by our present Edict there shall be made by us a good and ample Reglement betwixt the said Courts and Chambers and such as those of the Religion shall enjoy entirely from the said Edict the which Reglement shall be verified in our Courts of Parliaments and kept and observed without having regard to precedents 64. We inhibit and forbid all our Courts Soveraign and others of this Realm the taking Cognizance and judging the Civil or Criminal process of those of the Religion the Cognizance of which is attributed by our Edict to the Chambers of Edict provided that the Appeal thereunto be demanded as is said in the Fortieth Article going before 65. We also Will and Command for the present and untill we have otherwise therein ordained that in all Process commenced or to be commenced where those of the Religion are Plaintiff or Defendants Parties Principals or Guarrantees in matters Civil in which our Officers and chief Courts of Justice have powâ—â—… to judge without appeal that it shall be permitted to them to except against two of the Chamber where the Process ought to be Judged who shall forbear Judgement of the same and without having the cause expressed shall be obliged to withdraw notwithstanding the ordinance by which the Judges ought not to be excepted against without cause shown and shall have farther right to except against others upon shewing cause And in matters Criminal in which also the said Courts of Justice and others of the Kings subordinate Judges do Judge without appeal those of the Religion may except against three of the said Judges without showing Cause And the Provosts of the Mareschalsie of France vice-Bayliffs vice-Presidents Lievetenants of the short Robe and other Officers of the like Quality shall Judge according to the Ordinances and Reglements heretofore given upon the account of Vagabonds And as to the houshold charged and accused by the Provosts if they are of the said Religion they may require that three of the said judges who might have Cognizance thereof do abstain from the Judgement of their Process and they shall be obliged to abstain therefrom without having cause shewn except where the Process is to be judged there shall be found to the number of two in Civil and three in Criminal Causes of the Religion in which case it shall not be lawfull to except without Cause shewn and this shall be reciprocall in the like cases as above to the Catholicks upon the account of Appeals from the Judges where those of the Religion are the greater number not understanding nevertheless that the chief Justice Provosts of the Marshalsies vice-Bayliffs vice-Stewards and others who judge without appeal take by virtue of this that is said Cognizance of the past Troubles And as to crimes and excess happening by other occasions than the troubles since the beginning of March 1585. untill the end of 1597. in case they take Cognizance thereof We will that an appeal be suffered from their Judgement to the Chamber ordained by the present Edict as shall be practised in like manner for the Catholick and Confederates where those of the Religion are Parties 66. We Will and Ordain also that henceforward in all instructions other than informations of criminal Process in the chief Justices Court of Tholouse Carcassonne Roverque Loragais Beziers Montpellier and Nimes the Magistrate or Commissary deputed for the said instructions if he is a Catholick shall be obliged to take an Associate who is of the Religion whereof the Parties shall agree or where they cannot agree one of the Office of the said Religion shall be taken by the abovesaid Magistrate or Commissioner as in like manner if the said Magistrate or Commissioner is of the Religion he shall be obliged in the same manner as abovesaid to take and associate a Catholick 67. When it shall be a question of making a criminal Process by the Provosts of the Marshalsies or their Leivetenants against some of the Religion a house-keeper who is charged and accused of a crime belonging to the Provost or subject to the Jurisdiction of a Provost the said Provost or their Leivetenants if they are Catholicks shall be obliged to call to the instruction of the said Process an Associate of the Religion which Associate shall also assist at the Judgement of the difference and in the definitive Judgement of the said Process which difference shall not be judged otherwise than by the next Presidial Court assembled with the principal Officers of the said Court which shall be found upon the place upon penalty of nullity except the accused shall require to have the difference Judged in the Chambers ordained by the present Edict In which case upon the account of the house-keepers in the Provinces of Guyenne Languedoc Province and Dauphine the substitutes of our Procurators general in the said Chambers shall at the request of the said house-keepers cause to be brought into the same the Charges and Informations made against them to know and judge if the Causes are tryable before the Provost or not that according to the quality of the crimes they may by the Chamber be sent back to the Ordinary or judged tryable by the Provost as shall be found reasonable by the contents of our present Edict and the Presidial Judges Provosts of Mareschalsie vice-Bayliffs vice-Stewards and others who Judge without Appeal shall be obliged respectively to obey and satisfie the commands of the said Chambers as they use to do to the said Parliaments upon Penalty of the loss of their Estates 67. The outcries for sale of Inheritances and giving notice thereof by warning passed or chalked according to order shall be done in places and at hours usual if possible following our Ordinances or else in publick Markets if in the place where the Land lies there is a Market-place and where there shall be none in the next Market within the jurisdiction of the Court where Judgement ought to be given and the fixing of the notice shall be upon the posts of the said Market-place and at the entry of the Assembly of the said place and this order being observed the notice shall be valid and pass beyond the interposition of the sentence or decree as to any nullity which might be alledged upon this account 69. All Title and papers instructions and documents which have been taken shall be restored by both parties to those to whom they belong though the said Papers or the Castles and houses in which they were kept have been taken and seized by special Commission from the last deceased King our most honoured Lord and Brother in Law or from us or by the command of the Governors and Lievetenant Generals of our Provinces or by the authority of the heads of the other party or under what pretext soever it shall be 70. The children of those that are retired out of our Kingdom since the death of Henry the Second our Father-in-Law by reason of Religion and Troubles though the said Children are born out
in Estate to choose one And by the same reason the children of those who actually profess the P. R. R. ought not they be Baptized and trained up in the same Religion being the same with their Fathers and wherein they were born and being that whilst they are yet in their Infancy they are not capable to choose a different one This were to tear away from Fathers their Bowels thus to ravish from them their Infants and to cause them to be Baptized in a Church and instructed in a Religion which they have renounced And we must talk no more of Liberty of Conscience in a Realm where it is given and authorized solemnly by so many Edicts if this prohibition take place This is to chase out of France all those persons how many soever there be who have imbraced the pretended Reformed Religion within this eighty years For where is that Father that can resolve to see his Infants in whom he hopes to live after his Death lead whether he will or not into a Communion from whom he is retired as not finding there any repose for his Conscience where is there a father that can digest the mortal displeasure to see himself bereaved of the fruits of his Marriage and to be condemned afterwards to pay them a Pension as we have seen examples in divers places and particularly in Rouen in the person of one named Bindel Painter whose Children are brought up in this manner If then his Majesty be touched with any Compassion towards his poor and humble Subjects of the P. R. R. he is besought herein to lend an ear unto their grief and cause these terms to be put out of this present Article which seem to have been slipped into it and added thereto by surprize against the intention of so wise a Soveraign For the other part of this Article which imports that the Infants whose Fathers are departed in the Catholick Religion shall be brought up in the same Religion they intend not at all against it provided it be intended of Infants that are under twelve years for Fe-males and fourteen years Males according to the Decrees of the Council regulating the age from which Infants may change their Religion But here is cause to complain of two things in this matter The one that notwithstanding by the Edict of Nantes and by two Decrees made in Council of the twenty eighth of September 1663 and of the twenty fourth of April 1665. the same thing hath been Decreed for the Infants whose Fathers have dyed in the P. R. R i. e. that their Infants should be brought up in the same Religion and for this purpose should be committed into the hands of their Mothers Tutors or other kindred of the pretended Reformed Religion Yet notwithstanding they have nor here made this Article reciprocal From whence they may in time infer that in this they have derogated from the Edict and Decrees of the Council which were before For this cause the King rejecting these words which have been will be pleased to render this Article reciprocal for them of the P. R. R. as well as for them of the C. A. R. The other cause of complaint is that even since the two Decrees came to be published they have not ceased to hale away also by force from the Kindred of the P. R. R. Infants whose Fathers and Mothers have alwayes been of this Religion and dyed therein Moreover now very lately the Parliament of Rouen by an Arrest of the first of February 1668. have decreed that a little Maid whose Father and Mother were departed in the P. R. R. should be taken out of the hands of her Kindred of that Religion notwithstanding they offered to bring her up for nothing that she might be put into the hands of her Tutor who is of the C. A. R. The reason which serves them to authorize such violences to the prejudice of the preceding Decrees is say they because these Decrees of the Council are not Registred and by consequence oblige not albeit that the last of the fourteenth of April 1665. enjoynes all Officers to be conformable thereunto and to cause it to be executed under pain of Rebellion The King therefore to give some means unto his Subjects of the P. R. R. whereby his orders may take effect in this important matter is besought to make thereof an Authentick Declaration which may be Registred in the Parliaments ARTICLE XLVI Schools That they of the said P. R. R. may not keep any Schools for the instruction of their own Children or others but in places where they have right to the publick exercise of their Religion according to the 13th Article of the particulars of the Edict of Nantes in which Schools whether they be in the Towns or in the Suburbs they may not teach save only to Read Write and Arithmetick TO understand well what the Schools of those of the P. R. R. are it is necessary to observe that they are of three sorts The first are their Academies and Colledges where they teach their Divinity The second are publick Schools where they may teach Grammar and Humane Learning with open doors The third sort are particular petty Schools which they keep with their doors shut where the Infants of the said Religion learn to Read Write and Arithmetick only For their Academies and Colledges they are fixed to certain places and they shall not be insisted on here because this Article deals not with their concerns For the publick Schools the Edict permits them in all Towns and in all places where the exercise is publick as the 37th Article of the Particulars doth prove They of the said Religion saith it may not keep publick Schools save only in the Towns and places where the publick Exercise thereof is permitted But as for petty Schools the Edict supposeth them as permitted in all places indifferently by natural reason and equity which authorises Fathers no less to give instruction than bread unto their Children and as well to nourish their Spirits by a familiar Instruction as to sustain their Bodies by an ordinary nourishment So that it cannot be doubted that this is the intent of the Edict for that when it forbids to have Schools elsewhere than in places where the Exercise is permitted it speaks expresly of publick Schools whence it results that it leaves a liberty for particular Schools in other places where the publick Exercise is not had In effect this practice hath alwayes been followed since the Edict and Parliaments have formally authorized this usage by their Decrees The Parliament of Rouen have granted many on this occasion and two remarkable ones amongst others The one in the Month of May 1605. By which notwithstanding the opposition of the Abbess of Montivilliers one named Haise was permitted to teach to Write and Read in that Town of Montivilliers notwithstanding that there was no exercise of the P. R. R. neither in the Town nor in the Suburbs nor within more than
the Church may hurt them That is that the Parish Priests when they please publish their Censures and Monitions against any Person of the pretended Reformed Religion obliging all their Parishioners in general to depose if they have heard any thing spoken by him against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion which makes way for them to rip up all a mans life from his very infancy and if it have hapned that he have spoken of any Controversie they impute it unto him to have uttered some Blasphemies against the Mysteries and Ceremonies of the Church And sometime Witnesses are found who by false reports bring the Honour and Life of men in hazard and we have already seen persons unreproachable whose innocence could not secure them from such Calumnious Accusations and who have been condemned to death for words maliciously contrived with design to destroy them your Majesty is therefore humbly prayed to hinder this so great a mischief not only by removing this Article which will serve for pretext to evil disposed Spirits but also by ordaining just and reasonable penalties against the accusers and the Witnesses who in such contests shall be convinced of falshood and fall short of proving their accusations and above all forbidding those minatories and those wandring uncertain and undetermined Informations which smell of the Inquisition and are capable of troubling all the whole Realm ARTICLE IX Robes and Cassocks of Ministers That the Ministers may not wear Gowns or Cassocks nor appear in the long Robe elsewhere than within their Temples THe liberty of habit is so great in France that it were to strip the Ministers of the quality of French-men to bring the form of their Garments into Controversie If Cassocks or long Robes were in such manner peculiar to Church-Men that it might pass for an infallible mark of their Character and Order it might be that they might have some reason to dispute them with those whom they will not acknowledge for Ecclesiasticks But the Cassock and the Gown are worn of many persons that are not of the Orders of the Church Judges Counsellors Attorneys themselves Recorders Ushers Physicians Regents of Schools or Colledges have this priviledge without contestation And the quality of Doctors Licentiates or Masters of Arts in which Ministers may be invested as well as others and are in a manner is that which properly giveth right of wearing the Cassock and long Robe It cannot therefore be imagined for what reason they ought to be forbidden unto Ministers and when the Ecclesiasticks required this Prohibition and obtained it by a Decree of the Counsel gotten by surprize the 30th of June 1664. to serve for a foundation of this Article of the Declaration it was meerly the effect of their dissatisfaction to the Ministers and only upon design to blast them But the Ministers who are born Subjects of the King hope to find his Justice in the defence of their Honour as well as of their Persons ARTICLE X. Registers of Baptisms and Marriages That the said Ministers shall keeep Registers of the Baptisms and Marriages which are made by those of the pretended Reformed Religion and shall produce from three Months to three Months an Extract thereof to the Registers of the Bailywick and Constableries of their Precincts THis Article is altogether useless in regard that the new Ordinance which is now observed through the whole Realm hath sufficiently provided for the Recording of Baptisms and Marriages ARTICLE XI Celebration of Marriages That they may not make any Mariages betwixt Persons that are Catholicks and those of the pretended Reformed Religion whereon any opposition is made untill such time as such opposition have been removed by the Judges to whom the Cognizance thereof doth appertain THis settlement is also to be numbred amongst the fruitless and there is no need of an Ordinance to inforce this duty upon the Ministers For they do never bestow the Nuptial blessing on Marriages contracted betwixt persons of divers Religions unless it be by vertue of some Decree or Judgement of the Magistrates Their own Ecclesiastick Discipline forbids them to do otherwise and when there is opposition the cognizance whereof belongs unto the Judges they never proceed till they be determined ART XII Consistories That those of the pretended Reformed Religion may not receive into the Assemblies of their Consistories others than those whom they call Elders with their Ministers THe Consistories of those of the pretended Reformed Religion are composed not only of Ministers and Elders but also of Deacons who have the particular care of Feeding Cloathing and Harbouring the Poor The Discipline of the pretended Reformed Churches makes express mention of these three sorts of Persons regulates their Charges their Imployments and their Functions Being therefore the Edict of Nantes in the thirty fourth Article of the particulars doth authorize the exercise of this Discipline and that even the thirty fifth Article doth formally name the Deacons as being part of the Consistories it is not credible that the Kings intention was to exclude the Deacons from thence But as it is usual to draw advantage of every thing against them of the pretended Reformed Religion if the word Elders be left alone in this Article of the Declaration occasion undoubtedly will be taken thereby to hinder the Deacons from entring into their Consistories contrary to the order of their Discipline and the intent of the Edict Wherefore it is necessary to add unto this Article the term Deacons which is there omitted Besides this illustration there are three other particulars also no less necessary to make this Article accord with the Discipline of the pretended Reformed Churches and with the Edict of Nantes which doth authorize it For their Discipline which is the rule of their conduct in their Ecclesiastical Politie Wills that when they are about the calling of a Minister all the Heads of the Families of one Flock should be assembled to give their voice as being all concerned in the Establishment of a person who is appointed for their service So that if they of the said Religion may receive none into their Assemblies but Ministers Elders and Deacons they cannot call any Ministers to the service of their Churches when they have need which cannot be the Kings intention Besides the Edict of Nantes in the forty third Article of the Particulars permits those of the pretended Reformed Religion to assemble to make impositions of Monies which are necessary for the Charges of their Synods and entertainment of their Ministers which notwithstanding they cannot do if this Article of the Declaration be continued as it is and if they cannot receive into the Assemblies of their Consistories other persons than their Elders and Deacons And it may may also come to pass that there may be found troublesome Spirits who will contend that they may not call offenders and scandalous persons into their Consistories to censure them according to their merit and to reduce them to their duty For the avoiding
therefore all ambiguity and that there may not be left any advantage for contentious Spirits to trouble those of the pretended Reformed Religion without cause This present Article had need to be explicated in such sort that his Majesty thereby doe declare that he intends not at all to deprive those of the said Religion of the liberty of calling into their Consistories those whom they shall think fit to cause to come thither because of scandal nor to assemble the Heads of Families for the calling of their Ministers nor to hold Assemblies permitted by the Edict for imposition of Monies for the entertainment of their Ministers and charges of their Synods ART XIII Donations and Legacies That the Elders of the Consistories may not be appointed Inheritours nor Legatees Universal in their said quality THe forty second Article of the Edict of Nantes is Repealed by this For it contains that the Donations or Legacies made or to be made whether it be by last Will in the case of Death or made by the Living for the entertainment of their Ministers Doctors Scholars or for the Poor of the pretended Reformed Religion or other matters of Piety should be valid and obtain their full and intire effect notwithstanding all Judgements Decrees or ether things to the contrary thereof whatsoever This settlement is general and absolute and it distinguisheth not betwixt the Universal and particular Donations And by consequent it respects the one as well as the other For there where the Law distinguisheth not men are not to distinguish Also the King Lewis the Just your Majesties Father finding this Law to be indisputable confirmed it solemnly in 1616. by his Royal answer to the Paper of those of the pretended Reformed Religion in these terms The Forty Second of the private Articles made at Nantes concerning Donations and Testamentary Legacies let it be observed in favour of the poor of the pretended Reformed Religion notwithstanding any Judgements to the contrary And all the Decrees of the Counsell and Parliaments have been alwayes conformable to this Law This change is therefore surprizing and a notable breach of the Edict At the least we cannot doubt that the Kings Justice will make him find two things reasonable and necessary to which his Majesty is most humbly besought to have regard The one is that being no Ordinances have any power retroactive nor touch any thing that is past he would be pleased to ordain in the explication of this Article of the Declaration that it may not prejudice those Donations or Legacies Universal which were formerly made to the Consistories The other that it is not the intention of his Majesty to hinder particular Donations which may be given to Consistories It is very certain that the King's design is not to forbid them For being that in this Article he forbids only Donations universal it follows necessarily that he confirms the particular In the mean time they begin by an excessive transport to dispute the particular Gifts and Legacies and Parliaments have lately made some rigorous Decrees against which those of the said Religion demand Justice of his Majesty at whose Feet they seek their only Refuge beseeching him to authorise the particular Donations which have been or shall hereafter be made unto the Consistories conformable to the forty second Article of the particular of Nantes notwithstanding all Decrees and Judgments to the contrary ART XIV Preaching and Residence of Ministers in divers Places That those of the said P. R. R. assembled in their Synod National or Provincial permit not their Ministers to Preach or reside in divers places by turns but on the contrary do enjoyn them to reside and preach only in one place which is given them by the said Synods THis Article contains two parts the one regarding the Preaching and the other the Residing of Ministers in more than one place As for the Preaching by course in divers places it is true that there have been many Decrees pro and con about this matter so that indeed the business being at this day as it were suspended amongst many Decrees contrary to one another it belongs now unto his Majesty to determine of them by his Soveraign Authority And his Justice gives them of the P. R. R. to hope that he will maintain them in the liberty of their Annexes taking away the prohibitions which have been made against their Preaching in divers places That which gives them this hope is this that these prohibitions have been founded on no other thing than a Misinformation For they never had any other Foundation than from the Edict of the Month of January one thousand five hundred and sixty one by which it was forbidden Ministers to walk from place to place and from Village to Village to preach there by violence and without right But it doth not treat at all of this business of Annexes For it is agreed that Ministers ought not to be Vagabonds and wander from place to place of their own fancy Their Discipline it self doth sorbid this and the Maxims of a good Conscience as well as those of good Polity do oppose it Therefore the Edict of January is in this point altogether just But the Annexes suffer not the Ministers to be Vagabonds but on the contrary fix and settle them with certain flocks They do not give them liberty to go and preach in places where the Exercise is not permitted but on the contrary fix them in places where they have right to exercise according to the Edict What is it then that should hinder the Ministers that they may not preach in two or three places of this nature What pretence can the Ecclesiasticks find to give a colour to their Enterprise Will they alledge the Edict But that forbids not to preach in divers places when they have a right to exercise Besides there is found a Decree made in the Council in the Month of May 1652 by which the King doth formally declare that all the Decrees which have outed the Ministers of this liberty are contrary to the Edicts So that the intent of his Majesty's being to cause the Edict of Nantes to be exactly observed there is ground to believe that he will leave unto the Ministers this liberty the prohibition whereof he hath himself declared to be contrary to the Edicts Will they alledge the Declaration given at S. Germain the nineteenth of December 1634 which they will pretend to be so much the more available for that it was verified in the Chamber of the Edicts of Castres the first of January 1635 But this Declaration was founded upon this that the Ministers of Languedoc went to preach in divers places of that Province where that Exercise was not allowed them These are the proper words which are read in that Declaration which by consequence concerns not the Annexes where they have right to exercise Will they alledge Reason But what reason is there to hinder a Minister to preach in many places when