The Persecution of the Protestants in Bohemia, Germany, Poland, and Lithuania.

THe Persecutions of the Papists against the Bohemians began very early, even about 977 years after the death of our blessed Saviour: Pope Hildebrand (otherwise called Hell-brand) was the first that fell upon them, and after∣wards Pope Celestine; and Persecution continu∣ed upon them for many years, and John Huss, and Jerom of Prague, were burnt in defence of the Gospel at Constance, notwithstanding they had the Publick Faith of the Empire of Germany given them for their security.

At a Town called Cuttenburgh there are many deep Metal Mines, into one of which, in the year 1420. the Papists threw one thou∣sand Page  34and seven hundred persons at one time, for their Religion; into another, one thousand thirty eight; and into a third, a thousand three hundred and thirty four persons.

In the year 1421. one Pichel, a chief Ma∣gistrate of the City Litomeritia, having taken twenty four of the chie• Citizens, and among them his Son-in law, put them in an high Tower, 〈◊〉 being there almost famished, they were at •ast brought out, and condemned to be drowned, their Wives, Children and Friends following them to execution with cryer and tears; yea, the Magistrates own Daughter came with prayers and tears to her Father, be∣seeching him to spare her Husband; but he like a hard-hearted wretch only said, Cannot you have a better Husband than this? To whom seeing his cruelty, she answered, You shall never marry me to any but this: And so going along with them, when she saw her Hus∣band thrown into the River, she leapt in after him, and imbracing him, endeavoured to save his life; but being unable to do it, they both perished together, and the next day she was found with him fast in her Arms, and they were both buried in one Grave.

A while after a Minister, four men, and four Boys, were all burnt together in one fire at Prague, because they received the Sacrament in both kinds: and indeed many and almost in∣numerable were the murthers, torments, and Page  35inhumane barbarities committed both publick∣ly and privately on these poor Christians.

About the year 1523. Martin Luther be∣gan to shine as a great light in Germany, and his Doctrine soon overspread Bohemia, and all the parts adjoyning; which so enraged the Pope and his Clergy that they continually raised very violent persecutions against them, wherein multitudes of good Christians lost their lives by means of Ferdinand the First, and Charles the Fift, Emperours of Germany. There were no less than two hundred Ministers banished out of Bohemia at one time, and the Lord of Schanow, because he was a Lutheran, was accused of a Conspiracy, and laid upon the Rack; but he couragiously cut out his own Tongue, and be∣ing demanded the reason of it, he wrote, That it was, lest the torments of the Rack should make him speak falsly against himself, or others.

In the year 1617. Ferdinand the Second was obtruded upon the Bohemians, who joining with the Papists raised up a very terrible Per∣secution against the Protestants, which was the cause of the Electing of Frederick, Prince Pa∣latine of the Rhine, to be King of Bohemta, upon which there followed those cruel Wars and troubles in that Country, wherein many godly Ministers, and other pious, holy and good men, suffered such barbarities and inhu∣manities from the Popish Souldiers, that the Ears of a Christian cannot hear, nor his Tongue Page  36relate them, without the greatest abhorrency and indignation: for some of them were stoned to death, others hanged upon a Beam, and with a soft fire made under them were roasted to death, others were cut piece-meal: One Minister they laid on his back, and ramming his mouth full of Gunpowder, set fire to it, and blew his head all to pieces: Another they hanged up by the Privy Members, being se∣venty years old, and burnt his own Books un∣der him, and at last shot him to death, after he had endured all manner of torment and pain.

In the year 1621. all the Ministers were banished out of the Kingdom of Bohemia, and all the Provinces thereunto belonging, never more to return; and it was made death to harbour or conceal any of them. About the same time twenty one Ministers were banished from Cuttenburgh: A Popish Captain caused a Ministers hand first to be stricken off, and then his head, his bowels to be taken out, and wrapt in his shirt, and his four quarters to be set upon four Stakes, and his head on another. At the same time likewise fifty of the Nobility were condemned, some to death, some to banishment, and others to perpetual imprison∣ment; twenty seven were executed, who all di∣ed with great constancy of mind, and fervency of spirit, sealing the Protestant Cause with their blood, the heads and right hands of some of 〈2 pages missing〉 Page  [unnumbered]charge, for carrying on the work: and thus he began with the Sword, that he might end with the Faggot.

The Duke of Saxony, and the Lantgrave of Hessen, stood up for the Protestants, and were taken Prisoners, in the year 1547. And where∣ever the Papists got the better, all sorts of cruelties, murders, racks, tortures, fire and faggot followed upon the Protestants, so that all Germany was as it were in a flame and com∣bustion at once, all places being in a lamenta∣ble condition, some flying, and others suffer∣ing death on every side for their Conscience and Religion.

At a Town called Meldorp, they took a god∣ly Minister, named Sutphen out of his Bed, and forced him to go many miles on foot in Frost and Snow upon the Ice, bare-footed and bare∣legg'd, beating, cutting, and flashing him, and pricking him forward with their Halberts, and at last they barbarously roasted him to death. Many were drowned at Vienna, and put to several sorts of death.

Ladies and Gentlewomen were yokt toge∣ther like Beasts and so were turned out into the Woods, where they were ravished and abused, and then had their Hair and Ears cut off, and disfigured. In Pomeren they forced the peo∣ple to eat their own Excrements, and if they refused them, they thrust them down their Throats till they were choaked: They cram'd Page  40the secret parts of several women with Gun∣powder, and so setting fire to it, most barba∣rously tore their Bellies and Wombs.

Divers were hung up by the privy parts; they plained the faces of others with Chisels; others they caused to draw on Boots filled with scalding Oyl, and so roasted their legs over the fire: some men they gelt in the presence of their wives and children: others had their bo∣dies hung up by Cords, and by tying great weights to their limbs, all the joynts of their body were put out of joynt; some had Gags put in their mouths, and had stinking water and piss poured down their Throats through a Tunnel, till their bellies swelled like a Tun, whereby they died in most cruel torment: They sawed off the legs of some alive, and one Minister they bound upon a Table, and pla∣cing a great Cat upon his belly, so provoked the Cat, that she scratcht his guts out of his belly withher Teeth and Nails, till he miserably died.

At Magdenburg they ravished the Wife and Daughter of a famous Minister before his face, and then violently snatcht a sucking Infant from its Mothers breast, and stuck it on the top of a Lance; and when they had tormented his Eyes and Heart with these horrid Spectacles, they brought the Minister into the Street, and burnt him with his own Books.

Yea, such was their abominable filthiness in Pomeren, that they ravished the fairest Virgins Page  41before their Parents faces, forcing them to sing Psalms the while: one beautiful young woman they ravished, and then cut to pieces, hang∣ing up her quarters in the Church: Girls of ten years old, and under, they ravished and abused, till they killed them; nay, so mon∣strous beastly were they, that they committed filthiness with the dead Corps of those women whom they had murdered. At Bastl and Friburg they did the like, neither pitying old nor young men, women, nor innocent Babes, whom sometimes they most barbarously used to eat, even when other meat might be had, yea such inhumane cruelty they used, that in many places they left none remaining alive to relate the sufferings of those that were murdered.

Thus these Massacres and bloody murders defiled the whole Land, and Germany groaned under the oppression, till the peace of Munster and Osnaburg in the year 1648. which put a stop to this cruel Persecution, the Papists being compelled thereto, by Gods bringing in the King of Sweden, who over-ran Germany in a short time, and thereby revived the Protestant Cause, which was almost over-born and d•∣stroyed by so many thousand violences and mi∣series, as it had lain under for many years.

These bloody Tyrants vented their rage and fury not only in Germany, but also in Hunga∣ry, and other Countries, for they committed the same Villanies in all places where they had Page  42power, the Ministers were generally banished, and put to death, and the same Picture of their cruelties which has been represented to you in Germany, was acted over again in this Kingdom, which we have not room to insert, only a new sort of death was invented there; they tyed Hens, Geese, Ducks and Hares to the naked Body of a worthy Minister in that Countrey, and then set the Dogs upon him, who tore and rent his Flesh till he dyed.

You have beheld many sad and doleful Spe∣ctacles, (and Reader, if thou art a Christian, thy heart must almost bleed at the relation of them) we will therefore Epitomize the bloody cruelties of the Papists in POLAND.

All the same things, or worse, if it be possible, which we have related to be done in other places, were likewise acted in Poland; many thousand Protestants, and good Christians have been destroyed in that Kingdom, and especi∣ally at Karmin, Dumbuick, Shochy, Carienzin, and Lesna, all which Cities and Towns were destroyed and burnt to the ground for the cause of Religion.

The City of Lesna was one of the most an∣cient and flourishing Cities in all the Kingdom of Poland, which was wholly laid in ashes, be∣ing three whole days in flames ere it was con∣sumed, in which there perished many hundred Protestants, besides inestimable wealth and treasure, no man resisting or opposing the fire. Page  43Here they pulled off the Noses of some, and put out the Eyes of others, and cut off the Tongues, Hands and Feet of divers, giving Quarter to none, but killing and destroying all that came in their way. They cut off the Hands of a pi∣ous Matron of Lesna, and then murdered three of her Children before her Face, cutting off their Heads, and laying one at each Breast, and the other by her side. Another Woman hav∣ing her Hands and Feet cut off, and her Tongue cut out, they sowed up in a Sack, and so left her for two days in which she lived, making a most miserable lamentation.

In the Lower Poland a multitude suffered, whole Families were butchered, and Men and Women, Young and Old, murdered without distinction. And in the year 1654. there was an horrible slaughter amongst them, the Papists putting to death all the Protestants they could meet with by most exquisite tortures: One Mr. Samuel Cardus, a Minister, they used with extream cruelties, first putting out his Eyes, and leading him about as a miserable Spectacle; then they pull'd of his Fingers with Pincers, and poured melted Lead down his Throat, and while he was yet half alive, they put his Neck between two folding doors, and so violently severed his Head from his Body.

They used the Minister of Dembnick, and another Minister, very barbarously; for after they had several ways tormented them, they Page  44cut their Throats with a Razor, and while they were breathing, flung them into a Pit, and covered them with filth and dung.

The same Cruelties the barbarous and bloudy Papists acted against the Protestants in LI∣THUANIA, in the year 1648. slaugh∣tering all that were not Roman Catholicks, without distinction of Age or Sex. Here ma∣ny had their Skins flead off while they were a∣live, others their Hands and Feet cut off, some their Bowels taken out alive, others had their Shin-bones bored through; they poured melt∣ed Lead into the wounds of some whom they had cut in the Head, and other parts of their Bodies: Some had their Eyes pulled out, and those that were hanged up in all places were such a multitude, that they are hard to be num∣bred. It was counted a great mercy and kindness to be shot, beheaded, or killed out∣right, without any other torment.

The Wives and Daughters of the Prote∣stants were every where ravished, their Houses and Goods burnt and destroyed, and their Countrey, and their Churches laid waste, so that there was nothing to be seen in every place but Murders and Massacres; and the Blood of the poor Suffering Protestants ran like Streams through the Streets of Towns and Cities, and those that were left alive, and escaped the slaughter, were banished their Countrey for ever.

The Ministers were chiefly aimed at, and always cruelly tormented. Among the rest, one Adrian Chilmiskie (who was famous for his great Piety and Learning, and likewise for his Reverend Age) was by these Barbarous Wretches roasted alive, and this they did lei∣surely, with a few Chips and Straw, that he might be the longer in torment. In another place above forty suffered death by several-sorts of tortures: Near Vilna, the chiefest City in Lithuania, one Smolskie, and his Son, both Ministers, had their Heads cruelly sawed off with a Sickle. Another Minister had his Flesh sliced off by piece-meal, till he died. And; to conclude this Field of Blood, there were no less than fifteen hundred poor Protestants, Ministers as well as others, who were bound to Stakes on the Tops of Mountains in the Winter, and there miserably starved to death with hunger and cold. In a word, no Age nor History can parallel all the several tortures and mise∣rable deaths which these poor Protestants suf∣fer'd from the hands of bloody Papists, for no other Crime but professing and asserting the Truth and Gospel of Jesus Christ.