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
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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