town of Silesia next to Lesna about two miles distant Some of the Lesnians went out to look upon the sad smoke of their Country and as they were looking there fell from the clouds which carried the smoke over Silesia together with the soot a leaf of burnt paper which when they took up they found to be a leaf of the Bohemian Bible containing the 6 th and part of the 7 th chapters of Matthew where those words of Christ came first to sight With what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again with many other of Christs exhortations to trust in the fatherly Providence of God This leaf was presented to the Lord of the place and a Lesnian Physitian who was there by chance that read and
leaving the Foot to the mercy of the Enemy but the Poles followed them so close at heels that two Colours about four hundred men passed through the Suburbs to the very gate and wanted but little of entering the City it self with them had not some good confident fellow ventured to step in between and bar the Gate against them while others of the Citizens sent a showr of Bullets among them and so beat them back So the Poles being glad to stop yea and retire just at Sun-set set fire on the outward parts of the Suburbs and burnt some Granaries and Wind-mills thereby making the whole night light to us while themselves returned through the Wood to Oseczno which the Germans call Storoknest The City being thus filled with fear spent the whole night without sleep the men in watching upon the Walls and the women in gathering themselves together in the Market-places and Church-yards and other open places and there wearying Heaven with Psalms and Prayers to God When the morning came and no enemy appeared the Citizens went forth and fetched in the slain to bury them among whom were found about forty Citizens but above a hundred of the Poles and among them their chief Commander himself Cresky who formerly had taken Pay under the Swedish General Banier and was accounted more expert then the rest In the mean time it was hotly reported that the Administrator of the County and many of his Retinue were wanting and gone whereupon the courage of the Citizens began to fail and they went to the Senate to desire leave to send away their wives children that if the enemy should come again they might be the more couragious in defending themselves not being daunted with the out-cryes and tears of the women Some disswaded them with good reasons saying That those that should be sent forth under pretence of convoying the rest in safety would not return again and so the rest of the Citizens should be left in greater fears That the Spartans of old were wont to take their wives children to the war with them that having them in their eyes they might fight the more stoutly for their safety But all was in vain though the Swedish Commanders also endeavoured to hinder the flight of the richer sort which they could not do being overcome with the cryes of the multitude There were some Ecclesiasticks also who desired leave to depart for a few dayes because that the Antichristian fury was bent chiefly against them But the Senate left it to their consciences whether in such a case they could leave the people then when they would most need instruction and comfort especially if wounded and dying But the others persisted in their importunity and there went out before Noon about three hundred Waggons which were all that could be got in the City After this there followed some quietness with hopes that the Enemy would return no more having found by experience how well able the Lesnians were to defend themselves and theirs and perhaps they had never returned indeed as it was know afterwards had they not been encouraged by that Hight of the Citizens For two dayes after the twenty eight of April there was a Letter delivered to the Consul from the Commanders of the Polish Forces in which they demanded the surrender of the City and gave them hope of good usage but if they would not embrace that offer they then threatned to destroy them with fire and Sword having now such an addition of Foot souldiers that they were able to take the City by storm They added moreover that they had received a Letter from the Lord Treasurer wherein he intreated them to spare his Lesna upon their submission saying that he had already given them a command to set open their Gates If ever there were indeed any such command it must needs have been suppressed by some one so that the Citizens never knew of it otherwise they would have provided a little better for the safety of themselves and their goods But so it must needs be that our sins through others treachery should be brought to punishment This message of the Poles to the Senate did wonderfully daunt the Citizens For these things were not kept secret but before the Consul could call together the Senate and the Commanders of the souldiery the report thereof had run through the whole City as also that there was very little Gun-Powder left and they had not wherewithal to defend themselves so that the Citizens being taken with a pannick fear cast away their weapons and courage together and betook themselves to flight especially when presently after they who were on the Guard discovered the Body of the Enemies coming the same way they came before For they forsaking every man his station hasted home advising their wives children and neighbours to flye themselves leaving their weapons upon the Walls or at the Gates or afterwards casting them away in the fields that they might not be a burden to them When the Swedish souldiers saw the Citizens thus in amaze and running away they also soon mounted not to meet the Enemy as before but to run away too from the face of the Enemy Then followed the Senate in such a trembling fit of fear that every one run out at the Gate that was next him or over the very Forts and Ditches so that in one hours space a most populous City was left destitute of inhabitants Save a company of sick and aged people and a few others that could not so suddenly get away or for some other cause were necessitated to await the issue But all hastened to those Moorish woods by which Poland is parted from Silesia in such confusion that when the nearest passes towards Thorlang and Krosken were not wide enough they tumbled by Troops to other passes Strizwik Prybisch and Hundsloch that were more remote The Swedish Troops went to Fraustad and from thence taking the Garrison along with them towards Meseritz But the passage through the Moors was very difficult in regard that the company crouding one upon another as if the Enemy were just at their heels did not onely many of them stick in the deep Mud in vain crying out for help to those that passed by every one being solicitous only for his own preservation but were also mired and lost Here children lost their parents and parents their children wives their husbands and one friend another so that they could scarce find one another again in two three and four days time The Enemy by a Trumpeter who was sent to Posnania gate enquired what the Citizens meant to do to whom John Kolechen a learned Citizen and well acquainted with many of the Nobility in confidence whereof having sent away his wife he adventured to stay came forth and answered That the Gates stood open the Swedish Enemies were gone and the rest of the Citizens stood to their courtesie and desired their favour A little after that came the illustrious
the times For when the Church had rest and ease he wrote strange things and cryed out of the abuses in Popery But in times of persecution he usually played the Hypocrite and laboured to draw others to do the same by which means he had a multitude of followers and amongst them the Lord of Valgrane and Maximilian de Saluces who set his name to Baronius to add luster to his writings against the Ministers reproaching them for that they would not give way to any dissimulation in their Disciples whereby they exposed them to great extremities This Lord had some learning and knowledge of the truth but to avoid the bearing of the Cross he thought it convenient to dissemble and condemned those who any way gain said the Papists Yet Monsieur Gelido Minister of Aceil opposed them both very learnedly in several letters that he wrote unto them So did Monsieur Truchi Minister of Dronier together with other Pastors of the Neighbouring places demonstrating both by Scripture Testimonies and by the Example of the Primitive Church that they had done nothing but what they ought to do and what every faithful Christian was bound to and consequently that the opinion of Baronius and his followers was pernicious to the Church in times of persecution The other instruments that Satan made use of to the prejudice of the Church were the Roman Clergy with their passionate Proselites who would faine have done to these godly Christians as their brethren in iniquity had done to their neighbours in the Dukedom of Savoy viz. Banish imprison kill and confiscate the goods of the Protestants But through Gods mercy they were hindred by the Kings Edicts confirming to those his Subjects of Saluces a peaceable habitation without being molested for their Conscience and religion or questioned for any thing they did in their private houses provided they abstained from the publick exercise of it by which means their Ministers had opportunitie of assembling in small Companies baptizing marrying comforting the sick and instructing every one in particular which provoked their adversaries to bend themselves chiefly against the Ministers thinking that if they could find out any meanes to extirpate them they should easily prevaile upon the common people having none to animate and instruct them Accordingly they published an Edict of Octob. 19. 1567. in the name of the Duke of Nevers Governour for the King on this side the mountains injoyning all of the religion there inhabiting or abiding that were not the Kings natural Subjects to depart together with their families within the space of three dayes and never to return thither to inhabit pass or otherwise to abide without a special safe conduct upon pain of life and confiscation of their goods Now the greatest part of the Ministers not being natural subjects to the King by this Edict were to quit the Marquisate oâ— to obtain a safe conduct or lastly to incur the penalty A safe conduct they could not obtain and yet they thought themselves bound in Conscience not to abandon their people wherefore continuing with their Congregations two of them were apprehended and imprisoned viz. Monsieur Francis Truchi and Monsieur Francis Soulf where they were detained four years four moneths and odd dayes the poor people being not able by any means to obtain their deliverance though they continually sollicited de Berague their Governour and others that had undertaken the management of these affairs yet the Lord was so pleased to restrain the power of their Enemies that they could not take away their lives yea by degrees they obtained for them a more spacious and convenient prison than that whereunto they were at first confined To procure their full deliverance the Churches of the Marquisate sent their supplications to the King by the aforesaid Minister Galatâ—e and another who set out July 27. 1571. and went as far as Rochel to implore the intercession of the Queen of Navar as also to intreat the assistance of divers others in several places and the great Patrons of the reformed religion disputed their case before the King and in the end obtained Letters under the Kings own hand for their enlargement Octob. 14. 1571. which was accordingly effected but it was four moneths after before it could be done When Sieur Galatee returned he was overjoyed as well for the prosperous successe of his negotiations as for the great hopes of a profound peace founded upon the smooth promises of his Majâ—sty and upon the alliance which he had made by the marriage of his sister to the King of Navar who professed the reformed religion But this joy lasted but from the moneth of May 1572. to the beginning of Septemb. at which time there arived the lamentable news of the massacre of many noble persons and multitudes of others who were most inhumanely murthered in divers places of France to the great astonishment of all the faithful in those parts About the same time there arived letters from the King to the Governour Birague by which he was required to have an eye that at the arival of the news of what happened at Paris they of the Religion should make no combustion remitting the rest of his pleasure to those instructions which he had sent him by the bearer the contents whereof were that he should put to death all the chief of the Protestants within his jurisdiction whose names he should find in the Roll that should be presented to him Birague having received this command together with the Roll aforementioned was much troubled and immediately called his Council together whom he acquainted with the Kings Orders whereupon some were of opinion that they should be immediately executed But others seeing the King in his late Patents not many moneths before had enlarged the Ministers that were imprisoned and had ordered that those of the reformed Religion should not be any wayes molested for their Conscience sake as also upon consideration that nothing had occurred since that time worthy such a change they therefore thought it sufficient to secure the persons of such as were enrolled and to defer execution for a while and in the mean time to inform the King that they were persons of Honour faithful to his Majesty living peaceably with their neighbours and inoffensive in their lives adding that in case his Majesty was resolved that they should be put to death there was yet time enough to execute his pleasure therein This advice Birague approved of and accordingly apprehended some but others escaped and concealed themselves and in the mean time he dispatched a Messenger to the King to inform him as abovesaid and to know his further pleasure This Messenger met another at Lions where the King had sent to Birague to advertise him that in case his former Order was not already executed he should desist from it and only have a special care that those of the Religion should make no insurrection nor have any publick exercises But they
interpreted it and divers others can bear witness to the truth hereof and the Lord of the place laid it up among his rarities What now should Sion do but cry out under the cruel oppression of the Enemy Render unto them a recompence O Lord according to the works of their hands Lament 3.64 And indeed God began to revenge his peoples wrongs the fourth day after when they furiously assaulted Costena a Town four miles from Lesna where they were often repulsed stoutly by the Swedish Garrison and having suffered a great slaughter about five hundred of them being wanting they were forced to retire in great confusion The like also they met withall at Kalissia and other places being slain and put to flight by the Swedes Herein it hapned unto them much after the same manner as it did to Tilly formerly when he had ruined Magdeburg the God of vengeance manifesting himself the avenger of his people And now they begin to acknowledge and upbraid one another with their folly the Nobles in that they have spoiled their mart and treasury and the Clergy in that it is hapned otherwise than they intended For their purpose was utterly to ruine the Hereticks as they term them with their nest but now that they see the nest spoiled and the birds saved it is much more matter of grief and vexation than of joy to them For here God performed what he promised of old to Baruch I will give thee in the midst of thy Countryes ruines thy life for a prey Jer. 45.5 So God gave to thousands of his worshippers who were snatched out of the midst of those ruines their life for a prey having set bounds to the fury of the Devil which he could not pass as he did of old when he gave Job into his hands as to all that he had but so that he should spare his life Blessed be the name of the Lord. Truly we have cause to say with David Psalm 124. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us then the waters had overwhelmed us the stream had gone over our soul then the proud waters had gone over our soul Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowlers the snare is broken and we are escaped our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth Oh the wonderfull providence of our God! which then saves when he seems to have forsaken and then makes alive where he seems to have killed We had been undone if we had not been undone We had been undone in our lives those furies gathering together soon after in far greater troops if we had not been undone in our estates which were left to them for a prey by our flight which the fatherly providence of God fore-seeing greater evils procured by sending that fright among us Blessed be the Name of the Lord again and again We notwithstanding with other afflicted ones in what Nation soever whom that proudest Babylonian flood of waters seeks to swallow up will not cease to cry How long O Lord wilt thou be angry with thy people How long shall thy jealousie burn like fire O remember not against us former iniquities let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us c. Psalm 79. And with the souls of those that were slain for the word of God that lie under the Altar of Christs merits for whose faith we are killed How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.9 10. The Delegates of these poor persecuted Protestant Churches coming over into England to move for a Contribution towards the relief of their distressed Brethren Published this ensuing Narrative The utmost Fury of Antichrist against the Protestants or Reformed Church of the Bohemian Confession in Poland set down in a brief but faithful Narrative and according to the truth of the matter THe Spouse of Jesus Christ she who in the Cradle was besprinkled with the blood of a Protomartyr hath alwayes brought forth into the world men like Abel or Stephen that so there might never be wanting to cry from the earth unto God and that the wounds of that Rose which lies among the Thorns of Persecution might not be concealed Every age and every year in each age and every moneth and day in each year hath produced new inundations of blood unto this day and yet the little flock of the Lord hath alwayes encreased under persecutions one while here another there shifting their seats and habitations While it pleased God by the means of Wicklef to kindle the light of the Gospel in Great Britain John Huss asserted the truth of Jesus Christ in the midst of thick darknesse of Popery in Bohemia many thousands being stirred up by God to receive it who despising all the cruelty of Tyrants received it with joy untill by Gods assistance they took rooting in the Kingdom and grew up into flourishing Churches In a short time after Antichrist breathing out his fury the Truth was banished out of Bohemia and the Confessors being driven out transplanted the Gospel into Poland where being favourably entertained by King Sigismond they in a short time encreased to so great a number that being little inferiour to the Papists they were able to boast of an equal authority and priviledges with them Hence it came to passe that the Kings at their Coronations were wont not only to promise but solemnly to swear protection to such as disagreed from the Roman Religion and therefore they proceeded not to open persecutions save only in those Cities where the Jesuits had seated themselves in power to wit Cracovia Posen Lublin Vilna c. where by their disciples and by stirring up the common people to fury the Churches of the Reformed Professors were a good while ago demolished and divers Ministers cruelly massacred Neverthelesse the malice of the Enemies being no whit allayed they were many ways afflicted first indirectly afterwards by pretences under colour of Law until those Churches being worn out by degrees and overthrown were not many years ago reduced to a very inconsiderable number especially when as in the Reign of the late King the Enemies being confident they might do any thing brought things to this passe at length that there were no more than twenty one Congregations remaining in the Greater Poland and those also ready to perish But among these twenty one remaining Churches the chief and as it were the Mother of them all was that of Lesna which was divided into three Congregations the Bohemian the Polonian and the German each of which had their own Pastors but the Communicants joyntly were about two thousand Therefore it was that this Church was in the first place exposed to the Enemies malice and of late designed