“Fathers and mothers were commonly seen making themselves away, and by a yet much more rigorous example, precipitating out of love and compassion their young children into wells and pits, to avoid the severity of this law.”

I have watched men die rather than sell their souls, but I also saw parents throw their infants into deep holes to keep them from forced baptism. The cruelty of kings breaks bodies, yet it cannot break the natural bond between parent and child without such desperate acts. Do not trust laws that make mothers choose death over a child’s life; let no edict sever what blood ties together.