Curate appear'd all of them who could possibly got away and hid themselves but neither the place nor the great haste of the Curate would permit all of them to do so He went up directly to one of the Company whom he had born an ill will to for some time he bids him kneel and the other answering that his Conscience would not suffer him to do it he gave him a Cuff on the Ear. He that was struck grumbled and so did two or three who were about him The Curate went on his way threatning hard Next day there were Informations made on both sides the Curate in his not complaining of any person but him he had struck and two or three others who had grumbled at it The Friends of the Curate perceiving that he had done the wrong propos'd an Accommodation It was by misfortune consented to Prosecution ceased on each side and it was believed that there was an end of that business there was not a word spoken of it in above a year But the Intendant of Languedoc revived it last Winter when they thought of nothing less and of a matter particular to two or three made it a general Concern of the whole Congregation He cites them before the Presidial of Nismes to whom he joyn'd himself He condemns them to demolish their Church in a Months time Those poor people go and cast themselves at the feet of the Court but to no purpose The King's Council hears and confirms this strange Order of the Intendant and the Church is rac'd to the ground The Council which gave this Sentence was the first in which the Dauphine was present The Report of such an Order being spred among the Courtiers and all being amaz'd that heard it a certain person took the liberty to tell the Dauphin that for the first time he had been at the Council he had assisted to a great Injustice What say you to that said a Duke and Peer to the Dauphin who had made no reply to the former I say answered the Dauphin that he may be much in the right I told our Friend I had enough of this You must not be weary said he this is but the beginning of sorrows Let 's go on to the rest Here is said he a Little Book which comes just now to my hand in it are stitch'd up together three Acts concerning Schools The first is of the ninth of November 1670. It forbids all Protestant Schoolmasters to teach any thing in their Schools but to read and write and Arithmetick The second which is of the 4th of December 1671 ordains that the Protestants shall have but one only School in any place where they have the publick Exercise of their Religion and but one Master in that School The third is of the ninth of Iuly this present 1681. Look upon them said he and give me your opinion It seems said I that the first contains nothing which the Protestants may complain of at least if that which I read there be true namely that by the Edict of Nantes it is expresly ordain'd That in the Schools of those of the pretended Reformed Religion there shall not any thing be taught but to read write and cast account For according to this the Edict of 1670 is entirely conformable to that other Edict which is the Law You are in the right said I but they who fram'd the Act have deceived you and have made no scruple to ground it upon a matter of fact entirely false For the Article which speaks of Schools doth not mention the least word of that restriction which the Act assures us to be there expressed namely of teaching only to read write and cast account See the Article length it is the 37th particular Those of the said Religion may not keep publick Schools unless in Cities and places where the publick Exercise of their Religion is allowed and the Provisions which have heretofore been granted them for the erection or maintenance of Colleges shall be authenticated where occasion shall require and have their full and entire effect Where is that express Order It is expresly ordered to teach only to read write and cast account upon which the Act is grounded Is it possible said I that they should have no sense of the horrid shame which must arise upon conviction of forgery in a matter of fact of this nature They never stick at so small a matter as that said he in the design they have of rooting out the Protestants Those who are in France dare not open their mouths to discover such kind of Falsities and Strangers whom they carry â—air with will not so far concern themselves as ever to suspect there should be falshood in a matter of fact so easie to be made out and which they make to be so positively afâ—irm'd by so great a King So that they do not fear at all the shame you speak of After all they are but pious Frauds at which they of the Popes Communion never blush And what say you continued be to that other Act which reduces all Schools to one in each City and Town where the Protestants have the publick Exercise of their Religion and that which requires that there should be only one Master in that School I replyed that it was an excellent way to restore Ignorance the Mother of the Roman Faith and Devotion In truth says he the care of one Master cannot go far Besides there is a Protestant Church which alone hath two thousand Children of age to be taught Those poor people have done all they could to obtain of the Council that at least there might be two Schools in each place one for Boys and the other for Girls But it was to little purpose that they pleaded good manners for it which such a mixture of both Sexes visibly was offensive to They were deaf to all their Prayers and to all their Remonstrances But this is not all yet In the Execution of this rigorous Act they have taken away â—rom them that little which was left them For the Judges of the places will not suffer that any Schoolmaster teach unless they have first of all approved of him and receiv'd him in all their Forms As therefore their approbation is a matter full of invincible Diâ—â—iculties above all when they are to give it to a man of merit and who may do good it is come to pass by means of these two Acts that all the little Schools of the Protestants are shut up From the little Schools they have proceeded to Colleges You see by the Act of the last of Iuly which suppresses for ever that of Sedan They have taken away also the College of Châtillon sur Loin So that hereafter the Protestants in France are to lie under worse than Egyptian Darkness I leave you now to judge whether they are to blame to seek for light in some Goshen In truth said I this is very hard But if they who inspire into the King such
strange Acts have no respect for Henry the Great and his Edicts at least they ought to be more tender of the Glory of their own Illustrious Prince and not to expose him as they do to be ranked with that Emperor against whom the Holy Fathers have cryed so loudly Is it possible they can be ignorant that this method oâ— extinguishing the Protestant Religion is exactly the same that Iulian took to extinguish the Christian Religion I do not think said our Friend that they can be ignorant of a truth so well known especially since one of their eminent Writers hath publish'd the History of the Life of S. Basil the Great and of S. Gregory Nazianzen There they might have read in more than one place that it was likewise one of the Secrets of that Emperor to ruine the Christians by keeping them from all Improvement in Learning and to prohibit their Colleges and Schools and which the Father 's judg'd to be most subtle policy But their zeal transports them above the most odious Comparisons They stick not to give occasion for them every moment I will shew you an Example which will astonish you I have here light upon the Paper They are now come to take the measures of that barbarous and inhumane King who us'd Midwives of his own Religion to destroy the Race of the people of God in Egypt For by that Declaration of the 28th of February 1680 It is ordered that the Wives of Protestants shall not be brought to bed but by Midwives or Chyrurgeons who are Papists This they make to be observ'd with the utmost rigor so far that they put a poor woman in prison for being present at the Labour of her Sister whose delivery was so quick and fortunate that there was neither time nor need to call a Midwife That you may in few words understand of what consequence this is to our poor Brethren I need but acquaint you that the King of France in his Edict of the Month of Iune 1680 where he forbids Papists to change their Religion acknowledges himself what experience doth but too plainly justifie namely that the Roman Catholicks have always had an aversion not only against the Protestant Religion but against all those that profess it and an aversion which hath been improv'd by the publication of Edicts Declarations and Acts. That is to say that whatever pretence the Roman Catholicks make to the contrary they have always been and still are Enemies of the Protestants and that the Protestants ought to look to be treated by the Catholicks as Enemies After this what can they judge of the Design and Consequences of a Declaration which puts the Lives of their Wives and Children into those very hands which the King who makes the Declaration acknowledges to be hands of Enemies But farther the Declaration it self discovers that one of its intentions was to make the Children of Protestants to be baptized by Midwives or by Popish Chyrurgions And what mischief do they not open a way for by that The Protestants will hold that Baptism void which hath been administred by such hands they will not fail to make it be administred anew by their Pastors This shall pass for a capital Crime in the Pastors and Fathers and they shall be punished as sacrilegious persons who trample on the Religion in Authority the Religion of the King for the most odious Representations are still made use of Nay said I by this they will likewise claim a right from the Baptism's being administred by Papists to make themselves Masters of the education of their Children You are in the right said he and that Article ought not to be forgotten It is just will they say that they should be brought up in the Church which hath consecrated them to God by Baptism at least that they should be bred up there till they are of age to chuse for themselves and when they are of age they will say then that it is just they should as well as others be liable to the same Edict which forbids Catholicks to change their Religion Is not this enough already to make one forsake such a Kingdom A Christian for less than this would surely flie to the utmost Parts of the World But to proceed Here is that terrible Decree which fills up the measure as to what concerns the poor Children It comes to my hand very seasonably It is the Declaration of the 17th of Iune last This ordains that all the Children of Protestants shall be admitted to abjure the Religion of their Fathers and become Papists as soon as they shall be seven years old It declares that after such an Abjuration it shall be at the choice of the Children either to return home to their Fathers and there to be maintain'd or to oblige their Fathers and Mothers to pay for their Board and Maintenance where ever they please to live It adds extreme Penalties to be laid on them who breed up their Children in foreign parts before they are sixteen years old But I pray read over the whole Edict Upon that I took the Deâ—â—aration from our Friends hand read it and returning it to him again could not forbear declaring that I did not now wonder any more that the Protestants of France were in so great a Consternation They are much in the right said I Discretion and Conscience oblige them to depart out of a Country in which there is no security for the salvation of their dear Children They are of too great a value to be so hazarded What is more easie for them who have all the power than to induce such young Children to change their Religion There is no need for this to shew them all the Kingdoms of the World and their Glory A Baby a Picture a little Cake will do the business or if there want somewhat more a Rod will not fail to complete this worthy Converâ—ion In the mean while what a condition are their wretched Fathers in besides the most inexpressible grief of seeing what is most dear to them in the world seduc'd out of the Service and House of God they shall likewise have this addition of Anguish of having their own Children for their Persecutors For knowing as I do the Spirit of that Religion I doubt not but they will all prove rebellious and unnatural and renounce all that love and natural respect which is due to them whom they owe their Lives to They 'll give Law to their Parents they will oblige them to make them great Allowances which they will dispose of as they list and if their Fathers pay them not precisely at the time appointed I am sure no rigors shall be forgotten in the prosecution No certainly said our Friend and I could give you an hundred Instances if there were need Even before this merciless Declaration was made the Goods of Parents were seis'd upon exposed to sale to pay for the maintenance of their Children who had been inveigled from them and
been made Papists If they dealt with them so then before the Declaration what will they not do when they see themselves supported and armed with Royal Authority But there is no need I should insist farther on the dreadful Consequences of this Declaration It hath been lately Printed in our Language and Notes made upon it wherein nothing hath been forgotten The Book is written impartially tho I can scarce believe what is express'd in the Title Page that it was written in French however some Gallicisms are put in to make you believe it but the Protestants of that Nation are not us'd to such bold Exprâ—ssions upon such kind of Subjects and I doubt much whether they could do it If they have reason to fear for the birth and for the tender years of their Children they have no less for themselves Here is a proof of it It is the Declaration of the 19th of November 1680 By which it is ordained That whenever they are sick they shall suffer themselves to be visited by the Papist Magistrates Thus having made their lives burdensome to them they take a thousand ways to torment them in their Beds as soon as any Disease hath seised them It is not henceforth permitted to them either to be sick or die in peace Under colour of this Declaration they are persecuted and all means are tryed to shake their Faith under the pretence of being ask'd what Religion they will die in First a Judge presents himself with the awe of his presence accompanied by one of the King's Sollicitors and two Papist Witnesses They begin their Work by driving all Protestants who are with the sick man out of his Chamber Father Mother Wife Husband Children none are excepted After that they do with the sick person as they list they draw up a Verbal Process or such as they like Lies with them are but pious Frauds Whatsoever the sick man answers he hath still abjur'd if these Gentlemen please to make a conversion of it and there is no possibility of disproving it The Verbal Process is drawn up in good Form If the sick man recovers and refuses to go to Mass immediately he is subject to all the penalties of a Relapse If he dies and chances to be the Father of a Family they take away all his Children to breed them up in the Popish Religion and his Estate to preserve it as they pretend for the Children of a Catholick Father Can any one who hath any care of his own salvation or any affection for his Children live expos'd to such dreadful Inconveniences if God offers any means to avoid them I am afraid I tire you with the Recital of so many Calamities Fear not that answered I I am resolv'd to know all You do not consider what you say replyed he I should need whole weeks to tell you all Imagine all the Suprises all the indirect practices all the base tricks of Insinuation and little quirks of Law are put in ure together with all manner of violence to accomplish the Work Neither do those Enemies of the Protestants always neglect the Oracles of the Scripture It says I will smite the Shepherd and the Sheep of the Flock shall be scattered These Gentlemen then that they may the more easily scatter the Sheep smite every where the Shepherd and constrain them to fly They imprison one for having by the Word of God confirm'd some of his Flock whom the Popish Doctors would pervert another for being converted to the Protestant Religion in his youth long before any Law was made against pretended Apostates They hire forlorn Wretches to go to the Sermons of the Protestant Ministers and to depose before a Magistrate that the Ministers said that the Church of Rome was idolatrous or that the Faithful are persecuted that they spake ill of the Virgin Mary or of the King Upon this without being heard and tho it be offered to be made out by the Deposition of an infinity almost of persons of credit that the testimonies of these two or three Wretches are absolutely false Orders are issued out for the seising the Bodies of the Ministers They are clap'd in Jayl as soon as taken they are condemn'd to pay excessive Fines they force them to make the Amende Honorable they banish them the Kingdom The Intendant of Rochefort suppress'd one there upon the most extravagant Deposition that was ever taken The Deponent having been at the Sermon of that Minister said That there was nothing to be found fault with in his words but that he perceiv'd his thoughts were not innocent If there are any amongst them so happy as to consound so the false Witnesses that the Judges are asham'd to use all those rigors none of the Charges of Imprisonment or of the Suit are ever recovered against any one A Minister who may have sixty or seventy pounds a year and seven or eight in Family to maintain must be condemn'd with all his innocence to pay all these great costs I could upon this Head tell you a hundred Stories but that it would be too tedious I have met both at Paris and in other Provinces many of these persecuted Ministers who acquainted me with their Adventures Germany Holland and Switzerland are full of them and I am told there are some of them here in England Their absence from their Flocks is but too good a proof how hot the persecution is against them And so let 's go on You may remember that the Edict of Nantes judg'd it necessary for the preservation of the Estates and Credit of the protestants and for the safety of their Lives to erect Tribunals where supreme Justice might be administred by Judges of the one and of the other Religion But all these Tribunals are suppress'd namely the Chambers of the Edict of Paris and of Rouen It is some years since the Chambres Miparties were suppress'd by the Delaration of Iuly 1679 so that here is their Fortunes their Credit their Lives all at the mercy of their sworn Enemies For you have not forgot that the King of France acknowledges in one of his Declarations that the Papists have always hated the persons of the Protestants Judge then if it be safe for them to stay longer in such a Kingdom But there is no method proper to ruine them which is not made use of that if one fails another may be sure to take Synods and Conferences are absolutely necessary for the Admission of their Ministers for the Correction of Scandals for the preservation of Peace in their Congregations for the subsistence of their Colleges and for the support and exercise of their Discipline At first they kept them with all sort of Liberty Under Lewis the Thirteenth they thought fit to forbid them to hold any Synod unless some Protestant Commissary who was to be named by the Court were present This was observed till the year 1679 when a Declaration was publish'd requiring that there should be a Papist Commissary in their Synods
That is to say Sir said I interrupting our Friend they will pry into their hearts and perfectly know where their strength or their weakness lies If there were nothing but that in it replyed our Friend that Declaration would not allarm them so much as it doth For there is nothing done in their Assemblies which they are not willing all the world should know They defie their most mortal Enemies to prove the contrary Can there be a more undeniable proof of this than the practice of the Protestant Commissary who sends to the Court a Copy well attested of all the Results of the Deliberations which are made while the Synod or Conference is held What do they fear then replyed I from the presence of a Papist Commissary Because they know that the end of the Court cannot be to discover their Secrets since they have none therefore it is that they justly fear that this Papist Commissary hath been set over them to create them trouble in the most innocent Affairs to hinder those Deliberations which are most necessary for the due preservation of their Flocks to silence those Ministers among them whom he shall perceive to be of greatest Ability and of Credit to dishearten one by threatnings to corrupt another by promises to sow Dissention and Division among them and to employ all means possibly to ruine them These are the just fears which have hindred them till this present from assembling any Synods with this so destructive a condition hoping continually that it may be God would touch the heart of their King But perceiving no favourable change and not being able to subsist without holding their Synods I learn'd as I came out of France that these poor people are resolv'd to run these hazards and that their Synods are upon assembling in several places May God vouchsafe to preside in the midst of them by his Grace and remove far from them all the Evils â—hey have cause to fear It may be by their good Examples and their Religious Behaviour they may convert them who are set over them for a snare as it happened to their Fathers in the last Age also Then was contrived the placing of Papist Commissaries to spie out their liberty But these Commissaries were so taken with the Modesty the Piety the Charity the Decency of Order and the devout Prayers of the first Reformers that they gave Glory to God and embrac'd the Religion which they had persecuted The Jesuites nevertheless have thought all these Evils of which I have spoken too slack and gentle That they may not be at any more trouble they will do the business once for all They have contrived to starve all the Protestants and to effect this they have made all the means of gaining a livelyhood to be taken from them by the Acts of the Council of State of the sixth of November 1679 and the 28th of Iune 1681. 1. They have turn'd out of all Jurisdictions and Seignuries which are almost infinite in France all Protestants who had been admitted Officers in those Jurisdictions All Stewards Bailifss Sollicitors Officers of the Exchequer Registers Notaries Clerks Serjeants and Ushers that were Protestants of all sorts throughout the whole Kingdom are cashiered by virtue of these Acts they have reduc'd to Beggary thousands of Families which had no other subsistence but by these Employments 2. Look upon those two Pieces which they procured also for the same intent The Title of the one is The Order of the Council Royal of the Finances or Treasury of the 11 th of June 1680. The other is An Order of the Council of State of the 17 th of August of the same year By the means of these two Pieces the Jesuites have made the Protestants to be kept out of all the Affairs of the Finances Customs which they call Traites Forains of Aids Gabelles Taxes of all sorts of Commissions to which the Edict of Nantes ordered that they should be admitted indifferently with the Papists This second hath taken away the Bread of a vast number of Families more 3. They every day make the Protestant Captains and Officers who have serv'd so worthily by Land and Sea to be turn'd out of their Commands Those brave Men after they have spent their Estates to advance their Masters Honor and ventured their Lives a thousand times for his Glory see themselves shamefully as so many Cowards cashiered without any exception for them who having signaliz'd and distinguish'd themselves by particular Actions had deserv'd extraordinary Pensions Because they will not be less faithful to God than they have been to their King they are resolved Disgrace and Beggary shall be the Reward of their Service By this they take away from all the Protestant Nobility the means of maintaining themselves in that Rank in which God by their Birth hath placed them 4. As to the Merchants look what the Jesuits have thought upon to ruine them They have obtain'd an Order of Council of State of the 19th of November 1680 which grants to all Protestants who change their Religion the term and forbearance of three years for the payment of the principal of their Debts with prohibition to all their Creditors to bring any Action against them during that time upon pain of Non-suit Noli prosequi and all Charges Damages Costs and Interests I perceive very well said I to our Friend that this puts those who revolt in a way to secure and withdraw their Goods and to enjoy in peace the Fruits of their turning Bankrupts But I do not see how this tends to the ruine of those Merchants in general who persevere in the Protestant Religion That is said he smiling because you have not so subtle a wit nor are so quick-sighted as the Jesuits You know very well that Merchants subsist by their Credit if their credit be low they must fall there is no more trading for them their business is done Now do you not perceive that the credit of all Protestant Merchants is ruined by this Order which puts them in a way of turning Bankrupts as they please with all indemnity and of inriching themselves with those Goods they have been trusted with Who do you think after this will be so silly as to take their word Who can tell with any certainty whether they with whom they deal are persons who will continue in the Protestant Religion Is there any thing more common than such Changes in Religion now adays It 's enough said I I was mistaken I perceive now very well that the ruine of the Protestant Merchants is unavoidable Go on to the other Professions For I see they are resolved that no Protestant shall get Bread among them You are in the right said he you have seen it in many of them I 'll shew it you now in the rest 5. All Papists who drive any Trade or exercise any Art are forbid â—o take any Protestant Apprentice I have seen the Order but have it not now by me By
ruinâ— of the Protestants to compass The Subversion of the Royal Family This was the bottom of all their Designs All their aim was to take the Crown from its lawful Heirs The first thing the Guises and the Queen Mother proposed to themselves when the Duke of Alenzon was dead says the Bishop of Rhodes was each to make sure of the Crown as if the Succession had been at an end This Prelate says further that the Duke of Guise his design was to secure the Crown to himself So soon as ever the League was coâ—â— to a heighth and strengthened they that had contrived it made it 〈◊〉 that it was not only to sâ—cure Religion for the future but from 〈◊〉 moment to get themselves up to the Throne and that thei◠〈◊〉 was not only upon the King of Navarre who was to succâ—â—d 〈◊〉 upon Henry the Third who then Reigned They had hired certain new Divinâ—s who undertook to maintain That a Prince who does not his duty ought to be deposed That nothing but a Power well disposed is of God else when it is out of order it is not Authority but Invasion and that it is as ridiculous to say such a one is King who knows not how to Govern and is void of Understanding as to believe that a blind Man may be a Guide or that a sensless Statue may give motion to living Men In short the same Bishop asseâ—ts in express Terms That the Duke of Guise ' perpetually urged Henry the Third to give him Forces to accomplish the extirpation of the Huguenots in whose ruine he certainly expected to involve the King of Navarre It appears from all this That the Protestants could not omit defending themselves with all their might in the Wars which the League stirred up against them without betraying their King their Country the Lawful Heir of the Crown who headed them and the whole Line of the Bourbons I do not think there needs any more to take off all aspersions Neither can I imagine what the Jesâ—ite Maimbourg means who understood all this so exactly well to say of these worthy Defenders of the Crown They became more obstinate and more insolent under Henry the Third What! would he have had all the Protestants suffered their Throats to be cut he that maintains the design of those who would have cut the Protestants Throats to have been the Subversion of the Fundamental Law of the Land the extinguishing of the Royal Family and to have taken away the Crown from his Kings Renowned Grandfather In good earnest his King is much beholding to him to call that Obstinacy and Insolence which was the heroick attempts of those who so often hazarded thâ—ir Lives to preserve that Throne for for him which he enjoys with so great Glory You see easily then says our Friend that justly they can no more charge the French Protestants with Rebellion than they can do with any Plot against their King down to the Reign of Henry the Fourth whom they delivered from the fury of the League and seated in the Throne in despite of all the obstructions of this powerful Faction Therefore Monsieur Maimbourg is but an infamous Detractor when he charges them with Rebellions which cost France so much Blood and Plots which he accuses them to have layed with the Enemies to withdraw themselves from under the Monarchy by openly setting up for a Commonwealth The later part of this accusation is so absurd that it deserves not to be considered Whom would this Man perswade that they who made no other War but under the conduct of Princes of the Blood who were so nearly concerned for the support of the Monarchy should â—vâ—r endâ—avor to set up a Commonwealth Besides Is there any likelihood that so many Protestants of the Nobility who hold all their Honor of the Monarchy and had no other Lustre but as they were Rays of the Royal Sun should have renounced their glory and dependence upon the Court to lie obnoxious to the caprice of a seditious multitude under the obscurity of a Commonwealth They took up Arms about the beginning of Henry the Fourths Reign or indeed rather they continued in Arms but it was only to compleat his Conquests and to settle him in the Throne by dispersing the remainder of the League which held out as long as it could from owning him King even when he was turned Roman Catholick and reconciled to the Pope So soon as all the troubles were appeased and every one reduced to his duty he setled the famous Edict of Nantes under the Title of Perpetual and Irrevocable as I shewed you at our first meeting which gave the Protestants a full Peace during the remaining part of this Prince's Life His Life had been as long as glorious in all appearance but for the wicked knife of the vile Ravillac who had the confidence to spill this illustrious Blood in time of Peace which was so much reguarded in the heat of War The disorders broke out again after France had lost its wise Pilot and invincible Protector But because this Conference has held us so long Let us if you please defer what we have more to say in justification of the French Protestants till another time Only give me leave before we part to read to you a passage out of Mezeray He confutes in very few words all Monsieur Maimbourg's Calumnies by which he would maliciously charge the Protestant Religion with all the mischiefs in France and all the rest of Europe during the Reigns of Francis the Second and Charles the Ninth whereas this excellent Historian who has more sincerity than the Jesuite though of the same Religion lays them all to the abominable Wickedness the Papists of these two Courts were alone guilty of These are his words Charlee the Ninth lived 25 years wanting 31 days But he began not to Reign till after the Siege of Rochelle His Mother always kept the Government in her own hand with three or four of her Confidents who turned all upside down to keep the Authority to themselves Thence sprung the continual Civil Wars pursued with so many fatal Battles Pillages and all sorts of Waste Thence came the abuse of Military Discipline the Corruption of Manners the overthrowing of Laws In short this barbarous day of St. Bartholomew and a thousand other mischiefs that perplexed his Reign had all their rise from hence Three great Evils prevailed likewise in those days which did most provoke the Divine Majesty to wit Blasphemy Sorcery and all sorts of Villanies which having begun ever since the Reign of Henry the Second drew the vengeance of Heaven upon this unhappy Kingdom and were the cause that God visited it with so many Judgments one after another After we had read this passage we appointed a day to meet again and so parted I take my leave therefore for this time and remain c. The End of the Fourth Letter The fifth Letter French Protestants
opened After our first Salute I ask'd him what they were They are said he French Books and those Printed Sheets are the new Edicts Declarations and Acts which the King of France hath lately publish'd against the Protestants of his Kingdom I am very happy said I in lighting on you at the opening of your Papers I was extremely impatient of knowing with some certainty what it was drove so many of them from their Native Country and I perceive by the care you have taken to collect all the pieces which concern them that I could not have met any one who might better satisfie my curiosity They come hither in Troops almost every day and the greatest part of them with no other Goods but their Children The King according to his accustomed Goodness hath had pity on them so far as to provide means whereby they may be able to gain their Lively-hood and amongst other things he hath ordered a general Collection for them throughout the Kingdom We were all resolved to answer the charitable Intentions of our Gracious Prince and were beginning to contribute freely But to tell you the truth we were extremely cooled by certain Rumors It is confess'd that their King is very earnest to make them embrace his Religion but they assure us that he uses none but very reasonable Means and that they who come hither with such Outcries are a sort of People not gifted with much patience who easily forsake their Native Country being dissatisfied that their merit as they conceive is not sufficiently rewarded Besides they are represented to us very much suspected in the point of their Obedience and Loyalty If we may believe many here they have been very factious and rebellious such as in all times have struck at the higher Powers both in Church and State which you must needs see would not be much for our purpose in these present Conjunctures In truth this is intolerable cry'd our Friend I cannot endure that the Innocence of these poor people should be run down at this rate I perceive Father La Chaise is not content to persecute them in their own Country with the utmost cruelty but trys all ways to shut up the Bowels of their Brethren in foreign parts he endeavours to ruine and to famish them every where in England as well as France A Hatred so cruel and if I may so say murderous agrees not so well with the Gospel of the Meek Iesus whose Companion Father La Chaise styles himself For he came not to destroy men but to save them Let this Jesuite alone said I and his Emissaries I do not doubt but he hath too much to do in all the Affairs of Protestants But tell me ingenuously do they give just cause to them of France to quit their Country as they do and are they persons whom the State and the Church may trust You your self shall be Judge said he and that you may be fully inform'd of the Cause I will give you a particular Account of the State of these poor People But before I speak of the Evils they have suffered it is sit you should know what it is that they have right to hope for from their King and from their Countrymen you will then be more affected with the usage they find You cannot but have heard of the Edict of Nantes Here it is said he taking up one of the Books that lay upon the Table It is a Law which Henry the Fourth confirmed to establish their Condition and to secure their Lives and Privileges and that they might have liberty freely to profess their Religion It is called the Edict of Nantes because it was concluded of at Nantes whilst the King was there It contains 149 Articles 93 general and 56 particular You may read it at your leisure if you please I will only observe some of them to you at present Look I pray said he on the sixth general and the first particular Article Liberty of Conscience without let or molestation is there most expresly promised not only to them who made profession of the Protestant Religion at the establishment of the Edict but which is principally to be observed to all those who should imbrace and profess it afterwards For the Article saith that Liberty of Conscience is granted for all those who are or who shall be of the said Religion whether Natives or others The seventh general Article grants to all Protestants the right of having Divine Service Preaching and full exercise of their Religion in all their Houses who have Soveraign Iustice that is to say who have the privilege of appointing a Judge who hath the power of judging in Capital Causes upon occasion There are a great many Noble Houses in France which have this privilege That seventh Article allows all Protestants who have such Houses to have Divine Service and Preaching there not only for themselves their own Family and Tenants but also for all persons who have a mind to go thither The following Article allows even the same Exercise of the Protestant Religion in Noble Houses which have not the right of Soveraign Justice but which only hold in Fee-simple It is true it doth not allow them to admit into their Assemblies above thirty persons besides their own Family The ninth Article is of far greater importance it allows the Protestants to have and to continue the exercise of their Religion in all those places where it had been publickly used in the years 1596 and 1597. The tenth Article goes farther yet and orders that that Exercise be established in all places where it ought to have been by the Edict of 1577 if it had not been or to be re-established in all those places if it had been taken away and that Edict of 1577 granted by Henry the Third declares that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion should be continued in all places where it had been in the Month of September that same year and moreover that there should be a place in each Bailywick or other Corporation of the like nature where the Exercise of that Religion should be established tho it had never been there before These are those places which since have been called with reference to the Exercise of Religion The first places of the Bailywick It follows then from this tenth Article of the Edict of Nantes that besides the Cities and Towns in which the Exercise of that Religion ought to be continued because they had it in the years 1596 and 1597 it ought to be over and above in all those places where it had been in the month of September in the year 1577 and in a convenient place of each Bailywick c. altho it had not been there in that Month. The eleventh Article grants also this Exercise in each Bailywick in a second place where it had not been either in the Month of September 1577 or in the years 1596 or 1597. This is that which is called The second place of the
Bailywick in distinction to that other place of the same nature which is granted by virtue of the Edict of 1577. When Henry the Fourth sent Commissaries into the several Provinces to see his Edict put in execution there was scarce found any considerable City or Town where the Commissaries did not acknowledge that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion had no need to be confirm'd or re-established because it had been used there in some one of the three years above-mentioned in so much that there were whole Provinces which had no need of those two places granted out oâ— pure favour I mean the two places of each Bailywick all the Cities and all the Towns of those Provinces claiming that Exercise by a better Title This is it which made the Bishop of Rodes Monsieur Perifix afterwards Archbishop of Paris in his History of the Life of Henry the Fourth to say that that Prince by his Edict of Nantes granted to the Protestants Liberty of Preaching almost every where But he granted them farther the means and full power of breeding up and teaching their Children Read as to that the thirty seventh particular Article It declares that they shall have publick Schools and Colleges in those Cities and Places where they ought to have the publick Exercise of their Religion The Edict having secured as you see the Exercise of the Protestant Religion secures also the condition of them who should profess it to the end that they might without any molestation each one according to his quality follow those Trades Employments and Offices which are the ordinary means of mens Livelyhood Indeed the thing of it self speaks this For it is plain that they do not grant in good earnest the free Exercise of a Religion who debar the persons that profess it the use of means necessary for their subsistence Nevertheless for their greater security Henry the Fourth hath declared to all Europe by his Edict that he would not that there should be any difference as to that point between his Protestant and his Papist Subjects The thirty seventh general Article as to that is express This it is We declare all them who do or shall make profession of the pretended Reformed Religion capable of holding and exercising all Conditions Offices Honours and publick Charges whatsoever Royalties Seigneuries or any Charge in the Cities of our Kingdom Countries Territories or Seigneuries under our Authority The fifty fourth Article declares that they shall be admitted Officers in the Courts of Parliaments Great Council Chamber of Accounts Court of Aids and the Offices of the general Treasurers of France and amongst the other Officers of the Revenues of the Crown The seventy fourth Article puts them in the same state with their Fellow Subjects as to all publick Exactions willing that they should be charged no higher than others Those of the said Religion pretendedly Reformed saith the Article may not hereafter be overcharged or oppressed with any Imposition ordinary or extraordinary more than the Catholicks And to the end that Justice might be done and administred impartially as the Edict explains it self the 30th 31st to the 57th Articles set up Chambers of the Edict in the Parliaments of Paris and Roan where the Protestant Counsellors ought to assist as Judges and Chambers Miparties in the Parliaments of Guienne Languedoc and Dauphine consisting each of two Presidents the one Protestant the other Papist and of twelve Counsellors an equal number of each Religion to judge without Appeal exclusive to all other Courts all Differences of any importance which the Protestants might have with their Fellow Subjects as well in Criminal as in Civil Matters In short this great Edict forgets nothing which might make the Protestants of France to live in peace and honor It hath not fail'd even to explain it self as to the Vexations which might be created them by taking away or seducing their Children For read the eighteenth general Article It forbids all Papists of what quality or condition soever they may be to take them away by force or by perswasion against the will of their Parents As if it had foreseen that this would be one of the ways which their Persecutors would use to vex and ruine them But the 38th Article goes farther yet That Wills that even after their death Fathers shall be Masters of the Education of their Children and consequently of their Religion so long as their Children shall continue under Guardians which is by the Laws of France till the 25th year of their Age It shall be lawful for Fathers who profess the said Religion to provide for them such persons for their education as they think fit and to substitute one or more by Will Codicil or other Declaration made before Publick Notaries or written and sign'd with their own hand You perceive then plainly continued our Friend that by this Edict King Henry the Fourth made the condition of the Protestants equal almost in all things to that of his other Subjects They had reason then to hope that they should be allowed to exercise their Religion to breed up and instruct their Children in it without any disturbance and that they should have as free admission to all Arts Trades Offices and Employments as any of their Fellow Subjects This is very clear said I and I am much obliged to you for explaining to me what this famous Edict of Nantes is which I had heard so much discourse of But they who have no affection for the Protestants tell us that it is a Law which was extorted by violence and consequently is not to be kept I will not stand now said our Friend to examine whether that consequence be good you cannot but perceive that it is dangerous But I dare assure you that the Principle from whence it is drawn namely that the Edict was extorted by violence is very false I would not have you take my word for it But I will produce an unexceptionable Witness It is the Archbishop of Paris he who writ the Life of Honry the Fourth That one Witness is worth a thousand for he was a declared Enemy of the Protestants According to him The general Peace was made the Ligue extinguish'd and all persons in France had laid down their Arms when this Edict was granted in favour of them It is ridiculous now to say that it was extorted by violence there being then no party in all the Kingdom in a condition to make the least attempt with impunity Moreover that Prelate could not forbear owning expresly what it was mov'd the King to grant them that Edict It was the sense of the Great Obligations he had to them See the Book it self read the Passage The Great Obligations which he had to them would not permit him to drive them into despair and therefore to preserve them a just ballance he granted them an Edict larger than any before They called it the Edict of Nantes c. Indeed the Obligations he had to them were
this you see that all young men of the Protestant Religion who have not means of their own are reduced to this extremity either of starving in France or turning Papists or forsaking that Kingdom For the same Order forbids any Protestant who drives or professes any Trade to have under them any Apprentiâ—e either Papist or Protestant that so they may not be able to do work enough to maintain their Families 6. The Grand Master and Grand Prêvot have given notice by Virtue of Letters under the Signet to all Protestants who had Privileges whereby they had right to keep Shops as Chyrurgions Apothecaries Watchmakers and other Tradesmen to forbear using their privileges any longer and to shut up their Shops which hath been punctually executed 7. They have establish'd Societies of Physicians at Rochelle and in other places where as I am assured from good hands there were none ever before None but Papists will be received into those Societies By this the Jesuits have found out the way at one stroke to hinder the Practice of all the Protestant Physicians however able and experienc'd they may be In so much that the Lives of all sick Protestants are by this means put into the hands of their Enemies 8. In short there is scarce now any place in all France where they may get their livelyhood They are every where molested and hindered from exercising in quiet any Trade or Art which they have learn'd To dispatch them quite they require of them not only that they shall continue to bear all the Burdens of the Government altho they take from them the means of doing it but also that they bear double to what they did that is to say they use a rigor far greater than what was practised upon the People of God when they were commanded to deliver the same tale of bricks and yet had not straw given them as formerly In effect at the same time that they will not allow them of the Protestant Religion to get a penny they exact of them to pay the King double nay treble to what they paid before Monsieur de Marillac Intendant of Poitou hath an Order of Council which gives him alone the Power of the Imposition of the Tax in that great Province He discharges the Papists who are at ease and overcharges the poor Protestants with their proportion who before that fainted under their own proper burden and could bear no more I will tell you farther on this occasion that the Jesuits have obtain'd an Order of the King by which all Protestants who change Religion are exempted for two years from all quartering of Soldiers and all Contributions of Moneys which are levied on that Account which also tends to the utter ruine of them who continue firm in the Protestant Religion For they throw all the burden upon them of which the others are eas'd From thence in part it is that all the Houses of those poor people are filled with Soldiers who live there as in an Enemy's Country I do not know if the zeal of the Jesuits will rest here For they want yet the satisfaction of keeping S. Bartholomew's Day as they kept it in the former Age. It is true what is allowed them is not far from it For which is the better of the two to stab with one blow or to make men die by little and little of hunger and misery As to the Blow said I to our Friend I do not understand you Pray if you please explain your self what do you mean by keeping S. Bartholomew's Day Monsieur de Perisix that Archbishop of Paris who hath writ the Life of Henry the Fourth answered he shall tell you for me There 's the Book the place may be easily found Here it is â— Six days after which waâ— S. Bartholomew 's Day all the Huguenots who came to the Wedding Feast had their Throats cut amongst others the Admiral twenty persons of the best quality twelve hundred Gentlemen about four thousand Soldiers and Citizens afterwards through all the Cities of the Kingdom after the Example of Paris near a hundred thousand were massacred An execrable Action Such as never was and I hope to God never will be the like You know then well continued our Friend directing his Speech to me you know well now what it is to keep S. Bartholomew's Day and I believe that what I said is no Riddle to you The Jesuits and their Friends set a great value on themselves in the world because they forbear cutting the Protestants Throats as they did then But Merciless as you are do you ere the less take away their lives You say you do not kill them but do you not make them pine to death with hunger and vexation He who gives slow poison is he less a poisoner than he who gives what is violent and quick since both of them destroy the life at last Pardon this short Transport said our Friend in good earnest I cannot restrain my indignation when I see them use the utmost of cruelty and yet would be looked on as patterns of all moderation and meekness Let me impart to you three Letters which two of our Friends who are yet in France have written to me since I came from Paris I received the two first at Calis before I got into the Pacquet Boat the last was delivered me last night after you went away from any Chamber You will there see with what Gentleness they proceed in those Countries He thereupon read to me his Letters and I have since took Copies of them and send them here inclosed A Copy of the First Letter WE are just upon the point of seeing that Reformation which hath cost so much labour and pains and so much blood come to nothing in France To know the condition of the Protestants in the several Provinces of this Kingdom you need but read what the first Christians suffered under the Reigns of the Emperors Nero Domitian Trajan Maximin Dioclesian and such like There are four Troops of Horse in Poitou who live at free Quarter upon all of the Protestant Religion without any exception When they have pillaged the Houses of them who will not go to Mass they tie them to their Horse Tails and drag them thither by force The Intendant whom they have sent thither who is their most bitter Enemy hath his Witnesses ready suborned who accuse whom they please of what Crimes they please and after that cast the poor men into dark Dungeons beat them with Cudgels and then pass sentence of death to terrifie them and afterwards under-hand send others to try them by fair means to promise them that their mourning shall be turn'd into joy if they will but go to Mass. Those whom God gives the grace to resist die in the Dungeon through unspeakable anguish Three Gentlemen of Quality who went about to confirm some of the poor people in their Village that began to waver were presently clapt up Flax put about their Necks then
the Bishop of Rhodes testifies would have broken the succession of the Royal Line And the General of the Army was own Brother to the Duke of Guise who as the same Bishop tells us designed the Crown for himself As for King Henry the Fourth Grand-father to our King as well as to the present King of France there is no man that understands the least of those Histories but knows it was his faithful Protestants that preserved him for the Throne and set the Crown upon his Head The Bishop of Rhodes acknowledges That this Great Prince had been bred up from his Birth among the Huguenot party and that they were his best support And indeed they expended their blood more than once to save his against the rage of the Ligue and the ambition of the Lorain Princes who would have usurped his right So soon as ever Henry the Third his Predecessor assassinated by the Fryar Iaques Clement was dead they did not do as Papists that were then in his Army For whereas these for the most part fell into Cabals and gave him a thousand troubles by their Seditious Resolutions which tended either to exclude him from the Succession or tear the Government in pieces the Protestants kept steady they immediately owned him for their King The Huguenot Nobility with the Forces they had brought which were all Protestants swore Allegiance to him presently They are the very words of the Bishop of Rhodes And when unhappily which cannot be enough lamented he forsook their Religion fearing the Papists should choose another King in his stead their Fidelity failed them not for all that they maintained his Cause with the same zeal whil'st divers â—apists continued to keep his Garrisons from him and armed several Assassins to take away his Life Peter Barriere says Mezeray had designed to kill the King because he heard some of the Clergy say That it would be an exploit worthy eternal praise and that would carry a man straight to Heaven When he was come to Lions with this resolution the same Popish Historian adds He communicated it to the Archbishops Vicar General to a Capucin Frâ—ar and to two other Priests who all approved of it and encouraged him to do it Mezeray tells us afterwards That Barriere having a little demurred upon the Kings having forsaken the Protestant Religion Christopher d' Aubry Curat of S. Andrè des Arces and Varade Rector of the Jesuits heartened him by their advice to pursue his Hellish Design of stabbing the King You know the story of Iohn Chastel one of the Jesuits Scholars to the same purpose how he wounded the King in the mouth with the stab of a Knife which he intended for his throat It is well known what share the Jesuits had in this attempt This young Desperate confessed that he heard them say That it was lawful to kill the King There were found in their Colledge several Pieces full of Invectives and most pernicious Propositions against the Honor and Life of Henry the Third and Henry the Fourth his Successor then Reigning The famous Act of Parliament at Paris has eternized the Memory of this Execrable Attempt It Ordains That all the Priests and Scholars of the Colledge of Clermont and all others that stiled themselves of the Society of Jâ—sus should quit the Kingdom in fifteen days as corrupters of Youth disturbers of the publick Peace and Enemies to the King and Kingdom Which was done accordingly And it is fit I should tell you upon this how Cardinal d'Ossat bemoaned their loss by reason of the apparent advantage the poor Protestants had by it You may see it in the eighth Letter of his first Book these are his words It must needs give a Prince converted to the Catholick Religion whom we should have comforted and confirmed by all means possible great offence and prejudice against Catholicks when they that boast themselves the Pillars of the Catholick Religion have thus endeavoured to get him Murdered Whereas if there had been any pretence for Assassinates it should have been the Hereticks that should have procured it and seen it done because he had quitted and forsaken them and they had reason to apprehend him And yet they have attempted no such thing either against Him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors whatever slaughter their Majesties made amongst them You have here at once an authentick Witness of the exact Loyalty of the Protestants of France to their Soveraign how violâ—nt soever the Soveraign might have been and a dreadful warning for all Princes to consider the Spirit of Popery perpetually engaged in Murder and ready to spill the most Sacred Blood if they think it runs cross to their interest The death of this Great Prince Henry the Fourth is a precedent enough to make the heart of any Prince ake that is so unhappy as to have in his Dominion or near his Person these sort of common pests It was to much purpose to profess the Romish Religion while these Monsters out of a suspicion perhaps that his heart was not Roman enough never rested till they had pierced it by the hand of that abominable Villain Ravilliac who had been a Monk as the Bishop of Rhodes assures us And what he says of the hardiness of this wicked Fellow to suffer all without speaking a word plainly shews us who were those Devils and Furies that Inspired him with such cursed Thoughts He was taken in the very Fact says the Bishop of Rhodes after he has given an account of the Crime of Ravilliac being Interrogated several times by the Commissioners of Parliament condemned the Courts met and by Sentence torn between four Horses in the place of Execution after they had tormented him with hot burning pincers in the Breast Arms and Thighs without discoveâ—ing the least fear or grief in the midst of so great Torment which confirmed the mistrust they had that certain Emissâ—ries under pretence of Zeal had instructed and charmed him by false assurances that he should die a Martyr if he kill'd him whom they made believe to be a sworn enemy of the Church But I should not make an end this day if I were to take notice of all the Stories of the malice and fury of the Papists against such Princes as have not had the happiness to please them and give you all the proofs of the affection and untainted Loyalty of the Protestants for their Kings how little secure soever they have been to them However said I to our Friend do not conclude before you have quitted the Subjects from that suspicion which the proceedings of the present King of France has â—aised every where of the innocence of this poor people For according to the manner he has treated them within his Kingdom he must needs look upon them rather as his Enemies than his Subjects Must there not have been some failure on thâ—ir part and that they have entred into some conspiracy or are revolted
the matter he commends the Prince his generosity and said He was likewise ready to justifie his Innocence though privately he took care to have him apprehended In good earnest Monsieur Maimbourg's Morals must be strangely depraved since he is no longer a Jesuit not to find any fault in a Prince guilty of so prosligate a Dissimulation and notorious Treachery And does he think if Lewis the Fourteenth ever comes to open his eyes he will think himself obliged to those that would make such a Man pass for a truly Christian Hâ—ro who has done his utmost to disappoint him of the Crown by taking it from his Ancestors and endeavoring to cut off the Illustrious Race of the Bourbon's If an â—nglishman should Canonize Cromwell and place him among the Hero's Can you imagine he should be well received at Court or that the King should repose any great confidence in his Loyalty Monsieur Maimbourg must know that the Prince of Condè being what he was could not look upon this pretended Hero otherwise than as a Monster He was obliged by the duty of his Relation his Honor Loyalty and all that was becoming a Great Mind with all his might to set himself against those wicked Designs which he saw the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain had so plainly layed Would you have had him stood with his hands in his pockets when he discovered so great danger and suffer Strangers to ruine the State and take the Crown away from his Family with a high hand 7. These Usurpers had laid their business so well and were become so absolute Masters of the Person the Mind the Authority and the whole Power of the young King that it was impossible to carry any Address to the King unless by their means and to do any thing against them to bring them to Justice but as one may say in the Kings presence who was continually in their hands and by consequence to redress a mischief that so absolutely required a remedy without resolving upon some great and extraordinary attempt Either therefore the Prince of Condè must have done what he did or else have suffered the Throne to be usurped and the Royal Family sacrificed contrary to that duty he owed to France to his King to Himself and to his whole Race If Monsieur Maimbourg will have it that the Prince of Condè should have let the Guises go on his King ought to look upon him as his mortal Enemy If he believes he did his duty let him retract and be ashamed of those unadvised words That he would have taken the Kings Lodgings by force as Affairs then stood to seize in his presence upon his chief Ministers was to attack the King himself and to seek to make himself master of his Person and Government In the condition matters were then it was the only humane means left to rescue the young King from slavery to give a stop to the Outrages of a Forain domineering Power or rather Tyranny and to preserve the Crown to its right Heirs If God was not pleased in his All-wise providence to give so good success to the attempt as was hoped it failed not nevertheless of doing some good It gave a check to the wicked designs of the Guises and made them sensible that whil'st they had to do with men of that Courage they should not purchase the Kingdom at so cheap a rate as they thought for Besides I must not conceal it from you that the Protestants were not the only Men that Lifted themselves under the Prince of Condè for this important Service to their Country and to the Royal Family several Roman Catholicks shared with them in the glory of this Attempt The famous Mezeray has published it to all the World So that Monsieur Maimbourg is 〈◊〉 out when he would make it a quarrel upon Religion And much 〈◊〉 unjustly is he mistaken when he offers to say that at the business of Amboise The Huguenots entred into a horrible Conspiracy against their King I am satisfied says I to our Friend and I am confident every honest man that knows as much as you have told me of this matter will look upon this Jesuits Imputation with amazement and detestation Pray give me an account now of the business of Meaux The French Protestants repâ—yed he are no less innocent of Conspiracy against their King in the business of Meaux than they were in that of Amboise The testimony of the eminent Cardinal d'Ossat is an invincible Defence to them in this Affair and puts them beyond the reach of Calumny But I suppose you would be throughly informed of this matter I will do it in as few words as possibly I can And I will take the account partly from Monsieur Maimbourg himselff partly from two other Popish Historians who have much a greater esteem in the World than he it is the famous President de Thou and Mezeray We will take it from the beginning You have not forgot what I told you at our former Meeting when I gave you an account of the first War the Prince of Condè was forced to make for rescuing the King at the earnest intreaty of the Queen-mother then Regent I shall not need to take off a thousand odious Reflections which Monsieur Maimbourg lays upon the French Protestants in relation to this War They are either the faults of some private persons who having acted contrary to the principles of the Reformed Religion were disowned by all sincere Protestants or false Suggestions which the solemn Edict of Charles the Ninth in the Year 1563. has sufficiently confuted the King there owning as done for his Service all that the Prince of Condè and his Friends had done in this first taking up of Arms. This noted Edict Ordains That the Protestant Religion should be publickly exercised in several parts of the Kingdom which the Edict names it puts all the French Protestants under the protection of their King in what part of France soever they should make their abode it Wills That every one of them when they come home should be maintained and secured in their Goods Honors Estates Charges Offices c. The Prince and the Protestants observed the Articles of the Treaty of Peace most exactly Monsieur Maimbourg tells us himself That all the places which the Huguenots held submitted to the King Nay we English have occasion to complain of their too great exactness in this point For they were the hottest in taking Havre de Grace from us which we had possessed our selves of only to give them succor against their Persecutors All their great Souldiers came against us to the Siege of this Town The Prince of Condè lodged all the while in the Trenches All the French says Mezeray went thither in great fury especially the Huguenots But their Adversaries dealt not so with them they broke the Edict every where in a shamful and barbarous manner This Illustrious Queen
then either Mezeray or Monsieur Maimbourg who makes here a great deal of noise about a very inconsiderable business Whatever it was the Constable thought fit to have the King conveyed speedily to Paris through By-ways with a strong party which brought him thither the same day without any hazard and all the rest of the Army got thither the next day This is the truth of the business of Meaux which Monsieur Maimbourg calls a terrible Conspiracy of the Prince of Condè against the Sacred Person of his Soveraign Lord the King He has the impudence to call those Wicked Arms which were taken up for no other end but to preserve to France the Noble Blood of the Bourbons which at this day does it so much honor and which a Conspiracy of cruel and unreasonable Adversaries were at the very point of spilling to the last drop that they might afterwards usurp to themselves the right of the Heirs of the House Is it that Monsieur Maimbourg would have had all this Noble House extinct and that the Guises who pretend to come from Charlemain should have possessed the Throne at this day In good truth his King is much beholding to him Thus then it is that he begins to observe what he promises in his Advertisement To serve his gracious Protector with more warmth zeal and freedom than ever You must give me leave says I smiling to give a check here to the carier of your Victory Monsieur Maimbourg is very unjust to attribute to the genius of the Reformed Religion of France the outrages of Subjects Rebellion against their Prince You have beyond dispute shewed the contrary in our former Conference from their Confession of Faith the Prayers in their Liturgy and from what their most Famous Doctors have taught publickly Therefore when our Jesuit for his change of Habit does not hinder but that we have still too much cause to call him by this name charges the Protestant Religion to which unjustly he imputes Heresie with Inspiring Rebellions and Outrages he gives us a cast of his office to put the sham upon us well knowing what the Jâ—suits Religion is really guilty of in this point and to augment the displeasure of his King against the poor Huguenots the most faithful of his Subjects But setting aside this Jesuitical pliableness and malice tell me a little Do you think this action of the Prince of Condè very regular to shew himself before the King in Arms as if he would wrest from him by force that Justice which was denyed him I will allow that his enemies had sworn his ruine and that of all the Protestants of France I cannot question it after all those proofs which you have brought I will allow besides that the Six thousand Suisses which environed the King had never been raised nor kept up but to be the Executioners of this unjust and bloody Design should a Subject endeavor to cut them off even before his Soveraigns eyes who secured them by his Royal Authority Was not this to invade that Soveraign Authority which ought never to be touched by any Subject In a word this attempt of the Prince is it not point blanck contrary to the Maxims of the Protestant Religion of France as you have represented it to me That we ought never to repel force by force when it is our Soveraign that does the wrong I am very glad says our Friend that you have made this Objection it will give me occasion to say somthing that will help to clear all that they reproach the Huguenots with till the Reign of Lewis the Thirteenth 1. All that pretend to be Protestants are not so Monsieur Maimbourg himself is of the same opinion And it is a shameful Injustice to make the Religion answerable for the miscarriages of those that are a disgrace to it and that make it appear by leading a life quite contrary to its maxims and instructions that they are not its followers but its enemies This is the Injustice Monseiur Maimbourg does to the Protestant Religion in every Page of his Libel For example he imputes to it the beastly and barbarous behavior of the Baron des Adrets though he himself acknowleâ—ges he was a man of no Religion far from being what he elsewhere calls a good Huguenot a man truly devoted to the Principles of the Protestant Religion who breathes nothing but piety towards God and love and bounty towards his Neighbor He likewise imputes to it the Exploit of certain seditious Fellows that coyned Silver Money with the Princes stamp and this Inscription in Latin Ludov. XIII Rex Franc. I cannot tell whether what he says of this Coyn be true I have not the Book by me which he quotes De Thou and Mezeray who are otherwise so exact and curious speak not a word of it And considering the hatred that has always been against the Huguenots they would in all probability have kept some of this Coyn very carefully to have stopt their mouths as often as they should reproach the Papists with the several attempts they had made against Kings However it be if the Story be true they that caused such money to be coyned are wicked Wretches and have most insolently transgressed the 39th and 40th Articles of the Confession of Faith made by the Reformed Church of France So that the true French Protestants are so far from owning them for their Brethren that they detest them as utter Enemies to their holy Religion In general all they that have failed in the respect which is due to Potentates having thereby acted contrary to the Principles of the Reformed Religion cannot be reckoned among the true Protestants It is therefore an idle thing to reproach us with the Extravagancies and Enterprises of such men We have nothing to do with them And if the Prince of Condè was no otherwise a Protestant than as Monsieur Maimbourg would maliciously insinuate if under a false pretence of Religion to deceive a simple people that put great confidence in him he concealed a Criminal Revenge and Ambition the honest Huguenots disown him and it would be an unconscionable thing to make them guilty of what this Prince had committed when at the same time he must have declared himself an enemy to their Religion by having violated after such a manner their Confession of Faith in so essential a Point But God forbid we should have so ill an Opinion of this Hero as Monsieur Maimbourg would perswade us to Mezâ—ray himself assures us that the Prince was sincere an enemy to cheats and treacheries and abhorred to do an ill thing He was then doubtless what he desired that men should take him for a true Protestant which is to say a good Christian. 2. But the best Christians have their faults Wherefore there is no man that does not sometimes yield to the temptations offered him And when wâ— know the temptations to be strong as no doubt they are
innocency under Lewis the Thirteenth SIR I Was no sooner come to our Friends Chamber and that we were sate down but we fell to our business I am very well satisfied says I to him in all that you have told me hitherto in behalf of the French Protestants and I am convinced That till the Reign of their King Lewis XIII they cannot justly charge them with any Plot or Rebellion against their Kings If at any time they have taken up Arms it was always to secure the Crown to their lawful Prinâ—es against the ambitious designs of the House of Guise and under the Authority of the first Princes of the Blood who had a natural Right to oppose the Usurpation these Strangers would have made who making an ill use of the Simplicity Minority and Weakness of the Kings Francis the Second Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third had taken the Scepter out of their hands or at least would have deprived their Rightful Successors of it had not the Protestants given Succour with their utmost Force the great Prince of Condè first and afterwards the King of Navarre Therefore to say the truth they armed only in their Kings Quarrel and especially to secure to France the Illustrious House of Bourbon which sits on that Throne at present After all it is clear That hitherto they cannot question their Loyalty or their Innocence but through the heart of Henry the Great by blasting his Memory and disgracing his Crown and all his Posterity But I must confess to you That I am to seek how well to defend them against the Reproaches for their several Insurrections under the Reign of Lewis the Thirteenth For in the Year 1615 they joined with the Prince of Conde against their King which had like to have set the whole Nation in a Flame In the Year 1620 they sided with the Queen-Mother who raised Forces against the King her Son In the Years 1621 and 1622 they gave the occasion by the Meeting they held at Rochel contrary to the King 's express Command of a most bloody War in which many of their Garisons were Besieged Taken and Sacked In the Year 1525 they carried away their King's Ships from Blavet they seized upon the Island of Oleron they had divers Battels Lastly in the Years 1627 and 1628 they gave fresh disturbances under the Command of the Duke of Rohan and Rochel Revolted from its Allegiance to that degree of obstinacy that nothing but the utmost extremity of Famine could make them open their Gates These several Insurrections which are continually objected against them gives occasion to their Enemies to cry them down at Court amongst the Nobility and indeed all over the Nation as a restless sort of people active and dangerous whose Religion inspires them with a Spirit of Sedition and Back-sliding pernicious to Monarchs and Monarchies Therefore pray Instruct me what I may answer in their Justification and Defence I know not says our Friend whether you are in jest or earnest but for my part I find nothing more easie than to satisfie any reasonable Persoâ— in this point 1. â—tis is a hundred and sixty Years since there have been Protestants in France For by the Confession of Monsieur Maimbourg himself the Reformation begun to be settled ever since the Year 1522. And all the World agrees That from this Year to the Death of Henry the Second who was killed with a Lance by Montgomery in the Year 1559 which was about 37 Years after the Protestants continued all along exactly Loyal anâ— in the deepest Veneration for their Kings Monsieur Maimbourg indeed disputes the thirty Years under the Reigns of Francis the Second Charles the Ninth and Henry the Third but I have confuted all his Calumnies in this particular and you have allowed the strength of my Arguments for clearing the Protestants during these three Reigns so that here are 67 Years of Allegiance and Loyalty Neither have they any thing to say against them upon this account for the one and twenty Years that Henry the Fourth Reigned or for the four first Years of Lewis the Thirteenth no more than for the 54 Years that passed between the Year 1629 at what time all the Wars about Religion ceased and this present time 1682 when they are persecuted with the utmost Rigour So that for a hundred and sixty Years that the Protestants have been in France there are but fourteen in which they have any thing to object against them that is from their uniting with the Prince of Condè in the Year 1615 to the general Peace concluded in the Month of Iuly 1629. And of these fourteen Years we must deduct seven which are the Years 1616 1617 1618 1619 1623 1624 and 1626. in which there were no Civil Wars Thus when all is cast up and due Deduction made allow the worst that can be there are but seven Years which they can reproach them with And suppose it true that the Protestants during these seven Years should have forgot themselves so far as to have come short of their duty towards their Sovereign is it just to infer from thence That the Principles they go by proceed from a Spirit of Sedition and Rebellion Is there any proportion between seven Years misbehaviour and uneasiness and above a hundred and fiâ—ty Years Duty and Loyalty such Duty and Loyalty as have undergone the greatest proofs And since they have testified twenty times more Zeal and Constancy for the service of their Kings than they have shewed Disobedience and Opposition to their Orders does not Reason and Justice plainly oblige us to conclude from thence That they are animated by a spirit of Loyalty and Obedience It must be confessed That their Loyalty which stood firm for more than fourscore Years was shaken to some degree for the space of seven Years But he that swounds away is not dead The Sun goes not out when it is â—clipsed And the Loyalty of the Protestants is so well recovered from its fainting Fit that it is more than half an Age that we find it resisting all manner of Provocations and ill usage without yielding in the least This long and constant perseverance of the Protestants in their duty is that we ought to have regard to if we would be just in taking the true Character of their Spirit and not the infirmity of a hasty and short-lived transport This ought to be enough to satisfie all reasonable Men and yet it is not all that can be said in behalf of these poor persecuted people 2. It is a great matter Sir that they can with no Justice impute those Insurrections you spake of to the whole Body of the French Protestants For First There was an infinite number of them not in the least concerned Secondly they that were the Ring-Leaders were only Protestants in Name but really men only of this World Ambitious or Covetous who only made use of Religion for a Mask to hide their wicked purposes and
for a pretence to â—ish in troubled Waters But if there happened to be any sincere Protestants who were drawn in by these Hypocrites to take up Arms with them as it is not to be doubted they did it not in pursuit of the Principles of their Religion which is point-blanck against such proceedings but out of too great a fear of Death or something worse through a usual Infirmity of Nature from which the best of Christians are not wholly exempt The first need no defence the second deserve it not and the third sort plead their fear the rather because just as it were easie to prove as well as their repentance As the first are they that held to the true Principles of their Religion it is but reasonble that we should make our judgment of the French Protestants from their behaviour The second as they did but act a part and were Impostors there is no reason their Extravagancies and Rebellions should be charged upon the true Protestants who disown their Fraternity And because the third falled out of weakness it is the duty of a Christian Compassion and the sense of our own Infirmities to forget and forgive their Failures I propose nothing in all this but upon the most authentick Authority that could be wished for upon such an occasion it is a Declaration of Lewis XIII given at Bourdeaux the 10th of November 1615. upon the joyning of the Protestants with the Prince of Condè Many says this King speaking of the Protestants of his Kingdom have taken up Arms against us to assist the Commotion begun by our Cousin the Prince of Condè amongst which there are that use Religion only for a better Pretence to conceal their Ambition and extream thirst of bettering themselves by the disturbance and ruine of the State and the rest have been Cheated and Imposed upon by false suggestions and vain fears that the former sort have put into their heads as if there were no avoiding Persecution but presently to take up Arms with them in their own defence making them believe the better to work upon their easiness That in the private Article upon the Match with Spain it was agreed and covenanted to drive them out of the Kingdom or wholly to destroy them which they being too forward to believe have run into this Engagement out of a conceit that they are forced to it in their own defence which makes their Fault pardonable and worthy rather of Pity than Punishment But these tricks have not prevailed or seduced the wiser and better sort who profess the same Religion purely out of Conscience as expecting to be Saved by it and not to promote a Faction who to a considerable number as well Lords Gentlemen Towns Corporations as other private persons of all qualities condemn and abhor the wickedness and rashness of their attempt and have publickly declared by word of mouth and writing That it ought to be esteemed as neither more nor less than a down-right Rebellion c. We have declared and ordained and do declare and ordain upon Consideration and in favour to the Loyalty which has been observed towards us by an infinite number of our good Subjects of the said Religion amongst which there are of the chiefest and best Quality who deserve a special Proof of our Good-Will That what has been committed by those of the same Religion who have taken up Arms against us or that have in any manner aided or assisted them have likewise the favour of our Edicts and that they share in this Grace as if they had always continued in their Duty c. This same King would by no means have the least Reproach lie upon those Protestants whose Fault he had declared Pardonable though they had joined with the Prince of Condè For when they came to consider ' all things for appeasing these first troubles he owns them for his faithful Subjects and maintains all they had done as done for his Service It is in Article XVII of the Edict of Blois in the Year 1616. and by your leave I will read you the Article That there may be no question of the good intention of our dearest Couâ—in the Prince of Condè and of those that joyned with him we declare That we hold and esteem our said Cousin the Prince of Condè to be our good Kinsman and faithful Subject and Servant as likewise the other Princes Dukâ—s Peers Oâ—ficers of our Crown Lords Gentlemen Towns Communalties and others as well Catholicks as those of the pretended Reformed Religion of what quality or condition soever that have assisted joined and united themselves with him either before or during the Cessation of Arms understanding also thereby the Deputies of the prâ—tended Reformed Religion lately assembled at Nismes and now at our City of Rochel to be our good and Loyal Subjects and Servants And having seen the Declaration addressed to us by our said Cousin the Prince of Condè We believe and look upon what was done by him and the aforenamed to have been done for a good end and purpose and for our Service In all the following troubles the same distinction is to be made The whole Body of Protestants was never engaged in them the greater and more sober part always kept to their Obedience and Duty in despite of all the Injuries that were done them They were contented to encounter God and their â—ing with Tears and Prayers or if they were seen in Arms it was in the Armies and under the Standards of their King whil'st they that were not Protestants but in shew made all the stirs which they unjustly impute to the true Protestants of which if any were drawn in by the insinuation of several disaffected persons and through impatience of the unjust Severities they were treated with against the Engagement of the Edicts to defend themselves by force of Arms their Religion which is from Jesus Christ never allowed it in opposition to their Superiors But after all it was but a small number of the Protestants that gave in to those rough Provocations they then lay under In so doing they departed from the Principles of the Protestant Religion Their own Brethren an inâ—inite number of them have condemned them for it true Christians are pardon'd daily for faults committed upon far more flight motives The King himself that then Reigned has determined That the cause of their taking up Arms which was undoubtedly a very just grievance as well as a sudden terror made their Crime pardonable and rather deserving Pity than Punishment However to lay the fault of particular Men upon the whole Body or the Protestant Religion it self as their Enemies do every day is as if we should charge the whole Church and Romish Religion with the Faults of those Papists who to a very great number followed either the late Prince of Condè in the troubles of the year 1615. or the Queen-Mother Mary de Medicis in those of the year 1620. or the present Prince
of Conde in the Civil Wars during the minority of Lewis XIV I am confident the Papists would cry out against it as a great and foul Injustice done to their Church And yet why do they continually use the Protestants thus unreasonably I presume this may serve for a full Justification in reference to the Spirit of Rebellion imputed upon the account of what passed in the beginning of the Reign of Lewis XIII They cannot wrong them more than to make their Religion answerable for the weakness of some of them who were disapproved by the wisest among them who have more reason to be considered than a few who acted contrary to the Principles of the Protestant Religion as they are contained in their Confession of Faith established by their most eminent Divines as I shewed you at our third Conference So that I suppose Sir it will be needlâ—ss to run through all the several troubles which followed the first down to the year 1629. This may answer the whole Yet methinks said I you should not have done before you have said something particularly of Rochel It s Rebellion and Siege have made too great a noise in the World and perchance that which happened about this Town is what has raised the greatest cry against the French Protestants as Commonwealthsmen and Traytors Therefore I shall no more question their Loyalty and you will enable me to defend them sufficiently under the Reign of Lewis XIII as well as under those that went before if you can set me right in the excuse of Rochel It will be no hard matter for me says our Friend to satisfie you in this Point And we English are particularly obligâ—d to make out the innocence of the Protestants in this affair If any be to blame we are For it was we that engaged them in this last War But God be thanked they can charge us with nothing To make it the clearer to you we must take the Business a little higher Rochel did belong to the Kings of England being a part of their Dominion by the Marriage of Eleanor Countess of Poitou in the year 1152. with Henry II. when he was yet but Duke of Normandy But the King of France Lewis VIII assaulted and took it by force in the year 2224. It fell again into the hands of our Kings who were the rightful Lords of it in the year 1359. by the Peace of Bretegny as part of the Ransome for Iohn King of France who was taken Prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers by Edward Prince of Wales But in the year 1372. the Rochellers were so unhappy as to withdraw their Allgiance from their natural Lord our King Edward III. And to compleat their Revolt they put themselves under the powâ—r of the French King This occurrence ought to be observed though I shall say nothing of it but in Mezeray's own words This Town says he having shaken off the English Yoke desired to come under the French upon condition of preseâ—ving that liberty it had acquired by its own means And therefore it delivered it self up to the King it made so good a Bargain for it self which was agreed by Letters under the Broad Seal and the Seals of his Peers that the Castle should be demolished and that there never should be any within or near the Town c. The same Historian touches upon this in another place In consideration says he that Rochel came voluntarily into France the King Charles V. seeing that the Townsmen having of themselves quitted the Power they were under to the great hazard of their Lives could either continue free or give themselves up to whom they pleased granted them all the Priviledges they could dâ—â—â—re as That they might Coin Florins Mony of a mixt Metal 〈◊〉 the Castle should be demolished and that no other should be built in their Town And by other Letters he promises them that their Walls and Forts should stand and that he would raise none upon them He goes on with the other great Immunities that were granted to Rochel by this King and by his Successors not sticking to declare ingenuously that Henry II. and Francis I. by sometimes placing their Governors and Garisons had infringed their Priviledges He adds ' That the Rochellers looked upon this as a violation and always waited for a more favourable occasion to restore themselves to their original Right By this you see that Rochel did not deliver it self up to France but upon Conditions and so were to continue their Obedience no longer than the Articles stipulated by the Rochellers and accepted by the King of France were observed It appears that one of these Articles says expresly That they were never to build Castle or Fort either in or about the Town Notwithstanding contrary to this Agreement they raise a Fort before Rochel in time of the War which was in the Years 1621 1622. And though they promised by the Articles of Peace which were afterwards agreed upon that this Fort should be slighted yet it always continued which was the cause of those troubles that followed in the Years 1625 1626. the Rochellers being no longer obliged to keep touch with the King of France because he had broke the Treaty by vertue of which alone they became his Subjects The Affairs of Europe disposing the late King our Soveraign Lord Charles I. to interpose for a Pacification The Rochellers and such other Protestants of France as had engaged in their Quarrel agreed to refer all their Concerns to him And he obtained it for them a second time that this Fort which was so great an eye-sore to Rochel should be demolished for which he was Guarantee by an Authentick Declaration that his Embassadors gave in Writing I will read it to you We Henry Rich Baron of Kensington â—arl of Holland Captain of the Guards to the King of Great Britain Knight of the Order of the Garter and Counsellor of State and Dudley Carleton Knight Counsellor of State and Vicechamberlain of His Majesties Houshold Embassadors Extraordinary from His said Majesty to the Most Christian King To all present and to come Greeting It so falling out that Montmartin and Manial Deputies-General of the Reformed Churches of France and other particular Deputies of the Dukes of Rohan and Soubise with those of several Towns and Provinces who were engaged with them have made their Peace with the Most Christiaâ— King By our advice and interposition it is agreed and consented to 〈◊〉 the said King their Soveraign And the Deputies have released many things which they esteemed very important for their security and all conformable to their â—dicts and Declarations which they had express order to insist upon at the Treaty of Peace and which they had resolutely persisted in saving the obedience they owe and desire to pay their King and Soveraign and saving the respect and deference they would shew to the so express Summons and Demands of the most Serene King of Great Britain our Master in
little of Christianity She was an ambitious Queen who by a wicked Policy would govern at any rate even to the sacrificing Religion it self She did not deal faithfully with the Huguenots when she made the Peace with them Her only design was to deceive them It was she that put the King upon that barbarous resolution which was executed upon that bloody and accursed day of St. Bartholomew He sets out Charles the Ninth as a Son worthy of such a Mother This Prince was of an impetuous humour Cholerick Revengeful and very Cruel which proceeded from his dark Melancholy temper and from his wicked Education He was so good a Proficient in what his Mother taught him who was a Woman the best skilled of any in her time in the Art of Dissimulation and deceiving people that he made it appear he had outdone her in her own Craft What was it he did not do for two years together to deceive the poor Admiral He expressed the greatest value and love for him imaginable Embraced him kissed him called him his Father And yet so soon as ever they advised him to dispatch him out of hand He stood up in the greatest rage and swore by God according to his wicked custom Ay I will have him dispatched nay I will have all the Huguenots destroyed that not a man remain to reproach me hereafter with his death They hung the Body of the Admiral by the heels upon the Gibbet of Mount-Faucon lighting a Fire underneath to make him a more frightful spectacle It was so miserable a sight that Charles the King would needs see his Enemy thus dead which certainly was an act altogether unworthy I will not say of a King but of a man of any Birth to such a degree had this Spirit of hatred revenge and cruelty which he had learn'd of his Mother prevailed upon him As for Henry the Third another mortal Enemy to the Protestants Monsieur Maimbourg sets him out as the falsest and most unnatural of Mankind The Sieur Aubery du Maurier says he tells us in the Preface of his Memoirs that he has heard his Father say that he had it from the mouth of Monsieur de Vellievre that at the same time he shewed large Instructions to oblige him earnestly to intercede for the Life of Mary Queen of Scots he had private ones quite contrary from the hand of Henry the Third to advise Queen Elizabeth to put to death that common Enemy to their Persons and Kingdoms And could there be a stranger cruelty than what he makes this Prince guilty of when as yet he was only Duke d'Anjou The Prince of Condè after he had defended himself a long time most bravely at the Battle of Iarnac was forced at last to yield up himself Two Gentlemen received his Sword with all manner of respect But the Baron of Montesquiou Captain of Monsier's Swiss Guards being come up whil'st this was doing and finding by them that it was the Prince of Condè Kill him kill him says he and with a great Oath discharged his Pistol at his Head and shot him dead at the stump of a Tree where he leant It was an action doubtless no ways to be excused especially in a French Man who ought to have had respect and spared the Royal Blood had it been in the heat of the Battle much more in cold Blood They say this was done by the express command of the Duke d'Anjou He says of the Duke of Montpensier an irreconcilable enemy to the Huguenots that he would give them no Quarter that he always talked of hanging them that all he took prisoners he put to death presently without mercy that he said to that brave and wise la Noüe who came to surrender himself Prisoner of War My Friend you are a Huguenot your Sentence is passed Prepare for death that the day of the Massacre this bigotted Catholick went through the Streets with the Marshal de Tavannes encouraging the People that were but too forward of themselves and provoking them to fall upon every body and spare none He makes the Cardinal of Lorrain that great Champion for Popery to be Author of a sordid and cruel proceeding He says of the Duke of Guise whom the Catholicks looked upon as the invincible Defender of their Faith that indeed he did service to the Religion but that he likewise made it serve his turn and to invest him with that almost Regal Power which in the end prov'd so fatal to him Now a Subject that makes Religion a step to mount him into his Princes Throne and take away his Crown can he be otherwise esteemed than as a prophane and wicked man Speaking of the Ligue which as he says had for the chief Actors Philip the Second Queen Katharine and the Duke of Guise the great supporters of the Pope That it had like to have destroyed Church and State at once and that the greatest part of those that ran headlong in with that heat and passion and chiefly the People the Clergy and the Fryars were but the stales of such as made up this Cabal where Ambition Revenge and Interest took more place than Religion which was used but for a shew to cheat the World At last he represents the Court of Charles the Ninth which had been that of Francis the Second and was afterwards that of Henry the Third as a pack of Miscreants and Atheists The Court says he was at that time very corrupt where there was no difference hardly between a Catholick and a Huguenot but that the one went not to Mass nor the other to Sermon As for any thing else they agreed well enough for as much as the one and the other at least generally speaking had no Religion at all profane without the fear of God And yet it was from this Court as from a deadly Spring that flowed all the Persecutions which the Protestants suffered under the Reigns of three of their Kings And Monsieur Maimbourg is very pleasant when he makes it up of Huguenots as well as Papists All the World knows that the Huguenots were banished from the Court of Charles the Ninth so that all he says of this Court can light upon none but the Papists who alone were admitted at that time You are in the right says our Friend and it will do well to finish the draught Monsieur Maimbourg has given us of this Court that I read to you what the Bishop of Rhodes writes of it in his History of Henry the Fourth There never was one more vitious and corrupt Wickedness Atheism Magick the most enormous uncleanness the fowlest treacheries perfidiousness poysoning and murder predominated to the highest pitch But I beseech you Sir says he tell me what you would infer from these words of Monsieur Maimbourg that gives such Encomium's to the same Protestants whom he would seem at the same time to cry down with all
his might and makes such heavy Reflections upon those same Roman Catholicks whom he makes the Pillars of his Church and the greatest enemies to the Protestant Relâ—gion I make no doubt replyed I but I draw the same Consequences from hence as â—ou do that Monsieur Maimboâ—rg plainly shews by this that he ought noâ— to be believed when elsewhere he charges so many faults upon thâ— first Protestants of France and imputes all the great Exploits to their enemies the Papists and that the true Protestants or the good Huguenots being so pious and having the fear of God before their eyes for which he commâ—nds them could not be the causes of Disorders though very likely their Adversaries might have been whom the Historian represents as the most wicked ambitious ungodly and cruel of men By this he likewise convinces us that his Book ought not to be regarded and that we ought not to look upon his accusations against that which he calls Calvinism otherwise then as railing and aspersions invented at will to make way for his better reception at Court or some other by end that is not worth enquiring after It is that which prejudices his Book with all Ingenious Persons and renders it unworthy the least consideration Yet since the enemies of the French Protestants make such a noise with it let me intreat you Sir to clear the matters of Fact to me which he produces with so much confidence to raise a jealousie in Princes upon these poor Men as if they were the Authors of those Troubles and Disorders in the last Age which came within a very little of ruining France First he charges their Religion with being a mortal enemy to Monarchy I confess you have made the contrary appear beyond dispute in our former Conference But he lays his Charge upon matters of Fact whereof I have not knowledge enough to clear the Objections One shall hardly see says he more dreadful Conspiracies than those which the Huguenots have made against our Kings For instance that cruel business of Amboise and that of Meaux not to mention their terrible Rebellions which have cost France so much Blood and the unhappy Intelligences they have held with the enemy to withdraw themselves from their Allegiance and set up openly for a Commonwealth as they have done more than once I beg of you to give me all the light you can to deliver Innocence from so black an Aspersion With all my heart says our Friend and besides when I have taken off this reproach I promise to make it as clear as the Sun at Noon-day that they are Father Maimbourgs Catholicks who are guilty of all these desperate Conspiracies against the persons of Kings which he so unjustly and fasly lays to the Protestants His first proof of the dreadful Conspiracies of the Huguenots against that of their Kings is the business of Amboise and Meaux But before I enter into Particulars I set against him an unexceptionable Witness who openly declares That the Huguenots entred not into any Conspiracy against their Kings in either of those places My Witness is one of the same Religion with Monsieur Maimbourg and what is more a Cardinal and one so knowing and of so extraordinary worth that Monsieur Sainte-marthe is not afraid to stile him The Flower of the Colledge of Cardinals the Light of France and the New Star of his Age Sacrati ordinis aureum Florem Ocellum nostrae Galliae sui denique seculi novum Sidus He had over and above this advantage of Monsieur Maimbourg that he lived in the time of the businesses of Amboise and of Meaux He was above twenty years old at the time of the â—irst and he was too exact and too knowing not to have throughly examined the Causes and Motives of two Occurrences that made such a noise all over Europe You shall hear what he says in his eighth Letter of the â—irst Book upon the occasion of an attempt against the Life of Henry the Fourth You had it already but I cannot forbear reading it again to you for it deserves to be writ in Letters of Gold upon the Front of all the French Kings Palaces To a Prince turned Catholick who should have been encouraged and confirmed by all means possible it was to give him great offence and distaste at the Catholicks when they that call themselves the support of the Catholick Religion should go about to have him Assassinated that which if there were any pretence for the Hereticks ought to have procured or done it themselves because he had quitted and forsaken them and they had therefore reason to fear him and yet they attempted no such thing either against him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors whatever Butchery they had made among them These remarkable words And yet they attempted no such thing either against him or any of the five Kings his Predecessors are a manifest confutation of all that Monsieur Maimbourg's Libel sets forth against the Loyalty of the French Protestants from the beginning of the Reformation which was under Francis the first to the Reign of Henry the fourth The businesses of Amboise and of Meaux happened the one under Francis the second the other under Charles the ninth two of the five Kings Predecessors to Henry the fourth of whom Cardinal d'Ossaâ— speaks Assuring us therefore as he does That the Protestants never attempted any thing against the life of these five Kings he positively denies what Monsieur Maimbourg asserts That in 〈◊〉 two affairs the Huguenots had entred into terrible Conspiracies against their Kings Now in the presence of God which of these two ought we rather to give credit to the Cardinal a man of an unspotted Reputation and who was an Eye-witness of these two passages now in dispute or Monsieur Maimbourg who writ his Libel sixscore years after the business of Meaux and whom the Pope himself has turned out of the Jesuites Order for an untoward reason For every body knows it was for being detected of falsehood in his Writings that the Pope put this high Affront upon him But to come to our present purpose and to be short we will stick to the account Monsieur Maimbourg himself gives of that he calls the business of Amboise This is that he says That at a very close meeting at la Fertè sous Ioûare they determined a high point of Conscience by the advice of Divines Canonists and Lawyers who all agreed That during the present State of affairs men might take up Arms to seize in any manner the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain his Brother to bring them to Tryal provided a Prince of the Blood who is in this case a lawful Magistrate would head the Party That all this having been allowed of by a general Consent the Prince of Condé resolved to head them upon condition that they attempted nothing against the King and the Royal Family nor against the State That