concord of our Churches in that Doctrine which notwithstanding the many evil times have past over us hath been preserved until now in its purity among us The other is that by continuing the Oaths injoyned by the last Synod of Privas you take the most proper and effectual course to heal the wounds which our unhappy divisions have these years last past made in the Vnion of our Churches and I see no Expedient more likely to suceed than unanimously and with joynt consent to agree and pitch upon one General end whereunto all and every one shall direct and aim I Salute most humbly every Member of your Assembly and beseech God Almighty to assist and fortify you by his holy Spirit for his own glory and for the Vnion Restauration and Propagation of his Church From Saumur April 20. 1614. Your most humble and most affectionate Servant Du Plessis The Duke of Rohan's Letter to the National Synod Assembled at Tonneins Sirs THOSE strong obligations which the Churches of France have laid upon me do ingage me to seek out all occasions whereby to testifie my gratitude 'T is this which causes me to write at present and to crave this favour of you to believe that I shall never forget those assistances I received from you in the last Synod of Privas and particularly from divers Churches of this Kingdom yea and from those I have never known Certainly Sirs I shall Confess it freely that the effects of your kindnesses have exceeded my services yet I hope that for the future you will know you have not have obliged an ungrateful person And that what you have kept for me shall be always chearfully employed for your selves We are fallen into such a time as need extraordinary Prayers unto God for his Guidance and Counsel We have been much afflicted since the Assembly of Saumur by divisions sown and fomented among us The Synod of Privas knowing it to be the most compendious Course for our Ruine did indeavour to prevent it But divers persons being unacquainted with our malady then there could not be a thorough cure effected But now every one knows it and may contribute something thereunto For my part I think it no difficult matter for us to use the true Remedy which consists in an entire re-union of all our Members that so we may be but one Body and the more fit to serve God the King and our Country and the more able to divert our enemies from enterprizing upon us from whom also we might take away the very will of doing it by its impossibility This Sirs is a work well-worthy of your Assembly I exactly conformed to the desires of the last Synod and I do now again renew my promises of observing your Orders not only in that but in whatsoever else you shall judge to concern the glory of God whom I ardently beseech that he would preside in your Councils and to give me that grace never to abuse his favours conferred upon me but that employing whatever I have received from his divine Majesty to the advancement of his Kingdom I may consecrate the remainder of my days unto his service My Lord Baron of Montausier hath particular orders from me to acquaint you with my intentions and proceedings and especially with that journey of the Lord of Hautefontain taken by my command unto his highness the Prince I desire you would believe him in what he shall inform you as if it were my self and I shall always approve my self to you all generally and particularly Sirs From St. John d' Angely this 24. of April 1614. Your most Humble and most Affectionate to do your service Henry of Rohan A Letter from the Lord of Caumont to the National Synod of Tonneins Sirs I Well hoped to have had strength enough to have been personally present with you and to have injoyed the honour and contentment of saluting your Holy Assembly and to have given you my self by word of Mouth the assurance of my fidelity and affection unto whatsoever the service of my God obligeth me for the support of his Churches and the advancement of his Glory But being at present detained by important businesses which the Sieur de Mailléz shall inform you of I intreat you therefore most humbly to be pleased with my absence and to believe that no person in the World is more ready to expose his life and the Lives and Estate of all his with greater chearfulness and willingness for Gods cause and yours than I shall be to adventure mine and the lives and fortunes of all mine And I pray God that by his Holy Spirit he would be pleased to preside in the midst of you and to conduct your Holy Wills in such manner as he knows to be most expedient for his Glory the Weal Repose and Conservation of his Church whereof having the honour to be a Member I shall ever remain in its Communion and subject my self wholly in all things unto it under the priviledge of the Edicts and the authority of their Majesties intreating you to lay your Commands upon me and to be assured that in whatsoever I may serve the publick and every one of you in particular you shall have evidence of my obedience and loyal affection The Lord follow you most Reverend Sirs with his choicest Favours and Benedictions I am From Paris May 2. 1614. Your most Humble and Affectionate Servant Caumont A Letter from the Lord of Chastillon to the National Synod of Tonneins Sirs MY past actions which through Divine Grace no Man hath just cause to complain of are I believe sufficient proofs of that care I ever had for the re-union and good intelligence of the great men of this Kingdom professing the true Religion and the fear of God as also of that respect I paid unto the desires of the last National Synod of Privas intimated to me by their Letters and what I have since done both at Court for our general concerns and since my return in this Province to conserve your Lives and Priviledges enjoyed by you during the reign of the late King will testifie that the true blood of the late renowned Lord Admiral de Chastillon is in my Veins and that I have managed all publick affairs fallen into my hands with all uprightness and justice as the Sieurs Gigord and Codur who have been Eye-witnesses of my deportments can more fully inform you if they please Sirs this my Letter drives at none other end than to let you see what deference I have for you and that my whole life shall be employed in the service of the Churches and I beseech you to believe that besides it and the service of the King and your preservation and advancement there is nothing in this world more dear unto me And if I can do you in my station any particular service either here or elsewhere you shall always find me ready for it Had it been as easy for me to have been personally present with you as
r. should p. 462. l. 3. after by r. the. p. 488. l. 32. f. make paying r. pay in p. 489. l. 54. put the Comma after Amyraud p. 500. dele the last line p. 511. l. 27. f. those r. whose p. 512. l. 26. r. give p. 540. l. 22 23. dele and if it be possible p. 545. l. 49. f. decreeing r. during p. 549. l. 46. after taken insert off p. 550. l. 32. dele dare p. 556. l. 11. f. our r. their p. 567. l. 25. for this r. his p. 568. l. 3. r. but the next time p. 569. l. 26. r. for his Family's subsistence p. 578. l. 18. r. ninety p. 585. l. 8. r. there can be p. 595. l. 3. r. Religion that neither addeth AN INTRODUCTION UNTO THESE COUNCILS THE CONTENTS OF THE INTRODUCTION The State of Religion in France before the Reformation Section 1. The Dawn of it in the Preaching of Waldo 2. And of his Disciples 3. Persecutions raised against them and by whom 4. The glorious Out-breaking of the Reformation how and by what Instruments in that Kingdom 5. The Growth and Progress of it Churches gathered Pure Worship instituted Bible translated into the Mother-Tongue 6. New Persecutions excited The first National Synod 7. Confession of Faith composed and presented to the King 8. The Confession it self in 40 Articles 9. Remarks upon the Confession 10. Discipline designed 11. The whole Body of the Discipline of those Reformed Churches in fourteen distinct Chapters 12. Remarks upon the Discipline And Apology for those Churches Two thousand one hundred and fifty Reformed Churches in France in the Year 1571. They had more than 200000 Martyrs in ten Years time 13. The Acme and Perfection of the Reformation Religion at a stand for 22 Years from the 1572 to the Year 1594. When Henry the Fourth last revolted then began the Reformation to lose ground in France French Ministers Latitudinarians and Accommodators who and for what but condemned by their National Synods 14. The Edict of Nantes with all its Articles The secret Articles of that Edict 15. The President du Thou and the Lord of Calignon spend three Years in drawing up this Edict 16. Observation and Infractions of the Edict Misery of the Reformed after the death of Henry the Fourth 17. The Edict of Nismes granted to the D. of of Rohan and the whole Body of the Protestants 18. Reflections upon this Edict and its Non-observation A Declaration of this present King Louis the Fourteenth confirming all the former Edicts of Pacification with Acknowledgment of the great Services and Merits of the Reformed 19. The true Causes of their Ruin the great Services they had done the King in his greatest needs 20. The various Methods used for the destruction of the Protestants in France 21. Law Suits in many Articles and Cases 22. Great Oppressions by fiery Zealots 23. Protestants ruined by perjur'd Papists 24. Incouragements given to Popish Priests and Missioners The Cheaters cheated 25. The miserable condition of sick Protestants 26. The cruel Oppressions of a French Gentleman 27. A General Inundation of Criminal Processes False Witnesses against Protestant Ministers 28. The Reformed deprived of all Offices Orders for it 29. New Converts freed from paying of Debts Protestants may not dispose of their Estates 30. Violations of the Edict by corrupt Expositions of it 31. The Schools of the Reformed their Colleges and Vniversities suppress'd 32. New Laws made which were a torment to them Those Laws specified and enumerated 33. Protestants may not receive into their Temples any revolted unto Popery Seats in their Temples for the Roman Catholicks 34. Multitudes foreseeing the approaching Storm quit the Kingdom 35. The Protestants ruined by the Verbal Declarations of their King His Letter to the Duke of Brandenburg 36. Juggling Tricks used to mischief the Reformed 37. Five most notable ones 38. The Mob stirred up by Decrees to desire their extirpation by venomous Libels 39. The care and endeavours of the Reformed for their own preservation yet ineffectual 40. Persecutions of the Protestants by Dragoons 41. In Berne their horrible Cruelties to fright the Reformed into Popery 42. A Specimen of those Cruelties 43. The barbarous usage of the Nobles and Commons of the Reformed in France Several memorable Relations of it 44. The Martyrdom of Monsieur Homel 45. The Intendants Bishops Priests and Missioners Ring-leaders in persecution A Form of Abjuration propounded and to be signed by the Protestants 46. A Letter from Metz giving an account of their sad estate there in that City 47. A Letter from Geneva relating the doleful estate of the poor Refugees in that City 48. Consultations at Court for the total extirpation of the Reformed Religion 49. The Edict repealing that of Nantes 50. The wretched estate of the exiled Pastors 51. And of the remaining Protestants in that Kingdom 52. Treacherous dealing with poor Ministers A Letter about it 53. The Pope's Congratulatory Letter to the King 54. A Pastoral Letter to the Brethren groaning under Babylonish Captivity and Tyranny 55. Remarks upon the Manuscript Copies out of which this Synodicon was extracted and composed 56. A Catalogue and Order and Time of the National Synods 57. THE INTRODUCTION SECTION I. The State of Religion in France before the Reformation EVrope a little before the Reformation was universally over-run with Idolatry Superstition Ignorance and Prophaneness The greater part of the Priests said not Where is the Lord and they who should have taught the Law of God knew him not The Pastors also transgressed against him and the Prophets Prophesied by Baal There was like People like Priest sottish brutish and debauched Sect. 2. In this woful estate the Sovereign Mercy of God brake forth as the Sun out of a dark Cloud in a most illustrious manner upon the Kingdom of France visiting it in the first place and before all the Nations of Europe with the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ the Day-spring from on high The verity and purity of Christian Doctrine God's great Ordinance to recover sinful Nations from their Antichristian pollutions is Preached and published unto it Angels as it were from Heaven holy Men and Messengers of God came flying with the little Book of Life in their hands not as a Sealed Vision dark and unintelligible but open plain clear and easy to be understood into the Cities and Towns of that Kingdom and call aloud unto the Inhabitants thereof to repent of all their abominations to turn from all their Idols Superstitious and irreligious practices and to fear and serve God only through Jesus Christ the alone Mediator betwixt God and Man This was done at first by that famous Trumpet of Reformation the blessed Waldo of Lions who being a Neighbour to the Vaudois received the holy Bible and Doctrine of Eternal Life and Salvation from them in the year 1160. It having been conserved in their Valleys times immemorial yea said Fryar Reynerius from the very days of the Apostles Sect. 3. But he was not
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
275 276 277. SECT XIV THE Churches after the Parisian Massacre were at a stand That Deluge of Protestant Blood which was then shed had exhausted their best Spirits Multitudes were frighted out of their Native Land which like another Akeldama devoured Men ate up its Inhabitants and others were frighted out of their Religion In such a dreadful Hurricane as that was no wonder if some leaves unripe fruit and rotten withered Branches fell to the Earth and were lost irrecoverably However a Remnant escaped and which was no less than a Miracle generally the Ministers God Reserving them to gather in another Harvest And the Churches in many places revived God staying the rough Wind in the day of his East Wind and giving them a breathing time a little reviving under their hard Bondage They declined not much in number for two and twenty years after But Henry the Fourth having been exalted to the Throne of France by the Reformed Party and revolting from them unto the Popish and embracing that Religion that he might be secured in the Throne the Interest of the Churches did from that day decline visibly Many of the Nobility imitated their King in his Apostasie And the united Example of King and Nobility had a most pernicious influence upon the Populace All the Arts and Tricks of the Court were set on foot to palliate the King's Prevarication and to divide and weaken the Reformed See Histoire Universelle D' Aubigny liv 3. p. 305 306 307 308 309 310. There arose a Combination of Men such as Morlas Rotan de Serres c. who were for accommoding and reconciling the two Religions And these were put upon it by the Bribes and Pensions of the Romish Clergy and Promises of great Preferments They declaim against the nakedness and simplicity of the Reformed Religion and cry up the necessity and beauty of Pomp and Ceremony See Syn. of Saumur 3â— Art of Gen. Mar. Syn. of Montauban 23. Art of Gen. Mar. Syn. of Montpellier 2. Art of Gen. Matters Synod of Privas 1612. Act of the Oath of Union Second Synod of Charenton Art of Gen. Matters 3. which made the Roman Religion so august and venerable in their Eyes blinded with Ambition and Covetousness The National Synods of Saumur Montauban Montpellier and Privas did what they could to stem the Current and to prevent these avaritious Spirits from doing mischief unto their Churches They threaten and order all Accommodators of the two Religions to be actually deposed as being the Servants of Mammon not of God This did something and it stopped the Gap for the present And when the Court saw they could not break the Union of the Reformed and that they were yet a very considerable Party for Wisdom Strength Resolution Union Courage and Conduct Things being also unsetled in the State and the Spaniard sitting close upon the Skirts of the King and possibly he retaining yet some love and sparks of Gratitude for his old Friends of the Reformed Religion and not counting it safe to exasperate them any more he granted them a Fundamental and Irrevocable Edict at Nantes in Brittaine April 1598. for their Liberty and Security SECT XV. The King's Edict for pacifying the Troubles of the Kingdom made at Nantes in the Month of April 1598. and published in Parliament February 15. 1599. As also those particular Articles about it which were afterward verified in Parliament HEnry by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre To all present and to come Greeting Among those infinite Favours which God hath been pleased graciously to vouchsafe unto us this must be confessed by all to be one of the most remarkable and illustrious that he hath endowed us with that Courage and Vritue as not to be over-born with those dreadful Troubles Disorders and Confusions which we encountered with at our first coming unto the Crown For the Kingdom was then divided into so many Parts and Factions that that which was the most just and lawful was become the least and weakest and yet notwithstanding we were so supported against the assaults of those storms that we have at length surmounted them and are now safely arriv'd at the Port of Peace and have setled the state in repose and tranquillity For which let God only have the Praise and Glory to whom it is most peculiarly due and let our Subjects also be sensible of his Grace and their obligation to us that he hath honoured us to be his Servant in the Production of so good a Work which as all of them may see is not only the fruit and effect of our Duty and Authority but of something else which possibly at another time might not have been so fit and convenient for our Royal Dignity exposed by us without fear unto the greatest Dangers as we have very frequently and freely hazarded our Life also And for as much as there was a great concourse of arduous and perillous Affairs which could not possibly be composed all at once we were necessitated to use this method First to undertake them which could not be terminated by any other way or means than those of Force and Arms and to defer and suspend for some time the executing and dispatch of others which ought and might have been finished by Reason and Justice such were those general differences between our Subjects and those particular Diseases which had seized on the sounder parts of the State which we conceived might be more easily cured when as the principal cause was removed which was the continuance of the Civil War And now having through the grace of God well and happily succeeded in it and all Arms and Hostilities being wholly ceased within the Kingdom we have great hopes that we shall be as successful in those other Affairs which are yet to be decided and that by this means we shall be enabled to establish a good firm and durable Peace and Tranquillity at which we have ever levell'd and aimed in our Vows and Intentions and which hath been the designed prize of all our painful Labours and Travails undergone by us during the whole course of our Life Among those Affairs which have most exercised our Patience the principal and chiefest were the Complaints brought in unto us from our Catholick Towns and Provinces That the exercise of the Catholick Religion was not universally restored as had been imported by the former Edicts made for pacifying the Troubles occasioned by Religion And also the Petitions and Remonstrances tendered to us by our Subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion for that those Edicts granted them were not at all executed and for that they desired some further Concessions to be accorded to them about the exercise of their said Religion the Liberty of their Consciences and the security of their Persons Lives and Fortunes They presuming that they had too just grounds to fear and apprehend new and greater dangers because of the last Troubles and Commotions of which the first and main pretext
and foundation was their utter ruine Wherefore that we might not overburden our selves with too great a load of businesses all at once and for that the fury of War is incompatible with the Constitution of good and wholesome Laws we did prudently defer and delay their full and particular satisfaction till such time as we might make the best provision for them that could be desired And now at last through the divine goodness enjoying a greater quiet than ever we believed that we could not better employ our selves than in those concerns of the glory of his holy name and service and that he may he religiously adored invocated and worshipped by all our Subjects and although it be not his good pleasure to permit at this time that it should be in one and the self-same form and mode of Religion yet at least that it may be with one and the self-same mind and intention and in such an order and manner as there may not be any trouble or tumult among them for it that so both we our selves and this Kingdom may always merit and preserve that glorious Title entail'd upon us by the noble Atchievements of our Progenitors of being the Most Christian and so by this means to remove the cause of all those evils and troubles which might fall out upon the score and account of Religion they being of all others the most spreading taking and influential For these reasons we knowing that this was an affair of the greatest importance and meriting our best thoughts and deepest consideration after we had taken in hand the Bills of Grievances presented us by our Roman Catholick Subjects and had permitted our other Subjects of the aforesaid pretended Reformed Religion to assemble themselves by their Deputies to prepare their Bills also and to bring them in together with their Remonstrances unto us and had several Conferences with them about those very matters at sundry and divers times and revised all former Edicts we have judged needful now upon the whole to give unto all our said Subjects one and that a general clear plain and absolute Law by which they may be ruled and governed in and about all those differences which have heretofore fallen out or may hereafter happen and fall out among them which 't is our hope will most effectually contribute to their mutual and full contentment upon all occasions and emergencies whatsoever Sith that we never deliberated nor advised with our Privy-Council about it upon any other ground or respect than that great zeal which we have for God's Service and Glory and that he may be more religiously obeyed and worshiped by all our said Subjects and that there might be setled and established among them a good and firm and durable Peace For the obtaining of which we do most devoutly implore and wait upon his Divine Goodness hoping and expecting the continuance thereof and of that wonderful Protection and Favour he hath always most illustriously vouchsafed unto this Kingdom from its first Foundations laid many hundred years ago unto this very day and that he will be so merciful unto our said Subjects as to give them to understand that in the observation of this our Law consists next and after their duty unto God and us the principal basis and ground-work of their Union Concord Tranquillity and Peace and the setling and restoration of the whole state in its primitive splendour opulency and power As we for our part do purpose resolve and promise to see that it be exactly observed without suffering it in any manner to be transgressed or violated For these Causes We with the Advice of the Princes of our Blood and other Princes and Officers of the Crown and other great and Honourable Persons in our Council of State who are near about us and attend upon us having well and diligently pondered and considered this whole affair we have by this perpetual and irrevocable Edict said declared and Ordained and we do say declare and Ordain I. In the first place That the sense and remembrance of all matters passed both on the one side and the other from the beginning of March in the year 1585. unto the day of our coming unto the Crown and during all the preceding Troubles and all causes and occasions of them shall be for ever suppressed and forgotten as if they had never been Nor shall it be lawful for our Attorney-Generals or any other Persons whatsoever whether publick or private at any time or on any occasions that may be to mention sue implead or prosecute for them in any of our Courts or Jurisdictions whatsoever II. We forbid all our Subjects whatsoever their Estate or Quality may be to revive the memory of past matters or to assault incense injure provoke or reproach one the other upon those accounts or upon any cause or pretext whatsoever to dispute contend or quarrel with or to wrong and offend any one either in word or deed but that they contain themselves within bounds and live together peaceably as Brethren Friends and Fellow-Citizens on pain of punishing the Transgressors as Breakers of the Peace and Disturbers of the quiet and settlement of the Common-wealth III. We Ordain That the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion shall be restored and set up again in all places and quarters of this our Kingdom and in all other our Dominions subject to us where the exercise thereof hath been intermitted that it may be peaceably and freely exercised without any trouble lett or hinderance And we do most straitly forbid all Persons whatsoever their quality estate or condition may be upon the Penalties before-mentioned to trouble molest or disquiet the Ecclesiasticks in the Celebration of Divine Service or in the receiving or injoyment of their Tithes Emoluments and Revenues of their Benefices and of all other rights and duties appertaining to them And that all persons who in the late troubles have seized upon Churches Houses Goods and Revenues belonging to the said Ecclesiasticks and who do possess and occupy them do entirely relinquish the same and do peaceably resign and yield up their possession and enjoyment of them and of all rights priviledges and securities unto those Churchmen who are disseized of them Moreover we do most straitly forbid all those of the said pretended Reformed Religion to have any Sermons preached or any other exercise of their Religion aforesaid in any Churches Houses or other Habitations of those the said Ecclesiasticks IV. And the said Ecclesiasticks shall have full liberty to buy those Houses and Edifices which have been built not upon holy but profane grounds taken from them in the late troubles or to compel the Possessors of the said Buildings to purchase the land of them at a certain rate and price which shall be estimated and set upon it by persons of judgment and experience in such matters and for which both the Parties shall agree And in case of non-agreement between them the Judges of those places shall determine saving
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
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
were so far from being heard that their Troubles became greater and their repeated Petitions render their Condition still worse and worse When as Deputies from Cities and Provinces have come to the Louvre in the most dutiful manner with the most humble Supplications of the sorely distressed Protestants for Relief under their heavy pressures they have received an express Order from the King to be gone home again immediately Thus was Monsieur de Vignolles Deputy for the Province of Languedoc used No sooner was he arrived at Paris but one of the Kings Pursuivants is dispatched to him with a peremptory Command to depart the City in eight days upon pain of close Imprisonment And Monsieur Faissé deputed by the Inhabitants of Privas did no sooner appear at Court with their Complaints but the Captain of the Kings Guards commands him in his Majesty's Name to depart the Court instantly upon the like peril of being clapt up in Prison And when the Province of Lower Guienne had sent Monsieur Sarrau to lay at his Majesty's Feet an humble Representation of their many Grievances he received a private Letter under the Kings Seal forbidding him to come to Court A multitude of such Precedents might be produced And if at any time and after many difficulties they have been successful and weathered out the storms of affronts and injuries they have met withal yet when their businesses hath come to an hearing oftentimes no Advocate could be got to plead their Cause or if they have been heard although their Arguments were never so strong yet they have been at last slighted and rejected and no right done them They have some times spent whole years in pursuit of their Causes and in hope of Audience but have been worn out with delays whereas Sentences against them have been obtained by the Clergy in twenty four hours Yea many times after long waiting and great Charges the Protestant Agents and Deputies have been forced to return home with the sad tidings of the loss of their most righteous Causes The last Petition presented to the King himself by the Lord Marquiss of Rouvigny the General-Deputy in March 1684. was couched in the most submissive terms that would have moved and melted into pity the hardest heart thousands having seen and read it for it was afterward Printed yet they got nothing by it but the hastening of their ruine and destruction SECT XLI This was effectually accomplished some few Months following and in such a terrible and violent manner hath it been Executed that the darkest and most distant Corners of Europe yea and of Asia and America have heard and rung of it But the circumstances are not known to all and therefore I shall give an account of them in a few words that the mouth of Impudence may be stopped who publish abroad That no Violences have been offered in France unto the Reformed and that the Conversions there have been voluntary and of their free consent At first they took these measures to Quarter Souldiers in all the Provinces almost at the same time and chiefly Dragoons which are the most resolute Troops of the Kingdom Terrour and dread marched before them and as it were by one common Intelligence all France was allarm'd and filled with this News that the King would no longer suffer any Hugonots in his Kingdom and that they must resolve to change their Religion For there was no human Power could preserve them in it SECT XLII They began with Bearne in this Province the Dragoons first exercised their skill in Persecuting Soon after the storm breaks out in the High and Lower Guienne from thence it rides post unto Xaintongue Aunix Poictou the Upper Languedoc Vivaretz and Dolphiny Then they roar and ravage in Lionnois Sevennes and the Lower Languedoc Provence and in the Valleys of Piedmont and the little Country of Gex Afterwards they fall with a most horrid rage upon the rest of the Kingdom upon Normandy Burgundy Nivernois and Berry the Provinces of Orleans Tourain Anjou Brittain Champagne Piccardy and the Isle of France not excluding Paris it self which underwent the same Fate with the other Protestants The first thing the Intendants were to do according to their Orders and Instructions was to summon the Cities and Commonalties before them and when those Inhabitants which professed the Reformed Religion were assembled they then very gravely acquaint them That it was his Majesty's pleasure they should without delay become Roman Catholicks and if they would not do it freely they would make them do it by force These poor People surpriz'd with such a proposition answer That they were ready to sacrifice their Lives and Estates to the King but their Consciences and Souls being not their own but Gods they could not in any wise dispose of them There needed no more to bring in the Dragoons upon them these armed and booted Apostles are at hand they seize immediately on the Gates and Avenues of the Cities they place their Guards in all the Passages and brandishing their naked Swords the Cry is Kill Kill or else turn Catholicks They be quartered on the Protestants at discretion and are strictly charged by their Officers to let none go out of their houses nor to hide and conceal their goods or effects on great penalties The Catholicks also are threatned in like manner in case they should receive harbour or assist them The first days are spent in consuming those Provisions the house afforded and plundering them of Moneys Rings Jewels and whatever was of any esteem or value Then they set to sale all the goods of the Family and invite the Papists not only of that place but also those of the neighbour Towns and Cities to come and buy them And be sure they could sell them cheap pennyworths and give them a very good Title SECT XLIII A Spâ—â—â—â— of Popish Cruelties Afterwards they fall upon the Persons of the Protestants and there was no Wickedness though never so horrid which they did not put in practice that they might enforce them to change their Religion Amidst a thousand hideous Cries and Blasphemies they hang up Men and Women by the Hair or Feet upon the roofs of the Chambers or hooks of Chimneys and smoakt them with wisps of wet Hay till they were no longer able to bear it and when they had taken them down if they would not sign an abjuration of their pretended Heresies they then truss them up again immediately Some they threw into great Fires kindled on purpose and would not take them out till they were half roasted They tied ropes under their Arms and plung'd them to and again into deep Wells from whence they would not draw them till they had promised to change their Religion They bound them as Criminals are when they be put to the Rack and in that posture putting a Funnel into their Mouths they pour'd Wine down their throats till its fumes had deprived them of their reason and they had in that condition
banished them unto Rheims and are now doing penance for their Heresie as the Papists call it and you may be sure a severe Penance it is that will be inflicted on them by the bigotted Nuns in their Convents The Lady Vielle Vigne neâ—r Nantes in Brittany being accused of holding a Conventicle in her house that is for keeping a day of Prayer was immediately arrested and all that had been found at that Religious Meeting were carried to prison where this Excellent Pious Lady abides in Duress Monsieur de Rosemont formerly Pastor of Giens having through humane Infirmity fallen with the Multitude fell sick in danger of death the Priest of his Parish comes to visit him and offers to administer the Popish Sacraments Extream Unction and the Eucharist unto him but the poor Man refuses them and declares his mind boldly against them and in particular against their Sacrilege in robbing the People of the Cup. Finally it pleased God that he recovered of his distemper and being in perfect health he was demanded whether the words he had spoken and the discourse he had held in his Sickness were the effects of his Fever and Delirium or of his fixed and settled Judgment He answered couragiously that what he had spoken in his Sickness he would stand to in his Health that they were his present Thoughts and Faith and expressing a great deal of Remorse and Sorrow for his Fall he begg'd pardon of God for it whereupon he was brought before a Judge who condemn'd him forth-right unto the Gallies there to be hung till he was dead Monsieur Bayley Minister of Carla in the County of Foix and who was in June 1685. seized on by the Provost of Montauban and thrown into a Dungeon in the Castle of Trumpet at Bordeaux not one of his Friends or Relations being ever permitted to visit him or to know the cause of his Imprisonment died the 12th of November following but with that Constancy as became a Martyr of Jesus Christ praising and blessing God for his Sufferings These Sufferings of his had been very great and exceeding grievous He lay a long while together sick without any relief or assistance yea they were so barbarously cruel to him as to deny him a Cup of cold Water to quench his burning Thirst his merciless Guards treating him in his very malady with all manner of Barbarities that by those Torments he might be enforced to apostatize from the Truth but this excellent man of God held stedfastly to the last and by his Faith and Patience conquered the Cruelties of his Tormentors and died triumphantly He was a Person of great Worth and Learning all which was communicated by him to the Edification of his Flock His Brother one of the rarest Scholars of this Age is that famous Author of the Republique des Lettres The Widow of Monsieur Fremont that rich famous Banker of Paris together with her two Sons left above 200000 Liveres in their House and escapt most fortunately their Persecutors Monsieur Fremont putting himself and six more into the Habits and Arms of the Life-Guard and himself as an Officer in the head of them coming upon the Frontiers to the Guards demands whether none had passed them lately To which they replied Yes some had done it a little before with Pass-ports But this new Officer tells them they were counterfeited and he was ordered to pursue these Counterfeits and so saved himself and Company In Poictou the Houses of the Gentry are demolished and excessive Cruelties by the Mission to make them renounce their Religion The Lady of a Person of Quality who for his Constancy was imprisoned after that his House had been pulled down was clapt up between four Walls where though she was big with child and very near her time yet she was starved to death with Cold and Famine In the Burrough of Torique three Leagues from Niort Frances Aubin a Country Woman declaring her resolution to persist unchangeably in the Protestant Religion they first squeezed her Fingers to pieces with Iron Skrews and then hung her up by her Arm-pits smoaking and forcing her to suck in with her Nostrils Tobacco and Brimstone afterward these bloody Villains tied her Legs unto a Horse who drew her upon burning Faggots Her own Brother of the same name was an Eye-witness of all her Sufferings who also was tortured by them but in another manner And forasmuch as none of these Cruelties could make them either loose their Resolutions or their Lives they flung them both into a low Ditch whence they were taken out almost knee deep in Mud and Water Another Inhabitant of the same place called Fountayne was hung up also by the Arms smoakt with Tobacco her Fingers burnt by a light fire and then thrust into a Dungeon to die of Cold and Hunger as a Man of S. Maixant had done before her A Gentleman of Augumois they tormented to death by pouring into his Mouth boiling Aqua Vitae and Wines and Water They gagged two Gentlewomen of the same Province and had almost killed them by a great quantity of Wine which they forced down their Throats Another Lady of Quality whilst they consum'd her Goods before her face they watching her by day and night forced her to turn the Spit without any Rest or Intermission and this hath been an ordinary practice to keep people so long waking 7 8 9. days and nights together the Dragoons watching by turns till these poor Creatures having lost their Senses and not knowing what Questions are put them or Answers they make unto them are intangled carried to a Popish Church and two Witnesses swearing they saw this though a delirious Person at Mass if afterward by Sleep or Food they came to themselves again and declare that they be Protestants they are condemned for Relapse and burnt to death without Mercy An Eminent French Minister gave the Writer hereof this Relation That Jan. 23. 1685. a Woman had her sucking Child snatch'd from her Breasts and put into the next Room which was only parted by a few Boards from hers These Devils incarnate would not let the poor Mother come to her Child unless she would renounce her Religion and become a Roman Catholick Her Chiled crys and she crys her Bowels yearn upon her poor miserable Infant but the Fear of God and of hell and losing her Soul keep her from Apostasie however she suffers a double Martyrdom one in her own person the other in that of her sweet Babe who dies in her hearing with Crying and Famine before its poor Mother Monsieur Elias Boutonnet a Merchant of Marans near Rochell was martyr'd by these bloody Miscreants after this manner They hung him up by the Heels to a Post of his own House and smoak'd him to death with wet Straw set on fire SECT XLV The Martyrdom of Monsieur Homel Pastor of the Church of Vivaretz in the Province of Sevennes in the Kingdom of France who was with most Hellish Cruelty broken upon
recover they shall however be condemn'd unto the Gallies and all their Goods confiscated You may see by this to what a woful pass we are reduced till the Lord our good God shall be pleased to turn the Wheel better for our advantage Our whole Family here salutes you We are wholly busied in gathering in the Vintage but never with less pleasure inasmuch as we know not for whom we toil our selves Monsieur Ancillon hath left Hannaw for Berlin whither he is called to be their fourth Minister Madamoiselle Morgue with two of her Sisters are gotten safely out of the Kingdom after that they had been hid from the Dragoons Farewel Octob. 2. 1686. I am Yours E. N. B. Monsieur Chevenis who is mentioned in this Letter was a venerable and ancient Gentleman a person of eminent Prudence illustrious for Learning and Godliness and Counsellor to the King in the Court of Metz. He persisted faithful to death and when dead they dragged most inhumanly his dead Carkass upon a Hurdle and buried it in a Dunghil He hath a Brother a very Reverend Minister of the Gospel refugied in this City of London SECT XLVIII Whil'st the Dragoons do thus ravage and ruinate the Provinces causing Terrors and Desolations where ever they come Orders are dispatched to all the Frontier Countries and Sea-port Towns strictly to guard the Passages and to stop all persons who are departing the Kingdom So that there was no hope lest of saving themselves by flight None could pass unless he brought with him a Certificate from the Priest of his Parish or the Bishop of the Diocess in which he lived that he was a Roman Catholick Others are put in Prison and treated like Traytors to their King and Country All Ships of Foreigners lying in the Ports and Havens of the Kingdom are diligently searcht for Passengers the Coasts Bridges Passages unto Rivers and the Highways are all strictly guarded night and day and the neighbouring States are imperiously required not to harbour any more Fugitives and to dismiss or send back again such as they had already received and Attempts were also made to seize and carry away some who had escaped into foreign Countries I have lying by me a Letter from Geneva giving a doleful Account of the poor Refugees who had fled thither Possibly the Reader will not be displeased at the reading of it From Geneva Nov. 1685. SIR IT 's a good while ago that the French Protestants began to secure themselves both here and in Switzerland yet it was but very slowly e'er they retired hither there being not on this side of France those conveniencies for them as in England and Holland However their number increased with their Persecutions and this Honour is due unto Geneva that tho' at first whil'st we supposed there was not an indispensable necessity upon our Protestant Brethren for their flight we seemed somewhat cold as to their reception yet having at last too great cause to believe it I may speak it without vanity that Geneva exercised a charity towards these Fugitives which will recommend her to posterity I shall give you an undeniable proof hereof and that presently Ever since the first Troubles at Montauban and the great consternation of the other Provinces Geneva never failed to receive and relieve with Monies and other Supplies all that had recourse unto her and for more than two Months together there passed not a day over our heads in which Geneva did not daily receive and supply 30 50 80 90 Personâ— of all Ages of both Sexes and of all Conditions But as we had an occasion of satisfaction from the Charity of Geneva so we must also avow that it was utterly impossible not to be affected with such a multitude of pitiful Objects as daily presented themselves unto us and especially since the passages were guarded some arriving disguis'd on foot in a deplorable condition who would they have left their God might have been as to this World very happy Women and Maids came to us in the Habits of Men Children in Coffers packt up as Cloaths others without any other precaution at all than in their Cradles tied about their Parents necks some passing this others that way all stopping either at the Gates or Churches of the City with Cries and Tears of Joy and Sorrow mingled together some demanding where are our Fathers and Mothers others where are our Wives and Children not knowing where to find them nor having learnt any News of them from the time they departed from their Houses In short every one was so affected with these miserable Objects that it was impossible to refrain from weeping Some had no sooner passed the first Barricado but prostrating themselves upon their Knees sung a Psalm of Thanksgiving for their happy deliverance tho' poor Creatures they had not wherewithal to get themselves a Meal's meat and might have gone to Bed that Night supperless had not the Lord of his great goodness extraordinarily provided for them Thus we spent two Months every day affording us new Adventures fresh and eminent Examples of Self-denial and that divers-ways I shall give you a few Instances Among others a Lady of great quality the Mother of ten Children whose Husband Monsieur d' Arbaud had revolted from the truth at Nismes this Lady I say forsook eighteen thousand Livers of yearly Revenue without ever having been able to make a Purse to defray her Journey and maugre all the Cares and Endeavours of her Husband and the Bishop brought with her nine of her Children and the youngest of them about seven Years of age yet when she came here she had but two Crowns left her to maintain herself and them It was but two days since that I bad Adieu to my Lord the Baron of Aubaye who forsook above five and twenty thousand Livers of yearly Revenue for the Gospel and all his Stock was but thirty Pistols I gave Letters of Recommendation to the Baron of Temelac who is banisht for eight and twenty Years This Nobleman forsook eight thousand Livers of good Rents and departed hence with a very small Supply to seek some Employment where ever he can meet it for his subsistence My Lord de * * * * * * One of the mostillustrious Noblemen of Languedoc Bougi departed hence some few days ago with eight or ten Gentlemen for Germany I cannot reckon unto you an infinite number of other persons whose Names are unknown to me Six or seven came hither about five days since who seemed to be the Servants of a Commander of Malta bearing upon his Breast the great Cross There came also a far greater Troop who met at the Passes a multitude of poor People with their Wives and Children that had been stopt by the Guards these force a passage for them with themselves and conveyed them with their Baggage hither in safety The City of Lyons hath given illustrious Examples of remorse of Conscience in particular no longer than
yesterday we had one and that a very sensible one A Woman and her Son to secure an Estate of an hundred thousand Crowns had sunk under the temptation and revolted unto Popery but they were so tormented in their Consciences night and day after their Apostasie that they could have no peace nor rest till they had quitted both their Estate and Habitation Some others who had miscarried in the same manner durst not tarry through the stings of their inraged Consciences any longer than for the first opportunity of escaping and brought with them to this City their Abjuration This Abjuration of theirs is a certain Paper in which is written the Name of this new Popish Convert together with the Seal of the Bishop and that of the Magistrate of the place by vertue of which they be freed from quartering of Dragoons and are permitted to go and come and traffick when and wheresoever they please And among our new Converts this Paper is call'd The Mark of the Beast I have seen several Copies of them But you must not imagine that all are come unto Geneva Switzerland hath entertain'd a vaster multitude than we who have come unto them and are daily coming from all quarters some one way some another some as if they dropt down from the Clouds that is from the tops of the Mountains either of the Franche County or from those of Chablays in short no man can tell how or which way they are come unto them No longer than yesterday in despite of all Guards at the several Passes and dangers of the Gallies there arrived hither no less than fifty Persons A tall Chair-man who had been a Lacquey as he was coming from his House espying Monsieur de Cambiaquet passing over the Bridge immediately stopt and imbraced him in his Livery Coat Four young Ladies of Grenoble disguised in Mens Apparel after they had lodged four or five days in the Forests and Mountains without any other Provision than a little Bread and their Arms having travell'd only by night came hither but a few hours ago in this their gallant Equipage Should I write you all the stories I know we should never have done About a Fortnight since a panick fear of the Dragoons coming into the Land of Gex where yet are reckoned about 17000. Protestants though most of them very poor People had so seized upon their Spirits that one Morning we saw at our Gates five hundred Carts loaden with Houshold Goods and follow'd with an innumerable multitude of Persons who went and came from all Quarters On that side of Switzerland and of the Mountains there was yet a far greater power of them in so much that it affrighted all the Country The Governour came and complain'd of it unto our Magistrates but they replied they could not shut the Gates of their City upon his Majesty's Subjects and had they done it there had been an unavoidable uproar among the People However these poor People were desired to depart elsewhere and not to expose our Commonwealth To which they readily obeyed And in as much as the Governour a notorious bitter Enemy of the Magistrates and City of Geneva though without cause would not fail to make a foul brabble of this business and because our Resident was expected in three or four days we intreated generally but with a great deal of sweetness the greatest part of the French to withdraw themselves as soon as possible which they did and of their own accord without delay but with a great deal of grief on our part who lost at this first bout abundance of very godly People with whose Company we were very much comforted The Resident being arriv'd told us he had no order to speak about these matters yea contrariwise that he was only to treat with them as with particular Friends But three days after a Letter comes by which the King all in Choler commands his Resident to be instant with our Magistrates that immediately they drive out of the City all his Rebellious Subjects and charge them to return unto their respective dwellings But mark the stinging consequence hereof Hereupon the Council is assembled and after divers Debates they resolv'd though to the great heart-breaking and general sorrow of the Citizens to make Proclamation that all the French should immediately be gone Which was no sooner ordered but observed yet not without a redoubled grief on their hearts who had not departed the first time and would willingly have continued This Proclamation being published just as we were coming forth from Evening Prayers it perfectly astonished and over-whelmed those poor People who reckoned this expulsion as a second banishment from their Native Country In the mean while our Resident inform'd the King of the submission of Geneva unto his Orders and that in the fairest manner and dispatched also our Magistrates Memorial with reference to the particular Complaints and Accusations of the Governour of Gex our Magistrates intending a sincere performance of his Majesty's Order sent the Tithing-men to intreat every one to depart with the first conveniency This Order Executed with too much severity by the Under-Officers caused a new uproar among the People However every one took Boat without delay dreading worse News and Orders that might inforce them to return to their own Houses In three days time there departed from us above a thousand Persons Yet this wrought a very bad effect among the Commonalty of Switzerland who were not able to penetrate into the Causes moving our Commonwealth to yield this obedience at this time unto his Majesty But these is yet something more Cruel For the King sends us a thundering Letter by which he approves the whole procedure of the Governour of Gex in hindring all Commerce between Gex and Geneva so that not only no Provisions can from thence be imported into the City but also none of the Inhabitants of Geneva dare fetch in Herbs or Corn from their Gardens and Barns yea over and above he commands them immediately to expel out of the City all Ministers that had been setled in it within three years last past as a Company of Seditious Fellows that held private Cabals in Geneva to embroil his Kingdom And he requires also of them an account what they had done with his Subjects whom he had ordered them to dispatch back again to their own homes and that if he had not a satisfaction in full to all his Commands he would make them repent that ever they had offended him In a word never had we a Letter a Letter of this Nature in such a daring menacing stile Truly had it not been for our Magistrates the People who were exceedingly concerned at it had quite broken out The Switzers have a General Assembly this Week And thus you have a faithful account of our present Condition We wait impatiently for the King's Answer to those Letters which inform'd him of our ready Obedience unto his Orders But we fear every thing because he having once
of tools to build his House 'T is the very Character of Hell to force Men to Mass by Fire and Sword by Dragoons Plunder and Tortures And none but the Devil would spirit Men unto such actions and they who use them are undoubtedly his proper Imps and Agents And that you may keep up your abhorrency of Popery never forget this Continually set before your Eyes all its Deformities and never look on them or it through those false Glasses which the Doctors of Lies do now adays represent them to you You see their Temples full of Images before which they bow down and worship contrary to the express Commandment of God Thou shalt not make unto thy self any graven Image thou shalt not bow down thy self before them And flatter not your selves with this that possibly you may not be obliged thereunto for the people with whom you are do it and you partake in this their Sin of Idolatry at leastwise if you do not abhor it both with heart and mouth Set before you that Idolatrous Worship performed unto Creatures and in particular that Honour which being due only unto God is yet nevertheless given unto the Mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ and unto Saints and then remember those dreadful words As I live saith the Lord I will not give my glory unto another And remember also that Idolaters are in the Van of those that shall never inherit the Kingdom of Heaven Consider that Sacrifice ordained by their Church and wherein you must adore a bit of Bread Do not think you shall escape by this foolish suggestion We only adore Jesus Christ who is in Heaven For the Pagan Idolaters might have used the same plea That when they kneeled before their Idols they lifted up their Hearts to the true God Never be reconciled with them for that great wrong they do your Souls in robbing you of the Cup which is but one half of the Sacrament when as Jesus Christ hath given you the whole of it Never accustom your selves to that barbarous Language which keeps you from understanding your Religion and leaves it only to be gazed at with your eyes Keep up a perpetual aversion for that vain heap of Pagan and Jewish Ceremonies which are in a direct line of opposition to the purity and simplicity of Christianity But know 't is not enough that you detest all these things with your Heart you must also condemn them with your Mouths Your Judgments herein must not be concealed you must be ever and every where ready to confess the Truth And therefore as often as you shall have occasion declare openly without guile or reservation that you abhor that Worship unto which you are compelled to be present Never go to Mass unless they drag you to it by main force and whil'st they force you to it declare publickly that you do not in the least with your heart consent thereunto and if by the same violence wherewith they brought you to it they keep you at it yet manifest by your Actions that you have not any belief nor respect for those false Mysteries Keep carefully your Books of Piety of Devotion and of Controversie and read them with singular diligence and attention Preserve them by hiding and conveying them from the reach and search of your Persecutors Above all keep as your most precious Jewels the most Holy Bible and suffer every thing rather than suffer your Bibles to be snatcht away from you Read them daily and with the greatest devotion Concerning your poor Children 'T is true they will be ravisht out of your Arms and led to the Catechistical Exercises of the Priests and 't is to be seared this will be done with so great violence that 't will be impossible for you to hinder it yet as soon as they shall be returned from them never fail to destroy what those Priests have built up Instruct them in the Truth and infuse into their Souls a sacred abhorrency of the Romish Religion And this you may do by causing them to read carefully those places of Holy Scripture which are contrary to it Never forget nor spare any pains or expence in procuring from foreign Countries Books capable of instructing and strengthening you and when as the Priests shall have robb'd you or your own cause others to be brought you whatever rates you pay for them The poor Country Peasants and Mechanicks in Towns and Cities by reason of their ignorance are expos'd to greatest dangers But the strong ought to support the weak and you must earnestly endeavour each others edification This you may do as you travel into your Country-houses as you walk in the Streets yea when as you meet one another in your Shops there being none by you of the contrary Religion Supply these poor People with Books for their Instruction and exhort them without ceasing to bear up against all discouragements and never to let loose their hearts unto Idolatry but contrariwise to detest and oppose it by their discourses Maintain a continual Correspodence among your selves and perfectly know one another principally those who love the Truth and mutually incourage one another in your Resolutions never to forsake it If you can at any time meet together secretly by Night in the Retirements of your Houses let it be for the reading of God's Word and of good Books capable of instructing you but above all for Prayer Proper Prayers for your condition shall be sent you from foreign Countries By reason of that commerce and communion you are necessitated to hold with the Papists endeavour also after their Conversion Who knows but that God may have ordained this sore Persecution for this very end that you should carry the light of the Gospel into the very bosom of Popery in order to its destruction But take heed unto your selves For should you be dumb dogs and dissemblers and counterfeit the Papists before the Papists God will give you up to a reprobate sence So then forbear not speaking unto the Papists when you meet them but entertain them with Discourses of Religion And speaking to them of the violence offered unto your Consciences give them a lively pourtraict of the Deformities of their Religion and Purity of your own shew them the Vanities and Impurities of their Worship of their Idolatry and sottish Opinions And labour powerfully by all means their conversion And that this may be successful order your Lives with the greatest accuracy and circumspection 'T is visible that the sinful disorders and miscarriages of your Conversations have brought upon you those fearful Judgments from God under which you are now groaning There was no kind of worldliness in which you were not ingag'd such as rich Houshold-Goods Vessels of Silver Tapistry Feasts Gluttonies Idle Days Plays Pastimes Cloth of Silk and Gold Rings Pearls and Jewels If you be wise your first Reformation must begin here all these must be rejected sell your Tapistries your Silver Vessels wear the plainest Woolsteds have nothing to
Consistory of that Church where these Persons are Members shall judge of the lawfulness of those Promises In a particular Affair the Common Cause is not to be concerned XL. No Church shall undertake any Matter of great consequence wherein the Interest or Damage of other Churches is of right to be comprised without consulting the Provincial Synod if it may be conveniently assembled But if the business be urgent they shall communicate it to other Churches of the Province and obtain at least by Letters their Advice and Consent XLI These present Articles of Discipline are not so ordained by us but that if the Churches Profit do require they may be changed But it shall not be in the Power of any one particular Church to change them without having first Advised with and got the Consent of a National Synod CHAP. III. Particular Matters Propounded and Decided in the aforesaid National Synod held in PARIS Such as have Popish Licenses to Marry shall not be married without having first confessed their Sin 1. AS to that Case of Conscience propounded by the Minister of Diep it was answer'd That such as had Licenses from Popish Vicars or Curates to Marry where they pleased should not be married in the Church of God unless they do confess this their Offence before the Congregation wherein they be married And the Minister of the Gospel shall be instant with them to evidence their Repentance by Tearing of the License But whether the Tearing of it in pieces be done in the Church or Consistory that is left unto the Church's Prudence where this Matter may fall out None can be discharged of their Marriage-Promise upon pretext of Religion II. As to the Question propounded by the Minister of Anger 's it was answered That he who had espoused a Maid of the Popish Religion but is himself since converted although the said Maiden refuseth to be married in the Church of God is nevertheless bound by his Promise wherefore he ought sollicite her to accomplish it but if she will not consent unto it he must contain himself until such time as the Bond be broken either by her Marriage or Whoredom The same Advice was given in the like case by Mr. Calvin Whether the Children of Papists are to be receiv'd into the Church III. The Minister of Castelherand having moved this case A Papist displeased with the Creasme and Spittle and other Ceremonies added unto Baptism by the Popish Church desireth him to Baptise his Child It was queried Whether he should do it But because there was another Question first to be debated viz. Whether the Children of Papists ought to be received into the Church of Christ Divers Arguments having been banded on both sides the Decision thereof was remanded to a more full Assembly What Course is to be taken with the Broachers of Heresies IV. As to what was related by the Minister of Poictiers concerning Lavan who for a long time hath publickly Taught and printed strange Doctrines Schisms and notorious Heresies The Brethren may if they judge meet cite him to appear before the next Provincial Synod or privately Commune with him and if he be found Obstinate there being made a diligent and faithful Collection of his Heresies they shall be brought into the Provincial Synod that so they may be according to the Rule of GOD's Word condemned However out of hand the People shall be admonished to avoid so great a Plague V. And whereas our Brother of Poictiers hath declared in private Conference That an Heretick is not to be punished as an Heretick but as a Disturber of the Civil Government we say That were there no other Fault but this yet he should be admonished not to create Troubles unto the Church but there being other Circumstances reported unto this Assembly and these in particular That he hath very proudly scorned Counsel given him and basely Calumniated the Minister his Tutor and the whole Consistory calling him A blind Leader of the Blind and notwithstanding the many Remonstrances made him not to frequent a certain Schismatical Heretick nevertheless he continues to keep him company Therefore for these causes we advise that he be cut off by Excommunication from the Fellowship of the Faithful VI. The Minister of Poictiers having demanded Whether it be well done to take their Oaths who are newly received into the Church not to discover their Brethren Whether an Oath may be take from such as are received into the Church Again these Novices being made Prisoners for the Gospel's sake and the Magistrate tendring them an Oath to declare the Truth whether notwithstanding their first Oath they should discover their Brethren As to the former it was answer'd That respect must be had unto the circumstance of Places that so they may obviate the Levity and Malice of those Persons who otherwise by their Imprudence and Malice would endanger an whole Church Whether a Man notwithstanding his former Oath may yet afterward declare his Brethren And as to the second Question It is most certain that the end of that Oath being to glorifie God and preserve Charity the latter Oath does not oblige to speak or do any thing contrary unto these But it were better that they did Protest at first never to speak any thing that might redound to the Dishonour of GOD or the Damage of their Neighbours Whether Children may be baptized without a Sermon and where no Church is VII Is it necessary that Infants should be baptized in a Publick Church-Assembly Or may it be done without such a Congregation as in a private Family where there be very few People We answer That where a Church is already constituted publickly there the Children shall be baptized publickly But where there is none gathered nor publickly established and Parents through Infirmity are afraid to carry them to a publick Assembly far distant from them there to be baptized Ministers may yeild what in Prudence they may judge convenient for them Whether the Faithful may write their Childrens Names in the Registers of Popish Priests VIII Our Brother of St. John d' Angely demanding Whether the Faithful might lawfully suffer their Childrens Names to be recorded in the Registers of Popish Priests It was answered That because it was a Civil Ordinance of his Majesty the Ministers and Consistories should specially observe the Design and End of him that it and admonish him that he be very careful lest thereby he be taken for a Papist Whether the Faithful may Rent Ecclesiastical Revenues IX Advice hath been taken upon what was proposed by the Minister of St. John d' Angely viz. Whether the Faithful might lawfully Farm the Ecclesiastical Revenues of Monks and Priests c And it is our Judgment That it is in no wise lawful for the Faithful to intermeddle with any Matter that hath Idolatry conjoyned with it as the Patten or the Baise-mains or to cause Masses or Vigils to be said or sung
Gentleman who had promised her Marriage by words de praesenti all usual Solemnities halving been observed who yet notwithstanding now refuseth to accomplish the said Marriage pretending Inequality of Fortune and Difference of Religion and that for these reasons he cannot comply with her We advise that before she insist on those things which are consecutive to the interruption and separation of the Marriage as the demanding of her Rights and other matters of that nature from him that she procure the accomplishment of the Marriage according to his Promise XXXIII In some Places and Temples where the Word of God is preached the Bells being rung to give notice of it is it expedient that Men and Women meeting together for that purpose in a certain Chamber of those Temples should answer Questions propounded to them from the Books Chapters and Verses of the Holy Bible by the Minister and give each of them their Scence and Interpretation of those Texts of Scripture It was answered That this course was evil and of dangerous consequence and that the Minister of Croissil did very well to oppose himself against it And the Churches are advised not to bring in any such Practice Candidates must not be sent up and down to uncertain places there to preach XXXIV Those of Caen send their Candidates abroad to preach the Word whence divers Scandals have ensued because some of them have been Persons of ill Life and it was contrary to what had been ordained at Rouen However the Reasons urged by them are these That by the Council of Poictiers Deacons were permitted to Catechize and they could not suddenly lay hands on any being as yet Novices and also because they sent them unto such places as had not ability to maintain a Minister Is this Action of theirs worthy of Reprehension We answer That in the National Synod of Poictiers Deacons were indeed permitted Catechising but it was when they were fully resolved to serve in the Ministry of the Gospel and also by reason of the difference of Opinions hereabout this very matter had been remitted unto this present Council But because there was not at that time any thing spoken about Propositions and that they had been warned of this by the Provincial Synod of Rouen not to indulge unto this practice any more they shall therefore be censured An enforced Promise of Marriage is null XXXV A Minister of Caën did so very much importune a Maid that she gave him promise of Marriage and promiseth to espouse him on this Condition When the Mass shall be no more used in the City of Caën whereupon the Minister gives her certain Rings and a while after demands the accomplishment of their Marriage But the Maid will not consent and saith That her Father did by Threatnings constrain her to make those Promises which is also acknowledged by the Father The Provincial Synod of Caën declared the Nullity of that Promise because it had been extorted by force and had it been performed there would have arisen great Scandal For sometime he acquiesceth in the Sentence of that Synod and receiveth again his Rings But now as he saith being pressed to it by his conscience he believes himself bound unto her and therefore makes his Appeal unto this present Synod who having seen the causes of this Appeal orders That he submit himself to the Direction of the Provincial Synod of Caën which they judge to be most equitable And the Provincial Synod of Caën also is enjoyned to inquire into the Call and Life of this Minister and in special to discover the means used by him for the obtaining this pretended Promise and to take knowledge of it that he may be suspended and deposed if so be necessity do require it XXXVI A Gentleman troubles the Church and wills that his Wife come up immediately after him unto the Lord's Table before any of the Men And altho' it had been ordained by the Synod of Caën That he should follow the general practice of the Churches yet nevertheless he will not conform thereunto This Assembly orders a Letter in their Name to be sent him advising him to walk with more Humility XXXVII It 's demanded Whether those words You neither need me nor my Goods uttered upon speech of Marriage do imply a Promise This Synod answers negatively XXXVIII A Minister of Limonsin whose Conversation was otherwise blameless by the Threats of Enemies writ to the Queen-Mother That he never consented to the taking up of Arms although he had consented and contributed thereunto Item That he promised to preach no more until such time as the King should License him and that he had promise made him to injoy his Conscience living quietly in his own House Since being convinced of his Sin he did freely of his own accord without having been solicited thereunto make publick Confession of it before the whole Congregation hath lived very holily yea with the rare Testimony of a Very great Repentance and in particular he did acknowledge his Offence upon a solemn Sacrament-day in the presence of all the Ministers of the Country insomuch that all the Faithful departed exceedingly edified by his Example He hath also for a long time together forborn the exercise of his Office 'T is demanded Whether this be a sufficient Penance and he may enter again upon his Charge the People earnestly desiring it We are of Opinion that this is sufficient However he shall once again write unto D'Escars who was the cause of his Fall to give him to understand his Repentance if so be the Consistory and Neighbour-Ministers think it fitting and he is intreated if he can to acquaint the Queen with it And in case of Scandal taken against his Church for this Action 't is left to the Prudence of the Provincial Synod of Lymousin to remove him unto some other place The Lord's Supper m y nor be given to an Abbess who retains the Revenues of her Abby XXXIX The Church of Vivaretz demand Whether they may without wronging their consciences give the Sacrament unto an Abbess who having quitted all Idolatry doth notwithstanding retain the Revenues of her Abbey and not imploy them to their right uses 'T is answered That they may not admit her to the Lord's Table XL. A Minister being sound insufficient who was put into the Ministry without Examination what is to be done with him especially since a Multitude do desire to have him It 's advised That he go and follow his Studies elsewhere for some time XLI Unto the Question Whether Marriage may be performed in his private House who is sick of a Disease which hinders him from going abroad It is answered That it is not lawful because though he cannot go yet he may be carried unto the Church XLII A young Man promiseth Marriage unto a Maid but oftentimes protests before her Parents and divers others That he will not take her in Marriage if she be not a Virgin They do all give him
transmitted Difficulties shall be maturely examined and the Arguments on both sides urged being fair and carefully written down shall be sent unto the National Synod And forasmuch as our present Circumstances will not admit any great Number of Ministers and Elders in this National Synod we are of Opinion that for this time only and during these Difficulties that the Brethren assembled in each Provincial Synod should choose from among them one or two Ministers and as many Elders of the ablest and most expert in Church-Affairs to be sent in the Name of the whole Province who shall come furnished with good Memorials and premeditated Thoughts upon those Difficulties which had been communicated to them The Provinces shall not prescribe any set time or term unto these their Deputies for returning but shall let them tarry in the said Synod as long as there may be need of them and the Charges of the said Deputies shall be defrayed by their respective Provinces And that the National Synod may be no more imployed in Matters already decided by former Synods the Provinces shall be advised to read over carefully the Acts of the past Synods before they prepare their Memorials and to send nothing but what is general â—nâ— of common concern to all the Churches or else that which merits the Resolution of the said National Synod And the Churches of Poictiers which is charged with the calling of the next National Synod shall be informed of all this that they may intend their Duty CHAP. XI General Advertisements unto the Churches XXIV THE Printers in every Province shall be advised That whereas at the end of Psalm-Books and Catechisms they do add the Confession of Faith of our French Churches that they do especially this which begins with these words We believe and confess that there is but One GOD c. and which hath an Epistle prâ—fixed to it dedicated to the King and not that other Confession which begins thus Forasmuch as the Foundation of Faith c. not but that both are conformable in Doctrine And hereof also Notice shall be given to the Printers of Geneva Elders not to be displac'd without great cause XXV Although the Elders Office as now used by us be not perpetual as is exprest in the 35th Article of the Discipline nevertheless the Churches shall be admonished not to discharge their Elders but for great Causes whereof the Consistories shall take Cognizance that so the Church may be be conducted after the bed manner by Persons well verst in her Government XXVI Ministers in places appointed by the King and in all others are advised not to receive the Members of any other Churches unto the Lord's Supper without a sufficient Attestation produced by them under the hand of their Pastors or Elders if it may be had No Books must be written ridiculously but Modesty is to be observed in them XXVII Ministers and others whom God hath endowed with Gifts and Abilities to write in Defence of the Truth are requested not to publish their Thoughts in a ridiculous or injurious manner but to keep to that Modesty and Gravity which becomes the Majesty of God's Word and to observe that self-same Modesty and Majesty in their Sermons and in their ordinary Stile to use the Language of God's Spirit in the Holy Scripture Schollars to be maintained by the Churches in the Universities XXVIII Because there is every-where a visible decay and a great want of Ministers and that some provision may be made for a Succession the Churches shall be admonished by our Brethren the Provincial Deputies that such as are rich would maintain some hopeful Schollars at the Universities who being educated in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and other good Learning may be fitted for and employed in the Sacred Ministry XXIX Altho' in our Churches for the most part the Lord's Supper is administred only sour times a Year yet the more frequent Celebration of it is very desirable due Reverence in approaching to it being always observed because it 's most beneficial for God's Children to be exercised and grow in Faith which is done by the frequent usage of the Sacraments as also because this was the Practice of the Primitive Church Nâ—â—â—e mâ—n may not carry with them in their Journeys the Ministers of the Churches leaving them â—â—â—upplied XXX Ministers being given to the Service of the Church and not to the Persons and Palaces of Great Lords altho' their Families may equallize in Numbers some Churches yet their Lordships shall be desired not to carry away with them in their Removals or Travels abroad with their Families the Churches Ministers least thereby they be left unprovided XXXI Lords and Gentlemen shall be censured according to the Discipline of our Churches if after frequent Admonitions they entertain in their Houses scandalous and incorrigible Persons especially if they suffer Priests to sing Mass or by Dogmatizing to debauch their Domesticks or if having cashiered them they shall again receive them into their Service XXXII The Churches shall be admonished to beware of a Book written by Mr. Charles Du Moulin Entituled Vnio quatuor Evangelistarum because in it there be divers Errors as about Limbus Free-will and the Sin against the Holy Ghost and the Lord's Supper and in particular about the Calling of Ministers and Church-Discipline which he treats with scorn and would totally subvert The Faithful also are warned not to assist at any of his Sermons or Sacraments it being against the Discipline of our Church Modesty to be kept in Attire See the Synod of St. Foy General Matters Art 2. The Faithful must use Charity towards their Brethren or Sisters that have forsook their Monastries XXXIII Ministers shall exhort their People to be modest in their Habits and that they themselves do in this and all other Matters give them the best Example forbearing all Gaudery in their own Persons and in their Wives and Children XXXIV They whose Brethren and Sisters have quitted their Monastery that they might serve God in freedom of Conscience shall be exhorted to admit them unto a part of their Estate at least they shall be compelled by all Censures to afford them Maintenance and a competent Pension according to their ability For they would otherwise shew themselves void of Natural Affection The End of the Second National Synod of Paris THE ACTS DECISIONS and DECREES OF THE VI. National Synod OF THE Reformed Churches of Christ IN The KINGDOM of FRANCE Held in the Town of VERTVEIL and Province of AVGOVLMOIS the First Day of September 1567. THE CONTENTS of this SYNOD CHap. I. Moderator Alterations and Annotations upon the Church-Discipline Chap. II. Marriage of Excommunicated Persons and Infidels Provincial Synods Reading of the Holy Scriptures Bread in the Lord's Supper to be taken by them who can't the Cup Church-Government Loan of Ministers Pastors deserting their Churches Rejection of Church-Officers Chap. III. A Case of Conscience about a Deaf and Dumb Man's
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
to appear at Court and that he was at the Expence of printing the Confession of our Faith This Assembly gives him the Sum of seventy Crowns to reimburse his Charges and thanketh him for his care and faithfulness in the delivery of those Letters and for having communicated with Monsieur Piscator and brought back with him his answers But order is given unto the Synod of Lower Guyenne to examine him upon some certain points mentioned in the aforesaid answers as for styling himself the Messenger or Ambassador of the Churches and for submitting the Confession of Faith of the Churches of this Kingdom to the Censures of Forreign Universities and in case these can be proved upon him he shall be censured And forasmuch as the Letters of Monsieur Piscator have been communicated to others before they were tendered to this Assembly the said Synod shall make a strict inquiry into this matter and know whether Monsieur Regnault were guilty of it or no. CHAP. II. Observations on reading the Confession of Faith 1. ON the tenth Article in which it 's said that the whole off-spring of Adam are infected with Original Sin The Pastors of Lauzanna by their Letters request that our Lord Jesus Christ may be excepted But it was not found needful to accord it to them because that it 's expresly mentioned in another Article of the same Confession and for that in this place it is to be understood of other persons as also for that the Scripture expresseth this in plain terms 2. Whereas the Synod of Gap had charged the Provinces to consider in what terms the twenty fifth Article of the Confession of Faith should be couched and to come prepared for it unto the present Synod and to judge whether any mention should be made of the Catholick Church spoken of in the Apostles Creed as also whether it would not be expedient to add the word pure to that of true Church in the twenty ninth Article and that all in general should come ready to debate that Question of the Church The Provinces having been heard speak by their Deputies it was finally resolved by common unanimous consent that nothing should be added to or taken from these Articles and there should be no more discourse had about that point of the Church 3. It was Decreed that nothing should be added unto the eighth Article of our confession which treats of Justification because it 's couched in the very express words of Scripture and in its own common phrase Those Explications and Amplifications desired by some may be received either from Doctors in our Universities or Pastors of our Churches 4. Whereas Doctor John Piscator Professor in the University of Herborn by his Letters of answer to those sent him from the Synod of Gap doth give us an account of his Doctrine in the point of Justification Concerning Man's Justification in the Opinion of Piscator as that it 's only wrought out by Christ's Death and Passion and not by his Life and Active Obedience This Synod in no wise approving the dividing causes so nearly conjoined in this great effect of Divine Grace and judging those arguments produced by him for the defence of his cause weak and invalid doth order that all the Pastors in the respective Churches of this Kingdom do wholly conform themselves in their Teaching to that form of sound words which hath been hitherto taught among us and is contained in the Holy Scriptures to wit That the whole Obedience of Christ both in his Life and Death is imputed to us for the full remission of our Sins and acceptance unto Eternal Life and in short that this being but one and the self-same Obedience is our entire and perfect Justification And the Synod farther ordains that answer shall be made unto the Letters of the said Doctor Piscator propounding to him this Holy Doctrine together with its principal foundations yet without any vain jangling and with that devotion as becomes the singular modesty expressed by him in his Letters to us wherein there is not the least bitterness or provoking expression leaving it unto God who can when he pleaseth reveal unto him the defects which are in the Doctrine of the said Piscator as also to assure him that he hath exceedingly satisfied this Assembly in his Explications on that Topick of Repentance The suppression of the Book of Felix Huguet on the point of Justification for being written without the Warrant tho' in the name of all our Churches against Piscator 5. Letters were sent by Mr. Felix Huguet Minister of the Gospel together with two Copies of a Book writ by him in Latine concerning Justification which said book he had for some time past caused to be Printed at Geneva without the knowledge of the Pastors of that City or the Approbation of the Pastors of the Province of Dolphiny where he resides Upon report made of it by several Brethren Pastors of Churches ordered to peruse the said Book both as to its style and matter The Synod judgeth the said Huguet to have incurred a most grievous censure first for writing in the name of the Synod in a matter of General concern without any warrant from it for so doing and secondly for giving a publick answer to a Book which was never published and lastly for having Printed his Book contrary to the Canons of our Church-discipline And therefore it ordaineth that the said Book be suppressed and that thanks be returned to the Magistrates of Geneva for their preventing of its publick sale and to intreat them that for the future they would totally suppress it And farther the Synod hath thought good that in the Letter which shall be written unto Dr. Piscator he shall be acquainted that Huguets Book was writ without the order knowledge and consent of our Churches and only attempted by him upon a private caprice of his own without any publick Warrant or Authority for so doing Monsieur Sohnis answers orthodoxly and in the name and by order of the Churches unto Piscator 6. Whereas Monsieur Sohnis Pastor and Professor of the Church and University of Montauban hath at the desire and in the name of this Assembly written Letters and an Answer unto those of Piscator which upon perusal are found very orthodox It 's ordered that thanks be returned unto the said Sohnius for his labour and diligence but yet for peace and concord 's sake it 's thought good to detain them by us for a while and Monsieur Sohnis is intreated to suspend the publication of his Treatise about Justification for some short time till we see what fruits the sweet and gentle procedures may produce and the next National Synod shall then license it 7. Monsieur Regnault Pastor of the Church of Bourdeaux having sent us the Copy of Letters written to him by the most Illustrious Lord John Earl of Nassau in which he expresseth his desire of maintaining the Peace and Union of the Church and
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
take our advice first in it CHAP. X. FORM of EXCOMMUNICATION 2. Paâ—is 2. 2. Vitre 2. Observaâ— upon the Discipline 21 THE Province of Poictou requested that there might be another Form of Excommunication framed of a larger Nature than that in our Discipline because the horrible Corruptions of the Age we live in do indispensably need it and call upon us loudly to put it in Execution Whereupon this Form following was drawn up See the Excommunicat 〈◊〉 Jâ—â—emy Ferâ—â—er in the â—nd of the Synod of Tâ—â—neiâ—s My Brethren This is the Fourth time that we declare unto you that N. N. hath been suspended the Lords Table for that hainous Crime of N. committed by him to the great scandal of the Church of God and yet he continues impenitent and rejecteth all Counsels and Admonitions that have been given him which suspension and its causes we have fully notified unto you that you might joyn your Prayers with ours unto the great God to soften his stony heart and to move him unto Repentance and to bring him out of the high and broad way of destruction But notwithstanding our Indulgence to him and long suffering and forbearance of him although we have prayed intreated threatned and adjured him to break off his sinful courses and to return unto the Lord and tryed all means to bring him unto Repentance he yet persisteth in his Ungodliness and Impenitency and is more obstinate and hardned in his Rebellions against God and tramples under foot his Holy Word and scorneth that Discipline which God hath set up in his Church boasting himself of his Sin and causeth unto the Church for a very long time a world of grief and trouble and the Holy and Effectual Name of Jehovah 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 destroy the strong holds of Sin which oppose and exhalt themselves against him and to whom the Eternal Son of God hath given an ample Power of binding and loosing in Earth declaring that what we shall do here below he will ratifie and make it good in Heaven we being willing to purge and cleanse the House of God and to free the Church from all Reproach and Scandal and to glorifie the Name of God by pronouncing an Anathema upon the Wicked and Godless Sinner We do in the Name and by the Authority of our Lord Jesus and by and with the Advice of the Pastors and Elders assembled in the Colloquy at N. and of the Consistory of the Church of N We have and do cut off the said N. from the Communion of the Church we do Excommunicate him and cast him out of the Society of Gods Saints that he may be reputed by you as a Publican and Pagan and that among the faithful he may be an Anathema and Execration Let his Company be lookt upon as contagious and plaguy and his Example possess your Souls with terror and horror and make you tremble under the Mighty Hand of God and know that 't is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God And this our Sentence of Excommunication the Son of God himself will ratifie and may he succeed and prosper it in such an effectual manner that this proud Sinner being ashamed and confounded before God may give Glory to him by his Conversion and that being deliver'd from the power of the Devil who hath hitherto kept him in Chains and Bondage he may be sorry for his Sin with a Godly sorrow and turn from it with a repentance unto life never to be repented of Let us my well-beloved Brethren call upon our God that he would be pleased to yearn with the bowels of his compassion upon this vile and miserable Creature and that this horrible Sentence which to our very great regret and grief we pronounce against him by and with the Authority of the Son of God may serve to abase and humble him and to reduce him into the way of Life and Salvation who hath wandred and strayd as a lost Sheep in the crooked paths of destruction Amen! Amen! Cursed is he who doth the Work of the Lord negligently Amen! If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen! 22. The Province of Xaintonge craved advice what course we might take with them who take out from the Courts of Parliament Prohibitions against the Orders and Censures of the Church as if they were intolerable abuses This Assembly injoyneth all Synods Colloquies and Consistories to procede against such Persons as Rebels against the Discipline of our Church and to inflict upon them the last and heaviest censure of Excommunication provided they have first endeavoured by the ways of Love and Kindness and Grave Religious Counsels to reduce such Persons unto their Duty and to subject them unto our Church Orders CHAP. XI The Canons of the Synod of Dort incorporated with those of the Reformed Churches of France 23 A Motion was made in this National Synod that some course should be taken in time to prevent the spreading of the Arminian Errors that have of late so much troubled the Churches of the Netherlands that they create no trouble to the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom This Assembly embraced the motion very readily and approved of it as very laudable just and needful for the peace of the Church of God and for the Conservation of the purity of our Doctrine and for the farther strengthning of our Union with the Foreign Reformed Churches and therefore counting the Maladies of the Low-Country Churches a very fair Advertisement and warning unto us and that we may imitate so excellent an Example and prevent the danger threatned us by making use of these self-same means they did for the Expulsion of those Errors out of their Bowels wherefore forasmuch as the National Synod of Dort called by the Authority wise Counsel and vigilant forecast of their High and Mighty Lordships the States General of the Confederate Netherlands and of all the United Provinces under their Jurisdiction and Government and in which assisted personally divers great and very Learned Divines from many other Reformed Churches of our Lord Jesus hath been in the Netherlands and still is a most effectual remedy for the Reformation of the Church and the grubbing of Heresies in the Article of Predestination and its depencies This Assembly after invocation of the Name of God decreed that the Articles of the said National Council held at Dort should be read in full Synod which being read accordingly and every Article ponder'd most attentively they were all received and approved by a common unanimous consent as agreeing with the Word of God and the Confession of Faith in these our Churches that they were framed with singular prudence and purity that they were very meet and proper to detect the Arminian Errors and to confound them for which reason all the
Dieu le Fit Peter de la Croze Pastor of the Church in Courtezon James Bernard Elder in the Church of Montlimart and Moses du Port Elder in the Church of La Mure Deputies for the Province of Dolphiny Peter Guillamin Pastor of the Church of St. Andrew de Valborne Daniel Venturin Pastor of the Church of Vigan John de Vignoles Elder in the Church of La Salle Deputies for the Province of Sevennes Peter L'abbadie Pastor of the Church of Pau and John de la Coste Elder in the Church of Moneins Deputies for the Principality of Bearn De Chalas General Deputy for the Reformed Churches of France Touretin Pastor and Professor of Divinity in the Church of Geneva 24. Whereas the Deputy of the Lord du Candall hath acquainted this Synod that several of the Deputies unto this present Synod having no Letters of Order unto the said Lord of Candall to pay them the necessary charges of their Journey in case he should pay them the Receivers of the respective Provinces might make some difficulty to allow those payments of his unto the said Deputies in his Accompt This National Synod doth ordain that those Receivers aforesaid shall take the promises and Acquittances of the said Deputies as ready Moneys paid by the said Lord du Candall out of the very first Moneys that be either hath already or shall hereafter receive for the Churches and that they shall ho a sufficient discharge for him the said Deputy and good and valuable in the Audit of his Accompt 25. The Deputies unto our National Synods Privas g. m. 15. shall hereafter bring with them the Catalogues of all the Churches and of all the Pastors in actual Service in their respective Provinces Signed and Subscribed by the Moderators and Scribes of the Provincial Synods And in case they neglect the doing hereof there shall be no Respect nor Care had for them in the dividend of the Churches Moneys 26. All the Provinces which have Supernumerary Portions assigned to them in the General dividend shall give an Accompt how they have employed and to what use they have put those Supernumerary Sums in the next National Synod 27. In pursuance of that debate in this Synod concerning those great Sums of Money remaining due unto the Churches from the Sieur Palot This Assembly did this Thirteenth day of November pass a Letter of Attorney before a publick Notary which was delivered unto the Deputies of the Isle of France with this Express Restriction that they should not put it into the hands of the Sieurs Guidon and d'Huisseau till such time as they have agreed and stipulated by some publick act duely executed in Law that they do approve of the Act past in this Assembly and do solemnly promise that they will most effectually prosecute the said Sieur Palot according to the Conditions and Articles mentioned and declared in that our said Act. CHAP. XIII PARTICULAR MATTERS 1 MR. Gasper Martyn Minister of the Church of Saillans in Dolphiny related the great loss sustained by him in the printing of his Book styled Le Capuchin Reforme a great number of Copies being left upon his hand through the Craft and Knavery of the Booksellers who having printed more Copies than they should took out their own Number and leave him to pay the rest and in truth to stand indebted for the whole Impression This Assembly highly honouring him for his great sufferings for professing the Truth and the usefulness of his Works and in consideration of his present wants do bestow upon him one Portion free of all Taxes and Charges which shall be pay'd him until the sitting of the next National Synod over and above that ordinary Portion allowed the Church of Saillans for him and Monsieur Turretin was now desired to deal with the Printers and Booksellers of Geneva that the said Mr. Martyn may have satisfaction given him for the dammage he sustaineth by their means 2. Monsieur James de la Planche having faithfully served the Church of God for Six and Twenty Years in Provence and being now taken blind and almost broken by the Pthysick and borne down with many other Afflictions occasioned through his past labours and sufferings and through his declining Age for which causes he was declared Emeritus by the Synod of that Province and discharged with a very honorable Testimonial from the Exercise of his Ministry and now conflicting with great wants and needing Relief in his Old Age he petitioned this Assembly that some care might be had of him and a competent maintenance assigned to him yearly The Assembly compassionating his Poverty ordained a Portion free of all Charges for him which shall be pay'd by the Lord of Candal unto Monsieur Gras at Lions who shall see that the said Summe be remitted him unto the place of his Abode and the Summ of Six and Thirty Livres was now given him in hand to defray the Expences of his Journey thither 3. Mr. John Paul Perrin Minister of Nions in Dolphiny presented himself before this Assembly to render an Account of Printing his History of the Vaudois and Albigeois 2 Vitre Observ on the former and he farther declared that he was now writing the General History of the Church from the beginning of the World to this Age in which we live This Assembly applauding him and thanking him for his Pains and Labours in the before-mentioned History leaveth it to his prudence and Conscience to judge whether such a Work as he is now undertaking will be of use and benefit unto the Churches because we would not impose that task upon him which would be needless and unprofitable And whereas the said Monsieur Perryn informed us of the numerousness of his Family and that he had a great charge of Children and humbly requested tha the might have some Relief from us especially for the breeding of a Son of his formerly debauched by the Jesuites but now through Grace brought home again unto Repentance a youth of Excellent parts and yielding great hopes that he may be hereafter eminently useful in the Ministry The Province of Dolphiny was exhorted to take care of him and his Family according to the Laws of Christian Charity and the great Merits of the said Monsieur Perrin 4. Monsieur Albiac Dr. of the Civil Law Living at Velleneusve in Berry petitioned to be reimburst the Summ of Fifty Crowns expended by him in executing a Commission for the Churches of the Four Neighbouring Province viz. of Lower Languedoc Dolphiny Sevennes Vivaretz This Assembly judgeth That the Provinces which imployed him ought to see him satisfied and each of them shall pay him equally their parts of so just a Debt and the quota of their Moneys shall to this purpose be detained in the hands of the Lord du Candal that he may be honestly repayed 5. Mr. Simon Daniel Hoslâ—ie Pastor of the Church of Villenusve in Berry petitioned that some Relief might be allowed unto his Church because of
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
Favour and Royal Benignity towards the Churches who have none nor desire to hold any Intelligence or Correspondence with Strangers but do protest unanimously that they will next and immediately under God depend wholly and solely on his Majesty's Protection and Soveraign Authority And it was resolved that as to the first Particular propounded by the Lord Galland his Majesty's Commissioner that although the Cause of sending those Royal Commissioners into our Ecclesiastical Synods was from divers false Reports spread abroad and taken up against those Synods most unjustly and to their great prejudice and damage and that it had occasioned the former National Synods most humbly to petition his Majesty that he would be pleased to leave the Churches in their ancient State of Liberty yet forasmuch as his Majesty hath ordained that no more Petitions should be presented him to this purpose the Churches do acquiesce in his Majesty's Pleasure sith he will have this his Ordinance inviolably observ'd and this Synod doth yield an intire Obedience to the King's Will and the Order prescribed by his Majesty whereof the Churches hope to reap the Fruits promised them in their Establishment and better Subsistence for the future and approbation of their Innocency and the rather because the last National Synods of Charenton and Castres have already tasted of them and been in a more especial manner aided by the Prudence Equanimity and good Conduct of his Lordship the Lord Galland Therefore a Decree past That conformably to his Majesty's Intention our Synodical Assemblies should subject themselves to a precise observation of his Majesty's Declaration made in the Year 1623 about sending Commissioners unto Synods and Colloquies And his Majesty shall be most humbly petitioned to enjoin those his Commissioners whom he shall be pleased to send into the Provinces not to abuse his Majesty's Name or Authority to the raising of new Difficulties which may deprive the Churches of the Effects of his Royal Bounty 29. And whereas his Majesty by his Declaration of the Year 1623 hath forbidden our Churches to receive into the Pastoral Office such Persons as are born in foreign Countries out of his Jurisdiction and divers Provincial Synods conceived that those Persons were excepted who were born in those States allied unto his Majesty and under the Covert of his Royal Protection wherein also they were confirmed by the Commissioners in whose Presence and no where else some few of those Ministers had been received Now our said Lord Commissioner having at this instant assured us that as it was his Majesty's Intention to comprehend under the name of Strangers all Persons born out of the Kingdom without exception so also that he is pleased to deal favourably with all those who have been admitted since the Year 1623 and to repute them as his natural born Subjects this Assembly intreateth the said Lord Commissioner to continue his good Offices unto our Churches and chargeth the Deputies which shall be sent unto his Majesty to present him our most humble Requests that those aforesaid Pastors may be comprized in that his Act of Grace and that for the future all others so born may be instituted and inducted into the Pastoral Cure of our Churches in the Presence of his Commissioners as if they had been natural born Frenchmen 30. And as for the third and fourth Articles in his Lordship's Speech the Synod hath upon very just Grounds intreated his Lordship to assure his Majesty that the Churches sixing themselves more and more in the observation of those Reglements taken up in the two last National Synods and with which his Majesty is fully satisfied will take all possible care that no Complaints upon those Accounts may be ever hereafter brought unto his Majesty And as for that particular Business of Monsieur Salbert this Assembly deferring all Obedience to his Majesty's Pleasure and leaving the said Salbert in that Estate wherein he is at present doth yet notwithstanding judg themselves bound by the Laws of Charity to have recourse unto his Majesty's Goodness on his behalf And therefore we most humbly beseech his Majesty out of his innate Clemency to remove the Tokens of his just Indignation against him and to let him share and participate in that same Royal Favour which he has vouchsafed and extended unto others involv'd with himself in the Miseries of the late Troubles 31. And whereas a certain Book hath been seen by us bearing Monsieur Beraud's Name whose Preface is already condemned by the Lords of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council and that we are required to examine and censure both it and him After hearing of the said Professor Beraud he did ingenuously acknowledg himself the Author of it but also that it was extorted from him by mere Force and through the Malignity of the Times in the late Confusions and that it was never in his Thoughts or Intention to grant a License unto Ecclesiastical Persons to shed Blood and those Words of which he is accused having occasioned an Exposition quite contrary to his Judgment he declareth with all possible Sincerity and as in the Presence of God that he disapproveth of the Ambiguity in which those Expressions are there couched and detesteth from his very Soul the Consequences which are thence deduced protesting that his Belief is intirely conformable to that of the Reformed Churches in this Kingdom which have according to the holy Scriptures decided in our former National Synods that Pastors should in no wise intrude themselves into the Administration of State-matters because they he wholly alien and foreign to their Profession and therefore the Argument is more valid that they cannot without contradiction to God's holy Word and the Confession of our Churches founded upon it stretch out their Hands to draw Blood from any one or engage in any military Factions This Assembly therefore confirming the Decrees of former National Synods and grievously censuring the said Beraud for having rashly and to ill purpose used those scandalous Expressions tending to establish an erroneous Doctrine declared once again That it doth reject and condemn that Proposition extracted out of the Book of the said Beraud and forbiddeth him and all other Professors in our Universities and Ministers in our Churches to teach or write any such Doctrine for time to come upon pain of incurring all Ecclesiastical Censures 32. And as for those sharp Words mentioned by his Lordship the Commissioner the Churches are utter Strangers to them having declared the Word of God with all Modesty and Meekness however they have been ill handled in divers Places and tho oftentimes our Adversaries have most licentiously perverted the most innocent Expressions of our Faith to render us more odious and criminal 33. The Lord Galland his Majesty's Commissioner requiring that Monsieur Bastide may be removed from the Church of St. Africk in the Province of Higher Languedoc because his Deportments in the said Church have been destructive to the Publick Peace and Tranquillity The Assembly being informed
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
Monsieur d' Huysseau and conformable to the Regulation made in the last Synod of Castres 50. Mr. Du Bois a Pastor discharged by the Province of Normandy complaining that contrary to the Decree of the National Synod of Castres the said Province instead of reckoning with him for his Portion assigned by the 24th National Synod held at Charenton in the Year 1623 unto him had ordered that the free Portion granted him by that of Castres in the Year 1626 should be paid in unto him by the Receiver of the said Province The Assembly having heard the Report of the Commissioners nominated by it to examine his Pretensions doth condemn the said Province for not having followed the Intentions of the said National Synod of Castres and ordaineth that out of the best and clearest Monies belonging to the said Province there shall be detained the Sum of eight and fifty Livers and fourteen Sous in the hands of the Lord du Candall who shall pay it unto the said Mr. Du Bois he giving an Acquittance for it And whereas he hath not touch'd a Denier of his free Portion given him by the National Synod of Castres it shall be paid unto him either by the Lord of Candall or his Deputy in the Province of the Isle of France 51. Whereas the first National Synod of Charenton in the Year 1623 had ordained four hundred Livers to be paid in to the Province of Higher Languedoc now the Lord of Candall out of the first Monies that shall be distributed among the Churches shall reimburse the said Province of that Sum. CHAP. XX. APPEALS 1. MR. Nonis Pastor in the Church of Aulas appearing to defend that Appeal brought by the said Church from the Judgment of the Province of Sevennes which had ordered the Inhabitants of La Breauvaise to be incorporated for the future with the Church of Breas After hearing the pretended Grievances of the Church of Aulas and the Petition brought by the Deputy of the Inhabitants of La Breauvaise confirmed by their Letters and by the Letters of the Church of Breaus and the Reasons given in by the Deputies of the Province for their Judgment whereby it was manifest that the Differences between those two Churches of Aulas and Breas are rather bottom'd on the Passions of some particular Persons than on any real Interest of either And whereas by the Canon of the National Synod of Castres the Province of Sevennes was sufficiently impower'd to pass a final Sentence in this Affair this Assembly condemneth Monsieur Nouis for quitting the exercise of his Ministry in his Church and taking upon him the Office of a Sollicitor which might have been better discharged by another and enjoineth the Deputies of the Province of Sevennes to labour a Composition in the most amicable manner of the Differences between both thole Churches of Aulas and Breau and in case they should not be able to compose them then they shall acquaint the Synod of Lower Languedoc therewith before which the Deputies of both those Churches shall appear and receive their final Judgment Moreover the Synod of Sevennes is injoined to see to it that Mr. Berlé Pastor of the Church of Breau and all other Ministers of the said Province do actually and personally reside with their Flocks And forasmuch as the National Synod of Castres had given full Power unto Provincial Synods to judg finally in the Case of Conjunction and Separation of the Churches and their Annexes this Assembly confirming that Canon ordaineth That in case any Difficulties should arise and hinder the Provincial Synods from coming to a final Judgment then those Causes shall be dismissed over to the Synod of the Neighbour Province nor shall they be brought hereafter unto our National Synods 2. This Assembly approving the Zeal of the Province of Burgundy and the Motives inducing them to give Sentence on Monsieur Durand Pastor of the Church of Issurtille doth however take off that Censure of Suspension from him and restoreth him with Honour unto the exercise of his Ministry and ordereth that the Act from which he appealeth and that which follows it shall be supprest because 't is very clear the said Durand had no Design to execute the Sentence denounc'd against himself but that he proceeded in that Business with all simplicity and uprightness wherein he is exhorted to continue and to walk with more prudence and circumspection according to the Counsel of his Brethren 3. This Assembly revising the Judgment given by the Province of Burgundy against Paul Sarazin heretofore Pastor in the Church of Vison declareth That the said Province proceeded in that Matter with excessive Severity and for the future enjoineth that they never insert into the Causes of their Censures Facts not verified and that in no wise they depart from the wonted Forms And farther the said Sarazin is judged worthy of the greatest Censures for abandoning his Church without leave first had and obtained and for being negligent in conserving the Honour of his Vocation whereunto he had been called by God and amending the Sentence from which he doth appeal this Synod removeth him the said Sarazin from his Ministry which he shall not any more exercise 4. The Judgment past by the same Province against Joseph Aubery formerly Pastor in the Church of Coulonges in the Colloquy of Gex is confirmed in every Point and Article thereof 5. Mr. Chacerat Pastor of the Churches of Ponteau de Mar and Quillebeaf having made his Complaints unto this Assembly and praying that Right and Justice might be done him the next Synod of Normandy was ordered to take special care of him and with all love to provide for the Safety of his Person and that his Life may be made comfortable to him And the said Cacherat is exhorted to continue in the Exercise of his Calling with that Zeal and Conscientiousness he hath ever manifested Yet afterward he revolted 6. The said Mr. Cacherat appealing from the Judgment of his Province and declaring the Grievances pretended to have been sustained by him The Assembly representing to him that his Cause was not of their Nature which should be brought before the National Synods did exhort him to rest satisfied with the Testimonial given him unanimously by his Province of his Probity and Fidelity in the discharge of his Ministry and the rather because these Persons whom he accuseth to have done him Wrong being dead 't is utterly impossible that his Province should procure him a more ample Satisfaction 7. Although the Appeal brought by Monsieur Pejus from the Judgment of the Commissioners of the Province of Berry be not of their Nature which are to be brought unto these National Synod Yet nevertheless this Synod taking to it self the cognizance thereof doth confirm that Judgment given by the said Commissioners in all its Articles and censureth the said Mr. Pejus for not acquiescing in it and enjoineth him to yield full satisfaction to it on pain of being suspended
Amyraud and Testard Messieurs and most Honoured Fathers and Brethren UNderstanding from good Hands That my Pains and Labour in the Defence of the Truth is very much blamed by persons of a contrary Perswasion I believed that as that Treatise Composed by me through the occasion of these new Controversies was submitted unto your Judgment so it was my Duty to undertake my own Justification and to wipe off those Reproaches wherewith I had been aspersed They say that I might have done well not to have medled with this Quarrel and that I am a Fellow who love to be embroyl'd and to fish in troubled Waters and who do presumptuously take upon me to prescribe my own private Notions as infallible Oracles You know Sirs that Messieurs Amyraud and Testard have kindled this fire which hath caused all this noise and hubbub and that 't is they who have fill'd all our Churches with those Books which in a very ill hour do remove the antient bounds by their new fangled Doctrines about the most important points of our Religion and that Monsieur Amyraud hath sent forth his Book of Predestination without ever submitting it to be examined by his Province or so much as waiting for its Approbation by them and that since that time contrary to the Advice of two Provinces and contrary to the Promise made by him unto Messieurs Vincent and du Soul he hath caused some certain Sermons of his containing the very self-same Doctrine to be Printed It was a long time before I stirred hoping that this Commotion would have calmed of it self and have found none to approve it But being well informed That this Distemper grew worse and worse and that this Sparkle might cause a great Conflagration I feared lest my Silence on such an urgent occasion might be interpreted for want of Zeal unto the Truth and be taken for an Approbation of their Errors I have none nor will I have any Quarrels with the Persons of those Gentlemen but only with their Doctrines It cannot be but ill resented that they should be permitted to Publish unto the World from the Press a new Doctrine and that it should be a Crime in me to Refute it in Manuscript I went about this Work with a great deal of Grief having nothing that lay heavier upon my heart or was more contrary to my Temper than to contend with my Brethren in the Work of the Lord especially now that my Age calls for Repose and that I am daily waiting for my Dissolution But I saw the Evil to be so great and its consequences so dangerous that I counted my self bound in Conscience to defend the Cause of God and to endeavour to discover the very bottom of the Imposture and the hidden Nature of it I very well know that your Assembly is made up of Persons of clearer and more piercing Judgments than my self nor would I be so presumptuous as to take upon me to be your Teacher but in what I have done I have satisfaction from my own Conscience nor durst I be wanting in my Duty unto God and the defence of his Cause But these Gentlemen who complain of me were not contented to keep within these Limits For besides the Printed Books wherein they have spread abroad their Doctrine they have now very lately Published a Treatise against me under the Name of Monsieur Vignier a Copy of which was sent unto the Provincial Synod of the Isle of France And I do not question but that they have disperst them elsewhere far and near I am also advised That Messieurs Amyraud and Testard do complain very much of a little Script of mine dictated not in the Publick School but in my private Chamber unto some few Scholars wherein I have changed their Names one of them into Greek and the other into Latin which I did out of fear lest if it should fall into the hands of any of the Romish Church they might understand my Discourse and learn out the Persons with whom I disputed of which little Treatise I never Communicated a Copy unto any one And understanding that these Gentlemen take this exchange of their Names in ill part I have Composed another more ample and exact than the former unto which I have set their Names that so I might give them content You be too Prudent not to observe that these Gentlemen do play at Tarriers with you and whilst they amuse you with Triftes their design is to take you off from diving into the bottom of their Doctrines and to divert you with idle Stories of my Practice and Custom instead of maintaining their own Cause 'T is but a small matter to change a French Name into Latin if compared with what they have done in changing the very Nature of God of the Law and of the Gospel I am informed that they make great out-cries for that in certain Letters written by me to Monsieur de la Millitierre I told him they endeavoured to make a new Religion a Hotch-potch of Popery and Cameronianism But let me not be misapprehended 't was never in my thoughts to charge the Doctrine of Monsieur Cameron who is now at rest with Heresy or that he intended to Model out a new Religion I only spake the Sence and Intention of de la Milletierre and the mark at which he aimed For he endeavours from the Doctrine of Monsieur Cameron to frame a new Religion and never speaks of him but as of an Oracle as of a most incomparable Person When we say that the Lutherans are equally bent both against Popery and Calvinism we do not thereby understand that Calvin was the Author of a new Religion I Honour the Memory of Monsieur Cameron and when there was need I defended it But yet I am truly of that mind That he had done very well if he had never over-turned the Order of God's Decrees as they were Explained and Asserted by the Synod of Dort and Approved by all the Reformed Churches of Europe and particularly by three National Synods at home which he had never done if he had soberly and seriously considered the consequences of his own Tanents For this new Method of his is that very Foundation upon which the Arminians have built all their Doctrines Nor can any one deny it but that one third part at least of all Cameron's Works is spent in the Confutation of Calvin Beza and the rest of our most Famous Doctors Yet notwithstanding these his Blemishes we are not to despise those Gifts and Graces God had so plentifully bestowed upon him and when I read his Works I cannot find that Doctrine which is now vented by those who boast themselves to be his Disciples and Followers and cover themselves with the Shield of his Authority I cannot find where he saith That the distinct knowledge of Jesus Christ is not necessary to Salvation nor that he saith That Jesus Chrict died equally and alike for all Men nor doth he Teach That the Reprobates may
weak excuses from the lazy occasions from the Adversary and the hindrances of profitting in the Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures from all And this was the only mark at which I aimed And it is no wise just and reasonable that we should rest satisfied our selves or cause others to be satisfied with the Explanation of some clearer and more substantial passages and leave all the rest buried as it were under ground in a voluntary ignorance but it 's necessary that we should take pains to guide and bring our people into a general knowledge of the whole if it may be done Because all Sacred Scripture is Divinely inspired for these very ends and purposes And it is the will of God that those sparkling Stars of Dogmatical Passages should be as it were Enshrined not in a vast and cloudy darkness but in the midst of that large and ample and clear-shining Azure of the Sacred Scripture And this may be noted against those who sleep in this pernicious Error that in case any Translation do but give out all our Doctrines in their full nature its sufficient enough for any people tho' in its other parts it be dark ruggid and ill done They not considering that by these vicious qualities they drive persons from reading of the whole or imprint upon their minds sinister thoughts whereby they disdain and despise God's Holy Word or deal something worse by it So that they do more hurt than good destroying by this means all that they had built up by others My Eighth Reason is That according to our Doctrine it 's expedient for us to keep possession of this Liberty for fear lest that the singularity of one Translation always heard read and handled publickly and privately should come at length to be Canonized as it hath fallen out in the Church of Rome not at first by any publick Declarations but by custom and length of time the Vulgar Latin hath obtained this Reputation The Ninth Reason is We ought to be very careful by my example of abating their courage who have the Gift and Will to employ themselves in this kind of Study for fear lest they should toil and labour in vain which is the high-way leading unto despair And a very foolish Opinion it is to think that we are come to such a pitch of perfection as if nothing among us could be bettered The Tenth is That the permitting of Translations done by Faithful and Approved hands is so far from increasing as is pretended an endless number of them that on the contrary it is the true means to obstruct and prevent it for at last there shall come forth one which will give a stunning blow unto all the rest as that of St. Hierom's did Those innumerable Latin Translations shall daunt the courage of the boldest who in so vast a Subject shall hardly find Pasture agreeable to the Palate of their Temerity In the Eleventh place Forasmuch as it 's profitable and expedient that we keep our Liberty in explaining of divers passages not essential to our Cause in our Sermons and University Lectures it is also as much expedient that we should keep it in our literal Translations of the Bible lest being too much captivated by one Translation we should at last meet with all those Defects Obscurities and Wanderings from the Scripture-Sence and take upon us to forge Mysteries at our own wills which we have justly condemned in the Church of Rome Let me but add one Reason more to those I have already offered That having laboured with all Faithfulness in my Calling according to the measure of Grace received from the Lord it is not just that I should be hindred by your Prohibition from making my Work publick bcause it would be an irreparable wound unto my Honour which would be totally oppressed and ruined by reason of those sinister Judgments which even many of our own would pass upon me as that I have done nothing of any worth at all and our Enemies with whom I have Fought and Confuted would rail and bawl at me as they begin already to do it in their Preachments that I subvert and overthrow our own Doctrine Reproaches which are not only very grievous to me now in my old Age but also very injurious to that Degree and Station I hold in the Church of God yea and would redound to the Scandal and Dishonour of the Churches Those oppositions of the Synod of Alez and of others since that may be reduced to these two general Heads 1. To the offence which would be taken by the weak 2. To those Reproaches and Troubles we should meet withal from our Adversaries But there is no reason that either the one or other should give a Law unto us in such matters as these are Our Adversaries will always do their utmost in opposing our Reception of what is good the weak will always refuse the admission and introduction of new things tho' they were the best in the World But I am very much amazed when I hear that some are of that Opinion with reference to the weak that to instruct guide illuminate and strengthen them which I do throughout my whole Work should cause through their weakness or viciousness destruction to some of them or be a means of staggering and wandering unto others I fear no other Scandal but what is already given them by so many contradictions as I have met withal And yet at last it will redound more to the prejudice of my Opposers than of my self because of the many requests with which I am continually importuned from people in all parts Abroad and at Home who cannot brook with any patience the delaies in publishing this my Labour nor are they so much alarm'd nor disgusted as is reported and I am Ignorant who those weak ones be they so much stand upon and I am apt to believe that some men plead their Cause contrary to their minds and interests because 't is easie to presume they will never be so much Scandalized at those flights easiness and new sweetness they shall find in God's Word as they may be distasted with the Difficulties and Obscurities they have so long conflicted with And as for our Adversaries I am out of the reach of their shot for let them do their worst they shall never alledge one Text in which I have varied from the substance of Doctrine or of the Dogmatical Passages for I have industriously deprived them of all occasion and pretext against me nor shall they be able to wound our Cause because the Work is of a private person and done for private uses unless they should discover a most shameless Malignity to condemn that in us the practice whereof they permit freely among themselves viz The liberty of private Translations which may be retorted back upon all their Objections at any time 'T is now too late to have any regard to them who would from the suppression of my Labour which is now Universally known draw out
great importance which is fitting you should be acquainted with now at the beginning of this Synod that so it may be the better ordered and ended the sooner I received in my Letters very lately an Express and particular Order concerning some certain Articles and Orders of which I before spake viz. That there is an Abuse committed by the Provinces in sending and communicating by their Deputies Letters from Strangers This his Majesty declareth to be contrary to his Edicts and prejudicial to the publick Peace and his own Service Wherefore I am commanded to be very careful and to provide herein that among your deliberations none other matters be debated but such as ought of right to be so by all the Deputies of the Provinces of this Kingdom and those Matters only which concern the Provinces and that you neither receive any Letters from nor hold any Correspondency with Strangers in any way or manner or for any cause or business whatsoever and you be most strictly forbidden to receive any Writings of what quality soever coming from Foreign Countries and not under his Majesties Jurisdiction nor may any one dare during the sitting of this Synod to publish or spread them abroad in this Town of Loudun And in case such a thing should happen and that such Papers are found I am injoyned immediately to suppress them and to proceed rigorously against such as vend or distribute them as is meet I should and to inflict such Penalties as I shall judge fit And farther I am most expresly and directly commanded to do what in me lieth for the shortning and speedy ending of this Synod Which Order I received in the last Dispatch that came unto this Town CHAP. IV. The Answer of Monsieur Daille the Moderator of the Synod unto the Speech of the Lord Commissioner AS soon as my Lord Commissioner had ended his Speech Monsieur Daille who was Moderator of the Synod made this Answer following in the Name of the whole Assembly unto his Lordship My Lord THE long interruption of these Holy Assemblies have made us but too sensible of their singular usefulness and how needful they be unto our Churches And this hath augmented our Joys to see that God hath at last touched the Heart of his Majesty our Sovereign Lord with that goodness as to grant us this present Synod And without doubt My Lord you observed Yesterday upon Reading the Letters of Commission from the respective Provincial Synods how deeply they were affected with the Mercy for they could not refrain the Expressions of their Sense and Resentment of it even in their Dispatches We therefore having received this singular favour from his Majesty do own and acknowledge it to be a mere and pure Act of his Grace and Clemency and take it as a Pledge and Earnest of his Majesties Good Will unto us and sincere purposes of keeping inviolate his Edicts Unto this his Majesty hath added another and more especial favour in pitching upon your Lordship to represent his Person in this Assembly even you my Lord who for Piety and Integrity for Faith and Vertue are renowned not only in our Churches but in the World it self In so much that the worst and greatest Adversaries of our Religion being won with the luster of that Justice and Uprightness which have ever shined forth in your Administration of that high Dignity and Office possessed by you these many Years in the first and chiefest Parliament of France do desire and continually demand that your Lordship may be their Judge and Reporter of their Causes and do account themselves happy in case they can obtain it Certainly my Lord his Majesty could never have made a more advantagious Choice for us and we render your Lordships our most humble Thanks that overlooking your great Age your many and weighty Affairs the tedious incommodities of Travel and of the Season of the Year your Lordship hath accepted of this Commission and closed with this opportunity which the good Providence of God hath put into your Hands for the Service of his Majesty and for doing all good Offices to our poor Churches which God knoweth have great need of so Fast and Faithful a Friend as your Lordship near his Majesty We need you my Lord and we intreat your Lordship that you would be pleased to testifie it with all Efficacy imaginable unto his Majesty and to his Ministers the Innocency the Simplicity of our Conduct that the Jealousies which our Ill-Wishers do suggest unto him against these our Assemblies may be abated and removed Our National Synods are in no wise prejudicial to his Majesties Service yea the very contrary is true for their first and principal use is to confirm us the more stedfastly in our Religion the First and most Illustrious Article whereof you know my Lord for you have been educated in it from your Infancy is the belief of the Sovereign Authority of Kings over all Persons whatsoever without Exception in their Dominions and of that indispensable Obligation lying upon all their Subjects to yield them in all things all Honour Service and Obedience not only out of Fear but for Conscience sake and such an intire and profound Submission that their respects are extended and performed unto all Officers acting by and under them and their Order and in whose Employments and Ministry there shineth forth any Beam of Royal Authority This Doctrin the Holy Apostles learnt us to be subject unto Kings and those who be Commissionated by them This Doctrin we received from the Primitive Christians that the King is next and under God and that there is no middle power intervening between God's and hiâ— and after that Service we owe unto our God there is none more Sacred or inviolable than his In the very first Sessions of this Synod your Lordship shall see every one of us subscribe this Holy Creed just as we have expounded it in our common and publick Confession and we trust that God will so enable us by his Grace that we shall more and more justifie the Confession we now make of it by a most constant and inviolable Fidelity in his Majesties Service And in the mean while we shall offer up our most ardent Prayers unto our God for the Health of his Majesty's most Sacred Person for the Prosperity of his Family for the happy Success of his Designs and for the Peace and Glory of the Kingdom But my Lord forasmuch as by the Orders of your Commission your Lordship hath presented to us divers points and of very great importance we beseech your Lordship to give way unto this Assembly to consider of them distinctly that our Answers may be returned with that Humility and Reverence which is owing by us unto the Will and Pleasure of his Majesty our Dread Sovereign And afterwards the Deputies did by the Mouth of their said Moderator add as followeth My Lord WE do acknowledge in the First place that it was a most signal effect of his Majesty's