it his business to reconcile and settle them and afterward they shall be recommended unto their Province to give them a fixed Pastor And whereas they demand assistance from us towards the maintenance of their Minister all possible care also shall be taken herein for their full satisfaction 19. An Appeal was brought by the Lord of St. Stephens Baron of Gangers from the Judicial Sentence of the Colloquy of Sauve ratified by the Provincial Synod of Sevennes and Gevaudan held at Meyruez in the Moneth of July last by which the said Baron of Gangers was ordered publickly to be suspended from Communion at the Lords Table for the Injuries and Violencies done by him to Monsieur Coder Minister of the Church of Gangers and farther that if the said Lord continued to trouble the said Codur in the Exercise of his Ministry that then the Province would espouse his Quarrel and defend him by all lawful ways Ecclesiastical and Civil And in the same Appeal the Consuls and Inhabitants of Gangers did by their Deputies represent how that the same Synod had also in the same manner censured them for that they had given leave to the said Monsieur Codur to withdraw himself from them unto a Neighbour Church until such time as that the Synod had provided better for him And yet nevertheless they were enjoyned by the Synod to pay him continually his Stipend as if he were actually in service among them In short they demanded that the said Codur might be removed out of their Town and transplanted elsewhere The Appellants being called in and heard in all what they had to speak or offer and the Provincial Deputies of Sevennes in the reasons moving their Synod to pass such a Sentence on them and Monsieur Codur also being heard in his defence and pretended Justification and two Elders of the Church of Gangers with Letters from the Consistory requesting that the said Church might be no longer deprived of Gods Holy Word and Sacraments This Assembly ratified the Judicial Sentence given by the Synod of Meyruez as to the suspension of the Lord Baron of Gangers from the Lords Table and the Publication of it together with the censure past on the said Consuls and other the Inhabitants of Gangers as being Complices and Partners with their Lord in all his Violencies and Indignities used towards their Pastor Moreover it censureth the Consistory of the said Church for their Levity manifest enough by their Letters and Testimonials contradictory one unto another And as for Monsieur Codur to procure him peace and to effect he peace of the said Church of Gangers he shall be removed from the said Church and the Province of Sevennes are ordered either by their Synod or by he Colloquy of Anduze to settle him elsewhere and in order hereunto they shall be assembled before New-years day next coming till which time the said Church of Ganges shall duly pay him his Stipend and they shall also satisfie him for all his Arrearages fully unto this very day And whereas the said Monsieur Codur hath met with a world of Fatigues and Troubles by reason of his Imployment in Political Affairs to the great hinderance and unsuccessfulness of his Ministry he is intreated never any more to intangle himself with them nor to assist in Person for the future in any of those Political Assemblies And whereas the said Lord Baron of Gangers the Consuls and other Inhabitants of Gangers here present were exhorted to reconcile themselves with the said Monsieur Codur and the Sieur Codur reciprocally to forget the Injuries he had received and that they would mutually imbrace each other and live in an Holy Concord and Love this was freely and chearfully done by all Parties Whereupon this National Synod to strengthen and consolidate this Union and to conciliate them with those who were absent did take off the Suspension from die said Baron and restoreth him to the Peace and Communion of the Church and by this means all Processes both Civil and Criminal on all sides shall cease and never be used more 20. Monsieur Gallpin Judge of the City of Vsez appealed from the Synod of Lower Languedoc which had suspended the said Gallpin from the Lords Table and ordered that the said Suspension should be published in the Church Although this Affair be not of their Nature which according to the Cannons of our Church-Discipline ought to fall under the Cognisance of National Synods yet for procuring that sweet Blessing of Peace and for divers other Important Considerations This Assembly did enter upon the Debate thereof and accordingly judged that the Synod of Lower Languedoc had just cause for suspending the said Galpin from the Lord's Table and this not upon the account of his Office for which they did not in the least intermeddle with him but for that Reproach the said Galpin hath brought upon the Church very unseasonably by his Extravagant Actings against the Sieur Gondin Viguier Provost of the City of Vsez and for discovering himself by the by to be of another Religion than the Reformed of which he now makes profession However the Synod for divers reasons doth not think meet that his Suspension should be published And forasmuch as the principal end of this Assembly is to promote an Holy Union among all the Members of our Church and principally among Persons whom God hath in his Providence advanced unto publick Office and Honour The said Monsieur Galpin is exhorted to reconcile himself with Monsieur Gondin and both of them joyntly to take such Rules and Measures as may secure the Publick Peace and Tranquility of Gods Church in their respective Places and Callings And the said Galpin and Gondin having testified their acquiescence in this Decree they were both reconciled and promised to surcease all Law-Suits and Processes whatsoever and to live in Amity and Concord together and that in case they should act contrary to these their promises that they would submit themselves unto all Censures of the Church to suspension from the Sacraments yea and to Excommunication it self and that the Consistory and Colloquy of Vsez and the Synod of Lower Languedoc should with the highest Authority proceed against them Whereupon the Suspension and its publication decreed against the faid Galpin by the Synod of Lower Languedoc was taken off and he was immediately restored to the Peace and Communion of the Church 21. The Sieur Boulet appealed from the Synod of Lower Languedoc held at Vsez in March last because he having opposed the Election of Monsieur Astier to the Office of an Elder they had censured him This Assembly confirms the Judicial Sentence or the said Synod and doth grievously censure the said Boulet for retaining so long and notorious a passion contrary to the Laws of Christian Charity which forbid us to harbour Wrath and command us to exercise Love unto all Gods Children And Monsieur Astier also is severely reproved for expressing so much disrespect as he hath done unto
Request to the Chambers ordained by this present Edict without suffering the time imported by those Ordinances to be ran out to their prejudice And till such times as the said Chambers and their Chanceries shall be established Appeals either by word of mouth or tendered in by writing by those of the said Religion before the Judges Registers or Deputies Executors of the Decrees and Judgments shall have the same effect as if they had been uplifted by Royal Letters LXI In all Inquests which shall be for any cause whatsoever in civil matters If the Inquisitor be a Catholick the Parties shall be bound to agree among themselves of another to be in Conjunction with him and in case they cannot agree the said Inquisitor or Commissioner shall by vertue of his Office take one unto himself who shall be of the said pretended Reformed Religion And the same also shall be practised when as the Commissioner or Examiner shall be of the said Religion he shall take an Assessor to himself who shall be a Roman Catholick LXII We Will and Ordain that our Judges may take knowledge of the validity of Testaments in which those of the said Religion are concerned in case they do require it and Appeals from those Judgments may be taken out from the said Chambers ordained for the Processes of those of the said Religion notwithstanding all Customs to the contrary yea and those of Brittain also LXIII To prevent all differences which may fall out in our Courts of Parliament and the Chambers of those Courts ordained by our present Edict we shall make a good and ample Regulation betwixt the said Courts and Chambers and such an one as that those of the said pretended Reformed Religion may intirely enjoy the benefit of the said Edict which regulation shall be verified in our Courts of Parliament and shall be kept and observed without any respect had unto the former LXIV We do prohibit and forbid all our Soveraign Courts and others of this Kingdom to take Cognisance of or judge in the Civil or Criminal Processes of those of the said Religion the Cognisance of which by our Edict is attributed unto the said Chambers provided that they demand the dismission of them thither according to what was said before in the 40. Article LXV We will also by way of provision and till we have taken some further course and shall have otherwise ordained that in all Processes moved or to be moved in which those of the said Religion shall be in the quality of Plaintiffs or Defendants principal Parties or Securities in civil matters in which our Officers and Presidial Courts have full power of judging finally without Appeal that they shall be permitted to require that two of the Chamber where the Processes ought to be judged shall abstain from giving judgment on them who without any cause shown shall be bound to abstain notwithstanding that Ordinance that the Judges may not be held for persons excepted at without cause offered they retaining over and above this those exceptions of right against the rest And in criminal matters in which also the said Presidial and other Subalternate Royal Judges do judge without Appeal the accused also of that Religion may require that three of the said Judges do abstain from judging of their Processes without shewing of any Cause And the Provosts of the Mareschals of France the Vice-Bailiffs the Vice-Seneschals the Lieutenants of short Robe and other Officers of the like quality shall judge according to the Ordinances and Regulations formerly given upon the account of Vagabonds And as for the Inhabitants in the Jurisdiction of those Provosts charged and accused if they be of the said Religion they may require that three of those Judges aforesaid who may take cognisance of their cause do abstain from judging of their Processes and they shall be bound to abstain without any cause shewed by them unless in that Company where the said Processes shall be judged there be no more than two in Civil matters and three in Criminal matters of the said Religion in which case they shall not be permitted to except against or refuse those Judges without shewing of a cause why And this shall be common and reciprocal with the Catholicks in that form as above as to their refusing of Judges where those of the pretended Reformed Religion shall be the greatest number And 't is not our meaning nor intention that the said Presidial Courts Provosts of Mareschals Vice-Bailiffs Vice-Seneschals and others who judge Soveraignly and without Appeal should in virtue of what hath been said take Cognisance of the palled troubles And as for Crimes and Riots which have fallen out upon other accounts than those of the late Troubles since the beginning of March in the year 1585. unto the end of the year 1597. In case they should take Cognisance of them we will that they may take out their Appeals from those judgments and bring them before the Chambers Ordained by this present Edict And the same shall be likewise practised by the Catholick Complices and where those of the said pretended Reformed Religion shall be Parties LXVI We Will also and Ordain that from henceforward in all Instructions besides the Informations of Criminal Processes in the Seneschallies of Tholouse Carcassonne Rouergue Loragais Beziers Montpellier and Nismes the Magistrate or Commissioner deputed for the said Instruction if he be a Catholick shall be bound to take an Assessor who shall be of the said pretended Reformed Religion of which the Parties shall agree and in case they cannot agree there shall be chosen by vertue of his office one of the said Religion by the Magistrate or Commissioner aforesaid As also in like manner if the said Magistrate or Commissioner is of the said Religion he shall be bound in the same form as was said before to take unto himself a Catholick Assessor LXVII When as the Provosts of the Mareschals of France or their Lieutenants shall be demanded to issue out a Criminal Process against an Inhabitant within their Jurisdictions who is of the said Religion and is charged and accused of a Crime which is triable in their Provost's Courts the said Provosts or their Lieutenants if they be Catholicks shall be bound to call in to the drawing up of the said Processes an Assessor of the said Religion which said Assessor shall be present at the Judgment of the Competency and at the definitive Judgment of the said Process Which Competency may not be judged but in the next Presidial Court in an Assembly of the principal Officers of the said Court who shall be present upon those very places upon pain of nullity unless that the Accused should require that the Competency should be judged in the said Chambers ordained by this present Edict In which Case as to what concerns the Inhabitants in the Province of Guienne Languedoc Provence and Dolphiny the Substitutes of our General-Attorneys in the said Chambers shall cause at the request of the said
Provincial Synod of Poictou held at Chastelheraud for that they had judged he was sufficiently reimburst by the Churches of that Province all the Charges expended by him in his Journey unto the General Assembly of Saumur held in the year 1596. And whereas he pretended other summs to be owing to him for several other journeys they sent him unto the Governours of our Cautionary Towns to be recompensed by them because he was their Deputy unto that Assembly and that they received two thirds of the Moneys granted us by his Majesty Upon hearing this whole affair this Assembly did also judge that he was sufficiently satisfied by those Churches of Poictou who yet were exhorted to intreat those Governors to perform their duties and pay their just debt unto the said Mr. des Fontaines 14. The Appeal of the Church of Nage and it's Annexes about what is owing unto their late Pastor Monsieur Terrond was dismissed over to the Provincial Synod of Lower Languedoc who by their judicial sentence shall put a final period unto that controversie 15. Theophilus Bluett Lord of la Combe formerly Pastor of the Churches at Lassay in the Province of Mayne and of Rouelle in Normandy having certified under his own hand that he acquiesced in that judicial sentence past upon him by the Deputies of the Synod of Anjou Touraine and Maine who had deposed him from the Ministerial Office and all acts and exercises thereof tho now he brought his Appeal from them This Assembly doth confirm that sentence of the Deputies and deelareth the said Bluett to be totally deposed from the holy Ministry of the Gospel and that notice hereof shall be given unto all the Churches 16. The Synod of Dolphiny having past another Vote that Monsieur Chamier should be once more importunately sollicited to accept of the Professors Chair in Divinity in their University of Die The Church of Montlimart brought their Appeal from if unto this Assembly which did thereupon revive and ratify the former Decrees of those two National Synods of Gergeau and Gap which had left unto the Churches their Pastors and the Pastors unto their Churches and that they should and be divided one from the other but by their joint and mutual consent and the said Provincial Synod was censured to have insisted again upon this affair after that it had been determined by two National Synods 17. The Church of Lions appealed from the Synod of Burgundy which would constrain them to pay the fifth penny of all Charities received by them to the maintenance of Proposans notwithstanding those many reasons arguments and exceptions they had urged and brought against it This Assembly having heard both parties doth leave the said Church in full liberty freely to dispose of their own Poor's Money but yet it adviseth them seriously to consider what is expedient to be disbursed by them in charities and whither they can keep a good Conscience in neglecting a work of so great necessity 18. The Lord of Rochefort and the Inhabitants of that Town professing the Reformed Religion appealed from the Synod of Xaintonge held at St. John D'Angely for adjudging Mr. Chevalier to the Pastoral Office in the Church of Soubize Upon heating of both parties and perusal of all Articles of Agreement made first and last between them This Assembly confirms Monsieur Chevalier in his Ministry to the said Church of Soubize whereof he is now the fixed Pastor and the Members of the Church of Rochefort have full liberty to compound the matter with the Church of Soubize upon those terms imported in their second Agreement made with that Consistory or else they may Incorporate themselves with the Church of Tonnay-charante and both the said Chevalier and that Consistory are Censured for using them of Rochefort so rigorously as to refuse Communion with them at the Lords Table and to hinder the Baptizing of their Infants in their Church Assembly 19. The Churches of Barbezieux and Xaintes contended about the Ministry of Monsieur Petit who pretending that the Colloquy of Janzac held at Pons had discharged him from the Church of Barbezieux because of their great ingratitude to him and in case they did not satisfie him all Arrerages of Sallary due unto him for his service among them in two months time and for that the judgment of the said Colloquy had been confirmed by the Synod and the said Petit not having been intirely payed what was owing him he had therefore left Barbezieux and settled at Xaintes to which he was lent by the Synod for a month and now he had contracted with the Church there And the Church of Barbezieux complaining of this matter unto the mixt Assembly held at St. John d' Angely a Decree was there made that Monsieur Petit should return unto the said Church of Barbezieux and that the Church should come to accompt with him before the Colloquy And Monsieur Roy Elder of the Church of Xaintes did hereupon bring in his Appeal because the said Synod declared to him that according to the Canons of our Discipline it had full power finally to determine this matter and that the said Petit did not in the least repugne or oppose it Who being after summoned unto that Colloquy which was ordered to examine his Accompts did yet nevertheless make no appearance for which cause the said Colloquy had enjoined him to return unto his Church on pain of being suspended from which he now appealed and hath ever since continued his Ministry in the Church of Xaintes notwithstanding all Counsels and exhortations given him by the Colloquy of Xaintonge to be advised and ruled by them And in this state hath this affair stood till the last Synod of the Province held at Saujon unto which it had been remanded and by that Synod it was dismissed over unto this Assembly Now altho the ingratitude of the Church of Barbezieux be very notorious and well known unto this Assembly yet because the pretended Liberty was only conditional and threatned the said Monsieur Petit could not make use of it as he hath done yea tho it had been absolute he ought not to have usurpt that power so as to ally himself unto another Church without having first consulted the Colloquy and till he had first obtained Letters Testimonial from it and the Church in which he last served and therefore the said Mr. Petit was most sharply censured and he was told to his face that if ever he fell into the like offence a second time he should be deposed from the sacred Ministry And the Church of Xaintes also was judged worthy of a severe Censure for practising by unlawful means to deprive the Church of Barbezieux of its Pastor and the said Church of Barbezieux was justly condemned for their ill treatment of and unworthy carriage to the said Mr. Petit. Upon which account and because both those Churches are faulty and blame-worthy the said Mr. Petit was removed from both and neither of them should enjoy him
were Arbitrators But and if any Members of the said Consistories shall be chosen Arbitrators it shall be as they are private Persons and only in their own names CAN. XV. Besides those Admonitions given by the Consistories if there be a necessity of inflicting greater punishment or censures upon Offendors it shall be either Suspension or Privation for a time from the Lords Table or else Excommunication or cutting off from the Church And Consistories shall be advised to manage both the one and other with singular Prudence and to distinguish well betwixt them as also to weigh and examine very prudently those faults and scandals with their circumstances that are brought before them that so Censures and Judgment may be given according as is meet and requisite CAN. XVI Suspension from the Lords Table shall be used for the greater humbling of Offenders and for quickning them to a most lively sense of their offences This Suspension shall not be published unto the People nor its Cause nor also the re-admission of the Delinquent unless they had been Hereticks Despisers of God Rebels against the Consistory or Traytors to the Church These also shall be suspended who have been attainted of Crimes deserving Corporal punishment and causing grievous scandal to the Church Item those who contrary to the Remonstrances made them were married by a Popish Priest and Fathers and Mothers that so marry their Children and Tutors Guardians and others in the stead of Parents that do in the same manner marry their Orphan-Pupils and those also who shall carry them to a Popish Priest by him to be baptized or represent another at such a Baptism It being needful that such persons although they begin visibly to repent should be immediately suspended and for a time deprived of the Lord's Supper and that their suspension be declared unto the people that so they may be more deeply humbled and induced unto Repentance as also that the Church may be discharged of all shame and blame and to terrify others and learn them by this example not to be guilty of such sinful miscarriages CAN. XVII If by such suspensions Sinners be not reformed but abide obstinate and impenitent after long forbearance and frequent admonitions and earnest sollicitations of them to it they shall then be proceeded against with publick Admonitions made before the Congregation by the Pastor on three Lord's days following and for their greater shame if it be thought needful they shall be mentioned by name and the whole Church shall be desired to intreat God for them and to endeavour by all means to bring them unto Repentance and an acknowledgment of their sins to prevent their being cut off by Excommunication unto which we cannot proceed without a World of regret and grief And if after all this there be no Conversion on the Sinners part but that they persist in their hardness and obstinacy on the fourth Sabbath the Pastor shall publickly declare to the whole Congregation that the said scandalous and obdurate Sinners nameing them particularly are no longer owned by us for Church-Members but in the name and by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his Church are cut off from it And this shall be the Form of Excommunication See the Acts of the second National Synod of Paris in the year 1565. Canon the Second The Form of Excommunication to be used in the Reformed Churches of France decreed by the Synod of Alez 1620. and incorporated with the Canons of Church Discipline by the National Synod of Charenton Observation the 11. upon the Synod of Alez Dear Brethren THis is the fourth time that we declare unto you that N. N. for sundry Sins and Scandals committed in the Church of God and for his Impenitency and contempt of all Admonitions which have been given from the word of God was suspended the holy Supper of the Lord which Suspension and its Causes have been notified to you that you might join your Prayers with ours that the Great God would be intreated to mollify his hard heart and touch him with sincere Repentance and draw him out of the way of Perdition But although we have so long born with him prayed exhorted and adjured him to return unto God and have essayed all means to bring him unto Repentance yet nevertheless he persisteth in his impenitency and with a most hardned obstinacy rebelleth against God and trampleth under foot his Word and the Discipline established in his House and boasting of his Sin hath caused a great deal of trouble for a long time unto his Church and the most holy name of our God to be blasphemed Wherefore we Ministers of the Word and Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath armed with spiritual Weapons mighty through God to throw down the strong holds which do oppose themselves against him to whom the Eternal Son of God hath given power of binding and loosing upon Earth declaring that what we shall bind in Earth shall be bound in Heaven and being willing throughly to purge the House of God and to free his Church of Scandal and by pronouncing Anathema against the wicked one to glorify the name of our God In the Name and by the Authority of our Lord Jesus by the advice and authority of the Pastors and Elders assembled in Colloquy and of the Consistory of this Church we have cut off and do cut off the said N. N. from the Communion of the Church of God We do Excommunicate and deprive him of the Fellowship of Saints that so he may be unto you as a Pagan or Publican and that among true Believers he may be an Anathema and Execration Let his Company be reputed Contagious and let his Example possess your Souls with astonishment and cause you to tremble under the mighty hand of God! And this Sentence the Son of God will ratify and make effectual until such time as the Sinner being confounded and abased before God shall glorify him by his Conversion and being delivered from the Bonds of Satan to whom he is inslaved he may mourn for his Sin with Repentance unto Life Let 's pray God most dearly Beloved Brethren that he would daign to compassionate this most miserable Sinner and that this dreadful Sentence which with very great regret and sorrow of heart we have pronounced against him by the authority of the Son of God may contribute unto his humiliation and bring back into the way of Life and Salvation a Soul which is wandered and strayed from it Amen! Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord negligently Amen! If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen CAN. XVIII Henceforward all Sentences of Excommunication confirmed by the Provincial Synod shall be of full power and valid as also all Sentences of Suspension from the Lord's Supper made by the Consistory which were not declared unto the People shall hold good although the Person suspended had entered his Appeal unto the Colloquy
wronged Party shall produce before the Consistory and then the Consistory shall declare unto him that Liberty which God in his holy Word hath given him But in regard of our present difficulties the Ministers of this Kingdom are advised not to re-marry the said Parties to whom this Liberty of providing themselves elsewhere hath been granted And as for the Delinquent Party there shall be very great and mature Deliberation used before she have any Liberty at all allowed Her CAN. XXX If it should fall out that after Marriage-Promises have past and before its accomplishment a betrothed Woman be found to have played the Whore either before or after the said Promises and that it was unknown to him who had promised her Marriage a definitive Sentence being given by the Magistrate upon it the Consistory may proceed to bless a new Marriage And the betrothed Woman shall have the same Liberty if it be found that her betrothed Husband had committed Fornication after he had made her Promises of Marriage CAN. XXXI Women whose Husbands are gone away and have absented themselves a long time about Mercantile affairs or for other Causes if they demand Licence to be Married again they shall have recourse unto the Civil Magistrate CAN. XXXII As for the Wives of Priests and Monks who turn Apostates and return unto their old Idolatry chanting Masses or re-entring into their Cells from which they had formerly departed they shall be admonished not to cohabit with their said Husbands during their Apostasie that God's Ordinance of Marriage may not be loaden with reproach and infamy nor may they marry any other until such time as their first Marriage shall be dissolved by the Civil Magistrate CHAP. XIV Chap. XIV Of Particular Orders Of particular Orders and Advertisements CANON I. NO Person shall be received into Communion with the Church till such time as be have first publickly renounced all the Superstitions and Idolatries of the Romish Church and in particular the Mass CAN. II. No godly Man shall be allowed to intermeddle with any matters conjoined with Idolatry such as those they call the Baisemains or Le Dedans de Leglise nor to cause Masses and Vigils to be said nor to ordain Monks who be solely ordained to this purpose But to hold Priories Revenues Rents Chanteries and Tithes and to pay the profits of them unto the Popish Ecclesiasticks for as much as they be Temporal Lords it is a thing indifferent and they that will do it may take their Liberty Nevertheless the Faithful shall be advised not to intermeddle with these matters if they find any abuses in them or an appearance of evil Consequences of all which Consistories and Colloquies shall pass a prudent judgment CAN. III. Such as by unlawful means as by Papal Bulls or a sum of money shall buy or hold Benefices or such as in like manner shall directly or indirectly maintain Idolatry shall be denounced Persons utterly unworthy of Communion with our Churches in the holy Supper of the Lord nor shall they be admitted to it And as for Benefices of which any one may have an Advowsonage whether by Presentation from the Lord of the Mannor a Lay-Patron or by the Bishops Gift the Faithful are advised not to accept of them though tender'd to them if there be a tacit or express condition of any service to be performed unto the Idol CAN. IV. Printers Booksellers Painters and other Artificers and in general all the Faithful and particularly such as bear Office in the Church shall be admonished that they do not in the least act any thing in their Calling that tends directly to countenance the Superstitions of the Church of Rome and as for secret Acts and the Censure incurred by them their judgment is left unto the Consistory CAN. V. Notaries Scrivenors and others who by the Duty of their Callings are obliged to sign and seal indifferently all matters which are brought unto them they shall not be censured for receiving Testaments passing Contracts and expediting Letters which concern Idolatry nor Judges for their judging Causes concerning Ecclesiastical Estates and the Execution of the Edict CAN. VI. Arbitrators shall not in any manner of way intermeddle with things which concern Idolatry either directly or indirectly CAN. VII Neither Counsellors nor Attorneys at Law shall plead in those Causes which tend to the suppression of the Ministry of the Gospel or to the setting up of Mass nor shall they in any manner of way whatsoever be allowed to give their advice or assistance unto the Romish Churchmen in those Causes which do either directly or indirectly tend unto the oppression of a Reformed Church CAN. VIII Neither Bishops nor Officials nor Arch-Deacons as they be now Constituted have of right any Civil or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction However because the Faithful are sometimes constrained to appear before them for obtaining their own just dues which otherwise would be detained from them in case they he turned over to them by the Civil Magistrate to whom they shall first make their applications they may warrantably enough have recourse unto them CAN. IX Godly Advocates ought not in any wise to plead in the Officials-Court unless in those Cases in which they be necessitated to prosecute the right of their Clients before them according to the last foregoing Canon CAN. X. It is not in it self unlawful to exercise civil Jurisdictions as to act as Attorneys for and under Ecclesiastical Persons unless in such Cases which they call spiritual CAN. XI The Faithful may not take out or cause to be Executed any Monitory or Writ of Excommunication from the Church of Rome CAN. XII Forasmuch as it is neither lawful not expedient to heat the Popish Preachers nor any others who have intruded themselves without a lawful Call the Flocks shall be hindred by their Pastors from going to them and such as shall go they shall be called into the Consistory and Censured according to the nature of their offence CAN. XIII Lords Gentlemen and others shall be admonished according to the Discipline of our Church not to entertain in their Houses any scandalous or incorrigible Persons and above all that they do not suffer any Priests to sing Mass or to dogmatize and debauch their Domesticks nor shall they admit of any such again into their service if they have once discarded them CAN. XIV Fathers and Mothers shall be exhorted to be very careful of their Childrens Education which are the Seed-Plot and promising hopes of God's Church And therefore such as send them to School to be taught by Priests Monks Jesuits and Nuns they shall be prosecuted with all Church-Censures Those also shall be Censured who dispose of their Children to be Pages or Servant unto Lords and Gentlemen of the contrary Religion CAN. XV. They whose Brethren Sisters or other Kindred have quitted their Monasteries to serve God in liberty of Conscience shall be exhorted to relieve them and to provide for them according to the duties
service and the benefit of our Subjects and when any one shall be dismissed others shall be provided and put into their places before their departure without ever being able during the time of their service to depart or absent themselves from the said Chambers without leave of which a judgment shall be made according to the Causes of that Ordinance XLIII The said Chambers shall be established within six Months till which time if the said Establishment should be so long delayed the Processes moved or that may be moved in which those of the said Religion shall be Parties within the Jurisdictions of our Parliaments of Paris Rouen Dijon and Rennes shall be called out unto the Chamber which is now established at Paris by vertue of the Edict made in the year 1577. or else unto the great Council at the choice and will of those of the said Religion in case they shall require it Those which shall be of the Jurisdiction of the Parliament of Bourdeaux unto the Chamber established in Castres or unto the great Council at their choice and those which shall be of Provence unto the Parliament of Grenoble And if the said Chambers be not established within three Months after this our present Edict shall have been tendered to those our Parliaments that Parliament which shall refuse so to do shall be interdicted the Cognisance and Judgment of their Causes who profess the said Reformed Religion XLIV The Processes which are not as yet judged hanging in the said Courts of Parliament and great Council of the quality beforesaid in whatsoever estate they may be shall be dismissed over unto the said Chambers and to their respective Jurisdictions if one of the Parties being of the said Religion do so require it within four Months after their Establishment and as for those which shall be discontinued and are not yet in a condition to be judged those of the said Religion shall be bound to make Declaration at the first intimation and signification that shall be made them of their being prosecuted and the said time being lapsed they shall not be any more admitted to require such Dismissions XLV The said Chambers of Grenoble and Bourdeaux as also that of Castres shall keep to the Forms and Stile of the Parliaments in whose Jurisdiction they shall be established and shall give judgment in an equal number both of the one and other Religion unless the Parties do consent that it should be otherwise XLVI All Judges to whom the Executions of Decrees Commissions of the said Chambers and the Letters obtained out of their Chanceries shall be directed as also all Ushers and Sergeants shall be bound to put them in Execution and the said Ushers and Sergeants shall execute all Warrants throughout our Kingdom without demanding a Placet or a Visa ne pareatis on pain of being suspended from their Offices and of paying the expences dammages and Interests of the Parties the Cognisance of which shall appertain unto those Parties aforesaid XLVII There shall be no Evocations of Causes granted the Cognisance of which belongeth unto the said Chambers unless in the Case of Ordinances which shall be dismissed unto the next Chamber established according to our Edict and the Division of the Processes of the said Chambers shall be judged of in the next observing the proportion and forms of the said Chambers from which the Processes shall be issued out excepting for the Chamber of the Edict to our Parliament of Paris where the several Processes shall be divided in the self-same Chamber by those Judges which shall be appointed by us and by our particular Letters to this very purpose unless the said Parties would rather wait for the Renovation of the said Chamber And if it so fall out that one and the same Process should be divided among all those mixed Chambers then the Division shall be dismissed over to the said Chamber of Paris XLVIII When as there be exceptions made against the Presidents and Counsellors of the mixed Chambers they shall be only made against six of them to which number the excepting Parties shall be bound to confine themselves but if they will not then there shall be a proceeding unto Tryal without any regard had of the said Exceptions XLIX The Examen of the Presidents and Counsellors newly erected in the said mixed Chambers shall be made in our Privy-Council or by the said Chambers every one in his District when as there shall be a sufficient number of them and yet nevertheless the Oath accustomed shall be taken by them in the Courts where those said Chambers shall be established and if they refuse it in our Privy-Council those of Languedoc always excepted who shall make Oath before our Chancellor or in that Chamber L. We Will and Ordain that the Reception of our Officers of the said Religion shall be adjudged in the said mixed Chambers by plurality of Voices as it hath been accustomed to be done in other Judgments without any need of having more than two thirds of the Suffrages according to that Ordinance from which in this respect only there is a derogation LI. In the said mixed Chambers shall be handled the Propositions Deliberations and Resolutions which belong unto the publick Peace and the particular Estate and Government of the Towns in which those Chambers shall be LII That Article of the Jurisdiction of the said Chambers Ordained by this present Edict shall be followed and observed according to its form and tenour yea and as to all concerns about the Execution or Unexecution or Infraction of our Edicts when as those of the said Religion shall be Parties LIII The Subalternate Royal Officers or others whose Reception appertaineth to our Courts of Parliament if they be of the said pretended Reformed Religion may be examined and received in the said Chambers To wit those of the Jurisdictions of the Parliaments of Paris Normandy and Brittaine in the said Chamber of Paris those of Dolphiny and Provence in the Chamber of Grenoble those of Burgundy in the Chamber of Paris or of Dolphiny at their own choice those of the Jurisdiction of Tholouse in the Chamber of Castres and those of the Parliament of Bourdeaux in the Chamber of Guienne nor may any other Persons oppose their Reception or become Parties against them unless our Attorneys-General or their Substitutes and those who be provided unto the said Offices Yet nevertheless the accustomed Oath shall be taken by them in the Courts of Parliament which hath no power to take any Cognisance of their said Receptions and in case those said Parliaments should refuse the said Officers shall take their Oaths in the said Chambers and after they have so took it they shall be bound to present by an Usher or Notary the Act of their Receptions unto the Registers of the said Courts of Parliament and to leave a Copy thereof collationed with the said Registers who are injoined to Register those said Acts upon pain of the expences dammages and
the said summs of which they have brought in the Accompts as was said shall be endorsed upon the Commands issued out by the Treasurer of the Exchequer in the names of the extraordinary General-Treasurers of our Wars for the payment of the said Garrisons And in case the said Commands should not amount to as much as our said Accompt for the year sisteen hundred ninety and six and the augmentation we ordain that to make it up there shall be expedited new Commands for what is wanting to discharge the said Accomptants and for restitution of the said Promises and Obligations so that nothing shall be demanded for the future from them who shall have thus acted and all Letters of Confirmation which may be needful for the discharge of the said Accomptants shall be expedited by venue of this present Article LXXXII Moreover those of the said Religion shall quit and abandon from this day forward all Correspondencies Negotiations and Intelligencies as well within as without our Kingdom and the said Assemblies and Councils established in the Provinces shall break up speedily and all Leagues and Associations done or to be done under what pretext soever it be in prejudice of this our present Edict shall be broken and disannulled as we do now break and disannul them We most expresly forbidding all our Subjects that for the future they do not make any Assessments or Levies of money without our Permission Fortifications Enrollments of men Gatherings or Assemblies besides these which are permitted by this our present Edict and these to be unarmed which we do prohibit and forbid them upon pain of being punished most rigorously and as Contemners and Transgressors of our Commands and Ordinances LXXXIII All Prizes taken upon the Sea during these troubles by vertue of Grants and Warrants then given and those which have been done ashore upon those of the contrary Party and which have been judged by the Judges and Commissioners of the Admiralty or by the Commanders in Chief of those of the said Religion or their Council shall be all suppressed by the benefit of this our present Edict so that upon those accompts there shall never be made any Prosecution Nor shall the Captains nor any others who made the said Prizes nor their Sureties nor the said Judges Officers their Widows and Heirs be sought after nor molested in whatsoever manner it may be notwithstanding all Decrees of our Privy-Council and of Parliament and Letters of mark and seizures yet depending and not judged all which we will shall be fully and entirely released and discharged LXXXIV Moreover those of the said Religion shall not be prosecuted for those oppositions and hindrances which they have made before or since the troubles about the Decrees and Judgments given for the establishment of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion in divers places of this Kingdom were Executed LXXXV And as for what was done or taken during the troubles not in ways of Hostility or by Hostility against the publick or private Reglements of the Heads or Communalties of the Provinces who then had Command such matters may be prosecuted according to due Form of Law LXXXVI Yet nevertheless sith that what was done on the one side and other against their Reglements is indifferently excepted and reserved in that General Abolition granted by this our present Edict and is subject unto prosecution and that there is no Souldier but is thereupon liable unto Impeachments from whom new troubles may arise for this Cause We will and ordain that only Execrable matters shall stand excepted in and by the said Act of Indemnity such as Rapes and forcings of Women and Maids Burnings Murders and Robberies committed treacherously wittingly and of set purpose not in ways of Hostilities but to exercise particular revenges against the Laws of War Infractions of Passports and Safeguards with Murders and Plunderings without Authority of those of the said Religion or of any who have followed the Party of the Commanders who had Authority over them grounded upon special occasions which moved them to command and order it LXXXVII We Ordain also that those Crimes and Offences committed among Persons of the same Party unless it be in acts commanded by the Chiefs of both sides according to the necessity Law and order of War shall be punished And as for all Levies and Exactions of moneys bearing of Arms and other exploits of War done by private Authority and unavowed shall be prosecuted according to due course of Law LXXXVIII The Towns which were dismantled in the late troubles their ruins Licence being first had and obtained from us may be reedified and repaired by the Inhabitants and their charges and expences and provisions formerly granted to this purpose shall be allowed LXXXIX We Ordain and 't is our Will and Pleasure that all Lords Knights Gentlemen and others of whatsoever quality and condition of the said pretended Reformed Religion and others who have followed their Party may re-enter and shall be effectually conserved in the injoyment of all and singular their Rights Titles Priviledges and actions notwithstanding the Judgments issued out against them during the late troubles or by reason of them which Decrees Seizures Judgments and all that hath ensued upon them we have to this end declared and do declare to be null and void and of none effect and value XC Those Purchaces made by the Professors of the said pretended Reformed Religion and of others who have followed their Party by other Authority than that of the late Kings our Predecessors of the immoveables belonging unto the Church shall not be allowed nor take effect but we do Ordain and 't is our Will and Pleasure that the Ecclesiasticks shall re-enter immediately and without delay and shall be conserved in the real possession and actual injoyment of the said alienated goods without ever being bound to restore the price for which they were sold and this notwithstanding the said Contracts of sale all which we have to this purpose broken and revoked as null without suffering the said Purchasers to recover it from their Chief Commanders by whose Authority the said goods were sold And yet nevertheless that the moneys which they had truly and without fraud paid down may be reimbursed to them we will Expedite our Letters Patents to those of the said Religion with License that they shall impose upon themselves and equalize the summs unto which the said Sales did amount without enabling the said Purchasers to take forth any action for their dammages and interests through want of enjoyment but they shall rest contented with the reimbursement of the moneys paid in to them for the price of the said purchaces they first deducting out of the said price the profits received by them in case it should appear that the said Sale was made at a very low and unjust price XCI And that our Justices Officers and other our Subjects may be clearly and certainly informed of our will and intention and that we
said Court and that in every point and particular you keep maintain and observe their Contents even as this our said Edict Ceasing and causing to cease all troubles and impediments to the contrary For such is our Pleasure Given at Nantes this second day of May in the Year of Grace 1598. And of our Reign the Ninth Signed by the King Forget And Sealed on a single Label of yellow Wax SECT XVI N. B. A Learned Advocate of Nismes relates from the Press how that Monsieur de Thou President in the Parliament of Taris and the Lord de Calignon a most Zealous Protestant Chancellour of Navarre drew up this Edict and spent three years about it If De Calignon would but have followed his Master Henry the Fourth in his Apostacy from the Reformed Religion unto Popery he had been made Lord High Chancellour of France But that most Pious Lord refused the Greatest Honour that a Person of the Long-Robe was capable of in France that he might not lose the Eternal Glories of the Kingdom of Heaven SECT XVII This Edict was kept tolerably well for twelve years during the Life of Henry the Great as they called him after his Death And yet there were many infractions of it of which the National Synods held at Gap 1603. and at Rochell 1607. Complained in their Bills of Grievances But no sooner was he sent out of the World by the Parricidal Hand of a Disciple of the Jesuits but the Reformed immediately found their want of him And though they had some sprinklings of Court Holy-water now and then yet the old implacable Malice of the Popish Clergy against them brake out upon all occasions and Louis the Thirteenth who succeeded his Father as another Antiochus at their instigation made War with God's Saints in his Kingdom seized upon their Cautionary Towns took away from them their Franchises deprived their Ministers of those Sallaries for which the Churches parting with their Tithes in lieu of that Money which was to be paid by Tallies out of the Exchequer unto their Pastors had compounded with his Father He devoured brake in pieces and stamped the residue of them with his feet so that their strength was quite gone and they lay at his mercy He could do with them as he pleased But the time of their total ruin was not yet come And God giveth the Churches some mercy in the midst of judgment Hence the French King having other designs in his head and looking beyond the bounds of his native Kingdom he leaves persecuting his Reformed Subjects and that there might be a Calm at home and these oppressed lull'd asleep he issueth out his Edict of Grace and Pardon to them from Nismes in the Lower Languedoc dated July 1629. Which is offered to the Reader 's eye SECT XVIII The King's Edict of Grace and Pardon granted by his Majesty unto the Duke of Rohan and the Lord of Soubize and to all other his Rebellious Subjects of the Towns Champain Countrey Castles and places in the Provinces of Higher and Lower Languedoc Sevennes Gevaudan Guienne Foix and elsewhere together with the Articles Done at Nismes in July 1629. and verified in the Parliament of Tholouse the 27th of August the same Year LOUIS by the grace of God King of France and Navarre to all present and to come greeting That Love we bear unto our Subjects and that Compassion we have for the Miserie 's brought upon them by the Wars and Divisions with which this poor Kingdom hath been a long time afflicted have touched us so sensibly that laying by all Considerations of our Health and the Inconveniences of the Seasons of the Year we have used all means possible to reduce under our obedience those who had departed from it and had been the cause of all these Calamities We hoped that the example of those Cities which returned under our Authority in the Years 1620 1621 and 1622 would have affected them with a sence of gratitude but seeing they were hindred from so doing by their obstinacy or by the violence and artifice of those Factions in which they were ingaged We have invited them by our Declarations to return unto their Duty and by all the most favourable Perswasions that our Subjects could receive We have also prepared great and puissant Armies that by force we might reduce them who being obstinate in their Rebellions were become deaf and blind and not moved with any Arguments and Occasions offered them for their Duty And God hath been pleased to bless us with success and to let us reap and enjoy the fruit of our Arms which the City of Rochel hath first of all experienced as is evident by the Edict that We caused to be made and published upon its reduction The City of Privas in Vivaretz which consided in its situation difficult and as they believed inaccessible in its Fortifications and in the abundance of its Provisions and Ammunitions with which it was replenished priding it self in a long continued Prosperity was so bold as to resist Us and to attend the Battery of our Cannons and the Effort of our Arms and despising the sweet Summons of our Goodness the hatred of the Inhabitants was so great that losing all hopes of maintaining themselves in their Rebellion they had rather abandon their Houses and Estates than seek their preservation in our Mercy of which they might have been assured so that they have lost the very hopes of ever enjoying it and could in no wise avoid their destruction by Fire and Sword which the Divine Vengeance hath excited against them for which reason we have provided by our Letters of Declaration separately expedited that they should not be comprised in this present Edict But this Chastisement having rendred others wiser hath caused that not only the High and Lower Vivaretz but also divers other Towns and Forts have returned unto their Duty and have sworn Fidelity unto Us for which cause We have pardoned them their Rebellion and granted them an Act of Oblivion causing their Fortifications and Walls to be demolished which feeding the foolish confidence of others had occasioned all those Miseries they have since suffered Divers Gentlemen also being touched with the Felicity which they had found in our Favour have had recourse unto it and received it and have quitted the Rebels Party The City of Alez extreamly strong in its situation fortified with Ramparts and Bulworks and of all that the Wit of Man could invent for troubling the Land made semblance as if it would resist and stop the Course and Progress of our Victories but when it saw it self incompassed with our Army our Cannons of Battery ready to make a breach it durst not stand out the first shot lest it should be forced to submission as is ever practised in such like cases by the Laws of War so that the Inhabitants came and prostrated themselves at Our feet and implored Our Favour and Pardon which We graciously bestowed upon them And when as
to several Goldsmiths in the City of Sedan for which the Civil Magistrate inflicted corporal Punishment upon him in the said City all which he could not but acknowledge and confess to be true before this Assembly For these Causes the said Bonniot or Bouquier is deposed from the Sacred Ministery as a Person uncapable and utterly unworthy of it and shall be continued on the Roll of Vagrants and shall do publick Penance in the said Church of San Bouchard However because of his deep Poverty and great and numerous Family of Children we do License him to keep School and to instruct Youth but with this Proviso that the Ministers of the Places where he shall live do watch over him and his Deportments with a very strict and careful Eye VI. An Appeal was brought by Monsieur De la Jaille and the Church of Saujon who complained of the Wrongs done them by the Provincial Synod of Xaintonge held at Saujon which had adjudged him Pastor unto the said Church of Saujon without obliging it to defray his Expences in coming to it This Assembly ordereth that the Colloquy or Synod of that Province shall censure the said Church and Monsieur Royan the Minister for their pragmatical intermeddling in a Business not appertaining to them VII Monsieur Boucquet shall write unto the Colloquy of Aunix that Monsieur Baron may be returned unto the Church of La Guerche in the Province of Anjon there to exercise his Ministery in Obedience to the Call given him VIII The Synod of the Isle of France shall make an exact Enquiry into the Life Writings and Conversation of Monsieur Gibbon sometime Minister of Deippe that Judgment may pass upon him accordingly IX Forasmuch as Mr. Bernard Giraud hath been divers times recalled by his Church of Marceoill in Poictou and by the Synod of Poictou he shall be censured for his disobedience to this Summons and also for that he quitted his Church at first and this according to the Canons of our Discipline And the Colloquy of Annix shall in like manner be censured for admitting him among them without any testimonial Letters of Dismission For which cause this Assembly will remove the said Giraud elsewhere X. This Assembly will take special care of Monsieur Christian for his Subsistance But in the mean while the Church of Poictiers shall be severely censured for their default of Duty baseness and ingratitude to this Reverend Man of God who was one of their first and most ancient Pastors and who laid the very Foundations of their flourshing Church And the said Church shall be summon'd to the next Synod and injoyned to give him full Contentment and Satisfaction and to pay him all Arrerages owing to him for time past and to relieve him now in his old Age. XI The Province of Anjou shall be obliged to provide for the Safety of Monsieur Daniel a Minister of the Gospel who was formerly sent unto them and is now remanded back unto them by this present Assembly and that Church which shall call him unto their Service shall reimburse him those Expences he was at during the last Persecution XII Monsieur Daniel shall exercise his Ministery in the House and Court of his Excellency the Prince of Conde but only for some Months in the Year which being expired he may be redemanded by his own Church and Province And the Church of Bergerac shall likewise lend Monsieur de Borda their Minister unto the said Prince for four Months more of the same Year And this shall hold till such time as some other course be taken And Monsieur Martin shall be the ordinary Minister of his Excellency's House and Family XIII Monsieur de Malescot who was the first Minister of the Church of Montagu in the County of Perche shall be summoned by the Province of Poictou unto which he doth belong to return unto the said Province according to the Canons of our Discipline however without any prejudice unto the said Church of Montagu and the said Province of Poictou is ordered to receive those Informations of the Province of the Isle of France concerning the Deportments of the said Malescot his Writing and his Way and Manner of Preaching XIV The Brethren of the French Church of London in the Kingdom of England sent Letters unto this Assembly petitioning that Messieurs de Villiers Minister of the Church of Rouan and de la Fontayne Ministers of the Church of Orleans might be given to them for their Pastors Their Request was granted and these worthy Ministers of the Gospel were lent unto the said Church till such time as their own dissipated Flocks might be recollected and then they should return and be restored unto their former Churches respectively XV. On sight and perusal of the Writings of Mr. Anthony Fregeville of the Town Realmont this Assembly judgeth them utterly unworthy of any Answer because they are stufft with Errors Lyes and Calumnies and farther the Sentence past upon him by the Provincial Synod was ratified and whereas he was only suspended from the Lord's Table it is now ordered that his said Suspension shall be publickly notified unto the whole Church And in case he continue to sow and spread abroad his Errors and Follies either by Word or Writing he shall be cut off from the Body of the Church by the Sword of Excommunication as a notorious Disturber of the Repose and Union of the Church XVI Monsieur Giraud is sent unto the Town of Mas in Agenois to exercise his Ministery in the Church of Calonges which is now annexed to that of Mas according to the Letters and Request of my Lady of Calonges and of the said Church of Mas in Agenois CHAP. IX The Roll of MINISTERS provided for and disposed by this present SYNOD I. MOnsieur Christian is sent unto the Town of Sancerre in the Viscounty of Turenne 2. Monsieur Quesnel unto Lectoure 3. Monsieur Chaffepied to St Foy yet his Church may recall him at the Years end 4. Monsieur de la Valle at Abbeville in Agenois 5. Monsieur Giraud to the Town of Mas in Agenois 6. Monsieur Du Puy to Le Laigne and Bas de Fon with their Annexes 7. Monsieur Anisse to St. Aulaye ¶ This present National Synod was finished the fourteenth Day of February in the Year of our Lord 1578. Thus Signed in the Original Peter Merlin Moderator Francis L'Oyseau Scribe William de la Jaille Scribe Mr. Merlin the Moderator of this Synod was Minister in the Family of that famous Nobleman the Lord De Coligni High Admiral of France who miraculously escaped with his Life in that horrible Massacre at Paris on St. Bartholomew's Day 1572. He leapt out of a Window and hid himself in an Haylofft where an Hen came and lay an Egg by him three days successively with which he was sustained till the Lord opened a Door for him to get out of this bloody City He was afterward Minister of the Church of Vitre He
particularly promiseth to hinder the out-breaking of Piscator's Notions provided he be not provoked elsewhere by any others This Assembly ordaineth John Earl of Nassau his Letters unto Monsieur Regnault that Lettes shall in its name be written unto the said most Noble Lord thanking him for his pious affection and humbly intreating that Prince to continue his endeavours for effecting of that much-desired Union and to take care that none of his Subjects do break out into bitter expressions and to assure him on the behalf of our Churches in this Kingdom that no person shall be suffered to exasperate Dr. Piscator by any publick Writings as also that if any one hath heretofore done it he had no Commission for so doing from us and it was disowned by this Synod and that we shall take special care to prevent it for the future See the first Synod of Rochel G. Mat. 6. and of Montauban observat upon the Confes Art 4. Th' Article concerning Antichrist to be printed and inserted into our Confession 8. Our Printers shall be once again charged according to the Decrees of the Synods of Montauban and Saumur to put the word Union instead of Unity in the twenty sixth Article of our Confession And all Pastors in whose Churches there be Printing Houses are required to oversee the next impressions that so it be done accordingly 9. That Article concerning Antichrist inserted by the Synod of Gap into the body of our Confession and making the thirty first having been in its order read weighed and examined was approved and allowed by general consent both as to its form and substance for very true and agreeing with Scripture-Prophesie and which in these our days we see most clearly to be fulfilled Whereupon it was resolved that it should continue in its place and that for time coming it should be imprinted in all Copies which should come from the Press 10. That word Superintendent in the thirty third Article shall abide according as it was expounded by the Synod of Gap 11. Whereas the Pastors and Classis of Lausanna Morges c. do demonstrate in their Letters that it would be fit to add unto the close of the thirty third Article after the word Appertaining this restriction as far forth as they be grounded on the Word of God This Assembly hath found it needless and superfluous because that the foregoing words For in Excommunication we ought to follow what our Lord hath declared to us do sufficiently express unto us the aforesaid Restriction 12. Whereas some have remonstrated that it were meet to express in the thirty sixth Article more clearly that Union which the faithful have one with another and which is signified to us in the Lord's Supper But this point having been debated it was judged needless for that the Conjunction of the head with the Members there mentioned did necessarily infer the mutual Union and Communion of the Members one with another 13. The Consistories of Churches in which our Printers live are charged for time to come to have a special care that our Printers do not forget those words of our Lords Institution Take Eat c. And Drink ye all c. according as was Decreed in the Synod of Saumur 14. The Province of Higher Languedoc scrupling the word Lieutenant in the thirty ninth Article This Assembly saw no reason for it but that it might continue in it as importing nothing contrary to what is signified by that word when attributed unto Magistrates by the Holy Scriptures and equivalent to those words which the Word of God doth bestow upon them 15. The Confession of Faith having been read over word by word and in every Member Article and Clause of it it was unanimously approved and sworn to by all the Deputies present in the Synod who promised and protested to live and die in this Faith and particularly in what had been determined according to the Scriptures That we be justified before God by the imputation of that obedience of our Lord Jesus which he yielded unto God his Father in his Life and Death Which said Protestation the Deputies of the Provinces will by the Authority of this Synod cause also to be taken by all the Pastors of their respective Provinces which had sent them CHAP. III. Observations on the reading our Church-Discipline 1. ON the Second Article of the first Chapter after these words of their Doctrine shall be added approved at least by the space of two years since their Conversion and confirmed by good Testimonials from those places in which they live 2. On the fourth Article of the same Chapter that alternative of two or three shall be removed and there shall be mentioned three only 3. No Church shall for the future undertake whatever sollicitations may be made it to examine or ordain those Pastors which are to serve out of this Kingdom but herein they shall conform unto the Discipline and the Decrees of former National Synods 4. After these words in the fourth Article which shall be advised there shall be added without being able during that all whole time to administer the Sacraments that so c. See Synod of Gap 4 Art uppon the Discipline 5. That Article of the Synod of Gap concerning the eleventh Canon of this first Chapter shall be most strictly observed and that it may be better kept for the future in all Consistorial Classical and Synodical Censures diligent inquiry shall be made into the Conversation and Manner of Preaching used by every Pastor and an Oath shall be imposed on the Examinant to speak the Truth to the best of his knowledge and that they may the better answer to every point they shall read unto them the said Article of the Discipline 6. On reading the ninteenth Article the Synod ordered Letters should be written unto the Lords of this Kingdom professing the Reformed Religion that they be intreated when ever they are called from their Houses unto Court or when ever they travel that they would not fail to take their Pastors with them 7. The Synod expounding the twenty eighth Article by these words their Churches being heard doth understand the Consistories and Chief of the people and by these words for certain considerations doth understand whatever may fall out in general and not particularly the proceeds of Censures A Colloquy may lend a Minister for three and the Provinc Synod 6 months out of the Province See the first Synod of Vitré g. Mat. 24. 8. On the thirty third Article where speech is had about the consent of Pastors and Churches in case of Loan of Ministers without the Province It is now decreed that notwithstanding any Appeal to the contrary a Colloquy may lend a Pastor for three Months and the provincial Synod for six 9. The means prescribed by the Synods of Gap and Gergeau to prevent their ingratitude who refuse maintenance unto their Pastors are left to be used according to the discretion and charity of the
clause seems to favour that Opinion of the necessity of Baptism And the remaining part of the said Article shall be in force until the next National Synod and in this Interval the Provinces are charged to Study the point diligently and to come prepared with the judgments of their respective Consistories Colloquies and Provincial Synods and to send them in writing confirmed by solid Arguments that so after mature consideration had of the whole the Case may be finally decided by plurality of Votes gathered from the several Deputies of that Synod And that this may be the more easily effected Monsieur Sonis du Moulin le Faucheur and la Faye are nominated to put in writing the reasons both of the one side and other which have been here urged and a Copy of them shall be carried hence together with the Acts of this present Assembly unto their Provinces by the Deputies 8. The Deputies of Berry requesting that some course might be took to avoid the violating of that Canon made at St. Maixant Bearne which forbad all Professors in Divinity to intermeddle with Political Assemblies This Synod ordaineth that it be punctually observed and in case any of them do accept of such a Deputation whoever he be shall be punished with Suspension from his Professorship for the space of six months 9. Information being made of the great disorders in the Provincial Synods of Higher and Lower Languedoc of the tricks and subtle under-hand dealings fitter for Attorneys and Petty-Foggers than for such grave Assemblies commonly practised by them and of the contempt of Church-Discipline from whence have sprung up very many and grievous scandals This Synod doth most strictly enjoyn all Provincial Synods and most especially those now mentioned that for the future they do reform and conduct themselves better on pain of being dealt withal as violators of the Discipline and that in the severest manner and particularly it threatens the Moderators in those Meetings with Suspension from their Charges in case they connive at them and do not their utmost to redress these irregular and scandalous actions CHAP. VII Of Appeals 1. THE Church of Orange complaining by her Deputies that they were excluded from the Political Assembly held in Dolphiny This Assembly remands them unto the next General Political Assembly unto which they shall present their complaint if they judge meet 2. Master Gautier complained on behalf of the Church of Annonay that they had never been reimburst their Expences which they were necessitated to make in getting supplies during the absence of their Pastor Monsieur Faucheur who was deputed to the Assembly of Saumur This Synod ordereth the Province of Vivaretz to see the said Church of Annonay be paid an hundred Livers including in that sum the six and thirty already received by them 3. The Church of Armagnac appealed from a Decree of the Provincial Synod of Lower Languedoc held at Florac which had imposed on them the Sieur Thevond to be their Pastor against their consent And the said Mr. Thevond also appealed from the Synod of Montpellier for removing him against his will from Aigues-mortes This Assembly after hearing of all Parties and perusal of the Acts of both these Synods judgeth that the said Province hath very much transgrest the Discipline by lending the said Thevond unto the Church of Aigues-mortes and by restoring the said Pastor unto the Church of Armagnac and therefore ordaineth that the next Colloquy or Synod shall provide the said Thevond of another Church and that he be removed from that of Aigues-mortes or of Armagnac and the Church of Armagnac is sharply censured for her strange proceedings in obstructing the return of the Sieur Thevond to them as also Benezet Elder of that Church and his Companions who without any just cause given did prosecute the Expulsion of the said Thevond from among them Moreover we do very greatly condemn him the said Thevond for his pragmaticalness and unnecessary intermedlings with Civil Affairs as also for his unhandsome actings in the celebration of his Marriage that he might avoid the Tying of the Point a notorious Character of his Infidelity and Distrust of God deserving a Deposal from the Sacred Ministry and the Sieur Chambrun Pastor of Nismes who blessed that Marriage is liable unto the same censure But this Assembly contents it self with that softer Reprehension given him by the Colloquy hoping that it will redound unto his future benefit And in case he hath not as yet fully satisfied the Censure imposed on him by the said Colloquy he is ordered immediately to fulfil it on pain of being suspended from his Ministry 4. The Deputies of the Church of Aigues-mortes complained of that Article of the Assembly at Saumur which authorized the prosecution of Monsieur de Berticheres at the instigation of the Lords General Deputies and the said Deputies of Aigues-mortes remonstrated that the said Assembly was surprized for otherwise it had been impossible for the said de Berticheres to have been admitted into the said Church The Synod refused to take cognisance of this Affair it having been determined by the said Assembly of Saumur and because it conceived that a subsequent Assembly of the same nature could best judge of its own preceding Sentence and of whatsoever might be proposed with reference unto that subject and therefore remands the Plaintiffs thither but it charged our Lords the General Deputies at Court to give order that this Affair be remanded unto that Assembly there to be determined and in the mean while nothing shall be innovated or altered in that Article 5. Monsieur Benoist Pastor in the Church of Moutauban and de la Vialle Lieutenant Criminell in the same City appeared in this Assembly craving Remedies against those Dissentions which have arisen about the Ministry of the said Benoist in the said Church This Assembly deputed the Sieurs Perrin and Ferrand Pastors and de Mallerett Glatignan and Bonnett Elders to pass over unto Montauban and after hearing of the several Parties to find out some means of reconciling them and to contrive some expedient whereby their Differences may be composed and upon report of the whole matter by these Deputies the Synod declared that of right Monsieur Benoist belongs unto the Church of Montauban he having been adjudged as such by the National Synod of St. Maixant Yet nevertheless in regard of the present Disposition of that Church of Montauban it decrees the said Benoist to continue in his Ministry of the Churches of Realville and Albyas until the next Provincial Synod in which if the said Benoist be not demanded by the Church of Montauban by their general and unanimous Consent according to the Discipline the said Provincial Synod is enjoyned to provide the said Benoist of some other Church wherein he shall make his Residence and the whole shall be so managed as that the honour of his Ministry may be kept unblemished because he is not discharged from his Church for any fault committed
of that place and Elder in the same Church and James Garnier Elder in the Church of Privas 7. For the Province of the Lower Guyenne Monsieur Jeremy Bancons Pastor in this Church of Tonneins and Ezechiel Marmett Pastor in the Church of Nerac together with Francis de Lusignan Baron of Lusignan Governour for the King in his Town and Castle of Puymirol and Elder of the Church there gathered and John de la Nouaille Elder in the Church of Gensac 8. For the Province of Xaintonge Aulnix and Augoulmois Monsieur Louis le Chevelier Lord of la Cappelliere and Jerom Colomiers both Pastors in the Church of Rochel together with Leon de St. Maure Baron of Montosier Elder in the Church of Bene and Peter de Breuil Lord of Fontenelles Elder in the Church of Barbezieux 9. For the Churches in the Principality of Bearn Monsieur John de Dizerotte Pastor in the Church of Olleron and Peter de Nauguey Doctor of Physick Elder in the Church of Lescar 10. For the Province of Anjou Touraln le Maine Condomnois Vendomois and the Lower Parche Monsieur Samuel Bouchereau Pastor in the Church of Saumur together with Eleazar de la Primauday Lord of la Barree Elder in the Church of Bourgueil and Abes dit Val Lord of Villiers the King's Attorney in the Election and Granary of Salt at Chasteaugontier and Elder of the Church there who related unto this Assembly that Monsieur Daniel Coupe Pastor in the Church of Tours their Fellow-Deputy was absent through the opposition of his Consistory which also was confirmed by the Brethren that passed through that Town Whereupon the Synod judged the Authors of his absence highly censurable and cannot approve of the said Coupés compliance with their will to the prejudice of what had been decreed in the Provincial Synod And that a meet Censure according to the merits of the Cause may be duly inflicted on them express order is given to the Pastors and Elders of the Isle of France and Anjou that in their return from hence homeward they shall pass unto Tours and particularly inquire into this fact and by Authority of this Assembly shall pass Sentence on them and all their Charges shall be defrayed by that said Church and they shall make report of their duty herein either in Person or by Letters unto the next National Synod 11. For the Province of Higher Languedoc Monsieur John Gigord Pastor and Professor of Divinity in the Church and University of Montpellier and John Bansillon Pastor of the Church in Aiguemortes together with Peter de Massanes Councillor for the King and General in the Court of Assistants at Montpellier and Elder of that Church and Henry de Farrell Lord of St. Privat Elder in the Church of Usez 12. For the Province of Sevennes and Gevaudan Monsieur John Bony Pastor in the Church of Sauve together with James de Combier Lord Baron of Fonds and of Serignac Elder in the Church of Juissac and Peter de Sduorin Lord of Pomaret and of St. Andrew de Valborgne Elder in the Church of the same place who presented Letters from Monsieur John Fitz Pastor in the Church of St. John of Gardenengue excusing his absence by reason of sickness befallen him in his Journey which excuse being warrantable was accepted by this Assembly Since there arrived Monsieur Esaiah du Marez Pastor of the Church of Alez who being substituted in his stead and tendering the Act of Substitution unto this Synod he was immediately admitted 12. For the Province of Provence Monsieur Samuel Toussain Pastor in the Church of Luc with Balthazar Geronte Lord of Verages Elder in the Church of Aiguieres 13. For the Province of Dolphiny Mr. Paul Guyon Pastor in the Church of Dieu le Fit and Denys Bouteroue Pastor in the Church of Grenoble together with James de Veze Lord of la Lo Elder in the Church of Montlimart and Francis de la Combe Elder in the Church of St. Marcellin 14. For the Province of Burgundy Lyonnois Beaâ—jolois Brosse and Gex Monsieur Peter Colinet Pastor of the Church of Paray in Charolois and Peter Eliot Pastor of the Church of Arnay le Duc together with John de Jaucour Lord of Villarnou Elder in the Church of Avalon and John Grace Elder in the Church of Lion 15. For the Province of Normandy Monsieur Benjamin Banage Pastor of the Church at Karentan and Samuel de l'Escherpiere Lord of la Riviere Pastor in the Church of Rouen together with Paul du Vivier Lord of Beaumont Elder in the Church of Bayeux and James le Noble Lord of la Leau Elder in the Church of Dies 16. For the Province of Orleans Berry Blezois c. Monsieur Daniel Jamett Pastor of the Church of St Amand in Bourbonnois and Samuel de Chambaran Pastor of the Church of l'Orges and Marchenoir together with Lewes de Courcillon Lord of d'Angeau Elder in the said Church and James de Brissay Lord of Jenonville Elder in the Church of Gergeau 17. There appeared also in this Assembly Stephen Chesneverd Lord of la Millitiere General Deputy of the Reformed Churches in this Kingdom who was admitted and had both his deliberative and decisive Votes granted him CHAP. II. An Order about Letters of Deputation See the third Synod of Rochel Art 1. after the choice of the Moderator 2. Vitré Art 1. after the Roll. 1. ALL the Provinces for the future are enjoyned to express the proper names and surnames of the Pastors and Elders deputed by them unto these National Synods and to specifie that particular place wherein they exercise their respective Offices And whereas that failure observed by former National Synods about Submission and Obedience is still found wanting in several Letters of Deputation from divers Provinces it is ordained that it shall be promised in express terms without any condition or modification whatsoever unto all things which shall be determined and decreed by these National Synods CHAP. III. Vrgent Matters 2. THE Church of Paris excused its Consistory and Monsieur du Moulin one of their Pastors about his absence from this Assembly tho' nominated thereunto by the Synod of the Isle of France and offered that if he might have speedy notice of it and this Assembly judged it needful he should yet come unto them But upon debate it was found utterly inconvenient for the said Monsieur du Moulin to appear in person among us or that the cause of his trouble should be examined and judged by this Assembly this being no proper place for its tryal for by such an Anticipation we should imbroil our selves with the Civil Magistrates wherefore the excuses both of the Consistory of that Church and of the said Sieur du Moulin were accepted 3. The Letters of the Lords Dukes of Rohan and Sully and from the Lord du Plessis Marli were received and read in this Assembly all tending to assure the Churches of this Kingdom of their holy Resolution immovably to
of Monsieur Chauve at present Pastor in the Church of Sommieres urging for themselves the great importance of their Church and the indispensible necessity they had of a Pastor whose Age and Experience might be able to undergo the burdens of so numerous a Congregation After hearing the Letters of the said Church of Nismes and their request uttered by the mouth of the Sieur de * * * Another reads Pierre d'Or another Pinedon Pucchredon their Deputy and the Arguments of the Provincial Synod by their Deputies to the contrary this Assembly ordained that the said Sieur Chauve should be lent for three months unto the Church of Nismes after which term the Provincial Synod having heard both the Churches and the said Sieur de Chauve may judge whether it be needful or not to dispose of his Ministry and if they find it necessary then by the Authority of this Assembly they shall give him unto the Church of Nismes and they shall provide that of Sommieres with another Pastor either taken from Nismes or elsewhere 33. The Sieur de la Faye This was razed out by the second of Vitré Obs 6. upon this present Synod Pastor of the Church of Aubenas in Vivaretz appeared in this Assembly Appellant from the Judgment of the Provincial Synod which had threatned him with the greatest Censures as if he had deserved them and farther had ordained that the next Synod of his Province should remove him unto some other Church which in their wisdom they should conceive to be more expedient for him and that in the mean while the Colloquy should have a watchful Eye over his conversation But this Assembly condemned all the proceedings of that Province in this Affair particularly for receiving Informations against the said Sieur de la Faye unattested and for censuring him without any cause or Reason and for not having recorded that their Censure nor brought hither any Record thereof and therefore approving the Appeal of the said Sieur de la Faye it doth abrogate that Sentence of the said Provincial Synod as infamous and unjust in every article branch and member of it 34. Certain Inhabitants of Caussade Appealed from a Decree of the Provincial Synod of Higher Languedoc This was reverst in the 2d Synod of Vitré p. m. 12. importing that the Sieur Grand formerly their Pastor but afterwards suspended for three months and then removed from three years should now at last the term being expired be imposed again upon them This Assembly over-looking the formalities which ought to have been observed in their Appeal but were not did graciously receive both them and it and having heard the Province and seen the Decree declaring several miscarriages whereof the said Grand had been guilty ordained that he be summoned to make his personal appearance before us and to be heard speak with his own mouth what he hath to say for himself and then to be Judged according to the merits of his cause Whereupon the said Sieur Grand having been examined by a Committee appointed for that End and they making report of his confessions and answers this Assembly aggravated his Censure and Judged that he could not exercise his Ministry to the edification of that Church of Caussade and therefore doth ordain that he be disposed of somewhere else by the Colloquy of Lower Quercy at their next meeting and that he be for ever made uncapable of returning to Caussade nor may the said Church ever have power over him or his Father who became bound for him to redemand the Moneys disbursed by them on his Studies because they enjoyed the exercise of his Ministry for some space of time 35. The Colloquy of the Isles Appealed for that Monsieur de la Forest formerly Pastor in the Church of St. John d' Angely was given by their Provincial Synod unto the Church of Mauze in the Colloquy of St. John d' Angely The Sieur Cocq ' a Minister having been heard speak for that Colloquy and the Deputies of the Synod of Xaintonge for the Province this Assembly confirmeth the said de la Forest in the Pastoral office of that Church of Mauzé and ordaineth that the Province shall provide for the Church of St. John d' Angely as soon as possible they can 36. The Church of Agen Appealed because having demanded their portions free of all taxations the Synod of Lower Guyenne had refused it This Assembly rejected their Appeal and dismissed over the affair relating to it unto the said Province which shall provide for their Pastors maintenance as soon as one shall be setled with them 37. The Church of Boislebeque appealing from the decree of the Synod of Normandy by which Monsieur Simson was not only excluded from the said Church of Boislebeque but also from all other Churches of Normandy this their Appeal was made null and void and the judgment of the said Province confirmed which is intreated to take care that the said Church of Boislebeque be supplied with a second Minister in case they shall judge it needful 38. The Colloquy of Albigeois brought an Appeal from the Judgment given in their Provincial Synod of Higher * * * Another Copy Higher Guyenne Languedoc about the affair of Monsieur Josion one of the Pastors of the Church of Castres relating to the Censures past against the said Colloquy and their Deputies After hearing the Sieur Raffin Pastor of the Church of Realmont for the said Colloquy and the Deputies of the said Province together with the said Josion and the Sieur de la Garrigues Deputy of the Church of Castres and the report of the Commissioners deputed to inspect the writings produced by the several parties and who were ordered to examine and hear Witnesses dwelling upon the place and who were particularly mentioned by name unto them this Assembly took off the Censure inflicted upon the said Colloquy and its Commissioners by the said Synod and yet approveth of its judicial sentence in all other particulars and ordaineth that all Papers concerning this business be deposited with Monsieur Gardesy that so the remembrance of them may be for ever forgotten 39. The appeal of Monsieur Raffin Pastor of the Church of Realmont from the Synod of Higher Languedoc which had confirmed an Ordinance of the Colloquy of Albigeois obliging the said Church to visit the annexed Church of la Fenasse every six weeks was disannulled and the decrees of the Provincial Synod and Colloquy were both confirmed 40. The Consuls of Pamiers appealed from a decree of the Synod of Higher Languedoc which would not grant them the precedency claimed by them to communicate first at the Lords Table before the Judge of that City But this their appeal was rejected because it was of the nature of those things which might be finally determined by the Synod of their own Province 41. The appeal of Monsieur Graue Elder in the Church of Pamiers from the Decree of the Synod of Higher Languedoc about Moneys ordered
knowledge might be had of their Call who sate and voted in this Assembly Monsieur Andrew Rivet Pastor of the Church of Thouars was chosen Moderator Monsieur John Chauve Assessor Pastor of the Church of Sommieres Monsieur John Jammet Pastor of the Church of St. Amand in Bourbonnois and Elijah Bigot Advocate in the Court of Parliament of Paris and Elder of that Church were chosen Scribes 2. The Synod examining the Letters of Commission Impowering the Deputies of the Provinces to sit and act in it began with those of the Isle of France Picardy c. for which appeared Monsieur John Baptist Bugnet Pastor of the Church of Compiegne Samuel Quinson Pastor of the Church de la Ferté au Vidame together with Elijah Bigot Advocate in the Parliament of Paris and Elder of the Church there and Philip de Cormieres Esq Lord of Fromentieres and of La Haye Elder in the Church of Chaltray 3. For the Province of Normandy Monsieur Obadiah de Mondenys Pastor of the Church of Fescamp Peter Paris Pastor of the Church of Pontoison together with Samuel le Cal Esq Lord of Beurevil Elder in the Church of Gisors and Michael le Petit Lord of la Joisiere Elder in the Church of St. Lo. 4. For the Province of Brittaine Monsieur Peter de la Place Pastor of the Church of Sion Guy le Noir Lord of Crevain Pastor of the Church of Roche Bernard and Croisis together with Elias de Goulaine Esq Lord of Laudouiniere Elder of the Church of Viellevigne and John Ravenell Lord of Boistillenil Elder in the Church of Rennes 5. For the Province of Berry Orleans c. Monsieur Daniel Jammet Pastor of the Church of St. Amand John Guerin Pastor of the Church of Baugeney together with John de Bussieres Controller of his Majesties Salt-Granary at Sancerre and Elder of the same Church and John du Plessis General-Assessor of his Majesties Subsidies at Pithinieres Elder of the Church of Chilleure 6. For the Province of Anjou Tourain c. Monsieur John Vigneu Pastor of the Church of Mans Renatus Conseil Pastor of the Church of Lassay together with Giles Bouchereau Lord of la Mothe Advocate at Saumur and Elder of the same Church and Hannibal de Farsy Lord of St. Laurence Attorney in the Exchequer of the Lordship and County of Laval Elder of the Church there 7. For the Province of Poictou Monsieur Andrew Rivet Pastor of the Church of Thouars Paul Geslin Lord of la Pilletiere Pastor of the Church at Chastelheraut together with Giles Begaud Esq Lord of la Begaudiere Elder in the Church of Mountague and Samuel Maucler Esq Lord of Marconnay Elder in the Church of la Ganache 8. For the Province of Xaintonge and Aulnix c. Monsieur Samuel L' ommeau Pastor of the Church of Rochel William Rivet Lord of Chanvernon Pastor of the Church of Taillebourg together with John Preverant Lord of Piterne Judge of Montignac and Elder of the Church there and Monsieur Elijah Dieu the Lord High Justice his Attorney in the Lordship of Soubize and Elder of the Church in the same place 9. For the Province of Lower Guyenne Monsieur Peter de la Musse Pastor of the Church of Nerac Peter Hefperian Pastor of the Church of Ste Foy together with John de Geneste Lord of La Tour Advocate in the Court of the Edict at Nerac and Elder of the Church of Sauvetat and Peter de Pichard Captain of Gironde and Castelmoran Elder of the Church of Gironde 10. For the Province of the Principality of Bearn Monsieur John de Capdeville Pastor of the Church of Navarrins together with John de Angerre Advocate in the Parliament of Pau and Elder of the Church in the same place 11. For the Province of Lower Languedoc Monsieur John Chauve Pastor of the Church of Sommieres James de Chambrun Pastor of the Church of Nismes together with William de Girard Lord of Moussac Elder of the Church in the same place and Peter de Calviere Lord of St. Cesaire Elder in the Church of Nismes 12. For the Province of Dolphiny Monsieur John Felix Pastor in the Church of Romans Denys Bouteroue Pastor of the Church of Grenoble together with Peter Guyon Lord of Salbetter Elder in the Church of Manars and Salomon Vulson Lord of Villette Elder in the Church of Mené 13. For the Province of Vivaretz Forest c. Monsieur Peter * * * He after revolted and prov'd a True Turn-Turk Marchat Pastor of the Church of St. Stephens John Mozé Pastor of the Church of Annonay together with James de Serres Doctor of the Civil Law Elder in the Church of Aubenas and whereas the Lord of Cussons Elder of the Church of Annonay was also chosen and named in the Letters of Commission but did not appear his absence was not approved by the Assembly Yet afterwards on the third of June the said Lord of Cussons returning from his Depuration unto the Assembly at Rochel was received into this Assembly 14. For the Province of Sevennes and Gevaudan Monsieur Lewes Courant Pastor of the Church of Anduze and Andrew de la Faye Pastor of the Church of St. German together with John de Barjac Lord of Villeneufre Elder in the Church of Vigan and John de Barjac Lord of Gasques Elder in the Church of St. Martyn 15. For the Province of Burgundy Lionnois Charlois and Gex Monsieur Lewes de la Coste Pastor of the Church of Dijon Peter Boulenat Pastor of the Church of Avalon instead of Monsieur Eliot Pastor of the Church of Arnay le Duke whose excuses were admitted and in case he should afterward come unto this Assembly the said Boulenat might if he please return together with Albert du Mars Esq Lord of Balenes Elder in the Church * * * Another Copy reads of Maringues of Vesle and Monsieur John Gravier Advocate in the Parliament of Dijon and Elder of the Church there 16. For the Province of Provence Monsieur Peter Maurice Pastor of the Church of Lormarin together with Charles de Bachy Esq Lord of St. Stephens Elder in the Church of Thouars And whereas Monsieur Samuel Toussain Pastor of the Church of Luke and Monsieur John Clement called Captain Cadet Elder of the Church there appeared also with Letters of Commission from the Synod held at Cabrieres the fifteenth of April last This Assembly having heard the said Deputies declared the Deputation of Monsieur Maurice and St. Stephens to be lawful and that of Monsieur Toussain and Clement illegal as being done contrary to the Canons and Forms of our Church-Discipline Yet nevertheless for divers important Causes and for the service of the said Province the said Toussain and Clement were both admitted as Members of it only the said Toussain was censured for accepting of the said Deputation and the rather because it appeared by the acts of St. Maixant that he is relapst into the same fault for
4. that it would please this Assembly to make a Decree that the Churches of Vic Figenseac Eutre and Leyran now lying in the Province of lower Guyenne and joyned to it might be separated from it and incorporated with the Colloquy of Armagnac lying in the Province of higher Languedoc It was ordered That the two Provinces should confer about it and hear the Opinion of those Churches upon the case and afterward they should determine that which they conceived would be most expedient for them Tâ—â—neins Appeal 34. 12. Monsieur Grand Pastor in the Church of Cajarc in the Province of higher Languedoc did by Letters humbly petition this Assembly to take off the Censure filed against him by the National Synod of Tonneins which had forbidden him any more to Preach in the Church of Caussade The Consuls and Elders also of the said Church and Town joyned with him in the same Petition This Assembly having considered the Testimonials given of him by the Colloquy of upper Quercy and also by the Synod of higher Languedoc do give power unto the said Province to license Monsieur Grand to return and exercise his Ministry as formerly in the Church of Caussade but in the first place they shall most diligently consider whether his Presence and Preaching there will be for its edification and that the Church of Cajarc be duly supplied by another Minister 13. The Church of Saumur contested with the Province of Brittain about a Pension and Maintenance exhibited by them unto Julian Fournier who had quitted the Convent of Capuchins in the City of Blois The Deputies of Anjou and Brittain having been both heard this Assembly moderated the said Charges and reduced them to the Sum of fifty Livers to wit twenty Livers for his Diet and thirty for his Cloths which said Sum shall be paid unto the Church of Saumur by the Province of Brittain out of the Monies granted us by his Majesty's liberality 14. The Lord Baron of Tournebu writ unto this Assembly by an Elder of the Church of Falaise that his late deceased Lady hath bequeathed as a Legacy some considerable Sums of Money which are in the Province of Zealand to be employed in the educating of a Scholar either of Zealand Basil or Geneva that may hereafter serve the Church of Essars in the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments And whereas the Sum bequeathed will not suffice for that purpose the said Lord promiseth on his Honour to make up the rest After the Deputies of Normandy had been heard the Assembly applauding the Design and Zeal of this noble Lord orders the Province of Normandy to intreat the said Lord not to chuse any Scholar out of this Kingdom and that he would be pleas'd to advise with his Colloquy and Synod about him and in case he should not grant unto us our desire he shall be at his full liberty to chuse him whence and where he will but with this Proviso That as soon as he shall be sit for service he be presented unto the Province and admitted by it according to the Canons of our Church-Discipline 15. The Colloquy of Foix in the Province of Higher Languedoc writ and sent their Complaints unto this Assembly of those grievous Oppressions the Churches in those parts have undergone for these last six Years and the great Sums they have been necessitated to expend in keeping possession of our Cautionary Towns there and to support themselves in the Courts of Parliament Chambers of the Edict and the Council of State This Assembly advised the said Colloquy first of all to apply themselves unto their own Province For we could not divert the Monies given for our Minister's subsistence unto any other uses 16. The Colloquy of Gex petitioned this Assembly to compassionate the deep Poverty of their Ministers and to add something by way of augmentation to what was given them in the Synod of Tonneins for their better maintenance Whereupon a Decree past that the Lord of Candal should be desired to pay those Ministers in the first place before any others and that the sixty Livers heretofore allotted towards the maintenance of their Colledge and taken out of the Common Stock of the Churches should not any longer be allowed because there is provision made for the said Colledge another way 17. Monsieur Codur Professor of Hebrew in the University of Montpellier complained that he was never paid his Salery since he exercised his Ministry in the Province of Provence This Assembly dismissed his Affair over to the Pastors and Elders of Lower Languedoc who are ordered by this Assembly to visit the Synod of Provence and to see that those Churches which have been served by the said Monsieur Codur do account with him and give him full satisfaction 18. The Province of Berry declaring that the last National Synod of Tonneins had by a special Order appointed the Lord of Candal to detain by him one portion under the Name of Monsieur Hume and to be paid into that Province in which he should be imployed as a Pastor and he being called to the Cure of Souls in the said Province yet they could never receive a Penny of the said portion as was evident from the Accompts of the said Lord Du Candal Whereupon this Assembly did expresly injoyn him immediately to accompt with the said Province and to pay them out of hand what is owing to them 19. David Chauveton a Scholar Alez Obs 10. upon this Syn. maintained by the Province of the Isle of France and since received into the Ministry and ordained Pastor to the Church of Claye from which having first obtained licence for three Months he departed to visit his aged and diseased Father Pastor in the Church of Limeueill in the Province of lower Guyenne but returned not according to his promise for which cause the said Province hath censured him and condemned him to make a full restitution of all their Charges they were at in his preparatory Studies to the Sacred Ministry Which he not having done they complained of him unto this Assembly who considering that the said Chauveton had served full three Years in the Ministry among them and that he came back unto the Consistory of Paris and offered himself to minister as formerly in the Church of Claye or in any other they would be pleased to provide for him did nevertheless reprove him for not being punctual to his promise in returning at the time prefixed nor sending some lawful excuse for his absence and the Province of Lower Guyenne could not receive the said Chauveton without the consent and dismission of the Isle of France whose he was and therefore ordaineth that the said Chauveton shall pay within one Year the Sum of three hundred Livers unto the said Province in lieu of all their Demands from him for Charges they were at in his Education at School and University And in case he be not able to do it the Province of Lower Guyenne shall disburse the
the Sacred Ministry which he hath vented in scurrilous and opprobrious Language against the said Boulet And finally the Commissioners deputed by the Colloquy to meet at Nismes about this matter they were very sharply censured for wasting their time and putting the Parties to so great charges by their tedious dilatory proceedings utterly unbecoming their Calling 22. A great Number of the Inhabitants of the Town of Sauve appealed from the Censure inflicted on them by the Synod of Sevennes held at Vigan the 24th day of April in the year Sixteen Hundred and Seventeen and requested that the said censure might be rased and taken out of the Acts of the said Synod and the Consistory there joyned with them as also Monsieur Bony contented so far as that they might have another Minister to exercise among them though herein he acted contrary to the Decree of that Synod which had inhibited them all Inquiries after a Second Pastor This Assembly judging this Affair not to be of their kind which ought to be tendered unto the National Synods doth therefore remand them and it back again unto the Province and either in a Colloquy or Synod to procure for themselves another Minister according to the Rules prescribed by our Discipline and for Peace sake it does amend the Censure of the Synod of Vigan and ordaineth That those words inserted in it of factions and quarrelsome shall be rased out of it 23. The Church of Lormarin together with their Pastor Monsieur Morrice and Corrigier one of their Elders appealed from the Synod of Provence held at Remoules in May last which having suspended the said Morrice for three Moneths from the Ministry the same Synod did some few days after restore him again And yet afterwards they compelled them the said Morrice and Corrigier to beg the pardon of that Synod upon their knees the Moderator calling upon God in Prayer before hand on purpose to expose them when as there was no cause at all nor had there been any on their part for so great an Indignity they having given no provocation which might merit such ignominious usage This Assembly condemneth the Province of Provence for abusing our Discipline and exposing the Sacred Ordinance of Prayer to contempt and scorne and ordereth that their Act of Suspension past in the Synod of Remoules be rased out of all Books in which it may have been recorded and the Acts of the said Synod being wholly cleared and renewal the Old Copyes shall be delivered into the hands of the said Mr. Morrice and this present Act shall be read in the next Synod of Provence by Monsieur Huron their Deputy and entered into the Register of the Synodical Acts of Provence See below in the Catalogue of Apostates and Deposed Act. 9. 24. Mr. Hector Joly appealed from the Synod of Higher Languedoc held at Puylaurent in June last for suspending him a whole year from the Ministry and that term expired for ordering him to quit the Province though they licensed him if he could to get himself into some other Church in another Province The cause of his suspension was Adultery And the Church and City of Montauban complained of the too much Lenity and Indulgence extended by that Synod towards the said Joly and of their censure given forth against the Consistory of Montauban The Deputies of the said Province declared the true grounds of their Synodical actings against Joly and of their censure upon the Consistory to be these viz. Because they had neglected their Duty to him and the formes requisite and usual in all our Ecclesiastical proceedings Joly also was called in and suffered to speak for himself and to produce by word of Mouth and Writing whatever might make for his Defence and Justification But after all that could be said by him or for him This Assembly approved the Judicial Sentence of the said Synod of Puylaurent in every Title and Member of it yea and in its censure inflicted on the Consistory of Montauban because of the notorious defaults confessed by them in their actings And all matters having been narrowly examined and considered which were alledged by the said Joly and particularly those Acts now produced by him he was now found to be really guilty of that Crime whereof he stood accused and of very foul and wicked practises to palliate and stifle it Insomuch as his Ministry could be no longer useful but must needs be a very great and publick scandal For these Causes this Assembly aggravated the Judgment of the Synod of Puylaurent doth now declare the said Joly to be totally deposed from the Sacred Ministry and interdicts him all manner of Acts Duties and Exercises appertaining to it And at his request the Papers which he had produced out of the Civil Courts were all returned into his own hands See below in the Catalogue of the Apostates and Deposed 25. Stephen Girault appealed from the Synod of Xaintonge held at Marennes in July Sixteen Hundred and Seventeen which had declared him utterly unworthy of that Holy and Honourable Office of a Pastor in the Church of God and deposed him from the Ministry without any hope of ever being restored to it unless he did wholly reform his Life and Manners and become a new Man before the sitting of this present National Synod and likewise he appealed from another Sentence since that of the aforesaid Synod past upon him by the Sieurs Constans and Rossel Deputed by the Colloquy of Pons in December in One Thousand Six Hundred and Nineteen to make inquiry into the Life and Conversation of the said Giraud by which he was suspended for Three Moneths from Communion with the Church of God at the Lords Table and this his Suspension was ordered to be notified from the Pulpit to the whole Congregation The Deputies of the Province of Xaintonge were desired to declare the Reasons of their rigorous dealings with this Girault and Girault also was heard in all his Apologies for himself both by word of Mouth and Writing In which he confest and owned some of the Crimes whereof he was accused but confidently extenuated and denied others This Assembly finding the said Stephen Girault convicted of Prophaneness and Lasciviousness Drunkenness Theft Perjury contempt of Church-Discipline Slandering Coveting dishonest gain in short a Fellow whose Life and Manners have no resemblance with that of a Servant of God but directly contrary to him and one who is utterly unworthy the Name of a Christian It hath and doth now declare him to be deposed from the Holy Ministry and totally interdicts him all manner of Acts and Offices belonging to it leaving it to the judgement of that Church where he shall reside whether they will admit him or no as a private Person to communion with them at the Lords Table which yet they shall not do till such time as they have had long and undoubted Evidence and Experience of his thorough Reformation and Amendment of Life and conceive him worthy of
Officers of His Majesty their Provincial Synod could not meet but towards the end of August which had exceedingly retarded and put back their Journey so that they could not possibly come any sooner unto this Assembly Their Excuses were admitted and they were admonished for the future to keep exactly to the forme prescribed by the former National Synods in their Letters of Deputation and to bring in Writing the Names of those Persons who being Commissionated could not come hither unto this Synod The One and Twentieth day after the Synod had first met and sate there were Letters brought and read in full Assembly from the Province of Provence assembled in their Synod at Cabrieres on the Eight and Twentieth day of August last By which they excuse themselves and crave that they may be excused for not having sent any Deputies unto this Assembly But all their Excuses were rejected and the said Province was censur'd for their neglect of this their Duty they being able if they had been willing to have Commissionated some from out of their Body unto this Synod and they were farther censured for that their Letters were full of blots and razures and that the clause of submission unto the Votes and Canons thereof was not couched in such full and Emphatical terms as the former National Synods had prescribed Prayers having been offered up unto God and all the Letters of Deputation read and examined The Reverend Mr. Durant Pastor of the Church of Paris was nominated and chosen Moderator Mr. Bayly Assessor and Mr. Faucheur a Pastor and Mr. Launay an Elder to be Scribes CHAP. II. The Kings Commissson to the Lord GALLAND AS soon as the Synodical Officers were chosen the Lord Galland declared that by vertue of and in Obedience to his Majesties Letters Patents bearing Date the Seventeenth of April last and verified in his Court of Parliament the Second of May following by which His Majesty had ordained that in all Assemblies of his Subjects of the Reformed Religion whether Coloquies or Synods one of His Majesties Officers being of the same Religion should assist in Person and see that nothing should be propounded or handled but only such Affairs as were permitted by his Edicts and that he should make report thereof unto His Majesty He came now and sate in this Assembly for that His Majesty had Commissionated him as his Deputy unto this present Assembly as was evident by the Letters Pattents of His said Majesty subscribed by the Kings own Hand Lewis and a little Lower by His Majesties Order De L' Omeny and Sealed with the Great Seal in yellow Wax and Dated the Twenty Ninth of July last which were produced and read The Tenour whereof is as followeth Lewis by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre to our well-beloved and faithful Counsellor in our Council of State and Privy Council our Attorney General in our Realm of Navarre Monsieur Augustus Galland Greeting We having Willed and Ordained by our Letters Patents bearing Date in the Moneth of April last that our Subjects of the P. Reformed Religion might hold their Synodical Assemblies as formerly and meet and treat about Matters of their Discipline and that we would Commissionate one of our Officers of the same Religion to be present in those Assemblies and to see that none other Matter should be Debated in them but what is according to our Edicts Now forasmuch as in the Moneth of September next there will be conven'd at Charenton an Assembly of the Deputies of the said Religion from out of all the Provinces of this our Kingdom For these Causes we being well assured of your good affection unto our Service and to the Repose and Peace of our Estate we have Commissionated and do by these presents Commissionate you to meet and be present with them in the said General Assembly whether it sit at Charenton or be removed elsewhere by our permission during the whole time of their Sessions and carefully to take heed that nothing he Treated or Debated in it contrary to our Service or prejudicial to the Publick Peace And in case any other thing shall be proposed or Debated than what concerns the Order and Discipline of the said P. Reformed Religion you shall oppose and suppress it and make those Remonstrances against it as be in such cases needful and give us full and timely notice of the whole and of all and singular passages transacted in it And because of that confidence we have of your Loyalty and Affection we have Commissionated and Deputed and do Commissionate and Depute you for this very end and purpose to be present in all those Assemblies held by our Subjects of the said P. Reformed Religion by our Licence at the said Town of Charenton without your having need of any other powers than what are now given you by these present Letters Pattents which you may communicate unto such Persons as you shall think fit so that none of those our aforesaid Subjects may pretend ignorance you having received full power from us For such is our will and pleasure Given at St. Germain in I aye this Nine and Twentieth day of July and in the Year of Grace One Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty Three and in the Fourteenth Year of Our Reign Signed Lewes and a little lower By His Majesties Order D' LOMENY CHAP. III. A great Debate about this Commission THE Letters Pattents being read The Lord of Montmartyn Deputy General of the Churches unto His Majesty reported that when as He and his Colleague the Lord Maniald were inform'd of His Majesties Will as aforesaid they did what lay in their power by reason and argument to disswade His Majesty from passing this Declaration But notwithstanding all that they did or could urge His Majesty was not pleased in the least to heed or regard them but caused this Declaration to be verified in his Court of Parliament So that neither himself nor the Lord Maniald being able to do any thing more they left it unto this present Assembly to reiterate their Complaints unto His Majesty and if they thought good to tender their Petitions unto His Majesty about it The Synod deliberating in presence of the Lord Augustus Galland about this Affair and cousidering that by this Declaration of His Majesty our Colloquies and Synods were most unjustly charged and condemned for having past beyond the Bounds and Limits of their most humble Duty which they have alwayes deferred and payd unto His Majesty in all their Consultations and Debates and moreover that the benefit of his Edicts was greatly retrenched and those favourable Concessions which His Majesty had granted us were now as good as totally revoked it is resolved that a most solemn humble address should be presented to His Majesty that he would be pleased to maintain our Churches in all their Liberties which had been accorded to them and which they had ever heretofore enjoyed and two Pastors with two Elders were ordained to
and admitted of all kind of Evidence and Witnesses against him though they were never so passionate and Parties in the case and some also who were not legally to be admitted unto a Deposal against a Minister And as for the said Sieur de Richelieu This Assembly judgeth him worthy of a very grievous Censure for neglecting his Duty and not keeping up Order and Discipline in his Church for not holding Consistories nor passing Censures as ought alwayes of course to have been done and practised before Communion days at the Lords Table and for leaving his Church before the time appointed and without having demanded or obtained his License of departure in due form and above all for expressing too much levity in his imaginations and for giving too much way unto his passions and for speaking disadvantagiously of other Persons and insulting over the dead whom he took for his Enemies and who could not speak for themselves And whereas this Assembly could not at present be fully and satisfactorily informed of the State of that Church of Plouer the Colloquy of Constantine in the Province of Normandy is ordered to visit it by their Deputies who are Authorized by this Assembly to provide for that Church as they shall judge meet and to order all matters for its edification in Godliness and if they see cause for it they shall remove and discharge the said Sieur de Richelieu from his Ministry and the Expences of these Deputies shall be defrayed by that Province of Britain 13. The Church of Die and the Sieurs Martinett and Huron appealed from two Judicial Sentences denounced in the Provincial Synod of Dolphiny against them to witt Monsieur Martinett complained for that the said Synod had ordained his removal from the said Church of Die upon pretence of ease and quieting his Spirit though he had been preferred unto that Church by some former Synods And Monsieur Huron appealed for that the said Synod had forbidden him the Exercise of his Ministry within the Province of Dolphiny whereunto he had retired in time of the late troubles And the said Church appealed for that the said Synod had refused and rejected their endeavours to get Monsieur Huron for their Pastor Whereupon the Provincial Deputies of Dolphiny were heard give in their Report of the causes and occasions moving their Synod to pronounce those Judgments and the aforesaid Martinett and Huron were heard in their reciprocal Accusations and Apologies and in like manner the Messengers of the said Church were heard speak for it and the Acts relating to these Affairs were all produced and perused upon the whole This Assembly doth ratifie the Judgment of the said Province of Dolphiny and dischargeth the said Monsieur Martinett from his Pastoral Office in the Church of Die purely for his ease comfort provided alwayes that the said Church do pay him if they have not already done it all his Arrears due unto him from the very first day that he was set at liberty from them by the aforesaid Synod and he is at full liberty to accept of any other Church And as for the maintenance of the said Martinet since that time he was first of all discharged and set free of serve the Church Beaumont This Assembly exhorteth and intreateth the said Province out of Charity to pay him the one half of his Salary And forasmuch as Monsieur Huron has been convicted to have left his Church for little or no just cause and to have brigued his Election into the Church of Die and to have fomented the Divisions in it betwixt the Church and Monsieur Martinett in whose expulsion out of it he had the greatest hand and part having consented to divers irregular Actings and Contentions and adhered to the Rebellions of several Members of the said Church to the contempt of its Consistory and of the Decrees of many Ecclesiastical Synods and for that he kept Conventicles private Meetings Proclaimed Fasts and Days of Prayers and Writt Books contrary to the Analogy of Faith and Form of Sound Words and hath done many other things contrary to the Order and Discipline Established in the Church of God and that honourable Calling of the Holy Ministry This Synod aggravating the Judgment of the Provincial Synod of Dolphiny suspends the said Huron from the Sacred Ministry for the space of Three Moneths and sets him at liberty to be imployed in some other Province than that of Dolphiny And forasmuch as in their endeavours to get the said Huron to be their Minister the Consistory and Pastors of the Church of Die have too much adhered to the unruly motions of some private Persons and strangely supported their insolencies and proud irregular actings This Assembly doth judge them also worthy of a very sharp censure and exhorts them for the future to testifie and express more Vigour and Zeal for the Discipline of our Churches and to maintain it in theirs and to see the Decrees and Canons of our National Synods put in Execution And that all these Censures may be performed the Sieurs Paulet and Berlie Pastors Deputies for the Province of Sevennes are appointed by this National Synod to pass over unto the said City of Die as they return home unto their Province and in the Consistory of that Church there to make denunciation of them 14. The said Sieur Huron the next day came into this Synod petitioning that his suspension might be taken off and that some maintenance might be provided for him until such time as he were presented unto another Church But the Synod confirmed his suspension and ordered that some small matter should be allowed and given him for his present Relief 15. The Church of Sauve and Monsieur Rossel Pastor of the Church of Montlimart appealed from a judgment of the Synod of Dolphiny by which his Ministry was refused to that of Sauve and confirmed in that of Montlimart though the former did most earnestly re-demand him After hearing the Deputy of the Church of Sauve and Monsieur Rossel speaking for it as also Monsieur Chamier for the concern of the Church of Montlimard and the Provincial Deputies of Dolphiny and Sevennes This Synod ordains that Monsieur Rossel shall be lent unto the Service of the Church of Sauve in the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments until the next National Synod and injoyneth the Colloquy of Montlimart to take care that the said Rossel be then restored unto his Office again in that Church 16. Monsieur de Gouvernet Lord of Mirabel appealed from a Decree of the Synod of Dolphiny concerning Monsieur Perrin Pastor of the Church of Serres After that the Deputies of that Province had been heard who reported that there was nothing to this purpose spoken of or handled in their Synod at Mure This Assembly because of the absence of Monsieur Perrin and their want of Acts needful to determine this Affair hath given full Authority to the Province of Burgundy to judge therein and the Province of Dolphiny is
which he hath prepared that we should use and walk in CANON IX This self-same Election was not done out of fore-seen Faith and Obedience of Faith Holyness or any other good Quality and Disposition as a Cause or Condition prae-required in Man that is to be Elected but that God might give him Faith and Obedience of Faith and true Holyness And therefore Election is the Spring and Fountain of all saving Good from which flow out Faith Holyness and all other saving Gifts yea Everlasting Life it self as the Fruits and Effects thereof according to that saying of the Apostle Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us not because we were but that we might be Holy and Unblameable before him in Love CANON X. Now the Cause of this free Election is the only good pleasure of God which doth not stand in this that he hath chosen as a Condition of Salvation some certain Humane Qualities or Actions which are possible to be done but in this that he hath took unto himself some certain select Persons from among the vast Multitude and Community of Sinners to be his peculiar Inheritance Even as it is written Rom. 9.11 12 13. Before the Children were born and before they had done good or evil c. It was said unto her viz. Rebecca the Elder shall serve the younger as it is written Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated And Acts 13.48 And all those who were ordained unto Eternal Life they believed CANON XI And forasmuch as God is most wise unchangeable knowing all things and Almighty therefore his Decree of Election can never be broken off nor changed nor revoked nor disanulled nor can the Elect be reprobated nor their number impaired and diminished CANON XII The Elect are in due time assured of their Everlasting and Unchangeable Election unto Salvation though it be done gradually and in a very unequal measure Nor do they get it by a curious diving into the Depths and Secrets of God but upon an exact scrutiny into their own hearts they meet with Spiritual Joys and Holy Heavenly Rejoycings and with those infallible Fruits of their Election noted and recorded in the Word of God such as Faith unfeigned in the Lord Jesus a Filial Fear of God Godly Sorrow for Sin and hungring and thirsting after Righteousness CANON XIII From this assurance and inward Sence and feeling of their Election Children of God do dayly take occasion for greater Abasement and deeper Humiliation of themselves before God and to adore the unfathomable depths of his Mercy and purge themselves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and also to love God most ardently and transcendently who hath first loved them with such a potent and unparallel'd Affection So far are they by this Doctrine from growing slothful careless carnally secure or negligent of Duty and of keeping the Commandments of God that they ordinarily through the just judgment of God are guilty of these sins who rashly and unwarrantably presuming of their Election do riot it at Noon day and turn the Grace of God into lasciviousness and refuse to walk in the good ways of Gods Elect. CANON XIV And as this Doctrine of Divine Election according to the Infinite wise Council of God was preached by the Prophets of old by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his Apostles under both Testaments and after recorded in the Holy Scriptures So also ought it now in our days to be taught publickly in the Church of God for whom it is principally designed but with a Spirit of Discretion Religiously and Piously in time and place relinquishing all curious Inquiries into the wayes of the most High and all to the Glory of Gods Holy Name the Peace and Comfort the Everlasting Life and Happyness of his People CANON XV. Moreover the Sacred Scriptures do render this Everlasting Free Grace of God in our Election the more illustrious and recommend it to us by testifying that all Men are not Elected but that some in the Eternal Election of God are passed by to witt those whom God in his good pleasure which is alwayes most Free most Righteous Unblameable and Unchangeable Decreed to leave in that gulph of common Misery whereinto by their own sin they had flung themselves headlong and not to give them saving Faith nor the Grace of Conversion but having abandon'd them to their own ways and lusts he doth finally in his Righteous Judgment condemne and punish them Everlastingly not only for their unbelief but also for all their other sins for the manifestation of his Justice This is the Decree of Reprobation which doth not in any wise make God the Author of Sin the very thought whereof is horrid Blasphemy but on the contrary doth demonstrate him to be a most dreadful irreprehensible and Righteous Judge and Revenger of all Sin CANON XVI Such who do not as yet effectually feel in their own Souls a lively Faith in Christ Jesus or a particular confidence of Heart in God Peace of Conscience a diligent care and endeavour to yield Filial Obedience and to glorifie God through Jesus Christ and do yet nevertheless use the means by which God hath promised to work those Graces in us they should not be discouraged when as they here speak or Reprobation nor should they reckon themselves in the number of Reprobates but they ought carefully to continue in the use of means and ardently to petition for that happy hour when this Grace of God shall be abundantly poured down upon them and to wait for it in all Reverence and Humility much less should they be affrighted at the Doctrine of Reprobation who when as they desire to be sincere Converts and would please God intirely and be delivered from this Body of Death sin dwelling in them yet cannot make so great a progress in Piety and Faith as they would Because God who is full of Mercy hath promised that he will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed But this Doctrine is indeed terrible unto them who forgetting God and Jesus Christ our Saviour are totally imbondaged unto the heart-piercing cares of this present World and the Concupiscencies of their fiesh during the whole time of their unregeneracy CANON XVII Wherefore since 't is our Duty to judge of Gods Will by his Word which testifieth for the Children of Believers that they be Holy not indeed by Nature but through the singular benefit of the Covenant of Grace in which they be included with their Parents Fathers and Mothers fearing God should not doubt of their Childrens Election and Salvation whom God takes unto himself in their Infancy CANON XVIII In case any Person murmur against the free Grace of God in Election and the Severity of Gods Justice in Reprobation we should oppose them with that of the Apostle Rom. 9.20 O! Man who art thou that contendest with God And with those words of our Saviour Matth. 20.15 Is it not lawful for me to do with my own as I please
not only alwayes exempted from all Defaults but also from the very Suspicion thereof and that all kind of Testimonials and Thankfulness is due and owing them for their Capacity Carefulness Diligence Integrity and Singular Love and Zeal unto the Weal and Happyness of our Churches nor cannot in the least be refused them Wherefore this present Order passed for their discharge shall be inserted into the Acts of this Synod that it may be carried into all the Provinces that so none may plead or pretend his Ignorance and Unacquaintedness with the intentions of this present and of the last immediately preceding Synod Monsieur Palot of St Antonine presented a Petition unto this Assembly on behalf of his Brother Palot that it would be pleased to cause all processes commenc't against him by the Lord Malat to cease and that Arbitrators might be chosen on both sides with full power to determine the differences betwixt him and the Churches of this Kingdom Letters also from the Lord Malat were read informing it of the great progress he had made in the Suit against him Whereupon the Synod finding the Complaints and Requests of the said Palot to be unreasonable and that from their former Experience they could only conclude them done on purpose to gain and spin out time and to elude if possible the Prosecutions already begun it voted Thanks to be given unto the Lord Malat for his care and pains and that he be intreated to continue his Travel and Diligence in this Affair and the like thanks were ordered unto Monsieur Arnault for his singular Affection to the Weal of our Churches and the Lord Commissioner Galland was also earnestly desired to befriend our Churches with his kind Assistance at Court and to speak for us unto the Kings Majesty that His Gracious Majesty would be pleased to ordain that Justice might be done us Letters were read from the Lords Marbaut de Massanes Bigot and de Launay Commissioners named by the last National Synod to treat on behalf of all our Churches with Persons capable of bringing the Sieur Palot to give us some reasonable satisfaction And also Monsieur Mestrezat another of those Commissioners made report of what had been done herein as weâ—l by himself as by those others joyned in Commission with him Whereupon all their Actions were ratified and approved In reading that Act of the Synod of Charenton containing His Majesties Answer unto the Sieurs Cottiby and du Bois Saint Martyn Deputed by the said Synod unto His Majesty in which hope was given unto the Churches that the Prohibition issued out against Monsieur du Moulin should be taken away and that he should be restored unto his Ministry in this Kingdom And a Letter to this self-same purpose from the Church of Paris also requesting our Intercession with His Majesty that he would be Graciously pleased to grant unto the Churches the injoyment of their hopes The Deputies of the Isle of France joyned with them in this their request Whereupon it was resolved that His Majesty should be most humbly petitioned to grant leave unto the said Monsieur du Moulin to return into France and to the Exercise of his Pastoral Office in his aforesaid Church and the said Monsieur du Moulin shall be required by Letters from this Synod to joyn vvith the Churches in their Petition for his return and re-settlement in France and that he shall address himself also by a particular Petition of his ovvn unto His Majesty that he may be restored unto his Charge vvherein by the Blessing of God he had such eminent success that so if it may be His Majesty by so many importunate Petitioners may be prevailed vvith to grant us our desires The Provincial Deputies of Lower Guyenne and Poictou being heard it was voted that the Churches of Rochechouart and Limoges should continue joyned unto the Province of Lower Guyenne as they have been heretofore notwithstanding that they were separated from it by a Decree of the last National Synod because they cannot subsist if they be divided nor can the Church of Limoges be united unto Poictou without too much enfeebling the Colloquy of Limousin Maister Peter Guillemin Pastor in the Church of La Bour presented his Petition unto this Assembly that the Summ of Three Hundred Livres granted the said Church by the former National Synods may be continued and that the Summ of Threescore Livres more might be bestowed upon them for the breeding of a young Scholar who may be hereafter capable of serving the said Church and to preach in their Language and that His Majesty may be petitioned that He would grant according to His Edicts Two Places more for Religious Worship unto the Faithful of the said Countrey of Labour It was voted that this Petition in all its Parts and Members should be fulfilled on this Condition that the Scholar to be maintained by them be presented unto the next Synod of Lower Guyenne and that the said Province of the Lower Guyenne do yield an accompt of the said Summ of Sixty Livres unto the next National Synod as also of the Three Hundred Livres granted unto the said Church of La Bour and the Pastor there shall be obliged for the future to assist in Person at the Provincial Synods of Lower Guyenne After the last Canon was voted This Assembly recollected that heretofore the National Synod of Tonneins had granted unto Monsieur Busthonoby Pastor of the Churches in Soules the Summ of Three Hundred Livres to defray the Charges of Printing some certain Books in the Biscayan Language and that since by a Decree of the Synod of Vitre the Province of Lower Guyenne was reimburst the said Summ which they had beforehand advanced to that purpose Whereupon Order was given unto the said Province to call in its next Synod the aforesaid Monsieur Busthonoby to an accompt how he did imploy and dispose of the said Moneys and to bring in that Accompt unto the next National Synod CHAP. XVIII No Minister to Depart the Kingdom without the Kings Leave THE Lord Commissioner declaring that it was His Majesties Will and Pleasure according to Law that none of our Pastors should depart the Kingdom without his Royal License and that in case any Foreign Princes or States desired that any of our Ministers might be either lent them for a time or given to them absolutely during Life that then the said Minister should according to our Laws first obtain His Majesties Licence for his departure The Council resigned it self and all the Ministers of our Churches most fully and freely as they have ever done unto the Laws of the Land This Synod inquiring into the causes obstructing the Execution of those particular Canons that the last National Synod had made for the better Government of the Province of Provence judged that the said Province did justly deserve a Censure in case it cannot vindicate and acquit it self from all impeachments of neglect herein And whereas the Sieurs Crubellier
Actings in the Church of Paillac which he quitted and forsook during the times of the late Commotions 10. The Province of the Isle of France and Church of Paris having related their Proceedings with Monsieur Richer formerly Pastor in the Church of Vandieres This Assembly applauding the Charity of the said Province and particularly of the Church of Paris towards him doth confirm the Judgment denounced against him by the said Province for his Levity and evil Conversation notwithstanding the long-continued Indulgence of that Province to him 11. Forasmuch as the Colloquy of Ambrun was not in a Capacity of taking Cognizance of the Cause of Mr. Genoyer which was recommended to them by the National Synod of Castres This Assembly commissionates the Colloquy of Gapensois finally to determine that matter 12. This Assembly having read the Censure past on Monsieur Persy and ordained that it should be razed out of the Acts of the National Synod of Castres doth commissionate the Provincial Deputies of Higher Languedoc in their Return homeward to pass by Monflanquin and to take Cognizance of the Fact mentioned in the Acts of the Synod of Lower Guyenne And in case the said Deputies cannot execute their Commission they shall give notice of it unto their Province which is impowered in that case to pronounce a final Sentence 13. Although the Deputies of Lower Languedoc have faithfully informed this Assembly how that through the rich and soveraign Mercy of God Monsieur Peyrat was preserved from the very Brink and Precipice of Destruction unto which his many Infirmities and sore Temptations had most lamentably exposed him and declared the Course which the Synod of the said Province had took with him in order to his Recovery and Re-establishment in the Exercise of his Ministerial Office yet doth it nevertheless grievously censure the Provincial Synod for proceeding to his Restoration contrary to the usual and accustomed Forms and Neglect of the Canons of our Church-Discipline 14. Monsieur Aymard Deputy of the Province of Sevennes unto the National Synod of Castres having not discharged the Commission given him by the said Synod This Assembly censuring both the said Aymard for his Neglect and the Province of Sevennes for not calling him to an Account for it doth confirm the Judgment passed by the Provincial Synod of Lower Languedoc against Mr. Tustan 15. This Assembly judging the Neglect of the Province of Sevennes worthy of a most grievous Censure ordains that the Act made in the National Synod of Castres against Monsieur Bony shall abide in full force And whereas the Colloquy of Montpellier hath took Information of the Facts proposed but not decided in the aforesaid Synod it is now fully impowered to proceed against the said Bony according to the Discipline in case he be found guilty and if hereafter there be a Default of rendring an account of Commissions given to the said Province by the National Synods the Moderators of those Provincial Synods shall be suspended from their Office 16. The Province of Berry had Audience given them as to those Matters of their Complaints and Petitions And this Assembly ordaineth that the Decree of the National Synod of Castres shall stand good and that the other past in the Provincial Synod held at Chastillon upon Loir shall be razed out of the Body of their Synodical Acts. 17. The Synod not being able to change any thing in that Canon of the National Synod of Castres concerning Monks exhorteth the Provinces to practise it with all possible Prudence and Charity 18. The Printers of Geneva and Sedan shall be informed by the Church of Paris exactly to observe the Citations already added or that may be hereafter added to the Margents of our Confession of Faith 19. Forasmuch as divers Difficulties are started about the observation of that Canon made in the last National Synod of Castres which ordered that ancient Pastors should always be preferr'd before Scholars who were demanded by particular Churches to be ordained Ministers unto them This Assembly taking off the Commination pronounced in case of Disobedience to that Canon against the Moderators of Colloquies and Provincial Synods and mollifying it in that part thereof which imposeth a precise necessity of giving the Preference unto Pastors doth yet notwithstanding exhort the Provinces to observe this Ordinance as much as possibly they can and not to quit it but at such times whenas they shall be constrained by an evident and most urgent Necessity so to do 20. * * * Another Copy writes Noel Noah Gaultier deposed by the Synod of Burgundy appeared in Person before this Assembly and demanded his Restitution unto the Sacred Ministry presupposing that he had appealed hither but could not get out his Appeal which he designed against the Sentence past upon him The Assembly being fully informed as well of the Causes for which he was put into the Roll of the Deposed as of his Actings against the said Province rejected his Petition 21. George Arband presenting himself before this Assembly and importunately desiring to be restored unto his Ministry from which he had been deposed by the National Synod of Castres he was told by the Moderator in open Synod that there would be nothing altered in the Sentence past upon him but that it should abide still in force against him 22. Now that according to the Decree of the last National Synod of Castres this Assembly proceeded to examine the Reasons brought by the Deputies of the Provinces upon that Question Whether it be lawful and expedient to administer Baptism on Days of ordinary common Prayers whenas there is no Sermon preached and all of them had been duly pondered and debated the Assembly did at last conclude That a Sermon preached either before or after Baptism was not of the Essence of that Sacrament but only a Matter of Order whereof the Church might determine and therefore the respective Churches and Provinces are left unto their respective Usages and Customs provided that they be such as in their best and maturest Thoughts will most contribute unto their edifying 23. This Synod ratifying the Judicial Sentence past by the Colloquy of Anduze in the Cause of Mr. du Cros and Raill doth yet condemn those bitter Expressions used by Mr. du Cros in his Letter written against George Arbaud after his Reconciliation with him 24. The Lord Malet reporting the State of the Process against the Sieur Palot was intreated to continue his Prosecutions vigorously and not to suffer the Cause to be heard before any other Judges than the Lords of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council because of the great Prejudice that would otherwise redound unto the Churches 25. Although the Churches of this Kingdom have little cause of Satisfaction from the Province of Bearn by reason of their dilatory Proceedings in the Business of Mr. Mainuelle yet forasmuch as it was granted the said Province that all Judicial Sentences past by them to this day should be valid and not liable
of an hundred and fifty Livers and the Scholar named Martill having been examined in the last Synod of Bearn and found meet and qualified to serve the Church of God in the Sacred Ministry shall receive for his yearly Portion sixty Livers and the Sum of seventy five Livers shall be paid in to the said Mr. Guillemin in Consideration of his Sickness only by the Lord of Candall this Synod not being able to charge it self with the reimbursment of his Expences because it judgeth it an unreasonable thing that Pastors should take long Journies upon none other Errand than to present their Petitions unto the National Synods which might as well if not been better done by inserting them into the Memoirs of the Deputies of those Provinces of which they be Members 42. The Complaint of Stephen du Mas against Mr. Scoffier Pastor in the Church of Lunell is dismissed over to the Consistory of Montpellier which having heard both Parties shall within one Month after the signification of this present Act by that Consistory judg of the pretended Right of the said du Mas by Authority from this Assembly 43. This Assembly ratifying the Decree of the National Synod of Castres concerning Mr. Bicheteau Pastor in the Church of Vrillac and Prosessor of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Montauban judgeth concerning his Demands notified by his Letters as also by his Son declaring them by word of Mouth that they are not of their nature which ought to be tendred unto the National Synods yet in Consideration of his great Necessities and Losses it was resolved that he should have a Token of this Assembly's Affection and Charity which should be given him whenas the Monies appertaining to the Churches came to be divided 44. The Letters of Dr. Andrew Rivet Pastor and Professor of Divinity in the famous University of Leyden being read a Decree past That in the Answer which should be returned unto him he should be intreated to continue his Care and Kindness to the Weal of our Churches And whereas the laid Reverend Professor is upon the point of being settled in the House of his Excellency the Prince of Orange and his Lordship the Lord Commissioner having remonstrated that he could not be there established without his Majesty's Licence the Lord of Champvernon his Brother is intreated to give him notice thereof 45. The Reverend Pastors of Xaintonge and the Lower Guyenne who were appointed to examine the Works of Monsieur Blondell having made an honourable Report of them this Assembly commended the said Monsieur Blondell for his great Labour Care and Exactness in so painful and important a Subject and exhorts him continually to employ those excellent Gifts and Talents which God hath so abundantly bestowed upon him in clearing up the History of the five first Centuries And whereas the last Synod of Castres had promised to bear the Charges of the Impression this Synod doth now assure him that he shall be fully satisfied in this Particular And that the after-Writings of the said Mr. Blondell may be strictly perused and examined the Provincial Synod of the Isle of France is commissionated to do it and to give their Licence and Approbation that so they may be printed 46. Upon hearing the Report of those Commissioners who were appointed to audit the Receivers Accompts of the Monies collected by his Majesty's Permission the 7th of February 1626 for relieving the Necessities of the Cities of Rochel Montauban and Castres they declared that they had seen and examined that of Monsieur d'Huysseau for the Provinces of the Isle of France Normandy Berry Anjou Poitou Brittain and Xaintonge and his Receipt amounted to the Sum of sixty nine thousand seven hundred and thirteen Livers nineteen Sous and six Deniers and the Disbursment to sixty eight thousand six hundred and thirteen Livers five Sous and eight Deniers so that there remains in the hands of the said Monsieur d' Huysseau eleven hundred and forty Livers thirteen Sous and nine Deniers The Assembly approving the said Audit orders that Monsieur d' Huysseau do pay in the said Debt unto the Lord of Candall who shall divide it between the Churches of Montauban Castres and Rochel proportionably to what they have already received and may hereafter receive according as it was regulated in the National Synod of Castres in doing of which he shall be sufficiently acquitted and discharged of the Monies so received and disbursed by him as he also is now thanked for his great Care Pains and Diligence in his management and execution of the said Office of Receiver And it was farther voted that all his Acquittances sent unto the Churches shall be restored to him if possible it can be done but if it cannot be they are then declared Null and Void 47. Report being made unto this Assembly by those Reverend Divines who were commanded to peruse divers parts of that Treatise upon the Eucharist made by Mr. Faucheur and how exceeding profitable this most Elaborate Work would be unto the Publick by reason of its deep and curious Learning the most worthy Author received the Thanks of the Synod for his singular Diligence and Zeal for God's Glory and Affection to the edifying of God's Church And Messieurs de Croy and Gigord Pastors of the Churches of Beziers and Montpellier are ordered to revise it that as soon as it hath past their Examination and Approbation it may be immediately printed at the Costs of the Churches according to the Intention of the National Synod of Castres 48. Mr. Charron Deputy from the Church of Bergerac related the Causes which obstructed the restitution of their Colledg Whereupon this Synod voted a Continuance of that same Supply which had been formerly granted them for its Support by the last National Synod of Castres and exhorted them to use their best and utmost Endeavours that it may be restored betwixt this and the next National Synod And in case they can effect it sooner the Provincial Synod of Lower Guyenne is ordered to acquaint the Lord of Candall with it who shall pay in unto them the Monies granted by the Churches for the Maintenance of the said Colledg proportionably to what he shall receive from the Monies of his Majesty's Liberality The Synod likewise ordaineth that till the said Colledg be restored the four hundred Livers attributed to the Province of Lower Guyenne for its Colledg and applied by the last National Synod to that of Nerac shall be paid out of the same Fund according to the Intention of the said Synod 49. The Synod of Burgundy is ordered to examine the Accompts of Mr. Gros who was commissionated to receive the Collection granted by his Majesty for the Cities of Rochel Montauban and Castres that so upon the closing of them they may send the residue of the Monies in his Hands unto the Lord of Candall who according to the Sum shall divide it among those Churches in the same manner as he did that of
any Excommunication against Ministers and others who shall change their Religion for that of the Roman Catholicks nor to treat them reproachfully either by Word of Mouth or Writing or any other manner of way whatsoever Nor shall you admit for the future any Foreigner into the Ministery among you And therefore you be commanded to insert into the Attestations of Proposans who are to be Ordained and of Ministers who are to be received into any Church the Names of the Place of their Birth And farther Provincial Synods are inhibited to Call or Proclaim any General Fasts And that the Publick Peace and Tranquillity may be Secured his Majesty injoyneth Ministers according to the Command of God to Preach unto his Subjects that Obedience which they owe unto him and that it is not lawful for them to take up Arms against their Sovereign upon any Cause or Account whatsoever Moreover they be forbidden to make use of in their Sermons or Writings the Words Scourgings Martyrdoms and Persecution of their Religion or as if their Churches were the only True Church of God and are thus Misused Moreover whenever they speak of the Pope they shall not call him Antichrist nor treat him disrespectfully nor shall they Tax the Roma Catholick Apostolick Church with Idolatry nor the Sacraments and Ceremonies thereof as Human Inventions and Idolatries upon pain of Interdiction to themselves and others for so doing Furthermore they be forbidden to make any Private Collections from House to House nor to take a Farthing out of the Poor's Box or from Legacies bequeathed to them or the Fifth Peny of those Moneys nor to Cite any One before the Justice for Non-payment of their Sallaries and Wages nor for their Charge in Riding unto Colloquies and Synods nor for Repairing and upholding of their Temples In these Matters 't is his Majesties Will and Pleasure that Forty Fourth Article in the Edict of Nantes be punctually Observed and Performed And whereas their Majesties be informed that you send your Children to Study and to be Educated in Learning at Geneva in Switzerland Holland and England which are Nations and Republicks averse to Monarchy and who may imbue them with Corrupt Principles about Secular and Political Affairs the Consequence whereof is very great and the Effects flowing from them very dangerous That these may be in time prevented their Majesties desire of you that this Article may be Inserted into your Discipline concerning Proposans and that it be most strictly for the future observed in all your Provinces That no Proposans nor Divines shall be Ordained Ministers nor admitted Pastors into any of the Churches if they have Studied in any of those Countries or in any of their Universities And they have commanded me to assure you that your Conformity to their Intentions in such an Important Affair will be a thing most acceptable unto them and very advantagious to all the Professors of your Religion I am also charged to let you understand that their Majesties are much displeased that contrary to that Amnesty so much recommended by the Edicts in the Calendars of Psalms imprinted at Geneva 1635 these very Words are Inserted That on the Fifteenth Day of March 1545 was Assembled that detestable Council of Trent And there be also in them other such like Offensive Matters and that in the Twenty Fourth Article of your Confession of Faith the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion is styled An Abuse and Deceit of Satan and that Purgatory is a meer Cheat and the Shop out of which are sprung Monastick Vows Pilgrimages and other such Corruptions And in the Twenty Eighth Article you use these Words We Condemn those Assemblies in the Papacy where all these Superstitions and Idolatries are in Vogue Their Majesties cannot suffer that such Words should be Sworn in a National Synod they accounting them scandalous and injurious to their Religion and to that Church whereof his Majesty hath the Honour to be the Eldest Son and injurious to the Pope whom his Majesty believeth to be the Head of the Church calling him Holy Father and with whom he is in a strict Alliance and Amity Their Majesties Desire that in a matter so near their Heart as this is you would yield them that Respect and Observance which shall be Injoyned you and is now more particularly from their Majesties propounded to you Let me add One thing more which their Majesties commanded me to acquaint you with that they very just cause to Complain of you that since his Majesty began his Reign those of your Religion have took upon them to set up Preaching and the Exercise of your Worship in Languedoc and elsewhere in an Open Violent Manner contrary to the Publick Peace and the general Laws of the Kingdom which do equally forbid the Subjects both of the one and the other Religion to be their own Judges and to carve out Right unto themselves although they had been Wrong'd and Justice was on their Side And for that they durst make Acts and Pass them Resolutely after they had once Debated them in their Colloquies and Provinces and Confirmed them at a Meeting in the Consistory of Anduza and had returned Thanks to them who Executed that Riot and began to Revolt that so it might be done with more and greater Authority And those of Vsez also have placed Bells in their Temple without any leave first had or Obtained and contrary to the Articles upon which they Capitulated and Surrendred Their Majesties also are yet farther displeased that those who Profess your Religion in Languedoc have enterprized the Reviving of Deputations unto the Court of Monpellier Nismes and Vsez which had been Supprest ever sine the Year 1622 even when the Capitulation of the City of Monpellier was made and that the Sieur Peyrol Vestrie and Fournier did get themselves to be Deputed when there was no Synod and are become Partisans contrary to his Majesties Prohibitions And that Preaching and the Exercises of your Religion are set up in divers Parts by a meer Private Authority and beyond those Bounds appointed by his Majesties Commissioners to execute the Edict of Nantes yea and contrary to the Words of that self same Edict they continue Preaching in those Places where the Church-men are Lords of the Soil and of this his Majesty hath been fully informed And besides all this certain Ministers have taken unto themselves that Unbounded Liberty as to vent in their Pulpits Seditious Discourses and have cut off from Communion with them those Parents who send their Children to the Colledges of Regents who are of the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion And they have given me in Charge to tell you that these be Notorious Infractions of the Edicts contrary to your Duty to the Prejudice of the King and of the Publick Tranquillity the which his Majesty hath been so careful to conserve on his Part that he neither can nor ought as the Common Father of his People to suffer such Actings when as
desired by them and against whom very many Members of the said Church made their Exceptions as being one by whom they could not profit Wherefore that said Province and all others are forbidden for the future to use any such manner of dealings and the said Province is enjoyned to comfort and accommodate the said Church of la Fite as soon as possibly they can by providing a Pastor for it who may be more pleasing and acceptable to them than Monsieur Belon and to settle the said Belon in some other place where he may employ his Gifts more usefully And whereas Bergerac is a Church of no small importance and its Necessities are very great and urgent and Monsieur de Bourdieu is exceeding Successful in his Ministry there this Synod doth approve of his being in that Station and confirmeth him in the Pastoral Office of that Church And whereas the Lord of Rabas his Majesties Commissioner in the Synod of St. Foy who made this Change hath complained by Letters that the Act of Monsieur de Bourdieu's Removal was passed before a Publick Notary an Answer was Voted to be returned assuring him how great Deference this Assembly hath for his Lordship's Person and Quality and to the truth of that Testimonial rendred by the Deputies of Lower Guyenne concerning what was transacted in their Provincial Assembly and that whilst Judgement was passed upon the said Appeal that Act was not in the least regarded 3. Upon Hearing the report of the Committee who were ordered to inspect the Appeal of Monsieur Reynault Pastor of the Church of Realville and the Proceedings against him by the Synods of Mauvezin and Realmont this Assembly conserving the Honour of his Ministry untainted and confirming the Judicial Acts of the Province to whose care and kindness he is yet notwithstanding particularly recommended doth exhort him to enjoy his Quietus the remainder of his Days that in case his many and frequent Sicknesses shall not permit him to go through with the Duties of his Calling yet he may Edifie the Church of God by his Exemplary Life and Conversation 4. Report being made by the Commissioners appointed to examine the Letters and Memoirs of Monsieur Moysnier who appealed because the word of Censure was not inserted into the Act of the Synod of Higher Languedoc and had formed a Complaint against the Sieur Crubel This Assembly as to the first Article judgeth that his Appeal was ill grounded And as for his Complaint in as much as he never gave notice of it unto Monsieur Crubel it shall be carried unto the Consistory of the Church of Montauban to whom the care of restoring him unto his charge is particularly recommended 5. The Colloquy of Condommois appealing from the Synod of Lower Guyenne for taking to themselves the Cognizance of Monsieur Rival's Complaint and of that of the Province of Bearn and not having ordered any Person to appear for them nor sent any Memoirs whereby to sustain their Appeal this Assembly declareth the said Appeal null and void and the Appealers worthy of the greatest Censures for having by a kind of Chicanery of Law obstructed the final Decision of that Affair and requireth the very next Synod of that Province to give Judgment on it and not only to denounce the Censures but to see them as zealously executed and to exert their Authority that whatever Legacies have been heretofore or may be hereafter bequeathed unto the Church of Marsan be punctually and faithfully applied according to the Intention of the Testators and that the right of Alternation expressly declared in this Testament be kept inviolably for the Province of Bearne 6. Memoirs sent from the Church of St. Hippolite were read in which they maintained their Appeal from the Decree of the Synod of Sevennes who had forbidden them to seek after Monsieur Poujade now in the Ministry of the French Church of Canterbury in England And the Deputies of the Province produced and alledged the Reasons of their Prohibition and the whole affair having been maturely considered and debated this Assembly confirmeth that Decree from which they have Appealed and forbids that Church of St. Hippolyte of ever any more entertaining a Thought for the said Poujade and this also shall be observed as a standing Rule by all the Churches of that Province 7. Although the Appeal of the Consistory of the Church of St. John de Gardonengues be not of the nature of those things which are to be brought unto these Assemblies yet nevertheless this Assembly desirous of the Peace of that Church and for the procuring and effecting of it hath took cognizance thereof and vacating the Judgment of the said Synod of Sevennes which had approved that Monsieur Bony the Younger should erect a Seat for himself in the Temple directly contrary to the advice of the Consistory retaining the ancient Custom of that Church It Declareth that excepting the Lords and Magistrates and Judges of that Place every one should be at liberty to sit where they pleased And it is farther Ordained that in all such like cases every Consistory shall have full Power to Act and Provide what will be most for the Peoples Edifying without any Appeal at all from them And that for the future no Appeals of this kind shall ever be admitted into the National Synods 8. The Acts of the Synod of Sevennes and a Letter written from Monsieur Tubert complaining of his being Deposed from the Holy Ministry without ever confronting of the Witnesses being all read and the Deputies of that Province heard who had no Memoirs given them by their Principals for justifying of their Judgment the Assembly dismissed this Cause to the Cognizance of the next Synod of Lower Languedoc and enjoyneth the Parties to appear in Person before it and to bring with them all their Acts and Evidences that may serve to the clearing up of this matter and impowereth the said Synod to give forth a final Judgment on it 9. The Appeal of the Church of Brenoux concerning their Conjunction with that of Laval is disannul'd because that such Matters as these about Uniting one Church unto another are to be judged Sovereignly without Appeal by every Provincial Synod 10. The Church of Vixan Appealed from the Synod of Sevennes for rejecting their Petition when they craved leave to get for themselves a Second Pastor This Assembly disannulleth their Appeal because that the said Church had not sent any Memoirs for the upholding of their Appeal and because the Ground of it is now wholly removed 11. That Sentence pronounced by the Provincial Synod of Lower Guyenne is confirmed in all its Branches and Articles and the Consistory of Tonneins hath incurred the greatest Censure for having under the pretext of a particular Counsel offered by the same Synod unto the Church of Bergerac and propounded by them as an Example to be followed by all others in the Province deprived Monsieur Fevron who now Appealed of a Right acquired by him through
said Mr. Aymin for drawing the said Professors contrary to the Canous of our Discipline before the Secular Jurisdiction yea and contrary to the Decree of the National Synod aforesaid And in case he shall hereafter offer to transgress that Decree the Provincial Synod of Sevennes is authorized to take Cognizance thereof and to censure him according to his Deserts either by Suspension or Deposal from his Office as it may so fall out And they shall further Question him for what Causes he hath desisted from the Functions of his Ministry and all this shall be done by the Authority of this Assembly nor shall there be any Appeal of his admitted from that Provincial Synod 5. The Fifth Article of Observations upon reading of the Discipline in the Synod of Charenton 1644. which forbad all Proposans going into the Pulpit at those Hours destinated unto Sermons shall be most religiously observed and such as violate them shall be censured by Colloquies and Synods 6. On reading the Thirteenth Article of Appeals in the last National Synod the Provincial Deputies of Sevennes made their Report and the Letter from the Consistory of St. Estienne was produced This Assembly blamed the said Province and Consistory for not having sooner put in execution the Order of the said National Synod for separating the Sieur Michel from his Wife And whereas the said Sieur Michel and his Wife that they may avoid the Censures of the Church do offer voluntarily and of their own accord to separate one from the other and so to remove the ground of the Scandal given by them and taken at them This Assembly ordaineth that after they shall have evidenced their sincere Repentance and Submission to the Rules of our Discipline by a real Separation from each other for the space of Six Months then and not till then are they to be received to the Peace and Fellowship of the Church 7. The Deputies of the Province of Burgundy were heard speak about that Decree of the last National Synod which ordaineth the said Province to examin the Accounts of the Sieur John Gras concerning the Monies received by him for the Churches of Montauban Rochel and Castres The said Deputies declaring that those Accounts were audited and closed in the Synod held at Bussi in the Year 1651. and put into the Hands of the Sieurs Cale and Spons Elders of the Church of Lion and Deputies for the said Church Upon which Relation the Deputies were very well satisfied 8. The Colloquies of Roven and Cauz made a Proposal for separating the Higher and Lower Normandy and to make out of them two Provincial Synods After that Monsieur Bochart was heard speaking for the Colloquies of the Lower Normandy This Assembly judged that the Decree past in the last National Synod should hold good without any change at all and that the said Proposal should be let die away in silence 9. The re-iterated Petition of the Province of Sevennes about the Church of Doubre and D'Auchy shall be tendered to the next Synod of the higher Languedoc which is intreated to consider well of the matter 10. The Assembly revising the eighth Article of General Matters in the last National Synod which enjoyned the Consistories of those Churches that have Printers to take special heed that there be not any Change made in the Translation of our Bible nor in our Liturgy nor Psalms without express Order from that Consistory which is empowred for so doing by the Provincial Synod It doth also recommend the strict Observation hereof and declareth those Persons worthy to be censured who do neglect it and willeth that an account of this be rendred both to the â—rovincial Synods and Colloquies And farthermore all Persons whatso ver be forbidden to print or bind up with our Liturgy and Ordinary Catechism any other Catechisms and Prayers whatsoever 11. On reading that Article of the last National Synod concerning Original Sin divers Provinces demanding with great Importunity that this Assembly would be pleased to moderate it this Decree was made That for the future all Pastors and Proposans who should offer themselves unto the Holy Ministry shall be only obliged to subscribe unto the Tenth and Eleventh Article of the Confession of Faith held by all the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom and in the mean while all Persons are forbidden to preach or print any thing against the Imputation mentioned by the said Synod in that Article before named nor shall any thing more or less be changed in it 12. In reading that Article of the same National Synod concerning the Redemption of Captives This Assembly took notice that the Alms collected from the Faithful on this occasion had been employed most beneficially in this pious Work as was made appear by those Accounts brought in and examined and whereas there is a great Necessity for the continuance of this noble Charity this Assembly recommends the continuance of its Practice unto the Provinces according to the intent and purport of the said Article 13. The Deputies of Lower Guyenne gave in an account of what their Synod had done about the absence of two Elders whom they had deputed unto the last National Synod of Charenton and their proceedure in censuring of Monsieur Sauvage for his absence was well approved CHAP. IX Of Appeals 1. MOnsieur Ferrand Pastor of the Church of Burdeaux appealed for that the Synod of Lower Guyenne held at Bergerac had made a change in their first Deputation to the National Synod having put in another Deputy in his stead whenas sixteen Members of the said Synod were absent and out of the way to the wounding of his Reputation Whereupon the Deputies of that Province declared that this Change was made in pursuance of a Rule made in the Synod held at Casteljalonx without any the least suspicion had of the Integrity of the said Monsieur Ferrand whose Fidelity and Sincerity was very well known in all the Province and elsewhere This Assembly judged that the Rule establish'd in the said Province is highly laudable and its observation very profitable Yet nevertheless it were to be desired that the new Election had not commenc'd in the absence of so great a number of their Members and the said Monsieur Ferrand is intreated to rest satisfied with the Testimony given him by the Deputies of his Province in this Assembly that he hath always demeaned himself as a good and Faithful Servant of God 2. The Churches of Beaune Thoire and St. John appealed from the Judgment of the Synod of Burgundy which refused to discharge them of those Sums to which they were taxed as the other Churches of the Province for the Colledges and Universities After perusal of the Contents of their Memoirs and hearing the Deputies of the Provinces the Assembly judged those Churches aforesaid most blame worthy for refusing to pay the Sums demanded of them and injoyneth them to submit unto that Order 3. The Sieur Gaultier Pastor in the Province of Xaintonge brought his
Second held at Beauge in this Year 1659 and from the Orders of the Consistory of Saumur bearing date the 16th and 27th of March 1659 and they complained of all that had been done in pursuance of those Synodical and Consistorial Decrees On the contrary part the Sieur Amyrald Pastor and Professor of Divinity in the said Church and University of Saumur together with the Sieurs Druet and Royer as well for themselves as for the other Deputies of that Consistory and of divers Heads of Families in the said Church together with the Deputies of the Province of Anjou did abet and maintain all the Acts Ordinances and Decrees of those Consistories and Synods before mentioned These also were heard declaring the grounds of their Differences The Committee also who were appointed to hear and verisie the Acts of both Parties brought in their Report and at the same time Monsieur * * * He since turn'd Apostate de Bourdin Pastor of the said Church had Audience given him by this Assembly Upon the whole Debate This National Synod censured the Consistory of Saumur for that instead of blaming the Deputies of that Assembly of the greatest part of the Heads of Families held without their Order the 17th of September 1655 they did contrariwise receive them and at their instant and earnest Suit had injoyned the said Sieur D'Husseau to withdraw himself from the Service of the said Church against his Will and in contempt of a Decree of the Synod of Loudun held in the Year 1655. And it disannuls the Decree of the Synod of Beauge in the Year 1656 who upon this very account had confirmed the Decrees of the said Consistory yet nevertheless it approveth that Order of Suspending the Sieurs Niot Perillau and Piger from their Office of being Elders in the said Church which was denounc'd against them by that Consistory and ratified by the said Synod of Beauge Moreover this Assembly doth disanul that Decree of the Synod of Saumur in the Year 1657 which confirmed another made in the foregoing Synod of Bauge concerning the Ministry of the said Sieur D'Huisseau and disapproveth their Act in censuring the said D'Huisseau for having put in his Appeal to the Synod of Poictou from the Synod of Beauge for which he had good grounds no less than a Canon of the National Synod of Charenton 1644. and for other causes mentioned in the Acts of the said Synod And this Assembly could wish that the said Synod of Saumur had not approved the said Consistories meeting in other places than those in which they were accustomed Moreover this Assembly blameth that Consistory for that in stead of doing right upon the Complaint of those aforesaid Gentlemen the Sieurs D'Huisseau de Haumont and their Companions which was occasioned by those Writings of Monsieur Amyrald that published their Divisions in prejudice of those Apologies made by the said Synod of Saumur it censured them and would oblige them to demand Pardon and upon this account it reverseth the Decree of the Synod of Preuilly in the Year 1658. which had confirmed the Judicial Sentence of the said Consistory This Assembly also could have wished that the said Consistory before they had pronounced Sentence of Suspension from the Lord's Supper against the Sieurs Benoist Niotte de Haumont and Bouchereau for being the reputed Authors of those injurious Libels written both against them and the Synod of Anjou and the Sieurs Amyraut Beaujardin and others that they had took a more exact knowledge whether the forenamed Persons had been fully convicted And yet forasmuch as it hath since appeared evidently and plainly unto this Assembly that they were the real Authors of them they be by this Assembly declared worthy of that Censure of Suspension which was inflicted on them However this Assembly being very much grieved at this Division which hath so long a time troubled the said Church of Saumur and designing to settle a good firm and lasting Peace among them for the future it doth take off that Suspension denounced against the Sieurs Niott Perilleau and Mr. Piger deceased and restoreth the said Sieurs Niott and Perilleau to their Office in the Eldership and taketh off that Censure of Suspension from the Lords Supper denounced against the Sieurs Niott Benoist de Haumont and Bouchereau and notwithstanding that opposition made against the Call of the Sieurs Druet Pellet and Dortonne unto the Office of Elders this Assembly doth confirm them in it And as to what concerns Monsieur D'Huisseau this Assembly wisheth that he had neither written nor printed any Letters on the account of these Differences however it disannulleth that Decree past against him by the Consistory of Saumur assisted by the Sieurs Guiraud and La Fay Ministers of the Gospel the 27th of March last and dismisseth him with Honour back unto his Church of Saumur and for six Months time he is to preach unto it as often as his Strength will suffer him which time the Assembly hath regulated to be the Work of one half Week when it comes unto his turn that so it may be known within that time whether he may be able for the future to perform the ordinary Duties of his Ministry as to the full and whole of it or of a Moiety only And whenas that time shall be expired or if it be before the sitting of the Provincial Synod of Anjou he shall then acquaint that Synod fully and plainly of his Intentions And in case he shall be then able to exercise his Ministry either as to the whole or to a moiety of it he shall be at that time confirmed and paid his Wages proportionably to the Service which he hath performed decreeing those six Months of Trial And if that by reason of his Bodily Infirmities he cannot perform the whole or one half of his Work in Preaching he shall be from that time discharged but nevertheless he shall still be reputed and taken for Pastor of the said Church without Wages according to his own Proposals in which he shall have Liberty to preach when-ever he shall be requested to it and may when and as often as he pleaseth assist at Consistories and other Ecclesiastical Assemblies and shall enjoy both his deliberative and decisive Votes yet without pretending to any right of presiding in those aforesaid Consistories or of being deputed by the said Church unto their Provincial Synods This Assembly censureth also the Sieur Niort and others who shrowded themselves under the Secular Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate in contempt of the Canons of our Discipline and for taking the whole Consistory for their adverse Party that so they might be exempted from its Jurisdiction for presenting an Act highly injurious against the said Consistory Moreover this Assembly doth condemn and censure with the greatest Severity all those Writings and Prints which have been made and published by both Parties as most injurious and scandalous and particularly a Letter styled Du Provincial stuft
themselves to that Canon of the National Synod of Gorgeau on the Tenth Article of the first Chapter of our Discipline which declared that it was resolved for the future that when Ministers were ordained they should not be sent any more for one Year unto a Church but that the Method prescribed in our Discipline should be most strictly and closely followed All which shall be notified unto all the Churches by reading of this present Act. 23. In all our National Synods this Order shall be observed that after the Moderator Assessor and Scribe who is a Pastor shall have given their Opinions on the Question propounded then the Scribe who is chosen from among the Elders shall give his in the next place and after him my Lord the General Deputy and then the whole Body of Pastors and next to them the Elders who are Deputed by the Provinces and then lastly the Moderator shall collect the Votes and conclude with his own Suffrage and all Provincial Synods are likewise to observe and practise this self-same Method in Debates and Suffrages without swerving from it in the least 24. Sundry Provinces complaining that the Sieurs Daille and Amyrald had violated the Canons made in the National Synods of Alanson 1637. and of Charenton 1644. about the Doctrin of Grace This Assembly having heard those two Eminent Ministers of the Gospel Daille and Amyrald speak in their own Defence and found that they were clear and sound in their Judgments and that they might be well enough discharged from all Blame for having thwarted and transgressed the said Canons and that they had not incurr'd those Censures which were decreed against the Infringers and Violators of them And it being evident that the said Book of Monsieur Daille was not only printed without his knowledg but also against his Will which he proved by his express opposing of it's Publication and that the said Mr. Amyrald hath not written any thing since those Synods aforesaid but according to that License which was granted him by the Synod of Charenton 1644. in case any one should write against him nor have any Writings of his been since published till others had first provoked him by clamouring against his Doctrin For these Causes this Assembly doth unanimously decree nemine contradicente that all that is past on this occasion unto this very Day shall be buried in the Grave of a deep and holy Oblivion and the said Sieurs Daille and Amyrald are exhorted to continue in their Faithful Imployment of those rich Talents which God hath bestowed upon them to the advancement of his Glory and the edifying of his Church 25. And whereas the Happiness of our Churches consisteth very much in their Peace and that all kind of Contentions and Divisions may be obviated and prevented this Assembly treading in the Footsteps of their Predecessors and that Satisfaction may be given to the Requests of all the Provinces who have unanimously demanded a punctual Observation of the Canons made in those Synods of Alanson and Charenton doth confirm those said Canons and absolutely forbids on pain of the last and greatest Censures of our Discipline all Pastors and Professors to transgress them either by publick Lectures Sermons Disputes or Writings against the Natives of our Kingdom or the Subjects of Foreign States nor shall they suffer any of their Scholars to hold any Disputations about them And finally that a strict Conformity may be upheld among us All Colloquies and Provincial Synods when they receive Proposans into the Sacred Ministerial Office shall not use with respect unto these points any particular Forms but shall acquiesce in the Signing and Swearing our Confession of Faith and Church Discipline by these Proposans and in causing them to protest with Hands uplifted unto Heaven calling God to witness upon their Souls that they do reject all Errors rejected by the Decrees of those National Synods of Alanson and Charenton about the Doctrin of Predestination and of Grace the Tenor whereof is as followeth Articles extracted out of the Acts of the National Synods of Alanson and Charenton THat the Purity of Doctrin may be entirely preserved See the Synod of Alanson G. M. Art 8. c. and all misunderstandings between Pastors Professors and Churches may be avoided and to prevent those Inconveniences which would happen thereupon and to tie and maintain more strictly and strongly the Spiritual Bonds of Brotherly Charity and Union among the Faithful this Synod doth most rigorously forbid on pain of all Church-Censures yea and of Deposal from their Ministry all Pastors of Churches and Professors in our Universities to treat in their Sermons Lectures or Writings of those curious Questions which may occasion the Fall or stumbling either of Students in Divinity or of private Christians It being most necessary that both their Flocks and Scholars should keep themselves to the simplicity and plainness of Holy Scripture and to the common Expositions of the Orthodox Creed grounded thereupon and approved by our National Synods particularly by that of Charenton held in the Year 1623. They be also forbidden the using of any new Expressions subject to ill Constructions and Mis-interpretations or contentiously to dispute one with the other upon such Questions or Interpretations or to draw reciprocally the Saw of Controversie betwixt them in Polemical Writings nor shall they violate directly or indirectly the Canons made either in this or former Synods about Printing of Books for whose Contents the Licensers of the Press shall be responsible as much as their Authors unto the Provinces And those Provinces within whose District and Jurisdiction our Universities lie shall take a most especial care of them and see them visited from time to time by Persons chosen to that purpose and to oblige all Professors both in Philosophy and Divinity to send every six Months unto the Examiners of Books in the Neighbour Provinces one or two Copies of the Theses disputed and defended in the publick Schools And the neighbour Provinces are empowred with full Authority together with those in which our Universities are erected to take a particular knowledge of their Estate And in case any Pastor or Professor or any Member of our Churches reading or perusing the Books printed with the License of our Examiners shall find any matter of importance which they may count worthy of Reprehension we give order That they apply themselves to the Authors of those printed Discourses or to the Examiners and Licensers of them and to demand Satisfaction from them and in case they refuse to give it then shall they address themselves unto their Colloquies and Synods And that Church and Province out of which the said Complaint cometh forth is forbidden as are also all other persons whatsoever from intermedling with this Affair or to take upon them to judge and decide it or to inflame and spread this Controversie any farther but according to the Canons of our Discipline they shall leave and resign it entirely unto those Assemblies
unto Salvation and thus effectually to redeem all those and none other who were from all Eternity from among all People Nations and Tongues chosen unto Salvation Whereupon although the Assembly were well satisfied yet nevertheless they decreed that for the future that Phrase of Jesus Christ's dying Equally for all should be for born that term Equally was heretofore and might be so again an occasion of stumbling unto many And as for the conditional Decree mentioned in the aforesaid Treatise of Predestination the said Mr. Testard and Amyraud declared that they do not not ever did understand any other thing than God's Revealed Will in his Word to give Grace and Life unto Believers and that they called this in none other sense a Conditional Will than that of an Anthropopia because God promiseth not the effects thereof but upon condition of Faith and Repentance And they added farther that although the Propositions resulting from the manifestation of this Will be conditional and conceived under an If or It may be as if thou believest thou shalt be Saved if a Man repent of his Sins they shall be forgiven him yet nevertheless this doth not suppose in God an Ignorance of the Event nor an Impotency as to the Execution of nor any inconstancy as to his Will which is always firmly accomplished and ever unchangable in it self according to the nature of God in which there is no variableness nor shadow of turning And the said Monsieur Amyraud did particularly protest as he had before published unto the World that he never gave the Name of Universal or Conditional Predestination unto this Will of God than by way of concession and accommodation unto the Language of the Adversary yet forasmuch as many are offended at this Expression of his he offered freely to raze it out of those Places wherever it did occur promising also to abstain from it for the future And both He and the Sieur Testard acknowledged that to speak truly and accurately according to the usage of Sacred Scripture there is no other Decree of Predestination of Men unto Eternal Life and Salvation than the unchangable purpose of God by which according to the most free and good pleasure of his Will he hath out of meer Grace chosen in Jesus Christ unto Salvation before the Foundation of the World a certain number of Men in themselves neither better nor more worthy than others and that he hath decreed to give them unto Jesus Christ to be Saved and that he would call and draw them effectually to Communion with him by his Word and Spirit And they did in consequence of this their Doctrin reject their Error who held that Faith and th' Obedience of Faith Holiness Godliness and Perseverance are not the fruits and effects of this unchangable Decree unto Glory but conditions or causes without which Election could not be passed which conditions or causes are antecedently requisite and foreseen as if they were already accomplished in those who were fit to be elected contrary to what is taught us by the Sacred Scriptures Acts 13.48 and elsewhere And whereas they have made distinct Decrees in this Counsel of God the first of which is to save all Men through Jesus Christ if they shall believe in him the Second to give Faith unto some particular Persons they declared that they did this upon none other account than of accommodating it unto the manner and order which the Spirit of Man observeth in his Reasonings for the succour of his own Infirmities they otherwise believing that though they considered this Decree as Diverse yet was it found in God in one and the self same Moment without any Succession of Thought or order of Priority and Posteriority The Will of this most Supream and Incomprehensible Lord being one only Eternal Act in him so that could we but conceive of things as they be in him from all Eternity we should comprehend these Decrees of God by one only Act of our Understanding as in truth they be but one only Act of his Eternal and Unchangable Will. The Synod having heard these Declarations of the Sieurs Testart and Amyraud injoyned them and all others to refrain from those terms of Conditional Frustratory or Revocable Decree and that they should rather chuse the Word Will whereby to express that Sentiment of theirs by which they would signifie the Revealed Will of God commonly called by Divines Voluntas Signi And whereas in sundry places marked in the Writings of the before-mentioned Mr. Testard and Amyraud they have ascribed unto God as it were a notion of Velleity and strong Affections and vehement desires of things which he hath not nor ever will effectuate they having declared that by those figurative ways of Speaking and an anthropopathical they designed to speak properly none other thing than this that if Men were obedient to the Commandments and Invitations of God their Faith and Obedience would be most acceptable to him according as was before expressed by them The Assembly hearing this their Explication did injoyn them to use such Expressions as these with that Sobriety and Prudence that they might not give any occasion of offence unto any Person nor cause them to conceive of God in any way unsuitable to his Glorious Nature And the same Monsieur Amyraud and Testard declared farther that although the Doctrins obvious to us in the works of Creation and Providence do Teach and Preach Repentance and invite us to seek the Lord who would be found of us Yet nevertheless by reason of the horrible blindness of our Nature and its Universal Corruption no Man was ever this way converted yea and it is utterly impossible that any one should be converted but by the Hearing of the Word of God which is the seed of our Regeneration and the Instrument of the Holy Ghost whose efficacy and vertue only is able to illuminate our Understandings and to change the Hearts and Affections of the Children of Men. And forasmuch as the Word of God hath always revealed the knowledge of the Lord our Redeemer the said Sieurs did farther protest that no one Man was ever nor can be saved without some certain measure of this Knowledge less indeed under the Old Testament but greater under the New the Death and Resurrection of the Son of God being most plainly and distinctly manifested in the Gospel And they hold it as an undoubted Truth that now under the New Covenant the distinct knowledge of Christ is absolutely necessary for all Persons who are come unto Years of Discretion in order to their obtaining of Eternal Salvation And they do from their very Heart anathematize all those who believe or Teach that Man may be saved any other way than by the Merit of our Lord Jesus Christ or in any other Religion besides the Christian And whereas divers Persons were much offended at the Professor Amyrald for calling that knowledge of God which Men might gain from the consideration of his Works and
by the said Lady then the Deputies of the Churches of St. Aignan and Mans shall go unto the City of Alanson to agree with that Church about the Proposan on whom the said Pension is to be conferred And in case of Disagreement between those Churches aforesaid about this Election in which those of St. Aignan and Mans shall have but one Vote the Election shall be done alternatively to wit the first time by the Church of Alanson which shall have the preheminency but the time the Churches of St. Aignan and Mans conjoyntly shall take place before that of Alanson and thus consecutively one after another And in this choice and nomination those aforesaid Churches shall see that the Will of the said Lady of La Harangere be faithfully observed who expresly ordered that the Children born in lawful Marriage of the Sieurs Bourdieu de Bloic de Portevize and du Hamel being Proposans and destinated to the Holy Ministry should be preferr'd before all others whether those Children born or to be born were descended from their Sons or Daughters Nor may any Proposan chosen to receive the said Pension injoy it any longer than the term of Four Years And when as the said Proposan shall be found fit and qualified for the Ministry and be admitted thereinto the Church of Alanson shall have the first choice to retain him in their Service and next the Church of St. Aignan and lastly the Church of Mans and in case neither of these Three should pitch upon him for their Minister he shall then be assigned unto one of the nearest Churches Moreover this Assembly doth for certain Reasons Ordain that the said Sieur L'arpent shall receive the said Pension for Four Years commencing from the Day of his Election which Term being expired they shall proceed unto a new Election according to the Canon aforesaid And this Assembly hath discharged and doth now discharge the said Church of Mans of all Demands Claims and Pretensions whatsoever that might be brought against it upon the account of those Sums which either Mr. Vignier the Father or his Son have received for that Pension during several Years excepting only what the said Churches may demand of the Heirs of the said Mr. Vignier And in case there should be any difference between the Churches of St. Aignan and Mans about those Elections which they are bound to make they shall be composed and terminated by the Synod of Anjou And the said Sieur de L'Arpent and all other Proposans receiving the said Pension shall be bound to give Security that in case through their default or neglect they do not attain to be Ministers of the Gospel or that they change their purpose and divert to some other Studies and Employment they make Restitution of the Monies they have thus received and this agreeable to the Canons of our National Synods 12. This Assembly having heard Mr. Le Croix du Val Deputy from the Heads of Families in the Church of Alanson who declared that he was sent by them to oppose a Proposition set on foot by some particular Members of the said Church and to be tendred unto this Assembly about changing of their Consistory and its ancient Order and that being come unto this City he met with the like Proposition made to their Provincial Synod of Normandy held in the Year 1655 and the Assembly having perused the Memoirs of the Deputies of that Province had remitted the whole affair unto the Synod of that Province Yet nevertheless having waited to see if any one should move about this matter and observing that none had done it he that he might discharge the Trust committed to him did tender unto this Assembly according to his Duty the Letters and Memoirs with which he was charged and opened before this Assembly the cause of his Deputation and the Arguments they had against any such Alteration and he did in behalf of those Heads of Families Petition and doth now again Petition that the Deputies of the said Province may declare whether they be ordered to set on Foot that new Proposition and whether they intend to speak of it who answered that they had no such design because that Affair had been remanded back unto their Provincial Synod The Assembly hath dismissed over the Letters Memoirs and the Act now presented by the said Sieur de la Croix du Val Deputed by the Heads of Families in the Church of Alanson together with the Cognizance and Judgment of this Affair unto the Provincial Synod of Normandy according as was before decreed 13. The Assembly being informed of the great Disorders in the Church of Sauvetat by reason of the difference between the Sieur de Carbon and the Inhabitants of that Town who compose the Church in that place Letters were voted to be written unto the Lord Duke of La Force to intreat his Grace that he would be pleased by his Prudence and Authority to terminate those unhappy Dissentions which menace that poor Church with no less than its utter Ruin and Destruction 14. The Assembly having received honourable Testimonials from divers parts of the singular worth of Monsieur Charles Pastor of the Church of Gap and taking into consideration his numerous Family great Deserts and low Estate in the World and the Inabilities of his Church doth highly applaud his Zeal Pains Care Diligence and Perseverance in his Masters Service having served the Lord and his Churches most faithfully for many years and eminently in this Church wherefore that he may have a competent Maintenance to supply his Necessities this Assembly judgeth him every way worthy of the Cares and Respects of his Province and of his own Congregation which is commended for the Tokens of their Love and Affection to him for his own and his Subsistence And whereas the said Church did agree and bargain at first with him to pay him during his Life the yearly Sum of Three Hundred Livres only they are now most earnestly intreated to extend their Charity and Thankfulness unto him and to augment his Maintenance by raising it up unto Four Hundred Livres a Year for his Life 15. The Province of Vivaretz received the praise of this Assembly for their fervent kindness to Monsieur Chenat formerly Pastor of the Church at La Gorce but now employed in the Service of that of Charenton and it is most earnestly exhorted to continue the yearly Sum of 150 Livres to him for the comfortable Subsistence of this good Servant of Jesus Christ whose Labours and Travels have been very great in the Work of the Lord. 16. The Memoirs and Letters of Monsieur Gabet Pastor of the Church at Osselon having been read and examined in this Assembly his Affair was dismissed over to the Province of Dolphiny which was commended for their Charity and Support extended to him and the said Province was intreated to continue their Cares for the Comfort and Repose of this poor Minister and to hear him in those matters which he shall
the Decre of that Synod held at Loudun 1655. And it doth disannul the Decree of the Synod of Beauge in the Year 1656. which upon this very account had confirmed the Decrees of the said Consistory Yet nevertheless it approveth that Order of suspending the Sieurs Niott Perillau and Piger from their Office of being Elders in the said Church which was denounc'd against them by that Consistory and ratified by the said Synod of Beauge Moreover this Assembly doth disannul that Decree of the Synod of Saumur in the Year 1657. which confirmed another made in the foregoing Synod of Beauge concerning the Ministry of the said Sieur D'Huisseau and disapproveth their Act in censuring the said D'Huisseau for having put in his Appeal to the Synod of Poictou from the Synod of Beauge for which he had very good and sufficient Grounds no less than a Canon of the National Synod of Charenton 1644. and for other Causes mentioned in the Acts of the said Synod And this Assembly could wish that the said Synod of Saumur had not approved the Meetings of the said Consistory in other places than those in which they were accustomed Moreover this Assembly blameth that Consistory for that in stead of doing right upon the Complaint of those aforesaid Gentlemen the Sieurs D'Huisseau de Haumont and their Companions which was occasioned by those Writings of Monsieur Amirald that published their Divisions in prejudice of those Apologies made by the said Synod of Saumur it censured them and would oblige 'em to demand Pardon and upon this account it reverseth the Decree of the Synod of Previlly in the Year 1658. which had confirmed the Judicial Sentence f the said Consistory This Assembly also could have wished that the said Consistory before they had pronounced Sentence of Suspension from the Lord's Supper against the Sieus Benoist Niotte de Haumont and Bouchereau for being the reputed Authors of those injurious Libels written both against them and the Synod of Anjou and the Sieurs Amyrald Beaujardin and others that they had took a more exact knowledge whether the forenamed Persons had been fully convicted And yet forasmuch as it hath since appeared evidently and plainly unto this Assembly that they were the real Authors of them they be by this Assembly declared worthy of that Censure of Suspension which was inflicted on them However this Assembly being very much grieved at this Division which hath so long a time troubled the said Church of Saumur and designing to settle a good firm and lading Peace among them for the future it doth take off that Suspension denounc'd against the Sieurs Niott and Perilleau and Mr. Piger deceased and taketh off that Censure of Suspension from the Lord's Supper denounc'd against the Sieurs Niotte Benoist de Haumont and Bouchereau and notwithstanding that Opposition made against the Calls of the Sieurs Druett Pillet and D'Ortonne unto the Office of Elders this Assembly doth confirm them in it And as to what concerns Monsieur d'Huisseau this Assembly wisheth that he had neither written nor printed any Letters on the account of these Differences However it disannulleth that Decree past against him by the Consistory of Saumur assisted by the Sieurs Guiraud and La Fay Ministers of the Gospel the 27th of March last and dismisseth him with Honour back unto his Church of Saumur and for six Months time he is to preach unto it as often as his Strength will suffer him which time the Assembly hath regulated to be the Work of one half Week when it comes unto his turn that so it may be known within that time whether he may be able for the future to perform the ordinary Duties of his Ministry as to the full and whole of it or of a Moiety only And whenas that time shall be expired or if it be before the sitting of the Provincial Synod of Anjou he shall then acquaint that Synod fully and plainly of his Intentions And in case he shall be then able to exercise his Ministry either as to the whole or to a Moiety of it he shall be at that time confirmed and payed his Wages proportionably to the Service which he hath performed during those six Months of Tryal And if that by reason of his bodily Infirmities he cannot perform the whole or one half of his Work in preaching he shall be from that time discharged but nevertheless he shall still be reputed and taken for Pastor of the said Church without Wages according to his own Proposals in which he shall have liberty to preach whenever he shall be requested to it and may when and as often as he pleaseth assist at Consistories and other Ecclesiastical Assemblies and shall enjoy both his Votes deliberative and decisive yet without pretending to any right of Presidency in those aforesaid Consistories or of being deputed by the said Church unto their Provincial Synods This Assembly censureth also the Sieur Niotte and others who shrowded themselves under the Secular Jurisdiction of the Civil Magistrate in Contempt of the Canons of our Discipline and for taking the whole Consistory for their adverse Party that so they might be exempted from its Jurisdiction and for presenting an Act highly injurious to the said Consistory Moreover this Assembly doth condemn and censure with the greatest Severity all those Writings and Prints which have been made and published by both Parties as most scandalous and injurious and particularly a Letter styled Du Provincial stuft with divers Slanders not only against private Persons but also against the Provincial Synods and Consistory of the said City And the last Synod of Beauge is very much blamed for permitting the Impression and Publication of a Book Entituled Les Pieces Authentiques And this Assembly confirmeth the Judgment of the Synod of Saumur in what concerns the Sieur de Beaujardin exhorting all Parties to lay by all their Resentments one against the other upon the score of those injurious Words and Writings and to declare that they have no Intention in the least of harbouring them any more nor of persisting in them but that contrarywise they do acknowledge one another for Persons of Integrity and Honour and exempted from all Blame or Reproach and in this Quality they shall give each other the Hand of Reconciliation And to prevent all Differences for the future the Provincial Synod of Anjou is enjoyned to proceed against the Transgressors according to the rigour of our Church-Discipline even to the last Censures And in case an Appeal should be entred the Provincial Synod of Britain shall take Cognizance thereof and pass Judgment in it which shall hold good till the meeting of the next National Synod And as for the Differences in the University of Saumur this Assembly giveth full Liberty unto the said University of chusing its Professors in Divinity proceeding therein according to its ancient Canons and Monsieur Royer Doctor of Physick is confirmed in his Office of Counsellor to the said University and the
respective Consistories 10. These words shall close up the fourty eighth Article and all sentences of suspension for what cause soever shall stand good notwithstanding any Appeal until the final Judgment 11. On the first Article of the third Chapter That Custom introduc'd into some certain Churches that Elders going out of Office do nominate their Successors is reprehended and it is decreed according to the Discipline that they shall be chosen by the common Suffragies of the Consistories 12. On the fourth Article of the fourth Chapter Notice is given unto Provincial Synods diligently to enquire who those Pastors and Elders be that give Testimonials contrary to the form prescribed by our Discipline that so they may be censured And for time coming all Pastors giving Attestations unto Trades-men or others who desire them upon none other account than to be acknowledged as Church-members shall specifie that they promised never to abuse them as Instruments for begging or wandring from one Church unto another and in case they should so do that then they be reputed null and void and be torn in pieces 13. Churches whose Members are Prisoners in Paris or elsewhere upon the account of Religion Prisoners for Religion to be relieved are exhorted to minister unto their Necessities by be relieved their Charities and Alms-deeds 14. This Sentence shall conclude the fourth Article of the fifth Chapter however without being able to treat of Church-matters but in those places where the Consistory doth ordinarily meet 15. On the ninth Article whole Consistories shall not be excepted against nor one of the Pastors and Elders in case a Consistory judge the causes of that Exception invalid notwithstanding the Appeal Persons married by a Priest must confess their sin publickly 16. On the twentieth Article such as have been married by a Popish Priest shall not be dispensed from making publick Acknowledgment of their sin by the Consistory whatever their quality or condition may be 17. To the seventh Article of the eighth Chapter after these words shall be chosen these must be added with a low voice 18. Reading over the division of the Provinces it was thought good that the greater and which are furnished with a larger number of Pastors should consult whether it were not commodious for them to be divided into two and they are requested to come prepared with these Resolutions upon it unto the next National Synod 19. On the third Article of the ninth Chapter The Provinces are left at liberty to send their present Deputies unto the following National Synod provided they judge it expedient 20. The clause which was razed out of the seventh Article of the ninth Chapter by the Synod of Gap to wit The Provinces having been first informed by that which was charged to convocate the next Synod shall be again inserted but with this restriction in the end if it may possibly be done 21. On the third Article of the tenth Chapter License is given unto particular Churches to celebrate a Fast they first consulting with their Neighbour-Churches and on great and urgent causes for which they shall be accountable unto the Colloquies and Provincial Synods 22. To the eleventh Article of the thirteenth Chapter after these words with the Niece shall be added and the Grand Niece 23. To the fifteenth Article of the same Chapter after these words sufficient attestation there shall be added of Promises 24. To the sixteenth Article of the fourteenth Chapter there shall be this addition made to close up that Article And in case the matter be urgent then unto the Universities or Neighbour Ministers The Church Discipline having been read and approved by all the Deputies they swore unto its observation and promised to see that it be carefully observed in their respective Churches and to sollicite their Provinces for its performance CHAP. IV. Observations on the National Synod of Gap 1. THAT Exhortation given by the Synod of Gap for reading the Confession of Faith and Book of Discipline in the Provincial Synods is only to be understood thus if it may conveniently be done 2. This Assembly judgeth that it 's no proper time at present to make an Apology for the Confession of our Churches 3. In that Article of the same Synod treating of the 31th Article of the Confession of Faith where it speaks of the Call of the first Pastors in our Reformed Churches these words And to teach which are found in some certain Copies shall be razed and instead of simply shall be inserted principally and that last clause And not unto the small remainders of their corrupted Call shall be thus read Rather than unto the small remains of their ordinary Call 4. Our Brethren of Normandy shall out of hand conform to the other Churches in their reception of Elders and Deacons 5. The Churches of the Baylywick of Gex shall be incorporated with the Provincial Synod of Burgundy See observ 8. of the Synod of Gap upon that of Gergeau Scholars not ordained may not administer the Sacraments 6. In the Letter which shall be written to our Brethren of the Church of Geneva they shall again be intreated not to send our Proposans to preach in their Villages and to administer the Sacraments before they have been lawfully Ordained They shall also be further intreated to take special care of our Students in Divinity and when as they demand a Testimonial to give them none but upon good and sufficient knowledge of their Lives and as their diligence hath deserved and most especially in case of Monks who have quitted their Monasteries to whom this Assembly hath limited the term of two years before their reception into the Sacred Ministry and our said brethren of Geneva shall be advised to detain those who are too forward And farther 't is thought good to pray them that they would endeavour with their Magistrates and People to conform themselves unto the other Churches of Christ in the use of Leavened Bread at the Lords Supper according to the example and received practice of their Neighbour Churches of Berne 7. The word Damnation as 't is qualified and explained in the tenth Sunday of our Catechism shall remain unchanged 8. The Church of Sedan shall be joined according to the Article of Gap unto the Synod of the Isle of France and to the Colloquy of Champagne and shall be present by its Deputies at the said Colloquies and Synods On which condition they shall receive the four portions which had been assigned them by the Synod of Gergeau 9. The Ministry of Monsieur Baily who was granted by the Synod of Gap unto the Church of Lions having been exceeding fruitful unto this very day and mightily edifying unto that Church This Assembly ratifieth that Grant and bestoweth him upon them for their ordinary Pastor so that the Province of Lower Languedoc for the future shall not have any the least pretensions or right unto him 10. This Synod judgeth the Universities of Montauban Nismes Montpellier and
debated them shall pass a befitting Censure upon the guilty and delinquent Persons 22. Although the Appeal of the Church of Sumaine was judged unworthy of our Acceptance yet the Province of Sevennes is exhorted to take into their Christian Consideration the Necessities of the said Church and to establish such Officers in it as are most capable of promoting its Edification and not to suffer Churches of such great Importance to be left any long time destitute of Pastors but that they be immediately supplied either from within or without the Province 23. Monsieur de Fabas Pastor of the Church of Morlans declared his Grievances in his Appeal and the Deputies of the Province of Bearn produced the Reasons inducing their Synod to pass Censure upon him After that both Parties had promised Subjection to the Judgment of this Synod Monsieur de Fabas was censured by this Assembly for his extraordinary and irregular Proceedings and his Appeal being admitted the Province of Bearn was exhorted tor the future never to remove any Pastors from their Churches till they had first consulted their Churches according to the Canons of our Discipline and it ordaineth that since the Sentence of the Provincial Synod was barely provisional it shall stand and be in force till the Meeting of the next Synod by which the said Monsieur de Fabas shall be restored unto his Church of Morlans and Monsieur Rivas who serveth it at present shall be provided of another Church which may be more to his Conveniency and Comfort And till the sitting of the said Provincial Synod the said Monsieur de Fabas may live where he doth and serve the Church of Nay and in case the time of holding the said Synod should be prorogued beyond the term of one Year beginning from the time of calling the said Synod that then the said Monsieur de Fabas is declared to be restored unto the said Church of Morlans 24. This Assembly Censured the Church of St. Hyppolit for those tart and injurious Expressions used in their Letters against the Pastors of the Province of Sevennes and disannulling their Appeal doth confer Monsieur Buera upon that Church to be their Minister whom they formerly requested with a great deal of Love and Importunity and it setteth the said Mr. Buera free and at Liberty from his Province the Deputies of the Province of Lower Languedoc having thereunto consented and Monsieur Bel is licensed to exercise his Ministry at St. Hippolyte in Conjunction with Monsieur Buera until the next Provincial Synod which shall provide another Church for Monsieur Bel and Monsieur Falgueroles is commanded to depart from St. Hippolyte and to reside in the midst of his own Flock on Pain of being Censured according to the 13th Canon in the 1st Chapter of our Discipline And whereas the said Falgueroles is accused by divers Memoirs brought into this Assembly all those Papers were deposited into the Hands of the Deputies of Sevennes with an express Charge and Injunction unto the Synod of the said Province that the said Synod do make Inquiry into the Truth of them and then to proceed to Judgment and to bring an Account hereof unto the next National Synod 25. Although Mr. Benoist hath just Cause of appealing from the Sentence of the Synod of Anjou which had invalidated the Judgment of the University-Council of Saumur for dividing the Profession of the Greek Tongue between Monsieur Duncan and the said Mr. Benoist who having exercised the said Profession before its being suppress'd might warrantably demand to be restored to it yet nevertheless because both these Gentlemen are frequently hindred and diverted by their Practice of Physick from the said Profession and for that the publick Interest requireth all University-Offices should be conferred upon unincumbred Persons who may be free and at Liberty regularly to discharge them without any Interruption by other Functions and Business This Assembly disannulleth those Appeals of the said Benoist and Duncan and confirmeth that Sentence of the University-Council and of the last Synod of the said Province and ordaineth that the Deputies of the said Province of Poictou in their Return homeward shall visit the City of Saumur and endeavour to accommodate and reconcile the divided Parties who are exhorted to live in all good Concord and Friendship and to give publick Evidence of their having buried in oblivion all Resentments of past Differences 26. The Provincial Deputies of Bearn made report that they had received Letters from the Deputies of their Synod and from Mr. Belard Elder of the Church of Morlans containing divers Complaints against Monsieur de Fabas Whereupon the said de Fabas was called in and answered unto all the Articles mentioned in the said Letters And the Assembly persisting in their former Judgment noted in the 23d Appeal where the said de Fabas had purged himself from all Matters objected against him did farther ordain That there should be delivered to him and to the Deputies of Bearn Copies exactly collationed of those Letters produced against him And as for the Original as soon as it shall have been marked it shall be carried by the Lords of Aubas and Masselieres Deputies of the Lower Guyenne unto the Colloquy of Condommois which is expresly charged to make inquiry into that Accusation so obliquely brought in against the said de Fabas and raising Suspicions of him as if he intended to revolt from the true Religion and had received to this purpose Letters from the Monks of Morlans that in case he be found guilty of this Wickedness he may be prosecuted according to the Canons of our Discipline but if not that his Accusers may be condemned to give him all befitting Satisfaction And whereas in the Margent of one of the said Letters it is said that the Colloquy of Nay hath begun its Process against the said de Fabas upon supposition of having deserted his Church this Assembly being not able to believe that the Churches of Bearn would be so extreamly weak as to proceed against them who had appealed from the Judgment of their Synods unto this decreeth That Letters shall be written both to the Colloquy of Nay and to the Synod of Bearn to advise them to be very careful that the Union of the Churches in their Province with those of this Kingdom be not wounded directly nor indirectly by any Actions contrary to Christian Charity And whereas extraordinary Processes have been managed and carried on against the said Mr. de Fabas or may be now begun or finished they be all declared to be in very truth and deed as this Synod doth now declare them to be null and void and undertaken contrary to our Church-Discipline 27. The Appeal of the Church of Bergerac opposing the Incorporation of the House of Tiraqueau with the Church of Cours was rejected and the Judgment of the Province of Lower Guyenne confirmed according to the Canon of the Synod of Castres which dismisseth such and the like
Causes over to the Provinces to be finally decided by them CHAP. XX. General Matters Article 1. IT having been reported in this Assembly that the Magistrates in divers Places have commanded the Professors of our Religion to hang their Houses and light out Candles on that Festival that goes by the Name of the Holy Sacrament and that several Persons thrô a deplorable Infirmity have so much forgotten themselves as to observe an Ordinance which obliges their Consciences to yield unto the Creature that self-same Honour which is due unto the Creator This Assembly wanting Words with which it may express its just Grief and Resentment for such an inexcusable Cowardliness doth adjure the Consciences of those Persons who have fallen into Sins so repugnant unto true Piety by the Fear of the Living God by the Zeal of his Glory by the Bowels of his Mercy in the Son of his dearest Love and by that special Care the Faithful ought to have of their Salvation that they would revive their Zeal and shew themselves Loyal Followers of the Faith and Constancy of their Fathers and testify by their Perseverance in Well-doing the Sincerity and Soundness of their Repentance and of their Affection to the Service of God Moreover the Consistory of those Places where such Scandals do fall out is injoined to rebuke them with an holy Vigour who give such an evil Example and all Synods are to proceed against them with all Ecclesiastical Censures and if they be Pastors and Elders who by their Connivance and Dissimulation have or for the future may favour such Offenders they shall not only be suspended but deposed also from their Offices CHAP. XXI An Act for a Publick National Fast 2. FOrasmuch as after a most desolating Drought which hath reduced the greatest part of the Provinces of this Kingdom to an extream Famine the Hand of God lifted up against us is not yet called back but continueth to visit his People by contagious and mortal Diseases which have overspread the whole Land and are every day more and more growing upon us This National Synod of the Reformed Churches of France assembled by his Majesty's Permission at Charenton acknowledging that the Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven and poured but upon the Face of the Earth because of the Ungodliness of Men and of the Impenitency and Hardness of their Hearts to prevent the dreadful Judgment of this great and righteous Judg who resisteth the Proud and giveth Grace unto the Humble and to turn away the Floods of his Vengeance and to excite the Bowels of his fatherly Compassions and to impetrate from his Divine Bounty the continuance of his gracious Favours for the Prosperity and Repose both of Church and State doth exhort all the Faithful to bring forth Fruits worthy of Repentance and to cast off the unfruitful Works of Darkness and to return unto the Lord with broken humble and contrite Hearts And to this purpose it ordaineth That a Fart shall be celebrated in all the Churches of this Kingdom the first Day of January next following which shall be signified by the publick reading of this present Act. 3. Forasmuch as divers Provinces have craved Advice how we shall proceed against those Persons who occasion scandalous Reports prejudicial to the Peace of the Church and may hereafter propound Terms of Accommodation by mingling and blending of both Religions into one This Assembly recommendeth unto all the Churches the observation of that Canon which was made two and thirty Years ago in the National Synod of Montpellier whose Tenour followeth Syn. Montpel gen mat v. Forasmuch as 't is the Duty of all the Faithful heartily to desire the Reunion of all the Subjects of this Kingdom into the Vnity of Paith for the greater Glory of God for the Salvation of millions Souls and the singular Repose of the Common-wealth yet because of our Sins this being a Matter rather of our Desires than Hopes and that under this Pretext divers profane Persons do openly attempt to blend and mingle both Religions together All Ministers shall admonish seriously their Flocks not in the least to hearken unto any such Notions it being utterly impossible that the Temple of God should hold Communion with Idols as also for that such Wretches design only by this Trick to debauch easy credulous Souls from the Belief and Profession of the Gospel And whoever attempts such a Reconciliation be it either by Word or Writing shall be most severely censured CHAP. XXII An Act in favour of the Lutheran Brethren 4. THE Province of Burgundy demanding Whether the Faithful of the Augustane Confession might be permitted to contract Marriages in our Churches and to present Children in our Churches unto Baptism without a precedaneous abjuration of those Opinions held by them contrary to the Belief of our Churches This Synod declareth That inasmuch as the Churches of the Confession of Ausbourg do agree with the other Reformed Churches in the principal and fundamental Points of the True Religion and that there is neither Superstition nor Idolatry in their Worship the Faithful of the said Confession who with a Spirit of Love and Peaceableness do join themselves to the Communion of our Churches in this Kingdom may be without any abjuration at all made by them admitted unto the Lord's Table with us and as Sureties may present Children unto Baptism they promising the Consistory that they will never sollicit them either directly or indirectly to transgress the Doctrine believed and professed in our Churches but will be content to instruct and educate them in those Points and Articles which are in common between us and them and wherein both the Lutherans and we are unanimously agreed 5. If any Persons shall be hereafter deputed unto the Court by the National Synods during their sitting they shall be accountable for all Monies received by them for the defraying their Expenses whether those Sums do arise from their respective Churches or from his Majesty's Liberality that so whatever good Monies come in clearly unto the Churches being remitted into their common Stock may be disbursed to their common Profit and Advantage by Order of these Synods 6. Whereas contrary to his Majesty's Royal Word given unto the Deputies of the National Synod of Charenton in the Year 1623 That Strangers employed in the Service of the Churches of this Kingdom should be continued those Reverend and Learned Pastors Mr. Martinius and S. Sharpius are commanded to depart the Province of Dolphiny The Lord Commissioner is intreated immediately to issue out Letters Patents that may effectually hinder the execution of those new Orders and that all Foreigners received into the Ministry among us both before that time and since may not in any wise be molested or obstructed in performance of the Duties of their Charge and Calling 7. The Lord Commissioner declaring that it was his Maiesty's Intention that for the future our National Synods should beheld in this Place and nowhere else This Assembly in