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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55723	The present state of the Protestants in France in three letters / written by a gentleman at London to his friend in the country.	Gentleman at London.	1681 (1681)	Wing P3274; ESTC R29406	31,309	36

Loyal Protestants and not as is slanderously reported the fruit of any violence gained by force and granted against the hair But farther the Law of Nature and common policy might challenge such an Edict for them as well as Gratitude It is true that Soveraign Magistrates are appointed by God to preserve the publick peace and by consequence to cut off or prevent as much as in them lies whatever may disturb it It is true also that new Establishments in matters of Religion may cause great troubles in a State and that there are Religions which have Maxims so pernicious that when Magistrates are of a different opinion or but so much as tolerate such a one their Lives and their Kingdoms are never in safety But Henry the Fourth found the Protestant Religion wholly establish'd in the Kingdom when he came to the Crown Besides he who had so long profess'd it knew perfectly well that it had none of those dreadful Maxims which makes Princes and States jealous that on the contrary in it Loyalty and Obedience of Subjects to Soveraigns of what Religion and what humor soever was to them an Article of Faith and an obligation of Conscience He knew that Protestants by their Religion were peaceable men who sought but to serve God according to his Word and were always ready to spend the last drop of their blood for the service and the honor of their King But he knew also that the zeal of the Romish Clergy always animated the Popish Common People against them and that they would be sure to fall upon them unless he took them into his protection The Law of Nature then did not permit him to abandon to the rage of the multitude so many innocent persons and common policy warned him to preserve so many faithful Subjects for the State so capable of supporting it on occasion as he had so freshly experienc'd It being certain that had it not been for them the Pope and the Ligue had ruin'd the whole Kingdom But it was not possible either to defend them from the fury of the People or to preserve them for the service of the State if he had granted in favour of them any thing less than the Edict of Nantes so that this Edict in truth was to be ascribed to common Equity and Prudence no less than Gratitude But said I to my Friend do you believe that the Grandson of Henry the Fourth is bound to make good what his Grandfather did I do not doubt it at all answered he otherwise there would be nothing secure or certain in Civil Society and wo be to all Governments if there be no Foundation of publick Trust 1. For if ever Law deserv'd to be regarded by the Successors of a Prince it is this It was establish'd by a Hero who had recovered the Crown for his posterity by his Sword and this Establishment was not made but after mature and long deliberations in the calm of a profound Peace obtained and cemented by many and signal Victories That Hero hath declar'd expresly in the Preface of the Edict that he establish'd it in the nature of an irrevocable and perpetual Law willing that it should be firm and inviolable as he also saith himself in the 90th Article Accordingly he made all the Formalities to be observed in its establishment which are necessary for the passing of a fundamental Law in a State For he made the observation of it under the quality of an irrevocable Law to be sworn to by all the Governors and Lieutenant-Generals of his Provinces by the Bailiffs Mayors and other ordinary Judges and principal Inhabitants of the Cities of each Religion by the Majors Sheriffs Consuls and Jurates by the Parliaments Chambers of Accounts Court of Aids with order to have it publish'd and registred in all the said Courts This is expresly set down in the 92d and 93d Articles Was there ever any thing more authentick 2. The same Reasons which caused the Establishment remain still and plead for its continuance 1. The Family of Bourbon preserved in the Throne 2. The Law of Nature and common Policy 3. The two Successors of Henry the Fourth look'd not upon themselves as unconcern'd in this Edict Their Word and their Royal Authority are engaged for its observation no less than the Word and Royal Authority of its Illustrious Author Lewis the Thirteenth confirm'd it as soon as he came to the Crown by his Declaration of the 22d of May 1610 ordering that the Edict of Nantes should be observed in every Point and Article These are the very words Read them said he shewing me a Book in Folio called The Great Conference of the Royal Ordinances and Edicts I read there in the first Book Title 6 of the second Part of the Volume not only the Article he mention'd but also the citation of nine several Declarations publish'd at several times by the same King on the same subject Lewis the Fourteenth who now Reigns says our Friend hath likewise assured all Europe by his authentick Edicts and Declarations that he would maintain the Edict of Nantes according to the desire of his Grandfather who had made it an irrevocable Law He himself acknowledges and confirms it himself anew by his Edict of June 1680 where he forbids Papists to change their Religion There it is pray take the pains to read it Lewis by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre to all persons to whom these Presents come Greeting The late Henry the Fourth our Grandfather of Glorious Memory granted by his Edict given at Nantes in the Month of April 1598 to all his Subjects of the Religion pretended Reformed who then lived in his Kingdom or who afterwards should come and settle in it Liberty of professing their Religion and at the same time provided whatsoever he judged necessary for affording those of the said Religion pretended Reformed means of living in our Kingdom in the Exercise of their Religion without being molested in it by our Catholick Subjects which the late King our most Honored Lord and Father and we since have authorised and confirmed on other Occasions by divers Declarations and Acts. But this Prince is not content to tell what he hath formerly done in confirmation of the Edict of Nantes read some Lines a little lower and you will see that he repeats again his former Ingagements We declare that confirming as much as is or may be needful the Edict of Nantes and other Declarations and Acts given in pursuit of it c. That is to say That by this new Edict he signs once more the Edict of Nantes and for a more authentick confirmation of that important Law he ratifies together with it and seals with his Royal Seal all the Declarations which had already confirmed it If all this is not sufficient to render His Word Sacred and Inviolable there is nothing in the World can do it all things are lawful and it is to no purpose to talk of any

himself up wholly to the making of Proselytes The Deputies of Poitiers are now here to make complaint of the violences they still labour under They offer by a Petition which they have presented at the cost of their lives if they are found guilty of any Falshood or if they do not make out what they say They set forth that by the Orders of Monsieur Marillac the Protestants are dealt with as declared Enemies that their Goods and their Houses are plundered their persons assaulted that the Soldiers are employed as Executioners of these Outrages That they are quartered upon the Protestants only that besides the excessive expence they put them to they exact money of them with dreadful Oaths and Execrations They knock them down they drag Women by the hair of the Head and Ropes about their Necks they have put them to the torture with Screws by clapping their Fingers into a Vice and so squeezing them by degrees they have bound aged Men eighty years old and beaten them and have misused before thir Eyes their Children who came to comfort them They hinder Handicrafts men from working they take from Labourers what they use for their Livelyhood they set their Goods openly to sale and they clap their Swords and Pistols to their Breasts who are not frighted with their other Usages they drag them in Sheets into their Churches they throw Holy Water in their Faces and then say they are Catholicks and shall be proceeded against as Relapsed if they live otherwise It is not permitted to these miserable persons to complain those who would have attempted it have been seised on and the Prisons are full of them They are detained there without any Process being made against them and even without so much as having their Names entred in the jayl-Jayl-Books If any Gentleman speak to Monsieur Marillac he answers them that they should meddle with their own Business that otherwise he will lay them fast This is a Taste of what they are doing here A Copy of the Third Letter BEing very busie it shall suffice at this time to send you a Copy of a Letter which I just now received from Saintes concerning the Protestants of this Kingdom Sir J. P. our common Friend writ it me He is now making his Tour of France I intreated him to inform himself as well as he could how they treated the poor people in those places he was to pass through that he might give me a full Account This is the Letter dated the last of August Old Style I am now going out of Aulnix where I meet with nothing but Objects of Compassion The Intendant of Rochefort which is Monsieur Du Muins lays all waste there It is the same person concerning whom at the Marquis de Segnelay's we were told so many pleasant Stories last Winter at S. Germain Do not you remember that they talked much of a certain Picard who owed all his Fortune to his Wife and whom the Marquis de Segnelay treats always as the worst of men That 's the Man he is born to do mischief as much as ever man was and his Employment hath increas'd bis insolence beyond measure To this he hath added to the Protestants grief all the barbarous zeal of Ignorance And if the King would let him do it he would soon act over again the Tragedy of S. Bartholomew About ten days since he went to a great Town in Aunix called Surgeres accompanied with his Provost and about forty Archers He began his Feats with a Proclamation that all the Huguenots should change their Religion and upon their refusal he quartered his Troop upon those poor people he made them to live there at discretion as in an Enemies Country he made their Goods to be thrown into the Streets and their Beds under the Horses Feet By his Order the Vessels of Wine and Brandy were staved and their Horse Heels wash'd with it their Corn was sold or rather given away for a fourth part of what it was worth and the same was done to all the Tradesmens Goods Men Women and Children were put to the Torture were dragged by force to the Popish Churches and so great Cruelty was used towards them that the greatest part not being able longer to indure the extremity of the pain renounced their Religion By the same means they forced them to give it under their hands That they had abjured without constraint and of their own free choice The Goods of those who found means to escape are sentenced to be sold and to be pillaged Proud of so noble an Expedition our good man returns to Rochefort the place of his ordinary abode forbids all the Protestants who are there pretty numerous to remove any of their Goods out of the Town under penalty of confiscation of what should be seised and corporal punishment over and above and he commands them all to change their Religion in five days This was done by sound of Trumpet that no one might pretend ignorance The Term expires to morrow After this he marched to Mozé it is another great Town in Aunix where there is a very fair Church of the Protestants and a very able Minister there he set out the same Prohibitions and the same Commands that he had at Rochefort Upon this a very worthy person of the place and Elder of the Church named Mr. Jarry addressed to him with a most humble Remonstrance and this cruel and barbarous man made him presently to be clapt up in Irons After this he quartered his Men upon those of the Protestant Religion where he exerciseth the same violence which he did at Surgeres Nevertheless hitherto no one hath made Shipwrack of his Conscience in this place They suffer all this cruel persecution with an admirable constancy God of his Mercy support them to the end All the rest of Aunix is in extreme consternation There are likewise Prohibitions made at Rochelle against the shipping of any Goods In so much that all they who flie away run a great hazard of carrying away their lives only for a prey Adieu I will end mine as Sir J. P. doth his all your Friends Do you intend to conclude there said I to our Friend I have a mind to do so replyed he tho I have a thousand Insolences and Outrages more yet to acquaint you with But it is late and I have produced but too much to justifie the French Protestants who forsake their Country from any suspicion of impatience or wantonness You see now what are the Reasonable Means that are used to convert them Those goodly means which have been employed are To despise the most Sacred Edict that was ever made by men to count as nothing promises repeated a hundred times most solemnly by authentick Declarations to reduce people to utmost Beggary to make them die of Hunger in my opinion a more cruel death than that by Fire or Sword which in a moment ends life and miseries together to lay upon them all sorts of