Fox's Book of Martyrs: Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant; Deaths of the Primitive Protestant MartyrsFoxe, John
HistoryHistory
Fox's Book of Martyrs: Or A History of the Lives, Sufferings, and Triumphant; Deaths of the Primitive Protestant Martyrs
Foxe, John
Church history; Martyrs; Persecution
Constantia Bellione, a protestant lady, being apprehended on account of
her faith, was asked by a priest if she would renounce the devil and go
to mass; to which she replied, "I was brought up in a religion, by which
I was always taught to renounce the devil; but should I comply with your
desire, and go to mass, I should be sure to meet him there in a variety
of shapes." The priest was highly incensed at what she said, and told
her to recant, or she should suffer cruelly. The lady, however, boldly
answered, that she valued not any sufferings he could inflict, and in
spite of all the torments he could invent, she would keep her conscience
pure and her faith inviolate. The priest then ordered slices of her
flesh to be cut off from several parts of her body, which cruelty she
bore with the most singular patience, only saying to the priest, what
horrid and lasting torments will you suffer in hell, for the trifling
and temporary pains which I now endure. Exasperated at this expression,
and willing to stop her tongue, the priest ordered a file of musqueteers
to draw up and fire upon her, by which she was soon despatched, and
sealed her martyrdom with her blood.
A young woman named Judith Mandon, for refusing to change her religion,
and embrace popery, was fastened to a stake, and sticks thrown at her
from a distance, in the very same manner as that barbarous custom which
was formerly practised on Shrove-Tuesday, of shying at rocks, as it was
termed. By this inhuman proceeding, the poor creature's limbs were beat
and mangled in a terrible manner, and her brains were at last dashed out
by one of the bludgeons.
David Paglia and Paul Genre, attempting to escape to the Alps, with each
his son, were pursued and overtaken by the soldiers in a large plain.
Here they hunted them for their diversion, goading them with their
swords, and making them run about till they dropped down with fatigue.
When they found that their spirits were quite exhausted, and that they
could not afford them any more barbarous sport by running, the soldiers
hacked them to pieces, and left their mangled bodies on the spot.
A young man of Bobbio, named Michael Greve, was apprehended to the town
of La Torre, and being led to the bridge, was thrown over into the
river. As he could swim very well, he swam down the stream, thinking to
escape, but the soldiers and mob followed on both sides the river, and
kept stoning him, till receiving a blow on one of his temples, he was
stunned, and consequently sunk and was drowned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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