punishment for the truth which I have professed I esteem not of this world nor the treasures of it more than for my necessary uses and the rest to bestow in the propagation and maintenance of the Gospel And I beseech God daily upon my knees for my wife and children that they may all continue in this quarrel even to the death And when he came to his execution he patiently and comfortably slept in the Lord. At the same time there was also brought forth one John Gonsalvo formerly a Priest but by his diligent study of the Scripture it pleased God to reveal his truth to him so that he became a zealous Preacher of it labouring in all his Sermons to beat into mens minds the true way and means of our Justification to consist in Christ alone and in stedfast faith in him for which he was apprehended and cast into prison where he endured all their cruely with a Christian courage At last with two of his Sisters he was condemned His mother and one of his brothers were also imprisoned with him for the truth and executed shortly after When he with his sisters went out at the Castle gate having his tongue at liberty he began to sing the 106. Psalm before all the People who had oft heard him make many godly Sermons He also condemned all hypocrites as the worst sort of People Whereupon they stocked his tongue Upon the stage he never changed countenance nor was at all daunted When they all came to the stake they had their tongues loosed and were commanded to say their Creed which they did chearfully when they came to those words The holy Catholick Church They were commanded to adde Of Rome but that they all refused whereupon their necks were broken in a trice and then 't was noised abroad that they had added those words and died confessing the Church of Rome to be the true Catholick Church There was in Sivil a private Congregation of Gods people most of which the Inquisitors consumed in the fire as they could discover any of them amongst others that were apprehended they took four women famous above the rest for their holy and godly conversation but especially the youngest of them who was not above one and twenty years old who by her diligent and frequent reading of the Scriptures and by conference with godly and learned men had attained to a very great measure of knowledge so that whilst she was in Prison she non-plus'd and put to shame many of those Friars that came to seduce her Another of these women was a grave Matron whose house was a School of vertue and a place where the Saints used to meet serve God day and night but the time being come wherein they were ripe for God they together with other of their neighbours were apprehended and cast into prison where they were kept in dark dungeons and forced to endure all the cruel and extream torments which are before mentioned At last they were condemned and brought forth to the scaffold amongst other Prisoners The young maid especially came with a merry and cheerful countenance as it were triumphing over the Inquisitors and having her tongue at liberty she began to sing Psalms to God whereupon the Inquisitors caused her tongue to be nipped by setting a Barnacle upon it After sentence read they were carried to the place of execution where with much constancy and courage they ended their lives Yet the Inquisitors not satisfied herewith caused the house of the Matron where the Church used to meet to be pulled down and the ground to be laid waste and a pillar to be erected upon it with an inscription shewing the cause There was also apprehended another worthy member of the same Congregation called Ferdinando he was of a fervent spirit and very zealous in doing good A young man but for integrity of life very famous He had spent eight years in educating of youth and had endeavoured to sow the seeds of Piety in the hearts of his Scholars as much as lay in him to do in a time of so great persecution and tyranny being at the last apprehended for a Lutheran he was cast into prison and terribly tormented upon the Jeobit and in the Trough whereby he was so shaken in every joynt that when he was taken down he was not able to move any part of his body yet did those cruel tormentors draw him by the heels into his prison as if he had been a dead dog But notwithstanding all his torments he answered the Inquisitors very stoutly and would not yield to them one jot During his imprisonment God used him as an instrument to recal and confirme a Monk who had been cast into prison for confessing the Gospel openly But by means of the Inquisitors flatteries and fair promises he had somewhat relented Gods Providence so ordering it that Ferdinando was cast into the same prison and finding the Monk wavering he rebuked him sharply and afterwards having drawn him to a sight of and sorrow for his sinne he at last strengthned him in the promises of free grace and mercy Hereupon the Monk desired a day of hearing where before the Inquisitors he solemnly renounced his recantation desiring that his former confession might stand whereupon the sentence of death passed against them both after which the Inquisitors asked Ferdinando whether he would revoke his former heresies to which he answered That he had professed nothing but what was agreeable to the pure and perfect Word of God and ought to be the profession of every Christian man and therefore he would stick to it to the death Then did they clap a Barnacle upon his tongue and so they were burned together There was also one Juliano called The little because he was of a small and weak body who going into Germany was there conversant with divers learned and godly men by which means he attained to the knowledge of the truth and became a zealous Professor of it and earnestly longing after the salvation of his Countreymen he undertook a very dangerous work which was to convey two great dry Fat 's full of Bibles printed in Spanish into his own Countrey In this attempt he had much cause of fear the Inquisitors had so stopped every Port and kept such strict watch to prevent the coming in of all such commodities but through Gods mighty protection he brought his burden safely thither and which was almost miraculous he conveyed them safe into Sivil notwithstanding the busie searchers and catch-poles that watched in every corner These Bibles being dispersed were most joyfully and thankfully received and through Gods blessing wrought wonderfully amongst Gods people to ripen them against the time of harvest But at last the matter broke out by the means of a false brother who going to the Inquisitors played the Judas and betrayed the whole Church to them So that there
for me by all ways fields floods and corners where he thought I might hide my self God striking him with such blindness that he could not find my house After these three days the Lord God willing and commanding me to flie and marvellously opening to me the way I with my Children and many other brethren vvent out together and so escaped Also Agatha a godly Virgin of Sicilie suffered divers and bitter torments of imprisonment with beatings famine racking as also rolling naked upon sharp shels and hot coals and having her breasts cut off her body Also forty other Virgins by sundry kinds of torments were put to death about the same time Decius erecting a Temple at Ephesus compelled all in the City to offer Sacrifice to Idols but there were seven Christian souldiers of his own Retinue who refused neither could the Emperor by perswasions or threats induce them to it yet he gave them respite till his return from the Wars in the mean time they hid themselves in a cave in the mountain Celius At the Emperors Return he made great inquisition for them and at last hearing where they were he caused the mouth of the cave so to be closed up that they could not get out and so they were famished there There was also one Nicetas a Christian souldier whom when the Praetor could not by any torments remove from his stedfastness he took another course with him for he brought him into a most fragrant garden flowing with all manner of pleasures and delights where he laid him upon a bed of down softly enwrapped in a net of silk among the Lillies and Roses the delicious murmure of the streams and the sweet whistling of the leaves moved with a gentle wind and so departed presently in comes a beautifull strumpet and useth all the abominable tricks of her impure Art and whorish villanies to draw him to commit wickedness with her whereupon the young man fearing that he should now be conquered by folly who was Conqueror over fury bites off a piece of his tongue with his own teeth and spits it into the face of the whore and so prevented the hurt of sin by the smart of his wound At Antioch Theodora a godly Virgin refusing to sacrifice to the Idols was condemned by the Judge to the Stews which sentence being executed there were many wanton young men ready at the door to press into the house where she was but one of the brethren called Didymus putting on a souldiers habit would have the first admittance and coming in he perswaded her to change garments with him and so she in the souldiers habit escaped away and Didymus was left to the rage and wondring of the people when he was found a man hereupon he was presented to the President to whom he presently confessed the whole matter professing himself to be a Christian and so was condemned which Theodora hearing of thinking to excuse him she came and presented her self to the Judge as the guilty party desiring that she might be condemned and the other excused but the cruell Judge neither considering the vertue of the persons nor the innocency of the cause most inhumanely condemned them both first to be beheaded and then burnt which was accordingly executed Agathon a man at arms in Alexandria rebuking some lewd persons who scornfully used the dead bodies of the Christians was accused to the Judge and lost his head In Troada two Christians being delivered by the Proconsul to the people were first scourged then drawn out of the City and there troden to death Two Ministers with a Deacon were martyred in Rome and two noble men were brought and accused to Decius for burying the dead bodies of the Christians and being by him commanded to sacrifice to the Idols and they refusing he caused them to be cast to the wild beasts but when they would not touch them they were beheaded with the sword Also Secundianus was accused to be a Christian which he affirming was commanded to prison by the way two Christians cryed to the souldiers asking them whether they carried the innocent man whereupon being apprehended and examined they confessed themselves to be Christians and were condemned first they were beaten with cudgels then hung up and tormented with the gibbet having fire set to their sides lastly were beheaded But some of their tormentors were taken with evil spirits others of them fell down suddenly and died But the number of Martyrs of all ranks that suffered in this persecution was so great that it is impossible to set them down all Bishops Ministers Deacons c. young old men women c. Yet amongst this great number some there were that fell away as Serapion an old man that for a long time had lived a sincere and godly life who afterwards repenting of his Apostacy desired to be re-admitted into the Church but that was not granted Shortly after he fell sick and in it having remained dumb and bereaved of his senses for twenty four hours the day after he began a little to recover and calling his Nephew to him he said How long how long do you detain me here make haste that I may be absolved Call me hither some of the Ministers c. and so being absolved he presently after died In Troada Nicomachus being grievously tormented cryed out I am no Christian and so being let down from the Engine he had no sooner sacrificed to the Idols but being possessed by the devil he was thrown on the ground where he bit off his own tongue and immediately after died Many others which shewed the like cowardise were taken and tormented with wicked spirits One was struck dumb A maid taken with a wicked spirit tore out her own tongue and died with grievous torments in her belly and inward parts But though some did thus fall away yet others there were whom neither fear nor pain could remove from their stedfastness but they continued glorious Martyrs to the end Cyprian relates a story of one of his fellow-Ministers who in the midst of his torments began to faint being greatly afraid of death and desired to be released at which time there appeared to him a young man of admirable beauty and so bright that mans mortal eye could scarce endure to behold him who angerly said to him Pati timetis exire non vultis quid faciam vobis To suffer you dare not to go out you will not what would you have me do unto you In this Persecution there sprung up the Novatian Schism which made a great disturbance in the Church This Novatus being a Minister under Cyprian in Carthage by stirring up discord and factions bred much trouble to the Church seeking to withdraw certain of the brethren from the Bishop And afterwards Novatus going to Rome set up himself as a Bishop against Cornelius the then Bishop of Rome And to further his design he by
vice and wickedness you never said word to me but now for savouring and favouring the Word of God you seek my blood Then did they examine him about sundry Articles of Religion to which whilst he was making a full answer they cut him off bidding him answer in two words Yea or No Whereupon he said If you will not give me leave to answer fully to things of such importance send me again to my dungeon amongst the Toads and Frogs who will not interrupt me whilst I talk with my Lord my God Shortly after he was condemned to be burned and having a bag of powder hung about his neck when the fire came to it it gave a crack whereupon the Friars told the People that the Divel came out of him and carried away his soul to hell A tyrannous Prince in Germany apprehended a godly Minister and for his constancy in the truth put out both his eyes and kept him a long time in prison afflicting him with divers kinds of torments Then did he cause him to be degraded shaving the skin off his head and rubbing it with salt till the blood ran down his shoulders and paring off the ends of his fingers so that four days after he patiently yielded up the Ghost Not long after there was a godly Minister in Antwerp called Christopher Fabri that was betrayed by a woman who pretended a great zeal to Religion and was cast into prison where he lay for a long time and endured much misery at last he was brought forth and condemned to be burnt alive And when the Margrave brought him forth to execution the people having first sung Psalmes fell to casting of stones against the Executioner so as the poor Prisoner being bound and fire set to him the Margrave durst stay no longer but ran away and so did the executioner but before he fled by the command of the Margrave he took a hammer and beat out Fabrie's brains and stabbed him into the back with a dagger so that the people running to save him from the fire found him dead after which by the command of the Margrave he had a great stone tied about his neck and was thrown into the river Anno 1549. One Nicholas and Barbara his wife and one Austin and Marrian his wife Germans by birth went to Geneva where they lived for a space then returning through Germany they intended to go into England but having passed through Dornick they were discovered to the Lieutenant thereof who speedily pursuing them overtook them yet at that time God delivered Austin out of their hands but Nicholas and the two women were apprehended and carried back by the souldiers Coming to an Inne by the way at table Nicholas gave thanks whereat the wicked Captain swearing grievously said Let us see thou lewd Heretick if thy God can deliver thee out of my hand Nicholas replyed Hath Christ ever offended you that by your blasphemous swearing you thus tear him in pieces Pray you if you have any thing against Christ rather wreak your anger upon this poor body of mine and let the Lord alone Then did he bind them hands and feet and carried them to Burges and cast them into the dungeon Divers Friers coming to them Nicholas in disputing with them so confounded them that they went away ashamed saying that he had a divel crying To the fire with the Lutherane Afterwards the Magistrate sought to pump out of Nicholas what acquaintance he had in that City but not prevailing with him he went to his wife and by flattering speeches and fair promises he wrought so upon her weaknesse that he gat out all that she knew whereupon ensued a great persecution Shortly after Nicholas was condemned to be burned at the hearing of which sentence he blessed the Lord who had counted him worthy to be a witnesse in the cause of his dear and wel-beloved Son Jesus Christ At the place of execution hew a commanded not to speak to the People for if he did he should have a woodden ball thrust into his mouth yet as he was binding to the stake forgetting the command he cryed out O Charles Charles how long shall thy heart be hardned With that one of the Souldiers gave him a great blow Then he said Ah miserable People who are not worthy that the Word should be preached to you The Friars crying out that he had a Divel he answered them in the words of David Depart from me all ye wicked for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping and so commending his spirit into the hands of God he ended his life in the midst of the flames Marrian was condemned to be buried quick and when some earth was thrown upon her the hangman stamped upon her with his feet till she died Afterwards Austin that had before escaped was apprehended and being examined though by nature he was a very timorous and weak man yet did he stand to the defence of the truth valiantly and answered his adversaries very boldly Being condemned to be burnt as he was going to execution a Gentleman drank to him in a cup of wine exhorting him to pity himself at least not to destroy his soule Austin thanked him saying What care I have of my soule you may see by this in that I had rather give my body to be burned then to sin against my conscience Being tyed to the stake and fire set to him he heartily prayed to the Lord and so patiently departed Anno 1551. The Emperour Chales the fifth having obtruded the Interim upon Germany many godly Ministers were persecuted and driven from their places for opposing the same as may be seen in my first part of Lives The city of Magdenburg also for refusing it had an army sent against it which besieged it for a whole year together whereby many of the godly Citizens lost their lives and others endured great miseries But at last Gods providence so ordering of it warre arose betwixt the Emperour and the King of France whereupon peace was granted unto Magdenburg upon good terms and the inhabitants enjoyed their former Religion quietly Anno 1555. There was one Hostius born at Gaunt who for some time was a member of the French Church here in London in King Edwards days but in the beginning of Queen Maries reign he went vvith his family to Norden in Frizeland and aftervvards having some businesse to Gaunt he went thither where he instructed many of his friends in the truth and hearing that a Friar used to preach good doctrine he went to hear him but the Friar that day defended transubstantiation which so grieved him that he could scarce refrain from speaking till the Sermon was ended When the Friar was come down from the Pulpit he charged him for preaching false doctrine perswading the people by the Scripture that the bread was but the Sacrament of the