Two days after he had received the above information, the Governor, an Inquisitor,
and a canonical priest, accompanied by two Jesuits, entered his dungeon, and being
seated, after several idle questions, the Inquisitor asked Mr. Lithgow if he was
a Roman Catholic and acknowledged the Pope's supremacy.
He answered that he neither was the one nor did the other, adding that he was
surprised at being asked such questions, since it was expressly stipulated by the
Articles of Peace between England and Spain that none of the English subjects
should be liable to the Inquisition, or in any way molested by them on account
of diversity in religion, etc.
In the bitterness of his soul, he made use of some warm expressions not
suited to his circumstances.
As you have almost murdered me, said he, for pretended treason,
so now you intend to make a martyr of me for my religion.
He also expostulated with the Governor on the ill return he made to the King of
England, whose subject he was, for the princely humanity exercised
towards the Spaniards in 1588, when their armada was shipwrecked on the
Scotch coast, and thousands of the Spaniards found relief, who must otherwise
have miserably perished.
The Governor admitted the truth of what Mr. Lithgow said, but replied with a
haughty air that the King, who then only ruled Scotland, was actuated more by fear
than love, and therefore did not deserve any thanks.
One of the Jesuits said, and there was no faith to be kept with heretics,
the Inquisitor, then rising, addressed himself to Mr. Lithgow in the following
words.
You have been taken up as a spy, accused of treachery and tortured,
as we acknowledge, innocently, which appears by the account lately
received from Madrid of the intentions of the English.
Yet it was the divine power that brought those judgments upon you, for
presumptuously treating the blessed miracle of Loreto with ridicule,
and expressing yourself in your writings irreverently of his holiness, the great
agent and Christ's vicar upon earth.
Therefore you are justly fallen into our hands by their special appointment.
Thy books and papers are miraculously translated by the assistance of
Providence, influencing thy own countrymen.
This trumpery being ended, they gave the prisoner eight days to consider and
resolve whether he would become a convert to their religion, during which time the
Inquisitor told him he, with other religious orders, would attend to give him
such assistance thereto as he might want.
One of the Jesuits said, first making the sign of the cross upon his breast,
My son, behold, you deserve to be burnt alive, but by the grace of our Lady of
Loreto, whom you have blasphemed, we will both save your soul and body.
In the morning the Inquisitor, with three other ecclesiastics,
returned, when the former asked the prisoner what difficulties he had on his
conscience that retarded his conversion, to which he answered he had not any doubts
in his mind, being confident in the promises of Christ, and assuredly
believing his revealed will signified in the Gospels, as professed in the Reformed
Catholic Church, being confirmed by grace and having infallible assurance thereby of
the Christian faith.
To these words the Inquisitor replied, Thou art no Christian but an absurd
heretic, and without conversion a member of perdition.
The prisoner then told him that it was not consistent with the nature and essence of
religion and charity to convince by appropriate speeches, racts, and torments,
but by arguments deduced from the Scriptures, and that all other methods
would with him be totally ineffectual.
The Inquisitor was so enraged at the replies made by the prisoner that he
struck him on the face, used many abusive speeches, and attempted to stab him,
which he had certainly done, had he not been prevented by the Jesuits,
and from this time he never again visited the prisoner.
The next day the two Jesuits returned, and putting on a very grave supercilious
air, the superior asked him what resolution he had taken, to which Mr.
Lithgow replied that he was already resolved, unless he could show substantial
reasons to make him alter his opinion.
The superior, after a pedantic display of their seven sacraments, the intercession
of saints, transubstantiation, etc., boasted greatly of their church,
her antiquity, universality, and uniformity, all of which Mr. Lithgow
denied, for, said he, the profession of the faith I hold hath been ever since the
first days of the apostles, and Christ had ever his own church, however obscure,
in the greatest time of your darkness.
The Jesuits, finding their arguments had not the desired effect, that torments
could not shake his constancy, nor even the fear of the cruel sentence he
had reason to expect would be pronounced and executed on him, after severe menaces
left him.
On the eighth day after, being the last of their inquisition when sentence is
pronounced, they returned again, but quite altered, both in their words and
behaviour.
After repeating much of the same kind of arguments as before, they, with seeming
tears in their eyes, pretended they were sorry from their heart he must be obliged
to undergo a terrible death, but above all for the loss of his most precious soul,
and falling on their knees, cried out, Convert!
convert!
O dear brother, for our blessed lady's sake, convert!
To which he answered, I fear neither death nor fire being prepared for both.
The first effects Mr. Lithgow felt of the determination of this bloody tribunal,
was a sentence to receive that night eleven different tortures, and if he did
not die in the execution of them, which might be reasonably expected from
the maimed and disjointed condition he was in, he was, after Easter holy days,
to be carried to Granada, and there burnt to ashes.
The first part of this sentence was executed with great barbarity that night,
and it pleased God to give him strength both of body and mind to stand fast to the
truth, and to survive the horrid punishments inflicted on him.
After these barbarians had glutted themselves for the present, with
exercising on the unhappy prisoner the most distinguished cruelties, they again
put irons on and conveyed him to his former dungeon.
The next morning he received some little comfort from the Turkish slave before
mentioned, who secretly brought him in his shirt-sleeve some raisins and figs,
which he licked up in the best manner his strength would permit with his tongue.
It was to this slave Mr. Lithgow attributed his surviving so long in such a
wretched situation, for he found means to convey some of these fruits to him twice
every week.
It is very extraordinary, and worthy of note, that this poor slave, bred up from
his infancy according to the maxims of his prophet and parents, in the greatest
detestation of Christians, should be so affected at the miserable situation of Mr.
Lithgow, that he fell ill and continued so for upwards of forty days.
During this period Mr. Lithgow was attended by a negro woman, a slave,
who found means to furnish him with refreshments still more amply than the
Turk, being conversant in the house and family.
She brought him every day some vittles, and with it some wine in a bottle.
The time was now so far elapsed, and the horrid situation so truly
loathsome, that Mr. Lithgow waited with anxious expectation, for the day which by
putting an end to his life would also end his torments.
But his melancholy expectations were, by the interposition of providence,
happily rendered abortive, and his deliverance obtained from the following
circumstances.
It happened that a Spanish gentleman of quality came from Granada to Malaga,
who, being invited to an entertainment by the Governor, informed him of what had
befallen Mr. Lithgow from the time of his being apprehended as a spy, and described
the various sufferings he had endured.
He likewise told him that after it was known the prisoner was innocent,
it gave him great concern, that on this account he would gladly have released him,
restored his money and papers, and made some atonement for the injuries
he had received, but that upon an inspection into his writings, several were
found of a very blasphemous nature, highly reflecting on their religion,
that on his refusing to abjure these heretical opinions he was turned over to
the Inquisition, by whom he was finally condemned.
While the Governor was relating this tragical tale, a Flemish youth,
servant to the Spanish gentleman, who waited at the table, was struck with
amazement and pity at the sufferings of the stranger described.
On his return to his master's lodgings, he began to revolve in his mind what he
had heard, which made such an impression on him that he could not rest in his bed.
In the short slumbers he had, his imagination pointed to him the person
described on the rack and burning in the fire.
In this anxiety he passed the night, and when the morning came, without
disclosing his intentions to any person whatever, he went into the town and
inquired for an English factor.
He was directed to the house of a Mr. Wilde, to whom he related the whole of
what he had heard past the preceding evening between his master and the
Governor, but could not tell Mr. Lithgow's name.
Mr. Wilde, however, conjectured it was he, by the servant remembering the
circumstance of his being a traveller, and his having had some acquaintance with
him.
On the departure of the Flemish servant, Mr. Wilde immediately sent for the other
English factors, to whom he related all the particulars relative to their
unfortunate countrymen.
After a short consultation it was agreed that an information of the whole affair
should be sent by express to Sir Walter Aston, the English ambassador to the King
of Spain, then at Madrid.
This was accordingly done, and the ambassador, having presented a memorial to
the King and Council of Spain, obtained an order for Mr. Lithgow's
enlargement and his delivery to the English factor.
This order was directed to the Governor of Malaga, and was received with great
dislike and surprise by the whole assembly of the bloody Inquisition.
Mr. Lithgow was released from his confinement on the eve of Easter Sunday,
when he was carried from his dungeon on the back of the slave who had attended
him, to the house of one Mr. Bosbick, where all proper comforts were given him.
It fortunately happened that there was at this time a squadron of English ships in
the road, commanded by Sir Richard Hawkins, who, being informed of the past
sufferings and present situation of Mr. Lithgow, came the next day ashore with a
proper guard, and received him from the merchants.
He was instantly carried in blankets on board the vanguard, and three days after
was removed to another ship, by direction of the General Sir Robert Mansell,
who ordered that he should have proper care taken of him.
The Factor presented him with clothes and all necessary provisions, besides which
they gave him two hundred reales in silver, and Sir Richard Hawkins sent him
two double pistols.
Before his departure from the Spanish coast, Sir Richard Hawkins demanded the
delivery of his papers, money, books, etc., but could not obtain any
satisfactory answer on that head.
We cannot help making a pause here to reflect how manifestly Providence
interfered in behalf of this poor man when he was just on the brink of destruction,
for by his sentence, from which there was no appeal, he would have been taken in a
few days to Granada and burned to ashes, and that a poor ordinary servant,
who had not the least knowledge of him, nor was any ways interested in his
preservation, should risk the displeasure of his master and hazard his own life to
disclose a thing of so momentous and perilous a nature to a strange gentleman
on whose secrecy depended his own existence.
By such secondary means does Providence frequently interfere in behalf of the
virtuous and oppressed, of which this is a most distinguished example.
After lying twelve days in the road, the ship Wadeanchor, and in about two
months arrived safe at Detford.
The next morning Mr. Lithgow was carried on a feather bed to Tybalds in
Hertfordshire, where at that time was the king and royal family.
His majesty happened to be that day engaged in hunting, but on his return in
the evening Mr. Lithgow was presented to him and related the particulars of his
sufferings and his happy delivery.
The king was so affected at the narrative that he expressed the deepest concern and
gave orders that he should be sent to Bath and his wants properly supplied from his
royal munificence.
By these means, under God, after some time, Mr. Lithgow was restored,
from the most wretched spectacle, to a great share of health and strength,
but he lost the use of his left arm and several of the smaller bones were so
crushed and broken as to be ever after rendered useless.
Notwithstanding that every effort was used, Mr. Lithgow could never obtain any
part of his money or effects, although his majesty and the ministers of state
interested themselves in his behalf.
Gondamore, the Spanish ambassador, indeed promised that all his effects
should be restored, with the addition of one thousand pounds English money,
as some atonement for the tortures he had undergone, which last was to be paid him
by the governor of Malaga.
These engagements, however, were but mere promises, and although the king was a kind
of guarantee for the well-performance of them, the cunning Spaniard found means to
elude the same.
He had indeed too great a share of influence in the English council,
during the time of that Pacific reign, when England suffered herself to be
bullied into slavish compliance by most of the states and kings in Europe.
The Story of Galileo The most eminent men of science and philosophy of the day did
not escape the watchful eye of this cruel despotism.
Galileo, the chief astronomer and mathematician of his age, was the first
who used the telescope successfully in solving the movements of the heavenly
bodies.
He discovered that the sun is the centre of motion around which the earth and
various planets revolve.
For making this great discovery, Galileo was brought before the
Inquisition, and for a while was in great danger of being put to death.
After a long and bitter review of Galileo's writings, in which many of his
most important discoveries were condemned as errors, the charge of the Inquisitors
went on to declare that you, Galileo, have, upon account of those things which
you have written and confessed, subjected yourself to a strong suspicion
of heresy in this holy office, by believing, and holding to be true,
a doctrine which is false and contrary to the sacred and divine scripture,
namely, that the sun is the centre of the orb of the earth and does not move from
the east to the west, and that the earth moves and is not the centre of the world.
In order to save his life, Galileo admitted that he was wrong in thinking
that the earth revolved around the sun, and swore that, for the future I will
never more say or assert, either by word or writing, anything that shall give
occasion for a like suspicion.
But immediately after taking this forced oath, he is said to have whispered to a
friend standing near, the earth moves for all that.
Summary of the Inquisition Of the multitudes who perished by the Inquisition
throughout the world, no authentic record is now discoverable.
But wherever Popery had power, there was the Tribunal.
It had been planted even in the East, and the Portuguese Inquisition of Goa was
until within these few years fed with many an agony.
South America was partitioned into provinces of the Inquisition, and with a
ghastly mimicry of the crimes of the Mother State, the arrivals of viceroys and
the other popular celebrations were thought imperfect without an autodafé.
The Netherlands were one scene of slaughter from the time of the decree
which planted the Inquisition among them.
In Spain the calculation is more attainable.
Each of the seventeen tribunals during a long period burned annually, on an
average, ten miserable beings.
We are to recollect that this number was in a country where persecution had for
ages abolished all religious differences, and where the difficulty was not to find
the stake, but the offering.
Yet even in Spain, thus gleaned of all heresy, the Inquisition could still swell
its lists of murders to thirty-two thousand.
The numbers burned in effigy, or condemned to penance, punishments generally
equivalent to exile, confiscation, and taint of blood, to all ruin but the
mere loss of worthless life, amounted to three hundred and nine thousand.
But the crowds who perished in dungeons of torture, of confinement, and of broken
hearts, the millions of dependent lives made utterly helpless, or hurried to the
grave by the death of the victims, are beyond all register, or recorded only
before him who was sworn that he that leadeth into captivity shall go into
captivity, he that killeth with a sword must be killed with a sword.
Such was the Inquisition, declared by the Spirit of God to be at once the offspring
and the image of the Popedom.
To feel the force of the parentage, we must look to the time.
In the thirteenth century, the Popedom was at the summit of mortal dominion.
It was independent of all kingdoms, it ruled with a rank of influence never
before or since possessed by a human sceptre, it was the acknowledged sovereign
of body and soul.
To all earthly intents, its power was immeasurable, for good or evil.
It might have spread literature, peace, freedom, and Christianity to the
ends of Europe, or the world.
But its nature was hostile, its fuller triumph only disclosed its fuller evil,
and to the shame of human reason and the terror and suffering of human virtue,
Rome, in the hour of its consummate grandeur, teemed with the monstrous and
horrid birth of the Inquisition.
Chapter 6 An Account of the Persecutions under the Papacy in Italy A country which
has been, and still is, the centre of Popery, the seat of the Pontiff,
and the source of the various errors which have spread themselves over other
countries, deluded the minds of thousands, and diffused the clouds of superstition
and bigotry over the human understanding.
In pursuing our narrative, we shall include the most remarkable persecutions
which have happened, and the cruelties which have been practised, by the
immediate power of the Pope, through the power of the Inquisition, and by the
bigotry of the Italian princes.
In the twelfth century, the first persecutions under the Papacy began in
Italy, at the time that Adrian, an Englishman, was Pope, being occasioned
by the following circumstances.
A learned man and an excellent orator of Brescia, named Arnold, came to Rome and
boldly preached against the corruptions and innovations which had crept into the
Church.
His discourses were so clear, consistent, and breathed forth such a pure spirit of
piety, that the Senators and many of the people highly approved of and admired his
doctrines.
This so greatly enraged Adrian, that he commanded Arnold instantly to
leave the city as a heretic.
Arnold, however, did not comply, for the Senators and some of the principal
people took his part, and resisted the authority of the Pope.
Adrian now laid the city of Rome under an interdict, which caused the whole body of
clergy to interpose, and at length he persuaded the Senators and people to give
up the point and suffer Arnold to be banished.
This being agreed to, he received the sentence of exile and retired to Germany,
where he continued to preach against the Pope and to expose the gross errors of the
Church of Rome.
Adrian, on this account, thirsted for his blood, and made several attempts to get
him into his hands.
But Arnold for a long time avoided every snare laid for him.
At length, Frederick Barbarossa, arriving at the imperial dignity,
requested that the Pope would crown him with his own hand.
This Adrian complied with, and at the same time asked a favour of the Emperor,
which was to put Arnold into his hands.
The Emperor very readily delivered up the unfortunate preacher, who soon fell a
martyr to Adrian's vengeance, being hanged and his body burnt to ashes at Apulia.
The same fate attended several of his old friends and companions.
Encinas, a Spaniard, was sent to Rome to be brought up in the Roman Catholic faith.
But having conversed with some of the Reformed, and having read several
treatises which they put into his hands, he became a Protestant.
This at length being known, one of his own relations informed against him when he was
burnt by order of the Pope and a conclave of Cardinals.
The brother of Encinas had been taken up much about the same time for having a New
Testament in the Spanish language in his possession.
But before the time appointed for his execution, he found means to escape out of
prison and retired to Germany.
Phaninus, a learned layman by reading controversial books, became of the
Reformed religion.
An information being exhibited against him to the Pope, he was apprehended and cast
into prison.
His wife, children, relations, and friends visited him in his
confinement, and so far wrought upon his mind that he renounced his faith and
obtained his release.
But he was no sooner free from confinement than his mind felt the heaviest of chains,
the weight of a guilty conscience.
His horrors were so great that he found them insupportable until he had returned
from his apostasy and declared himself fully convinced of the errors of the
Church of Rome.
To make amends for his falling off, he now openly and strenuously did all he
could to make converts to Protestantism, and was pretty successful in his
endeavours.
These proceedings occasioned his second imprisonment, but he had his life offered
him if he would recount again.
This proposal he rejected with disdain, saying that he scorned life upon such
terms.
Being asked why he would obstinately persist in his opinions and leave his wife
and children in distress, he replied, I shall not leave them in distress.
I have recommended them to the care of an excellent trustee.
What trustee?
said the person who had asked the question, with some surprise, to which
Phaninus answered, Jesus Christ is the trustee, I mean, and I think I could not
commit them to the care of a better.
On the day of execution he appeared remarkably cheerful, which one observing
said, it is strange you should appear so merry upon such an occasion, when Jesus
Christ himself just before his death was in such agonies that he sweated blood and
water, to which Phaninus replied, Christ sustained all manner of pangs and
conflicts with hell and death on our accounts, and thus by his suffering freed
those who really believed in him from the fear of them.
He was then strangled, his body was burnt to ashes, and then scattered about by the
wind.
Dominicus, a learned soldier, having read several controversial writings,
became a zealous Protestant, and retiring to Placentia, he preached the Gospel in
its utmost purity to a very considerable congregation.
One day, at the conclusion of his sermon, he said, If the congregation will attend
tomorrow, I will give them a description of Antichrist and paint him out in his
proper colours.
A vast concourse of people attended the next day, but just as Dominicus was
beginning his sermon, a civil magistrate went up to the pulpit and took him into
custody.
He readily submitted, but as he went along with the magistrate he made use of this
expression, I wonder the devil hath let me alone so long.
When he was brought to examination, this question was put to him, Will you
renounce your doctrines?
to which he replied, My doctrines?
I maintain no doctrines of my own.
What I preach are the doctrines of Christ, and for those I will forfeit my blood,
and even think myself happy to suffer for the sake of my Redeemer.
Every method was taken to make him recant for his faith and embrace the errors of
the Church of Rome, but when persuasion and menaces were found ineffectual,
he was sentenced to death and hanged in the marketplace.
Galliatius, a Protestant gentleman who resided near the castle of Sant'Angelo,
was apprehended on account of his faith.
Great endeavours being used by his friends, he recanted and subscribed to
several of the superstitious doctrines propagated by the Church of Rome.
Becoming however sensible of his error, he publicly renounced his recantation.
Being apprehended for this, he was condemned to be burned, and agreeable to
the order was chained to a stake, where he was left, several hours before
the fire was put to the faggots, in order that his wife, relations,
and friends who surrounded him might induce him to give up his opinions.
Galliatius, however, retained his constancy of mind, and entreated the
executioner to put fire to the wood that was to burn him.
This at length he did, and Galliatius was soon consumed in the flames, which burnt
with amazing rapidity, and deprived him of sensation in a few minutes.
Soon after this gentleman's death, a great number of Protestants were put to
death in various parts of Italy, on account of their faith, giving a sure
proof of their sincerity in their martyrdoms.
An account of the persecutions of Calabria In the fourteenth century, many of the
Waldenses of Praguella and Dauphine emigrated to Calabria, and settling some
wastelands, by the permission of the nobles of that country, they soon,
by the most industrious cultivation, made several wild and barren spots appear
with all the beauties of verdure and fertility.
The Calabrian lords were highly pleased with their new subjects and tenants,
as they were honest, quiet, and industrious, but the priests of the
country exhibited several negative complaints against them, for not being
able to accuse them of anything bad which they did do, they founded accusations on
what they did not do, and charged them with not being Roman Catholics,
with not making any of their boys priests, with not making any of their girls nuns,
with not going to mass, with not giving wax tapers to their priests as offerings,
with not going on pilgrimages, and with not bowing to images.
The Calabrian lords, however, quieted the priests, by telling them that these people
were extremely harmless, that they gave no offence to the Roman Catholics,
and cheerfully paid the tithes to the priests, whose revenues were considerably
increased by their coming into the country, and who, of consequence,
ought to be the last persons to complain of them.
Things went on tolerably well after this for a few years, during which the
Waldenses formed themselves into two corporate towns, annexing several villages
to the jurisdiction of them.
At length they sent to Geneva for two clergymen, one to preach in each town,
as they determined to make a public profession of their faith.
Intelligence of this affair being carried to the Pope, pious the fourth,
he determined to exterminate them from Calabria.
To this end he sent Cardinal Alexandrino, a man of very violent temper and a furious
bigot, together with two monks to Calabria, where they were to act as
inquisitors.
These authorised persons came to St. Exist, one of the towns built by the
Waldenses, and having assembled the people, told them that they should receive
no injury, if they would accept of preachers appointed by the Pope,
but if they would not, they should be deprived both of their properties and
lives, and that their intentions might be known, mass should be publicly said that
afternoon, at which they were ordered to attend.
The people of St. Exist, instead of attending mass, fled into the woods with
their families, and thus disappointed the Cardinal and his co-adjuters.
The Cardinal then proceeded to Lagarde, the other town belonging to the Waldenses,
where not to be served as he had been at St. Exist, he ordered the gates to be
locked, and all avenues guarded.
The same proposals were then made to the inhabitants of Lagarde, as had previously
been offered to those of St. Exist, but with this additional piece of
artifice.
The Cardinal assured them that the inhabitants of St. Exist had immediately
come into his proposals, and agreed that the Pope should appoint them preachers.
This falsehood succeeded, for the people of Lagarde, thinking what the Cardinal had
told them to be the truth, said they would exactly follow the example of their
brethren at St. Exist.
The Cardinal, having gained his point by deluding the people of one town,
sent for troops of soldiers with a view to murder those of the other.
He accordingly dispatched the soldiers into the woods to hunt down the
inhabitants of St. Exist like wild beasts, and gave them strict orders to spare
neither age nor sex, but to kill all they came near.
The troops entered the woods, and many fell a prey to their ferocity before the
Waldenses were properly apprised of their design.
At length, however, they determined to sell their lives as dear as possible,
when several conflicts happened, in which the half-armed Waldenses
performed prodigies of valour, and many were slain on both sides.
The greatest part of the troops being killed, in the different Roncontres,
the rest were compelled to retreat, which so enraged the Cardinal that he
wrote to the Viceroy of Naples for reinforcements.
The Viceroy immediately ordered a proclamation to be made throughout all the
Neapolitan territories, that all outlaws, deserters, and other proscribed persons
should be surely pardoned for their respective offences, on condition of
making a campaign against the inhabitants of St. Exist, and continuing under arms
until those people were exterminated.
Many persons of desperate fortunes came in upon this proclamation, and, being formed
into light companies, were sent to scour the woods and put to death all they could
meet with of the reformed religion.
The Viceroy himself likewise joined the Cardinal at the head of a body of regular
forces, and in conjunction they did all they could to harass the poor people in
the woods.
Some they caught and hanged up upon trees, cut down boughs and burnt them,
or ripped them open and left their bodies to be devoured by wild beasts or birds of
prey.
Many they shot at a distance, but the greatest number they hunted down by way of
sport.
A few hid themselves in caves, but famine destroyed them in their
retreat, and thus all these poor people perished by various means to glut the
bigoted malice of their merciless persecutors.
The inhabitants of St. Exist were no sooner exterminated than those of La Garde
engaged the attention of the Cardinal and Viceroy.
It was offered that if they should embrace the Roman Catholic persuasion,
themselves and families should not be injured, that their houses and properties
should be restored, and none would be permitted to molest them.
But on the contrary, if they refused this mercy, as it was termed, the utmost
extremities would be used, and the most cruel deaths the certain consequence of
their noncompliance.
Notwithstanding the promises on one side and menaces on the other, these worthy
people unanimously refused to renounce their religion or embrace the errors of
Popery.
This exasperated the Cardinal and Viceroy so much that thirty of them were ordered
to be put immediately to the rack, as a terror to the rest.
Those who were put to the rack were treated with such severity that several
died under the torches.
One Charlin, in particular, was so cruelly used that his belly burst, his bowels came
out, and he expired in the greatest agonies.
These barbarities, however, did not answer the purposes for which they were intended.
For those who remained alive after the rack, and those who had not felt the rack,
remained equally constant in their faith, and boldly declared that no tortures of
body or terrors of mind should ever induce them to renounce their God or worship
images.
Several were then by the Cardinal's order stripped stark naked and whipped to death
with iron rods, and some were hacked to pieces with large knives, others were
thrown down from the top of a large tower, and many were covered over with pitch and
burnt alive.
One of the monks who attended the Cardinal, being naturally of a savage and
cruel disposition, requested of him that he might shed some of the blood of these
poor people with his own hands.
When his request being granted, the barbarous man took a large sharp
knife, and cut the throats of fourscore men, women, and children with as little
remorse as a butcher would have killed so many sheep.
Every one of these bodies were then ordered to be quartered, the quarters
placed upon stakes, and then fixed in different parts of the country within a
circuit of thirty miles.
The four principal men of La Garde were hanged, and the clergyman was thrown from
the top of his church steeple.
He was terribly mangled, but not quite killed by the fall, at which time the
Viceroy passing by said, Is the dog yet living?
Take him up and give him to the hogs.
When brutal as this sentence may appear, it was executed accordingly.
Sixty women were racked so violently that the cords pierced their arms and legs
close to the bone.
When being remanded to prison, their wounds mortified, and they died in
the most miserable manner.
Many others were put to death by various cruel means.
And if any Roman Catholic more compassionate than the rest interceded for
any of the reformed, he was immediately apprehended and shared the same fate as a
favourer of heretics.
The Viceroy being obliged to march back to Naples on some affairs of moment which
required his presence, and the Cardinal being recalled to Rome, the Marquis of
Boutanay was ordered to put the finishing stroke to what they had begun,
which he at length effected by acting with such barbarous rigour that there was not a
single person of the reformed religion left living in all Calabria.
Thus were a great number of inoffensive and harmless people, deprived of their
possessions, robbed of their property, driven from their homes and at length
murdered by various means, only because they would not sacrifice their consciences
to the superstitions of others, embrace idolatrous doctrines which they
abhorred, and accept of teachers whom they could not believe.
Tyranny is of three kinds, that which enslaves the person, that which seizes the
property, and that which prescribes and dictates to the mind.
The two first sorts may be termed civil tyranny, and have been practised by
arbitrary sovereigns in all ages, who have delighted in tormenting the
persons and stealing the properties of their unhappy subjects.
But the third sort, prescribing and dictating to the mind, may be called
ecclesiastical tyranny, and this is the worst kind of tyranny, as it includes the
other two sorts.
For the Amish clergy not only do torture the body, and seize the effects of those
they persecute, but take the lives, torment the minds, and, if possible,
would tyrannise over the souls of the unhappy victims.
Account of the Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont Many of the World NCs,
to avoid the persecutions to which they were continually subjected in France,
went and settled in the valleys of Piedmont, where they increased exceedingly
and flourished very much for a considerable time.
Though they were harmless in their behaviour, inoffensive in their
conversation, and paid tithes to the Roman clergy, yet the latter could not be
contented, but wished to give them some disturbance.
They accordingly complained to the Archbishop of Turin that the World NCs of
the Valleys of Piedmont were heretics, for these reasons.
One, that they did not believe in the doctrines of the Church of Rome.
Two, that they made no offerings or prayers for the dead.
Three, that they did not go to Mass.
Four, that they did not confess and receive absolution.
And five, that they did not believe in purgatory or pay money to get the souls of
their friends out of it.
Upon these charges the Archbishop ordered a persecution to be commenced,
and many fell martyrs to the superstitious rage of the priests and monks.
At Turin, one of the reformed had his bowels torn out and put in a basin before
his face, where they remained in his view until he expired.
At Revelle, Catelin Girard, being at the stake, desired the executioner to give him
a stone, which he refused, thinking that he meant to throw it at somebody.
But Girard, assuring him that he had no such design, the executioner complied.
When Girard, looking earnestly at the stone, said, When it is in the power of a
man to eat and digest this solid stone, the religion for which I am about to
suffer shall have an end, and not before.
He then threw the stone on the ground and submitted cheerfully to the flames.
A great many more of the reformed were oppressed or put to death by various
means, until the patience of the Waldenses being tired out, they flew to arms in
their own defence and formed themselves into regular bodies.
Exasperated at this, the Bishop of Turin procured a number of troops and sent
against them.
But in most of the skirmishes and engagements the Waldenses were successful,
which partly arose from their being better acquainted with the passes of the Valleys
of Piedmont than their adversaries, and partly from the desperation with which
they fought, for they well knew if they were taken they should not be considered
as prisoners of war, but tortured to death as heretics.
At length, Philip VII, Duke of Savoy and Supreme Lord of Piedmont, determined to
interpose his authority and stop these bloody wars, which so greatly disturbed
his dominions.
He was not willing to disoblige the Pope or affront the Archbishop of Turin.
Nevertheless, he sent them both messages, importing that he could not any longer
tamely see his dominions overrun with troops, who were directed by priests
instead of officers and commanded by prelates instead of generals, nor would he
suffer his country to be depopulated while he himself had not been even consulted
upon the occasion.
The priests, finding the resolution of the Duke, did all they could to prejudice his
mind against the Waldenses, but the Duke told them that though he was unacquainted
with the religious tenets of these people, yet he had always found them quiet,
faithful, and obedient, and therefore he determined that they should be no longer
persecuted.
The priests now had recourse to the most palpable and absurd falsehoods.
They assured the Duke that he was mistaken in the Waldenses, for they were a wicked
set of people, and highly addicted to intemperance, uncleanness, blasphemy,
adultery, incest, and many other abominable crimes, and that they were even
monsters in nature, for their children were born with black throats, with four
rows of teeth, and bodies all over hairy.
The Duke was not so devoid of common sense as to give credit to what the priests
said, though they affirmed in the most solemn manner the truth of their
assertions.
He, however, sent twelve very learned and sensible gentlemen into the Piedmontese
valleys to examine into the real character of the inhabitants.
These gentlemen, after travelling through all their towns and villages and
conversing with people of every rank among the Waldenses, returned to the Duke and
gave him the most favourable account of these people, affirming, before the faces
of the priests who vilified them, that they were harmless, inoffensive,
loyal, friendly, industrious, and pious, that they abhorred the crimes of which
they were accused, and that should an individual through his depravity fall into
any of those crimes, he would by their laws be punished in the most exemplary
manner.
With respect to the children, the gentlemen said, the priest had told the
most gross and ridiculous falsities, for they were neither born with black
throats, teeth in their mouths, nor hair on their bodies, but were as fine
children as could be seen.
And to convince Your Highness of what we have said, continued one of the gentlemen,
we have brought twelve of the principal male inhabitants, who have come to ask
pardon in the name of the rest, for having taken up arms without your
leave, though even in their own defence, and to preserve their lives from their
merciless enemies.
And we have likewise brought several women with children of various ages,
that Your Highness may have an opportunity of personally examining them as much as
you please.
The Duke, after accepting the apology of the twelve delegates, conversing with the
women and examining the children, graciously dismissed them.
He then commanded the priest, who had attempted to mislead him, immediately to
leave the court, and gave strict orders that the persecution should cease
throughout his dominions.
The Waldenses had enjoyed peace many years, when Philip, the seventh Duke of
Savoy, died, and his successor happened to be a very bigoted papist.
About the same time, some of the principal Waldenses proposed that their clergy
should preach in public, that everyone might know the purity of their doctrines,
for hitherto they had preached only in private, and to such congregations as they
well knew to consist of none but persons of the reformed religion.
On hearing these proceedings, the new Duke was greatly exasperated, and sent a
considerable body of troops into the valleys, swearing that if the people would
not change their religion, he would have them flayed alive.
The commander of the troops soon found the impracticability of conquering them with
the number of men he had with him.
He therefore sent word to the Duke that the idea of subjugating the Waldenses with
so small a force was ridiculous, that those people were better acquainted
with the country than any that were with him, that they had secured all the passes,
were well armed, and resolutely determined to defend themselves, and with respect to
flaying them alive, he said that every skin belonging to those people would cost
him the lives of a dozen of his subjects.
Terrified at this information, the Duke withdrew the troops, determining
to act not by force, but by stratagem.
He therefore ordered rewards for the taking of any of the Waldenses who might
be found straying from their places of security, and these, when taken,
were either flayed alive or burnt.
The Waldenses had hitherto only had the New Testament and a few books of the Old
in the Waldensian tongue, but they determined now to have the sacred writings
complete in their own language.
They therefore employed a Swiss printer to furnish them with a complete edition of
the Old and New Testaments in the Waldensian tongue, which he did,
for the consideration of fifteen hundred crowns of gold paid him by those pious
people.
Pope Paul III, a bigoted papist, ascending the pontifical chair,
immediately solicited the Parliament of Turin to persecute the Waldenses as the
most pernicious of all heretics.
The Parliament readily agreed, when several were suddenly apprehended and
burnt by their order.
Among these was Bartholomew Hector, a bookseller and stationer of Turin,
who was brought up a reformed clergy, was fully convinced of the errors of the
Church of Rome, yet his mind was for some time wavering, and he hardly knew what
persuasion to embrace.
At length, however, he fully embraced the reformed religion, and was apprehended,
as we have already mentioned, and burnt by order of the Parliament of Turin.
A consultation was now held by the Parliament of Turin, in which it was
agreed to send deputies to the valleys of Piedmont with the following propositions.
1.
That if the Waldenses would come to the bosom of the Church of Rome, and embrace
the Roman Catholic religion, they should enjoy their houses, properties,
and lands, and live with their families, without the least molestation.
2.
That to prove their obedience, they should send twelve of their principal
persons, with all their ministers and schoolmasters, to Turin, to be dealt with
at discretion.
3.
That the Pope, the King of France, and the Duke of Savoy approved of and
authorized the proceedings of the Parliament of Turin upon this occasion.
4.
That if the Waldenses of the valleys of Piedmont refused to comply with these
propositions, persecution should ensue, and certain death be their portion.
To each of these propositions, the Waldenses nobly replied in the
following manner, answering them respectively.
1.
That no considerations whatever should make them renounce their religion.
2.
That they would never consent to commit their best and most respectable friends to
the custody and discretion of their worst and most inveterate enemies.
3.
That they valued the approbation of the King of Kings, who reigns in heaven,
more than any temporal authority.
4.
That their souls were more precious than their bodies.
These pointed and spirited replies greatly exasperated the Parliament of Turin.
They continued, with more avidity than ever, to kidnap such Waldenses as did not
act with proper precaution, who were sure to suffer the most cruel deaths.
Among these, it unfortunately happened that they got hold of Geoffrey Warnagler,
Minister of Angrognia, whom they committed to the flames as a heretic.
They then solicited a considerable body of troops of the King of France in order to
exterminate the reformed entirely from the valleys of Piedmont.
But just as the troops were going to march, the Protestant princes of Germany
interposed, and threatened to send troops to assist the Waldenses if they should be
attacked.
The King of France, not caring to enter into a war, remanded the troops,
and sent word to the Parliament of Turin that he could not spare any troops at
present to act in Piedmont.
The members of the Parliament were greatly vexed at this disappointment, and the
persecution gradually ceased, for as they could only put to death such of the
reformed as they caught by chance, and as the Waldenses daily grew more
cautious, their cruelty was obliged to subside for want of objects on whom to
exercise it.
After the Waldenses had enjoyed a few years' tranquillity, they were again
disturbed by the following means.
The Pope's nuncio, coming to Turin to the Duke of Savoy upon business, told that
Prince he was astonished he had not yet either routed out the Waldenses from the
Piedmont entirely, or compelled them to enter into the bosom of the Church of
Rome, that he could not help looking upon such conduct with a suspicious eye,
and that he really thought him a favourer of those heretics, and should report the
affair accordingly to His Holiness the Pope.
Stung by this reflection, and unwilling to be misrepresented to the Pope,
the Duke determined to act with the greatest severity in order to show his
zeal, and to make amends for former neglect by future cruelty.
He accordingly issued express orders for all the Waldenses to attend Mass regularly
on pain of death.
This they absolutely refused to do, on which he entered the Piedmontese
valleys with a formidable body of troops, and began a most furious persecution,
in which great numbers were hanged, drowned, ripped open, tied to trees,
and pierced with prongs, thrown from precipices, burnt, stabbed, racked to
death, crucified with their heads downwards, worried by dogs, etc.
Those who fled had their goods plundered, and their houses burnt to the ground.
They were particularly cruel when they caught a minister or a schoolmaster,
whom they put to such exquisite tortures as are almost incredible to conceive.
If any whom they took seemed wavering in their faith, they did not put them to
death, but sent them to the galleys, to be made converts by dint of hardships.
The most cruel persecutors upon this occasion, that attended the Duke,
were three in number.
First, Thomas Incomel, an apostate, for he was brought up in the Reformed
religion, but renounced his faith, embraced the errors of popery,
and turned monk.
He was a great libertine, given to unnatural crimes, and sordidly solicitous
for plunder of the Waldenses.
Second, Corbis, a man of a very ferocious and cruel nature, whose business was to
examine the prisoners.
And third, the Provost of Justice, who was very anxious for the execution of
the Waldenses, as every execution put money in his pocket.
These three persons were unmerciful to the last degree, and wherever they came,
the blood of the innocent was sure to flow.
Exclusive of the cruelties exercised by the Duke, by these three persons,
and the army in their different marches, many local barbarities were committed.
At Pignerol, a town in the valleys, was a monastery, the monks of which,
finding they might injure the Reformed with impunity, began to plunder the houses
and pull down the churches of the Waldenses.
Not meeting with any opposition, they seized upon the persons of those
unhappy people, murdering the men, confining the women, and putting the
children to Roman Catholic nurses.
The Roman Catholic inhabitants of the Valley of St. Martin likewise did all they
could to torment the neighbouring Waldenses.
They destroyed their churches, burnt their houses, seized their
properties, stole their cattle, converted their land to their own use,
committed their ministers to the flames, and drove the Waldenses to the woods,
where they had nothing to subsist on but wild fruits, roots, the bark of trees,
etc.
Some Roman Catholic ruffians, having seized a minister, as he was going to
preach, determined to take him to a convenient place and burn him.
His parishioners, having intelligence of this affair, the men armed themselves,
pursued the ruffians, and seemed determined to rescue their minister,
which the ruffians no sooner perceived than they stabbed the poor gentleman,
and, leaving him weltering in his blood, made a precipitate retreat.
The astonished parishioners did all they could to recover him, but in vain,
for the weapon had touched the vital parts, and he expired as they were
carrying him home.
The monks of Pignerol, having a great inclination to get the minister of a town
in the valleys called Saint-Germain into their power, hired a band of ruffians for
the purpose of apprehending him.
These fellows were conducted by a treacherous person who had formerly been a
servant to the clergyman, and who perfectly well knew a secret way to the
house, by which he could lead them without alarming the neighbourhood.
The guide knocked at the door, and, being asked who was there,
answered in his own name.
The clergyman, not expecting any injury from a person on whom he had heaped
favours, immediately opened the door, but, perceiving the ruffians, he started
back, and fled to a back door, but they rushed in, followed, and seized
him.
Having murdered all his family, they made him proceed towards Pignerol,
goading him all the way with pikes, lances, swords, etc.
He was kept a considerable time in prison, and then fastened to the stake to be
burned, when two women of the Waldenses, who had renounced their religion to save
their lives, were ordered to carry faggots to the stake to burn him, and as they laid
them down, to say, Take these, thou wicked heretic, and recommence for
the pernicious doctrines thou hast taught us.
These words they both repeated to him, to which he calmly replied, I formerly
taught you well, but you have since learned ill.
The fire was then put to the faggots, and he was speedily consumed, calling upon
the name of the Lord as long as his voice permitted.
As the troops of ruffians, belonging to the monks, did great mischief about the
town of Saint-Germain, murdering and plundering many of the inhabitants,
the Reformed of Lucerne and Grogne sent some bands of armed men to the assistance
of their brethren of Saint-Germain.
These bodies of armed men frequently attacked the ruffians, and often put them
to the rout, which so terrified the monks that they left the monastery of Pignerol
for some time, until they could procure a body of regular troops to guard them.
The Duke, not thinking himself so successful as he at first imagined he
should be, greatly augmented his forces.
He ordered the bands of ruffians belonging to the monks to join him, and commanded
that a general jail delivery should take place, provided the persons released would
bear arms and form themselves into light companies to assist in the extermination
of the Waldenses.
The Waldenses, being informed of the proceedings, secured as much of their
properties as they could, and quitted the valleys, retired to the rocks and caves
among the Alps, for it is to be understood that the valleys of Piedmont are situated
at the foot of those prodigious mountains called the Alps, or the Alpine Hills.
The army now began to plunder and burn the towns and villages wherever they came,
but the troops could not force the passes to the Alps, which were gallantly defended
by the Waldenses, who always repulsed their enemies, but if any fell into the
hands of the troops they were sure to be treated with the most barbarous severity.
A soldier, having caught one of the Waldenses, bit his right ear off,
saying, I will carry this member of that wicked heretic with me into my own country
and preserve it as a rarity.
He then stabbed the man and threw him into a ditch.
A party of the troops found a venerable man, upwards of a hundred years of age,
together with his granddaughter, a maiden of about eighteen, in a cave.
They butchered the poor old man in the most inhuman manner, and then attempted to
ravish the girl, when she started away and fled from them, but they pursuing her she
threw herself from a precipice and perished.
The Waldenses, in order the more effectually to be able to repel force by
force, entered into a league with the Protestant powers of Germany and with the
reformed of Dauphine and Pregella.
These were respectively to furnish bodies of troops, and the Waldenses determined
when thus reinforced to quit the mountains of the Alps, where they must soon have
perished as the winter was coming on, and to force the Duke's army to evacuate
their native valleys.
The Duke of Savoy was now tired of the war.
It had cost him great fatigue and anxiety of mind, a vast number of men,
and very considerable sums of money.
It had been much more tedious and bloody than he expected, as well as more
expensive than he could at first have imagined, for he thought the plunder would
have discharged the expenses of the expedition, but in this he was mistaken,
for the Pope's nuncio, the bishops, monks, and other ecclesiastics,
who attended the army and encouraged the war, sunk the greatest part of the wealth
that was taken under various pretenses.
For these reasons, and the death of his duchess, of which he had just received
intelligence, and fearing that the Waldenses, by the treaties they had
entered into, would become more powerful than ever, he determined to return to
Turin with his army, and to make peace with the Waldenses.
This resolution he executed, though greatly against the will of the
ecclesiastics, who were the chief gainers, and the best pleased with revenge.
Before the articles of peace could be ratified, the Duke himself died,
soon after his return to Turin, but on his deathbed he strictly enjoined
his son to perform what he intended, and to be as favourable as possible to the
Waldenses.
The Duke's son, Charles Emmanuel, succeeded to the dominions of Savoy,
and gave a full ratification of peace to the Waldenses, according to the last
injunctions of his father, though the ecclesiastics did all they could to
persuade him to the contrary.
An account of the persecutions in Venice While the state of Venice was free from
inquisitors, a great number of Protestants fixed their residence there, and many
converts were made by the purity of the doctrines they professed and the
inoffensiveness of the conversation they used.
The Pope, being informed of the great increase of Protestantism, in the year
1542 sent inquisitors to Venice to make an inquiry into the matter, and apprehend
such as they might deem obnoxious persons.
Hence a severe persecution began, and many worthy persons were martyred for
serving God with purity and scorning the trappings of idolatry.
Various were the modes by which the Protestants were deprived of life,
but one particular method, which was first invented upon this occasion, we shall
describe.
As soon as sentence was passed, the prisoner had an iron chain which ran
through a great stone fastened to his body.
He was then laid flat upon a plank with his face upwards, and rowed between two
boats to a certain distance at sea, when the two boats separated, and he was
sunk to the bottom by the weight of the stone.
If any denied the jurisdiction of the inquisitors at Venice, they were sent to
Rome, where being committed purposely to damp prisons and never called to a
hearing, their flesh mortified, and they died miserably in jail.
A citizen of Venice, Antony Ricchetti, being apprehended as a Protestant,
was sentenced to be drowned in the manner we have already described.
A few days previous to the time appointed for his execution, his son went to see him
and begged him to recount that his life might be saved, and himself not left
fatherless.
To which the father replied, A good Christian is bound to relinquish not only
goods and children, but life itself for the glory of his Redeemer.
Therefore I am resolved to sacrifice everything in this transitory world for
the sake of salvation in a world that will last to eternity.
The Lords of Venice likewise sent him word that if he would embrace the Roman
Catholic religion, they would not only give him his life, but redeem a
considerable estate which he had mortgaged, and freely present him with it.
This, however, he absolutely refused to comply with, sending word to the nobles
that he valued his soul beyond all other considerations.
And being told that a fellow-prisoner named Francis Segar had recounted,
he answered, If he is forsaken God, I pity him, but I shall continue steadfast
in my duty.
Finding all endeavours to persuade him to renounce his faith ineffectual,
he was executed according to his sentence, dying cheerfully, and recommending his
soul fervently to the Almighty.
What Ricchetti had been told concerning the apostasy of Francis Segar was
absolutely false, for he had never offered to recant, but steadfastly persisted in
his faith, and was executed a few days after Ricchetti in the very same manner.
Francis Spinola, a Protestant gentleman of very great learning, being apprehended by
order of the Inquisitors, was carried before their tribunal.
A treatise on the Lord's Supper was then put into his hands, and he was asked if he
knew the author of it, to which he replied, I confess myself to be the author
of it, and at the same time solemnly affirm that there is not a line in it but
what is authorised by and consonant to the Holy Scriptures.
On this confession he was committed close prisoner to a dungeon for several days.
Being brought to a second examination, he charged the Pope's Legate and the
Inquisitors with being merciless barbarians, and then represented the
superstitions and idolatries practised by the Church of Rome in so glaring a light
that, not being able to refute his arguments, they sent him back to his
dungeon to make him repent of what he had said.
On his third examination they asked him if he would recant his error, to which he
answered that the doctrines he maintained were not erroneous, being purely the same
as those which Christ and his apostles had taught, and which were handed down to us
in the sacred writings.
The Inquisitors then sentenced him to be drowned, which was executed in the manner
already described.
He went to meet death with the utmost serenity, seemed to wish for dissolution,
and declaring that the prolongation of his life did but tend to retard that real
happiness which could only be expected in the world to come.
An account of several remarkable individuals who were martyred in different
parts of Italy, on account of their religion.
John Mollius was born at Rome of reputable parents.
At twelve years of age they placed him in the monastery of Grey Friars, where he
made such a rapid progress in arts, sciences and languages that at eighteen
years of age he was permitted to take priest's orders.
He was then sent to Ferrara, where, after pursuing his studies six years
longer, he was made theological reader in the university of that city.
He now unhappily exerted his great talents to disguise the gospel truths and to
varnish over the error of the Church of Rome.
After some years' residence in Ferrara, he removed to the University of Bologna,
where he became a professor.
Having read some treatises written by ministers of the Reformed religion,
he grew fully sensible of the errors of popery and soon became a zealous
Protestant in his heart.
He now determined to expound, according to the purity of the gospel, St. Paul's
epistle to the Romans in a regular course of sermons.
The concourse of people that continually attended his preaching was surprising,
but when the priests found the tenor of his doctrines, they dispatched an account
of the affair to Rome, when the Pope sent a monk named Cornelius to Bologna to
expound the same epistle, according to the tenets of the Church of Rome.
The people, however, found such a disparity between the two preachers that
the audience of Mollius increased, and Cornelius was forced to preach to
empty benches.
Cornelius wrote an account of his bad success to the Pope, who immediately sent
an order to apprehend Mollius, who was seized upon accordingly and kept
in close confinement.
The Bishop of Bologna sent him word that he must recant or be burnt, but he
appealed to Rome and was removed thither.
At Rome he begged to have a public trial, but that the Pope absolutely denied him,
and commanded him to give an account of his opinions in writing, which he did
under the following heads.
Original sin, free will, the infallibility of the Church of Rome, the infallibility
of the Pope, justification by faith, purgatory, transubstantiation,
mass, auricular confession, prayers for the dead, the host, prayers for saints,
going on pilgrimages, extreme unction, performing services in an unknown tongue,
etc.
All these he confirmed from Scripture authority.
The Pope, upon this occasion, for political reasons, spared him for the
present, but soon after had him apprehended and put to death, he first
being hanged, and his body burnt to ashes, A.D.
1553.
The year after, Francis Gamber, a Lombard of the Protestant persuasion,
was apprehended and condemned to death by the Senate of Milan.
At the place of execution a monk presented a cross to him, to whom he said,
My mind is so full of the real merits and goodness of Christ, that I want not a
piece of senseless stick to put me in mind of him.
For this expression his tongue was bored through, and he was afterward burnt.
A.D.
1555, Algerius, a student in the University of Padua and a man of great
learning, having embraced the reformed religion, did all he could to convert
others.
For these proceedings he was accused of heresy to the Pope, and being apprehended
was committed to the prison at Venice.
The Pope, being informed of Algerius' great learning and surprising natural
abilities, thought it would be of infinite service to the Church of Rome if he could
induce him to forsake the Protestant cause.
He therefore sent for him to Rome, and tried by the most profane promises to
win him to his purpose, but finding his endeavours ineffectual he ordered him to
be burnt, which sentence was executed accordingly.
A.D.
1559, John Aloysius, being sent from Geneva to preach in Calabria, was there
apprehended as a Protestant, carried to Rome, and burnt by order of the Pope,
and James Bovilius for the same reason was burnt at Messina.
A.D.
1560, Pope Pius IV ordered all the Protestants to be severely persecuted
throughout the Italian states, when great numbers of every age,
sex, and condition suffered martyrdom.
Concerning the cruelties practised upon this occasion, a learned and humane Roman
Catholic thus spoke of them in a letter to a noble lord.
I cannot, my lord, forbear disclosing my sentiments with regard to the persecution
now carrying on.
I think it cruel and unnecessary.
I tremble at the manner of putting to death, as it resembles more the slaughter
of calves and sheep than the execution of human beings.
I will relate to your lordship a dreadful scene of which I was myself an eyewitness.
Seventy Protestants were cooped up in one filthy dungeon together.
The executioner went in among them, picked out one from among the rest,
blindfolded him, led him out to an open place before the prison, and cut his
throat with the greatest composure.
He then calmly walked into the prison again, bloody as he was, and with the
knife in his hand selected another and dispatched him in the same manner.
And this, my lord, he repeated until the whole number were put to death.
I leave it to your lordship's feelings to judge of my sensations upon this occasion.
My tears now wash the paper upon which I give you the recital.
Another thing I must mention, the patience with which they met death.
They seemed all resignation and piety, fervently praying to God and cheerfully
encountering their fate.
I cannot reflect without shuddering how the executioner held the bloody knife
between his teeth, what a dreadful figure he appeared, all covered with blood,
and with what unconcern he executed his barbarous office.
A young Englishman, who happened to be at Rome, was one day passing by a church when
the procession of the host was just coming out.
A bishop carried the host, which the young man perceiving he snatched it from him,
threw it upon the ground, and trampled it under his feet, crying out, Ye wretched
idolaters, who neglect the true God to adore a morsel of bread.
This action so provoked the people that they would have torn him to pieces on the
spot, but the priests persuaded them to let him abide by the sentence of the Pope.
When the affair was represented to the Pope, he was so greatly exasperated that
he ordered the prisoner to be burnt immediately, but a cardinal dissuaded him
from this hasty sentence, saying that it was better to punish him by slow degrees
and to torture him, that they might find out if he had been instigated by any
particular person to commit so atrocious an act.
This being approved, he was tortured with the most exemplary severity,
notwithstanding which they could only get these words from him, It was the will of
God that I should do as I did.
The Pope then passed this sentence upon him, That he should be led by the
executioner naked to the middle through the streets of Rome, that he should wear
the image of the devil upon his head, that his britches should be painted with
the representation of flames, that he should have his right hand cut off,
that after having been carried about thus in procession he should be burnt.
When he heard this sentence pronounced he implored God to give him strength and
fortitude to go through it.
As he passed through the streets he was greatly derided by the people,
to whom he said some severe things respecting the Romish superstition,
but a cardinal who attended the procession overhearing him ordered him to be gagged.
When he came to the church doorway he trampled on the host, the hangman cut off
his right hand and fixed it on a pole, then two tormentors with flaming torches
scorched and burnt his flesh all the rest of the way.
At the place of execution he kissed the chains that were to bind him to the stake,
a monk presenting the figure of a saint to him he struck it aside, and then being
chained to the stake fire was put to the faggots and he was soon burnt to ashes.
A little after the last mentioned execution a venerable old man who had long
been a prisoner in the Inquisition was condemned to be burnt and brought out for
execution.
When he was fastened to the stake a priest held a crucifix to him, on which he said
if you do not take that idol from my sight you will constrain me to spit upon it.
The priest rebuked him for this with great severity, but he bade him remember the
first and second commandments and refrain from idolatry as God himself had
commanded.
He was then gagged that he should not speak any more, and fire being put to the
faggots he suffered martyrdom in the flames.
An Account of the Persecutions in the Marquisate of Salouse The Marquisate of
Salouse, on the south side of the valleys of Piedmont, was in A.D.
1561 principally inhabited by Protestants, when the Marquis, who was proprietor of
it, began a persecution against them at the instigation of the Pope.
He began by banishing the ministers, and if any of them refused to leave their
flocks they were sure to be imprisoned and severely tortured, however he did not
proceed so far as to put any to death.
Soon after the Marquisate fell into the possession of the Duke of Savoy,
who sent circular letters to all the towns and villages that he expected the people
should all conform to go to mass.
The inhabitants of Salouse, upon receiving this letter, returned a general epistle in
answer.
The Duke, after reading the letter, did not interrupt the Protestants for some
time, but at length he sent them word that they must either conform to the mass,
or leave his dominions in fifteen days.
The Protestants, upon this unexpected edict, sent a deputy to the Duke to obtain
its revocation, or at least to have it moderated, but their remonstrances were in
vain, and they were given to understand that the edict was absolute.
Some were weak enough to go to mass in order to avoid banishment and preserve
their property, others removed with all their effects to different countries,
and many neglected the time so long that they were obliged to abandon all they were
worth and leave the Marquisate in haste.
Those who unhappily stayed behind were seized, plundered, and put to death.
An Account of the Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont in the Seventeenth
Century.
Pope Clement VIII sent missionaries into the valleys of Piedmont to induce the
Protestants to renounce their religion, and these missionaries, having erected
monasteries in several parts of the valleys, became exceedingly troublesome to
those of the Reformed, where the monasteries appeared not only as
fortresses to curb, but as sanctuaries for all such to fly to as had any ways injured
them.
The Protestants petitioned the Duke of Savoy against these missionaries,
whose insolence and ill usage were become intolerable, but instead of getting any
redress, the interest of the missionaries so far prevailed, that the Duke published
a decree in which he declared that one witness should be sufficient in a court of
law against a Protestant, and that any witness who convicted a Protestant of any
crime whatever should be entitled to one hundred crowns.
It may be easily imagined, upon the publication of a decree of this nature,
that many Protestants fell martyrs to perjury and avarice, for several
villainous papists would swear anything against the Protestants for the sake of
the reward, and then fly to their own priests for absolution from their false
oaths.
If any Roman Catholic of more conscience than the rest blamed these fellows for
their atrocious crimes, they themselves were in danger of being informed against
and punished as favourers of heretics.
The missionaries did all they could to get the books of the Protestants into their
hands in order to burn them, when the Protestants, doing their utmost endeavours
to conceal their books, the missionaries wrote to the Duke of Savoy, who,
for the heinous crime of not surrendering their Bibles, prayer-books, and religious
treatises, sent a number of troops to be quartered on them.
These military gentry did great mischief in the houses of the Protestants,
and destroyed such quantities of provisions that many families were thereby
ruined.
To encourage as much as possible the apostasy of the Protestants, the Duke of
Savoy published a proclamation wherein he said, To encourage the heretics to turn
Catholics, it is our will and pleasure, and we do hereby expressly command,
that all such as shall embrace the holy Roman Catholic faith shall enjoy an
exemption from all and every tax for the space of five years, commencing from the
day of their conversion.
The Duke of Savoy likewise established a court called the Council for Extirpating
the Heretics.
This court was to enter into inquiries concerning the ancient privileges of the
Protestant churches, and the decrees which had been from time to time made in favour
of the Protestants.
But the investigation of these things was carried on with a most manifest
partiality.
Old charters were wrested to a wrong sense, and sophistry was used to pervert
the meaning of everything which tended to favour the reformed.
As if these severities were not sufficient, the Duke soon after published
another edict, in which he strictly commanded that no Protestant should act as
a schoolmaster or tutor, either in public or private, or dare to teach any art,
science or language, directly or indirectly, to persons of any persuasion
whatever.
This edict was immediately followed by another, which decreed that no Protestant
should hold any place of profit, trust or honour, and to wind up the whole,
the certain token of an approaching persecution came forth, in a final edict,
by which it was positively ordered that all Protestants should diligently attend
Mass.
The publication of an edict containing such an injunction may be compared to
unfurling the bloody flag, for murder and rapine were sure to follow.
One of the first objects that attracted the notice of the Papists was Mr.
Sebastian Bassan, a zealous Protestant who was seized by the missionaries,
confined, tormented for 15 months and then burned.
Previous to the persecution, the missionaries employed kidnappers to steal
away the Protestants' children, that they might privately be brought up
Roman Catholics.
But now they took away the children by open force, and if they met with any
resistance, they murdered the parents.
To give greater vigour to the persecution, the Duke of Savoy called a general
assembly of the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry, when a solemn edict was
published against the Reformed, containing many heads and including
several reasons for extirpating the Protestants, among which were the
following.
One, for the preservation of the papal authority.
Two, that the church livings may be all under one mode of government.
Three, to make a union among all parties.
Four, in honour of all the saints and of the ceremonies of the Church of Rome.
This severe edict was followed by a most cruel order published on January 25,
A.D.
1655, under the Duke's sanction, by Andrew Gastaldo, Doctor of Civil Laws.
This order set forth that every head of a family, with the individuals of that
family, of the Reformed religion, of what rank, degree or condition soever,
none excepted inhabiting and possessing estates in Lucerne, San Giovanni,
Bibiana, Campiglione, San Secondo, Lucerneta, La Torre, Feneli and
Bricherasio, should within three days after the publication thereof,
withdraw and depart, and be withdrawn out of the said places, and translated into
the places and limits tolerated by His Highness during his pleasure, particularly
Bobbio, Angrogne, Villario, Rurata and the County of Bonetti.
And all is to be done on pain of death and confiscation of house and goods,
unless within the limited time they turned Roman Catholics.
A flight, with such speed, in the midst of winter, may be conceived as no agreeable
task, especially in a country almost surrounded by mountains.
The sudden order affected all, and things which would have been scarcely
noticed at another time now appeared in the most conspicuous light.
Women with child, or women just lain in, were not objects of pity on this order for
sudden removal, for all were included in the command, and it unfortunately happened
that the winter was remarkably severe and rigorous.
The Papists, however, drove the people from their habitations at the time
appointed, without even suffering them to have sufficient clothes to cover them,
and many perished in the mountains through the severity of the weather or for want of
food.
Some, however, who remained behind after the decree was published, met with the
severest treatment, being murdered by the Popish inhabitants, or shot by the troops
who were quartered in the valleys.
A particular description of these cruelties is given in a letter written by
a Protestant who was upon the spot, and who happily escaped the carnage.