Opposer in the World then the Prince of Orange and that if he were dead they should quickly attain their desire in the Netherlands found out a fit Instrument one Balthazar Gerrard who was more successful and watch'd his opportunity so well that as the Prince was going out of the Hall after Dinner the Murtherer stood behind a Pillar and as the Prince was going by shot him from the Left Side to the Right through the Stomach and Vitals So hard a thing it is to scape the never sleeping Argus's of Popish Malice and Revenge And so far different are the Papists from all other Men that have any thing of common Morality not to mention Christianity that whereas all other Men detested the Fact they alone rejoic'd and glory'd in it Nor was it at all for the honour of the Spanish Monarch to countenance such an inglorious and treacherous Act of Assassination as this was Nevertheless it cannot be said to be the only President which shews that the Contagion of Romes bloody Maxims spreads it self as well into the Courts of Princes as into the Cloysters of Rabble Monks and Jesuites For let us but step into the neighbouring Kingdom of France and there we shall see Popish Treachery and Dissimulation in the highest degree designing not only the Massacre of single Persons but of thousands in Clusters and all upon that unchristian Pretence of rooting out of Heretics A strange blindness in Princes not to discover themselves to be only the Pope's Instruments to destroy their own Subjects and dispeople their own Dominions merely to pleasure the Tyranny and Usurpation of an Antichrist After a tedious Contest of ten years in all which time the Popish Party made but little progress in their Designs being headed by the Prince of Conde the old Admiral Coligny and several other great Lords their Kindred and Adherents Charles IX who was but young the Queen-Mother and the Duke of Guise began to think of laying Force aside and to betake themselves to Craft and Dissimulation To which purpose the King was advis'd to set on foot a Treaty of Peace with the Protestants not so much out of a design to quiet Affairs by a happy Settlement as to bring the Protestants into a fatal Snare in which being once intrapp'd they might be the more securely and easily destroy'd For it was believ'd that the Extirpation of Heresie might be done at a much cheaper rate then by a Civil War if the Protestants had granted them what Conditions they desired and were treated with all imaginable Kindness by which means their Jealousies being once extinguish'd and they lull'd into a Confidence the chief Heads of the Party might be drawn to the Court and then they were sure of them To this effect the first bait to be offer'd was the Marriage of the King's Sister to the King of Navar Which not succeeding new means might be thought upon till they found out one that would do their business Nor would it signifie any thing if the King of Spain and the Pope were offended to see the young King so highly favour Heretics in regard that when they had effected their Design he would come off at last with so much the more Honour and receive applause from both The Plot being thus laid the Queen-Mother by her Emissaries assur'd the Protestants that she mortally hated the Spaniards which for several good Reasons was then easily believ'd On the other side the King dissembled an Inclination to undertake the Protection of the Netherlands then under the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva He also seem'd to be weary of the Greatness of the Duke of Guise and his Party Moreover the Queen of Navarr was promis'd an Army for the recovery of her Country And as for the Constable he was weary of the Civil Wars and believing he should be the Person employ'd in the Conquest of the Netherlands began to listen to these Lures So that upon these and some other Conditions a Peace was concluded between the King and the Protestants and some cautionary Towns put into their hands till a full settlement of Matters In all which things the King acted his part with all the subtilty imaginable He shew'd himself much kinder to the Mont morency's and the rest of the Admiral 's Friends seem'd to neglect those of Lorain threatned the Parliament of Paris for making some difficulty in passing the Edicts in favour of the Protestants treated privately with Lewis Count of Nassaw about the Wars of the Netherlands entred into a Confederacy with Queen Elizabeth and employ'd the Cardinal of Chastillon to treat of a Match between Her and the Duke of Anjou And when the Spanish Embassador and the Pope's Legate dissuaded him from the Peace and the Marriage with the Queen of Navar the King desir'd the Legate to assure the Pope that his design in the Marriage was only to be reveng'd on those that were Enemies to God and himself and that he would either cut them all to pieces or lose his Crown Upon such Demonstrations as these it was no wonder if Persons of so much candour as the Queen of Navarr and the Admiral were deluded The Admiral went first to Court where he was receiv'd by the King with all the shew of Respect and Kindness imaginable He embrac'd him three times laid his Cheek so his squeez'd his Hands call'd him Father and left nothing omitted to possess him with a deep opinion of his Friendship Nor was the Queen less officious in her Carriage to him He was allow'd a Guard of Fifty armed Gentlemen a Hundred thousand Franks were sent him to refurnish his Houses that had bin spoil'd during the Wars And when he carry'd any Complaints to the King of any Violation of the Edicts the King order'd the Offenders to be forthwith severely punish'd With all the King told him That since he had got him so near his Person he would never permit him to forsake him as long as he liv'd The Admiral being thus successfully brought into the Toyl the Proposal of the Marriage was vigorously carry'd on and the Queen of Navarr was next inveigled to Court but soon after dy'd as is generally presum'd of Poyson which was given her in a Pair of perfum'd Gloves To conceal which the Chyrurgeon that opend'd her according to his Instructions would not open her Head but pretended she dy'd of an Impostume in her Side The Cardinal of Chastillon was poyson'd also at the same time which tho' confess'd by him that did it was hush'd up without any further Enquiry made into the business However to colour these Miscarriages the King of France seem'd to be wholly bent upon the War in Flanders to which purpose he sent into the Low-Countries and Germany to consult about the Preparations He also furnish'd the Count of Nassaw with Mony and sent some of his best Commanders with him who acted their part so dext'rously that Mons was surpriz'd by the Count of Nassaw and Valenciennes by Lanoue
and Extirpation the Torments and Tortures of which are but like Storms and Hurricanes that last only for a time from whence at length Death gives release But the French are generally accompted a more wittie and Inventive sort of people then their Neighbours and therefore the Virulent Popish Clergy of that Kingdom tho no less malicious and wicked then their Brethren would be thought more ingenious then to go the common Road of Massacre and Extirpation finding themselves perhaps so infamous for that already For which reason they have found out a new way to keep Men alive in their Torments and make use of their Tortures not so much to kill the Body as the Soul. They find they cannot by their own Arguments convert the Protestants and therefore they send Profligate Dragoons and vilanous Soldiers to try what they can do by the rude Arguments of Rapine and Violence And because they cannot find that ever Christ or his Apostles ever made use of any such means of Conversion therefore they punish the Protestants not for their Religion but for being Rebeland Disobedient to their Soveraign and make their rejecting Popish trash and Ceremony to be disloyaltie Perfidiousness and Ingratitude generally go together and both meeting in the Popish Clergy of France have bin the Ruin of so many hundred thousand of French Protestants some in their Bodies and Estates some in Estates Bodies and Souls altogether But it is well known that soon after the present King of France came to the Crown there arose a Civil War in the Kingdom so sharp and desperate that it brought the State within a hairs breadth of Ruin. In the midst of which Troubles those of the reformed Religion kept their Loyaltic in so inviolable a manner and gave each proofs of their Eminent Services that the King found himself oblig'd to give public Marks of it by a Declaration made at St. Germans in the year 1652. So far were they from being at that time accounted Rebels or Disobedient But the Romish Clergy of France more then Diabolically Malicious and envying the Prosperity of the Protestants and believing a Toleration of their Religion would be an Eclipse or Diminution of their Authority orderd it so that their chiefest Glory proved the principal and most essential part of their Ruin. For the Jesuits and their Party made it their business to envenome all those Impotent Services in the King and his Ministers minds Reasoning by the Instinct of the Devil that if the Party of the Protestants were so considerable that they could preserve the State they were able as well to overthrow it if a fair occasion should offer it self For which reasons grounded upon Antichristian Politicks a Resolution was taken to suppress all the Protestant Party and to bury in Oblivion all the good Services they had done To which purpose in the first place they took from them the use of their Churches and deny'd them the benefit of Law and Justice and overwhelm'd them with an Inundation of Criminal Processes that fastned on their Reputations their Liberties and their Lives The Curates and other Officers of Parishes were impower'd to enquire exactly into whatever the Reformists might have done or said for some years past either upon the score of Religion or otherwise and to make Information thereof before the Magistrates of the Places who were to punish them without Remission So that in short time in all places the Prisons were fill'd with these kind of Criminals neither were false witnesses lacking and that which was most horrible was that tho the Judges were convinc'd that the Witnesses were all Knights of the Post yet they maintained them and upheld them in their false Testimony And thus the most Innocent and Virtuous persons were Condemned some to the Gallies others to Exilement and public penances And this sort of Persecution fell chiefly on the Ministers who could never preach without having for their Spies and Observators a Troop of Monks Priests and Missionaries who made no scruple to charge them with things which they never so much as thought of and to pervert others into a contrary Sense and these false Interpretations of the Preachers thoughts were lookt upon by the chief Ministers of State as evident Proofs Then as for the Secular Protestants Their Estates were weaken'd and by expensive Suits in maintenance of their own Rights which were always giv'n against them the better sort were deprived of all Offices and Employments both Military and Civil and the meaner sort of all ways of Subsistance They rendred all Arts and Trades almost inaccessible to the Protestants by the difficulties of arriving to the Mastership of them and by the excessive Expences they must be at to be admitted therein which they could not be without a Law-Suit under the weight of which most commonly they sunk as not being able to hold out They were made incapable of being Magistrates of Towns or Cities and they were so narrowly lookt after that they were not suffer'd to be so much as Messengers Coachmen or Waggoners or any thing of that nature Nay they proceeded to that excess of Cruelty that they would not suffer any Midwives of the Reformed Religion to do their Office by which unheard of Methods it is not to be exprest how many particular Persons and Families were reduc'd to Ruin and Misery And thus we see how severe the Usages shew'd to the French Protestants were before they came to the utmost Violence But now they come to open Force to accomplish the Ruin of the Protestants and Dragooners must be the Sorbon Doctors to confute them of their Errors The manner of which was this in all the Protestant Towns Cities and Villages of France the Inhabitants were assembled together and told That it was the King's pleasure they should immediately turn Catholics and that if they would not do it freely he would make them do it by Force To which the People answer'd That they were ready to sacrifice their Lives and Estates to the King but their Consciences being God's they could not in any manner dispose of them This being the general Proposal and the general Reply presently the Dragoons that lay not far off were all sent for and quarter'd in the Reformists Houses at discretion with a strict Charge That none should stir out of their Houses nor conceal any of their Goods or Effects on great Penalties Then the first Arguments they us'd for the Conversion of the Souls committed to their Charge was to consume all the Provisions the House afforded then to plunder what they could find whether Money Rings or Jewels and in general what ever was of value afterwards they pilladg'd the Houses and sold the Goods before the owners faces Lastly they fell upon their persons and there is no Wickedness or Act of Horrour which they did not put in practise to force them to change their Religion Amidst a thousand hideous cries and a thousand Blasphemies they hung up Women by the hair and feet on the Roof of the Chamber or Chimney Hooks and smoakt them with wisps of wet hay till they were no longer able to bear it and when they Had taken them down if they would not sign a Recantation they hung them up in the same manner again They threw them into great fires kindled on purpose and never pulled them out till they were half roasted They ty'd ropes under their Arms and plung'd them up and down in Wells till they promised to change their Religion They ty'd their hands behind them and then with a funnel pour'd Wine down their Throats so long till being depriv'd of their reason they consented to be Catholics They stript Women naked and after they had offered them a thousand Indignities they stuck them with pins from the top to the bottom They cut them with penknives and sometimes with red hot pincers dragged them about the room till they promised to turn They kept others from sleeping seven or eight days and nights together releiving one another to keep them waking If they found any sick and that kept their Beds they had the Cruelty to beat twelve Drums together about their Ears without Intercession for whole weeks together They ty'd Fathers and Husbands to the Bedposts and Ravished their Wives and Daughters before their faces They pluckt off the Nails from the hands and toes of others They blew up Men and Women with bellows till they were ready to burst Pretending to shave Mens Beards and cut their Hair they flead off Skin and Hair from both Parts Where they found wine and glasses good store they broke their glasses at every Health and then having trod or broken the Glass very small caused the obstinate Heretic as they call'd him to daunce upon the broken Glass till he was able to stand no longer then stripping him they rowl'd him from one end of the room to the other upon sharp glass till the Skin was stuck full of the little Fragments and then sent for a Surgeon to cut them out of his Body By these Inhuman and more then Barbarous Arguments do the wicked Crew of Jesuits and Monks in France endeavour to vanquish the most resolv'd Patiences and by such devilish inventions as these to drive the distressed Protestants to despair and faint-heartedness They refuse to give them Death which they desire and only keep them alive to torment them This then being the true Spirit of Popery so generally Reigning in all Ages and Countries where they have the power in their hands the Inference is this that if we have any love of our Religion any Abhorrence of Superstition and Idolatry any Care of our Laws or Estates and Concernment for the Strength and Wealth of the Nation and desire to hold the Freedom of our Consciences the Vertue and Honour of our Families or any care of self-preservation to escape Massacres and the Tormenting Rage of Persecution it will behove us to beware how we suffer this Diabolical Sect to prevail in whose successes we can expect no other then to forfeit all the foregoing Interests perish our selves and bequeath Idolatry Slavery and Beggery to our Posterity FINIS
a Sambenito or long Garment painted all over with ugly Devils having a high-crown'd Hat upon which a Man is painted burning in the Fire with several Devils plying him with Fire and Faggot Their Tongues are also put between a cleft Piece of Wood which nips and pinches their Tongues so that they cannot speak and their Hands are moreover fast bound behind them And yet such is the Wicked Hypocrisie of these Inquisitors that when they bequeath any person to the Secular Power to be burnt they do it with this humble request To shew the Prisoner as much Favour as may be and neither to break any Bone nor pierce the Skin of his Body A strange piece of Impudence to pretend to so much Mercy and Clemency toward those to whom themselves have bin all along so extreamly Barbarous and Cruel These Inquisitors one time among the rest apprehended a Noble Lady in Sevil because that a Sister of hers a vertuous Virgin confessed in the Extremity of her Torments that she had sometime had Conference with this Sister of hers about matters of Religion This Lady they shut up in close Prison and us'd her in all things as they did their other Prisoners and at length so terribly tormented her in the Trough that by reason of the strait straitning of the Strings cutting to the very Bones of her Arms Thighs and Shins she was brought back half dead to the Prison the Blood gushing out at her Mouth in great abundance so that she dy'd within eight days In the same manner was a whole Congregation of Faithful and Religious People cut off at Sevil the most of whom the Inquisitors consum'd with Fire as they could discover and apprehend them By what has bin said it may be easily seen how great and exorbitant is the rage and cruelty of these bloody and merciless Inquisitors to all that profess the Truth of Scripture and how slight a thing they make of murthering and torturing the Bodies of all that come under their tyranny making no distinction either of Age or Sex. And hence it may be as easie for all true Englishmen to judge how fatal the Consequences might have bin had the Liberty of this Nation bin subdu'd under the heavy weight of Inquisition and Slavery In Germany after the Victories of Charles V against the Lutherans there ensu'd a very bitter Persecution in many places Authority arm'd with Laws and vigorous Malice striving against simple Verity Both Ministers and People some were tossed from place to place some exil'd out of their native Countries others driven into the Woods and forc'd to live in Caves some tormented upon the Rack and others burnt with Fire and Faggot Henry Sutphen a laborious Minister was by his merciless Adversaries the Monks and Priests in Meldorp hal'd out of his Bed naked in the depth of Winter and driven bare-foot over the Ice till his Feet were cut to the Bone then bound in Chains and set in the Stocks after that remov'd to another place and shut up in a Cupboard the next day bound Hands and Feet and Neck together and hurry'd away to be burnt At what time a certain Woman proffering herself to suffer Two thousand Stripes and give them a considerable Sum of Mony but to respit his Life till he could have a public Hearing they threw her under foot and trod upon her and not content to burn the poor Martyr inhumanly and barbarously cut and mangled him before they threw him in the Fire Another of the same Function was thrown into Prison where among other Cruelties he was hoisted up with a Cord and a great Stoue hanging at his Heels so that the Sweat which dropt from his Body through pain and anguish lookt like Blood and they let him down with such an extraordinary swing that the violence of the fall laid him almost for dead then they let him down into a deep Dungeon where they kept him eighteen days and then burnt him And all this while none but the Monks and Fryers both his Accusers Judges and Hangmen With the same cruelty was one Nicholas apprehended at Antwerp bound up in a Sack and thrown into the River In the Year 1543 notice being given that certain Lutherans met privately together at Lovaine an Inquisitor coming from Brussels with a Band of Soldiers brake into their Houses and hal'd away the Men and Women out of their Beds from their Children Two were burnt alive in the Fire an Aged Man was beheaded and two old Women burnt quick Which leads us to the bloody Persecution in the Netherlands Where the Light of the Gospel being much spread abroad King Philip of Spain sent the Duke of Alva with a great Army to root out the Professors of it who exercised unparallell'd Cruelties and Butcheries against all sorts of Persons both of the Nobility and Commons permitting his Soldiers to Ravish Matrons and Virgins while their Husbands and Parents were forc'd to stand by and behold it The Duke himself also boasted that he had bin a diligent Rooter out of Heresie for that besides those which he had slain in War in the space of six yeras he had put into the Hands of the common Hangman above eighteen thousand Persons His Son Don Frederic being sent by him to Zurphen was receiv'd by the Burghers without any Opposition yet was he no sooner entred the Town but he fell to murther hang and drown a number of Inhabitants with infinite Cruelties shew'd upon Wives and Virgins not sparing the very Infants From thence marching to Naerden the Inhabitants made an agreement with him and he entred the Town upon Conditions consented to and the Faith of a Soldier But never did Canibals or Scythians or the most barbarous People in the World commit more abominable Outrages then Duke Frederic sufferd in this Town For after he had assembled the Burghers into the Chappel of the Hospital under pretence of giving them Instructions for the future government of their City he commanded his Soldiers to murther them all without sparing any one Thus the Men were Massacred the Women were first Ravish'd and then most cruelly Murther'd the Inhabitants and Children had their Throats cut and in some Houses they ty'd the Inhabitants to the Posts and then set fire to their Houses and burnt them alive So that in the whole Town neither Man Wife Maid nor Child Young nor Old werespar'd After this the Town of Harlem was after a long Siege surrendred to the same Don Frederic upon a Composition by which they were to pay Two hundred and forty thousand Florins to redeem themselves and the Town from Spoil But Don Frederic having thus got into the Town commanded that at the Toll of the Great Bell all the Burghers and Soldiers should carry their Arms into the Stat-house that the Townsmen should go into the Cloyster of Ziel the Women into the Cathedral Church and the Soldiers into another Church and while the poor Burghers were guarded in the Church the perfidious
Upon which all Men believ'd that the King was now engag'd and the War begun Upon which the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde were brought to Court and receiv'd with all the Marks of assured Friendship A Dispensation was also obtain'd from the new Pope for the Marriage which the Pope was easily induc'd to grant upon the Information which he had receiv'd from the Cardinal's Legate of the King 's treacherous Design in Marriage which it behov'd the Pope neither to obstruct nor delay So that the Bull being sent to the Cardinal of Bourbon the day was appointed and the chief Heads of the Protestants were all drawn into Paris partly to be present at the Solemnities partly to get Employments in the Army which all Men believ'd would be commanded by the Admiral And now the Design being ripe the Duke of Guise who was privy to the Conspiracy was order'd to gather as many Desperado's and Bravado's about him as might be fit for any sort of Mischief By which means the Plot getting into more hands took wind so that the Rochellers being inform'd of some suspicious Passages wrote to the Admiral to leave the Court and not to trust the guilded Appearances which he saw there But the Admiral was so infatuated that he wrote them back a long Answer wherein he assur'd them That the King's Heart was wholly chang'd That there was never a better Prince in the World and that for his part he would rather die a thousand deaths then suspect him capable of so base a Design So easie a thing it is for Treachery in Youth to deceive hoary Generosity and Candour On the Seventeenth of August the King of Navarr was marry'd and four days were spent in all the magnificent Divertisements which are usual upon such Occasions But now it was time for the Mine to play that had bin so long working under Ground As for the Protestants there was nothing to be blam'd but too much Candour and Confidence They design'd nothing but the Tranquility of their Country and the Grandeur of the Crown On the other side in the Papists nothing but deep Dissimulation and villanous Design While the Protestants were cajol'd with the most engaging Tokens of Friendship that ever could be shew'd they took the King to be sincere and being then but just coming to be of Age that he was going about to take new Methods of Government And he had so artificially cover'd the Cruelty of his Temper with a shew of Good Nature that the Protestants expected nothing but happiness under him And as for the Queen-Mother tho' they knew her too well to put any Confidence in her yet her passionate Affection for her Daughter and her Revenge against the King of Spain for poysoning her Daughter made them believe themselves now assur'd of her And perhaps so deep and so refin'd a piece of Dissimulation was hardly ever known in the World before So that there was but one part of the King's Deportment which could give any Ground for Jealousie and that was his continual using most horrid and blasphemous Oaths and Imprecations to make the Protestants believe the Reality of his Intentions a sort of Persuasion which always raises Suspition among sober and wary Persons However the Protestants beginning at length to apprehend some danger the Papists thought it necessary to execute their Design with all speed For they saw the King resolv'd to let those who had surpriz'd the Towns in Flanders perish without sending them any relief The Admiral also was resolv'd to take his leave in few days besides that his Friend Montmorency saw the Storm coming and was retir'd to his House together with several other little Circumstances which gave them all just Cause of Fear So that the Popish Party had no time to Iose Therefore on the Twenty second of August about Noon as the Admiral was going home from the Court reading a Paper which he had in his hand Maurenel the Assassin whom the Duke of Guise had made choice of to do the Feat shot him from a a House where the Duke had plac'd him with a Harquebuz charg'd with three Bullets thought to be poyson'd Of which one carry'd away a part of the Fore-finger of the Admiral 's Right-hand the other stook in his Left Arm and the third miss'd him The King being in the Tennis-Court when the News was brought him counterfeited a deep Resentment and seemingly full of Affliction and with a terrible Oath cry'd out Shall I never have quiet and so throwing away his Racket went out in a rage Afterwards the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde coming to the King to complain and desiring leave to go out of Town since there was no safety so near the Court. The King seem'd to resent it more then they and with the horriblest Oaths he could think of swore he would execute such a Revenge on all that were found guilty of it whoever they were that it should never be forgotten desiring them to stay and be Witnesses of it The Queen-Mother also seem'd to inflame his Rage with most vehement Expressions by which means they were persuaded to stay The next day the King with the Queen-Mother and his two Brothers went to visit the Admiral and coming to his Bed-side express'd the greatest Tenderness imaginable and in his Looks and by the tone of his Voice dissembled the most profound Sorrow that could be saying to the Admiral You my Father have receiv'd the Wound but I feel the Smart and will punish it in so severe a manner that the like was never known The next day the Duke of Guise and his Uncle the Duke of Aumale coming to the King and desiring leave to go out of Town the King by his Looks and Carriage seem'd to abhor them telling them that they might go whether they would but that he would find them out if they appear'd to be guilty of the Fact. Upon which they took Horse as if they had intended to go out of Town but came back to Guise House and presently began to raise Commotions in Paris sending their Agents up and down the City and Arms to several Parts Upon which the Admiral sending to the King to desire a Guard about Fifty were sent him under the Command of Cossoius one of his most implacable Enemies only some of the King of Navar 's Swisses were sent to keep Guard within the Doors The King also order'd all the Papists that lay near his House to remove their Lodgings that the Protestants might have the more conveniency to be about him All which seem'd not only very sincere but very kind and by such Arts as these were the Protestants not only secur'd from Fears but also had great hopes rais'd in them of future Advantages Only the Vidame of Chartres saw through this Disguise and in a Council of the Protestant Party held in the Admiral 's Chamber spoke his mind freely and propos'd That the Admiral ill as he was might be