Ages will hardly believe what we see with our own Eyes These Gentlemen would fain perswade the World that the Persecutions in France have not been so violent as we have been informed and that the French King hath now chang'd his mind and is become another man But what can be more idle ridiculous and impertinent than this stuff of theirs Would they with a Brazen brow give the lye to so many Thousands of Witnesses and to our own eyes too But what new varnish can they find to put upon this last Persecution Truly if the French King hath now changed his mind he must have been exceeding violent indeed since the very dregs of his Fury are still so terrible For what more Cruel can be imagined than to put a Gentleman to a vile and infamous death to send so many others to the Gallies and to condemn others to shameful Punishment upon the bare pretence that they have met together to Pray to God notwithstanding his prohibition If so hard treatment may not be call'd a Persecution I do not know then what may deserve that name and on the contrary if this be meekness and gentleness I cannot imagine what that is which we call Inhumanity I would beg leave to ask our Murmurers only two questions 1. How is it possible that a Tyrant who has so cruelly persecuted the Protestants in his own Kingdom who has pulled down so many of their Churches put to death so many men upon account of Religion only who further yet boasts That he himself hath almost rooted out the Heresie and who still continues his Rage and Fury against all the Protestants that are found in his Dominions I say How is it possible that such a man can ever be the Protector of the Church of England as our Grumbling Crew call him Perhaps they will answer That the French Hugonots have not been used with so much severity upon the account of their Religion merely but because the French King found them dangerous to his Grandure and his State having strong suspicions of their Fidelity but let them prove what they say I would fain know what Publick Act or Declaration they can instance in and whether they have any Witnesses that will say the Booted-Missionaries have ever required from the Hugonots a greater Test of their Fidelity than they had before but only their forcing them to go to Mass Every body knows that this French King owes his Crown to those very Protestants he has so cruelly used and consequently that their Fidelity could not be in the least called into question But if the French King aimed not at the extirpation of the Protestant Religion why doth he say in his Letters and Memorials against the Emperor and the King of Spain that it was his intention Why hath he destroyed the Churches of Orange and forc'd his Majesty's Subjects as well as his own to forsake their Religion and to go to Mass And why hath he compelled the Duke of Savoy 10 destroy the Vaudcis as his Royal Highness has publickly declared The French King having then declared War against all the Protestants of the World I thought the Church of England had not been excepted and I was induced to that belief by the Measures the late King had taken with him effectually to destroy it but being now assured by some that he is the Protector of it I am surprized at such a wonderful Change and this is the first Phoenomenon the Solution of which I humbly desire of our Learned Mutmurers I ask 2dly If it be possible that a true English-man that is one living free under Their Majesties most Gracious Government and making use of his right Reason can wish a Tyrant for his King an Oppressor who has made his Subjects the most miserable Wretches and Slaves in the world tho Inhabitants of one of the most plentiful Countries of the earth who sucks their very blood and marrow from them to satisfie his vast Ambition or his impure Lusts and Pleasures and who sacrifices them to his least Interest or Vanity The Enemy of Mankind the Invader of his Neighbours A Prince if I may call him so who has ever yet scorned to be a slave to his Oaths or Treaties and on whom the Religion be professes and all that is sacred amongst men has no manner of Force or Power to use the very words of the King of Spain in his Letter to the Pope In a word If it be possible for an English-man who loves the Interest of his Nation to wish for a man of the Character of this French King to be his Absolute Lord and Master Till these Gentlemen will be pleased to answer me these two questions I shall make bold to deliver my own thoughts upon them And as to the first I say That the French King is not the Protector of the Church of England and that his Idolaters who give him that magnificent Title prevaricate and make use of some equivocation for they must mean another Church far different from that here established by the Laws of this Kingdom Ours needs no other Protection than that of Their Majesties and sure I am the Gentlemen I speak of are Papists in their hearts notwithstanding their so much affected outward shew of Protestantism if they have any Religion at all As to the second Query If it be possible for an English-man who loveth the true Interest of his Nation to wish his Master might be a man of the Character of this French King I answer No And therefore by the reasons contained in the Query I conclude That the Murmurers are either Fools or Enemies of this Countrey Now to say they are the former I confess it would seem a little too hard a Censure and I should wrong several of them whom I know to be men of Parts They are so fond of themselves that sure I am they would much rather be called Enemies to this Nation And tho Complaisance is opposite to my temper yet for their sakes I must upon this occasion force my natural inclination and agree with them that this last Character is more suitable to their proceedings than that of Fools Having given an exact Parallel between the Ancient and Modern Persecutors my Design would be imperfect should I omit saying something of the Tragick Death that commonly attends the Enemies of the Church God has in all ages made manifest the severe Judgments he exercises upon them The Relation of the Deaths of the Primitive Persecutors written by Lactantius which I have so often quoted is so frightful that the consideration of their miserable end ought one would think to deter any man from Persecuting for the future and had the French King but reflected upon their Fate and the Tragick Deaths of his own Ancestors I doubt very much whether he would have taken so dangerous a course King Henry the 2d who had sworn to see Ann Dubourg a Protestant burning at the stake received a mortal wound in
A FAITHFUL ACCOUNT OF The Renewed Persecution OF THE CHURCHES OF Lower Aquitaine in France In the YEAR 1692. To which is prefixed A Parallel between the Ancient and New Persecutors or the Portraicture of LEWIS XIV in some of his Cruelties and Barbarities With some Reflections upon the unreasonable Fondness of a certain Party amongst us for the French King LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford-Arms in Warwick-Lane 1692. A PARALLEL Between the Ancient and New Persecutors OR THE Portraicture of LEWIS XIV In some of his CRUELTIES and BARBARITIES IT was in the heat of the Persecution of the Protestant Churches of France that I first read Lactantius's Relation of the Death of the Primitive Persecutors The Cruelties practised in his Age upon the Christians and revived in ours with so much inhumanity upon our Brethren in France put me upon the thoughts of making a Parallel between the Ancient Persecutors Lactantius speaks of and our worse Modern ones under Lewis XIV And indeed I was the more tempted to it by the great likeness I found there was between them and the French King 's Cruel Instruments but having read over the ingenious Preface to that Book written by the now Learned Bishop of Sarum I then altered my Design because I thought such a Parallel was sufficiently done already very concisely in that Preface And I had continued still in the same mind but that an Account of the new Barbarities committed in France upon the Protestants of the Lower Aquitaine being come to my hand and being so earnestly solicited to publish it I think it will not be amiss to prefix to it a much larger Comparison between those Tyrants that we may see how like the French King is to the Ancient Persecutors and that he follows their steps not only in the Persecution but also in all their other Vices if he does not far exceed them I have been so much the more induced to this by the strange proceedings of a certain Party amongst us who yet pretending to be Protestants are yet nevertheless eager to fall down and Worship the Golden Image of such a Monster as this and forgetting what they owe to their God to Their Majesties under whom they lead quiet and peaceable Lives and to their Country are fond of having for their King the Enemy of Mankind the Invader of the Liberties of Europe and the greatest Persecutor of the Christian Religion that ever was in the World I intend in the first place to set the Characters Lactantius gives of the Persecutors of the Primitive Church with the Method they made use of in their Persecution and afterwards I 'll shew that those Characters do perfectly agree with the French King and that he has taken the very same Measures to destroy the Christian Religion in his Kingdom as the former took to abolish it in the Roman Empire But because the World tends always to a greater perfection I 'll shew also that this French King has exceeded Maximian Valerian and other Persecutors in Barbarity The Characters Lactantius gives of his Persecutors are these 1. That they were addicted to the Brutalities of several Pleasures 2. That they ruined their Subjects by severe Impositions and heavy Taxes for maintaining vast Armies 3. That they shewed in their Wars some Pusilanimity or at least more care than was decent for preserving themselves from all danger 4. That they were so weak as to be fondly pleased with the most excessive Flatteries could be made them and assumed undeservedly the most glorious Titles even some to Blasphemy it self 5. That they were profuse in the raising of costly Buildings 6. That they were successful for many Years together in their undertakings And Lastly That they had Fearful Superstitious and Cruel Tempers These are the Characters of those Ancient Persecutors I must observe now what was the pretence of their persecutions and the method they made use of to compass their horrid design What the pretence of their Persecutions was we may read in an Edict of Maximian himself quoted by Lactantius and Evsebius in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 8. Chap. 1. in which 't is said That the Christians having forsaken the Religion of their Forefathers and framed new Laws to govern themselves by the Emperors thought themselves obliged to Publish their Edicts to force them to return to their first Institutions The measures they took to compass their Design were these 1. They pulled down the Christian Churches 2. They declared the Christians incapable of all Honours Trusts or Offices either Civil or Military 3. They put them out of the protection of the Law insomuch that they could not sue for any injuries done them 4. Afterwards they commanded all the Christians to abjure their Religion 5. But seeing that they stood firm to their Rules they practised all the Cruelties imaginable upon them 6thly and Lastly All the Books of the Sacred Scripture they could find were burnt by their Orders Having thus observed the Characters of those Primitive Persecutors the pretence of their Persecution and the method they made use of to destroy the Christian Religion I must give you now a plain Idea of this French King and shew what has been his pretence in Persecuting with so much Inhumanity his Protestant Subjects and what measures he has taken to abolish the Protestant Religion in his Kingdom 1. I think it will be very needless to shew how that the French King has delivered himself up to the Brutalities of sensual Pleasures For who is unacquainted with his many Adulteries Aud who has not heard of the famous Ladies La Valiere Fontange and Montespan and of the many Children he has got by them But I cannot pass over this Subject without observing That the Lady Montespan being Married to a Noble French man and the French King Married too he has committed the blackest of all Adulteries I do not read in History that those Monsters Lactantius speaks of have been guilty of such a Crime as this But supposing they had they were less Criminal than the French King because they could plead in their defence the examples of their Gods Whereas Lewis the XIVth cannot have such an excuse living under the seeming Profession of a Christian Religion which though very much corrupted yet informs him that Adultery is one of the horridst Crimes in the sight of God and that it is in express terms forbidden in his Law I hope this is enough without being obliged to speak of the Lady Maintenon some believing that she is really his Wife 2. I am next to prove That the Fremch King has ruined his Subjects by Severe Impositions and heavy Taxes for maintaining his vast Armies and this I can make out with as much ease as I have done his Vices Though Charles the great was Emperor of Germany King of Italy and of France yet he never maintained in time of Peace near Four hundred thousand men as this French King has done Every body knows how vast
Edicts to oblige them to return to their first Institutions And I must desire you to observe here That 't is upon the very same account that the French Hugonots have been so Cruelly Persecuted in our Days Are we not accused for having forsaken the Religion of our fore-fathers and to have rejected the precepts of our dear Mother the Church Are we not charged with having framed new Laws and new Assemblies to govern our selves by and to break the Union of the Church And is it not upon this account that the Tyrant of France has Publish'd likewise his Edicts to oblige the Protestants of his Kingdom to return to their first Institutions that is to say to the Profession of the Roman Catholick Religion from which he supposed they were wilfully and without any ground separated But let us hear what the French King says himself in the Preface of that famous Edict given in October 1685. to repeal that of Nants He says That Henry the IV. his Grandfather had no other design in putting forth the Edict called de Nantes than to lessen the Aversion which was between the Protestants and the Catholicks to be thereby enabled to effect more successfully the Reunion of the said Protestants to the Church of Rome from which they had departed upon such slight pretences That his Father Lewis XIII had the same design and that he himself since his coming to the Throne had endeavoured the same thing but with that good effect that the greatest and the most considerable part of his Subjects were dutifully return'd to the Profession of the Religion of their Fore-fathers Having thus observed that the Characters of the Ancient Persecutors and that of the Modern are so like and that the pretence of their Persecution is the same I intend to consider in this place the Method the French King has taken to compass his design that we may see if the Parallel between them is exact in all its parts 1. We have seen in the first place that the Persecutors began their Persecution against the Christians by pulling down their Churches and here we must again observe that this French King began to persecute the Hugonots by the very same method 'T is true it was not with such Rage as the Heathens shewed on this occasion it was with some colourable appearance of Justice which was still worse than an open Violence because the Protestants were obliged to be at vast Charges to make good their Titles and yet for all that they were afterwards Condemn'd and 't is no wonder indeed since their Enemies were their Judges In fine then the most part of the Protestant Churches were pulled down under a frivolous pretence viz. That they were established against the Disposition of the Edicts or because some Mahometans had been present in the Assemblies which was prohibited by an Edict given in 1680. 2. The Christians were declared during the Primitive Persecutions incapable of all Honours and Publick Trusts and Offices as well Civil as Military and the French Protestants have been treated with the same Inhumanity by their Prince which I am now to prove Les Chambres de l'Edict which were Soveraign Courts composed of an equal number of Protestants and Romanists and to which the Causes of the Protestants were referred were suppressed and afterwards all the Inferior Judges of the Kingdom In a word all Civil Officers and Magistrates that were Protestants were turned by force out of their Imployments The Military Officers were not I confess used with so much severity for there was no Declaration come forth against them but however they were obliged to leave their Service because they could not hope to come to any great Preferment the Office of a Captain being their greatest reward notwithstanding their long faithful continued Services To all those Vexations they added another no less cruel and unjust the Protestants were forbidden in several Parts of the Kingdom to Exercise any Trade or Art in order to take away from them all means of getting their Livelihood and induce them to turn Papists The King himself by a Declaration in 1680 prohibited all the Protestants to practice the Art of Midwifry What can be imagined more unjust and cruel than the Persecurion of France What I say more cruel and unjust can be imagined than to deprive so many Magistrates of their Offices What more cruel than to prohibit Protestants the Exercise of the Natural Gifts God had endowed them with to get their Livelihood And what more unjust and opposite to the Christian Charity than to throw so many Men into the lowest Poverty and force them to beg their Bread And all this against the express terms of the Edict of Nantes where one may read the following words in the 27th Article We declare the Protestants capable of all Imployments Dignities Offices and Charges whatever they be c. and against the very Oath and Promise given by this French King 3. Lactantius has observed That the Christians were put out of the Protection of the Laws that they might not sue for Wrongs and Injuries done to them and have not the Protestant in France received the like Treatment from their King their Judges and Magistrates being forced out of their places So that they seldom obtained Justice and the strongest Argument their Parties used against them was That they were Hugonots which was sufficient to make them lose their Cause 4. After all these Vexations and Persecutions which acquired them but very few Proselites the Persecutors began at last to take off their Mask and the Intendants of the Provinces at the head of the Booted Missionaries required in the Kings Name all the Protestants to abjure their Religion as the old Persecutor commanded all the Christians to return to their Ancient Institution I will not trouble my Reader with a thousand instances of this nature which I could give but I cannot forbear mentioning what happened at Bergerac in Perigord where I was by chance at that very time 'T is a pretty considerable Town situated upon the River Dordoigne and the most part of its Inhabitants were Protestants they had suffered in 1682 a great Persecution and with so much Courage and steady Resolution that only two Hugonots as I was informed did forsake their Religion and that Church was look'd upon by the Persecutors as a nest of Hereticks and which was likely to make the grâ—atâ—st Resistance therefore they designed to attack it in an extraordinary manner The Marquis de Boufflers Commander in chief of the French Kings Forces in Aquitaine went with the Intendant and two Bishops at the head of five or six thousand Men they set out Guards round about the Town and in the Streets and no body was suffered to come out and aftewards they called together the inhabitants into the Town-house where the Intendant made them a fine Speech Because the thing seemed to me very extraordinary I went in among the Croud and I heard the Intendant tell them among other