protested she had been surpriz'd and could not live in the Religion they had newly made her embrace Having made this Declaration she was put into a Covent where she found a Well into which she threw her self Such are the natural Consequences of the Declarations procur'd against us Par. If this be true why do you not complain Justice will be done you Hug. L. Justice Sir Of whom shall we demand it Of the Magistrate in whose presence these Outrages are done Of the Soveraign Courts Which take pleasure in making our Yoak the heavier Of the Ministry Who pretend they believe not a word we say Of the King Who will not give us the hearing Par. If this Declaration be executed with Moderation and Equity what cause to complain of it For since you are allow'd to live in quiet and at the end of your Life are ask'd only what Religion you will dye of what can be more clear than that without any intention of Ruining you great care is taken of your Salvation and that it is heartily wish'd for Hug. Law Can you believe Sir that those who have solicited and surpriz'd his Majesty to make this Declaration have done it out of Love to our Souls and Care of our Salvation I make no doubt but use was made of that very pretence to induce the King to it His Majesty being uncapable of a base thought or mean design But I am too fully convinc'd those who first suggested it to the King have very small care of the Salvation of our Souls There are many of them have no care of their own how then should they take care of other mens Others of them have such animosity against us that if they saw us at Hell-gate and had it in their power to thrust us in they would certainly do it But to speak in cold blood Let me perswade you on this occasion to make use of your usual Sagacity How can you imagine those who solicited this Declaration aim'd at the Salvation of mens Souls Why should they think that a man who all his Life long hath been of the Reform'd Religion should desire at his death to turn Roman Catholick If this man had had any such thought it should have been made appear in his Life 'T is far better living than dying in your Religion For that which you call Conversion makes a man capable of Imployment and Office it opens him the way into Dignities and great places to Gain and great Fortune What can be more evident than that a man dispos'd to turn Catholick would for the reason I have intimated not stay till his death but do it in his life-time and as early as he could But a man in his life hath perhaps a care of his reputation or is clogg'd with Interests that oblige him to dissemble but at his death he slights such respects he breaks all such bonds knowing that though he hath lived for others he must die for himself This were a good Argument in a Country where the Roman Catholick Religion is prohibited but in France where it is predominant where it makes use at this time of its advantages with a high hand a man hath all encouragement imaginable with all the freedom he can wish and probable hopes of extraordinary recompence to declare at any time his inclinations to quit our Religion Perhaps those Gentlemen were of opinion that God inspires many people at the hour of their death who should they recover would constantly follow the notions they are then inspir'd with True it is Sir you know we live in an Age of Miracles and extraordinary Inspirations We find them very numerous Most of those who persecute us have great faith for Inspirations In a word if this Declaration extended only to those who in their life have made appear some inclination to alter their Religion it might be thought the desire of their salvation occasioned these visits But these visits are made to all without exception to them who all their life-long have been most firm and resolv'd I would gladly know what new illumination an old firm Hugonot can be suppos'd to have from a plain single question ask'd by a Magistrate in a civil and gentle manner and if none whether there be not some other design in the business Is the asking of such a question look'd upon as a powerful instrument of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of an Heretick Have we any Presidents of Conversion by such means 'T is clear then that the Declaration strictly pursued according to the Letter is not of any use to make a man change his Religion and it is equally clear that they who sollicited that Declaration being men of sense did not in the least design by it the conversion of dying men or the salvation of their Souls Par. I would fain know what other design they could propose to themselves in it Hug. Law 'T is not hard to guess the Clergy hath a design to load us with miseries and to render our Religion odious to us by a multitude of calamities attending it The happiness of Mankind here on Earth consists in the pleasures of Life and Liberty to die quietly they have already found out a thousand ways to render our lives miserable and unpleasant and invent every day new means to continue them so there wanted nothing but a means to trouble us at our death to make our yoke insupportable And they have hit upon 't in this Declaration Besides having very small hopes of converting as they call it Fathers or Mothers or any person at the age of discretion they levell'd their design against Children and Infants To compass this they could not have invented a more effectual means than that they are furnish'd with by this Declaration whereby if they can but make believe a man died a Roman Catholick they make themselves Masters of all the Children he left under age To bring this about it was necessary to open a passage to the Beds of the Dying it was necessary to have liberty of entrance into any house which could not be had without the authority of the Soveraign the Kings goodness permitted him not to grant all they desired and had obtain'd by the Declaration in 1666. since revok'd in part and in part mitigated by that of 1669. which was that the Curates should have liberty to enter any house to perswade the Sick to change their Religion They attempted afresh to revive this Article but disappointed of their ends they rested satisfied with what was granted them which was that the Judges should go into the houses of the Sick to know what Religion they desir'd to die in they thought it sufficient for their purpose if they could by any means get mens doors open after which they would take the liberty to enter whether leave were granted them or not It hath happen'd accordingly for this we see is the course taken which puts the Sick into horrible agonies and their Families into terrible frights
our Ministers in that Point they long for an Occasion to shew their Resentment I cannot imagine upon what account our Ruine can be look'd upon as advantagious to the State I will not trouble you with a repetition of the Reasons we gave the last year to convince the King of our inviolable Fidelity and consequently that he is concern'd to preserve us no less than any other of his Subjects I make no question but you have heard all our Remarks on that Subject Par. Yes Gentlemen I have heard them and think it needless to insist further on that point Time will shew who are in the right you or we Counsels are justified or condemned by the Event Unfortunate Valour is branded for Rashness and fortunate Rashness commended for Valour If the Mischiefs you foretel happen to the State according to your Prediction it will be judg'd you were in the right but if a way be found by fair means and without effusion of Blood to bring you again into the bosom of the Church you will be oblig'd to acknowledg our Conduct not altogether so imprudent as you imagin'd therefore without looking further into the future I will consider only the present and must say I do not see what great cause you have to complain You will find it a hard task to perswade us you are miserably and rigorously dealt with when we see you in full peace enjoy every man his Estate and the fruit of his Labour I will not mince the Matter to you by denying all we can shall be done for destroying your Religion but with exception of your Persons and Estates which shall be spar'd Is not this fair and ought you not to rest satisfi'd Hug. Law Ought we not to rest satisfi'd say you Sure Sir you take us for People whose God is their Belly who believe not a future State but place all their happiness in present enjoyments The Principal is taken from us our Religion and the Liberty of our Consciences and you would have us remain content with the residue And what is that residue you say shall not be meddled with Our Estates and our Persons Are not our Persons meddled with when they exercise a thousand Cruelties and commit infinite Outrages to make us change our Religion when they strip us of all means to live when they reduce us to a necessity of starving or turning by declaring us uncapable of employment and excluding us from all Offices and Professions and from the exercise of all Trades we could get a lively-hood by When Gibbets were set up in every corner to hang us on and Fires kindled for burning us we were allow'd the choice of going to Mass or of dying Are we not reduc'd now to the same choice by their taking from us all means of living Are we not in as bad a Condition as heretofore We must dye or change our Religion 'T is true the death now propos'd is not hanging or burning as formerly but I am not yet resolv'd whether is more eligible to dye in a moment on a Gibbet or pine to death by a long train of Miseries Par. You are not wanting to your selves in setting out to the height the misery of your condition But leaving out the figures and aggravations of your pathetical Descriptions the rest will signifie little Hug. Law Do you call it Figure and Aggravation to be in our condition expecting every day the thunder-bolt of a new Arrest for demolishing our Churches and depriving us of the Liberty of worshipping God Almighty You complain to this day of the Outrages committed upon your Churches and Images in the heat of the Civil War If our Churches were destroy'd by Violences as those we should have the Comfort of being able to preach on the Ruins of them and hope to see them rebuilt when the Kingdom should be at peace But we lose all not only our present Possession but all hopes for the future We are forc'd to grieve at heart for Calamities for which there is no Remedy I say to grieve at heart for 't is Criminal for us to make the most innocent complaint Perish we must and under a Formality and appearance of justice Be our Defence never so good what evidence soever we produce in our favour we are still in the wrong our Possession is unjust and hath no right to ground it They are not satisfi'd with taking away our Estates but they brand us for Usurpers How prodigiously bold is the Libel in your hand to challenge us to shew one Church demolish'd that was a Church at the time limited by the Edict when nothing can be more notorious than that of the great number of places of Religious Exercise lately interdicted perhaps there are not two that can be any way suspected to have been set apart for that use since the Edict of Nants This is clear by the Tables of our Ancient Synods where we find a greater Number by half of places for Religious Worship than we have at this day We had them at the time the Edict was made else how could they appear in Acts of the Synods past at that time By the Edict we are to continue in peaceable Possession of all we then had and what we then had is now taken from us contrary to the express terms of the Edict and all the rights of Possession and Prescription For besides their Arrests ex parte wherein they pretend we have Liberty to make our Defence yet condemn us unheard they extort from his Majestys Declarations that ruine us that reduce us to Extremity and run us into Despair Par. Pray Sir which are those ruining Declarations Hug. Law I need not tell you Sir what they are They are too publick to escape the knowledg of a Person so well acquainted as you are with the World There are Volumes made of them and our good friends of the Clergy cram their Studies with Collections of them They set up the Title of them in Triumph Arrests pass'd against the Hugonots by the Solicitation of the Clergy of France Our late Calamities are so grievous they make us forget the former Do but call to mind the Declarations published against us within twelve months last past and you will see whether our Complaints are but figurative and pathetick Aggravations Par. Those Declarations are not very many Hug. Law They are not quite as many as the weeks in a year but half a dozen more such would quite undo us Have we no cause think you to complain of the Declaration that orders the Judges or others appointed for that purpose to go visit our sick at the point of death to know what Religion they will dye in Par. What harm in that Every man may die of what Religion he please Those that visit you put no force upon you but ask you a Question or two and leave you Hug. Law The fault I find with it is that it opens a gap for all sorts of Seduction and Violence By the
Declaration every door must be open'd to the Magistrate he enters attended with a Curate and a Missionary The Arrest excludes not the Relations of the sick from hearing them examin'd It neither orders them to withdraw nor orders the Examination to be taken in their presence But a Law must always be favourably interpreted And that the sick may be at liberty to speak their thoughts their Friends and Relations must be put out of sight By this excellent Construction of the Arrest they get the sick person into their hands force the Husband from the bed of his Wife and the Wife out of the Arms of her Husband the Child from his dying Father and the Father from his Child Having clear'd the Room and secur'd themselves from fear of a Witness they promise they threaten they frighten a dying wretch and load him with injuries they take advantage of the disorder of his faculties occasion'd by his sickness and the fright he is in to see so many new Faces about his Bed A word ill plac'd and unwary expression the effect of a high Feaver or Frenzy is laid hold on as sufficient ground for Mr. Curate to cry aloud Mr. or Mrs. is willing to dye a Catholick Upon this the sick person is taken into their care his Kindred and Friends remov'd from him and he made believe he is perfectly converted By this Artifice he gives up his last breath amidst Crosses and Tapers and Images and Crucifixes and other Utensils of a Church into which they say he is entred though he knows nothing of it When he is dead they bury him with like Pomp they take away his Children in their Infancy they ransack his House and leave his Family desolate Par. The Arrest neither says nor means any such matter Hug. Law I know not whether the Arrest have any such meaning Perhaps his Majesty who pass'd it had not But I am sure this was their meaning who obtain'd it It appears by their practice pretended pursuant to it Till our days a mans House was his Castle and private habitations were inviolable Sanctuaries Where every one taking care not to offend against Law had free permission to do what he pleas'd at least had the Priviledge to dye undisturb'd But now we are not allow'd to live in quiet or to dye so Our Enemies have in this particular invented a new kind of Cruelty unheard of even in the Ages of Persecution and Martyrdome If in those days men were oblig'd to live in the Emperors Religion they were permitted to dye in the Christian Can any thing be imagin'd more cruel than the usage we find A sick wretch in his last Agonies struggling with death hath need of more strength than his own to maintain the Combat The smoothest Calm and greatest Tranquility of Spirit is little enough to put him in a Condition to face those Terrors that usher in the last moment of his Life 'T is some comfort to a man in that case to breathe his last in the Arms of his Wife or Embraces of his Children They cherish and help him he gives them his blessings Amidst these mutual Offices of Charity and Tenderness all their hearts melt into Tears The one and the other desire privacy and quiet to vent their grief and give free course to their just Lamentations A Magistrate enters with all the Clergy of a Parish at his heels The House is fill'd with noise and bustle A croud presently gathers at the door and with horrid noise and prodigious outcryes grate the Ears of the dying Man At this very time and in these Circumstances he who hath scarce strength enough left to breathe out his Soul must engage in a Conflict he was hardly able to maintain when in perfect health He must answer he must study and ponder what to say he must consider how he may escape the Snares laid for him in captious and ambiguous Questions he must sustain the shock of Threats and encounter the influence and power of Authority He must for his Comfort have the patience to hear an ignorant Curate who to demonstrate our Religion false shall use no other Argument but that of repeating a hundred times in a quarter of an hour with a furious tone that if he dye in that Religion he is damn'd as a Devil instead of his dear Children and Friends he must be content to see about him a company of men whose Eyes sparkle with rage and whose Tongues if he persevere in his Religion thunder out Reproaches The Condition of a dying man ordinarily disarms the fury of an Enemy who having given the mortal Wound gives the man leave to dye in peace Are the miseries of our Life so few that we must be deny'd a quiet death You have doubtless heard what happen'd in the Fauxboarg St. Marcell since this Declaration A poor Woman being very ill through the violence of her Distemper ralk'd idle That very time the Commissioner and Priests enter her Chamber turn out her Relations and Friends who assisted her make her say what they please and go their ways to fetch the Consecrated Bread and Oyl for extreme Unction That none in their absence might get into the Chamber they lock the Door and take the Key with them The Woman in the mean time coming to her self was frightned to see a Cross standing at her Beds feet She presently guess'd what had happen'd in her Fever she rises and designing to get away runs to the Door finding it lock'd she resolves to go out at the Window too great an adventure for one in so weak a Condition Endeavouring to get down she fell from the third story and lay dead with the fall on the Pavement A more lamentable Accident could not have happen'd except that at Ville dieu a Village of Poitou some months since The Curate and Church-warden went into the House of an old Man who lay sick they turn'd his Children out of doors threatning them furiously if they came near the House they should hang for it The poor Fellows frightned with Persecutions they had already endur'd retir'd into the Woods and durst not approach the House In their absence the Persecutors teaz'd the old Man several days But he had the Sense and Courage to resist their Tentations who finding at length they could not prevail quitted him The poor man left thus without help was starv'd to death and was found dead having eaten his hands Hug. Gent. You have told your story give me leave to take my turn and acquaint you with one I heard but a few hours before I came hither In Mompellier two Maids the one sick the other in health renounc'd our Religion in one day she that was sick had done it in the height of her Fever Being come to her self and hearing what had pass'd she was so griev'd she fell again into her Frenzy and flung her self out at a Window The other who was in health had no sooner committed the fault but she repented it She
Maxims than a time when they assur'd themselves and were fully perswaded they should find a King of their Religion in the Person of his Royal Highness 'T is true the King of England hath been favourable to them in tolerating them but they were notsatisfy'd with this and having lost all hopes of prevailing with him to turn Roman Catholick they look'd upon his Life as a great Obstacle to their Designs for it made them lose time and they had reason to fear the Protestants in the interim might discover the design so that it was their interest speedily to make away a King who possess'd the place of him from whom they promis'd themselves a full re-establishment of the Roman Catholick Religion in England Recollect the Evidence add to it the Letters and Memoirs that were seiz'd and the Murder of Godfrey and I will justify it a man must have the Forehead of a Jesuit to deny there was a Plot. The Memoirs and Letters are very numerous you may read them in the printed Tryals particularly you will find a great Collection of them printed with Stafford's Tryal But pray Sir remember Coleman's Letter I spoke to you of last year that alone is enough to stop the mouths of those who dare say this Plot is an invention of the Protestants To which Calumny we will constantly oppose as an impenetrable Buckler the words of that Letter acknowledg'd by Coleman to be his We have here a mighty work upon our hands no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestilent Heresy which has domineer'd over great part of this Northern World a long time Coleman 's Tryal pag. 69. I said not a word t' you of another Letter as plain as this which you may see in Ireland's and Grove's Tryals where you will find words to this effect Every one had notice not to make too much hast to London nor to be there long before the day appointed nor to appear much in the Town before the Congregation was ended for fear of giving cause to suspect the Design This Letter doth not tell us what was the design of this famous Assembly but it lets us see they had some great design in hand and the Plot being discover'd at the same time 't is not hard to guess what it was It hath been prov'd before the House of Commons that upon the first discovery of the Plot one of the Lords accus'd to have had a hand in it writ to another of the same Lords then in Staffordshire that their designs were discover'd and that he should use his best endeavours to conceal all such their Catholick Friends as were concern'd in that affair This Letter was found by a Justice of the Peace in the house of that Lord to whom it was directed upon the search made for Arms in Roman Catholick houses and was produc'd to the Commons in Parliament with all the Witnesses to whom it was shew'd the moment it was found Hug. Law You have reason to wish Gentlemen that my Friend here had not been any better instructed than formerly in these matters but had still continued under his mistake that Oates and Bedlow had not chang'd their Religion but remain'd Roman Catholicks after the Plot discover'd for the pains he hath taken to inform himself have made him acquainted with many particulars which cannot please you since they make it clearly appear there was a Plot. Par. We might have easily known all this already being taken all out of those Tryals printed in several Languages but since you make use of them you will allow me to do so and give me leave to ask you whether the clearing of Wakeman the Queen of England's Physitian be not an evident proof that all your Witnesses are false Witnesses For they are in effect no other Oates and Bedlow charg'd Wakeman to have treated for fifteen thousand pounds for poysoning the King Here are two Witnesses enough to Condemn a Man Here is in question one of the principal Crimes laid to the charge of the pretended Conspirators their design to make away the King yet this man is acquitted by his Judges It necessarily follows your two famous Witnesses were taken for false Witnesses and if they were not to be credited against Wakeman why should they be credited against the rest Hug. Law Do not say Sir that the clearing of Sir George Wakeman is a proof of his innocence or of the falshood of the Evidence say rather that the Chief Justice who sate at that Tryal hath been since impeach'd before the Peers of England in Parliament and had the Parliament continued sitting perhaps that Judge had smarted for it The King was not very well satisfy'd of Wakeman's innocence after his Acquittal For that Poyson Merchant having had the confidence to appear at Court after his enlargement the King caus'd him to be turn'd out with shame Par. There is one thing sticks still very hard with me as to this Plot that of twelve or fifteen Persons who have been executed for the pretended Conspiracy not one confest himself guilty in the least When Men are ready to appear before God the Mask falls off it self the fear of Hell softens the hardness of their hearts You shall not see a Malefactor but discharges his Conscience at his death if some of them were hardned enough to deny to the death yet sure one or other of them would have confess'd something but there hath not been one of them who did not protest to the last he was innocent Consider after what manner dy'd Stafford and Plunket the Primate of Ireland who were Persons of Honour and Quality Hug. Law It surprizes me Sir to hear you make their obstinate Silence an Argument of their innocence every day we see Criminals who to save their Credit and have the pleasure of saying they dye innonocent resist the most violent Tortures Yet you cannot comprehend how Men who have long fortify'd their Courage and prepar'd for an Enterprize the most dangerous that may be have the power to keep till death a Secret on which depends not only their Honour but the preservation of all the Roman Catholicks in England Had they confess'd themselves Guilty they must have named their Complices and in so doing they would have destroy'd an infinite number of People and render'd their Religion abominable in the World by making it appear it inspires into its Votaries such horrible Sentiments and gives Birth to such furious designs These Considerations are of weight and strength sufficient to keep the weakest of Men from revealing a Secret of this importance When the Powder-Plot was discover'd in 1605. not one of the Conspirators confest and nothing had ever been prov'd upon them out of their own mouths had not the Judges had the ingenuity to cause Garnet and Hall to be imprison'd in two Dungeons where they could speak to one another and in the Wall between the Dungeons there was a place they plac'd