The Acts of Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France

SECT. XVI.

N. B. A Learned Advocate of Nismes, relates from the Press, how that Monsieur de Thou, President in the Parliament of Taris, and the Lord de Calignon (a most Zealous Protestant) Chancellor of Navarre, drew up this Edict, and spent three years about it. If De Calignon would but have followed his Master Henry the Fourth in his Apostasy from the Reformed Religion unto Popery, he had been made Lord High Chancellor of France. But that most Pious Lord refused the Greatest Honor that a Person of the Long-Robe was capable of in France, that he might not lose the Eternal Glories of the Kingdom of Heaven.

SECT. XVII.

This Edict was kept tolerably well for twelve years, during the Life of Henry the Great (as they called him after his Death.) And yet there were many infractions of it, of which the National Synods held at Gap, 1603. and at Rochell, 1607. Complained in their Bills of Grievances. But no sooner was he sent out of the World by the Parricidal Hand of a Disciple of the Jesuits, but the Reformed immediately found their want of him. And though they had some sprinklings of Court Holy-water now and then, yet the old implacable Malice of the Popish Clergy against them brake out upon all occasions, and Louis the Thirteenth, who succeeded his Father, as another Antiochus, at their instigation, made War with God's Saints in his Kingdom, seized upon their Cautionary Towns, took away from them their Franchises, deprived their Ministers of those Sallaries, for which the Churches, parting with their Tithes in lieu of that Money which was to be paid by Tallies out of the Exchequer unto their Pastors, had compounded with his Father: He devoured, brake in pieces, and stamped the residue of them with his feet; so that their strength was quite gone, and they lay at his mercy. He could do with them as he pleased. But the time of their total ruin was not yet come; And God giveth the Churches some mercy in the midst of judgment. Hence, the French King having other designs in his head, and looking beyond the bounds of his native Kingdom, he leaves persecuting his Reformed Subjects, and that there might be a Calm at home, and these oppressed lulled asleep, he issueth out his Edict of Grace and Pardon to them from Nismes in the Lower Languedoc, dated July, 1629. Which is offered to the Reader's eye.

SECT. XVIII. The King's Edict of Grace and Pardon, granted by his Majesty unto the Duke of Rohan and the Lord of Soubize, and to all other his Rebellious Subjects, of the Towns, Champain Country, Castles, and places in the Provinces of Higher and Lower Languedoc, Cévennes, Gevaudan, Guienne, Foix, and elsewhere, together with the Articles.

Done at Nismes in July 1629. and verified in the Parliament of Toulouse the 27th of August, the same Year.

LOUIS by the grace of God King of France and Navarre, to all present and to come, greeting. That Love we bear unto our Subjects, and that Compassion we have for the Miseries brought upon them by the Wars and Divisions with which this poor Kingdom hath been a long time afflicted, have touched us so sensibly, that laying by all Considerations of our Health, and the Inconveniences of the Seasons of the Year, we have used all means possible to reduce under our obedience those who had departed from it, and had been the cause of all these Calamities. We hoped that the example of those Cities which returned under our Authority in the Years 1620, 1621, and 1622, would have affected them with a sense of gratitude; but seeing they were hindered from so doing by their obstinacy, or by the violence and artifice of those Factions in which they were engaged, We have invited them by our Declarations to return unto their Duty, and by all the most favorable Perswasions that our Subjects could receive. We have also prepared great and puissant Armies, that by force we might reduce them, who being obstinate in their Rebellions were become deaf and blind, and not moved with any Arguments and Occasions offered them for their Duty. And God hath been pleased to bless us with success, and to let us reap and enjoy the fruit of our Arms, which the City of Rochelle hath first of all experienced, as is evident by the Edict, that We caused to be made and published upon its reduction. The City of Privas in Vivaretz, which consided in its situation, difficult, (and as they believed) inaccessible in its Fortifications, and in the abundance of its Provisions and Ammunitions with which it was replenished, priding itself in a long continued Prosperity, was so bold as to resist Us, and to attend the Battery of our Cannons, and the Effort of our Arms; and despising the sweet Summons of our Goodness, the hatred of the Inhabitants was so great, that losing all hopes of maintaining themselves in their Rebellion, they had rather abandon their Houses and Estates than seek their preservation in our Mercy, of which they might have been assured, so that they have lost the very hopes of ever enjoying it, and could in no wise avoid their destruction by Fire and Sword which the Divine Vengeance hath excited against them: for which reason we have provided by our Letters of Declaration separately expedited, that they should not be comprised in this present Edict. But this Chastisement having rendered others wiser, hath caused, that not only the High and Lower Vivaretz, but also divers other Towns and Forts have returned unto their Duty, and have sworn Fidelity unto Us, for which cause We have pardoned them their Rebellion, and granted them an Act of Oblivion, causing their Fortifications and Walls to be demolished, which feeding the foolish confidence of others had occasioned all those Miseries they have since suffered. Divers Gentlemen also being touched with the Felicity which they had found in our Favor, have had recourse unto it, and received it, and have quitted the Rebels Party. The City of Alez, extremely strong in its situation, fortified with Ramparts and Bulworks, and of all that the Wit of Man could invent for troubling the Land, made semblance as if it would resist and stop the Course and Progress of our Victories; but when it saw itself encompassed with our Army, our Cannons of Battery ready to make a breach, it durst not stand out the first shot, lest it should be forced to submission, as is ever practiced in such like cases, by the Laws of War; so that the Inhabitants came and prostrated themselves at Our feet, and implored Our Favor and Pardon, which We graciously bestowed upon them. And when as We were pursuing Our Victories, the Duke of Rohan, the Citizens of Anduze, those of Sauve, Gange, Le Vigan, Florac, Meruez, and all other places of the Cévennes, Nismes, Aymargues, Usez, Milhaud, Cornus, St. Affrique, St. Felix, St. Rome of Taon, the Pont de Camarez, Viane, Castres, Rogve Courbe, Revel, Montauban, Caussde, Mazeres, Saverdun, Carlat, Le Mas d' Azil, and generally all Fortresses and places in the Higher and Lower Languedoc, Cévennes, Gevaudan, Guyenne, and Foix, the Gentlemen and others who were in Arms yet against Us and Our Service, did send their Deputies unto Us, to testify their Repentance for having fallen into Rebellion, and promising to yield unto Us in the face of the whole World all that Obedience and Fidelity which good and loyal Subjects owe unto their King, they petitioning Us, that We would pardon them, and grant them an Act of Oblivion for their said Rebellion, and for all Matters passed and done by occasion thereof; and they offered of their own accord, to raze the Fortifications of the said Towns, that so there might be no cause given us to distrust their Fidelity, or that might minister an occasion unto any one of departing from it; and farther to assure Us, they would put into our Hands such Hostages out of those Towns, and such a number of them as We should demand; unto which We did the more readily incline, because We would by so rare an Example of Clemency, after so many Relapses, gain the greater Interests upon the Hearts and Affections of Our Subjects, and spare the estusion of their Blood, the desolating of the Province, and all those Confusions and Calamities which be the inseparable attendants of War; We being solely moved hereunto by our mere compassion of their Miseries, and desire of their Welfare. And this causeth Us to hope, that Our said Subjects, having such manifest Tokens of that Goodness which is treasured up in our Heart for them, will return the more sincerely unto their Duty, and that it will serve as an everlasting Cement to keep them inseparably united unto our obedience; We waiting for that Grace and Mercy of God in Heaven to touch and illuminate their Minds, that they may be reunited unto the Catholic Church, and so dry up the Fountain of these most lamentable Divisions; For these Causes, after that the Hostages of the said Towns were delivered to Us, and that We had put them into safe places appointed by Us to this purpose, where all and everyone of them respectively should dwell, until the said Fortifications were perfectly rased and demolished, We desirous to take some course about the past Disorders, and to prevent the like for the future, We do give you to know and understand, that after We had maturely debated this Affair with our Council, took their advice, from Our certain Knowledge, full Power, special Grace, and Royal Authority, by this Our present, perpetual and irrevocable Edict, signed with Our Hand, We have declared, enacted, and ordained, We do declare, enact, and ordain, We will, and 'tis Our pleasure,

I. That the Roman Catholic and Apostolic Religion shall be set up again and restored in all Towns and places of the said Country • , from whence it had been removed or diverted; And all Churches, Goods, and Ecclesiastical Houses in those said places and Provinces shall be restored unto them to whom they do belong, without any suing for the Profits past and received. In which Churches and in all those said places the said Religion shall be exercised freely and peaceably without any trouble or obstruction whatsoever. But nevertheless we ordain, that in all the Monasteries which are in those Towns returned unto their obedience to our Authority, that there shall not be placed any other Religious Persons than those who live in a most exact observation of the Rule of their Order, according to those Letters, which they shall obtain from us.

II. And whereas we desire above all things to see for the future a perpetual Union among our Subjects, though' we will and intend to maintain them who profess the said pretended Reformed Religion in the free and peaceable exercise thereof, and without any trouble, yet we cannot but desire their conversion, which we beg heartily of God in our daily Prayers. Wherefore we exhort all our said Subjects of the said pretended Reformed Religion to divest themselves of all passion, that so they may be the more capable of receiving the Light of Heaven, and of returning into the Bosom of the Church, in which for above eleven hundred Years continuance the Kings our Predecessors have lived without any interruption or change. For we cannot any other or better way express unto them our paternal affection, than by desiring that they would walk with us in the same Path-way unto Eternal Salvation in which we ourselves are going.

III. We do farther ordain, that all Patrons, to whom of right it appertaineth, shall provide for all the vacant Parishes in those Countries, good, sufficient, and able Curates: and that they so order it, that they have a sufficient Income for their Maintenance, that so they may acquit themselves worthily of their Functions, according to the tenor of those Ordinances made by us the last January, or by some other means more commodious, according to that Report which shall be made by those Commissioners, who shall be deputed by us to this purpose.

IV. We have remitted, pardoned, and indemnified, we do remit, pardon, and indemnify, unto the said Duke of Rohan, and Lord of Soubize, and all the Inhabitants of the said Towns and Places, and those of the Champain Country, which adhered to them, all matters passed since the 21. of July, 1627. unto the day of the Publication made in every Seneschalsy, of these Articles of Grace, which we accorded them the 27. day of June last. We have discharged, and do discharge them of all acts of Hostility, raising of Armies, leading of Warlike Soldiers, Enterprizes by Sea and Land, of general or particular Assemblies, yea, and of that Assembly at Nismes, seizing of Ecclesiastical, or of the Royal Moneys, or of Moneys belonging unto private Persons, Coining of Money under whatsoever title or value, Imprinted Libels, Insurrections and popular Commotions, Riots, Violences, Attempts made upon the two Towns of St. Amand, and the Castles of that Lord, the taking of the Castles of St. Stevens, of Valfrancesquez, and Florac, and the rasing of it; as also the Murder and other Accidents fallen out in that Enterprize upon St. Germier and Castres the last January; as also the Inhabitants of Usez for the Murder of the Sieur du Flos: and the Consuls of the said place, the Decrees denounced against them in the Parliament of Toulouse, and in the Court of the Edict of Beziers, and the Sieurs D'aubais, James Genoier, Paul Saussier, and Andrew Pelissier, for their being named and chosen to be Consuls of Nismes in the year 1627. and their exercise of the said Offices for the said year, as also all the Political Consuls and Counsellers, and the Consular Town-Clark, and all those mentioned by name in that Decree past in the Court of the Edict at Beziers about the proceedings of the Sieurs de Suc, and Maussac, who were Counselors there, and of their prosecution by reason of the said Consulship of Nismes, and the Decrees thereupon made, both in our Privy-Council, and said Court of Parliament, Court of the Edict, and Court of Aids sitting at Montpellier. And the Inhabitants of Anduze of their Murder of the Sieur de Mantaille, and the Sentences of Condemnation issued out against the Consuls and particular Inhabitants of the said Town during those Commotions. The Inhabitants of Milhaud, their fact against the Sieur de la Roquesavas, and the restitution of the sum of 4000. Livers unto the Jacobine Friars. The Sieur de Gasque for his Imprisoning of sundry the Inhabitants of Alez, the violations of safe-conduct, Impositions and raisings of money, erecting of Courts of Justice, of Officers and Councils, by the Provinces, and Executions of Judgments ordered by them in Civil or Criminal matters, Government and Regulations made among themselves, and their exercising those Offices in the said Towns whilst they were in Rebellion against us, and the Attorneys demanding Justice, when as they exercised their Offices before the said Judges, Officers and Counselors established in the said Towns, yea, and those who had Licence from us to sojourn and act during the said time in those Towns aforesaid: Journeys, Intelligences, Negotiations, Treaties, and Contracts made with the English by the said Towns and Inhabitants, and by the said Dukes of Rohan, and Lord of Soubize, as well with the said English, as with the King of Spain, and Duke of Savoy, and the Letters written unto the Protestant Cantons of Switzerland, and the Sieurs Clausell and Du Cros, who have been employed. All Sales of Goods, Church Furniture, or other things, felling of Timber on other Men's Lands, Fines, carrying away of Plunder, Ransoms, or Moneys of any other nature taken away by reason of the said Commotions, melting down, and seisings of Artillery and Ammunitions, making of Powder and Saltpetre, Takings, Fortifyings, Dismantlings or demolishing of Towns, Castles, Boroughs and Villages; yea, the taking of Meruez, Aymargues, and other burnings and demolishings of Churches, and Ecclesiastical Houses, and others, by order and authority of the said Duke of Rohan, and all Criminal Prosecutions thereupon, without prejudice unto the Civil Interest of the said Religious Ecclesiastics, for which they shall have recourse unto the Chamber of the Edict. We discharge them also of all Farmings of Benefices, and Church Lands, Goods, of which they were spoiled by those who Commanded under their General. We will likewise, that they enjoy the benefit of the whole Contents of all former Acts of Indemnity, and for whatsoever hath been done or negotiated since the time aforesaid, notwithstanding all Proceedings, Decrees, and Condemnatory Sentences had and passed against them, yea, those very Decrees in the Parliaments of Tholouze and Bourdeaux, against the said Duke of Rohan, who shall be preserved in all his Honors and Dignities, which he formerly enjoyed, nor shall he for those aforesaid matters be in the least sued or prosecuted, for which we do impose a perpetual silence on all our Attorneys-General and their Substitutes, excepting always all Cases execrable which were reserved in the Edict of Nantes, and others depending on the Civil Interest, about matter of fact happened at Vezenobre and Tournac, and for Household-goods which are found to be the very same, and were taken away from those, who were in Obedience to the King.

V. And in pursuance of our Intention to maintain all our Subjects, professing the said pretended Reformed Religion, in the free exercise of the said Religion, and enjoyment of the Edicts accorded to them: We Will that all those aforesaid shall entirely enjoy the said Edict of Nantes, and other Edicts, Articles, and Declarations Registred in our Parliaments, and that in pursuance hereof, they shall have the free Exercise of the said Religion in all those places in which it hath been granted to them.

VI. And all those Temples and burying places, which were either taken away from them, or demolished, shall be restored to them with Licence to rebuild them, if they think it needful.

VII. We Will that all Fortifications of the said Towns and places, shall be entirely rased and demolished (except it be the whole compass of those Walls) within three Months, and this to be diligently dispatched by the said Inhabitants; and because of our confidence in them for so doing, we do not place any Garrisons, nor any Cittadels among them. And the said demolitions shall be made according to the Orders and Directions of those Commissioners which shall be appointed by us, and according to those Orders and Instructions, which they shall have received from us. And in the mean while for greater assurance that this our Will shall be performed, Hostages shall be given by the said Towns, who shall be kept in those places ordained by us, until the said Demolishments be fully accomplished.

VIII. We Will that these aforesaid have their Estates, Moveable and Immoveable, their Privileges, Titles, Rights, and Suits, Ordered and restored to them, notwithstanding all Condemnations, Gifts, Confiscations, and Reprizals, which may have been made and granted, excepting only the Profits and Revenues of their said Estates, and those Household-Goods which are not now in being, the Woods which are cut down, the Debts which have been received unto this present day, actually and without fraud, after judicial Prosecution and Compulsion. Yet nevertheless, we will, that the precedent Declarations given upon the fact of the said Reprisals, until these present Commotions, Decrees given forth contradictorily, and matters transacted in and upon them shall take place, and be Executed, notwithstanding all Decrees to the contrary. We will also, that the Heirs of the Sieur de Mormoirac, shall be restored unto their Estates.

IX. We do permit these aforesaid to return again unto their Houses, and if there be need to rebuild them, yea, and we do permit them as to our good and faithful Subjects to dwell in such Towns and Places of our Kingdom as shall best please them, excepting in the Isles of Olleron, and Re, and Rochell, and Privas. We do also permit those Inhabitants of Pamiers, who were not in that City at the time of its taking to re-enter into it, and to enjoy all their Estates, they yielding all obedience to us, and taking the Oath of Fidelity to us before our Commissioners, whom we have appointed to receive it.

X. Our Officers dwelling in those Cities, who have not paid their annual Fee, shall be admitted to pay it within two Months, both for the time passed, and the year now current. And as for those who are dead, in case they have paid the said Annual Fee, those Offices of which they were provided, shall be conserved for their Widows and Children. And as for those whose Offices we have filled up with other Persons, by reason of the present Commotions, they shall be conserved in their said Offices, notwithstanding we had set in others into them for a time, yea, and that they had been received and installed in them. We will also, that the Officers of particular Lord's, provided of chargeable Offices, and who were deprived of them during these last Commotions, shall be restored unto their Offices.

XI. All these aforesaid shall be discharged, and we do discharge them of all Contributions and Quarterings of Soldiers, both in the former and these present Commotions. And likewise the said Commonalties, and the particular Members of them, of the Indemnities and Securities that may be pretended against them upon the account of Imprisonments, Executions, or Expulsions out of Towns, done by Order of the said Duke of Rohan, or of the Council of the Towns, or of others established by him, either in the present or former Commotions. And as for the Taxes, and other Moneys imposed upon the Country, in case any of them should be of no value, through default of payment by those aforesaid of the moneys imposed on them, whatever those sums might be, the Receivers of the said Provinces may not prosecute these aforesaid for them, saving that the Syndic of the Country may be prosecuted till such time as he shall have brought those moneys in upon the general account of the Country.

XII. We do likewise discharge the Consuls and particular Persons, who are obliged during the Commotions of the Years 1621, 1622, and 1626. and those who do now manage the affairs of the said Towns from payment of the said Obligations, notwithstanding all Clauses inserted into Contracts, excepting that Creditors shall have power to prosecute those Consuls of the pretended Reformed Religion, we shall be found in actual Office, to cause those of the said pretended Reformed Religion to be Condemned to divide the said Debt among themselves, and to make payment of it.

XIII. They shall also be discharged from all prosecution and exaction done upon the Catholics and other Inhabitants for the remainders of the Assessments of the former years owing by them, although they may have obtained discharges, either by our Letters Patents, or by the Decrees of the Court of Aids of Montpellier; and likewise of what remaineth to be paid of the Impositions and Contributions put upon any of them, (excepting the Catholics who be exempted,) by Orders from the Governors of the Provinces, or others, who Commanded for us in the War, during the present or preceding Commotions.

XIV. The Inhabitants also of Castres shall be discharged from making any restitution for their having taken up Arms against our Service.

XV. The Burdens which shall be imposed upon the said Towns shall be equally born by all their Inhabitants, according to the ancient Custom; excepting that the Debts Contracted by the Catholic Inhabitants, shall be born by them only, and those Contracted by them of the said pretended Reformed Religion, shall be acquitted also by themselves only.

XVI. All judgments given by the Judges of those Towns, whether in Civil or Criminal matters shall be valid, excepting an Appeal unto the said Chambers, in Cases which have not been decided by Martial Law, or a Council of War.

XVII. That Order anciently kept in the said Towns for the Consulship, Government, and Assembling of the said Consuls, and Town-Councils, shall be kept and observed in the same manner as it was before these Troubles.

XVIII. The States of the County of Foix shall meet according to the usual manner, and all those Towns which had privilege of sitting in those Assemblies shall be called to them.

XIX. The Consuls, Collectors, Receivers and Commissioners, who have handled the public moneys, during these present, or former Troubles, shall be acquitted and discharged, they bringing in an Account unto the Chamber of Accompts, of moneys received and paid by them; nor shall the said Chamber claim any Fees from them, nor revise those said Accompts. And whereas the Inhabitants of Nismes do claim a privilege, that they be not obliged to carry their accounts unto the said Chamber, We will that they shall enjoy their ancient usage and custom.

XX. The Tribunals of Justice, and Offices of Receipt, and others transferred because of the present Troubles, shall be returned and restored unto those Places in which they were before, yea, the Comptroler's Office newly created for the City of Montauban, but established in that of Moissac, shall be set up in the said City of Montauban, as soon as the Fortifications of those Towns shall be demolished.

XXI. We will that the Court of the Edict, now sitting at Beziers, shall be again set up in the City of Castres, after that its Fortifications shall be rased and demolished, and shall be fixed in the said Town of Castres according to the Edict of Nantes, notwithstanding our Order made in January last, and the Decree published by the Parliament of Tholouze upon the 102 Article thereof. Which said Court of the Edict his Majesty will have maintained in all its Powers given it by the Edicts and other Ordinances.

XXII. And 'tis our will and pleasure, that those aforesaid who were in Arms against us the 27th day of June last shall enjoy all these Favors and Grants. And as for those Towns and Persons who subjected themselves before that day to our Authority, they shall enjoy more especially the Matters contained in those Letters which we have granted them.

And we command our beloved and faithful Officers in our Court of Parliament of Tholouze, that they cause this our present Edict to be read, published, and registered, and its Contents to be kept, observed, and maintained, according to its form and tenor, without transgressing, or suffering it to be transgressed. For such is our pleasure. And that this Matter may be firm and stable forever, we have caused our Seal to be affixed and set unto these Presents.

SECT. XIX.

This Edict was observed even as all others which had been given by the former Kings, no farther than it pleased them. Many Complaints were brought in by their Deputies of its Non-performance and Violations. Some small Redresses of their many Grievances, to stop their mouths, were now and then given them. But Louis dying in the Year 1642, and this present King succeeding his deceased Father, there was a Declaration in their favor published by the Queen Regent and Council in his Name, July 8. 1643.

And the Reformed having stood by him in those difficult times, (when the late Prince of Condé designed for the Crown) and secured it upon his head, this important Service drew from him the ensuing Edict, given at St. Germans en Laye, May 21. 165 • .

SECT. XX.

Now as well at Court as in the Field each strove to proclaim loudest the Deserts of the Reformed. The Queen Mother herself ingenuously acknowledged, that they had preserved the Government for herself and the young King. This is a Truth that cannot be contested, and yet as true as it is, what I shall add will seem incredible; But the Enemies of the Reformed have told it them an hundred times over, and the sequel hath perfectly verified it, That this Great Service of theirs in Saving the King and Kingdom was the precise, the principal, and proper Cause of their Ruin, and of all those Evils which have since befallen them. For their restless Adversaries, the Popish Clergy, used all endeavors to envenom the sense of that Important Service of theirs in the Minds of the King and his chief Ministers; for they never left suggesting to them, That if upon occasion the Reformed could save the State from ruin, they might likewise upon another, and siding with its Enemies utterly overthrow it. That therefore in prudence this Party must be suppressed, and what good they had done, must be no longer regarded, but as an Indication of that Mischief which some time or other they were capable of effecting. This diabolical Policy, which hinders Subjects from serving their Prince, to avoid the pulling down upon themselves and children Chastisements instead of Recompences, took immediately with the ungrateful Court. For as soon as the Kingdom was settled in Peace, the Design was put on foot of destroying the Reformed; and that they might clearly understand, that it was their Zeal and Loyalty for their King which had ruined them, Those Cities, which had given the noblest Instances of it, were first assaulted. Immediately, on very slight pretences, they fell foul on Rochelle, Montauban, and Milhaud, three Towns where the Professors of the Reformed Religion had most signalized themselves for the Court's Interests. Rochelle was plagued with an infinite number of Proscriptions, her best Ministers and Citizens being driven out and exiled. Montauban and Milhaud are sacked by Soldiers. These were but particular Strokes, and the beginning of those dreadful Woes, which followed after.

SECT. XXI.

'Twill be a difficult matter to give in an exact account of those various methods used for their destruction. For the malice of their Enemies was exceeding fruitful in plotting and contriving of mischiefs. Every day produced a superfetation of them for twenty Years together. I will instance but in a few, for it would be an endless work to enumerate all. These were some of the chiefest.

First, Law-Suits in Courts of Justice. Secondly, Deprivations of all kinds of Offices and Employments, and in general of all manner of ways for subsistence. Thirdly, The Infractions of the Edicts, under the plausible gloss of explaining them. Fourthly, New Laws and Orders. Fifthly, Juggles and amusing Tricks. Sixthly, The animating and exasperating of the Rabble with Hatred and Rage against them, and barbarous Cruelties and Torments.

These were some of the most considerable Machins which the Persecutors employed for the attaining their ends several Years together. It being no easy matter presently to accomplish their designs, they needed time for the sharpening of their Tools, and the better ordering of their Engines; to pass by the many Traverses and Interruptions they had by foreign Wars, yet that great success they had in them did mightily inflame their courage and hopes, and confirm them in their grand design of a total extirpation of the Reformed.

SECT. XXII.

Their first method of Law-Suits in Courts of Justice had an infinite extent. By the Tricks and Quirks of Law a multitude of Churches were condemned, and the crafty wicked Commissioners totally suppressed all Exercise of Religion in them. This Trap was cunningly laid as soon as the Treaty of Peace and the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Spain were concluded. For under the specious pretence of repairing the Infractions of the Edict of Nantes, Commissioners were dispatched into the Provinces. The Roman Catholic Commissioner was always the Intendant of the Province, a proper Tool to do the Court's business, armed with Royal Authority, and privy to the secret of the Plot. The other, a Protestant in profession, some needy, hungry Officer, a devoted Slave unto the Court, who had neither Intelligence necessary for the Affairs, nor Liberty to declare his Sense and Sentiments about them. The Clergy set them both up, and their Agents were received as formal Parties in all Matters relating to the Reformed, yea and the very Citations and Prosecutions went all in their Names. And in case of different Opinions betwixt the Commissioners, all Appeals from their Ordinances must be finally decided by the King and Council.

Thus in general, all the Rights of the Reformed Churches for Exercise of Religion, and for those places in which they buried their Dead, and all their Dependencies were ordered to be reviewed, and thereby exposed to the fresh Suits and Prosecutions of the Clergy, and the mischievous Intentions of their Judges. And in all this transaction you should rarely meet with one dram of Equity. For the Edict having been once executed, according to the intention of Henry the Fourth, it needed no revisal. Besides, how improbable a thing was it, that the Reformed, who had always been the suffering Party in the Kingdom, should usurp anything in it, or extend their bounds beyond what of right belonged to them? But there were other designs in hand than to provide against the Violations of the Edict, and therefore by those Orders given unto the Commissioners, the greatest part of the Churches cited before them to prove their Rights, saw themselves condemned immediately one after another by the Decrees of the Privy-Council, though' their Titles were never so clear and evident, and their defense managed with as much strength and reason as possible. Scarcely a Week passed in which some of these Decrees were not made and pronounced. And if it fell out, that the Judges for mere shame could not condemn them, as it sometimes so happened, though' their number was very small in comparison of those which were condemned, yet the Judges receive peremptory Orders from above to do it, and do it they must, though' against their Consciences. At this rate, before the Year 1673, they had desolated hundreds of Churches. A Monk of the Barnabite Order, and Deputy for the Clergy of Béarn, gloried, that of One hundred and twenty three places which the Protestants had to worship God in, and those upon the most legal and unquestionable Titles, there remained but twenty, all the rest having been demolished. The Temple of Vitre in Britain was destroyed, because they could not produce their Titles to it, when as they were irrecoverably lost by Fire, War, or the perfidious hands of Revolters. If a Church was near the Sea, that was reason enough why it must be demolished. So was the Temple of Carantan in Normandy served, altho' a Bailywick. One while they pretend, the Town, in which it is, was taken in the Civil Wars, and therefore their Temple must be returned either to the Papists, or else be utterly ruinated. This was the fate of that of Negrepelisse, though' it had been in the possession of the Reformed ever since the Year 1561. Nay, a Church expressly mentioned in the Edict, and that they had not impudence enough to call in question its Title, yet they had the malice to demolish, viz. the Church of Chauvigny in Poitou; this was done Aug. 6. 1665. Of threescore and one Churches in Poitou in the Year 1674. there remained but one uncondemned, viz. that of Niort. So that above 80000 Souls were obliged to live without any Public Worship of God at all. In the Country of Gex they reduced three and twenty Churches to but two. In Guienne, of fourscore Churches there were but three left uncondemned by the Catholic Commissioner, who was wholly governed by the Jesuit Meisnier. In Normandy their fury had brought all their Churches unto those three of Caen, Rouen, and Diep. In Provence, of their sixteen Churches there remained but three. If there be any Churches standing, and not converted into ruinous heaps, they be such as are most inconveniently situated, in Marshes or low Grounds, which were often overflown with Waters, or unpassable in Winter; so that these poor Christians were deprived of all possibility of hearing God's Word, and necessitated to travel forty Miles and more to worship God publicly, and to get their Children baptized; for they may not do any exercise of Religion, as Preaching, Marrying, or Administring of the Sacraments, but in those places which by the Edict of Nantes were appointed for Divine Worship.

Besides, the Papists were very barbarous and inhumane in the cruel execution of their Decrees, for they would oblige the Protestants themselves to demolish their Temples with their own hands. And because many of them, out of Honor and Conscience, would not contract the guilt of so great a Sacrilege upon their Souls, as to ruinate those holy Places which were dedicated to the Service and Glory of God, nor have anything to do in that Diabolical Work, their own Houses have been plundered, and levelled with the ground, and unconscionable Fines laid upon them. This hath been the case of divers Persons of eminent quality in Poitou.

I could here have exhibited a Catalogue of Churches demolished in France by the King's order, and that of the Council, in several Provinces and Dioceses of that Kingdom, in the Years 1661, 1662, 1663, 1664, 1665, 1672, and 1673. But because by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes they are now all a heap of Ruines, I shall spare myself the labor of transcribing, and my Reader the pains and time of reading them. The Zebah 's and Zalmunna 's of that Kingdom have either burnt up all the Synagogues of God in it, or else they have took those Houses of God into their possession.

SECT. XXIII.

But the Oppressions of this kind did not terminate in the bare condemnation of Churches, but particular Persons also had a very large share and part in them. In common civil matters, as about a piece of Land, an House, a Debt between a Roman Catholic and a Protestant: Religion must be one of the chief Heads of Accusation against the Protestants. The Monks, the Missioners, the Confessors, and that whole Crew of malicious fiery Zealots, interested themselves immediately in the affair. They bawl out in Courts of Justice, I plead against an Heretic. I have to do with a Man of a Religion odious to the State, and which the King will have extirpated. By this means there was not any Justice to be expected. Few Judges were proof against this false Zeal, for fear of drawing down the fury of the whole Cabal upon themselves, or passing for Favourers of Heretics. 'It is not to be imagined, how many unjust Sentences these prejudices procured in all the Courts of the Kingdom; and how many Innocent Families were ruined by them. If any one complained of the wrong done them, they were presently twitted in the Teeth, You have the remedy in your own hands. Why do you not become Catholics? Thus the Consciences, Goods, Honor, and Lives of these poor Servants of God lie at the mercy of unrighteous Judges, and of their merciless perfidious Enemies. A Roman Catholic may at his pleasure destroy a Protestant: Witnesses are never wanting, the Kings Attorneys-General, or their Deputies, or the Agents and Syndicks of Bishops, or Judges for Convents, and Collegiate Churches, will never fail to prosecute. Some have been Condemned to the Pillory, others to the Chain in the Gallies, others to exorbitant Mulcts and Fines, for but relating a story out of known Authors, how a Priest cheated the World with a false Miracle, by passing a Vine through the Head of an Image, which being pierced in that Season of the Year, when the sap ascends upward, the sap would drop out of the Eyes, whereat the deluded People believed that the Image did weep of itself. Another Protestant was forced to stand in the Pillory, and severely Fined for saying, That God had buried the Body of a dead Saint lest his Bones should be adored, and that when the Devil offered to take them up again, an Angel from God opposed him, with, The Lord rebuke thee, Satan! Another was cast into Prison, because he had said, that the Roman Priests did hide their Lights under a Bushel. Another had an Unconscionable Fine put upon him for saying, That the Cross which they worshipped, was but a piece of Wood.

SECT. XXIV.

Let the Protestants prove the Witnesses which swear against them to be suborned, to have sworn falsely, yea, though they proved Perjury upon them, they are either not punished at all, or else their punishments be so slight and trifling, that instead of terrifying, they do embolden these malicious Villains to do the more mischief. I shall produce a few Instances.

The Priest of Eymet in Guienne accused very many of the Inhabitants of that place for profaning the holy Mysteries of the Church of Rome. The Judges examining this matter found his Accusation to be false, a most malicious and mischievous Calumny; which though it tended to the destruction of so many Innocent Persons, of their Lives, and Estates, yet he escaped without punishment.

The Priest of Chastelheraut accused a poor harmless Damsel for speaking disrespectfully of the King. For this she was in danger of having her Tongue cut out, and being whipped by the Common Hangman. But though the Judges discovered this Priest to be a Villain, an impudent, bloody, false Accuser, yet no punishment was inflicted on him.

Monsieur de la Touche was accused by the Abbot of La Chappelle before the Parliament at Rennes, to have taken a Chalice out of a Church; for this supposed Crime he was, by Order of that Parliament, burnt alive. But though since this horrible Execution his Innocency hath appeared, and he was found guiltless of the fact, the real Offender having confessed, when and how he stole it, for which he suffered condign punishment; yet they have done nothing to repair the injury done unto the name and memory of the Innocent Sieur de la Touche, but declared, That because he was an Heretic, he deserved to be burnt to ashes, as he was.

Monsieur Robineau, Pastor of the Church in Pausange, was also falsely accused by an Augustinian Friar, and a base Curate, to have Preached Sedition, and for this pretended Crime only, he was kept many Months in the Prison at Poitiers: and though at last his Accusers were convicted of Falsehood▪ Calumny, and Perjury, yet he could never get any satisfaction for his great Sufferings.

Monsieur Borie, Pastor of the Church in Turenne, for Preaching that none but Jesus Christ was born without sin, was accused of blaspheming the blessed Virgin, and yet this very Doctrine is that of the Dominican Friars. However this Godly Minister is handled most unmercifully, he is thrown into a deep Dungeon, bound with Iron Chains, menaced with Death, and treated after a most inhumane manner for a whole year, and at last by an Order of the Parliament of Bourdeaux, he was banished forever the Land of his Nativity.

A Priest of Niort was Convicted before the King and Council for falsifying an Order to demolish the Protestant Church in that Town, which was intended against the Church of Mer: Never was there a more bold attempt before his Majesty and the Privy-Council: Yet instead of punishing him according to his Deserts, they turned the whole fact into a piece of Raillery and Laughter.

SECT. XXV.

They gave all manner of freedom to the Priests and Monks, whose Carriage was most insolent, to insult over the poor Protestants, and to execute the severest and most unrighteous Decrees and Orders of the King against them, as in Poitou, where the Priests of any were the most furious and industrious in demolishing of Temples, and rasing their Foundations, and over-throwing several private Houses, plundering the Castles of Persons of Quality, who professed the Reformed Religion. If unhappily any Division were in private Families between Man and Wife, or other Relations, these Fomenters of strife, these Firebrands of Hell, would come and offer them the Protection of the Church against their adverse Party. If a Man were poor and brought to Beggary, they promise him the Protection of the Church against his Creditors, and Mountains of gold, if he will but change his Religion. They will provide for his Children, put his Daughters into Nunneries, his Boys into Abbeys, or good Employments: but no sooner are they debauched, but as the Priests said to Judas, after he had betrayed his Lord, See thou to it, so they chouse and slight him, leave him in the lurch, never perform their Promises; so that through despair, some of them have ended their days as Judas did, by laying violent hands upon themselves. If a debauched Son would shake off his Father's Yoke, they shall flock to him with the greatest profession of kindness imaginable, pitying him, and wheedling him with the deceitful Promises of what great matters they will do for him, provided he will but relinquish his Religion (who had none) and become of theirs, a Catholic. If a Daughter be unruly and undutiful to her Parents, they will seduce her away from them and God, flattering her with the false hopes of a good Match, or entice her into their Nunneries (those sinks of Uncleanness) and oblige her Father to maintain her, to give her an yearly Pension, far above what his Estate can possibly allow or bear.

If a Man be prosecuted for any Crime, let him but change his Religion, he gets a Pardon, and gets into a Sanctuary from Justice. By this means the old Count de L'orge saved his life, when he was clapt into the Bastile for coining Money. But these Cheaters have been cheated themselves. 'It is a diverting story for my Reader, out of Les derniers efforts de l' Innocence affligee, p. 176, & 177.

SECT. XXVI.

If a man be sick, and by reason of poverty is carried to the Hospital, his Entertainment will be very harsh and cruel; unless he renounceth his Religion, he shall have no attendance, but die miserably. A Danish Gentleman was carried to the Hospital at Paris, called l' Hostel Dieu, being mortally wounded; The Papists earnestly press him to renounce his Heresy, but finding him fixed and immovable in it, they make use of false Apparitions of supposed Devils, appearing with a Death's Head, in which they had put lighted Candles, telling this poor young Gentleman, that he should be damned, if he did not change his Religion, and of a Lutheran become a Catholic. They follow him so often and closely with these Mormo's, that being worn out with terrors, he died in despair. This happened Jan. 24. 1666.

The Liberty of Conscience formerly granted is miserably abridged, and the Inquisition in effect set up; no Protestant daring to discover his Faith before the Papists, lest he should be prosecuted for Blasphemy.

The Sick cannot lie quiet in their Beds, in their own Houses, no more than in Hospitals, without being persecuted with the continual Sollicitations of Priests and Monks to change their Religion, they having got liberty to enter their Houses at pleasure, which to dying men, though' never so well settled in their Religion, must needs be a very grievous torment.

The Priests with this Licence do frequently and falsely pretend, that the deceased party by signs or otherwise discovered a desire, that their Children should be bred up in the Popish Religion. Thus did they deal with Monsieur Rossell, a Minister in Saintonge.

If a man in a violent Feaver, though' under a delirium, do but let fall the least expression, the Priest snatcheth at it immediately, and pretends there is a real Conversion, and then all the Friends and Relations of this delirious person are driven out of the Chamber, even his own Wife and his Children are taken into custody. And if he chance to recover, they will force him to go to Mass, or else put the Decree against Apostates in execution against him.

If a sick man be in his right senses, they will then by subtle insnaring Questions interrogate him, whether he would not embrace a true Faith, a good, sound and orthodox Doctrine, and whether he desireth not to die in the bosom of the true Church. If he answer, that he doth, or not, 'tis all as one, he is persecuted to death. Take an instance or two out of Les derniers Efforts de l' Innocence affligee, p. 62, 63, 64.

In the Suburbs of St. Marcel in Paris, a poor Woman lay delirious, The Commissary and Priests of the Parish enter into her Chamber, drive out all her Relations and Friends that attended her, and made her speak what they pleased; then they go and fetch the consecrated Host and holy Oils for her viaticum: and lest any one in their absence should get into the Chamber, they lock it, and carry away the Key with them. In the mean while this sick Woman returns to her right senses, but is affrighted at the sight of a Cross at her Bed's foot, which they had left behind them. She immediately conjectures what had befallen her during her delirium; and thereupon ariseth, goeth to the door to save herself; but finding it shut, she resolves to escape by the window. This was too bold an Enterprise for so feeble a creature; and as she was sliding down from the third story, she falls upon the Pavement, and with the violence of the fall, dieth in the place.

There was another sorrowful Accident at Ville Dieu, a Village in Poitou. The Curate and Sexton of the Parish visit an aged person upon his sick bed. They drive away from him all his Children, terribly threatening them, that if ever they came near him anymore they should be hanged. These poor Creatures terrified with these and other Persecutions, which they had already suffered, fled into the Woods, not daring to return to assist their afflicted Father. In their absence the old man stands his ground stoutly, against all the Assaults, Temptations and Vexations of this Irreligious Curate and Sexton; and finding they could not prevail upon him, they at last forsake him. This poor man was now left succourless, and dies of famine. For when he was found dead, he had eaten the flesh off his Hands for hunger.

SECT. XXVII.

I should never have done, if I should set down all the Histories of their Sufferings by the Tricks and Quirks of Law, but I will add one more: Monsieur Mandeville de Fanue, a Gentleman of an ancient Family, was kept in the Common Gaol of Normandy three Years, and was there in the Year 1674. He married a Gentlewoman bred up in the Popish Religion. By her he had several Children; the first was a Daughter, and his Wife's Kindred intended to carry her away by force to be baptized according to the Romish Superstition. To that end his Mother-in-Law procured from the Judges of Caen, an express Command to the Ministers of the Protestant Church, not to baptize the Child on pain of five hundred Livers. This is directly contrary to the King's Declaration, Anno 1669. Article 39. expressed in these very terms, We Order and Command, That the Children whose Father is a Protestant, shall remain in their Parents Custody, and those that shall take them away and detain them, shall he constrained to restore them. Hereupon he was constrained by night, to avoid the insolency and fury of the common People, to carry the Child as far as Bayeux, five French Leagues distant from Caen, there to be baptized after the manner of the Reformed Churches.

As he was going to baptize his third Child at the Protestant Temple near Caen, the Vicar of St. John 's Church stopped him, and took him by the Throat suddenly, in so violent a manner, that he almost choked him, and to avoid the fury of the common People, who began to stock about, he returned to his House.

The last Child, being a Daughter, was carried away by stealth by the forementioned Vicar, and was Baptized in the Romish way. The Mother of these Children dying a short time after, although by the Custom of the Country the Father hath the right of being Guardian and Tutor of his Children, yet most unjustly, and contrary to the 39th Article of the Edict, The Relations of the deceased Gentlewoman, who were all Papists, chose her Brother (who being a Minor needed a Guardian himself,) to take the care of these Children. And thereupon he was Condemned to give up his Children into the care and custody of this young Guardian: from this Sentence he made his Appeal to the Parliament of Rouen. But his Adversaries by their false Witnesses, and a Counterfeited Contract before Marriage, allowing the Education of his Children in the Superstitions of the Romish Church (which he proved forged) got two Judgments passed against him, and executed, enjoining him to deliver up his Children, under the penalty of eight hundred Livers French money. Upon this he Petitioned the Privy-Council, and obtained a Letter under the Kings Seal, to Monsieur Chamilla Intendant of Caen, Commanding him to put a period unto this Affair. But he being wholly governed by the Bishop of Bayeux, and other of the Clergy and rigid Papists: This poor Gentleman was made a Prisoner; and at the taking of him, they miserably abused him, beating him, tearing his Cloaths, breaking his Sword, dragging him in a brutish manner through the streets, and in all probability, had not a Gentleman, named the Viscount of Caen, come by, and took him into his Coach, and conducted him, with his Guard, to the Prison, he had been Massacred by the bloody Rabble. Over and above all this bad usage, some Debtors to him have obtained an injunction upon any proceeding at Law against them, until he shall have delivered up his Children. His Estate is all seized, and he kept at the Kings allowance, that he may thereby be compelled, not having wherewithal to buy Bread for his Children, to deliver them up. This Order was Confirmed, and given forth by six Ecclesiastical Counselors.

All that these inhumane Wretches have to allege for this barbarous usage, is this, That they hold it just and equitable to deprive a Man of all the goods and comforts he enjoys, provided it be for the advancement of their Religion, which ought to be preferred before all private Interests whatsoever, according to their Maxim, Summa enim est ratio quae pro Religion facit. And by this goodly Maxim of theirs, was this worthy Gentleman, for not prostituting his poor Children to their Diabolical Idolatries and Superstitions, more than three years Imprisoned, and placed among the most notorious Rogues, who for their Villanies are under Restraint, without any hope of deliverance unless by Death.

SECT. XXVIII.

We shall add but one method more under this first head, and that is a general Inundation of Criminal Processes against the Reformed. Writings were Printed at Paris, and sent down from thence to all Cities and Parishes in the Kingdom, Impowering Curates, Church-Wardens, and others, to make an exact inquiry into whatsoever those of the Reformed Religion had either said or done for twenty years past, as well upon the occasion of Religion as otherwise, and to give information of it unto the Local Magistrates, that they might be prosecuted without delay, and punished without remission. So that for divers years together, in the execution of these Orders, the Prisons were everywhere filled with new kind of Criminals, with the most Innocent Persons in all France. Nor were false Witnesses wanting, and which was most horrible, though the Judges were convinced in their Consciences, that they were Knights of the Post, yet they maintained and abetted them in their horrid Wickedness. Thus they Condemned innocent and godly Persons to be scourged, to be Chained in the Gallies, to Banishment and public Penances. And this kind of Persecution fell chiefly upon Ministers, Pastors of Churches. For a long time they might not Preach without having for their Auditors, and Observators, a swarm of Priests, Monks, and Missioners, and such kind of Cattle, who made no scruple to charge them with things which never entered into their thoughts, and to turn others into a contrary meaning. Yea they went so far as to divine thoughts, and to make Crimes out of their own imaginations. For as soon as ever any Minister spake of Egypt, Pharaoh, the Israelites, of good or bad People, These Spies had their forced Innuendo 's, and accused these poor Ministers for slandering the Catholics, and that they meant by the Israelites the Reformed. The Judges concerned themselves in this, and which is most strange, The Ministers of State construed these Interpretations of thoughts as real, evident, and undeniable proofs. On these grounds the Magistrates filled the Prisons with many worthy Ministers, detaining them many Months, and whole Years together, yea, and often inflicted upon them severer punishments.

SECT. XXIX.

But they did not stop here, they proceed farther, To deprive the Reformed of all Offices and Employments, and in general of all means of gaining a Livelyhood. An infinite number of Protestants being dispersed in all parts of the Kingdom, it could not be but that many Families of them must subsist by serving the public, either in Offices, Arts, Trades, or one Faculty or other, according to their Education and Callings. Henry the Fourth was so much convinced of the necessity and justice of this very thing, that he made it an express Article, and perhaps the most distinct and formal one of all the rest, which are contained in his Edict: and therefore the Persecutors thought themselves obliged to use their utmost endeavors to elude and evacuate it. Here then they began with Arts, and Trades; which under several pretences, they rendered almost inaccessible unto the Protestants, by the many difficulties they met with in attaining to their Mastership in them, and by the excessive expenses they must be at to be received therein. For every Candidate (who would set up his Trade) was forced to this effect, to commence and carry on tedious Law-Suits, under the weight of which they sunk, and were over-whelmed, they being in no wise able to hold out the prosecution of them. But this not being sufficient enough to ruin them, out cometh a Declaration in the Year 1669. by which they be reduced to one third in those Towns where the Protestants were the greatest number of Inhabitants; and they were forbidden to receive any of the Religion into their company till this diminution was made. Thus at one stroke, one dash of the King's Pen, all Pretenders are totally excluded.

Some time after they drive all the Reformed from the Consulships; and other municipal Offices in Cities. Which was in effect to deprive them of all knowledge of their proper Affairs and Interests, and wholly to invest the Catholics with them.

In 1680. The King issued out an Order, depriving them in general of all kind of Offices and Employs whatsoever from the greatest to the meanest. They were rendered uncapable of serving in the Custom houses, in the Guards, Treasury, or Post-Office, of being Messengers, Coach-men, or Waggoners, or anything of this nature.

In the Year 1681. By a Decree of Council, all Notaries, Attorneys, Solicitors and Serjeants professing the Reformed Religion were rendered utterly uncapable of these Employments in any part of the Kingdom.

In the Year 1682. All Lord's, Gentlemen of the Reformed Religion, were ordered to discharge their Officers and Servants of the said Religion, and not to make use of them in any case; and this upon no other reason than this, because they were Protestants.

In the Year 1683. All Officers belonging to the King's Household, and those of the Princes of the Blood, were also rendered uncapable of holding their Places. The Counselors, and other Officers in the Courts of Aids, and Chambers of Accounts; and those in County Courts, Bailywicks, in the Courts Royal, of the Admiralty, in the Provost's and Marshals Court, in the Treasury, Excise, and all Offices of the Toll, and such like businesses, were ordered to leave their Places, that the Catholics might enjoy them.

In the Year 1684. All Secretaries belonging to the King, and great Officers of France, whether Real or Honorary ones, yea, and their very Widows, were deprived by a Revocation of all their Privileges of what nature soever they were. They also deprived all those that had purchased any Privileges for exercising any Professions, as Merchants, Surgeons, Apothecaries, Vintners, and all others without exception.

Yea, they proceeded to this excess, that they would not suffer any Midwives of the Reformed Religion to do their Office, and expressly ordained for the future, That the Protestant Women when they were in Travel should receive assistance from none but Roman Catholics. It cannot be expressed how many particular Persons and Families they reduced everywhere by these strange and unheard of methods to ruin and misery.

SECT. XXX.

But because there were yet many which could sustain themselves, other Methods of Oppression must be invented. To this end they issued out an Edict from the Council by which the New Converts, as they call them, were discharged from paying any of their Debts for three Years.

This for the most part fell sore and heavy upon the Reformed; who having had a more particular tie of interest and business with these pretended Converts, because of their Communion in Religion, were reckoned their chiefest Creditors. By this Order they had found the Secret to recompense those that changed, at the charge of those who continued firm; and this they did likewise by another way. For they discharged the New Converts of all Debts, which those of the Religion had contracted in Fellowship with them. So that the poor Protestants must pay all. Horrible Injustice! Cruel, hellish Oppression!

Add to this, The Protestants are prohibited to sell, or alienate their Estates, on any pretence whatsoever, the King disannulling and vacating all Contracts and other Acts relating to that Matter; if it did not appear, that after these Acts, they had stayed in the Kingdom a whole Year: so that the last Remedy of helping themselves with their Estates in extreme necessity was now wholly taken from them.

There remained yet a Sheet-Anchor for the poor Protestants, and that was all which was left them to save themselves in this storm, to retire into other Countries, where they might get their living by their labors, since it was not permitted them in France. But the King by repeated Edicts forbad them to leave the Kingdom upon very severe Penalties. This rendered their case desperate; for they saw themselves reduced to that horrible necessity of being starved to death, to die of famine.

And yet the cruelty of their Enemies did not stop here. For there remaining some gleanings in the Provinces, though' very few, and those as thin, lean and blasted as the Ears of Corn in Pharaoh 's Dream. The Intendants in their respective Districts had express order to load the Reformed with Taxes, which they did in this manner: Either by laying upon them the Tax of the new Catholics, who were discharged thereof on favor of their conversion, or by laying exorbitant Taxes, which they call Duties; that is to say, He, who in the ordinary Roll was assessed at forty or fifty Livers, was charged by this Imposition with seven or eight hundred. Thus had they nothing more left, for all was a Prey to the griping Covetousness and brutish Cruelty of Inhumane Intendants. They levied their Taxes from them by the effectual quartering of Dragoons upon them, or by close Imprisonment; from whence they were never freed, till such time as they had paid down the utmost farthing.

SECT. XXXI.

These were the two first Engines which the Popish Clergy used against the poor Reformed in that Realm. But now followeth a third; which we have termed Infractions of the Edict of Nantes, under pretence of Explication. Those who would know their Number and Quality need only cast their eyes upon the Books written and published on this occasion by Father Meisnier the Jesuit, an Author famous for his Illusions, and by one Baanard, a pitiful Officer in the Presidial Court of Beziers in Languedoc. There you will meet with all the Windings and Turnings, the Shifts and Evasions, which the silliest and most unworthy Sophisters could invent, whereby to elude the clearest Text of the Edict, and to corrupt and pervert its very heart, sense, and sincerest meaning. And that I may avoid prolixity, I shall only produce a brief Account of some few particular Instances of their Troubles. As for example, Was there anything more clear, evident, and unquestionable in the Edict than this, viz. That it was given with an intention to maintain those of the Reformed Religion in all the Rights that Nature and Civil Society give to Men? Yet in 1681. there came out an Edict, that Children might at the age of seven Years abjure the Reformed Religion, and embrace the Catholic, under pretence forsooth, That the Edict did not precisely mark, that at this age they should continue at their Parents disposal. Who sees not, but that this was a mere Trick, seeing that at one hand the Edict forbad to take away Children by force from their Parents, or by Flatteries: and on the other hand, the Edict supposed and confirmed all the natural Rights, of which, without controversy, this is one of the most inviolable. Was there ever a more notorious Infraction of the Edict than that, which forbad those of the Reformed Religion, who had passed over to the Romish, to return unto that which they had quitted? because forsooth, That the Edict did not, in express formal terms, give them this Liberty. For when the Edict permitteth generally all the King's Subjects Liberty of Conscience, and forbiddeth to perplex and trouble them, or to act and offer anything contrary to this Liberty; who seeth not this exception touching the Pretended Relapsers, is so far from being an explication of the Edict, that it is a most notable Violation of it.

Unto this we may add the Charge given unto the Roman Catholics not to change their Religion, and embrace the Reformed. For when the Edict giveth Liberty of Conscience, it doth in plain terms grant it unto all Persons whatsoever, who are, or shall be of the said Religion. Yet if we believe the Clergy, this was not Harry the Fourth 's meaning; for he intended that Grant only to those who then, at that time when the Edict was made, professed the said Religion.

SECT. XXXII.

This Edict of Nantes also gave unto the Reformed the Privilege of keeping small Schools in all places where they had the Exercise of their Religion, and by common acceptation those were always understood Lesser Schools in which Children were taught Latin and Humanity. This was the known received sense of these words throughout the Kingdom, and it is thus taken when it doth concern the Roman Catholics: Yet, by a new Interpretation, this permission was restrained to the bare liberty of Teaching to read and write; as if the Reformed were unworthy to learn anymore. And this on purpose to tire out the Parents, and drive them to this extremity, either not to know what to do with their Children, or be forced to send them to the Roman Catholics for Education.

The Edict gave them Liberty in all places where they had Churches, to instruct publicly their Children, and others in what concerns Religion: and this did visibly establish them in the right of teaching them Philosophy and Theology, especially Theology, because this is nothing else but Religion.

Moreover, the Edict of Harry the Fourth had promised unto the Protestants Letters Patents to be expedited in due form of Law for the Erection of Colleges, in which their Youth might be educated and instructed in the Liberal Sciences. For whence should their Churches be supplied with Ministers, if they had no Seminaries, nor Colleges? And yet the Clergy supposed that the Edict gave no right to the Reformed to instruct them in Philosophy or Theology; nor were they upon this supposition to have any Colleges. Hence their Universities and Colleges were all condemned and suppressed, that so the Ministry might be destroyed. This was the very self same course that Julian the Apostate took of old to extirpate Christianity.

They had Colleges almost in every Province. All these are suppressed: They had six Academies, one at Die in Dauphiné, another at Nismes in Languedoc, a third at Pau ill Bearne, a fourth at Montauban in Quercy, a fifth at Saumur in Anjou, and a sixth at Sedan. This last, though grounded on a particular Edict, was suppressed as well as all the others; yea, and had the Honor to be first ruinated. It led the Van to the other Universities, and preached to them, in its Rubbish, what kindnesses they must expect from the Jesuitical Councils at Court. They had been very fuitful Nurseries of many excellent Scholars, furnished the Churches with some thousands of able, godly and painful Ministers. This was the great eye-sore of the Jesuits, and cause enough for their bigotted Disciples at Court to procure their Ruin. The Professors in these Academies were Men of most eminent Learning and Piety, exceeding studious and laborious in their Calling. They read four Lectures every Week publicly, besides the private Colleges they had in their own Houses daily: for a number of young Students would combine together to prosecute one body of Controversies, and the Professor reads to them at home, and they draw up their Theses and dispute upon it. We have a world of these Exercises in the Foreign Universities. Their Professors exercise their Scholars with public Disputations, and strictly examine their Proficiency once a quarter. Their stipends were but mean, never amounted to Seventy pound a year; yet they were generally Men as of great parts, so of great reputation, and highly esteemed by their Churches, Synods and the Nobility. I shall insert here a Catalogue of the Prefessors in Divinity in the University of Montauban, from its first foundation in the sixteenth Century unto the year 84. of the seventeenth, when the University was suppressed, and all the Professors clapt up in the Prisons of Toulouse, by a Decree of that Parliament; where they were kept in duress till the month of October, in the year 1685. and were then banished the Realm, with all the other Ministers.

1. Dr. Michael Berault was the Founder of, and first Professor in the University of Montalban in the year 1590.

2. Monsieur Peter Sohuis was his Colleague in the same Office, and at the same time.

3. Monsieur Daniel Chamier, that great Man, and invincible Champion of the Truth. The Jesuits could never stand before him. He was killed upon the Lord's day, when the City was besieged, with a Cannon Bullet, in the year 1621.

4. Monsieur John Cameron, that most pious Bishop of Norwich: Dr. Joseph Hall gave this Character of him, That he was one of the most learned Men that Scotland ever bred. He had been formerly Minister of Bourdeaux, thence translated to the Professor's Chair of Divinity at Saumur, and lastly unto Montauban, where he died in the year 1625. But more of him in my Icones.

5. Peter Berault, the Son of Michael, a Son not unworthy his Father, who founded the University.

6. Anthony Garrissoles, who died in the Lord, Anno 1651.

7. Paul Charles, though he was called to the Professorship in Divinity after Monsieur Garrissoles, yet entered he into his rest two years before his Reverend Colleague, viz. 1649.

8. John Verdier, he died in the year 1668.

9. Andrew Martell, he went into exile, with his Brethren, in the year 1685, and was called to be Professor of Divinity in the University of Berne in Switzerland, where he is yet living. In his time the University was removed from Montauban to Puy-Laurens in Languedoc, in the year 1660.

10. Anthony Peres was called in to succeed Monsieur Verdier immediately upon his death. This very learned and godly Divine died in my Neighbourhood in the year 1686. here in King-street near Bunhil fields, London.

This University of Montauban (the first and eldest Protestant University of France ) had subsisted the just age of a Man; and then, purely out of a design to facilitate its Ruin, it was removed, in the year 1660. to Puy-Laurens.

The University of Saumur had its foundations shaken in the year 1675. though it had a quiet and uninterrupted possession of threescore and ten years, and was grounded upon the Edict of Nantes, and confirmed by other Edicts of Henry the Fourth, and of his Son and Successor Lewis the Thirteenth. Henry the Fourth comprehended them both in the Gift he made them Anno 1599. And in the Articles of Peace granted by Lewis the Thirteenth to the City of Montauban they were again ratified, and he formally promised to continue his Bounty (which in truth was no bounty but a Debt, for the Reformed compounded with his Father to pay their Tithes to the Popish Parish Priests (which they did honestly and justly) provided the King would allow such a sum of 135000 l. in good money) unto them for their Ministers, Schools, Colleges and Universities.

And in his Answer to their Bill of Grievances, in the second year of his Reign, and of our Lord, 1611. Article 19. He granted to the Universities of Saumur and Montauban, the same Privileges, Immunities, and Prerogatives, as the other Universities in the Kingdom enjoyed, according to the will and intention of King Henry the Fourth, expressed in his Answer to the Bill of Grievances presented him by the Reformed, Article the Fourth. Yet all these Engagements and Obligations, both of Honor and Conscience, could not contain the present King, nor his Council, within any Bounds; But that all the Schools, Colleges, and Universities of the Reformed, must be dissolved, dissipated, and they be utterly ruined.

SECT. XXXIII.

But we shall proceed one step farther, and discover in this short Abridgment how the Faith and Patience of God's Saints was farther tried and exercised in France, before the last deluge of Popish Fury was poured out upon them. There were new Laws and Orders as so many new Engines and Racks invented to torment them. This is the fourth method devised by them.

The first of these Orders which appeared was touching the manner of Burial, and Interring the dead. In those places where the exercise of our Religion was actually established, the number of Attendants was reduced to thirty Persons, and to ten where it was not.

Orders were also issued out to hinder the Communication of one Province with another, by Circular Letters, or any other way whatsoever; though it were about matters of Alms, and the distributions of Charity.

There were likewise Prohibitions made of holding Colloquies in the Interval of Synods, excepting in two Cases, viz. to provide Ministers for Churches destitute upon the Death of their Pastors, and the censuring of greater Scandals.

They despoiled also those places, which they called Exercises de Fief, of all the Characters and Privileges of a Temple, as the Bell, Pulpit, and other things of that nature.

They forbad also the Reception and Ordination of Ministers in any Synods, or to have their Decisive Vote in them, or to Register them in the Catalogue of those Churches to which they appertained.

One Decree forbiddeth the singing of Psalms in their private Houses, yea, and another to forbear singing in their Temples, when as their Consecrated Host was carried by in Procession.

One Decree forbids all Marriages at such times as they be prohibited by the Church of Rome, viz. Lent, and the Ember Weeks, &c.

By another Decree their Ministers are not suffered to Preach at any considerable distance from their Residence, lest they should have the sorry privilege of an annexed Congregation, a poor plurality. For one Church being of itself utterly unable to maintain a Minister, sometimes two or three would join together to make up a Competency for his subsistence.

Other Decrees forbid their settling in any places, unless sent unto them by their Synod, though the Consistories had given them a solemn Call, according to their usual Forms.

Another Decree comes forth to hinder Synods from sending to any Churches more Ministers than were there in the preceding Synod.

Another Decree prohibits all Proposans, Students in Divinity, to study in Foreign Universities.

Other Decrees banish all Foreign Ministers, not born in the Kingdom, though they had been Ordained in France, and spent the greatest part of their Lives in it, out of it.

Another Decree forbad all Ministers, and Candidates for the Ministry, to reside in those places where Preaching was forbidden, or nearer to them than six Miles.

Another Decree forbad the People to assemble in the Temples, under pretence of praying, reading, or singing of Psalms, except in the presence of a Minister, placed there by the Synod.

There was one Decree, and that a most ridiculous one, Enacted, That all the backs of the Seats in their Temples must be removed, that so they might be reduced to most accurate and decent Uniformity.

Another Decree to hinder richer Churches from assisting the weaker, in maintaining of their Ministers, and other necessities.

Another Decree obligeth Parents to give their Children, who had changed their Religion, great Pensions.

Another forbiddeth Marriages betwixt Persons of different Religions, notwithstanding their Scandalous Cohabitation.

Another prohibiteth those of the Reformed Religion from that time to entertain in their Houses any Domestic Servants, who were Roman Catholics.

Another maketh them uncapable of being Tutors or Guardians, and consequently did put all Minors, whose Fathers died in the Profession of the Protestant Religion, under the Power and Education of Roman Catholics.

Another forbiddeth Ministers and Elders to hinder any of their Flock, either directly or indirectly, to embrace the Roman Religion, or to dissuade them from it.

Another forbiddeth Jews and Mohammedans to embrace the Reformed Religion, and the Ministers, either to instruct or receive them into it.

Another injoineth Synods to receive such Roman Catholic Commissioners as should be sent them from the King, with an express Order to do nothing, but in their presence.

Another forbiddeth Consistories to assemble oftener than once a fortnight, and that too only in the presence of the Roman Catholic Commissioner.

Another forbiddeth Consistories, on pretence of Charity, to assist poor sick Persons of their Religion, and ordaineth, that our sick shall be carried into the Popish Hospitals, most strictly forbidding all Persons to entertain them in their Houses.

Another Decree doth in favor of the Popish Hospitals, confiscate all the Lands, Rents, and other Profits of what nature soever, which might have appertained to a condemned Church.

Another forbiddeth Ministers to come nearer than three Leagues to that place, where the privilege of Preaching was under debate or question.

Another Decree confiscated to the Popish Hospitals all Rents and Revenues set apart for maintaining the Poor, even in those Churches which were yet standing.

Another subjecteth sick and dying Persons to the necessity of receiving visits sometimes from Judges, Commissioners, Church-Wardens, sometimes of Curates, Monks, Missionaries, or other Popish Ecclesiastics, thereby to induce them to change their Religion, or to require of them an express Declaration concerning it.

Another forbiddeth Parents to send their Children before sixteen years of age, on any pretence whatsoever, to travel in Foreign Countries.

Another doth prohibit Lord's and Gentlemen to continue the Exercise of Religion in their Houses, unless they had first produced their Titles before the Commissioners, and obtained from them a Licence for Preaching in those their Houses.

Another Decree restraineth the right of entertaining a Minister, to those only who were in possession of their Lands ever since the Edict of Nantes in a direct or collateral Line.

Another forbiddeth the Churches of one Bailywick to receive into their Temples the Members of another Bailywick.

Another doth enjoin all Physicians, Apothecaries, and Surgeons, to notify unto Curates and Magistrates the condition of sick Protestants, that so those dying persons may be visited by them.

SECT. XXXIV.

But among all these New Laws none did more effectually promote the designs of the Romish Clergy than that perfidious Prohibition unto the Reformed, of Receiving into their Temples any of those who had changed their Religion, no nor their Children, nor any Roman Catholic, of what Age, Sex, or Condition soever, on pain of forfeiting their Temples, and upon the Ministers of undergoing l'Amende Honorable, (a punishment far more ignominious than that of the Stool of Repentance in the Church of Scotland, or the most rigid public Penance in the Church of England ) together with banishment, and confiscation of their Goods and Estates. Moreover, the Reformed were enjoined to set up in all their Temples a particular Seat for the Roman Catholics to sit on. For by this means, no sooner had any one a design and resolution of changing his Religion, but they would make him do it in private, and the next Morning find him in the Temple; who being there observed by the Roman Catholics, who were in their Seat, immediately Informations were given unto the Magistrates, and then without delay ensueth a Condemnation of the Temple, which was put in execution you cannot tell whether with greater speed and diligence than rigor and severity. The Roman Catholics needed only to enter into the Temple upon pretence that they had places there, and then they slipped in among the Crowd, and this is made a Violation of the King's Laws and Declaration, which is immediately followed with an unavoidable Decree of Condemnation. By this Engine they destroyed a vast number of Temples, and clapt into Chains and Irons a multitude of innocent and godly Ministers. For wicked Informers and false Witnesses were never wanting on this occasion.

SECT. XXXV.

Such violent Proceedings as these must needs make a strong impression upon the minds of the poor Reformed, and tell them plainly unto what mark they tended. And therefore very many of them, whose prudence foresaw the Evil approaching, did in time provide for their safety, by leaving their Native Country. Some transported themselves, their Families, and their Effects into one Kingdom, others into another, according as their Interests, Necessities, Conveniencies, and Inclinations led them. And I very well remember, that in the Year 1681. in May and June, whilst I was Pastor of the English Church of Middleburgh, it was then credibly reported, that 500 Families of French Merchants had quitted France, and settled themselves at Amsterdam, and 50 Merchants more with their Housholds had in those very Months also retired unto Hamburg. But this was what the Court never intended, for more reasons than one. And therefore to prevent and hinder them, they renewed from time to time that Decree which we have formerly mentioned, that strictly prohibited under the severest Penalties, any Persons to depart the Kingdom without leave; and to this end they guarded all Passages on the Frontiers. But these Precautions could never fully answer their Expectations. And that they might blind the poor Reformed with some hopes that their rigorous Usage would be abated at home, in the Year 1669. the French King revoketh several violent Decrees, which indeed produced Effects for the present answerable to their Designs. For these wise and judicious Men saw well enough, that this Moderation sprang not from a good Principle, and that in the sequel, the same Decrees would be again put in execution some other time, yet the greater part conceived and hoped, that they would contain themselves within some bounds, with respect unto the general Body of the Reformed, and not pass on to a total extirpation and destruction of them.

SECT. XXXVI.

And these very self-same Conclusions have been often drawn from the several verbal Declarations, which did many times drop from the King's own Mouth, That He would indulge the Reformed, and do them perfect Justice, and let them enjoy the benefit of his Edicts in their full and most comprehensive extent. That though' he should be very glad to see all his Subjects reunited to the Catholic Religion, and would for the effecting thereof contribute all his Power, yet should there no Blood be shed for Religion during his Reign, nor upon this account any Violence exercised. Those very Declarations having been frequently repeated, reiterated over and over, gave the poor Reformed some ground of hopes, that his Majesty would not forget them, and especially that in essential matters He would let them enjoy the effects of his Goodness and Equity. And this was the rather expected by a Letter he wrote to that most serene and excellent Prince his Electoral Highness the Duke of Brandenburgh; Copies of which the Ministers of State took care to disperse throughout the whole Kingdom. In this Letter the King assures him, that he was well satisfied with the behavior of his Protestant Subjects: And for the Reader's satisfaction I have here inserted it.

SECT. XXXVII.

Another, and the fifth method used by the Council for their ruin, were those juggling Tricks with which they were frequently amused. As for Example. At the same time that some Churches were Condemned, and accordingly demolished, others were conserved and confirmed: To make the World believe they were very Conscientious Observers of the Rules and Measures of Justice; and that those Temples condemned by them were such, as were not grounded upon any good Titles. Sometimes they would mollify over-rigorous Orders and Decrees: At other times they seemed not to approve of those violences which were offered by the Intendants and other Magistrates; and would therefore grant out new Orders to restrain and moderate them. After this manner did they hinder the Execution of a Decree made in the Parliament of Rouen, which enjoined those of the Reformed Religion to fall on their Knees when they met the Sacrament. Thus they also granted a Noli prosequi against the actings of a puny Judge of Charanton, who had ordered that Prayer in the Protestant Liturgy, who groaned under the Tyranny of Antichrist, to be struck out of it. And thus also they seemed not to favor another Persecution which began to spread and become general in the Kingdom against the Ministers, under pretence of obliging them to take an Oath of Allegiance, in which other Clauses were inserted contrary to what Ministers do owe unto their Callings and Religion. And 'twas thus also that they suspended the Execution of some Edicts, which they themselves had procured, as well to tax the Ministers as to oblige them to a precise Residence upon those places where they exercised their Ministry. With the same design the Syndicks of the Clergy had the art to let the principal Churches of the Kingdom to be at rest for many years together, without any disturbance in their religious Assemblies, whilst at the same time they desolated all others in the Country. They suspended also the Condemnation of the Universities to the very last.

The Court seemed at first unable to believe, and at last in no wise to approve the horrible excesses of Marillac, the Intendant of Poitou, which he committed in his Province; though yet that poor and bloody Fellow did nothing but by their express Order.

SECT. XXXVIII.

But amongst all those illusions there be five or six which are most remarkable. The first was that at the very time when the Court issued out all those Decrees, Declarations, and Edicts, which we have before recited, and which they caused to be put in execution with the greatest severity, yea at the very same time that they interdicted Church-Assemblies demolished the Temples, deprived particular Persons of their Offices and Employments, reduced People to Poverty and Famine, flung them into nasty Jails, loaded them with grievous Fines, banished them from their Houses and Estates, and in a word, had almost ravaged all: The Intendants, Governors, Magistrates, and other Officers in Paris, and generally over all the Kingdom, did very coolly and gravely give out, That the King had not the least intention to touch the Edict of Nantes, but would most religiously observe it.

The second was, that in the same Edict, which the King published in the year 1682. to forbid Roman Catholics to embrace the Reformed Religion, that is to say at a time when they had made considerable progress in their grand work of the Protestants destruction, they caused a formal Clause to be inserted in these terms, That he confirmed the Edict of Nantes, as much as it was or should be needful.

The third remarkable is, That in the Circular Letters which the King wrote to the Bishops and Intendants, obliging them to signify the Pastoral Advertisement of the Clergy to the Consistories of the Reformed, He tells them in express terms, That his intention was not that they should do anything against those Grants, which had been formerly made by Edicts and Declarations in favor of those of the Reformed Religion.

The fourth, That by an express Declaration published about the latter end of the year 1684, the King ordained, That Ministers should not remain in the same Church above the space of three years, nor return to the first within the space of twelve. And that they should be thus translated from Church to Church, at least twenty Leagues distant from the other. Supposing by a most evident consequence, that his design was yet to permit the exercise of Religion to the Ministers in the Kingdom, for at least twelve years. Though at that very moment they had fully resolved in Council upon the Edict of Revocation.

A fifth Remark is, a Request presented to the King by the Assembly of the Clergy, at the same time that they were drawing up an Edict to repeal and abrogate that of Nantes, and giving instructions unto the Attorney-General how to frame it. And in that Decree which was granted on this Request of theirs, the Clergy complained of the mis-representations which Ministers are wont to make of the Roman Church, unto which they attribute Doctrines which are none of hers, and beseech his Majesty to make some provision against it. And farther they expressly declared, that they did not desire the Revocation of the Edict. Whereupon his Majesty did straitly forbid all Ministers to speak either good or hurt, directly or indirectly, of the Church of Rome in their Sermons; supposing as everyone may see, that 'twas his intention still to let them continue in the exercise of their Ministry.

But were there ever such illusions known? or was there ever any greater than this which they have put into the Revocatory Edict we are now speaking of? The King after having Cancelled and Disannulled the Edict of Nantes, and all its Members, Articles, and Dependencies, after that he had forever interdicted all public Religious Exercises of the Reformed Religion, and had forever banished all the Ministers from his Kingdom, yet notwithstanding he doth peremptorily declare, That 'tis his will, that his other Subjects, who are not willing to change their Religion, may remain where they are in all liberty, enjoy their Estates, and live with the same freedom as formerly, without any trouble or molestation upon pretence of their Religion, 'till it shall please God to enlighten and convert them. These were the amusements and gins laid to entrap the poor Reformed, as hath since appeared, and is daily more and more notorious by those barbarous usages they suffer, of which we shall give some few instances by and by, leaving the larger and fuller account of them unto that Reverend and Learned Exiled Pastor Monsieur B. who will publish to the World very shortly his laborious Martyrology of the French Churches under this present Reign and Persecution.

SECT. XXXIX.

But I shall add, the sixth preparatory Machin used by the Persecutors for the ruin of the poor Reformed in that Kingdom, which was an insensible and gradual disposing of the People by Declarations and Decrees to desire their utter extirpation, or to approve of it when once done, and to mitigate in their minds that Horrour which common Humanity hath of unjust and cruel Persecutions. For this purpose they turned a great many Stones, used various Means, but the most common were the Sermons and Preachments of their Missionaries, and of other controversial Predicators, with which they had stocked the Kingdom of late Years, under the specious Title of Royal Missions. These were choice Youths, culled out for the nonce, whose Education had nothing of moderation, but were all fire and flame. There was no difficulty to judge what kind of Actors these would be upon the Stage of the World, when they were not only excited, but knew themselves supported by Authority to blow the flames. And these Incendiaries did acquit themselves so zealously of their Imploy, that it was not long of them if Tumults and Seditions have not arisen in the greatest and most populous Cities of the Realm, yea and in Paris itself: for which the prudence of the Magistrate is to be thanked and commended. Together with these Predicators we must yoke the Directors of Men's Consciences, Confessors, Monks, Parish-Priests, and all Church-men from the highest Dignitary to the meanest Curate. For being acquainted with the Court's Intention, they contended one with another to manifest the greatest zeal and aversion against the Reformed Religion, because it was their interest so to do, and the only Ladder by which to mount up unto Ecclesiastical Preferments, and to acquire the fattest Benefices and most advantageous Fortunes in the Church. Hence the Streets in most Towns rang every day with the publication of new Decrees, Orders, Edicts, and Declarations, against the Protestants, as also of Satyrical Lampoons and Seditious Libels, which hit the humor of the French, and was most acceptable to them.

But this Engine gratified only the little People, and the Persecutors had that mortification to see that the most sober persons, who were a degree above the Mobile, disallowed these Acts and Practices. Wherefore they set the Pens of some Authors a work who had acquired by their Writings a reputation in the World, and amongst others the Writer of the History of Theodosius the Great, and of Maimbourg, who was once a Jesuit. He writ the History of Calvinism. But hath done Penance for it ever since, Monsieur Jurieu in his Parallel of Papism and Calvinism, and in his Apology for the Reformation, having exposed his Ignorance, Falshoods, and Malice to the learned World. Monsieur Arnaud the Jansenist would make his Court also by venting his Choler against the Calvinists. But though' his Apology for the Catholics was writ with as much gall, fire, and passion as the Bigots themselves could desire, yet it did not take, because his person was not acceptable. The Old Man complained of it in a Letter to the Archbishop of Rheims, (Copies of which were dispersed through all Paris ) and aggravates his own Misfortunes, for that another who had done far less Services was gratified with 20000 Livers from the King, but He, good Soul, though' he had deserved much more, could not meet with so much as one Liart.

But we must not pass by another of their famous Authors, Father Soulier, who was bred a Taylor, and had the wit to stitch and patch up An History of the Edicts of Pacification. And Monsieur Nicole once a great Jansenist, but now a Convert of his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Paris, he sends forth a Child of his own begetting with this fine Name, Protestants convinced of Schism. Nor may we overlook the Author of the Journal des Scavans, who in his ordinary Gazetts stoutly affirms, that the Catholic Faith must be planted as Mahomet 's Alcoran by Fire and Sword, alleging this most unanswerable Argument, That a King of Norway converted all the Nobles of his Country by threatening to kill their Children before their faces, if they would not consent to have them baptized, and to be baptized themselves. For a long time in Paris, and other Towns and Cities of the Kingdom we rencountred none but these kind of Writings, to so high a pitch was their passion flown.

SECT. XL.

But though' by these steps the Court advanced greatly in their Designs, yet they had not attained their end. For the Reformed were not wanting to their common Interest, nor did they neglect their just and lawful Defense. They sent frequently from the farthest and most distant Provinces their Deputies to the Court. They asserted their Rights before the Privy-Council. They bring their Complaints and Bills of Grievances from all parts of the Kingdom to that Honorable Board to be redressed. They employ their Deputy-General to solicit their Interests both with the Judges and chief Ministers of State, and the King himself. Sometimes they presented their General Addresses, in which they exposed their Grievances with that profound humility and deference, which Subjects owe their Sovereigns.

I do here tender to the Reader but one Instance among many, viz.

SECT. XLI.

This was effectually accomplished some few Months following, and in such a terrible and violent manner hath it been Executed, that the darkest and most distant Corners of Europe, yea, and of Asia and America, have heard and rung of it. But the circumstances are not known to all, and therefore I shall give an account of them in a few words; that the mouth of Impudence may be stopped, who publish abroad, That no Violences have been offered in France unto the Reformed, and that the Conversions there have been voluntary, and of their free consent.

At first they took these measures, to Quarter Soldiers in all the Provinces, almost at the same time, and chiefly Dragoons, which are the most resolute Troops of the Kingdom. Terror and dread marched before them, and as it were by one common Intelligence, all France was allarm'd and filled with this News, that the King would no longer suffer any Huguenots in his Kingdom, and that they must resolve to change their Religion. For there was no human Power could preserve them in it.

SECT. XLII.

They began with Bearne, in this Province the Dragoons first exercised their skill in Persecuting. Soon after the storm breaks out in the High and Lower Guienne; from thence it rides post unto Xaintongue, Aunix, Poitou, the Upper Languedoc, Vivaretz, and Dauphiné. Then they roar and ravage in Lionnois, Cévennes, and the Lower Languedoc, Provence, and in the Valleys of Piedmont, and the little Country of Gex. Afterwards they fall with a most horrid rage upon the rest of the Kingdom, upon Normandy, Burgundy, Nivernois and Berry, the Provinces of Orleans, Tourain, Anjou, Britain, Champagne, Piccardy and the Isle of France, not excluding Paris itself, which underwent the same Fate with the other Protestants.

The first thing the Intendants were to do, according to their Orders and Instructions, was to summon the Cities and Commonalties before them; and when those Inhabitants which professed the Reformed Religion were assembled, they then very gravely acquaint them, That it was his Majesty's pleasure they should without delay become Roman Catholics, and if they would not do it freely, they would make them do it by force. These poor People, surprised with such a proposition, answer, That they were ready to sacrifice their Lives and Estates to the King, but their Consciences and Souls being not their own but God's, they could not in any wise dispose of them.

There needed no more to bring in the Dragoons upon them: these armed and booted Apostles are at hand; they seize immediately on the Gates and Avenues of the Cities, they place their Guards in all the Passages, and brandishing their naked Swords, the Cry is, Kill! Kill! or else turn Catholics! They be quartered on the Protestants at discretion, and are strictly charged by their Officers to let none go out of their houses, nor to hide and conceal their goods or effects, on great penalties. The Catholics also are threatened in like manner, in case they should receive, harbor, or assist them. The first days are spent in consuming those Provisions the house afforded, and plundering them of Moneys, Rings, Jewels, and whatever was of any esteem or value. Then they set to sale all the goods of the Family, and invite the Papists not only of that place, but also those of the neighbor Towns and Cities to come and buy them. And be sure they could sell them cheap pennyworths, and give them a very good Title.

SECT. XLIII.

Afterwards they fall upon the Persons of the Protestants, and there was no Wickedness, though never so horrid, which they did not put in practice, that they might enforce them to change their Religion. Amidst a thousand hideous Cries and Blasphemies they hang up Men and Women by the Hair or Feet upon the roofs of the Chambers, or hooks of Chimneys, and smoakt them with wisps of wet Hay, till they were no longer able to bear it; and when they had taken them down, if they would not sign an abjuration of their pretended Heresies, they then truss them up again immediately. Some they threw into great Fires, kindled on purpose, and would not take them out till they were half roasted. They tied ropes under their Arms, and plunged them to and again into deep Wells, from whence they would not draw them till they had promised to change their Religion. They bound them as Criminals are when they be put to the Rack, and in that posture putting a Funnel into their Mouths, they poured Wine down their throats till its fumes had deprived them of their reason, and they had in that condition made them consent to become Catholics. Some they stripped stark naked, and after they had offered them a thousand Indignities, they stuck them with Pins from Head to Foot: They cut them with Penknifes, tear them by the Noses with red hot Pincers, and dragged them about the Rooms, 'till they promised to become Roman Catholics, or that the doleful outcries of these poor tormented Creatures, calling upon God for Mercy, constrained them to let them go. They beat them with Staves, and dragged them, all bruised, to the Popish Churches, where their enforced presence is reputed for an Abjuration. They keep them waking seven or eight days together, relieving one another by turns, that they might not get a wink of sleep or rest. In case they began to nod, they threw Buckets of Water in their Faces, or holding Kettles over their Heads, they beat on them with such a continual noise, that those poor Wretches lost their Senses.

If they found any sick, who kept their Beds, Men or Women, be it of Fevers or other Diseases, they were so cruel, as to beat up an alarm with twelve Drums about their Beds, for a whole Week together without Intermission, till they had promised to change.

In some places they tied Fathers and Husbands to the Bed-Posts, and ravished their Wives and Daughters before their Eyes. And in another place Rapes were publicly and generally permitted for many hours together.

From others they pluck off the Nails of their Hands and Toes, which must needs cause an intolerable pain. They burnt the Feet of others. They blew up Men and Women with Bellows, 'till they were ready to burst in pieces.

If these horrid usages could not prevail upon them to violate their Consciences, and abandon their Religion, they did then Imprison them in close and noisome Dungeons, in which they exercised all kind of Inhumanities upon them. They demolish their Houses, desolate their Hereditary Lands, cut down their Woods, seize upon their Wives and Children, and mew them up in Monasteries.

When the Soldiers had devoured all the goods of a House, then the Farmers and Tenants of these poor persecuted Wretches must supply them with new Fewels for their Lusts, and bring in more subsistence to them; and that they might be reimbursed, they did, by Authority of Justice, sell unto them the Fee-simple Estate of their Landlords, and put them into possession of it.

If any, to secure their Consciences, and to escape the Tyranny of these enraged Cannibals, endeavor'd to flee away, they were pursued and hunted in the Fields and Woods, and shot at as so many wild Beasts.

The Provosts, with their Archers, course it up and down the high ways after these poor Fugitives; and Magistrates in all places have strict Orders to stop and detain them without exception; and being taken, they are brought back, like Prisoners of War, unto those places from whence they fled.

SECT. XLIV.

But this Storm did not fall only upon the Commons, but Noblemen, and Gentlemen of the best Quality are exposed to it. They also have Soldiers Quartered upon them, who do rage and spoil them every way as much as the Citizens and Peasants. Their Houses are pillaged and plundered, their Goods dissipated and wasted, their Castles rased, their Woods felled, and their very Persons affronted with the Insolencies and Barbarity of the Dragoons. They spare neither Sex, nor Age, nor Quality. They practice their Violences upon all Persons, who are non-compliant with their Commands of changing their Religion. Several Officers and Members of Parliament underwent the very self-same Fate. For they were first deprived of their Offices, and then the Military Officers, who were actually in service, are ordered to quit their Posts, and to come and Quarter upon them, that they may by these new Apostles be necessitated to turn Catholics.

Many Gentlemen, and Persons of great Quality, and many aged Ladies of ancient and noble Families, seeing all these Outrages, retired unto Paris, and hoped, that in that Forest of Houses, and so near the Court, they might find a safe retreat. But this hope soon vanisheth. For a Decree of Council is Published, Commanding them to leave Paris in fifteen days, and to return back again without tarrying, unto their own homes. And whereas some presumed to Petition his Majesty to stop the current of this violent Storm and Injustice, they were immediately sent Prisoners to the Bastile.

The French King about the 6th of October 1685. was heard to say, That he hoped by that time his Grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, came to years of Understanding, he should never know what an Hugonot was in France, but by History.

In Sedan (a Principality by the Kings Edict annexed but of late unto the Crown) the Desolation by the Dragoons is unspeakable. The Families of Protestants being enforced to pay unto these Guests Quartered upon them, from ten to fifty and sixty Crowns a day, till they were totally beggared.

There have been rare and great Examples of Patience and Constancy among these Suffering Protestants. I shall produce a few Instances.

In Guyenne, Monsieur de Bergues Lord of Feus, ever since the Dragoons came into the Province, hath had seventy of them continually lodged upon him at Free Quarters, where they made a total Consumption, devouring all that he had, even to the very Stones and Walls, and not content with ruining him, they compelled his poor Tenants to contribute also to their Livelyhoods. After they had by main force dragged his Lady and Children to the Popish Church, they Imprisoned them in several Nunneries: and as for that Pious Lord, having by their Cruelties and ill usages confined him to his Bed, yet they continued their Torments of him in his Sickness, four Soldiers guarding him night and day, as if he had been some Notorious Traitor, and those brutal Wretches treating him with excessive Indignities. However they could not shake the Constancy of this Noble and Religious Gentleman.

Five Citizens of Sedan, after these Missionaries had tried their skill upon them, by destroying and eating up all their Substance and Estate, and other Hellish ill usage in Prison, to induce them to renounce their Religion, and not prevailing, they at last Condemn'd them to the Gallies. Unto which they went most Couragiously, Rejoicing at their great Afflictions for the Gospel.

Two ancient Gentlewomen of Sedan, one being the Widow of Monsieur Dreall Seneschal of the City, and the other the Relict of Monsieur de Beaulieu, who in his Life time had been Pastor and Professor in that Church and Academy, they both yielding up their Houses and Estates (which were very considerable) to be spoiled and plundered by these Dragoons, did for some weeks hide themselves from their Violence, by climbing from the Tops of Houses, from one House unto another, and endured those hardships, which would have been the bane of others younger and stronger than themselves; but hereby being worn out and quite spent with the labors and fatigues of their frequent removes, they fell sick, and were both seized on by their Persecutors, who banished them unto Rheims, and are now doing penance for their Heresy (as the Papists call it,) and you may be sure a severe Penance it is, that will be inflicted on them by the bigotted Nuns in their Convents.

The Lady Vielle Vigne, ne • r Nantes in Brittany, being accused of holding a Conventicle in her house, that is, for keeping a day of Prayer, was immediately arrested, and all that had been found at that Religious Meeting were carried to prison, where this Excellent Pious Lady abides in Duress.

Monsieur de Rosemont, formerly Pastor of Giens, having through human Infirmity fallen with the Multitude, fell sick in danger of death; the Priest of his Parish comes to visit him, and offers to administer the Popish Sacraments, Extream Unction, and the Eucharist unto him; but the poor Man refuses them, and declares his mind boldly against them, and in particular against their Sacrilege in robbing the People of the Cup. Finally, it pleased God that he recovered of his distemper; and being in perfect health, he was demanded whether the words he had spoken, and the discourse he had held in his Sickness were the effects of his Fever and Delirium, or of his fixed and settled Judgment. He answered courageously, that what he had spoken in his Sickness he would stand to in his Health, that they were his present Thoughts and Faith; and expressing a great deal of Remorse and Sorrow for his Fall, he beg'd pardon of God for it: whereupon he was brought before a Judge, who condemned him forth-right unto the Gallies, there to be hung till he was dead.

Monsieur Bayley, Minister of Carla in the County of Foix, and who was in June 1685. seized on by the Provost of Montauban, and thrown into a Dungeon in the Castle of Trumpet at Bordeaux, not one of his Friends or Relations being ever permitted to visit him, or to know the cause of his Imprisonment; died the 12th of November following, but with that Constancy as became a Martyr of Jesus Christ, praising and blessing God for his Sufferings. These Sufferings of his had been very great and exceeding grievous: He lay a long while together sick without any relief or assistance; yea, they were so barbarously cruel to him as to deny him a Cup of cold Water to quench his burning Thirst; his merciless Guards treating him in his very malady with all manner of Barbarities, that by those Torments he might be enforced to apostatize from the Truth; but this excellent man of God held steadfastly to the last, and by his Faith and Patience conquered the Cruelties of his Tormentors, and died triumphantly. He was a Person of great Worth and Learning, all which was communicated by him to the Edification of his Flock. His Brother, one of the rarest Scholars of this Age, is that famous Author of the Republic des Lettres.

The Widow of Monsieur Fremont, that rich famous Banker of Paris, together with her two Sons, left above 200000 Liveres in their House and escapt most fortunately their Persecutors. Monsieur Fremont putting himself and six more into the Habits and Arms of the Life-Guard, and himself as an Officer in the head of them, coming upon the Frontiers to the Guards, demands whether none had passed them lately? To which they replied Yes, some had done it a little before with Pass-ports. But this new Officer tells them they were counterfeited, and he was ordered to pursue these Counterfeits, and so saved himself and Company.

In Poitou the Houses of the Gentry are demolished, and excessive Cruelties by the Mission to make them renounce their Religion. The Lady of a Person of Quality, who for his Constancy was imprisoned, after that his House had been pulled down, was clapt up between four Walls, where, though she was big with child and very near her time, yet she was starved to death with Cold and Famine.

In the Burrough of Torique three Leagues from Niort, Frances Aubin, a Country Woman, declaring her resolution to persist unchangeably in the Protestant Religion; they first squeezed her Fingers to pieces with Iron Skrews, and then hung her up by her Arm-pits, smoking and forcing her to suck in with her Nostrils Tobacco and Brimstone: afterward these bloody Villains tied her Legs unto a Horse, who drew her upon burning Faggots. Her own Brother, of the same name, was an Eye-witness of all her Sufferings, who also was tortured by them, but in another manner. And forasmuch as none of these Cruelties could make them either loose their Resolutions or their Lives, they flung them both into a low Ditch, whence they were taken out almost knee deep in Mud and Water.