The Tortures and Torments
of the Christian Martyrs
from
De SS. Martyrum
Cruciatibus
(a Modern Edition)
Chapter XI
Of other Tortures and means of Martyrdom:
-
Burying alive
-
Throwing into Rivers,
Wells, or Lime-kilns
-
Cutting open the
Stomach, and the like
The
tortures outlined above, in which the martyrs were cast into deep ditches
and buried with earth, hurled into a running stream or into wells, or
else into a lime-kiln, are found in many Histories of Martyrdom,
particularly those of Saints Castullus, Vitalis, Marcellus, Philemon
and his companions, Saints Paulina and Daria, Roman virgins and martyrs,
Saints Calistus and Carisius, Saints Alexandra, Claudia, and Euphrasia,
matrons, Julitta, virgin and martyr, Saints Florus and Laurus, and many
others. The two last named are commemorated in the Menology on
August 17th in these words:
"Anniversary of the Blessed
Martyrs, Saints Florus and Laurus. These holy men were twin brothers,
and hewers of stone, an art they had learned from Proclus and Maximus.
But after their masters had suffered martyrdom for Christ's sake,
they left Byzantium (Constantinople) and retired into the district
of Illyricum, to the city of Ulpiani, where, working in the quarries
under Lido the Governor, they worthily followed their trade. Finally,
after enduring many tortures and being cast by Licio into a deep
well, they gave up their souls to God."
The blessed martyrs were also
thrown sometimes into a lime-kiln, much as we find in the Acts
of St. Clement, Bishop of Ancyra, and also by the account of three
hundred martyrs given in the Roman Martyrology, on August
24th:
"At Carthage, anniversary
of three hundred Holy Martyrs in the time of Valerian and Gallienus.
Among other punishments, after the Governor commanded a lime-kiln
to be lighted and in his presence live coals and incense to be brought
forward, he said to the three hundred, 'Choose one of two things
— either burn incense to Jupiter on these coals, or be plunged into
the quicklime.' Then, armed with faith and confessing Christ the
Son of God, they threw themselves with a quick dash into the fire,
and amid the vapors of the quicklime were instantly reduced to powder.
It is for this very reason that the white-clad host of Saints well
earned the title of the White Band."
How the Blessed Martyrs were Buried Alive
Before we proceed to other points,
it is important to note that Christians tortured in this manner were
not always cast bodily into pits to be buried entirely under earth and
stones, although this was generally the case. We read, for example,
in the Acts just cited, of Saints Philemon and Marcellus, that
these martrys for the faith were buried only up to their loins. We suggest
that you read their History for more on this point.
Of the Different Ways that Christian Martyrs were Cast
into the Sea or into Rivers
As we mentioned above, it was
not always in one and the same, way that the martyrs were tormented
... but in many. Many of the Blessed Martyrs are recorded as having
been thrown into the
waters. Sometimes this was done after great stones, or lead weights,
had been fastened to their neck or feet or right hand, as
was the case with Saints Sabinus, Agapius, Florian, Alexandra, Claudia,
Euphrasia, matrons, Julitta, virgin, and others. At
other times they were cast into the waters with both hands and feet
tied, wrapped in a net, shut in leaden boxes, or sewn up in a bag. These
methods are to be found in the accounts of the martyrdoms of Saints
Faustinus and Jovita, as well as Saints Hermillus, Ulpian, Stratonicus,
Nicostratus, and others.
It is also noteworthy in this respect that the bag was a very
ancient form of punishment indeed. Plautus [254-184 B.C.] makes mention
of it in his Vidularia:
Iube hunc insui culeo,
atque in altum deportari, si vis annonam bonam
("Order the man to be sewn up in a bag, and cast into the deep,
if you would have a good harvest ").
Now the bag he speaks of was a
skin, or sack made of leather, in which murderers were sewn up, often
together with a dog, a cock, a snake, an ape, or some other creature,
and thrown headlong, in accordance with Roman law, into the sea or river.
From ancient times a law of this sort seems to have existed in the case
of parricides; and so Cicero states:
"If any man has killed his
parents or beaten them, and is found guilty and condemned on that
count, his head is to be wrapped in a wolf's skin, wooden shoes
(that is, fetters) are to be put upon his feet, and he is to be
led to prison, and there to stay a little while the bag is being
made ready into which he must be placed and so cast into the water."
In fact, this law was passed by
the Romans to terrify and so discourage others from following the example
of Lucius Hostius, who was the first of mankind, after the War with
Hannibal, to kill his own father, and was intended to dissuade others
from taking their own parents' lives with the sword or otherwise. Accordingly,
when during the Cimbrian War (113-101 BC) Poblicius Malleolus murdered
his mother, he was punished in this fashion. His fate is mentioned by
Livy in these words:
"Poblicius Malleolus, for
the murder of his mother, was the first ever sewn up in a bag and
thrown into the sea"
And in another place:
"Malleolus was condemned for
his mother's murder. After sentencing, his head was immediately
muffled in a wolf's skin, while the bag was getting ready, into
which he was to be put and thrown into the water."
At a later date Pompey the Great
[106-48 BC], when Consul, passed a law further amending the ancient
ordinance, extending the degree of relationship within which murder
involved this form of punishment, and detailing the creatures to be
enclosed in the bag' along with the culprit — namely, a dog, a cock,
a viper, and an ape. The same law of Pompey's is again recited, with
identical provisions, by Justinian in the Institutes. True, this
law fell into practical disuse in later Roman times by reason of the
cruelty of its provisions; but it was revived for the benefit of the
Christians, several of whom won their crown of martyrdom in this strange
fashion.
Of Catholics cast by heretics into the Sea and Rivers,
or Buried in the Ground
Victor, Bishop of Utica, in his
Vandal Persecution describes how the Catholics were embarked
by their Heretic persecutors on board derelict ships, without sails
or oars, and so committed to the vast sea to confront certain shipwreck.
Nor is it only from the heretics that we learn of casting away Catholics
on the waters, but those of more modern times as well. We see this in
the Theatre of Cruelties:
"When the city of Oudenarde
in Flanders had been occupied by the host of the Gueux, these insurgents
captured all the priests of that province who were noted for their
piety and learning and carried them off to the castle. Amongst these
was one, Master Peter, a venerable old man and the oldest of all
the company. After heaping insults and doing violence upon him,
they stripped him of his clothes, bound his hands and feet together
behind his back, and threw him headlong through the castle windows
into the river, the good man crying out as he fell with alert and
undaunted spirit, 'Thy will be done, O, Lord." In the same way,
the venerable John Paul and the rest of the divines were cast into
the river, of whom Master James, the eldest and weakest among them,
unable to swim, was carried by the waters some way thence, taken
out, and his life saved."
Again, somewhat further down:
"Ursula, a Nun in the Beguinage
at Haarlem, (after her aged father, the acting magistrate in that
city, and several other well-reputed and well-born Catholics with
him, had been hanged) was herself led under the gallows, and asked
whether she would forsake her Faith and the Catholic Religion, and
marry a certain soldier. And when she steadfastly refused to do
so, she was at once cast into the water, and drowned."
And yet again:
"The heretics of the city
of Nimes in Languedoc, after slaughtering a great multitude of Catholics
with their daggers, threw them, some dead, some still half alive,
into a well in the city, which was both wide and deep, and filled
it twice over to the brim."
All this is to be found in the
book, The Theatre of Heretic Cruelties, in which we also find
the following concerning
Catholics who were buried in the earth:
"The Huguenots buried alive
a priest named Peter, of the parish of Beaulieu, leaving only his
head above ground. At a place in Belgium not far from the
Ypres, other clergy as well were thus covered with earth and stones,
and the Heugenots, setting up marks a short way from
their exposed heads, rolled bowls of stone or iron at them in the
way of sport."
We will now continue to explore
still other sorts of tortures and torments to which our forebears in
Christ were exposed, first in the way of those martyrs who were publicly
stripped and led naked through the streets of cities; secondly of those
who were shut up in dungeons strewn with broken glass or shards of pottery
or even iron caltrops [triangular spikes], so that their bare bodies
would be lacerated and punctured by their sharp points, and last, those
who were tied to the branches of two trees and wrenched apart. After
this we will discuss (in Chapter XII) martyrs driven into banishment,
and those condemned to hard labor and to the mines.
The first and second kinds are attested by the Acts of the Blessed
Martyrs, Saints Alexander and Vincent, Peter and Marcellinus, Victor
and Corona, as in the Menology where, on September 9th, it is
recorded:
"Anniversary of the Blessed
Martyr Strato, who, being bound to two cedar trees and so rent asunder
in two parts for the faith of Christ, was made one with the celestial
host."
Of other faithful servants of
Christ which were subjected to the same torture, Eusebius and Nicephorus
both bear witness, as well as the History of the martyrdom of
the above-named Saints Victor and Corona.
Of Catholics — particularly Monks and Priests — who had
their Stomachs Ripped Open by heretics within this Present Century
Not only by the idolaters of antiquity
and heretics of former days have Christian martyrs been torn apart and
disemboweled in different ways (as we have already seen), but no less
by the heretics of our own day. Let us quote what is said concerning
this in the Theatre of Cruelties, and elsewhere:
"The Huguenots at the Church
of St. Macarius in Vasconia ripped the bellies of many priests,
and gradually drew out their bowels by winding them around sticks
which they turned around and around. In the city of Mancina, having
seized a priest of an advanced age, they proceeded to cut off his
privates, and after roasting them over a fire, crammed them into
his mouth. Then to see how he would digest them — for he was still
alive — they ripped open his stomach, consummating his martyrdom.
In the case of another priest, they imitated the tyranny and
cruelty of the Emperor Julian, by cutting open his belly with a
sword, while he was yet alive, and stuffing the cavity full of oats,
gave him to their horses to feed upon."
This torturing of Christ's priests
was not confined to any particular place or time. We learn of others,
equally horrible and cruel, to which they were indiscriminately subjected:
"In the parish of Cassenville,
near Engolisma, the Huguenots seized upon a priest named Lewis,
who by all accounts lived an excellent and exemplary life, and plunged
his hands so often and so long in a vessel full of boiling oil that
the flesh was stripped and fell off from the bones. Not content
with this cruelty, they poured the same boiling liquid into his
mouth. Seeing him not yet dead, they slew him by shooting at him
with leaden bullets from iron barrels.
Another priest, Colin by name,
was also seized and castrated. After shutting him in a cask with
a hole in the top, they poured upon him such a quantity of boiling
oil that he died under such torments.
In the parish of Rivieres,
they laid hands on yet another priest, whose tongue they tore out
while he was still alive by piercing his chin, afterwards killing
him. Another, named John, they murdered by cutting his throat, after
first burning all the skin of his feet with a red-hot iron.
Francois Raboteau, Vicar of
the parish of Foucquebrun, was seized by the Huguenots and tied
to oxen dragging a wagon, and was so savagely goaded and lashed
that he finally died of the pain and torment.
At the time when Prince Auriac
occupied Ruremond, a city of Guelderland which he had seized, his
soldiers violently assaulted the Carthusian monastery there, shouting
'Geld!', meaniing that they wanted money. At the entrance
gate three lay brothers were slain, Albert, John, and Stephen
of Ruremond. Rushing into the Church, the soldiers disrupted the
venerable Prior Joachim at prayers with the rest of the Brethren.
Him They wounded him in several places and dragged him out, while
four monks were killed on the spot, the rest being left grievously
wounded.
In the city of Engolsheim,
Friar John Auril of the Order of St. Francis, an old man of eighty,
had his head split open with an axe, and his body thrown into the
privies.
By the same ministers of Satan,
in various other places, many priests serving God had noses and
ears cut off, and eyes forced out. Indeed so audacious was the insolence
of one Huguenot and so monstrous his barbarity, that he made himself
a necklace of priests' ears that had been cut away, and boasted
of it before his leaders as a mark of bravery and diligence.
In England, the Calvinist
heretics violently seized Catholic priests performing the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass, and clad as they were in their sacred vestments, set
them on horseback in the midday and with burning torches carried
in front, lead them about the streets in mockery. They also pierced
their ears with a red-hot iron, exposing them on a stage to public
scorn, fixed their heads in the pillory while nailing their ears
at the same time to its wooden framework — and all this was
done for no other reason than the priests' sympathizing and speaking
well of the innocence of the martyrs and other Catholics who be
tortured for their holy Catholic Faith."
All these atrocities, we must
bear in mind, were committed by the heretics of the present day in England,
Ireland, France and Belgium.
CHAPTER XII
Chapters:
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
7 -
8 -
9 -
10 -
11 -
12

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