Roman Catholic cruelties/Chapter 4
In the year 1524, one John Clark, set up a bill on the church door, against the Pope's pardons, and called him Antichrist; for which being apprehended, he was ordered to be whipped several days, and then burned in the forehead; his mother, a religious woman, standing by, encouraging him, saying, with a loud voice, "Blessed be Christ, and welcome be these marks for his sake." After this he went to Metz, and there being some images without the city, which the people used to worship once a-year; the evening before, John Clark abhorring their idolatry, went and brake down all their idols; the next morning, when the clergy and people came to their worship, they found their images lying all broken on the ground, upon which there began a great tumult, and John Clark was suspected and taken; who presently confessed the fact, and gave reasons for his so doing for which he was condemned to a most cruel death; his right hand was cut off, then his nose was violently pulled off, and after that his arms and breasts, with sharp pincers, all which he sustained with admirable patience, uttering all the while the words of the 115th Psalm. Lastly, he was thrown into the fire, and burnt to ashes.
A horrid massacre was committed on St. Bartholomew's day, being the 24th of August, 1571, which was the Sabbath day, and is made famous for ever, by the effusion of so much precious innocent blood, as no age nor time can parallel, for there were at this time in Paris, threescore thousand men, with pistols, poinards, swords, knives, and such other bloody instruments, who ran up and down, swearing and blaspheming the sacred majesty of God, cruelly massacring all they met, so that the streets were covered with mangled bodies, and the gates and doors defiled with blood; the lords and gentlemen were inhumanly murdered, some in their beds, others on the tops of their houses, and in all other places where they were found; and such a multitude of dead bodies were thrown into the river Seine, that the water was dyed red with their blood.
In the hellish assembly wherein this bloody massacre was concluded on, it was there debated, whether the King of Navarre, and Prince of Conde, should not be destroyed with the rest? the Duke of Guise pleaded for it, but others were against it, and argued how abominable it would be to destroy two young princes of the blood, in the flower of their age, and one of them in the embraces of his young bride, and the king's own sister; and therefore it was concluded, that they should be threatened violently with death, and all manner of torments, if they would not turn Papists.
In this butcherly massacre at Paris, there were about four thousand houses robbed and plundered, and above five hundred barons, knights and gentlemen, who were chief officers in the war; with abundance of noble young gentlemen, ladies and gentlewomen, inhumanly murdered, who little expected such a bloady fate; for they came from all parts to rejoice, in honour of the marriage of the King of Navarre; and instead of jollity and pleasures, they here met with an untimely death from bloody and cowardly Papists, who murder like devils, but dare not fight like men. In that night, and the two next days, there was slain in Paris above ten thousand persons of both sexes, and all ranks and ages, the bloody Papists not sparing the children in the cradle; insomuch, that the streets, market-place, and rivers, were dyed with blood,
The king and his confidents fearing that this massacre would not end the quarrel, but rather stir up the Protestants in other places to stand upon their own defence; he therefore sends messengers by post to all parts of the kingdom, often shifting horses for more speed, with express commands to the governors of all other towns and cities in France, to follow the example of Paris, and to destroy and kill all the Protestants which were amongst them.
As soon as the command was published, and that the King's letters came, the Papists fell with all imaginable fury upon all the Protestants at Meaux, Troys, Orleans, and other places, murdering them without pity or compassion.
The Pope, when he first heard the news of the massacre, appointed a day of public thanksgiving to God, where Te Deum was sung for joy in the church of St. Louis. He likewise published a Bull of pardons and extraordinary indulgence, to such as should pray for the heavenly assistance to the king and kingdom of France, for rooting out of heretics.
At a town called Sansay in France, in the year 1593, one Margaret Pieron was by her maid accused to the Jesuits for not going to Mass, and for keeping a bible in her house, who complaining thereof to the Judges: they sent for her, and said, Margaret, are you not willing to return home to your house, and there enjoy your husband and children? Yes, said she, if it may stand with the good will of God. Then, said they, if thou wilt do but a small matter thou shalt be set at liberty. If, said she, it be not contrary to God's glory, and my own salvation, you shall hear what I will say to it. No such thing, said they, for all that we require is (illegible text) this, that a scaffold being set up in the chief part of the town, you shall there crave pardon for offending the law, and a fire being made you shall burn your bible in it, without speaking a word. I pray you, my masters, said she, tell me is my bible a good book or no? Yes, said they, we confess it is, only to please the Jesuits we would have thee throw it in the fire; imagine it to be but paper, and then you may burn it, and you may buy another at any time, and thereby you may secure your life. They spent two hours in persuading her that she might commit a less evil to do a greater good.—She couragiously answered them, that by the help of God she would never do it. Will not the people say, said she, this is a wretched woman indeed, that burns the bible, wherein all the articles of the Christian religion are contained? I will certainly burn my body rather than I will burn my bible. Upon this she was committed to prison, and fed only with bread and water, and her friends forbid to come to her, but continuing stedfast in the truth, she was thereupon condemned to be set upon a scaffold, to have the bible burnt before her face, herself to be strangled, and her body to be dragged through the streets to a dunghill; which sentence she willingly and cheerfully underwent.
In the year 1550, one Faninus of Ferrara, in Italy, being by the grace of God, and reading of good books, converted to the gospel, and began to instruct others privately therein; but this coming to the ears of some of the Pope's bloodhounds, they seized him and committed him to prison, where, by the earnest importunities of his wife, children, and friend(illegible text) he was persuaded to deny the truth, and was thereupon released out of prison. He had not been long at liberty, till he was extremely troubled in mind, for preferring the love of his relations and friends before the service of Jesus Christ, neither could he by any means be free from these tortures till he had fully resolved to venture his life for the gospel. Being thus inflamed with holy zeal, he went about the country teaching and instructing the people wherever he came. Whereupon he was apprehended and cast into prison, and was condemned to be burnt, but he told his judges that his time was not yet come, and so it happened, for he was removed to Ferrara, where he continued in prison for two years, and afterwards eighteen months in another prison, and was again condemned by the Pope's Inquisitors, but still his death was one way or other prevented.
His wife and sister came to him in prison, and weeping pitifully, intreated him to remember and consider his poor family. To whom he answered, That his Lord and master had commanded him not to deny the truth for his family's sake, and that it was too much that for their sakes he had once fallen already; and therefore desired them not to solicit him any more in that matter, for he knew his end drew near, and therefore he commended them to the Lord. In a short time after, the Pope sent word Faninus should he burned, at which he very much rejoiced, and thanked the messenger. Being still offered life if he would recant, and thereby prevent the misery of his wife and children: he said, he would leave them to a careful and sufficient Overseer: and being asked who that was, he answered, even the Lord Jesus Christ, a faithful keeper of all that are committed to him. As he was going to execution, one that saw him so merry and cheerful, asked him what the reason of it was, since Jesus Christ before his death swate water and blood? To whom he answered. That Christ sustained all the sorrows and conflicts with hell and death, which were due to us, that by his sufferings we might be free from the sorrow and fear of them all.―At the place of execution, after having earnestly prayed to God, he went patiently to the stake, and was first strangled, and then burned.