and officers of the king went to the bailiff, into the court of the prison, where the prisonand commanded a diligent search for those ers were walking, ordered each to his cabin, of the reformed religion, and to imprison all "because, (said he) the bailiff is coming to they could find. see whether the keepers have done their duIn the city, was a merchant, named Peter ty." Then began these poor sheep to fear Belin, a man of a turbulent temper. This they were destined to the slaughter, and man was at the massacre in Paris, on St. therefore went presently to prayers. PerenBartholomew's day, and was dispatched net now calling his companions about him, thence with letters from the king, dated the reported to them what the bailiff had given 28th of August, to the mayor and sheriffs of him in charge, on which they all took an Trois, to cause all persecutions to cease, and oath to execute the same; but approaching the prisoners to be set at liberty. He did near to the prisoners, their hearts failed them, not, however, arrive till the 3d of September, and they stood gazing one upon another, and on entering Trois, proceeded to the having no courage to act such a deed: they, house of the bailiff, a man of the same stamp therefore, returned to the lodge, without doas himself. They agreed before they pub-ing any thing.

lished the letters to murder all the Hugonots This repugnance, however, was of short who were in prison; and to make it appear, duration; for instead of considering it as a that this act was sanctioned by authority, warning from above, they sent for sixteen they requested the assistance of the city ex- pints of wine, thereby to drown every spark ecutioner, whose name was Charles. of conscience. Having drank which, they drew a list of the prisoners; which they delivered to one who was to call them forth in order.

The man, however, more just and humane than they, peremptorily refused to have any hand in an act of so great cruelty; answering, that it was contrary to his office to exe- The first that came forth was Meurs, who cute any man before sentence of death had was no sooner in their sight, than one of first been pronounced by the magistrates; them thrust at him with the point of his haland that he would not presume, without a berd, redoubling the same often with intent warrant, to deprive any man of his life; with to kill him; on which, the poor man took these words, he left them. Upon this, the hold of the point, and pointing it himself to bailiff sent for one of the jailors of the prison, his heart, cried to the murderer, “Here, solbut he being confined by sickness, Martin de dier, here, right at the heart, right at the Bures was sent to know his pleasure. The heart!" and was instantly slain. bailiff told him what Belin had signified to him in private; as also, that on a sudden all the prisoners of the reformed religion must die, that the place might be purged of them; "and this," said he, "you must do."

When the massacre was ended, the murderers made a great pit on the back side of the chapel of the prison, wherein they cast the bodies, some of them yet breathing. One called Maufere, lying in the midst of them, De Bures, however, made no haste to exe- being observed to raise himself above his felcute the command, acquainting no man with low martyrs, they poured earth upon him, aught that passed between the bailiff and until they had stifled him. The blood ran him; not even Perennet the keeper, then in such abundance out at the prison door, and sick in bed. thence through a channel into a river, that it was turned into the color of blood.

MASSACRE AT ORLEANS.

The day following the bailiff came to the prison, and calling for Perennet, who was Next day, the sanguinary bailiff of Trois then recovered, asked him with a smile, caused the king's letters to be published in "Whether it was done?" "What?" said all corners of the city with sound of trumpet. Perennet, knowing nothing of it. "Why," said the bailiff, "are not the prisoners dispatched?" and was ready with his dagger Dechampeaux, lord of Bouilli, a counsellor to have stabbed him. But coming a little to of Orleans, was murdered in the following himself, he told Perennet his purpose, and manner: One called Texier came with a how he was to behave himself concerning small troop to his house, inviting himself and the execution thereof. At this, Perennet company to supper with him. Dechampeaux standing amazed, (though otherwise forward bid them all kindly welcome, being ignorant enough to commit any outrages against the of what had happened at Paris. But supper Protestants) certified to the bailiff, that he being ended, Texier bade him deliver his would not perpetrate such an inhuman act, purse, at which Dechampeaux laughed, apprehending, that it might be avenged by thinking he had been in jest. But this cruel the friends of the prisoners. "No, no," said guest, with blasphemous oaths, told him in a the bailiff, "fear not, I will stand between few words what had occurred at Paris, and you and all harms. Others of the justices what preparations the Roman Catholics of have consented thereunto oesides myself, Orleans were making to root out the Protestand would you have better security than ants there. Dechampeaux finding it in vain that?" to contest with him, gave him money: when, In a short time after, the jailor coming to requite the courtesy and good entertain

ment he had received, Texier imbrued his entering, he met the mother of Nicholas at hands in his blood, and afterwards pillaged the door. He then proceeded into the chamthe house. ber, stabbed the sick man with a dagger in

On the 26th of August following, the mas- many places, and so killed him. Then with sacre was begun. All night was heard all silence, as if he had done no such act, nothing but firing of guns and pistols, forcing wiping his dagger, he went down stairs open of doors and windows, fearful outcries again, without any change in his behavior or of men, women, and little children, trampling countenance.* of horses, and rumbling of carts, hurrying off dead bodies to and fro.

Francis Stample, a rich merchant, was threatened to have his throat cut if he reThe massacre was continued the next day, fused to give the murderers money but and to the end of the week: Where is now having got none about him, he wrote to his your God?" cried the murderers; "What is wife to send him his ransom: he had no become of all your prayers and psalms now? sooner sealed the letter, but the monsters Let your God, whom you called upon, save put him to death; and though they got from you if he can!" Yea, some of them, who his widow a considerable sum of money, yet had been professors of the same religion, could she not obtain from them the body of whilst they were massacring the poor inno- her husband. cents, sung unto them, in scorn, the begin

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Among those that confessed the name of ning of the 43d psalm: "Judge me, O God, Jesus Christ, Francis le Bossu, a merchant, and plead my cause. Others, striking them, with his two sons, well deserve our notice; said, " Sing now, 'Have mercy on me, O for whilst he trampled in the blood of his God."" But these execrable outrages by no brethren, being besmeared therewith, he enmeans daunted the courage of the Christians, couraged his children to take their death who died stedfast in the faith. The mur- willingly and patiently. When he saw the derers boasted, that in this city they caused murderers come, he clasped his arms about eighteen thousand men to perish, a hun- his two sons, and they likewise embraced dred and fifty women, with a great number their father; and thus embracing, they were of children of nine years old and upwards. all three found dead.

The manner of their death was, first to shoot At the conclusion of this furious assault, them with pistols, then to strip them, and the perpetrators went up and down the city, either sink their bodies in the river, or bury displaying their white doublets, all sprinkled them in pits. with blood; some boasting that they had At night, several of this bloody crew killed a hundred, some more, some less. knocked at the door of a doctor of civil law, called Taillebous; who came down immedi- THE POPE'S LEGATE ABSOLVES THE MUR. ately, and opened the door to them. They

DERERS OF THE PROTESTANTS.

immediately told him he must die. Where- Not many months after, when these trageupon he uttered a prayer to heaven with dies were ended, the pope sent cardinal Ursin, such zeal and affection, that the murderers, as legate to the king, who was received with being astonished, and restrained by a secret great solemnity at Lyons. On his return power, contented themselves with taking his from St. John's church, where he had been purse, and so left him. to hear mass, a great number of persons

The day following, some students resort-presented themselves before him, at the ing to his lodging, requested to see his libra- door, and kneeled down for his absolution. ry, into which he brought them; one asked But the legate not knowing the reason of it, this book of him, and another that, which he one of the leaders told him, they were those gave them. At length they told him they who had been the actors in the massacre. were not as yet satisfied, their purpose being On which the cardinal immediately absolved to kill him. He, prostrating himself upon them all. the ground, and having ended his prayer, desired them to kill him there, but they forced him out of his own house, from one place to another, and at length dispatched him.

MASSACRE AT ANGERS.

As soon as the massacre commenced at Paris, a gentleman, named Monsoreau, obA rich burgess of the city, called Nicholas tained a passport with letters to massacre Bougars, Sieur de Nove, a man of singular the Protestants at Angers. Being disapworth, and highly esteemed, was at that time pointed of his prey in one place, he came to dangerously ill. Some of the murderers the lodging of a reverend and learned mincame into the chamber intending to kill him: ister, Mr. John Mason. Meeting his wife at but seeing him in that case spared him: yet finding there Noel Chaperon, an apothecary, they cut off one of his arms, then drew him into the market-place, where they made an end of him.

The next day, an acquaintance came to the lodging of Nicholas Bougars; as he was

*This atrocious deed reminds us of the enormities practised by the Irish Roman Catholics in their massacre of the English Protestants in the reign of Charles I., when every social tie was banished from their remorseless hearts, and the oldest friends were murdered by the hands they had so often pressed in amity and brotherhood.

the entrance of the house, he saluted her, and asked her "where her husband was?" She answered him, "That he was walking in his garden."

long this life for a few days; for thus I should buy a short term of life at too dear a rate :" on which they slew him instantly. The poor Protestants wandered up and He immediately went in search of him; down, not knowing where to save their and meeting him, embraced him, and said, lives: some were rejected of their own pa"Do you know wherefore I am come? The rents and relations, who shut their doors king hath commanded me to kill you forth- against them, pretending that they knew with, and hath given me express charge to them not; others were betrayed and deliverdo it, as you shall see by his letters." Upon ed up by those to whose friendship they had which he showed him a pistol ready charged. committed themselves: many were saved Riviere replied, "That he knew not wherein even by priests and others, from whom they he had offended the king; but seeing," said had little reason to expect such security; he, "you seek my life, give me a little time to but whose hearts abhorred those detestable recommend my spirit into the hands of God." outrages. All the city was full of terror and Having made a short prayer, he presented horrible threats against them, saying, that his body to the murderer, who shot him im- the king's commandment was, that he would mediately. His wife was soon after drown- not have so much as one of them left in his ed, with nine others; and six thousand were kingdom; and if any refused to go to mass, murdered at Rouen in much the same man- that a hole should be digged for him in the earth, in which he should be buried without any more ado.

ner.

The king of France proposed three things to the prince of Condé; "Either to go to The judgment of God was manifested upon mass, to die, or else to be perpetually im- one of these inhuman murderers, called Vinprisoned; and therefore to weigh well with cent: he fell dangerously sick, but in the himself which he liked best." The prince end recovering again as he thought, told answered, "That by God's grace he would some of his friends that he felt his arms never choose the first; as for the latter, he strong enough to handle his cutlass as well referred himself to the king's pleasure." as ever. But shortly after he was overtaken About three hundred were barbarously by the hand of God, with such a bleeding at murdered at Thoulouse, and after taking all his nose, as could not be restrained by any their goods, their bodies were stripped naked, of the remedies that were used. It was a and exposed to public view for two days, and hideous sight to see him continually bowing then thrown in heaps into great pits. Cer- his head over a basin full of blood, which, tain counsellors, after they were massacred, without ceasing, issued out of his nose and were hung up in their long gowns, upon a mouth, until his last gasp. great elm which was in the court of the palace.

MASSACRE AT BOURDEAUX.

The massacre at Bourdeaux was begun and carried on much in the same manner as those before mentioned. But their ministers found means to escape, hiding themselves in the rocks and marshes, till they had an opportunity to take shipping for England.

One thing is worthy of notice. The house of a counsellor in parliament was forced open, pillaged, and spoiled. His clerk seeing his master about to suffer a cruel death, embraced and comforted him: and being asked whether he were of the same religion, he answered, "Yea, and would die with his master for the same." And they were slain in one another's arms.

Another was taken with such a swelling in all the parts of his body, that there was scarcely to be discerned the form of a man, and thus he continued swelling till at length he burst asunder.

Thus during the extreme afflictions of the reformed churches in many parts of France, there were within a few weeks nigh 30,000 put to death.

SIEGE OF SANCERRE.

In 1573, Sancerre, a city inhabited chiefly by Protestants, and to which many fled from other places for refuge, was besieged by the Catholic army. The want of provisions was soon felt by the inhabitants, and they were compelled to feed on the flesh of horses, asses, &c. At length even this failed; and they were then reduced to devour offal and Du Tour, a deacon of the reformed church, excrements; and some, less capable of rean old man, who in the days of his ignorance sisting the calls of hunger, even had rehad been a priest in the popish church, being course to the horrible expedient of cannibalsick in his bed, was dragged into the open ism. This outrage on humanity it was necesstreet, and was asked, "whether he would sary to punish, and accordingly we find that go to mass, and thereby save his life?" he on the 29th of July, a man and his wife were freely answered, “No, particularly as I am executed for having eaten the head, brains, now drawing so near my end, both by age and entrails of a child, three years old, which and sickness: I hope," continued he, "I died of hunger; having preserved the other shall not so far forget the eternal salva- parts to eat at another meal. An old woman, tion of my soul, as for fear of death to pro-who lodged in their house, and had eaten a

by the sword of the enemy; whereof some were imprisoned, and others put to death.

part, died a few hours after her imprison-more than five hundred. Many soldiers, in ment. The greater part of the children died order to avoid the lingering death of hunger, of famine; and many affecting accounts are fled from the city, and chose rather to die given of their patience and fortitude, among which the following is worthy of record: A boy of ten years old, being ready to Every hope seemed cut off from them, yield up the ghost, seeing his father and and death appeared both within and without mother weeping over him, said unto them, their walls; and so far was the king of "Wherefore weep ye thus, in seeing me France from relenting at their hapless state, famished to death? Mother, I ask you no that, enraged at their courage, he swore bread, I know you have none: but seeing it they should eat up one another. But the is God's will I must die this death, let us be King of kings had ordained it otherwise; for thankful for it. Did not the holy man Laz- the election of the duke of Anjou to the arus die of famine? have I not read it in my Bible?" In uttering these, with the like speeches, he expired, the 30th of July.

Not more than eighty-four persons died by the hand of the enemy, but of the famine

throne of Poland, caused a general pacification, and the Protestants once more enjoyed liberty of conscience and freedom from persecution.

R 3

BOOK VII.

FARTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE PERSECUTIONS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.

SECTION I.

Persecutions in Bohemia and Germany.

THE severity exercised by the Roman hemians, which produced a violent persecu Catholics over the reformed Bohemians, in- tion against the latter. At Prague it was duced the latter to send two ministers and extremely severe, till, at length, the reformfour laymen to Rome, in the year 977, to ed, driven to desperation, armed themselves, seek redress from the pope. After some attacked the senate-house, and cast twelve delay, their request was granted, and their of its members, with the speaker, out of the grievances redressed. Two things in par- windows. The pope, hearing of this, went ticular were permitted to them, viz. to have to Florence, and publicly excommunicated divince service in their own language, and the reformed Bohemians, exciting the emto give the cup in the sacrament to the laity. peror of Germany, and all other kings, The disputes, however, soon broke out again, princes, dukes, &c. to take up arms, in order the succeeding popes exerting all their to extirpate the whole race; promising, by power to resume their tyranny over the way of encouragement, full remission of all minds of the Bohemians; and the latter, with sins to the most wicked person who should great spirit, aiming to preserve their re- kill one Bohemian Protestant. The result ligious liberties. of this was a bloody war; for several popish

Some zealous friends of the gospel, applied princes undertook the extirpation, or at least to Charles, king of Bohemia, A. D. 1375, to expulsion, of the proscribed people: while call a council for an inquiry into the abuses the Bohemians, arming themselves, prethat had crept into the church, and to make pared to repel them in the most vigorous a thorough reformation. Charles, at a loss manner. The popish army prevailing against how to proceed, sent to the pope for advice; the Protestant forces at the battle of Cuttenthe latter, incensed at the affair, only re- burgh, they conveyed their prisoners to three plied, "Punish severely those presumptuous deep mines near that town, and threw seveand profane heretics." The king, according- ral hundreds into each, where they perished ly, banished every one who had been con- in a miserable manner. cerned in the application; and, to show his A bigoted popish magistrate, named zeal for the pope, laid many additional re- Pichel, seized twenty-four Protestants, straints upon the reformed Christians of the among whom was his daughter's husband. country. On their all confessing themselves of the

The martyrdom of John Huss and Jerome reformed religion, he sentenced them to be of Prague, greatly increased the indigna- drowned in the river Abbis. On the day of tion of the believers, and gave animation to the execution, a great concourse of people their cause. These two great and pious men attended; and Pichel's daughter threw herwere condemned by order of the council of self at her father's feet, bedewed them with Constance, when fifty-eight of the principal tears, and implored him to pardon her husBohemian nobility interposed in their favor. band. The obdurate magistrate sternly reNevertheless they were burnt; and the pope, plied, "Intercede not for him, child; he is a in conjunction with the council of Constance, heretic, a vile heretic." To which she nobly ordered the Romish clergy, everywhere, to answered, "Whatever his faults may be, or excommunicate all who adopted their opin- however his opinions may differ from yours, ions, or murmured at their fate. In conse- he is still my husband, a thought which, at quence of these orders great contentions a time like this, should alone employ my arose between the Papists and reformed Bo- whole consideration." Pichel flew into a

These two great men were first brought to the light of truth by reading the doctrines of our countryman John Wickliffe, who, like the morning star of reformation, first burst from the dark night of popish error, and illuminated the surrounding

world.

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violent passion, and said, "You are mad! cannot you, after his death, have a much worthier husband?"-" No, sir," replied she, my affections are fixed upon him, and death itself shall not dissolve my marriage vow." Pichel, however, continued inflexi