had we feared the same we had never exposed our bodies to this so shamefull and painfull a kinde of death Then he often reiterated these short breathings O God Father everlasting accept the sacrifice of our bodies for thy well beloved Sonne Iesus Christs sake One of the Friers cried Heretike thou liest he is none of thy father the Devill is thy father And thus during these conflicts he bent his eyes to heaven and speaking to his father said Behold for I sée the heavens open and millions of Angels ready prest to receive us rejoycing to sée us thus witnessing the truth in the view of the World Father let us be glad and rejoyce for the joyes of heaven are set open unto us Then said one of the Fryers I sée hell open and millions of Devils present to carry you thither But the Lord who never forsakes any that put their trustin him stirred up the heart and opened the mouth of a poore man who stood among the multitude beholding this spectacle who being moved with compassion cryed aloud Be of good comfort Baudicon stand thou to it thou 〈◊〉 in a good quarrell I am on thy side after which words he departed thence and a way being made for him saved himselfe from danger Fire was forthwith put to the straw and wood which burnt beneath whilest they not shrinking for the paines spake one to another Baudicon often repeating this in his fathers eares Faint not father nor be afraid Yet a very little while and wee shall enter into the heavenly mansions In the end the fire growing hot upon them the last words they were heard to pronounce were Iesus Christ thou Sonne of God into thy hands we commend our spirits And thus these two slept swéetly in the Lord. Within eight dayes after Iane the mother and Martin her sonne were executed in the same City of Lile but of this more hereafter Iane the wife of Robert Oguier and Martin her sonne Martyrs THe wife here followes her husband and accompanies her sonne her conversion is admirable for being severed from him the Friers having seduced her laboured with her to turne her some also out of the right way but he understanding thereof recovers his mother againe and so they both gaue their lives for the truth to the great confusion of their enemies But before we come to describe their happy ends we will as briefely as may be note by the way the great conflicts of spirit which both of them sustained There were sent unto them many of the popish rabble to turne them from their faith Now that this their devillish enterprise might the rather be effected they sundred one of them from the other so as by the politique deuice of a Monke the poore woman began to waver and let goe her first faith At this their enemies rejoyced not a little whilest the poore little flocke of Christ hearing such sad newes were in continuall perplexity but the Lord left them not in this mournfull condition For on a day one of the Monkes resorted to her in the prison counselling her to win her sonne Martin and to draw him from his errors which she promised to doe But when he was come to his Mother and perceiued that she was not onely fallen but also quite turned out of the right way he began with teares to bewayle her miserable estate O Mother saith he what have you done Have you denyed him who hath redéemed you Alas what evill hath he done you that you should requite him with this so great an iniury and dishonour Now I am plunged into that woe which I have most feared Ah good God that I should live to sée this which pierceth me to the very heart His Mother hearing these his pittifull complaints and séeing the teares which her sonne shed for her began againe to renue her strength in the Lord and with teares cryed out O Father of mercies be mercifull unto me miserable sinner and cover my transgression under the righteousnesse of thy blessed Sonne Lord enable me with strength from above to stand to my first confession and make me to abide stedfast therein even unto my last breath It was not long after this her change but the same instruments of Satan who had seduced her came in supposing to finde her in the same minde wherein they left her whom she no sooner espied but with detestation said Avoyd Satan get thee behinde me for henceforth thou hast neither part nor portion in me I will by the help of God stand to my first confession And if I may not signe it with Inke I will seale it with my blood And so from that time this fraile vessell who for a while relented after her recovery grew stronger and stronger The Iudges séeing their constancy delayed not to dispatch them out of the way condemning them to be burned alive and their bodies being reduced to ashes the same to be scattered and dispersed in the aire The mother and the sonne having heard their sentence read in the way as they were going backe againe to prison said now blessed be our God who causeth us thus to triumph over our enemies This is the wished houre our gladsome day is come Let us not then said Martin forget to be thankefull for the honour he doth us in thus conforming us unto the Image of his Sonne Let us remember those who have traced this path before us for this is the high way to the Kingdome of heaven Let us then good Mother goe on boldly out of the Campe with the Son Heb. 13. 13. of God bearing his reproach with all his holy Martyrs for so we shall finde passage into the glorious Kingdome of the everliving God Some of the company hearing but not being able to brooke these words said we sée now thou heretique that thou art wholly possessed body and soule with a divell as was thy father and brother who are both in Hell Martin said Sirs as for your railings and cursings our God will this day turne them into blessings in the sight of himselfe and of all his holy Angels A certaine temporizer said to Martin thou silly See here the sundry â—ights of Satan youth thou sayest thou knowest not what thou art too well conceited of thy selfe and of thy cause Séest thou not all this people here about thée what thinkest thou of them they beléeve not as thou doest and yet I doubt not but they shall be saved But you imagine to doe that which will never come to passe though you pretend never so much that you are in the faith and have the Scriptures for you The good woman hearing this answered Sir Christ Iesus our Lord saith that it is the wide gate and broad way which leades to destruction Mat. 7. 12. and therefore many gooe in thereat but the gate saith he is narrow that leades to life and few How we may know we are in the right way there be that finde it Doe ye
Lord. For as our desires to obtaine mercy grow stronger so are Psal 120. 1. our requests more or lesse servent our desire alway being according to our necessity Let a man be sicke poore or lie under any other greater tryall the prayers of such do beyond comparison exceed in earnestnesse and servour theirs who are well and at their hearts ease David in many of his Psalmes pressed the Lord in such wise by prayer Psal 17. 1 2. 28. 1 2. when troubles lay heavy upon him as if he meant to take no deniall With what vehemency prayed the Apostles to God for strength being persecuted Act. 4. 5 6. 24. 29. by the Rulers Elders and Scribes of Ierusalem insomuch as the place was shaken where they were assembled He that shall duely weigh with what prayers and teares our Lord Heb. 5. 7. Luke 22. 44. Iesus Christ solicited his father in his passion being nigh unto his death will confesse that fire is not more apt to be kindled by the winds which blow upon it than the prayer of Faith is fired and augmented by affliction Would any man have imagined that ever such voices of prayers and prayses should have been made in the belly of a Whale Ionah 2. reade the whole chapter as Ionas made being there as it were in the bottome of hell CHAP. IV. Wherein is shewed that afflictions are not onely profitable but pleasant also IGrant that afflictions considered in themselves are no way joyous but grievous as the Apostle declareth Heb. 12. 11. because they are rather messengers of Gods displeasure the root also from whence they spring being indeed our sins But as we see how our Apothecaries in their shops have the skill to mixe poisons with good and healthfull medicines So our God being infinitely more wise knows so to temper our afflictions for our good that our of things bitter and distastefull to us in the owne nature hee can compose not only a profitable but a most pleasant potion Yea even as Bees out of the bitterest herbs draw the most sweet honey so the Lord out of the tartest troubles extracts such sweets that at length wee shall with Sampson be Iudg. 14. 14. forced to say Out of the â—ater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetnesse Hunger in it self is sharp and hard to be endured yet our tast is greatly delighted when we can eat with an appetite Could any man judge how beneficiall a fire were if he were not some times pinched with cold Or with what delight could we accept of drink in the hear of Summer if we were not almost dried up with thirst Or how acceptable rest is if we were not tyred out with travell and labour As we see then that these accidents how grievous or incommodious soever now incident unto our nature corrupted by finne doe notwithstanding dispose us to receive exceeding contentments therefrom So persecutions albeit in and of themselves naturally abhorred proceeding partly as we have said from Gods displeasure and partly from Satan and his instruments yet doe they fit and prepare us for the injoying of those great consolations which God hath promised to his Elect. Afflictions cause us to feele first That God is the Father of mercies and of all comfort Secondly That the Office of Christ his Sonne is To revive the 2 Cor. 1. 1. desolate and broken in heart Thirdly That the holy Ghost is the comforter of his Mat. 11. 28. Iohn 14. 16 Rom. 15. 4. Church Fourthly That the word of God is it that ministers comfort to us in all our tribulations and adversities which for the most part befall us for adhering thereto For as he who would taste meat favoury to his palate useth falt therewith so if wee would to purpose finde the Word of God tastefull to us commonly it is when wee are in affliction When did the Apostles rejoyce more than after they had tasted of the whip Acts 5. 4. for the name of Christ When did Saint Stephens face appeare as if it had been the face of an Angell but when he stood before the Councell at Ierusalem to answer for his life Acts 6. 15. He that looked upon the three young men in the hot fiery furnace saw them walking up Dan. 3. 25. and downe there as in some pleasant and delightfull medow or garden Behold that antient father Ignatius who as himselfe records being led from Syria to Rome there to be devoured accompanied by sea and land with a band of souldiers which he tearmes ten Leopards wished by the way as he went that he were in the middest of those beasts which were ready to rent him in pieces and that their appetites might be whetted to dispatch him quickly fearing lest it should happen to him as to some other Martyrs that the beasts out of a kind of reverence and humanity would not dare to approch unto him being ready he said rather to provoke them to the fight than that they should suffer him so to escape Pardon me I pray you saith he for I know what is profitable for me I now begin to be a Disciple of Christ I affect nothing this world affords What is so deare to me as Christ If it be not sufficient for me to be torne with beasts let fires and all the tortures of men and Devils be prepared for me let all my body be dismembred my bones bruised to pieces so that I may enjoy communion with my God and come into the presence of my Saviour And when he heard the Lyons roaring he said I am the Lords wheat I must be ground with the teeth of wilde beasts that I may be found pure bread May we not now conjecture by the wishes of this holy Bishop what sweet delight hee Simile found in himselfe in approaching nigh unto his Martyrdome As a Queen then or great Lady takes no greater content than when she perceives in her husband some apparent signes of his favor especially then when she hath conceived some suspition of alienating his affection from her or it seems to be any way cooled or abated So the faithfull soule who loves the Lord entirely desires nothing more nor taketh at any time more delight than when she feeles from her husband Christ love for love but chiefly in the houre of temptation and tribulation which oft times causeth our heads and hearts to be possessed with jealousies and suspitions that we are out of his favour Let us conclude then that seeing in regard of the reasons heretofore alleadged persecutions are so honourable every way profitable and delectable to the true Christian What cause hath he either to be grieved or terrified when they befall him Nay he ought with the Apostles and Martyrs to triumph and rejoyce To which purpose may fitly bee applyed that saying of Themistocles to his children when hee saw the great honors that the King of Persia had conferred upon him by their exile
out his hand to receive you unto him Are you are you willing to goe unto him Yes I assure you saith she most willing and much more willing than to linger here below in this world where I see nothing but vanity The minister not willing to continue longer in this kinde of discourse asked if she were pleased that they should goe to prayer declaring that godly personages there present would willingly joyne their desires with hers To which she consenting the said Minister prayed by her a good space whilest this pious Lady manifested her ardent affection to call upon God When prayer was ended the Minister discerning in her the undoubted testimonies of her repentance and of the sorrow she conceived for the offences which she had committed against God together with the assured confidence which shée had in his mercies as a Minister of the Gospell amd Embassadour of the Son of God by the authority dispensed to him having committed to him the word of reconciliation he assured her in his name that all her sins were forgiven her of 1 Cor. 5. God and that they should never come into account before his judgement Seat yea that she should no more dount thereof then if the Sonne of God from heaven should say unto her Daughter thy sins are forgiven thee And to the end that troubled consciences might the better be quieted Christ hath used these words speaking to his Ministers saying Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted Mat. 16. 14. and whose sins ye unloose they are unloosed The reason is because the word which they pronounce is not the word of a mortall man but of the immortall God being of no lesse weight than if himselfe uttered the same Then he asked of her Majesty if he accepted of so gracious a Message which assured her of the frée pardon of all her sins Yea I doe saith shee and make no doubt thereof Not long after these exhortations the Admirall comming in and with him another Minister shée also gave care to him for a good space together whose discourse tended to prepare her for death as he had done who had spoken to her immediatly before who having finished his spéech prayed also with her and for her which she heard with great attention and affection Then she requested that these two ministers might stay with her all night in her Chamber and that they would in no wise leave her The greater part of this night was spent in holy admonitions which these two ministers gave to this gracious Lady and Princesse one after another Besides these admonitions she commanding that some Chapters of the holy Scripture which were pertinent for her condition should be read unto her one of the Ministers read in her hearing certaine Chapters out of the Gospell of Saint Iohn namely from the fouretéenth to the seventéenth After he had read to her these Chapters he went to prayer which being ended the Quéene desired to take some rest but it was not long ere she commanded them to reade again whereupon the other Minister having made choise of certaine Psalmes of David full of ardent and affectionate prayers suiting to this Princesses present affliction he read them unto her and for a conclusion read the one and thirtieth Psalme Psal 31. 5. where the Prophet among other things doth there commend his spirit into the hands of God because saith he thou hast redéemed me O Lord God of truth The Quéene willed them to pray with her again and thus as I have said was the most part of the night spent in such vertuous exercises namely in exhortation in reading the holy Scripture and in prayer during all which time the ministers never discerned in any of her spéeches or behaviour the least impatiency Nay whereas some dayes before she fell sick she shewed how affectionately she was bent to provide things most magnificent for the day of her Sons marriage according as the State of so great an alliance required it was admirable to observe that after thâ—s sicknesse had seized upon her God wrought in her such aforgetfulnesse and neglect of all such matters that she never made shew of having so much as a thought thereof This night being thus passed and spent by this noble Queene she persevering in the expressions of like pious actions and ardency of Faith the next day in the morning betwéen eight and nine of the clocke she departed this life to take possession of a far better life swéetly yéelding up her spirit into the hands of God the ninth of Iune 1572. the sixth day after she fell sick in the 44. yeare of her age She had her perfect spéech alwaies even to the houre of her death shewing not only the stayednesse and soundnesse of her judgement which ever in times past she had in her care about the salvation of her soule but in her other worldly affaires also Now to avoide all jealousies and suspitions of her being wronged by poyson or otherwise in this matter of her so sudden sickenesse her body was opened by sundry expert and learned Doctors of Physick and Chirurgery with all exquisite diligence who found her heart and liver very sound and untouched her lungs only excepted which long before on the right side had béen very ill affected by reason of an extraordinary hardnesse which they had contracted and withall a great imposthume which so far as man could judge they concluded was the cause of her death But they had no command given them to open the braine and therefore finding somewhat out of frame in her body they delivered their opinions only concerning the same Thus you have with as much brevity as I could and as the merit of the thing required the true report of the manner of this vertuous Princesses sicknesse and death thus ar related unto you only my request is saith my Author that if any have a more perfect and particular knowledge of the excellent parts wherewith the Lord had adorned and beautified her they would not suffer the same to be buried in silence but to cause it to sée the light that on the one side it may serve as an example to posterity and on the other side that we may learne to blesse God for her piety and constancy ¶ An Introduction first into that which Anno 1572. leads to the death of the Admirall of France Then to the massacre at paris and so in some other Cities And first what moved the Admirall to come to Paris AFter the death of the Quéene certaine Princes were sollicited by the King to give their attendance at Paris for the folemnising the mariage of the Prince of Navarre now made king by the death of his mother according to the ceremonies which were thereto appertaining Among the rest letters were directed to the Admirall by the King himselfe to come to this marriage which were delivered unto him by Cavagues wherein the King assured him be would not tarry long after him Willing
towards his slaughter men he said on on goe in and to your worke but first he forgat not to demand the prisoners purses for his booty which when he pocketted up he gat him into a Gallery there to satisfie his hellish lust in taking a view of this rufull spectacle The murtherers hegan to fall upon the poore prisoners with such barbarous cruelty hacking and hewing them in so furious a manner that within lesse than an houre they were all cut in pieces not so much as one escaped their hands All these for the most part were massacred knéeling on their knées and lifting up their eies and hands to God for mercy whilst they had their hands and fingers cut off ¶ The death and martyrdome of Francis le Bossu a merchant together with his sons AMong all those who confessed rhe name of Iesus Christ and gave their lives for his truth a certaine Merchant of hats and caps called Francis le Bossu well deserves to be set in the fore ranke with his two sonnes for whilest he trampled in the bloud of his brethren being besmeared therewith and spiriting as it were in his face he encouraged his children to take their death willingly and patiently using this spéech Children we are not to learne now that it hath alwaies béen the portion of Beléevers to bee hated cruelly used and devoured by Vnbeléevers as Christs silly Shéep of ravening wolves if wee suffer with Christ we shall also reigne with him Let not these drawne swords terrifie us they will be but as a bridge whereby we shall passe over out of a miserable life into immortall blessednesse We have breathed and lived long enough among the wicked let us now goe and live with our God let us joyfully march after this great company which is here gon before us and let us make way for them that shall follow after When he saw the murtherers come he clasped his armes about his two sonnes and they likewise embraced their father as if the father meant to be a buckler to his children and the children as if by the bond of nature which binds them to defend his life from whence they received it they meant to ward off the blowes which were comming towards their father though with the losse of their owne lives who when the massacre was ended were all thrée found dead thus embracing one another Now after this furious assault these impudent creatures went up and downe the City shewing their white doublets all besprinkled with bloud boasting that some had killed an hundred some more some lesse Forthwith the great gates of the Archbishops house were set wide open for all commers of whom surely there was none were they of the devoutest Romanists but must néeds have their hearts wounded and pierced within them to sée so hideous a slaughter And indéed some of them were heard to say when they beheld The Papists abhorre their own cruelties this so inhumane and cruell an act That certainly they were not men but devils in the habit of men that had done this The next morning which was Munday the first of September the remainder of corpses which were not cast into the water were put into great boats which being rowed over to the other side of the river of Saon were all cast on shore there the corpses being also spread upon the ground nigh to the Abbey of Esnay like dung upon the earth The Monkes would at no hand yéeld to have them buried in their Churchyard estéeming them unworthy of buriall fearing also that so many put together would be a meanes to infect the aire and therefore gave them a signe to have them throwne into the river Now as the multitude were dragging them in thither an Apothecary came and informed them that money might be made of the grease that was taken out of their bodies Then were the most corpulent bodies presently sought out which when they had ripped up a great quantity of that commodity being gotten thence was sold by these Merchants for thrée shillings the pound And then not knowing how to wrecke their malice any further upon them after many derisions and scornes which the standers by but especially the Italians had done to these poore despised carkasses they were tumbled into a great pit and the rest thrown into the river Those of Daulphine of Languedoc and Provence were amased to sée so many bodies floating upon the water some dismembred others fastned together with long poles others lying on the shore some having their eies put out others their noses eares and hands cut off stabbed in with daggers in every part of their bodies so as some among them had no humane shape remaining Yea so great a number of these mangled corpses presented themselves on the port of Tournon that the men and women of the place began to make an outcry as if the enemies had bin at their gates Not many moneths after when all these bloudy Tragedies were ended the Pope sent a Legate to the King called Cardinall Vrsin This Legat was received with great solemnity at Lyons and the stréets hung with tapestry Now having heard masse at Saint Iohns Church and returning by the same dore which he went in at the greatest number of the massacrers attended his comming there and as he passed by they all knéeled downe for his absolution But the Legate not knowing the reason why they knéeled so before him one of the principall agents knéeling there amongst them told the Legat that they were those The massacrers absolved by the Popes Legat. who had béen the actors in the massacre When the â—legate perceived that to be the cause he absolved them all with making the signe of the Crosse ¶ Persecution at Angiers in France ¶ Master Iohn Mason a learned Minister together with his wife and some others Martyrs AS soone as the massacre was begun at Paris A Protestant minister murchered in his garden a Gentleman of Paris called Monsoreau obtained a Pasport with letters to massacre those of the Religion at Anglers Who being disappointed of his prey in one place came to the lodging of a reverend and learned Minister called Master Iohn Mason sirnamed de Launay Sieur of Riviere Méeting his wife at his entrance into the house he saluted her and kist her as it is the manner in France especially among the Courtiers and asked her where her husband was She answered him that he was walking in his garden and then directed him the way unto him Monsoreau having lovingly embraced La Riviere said unto him Doe you know wherefore I am come the King hath commanded me to kill you forthwith and hath given me expresse charge to doe it as you shall know by his letters After which words he shewed him a pistoll ready charged Riviere reylyed that hee knew not wherein he had offended the King but séeing saith he you séeke my life give me a little leave to cry to God for mercy and to recommend my spirit
conscience As touching his carriage and behaviour if it pleased him he said to make enquiry thereof among the Merchants of Ast they could all resolve him as touching his honest dealing who also hee knew would witnesse with him that hee had wronged none in all that time hee had conversed among them And inasmuch as he was a Merchant traffiquing in and about his lawfull calling he ought to be dismissed and to be no further molested For if it were lawfull for Iewes and Turkes to trade in Faires and Markets and to use commerce throughout Piemont that favor ought much more to be permitted unto him who was a Christian And as touching the matter of Religion whereabout he was accused he medled not at all therewith for his owne particular but had questions propounded to him concerning the same by others in which regard leave was granted him to answer and to yéeld a reason of his faith in any place to any whomsoever they were that should aske what he thought of the same yea liberty was granted even by his Excellency to those of the Valleyes of Vandoyes to answer any man to a question demanded provided that hee procéeded not to teach and instruct others The Bishop regarded none of these allegations but commanded he should be put into prison The next day the Bishops Secretary came to visite Copin testifying how much good will hee bore him advising him as a friend that if he acknowledged not his fault he was in great danger of his life Copin answered that his life was in the hands Psal 89. 47 48. of God and that he would never séeke to save it to the prejudice of Gods glory also that he had not above two or thrée turnes to fetch here in this world before he arrived in heaven and therefore prayed God so to assist him by his grace that hee might never leave the strait way which leadeth thereto A few dayes after hee was examined by a Monke who was an Inquisitor in the presence of the Bishop who vexed him a long while with his sugred discourse and by faire words endeavoured to draw him to abjure his Religion But Copin resisted him still by the holy Scriptures shewing that if he should now be ashamed of Christ Mat. 8. 38. and deny him Christ might justly be ashamed of him and utterly deny him before his heavenly father The Monke finished his dispute with this dogged farewell Away thou cursed Lutherane thou shalt goe to all the Devils in hell and when thou commest to be tormented amongst those uncleane spirits then wilt thou remember these holy admonitions which wee have tendred unto thee for the saving of thy soule but thou haddest rather goe to hell than to reconcile thy selfe to thy holy Mother the Church It is not long since said Copin that I was reconciled to the true Church After many violent assaults they gave way for his wife to come unto him and with her one of his sons promising them to set him at liberty to goe home with them if hee would make amends for his fault committed by acknowledging the same They gave his son and wife leave to this purpose to stay supper with him in prison during which time he used many exhorâ—ations tending to patience albeit the wife should depart to her house without an husband or the child without his father for be you well assured said her that God will be a better husband and a father unto you than ever I was or can be For his owne part he said he was not bound to love wife or children more then Christ besides they had cause to rejoyce and to think him happy that God would honor him so farre as to beare witnesse to his truth with the losse of his life and hoped hee said that God would be so favorable to him as to support him under any torments he was to endure for his glories sake In conclusion hee commended his sonne and one daughter to his wives care which God had given them in the married estate charging her againe and againe to sée them brought up vertuously and in the feare of God He charged his sonne to obey his mother so should he be made partaker of the promised blessing He intreated them both to pray for him that God would fortifie him against all temptations And thus having blessed his son and taken leave of his wife they were conducted out of the prison and he shut up as hee was before The woman and her son were dissolved into teares sighing and crying out that it would have moved the stoniest heart to compassion but this holy man not contenting himselfe with that hee had said to them by word of mouth writ unto his wife this Letter ensuing the originall whereof she hath exhibited to us written and signed with the hand of the said Copin the inscription thus following ¶ To my wel-beloved wife Susanna Copin from the Tower of Lucerna DEare yoke-fellow I received much consolation by your comming to this place and by so much the more as it was beyond my expectation and I suppose you also were not a little comforted that you had such an opportunity offered you as to sup with me the last night being Saturday the fiftéenth of September 1601. I know not well what they aymed at in permitting you so to doe But God ordereth all these things But as farre as I can ghesse it shall be the last time that ever we shall sup together in this life and therefore pray to God that hee will not cease to be a comfort unto you Trust you still in him for hee hath promised never to leave nor forsake those that put their trust in him God hath endued you with wisedome governe your owne family in such sort that our children Samuel and Martha may be obedient unto you whom in the name and authority of God I command that they obey you for so the blessing of Almighty God shall light upon them Deare wife be not over pensive for mee for Anno 1605. if God hath ordained me now to attaine unto the end of my race and that I must render into the hands of the Almighty my soule which so long time he hath lent me my hope is that of his holy and divine mercy he will receive it into his Kingdome for his owne beloved Sonnes sake Iesus Christ our Lord through whom I beléeve that my sinnes are forgiven for the onely merit of his holy death and passion Also my praier is that he will assist me by the power of his holy spirit unto my last breath Be fervent in praier and in all other parts of Gods worship and service for this is the way to true blessednesse Take no care about sending any thing unto me for these thrée wéeks and then I pray you send me some money if you thinke good to give the Iaylor and somewhat more for mine owne necessaries if it please God I live so long Also I pray you call
Sondres In which place being gathered together with the Pastor they made their prayers to God and afterwards to the number of thréescore and thirtéene persons in all they passed the valley of Malenco which was beset by the enemy on two sides but those that kept those places were by the providence of God so astonished that they fled away and the protestants although they were pursued to the tops of the hils did miraculously escape with safety The enemy that is to say the proper Inhabitants of the valley with their ringleaders Iames Robustello Azzo Besta Iohn Guizziardi Lorenzo Paribello and others entred into the Palace they deprived the Magistrate of his office that is to say Giovanni Andrea Traersio of Scants of the upper Agnadua Captaine and Governour of the Valtoline who with his family had retired himselfe into the house of Paul Clamar untill Wednesday the eleventh of Iuly on which day under protestation to secure them they were conducted to Malenco where in the Village of Chissa against their faith given they were mads prisoners and detained for eight daies following They who by the commandement of the said captaine found themselves to bee made prisoners were delivered putting in their roome certaine of the Religion They immediately changed the Calender and gave for a prey the goods of the Protestants by which occasion great multitudes of persons assembled from all the parts of the Valtoline to rob and spoile and by reason of the swéetnesse which they found in pillaging the goods they met with in divers noble houses excellently well furnished grew an intolerable heate and outrage to spoile insomuch as brother robbed brother and the néerest of kindred pursued and robbed one another and followed one another to the death The peasants hoping by meanes hereof to be exempted from paying their yearely rents ranne with all fury and madnes about the woods bushes and mountaines searching after the poore Protestants who were scattered by feare whom they murthered as they found them with extreme cruelty Amongst these were these Gentlemen of greatest worth and resolution Doctor Bartolomeo Paravicino of Sondres from whom they tooke about two thousand crownes Doctor Nicolas his brother whose brother Doctor Lelio had before béen slaine in the Church of Tell Petronio Paravicino Doctor and Giovan Battista Mallerio of Antwerpe in the Low-Countries a man endued with excellent rare qualities of mind and body for he was both a good Philosopher and a learned Divine and very fit to instruct youth he was surprised in the house of Morone and when they had stoned him to death they cut off his head ripped his belly and tooke out his entrailes His Children Giovan Andrea and Catharine were carried to Millane Annaidi Lita wife of Anthony Grotti of Chio in the territory of Vincentine of an honorable and antient house was come out of Italy but some few yeares before for the liberty of her conscience This Anna was first by them exhorted with faire words to change her Religion but she constantly persevering therein was admonished that she would at the least have a care of her young infant which she held in her armes being about two months old otherwise shee would make reckoning that in the twinkling of an eie both she and her babe should die but she with a bold and undaunted courage answered That she had not A holy resolution departed out of Italy her native Countrey neither had she forsaken all the estate she had to renounce at last that faith which had béen inspired unto her by the Lord Iesus Christ yea that she would rather suffer if it were possible a thousand deaths And how saith she should I have regard in this case of my infant since God our heaâ—enly Father spared not his onely Sonne my Lord Iesus but delivered him up to death for the love of me and of all sinners Then giving them the child she said behold the childe the Lord God who hath care of the birds of the aire will much more be able to save this poore creature although by you it were abandoned and left in those wilde mountaines So unlacing her gowne shee opened Behold here the power of faith her breast and said Here is the body which you have power to kill but my soule on which you have no power to lay hand that I commend to my God and presently she was slain and afterwards cut in pieces being thirty five yeares old The infant because it was a lovely and a swéet babe to looke on was suffered to live God restraining the cruelty of those butchers and was delivevered to a popish woman to nurse up And here is to be observed that this blessed Martyr imitated the commendable example of her deare brother Giovanni Antonio who for the profession of the truth Gods Word and Gospell can never be bound in theâ— hearâ— of Gods elect of the Gospell having continued in the said Chio and endured a grievous imprisonment two yeres together was at last condemned to the Galley where he died within two moneths after When he was bound in chains being carried from Chio he said You may indéed bind my person but the word of God shall never the more be bound in the hearts of the elect that it doe not shew manifestly it selfe and bring forth fruit c. According to this most Christian example Iohn Stéeven Moron and Rodulfo Rivello being both of them of the Valley of Sondres did not onely in their proper persons seal with their bloud the truth of the Gospell but moreover exhorted their children Iohn Andrea and Iohn Antonio the one of them being fiftéene yeares of age the other ten that they should doe the like following the honourable example of the seven brethren in the Machabées and of their mother who chose rather to dye than to obey the King and to transgresse the Law of the Lord. And yet by reason of the money and jewels found in the houses and chests of the Protestants the eagernesse and fury of each of those miscreants increased daily more and more insomuch as that there were neither noble nor ignoble nor Lady no neither man woman young nor old of what condition soever who were not ransacked and spoiled some twise and others oft times thrise over Some honourable matrons had their rings pulled off their fingers insomuch as they would cut off their hands and fingers if they would not presently draw them off Some women were by force dragged up to the tops of high and craggy mountaines and threatened to be throwne downe headlong with their children unlesse they would goe to masse And although Lucretia the wife of Antonio Lavizaro and Katherina wife of Giulio Merlianico being moved and terrified with the horror of death had consented to change their Religion yet were they murthered for all that without any pitty at all The same befell to D. Io. Battista Salici of Soglio in the Pregaglia for although that his life was promised him
neverthelesse he was brought into the market place of the said Campello pinioned with a cord and miserably slain with two musketiers being of the age of 72. after he had bin robbed of his gold and silver whereof great store was found in his house according to the common and too much practised rule of the Roman Catholikes Haereticis non est servanda â—ides Dominico Berto an aged man of 67 yeres was set upon an Asse his face turned to the taile which he held in his hand in stead of a bridle and in his other hand a booke whom in this manner they carried through Sondres saying Alessio Alessio c. they cut off his cares his nose his chéekes boring holes in divers parts of his body with a strange and unheard of barbarousnesse untill they had quite killed him but he for the love of Christ his Savior with great and incredible courage cheerfulnesse endured all those varieties of torments and martyrdome And by this it may be gathered what they would have don with Seignior Alessio a faithfull Pastor of the Church of Sondres if he had falne into the hands of these raging beasts But he by the great mercy of God was preserved with his wife and children in the company of seignior Georgio Ienatro Minister of Berbenno and Charles Salice son of Cavaliere Hercole of happy memory and others not without great travell danger and difficulties among the craggy and dangerous mountains whereon they travelled it so pleasing the gracious God by the vertue of his spirit graciously to assist him although he was in the midst of his persecutors Anthony de Prati of the hils was with many words exhorted to abjure his Religion but he constantly persevered and with a generous courage replyed in these words My soule shall be taken up into Abrahams bosome and after my death my enemies shall see the Angell of God hard by mee c. and accordingly an Angell appeared over his body in a white garment being beheld of the by-standers who of their owne accord have publikely confessed the same Theophilo Mossino received into his body a shot with a musket but before he was dead a gag was put in his mouth which being filled with gunpouder fire was given to it and in that manner he passed miserably out of this life Giovanni his son was slain with seven wounds Seignior Salvetto being delivered out of prison was instantly exhorted to embrace the catholike Romane Religion But notwithstanding he constantly persisted although he was both young in yeares and a lover of worldly vanities and having received a shot of a musket was carried by a ladder out of the Palace to the ground from whence he raised himselfe and besought them to finish the worke they had to doe about his body that he might render his soule to his Creator being 28 yeares of age Io. Battista Mingardino having received many wounds and being stripped of his garments and left naked in the woods nevertheles after this so evill intreaty hee returned to his house and although the Priests of Sondres did with all diligence possible exhort him to change his Religion promising him in case he would doe so mountaines of gold neverthelesse hee constantly persevered in the truth of the Gospell even to the end Christina Ambria the wife of Vincenzo Bruno of Prada Mudalena Merli of Montagna and Iohn Garato of Fruxagiola were thrown downe headlong into the river Adda from divers bridges of Boffetto S. Petro and others and so drowned because they had refused to embrace the Catholike Romane Religion and that with so manly and constant a resolution as did worke an admiraration in the persecutors themselves In this meane time notwithstanding the reverend Seignior Bartholomew Marlianico received the crowne of Martyrdome who sometimes had preached at Sondres a true servant of God and for his life and manners unreprovable Others had their mouths slit up to the eares others received other flashes in the face others were in other manner most cruelly mangled to the death Battista of Grilio called of the Bajacca an aged man of seventy five yeares being found in the house of the heires of Seignior Conte Vlisse Martinengo of most happy memory being set upon by those murthering cattifes leaped out of a window and passed the river Maleto and having gotten to his house and shifted his clothes he was assailed again taken prisoner and carried to the Palace put often to the strapado and lastly was in such sort sliced and hewne with a sword that he had nothing left him but the armes which were fastened to the cord Paulo Baretta of Chio in the County of Vicence a virgin of the age of seventy five yeares of an honourable noble and antient family who twenty seven yeares came before to Sondres to embrace the Gospell was by these villanies caried through Sondres with all disgrace shame and scorne having a Myter of paper put upon her head her face besmeared with diâ—â— and many buffets given in her chéekes and in many other fashions abused Being required to call upon the holy Virgin Mary and the Saints and to place her trusting in them she smiling did with great readinesse answer them My trust and my salvation is in my onely Savior Iesus Christ and in him onely will I rest And it is also true That I acknowledge the Virgin Mary for the most holy Virgin above all others which ever was or ever will be who was a Virgin before the birth a virgin in the birth and after birth and so shall remain Who although she be favoured and beloved of God above all women in the world to be made the Mother of my Lord Iesus the Savior of the world nevertheles because she is not able to know our necessities as not being omnipotent for otherwise she would be God himselfe and besides hath had néed of the merits of her son it was not lawfull for her to call upon any other then the eternall God who knoweth all things and upon no creature of any quality whatsoever c. In this sort she endured the scornes and outrages with an incredible constancy and chéerfulnesse saying continually I do willingly endure as becommeth mee to doe desiring no better usage since the very same hath béen done to my Lord and Savior Iesus and to his Apostles and to thousands of the holy martyrs Lastly she was carried away to be sent to Millaine but she rather then that should be desired earnestly that she might be killed séeing she was resolved to die in the faith of the Lord Iesus both there and at Millaine but she could not obtaine the favour to be killed there but was carried along as hath héen said On Wednesday being the eightéenth of Iuly was found in the plaine of Saint Gregory in the Valtoline in the high way the dead body of an old woman which by the conjecture of some was the body of this woman Paulo who in conclusion had béen murthered by the assasinate in