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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46369	The policy of the clergy of France, to destroy the Protestants of that kingdom wherein is set down the ways and means that have been made use of for these twenty years last past, to root out the Protestant religion : in a dialogue between two papists : humbly offered to the consideration of all sincere Protestants, but principally of His Most Sacred Majesty and the Parliament at Oxford.; Politique du clergé de France. English	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.	1681 (1681)	Wing J1210; ESTC R18016	74,263	216

but as we pray the Faithful upon the Earth to beseech God in our behalf what would they say when they came into our Churches and that they saw there the Images Served and the Saints invoqued by all the external acts of a Religious adoration They would certainly cry out upon us for having deceived them and would return to the sink of Heresie It would be better to act Faithfully tell things as they are and make known to Hereticks the naked truth But I avow to you this is not the greatest mischief this Book may do Prov. What is that so terrible mischief which you foresee and which makes you so afraid Par. That mischief is that such Books are capable of multiplying a Party that is in the bosome of the Catholick Church and which will one day be its ruin if care be not taken You must know then that the Church had never so many ill Catholicks as it has at present The Town Country Court and Armies are full of Deists a sort of people who believe that all Religions are the inventions of humane Wit These rash Heads doubt of all they are armed with wicked difficulties against the Books of the Old and New Testament that they may not be obliged to believe that those Books were really written by the Authors whose Names they bear From hence it proceeds that such as pretend to any Capacity in writing have bethought themselves of defending the Christian Religion against the incredulous all their works turn that way and thus if a Bedunt makes a Collection of Scraps and Criticisme upon the Books of the Old and New Testament or upon some particular Texts he calls that Evangelical Demonstration Reflections upon the Truth of the Christian Religion And the most part of these Collections are fitter to confirm these Deists in their incredulity than to make them return because such Compilations are not regulated by Judgment What 's good is mixed with what 's ill and force with weakness and those incredulous minds are the more confirmed in this incredulity by the ill reasons and weak Conjectures that are given them for solid Remarks and are not touched with the good Reasons that are mingled with the ill Besides such kind of Works wherein are related a hundred several Opinions upon one and the same Subject do but furnish a new pretext to their incredulity They conclude that all is uncertain that the most enlightned knew not what to hold to and whose Opinions were quite contrary The truth is that some of these Writings that are made for the defence of the Christian Religion are of a Bulk to fright those Libertines who are not capable of a long Application Thus never reading those great Volumes they do not draw Conclusions disadvantageous to the Christian Religion But as for Books of the size of that of M. de Condoms all the world reads them Now you cannot believe how much the Method those Gentlemen make use of who have invented these gentle ways confirms these Libertines in their sentiments Religion is therein represented to them with a Face wholly new and thereupon they tell us here is a man who transports us into another Country In this new Religion Images are not made use of Saints are not invoqued they are only prayed to as we pray the faithful upon the Earth to beseech God in our Regard I had hitherto believed that the Devotions for the Virgin Mary and for the other Saints were things of importance I see that most part of the Devout lay great stress upon these things and yet these say that they are nothing that they may be let alone and that it is sufficient to invoke God and Jesus Christ they evidently give ground they acknowledge that the Church has erred and that it is in the wrong to recommend the Service of Images and the invocation of Saints upon pain of Anathema If the Church has erred in those Articles why should it be infallible in the others It was mistaken when it ordered us to adore Images build Temples institute Feasts and make Sacrifices to the honour of Saints and why may it not likewise have been mistaken in that it has given us for Divine a Book which perhaps is not so It has no other surety to give us for the truth of those Books and of that Religion which is founded upon those Books than its Authority and infallibility here are Catholick Authors who evidently make a breach in that infallible Authority and thus they open the door to all our Doubts Prov. I understand you But is this the Party you think capable of ruining the Catholick Religion Par. No These are not our most dangerous Enemies They are such Catholicks as I call the third Party who make profession of believing that the Roman Church is the true Church that we ought to be inseparably fixed in it and that we ought never to separate from it but who however do not act as it commands nor have any respect for its Worship These sort of people were never so numerous as they are now in this Kingdom There be some amongst them who push their incredulity so far as to doubt of the most important truths of Christianity They are Socinians they neither believe the Mystery of the Trinity nor that of the Incarnation I know such particular instances that I do not doubt thereof I shall not tell you them because they would only help to make you abhor them And what is most terrible is that it is not only the Religion of our young Abbots it is the Divinity of some grave and wise Societies and who make parade of the purity of their manners and of their zeal for the Catholick Faith Judge you whether such persons as doubt of the mysteries of the Trinity and the Incarnation which all Christians receive have respect for that of the Real Presence and of Transubstantiation which has been exposed to so many Contradictions within these seven or eight hundred years Without reckoning these Socinians it is certain that several Catholicks are in no manner persuaded of the truth of this Mystery neither do they make any difficulty of opening themselves to the Enemies of our Religion when they are one to one and that they cannot be troubled for it When they are asked how they can adore an Object which they only look upon as a Creature they say that they do not adore the Sacrament but that their adoration has respect to Jesus Christ who is seated in the Heavens upon the Throne of Glory Prov. Not long since I happened to be in a place where I was Witness of a very warm debate between Divines who accused certain new Philosophers of being very ill Catholicks and of being of Intelligence with the Calvinists upon the point of the Eucharist Are not these the people you spoke of Par. Yes at least those you mention are part of those I spoke of for there are several others besides these new Philosophers who have no

and in the Canonique Books of the Old and New Testaments that our Subjects may not be filled with new Heresies According to this Article the Lieutenant-General of Xaintes has ordered that the Ministers of his Province should be obliged to make Oath before him and upon refusal he has forbidden them all Function of their Ministry to the very visiting the Sick To which several have imprudently submitted for it was very easie for them to have gone on and not have obeyed because it belongs only to the King and his Intendants of Justice to silence Ministers Prov. But why do the Hugonot Ministers make a difficulty of taking the Oath Par. Because that under pretext of the Oath that they should have taken of preaching nothing contrary to the Word of God they might have been hindred from preaching against the Catholick Religion You know very well that the points which separate Us from the Hugonots are in the Word of God and all our Doctors prove them by Scripture as well as by the Fathers and by Reason Besides by this means a Declaration was revived that is not favourable to them which was extinguished above an Age ago and which was likewise never executed In reviving one Article of it all the others were revived and likewise by renewing this Declaration they would have a right of recalling also all the others which were much more favourable to them They still add that it doth not belong to a little particular Judge to aggravate their Yoke that they live under the Priviledge of the Kings Edicts and that the King is their only Master in things that concern Religion But I must acquaint you with what has been imagined against them in Brittany which is well worth that of ●aintonge A Curate bethought himself to give out a 〈…〉 pain of Excommunication for the ●●●…ging his Parishioners to reveal all 〈◊〉 who had spoken irreverently of the Catholick Religion There was a prodigious number of Witnesses either false or true found who deposed against the Hugonots of those parts Insomuch that they were all obliged to fly to avoid Imprisonment I believe the place is called Quiatin it is a Lordship which belongs to the Family of the Moussays Prov. This Affair of Britany as well as that of Xaintonge brings into my mind another of Dauphine which has this in Common with those as to make appear that generally all that is done against those people comes from the same principle that we have already enough remarked that nothing is spared even to believe that it is a work grateful to God to impute to them false Crimes for the casting them into certain ruin But perhaps you know the Story as well as I it is what passed some years since in the pursuit of the Recollects of Nions have you not heard of it Par. Being one day by chance at the late Chancellour N's House I heard them talk of a Bell that the Religious would have taken from the Hugonots of that place and I also remember that they made so much noise with their Bell that the Counsel was stun'd But I know nothing more of it Prov. What I am going to relate to you has made much more noise than the Bell of Nions It came into those good Fathers Heads that the Minister of Vinsobres a small neighbouring Village of their Convent kept secret Correspondence with the English They so well represented this idle imagination to the Kings Attorney General of that Province that he immediately declared himself his Accuser The whole Parliament of Grenoble sell into this Snare one of the most able Counsellors of their Body was deputed Commissioner to inform incessantly upon the Places The Grand Provost took the Field with him followed by all the Company of Serjeants the Sieur B thus is the Ministers Name choosing rather to be a Bird of the Forrest than the Cage frighted at their March fled as soon as he had notice of it His Evasion fortified the suspicions that were given them of him They fan●●●●l the Syndio of the Consistory might likewise be of the Party and that the Minister had done nothing without his Participation He was the Cock of the Parish and a man likewise very well to pass who at all adventures could pay the Fidlers His person was s●●z●d without other form of Process He was conducted with Irons upon his Hands and Legs into the Conciergery of the Palace The people cryed every where against him all along the way He was to have been sh●●…ed alive at least and they s●●…ck'd 〈◊〉 all parts to Grenoble to see the Execution but in fine Parturiunt Montes exit 〈◊〉 Mus. Par. How Did it all go into smoke Prov. Even so After they had examined the business there was found nothing in it and those that had been concerned were the Publick laughter The truth is that the Parliament in some manner to save their honour detained this Syndie two whole years in Prison but that time being expired he was released without being condemned or absolved The Door was opened to him one day when he least expected it And all the Fruit that was gathered from this 〈◊〉 Process was that this good man turned Catholick during his detention Par. This is pushing the zeal of Religion very far and becoming strangely ridiculous What likelihood is there that in Dauphine which is the farthest Province of France from England they should undertake to keep Intelligence with England while that in Guyenne and in Normandy which are its Neighbours they had no thoughts of it Neither can I conceive how that a Minister of a Village can be bold enough to undertake and able enough to carry on an Affair of that importance But were not these Recollects punished for their false Accusation Prov. They had no great thanks for having occasioned this Sally but what is to be done with people of the Frocks Their Excuse was their good intentions and they were freed with a small Reprimand that the Chief President de la Berchere made them who is certainly a Magistrate of the greatest Integrity and one of the best Servants the King has in France Par. And what became of the Minister was not he Condemned out of Contumacy Prov Very far from that he was suffered to take away his Goods an account of which had been taken and would have returned to his Village if that Tempest had not drove him into a good Port in Swizzerland He possesses a Post incomparably better than that of Vinsobres and these Reverend Fathers have procured him Riches and Repose without thinking on it Within these two years another Minister of the same Province has done as much The Religious of St. Anthony of Vienois persecuted him he retired into Holland where he was very well received Par. Is it not the Minister of who was seen rouling a long time at St. Germains and Verseilles after the Courts Taile I have heard it confusedly said that he was accused of Treason and detained