them Wine But the truth is they did all that could be done to destroy them that they might deliver themselves from the fear of seeing them in Arms and returning to their own Estates and Possessions They put Mortar in their Bread they gave them nothing to drink but stinking water and they let them die in their dung and ordure And they have been so successful in their design that there is a place where of 400 persons there are 250 dead nevertheless we have not heard that any one did renounce his Religion it were injustice to refuse both the Name and Glory of Martyrdom to those which have died in so constant and so difficult a Confession The Church hath put its Confessors one degree below Martyrs but in truth I do not find that they are much inferior to them I do openly avow that there are Confessors which I admire more than Martyrs It is in my opinion a more glorious Work to endure a terrible and furious Combat during the space of many months or years than to behold the face of death for a few moments And we may say with assurance that such persons have faln in a long Confession which would courageously have endured the sight of death Therefore my Brethren do honor to so many Believers which have suffered to afford you an example Remember how many righteous persons are in the Gallies laden in Chains but incircled with Glory We have there two which are very famous among many others who it may be are not inferior to them tho they be less known to us We have there M. de Marolles of whom we have spoken already and some of whose Letters we have communicated unto you We have there another Man of Learning and Merit called M. Le Feure of a considerable Family of Chastel Chinon in Nivernois of the Church of Corbigni This faithful Christian after he had avoided with a great deal of labor the occasions and seasons of Subscriptions by shifting hither and thither at length he puts himself on the way to go out of the Kingdom He was seised upon the Frontiers towards the beginning of the month of March he was conducted to Besancon where he was put into a Dungeon in which during the space of three months he experienced all the Severities which they put upon the greatest Criminals and he endured all the Temptations of Threatnings Promises and Disputes which the Persecutors are wont to make use of to vanquish the Constancy of the Saints By word of mouth and writing he caused all his Friends to know that they had no reason to fear on his behalf and all his Letters bore the Marks and Characters of true Christianity by the Humility Sweetness Piety and Patience which were manifested and displayed there After he had languished many months in Dungeons with a Body naturally weak and sickly he was condemned for ever to the Gallies They sent him in Chains to Dijon where he met with M. de Marolles which they brought from Paris So these two illustrious Confessors who already knew each other by the report of their Courage and Sufferings were joyned together to be a pair of eminent Witnesses to the Truth They had the same Fortune as they had the same Heart both were sick even unto death upon the way whilst they dragged their Chains after them both arrived at Marseilles and both are actually in the Gallies bearing their Chains both night and day by express order from the Court and both of them with the same courage pursue the glorious Race of their Martyrdom until it shall please God to grant them the Crown after which they breath Amongst the Confessions which are well worthy of Martyrs I cannot forbear to place that of a Gentlewoman of Poictou near St. Maixant about the Age of fifty or fifty five years whose name is slipt from us though there be many Witnesses of the same place who have informed and assured us with one consent of the truth of the following History She endured the first rage of the Dragoons that is to say the wasting of her Estate their Threatnings Blasphemies and other Evangelical means of our modern Converters Her Goods being wasted the Soldiers attacked her Person and there was not any kind of Torment Violence Blows or Reproaches which they did not offer to her They tied her to the post of a Bed where she remained a long time the object of the impudence and fury of the Soldiers who proceeded to commit all the outrages upon her that an honest Woman could suffer except Violation In conclusion one of these Wretches thought fit to tell her if you can suffer a living Coal upon your hand during the space of a Pater Noster we will let you go She consented very freely They then took the greatest and the most burning Coal that was in the Fire she had the Courage to stretch out her Hand and to hold it herself stretched out without complaint and to pronounce Our Father c. from the beginning to the end a Dragoon in the mean time blowing the Coal for fear it should go out which scorched her Flesh and Skin and made her Blood and Humours to bubble and boil when this as done one of the Soldiers raging and swearing said thou haft said the Pater Noster too quickly I will say it my self and if thou canst endure a light Coal of Fire on the other Hand whilst I repeat my Pater Noster we will give thee thy Liberty This poor Woman consented to this second proposition with the same chearfulness which she had manifested at the first this was done The Soldier takes the Coal she receives it and held up her Hand in the Air with the fire Coal which consumed it whilst the Soldier said his Pater Noster putting a great distance between word and word In conclusion another Soldier overcome by an example of Courage so extraordinary blamed him for repeating his Prayer so slowly and struck off the Coal from her hand and so they left her Behold say I in my Opinion a Confession well worthy of a true Martyr Praised be God that we have yet souls so inspired of God to overcome such punishments and so inflamed with his Love that they can surmount the burning Fire Jan. 1. 1687. The TENTH PASTORAL LETTER Two Articles the one of Antiquity the other of Controversie The Article of Antiquity The Faith of the Third Age about the Invocation of Saints Relicks Images Fasts Indulgences Human Satisfaction and Confession The Article of Controversie Concerning the Unity of the Church that 't is not included in the Church of Rome and that we are not excluded from it Dear Brethren in our Lord Grace and Peace be given to you from our God and Saviour Jesus Christ WE have already begun in the last Letters to give you a History of the Faith of the Church in the Third Age and the last thing upon which we staid was the Real Presence and Transubstantiation
Castle of Saumiere to Valence with another of her Sisters and four Daughters of Monsieur Audemane's and Mademoiselle de la Farelle All these persons are a thousand times worse treated than if they were among Barbarians At their arrival in the Hospital he which hath the Government thereof caused them to be shaven afterwards he caused them to be stripped of their Shifts to give them others of Hair which made Sores and Ulcers on them to their fingers ends They give them little Food and a great many Blows Mademoiselle de la Farelle received a blow with a Cudgel over her Face which beat out all her fore-teeth They seize on persons every day of the Reformed Religion on the Borders of Lyons and Geneva Some days since they killed Monsieur Quista who was conveying his Wife and Child out of the Kingdom Meeting some Country-men and finding himself well horsed he made opposition to them but one of them gave him a knock with a Flint which overturned and killed him His Wife and Child are now Prisoners On this Accident the Wife of M. Bonigoll escaped and is now at Geneva April the 5th 1687. HE which commits these Cruelties of which this Letter speaks is the famous Rapin of whom we have already told you something The Cruelties which he exercises in the Prisons of Valence deserve a particular History which we will give you as soon as we can I hope that Marseilles which has seen the last hours of the Martyrdom of Mr. Du Crosse will become more famous by the number of Martyrs than by its Antiquities and other Singularities We have been informed that two good old men of Vassi in Champagne have there received their Crowns One of them is called Monsieur Chantguyon of seventy four years of age of which he employed thirty four in the service of that Church in quality of an Elder which great care and fidelity This good old man was arrested on the Frontiers of Champagne endeavouring to go out of the Kingdom he was condemned to the Gallies he appeals to the Parliament of Mets whither he was transmitted his Sentence was confirmed and there he received that glorious Chain under which he breathed his last he was so oppressed with Age and Infirmities that he was so far from being able to bear a Chain that he was not able to bear himself His Judges were touched and afflicted with it but they said they must make Examples He went from Mets about the end of September with his Brother-in-Law Mr. Chemet who was Sixty nine years of age and also in Chains and much more infirm than he having both a Rupture and an Asthma They were both full of joy and gloried that they were found worthy to suffer for the Name and Truth of God. In all the places through which they passed upon the Road they found persons which have given Testimony to their Constancy and Courage These two Martyrs bore their Chain to Marseilles but the end of their Journey was the end of their Race and the time of their Coronation They both died within a few days of each other giving glory to God and confessing his Truth having never had any inclination to deny it to deliver themselves out of this sad condition Mr. Chantguyon is of the Bloud of the Martyrs for he had for Grandfather Peter Chantguyon who was one of those that suffered death in the Massacre of Vassi which was the Signal to the Civil War of the past Age. How sad soever the state of these Confessors which suffer for the Name of Christ may seem to be 't is nevertheless infinitely less calamitous than that of those who are lapsed and fallen whose Conscience makes them feel those torments which cannot easily be expressed We have thought our selves obliged to communicate to you on this subject the Letter of a Person of great Quality Wife to one of our most famous Confessors She had imitated the courage of her Illustrious Husband for the space of above a whole year but the Tempter assailed her at an ill season and caused her to lose her Crown Behold how bitter the Tear are which dropped from this unfortunate Gentlewoman Alas my dear Mr. blame me not if I have not acquainted you with the unhappy State in which I am so great is my Confusion by reason of my Fall that I have not the boldness to publish it my self It is impossible to express unto you my Grief 't is such that I am not able to bear up against it I am oppressed by the weight thereof I am neither able to live nor die no body can conceive how lamentable my State is I was so content with my Tryal and so resigned to the Will of God that I could willingly have suffered death if he had called me thereunto I was acceptable and in good reputation among all persons and enjoyed a wonderful rest and repose of mind 'T is true it was a little disturbed by the coming of my Son who tormented me extreamly but all was to no purpose God bestowed those Mercies on me that I did not deserve nor did I make any suitable returns for them I presumed too much on my self yet I was not altogether without suspicion Alas how do I find true in experience that the Spirit is ready but the Flesh is weak and that it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an offended God! How great are my sins since the castigation of them is so terrible Whilst I write I pour out tears I do assure you and they flow from me night and day I repent O my God help my weakness I forgive you that upon the first hearing of this thing you cried out to all against me and did judge that it was the World Estate and Ease and to conclude whatsoever you please that was the cause thereof I do not justifie my self at all nor do I plead any thing for my excuse I was weak and feeble my Faith failed me in a time of need and God did not inable me to suffer for his Name In my unhappy state I have nevertheless this perfect confidence in the mercy of my great God that he will raise me up and I shall glorifie him whether it be in life or death and that my Christ will be always gain to me whether I live or die He desires not the death of a sinner but his conversion and life My God draw me and I will run after thee and do thou lead me to the Haven of Happiness Thou seest my heart O my God 't is intirely thine as well as my mouth I will confess thee every-where For the space of four hours I was tormented by fifteen persons I cried with all my strength begging the Gallows and Death I was nigh unto death and how happy had I been if I had died I had not one moment of rest I knew not where I was by reason of the great noise that was made They made use of this great trouble
THE PASTORAL LETTERS Of the INCOMPARABLE JURIEU Directed to the Protestants in France Groaning under the BABYLONISH TYRANNY TRANSLATED Wherein the Sophistical Arguments and Unexpressible Cruelties made use of by the PAPISTS for the making Converts are laid open and expos'd to just Abhorrence Unto which is added a brief Account of the Hungarian Persecution LONDON Printed for T. Fabian at the Bible in St. Paul's Church-yard a corner Shop next Cheapside and J. Hindmarsh at the Golden Ball over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1689. MVNIFICENTIA REGIA 171â— GEORGIVS D. G. â—AS BR PR ET 〈…〉 D. J.P. sc TO HIS HIGHNESS THE Prince of ORANGE GREAT SIR IT would be hard to find out Reasons which might justifie the boldness of this Dedication did not the Subject of the Book direct it to Your Highnesses feet Whither can Religion and Truth fly for refuge from foul Superstition back'd with hellish Fury but to the Protection of that fortunate Arm to which already so many Nations owe the enjoyment of their Religion their Liberty and whatsoever is dear to Men and Christians By Your Heroick Courage and more than human Conduct it is that Our Selves are not the Subject of a like lamentable History and that we read the salvage Barbarities of these Bigots in a Translation Few Years it was hop'd would have pass'd before our own Country might have been the Scene of their Villanies and what we now upon reading can hardly believe we should then have seen and felt But the God of Heaven of his infinite Mercy check'd their Progress forbad the proud Waves and set bounds to their Insolence Accept therefore Mighty PRINCE this humble Dedication of the best and fittest Offering can be made to Your Illustrious Name by us the Fellow-Sharers in that great Deliverance which Providence by your Highnesses means has wrought for us Your Highness's Most humbly devoted Servants THE Translator's Epistle TO THE READER 1. 'T IS sufficiently known by those who have read the History of France that Liberty for the exercise of the Reformed Religion was established by Law See Mr. de Serres Hist p. 842. The Edict of Nantes which allowed them that Liberty was signed by Henry IV. in April 1598. which Edict contained a Narration of the former Edicts of Pacification and of the Troubles occasion'd in France about matters of Religion 2. 'T is true the Parliament of Paris were something unwilling to confirm this Edict and some others made great opposition to it The Bishop of Modena who was Pope 's Nuncio in France and Berthier one of the Agents for the Clergy made many Petitions to the King and did greatly importune the Lords of the Council very seriously and deeply to consider the matter Ibid. 843 844. After the King had heard what was to be said on both sides he was satisfied of the Wisdom and Justice of what he had done as well as of the Necessity thereof for the establishment of the Peace of France which had been almost ruined by the Wars that had been made by reason of Religion And thereupon the King addresses himself by a Speech to the Parliament of Paris and told them that he desired and expected they should establish the Edict that he had granted to them of the Reformed Religion and in brief tells them I have made it and will have it observed and his Will should serve for Reason which is never demanded of a Prince in such an obedient state After this Discourse they confirmed the Edict in February following 3. This Edict the Reformed accounted their great Security for the free exercise of their Religion and it really was so in great degree for many years See also a new Systeme of the Apocalypse p. 219 220. How many Violations were offered thereunto in the Reign of Lewis XIII I shall not enumerate in this place Those that have been offered thereunto by the present French Monarch before its utter Repeal may be read in a little Book written some seven or eight Years since called the Policy of the Clergy of France to destroy the Protestants of that Kingdom to which you may add a second called The last Efforts of Afflicted Innocence 4. And the truth is their Practice is agreeable to their Doctrine they do affirm that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks and that all Promises made to them are void of all Obligation as in the famous Instances of John Husse and Jerom of Prague more Instances of their Perfidiousness might easily be produced Vid. Chronic. German Bucholt p 313. Florimond de Ralemond in Hist of Heresie p. 407. but 't is done so frequently by our own Authors in the English Tongue that I think there is no need thereof 5. I do not think all those of the Catholick Religion equally false and perfidious Vid. Jesuits Morals p. 46 47 c. I do believe that there is something humane in many of them that as an Antidote does preserve them from the venom of their own Doctrine and that they may be morally trusted as other Men. But after so many Experiments as we have had of their Falseness I think they are bold people that will run the hazard thereof 6. What Cruelties have been exercised against the Reformed in France both before and since the Repeal of the Edict of Nantes See Mr. Juâ—ieu Advice to all Christians prefixed to his Accomplishment of Prophesies may be learn'd in part from the following Letters of the Learned Monsieur Jurieu concerning which I think I may say that instances of greater Barbarity can hardly be found in the Histories of the Primitive Persecutions by Heathen Emperors and yet Court Flatterers would persuade the World that there is no Persecution in France but that all the numerous Conversions made there have been by methods of sweetness favour and mercy and by the same methods of softness and indulgence how many throughout Europe may be made Turks in a short space of time is not hard to conjecture 7. I wonder with what front these Men can impose such notorious Falsehoods upon the World France entertains Ambassadors from all the Courts in Christendom Vid. Jurieu ibid. and is full of forein Travellers and Merchants they see with their eyes and hear with their ears the Miseries Calamities the Groans and Cries of the Reformed We our selves have seen thousands of them forsaking their Houses Lands Friends and Estates and coming over to us to find Bread in a strange Land and it was never yet known that Men should forsake Plenty at home upon the hopes of finding Cloaths to cover their nakedness and Bread to keep them from starving in a forein Country Those that can believe these Men are not persecuted must disbelieve their Senses in more things than the Doctrine of Transubstantiation 8. The persecuted French themselves do acknowledge that their great Monarch is not bloody they impute all these Severities that have been exercised upon them to the
greater Absurdity than to answer by that which has been under dispute It is not true that Rome is the Chair of S. Peter we shall it may be have occasion to prove it to you in some other place But although it should be true where is it said that the Priviledg of Unity ought to be affixed to the Chair of S. Peter The Pope of Constantinople says I am in the Chair of S. Andrew who was an Apostle The Pope of Antioch says 'T is I who am in the true Chair of St. Peter for according to Tradition St. Peter was seven years Bishop of Antioch before he was Bishop of Rome so that it is the first Chair sounded by the chief of the Apostles The Pope of Alexandria saith I am in the Chair of St. Mark who was an Evangelist and had the Spirit of Infallibility as well as St. Peter Behold three Popes against one three Churches against one three Apostles or Evangelists against one wherefore then Gentlemen Converters would you that I should esteem you as only in the rightful possession of Unity to the prejudice of Persons which pretend to have as good a Title to it as your selves Press these false Babylonish Teachers on this point and you will see such confusion and such a multitude of Words in their Discourse which will discover to you the falseness of their pretensions After this we will consider the Proposition in it self The Vnion that is necessary to Salvation is included in the Church of Rome alone out of it there is neither Salvation Faith Grace Remission of Sins nor the True Church so that every man which is separate from it by Schism alone without Heresie dies eternally I do maintain That this Proposition is the most foolish but withal the most cruel and barbarous that ever was asserted and I do beseech you my Brethren to be attentive to the proofs that I shall make thereof First According to the Scripture Fathers and Evidence of Reason the Unity of the Church ought to contain Universality in it self that is to say That Church which is One ought to be universal and extended through all the World it ought to comprehend all Christians I will not prove this for it 's clear and also confessed 't is a truth so known among the Ancients that they look on certain Schismaticks of the fourth and fifth Age called Donatists as Fools These People in the beginning of the fourth Age separated themselves from the rest of the Church of Carthage and all Africa this Separation was caused by the Election of a Bishop of Carthage This hath always been one of the most fruitful Sources of Division These Donatists said precisely that which the Church of Rome says at this day * Aug. de Agone Christi Cap. 28. All the Church is fall'n into Apostasie and is only preserved in the Communion of Donatus upon which St. Augustine thus cries out Oh proud and wicked Tongue Certain other Schismaticks called Luciferians fell into the same dotage That the Church was perished and continued not but in Sardinia and some Mountains near Rome where they had Followers and Disciples St. Jerome treats them on that Subject as men that had lost their Understanding †Jerome Dialog adv Lucifer If it be so says he Jesus Christ died only for the Peasants of Sardinia Where then is the accomplishment of that word of the Father Ask of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine Inheritance Behold exactly the folly of the Papists the Church is perish'd throughout the World except at Rome and in the West but we with the Scriptures and the Fathers say Let the North give up and let not the South keep back All the parts of the World shall bring forth Children to God and the Church ought to be extended to all places where the Gospel is Now the Church of Rome is not at Constantinople nor in Muscovy Asia Egypt Africa or Ethiopia where nevertheless there are multitudes of Christians it is not in England Holland Sweden Denmark nor in a great part of Germany The Church of Rome reacheth not to all the Countries and Kingdoms for 't is ridiculous to say that 't is dispersed throughout the World because there are some Jesuits at London in the Low Countries Sweden Constantinople and in the East and some Latines hid here and there where they have small Congregations but little known and as it were under ground I might as well say that Calvinism is extended through all Italy because there are some of the Reformed scatter'd here and there in it Secondly According to the Hypothesis of the Church of Rome every one that errs though never so little that is to say who goes off from that which the Romanists determine is out of the Unity of the Church and without hopes of Salvation Behold how ill this agrees with that notable Passage whereof those of ours that are weak and fearful make great use 't is that of St. Paul 1 Cor. iii. 11. where the Apostle says For other Foundation can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if any man build upon this Foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble every mans work shall be made manifest c. and the fire shall try every mans work c. And if any mans work be burnt he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved Without taking notice of what may be difficult in this Passage 't is clear That those which build are Teachers that the Gold Silver and precious Stones are sound Doctrines that the Wood Hay and Stubble are such as are unsound and false 't is also clear that they which teach these false Doctrines may be saved and with greater reason they which are seduced by them It follows not from thence as our perverted People pretend that a person may be saved in the practice of that Worship which ruines the Foundation as they do in the Church of Rome but it follows at least that a person may be saved that teaches Doctrines opposite to Truth provided that they subvert not the Foundation and by consequence the Church of Rome is ridiculous as well as cruel to damn all those which are out of her Communion for Errors that are light and trifling for having pronounced Anathema against those which deny for example that Infants dying without Baptism are damned Mr. Nicholas makes no difficulty to condemn all those which do not believe the sovereign and absolute necessity of Baptism Thirdly We have a third proof of the falseness of this Pretence that the Roman Church is in possession of that Unity out of which there is no Salvation in this That God preserves the Ministry of his Word in many Places and in many Churches which do not submit to the Latin Church The Word of God never returns without effect The Wisdom of God will not permit that he should preserve the Ministry in places where there are none but
the Title Attributes Privileges Powers and Homages which appertain to the Deity That the Worship of Images by which we prostrate our selves before Wood and Stone against an express Prohibition of the Law by which we adore that which is but Bread That the setting up a new real and true Sacrifice unknown to Jesus Christ and the Apostles That the taking the half of one Sacrament and the addition of five whole ones That to cover a superstitious Worship and bury it in a barbarous Language do you believe say I that all this is called Wood Hay and Stubble Doth not sound Sense tell you that Wood Hay and Stubble are light are trifling things but that they are not filthy and wicked and by consequence that it doth not represent any thing but light and trifling Doctrines but such as have nothing in them that is filthy or evil such as are besides the Word of God but not against it There is no Man which does not perceive this and he must be blinded by Interest not to see a thing so obvious and visible You have not therefore any reason to put the pernicious Doctrines of Popery amongst Wood and Hay and Stubble nor have you any Authority for it I do not know any Text of Scripture which may make you suspect that God is not jealous of seeing you give that Worship to Creatures which is due only to the Creator He hates Idolatry and defines it by giving his Honor to another As I live saith the Lord I will not give my glory to another Now are not Temples Sacrifices Prayers Vows Oaths and Altars the Honors due to God and by consequence they not of the number of those things of which he says I will not give my Glory to another Nevertheless in Popery they are given to the Saints and above all to the Blessed Virgin. You may fairly pluck out your eyes you cannot hinder your selves from seeing it and in what follows we shall have an opportunity to prove it Jesus Christ alone you add will make Separation of this Wood and this Gold the good and the fair Grain shall be separated at the last day but we must let them grew together till then I fear my Brethren that if you go on to blind your selves God will abandon you to your darkness You are strange Commentators on the Gospel Text you ought first to read the Interpretation which the Lord gives of the Parable before you give your own Behold it proceeding out of the Mouth of Jesus Christ He which sowed the good seed is the Son of Man the field is the World the good seed are the children of the Kingdom the Tares are the children of the wicked one The field is the World then 't is not the Church 't is therefore in the World that we ought to tolerate Hereticks and Idolaters and not in the Church But besides know two things 1. That Parables are good Proofs when we don't abuse them but 't is very easie to abuse them when Piety and Religion doth not guide us I compare you to your Converters who at this day press those Words of the Parable of the Marriage Supper so hard Constrain them to come in Behold their Text Let them grow together till the Harvest and then I will separate them behold yours The one and the other is unhappily wrested and turned to another sense because Men will not enter into the Spirit of the Parable which is the only thing essential and to which we must give attention to make a good use of Similitudes It is therefore necessary in the second place that you learn the design and inward meaning of those Words Let them grow together till the Harvest c. 'T is to shew the Patience of God towards the Wicked and not the Patience that we ought to have towards them God represents himself as a Master which hath Right to destroy the World and ruine both good and bad because that the Wicked are infinitely the greater number in the World than the Good. But he will not do it He stays to display his greatest Judgments upon the World till the last day when he will make a Separation of the Good from the Bad therefore he has no design to teach us that we must peaceably suffer Heresies and Idolatries to grow together with the Truth and I can prove it by a hundred Reasons but I will content my self to shew you that these Words Let them grow together c. cannot signifie Let Heresies grow together suffer them and live peaceably in a corrupt Church since the intention of God on the contrary is that with all our Strength we pluck up the Tares out of the Field of the Lord That he hath appointed us to say Anathema to him who shall preach any other thing to us than what hath been preached in the Gospel that we should avoid an Heretick that we should cast the Wicked out from among us that we should go out from Babylon and that we should not drink of the Cup of her Enchantments If the end of the Parable Let them grow together till the Harvest were that which you give to it we should have no right to drive from our Society neither the Vicious nor the Troublers of the Church nor any sort of Criminals A Magistrate might not hang a Murderer nor burn a Sodomite It might be always said unto him Let them grow together till the Harvest I may add to this that by the Tares which grew up with the good Grain we must understand Hypocrites and false Christians Now 't is true that we must have this kind of men and give them up to the judgment of God for he only perfectly knows them and hath the only right to punish them We will answer to the rest of your difficulties in the following Letter The Uniformity of the Persecution is the cause that we have less of History to furnish you withal 'T is always and every where the same Persons are imprisoned others are sent to the Gallies Women are shut up in Cloysters Bodies are drawn on Hurdles and thrown to the Dunghil so that it will be always the same thing there will be nothing but differing Names which may increase the horror which you have for the Persecution as you see the rage of your Persecutors increase for example in that kind of Executions which are made upon the Bodies of those which will not communicate in their last Sickness Was there not something singular in the Cruelty which was exercised on the Body of a Woman about 60 years of Age who died at Soubize the 16th of November in the Year past This Woman was called La Jarnat Widow of one named Rame fell sick about the end of the Month during her Sickness the Curate and the Officers of Justice employed Exhortations Threatnings Kindness and Terrors to obtain of her to communicate against her Conscience i. e. that she would damn her self with all possible care This poor
fill the place of an Assistant-Moderator in which he ought to do and say much and by consequence could not be supplied by a Phantome Besides Monsieur Asimont who was the Secretary then living speaking and residing in France would have been able although he were a Minister and a persecuted Minister and had his mouth stoped to have returned upon him the injury of this Falshood for 't is known that single persons take these sort of matters more warmly than whole Bodies and Societies of men because the danger is more urgent and pressing upon them 'T is true that the Synod of Thonnins in the Month of December in the Year 1683 drew up the Act which we have seen above But the Priest Soulier says thereon Nevertheless these Gentlemen who had never taken this Resolution but the better to hide their Game staid there And some Pages after Did they proceed any farther in pursuit of this Resolution That is to say to carry their Complaints to the King and prosecute Soulier as a Calumniator All these threatnings says he are vanished into smoke and it was well seen that all this noise war nothing else but a pure effect of their Policy This is very wicked in the mouth of a man who knows as all the World doth that from the Synod of Thonnins unto the first Mission of the Dragoons there passed not above fifteen or sixteen Months that the ruin of the Reformed was sworn and determined to a stated time that for the space of four Years no Paper of Remonstrance Complaint Justification Request or thing of like nature would be received from them that the person of the King was inaccessible for them that all the Tribunals of the Kingdom had in like manner been shut upon them Soulier tells us that the Province of Guyenne had Monsieur Janicon for Deputy-General at Paris but he might very well have known also seeing he knows so many things that it was in the Synod of Thonnins in 1683 that Monsieur Janicon discharged himself of this Office because he knew that from thenceforth it would be to no advantage and that they would hear no man who had any thing to say for Justification of the Reformed 'T is true that the Synod named Monsieur Charron an Advocate and another Deputy to go and carry this Complaint to the King But who then dared to appear at the Court He must have a desire to see the Bastile and to understand what Bread men eat there This Villain knows all this and insults over poor oppressed persons because of their silence in a time when it was for them a Crime no less than Treason to dare to complain of any kind of Injustice whatever it was The Deputies of the Synod of Lower Guyenne would have been well received had they gone to complain of Soulier a man that the Clergy had purposely set up to Defame Injure and Destroy them in a time when the Court had already dispatched if I may so say Commissions to the Dragoons to treat the Reformed as Rebels and open declared Enemies The first Argument of Falshood and the Justifications thereof I pass the Reflections which Soulier makes use of to destroy the Arguments and Mediums which we have made use of to prove this Act of Montpazier to be a false Imposture First we have said That there never was a Synod more known and understood by our Enemies Besides an infinite number of Papists Monks and paltry Priests the Bishop of Cahors was there and especially Monsieur Soulier as he himself informs us This Circumstance may be of use to us to make very probable Conjectures concerning the Original of this Act. Besides all this the King had a Commissary there From all which we conclude that there was no likelihood that these Ministers should be such Fools to treat of an Affair of this nature in a place where there were so many persons their Enemies Soulier says thereon That the Catholicks were not admitted to their Assembly that we know well but we also know that the Clergy are at expence for Spies and that they never fail to know all that they please 'T is known that this Assembly was made up of about one hundred Pastors and well near as many Elders that among these men there were those which had no true Piety nor any Zeal for their Religion as it appears by their Revolt and Apostacy These men are indiscreet interested easie to be gained and the Agents of the Clergy know them very well Concerning the Commissary Soulier says things which the Providence of God hath permitted to confound these Impostures First he says That Monsieur of St. Blancard was the King's Man in this Synod and we shall see by and by from the Deposition of four Witnesses which were there present that it was Monsieur de Villefranche of Vivans who was Commissary This is say I an effect of the Vengeance of God for the Confusion of these Impostures For there was nothing so easie as to know who was the King's Agent there the Acts of all the Synods were sent to the Court the Commissaries were always named there and they even subscribed and made a particular mark on the Copy which they sent to the King. And these Copies are kept in the Office of Monsieur Chastean-neuf This makes it suspicious that this Imposture was not formed at Paris but in the Province in some place where not having sufficient Memorials they depended too much upon the treacherous Memory of the Contrivers Yea it appears that Soulier is a Lyer when he speaks as an absolute Disposer of all that was in the Office of Monsieur Chastean-neuf For if he had been admitted thither he would have rectified the Error that himself or other Authors of this Forgery had made And that Soulier may not deceive the Publick by saying that Monsieur St. Blancard and Monsieur de Villefranche de Vivans are two names but not two persons it must be known that Monsieur Blancard was a Gentleman of Agenois Uncle of the Chevalier Montand heretofore Captain in a Regiment of Dragoons and this Monsieur de St. Blancard hath been dead these six or seven years And Monsieur de Villefranche de Vivans was a Gentleman of Perigort Uncle to Monsieur the Count of Vivans Lieutenant-General in the Army of the King. He died not above three or four years since The second thing which he says is That Monsieur St. Blancard was of the Reformed Religion that he might be of Intelligence with the Synod in this Conspiracy and that so 't is not to be admired that he did not reveal it What a Prodigy is this That a Commissary of the King in our Synods should betray his Master and his Prince in a point of Conspiracie against the State without giving him any notice of it Although these Commissaries had been capable of shutting their eyes on some small thing hath there been any example in these last times of a man commissioned
the Poet said Furor arma ministrat Fury finds Arms and when they have no Cities they will take them There is some probability that Mr. Soulier knows how to read Latin for he hath transcribed three words thereof and this makes much to his honour against the Accusation of his Master Mesnier and Mr. Le Feure We answer to Mr. Soulier that we cannot warrant all the thoughts of other men but though it should be true that there were yet some reason to fear the Reformed as much abased and subjected as they are because Fury furnishes Arms yet there was no reason to fear them in the time of the Synod of Montpazier because then there was nothing which might move their Rage Lambs become Lions when they are run against the Walls The despair into which they thrust the Reformed might indeed have furnished them with Arms if God had not prevented those unhappy Commotions But it was impossible that the condition in which they were in 1659. should put them into that despair which puts them upon any thing and makes them sometimes successful therein An tighth Argument of Falshood and its Defence against the Wrangles of Soulier We drew an invincible Argument of Falshood against this wicked Piece from the Silence of the Court The King knew many Years since by the means of Joly Bishop of Agen and the Cardinal of Bouillion That they had formed a horrid Conspiracy in Guyenne against his State he knew the Authors thereof they were yet alive but he said nothing of it he did not chastise those who had made this bold Attempt He complained not of it any where and from whence comes this Spirit of Patience Have they forgiven the least fault to the Reformed for the space of twenty Years Have they not laid to their charge a thousand false Crimes Have they not had an open Ear for all their Accusors Have they not punished them severely for Faults falsely imputed and ill proved And would they neglect the punishment of Treason in him that was Principal therein who will believe it and whom can Soulier perswade of the truth of it Besides at what time was this Observe it was at a time in which they had sworn the Ruine of the Protestants in which they earnestly wished to find them culpable in which they did even all that can be imagined to make them so Was there any thing so much desired by the Clergy and the Court as to have a small occasion to say Seeing that our said Subjects have always persevered in a Spirit of Faction and Rebellion even in the times when they intirely enjoyed our Favour under the benefits of our Edicts as appears by the Conspiracy of Montpazier This would have been conveniently inserted in the Edict which revokes that of Nantes but there is nothing like it seen there they give no other reason there But that the greatest and the best part of our Subjects of the said Reformed Protestant Religion had embraced the Catholick so that the Edict of Nantes and all that had been granted in favour of the said Reformed Protestant Religion continues to no purpose It is very much worthy of Observation that only two Years before in the time when the utter Destruction of the Reformed was resolved the King gives a publick Testimony to their-Fidelity 't is in the Act of Oblivion granted to the pretended Rebels of Dauphine that is to say to those poor Men who were willing to pray to GOD upon the Ruine of their Churches without doing injury to any one but also without desires of being troubled there The King say I in the Oblivion which he granted to these men says The immoveable Fidelity of all our other Subjects of the said Religion hath inclined us rather to entertain thoughts of Clemency than of Rigour towards the Guilty How could it be that the Court should have such apprehensions of the Fidelity of the Protestants of the Kingdom if it had in its hand an Act capable of convincing them of desiring to expose the Kingdom as a prey to Strangers And if it had them not but knew well the Conspiracy of Montpazier and gave credit to it what could oblige it to insert a Clause so false in this Act of Oblivion I know very well that Kings in these fort of Acts pretend themselves satisfied oftentimes with persons which they do commend at that very season when they are least satisfied with them But it is when there is something to fear 't is when they would oblige men to lay down their Arms who are in a condition to make themselves feared and when actually and indeed they are afraid of them But I intreat you what is it that the King with 200000 Men in Arms without any foreign Wars hath to fear of a thousand or twelve hundred Peasants of Dauphine Vivarets and Cevennes of whom they had already massacred more than two thirds If Soulier can reconcile this with a pretended perswasion that the Court hath of the truth of the Conspiracy of Montpazier he will do us a kindness to do it But saith he the conclusion which they draw from the silence of the Court is no proof that it doubts the truth of this Act the liberty which the King hath given me of defending my self and maintaining it is an indisputable proof that his Majesty doth not doubt thereof A very fine proof The King hath permitted Soulier to defend this Piece therefore it is true and he believes 't is so First the King it may be knows not who this Soulier is and 't is known that these kind of Permissions pass by the means of a Father Confessour or some other Ecclesiastick who says concerning it what he pleases being much assured that he shall never be reprehended for it Besides behold a great Wonder that they suffer such a man as Soulier is to hazard his Reputation If he succeed to perswade this pretended Conspiracy of Montpazier with good luck the Court will always gain thereby and 't will be a reason and pretence to justifie its Conduct If he does not succeed therein the shame will remain upon him alone no name or person of Quality appears therein the hurt will not be great 'T is thus that men reason naturally in the World So that the Permission which the Court gives him to defend the truth of this Conspiracy is so far from being a mark of the value they have for him that 't is a proof they look on him as a Wretch which they abandon and leave as forlorn Let him shew us any man of Reputation which joyns with him in this Cause There is nothing more pleasant than to see the Value and Reputation which this Priest Soulier puts upon himself He demanded leave from the Court says he to defend himself and the King was pleased to permit it And speaking of an Author which goes for a person a little more able than he If this Writer expects I should do him the Honour
before our general Banishment Is it credible he would have permitted a Minister convinced of Rebellion against his Majesty and of Conspiracy against the State to go out of his Kingdom He who had kept in Prison other Ministers of Guyenne for Preaching or Praying after the Prohibitions would he have given the Keys of the Gates to a Minister known guilty not only of the same faults but of a crime worthy of the severest Punishment Certainly there is nothing could have protected me and I must have expected to have been condemned to Prison or to the Gallies for ever Seeing therefore that after the sight of this Act he gave me my Pass-port and was content with my Banishment as well as with that of others 't is an indisputable proof that he gave no credit to it and knew the Falshood thereof only he thought fit to leave Soulier at liberty to fight us with the Weapons of his Tongue and Pen. To conclude though we have to do with a King who hath condemned his Faithful Subjects to Banishment even those who exposed their Goods their Lives and Liberties to his Service yet I do not repent the performance of my Duty 't is matter of Confidence to me and gives me the boldness to implore the Protection of GOD against the Cruelty of Men. Two things are considerable in this Testimony of Monsieur Asimont the first is That he is a man of great Age and of whom it may be said that he expects the moment in which he must go and appear before God. Can any one believe that a man so near to leave the World should be willing to keep measures with it for the preservation of I know not what trifle of Honour and Reputation and that being so near his appearance before God should dare to prophane his holy Name by so many Falshoods and Perjuries The other thing observable is The Circumstance which he observes in his Letter concerning the suspicion though unjust under which he fell in the minds of some of his Brethren by reason of a certain Letter of Favour and Thanks which the King caused to be written to him as an Acknowledgment of his Fidelity to his Service This is notorious and all the World knows it Is there any probability that they would trust such a man with a Conspiracy which they knew to have been so faithful and so perfectly in the Interests of the Court But is there any probability that a man who had been so faithful to the King and so fast and sure to his Service would have any part in such a Confederacy and Conspiracy I do acknowledge that I have no more to say after this and that if the Priest Soulier does continue to maintain his Act and Conspiracy of Montpazier he may very well boast that he hath the gift of Impudence to the highest degree and measure For never had Romance and Fiction so many marks of Falshood Let us see them a little altogether 1. Ricottier is here Minister of Clairac and in truth he was Minister of the Reformed Church of Burdeaux 2. Saint Blancard is here Commissary for the King but in truth 't was Monsieur Vivans of Vilefranche 3. Daret is he by whose Mediation they treated with the English this Daret is a Phantome who never was in the World. 4. Durel Minister of the Duke de la Force substituted in the place of Daret was not Assistant to the Synod 't was Dorde Minister of Montpazier itself 5. To Durel who treated with the English they give the name of Elijah or Estienne or Esay or some such name beginning with an E and yet his name was John. 6. Durel is present he receives the Act and nevertheless he was not so much as deputed to the Synod 7. Durel treated with Cromewell who even had been dead ten Months 8. Durel treated with the Parliamentarians to whom he was a mortal Enemy and by whom he was mortally hated 9. The English offer to enter France with their Arms in a time when they were in the greatest Confusion among themselves in an Anarchy and by consequence in a state of the utmost weakness 10. A Conspiracy is discovered to the Court part of the Authors are living and the Court says nothing thereof 11. Asimont one of the principal Conspirators begs leave for himself and his two Sons to depart the Kingdom 't is granted him without any difficulty 12. They suppress the Edict of Nantes they Persecute the Reformed even to death without objecting this Conspiracy as a fault unto them 13. Men enterprize and attempt to deliver places to an Enemy which they have not had in their hands these fifty Years 14. Men attempt to raise a Civil War in the time of the Peace of the Pyreneans at a season when the Kingdom remained without any trouble from abroad 15. They are four or five Ministers and it may be as many Elders which make this Conspiracy and pretend to execute this great Design without communicating it to any one 16. Or they did communicate a Secret on which the Lives of an infinite number of persons depended to an hundred and fifty Deputies yea to all the Consistories 17. To conclude the Reformed attempted to trouble a Kingdom and themselves in a time when they enjoyed a very great Peace I do maintain that here are a heap of Falshoods Contradictions and Follies so plain and sensible that a man must have a head and heart made like those of Soulier the Priest to be able to digest them To conclude let us see a little the Channels by which this Piece hath passed and Providence will therein shew us new Indications of Falshood As to its source 't is sufficiently difficult to discover it according to Soulier this Act made by the Synod of Montpazier is put into the hands of the Minister Vignier Vignier died in the Year 1666 and dying committed this Piece in trust into the hands of Mounier Minister of Nerac also and his Colleague the Minister Mounier turns Catholick in the Year 1675 and dies in the Year 1677 at Paris in an Inn near the House of Soissons Monsieur de Quesne Arch-Deacon and Vicar-General of Condom goes to see him in the time of his Sickness he gives him this Act of Montpazier Monsieur de Quesne gives it Monsieur Joly then Bishop of Agen Joly gives it to Monsieur the Cardinal of Bouillion the Cardinal of Bouillion gives it to the King and at last the King gives it to Monsieur Chasteau-neuf who puts it in his Office where it is sealed up and joyned to the Acts of the Synod of Montpazier Behold a great many hands which are either unknown to us or suspected by us As to the Minister Mounier we do continue to say he was a man wounded in his Reputation by Suspension from his Ministry he was besides an Apostate from the Truth and had the Character of all voluntary Apostates i. e. hatred for the Truth and for those which do
some times keeping Whores sometimes a Sodomite some times a Sorcerer sometimes a Murderer and a Paracide sometimes an Adulterer and Corrupter of Wives and Women sometimes like a Bloud-sucker devouring Provinces swallowing up Kingdoms exhausting their Substance and drawing Tributes from all the Earth He hath been seen Cheating Deceiving making false Oaths violating Treaties stirring up Seditions moving to Wars He has been seen to make an horrible Traffick of Sins selling Pardon for Sodomies for having lain with Sister and Mother and even with a Beast for having killed his Father his Benefactor and even his King He himself hath been seen killing poysoning robbing exercising rage ambition and dreadful robberies I do profess that he must be fallen to a reprobate sense to call such a man the Vicar of Jesus Christ and to imagine that such a See is the seat of the Church After you have lookt upon the Head if you consider the Members of Popery you will see great Lords Lovers of the World who call themselves the Princes of the Church who being oftentimes nothing but the dregs of the People dispute place with Soveraigns They keep Houses and the Train of Princes they have magnificent Equipage stately Lodgings sumptuous Furniture and delicate Tables They are the Councils and the Senate of the Pope they are the Cardinals which call themselves the Pillars of the whole World upon which the Church stands These are the Ministers of Jesus Christ who said to his Disciples That he who will be greatest among you let him be your servant Verily verily I say unto you That if you humble not yourselves as a little child you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven Below these Prince-ministers of the Antichristian Empire we see Bishops another sort of secular Princes Governours of Diocesses i. e. the Provinces of the Pope who call themselves Bishops Archbishops c. by the Grace and Favour of the Holy See after the same manner that the Govournours of the Provinces of a Kingdom take the Title of their Dignity by the Favour of their King These men possess a great Revenue which was appointed by the Donors to nourish the Poor but serves nevertheless to maintain the best Table in the Province a great number of debaucht and unruly Servants Cooks that are most expert in the Art of making curious Meats and Sawces Coaches with six Horses paeks of Hounds and oftentimes a race of prostituted Whores These men cause themselves to be called my Lord in the World and treat their Inferiours like Pages and Foot-boys These have not the least grain of that which is called the Spirit of the Gospel but are animated by the Spirit of the World that of Disorder Debauchery Ambition and Avarice They watch not over their Flocks but after some Benefice greater than their own after which they gape always like Wolves after their Prey Below these Superiours are seen an inferiour Clergy composed either of Cannons appointed to sing Vespers and Mattins in Cathedral Churches whose repose ease good chear long sleep drunkenness sloth fat and plumpness have always served and do serve still for matter of Satyrs and Jests or they are Curates who are not only for the most part the dregs of the Clergy but dregs of the People excepting those of great Cities who put themselves to the labour of instructing themselves at the least in the way to live like the World the rest are ignorant brutish drunken Whore-masters given to the basest most shameful Vices And besides this the Clergy is made up of an infinite number of little Priests which are above all in Italy and Spain as they were heretofore every-where Ministers of the filthiest pleasures and of the most criminal attempts Are these the Guides of Jerusalem or the Builders of Babel My Brethren look not upon the Clergy of Paris who are better governed consider that during the space of seven or eight hundred years the Popish Clergy were of this make in all the Roman Church look upon Spain and Italy where it is publickly known that the Clergy are yet thus formed and fashioned Consult those which have seen Rome a little near at hand Learn from them that Religion there is an Interlude and that all the Ecclesiasticks are Comedians which do not believe in God. An honest man came a little while since from Italy and told us from his own observation That when they are at their Devotions they commit Indecencies and make such noise there that honest men in France would not do at play Judge whether it be likely that God hath permitted so horrible a Corruption of Manners in a Church pure and infallible From the Clergy i. e. from the Priests pass to the Monks which are the holy part of Popery where are found the Reverent Fathers the seraphical and angelical Doctors Draw the Curtain from their Hypocrisie and you will see an Abyss of Impurities men who under pretence of long Prayers devour Widdows Houses Wolves gaping after a prey which compass about the Beds of the sick and dying to obtain great gifts and presents men who think Gain to be Godliness who dress Religion like a Play that they may draw Spectators who in their Houses perform Paganish Devotions and such as are ridiculous and worthy of the Theatre to draw the crowd of people and to obtain Offerings who by this means obtain those Alms which belong to the Poor who by these Alms maintain themselves in a criminal sloth and idleness without being of any use to Church or State who behind their own Walls and Curtains abandon themselves to the utmost Extreamities of Wickedness who eat and drink and sleep like Hogs who go not without the Walls of their Cloisters but to run after strange Flesh who corrupt Wives and Daughters and to that end serve themselves 〈◊〉 all the most hideous and diabolical â—â—rts The pretence of Religion Sacraments arâ— the most holâ— things are employed therein You will see Houses of sacred Virgins so they call them which are the Lodgings of Impurity the Houses of â—rostitutes the places of those that are Debauched Behold those who are the principal and the most illustrious Members of Popery during the space of seven or eight hundred years by the confession of all the World and what they are yet to this day in an infinite number of places unto which the Reformation has not come 'T is by this that you ought to look upon the Members of Popery and not by some Reformed Societies which are in France whereof they let you see nothing but the out-side Judge whether the true Church and the true Religion could permit and suffer such horrible Disorders Are these the Pastors of Jesus Christ or the false Pastors of him who in the last times was to teach a Doctrine of Devils by men whose Consciences were seared with a hot Iron forbidding to Marry and abstaining from Meats which God hath created to be received by Believers IN our seventeenth Letter you may