because they are to look upon it as the Mother Church of all those which by a purer Reformation are distinguished from the Lutherans And History informs us that from France the Reformation was brought into the Netherlands and from thence into the United-Provinces where it got the upper hand The defection of Henry the VIII from the Pope made way for it in England where it made some progress under Edward the VI which was soon ruined by the Persecution under Queen Mary In the mean while the Church of France was reforming and setling her self in the midst of Fire and Faggots she held her first National Synod under the Reign of Henry the II a great Persecutor and the most Absolute King that ever was in France till the King now reigning And since it is very true that the Blood of Martyrs is the seed of the Church all the Western Churches must needs confess that those of France have laid on them such an Obligation as can never be enough acknowledged for they have afforded an infinite number of Martyrs they have had Rivers of Blood shed in the Massacres committed on them both in the last and this present Age and lived all along under the Cross insomuch as all the Sufferings of all other Churches are but little in comparison with those of the Protestant Church in France she is the only Church which hath maintained her self in the midst of Torments and been continually fruitful both of great Men and great Examples and therefore all other Reformed Churches though under whatever different kinds of Ecclesiastical Government cannot plead any Exemption from acknowledging their Obligation to the French Church which hath been either their Mother or at least their Predecessor and consequently they cannot excuse themselves from doing all that lies in their power both for its Preservation and Comfort The most proper Means in our Opinion to be made use of at the present are to undeceive her of that erroneous and groundless Conceit taken up by her that she is quite forsaken There are still sufficient Arguments remaining to convince her that though hitherto she hath not been effectually relieved yet at least a good will to do it has not been wanting There is nothing in the World can so much discourage our suffering Brethren as the Opinion that no body will stir any more in their behalf This the Persecutors now labour to make them believe But the Protestant Princes and States are necessarily obliged to let them see the contrary Not by taking up Arms for the Wars being swayed by Humane motives only are not in all probability the Means designed by God's Providence for the restauration of his Church Perhaps God Almighty will in a short time reveal unto us what he intends to do towards the fulfilling of his purposes in the mean time 't is our Duty first to turn to the Lord with all our Hearts of which I shall Treat more fully hereafter and secondly to stir up our Charity afresh of which we must speak a Word or two and so conclude The Reformed in France have been so much cast down and dispirited to see themselves excluded from the benefit of the Peace that nothing can less raise their Courage than such extraordinary efforts of Charity as we saw immediately after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes all the Protestant Princes and States did in that Juncture open both their Gates and the Bowels of their Mercy to those distressed People who in great multitudes quitted their own Habitations just as we used to do an Enemy's Country They collected great Sums of Money for them set up Manufactures to help the Tradesmen to a Livelihood and settled yearly Pensions upon Persons of Quality Particularly the most Serene the Elector of Brandenburg of Blessed Memory and his most Religious Son now Reigning have signalized their Charity in an extraordinary manner not only by the Colonies they have Establish'd in the chief Towns of their Dominions but chiefly by the Pensions they have allowed all Ages Sexes and Conditions and that with so great a liberality as one would think might have lain very heavy upon their Exchequer But since it hath not proved so 't is an undeniable Instance of the greatness of their Revenues and Power as well as of their Charity We shall only add this that unless the same Zeal be now re-kindled the Truth and the Defenders of it will suffer mightily for the Miseries and the Necessities of the Protestants are now much greater than they were at that time The most of them when they made their escape from France had saved some part of their Effects and lived upon them for ten or twelve years and waited patiently in hope that the War and the Peace following would better their condition but now they have spent all and have not so much left them as a glimpse of Hope So that we see the old Refugees lying under so great extremity as they must of necessity perish if not speedily supplied with Necessaries by the Charity of the Protestant States But what shall we say of those who still live under the pressure of their Sufferings who groan and long for an opportunity of setting themselves at liberty The fear of starving puts a stop to them for this is one of the greatest Temptations one can be exposed to and there are but few able to cope with this Idea of the utmost Poverty Notwithstanding a great many do come every day out of France and we are told by them that there are thousands who have a mind to follow them as soon as they hear that the Protestant's Charity is grown as liberal as formerly and therefore we do earnestly intreat and beg all Princes and States and all private Men whom God Almighty hath blessed with Ability to be willing and ready to relieve these distressed Brethren who groan under the heavy burden of Christ's Cross These new Refugees by their flight will compleat the depopulation of that Kingdom which is already weakned by so many publick Calamities and continue to bring their Money Industry Arts and Trades into these Countreys whereinto they will retire and fill up the places of those Inhabitants the War hath taken away We easily believe that our Complaints and Prayers will not reach the Ears of those whom we do chiefly intend to persuade But at last having done what lies in our power God Almighty out of his Gracious Goodness will perform the rest and move the Heart of those from whom we may receive any Comfort and Relief LETTER III. Containing some Directions for the Protestants Behaviour towards their Persecutors and for their Resignation to the Will of God who will not permit the total ruine of the Reformation in France The Necessity of keeping up their Common Assemblies and their Duty of Watching carefully over their Children who are daily taken from them With a Form of Prayer for the Afflicted Church WE now proceed to the Advices we promised you about
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
Punishment lesser than the Wheel and Gibbet But this is certain that all Europe stood amazed at that Clause 'T is easie to discern that both Declarations have a double end First To deprive the new Converts of the Means of receiving any Comfort or Instruction And Secondly To ruine the poor Inhabitants of Orange the sad Remains of a Barbarous Persecution Since they were not dispatched by the Blows of the Dragoons who forced them to Mass their Punishment now must be to Starve by being bebarred of all Commerce with their Neighbours This is sufficient to undeceive those who believe the King of England Soveraign of Orange hath not done what he could to break off the Yoke of the Reformed in France he who could not continue Master in his own Dominions would have had much ado to make himself Master in the Territories of such a Neighbour Here is another Particular The Zeal make they King Lewis the XIV say we have constantly had for the only and true Religion having excited in us the desire of suppressing Heresy This is a new way of Expressing ones self in all the Declarations and Decrees formerly published against us they were pleased to design us by the Name of R. P. R. that is Pretended Reformed Religion but now this Religion is improved to an Heresie even in the Declarations set out against the Protestant Princes to whom they should be more Civil than they are to Subjects The Declaration is issued out under what Title soever you please but really and defacto against the Sovereign of Orange who is not at all subject to the French King They make no scruple to declare him an Heretick and his Religion a Heresie both at Rome and wheresoever the Bull of Caena Domini is publish'd and in France where the Decisions of the Council of Constance one whereof is That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks are so much reverenced any body may easily understand the Consequences of such a Declaration in respect to the King of England but 't is very well for this Prince that he is not liable to the Inquisition and God hath put him in a Capacity of being able to deal well enough with all those who will not perform what they have promised to him Here is another Clause at which Judicious Men have been mightily surprised As all our Desires had no other Aim but the Glory of God and the maintaining of his Church he has been pleasâ—d to bless them hitherto with all the success we could wish and we were extreamly pleased to see that even the greatest part of those whose Conversion lookt the most suspicious have acknowledged and sincâ—rely profâ—ssed the true Religion but as there still remains some c. 'T is not a Matter of great Wonder to see a King lying under so gross an Ignorance since they have raised so many Rampiers and Bulwarks about him on purpose to hinder thereby all the Truths of De jure and De facto all the Instructions Complaints Grievances and all the Objects capable of conveying Light into the Mind and Equity into the Heart from having access unto him but one cannot forbear being astonished at the boldness of those who impose upon that Prince's Credulity it is so far from being true that the most part of the Reformed are termed Papists bona fide that on the contrary the number of those who have been misled and continue in the Romish Religion by some slender degree of persuasion is so small that not one in a hundred and perhaps in a thousand could be found There are some Women and young Girles who although of the Protestant Religion were filled with a sort of a Whimsical and Blind Devotion proceeding rather from the weakness of their Understanding than the tenderness of their Consciences These poor Creatures have let themselves be deceived by the Pompous outside of the Romish Religion and by the shews of Piety which are to be seen chiefly in Nunneries but these being excepted we can assure you that all Wise Ingenuous and Judicious Men are still of the same Opinion only that their aversion against Popery is mightily increased since the time they see it under the Garb of the Dragon If there are no Protestants left but a few obstinate People why then is so much care taken before-hand against so small a number Why then did so many Frenchmen say both in Holland and Paris that if some Course or other was not taken about it all the Countrey of Orange would become a Town as big as the Principality it self Why have the Neighbouring People of Orange been so easily persuaded that Poperty was the true Religion and the Inhabitants of that Place bewitched with such an unbelief as to hold out for the space of 10 or 12 years against any Instruction and Persecution whatsoever in so much as they returned as soon as possibly they could to the Reformed Religion The Bishop of Orange and his Clergy are indeed Bunglers in Comparison with the Bishops of Montpellier and Nismes c. who made so many sincere Converts One must confess that such oversights afford those who suffer Persecution some little satisfaction and a kind of revenge If it be so that the number of stubborn People be so inconsiderable to what purpose then do they take so great a care to shut up the Gates of the Kingdom Why then do they see yet Four or five thousand of the Reformed at once meeting in one single Precinct of it It were to be wished that the Most Christian King would get better information in this Matter for then he would not suffer himself to be so exposed as he is in this Declaration and in that of February the 10th the Title whereof is this The Kings Declaration giving leave to those who are gone out of the Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Command to return within six months upon Condition of Professing and Exercising the Religion of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church wherein they set forth that a great number of those who were so unhappy as to be gone into Foreign Dominions notwithstanding all the prohibition to the contrary have desired to return into their own Country to profess the C. A. R. R. and that we out of our accustomed Goodness to all our Subjects have granted them particular Licenses so to do and have been also graciously pleased to grant a general one to all others who desire the favour What Equity can one expect I pray from a Council who hath either so bad Intelligence or so little Fidelity They make the King believe and say a great number of those who departed the Kingdom for the sake of Religion desire to return to Mass than which nothing was ever more false with respect to his Majesty be it spoken into whose Mouth these Impostors have put these Words True it is that those who are called Refugees did endeavour to get Liberty to return into France and withdraw their Effects from thence