Description
Book SynopsisThe sixteenth century, which heralded the end of the Middle Ages and the commencement of the Early Modern Era, was a time of tremendous religious upheaval and social ferment. The nebulous conglomeration of movements often referred to as the "Reformation" led to a wave of bloodshed and persecution which engulfed most of Europe for at least a hundred years. The present volume offers a translation of a particularly graphic literary portrayal of tortures and atrocities committed against Catholics during that time—the Speculum Haereticae Crudelitatis [The Mirror of Heretical Cruelty], by Arnold Havens (1540–1610). Havens was a Carthusian monk, an accomplished historian and scholar, and a prolific author.
The Mirror of Cruelty is a remarkable and unique literary achievement, describing in gruesome and chilling detail an extensive catalogue of disturbing, inhuman and often bizarre acts of abuse. Most of these have not been available in any English-language sources until now, or have been presented only in abridged and bowdlerized forms. Havens drew the overall plan of his work from another book which enjoyed a wide, underground circulation at the time—the notorious
Theatrum Crudelitatum [Theatre of Cruelties], by Richard Verstegan, a kind of nightmarish picture-book of atrocities committed against Catholics. A selection of illustrations from that book are included in this volume.
Table of Contents
- Translator's Introduction
- Letter of Approval from the Prior of the Grande Chartreuse monastery, and Moderator and Minister-General of the Carthusian Order, Dom Bruno II de Affringues
- i. Introduction
- ii. The slaughter and devastation instigated by Martin Luther in upper Germany
- iii. The cruel persecutions of Catholics in England
- iv. King Henry VIII and the Carthusian martyrs
- v. Some acts of egregious cruelty committed in Ireland
- vi. The persecutions in France under the Calvinist regimes
- vii. Some particular examples of atrocities committed by Calvinists in France
- viii. The Franciscan martyrs at Gorkum (Part I)
- ix. The Franciscan martyrs at Gorkum (Part II)
- x. The Franciscan martyrs at Gorkum (Part III)
- xi. The Franciscan martyrs at Gorkum (Part IV)
- xii. The cruelty of the Calvinists towards four Augustinian Canons Regular
- xiii. The martyrdom of two Hieronymite monks at Gouda
- xiv. The vicious martyrdom of the poet Cornelis Musius
- xv. The martyrdom of William of Gouda, a Franciscan friar
- xvi. Further hideous crimes perpetrated against Catholics in Holland and Flanders
- xvii. The martyrdom of twelve Carthusian monks at Roermond in Holland
- xviii. The horrendous and inhuman torture and execution of Balthasar Gérard of Burgundy, the man who killed the Prince of Orange
- xix. Conclusion
- List of Images
- Bibliography
