not fit that the Protestant Princes should have no satisfaction for the Money they had advanced towards carrying on the War in which they had spent four times as much as the Roman Catholicks To the King of Spain they would have Catalonia Luxemburg Heinant and part of Flanders to be restored To the Duke of Lorrain his Dukedom To the Emperor Philipsburg and Friburg To the Prince Palatine the Palatinate To the Empire many Places upon and on this side the Rhine all this put together made up a Kingdom of Restitutions England as well as the States of Holland sued for nothing and so it was but reasonable they should procure the Protestant Religion some advantage since this was the only concern they had in the present Case It seemed to us they could oppose nothing to all this but their usual Answer viz. The impossibility of making the best of all these good Reasons in the present Juncture of Affairs To this we were sain to submit But you will see however by what we have said that we did not omit any thing necessary to perswade the Plenipotentiaries into a necessity of Negociating our Restauration When we perceived it could not go that way we were forced to have recourse to a bare Intercession and endeavoured that it should be at least powerful urgent unanimous and drawn after such a manner as might be best able to answer our End In short after many Conferences among these Gentlemen upon the Matter they agreed to Word their Intercession after the Form you may have already seen and may see here as follows Memoirs of the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the Protestant Princes in behalf of the Reformed Churches in France WE the Confederates of the Protestant Religion Considering the Calamities many of the Subjects of his Most Christian Majesty professing the same Religion with us have suffer'd and still do suffer upon the account only of serving God according to the Dictates of their Conscience A Liberty the said distressed Subjects might reasonably hope for by the Law of God by the Precepts of Charity and especially by the Laws of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty and which they are to enjoy as good and faithful Subjects who have constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereigns The said Allies moved by these Motives of Justice and Compassion are so much the more concerned for these Afflicted People by how much the more that the Miseries they suffer continuing still since the Peace has been re-establish'd might be imputed to the hatred of his Most Christian Majesty against all the Protestants in general a Consideration which would mightily disquiet the Princes of that Religion who hope by the Peace to live in Amity and keep a good Correspendence with his Most Christian Majesty and therefore it concerns them also to know what will become of so many of the said Subjects of France who have forsaken their Native Country and fled into the Dominions of the said Protestant Confederates for shelter to the end that they may incourage them after the Peace to return home if they can do it with freedom and a good Conscience Therefore the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the said Allies of the Protestant Religion having full Power to Treat about a General Peace think themselves obliged to recommend earnestly in the Name of their respective Sovereigns and Masters to their Excellencies the Embassadors of his Most Christian Majesty having also entreated his Excellency the Mediator to contribute his good Offices thereto that that Ease which this Distressed People have a long time most passionately desired be granted them and they may be re-establish'd in their Rights Immunities and Priviledges in Point of Religion in order to enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience and that those who are either in Prisons or otherwise detained be released and set at Liberty that so the said Afflicted Protestants may reap their share of the Peace which Europe is in all probability shortly to enjoy Delivered into the Hands of his Excellency the Mediator September 18. 1697. Concordare Vidi LELIENROOT It cannot be denied but these Memoirs are very Good Judicious Wise Respectful and yet very pressing as much as the Juncture of time could permit The first thing the Ministers of the Protestant Princes did was to declare That they did not look on themselves as two distinct Bodies but that they espoused the Interests of the Reformed in France as of their own Brethren They represented to the French King very nicely but yet with great plainness how much it concerned him not to reject the joint Intercession of the Protestant Princes That this great Concern of his was to give them good grounds to trust him for the future To make Peace with such powerful States as England Holland the Elector of Brandenburg the Princes of the Mighty House of Brunswick and so many Princes and Towns of Germany professing the Protestant Religion and at the same time to refuse them a thing so reasonable was to renounce all the Maxims of the best Policy and leave in Men's Minds immortal seeds of a War which will break out at the first opportunity Those who truly love the Protestant Religion will no doubt remember it and those who have no great kindness for it will not be sorry to have a Pretence ready of being angry at and revenged for those many Affronts they have received from the French Court. It was a piece of great Prudence and Wisdom of the Protestant Confederates to mention the Laws of the Kingdom of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty by Virtue whereof the Reformed are to enjoy all the Priviledges granted them as good and faithful Subjects who constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign This Clause fully answers the Objection the French had very often made unto them What authority had they to pretend that the Protestant Religion should be re-established in France seeing most part of them would not so much as tolerate the Publick Exercise of the Catholick Religion nay said they in some of the said Protestant States it was Death for one to turn Roman Catholick To this they prudently reply'd That they kept the Laws of the Kingdoms and States made either in the first Settlement or Reformation of the same but that on the contrary the Most Christian King by expelling the Reformed had broke all the Laws of his Kingdom Laws I say Fundamental Laws stiled Perpetual and Irrevocable Laws ratified in all the Supreme Courts of France received and approved by all the Orders of the State Laws renewed by all the Predecessors and Ancestors of the Prince who now sits upon the Throne and in short Laws Confirmed by his Majesty himself This Article of the Allies Demand suggests another Answer which is this The Subjects of the Most Christian King professing the Reformed Religion have all along behaved themselves as good and faithful
Punishment lesser than the Wheel and Gibbet But this is certain that all Europe stood amazed at that Clause 'T is easie to discern that both Declarations have a double end First To deprive the new Converts of the Means of receiving any Comfort or Instruction And Secondly To ruine the poor Inhabitants of Orange the sad Remains of a Barbarous Persecution Since they were not dispatched by the Blows of the Dragoons who forced them to Mass their Punishment now must be to Starve by being bebarred of all Commerce with their Neighbours This is sufficient to undeceive those who believe the King of England Soveraign of Orange hath not done what he could to break off the Yoke of the Reformed in France he who could not continue Master in his own Dominions would have had much ado to make himself Master in the Territories of such a Neighbour Here is another Particular The Zeal make they King Lewis the XIV say we have constantly had for the only and true Religion having excited in us the desire of suppressing Heresy This is a new way of Expressing ones self in all the Declarations and Decrees formerly published against us they were pleased to design us by the Name of R. P. R. that is Pretended Reformed Religion but now this Religion is improved to an Heresie even in the Declarations set out against the Protestant Princes to whom they should be more Civil than they are to Subjects The Declaration is issued out under what Title soever you please but really and defacto against the Sovereign of Orange who is not at all subject to the French King They make no scruple to declare him an Heretick and his Religion a Heresie both at Rome and wheresoever the Bull of Caena Domini is publish'd and in France where the Decisions of the Council of Constance one whereof is That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks are so much reverenced any body may easily understand the Consequences of such a Declaration in respect to the King of England but 't is very well for this Prince that he is not liable to the Inquisition and God hath put him in a Capacity of being able to deal well enough with all those who will not perform what they have promised to him Here is another Clause at which Judicious Men have been mightily surprised As all our Desires had no other Aim but the Glory of God and the maintaining of his Church he has been pleasâ—d to bless them hitherto with all the success we could wish and we were extreamly pleased to see that even the greatest part of those whose Conversion lookt the most suspicious have acknowledged and sincâ—rely profâ—ssed the true Religion but as there still remains some c. 'T is not a Matter of great Wonder to see a King lying under so gross an Ignorance since they have raised so many Rampiers and Bulwarks about him on purpose to hinder thereby all the Truths of De jure and De facto all the Instructions Complaints Grievances and all the Objects capable of conveying Light into the Mind and Equity into the Heart from having access unto him but one cannot forbear being astonished at the boldness of those who impose upon that Prince's Credulity it is so far from being true that the most part of the Reformed are termed Papists bona fide that on the contrary the number of those who have been misled and continue in the Romish Religion by some slender degree of persuasion is so small that not one in a hundred and perhaps in a thousand could be found There are some Women and young Girles who although of the Protestant Religion were filled with a sort of a Whimsical and Blind Devotion proceeding rather from the weakness of their Understanding than the tenderness of their Consciences These poor Creatures have let themselves be deceived by the Pompous outside of the Romish Religion and by the shews of Piety which are to be seen chiefly in Nunneries but these being excepted we can assure you that all Wise Ingenuous and Judicious Men are still of the same Opinion only that their aversion against Popery is mightily increased since the time they see it under the Garb of the Dragon If there are no Protestants left but a few obstinate People why then is so much care taken before-hand against so small a number Why then did so many Frenchmen say both in Holland and Paris that if some Course or other was not taken about it all the Countrey of Orange would become a Town as big as the Principality it self Why have the Neighbouring People of Orange been so easily persuaded that Poperty was the true Religion and the Inhabitants of that Place bewitched with such an unbelief as to hold out for the space of 10 or 12 years against any Instruction and Persecution whatsoever in so much as they returned as soon as possibly they could to the Reformed Religion The Bishop of Orange and his Clergy are indeed Bunglers in Comparison with the Bishops of Montpellier and Nismes c. who made so many sincere Converts One must confess that such oversights afford those who suffer Persecution some little satisfaction and a kind of revenge If it be so that the number of stubborn People be so inconsiderable to what purpose then do they take so great a care to shut up the Gates of the Kingdom Why then do they see yet Four or five thousand of the Reformed at once meeting in one single Precinct of it It were to be wished that the Most Christian King would get better information in this Matter for then he would not suffer himself to be so exposed as he is in this Declaration and in that of February the 10th the Title whereof is this The Kings Declaration giving leave to those who are gone out of the Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Command to return within six months upon Condition of Professing and Exercising the Religion of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church wherein they set forth that a great number of those who were so unhappy as to be gone into Foreign Dominions notwithstanding all the prohibition to the contrary have desired to return into their own Country to profess the C. A. R. R. and that we out of our accustomed Goodness to all our Subjects have granted them particular Licenses so to do and have been also graciously pleased to grant a general one to all others who desire the favour What Equity can one expect I pray from a Council who hath either so bad Intelligence or so little Fidelity They make the King believe and say a great number of those who departed the Kingdom for the sake of Religion desire to return to Mass than which nothing was ever more false with respect to his Majesty be it spoken into whose Mouth these Impostors have put these Words True it is that those who are called Refugees did endeavour to get Liberty to return into France and withdraw their Effects from thence
considerable Refugees a Counsellor of the supreme Court of Paris was informed by one of the chief Members of the Republick of Holland that it was high time for us to look after our Concerns he had often promised to give us timely warning he was as good as his Word and the Person who received it set himself about drawing up the Memoirs they had desired of him after having first discoursed it with those whom he thought fit God hath taken him since into his rest The Memoirs he had drawn proved very good and so well digested that there was nothing either wanting or superfluous in them and so there were Two Persons who prepared these Instructions And though they did not act jointly or communicate their Work one to another nevertheless the things they laid down agreed exactly because Truth and Right are constantly the same and cannot vary We desire you to take notice that those amongst us who have taken care of the Publick Cause have not done it of their own Heads but were impower'd by the Permission nay by a special Order of their Superiors and so you are not to impute the ill Success to the Imprudence of those who might have meddled with these Material Affairs without any Power and Warrant so to do The Instructions then I say were well drawn and exhibited in due time for they were delivered a little before the Conferences about the Peace begun at Reswick The ill Success must be laid neither upon these Instructions nor upon the Authors of them nor upon the Sollicitors nor upon the Sollicitations themselves which were made by the most Eminent Refugees and that with a great deal of Zeal and Conduct seeing they have obeyed the Advices of those Superiors by whom they were to be directed and who set us upon uniting together all the Protestant Powers of both Communions that of Augsburg and that of Geneva We must plainly tell you that we had almost no other Reason for our undertaking these our Sollicitations but to pay our Duty to Truth and Justice though with a slender prospect of Success for we saw well enough that the Authors of our Miseries were fully resolved not to lessen them in the least and that our Friends and Protectors were not able to give Laws to a Prince who is a Persecutor out of an Erroneous Conscience but we ought however to act after such a way as you should have no reason to blame our Conduct in the least This is the Consideration we often represented to the Protestant Plenipotentiaries who were pleased to give us several favourable Hearings and we begg'd them many times to put us in a Condition to acquaint you that the Protestant Princes had done their utmost towards the lessening of your Miseries and the recovering of your Liberties some of them did very Nobly and with all the Marks of Sincerity promise us to do it However after having as well as we could disposed the Embassadors of the Princes of our Communion in our favour we endeavoured pursuant to their Advice to bring both Communions separated from the Church of Rome to an agreement not for such an union as it was reported abroad we have so often desired but only to prevail with them to concur and join their good Endeavours to obtain from the Most Christian King an abatement of the Persecution We plainly discovered in every Member of the Ausgburg Communion not only a tender Compassion for our Sufferings but also very favourable Intentions towards us they were very sensible it concerned them as well as us We made bold to represent unto them that if the Protestant Princes did not stir up their Zeal they would see the great Work of the Reformation that had cost their Illustrious Ancestors a great deal of Sweat and Blood quite ruined under their Hands We desired them to consider how much Popery had in this Age incroached upon the true Religion We exposed to their View the Churches of Bohemia and Austria quite destroyed those of Hungary in extream distress those of the Palatinate devolved to a Popish Prince The City and Church of Strasburg in the power of a Zealous Popish King The Church of England who had lately seen her self upon the brink of ruine by the Conspiracy of two Kings and lastly the Electorship of Saxony now in the hands of a Prince who lately changed his Religion to purchase the Crown of Poland We begg'd them to observe that by adding the Ruine of the French Church to the former Losses it was evident that the true Religion was exposed to the greatest danger more than ever We told them it was high time for them to look out for the fittest Methods to stop the successful progress of Popery and to raise a Bank against the fierceness of Persecution That there was as yet some hopes to save the rest and recover either the whole or some parts of our Losses That the Protestant Religion as weak as it was was strong enough to counterpoise all the united Forces of Popery The Most Potent King of England the High and Mighty States of Holland the Most Serene Elector of Brandenburg the Landgrave of Hesse the Kings of Sueden and Denmark many Princes and Free Towns of Germany the Cantons of Swisserland and their Allies all these I say make up a Body able to compel others to hearken to their Demands since they are able when they please to keep them in awe There was not one among these Plenipotentiaries to whom we represented these Arguments but did acknowledge the Equity of our Requests and the solidity of our Reasons They did both promise and act for they agreed to Name Seven or eight Persons to draw up their Demands We did what we could to have this Business Negotiated so as not to be satisfied with a bare Intercession from which we saw we could reap but small advantage We did represent that in the Treaties of Westphalia at Munster and Osnabruck the Affairs of Religion had been treated of That the French King himself had acted in behalf of the Protestant Princes of Germany that the House of Austria should restore what they had taken from them We did alledge twenty Presidents of Subjects who being protected by other Princes had treated with their own We said indeed that although the present War was not properly a War of Religion Religion however had done all because England and Holland had not made so powerful a League but for the preservation of their Religion as well as their Liberties for they had understood that they bore an ill will against both and therefore said we since Religion hath under other pretences armed the Protestant Princes it is not reasonable that Religion should be forsaken in this Treaty of Peace We added That the said Protestant Princes had a right to demand their being reimbursed for the vast Charges they had been at in this War and for the Blood of so many Subjects whom they had lost in it That it was
Condition and Religion soever shall enjoy the said Goods and Estates and take possession of them by their own private Authority without any need of going to Law The Treaty of Commerce is yet more particular as to the Liberty of the Subjects of these two Sovereigns for Going Coming Travelling and Trading within all the respective Harbours and Towns of each others Dominions There is not a word in all this importing any Exclusion or Distinction between New and Old Subjects and no body questioned but that some Frenchmen who had been Naturalized in Holland made free of their Towns and owned as Members of the State might however enjoy the Priviledges granted to the whole Nation and to those who many years ago were incorporated into it So evident did the Case appear as may be seen by Letters from Rouen and other Places which took this Liberty for granted without any difficulty so that we may say that to deal in this manner one had need be master of that Power the Court of France hath these many years assumed which is to make use of all the Treaties for its own Interests and Purposes without any regard to Words naturally appointed to signifie things These Articles should undoubtedly have prevented such a denial but for all that it was made in peremptory and plain Words Upon this flat and evident Refusal we were put to a nonplus and saw we had no more to do 'T is true an Act of Protestation was still to be made against this unreasonable Denial As the sad event of this Affair was foreseen they had also much discoursed of such an Act Many concerned in the thing were for it but all those who had in France been accustomed to Slavery were still afraid of King Lewis the XIV though they ought to have look'd then on him as having laid down his Arms. They said that the French Court being grown to such a height especially over her own Subjects would be offended at such a Proceeding and construe it as a new Instance of Disobedience and Rebellion But there is nothing more groundless than such a Chimerical Imagination for we ought not to sacrifice our Duty to God out of respect to a Court that so barbarously persecutes the true Religion But Hope is the last thing that dies in Man those who had left great Estates in France could not still forbear hoping that such as had been faithful to their King even in Foreign Countreys would by that means recover his Favour This was the chief Reason that hindred the most Zealous from making the Protestation but the principal ones were these First Before one can legally Protest he must have authority for it which we then wanted upon many accounts because the Votes were divided and it was impossible for them to agree on the Matter and chiefly because we could not keep any Correspondence and concert Measures about it with you my Brethren who live under the Cross and whose Rights were the chief Business in hand as being the greatest part of us Besides we saw no body willing to receive our Protestation the French Embassadors into whose hands it was to be delivered were far enough from accepting it who had with much difficulty received the abovesaid Petition But you will say they might put their Protestation into the Mediator's hands true but 't is evident he could not approve of that Protestation as not being in due form for we had not been admitted into the Negociations as Demanding Parties Our Protectors had thought fit we should not appear in the Business but in their Persons and under their Names and it seems a Rule founded upon good Reason that the Protestation ought to be made by those only who presented the Petition which hath been rejected Now this was properly their own Business and they might after having received an unjust denial of so reasonable a Demand have protested at least in behalf of the preservation of all the Rights of the French Reformed Church and represented that though they did for the present desist from any further application yet they pretended not for all that that the said leaving off for a time should be construed a total desisting or consenting to the Most Christian King's Will that they did not intend thereby that any thing of what was thereupon done should be in the least prejudicial to the Rights of the Protestant Church which might be resumed at a better opportunity Such a Protestation had been very respectful and of some use and indeed some of the most considerable Members of this August Assembly gave us hopes that the thing would be done and acknowledged our Petition to be reasonable But others did so much oppose it that the bare Proposal of it could not by any means be offered according to the Rules The Treaty was hastened with great precipitation all were for it and would not do any thing that might retard its Conclusion Besides they made us believe that the French King himself would mitigate our Miseries They said that so great a Prince would not receive Laws from his Neighbours and especially about a Domestick Concern Some Words spoken at random by some Frenchmen of the Embassadors Retinue begot that hope Others went so far as to say Have a little Patience the King is Gracious Many also of the Protestant Embassadors and Mediators of this Business dropt ambiguous Words which made us believe that we were not to look on our Concerns as wholly desperate though no favour has been granted to us in the Treaty of Peace and so they thought it not convenient to dispell these small shadows of Hope by a Protestation which they were not in a condition to support and render valid But now all is over these hopes are vanish'd away and attended by the most terrible and unforeseen Consequences imaginable so that we are now reduced to the necessity of referring the Publick to that Excellent and Emphatical Protestation which concludes Master Claude's last Work Intituled The Complaints of the Protestants in which are related the Wrongs and Outrages done us in the last Persecution and in the end you have the Reasons why all they have done against us can do no prejudice to the Rights confirmed by so many irrevocable Decrees and a possession of them for One hundred years which are enough to make up three or four Prescriptions Since that Work was published our Brethren have suffered Miseries beyond Expression Massacres Punishments Imprisonments Sentencings to the Galleys Seisures of their Goods and Estates and all other sorts of Calamities But Master Claude's Protestation holds as well for what follows as for what went before seeing it is all a Series of the same ill Usage The Account we now give you of what we have done already and intended further to have done will not be pleasing to you but it ought not to make you dissatisfied with any body not with us who with the most sensible Affliction we ever felt have seen the World
this is an Injury supported by publick Authority and a piece of Baseness attended with all the Evidences of Approbation 'T is a great instance of Cruelty to persecute the Unfortunate even to the Scaffold Comforters are granted even to Malefactors and 't is not lawful for any to Revile them at the very place of Execution But these Men even whilst they are putting us on the Cross add to our Torments the most terrible Abuses Well then It seems we are appointed to Die our Heads must be taken off without Hope of Redemption However let them give us leave to Die with our Innocence about us This is a Refining upon the implacable Revenge of the Italian who finds out a way to kill both the Body and Soul of his Enemy They do intend with the same stroke to Bereave us at once both of our Honour and our Life I desire you Dear Brethren to observe That God's Providence hath over-ruled in this Case in order to Comfort those that are concerned in it by the consideration of a wonderful Resemblance of ours with our Saviour's Sufferings You are lifted up on a shameful Pyramid as your Lord Jesus was on a Cursed Cross His Punishment was the Work of the Scribes and Pharisees who sat on the Chair of Moses Your Disgrace is exposed to the view of all by these Wretches wicked and ignorant Bigots who call themselves the Masters of Christ's Chair Jesus is Crucified on Mount Calvary and exposed Naked to the Sight of all as a Rebel to his Sovereign as an Impostor making himself the Son of God that he might become a King and gathering People together to intice them from their Allegiance to Caesar and they put over his Head an Inscription signifying all that King of the Jews that is who had a mind to be so and had moved the Subjects of the Empire to Rebellion And as for you Poor and Faithful Members of Christ you are Crucified in Greve on the Pyramid as Hereticks Rebels Impostors and Disturbers of the publick Tranquillity and Enemies to your Kings The Figures and Words of the Emblem are the Title of your Cross Another likeness of yours with Christ and his Members is this The Ancient Tyrants put Skins of Lions Tygers and other Wild Beasts on the Primitive Martyrs to render them thereby more Odious to the People But now a-days Wild Beasts are not horrid enough in the Eyes of your Adversaries They fetch out of Hell a Monster with a Hundred Heads to Cloth you with all Nevertheless Let us take Comfort My Dear Brethren God hath better Notions both of us and our Holy Religion than they will have the world to conceive and our Enemies have just cause to fear that God judges of them as they would have others to think of you and will at the last day deal with them as Blood-Thirsty Tygers That will be the day of our Triumph but it will also be a day of Retribution The Princes of Persia being jealous of the favour Daniel was in got Surreptitiously from the King's Goodness unjust Decrees against him Daniel is indeed cast into the Den of Lions but respected by them and in the morning comes safe and sound out of it and his Accusers are cast into it and the Lions brake all their Bones in pieces before ever they came at the bottom of the Den and Eat them up So you will get out of your Anguishes and your Life shall be unto you as a Prey and your Persecutors shall go into a Pit full of Lions that is Devouring Devils We do not wish them this dreadful Calamity on the contrary we do pray unto God for their Salvation and Conversion and say Father forgive them for they don't know what they do Grant them O God true Repentance whereby they may say Men and Brethren What shall we do to Expiate the Sin of having Crucified the Lord of Glory But let us finish the Picture of our Miseries After so terrible a Declaration of renewing the War against us as that of the Pyramid of Greve we could expect from thence nothing else but the most Barbarous Hostilities The First of that Kind which appeared was the King's Declaration prohibiting his Subjects to settle themselves in Orange and Exercise there the pretended Reformed Religion This bears date November 23. and the Pyramid November 16. there is betwixt these two dates but seven days difference they had no mind to allow the Reformed any time to breath or conceive any hope This Declaration was back'd by another dated the 13th of January following which explains or annuls rather an Article of the foregoing Declaration whereby it was lawful for the Kings Subjects to go to Orange and sojourn there upon the account of Trading The Bigots saw very well as they supposed that the new Converts would make a very ill use of that Clause and often pretend a great deal of Business in that Town and therefore they thought fit to Enact That the new Converts should not go and Trade at Orange without taking out a License and a Pass from the Governors of their respective Abodes and approved of by the Commanders of the Towns in the Neighbourhood of Orange that is they put them upon an impossibility The Penalty to be inflicted on those who contrary to the prohibition would presume to go thither either to hear Sermons or perform any Religious Exercise whatsoever is Death and on those who should take no Pass to be sent forthwith to the Galleys for Life if Men and Five years Prison and Three thousand Livres Fine if Women There are some Particulars in this way of Proceeding worthy our Attention or at least some Glances by the way The Pain of of Death pronounced against the New Converts who going to Orange under pretence of Trading should assist at any Congregation of the Inhabitants of that Place is one of these Particulars and it is such as perhaps the like could not be found in all the Histories both of Persecutors and Persecutions 'T is an horrid thing for one to extend his Authority on the Conscience so far as the Dominions of other Sovereigns it was generally believed that a Criminal had nothing else to do to get a sanctuary but to remove into Foreign Territories A Rivulet secures an unfortunate Wretch nay a Parricide The Merciless Creditors of his and the Avengers of Blood have no more authority to prosecute him because he is fled into another Jurisdiction but the Crime of Calvinism is of so high a nature that nothing can protect it against punishment We should be amazed at it had we not seen the French King's Consuls and Envoys at Lisbon the Seat of the Inquisition at Smyrna and Constantinople which are inhabited by Turks and Infidels enjoined to prosecute drive away and ruine all the French Merchants of the Protestant Religion This kind of Zeal was never seen before Our Astonishment would not perhaps be so great had this Prohibition been enforced by a
Intendants and to so many Eye-Witnesses as we have upon the respective Places We cannot insist any longer on such sad and doleful Particulars and therefore we have but just touched upon them but this short glance is enough for our purpose to stir up the Compassion of all Protestants Now the Compassion we desire is not such as consists in Words and Complaints much less in Expressions as evaporate only in Reproaches and have no real Effect 'T is properly Assistance and Relief we beg for the Afflicted Church and that not for the French Church only but also for all the Protestant Churches of Europe which are now more fiercely attack'd than ever they have been since the Reformation No sooner were they born but there was a Conspiracy to stiffle them in the Cradle and in order thereto the Antichristian Rome became every where a Boutefeu increased the Cruelties of the Inquisition set up Gibbets kindled Fires in Spain Germany England and France many Rivers of Blood and many horrid Massacres in France and in the Netherlands under the Reigns of Francis I. Hâ—nry II. Charles IX and Henry III. all French Kings and of Philip II. King of Spain In the beginning of this Age the Protestant Church sound some protection and enjoyed some ease whereby she recovered strength but we must also confess that she degenerated very much during the time of her tranquility God Almighty therefore being justly provoked by our Iniquities and Contempt of his Truth hath about the middle of this last Age raised up three Princes great Persecutors of his Church viz. Leopold Emperor of Germany and King of Hungaria Lewis the XIV and James the II. There is no question to be made but that the destruction of the Protestant Church was resolved upon by these three Princes The natural and we may say irreconcilable Enmity between the two Families of France and Austria is no hindrance to such an Agreement because Popery hath contrived a way for its own preservation which no other Religion can have and the Protestants are wholly deprived of that is the Bishop of Rome the Center of a Temporal Union The several and distinct parts united to that Center need not hold any Correspondence to adjust their Designs they are joined to a common Head and have nothing else to do but to follow its Motions even at that very time when they are the most divided by their Temporal Interests The Emperor began the Persecution He put the Churches of Hungaria and Silesia to incredible Sufferings The Publick hath seen the History of that Persecution and chiefly the Relation of the Calamities of those Glorious Confessors who were sent to the Galleys of Naples and released by the means of the Dutch Lewis the XIV immediately after the Pyrenâ—an Treaty formed the Design of rooting the Protestant Religion out of his Dominions This Undertaking he durst not attempt during the Life of Cromwell who was indeed an Usurper and a Parricide too if you will but who for all that perfectly understood that the true Interest of England and of the Rulers of it consisted in becoming the Head and Protectors of all the Protestants in Europe This was his Masterpiece of Policy whereby be kept all Europe in awe After his Death Charles the II. was re-established on the Throne of his Ancestors This Prince being Educated by a Popish Mother in Popish Courts was in his youth prepossessed against the Protestant Relâ—gion and many Heresies increased in his Reign James the II. succeeded him and it was chiefly between this Prince and the French King that the Measures for the ruine of the Protestant Religion were concerted No sooner did the French Court see him on the Throne but she resolved to give the fatal Blow K. Charles died in February and K. James was at the same time proclaimed King His Advancement to the Crown was more firmly Establish'd by the Death of the Duke of Monmouth in England and that of the Earl of Argyle in Scotland The Edict of Nantes was recall'd in October the same year and every body knows what hath been done since King James though he was influenced by the same Jesuitical Spirit which swayed in both Courts could not however go on so fast as Lewis the XIV and yet nevertheless he had in three years time promoted his Religion more than Lewis had in thirty five when unexpectedly it pleased God Almighty by a Revolution which surprised all Europe to advance William the III. to the Throne of England and by that means to make the greatest part of the Designs of that Antichristian League to prove abortive These short and cursory Observations have no other Aim but to make the Protestant Princes sensible that there is a Plot on foot for their ruine The last Treaty of Peace with the Emperor confirms this truth for by a mutual Agreement with the Emperor's Plenipotentiaries they have inserted an Article whereby the Protestant Princes of Germany are deprived of the Authority of regulating Ecclesiastical Affairs in their own Dominions which had been formerly granted them by the Peace of Passaw and the Treaty of Osnabruck Nay they are constrained to tolerate the Publick Service of the Romish Religion in all the Countreys lately conquered and now restored by France True it is that these Protestant Princes have opposed it but their Oppositions are but bare Protestations which will always prove insignificant if not supported by other Means more effectual The Popish League will every day get strength and the Protestant Party decline now in one place now in another and shall we stand still unconcerned and see to the reproach of our Profession the ruine of the only pure Christianity which hath cost us the best of our Blood If they do not awake and exert themselves in the present Circumstances the Wrath of God will not fail to awake against so heinous a Neglect We will not presume to prescribe the Means proper to prevent the Consequence of the League since they are obvious to every body It will be enough for us to say that it is high time to think on 't and that e're it be long the Disease will be past Remedy The great Revolution in Europe which now seems near at hand by the Death of a King leaving no Issue to succeed him in his vast Dominions will give a fair opportunity to take the fittest Measures for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion For whilst these two great Adversaries of ours shall be obliged to employ themselves in deciding the greatest Controversy they have had for these two hundred years they may be prevailed upon to let fall their Persecution and then the Reformation if powerfully assisted may be able to gain ground upon the Common Enemy In this general Design of protecting and promoting the Reformation upon which Popery hath in this Age so much incroach'd the Princes and People concerned ought in our Opinion to take a special care to preserve the Reformed Religion in France
respect of your Persecutors We do not Exhort you to Value and Esteem them If they Persecute you through the instigation of a false Zeal they must be lookt upon as blind Men into whose Hands they have put a Sword and who make an ill use of the Authority that is given them to destroy the Flocks of our Lord. They are Children of Babel and Idumeans who set Jerusalem on fire and say Rase rase it even to the foundation thereof If they are base Ministers of the fury of Popery who tell you If the King had Commanded me to force you to turn Turk I would do it could you look I pray on such Men but with a great Contempt and Indignation They have neither Religion nor Conscience and if they have any of the last they give it Mortal Wounds by sacrificing it to their Prince and their own Fortune Such is the Bigotted Persecutor of Languedoc appointed by the Jesuitical Caball to depopulate the Province of France most inhabited by Reformed This Man hearing one day the Excuses of a Gentleman who declared to him his Scruples and saying he could not believe such and such things answered him in a haughty and furious manner Believe in the Devil if you will but you must go to Mass or c. Here is the Character of the Zealots of the Holy Society of Jesus But let your Persecutors be what they will you must have neither Compliance nor Society with them because you cannot be long in their Company but you will hear them railing against your Ancestors those Martyrs whom you ought to Reverence and those Truths which you must love a great deal more than your Lives Therefore avoid them and do nothing whereby they may think that your Zeal and Courage does in the least yield to their Sollicitations But here I must give you a Caution That from what hath been said you must by no means infer that we advise you in the least to deny your Persecutors the lawful Homages you owe them both as Subjects and as Christians for as Subjects you must obey them in all things they Command you in the Name and Authority of the Prince those you owe to God and your Consciences only excepted and as Christians you must pray for them forgive their Cruel Usage be Instrumental as much as you can to their Conversion and even assist them with your Temporal Goods if they stand in need of them But this last Advice is we think useless seeing they are rich and have got the most part of your substance already Proceed we now to your behaviour towards God The first of your Duties is Patience and Submission There is a God and an Holy and Wise Providence disposing of all Events with an absolute Power and a Justice which can very rarely be fathomed by us You do not apprehend say you the reason why God permits his Enemies to triumph so long But is this a matter of wonder that God is incomprehensible to you Will you conclude that he hath no Reason in his Proceedings because you do not comprehend them Shall you have less Respect for God than for a Prince whose Wisdom and Piety are well known to you for when you see him doing something which looks contrary to Equity you do not use immediately to conclude that he hath forgot himself and acts against his own Principles and Laws and yet this Prince may be mistaken in his Proceedings and in that case you may suspend your Judgment till either he himself or time discovers unto you the lawfulness of them but you must never call in question the Wisdom and Justice of God which are inseparable from him David silenced himself with this reason I became dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing Ps 39. v. 10. Jeremiah the Prophet shed flouds of Tears upon a Desolation like yours saying Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not Out of the Mouth of the Most High proceedeth not Evil and Good Lament 3. v. 37 38. Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it Amos 3.6 The Work of God and Men are so twisted together in our Misfortunes that we have much ado to distinguish them but for all that it must be done and then by a diligent inquiry you will discover that the Work of the Persecutor is the Work of the Devil who is our Adversary from the beginning and therefore you ought to hate and abhor it but the Work of God is good seeing he puts you into the Fining Pot in order to cleanse and purifie you like Gold and make your sincerity and the purity of your Faith to shine before Men. We might here set before your Eyes several Pious Considerations in order to Comfort you in these your great Sufferings but before we undertake it we would fain be convinced that you stand in need of Consolation for we are mightily afraid you are already too much comforted we have but too many Instances of your Insensibleness and that your Sorrow doth not answer the terrible Chastisements God hath visited you with You live without any publick Exercise of your Religion without Instruction Sermons Exhortations and even without Books And it is made High Treason for you to meet together in order to pray unto God in Woods and Hollow-rocks In the beginning of the former Persecution you seemed mightily concerned for your Calamities and in this last you have been awaken'd but alas you are soon fallen again into slumber You think that it is enough for you to forbear going to Mass This we confess is something but there are a great many among you who are so Complaisant as to appear in Churches Consecrated to a false Jesus whom they turn into an Idol and to Saints who are but Creatures And suppose that you should be so courageous as to refuse to go to Mass would that suffice think you to pacifie your Consciences by no means You will say perhaps we cannot publickly serve God but who can hinder you from shutting your Houses on the Sabbath and Holidays and making them as so many little Churches Why do you not read and meditate the Word of God Or Why should not the Master of the House be able to Instruct and Edifie his own Family in Private We would have you to know that we take a great care to be well informed of your Behaviour that we may from time to time give you Advices suitable to your Necessities We have been told indeed that there are among you several Wise and well ordered Families which practice the Rules we have just now prescribed you and therefore we give hearty Thanks to our Gracious Saviour that we are not as yet like Sodom and Gomorrha and that he hath reserved to himself a Remnant according to the Election of Grace But we know very well that this Remnant is very small in comparison of the rest for we have lately read Letters from
Subjects and consequently have not deserved to forfeit these Priviledges which Henry the Fourth and Lewis the Fourteenth himself had granted them as a Reward not only of their Fidelity but of their great Services too Whereas the Popish Subjects in the Reformed Dominions are as so many fierce Lions kept in Chains who get loose at every turn and Plot against their Sovereigns and the Government as occasion serves In fine we must observe that in these Memoirs the Allies demand all not in hope of getting all but in prospect at least of obtaining something for they did not question but the French would wrangle and maintain their ground with a great deal of Erroneous Zeal but they thought that by yielding by degrees something would be granted These Memoirs being finished and the Plenipotentiaries agreed thereupon the Question was only how to deliver them into the hands of the French Embassadors but they could not agree about the time some were of Opinion not to have them delivered till after the Peace was signed and their Reasons for it were such different Motives as need not be related here and yet we cannot deny but that the fear of delaying and stopping a Peace so much wish'd for by all was the chief spring of this Motion This Opinion had carried it and the Memoirs had been put off till the Signature Ratification of the Peace had it been made the last of August 1697 as the Allies and chiefly the Spaniards required it But the new Memoirs of the French Embassadors whereby they declared in the Name of their Master that he would take off Strasbourg out of his first Offers and keep that Place in lieu of Barcelona which he had lately taken This Proposal I say the Germans were frighted at and that was the Cause why the Conclusion of the Treaty was put off to the 20th of September This little respite we lookt on as particularly designed by God's Providence to put us upon doing his Cause further Service once more and therefore we waited on the Protestant Plenipotentiaries again and represented unto them that a Memoir in our behalf delivered after the Peace was signed would signifie nothing but make the Persecutors of France believe they were not sollicitous for our Concerns and that the French Court would think so too we went through great oppositions upon that Point but the steadiness of that Noble Lord who was the chief of the English Embassy and of the first Minister in Ordinary of that State carried it They were also very much supported by the Embassadors of the Confession of Ausgburg The Memoirs were then delivered into the Hands of the Mediator two days before the Peace was signed The French Embassadors did absolutely reject it at first saying they were strictly forbidden by the King their Master either to receive or give Ear to any such thing The Chief of that Embassy acted very Honourably but as one that is willing withall to follow exactly his Masters Orders The others did not conceal their hatred against the Protestants and let us see that by obeying their Master they did the same time gratifie their own Inclinations The chief of the Embassy did not think fit to refuse obstinately the Protestant Allies this small Courtesy which could do no hurt to his own Religion so that at last he promised to send the Memoirs to his Master accordingly it was sent to the French Court with all the Articles of Peace signed by England Holland and Spain and they were in great expectation of an Answer to the Memoirs together with the Ratification of the Peace When the Express was come they discovered that the French King had sent Orders to his Embassadors to pretend the Memoirs had not been sent and had through forgetfulness been left in the Chief Embassador's Pocket This was their Excuse to the Mediator when at the Messengers arrival he required an Answer to them However no body gave any credit to it but look't rather on it as a sham for they knew very well that all the Ministers of Princes are so exact as to omit nothing upon such Occasions and that there is no Writing though never so little nor even of the least importance but they will take care to transmit it to their Masters and if the French Embassadors had so neglected their Duty they would undoubtedly have lost their King's Favour but the Council of France had some Reasons for not irritating the Protestant Allies by a down right denial at a time when nothing was as yet ratified and they stood in need of every body For all this the Mediator would not so give over but urged that the Memoirs should be sent if they had not done it already and that they should require an Answer to it which came at last but a great while after when all was done and the Chief of the French Embassy departed The two others pleased themselves with Answering in their Masters Name That his Majesties Conscience could not consent to re-establish a Religion of which he had a very bad Opinion That he was so far from restoring the said Religion that he would not so much as see in his Dominions any of those Refugees who had fled out of it That if they had a mind to come back again he was willing to forgive them upon condition they should discharge all the Duties of good Catholicks That as to their Estates he could not restore them not even to those who should have a mind to return because he had already given them to others from whom he did not intend to take them away No body did wonder at such an Answer nevertheless it struck a great many who could never have believed but they would at least deal as favourably with the new Subjects of England Holland and Brandenburg as with the old ones and as it was Lawful for those to go into and come out of France about their own Affairs they thought the same liberty would have been granted to those who 12 or 15 years since had sheltered themselves in Foreign Countreys The second and sixth Articles of the Treaty with Holland are so plain in this Cause that several Inhabitants of Rouen and other Places had sent word to their Friends that by virtue of the Treaty they had liberty to come back and manage their Affairs in France without any fear of molestation The second Article includes a general Pardon without restriction in behalf of all the Subjects of the Most Christian King now in Service of the United-Provinces for it is there provided by this Article That the said Persons of what Quality and Rank soever may and shall re-enter upon and be fully restored to the Possession and peaceable Enjoyment of all their Estates and Honours c. without any Clause excluding Religion And in the sixth Article Religion is expresly named Those whose Goods and Estates have been sersed upon and escheated upon the account of the said War their Heirs or Assigns of what