The king, thinking that he had been stimulated by some other person to

act as he had done, demanded who was his abetter, to which he replied,

My own conscience alone. I would not hazard what I have done for any man

living, but I owe that and all other services to God.

Gardiner was sent to prison, and a general order issued to apprehend all

Englishmen in Lisbon. This order was in a great measure put into

execution, (some few escaping) and many innocent persons were tortured

to make them confess if they knew any thing of the matter; in

particular, a person who resided in the same house with Gardiner, was

treated with unparallelled barbarity to make him confess something which

might throw a light upon the affair.

Gardiner himself was then tormented in the most excruciating manner; but

in the midst of all his torments he gloried in the deed. Being ordered

for death, a large fire was kindled near a gibbet, Gardiner was drawn up

to the gibbet by pulleys, and then let down near the fire, but not so

close as to touch it; for they burnt or rather roasted him by slow

degrees. Yet he bore his sufferings patiently and resigned his soul to

the Lord cheerfully.

It is observable that some of the sparks were blown from the fire,

(which consumed Gardiner) towards the haven, burnt one of the king's

ships of war, and did other considerable damage. The Englishmen who were

taken up on this occasion were, soon after Gardiner's death, all

discharged, except the person who resided in the same house with him,

who was detained two years before he could procure his liberty.

_An account of the Life and Sufferings of Mr. William Lithgow, a native

of Scotland._

This gentleman was descended from a good family, and having a natural

propensity for travelling, he rambled, when very young, over the

northern and western islands; after which he visited France, Germany,

Switzerland and Spain. He set out on his travels in the month of March,

1609, and the first place he went to was Paris, where he stayed for some

time. He then prosecuted his travels through Germany and other parts,

and at length arrived at Malaga, in Spain, the seat of all his

misfortunes.

During his residence here, he contracted with the master of a French

ship for his passage to Alexandria, but was prevented from going by the

following circumstances. In the evening of the 17th of October, 1620,

the English fleet, at that time on a cruise against the Algerine rovers,

came to anchor before Malaga, which threw the people of the town into

the greatest consternation, as they imagined them to be Turks. The

morning, however, discovered the mistake, and the governor of Malaga,

perceiving the cross of England in their colours, went on board Sir

Robert Mansell's ship, who commanded on that expedition, and after

staying some time returned, and silenced the fears of the people.

The next day many persons from on board the fleet came ashore. Among

these were several well known by Mr. Lithgow, who, after reciprocal

compliments, spent some days together in festivity and the amusements of

the town. They then invited Mr. Lithgow to go on board, and pay his

respects to the admiral. He accordingly accepted the invitation, was

kindly received by him, and detained till the next day when the fleet

sailed. The admiral would willingly have taken Mr. Lithgow with him to

Algiers; but having contracted for his passage to Alexandria, and his

baggage, &c. being in the town, he could not accept the offer.

As soon as Mr. Lithgow got on shore, he proceeded towards his lodgings

by a private way, (being to embark the same night for Alexandria) when,

in passing through a narrow uninhabited street, he found himself

suddenly surrounded by nine sergeants, or officers, who threw a black

cloak over him, and forcibly conducted him to the governor's house.

After some little time the governor appeared when Mr. Lithgow earnestly

begged he might be informed of the cause of such violent treatment. The

governor only answered by shaking his head, and gave orders that the

prisoner should be strictly watched till he (the governor) returned from

his devotions; directing at the same time, that the captain of the town,

the alcade major, and town notary, should be summoned to appear at his

examination, and that all this should he done with the greatest secrecy,

to prevent the knowledge thereof reaching the ears of the English

merchants then residing in the town.

These orders were strictly discharged, and on the governor's return, he,

with the officers, having seated themselves, Mr. Lithgow was brought

before them for examination. The governor began by asking several

questions, namely, of what country he was, whither bound, and how long

he had been in Spain. The prisoner, after answering these and other

questions, was conducted to a closet, where, in a short space of time,

he was visited by the town-captain, who inquired whether he had ever

been at Seville, or was lately come from thence; and patting his cheeks

with an air of friendship conjured him to tell the truth: "For (said he)

your very countenance shows there is some hidden matter in your mind,

which prudence should direct you to disclose." Finding himself, however,

unable to extort anything from the prisoner, he left him, and reported

the same to the governor and the other officers; on which Mr. Lithgow

was again brought before them, a general accusation was laid against

him, and he was compelled to swear that he would give true answers to

such questions as should be asked him.

The governor proceeded to inquire the quality of the English commander,

and the prisoner's opinion what were the motives that prevented his

accepting an invitation from him to come on shore. He demanded,

likewise, the names of the English captains in the squadron, and what

knowledge he had of the embarkation, or preparation for it before his

departure from England. The answers given to the several questions asked

were set down in writing by the notary; but the junto seemed surprised

at his denying any knowledge of the fitting out of the fleet,

particularly the governor, who said he lied that he was a traitor and a

spy, and came directly from England to favour and assist the designs

that were projected against Spain, and that he had been for that purpose

nine months in Seville, in order to procure intelligence of the time the

Spanish navy was expected from the Indies. They exclaimed against his

familiarity with the officers of the fleet, and many other English

gentlemen, between whom, they said, unusual civilities had passed, but

all these transactions had been carefully noticed.

Besides, to sum up the whole, and put the truth past all doubt, they

said, he came from a council of war, held that morning on board the

admiral's ship, in order to put in execution the orders assigned him.

They upbraided him with being accessary to the burning of the island of

St. Thomas, in the West Indies. "Wherefore, (said they) these

Lutherans, and sons of the devil, ought to have no credit given to what

they say or swear."

In vain did Mr. Lithgow, endeavour to obviate every accusation laid

against him, and to obtain belief from his prejudiced judges. He begged

permission to send for his cloak-bag, which contained his papers, and

might serve to show his innocence. This request they complied with,

thinking it would discover some things of which they were ignorant. The

cloak-bag was accordingly brought, and being opened, among other things,

was found a license from king James the First, under the sign manuel,

setting forth the bearer's intention to travel into Egypt; which was

treated by the haughty Spaniards with great contempt. The other papers

consisted of passports, testimonials, &c. of persons of quality. All

these credentials, however, seemed rather to confirm than abate the

suspicions of these prejudiced judges, who, after seizing all the

prisoner's papers, ordered him again to withdraw.

In the mean time a consultation was held to fix the place where the

prisoner should be confined. The alcade, or chief judge, was for putting

him into the town prison; but this was objected to, particularly by the

corregidor, who said, in Spanish, "In order to prevent the knowledge of

his confinement from reaching his countrymen, I will take the matter on

myself, and be answerable for the consequences;" upon which it was

agreed, that he should be confined in the governor's house with the

greatest secrecy.

This matter being determined, one of the sergeants went to Mr. Lithgow,

and begged his money, with liberty to search him. As it was needless to

make any resistance, the prisoner quietly complied, when the sergeant

(after rifling his pockets of eleven ducatoons) stripped him to his

shirt; and searching his breeches he found, enclosed in the waistband,

two canvass bags, containing one hundred and thirty-seven pieces of

gold. The sergeant immediately took the money to the corregidor, who,

after having told it over, ordered him to clothe the prisoner, and shut

him up close till after supper.

About midnight, the sergeant and two Turkish slaves released Mr. Lithgow

from his then confinement, but it was to introduce him to one much more

horrible. They conducted him through several passages, to a chamber in a

remote part of the palace, towards the garden, where they loaded him

with irons, and extended his legs by means of an iron bar above a yard

long, the weight of which was so great that he could neither stand nor

sit, but was obliged to lie continually on his back. They left him in

this condition for some time, when they returned with a refreshment of

food, consisting of a pound of boiled mutton and a loaf, together with a

small quantity of wine; which was not only the first, but the best and

last of the kind, during his confinement in this place. After delivering

these articles, the sergeant locked the door, and left Mr. Lithgow to

his own private contemplations.

The next day he received a visit from the governor, who promised him his

liberty, with many other advantages, if he would confess being a spy;

but on his protesting that he was entirely innocent, the governor left

him in a rage, saying, He should see him no more till farther torments

constrained him to confess, commanding the keeper, to whose care he was

committed, that he should permit no person whatever to have access to,

or commune with him; that his sustenance should not exceed three ounces

of musty bread, and a pint of water every second day; that he shall be

allowed neither bed, pillow, nor coverlid. "Close up (said he) this

window in his room with lime and stone, stop up the holes of the door

with double mats: let him have nothing that bears any likeness to

comfort." These, and several other orders of the like severity, were

given to render it impossible for his condition to be known to those of

the English nation.

In this wretched and melancholy state did poor Lithgow continue without

seeing any person for several days, in which time the governor received

an answer to a letter he had written, relative to the prisoner from

Madrid; and, pursuant to the instructions given him, began to put in

practice the cruelties devised, which they hastened, because Christmas

holy-days approached, it being then the forty-seventh day since his

imprisonment.

About two o'clock in the morning, he heard the noise of a coach in the

street, and some time after heard the opening of the prison doors, not

having had any sleep for two nights; hunger, pain, and melancholy

reflections having prevented him from taking any repose.

Soon after the prison doors were opened, the nine sergeants, who had

first seized him, entered the place where he lay, and without uttering a

word, conducted him in his irons through the house into the street,

where a coach waited, and into which they laid him at the bottom on his

back, not being able to sit. Two of the sergeants rode with him, and the

rest walked by the coach side, but all observed the most profound

silence. They drove him to a vinepress house, about a league from the

town, to which place a rack had been privately conveyed before; and here

they shut him up for that night.

At day-break the next morning, arrived the governor and the alcade, into

whose presence Mr. Lithgow was immediately brought to undergo another

examination. The prisoner desired he might have an interpreter, which

was allowed to strangers by the laws of that country, but this was

refused, nor would they permit him to appeal to Madrid, the superior

court of judicature. After a long examination, which lasted from morning

till night, there appeared in all his answers so exact a conformity with

what he had before said, that they declared he had learned them by

heart, there not being the least prevarication. They, however, pressed

him again to make a full discovery; that is, to accuse himself of crimes

never committed, the governor adding, "You are still in my power; I can

set you free if you comply, if not, I must deliver you to the alcade."

Mr. Lithgow still persisting in his innocence, the governor ordered the

notary to draw up a warrant for delivering him to the alcade to be

tortured.

In consequence of this he was conducted by the sergeants to the end of a

stone gallery, where the rack was placed. The encarouador or

executioner, immediately struck off his irons, which put him to very

great pains, the bolts being so close riveted, that the sledge hammer

tore away half an inch of his heel, in forcing off the bolt; the anguish

of which, together with his weak condition, (not having the least

sustenance for three days) occasioned him to groan bitterly; upon which

the merciless alcade said, "Villain, traitor, this is but the earnest of

what you shall endure."

When his irons were off he fell on his knees, uttering a short prayer,

that God would be pleased to enable him to be steadfast, and undergo

courageously the grievous trial he had to encounter. The alcade and

notary having placed themselves in chairs, he was stripped naked, and

fixed upon the rack, the office of these gentlemen being to be witness

of, and set down the confessions and tortures endured by the delinquent.

It is impossible to describe all the various tortures inflicted upon

him. Suffice it to say, that he lay on the rack for above five hours,

during which time he received above sixty different tortures of the most

hellish nature; and had they continued them a few minutes longer, he

must have inevitably perished.

These cruel persecutors being satisfied for the present, the prisoner

was taken from the rack, and his irons being again put on, he was

conducted to his former dungeon, having received no other nourishment

than a little warm wine, which was given him rather to prevent his

dying, and reserve him for future punishments, than from any principle

of charity or compassion.

As a confirmation of this, orders were given for a coach to pass every

morning before day by the prison, that the noise made by it might give

fresh terrors and alarms to the unhappy prisoner, and deprive him of all

possibility of obtaining the least repose.

He continued in this horrid situation, almost starved for want of the

common necessaries to preserve his wretched existence, till Christmas

day, when he received some relief from Mariane, waiting-woman to the

governor's lady. This woman having obtained leave to visit him, carried

with her some refreshments, consisting of honey, sugar, raisins, and

other articles: and so affected was she at beholding his situation, that

she wept bitterly, and at her departure expressed the greatest concern

at not being able to give him further assistance.

In this loathsome prison was poor Mr. Lithgow kept till he was almost

devoured by vermin. They crawled about his beard, lips, eye-brows, &c.

so that he could scarce open his eyes; and his mortification was

increased by not having the use of his hands or legs to defend himself,

from his being so miserably maimed by the tortures. So cruel was the

governor, that he even ordered the vermin to be swept on him twice in

every eight days. He, however obtained some little mitigation of this

part of his punishment, from the humanity of a Turkish slave that

attended him, who, when he could do it with safety, destroyed the

vermin, and contributed every refreshment to him that laid in his power.

From this slave Mr. Lithgow at length received information which gave

him little hopes of ever being released, but, on the contrary, that he

should finish his life under new tortures. The substance of this

information was, that an English seminary priest, and a Scotch cooper,

had been for some time employed by the governor to translate from the

English into the Spanish language, all his books and observations; and

that it was commonly said in the governor's house, that he was an arch

heretic.

This information greatly alarmed him, and he began, not without reason,

to fear that they would soon finish him, more especially as they could

neither by torture or any other means, bring him to vary from what he

had all along said at his different examinations.

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 or 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 any way molested by them on account of

diversity in religion, &c. 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, 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 Loretto 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 Loretto, 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, it was not consistent with the nature and essence of

religion and charity to convince by opprobrious speeches, racks, 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, &c. boasted greatly of their

church, her antiquity, universality, and uniformity; all 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 Grenada, 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 victuals, 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 Grenada to

Malaga, who being invited to an entertainment by the governor, he

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 painted

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 enquired for an English factor. He was directed to the house of a

Mr. Wild, to whom he related the whole of what he had heard pass, the

preceding evening, between his master and the governor; but could not

tell Mr. Lithgow's name. Mr. Wild, however, conjectured it was him, by

the servant's remembering the circumstance of his being a traveller, and

his having had some acquaintance with him.

On the departure of the Flemish servant, Mr. Wild immediately sent for

the other English factors, to whom he related all the particulars

relative to their unfortunate countryman. 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, he

obtained an order for Mr. Lithgow's enlargement, and his delivery to the

English factory. 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. Bosbich, 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 Mansel, who ordered that he should

have proper care taken of him. The factory presented him with clothes,

and all necessary provisions, besides which they gave him 200 reals in

silver; and Sir Richard Hawkins sent him two double pistoles.

Before his departure from the Spanish coast, Sir Richard Hawkins

demanded the delivery of his papers, money, books, &c. 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 Grenada, and burnt 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 weighed anchor, and in

about two months arrived safe at Deptford. The next morning, Mr. Lithgow

was carried on a feather bed to Theobalds, 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 every effort was used, Mr. Lithgow could never obtain

any part of his money or effects, though 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 L1000 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

though 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.

_Croly on the Inquisition._

We shall conclude this chapter with the subjoined extract from the New

Interpretation of the Apocalypse by the Rev. George Croly.

In our fortunate country, the power of the Romish church has so long

perished, that we find some difficulty in conceiving the nature, and

still more in believing the tyranny of its dominion. The influence of

the monks and the murders of the inquisition have passed into a nursery

tale; and we turn with a generous, yet rash and most unjustifiable

scepticism from the history of Romish authority.

Through almost the entire of Italy, through the Flemish dominions of

Germany, through a large portion of France, and through the entire of

Spain, a great monastic body was established, which, professing a

secondary and trivial obedience to the sovereign, gave its first and

real obedience to the pope. The name of spiritual homage cloaked the

high treason of an oath of allegiance to a foreign monarch; and whoever

might be king of France, or Spain, the pope was king of the Dominicans.

All the other monastic orders were so many papal outposts. But the great

Dominican order, immensely opulent in its pretended poverty; formidably

powerful in its hypocritical disdain of earthly influence; and

remorselessly ambitious, turbulent, and cruel in its primitive zeal; was

an actual lodgment and province of the papacy, an inferior Rome, in the

chief European kingdoms.

In the closest imitation of Rome, this spiritual power had fiercely

assumed the temporal sword; the inquisition was army, revenues, and

throne in one. With the racks and fires of a tribunal worthy of the gulf

of darkness and guilt from which it rose, the Dominicans bore popery in

triumph through christendom, crushing every vestige of religion under

the wheels of its colossal idol. The subjugation of the Albigenses in

1229 had scattered the church; the shock of the great military masses

was past; a subtler and more active force was required to destroy the

wandering people of God; and the inquisition multiplied itself for the

work of death. This terrible tribunal set every principle, and even

every form of justice at defiance. Secrecy, that confounds innocence

with guilt, was the spirit of its whole proceeding. All its steps were

in darkness. The suspected revolter from popery was seized in secret,

tried in secret, never suffered to see the face of accuser, witness,

advocate, or friend, was kept unacquainted with the charge, was urged to

criminate himself; if tardy, was compelled to this self-murder by the

rack; if terrified, was only the more speedily murdered for the sport of

the multitude. From the hour of his seizure he never saw the face of

day, until he was brought out as a public show, a loyal and festal

sacrifice, to do honor to the entrance of some travelling viceroy, some

new married princess, or, on more fortunate occasions, to the presence

of the sovereign. The dungeons were then drained, the human wreck of the

torture and scourge were gathered out of darkness, groups of misery and

exhaustion with wasted forms and broken limbs, and countenances subdued

by pain and famine into idiotism, and despair, and madness; to feed the

fires round which the Dominicans were chanting the glories of popery,

and exulting in the destruction of the body for the good of the soul!

In the original establishment of the inquisition in 1198, it had raged

against the Vaudois and their converts. But the victims were exhausted;

or not worth the pursuit of a tribunal which looked to the wealth as

keenly as to the faith of the persecuted. Opulence and heresy were at

length to be found only to Spain, and there the inquisition turned with

a gigantic step. In the early disturbances of the Peninsula, the Jews,

by those habits of trade, and mutual communion, which still make them

the lords of commerce, had acquired the chief wealth of the country. The

close of the Moorish war in the 15th century had left the Spanish

monarch at leisure for extortion; and he grasped at the Jewish gains in

the spirit of a robber, as he pursued his plunder with the cruelty of a

barbarian. The inquisition was the great machine, the comprehensive

torturer, ready to squeeze out alike the heart and the gold. In 1481, an

edict was issued against the Jews; before the end of the year, in the

single diocess of Cadiz, two thousand Jews were burnt alive! The fall of

the kingdom of Grenada, in 1492, threw the whole of the Spanish Moors

into the hands of the king. They were cast into the same furnace of

plunder and torture. Desperate rebellions followed; they were defeated

and, in 1609, were finally exiled. "In the space of one hundred and

twenty nine years, the inquisition deprived Spain of three millions of

inhabitants."

On the death of Leo X. in 1521, Adrian, the inquisitor general was

elected pope. He had laid the foundation of his papal celebrity in

Spain. "It appears, according to the most moderate calculation, that

during the five years of the ministry of Adrian, 24,025 persons were

condemned by the inquisition, of whom one thousand six hundred and

twenty were burned alive."

It is the constant sophism of those who would cast christianity bound

hand and foot at the mercy of her enemies, that the pope desires to

exercise no interference in the internal concerns of kingdoms; that, if

he had the desire, he has not the power; and that, if he possessed the

power, he would be resisted by the whole body of the national clergy.

For the exposure of this traitorous delusion, we are to look to the

times, when it was the will of popery to put forth its strength; not to

the present, when it is its will to lull us into a belief of its

consistency with the constitution, in defiance of common sense, common

experience, the spirit of British law, and the loud warnings of insulted

and hazarded religion.

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, till within these few years, fed with

many an agony. South America was partitioned into provinces of the

inquisition; and with a ghastly mimickry of the crimes of the mother

state, the arrivals of viceroys, and the other popular celebrations were

thought imperfect without an auto de fe. 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 list 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

the 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 has sworn that "He who leadeth into captivity, shall go into

captivity: and he that killeth with the sword shall be killed by the

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 VI.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTION IN ITALY, UNDER THE PAPACY.

We shall now enter on an account of the persecutions in Italy, a country

which has been, and still is,

1. The centre of popery.

2. The seat of the pontiff.

3. 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,

1. By the immediate power of the pope.

2. Through the power of the inquisition.

3. At the instigation of particular orders of the clergy.

4. By the bigotry of the Italian princes.

In the 12th 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 Brixia, 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, 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, Frederic 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.

Encenas, a Spaniard, was sent to Rome, to be brought up in the Roman

catholic faith; but having conversed with some of the reformed, and read

several treatises which they had 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 Encenas 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.

Faninus, 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, till he had returned

from his apostacy, 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

recant 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 Faninus 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

Faninus replied; Christ sustained all manner of pangs and conflicts,

with hell and death, on our accounts; and thus, by his sufferings, freed

those who really believe in him from the fear of them. He was then

strangled, and his body being burnt to ashes, they were 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. At the conclusion of his sermon one day, he said, "If the

congregation will attend to-morrow, I will give them a description of

Anti-christ, 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, 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 from his faith, and embrace the errors of

the church of Rome; but when persuasions and menaces were found

ineffectual, he was sentenced to death, and hanged in the market-place.

Galeacius, a protestant gentleman, who resided near the castle of St.

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 burnt, 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. Galeacius, 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 Galeacius 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 14th century, many of the Waldenses of Pragela and Dauphiny,

emigrated to Calabria, and settling some waste lands, 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.

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, Pius 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 authorized persons came to St. Xist,

one of the towns built by the Waldenses, and having assembled the people

told them, that they should receive no injury or violence, 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. Xist, instead of attending mass, fled into the woods,

with their families, and thus disappointed the cardinal and his

coadjutors. The cardinal then proceeded to La Garde, the other town

belonging to the Waldenses, where, not to be served as he had been at

St. Xist, he ordered the gates to be locked, and all avenues guarded.

The same proposals were then made to the inhabitants of La Garde, as had

previously been offered to those of St. Xist, but with this additional

piece of artifice: the cardinal assured them that the inhabitants of St.

Xist had immediately come into his proposals, and agreed that the pope

should appoint them preachers. This falsehood succeeded; for the people

of La Garde, thinking what the cardinal had told them to be the truth,

said they would exactly follow the example of their brethren at St.

Xist.

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, despatched the soldiers into the woods, to hunt down

the inhabitants of St. Xist 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 rencontres, 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. Xist, and continuing under arms till 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. Xist 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, but 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 non-compliance.

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 30 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 tortures; 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 30 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 quite 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 Butane 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, viz., 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, viz.

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 Romish clergy not only do torture the bodies and

seize the effects of those they persecute, but take the lives, torment

the minds, and, if possible, would tyrannize over the souls of the

unhappy victims.

_Account of the Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont._

Many of the Waldenses, 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 Waldenses

of the valleys of Piedmont were heretics, for these reasons:

1. That they did not believe in the doctrines of the church of Rome.

2. That they made no offerings or prayers for the dead.

3. That they did not go to mass.

4. That they did not confess, and receive absolution.

5. 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 till he expired.

At Revel, 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, till 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 the seventh, 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 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, an 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

characters 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 those people;

affirming, before the faces of the priests who villified 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 priests

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 are 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 priests, 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 every one 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 the third, 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 Roman catholic,

but having read some treatises written by the reformed clergy, he 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 Jeffery Varnagle, minister of Angrogne, 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 tranquility, 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 rooted out the Waldenses from the valleys of 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, &c.

These 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, viz. 1. 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. 2. Corbis, a man of a very ferocious and cruel nature, whose

business was to examine the prisoners.--3. 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 in 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 lands 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, &c.

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 St. 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, &c. He was kept a considerable time in prison, and then fastened

to the stake to be burnt; when two women of the Waldenses, who had

renounced their religion to save their lives, were ordered to carry

fagots to the stake to burn him; and as they laid them down, to say,

Take these, thou wicked heretic, in recompense 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 fagots, 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 St. Germain, murdering and plundering many of the

inhabitants, the reformed of Lucerne and Angrogne, sent some bands of

armed men to the assistance of their brethren of St. 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, till 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; ordered the bands of ruffians,

belonging to the monks, should 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 quitting 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 grand-daughter, 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 Dauphiny and Pragela. 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 pretences. 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 death-bed 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 1512 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, Anthony Ricetti, 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 recant, that his wife 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 every thing 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 Sega, had recanted, he

answered, if he has 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 Ricetti had been told concerning the apostacy of Francis Sega, was

absolutely false, for he had never offered to recant, but steadfastly

persisted in his faith, and was executed, a few days after Ricetti, 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 authorized 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 errors!

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 Gray 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 errors of the church of Rome. After some

years residence in Ferrara, he removed to the university of Bononia,

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, accordingly 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

despatched an account of the affair to Rome; when the pope sent a monk,

named Cornelius, to Bononia, 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 Bononia 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 service in an unknown tongue, &c. &c.

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 being first hanged, and

his body burnt to ashes, A. D. 1553.

The year after, Francis Gamba, 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 afterwards 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's 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 Alloysius, 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 Bovellus, for the same reason, was

burnt at Messina.

A. D. 1560, pope Pius the Fourth, 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 respect 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

eye-witness: 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 despatched him in the same manner; and

this, my lord, he repeated till 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, 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.

1. That he should be led by the executioner, naked to the middle,

through the streets of Rome.

2. That he should wear the image of the devil upon his head.

3. That his breeches should be painted with the representation of

flames.

4. That he should have his right hand cut off.

5. 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 door, where 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 fagots, 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 fagots, he suffered martyrdom in the flames.

_An Account of the Persecutions in the Marquisate of Saluces._

The Marquisate of Saluces, 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 then 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 Saluces, 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 staid behind, were seized, plundered, and

put to death.

_An Account of the Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont, in the

Seventeenth Century._

Pope Clement the eighth, 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 villanous papists would swear any thing 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 apostacy 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

the most manifest partiality; old charters were wrested to a wrong

sense, and sophistry was used to pervert the meaning of every thing,

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 Basan, a zealous protestant, who was seized

by the missionaries, confined, tormented for fifteen months, and then

burnt.

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, 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:

1. For the preservation of the papal authority.

2. That the church livings may be all under one mode of government.

3. To make a union among all parties.

4. 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 soevor, none excepted inhabiting and

possessing estates in Lucerne, St. Giovanni, Bibiana, Campiglione, St.

Secondo, Lucernetta, La Torre, Fenile, and Bricherassio, 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, Angrogna, Villaro, Rorata, and the county of Bonetti.

"And all this 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

rigourous.

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. "The army (says he) having got footing,

became very numerous, by the addition of a multitude of the neighbouring

popish inhabitants, who finding we were the destined prey of the

plunderers, fell upon us with an impetuous fury. Exclusive of the duke

of Savoy's troops, and the popish inhabitants, there were several

regiments of French auxiliaries, some companies belonging to the Irish

brigades, and several bands formed of outlaws, smugglers, and prisoners,

who had been promised pardon and liberty in this world, and absolution

in the next, for assisting to exterminate the protestants from Piedmont.

"This armed multitude being encouraged by the Roman catholic bishops and

monks, fell upon the protestants in a most furious manner. Nothing now

was to be seen but the face of horror and despair, blood stained the

floors of the houses, dead bodies bestrewed the streets, groans and

cries were heard from all parts. Some armed themselves, and skirmished

with the troops; and many, with their families, fled to the mountains.

In one village they cruelly tormented 150 women and children after the

men were fled, beheading the women, and dashing out the brains of the

children. In the towns of Villaro and Bobbio, most of those who refused

to go to mass, who were upwards of fifteen years of age, they crucified

with their heads downwards; and the greatest number of those who were

under that age were strangled."

Sarah Rastignole des Vignes, a woman of 60 years of age, being seized by

some soldiers, they ordered her to say a prayer to some saints, which

she refusing, they thrust a sickle into her belly, ripped her up, and

then cut off her head.

Martha Constantine, a handsome young woman, was treated with great

indecency and cruelty by several of the troops, who first ravished, and

then killed her, by cutting off her breasts. These they fried, and set

before some of their comrades, who ate them without knowing what they

were. When they had done eating, the others told them what they had made

a meal of, in consequence of which a quarrel ensued, swords were drawn,

and a battle took place. Several were killed in the fray, the greater

part of whom were those concerned in the horrid massacre of the woman,

and who had practised such an inhuman deception on their companions.

Some of the soldiers seized a man of Thrassiniere, and ran the points of

their swords through his ears, and through his feet. They then tore off

the nails of his fingers and toes with red-hot pincers, tied him to the

tail of an ass, and dragged him about the streets; and, finally fastened

a cord round his head, which they twisted with a stick in so violent a

manner as to wring it from his body.

Peter Symonds, a protestant, of about eighty years of age, was tied neck

and heels, and then thrown down a precipice. In the fall the branch of a

tree caught hold of the ropes that fastened him, and suspended him in

the midway, so that he languished for several days, and at length

miserably perished of hunger.

Esay Garcino, refusing to renounce his religion, was cut into small

pieces; the soldiers, in ridicule, saying, they had minced him. A woman,

named Armand, had every limb separated from each other, and then the

respective parts were hung upon a hedge. Two old women were ripped open,

and then left in the fields upon the snow where they perished; and a

very old woman, who was deformed, had her nose and hands cut off, and

was left, to bleed to death in that manner.

A great number of men, women, and children, were flung from the rocks,

and dashed to pieces. Magdalen Bertino, a protestant woman of La Torre,

was stripped stark naked, her head tied between her legs, and thrown

down one of the precipices; and Mary Raymondet, of the same town, had

the flesh sliced from her bones till she expired.

Magdalen Pilot, of Villaro, was cut to pieces in the cave of Castolus;

Ann Charboniere had one end of a stake thrust up her body; and the other

being fixed in the ground, she was left in that manner to perish, and

Jacob Perrin the elder, of the church of Villaro, and David, his

brother, were flayed alive.

An inhabitant of La Torre, named Giovanni Andrea Michialm, was

apprehended, with four of his children, three of them were hacked to

pieces before him, the soldiers asking him, at the death of every child,

if he would renounce his religion which he constantly refused. One of

the soldiers then took up the last and youngest by the legs, and putting

the same question to the father he replied as before, when the inhuman

brute dashed out the child's brains. The father, however, at the same

moment started from them, and fled: the soldiers fired after him, but

missed him; and he, by the swiftness of his heels, escaped, and hid

himself in the Alps.

_Further Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont, in the seventeenth

Century._

Giovanni Pelanchion, for refusing to turn papist, was tied by one leg to

the tail of a mule, and dragged through the streets of Lucerne, amidst

the acclamations of an inhuman mob, who kept stoning him, and crying

out, He is possessed with the devil, so that, neither stoning, nor

dragging him through the streets, will kill him, for the devil keeps him

alive. They then took him to the river side, chopped off his head, and

left that and his body unburied, upon the bank of the stream.

Magdalen, the daughter of Peter Fontaine, a beautiful child of ten years

of age, was ravished and murdered by the soldiers. Another girl of about

the same age, they roasted alive at Villa Nova; and a poor woman,

hearing the soldiers were coming toward her house, snatched up the

cradle in which her infant son was asleep, and fled toward the woods.

The soldiers, however, saw and pursued her, when she lightened herself

by putting down the cradle and child, which the soldiers no sooner came

to, than they murdered the infant, and continuing the pursuit, found the

mother in a cave, where they first ravished, and then cut her to pieces.

Jacob Michelino, chief elder of the church of Bobbio, and several other

protestants, were hung up by means of hooks fixed in their bellies and

left to expire in the most excruciating tortures.

Giovanni Rostagnal, a venerable protestant, upwards of fourscore years

of age, had his nose and ears cut off, and slices cut from the fleshy

parts of his body, till he bled to death.

Seven persons, viz. Daniel Seleagio and his wife, Giovanni Durant,

Lodwich Durant, Bartholomew Durant, Daniel Revel, and Paul Reynaud, had

their mouths stuffed with gunpowder, which being set fire to, their

heads were blown to pieces.

Jacob Birone, a schoolmaster of Rorata, for refusing to change his

religion, was stripped quite naked; and after having been very

indecently exposed, had the nails of his toes and fingers torn off with

red-hot pincers, and holes bored through his hands with the point of a

dagger. He then had a cord tied round his middle, and was led through

the streets with a soldier on each side of him. At every turning the

soldier on his right hand side cut a gash in his flesh, and the soldier

on his left hand side struck him with a bludgeon, both saying, at the

same instant, Will you go to mass? will you go to mass? He still replied

in the negative to these interrogatories, and being at length taken to

the bridge, they cut off his head on the balustrades, and threw both

that and his body into the river.

Paul Garnier, a very pious protestant, had his eyes put out, was then

flayed alive, and being divided into four parts, his quarters were

placed on four of the principal houses of Lucerne. He bore all his

sufferings with the most exemplary patience, praised God as long as he

could speak, and plainly evinced, what confidence and resignation a good

conscience can inspire.

Daniel Cardon, of Rocappiata, being apprehended by some soldiers, they

cut his head off, and having fried his brains, ate them. Two poor old

blind women, of St. Giovanni, were burnt alive; and a widow of La Torre,

with her daughter, were driven into the river, and there stoned to

death.

Paul Giles, on attempting to run away from some soldiers, was shot in

the neck: they then slit his nose, sliced his chin, stabbed him, and

gave his carcase to the dogs.

Some of the Irish troops having taken eleven men of Garcigliana

prisoners, they made a furnace red hot, and forced them to push each

other in till they came to the last man, whom they pushed in themselves.

Michael Gonet, a man of 90, was burnt to death; Baptista Oudri, another

old man, was stabbed; and Bartholomew Frasche had holes made in his

heels, through which ropes being put, he was dragged by them to the

jail, where his wounds mortified and killed him.

Magdalene de la Piere being pursued by some of the soldiers, and taken,

was thrown down a precipice, and dashed to pieces. Margaret Revella, and

Mary Pravillerin, two very old women, were burnt alive; and Michael

Bellino, with Ann Bochardno, were beheaded.

The son and daughter of a counsellor of Giovanni were rolled down a

steep hill together, and suffered to perish in a deep pit at the bottom.

A tradesman's family, viz: himself, his wife, and an infant in her arms,

were cast from a rock, and dashed to pieces; and Joseph Chairet, and

Paul Carniero, were flayed alive.

Cypriania Bustia, being asked if he would renounce his religion and turn

Roman catholic, replied, I would rather renounce life, or turn dog; to

which a priest answered, For that expression you shall both renounce

life, and be given to the dogs. They, accordingly, dragged him to

prison, where he continued a considerable time without food, till he was

famished; after which they threw his corpse into the street before the

prison, and it was devoured by dogs in the most shocking manner.

Margaret Saretta was stoned to death, and then thrown into the river;

Antonio Bartina had his head cleft asunder; and Joseph Pont was cut

through the middle of his body.

Daniel Maria, and his whole family, being ill of a fever, several papist

ruffians broke into his house, telling him they were practical

physicians, and would give them all present ease, which they did by

knocking the whole family on the head.

Three infant children of a protestant, named Peter Fine, were covered

with snow, and stifled; an elderly widow, named Judith, was beheaded,

and a beautiful young woman was stripped naked, and had a stake driven

through her body, of which she expired.

Lucy, the wife of Peter Besson, a woman far gone in her pregnancy, who

lived in one of the villages of the Piedmontese valleys, determined, if

possible, to escape from such dreadful scenes as every where surrounded

her: she, accordingly took two young children, one in each hand, and set

off towards the Alps. But on the third day of the journey she was taken

in labour among the mountains, and delivered of an infant, who perished

through the extreme inclemency of the weather, as did the two other

children; for all three were found dead by her, and herself just

expiring, by the person to whom she related the above particulars.

Francis Gros, the son of a clergyman, had his flesh slowly cut from his

body into small pieces, and put into a dish before him; two of his

children were minced before his sight; and his wife was fastened to a

post, that she might behold all these cruelties practised on her husband

and offspring. The tormentors, at length, being tired of exercising

their cruelties, cut off the heads of both husband and wife, and then

gave the flesh of the whole family to the dogs.

The sieur Thomas Margher fled to a cave, when the soldiers shut up the

mouth, and he perished with famine. Judith Revelin, with seven children,

were barbarously murdered in their beds; and a widow of near fourscore

years of age, was hewn to pieces by soldiers.

Jacob Roseno was ordered to pray to the saints, which he absolutely

refused to do: some of the soldiers beat him violently with bludgeons to

make him comply, but he still refusing, several of them fired at him and

lodged a great many balls in his body. As he was almost expiring, they

cried to him, Will you call upon the saints? Will you pray to the

saints? To which he answered, No! No! No! when one of the soldiers, with

a broad sword, clove his head asunder, and put an end to his sufferings

in this world; for which undoubtedly, he is gloriously rewarded in the

next.

A soldier, attempting to ravish a young woman, named Susanna Gacquin,

she made a stout resistance, and in the struggle pushed him over a

precipice, when he was dashed to pieces by the fall. His comrades,

instead of admiring the virtue of the young woman, and applauding her

for so nobly defending her chastity, fell upon her with their swords,

and cut her to pieces.

Giovanni Pulhus, a poor peasant of La Torre, being apprehended as a

protestant by the soldiers, was ordered, by the marquis of Pianesta, to

be executed in a place near the convent. When he came to the gallows,

several monks attended, and did all they could to persuade him to

renounce his religion. But he told them he never would embrace idolatry,

and that he was happy at being thought worthy to suffer for the name of

Christ. They then put him in mind of what his wife and children, who

depended upon his labour, would suffer after his decease; to which he

replied, I would have my wife and children, as well as myself, to

consider their souls more than their bodies, and the next world before

this; and with respect to the distress I may leave them in, God is

merciful, and will provide for them while they are worthy of his

protection. Finding the inflexibility of this poor man, the monks

cried,--Turn him off, turn him off, which the executioner did almost

immediately, and the body being afterward cut down, was flung into the

river.

Paul Clement, an elder of the church of Rossana, being apprehended by

the monks of a neighbouring monastery, was carried to the market-place

of that town, where some protestants having just been executed by the

soldiers, he was shown the dead bodies, in order that the sight might

intimidate him. On beholding the shocking subjects, he said, calmly, You

may kill the body, but you cannot prejudice the soul of a true believer;

but with respect to the dreadful spectacles which you have here shown

me, you may rest assured, that God's vengeance will overtake the

murderers of those poor people, and punish them for the innocent blood

they have spilt. The monks were so exasperated at this reply, that they

ordered him to be hung up directly; and while he was hanging, the

soldiers amused themselves in standing at a distance, and shooting at

the body as at a mark.

Daniel Rambaut, of Villaro, the father of a numerous family, was

apprehended, and, with several others, committed to prison, in the jail

of Paysana. Here he was visited by several priests, who with continual

importunities did all they could to persuade him to renounce the

protestant religion, and turn papist; but this he peremptorily refused,

and the priests finding his resolution, pretended to pity his numerous

family, and told him that he might yet have his life, if he would

subscribe to the belief of the following articles:

1. The real presence in the host.

2. Transubstantiation.

3. Purgatory.