1570 Edition | Book 7 | Page 1125 
caues, some were famished with hunger, some were smothered with fire and smoke put vnto them. All whiche may more fully be vnderstand by the recordes of the Court, and by the pleas betwene them and their aduersaries in the hygh Consistory of the Court of Paris: Where all the dores being set open, and in the publicke hearyng of all the people, the case of this trouble and persecution was shortly after, solemnly debated betwene two great Lawyers: the one called Aubrius, whiche accused Minerius the President committed to prison, and the other called Robertus, who was the defendant agaynst him. MarginaliaWhen the Merindolians were slaine, their cause was pleaded.The cause why this matter of Merindol was brought in plea and iudgement to be decided by the law, was this:
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CloseFrench royal authorities initially applauded the success of the military operation eliminating the Vaudois villages in Provence (the French king is reputed to have commented: 'C'est une belle defaicte' and Pope Paul III awarded Meynier several honours. However, within a few years, François I's successor, Henri II was persuaded to issue letters patent requiring Meynier, Polin de la Garde and others to answer charges before the Parlement of Paris. Their trial lasted over six months until February 1551. Only one of the defendants was ultimately found guilty but it took Meynier several years thereafter to recover all his possessions. The grisly details of Meynier's death are taken from Pantaleon, fol. 145. The later activities of Meynier d'Oppède's relatives, Louis de Vaine and Pierre Duranti, against the protestants of Aix-en-Provence, were more fully related in Crespin's account (Crespin/Benoist, 1, p. 418).
[Back to Top]Thus Miniers beyng restored, returned agayne into Prouince, where hee began agayne to attempte greater tyrāny, then before. MarginaliaThe iuste stroke of God vpon cruell Minerius.Neither did his ragyng fury cease to procede, before the iust iudgement of God lightyng vpon him, brought him by a horrible disease, vnto the tormentes of death, whiche he most iustly had deserued. For hee beyng strocken with a straunge kynde of bledyng at þe lower partes, in maner of a bloudy flixe, and not beyng hable to voyde any vrine, thus by litle and litle his guttes within him rotted: and when no remedy could be found for this terrible disease, and his entralles now began to be eaten of wormes, a certein famous Surgeon named La Motte, which dwelt at Arles, a man no lesse godly then expert in hys science: was called for, who after he had cured him of this difficultie of makyng water, and therfore was in great estimation with him, before hee would procede futher to searche the other partes of his putrified body, and to search out the inward cause of his maladie, hee desyred that they whiche were present in the chamber with Minerius, would departe a litle a side. MarginaliaGood counsail geuen to Minerius of hys Surgeon.Whiche being done, he began to exhorte Minerius with earnest wordes, saying how the time now required that he should aske forgiuenes of God by Christ, for his enormous crimes, and crueltie in shedyng so much innocent bloud, and declared the same to be the cause of this so straunge profusion of bloud commyng from hym. These woordes beyng heard, so pearsed the impure conscience of this miserable wretch, that he was therwith more troubled them with the agonye of his disease: MarginaliaMinerius seeketh the blood of hys Surgeon.in so much that he cried out to laye hand vpon the Surgeon, as an hereticke. La Motte hearyng this, eftsones cōueyed him self out of sight, and returned again to Arles. Notwithstandyng it was not long, but he was sent for agayne, being intreated by his frendes, & promised most firmely, that his commyng should bee without any perill or daunger: and so with much adoe, he returned again to Minerius, what time all now was past remedy: MarginaliaThe wretched end of wretched Minerius the persecuter.and so Minerius raging and castyng out most horrible and blasphemyng wordes, & feeling a fire which burnt him frō the nauill vpward, with extreme stinch of the lower partes, finished his wretched lyfe. Wherby we haue notoriously to vnderstād that God through his mightye arme, at length cōfoundeth such persecuters of his innocent and faithful seruaunts, and bringeth them to nought: to whom bee prayse and glory for euer.
[Back to Top]Moreouer, besides this iustice of God shewed vpō Minerius, here also is not to bee forgotten whiche folowed likewise vppon certaine of the other, whiche were the chief doers in this persecutiō vnder MineriusMarginaliaThe iuste plage of God vpon 3. persecuters.aforesaid, namely Lewes de Vayne, brother in law to the sayd President, and also the brother, and the sonne in law to Peter Durant, maister butcher of þe towne of Aix: the whiche three dyd slay one an other vpon a certeine strife that fell among them. And vpon the same day the Iudge of Aix, who accompanyed Minerius in the same persecution, as he returned homewarde, goyng ouer the riuer of Durance, was drowned. Ex hist. Gallica. Hen. Pantal. & alijs.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaIn the title afore, in stede of the Valley of Angrongue, read, in the countrey of Prouince.In the title of this story of Merindoll aboue prefixed, in the stead of the valley of Angrongne, which thou seest rased out with penne, read, in the countrey of Prouince.
CloseThis is the one element of this section which Foxe added in the 1570 edition to the narrative he had provided in 1563. He also departs from his major sources, Pantaleon and Crespin. His objective was clearly to deepen the historical context to the persecution at Mérindol and Cabrières. Foxe wants to reinforce his fundamental message, announced in the preface to the 1570 edition (the 'Protestation to the whole Church of England') that it had been in the course of the early thirteenth century that persecution of God's true church had begun in earnest: 'then was the clere sunne shine of Goids word overshadowed with mists and darknes'. It was also an opportunity, however, to for him to confront what seemed to be potentially divergent accounts of the origins of medieval heresy in the region. From the earliest edition of the martyrology, Foxe had emphasised the significance of the Waldensians, placing their origins among the poor of Lyon (pp. 41-46). In so doing, he had allowed only a passing sentence or so to the Albigensian crusade. Now he doubled back briefly to the relationship between the Albigensians and the Waldensians, admitting the possibility that they might be movements with very different origins. He acknowledges that this was the view presented in Paolo Aemilio Veronensis, In Franciæ Antiqvitatem Libri Tres - but only to question it through adducing other sources, notably Bernard Lutzenburg, Catalogus haereticorum (Cologne, 1523). Both these references Foxe is most likely to have acquired at second hand through the compilation of the Magdeburg Centuries. It is with some relief that he returns to his primary source, Sleidan, once more since he had emphasised 'their continuance and doctrine' - and that was the message that Foxe wanted to leave with his readers.
[Back to Top]THus hast thou heard (louyng reader) the terrible troubles, and miserable slaughter committed by the Bishops and Cardinals agaynst these faythfull men of Merindoll, which for the heynous tyranny and example of the fact most vnmercifull, may be comparable with any of the first persecutions in the primitiue Churche, done either by Decius, or Dioclesianus. Now, touching the said story & people of Merindoll, briefly by the way is to bee noted, that this was not the first tyme that these men of this countrey, were vexed, neither was it of late yeares, that the doctrine & profeßion of thē began. MarginaliaThe Gospellers of Merindoll came fyrst of the Waldēses.For (as by the course of time, & by anciēt records it maye appeare) these inhabitantes of Prouince, and other coastes borderyng about the confines of Fraunce, and Piemont, had their continuance of auncient time, and receiued their doctrine first from the Waldenses, or Albigenses, whiche were (as some do say) about the yeare of our Lord. 1170. or (as other do recken) about the yeare of our Lord. 1216. wherof thou hast (gentle reader) sufficiently to vnderstand, readyng before.MarginaliaVid supra pag. 294. &c. pag. 294. col. 2. lin. 53. Item, pag. 341. Item, pag. 349. &c.
[Back to Top]These Waldenses, otherwise called Pauperes de Lugduno, beginnyng of one Petrus Waldus, Citizen of Lyons, as is afore shewed, MarginaliaVid. supra pag. 295.pag. 295. by violence of persecution beyng driuē out of Lyons, were disparcled abroad in diuers countreys, of whom some fled to Maßilia, some to Germanie, some to Sarmatia, Liuonia, Bohemia, Calabria, and Apulia, diuers strayed to the countreys of Fraūce, especially about Prouince, & Piedmont, of whō came these Merindolians, aboue mentioned, & the Angroniās with others, of whō now it foloweth likewise (God willyng) to discourse. MarginaliaWaldēses how and of whō they first began.They whiche were in the countrey of Tolouse, of the place where they frequented, were called Albij, MarginaliaAlbigenses.or Albigenses. MarginaliaDominicus, Patriarche of the blacke Fryers, enemie to the Waldenses.Agaynst the whiche Albigenses, Frier Dominicus was a great doer, laboryng and preachyng agaynst them. x. yeares together, and caused many of thē to be burned, for the which he was highly accepted, and rewarded in the Apostolicall Court, and at length by Pope Honorius 3. was made Patriarche of the blacke gard of the Dominicke Friers. Ex Antonino part. 3. tit. 19. cap. 1.
[Back to Top]These Albigenses, agaynst the Pope of Rome, had set vppe to them selues a Bishoppe of their owne, named Bartholomæus remainyng about the coastes of Croatia, and Dalmatia, as appeareth by a letter of one of the Popes Cardinals, MarginaliaVid. supra pag. 341.aboue specified, pag. 341. For the whiche cause the Sea of Rome tooke great indignation agaynst the sayd Albigenses, and caused all their faithfull catholickes and obedienciares to their Churche to rise vp in armour, and to take the signe of the holy Crosse vpō thē, to fight agaynst thē, an. 1206. by reason wherof great multitudes of them were pitifullye murdered, not onely of thē about Tolouse, and Auinion in Fraūce (as is afore to be sene, pag. 349) but also in all quarters, miserable slaughters & burnynges of them long cōtinued, frō the reigne of Fridericke 2. Emperour, almost to this present tyme, through the instigatiō of the Roman popes.
[Back to Top]Paulus Æmylius the French Chronicler in his vi. boke writyng of these Pauperes de Lugduno, MarginaliaEx Paul. Æmylio Lib. 6.and Humiliati, and diuidyng these ij. orders from Albigenses, reporteth that the ij. former orders were reiected of Pope Lucius 3. And in their place, other ij. orders were approued, to wytt, the order of the Dominicke Friers, and of the Franciscanes. Whiche semeth not to be true, forsomuch as this Pope Lu-
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