VVHen by the just Judgment of the Almighty, All the World wondred after the Beast; and the Kings and Princes of Christendom, established the Authority of the Pope and Church of Rome, appointing to slaughter and destruction such as de­nied the horrid Blasphemies and Errors maintained by them; It occasioned many good Christians to detest their Superstitions, as unknown to the Apostles, and the Primitive Church: And the first we read of, was one Berengarius, who boldly and faithfully publish­ed the True Religion contained in the Scripture, and discovered the falseness of the Romish; He lived a­bout the time of William the Conqueror his coming into England, about which time his Followers being taken notice of, as dissenting from many of the Common received Opinions of those times, they were [Page 62] branded with the odious Name of Hereticks.

About Twenty years after this one Peter Bruis was a famous Preacher among them, who taught them publickly a long time at Tholouse in Savoy; In a short time after they were grown to so great a multitude, that the Popes of Rome were resolved, if possible, by any means to extirpate and destroy them, To which end, they at first incited several of the most learned of their Party to write against them, and warned di­vers Princes to have a care of them, and to banish them out of their Territories.

The first then that flung away the Spiritual Keys, and began valiantly to brandish the bloody Sword of Persecution against them, was Pope Alexander the third, who began therewith to hack, hew, and mur­der the poor Waldenses, so named from Peter Waldo, or Waldo of Lyons in France, who appeared very coura­gious in opposing the many Corruptions of the Romish Church; as Holy Oyl, Consecrated Images, Popes Indulgences, Candles, Merits, Auricular Confession, the Supremacy of the Pope, false Miracles, Purga­tory, Praying for the Dead, Prayers to Saints, ex­tream Unction, and many other Fopperies of the Popish Communion: This Persecution of Waldo and his Followers (who were encreased to a very great number) began in France in the Year 1060. Waldo being compell'd to fly into the Mountains of France, among the Savage Inhabitants, to whom he taught his Doctrine, others fled into Picardy, from whence they were called Picards, several into Flanders and Alsatia, and thereby (for the safety of their Lives) they spread their Doctrine into all places.

King Philip of France being incited by the Eccle­siasticks, raised Arms against them, and destroyed Three Hundred Gentlemens Houses, and likewise several Walled Towns: And those that fled into [Page 63] Flanders escaped little better, for they were persu­ed, and many of them for their Religion put to Death; And the Bishops of Mayence and Strasburgh, raised great persecutions against those which fled thi­ther, there being Five and Thirty Citizens of May­ence burned in one Fire, and Eighteen in another, who suffered Death with very great constancy: and at Strasburgh, at the instance of the Bishop, Four­score were likewise burnt for professing the same Truth, and yet by the exhortations constancy, and patience of these Martyrs, there were such multitudes who entertained their Doctrines, that in a few Years after in the County of Passau and in Bohemia, there were above Fourscore thousand persons that made profession of the same Faith. Some of them like­wise fled into England for shelter, but were more barbarously and cruelly put to death at Oxford, by the Papists there, than ever any Christians were be­fore that time, for matters of Religion: and Three years after Pope Alexander the Third, made a Decree in the Council of Tours in France, that these Gospel­lers, and all their Favourers should be Excommuni­cated, and that none of them should buy or sell, ac­cording as it was foretold in Revel. 13.17.

At Colen in Germany, Four Men, and Two young Women were discovered hid in a Barn, and the Pa­pists not being able to diswade them from the Truth, The Men were all tyed to the Stake to be burnt, but the Romanists pretending to pity the young Women, perswaded them to recant, but they perceiving their design, got out of the hands of those that held them, and voluntarily leapt into the Fire, where they were burned with them: about this time a Proclama­tion was published in Aragon, whereby it was made Treason to relieve these poor Christians, or to suffer them to live in that Country, and liberty was given [Page 64] to all people to abuse them at pleasure, without be­ing punished for the same. But these people still en­creasing, the Pope was resolved to suppress them by all means possible, and therefore about the Year, 1201. He set up the Bloody Inquisition, which with its Racks Tortures, Fire, and all manner of Cruel­ty, hath destroyed an innumerable company of Good and Holy Men. And in the same Year a noble Knight called Eunandus, and one of the Waldenses, was burnt at Paris: and the persecution still conti­nuing, the people of Daulphine flying from their bar­barous Enemies, sheltred themselves in the Caves up­on the Mountains, but their cruel Adversaries having notice thereof, persued and destroyed many of them, and the rest fled higher into the Mountains (which were all covered with Snow) together with their Wives and Children, the Mothers carrying some in their Arms, and others in Cradles, and the Night coming on, and having no means to make a Fire for their tender Infants, they were so benummed with cold that in the morning above Fourscore of them were found dead in their Cradles, and most of their Mothers died likewise: Many also were burnt in the same Country of Dauphin, and the Fire of persecu­tion raged through the whole Land, so that there was scarce a Town or City in Piedmont, but many were put to death therein, and at Turin one of them had his Bowels taken out of his Belly, and put into a Bason, and was afterward cruelly Martyred, One Gerard being at the Stake to be burnt, requested the Hangman to give him Two or Three Stones, which he at first refused, thinking he would have thrown them at some body, but afterwards did, and Gerard taking them into his hands said. When I shall have eaten up these Stones, then shall you see an end of our Religion, for which you now put me to death, and then throwing [Page 65] them on the Ground, he chearfully died. These Countries being so hot with the Fire of Persecution, many of these poor People fled into Calabria where they began to plant and build Towns, as Saint Xist La Gard, and divers others, where they continued till the year, 1560. at which time they were most grievously persecuted by Pope Pius the Fourth, and were forced to leave their Houses and Habitations, and to fly into the Woods for the saving of their Lives but being there pursued by order from the Vice-Roy of Naples, most of them were cruelly and barbarously murdered by the Souldiers, and some flying into fortified places, were so straitly besieged, that they died with Famine: And at the same time one Charlin was rackt in so horrible a manner, that his Guts came out of his Belly: Another was tor­mented upon the Rack Eight hours together, to force him to confess what they pleased against himself and others, which yet he refused to do: Some were stript stark naked, and whipt to death with Rods of Iron, others were drawn through the Streets, and burnt with Firebrands, some thrown down from an High Tower, and some cut to pieces with sharp Knives. By order of the Inquisitor Panza, Four­score persons had their Throats cut, as Butchers do Sheep, and then causing them to be divided into Four Quarters, he made their Limbs to be set upon Stakes for the space of Thirty Miles as a bloody spe­ctacle: A young Man was thrown from an High Tower, because he would not confess himself to a Priest, and the Vice Roy passing by at the same time, and hearing him implore Gods Mercy not being quite dead. he kick'd him on the Head and said Is the Dog yet living, Take him and cast him to the Hogs. Three­score Women were so cruelly rackt, that the Cords pierced their Arms and Legs to the Bones, and then [Page 66] being cast into Prison all there dyed, except Nine of the handsomest, who being delivered to the Fa­thers of the Inquisition were never heard of after­ward: Many more were delivered to the Secular Power to be burnt, and if any interceded for them, they were presently put on the Rack as Favou­ters of Hereticks. One of their Ministers was fa­mished in Prison, another was carried to Rome, and burnt, the Pope and Cardinals being present at that pleasing spectacle, but the Minister spake so many things out of Gods word against them, that the Pope gnashed his Teeth for Anger, and afterward promi­sed the Marquess of Butiana to make his Son a Cardi­nal, if he would clear Calabria of these Waldenses, which was then no hard matter for the Inquisition, and the Vice Roy of Naples, did by all manner of Cruel­ties destroy Man, Woman, and Child, so that in a short time, they were utterly rooted out of that Country.

The Waldenses who fled out of Piedmont into Pro­vence, increasing daily, and their Habitations be­ing near to Avignion (many times the Popes Seat) he soon raised an horrid Persecution against them, but the greatest was in the Year, 1360. In the time of Lewis the Twelfth, wherein many suffered, which continued for some time more and less furious to the Year, 1540. About which time the Inhabitants of Merindol, Cabriers, Posin, and other places in Pied­mont, were by means of the Popes Agents cruelly Burned, Massacred, and Destroyed, The Towns were fired and laid wast, and the Country round a­bout made desolate; The poor People were slain, the young Virgins ravished, and barbarously abused, Children were pull'd alive out of their Mothers Bel­lies, the Breasts of many cut off, so that the Infants died of Famine: There were only Threescore and [Page 67] six weak men left in the Town of Cabriers, who of­fered to deliver it up, so that they might go to Ge­neva or Germany, but the Enemy entring, caused them all to be brought into a Field and cut to pieces, the Souldiers striving who should shew the best Man­hood in cutting off Legs, Arms, &c. The Women they put into a Barn with their young children, and some great with Child, and then firing a great quan­tity of Straw, they were barbarously burnt toge­ther; and some endeavouring to escape through the flames, were knockt on the head by the bloody Pa­pists; many fled into Caves and Cellars, who being brought forth stark naked into the Fields, were there slain: others being bound back to back were in sport run through with one Sword. As soon as any were found, the Villains cryed, Kill, kill, destroying all they met with; so that above a thousand men, women and children were slain in this place: some desired leave to depart to some other place, but one Opede, a chiefe Commander amofig the Papists said, That he would send them to dwell in Hell, among the Devils. At Costa, another Town, they committed great slaughter, and many of the Inhabitants flying into an Orchard, the Souldiers ravished divers of the Women and Virgins, and abused them in so fil­thy a manner for a day and a night, that the women with-child, and younger Maidens, died immediately after Many more were the outrages committed by the Souldiers in this Country, but the Tremendous Justice of God did not suffer some of the most vio­lent persecutors to go unpunished: For Opede, the Commander of these Villains, was struck with a strange kind of bleeding in the lower parts, that he was not able to make any Urin; so that his Guts rotted within him, and Worms bred in his bowels, which continually gnawed him; and so he lay raging [Page 68] and blaspheming, saying, that he felt a fire within him, which burnt him from the Navel upwards: which was accompanied with a most filthy stink from his lower parts: and in this miserable manner he ended his wretched life. There was likewise one John de Roma, a Monk, who used horribly to tor­ment these poor Protestants: and among the rest, he would fill Boots with boiling Oyl, and put them upon their Legs over a soft fire. Thus he tormented many: but at last, Francis the French King being in­formed of his Hellish cruelty, sent to the Parlia­ment of Provence to apprehend him, who condemn him: but he having notice of it, fled to Arragon, where a while after he was robbed of all he had by his own servants, and then fell into an horrible dis­ease, unknown to the Physitians, being intollerably tormented with pains all over his body, so that he had not one minutes rest, and no creature was able to endure him, for the intollerable stink which pro­ceeded from him, nor he himself, for his body was full of nasty sores and ulcers, which swarmed with Ver­min, and rotted away from the bones by piece-meal. In the midst of his torments, he would in a great rage cry out. Oh! who will deliver me? who will rid me out of these intollerable pains which I now suffer, for oppressing and tormenting those poor men? endeavouring several times to kill himself, but had not power: and in this horrible anguish and despair he fearfully died, no man being able to bury him, for some time, by reason of the loathsome smell proceeding from him, till at last a poor man with an Iron Hook dragg'd his Carkass into a Hole he had digg'd for him.

During this Persecution, the Bishop of Aix, with some other Bishops, walking with some of their Wenches through the Streets of Avignion, they saw a man selling bawdy Pictures, Images, and Songs, [Page 69] which they presently bought up: but going a little further, they found a man selling of French Bibles, at which being extremely enraged, they askt him how he durst be so bold to sell such Merchandize in that Town; the Bookseller answered, Is not the Holy Bible as good as these goodly Pictures you have bought for the Gentlewomen? The Bishop of Aix said, I renounce my part in Paradise, if this Fellow be not a Lutheran: The Attendants cryed out, a Lutheran, a Lutheran, to the fire with him, to the fire with him: one giving him a blow with his Fist, others pulled him by the Hair and Beard so that the poor man was all em­brued in blood before he came to Prison. The next day he was brought before the Judge, where by the instigation of the Bishops he was burned the same day with two Bibles tyed about his Neck, one be­fore, and another behind, where he made a most Christian end.

This long and bloody Persecution of these Wal­denses lasted near five hundred years in which time the Gospel spread into Bohemia, Austria, Germany, Flanders, England, Poland, Italy, Spain, Dalmatia, Croatia, Solavonia, Salmatia, Bulgaria, and in other places to which they were driven, where they were tormented and persecuted according to the power and influence that the Pope and his Agents had over the Princes and Governours of those Coun­tries.

The Albingenses were the same with the Waldenses, professing the same Doctrines and Principles, and differing only in name, their Country being called Albi, the chief Preacher among them being one Ar­nold, from whom they were sometimes called Ar­noldists. Pope Alexander the Third began with them, condemning them for Hereticks; and Pope Innocent the Third raising a War against them, call­ing [Page 70] it the Holy War, giving the same Pardons and Indulgences, and promising Paradise to all that would fight against the Hereticks, with the same en­couragement, as those which went to the Holy Land, against the Turks and Sarazens. In this War he so thundered out Excommunications, and used Tem­poral Arms against Reymond. Earl or Prince of Tho­louse, that he was forced to submit; and his Nobi­lity were much astonished to see their Lord, not on­ly divested of his Possessions, but led to the Church to be reconciled to it, where the Popes Legate commanded the Earl to strip himself stark naked, all but his Linnen Drawers; they then put a Rope about his Neck, and led him nine times round the Grave of one Peter an Hermit, who was kill'd in that War, scourging him with Rods all the while; of which the Earl complaining, the Legate told him, That he must submit, if he would be reconciled to the Pope; yea, he must be thus scourged before his Earls, Barons, Marquesses, Prelates, and all the people. He made him likewise swear to be obedient to the Pope, and Church of Rome, all his life, and to make irreconcileable War against the Albingenses.

The Legate then acts the part of a General, and besieges Bezier, and the Albingenses desiring to come to Terms, the Legate would admit of nothing but the renouncing of their Religion, and imbracing Popery; which they absolutely refused, upon those Conditions, saying That God was able to defend them; but if he would please to honour them to die for his sake, they would rather displease the Pope, than God Almighty. In a short time the City was taken by Storm, be­ing assaulted by above an hundred thousand Papists, the Enemy entring and slaying a great multitude, killing all they m t without distinction, the Popes Legate-bidding them kill all, both Catholicks and He­reticks, [Page 71] for the Lord knoweth who are his: So that there were threescore thousand persons slain in this City, the Priests and Fryars going about the Streets in the mean time, with Crosses and Banners, and singing Te Deum Laudamus: after which, they set the whole City on fire, and burnt it to Ashes.

They marched next to a Town called Carcasson, which these bloody Villains (who called themselves Holy Pilgrims) took by Storm likewise, killing, burn­ing, and destroying all before them, as they had done before at Beziers. They next proceeded to the City of Carcasson, which was about two miles from the Town, and was defended by the Earl of Pez [...]ers: when they offered to capitulate, the Legate would grant no other Conditions, but that the Earl, and twelve more, should come forth with their Bag­gage, but all the rest, both Men, Women, Maids and Children, should come forth stark naked, with­out any covering, either of Shirt or Smock, and humble themselves before him: but the Earl dis­dained such unworthy Conditions, upon which the Legate assaulted the City; but they that were with­in threw down Stones, Fire, Pitch. Brimstone, and Scalding Water from the Walls, which so galled the Legates Souldiers, that the Earth was covered, and the Ditch filled with their dead bodies

The Legate sinding Force would not avail, used Policy; and therefore, upon pretence of Parley, he perswaded the Earl to come out of the City, with great Oaths and Execrations for his safe return; but having him in possession, they kept him Pri­soner, and then instantly stormed the City, to the amazement of the poor Citizens, who expected no­thing less: but there being happily discovered a Vault in the Town which went to a Castle some miles from thence, the Citizens in the Evening be­gan [Page 72] their Flight, with their Wives and Children, carrying Victuals with them only for some few days: the next morning they arrived at the Castle, and from thence dispersed themselves, some one way, some another, leaving the City, and all therein to the fury and rage of the unholy Pilgrims. They then surprized the Castle of Bezon, where they pulled out the Eyes, and cut off the Noses of an hundred Al­bingenses, leaving only one with one Eye to guide the rest to Calaret.

They took likewise the Castle of Menerly, defend­ed by the Lord of Termes, whom they flung into a filthy Prison till he died; his Wife, Sister, and Daughter, who was a Virgin, and likewise divers Noble Women, after they had in vain by frowns and threats endeavoured to draw them to Popery, were burnt in an huge fire all together: And after that, they burnt an hundred and fourscore more in another great fire, who embraced the flames with joy, giving God thanks that he was pleased so to ho­nour them, as to die for his Name. Simon Monford succeeded the Legate in his Generalship, and at the taking of the Castle of Lavaur, all the Souldiers were put to the Sword, except fourscore Gentle­men, whom that cruel Earl caused to be hanged, and the Lord Almery on a Gibbet above all the rest: the Lady his Sister was cast into a Ditch, and covered with Stones: the rest of the people, who were a­bout four hundred persons were forced into a great fire made purposely for them, and so all burnt, ex­cept those that would forsake their Religion, which were very few.

About this time there was one Reynard Lollard, a godly and learned man, who by his preaching stir­red up the English in Guiene to assist the Albingenses, which they did accordingly, but this worthy man [Page 73] was afterward burnt in Germany: They say he he foretold many things by Divine Revelation, which came to pass in a short time. In the year 1213. near Muret, upon the Gavon, there was a Battel between Simon Montford, and the King of Arra on, who assisted the Albingenses, in which Fight the King of Arragon was slain and the Enemy re­ported, above two Millions of Albingenses with him, which the Albingenses attributed to the too great confidence of the King, who depended much upon his numbers, and was feasting while his Enemies were in Council.

Fryar Conradus of Marpurg, the Popes Inquisitor, made terrible havock of all that professed the Go­spel, under the names of Hereticks, whom he try­ed by making them pass over red hot Irons laid at an unequal distance blindfold, and those that were burnt were accounted Hereticks, few escaping the hot Irons; so that neither Noble, nor Ignoble, Clerks, Monks, Nuns, Burgesses. Citizens, nor Coun­try people, escaped the Flames, by means of this bloody Inquisitor. Prince Lewis of France took the Town of Miramond, and therein destroyed five thou­sand men, women and children of the Albingenses: And in the year 1234 many of them being fled in­to France, the Pope caused a Crusado to be preached up against them whereby a great Army of Pilgrims assembled together and were sent against them by Pope Gregory, who slew the poor Protestants, with their Bishops and Ministers burnt their houses, de­stroyed their Towns, and plundered and car ied a­way their Goods: And about the same time, some who had retired into Germany. Millain and other parts of Italy, were likewise burnt and destroyed: A while after, four hundred and twenty of these Albingenses were burnt at Tholouse,

A great Persecution was raised against the Pro­testants of Albi in the year 1281. so that they were almost all extirpated, and rooted out, and forced to fly to all parts for safety of their lives; and at the same time, by the Popes Order, the Bones of seve­ral famous Ministers among them were digged up and burnt, twenty or thirty years after they were buried. In the year 1315. the Fryars Inquisitors raised an hot Persecution against these Gospellers in Pashaw, and burnt many of them, who died chear­fully and constantly in the Faith; and one of them who was burnt at Vienna confessed, that there were fourscore thousand of them in Bohemia and Austria at that time. In the year 1332. Lollard Walterus, a fa­mous Preacher (from whom his Followers were cal­led Lollards) was taken and burnt at Collen: But notwithstanding all these horrid Cruelties used by the Papists against these Saints and Servants of God, yet they could never prevail to a total extirpation of them, but they still encreased and revived, and their Posterity profess the same Faith to this very day.

In the year 1620, in a Country called the Valto­line, or the Grisons Country, the Papists committed very great cruelties: those poor people had for a long time enjoyed the freedom of their Religion; but about the time afore-mentioned, when the Mi­nister of a Town, called Tell, was preaching to his Congregation, the bloody Papists rose in Arms and set upon them, beating and killing several of them: and among the rest, there was an Honourable Lady who was exhorted to change her Religion, if not for her own sake, yet out of pity to her young Infant that she held in her Arms, which otherwise, toge­ther with her self, should be immediately slain: But the Lady with an undaunted courage answered, I [Page 75] have not departed out of Italy, my Native Country, nor forsaken all the Estate that I had there, to renounce the Faith of my Lord Jesus Christ; No, I will suffer a thousand deaths, if it be possible, rather than do it: And why in this case should I have so much regard to my In­fant, since God my Heavenly Father spared not his own Son, my Lord Jesus, but delivered him up to death in love to me, and such sinners as I am. And then giving her Child to one that stood by, she said, Behold, my Child, the Lord God, who hath care of the Birds of the Air, is much more able to save this poor creature, al­though it should by you be lest in these wild Mountains. Then unlacing her Gown, she opened her Breast, saying, Here is the Body which you have power to kill; but my Soul, on which you have no power to lay your hands, that I commend to my God. And then these Blood-hounds presently slew her, and cut her to pie­ces: The Infant being a lovely sweet Child they spared, and delivered to a Popish Nurse to be brought up. These Villains carried divers Women and Children to the tops of high Mountains, and if they would not promise to go to Mass, they were thrown down headlong, and torn to pieces.

One Dominico Berto, a young man of sixteen years of age, because he would not turn Papist, was set upon an Ass, with his face to the Tail, and the Tail in his hand for a Bridle, and with many scoffs and mocks was brought into the Market place: there they cut off his Nose, Ears and Cheeks, and then burnt many holes in divers parts of his body with hot Irons; and thus they barbarously continued to torment him till he died.

They likewise seized upon a Noble young Virgin, and carried her through the Streets with all imagi­nable disgrace: They put a Miter of Paper upon her head, besmeared her face with dirt, and busseted [Page 76] her on the Cheeks with their Fists, and then bid her to call upon the Saints; but she smiling said, My trust and my salvation is only in my Saviour Jesus Christ, and upon him only will I rest; as for the Virgin Mary, though see be blessed above all women, yet she is not Omniscient, and therefore knows net our requests; yea, she her self hath need of the Merits of her own Son, without which she could not have been saved. But they reviling and abusing her, she couragiously said, I willingly endure all this, as it becomes me to do, desiring no better usage, since the same was done to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and to his Apostles, and to thou­sands of the holy Martyrs. Upon this they carried her away, and murder'd her in the Fields.

In one house they slew a man and his Wise; and there being a little Girl in the Cradle of about three years old, of a very amiable countenance, the poor Child seemed to smile upon them, whereupon one of these bloody Villains took her by the Heels and dashed out her Brains. From thence these Wretches went to a Town called Bruse, where they murthered many, by shooting some, drowning others, burn­ing others, and grinding their very bones to pow­der. Amongst others, they found an ancient Wo­man of fourscore years old, whom they earnestly perswaded to hear Mass, and that she would respect her age to whom with a worthy resolution she an­swered, God forbid that I who now of a long time have had one foot in the Grave should forsake my Lord Je­sus Christ, who hath so long preserved me in the know­ledge and profession of his truth, and that I should now put my trust in Creatures and should receive the Tradi­tions of men, instead of the holy Word of God. Upon these words they immediately slew her.

The sufferings of the poor Protestants in Pied­mont continued still; they are under the Govern­ment [Page 77] of the Duke of Savoy, and are the Off-spring of the old Waldenses which inhabited there, and have ever since professed the same Religion; they have Evangelical Churches in the several Valleys of Angrognea, Bobio, Villaro, Valguicharda, Roras, Taglia­cetto, and divers others; in all which, most of their Inhabitants are Protestants, and had been long in­dulged in their Religion by the Princes of Savoy, to whom they were Subjects: but in the year 1565. a cruel Edict was published, that all such as would not comply with the Church of Rome, and go to Mass, should within ten days be banished from their Coun­try, and Habitation; but by the Intercession of the French King, and the Elector Palatine of the Rhine, this Edict was recalled, and they continued quiet till the year 1655. wherein that late horrible Massacre was committed upon them for the sake of their Re­ligion.

The Papists had all along by many cunning Plots and contrivances endeavoured their subver­sion, by using all Arts to stir them up to Rebellion, and by planting Jesuits Colledges among them, which like Goads in their sides still annoyed them, and prov'd a great trouble and affliction to them; for they often procured some cruel and harsh Edict, or Proclamation, by their Complaints and Lyes which they raised in the Duke of Savoys Court a­gainst them: As in the year 1602. they got an E­dict for banishing all private and publick Protestant Schoolmasters, as Enemies to the Government, and disturbers of the Peace: and likewise another Edict 1622. that no Strangers, ether Ministers or others, should be entertained among them. In 1634. an E­dict came out, that all the Protestants of Compiglione should be banished; and in 1654. the same was done against those of Martino, and Perosa. These [Page 78] Missionary Fathers behaved themselves among them more cruelly than Turks or Barbarians. But at last resolving utterly to root out the Protestants from among them, and throughly to perform the will of their Ʋnholy Father the Pope, they procured an Or­der in the midst of Winter, that is January 25. 1655. (which is very sharp in those Countries) for the ba­nishing of all Protestants out of the Valleys of Lu­cerna, Lucernetta, and seven other places, within three days after publication, unless they would turn Ro­man Catholicks; and this extended to all in general, none being excepted, of what Rank, Degree, or Condition soever they were. And thus these poor Creatures were forced in compliance with this cruel Edict, to fly for the security of their Lives and Consciences in the depth of the Snow, and when all the Valleys were covered with water, there being among them some Women with-child, others newly delivered, young children crying and lamenting, old women, and decrepit men, leaning on their Staves, all dragged over the Ice, through Rain, Snow, Wa­ters, and a thousand inconveniencies and hardships; so that it would have grieved the heart of a Barba­rian, to have seen them leaving their Goods behind them, or selling them for little to the Papists, who took no pity of their bitter tears, sighing, ringing of hands, beating of Breasts, mourning, complaining, and lamenting: but all these calamities were but as the bleating of Sheep, or the lowing of Oxen to Popish ears, and they rather rejoyced than commi­serated the condition of these poor Wretches: They were no sooner gone, but their houses were pillaged, rifled, and ransackt of all that was left, and then pull'd to the ground; yea, the Trees were cut down, and such havock and devastation made, as all was turned into a Wilderness.

This cruel Edict was put in execution by one Gu­staldo, and others; but this was not all, the Design was for the utter extirpating and roofing out Here­ticks, as they called these Religious Souls: it would not satisfie them to have banished these few, and the poor Protestants could have no redress at Court, for all their humble Petitions and Remonstrances could not be heard. The Papists had yet more wicked and bloody Designs against them; and to that purpose, they imployed some Romish Agents who had great in­fluence over the Duke and Dutchess of Savoy.

It is next to impossible to reckon up the variety of Cruelties and Murders committed upon these poor Innocent Souls; we shall therefore only give a brief Abstract of some remarkable passages that hap­pened therein

Upon the seventeenth of April, 1655. whilst the Protestant Deputies were detained at Turin, and delayed with hopes of redress, some Souldiers were sent on purpose to fall unexpectedly upon the Pro­testants, who peaceably attended the issue of their Petitions, which caused some bustle; for the poor people being prompted by the Law of Nature stood upon their defence and the Papists lost fifty men, the Protestants only two. Wednesday April 22. the Marquess of Pianessa, the Popish General, came to the Valley of Lucerna, and promised them there should be no violence offered to them, provided they would but quarter a few Souldiers as a token of their obedience, which the well-meaning people con­sented to; but no sooner were these Troops entred, but they put all to Fire and Sword, slaying all they met with that had but the likeness of mankind, and that in the most barbarous manner they could possi­bly devise.

There joyned immediately to this Army a great [Page 80] number of Outlaws, Prisoners, and other Offenders, who thought to have saved their Souls, and filled their Purses by killing Hereticks: Six Regiments of French, besides Irish, likewise helped them in this good work the Country being promised to the I­rish when cleared of Protestants. With these, and several other Troops of Highway-men and Vaga­bonds, by the License of their General, and the en­couragement of Popish Priests and Monks, the most unheard-of Villanies were committed upon the poor Protestants: So that there was nothing to be seen through the Protestant Valleys but Churches burn­ing, Towns smoaking, Houses flaming, Men, Wo­men and Children massacred and murdered; nothing to be heard, but the confused cryes of people flying, the piercing groans of others dying, and the horrid shrieks of others that were tormented: and indeed so dreadful was their usage, that it is scarce to be expressed. In one place they most cruelly torment­ed an hundred and fifty Women and Children, and afterwards chopped off the Heads of some, and dash­ed out the Brains of others against the Rocks; they took multitudes of Prisoners, and such of them who were fifteen years of age and upwards, if they refu­sed to go to Mass, some of them were hanged up, o­thers had their feet nail'd to Trees, with their Heads hanging down, all which they constantly endured. A Franciscan Fryar, and another Priest, set fire to all the Churches and Houses at S. Giovanni, La Toure, and other places, so that they left not one stand­ing.

In these Desolations the Mother was bereaved of her sweet Child, the Husband of his dear Wife, those which were richest among them were forced to beg their bread; yea, they lay weltring in their own blood, and the pretence for all those bloody [Page 81] Massacres and Cruelties was, that they were Re­bels to their Princes Commands, in not performing an absolute impossibility, by immediately departing from their Habitations in so short a time; and like­wise for their frequent Petitioning to the Duke to take pity upon them.

The truth is, the Cruelties which were executed would exceed the belief of man, but that they are so fully proved by the Attestations of Eye-witnes­ses, by the woful cryes of so many poor desolate Wretches who have been miserably robbed and de­spoiled of their Relations, Friends Lands and Hou­ses: yea one of the chief Commanders of their own Army that acted these cruelties, made a formal Oath of the reality thereof, and Signed it with his own hand before two sufficient Witnesses, and like­wise the voluntary confession of one of the Souldiers who told some of his Fellows, that during the heat of the Massacre, he had divers times surfeited with eating the boiled Brains of Protestants.

The barbarous cruelties following, which were ex­ercised upon those poor people, are likewise attest­ed by divers Persons of Honour and Integrity, who were for the most part eye or ear-witnesses of the same.

One Sarah Vi [...]ues, about threescore years of age, was commanded to say her prayers, and because she refused to say Ave Maria, they ript her up alive, by putting a Sickle into her privy parts, and so slit up her Belly; after which they dragged her about, and at last cut off her Head.

Other Women had their Breasts, Noses, Privities and Hands cut off, and so left to perish miserably; another they stab d in the soles of his feet, then cut off his Privities and fry'd them, giving them their Comrades to eat as a delicate Dish; then they seared [Page 82] his Wounds with flaming Candles, cut off his Ears, and tore off his Nails with burning Pincers, to make him renounce his Religion; but he still continuing constant, they tyed one of his Legs to a Mule, and so drag'd him about the Streets till he was almost dead: and after all this, they bound a Cord about his Head, and twisted it with a Stick till his eyes and brains burst out, and then cast his body into a River.

One Peter Simond of Angrogna they bound hand and foot, and then flung him down a dreadful Rock, or Precipice; but he happened in his fall to hang upon the stump of an old Tree, where he continued alive several days in a miserable languishing condi­tion before he died, not being able to help himself, and the Precipice being so high, that no other could come at him.

They cut the body of an old man of ninety years of age into small pieces, and then cut off his head. Others had their bodies torn and cut in pieces, and their limbs strowed in the high-ways, and hung upon Hedges. An old Woman had her Hands and Nose cut off, and so was left alive. The body of another Woman was found in a Cave with all the flesh sliced from the bones, and chopt like minced meat. These bloody Papists took many little Children, and ten­der Infants, and threw them down the sleep Rocks, whereby they were dashed to pieces.

They took a Gentlemans Daughter, and put a long Stake into her body, and then carried her upon their shoulders, till at last being weary, they stuck the Stake into the ground and so left her as a mi­serable Spectacle. Andrea Michalin being taken Pri­soner, made his escape strangely, having first seen three of his own Children torn limb from limb, and the fourth and youngest had its brains beaten out a­gainst [Page 83] the Rocks. They wofully tormented others, by fleying off their skins alive in long slices, of which they made Points.

The Daughter of one Peter Fontana, a beautiful Girl of about ten years of age, being surprized by some of these lecherous Bruits, because they could not ravish her in an ordinary way, they so inhu­manely abused her, that they left her for dead. The Daughter of one Moses Long they spitted upon a Pike, and roasted her alive, with a fire made upon a broad stone. One Jacob Michelino they took, and binding his hands to his Privities, hanged him upon a gate, and there left him in exquisite torments in that shameful manner, as they like wise did by many others in the same kind. Four Brothers, and a man and his Wife, all at one time had their mouths cram­med full of Gunpowder, and so being fired, their heads were torn to pieces.

The Schoolmaster of Roras being stript naked, after they had torn off his Nails with Pincers, and made a thousand holes in his hands with their Dag­gers, they dragg'd him through the Town of Lucer­na, and at every turn, one Souldier cut off a Collop of his flesh from one side, and another from ano­ther, crying, What sayst thou, wilt thou go to Mass, thou Dog? To which with admirable constancy he an­swered, Much rather death than the Mass, dispatch me quickly for the love of God. At last they cut off his head, and flung him into the River.

One Giovanni, with his Wife and Child, were thrown down from a very high Rock, the Mother holding the Child in her arms, and three days after they were found dead, only the Child was alive, and clasped so fast in the dead Mothers arms, that they could hardly get it out. They took another at the same place, and put out his Eyes, and then cut off [Page 84] his Privities, and thrusting them in his mouth, ex­posed him some time as a miserable Spectacle, and he being yet alive, they flead off his skin, and hung it in the Windows of four principal houses in Lu­cerna, after they had divided it into four pieces. They took out the brains of Daniel Cardon, and fry­ing them in a Pan, eat them up like Canibals, and then cut open his breast also, that they might eat his Heart, but were frighted by some Protestant Troops that were marching that way. They burned four Women of between eighty and ninety years old a­live; they cut divers to pieces, and gave their flesh to Dogs. In another place, having taken eleven Pro­testants, they heated a Furnace, and forced them to throw one another into it, till it came to the last man, whom they threw in themselves.

They stabbed some with impoysoned Knives in the legs and feet, and so left them in torment, till they died. One Gros, a Ministers Son, being taken by them, they cut off his flesh in small Gobbets while he was alive, and in the presence of his Wise and Children, whom they murdered likewise before his eyes. A Woman with seven Children were all bar­barously murdered in their Beds: One Daniel Ram­bout, because he refused to say Jesu Maria, or pray to the Virgin Mary, they first cut off one finger, then another, till they had cut them all off; then they cut off his hands and arms, till after this manner they had cruelly mangled him to death: Others they shut up between two Stone-walls and starved them to death. And to conclude, there was no manner of death no kind of cruelty or torment, that these First-born of Hell could invent or devise, but they were exercised with the utmost severity upon the poor miserable Protestants; and it would be almost endless, to give a particular account of all that we murdered, [Page 85] drowned, burnt, shot, starved, smothered, knockt on the head, and cut in pieces by these barbarous Papists.

These horrid and inhumane practices made the rest of the Protestants fly to their Arms in the natural defence of themselves, and their Families, against the rage and fury of Lyons, Tygers, and Bears, in the shapes of men: But those that were so brisk at massacring and murdering such as did not resist them, were meer Cowards at fighting, and the Prote­stants prevail'd against them with small numbers, and defended themselves against their Cruelty.

But at last by the Mediation of the Switzers, Hol­landers, and other Protestant Princes, and especially the English, who contributed above thirty thousand pound to the relief of their wants and miseries, the breach was made up; but yet so made, that the poor remaining Protestants live under the Tyranny of their Popish Task-masters, being forbid all man­ner of Traffick, wronged of their Estates and Goods, their Ministers banished, their Virgins ravished, the women affronted, the men beaten and abused, and the Valleys are become like Dungeons, in which they are kept as Slaves, and secured by strong Forts and Garrisons of Papists; so that they are even dy­ing whilst they live, and have cause to cry out, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and a­venge our blood, &c. Rev. 6.10.

THe Persecutions of the Papists against the Bo­hemians began very early, even about 9 [...]7 years after the death of our blessed Saviour: Pope Hildebrand (otherwise called Hell-brand) was the first that fell upon them, and afterwards Pope Celestine; and Persecution continued upon them for many years, and John Huss, and Jerom of Prague, were burnt in defence of the Gospel at Constance, not­withstanding they had the Publick Faith of the Em­pire of Germany given them for their security.

At a Town called Cuttenburgh there are many deep Metal Mines, into one of which, in the year 1420. the Papists threw one thousand and seven hundred persons at one time, for their Religion; into ano­ther, one thousand thirty eight; and into a third, a thousand three hundred and thirty four persons.

In the year 1421. one Pichel, a chief Magistrate of the City Litomeritia, having taken twenty four of the chief Citizens, and among them his Son-in-law; put them in an high Tower, and being there almost fa­mished, they were at last brought out, and con­demned to be drowned, their Wives, Children and Friends following them to execution with cryes and [Page 88] tears; yea, the Magistrates own Daughter came with prayers and tears to her Father, beseeching him to spare her Husband; but he like a hard-hearted wretch only said, Cannot you have a better Husband than this? To whom, seeing his cruelty, she an­swered, You shall never marry me to any but this: And so going along with them, when she saw her Husband thrown into the River, she leapt in after him, and imbracing him, endeavoured to save his life; but be­ing unable to do it, they both perished together, and the next day she was found with him fast in her Arms, and they were both buried in one Grave.

A while after a Minister, four men, and four Boys, were all burnt together in one fire at Prague, because they received the Sacrament in both kinds: and indeed many and almost innumerable were the murthers, torments, and inhumane barbarities com­mitted both publickly and privately on these poor Christians.

About the year 1523. Martin Luther began to shine as a great light in Germany, and his Doctrine soon overspread Bohemia, and all the parts adjoyn­ing; which so enraged the Pope and his Clergy that they continually raised very violent persecutions a­gainst them, wherein multitudes of good Christians lost their lives by means of Ferdinand the First, and Charles the Fift, Emperours of Germany. There were no less than two hundred Ministers banished out of Bohemia at one time, and the Lord of Schanow, be­cause he was a Lutheran, was accused of a Conspira­cy, and laid upon the Rack; but he couragiously cut out his own Tongue, and being demanded the rea­son of it, he wrote, That it was lest the torments of the Rack should make him speak falsly against himself, or o­thers.

In the year 1617. Ferdinand the Second was obtru­ded [Page 89] upon the Bohemians, who joyning with the Pa­pists, raised up a very terrible Persecution against the Protestants, which was the cause of the Elect­ing of Frederick, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, to be King of Bohemia, upon which there followed those cruel Wars and troubles in that Country, wherein many godly Ministers, and other pious, holy, and good men, suffered such barbarities and inhumani­ties from the Popish Souldiers, that the Ears of a Christian cannot hear, nor his Tongue relate them, without the greatest abhorrency and indignation: for some of them were stoned to death, others hang­ed upon a Beam, and with a soft fire made under them were roasted to death, others were cut piece-meal: One Minister they laid on his back, and ram­ming his mouth full of Gunpowder, set fire to it, and blew his head all to pieces: Another they hang­ed up by the Privy Members, being seventy years old, and burnt his own Books under him, and at last shot him to death, after he had endured all manner of torment and pain.

In the year 1621. all the Ministers were banished out of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and all the Provin­ces thereunto belonging, never more to return; and it was made death to harbour or conceal any of them. About the same time twenty one Ministers were banished from Cuttenburg: A Popish Captain caused a Ministers hand first to be stricken off, and then his head, his bowels to be taken out, and wrapt in his shirt, and his four quarters to be set upon four Stakes, and his head on another. At the same time likewise fifty of the Nobility were condemned, some to death, some to banishment, and others to perpe­tual imprisonment; twenty seven were executed, who all died with great constancy of mind, and fer­vency of spirit, sealing the Protestant Cause with [Page 90] their blood, the heads and right hands of some of them were hung upon the Tower of the Bridge, but when the Valiant Gustavus Adolphus, King of Swe­den, came into Germany, their heads and hands were by his Order taken down and solemnly buried.

Not long after there was an Edict published in Bohemia for the banishing of all Protestants in gene­ral, and that their Children should be taken from them that they might be brought up in the Popish Religion. Another Edict was published, that all Protestant Women who had married Popish Husbands, should be banished and removed away from them, unless they would turn Papists, and likewise that no Papists should have any Commerce with Protestants.

And upon this there followed a cruel Persecution, so that there was scarce a City, Town, or Village in the whole Country, but the poor Protestants suf­fered very great torments and barbarities. In one City they slew the Mayor, together with sixteen hundred men, women, and children, and suffered their bodies to lye unburied several days in the dirt and mire, and the remainders of the Citizens they cast into Prisons, where they lay in a miserable con­dition: Bibles, and all manner of Religious Books were prohibited, and likewise Marriages, Burial, and Baptism, were denied to all that would not turn Pa­pists.

Some Protestants were thrust into Dungeons and Vaults full of Snakes, Toads, and other filthy Ver­min; others were put into places full of Iron Spikes, so that they could neither sit nor stand; others were laid upon narrow Beams over deep waters, that if they did but stir their bodies, they were in danger to be drowned. They put Gags into the mouths of some, and then thrust their Host or Wafer Cake down their Throats: others were beaten on the Calves of [Page 91] their Legs, so that they could not stand nor go, but were forced to fall down on their knees, that they might adore their Host. And thus briefly of the mul­titude of cruelties committed by the Papists on the Protestants in Bohemia, the whole whereof would not be contained in a large Volume.

The next Theater where we may behold these bloody Papists acting their Tragedies is GERMA­NY, which was miserably torn and rent to pieces by their cruelties, they endeavouring by all manner of severity to have extinguished the light of the Gospel, which was discovered by Martin Luther, and others, who were stirred up of God to expose the corruptions and superstitions of the Romish Church: whereupon in the year 1523. the Pope excited the Emperour Charles the Fifth to destroy all the Pro­testants as Hereticks, and allowed him two hundred thousand Crowns toward the raising of Souldiers to that purpose, the Pope likewise further engaging to raise twelve thousand Foot, and six hundred Horse, at his own charge, for carrying on the work: and thus he began with the Sword, that he might end with the Faggot.

The Duke of Saxony, and the Lansgrave of Hessen, stand up for the Protestants, and are taken Prisoners, in the year 1547. And where ever the Papists got the better, all sorts of cruelties, murders, racks, tor­tures, fire and faggots followed upon the Protestants, so that all Germany was as it were in a flame and com­bustion at once, all places being in a lamentable con­dition, some flying, and others suffering death on e­very side for their Conscience and Religion.

At a Town called Meldorp, they took a godly Mi­nister, named Sutphen out of his Bed, and forced him to go miles on foot in Frost and Snow upon the Ice, bare-footed and bare-legg'd, beating, cutting, and [Page 92] flashing him, and pricking him forward with their Halberts, and at last they barbarously roasted him to death. Many were drowned at Vienna, and put to several sorts of death.

Ladies and Gentlewomen were yoakt together like Beasts and so were turned out into the Woods, where they were ravished and abused, and then had their Hair and Ears cut off, and disfigured. In Po­meren they forced the people to eat their own Ex­crements, and if they refused them, they thrust them down their Throats till they were choaked: They cram'd the secret parts of several women with Gun­powder, and so setting fire to it, most barbarously tore their Bellies and Wombs.

Divers were hung up by the privy parts; they plained the faces of others with Chisels; others they caused to draw on Boots filled with scalding Oyl, and so roasted their legs over the fire: some men they gelt in the presence of their wives and chil­dren: others had their bodies hung up by Cords, and by tying great weights to their limbs, all the joynts of their body were put out of joynt; some had Gags put in their mouths, and had stinking wa­ter and piss powred down their Throats through a Tunnel till their bellies swell'd like a Tun, whereby they died in most cruel torment: They sawed off the legs of some alive, and one Minister they bound upon a Table, and placing a great Cat upon his bel­ly, so provoked the Cat, that she scratcht his guts out of his belly with her Teeth and Nails, till he miserably died.

At Magdenbur, they ravished the Wife and Daugh­ter of a famous Minister before his face, and then violently snatcht a sucking Infant from its Mothers breast, and stuck it on the top of a Lance; and when they had tormented his Eyes and Heart with these [Page 93] horrid Spectacles, they brought the Minister into the Street, and burnt him with his own Books.

Yea, such was their abominable filthiness in Pome­ren, that they ravished the fairest Virgins before their Parents faces, forcing them to sing Psalms the while: one beautiful young woman they ravished, and then cut to pieces, hanging up her quarters in the Church: Girls of ten years old, and under, they ra­vished and abused, till they killed them; nay, so monstrous beastly were they, that they committed filthiness with the dead Corps of those women whom they had murdered. At Basil and Friburg they did the like, neither pitying old nor young, men, wo­men, nor innocent Babes, whom sometimes they most barbarously used to eat, even when other meat might be had, yea such inhumane cruelty they used, that in many places they left none remaining alive to relate the sufferings of those that were murdered.

Thus these Massacres and bloody murders defiled the whole Land, and Germany groaned under the op­pression, till the peace of Munster and Osnaburg in the year 1648. which put a stop to this cruel Perse­cution, the Papists being compelled thereto, by Gods bringing in the King of Sweden, who over-ran Germany in a short time, and thereby revived the Protestant Cause, which was almost over-run and de­stroyed by so many thousand violences and miseries, as it had lain under for many years.

These bloody Tyrants vented their rage and fury not only in Germany, but also in Hungary, and other Countries, for they committed the same Villanies in all places where they had power, the Ministers were generally banished, and put to death, and the same Picture of their cruelties which has been represent­ed to you in Germany, was acted over again in this Kingdom, which we have not room to insert, only a [Page 94] new sort of death was invented there; they tyed Hens Geese, Ducks and Hares to the naked body of a worthy Minister in that Country, and then set the Dogs upon him, who tore and rent his flesh till he died.

You have beheld many sad and doleful Spectacles, (and Reader, if thou art a Christian, thy heart must almost bleed at the relation of them) we will there­fore Epitomize the bloody cruelties of the Papists in POLAND.

All the same things, or worse if it be possible, which we have related to be done in other places, were likewise acted in Poland; many thousand Pro­testants, and good Christians have been destroyed in that Kingdom, and especially at Karmin, Dumbuick, Shochy, Carienzin, and Lesna, all which Cities and Towns were destroyed and burnt to the ground for the cause of Religion.

The City of Lesna was one of the most ancient and flourishing Cities in all the Kingdome of Poland, which was wholly laid in ashes, being three whole days in flames erre it was consumed, in which there perished many hundred Protestants, besides inesti­mable wealth and treasure, no man resisting or op­posing the fire: Here they pulled off the Noses of some, and put out the eyes of others, and cut off the tongues, hands, and feet of divers, giving quarter to none, but killing and destroying all that came in their way. They cut off the hands of a pious Ma­tron of Lesna, and then murdered three of her Chil­dren before her face, cutting off their heads, and laying one at each breast, and the other by her side. Another woman having her hands and feet cut off, and her tongue cut out, they sowed up in a Sack, and so left her for two days in which she lived, making a most miserable lamentation.

In the Lower Poland a multitude suffered, whole Families were butchered, and men and women, young and old, murdered without distinction. And in the year 1654. there was an horrible slaughter amongst them, the Papists putting to death all the Protestants they could meet with to most exquisite tortures: One Mr. Samuel Cardus, a Minister, they used with extreme cruelties, first putting out his eyes, and leading him about as a miserable Spectacle; then they pull'd off his fingers with Pincers, and powred melted Lead down his throat, and while he was yet half alive, they put his Neck between two folding doors, and so violently severed his head from his body.

They used the Minister of Dembuick, and another Minister, very barbarously; for after they had seve­ral ways tormented them, they cut their throats with a Razor, and while they were breathing, flung them into a Pit, and covered them with filth and dung.

The same Cruelties the Barbarous and bloody Papists acted against the Protestants in LITHU­ANIA, in the year 1648. slaughtering all that were not Roman Catholicks, without distinction of Age or Sex. Here many had their skins flead off while they were alive, others their hands and feet cut off, some their bowels taken out alive, others had their Shin­bones bored through; they powred melted Lead into the wounds of some whom they had cut in the head, and other parts of their bodies: some had their eyes pulled out, and those that were hanged up in all places were such a multitude, that they are hard to be numbered, It was counted a great mercy and kindness to be shot, beheaded, or killed out-right, without any other torment.

The Wives and Daughters of the Protestants were [Page 96] every where ravished, their Houses and Goods burnt and destroyed, all their Country and their Chur­ches laid wast, so that there was nothing to be seen in every place but Murders and Massacres, and the blood of the poor suffering Protestants ran like Streams through the Streets of Towns and Cities, and those that were left alive, and escaped the slaughter, were banished their Country for ever.

The Ministers were chiefly aimed at, and always cruelly tormented, among the rest one Adrian Chil­miskie, (who was famous for his great Piety and Learning, and likewise for his Reverend Age) was by these barbarous wretches roasted alive, and this they did leisurely, with a few Chips and Straw, that he might be the longer in torment. In another place above forty suffered death by several sorts of tor­tures: Near Vilna, the chiefest City in Lithuania, one Smolskie, and his Son, both Ministers, had their Heads cruelly sawed off with a Sickle. Another Minister had his flesh sliced off by piece-meal, till he died-And to conclude this Field of Blood, there were no less than fifteen hundred poor Protestants, Ministers as well as others, who were bound to Stakes on the tops of Mountains in the Winter, and there miserably starved to death with hunger and cold. In a word, no Age nor History can parallel all the several tortures and miserable deaths which these poor Protestants suffer'd from the hands of bloody Papists, for no other Crime but professing and asserting the Truth and Gospel of Jesus Christ.

ABout the year 1209. There were divers Learn'd men in France, the Disciples of our Almericus at Paris, who being taken notice of, to hold other Opinions then those commonly heard of at that time; Six of them were brought upon Examination, who freely declared, that they did believe, That God was no otherwise present in the Sacramental Bread, than in any other Bread; That it was Idolatry to build Altars to Saints, or offer incense to their Images: That it was rediculous to kiss or Worship Relicks. They said, that the Pope was Antichrist, and Rome, was Baby­lon. These being counted horrible Errors in that dark time of superstition, they were perswaded to recant; and upon their refusal so to do, were condemned and burnt at Paris; And the bones of their Master Almericus, which had been buried in the Church-yard, were dig'd up, and buried in the Fields.

In the year 1524, One John Clark set up a Bill on the Church door, against the Popes Pardons, and called him Antichrist; for which being apprehend­ed, he was ordered to be whipt several days, and then burned in the fore-head; His Mother a Religi­ous Woman, standing by, encouraged him, saying with a loud voice, Blessed be Christ, and welcome be these marks for his sake. After this he went to Mitz; and there being some Images without the City which [Page 112] the People used to worship once a year, the Evening before John Clark abhorring their Idolatry, went and brake down all their Idols; the next morning when the Clergy and People came to their Worship, they found their Image lye all broken on the Ground, upon which there began a great Tumult, and John Clark was suspected and taken; who presently con­fessed the Fact, and gave Reasons for his so doing; for which he was condemned to a most cruel death, His Right hand was first cut off, then his Nose was violently pulled off, and after that his Arms and Breasts with sharp Pincers all which he sustained with admirable Patience, uttering all the while the words of the 115 Psalm. Their Idols are Silver and Gold, the work of mens hands. Lastly, he was thrown into the Fire, and burnt to Ashes.

A while after a great number of Protestants at Pa­ris, Melda, Linosin, and divers other Cities and Towns in France were burnt, rackt, whipt; beaten, and otherways tormented to death. At Melda one was burnt for saying That the Mass was a plain denial of the death and passion of Christ. He often meditated on the word of Christ: He that denies me before men, him will I also deny before my Father. He was burned in a slow Fire and endured much torment.

One Stephen Brame, being condemned to be burn­ed for the Constant Profession of his Faith, when the Fire was kindled, a great wind drove away the Flame from him, so that he stood for an hours space instructing and exhorting the People: They then brought Oyl Vessels, and more Faggots, yet still was the flame driven from him, whereupon the Hang­man struck him on the head with a staff, to whom he said, I am condemned to be burned, and do you strike me with Staves like a Dog; after which the Hangman run him through the Belly with a Pike, and then threw him in the Fire, and scattered his Ashes in the wind.

Four Protestants were condemned at Roan and were carried to the Stake in a Dung Cart, at which they rejoyced saying, Blessed be God we are reputed as the Excrements of this World, but yet our death is a sweet savour unto God.

Aymond de Lavoy, a Godly Minister was burnt at Burdeux; and likewise one Vercote another Minister, who was imprisoned in such a narrow place, that he could neither stand nor lye down, in which they kept him seven weeks, whereas before no other Malefactor could endure that Torment above fifteen days without dying, or growing mad, afterwards they cut off his Tongue, and lastly they were so merciful to execute him.

One Thomas a young man of Eighteen years old coming from Geneva to Paris, rebuked one for swear­ing, whereupon he was apprehended for a Lutheran and carried before the Inquisition, who committed him to Prison, and rackt him so cruelly to confess his Companions, that one of the bloody Inquisitors turned back his head and wept, yea the Hangman self was weary; He was then carryed to be burned and was let down into the Fire by a Pully, and af­terward puld up again, and asked if he would yet turn, To whom he said, He was in his way to God and desired them to let him go, and so he quietly slept in the Lord.

The Duke of Guise a great Instrument of Persecu­tion, committed many Barbarous Cruelties upon the Protestants, and among the rest at a place called Vos­sy, he murd ed several Hundreds of Men, Women and Children who were assembled to hear a Sermon, mangling their Limbs, and strewing them about the Seats and Galleries of the Church, and at another Town called Seulis, some were beheaded, some whipt, some beaten, others sent to the Gallys, the poor women being likewise made Slaves. Among the [Page 114] rest one Fournia a Minister was tormented by having his Thumbs strained with a small cord till the blood issued out at the ends of them, and with another Cord was hoisted up by the Thumbs, and then twitcht down again, having great Stones tyed to his Toes, and so was hanged till his Spirits failed him, and then they suddenly let him fall with his Face on the hard Floor, with which Barbarous Usage he in a short time dyed, being near fifty years old.

In the year 1559, in the Reign of Henry the second of France, there was one Ann du Bourg, a Noble-man, and of admirable wisdom and understanding, who when the King came one time into his Parliament at Paris, made a bold Speech before him, wherein he gave hanks to Almighty God for moving the Kings Heart to be present at such a weighty matter as that of Religion, (which it seems was then to be debated) humbly intreating him to consider well thereof, it be­ing the Cause of Christ himself, which of good Right ought to be maintained by Princes, but the King was so far from harkning to him, that being inraged he commanded him to be committed to Prison, and protested to him in these very words, These Eyes of mine shall see thee burnt. And a while after he was condemned to dye. In the mean time great Tri­umphs were preparing for the marriage of the Kings Sister and Daughter, and the day being come, He spent all the morning in Examining matters against Du Bourg, and some others charged with the same Doctrines, intending to glut his Eyes with their Ex­ecution; and then went to Dinner; After Dinner the King ran at Tilt near the Prison where Du Bourg was, and brake many Spears against the Count Mont­gomery and others, and all thinking he had done e­nough, desired him to give over with praise; But the King being inflamed with their Commendations would needs run another course with Count Montgo­mery, [Page 115] who upon his knees beg'd his Majesty pardon, but the King being resolved, commanded him to do it upon his Allegiance, Montogomery, being compel'd addrest himself to it, and the King and he meeting broke their Spears, and the Kings Helmet falling down at the same Instant, one of the Splinters of Montgomeries Spear entred just into his right eye, and so pierced his head, that his brains were perish­ed, which wound being incurable, he dyed thereof, within Eleven days after; whereby his great hopes of seeing the Death of Du Bourg were frustrated; And the Execution of Du Bourg was deferr'd for six Months longer, all which time persevering constant­ly in the truth, he was first degraded, and then ac­companied with six or seven hundred Horse and Foot well armed, he was guarded to Execution, be­ing first hang'd, and then burnt to Ashes.

At Amiens in France all the Bibles, Testaments and Psalm Books were burnt, the Ministers Pulpit, and several Men and Women: At Abbevilla they slew the Lord of Harcourt, and dragg'd some along the Streets with their faces in the Kennel. At Meux above Four Hundred Religious Citizens were slain, the Wo­men and Maids were openly ravished in the Streets, and market-places, Men, VVomen and Children were Massacred, the very Popish Priests themselves slaying divers with their own hands. At a place cal­led Bar, the same if not worse Villanies were com­mitted, for the Papists pull'd out the hearts of these poor Protestants, and most barbarously gnawed them with their Teeth, rejoycing that they tasted of an Hugonots heart. At another place seven Hundred Pro­testants were inhumanely massacred, and their nak­ed Bodies thrown into the River; Their Houses and Church being likewise plundred and Burnt.

At Angies they murthered a Godly Minister and many others and finding a Fair Bible guilt, they [Page 116] hung it upon an Halbert, and carried it in procession, blasphemously crying, Behold Truth hanged, the Truth of the Hugonots, The Truth of all the Devils; behold the Mighty God, behold the Everlasting God will speak, and when they came to the Bridge, they threw it in­to the River; crying lowder, Behold the Truth of all the Devils drown'd. At Tours an hundred and forty were murdered and cast into the River, and neither Man, VVoman nor Child spared; nay the President of the City being only suspected to be a Favourer of the Protestants, was first beaten with Staves, then script to his shirt, hang'd up by one Foot, his Head in the water up to the Breast, and whilst he was yet alive, they ript up his Belly, pluckt out his Guts, threw them into the River, and sticking his heart on a Lance, they carried it about, saying, This is the Heart of the President of the Hugonots.

A Poor VVoman whose Husband was a while be­fore drown'd, having a young Infant sucking at her Breasts; and a beautiful Daughter of about sixteen years old in her hand, these bloody Villains drove them to a River, and taking the Daughter aside, some of the Rascals endeavoured to seduce her to Popery, and one of them who was finer then the rest, pro­mised to marry her, so that the poor Maid began to doubt, which her Mother who was just going to be thrown into the River perceiving, she earnestly ex­horted her Daughter to persist in the Truth where­upon the Daughter cryed out, I will live and dye with my Mother, whom I know to be a Virtuous Wo­man, and as for your Threats and promises I regard them not, do with me what you please: Before the Mother was quite drowned, the Daughter was likewise thrown in, who making toward her Mother, they mutually embraced each other, and so yielded up their Souls into the hands of God.

In the same City of Yours, there was a very Reli­gious [Page 117] Woman, who being brought before the Captain, she there gave an Account of her Faith, which she confirmed by Scripture, insomuch that the Fryers who discoursed with her, could not return any an­swer, but only told her, That she was in a damnable condition: It seems so indeed (said she) being in your hands: And being then committed to prison, she de­clared her mind freely, and comforted the other Pro­testant Prisoners; she was afterward condemn'd to be hang'd, and the Rope being put about her neck, she kneeled down praising and magnifying the name of God in shewing her so much mercy as by that death to deliver her out of this wretched world, and that she was so far honoured as to dye for the Truth, and to wear Gods Livery, as she reckoned the halter to be; she then brake her fast with the rest of the Company, and exhorted them to be of good cou­rage and to trust in the free mercy of God to the end. As she went to Execution one of her kindred brought her own little Children to see her, and per­swaded her to recant and save her life to provide for these Innocent Babes: This was a very great Temp­tation, and wrought so upon her Motherly Affecti­on as drew plenty of Tears from her Eyes; But a while after refusing her former Courage and Con­stancy, she said, I love my Children dearly, yet neither for love to them, nor for any thing else in this World will I renounce my God, or his Truth; God will be a Father to these my Children, and will provide better for them then I could have done, and therefore to his Providence and protection I commend and leave them. After which she went cheerfully to the place of Execution, and having there prayed to, and praised God, she quiet­ly resigned up her Spirit to him.

A while after the City of Roan was besieged and two of the Forts taken, wherein they put all the Pro­testants to the Sword, and the Queen Mother be­ing [Page 118] at the Siege, she led the young King Charles the Ninth, who was then but twelve years old, to shew him the Naked Bodies of several poor Women; who weltred in their Blood; At last the City was taken, wherein all sorts of monstrous Cruelties were used, massacring all they met with, and divers English and Scotch Souldiers were hanged, and the Sick and wounded were cast into the River.

In Valogues divers Persons of good Quality were massacred, and among the rest, a Godly Minister whose body they stripped, and with many scoffs and scorns dragged it about the House, and at last bring­ing it into a Room, where he used to preach, they kickt and spurn'd his Corps, saying, Now pray to God and preach if thou canst; The Popish Priests that were present, stuffed his Mouth and likewise his wounds with the Leaves of his Bible; crying, Preach the Truth of thy God, and call upon him now to help thee. In a place called Agen many were massacred, and two young Children were rosted: In the Castle of Rheims there was great Cruelty used, many young Children being murthered in their Mothers Arms; and the Mothers also shamefully abused, and afterward killed. Above five hundred men were hanged upon Gibbets, among whom was a grave Counsellor in his long Gown and square Cap.

In the City of Blois the Murtherers hearing there was a Sermon, brake violently into the house, think­ing to have taken the Minister, but being disap­pointed, they dragg'd several Women that were there, by the hair of the head, and beating them severely threw them into the River, but by the Pro­vidence of God, they had so much skill as to swim safely to an Island, but presently after some VVater­men finding them there, stript them stark naked, and threw them again into the River, yet still they endeavoured to save themselves, and Swum toward [Page 119] the Suburbs of a Town called Vienne, and were they cruelly knocked on the head by the bloody Pa­pists. The French General having taken several Pro­testants Prisoners, he hanged most of them, but e­specially the Ministers; among the rest, there was a Captain, called La mothe to whom the General gave divers stabbs with a Dagger, and thrust him thorough with a Sword, saying, Villain thou shalt dye in de­spight of God; But he proved a Lyar; for the Cap­tain was carryed away, and though extreamely wounded, yet was wonderfully cured, and lived af­terward.

Many horrible Murthers were likewise committed upon the Protestants, and amongst others one of their Practices was to throw them down from the top of St. Michaels Abby, which was built upon an high Rock, under which there ran a deep and swift Ri­ver, and by the way there was another Rock which stood far out, upon which their bodies falling were dasht and torn to pieces: Among the rest there was a young man, who seeing they were resolved to mur­ther him, requested that he might thus cast himself from the top of the Abby, and if it pleased God to preserve him in the fall, he might escape with Life, this they promised, whereupon having made his Prayers to God, he fetched a leap from the top of the Abby and flew so far, that missing the Rocks under him, he fell into the River, and endeavoured to swim out for his life, but these perfidious Villains knockt him on the head, and killed him.

A Captain and his Souldiers entring the House of a Religious VVidow, they bound her with Cords, and then put a Rope about her neck, whereby she was halled up and down, till she was almost strangled, they then asked her, How often she had played the whore with those of her Religion, she answered, That in the Christian Meetings there were no such Villanies [Page 120] committed. The Captain then dasht her head against the walls till he had almost beaten out her brains, and required her to give him Seven Hundred pieces of Gold which she had hidden, she told him she was a poor woman, and had only one French penny, this inraged him the more, and he thereupon apply­ed hot burning Coals to her Arm-pits, till they were all blistred, bidding her in derision, to cry to her Father which was in Heaven, She replyed, I will not cry aloud for thee, and yet my God can hear me well e­nough, and when his pleasure is, he will deliver me out of thy hand. This made him swear and blaspheme ex­tremely, which more afflicted the poor VVoman than her pains or sufferings; and then he called her Hugonote whore, saying that these were but the be­ginning of her sorrows, and except she fetcht him out her Gold, he would draw her Cheeks and Breasts with Lard and roast her alive, and afterwards throw her body head-long from the highest Steeple in the Town, well (said she) if you throw my body never so low, that shall not hinder my Soul from ascending into Heaven: This her courage did further inrage him, and thereupon he opened her Mouth with his Dag­ger, and crammed Lime down her Throat, and af­terwards forced her to drink a glass of Urine which he had made before her, throwing the remainder with the glass in her Face, they then carryed her to their Quarters, and threatned to kill her with strange Cruelties; but some pitying her condition redeemed her for ten Crowns, and conveyed her home, where she soon dyed.

Some of these Hell-Hounds constrained one Peter Roch to dig his own Grave, and then bid him try how it fitted him, which whilst he was doing, they bu­ried him alive. They stript a Gentlemans VVife stark Naked, and would have abused her, but she resisting, they cruelly whipt her, crowned her with [Page 121] Thorns, wounded her with their swords, and then shot her to death. In another Town six of the chief men had their heads struck off, and others were divers ways put to death. In Tholouse some Coun­cellors made Proclamation that they should kill and destroy all those of the Protestant Religion, and spare none, since they were Licenced to do it both by the King, and the Pope: This soon spread through all the Villages, and the Papists rang the Bells to the slaughter, and there presently began a most horrible Massacre in those parts; There were above Thirty Thousand Protestants in the City of Tholouse, so that the Prisons were Immediately filled, and many knockt on the Head because they would hold no more, the River was quickly covered with murdered bodies; some Protestants got into the Town-house, and made an agreement to depart quietly, but the perfi­dious Papists destroyed most of them.

At a Town called Carcasson they pulled out their Eyes, and cut off their Ears and Noses; They took one and blacked his Hands, Face and Feet; and then said he had a Devil, afterwards they hanged him, and threw his body to the Dogs; One being com­manded to blaspheme God, upon refusal was present­ly hewen to pieces. A Blacksmith because he would not give himself to the Devil, they laid his head up­on his own Anvil, and beat out his brains with ham­mers. A young Woman was found hid in a house with her Husband whom they ravished before his Face, and then forced her to take hold of a Rapier, where­with one of the Villains thrusting her Arm, made her kill her own Husband.

In Foix and Aurang, some had their hands and legs cut off, and were afterwards beheaded, others were carried upon Halberts, some were burnt in Churches, some had their Privities cut off; Girls [Page 122] of Five and Six years old were Ravished and spoiled. In Cisterno the men being fled, the Papists fell upon the VVomen and Children, and slew Three or Four Hundred of them; Some VVomen with Child were ript up, and many buried alive, some had their Throats cut like Sheep, others were drawn through the Streets and beaten to death with Clubs, and in brief the Protestants were murdered, without di­stinction of Age, Sex or Quality, neither Old, Bed­rid, nor the diseased in Hospitals being spared.

In Masion the bloody Papists apprehended an ho­nest Godly Minister, whom they carryed along the Streets, with a Thousand Scoffs and Scorns, and beating and abusing him, and then they made Procla­mation, That whosoever would hear this Holy man Preach, should come to the Slaughter House: At which place they abused him two hours together; He then desired that before his death, they would permit him to pray to God; upon which a Villain stept to him, and cut off half his Nose, and one of his ears, say­ing, Now pray as long as thou wilt, and then we will send thee to all the Devils: And then this holy man kneeling down, prayed with such zeal and fervency of Spirit, as drew sighs from some of the Murderers, and afterwards speaking to him that had cut off his Nose, he said, Friend I am now ready to suffer what thou hast to inflict upon me, but I intreat you and your Companions to consider seriously of the Mischiefs and Out­rages committed by you against this poor City, for there is a God in Heaven, before whose Tribunal you must shortly give an Account of these your Cruelties: Just then a Captain passing by, cryed, send that wretched man to the Devil; which one of them hearing took him by the hand, pretending to lead him to the River to wash off his blood; but when he came thither, he threw him into the water, and then battered him with Stones till he was drowned.

In the year 1571. after the end of the third Civil VVar in France, great means were used to draw the chief of the Protestants to Paris under the pretence of a Marriage that was between the King of Navar, who was a Protestant, and the Lady Margaret, Sister to the French King, but in the mean time several Pro­testants were murdered in the City of Roan, as they came from a Sermon, which seemed very much to displease the King, and divers were Executed for the Mutiny; then were the Articles of Marriage a­greed upon at Paris, the Admiral Coligni was invi­ted to the VVedding, and those that belonged to the Family of the Duke of Guise, were forbid the Court, which was very acceptable to the Protestants, as judging it an assured pledg of the Kings fidelity, since he declared much satisfaction in the Marriage, saying, That it was not so much for the Wedding, as that it was a strong knot of Peace, and would be for the good of the whole Nation.

The Admiral for his security was allowed to bring with him fifty Gentlemen armed; and being come to Paris he was honourably received of the King, who called him Father, and protested that in his whole life, he had not been better pleased, as judging this day would end all his troubles, and settle firm peace and quietness in his Kingdom: Notwithstanding this, the Admiral had several Intimations of some Treachery intended against him, but though very wise, yet he took little notice of it. The Queen Mother likewise entertained him with great favour, and the King sent him One Hundred Thousand Franks out of his Treasury for the loss which he had receiv­ed in the VVars: And the King to delude the Peo­ple spake publickly, That he did not give his Sister in Marriage to the King of Navar only, but as it were to the whole Church of the Protestants to joyn with them in an indissoluble union and as a tye to their peace and safe­ty.

The Seventeenth of August, the King of Navar, and the Lady Margaret were married with great So­lemnity before the great Church of Paris, on a Scaf­fold in the sight of all the People, by the Cardinal of Bourbon, the King of Navars Unkle, and the VVed­ding was solemniz'd with Banquets, Dancing and Masques, with a strange mixture of Protestants and Papists together, after which the Bride was led into the Church to hear Mass with great solemnity, but the King of Navar her Bridegroom, the Prince of Conde, and other Protestant Noblemen walked with­out the Church door, till her return, as misliking their Religion and Ceremonies.

In the mean time the Queen Mother, and her bloody Councellors, together with the Duke of Anjou and Guise contrive the Murder of the Admiral, and the dividing the Protestants.

The Admiral after the Marriage moved the King for his departure home, but the continual complaints of the Protestants still detained him at Court, and going some days after th ther, in his return home while he was reading a Petition with divers Noble­men and Gentlemen about him; He was shot by a Harquebuzie, the Bullet taking off the fore-finger of his right-hand, and hurting him in the left Arm, he feeling himself shot, said, without alteration of Coun­tenance, It came through yonder Window, what kind of Treachery is this? The door of the House being broke open, they understood that he which shot, presently mounted upon a Spanish Jennet at a back door, and made his escape, leaving his Gun be­hind him, and upon Examination it was found, that the Harquebuz was brought to the house the day be­fore, by one Chally Steward of the Kings House, and an acquaintance of the Duke of Guise.

The King having notice of this Villany, seemed to be extreamely concerned, causing all the Gates [Page 125] of Paris to be presently shut, and swore to the Ad­mirals Friends, that those that had committed this horrid Fact should not escape: the Queen Mother likewise seemed much discontented at it. The King went to visit the Admiral, assuring him of his love and care over him. However the King of Navar, Prince of Conde and other Protestants had private advice to depart speedily out of Paris, and to look upon this but as the beginning of the Tragedy which was to follow; but they, trusting to the Kings word, would not go.

The Dukes of Guise and Anjou imployed some to go to every house, and bring them a Catalogue of all the Protestants, and the King set a Guard of Fifty Harquebuzies at the Admirals Gate; and abundance of Arms were sent into the Kings Pallace of the Louvre, and in the Evening of the same day, all the Papists were in Arms; the Protestants observing all this, many of then assembled at the admirals Lodg­ings, where it was advised that the Admiral should be Immediately conveyed out of Paris, and the rest should change their Lodgings, but this was again re­fused they still relying upon the Kings word, who promised them Justice.

In the Evening, divers Protestant Gentlemen of­fered to watch with the Admiral, but he refused it, and the same night the Duke of Guise sent for the Captain of the Switzers, and shewed him his Com­mission to kill the Admiral and the rest of the Pro­testants, and exhorted him and his Souldiers to be couragious in shedding their blood; At midnight the Provost, Sheriffs, and Captains of every Ward had the same Orders given them, with assurance, that the like should be Executed upon the Protestants through the whole Kingdom of France, and that the Signal for the General Massacre, would be the ring­ing of the Bell in the Kings Pallace, which would be [Page 126] about break of day, and that the Murderers should have a white handkerchief tyed about their Arms, and a white Cross in their hats, and Candles to be lighted in every house: At the time appointed, the Bell rung, and the Duke of Guise hasted to the Ad­mirals Lodgings with his Cut-throats, and knocking at the Door, he that opened it was murdered; the Admiral hearing the noise, got out of his Bed, and there being a Minister in the Room, they both went to Prayers, and the Admiral fervently commended his Soul to God, and then said to those about him, It is long since I disposed my self to dye, save your selves if it be possible, for you cannot save my life, I commit my soul into the hands and mercy of God. The Mini­ster, and the rest of his attendants got up to the top of the house, and crept out of the Windows to save themselves, yet most of them were slain in the next House.

Presently seven or eight men broke into the Admi­rals Lodgings, and one of them set his Naked Sword to his Breast, saying, Art thou the Admiral? To whom with a Christian Constancy he answered, I am called so, and withal said, young man thou oughtest to consider my Age and the weak condition I am now in, but do what thou wilt, for thou canst not shorten my life but a very little: But the Wretch blaspheming God, thrust him through the Breast, and afterward strook him on the head, another shot him with a Pistol, and a third wounded him in the Thigh, so that he lay gasping for life; the Duke of Guise was below, and with a lowd voice cryed, Have you done? It was an­swered, Yes; the Duke replyed, Our Chevalier (which was the Kings Bastard Brother) will not believe it, un­less he see it; which being done, his Face was all bloody, which the Duke of Guise wiping, said, Now I know it is he, and then kicked him on the Face with his Foot, whom all the Murtherers of France feared so much when he was alive.

Then the Duke and his bloody Train went into the Streets, crying Arm, Arm, we have had good suc­cess, and a happy beginning, Let us now proceed to the rest, for it is the Kings Command, which words he repeated often, This is the Kings Commandment, this is his Will, this is his express pleasure, therefore courage my Fellows.

Then the great Bell of the Pallace which was the bloody token of the General Alarm, began to ring out alowd, and presently a Report was spread, That the Protestants had conspired against the King; Queen and Court, and were just going to Execute their Design; After this the Admirals head was cut off, and sent to the King, and Queen Mother, and being by them preserved with Spices, it was sent to the Pope, and the Cardinal of Lorrain at Rome as a very grateful present. The Pope when he first heard the News of the Massacre, appointed a day of Pub­lick Thanksgiving to God, where Te Deum was sung for joy in the Church of St. Lewes; He likewise Pub­lished a Bull of Pardons and extraordinary Indul­gence to such as should pray for the Heavenly assist­ance to the King and Kingdom of France for rooting out of Hereticks.

The Rascally Rabble cut off the Hands and Privy Members of the Admiral, dragging his mangled bo­dy besmeared with blood and filth, through the Streets three days together, and then hanged it by the Feet upon the Gallows; All the Attendants of the King of Navar, and Prince of Conde which lay in the Kings Pallace were murdered, and likewise all the Lords and Gentlemen about the Admiral's Lodg­ings, and among the rest his Son Teligny, and then through all the City and Suburbs were the poor Pro­testants Massacred with all manner of Cruelties; No­thing was then to be heard but the Terrible noise of Horses and Arms, Guns and Pistols, mingled with [Page 128] the doleful, sad and woful Schreeches and miserable complaints of Men, VVomen, and Children, Rich and Poor, crying for mercy to these bloody Hell-hounds, howling and lamenting at their miserable Condition, to bet hus wretchedly murdered for they knew not what: And all this intermixt with the groans of the dy­ing, and the merciless shouts of the Cruel Murtherers, continually crying, kill, kill, for the King commands it, that it seemed as if Heaven and Earth had met together, or as if the Heavens had rent with Thun­der.

So that in that night, and the Two next days there was slain in Paris above Ten Thousand Per­sons of both Sexes, and all Ranks and Ages, the bloody Papists not sparing the Children in the Cra­dle, nor the Infants in their Mothers wombs, inso­much that the Streets, Market-place, and Rivers were dyed with Blood, and the Murtherers boasted that they had in a few days put an end to that Quar­rel, that neither Pen, Paper, decrees of Justice nor open VVar could accomplish in Twelve years.

This horrid Massacre was committed on St. Bar­tholomews day, being the 24. of August 1571. which was the Sabbath day, and is made famous for ever, by the Effusion of so much precious Innocent blood, as no Age nor time can parallel, for there were at this time in Paris Threescore Thousand men, with Pistols, Poinards, Swords, Knives, and such other Bloody Instruments, who ran up and down, swearing and blaspheming the Sacred Majesty of God, cruelly massacring all they met, so that the Streets were covered with mangled Bodies, and the Gates and Doors defiled with blood, the Lords and Gen­tlemen were Inhumanely murdered, some in their Beds, others on the top of their Houses, and in all o­ther places where they were found, and such a multi­tude of dead Bodies, were thrown into the River Se-Sin, [Page 129] that the water was dyed Red with their Blood.

In the Hellish Assembly wherein this bloody Mas­sacre was concluded on, it was debated whether the King of Navar and Prince of Conde should not be de­stroyed with the rest; the Duke of Guise pleaded for it, but others were against it, and argued how abo­minable it would be to destroy two young Princes of the Blood, in the Flower of their Age, and one of them in the imbraces of his young Bride, and the Kings own Sister, and therefore it was concluded, That they should be threatned violently with death and all manner of Torments if they would not turn Papists,; And thereupon the King commanded them to be brought into his presence, and told them, That now he had cut off all the Instruments of the late Civil Wars, which he hoped would prevent future troubles, for by his Command the Admiral was slain, and all the rest of the Hereticks and that the like should be Executed in all other places throughout the Kingdom, and that if they would now save their Lives they must turn Catholicks, for he was resolved to have but one Religion in his Kingdom.

The King of Navar, and the Prince of Conde hum­bly beseeched his Majesty to Remember his Oaths, Promises, and solemn Vows and Protestations that they should have the free Exercise of their Religion, and withal told the King, That he might do as he pleased with their Bodies and Estates, but their unspotted Souls were in the hands of God; and that they were resolved to remain stedfast in their Religion, though with the loss of their lives; which answer so inraged the King, that he called the Prince of Conde Rebel, and the Son of a Rebellious Person, horribly threathing him, That if within three days he did not obey his Command he should dye for it, and then with a furious Countenance left them with these three Terrible VVords, Death, Mass or the Bastile.

Many Gentlemen that were attendants upon them, [Page 130] as likewise their School-Masters and Tutors, were thrust out of the Chamber among the Murtherers, that is among the Kings Guard of Switzers who stood in two Ranks with their Swords drawn ready for Blood and Cruelty. These Gentlemen crying out of the Kings Oaths, Promises and Fidelity, were yet by the Kings Command, and in his own Sight un­mercifully hewen and cut in pieces.

In this Butcherly Massacre at Paris there were a­bove four Thousand Houses robbed and plundred, and above Five Hundred Barons, Knights and Gen­tlemen, who were chief Officers in the VVar, with abundance of Noble young Gentlemen, Ladies, and Gentlewomen Inhumanely murthered, who little ex­pected such a bloody Fate, for they came from all parts to rejoyce, in honour of the marriage of the King of Navar, and instead of Jollity and pleasures, they here met with an untimely death, from Bloody and Cowardly Papists, who murther like Devils, but dare not fight like men.

The King and his Confidents fearing that this Massacre would not end the Quarrel, but rather stir up the Protestants in other places to stand upon their own defence; He therefore sends Messengers by Poast to all parts of the Kingdom, often shifting Horses for more speed, with express Commands to the Governours of all other Towns and Cities in France to follow the Example of Paris, and to de­stroy and kill all the Protestants which were amongst them; and yet at the same time, the King writes o­ther Letters wherein he laid the fault of the murder of the Admiral, and the rest upon the Duke of Guise.

As soon as this Command was published, and that the Kings Letters came, the Papists fell with all i­maginable fury upon all the Protestants at Meaux, Troys, Orleans, and other places, murthering them [Page 131] without any matter of pity and Compassion.

And among the rest Mounsier De la Place, President of the Court of Requests being in his house, a Captain came to him, and told him, that the Duke of Guise had killed the Admiral by the Kings Appointment, and many other Hugonots, but however he was willing to secure him, but desired to see his Gold; The Lord De la Place observing his Impudence asked him whe­ther he thought there were a King or no; the Cap­tain blaspheming bid him go to know the Kings plea­sure; The Lord De la Place thinking there was danger neer, went from him to secure himself, and the Captain thereupon plundred his House. The poor Gentleman seeking shelter in three Houses for his life, was denied, and was at last forced to return home again, where finding his wife very sorrowful, he rebuked her, and discourst with her of the Pro­mises of God, telling her, That through many Tribula­tions we must enter into the Kingdom of God; and then calling his Family together, he made an Exhortation to them, went to prayer, and then read a Chapter in Job, with Calvins Exposition, and then praying again, he resolved by Gods assistance to suffer all Torments rather than to fly for it.

Presently after the Provost of the Merchants comes to his House with many Archers, and an Order to bring him to the King, and would not admit of any Excuse, whereupon the Lord supposed what would happen, and therefore embracing his Wife, he de­sired her never to forsake the truth of God; And so going toward the Palace, some Murtherers waited for him, and Immediately stab'd him with their Dag­gers, so that he fell down dead, and then stripping him, cast his Body into the River.

After this, there followed the like Cruelties and Murders upon the Protestants in the Cities of Ly­ons, Tholouse, Burdeux, Angiers, where the Protestants [Page 132] were most barbarously kild and destroyed, as like­wise in most other Cities and Towns, so that in a few Months there were murdered above threescore Thousand Protestants in France, for no other Crime, but only for being Protestants.

Yet in the midst of these dangers it pleased God to provide some places of refuge for them, as Ro­chel, Montalbon, Wismes, Saucerre, Privas, &c. whi­ther many Protestants fled from other places. In the year 1573, the Town of Saucerre was besieged by the Lord of Chastre, who with his Canon played incessantly upon the place, so that the Stones, Pave­ments, and Splinters of Timber flew about continu­ally, and yet it pleased God that only one young VVoman was slain thereby, though sometimes the Coats, Breeches, and Hats of the Inhabitants were shot thorough; The Siege being long, there was great scarcity, insomuch that the People were forced to eat Horses, Asses, and Mules, which lasted a Month; Afterwards they eat all the Dogs, Cats, Rats, Mice and Moles that they could get; and then they were forced to eat Parchments, Horses, and Beasts-Hoofs, Horns, Lanthorns, Halters, Girdles of Lea­ther, Herbs, wild Roots, and Furniture for Horses; this being all spent, and no bread in the City, they made bread of Linseed, Herbs mixt with Bran, Straw-Meal, Powder of Nut-shells; yea Slates, Sewet, Old Ointments, and other Grease served to make Pot­tage; and therewith, they likewise fryed the the Ex­crements of Horses and Men, which they eat, yea the very filth in the Streets was not spared.

During this Extremity, a labourer and his wife were put to death for eating the Head, Intrials and Brains of their own Child, a Girl of three years old, who died with Famine, having likewise dressed the rest of her body to eat at other times. Those that went out of the City VValls, were forced to live up­on [Page 133] the Spriggs of Vines, Black-beries, Snails, and Herbs; and many of them were killed by the Ene­my. And among other lamentable Spectacles, a poor man and his Wife were found dead among the Vines, and two of their Children crying by them; the youngest being not above Six weeks old, whom a Charitable Widow took home and relieved, &c.

Many dyed of this terrible Famine in their Hou­ses, and others fell down dead in the Streets; Most of the Children under Twelve years old dyed, and most lamentable it was to see their poor Fathers and Mothers lamenting their misery, and yet could not relieve them; yet most of them did wonderfully en­courage themselves in Gods help and assistance, as may appear by this strange Example.

A Boy about five years old being famisht for Hun­ger, running along the Streets, fell down for dead in the presence of his Father and Mother, who wept o­ver him, and felt his Arms and Legs, which were as dry as a Stick: To whom the Child said, Why do you weep to see me dye of hunger? I ask you no Bread Mother, for I know you have none, but since it is Gods will that I should dye in this manner, I must take it thankfully; Had not the Holy man Lazarus Hunger, have I not read it in my Bible? and saying thus, he yielded up his Spirit.

And that which preserved the rest from perishing was, because there were six Cows kept alive to give Milk to some few Infants, and some Horses of ser­vice referred for extremity were killed, and their flesh sold, and some little Corn was brought into the Town by stealth, which was sold for half a Crown a pound.

There dyed by the War but Eighty four Persons, but the Famine destroyed Five Hundred, and the rest were brought so low, that they hardly recover­ed. Divers voluntarily went out of the Town chu­sing [Page 134] rather death then such misery, whereof some were slain, and others Imprisoned, and Executed.

And now when all humane help failed, the King having sworn, He would make them eat one another, and the Papists threatning to Massacre them all; it Pleased God strangely to deliver these poor Prote­stants. For Ambassdors coming from Poland to fetch the Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother thither, whom they had chosen for their King; They ha­ving notice of this terrible siege, obtained by their Solicitations, that all the Towns in France which were molested for Religion should have their Liberty, by which means the poor Saucerreans half dead with hun­ger obtained their fredom, and were quietly suffered to depart with their Arms and Goods, and those that would stay not to be questioned for what was past.

About the same time the Town of Rochel was like­wise besieged, the Townsmen often sallying out, and divers hot skirmishes past; among the rest a young Gentleman boasted with horrible blasphemies, that he was one of the horrible Murderers of the Admiral, shewing his Sword, which he said he brought from that exploit, to slash the Rochellers, but upon Tryal his heart failed him and he ran away, and one of the Ro­chellers pursuing him slew him, stript him, and left his body in the Field, and before next morning the had torn his Face.

In one Months space the Papists discharged above Thirteen Thousand Shot against the Town, and made many assaults, but always came off with loss, The Siege continued two Months, and the Famine much increaseh upon them, but by Divine Provi­dence, when all other Provision failed them, there came a multitude of small Fishes into the Haven, which were never seen there before, and was a very great relief to them, who continued during the siege, but presently after the publishing the Edict of Peace, [Page 135] they went away and were never seen more. A while after the Rochellers were likewise freed from the siege by means of the Poland Ambassadors and en­joyed their ormer Privileges: It is very remarkable that most of those Persons which were employed in the Massacre of Paris and other Places, were killed at this siege, for there were slain before this Town Three Masters de Camp, divers Lords and Gentlemen, a­bove Threescore Captains, as many Lieutenants and Ensigns, and above Twenty Thousand Common Souldiers.

The next year after, the King himself, who was at least the Countenancer of all these horrible Massa­cres, being in the prime of his Youth, not above Twenty five years old, fell sick of a languishing dis­ease; his Physicians let him blood and purged him to no purpose; for he consumed away so strangely, as astonished many. He long strugled against his Disease, but at last betook himself to his Bed for a­bout fourteen days before his death, and was sore tormented with a great Effusion of blood, which issu­ed from all parts of his body, and one time, to the terror of those about him, he rouled himself in his own blood; A while before he died he desired his Mother to pursue his Enemies to the utmost repeat­ing the same, and with great eagerness, and saying Madam I pray you heartily to do it, and so expired May 30. 1574.

And it was observed that the rest of the Chief A­gents were strangely cut off; The Duke of Anjou the Kings Brother, afterwards King Henry the Third was stabbed by a Jacobine Monk in the same Chamber where he sate in Councel for contriving the late Tra­gedies. The Duke of Guize was murdered in the Kings own Chamber, Five and Forty Persons wait­ing with Swords and Daggers to do it; The Queen Mo­ther broke her heart, and dyed the first of January [Page 136] after: And in short, it hath been observed by a good Author, that since the year of our Lord 1560 of a Thousand Murderers that remained unpunished by men, there was not ten who escaped the Divine hand of God; but came to deserved and wretched Ends, suitable to their bloody and wicked Lives.

At a Town called Sansay in France in the year 1593, one Margaret Pieron was by her maid accused to the Jesuits for not going to Mass, and for keeping a Bi­ble in her house, who complaining thereof to the Judges, they sent for her, and said, Margaret, are you not willing to return home to your house, and there enjoy your Husband and Children? Yes, said she, if it may stand with the good will of God; Then said they, If thou wilt do but a small matter thou shalt be set at Li­berty; If, said she, if it be not contrary to Gods glory and my own Salvation, you shall hear what I will say to it. No such thing, said they, for all that we require is but this, That a Scaffold being set up in the chief part of the Town, you shall there crave pardon for offending the Law, and a fire being made you shall burn your Bible in it without speaking a word. I pray you my Masters said she, tell me is my Bible a good Book or no? Yes, said they, we confes it is, only to please the Jesuits we would have thee throw it in the Fire, Imagine it to be but Paper, and then you may burn it, and you may buy ano­ther at any time, and thereby you may secure your Life. They spent two Hours in perswading her that she might commit a less Evil to do a greater good. But she couragiously answered them, That by the help of God she would never do it. Will not the People say said she, This is a wretched Woman indeed, that burns the Bible, wherein all the Articles of Christian Religion are contained? I will certainly burn my Body, rather then I will burn my Bible. Upon this she was committed to Prison, and fed only with bread and water, and her Friends forbad to come to her, but continuing [Page 137] stedfast in the Truth, she was thereupon condemn­ed to be set upon a Scaffold, to have the Bible burnt before her Face, her self to be strangled, and her body to be dragged through the Streets to a Dunghil, which Sentence she willingly and cheerfully under­went.

In the year 1628. The City of Rochel was again besieged with a great Army by the French King, whereby the Inhabitants were in such extremity for want of Victuals, that rhey eat Horses, Dogs Cats, Rats, and Mice, and after that the poor Protestants lived Two Months upon Cow-hides and Goat-skins boyled. They likewise eat old Gloves, and whatso­ever was made of Leather, yea the poor people cut off the buttocks of the dead and eat them, young Maids of Fourteen or Sixteen years old looked like old Women of an Hundred years old, a Bushel of Wheat was sold for Twenty Pound, a Pound of Bread Twenty Shillings, a Quarter of Mutton above six Pound, An Egg eight shillings, An Ounce of Su­gar Half a Crown, a dryed Fish Twenty Shillings, a Pint of Milk Thirty Shillings. After a while the Ci­ty was taken, and some English that were therein, when they came aboard, looked like Anatomies or dead Bodies.

And since that to this very day the Protestants have suffered very great hardships and Persecutions in France by having their Churches pulled down, by Fires and Imprisonments, and Banishments, by be­ing excluded from all Officer and Imployments of Trust or Profit, and by all manner of discourage­ments whatsoever, and that only upon the Account of their Religion; and all this contrary to Oat, hs Pro­testations, Edicts and Proclamations, which have been solemnly made, and granted to them for the free Exercise of the Protestant Religion.

LEt us next proceed to look into Italy, which being under the Inspection of the Pope, it may well be supposed not to harbour many Protestants, at least such as dare openly ap­pear to be such, by reason of the Inquisi­tion, which was first Instituted against the Moors and Jews in Spain, but is now only used for the discovery, and Tormenting of good Christians; yet not withstanding all this, there have been divers who have owned the Gospel even in the City of Rome it self, and several other places in Italy.

For in the time of Pope Adrian the Fourth who was an Englishman, one Arnald of Brixia came to Rome and preached publickly and boldly against the Corruptions of the Romi h Church; and found great favour among the Senators and People, insomuch that when the Pope commanded them to drive Arnal, out of the City for an Heretick, they resisted his com­mand and defended Arnald, upon which the Popo thundred out an Excommuncation against the whole City of Rome; so that upon the importunity of the Clergy they were forced to send him away; but he was entertained by the Lords of Campania who were subject to the Emperour, of Germany with whom he re­mained, and preached the Gospel to them.

The Emperour coming afterwards into Italy to be Crowned the Pope desired him to deliver up Arnald into his hands; whereupon the Emperour seized up­on one of the Lords of Campania, which so terrified the other, that he delivered up Arnald, who being [Page 142] sent to the Pope he used him most cruelly, and then ordered him first to be hanged, and then burnt as an Arch Heretick; His Chief Heresies were, That he preached against the Pride and Covetousness of the Monks and Clergy, that he inveighed against the Errors in the Sacrament, that he expounded the Scriptures, &c.

In the year 1546. there was one Eucenas or Drian­der, a Spaniard born, who being bred up in Rome, yet came at last to the knowledge of the Truth, and having discovered his dislike of the false Doctrine of Popery, he was betrayed by his own Countreymen and Acquaintance, and being brought before the Car­dinals, he was committed close Prisoner, and was af­terwards brought forth to declare his Judgment where he gave a Notable Testimony to the Truth, upon which, when he refused to recant the same, he was condemned to be burnt, and suffered Martyr­dom with great patience and constancy.

In the year 1550, One Faninus of Ferrara in Italy being by the Grace of God and reading of good books converted to the Gospel, and began to Instruct others privately therein, but this coming to the ears of some of the Popes Blood-hounds, they seized him and committed him to Prison, where by the earnest Importunities of his VVife, Children and Friends, he was perswaded to deny the Truth, and was thereup­on released out of Prison; He had not been long at liberty, but he was extreamly troubled in mind, for preferring the Love of his Relations and Friends be­fore the service of Jesus Christ, neither could he by ny means be free from these Tortures till he had fully resolved to venture his Life for the Gospel; Being thus inflamed with holy Zeal, he went about the Countrey teaching and Instructing the People wherever he came.

VVhereupon he apprehended and cast into Prison, and was condemned to be burnt, but he told his Judges, That his time was not yet come, and so it [Page 143] happened for he was removed to Ferrara where he continued in Prison for Two years, and afterwards Eighteen Months in another Prison, and was again condemned by the Popes Inquisitors, but still his death was one way or other prevented.

His Wife and Sister came to him in Prison and weeping pitifully intreated him to remember and consider his poor Family, To whom he answered, That his Lord and Master had commanded him not to de­ny the Truth for his Families sake, and that it was too much that for their sakes he had once fallen already, and therefore desired them not to sollicite him any more in that matter, for he knew his end drew neer, and there­fore he commended them to the Lord. In a short time after the Pope sent word Faninus should be burnt, at which he very much rejoyced and thanked the Messenger. Being still offered Life if he would re­cant, and thereby prevent the misery of his Wife and Children, He said, He would leave them to a careful and sufficient Overseer; and being asked who that was, he answered even the Lord Jesus Christ a faith­ful Keeper of all that are committed to him. As he was going to Execution, one that saw him so merry and cheerful asked him, what the reason of it was, since Jesus Christ before his death sweat Water and Blood? To whom he answered, That Christ sustained all the sorrows and conflicts with Hell and Death, which were due to us, that by his sufferings we might be free from the sorrow and fear of them all. At the place of Exe­cation after having earnestly prayed to God, he went patiently to the stake, and was first strangled and then burnt.

There was likewise one Dominicus a Souldier under Charles the First, in Germany, who having received the Gospel, grew so much in knowledg in a short time, that he able to instruct others, whereupon he returned into Italy, and taught the People in Na­ples, [Page 144] Placentia, and several other places: In a little time after he was apprehended and readily obeyed the Magistrate, saying, That he wondred the Devil had let him alone so long; And being asked whether he would renounce his Doctrine, He said, That he main­tained no Doctrine of his own, but the Doctrine of Christ which he was also ready to seal with his blood; Being therefore condemned to death, he was brought into the Market-place, where he most heartily prayed for his Enemies, Instructed the People, and then was hanged, resting in peace in the Lord.

In the City Paria in Italy, one Galleacius Treci­us a Gentleman of good Quality, very rich, and boun­tiful to the poor embraced the Gospel, for which being presecuted he fled from thence, but being af­terwards apprehended he was brought before the Lords Inquisitors where he boldly and couragiously asserted the Truth; whereupon he was condemned to be burnt; next morning he was bound to a stake in the Market place, where he continued till noon to be gazed at by the People, during which time ma­ny of his Friends perswaded him to recant, but no­thing could alter the firm mind of this constant Mar­tyr and Fire being put to him, be quietly slept in the Lord. A little before his Execution he heard there were some Differences between the Bishop and the Mayor of the Town, who should be at the cost of wood to burn him, but to end the Quarrel he sent them word he would be at the cost out of his own Goods.

In the year 1553 one John Mollius a famous Preacher was hanged and burnt for preaching the Gospel, and the next year Francis Gamba was con­demned upon the same account, and because he made adm rable discourses to the People, his Tongue was bored through, and he was first strangled, and then burnt, undergoing death with great patience [Page 145] and Constancy. The next year after there was one Algerius a Student in Padua, a young man of Ex­cellent Learning, who having attained the knowledge of the Truth, he endeavoured by Example and In­struction to bring in others, for which being accused of Heresie, he was apprehended at Venice, and was afterwards sent for to Rome by the Pope, where ma­ny endeavours were used to tempt him to desert and deny the Truth, which not prevailing, he was Condemned to be burnt alive; which he constantly suffered to the Admiration of all that saw him.

In the year 1559. John Aloysius a Minister, being sent from Geneva to Calabria, was sent for to Rome by the Pope, where he suffered Martyrdom, and at the same James Bovellus a worthy Minister was Martyred by the Popes Order at Messina. Pope Pius the Fourth raised an hot persecution against the Protestants in all the Territories of the Church of Rome, which was the destruction of many faithful Christians, yea the Persecution was so hot in the Kingdom of Naples that many Noblemen and their Wives, with divers o­thers were slain. And a Papist writing to a Noble Lord about the Cruelties shewed to some Christians in Ca­labria in the year 1560, hath these expressions, when I think upon it I verily quake and tremble, for their manner of putting to death may be fitly resembled to the slaughter of Calves and Sheep, for Fourscore and Eight of them being thrust up together in one House as in a Sheep­fold, the Executioner cometh in, takes one and blindfolds him, and then leading him forth to a larger place com­mands him to kneel down, and then cuts his Throat; and leaving him half dead, he takes his Butchers Knife and Muffler all gore blood, and fetches the rest, and so one after another dispatches them all. How sad this specta­cle was I leave to your Lordship to Judge, for my own part I cannot but weep to think of it, neither were there any Spectators who seeing one to dye, could endure to be­hold [Page 146] another, But truly so humbly and patiently they went to their deaths, as it almost incredible to believe: All the Aged Persons went more cheerfully; the younger were something more timerous, I tremble and shake to remember how the Hangman held his bloody Knife between his Teeth, and his bloody Muffler in his hand, and his Arms all gore blood up to the Elbows, going to the Fold, and tak­ing every one of them one after another by the hand and so dispatching them all, no otherwise then a Butcher doth his Calves and Sheep.

The City of Venice kept it self free a long time from this Plague of the Inquisition so that multitudes of Christians flocked thither from other places; but in the year 1542, the Pope so far prevailed as to intro­duce it there likewise, and then began a Terrible Per­secution of the poor protestants there, and they found out a new kind of death for them, which was to drown them in the bottom of the sea, in the manner following: when they were condemned to dye by the Inquisitors there was an Iron Chain fastened round their wast, and a heavy stone was tyed thereto, then they were laid upon a Planck between two Boats, and so rowed to an appointed place in the Sea where the Boats parting asunder, the Person immediately sunk into the Sea and was drowned; notwithstand­ing which divers good Christians met together, and had a Minister who preached the Gospel and Admi­nistred the Sacrament to them; but some false bre­thren creeping in among them, betrayed them; up­on which many of them were apprehended and cast into the Sea, others were imprisoned at Rome till they dyed.

Among others who were condemned to be drown­ed at Venice, there was one Seignior Anthony Ricetto; To whom after his condemnation his son of about Twelve years of Age came, and with Tears beseech­ed his Father to recant, for the saving of his own [Page 147] Life, and that he himself might not be left fartherless, To whom his Father answered, A good Christian is bound to forgo Children, goods, yea, and Life it self for the maintenance of Gods Honour and Glory, for which cause (said he) I am now resolved with Gods assistance to lay down my Life. When he came to the place where he was to suffer, the Stone and Chain were fastned to him, whereupon lifting up his Eyes to Heaven, he said, Father forgive them, they know not what they do, Lord Jesus into thy hands I do commend my Spirit; And so he ended his Life in the Sea.

A while after one Francis Spinola was apprehended and committed to Prison, and being called before the Inquisitors, he boldly reproved the Popes Legate and the other Judges, in that c ntrary to their Con­sciences they persecuted the Truth of God, and told them they were the Off-spring of the Pharisees, &c. Whereupon he had sentence passed upon him, That he should be drown'd as an Heretick, to whom he an­swered, I am no Heretick but the Servant of Jesus Christ, At which words the Popes Legate bid him be silent and told him That he lyed; The night after he was conveyed into the Sea and there drowned, blessing and praising God with invincible Constancy.

In the year 1595, There was a young English Pro­testant at Rome, who going into a Church, and see­ing their gross Idolatry he was so moved that he could not indure the sight of those impieties, and there­fore as the Procession passed by him, he stept to him that bare the Host and Sacrament, and pluck­ing it out of his hands, threw it on the Ground, say­ing, ye wretched Idolaters, do ye fall down to a Morsel of Bread? This so provoked the People, that they were like to have torn him in Pieces, but he escaped death, and was sent to Prison, and complaint there­of being made to Pope Clement the Eight, he was so inraged that he commanded him to be burnt the same [Page 148] day, but his Cardinals advised to have him kept in Prison and Examined with Exquisite Tortures who set him on; This they accordingly practiced, tor­menting him with the utmost severity, but could get nothing from him, but these words, Such was the will of God; Then was he adjudged to be led from the Capitol naked to his middle, and to wear on his head the form of a Devil, his breeches to be painted over with Flames of Fire, and so to be carryed all a­bout the City, and then burnt alive.

This was Executed upon him, and as he passed through the Streets he was mocked and derided of the People, but he prayed fervently to God, and at last uttered something against the debauched Lives of the Cardinals, which so inraged them, that they gagged him; When he came before the Church where he threw down the Idol, his Right hand was cut off by the Hangman, and set upon a Pole in the Cart to which he was tyed; Then two Tormentors with flam­ing Torches scorcht and burnt his Flesh all the way, so that his body was all over blistred and bloody, ha­ving no part free but his head; then was he taken from the Cart, and went himself to the stake kissing the Chains that should bind him. The Fryars urged him to worship an Idol, but he turned away his Face and shew'd his Detestation of it, and when the Fire seized on him, he bowed his head, and qui­etly resigned up his Spirit to God.

The same year there was an Ancient Religious man that had layn long in the Inquisition, who was at last brought forth, and condemned, after which the Fryars brought a Crucifix to him, importuning him to kiss and adore it, He seeing their Importunity, said to them, If you take not this Idol out of my sight, I shall spit upon it; The Fryars hearing this sent him away immediately to the Fire, where with great Courage and Constancy he resigned up his Spirit to God.

AS most Kingdoms in Europe felt the rage and fury of Romish Cruelty and Persecution, so Scotland though in the frozen north was not insensible thereof; For in the Year 1572. Mr. Patrick Hamilton of an An­cient and Honourable Family, and called Abbot of Fern, left Scotland and went into Germany, where conversing with Luther and Melancton, he greatly increased in godly knowledg and learning; and returning home he publickly Preached concerning Faith and good works, and against the Supertitions and Idolatry of the Papists.

This so enraged James Beaton Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews, that in the absence of the King, Mr. Hamilton was seized upon by the Bishops Officers, and carryed to the Castle, and the next day he was brought forth to Judgment, and Condemned to be Burnt for the Testimony of God; The Articles charged against him, were about Pilgrimages, Purgatory, Praying to Saints and for the Dead.

After Dinner the Fire was prepared, which some thought was only to terrifie him, but it pleased God to strengthen him against the fear of Death, and so he was tyed to the Stake; giving his Garments to his Ser­vant, and saying thus to him: These will not profit in the Fire, they will Profit thee; After this thou canst recieve no Benefit by me, except the example of my Death; which I pray thee to remember; for though it be bitter to the Flesh, and fearfull before men, yet it is the entrance into eternall Life, which none shall possess who deny Jesus Christ before this wicked Generation. And the Eire being kindled he [Page 160] cryed with a loud voice, Lord Jesus receive my Spirit how long shall Darkness overwhelm this Realm? and how long wilt thou suffer the Tyranny of these men? A Fryar troubling him by crying out, Turn thou Heretick, call upon our Lady, say Salve Regina, &c he replyed, Depart from me, and trouble me not, thou Messenger of Satan: and speaking to one Campbel the chief among them, he said, Wicked man thou knowest the contrary, and hast confes­sed the contrary to me, I appeal thee before the Tribune Seat of Jesus Christ; after which words he resigned up his Spirit to God; and within a few days [...] Fryar dyed in a Frenzy and desperation.

The Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews likewise called be­fore him two Gentlemen, David Straton, and M Norman Gomlay: Mr. Straton being accused for Heres [...] was much troubled at it, and thereupon frequente [...] the company of Religious men; and hearing tha [...] Text read, He that denieth me b fore men, or is ashame [...] of me in this Wicked Generation, I will deny him before m [...] Father and his Holy Angels; he stedfastly lift up his ey [...] and hands to Heaven and burst forth into these word O Lord I have been wicked, and justly mayest thou wit [...] ­draw thy Grace from me, but Lord for thy Mercy sake, [...] me never deny thy Truth for fear of Death or Corporal pain Being afterwards together with Mr. Norman broug [...] to Judgment in Holy Rood-House, where the King himself was present, they were both condemned to th [...] fire, and in the afternoon were first Hanged and the Burnt, which they chearfully suffered.

There was likewise one Dean Thomas Foret, wh [...] who used to Preach to his parishoners every Lords da [...] out of the Epistles and Gospels as they came in orde [...] for which being complained of to the Bishop of D [...] keldon, he reproved him for it, telling him that [...] was too much to preach every Sunday, since the Pe [...] ple might think they ought to do so likewise; and s [...] [Page 161] the Bishop, Is it not enough for you when you find a good Epistle and Gospel, to set forth and preach the Liberty of Holy Church, and let the rest alone. Dean Thomas replyed, that he had read them all over, and knew no bad ones among them, But, said he, when your Lordship shews me any such, I will pass them by; The Bishop answered, I thank God I never knew what the Old and New Testament was, but go your wayes and repent of these fancies, ere it be too late: The Dean answered, My cause is good and just in the presence of God, and therefore I care not what follows thereupon; and so went away; but he was shortly after sent for before Cardinal Beton, by whom he was con­demned and Burned for an Heretick.

The Year after Jerom Russel, and Alexander Kennedy who was not above eighten years old, were brought before the Arch-Bishop and his Associates, who rail­ed upon them, and called them Hereticks; Jerom Russel replyed, This is your hour and power of darkness, now sit ye as Judges, and we are wrongfully accused, but the day will come wherein our Innocency will appear, and ye shall see your own blindness to your everlasting confusion, go forward and fullfill the measure of your Iniquity. A while after they were sentenced to dye, and as they went to Execution, Jerom comforted Kennedy, saying, Brother fear not, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the World; the pain we are to suffer is short, and shall be light, but our joy and consolation shall never have an end; let us therefore strive to enter into our Master and Saviours Joy, by the same straight way which he hath taken before us; Death cannot hurt us, for it is destroyed by him for whose sake we now suffer. And in this manner past reason they joyfully gave up their Souls unto God in the Flaming Fire.

In the year 1543. Cardinal Beton coming to Eden­burgh, caused several Religious Persons to be brought before him, and when he could prove nothing else [Page 162] against them: he caused four men to be hanged upon suspition that they had eaten a Goose upon a Friday. And a Woman with a Child sucking at her breast, was drown'd for refusing to pray to the Virgin Mary. Many others were likewise Banished and Imprisoned for the Gospel; and among the rest John Rogers a learned and Godly Minister, whom he caused to be murthered in Prison, and then thrown over the Wall, giving it out, that by attempting to make his escape he broke his neck.

In the year 1546. Mr. George Wischard a Famous Mi­nister was sent for to appear before Cardinal Beton and the other Bishops at St. Andrews; where a Priest was ordered to curse him, who called him Runnagate, Traitor, Thief, &c. However Mr. Wischard gave them an account of his Faith and Doctrine, but they not be­ing able to answer him, immediately condemned him to be Burnt; and presently a fire was prepared over against the Castle, and Velvet Cushions were laid in the Castle windows for the Cardinal and the rest of the Prelates to see him suffer; and for fear he should be rescued by his Friends, all the Castle Guns were mount­ed against the place of his Execution, by the Cardinals order; then with a Rope about his Neck, and a Chain about his middle he was fastned to the Stake; and having earnestly prayed, and Exhorted the People, and forgiven his Enemies and persecutors, he said thus: I Beseech you Brethren Exhort your Prelates to learn the Word of God, that they may be ashamed to do evil, and learn to do good, or else there shall come upon them the Wrath of God, which they shall not eschew: Then the Hangman upon his knees said, Sr, I pray forgive me, for I am not the cause of your Death. Mr. Wischard called him to him and kissing his Cheek said, Lo here is a token that I forgive thee, My Heart do thing Office; and so he was tyed to the Stake and the fire kindled.

The Captain of the Castle came to him, and bid him be of good Courage; to whom Mr. Wischard said, This fire Torments my Body, but no whit abates my Spi­rits; then looking towards the Cardinal he said, He who in such State from that high place feeds his eyes with my Torments, within few dayes shall be hanged out at the same Window, with as much shame and Ignominy as he there leans with Pride: then his Breath being stopt with the Flames, he gave up the Ghost.

This Prophecy was fulfilled in a short time after; for the people being generally discontented at the Cruelty used against Mr. Whischard; several persons conspired against him, and killed him in the Castle, and the Provost raising the Town, came to the Castle Gates, crying, What have you done with my Lord Cardi­nal? where is he? To whom they answered from within, Return to your Houses, for he hath received his reward, and will trouble the World no more. But they cryed, We will never depart till we see him. Then was he hanged out at that very window to satisfie them he was dead, and so the people departed.

Shortly after one Adam Wallace was Burned likewise; and Henry Forest suffered the same Cruel Death, upon Account of Heresie. One Walter Mill was accused for Heresie, and being bid to recant, he said, I am Corn and not Chaff, I will not recant the Truth; and being thereupon condemned to the Fire, and all things made ready to that purpose, they commanded him to go to the Stake; No, said he, by the Laws of God I am forbidden to lay hands on my self, therefore do you put me in the Fire, and you shall see my resolution. Having then made his Prayer unto God, he spake thus to the peo­ple; Although I have been a Great Sinner, yet it is not for that, but for Gods Truth contained in his Word of the Old and New Testament that I now suffer; and God out of his abundant Mercy doth honour me so far, as to make me [Page 164] among other of his Servants to seal his Truth with my Blood; Dear Friends, as you would escape Eternal Death, be no more seduced with the Lyes of Arch-bishops, Bishops, Ab­bots, Priors, &c. but trust only in God: After he had thus spoke, he was tyed to the Stake, and the Fire be­ing kindled, he quietly slept in the Lord; and was the last person that dyed for the Protestant Religion in Scotland.

In the year of our Lord 1641. there brake forth a most horrid and Bloody Rebellion and Massacre of the Irish Papists, committed on the English in Ireland; a Nation famous for the Birth of divers worthy persons therein, but none more renowned than that Excel­lent, Learned and Religious Person James Ʋsher, late Lord Arch-bishop of Armagh, and Lord Primate of Ireland; who amongst many other extraordinary Gifts and Graces which it pleased the Almighty to bestow upon him, was wonderfully endued with a Spirit of Prophecy; from which among many other things he foretold this bloody Rebellion forty years before it came to pass, in a Sermon which he preached at Dub­lin in the Year 1601. where from Ezekiel 4.6. dis­coursing concerning the Prophets bearing the Iniquity of Judah forty dayes, the Lord therein appointing a day for a Year, he made this direct application in relation to the Connivance at Popery at that time. From this Year, says he, will I reckon the sin of Ireland, that those whom you now embrace shall be your Ruin, and you shall bear your Iniquity: which Prediction proved ex­actly true; for from that time 1601. to the Year 1641. was just forty years, in which it is notoriously known that the Rebellion and destruction of Ireland happen­ed; and which was acted by those Popish Priests, Jesuits and other Papists which were then connived at.

For the Jesuits, Priests and Friars were the chief In­stigators [Page 165] to this horrid Massacre, by continual incen­sing and stirring up the Popish Gentry and Commonal­ty to shew the utmost of their Zeal therein, and this without any provocation given by the English: for it was observed, that they had all the Liberty they could reasonably desire, and that there was not any reason for such Cruel Proceedings against the English, but only for that damnable and unpardonable sin of being Protestants: And the Popish Clergy the more to en­gage the deluded Papists to murther them, every where loudly declaimed, That they were Hereticks, and not fit to be suffered any longer amongst them; that it was no more sin to kill one of them, than to kill a Dog, and that it was a mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them. And when their business was so fixt that they did not fear any miscarriage, the success of this Great Design was recommended in their pub­lick Prayers, as tending very much to the advancement of the Catholick cause; and they likewise maliciously re­presented to the People the severe proceedings against the Papists in England.

All things being in a readiness, they proceeded to the Execution of this Damnable Contrivance; but their proceeding therein was various; some of the Irish only stripping the English Protestants, and turning them out a Doors naked in the cold and snow, others cruelly Murdering man, woman and child, without the least compassion; but they all resolved upon this point, that by all manner of ways and means they would universally destroy and root the English out of Ireland: Nay the Irish were so inveterately malici­ous against them, that they would not endure the very sound of their Language, but punished those that spake English, and the names of English places they changed into Old Irish. In some places they killed the Cows and Sheep, meerly because they were English; [Page 166] and sometimes they cut off their Legs, or a piece out of their Buttocks, and so left them to live in pain; and in other places those English Cattel that they could not devour, they kill'd them, and left them in great multitudes stinking upon the Ground.

The Popish Priests gave the Sacrament to divers of the Irish upon Condition that they should nei­ther spare Man, Woman, nor Child of the Prote­stants, saying, That it did them a great deal of good to wash their hands in their Blood. Some of their Priests Excommunicated all that should from thence­forth relieve or harbour any English, Scotch, or Welsh­man, or give them Alms at their Doors, whereby many were Famished to Death. Yea the Popish Monks and Fryers exhorted them with Tears not to spare the English, but utterly to destroy them; nay they boasted that when they had made an end of them in Ireland, they would goe over into England, and would not leave the memorial of an English­man under Heaven; and their Priests told them, it was as lawfull to kill an English man as to kill a Sheep or a Dog; and that it was no more Pity or Conscience to take their Estates from them, than to take a Bone out of a Dogs mouth.

The day before this Horrid Massacre began, the Priests gave the people a dismission at Mass, with full liberty to go out and take possession of all their Lands, which they pretended were unjustly detain­ed from them by the English, although they were just­ly forfeited by their repeated Rebellions and Trea­sons against the Government. They further told them, that they might lawfully strip, rob, and despoil them of all their Goods and Chattels, The Pro­testants being (as they said) worse than Dogs, for they were Devils and worshipped the Devil, and there­fore, that the Killing of such was Meritorious, and an [Page 167] Excellent Preservative against the Pains of Purgatory; since the Bodies of such Catholicks as should dye in this Quarrel, would not be cold before their Souls should as­cend up into Heaven; so that they need not fear the Pains of Purgatory: which occasioned some of these Murdering Villains to Boast, after they had Massa­cred many of the English, that if they should dye presently, they should go straight to Heaven.

When this Horrid Rebellion first began, several Irish Gentlemen pretended great kindness to some of their Protestant Neighbours, and perswaded them to put their Goods and Cattel into their hands; ingaging that they would secure them from the rage of the Rabble; which made the Protestants so con­fident, because of former familiarity, that they gave them Inventories of all they had; nay they digged up some of their best things which they had hidden in the Ground, and put it into their hands, whereby they got vast Quantities of Goods into their hands; And yet like True Papists they cheat­ed them of it all; nay which was more Barbarous, they promised the English that if they would be contented to lose their Goods, they and their Wives, and Children, should peaceably depart the Country; and yet when they had got all they had, they inhumanely murthered them.

In one place there were no less than Twenty two Widows, who were first Robbed, and then stript stark naked, and when in an House they had co­vered themselves with Straw, the Bloody Papists threw in burning Straw among them, on purpose to burn them together; And in a while after they broke forth into such abominable Cruelties, Bloody Massacres and Murders, as would make the heart of any Christian to ake, and his Ears to tingle at the Relation of them.

In the Castle of Lisgol above an Hundred and Twenty Men, Women and Children were burnt together: Another Castle was delivered to one of the Popish Commanders, upon Condition their lives should be saved, but as soon as he entred he cru­elly murdered and destroyed them all without Mercy.

At Portendown Bridge a thousand Men, Women, and Children were drowned in the River; and it was testified upon Oath, that nine days after there was the Apparition of a man bolt upright in the water, Breast-high, with his hands lifted up to Hea­ven, and that he was seen several times in that Posture, from December to the end of Lent, at which time some of the English Army passing that way, saw it likewise: after which it Vanished away.

One Elizabeth Price made Oath, that she with other Women whose Husbands and Children were drowned in that place, hearing of those Appariti­ons, went thither one Evening, at which time they saw a Woman rise out of the River Breast-high, her hair hanging down, which was as white as Snow, and so was her skin, and that she often cryed out, Revenge, Revenge, Revenge; which so affrighted them, that they went away.

In Queens County, an English-man, his wife, five Children and a Maid were all hanged together, and then cut down and put into a hole; the youngest Child though it was hanged, was not quite dead when it was put in, but put up its hand and cry­ed, Mammy, Mammy, and yet these Villains without Mercy buried it alive.

They stripped a Scotch-man, and knocked him down for dead, but he afterwards recovering went into the Town naked, whereupon they hewed him [Page 169] all to pieces: They also ript up his Wives Belly so that the Child dropped out: They likewise hanged up divers other Women with Child, and ripping them up, they gave their Infants to be de­voured by Dogs and Swine. In one place they set a Castle on fire wherein were many Protestants, and then rejoycingly said among themselves, Oh how sweetly do they fry.

In one place they burnt two English Bibles, and said, it was Hell fire they burnt; they cut other Bi­bles to pieces, and burnt them, threatning to do the like to all English Bibles: and in one place they took a Bible and laid it in a puddle of wa­ter, and then stamping on it, said, A Plague on it, this Bible hath bred all the Quarrel. A Papist would have perswaded a man and his wife to have joyned with them in the Massacre, but they pro­tested, That rather than they would forsake their Re­ligion, they would dye upon the Swords point; then they would have had the Woman burn her Bible, but she told him, Rather than she would burn her Bible, she would dye the Death; whereupon they were both cruelly murdered.

These Barbarous Villains caused some Children to carry their Aged Parents to the River, and drown them: some Wives were forced to help to hang their Husbands; in one Town they caused a young man to Murder his own Father, and then hanged him up; in another place they forced a Woman to kill her Husband, and then caused her Son to kill his Mother, and then immediately hang­ed her Son: and their cursed malice was thereby shewn, that they might as much as in them lay, destroy Soul and Body together. Yea so detesta­ble was their Cruelty, that they taught Irish Chil­dren to kill English Children, and two Boys boasted [Page 170] that they had at several times murthered and drowned thirty six English Women and Children; The Irish Women followed this Army of Murde­rers, and provoked the men to Cruelty, crying out, Kill them all, spare neither Man, Woman, nor Child; and many of them stoned the English Women and their Children to Death; and cryed, Slay them all, the English are fit meat for Dogs, and their Children are Bastards. Yea so Implacable was their malice, that one of them was very angry with her Husband because he did not bring the Grease of a Fat Gentlewoman whom they had slain, for them to make Candles of, which was commonly practised by them in other places.

Yea they Boasted that the day was their own, and that ere long they would not leave one Prote­stant Rogue living, but would utterly destroy every one that had but a drop of English Blood in him: yea they vowed, they would not leave one English Beast alive, nor any of their breed.

Alas! who can comprehend the Sighs, the Groans, the trembling and Astonishment of these poor In­nocent Souls, to find themselves so suddenly surpri­zed, and that without Remedy; What Shrieks, Cryes, and bitter Lamentations were there of Husbands, Wives, Children, Servants and Friends, howling and weeping, finding themselves without all hope of de­liverance from their present wofull Miseries and Calamities.

For by these and all manner of Cruelties and Barbarities which Hell it self could invent, the Irish and English Papists murdered and destroyed in a few Months near Three Hundred Thousand Protestants, as it is commonly computed, without any manner of provocation, but only because they were Protestants; whose deaths the Divine Venge­ance [Page 171] in a short time after recompensed upon seve­ral of the chief Murtherers, many thousands perishing by the Sword and the Plague that followed it, and the rest without doubt, unless they heartily repent will receive the reward of their wickedness.

AFter having briefly epitomized the bloody Cru­elties and slaughters of this Monster of Rome, and his Vassals, throughout Europe, let us now return home, and see if our own Countrey has esca­ped better than our Neighbours. Englishmen are generally accounted to be of a mercifull na­ture, and pitifull disposition, apt to be touched with the miseries of others, and are not in their own natures bloody, barbarous or Cruel; what then may be the cause of those dreadfull marks of Rage and Fury that have been seen among us? How has this Fair Island been made an Acheldama, a Field of Skulls and Martyrs bones? All this we shall find pro­ceeds from corrupt principles of Religion. I doubt not, (says a worthy Divine) but Papists are made like other men; nature hath not generally given them such Savage and Cruel Dispositions, but their Religi­on hath made them so; I am loth to say it, and yet I am confident it is true, that many Papists would have been excellent Persons and verie good men, if their Religion had not hindered them, if the Doctrines, and Principles of their Church had not spoiled their natural Disposition. Good God! that any thing that is called Religion should so presently strip men of all Humanity, and transform the mild and gentle Race of Mankind into Wolves and Tigers.

It is Popery that alters the Nature of English­men, and makes them act like Turks, Infidels or Bar­barians: its principles infect the Blood, and in­venome [Page 174] the Soul; instead of being weak and hum­ble, it makes them Proud and Arrogant; instead of performing the Commands of Christ, it makes men obey the Pope, though never so contrary to Religi­on. If our Blessed Saviour says, Hurt no man, pray for your Persecutors, submit to Magistrates and Gover­nours. The Pope and his Doctrines say, Kill every man that is not of your Religion; Curse those that disobey your Commands: Kill, Stab, or depose your Kings or Govenours. This is the Doctrine, and these are the Principles and Commands of the Romish Church.

It is some hundreds of years since this Bloody Beast of persecution began to shew his Fangs and armed Claws in this Kingdom; and it was almost as soon perceived and testified against by some good men in those times. For in the Year one Thousand Two Hundred, John of Salisbury decla­red against the Corruptions and Superstitions of the Romish Church, and plainly discovered the oppressi­on of the burden of the Pope and his Ravenous Clergy; and after him John Grostead Bishop of Lin­coln wrote to the Pope, and admonished him, for which he had like to have lost his life; yet the Pope did only hitherto shew his Teeth, and could not take his full swinge in Blood and Murther, which he afterward attained to.

But since the Papists impertinently urge against us the Newness of our Religion, and that it was not known before Martin Luthers days, we shall produce much more early Testimonies against the Errors and abuses in the Romish Church: For we find in the Year 884. John Patrick Erigena; a Britan, who was ordained the first Reader in Ox­ford by King Alfred, was afterward Condemned, and Martyred by the Pope, for writing a Book [Page 175] concerning the Sacrament. And in the year 960. many Ministers and Divines wore the mark of the Beast in their faces, being by the Popes order Branded in the Faces with hot Irons, for Dissent­ing in many things about the Mass, Purgatory, Mon­kery, and the like; and for saying, that Rome was Babylon, and that Cloisters were the Nurses of Sodo­my. In the year 1126. one Arnold and English­man, and a Preacher of the Gospel, was Butchered at Oxford, for Preaching against the Pride of the Prelates, and the wicked lives of the Priests. In the Year 1160. the poor Persecuted Waldenses came hither for succour, but instead thereof they were Persecuted, Condemned, Burnt, Whipt, and stigmatiz'd for their Religion, both at Oxford and other places.

After which almost in every Year it pleased God to raise up several Learned and worthy men to testifie against the Horrid Corruptions of Rome, both by Speaking, Writing and Disputing against them. As in the Year 1170. Gualo, and Gilbert Foliot, Doctors of Divinity, and after them Silvester Gerald, Alexander a Divine, Gualter Maxes Arch Deacon of Oxford, Sebald Archbishop of York, William Stringham Doctor of Divinity, Roger Bacon Fellow of Merton Colledge, a Divine and Mathematician, John Scotus the Great Scotch-man; and about the same time Doctor John Wickliff, Jeoffery Chaucer, William Wickham Bishop of Winchester, and many other Learned men.

All these gave ample Testimonies by their pub­lick Writings against the many Corruptions, evil Doctrines and Superstitious Worship of the Romish Church, with the hazard of their Lives, Honours, Liberties, Estates and Fortunes; so that many were persecuted, and some were burnt in the Reign of [Page 176] King Henry the second, 1174. and in the Year 1380. Ʋtred Bolton, and John Ashwerly endured Persecu­tion; and a while after John Ashton, Walter Bruce, John Pateskul, and Doctor Crump, were persecuted; and William Sawtree a Divine of Oxford was martyred, and William Swinderly was Burnt in Smithfield. In the Year 1407. William Thorp was Burnt, and Law­rence Redman and six others grievously persecuted. In the Year 1417. the Lord Cobham was Burnt in St. Giles Fields: John Purey and Will. White, and Richard White were burnt. Peter Clark a Divine of Oxford, for maintaining publickly the Doctrine of Wicklif, was forced to fly, but was taken beyond Sea, his Tongue cut out, then hanged, and after­wards burnt. Roger Ovely was hanged and Quar­tered. In the Year 1447. Humfery Duke of Glocester was murdered by the Papists, for being a favourer of Wicklif, and other Preachers of the Truth; and divers others were many ways persecuted for the sake of Religion, before the rising of Luther; God having in all Ages raised up some to Testifie to the Truth, and to maintain the purity of the Gospel.

And besides these Divines, Learned and great men, there were several other good men of a mean­er quality who openly owned the Truth, and suffer­ed for the same; and as the number of the pro­fessors grew greater, who now began to be called Lollards, so Persecution grew hotter, and the Rage and Malice of the Papists increased. In the Reign of King Henry the fifth, 1413. Sir Roger Acton, John Brown, John Beverly, and Thirty six more, were all put to Death in St. Giles Fields; and John Clay­don and Richard Turning, Benedict, Ʋlman and several others were burnt, and many Imprisoned. In the Reign of King Henry the sixt, William Tailor, one of [Page 177] Wickliffs followers, was burnt in Smithfield: Henry Web, and Henry Florence, were Cruelly whipt, and about an hundred and twenty men and Women suffered persecution, many of them were burnt. William White was Martyr'd; and at the same time two were burnt at Colchester; Richard Hoveden a Citizen of London was Martyr'd for the same cause near the Town, and several more severely whipt and terribly handled; Thomas Baily and Richard Wiche both Ministers were burnt; one in Smithfield and the other on Tower-hill.

In the Reign of Edward the fourth, John Goose was Burnt; and in H nry the sevenths Regn, one Jean Boughton of Fourscore years old was burnt in Nor­folk; another person was Burnt in Smithfield; seve­ral were likewise stigmatized, and many did pe­nance. William Tilsworth was Burnt in the Town of Anasham, where they forced his own Daughter to set fire to Faggots that were to Burn her Father; and two Years after Thomas Bernard, and John Mel­ton, and one Roberts were Burnt in the same Coun­ty of Buckingham. Thomas Chace after many Cruel Usages and hardships was Murthered in Prison. Thomas Norris: was burnt at Norwich and Lawrence Guest at Salisbury, and a Woman at Chipping Sad­bury, with several other persons in the Reign of King Henry the seventh.

In the Reign of King Henry the Eighth, the Flames increased very much, and abundance Suffered in every place. In the Year 1511. Willam Sweeting and John B ewster were burnt in Smithfield: the same year William Carder, Robert Harrison, and Agnes Grebel were burnt, they forcing the Husband and Daughter of the Woman to come in as Witnesses a­gainst her: After this one Mr. Style with his Book of the Revelations, and twenty five more were Burnt; [Page 178] five other Persons were accused for reading an He­retical Book, which contained many Damnable Opi­nions; and what should this Book be, but only the Evangelists in English. In the Year 1514. Richard Hun was murdered in the Lollards Tower, and afterwards burnt; John Brown, John Stileman, and Thomas Man were burnt in Smithfield; Robert Cou­sin was Burnt at Buckingham, Christopher Shoemaker at Newberry, Richard and Robert Bartlet, and John Scrivener were likewise burnt; and the Children of John Scrivener were forced to set fire to their Fa­ther; For it was usual with them to compell Chil­dren to accuse their Parents, and Parents their Children; Husbands their Wives, and Wives their Husbands; Intimate Friends, Brothers and Sisters to accuse one another; and many Hundreds were likewise forced to recant and abjure against their Consciencies, or else be Burnt.

There were two things about this time that very much increased the professors of the Gospel in England; One was the appearance of Martin Luther in the World, who boldly owned the Truth, and loud­ly Declaimed against the corruptions of the Ro­mish Church. Another thing was the Art of Print­ing, which now began to be common, whereby the True Religion was the more easily promul­gated and Dispersed through every Countrey, and in all Languages.

This Allarum'd the Pope and his Debauched Clergy, who were afraid to have their wicked Doctrines and Practices discovered to the people and thereupon they began to rage, and bestir themselves, raising Persecution, and making de­struction and Slaughter in all places throughout the Kingdom against the Lutherans, as they were now called. In the Year 1519. several Protestans were [Page 179] apprehended at Coventry, and imprisoned in filthy and nasty Dungeons, six of whom were afterwards burnt: Robbert Silkeb, and Thomas Harding were burnt shortly after. One Sigal Nicholson a Statio­ner at Cambridge, was hung up by the Privy-mem­bers for having Luther's Books in his House: seve­ral likewise abjured; and the Body of William Tra­cy Esq; in Glocester-shire, because he had left no­thing for Masses for his Soul, was taken out of the Grave and Burnt two Years after his Death. Richard Brafield a Monk of Bury, after he had been whipt and most Cruelly handled in Prison, and Gagged, Beaten, and Bound, and Degraded after a very shamefull manner, was Burnt with much Cru­elty in London, continuing half an Hour alive in the Flames for want of Wood; and when his left arm was burnt, he rubbed it with his right hand, and it fell down in the Fire; he continued in Prayer without moving to the last moment: seve­ral were imprisoned, and fed with Bread made of Saw­dust; some were set in the Stocks with Horse­leaches on their Legs, and their hands so mana­cled with Irons, that the Flesh grew higher than the Irons, and with Iron Collars about their Necks: and many were Racked till they were Lamed. John Tewsbury, James Bainham, Valentine Sheafe and his Wife, John Bent, and one Trapnel, were all Burnt about the same time; three were hanged in Chains for Burning the Image or Rood of Do­ver Court. John Frith, Andrew Honor, Thomas Bennet, William Tindall, John Lambert, William Leiton and Collins a Lawyer, were burnt, and Robert Packington Murdered: Doctor Barns, Thomas Garret, William Hieron, were burnt in Smithfield, John Potter was murthered in Prison: Robert Testwood, Anthony Parker and Henry Filmer, were burnt at Windsor. About five hundred [Page 180] persons in and about London either dyed in pri­son, or were burnt in Smithfield. In the Year 1541. Damlip, Dod, Sary, were Slain. One Henry at Col­chester, Kerby and Clark at Ipswich and Bury were burnt. In the Year 1546. Mistris Ann Askew, one of the Ladies belonging to Queen Katherine Parr, because she would not confess any other Ladies, was put upon the Rack, and the Lord Chancellor himself being more Cruel, he acted then the Executioner, ordered her to be wracked to the utmost; she was afterward Burnt in Smithfield; and at the same time and place were likewise Burnt Nicholas Belerrian a Minister in Shrop-shire, John Adams a Taylor, and John Lacels a Gentleman belonging to King Henry the Eighth; these beholding the Invincible Constancy and patience of Mistriss Askew, were there­by much incouraged in their Sufferings.

About the same time Sir John Blage of the Kings Privy Chamber was falsly accused to have spoken against the Mass, upon which he was condemned to be burnt in Smithfield, whereupon the Earl of Bedford begged his pardon of the King, who Com­manded it to be drawn immediately. After his release Sir George coming to the King, Ah my Pig, said he, (for so he usually called him;) Yea, (said Blage) if your Majesty had not been better to me than your Bishops were, your Pig had been roasted before this time. Presently after Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and his Confederates set forth a Cruel Proclamati­on in the Kings Name, for abolishing the Scrip­tures and all other English Books that discovered the truth to the people, and having obtained this, they very much rejoyced therein, hoping that they had now for ever suppressed the Gospel, so that it should never rise again; and to strike the greater terror into mens minds, they made a diligent search after [Page 181] the Professors of the Truth, of whom they took the Names of some, drove away others, and here­by doubted not but to attain their ends. But it pleased God that in the midst of these subtil Con­trivances, for the destruction of his Gospel and Servants, to take away King Henry the Eighth with­in four Months after the Proclamation; and there­by all their hopes and projects were utterly dis­appointed.

King Henry the Eighth being dead, his only Son Prince Edward (our English Josiah) ascended the Throne, under whom the Protestant Religion was esta­blished, and Popery and Superstition abolished; for he caused all Images to be demolished, and as Idola­trous to be taken out of all Churches within his Dominions; the Learned men of his time he encouraged, and commanded them to open and expound the Scriptures, he abolished the Mass, and ordered the Service to be read in the Eng­lish Tongue, and the Sacrament of the Lords Sup­per to be administred in both kinds to the Peo­ple.

But it pleased God in a short time to take him to himself: for in the Seventh Year of his Reign, and the seventeenth Year of his age, he was taken with a lingring sickness; during which time a Marriage was concluded between the Lord Guilford Dudley eldest Son to the Duke of Northum­bereand, and the Lady Jane the Daughter of the Duke of Suffolk, whose mother being then alive was Daughter to Marry King Henry the Eighth's second Sister.

The Marriage being finisht, and the King every day more sick than other, so that he seemed past Recovery, the Duke of Northumberland being ambi­tious to advance his Family, perswaded the King [Page 182] that the Church and the True Religion would be in great danger, if he did not chuse a pious Succes­sor; and that it was the part of a good Prince to set aside all other respects, when the Glory of God and the good of his Subjects were con­cerned.

The King partly for his great desire to have the Protestant Religion confirmed, and partly for the intire love which he bore to his Cousin the Lady Jane, signed Letters Patents under the Broad Seal to appoint the Lady Jane to succeed him in the Kingdom, although her Title were excluded by the Lady Mary (who was alwaies a zealous Papist) and the Lady Elizabeth. This was afterwards confirm­ed by the Nobility and Chief Lawyers of the King­dom, and was subscribed to by all the Kings Coun­cil, the Lord Maior and Aldermen of Lndon, who upon the Death of King Edward which happened in a short time after, proclaimed the Lady Jane Queen in London and Westminster.

The Lady Mary being in Hartford-shire, and hearing of it, presently sent to the Lords of the Council, commanding and requiring them to Pro­claim her Queen; which if they refused to do, she threatned to recover her Right by force of Arms. The Lords returned answer, That the Lady Jane was invested, and possessed of the Crown by just Right and Title, both by the Ancient Laws of the Land, and by Letters Patents signed and sealed by the late King before his death, and therefore they declared they would adhere to her and to none other, requesting the Lady Mary that she would not upon any pretence endeavour to disturb the peace of the Kingdom, promising her that if she would carry her self as a dutifull Subject, they would be ready to do her any service.

The Lady Mary having received this answer, withdrew further from the City, and the Council being sensible of her stout and unquiet disposition, they raised an Army, which was commanded by the Duke of Northumberland. The Lady Mary went into Suffolk and Norfolk gathering such aid of the Commons as she could, and kept her self in Fra­mingham Castle, to whom the Suffolk men first re­sorted, who being alwayes forward in promoting the Gospel, promised her their aid and assistance, provided she would make no alteration of the Pro­testant Religion as it was established by her Bro­ther King Edward.

To this she readily agreed, and confirmed it with such Vows and Ptotestations that none could suspect her; whereupon they joined with her: and thus by the help of the Protestants she vanquished the Duke of Northumberland and his Army, and was settled in the Kingdom; but she soon forgot her promises, for these very Suffolk men observing that Popery would be re-established, they Petitioned to her to perform her word to them; at which she was extreamly displeased, and told them, Forasmuch as you who are Members desire to rule your Head, you shall one day find that Members must obey, not se k to rule; Yea one of the chief of these men, Mr. Dob by name, she caused for the Terror of others to be set in the Pillory several times, and divers others that presented Supplications to her not to set up Popery, she caused to be sent to prison.

Queen Mary being settled in the Kingdom, the Lady Jane, her Father the Duke of Northumberland, and her Husband the Lord Guilford Dudley, were soon after Beheaded; and the Queen soon discover­ed her disaffection to the Protestant Religion, by displacing all the Orthodox Bishops, as Poinet, Rid­ley, [Page 184] Scorie, Hooper, Coverdale; and by releasing out of the Tower Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester, whom she made Lord Chancellor of England, and Bonner who was made Bishop of London. Then the Queen publisht a Proclamation that she was resol­ved to observe and maintain the Catholick Religion, wherein she was bred up, requiring all her Subjects quietly to embrace the same.

A while after this Bonner and Gardiner begun a cruel and bloody persecution upon the Protestants, and made them fall in heaps: For Mr. Hooper, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Bradford, Mr. Saunders, all famous men, were condemned and burned for He­resie. In the year 1555. Thomas Tomkins (whose hand B. Bonner burnt in prison to try his constancy) was afterward burnt in Smithfield: William Hunter was cruelly handled and then burnt. Mr. Higbed and Mr. Causton were burnt in Essex: William Piggot, Stephen Knight, and John Lawrence were examined before Bishop Bonner, and then burnt at several pla­ces in Essex. Dr. Farrar Rishop of St. Davids was burnt there; and Rawlins White was burnt at Cardiff, George Marsh at Chester, William Flower at Westminster, John Cardmaker a godly Minister in Smithfield, and with him John Warn.

About this time came a Letter from King Philip and Queen Mary to Bishop Bonner, that Hereticks were not prosecuted with such severity as they ought to be; which easily prevailed with Bonner, who was ready enough for Cruelty, and thereupon condem­ned John Symson and John Ardeley of Essex, who were burnt there: Thomas Hawks, Thomas Watts, Thomas Osmund, William Bamford, Thomas Osburn, all of Cogshall in Essex, being sent up to Bonner, for not receiving the Sacrament at Easter, they were condemned and burnt in several places in Essex. [Page 185] John Bland, Nicholas Shetterden, Humfry Middleton, John Frankesh, were al burnt: And a few days after, Nicholas Hall, Christopher Wade, John Harpole, and Margery Boley, were burnt in Kent. Dirick Carver, John Launder, Thomas Iveson, James Abbes, John Denley, John New­man, Patrick Packingham, Richard Hook and John Newman, were likewise burnt for Hereticks.

The Prisons were now full in every place, and six men were condemned and burnt at Canterbury; and nothing but Cruelty and Oppression was to be seen through the whole Land: Whereupon the Queens Commissioners for the more quick dispatch took out ten of the Prisoners, whom they sent to B. Bonner, and being examined by him about the Sacrament, they constantly adhering to the Truth, were con­demned and burnt in several places. Robert Samuel a Minister suffered Martyrdome at Norwich; two others at Ipswich; five more in the Diocess of Can­terbury; the famous Ridley and Latimer at Oxford, and Mr. Philpot in Smithfield.

In the year 1556. their wicked and bloody rage still continued, the Land was all in a Flame, and Blood and Cruelty reigned in every place: For there were seven burnt in Smithfield in one fire; four more in Canterbury, and Dr. Cranmer Archbishop of Canter­bury was burnt in Oxford. And, to conclude, though the Reign of Queen Mary was the shortest of any Prince since the Conquest, except King Richard the Third, yet in her days there was more Christian blood spilt for Religion, than in any Kings Reign whatsoever, since Lucius the first Christian King esta­blished Christianity in this Land; for in the five years of her Reign, there perished in the consuming Flames, for the Profession of the Protestant Religion, no less than two Hundred seventy seven Persons, of all Ages and both Sexes: there suffered five Bishops [Page 186] and Archbishops, twenty one Divines, eight Gentle­men, four Tradesmen, an hundred Husbandmen, Ser­vants and Labourers, twenty six Wives, twenty Wi­dows and Virgins, two Boys, and two Infants; one in the Isle of Guernsey, who springing out of his Mothers Womb as she was burning at the Stake, was most inhumanely thrown in again and burnt for a young Heretick. And besides these, there were sixty four persecuted for their Religion, whereof seven were whipt, sixteen perished in Prison, twelve were bu­ried in Dunghills, and many more lay condemned, but were saved by the Death of Queen Mary.

The Succession of Queen Elizabeth put some stop to the cruel rage of the Papists; for the Power and Authority of the Pope vanished, and Peace, Rest and Liberty for all the good People of the Nation en­sied.

But the Papists, out of their extream Loyalty to the Pope, thought it a sin to live peaceably under an Heretical Prince: Especially when two Popes had thundred out Excommunications against her, cursing her, and freeing her Subjects from their Allegiance towards her, and threatning them under danger of the Wrath of God, not to assist her, but to imploy all their Power to bring her to condign punishment, and promising rewards to all persons who should lay hands upon this proscribed Woman, which was to be payd out of the Treasury of the Church, together with a full pardon of all their sins who should engage against her.

But when the Pope and his Accomplices saw, that all this would not effect their desires, the Queens Subjects being too faithfull to engage in any such villanous designs; they then proceed to secret Plots and Attempts against her: As that wherein the Duke of Norfolk and Robert Biddulph were enga­ged, [Page 187] in the year 1566. and for which Northumber­land Suffered at York, and after that Leonard Davis designed mischiefs against her with the like ill suc­cess. In the year 1578. the Invasion of Ireland at the great charges of the Pope, was happily prevent­ed. The next year James Fitz-morris is sent into Ireland, with Saunders, who carryed consecrated Ban­ners to them. The next year after San Joseph was like­wise sent thither with seven hundred Spanish and Ita­lian Souldiers, and the Popes promise of ten hundred thousand Crowns, to carry on the work of Rebel­lion; and to them joined the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers; but they were all happily defeated.

But these projects likewise failing, they conspire the death of the Queen, and make several Attempts to murther her; first by one Somervile and Hall, Priests; and one of them being condemned was found secretly murdered, for fear he should discover others. After this followed the practices of Mendoza the Spanish Ambassador here, with Throgmorton and Parry, who had Letters of plenary Indulgence, Pardon, and remission of all their sins sent them by the Pope, for killing the Queen; And the same year, Savage made the like Vow to murder the Queen, being instigated thereto by Gifford and Hodgson two Popish Priests.

A while after Babington upon the same princi­ples engaged to commit the like wicked act, by the pro­curement of one Ballard a Jesuit, but being happily discovered, divers of them were condemned, and justly executed for the same, and were registered for Saints and Martyrs in the Romish Calender. Yet by the means of the French Ambassador out Staf­ford and Moody were dealt withal to commit the like Villany, Moody proposing to lay a bag of Gun-powder under the Queens Bed-Chamber.

But this like the rest being happily prevented, the Pope stirs up his Dear Son, Philip the Second King of Spain, openly to invade England, which he did in the year 1588. who though in Queen Marys time, he pretended great kindness to the Queen, yet now in hopes of gaining England and Ireland, which the Pope had bestowed upon him, he comes to take possession thereof, with a vast and (as the Pope Chri­stened it) Invincible Armada, consisting of an hundred and thirty tall Ships, extraordinary well furnished, and containing fifty seven Thousand eight hundred and eight Tun, wherein were Eight Thousand six hundred Seamen, Twenty Thousand Souldiers, two Thousand Gally Slaves; besides Gentlemen and Voluntiers in abundance, so that there was scarce a Family in Spain, who had not either a Son, Bro­ther, or Cozen in the Fleet.

There were likewise aboard them two thousand six hundred and thirty great Ordnance, with Pow­der, Bullets, Match, Muskets, Pikes, Spears, Swords, and all things proportionable, with Knives, Daggers, Skeins, Chains and Whips, to Torment and cut the Throats of the poor English Protestants; and with them came swarms of those Locusts called Capuchins, Mendicants, Jesuits, and other Officers of the Sacred Order of the Inquisition, as they prophanely call it.

And besides all this, there lay in Flanders, fifty thousand old Souldiers, and two hundred eighty eight Vessels, ready to transport them, under the command of the Duke of Parma; all the King of Spains best Souldiers, even as far as America, being drawn forth for this Holy War: The whole of this Expe­dition having cost the Spaniard twelve Millions of Crowns before their setting forth; the Pope like­wise contributing a Million of Gold to so pious a design. But the goodness and mercy of God at that [Page 189] time defended England from the gaping Jaws of destruction, and discomfited this Mighty Armada and all its mighty preparations, and sent them home full of shame, loss and confusion; so that of one hundred thirty four Ships that set sail out of Lisbon, only thirty three returned: the Spaniard losing in this Voyage Eighty one Ships, and above thirteen thousand five hundred Souldiers, and two thousand more taken Prisoners in England, Ireland, and the Low Countreys, the rest of the Navy being lost and destroyed by the English, the Dutch, the Seas, Rocks, Sands and Tempests, all seeming to conspire to the defeating of this proud and Insolent attempt.

But these sort of People will never take notice of Gods Judgments upon their wicked designs and Enterprizes, and notwithstanding all this, they shut their Eyes and will not see that God is against them; for they no sooner recover breath, but they send over new Commissions, and more cursed Emissa­ries disguised in all shapes into England, with new Plots, Contrivances and designs; Lopez and his Con­federates, Cullen, York, Williams, Squire and Hesket, all enter into a Conspiracy to kill the Queen, be­ing constantly encouraged by the Jesuits and the Spanish Ministers of State. And these proving a­bortive, in the year 1599. the Earl of Tyrone is stirred up to make a new Rebellion in Ireland, ha­ving the same Pardons and Indulgences sent them, as is usually given by the Popes to those that go to fight against the Turks. And in the year 1601. the King of Spain sends a great Fleet of Soldiers to Kinsale in Ireland, for the assistance of the Re­bels. But notwithstanding all these wicked and exe­crable designs, this glorious and Heroick Queen of blessed memory, having outlived four Kings and Eight Popes, dyed in Peace, and left her flourish­ing [Page 190] Kingdoms to her Successor King James.

And now the Papists being thus disappointed of their great hopes and expectations, by the successi­on of a Protestant King to the Crown of England, and thereby uniting into one Body Scotland, Eng­land and Ireland; one would have Imagined that all their contrivances would have been dasht, since they could not well think that so long and well settled a Reformation in Church and State, could very easily be broken and confounded; yet still they give not over, but encourage one another in their wickedness, and the Pope sent over two Bulls to deprive King James of the Crown, and sought to raise divisions and dissentions amongst us.

But God continuing to frustrate all their designs, they now grew as it were desperate and entred upon the most barbarous and Hellish Plot and con­trivance that ever was hatched in the Brains or Hearts of men, which is that which we call the Gunpowder Treason, and which we yearly comme­morate upon the fifth of November, they designing to act it on that day in the year 1605.

This horrid design was contrived by divers Je­suits, Priests, and other English Papists, who by un­dermining the Parliament-House, and planting there Thirty six Barrels of Gunpowder, intended by firing the same when both Houses were sitting, to have blown up and destroyed not only the King as the Head of the Kingdom, but with him his Queen, the Prince, and all the Royal Issue, together with the Cler­gy, Nobility and the chief of the Gentry of the whole Kingdom; all should have perished together at one Blow, and have become a Sacrifice to the enra­ged Lusts of these Bloody minded Papists. A Plot and Villany that no Age can paralel, no Country ever could produce the like, and which was as mira­culously [Page 191] prevented and detected, as if it were by the immediate finger of God, who discovered their treasonable practices, even within their dark Vaults and Cellars, when the very Train was laid, and fire almost put to it: and in this horrid Conspiracy Catesby, Piercy, Faux, Digby, Garnet, Hall, &c. all Po­pish Priests, were considerable Actors and Promo­ters, and all sworn to secresie, with Horrid Oaths and Imprecations, taking the Holy Sacrament and engaging themselves one to another thereby, and by their Faith in the Holy Trinity, never to shrink from the Execution of this their Hellish Intention, till they had performed the same: They were like­wise promised from abroad Ships and men, and ten hundred thousand Crowns to carry on their work.

And though this horrid Conspiracy has been sufficiently discovered and made plain, by the con­fession of some of the Conspirators who were exe­cuted, and by writings under their own hands; yet according to their usual Impudence, which they learned of their predecessor Nero, (who when he had set Rome on Fire, charged it upon the Chri­stians) the Papists intended to have laid that wic­ked Act upon the Puritans; and since this they have endeavoured to make the world believe that it was a Contrivance of King James, thereby endea­vouring since they could not blow up the King with Gunpowder, to blast his good Name, and to make him odious to Posterity.

But three Kingdoms are not so easie to be de­luded, neither are we so horridly impious, to mock God so solemnly with yearly Prayers and Thanks­givings; neither need we think it so strange, since Lyes and Impudence are the grand supporters of the Papal Kingdom, without which such a medley of [Page 192] Nonsence and Foolery would be hooted out of the world.

And from that time to this very day, the Pa­pists have been and are the Grand Disturbers of these Nations: and it is sufficiently manifested that they had no small hand in our late Troubles, since which they have continually sought the ruin and destruction of all Protestants, by all manner of cursed ways and methods imaginable.

In the year 1666. Sept. 2. about two a Clock in the morning, there began a sad and lamentable Fire in a Bakers House in Pudding Lane near Fish­street-hill, London, which raged with extream Vio­lence, being accompanied with a strong North-east wind, so that despising all means used for its ex­tinguishing, it spread far and near, sometimes with and sometimes against the wind, and so continued for the space of neer four days, till it had burnt down thirteen thousand two hundred houses, which stood upon three hundred thirty seven Acres of Ground within the Walls, and sixty three Acres three Roods without; besides eighty nine Parish Churches, the most spacious Cathedral of St. Paul, the Royal Exchange, the Great Guild-hall, the Custom House, Many magnificent Halls of Companies, seve­ral principal City Gates, and other publick Edifi­ces; which was accompanied with the loss of vast quantities of rich Household-stuff, and Goods of all sorts, but especially four or five; that is, Books, of which alone were lost near the value of an hun­dred and fifty thousand pound; Tobacco, Sugar, Wines, and Plumbs, being heavy goods: So that the whole loss is computed by an Ingenious Person to be Nine Millions and nine hundred thousand pounds, and yet not above six or eight persons through Gods Providence were burnt in this vast desolation.

Upon the Eighteenth of September the Parliament met, and the Commons appointed a Committee to examine into the Causes of the fire, and to take Informations concerning it; and in a short time so many and such very considerable Informations were brought in, that it was no longer doubtfull but the Papists were the Contrivers and Managers of this dreadful Fire.

For among other things it plainly appeared, that divers of the Popish Party were made acquainted with it before it happened: for Mr. Light of Rat­cliff deposed, That being in discourse with Mr. Richard Langhorn (since Executed for High Treason) in Fe­bruary before the Fire, concerning Religion, Lang­horn took him by the hand and said to him, You expect great things in sixty six, and think that Rome will be destroy'd, but what if it be London?

A French man told one Elizabeth Styles, in April before the fire, that the English Maids would love the Frenchmen better when there was not an house left standing between Temple-Bar and London-Bride: to which she replyed, She hopes his eyes would never see that: he said, This will happen betwixt June & October.

Dr. Oats in his Narrative, pag. 22. says, That in July 1678. being in discourse with one Strange a Jesuit, Strange told him that they had got fourteen thousand pound by the Fire of London, in 1666. and that they spent seven hundred fireballs to ef­fect their Villany; and that when the Fire-Merchants were at work, then other Papists both men and women were imployed by them to plunder what they could; that they had a Warehouse in Wild­street, where some of their stollen Goods were laid, and other Goods they concealed in Somerset-House, as Hollands, Cambricks, Fine Cloth, and some con­siderable quantities of Plate, and a Box of Jewels. [Page 194] Dr. Oats asked Strange, How the King came to es­cape (for it seems his death was designed then?) Strange replyed, Indeed they were resolved to have cut him off, but seeing him so Industrious about Quench­ing the Fire, they could not find in their hearts to do it; Strange said, there were about Fourscore and six em­ploy'd in it; and John Grove since Executed for high Treason, told Dr. Oats that he fired Southwark, and that the Society of Jesuits got two thousand pound by that Fire.

Robert Hubert a French Papist of Normandy began this Fire in London, being Hired thereto by Ste­phen Peidelow likewise a papist; and Hubert obser­ving the Ruin and desolation that followed, could not be quiet till he had freely discovered the whole matter; Affirming that by Peidelows directions he put a Fire-ball to the end of a long pole, and light­ing it with a piece of Match put it into the Ba­kers window, and stayed till the house was in a Flame. A French Merchant went to Hubert in the White Lyon Prison in Southwark, and told him, He did not believe him Guilty of what he had confes­sed: Hubert replyed, Yes Sir, I am guilty of it, and have been brought to it by the instigation of Mr. Peidelow, but not out of any malice to the English Na­tion, but from a desire of reward which he promised me upon my return into France. A while after Hu­bert was Tryed and Executed for this horrid Fact, owning and acknowledging to the last his doing thereof, by the Instigation of Piedelow.

But this not doing their work, they took divers other methods for carrying on their designs, which they had very near brought to perfection in the year 1678. had not the Divine Providence most eminent­ly made use of Dr. Titus Oats in the discovery thereof; who notwithstanding the reproaches of his [Page 195] Popish adversaries, was liberally Educated in St. John's Colledge in Cambridge, where he took his Degree, and afterward proceeded Doctor in Divinity at Sa­lamanca in Spain, no contemptible University. In the year 1672. he was Vicar of Bobbing in Kent, but the Air not agreeing with him, he left it; and was for some time Minister near Chichester in Sussex, and afterwards came to be Chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, with an ample testimony of his sober Life and Conversation; and whilst he was there, he overheard some whisperings among the Popish Priests, (who were very conversant in that Family) that there was some Great Design in hand, but could not learn the particulars. He had heard from his Protestant Friends, and had read in Sir Hamond L'Stranges History of King Charles the First, and other Judicious Authors, That the Papists had for many years carried on a design to Introduce Po­pery once more into these Kingdoms; which made him desire to know the bottom thereof, and if it were possible to prevent it: To this end, he more freely conversed with that Party than he formerly used to do, and seemed dissatisfied in some things concern­ing our Church, and desired to discourse with some Jesuits, who are accounted the most learned Men of the Popish faction.

This upon some Cautions he obtained, and after divers Conferences with them (in which he suffer­ed himself to be overcome,) he was formally re­conciled to the Church of Rome: and a while after seeming to aspire to a higher degree of Perfection, he desired to be admired into the Order of the Jesuits, which after three dayes consideration they consented to; and because he was a man of years, being about Twenty eight, they would not imploy him as a Novice, but made him a Messenger of the Society.

This being the mark he aimed at, they sent him with Letters to Valedolid in Spain, which he judg­ing to contain something of their Hellish contrivan­ces, dexterously opened by the way, and thereby made some discovery of their wicked Intentions; however he managed their Affairs with so much satisfaction, that in a short time they made him privy to their most secret Consultations, and keeping short Notes of all things of Concernment, he was thereby in a capacity to give an account of so many several particulars as he has discovered; which have had the happiness to be confirmed by other Circumstances and Evidence, and have not the least contradicted one another, nor those other Papers which have been found elsewhere, nor differed from the Informations that have been given in by Mr. Bedlow, Mr. Dugdale, Mr. Jennison, Mr. Mowbray, Mr. Baldron, and others, whom God hath since raised up, further to clear and unmask this detestable and bloody Conspiracy.

Dr. Oats was resolved as much as in him lay to prevent their Traiterous designs upon his Majesties Life, though he endangered his own thereby, since he observed that all their Contrivances were ripe, and there only wanted the Fatal Blow to destroy the life of his Sacred Majesty, and the Religion, and Liberties of these three Kingdoms; And whereas Father Whitebread the Provincial of the Jesuits, had engaged Dr. Oats (before his last return into Eng­land) to assassinate and murder Israel Tongue Doctor of Divinity, because he had translated a Book In­tituled The Jesuits Morals, and had promised him Fifty pound as a reward for the same, Dr. Oats after his coming over became acquainted with Dr. Tongue, and finding him to be a person of Trust and Integrity, he gave him an Account of his Assassi­nation, [Page 197] and likewise some Heads of the Plot in General. After which they both seriously Consulted together of the best methods for making this ne­cessary Discovery; since they were sure to meet with great opposition therein.

At last they concluded to acquaint Mr. Christopher Kirby therewith, as a person whom for his Loyalty Courage, and zeal for the Safety of his Majesties Person, and the Protestant Religion, they judged very fit and capable to assist them; and therefore on Monday, August 12. 1678. Dr. Tongue shewed Mr. Kirby Forty three Articles drawn up in writing, desiring him that without making any other Person acquainted therewith, he would discover the same to the King: And Mr. Kirby very generously under­took the same, and accordingly the next morning in St. James's Park, he humbly acquainted his Ma­jesty, That his Enemies had a Design against his Life, and humbly beseeched his Majesty to use all Caution, for he did not know but he might be in danger in that very walk. But his Majesty armed with his Native goodness and Innocency, seemed more surprized with the Strangeness of the News, than with the apprehension of the danger, and only asked, How that could be? To which Mr. Kirby replyed, That it might be, by being shot at: And gave a particular ac­count that there were two men, Grove and Pickering by name, that watched an opportunity to shoot his Majesty, and that another Person was hired to Poy­son him.

His Majesty ordered further Scrutiny should be made into the business; and a while after Doctor Oats having written fair Copies of his Informations, upon the 28. of September, 1678. went to Sir Edmund­bury Godfrey, and made Oath of the truth and reality thereof; Sir Edmundbury desiring to keep a Copy of [Page 198] the Informations himself, as having never before per­used them, which it may be was the occasion of his horrid Murther, which soon after followed.

The Plot in General seemed to be by Fire and Sword to subvert and destroy the Protestant Religi­on, and established Government of these three King­doms, and to reduce them to Popery: The chief Conspirators being Innocent 11^th. now Pope, who in The Congregation for propagating the Faith, held about Decemb. 1677. and consisting of about 350. Persons, Declared, All His Majesties Dominions to be part of St. Peters Patrimony, as forfeited to the Holy See for the Heresie of the Prince and People, and to be disposed of as he should think fit; And our English Car­dinal Howard was appointed by the Pope to take Possession of England in his Name, who was likewise made Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Popish Priests were made Bishops in England, all the pre­sent Bishops being designed to be removed from their Dignities: Johannes Paulus de Oliva, Father General of the Jesuits was to give Directions to the Provin­cial of the Jesuits in London, how to manage their Affairs.

Mounsieur le Chese, a Jesuit, Confessor to the French King, was likewise concerned; with whom Edward Coleman held correspondence; Also Strange and White­bread Provincials of the Jesuits, and the Benedictine Monks of the Savoy were in this cursed Conspiracy, and the Jesuits and Seminary Priests, of whom there were at that time in England about Eighteen Hun­dred.

Divers Lay Persons of Quality were drawn in, who were to command Forces, and to execute the Great Offices of the Realm; as the Lord Arundel of Warder was appointed Lord Chancellour of England, the Lord Powis Lord Treasurer, Sir William Godol­phin [Page 199] Lord Privy Seal, Edward Coleman Secretary of State; and for the Military part, Lord Bellasis to be Lord General, Lord Peters Lieutenant General, Sir Francis Ratcliff Major General, John Lambert Adju­tant General, Richard Langhorn Advocate General, who had Commissions sent them from Paulus de Oliva, and directed from Rome to Mr. Langhorn. This was so great and glorious a work, that the chiefest of the Romish Clergy through Europe were engaged there­in; so that it cannot be said to be the Act or Con­trivance of any few particular Persons, but The una­nimous undertaking of their whole Church, and so to their everlasting Infamy ought to be Recorded.

Now as to the Means whereby this was to be accom­plished, the first and chief was, By Murdering his Sacred Majesty, which was to be accomplisht either by Pistolling of him, wherein Pickering and Grove were ingaged; or by Stabbing, and this to be done by Conyers and Anderton, Benedictine Monks, or four Irish Ruffians. Or lastly by Poysoning, for which Money was payd to the Undertaker.

2. Another means was by firing London, Westmin­ster and the parts adjacent, and likewise other Cities and great Towns in England, immediately upon the Murder of his Majesty.

3. By a General Massacre, to which purpose they had designed to raise an Army, which was to consist of Fifty Thousand men, to be Listed in and about London: The Officers to be all Resolute Papists, and for the most part French and Irish; and these they gave out were enough to cut the Throats of One Hundred Thousand Protestants, especially being taken upon a Surprize, when the Militia of London was undisciplined and unprovided. Care was taken like­wise about securing Ireland and Scotland to their In­terest.

Great sums of Money were provided for the ne­cessary charge of this mighty undertaking, and it was discoursed, that the Jesuits in England had purcha­sed a great Estate per Annum for that purpose; and that they had a great Stock in ready Money; and were to receive Eleven thousand Crowns from Rome, Ten thousand pound from Spain, and Ten thousand from France, besides several other very considerable summs, for promoting this vast design. And this is a brief Abstract of this bloody and Hellish Popish Plot, abundance of other particulars being omitted; where­by it appears that this Horrid Plot is hardly to be parallel'd in any History, considering that without any provocation so many Thousand Protestants were de­signed for slaughter, destruction and Murder, only to advance and promote the Holy Catholick Religion, as they falsly call that Chaos of Blasphemy and Cru­elty.

Presently after this Remarkable discovery, hap­pened the murther of that worthy Magistrate Sir Edmondbury Godfry; who as is before related, having taken the Depositions of Doctor Oats, which was no more than any Justice of Peace by Virtue of his Office was bound to do; yet it so enraged the Conspirators, that they resolved to cut him off, to deterr (as may be supposed) all other Magistrates from intermedling with any Affairs relating to the Plot.

But it pleased God that the Crafty were taken in their own snare, and they Mortally wounded their own cause; for this bloody Enterprize allarum'd the whole Kingdom, and left no doubt whether there were a Plot or no. It is not certainly dis­covered how many there were in all, who conspi­red his Death; but those that are known, are Father Kelly and Father Girald, two Irish Priests, [Page 201] Robert Green Cushion-man to the Queens Chappel, Lawrence Hill Servant to Dr. Godden Treasurer of the Chappel, Henry Berry who was Porter of Somer­sethouse, and Mr. Miles Prance a Goldsmith in Co­vent-Garden; these were actually present at the Mur­ther; two other should have been there, but were not; that is, Father Lewson a Priest, and one Phi­lip Vernatti, who are since fled. There were ano­ther Party to have done it, but did not, namely, Pritchard, Le Fair, Welch, Keins, all Jesuits, and Mr. William Bedlow.

Of those that effected the Villany, 'tis Judged that Vernatti, and some other Popish Priests under­took it, and that they drew in Green, Hill, and Berry first, and afterwards ingaged Mr. Prance, tell­ing him, That Sir Edmundbury was a bitter Per­secutor of Catholicks, and a particular Enemy to her Majesties Servants, (whereof Mr. Prance reckoned himself one:) And that he had lately examined Peo­ple against them, and had got Depositions to fix base Crimes and Scandals on their Religion, and that the Catholicks would be ruined, unless he were taken off; and therefore it was necessary for the Glory of God, and good of the Church, that it should be effected; and that there should be a good reward given them for it: And when Mr. Prance scrupled it, the two Priests, Girald and Kelly told him, It was no sin, but a work of Charity, and so far from being a Murther, that it was a Meritorious work, and he ought to assist in it.

Having thus resolved of his Death, they consult­ed several times how to effect it; but at last, upon Saturday, October 12. 1678. Hill went to Sir Edmund­bury Godfry's house in the Morning, but what he said to him is not known, and then taking his leave, went to Girald and Green, and staid with them hard [Page 202] by, waiting Sir Edmundburys going forth, which was about Ten or Eleven a Clock, they dogged him up and down all day, till about seven a Clock in the Evening, and then Green came to Prances house, and told him that they had set him, but did not name where, only near St. Clements, and that Prance must hasten down to the Water-Gate at Somerset­house, where he should find Kelly and Berry; which he did, and they three waited there till about Nine a Clock at night, then Hill came in hast and told them he was coming, and that they must pre­tend a Quarrel, and he would fetch him in; Kelly and Berry began a seeming Quarrel, and just as Sir Edmundbury Godfry was passing by the Gate, Hill who was acquainted with him, steps out in a great deal of haste, and intreated him, For Gods sake to come in, for there were two men a Quarelling, and he was afraid there would be blood shed: He refu­sed at first, but the other being importunate, he consented, and Hill entred the Gate first, after him Sir Edmundbury Godfry, and Girald and Green followed just behind. As soon as they were in, Prance watched at the Water-Gate that no body came that way, Berry was to secure the Stairs and passage by the Chappel, but first he and Kelly who pretended to Quarrel, stood at the end of the rail by the Queens Stables, and as Sir Edmondbury went down toward them, Green suddenly threw a twisted Handkerchief, or Cravat about his neck, and presently all four pull'd him down, and throt­led him, so as he could make no noise, then they threw him behind the Rail, and gave him many Violent punches on the breast with their Knees, and Green with all his force wrung his Neck almost round.

Having committed this Horrid Murther, they re­moved [Page 203] the body into Dr. Goddins Lodgings, and on Monday to another Room, on Tuesday from thence to another, but on Wednesday night about twelve a Clock they carried his body towards Hamstead, about two miles out of Town, and laid it at a place called Primrose-Hill, Girald having run Sir Edmundbury's own Sword through him, and left it in, and the Scab­bard and Gloves they layd at a small distance from him, that it might be supposed he had murdered himself.

The death of this worthy Gentleman caused great Consternation among the People, and his Ma­jesty was graciously pleased to publish a Proclama­tion promising 500. l. to the Discoverer. And a while after Mr. William Bedlow, came in, and gave some Account of the Murder, and likewise of the Plot in General; and upon the 21. of December being in the Lobby of the House of Commons, he there saw Mr. Prance, whom he knew to be concerned, they two having Viewed Sir Edmundbury's dead bo­dy together at Somerset-house, and charging Mr. Prance with the Murther, he was thereupon committed to Newgate, and a while after confessed the whole matter as is before related.

Whereupon, Green, Hill and Berry were seized, and upon full Evidence condemned, and executed, Kelly and Girald fled; there were likewise several Traitors tryed and Executed for the Horrid Plot; that is, Edward Coleman, William Ireland, Tomas Pic­kering, John Grove, Thomas Whitebread, William Har­court, John Fenwick, John Gaven, Anthony Turner, and Richard Langhorn.

The Papists being still disappointed in their cursed contrivances, yet resolved not wholly to desist, but endeavoured to stifle the Evidence by promising them great rewards and encouragements not to discover the whole of what they knew, or to deny what [Page 204] they had deposed; and upon this account Mr. Reding tampered with Mr. Bedlow; Mris. Price and Mr. Tasborough endeavoured to corrupt Mr. Dug­dale; Osburn and Lane designed to invalidate the Evidence of Dr. Oats: But these ill practices being discovered, some of the persons concerned were fined and Imprisoned, and others set in the Pillory; after which the Papists had several other Contri­vances to throw off the Plot from their own party, but all will not do; for certainly he cannot pretend to be a good Protestant, who (after his Majesty's repeated Proclamations for the discovery and appre­hension of the Plotters, after the Execution of so many of the Conspirators, upon the clearest Evi­dence imaginable, and after the Votes and Proceed­ings in both Houses of Parliament thereupon) shall in the least doubt of the reality of this horrid and damnable Popish Plot; as it is fully exprest in the Vote of both Houses, March 25. 1679.

Let us conclude all with the Thanksgiving of the Church of England, set forth by Authority upon the Discovery of the Gunpowder Treason in 1605.

NOt unto us O Lord, not unto us, but to thy Name be ascribed all honour and glory in all Churches of the Saints throughout all Generations; for thou Lord hast discovered the Snares of Death, thou hast broken them and we are delivered; be thou still our mighty Protect­or, and scatter our Cruel Enemies which delight in Blood; Infatuate their Counsel, and root out that Babilonish and Antichristian Sect, which say of Jerusalem, Down with it, down with it even to the Ground: and to this end strengthen the hands of our Gracious King, the Nobles and Magistrates of the Land with Judg­ment and Justice, to cut off these workers of Iniquity, whose Religion is Rebellion, whose Faith is Faction, whose Practice is Murthering of Souls and Bodies; and to root them out of the Confines and Limits of this King­dom, that they may never prevail against us, and Tri­umph in the ruin of thy Church. And give us grace by true and serious Repentance to avert these and the like Judgments from us. This Lord we earnestly crave at thy mercifull hands, together with the continuance of thy powerfull Protection over our Dread Soveraign, the whole Church, and these Realms, and the speedy con­fusion of our Implacable Enemies; and that for thy dear Sons sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.