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A25703 An apology for the Protestants of France, in reference to the persecutions they are under at this day in six letters.; Apologie pour les Protestans. English. L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704. 1683 (1683) Wing A3555A; ESTC R12993 127,092 130

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been made Papists If they dealt with them so then before the Declaration what will they not do when they see themselves supported and armed with Royal Authority But there is no need I should insist farther on the dreadful Consequences of this Declaration It hath been lately Printed in our Language and Notes made upon it wherein nothing hath been forgotten The Book is written impartially tho I can scarce believe what is express'd in the Title Page that it was written in French however some Gallicisms are put in to make you believe it but the Protestants of that Nation are not us'd to such bold Expr●ssions upon such kind of Subjects and I doubt much whether they could do it If they have reason to fear for the birth and for the tender years of their Children they have no less for themselves Here is a proof of it It is the Declaration of the 19th of November 1680 By which it is ordained That whenever they are sick they shall suffer themselves to be visited by the Papist Magistrates Thus having made their lives burdensome to them they take a thousand ways to torment them in their Beds as soon as any Disease hath seised them It is not henceforth permitted to them either to be sick or die in peace Under colour of this Declaration they are persecuted and all means are tryed to shake their Faith under the pretence of being ask'd what Religion they will die in First a Judge presents himself with the awe of his presence accompanied by one of the King's Sollicitors and two Papist Witnesses They begin their Work by driving all Protestants who are with the sick man out of his Chamber Father Mother Wife Husband Children none are excepted After that they do with the sick person as they list they draw up a Verbal Process or such as they like Lies with them are but pious Frauds Whatsoever the sick man answers he hath still abjur'd if these Gentlemen please to make a conversion of it and there is no possibility of disproving it The Verbal Process is drawn up in good Form If the sick man recovers and refuses to go to Mass immediately he is subject to all the penalties of a Relapse If he dies and chances to be the Father of a Family they take away all his Children to breed them up in the Popish Religion and his Estate to preserve it as they pretend for the Children of a Catholick Father Can any one who hath any care of his own salvation or any affection for his Children live expos'd to such dreadful Inconveniences if God offers any means to avoid them I am afraid I tire you with the Recital of so many Calamities Fear not that answered I I am resolv'd to know all You do not consider what you say replyed he I should need whole weeks to tell you all Imagine all the Suprises all the indirect practices all the base tricks of Insinuation and little quirks of Law are put in ure together with all manner of violence to accomplish the Work Neither do those Enemies of the Protestants always neglect the Oracles of the Scripture It says I will smite the Shepherd and the Sheep of the Flock shall be scattered These Gentlemen then that they may the more easily scatter the Sheep smite every where the Shepherd and constrain them to fly They imprison one for having by the Word of God confirm'd some of his Flock whom the Popish Doctors would pervert another for being converted to the Protestant Religion in his youth long before any Law was made against pretended Apostates They hire forlorn Wretches to go to the Sermons of the Protestant Ministers and to depose before a Magistrate that the Ministers said that the Church of Rome was idolatrous or that the Faithful are persecuted that they spake ill of the Virgin Mary or of the King Upon this without being heard and tho it be offered to be made out by the Deposition of an infinity almost of persons of credit that the testimonies of these two or three Wretches are absolutely false Orders are issued out for the seising the Bodies of the Ministers They are clap'd in Jayl as soon as taken they are condemn'd to pay excessive Fines they force them to make the Amende Honorable they banish them the Kingdom The Intendant of Rochefort suppress'd one there upon the most extravagant Deposition that was ever taken The Deponent having been at the Sermon of that Minister said That there was nothing to be found fault with in his words but that he perceiv'd his thoughts were not innocent If there are any amongst them so happy as to consound so the false Witnesses that the Judges are asham'd to use all those rigors none of the Charges of Imprisonment or of the Suit are ever recovered against any one A Minister who may have sixty or seventy pounds a year and seven or eight in Family to maintain must be condemn'd with all his innocence to pay all these great costs I could upon this Head tell you a hundred Stories but that it would be too tedious I have met both at Paris and in other Provinces many of these persecuted Ministers who acquainted me with their Adventures Germany Holland and Switzerland are full of them and I am told there are some of them here in England Their absence from their Flocks is but too good a proof how hot the persecution is against them And so let 's go on You may remember that the Edict of Nantes judg'd it necessary for the preservation of the Estates and Credit of the protestants and for the safety of their Lives to erect Tribunals where supreme Justice might be administred by Judges of the one and of the other Religion But all these Tribunals are suppress'd namely the Chambers of the Edict of Paris and of Rouen It is some years since the Chambres Miparties were suppress'd by the Delaration of Iuly 1679 so that here is their Fortunes their Credit their Lives all at the mercy of their sworn Enemies For you have not forgot that the King of France acknowledges in one of his Declarations that the Papists have always hated the persons of the Protestants Judge then if it be safe for them to stay longer in such a Kingdom But there is no method proper to ruine them which is not made use of that if one fails another may be sure to take Synods and Conferences are absolutely necessary for the Admission of their Ministers for the Correction of Scandals for the preservation of Peace in their Congregations for the subsistence of their Colleges and for the support and exercise of their Discipline At first they kept them with all sort of Liberty Under Lewis the Thirteenth they thought fit to forbid them to hold any Synod unless some Protestant Commissary who was to be named by the Court were present This was observed till the year 1679 when a Declaration was publish'd requiring that there should be a Papist Commissary in their Synods