years nor return to the first within the space of Twelve and that they should be thus translated from Church to Church at least twenty Leagues distant from the other supposing by a manifest consequence that his design was yet to permit the exercise of Religion to the Ministers in the Kingdom for Twelve years at least Though indeed they at that moment design'd the Revocation of the Edict and had resolved it in the Council The fifth consists in a Request presented to the King by the Assembly of the Clergy at the same time that they were drawing an Edict to revoke that of Nantes and put into the Hands of the Procurer General to frame it and in the Decree which was granted on this request the Clergy complain'd of the misrepresentations which the Ministers are wont to make of the Roman Church to which they attribute Doctrines which they do not hold and beseech his Majesty to provide against it And also expresly declared that they did not yet desire the Revocation of the Edict upon which the King by his Decree expresly forbad the Ministers to speak either good or hurt directly or indirectly of the Church of Rome in their Sermons supposing as every one may see that 't was his Intention still to let them Preach were ever such illusions known But was there ever any greater than this which they put in the very Edict we speak of The King after having cancelled and annul'd the Edict of Nantes and all that depended thereon after having interdicted for ever all publick Religious Exercises he also for ever banish'd all the Ministers from his Kingdom and expresly declares that his will is that his other Subjects who are not willing to change their Religion may remain where they are in all Liberty enjoy their Estates and live with the same Freedom as heretofore without any molestation on pretence of their Religion till it shall please God to enlighten and convert them These were Amusements and Snares to entrap them as it has since appeared and it still appears every day by the horrible usages they suffer and of which we shall speak in what follows But we shall first mention a preparatory Machin which the Persecutors have not fail'd to employ to effect their Design and which we have reckoned to be the Sixth in order It consists in disposing insensibly the People by degrees to desire our Destruction to approve of it when done and to diminish in their Mind the Horror which naturally they must have at the Cruelties and Injustices of our Persecutors Contrivances For this parpose several means have been used and the commonest have been the Sermons of the Missionaries and other Controversial Preachers with which the Kingdom has been for some years stockt under the Title of Royal Missions There were fitting Youths chosen for this purpose who had such an Education given them which was so far from making them Moderate as rather enflamed them so that 't is easy to comprehend what Actors these are when they not only found themselves upheld but saw themselves moreover set on and had express Orders to inspire their Hearers with Choler And so well did they acquit themselves herein that 't was not their fault if Popular Emotions have not followed thereon in great Cities yea in Paris it self had not the Prudence of the Magistrates hindred them To the Preachers we must join the Confessors and Directors of Mens Consciences the Monks the Curates and in general all the Ecclesiasticks from the highest to the lowest for they being not ignorant of the Courts Intention in this matter every one strove to shew most Zeal and Aversion to the Reformed Religion because every one found his Interest lay therein this being the only way to raise and establish his Fortune In this design of animating the People there past few days wherein the Streets did not ring as well with the publication of Decrees Edicts and Declarations against the Protestants as also with Satyrical and Seditious Libels of which the People in the Towns of France are very greedy But these things served only for the meaner sort of People and the Persecutors had this Mortification to see this Design disapproved by all those who were a degree above the Mobile Wherefore they employed the Pens of some of their Authors who had acquired any Reputation in the World and amongst others that of the Author of the History of Theodosius the Great and that of Mr. Maimburg heretofore a Jesuite He publish'd his History of Calvinism of which he has since had the leasure to repent by the smart and pertinent Answers which have been given him Their Example has been followed by several others and Monsieur Arnaud who will always make one in these matters would not deny himself the satisfaction of venting his Choler and at the same time endeavour to recover the Favour he has lost at Court But although his Apology for the Catholicks was a Work as full of Fire and Passion as the Bigots themselves could Wish yet 't was not agreeable because his person was not he was so ill gratified for it that he complained thereof to the Arch-Bishop of Rheims in a Letter the Copies whereof were dispersed over all Paris Amongst other things he exaggerated his Misfortune and compared himself with another who for much less Services received Twenty Thousand Livers as a Reward from the King This more and more shewed the Character of the Person However they needed not him not wanting violent Writers amongst whom we must not forget one Mr. Soulier formerly as they say a Taylor and at present Author of the History of the Edicts â—f Pacification nor Mr. Nicole once a great Jansenist and now a Proselyte of the Archbishops of Paris Author of the Book entituled Protestants convinced of Schism nor the Author of the Journal des Scavants who in his ordinary Gazets highly affirms That the Catholick Faith must be planted by Fire and Sword alledging for the proof thereof a King of Norway who converted the Nobles of his country by threatning them To stay their Children before their Eyes if they would not consent to have them baptized and to be baptized themselves For a long time we have seen in Paris and elsewhere nothing but such sort of Writings to such a height was Passion come Whilst all these things which we have here observed were done in France they by great steps advanced to their end 'T is not to be imagined the Reformed neglected their common Interests or did not all that respected a just and lawful Defence They frequently sent from the furthest Provinces their Deputies to the Court They maintained their Rights before the Council Thither they brought their Complaints from all parts They employed their Deputy General to solicit their Interests as well with the Judges and Ministers of State as with the King himself Sometimes also they presented general Addresses in which they exposed their Grievances with all the Humility and Deference that
supposing they should change they would be but as so many secret adversaries nourished in the bosom of the Church of Rome and the more dangerous on the account of their knowledge and experience in Controversial matters This last reasoning prevailed 't was then resolved on to banish the Ministers and to give them no more than fifteen days time to depart the Kingdom As to what remained the Edict was given to the Procurer-General of the Parliament of Paris to draw it up in such a form as he should judge most fitting But before the publishing of it two things were thought necessary to be done The first to oblige the assembly of the Clergy separately to present to the King a request concerning the matter above mentioned in which also they told his Majesty that they desired not at present the repealing the Edict of Nantes and the other to suppress in general all kind of Books made by them of the Reformed Religion and to issue out an Order for that purpose By the first of these things the Clergy thought to shelter themselves from the reproaches which might be cast on them as the Authors of so many Miseries Injustices an Oppressions which this Repeal would still occasion And by the other they pretended to make the Conversions much more easie as they styled them and confirm those which had bin already made by taking from the People all Books which might Instruct fortifie and bring them back again In fine This Revocative Edict of Nantes was signed and published on Thursday being the 8th of October in the year 1685. 'T is said the Chancellor of France shewed an extream joy in Sealing it but it lasted not long this being the last thing he did For as soon as he came home from Fountainbleau he fell sick and dyed within a few days 'T is certain that this mans policy rather than his natural Inclination induced him in his latter years to become one of our Persecutors The Edict was Registred in the Parliament of Paris and immediately after in the others It contains a Preface and Twelve Articles In the Preface the King shews that Henry the Great 's Grandfather did not give the Edict and Lewis his Father did not confirm it by his other Edict of Nismes but in the design of endeavouring more effectually the re-union of their Subjects of the pretended reformed Religion to the Catholick Church and that this was also the Design which he had himself at his first coming to the Crown That 't is true he had bin hindred by the Wars which he was forced to carry on against the Enemies of his State but that at present being at Peace with all the Princes of Europe he wholly gave himself to the making of this Re-union That God having given him the Grace of accomplishing it and seeing the greatest and best part of his Subjects of the said Religion had embraced the Catholick one these Edicts of Nantes and Nismes consequently became void and useless By the first Article he suppresses and repeals them in all their extent and ordains that all their Temples which are found yet standing in his Kingdom shall be immediately demolished By the Second he forbids all sorts of Religious Assemblies of what kind soever The Third prohibits the Exercises of Religion to all Lords and Gentlemen of any Quality under Corporal Penalties and Confiscation of their Esates The Fourth banishes from his Kingdom all the Ministers and enjoins them to depart thence within Fifteen days after the publication of this Edict under the Penalty of being sent to the Gallies In the Fifth and Sixth he promises Recompences and Advantages to the Ministers and their Widows who should change their Religion In the Seventh and Eighth he forbids the Instructing of Children in the pretended reformed Religion and ordains that those who shall be born henceforward shall be baptised and brought up in the Catholick Religion enjoyning Parents to send them to the Churches under the Penalty of being fined 500 Livers The Ninth gives Four Months time to such Persons as have departed already out of the Kingdom to return otherwise their Goods and Estates to be confiscated The Tenth with repeated Prohibitions forbids all his Subjects of the said Religion to depart out of his Realm they their Wives and Children or to convey away their Effects under pain of the Gallies for the Men and of Confiscation of Body and Goods for the Women The Eleventh confirms the Declarations heretofore made against those that Relapse The Twelfth declares that as to the rest of his Subjects of the said Religion they may till God enlightens them remain in the Cities of his Kingdom Countries and Lands of his Obedience there continue their Commerce and enjoy their Estates without Trouble or Molestation upon pretence of the said Religion on condition that they have no Assemblies under pretext of Praying or exercising any religious Worship whatever In order to put this Edict in execution the very same day that it was registred and published at Paris they began to demolish the Church of Charenton The eldest Minster thereof was commanded to leave Paris within twenty four Hours and immediately to depart the Kingdom For this end they put him into the Hands of one of the Kings Footmen with orders not to leave him till he was out of his Dominions His Collegues were little better treated they gave them forty eight hours to quit Paris and then left them upon their Parole The rest of the Ministers were allowed fifteen days but it can hardly be believed to what Vexations and Cruelties they were all exposed First of all they neither permitted them to dispose of their Estates nor to carry away any of their moveables or effects nay they disputed them their Books and private Papers one pretence that they must justify their Books and Papers did not belong to the Cosistories wherein they serv'd which was a thing impossible since there were no Consistories that then remained Beside they would not give them leave to take along with them either Father or Mother or Brother or Sister or any of their Kindred though there were many of them infirm decay'd and poor which could not subsist but by their means they went so far as even to deny them their own Children if they were above seven Years Old nay some they took from them that were under that Age and even such as yet hang'd upon their Mothers Breasts They refused them Nurses for their new born Infants which the Mothers could not give Suck In some Frontier Places they stopped and imprisoned them upon divers ridiculous Pretences they must immediately prove that they were really the same Persons which their Certificates mentioned they were to know immediately whether there were no Criminal Process or Informations against them they must presently justify that they carryed away nothing that belonged to their Flocks sometime after they had thus detained and amused them they were told that the fifteen days of the Edict
condition for the taking some effectual course which he was resolved to do to reunite those again to the Church who upon so slight occasions had withdrawn themselves from it And forasmuch as this Intention of the King our said Grandfather could not be effected by reason of his suddain and precipitated Death and that the Execution of the foresaid Edict was interrupted during the Minority of the late King Our most Honoured Lord and Father of Glorious Memory by reason of some new Enter-prises of those of the pretended Reformed Religion whereby they gave occasion for their being deprived of several Advantages which had been granted to them by the foresaid Edict Notwithstanding the King Our said late Lord and Father according to his wonted Clemency granted them another Edict at Nismes in the Month of July 1629 by means of which the Peace and Quiet of the Kingdom being now again re-established the said late King being animated with the same Spirit and Zeal for Religion as the King our said Grandfather was resolved to make good use of this Tranquility by endeavouring to put this pious design in Execution but Wars abroad coming on a few years after so that from the Year 1635 to the Truce which was concluded with the Princes of Europe in 1684. The Kingdom having been only for some short Intervals altogether free from troubles it was not possible to do any other thing for the advantage of Religion save only to diminish the number of places permitted for the Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion as well by the Interdiction of those which were found erected in prejudice to the disposal made in the said Edict as by suppressing the mix'd Chambers of Judicature which were composed of an equal number of Papists and Protestants the erecting of which was only done by Provision and to serve the present Exigency Whereas therefore at length it hath pleased God to grant that Our Subjects enjoying a perfect Peace and We Our selves being no longer taken up with the cares of protecting them against our Enemies are now in a condition to make good use of the said Truce which we have on purpose facilitated in order to the applying our selves entirely in the searching out of means which might successfully effect and accomplish the design of the Kings our said Grandfather and Father and which also have been our intention ever since we came to the Crown we see at present not without a just acknowledgment of what we owe to God on that account that our endeavours have attain'd the end we proposed to Our selves forasmuch as the greater and better part of our Subjects of the said Pretended Reformed Religion have already embraced the Catholick and sice by means thereof the Execution of the Edict of Nantes and of all other Ordinances in favour of the said Pretended Reformed Religion is made useless we judge that we can do nothing better towards the entire effacing of the Memory of those Troubles Confusion and Mischief which the Progress of that false Religion hath been the cause of in Our Kingdom and which have given occasion to the said Edict and to so many other Edicts and Declarations which went before it or were made since with reference thereto than by a total Revocation of the said Edict of Nantes and the perticular Articles and Concessions granted therein and whatsoever else hath been Enacted since in favour of the said Religion I. We mâ—kâ— known that we for these and other Reasons us thereto moving and of uâ—certain Knowledg full Power and Royal Authority have by the present perpetual and irrevocable Edict Suppressd and Annull'd do suppress and annul the Edict of the King our said Grand father given at Nantes in April 1598 in its whole extent together with the particular Arcicles ratified the Second of May next following and Letters Patent granted thereupon as likewise the Edict given at Nismes in July 1629. declaring them null and void as if they had never been Enacted together with all the Concessions granted in them as well as other Declarations Edicts and Arrests to those of the Pretended Reformed Religion of what Nature soever they may be which shall all continue as if they never had been And in pursuance hereof we Will and it is our Pleasure that all the Churches of those of the Pretended Reformed Religion scituate in our Kingdom Countries Lands and Dominions belonging to us be forthwith demolished II. We forbid our Subjects of the Pretended Reformed Religion to Assemble themselves for time to come in order to the Exercise of their Religion in any Place or House under what Pretext soever whether the said places have been granted by the Crown or permitted by the Judges of particular Places any Arrests of our Council for Authorizing and Establishing of the said places for Exercise notwithstanding III. We likewise prohibit all Lords of what condition soever they may be to have any publick Exercise in their Houses and Fiefs of what quality soever the said Fiefs may be upon Penalty to all our said Subjects who shall have the said Exercises performed in their Houses or otherwise of Confiscation of Body and Goods IV. We do strictly Charge and Command all Ministers of the said Pretended Reformed Religion who are not willing to be Converted and to embrace the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion to depart out of our Kingdom and Countries under our Obedience fifteen days after the Publication hereof so as not to continue there beyond the said term or within the same to Preach Exhort or perform any other Ministerial Function upon pain of being sent to the Galleys V. Our Will and Pleasure is that those Ministers who shall be converted do continue to enjoy during their Lives and their Widows after their decease so long as they continue so the same Exemptions from Payments and Quartering of Souldiers which they did enjoy during the time of their Exercise of the Ministerial Function Moreover we will cause to be paid to the said Ministers during their Lives a Pension which by a third Part shall exceed the appointed Allowance to them as Ministers the half of which Pension shall be continued to their Wives after their Decease as long as they shall continue in the state of Widdow hood VI. And in case any of the said Ministers shall be willing to become Advocates or to take the Degree of Doctors in Law we will and Vnderstand that they be dispensedwith as to the three Years of Study which are prescribed by our Declarations as requisite in order to the taking of the said Degree and that after they have pass'd the ordinary Examinations they be forthwith received as Doctors paying only the Moyâ—ty of those dues which are usually paid upon that account in every Vniversity VII We prohibit any particular Schools for instructing the Children of those of the Pretended Reformed Religion and in general all other things whatsoever which may impâ—rt a Concession of what kind soever in favour of the said
Religion VIII And as to the Children which shall for the future be born of those of the said Pretended Reformed Religion Our will and Pleasure is that henceforward they be baptized by the Curates of our Parishes strictly charging their respective Fathers and Mothers to take care they be sent to Church in order thereto upon Forfeiture of 500 Livres or more as it shall happen Furthermore Our will is that the said Children be afterwards educated and brought up in the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion and give an express Charge to all Our Justices to take care the same be performed accordingly IX And for a Mark of our Clemenctowards those of our Subjects of the said Pretended Reformed Religion who have retired themselves out of our Kingdom Countries and Territories before the Publication of this our present Edict our will and meaning is that in case they return thither again within the time of four Months from the time of the Publication hereof they may and it shall be lawful for them to Re-enter upon the Possession of their Goods and Estates and enjoy the same in like manner as they might have done in case they had always continued upon the place And on the contrary that the Goods of all those who within the said time of four Months shall not return into our Kingdom Countries or Territories under our Obedience which they have forsaken remain and be Confiscated in pursuance of our Declaration of the 20th of August last X. We most expresly and strictly forbid all our Subjects of the said pretended Reformed Religion them their Wives or Children to depart out of our said Kingdom Countries or Territories under our Obedience or to Transport thence their Goods or Effects upon penalty of the Gally for Men and of Confiscation of Body and Goods for Women XI Our Will and Meaning is that the Declarations made against those who shall relapse be Executed upon them according tâ— their Form and Tenor. Moreover those of the said Pretended Reformed Religion in the meantime till it shall please God to enlighten them as well as others may abide in the several respective Cities and Places of our Kingdoms Countries and Territories under our Obedience and there continue their Commerce and enjoy their Goods and Estates without being any way molested upon account of the said Pretended Reformed Religion upon condition nevertheless as aforementioned that they do not use any publick Religious Exercise nor assemble themselves upon the account of Prayer or Worship of the said Religion of what kind soever the same may be upon forfeiture above specified of Body and Goods Accordingly We Will and Command our Trusty and Beloved Counsellors the People holding our Courts of Aids at Paris Bayliffs Chief Justices Provosts and other our Justices and Officers to whom it appertains and to their Lieutenants that they cause to be Read Published and Registred this Our present Edict in their Courts and Jurisdictions even in vacation time and the same keep punctually without contravening or suffering the same to be contravened for such is Our Will and Pleasure And to the end to make it a thing firm and stable we have caused our Seal to be put to the same Given at Fountainbleau in the Month of October in the Year of Grace 1685 and of Our Reign the 43. Sealed with the Great Seal of Green-Wax upon a Red and Green string of Silk Signed LEWES This signifies the Lord Chancellors perusal VISA Le Tellier REgistred and Published the Kings Procurator or Attorney General requiring it in order to their being Executed according to Form and Tenor and the Copies being Examined and Compared sent to the several Courts of Justice Bailywicks and Sheriffs Courts of each Destrict to be there entred and Registred in like manner and charge given to the Deputies of the said Attorney General to take care to see the same Executed and put in Force and to certifie the Court thereof At Paris in the Court of Vacations the 22d of October 1685. Signed De la Baune The Profession of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Faith which the Revolting Protestants in France are to Subscribe and Swear to IN the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Amen I Believe and Confess with a firm Faith all and every thing and things contained in the Creed which is used by the Holy Church of Rome viz I receive and embrace most sincerely the Apostolick and Ecclesiastical Traditions and other Observances of the said Church In like manner I receive the Scriptures but in the same sense as the said Mother Church hath and doth now understand and expound the same for whom and to whom it only doth belong to judge of the Interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures and I will never take them nor understand them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers I profess that there be truly and properly seven Sacraments of the New Law instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ and necessary for the Salvation of Mankind altho not equally needful for every one viz. Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Penance Extream Unction Orders and Marriage and that they do confer Grace and that Baptism and Orders may not be reiterated without Sacriledge I receive and admit also the Ceremonies received and approved by the Catholic Church in the solemn administration of the forementioned Sacraments I receive and embrace all and every thing and things which have been determined concerning Original Sin and Justification by the holy Council of Trent I likewise profess that in the Mass there is offered up to God a true proper and propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and Dead and that in the Holy Sacrament of the Encharist there is truly really and substantially the Body and Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and that in it there is made a change of the whole substance of the Bread into his Body and of the whole substance of the Wine into his Blood which change the Catholick Church calls Transubstantiation I confess also that under one only of these two Elements whole Christ and the true Sacrament is received I constantly believe and affirm that there is a Purgatory and that the Souls there detained are relieved by the Suffrages of the Faithful In like manner I believe that the Saints reigning in Glory with Jesus Christ are to be worshipped and invocated by us and that they offer up Prayers to God for us and that their Reliques ought to be honoured Moreover I do most stedfastly avow that the Images of Jesus Christ of the Blessed Virgin the Mother of God and of other Saints ought to be kept and retained and that due Honour and Veneration must be yielded unto them Also I do affirm that the power of Indulgence was left to the Church by Christ Jesus and that the use there of is very beneficial to Christians I do acknowledg the holy Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches and I profess and swear true obedience to the Pope of Rome Successor of the Blessed St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ In like manner I own and profess without doubting all other things left defined and declared by the Holy Canons and General Councils especially by the most holy Council of Trent and withal I do condemn reject and hold for accursed all things that are contrary thereto and all those Heresies which have been condemned rejected and accursed by the Church And then swearing upon the Book of the Gospel the Party recanting must say I promise vow and swear and most constantly profess by God's assistance to keep intirely and inviolably unto death this self same Catholick and Apostolick Faith out of which no person can be saved and this I do most truly and willingly profess and that I will to the utmost of my Power endeavour that it may be maintained and upheld as far as any ways belong to my charge so help me God and the holy Virgin The Certificate which the Party Recanting is to leave with the Priest before whom he makes his Abjuration IN. N. of the Parish of N. do Certifie all whom it may Concern That having acknowledged the falseness of the pretended Reformed and the Truth of the Catholick Religion of my own Free-will without any Compulsion I have accordingly made Profession of the said Catholick and Roman Religion in the Church of N. in the hands of N. N. In Testimony of the Truth whereof I have signed this Act in the presence of the Witnesses whose Names are under written this day of the Month of the year of the Reign of our Soveraign Lord the King and of our Redemption FINIS
read and write as if the Reformed were unworthy to learn any more and this on purpose to tire out the Parents and drive them to this extremity either not to know what to do with their Children or be forced to send them to the Roman Catholicks for Education The Edict gave them the liberty in all places where they had Churches to instruct publickly their Children and others in what concerns Religion which visibly establisht the Right of teaching them Theology seeing their Theology is nothing else but this Religion And as to Colleges wherein they might be instructed in Liberal Sciences the Edict promised Letters Pattents in good form Yet 't was supposed the Edict gave no right to the Reformed to instruct them in Theology nor to have Colleges and on this Supposition three Academies were condemned all that remained That of Sedan although grounded on a particular Edict was supprest as the rest and even before them But we must go further and seeing we have undertaken to shew in this Abridgment the principal things they have done to exercise our Patience before they came to the utmost Fury We are not to pass over the new Orders or new Laws which were to us as so many new Inventions to torment us The first of these Orders which appeared was touching the manner of Buryals and entering the Dead The number of Attendants were reduced to thirty Persons in those places where the Exercise of our Religion was actually established and to ten where it was not Orders were also issued out to hinder the Communication of Provinces with one another by Circulary Letters or otherwise though about matters of Alms and disposal of Charity Prohibitions were likewise made of holding Colloquies in the Interval of Synods excepting in two Cases the providing for Churches destitute by the Deaths of their Ministers and the Correction of some Scandals They likewise took away from those places allowed by the Edict which they call'd Exercises de fief all the Marks of the Temples as the Bell the Pulpit and other things of this Nature They were likewise forbidden to receive their Ministers in Synods to have any deciding Voice there or to note them in the Catalogue of those that belong'd to Churches Others forbad the singing of Psalms in private Houses as also some that commanded them to cease singing even in their Temples when the Sacrament passed by or at the time of any Procession Others were made to hinder Marriages such times as were forbidden by the Romish Church Others forbad Ministers to Preach any where except in the place of their usual Residence Others forbad their setling in places unless sent by the Synods though the Consistories had call'd them thither according to their usual forms Others were made to hinder the Synods from sending to any Churches more Ministers than were there in the preceding Synod Others to hinder those that design'd for the Ministry to be educated in Foreign Universities Others banish'd all Foreign Ministers though they had been ordained in the Kingdom and spent there the greatest part of their Lives Others forbad Ministers or Cardinals for the Ministry to reside in places where Preaching was forbidden or nearer than six Miles of them Others forbad the People to assemble in the Temples under pretence of Praying Reading or Singing of Psalms except in the Presence of a Minister placed there by the Synod One ridiculous one was made to take away all the Backs of the Seats in the Churches and reduce them all to an exact Uniformity Another to hinder the Churches that were a little more Rich to assist the Weaker for the maintenance of their Ministers and other necessities Another to oblige Parents to give their Children who changed their Religion great Pensions Another to forbid Marriages betwixt Parties of different Religions even in the case of Scandalous Cohabitation Another to prohibit those of the Religion from that time to entertain in their Houses any Domesticks or Servants that were Roman Catholicks Another which made them uncapable of being Tutors or Guardians and consequently put all the Minors whose Fathers dyed in the Profession of the Protestant Religion under the Power and Education of Roman Catholicks Another forbidding Ministers and Elders to hinder any of their Flock either directly or indirectly to embrace the Roman Religion or to dissuade them form it Another forbidding Jews and Mahometans to embrace the Reformed Religion and the Ministers either to instruct or receive them into it Another subjecting Synods to receive such Roman Catholick Commissaries as should be sent them from the King with an express order to do nothing but in their presence Another for bidding the Consistories to assemble oftner than once in Fifteen days and in presence of a Catholick Commissary Another forbidding Consistories to assist on pretence of Charity to the Poor Sick Persons of their Religion and ordaining that the Sick should be carried into their Hospitals strictly forbidding any Man to entertain them in their Houses Another confiscating in favour of Hospitals all the Lands Rents and other Profits of what nature soever which might have appertained to a condemned Church Another forbidding Ministers to come nearer than Three Leagues to the place where the Priviledges of Preaching was in question or debate Another confiscated to the Hospitals all the Revenues and Rents set apart for the maintenance of the Poor even in such Churches as were yet standing Another subjecting sick and dying Persons to the necessity of receiving Visits sometimes from Judges Commissionaries or Church-Wardens sometimes of Curates Monks Missionaries or other Ecclesiasticks to induce them to change their Religion or require of them express Declarations concerning it Another forbidding Parents to send their Children before sixteen years of Age to travel in Forreign Countries on any pretence whatsoever Another prohibiting Lords or Gentlemen to continue the exercise of Religion in their Houses unless they had first produced their Titles before the Commissaries and obtained from them a License to have Preaching Another which restrained the right of entertaining a Minister to those only who were in Possession of their Lands ever since the Edict of Nantes in a direct or collateral Line Another which forbad Churches called Baillage to receive into their Temples any of another Bailywick Another which enjoined Physitians Apothecaries and Chirurgeons to advertise the Curates or Magistrates of the condition of Sick Protestants that the Magistrates or Curates might visit them But amongst all these new Laws those which have most served the Design and Intention of the Clergy have been on one hand the prohibition of receiving into their Temples any of those who had changed their Religion nor their Children nor any Roman Catholick of what Age Sex or Condition soeâ—er under pain of forfeiting their Churches and the Ministers doing publick Pennance with Banishment and Confiscation of their Estates and on the other fide the setting up in all the Temples a particular Bench for the Catholicks to sit on for by
this means as soon as any one resolved to change his Religion they needed only to make him do it in private and to find him the next Morning in the Temple to be observed there by the Catholicks who were in their Seat Immediately Informations were made and afterwards Condemnations in all the Rigour of the Law The Roman Catholicks needed only to enter into the Temple under pretence that they had a place there and then they slipt in amongst the Croud and immediately this was a Contravention to the Declaration and an unavoidable Condemnation 'T is by this means they have destroyed an infinite number of Temples and Churches and put into Irons a great number of Innocent Ministers for Villains and false Witnesses were not wanting in this occasion All these Proceedings were so violent that they must needs make a strong Impression in the Reformists Minds whereunto these things tended And in effect there were many of them that bethought themselves of their safety by leaving the Kingdom some transported themselves into one Kingdom and some into another according as their Inclinations led them But this was what the Court never intended for more than one reason and therefore to hinder them they renewed from time to time this Decree which we have mentioned which strictly prohibited under the most severe Penalties any to depart the Kingdom without leave and to this end they strictly guarded all Passages on the Frontiers But these Precautions did not answer their Expectations and 't was better to blind the People by hopes of abating this rigorous usage at home and to this end in 1669. the King revoked several violent Decrees which produced the Effect expected For though the Judicious saw well enough that this Moderation sprang not from a good Principle and that in the Sequel the same Decrees would be put in execution yet the most part imagined they would still confine themselves within some Bounds in our regard and that they would not pass to a total Destruction We have often drawn the same Conclusions from the several Verbal Declarations which came many times from the Kings own Mouth that he pretended not to indulge us but he would do us perfect Justice and let us enjoy the benefits of the Edicts in their whole extent that he would be very glad to see all his Subjects re-united to the Catholick Religion and would for the effecting this contribute all his Power but there should be no Bloud shed during his Reign on this account nor any violence exercised These precise and re-iterated Declarations gave us hopes the King would not forget them and especially in essential matters he would let us enjoy the effects of his Bounty and Equity 'T was the more expected by a Letter he wrote to the Elector of Brandenburgh the Copies of which the Ministers of State took care to disperse through the whole Kingdom His Majesty assured him that he was well satisfyed with the Behaviour of his Protestant Subjects from whence he drew this natural Conclusion that he intended not then to destroy us To which we may add the managements used sometimes in the Council where Churches were conserved at the same time when others were crdered to be demolish'd to make the World believe they observed measures of Justice and that those which they condemned were not grounded on good Titles Sometimes they softned several too rigorous Decrees other times they seemed not to approve of the violences offered by the Intendants and Magistrates even to the giving of orders to moderate them In this manner did they hinder the execution of a Decree made in the Parliament of Rouen which enjoyned those of the Reformed Religion to fall on their Knees when they met the Sacrament Thus did they stop the prosecutions of a puny Judge of Charenton who ordered us to strike out of our Liturgy a prayer which was composed for the faithful that groaned under the Tyranny of Antichrist 'T is thus also that they did not extreamly favour another Persecution which began to come general in the Kingdom against the Ministers under pretence of obliging them to take an Oath of Allegiance wherein other Clauses were inserted contrary to what Ministers owe to their Charges and Religion 'T was thus also they suspended the execution of some Edicts which themselves had procured as well to Tax the Ministers as to oblige them to reside precisely in the place where they exercised their Ministry With the same design the Syndic's of the Clergy had the Art to let the principal Churches of the Kingdom to be at rest for many years without disturbance in their Assemblies whilst they in the mean time desolated all those in the Country They suspended also the condemnation of the Universities and reserved them for the last It was also in this view that at Court the first seemed unable to belive and at last not to approve of the excesses which one Marillac an Intendant of Poitu committed in his Province A man poor and cruel more fit to prey on the High-ways than to be Intendant of a Province though indeed they had a clause expresly to make these Expeditions But amongst all these illusions there 's none more remarkable than five or six which will not be improper here to take notice of The first was That at the very time when at the Court they issued out all the Decrees Declarations and Edicts which we have spoken of here before and which they caused to be put in execution with the greatest rigour at the same time that they interdicted their Churches demolished their Temples deprived particular persons of their Offices and Employments reduced People to Poverty and Hunger imprisoned them loaded them with Fines banish'd them and in a word ravag'd almost all the Intendants Governours Magistrates and other Officers in Paris and over all the Kingdom coolly and gravely gave out the King had not the least intention to touch the Edict of Nantes but would most Religiously observe it The second was that in the same Edict which the King publish'd to forbid Roman Catholicks to embrace the Reformed Religion which was in the year 1682. That is to say at a time when they had already greatly advanced the work of our destruction they caused a formal Clause to be inserted in these terms That he confirmed the Edict of Nantes as much as it was or should be needful The third That in the Circular Letters which the King wrote to the Bishops and Intendants to oblige them to signifie the Pastoral Advertisement of the Clergy to our Consistories he tells them in express terms That his intention was not that they should do any thing that might attempt upon what had been granted to those of the Reformed Religion by the Edicts and Declarations made in their favour The fourth That by an express Declaration publish'd about the latter end of the year 1684. the King ordained That Ministers should not remain in the same Church above the space of three
AN ACCOUNT OF THE PERSECUTIONS AND OPPRESSIONS OF THE Protestants IN FRANCE London Printed for J. Norris 1686. An exact account of the Cruel Oppressions and Persaecutions of the French Protestants THE Cruelties exercis'd of late on the Protestants in France do appear so detestable to all who have not divested themselves of Humanity that no wonder the Authors of them use their utmost endeavours to lessen what they cannot conceal Were not this worse than barbarous usage a project of a long contrivance a Man might for Charity 's sake suppose this their palliating it to be an acknowledgment of their own displeasure at it However their boldness is inexcusable who shall endeavour to impose on the World in matters known not by Gazetts and News-letters but by an infinite number of Fugitives of all Conditions who have nothing left but Tears and Miseries to bring along with them into foreign Nations 'T is certainly too barbarous to oppress innocent People in their own Countrey and afterwards to stifle their complaints in other places where they are driven and by this means deprive them of a compassion which the bare instincts of nature never refuse to the miserable Yet this is the course our persecutors of France have held their cruelty must be attended with Impostures that the mischiefs which they have acted may pass undiscovered I think we should be much to blame if we suffer them to go on in this second design as they have done in the first and therefore we shall choose some principal instances whereon we shall make such reflections as thereby to judge with greater evidence and exactness on the whole proceeding And as we shall offer nothing but what shall be perfectly true so we shall advance nothing in our reflections but what all the world of reasonable people will allow To begin with matters of Fact There 's no body but knows that a while after his present Majesty of France came to the Crown there arose in the Kingdom a Civil War which proved so sharp and desperate as brought the State within an hairs breadth of utter ruine 'T is also known that in the midst of all these troubles those of the Reformed Religion kept their Loyalty in so inviolable a manner and attended it with such a Zeal and extraordinary fervour that the King found himself obliged to give publick marks of it by a Declaration made at St. Germains in the year 1652. Then as well at Court as in the Field each strove to proclaim loudest the deserts of the Reformists and the Queen Mother her self readily acknowledged That they had preserved the State This is known by all but 't will hardly be believed though it be too true what our Enemies themselves an hundred times told us and which the sequel has but too shrewdly confirmed that this was precisely the principal and most essential cause of our ruine and of all the mischiefs which we have since suffered Endeavours were used to envenom all these important Services in the Kings and his Ministers minds by perswading them that if in this occasion this party could conserve the State this shewed they could likewise overthrow it should they have ranked themselves on the other side and might still do it when such alike occasion should offer it self That therefore this party must be suppressed and the good they have done no longer regarded but as an indication of the mischief which they may one day be capable of doing This Diabolical reasoning which hinders Subjects from serving their Prince to avoid drawing on themselves chastisements instead of recompences was relish'd as a piece of most refined Policy For as soon as the Kingdom was settled in Peace the design was advanced of destroying the Reformists and the better to make them comprehend that their Zeal had ruined them the Cities which had shewed most of it were first begun with Immediately then on slight pretences they fell on Rochel Montaubon and Milan three Towns where those of the Reformed Religion had most signalized themselves for the interests of the Court Rochel underwent an infinite number of prescriptions Montaubon and Milan were sackt by the Soldiers But these being but particular stroaks and meer preludes which decided nothing they tarried not long before they made appear the great and general Machius they were to use in the carrying on of their intended design to the last extremity 'T will be a difficult matter to give an exact account of these several methods For never humane malice produced such multiplicity of them every day brought forth new ones for twenty years together To take only notice of the chief of them which were First Law Suits in Courts of Justice Secondly Deprivations from all kinds of Offices and Employs and in general of all ways of subsistance Thirdly The infraction of Edicts under the notion of Explications of them Fourthly New Laws and Orders Fifthly Juggles and amusing Tricks Sixthly The animating of People and inspiring them with hatred against us These are the most considerable means which the persecuters have employed to attain their ends during several years I say during several years for what they designed being no easie matter they needed therefore time to order their Engins not to take notice of their Traverses and Interruptions by forrain Wars yet whose success have not a little contributed to encrease their Courage and confirm them in the design which they had against us The first of these means has had an infinite extent We should begin with the recital of all the Condemnations of Churches or suppressions of exercises of Religion and all the other vexations which have hapned by the establishing of Commissaries this was a Snare dexterously laid immediately after the Treaty of the Picenees the King under pretence of repairing the Edict of Nants sent them in the Provinces The Roman Catholic Commissary was every where his Majesties Intendant who was besure a fit man for the purpose armed with the Royal Authority and who was well instructed in the secret Aim The other was either some hungry Officer a Slave to the Court or some poor Gentleman who had usually neither Intelligence requisite in these sort of Affairs nor the liberty of speaking his Sentiments The Clergy had set them up He was their Ambulatory Spirit The Syndicks were received before them as formal parties in all our Affairs the assignations were given in their name the Prosecutions also and as well the Discords of the Commissaries as the Appeals from their Ordinances must be finally decided in the Kings Council Thus in general all the rights of the Churches for the exercises of Religion the burying places and all such dependancies were called into a review and consequently exposed to the fresh pursuits of the Clergy and the ill intention of the Judges In which there was not the least dram of Equity for the Edict having bin once executed according to the intention of him that made it there needed no second touches it being
moreover wholly unlikely those of the reformed Religion who had bin ever in the Kingdom the suffering party could usurp any thing therein and extend its limits beyond what belong'd to them But there were other designs in hand than the providing against the Contraventions and therefore by this order the greatest part of the Churches cited for the justifying of their Rights saw themselves soon condemned one after another by Decrees of Council how good and sufficient soever their Titles and Defences were Scarcely passed a Week wherein these kind of Decrees were not made and if it hapned that the Modesty of the Judges saved any of them by the great evidence of their Right as this sometimes hapned besides that the number was small in comparison of those condemned the Judges often received order to condemn them when they shewed they could not in Conscience do it But the Oppressions of this kind did not terminate in the bare condemnation of Churches for particular Persons had their part In ordinary and civil Affairs where the matter concerned a piece of Land perhaps a House a Debt between a Roman Catholick and a Person of our Religion Religion was to be sure always one of the chief Heads of the Accusation The Monks the Emissaries the Confessors and all the whole Tribe of that Crew interessed themselves in the Affair In Courts of Justice all the cry was I plead against an Heretick I have to do with a Man of a Religion odious to the State and which the King would have extirpated By this means there was no longer any Justice to be expected few Judges were proof against this false Zeal for fear of drawing the Fury of the whole Cabal against him or passing for a favourer of Hereticks 'T is not to be imagined how many unjust Sentences these sort of Prejudices have given in all the Courts of the Kingdom and how many mens Families have bin ruined by them When any one complained the Answer was ready You have the remedy in your own hands why do you not turn Catholick Yet all this had bin nothing had the Persecution kept here and not proceeded to fasten on the Reputation the Liberty and even the very Lives of Persons by a general inundation as a man may term it of criminal Processes Writings were Printed at Paris and sent from thence to all Cities and Parishes of the Kingdom which impowred the Curates Churchwardens and others to make an exact enquiry into whatsoever the pretended Reformists might have done or said for twenty years past as well on the subject of Religion as otherwise to make Information of this before the Justices of the Place and punish them without remission So have we seen for several years in execution of these Orders the Prisons every where fill'd with these kind of Criminals neither were false Witnesses lacking and that which was most horrible was that though the Judges were convinced they were Knights of the Post yet they maintained them and carry'd them throw such Points as they knew to be untrue They condemned innocent and vertuous Persons to be whipt to the Gallies to banishment and publick Penances And if a Spark of Honor or Conscience at any time hindred them yet there was always at least an impunity for the false Witness This kind of Persecution fell chiefly on the Ministers for of a long time they might not Preach without having for Auditors or to speak better Observators a Troop of Priests Monks and Missionaries and such kind of People who made no scruple to charge them with things which they not so much as thought of and turn others into a contrary meaning They also went so far as to devine the Thoughts to make Crimes for as soon as ever any Minister spake of Egypt Pharaoh the Israelites of good or bad People as 't is difficult not to speak of these matters when they explained the Scripture These Spies never failed to report that by Egypt and the wicked they meant the Catholicks and by the Israelites the pretended Reformists The Judges concerned themselves in this and what is most strange the ministers of State themselves respected these Interpretations of thoughts as evident Proofs On these grounds the Magistrates filled the Prisons whith these kind of poor People keeping them therein for whole years together and often inflicted on them several corporal Penalties 'T is already seen by this first kind of Persecution what were the Usages shewed in France to the Reformists before they came to the utmost violence But we shall see them appear more in what we have to add touching the privation of Offices and Employs and in general of the means of gaining a Livelihood which is the second way we mentioned that has been used to effect our Ruine 'T is not hard to comprehend that in a great Kingdom as France is where the Protestants were dispersed over all parts there were an infinite number who could not subsist nor maintain their Families but by the liberty of serving the publick either in Offices Arts Trades or Faculties each according to his Calling Henry the great was so well convinced of the necessity and Justice of this that he made it an express Article the most distinct perhaps and formal of all contained in his Edict And therefore 't was here the Persecutors thought themselves obliged to use their utmost endeavours In this regard they began with the Arts and Trades which under several pretences they rendered almost inaccessible to the Protestants by the difficulties of arriving to the mastership of them and by the excessive Expences they must be at to be received therein there being no candidate but was forced for this purpose to maintain Law Suits under the weight of which they for the most part fell not being able to hold them out But this not being sufficient by a Declaration made in 1669. they were reduced to one third in the Towns where the Protestants were more in number than the other Inhabitants and they were forbidden to receive any therein till this diminution was made which at one stroke excluded all the pretenders Some time after they absolutely drove all the Reformists from the Consulships and all other Municipal Officers of the Cities which was in effect the depriving them of the Knowledg of their Proper Affairs and Interests to invest wholly the Catholics with them In 1680. the King issued out an Order which deprived them in general of all kind of Offices and Employs from the greatest to the smallest They were made incapable so much as to exercise any Employ in the Custom-Houses Guard Treasury or Post-Offices to be Messengers Coach-Men or Waggoners or any thing of this nature In the year 1681. by a Decree of Council all Notaries Attorneys Solicitors and Sergeants making Profession of the Reformed Religion were rendered uncapable throughout all the Kingdom A Year after all Lords and Gentlemen of the Reformed Religion were ordered to discharge their Officers and Servants of the said
Religion and not make use of them in any case without other reason than that of their Religion In 1683. all Officers belonging to the Kings Houshold and those of the Princes of the Blood were also rendred uncapable of holding their Places The Councellors and other Officers of Ayds and Chambers of accounts and those of Seneschalship Baily wicks and Royalties Admiralry Provostships and Marshal's Courts Treasury Excise and others who belonged to the Toll-Offices and such like businesses were ordered to leave their Places in favour of the Catholicks In 1684. all Secretaries belonging to the King and Great Officers of France as well Titulary as Honorary ones and their Widows were deprived by a Revocation of all their Priviledges of what nature soever they were They also deprived all those that had purchased any Priviledges for the exercising of any Professions as Merchants Surgeons Apothecaries and Vintners nd all others without exception Nay they proceeded to this excess that they would not suffer any Midwives of the Reformed Religion to do their Office and expresly ordained for the future our Wives should receive no assistance in that Condition but from Roman Catholicks 'T is not to be exprest how many particular Persons and Families they reduced every where by these strange and unheard of Methods to Ruine and Misery But because there were yet many which could sustain themselves other Methods of Oppression must be invented To this end they issued out an Edict from the Council by which the new Converts as they call them were discharged from any payments of their Debts for three years This for the most part fell on the Reformists who having had a more particular Tye of Interest and Affair with these pretended Converts because of their Communion of Religion were reckoned amongst their Chief Creditors By this Order they had found the secret to recompense those that changed at the charge of those who continued firm and this they did likewise by another way for they discharged the Converts of all the Debts which those of the Religion had contracted in common which by consequence fell on the rest Add to this the prohibition to fell or alienate their Estates on any Pretence whatever the King annulling and breaking all Contracts and other acts relating to that matter if it did not appear that after these Acts they had stayed in the Kingdom a whole Year so that the last Remedy of helping themselves with their Estates in extream Necessity was taken from them They deprived them likewise of another which seemed the only one remaining which was to seek their Bread elsewhere by retiring into other Countries there to get their Living by Labour since this was not permitted them in France By repeated Edicts the King forbad them to leave his Kingdom on severe Penalties which drove them to the last Despair since they saw themselves reduced to the horrible necessity of dying with Hunger in their own Countrey without daring to go to live elsewhere But the Cruelty of their Enemies stopt not here for there yet remained some Gleanings in the Provinces though very few and as thin as those in Pharaoh's Dream The Intendants in their Districts had order to load the Reformed with Taxes which they did either by laying upon them the Tax of the New Catholicks who were discharged thereof on favour of their Conversion or by laying exorbitant Taxes which they called Duties that is to say he who in the ordinary Roll was assessed at Forty or Fifty Livers was charged by this Impostion at Seven or Eight Hundred Thus had they nothing more left for all was a Prey to the Rigour of the Intendants They raised their Taxes by the effectual quartering of Dragoons or Imprisonment from whence they were not freed till they had paid the utmost Farthing These were the two first Engins or Machins which the Clergy made use of against us To which they added a Third which we have termed the Infractions of the Edict of Nantes under pretence of Explication Those who would know their Number and Quality need only read the Books written and published on this Subject as well by the Jesuite Menier an Author Famous for his Illusions as by one Beanard an Officer in the Presidial Court of Besier in Languedoc There you will find all the turns which the meanest and most unworthy Sophistry could invent to elude the clearest Texts of the Edict and to corrupt the Sincerity thereof But because we do here give you only a brief Account of our Troubles we will content our selves with observing some of the Principal issuing from this Fountain What was there for Example more clear and unquestionable in the Edict than this viz. That 't was given with an Intention to maintain those of the Religion in all the Rights that Nature and Civil Society give to Men. Yet in 1681. there came out an Edict that Children might at the Age of Seven Years abjure the Reformed Religion and embrace the Catholick under pretence that the Edict did not precisely mark that at this Age they should continue at their Parents Disposal Who sees not that this was a meer trick seing that on one hand the Edict forbad to take the Children from their Parents by force or fair means and on the other hand the Edict supposed and confirmed all the Natural Rights of which without Controversie this is one of the most inviolable Was there ever a more manifest Infraction of the Edict than that which forbad those of the Protestant Religion who had passed over to the Roman to return to that they had left under pretence that the Edict did not formally give them in express Terms this Liberty For when the Edict permits generally all the Kings Subjects Liberty of Conscience and forbids the perplexing and troubling them and offering any thing contrary to this Liberty Who sees not that this Exception touching the pretended Relapsers is so far from being an Explication of the Edict that 't is a notable violation of it Whereunto we may add the charge given to the Roman Catholicks not to change their Religion and embrace the Reformed For when the Edict gives Liberty of Conscience it does it in proper Terms for all those who are and shall be of the said Religion Yet if we believe the Clergy this was not Henry the Great 's meaning intending only to grant it to those who made Profession of it at the time of the making his Edict That of Nantes gave also to the Reformed the priviledges of keeping small Schools in all places where they had the Exercise of their Religion and by this Term of small or little Schools according to the common explication those were always understood where one might teach Latin and Humanity This is the Sence which has been ever given in all the Kingdom to this Expression which is still given when it concerns the Roman Catholicks Yet by a new Interpreation this permission was restrained to the bare Liberty of teaching to
were expired and that they should not have Liberty to retire but must go to the Gallies There is no kind of Deceit and Injustice which they did not think of to involve them in Troubles As to the rest whom the Force of Persecution and hard Usage constrained to leave their Houses and Estates and to fly the Kingdom it is not to be imagined what dangers they exposed them to Never were Orders more severe or more strict than those that were given against them They doubled the Guards in Posts Cities High-Ways and Foards they covered the Country with Solders they armed even the Pesants to stop those that passed or to kill them They forbad all the Officers of the Customs to suffer any Goods Moveables Marchandize or other Effects to pass In a Word they forgot nothing that could hinder the flight of the persecuted even to the interrupting almost all Commerce with Neighbouring Nations By this means they quickly filled all the Prisons in the Kingdom for the fear of the Dragoons the Horror of seeing their Consciences forced and their Children taken away and of living for the future in a Land where there was neither Justice nor Humanity for them obliged every one to think of an escape and to abandon all to save their Persons All these poor Prisoners have been since treated with unheard of Rigours shut up in Dungeons loaded with heavy Chains almost starved with Hunger and deprived of all Converse but that of their Persecutors They put many into Monasteries where they experience none of the least Cruelties Some there are so happy as to dye in the midst of their Torments others have at last sunk under the Weight of the Temptation and some by the extraordinary Assistance of Gods Grace do still sustain it with an Heroick Courage These have been the Consequences of this new Edict in this respect but who would not have believed that the Twelfth Article would have shelter'd the rest of the Reformed that had a mind still to stay in the Kingdom since this Article exprefly assures them that they may live there continue their Trade and enjoy their Estates without being troubled or molested upon pretence of their Religion Yet see what they have since done and yet do to these poor Wretches They have not recall'd the Dragoons and other Soldiers which they dispatcht into the Provinces before the Edict On the contrary they to this day commit with greater Fury the same Inhumanities which we have before represented besides this they have marched them into Provinces where there were none before as Normandy Picardy le Berry Champaigne Nivernois Orleans Belessois and the lsle of France They do the same Violence there exert the same Fury they do in other Provinces Paris it self where methinks this Article of the Edict should have been best observed because so near the Kings Presence and more immediately under the Government of the Court Paris I say was no more spared than the rest of the Kingdom The very day that the Edict was published without more delay the Procurer-General and some other Magistrates began to send for Heads of Families to come to their Houses There they declared to them that 't was absolutely the Kings Will that they should change their Religion that they were no better than the rest of his Subjects and that if they would not do it willingly the King would make use of means which he had ready to compel them At the same time they banish'd by Letters under the Privy Seal all the Elders of the Consistory together with some others in whom they found more of Constancy and Resolution and to disperse them chose such places as were most remote from Commerce where they have since used them with a great deal of Cruelty some complyed others are yet under Sufferings The diligence of the Procurer-General and Magistrates not succeeding so fully as they wish'd though Threats and Menaces were not wanting Monsieur Seignelay Secretary of State would also try what influence he could have within his Division at Paris For this end he got together about five or six score Merchants and others into his House and after having shut the doors forthwith presented them with the form of an Abjuration and commanded them in the Kings Name to sign it declaring that they should not stir out of Doors till they had obeyed The Contents of this Form were not only that they did renounce the Heresie of Calvin and enter into the Catholick Church but also that they did this voluntarily and without being forced or compelled to it This was done in an Imperious manner and with an air of Authority yet there were some that dared to speak but they were sharply answer'd That they were not to dispute it but to obey so that they all Sign'd before they went out To these Methods they added others more terrible as Prisons actually seizing of their Effects and Papers the taking away of their Children the separation of Husbands and Wives and in fine the great Method that is to say Dragoons and Guards Those that most firmly stood out they sent to the Bastile and to the Fort l'Eveque they confin'd them to their own or other Houses where they lay concealed for fear of Discovery they plunder'd those of many others not sparing their persons just as they had done in other places Thus the 12th Article of the Edict which promised some relaxation and a shadow of Liberty was nothing but an egregious deceit to amuse the credulous and keep them from thinking to make their escape a snare to catch them with the more ease The Fury still kept its usual course and was heated to such a degree that not content with the Desolations in the Kingdom it entred even into Orange a Soveraign Principality where the King of Right has no power and taking Ministers away from thence by force remov'd them into Prisons Thither the Dragoons were sent who committed all kind of mischief and by force constrained the Inhabitants thereof both Men Women and Children and the very Officers of the Prince to change their Religion And this is the state of things in the year 1685. and this is the accomplishment of the dealing which the Clergy has shewed us three years since towards the end of their Pastoral Letter You must expect mischiess more dreadful and intolerable then all those which hitherto your Revolts and Schisms have drawn down upon you And truly they have not been worse than their words There are some in the Kingdom who still continue firm and their Persecutions are still continu'd to them There are invented every day new Torments against those whom force has made to change their Religion because they are still observed to sigh and groan under their hard servitude their hearts detesting what their months have profest and their hands signed As to such that have escaped into Foreign Countreys who are at least 150000 persons their Estates are Confiscated this being all the hurt which
can be done to them at present I say at present for 't is not to be questioned but our Persecutors are contriving to extend their Cruelties farther But we must hope in the compassions of God that whatsoever intentions they may have in destroying the Protestant Religion in all places he will not permit them to effect their designs The World will surely open its Eyes and this which they now come from doing with a high hand and a worse then barbarous Fury will shew not only the Protestants but the wise and circumspect Catholicks what they are to expect both one and the other from such a sort of People In effect he that shall give himself the leisure to reflect on the matters of Fact which we come now from relating which are things certain and acted in the face of the Sun he shall see not only the Protestants supprest but the King's Honour sullied his Countreys damnified all the Princes of Europe interessed and even the Pope himself with his Church and Clergy shamefully discredited For to begin with the King himself What could be more contrary to his Dignity then to put him upon breaking his word and perswading him that he might with a safe Conscience violate revoke and annul so solemn an Edict as that of Nantes To palliate in some sort the Violence of this proceeding they make him say in this new Edict That the best and greatest part of the Reform'd Religion has imbraced the Catholick and therefore the execution of the Edict of Nantes and whatsoever else has been done in favour of the same Religion remains void But is not this an Elusion unworthy of his Majesty seeing that if this best and greatest part of his Subjects of the Reformed Religion have embraced the Catholick they have done it by force of Arms and by the cruel and furious Oppression which his own Troops have laid upon them Perhaps one might thus speak had his Subjects changed their Religion of their own free will although that in this case too the Priviledges of the Edict continue for those that remain But after having forced them to change by the horrible inhumanities of his Dragoons after having deprived them of the Liberty which the Edict gave them to say coldly that he only revokes the Edict because it is now useless is a Raillery unbefitting so great a Prince For it is as much as if he said that he was indeed obliged to continue to his Protestant Subjects all the Priviledges due to them but having himself overthrown them by a major Force he finds himself at present lawfully and fairly disengaged from this Obligation Which is just as if a Father who himself had cut his Childrens Throats should glory in the being henceforward freed from the care of nourishing and protecting them Are other Kings wont thus to express themselves in their Edicts What they make him moreover say to wit That Henry the Great his Grandfather gave only the Edict of Nantes to the Protestants that he might the better effect their re-union to the Roman Church That Lewis the 13th also his Father had the same design when he gave the Edict of Nismes and that he himself had entred therein at his coming to the Crown is but a pitiful Salvo But suppose seeing they are willing we should do so the truth of this Discourse and take we it simply and according to the Letter in the sense wherein they gave it us what can we conclude thence but these following Propositions That Henry the Great and Lewis the 13th gave only the Edicts to our Fathers to deceive them and with an intent to ruine them afterwards with the greater ease under the mask of this Fraud That not being able to do this being hindred by other affairs they have committed this important secret to his present Majesty to the end he should execute it when he met with an opportunity That his present Majesty entring into the thought of this at his first coming to the Crown he only confirm'd the Edicts and Declarations of 1643. and 1652. with other advantagious Decrees to the Reformed Religion but to impose on them the more finely lay snares in their way or if you please crown them as they crown'd of old the Sacrifices That all that has been done against them since the Peace of the Pirenees till this time according to the abridgment which we have made of it has been only the execution of a Project but of a Project far more ancient than we imagine seeing we must date it from the Edict of Nantes and ascend up to Henry the Great In fine That what has been till now has been a great mystery but is not one at present seeing the King by this new Edict discovers it to all the World that he may be applauded for it Will it not be acknowledged that the Enemies of France who are willing to discredit the Conduct of its Kings and render them odious to the World have now an happy opportunity Henry the Great gives his Edict to the Protestants with the greatest Solemnity imaginable he gives it them as a Recompence of their Services he promises solemnly to observe it and as if this was not enough he binds himself thereunto with an Oath he executes it to the utmost of his Power and they peaceably enjoy'd it to the end of his Reign yet all this is but a meer Snare for they are to be Dragoon'd at a proper time But being himself surprized by Death he could not do it but leaves it in charge to Lewis the 13th his Son Lewis the Thirteenth ascends the Throne issues out his Declaration immediately that he acknowledges the Edict of Nantes as perpetual and irrevocable it needing not a new Confirmation and that he would Religiously observe every Article of it and therefore sends Commissioners to see it actually executed When he begins a War he protests he designs not at Religion and in effect he permits the full Liberty of it in those very Towns he takes by Assault He gives his Edict of Nismes as the Edict of a Triumphant Prince yet declares therein he understands that of Nantes should be inviolably kept and shows himself to the last as good as his Word But this is only intended to lull the Protestants asleep in expectation of a favourable occasion to destroy them Lewis the Fourteenth at his coming to the Crown confirms the Edict and declares That he will maintain the Reformed in all their Priviledges he afterwards affirms in another Declaration how highly he is satisfied in their Services and mentions his design of making them to enjoy their Rights But this is but a meer amusement and an artifice to intrap them the better to colour over the project of ruining them at a convenient time What a Character now of the Kings of France will this afford to its Enemies and foreign Nations and what confidence do they think will be henceforward put in their Promises and Treaties for if they
no share in the Conversions but that they were soft and calm and voluntary and that if there were any Dragoons concerned therein 't was because the Reformed themselves desired them that they might have a handsom pretence to change their Religion Was there ever seen so much Impudence What will they not deny who can deny what 's done in the Face of the Sun and what a whole Kingdom from one end of it to the other hath seen and to this day sees For in the beginning of the year 1686. whilst I am composing this sad Rehearsal they continue to exercise in France the same Rage that ended the preceding year the same Dragoons both in Cities and Countries execute the same Fury against some lamentable Remains of Protestants who will not fall down and worship They are used like Rebels in their Persons in their Estates in their Wives and in their Children and if there be any difference 't is in this that their sufferings are still increasing Yet if we will believe the Clergy haranguing the King and the Bishop of Valence their Speaker he tells his Majesty how miraculous his Reign is seeing such infinite number of Conversions are made to the Roman Church without violences and Arms much less saith he by the force of your Edicts as by the example of your exemplary Piety If we will believe the greatest part of the Abjurations which these poor Opprest People are forc'd to make they speak indeed the same sence viz. That they have done this without being constrain'd thereto Thus is the Credulity of the publick impos'd on They have Seeds of Imposture sown at their Feet which are to grow with the time Posterity who shall see these Records will belive they contain the truth Here say they is what has bin told the King who must not have falshoods offer'd him Here is the proper acts and deeds of those that were converted Why will not then Posterity believe it seeing that at present there are indeed people impudent enough or to speak better paid well enough to publish it in strange Countries and there are found credible persons enough to believe it But I pray what likelihood is there that 150000 persons already gone out of France without any thing constraining them to it should leave their Houses their Lands of Inheritance their Effects and several their Wives and Children for to wander about the World and lead a miserable Life for a humour Is there any likelihood that Persons of Quality of both Sexes who enjoyed 10 15 20 30 thousand Livers per annum would abandon these their Estates not only for themselves but for their Successors expose themselves to the periss and incommodiousness of long Journies and reduce themselves in a manner to Beggary which is a condition the most insupportable in the world to Persons of Quality and all this without any reason without any occasion What likelihood that this 150 thousand persons who have already escap'd some of 'em into Switzerland others into Germany some into Denmark others into Holland some into Suedeland and others into England and some into America without seeing or knowing one another yet have agreed to tell the same lie and to say with one voice That the Protestants are cruelly persecuted in France and that by unheard of Severities they are forc'd to change their Religion altho' there is no such matter Is it likely that the Embassadors and Envoys of Foreign Princes should lye all of them in consórt in telling them this news wherein there is no truth But I pray If in France the Protestants thus voluntarily and without constraint change their Religion that the Dragoons are cal'd in only as their good friends whence happens this so strict general Guard on the Frontiers to hinder Peoples departure How is it that the Prisons of the Kingdom are cram'd with Fugitives stopt by the way Whence is it that those who have chang'd are watch'd with such great care to hinder their flight to the obliging them to deposit sums of money to secure them from the suspition of it This must be an Epidemical Distemper that has seiz'd on his Majesties Subjects that shall make them fly thus without reason But is not this a fine cover to say that the Protestants have themselves call'd in the Dragoons to have the better pretence to change their Religion It is about 10 or more years since there was a Bankset up to traffick for Souls Mr. Pelison has for a long time bin the great dealer of Paris in this infamous Trade of purchasing Converts These Conversions have of late bin the only way of gaining applause and recompences at Court and in a word a means of raising ones Fortune and yet we must be told that instead of being Converted by these easie ways we had rather choose the help of Dragoons that is of being pillag'd At least let any one tell us why since these pretended voluntary Conversions the People not willing to go to Mass they have bin obliged to send them Troops and use them with the same severity as before This is so gross and palpable an untruth that others have undertaken to defend these Violences as being naturally of the genuine Spirit of the Catholick Church and for this purpose they have continually in their mouths that passage of the Gospel compelle intrare compel them to come in and the persecution which the Orthodox of Africk offer'd the Donatists c. Were this a place to dispute against these furious Divines we could easily show 'em the vanity of these allegations but we shall rather ask 'em whether the Jews and Pagans had agreed upon an Edict with the Apostles when our Saviour says to them compel them to come in Has St. Augustin ever written for he is cited in this matter That we ought to be perfidious towards those whom we esteem as Hereticks when we promis'd to live with 'em like Brethren and fellow Citizens The Donatists had they any Edicts which would shelter 'em from the insults of the Orthodox If we yield to this detestable Divinity what will become of all us Christians For in short the Papist is as much an Heretick to the Protestants as the Protestants are to the Papist yet they live together in peace on the Faith of Alliances Treaties and Promises But these publick Pests as much as in them lies have brought all things into confusion and a State of War They arm the Catholicks against the Protestants teaching the Catholicks by this example that their Religion obliges him to betray and surprise the Protestants when they can do it unpunish'd and knock â—ut their Brains if they will not change their Religion They arm the Protestant against the Catholick for after all what Peace and Society can we have with People who not only make no Conscience to break their Faith but on the contrary make it a case of Conscience to break it when they shall find occasion Thus have they by their