supposing they should change they would be but as so many secret adversaries nourished in the bosom of the Church of Rome and the more dangerous on the account of their knowledge and experience in Controversial matters This last reasoning prevailed 't was then resolved on to banish the Ministers and to give them no more than fifteen days time to depart the Kingdom As to what remained the Edict was given to the Procurer-General of the Parliament of Paris to draw it up in such a form as he should judge most fitting But before the publishing of it two things were thought necessary to be done The first to oblige the assembly of the Clergy separately to present to the King a request concerning the matter above mentioned in which also they told his Majesty that they desired not at present the repealing the Edict of Nantes and the other to suppress in general all kind of Books made by them of the Reformed Religion and to issue out an Order for that purpose By the first of these things the Clergy thought to shelter themselves from the reproaches which might be cast on them as the Authors of so many Miseries Injustices an Oppressions which this Repeal would still occasion And by the other they pretended to make the Conversions much more easie as they styled them and confirm those which had bin already made by taking from the People all Books which might Instruct fortifie and bring them back again In fine This Revocative Edict of Nantes was signed and published on Thursday being the 8th of October in the year 1685. 'T is said the Chancellor of France shewed an extream joy in Sealing it but it lasted not long this being the last thing he did For as soon as he came home from Fountainbleau he fell sick and dyed within a few days 'T is certain that this mans policy rather than his natural Inclination induced him in his latter years to become one of our Persecutors The Edict was Registred in the Parliament of Paris and immediately after in the others It contains a Preface and Twelve Articles In the Preface the King shews that Henry the Great 's Grandfather did not give the Edict and Lewis his Father did not confirm it by his other Edict of Nismes but in the design of endeavouring more effectually the re-union of their Subjects of the pretended reformed Religion to the Catholick Church and that this was also the Design which he had himself at his first coming to the Crown That 't is true he had bin hindred by the Wars which he was forced to carry on against the Enemies of his State but that at present being at Peace with all the Princes of Europe he wholly gave himself to the making of this Re-union That God having given him the Grace of accomplishing it and seeing the greatest and best part of his Subjects of the said Religion had embraced the Catholick one these Edicts of Nantes and Nismes consequently became void and useless By the first Article he suppresses and repeals them in all their extent and ordains that all their Temples which are found yet standing in his Kingdom shall be immediately demolished By the Second he forbids all sorts of Religious Assemblies of what kind soever The Third prohibits the Exercises of Religion to all Lords and Gentlemen of any Quality under Corporal Penalties and Confiscation of their Esates The Fourth banishes from his Kingdom all the Ministers and enjoins them to depart thence within Fifteen days after the publication of this Edict under the Penalty of being sent to the Gallies In the Fifth and Sixth he promises Recompences and Advantages to the Ministers and their Widows who should change their Religion In the Seventh and Eighth he forbids the Instructing of Children in the pretended reformed Religion and ordains that those who shall be born henceforward shall be baptised and brought up in the Catholick Religion enjoyning Parents to send them to the Churches under the Penalty of being fined 500 Livers The Ninth gives Four Months time to such Persons as have departed already out of the Kingdom to return otherwise their Goods and Estates to be confiscated The Tenth with repeated Prohibitions forbids all his Subjects of the said Religion to depart out of his Realm they their Wives and Children or to convey away their Effects under pain of the Gallies for the Men and of Confiscation of Body and Goods for the Women The Eleventh confirms the Declarations heretofore made against those that Relapse The Twelfth declares that as to the rest of his Subjects of the said Religion they may till God enlightens them remain in the Cities of his Kingdom Countries and Lands of his Obedience there continue their Commerce and enjoy their Estates without Trouble or Molestation upon pretence of the said Religion on condition that they have no Assemblies under pretext of Praying or exercising any religious Worship whatever In order to put this Edict in execution the very same day that it was registred and published at Paris they began to demolish the Church of Charenton The eldest Minster thereof was commanded to leave Paris within twenty four Hours and immediately to depart the Kingdom For this end they put him into the Hands of one of the Kings Footmen with orders not to leave him till he was out of his Dominions His Collegues were little better treated they gave them forty eight hours to quit Paris and then left them upon their Parole The rest of the Ministers were allowed fifteen days but it can hardly be believed to what Vexations and Cruelties they were all exposed First of all they neither permitted them to dispose of their Estates nor to carry away any of their moveables or effects nay they disputed them their Books and private Papers one pretence that they must justify their Books and Papers did not belong to the Cosistories wherein they serv'd which was a thing impossible since there were no Consistories that then remained Beside they would not give them leave to take along with them either Father or Mother or Brother or Sister or any of their Kindred though there were many of them infirm decay'd and poor which could not subsist but by their means they went so far as even to deny them their own Children if they were above seven Years Old nay some they took from them that were under that Age and even such as yet hang'd upon their Mothers Breasts They refused them Nurses for their new born Infants which the Mothers could not give Suck In some Frontier Places they stopped and imprisoned them upon divers ridiculous Pretences they must immediately prove that they were really the same Persons which their Certificates mentioned they were to know immediately whether there were no Criminal Process or Informations against them they must presently justify that they carryed away nothing that belonged to their Flocks sometime after they had thus detained and amused them they were told that the fifteen days of the Edict
were expired and that they should not have Liberty to retire but must go to the Gallies There is no kind of Deceit and Injustice which they did not think of to involve them in Troubles As to the rest whom the Force of Persecution and hard Usage constrained to leave their Houses and Estates and to fly the Kingdom it is not to be imagined what dangers they exposed them to Never were Orders more severe or more strict than those that were given against them They doubled the Guards in Posts Cities High-Ways and Foards they covered the Country with Solders they armed even the Pesants to stop those that passed or to kill them They forbad all the Officers of the Customs to suffer any Goods Moveables Marchandize or other Effects to pass In a Word they forgot nothing that could hinder the flight of the persecuted even to the interrupting almost all Commerce with Neighbouring Nations By this means they quickly filled all the Prisons in the Kingdom for the fear of the Dragoons the Horror of seeing their Consciences forced and their Children taken away and of living for the future in a Land where there was neither Justice nor Humanity for them obliged every one to think of an escape and to abandon all to save their Persons All these poor Prisoners have been since treated with unheard of Rigours shut up in Dungeons loaded with heavy Chains almost starved with Hunger and deprived of all Converse but that of their Persecutors They put many into Monasteries where they experience none of the least Cruelties Some there are so happy as to dye in the midst of their Torments others have at last sunk under the Weight of the Temptation and some by the extraordinary Assistance of Gods Grace do still sustain it with an Heroick Courage These have been the Consequences of this new Edict in this respect but who would not have believed that the Twelfth Article would have shelter'd the rest of the Reformed that had a mind still to stay in the Kingdom since this Article exprefly assures them that they may live there continue their Trade and enjoy their Estates without being troubled or molested upon pretence of their Religion Yet see what they have since done and yet do to these poor Wretches They have not recall'd the Dragoons and other Soldiers which they dispatcht into the Provinces before the Edict On the contrary they to this day commit with greater Fury the same Inhumanities which we have before represented besides this they have marched them into Provinces where there were none before as Normandy Picardy le Berry Champaigne Nivernois Orleans Belessois and the lsle of France They do the same Violence there exert the same Fury they do in other Provinces Paris it self where methinks this Article of the Edict should have been best observed because so near the Kings Presence and more immediately under the Government of the Court Paris I say was no more spared than the rest of the Kingdom The very day that the Edict was published without more delay the Procurer-General and some other Magistrates began to send for Heads of Families to come to their Houses There they declared to them that 't was absolutely the Kings Will that they should change their Religion that they were no better than the rest of his Subjects and that if they would not do it willingly the King would make use of means which he had ready to compel them At the same time they banish'd by Letters under the Privy Seal all the Elders of the Consistory together with some others in whom they found more of Constancy and Resolution and to disperse them chose such places as were most remote from Commerce where they have since used them with a great deal of Cruelty some complyed others are yet under Sufferings The diligence of the Procurer-General and Magistrates not succeeding so fully as they wish'd though Threats and Menaces were not wanting Monsieur Seignelay Secretary of State would also try what influence he could have within his Division at Paris For this end he got together about five or six score Merchants and others into his House and after having shut the doors forthwith presented them with the form of an Abjuration and commanded them in the Kings Name to sign it declaring that they should not stir out of Doors till they had obeyed The Contents of this Form were not only that they did renounce the Heresie of Calvin and enter into the Catholick Church but also that they did this voluntarily and without being forced or compelled to it This was done in an Imperious manner and with an air of Authority yet there were some that dared to speak but they were sharply answer'd That they were not to dispute it but to obey so that they all Sign'd before they went out To these Methods they added others more terrible as Prisons actually seizing of their Effects and Papers the taking away of their Children the separation of Husbands and Wives and in fine the great Method that is to say Dragoons and Guards Those that most firmly stood out they sent to the Bastile and to the Fort l'Eveque they confin'd them to their own or other Houses where they lay concealed for fear of Discovery they plunder'd those of many others not sparing their persons just as they had done in other places Thus the 12th Article of the Edict which promised some relaxation and a shadow of Liberty was nothing but an egregious deceit to amuse the credulous and keep them from thinking to make their escape a snare to catch them with the more ease The Fury still kept its usual course and was heated to such a degree that not content with the Desolations in the Kingdom it entred even into Orange a Soveraign Principality where the King of Right has no power and taking Ministers away from thence by force remov'd them into Prisons Thither the Dragoons were sent who committed all kind of mischief and by force constrained the Inhabitants thereof both Men Women and Children and the very Officers of the Prince to change their Religion And this is the state of things in the year 1685. and this is the accomplishment of the dealing which the Clergy has shewed us three years since towards the end of their Pastoral Letter You must expect mischiess more dreadful and intolerable then all those which hitherto your Revolts and Schisms have drawn down upon you And truly they have not been worse than their words There are some in the Kingdom who still continue firm and their Persecutions are still continu'd to them There are invented every day new Torments against those whom force has made to change their Religion because they are still observed to sigh and groan under their hard servitude their hearts detesting what their months have profest and their hands signed As to such that have escaped into Foreign Countreys who are at least 150000 persons their Estates are Confiscated this being all the hurt which
this means as soon as any one resolved to change his Religion they needed only to make him do it in private and to find him the next Morning in the Temple to be observed there by the Catholicks who were in their Seat Immediately Informations were made and afterwards Condemnations in all the Rigour of the Law The Roman Catholicks needed only to enter into the Temple under pretence that they had a place there and then they slipt in amongst the Croud and immediately this was a Contravention to the Declaration and an unavoidable Condemnation 'T is by this means they have destroyed an infinite number of Temples and Churches and put into Irons a great number of Innocent Ministers for Villains and false Witnesses were not wanting in this occasion All these Proceedings were so violent that they must needs make a strong Impression in the Reformists Minds whereunto these things tended And in effect there were many of them that bethought themselves of their safety by leaving the Kingdom some transported themselves into one Kingdom and some into another according as their Inclinations led them But this was what the Court never intended for more than one reason and therefore to hinder them they renewed from time to time this Decree which we have mentioned which strictly prohibited under the most severe Penalties any to depart the Kingdom without leave and to this end they strictly guarded all Passages on the Frontiers But these Precautions did not answer their Expectations and 't was better to blind the People by hopes of abating this rigorous usage at home and to this end in 1669. the King revoked several violent Decrees which produced the Effect expected For though the Judicious saw well enough that this Moderation sprang not from a good Principle and that in the Sequel the same Decrees would be put in execution yet the most part imagined they would still confine themselves within some Bounds in our regard and that they would not pass to a total Destruction We have often drawn the same Conclusions from the several Verbal Declarations which came many times from the Kings own Mouth that he pretended not to indulge us but he would do us perfect Justice and let us enjoy the benefits of the Edicts in their whole extent that he would be very glad to see all his Subjects re-united to the Catholick Religion and would for the effecting this contribute all his Power but there should be no Bloud shed during his Reign on this account nor any violence exercised These precise and re-iterated Declarations gave us hopes the King would not forget them and especially in essential matters he would let us enjoy the effects of his Bounty and Equity 'T was the more expected by a Letter he wrote to the Elector of Brandenburgh the Copies of which the Ministers of State took care to disperse through the whole Kingdom His Majesty assured him that he was well satisfyed with the Behaviour of his Protestant Subjects from whence he drew this natural Conclusion that he intended not then to destroy us To which we may add the managements used sometimes in the Council where Churches were conserved at the same time when others were crdered to be demolish'd to make the World believe they observed measures of Justice and that those which they condemned were not grounded on good Titles Sometimes they softned several too rigorous Decrees other times they seemed not to approve of the violences offered by the Intendants and Magistrates even to the giving of orders to moderate them In this manner did they hinder the execution of a Decree made in the Parliament of Rouen which enjoyned those of the Reformed Religion to fall on their Knees when they met the Sacrament Thus did they stop the prosecutions of a puny Judge of Charenton who ordered us to strike out of our Liturgy a prayer which was composed for the faithful that groaned under the Tyranny of Antichrist 'T is thus also that they did not extreamly favour another Persecution which began to come general in the Kingdom against the Ministers under pretence of obliging them to take an Oath of Allegiance wherein other Clauses were inserted contrary to what Ministers owe to their Charges and Religion 'T was thus also they suspended the execution of some Edicts which themselves had procured as well to Tax the Ministers as to oblige them to reside precisely in the place where they exercised their Ministry With the same design the Syndic's of the Clergy had the Art to let the principal Churches of the Kingdom to be at rest for many years without disturbance in their Assemblies whilst they in the mean time desolated all those in the Country They suspended also the condemnation of the Universities and reserved them for the last It was also in this view that at Court the first seemed unable to belive and at last not to approve of the excesses which one Marillac an Intendant of Poitu committed in his Province A man poor and cruel more fit to prey on the High-ways than to be Intendant of a Province though indeed they had a clause expresly to make these Expeditions But amongst all these illusions there 's none more remarkable than five or six which will not be improper here to take notice of The first was That at the very time when at the Court they issued out all the Decrees Declarations and Edicts which we have spoken of here before and which they caused to be put in execution with the greatest rigour at the same time that they interdicted their Churches demolished their Temples deprived particular persons of their Offices and Employments reduced People to Poverty and Hunger imprisoned them loaded them with Fines banish'd them and in a word ravag'd almost all the Intendants Governours Magistrates and other Officers in Paris and over all the Kingdom coolly and gravely gave out the King had not the least intention to touch the Edict of Nantes but would most Religiously observe it The second was that in the same Edict which the King publish'd to forbid Roman Catholicks to embrace the Reformed Religion which was in the year 1682. That is to say at a time when they had already greatly advanced the work of our destruction they caused a formal Clause to be inserted in these terms That he confirmed the Edict of Nantes as much as it was or should be needful The third That in the Circular Letters which the King wrote to the Bishops and Intendants to oblige them to signifie the Pastoral Advertisement of the Clergy to our Consistories he tells them in express terms That his intention was not that they should do any thing that might attempt upon what had been granted to those of the Reformed Religion by the Edicts and Declarations made in their favour The fourth That by an express Declaration publish'd about the latter end of the year 1684. the King ordained That Ministers should not remain in the same Church above the space of three
AN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS AND OPPRESSIONS OF THE Protestants IN FRANCE London Printed for J. Norris 1686. An exact account of the Cruel Oppressions and Persaecutions of the French Protestants THE Cruelties exercis'd of late on the Protestants in France do appear so detestable to all who have not divested themselves of Humanity that no wonder the Authors of them use their utmost endeavours to lessen what they cannot conceal Were not this worse than barbarous usage a project of a long contrivance a Man might for Charity 's sake suppose this their palliating it to be an acknowledgment of their own displeasure at it However their boldness is inexcusable who shall endeavour to impose on the World in matters known not by Gazetts and News-letters but by an infinite number of Fugitives of all Conditions who have nothing left but Tears and Miseries to bring along with them into foreign Nations 'T is certainly too barbarous to oppress innocent People in their own Countrey and afterwards to stifle their complaints in other places where they are driven and by this means deprive them of a compassion which the bare instincts of nature never refuse to the miserable Yet this is the course our persecutors of France have held their cruelty must be attended with Impostures that the mischiefs which they have acted may pass undiscovered I think we should be much to blame if we suffer them to go on in this second design as they have done in the first and therefore we shall choose some principal instances whereon we shall make such reflections as thereby to judge with greater evidence and exactness on the whole proceeding And as we shall offer nothing but what shall be perfectly true so we shall advance nothing in our reflections but what all the world of reasonable people will allow To begin with matters of Fact There 's no body but knows that a while after his present Majesty of France came to the Crown there arose in the Kingdom a Civil War which proved so sharp and desperate as brought the State within an hairs breadth of utter ruine 'T is also known that in the midst of all these troubles those of the Reformed Religion kept their Loyalty in so inviolable a manner and attended it with such a Zeal and extraordinary fervour that the King found himself obliged to give publick marks of it by a Declaration made at St. Germains in the year 1652. Then as well at Court as in the Field each strove to proclaim loudest the deserts of the Reformists and the Queen Mother her self readily acknowledged That they had preserved the State This is known by all but 't will hardly be believed though it be too true what our Enemies themselves an hundred times told us and which the sequel has but too shrewdly confirmed that this was precisely the principal and most essential cause of our ruine and of all the mischiefs which we have since suffered Endeavours were used to envenom all these important Services in the Kings and his Ministers minds by perswading them that if in this occasion this party could conserve the State this shewed they could likewise overthrow it should they have ranked themselves on the other side and might still do it when such alike occasion should offer it self That therefore this party must be suppressed and the good they have done no longer regarded but as an indication of the mischief which they may one day be capable of doing This Diabolical reasoning which hinders Subjects from serving their Prince to avoid drawing on themselves chastisements instead of recompences was relish'd as a piece of most refined Policy For as soon as the Kingdom was settled in Peace the design was advanced of destroying the Reformists and the better to make them comprehend that their Zeal had ruined them the Cities which had shewed most of it were first begun with Immediately then on slight pretences they fell on Rochel Montaubon and Milan three Towns where those of the Reformed Religion had most signalized themselves for the interests of the Court Rochel underwent an infinite number of prescriptions Montaubon and Milan were sackt by the Soldiers But these being but particular stroaks and meer preludes which decided nothing they tarried not long before they made appear the great and general Machius they were to use in the carrying on of their intended design to the last extremity 'T will be a difficult matter to give an exact account of these several methods For never humane malice produced such multiplicity of them every day brought forth new ones for twenty years together To take only notice of the chief of them which were First Law Suits in Courts of Justice Secondly Deprivations from all kinds of Offices and Employs and in general of all ways of subsistance Thirdly The infraction of Edicts under the notion of Explications of them Fourthly New Laws and Orders Fifthly Juggles and amusing Tricks Sixthly The animating of People and inspiring them with hatred against us These are the most considerable means which the persecuters have employed to attain their ends during several years I say during several years for what they designed being no easie matter they needed therefore time to order their Engins not to take notice of their Traverses and Interruptions by forrain Wars yet whose success have not a little contributed to encrease their Courage and confirm them in the design which they had against us The first of these means has had an infinite extent We should begin with the recital of all the Condemnations of Churches or suppressions of exercises of Religion and all the other vexations which have hapned by the establishing of Commissaries this was a Snare dexterously laid immediately after the Treaty of the Picenees the King under pretence of repairing the Edict of Nants sent them in the Provinces The Roman Catholic Commissary was every where his Majesties Intendant who was besure a fit man for the purpose armed with the Royal Authority and who was well instructed in the secret Aim The other was either some hungry Officer a Slave to the Court or some poor Gentleman who had usually neither Intelligence requisite in these sort of Affairs nor the liberty of speaking his Sentiments The Clergy had set them up He was their Ambulatory Spirit The Syndicks were received before them as formal parties in all our Affairs the assignations were given in their name the Prosecutions also and as well the Discords of the Commissaries as the Appeals from their Ordinances must be finally decided in the Kings Council Thus in general all the rights of the Churches for the exercises of Religion the burying places and all such dependancies were called into a review and consequently exposed to the fresh pursuits of the Clergy and the ill intention of the Judges In which there was not the least dram of Equity for the Edict having bin once executed according to the intention of him that made it there needed no second touches it being
years nor return to the first within the space of Twelve and that they should be thus translated from Church to Church at least twenty Leagues distant from the other supposing by a manifest consequence that his design was yet to permit the exercise of Religion to the Ministers in the Kingdom for Twelve years at least Though indeed they at that moment design'd the Revocation of the Edict and had resolved it in the Council The fifth consists in a Request presented to the King by the Assembly of the Clergy at the same time that they were drawing an Edict to revoke that of Nantes and put into the Hands of the Procurer General to frame it and in the Decree which was granted on this request the Clergy complain'd of the misrepresentations which the Ministers are wont to make of the Roman Church to which they attribute Doctrines which they do not hold and beseech his Majesty to provide against it And also expresly declared that they did not yet desire the Revocation of the Edict upon which the King by his Decree expresly forbad the Ministers to speak either good or hurt directly or indirectly of the Church of Rome in their Sermons supposing as every one may see that 't was his Intention still to let them Preach were ever such illusions known But was there ever any greater than this which they put in the very Edict we speak of The King after having cancelled and annul'd the Edict of Nantes and all that depended thereon after having interdicted for ever all publick Religious Exercises he also for ever banish'd all the Ministers from his Kingdom and expresly declares that his will is that his other Subjects who are not willing to change their Religion may remain where they are in all Liberty enjoy their Estates and live with the same Freedom as heretofore without any molestation on pretence of their Religion till it shall please God to enlighten and convert them These were Amusements and Snares to entrap them as it has since appeared and it still appears every day by the horrible usages they suffer and of which we shall speak in what follows But we shall first mention a preparatory Machin which the Persecutors have not fail'd to employ to effect their Design and which we have reckoned to be the Sixth in order It consists in disposing insensibly the People by degrees to desire our Destruction to approve of it when done and to diminish in their Mind the Horror which naturally they must have at the Cruelties and Injustices of our Persecutors Contrivances For this parpose several means have been used and the commonest have been the Sermons of the Missionaries and other Controversial Preachers with which the Kingdom has been for some years stockt under the Title of Royal Missions There were fitting Youths chosen for this purpose who had such an Education given them which was so far from making them Moderate as rather enflamed them so that 't is easy to comprehend what Actors these are when they not only found themselves upheld but saw themselves moreover set on and had express Orders to inspire their Hearers with Choler And so well did they acquit themselves herein that 't was not their fault if Popular Emotions have not followed thereon in great Cities yea in Paris it self had not the Prudence of the Magistrates hindred them To the Preachers we must join the Confessors and Directors of Mens Consciences the Monks the Curates and in general all the Ecclesiasticks from the highest to the lowest for they being not ignorant of the Courts Intention in this matter every one strove to shew most Zeal and Aversion to the Reformed Religion because every one found his Interest lay therein this being the only way to raise and establish his Fortune In this design of animating the People there past few days wherein the Streets did not ring as well with the publication of Decrees Edicts and Declarations against the Protestants as also with Satyrical and Seditious Libels of which the People in the Towns of France are very greedy But these things served only for the meaner sort of People and the Persecutors had this Mortification to see this Design disapproved by all those who were a degree above the Mobile Wherefore they employed the Pens of some of their Authors who had acquired any Reputation in the World and amongst others that of the Author of the History of Theodosius the Great and that of Mr. Maimburg heretofore a Jesuite He publish'd his History of Calvinism of which he has since had the leasure to repent by the smart and pertinent Answers which have been given him Their Example has been followed by several others and Monsieur Arnaud who will always make one in these matters would not deny himself the satisfaction of venting his Choler and at the same time endeavour to recover the Favour he has lost at Court But although his Apology for the Catholicks was a Work as full of Fire and Passion as the Bigots themselves could Wish yet 't was not agreeable because his person was not he was so ill gratified for it that he complained thereof to the Arch-Bishop of Rheims in a Letter the Copies whereof were dispersed over all Paris Amongst other things he exaggerated his Misfortune and compared himself with another who for much less Services received Twenty Thousand Livers as a Reward from the King This more and more shewed the Character of the Person However they needed not him not wanting violent Writers amongst whom we must not forget one Mr. Soulier formerly as they say a Taylor and at present Author of the History of the Edicts â—f Pacification nor Mr. Nicole once a great Jansenist and now a Proselyte of the Archbishops of Paris Author of the Book entituled Protestants convinced of Schism nor the Author of the Journal des Scavants who in his ordinary Gazets highly affirms That the Catholick Faith must be planted by Fire and Sword alledging for the proof thereof a King of Norway who converted the Nobles of his country by threatning them To stay their Children before their Eyes if they would not consent to have them baptized and to be baptized themselves For a long time we have seen in Paris and elsewhere nothing but such sort of Writings to such a height was Passion come Whilst all these things which we have here observed were done in France they by great steps advanced to their end 'T is not to be imagined the Reformed neglected their common Interests or did not all that respected a just and lawful Defence They frequently sent from the furthest Provinces their Deputies to the Court They maintained their Rights before the Council Thither they brought their Complaints from all parts They employed their Deputy General to solicit their Interests as well with the Judges and Ministers of State as with the King himself Sometimes also they presented general Addresses in which they exposed their Grievances with all the Humility and Deference that
Subjects owe their Soveraigns But they were so far from being heard that their Troubles were still encreased and their Second Condition became worse than the First The last Petition presented to the King himself by the Deputy General in March 1684. was exprest in Terms most submissive and most capable of moving Pity as every one may judge having been since Printed and yet it produced no other Fruit but the hastning of what they had long resolved namely to use open Force to accomplish our Ruine This was effectually done some Months after and executed in a manner so terrible and violent that as we said in the beginning there are few in Europe how distant soever from the notice of the common Accidents of the World who have not heard the Report of it but 't is certain the Circumstances are not known to all and therefore we shall give an account of them in few Words if it be but to stop the Mouth of their Impudence who publisht abroad That no Violences have been offered in France and the Conversions there made were with free Consent At first they took this Measure to quarter Soldiers in all their Provinces almost at the same time and chiefly Dragoons which are the most Resolute Troops of the Kingdom Terror and Dread marched before them and as it were by consent all France was filled with this News That the King would not longer suffer any Hugonots in his Kingdom and that they must resolve to change their Religion nothing being able to keep them from it They began with Bearn where the Dragoons did their first Executions these were followed soon after in High and Low Guienne Xantoigne Aunix Poitu High Languedoc Vivarets and Dauphine after which they came to Lionois Gevennes Low Languedoc Provence Valeës and the Country of Geix afterwards they fell on the rest of the Kingdom Normandy Bourgoigne Nivernoix and Berry the Countries of Orleans Tourain Anjou Britany Champagne Picardy and the Isle of France not excluding Paris it self which underwent the same Fate the first thing the Intendants were ordered to do was to summon the Cities and Commonalties They assembled the Inhabitants thereof who profest the Reformed Religion and there told them 't was the King's Pleasure they should without delay become Catholics and if they would not do it freely they would make them do it by force The poor People surprised with such a Proposal answered They were ready to sacrifice their Estates and Lives to the King but their Consciences being Gods they could not in that manner dispose of them There needed no more to make them immediately bring the Dragoons which were not far off The Troops immediately seized on the Gates and Avenues of the Cities they placed Guards in all the Passages and often came with their Swords in their Hands crying Kill Kill or else be Catholics they were quartered on the Reformists at Discretion with a strict Charge that none should depart out of their Houses nor conceal any of their Goods or Effects on great Penalties even on the Catholics that should receive or assist them in any manner The first days were spent in consuming all Provisions the House afforded and taking from them whatever they could see Money Rings Jewels and in general whatsoever was of value After this the pillaged the Family and invited not only the Catholics of the place but also those of the Neighbouring Cities and Towns to come and buy the Goods and other things which would yield Money Afterwards they fell on their Persons and there 's no Wickedness or Horror which they did not put in practise to force them to change their Religion Amidst a thousand hideous Cries and a thousand Blasphemies they hung Men and Women by the Hair or Feet on the Roofs of the Chamber or Chimney Hooks and smoakt them with Whisps of wet Hay till they were no longer able to bear it and when they had taken them down if they would not sing they hung them up immediately again They threw them into great Fires kindled on purpose and pulled them not out till they were half Roasted They tyed Ropes under their Arms and plunged them to and again into Wells from whence they would not take them till they had promised to change their Religion They tyed them as they do Criminals put to the question and in this posture with a Funnel fill'd with Wine poured it down their Throats till the Fumes of it depriving them of their Reason they made them say they would consent to be Catholics They stript them naked and after having offered them a 1000 infamous Indignities they stuck them with Pins from the top to the bottom They cut them with Penknifes and sometimes with red hot Pincers took them by the Nose and dragged them about their Rooms till they promised to become Catholics or that the Cries of these poor Wretches that in this Condition call'd on God for their Assistance constrained them to let them go They beat them with Staves and dragged them all bruised to the Churches where their bare forced Presance was accounted for an Abjuration They held them from sleeping seven or eight Days relieving one another to watch them Night and Day and keept them waking They threw Buckets of Water on their Faces and tormented them a 1000 ways holding over their Heads Kettles turned downwards whereon they made a continual Noise till these poor Creatures had even lost their Sences If they found any sick either Men or Women that kept their Beds distempered with Fevers or other Diseases they had the Cruelty to bring twelve Drums sounding an Alarm about their Beds for whole Weeks together without Intermission till they had promised they would change It hapned in some places that they tyed Fathers and Husbands to the Bed-Posts and before their Eyes forced their Wives and Daughters In another place Rapes were publickly and generally permitted for many Hours together They pluckt off the Nails from the Hands and Toes of others which could not be endured without intollerable Pain They burnt the Feet of others They blew up Men and Women with Bellows even till they were ready to burst If after these horrid usages there were yet any that refused to turn they imprisoned them and for this chose Dungeons dark and noysom in which they exercised on them all sorts of Inhumanity In the mean time they demolished their Houses desolated their Hereditary Lands cut down their Woods and seized their Wives and Children to imprison them in Monasteries When the Souldiers had devoured and consumed all in a House the Farmers of their Lands furnisht them with Subsistance and to re-imburse them they sold by Authority of Justice the Fonds of their Hosts and put them in possession thereof If some to secure their Consciences and to escape the Tyranny of these Furious Men endeavoured to save themselves by Flight they were pursued and hunted in the Fields and Woods and were shot at like Wild Beasts The Provosts rode
about the High-ways and the Magistrates of places had orders to stop them without exception They brought them back to the places from whence they fled using them like Prisoners of War But we must not fancy that this Storm fell only on the common Sort Noblemen and Gentlemen of the best Quality were not exempted from it They had Soldiers quartered upon them in the same manner and with the same Fury as Citizens and Peasants had They plundred their Houses wasted their Goods rased their Castles cut down their Woods and their very Persons were exposed to the Insolence and Barbarity of the Dragoons no less than those of others They spared neither Sex Age nor Quality wherever they found any unwillingness to obey the command of changing their Religion they practised the same Violences There were still remaining some Officers of Parliament which underwent the same fate after having been first deprived of their Offices and even the Military Officers who were actually in Service were ordered to quit their Post and Quarters and repair immediately to their Houses there to suffer the like Storm if to avoid it they would not become Catholics Many Gentlemen and other Persons of Quality and many Ladies of great Age and antient Families seeing all these Outrages hoped to find some retreat in Paris or at the Court not imagining the Dragoons would come to seek them so near the Kings Presence but this hope was no less vain than all the rest for immediately there was a Decree of Council which commanded them to leave Paris in Fifteen days and return without delay to their own Houses with a prohibition to all Persons to entertain or lodge them in their Houses Some having attempted to present Adresses to the King containing Complaints of these cruel Usages humbly beseeching his Majesty to stop the course thereof received no other Answer than that of sending them to the Bastile Before we proceed any further 't will not be a miss to make some Remarks The first shall be that almost every where at the Head of these Infernal Legions besides the Commanders and Military Officers the Intendants also and the Bishops marched every one in his Diocess with a Troop of Missionaries Monks and other Ecclesiasticks The Intendants gave such Order as they thought most fitting to carry on Conversions and restrain natural Pity and Compassion if at any time it found a place in the Hearts of Dragoons or their Commanders which did not often happen And as for the Bishops they were there to keep open House to receive Abjurations and to have a general and severe Inspection that every thing might pass there according to the Inten 〈…〉 on s of the Clergy The second thing observable is That when the Dragoons had made some to yield by all the Horrors which they practised they immediately changed their Quarters and sent them to those who still persevered This Order was observed in this manner even to the end insomuch that the last that is to say those who had shewed the greatest Constancy had in fine quartered on them alone all the Dragoons which at the beginning were equally dispers'd amonst the Inhabitants of the place which was a load impossible to be sustained A Third Remark which we shall make is That in almost all the considerable Cities they took care before they sent Troops thither to gain by mean of the Intendants or some other private way a certain number of People not only to change their Religion themselves when it should be seasonable but also to assist them in perverting others So that when the Dragoons had sufficiently done their part the Intendant with the Bishop and the Commander of the Forces again assembled these miserable Inhabitant already ruined to exhort them to obey the King and become Catholics adding thereto most terrible Threats that they might over-awe them and then the new Converts failed not to execute what they had promised which they did with the more success because the People did yet put some kind of Confidence in them A fourth Observation is that when the Master of the House thinking to get rid of the Dragoons had obeyed and signed what they would he was not freed from them for all this if his Wife Children and the meanest of his Domesticks did not do the same thing and when his Wife or any of his Children or Family fled they ceased not to torment them till he had made them return which oftentimes being impossible the change of their Religion did not at all avail them The Fifth is That when these poor wretches fancied their Consciences would be at rest by signing some form of an Equivocal Abjuration offered them a little while after these cruel men came to them again and made them sign another which plunged them into such depths as cast them into the utmost despair Nay farther they had the boldness to make them acknowledge That they embraced the Roman Religion of their own accord without having bin induced thereunto by any violent means If after this they scrupled to go to Mass if they did not Communicate if they did not tell their Beads if by a sigh escaped from them they signified any unwillingness they had immediately a Fine laid upon them and they were forced to receive again their old guests In fine for a sixth remark As fast as the Troops ravaged in this manner the Provinces spreading terror and desolation in all parts Orders were sent to all the Frontier Countries and Sea-port Towns to guard well the passages and stop all such who pretended to escape from France So that there was no hope of these poor wretches saving themselves by flight None were permitted to pass if he brought not along with him a Certificate from his Bishop or Curate that he was a Catholick others were put in Prison and used like Traytors against their Country All strange Vessels lying in the Ports were searched the Coasts Bridges Passages to Rivers and the High-ways were strictly guarded both night and day The Neighbouring States were also required not to harbour any more Fugitives and to send back again such as they had already received Attempts were also mad to seise on and carry away some who had escaped into Foreign Countries Whilst all this was acting in the Kingdom the Court were consulting to give the last stroak which consisted in repealing the Edict of Nantes much time was spent in drawing up the matter and form of this new Edict Some would have the King detain all the Ministers and force them as they did the Laity to change their Religion or condemn them to perpetual Imprisonment They alledged for their reason that if they did not do it they would be as so many dangerous Enemies against them in Foreign Nations Others on the contrary affirmed that as long as the Ministers continued in France this their presence would encourage the People to abide in their Religion whatsoever care might be taken to hinder them and that
will and pleasure What a falser Notion of Glory could they offer him than the putting him in the place of God making the Faith and Religion of Men to depend upon his Authority and that hence forward it must be said in his Kingdom I don't believe because I am perswaded of it but I believe because the King would have me do it which to speak properly is that I believe nothing and that I 'le be a Turk or a Jew or whatever the King pleases What falser Idea of Glory then to force from Mens Mouths by Violence and a long Series of Torments a Profession which the Heart abhors and for which one sighs night and day crying continually to God for Mercy What Glory is there in inventing new ways of Persecutions unknown to former Ages which indeed do not bring Death along with them but keep Men alive to suffer that they may overcome their Patience and Constancy by Cruelties which are above Humane Strength to undergo What Glory is there in not contenting themselves to force those who remain in his Kingdom but to forbid them to leave it and keep them under a double Servitude viz. both of Soul and Body What Glory is there in keeping his Prisons full of innocent Persons who are charged with no other fault than serving God according to the best of their Knowledge and for this to be expos'd to the Rage of the Dragoons or condemned to the Gallies and executions on Body and Goods Will these Cruelties render his Majesties Name lovely in his History to the Catholick or Protestant World But we should be very loath to exaggerate any thing which may violate the Respect due to so great a Prince but we do not think it a failure in our Duty fairly to represent how far these refined Politicians have really interess'd his Honour in the sad Misfortunes wherein they have plunged us and how Criminal they have thereby made themselves towards him They have committed no less Misdemeanours against their Country of which they are Members and for which a Man would think they should have some consideration Not to speak here of the great number of Persons of all Ages Sexes and Qualities which they have out off from it by their fierce Tempers although perhaps this Loss be greater than they were willing to imagine It s certain that France is a very Populous Country but when these Feavourish Fits shall be over and they shall in cold Blood consider what they have done they will find these Diminutions to be no matter of Triumph for 't is not possible that so many Substantial People so many intire Families who distinguish themselves in the Arts in the Sciences Civil and Military can leave a Kingdom without one day being missed at present whilst they rejoyce in their Spoils possess themselves of the Houses and Estates this loss is not felt 't is recompensed by Booty but it will not be always so Neither shall we insist here on that almost general Interruption of Traffick which these most Vnchristian Persecutors have caused in the Principal Towns of the State although this be no small Mischief The Protestants made up a good part of the Trade as well within the Kingdom as without and were therein so mixt with the Catholicks that their Affairs were in a manner inseparable They dealt as it were in Common when these Oppressions came upon them and what Confusions have they not produced How many industrious measures have they broken How many honest designs have they not disappointed How many Manufactures ruined How many Bankrupts made and how many Families reduced to Beggary But this is what the Oppressors little trouble themselves about they have their Bread gained to their Mouths they live in wantonness and ease and whilst others dye with Hunger their Revenues are ascertain'd to them But this hinders not the Body of the Estate to suffer both in its Honour and Profit and we may truly say that Four Civil Wars could not have produced so much Mischief as time will shew to sprink from this Persecution But we will leave the consequence of this affair to time and only say That the Edict of Nantes being a fundamental Law of the Kingdom and an agreement between two parties by a reciprocal acceptation under the peaceable Reign of Henry the Great by the publick Faith and by mutual Oaths as we have already seen this must certainly be of ill example to the interest of the State That after having made a thousand infractions of it it must be at length revok'd cancel'd and annul'd at the motion of a Cabal who abuse their interest and hereby make themselves fit for enterprising and executing any thing After this Violation what can henceforward be thought firm and inviolable in France I speak not of particular mens affairs but of general establishments Royal Companies Courts of Justice and all other ranks of men interested in Society even they very rights of the Crown and form of Government There are in the Kingdom a great many thinking men I mean not your Poets and such like kind of Flatterers who make Verses Orations Panegyricks and Sermons too for Preferments and Benefices but I speak of solid and judicious persons who see into the consequences of things and know well how to judge of them shall we think that these men see not what is too visible that the State is pierc'd through and through by the same â—low given the Protestants and that such a open revocation of the Edict leaves nothing firm or sacred It 's to no purpose to alledge distinctions in the matter and say that the pretended reform'd Religion was odious to the State and therefore was thus undertaken For not to mention the dangerousness of the example as to the general aversion to our Religion in the minds of the Catholicks it is certain that excepting the Faction of the Bigots and what they call the propagators of the Faith neither the Commons nor great People have any animosity against us but on the contrary do bemoan our misfortunes Not to touch further on this who knows not what an easie matter it is to run down any cause or render it odious or indifferent in the minds of the People There are never wanting reasons and pretences in matters of this nature one party is set up against another and that is called the State right or wrong which is the prevailing one like as in Religion not the best and honestest but the powerfullest and boldest part are termed the Church We must not judge of these things then from their matter but their from Now if ever there was since the World stood a matter authentick and irrevocable it was the Edict of Nantes To revoke and cancel it is to set up ones self above our obligations to God as well as to Men 't is to declare openly that there are no longer any ties or promises in the world And this is no more then the wise will easily comprehend
and I doubt not but they have done it already Some perhaps may make an objection on this occasion which 't will be good to answer which is that as the Edict consider it how we will is become only a Law of State by Henry the Great 's Authority so it may likewise be revok'd and annul'd by Lewis the 14th his Grandson and Successor For things may be ended by the same means they have bin begun If Henry the Great has had the power to change the form of governing the State by introducing a new Law why has not Lewis the 14th the same power to alter this form and annul whatsoever his predecessor has done But this objection will soon be answer'd by considering it's built upon a false principal and offers a falser consequence It is not the single Authority of Henry the Great which has establish'd the Edict The Edict is a Decree of his Justice and an accord or transaction that past between the Catholicks and the Reformists Authoriz'd by the publick Faith of the whole Estate and seal'd with the seal of an Oath and ratified by the execution of it now this renders the Edict inviolable and sets it above the reach of Henry's Successors and therefore they can be only the Depositaries and Executors of it and not the Masters to make it depend on their wills Henry the Great never employ'd the force of Arms to make the Catholicks consent to it and though since his death under the minority of Lewis the 13th there have bin Assemblies of the States General the Edict has remain'd in full force 't was then as we have already said a fundamental Law of the Kingdom which the King could not touch But supposing this were not a work grounded on the bare Authority of Henry which is false it does not therefore follow that his present Majesty can revoke it The Edict is a Royal Promise which Henry the Great made to the Reformists of his Kingdom as well for himself as his Successors for ever as we have already seen and consequently this is a condition or hereditary Debt charged on himself and Posterity Moreover it is not true that Henry the Great has changed any thing in the Government of the State when he gave Liberty of Conscience to his Subjects for this Liberty is matter of right and more inviolable than all Edicts seeing that it is a right of Nature He has permitted a publick exercise of the Reformed Religion but this exercise was established in the Kingdom before his Edict and if he has enlarged the priviledges of the Reformed as without doubt he has he did not do it without the Consent and Approbation of the State and has herein violated nothing of his lawful engagements But 't is not the same with Lewis the 14th who of his own pure Authority makes a real and fundamental Change against the concurrence of one part of his Estate and without the consulting the other hereby violating his own Engagements those of his Kingdom and even the Laws of Nature too In fine if we consider what means have been used to arrive at the Revocation in question how shall a man not ackowledge the State is sensibly interested therein They are not contented to suppress the Religious Assemblies and to null the Protestants priviledges by unjust Decrees but they also send them Soldiers to dispute points of Religion with them They are Sack't like People taken by Assault forced in their Consciences and for this purpose Hell it self is let loose upon them and this is the effects of a Military and Arbitrary Government regulated neither by Justice Reason nor Humanity Can it be thought that France will be at ease in this manner or that wise people will think this an equitable way of governing There needs only another design another passion to satisfie another vengeance to execute and then wo be to them who shall oppose it for the Dragoons will not forget their Office To these two Reflections which respect the French King and his States we may add a third which will have regard to the Interests of Kings Princes and other powers of Europe as well of one as of the other Religion We shall not be much mistaken if we say that they have a common and general concern herein inasmuch as these skilful Artists in misery do as much as they can to trouble the good understanding that is betwixt them and their People We are perswaded that their wise and just Government will in this respect put them beyond all fear but this hinders not examples of this nature from being always mischievous and naturally tending to beget in the minds of the Vulgar who commonly judge only of things in general suspitions and distrusts of their Soveraigns as if they dream'd of nothing but devouring their Subjects and delivering them up to the Discretion or rather the Fury of their Soldiers The greater moderation and Justice that Princes have the less they are obliged to those who furnish people with matter for such dangerous thoughts which may produce very ill Effects Beside is it not certain that the Princes and States of Europe cannot without a great deal of pleasure see France which makes so great a Figure in the affairs of the World and gives them so powerful an influence now put her self in such a condition as that no just Measures can be taken from her For after so scandalous and publick a violation of the word of three Kings and of the publick Faith what Credit can be given for the future to her Promises or Treaties It will not be sufficient to say that they will have no force but what Interest inspires but that they will hereafter depend on the Interest or Capriciousness of a sort of Heady People that will give nothing either to the Laws of Prudence or Equity but manage all by force If they have had the power to do within the Kingdom what they have lately put in execution what will they not do as to Affairs without If they have not spared their own Country-men with whom they had daily Commerce who were serviceable to them will they spare the unknown Will they have more respect to Truces or Conventions of four days Transaction than to an Edict of an hundred years continuance and that the most August and Solemn that ever was which yet they made no other use of then to amuse a People and to involve them more surely in an utter Desolation Methinks they have resolv'd to bring things to this pass That there being no more Faith to be had in France all her Neighbours should be continually upon their Guard against her and the more so when she promises then when she threatens more in Peace then in War so that there is no more hopes of being at quiet but what the Surety of Hostages or the diminution of her Forces can give This being so in respect of all Princes and States in general what may the Protestant Princes and
Dragoons desolated a Kingdom and plunder'd above a 100 thousand Families Do we think this method is pleasing to him whom we both own to be the Author of our Faith he has said That he will not suffer Hell Gates to ruine his Church but he has not said he will open Hell Gates for the propagating his Church Now if there were any thing that looks like the Gates of Hell it is the persecutions of France Whatsoever Antipathy there may be between the See of Rome and us we will not believe that the present Pope has had any part or that the Storm has fallen on us from him We know he is a mild Prince and his temper leads to more moderate Councils than those of his Predecessors Moreover we know the Clergy of France do not always consult him in what they undertake and we have had often offered to us what has bin done against Rome to induce us to submit our selves to the King's will in these other matters and how small a deference is paid to its Authority So that we hope the Pope himself considering us still as Men and Christians will condole us and blame the methods used against us had he no other reason than the interest of Religion Perhaps one day it will be our turn to blame that which will be taken against him However 't is certain the Protestants of France are the most fit objects of publick compassion the world ever knew Some sigh and lament under a hard Slavery which they would willingly change for Irons in Algiers or Turke For there they would not be forced to turn Mahometans and might still entertain some hopes of liberty by the way of ransâ—m Others are wandering about strange Countries stript of their Estates separated in all probability for ever from their Parents their Relations and Friends whom they have left in the most doleful condition imaginable Husbands have left their Wives and Wives their Husbands Fathers their Children and Children their Fathers We have seen our Estates vanish in a moment our honest ways of living our hopes our Inheritances We have scarcely any thing left us but our miserable Lives and they are supported by the Charity of our Christian Brethren Yet amongst all these Afflictions we are not destitute of Comfort we if ever any did do truly suffer for Conscience sake the Malice of our Persecutors not being able to charge us with the least Misdemeanour We have served our King and the State with Zeal and Faithfulness We have submitted to the Laws and to Magistrates and for our Fellow-Citizens they have no reason to complain of us We have for Twenty years together suffered with an unexemplary patience all those furious and dreadful Storms aforementioned And when in Vivaretz and Cevennes some have thought themselves bound in Conscience to preach on the Ruines of their Temples illegally demolisht their small number which were but a handful of Men Women and Children has only served to stir up more the Resignation and Obedience of our whole Body In these latter Storms we have been like Sheep innocent and without defence We then comfort our selves in the Justice of our Cause and our peaceable Deportment under it But we comfort our selves likewise in the Christian Compassion shewed us by Forrein Princes and more especially of his Majesty of England who has received us into his Countries succoured and relieved us and recommended our distressed Condition to all his Subjects and we have found in them not only new Masters or the Affections of new Friends but of real Parents and Brethren And as these bowels of Commiseration have been as Balm to our Wounds so we shall never lose the remembrance of it and hope we nor our Children shall ever do any thing by Gods Grace unworthy any of these their protections All our Affliction then is to see our Religion oppressed in the Kingdom of France so many Churches wherein God was daily served according to the simplicity of the Gospel demolished so many Flocks dispers'd so many poor Consciences sighing and groaning under their Bondage so many Children deprived of the lawful Education of their Parent but we hope that at length the same God who heard heretofore the Sighs of his People in the Servitude of Egypt will also hear at this time the Cries of his Faithful Servants We call not for Fire from Heaven We are for no resistance we only pray that God would touch the Hearts of our Persecuters that they may repent and be saved together with us We entreat such a deliverance as he in his Wisdom shall think fitting However 't will be no Offence to God nor Good Men to leave this Writing to the World as a Protestation made before him and them against these Violences more especially against the Edict of 1685. containing the Revocation of that of Nants it being in its own Nature inviolable irrevocable and unalterable We may I say complain amongst other things against the worse than inhumane Cruelties exercised on dead Bodies when they are drag'd along the Streets at the Horse Tayls and dig'd out and denyed Sepulchers We cannot but complain of the Cruel Orders to part with our Children and suffer them to be Baptized and brought up by our Enemies But above all against the impious and detestable practise now in vogue of making Religion to depend on the Kings pleasure on the will of a Mortal Prince and of treating perseverance in the Faith with the odious name of Rebellion This is to make a God of Man and to run back into the Heathenish pride and flattery amongst the Romans or an authorising of Atheism or gross Idolatry In fine we commit our Complaints and all our Interests into the Hands of that Providence which brings Good out of Evil and which is above the Understanding of Mortals whose Houses are in the Dust An EDICT of the French KING Prohibiting all Publick Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion in His Kingdom LEWES by the Grace of God King of France and of Navarre to all present and to come Greeting King Henry the Great Our Grandfather of Glorious Memory desiring to prevent that the Peace which he had procured for his Subjects after the great Losses they had sustained by the long continuance of Civil and Forreign Wars might not be disturbed by occasion of the pretended Reformed Religion as it had been during the Reigns of the Kings his Predecessors had by his Edict given at Nantes in the Month of April 1598. Regulated the Conduct which was to be observed with Respect to those of the said Religion the places where they might publickly exercise the same appointed extraordinary Judges to administer Justice to them and lastly also by several distinct Articles provided for every thing which he judged needful for the maintenance of Peace and Tranquility in his Kingdom and to diminish the Aversion which was between those of the one and other Religion and this to the end that he might be in a better
condition for the taking some effectual course which he was resolved to do to reunite those again to the Church who upon so slight occasions had withdrawn themselves from it And forasmuch as this Intention of the King our said Grandfather could not be effected by reason of his suddain and precipitated Death and that the Execution of the foresaid Edict was interrupted during the Minority of the late King Our most Honoured Lord and Father of Glorious Memory by reason of some new Enter-prises of those of the pretended Reformed Religion whereby they gave occasion for their being deprived of several Advantages which had been granted to them by the foresaid Edict Notwithstanding the King Our said late Lord and Father according to his wonted Clemency granted them another Edict at Nismes in the Month of July 1629 by means of which the Peace and Quiet of the Kingdom being now again re-established the said late King being animated with the same Spirit and Zeal for Religion as the King our said Grandfather was resolved to make good use of this Tranquility by endeavouring to put this pious design in Execution but Wars abroad coming on a few years after so that from the Year 1635 to the Truce which was concluded with the Princes of Europe in 1684. The Kingdom having been only for some short Intervals altogether free from troubles it was not possible to do any other thing for the advantage of Religion save only to diminish the number of places permitted for the Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion as well by the Interdiction of those which were found erected in prejudice to the disposal made in the said Edict as by suppressing the mix'd Chambers of Judicature which were composed of an equal number of Papists and Protestants the erecting of which was only done by Provision and to serve the present Exigency Whereas therefore at length it hath pleased God to grant that Our Subjects enjoying a perfect Peace and We Our selves being no longer taken up with the cares of protecting them against our Enemies are now in a condition to make good use of the said Truce which we have on purpose facilitated in order to the applying our selves entirely in the searching out of means which might successfully effect and accomplish the design of the Kings our said Grandfather and Father and which also have been our intention ever since we came to the Crown we see at present not without a just acknowledgment of what we owe to God on that account that our endeavours have attain'd the end we proposed to Our selves forasmuch as the greater and better part of our Subjects of the said Pretended Reformed Religion have already embraced the Catholick and sice by means thereof the Execution of the Edict of Nantes and of all other Ordinances in favour of the said Pretended Reformed Religion is made useless we judge that we can do nothing better towards the entire effacing of the Memory of those Troubles Confusion and Mischief which the Progress of that false Religion hath been the cause of in Our Kingdom and which have given occasion to the said Edict and to so many other Edicts and Declarations which went before it or were made since with reference thereto than by a total Revocation of the said Edict of Nantes and the perticular Articles and Concessions granted therein and whatsoever else hath been Enacted since in favour of the said Religion I. We mâ—kâ— known that we for these and other Reasons us thereto moving and of uâ—certain Knowledg full Power and Royal Authority have by the present perpetual and irrevocable Edict Suppressd and Annull'd do suppress and annul the Edict of the King our said Grand father given at Nantes in April 1598 in its whole extent together with the particular Arcicles ratified the Second of May next following and Letters Patent granted thereupon as likewise the Edict given at Nismes in July 1629. declaring them null and void as if they had never been Enacted together with all the Concessions granted in them as well as other Declarations Edicts and Arrests to those of the Pretended Reformed Religion of what Nature soever they may be which shall all continue as if they never had been And in pursuance hereof we Will and it is our Pleasure that all the Churches of those of the Pretended Reformed Religion scituate in our Kingdom Countries Lands and Dominions belonging to us be forthwith demolished II. We forbid our Subjects of the Pretended Reformed Religion to Assemble themselves for time to come in order to the Exercise of their Religion in any Place or House under what Pretext soever whether the said places have been granted by the Crown or permitted by the Judges of particular Places any Arrests of our Council for Authorizing and Establishing of the said places for Exercise notwithstanding III. We likewise prohibit all Lords of what condition soever they may be to have any publick Exercise in their Houses and Fiefs of what quality soever the said Fiefs may be upon Penalty to all our said Subjects who shall have the said Exercises performed in their Houses or otherwise of Confiscation of Body and Goods IV. We do strictly Charge and Command all Ministers of the said Pretended Reformed Religion who are not willing to be Converted and to embrace the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion to depart out of our Kingdom and Countries under our Obedience fifteen days after the Publication hereof so as not to continue there beyond the said term or within the same to Preach Exhort or perform any other Ministerial Function upon pain of being sent to the Galleys V. Our Will and Pleasure is that those Ministers who shall be converted do continue to enjoy during their Lives and their Widows after their decease so long as they continue so the same Exemptions from Payments and Quartering of Souldiers which they did enjoy during the time of their Exercise of the Ministerial Function Moreover we will cause to be paid to the said Ministers during their Lives a Pension which by a third Part shall exceed the appointed Allowance to them as Ministers the half of which Pension shall be continued to their Wives after their Decease as long as they shall continue in the state of Widdow hood VI. And in case any of the said Ministers shall be willing to become Advocates or to take the Degree of Doctors in Law we will and Vnderstand that they be dispensedwith as to the three Years of Study which are prescribed by our Declarations as requisite in order to the taking of the said Degree and that after they have pass'd the ordinary Examinations they be forthwith received as Doctors paying only the Moyâ—ty of those dues which are usually paid upon that account in every Vniversity VII We prohibit any particular Schools for instructing the Children of those of the Pretended Reformed Religion and in general all other things whatsoever which may impâ—rt a Concession of what kind soever in favour of the said
moreover wholly unlikely those of the reformed Religion who had bin ever in the Kingdom the suffering party could usurp any thing therein and extend its limits beyond what belong'd to them But there were other designs in hand than the providing against the Contraventions and therefore by this order the greatest part of the Churches cited for the justifying of their Rights saw themselves soon condemned one after another by Decrees of Council how good and sufficient soever their Titles and Defences were Scarcely passed a Week wherein these kind of Decrees were not made and if it hapned that the Modesty of the Judges saved any of them by the great evidence of their Right as this sometimes hapned besides that the number was small in comparison of those condemned the Judges often received order to condemn them when they shewed they could not in Conscience do it But the Oppressions of this kind did not terminate in the bare condemnation of Churches for particular Persons had their part In ordinary and civil Affairs where the matter concerned a piece of Land perhaps a House a Debt between a Roman Catholick and a Person of our Religion Religion was to be sure always one of the chief Heads of the Accusation The Monks the Emissaries the Confessors and all the whole Tribe of that Crew interessed themselves in the Affair In Courts of Justice all the cry was I plead against an Heretick I have to do with a Man of a Religion odious to the State and which the King would have extirpated By this means there was no longer any Justice to be expected few Judges were proof against this false Zeal for fear of drawing the Fury of the whole Cabal against him or passing for a favourer of Hereticks 'T is not to be imagined how many unjust Sentences these sort of Prejudices have given in all the Courts of the Kingdom and how many mens Families have bin ruined by them When any one complained the Answer was ready You have the remedy in your own hands why do you not turn Catholick Yet all this had bin nothing had the Persecution kept here and not proceeded to fasten on the Reputation the Liberty and even the very Lives of Persons by a general inundation as a man may term it of criminal Processes Writings were Printed at Paris and sent from thence to all Cities and Parishes of the Kingdom which impowred the Curates Churchwardens and others to make an exact enquiry into whatsoever the pretended Reformists might have done or said for twenty years past as well on the subject of Religion as otherwise to make Information of this before the Justices of the Place and punish them without remission So have we seen for several years in execution of these Orders the Prisons every where fill'd with these kind of Criminals neither were false Witnesses lacking and that which was most horrible was that though the Judges were convinced they were Knights of the Post yet they maintained them and carry'd them throw such Points as they knew to be untrue They condemned innocent and vertuous Persons to be whipt to the Gallies to banishment and publick Penances And if a Spark of Honor or Conscience at any time hindred them yet there was always at least an impunity for the false Witness This kind of Persecution fell chiefly on the Ministers for of a long time they might not Preach without having for Auditors or to speak better Observators a Troop of Priests Monks and Missionaries and such kind of People who made no scruple to charge them with things which they not so much as thought of and turn others into a contrary meaning They also went so far as to devine the Thoughts to make Crimes for as soon as ever any Minister spake of Egypt Pharaoh the Israelites of good or bad People as 't is difficult not to speak of these matters when they explained the Scripture These Spies never failed to report that by Egypt and the wicked they meant the Catholicks and by the Israelites the pretended Reformists The Judges concerned themselves in this and what is most strange the ministers of State themselves respected these Interpretations of thoughts as evident Proofs On these grounds the Magistrates filled the Prisons whith these kind of poor People keeping them therein for whole years together and often inflicted on them several corporal Penalties 'T is already seen by this first kind of Persecution what were the Usages shewed in France to the Reformists before they came to the utmost violence But we shall see them appear more in what we have to add touching the privation of Offices and Employs and in general of the means of gaining a Livelihood which is the second way we mentioned that has been used to effect our Ruine 'T is not hard to comprehend that in a great Kingdom as France is where the Protestants were dispersed over all parts there were an infinite number who could not subsist nor maintain their Families but by the liberty of serving the publick either in Offices Arts Trades or Faculties each according to his Calling Henry the great was so well convinced of the necessity and Justice of this that he made it an express Article the most distinct perhaps and formal of all contained in his Edict And therefore 't was here the Persecutors thought themselves obliged to use their utmost endeavours In this regard they began with the Arts and Trades which under several pretences they rendered almost inaccessible to the Protestants by the difficulties of arriving to the mastership of them and by the excessive Expences they must be at to be received therein there being no candidate but was forced for this purpose to maintain Law Suits under the weight of which they for the most part fell not being able to hold them out But this not being sufficient by a Declaration made in 1669. they were reduced to one third in the Towns where the Protestants were more in number than the other Inhabitants and they were forbidden to receive any therein till this diminution was made which at one stroke excluded all the pretenders Some time after they absolutely drove all the Reformists from the Consulships and all other Municipal Officers of the Cities which was in effect the depriving them of the Knowledg of their Proper Affairs and Interests to invest wholly the Catholics with them In 1680. the King issued out an Order which deprived them in general of all kind of Offices and Employs from the greatest to the smallest They were made incapable so much as to exercise any Employ in the Custom-Houses Guard Treasury or Post-Offices to be Messengers Coach-Men or Waggoners or any thing of this nature In the year 1681. by a Decree of Council all Notaries Attorneys Solicitors and Sergeants making Profession of the Reformed Religion were rendered uncapable throughout all the Kingdom A Year after all Lords and Gentlemen of the Reformed Religion were ordered to discharge their Officers and Servants of the said
Religion and not make use of them in any case without other reason than that of their Religion In 1683. all Officers belonging to the Kings Houshold and those of the Princes of the Blood were also rendred uncapable of holding their Places The Councellors and other Officers of Ayds and Chambers of accounts and those of Seneschalship Baily wicks and Royalties Admiralry Provostships and Marshal's Courts Treasury Excise and others who belonged to the Toll-Offices and such like businesses were ordered to leave their Places in favour of the Catholicks In 1684. all Secretaries belonging to the King and Great Officers of France as well Titulary as Honorary ones and their Widows were deprived by a Revocation of all their Priviledges of what nature soever they were They also deprived all those that had purchased any Priviledges for the exercising of any Professions as Merchants Surgeons Apothecaries and Vintners nd all others without exception Nay they proceeded to this excess that they would not suffer any Midwives of the Reformed Religion to do their Office and expresly ordained for the future our Wives should receive no assistance in that Condition but from Roman Catholicks 'T is not to be exprest how many particular Persons and Families they reduced every where by these strange and unheard of Methods to Ruine and Misery But because there were yet many which could sustain themselves other Methods of Oppression must be invented To this end they issued out an Edict from the Council by which the new Converts as they call them were discharged from any payments of their Debts for three years This for the most part fell on the Reformists who having had a more particular Tye of Interest and Affair with these pretended Converts because of their Communion of Religion were reckoned amongst their Chief Creditors By this Order they had found the secret to recompense those that changed at the charge of those who continued firm and this they did likewise by another way for they discharged the Converts of all the Debts which those of the Religion had contracted in common which by consequence fell on the rest Add to this the prohibition to fell or alienate their Estates on any Pretence whatever the King annulling and breaking all Contracts and other acts relating to that matter if it did not appear that after these Acts they had stayed in the Kingdom a whole Year so that the last Remedy of helping themselves with their Estates in extream Necessity was taken from them They deprived them likewise of another which seemed the only one remaining which was to seek their Bread elsewhere by retiring into other Countries there to get their Living by Labour since this was not permitted them in France By repeated Edicts the King forbad them to leave his Kingdom on severe Penalties which drove them to the last Despair since they saw themselves reduced to the horrible necessity of dying with Hunger in their own Countrey without daring to go to live elsewhere But the Cruelty of their Enemies stopt not here for there yet remained some Gleanings in the Provinces though very few and as thin as those in Pharaoh's Dream The Intendants in their Districts had order to load the Reformed with Taxes which they did either by laying upon them the Tax of the New Catholicks who were discharged thereof on favour of their Conversion or by laying exorbitant Taxes which they called Duties that is to say he who in the ordinary Roll was assessed at Forty or Fifty Livers was charged by this Impostion at Seven or Eight Hundred Thus had they nothing more left for all was a Prey to the Rigour of the Intendants They raised their Taxes by the effectual quartering of Dragoons or Imprisonment from whence they were not freed till they had paid the utmost Farthing These were the two first Engins or Machins which the Clergy made use of against us To which they added a Third which we have termed the Infractions of the Edict of Nantes under pretence of Explication Those who would know their Number and Quality need only read the Books written and published on this Subject as well by the Jesuite Menier an Author Famous for his Illusions as by one Beanard an Officer in the Presidial Court of Besier in Languedoc There you will find all the turns which the meanest and most unworthy Sophistry could invent to elude the clearest Texts of the Edict and to corrupt the Sincerity thereof But because we do here give you only a brief Account of our Troubles we will content our selves with observing some of the Principal issuing from this Fountain What was there for Example more clear and unquestionable in the Edict than this viz. That 't was given with an Intention to maintain those of the Religion in all the Rights that Nature and Civil Society give to Men. Yet in 1681. there came out an Edict that Children might at the Age of Seven Years abjure the Reformed Religion and embrace the Catholick under pretence that the Edict did not precisely mark that at this Age they should continue at their Parents Disposal Who sees not that this was a meer trick seing that on one hand the Edict forbad to take the Children from their Parents by force or fair means and on the other hand the Edict supposed and confirmed all the Natural Rights of which without Controversie this is one of the most inviolable Was there ever a more manifest Infraction of the Edict than that which forbad those of the Protestant Religion who had passed over to the Roman to return to that they had left under pretence that the Edict did not formally give them in express Terms this Liberty For when the Edict permits generally all the Kings Subjects Liberty of Conscience and forbids the perplexing and troubling them and offering any thing contrary to this Liberty Who sees not that this Exception touching the pretended Relapsers is so far from being an Explication of the Edict that 't is a notable violation of it Whereunto we may add the charge given to the Roman Catholicks not to change their Religion and embrace the Reformed For when the Edict gives Liberty of Conscience it does it in proper Terms for all those who are and shall be of the said Religion Yet if we believe the Clergy this was not Henry the Great 's meaning intending only to grant it to those who made Profession of it at the time of the making his Edict That of Nantes gave also to the Reformed the priviledges of keeping small Schools in all places where they had the Exercise of their Religion and by this Term of small or little Schools according to the common explication those were always understood where one might teach Latin and Humanity This is the Sence which has been ever given in all the Kingdom to this Expression which is still given when it concerns the Roman Catholicks Yet by a new Interpreation this permission was restrained to the bare Liberty of teaching to