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A85865
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A true relation of what hath been transacted in behalf of those of the reformed religion, during the treaty of peace at Reswick With an account of the present persecution in France.
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Gaujac, Peter Gally de.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing G374; ESTC R230535
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61,066
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68
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Intendants and to so many Eye-Witnesses as we have upon the respective Places We cannot insist any longer on such sad and doleful Particulars and therefore we have but just touched upon them but this short glance is enough for our purpose to stir up the Compassion of all Protestants Now the Compassion we desire is not such as consists in Words and Complaints much less in Expressions as evaporate only in Reproaches and have no real Effect 'T is properly Assistance and Relief we beg for the Afflicted Church and that not for the French Church only but also for all the Protestant Churches of Europe which are now more fiercely attack'd than ever they have been since the Reformation No sooner were they born but there was a Conspiracy to stiffle them in the Cradle and in order thereto the Antichristian Rome became every where a Boutefeu increased the Cruelties of the Inquisition set up Gibbets kindled Fires in Spain Germany England and France many Rivers of Blood and many horrid Massacres in France and in the Netherlands under the Reigns of Francis I. Hâ—nry II. Charles IX and Henry III. all French Kings and of Philip II. King of Spain In the beginning of this Age the Protestant Church sound some protection and enjoyed some ease whereby she recovered strength but we must also confess that she degenerated very much during the time of her tranquility God Almighty therefore being justly provoked by our Iniquities and Contempt of his Truth hath about the middle of this last Age raised up three Princes great Persecutors of his Church viz. Leopold Emperor of Germany and King of Hungaria Lewis the XIV and James the II. There is no question to be made but that the destruction of the Protestant Church was resolved upon by these three Princes The natural and we may say irreconcilable Enmity between the two Families of France and Austria is no hindrance to such an Agreement because Popery hath contrived a way for its own preservation which no other Religion can have and the Protestants are wholly deprived of that is the Bishop of Rome the Center of a Temporal Union The several and distinct parts united to that Center need not hold any Correspondence to adjust their Designs they are joined to a common Head and have nothing else to do but to follow its Motions even at that very time when they are the most divided by their Temporal Interests The Emperor began the Persecution He put the Churches of Hungaria and Silesia to incredible Sufferings The Publick hath seen the History of that Persecution and chiefly the Relation of the Calamities of those Glorious Confessors who were sent to the Galleys of Naples and released by the means of the Dutch Lewis the XIV immediately after the Pyrenâ—an Treaty formed the Design of rooting the Protestant Religion out of his Dominions This Undertaking he durst not attempt during the Life of Cromwell who was indeed an Usurper and a Parricide too if you will but who for all that perfectly understood that the true Interest of England and of the Rulers of it consisted in becoming the Head and Protectors of all the Protestants in Europe This was his Masterpiece of Policy whereby be kept all Europe in awe After his Death Charles the II. was re-established on the Throne of his Ancestors This Prince being Educated by a Popish Mother in Popish Courts was in his youth prepossessed against the Protestant Relâ—gion and many Heresies increased in his Reign James the II. succeeded him and it was chiefly between this Prince and the French King that the Measures for the ruine of the Protestant Religion were concerted No sooner did the French Court see him on the Throne but she resolved to give the fatal Blow K. Charles died in February and K. James was at the same time proclaimed King His Advancement to the Crown was more firmly Establish'd by the Death of the Duke of Monmouth in England and that of the Earl of Argyle in Scotland The Edict of Nantes was recall'd in October the same year and every body knows what hath been done since King James though he was influenced by the same Jesuitical Spirit which swayed in both Courts could not however go on so fast as Lewis the XIV and yet nevertheless he had in three years time promoted his Religion more than Lewis had in thirty five when unexpectedly it pleased God Almighty by a Revolution which surprised all Europe to advance William the III. to the Throne of England and by that means to make the greatest part of the Designs of that Antichristian League to prove abortive These short and cursory Observations have no other Aim but to make the Protestant Princes sensible that there is a Plot on foot for their ruine The last Treaty of Peace with the Emperor confirms this truth for by a mutual Agreement with the Emperor's Plenipotentiaries they have inserted an Article whereby the Protestant Princes of Germany are deprived of the Authority of regulating Ecclesiastical Affairs in their own Dominions which had been formerly granted them by the Peace of Passaw and the Treaty of Osnabruck Nay they are constrained to tolerate the Publick Service of the Romish Religion in all the Countreys lately conquered and now restored by France True it is that these Protestant Princes have opposed it but their Oppositions are but bare Protestations which will always prove insignificant if not supported by other Means more effectual The Popish League will every day get strength and the Protestant Party decline now in one place now in another and shall we stand still unconcerned and see to the reproach of our Profession the ruine of the only pure Christianity which hath cost us the best of our Blood If they do not awake and exert themselves in the present Circumstances the Wrath of God will not fail to awake against so heinous a Neglect We will not presume to prescribe the Means proper to prevent the Consequence of the League since they are obvious to every body It will be enough for us to say that it is high time to think on 't and that e're it be long the Disease will be past Remedy The great Revolution in Europe which now seems near at hand by the Death of a King leaving no Issue to succeed him in his vast Dominions will give a fair opportunity to take the fittest Measures for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion For whilst these two great Adversaries of ours shall be obliged to employ themselves in deciding the greatest Controversy they have had for these two hundred years they may be prevailed upon to let fall their Persecution and then the Reformation if powerfully assisted may be able to gain ground upon the Common Enemy In this general Design of protecting and promoting the Reformation upon which Popery hath in this Age so much incroach'd the Princes and People concerned ought in our Opinion to take a special care to preserve the Reformed Religion in France
not fit that the Protestant Princes should have no satisfaction for the Money they had advanced towards carrying on the War in which they had spent four times as much as the Roman Catholicks To the King of Spain they would have Catalonia Luxemburg Heinant and part of Flanders to be restored To the Duke of Lorrain his Dukedom To the Emperor Philipsburg and Friburg To the Prince Palatine the Palatinate To the Empire many Places upon and on this side the Rhine all this put together made up a Kingdom of Restitutions England as well as the States of Holland sued for nothing and so it was but reasonable they should procure the Protestant Religion some advantage since this was the only concern they had in the present Case It seemed to us they could oppose nothing to all this but their usual Answer viz. The impossibility of making the best of all these good Reasons in the present Juncture of Affairs To this we were sain to submit But you will see however by what we have said that we did not omit any thing necessary to perswade the Plenipotentiaries into a necessity of Negociating our Restauration When we perceived it could not go that way we were forced to have recourse to a bare Intercession and endeavoured that it should be at least powerful urgent unanimous and drawn after such a manner as might be best able to answer our End In short after many Conferences among these Gentlemen upon the Matter they agreed to Word their Intercession after the Form you may have already seen and may see here as follows Memoirs of the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the Protestant Princes in behalf of the Reformed Churches in France WE the Confederates of the Protestant Religion Considering the Calamities many of the Subjects of his Most Christian Majesty professing the same Religion with us have suffer'd and still do suffer upon the account only of serving God according to the Dictates of their Conscience A Liberty the said distressed Subjects might reasonably hope for by the Law of God by the Precepts of Charity and especially by the Laws of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty and which they are to enjoy as good and faithful Subjects who have constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereigns The said Allies moved by these Motives of Justice and Compassion are so much the more concerned for these Afflicted People by how much the more that the Miseries they suffer continuing still since the Peace has been re-establish'd might be imputed to the hatred of his Most Christian Majesty against all the Protestants in general a Consideration which would mightily disquiet the Princes of that Religion who hope by the Peace to live in Amity and keep a good Correspendence with his Most Christian Majesty and therefore it concerns them also to know what will become of so many of the said Subjects of France who have forsaken their Native Country and fled into the Dominions of the said Protestant Confederates for shelter to the end that they may incourage them after the Peace to return home if they can do it with freedom and a good Conscience Therefore the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the said Allies of the Protestant Religion having full Power to Treat about a General Peace think themselves obliged to recommend earnestly in the Name of their respective Sovereigns and Masters to their Excellencies the Embassadors of his Most Christian Majesty having also entreated his Excellency the Mediator to contribute his good Offices thereto that that Ease which this Distressed People have a long time most passionately desired be granted them and they may be re-establish'd in their Rights Immunities and Priviledges in Point of Religion in order to enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience and that those who are either in Prisons or otherwise detained be released and set at Liberty that so the said Afflicted Protestants may reap their share of the Peace which Europe is in all probability shortly to enjoy Delivered into the Hands of his Excellency the Mediator September 18. 1697. Concordare Vidi LELIENROOT It cannot be denied but these Memoirs are very Good Judicious Wise Respectful and yet very pressing as much as the Juncture of time could permit The first thing the Ministers of the Protestant Princes did was to declare That they did not look on themselves as two distinct Bodies but that they espoused the Interests of the Reformed in France as of their own Brethren They represented to the French King very nicely but yet with great plainness how much it concerned him not to reject the joint Intercession of the Protestant Princes That this great Concern of his was to give them good grounds to trust him for the future To make Peace with such powerful States as England Holland the Elector of Brandenburg the Princes of the Mighty House of Brunswick and so many Princes and Towns of Germany professing the Protestant Religion and at the same time to refuse them a thing so reasonable was to renounce all the Maxims of the best Policy and leave in Men's Minds immortal seeds of a War which will break out at the first opportunity Those who truly love the Protestant Religion will no doubt remember it and those who have no great kindness for it will not be sorry to have a Pretence ready of being angry at and revenged for those many Affronts they have received from the French Court. It was a piece of great Prudence and Wisdom of the Protestant Confederates to mention the Laws of the Kingdom of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty by Virtue whereof the Reformed are to enjoy all the Priviledges granted them as good and faithful Subjects who constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign This Clause fully answers the Objection the French had very often made unto them What authority had they to pretend that the Protestant Religion should be re-established in France seeing most part of them would not so much as tolerate the Publick Exercise of the Catholick Religion nay said they in some of the said Protestant States it was Death for one to turn Roman Catholick To this they prudently reply'd That they kept the Laws of the Kingdoms and States made either in the first Settlement or Reformation of the same but that on the contrary the Most Christian King by expelling the Reformed had broke all the Laws of his Kingdom Laws I say Fundamental Laws stiled Perpetual and Irrevocable Laws ratified in all the Supreme Courts of France received and approved by all the Orders of the State Laws renewed by all the Predecessors and Ancestors of the Prince who now sits upon the Throne and in short Laws Confirmed by his Majesty himself This Article of the Allies Demand suggests another Answer which is this The Subjects of the Most Christian King professing the Reformed Religion have all along behaved themselves as good and faithful