A01115:1705
An abridgement of the book of acts and monuments of the ChurchAn abridgement of the booke of acts and monumentes of the Church
An abridgement of the book of acts and monuments of the Church: written by that Reverend Father, Master John Fox: and now abridged by Timothy Bright, Doctor of Physic, for such as either through want of leisure, or ability have not the use of so necessary an historyAn abridgement of the booke of acts and monumentes of the Church: written by that Reuerend Father, Maister Iohn Fox: and now abridged by Timothe Bright, Doctour of Phisicke, for such as either through want of leysure, or abilitie haue not the vse of so necessary an history
London: printed by I. Windet, 1589
Volume 1 › Book 7 › The persecution of Merindole and Cabriers.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In the mean time, Miniers came to Merindoll, where he found none but a young man, named Maurice Blanc, 1who had yielded himself to a Soldier, promising him for his ransom 2. French crowns. Miniers would have had him away by force, but it was answered: the soldier ought not to loose his prisoner. Miniers therefore paying the two crowns, himself took the young man, & caused him to be tied to an Olive tree, & shot through with harquebuses, and so cruelly martyred the young man, still calling on God: so he razed Merindoll, and laid it even with the ground.2 When he had so done, he laid siege to Cabriers: which when he could not overcome by force, he promised them fairly, if they would ⟨p. 488⟩let him enter in, swearing he would harm none of them, whereupon the people let him in: who when he was once entered,3 falsified his oath, and first picked out about thirty men, caused them to be carried to a certain meadow, bound, and there to be miserably cut and hewen in pieces of his Soldiers: he exercised also great cruelty over the women, and caused forty of them to be taken, of whom many were with child, and put them into a barn full of hey and straw, and caused it to be set on fire at four corners, keeping them that would break out, with pikes and halberds: there was a Soldier which being moved with pity at the lamentation of the women, opened a door to let them out, but as they were coming forth, the cruel tyrant caused them to be slain, and cut in pieces, opening their bellies,4 that their children might fall out, whom they trod under their feet: many were fled into the wine cellar of the Castle, and many hid themselves in caves, whereof some were carried into the meadow, and there stripped naked, were slain, other some were bound two and two together, and carried into the hall of the Castle, where they were slain by the Captains, rejoicing in their butchery. That done, this tyrant commanded captain John de Guy, with a band of ruffians to go into the church (where was a great number of women, children, and young infants) to kill all that he found there: he although at first refusing, yet being threatened, performed the same. The number of them which were slain,