suffered death for turning protestants, after { be as favorable as possible to them, which { having been confined for a very consider-ridiculous affectation of kindness occasionable space of time. (See engraving.) ed the clergyman who spoke the before Their names were, Rev. Arent Vas. Rev. Adrian Jan. mentioned words to exclaim in Latin, "Quam Pharisaice!" implying, "How Pharisaical!" or, "How hypocritical is such behavior!" At the place of execution, Adrian Jan's father cried out: "Dear son, suffer courageously, a crown of eternal life is prepared for you." The officers martyr's sister, who was in another place among the crowd of spectators, exclaimed with a loud voice: "Brother, be courageous: your sufferings will not last long; the door of eternal life is open to you." They were first strangled, and then burnt, amidst the lamentations of some thousands of spectators, who would have rescued them but for the Spanish guards; and could not but severely regret, that men of the most unspotted characters, and inoffensive lives, should be put to violent deaths, only for differing in opinion from their persecu Rev. Walter Simonson. They were first publicly declared heretics, and then degraded. The ceremony of degradation was performed in this man-prevented him from proceeding, but the ner being clad in sacerdotal habits, they were brought before a bishop, and two abbots. The abbots cut off some of their hair, scraped the crowns of their heads with a knife, and likewise scraped the tips of the fingers, with which they had made the elevation at the altar. The bishop then pulled off their habits, saying, "I strip you of the robe of righteousness." To which one of the clergymen replied, "Not so, but rather of the robe of unrighteousness;" and then looking sternly at the bishop, he went on thus: "You knew the truth formerly yourself, but have maliciously rejected it;tors. but you must give an account of your actions at the day of. judgment." The bishop trembled, and the spectators were struck with amazement, as the person who uttered the words was a learned, pious, honest, and venerable man, being seventy years of age. When the victims were delivered over to the magistrate, the bishop desired him to "But what the martyrs here sustain, Tortures just felt, and quickly o'er, PERSECUTIONS IN LITHUANIA. HE persecutions in Lithu- sacks was such, that even the Tartars, at : The cruelties exercised were these:- Taking out the bowels. Cutting the flesh open. Boring the shin bones. Sending to perpetual banishment. rifled the nobility, burnt the houses, enslaved the healthy, and murdered the sick. A clergyman, who wrote an account of the misfortunes of Lithuania, in the seventeenth century, says, "In consideration of The Russians taking advantage of the these extremities, we can not but adore the devastations which had been made in the judgment of God poured upon us for our country, and of its incapability of defence, sins, and deplore our sad condition. Let entered it with a considerable army, and, us hope for a deliverance from his mercy, like a flood, bore down all before them. {and wish for restitution in his benevolence. Everything they met was an object of de- {Though we are brought low, though we struction; they razed cities, demolished are wasted, troubled, and terrified, yet his castles, ruined fortresses, sacked towns, burnt villages, and murdered people. The ministers of the gospel were peculiarly marked out as the objects of their displeasure, though every worthy Christian was liable to the effects of their cruelty. ADRIAN CHALINSKY, a clergyman vener-left, banish our preachers, abuse our schoolable for his age, conspicuous for his piety, and eminent for his learning, was suddenly seized upon in his own house, partially tried, and speedily condemned.. Having bis hands and legs tied behind him, he was roasted alive by a slow fire, only a few chips, and a little straw, being lighted at a time, in order to make his death more lingering. (See engraving.) compassion is greater than our calamities, and his goodness superior to our afflictions. Our neighbors hate us at present, as much as our more distant enemies did before : they persecute the remnant of us still remaining, deprive us of our few churches masters, treat us with contempt, and oppress us in the most opprobrious manner. In all our afflictions the truth of the gospel shone among us, and gave us comfort; and we only wished for the grace of Jesus Christ (not only to ourselves, but to soften the hearts of our enemies), and the sympathy of our fellow Christians." The reflections of this pious minister, A father and son, named SMOLSKY, both who imputes the sufferings of the Lithuministers near Vilna, had their heads saw-anian protestants to their own crimes, in ed off. A clergyman, in the town of Hawloczen, named Slawinskin, was cut pieceineal by slow degrees. Some perished by being exposed, during the frosty season, to the inclemency of the weather: many were Hlayed alive, several hacked to pieces, and great numbers sent into slavery. not practising the truths they understood, and conforming to the gospel which they believed; and his hopes for relief from the merits of Jesus Christ brings to our recol{lection one of the finest pieces of poetry in the French language, called the Repentant Libertine, by Monsieur Barreaux, a new translation of which we here present to our As Lithuania recovered itself after one persecution, succeeding enemies again de-readers :stroyed it. The Swedes, the Prussians, and the Courlanders, carried fire and sword through it, and continual calamities, for some years, attended that unhappy district. It was then attacked by the prince of Transylvania, who had in his army, exclusive of his own Transylvanians, Hungarians, Moldavians, Servians, Walachians, &c. These, as far as they penetrated. wasted the country, destroyed the churches, "Almighty God! though you, as mankind's friend, 124 THE CHRISTIAN MARTYROLOGY. PERSECUTIONS IN POLAND; DESTRUCTION OF THE CITY OF LESNA. T has been the fate of many pious people, in all ages of the world, to bear the cross of Christ, and suffer persecutions on account of their opinions; for those who are born after the flesh have always been enemies to such as are born after the spirit. hazel-trees, was originally a village in Poland, on the confines of the lower Silesia. It rose, however, to the dignity of a city, and became both populous and opulent. Religion was here reformed by the illustrious Andrew, count palatine of Bernstein, according to the rights of the Bohemian confession; and so well accepted were the At the time of the Bohemian persecu The protestants of Poland were perse-pure doctrines of the gospel, that Le.na cuted in a dreadful manner. The ministers became a kind of metropolis for protestantin particular were treated with the most ism in that part of the country. unexampled barbarity; some having their tongues cut out, because they had preached {tion, in 1620, many protestants fled to Pothe gospel truths; others being deprived of their sight, on account of having read the Bible; and great numbers were cut to pieces, for not recanting. land, most of whom settled at Lesna. The number of these was greatly increased in A. D. 1628 and 1629, when a fierce per ecution raged in Bohemia and Silesia. By the addition of such numbers of inhabitar. . Private persons were put to death by various methods; the most cruel beingLesna became so considerable as to have usually preferred. Women were murdered without the least regard to their sex; and the persecutors even went so far as to cut off the heads of sucking babes, and fasten them to the breasts of their mothers. three market-places, four churches, ano twenty considerable streets, and a pub seminary of learning. The citizens then surrounded the ci by a wall, encompassed it with a trench, erected gates for ornaments, built towe for its defence, and constructed a nob Even the solemnity of the grave did not exempt the bodies of protestants from the malice of persecutors; for they sacrilegi-town-house for public proceedings. Hend ously dug up the bodies of many eminent persons, and either cut them to pieces, and exposed them to be devoured by birds and beasts, or hung them up in conspicuous and public places. Lesna became a mart of trade, a seat f politeness, and an asylum for the distressed religion flourished, manufactures thrived, and industry was encouraged. The Roman catholics viewing with envy Among the devastations made by the the thriving state of religion in Lesna, persecutions, the most important was the strove to injure that city by every means destruction of the noble city of Lesna, in in their power. Their first attack was, by Great Poland. A particular and circum- several accusations laid before Sigismund, stantial account of the cruel transactions king of Poland, suggesting, that "Lesna attending the ruin of that city, having been was a confluence for men of all nations, a published by some who were witnesses of,{den of outlaws, an asylum for heretics, and and materially concerned in the sufferings a receptacle of traitors to the king and govthat ensued, we shall select such parts of {ernment." the narrative as are most interesting and consonant to the plan of our work. Luckily the king disbelieved the calurnies, and thus the Roman catholics were Lesna, which word implies a grove of defeated in their malicious intentions. |