A late-night story.

This anecdote is from a French history book about the time of the Wars of Religion, the Protestant-Catholic battles and the famous St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, the Duc de Guise, Henri III, Catherine de Medici and so on.

One side-story in this book was about a town that was a Protestant stronghold.  They were trying to forcibly convert the few Catholics that were there, by dragging them in front of some kind of tribunal and making them renounce their "errors" publicly, kind of like an early version of the French Revolution.

One priest, when dragged up on stage in front of this tribunal, refused to perform as expected, and began animatedly preaching the virtues of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  They dragged him down from the podium, roughed him up, and told him that next time he got in front of the tribunal, he was to tell everyone that he had given up the Catholic faith.  

The priest, beaten and battered, didn't say anything, so his guards thought that his spirit was broken and he was ready to humbly submit.  They dragged him back up in front of the tribunal, more dead than alive... And instantly, as if nothing had happened in the interim, he launched right back into his sermon, heatedly preaching the Catholic faith.

The Protestant guards, dumbfounded, must have looked at each other like they couldn't believe what they were hearing.  Then one of them casually shot the indefatigable Catholic in the head.  Must have been that old "invincible ignorance"!

A confession:  I might have embellished the story because I don't remember what the book was called, or where to look it up to check the details, but the general outlines are correct.