Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
(6). To wear beards.
(7). To deliver up their ministers.
(8). To deliver up their schoolmasters.
(9). To go to confession.
(10). To pay loans for the delivery of souls from purgatory.
(11). To give up Captain Gianavel at discretion.
(12). To give up the elders of their church at discretion.
The inhabitants of Roras, on being acquainted with these conditions, were filled with an
honest indignation, and, in answer, sent word to the marquis that sooner than comply with
them they would suffer three things, which, of all others, were the most obnoxious to
mankind, viz.
* 1. Their estates to be seized.
* 2. Their houses to be burned.
* 3. Themselves to be murdered.
Exasperated at this message, the marquis sent them this laconic epistle:
To the Obstinate Heretics Inhabiting Roras
You shall have your request, for the troops sent against you have strict injunctions to
plunder, burn, and kill. PIANESSA.
The three armies were then put in motion, and the attacks ordered to be made thus: the
first by the rocks of Vilario; the second by the pass of Bagnol; and the third by the defile of
Lucerne.
The troops forced their way by the superiority of numbers, and having gained the rocks,
pass, and defile, began to make the most horrid depradations, and exercise the greatest
cruelties. Men they hanged, burned, racked to death, or cut to pieces; women they ripped
open, crucified, drowned, or threw from the precipices; and children they tossed upon spears,
minced, cut their throats, or dashed out their brains. One hundred and twenty-six suffered in
this manner on the first day of their gaining the town.
Agreeable to the marquis of Pianessa's orders, they likewise plundered the estates, and
burned the houses of the people. Several Protestants, however, made their escape, under the
conduct of Captain Gianavel, whose wife and children were unfortunately made prisoners
and sent under a strong guard to Turin.
111