cost the Lives of all those who should make Information and pass Sentence Oates and Bedlow are false Witnesses They are then false Witnesses of an admirable Character false Witnesses who agree perfectly well amongst themselves and never contradict one another But for all this they are false Witnesses who have concerted their business very ill If it is a Conspiracy it is a trick invented for the dishonouring the Society of the Jesuits to hang and quarter their Companions Methinks these false Witnesses ought to understand themselves something better On the Seventeenth of December five that were Accused were brought to be Examined and have their Tryal Whitebread the Provincial of the Jesuits William Ireland John Fenwick Thomas Pickering and John Grove Oates and Bedlow were produced against them as Witnesses These two Witnesses were found to know enough and to have said enough to cause three of those persons to be condemned Ireland Pickering and Grove Oates equally charged the five but Bedlow knew not enough to cause Whitebread and Fenwick to be condemned insomuch that they were obliged to send back to Prison these two last both of them Jesuits and to put off their Tryal till farther Information This is strange these two false Witnesses are great Fools Whitebread is the chief of the Conspiracy the Provincial of the Jesuits he whom they had the most reason to ruine and they are so imprudent as not to be of intelligence to tell one another what is capable of causing him to be condemned this is not to be comprehended Oates is a false Witness he says too much to be believed as is reported It must be confessed that if the Depositions of that Man are false it is the strangest and most unheard of thing in the World All the examples of fury of past Ages wrapt together do not approach that which is observed in this false Witness Never was there a link of such terrible Crimes as that Man charges the Accused with They have says he burnt London several times they would assassinate the King the Princes the Grandees and almost two thirds of the Inhabitants of the Kingdom overturn the State destroy the Religion change the Government and to that intent set whole Rivers of blood a flowing Is it credible that there is so wicked a Man in the World as to charge those that are innocent with so many Crimes Perhaps that a passion of revenge might move a Man to lay so Infernal a train to satisfie himself for some outrage he had received But what outrage does there appear that Oates and Bedlow had received from the Roman-Catholicks The most part of those that are accused maintain that Oates and Bedlow are unkown to them If they are unknown to them they have not then done them any outrage which might more them to so prodigious a revenge Moreover by the Testimony of those amongst the accused who confess they know their Accusers it is certain that both of these Witnesses were Roman-Catholicks They had not changed their Religion had it not been for the horrour of the Plot they had not become Apostates had not they been pricked in their Consciences they had not any other reason to be pushed on by a spirit of hatred against the Catholick Religion and against those who profess it wherefore it was only the horrour of the Fact which struck them and obliged them to prevent so horrible effusion of blood Methinks that false Witnesses should not charge themselves with so great a number of Facts lest they should be exposed to contradict one another There needed no more to be said than in two or three Articles that such People have Conspired against the State and against the Religion and might have been executed after that manner But it appears that Oates 〈◊〉 â—ourscore heads of accusation and makes a History of more than fifteen years well pursued and well 〈…〉 It is requisite to have an 〈◊〉 â—â—â—…tion that has hardly the like â—â—â—…vent such a Romance so well purâ—â—â—â—… I likewise find that those Witneâ—â—s are very bold to invent such horrible Depositions against People who so well know how to make use of the Knife for the dispatching their Enemies as appears by the Death of Godfrey The good Nature of those good Fathers would be very great if they did not revenge themselves on Oats and Bedlow in case that their Depositions were true but it is hardly credible that it would reach so far as to let two Impostors live peaceably who had charged them with the most horrid Calumnies that Hell had ever imagined And if they have a design to destroy them it is hard if they do not succeed in it sooner or later The King's Safe-guards and the Protection of the Parliament will little help them Wherefore if Oates and Bedlow were false Witnesses they are great Fools to expose themselves into so great a danger in this life for the damning themselves also in the other In fine my Hugonot Gentleman told me What have we to do with Oates and Bedlow to prove the Truth of that Conspiracy Let us take them if you will from off the Scene and judge of the business by Coleman's Letters to Father le Cheise and to some others These Letters have been acknowledged the accused have not denied them There is one to the Pope's Nuncio at Brussels Dated the 9th of August 1674. which says in proper terms That their design advanced apace and that they should quickly see the ruine of the Protestant Party Is any thing of more force than what Coleman says to Father le Cheise in one of the Letters he wrote to him We have undertaken a great Work it is no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms and the entire subversion of that pestilent Heresie which has for so long a time rul'd over this Northern part of the World And we have never had so great hopes since the Reign of Our Queen Mary And towards the end of the Letter he powerfully sollicites Father le Cheise to obtain succours of Money and Arms for putting in execution this great Design It is perhaps by the way of Preaching that Coleman pretended to Convert those three Kingdoms Arms and Money are very necessary to give efficacy to Grace and Preaching It is certainly in that spirit of Zeal and well regulated Devotion that Coleman says Though I had a Sea of Blood and a thousand Lives I would willingly lose them all for the execution of this Design and if to bring it to pass it was requisite to destroy an hundred Heretick Kings I would do it These words are pretty strong It is Bedlow who has reported them and says he heard them If he invented them in cold Blood and without being moved with Anger I find him admirable in the art of feigning Passions For it must be avowed that these expressions give us a lively image of a Man the most moved and the most concerned that has ever been seen For a Man of War
Par. I should be glad to know some of the particulars of your Conversations Prov. I waited with great impatience to impart them to you for he has very much fortified the difficulty that I intend to propose to you To speak seriously I must assure you he sometimes moved and touched me For example he told me yesterday Must so many efforts be used to force from us that French heart that God and Birth has given us What have we done to merit so many misfortunes and such severe punishments We are hunted we are drove up and down as if we were the Plagues of the Republick We are treated as the enemies of the Christian Name In places where the Jews are tolerated they have all manner of liberty they exercise Arts and Merchandize they are Physicians they are consulted the health and life of Christians is put into their hands And as for us as if we were infected we are forbidden to approach Children that come into the World we are banished from the Bars and Faculties we are removed from the King's Person we are banished from Societies our Charges are taken from us we are forbidden the use of all means that might secure us from being famished we are abandoned to the hatred of the People we are deprived of that precious liberty that we had purchased by so many Services our Children are taken from us who are a part of our selves we are made to lead a languishing life in lowness in poverty and often in dark Prisons Formerly when Declarations were made against us they were at most contented with Registring them in the Rolls They are at present fixed up they are cryed about the Streets as if they were Gazettes to inspire the People with a spirit of fury against us And they have been so successful that in the great Cities of France we expect to have our Throats cut one time or another by a popular Sedition so that we are very near the Inquisition Can it be said that there is Liberty of Conscience in a Kingdom where the People are banished lose their Honour and their Goods are confiscated for Religion's sake There needs nothing more than Fire and that terrible Tribunal of the Inquisition which France has been hitherto so much afraid of will be established there Are we Turks are we Infidels We believe in Jesus Christ we believe him the eternal Son of God we invoke him solely and we have no Idols We have a soveraign respect for the Sacred Scriptures we believe there is a Heaven and a Hell the Maxims of our Morality are of so great a purity that they dare not contradict them We have a respect for Kings we are good Subjects good Citizens faithful in Commerce Let us be tryed according to Law and it will appear if we have been engaged in any Conspiracy against the State and if we have any ways failed in our duty Thanks be to God nothing can stagger our fidelity and the stock of love we have for our Prince is not to be drain'd if it depended on our Enemies we should be Enemies of the State we make a part of they design to push us on to Crimes that the King may have a just occasion of ruining us but they have hitherto missed their aim and are like to do so still the King may see it whilst that they so successfully turn the effects of his goodness from us there is not one of us but who is ready to lose his life for his sake we are Frenchmen as well as we are Reformed Christians we would shed to the very last drop of the blood of our veins to serve our King and for the preserving our Religion even to Death Par. If your Hugonot Gentleman has studied Rhetorick he has not wholly lost his time Prov. I know not if he has studied much but I easily perceive that passion is the source of his Eloquence for he told me what I have newly related to you with a zeal and passion that would have moved you Par. But could not you have stopped that Orators Mouth with one word in telling him that if the condition of the Catholicks in Holland and England was described and in all the Places where the Hugonots are Masters one might make a representation of their miseries much more touching than that they make of the ill Treatment the Religionaries receive in France Prov. I did not fail to lay that before his Eyes but he had a hundred things to tell me thereupon Par. You would oblige me by relating some of them Prov. I will tell you them First in regard of Holland He told me that I supposed a thing very far from truth that the Catholicks are there in oppression I know said he to me that you have been in that Country and you cannot deny but that they go there with as much liberty to Mass as at Paris Would to God added he that our Reformed had the same Conveniences there is not a City where the Catholicks are in a considerable number but that they have ten or twenty Houses wherein Mass is openly said and with an intire liberty They are seen to go in there they are seen to come out from them and no body dares say to them a word against it All that they are troubled at is that they are not Masters of the Churches and that they are obliged to do their Service in particular Houses There is in Holland a Country of small extent ten times more Ecclesiasticks than there are Ministers in all France which is very large There is a compleat Clergy and Hierarchy Amsterdam and all the other great Cities have their Bishops These Bishops have their Chapter and their Priests There are even Religious Houses It is true that all these people are something disguised but are they the less known Would it be difficult to unkennel them They are as well known as the Ecclesiasticks are in France and are not in the least insulted It is likewise true that at the sollicitation of some of the most zealous of the people the States formerly issued out Placates from time to time which forbad the exercise of the Catholick Religion but this is no longer so and it never caused one Stone to be took up against them It cost them about twenty or thirty Pistols for the Sheriff who put those Placates into his Pocket and no more talk was heard of them He added to this That it is unheard of that in that Country the Catholicks have been fatigued for the being Converted they are not at all disturbed in their Commerce They are Merchants Physicians Artizans Advocates and except the Charges of the Government of the State they are received without distinction into all Professions without so much as enquiring of what Religion they are No Body has Actions brought against them upon the account of Relapses or for having changed Religion In a word Liberty of Conscience is entire there as well as in all other places where
that poor Prince they would have drawn in again all the Copies that had been made of the Consultation of the Pope and of that of Sorbonne but this English Chaplain who had turned Catholick would not restore his and he has communicated it since the return of the Family of the Stuarts to the Crown of England to several persons who are still alive and were Eye-witnesses of what I have now told you Par. I never heard this before But the English Calvinists not producing any authentick pieces to prove this accusation it may be looked upon as a Calumny Prov. My Hugonot Gentleman would not answer for it for he is very just However he added that what rendred it very probable is that this Conduct is a sequal of the Divinity of the zealous Catholicks of Spain Italy and even of France Moreover there are several Circumstances which render the thing apparent By example he that lately published this story had already once published it in the year 1662 to answer a little Book that insulted over the English Calvinists in that they had put to death their King The Divine who knew the story that I have related published it to prove that the Catholicks were guilty of the Crime which the Calvinists were accused of When this story came to light there was a great emotion in the House of the Queen-Mother of the King of England that House being full of Jesuits and even that great Lord who had lead the Jesuits to Rome and had made himself chief of that Conspiracy was one of the principal Officers of the House They immediately demanded Justice of the King by the means of the Queen-Mother for the outrage that he who had published this scandalous story had done them The Doctor offered to prove his Accusation and to produce his Witnesses who were still living The great Lord and Officer of the Queens House and the Jesuits seeing the resolution of this Man durst not push him on they only obtain'd from the King by the means of the Queen-Mother that he should be silenced You must avow that there are but few that are innocent who would have been so easie in so terrible an Accusation Besides it is certain that this Consultation of Rome has been seen by several persons If it is false it must have been forged by this Chaplain who was turned Catholick and who shewed it since now it must be confessed that this is not very likely However as all this is reduced to a single Witness my Gentleman acknowledged that the proof was not wholly in the forms but he stood much upon the late Conspiracy of England which was discovered two years ago by which half the Kingdom was to have had their Throats cut for the becoming Masters of the rest Par. You had a fine opportunity to stop him there for you know very well that our Catholicks maintain that it is a perfect Calumny invented by the Calvinists for the having an occasion to persecute the Catholicks The Jesuits of St. Omer have they not made appear that their Witnesses Oates and Bedlow are false Witnesses Prov. I did not fail to make him that reply but I avow to you that my Conscience did not permit me to rely much upon that Answer for to tell you the truth I am very much perswaded that it is false I know that the mistaken zeal and fury that the false Religion inspires are capable of a great many things I easily conceive that it might come into the head of forty of fifty false Zealots to lay a train for the ruine of the Party they would destroy but I shall never perswade my self that a whole Kingdom should enter into such a Conspiracy and that a Parliament composed of five or six hundred persons assembled from all the parts of a great State can enter unanimously into the Infernal Spirit of supposing such a Crime against Millions of Innocents for the having a pretext to persecute them And my old Hugonot who is full of fire and has a great deal of good sense took me up immediately with much vigour saying Is it possible that such a man as you can say such a thing Ah! leave such stories to the Jesuits of St. Omers they are accused it is not strange that they defend themselves and the action is so black and so detestable that they cannot do less than disavow it If it had had a happy success they would have been proud of it at present now they are discovered they deny it If there needs no more than denying to be justified never any one would be guilty They justifie themselves after a pretty manner they send about Certificates and Attestations to prove the Contradictions they impute to Oates which are things very hard to make and obtain In a severe Morality as is that of the Jesuits it is a great point for the persons who are instructed in their Schools to give false Certificates for the saving the Honour of all the Society of the Jesuits and even of all the Roman Church Though we had not the Tryals of Hill Green Berry Coleman Ireland Grove and Pickering which justifie the truth of that Conspiracy is it credible that there can be such wicked Judges as to condemn to death so many innocent persons If they had only had a design of dispatching those seven persons they had clandestine way to compass it But they must have renounced good Sense as well as Conscience to try openly and in the face of all Europe people whose innocence appearing to the eyes of all the Earth would have covered with shame and infamy those who should have condemned them If it be only a pretended quarrel against the Catholicks for the having a pretext to ruine them why are they not ruined All that has been spread abroad on this side the Sea are Fables It has not cost the life of one person besides these Wretches The Roman Catholicks have been for some time obliged to remove from London a very great punishment indeed for so detestable a Conspiracy I am certain that if such a Conspiracy of the Protestants has been discovered in France against the Catholicks which God forbid there would not be at this time one only Hugonot in the Kingdom and the People could not have been hindred from Massacring those who should have escaped from the rigours of the Justice The Murder committed in the person of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey the first Justice who took the Depositions and Particulars of the Conspiracy is so speaking and strong a proof that it alone is capable of confounding those who would charge the Protestants with the horrible Crime of having invented all that Tragedy for the aspersing the Roman Church What had that poor Justice done to merit the being assassinated Is it not clear that those Gentlemen who so well know how to make use of the Ponyard and the Knife had a mind to terrifie all the Judges and hinder them from pursuing an Inquest which should
Provinces taken so many Cities made so many Sieges and won so many Battels nothing can be more worthy of him and more capable of rendering the memory of his Reign Glorious than the re-uniting the Religions in France He has hearkned to it and will forget nothing for the accomplishment of this Design The King does not naturally love to vex his people and if he was left to act according to his inclinations things would not be carried on so violently but he is pushed on and is not left at quiet Prov. It is not however believed that violent means shall be employed that is to say Sword Fire and Banishment Par. If some Bigots were listened to nothing should be spared But the general vein of the Kingdom does not go so The King does not love violence Besides how weak soever a Party may be when it is pusht to extremity it is capable of giving a desperate blow It was not observed that this Conduct succeeded in the last age And in fine the King whose principle aim is to make himself formidable to his Neighbours does not design to depopulate his Countries And doubtless they would be considerably depopulated if the Hugonots were destroyed by the Sword or chased away by Banishment Prov. It is well known that the Kings Prospects are very opposite to those for he has made several Ordonnances to hinder his Subjects from leaving the Kingdom It is likely that the Hugonots have a very great share in them they are not allowed to go seek reâ—ose elsewhere They must stay and be exposed to the ills that are designed them and that they may at length change being wearied with so many Fatigues or invited by such hopes Par. It is so it is not to be dissembled See here then the manner by which it is pretended to compass the great Design of re-uniting them to the Church It has been observed by experience that there are two things that give root to Heresie in a State The first is the great Liberty that the Hereticks have of preaching their Doctrines The Second is the Conveniency of Life when they are suffered to live in a profound Peace and enjoy Charges Employes and all the other Dignities and Priviledges which the other Subjects enjoy Prov. It is certain when a man is born of a Religion and that he finds therein all the Repose Riches Pleasure and Honour that he could wish he has no great mind to change it how little zealous soever he may be Par. That 's true and therefore during fifty Years there was not so many Conversions seen as within these five Years The Edicts given in favour of the Hugonots by Henry the 4th and confirmed by his Successour Lewis the 13th granted them great Liberties In the Cities where they were most numerous they possessed one part of the Magistratures they had Chambers of the Edict in the Parliaments and likewise divided Chambers in the Provinces where they were most numerous They avoqued all their Causes to these Chambers that the zealous Catholick might not do them injustice They exercised all manner of honourable and gainful Professions with the same liberty as the Catholicks They were Counsellors and Attorneys at Law Physicians gathered in a Body of the Faculty They were received into Arts they carried on Trade they likewise entred into the Kings affairs as well as others In War no distinction was made between them and the Catholicks Nothing was considered but Merrit and Fidelity and Service and Courage They were received into all the Military Dignities and had Pensions They were Collonels Brigadeers Major-Generals Lieutenant-Generals and even Marshals of France commanding Armies in Chief On the other part as for what concerned the exercise of their Religion they very freely enjoyed what had been granted them They had places appointed from the time of the Edict for their Sermons Every Gentleman having High Justices was as a little Soveraign in his House He might assemble by the sound of the Bell all the Religionaries thereabouts he made a Parish in his House and no body disturbed him The Bishops were used to suffer those people in their Diocesses They had even engagements with the Principals of this Party The Hugonot Lord made no scruple of visiting my Lord the Prelate and the Prelate on the other part lookt with a good Eye upon the Hugonot Gentleman Thus they lived in a very great Peace But it was visibly perceived that the Heresie took deep root by the favour of that repose as ill Herbs are increased by the gentleness of the Spring Prov. The State the Kingdom had been in for a long time had without doubt contributed to the tranquility the Hugonots enjoyed A War of thirty Years with Spain a long Minority Civil Broiles and Forreign Affairs had hindered the thoughts of them Par. That is certain For after all our Kings who bear with justice the name of most Christian and Eldest Sons of the Church have never lost the design of destroying Hereticks But their Prudence has obliged them to suspend the use of the means they designed to make use of for that end Prov. As for Henry the 4th I do not think this can be said of him He had treated with them with sincerity He was of opinion he had received great services from them he had been a long time of their Religion He only quitted it that he might quite dissipate the League which covered it self with the Cloak of Catholicity And we very well know that this remnant of Inclination that he had preserved for them cost him his Life After his Death during the minority of Lewis the 13th and the Ministry of the Marquess d' Ancre the Affairs of Court and State were in such disorder that there were few thoughts of extirpating the Hugonots It is true that Cardinal Richlieu took from them their Cities of Surety but it was rather out of a Politick prudence than any zeal of Religion He saw that it was a State in a State and that those Cities were retreats for Rebels and the Discontented but in the bottom he sought not their ruin His engagements were too small with the Court of Rome and was too able a Politician to ruin a Party of whose Fidelity he might always be assured It may likewise be said with more assurance that Cardinal Mazarin never thought of extirpating Heresie The Good man though an Italian and a Neighbour of the Church had no great zeal for it Riches were his only Divinity It is very well expressed in one of his Epitaphs Si Coelum rapitur habet He never sought any other way to go to Heaven thâ—n that of Rapine Especially he never thought of this way to Heaven which is called the Conversion of Hereticks Besides his Ministry was attended with so many Traverses and he was so hard put to it to defend himself against so many Enemies that it cannot be imagined he had ever any other Prospects than such as tended to the establishment
several Months in Prison but that he purged himself and yet was silenced by a decree of the Parliament of Greneble I know nothing of the particulars of his business if you are informed of them I pray you tell me what they are Prov. You have divined him it is the same his adventure has something very singular The Hugonots of Dauthine had kept a Fast in all their Churches and the Synod that had ordered it had enjoyned all the Ministers that belonged to it assisted with their Ancients to visit Families and put them in mind of what had been promised God on the Fast day These are the terms of the Article which was Printed and Divulged This Minister did not fail to execute this Order in his District It was during the heat of the War with Holland The Religious of St. Anthony who had lain in wait for him a long time laid hold on this occasion to insinuate themselves with the Court to his Cost They writ to M. le Tellier then Secretary of State that something was contriving against the Kings Service that the Hugonots had celebrated a Fast through all Dauphinate that there was a Plot Couched under this Fast and that Devotion was only the pretext of it That the Minister of had held secret Assemblies at the Houses of the Principals of his Parish that he had prayed God for the success of the Hollanders Arms and that he had gathered great sums of Money from those of of his Party to send to the Prince of Orange Par. Good Could this come into rational Heads though all the Hugonots of the Kingdom should have contributed to this gathering it would not have been sufficient to have furnished Oats to the Cavallry of the Army the Prince of Orange Commanded They can hardly maintain the six or seven hundred Ministers they have since the Seal and Subvension Moneys were taken from them that were destined to that use without any thinking of gatherings for forreign Countries Prov. I knew very well you would also cry out upon this Yet as strange and as unlikely as the thing is it caused this Minister a great deal of trouble There came Orders from the King to seize his Person He was kept in Prison for above four Months false Witnesses were raised to maintain the Accusation and if he had not had the Address to Convince them in the Confrontation he would certainly have passed his time very ill Par. This is horrible It is rather fury than zeal But it is with our Religious as with Angels when they are Corrupted they are Devils There is no manner of ill but what they are capable of Those of St. Anthony surpass in this all the other Orders They have appropriated to themselves vast Riches of St. Lazarus under pretext of Serving the sick Monsieur de Louvois who is chief of this Order designs to make them restore these Goods and to apply them to the Hall of Mars destined to the maintenance of the maimed without doubt these Reverend Fathers to fence off this 〈◊〉 with which they were threatned and to insinuate themselves into the Kings favour bethought themselves of giving this advice to the Court and sacrificing this Minister to their Interest Prov. You have hit the mark and methinks so many Monks ought not to be suffered The Policy of France observes there are too many It would be convenient to retrench at least the two thirds of them and to apply the Revenues of their Houses which are immense to the necessities of the State and to the ease of the people And the other Thirds Wings ought likewise to be clipped and hindred from growing great by forbidding them as is done at Venice to acquire stocks and receive considerable Gifts and Legacies It is the same with their Fraternities as with the Den of Esops Lyon all goes in and nothing comes out and it is not otherwise possible but that at length they must become yet more powerful and formidable Par. I am impatient to know the issue of this Process I beg you would tell it me Prov. The false Witnesses were freed for a Years absence from the Province and the Religious for some Reprimands from the Judges As for the Minister he was fined without any Note of Infamy and condemned to pay the Charges by reason of the visits he had made which they called Assemblies and the silencing of his Ministry too happy to have thus escaped from the Snare that was laid him I saw the Sentence in Print and fixed up by Order of the Bench. You see by all these Stories that all manner of ways are tryed for the tiring out those people their ruin comes on apace consider how many Declarations there be against them within these two Years Par. Two things are the cause of this The first is the Peace while the King has less forreign Affairs he employs himself in the reforming the disorders that may be in the State and in the Religion Moreover the disputes the King has had with the Pope has obliged him to appear severe against the Hugonots Prov. What Mozeray has observed in the Life of Henry the 2d is very true that the disputes of the Kings of France with the Popes have ever cost the Hugonots dear As soon as a Prince thinks of defending himself against the enterprizes of the Court of Rome he is accused of being an Abettor of Heresie and Princes to clear themselves of this suspicion redouble their severity against the Hereticks Par. You see that the Pope in the Briefs he has written to the King praises him for his zeal against Heresie and gives him joy for having destroyed so many Temples and the King on his part to appease the Pope has not failed to make him observe that in few Weeks he has made three very strong Declarations against the Hugonots Prov. Since we are fallen upon this tell me in short what were the disputes the King had with the Pope Par. There were two The first was upon the account of the Regality and the second upon the account of the Urbanists The Regality is a Right our Kings have over vacant Bishopricks upon the Decease or the Demission of those who possessed them During the vacancy the Fruits of them belong to the King and even till that the new Bishop has taken the Oath of Fidelity in Person all the Benifices which would be at the Bishops Nomination are at the Kings The most part of the Bishopricks in France have submitted to this Right However there are some who pretend not to be in the Regality and amongst others those of Guyenne and Languedock Of which kind is the Bishoprick of Pamiers near the Pyrences The King pretended he had the Right of Regality over that Bishoprick the Bishop pretended not His Temporals were seized on of which he complained to the Pope who proceeded so far in this affair as to threaten the King to make use of the Arms of the Church against him The
as Bedlow I find he would be very Eloquent and that he would succeed admirably well in composing the Character of a Stage-Hero Let us speak seriously one must have renounced all Modesty to dare to maintain that all this great action is only a Comedy and a Fiction Par. But as concerning Father le Cheise whom your Hugonot spoke of in the affair of Coleman I have admired how the English have aspersed him by the publication of Colemans Tryal For this Father is every where therein in the middle beginning and the end and it is upon him that the most convincing proofs turn that are produced against Coleman It appears that this F. Jesuit was of the Party and that he was engaged very deep into the design of re-establishing the Roman Catholick Religion in England by fire and by the effusion of Blood Prov. My Gentleman made me that remark and told me thereupon Methinks that the King's Equity ought to move him not to hearken to such a Man in what regards the Interests of the Subjects of the Reformed Religion What may not the Protestants of France fear from a Man who has been so deeply engaged in the design of cutting the Throats of so many millions of Protestants What Counsels may not he give to the King against us who would have set whole Rivers of the Blood of our Brethren aslowing and make a St. Bartholomew beyond the Seas Though he was innocent of the Affair of England the advices he gives against us ought to be suspected For it is clear that he ought to have a great resentment of the fierce accusations that have been formed against him and that he would have the intention to revenge himself on the Protestants of France for the outrages that he might pretend to have receiv'd from the Protestants of England Wherefore it is certain that the King ought to consider him as our declared enemy and as a passionate enemy and not as a zealous Catholick However this Father Jesuit brags he is the Master of all the King's Resolutions in what concerns us It is he if he may be believed to whom the Catholick Church is indebted for all the severe Declarations that have been made against us And when the Declaration was obtained which forbids Catholicks to turn to the Reformed Religion he entred into the Assembly of the Clergy with that Declaration in his hand with a triumphing air and said Here is the piece that has been so long a solliciting it is I that have obtained it If this man be so powerful over the King's mind as he brags he is the Protestants of France could not be secure of their lives We know from good hands added he that the Members of the Council are not too well satisfied in that the affairs His Majesty was used to consult them about and believe them in are at present put into the hands of a Jesuit Par. For my part I avow to you I am not too well perswaded no more than you that this Conspiracy of the English Catholicks is a fiction But I endeavour to perswade it to others because that I wish it were so for the honour of the Catholick Religion which never ought to inspire such Designs Prov. Be it as it will my Hugonot Gentleman concluded from all this that a Protestant Prince can never be assured of the Fidelity of his Catholick Subjects On the contrary said he the Protestants are subject to their Prince out of Conscience and out of a Principle of their Religion They acknowledge no other Superiour than their King and do not believe that for the cause of Heresie it is permitted either to kill a legitimate Prince or to refuse him obedience Par. You might have asked him if what the English do at present against the Duke of York agrees well with that Divinity Because that he is said to be Catholick they would declare him uncapable of succeeding his Brother Prov. I had not time to propose to him that difficulty for he prevented it It is true said he to me that the troubles which are in England seem to tend towards the refusing Obedience to the Duke of York because he is a Catholick When a Soveraign is mounted upon the Throne by legitimate means it seems said I to him that he ought at least to have as much priviledge as his Subjects and enjoy as well as them the Liberty of Conscience That is true answered he me when he has not bound his hands by his own Laws But by the Laws of the Kingdom of England which are the Laws of the King as well as of the State the King is obliged not to suffer any other Religion in the State than the Protestant Religion These Laws cannot be repealed but by the Parliament jointly with the King because that in that Kingdom for the making or repealing Laws the King can do nothing without the Parliament nor the Parliament without the King Wherefore if the Parliament is against the Repealing of these Laws if they must subsist and while that they subsist the King has not power to establish in his Family a different Religion from that of the State You know said he to me that the people of England have great Priviledges and that the Kings have not the Right to do all that they please Particularly added he when there is a Prince to be established the States of the Kingdom who are obliged to be careful of the Preservation of the Religion are authorized to take all their Sureties that no change may be made therein Thus they must either remove from the Throne if they have the Right to do so he who would mount into it to ruin the Religion or at least they ought to bridle his Authority for the hindring him from making changes The Religion of Henry the 4th before he turned Catholick was an Obstacle to his establishment upon the Throne which he would never have surmounted though he was the legitimate Heir of the Crown Par. This man is very knowing He certainly came prepared upon the matter For extempore he could not have given to his reasons so great an air of likelihood Prov. He came without doubt prepared and I likewise perceived that he daily consulted people more knowing than himself For he cleared and argued strongly the next day upon such points as I had found him weak in the day before One of the points of which he spoke to me with the most zeal and passion was that of good Faith They oppose against us said he to me the English and Holland Catholicks But what has been promised to those people that has not been performed The United Provinces of the Low Countries are entred into the Union with this Condition of not suffering any other Religion in their States than the Protestant Though England was reformed under Edward the 6th afterwards under Elizabeth by several Acts of Parliament which are the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom it was ordered that no other Religion should
years that the Latins are in Schism with the Greeks and all the pains that the Popes and Eastern Emperours have given themselves at several times have not been able to extinguish this Schisme If Prudence Cares and Vigilance have not been able to bring to pass the ruine of Sects that were not founded upon Truth and who had violated Charity by their Separation they ought not to hope to ruin the Party of the Reformed which is supported by Truth has purged the Church of so many errours and has in no manner violated Charity in separating it self from a Church that chose rather to chase away from its bosome than suffer any Reformation The conclusion of all that great affair will make appear that those who have Sworn the ruin of the Hugonots fall upon God himself which will not be for their advantage Par. This new Preacher carries it very high but what did you answer to all this Prov. As he had more advantage over me than I had over my Gentleman I was obliged to suffer the match being unequal But I resolved to let the discourse continue and to retain the principal things he should oppose me with to be informed of by you Is any thing of these Facts false that this man laid thus as I have recited them Par. No But though the Facts that he told you be true it is not certain that the Conclusions he draws from thence are very good which we will examine at one time But for the present I will not interrupt you Prov. Since you desire it I will continue to tell you what I can remember of a Conversation which appeared to me in some places something above my Capacity I hear continued our Civil Lawyer that this Gentleman has obliged himself to prove to you that the course they take at present in France against our poor Protestants is quite contrary to the Interests of the King and State Give me leave Sir to represent you several things upon that point First is it not true that it is against the Kings Interests to depopulate the Kingdom There are still in France near two Millions of Souls of the Reformed Religion If all these persons were away their absence would certainly make a considerable Breach There is no body but knows that the force of States depends on the multitude of Inhabitants It is this that makes the United Provinces so powerful It is incredible that so little a State can resist so powerful Enemies and carry it's name to the end of the World which only proceeds from the prodigious multitude of Inhabitants which are there It is this that makes Arts flourish there Necessity being the Mother of Industry It is the cause of the Commerce because the Territory being too little to nourish so many Men they have been obliged to go seek to the very ends of the World the necessaries that their own Country could not furnish them with And in seeking wherewith to keep them alive and that they might not be famished address has made them find out immense Riches The King knows very well that the force of a Prince consists in the multitude of Subjects Wherefore he has made several Declarations in favour of those to whom God grants great Families and who thereby the more contribute to populate the Kingdom He has ordered that those Victuallars who have have two Children should enjoy exemption from all Taxes Imposts Subsidies Collects and quartering of Souldiers It is his will that the Nobles who have the same number of living Children have two thousand Livers of yearly pension out of the publick Revenues and for the exciting young people to marry themselves betimes he orders by another Declaration that the young married shall not be subject till the age of five and twenty years to any publick Charges It is to this intent that such diverse Declarations have been made by his Majesty which forbid all his Subjects to leave the Kingdom and go inhabit else-where By all these Courses the King would get and keep Subjects But his Majesty by the Declarations which have been made against the Reformed has lost twenty times more Subjects than he can have gained or kept by those other ways which his prudence or that of his Ministers had suggested to him It will be made appear to him if he pleases that within these fifteen years his Declarations against the Hugonots have drove away of them out of France above sixty or fourscore thousand All the Frontiere Provinces of England Holland and Germany as Normandy Campagne and Picardy are already sensible of this particularly the City of Amiens Since the Temple has been taken from the Hugonots of that City it is certain that the most part of their Merchants have retired themselves into forreign Countries and that they have carried with them at least twelve or fourteen hundred thousand Livers of Riches out of the Kingdom and which will never return into it In case they would but make the least attention upon this point it would appear that it is impossible but that the Kingdom will be deserted by this Course It is certain that all the Reformed who lose their Goods and Estates by what is called the disgraces of Fortune do quit the Kingdom because that their Religion hinders them from recovering themselves by any means In chacing away all those who bear the Arms of the Guards du Corps of the Musqueteers and the Gendarmes and all the Kings Household in taking the Commissions from several thousands of Commissaries who lived upon their Commssions in neglecting the Officers and refusing them advancement In a word in taking away as they do the means of subsisting from an infinite number of Hugonots who cannot subsist of themselves they are drove out of the Kingdom and all forreign Countries are seen covered with French-men who seek for employ and the means of subsisting that are refused them in their own Country I looked upon it as a certain thing that of 50 thousand that the Rigour which is exercised against us reduces into this estate there are not five hundred who turn Catholicks all the others are as many lost Subjects for the King They are much deceived if they believe that little is lost in losing people who have hardly any thing For it is certain that the Armies of a State are almost wholly composed of such sort of people It is the industry of such persons who keep up Commerce and Arts. There is a City upon the Frontiers of Champagne which formerly belonged to the Dukes of Bouillon touching which I am informed they make great brags to the King that when he took possession of it that City was almost wholly Protestants and that at present the number of the Catholicks much surpasses that of the others But they tell not the King what was told me that the severity with which they treated the Reformed has obliged them to retire that the Catholicks which they fill the City with are Beggers and
Oath of Fidelity He who spoke for them alledged all the examples of Emperours and of Kings who had been Deposed and Excommunicated by Popes upon account of refusing Obedience to the Holy See approved them he alledged the example of St. Vrban the Second who Excommunicated Philip the First and laid an Ecclesiastical Censure upon his Kingdom because he had repudiated his Wife Bertha Daughter of a Count of Holland to Marry Bertrade Wife of Foulques Count d' Anjou then still alive He made use of the testimony of Paul Emile who said that Pope Zacharias dispensed the French from the Oath of Fidelity that they had made to Chilperick These two Princes were not Hereticks yet the Clergy of France approved their having been stript of their States by the Popes which makes appear that the Clergy in the bottom judges that the Pope has Right to lay an Ecclesiastical Consure upon the Kingdom of France and to depose its Kings for any other cause as well as that or Heresâ—e Is it not to abuse the World to confess on one side that the Temporalty of Kings does not depend on the Pope and establish on the other that the Pope may in certain occasions Interdict these Kings Excommunicate them and Absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Fidelity In sine this is the result of that famous Opinion of the Clergy of France So that if Christians are constrained to defend their Religion and their lives against Heretick Princes or Apostates from their Fidelity to whom they have been Absolved the Politick Christian Laws does not permit them any thing more than what is permitted by Military Laws and by the Right of Nations to wit open War and not Assassination and Clandestine Conspiracies that is to say that when a Pope has declâ—â—ed a Prince deprived of his â—tates his Subjects may set up the Standard of Rebellion declare War against him refuse him Obedience and kill him if they can meet him provided it be with arms in their hand and by the ordinary course of War I cannot comprehend how one can be secured of the Fidelity of those who hold such like Maximes For in fine Kings are not insallible and if they happen to do any thing that the Court of Rome judges worthy of Excommunication and Interdiction they are Kings without Kingdoms and Subjects according to our Clergy of France as well as according to the Divines of Italy But perhaps that the Sorbonne which is the Depository of the French Divinity does not receive these Maximes so fatal to the safety of Kings Let us see what it has done In the Month of December 1587 because that Henry the Third for the security of his Person and of his State made a Treaty with the Resisters or the German Protestants the Sorbonne without staying for the Decisions of Rome made a secret Result which said That the Government might be taken from Princes who were not found such as they ought to be as the administration from a suspected Tutour This was known by the King he sent for the Sorbonne some days after and complained of it After the death of the Princes of Guise which happen'd at Blois the Sorbonne did much worse they declared and caused to be published in all parts of Paris That all the People of that Kingdom were Absolved from the Oaths of Fidelity that they had sworn to Henry of Valois heretofore their King they razed his name out of the publick Prayers and made known to the People that they might with safe Conscience unite arm and contribute to make War against him as a Tyrant If I would add to that the Story that I know this Gentleman told you concerning the Death of the late King of England we should find that the Sorbonne has ever been of the same Opinion Let things be told as they are every time that our Kings shall have assairs that will carry them to extremity against the Court of Rome the Clergy of France will suppress the discontents while that affairs go well for the Court of France but if things turn otherways the dictates of our Divines against the King will not fail to break out Every sincere person will allow that it has never been otherwise than so and that it will be always thus which may be observed in the very least disputes By example in that the King has now lately had with the Pope upon the account of the Regality and of the Vrbanists the publick has seen a Letter from the Clergy Addressed to the King when he departed to visit the Frontiers of the Low-Countries In that Letter these Gentlemen promise the King let whatever be the issue of his Disputes with the Pope they will be always inviolably fixed to his Majesties Interests But we know from good hands that the Archbishop of Paris and the Sieur Rose Secretary of the Cabinet are the sole Authors of that Letter the Bishops have almost openly disavowed it And this makes it apparent enough that in this Dispute they were of the Popes side Must it not then be confessed that it is the King's Interest to preserve the only Party that makes Oath of Fidelity to him without exception and without reserve that can never have engagements contrary to his Service either with Spain or the Court of Rome or with the revolted Clergy favouring the Enemies of the State And it is well known that in the time of Henry the Third while that all the Corporations of the Kingdom were in an actual Rebellion against their Prince the Hugonot was the only one which remained Loyal If it was necessary to add any thing more pursued our Civil Lawyer for to prove that it is the King's Interest to protect the Reformed in his States one might say that the Alliances that have been made with Foreign Protestants have not been disadvantageous to the State Since the year 1630 its engagements with England Holland Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg have been a great help towards its humbling the House of Austria Cardinal Richlieu successfully employed the King of Sweden for to punish the pride to which that House was mounted after the defeat of the Palatine House that had accepted the Crown of Bohemia And it is well enough known that the Protection that the King gave the Protestants in his Territories facilitated those Foreign Engagements and Alliances Thus our Orator ended and made a pause at this place Par. He has forgot a great Article That which is against the Peace of a State is ever against his Interests who governs it Nothing is more incompatible with Peace than diversity of Religions Prov. He did not forget it but he thought he had said enough for one time and referred what he had more to say till the next day This morning sour Gentleman returned and as what was said is fresher in my memory perhaps I shall give you a more exact account I know very well continued our Hugonot Civil Lawyer that I am to