Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
ordered to put the finishing stroke to what they had begun; which he at length effected, by
acting with such barbarous rigor, that there was not a single person of the reformed religion
left living in all Calabria.
Thus were a great number of inoffensive and harmless people deprived of their
possessions, robbed of their property, driven from their homes, and at length murdered by
various means, only because they would not sacrifice their consciences to the superstitions
of others, embrace idolatrous doctrines which they abhorred, and accept of teachers whom
they could not believe.
Tyranny is of three kinds, viz., that which enslaves the person, that which seizes the
property, and that which prescribes and dictates to the mind. The two first sorts may be
termed civil tyranny, and have been practiced by arbitrary sovereigns in all ages, who have
delighted in tormenting the persons, and stealing the properties of their unhappy subjects.
But the third sort, viz., prescribing and dictating to the mind, may be called ecclesiastical
tyranny: and this is the worst kind of tyranny, as it includes the other two sorts; for the
Romish clergy not only do torture the body and seize the effects of those they persecute, but
take the lives, torment the minds, and, if possible, would tyrannise over the souls of the
unhappy victims.
Account of the Persecutions in the Valleys of Piedmont
Many of the Waldenses, to avoid the persecutions to which they were continually
subjected in France, went and settled in the valleys of Piedmont, where they increased
exceedingly, and flourished very much for a considerable time.
Though they were harmless in their behavior, inoffensive in their conversation, and paid
tithes to the Roman clergy, yet the latter could not be contented, but wished to give them
some distrubance: they, accordingly, complained to the archbishop of Turin that the
Waldenses of the valleys of Piedmont were heretics, for these reasons:
1. That they did not believe in the doctrines of the Church of Rome.
2. That they made no offerings or prayers for the dead.
3. That they did not go to Mass.
4. That they did not confess, and receive absolution.
5. That they did not believe in purgatory, or pay money to get the souls of their friends
out of it.
Upon these charges the archbishop ordered a persecution to be commenced, and many
fell martyrs to the superstitious rage of the priests and monks.
At Turin, one of the reformed had his bowels torn out, and put in a basin before his face,
where they remained in his view until he expired. At Revel, Catelin Girard being at the stake,
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