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
B03720	The humble petition of the Protestants of France, lately presented to his most Christian Majesty, by the Mareschal Schomberg, and the Marquis Ruvigny. A true copy in English.	Schomberg, Friedrich Hermann Schomberg, Duke of, 1615-1690.; Ruvigny, Henri de Massue, marquis de, ca. 1605-1689.	1681 (1681)	Wing H3576A; ESTC R178368	3,690	5

The Humble PETITION OF THE Protestants of France Lately presented to His Most Christian Majesty By the Mareschal Schomberg and the Marquis of Ruvigny A true Copy in English 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 ●●●ped ●pon 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 Employment ●●●d 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 infringements or violations thereof There have been also Courts of Justice consisting of men of both Re●●gion 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 Consulats and the Municipal Offices of Towns even in those very Corporations wherein your Petitioners are the greatest 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 limites and sense 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 often times the Catholick Commissioners pronounce Judgement 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 sense of the Edict but are extinguished wholly and suppressed The Children of your Petitioners though born in their Religion ar● 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 School-master 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 expressly 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 supend the Ministers of whole Provinces In fine so far are they