Liberties and Laws are too slight a Bulwark to secure Protestant Subjects the exercise of their Religion and enjoyment of their Civil Rights under a Prince of the Romish Perswasion These Persecuted Protestants the daily objects of your Charity are the Successors and Descendants of those of the last Age to whose Loyalty and Valour Henry the fourth of France acknowledged himself much a Debtor for the Diadem of that Kingdom which the Monarch now Regnant there wears with so much Glory and the Catholick Liguers labour'd so vigorously and scandalously to rend away from the Family of Bourbon It was in consideration of that Fidelity and as a Princely Mark of his favour and acceptance of the eminent service they had done him that Prince no less truly than nominally great confirm'd to them the free exercise of their Religion with ample Immunities and Priviledges ratified with all solemnity of Law requisite in such cases All Europe is witness the present Protestants of France have not degenerated from the Loyalty of their Ancestors but have serv'd their Prince with all imaginable Fidelity and Zeal for the Glory of his Crown The World admires the Royal qualities of their Monarch his Conduct proves him a Prince every way great He is particularly fam'd for strictness of Justice and profoundness of Wisdom His Protestant Subjects who are lash'd so severely by the rod of his Authority declare him a person of a generous Temper and sweet Disposition a Man that abhors Cruelty and Violence and is one of the best natur'd Princes under Heaven Rome to her sorrow finds him no Bigot though a Roman Catholick yet the Protestants of France are persecuted with that rigour and extremity they think it a happiness to purchase with the loss of all secular enjoyments the freedom of their Conscience and by a voluntary exile to find in strange Countries that Justice and Peace they cannot have in their own Poor Hugonots What can be a sufficient Guarranty for the exercise of your Religion which Edicts in its favour obtain'd on weighty and just Considerations and ratified with all the solemnity of Law the loyalty of its Professors the merit of your Ancestors the innate goodness and wisdom of your Soveraign cannot secure If Persecution be your Lot under the Reign of a Monarch so Generous and Sagacious so free from Superstition and so full of Heroick Qualities as your Lewis the 14th cease to complain of the Murders and Massacres under Charles the 9th and Henry the 3d and arm your selves with a Christian expectation of greater Sufferings and more fiery tryals of your Patience and Loyalty when it shall be your misfortune to see the French Crown on the head of a weak ill-natur'd or Bigotted Prince Your present King hath bravely defy'd the Thunderbolts of Rome and vigorously attack'd its usurp d Supremacy yet permits you to be rigorously handled what usage must you expect from a Superstitious Soul that will receive the Dictates of the Pope as Oracles of Heaven and hazard Crowns to merit the title of a true Son of the Church in executing Commands the most dishonourable and bloudy the malice of Priests or interest of the Papacy shall impose upon him Impute it singly to the good nature of your King that Fires are not kindled and Gibbets set up to destroy you as in former Ages the malice of your Enemies is not abated and your Religion the cause of your Sufferings is the same as then but your King hath a Soul too noble and tender to command Innocents to be tortur'd and burnt a Spectacle Charles the 9th made his Divertisement and Pleasure How miserable must you be under a Prince that shall delight in your Sufferings and think it not just only but meritorious to extirpate you when you are thus sharply persecuted under so great a Monarch who had the goodness to declare he would willingly sacrifice his right hand for what he calls your Conversion Had your sage and wise Prince so much tenderness for you that he would have sacrific'd the instrument of so many glorious Atchievements the Darling of his noble and ambitious soul for that which conceives your good and yet is impos'd upon by the arts of your Enemies to connive at your ruine and permit his authority to be abus'd to warrant and countenance those Violences and Outrages his Soul abhors and his eyes cannot endure a sight of Preserve as you do your Loyalty to your Soveraign admire his Vertues and extol his Goodness Triumph in the clearness of your Innocence that the Enemies of your Religion own not any cause of your present Persecution but your King's Pleasure that there shall be but one Religion in his Kingdom But lament the unhappiest of his Education in a Religion of Principles so unnatural it would take away that variety God and Nature have unalterably established no less in the Opinions and Judgments than in the Tempers and Faces of Men so tyrannically it would enslave all Mankind to its Tenets though never so absur'd so wildly ambitious it would usurp that Soveraignty God hath reserved to himself over the judgment and conscience and force Men contrary to both to comply with its Superstitions and become Traytors to God by a prophane Hypocrisie that they may appear good Subjects to the Pope by an outward Conformity to his Impositions so irrational it would perswade men to put out their eyes to be guided by it to abjure their Senses and renounce their Reason to be governed by its Dictates Bewail the malice and subtilty of your Enemies that hath perverted your Prince from a Father of his faithful Subjects into a Persecutor of Protestants an Oppressor of the Reformed Church inspired him with a Cruelty it found not in his Nature and surprized him to permit Violences and Outrages to be committed upon you which are no less contrary to his judgment than they are to his goodness But the Moon hath her spots Solomon and Alexander were not free from miscarriages and the sagacious malice of the enemies of Protestants quickly finds out those weaknesses in the Souls of the best Princes they have access to which they impose upon and manage to the prejudice of the Reformed Religion They knew the French King of too good a nature to permit general Massacres or delight in Cruelty exercised on his Subjects they were sensible he is not a Bigot to be perswaded to yield up the Lives of his Subjects to the pleasure of the Pope or the interest of his Church nor so silly to believe the God of the Christians can be pleased as some of the pretended Vicars of Christ have been with slaughter of men They observed so much Justice and Equity in his nature he would be scandalized at a proposal that would have engaged him contrary to Law and without colour of Justice to violate the rights of a loyal and numerous party of his Subjects they apprehended him too sensible of the interest of his Crown to approve of a
themselves by retiring out of the Kingdom though it were sure they should perish in the Attempt Good God! What a spectacle will it be to see the Children violently taken away from their Parents What Cannibal heart can be hard enough to endure the sight of Mothers bath'd in Tears cover'd with their own Blood scratching their Faces tearing their Hair beating their Breasts Sighing and Groaning and making hideous outcryes after those who rob them of their Children calling them Hangmen Robbers Villains and other opprobrious Names dictated by extremity of Fury raging in the tender Soul of a Mother Par. I cannot deny but the Catholicks themselves were surpriz'd at this Declaration and that it hath in it something repugnant to the Laws of Nature But great designs how just soever cannot be executed without using some unjust means The wisest Politicians are often oblig'd to do some ill that the may attain a greater good The King hath a mind to have all his Subjects reunited in one Religion The design is excellent but cannot be compass'd without use of violent means Hug. Law Pray Sir tell me Had not the Christian Emperors a design to have their Subjects all of a Religion Did not they wish Paganism destroy'd This sure was as excellent a design as the ruining of Calvinism But did they take the like Course to attain the design Before and in the Reign of Theodosius the Great the Empire had embrac'd Christianity almost an Age. The Provinces the Cities the Armies Rome it self was full of Christians Yet the Senate of Rome was almost all Pagan and by the Mouth of Symmachus pleaded before the Emperor to disswade him from demolishing the Altar of Victory that stood at the Gate of the Senate-house Yet these Senators were not turn'd out nor did any lose his Office for being a Pagan Symmachus as zealous as he was for Paganism received from Theodosius the honour of the Consulship the highest Office of the Empire We do not read that the Children of Pagans were taken from them in those days or had Liberty given them at seven years old to turn Christians against the will of their Parents The Piety of the Theodosij and the Constantines never mov'd them to act in favour of the true Religion such a violence against nature They did not in that Age understand it lawful to do ill that good might come of it The Impiety and Fury of the Persecutors of the Church never suggested such a thought The Councellors of that Apostate Emperor who went so dextrously about destroying the Christian Religion were but bunglers to our Clergymen of the Councel of Conscience who surprize in a manner so ruinous to us the greatest Prince of the World Julian destroy'd the Schools of the Christians and shut up their Churches but it never entred his thoughts to take away their Children at seven years old to be brought up in Paganism Every rational man holds it a Maxim that Religion is not to be impos'd by Command but taught by perswasion You have read the Book of Father Nicolai the Jacopin intituled De Baptismi antiquo usu Dissertatio duplex In the second Dissertation he tells us some Schoolmen hold that Jews and Infidels may be compell'd to be baptiz'd But 't is hellish Divinity a Maxim of Executioners and Inquisitors These sottish Divines ground their Doctrine on some Examples as that of Chilperic who commanded the Jews to get themselves baptiz'd and imprison'd one of them to compel him thereto as Gregory of Tours reports Aimoyn writes that Dagobert oblig'd them to it upon pain of Banishment The Capitulars of Charlemain tell us that Prince punish'd with death the Saxons who refus'd to turn Christians But Father Nicolai makes it appear Conc. Tolet. 4. Can. 57. de Judaeis Ann. Christi 633. these were particular actions never approv'd by the Church He quotes the Councel of Toledo which disapprov'd the Violence us'd by Sisebut in Spain against the Jews in obliging them to be baptiz'd on pain of Whipping and Banishment He shews further that the Penalties ordain'd against Jews and Infidels were not so much to force them to turn Christians as to punish them for Crimes otherwise committed At last he proves there is not in the Primitive Church any president for this Practise of compelling Jews or Infidels into Christianity Much less may you find an Example of the new kind of Cruelty exercis'd against us If you meet with some Ordinances that command Infidels to turn Christians yet you will never find any Christian Prince made a Law for taking from Jews and Infidels their Children and hindring them to be instructed in their Religion Hug. Gent. Yet Sir if I mistake not I have read in the Memoires and Petition you mention'd that a King of Portugal call'd Emmanuel order'd all Male Children of Jews under fourteen years of Age to be taken from them and instructed in the Christian Religion Hug. Law 'T is true but you are to observe the Example is single that it is modern being a President but of the last Age when the Church was very corrupt and that it proceeds from the infernal source of the Spanish and Portuguess Inquisitions In a word he that reports it though a Bishop had not the power to forbear saying it was a Jewish Course and unjust in the Execution that it had not any foundation of Law or of Religion though it seem'd to proceed from a good intention and had an appearance of Piety 'T is Ozorius Bishop of Algarves who wrote a great Volume in twelve Books of the Life of Emmanuel the second King of Portugal The Story is so pat and the Reflexions of this Bishop so proper for the present Conjuncture I cannot forbear reading to you a Translation I made yesterday of the whole passage though somewhat long This Historian having repeated at large the reasons of those who were for permitting the Jews to live peaceably in Portugal Ozorius lib. 1. rerum Emmanualis Anno. 1497. and the contrary Arguments goes on thus Emmanuel approving the latter Opinion order'd all Jews and Moors who would not embrace Christianity to quit the Kingdom and appointed a day after which those who should be found within the Realm should be made Slaves c. The day drew near The Jews with great diligence prepar'd for Embarquing Emmanuel troubled to see so many thousands persist obstinate to Damnation that he might at least be instrumental for the Salvation of their Children bethought himself of a Course good in the Intention but unjust in the Execution He order'd all the Jews Children of fourteen years and under to be taken from their Parents and secur'd at a distance to be brought up in the Christian Religion This could not be done without terrible agitation and trouble of mens minds 'T was a horrible spectacle to see Children forc'd out of the Bosoms of their Mother and wrench'd out of their Fathers Arms in which they were lock'd The Parents were ill us'd and
afraid to stain the Memory of his Father for if some may be credited he was about to have an information put in against him and to have his bones burnt as an Heretick And that he forbore this proceeding for no other reason than that his Father had been an Heretick he was thereby devested of his Estates and consequently had no right to resign them to his Son Philip indeed appear'd a great Zealot for his Religion But if you will believe the Germans the terrible hatred he had against the Protestants proceeded not so much from his love to the Catholick Church as from his violent resentment against the Lutheran Confederates who oppos'd the Design of Charles the 5th to make him associate of the Empire with Ferdinand his Brother whose Successor in the Empire Philip aspir'd to be But to return to our Subject I say the Germans fought for their Religion and Liberty by Power inherent in the Princes of the Empire who are as much Masters of their States as the Emperor of his Maurice of Saxony effected what Frederick could not He recovered the Liberty of Germany and broke the Yoke under which it groan'd Having thus justifi'd the Protestants of Germany I know of no other but the States of the United Provinces who are charg'd to have chang'd their Religion to set up and maintain a new form of Government Par. Ah! Sir as for them I advise you for your credit not to engage in their defence 'T is so publickly notorious they were Subjects of Spain and that in changing their Religion they chang'd their Master by as plain a Rebellion as ever was in the World I am so much your Friend I would not have you undertake their Cause Hug. Law No Sir I will not undertake it Grotius de antiquitate Reipublicae Batavicae 'T is done to my hand Read what the learned Grotius hath writ of the Original and Government of the Provinces of the Low-Countreys Read their Historians read ours You will find these People never were absolutely Subjects of Spain that the Earls of Holland never were their absolute Masters that the Government was mix'd partly Aristocratical partly Monarchick These Historians will tell you the Provinces of the Low-Countries were reform'd long before they took up Arms against the King of Spain that in the first Wars there was an equal if not a greater number of Roman-Catholick than of Protestant Lords and Towns engag'd against the Catholick King That the States chose the Duke of Alanson a Son of France a Roman-Catholick for their Master That before that Election they had submitted themselves to Arch-Duke Matthias a good Roman-Catholick You will see there that the horrible Cruelties of the Duke of Alva fore'd this poor People beyond the bounds of patience That Tyrant boasted he had destroy'd by the hands of the common Executioner eighteen thousand Persons and had made the Confiscations of the Condemn'd amount to eight millions of Gold yearly You may if you please read in Mezeray's Abridgement who is neither Hollander nor Hugonot Ann. 1557. That before the Duke of Alva left Spain they arrested the Marquess of Berguen and Floris de Mentmorency Montigny who were gone from the States of the Low-Countries to make their Remonstrances to King Philip The former dyed of grief or was poison'd the other was Beheaded though both were good Roman-Catholicks By which it appear'd the Councel of Spain had form'd their design against the Liberty of the Low-Countries as much at least as against their new Religion If you have a mind to hear any more of the Low-Country Wars let us read Mezeray in the same place This year said he They make the beginning of the Low-Country Wars which lasted till the Peace of Munster without intermission other than that of the Truce agreed by the mediation of Hen. 4th The fear of the Inquisition was the principal Cause of the War The Inquisition was extremely pernicious and insupportable to the Flemings for besides the two violent rigors it exercis'd against those who had embrac'd the new Opinions it broke off all Commerce c. The very Clergy was no less displeas'd at it for the seven newly erected Bishopricks taken out of the Metropolitan Diocesses of Rhemes Treves and Cologne and the Bishopricks of Liege and Munster because they had appropriated to these new erected Bishopricks the richest Abbies of the Low-Countries and bestow'd them on Prelates at the Devotion of the Councel of Spain So that under pretence of maintaining the ancient Religion the Spaniards labour'd to establish an absolute Dominion in Provinces which owe but a limited Obedience according to their Laws and their Priviledges This Sir was the true source of these Wars wherein not only the Lay-subjects of both Religions but the Roman-Catholick Clergy of the Low-Countries were engag'd against the King of Spain for the preservation of their Liberty Read Strada whom you cannot suspect of partiality in our favour and you will discover through all the Disguisements of that Author that it was not Religion but the Cruelty of the Spanish Government was the sole Cause of the revolt of those Provinces If all this will not satisfie you I will give you leave Sir to brand the memory of our Kings who maintain'd the Rights of these Provinces thought their Cause just and supported them against the enterprizes of a Master who had lost his just Rights of Lawful Soveraignty over them by endeavouring to be their Tyrant Par. I see we shall never agree in this point We were better return to our Civil Wars of France wherein those of your Religion have spilt so much Blood and appear'd always of a Spirit inclin'd to Rebellion Hug. Law If you think we have nothing to say for our selves you are very much mistaken Sir We have so many things to answer we know not what Method to put them in nor how to comprehend them in few words The Wars you would charge us with as a Crime have been Civil Wars of the same nature with others rais'd in the Bowels of a State by the discontent of the People and the jealousie of the great ones to which Religion was but an accidental ingredient This Sir I undertake to prove evidently by History But before I enter on that I beg leave to make some Reflections Is it not a great piece of injustice in those who read the History of the last Age to fix their eyes on those thirty years only which pass'd between the death of Henry the 2d and that of Henry the 3d. without taking notice of the forty years elaps'd during the Raign of Francis the 1st and Henry the 2d If they charge us with having been engag'd in the Civil Wars those thirty years ought they not to commend the patience we had for forty years before Admit it we were afterwards more impatient than we ought however 't is true that for almost half an Age we patiently endur'd unheard of Cruelties without seeking any
true is it that the Ambition of the great ones was the cause of these Wars on the one side and the other Hath not the Duke of Alanson Brother of Charles the ninth and Henry the third been seen at the head of Thirty Thousand of these Male-Contents Yet he was no Hugonot nor ever favour'd them of the Religion Were not Marshal Danville and several other firm and profest Roman Catholicks engag'd for the same Party By which it appears all those Wars were the Wars of the Discontented in general whether Catholicks or Hugonots To Conclude Sir for justifying our Hugonots in these Wars I can prove they had not any design but to preserve themselves the State and the Illustrious Princes of the Family of Bourbon now Regnant On the contrary the opposite Party was a Spanish Faction who covered their Designs with the Specious Vail of Religion but were Enemies to the State and would have put the Crown upon the Heads of Strangers Par. As to the last Article I pray Sir ingage not in the proof of it Repetitions are troublesom to the Speaker and no less tedious and unpleasant to the hearer This Gentleman hath acquainted us with what you have to say on that Subject for he hath endeavor'd to prove the faction of the Guises would have taken away from the Branch of Bourbon their Lives and the Crown to bring France under the Dominion of a Stranger 'T is possible there might be some such design but the faults of others do not justify us If the faction of the Guises had Criminal designs are you therefore more innocent Hug. Law Sir that which hath been said by us on this Subject is not the hundredth part of what may be said to prove the faction of the house of Guise which call'd it self the Holy Union and went under the name of the League from the year 1576. to the year 1600. was altogether Spanish and an Enemy to the State and that our Party which was wholly opposite to the other was altogether French But I will comply with your desires and say no more of it provided you will in requital answer a question I am going to ask you What reason you Gentlemen of the Roman Catholick Religion have to Condemn the Protestants for their pretended Rebellions against their Princes on the account of Religion Par. 'T is on this Ground That Subjects owe absolute obedience to their Soveraign's in all things That the Soveraign is Master of the Religion of his Countrey And that Subjects have no right to demand toleration of a Religion different from that of the State Hug. Law You have answered just as I expected And according to these Maxims you argue very right For if a Prince is absolute Master of the Religion of his People as of other their Concerns if Subjects are obliged to follow always the Religion of their Soveraign doubtless there is reason to charge them with Rebellion who with Arms in their hands desire to be tolerated in the Exercise of a Religion different from that of the State But Sir have you thought well of the Maxim you propos'd Do you remember 't is the Maxim of Hobbs in his Politicks You know how famous Spinosa was for Impiety He was for allowing every one Liberty to think and speak what he pleas'd concerning Religion yet attributes to the Soveraign an absolute Authority over the Religion of the State You know these two men are an Object of Execration to all Divines and that they are generally look'd upon as great Enemies of Religion And amongst all their Maxims this in particular hath been look'd upon as one of the most Pernicious Consider a little how far it may be carry'd If the Prince be Master of Religion you Catholicks must be Reformed in England and Holland and so must the Lutherans in Denmark and Swede and the Christians of the East must turn Mahometans in Persia and Turkey If therefore this may peradventure be a false Maxim as certainly it is is it so great a Crime to be of a Religion different from that of the State And if you are of a Religion different from that of your Prince is it a Crime to obtain from him a toleration to exercise it in private or publick Par. Either you misapprehend me or I have not well express'd my self I design not to assert the Empire of Kings extends to the Conscience or that they are Masters of the Religion of the heart I know very well we are to obey God rather than Men I coufess it allowable and frequently necessary to be of a Religion different from that of our Prince In a word 't is no Crime to desire permission of the Prince to make publick profession of a Religion different from his My meaning was that the Prince is Master of the External part of Religion That if he will not permit any Religion but his when we cannot obey we may die patiently without making other defence than our Sufferings Because true Religion ought not to make use of force and Arms for its establishment Princes are infinitely to blame when they violently oppose the Establishment of the true Religion but they are answerable only to God for it Hug. Law In this sence I confess your Maxim is pious and bears the Character of the Primitive Christian Morality And now Sir I have you where I wish'd you I ask you with confidence what ground you Roman Catholicks have to charge us with the violation of this Maxim If you think it good why d' you not observe it If you observe it not why make you such ado why clamour you so much against others who do not observe it You may very well be allow'd Gentlemen to make the like Objection against the Reformed You who are of a Religion whose History if written would be a continual Series of Rebellion against Soveraigns of Attempts against their Authority Conspiracies against their Lives and Assassinations committed upon their Persons for the sake of Religion and under pretence of maintaining it You know the History of past Ages and the present and cannot be ignorant that when a Prince meddles never so little with what you call the Estate the Immunities and Priviledges of the Church though these things concern not the grounds of Religion he is call'd impious an Heretick and a favourer of Hereticks and permission is given to rebel against him For an Abby for the Revenues of a Bishoprick taken into the hands of a Prince for the Rights of Regale for Nomination to some Benefices what a bustle is made what extravagant Insolences are not committed According to that pious Maxim upon which you ground your Charge against us and so cruelly prosecute it those who labour for the maintenance of Religion are to be meerly patient and ought not to make use of any means that may diminish or indanger the Authority of the Prince But will you cast your eye upon the Conduct of the League that Holy Vnion which in 1576.
naked forc'd them to seek a lively-hood in forraign Regions and live on the Alms of people unknown endeavour to rob them of their sole support the reputation of their Innocence by perswading the World they are men of Rebellious Principles Enemies to Government particularly Monarchy This of all their Sufferings is the only one they are impatient of and could not submit to without a Defence My Lord The Sufferings of the French Protestants the injustice of their Persecution the ill consequences that may attend it and the clearing of their Loyalty are the principal Subjects of the following Discourses The three first particulars are peculiar to those of the Reformed Religion in France The last so far concerns the whole Protestant Party of Europe as the common Enemy charges them all with Principles of Rebellion The Author though he apply himself chiefly to vindicate the Reformed of France hath not forgot to add somewhat in justification of other Protestants and by a just Translation of the Crime laid the Guilt of Rebellious Principles and Practises at the doors of their Enemies The sight of misery especially undeserv'd melts a generous soul into pity and compassion but of all the Sufferings our nature is subject to those undergone for Conscience and Religion are the most glorious and best deserve Commiseration when out of sence of Duty to the Soveraign of the World for an inward and innocent satisfaction of mind and hopes of pleasure purely spiritual invisible and fature men slight all the pleasures of sence and with true Magnanimity not only contemn worldly advantages but chearfully endure the smartest Afflictions and Tortures Criminals have that benefit of the Laws they offend they are allow'd to plead for themselves An Innocent Sufferer hath right to Compassion and Favour especially a Sufferer on the account of Religion and who on that account hath been forc'd to seek in strange Countries the right deny'd him in his own Such My Lord are these Protestant Exiles who barr'd access to the French King their Lord fled for refuge to the Throne of our most Gracious Prince who in Commiseration to the distressed Protestants hath made his Kingdoms a general Sanctuary where they who could not have justice quiet or security at home find safety protection and favour with the benefit of Laws and kind influences of a Government infinitely more Gentle than those they were born under My Lord 'T is the Glory of the Mighty to protect the Innocent Nothing makes power look so venerable and divine as imploying it aright The highest pleasure and best fruit of greatness is the conscience to have used it well That excellent Prince who esteemed the day lost wherein he had not obliged some of his Inferiors was the Darling of Mankind His memory is blest to this day when others who mov'd in the same Sphear but made ill use of their greatness are mentioned with abhorrence Persons of eminent dignity and power draw the eyes of inferiour mankind as those Luminous bodies that move in the upper Regions which all look at but with aspects different as the Apprehensions they have of them Those they conceive of a malignant nature they look on with horrour but those they apprehend benign and good they behold with pleasure and delight with hope and confidence with respect and veneration My Lord Allow me the liberty to tell your Lordship that among the Stars of the greater magnitude in our Horizon the Distressed Protestants fix their Eyes on you as one of no less Propitious than Powerful Influence Their envious Enemies have endeavoured to blast their Reputation and by Calumny and unjust aspersions to rob them of the benefit of that justice they might pretend to at home and to represent them unworthy any favour abroad This oblig'd them to a Vindication of themselves in their own Language But that being not universally understood in this Kingdom where they are so neerly concern'd to stand right in the opinion of the most loyal and best Reformed Church of the World I thought it not altogether unuseful to them to have their Defence publish'd in English for general satisfaction The same malice that assaulted their Innocence by unjust Aspersions will be too apt to cavil at their Vindication and cry down their defence The Justice of their Cause without the assistance of a powerful patronage may be too weak to protect them And for The last Efforts of Afflicted Innocence The just Vindication of Persecuted Protestants what Patronage more suitable what Protection more agreeable than His whose noble Extraction and generous Temper naturally incline to pity the miserable to protect the Innocent and succour the injur'd Whose integrity and soundness in the Protestant Religion have render'd him eminent for piety vertue and worth and whose ample fortune dignity and honour no less justly than signally distinguish him from other Men And for that this Character belongs peculiarly to your Lordship be pleas'd to excuse the liberty I take to beg these Discourses may appear in English under your Lordships Auspicious Name and that you will believe nothing but the lustre of your great Qualities and the glory of your Name appearing so proper to protect and grace a Tract of this nature and the opinion of your goodness and condescension to vouchsafe it that honour could have inspir'd me with this presumption For which I humbly beg pardon who am My Lord Your Lordships most humble and most Devoted Servant W. Vaughan TO THE PROTESTANT ENGLISH READER Suave mari magno jactantibus aequora ventis Eterrâ magnum alterius spectare Laborem Sed tua res agitur Paries ubi proximus ardet Reader I Presume you sensible of your happiness in being born and bred a Member of a Protestant Church wherein Piety is consistent with sound reasoning and a Man may be Religious without forfeiting his Senses or renouncing his Judgment I doubt not but you esteem it a Blessing to be subject to a Government the best constituted of any and Laws so equally tender of the Prerogative of the Soveraign and Priviledge of the Subject as best conduces to the common welfare of both and you must be unworthy the Name I address'd you by if you do not value it as the greatest Blessing on Earth that the Church and State are under the Protection and Government of a most Gracious and Excellent Prince But that which the Subject of the following Discourses prompts me particularly to mind you of is the immediate source of our envy'd felicity that our Prince is not only most gracious most wise and most just but that he is a sincerely Protestant Prince A favour of Heaven to which we principally owe the preservation of our Rights sacred and civil the exercise of our Religion and benefit of our Laws The miserable condition of the Protestants in France who sigh forth their just but fruitless Complaints in the following sheets are an Evidence too clear and too sad That Edicts and Arrests Priviledges and Immunities
Prince who thinks it not only lawful but meritorious to break it How hardly shall a Subject have that benefit of Law which his Soveraign holds himself obliged to deny him But if Princes would consider that the Religion of Rome hath Pardon in store for the greatest Crimes but none for that of denying the Roman Supremacy that Sin against the Holy See not to be forgiven That it allows service done that See not only an Attonement to expiate the Guilt of the greatest Villany but meritorious to gain him a Crown in Heaven who will expose himself by the blackest of Crimes to support the Popes temporal Crown in an exigence That the Profession and Practice of the Roman Religion by Roman Catholick Princes hath not been able to secure their Lives from being made a Sacrifice to the Pleasure of the Pope and the interest of his Church by the hands of Roman Catholick Assassins Did Princes consider this neither those who have been bred up in that perswasion could think themselves safe in the Possession of their Crowns without a dependance on the Pope and a submission unbecoming a Prince to his Dictates and interest Nor could any Prince bred up in a Reformed Religion which owns the Supremacy of Kings immediate under God and makes Loyalty an indispensable duty from the Subject to the Soveraign be ever seduced to change it for a Religion which hath furnished a Monk to murder Henry the third of France not only a Popish Prince but a Persecutor of Protestants and a Ravillac to assassinate Henry the fourth who having escaped the fury of the Catholick Arms while he continued a Protestant fell by the hands of a Popish Villain after his Perversion to the Popish Religion THE LAST EFFORTS OF AFFLICTED INNOCENCE The First Discourse Between two Gentlemen the one of Provence the other of Paris c. The Provincial YOU will not deny Sir but 't is my fate to surprize you I cannot imagine this second Enterview less surprizing than the former A years absence had given you hope you were rid of a troublesome Companion But he is come again The Parisian Persons of your Merit and charming Conversation are not to be call'd troublesom Surprizes of this kind are always agreeable But where have you been since our last sight of you Prov. Soon after our second Discourse I had advice by Letter of urgent affairs hasten'd me into Provence where I spent near a twelve-month But my business in Provence could not make me so forget the Charms of Paris but I am come again to take a second taste of the pleasures of it though perhaps to your trouble I have found again my Hugonot Gentleman who hath staid all this while at Paris and probably takes more delight in it than I. Par. I perceive he hath not fail'd to entertain you afresh with the state of his Religion the Subject he was so full of the last year And generally the Gentlemen of his perswasion when at liberty can hardly speak of any thing else every day affording them new matter of Discourse Pro. I confess my Hugonot never meets me but he speaks to me of it and with such Triumph and Joy as if he had stopt your mouth and mine and that we had nothing to answer the Reasons he brought to prove That the Conduct now used against the Hugonots is not only contrary to the Rules of Morality and that Integrity we ought to practise in observing our promises but destructive of the true interest of State And Sir to your misfortune I remember very well you concluded our last Discourse with these words These Gentlemen said you have taken time to think of their Objestions 't is fit we should take time to think of our Answers 't is enough for this day that we have given them a hearing This Sir is a formal engagement you cannot recede from You must furnish me with Weapons to defend my self or rather resolve to engage them without a second For I find my self not able to bear any longer a part in the Action I have a treacherous memory and forget half what is said to me Every one pleads his Cause in Person with more Vigor and Success than by Proxy You will be pleas'd to hear them speak and I beg it of you Par. You have by your Merit gain'd so absolute an Empire over me you may command any thing in my Power I am easily perswaded to enter into Discourse with Persons for whom I have entertain'd an Esteem upon the Character you have given of them Pro. Since you have been pleas'd to receive my proposal in so obliging a Manner I will confess the whole truth and let you see I had that Confidence in your kindness I have taken the Liberty to appoint my Gentleman and his Lawyer their Rendesvouz at your house they will be here in half an hour I knew this to be your day of repose and came before to see if you would receive us and if I found you not at leisure to hear and to speak to us I could have perswaded my Gentlemen to take a turn in the Thuilleryes Par. They shall be very welcome and so shall any that comes with you assoon as they are come a Lacquay shall have order to stand at the door and tell all that ask for me I am not within But Sir since you will engage me to day in a formal Combat I will deal freely with you I am not of opinion we should engage our selves to answer particularly all they have said to you and you reported to me That Method is fit only for the Schools and would turn our Discourse into Wrangling and Pedantry If you will be advis'd by me we will raise a Counter-battery Let us put them on the Defensive and see how these Gentlemen who would prove the safety of the state depends on their preservation can reconcile with this Maxim the danger they have heretofore put this Monarchy in for I aver it that in threescore or fourscore years they have ten times brought the State to the brink of destruction by the disorders they have caus'd and the Wars they have rais'd in it Pro. You say well Sir that 's their weak side and I joyn in opinion with you they are to be attaqu'd there Par. But to the Business of our Answer have you not seen a Writing published not long after our last Discourse intituled A Letter from a Churchman to a Friend It was Printed at Brussels by Francis Foppery 'T is the very thing you want being a full and pertinent Answer to all the Complaints contain'd in the Petition they intended to present to the King Pro. You may believe that having had a design these twelve Months past to be perfectly informed of this great Affair I have not fail'd to furnish my self with that Piece I have read and brought it with me believing it might be of use in the Subject we are to examine But what is your judgment of it Par.
fell in Discourse of the Conduct of the Court of France as to the Hugonots He exclaim'd against the Policy of the Cabinet and said that for the good of the State it matter'd little what Religion the Subjects were of provided they were Loyal and dutiful to their Soveraign that a like Conduct had turn'd some States belonging to the King his Master into vast Deserts and Solitudes by the expulsion of the Moors who were a remnant of Jews and Mehometans multiplyed and spread over the Provinces of Castille Valentia and Andalusia They had been baptiz'd and to escape the Inquisition made profession of Christianity but privately us'd the Worship of their Ancient Religion Upon some false advice given Philip the second of Spain of a great design the Moors had against the Christians they were expell'd the Countrey They were not permitted to carry any thing away but some Commodities of Spain but were forc'd to leave behind their Gold and their Silver as well as their immoveables This was executed with extreme Rigor There went out of Spain twelve hundred thousand Men and Women the greatest part whereof perished several ways Spain having been well drained of men by sending Colonies into America was so exhausted by this great Evacuation 't is not repeopled to this day And that Countrey which was heretofore one of the fairest of Europe is now a vast and barren Desert and the Spaniards feel at this day the smart of their Barbarity God grant a like misfortune happens not to France and that it make not it self desolate by an expulsion of two millions of her best Inhabitants I cannot think those who endeavour it are much her friends Par. However Sir I am of Opinion the persons you speak of take themselves to be as great lovers of their Countrey as you or any of your Party And if the matter be disputed I very much question whether you will carry the Point Hug. Law I find all I say to you doth but vex without convincing you But you will excuse the Expressions of miserable persons who have not the Liberty to speak in Publick they may be allowed at least to complain in Private and when they can do it without danger Since you are not pleas'd with a Discourse tending to demonstrate that the Enemies of the Reformed of France are Enemies of the State I will trouble you but with a word more on that Subject You cannot but believe that Forraign Allyances are of some importance to France You understand the Politicks so well you cannot be ignorant a State without Allyes is not capable of doing great things This makes Princes labour perpetually to break those Engagements their Neighbours have with their Enemies and to perswade them to espouse their Interests The greatest part of the Allyes of France are Protestants The Swisses the Elector of Brandenburg the King of Swede and heretofore the Hollander who perhaps may again renew his Allyance But can you believe to use the Protestants of France as they are dealt with at present a proper means to engage strictly the Protestant Allyes of the Crown Par. I do not see the King finds any great difficulty in making Allyances with protestant Princes or that they concern themselves much or trouble his Ministers with your pretended Calamities Hug. Law The King is now in so elevated a Condition that all comply with him Yet the private disgusts of his Allyes are still in being though they do not appear They are Seeds that will certainly spring up sooner or later States are not always in a flourishing Condition when Fortune declares against them old grudges break out 'T is not to be imagin'd men can out of Policy wholly devest themselves of love to their Religion and become altogether insensible of the Calamities they suffer whom they call Brethren though the present State of Affairs may oblige them to dissemble 'T is very well known the Allyes I have named have heretofore concern'd themselves in our Calamities though far less than those we now endure 'T is not their Affections but the Times are chang'd The English naturally hate the French and find new reason to hate them in the rigorous Proceedings of the Catholicks of France against the Protestants there who profess the same Religion with the English To prove that strangers are somewhat concern'd for our Calamities I need but read the Letters of his Majesty of England to the Bishop and Mayor of London they are newly published and you will not repent your reading them being Letters worthy the Piety of that Prince and capable to clear him from any unjust suspitions that might have been had of him in respect of his Religion His Majesties Letters to the Bishop of London and the Lord Mayor To the Right Reverend Father in God Our Right Trusty and Well-beloved Counsellor HENRY Bishop of London CHARLES R. RIght Reverend Father in God Our Right trusty and Well-beloved Counsellor We greet you well Whereas We are given to understand that a great number of Persons and whole Families of Protestants in the Kingdom of France have lately withdrawn themselves from thence to avoid those hardships and extremities which are brought upon them there for the sake of their Religion and have betaken themselves into this Our Kingdom as a place of Refuge where they may enjoy the liberty and security of their Persons and Consciences And whereas most of them if not all having been forced to abandon their native abodes and accommodations in haste and confusion must needs be in a great measure destitute of means for their present subsistence and relief We being touched with a true sence and compassion of their deplorable Condition and looking upon them not only as distressed Strangers but chiefly as persecuted Protestants very desirous to extend Our Royal Favour and Protection towards them not doubting but all Our good and loving Subjects will be also willing and forward on their parts to afford them what helps and comforts they can in this their day of Affliction We do therefore in very especial manner recommend their Case unto your pious Consideration and Care hereby requiring you forthwith to give Directions unto all the Clergy of our City of London and parts adjacent that in their solemn Congregations upon the next Lords day or as soon as may be possible they represent the sad state of these poor People and by the most effectual Arguments of Christian-charity excite their Parishioners to contribute freely towards the supply of their necessities We shall not need to press you in this behalf well knowing your Zeal in so good a work which will be no less pleasing to Vs than We are sure it will be acceptable to Almighty God And Our further Pleasure is that you take care that the Moneys so collected which We expect should be forthwith returned into your hands be distributed in such manner as may best answer those ends for which this Collection is intended And so We bid you heartily farewell
whence proceeds that terrible fright we are observ'd to be in for some time past We see coming towards us that Scourge which now Afflicts Santonge and Poitou We understand well enough they will not open a Persecution in all places at once this would make too great a noise But when they have laid these two Provinces desolate they will pass into another They scatter and lay wast all our Congregations in one end of the Kingdom and in the other tell us we shall be dealt with better far than we imagine that we are to blame to take the Alarm and ought not to think of leaving the Kingdom That is that we are a File of Wretched men mark'd out for death while those at the one end of the File are Hang'd or Shot to death those at the other end are spoken fair to and made drink to amuse them that they run not away but may when the rest are dispatch'd be Hang'd as the others They began with this poor Province of Poitou because it is bounded on one side by the Sea and on the other side borders on all the Provinces of France so that the wretched Inhabitants have no way to escape out of the Kingdom And it is certain those who will permit themselves to be surpriz'd and neglect the opportunity of getting into a place of safety will one day dearly pay for their Imprudence and Security Hug. Gent. Your Reflections have interrupted me in the Course of my story I have many things more to acquaint you with which will give you further Light into the Character of this Persecutor who Ravages Poitou He spreads and causes it to be spread abroad every where with inconceivable boldness that 't is the King's intention there shall be but one Religion in his Kingdom If any one chance to say any thing to the contrary what Religion soever he is of he is punish'd for 't It happen'd that three Roman-Catholicks said the King had not declar'd himself as fully in this particular as 't was reported he had they were all three Imprison'd for it A Man of the Religion having taken an occasion to raâ—ly these Conversions made for Money and having said the King was too wise to be at great expence to carry on an Action so base as that of Bribing People out of their Religion was Imprison'd and Condemn'd to go bare-head and bare-foot with a lighted Torch in his hand through the Street follow'd by the Executioner to the Court of Justice to beg Pardon for his fault But I have one thing more to tell you by which you may better know what a Person he is I am speaking of He went to Dinner at the Marquess of Verac's a Gentleman of note in the Province While they were at Dinner the Intendant gave Order the Inhabitants of the place should assemble at the Cross After Dinner he took his Coach got up on the streps of the Cross and said to the Peasants assembled Children you are to know 't is the King's intention there shall be henceforth but one Religion in France Turn Catholicks Whoever does so shall have cause upon all occasions to praise the King's Bounty Those who refuse shall experience his Severity To prove what I say see here your Lord the Marquess of Verac come along with me to change his Religion Whereupon the Marquess who is a very honest man and a very good Protestant stepping up immediately to the same Cross said to the Peasants Children The Intendant does but jest with you The King has no design to revoke his Edicts And it is not true that I am come along with him or have any design to change my Religion Hug. Law This is surprizing and sufficient of it self to make out the Character of the Man I cannot tell Sir what you think of these Conversions of Poitou But as for me I confess that assuming the Sentiments of a reasonable Catholick I could not forbear being of the Opinion of Ozorjus Bishop of the Algarues That nothing is more opposite to the Spirit of Christianity than a Conduct of this Nature that exposes so many Mysteries and holy things to men suspected and evidently prophane Can you choose but tremble Sir to think that at this day in Poitou thousands of those who are forc'd to go to Mass and prostrate themselves before that which you call Our Lord detest and look upon that as an Idol which they pretend to adore When they are sick they bring them the holy Oyl and make them take the Sacrament after your manner They obey with their bodies the Violence us'd but they think very Prophanely of those things you esteem so Holy 'T is in your Opinion an enormous Crime these Wretches commit yet 't is your Zealous Catholicks are the Cause of these horrible Prophanations of your Mysteries When Violence is us'd to force men to Lock up in the bottom of their Hearts their sentiments of Religion it produces the effect of that Violent and inconsiderate Zeal of Emmanuel the second King of Portugal who compell'd the Jews to turn Christians as I told you The Jews profess'd themselves Christians but continued Jews in their Hearts Their Children inherited their Dissimulation and Religion Hence it is that half those Portuguese who to avoid the Inquisition are Christians in Portugal no sooner set foot in Holland but they are Jews Those Hugonots who have been forc'd to turn Roman-Catholicks will inspire into their Children their Religion and the disquiet of their Spirit These Sentiments will be transmitted from Generation to Generation as a Seed of Rebellion that will always incline this People to shake off the Yoke impos'd on their Conscience as Soon as they have opportunity So that by the Course now taken instead of gaining Servants to God you raise Enemies to the State And I had reason to say that by the Method now us'd for Conversion you will make you a Church of Rogues and Villains of Atheistical and Prophane Rascals destitute both of Religion and Honour Conversion at this day is a Cloak to cover Debauches and the most abominable Enormities Let the most infamous of men profess himself a Catholick he is presently become a right honest man That Church which claims the title of Holy as proper to it self opens her Gates to Bankrupts and Cheats and exhorts men to become Bankrupts by turning Roman-Catholicks which is a sure Means of Pardon and Oblivion for all Sins and in a word a Salve for all Sores a Remedy for all Evils Hug. Gent. Give me leave to tell you a little story not impertinent to the Purpose which I had the other day from an Officer You know 't is now every ones business to make Converts 'T is the imployment of Gentlemen and Officers of War as well as of the Bigots A Souldier of the Garrison of Friburg having committed a considerable Robbery was imprison'd for it He had wit enough to know it would go very hard with him unless he could find Favour The
appear'd under that name for the preservation of the Catholick Faith You will see how they observ'd this Maxim The first honour Monsieur Mezeray does them Mez. Abr. 1576. is to call them a great Faction and the first Atchievement he attributes to them is that they had supprest the Royal Authority In a short time says he it was evident this Faction having taken root in almost all the Provinces put forth Branches so high it cover'd and almost stifl'd the Authority Royal 'T was this League engag'd the whole Kingdom into a Party whereof the King of Spain was the Head and made the French sign a Treaty of Union against the Authority of their lawful Prince 'T was this League forc'd Henry the 3d to sign at the States of Blois this Holy Vnion So that from King says Mezeray he became the head of a Cabal and instead of being the common Father declar'd himself an Enemy of one part of his Subjects 'T was this League which in derogation of the Royal Authority went to stab the Favorites of Henry the 3d almost in his bosome And that poor Prince disarm'd of his authority took pleasure and comfort in erecting Statues and setting up Monuments for those they had robb'd him of by their barbarous assassinations 'T was this League endeavour'd by all means to render Henry the 3d odious by insolent Sermons by Confessions wherein the Monks inspir'd their Penitents with an aversion against their Prince and impos'd on them for Penance a necessity to hate him 'T was this League 1584. says Mezeray which having heated the Zealous stirred the Factious and perswaded the Princes began to rise to List Soldiers to make Assemblies to choose Chiefs at whose Summons by Billet though they own'd not themselves Heads of the Party those who were Listed were oblig'd to repair to several places of Rendezvouz 'T was this Holy Vnion treated the same year with the Spaniard and made a League Offensive and Defensive to Exclude from the Crown its Lawful Heirs 'T was this League seiz'd against the Kings Authority all the Towns it could take in the Kingdom And not content with that would have had permission from Rome to attempt the King's Life and for that end made Fa. Matthew the Jesuit take so many Journeys that he was commonly call'd the Courier of the League Compare this design with the Enterprizes of Amboise and Meaux and see which is the more Criminal Our Protestants are accus'd for having endeavour'd to free our Kings from the slavery they were kept in by Princes Strangers yet you are well pleas'd that the same Princes Strangers should attempt their Lives 'T was this League brought the Rheiters into France in 1585. 1588. 'T was this League unworthily chas'd away their King from his Capital City at the Barricade of Paris and obliged him to save himself by night in great disorder that he might escape being shut up in a Closter shorn a Monk perpetually Imprison'd and perhaps Murder'd 'T was this League call'd their Prince Tyrant excommunicated him blotted his Name out of the publick Prayers and caus'd Arms to be taken up against him on all sides after the death of the Princes of Guise In fine 't was this Holy League made for the preservation of the Catholick Faith that assassinated the King at St. Clou by the hands of a Jacobin Monk Shall I proceed to expose other horrible actions of this Holy League and what they did to hinder Henry the 4th from enjoying the Crown that belong'd to him 'T is not necessary the memory of it is fresh and all the World knows it When you have recollected what you have heard I cannot tell whether you will think it prudent in a Roman Catholick to hit us so confidently in the teeth with that Maxim that Religion ought not to be defended by Arms and that under pretence of Religion nothing ought to be done that may any way hurt the Royal Authority Par. Sir give me leave to tell you this Invective is unjust You charge our Religion with the Crimes of particular men Do you believe the actions of the League were agreeable to the Principles of the Catholick Religion Hug. Law If I did you injustice in that point I did but requite you in kind for the like injustice you had done us For you would make our Religion answerable for all the disorders happen'd forty years together in the Civil Wars of France the last Age. Were it true that Motives of Religion only had engag'd the Reformed in those Wars yet those Disorders ought not to be imputed to the Reformed Religion whose Doctrine perswades not nor inclines men to Revolt But I affirm it Sir I do your Religion no wrong if I lay to its charge all the Disorders and furious Enormities of the League Because the Pope the Head and Author of your Religion was the Author and Promoter of that League because there were publick Rejoyceings at Rome and Te Deum sung for the Bartholomaean Massacre The Sieur du Maurier Author of the Memoirs of Holland will inform you that there is to be seen this day at Rome a piece of Picture wherein is drawn the Massacre of the Admiral with these words Pontifex probat Colinij necem the Pope approves of the killing of Coligny This Massacre was committed before the League was hatch'd and openly own'd though it was then form'd and acted with a furious vigor The assassinate of Henry the 3d was approv'd by the Court of Rome Publick Elogies were made in praise of him who committed the Assassinate and publick Invectives against him that was murdered this Prince as well as Henry the 4th his Successor was Excommunicated by the Pope Their Subjects were absolv'd from their Oaths of Allegiance and all the Powers of Europe rais'd against them All this Sir may we justly impute to your Religion because the Religion of Rome and the Italian Divinity spread throughout Europe authorize these Rebellions against Princes when the great Article of your Religion is concern'd which is Obedience to the Pope 'T is the Pope assumes a power to deprive Kings of their Crowns and to transfer their Estates to others 'T is the Pope authorizes the assassinates of Kings and sacred Persons when these facts are perpetrated pursuant to their Bulls of Deposition 't is the Pope usurps the temporal Estate of the Emperour in Italy and under pretence that the Emperours had lost their Right by Heresy made himself Soveraign of the City of Rome 'T is the Pope stiles himself Superiour to Kings and makes Crown'd heads stoop to kiss his feet 't is the Pope trod on the necks of Emperors applying to himself those words The young Lion and the Adder shalt thou tread under thy feet 't is the Pope hath drown'd Germany with bloud arming the Father against the Son and the Son against the Father to force from the Emperours the right of Investiture into the great Benefices The times are much altered
The same Witness in the Tryals of Green Berry and Hill gives in his Deposition the whole Story of the Murder of Godfrey He says That to agree the manner of that Murder they had several Meetings at an Ale-house at the sign of the Plow that they labour'd much to perswade him it was no Crime to kill a turbulent and over-busy man that the project being agreed they had dogg'd Godfrey several times that at last about nine a Clock at night the Conspirators having observed Godfrey returning from St. Clements Lawrence Hill went to the Gate toward the street and meeting Sir Edmund intreated him to come and part two men who were a fighting by the Water-side that Godfrey having follow'd Hill when they had him at the end of the Pales Hill flung a cord about his neck and strangled him that Green finding he was not quite dead wrung his neck about that having kept the Corps some days and carried it from place to place at last they laid it a cross a Horse-back carried it into the fields and threw it into a Ditch having first run his Sword through his body Robert Jennison another Witness in Wakeman's Tryal deposes he had heard Ireland one of the Conspirators say that the Roman Catholick Religion was to be shortly set up in England that there was but one person could hinder it and that they could easily poison the King that the same Ireland being told by the Deponent that the King went a Hunting and a Fishing with a very thin Guard said he should be very glad they were rid of the King In Stafford's Tryal the same Jennison deposes that in the Meetings of the Priests and Jesuits he had been at he heard them say It was necessary for the Good of the Catholick Religion to alter the Government and to reform it after the model of France that Ireland a Priest had solicited him to come along with him to help him to dispatch the King that the same Priest had ask'd him if he knew any brave and resolute Irish-men fit to give that great blow That being in Harcourt's Chamber with many other Jesuits he had heard them say that if C. R. would not be R. C. he should not be long C. R. the meaning whereof was that if Charles Rex would not be a Roman Catholick he should not long be Charles Rex that they made him take the Sacrament and an Oath of Secrecy and than discovered to him the whole Plot. In the same Tryal Smith declares that having been born a Protestant Abbot Monutague and Father Gascoyne had labour'd at Paris to make him a Roman Catholick telling him that in a short time the Catholick Religion should be the praedominant Religion in England that having design'd to go to Rome and passing through Provence in his way to Italy they had oblig'd him to many Conferences with Cardinal Grimaldi who at last perswaded him to turn Catholick and that he was made Priest That Cardinal Grimaldi told him he had Correspondence with many great English Lords that he was very well assur'd the Roman Catholick Religion should be prevalent in England but that there was one man they must be rid of and that was the King that in truth he was a good Man but however he must be made away because he was an Obstacle to their Designs The same Witness says that having left Provence he went into the English Colledge at Rome where he continued long and that he heard the Jesuits say in their Sermons and ordinary discourse That the King of England was not truly King because he was an Heretick and that whoever kill'd him should do a very meritorious act And when he and five or six more were ready to leave that house the Fathers earnestly exhorted them to maintain that Maxim That People are not oblig'd to obey the King of England And that they should take care to instruct accordingly in Confession all those they should find capable to enter into this great design There is another Witness Dennis by name a Roman Catholick and a Jacobine Monk and such at the time of his Deposition having neither quitted his Religion nor Order This Monk deposes that being in Spain at Madrid in the Chamber of James Lenck an Irish-man Arch-Bishop of Tuam this Arch-Bishop told him That Dr. Oliver Plunket was to be imploy'd very speedily to procure Succours from France to be sent into Ireland for maintaining the Catholick Religion in Ireland and England and that be the Arch-Bishop would in a short time go in person into that Countrey to advance so pious a work The same Witness deposes that the Earl of Carlingford s Brother caus'd great Sums of Money to be levy'd in the Covents and that they said openly this money was design'd for the bringing over an Army into Ireland when time should serve Edward Turbervil another Witness swears expresly That Stafford being lodg'd at Paris at the corner of Beaufortstreet the Deponent came to him and stay'd with him several days That Stafford having taken an Oath of Secrecy from him not to discover what he should trust him with he told him at last they were in search of one to kill the King of England who was an Heretick and consequently no King but rather a Rebel against Almighty God and that he solicited him to undertake this great Action Here Sir are a great many Witnesses besides Oates and Bedlow who swear as home as they Can any reasonable man imagine there can be found so many Infernal Spirits as here are Witnesses capable to invent so horrible a Calumny to destroy a Religion and all that profess it And if it were possible to suborn one Witness or two have you ever seen a president of such a Subornation that hath gain'd so great a number of Witnesses Besides what is there improbable in this History of the Plot Is it not the Spirit and Custom of your Bigots and blind Zealots to use such means as these to promote their Religion Read the Life of Queen Elizabeth and you will find she was no sooner delivered from one Conspiracy but another was fram'd against her The words of Stafford who passes for a Martyr among you are remarkable In his Speech to the Lord High-Steward Stafford's Tryal pag. 200. and the Peers his Judges he declares That he did believe those of the Roman Religion had since the Reformation of the Church of England entred into several most wicked and most dangerous Conspiracies particularly the Conspiracy of Babington and that of the Earl of Westmorland or the Northern Rebellion raised by the Papists in Queen Elizabeth 's time He declares further That he believ'd there was a wicked Conspiracy in the Reign of King James wherein some of the Conspirators were Roman-Catholicks and some Protestants And that after this followed that execrable Plot called The Gunpowder-Treason And when Sir could they have made choice of a more favourable time wherein to revive and reduce into practise those bloudy
it was impossible for the Enemies of the State to find a breach to enter at But the King hath been made to tell us in one of his Arrests that the Kindness and Patience he had had for his Subjects of the pretended Reform'd Religion had heightned the adversion of his Catholick Subjects against them The Aversion the said Catholicks have always had against the said Religion and those who profess it hath been encreas'd by the publishing the said Edicts Declarations and Arrests It is really very necessary the King should be inform'd that contrary to what he hath been made believe the Edicts of Pacification had establish'd a perfect peace between both Parties and that happy union hath been considerably alter'd since the considerable Breaches that have been made of those Edicts The Roman Catholick resumes that spirit of Animosity he formerly had he looks on the Protestant as a Victim ready to be sacrific'd to his pleasure and justifies by the Conduct of his Superiors the Aversion he hath for his Countrymen and fellow Subjects The Protestant on the other side looks on the Roman Catholick as an Enemy who endeavours to ruin him He is full of diffidence and mistrusts every thing He dares not speak nor open his mind freely He is afraid of being question'd for a Word His Bowels are shut up against the poor Roman Catholick to whom he us'd to be very open-handed And he cannot forbear saying to himself doth Charity oblige me to feed an Enemy to day who perhaps will take away my Life to morrow The poor Hugonot in every Village looks upon his Magistrates and Superiors as men authoriz'd to watch all occasions to destroy him The Magistrates think themselves obliged to be harsh and severe to those who are hated by the Court They tell us every day we have Order to humble and mortifie you You may expect what you please but expect no favour Heretofore the saying was you shall have Justice done you but hope not for more Alas 'T is long since we have been in a Condition to expect any favour We should now be very well satisfi'd could we have Justice done us for Justice requires men to keep their Promises We should esteem our selves happy enough if permitted to enjoy peaceably the Priviledges and Liberties confirm'd to us by so many Promises Edicts and Arrests You cannot believe it in our Power to look upon our approaching ruin without being troubled the same time to see others rejoyce at our fall The injuries and reproaches the Hugonots receive from the insulting Roman Catholicks pierce to the heart and make deep wounds which bleed afresh every day In a word that sweetness of Commerce and fair Correspondence that raign'd among the Subjects of France is broken and lost and instead of mutual Confidence nothing appears but a general fear and universal mistrust The Tumults in several places the demolishing and burning of Churches the Seditions rais'd against the Protestants the injuries done their Persons for two years past are convincing Proofs of what I alledge And matters were carryed on with so furious hast the King found himself oblig'd to stop the Torrent of these Violences by an Arrest You are not ignorant Sir how necessary it is for the peace of a State that the Inhabitants of a Kingdom be united among themselves by the Bonds of Amity Par. 'T is for that very reason Sir the King would reduce all his Subjects to one Religion By suffering two different parties in a State you sowe the Seed of immortal Divisions You know the troubles the Guelfes and the Ghibellines caus'd in Italy they that would maintain the peace of a State must suppress the very Name and Memory of Factions Hug. Law 'T is not with Sects in Religion as with Factions in the State the case is very different Factions of State may be suppress'd by good Conduct and destroy'd by time yet a considerable time is necessary for doing it the Example you have mention'd of the Guelses and Gibellines sufficiently proves it Those Factions raign'd several Ages nor could the Name be extinguish'd but after hundreds of years and the desolation of Italy by the fury of the Parties But to take away the difference of Sentiments in Religion is a more difficult task Fire and Faggot Gibbets and Axes signifie nothing this appears clearly by the History of the last Age. We must bear with a mischief we can neither prevent nor remove and nourish Peace between two Parties which cannot be destroy'd but may be preserv'd by permitting the difference and maintaining a War between them This seems a Paradox but is not so difficult as you may imagine Provided the stronger Party oppress not the weaker 't is certain the weaker will have for the stronger a kindness and value for the Toleration indulg'd And the stronger will permit it self to be won by the kindness and grateful acknowledgments of the weaker 'T is a matter try'd and of fresh Experience Every one knows the Union the Catholick and we Hugonots liv'd in before they inspir'd the King with a design to destroy us Par. This method of preserving Peace is not so sure as you imagine But I could heartily wish a true remedy could be found for the greatest mischief in a State which is the Disunion of its Members and the Animosity raigning between the Subjects of one Soveraign Hug. Law You will grant me then Sir that those who blow up the fire and revive these Animosities are great Enemies of the State And this they are evidently guilty of who inspire into the King Sentiments of Rigor and Severity against the Reformed But alas The matter is yet more sad they are not satisfied with endeavouring to take from the King all the goodness and kindness he once had for us but they labour all they can to root out of our hearts the Love the Respect the Veneration and the Tenderness we have for our King I aver it we love our King even to adoration we are so clearly convinc'd of his sublime Qualities it adds infinitely to our grief to find our selves so ill thought of by a Prince for whom we have so much Zeal and Admiration Is it in the power of Man to love and to fear at once the same person Oh! how shall we do it We are told every moment the King hath a design to destroy us He is represented to us with his Sword in his hand ready drawn for our ruin 'T is Publish'd 't is Printed that if he live so long as by course of Nature 't is presum'd he may he will see our Religion at an end Process verbal of the Assembly March and May 1681. If God preserve to us this great Prince so long as all good People ought to wish he will utterly suppress this Monster in his Kingdom What means this but to cast us into a general Consternation with design to stifle and destroy the love we have for our Prince and to make us look on his
State it attacks the Principles by which it subsists For the bond of Love between the King and his Subjects is that which unites all the parts of this great and vast Body But 't is fit I represent to you those horrible Calamities these Enemies of France would plunge the Kingdom in They would bring back again the last Age and revive the Reigns of Henry the 2d and Charles the 9th In a word they would set up new Gibbets and kindle new Fires against the Reformed Can France expect a great Mischief Par. Y' are much mistaken Sir there 's no such intention Some Zealots may desire such a thing but the King hath not any such Design Hug. Law I believe you Sir We know the Goodness and Clemency of the King and that he naturally hates all Violence We see every day the Prudence of his Ministers But men are led where they never had intention to go they are mov'd by degrees to revoke all the Edicts of Pacification If Matters be carryed on with that Violence they have been for some years and especially within few months past the Business will be quickly at an end they will shortly perswade the King three fourths of the Hugonots of his Kingdom are converted They will tell him the residue is nothing or not worth the thinking of And so prevail with him to suppress the Edicts Thus shall near two millions of Souls remain debarr'd the exercise of their Religion 'T is a violent State in which Consciences cannot stay long The Ministers shall be forbidden to Preach on pain of death Yet they will Preach as before in the like case in Caves and Woods and Cellars and Darkness And instead of preaching in a few places they will preach in every place It cannot be but they will be discover'd exercising a Religion prohibited by the State and incur the Penalties to be inflicted by the late Edicts And according to the Severity of those Penalties they will be Imprison'd Banish'd Hang'd Consider how much it will grate the good nature of the King to see himself oblig'd to permit his Subjects to be put to a thousand Tortures for no other reason but having a desire to serve God I foresee Matters may be carryed yet farther Among two or three hundred thousand Persons able to bear Arms remaining still of that Religion 't is impossible but there is a great number of Fools impatient and desperate In plurality of Voyces Fools are always too hard for the Wise who are often oblig'd to permit themselves to be carryed away with the stream of the major Vote Such heady and impatient People instead of Submitting will Mutiny make Parties take up Arms. And then will the King be forc'd to draw Rivers of Blood out of the hearts of his Subjects Par. Ay Ay Sir there is great cause to fear you you are in a powerful and formidable Condition Where are your Chiefs where your strong Towns Where your Money Where your Forraign Allyances You have nothing to support you but the indulgence of our Kings Hug. Law Pardon me if I tell you you do not apprehend me my design is not to put you in fear but move you to pity I do not say but the King may with all the ease imaginable dissipate the Forces of any Faction that should rebel against him I am fully convinc'd of it not only by your Reasons but some stronger Arguments You say the Reformed have neither Chiefs nor Towns nor Money Have you forgot that saying of the Poet Furor arma ministrat Fury never wants Weapons they who have no Towns may take some Those who want Money may Rob and Plunder Despair can effect what Valour and Courage never durst undertake A State that has lying close in its Bowels two millions of Male-contents though but Women and Children and the dregs of Mankind is in danger of suffering terrible Revolutions After the Massacre of St. Bartholomew the Hugonots had none to head them Dandelot was dead the Admiral assassinated all the Flower of their Nobility murther'd and the Princes of the Blood Prisoners yet they never spoke bigger never insisted on higher Terms than then But I expect not any benefit to the Reformed from such Revolutions because God never blesses the designs of defending a Religion by Arms of Rebelling against our Prince and making War under pretences of Piety The furies of Civil War being absolutely inconsistent with Charity Such heady and impatient people by taking Arms will act against the Principles of Religion and I aver it particularly against the Principles of the Reformed They are to expect no other success but to be massacred by the People and the Arms of their Soveraign They would occasion as heretofore millions of Innocents to perish with them The King would certainly master them but would be griev'd to see his Countreys drown'd with the Blood of his Subjects What greater misfortune than this to a Prince so good-natur'd as ours Besides a State busied in reducing rebellious Subjects is in a manner abandon'd to strangers who fill and tear it in pieces with Factions foment Divisions take advantage of Disorders and draw Blood from all parts of it while it self opens the Veins on every side Those Gentlemen who constantly solicit the King to Rigor against us are certainly weary of the prosperity of the State they have no mind to see France any longer the most flourishing Kingdom of Europe They would bring back that Age wherein the Realm divided against it self call'd in the Duke of Parma the Flemings and Spaniards to enrich themselves with the pillages of the Towns and desolation of the Provinces Par. I see Gentlemen the alarm you have taken hath stirr'd your fancy and put you in a heat You go on too far and too fast there is a design to Ruine you 't is confest but 't is by undermining you by degrees Those very men you call Enemies of the State have no mind to see the effusion of your Blood Hug. Law Were those men guilty of no other mischief but a design to deprive the King of such a multitude of faithful Subjects they very well deserved to be call'd Enemies of the State I hope those of the Reformed Religion will never permit themselves to run into the Extremities I spoke of But they will do all they can to go seek in other Countreys the peace and the quiet they are denyed in their own I have told you already their Consternation is great and universal And all the considerable persons of our body seek only a Gate to go out at and a means to remove out of his Majesties sight the Objects that displease him Par. I cannot think they would be much troubled at your departure out of the Kingdom Hug. Law Whether they would be troubled I know not but I very well know they would have cause enough to be troubled The Count de los Balbazes during his stay at Paris being in company of several Ministers of forraign Princes they
protested she had been surpriz'd and could not live in the Religion they had newly made her embrace Having made this Declaration she was put into a Covent where she found a Well into which she threw her self Such are the natural Consequences of the Declarations procur'd against us Par. If this be true why do you not complain Justice will be done you Hug. L. Justice Sir Of whom shall we demand it Of the Magistrate in whose presence these Outrages are done Of the Soveraign Courts Which take pleasure in making our Yoak the heavier Of the Ministry Who pretend they believe not a word we say Of the King Who will not give us the hearing Par. If this Declaration be executed with Moderation and Equity what cause to complain of it For since you are allow'd to live in quiet and at the end of your Life are ask'd only what Religion you will dye of what can be more clear than that without any intention of Ruining you great care is taken of your Salvation and that it is heartily wish'd for Hug. Law Can you believe Sir that those who have solicited and surpriz'd his Majesty to make this Declaration have done it out of Love to our Souls and Care of our Salvation I make no doubt but use was made of that very pretence to induce the King to it His Majesty being uncapable of a base thought or mean design But I am too fully convinc'd those who first suggested it to the King have very small care of the Salvation of our Souls There are many of them have no care of their own how then should they take care of other mens Others of them have such animosity against us that if they saw us at Hell-gate and had it in their power to thrust us in they would certainly do it But to speak in cold blood Let me perswade you on this occasion to make use of your usual Sagacity How can you imagine those who solicited this Declaration aim'd at the Salvation of mens Souls Why should they think that a man who all his Life long hath been of the Reform'd Religion should desire at his death to turn Roman Catholick If this man had had any such thought it should have been made appear in his Life 'T is far better living than dying in your Religion For that which you call Conversion makes a man capable of Imployment and Office it opens him the way into Dignities and great places to Gain and great Fortune What can be more evident than that a man dispos'd to turn Catholick would for the reason I have intimated not stay till his death but do it in his life-time and as early as he could But a man in his life hath perhaps a care of his reputation or is clogg'd with Interests that oblige him to dissemble but at his death he slights such respects he breaks all such bonds knowing that though he hath lived for others he must die for himself This were a good Argument in a Country where the Roman Catholick Religion is prohibited but in France where it is predominant where it makes use at this time of its advantages with a high hand a man hath all encouragement imaginable with all the freedom he can wish and probable hopes of extraordinary recompence to declare at any time his inclinations to quit our Religion Perhaps those Gentlemen were of opinion that God inspires many people at the hour of their death who should they recover would constantly follow the notions they are then inspir'd with True it is Sir you know we live in an Age of Miracles and extraordinary Inspirations We find them very numerous Most of those who persecute us have great faith for Inspirations In a word if this Declaration extended only to those who in their life have made appear some inclination to alter their Religion it might be thought the desire of their salvation occasioned these visits But these visits are made to all without exception to them who all their life-long have been most firm and resolv'd I would gladly know what new illumination an old firm Hugonot can be suppos'd to have from a plain single question ask'd by a Magistrate in a civil and gentle manner and if none whether there be not some other design in the business Is the asking of such a question look'd upon as a powerful instrument of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of an Heretick Have we any Presidents of Conversion by such means 'T is clear then that the Declaration strictly pursued according to the Letter is not of any use to make a man change his Religion and it is equally clear that they who sollicited that Declaration being men of sense did not in the least design by it the conversion of dying men or the salvation of their Souls Par. I would fain know what other design they could propose to themselves in it Hug. Law 'T is not hard to guess the Clergy hath a design to load us with miseries and to render our Religion odious to us by a multitude of calamities attending it The happiness of Mankind here on Earth consists in the pleasures of Life and Liberty to die quietly they have already found out a thousand ways to render our lives miserable and unpleasant and invent every day new means to continue them so there wanted nothing but a means to trouble us at our death to make our yoke insupportable And they have hit upon 't in this Declaration Besides having very small hopes of converting as they call it Fathers or Mothers or any person at the age of discretion they levell'd their design against Children and Infants To compass this they could not have invented a more effectual means than that they are furnish'd with by this Declaration whereby if they can but make believe a man died a Roman Catholick they make themselves Masters of all the Children he left under age To bring this about it was necessary to open a passage to the Beds of the Dying it was necessary to have liberty of entrance into any house which could not be had without the authority of the Soveraign the Kings goodness permitted him not to grant all they desired and had obtain'd by the Declaration in 1666. since revok'd in part and in part mitigated by that of 1669. which was that the Curates should have liberty to enter any house to perswade the Sick to change their Religion They attempted afresh to revive this Article but disappointed of their ends they rested satisfied with what was granted them which was that the Judges should go into the houses of the Sick to know what Religion they desir'd to die in they thought it sufficient for their purpose if they could by any means get mens doors open after which they would take the liberty to enter whether leave were granted them or not It hath happen'd accordingly for this we see is the course taken which puts the Sick into horrible agonies and their Families into terrible frights
Hug. Gent. I see you are of their opinion who hold they have a design to seize upon our Children Hug. Law Alas Sir can you doubt of it if the Declaration against the dying had not sufficiently convinc'd you if the Arrest that prohibits the Midwives of our Religion to lay any woman if the permission granted to the Midwives of the Roman-Catholick Perswasion to baptize our Infants as soon as they are born had not given you cause enough to support it I believe you will not require clearer demonstration than the late Declaration so much talk'd of by which they are impowr'd to take from us our Children at Seven years old A terrible Declaration to Fathers and Mothers A Declaration will make us take the resolution to throw our selves at the Kings feet to beg of him that he will take away our lives or allow us the liberty of our Conscience and our Children or leave to go naked out of his Kingdom to live dispers'd through all Countries of the world till we pine to death Par. The Declaration orders no more than that at Seven years old Children shall be of age to choose their Religion Is this such a matter to be exclaim'd at The Declaration of the Children shall be receiv'd but no violence offer'd them Hug. Law Is this a matter to be exclaim'd at say you Pray Sir shew me in History one Example of such a Persecution one President of a Grievance of this nature that denies Parents the liberty to instruct their Children in their Religion Was it ever heard of that Children should have power given them to make choice of their Religion at an age they are incapable to distinguish between black and white an age to be perswaded to any thing with a Plum or an Apple an age to which the best Arguments are the finest Rattles to play with No Violence say you shall be offer'd the Children Is it not a violence and wrong to the Parents to have their Children seduc'd and taken away from them What need of Violence to be us'd against Children of that Age which are easily perswaded to any thing The Violence is done to the Parents whose Children shall be taken away from them as soon as seduc'd to declare themselves inclin'd to be Roman Catholicks In a word On what account soever Children shall be forceably taken out of the Bosoms of their Mothers never to return Can you call it a small Matter a slight Business against which there is no cause to exclaim Par. Once more I affirm it the Declaration says not your Children shall be taken from you Hug. Law I confess it does not Yet they who are entrusted with the Execution of it will do it And the Declaration was desir'd and obtain'd for no other end Shall I prophesie to you the issue of this Declaration as I have been your Historian in giving you an account of the Consequences of that which concerns the sick It shall be presently given out there is no Violence design'd Order shall be given by word of mouth to the Magistrates not to permit any to be done The Priests in a while will not at all regard these Prohibitions though perhaps at first they will observe some measures and content themselves it may be with engaging by Oath in Confession all the Women particularly those of mean condition as the Servants in our Families to endeavour all they can to seduce the Children by Promises and private Instructions and all other means useful to that purpose For a Hobby-horse a Child will be made to say he hath a mind to go to Mass Two Witnesses shall be ready to swear it The Child shall presently be taken away never to be seen again by the Parents Yet they must pay an extraordinary rate for the Board and Instruction of the Children taken away Thus will they kill two Birds with one stone take away the Children and ruine the Parents to force them by Poverty to quit their Religion In a short time they will proceed farther they will find a pretence to enter our Houses They will have receiv'd News from very good hands the Children have a great inclination for the Catholick Religion but that their Parents are harsh to them for it They will enter by Authority from the Magistrate and 〈◊〉 out the Parents and Relations Having the Children alone they will say what they please The holy Spirit will inspire them in a moment and dissipate those thick Mists of Calvinism that darkned their tender understandings It will on the sudden make them so clear sighted they will in a moment discover all Catholick Truths and must presently be lock'd up in Cloysters to be educated there till they come to maturity sufficient to resist a Father and Mother and proof to the perswasions of Friends and influence of Relations Par. This I grant is already so obvious that I shall make no scruple to acknowledg it You perhaps may be permitted to dye in your Religion but care shall be taken to bring up your Children better And this is the principal means to be us'd for destroying your Sect. Hug. Law We see it very clearly Sir The Arrest against our Midwives that which orders the Magistrate to visit our sick and this last Declaration have put it out of doubt and you call this Sir 'T is a Proceeding you will be puzzl'd to parallel in the most barbarous Countries and Ages of the World It violates the most sacred and most venerable Laws It ruins the Foundation of Authority by destroying the Paternal which is the most Ancient the most Just the most Venerable and the ground of all other Probably Sir you have seen the Memoires and Petition we presented to the King on this Subject The many injustices of that Declaration are so fully made out by the Petition I mention'd I will forbear enlarging on them here They are Injustices that fly in our Faces Can we be silent where nature speaks Is there a greater cruelty than to rob Parents of their Children 'T is a mutilation that puts us to ineffable Torment 'T is an usage unthought of in the Age of Torture and Massacre And will you say still we have no cause to complain we are not put to extremities You may believe Sir that in taking away our Children they tear our very Bowels And that the Punishments we formerly endur'd are nothing to this The Consequences of it you will see surprizing and horrible The tenderness of Mothers the Sentiments of Religion and the Fury of Anger mixt together are a Compound capable to produce terrible Effects I fear you may see examples of Fury equal to those of the Jewish Women who finding their Children were to be forc'd from them to be baptiz'd destroy'd both the Children and themselves to prevent it 'T is a new kind of Torment will dispeople France more than all the Massacres of the last Age For all those among us who love their Religion will certainly endeavour to save
cudgell'd to make them let go their hold Every place eccho'd lamentable Cryes the Women complaining so loud their Voices reach'd Heaven Many of the miserable Fathers were so mov'd at the atrocity of the Action they flung their Children into Wells Others were so desperately enrag'd they kill'd themselves To add more Calamity to this miserable Nation they were deny'd leave to pass into Africk For the King very desirous to bring them to Christianity thought to induce them to it partly by hope of Good partly by fear of Ill so that though he stood engag'd by his word to permit the Jews to embarque he put them off from day to day in hopes time would make them change their Resolution and Religion This was the Reason that though at first there were three Ports in Portugal appointed them to embarqueat they were afterwards prohibited to embarque at any but Lisbon This brought into that City an innumerable multitude of Jews While they were shamm'd in this manner in the business of Embarqueing the day came on which all that should be found in Portugal and would not turn Christians were by the Order to remain Salves The Ports were shut so that a great number remain'd who chose rather to change their Religion sincerely or feignedly than to be all their Life subject to slavery They turn'd Christians and were baptiz'd After which they had their Liberty and their Children restor'd and spent the rest of their days very quietly in Portugal This Action was not agreeable to the Maxims either of Religion or Law For with what justice will you endeavour to force mens spirits to receive Mysteries they slight and have a perfect Aversion for You would fetter mens understandings and rob their Wills of their Liberty 'T is impossible to be done nor does our Saviour approve of it He requires a voluntary Sacrifice and will not accept of forc'd Service It is not his pleasure that Violence should be done to mens understandings but that their Souls may be fairly inclin'd and their Wills won to a love of his Religion To proceed in this manner is to encroach on the right of the holy Spirit and attempt that by humane Power which Grace alone is capable to work in mens Souls which yield at last to his holy Inspirations 'T is only the holy Ghost can illuminate mens Understandings and invite and perswade them into a Confession of the Name of Jesus and into the Communion of Saints when we reject not his Grace with obstinate ingratitude To conclude can any thing be more manifestly opposite to the Spirit of Christianity than to expose so many and so Venerable Mysteries things so truly holy and divine to men under suspition and evidently prophane We never consider how we force those who hate in their Souls the Christian Religion to commit the highest Crimes they possibly can against Jesus Christ It cannot be denyed but these Reflections are sage and judicious 'T is the Light of Reason breaking out of the midst of Darkness 'T is good sence flowing from its proper Spring express'd by the mouth of a Portuguess Bishop living in a Countrey groaning under the Tyranny of a severe Inquisition Can you believe this Portuguess Bishop could have approv'd of the last Declaration that gives way to the seducing of a Child by a Bartholomew Baby and then taking him away out of the Arms of his Mother It makes me groan to think this Declaration may reach to Constantinople I cannot but fear the President may be fatal to the poor Christians in the East and that the Turk will tread the steps of the Council of Conscience at Paris What a Desolation will follow if the Infidel Princes will seize the Children of the Christians Will not Christianity by this means be quickly destroy'd throughout their Dominions The Turk exacts a Tribute of Children from Greece which that poor Nation thinks an intollerable slavery But what will it be if the like be practis'd in all Mahometan Empires and not one Christian Child secure in their Countreys Whereas now when one is taken out of the Family for tribute they remain assur'd of the Possession of the rest Hug. Gent. Among all the Reasons in the Petition against this Declaration none affected me more than that which shews that Children of seven years of Age were never by any Law in any Age of the World made subject to Orders of Courts and Formalities of Justice But if you compare the Declaration against the Relapsed with that which concerns the Children you will meet with Children of seven years old who having been regain'd by their Parents shall be Imprison'd Examin'd on interrogatories Confronted with Witnesses and Condemned to make honourable amends by walking bare-headed and barefoot through the Streets with a burning Link in their hands to the seat of Justice and asking pardon for their Crime 'T is a spectacle all Europe will rejoyce at for the Novelty As for the Reasons in the Petition grounded on his Majesties Word and Arrests which had appointed the choice of Religion to be made at the Age of fourteen they are now silly Arguments True it is they might have pass'd for good in the Golden Age but in ours Men glory in the breach of their Promises and value themselves upon not keeping their words Par. Gentlemen I confess what you speak of is a little severe but you do not consider whom it concerns Hug. Law Sir It concerns not his Majesty as you think We know the Kings intentions are good and that he sees not the Consequences of what they Act in his Name But you will allow us to complain of those who surprize his Piety and of a Clergy who would incroach into their hands the principal management of the State We see clearly their false Zeal will ruine us but it will also reduce the Kingdom to extremitys When Princes frame their Conduct by the Maxims of Monks and Jesuits they ruine their States Witness the Affairs of Hungary The Emperor possess'd by those false Zealots took from the Protestants all their Estates and gave them to the Jesuits He hath banish'd their Ministers demolish'd their Churches and expell'd them the Kingdom Can you choose but admire this excellent policy of the Jesuits At the very doors of the Turk they reduce Christians to such extremity they have no way of safety but to throw themselves into the Arms of Infidels And now that the Grand Seignior is at peace with Muscovy and Poland you will see how he will imploy his Forces and what will be the Consequence of the Counsels of the blessed Fathers of the Society of Jesus They are at this day Masters of Europe they govern all Princes and are absolute in all Courts But it may be observ'd that Europe hath reason to look on this day as the Eve of her Destruction Germany will perhaps be a Prey to the Turk England a Theater of Fury and France with all the puissance of the Genius that governs it may fall
telling a story which probably I know better than you I have Friends in Poitou who inform me of all and am well acquainted with the Deputies of the Province I believe I know some Circumstances you may be ignorant of Hug. Law I shall most willingly give you the hearing Sir if these Gentlemen will do so too Hug. Gent. First then you are to know that the Publisher of the Gazetts swells extremely the number of these Converts If you account them half or two thirds of what the Gazett speaks you may perhaps account them more numerous than they are But the falseness of the Calculation is not the thing I intend principally to insist on I confess the number of the Revolted is prodigious and that so many Persons have in so short a time chang'd their Religion without Instruction without Preaching without Disputes without knowing why is perhaps a thing not to be parallell'd in any Age. But that you may cease admiring at it I must acquaint you with the whole matter First you are to know that the Province of Poitou is the heaviest charg'd with Taxes of any in the Kingdom and consequently the poorest Nothing can be poorer than the Peasants there I need not tell you that meanness of Condition abases the Spirits and takes away mens Courage it dulls their Wit puts out the very light of their Understanding and makes men degenerate almost into Beasts For ten years last past effectual Orders have been given that the Peasants living at distance from considerable Towns should not be instructed their Churches have been rac'd and their Ministers taken away Ignorance joyn'd with the extreme Misery of their Condition and Slavery hath made them Brutish and capable not only of meanest thoughts but the most base Actions The Intendant Marillac a Person who had not thriven very well in the World applyes himself to the Bigots the Jesuits and their Patriarch Father La Chaise for repairing his broken Fortune This man according to the Orders of those he had sold himself to began at first with the lesser Temptations That is he walk'd through the Province with his Purse in one hand and his Sword in the other But at last the Myrmidons he had pick'd out for his assistants with some pitiful Priests pass'd from Village to Village entring every House beginning with Threats and ending with Promises They told the poor Wretches the King would have but one Religion in his Kingdom that whoever refus'd to turn Catholick should be us'd with the utmost Severity and Rigor But those who would change their Religion should be well paid and live at their ease Accordingly they fall a bargaining with those rascally Wretches some valued themselves higher than others One among the rest held out stoutly several days for ten Groats they offer'd him a Pistol he stood out stifly and would not bate them a Farthing of four Crowns At last they gave him his price This shameful Trade was driven in so scandalous a manner that these Convertors had provided a multitude of Printed Acquittances with Blanks for the Names and the Sums which Blanks were fill'd with the Names of the new Converts and the Sums they receiv'd in order to the giving an account to the Treasurers of the Chamber of Accounts of the Conversion whereof the Sieur Pelision is President These Sums amounted not to much for some of the Converts had not above sevenpence wrapt up in a piece of Paper But for recompence immediately after their Conversion they were discharg'd of Taxes and freed from Quartering Souldiers and all publick Payments On this Rock split a great number of those Wretches who fear'd the sight of the Collectors of Taxes as of so many Devils and look'd upon the Priviledge of exemption from payments as their Soveraign Good and chiefest Felicity You may hear the account the Gazett gives how those Conversions were made I have in my Pocket that of the 25th of April 1681. 'T is in the Article of Poitiers The Sieur Marillac Intendant of this Province applying himself continually with a great deal of Zeal to the work of Conversion arriv'd the 28th of the last month at St. Sauvan with the Sieur Rabreüil Vicar-General to our Bishop He receiv'd there advice of importance concerning those of the Religion and went away the 20th from St. Sauvan to hasten to the place from whence he had the News He receiv'd there the abjuration of an incredible number of Persons Afterwards they return'd to Poitiers and the Bishop much affected with the fruit of this Voyage sent Missionaries into those parts to instruct the New Converts Hug. Law Perhaps Gentlemen you observe not how new this Method of Conversion is I assure my self in all your reading Sir you have scarce met with any such Convertors Our Saviour understood not this way of Conversion For had he known what belongs to it instead of his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples he would have sent so many Intendants such as the Sieur Marillac All the World would have been Christian To trouble our selves with Preaching to the Peasants that 's filly piece of business Shew them Money in one hand and a Cudgel in the other you make them Saints in a quarter of an hour and shall convert more in a month than St. Paul with his Preaching ever did in twelve Heretofore in those simple Ages of Primitive Christianity men made it their business to instruct before Conversion to make them know and believe before they made Profession and often Catechis'd them several years before they were admitted to the Mysteries of Religion But the Gazettier tells us Monsieur Marillac understands better the Mystery of Conversion he knows how to convert numbers in a trice and afterwards sends Missionaries to instruct them Hug. Gent. Pray Sir Let us not make it a Subject of Mirth those of our Party have no cause to laugh at it but to shed Tears and Tears of Blood Monsieur Marillac hath no been always so careful as the Gazettier tells us I know from good hands those wretched Converts who have been made to abjure their Religion have not been at all instructed A Gentleman of Quality a Roman-Catholick assur'd me the other day with an Oath that being at the Intendants he saw there about two hundred Peasants who were come purposely to complain they knew not what Prayers to make for they had been forbidden to say their old Prayers and not taught any other so that since they had been compell'd to be Catholicks they had no Religion at all The bishop of Poitiers one day in good Company rally'd these Conversions calling those new Catholicks Monsieur Marillac's Converts But this is not all The Intendant Marillac having tasted the sweet of these Conversions and finding Promises and Threats ineffectual to bring about as many as he desir'd resolv'd to make use of more violent Means He and his Agents had quickly scumm'd off out of our Society those base Souls who had no Sentiment of Religion and
you that they are dealt with as declar'd Enemies that their Goods and their Houses are pillag'd their Persons assaulted and 't is publish'd aloud the Sieur Marillac will have it so that he commands it and that it is to oblige your Petitioners to change their Religion Your Souldiers Sir whom your Laws require to observe the strictest Discipline are made choice of to execute all these Enormities Instead of Quartering them indifferently upon all your Subjects they are Quarter'd on those only of the Religion P. R. And when they are so Quarter'd not content with ruining their Landlords by the excessive Charges they put tem to for maintaining them not content with large Contributions of Money exacted from them not content with frightning them with execrable Oaths and horrible Blasphemies when they refuse going to Mass or hearing the Sermons of the Capucins Quarter'd by Order on those of the Religion they are soundly Beaten they are Bang'd and Cudgell'd Women have been dragg'd by the Hair with Ropes about their Necks Others have been Tortur'd Old men of fourscore years have been fast bound on Benches Their Children who would have comforted them have been abus'd before their Faces The most moderate of these Souldiers hinder the Tradesmen from working at their Trades they rob the poor Labourers of what should maintain them and make publick Sale of their Goods that being reduc'd to beggary they may be sorc'd to change their Religion Others of them seeing neither Threats nor Bastonades nor the horror of a violent Death presented every hour to their Hosts by naked Swords and Pistols ready charg'd laid to their Breasts could prevail with them to quit their Religion put them in Sheets carryed them to Church and having sprinkled them with Holy-water pretend they are Roman-Catholicks and that in case they return to their former Religion they shall be guilty of the Crime of Relapse and which is yet more strange and unparallel'd in any Age these poor Wretches are not allow'd the liberty to complain If they apply themselves to the Sieur Marillac he stops their mouths without hearing them They are presently imprison'd without Warrant fil'd and without any form of Justice and are kept Prisoners without being proceeded against And to frustrate the Complaints exhibited to your Majesty the Provosts and Serjeants have gone from House to House and forc'd the Complainants to withdraw their Complaints If any Gentlemen take upon them to speak of these disorders of which they have been eye-witnesses they are answered haughtily they are to meddle with their own Business Otherwise they will be put into a place of safety So that this miserable People would think themselves utterly undone if they were not perswaded that a Conduct so contrary to your Laws and the Rules of Christianity will not be approv'd by your Majesty Prostrate therefore at your Majesties fiet they pray with a profound respect that you will look upon them with a favourable Eye and hearken to their just Complaints the truth whereof they offer at the peril of their Lives to prove before any Judge it shall please your Majesty to nominate 'T is from the sole Protection of your Majesty your Petitioners can expect an end of so many Outrages and an enjoyment of that Tranquility they presume to promise themselves under the Raign of the Greatest and most glorious Monarch of the World May it therefore please your Majesty to appoint Commissioners before whom your Petitioners may prove the Matters of Fact abovementioned with their Circumstances and Dependances And in the mean time to Order that the Souldiers be dislodg'd to the end your Petitioners may be at liberty to get in their Harvest Or if it be your Majesties Pleasure that they remain in the Province that they may in that Case be Quarter'd indifferently on your Subjects of both Religions that the strong may support the weak and those who are most able may bear the Burden as those that are least That you will injoyn them to live in the Order of Discipline and require their Officers to see it done on pain of being accountable for all the Disorders their Souldiers shall commit that you will prohibit the Souldiers and all others to exercise any Violence against your Subjects of the Religion P. R. under pretence of making them change their Religion upon pain of being punished as disturbers of the publick Peace And that you will be pleased to Order that those of the Religion P. R. who are in Prison may be forthwith proceeded against or set at Liberty And your Retitioners shall continue their Prayers to God for the health and prosperity of your Majesty and the Royal Family If you have a mind to see other pieces as authentick as this I will read you two Petitions one intended to be presented to the King the other presented to the Parliament of Guienne To the King SIR YOur Subjects of the Religion P. R of Marennes Santonge and the Government of Broüage prostrate at your Majesties seet most humbly shew That although they have always behav'd themselves according to your Majesties Declarations and Edicts and are fully perswaded it is your intention that your Petitioners should live in Peace and not have any force put upon their Conscience Yet so it is that the Governor of Broüage ceases not with his Carrison to go from House to House and from Village to Village to compel all manner of ways those of the said Religion to go to Mass forceably dragging some of them to Church threat-ning to kill others if they refuse to abjure and Quartering Souldiers in their Houses which they plunder and sell your Petitioners Goods forcing them to abandon all to go seek elsewhere that quiet they cannot find in their Countrey This Sir was done in the Burrough of Dhier near Brüage they bound Blanchet a Ship-Carpenter to a Table forc'd stones into his Mouth and whetted his Teeth with Flint They carry several Persons to Church and having made them put their hands on a Book they pretend they are thereby become good Catholicks and oblige them to Sign an Abjuration of the Religion though no other means of Perswasion or Constraint have been us'd to reduce them to it They have acted extreme Outrages upon Chadenne Marinier Ardoüin and Rambert And one Voyer having fled for Refuge to Marennes was followed by a Serjeant and four Souldiers who publickly gave him several blows with the flat of their Swords and beat him on the Stomach with the But end of their Guns And having made him so weak he could not go carryed him to Prison in a Cart. In the Village of Breüil la Menardiex and others the Souldiers of the said Garrison and entred the Houses by force carryed away and sold openly the Goods of those who were fled thither for refuge to save themselves from the Outrages they had seen done to their Neighbours particularly to Ardoüin le Comte Hervy and Baudry At Peufeucié the Officers of the same Garrison put
their Swords and Pistols to the Throat of one Chasseriau and said they would kill him if he would not change his Religion and say his Prayers Chasseriau having kneel'd and said his Prayers the Officers call'd him a thousand names and beat him outragiously because he would not change his Religion In the Burrough of Marennes several Persons are every day imprison'd without the least formality of Justice The Goods of Fougeron Captain of a Ship were taken away in the same manner Soleil was beaten and imprison'd because he would not abjure And all the Inhabitants of those places are threatned all manner of Violence shall be us'd to force them to go to Mass These Outrages Sir and those committed in the Isles of Oleron la Tremblade and Soubize force your Seamen and others of the Religion P. R. to leave the Kingdom Your Petitioners demand Justice of your Majesty and have so much the greater hopes of your Clemency because they have been always most obedient to your Orders and made appear on all occasion a constant Zeal and Fidelity to your Service for which they are still ready to sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes All the favour they beg is the Liberty of their Conscience That your Majesty will be pleas'd to put a stop to the Violences done them And that they may live in your Kingdom according to your Edicts and Declarations And your Petitioners shall continue their Vows and Prayers for your Majesties Sacred Person and the prosperity of your Raign A Petition presented to the Parliament of Guienne by the Inhabitants of the Isels of Santonge in the Government of Brouage THe Inhabitants of the Isles of Santonge in the Government of Broüage making profession of the Religion P. R. humbly praying shew that although according to his Majesties Edicts and Declarations and an Arrest of Councel of the 19th of May last they ought to live in full Liberty as well s others the Kings Subjects Yet so it is that the Sieur de Carnavalet Governor of Broüage aforesaid accompany'd with part of the Captains of his Garrison and many Souldiers exercise horrible Violences against your Petitioners plundering their Houses giving them blows without number with the But ends of their Muskettoons and Pistols dragging them by the Hair burning their Beards to force them to change their Religion By reason whereof your Petitioners are oblig'd to have recourse to the Justice and Authority of this Court that Commissioners may be sent and deputed out of the body of the Court to inquire into the truth of the Premisses and to direct the whole proceeding therein to the end a stop may be put to these inhumanities so contrary to the King's Will and the publick Tranquility it being impossible to find upon the place Officers who will pass any Act against a Governor In Consideration whereof may it please this Court favourably to grant that your Petitioners Complaints may be recorded and that such of your Lordships as you shall think fit be sent and deputed to go upon the places to inform themselves of the truth of the Premises and direct the proceeding to be had for suppressing the said inhumanities and in the mean time to take your Petitioners into the safeguard and protection of the King and this Court And you will do well Sign'd Chaille pursuant to my Procuration Bonnin pursuant to my Procuration J. Pavillon pursuant to my Procuration Sign'd Lartiguet Procurator Subscribed thus WE whose Names are under-written having not been able to obtain a day for hearing the said Petition nor to have it ssignified to the Court have personally carryed a true Copy thereof to the Attorney General who took and receiv'd it in presence of Monsieur Dalon Advocate General At Reole Septemb. 8th 1681. Sign'd Bon nin J. Pavillon Chaille Can you believe Sir If these things were Fables men could have the impudence to present them to the King and his Ministers and his Soveraign Courts Par. But what was the effect of all these Petitions Hug. Law The Effect Sir 'T was this Order was given to the Deputies of Poitou to go out of Paris in four and twenty hours and not to return The Intendant writ from the Province that all we informed at Court were Fables He sent Horsemen with Pistol in hand to force those who had chang'd their Religion to give it under their Hands they had done it voluntarily and unconstrain'd This second Violence more cruel than the first secures him against all The Court is inform'd of these Subscriptions and call our Deputies Rascals and false Informers Not but that the Court very well understands how Matters are carryed They know very well that the Intendants Guards and Retinue are not Preachers able enough to Convert such Multitudes by their Discourses Miracles are ceas'd And the King hath too clear a sense to think such numerous Conversions are made Naturally and without Violence Whence should this new illumination come I pray Or why should it be peculiar to the Province of Poitou Yet at Court they pretend not to believe a word we say to the end they may give permission to all Practices against us yet be able to say if any Violence be acted 't is without Order of the Court Since September last they have labour'd more than ever to Publish it is not the Kings pleasure any Violence should be us'd His Majesty hath had the goodness to say as much to several of his Governors and Intendants In the mean time 't is certain that in the Provinces of Santonge and Poitou the Violences and Outrages you have heard are not only continued but increas'd The Sieur Marillac finding himself authoriz'd by the connivence of the Court hath tripled his Fury I will tell you a very true story which will teach you what to believe of the mitigation so much talk'd of Four Souldiers Quarter'd in one House having sack'd and consum'd all the Goods in it and committed all Violences imaginable to make the Master of the House change his Religion took his two Daughters both grown and handsom they lock them up with themselves in a Rom and threaten if they resuse to turn Catholicks they must suffer the greatest Extremities and to be as good as their words they put them into a posture to receive the worst Outrage that can be done to a civil Woman To prevent which they chang'd their Religion I know very well his Majesty would be so far from Countenancing such an Action that he would abhor it if he knew it Neither do I believe Monsieur Marillac so mad as to Command such Brutality But this lets you see what a loose hand is held over the Insolence of the Souldiers to what point they extend the Permission granted them to act what Violence they please provided they oblige the Hugonots to change their Religion In a word you may judge from hence what you are to believe of the Mitigation they tell you of Ask me not again Sir as you did awhile
more weight than what is said by an Author without Merit and without a Name Hug. Law The Charge is the same though the Accusers are different By answering either we answer both Save that Dr. Arnaud aims farther than the Anonymus Church-man and lays his Accusation general against all the Reformed of Europe as if they had kindled a War and alter'd the Government where-ever the Reformation was introduc'd The generality of this Charge deserves a particular Consideration and if these Gentlemen please I will let them see how unjust it is Par. We shall gladly give you the hearing 'T is a thing we had to say to you in Justification of the Conduct of the Ministers against you and of the design the King hath to destroy you And I explain it thus You are naturally inclin'd to a Republican Government you hate Monarchy and your Sect hath not made appear that Spirit of Rebellion that animates it in France alone but in the Low-Countries in Germany in England And generally in all places where it is establish'd you have shaken off the Yoke of your Lawful Princes and setled your Religion by taking up Arms against your Soveraigns Hug. Law If a Gentleman so clear-sighted as you can charge us so unjustly what Equity can we expect from those ordinary understandings which are guided wholly by prejudice To hear you speak one would think we had in every place set up the Standard of Rebellion And that like Mahomet we had establish'd our Sect by force of Arms. The ground of all this is no other but that in the time of our Reformation the Low-Countries withdrew themselves from under the Dominion of Spain and the Protestants of Germany had some engagements with Charles the 5th To let you see the injustice of this Complaint I must intreat you to take a short view of the States where our Reformation is establish'd and you will see whether it hath entred every where by Arms and Rebellion As to England all the World knows the Reformation was introduc'd there by Authority of the Soveraign not by popular Sedition Henry the 8th shook off the Yoke of the Pope and enfranchis'd his Kingdom from the Tyranny of the Court of Rome Edward the 6th his Son and Successor finished what he began Mary the Daughter of Henry destroy'd all her Father and Brother had done and brought the Kingdom again under the Dominion of the Roman Church Elizabeth her Sister overthrew all Mary had done restablish'd the Reformation of the Protestants in all her Dominions and strengthned it by a Raign of above forty years Swede was reform'd under the Authority of Gustavus Erikson whom your most Catholick Writers cannot reproach with any thing but his banishing the Roman Religion out of his Countries He was descended of the Ancient Gothish Kings and Grandchild to Charles Chanut King of Swede He was chosen King of Swede by all the States of that Kingdom with universal joy and great acclamation as having merited that Honour by the great Service he had done his Countrey in delivering it from the tyranny of the Danes This then was no usurper but a Lawful King A Prince of so much goodness and wisdom as Swede ever had He Raign'd happily thirty seven years and in acknowledgment of his Merit the Swedes made their Crown hereditary in favour of his Children which had before been Elective This Prince reform'd Religion in his Countries without Violence without Threats but by fair and gentle Means without a Sword drawn or drop of Blood shed Denmark receiv'd the Reformation the same time under Frederick and Christiern the 3 d. his Son without Violence and only by the Authority of these two Princes The last Roman-Catholick King of Denmark was Christiern the 2 d. whom F. Maimburg in his History of Lutheranism describes as a Monster He assur'd himself the Conquest of Swede by the most inhumane and barbarous Action History ever mention'd That is by Massacring the Senate and all the flower of the Nobility of the Kingdom at a Feast he invited them to This Tyrant was driven out of Denmark by his Subjects there who call'd in Frederick Duke of Holstein and plac'd him on the Throne This Frederick was a Prince as eminent for wisdom and renowned for goodness as Christern the last who made profession there of the Roman-Catholick Religion was infamous for his Wickedness Treachery and Cruelty For proof of this truth I rely not on a Witness lyable to suspition but on Father Maimbourg in his first Book of the History of Lutheranism I have already made out a considerable number of the Reformed Countries where it appears the Reformation was not introduc'd by revolt of the Subject but establish'd by Authority of the Soveraign The Swisses were a free State before the Reformation and therefore at liberty to make choice of their Religion and may be added to the number of Countries reform'd without Rebellion Par. Let me advise you Sir to stop there For if you step but a little further you will come to Geneva your Metropolis and your Rome And I believe you will find it a hard task to justifie their manner of changing the Ancient Religion there They expell'd their Bishop depriv'd the Dukes of Savoy of the ancient Rights they had in the City erected themselves into a soveraign Republick against all sorts of Right Humane and Divine Hug. Law I think Gentlemen you have no cause to suspect the History of Geneva lately published by Monsieur Spon He affects a sincerity not very pleasing to the Protestants They of Geneva have judg'd it so little favourable to them they have prohibited the sale of the Book in their City And it has pleas'd the Enemies of the Protestants so well they have given it high Elogies and magnificent Approbations However I will rely on what that Author says If you read that History Sir you will find the Bishop of Geneva was not in any Age Soveraign of the City true it is he had some rights over the temporalties of it as some Bishops of France particularly those who are Dukes Earls and Peers of the Kingdom have over their Sees and Episcopal Cities as the Bishop of Strasbourg had there as the Elector and Arch-bishop of Cologne hath over that City But these are not rights of Soveraignty The Bishop of Geneva never was a Soveraign Prince but the Syndic and Councel of the City have always been Soveraign Magistrates in Civil Affairs The Historian tells you further the Duke of Savoy never had any lawful right over the City of Geneva They have had Judges who were called Vidons but the Judges had jurisdiction over no other but Savoyards settled in the Territory of Geneva And 't was by meer sufferance of the Genevois the Dukes of Savoy had a right of Jurisdiction over the Savoyards in their City 'T is confess'd the Dukes of Savoy have sometimes kept their Court in Geneva but without any Authority other than the permission of the Syndics and
Councel of the City This Author informs you also that the Dukes of Savoy resolv'd at any rate to make themselves Masters of Geneva got a Creature of theirs Peter de la Baum to be made Bishop This man being a Traytor to the City he ought to have protected did all in his Power to bring it under the Tyranny of the Savoyards Those who most vigorously oppos'd this Enterprize and oblig'd him first to retire were very Zealous Roman-Catholicks They put themselves under the protection of the Canton of Fribourg which had been and was then of the Roman-Catholick perswasion The Doctrine of the Reformed was preach'd in the City many were converted the Bishop return'd to oppose them He had a great Contest with the Senate about some Prisoners he pretended belong'd to him in prejudice of the Councel of the City who was judicially possess'd of their Business The Councel carryed it against the Bishop and remain'd Masters of the Prisoners the subject of this Controversie was matter of Jurisdiction not of Religion The Bishop having lost the Cause withdrew out of the City He was so far from-being expell'd or driven away that his Authority was own'd there a long time after But discovery being made of several Conspiracies of this Bishop tending to an absolute suppression both of the Religion and Liberty of the City being then for the most part reform'd his Authority at last expir'd in a little State he was not able to manage the free People of it having made choice of a Religion contrary to his Par. 'T is easie in so short an Account as you give to cover truths with falshoods the matters of Fact are for the most part disguis'd And it would not be difficult to give them another Face which would represent this Enterprize a meer Rebellion But 't will be too long a digression to enter into particulars of this nature We had rather hear what you can say in favour of your Protestants of Germany Hug. Law I say Sir there 's no reason to accuse them of Rebellion against their Soveraigns 'T is perhaps the League of Smalcald you would lay to their Charge It was Sir a League defensive only F. Maimbourg shall witness it They concluded says he Hist Lutb lib. 3. An. 1531. their League of mutual defence against all those who would trouble them in the exercise of their Religion The same Author tells us that if the Protestant Princes had any design to prevent the Emperor and take up Arms before him Luther oppos'd it And the Letter he writ on that Subject to the Elector of Saxony may be seen at this day at the beginning of the first Tome of Luthers works Is there any thing more natural than to unite in order to common safety This League was not made by Rebels and seditious Subjects but by Soveraign Princes 'T is very well known the Emperor is not Master of the Empire which is a Confederation of several States united under one Head yet reserving to themselves-their Liberty and Soveraignty In matters of Peace and War Impositions raising Armies and all other Acts of Soveraignty the Princes and free Towns do what they please They make War one against another They end their differences as they please and enter when they think fit into Interests contrary to those of the Emperor If the Emperor attempt any thing against the Priviledges of any Member of the Empire they remedy themselves by Arms without incurring the penalty or name of Rebels Who knows not this must be a stranger to the History of Germany The Golden Bull is express in it Declaring that if the Emperor violate any Right or Priviledge belonging by that Bull to the Members of the Empire the Princes Ecclesiastical and Secular have Power to oppose him and cannot on that account be charg'd with Rebellion Nor can the Protestants of Germany be charg'd with Rebellion for entring into the League of Smalcald Which was not more against the Emperor than against all other who should persecute them True it is these Confederates ten years after had War with Charles the 5th but were forc'd into it They did not take up Arms first the Emperor form'd a design to destroy them and they were oblig'd to defend themselves Besides there is nothing more false than that this was properly a War of Religion That was only a pretence by which Charles the 5th engag'd Pope Paul the 3d. in the League against the Confederates of Smalcald The Pope indeed would have it pass for a holy War undertaken for the destruction of Heresie The Emperor on the contrary publish'd a Manifesto wherein he professed That the War he was entring into was not a War of Religion That this appear'd clearly by his permitting liberty of Conscience to the Lutheran Princes and Souldiers who faithfully serv'd him in his Armies and that he had not entred into a League with the Pope otherwise than as a Prince who assisted him against the Common Enemy 'T is certain he had in his Army many Protestant Princes particularly Maurice and Angustus Dukes of Saxony and Albert and John Marquesses of Brandenbourg Charles whose Ambition knew no bounds had no other design but to destroy the liberty of the Empire and to make it Hereditary in his Family This appear'd by the consequence of the War wherein though he had all the good Fortune he could hope for he perform'd not a tittle of what he had promis'd the Pope He endeavour'd not the destruction of Lutheranism but having taken the Confederate Towns put them to great Ransoms and drew from them vast Sums of Money and huge quantities of Ammunition but left them at full liberty to profess what Religion they pleas'd The Pope perceiving himselfabus'd he call'd home his Nephew and his Troops which return'd miserably scatter'd into Italy All the Benefit he reap'd by this War was vexation at heart for having assisted Charles to oppress Germany and having open'd him a way for oppressing Italy But how can it be imagin'd Charles the fifth undertook this War out of Zeal to Religion when if he was of any Religion he was perhaps more a Lutheran than a Roman-Catholick Which there is just cause to believe because Ponce de Leon his Confessor and depositary of his most secret thoughts in whose Arms he expir'd was condemn'd to be burnt as an Heretick by Philip the Son of Charles I see on your Table the Abridgement of the History of France by Mezeray the first Edition Let us see what he says the last Age thought of it This Author is a Roman-Catholick and judicious He is read by all and you cannot suspect him Philip says he Ann. 1559. At his arrival into Spain caus'd to be burnt in his presence at Seville and Valladolid a great multitude of those they call Lutherans Men and Women Gentlemen and Church-men and the Effigies of Constantius Pontius Confessor to Charles the 5th who attended him to his death 'T is no wonder he was not
means of Revenge or Defence During the Raigns of Henry the 2d and Francis the 1st the Land was overflowed with our Blood the Prisons were full of our poor Captives the Executioners were imploy'd in nothing else but burning and quartering those poor Wretches who were not guilty of any other Crime but praying to God in a Language they understood and refusing to adore any thing but what they knew to be God There is no sort of Cruelty but was exercis'd upon them they were burnt they had their Members pluck'd off with hot Pinsers they were rack'd and put to all sorts of Tortures they were buried alive There were horrible Massacres committed upon them Such were those of Cabrieres and Merindol wherein they ras'd Houses and Towns laid waste a whole Country cut the Throats of several thousands of Persons and caus'd others to perish by Famine on the Mountains The Court made it a divertisement to see the horrible Torments these poor People suffer'd You shall hear the Account Mezeray gives of it There was says he a general Procession at Nostredame Mezeray's Abridgment c. Ann. 1548. where the King assisted to declare by this action the Zeal he had to maintain the Religion of his Ancestors and to punish those who would change it This he confirm'd by the horrible Torments of many miserable Protestants who were burnt at the place of Execution in Paris They were hoys'd up with a Pulley and an iron Chain and then let fall into a great fire This was often reiterated The King was so pleas'd with it that he fed his eyes with this Tragick Spectacle And 't is said the horrible Cryes of one of these Wretches affected him so that all his Life after he was from time to time haunted with a very troublesome remembrance of it I should scarce have reported this had the Relation been made by any Author not a Roman-Catholick for it would have been look'd upon as false and incredible Those horrible imaginations that from time to time persecuted Henry the 2d did not reform him His Raign was stain'd throughout with the Blood of his Protestant Subjects In all places of the Kingdom Fires were kindled and Gibbets set up to destroy them The Dutchess of Valentinois that King's Mistress making great advantage of the Confiscations of the Protestants serv'd as a fury to awaken his Cruelty every moment That lascivious she-Wolf thirsting after the blood of the Faithful and with a ravenous Appetite coveting their Estates demanded their death as a recompence for those criminal favours she was so liberal of to her King and her Pages If these poor People met at night in a private House for Instruction and Comfort they were surpriz'd and us'd as Sorcerers found at a Sabbath adoring the Devil To add a Persecution more cruel then the rest they publish'd Calumnies against them blacker then the Devil had ever invented they renew'd against them all the old Accusations of the Pagans against the Primitive Christians They charg'd them with strange Crimes says Mezeray it was said they rosted little Children Mez. Abr. An. 1557. and having made great Cheer put out the Lights and turned the place into a Brothel a great number of them was burnt In all this time did any one take up Arms Perhaps they were so weak you will say they durst not I am of Opinion the Reformed were as numerous about the end of the Reign of Henry the Second as at the beginning of the Reign of Francis the second when the first Troubles began 'T is not to be imagin'd that vast multitude of People was converted in five or six months there were at that time of the Reformed Religion some Princes several great Lords many principal Officers of the Crown and of the People an infinite number Mezeray tells us that in one of their Meetings they surpriz'd some of the Queens Maids of Honour yet not one of the Reformed thought of making any defence under the Reign of this Prince who persecuted them with Fire and Sword Can you wonder that having been driven to extremity by long and continual Violences they had no more patience but at last endeavour'd some means to save themselves from the fury of their Tormentors Par. You know the primitive Christians did not so they had no other Weapons but their Prayers and Tears to defend themselves against the Persecutions of the Pagan Emperors Hug. Law I wonder Sir how those of whom you have borrowed that Reflection dare produce the Example of the Primitive Christians 'T is true the Primitive Christians had not any Arms to defend themselves nor had they any to attack with They did not burn Hereticks but labour'd their Conversion There is not a more certain Character of a false Church or false Zeal then Persecution Violence and Fury There have sate on the Imperial Throne Constantines and Theodosii as well as Decij and Diocletians but a Constantine or a Theodosius never made use of Arms against the Pagan Religion which had made so many Martyrs 'T is not out of Charity alone that Christian Princes ought to forbear attacking a false Religion with punishment and torture but out of Prudence the Church only can have Martyrs and ought not to be robb'd of the Glory of that Priviledge and that powerful argument for proof of her Doctrine Nothing raises a greater prejudice against the constancy of true Martyrs then the obstinacy of Hereticks who persist in their Opinions to Death Our Accusers Sir are very unjust in their proceeding with us to have the Sword in one hand and the Faggot in the other to cover Towns and Countries with dead Bodies to destroy pell-mell the Innocent with the Guilty to shed the blood of Infants Women and old Men having one foot in the Grave to commit Massacres to drown France with the blood of its Inhabitants to Burn Quarter and invent new Torments This is laudable Zeal merit of the highest degree that raises men to be Saints equal with St. Dominick But if a poor Hugonot lift up his Arm to put by the blow that is made at him this is fury and rage and the fruit of a spirit opposite to that of the true Church I cannot forbear applying to this purpose what St. Athanasius said to them who reproach'd him with making his Escape If they think it a shame to me to have made my Escape let them be asham'd to have forc'd me to it by their Persecution When Men run away 't is an argument of the Cruelty of those they run from We fly not from the Gentle and Courteous but the Bloody and the Cruel There is no defence where there is no Persecution I confess it Men are Men the love of Life is strong and powerful the inclinations and Counsels of flesh and bloud prevail often over those of strict Piety Were it true that our Fathers took up Arms to save their Lives 't is a weakness they ought to be pardon'd for in an Age
which was verified in all the Parliaments The Constable 't is known was the Favourite of Henry the second who lov'd him to that degree that after his misfortune and imprisonment unfortunate as he was yet at his return to Court the King made him lie in his own bed But his Absence was fatal to him and his Family The Duke of Guise render'd himself necessary to the King and as Mezeray says the misfortune of France was the happiness of the Duke of Guise and the fall of the Constable was his Exaltation The Duke of Guise had in all his Enterprizes the success every one knows He recovered Calais from the English he took Thionville he married his Niece the Queen of Scots to the Dauphin who was afterwards Francis the second Fortune abandon'd the Constable and sided with the Duke of Guise Read the words of Mezeray from that very time the jealously between these two Houses tended to the forming two contrary Parties in the Kingdom as will appear This is the first Seed of the Civil War wherein Religion had not any part Thence forward the House of Guise us'd all its power to destroy Montmorency's Party The Duke met with the pretence of Religion luckily by the way Admiral Chatillon and Dandelot his Brother the Constables Nephews were suspected the Spaniards increas'd the Suspition by saying that at the taking of St. Quintin they found Heretical Books amongst Dandelots Baggage Henry the second being a violent Persecuter caused him to be arrested and committed him Prisoner to Blaise de Montluc a Creature of the Duke of Guise this was a matter agreed on by the Guises and the Spaniards with design to weaken the Constable by the loss of his Nephews But they miss'd their aim the Constables favour brought Dandelot clear off and gain'd him his Liberty And the Authority of Henry the second kept the two Parties in an appearance of Peace during the rest of his life which was not long but in the beginning of the Reign of Francis the second the Discord broke out Mezeray will tell you in the beginning of this Reign the cause of the Civil War A Multitude of Princes says he and of puissant Lords is an infallible cause of Civil War when there wants Authority powerful enough to keep them within the bounds of their duty This was the misfortune of France after the death of Henry the second From the time of his death the Factions form'd during his Reign began to appear and to fortify them the more unhappily met with different Parties in Religion a great number of Male-Contents who long'd for change and which is more many Soldiers and Officers of War who having been disbanded were desirous of Employment at any rate Methinks that by this Relation Religion is not the cause of the Troubles but the cause of them were the Factions of Princes and great Lords who meeting with Parties differing in Religion made use of them to serve their designs In the same place that Author makes it appear the two Parties fought not for Religion but for Empire On the one side were the Princes of the Bloud and the Constable On the other the Princes of the House of Guise and between both the Regent who by turns made use of one to beat down and destroy the other that she might Reign The Princes of Guise having got into their hands the Person of Francis the second a weak Prince governed under his Authority in a tyrannical manner The Princes of the Bloud Antony and Lewis de Bourbon who ought to have had the management of Affairs during the Kings Minority could not endure that Strangers should enjoy an Authority and Honour belonging of right and properly to them These Princes were ill us'd Antony of Bourbon King of Navar came to Court but was slighted they did not so much as give him a Lodging and he might have lain on the Pavement had not the Marshal of St Andrew receiv'd him The Princes began with the Pen and caused several Writings to be publish'd to make it appear that the Laws of the State admit neither Women nor Strangers to the Government that during the Minority of the Kings this honour belongs to the Princes of the Bloud That the Guises were not natural French that it was dangerous to commit to them the Government of the State because of their Pretensions on the Kingdom in saying they were descended from Charlemaign At last Lewis of Bounbon Prince of Conde resolv'd upon a dangerous attempt to gain Possession of his Rights which the weakness of his Brother the King of Navarr abandon'd and gave up to the Princes of Guise He design'd to seize the Person of King Francis the second and remove the Guises from Court The Admiral and Dandelot were of the Party and the Prince of Conde was the Head But because the success of the Enterprize was doubtful they would not appear in it La Renaudie was intrusted with the management of this great design which goes under the name of the Conspiracy of Amboise which our Church-man whose Book you have in your hand makes such a noise about there cannot be a greater injustice then to charge our Hugonots with this Affair 'T is certain there were ingag'd in that business as many Roman Catholicks as Hugonots or if the number of Hugonots were greater it was because there were more Male-Contents of their Party the Chancellor de l' Hospital was one I have read in good Authors that La Renaudie was a Roman Catholick yet I will not undertake to justifie it 'T is agreed on all hands that all the Officers who had receiv'd Indignities at Court and been unjustly expell'd thence engag'd themselves in the Enterprise to be reveng'd of the Princes of Guise There was at Court says Mezeray a great number of Persons out of all the Provinces particularly Soldiers and Officers of War demanding Pay or Reward The Cardinal of Lorrain who had the management of the Finances was much troubled with them and apprehended a Conspiracy in their multitude This made him publish an Edict commanding that all those who followed the Court to demand any thing should retire on pain of being hang'd on a Gibbet which was publickly set up for that purpose A great part of those who had serv'd in the Armies disgusted with this Indignity turn'd against the Cardinal Thus you have an account of what persons that Party was compos'd which would have destroyed the Princes of Guise where there appears so sensible and so clear a cause of Revolt 't is not worth our pains to go in search of a hidden one On the one side the Rights of the Princes of the Bloud which they were resolv'd to maintain on the other side the design to be reveng'd of the grossest affront that ever was put on Persons of Quality by setting up a Gibbet to hang them on for no other cause but that they desir'd to be paid for the bloud they had lost are so visibly the
causes of this Conspiracy that 't is ridiculous to make Religion the only ground of it The chief of all the Male-Contents was Lewis of Bourbon Prince of Conde And though he appear'd not in the Enterprize and several of the Conspirators deny'd to the Death his being privy to it yet 't is certain he was Mezeray tells us That the Prince of Conde going to Court met at Orlians the Lord Cipierr who told him the Plot was discovered And that nevertheless the Prince continued his Journey By this it appears the Prince knew of the Plot. A little before the same Author tells us the Conspirators had chosen him for their Head but not to bear any part in the action which was to be carryed on by La Renaude under his Authority The Princes of Guise were fully convin'd of it for they no sooner got the Prince of Conde in their power but they caused him to be proceeded against and Senten'd to be Beheaded Par. We will suppose Sir that you can prove the Conspiracy of Amboise was a Conspiracy of all the Male-Contents that a Prince of the Bloud was the Head of them and that your Hugonots were not more deeply concern'd in it than others what 's that to the purpose Is a Criminal less guilty for having Accomplices Is it allowable on any pretence whatever to enter into so Criminal a Conspiracy against your King Hug. Law Against our King Ah Sir you will never be able to prove that All our Historians bear these pretended Conspirators Witness they had no design against the King or the Regent but only against the Princes of Guise Read if you please what Mezeray says They resolv'd to present their Petition to the King and to seize the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain and exhibit Articles against them This was their design But who adds Mezeray could have secur'd the Princes of Guise from being kill'd upon the spot or that the Male-Contents would not have made themselves Masters of the Persons of the Queen Mother and the King 'T is certain it was laid to their Charge they would have attempted both It was laid indeed to their Charge but not prov'd of twelve hundred Persons who perish'd on this occasion there was not one they could get to confess this though use was made of most violent Tortures to force them to it Monsieur de Thou gives them this Testimony Thuan. Hist Lib. 24. Not one of the Conspirators was convicted of any attempt against the King or the Queen but only against Strangers who govern'd all at Court in a tyrannical manner that is the Princes of the House of Guise Can you think it Sir so great a Crime for the Princes of the Bloud and the Chief Officers of the Crown to endeavour to gain their natural places and lawful Authority by taking forceably an Infant King and weak when Major out of the hands of Tyrants who were going to hang up his Majesties good Servants to establish the Inquisition in France and to burn the true hearted French at the Stake The Prince of Conde and the Admiral were in my opinion Names that carryed Grandeur and Authority enough in them to oppose very lawfully the Tyrants of France Your Church-man in his Book tacks the Enterprize of Meaux to that of Amboise as if they were both of one nature We are not now says he in the time of the Enterprizes of Amboise and Meaux The man hath forgot both the Author and the end of the Enterprize of Meaux The Head of it was the same Prince of Conde the end was to remove from about the King the same Tyrants who under the name of Councellors made Charles the ninth commit Violences which exceeded those in former Reigns and to violate Edicts and Treaties he had by solemn Oaths obliged himself to observe and made use of the seeming Peace granted to the Party of the Princes for hatching the most horrible and blackest Treasons that ever have been heard of After the first Civil War the Peace was made by the Edict of the 18th of March 1563. this Peace serv'd only as a Cloak for a Cruel War made with more safety against the Reformed after they had been disarm'd The Reformed made their Complaints to the Prince of Conde and the Admiral But these two great great Men answer'd Mezeray 1567. says Mezeray That they must endure any thing rather than take up Arms again That second troubles would render them the horrour of all France and make them the Object of the Kings hatred This was their Resolution but when a Principal Person at Court had given them express advice it was resolv'd the Prince and the Admiral should be taken the former to be kept perpetual petual Prisoner the other to lose his head on a Scaffold by the advice of Dandelot the boldest of the three they resolv'd not only to defend themselves but to attack their Enemies with open force And in order thereto to remove the Cardinal from the Kings Person This Sir was the design of the Enterprize of Meaux and I have told you the Motives of it I would advise those who for this Enterprize would charge the Prince of Conde with Rebellion that they would think well of it The Hero who at this day bears the same name whose veins are fill'd with that Illustrious Bloud is an Evidence sufficient to convince the World we may retain our Love to our Countrey and Fidelity to our King without loving those who abuse the Infancy of our Kings by making them Arm against the Liberty and Lives of the Princes of their Bloud If the Prince of Conde opened this second War by the Enterprize of Meaux it was because he had not any other way to save his Liberty and his Life Par. The Enterprize of Meaux hath made you pass from the Conspiracy of Amboise to the second Civil War without touching on the first which is the principal and you promis'd to justify Hug. Law Well Sir I will if you please return to my Task The first War was not a War of the Hugonots alone but it was a War of Antony and Lewis of Bourbon The two Brothers Antony and Lewis of Bourbon says Mezeray came not to the Assembly of Melun for two months before Antony retir'd into Gascoign and his Brother went thither to him Being then in more safety they provided for their Affairs and projected means to make themselves able to dislodge the Guises The Design took wind they were drawn to Court and their Persons secur'd a strong Guard was plac'd on the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde imprison'd his Process was made and by a terrible Arrest fram'd by the Guises he was Condemn'd to lose his Head Was there ever so strange and unworthy a proceeding that Strangers should Condemn to Death the second Prince of the Bloud And can it be thought strange that a generous Prince should seek means to be reveng'd for so horrible an affront He
escap'd miraculously by the death of Francis the second whose Authority the Princes of Guise had abus'd The King of Navarr redeem'd himself by yielding the Regency to the Queen The Constable Montmorency fell off from the Princes because they would have call'd him to account for the vast Guifts made him by Henry the second Then was form'd the famous Triumvirat between the Constable the Marshal de St. Andre and the Duke of Guise whose principal design was to efface the Name and Memory of the Family of Bourbon But if the Constable was against the Princes the Marshal Montmorency his Son and Governour of Paris was for them though a Catholick by which it appears that Religion was not the cause of those Troubles The Queen Mother ambitious to Reign absolutely and alone was weary of the Tyranny of the Princes of Guise And to ruine their Party she openly favour'd the Party of the Prince of Conde The Queen Mother says Mezeray to reward the Services the Admiral had done her granted or pretended to grant him assistance on several occasions She caus'd an Edict very favourable to the Hugonots to be publish'd in 1562. She proceeded yet further and caused the Prince of Conde to Arm. In this very Page Sir our Historian reports that the Duke of Guise being come to Paris with Twelve Hundred Horse entred the Town at the Gate of St. Denis through which the Kings make their solemn Entry The Queen perceiving his design to take the Government from her writ to the Prince of Conde then retired to his House recommending very affectionately to him her Son the Kingdom and her self If you look upon the following Page you will see she sent for the Prince who having got all his Friends together took his Journey to go to the Queen and pass'd the Seine at St. Clou. This Sir was the first taking up Arms and the beginning of the first War which was kindled by the Divisions of the great ones and the unhappy policy of Catherin de Medicis The Prince of Conde sent to the Princes of Germany the Original Letters of the Queen Mother wherein she pray'd him to deliver her and the King out of Captivity The Regent who put Arms into the Prince of Conde's hands reap'd not the benefit she expected from them but was retained in slavery with the young King by the Tyranny of the Guises and carried to Paris against her will Can you wonder that a Prince of the Bloud of great Courage and in Arms at the Request of the Queen should pursue his point and endeavour to be reveng'd of the Guises who had almost brought his Head to the Scaffold Can you think it strange The Protestants immediately made themselves of the Party of a Prince of the Bloud who had so justly taken up Arms to defend himself from the horrible Violences and Outrages of his Enemies for then was the time Sir when the Massacres of Vassy Seus Auxeure Cahoy Tours and a hundred other places were perpetrated Then it was that the Parliament of Paris pass'd an Arrest whereby they gave order the Hugonots should be kill'd whereever they were found It was not Henry the second commanded these Cruelties but the Tyrants who abused the Authority of an Infant King Christian Morality doth not Condemn a lawful defence against those who unjustly attack us Par. Your Party kept not within the bounds of meer defence They made violent Attacks they proceeded to Extremities in their fury beat down and profan'd Churches broke down Images kill'd and tormented Priests You are not ignorant what horrible Cruelties were exercis'd by your Baron of Adrets Hug. Law I pray remember Sir I am not obliged to justify any more then the first taking up of Arms. I will not justify any thing was afterwards done when men have once taken Arms in hand they become deaf to Piety and Reason The Prince of Conde did all he could to hinder these Disorders There is not one among us but Condems the Conduct of that time full of Exorbitance and Fury But I will undertake Sir to justify the Outrages committed by our Hugonots on your Churches Images and Priests when you shall have justified the Barbarous Inhumanities of your Catholicks against our Hugonots Can you approve of that action of the Provincial who finding at Briguoles a Sister of his that refused to go to Mass caused her to be Ravish'd by the Cordelier who carried the Cross and by all those who would take that Brutal Pleasure and afterwards caused her to be Burnt with flaming Lard which he procured to be dropt upon her Can you approve of what was done at Tours where three hundred Persons were flaid and then beaten to death young Women stript naked Ravish'd in the Face of the Sun then kill'd Men cut up alive under pretence of finding Money swallow'd into their Bellies Can you approve of what was done at Orange Where some were kill'd with many gentle blows of Ponyards that they might be the longer a dying others were Impall'd some Burnt others Saw'd Women were hang'd at the Windows and the Infants out of their Bosoms dash'd against the walls the old Men being drawn up in rank to see this horrible Spectacle before they were Massacred This is not the thousandth part of Actions I could relate like these The Answer of the Baron of Adrets to those of our Party who reproached him for his Cruelty was 'T is not Cruelty to be Cruel to them who have first been cruel to us the first is called Cruelty the second Justice And to clear himself of the Imputation he reckon'd up many thousands who had been kill'd in cold bloud and put to Tortures never heard of before When you have justify'd all this I will undertake the justification of our Breakers of Images and Profaners of Churches I have something more to say to you Be so kind to justify the Conduct of the Spaniards who are so Catholick and so devoted to the Holy See make us a little Apology for what they did at Rome when taken by Charles de Bourbon under the Command of Charles the fifth Let 's look into Fa. Maimbourgs History of Lutheranism which I see on your Table He will tell you Sir these good Catholicks were Cruel and Prophane beyond Example in History 'T is impossible says he to express all the Outrages committed in that lamentable Pillage It infinitly exceeds in all sort of Crimes what the Goths and Vandals heretofore did when they sack'd Rome nothing was spar'd but Deformity and Poverty All things else became the prey of a Conqueror the most brutish that ever was If you please to read on you will find that the Spaniards and Italians by the relation of their own Historians were more cruel and covetous then the German Lutherans To conclude if you will undertake to defend all that hath been done by your Catholicks in Wars for Religion I will intreat you to justify the horrible Enormities committed in the East by those
since the Popes call'd themselves the Emperours most humble Servants and said they were but dust and ashes in their presence I see there the Works of Gregory the Great and could let you see in them the Style of the Popes in those days when they writ to the Emperours but I had rather let you see it in the Margin of Father Maimbourgh's History of Lutheranism You will allow me who am a Hugonot the pleasure which is not small to take out of the Margin of a Jesuits Book those words of St. Gregory which the Ministers have so often quoted Hist Luth. lib. 11. Ann. 1530. Ego verò haec Dominis loquens quid sum nisi pulvis vermis ego indignus famulus vester I that take the Liberty to speak thus to my Lords what am I but dust and a Worm your unworthy Servant You will do us a pleasure to read the Text of Fa. Maimbourgh This holy Bishop forbore not to execute what had been commanded him having remain'd satisfy'd with making a most humble Remonstrance to the Emperour his Master in a Letter extreamly submissive This vexes you Sir as it pleases us I confess our joy may be tax'd of some malice but 't is a matter so rare and so singular to hear a profest Jesuit and one under the fourth vow speak thus of a Pope you will pardon us for being pleas'd with it but the days are long since gone when they spoke thus at Rome The Popes have since those days assum'd and exercis'd a Power to Depose Emperours and Kings to declare them Tyrants to raise their Subjects against them when they do any thing the Popes pretend to be contrary to Religion This is a matter so publickly notorious it hath been prov'd a hundred times Now Sir I will dare your Roman Catholicks to charge us with our pretended Rebellions and having maintain'd our Religion by Arms and give me leave to tell you I wonder the prudence of your Churchman and the interest of his Party permitted him to renew the memory of our Wars for Religion for he might have easily foreseen we would not fail to expose to publick view so many horrible Conspiracies those of his Character and Religion every day plot and carry on in those Countreys where the Supremacy of the Pope is not acknowledg'd If we acted a part in the Civil Wars of France they cannot reproach us with having design'd the murder of our Princes and actually assassinated them We have never been charg'd with having design'd and endeavored to blow up with powder a whole State in a moment not only the head but all its principal Members We are now under great Sufferings in France but amidst all our Sufferings we glory that our very Enemies bear witness of our Fidelity and Innocence but the Martyrs of your Church-man those poor Catholicks he laments and bewails that they are cruelly put to death in England under pretence of a pretended Conspiracy are sufficiently convicted to have been tampering with as horrible an Enterprize as any hath been design'd this Age. Par. We have done with that Sir let 's hear no more of it I pray whether the English Catholicks be guilty or not let not us inquire further this Gentleman hath said as much on that Subject as you can do not attack us you will find work enough to defend your selves you think you have said enough but you have not spoken a word of the last Wars you rais'd in the Kingdom the Wars of Montauban of Rochel c. Hug. Law As to the Plot in England you shall not scape so you shall hear a great deal more of it if you please I know all this Gentleman said to you of it he told you what he knew but not all that may be known of it such order is taken to hinder the transportation of authentick Copies of the Tryals of those Criminals into Foreign parts we scarce know any thing of them so that you are not to admire this Gentleman seem'd not throughly instructed But because that formidable Pamphlet you took out of your pocket charges us to have occasion'd a Persecution against the Catholicks in England under pretence of a pretended Conspiracy you must allow us to justify our selves a little more fully and to add to what we have said what is since come to our knowledge but If you please I will first speak a word or two to the last Wars of Religion in France about the beginning of this Age I am for plain dealing I will never call evil good nor good evil I am of their number who cannot approve of these Wars nor make it their business to justify them The places of safety which had been given us were the seeds of this War the King was desirous to have them put into his hands the Hugonots were obstinately bent to retain them It was ill done without doubt they ought to have restor'd them and to have rely'd on the Providence of God and the King's Justice Yet this we have to say for our selves First 'T is not just to charge a whole body of men with that which was done but by a part Perhaps three fourths of all the Protestants of France were for a Submission These doubtless would have carry'd it both for Number and Prudence but they were the weakest of the Party The turbulent Spirits were Masters of all their Forces and Arms. Secondly We say the Religion of great men keeps them not from being ambitious They reign in Confusions and make themselves formidable by raising Troubles they abuse the simplicity of the People and make them pay for the Follies and Crimes of those who abuse them This was one cause of the last Wars we had great men of our perswasion who being in the head of a great Party made themselves formidable at Court for the strong places they were Masters of These men foresaw that by the change of Affairs design'd at Court their Credit and their Pensions would be lost they did all they could to bear up themselves and engag'd in their Quarrel the people whose Zeal is always sufficiently ignorant and ill enough guided Methinks some charity ought to be had for people who have no ill intention but only the misfortune to permit themselves to be seduc'd by mistaking interests of Religion It must be considered also that most of those who took Arms were frightned into it Our Enemies who desir'd nothing more than to see us rise that they might take that occasion to destroy us caus'd Rumors to be spread that there was a design to massacre all the Hugonots that it was agreed by a secret Article in the Treaty of Spain and of the Marriages lately made The pressing so earnestly to have again into the King's hands the places of strength given by his Father to the Protestants heightned our suspicion The horrible Image of the Massacres and Torments of the last Age was fresh in memory many had been Spectators and some had been
Children Thus Your Majesty shall see continued in Your Kingdom a Generation of Male-Contents of Dissmblers of Profane Rebellious and ill Christians such will be the good Catholicks begot of those Parents who are at this day forc'd to change their Religion Among this wretched Multitude there will doubtless be some who totally forgetting their duty will take desperate Resolutions and choose rather to die in a violent manner than to live reduc'd to a condition wherein they betray their Conscience and suffer a thousand Calamities and it cannot but infinitely grieve Your Majesties good Nature and Clemency to see your self forc'd to revive the Age of Massacres Our zeal for Your Majesties Service holds out hitherto against the sence of our present Sufferings and the fear of future ills Your Majesty hath not in Your Armies by Sea or Land an Hugonot Officer who is not ready to sacrifice his Life in Your Service There is not Your Kingdom a Protestant who doth not venerate I may say adore Your Majesty as the brightest Image God hath given of himself to the World we hope they will always look upon the Thunderbolts that come from your hand with that respect and fear they regard those that fall from Heaven but we hope also Your Majesty in imitation of that Divinity whose Image you are will pity so many miserable Persons who groan under their Sufferings without murmuring against the hand that causes them Especially when you consider these Wretches have all Europe to witness their faithfulness to Your Service and the World sees them free from the least stain of Rebellion Your Majesty will not permit us to be persecuted any longer for no other reason but because as 't is suppos'd we are not illuminated Alas Sir 't is a Grace that depends not upon our selves 't is not a thing within the power of Man nor is it an effect of fear punishments and tortures We doubt not but if Your Majesty would take the pains to cast Your Eye upon the Arrests and Orders exhorted from Your Majesty against us and the Consequences of them they would appear dreadful and horrible Your Majesty should see Trade interrupted and spoil'd Your Towns desolate by the desertion of the Inhabitants and a great breach in Your State by the loss of so many considerable Members of it ready to fly out of it you should see your Neighbours enrich'd and fortify'd by the spoils of Your Kingdom France in many places become a vast Desart and a considerable number of unhappy Consciences groaning under a cruel Servitude they are reduc'd to You should see a People in despair capable of the most violent Resolutions against themselves We hope Sir that God the Protector of Afflicted Innocents will lay open all these Considerations to Your Majesties Eyes that you may act as the common Father of Your Subjects We remember Sir that kind and excellent Expression of Your Majesty not long since That You consider'd us all as Your Children and would have given Your Right Hand for our Conversion Here we see Your Majesty in Your Natural state and admire the genuine goodness of Your temper and are perswaded 't is not without violence you are obliged to arm Your self against us as if we were Your Enemies When Children have attain'd the age of discretion their Parents use only the ways of perswasion to reduce them to Duty because the heart is not won but by fair and gentle means and our Spirits naturally abhor and resist force We hope therefore Your Majesty will again awaken Your Paternal Compassions towards those Children whom you look upon as gone astray and that you will leave it to Heaven and it's Grace to reduce them into the right way if out of it and that You will not permit our Consciences to be dragg'd into Paths which we are not perswaded are right 'T is this hope alone Sir keeps us from falling into despair this only supports us this will ever make us most earnest Petitioners to Heaven for the preservation of Your Royal Person for Your Glory and the good Success of all Your Designs Prov. What think you of it Sir Par. I am not surpriz'd at it these poor People are so restless in their misery 't is no wonder they toss and tumble themselves every way but they are very simple if they think they can find a way to convey such a Paper to His Majesty the Avenues are all block'd up And should it come to the Kings Hands he is beset round with those shall take effectual order he shall not alter his Mind I should think it best to let them have it again but that if you restore it they will bevex'd we have seen it 'T is better pretend we know nothing of it nor say a word of it to them they will think they have lost it elsewhere Prov. I will be advis'd by you Farewel Sir 't is high time to leave you to your Repose The Printer to the Reader The Copy of the following Letter being come to my hands I thought it not improper to be communicated to the Publick because it concerns the present State of the Religion in France the Subject of this Work SIR YOu desire I would inform you what you are to believe of the Reports spread in the Province you are in of the great Mitigations lately happen'd as 't is said in the Affairs of our Religion A Man cannot write with much certainty of these matters yet I will venture to comply with your desires never were Reports more groundless than those for matters are so far from being mitigated they begin to be worse than ever The business between the Bayliff of Charanton and the Gentlemen of the Consistory is reviv'd You know without doubt that the King upon the Petition they presented him had order'd the Bayliff not to proceed any further and gave them leave in the mean time to apply themselves if they saw cause to the Parliament for Remedy but within these five or six days the Chancellor said to the Deputy-General it was much wondred the Consistory had not sued forth an Appeal from the Sentence of the Bayliff that they must look to it for if they would not appeal the King would take off the Prohibition and give the Bayliff leave to proceed What is the meaning of this but to let us see they intend to Exterminate us for questionless you remember one Article of that Sentence was that we should pay the Sacrament such respect as is due to it Whether what was said to Monsieur Ruvigny will take effect I know not but you know well enough that in what concerns us they do not their business by half but go through with their work The Provinces of Poitou and Aunix are in a condition that deserves all manner of Compassion all acts of the most Barbarous Cruelty are exercis'd in those Countries the Relations we have thence would break your heart 'T is true the Troops are drawn out which is the only ground