A Papal Ban.
When the death of Henry VII in 1313 settled the German imperial throne, the princes could not agree. Some chose Frederick the Fair of Austria, others Louis IV of Bavaria. Each of these two wanted to be the rightful emperor. A fierce struggle arose over this, which brought much disaster upon Germany. In the Battle of Ampfing in 1322, Frederick took the short straw, whereupon Louis was recognized by the princes as the sole head of the German Empire. However, Pope John XXII did not agree with this. He had already arrogated to himself the decision of the dispute between the two contenders, but nevertheless decided nothing. When the dispute had been settled by force of arms and recognition of the princes, the pope threatened with ecclesiastical excommunication in 1323 if Louis did not immediately renounce the administration of the empire. Because the emperor did not submit to the Pope's insolent impositions, he was subjected to the following curse in the following year:
"Let the divine omnipotence cast down Louis and deliver him into the hands of his enemies and persecutors. "and let him fall into an unforeseen net. Let his entrance and exit be accursed. The Lord smite him with folly and blindness. Let heaven consume him with its lightning. Let the wrath of God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul be kindled against him in this world and in that. Let the whole earth take up arms against him. The abyss opened up and swallowed him alive. His name must not remain over a single limb, and his memory is extinguished among men. All elements are abhorrent to him. Let his house be left desolate, and let his children be driven from their dwellings, and perish before their father's eyes by his enemies."
At the same time, all the faithful, both ecclesiastical and secular, were ordered, in order to avoid an equal ban from the church and to lose their offices and dignities, to no longer obey the accursed Louis as the head of the German Empire and to avoid all communion with him. Louis, however, was and remained German emperor in spite of the dreadful curse, and even when the said pope declared him deprived of all his lands and fiefs and absolved all his vassals from the oath of allegiance to him. He remained emperor until his death in 1347, although the popes Benedict XII and Clemens VI also wanted to push him from the throne. He resolutely rejected their insinuation that he should lay down the crown, <p. 34> purify himself from the ban as a penitent, and expect from them the supremacy over Germany.
Murder of Protestants in Florida — 1565. [ref. this blog]
In 1563, the French Admiral [Gaspard II de] Coligny (the same who was murdered in the Parisian blood wedding on August 24, 1572) envisioned beautiful Florida as a refuge for his persecuted fellow believers. In 1564, under the command of Jean Ribault, a famous, brave, and pious Huguenot, he sent over two ships, which had on board a large number of colonists, composed of the best families of France. They first landed at the site of what was afterwards St. Augustine, discovered the St. Johns river, which they called Jordan, and thence sailing along the coast first northwestward, they at last found the port of Port Royal. There they built a fort and named it Carolina in honor of their king (Charles IX).
No sooner did the bloodthirsty Philip II of Spain hear that Huguenots had settled in a country which he considered his own because the Pope had given it to him (!) than he commissioned Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to repossess the land and exterminate the "heretics" who might dare to desecrate his kingdom. Menéndez, just as bigoted as his lord, gladly accepted the commission. With more than 500 men, including those who had their families with them, accompanied also by artisans and priests, he landed on September 8, 1565, at the port that was named St. Augustine by the saint of the day. Soon after, he began to lay the foundation of the town, which is the oldest in the present United States (Jamestown in Virginia was not founded until 1607).
No sooner had Melendez made the necessary arrangements than he sent word to the Huguenots at Fort Carolina that he had come "to kill every person who was not a Catholic"! Ribault suspected that the enemy would attack him from the sea side; he therefore armed his ships and sailed to meet Meléndez. Then a terrible storm struck him; his flotilla was scattered, and all the ships were wrecked on the coast. Meanwhile the Spaniards had penetrated through the woods and were attacking on land. Unprepared and surprised, the Huguenots who had remained behind had to surrender, and now a real Spanish slaughter began: all the Huguenots who were present in the fort, whether men or women, whether old or infants, were cut down! No sooner was this bloodbath completed than news arrived that the shipwrecked crew of Ribault's flotilla had been found tired and exhausted on the shore. Meléndez sent word to them to come "and trust to his mercy." The unfortunates believed him, came, and — were all slain!!! Nine hundred "heretics" were thus miserably murdered "for the greater glory of God and the Blessed Virgin." Melendez said, "This is not done to them as Frenchmen, but as Lutherans!" The blood of these Huguenots is, as far as our historical record goes, the first Protestant martyr's blood shed in America.
A cry of horror went through all Europe when the news of this atrocity reached the ocean; but the "most Christian king" of France did not lift a finger to avenge the blood of his subjects on the Spaniards, or even to confront the tiger Philip II. Anyone who knows that the same king arranged the "Bartholomew's Night" will not be surprised. Both rulers, though national enemies, were yet united in their hatred of the heretics, — were well mannered "sons" of the "Holy Father" in Rome.
Three years after that terrible bloodbath, a band of Frenchmen, led by the Chevalier de Gourges, set out for Florida and punished the murderers. The latter had 200 Spaniards hanged on the trees, and placed over them a plank with the caption, "This happened to you not as Spaniards and sailors, but as traitors, robbers, and murderers!" —
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