1576 Edition | Book 7 | Page 950 
all that they could meete with.MarginaliaAboue a 1000. Martyrs of Cabriers. The number of those that were so vnmercyfully murdered, were about a thousād persons of men, women, and children. The infantes that escaped their fury were baptised agayne of their enemies.
In token of this ioly victory, the Popes Officers caused a piller to be erected in the sayd place of Cabriers, in the whiche was engrauen the yeare and the day of the takyng and sackyng of this Towne, by Iohn Miniers Lord of Opede and chief President of the Parlament of Prouince, for a memoriall for euer, of the barbarous cruelty, the lyke whereof was yet neuer heard of.MarginaliaThe arguments wherupon the doctrine of the Popes Church standeth. Whereupon we withall our posteritie, haue to vnderstand what be the reasons and argumentes wherewith the Antichrist of Rome, is wont to vphold the impious seate of his abomination: Who now is come to such excesse and profunditie of all kyndes of iniquitie that all iustice, equitie and veritie beyng set a side, he seeketh the defence of his cause, by no other thyng, then onely by force and violence, terrour and oppression, and shedyng of bloud.
[Back to Top]In this meane while the inhabitauntes of Merindoll and other places thereabout, were among the mountaines and rockes, in great necessitie of victualles, and much affliction: who had procured certaine men, whiche were in some fauour and authoritie with Miniers, to make request for them vnto hym, that they might depart safely, whether it should please God to lead them, with their wiues and children although they had no more but their shyrtes to couer their nakednesse. Whereunto Miniers made this aunswere:MarginaliaAntichrist here playeth the deuill. I know what I haue to do: not one of them shall escape my handes. I will send them to dwell in hell among the deuils.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe towne of Costa, destroyed. After this there was a power sent vnto Costa, whiche lykewise they ouercame, and committed there great slaughter. Many of the inhabitauntes fledde away and ranne into an orchard, where the souldiours rauished the women and maydens, and when they had kept them there inclosed a daye and a nyght, they handled them so beastly, that those whiche had great belyes, and the younger maydens, dyed shortly after.MarginaliaMartyrs of Costa. It were impossible to comprehend all the lamentable and sorrowfull examples of this cruell persecution agaynst the Merindolians and their felowes: In so much that no kynde of cruell tyranny was vnpractised. For they which escaped by woodes, and went wandryng by mountaines, were taken and set in Galyes, or els were slayne out right.
[Back to Top]Many whiche dyd hyd themselues in rockes and darke 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 hyghe Consistory of the Court of Paris: Where all the doores beyng set open, and in the publicke hearyng of all the people the case of this trouble and persecution was shortly after, solemnly debated betwene ij. great Lawyers: the one called Aubrius, whiche accused Minerius the President committed to prison, and the other called Robertus, who was the defendant agaynst hym.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]Which cause, after it was pleaded to and fro, in publicke audience, no lesse then fiftye tymes, and yet in the ende, could not be determined, so it brake of and was passed ouer,MarginaliaMinerius loosed out of prison. and at length Minerius beyng losed out of prison, was restored to his libertie and possessions agayne, vppon this condition and promise made vnto the Cardinall, Charles of Lorraine, that he should banish and expell these new Christians (termyng so the true professours of the Gospell) out of all Prouince.
[Back to Top]Thus Miniers beyng restored, returned agayne into Prouince, where hee began agayne to attempt greater tyranny, then before.MarginaliaThe iust stroke of God vpon cruel Minerius. Neither dyd his ragyng furye cease to proceede, before the iust iudgement of God lightyng vpon hym, brought hym by a horrible disease, vnto the tormentes of death, whiche he most iustly had deserued. For he beyng strocken with a straunge kynde of bledyng at the lower partes, in maner of a bloudy flixe, and not beyng a ble to voyde any vrine, thus by little and little his guttes within him rotted: and when no remedy could bee founde for this terrible disease, and his entralles now began to be eaten of wormes, a certaine famous Surgeon named La Motte, whiche dwelt at Arles, a man no lesse godly then expert in hys science: was called for, who after he had cured hym of this difficultie of makyng water, and therefore was in great estimation with hym, before hee would proceede futher to searche the other partes of hys putrified body, and to searche out the inward cause of hys maladie, he desired that they whiche were present in the chamber with Minerius, would departe a little a side.MarginaliaGood counsaile geuen to Minerius of hys Surgeon. Whiche beyng done, he began to exhort Minerius with earnest wordes, saying how the tyme now required that hee should aske forgiuenesse of God by Christ, for his enormous crimes and cruelty in shedyng so much innocent bloud, and declared the same to be the cause of this so straunge profusion of bloud commyng from hym.
[Back to Top]These woordes beyng heard, so pearsed the impure conscience of this miserable wretch, that he was therewith more troubled then with the agonye of hys disease:MarginaliaMinerius seeketh the blood of hys Surgeon. in so much that hee cryed out to laye hand vppon the Surgeon, as an hereticke. La Motte hearyng this, eftsoones conueyed him selfe out of sight, and returned agayne to Arles. Notwithstandyng it was not long, but he was sent for agayne, beyng intreated by his frendes, and promised most firmely, that his commyng should be without any perill or daunger: and so with much ado, he returned againe to Minerius, what tyme all now was past remedy:MarginaliaThe wretched end of wretched Minerius the persecuter. and so Minerius ragyng and castyng out most horrible and blasphemyng wordes, and feelyng a fire which burnt him from the nauill vpward, with extreme stinch of the lower partes, finished his wretched lyfe. Whereby we haue notoriously to vnderstand that God thorough his mighty arme, at length confoundeth such persecuters of his innocent and faythfull seruauntes, & bryngeth them to nought: to whom be prayse and glory for euer.
[Back to Top]Moreouer, besides this Iustice of God shewed vpon Minerius, here also is not to be forgotten whiche folowed likewise vpon certaine of the other, whiche were the chief doers in this persecution vnder MineriusMarginaliaThe iuste plague of God vpon 3. persecuters. aforesayd, 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 the Towne of Aix: the whiche three dyd slay one an other vpon a certaine strife that fel among them. And vppon the same day the Iudge of Aix, who accompanied Minerius in the same persecutiō, as he returned homeward, goyng ouer the riuer of Durance, was drowned. Ex hist. Gallica. Henr. Pantal. & alijs.
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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 slaughters committed by the Byshops and Cardinalles agaynst these faythfull men of Merindoll, which for the haynous tyranny and example of the fact most vnmercyfull, may be comparable with any of the first persecutions in the primitiue Churche, done either by Decius, or Dioclesianus.
[Back to Top]Now, touchyng the sayd story and people of Merindol, briefly by the way is to be 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 and profession of thē began.MarginaliaThe Gospellers of Merindoll came first of the Waldenses. For (as by the course of tyme, and by auncient Recordes it may appeare) these inhabitauntes of Prouince, and other coastes borderyng about the confines of Fraunce, and Piemont, had their continuance of auncient tyme, and receiued their doctrine first from the Waldenses, or Albigenses, whiche were (as some do saye) 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. 233. &c. pag. 233. Item, pag. 265. Item, pag. 271. &c.
[Back to Top]These Waldenses, otherwise called Pauperes de Lugduno, begynnyng of one Petrus Waldus, Citizen of Lyons, as is afore shewed,MarginaliaVid. supra pag. 234. pag. 234. by violence of persecution beyng driuen out of Lyons, were disparcled abroad in diuers countreys, of whom some fled to Massilia, some to Germany, some to Sarmatia, Liuonia, Bohemia, Calabria, and Apulia, diuers strayed to the countreys of Fraunce, especially about Prouince, and Piemont, of whom came these Merindolians, aboue mentioned, and the Angronians with others, of whom now it foloweth likewise (God willyng) to discourse.MarginaliaWaldenses how and of whom they first began. They which were in the countrey of Tolouse, of the place where they frequented, were called Albij, or Albigēses. Agaynst the which Albigēses, Frier Do
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