A Christian Library (Vol. 4) (John Wesley)

《A Christian Library (Vol. 4)》(John Wesley)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Clark's Supplement To Fox's Acts And Monuments Of The Christian Martyrs Part I

TO MR. FOX'S ACTS AND MONUMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN MARTYRS.

EXTRACTED FROM MR. SAMUEL CLARK'S GENERAL MARTYROLOGY.

VOL. 4:

A NARRATIVE OF THE BLOODY CRUELTIES,

Exercised egalamt the

PROTESTANTS OF THE VALLEYS OF PIEDMONT, In Apri1, 1655.

UPON Saturday, April 17, 1655, whilst- the deputies of the Protestants were detained at Turin, there arrived a great army at St. Giovanni, which was now, with La’Torre, and all the lower parts, unpeopled by a late edict of the Duke of Savoy. This army continued there for some hours, and in the dusk of the evening fell into La Torre, where they met with none of the Protestants; only eight or ten persons, not thinking of an enemy, were seeking up and down for something to satisfy their hunger. As soon as they came near the convent, they were saluted with a volley of shot, which killed Giovanni Combe, and hurt Peter Rostain, whereupon the rest, seeing the danger, fled for their lives. The next day, being the Sabbath, the enemy ranged about, plundering, and pillaging all before them. The day after, their number being increased to about 15,OOO, they set upon the Protestants in several quarters, amongst the little hills of St. Giovanni and La Torre. The poor people at length stood in their own defense, and the enemy was vigorously opposed on every side; in one place by Captain Jahier, and in other places by the officers of St. Giovanni, Angrogne, Roccapiata, and their troops.

Tuesday, April 2O,-the Popish army made three several attempts to take away the bell of St. Giovanni, and to burn the church; but the people did so courageously resist them, that they were driven to a shameful retreat, with the loss of 5O men; and had not the cavalry defended the plain, they had been utterly routed. Only two of the Protestant party were slain. Wednesday, the 21st, which was the fatal day to the Protestants, the Marquis of Pianessa held the deputies of the valley of Lucerne in parley till noon, and then entertained them with a large dinner, and sent them away with many fair promises, that there' should be no hurt done to any. Hereupon the agents of Angrogne bestirred themselves to dissuade their own party from making the least resistance. The same did the agents of Villars and Bobio. But no sooner were those troops entered, than they put all to fire and sword, slaying all they met with, and that in the most barbarous manner they could possibly devise. The following extract of a letter, written by some of those poor Protestants, contains a brief account of the barbarities exercised upon them.

The army having gotten footing, became very numerous by the addition of a multitude of the neighboring inhabitants; who, hearing that we were given for a prey to the plunderers, fell upon us with an impetuous fury, To these were added a great number of out-laws, prisoners, and other offenders, who thought hereby to have saved their souls, and filled their purses, We were also forced to receive five or six regiments of the French army, besides some Irish, (to whom, as it was said, our country was promised,) and several troops of vagabonds, under a pretence of coining into the valleys for fresh quarters. The multitude being licensed by Pianessa, encouraged by the monks, and led by our wicked neighbors, fell upon us with such violence on every side, and in so treacherous a manner, especially in Angrogne, Villars, and Bobio, that in a moment all was turned into a confused heap, and the inhabitants constrained to flee for their lives, together with their wives and little children; and that not only the inhabitants of the plains, but of the mountains also. Yet all their diligence was not sufficient to preserve very many of them from destruction. For in many places they were so hemmed in, on every side, that there was no way left for their flight, but they were most inhumanly massacred. In one place they most cruelly tormented 15O women and children, and afterwards chopped off the heads of some, and dashed out the brains of others against the rocks. They took multitudes of prisoners; and such of them, from 15 years of age and upwards, as refused to go to mass, they cruelly butchered, hanging some, and nailing the feet of others to trees, with their heads hanging downwards; all which torments they constantly endured. They made such havoc of all, that there was neither any cattle nor other provision left in the valley of Lucerne, in the commonalties of St. Giovanni, La Torre, &e. A Franciscan friar, and another priest, set fire to houses and churches, so that they left not one of them unburnt. In these desolations the mother was bereaved of her child, and the husband of his wife. Those that were richest amongst us, are forced to beg their bread. Some are weltering in their own blood, and deprived of all outward comforts. There were some churches in St. Martin's, that were formerly reckoned a sanctuary to the persecuted; but they are now commanded to quit those places, and every soul of them immediately to depart, without any respite, and that under pain of death. The pretence of these strange massacres and cruelties, are that we are rebels to the duke's commands, in not performing a pure impossibility, by immediately departing from our habitations in Bubiana, Lucerne, Fenile, Bricheras, La Torre, St. Giovanni, and St. Secundo."

In a word, the cruelties which were there executed, would exceed the belief of any man, were they not so fully proved by the formal attestations of eye-witnesses, and by the woful cries of so many desolate and poor wretches, who have been miserably robbed of their relations, houses, lands, and all other comforts; yea, the formal oath of one of the chief commanders of the army that acted these cruelties, signed with his own hand in the presence of two authentic witnesses, and the voluntary confession of one of the soldiers, who told some of his comrades, that many times he had surfeited himself with eating the boiled brains of the Protestants, is sufficient to confirm the truth of what is here related.

The declaration of Monsieur du Petit Bourg, first captain of the regiment of Gransey, subscribed with his own hand, at. Pignerol, Nov. 27, 1655, in the presence of two other commanders. " I Sieur du Petit Bourg, being commanded by prince Thomas, to go and join myself with the Marquis of Pianessa, who was then at La Torre; upon my departure, I was requested by the ambassador to speak to the marquis, and to use my endeavor to accommodate the troubles which were amongst those of the Religion, in the valleys of Piedmont, which accordingly I did, entreating him with much earnestness that he would give way thereunto, and I doubted not but I should be able to effect it. But he refused this my request, and that divers times, notwithstanding all the endeavors I could possibly use to persuade him thereto; and instead of the least mitigation, I was witness to many great violences, and extreme cruelties, exercised by the soldiers of Piedmont, upon all sorts, of every age, sex, and condition, whom I saw massacred, dismembered, banged up, burnt, and ravished, together with many horrid confusions, which I beheld with horror and regret. And without any distinction of those that resisted, and such as resisted not, they were used with all sorts of inhumanity, their houses burnt, their goods plundered; and when prisoners were brought before the said marquis, I heard him give order to give them no quarter at all, saying, ` His highness was resolved to have none of the Religion within his dominions.' And whereas in his declaration he protests, that there was no hurt done to any, but during the fight, nor the least outrage committed upon any persons that were not fit to bear arms; I will maintain that it is not so, having seen with my eyes many persons killed in cold blood; as also women, aged persons, and young children, miserably murdered."

The ensuing barbarous cruelties, which were exercised upon divers members of the evangelical churches, in the valleys of Piedmont, in the late massacre, in 1655, are attested by divers persons of honor and integrity, who were, for the most part, eye and ear witnesses thereof.

SARAH RASTIGNOLE DES VIGNES, about 6O years of age, being overtaken by divers soldiers, was commanded to say her prayers, and when she had done, they bade her say, " Jesus, Maria!" which the poor woman refusing, one of the soldiers thrust a sickle into the lower part of her belly, and ripped her up to her navel, and then dragged the poor creature upon the ground being half dead, till another came and cut off her head. The daughter-in-law of this poor woman, who hid herself in the snow for two days after, without any succor, was an eye-witness thereof.

MARTHA CONSTANTINE, of Giovanni, after she had seen several others most cruelly put to death, was herself first -.ravished, and afterwards had her breasts cut off; with other shameful acts of barbarity used upon her, by some of the soldiers. These inhuman wretches fried her breasts, and set them before some of their comrades, making them believe they were tripes. When they had eaten a good part thereof, they told them what it was, which caused a quarrel amongst them; and they that had eaten thereof were so sick, that some of them died soon after. This was certified by a Papist, to one Andrea Javel, of Einachia.

A man of Thrassaniere, being taken prisoner, received divers stabs in the soles of his feet, and in his ears, by two of the soldiers, who afterwards more severely mangled him, and then applied a burning candle to the wound, frying it with the flame thereof, that so the blood might be stopped, and the torments of that miserable creature prolonged. Then they tore his nails off with burning pincers to force him to renounce his religion. When nothing would do, they tied one of his legs to a mule, and dragged him through the streets, till he was almost dead; and then binding a cord about his head, they twisted it with a staff till his eyes and brains dropped out, and then they cast his carcass into the river.

PETER SIMOND, of Angrogne, about eight years of age, was tied neck and heels together, and in this posture violently thrown down a fearful precipice. By the way he fell upon a cragged branch of a tree, and hung there in a most languishing condition for several days together, (a most lamentable spectacle,) being neither able to help himself, nor capable of receiving help from others; the precipice being inaccessible.

GIOVANNI ANDREA MICHIALIN, of La Torre, being taken prisoner, escaped miraculously, having first seen three of his children torn in pieces limb from limb before his eyes, and the fourth, being about six weeks old, snatched out of the mother's arms, stripped of its swaddling-clothes, and its brains dashed out against the rocks.

JACOB PERRIN, an elder of the church of Villars, and David, his brother, being taken prisoners in their beds, were carried to Lucerne, and cast into the marquis's prison, where they were most barbarously and cruelly handled. The soldiers stripped off the skin of their arms and legs, in long slices like leathern points, till the flesh was left quite bare. After which they were starved to death in the prison, and their carcasses left to rot there,

GIOVANNI PELANCHION, a young man, about 25 years old, having been taken prisoner, had made his escape; but being taken again by the soldiers, they tied one of his legs to the tail of a mule, and so dragged him through all the streets of Lucerne. And because the poor wretch sometimes lifted up his hands and head, through pain and anguish, that he suffered by the grating of his body against the ragged flints, the merciless villains battered and bruised his body with stones and brickbats, crying, " He is possessed with the devil, which keeps him from dying." Then, after many strange, shameless, and unheard of cruelties, they chopped off his head, and so dragging him to the river's bank, they left him there unburied.

MAGDALEN, the daughter of Peter Fontana, a beautiful girl, about ten years old, being taken by some of these brutes, they tore her in so inhuman a manner, that she was afterwards found half dead, wallowing in her own blood.

A poor woman, apprehending her danger, having a sucking child in the cradle, took the child and cradle upon her head, and fled. Some of the soldiers seeing this, pursued her; and she perceiving that she was like to be overtaken, left her cradle in the way, supposing that those butchers could not have such hearts as to hurt her innocent babe, and so hid herself in the cleft of a rock not far off. But these hell-hounds finding the infant in the cradle, took it out, and tore it in pieces; and afterwards finding the mother, they first ravished her, and then cut off her head, and left her dead body in the snow.

At Villa Nova, the daughter of Moses Long, about ten years old, as she was fleeing upon the snow, some soldiers of Piedmont took her, b: oached her upon a pike, and roasted her alive with a fire made upon a broad stone; and after a while they cut off a slice of her flesh, intending to have eaten it; but finding it not well roasted, their stomachs would not serve them to eat it. JACOBO MICJELINO, one of the chief elders of the church of Boby, being taken prisoner, was hung upon a gate in a shameful posture. But the shame was nothing to the torments; the whole weight of his body hanging upon a tender part, which caused most exquisite and almost incredible pain. And this they did to force him to renounce his religion. When this prevailed not, they took him down, and carried him away amongst other prisoners. Afterwards, having with incredible constancy endured a world of other cruelties, he at last exchanged this' life for a better.

GIOVANNI ROSTAGNAL, of Boby, being 8O years old, had his nose, ears, and other parts of his body, cut off, and was left languishing upon the snow for a long time, till at last he gave up the ghost. DANIEL SALVAGIO and his wife, GIOVANNI DURANT, DANIEL REVEL, LODOWICK and BARTHOLOMEW DURANT, all brothers, and PAOLO REYNAUD, being taken by the soldiers, had their mouths and throats stuffed full of gunpowder, and then fire being set to it, their heads were torn all,to pieces.

JACOB Di RONE, a school-master of Roras, being stript stark naked, after they had torn off his nails with pincers, and made a thousand holes in his hands with the point of a dagger, they dragged him, by a cord fastened about his middle, through Lucerne. At almost every step, one soldier on one side cut off a piece of his flesh with a faulchion, and another on the other side gave him a great blow with a staff, crying, " What sayest you now, Barbet Wilt you go to mass" To which the poor creature, with admirable constancy, as long as he was able to speak, answered, " Rather death than the mass. Despatch me quickly, for the love of God." A while after came a notorious cut-throat, who, as soon as he saw him, cried out, "Lo! here is the minister of Roras." With that he gave him a deadly blow athwart the head with a back-sword. From thence they dragged him to the bridge; there they cut off his head, and then threw him into the river.

PAOLO GARNIER, of Roras, being taken by these murderers, they first violently pulled out his eyes, and in this state they exposed him to public scorn for several days together. Afterwards they flayed him alive, and then cutting his skin in four parts, they hung it in the windows of four of the principal houses of Lucerne.