Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	law_n	parliament_n	7,328	5	6.6868	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45067	The humble petition of the Protestants of France lately presented to His Most Christian Majesty by the Mareschal Schomberg and the Marquis of Ruvigny	Eglises réformées de France.	1681 (1681)	Wing H3575; ESTC R26812	7,012	20

ladite Religion pour écouter leurs préches imputent aux Ministres des choses qu'ils n'ont point dites ou prennent aussi des pretextes des termes qu'on ne peut éviter dans les Controverses pour leur faire des procés criminels devant des Juges animez contre leur Religion pendant que les mêmes Ecclesiastiques ne cessent de se servir contre les supplians de termes deffendus expressement par les Edits Les premiers Juges des lieux a qui il n'avoit jamais appartenu de connoistre des cas des Edicts entreprennent par des procedures tout à fait inouies d'interdire les Ministres des Provinces entieres Enfin on vient de publier une Declaration pour empécher que les femmes de ceux de ladite Religion ne se servent que de Chirurgiens ou de Sages-femmes Catholiques pour accoucher afin que les enfans puissent estre ondo yez ce qui est encore directement opposé à la disposition des Edicts aux principes de la Religion des supplians Leur conscience ne leur pouvant jamais permettre de consentir à cet usage parce que d'un costé ils ne croyent pas que le baptesme soit necessaire d'une necessité absolue quand la mort previent les soins de ceux qui sont obligés de le procurer de l'autre ils croyent qu'un si grand Sacrement ne peut en nul cas estre administré par des personnes laiques que l'ondoyement ne peut jamais tenir lieu de baptesme Tous ces faits SIRE un tres grand nombre d'autres tres considerables mais qui dans le détail seroient ici trop-longs trop ennuyeux pour V. Majesté sont d'une connoisiance publique on justifiez par les pieces que les supplians ont entre les mains même par les Jugements par les Arrets par les Declarations Tout le monde qui voit l'abbaissement extreme ou les supplians sont reduits commence de les regarder comme s'ils estoient abandonnez à la haine à la poursuite de ceux qui veulent leur ruine entiere Il ne se peut rien ajoûter à la consternation generale ou sont tous ceux de ladite Religion dans tous les endroits du Royaume plusieurs sont déja sortis par crainte ou par necessité pour chercher leur repos dans les pays estrangers Le plus grand nombre ne sont retenus que par l'amour qu'ils ont pour V. Majesté quelques-uns peut estre par la difficulté qu'ils ont à quitter leurs biens le pays de leur naissance Tous SIRE apres Dieu n'attendent de seureté ni de repos que de la justice de la clemence de V. M. Elle a toûjours eu la bonté de leur donner accés à sa personne sacrée de vouloir écouter leurs justes plaintes Elle avoit même nomme des Commiss de son Cons pour les examiner plus particulierement pour en faire le rapport mais les grandes Guerres que V. Majesté a eues à soûtenir l'ayant occupée au dehors les maux des supplians n'ont fait que se multiplier s'accroistre Maintenant SIRE que V. M. jouit avec tant d'éclat des succé glorieux dont Dieu a favorisé ses desseins que tous ses peuples s'attendent aussi d'avoir part aux fruits de ses travaux les supplians esperent de la justice de la bonté de V. M. qu'elle ne voudra pas distinguer en cela les supplians de ses autres sujets ni que pendant que les uns seront dans la joye dans le repos les autres pleurent gemissent A ces Causes SIRE que les supplians ont toûjours le même Zele la même Fidelité pour vostre service Plaise à Vostre Majesté avoir la bonté de faire entendre a Messieurs de son Conseil aux Presidents Procureurs Generaux de ses Parlemens à ses Intendants Commissaires executeurs des Loix à ses autres Magistrats Officiers que son intention Royalle est que les Edicts soyent gardez executez ordonner aux Commissaires nommez par V. M. ou autres qu'il luy plaira nommer d'examiner les memoires pieces justificatives des supplians en informer V. Majesté en particulier à Messieurs les Secretaires d'Estat de ses commandemens de luy faire incessamment le rapport de celles qui sont les plus pressantes dont les inconvenients sont plus grands pour y estre pourvu selon le bon plaisir de V. M. Et les supplians continueront toûjours leurs voeux leurs prieres pour sa gloire pour la prosperite de sa personne sacrée de son regne SIR WE your Subjects of that Religion which we call the Reformed do with most profound Reverence cast our selves at the feet of your Majesty that so we may represent the many aggrievances which have been heaped upon us one after another and may most humbly beg some effectual resentments of the same from your justice and goodness The Edicts of the Kings your predecessors and particularly those of Henry the Great and Lewis the Just which your Majesty most authentically confirmed at your happy Inauguration and since by divers and sundry Declarations have always had regard to those of the said Religion which consists of a considerable part of those people which God hath committed to your charge And as such they have not only been permitted to exercise their Employments and Arts and Trades whereby they gain their Livelihood but also have been promoted to Places of Trust and Honour as effects of their Merit and Vertue They have also enjoyed a Liberty of Conscience by a free exercise of their Religion and Discipline in all places priviledged by the aforesaid Edicts and Commissioners also have been appointed to take care that there should be no infringments or violations thereof There have been also Courts of Justice consisting of men of both Religions that at all times the Protestants might be assured of impartial justice both as to their Persons and Estates And the Gentlemen particularly had right to place in their Fee-Farms those of one or the other Religion without any difference In short your Petitioners enjoyed almost the same freedom and advantages as the other Subjects of your Majesty It is true Sir that these were the Concessions of the Kings your Predecessors and of your present Majesty and have been established with such circumstances as the Edicts themselves call a perpetual and an irrevocable Law designed purposely to keep your Subjects both of one and the other Religion in

perfect amity And your Petitioners can confidently averr that they have so demeaned themselves under this Law and Priviledges as never to have rendred themselves unworthy thereof But on the contrary have gained this advantage that your Majesty hath made many solemn and gracious Declarations testifying the entire satisfaction your Majesty hath conceived of the Zeal and Loyalty of your Petitioners in times of most hazard and difficulty And now SIR we need not search the Histories of many years to demonstrate the difference of our present condition from those times for it is now but a few years since your Petitioners have not only been made uncapable of being admitted into publick Offices but discharged of those in which they were invested and in which they had always served with honour and fidelity For contrary to the true intent and words of this Edict they have taken from your Petitioners the priviledge of equally entring with others into the Commission of Consulates and the Municipal Offices of Towns even in those very Corporations wherein your Petitioners are the greatest number and have the greatest interest in the administration of the Civil Government and management of that Money which is levied upon them They have not now in many places any admittance to the meanest Office in the Publick nor are they licensed to exercise those Arts and Trades whereby they gain their sole livelihood and subsistance They can reckon up at least 300 Protestant Churches which in the space of ten years have been demolished notwithstanding that some of them have been expresly named in the Edict of Nantes and others comprehended within the limits and sence thereof The Commissioners which are always ready to receive Process against your Petitioners yet stop their ears to their complaints and if they do take notice of them it is with a corrupt and partial sentence and oftentimes the Catholick Commissioners pronounce Judgment against your Petitioners without the intervention and assent of those of their Religion Those who have changed from the Protestant to the Catholick Religion not finding that quietness of conscience which they expected therein so that they have returned again to their first perswasion have been exposed to most rigorous penances under the term of Relapse and the Ministers and Consistories have been liable to be suppressed If any of the Catholick Religion become Protestants they presently persecute those to whom they applied themselves for clearing their doubts or declaring their belief pretending that thereby they come within the compass of that crime which is called Subornation The Chambers of this Edict are not only incorporated with the Parliaments against the express sence of the Edict but are extinguished wholly and suppressed The Children of your Petitioners though born in their Religion are often taken from them before they have attained to that age which the Edicts allow them before they are obliged to declare the Religion which they resolve to profess And if hereupon they address themselves to your Commissioners advising them to put in execution the Edict they either refuse to take cognizance thereof or else elude it in that manner that for several years together they take not the least notice of their complaints nor have the ordinary Judges any regard thereunto They will not suffer the Protestants to entertain more then one Schoolmaster in the Town where they live and though the Children amount to 2 or 3000 in number yet they will not allow more then one Master for them all Your Petitioners have been much surprized by a Declaration issued out for changing the form and tenure of their Synods by placing certain Catholick Commissioners for Assistants therein which being entirely contrary to the meaning and substance of those Edicts and Declaration of Lewis the 13th set out in the year 1623. and to the custom always observed hath no other foundation then those pretences which reflect on the honour of your Petitioners and that fidelity which they have ever professed towards the service of your Majesty The Bishops under colour of their Visitations and by vertue of an Order of Arrest from your Privy Councel have pretended to suspend the exercise of the Religion of your Petitioners for several weeks The Clergy which have entred the Protestant Churches to hear the Sermons which are there preached do object unto the Ministers matters which they never uttered or take advantage of certain terms which cannot be avoided in Controversie to form a criminal Process against them before a Judge who is pre-possessed with a prejudice against them and in the mean time the Clergy do not cease to justifie themselves against the Petitioners by such courses as are expresly forbidden by the aforesaid Edicts The Chief Justices of several places to whom matters relating to the Edicts did never appertain do now undertake by unknown methods of procedure to interdict or suspend the Ministers of whole Provinces In fine so far are they proceeded as to make a Declaration forbidding Protestant women to make use of other Chirurgions or Midwives then those which are Catholicks that so their Children may be dipped in water by them in case of necessity which as it is directly opposite to the sence of the Edicts so it is also to the Principles of that Religion which your Petitioners profess for their consciences will never allow them to consent hereunto because that as on one side they cannot believe that Baptism is of an absolute and indispensable necessity where death prevents the due care and cautions we use to obtain it so on the other side your Petitioners have that just reverence to so great a Sacrament as not to commit the same to the administration of Lay-persons nor do they believe that such dipping or sprinkling with water can ever supply the place of Baptism These proceedings SIR and many more of them very considerable are more easily mentioned in general then to be troublesom to your Majesty in a recital of the particulars which are either notoriously known to the World or to be justified and made good by Attestations which your Petitioners have in their hands together with Judgments Arrests and Declarations All the World which observes the low condition unto which your Petitioners are reduced begin to consider them as persons exposed to the malice and persecution of those who desire their total destruction Nothing more can be added to the general consternation of those who profess the Protestant Religion in all parts of your Kingdom so that many for fear or for necessity have been forced to abandon their dwellings and seek their repose in the Dominions of Strangers such as remain here are detained by the love they bear to their Native Country or by some difficulty they find in the disposal of their Estates though the greatest number are obliged with an affection to your Majesty and your Government In all these aggrievances SIR your Petitioners have no other defence and protection under God then the justice and clemency of your Majesty by which they have formerly had access to your Sacred person which hath ever lent a gentle ear to the just complaints of your Petitioners having nominated Commissioners of your Councel particularly to examine their Cause and make report thereof to your Majesty but the great Wars which your Majesty hath lately maintained have diverted this care to greater thoughts whereby the evils and oppressions of your Petitioners have been multiplied and increased And now SIR since your Majesty enjoys the triumph of those glorious successes with which God hath favoured your designs and that your People expect likewise to share some part of the fruit of their labours your Petitioners hope through the justice and gracious goodness of your Majesty that no distinction shall be made between your Petitioners and your other Subjects lest whilst some are in joy and at rest the others should mourn and groan under oppressions For which Reasons SIR and because your Petitioners have ever entertained the same Zeal and Fidelity to your Service may it please your Majesty to make known unto the Lords of your Councel Presidents and Attorney-Generals of Parliaments to Super-intendents and Commissioners executing the Law that your Royal Will and Pleasure is that the Edicts be observed and executed and particularly to encharge such Commissioners as are already named by your Majesty or shall be hereafter named that they examine the Memorials and Papers of Justification which your Petitioners shall produce and to inform your Majesty thereof and especially to the Secretaries of State that a due report may be made thereof and of those aggrievances and burdens which are most oppressing that so your Majesty being truly made sensible thereof may act therein according to your gracious pleasure And your Petitioners shall continue their vows and prayers for the glory of your Majesty and for the prosperity of your Sacred person and Kingdom FINIS LONDON Printed for L. Curtis