Truth is ancient; it's grey hairs may make it venerable;
it comes from Him who is the ancient of days. --Thomas Watson

 

29 January, 2007   comments: (0) Wonderful Plan?   A Huguenot's Story - Part 3 In May 1686, while we were in the French prison of Grenoble, a commissioner was appointed to interrogate us. He went through the same questions that I had answered before. When he asked, "To what religion do you belong?" I replied "To the religion". "To which religion, there are several in the world?" "To the Reformed religion". "What do you mean by calling it reformed?" "I mean that it has been purged from the errors and abuses brought into it by the wickedness of men". "Where were you going when you were arrested?" "I was going to find some work. As the soldiers have consumed all our provisions, and we have been obliged to leave our home, we had to try with the help of God, to earn our bread in some honest way". "Have you ever renounced your religion?" "No, thank God". "Where have you spent the last seven or eight months?" "In the forests and among the rocks". "Do you intend not to recant?" "No, monsieur; God forbid". Then he told me that I was in a wicked state of mind. "If you will take my advice you will be happy for the rest of your life; if not, you have nothing but sorrow before you; for you will rot in a dungeon". I said, "My body may rot, if so it please you; but my soul belongs to God, and I am satisfied". He said, "I only seek your good. If you will listen to me, I will take you out of prison; I will give you money, and will send you to your own home; or if you prefer living at Grenoble, I will find you a home with a noble lady who will treat you as her own child". "Monsieur, you have power to keep my body in bondage, but my soul is at liberty, and I have conscience and peace with God, which is worth all the riches in the world". "Do you now know that all the great men of your religion have come over to us?" "I know, monsieur, that I belong to the little flock which is despised by the world; but I should rather be with Noah in the ark than be destroyed in the deluge with the world". My examination lasted an hour and a half, and God enabled me to answer the commissioner; so finding that he could make no impression upon me, he sent me back to my cell. From time to time ladies used to come to see us, and try to gain us over by flattery or by threats. In the month of June I was again called before the commissioner to go through another examination; but first I did not fail to bow my knees before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to pray for strength of body and soul. The commissioner asked me whether I had not yet changed my mind , and whether I was willing to go hear the bishop of Grenoble preach. "No monsieur; he is not my shepherd, and I know not his voice". "Why will you not hear monsieur le cardinal, and learn the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church? You go and listen to the sermons of your own ministers, and you read the bible". "Because, monsieur, our pastors preach the Word of God in purity; and as for the reading of the bible, Jesus Christ commands, in the fifth chapter of John, 'Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me' ". "But do you think that yours are the true scriptures? They have been perverted." ... [After the interrogation] they immediately carried me off to the dungeon. Here I found many prisoners that I had not seen before. I asked where they came from and why they were there. I learned that we were going to be placed in a dungeon in the moat. The attendant had protested against it, saying that it was too bad to put women and girls in a horrible hole swarming with rats and mice, where the prisoners must stand on blocks of wood to keep out of the mud and water on the floor. Some of the young ladies who were imprisoned had seen this cell in the moat, and said that to be imprisoned there would be certain death. I replied "If our God allows them to put us there, He can keep us as well as we now are. We have only to cry to Him in our distresses, and He will deliver us as soon as He sees it to be for His glory and for our good." Meanwhile we remained crowded together in the dungeon, and were almost stifled, while the stench from the moat was so bad that one young lady fainted. That night they removed us into a cell in the moat. It was full of vermin of all kinds; the walls were running down with wet; the filth cannot be described; we were poisoned with foul smells, and had neither food nor clothes. Throughout the night rats of an enormous size fell upon us from the ceiling, and ran over us as we lay down. As they kept us here day after day, the pious people of Grenoble began to talk about our sufferings, and ask whether it was possible that they had put women and girls into the dungeon in the moat. But no one was allowed to visit us, so the truth could not be known certainly. Some papists however, were permitted to come and persecute us by their talk and threats. One day a young lady named Guichard drew me aside and said, "I am very sorry to see you here. They are about to inflict upon you yet severer punishments, since nothing that you have yet suffered has made you give up your religion. Your hair is going to be cut off by the hangman and you are to be branded on both cheeks , and to be shipped through town. This shall be done to distinguish you from those who have returned to the Roman Catholic church." "Mademoiselle, with the help of God, neither your hot iron nor your whips shall be able to separate me from my God". "What do you mean? How can a young girl like you, with the fleur-de-lys branded on her cheeks, dare to show herself anywhere? It will be a life-long disgrace." "Alas I have deserved much worse at God's hands, for my sins have been very many ..." The story continues on the next page . . . The above is part of my multi-part series of posts based on the trials of a 21 year old woman named Blanche Gamond, who was one of the many persecuted Christians in 17th century France. Her true story is told in the book Stories of The Huguenots, which I am posting excerpts of. If you are just tuning in, you can get caught up by starting on part 1. Learn more about the French Huguenots on Wikipedia or in a book that I highly recommended called Sketches From Church History. Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.574   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism