The Acts of Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France, Introduction 2 · Section 44
SECT. XLIV.
But this Storm did not fall only upon the Commons, but Noblemen, and Gentlemen of the beſt Quality are expoſed to it. They alſo have Souldiers Quartered upon them, who do rage and ſpoil them every way as much as the Citizens and Peaſants. Their Houſes are pillaged and plundered, their Goods diſſipated and waſted, their Caſtles raſed, their Woods felled, and their very Perſons affronted with the Inſolencies and Barbarity of the Dragoons. They ſpare neither Sex, nor Age, nor Quality. They practiſe their Violences upon all Perſons, who are non-compliant with their Commands of changing their Religion. Several Officers and Members of Parliament underwent the very ſelf-ſame Fate. For they were firſt deprived of their Offices, and then the Military Officers, who were actually in ſervice, are ordered to quit their Poſts, and to come and Quarter upon them, that they may by theſe new Apoſtles be neceſſitated to turn Catholicks.
Many Gentlemen, and Perſons of great Quality, and many aged Ladies of ancient and noble Families, ſeeing all theſe Outrages, retired unto Paris, and hoped, that in that Foreſt of Houſes, and ſo near the Court, they might find a ſafe retreat. But this hope ſoon vaniſheth. For a Decree of Council is Publiſhed, Commanding them to leave Paris in fifteen days, and to return back again without tarrying, unto their own homes. And whereas ſome preſumed to Petition his Majeſty to ſtop the current of this violent Storm and Injuſtice, they were immediately ſent Priſoners to the Baſtile.
The French King about the 6th of October 1685. was heard to ſay, That he hoped by that time his Grandſon, the Duke of Burgundy, came to years of Ʋnderſtanding, he ſhould never know what an Hugonot was in France, but by Hiſtory.
In Sedan (a Principality by the Kings Edict annexed but of late unto the Crown) the Deſolation by the Dragoons is unſpeakable. The Families of Proteſtants being inforced to pay unto theſe Gueſts Quartered upon them, from ten to fifty and ſixty Crowns a day, till they were totally beggar'd.
There have been rare and great Examples of Patience and Conſtancy among theſe Suffering Proteſtants. I ſhall produce a few Inſtances.
In Guyenne, Monſieur de Bergues Lord of Feus, ever ſince the Dragoons came into the Province, hath had ſeventy of them continually lodged upon him at Free Quarters, where they made a total Conſumption, devouring all that he had, even to the very Stones and Walls, and not content with ruining him, they compelled his poor Tenants to contribute alſo to their Livelyhoods. After they had by main force dragged his Lady and Children to the Popiſh Church, they Impriſoned them in ſeveral Nunneries: and as for that Pious Lord, having by their Cruelties and ill uſages confined him to his Bed, yet they continued their Torments of him in his Sickneſs, four Souldiers guarding him night and day, as if he had been ſome Notorious Traytor, and thoſe brutal Wretches treating him with exceſſive Indignities. However they could not ſhake the Conſtancy of this Noble and Religious Gentleman.
Five Citizens of Sedan, after theſe Miſſionaries had tryed their skill upon them, by deſtroying and eating up all their Subſtance and Eſtate, and other Helliſh ill uſage in Priſon, to induce them to renounce their Religion, and not prevailing, they at laſt Condemn'd them to the Gallies. Unto which they went moſt Couragiouſly, Rejoycing at their great Afflictions for the Goſpel.
Two ancient Gentlewomen of Sedan, one being the Widow of Monſieur Dreall Seneſchal of the City, and the other the Relict of Monſieur de Beaulieu, who in his Life time had been Paſtor and Profeſſor in that Church and Academy, they both yielding up their Houſes and Eſtates (which were very conſiderable) to be ſpoiled and plundered by theſe Dragoons, did for ſome weeks hide themſelves from their Violence, by climbing from the Tops of Houſes, from one Houſe unto another, and indured thoſe hardſhips, which would have been the bane of others younger and ſtronger than themſelves; but hereby being worn out and quite ſpent with the labours and fatigues of their frequent removes, they fell ſick, and were both ſeized on by their Perſecutors, who baniſhed them unto Rheims, and are now doing penance for their Hereſie (as the Papiſts call it,) and you may be ſure a ſevere Penance it is, that will be inflicted on them by the bigotted Nuns in their Convents.
The Lady Vielle Vigne, ne…r Nantes in Brittany, being accuſed of holding a Conventicle in her houſe, that is, for keeping a day of Prayer, was immediately arreſted, and all that had been found at that Religious Meeting were carried to priſon, where this Excellent Pious Lady abides in Dureſs.
Monſieur de Roſemont, formerly Paſtor of Giens, having through humane Infirmity fallen with the Multitude, fell ſick in danger of death; the Prieſt of his Pariſh comes to viſit him, and offers to adminiſter the Popiſh Sacraments, Extream Unction, and the Euchariſt unto him; but the poor Man refuſes them, and declares his mind boldly againſt them, and in particular againſt their Sacrilege in robbing the People of the Cup. Finally, it pleased God that he recovered of his diſtemper; and being in perfect health, he was demanded whether the words he had ſpoken, and the diſcourſe he had held in his Sickneſs were the effects of his Fever and Delirium, or of his fixed and ſettled Judgment. He anſwered couragiouſly, that what he had ſpoken in his Sickneſs he would ſtand to in his Health, that they were his preſent Thoughts and Faith; and expreſſing a great deal of Remorſe and Sorrow for his Fall, he begg'd pardon of God for it: whereupon he was brought before a Judge, who condemn'd him forth-right unto the Gallies, there to be hung till he was dead.
Monſieur Bayley, Miniſter of Carla in the County of Foix, and who was in June 1685. ſeized on by the Provoſt of Montauban, and thrown into a Dungeon in the Caſtle of Trumpet at Bordeaux, not one of his Friends or Relations being ever permitted to viſit him, or to know the cauſe of his Impriſonment; died the 12th of November following, but with that Conſtancy as became a Martyr of Jeſus Chriſt, praiſing and bleſſing God for his Sufferings. Theſe Sufferings of his had been very great and exceeding grievous: He lay a long while together ſick without any relief or aſſiſtance; yea, they were ſo barbarouſly cruel to him as to deny him a Cup of cold Water to quench his burning Thirſt; his mercileſs Guards treating him in his very malady with all manner of Barbarities, that by thoſe Torments he might be enforced to apoſtatize from the Truth; but this excellent man of God held ſtedfaſtly to the laſt, and by his Faith and Patience conquered the Cruelties of his Tormentors, and died triumphantly. He was a Perſon of great Worth and Learning, all which was communicated by him to the Edification of his Flock. His Brother, one of the rareſt Scholars of this Age, is that famous Author of the Republique des Lettres.
The Widow of Monſieur Fremont, that rich famous Banker of Paris, together with her two Sons, left above 200000 Liveres in their Houſe and eſcapt moſt fortunately their Perſecutors. Monſieur Fremont putting himſelf and ſix more into the Habits and Arms of the Life-Guard, and himſelf as an Officer in the head of them, coming upon the Frontiers to the Guards, demands whether none had paſſed them lately? To which they replied Yes, ſome had done it a little before with Paſſ-ports. But this new Officer tells them they were counterfeited, and he was ordered to purſue theſe Counterfeits, and ſo ſaved himſelf and Company.
In Poictou the Houſes of the Gentry are demoliſhed, and exceſſive Cruelties by the Miſſion to make them renounce their Religion. The Lady of a Perſon of Quality, who for his Conſtancy was impriſoned, after that his Houſe had been pulled down, was clapt up between four Walls, where, though ſhe was big with child and very near her time, yet ſhe was ſtarved to death with Cold and Famine.
In the Burrough of Torique three Leagues from Niort, Frances Aubin, a Country Woman, declaring her reſolution to perſiſt unchangeably in the Proteſtant Religion; they firſt ſqueezed her Fingers to pieces with Iron Skrews, and then hung her up by her Arm-pits, ſmoaking and forcing her to ſuck in with her Noſtrils Tobacco and Brimſtone: afterward theſe bloody Villains tied her Legs unto a Horſe, who drew her upon burning Faggots. Her own Brother, of the ſame name, was an Eye-witneſs of all her Sufferings, who alſo was tortured by them, but in another manner. And foraſmuch as none of theſe Cruelties could make them either looſe their Reſolutions or their Lives, they flung them both into a low Ditch, whence they were taken out almoſt knee deep in Mud and Water.
Another Inhabitant of the ſame place called Fountayne, was hung up alſo by the Arms, ſmoakt with Tobacco, her Fingers burnt by a light fire, and then thruſt into a Dungeon to die of Cold and Hunger, as a Man of S. Maixant had done before her.
A Gentleman of Augumois they tormented to death, by pouring into his Mouth boiling Aqua Vitae, and Wines, and Water.
They gagged two Gentlewomen of the ſame Province, and had almoſt killed them by a great quantity of Wine which they forced down their Throats.
Another Lady of Quality, whilſt they conſum'd her Goods before her face, they, watching her by day and night, forced her to turn the Spit without any Reſt or Intermiſſion: and this hath been an ordinary practice to keep people ſo long waking, 7, 8, 9. days and nights together, the Dragoons watching by turns, till theſe poor Creatures having loſt their Senſes, and not knowing what Queſtions are put them, or Anſwers they make unto them, are intangled, carried to a Popiſh Church, and two Witneſſes ſwearing they ſaw this (though a delirious) Perſon at Maſs, if afterward, by Sleep or Food they came to themſelves again, and declare that they be Proteſtants, they are condemned for Relapſe, and burnt to death without Mercy.
An Eminent French Miniſter gave the Writer hereof this Relation, That Jan. 23. 1685. a Woman had her ſucking Child ſnatch'd from her Breaſts; and put into the next Room, which was only parted by a few Boards from hers. Theſe Devils incarnate would not let the poor Mother come to her Child, unleſs ſhe would renounce her Religion and become a Roman Catholick. Her Chiled crys and ſhe crys; her Bowels yearn upon her poor miſerable Infant; but the Fear of God, and of hell, and loſing her Soul, keep her from Apoſtaſie: however ſhe ſuffers a double Martyrdom, one in her own perſon, the other in that of her ſweet Babe, who dies, in her hearing, with Crying and Famine before its poor Mother.
Monſieur Elias Boutonnet, a Merchant of Marans near Rochell, was martyr'd by theſe bloody Miſcreants, after this manner, They hung him up by the Heels to a Poſt of his own Houſe, and ſmoak'd him to death with wet Straw ſet on fire.