and according to the opinion of some Doctours there is neither power nor profit in them Of the Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord. THe eating of the Sacramentall Bread is the eating of the Body of Christ in a figure Christ himselfe hauing said As oft as yee shall doe this doe it in remembrance of mee for if this were not to eate in a figure Christ should be bound to bee eaten continually for this spirituall eating is almost alwayes necessary as Saint Augustine speaketh Hee eateth Christ in truth that beleeueth in him And Christ saith that the eating is to dwell in him In the celebration of this Sacrament these things are profitable Prayer Loue the Preaching of the Word in the vulgar tongue and other things whatsoeuer they bee that are ordained to this purpose according to the Euangelicall Law to the end that loue and charity may grow and increase amongst the people But other things besides the consecration of the Eucharist as those that the Priests vse in the Masse or that the Clerke sings to the Queere from the beginning to the end and the ornaments which the Priests vse at this present in the Church of Rome they belong of necessity to the Sacrament of the Supper of the Lord. Of Marriage and Orders PRayer and fasting are profitable when there is any question of the celebration of Matrimony and the instructions and aduertisements touching the same But the imposition of hands and those Ligatures made with the Stole and other things that are commonly obserued therein by humane custome without the expresse Word of God are not of the substance nor necessarily required in marriage As for Orders we are to vnderstand by them that power which is giuen of God vnto man duely to administer to the Church the Word and Sacraments But we haue nothing in the Scriptures that makes good any such Orders but onely the custome of the Church And the letters testimoniall the anoynting of the hands the donation of the seniture and violl into his hands and other things commonly obserued heerein without the expresse Word are not of the substance thereof nor necessarily required in the taking of Orders Of the Crysome or Confirmation VVEe are now to speake of the Crysome which at this present is called a Sacrament hauing no ground for it in the Scriptures First that it should be consecrated by a Bishop and made with Oyle of Oliues and Balsome applyed to the forehead of the man baptized in the figure of the Crosse and with these words I signe thee with the signe of the Crosse and confirme thee by the signe of saluation In the Name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost which is done with imposition of hands and with white vestments bound to the head This is that which they call the Sacrament of Confirmation which was neuer ordained by Christ or his Apostles For Christ the patterne and president of the whole Church was not confirmed in his owne person neither did he require at his Baptisme a Crysome but the water onely And therefore this Sacrament cannot be necessary to saluation whereby a man blasphemeth the Name of God and is brought in by the motion of the deuill to the end the people might bee deceiued and depriued of the faith of the Church and that he might the rather put his trust and confidence in these solemnities Of extreame Vnction THe seuenth Sacrament of the Romish Church is the extreame Vnction of the sicke which they goe about to prooue by that saying of Saint Iames. But we finde not that it hath beene ordained by Christ or his Apostles For if this corporall Vnction were a Sacrament as they would haue men beleeue Christ or his Apostles would not haue beene silent in the manifestation of the execution thereof which being well considered we should not dare to hold and confesse as an Article of our faith that this Sacrament was instituted by Christ and his Apostles Of Fasts THere is a two-fold Fast Spirituall and Corporall The Spirituall is to abstaine from sinne The Corporall from meates and drinkes But a Christian hath liberty to eate at all times and to fast euery day prouided that he fast not superstitiously as a vertue of continency Note also that there are certaine Fasts which are not to bee obserued or commended by the faithfull but rather to bee abhorred as the Fasts of the Scribes and Pharises which are ordained by Antichrift and smell of Idolatry The Fasts of Heretikes and superstitious persons which are obserued by Enchanters Sorcerers Negromancers and the Fasts dedicated to creatures not to the Creator which are not grounded vpon the Law of God Disorderly Fafts obserued with delicate viands of highest price as fish figges raysons almonds which the poore are depriued of and the rich glut themselues with whereby the almes is withdrawne from the poore whereas if they did fast so as afterwards to feed vpon common diet of lower price they might the better prouide for their families and the poore Moreouer Fasts consist not in the abstayning from corporall viands as if they were vncleane for all things are cleane to those that are cleane and we are to refuse nothing that is taken with thankesgiuing for that is sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer 1. Tim. 4.4 All these Fasts aboue-mentioned are reiected and detested by the faithfull and for the not-obseruation of these no man is to bee blamed FINIS A COLLECTION OR NARATIVE Sent to his Highness the LORD PROTECTOR of the COMMON-WEALTH of ENGLAND SCOTLAND IRELAND c. CONCERNING The Bloody and Barbarous Massacres Murthers and other Cruelties committed on many thousands of Reformed or Protestants dwelling in the Vallies of Piedmont by the Duke of Savoy's Forces joyned therein with the French Army and severall Jrish Regiments Published by Command of his Highness Printed for H. Robinson at the three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1655. To his Highness the Lord Protector of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND and the Dominions thereto belonging May it please your Highness YOUR Highness having thought it convenient that I should put in print the writings I have received concerning the horrible massacre committed upon the poor Protestants of Piedmont I humbly dedicate them to your Highness as to whom they do of right belong not onely because they were sent me to present to your Highness or that your Highness hath received them from other hands but chiefly for that every one knowing the Piety of your Highness and the fervent Charity you have testifi'd to the poor Protestants the strait Communion you hold with them and the care you have of their preservation it seems as if your Highness were particularly interess'd herein And so much the more because this cruell action was chiefely executed by the Irish as in revenge to those who have driven them out of their own Country for the cruell Massacres they there committed So that every one believes your Highness will expresse a
breaking of bread and the giuing of thankes is a visible communion made with the members of Iesus Christ For they that take and breake one and the same bread are one and the same body that is to say the Body of Iesus Christ and they are members one of another ingrafted and planted in him to whom they protest and promise to perseuere in his seruice to their liues end neuer departing from the faith of the Gospell and the vnion which they haue all promised by Iesus Christ And therefore as all the members are nourished with one and the same viands and all the faithfull take one and the same Spirituall Bread of the word of Life the Gospell of Saluation So they all liue by one and the same Spirit and one and the same Faith This Sacrament of the Communion of the Body and Bloud of Christ is called in Greeke Eucharistia that is to say Good Grace of this doth S. Matth. testifie in his 26. Chap. saying Iesus tooke bread and blessed it and brake it and gaue it to his disciples and said Take eate this is my body And S. Luke Chap. 22. This is my body which is giuen for you this doe in remembrance of me Likewise hee tooke the Cup and blessed it saying This cup is the new Testament in my bloud which is shed for you This Sacrament was instituted by diuine ordinance perfectly to signifie vnto vs the spirituall nourishment of man in God by meanes whereof the spirituall life is preserued and without which it decayeth the truth it selfe saying If you eate not the flesh of the Sonne of man and drinke not his bloud there shall be no life in you Concerning which Sacrament wee must hold that which followeth by the testimony of the Scriptures That is that wee must confesse simply and in purity of heart that the bread which Christ tooke in his last Supper which he blessed brake and gaue to eate to his Disciples that in the taking thereof by the ministry of his faithfull Pastors he hath left a remembrance of his Passion which in it owne nature is true bred and that by this Pronowne This is demonstrated this sacramentall proposition This is my Body not vnderstanding these words Identically of a numerall Identity but Sacramentally really and truly but not measurably The same body of Christ sitting in heauen at the right hand of his Father vnto whom euery faithfull Receiuer must cast vp the eyes of his vnderstanding hauing his heart eleuated on high and so eate him spiritually and sacramentally by an assured faith The same we are to vnderstand of the Sacrament of the Cup. Saint Augustine saith that the eating and drinking of this Sacrament must be vnderstood spiritually For Christ saith The words that I speake are spirit and life And Saint Ierome saith The flesh of Christ is to be vnderstood after a twofold manner either spiritually of which Christ saith Iohn 6.55 My flesh is meate indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed Or it is to be vnderstood of that flesh which was crucified and buried Of the spirituall eating Christ saith He that shall eate my flesh and drinke my bloud is in me and I in him There is also a twofold manner of eating the one sacramentall and so both good and bad doe eate the other spirituall and so the good onely doe eate And therefore saith Augustine What is it to eate Christ It is not onely to receiue his body in the Sacrament for many doe eate him vnworthily who will not dwell in him nor haue him to dwell in them but he eates him spiritually that continueth in the truth of Christ And therefore to eate the sacramentall Bread is to eate the Body of Christ in a figure Iesus Christ himselfe saying Neuerthelesse as oft as you doe this you shall doe it in remembrance of me For if this eating were not in figure Christ should be alwayes bound to such a thing for it is necessary that the spirituall eating should be continuall As Saint Augustine speaketh He that eateth Christ in truth is he that beleeueth in him For Christ saith that to eate him is to dwell in him In the celebration of this Sacrament Prayer is profitable and the preaching of the Word in the vulgar tongue such as may edifie and is agreeable to the Euangelicall Law to the end that peace and charity might encrease amongst the people but other things that are in vse in these dayes in the Church of Rome and those that are members thereof belong not at all to the Sacrament What the Waldenses and Albingenses haue taught touching Mariage CHAP. VII MAriage is holy In the Booke intituled The Spirituall Almanacke fol. 50. being instituted of God in the beginning of the World And therefore it is an honourable thing when it is kept as it ought in all purity and when the Husband who is the head of Wife loues her and keepes her and carrieth himselfe honestly towards her being faithful and loyall towards her and that the woman for her part who is made to be a helpe vnto man be subiect to her Husband obeying him in whatsoeuer is good and honouring him as God hath commanded her taking care of his Houshold affaires keeping her selfe not onely from ill-doing but all appearance of euill continuing faithfull and loyall vnto him and both of them perseuering in that which is good according to the will of God taking paines together to get their liuing by honest and lawful meanes wronging no man and instructing those children which God hath giuen them in the feare and doctrine of the Lord and to liue as our Lord hath commanded them Prayer and fasting is profitable when there is question of the celebration of Matrimony and the reasons and instructions and aduertisements touching the same But the Imposition of hands and the Ligatures made with the Priests stoole and other things commonly obserued therein and by custome without the expresse word they are not of the substance nor necessarily required in mariage As touching the degrees prohibited and other things that are to be obserued in matter of Matrimony wee shall speake when we come to the discipline Taken out of the Booke intituled The Spirituall Almanacke What the Waldenses and Albingenses haue taught touching the visitation of the Sicke CHAP. VIII El besongna que aquel que porta la parola de Dio lo nostre Seignor en tota diligenza IT is necessary that hee that is the Messenger of the Word of God should inuite and draw euery one to our Lord and Sauiour with all labour and diligence both by the good example of his life and the truth of his Doctrine and it is not sufficient that hee teach in the Congregation but also in their Houses and in all other places as Christ and his Apostles haue done before him comforting the afflicted and especially those that are sicke He must admonish them touching the great bounty and mercy of God shewing that there can
are their companions And therefore they must be honoured by imitation and not adored by Religion All these things duly considered wee say that there is not any man borne of other body then Christ which may be adored or can be the true Aduocate and Mediator betwixt God and Men or Intercessor for sinners with God the Father but he alone neither is it necessary that they should be inuocated by the prayers and intercessions of the liuing It is hee that by speciall priuiledge obtaines whatsoeuer he demands for mankinde whom hee hath reconciled by his death Hee is the one and onely Mediator betwixt God and man the Aduocate and Intercessor to God the Father for sinners and in such sort sufficient that the Father denyeth not any man what he demandeth in his name but for the loue of him he heareth those that pray vnto him or demand any thing at his hands by him For being neere vnto God liuing by himselfe he prayeth alwayes for vs. For it was necessary that we should haue such a soueraigne Sacrificer as was holy innocent without blemish separated from sinners and exalted aboue the Heauens the first Sonne begotten of his Father which onely Sonne being aboue all men hath power and authority to sanctifie the other to pray and to mediate for them Saint Augustine writeth concerning Christ in his 64 Psalm saying Thou art the Sacrificer thou art the Sacrifice thou art he that offereth and thou art the offering Iesus is not entred into places made with hands which were figured correspondent to the true but hee is entred into Heauen it selfe euen now to appeare for vs before the face of God Of him it is that Saint Iohn saith 1 Iohn 1.1 We haue an Aduocate with the Father euen Iesus Christ the righteous And Saint Paul saith Rom. 8.33 That Iesus Christ who dyed for vs is also risen againe and sitteth at the right hand of Goâ— making intercession for vs. And therefore hee is but a foole that will desire any other Intercessor For Christ is alwayes liuing and prayeth to God the Father for vs and is alwayes ready to succour those he loueth And therefore if we keepe our selues to that he hath said we neede not desire any other Saint to be our Mediator because he is more gentle and more ready to helpe then any other can be Adde hereunto that the minde of him that prayeth wandereth and is confounded with the multitude of Saints to whom he prayes when the affection is remoued from Christ and therefore is much weakened being diuided amongst many Howsoeuer many there are that thinke that when the prayer is directed to one onely a man hath that only one for a Mediator wheras more giue more spirituall helpe But the Church would increase a great deale more if it knew not this multitude of intercessions now inuented And therefore it is a great folly to forsake the Fountaine of liuing waters and to goe to troubled waters and such as are afarre of This then doth plainly appeare that a man cannot obtaine any thing of God but by the Mediator Christ Iesus In the second place it shall be more expedient to worship Christ among those that are simply men for hee is a good and benigne Mediator euen in the highest degree both in the one and the other extremity Thirdly if we keepe our selues vnto his Word we neede not addresse our selues to other Saints for intermedlers since that he is more ready to helpe vs then other Saints being ordained of God for this purpose that is to the end that the intercession might be made by him that is more mercifull then all others for hee knowes for whom there is reason he should pray for hee hath shed his bloud for them which hee will neuer forget hauing grauen them in the palmes of his hands Fourthly in the primitiue Church their prayers for spirituall aide were made onely to Christ as a Mediator Fiftly then did the Church profit and encrease a great deale more then now it doth in these times wherein men haue found many intercessions which are as so many clouds without water darkening Christ the Sonne of Righteousnesse who is the true In tercessor For many expecting spirituall comforts are forsaken in their vaine hopes For though so it be that God is iust and we vniust and insufficient of our selues yet it is he that pardoneth our sinnes both passed and present For hee gaue himselfe for our redemption that is to say he hath been the Sacrifice by which our pardon hath been obtained God hath sent his Sonne to the end he might pardon our sinnes hee is the remedy against sinne to the end we should not fall into despaire We must haue recourse to Christ our Aduocate who continually defendeth our cause beseeching his Father for vs whom wee haue not onely for an Aduocate but for a Iudge too For the Father hath giuen all iudgement to the Sonne and consequently all penitent sinners haue great reason to hope that hee that is our Iudge is our Aduocate This faith is grounded vpon Christ as vpon a strong Rocke vpon which all the Saints of God haue rested themselues vntill the man of sinne had power to bring in new intercessions of Saints which faith all the Saints haue professed liuing here and vnto this day doe confesse that they are not saued by oblations or the intercession of any other God but by him they haue obtained Heauen of whom it is said in the Reuelation Chap. 5.9 Thou art worthy to take the Booke and to open the seales thereof for thou wast slaine and hast redcemed vs to God by thy bloud out of euery kindred and tongue and people and Nation and hast made vs vnto our God Kings and Priests You see how their humility and thankfulnesse doth still resound vpon the Earth when they acknowledge that they are entred into that place wherein they are by his bloud and confesse that they haue receiued all their good by him and whatsoeuer they enioy so long as they remaine in this life that they receiue no good thing but by their good Mediator and Intercessor Christ Iesus CHAP. IIII. Of Baptisme and the other Sacraments of the Romish Church THe things that are not necessary in the administration of Baptisme are the Exorcismes breathings the signe of the Crosse vpon the forehead and breast of the infant the salt put into his mouth spittle into his eares and nostrills the anoynting of the breast the Monkes Cowle the vnction of the Crysome vpon the crowne of his head and all other things consecrated by the Bishop as the putting the Waxe candle into his hands the cloathing him with a white garment the blessing of the water and so foorth All those things vsed in the administration of this Sacrament are not necessary they neither being of the substance nor required in the Sacrament of Baptisme from which things many take occasion of errour and superstition rather then edification to saluation
deep resentment hereof and will endeavour the consolation and reestablishment of many thousands of persons escaped from this Butchery who have chosen rather to quit their Houses and Goods than to make shipwrack of their Faith This also is an occasion which God by his providence hath set before your Highness to shew the incomparable zeale which you have for his service and Glory and to give to the Protestants an evident prof of the affection your Highness bears them and to confirm them in the confidence they have conceived of your Highnes Protection This all the Israel of God expects from your Highness upon this occasion looking upon your Highness as a Zerubbabel whom God hath sent for the repairing of his Hierusalem I beseech the Lord who by the marveilous dispensations of his Providence hath rais'd your Highnes to this great dignity that he would grant you to be the Protector of the people of God in all Nations as he hath in this and that he would long preserve your Highness to the end you may imploy the power he hath given your Highness for the accomplishment of his great Works for the defence of his whole Church the preservation of them which remain and the reestablishment of the desolate and afflicted for the propagation of his Gospell the advancement of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Glory of his great name Which is the Prayer My Lord of Your Highness's most humble faithfull and obedient servant J. B. Stouppe TO THE CHRISTIAN READER AMongst all the Churches of Christ that do profess the pure holy Religion which he hath taught in his Word that of the Waldenses is the most considerable as well for her Antiquity as for the sharp and continuall persecutions it hath suffred Her Antiquity is such that no man can truly find out her beginning so that even her Adversaries say that the Heresie of the Waldenses thus they call their Doctrine began in the Apostles dayes and allwaies hath been in the Valley of Angrogna But of all the Certificates which many Papists have given of the antiquity of the Waldenses and of their Doctrine that of Reynerius a Roman Inquisitor whose VVritings have been procured to us by Gretserus the Jesuite is most remarkable for thus he speakes of them Amongst all the Sects that are in the World there is none that hath been or is still more perncious than that of the VValdenses or Leonistes for three Reasons First because it hath lasted longer than all others some saying it began in Sylvester his time others deriving them from the Apostles Secondly because it is so Universall that there is no Countrie where it is not Thirdly because the Professors of it live more uprightly before men and hold all the Articles of the Apostles Creed blaspheaming onely against the Church of Rome and hating it But however this Reynerius living about the end of the Eleventh age of the Church and the beginning of the twelfth and so there being above 400. years since he did call the Waldenses an old Sect he shew's cleerely they had then been a time in the Church Besides it is certain as we find in many credible Historians that 1160. a great number of faithfull souls call'd then the poor of Lions or Waldenses because they had been taught by Peter Waldus a man of great Erudition and singular pietie being persecuted at Lions by the Roman Clergie by reason of the Reformation which he procur'd unto the Church they retir'd into those Vallies where finding the Natives to be of their own opinions they compos'd together those reform'd Churches of the Waldenses which have ever since subsisted Which proves that the reformed Religion profest in those Vallies did not begin within an age or two of this as some ignorant adversaries say but that it hath been either from the very Apostles or from the * Bishop Usher de Successione c. Pag. 151. and 210. first ages and that the Waldenses found there the seed of the true Religion having nothing to do on either side but to encourage each other to do better and better and to set up the banner of truth in the view of the world Since that time those poor Churches have always been the mark for worldlings to shoot at and spend against them all the arrows of their malice Sathan hath done all he could against them and Antichrist hath spar'd nothing to destroy them fires have been kindled and flames blown up to reduce them into ashes they have had experiments of the barbarous crueltie of men And as there is no war so bloudie as that which is undertaken in hatred of Religion so to suffer proscriptions and exiles confiscations of goods and imprisoning torturing and killing of bodies have been the ordinary excercises of the faithfull in those Countries Yet notwithstanding the great Massacres acted therein from age to age God by his Providence hath allwaies preserved a considerable number of them which made up many fine and flourishing Churches although they were alwaies under the Cross I will not enlarge my discourse to make a description of the perjecutions they have suffered since a large Volume would not suffice for that I will only say something of those evills they have been exposed to these two lest years There was great probability they should of late in the time of their Princes Coronation enâ—oy some quietness and tranquillity since they had obtained the confirmation of their Possessions and old Priviledges but they were soon frustrate of their hope For the Court of Rome and the Popes servants and Agents did work so cunningly that they were deprived of the benefit of those Priviledges Commerce was forbidden them many men driven out of their Habitations and finally after the publication of a Croisade they were 1653. assaulted by a great Army which had wholly extirpated them if God had not assisted them by an extraordinary Rain which did oppose the endeavours of their Adversaries and made them vain And because this bloody Design did not succeed them well they endeavoured afterwards to ruin wholly those faithfull persons by extraordinary Impositions and Burthens much above their own strength and which were not set upon the Papists in those parts Thus they did engage them unto great expences to obtain again the Confirmation of their Priviledges and being obtained their Enemies exacted from them prodigious summes of mony to have it sealed Yea the matter was brought to that height of injustice to make them bear the charges of those who were come to fight and ruin them Besides all that there being a French Army in those parts it was sent to take its winte quarters in the midst of those Churches which thus were wholly deprived of what remained for their subsistence But all that was but a beginning of greater sorrow for if they had then cause to grone and sigh they have had since occasions to shed whole streames of teanes since they have try'd how far the crueltie of
so is it the duty of all the faithfull to have a true compassion of the calamities of those who remain and are banisht for the cause of Christ to implore God's assastance by supplications and prayers for their preservation and deliverance and finally to communicate their goods to them for their relief Indeed as we are all members of one and the same body and oblig'd to be sensible of the evills of one another we ought above all to be lively toucht by the afflictions of those faithfull witnesses of Jesus who have suffared for his sake to maintain his truth and for the profession of his Gospell It had been easie for them all to preserve their goods and to acquire new possessions if they had been willing to make a shipwrack of their faith If the Spirit of Christ dwell in us that same Spirit who quickens us all and hath fortified those faithfull sould in their sufferings of disgraces and losses for God ought also to move us to succour them with all our power What they humbly desire of us is neither to enrich themselves nor to make us beggars They beg onely a small part of our abundance not to imploy it in excess or riot but in the preservation of their lives which they are in danger to lose through want If we have a true horrour of the cruelty of their bloody enemies how can we refuse them what Christ doth ask of us for their consolation Who fails in so just a duty instead of shewing himself a friend to Christ and to his Saints persecuted for him declares himself half their enemy and seems to embrace the party of their Persecutors in their detestable cruelty For if those inhumaue Papists have unjustly spoyl'd them of all their goods we should approve what they have done in not affording them what 's necessary for their subsistence If as 't is very true they have sinned against our Brethren through malice and rage let us beware to make our selves guilty towards them through our hardness and want of compassion If they have stript them and almost starv'd them shall we who by Gode grace are well cloathed and fed leave them both naked and hungry If their Enemies have wounded them may we not pass for their false Friends if we give them no salve but see and suffer them bleeding without binding their wounds and applying some remedies If these cruel Murtherers have taken away the lives of many shall we refuse to preserve theirs who remain after that great slaughter Yea in refusing to help the living are we minded to make their condition worse than that of their dead friends for it is certain that it is a greater cruelty to make a man languish in misery and to starve him than to kill him outright I hope that all faithfull Christians and Saints of this Country being lively touch'd by the sad and lamentable condition of those poor fugitives who are persecuted for righteousness sake will open them their bowels of mercy and will give them liberally such portion of their goods as may satisfie their hunger and help them to subsist So they shall have in their conscience the joy and comfort to have contributed to the restauration of those poor Churches which God hath rais'd and preserv'd miraculously so many Ages together Those Sanctuaries they shall revedifie will without intermission offer their prayers to God for their Benefactors prosperity and salvation Those members of Christ will bless them for their sense of their misery Gods Angels will rejoyce for their effectual compassion and God himself having as it were smelt the sweet odour or savour of the sacrifice of their Alms will now recompence them with all his temporal and spiritual blessings and hereafter will crown them in Heaven with glory and immortality A Briefe Apologie in the behalfe of the Reformed Churches in the Valleyes of Piedmont With a Narrative of what hath happened in the execution of the Arrest issued against them the 25 th of January 1655. WHereas we are forewarned by the word of God in the Apocalyps that the rage and cruelty of the infernall Dragon towards the latter end of the world would be in no wise abated but seeing his time of persecuting the Saints to be but short be the more vehemently incensed against them the Reformed Churches in severall parts especially those next unto us in Piedmont have very often heretofore as well as now had sad experience of the truth of this particular For notwithstanding that the Duke of Savoy who is Soveraign Prince of the Vallies of Piedmont after a most tedious and chargeable Application made unto him did by an edict expresly promise that he would confirm unto them an enjoyment of the liberty of Religion and of those Priviledges granted to them by his predecessors Dukes of Savoy yet through the powerfull perswasion of the Congregation as it is called for propagation of the Faith and extirpating of Hereticks erected at Turin or rather by vertue of that Authority which they usurpe over Princes he soon forgot his promise and beyonnd all mens expectations one Gastald was sent with a Commission who calls himself Conservator Generall of the Catholick Faith against the Reformed Professors affirming that he hath received instructions from the Prince wherby Command is given touching all of the Reformed Profession within the severall Towns and Precincts of Lucerne Lusernette St. John La Tour Campiglion Fenil Bobiane Bricheras and St. Second both inhabitants and strangers that in case they will not within three daies imbrace the Popish Religion they must for ever bid farewell to their Native Country their Houses their Lands and Possessions adding moreover that it should be death without mercy if after that space of time any of them were taken in those places Hereupon no sooner was the time limited over-past but immediately the Missionary Monks and Popish Priests sent in upon them a world of Cut-throats and Villains who not only gape after the prey like hounds and hunt for the precious life of these miserable Exiles but also discharge their rage and fury against their houses and Lands by cutting down and rooting up the very Trees In the mean time these our poor brethren knew not where to complaine of these injuries and lay open their Cases nor to whom being deprived of all possibility of making any addresse to the Prince and if any offer to present Petitions in their behalfes they are presently snap't and sent away to the Congregation for propagating the Faith and extirpation of Hereticks that is to their Adversaries the Arch-Bishop of Turin the Prince's Confessor the Abbot de la Monta the Prior of Rorene and some others who are politick Pensioners to the Pope Now as touching this Persecution against the Protestants whereby they are made to depart within three daies upon pain of death into such desolate places as are hardly sufficient to receive and sustain the Native inhabitants the iniquity and injustice of the proceeding appears