The following is the second part of Professor Krauss' chapter 37 on "Louis XIV of France and the Church." It is placed here for the sake of completeness but not included in the newsletter because it is such an unpleasant chapter.
2. How The Roman Catholics Bloodily Persecuted The Reformed In France Before And After The Edict Of Nantes Was Repealed
There are many books on this topic and as the Reformed describe and lament their lot many of these books are dominated by a spirit that is not the spirit and mind of Christ and His apostles who were persecuted for the sake of the truth, and in fact for the pure and genuine truth. The pure and genuine truth, though, is not completely identical with the confession of the French or other Reformed. However, since the French Reformed confessed many articles of the Christian truth in the face of the Roman Church, we want to hear from their own mouths the description of the suffering they endured for it. In fact, we will hear it from the booklet in which they, so to say, officially informed the rest of the Protestant world of it. This booklet distinguished itself over other books of the kind by its vividness and liveliness, as well as by its sense of truth.
“In the first period of the terrible persecution (which even preceded the repeal of the Edict of Nantes), the priests and Jesuits had used countless threats, lies and deceptions to make the edict and its freedoms and peace treaties powerless. They relieved us (Reformed) of nearly all our titles, honorary offices and posts. They took away the offices we held as the judges, magistrates and pensioners and from which we were to receive our livelihood and had us live off the land. Even our tradesmen, who earned their bread in the sweat of their face, were excluded from their trades and guilds. So that we could be oppressed all the more easily, all power was granted to the Roman clergy. We were handed over to the hatred of the assemblies of parliament, the superintendents, the presidents and the officials who tread under foot the edicts and peace treaties. They sent soldiers to oppress us. They were not merely satisfied to plunder us, but, on top of that, in a cruel and inhumane move, at times the soldiers were housed with us so that it could not have been any worse had they been infidels and wild animals. It is inexpressible how many thousands of souls were continually mourning and groaning under these various oppressions…. And when several of our own took the initiative to see to it that that they were not strangled, soldiers were then sent to plunder, rob, destroy the churches and homes, use violence and kill men, women, young women, elderly and children and other hostilities. There was no distinction between the innocent and those supposed guilty ones. It was enough of a crime that, contrary to the prohibition, to preach or call upon God or sing His praise or merely to consult with their brothers on how to practice worship. Instead of the hymns that the Roman Catholic sang to the honor of the saints, or instead of the worldly and love songs that were daily heard in their mouths, we sang spiritual songs to honor God, according to the practice of the psalmists and the exhortation of the apostle. For this we were not merely commanded to be silent but we were punished as criminals.
“Up until the present time, we thought with horror on the cruel persecution that our fathers had to suffer in the previous century. Up until now, it was believed that the bloodbath on St. Bartholomew’s night, in which countless people of every age, gender and position were murdered in different places of the kingdom of France, was the most extreme cruelty to which the hellish rage could drive people. Who indeed could have imagined that the terrible choice of either death or the mass (from which our enemies even released our fathers) would be considered and longed for as a grace in the following ages? But we experience the time when our poor brothers would often have welcomed it as a grace if their merciless persecutors would kill them. We who consider it a pleasure to be able to glorify our Savior with their blood were offended by many people falling away. It is impossible to speak of their falling away without horror. But one may say that they tried more than a person could endure. (But this is not true!) Yes, the kind they had to deal with is a thousand times more cruel and dangerous than all the murdering and killing that was committed in the previous century. They are now left to the mercy of the soldiers who were the hangmen of the Inquisition and attacked them throughout all provinces with an unbelievable rage. These instruments of the devil, who blows his tricks and cruelty into them, went into every house by 10, 20, 30, 40, yes often by 100. As soon as the come into the house they ask the head of the house whether he wants to accept the Roman religion. If he refuses, they bring about for him the greatest misery. In addition, they destroy all the necessities that the head of the house would need to be able to live with his family. The smash or burn every household utensil; they plunder the gold and silver, the beds, the linen and other similar things and sell the houses and real property extremely cheap to the Jesuits or others whom the Jesuits use for that purpose.
“But not satisfied with robbing them of all their goods, like the devil did to Job, and bringing them with their wives and children into the most extreme starvation—and not even the most prominent were not immune to this—the soldiers had both the men as well as the women experience every evil that hell could invent. Some are beaten to death with rods, others are dragged by the hair to the Roman churches, others are let down with ropes into the icy cold fountains so that the water would go up to their lips. They are suspended there or are dipped from time to time until they would give up the ghost. If they do not die from this, it’s so that they can suffer even longer and die more than once. Others are bound in a sack and afterwards rolled down the stairs. Often the husband, the wife and their children are bound to chairs and left that way for three, four, five, six days without being given anything to eat, in such a way that looks on helplessly as the others perish and are unable to help the other. Others are enclosed in deep pits filled with filth. Others are forced to drink such a large quantity of water that some die from it. Others are bound with iron in the fireplaces and hearths and underneath leaves and straw are lit underneath so that the flames burn their feet and the smoke suffocates them. Others are forced to turn the spit for a very large fire where wood is continually placed until they are half burned. It is known that some of them were burned to the middle of their body and died by this cruel manner of death. Certain persons were placed before the fire like this for 40 days and they finally gave up their spirit in this lengthy cruel torment. A great number of others, especially at Dieppe, were so burned on the souls of their feet that they were unable to walk the rest of their lives. When the dragoons had come to Orange to carry out these same cruelties, a preacher named Petit was hung because he had exhorted the people to steadfastness. Afterwards they had said that he had spoken evil of the king (Louis XIV). At Cross and Colognas, villages situated near St. Hippolyt in Languedoc, the dragoons killed two men because they did not want to accept the Roman religion.
“The fingers of other Protestants were plugged into small holes intentionally made in wood. Others had glowing iron placed on their body. Pointed iron pins were forced between the flesh and the nails of the fingers; others had all nails ripped off, all teeth broken out, the beard and the hair on the whole body ripped out without any modesty. At Vigan, a city in the Cevenne, they were shown completely naked in the prison where they were continually tormented and tortured until they were completely covered with sweat. Then, disregarding the cold of winter, a large quantity of cold water was poured over their bodies. A great many died of this. The breasts of certain women we cut off; others had their noses cut off, and left the kingdom and with their face they could show the world the mark that they bear on account of Jesus their Savior. It is impossible to imagine the cruelty that was done to this poor people. When they endured one torture, another was thought up that they had to suffer. Yes, there can be nothing more shameful than how the virgins and women who were steadfast in their faith were often treated. Some were hung by their feet and in this way were left hanging, in the greatest shame that an honorable woman can experience, before the eyes of those passing by. Others were stripped completely naked and chased out of their houses in bright daylight and all were forbidden to take them in and hide them. Others, even respected women, were bound and treated so inhumanely that afterwards the soldiers, who were set free to practice every debauchery, did not even hesitate to urinate in their faces. In the Dauphine Province, many virgins were violated. And in spite of all this cruelty and torture that this poor people had to suffer, a large number was still found that showed an unbelievable steadfastness. They were then notified that the command had been given to shave them bald and to shut them into a monastery where they were whipped three times a day and held in constant unrest at night.
“But the most intolerable and lowest cruelty that was done to pious and steadfast people of every gender, age and state and that the devil invented only in these last times, is this: that many dragoons or the strongest soldiers take a person, lead him into a small room and day and night push from him one to the other without allowing him to eat, drink or sleep. When he gets weak or sleepy, he is tickled, hit with rods, scratched with needles and sharp pins on the body to wake him up or make him wide awake so that he can be tortured again anew and frightened. When one group, who tortured this person, get tired, they are relieved by others who, with fresh zeal, renew this torture in such a way that these poor people after being tormented many days and nights with this unceasing torture, become completely senseless from it and almost no longer know what they are doing and cannot see the end of this hellish cruelty. Many died of this, among whom were also people of rank; others became insane as a result. Many, who at first prayed for death as a grace and had endured the robbery of their property with joy could, in the end, no longer offer resistance. Very many others, to escape this inhuman cruelty, were forced to deny with their mouth the opinion of their heart.”
It continues on in a lengthy description of the suffering that the Reformed then endured in general particularly after the formal repeal of the Edict of Nantes. We cannot follow the entire progress as described by the second “Letter of the Protesting.”
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