Fox's Book of Martyrs
Chapter X
General Persecutions in Germany
The
general persecutions in Germany were principally occasioned by the doctrines
and ministry of Martin Luther. Indeed, the pope was so terrified at the success
of that courageous reformer, that he determined to engage the emperor, Charles
V, at any rate, in the scheme to attempt their extirpation.To this end
2. He promised to maintain twelve thousand
foot, and five thousand horse, for the space of six months, or during a
campaign.3. He allowed the emperor to receive one
half the revenues of the clergy of the empire during the war.4. He permitted the emperor to pledge the
abbey lands for five hundred thousand crowns, to assist in carrying on
hostilities against the Protestants.Thus
prompted and supported, the emperor undertook the extirpation of the
Protestants, against whom, indeed, he was particularly enraged himself; and,
for this purpose, a formidable army was raised in Germany, Spain, and Italy.
The
Protestant princes, in the meantime, formed a powerful confederacy, in order to repel the impending blow. A great army was
raised, and the command given to the elector of Saxony, and the landgrave of
Hesse. The imperial forces were commanded by the emperor of Germany in person,
and the eyes of all Europe were turned on the event of the war.
At
length the armies met, and a desperate engagement ensued, in which the
Protestants were defeated, and the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse
both taken prisoners. This fatal blow was succeeded by a horrid persecution,
the severities of which were such that exile might be deemed a mild fate, and
concealment in a dismal wood pass for happiness. In such times a cave is a
palace, a rock a bed of down, and wild roots delicacies.
Those
who were taken experienced the most cruel tortures
that infernal imaginations could invent; and by their constancy evinced that a
real Christian can surmount every difficulty, and
despite every danger acquire a crown of martyrdom.
Henry
Voes and John Esch, being apprehended as Protestants,
were brought to examination. Voes, answering for
himself and the other, gave the following answers to some questions asked by a
priest, who examined them by order of the magistracy.
Priest.
Were you not both, some years ago, Augustine friars?
Voes. Yes.
Priest.
How came you to quit the bosom of the Church at Rome?
Voes. On
account of her abominations.
Priest.
In what do you believe?
Voes. In the Old and New
Testaments.
Priest.
Do you believe in the writings of the fathers, and the decrees of the Councils?
Voes. Yes, if they agree with
Scripture.
Priest.
Did not Martin Luther seduce you both?
Voes. He seduced us even in the
very same manner as Christ seduced the apostles; that is, he made us sensible
of the frailty of our bodies, and the value of our souls.
This
examination was sufficient. They were both condemned to the flames, and soon
after suffered with that manly fortitude which becomes Christians when they
receive a crown of martyrdom.
Henry
Sutphen, an eloquent and pious preacher, was taken out of his bed in the middle
of the night, and compelled to walk barefoot a considerable way, so that his
feet were terribly cut. He desired a horse, but his conductors said, in
derision, "A horse for a heretic! no no,
heretics may go barefoot." When he arrived at the place of his
destination, he was condemned to be burnt; but, during the execution, many
indignities were offered him, as
those who attended not content with what he suffered in the flames, cut and
slashed him in a most terrible manner.
Many
were murdered at Halle; Middleburg being taken by storm all the Protestants
were put to the sword, and great numbers were burned at Vienna.
An
officer being sent to put a minister to death, pretended, when he came to the
clergyman's house, that his intentions were only to pay him a visit. The
minister, not suspecting the intended cruelty, entertained his supposed guest
in a very cordial manner. As soon as dinner was over, the officer said to some
of his attendants, "Take this clergyman, and hang him." The
attendants themselves were so shocked after the civility they had seen, that they hesitated to perform the commands of their
master; and the minister said, "Think what a sting will remain on your
conscience, for thus violating the laws of hospitality." The officer,
however, insisted upon being obeyed, and the attendants, with reluctance,
performed the execrable office of executioners.
Peter
Spengler, a pious divine, of the town of Schalet, was thrown into the river,
and drowned. Before he was taken to the banks of the stream
which was to become his grave, they led him to the market place that his crimes
might be proclaimed; which were, not going to Mass,
not making confession, and not believing in transubstantiation. After this
ceremony was over, he made a most excellent discourse to the people, and
concluded with a kind hymn, of a very edifying nature.
A
Protestant gentleman being ordered to lose his head for not renouncing his
religion, went cheerfully to the place of execution. A friar came to him, and said these words in a low tone of voice, "As
you have a great reluctance publicly to abjure your faith, whisper your
confession in my ear, and I will absolve your sins." To this the gentleman
loudly replied, "Trouble me not, friar, I have confessed my sins to God, and obtained absolution through the merits of Jesus
Christ." Then turning to the executioner, he said, "Let me not be
pestered with these men, but perform your duty," on which his head was
struck off at a single blow.
Wolfgang
Scuch, and John Huglin, two worthy ministers, were burned, as was Leonard
Keyser, a student of the University of Wertembergh; and George Carpenter, a Bavarian, was hanged
for refusing to recant Protestantism.
The
persecutions in Germany having subsided many years, again broke out in 1630, on
account of the war between the emperor and the king of Sweden, for the latter
was a Protestant prince, and consequently the Protestants of Germany espoused
his cause, which greatly exasperated the emperor against them.
The
imperialists having laid siege to the town of Passewalk, (which was
defended by the Swedes) took it by storm, and committed the most horrid
cruelties on the occasion. They pulled down the churches, burnt the houses,
pillaged the properties, massacred the ministers, put the garrison to the
sword, hanged the townsmen, ravished the women, smothered the children, etc.,
etc.
A
most bloody tragedy was transacted at Magdeburg, in the year 1631. The generals
Tilly and Pappenheim, having taken that Protestant city by storm, upwards of
twenty thousand persons, without distinction of rank, sex, or age, were slain
during the carnage, and six thousand were drowned in attempting to escape over
the river Elbe. After this fury had subsided, the remaining inhabitants were
stripped naked, severely scourged, had their ears cropped, and being yoked
together like oxen were turned adrift.
The
town of Hoxter was taken by the popish army, and all the inhabitants as well as
the garrison were put to the sword; the houses even were set on fire, the
bodies being consumed in the flames.
At Griphenberg, when the imperial forces prevailed, they shut
up the senators in the senate chamber, and surrounding
it by lighted straw suffocated them.
Franhendal
surrendered upon articles of capitulation, yet the inhabitants were as cruelly
used as at other places; and at Heidelberg many were shut up in prison and
starved.
The
cruelties used by the imperial troops, under Count Tilly in Saxony, are thus
enumerated.
Half
strangling, and recovering the persons again
repeatedly. Rolling sharp wheels over the fingers and toes. Pinching the thumbs
in a vice. Forcing the most filthy things down the
throat, by which many were choked. Tying cords round the head so tightly that
the blood gushed out of the eyes, nose, ears, and mouth. Fastening burning matches to the fingers, toes, ears, arms, legs, and even the
tongue. Putting powder in the mouth and setting fire to it, by which the head
was shattered to pieces. Tying bags of powder to all parts of the body, by
which the person was blown up. Drawing cords backwards and forwards through the
fleshy parts. Making incisions with bodkins and knives in the skin. Running
wires through the nose, ears, lips, etc. Hanging Protestants up by the legs,
with their heads over a fire, by which they were smoke dried. Hanging up by one
arm until it was dislocated. Hanging upon hooks by the ribs. Forcing people to
drink until they burst. Baking many in hot ovens. Fixing weights to the feet, and drawing up several with pulleys. Hanging,
stifling, roasting, stabbing, frying, racking, ravishing, ripping open,
breaking the bones, rasping off the flesh, tearing with wild horses, drowning,
strangling, burning, broiling, crucifying, immuring, poisoning, cutting off
tongues, noses, ears, etc., sawing off the limbs, hacking to pieces, and
drawing by the heels through the streets.
The
enormous cruelties will be a perpetual stain on the memory of Count Tilly, who
not only committed, but even commanded the troops to put them in practice. Wherever he came, the most horrid barbarities
and cruel depredations ensued: famine and conflagration marked his progress:
for he destroyed all the provisions he could not take with him,
and burnt all the towns before he left them; so that the full result of
his conquests were murder, poverty, and desolation.
An
aged and pious divine they stripped naked, tied him on his back upon a table,
and fastened a large, fierce cat upon his belly. They then pricked and
tormented the cat in such a manner that the creature with rage tore his belly open, and gnawed his bowels.
Another
minister and his family were seized by these inhuman monsters; they ravished
his wife and daughter before his face; stuck his infant son upon the point of a
lance, and then surrounding him with his whole library
of books, they set fire to them, and he was consumed in the
midst of the flames.
In
Hesse-Cassel some of the troops entered an hospital,
in which were principally mad women, when stripping all the poor wretches
naked, they made them run about the streets for their diversion,
and then put them all to death.
In
Pomerania, some of the imperial troops entering a small town, seized upon all
the young women, and girls of upwards of ten years, and then placing their
parents in a circle, they ordered them to sing Psalms, while they ravished
their children, or else they swore they would cut them to pieces afterward.
They then took all the married women who had young children, and threatened, if
they did not consent to the gratification of their lusts, to burn their
children before their faces in a large fire, which they had kindled for that
purpose.
A
band of Count Tilly's soldiers meeting a company of merchants belonging to
Basel, who were returning from the great market of Strassburg, attempted to
surround them; all escaped, however, but ten, leaving
their properties behind. The ten who were taken begged hard for their lives:
but the soldiers murdered them saying, "You must die because you are
heretics, and have got no money."
The
same soldiers met with two countesses, who, together with some young ladies,
the daughters of one of them, were taking an airing in a landau. The soldiers
spared their lives, but treated them with the greatest indecency, and having
stripped them all stark naked, bade the coachman drive
on.
By
means and mediation of Great Britain, peace was at length restored to Germany,
and the Protestants remained unmolested for several years, until some new
disturbances broke out in the Palatinate, which were thus occasioned:
The
great Church of the Holy Ghost, at Heidelberg, had, for many years, been shared
equally by the Protestants and Roman Catholics in this manner: the Protestants
performed divine service in the nave or body of the church; and the Roman
Catholics celebrated Mass in the choir. Though this had been the custom from
time immemorial, the elector of the Palatinate, at length, took it into his
head not to suffer it any longer, declaring, that as Heidelberg was the place
of his residence, and the Church of the Holy Ghost the cathedral of his
principal city, divine service ought to be performed only according to the
rites of the Church of which he was a member. He then forbade the Protestants
to enter the church, and put the papists in possession
of the whole.
The
aggrieved people applied to the Protestant powers for redress, which so much
exasperated the elector, that he suppressed the Heidelberg catechism. The
Protestant powers, however, unanimously agreed to demand satisfaction, as the
elector, by this conduct, had broken an article of the treaty of Westphalia;
and the courts of Great Britain, Prussia, Holland, etc., sent deputies to the
elector, to represent the injustice of his proceedings, and to threaten, unless
he changed his behavior to the Protestants in the Palatinate, that they would
treat their Roman Catholic subjects with the greatest severity. Many violent
disputes took place between the Protestant powers and those of the elector, and
these were greatly augmented by the following incident: the coach of the Dutch
minister standing before the door of the resident sent by the prince of Hesse,
the host was by chance being carried to a sick person; the coachman took not
the least notice, which those who attended the host observing, pulled him from
his box, and compelled him to kneel; this violence to the domestic of a public
minister was highly resented by all the Protestant deputies; and still more to
heighten these differences, the Protestants presented to the deputies three
additional articles of complaint.
1. That military executions were ordered
against all Protestant shoemakers who should refuse to contribute to the Masses
of St. Crispin.2. that the Protestants were forbid to work on popish holy days, even in harvest time,
under very heavy penalties, which occasioned great inconveniences, and
considerably prejudiced public business.3. That several Protestant ministers had
been dispossessed of their churches, under pretence
of their having been originally founded and built by
Roman Catholics.
The
Protestant deputies at length became so serious as to intimate to the elector,
that force of arms should compel him to do the justice he denied to their
representations. This menace brought him to reason, as he well knew the
impossibility of carrying on a war against the powerful states who threatened
him. He therefore agreed that the body of the Church of the Holy Ghost should
be restored to the Protestants. He restored the Heidelberg catechism, put the
Protestant ministers again in possession of the churches of which they had been
dispossessed, allowed the Protestants to work on popish holy days, and, ordered, that no person should be molested for not
kneeling when the host passed by.
These
things he did through fear; but to show his resentment to his Protestant
subjects, in other circumstances where Protestant states had no right to
interfere, he totally abandoned Heidelberg, removing all the courts of justice
to Mannheim, which was entirely inhabited by Roman Catholics. He likewise built
a new palace there, making it his place of residence; and, being followed by
the Roman Catholics of Heidelberg, Mannheim became a flourishing place.
In
the meantime the Protestants of Heidelberg sunk into
poverty and many of them became so distressed as to quit their native country, and seek an asylum in Protestant states. A great
number of these coming into England, in the time of Queen Anne, were cordially
received there, and met with a most humane assistance, both by
public and private donations.
In
1732, above thirty thousand Protestants were, contrary to the treaty of
Westphalia, driven from the archbishopric of Salzburg. They went away in the
depth of winter, with scarcely enough clothes to cover them, and without
provisions, not having permission to take anything with them. The cause of
these poor people not being publicly espoused by such states as could obtain
them redress, they emigrated to various Protestant countries,
and settled in places where they could enjoy the free exercise of their
religion, without hurting their consciences, and live free from the trammels of
popish superstition, and the chains of papal tyranny.
Chapter 11 - Persecutions in the Netherlands