He permitted the emperor to pledge the abbey lands for five hundred
thousand crowns, to assist in carrying on hostilities against the
protestants.

Thus prompted and supported, the emperor undertook the extirpation of
the protestants, against whom, indeed, he was particularly enraged
himself; and, for this purpose, a formidable army was raised in Germany,
Spain and Italy.

The protestant princes, in the mean time, formed a powerful confederacy,
in order to repel the impending blow. A great army was raised, and the
command given to the elector of Saxony, and the landgrave of Hesse. The
imperial forces were commanded by the emperor of Germany in person, and
the eyes of all Europe were turned on the event of the war.

At length the armies met, and a desperate engagement ensued, in which
the protestants were defeated, and the elector of Saxony, and landgrave
of Hesse, both taken prisoners. This fatal blow was succeeded by a
horrid persecution, the severities of which were such, that exile might
be deemed a mild fate, and concealment in a dismal wood pass for
happiness. In such times a cave is a palace, a rock a bed of down, and
wild roots delicacies.

Those who were taken experienced the most cruel tortures the infernal
imaginations could invent; and, by their constancy evinced that a real
christian can surmount every difficulty, and despise ever danger to
acquire a crown of martyrdom.

Henry Voes and John Esch, being apprehended as protestants, were brought
to examination; when Voes, answering for himself and the other, gave the
following answers to some questions asked by a priest, who examined them
by order of the magistracy.

_Priest._ Were you not both, some years ago, Augustine friars?

_Voes._ Yes.

_Priest._ How came you to quit the bosom of the church of Rome?

_Voes._ On account of her abominations.

_Priest._ In what do you believe?

_Voes._ In the Old and New Testaments.

_Priest._ Do you believe in the writings of the fathers, and the decrees
of the councils?

_Voes._ Yes, if they agree with Scripture.

_Priest._ Did not Martin Luther seduce you both?

_Voes._ He seduced us even in the very same manner as Christ seduced the
apostles; that is, he made us sensible of the frailty of our bodies, and
the value of our souls.

This examination was sufficient; they were both condemned to the flames,
and soon after, suffered with that manly fortitude which becomes
christians, when they receive a cro