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book_n	find_v	king_n	law_n	2,835	5	4.8368	4	true

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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

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 Jesus 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 fit 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 Justice 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 of pure favour I mean the two places of each Bailywick all the Cities and all the Towns

THE Present State OF THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE In Three LETTERS Written by a Gentleman at London to his Friend in the Country The First shews the Privileges granted them by the Edict of Nantes The Second sets forth the Injustice that is done them and the Cruelties that are used to force them to renounce their Religion The Third vindicates their Innocence and their Loyalty LONDON Printed for John Holford Book-seller in the Pall-Mall over against S. Alban's-Street 1681. TO THE READER I Am under a necessity of begging Excuse for what follows because it will come short of the Title-Page which promises three Letters The Truth is the third was in a manner ready when so many fresh Instances of the Barbarity used to the poor Protestants in France came to my hands that I found my self obliged either to defer any account for some time or else to publish these two Letters by themselves But I must confess I was not long in taking my choice For I saw it so requisite to say something presently that I resolved out of hand to publish these my two first Letters The Enemy has been so industrious as to way-lay these poor people and whilst they will not suffer them to live in France they endeavour to prevent their subsisting any where else Amongst some they are represented as Enemies to the Religion establish'd however they profess the same Faith and desire to be esteemed as Brethren Amongst others they are made to appear a mix'd multitude part Protestant part Papist whereas it is as impossible for any number of Papists or indeed almost any to thrust themselves in amongst them undiscovered as it would be for a Black amongst Whites Their Ministers are such as have had their Education amongst them well known and approved before admitted to that Office strictly observed and under a careful Discipline after admission their people well acquainted and observed among themselves as is usual for such as are under a persecution or the jealous eye of their Superiors Besides greater care cannot be taken than is by the French Churches to whom the recommendation of all that come over is remitted to see that their Attestations and Testimonials are true and substantial and I hope the Printed Advertisement has already given satisfaction in this point But that nothing may be wanting to augment the misery of these poor Fugitives and render them at the same time worse than unprofitable to their Brethren It is suggested to the common people that they come to take the Bread out of their Mouths by over-stocking those populous Manufactures which seem already rather to be overcharged and by surfeiting the Land with people Which Objection if we consider strictly according to interest comes not up to any weight or consideration For many of the Manufactures they bring over are such as we had not before and by consequence of the greatest and most unexceptionable benefit to us Others tho not wholly new yet bring so great improvement to those we had already of the same kind that they do in a manner create a new Manufacture There are likewise that give help to a full Trade that wanted hands before to supply it And now if any are so unfortunate as to bring over such as we are more than fill'd with already I would beg that as men we would consider the common Laws of Humanity and let necessity take place of inconvenience and as Christians to have especial regard to those that are of the Houshold of Faith Now that we should be over-peopled I think there is no danger when no considering man but will allow that our Nation wants more than a million of people and that no Country is rich but in proportion to its numbers for multitudes create scarcity and that industry But be the politick consideration what it will never was there greater objects of Christian Charity and Compassion than these poor people 1. If we look upon the privileges of mankind we shall find them here infringed to the scandal of our being Men not only forced to renounce their thoughts and say the contrary to what at the same time they declare themselves to believe but having by violence Holy Water cast upon them and dragged at a Horse-tail to Mass they shall be pronounced Roman Catholicks and made to suffer as Relapse if they dare renounce what they never consented to They are neither permitted to live at home nor to go abroad The Holy and Religious Duty as the Papists account it of Confession is prostituted to Oppression and polluted with the intermixture of secular Concerns For the Confessors now in France conjure their Penitents upon pain of Damnation not to conceal any Debt they owe to a Protestant and when revealed immediately they attach it in the Debtors Hands under the same penalty 2. If we consider them as they are Protestants of France never had people greater privileges better settled nor upon juster grounds of which the first Letter will abundantly convince any reasonable person And yet it will appear by the second Letter that no people were ever reduced to a more miserable Estate and lived But that which ought to move an Englishman in all diversities of his passion at once is not only that they are of our Communion or that our Kings are Garantees for the Edict of Nantes but that we are in a manner punished in them For a great inducement to this inhumane Usage not only seems to be but is really owned by them to be from the rage they have conceived against us for preventing their bloody and hellish Designs by the exemplary punishment of some Popish Traytors Nay if they durst for shame speak out I am sure they would tell us That since they could not execute their malice upon English Protestants they are resolved to wreak their Revenge upon the French and scourge them for our sakes THE Present State OF THE PROTESTANTS IN France LETTER I. YOu are not at all mistaken I can now easily satisfie you in what you desire to know concerning the Protestants of France One that is a Friend to us both who is lately come thence hath fully acquainted me with the condition they are in I saw him the day after his arrival and found him ordering his Books and loose Papers which were just 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