"The barbarities committed in those horrid machines exceeded all that can possibly be imagined; the ingenuity of the famous Sicilian tyrant in inventing torments deserves no longer to be proverbial, being far excelled in this pernicious art by the modern enemies of religion and liberty." (p. 8.)

After having given an account of the hardened wickedness and shocking blasphemies of the worst sort of criminals on board the galleys, he adds

""Tis certain, that how terrible and hard soever the usage of such may be in the galleys, yet it is too mild for them; for, in spite of all the misery they endure, they are guilty of crimes too abominable to be here related; over which we shall draw a veil, and go on to the Protestants, who are there purely because they chose rather to obey God than man, and were not willing to exchange their souls for the gain of the world. It is not the least aggravating circumstance of their misery to be condemned to such hellish company, for they who have so great a value for the truth of religion, as to prefer it to their worldly interest, must be supposed to be endued with too much virtue not to be in pain, and under concern for the open breach of its rules, and unworthiness of its professors.

"The Protestants now in the galleys have been condemned thither at several times; the first were put in after the revocation of the edict of Nantes. The term prefixed for the fatal choice of either abjuring their religion, or leaving the kingdom, was a fortnight, and that upon pain of being condemned to the galleys: but this liberty, by many base artifices and unjust methods, was rendered useless and of

"Relation des Tourmens qu'on fait souffrir aux Protestans, qui sont sur les galeres de France. Faite par Jean Bion, c'ydevant prêtre et curé d' Ursy, ancien aumonier de la galère nommée La Superbe. à Londres: chez Henry Ribotteau, Libraire François, dans le Strand, 1708." Small 8vo.

66 'An Account of the Torments which the French Protestants endure aboard the Galleys. By John Bion, sometime priest and curate of the parish of Ursy, in the province of Burgundy, and chaplain to the Superbe galley, in the French service. London: printed for J. Downing, in Bartholomew-close, 1712." 8vo.

none effect; for there were often secret orders, by the contrivance of the clergy, to prevent their embarking and hinder the selling of their substance; their debtors were absolved by their confessors when they denied a debt; children were forced from their fathers' and mothers' arms, in hopes that the tenderness of the parent might prevail over the zeal of the Christian. They indeed were not massacred as in Herod's time, but the blood of their fathers was mingled with their tears; for many ministers, who had zeal and constancy enough to brave the severest punishments, were broken alive upon wheels without mercy, whenever surprised in discharging the duties of their function. The registers and courts of justice where the sentences were pronounced against them are recorded, and the executioners of them are lasting monuments of the bloody temper and fury of Popery.

"The laity were forbid, on pain of the galleys, to leave the kingdom on any pretence whatever; but, what posterity will scarce believe, the Protestants, of all sexes, ages, and conditions, used to fly through deserts and wild impracticable ways; committing their lives to the mercy of the seas, and running innumerable hazards, to avoid either idolatry or martyrdom. Some escaped very happily, in spite of the vigilance of the dragoons and bailiffs, but a great many fell into their hands, whereby the prisons were filled with confessors. But the saddest spectacle of all was to see two hundred men at a time, chained together going to the galleys, and above one hundred of that number Protestants; and what was barbarous and unjust to the last degree was, that they were obliged, when there, on pain of bastinado, to bow before the host, and to hear mass; and yet that was the only crime for which they had been condemned thither. For suppose they were in the wrong, in obstinately refusing to change their religion, the galleys were the punishment; why, then, were they required to

to do that which had been the cause of their condemnation? Especially since there is a law in France that positively forbids a double punishment for one and the same fault, viz., (Non bis punitur in idem.) But in France, properly speaking, there is no law, where the king's commands are absolute and peremptory: and I have seen a general bastinado on that account, which I shall describe in its proper place. "Tis certain, that though there was at first a very great number of Protestants condemned to the galleys, the bastinado and other torments hath destroyed above three parts of four." (pp. 43–45.)

M. Bion then describes the cruel labour at the oar, to which the unhappy Protestants were condemned, many of them unfitted for hard labour by the habits of life attendant on their previous rank and fortune, some by those of the clerical

profession, all by the weak and exhausted state of their bodies, arising from mental suffering, and from the most barbarous privations and indignities to which they were exposed. He also gives an account of the dark and noisome dungeon on board the galley assigned to the sick as their hospital, into which the light of heaven never entered, while filth the most disgusting and sickening was left to accumulate there, and the sick galley-slave was laid near his dying, and sometimes dead companion. These and other painful details we omit, that we may present to our readers M. Bion's account of a general bastinado," at which he was present, as it was not the least instrument of his conversion; and to which punishment Protestants on board the galleys, both ministers and laymen, were subjected, because they would not worship a wafer-god-the host:

66

"In the year 1703, several Protestants out of Languedoc and the Cevennes were put on board our galley. They were narrowly watched and observed, and I was mightily surprised on Sunday morning, after saying mass on the bancasse, a table so placed that all the galley may see the priest when he elevates the host, to hear the comite say, he was going to give the Huguenots the bastinado because they did not kneel nor show any respect to the mysteries of the mass, and that he was going to acquaint the captain therewith. The very name of bastinado terrified me; and though I had never seen this dreadfal execution, I begged the comite to forbear till the next Sunday, that in the meantime I would endeavour to convince them of what I then thought their duty and mine own. Accordingly I used all the means I could possibly think of to that effect, sometimes making use of fair means, giving them victuals and doing them other good offices; sometimes using threats, and representing the torments that were designed them, and often urging the king's command, and quoting the passage of St. Paul, that 'he who resists the higher power, resists God.' I had not at that time any design to oblige them to do any thing against their consciences; I must confess that what I did at that time chiefly proceeded from a motive of pity and tenderness. This was the cause of my zeal, which had been more fatal to them had not God endued them with resolution and virtue sufficient to bear up against my arguments, and the terrible execution they had in view. I could not but admire at once both the modesty of their

* An officer similar to the boatswain of a ship.-ED.

"In order to the execution, every man's chains were taken off, and they were put into the hands of four Turks, who stripped them stark naked, and stretching them upon the coursier* there they are so held that they canis a horrid silence throughout the whole galnot so much as stir, during which time there ley; and it is so cruel a scene, that the most profligate, obdurate wretches cannot bear the sight, but are forced to turn away their eyes. The victim thus prepared, the Turk pitched cudgel or knotty rope's-end, unmercifully beats upon to be the executioner, with a tough the poor wretch, and that too the more willingly, because he thinks that it is acceptable to his prophet Mahomet. But the most barbarous of all is, that after the skin is flead off their wounds is a mixture of vinegar and salt. their bones, the only balsam they apply to After this they are thrown into the hospital already described. I went thither after the execution, and could not refrain from tears at the sight of so much barbarity. They quickly perceived it, and though scarce able to speak through pain and weakness, they thanked me for the compassion I expressed, and the kindness I had already shown them. I went with a design to administer some comfort, but I was glad to find them less moved than I was myself. It was wonderful to see with what true Christian patience and constancy they bore their torments; in the extremity of their pain never expressing any thing like rage, but calling upon Almighty God and imploring his assistance. I visited them day by day, and as often as I did, my conscience upbraided me for persisting so long in a religion whose capital errors I long before perceived, and, above all, that inspired so much cruelty-a temper directly opposite to the spirit of Christianity. At last their wounds, like so many mouths preaching to me, made me sensible of my error, and experimentally taught me the excellency of the Protestant religion.

"But it is high time to conclude, and draw a curtain over this horrid scene, which presents us with none but ghastly sights, and transactions full of barbarity and injustice, but which all show how false it is, what they pretend in France for detaining the Protestants in the galleys-viz., that they do not suffer

* A large gun so called, carrying a thirtysix pound ball.-ED.

there upon a religious but a civil account, being condemned for rebellion and disobedience. The punishment inflicted on them when they refuse to adore the host, the rewards and advantages offered them on their compliance in that particular, are a sufficient argument against them, there being no such offers made to such as are condemned for crimes. It shows the world also the almost incredible barbarity used against the French Protestants, and at the same time sets off in a most glorious manner their virtue, constancy, and zeal for their holy religion." (Ibid., pp. 49–52.)

While the Protestant victims of Popish cruelty were thus barbarously treated, tranquillity was not entirely established in France, notwithstanding the adulatory addresses of the Romish clergy who congratulated Louis on the extirpation of heresy. Although emigrations and forced conversions had thinned the numbers of the Protestants, yet they were numerous in the provinces between the rivers Rhone and Garonne; and the mountains of the Cevennes afforded them an intrenchment, behind which they maintained, with va rious success, an arduous conflict with the military force of France, known in history as "the war of the Camisards." Of this war Mr. Browning has given the most compact narrative we have ever read, and which will abundantly repay the trouble of perusal. At the end of twenty years, the ministers of Louis were compelled to enter into negotiations with the Camisards; which, however, did not entirely re-establish tranquillity. In 1715, Louis XIV. departed this life, to give an account of the wholesale murders which had been perpetrated under the sanction of his authority. As his successor, Louis XV., was a mere child, the Duke of Orleans was appointed regent. During his administration a different policy was followed. His reputation for impiety was an earnest that persecutions on account of heterodox opinions would cease; but whatever may have been his real opinion in their favour, he did nothing to improve their condition.

"Yet (says Mr. Browning), by comparison, they were in a happy state: emigration in consequence ceased, and although no positive favour could be expected, they were free from apprehensions of fresh persecution.

"The Duke of Orleans was succeeded in the direction of affairs by the Duke of Bourbon, who had the weakness to imagine he could VOL. I.-13

immortalize his administration by renewing the severities of Louis XIV.; a new persecution was in consequence commenced by an absurd and odious edict, more cruel than that of revocation. Children were torn from their parents to be educated in the Romish religion; death was again decreed against pastors, confiscation against relapsed converts, and every kind of oppression endured in the late reign was renewed; and this disgraceful measure has been styled a masterpiece of Christian policy.

"There was some abatement of the horrors

of persecution while Cardinal Fleury was prime minister; yet the system did not terminate for many years; and, to judge from the writings of more than one prelate, an unabated desire existed to be freed from the presence of heretics. A memorial from the clergy in April, 1745, declared there was no hope of their conversion, and that there was rising up a genestrong than their fathers. They may protest fidelity, and publish that the spirit which pervades their assemblies is free from revolt and insurrection; but they will be good subjects no farther than fear constrains them.' "Monclus, bishop of Alais, in reply to an intendant who was a friend to tolerance, thus writes: The magistrates have relaxed the severity of the ordinances, and thus caused all the evils of which the state has to complain.' Chabannes, bishop of Agen, about the same time published a letter, in which he laments the incurable obstinacy of the heretics, and recommends that the state should be freed from them by permitting their departure.

ration of Protestants more obstinate and head

"The bishop had heard indirectly that the edict of Nantes was to be re-enacted: this horrified his intolerant soul, and he composed a tract which is no credit to the Romish party. He commences by praising the piety of Louis XIV., who made the greatest sacrifices at the peace of Ryswick, rather than listen to any proposal in favour of the Protestants. He renounced the fruit of his victories, purchased with so much blood and toil; he even acknowledged the usurper of England, notwithstanding the ties which bound him to the dispossessed king-he granted all, he yielded all; he surrendered every thing except the return of the heretics.' The bishop then argues, that what Louis XIV. refused, being in the greatest difficulty, his successor cannot yield in the midst of prosperity.

convenience perpetually springing up respect"This correspondence arose out of the ining marriage and baptism among the Protestants-a subject which renders it necessary to revert to an earlier period. Ever since the edict of revocation the jurisprudence had assumed that there were no Protestants in France; while edict rapidly followed edict, inflicting penalties upon Protestants and new converts leaving the kingdom. The Church of Rome, declaring marriage a sacrament,

could not administer that rite to any who denied its ecclesiastical authority; and, in consequence, the new converts were called upon to give proof of Roman Catholicism, before their marriages could be celebrated. The Huguenots sought their proscribed pastors in the deserts and forests. When the benediction of a minister could not be obtained, the blessing was pronounced by aged heads of families, awaiting the occasion of a pastor's

arrival; and whenever it was known that a minister was in the country, multitudes has tened to meet him, to have a religious sanction conferred on their unions, to present their children for baptism, and to receive the sacrament of communion.

"As the assemblies in the desert consisted of many thousand persons, a fresh persecution occurred for the purpose of effecting their suppression. In a report addressed to the secretary of state the severities are not concealed. In Languedoc twenty-eight persons, and in Guyenne forty-five, were condemned to the galleys, and attached to the chain of forçats, for nothing else than attending these meetings for worship. In Normandy, the goods of those who had not allowed their children to be baptized by the curé were sold without any form of procedure. These iniquities occurred in 1746; and in 1752 an attempt to re-baptize by

force the children of Protestants caused such

resistance at Ledignan, in the diocese of Nismes, that the measure was relinquished." (Browning's History, pp. 272, 273.)

The punishment of death was denounced and inflicted upon all ministers who fell into the power of government. M. Coquerel has given a list of upwards of four hundred Protestant confessors who were imprisoned in the galleys; and another of twenty-five ministers who were put to death between the years 1686 and 1762. We are tempted to present to our readers notices of two or three of these martyrdoms for the faith of the Gospel.

Louis Rang, a young minister, who was only twenty-six years of age, was arrested at Livron in the Diois (the country of Die, forming the present department of La Drôme), and thrown into prison at Valence, where he was treated with great severity. On being examined at Grenoble by M. Chais, sub-delegate or deputy of the intendant, he acknowledged that he was a minister, and discharged the duties of his office. He was condemned to death at Grenoble, March 2, 1745. In vain was his life offered to him, on condition of changing his religion. He replied, that he was inviolably attached to his faith,

and rejected every attempt that was made to seduce him from it. His sentence was, that he should be hanged at the town of Die, and that his head should be cut off and exposed on a stake in the highway, before the little inn at Livron, where he he was conducted to Valence, and thence had been apprehended. From Grenoble successively to the town of Crest, and finally to Die. At Crest, Louis Rang requested permission to shave himself and comb his hair; because (as he said) that air of neatness seemed necessary to him, in order that the people might see the calmness of his countenance, and the tranquillity with which he underwent an unjust capital punishment. At Die, at the place of execution, he repeatedly sung the following verse of the French metrical translation of Psalm cxviii. 24 :---"La voici l'heureuse journée Qui répond à notre désir;

Louons Dieu qui nous l'a donnée, Faisons en tout notre plaisir." He made several attempts to speak to the people, but his voice was constantly drowned by the beating of drums. Without listening to the exhortations of the two Jesuits who attended him, his eyes being fixed towards heaven, his countenance indicated only the most resigned and fervent piety. He knelt down at the foot of the ladder, prayed, and courageously ascended it. As soon as he was dead, the executioner severed his head from his body, in order that it might be exposed on a stake at Livron. His lifeless remains were treated in a most outrageous and unworthy manner by the base populace, without any interruption on the part of the commandant of the disboth of whom were present! Finally, trict or of the grand vicar of the bishop, the remains of this martyr were interred by the generous and Christian care of a respectable lady of the Romish commu

nion.*

Nine months after the death of Louis

Rang (in December, 1745), Matthew Desubas, a young preacher, was arrested, and conducted by a body of soldiers to Vernoux, in the Vivarais. Some of his

* Coquerel, "Hist. des Eglises du Désert," tom. i., pp. 333-335.

flock, on learning his apprehension, assembled on the road, unarmed, to implore his liberation. A discharge of musketry was the reply to their supplications when six persons were killed and four made prisoners. At Vernoux crowds arrived to intercede for their beloved pastor's life. They also were fired upon thirty-six were killed, and two hundred were wounded, the greater part mortally. The feelings excited by this wanton massacre might have produced serious consequences, as the majority of the popula tion was Protestant, and the escort not very strong; but the pastors exerted themselves in persuading the people to abstain from violence. Desubas was conveyed to Montpelier, where he was condemned to death,* and suffered on the 1st of February, 1746. The execution of his sentence was attended with inhumanity. Piercing as the cold was, the martyr was condemned to walk to the place of execution, having his legs naked, only socks on his feet, and a thin linen waistcoat without sleeves. All his papers and books were burnt before him at the foot of the gallows. The incessant rolling of drums, according to the barbarous custom of France at that time, prevented the spectators from hearing a word which he uttered. Just before he was executed, a crucifix was offered to him to kiss, but he meekly turned it aside, and expired with his eyes directed heavenward. His conversation with those who visited him in prison, and his calm deportment at the time of his martyrdom, excited much commiseration, even among the Papists.t

The last Protestant pastor who suffered death on account of his religion was Francis Rochette; he was executed at Toulouse, in 1762, with three brothers named Grenier, who had endeavoured to

"His deportment made such an impression upon the intendant himself, that when he condemned him to be hanged, he could not refrain from tears, and said that he was grieved to pronounce sentence of death against a man of so much merit; but that he was forced to it by the king's declarations.' To which gracious speech M. Desubas returned a proper answer." (Popery always the Same, p. 50.) † Coquerel," Hist. des Eglises du Désert," tom. i., pp. 377-386. "Popery always the Same," pp. 48-51.

As soon as

rescue him from captivity. their sentence was announced to them in prison, four of the principal curates of the town presented themselves, and urged the captives to embrace the Romish faith. Their efforts were useless. M. Rochette, while he thanked them for their zeal, besought them to let him die in peace. He afterwards exhorted his companions in suffering. About the middle of the day the curés left the courageous martyrs for a short time; who employed the interval in prayer, in praising God, and exhorting each other to constancy. Their meek yet firm demeanour excited the sympathy and the tears of the jailor and the guards. At one o'clock in the afternoon the ecclesiastics returned to the charge. Again did Rochette and his companions in tribulation entreat them to withdraw. One of the curates exclaimed-" But it is for your salvation that we are here." "If you were at Geneva (replied the youngest Grenier), at the point of death upon your bed (for there they put no one to death on account of religion), would you like four ministers to come and persecute you to the very last breath, under the pretext of zeal? Then do not do to others what you would not wish them to do to yourself." This striking remark, however, did not prevent the ecclesiastics from continuing to pester them with their exhortations, and from presenting the crucifix to them. This conduct drew from the eldest of the brothers the following severe words-" Speak to us of Him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, and we are ready to listen; but do not introduce your superstitions." At two o'clock the funeral procession advanced towards St. Stephen's Gate: a numerous guard escorted the chariot in which were the three brothers and their minister, still attended by the four ecclesiastics. On arriving in front of the cathedral, M. Rochette suspected that they would force them to enter it and sign an abjuration. He therefore refused to alight, but they compelled him. Then the priests and the royal commissioner told him, that it was to make an amende honourable, and to ask pardon of God, of the king, and of justice, for having disobeyed the edicts. Rochette