Chapter 18 of Fox's Book of Martyrs, Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by David Bursow. Fox's Book of Martyrs, Volume 2 by John Fox, edited by William Byron Forbush. Chapter 18, The Rise, Progress, Persecutions, and Sufferings of the Quakers In treating of these people in a historical manner, we are obliged to have recourse to much tenderness. That they differ from the generality of Protestants in some of the capital points of religion cannot be denied. And yet, as Protestant dissenters, they are included under the description of the Toleration Act. It is not our business to inquire whether people of similar sentiments had any existence in the primitive ages of Christianity. Perhaps in some respects they had not, but we are to write of them not as what they were, but what they now are. That they have been treated by several writers in a very contemptuous manner is certain. That they did not deserve such treatment is equally certain. The Appalachian Quakers was bestowed upon them as a term of reproach and consequent of their apparent convulsions, which they labored under when they delivered their discourses because they imagined they were the effect of divine inspiration. It is not our business at present to inquire whether the sentiments of these people are agreeable to the Gospel, but this much is certain that the first leader of them as a separate body was a man of obscure birth who had his first existence in Leicestershire about the year 1624. In speaking of this man, we should deliver our own sentiments in a historical manner and joining these to what have been said by the friends themselves. We shall endeavor to furnish out a complete narrative. Bruce Fox was descendant of honest and respected parents who brought him up in the national religion, but from a child he appeared religious, still solid and observing, beyond his years, and uncommonly knowing in divine things. He was brought up to husbandry and other country business and was particularly inclined to the solitary occupation of a shepherd, and the argument that very well suited his mind in several respects, both for its innocencey and its solitude, and was a just emblem of his after ministry and service. In the year 1646 he entirely foresoaked the national church in whose tenets he had been brought up, as before observed, and in 1647 he traveled into Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire without any set purpose of visiting particular places, but in a solitary manner he walked through several towns and villages, which way so ever his mind turned. He fasted much, said Swell, and walked often in retired places with no other companion than his Bible. He visited the most retired and religious people in those parts, says Penn, and some there were short of few, if any, in this nation, who waited for the consolation of Israel night and day, as Zacharias, Anna, and Simeon did of old time. To these he was sent, and these he sought out in the neighboring counties, and among them he so germed until his more ample ministry came upon him. At this time he taught, and was an example of silence, endeavoring to bring them from self-performances, testifying of and turning them to the light of Christ within them, and encouraging them to wait in patience, and to feel the power of it to stir in their hearts, that their knowledge and worship of God might stand in the power of an endless life, which was to be found in the light as it was obeyed in the manifestation of it in man. For in the word was life, and that life is the light of men. Life in the word, light in men, and life in men too as the light is obeyed. The children of the light living by the life of the word, by which the word begets them again to God, which is the generation and new birth, without which there is no coming into the kingdom of God, and to which whoever comes is greater than John, that is then John's dispensation, which was not that of the kingdom, but the consummation of the legal and forerunning of the gospel times, the time of the kingdom. Accordingly several meetings were gathering in those parts, and thus his time was employed for some years. In the year 1652 he had a visitation of the great work of God in the earth, and of the way that he was to go forth in a public ministry to begin it. He directed his course northward, and in every place where he came, if not before he came to it, he had his particular exercise and service shown to him, so that the Lord was his leader indeed. He made great numbers of converts to his opinions, and many pious and good men joined him in his ministry. These were drawn forth especially to visit the public assemblies to reprove, reform, and exhort them. Sometimes in markets, fairs, streets, and by the highway side, calling people to repentance and to return to the Lord, with their hearts as well as their mouths, directing them to the light of Christ within them, to see, examine, and to consider their ways, by and to eschew the evil and to do the good and acceptable will of God. They were not without opposition in the work they imagined themselves called to, being often set in the stocks, stoned, beaten, whipped, and imprisoned, though honest men of good report, that had left wives, children, houses, and lands to visit them with a living call to repentance. But these coercive methods rather forded than abated their zeal, and in those parts they brought over many proselytes, and among them several magistrates and others of the better sort. They apprehended the Lord had forbidden them to pull off their hats to anyone, high or low, and required them to speak to the people without distinction, the language of thou and thee. They scruple bidding people good morrow or good night, nor might they bend the knee to anyone, even in supreme authority. Both men and women went in a plain and simple dress, different from the fashion of the times. They neither gave nor accepted any titles of respect or honor, nor would they call any man master on earth. Several texts of scripture they quoted in defense of these singularities, such as swear not at all. How can ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that comes from God only? Etc. They placed the basis of religion in an inward light and an extraordinary impulse of the Holy Spirit. In 1654 their first separate meeting in London was held in the house of Robert Dring in Watling Street, for by that time they spread themselves into all parts of the kingdom and had in many places set up meetings or assemblies, particularly in Lancashire and the adjacent parts, but they were still exposed to great persecutions and trials of every kind. One of them in a letter to the protector, Oliver Cromwell, represents though there are no penal laws in force obliging men to comply with the established religion, yet the Quakers are exposed upon other accounts. They are fined and imprisoned for refusing to take an oath, for not paying their tithes, for disturbing the public assemblies and meetings in the streets and places of public resort. Some of them have been whipped as vagabonds and for their plain speeches to the magistrate. Under favor of the then toleration, they opened their meetings at the Bull and Mouth in Aldersgate Street, where women as well as men were moved to speak. Their zeal transported them to some extravagancies which laid them still more open to the lash of their enemies, who exercised various severities upon them throughout the next reign. Upon the suppression of vener's mad insurrection, the government, having published a proclamation forbidding the Anabaptist, Quakers, and Fifth Monarchy men to assemble or meet together under pretense of worshiping God, except it be in some parochial church, chapel, or in private houses by consent of the persons they're inhabiting, all meetings and other places being declared to be unlawful and riotous, etc. The Quakers thought it expedient to address the king they're on, which they did in the following words. O King Charles, our desire is that thou mayest live forever in the fear of God and thy counsel. We beseech thee and thy counsel to read these following lines in tender bowels and compassion for our souls and for your good. And this consider we are about four hundred imprisoned in and about this city of men and women from their families besides in the county jails about ten hundred. We desire that our meetings may not be broken up, but that all may come to a fair trial that our innocence may be cleared up, written London, 16th day, 11th month, 1660. On the twenty-eighth of the same month, they published the declaration referred to in their address entitled, A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of God, called Quakers, against all sedition, plotters and fighters in the world, for removing the ground of jealousy and suspicion from both magistrates and people in the kingdom concerning wars and fighting. It was presented to the king the twenty-first day of the eleventh month, 1660, and he promised them upon his royal word that they should not suffer for their opinions as long as they lived peaceably. But his promises were very little regarded afterward. In 1661, they assumed courage to petition the House of Lords for a toleration of their religion and for a dispensation from taking the oaths, which they held unlawful, not from any disaffection to the government or a belief that they were less obliged by an affirmation, but from a persuasion that all oaths were unlawful and that swearing upon the most solemn occasions was forbidden in the New Testament. Their petition was rejected, and instead of granting them relief, an act was passed against them, the preamble to which set forth, quote, that whereas several persons have taken up an opinion that an oath even before a magistrate is unlawful and contrary to the word of God, and whereas under pretense of religious worship the said persons do assemble in great numbers in several parts of the kingdom, separating themselves from the rest of his majesty's subjects and the public congregations and usual places of divine worship. Be it therefore enacted that if any such persons, after the 24th of March 1661, shall refuse to take an oath when lawfully tendered or persuade others to do it or maintain in writing or otherwise the unlawfulness of taking an oath, or if they shall assemble for religious worship to the number of five or more of the age of fifteen, they shall for the first offense forfeit five pounds, for the second ten pounds, and for the third shall abjure the realm or be transported to the plantations and the justice of peace and their open sessions may hear and finally determine in the affair." This act had a most dreadful effect upon the Quakers, though it was well known and notorious that these conscientious persons were far from sedition or disaffection to the government. George Fox and his address to the king equates him that 3068 of their friends had been imprisoned since his majesty's restoration, that their meetings were daily broken up by men with clubs and arms and their friends thrown into the water and trampled underfoot until the blood gushed out, which gave rise to their meeting in the open streets. A relation was printed signed by twelve witnesses which says that more than 4200 Quakers were imprisoned and of them 500 were in and about London and the suburbs, several of whom were dead in the jails. 600 of them, says an account published at that time, were in prison merely for religion's sake, of whom several were banished to the plantations. In short, the Quakers gave such full employment to the informers that they had less leisure to attend the meetings of other dissenters. Yet under all these calamities, they behaved with patience and modesty towards the government and upon occasion of the Ryehouse plot in 1682, they thought proper to declare their innocence of that sham plot in an address to the king, wherein appealing to the surcher of all hearts, they say, quote, their principles did not allow them to take up defensive arms much less to avenge themselves for the injuries they received from others, that they continually pray for the king's safety and preservation and therefore take this occasion humbly to beseech his majesty to have compassion on their suffering friends with whom the jails are so filled that they want air to the apparent hazard of their lives and to the endangering in infection in diverse places. Besides many houses, shops, barns and fields are ransacked and the goods, corn and cattle swept away to the discouraging trade and husbandry and impoverishing great numbers of quiet and industrious people and this for no other cause but for the exercise of a tender conscience in the worship of Almighty God who is sovereign Lord and King of men's consciences, end quote. On the accession of James II, they addressed that monarch honestly and plainly telling him, quote, we are come to testify our sorrow for the death of our good friend Charles and our joy for thy being made our governor. We are told that thou art not of the persuasion of the Church of England no more than we. Therefore we hope thou will grant us the same liberty which thou allowest thyself which doing we wish the all manner of happiness, end quote. When James, by his dispensing power, granted liberty to the dissenters, they began to enjoy some rest from their troubles and indeed it was high time for they were swelled to an enormous amount. They the year before this to them one of glad release in a petition to James for a cessation of their sufferings set forth, quote, that of late above 1,500 of their friends, both men and women and that now there remain 1,383 of which 200 are women, many under sentence of premoner and more than 300 near it for refusing the oath of allegiance because they could not swear. 350 have died in prison since the year 1680. In London the jail of Newgate has been crowded within these two years, sometimes with near 20 in a room whereby several have been suffocated and others who have been taken out sick have died of malignant fevers within a few days. Great violences, outrageous distresses and woeful havoc and spoil have been made upon people's goods and estates by a company of idle, extravagant and merciless informers by persecutions on the Conventical Act and others also on qui tam ritz and on other processes for 20 pounds a month and two-thirds of their estates seized for the king. Some had not a bed to rest on, others had no cattle to till the ground nor corn for food or bread nor tools to work with. The said informers and bailiffs in some places breaking into houses and making great waste and spoil under pretense of serving the king and the church. Our religious assemblies have been charged at common law with being rioters and disturbers of the public peace whereby great numbers have been confined in prison without regard to age and many confined to holes and dungeons. The seizing for 20 pounds a month has amounted to many thousands and several who have employed some hundreds of poor people and manufacturers are disabled to do so anymore by reason of long imprisonment. They spare neither widow nor fatherless nor have they so much as a bed to lie on. The informers are both witnesses and prosecutors of the ruin of great numbers of sober families and justices of the peace have been threatened with the forfeiture of 100 pounds if they do not issue out warrants upon their information. With this petition they presented a list of their friends in prison in the several counties amounting to 460. During the reign of King James II these people were through the intercession of their friend Mr. Penn treated with greater indulgence than ever they had had before. They were now become extremely numerous in many parts of the country and the settlement of Pennsylvania taking place soon after many of them went over to America. There they enjoyed the blessings of a peaceful government and cultivated the arts of honest industry. As the whole colony was the property of Mr. Penn he invited people of all denominations to come and settle with him. A universal liberty of conscience took place and in this new colony the natural rights of mankind were for the first time established. These friends are in the present age a very harmless, inoffensive body of people but of that we shall take more notice hereafter. By their wise regulations they may not only do honor to themselves but they are a vast service to the community. It may be necessary here to observe that as the friends commonly called Quakers will not take an oath in a court of justice so their affirmation is permitted in all civil affairs but they cannot prosecute a criminal because in the English Courts of Justice all evidence must be upon oath. An account of the persecution of the friends commonly called Quakers in the United States. About the middle of the 17th century much persecution and sufferings were inflicted on a set of Protestant dissenters commonly called Quakers a people which arose at the time in England some of whom sealed their testimony with their blood. For an account of the above people see Sewells or Go's history of them. The principal points upon which their conscientious non-conformity rendered them obnoxious to the penalties of the law were 1. The Christian resolution of assembling publicly for the worship of God in a manner most agreeable to their consciences. 2. Their refusal to pay ties which they esteemed a Jewish ceremony abrogated by the coming of Christ. 3. Their testimony against wars and fighting the practice of which they judged inconsistent with the command of Christ. Love your enemies, Matthew 544. 4. Their constant obedience to the command of Christ swear not at all, Matthew 534. 5. Their refusal to pay rates or assessments for buildings and repairing houses for a worship which they did not approve. 6. Their use of the proper and scriptural language thou and thee to a single person and their disuse of the custom of uncovering their heads or pulling off their hats by way of homage to man. 7. The necessity many found themselves under of publishing what they believed to be the doctrine of truth and sometimes even in the places appointed for the public national worship. 8. Their conscientious non-compliance in the preceding particulars exposed them to much persecution and suffering which consisted in prosecutions, fines, cruel beatings, whippings and other corporal punishments, imprisonment, banishment and even death. To relate a particular account of their persecutions and sufferings would extend beyond the limits of this work. We shall therefore refer for that information to the histories already mentioned and more particularly to Benz's collection of their sufferings. And we shall confine our account here mostly to those who sacrificed their lives and events by their disposition of mind, constancy, patience and faithful perseverance that they were influenced by a sense of religious duty. Numerous and repeated were the persecutions against them and sometimes for transgressions or offenses which the law did not contemplate or embrace. Many of the fines and penalties exacted of them were not only unreasonable and exorbitant but as they could not consistently pay them were sometimes restrained to several times the value of the demand whereby many poor families were greatly distressed and obliged to depend on the assistance of their friends. Numbers were not only cruelly beaten and whipped in a public manner like criminals but some were branded and others had their ears cut off. Great numbers were long confined in loathsome prisons in which some ended their days in consequence thereof. Many were sentenced to banishment and a considerable number were transported. Some were banished on pain of death and four were actually executed by the hands of the hangmen as we shall here relate after inserting copies of some of the laws of the country where they suffered. At a general court held at Boston the 14th of October 1656 quote whereas there is a cursed sect of heretics lately risen up in the world which are commonly called Quakers who take upon them to be immediately sent from God and infallibly assisted by the spirit to speak and write blasphemous opinions despising government and the order of God in the church and commonwealth speaking evil of dignities reproaching and reviling magistrates and ministers seeking to turn the people from the faith and gain proselyte to their pernicious ways this court taking into consideration the premises and to prevent the like mischief as by their means is wrought in our land doth hereby order and by authority of this court be it ordered and enacted that what master or commander of any ship bark pink or catch shall henceforth bring into any harbor, creek or cove within this jurisdiction any Quaker or Quakers or other blasphemous heretics shall pay or cause to be paid the fine of one hundred pounds to the treasurer of the country except it appear he want true knowledge or information of their being such and in that case he has liberty to clear himself by his oath when sufficient proof to the contrary is wanting and for default of good payment or good security for it shall be cast into prison and there to continue until the said some be satisfied to the treasurer as her fore said and the commander of any catch, ship or vessel being legally convicted shall give insufficient security to the governor or anyone or more of the magistrates who have power to determine the same to carry them back to the place whence he brought them and on his refusal so to do the governor or one or more of the magistrates are hereby empowered to issue out his or their warrants to commit such master or commander to prison there to continue until they give insufficient security to the contentment of the governor or any of the magistrates as a fore said and it is hereby further ordered and enacted that what quaker so ever shall arrive in this country from foreign parts or shall come into this jurisdiction from any parts adjacent shall be forthwith committed to the house of correction and at their entrance to be severely whipped and by the master thereof be kept constantly to work and none suffered to converse or speak with them during the time of their imprisonment which shall be no longer the necessity requires and it is ordered if any person shall knowingly import into any harbor of this jurisdiction any quaker's books or writings concerning their devilish opinions shall pay for such book or writing being legally proved against him or them the sum of five pounds and whoever so disperse or conceal any such book or writing and it be found with him or her or in his or her house and shall not immediately deliver the same to the next magistrate shall forfeit or pay five pounds for the dispersing or concealing of any such book or writing and it is further enacted that if any persons within this colony shall take upon them to defend the heretical opinions of the quakers or any of their books or papers shall be fined for the first time forty shillings if they shall persist in the same and shall again defend it the second time four pounds if notwithstanding they again defend and maintain the said quaker's heretical opinions they shall be committed to the house of correction until there be convenient passage to send them out of the land being sentenced by the court of assistance to banishment lastly it is hereby ordered that what person or person so ever shall revile the persons of the magistrates or ministers as is usual with the quakers such person or person shall be severely whipped or pay the sum of five pounds this is a true copy of the court's order as a test Edward Rawson secretary end quote at a general court held at Boston the 14th of October 1657 quote as an addition to the late order in reference to the coming or bringing of any of the cursed sect of the quakers into this jurisdiction it is ordered that who so ever shall from henceforth bring or cause to be brought directly or indirectly any known quaker or quakers or other blasphemous heretics into this jurisdiction every such person shall forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds to the country and shall by warrant from any magistrate be committed to prison there to remain until the penalty be satisfied and paid and if any person or persons within this jurisdiction shall henceforth entertain and conceal any such quaker or quakers or other blasphemous heretics knowing them so to be every such person shall forfeit to the country forty shillings for every hour's entertainment and concealment of any quaker or quakers as a foresaid and shall be committed to prison as a foresaid until the forfeiture be fully satisfied and paid and it is further ordered that if any quaker or quakers shall presume after they have once suffered what the law requires to come into this jurisdiction every such male quaker shall for the first offense shall be cut off and be kept at work in the house of correction until he can be sent away at his own charge and for the second offense shall have his other ear cut off and every woman quaker that has suffered the law here that shall presume to come into this jurisdiction shall be severely whipped and kept at the house of corrections at work until she be sent away at her own charge and so also for her coming again she shall be alike used as a foresaid and for every quaker he or she that shall a third time herein again offend they shall have their tongues bored through with the hot iron and be kept at the house of correction close to work until they be sent away at their own charge and it is further ordered that all and every quaker arising from among ourselves shall be dealt with and suffer the like punishment as the law provides against foreign quakers Edward Rossin secretary end quote another act this one made at a general court held at Boston the 20th of October 1658 quote whereas there is a pernicious sect commonly called Quakers lately risen who by word and writing have published and maintained many dangerous and horrid tenets and do take upon them to change and alter the received laudable customs of our nation and giving civil respects to equals or reverence to superiors whose actions tend to undermine the civil government and also to destroy the order of the churches by denying all established forms of worship and withdrawing from orderly church fellowship allowed and approved by all orthodox professors of truth and instead thereof opposition thereto frequently meeting by themselves insinuating themselves into the minds of the simple or such as are at least affected to the order and government of church and commonwealth whereby divers of our inhabitants have been infected notwithstanding all former laws made upon the experience of their arrogant and bold obtrusions to disseminate their principles among us prohibiting their coming into this jurisdiction they have not been deferred from their impious attempts to undermine our peace and hazard our ruin for prevention thereof this court doth order and enact that any person or persons of the cursed sect of the Quakers who is not an inhabitant of but is found within this jurisdiction shall be apprehended without warrant where no magistrate is at hand by any constable, commissioner or select man made from constable to constable to the next magistrate who shall commit the said person to close prison there to remain without bail until the next court of assistance where they shall have legal trial and being convicted to be of the sect of the Quakers shall be sentenced to banishment on pain of death and that every inhabitant of this jurisdiction being convicted to be of the aforesaid sect by taking up publishing or defending the horrid opinions of the Quakers or the stirring up mutiny, sedition or rebellion against the government or by taking up their abusive and destructive practices i.e. denying civil respect to equals and superiors and withdrawing from the church assemblies and instead thereof frequenting meetings of their own in opposition to our church order adhering to or approving of any known Quaker and the tenants and practices of Quakers that are opposite to the orthodox received opinions of the godly and endeavoring to disaffect others to civil government and church order or condemning the practice and proceedings of this court against the Quakers manifesting thereby their complying with those whose design is to overthrow the order established in church and state every such person upon conviction before the said court of assistance in manner of foresaid shall be committed to closed prison for one month and then unless they choose voluntarily to depart this jurisdiction shall give bond for their good behavior and appear at the next court continuing obstinate and refusing to retract and reform the aforesaid opinions they shall be sentenced to banishment upon pain of death and any one magistrate upon information given him of any such person shall cause him to be apprehended and shall commit any such person to prison according to his discretion until he came to trial as aforesaid end quote it appears there were also laws passed in both of the then colonies of New Plymouth and New Haven and in the Dutch settlement at New Amsterdam now New York prohibiting the people called Quakers from coming into those places under severe penalties in consequence of which some underwent considerable suffering the first who were executed were William Robinson, merchant of London and Marmaduke Stevenson a countryman of Yorkshire these coming to Boston in the beginning of September were sent for by the court of assistance and their sentenced to banishment on pain of death this sentence was passed also on Mary Dyer mentioned hereafter and Nicholas Davis who were both at Boston but William Robinson being looked upon as a teacher was also condemned to be whipped severely and the constable was commanded to get an able man to do it then Robinson was brought into the street and there stripped and having his hands put through the holes of the carriage of a great gun where the jailer held him the executioner gave him 20 stripes with a three fold cord whip then he and the other prisoners were shortly after released and banished as appears from the following warrant quote you are required by these presently dissented Liberty William Robinson Marmaduke Stevenson Mary Dyer and Nicholas Davis who by an order of the court and counsel have been imprisoned because it appeared by their own confession words and actions that they are Quakers wherefore a sentence was pronounced against them to depart this jurisdiction on pain of death and that they must answer it at their peril if they or any of them after the 14th of this month September are found within this jurisdiction or any part thereof end quote signed to Edward Rawson Boston September 12th 1659 though Mary Dyer and Nicholas Davis left that jurisdiction for that time yet Robinson and Stevenson though they departed the town of Boston could not yet resolved not being free in mind to depart that jurisdiction though their lives were at stake and so they went to Salem and some places thereabouts to visit and build up their friends in the faith but it was not long before they were taken and put again into prison at Boston and chains locked to their legs in the next month Mary Dyer returned also and she stood before the prison speaking with one Christopher Holden who was come there to inquire for a ship bound for England whether he intended to go she was also taken into custody thus they had now three persons who according to their law had forfeited their lives and on the 20th of October these three were brought into court where John Endicott and others were assembled and being called to the bar Endicott commanded the keeper to pull off their hats and then said that they had made several laws to keep the Quakers from among them and neither whipping nor imprisoning nor cutting off ears nor banishment upon pain of death would keep them from among them and further he said that he or they desired not the death of any of them yet not withstanding his following words without more ado were severe and hark into your sentence of death sentence of death was also passed upon Marmaduke Stevenson Mary Dyer and William Edred several others were in prison whipped and fined we have no disposition to justify the pilgrims for these proceedings but we think considering the circumstances of the age in which they lived their conduct admits of much palliation the fathers of New England endured incredible hardships to protect themselves a home in the wilderness and to protect themselves in the undisturbed enjoyment of rights which they had purchased at so dear a rate they sometimes adopted measures which if tried by the more enlightened and liberal views of the present day must at once be pronounced altogether unjustifiable but shall they be condemned without mercy for not acting up to principles which were unacknowledged and unknown throughout the whole of Christendom shall they alone be held responsible for opinions and conduct which had become sacred by antiquity and which were common to Christians of all other denominations every government then in existence assumed to itself the right to legislate in matters of religion and to restrain heresy by penal statutes this right was claimed by rulers admitted by subjects and is sanctioned by the names of Lord Bacon and Montesquieu and many others equally famed for their talents in learning it is unjust then to press upon one poor persecuted sect the sins of all Christendom the fault of our fathers was the fault of the age and though this cannot justify it certainly furnishes an extenuation of their conduct as well might you condemn them for not understanding and acting up to the principles of religious toleration at the same time it is but to say that imperfect as were their views of the rights of conscience they were nevertheless far in advance of the age to which they belonged and it is to them more than to any other class of men on earth the world is indebted for the more rational views that now prevail on the subject of civil and religious liberty End of Chapter 18 Recording by David Bersault www.davidbercot.com Chapter 19 of Fox's Book of Martyrs Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Fox's Book of Martyrs Volume 2 by John Fox edited by William Byron Corbush Chapter 19 An Account of the Life and Persecutions of John Bunyan This great Puritan was born the same year that the pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth His home was Elstow near Bedford in England His father was a tinker and he was brought up to the same trade He was a lively, likable boy with a serious and almost morbid side to his nature All during his young manhood he was repenting for the vices of his youth and yet he had never been either a drunkard The particular acts that troubled his conscience were dancing ringing the church bells and playing cat It was while playing the latter game one day that, quote, a voice did suddenly dart from heaven into my soul which said Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven or have thy sins and go to hell, unquote At about this time he overheard three or four poor women in Bedford talking as they sat at the door in the sun Quote, their talk was about the new birth, the work of God in the hearts They were far above my reach, end, quote In his youth he was a member of the Parliamentary Army for a year The death of his comrade close beside him deepened his tendency to serious thoughts and there were times when he seemed almost insane in his zeal and penitence He was at one time quite assured that he had sinned the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost While he was still a young man he married a good woman who bought him a library of pious books which he read with aciduity thus confirming his earnestness and increasing his love of religious controversies His conscience was still further awakened through the persecution of the religious body of Baptists to whom he had joined himself When he was 30 years old he had become a leading Baptist preacher Then came his turn for persecution He was arrested for preaching without license, quote Before I went down to the justice I begged of God that his will be done, for I was not without hopes that my imprisonment might be an awakening to the saints in the country. Only in that matter did I commit the thing to God and verily at my return I did meet my God sweetly in the prison, end quote His hardships were genuine on account of the wretched condition of the prisons of those days To this confinement was added the personal grief of being parted from his young and second wife and four small children and particularly his little blind daughter While he was in jail he was solaced by the two books which had been brought with him of martyrs Although he wrote some of his early books during this long imprisonment it was not until his second and shorter one, three years after the first, that he composed his Immortal Pilgrims Progress which was published three years later. In an earlier tract he had thought briefly of the similarity between human life and a pilgrimage and he now worked this theme out in fascinating detail using the rural England for his background the splendid city of London for his vanity fair and the saints and villains of his own personal acquaintance for the finely drawn characters of his allegory The Pilgrims Progress is truly the rehearsal of Bunyan's own spiritual experiences He himself had been the quote, man clothed in rags with his face from his own house a book in his hand and a great burden upon his back after he had realized that Christ was his righteousness and that this did not depend on quote the good frame of his heart and quote or as we should say on his feelings quote now did the chains fall off my legs indeed and quote his had been doubting castle and slews of despond with much of the valley of humiliation and the shadow of death but above all it is a victory once when he was leaving the doors of the courthouse where he himself had been defeated he wrote quote as I was going forth of the doors I had much adieu to bear saying to them that I carried the peace of God along with me and quote in his vision was ever the celestial city with all its bells ringing he had fought a Pollyon constantly and often wounded shamed and fallen yet in the end quote more than conqueror through him that loved us and quote his book was at first received with much criticism from his Puritan friends who saw in it only in addition to the worldly literature of his day but there was not much then for Puritans to read and it was not long before it was devoutly laid beside their Bibles and perused with gladness and with profit it was perhaps two centuries later before literary critics began to realize that this story so full of human reality and interest and so marvelously modeled upon the English of the King James translation of the Bible is one of the glories of English literature in his later years he wrote several other allegories of which one of them the Holy War it has been said that quote if the pilgrims progress had never been written it would be regarded as the finest story in the language end quote during the later years of his life Bunyan remained in Bedford as a venerated local pastor and preacher he was also a favorite speaker in the nonconformist pulpits of London he became so national a leader and teacher that he was frequently called Bishop Bunyan in his helpful and unselfish personal life he was apostolic his last illness was due to upon a journey in which he was endeavoring to reconcile a father with his son his end came on the 3rd of August 1688 he was buried in Bunhill fields a churchyard in London there is no doubt but that the pilgrims progress has been more helpful than any other book but the Bible it was timely for they were still burning martyrs in Vanity Fair while he was writing it is enduring for while it tells little of living the Christian life in the family and community it does interpret that life so far as it is an expression of the solitary soul in homely language Bunyan indeed quote showed how to build a princely throne on humble truth end quote he has been his own great heart dauntless guide to pilgrims to many end of chapter 19 chapter 20 of Fox's Book of Martyrs volume 2 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Fox's Book of Martyrs volume 2 by John Fox edited by William Byron Forbush chapter 20 an account of the life of John Wesley John Wesley was born on the 17th of June 1703 in Upworth Rectory, England the 15th of 19 children of Charles and Susanna Wesley the father of Wesley was a preacher and Wesley's mother was a remarkable woman in wisdom and intelligence she was a woman of deep piety and brought her little ones into close contact with the bible stories telling them from the tiles about the nursery fire place she also used to dress her children in their best on the days when they were to have the privilege of learning their alphabet as an introduction to the reading of the holy scriptures young Wesley was a gay and manly youth fond of games and particularly of dancing at Oxford he was a leader and during the latter part of his course there was one of the founders of the Holy Club an organization of serious-minded students his religious nature deepened through study and experience but it was not until several years after he left the university and came under the influence of Luther's writings that he felt that he had entered into the full riches of the gospel he and his brother Charles were sent by the society for the propagation of the gospel to Georgia where both of them developed their powers as preachers upon their passage they fell into the company of several Arabian brethren members of the association recently renewed by the labors of Count Zinsendorf it was noted by John Wesley in his diary that in a great tempest when the English people on board lost all self-possession these Germans impressed him by their composure and entire resignation to God he also marked their humility under shameful treatment it was on his return to England that he entered into those deeper experiences and developed those marvelous powers as a popular preacher which made him a national leader he was associated at this time also with George Whitefield the tradition of whose marvelous eloquence has never died what he accomplished borders upon the incredible upon entering his 85th year he thanked God that he was still almost as vigorous as ever he ascribed it under God to the fact that he had always slept soundly had risen for 60 years at 4 o'clock in the morning and for 50 years had preached every morning at 5 seldom in all his life did he feel any pain, care or anxiety he preached twice each day and often thrice or four times it has been estimated that he traveled every year 4500 English miles mostly upon horseback the successes won by Methodist preaching had to be gained through a long series of years and amid the most bitter persecutions in nearly every part of England it was met at the first by the mob with stones and peltings with attempts at wounding and slaying only at times was there any interference on the part of the civil power the two Wesley's faced all these dangers with amazing courage and with a calmness equally astonishing what was more irritating was the heaping up of slander and abuse by the writers of the day these books are now all forgotten Wesley had been in his youth a high churchman and was always deeply devoted to the established communion when he found it necessary to ordain preachers the separation of his followers from the established body became inevitable the name Methodist soon attached to them because of the particular organizing power of their leader and the ingenious methods that he applied the Wesley Fellowship which after his death grew into the great Methodist church was characterized by an almost military perfection of organization the entire management of his ever growing denomination rested upon Wesley himself the annual conference established in 1744 acquired a governing power only after the death of Wesley Charles Wesley rendered the society a service in calculably great by his hymns they introduced a new era in the hymnology of the English church John Wesley apportioned his days to his work in leading the church to studying for he was an incessant reader to traveling and to preaching Wesley was untiring in his efforts to disseminate useful knowledge throughout his denomination he planned for the mental culture of his traveling preachers and local exorters and for schools of instruction for the future teachers of the church he himself prepared books for popular use upon universal history church history and natural history in this Wesley was an apostle of the modern union of mental culture with Christian living he published also the best matured of his sermons and various theological works these both by their depth and their penetration of thought and by their purity and precision of style excite our admiration John Wesley was of but ordinary stature and yet of noble presence his features were very handsome even in old age he had an open brow an eagle nose a clear eye a fresh complexion his manners were fine and in choice company with Christian people he enjoyed relaxation persistent laborious love for men's souls steadfastness and tranquility of spirit were his most prominent traits of character even in doctrinal controversies he exhibited the greatest calmness he was kind and very liberal his industry has been named already in the last 52 years of his life it is estimated that he preached more than 40,000 sermons Wesley brought sinners to repentance throughout three kingdoms and over two hemispheres he was the bishop of such a diocese as neither the eastern nor the western church ever witnessed before what is there in the circle of Christian effort foreign missions, home missions Christian tracks and literature preaching, circuit preaching Bible readings or ought else which was not attempted by John Wesley which was not grasped by his mighty mind through the aid of his divine leader to him it was granted to arouse the English church when it had lost sight of Christ the redeemer to a renewed Christian life by preaching the justifying and renewing of the soul through belief upon Christ he lifted many thousands of the humbler classes of the English people from their exceeding ignorance and evil habits and made them earnest faithful Christians his untiring effort made itself felt not in England alone but in America and in continental Europe not only the germs of almost all the existing zeal in England on behalf of Christian truth and life are due to Methodism but the activity stirred up in other portions of Protestant Europe thus to trace indirectly at least to Wesley he died in 1791 after a long life of tireless labor and unselfish service his fervent spirit and hearty brotherhood still survives in the body that cherishes his name End of Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Part 1 of Fox's Book of Martyrs Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Chris Caron Fox's Book of Martyrs Volume 2 by John Fox Edited by William Brian Forbush Chapter 21 Persecutions of the French Protestants in the South of France during the years 1814 and 1820 Part 1 The persecution in this Protestant part of France continued with very little intermission from the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis the 16th until a very short period previous to the commencement of the late French Revolution in the year 1785 M. Rebot Saint Etiné and the celebrated M. D. Lafayette were among the first persons who interested themselves with the court of Louis the 16th in removing the scourge of persecution from this injured people the inhabitants of the South of France Such was the opposition on the part of the Catholics and the courtiers that it was not until the end of the year 1790 that the Protestants were freed from their alarms Previously to this the Catholics at Neismes in particular had taken up arms Neismes then presented a frightful spectacle in which the armed men ran through the city fired from the corners of the streets and attacked all they met with swords and forks A man named Astouk was wounded and thrown into the aqueduct Botton fell under the repeated strokes of bayonets and sabers and his body was also thrown into the water Bocher, a very young man only 17 years of age was shot as he was looking out of the window three electors wounded one dangerously another wounded only escaped death by repeatedly declaring he was a Catholic a third received four sabre wounds and was taking home dreadfully mangled the citizens that fled were arrested by the Catholics upon the roads and obliged to give proofs of their religion before their lives were granted M. and Madame Vogue were at their country house which the zealots broke open where they massacred both and destroyed their dwelling M. Blatcher, a Protestant 70 years of age was cut to pieces with a sickle young Pyre carrying some food to his brother was asked Catholic or Protestant Protestant being the reply a monster fired at the lad and he fell one of the murderer's compassion said you might as well have killed a lamb I have sworn replied he to kill four Protestants for my share and this will count for one however as these atro-cities provoke the troops to unite in defense of the people a terrible vengeance was retailed upon the Catholic party that had used arms which with other circumstances especially the toleration exercised by Napoleon Bonaparte keep them down completely until the year 1814 when the unexpected return of the ancient government rallied them all once more round the old banners the arrival of King Louis the 18th at Paris this was known at Nise-Mays on the 13th of April 1814 in a quarter of an hour the white cockade was seen in every direction the white flag floated on the public buildings on the splendid monuments of antiquity and even on the tower of Mange beyond the city walls the Protestants whose commerce had suffered materially during the war were among the first to unite in the general joy and to send in their adhesion to the senate and the legislative body and several of the Protestant departments sent addresses to the throne but unfortunately M. Frohman was again at Nise-Mays at the moment when many bigots being ready to join him the blindness and fury of the 16th century rapidly succeeded the intelligence and philanthropy of the 19th a line of distinction was instantly traced between men of different religions' opinions the spirit of the old catholic church was again to regulate each person's share of esteem and safety the difference of religion was now to cover anything else and even catholic domestics who had served Protestants with zeal and affection began to neglect their duties or to perform them ungraciously and with reluctance at the fetis and spectacles that were given at the public expense the absence of the Protestants was charged on them as a proof of their disloyalty and in the midst of the cries of Vive de Roy the discordant sounds of a boss led mayor down with the mayor were heard M. Castletown was a Protestant he appeared in public with M. Rouland a Catholic when potatoes were thrown at him and the people declared that he ought to resign his office the big odds of Nesmes even succeeded in procuring an address to be presented to the king stating that there ought to be in France but one god one king and one faith in this that they were imitated by the Catholics of several towns the history of the silver child about this time M. Baron, counselor of the Coeur Royal of Nesmes formed the plan of dedicating to God a silver child if the Duchess d'Angolme would give a prince to France this project was converted into a public religious vow which was the subject of conversation both in public and private while persons whose imaginations were inflamed by these proceedings read about the streets crying or the vent des bourbons or the bourbons forever in consequence of the superstitious frenzy it is said that alias women were advised and instigated to poison their Protestant husbands and at length it was found convenient to accuse them of political crimes they could no longer appear in public without insults and injuries when the mobs met with Protestants they seized him and they danced around them with a cry and a misrepeated cries of Vive des Roy they sang verses, the burden of which was we will wash our hands in Protestant blood and make black puddings of the blood of Calvin's children the citizens who came to the promenades for air and refreshment from the close and dirty streets were chased with shouts of Vive des Roy as if those shouts were to justify every excess if Protestants referred to the charter they were directly assured it would be that they had only been managed to be more effectually destroyed persons of rank were heard to say in the public streets all the Huguenots must be killed this time their children must be killed that none of the accursed race may remain still it is true they were not murdered but cruelly treated Protestant children could no longer mix in the sports of Catholics and were not even permitted to appear without their parents at dark their families shut themselves up in their apartments but even then stones were thrown against their windows when they arose in the mountain it was not uncommon to vine gibbets drawn on their doors or walls and in the streets the Catholics held cords already soaked before their eyes and pointed out instruments by which they hoped and designed to exterminate them small gallows or models were huddled about and a man who lived opposite to one of their pastors exhibited one of these models in his window and made signs sufficiently intelligible when the minister passed a figure representing a Protestant preacher was also hung up on the public crossway and the most atrocious songs were sung under his window towards the conclusion of the carnival a plan that had even been formed to make a caricature of the four ministers of the place and burn them in aphage but this was prevented by the major of Nimes, a Protestant a dreadful song presented to the perfect in every country in the country dialect with a false translation was printed by his approval and had a great run before he saw the extent of the roar into which he had been betrayed the sixty-third regime of the line was publicly censored and insulted for having according to order protected Protestants in fact, the Protestants seem to be as sheep destined for the slaughter the Catholic arms at Bioclair in May 1815 a federative association similar to that of Lyon's Gerenoble Paris Avingon and Montpelier was desired by many persons at Nimes but this federation terminated here after an ephemeral and illusory existence of fourteen days in the meanwhile, a large party of Catholic zealots were in arms at Bioclair and who soon published their patrols so near the walls of Nimes so as to alarm the inhabitants these Catholics appealed to be the English of Mercelius for assistance and obtained the grant of one thousand muskets ten thousand cartouches etc General Gilly however was soon sent against these partisans who prevented them from coming to extremes by granting them an armistice and yet when Louis the 18th had returned to Paris after the expiration of Napoleon's reign of a hundred days in peace and party spirit seemed to have been subdued even at Nimes bans from Bioclair joined Tristallion in the city to glut the vengeance they had so long premeditated General Gilly had left the department several days the troops of the line left behind had taken the white cockade and waited further orders whilst the new commissioners had only to proclaim the cessation of hostilities and the complete establishment of the king's authority in vain no commissioners appeared no dispatches arrived to calm and regulate the public mind but towards evening the advance guard of the banditie to the amount of several hundreds entered the city desired but unopposed as they marched without order or discipline covered with clothes or rags of all colors decorated with cockades not white but white and green armed with muskets sabers forks pistols and reaping hooks intoxicated with wine and stained with the blood of the protestants whom they had murdered on their route they presented a host hideous and appealing spectacle in the open in front of the barracks this banditie was joined by the city armed mob headed by Jacques Dupont commonly called trustalian to save the effusion of blood this garrison of about 500 men consented to capitulate and marched out sad and defenseless but when about 50 had passed the rabble commenced a tremendous confiding and unprotected victims nearly all were killed or wounded but very few could re-enter the yard before the garrison gates were again closed these were again forced in an instant and all were massacred who could not climb over roofs or leap into adjoining gardens in a word death met them in every place and in every shape and this catholic massacre revalued in cruelty and surpassed the treachery the crimes of the september assassins of paris and the jacobinical botaries of lions and avigan it was marked not only by the fervor of the revolution but by the subtly of the league and will not remain and will long remain a blot upon the history of the second restoration massacre and pillage of nimes nimes now exhibited a most awful scene of outrage and carnage though many of the protestants have fled to the convenes and the garden k the country houses of messers rey guriot and several others had been pillaged and the inhabitants treat them with wanted barbarity two parties had gluttoned their savage appetites on the farm of madame frat the first after eating, drinking and breaking the furniture and stealing what they thought proper took leave by announcing the arrival of their comrades compared with whom they said they should be thought merciful three men and an old woman were left on the premises of the site of the second company two of the men fled are you a catholic? said the bendenny to the old woman yes repeat then your pattern ave being terrified she hesitated and was instantly knocked down with a musket on recovering her senses she stole out of her house but meant lotte the old valet deferred bringing in a salad which the dep predators had ordered them to cut she endeavored to persuade him to fly are you a protestant they exclaimed a musket being discharged at him he fell wounded but not dead to consummate their work the monsters lighted a fire with straw and boards threw their living victim into the flames and suffered him to expire in the most dreadful agonies they then ate their salad omelette etc the next day some laborers started and turned and discovered the half consumed body of lotte the prefect of the guard and darba jongke attempting to pallate the crimes of the catholics and the odyssey to assert that lotte was a catholic but this was publicly contradicted by two of the passers at nimes another party committed a dreadful murder at saint sezair upon imbert laplume the husband of susan shivas he was met on returning from work in the fields the chief promised him life but insisted that he might be conducted to the prison at nimes seeing however that the party was determined to kill him he resumed his natural character and being a powerful and courageous man advanced and exclaimed you are bragan's fire four of them fired and he fell but he was not dead so in the middle of the living they mutilated his body and then passing a cord around it drew it along attached to a cannon of which they had possession it was not until after eight days that his relatives were apprised of his death fire individuals of the family of chivas all husbands and fathers were massacred in the course of a few days the merciless treatment of the women in this persecution at nimes was such as would have disgraced the marriages ever heard of the widows rive and bernard were forced to sacrifice enormous sums and the house of mrs. lacoint was ravaged and her goods destroyed mrs. f dieter had her dwelling sacked and nearly demolished to the foundation a party of these bigots visited the window parent who lived on a little farm at the windmills having committed every species of devastation they attacked even the sanctuary of the dead which contained the relics of her family they dragged the coffins out and scattered the contents over the adjacent grounds in vain this outrage widow collected the bones of her ancestors and replaced them they were again dug up and after several useless efforts they were reluctantly left spread over the surface of the fields the royal degree in favor of the persecuted at the decree of lois 18th which annulled all the extra north all the extraordinary powers conferred either by the king the princes or subordinate agents was received at nimes and the laws were now to be administered by the regular organs and a new perfect arrived to carry them into effect but in spite of the proclamations the work of destruction stopped for a moment was not abandoned but soon renewed with fish vigor and effect on the 30th of july the father of a family was killed by some of the national guards of russo and the crime was so public that the commander of the party restored to the family the pocket brook and papers of the deceased on the following day tumultuous clouds roamed about the city and suburbs threatening the red peasants and on the first of august they butchered them without opposition about noon on the same day six armed men headed by trump femmy the butcher surrounded the house of monads a carpenter two of the party who were smiths had been at work in the house of the day before and had seen a protestant who had taken refuge there m borillian who had been a lieutenant in the army and had retired on a pension he was a man of an excellent character peaceable and harmless and had never served the emperor napoleon trump femmy not knowing him he was pointed out partaking of a frugal breakfast with the family trump femmy ordered him to go along with him adding your friend saucine is already in the other world trump femmy placed him in the middle of his troop and artfully ordered him to cry vivae emperor he refused he had never served the emperor in vain did the woman and the children of the house intercede for his wife and praises amiable on virtuous qualities he was marched to the esplanade and shot first by trump femmy and went by the others several persons attracted by the firing approached but were threatened with a similar fate after some time the wretches departed shouting vivae le roy some woman met them and one of them appearing affected said i have killed seven a day for my share and if you say a word you shall be the eighth pierre corbet a stocking weaver was torn from his loom by an armed band and shot at his own door the eldest daughter was knocked down with the butt end of a musket and a poingard was held at the breast of his wife while the mob plundered her apartments paul hurot a silk weaver was literally cut in pieces in the presence of a large crowd and amidst the unavailing cries and tears of his wife and four young children the murders only abandoned the corpse to return to hurot's house and secure everything valuable the number of murders on this day could not be ascertained one person saw six bodies on the course in youth and nine were carried to the hospital if murder some time after became less frequent for a few days pillaged pillage and forced contributions were actively enforced and salé de humbreau at several visits was robbed of 7000 francs and on one occasion when he pleaded the sacrifice he had made look said a bandit pointing to his pipe this will set fire to your house and this bandishing his sword will finish you no reply could be made to these arguments and feline a silk manufacturer was robbed of 32000 francs in gold 3000 francs in silver and several bales of silk the small shopkeepers were continually exposed to visits and demands of provisions drapieri or whatever they sold and the same hands that set fire to the houses of the rich and torped the vines of the cultivator broke the looms of the weaver and stole the tools of the artisan desolation reigned in the sanctuary and in the city the armed bands instead of being reduced they were increased the fugitive instead of returning received constant accessions and their friends who sheltered them were deemed rebellious those protestants who remained were defried of all their civil and religious rights and even the advocates and hussiers entered into a resolution to exclude all of the pretended reformed religion from their bodies those who were employed in selling tobacco were deprived of their licenses the protestant deacons who had the charge of the poor were all scattered of five pastors and only two remained one of these was obliged to change his residence and could only venture to administer the constellations of religion or to perform the functions of his ministry under cover of the night not content with these modes of torment, calmness and inflammatory publications charged the protestants with raising the prescribed standard in the communes and invoking the fallen napoleon and of course was unworthy the protection of the laws and the favor of the monarch hundreds after this were dragged to prison without even so much as a written order and though an official newspaper bearing the title of the journal du garde was set up for five months while it was influenced by the perfect the mayor and the other functionaries the word charter was never once used in it one of the first numbers on the contrary represented the suffering protestants as crocodiles only weeping from rage and regret that they had no more victims to devour as persons who had surpassed danton and mara the robbers spear in doing mischief and as having prostituted daughters to the garrison to gain it over to napoleon an extract from this article stamped with the crown and the arms of the borbon was hocked about the streets and the vendor was adorned with the metal of the police petition of the protestant refugees to these reproaches it is proper to opposite the petition which the protestant refugees in paris presented to lewis the 18th in behalf of their brethren at nemes we lay at your feet sire our acute sufferings in your name our fellow citizens are slaughtered and their property laid waste misled peasants and pretended obedience to your orders had assembled at the command of a commissioner appointed by your august nephew although ready to attack us they were received with the assurances of peace on the 15th of july 1815 we learned your majesty's entrance into paris and the white flag immediately waved on our edifices the public tranquility had not been disturbed when armed peasants introduced themselves the garrison kept tulated but were assailed on their departure and almost totally massacred our national guard was disarmed the city filled with strangers in the houses of the principal inhabitants professing the reformed religion were attacked and plundered we subjoined the list terror has driven from our city the most respectable inhabitants your majesty has been deceived if there has not been place before you in the picture of horrors which make a desert of your good city of nimes arrests and prescriptions are continually taking place and difference of religious opinions in the real and only cause the calm native protestants are the defenders of the throne you nephew has beheld our children under his banners our fortunes have been placed in his hands attacked without reason the protestants have not even by a just resistance afforded their enemies the fatal pretext for colony save us sire extinguish the brand of civil war a single act of your will would restore to political existence the city interesting for its population as manufactures demand an account of their conduct from the chiefs who had brought our misfortunes upon us we place before your eyes all the documents that have reached us fear paralyzes the hearts and stifles the complaints of our fellow citizens placed in a more secure situation we venture to raise our voice in their behalf et cetera et cetera monstrous outrage upon females at nimes it is well known that the woman wash their clothes either at the fountains or on the banks of streams there is a large basin near the fountain where numbers of women may be seen every day kneeling at the edge of the water and beating the clothes with heavy pieces of wood in the shape of battle doors this spot became the scene of the most shameful and indecent practices the catholic rabble turned the woman's petticoats over their heads and so fast in them as to continue their exposure and their subjection to a newly invented species of chastisement for nails being placed in the wood of the batoyers in the form of floor delays they beat them until the blood streamed from their bodies and their cries rent the air often was death demanded was a commutation of this ignominiest punishment but refused with a magnificent joy to carry their outrage to the highest possible degree several who were in a state of pregnancy they're assailed in this matter the scandalous nature of the outrages prevented many sufferers from making them public and especially from relating to the most aggravating circumstances I have seen since M. Durand a catholic advocate accompanying the assassins of the Foxburg Borgade arm of batoyer with sharp nails in the form of floor delays I have seen them raise the garments of females and apply with heavy blows to the bleeding body this bat or a battle door to which they gave a name that refuses to record the cries of the sufferers the streams of blood the murmurs of indignation which were suppressed by the fear nothing could move them the surgeons who attended on those women who are dead can attest by the marks of their wounds the agonies which they must have endured which however horrible is most strictly true nevertheless during the progress of these horrors and obscenities so disgraceful to France and the catholic religion the agents of government had powerful force under their command and by honestly employing it they might have restored tranquility murder and robbery however continued and were winked at by the catholic magistrates with very few exceptions the administrative authorities it is true used words in their proclamations etc. but never had recourse to actions to stop the enormities of the persecutors who boldly declared that on the 24th the anniversary of st. Bartholomew they intended to make a general massacre the members of the reform church were filled with terror and instead of taking part in the election of deputies were occupied as well as they could in providing for their own personal safety end of chapter 21 part 1 chapter 21 part 1 recording by chris karan chapter 21 part 2 of fox's book of martyrs volume 2 this is a libervox recording all libervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org recording by chris karan fox's book of martyrs volume 2 by john fox edited by william brian forbush chapter 21 in the south of france during the years 1814 and 1820 part 2 outrages committed in the villages etc. we now quit nimes to take a view of the conduct of the persecutors in the surrounding country after the re-establishment of the royal government the local authorities were distinguished for their zeal and forwardness in supporting their employers and under pretense of rebellion concealment of arms non-payment of contributions etc troops, national guards and armed mobs were permitted to plunder arrest and murder peaceable citizens not merely with impunity but with encouragement and a probation at the village of milahad near nimes the inhabitants were frequently forced to pay large sums to avoid being pillaged this however would not avail at madame tulons on sunday the 16th of july her house and grounds were ravaged the valuable furniture removed or destroyed the hay and wood burnt and the corpse of a child buried in the garden taken up and dragged around a fire made by the populace it was with great difficulty that m. tulon escaped with his life m. pitural another protestant had disposited some of his effects with the catholic neighbor this house was attacked although all the property of the latter was respected that of his friend was seized and destroyed at the same village one of a party doubting whether m. hermit a tailor was the man they wanted asked is he a protestant this he acknowledged good said they and he was instantly murdered in the canton of valvert where there was a consistory church eighty thousand francs were restored in the communes of buvoizan and generac similar excesses were committed by a handful of life-sensuous men under the eye of the catholic mayor and to the cries of vive de roi saint giles was the scene of the most unblushing villainy the protestants the most wealthy of the inhabitants were disarmed whilst the houses were pillaged the mayor was appealed to but he laughed and walked away this officer had at his disposal a national guard of several men organized by his own orders it would be worrisome to read the lists of the crimes that occurred during many months at clavisen the mayor prohibited the protestants the practice of singing the psalms commonly used in the temple that as he said the catholics might not be offended or disturbed at samiris about ten miles from nimes the catholics made a splendid procession through the town which continued until evening and was succeeded by the plunder of the protestants on the arrival of the foreign troops of samiris the pretended search for arms was resumed those who did not possess muskets were even compelled to buy them on the purpose to surrender them up and soldiers were courted on them at six francs per day until they produced the articles in demand the protestant church which had been closed was converted into barracks for the austrians after divine service had been suspended for six months at nimes the church called the temple by the protestants was re-opened and public worship was performed on the morning of the 24th of december on exclaiming the bell fry it was discovered that some persons that carry out the clapper of the bell as the hour of service approached a number of men, women and children collected at the house of emribet was arrested and threatened to prevent the worship at the appointed time when he receded towards the church he was surrounded by most savage shouts were raised against him some of the women seized him by the collar but nothing could disturb his firmness or excite his impatience he entered the house of prayer and ascended the pulpit stones were thrown in and fell among the worshipers still the congregation remained calm and attentive and the service was concluded by emribet's voice, threats and outrage on retiring many would have been killed but for the chess years of the garrison who honorably and zealously protected him from the captain of these chess years emribet assumed after received the following letter january 2nd 1816 I deeply lament the prejudices of the Catholics against the protestants who they pretend to not love the king continue to act as you have hereto done the conduct will convince the Catholics to the contrary should any tumult occur similar of that of saturday last informed me I preserve my reports of these acts and if the agitators prove incorrigible and forget that they owe to the best of kings and the charter I will do my duty and inform the government of their proceedings I do my dear sir assure the consistory of my esteem and of the sense and of the pain of the moderation with which they have met the provocations of the evil disposed at some areas I have the honor to salute you with respect Suval de Laine another letter to this worthy pastor from the Marques de Montlorde was received on the 6th of january to encourage him to write to all the good men who believe in God to obtain the punishment of the assassins brigands and distributors of public tranquility and to read the instructions he had received from the government to his effect publicly notwithstanding this on the 20th of january 1816 when the service and commemoration of the death of lewis the 16th was celebrated a procession being formed the national guards fired at the white flag suspended from the windows of the protestants and concluded the day by plundering their houses in the commune of Anguierias matters were still worse and in that of fountains from the entry of the king in 1815 the catholics broke all terms with the protestants by day they insulted them and in the night broke open their doors or marked them with chalk to be plundered or burnt saint mammar was repeatedly visited by these robberies as lately as the 16th of june 1816 the protestants were attacked beaten and imprisoned for daring to celebrate the return of a king who had swarmed to preserve religious liberty and to maintain the charter further account of the proceedings of the catholics at niemes the excesses perpetrated in the country it seems did not by any means divert the attention of the persecutors from niemes october 1815 commenced without any improvement in the principles or measures of the government and this was followed by corresponding presumption on the part of the people several houses in the quarter saint charles were sacked and their wrecks burnt in the streets amidst songs dances and shouts of vive deroi the mayor appeared but with merry multitude pretended not to know him and when he ventured to remonstrate they told him his presence was unnecessary and that he might retire during the 16th of october every perpetration seemed to announce the night of carnage orders for assembling and signals for attack were circulated with regularity and confidence drostalian reviewed his satellites and urged him on to the perpetration of crimes holding with one of these wretches the following dialogue satellite if all the prostins without one exception are to be killed i will cheerfully join but as you have so often deceived me unless they are all to go i will not stir drostalian come along then for this time not a single man shall escape this horrible purpose would have been executed had it not been for general legarde the commandment of the department it was not until ten o'clock at night that he had perceived the danger he now felt that not a moment could be lost crowds were advancing through the suburbs and the streets were filling with ruffians uttering the most horrid implications the general sounded at eleven o'clock and added to the confusion that was now spreading through the city a few troops rallied around the count legarde who was wrong with distress at the sight of the evil which had arrived at such a pitch of this M. Durand a catholic advocate gave the following account it's near midnight my wife had just fallen asleep i was writing by her side when we were disturbed by a distant noise drums seen crossing the town in every direction what could all this mean to quiet her alarm i said it probably announced the arrival or departure of some troops of the garrison but firing and shouts were immediately audible and on opening my window i distinguished horrible implications mingled with cries of viva de roi i rose an officer who lodged in the house and m chancel director of public works we went out together and gained the boulevard the moon shone bright and the project was nearly as distinct as a day a furious crowd was pressing on vowing extermination and the greater part half naked arms with knives, muskets sticks and sabers in answer to my inquiries i was told the massacre was general that many had been already killed in the suburbs m chancel retired to put on his uniform as captain of the pompiers the officers retired to the barracks and anxious for my wife i returned home by the noise i was convinced that persons followed i crept along in the shadows of the wall opened my door entered and closed it leaving a small aperture through which i could watch the movements of the party whose arms shone in the moonlight in the few moments some armed men appearing conducting a prisoner to the very spot where i was conceded they stopped i shoved my door gently and the soldier tree planted against the garden wall what a scene a man on his knees in pouring mercy from wretches who mocked his agony and loaded him with abuse in the name of my wife and children he said, spare me, what have i done why would you murder me for nothing i was on the point of crying out and menacing the murders of vengeance i had longed to deliberate the discharge of several fusels terminated by my suspense the unhappy supplicant struck in the loins and the head fell to rise no more the backs of the assassins were towards the tree they retired immediately reloaded their pieces i descended and approached the dying man uttering some deep and dismal groans some national guards arrived at the moment and i again retired and shut the door i see, said one a dead man he sings still, said another to be better, said a third to finish him and put him out of his misery five or six muskets were fired instantly and the girl was seized on the following day crowds came to inspect and insult the deceased a day after massacre was already observed as a shore of feet and every occupation was left to go and gaze upon the victims this was lewis leitcher the father of four children and four years after the event the grand verified the account by his oath upon the trial of one of his murders attack upon the protestant churches sometime before the death of general legarde the duke of dianguilame had visited nemes and other cities in the south and at the former place honored the members of the protestant consistory with an interview promising them protection and encouraging them to reopen their temple so long shut up they have two churches at nemes and it was agreed that the small one should be preferred on this occasion and that the ringing of the bell should be omitted general legarde declared that he would answer with his head for the safety of his congregation the protestants privately informed each other that worship was once more to be celebrated at ten o'clock and they began to assemble silently and cautiously it was agreed that em jewellery should sure inform the service though such was his conviction of danger that he entreated his wife and some of his flock to remain with their families the temple being open only as a matter of form and in compliance with the orders of the duke dianguilame this pastor wished to be the only victim on his way to the place he passed numerous groups who regarded him with ferocious looks this is the time said some to give them the last blow yes, added others and neither woman nor children must be spared one wretch raising his voice above the rest exclaimed I will go and get my musket and tend for my share though these ominous sounds of em jewellery pursued his course but when he gained the temple the sexton had not the courage to open the door and he was obliged to do it himself as the worshippers arrived they found strange persons in the possession of the adjacent streets and upon the steps of the church following their worship should not be performed and crying down with the protestants, kill them, kill them at ten o'clock the church being nearly filled em je kessier commenced the prayers a calm that succeeded was of short duration on a sudden the minister was interrupted by violent noise and a number of persons entered uttering the most dreadful cries mingled with vive de roi but the gar d'arm succeeded in excluding these fanatics and closing the door the noise and tremult now redoubled and the blows of the populace trying to break open the doors caused the house to resound with shrieks and groans the voice of the pastors who endeavored their council to their flock was inaudible they attempted in vain to sing the forty second song three quarters of an hour rolled heavily away i place myself said madame jewellerat at the bottom of the pulpit with my daughter in my arms my husband at length joined me and sustained me i remembered that it was the anniversary of my marriage after six years of happiness i said i'm about to die with my husband and my daughter we shall be slain at the altar of our god the victims of a sacred duty and heaven will open to receive us and our unhappy brethren and i blessed the redeemer and without cursing our murders i awaited their approach em oliver son of a pastor an officer in the royal troops of the line attempted to leave the church but the friendly satenials at the door advised him to remain besieged with the rest the national guards refused to act and the fanatical crowd took every advantage of the absence of general legarde and of their increasing numbers at length the sound of marshal music was heard and voices from without call to be besieged open open and save yourselves their first impression was a fear of treachery but they were soon assured that a detachment returning from mass was drawn up in front of the church to favor the retreat of the protestants the door was opened and many of them escaped among the ranks of the soldiers who had driven the mob before them but this street as well as the others though wish the fugitive had to pass they were soon filled again the venerable pastor oliver desmond between 70 and 80 years of age was surrounded by murders they put their fists in his face and cried kill the chief of brigands he was preserved by the firmness of some officers among whom was his own son they made a ball walk around him with their bodies and amidst their naked sabers conducted him to his house em jewellerat with his wife at his side and his child in his arms was pursued and assailed with stones the mother received a blow on his head and her life was some time in danger one woman was shamefully whipped and several wounded and dragged along the streets the number of protestants more or less ill treated on this occasion amounted to between 70 and 80 murder of general legarde at length the check was put to these excesses by the report of the murder of count legarde who receiving an account of the tremult mounted his horse and entered one of the streets to disperse a crowd a villain sees his brittle another presented the muzzle of a pistol close to his body and exclaimed wretch you make me retire he immediately fired the murder was lewis bosson a surgeon in the national guard but though known to everyone no person endeavored to arrest him and he affected his escape as soon as the general found himself wounded he gave orders to the gendarmerie to protect the protestants and set off on a gallop to his hotel but fainted immediately on his arrival on recovering he prevented the surgeon from searching his wound until written a letter to the government that in case of his death it might be known from what corridor the blow came and that none might dare to accuse the protestants of the crime the probable death of this general produced a small degree of relaxation on the part of their enemies and some calm but the mass of the people had been indulged in lasonishness too long to be restrained even by the murder of the representative of the king in the evening they again repaired to the temple and with hashes broke open the door the dismal nose of their blows carried terror into the bosom of the protestant families sitting in their houses in tears the contents of the poor box and the clothes prepared for distribution were stolen the minister's robes rent in pieces the books torn up or carried away the closets were ransacked but the rooms which contained the archives of the church and the synods were providentially secured and had it not been for the numerous patrols on foot the whole would have become the prey of the flames and the edifice itself a heap of ruins in the meanwhile the fanatics openly ascribed the murder of the general to his own self devotion and said that I as the will of God 3,000 francs were offered for the apprehension of Balcian but it was well known that the protestants dared not arrest him and that the fanatics would not during these transactions the system of forced conversions to Catholicism was making regular and fearful progress the interference of the British government to the credit of England the report of these cruel persecutions carried on against their protestant brethren in France produced such a sonation on the part of the government as determined them to interfere and now the persecutors of protestants made this spontaneous act of humanity and religion the pretext for changing the sufferers with the resonable correspondence with England but in the state of their proceedings at their great dismay a letter appeared sent sometime before England by the Duke of Wellington stating that much information existed on the events of the south the ministers of the three denominations in London anxious not to be misled requested one of their brethren to visit the seams of persecution and examine with impartiality the nature of extent of the evils they were desirous to relieve Reverend Clement Perriot Peter took this difficult task and fulfilled their wishes with the zeal prudence and devotedness above all praise his return furnished abundant and inconstable proof of shameful persecution materials for an appeal to the British Parliament an apperanted report which was circulated through the continent and which first conveyed correct information to the inhabitants of France foreign interference was now found eminently youthful and the declarations of tolerance which it elicted from the French government as well as the more cautious march of the Catholic persecutors open as decisive and involuntary acknowledgement of the importance of that interference which some persons at first censured and despised put through the stern voice of public opinion in England and elsewhere produced a resultant suspension of massacre and pillaged murders and plunders were still left unpunished and even caressed and rewarded for their crimes and while Protestants in France suffered the most cruel and degrading planes and penalties for alleged trifling crimes Catholics covered with blood and guilty of numerous and horrid murders were acquitted perhaps the virtuous indignation expressed by some of the more enlightened Catholics against these abominable proceedings and had no small share in restraining them many innocent Protestants had been condemned to the galleys and otherwise punished for supposed crimes upon the oaths of wretches the most unprincipled and abandoned M. Maddi or DiMango judge of the court royal of Nimes and president of the court Diaz Assises of the guard and Valclos upon one occasion felt himself compelled to the break of the court rather than take the dispossation of that notorious and sanguinary monster Trump of me in a hall says he of the palace of justice opposite that in which I sat several unfortunate persons persecuted by the fiction were upon trial every disposition tending to their cremation was applauded with the cries of Evé de Roy three times the exposition of his atrocious joy became so terrible that it was necessary to send for reinforcements from the barracks and two hundred soldiers were often unable to restrain the people on a sudden the shouts and cries of Evé de Roy redoubled a man arrived carest applauded it was horrible triumph he approached the tribunal he came to dispose against the prisoners he was admitted as a witness he raised his hand to take the oath seized with horror at consent to see that wretch admitted to give evidence in a court of justice in the city which he had filled with murders in the place on the steps of which he had murdered the unfortunate boreleon I cannot admit that he should kill the victims by his testimonies no more by his poingars he an accuser he a witness no never will I consent to see this mother rise in the presence of magistrates to take the religious oath his hands still reeking with blood these words were repeated out of doors the witness trembled the factuous also trembled the factuous who guided the tongue of triumphamy as they had directed his arms who dictated killing after they had taught him murder these words penetrated the dungeons of the condemned and inspired hope they gave another courageous advocate the resolution to the persecutors he carried the prayers of innocence and misery to the foot of the throne there he asked if the evidence of the triumphamy was not sufficient to annual sentence the king granted a full and free pardon ultimate resolution of the protestants at need mace with respect to the conduct of the protestants these highly outranged citizens pushed to the extremities by their persecutors felt at length that they had only to choose the manner in which they were to perish they unanimously were determined that they should die fighting in their own defense the firm attitude apprised their butchers that they could no longer murder with impunity everything was immediately changed those who are four years had filled others with terror now felt in their turn they troubled at the force which men so long resigned found in despair and their alarm was heightened when they heard that the inhabitants of this events persuaded of the danger of their brethren were marching to their assistance but without waiting for these reinforcements the protestants appeared at night in the same order and armed in the same manner as their enemies the others paraded the boulevards with their usual noise and fury but the protestants remained silent and firm in the post they had chosen three days these dangerous people continued but the infusion of blood was prevented by the efforts of some worthy citizens distinguished by their rank and fortune by sharing the dangers of the protestant population they obtained the pardon of an enemy who now trembled while he menaced end of chapter 21 recording by Chris Caron