'Death to the Calvinists!' was the cry that rang out on the island of Madeira on 9 August, about the time of St Bartholomew's Day in 1846. A mob of religious and national fanatics (and those who were simply bent on evil) had been incited by the authorities to hunt down the 'Bible-readers' and to extinguish any sign that they had ever been on the island.
From inside Funchal Cathedral, Canon Telles had stirred his congregation with these words: 'Defend your patron saint, Our Lady of the Mount; defend the Holy Mother Roman Catholic Church. Pacific methods of preventing the spread of heresy have failed, violent methods are now called for. Show your zeal for the religion of your forefathers by violently ejecting "Calvinists" and laying waste their properties; your weapons are now sword and fire.'
After Canon Telles's speech, two fireworks were shot off outside the cathedral in the centre of the capital, Funchal, and the mob was on the move toward Santa Luzia, where I presently live and where our house-church is situated.
Tensions had been steadily building over the previous three years. According to author W. B. Forsyth, the residing governor had sworn to 'eradicate Protestantism from the island… declaring that he would use all his powers to root out Bibles and Bible readers from the territory under his jurisdiction. It was common talk that Dr Kalley [a doctor from Scotland who had introduced the island to the gospel] would not escape this time, "unless he is the devil in person".'
