and you will see that he repeats again his former Ingagements We declare that confirming as much as is or may be needful the Edict of Nantes and other Declarations and Acts given in pursuit of it c. That is to say That by this new Edict he signs once more the Edict of Nantes and for a more authentick confirmation of that important Law he ratifies together with it and seals with his Royal Seal all the Declarations which had already confirmed it If all this is not sufficient to render His Word Sacred and Inviolable there is nothing in the World can do it all things are lawful and it is to no purpose to talk of any Obligation or of any Bond in humane Society They cannot make void or break the Clauses of an Edict so well deserv'd by the Protestants so just and so wise in it self so solemnly establish'd so religiously sworn to and so often and so authentically confirm'd by three Kings without shaking all the Foundations of publick Security without violating in that Act the Law of Nations and silling the World with fatal Principles which by ruining all mutual Faith among men render Divisions in States incurable and consequently immortal Dear Sir said I I am much pleased with what you have inform'd me O how I shall dash them out of countenance who hereafter shall compare the condition of our Papists in England with that of the Protestants in France There is no sort of good usage but what is due to these in their own Country of which they have deserved so well by preserving that Family which now reigns there What have they not a right to hope for under the protection of an Edict so authentick But our Papists in England have they ever deserved a like protection Hath there ever been pass'd any Act of Parliament in favour of them like to this Edict On the contrary have not there been pass'd 1000 against them And not one but upon the provocation of some Sedition or open Rebellion You need but review the Fundamental Laws of the Land now in force against the Pope against the Jesuits Seminary Priests and in general against all the Papists There is decreed justly against them all the contrary that by the Edict of Nantes is promised to the Protestants You are much in the right said our Friend when you use the word justly on this occasion Princes and Protestant Magistrates cannot look upon nor by consequence treat Papists otherwise than as declared anâ— mortal Enemies of thâ—ir Persons and of their States They may disguise themselves as they please 〈◊〉 in truth every Papist is a man who takes the Pope to be the Soveraign Head of the Universal Church and believes that on that very account there is no Prince nor King nor Emperor who is not subject to his Censures even to Excommunication Now who knows not that it is a general Maxim of that Religion that they ought to treat all excommunicated persons as common Pests Upon this all Subjects are dispensed with from their Oaths of Allegiance to their Princes Kingdoms are laid under Interdicts and they are no way obliged to keep faith with Hereticks This is the original and damnable Cause of the many Conspiracies that have been made against the Sacred Lives of our Kings And if you will search our Histories you will find none of the forementioned Acts ever passed but upon some previous provocation given by the Papists Insolence or Rebellions of the Massacres in France and Ireland wherein they of Rome have so triumph'd and of the general consternation into which so lately our Nation was cast They would fain perswade us that these pernicious Maxims are peculiar to the Jesuits and some Monks But a little Treatise called The Disserence between the Church and Court of Rome proves undeniably that it is the judgment of all true Papists I could produce other invincible authority if this point were here to be proved There cannot then be too great caution against such persons whatever they pretend they do not design simply the exercise of that Belief which their Conscience dictates to them they grasp at the Power and aspire at Dominion they design whatever it cost them to have their Church reign once more here in England There is nothing they dare not attempt nothing they are not ready to act that they may compass it They are implacable Enemies who wait but for an opportunity to cut our Throats and we must needs be very senseless and stupid if after so many proofs as they have given us of their desperate malice we should repeal those Laws which tie up their hands You are much in the right I replyed but let us leave them for the present and return to our Protestants of France You have shewed me their Rights now let me understand their Grievances I am willing to do it said he but it is a little late and if you please being somewhat weary with my Journey we will defer it till to morrow I will expect you here in my Chamber at the same hour you came to day I told him with all my heart And as our Conversation ended there I think it not amiss to end my Letter also intending in another to let you know the present condition of those poor People I am your c LETTER II. I Did not fail to wait on my Friend at the appointed hour Sit down said he as soon as he saw me in the Chamber and let us lose no time in needless Ceremony I was just putting my Papers in order by which I would desire you to judge of the Protestants Complaints and the Reasons that have made them leave their Country But since you are here take them as they come to hand The first is a Verbal Process of the extraordinary Assembly of the Archbishops and Bishops held in the Province of the Arch-Bishop of Paris in the Months of March and May this 1681. It is a Piece which justifies a Truth that the World will hardly believe Namely That whereas the Protestants by Virtue of the Edict had the Exercise of their Religion almost every where they have it now scarce any where See the proof in the tenth Page of that Verbal Process where one of the Agents General of the Clergy of France alledgeth as so many publick Testimonies of the Piety of their King An almost Infinite Number of Churches demolish'd and the Exercise of the Religion pretended Reformed suppress'd I leave you to imagine what a consternation such a terrible Blow must have put those poor people into not to mention their Grief to see those Holy Places beaten down whose very Stones they took pleasure in instead of having the Heavenly Mannah shower down at the Doors of their Tabernacles at this present they are forc'd to go 30 or 40 miles through the worst of ways in the Winter to hear the Word of God and to have their Children baptized But let us go on to a
her Priviledges to avoid the admitting those Men who came for no other end but to destroy her Monsieur Maimbourg is scandalized at it under pretence that the Cardinal of Lorrain who did all at Court had invested them with Regal Authority who came to take away their Religion Liberty and Lives But a scandal very absurdly taken There is no man but sees it plainly and what I shall tell you hereafter will make it more plain I will not enter into the Particulars of this unhappy War where the Prince of Condè was killed in cold Blood after the Battle of Iarnac and which concluded witâ— a Peace yet more unfortunate They allowed in this Peace several very great Advantages to the Protestants but it was only to have an opportunity to cut their Throats in the most Treacherous and Inhumane manner that was ever heard of To say the truth says Monsieur Maimbourg as the Queen made this Treaty it is very likely that such a Peace as this was never really meant on her side who concealed her Intentions and did not grant so many things to the Huguenots otherwise than to make them lay down their Arms that she might fall upon such as she had a mind to be revenged of the Admiral especially upon the first favorable occasion that should offer it self which she thought she had met with at last when she had prevailed with the King to take that horrid Resolution which was executed upon that Bloody and Accursed Day of St. Bartholomew Under pretence of Marrying the Prince of Navar to the Lady Margaret Sister to Charles the Ninth all the Protestants that were of any Quality were drawn to Paris The Queen of Navar was taken away in five days by a hot Fever occasioned as many believed by the art of the Perfumer Messer René a Florentine suspected for a skillful man at poysoning as Monsieur Maimbourg himself acknowledges At last to make the Feast more solemn they had the Admiral murdered by an old retainer to the House of Guise called Louviers Monrevel who shot him with a Carabine and they concluded it with this cruel Butchery which Monsieur de Perefixe Archbishop of Paris sums up in these words in his History of Henry the Great All the Huguenots that came to the Feast had their throats cut amongst others the Admiral Twenty other Lords of note Twelve hundred Gentlemen Three or four thousand Soldiers and Citizens and then through all the Towns of the Kingdom after the pattern at Paris near a Hundred thousand men A detestable action such as never was before nor never will be by the help of God the like But all the Popish World was of the Archbishop of Paris his mind witness what Mezeray says The holy Father and all his Court expressed a mighty joy at it and went in a solemn Procession to the Church of St. Lewis to give God thanks for so happy a riddance where the Cardinal of Lorrain who found not himself in such a transport of joy had placed over the door a Latin Inscription after the ancient manner giving the reason of this Ceremony They were not less rejoyced in Spain than at Rome where they preached up this Action before King Philip under the Title of The Triumph of the Church militant It is true that Monsieur Maimbourg Papist as he is could not bring himself to second this Joy of his High Priest and one of his Hero's the Cardinal of Lorrain But on the contrary he has highly condemned so shameful a Fact neither could he forbear to Declame in more than one place against those barbarous people that did it My Reader says he ought not to expect from me an account of all that was done upon this unhappy day which I wish with all my heart had been buryed in the shâ—des of eternal Oblivion So soon as it rung the Warning Bell at the Palace there were more than Fifty thousand men Armed running up and down the Streets like so many Furies let loose breaking open doors crowding into the Houses that were marked out or that they themselves had observed making the Air sound with the hideous Cries that were heard from the groans of Men and Women that were assassinated and the Oaths and Blasphemies of those that murdered them Dispatch kill stab knock them down fling them out of the windows made Paris all that day which was upon a Sunday and a Feast a bloody Theater of Cruelty or rather an abominable Butchery by the slaughter of above Six thousand persons whose Blood ran down the kennels and their Bodies all gored with Wounds dragged into the River This was what we might reasonably expect from the brutish and blind rage of a Rabble when they are let loose to do what they please with impunity But that which we find in this altogether mis-becoming the French generosity which ought to be the proper character of the Nobility of the Kingdom especially those of the Highest Rank was that the Marshal de Tavannes the chief contriver of this Massacre and the Duke de Montpensier too warm a Catholick went up and down the Streets encouraging the People who were already but too much transported of themselves and setting them on upon every body sparing none The King himself who saw out of his Chamber-window the mangled Bodies floating upon the Water was so far from being troubled at the sight that he shot with a long Gun though to no pâ—rpose cross the River at those who they had told him were got into the Faubourg St. Germain to save themselves from the Massacre and cryed out as loud as he could stretch his voice that they should pursue and kill them However he was afterwards extreamly trouble at it and to excuse himself from the imputation of so cruel an Act he caused Letters to be writ the same day to all the Governors of the Provinces that all which was done at Paris upon St. Bartholomew's day was the effect of an old Quarrel that was bâ—tween the Duke of Guise and the Admiral which drew on such deadly Consequences it being impossible to hinder them during that rage the Parisians were then stirred up to by running into Arms for the Guises against the Huguenots However this excuse passed but for a little while They made the King sensible that besides it would not be credited it would expose his Majesty to the contempt of his Subjects when they should see by this that he had not authority enough over the Guises to be obeyed by them nor power and resolution to punish so great a fault Wherefore wholly changing his mind he appointed the Tuesday following to appear himself in Parliament where he declared the same which he likewise caused to be writ to all the Governors that this Massacre was committed by his Order though to his great grief for prevention of a Hellish Conspiracy which the Admiral with the Huguenots had entred into against his Person
has committed to them the Administration or Rule And upon that score it is they pray to God for their own King and for all other Princes That he would give them his holy Spirit and all Graces requisite to well Governing Is this the stile of a seditious People Enemies to Monarchs and Monarchy Since therefore the Confession of Faith and form of Common-Prayer speaks the mind of the whole Body of the French Protestants it will be needless to quote the Sermons and Writings of their particular Ministers yet because I observe to my great grief there are many here cry down the incomparable Calvin as if in this point of obedience to Monarchs he were not very sound I must needs read to you what he has said upon that subject in his excellent Institution It is in his fourth Book Chap. 20. where after he has shewed Sect. 22 23 of this Chapter the Duty of Subjects towards Princes and Magistrates which he makes consist in having a profound Reverence for them to observe their Commands with a perfect submission to pay such Taxes and Rates as they put upon them to offer up Prayers and Thansgivings to God for their Prosperity and when he has there proved by Scripture That we cannot resist the Magistrate without resisting God who is prepared to defend them he considers Sect. 24. That there are many who fancy we owe not this respect and obedience but to good Princes and so may despise the wicked and shake off the yoke of Tyrants This Maxim he confutes as a most pernicious error in the following Sections of which I shall here give you a taste The Word of God obliges us to submit not only to the authority of Princes that use us well but in general to the Dominion of all those after whatever fashion that exercise Sovereign Power though they perform nothing less than the Duty of a Prince For however the Lord assures us that Magistrates are the Bounty of his Grace set up for the conservation of Men and that therefore he sets them bounds within which they ought to keep yet he declares at the same time that whatever they prove they hold their Power of him that they who seek the publick good in their Sovereign Administration are the lively Images of his Goodness that they which rule with violence and oppression were raised by him to the Throne for a Scourge to a sinful people but that the one and the other are equally invested with that Sacredness of Majesty which he has stamped upon the Forehead of all lawful Authorities I shall insist upon this point which the Spirit of the Multitude does not so easily conceive to wit that this admirable and Divine Authority that the Lord by his Word confers upon the Ministers of his Justice remains no lâ—ss with a Man that is never so wicked or unworthy of all honour if once he be raised to the Sovereign Power so that his Subjects ought no less to Reverence him in regard of Allegiance due to Sovereigns than if he were a good King First I would have it carefully observed the special Providence of God in bestowing Crowns and setting up Kings of which we are so often told in Scripture It is God says Daniel that removeth Kings and setteth up Kings And speaking elsewhere to Nebuchadnezzâ—r Thou shalt be says he to him wet with the Dew of Heaven till thou know that the most High Ruleth in the Kingdom of Men and giveth it to whomsoever he will We know well enough what a kind of King this Nâ—buchadnezzar was who took Ierusalem He was an Usurper and an accomplished Villain Nevertheless the Lord assures us in Ezekiel that he had given him Egypt as a Reward for the Service he had done him in the mischief he did to Tyre And Daniel says to the same King The God of Heaven has given thee a Kingdom Power and Strength and Glory and wheresoever thâ— Children of Men dwell the Beasts of the Field and the Fowls of the Heaven has he given into thine hand and hath made thee Ruler over them all He says also to Belshazzar this King's Son The most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy Father a Kingdom and Majesty and Glory and Honour and for the Majesty that he gave him all People Nations and Languages trembled and feared before him Whenever we find God has set up any man to be King let us call to mind the heavenly Oracles which appoint us to Honour and Fear the King and then we shall not fail to bear Respect even in the persons of Tyrants to this mighty Character wherewith God has been pleased to honour them Samuel telling the People of Israel what they were to suffer from their Kings uses these words This will be the manner or Right of the King that shall Reign over you He will take your Sons and will appoint them for himself for his Chariots and to be his Horse-men and some shall run before his Chariots And he will take your Daughters to be Confectionaries and to be Cooks and to be Bakers And he will take your Fields and your Vineyards and your Olive-yards even the best of them and give them to his Servants And he will take the tenth of your Seed and of your Vineyards and give to his Officers and to his Servants And he will take your Men-servants and your Maid-servants and your goodliest Young-men and your Asses and put them to his Work He will take the tenth of your Sheep and ye shall be his Servants Doubtless Kings have no Right to deal thus those that the Law so carefully directs to Moderation and Temperance But Samuel calls this the Right of the King over the People because the People are under an indispensable Obligation to submit and are not allowed to resist as if the Prophet had explain'd himself after this manner The mismanagement of Kings shall come to this height and you shall have no right to oppose it your part must be to take their Commands and to obey them Calvin after this produces a long passage out of Ieremiah where great punishments are denounced against all those that would not submit to the Government of Nebuchâ—dnezzar who originally was but an Usurper as wel as a Tyrant And he concludes that we ought to reject these seditious thoughts That a King ought to be handled as he deserves and that there is no reason we should behave our selves as Subjects towards him if he carries not himself like a King towards us After which he most substantially answers the Objections which unquiet Spirits are used to make against this Doctrine And now I leave it to reasonable Men to judge whether it be not the greatest Injustice to this excellent Person to declare to the World That he was an Enemy to Kings They that followed him have after his example all taken the same side upon this subject No doubt you have read what their great Salmasius has writ in defence
the matter he commends the Prince his generosity and said He was likewise ready to justifie his Innocence though privately he took care to have him apprehended In good earnest Monsieur Maimbourg's Morals must be strangely depraved since he is no longer a Jesuit not to find any fault in a Prince guilty of so prosligate a Dissimulation and notorious Treachery And does he think if Lewis the Fourteenth ever comes to open his eyes he will think himself obliged to those that would make such a Man pass for a truly Christian Hâ—ro who has done his utmost to disappoint him of the Crown by taking it from his Ancestors and endeavoring to cut off the Illustrious Race of the Bourbon's If an â—nglishman should Canonize Cromwell and place him among the Hero's Can you imagine he should be well received at Court or that the King should repose any great confidence in his Loyalty Monsieur Maimbourg must know that the Prince of Condè being what he was could not look upon this pretended Hero otherwise than as a Monster He was obliged by the duty of his Relation his Honor Loyalty and all that was becoming a Great Mind with all his might to set himself against those wicked Designs which he saw the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain had so plainly layed Would you have had him stood with his hands in his pockets when he discovered so great danger and suffer Strangers to ruine the State and take the Crown away from his Family with a high hand 7. These Usurpers had laid their business so well and were become so absolute Masters of the Person the Mind the Authority and the whole Power of the young King that it was impossible to carry any Address to the King unless by their means and to do any thing against them to bring them to Justice but as one may say in the Kings presence who was continually in their hands and by consequence to redress a mischief that so absolutely required a remedy without resolving upon some great and extraordinary attempt Either therefore the Prince of Condè must have done what he did or else have suffered the Throne to be usurped and the Royal Family sacrificed contrary to that duty he owed to France to his King to Himself and to his whole Race If Monsieur Maimbourg will have it that the Prince of Condè should have let the Guises go on his King ought to look upon him as his mortal Enemy If he believes he did his duty let him retract and be ashamed of those unadvised words That he would have taken the Kings Lodgings by force as Affairs then stood to seize in his presence upon his chief Ministers was to attack the King himself and to seek to make himself master of his Person and Government In the condition matters were then it was the only humane means left to rescue the young King from slavery to give a stop to the Outrages of a Forain domineering Power or rather Tyranny and to preserve the Crown to its right Heirs If God was not pleased in his All-wise providence to give so good success to the attempt as was hoped it failed not nevertheless of doing some good It gave a check to the wicked designs of the Guises and made them sensible that whil'st they had to do with men of that Courage they should not purchase the Kingdom at so cheap a rate as they thought for Besides I must not conceal it from you that the Protestants were not the only Men that Lifted themselves under the Prince of Condè for this important Service to their Country and to the Royal Family several Roman Catholicks shared with them in the glory of this Attempt The famous Mezeray has published it to all the World So that Monsieur Maimbourg is 〈◊〉 out when he would make it a quarrel upon Religion And much 〈◊〉 unjustly is he mistaken when he offers to say that at the business of Amboise The Huguenots entred into a horrible Conspiracy against their King I am satisfied says I to our Friend and I am confident every honest man that knows as much as you have told me of this matter will look upon this Jesuits Imputation with amazement and detestation Pray give me an account now of the business of Meaux The French Protestants repâ—yed he are no less innocent of Conspiracy against their King in the business of Meaux than they were in that of Amboise The testimony of the eminent Cardinal d'Ossat is an invincible Defence to them in this Affair and puts them beyond the reach of Calumny But I suppose you would be throughly informed of this matter I will do it in as few words as possibly I can And I will take the account partly from Monsieur Maimbourg himselff partly from two other Popish Historians who have much a greater esteem in the World than he it is the famous President de Thou and Mezeray We will take it from the beginning You have not forgot what I told you at our former Meeting when I gave you an account of the first War the Prince of Condè was forced to make for rescuing the King at the earnest intreaty of the Queen-mother then Regent I shall not need to take off a thousand odious Reflections which Monsieur Maimbourg lays upon the French Protestants in relation to this War They are either the faults of some private persons who having acted contrary to the principles of the Reformed Religion were disowned by all sincere Protestants or false Suggestions which the solemn Edict of Charles the Ninth in the Year 1563. has sufficiently confuted the King there owning as done for his Service all that the Prince of Condè and his Friends had done in this first taking up of Arms. This noted Edict Ordains That the Protestant Religion should be publickly exercised in several parts of the Kingdom which the Edict names it puts all the French Protestants under the protection of their King in what part of France soever they should make their abode it Wills That every one of them when they come home should be maintained and secured in their Goods Honors Estates Charges Offices c. The Prince and the Protestants observed the Articles of the Treaty of Peace most exactly Monsieur Maimbourg tells us himself That all the places which the Huguenots held submitted to the King Nay we English have occasion to complain of their too great exactness in this point For they were the hottest in taking Havre de Grace from us which we had possessed our selves of only to give them succor against their Persecutors All their great Souldiers came against us to the Siege of this Town The Prince of Condè lodged all the while in the Trenches All the French says Mezeray went thither in great fury especially the Huguenots But their Adversaries dealt not so with them they broke the Edict every where in a shamful and barbarous manner This Illustrious Queen