intercession or by his power that the Edicts made for our subsistance might be obserued and that the promise which was giuen vs wherein his also was ingaged for our libertie might not be violated and that my brother by his presence and his continuall solicitations had greatly aduanced it Almighty God hath giuen me the grace to bring it to perfection by the imployment of Monsieur de S. Blancard For the King of Great Britaine moued with a feruent zeale for the defence of the Christian faith and with an incessant desire to see the Church of God out of oppression throughout all parts of the earth there being no place where since the small time that God hath called him to the conduct of his Kingdomes that this affection hath not borne his courage and imployed his forces hath imbraced this Cause with great vigour not moued thereunto out of any ambitious desire to intrude vpon others but onely out of the compassion which hee hath of our miseries and the displeasure to see his interuention with so great indignity contemned so farre forth as that they will make it serue for the oppression of those whom he desired to releeue and thereby to adde vnto his Crowne that rich flowre of honour to bee the deliuerer of the Churches of this Kingdome which by their faith and constancie euen in the persecutions haue made themselues to be celebrate throughout the world Moreouer hee hath let vs know that to bee his onely designe to the which hee protesteth to betake himselfe with so great firmnesse as it hath beene religiously confirmed vnto me by men of quality which hee hath done mee the honour to send vnto mee that hee would neuer let goe his hold vntill such time as that it should plainely appeare vnto him that by an intire assurance he hath atchieued vs a firme repose and a solid contentment requiring of vs nothing else but that which the Churches which are in the estate of resistance I should doe my duety not onely to approue the request which the said Seignieur de S. Blancard had made vnto him in my behalfe in the name of our Churches but also to ioyne our selues vnto his armes and not to deport our selues from the generall end for the respect of any particular accommodation and ioyntly with him to obtaine a good firme and assured peace which shall restore vnto all our Churches at the least part of the prosperity from the which they are fallen And this is the cause wherefore in the name of God I doe summon those which haue any remainder of ancient zeale in their hearts and which hitherto haue sighed in attending who should come from any part for the deliuerance of the Church of God and which haue alwayes protested that when they should see any assured grounds of resistance or of subsistance they would make it appeare that they had no lesse affection then the rest for the consolation of so many poore persecuted flocks nor show no lesse resolution to sacrifice all they haue to so holy and so glorious an enterprise Therefore the Cause now in hand cannot be said to be vniust for there was neuer any more needfull nor the resolution to enter thereinto rash hauing for our protector a Prince so religious so faithfull so neare a neighbour and so powerfull neither is the designe impatient in regard that for the space of a whole yeare wee haue to small purpose expected to see the persecution to cease and the promised things to bee obserued nor the execution of this designe criminall forasmuch as wee haue no other end but the restitution of the Churches by the means heretofore vsed by our Fathers fauoured of God and authorised by naturall and politicke right As for mee I should for euer feele my conscience charged before God and mine honour defaced among men if hauing seene so many oppressions vpon the Church for the which the Sonne of God hath shed his blood and indured death I should not seeke with all my power and meanes to ease it and seeing so great a day of deliuerance to offer it selfe vnto mee if I should not follow and embrace so opportune a fauour which wee may iustly say to bee sent vs from aboue and if I had either through consideration or through delayes of slothfulnesse diuerted so great a blessing and refused an occasion so aduantagious to draw vs from the shame and miserie wherein wee are confessing freely that I can no longer liue among so many publike calamities no more then I can suruiue after the full dissipation of the Church wherewith wee see our selues so nearely threatned also I beleeue that all those which hitherto God hath preserued by so many of his powerfull maruailes will not bee slacke to so laudable a worke and I haue too good an opinion of the courage and zeale of euery one to thinke that they would withdraw themselues through impiety or to destroy it through perfidiousnesse And I assure my selfe that time shall make all men to see that I haue not beene moued to this enterprise out of any desire to make my selfe great or to make any profit of the publike ruine For at the same time I see my selfe engaged to trauailes disturbations and continuall watchings to bee incessantly stirred with gree es and exposed to manifest dangers my familie is constrained to seeke by a voluntarie banishment among strangers the repose which it cannot finde with me and as my expences increase my reuenewes doe diminish But my conscience doth so presse mee in this Cause that although I should bee abandoned of all and left alone which I thinke will neuer be I am resolued to pursue it vntill the last drop of my blood and to the last breath of my life and though I should goe begge my bread among strange nations God will giue mee the grace to iustifie vnto the world that I neuer had other intent then to sacrifice mine estate my rest and my life and to lay downe all my particular interests for the deliuerance of the Church without hauing any thought which shall tend to the reuolting from the obedience and fidelity whereunto nature and conscience doth binde nice to the King my Soueraigne Lord. And in this case if that were all I doe offer that if the Church might bee re-established in her first prosperity voluntarily to exile my selfe from this Kingdome and to passe the rest of my life among strangers as a priuate man and to renounce all honour and worldly aduantage and to depriue my selfe of the good and repose which I should procure for others to meditate by my selfe and to celebrate with continuall praises the fauour which God should shew mee to see yet once againe his poore people out of anguish and bondage and to haue gotten so great honour to haue made my selfe the instrument of their deliuerance FINIS
houses without Letters Patents from the King countersigned by a Secretary of State and sealed with the great Seale To conclude they impose a yoak such as our fathers neuer heard of The Church of Roan hauing desired the Lord of Veilleux his Minister to come preach to them hee was forbidden to goe to the end to take away for the time to come the liberty of our Churches to prouide themselues of Pastours whose doctrine and piety should be for the edification of euery one and not to haue power to call others but onely such as shall be to the liking of the Ministers of the State vnto whom from henceforth wee must addresse our selues for the like affaires and so to destroy the authority of Assemblies and Synods and the order hitherto here maintained in our Churches The reprisall of our goods are alwayes in force vertue and if from the Chamber of the Edict some equitable sentence be obtained there is presently found an elusion by calling the matter into the Kings Counsel or by some contrary iudgement of the Parliament giuen at the request of a Procurator generall which doth make the former void and of none effect And they haue condemned diuers persons for cases aduowed by the Generall and abolished by the Edict and others are burthened with great fines for the like subiect and moreover there are more then 2000 warrants giuen in the Prouince of Languedoc to take prisoners in hatred of the precedent commotions which constraine a multitude of persons whose liues are without reproach to banish themselues from their ordinary habitations leauing their families desolate to goe seeke their liberty and the assurance of their liues The Townes which are yet left vs in diuers places doe serue no more for retreats for those which haue beene therein refuged in the former troubles mine owne house filled with people which are driuen from their owne habitations and exposed to all iniuries for the same subiect And in diuers places they haue detained in chaines adiudged to fines and threatned with more grieuous punishment diuers persons for speaking or writing according to our doctrine and against the opinion of the Church of Rome as at Lyons Aix Beziers and Montpelier At Nismes in hatred that I had there my retreat they haue there stirred vp all the persecutions that might be imagined They haue sent Commissaries to appoint Magistrates contrary to the priuiledge of the place And the Consuls created they haue interdicted them by Decrees and giuen out warrants for the attaching of their bodies and neuer yet in Kings Counsell could they haue any iustice and in hatred of that which Monsieur d'Aubais had done in accepting generously the charge of Consull they haue lodged in those places which belong vnto him certaine Companies of horse to eate them vp And was neuer any amongst vs who either for the generall or for the particular since the Peace suing in any request to the Counsell grounded vpon the Edict hath obtained ought but great expences vnprofitable sutes continuall mockes or brauadoes and most bitter temptations to bind him either through feare or hope to make shipwracke of his faith I doe not here set downe the persecutions which I suffer in mine owne particular as some hauing for hire sought my life and remaine vnpunished and the Auocates which plead my cause haue beene euill intreated and suspended from their charge in the Chamber at Agen and still they seeke by Diabolicall practices the meanes for to take away my life whereof I dare not complaine fearing thereby to procure some great aduantage and honour to those which make themselues instruments of such cowardly disloyall attempts And that those which haue forged the deceit by whom I was accused to haue made some enterprise vpon Somniers in the time of peace who being discouered haue receiued no kinde of punishment in such sort that the principall Officers who sate in iudgement acknowledging mine innocencie said notwithstanding that it was important for the seruice of the King not to haue it manifested And that my Lady my mother hauing sought her refuge within Rochell for her safety and to giue order for her affaires there they haue vsed all possible meanes to haue her forth telling the Inhabitants that she was the onely obstacle to the accomplishment of the promises made vnto them for their deliuerance And this instance was made after that her houses and my sisters were full of garisons who haue outragiously beaten her officers and committed all the most reproachable insolencies Which notwithstanding are things which I would hold hidden in my bosome if the persecutions which they haue made mee to suffer were not the reward of that which they think they owe me for the intire affection which I haue alwayes sincerely showne for the good and for the preseruation of all our Churches But in this cause I doe not desire that my interests should bee had in consideration if I were my selfe alone to suffer all these miseries my feeling thereof should neuer goe beyond the complaint if it might so please Almighty God only for me to be cast into the sea so the tempest might bee appeased I should alwaies bee well content to sacrifice my goods and my life for the tranquilitie of the state and for the preseruation of the Church of God more then the which I confesse that there is nothing which can be more deare and precious vnto me This is in Summe the matter of our griefe whereof euery piece might serue for the Subiect of a very long and deplorable History to those which suffer whereof notwithstanding resulteth that they will neither administer mercy nor iustice vnto vs nor no promises nor other no Edicts no Declarations nor Acts can couer vs from the persecution which vexeth Vs nor from greater calamities which threaten vs neither is there any faith how publike and eminent soeuer the breaking whereof for our destruction is not made a glory And it is more firmly resolued then euer to put in practise to our cost this sanguinarie Maxime that there is no faith to be kept with Heretickes for our enemies cannot lose the desire they haue for our perdition exepecting the opportunity and power sufficient to execute it and in the conclusion all the essentiall conditions of peace which was thought could not be denied vs without an euident iniustice and which imploreth vengeance to God and men are found in all the principall places to be infringed and violated And aboue all the euils so great and so sensible wee haue with all conuenient humilitie powred forth our complaints and Remonstrances at the Kings feete after that we had endured them with a patience without example but the practice of our enemies and the hatred which they beare vnto our Religion haue so preuailed ouer the iustnes of our Cause that the most humble supplications of our Churches both in general and particuler brought in the behalfe of a Nationall Synod and by the generall Deputies
deliuered vnto me And the oathes which I haue taken in all our assemblies doe bind mee neuer to abandon this cause and to imploy all the power vnderstanding and meanes which God hath giuen me for the preseruation and subsistence of our Churches both in generall and in particular and to imploy therein whatsoeuer is most deare vnto me In such sort that I should now hold my selfe periured and a forsaker of this so holy and so iust a Cause if I should not by all my trauailes and meanes procure the deliuerance of so many poore persecuted Churches the ordinary complaints and sighes whereof doe interrupt my sleepe waken my conscience and binde me by so necessary a duty to all that I am able to doe for the easing of them I ioyne thereunto the strangers Caution whereof I haue spoken for in regard that all our Churches haue receiued it with ioy and consolation and haue blessed God that the peace was concluded in that manner they did not beleeue that it was a piece that should be knawne with wormes and rotten in a coffer But that it should be dearely kept as the authenticall gage of our safety and as necessity should binde vs to make it of value and force to our aduantage and to oppose the force of them which haue taken this Cause in hand against the violence of those which might hereafter iniustly oppresse vs and tread vnderfoot the promises which were giuen for our subsistance It may seeme of some that I should haue entred into communication with our Churches before I should h ue resolued for this negotiation and to call vpon the King of Great Brittaine for his promise But I doe not thinke that men of good vnderstanding can make so friuolous a scruple For among the common people euery one knoweth that there was no sufficient resolution for that I know that all men desired it but I saw no man to at durst attempt it and I felt my selfe bound in conscience and authorised by the right aforesaid and I saw that we could hope for no generall assembly and that all places among vs were filled with spies hired to discouer all good actions and to make them vnprofitable and I considered that to communicate so ticklish a thing to many would be to expose to the winde and to lose that hope which was yet left vs for our re-establishment which is the cause that I chose rather to hazard my selfe alone then to neglect the interest of our Churches or to expose any of them to the persecution whererein such a proceeeding being discouered they would infallibly haue beene entangled for euer And to shew that in this negotiation I haue had no other proiect then may tend to the good of the Common-wealth I haue therein employed Monsieur de S. Blancard whose zeale to the Church of God hath beene knowne to all men whose integrity without reproch was free from all fraud and deceipt and who hath seasoned the courage which hee hath showne in all occasions with a singular prudence beyond the expectation of his age in such sort that I hauing made vse of a man that was so entirely for the publike good and which hath so often exposed his life for the preseruation of the liberties which yet remained vnto our Churches who so honourably ended his life in this quarrell that the memory of him shall be for euer a good odour I cannot be suspected to haue done this this negotiation for any particular ambition I will not heere stand to make answere to those which say that what euill soeuer is done vs wee ought not to repulse it by force notwithstanding any right or necessity that may seeme to authorise our defence but onely oppose thereunto a gentle patience and a firme resolution to martyrdome But I leaue the decision of this question to diuines and Lawyers and will onely content my selfe to say that such speeches in the mouthes of our enemies and of some of our owne are suggested by the passion which they haue for our destruction And it is an effect of the hire which they haue receiued or are made to hope for experience hauing taught vs to perceiue in many that it is the discourse of one that is hired and a forerunner of a declaration of an Apostacie For the first namely our enemies I finde not that strange that they endeauour to lulle vs asleepe that they may binde vs and put out our eyes and to impose the seruitude vpon vs which they haue proiected with lesse perill For they are taught by diuers proofes that our resistance making them to partake with vs of the feare and danger they cannot make an attempt vpon our liues without hazarding of their owne and it is safer and more easie for them to cut our throats in our beds or to bring vs out of prison to execution then to force vs in a breach or in a trench I only wonder at their impudency all the world knowing the small account which they make of superiour powers established by God what leagues they haue made not onely to preserue their owne Religion and liues but to constraine the Soueraigne to exterminate the others not to binde him to peace but to force him to an vniust and a barbarous warre against his most affectionate subiects and faithfull seruants so farre as to dispossesse him of his Throne and to protest that they cannot subiect themselues to a Prince which professeth a contrary Religion to theirs For those that are among vs I suppose that some speake out of weaknes and out of a desire which they haue to see the ancient zeale kindled among vs which they suppose will be extinguished by the license of armes But I doe imagine also that many are led thereunto by falshood and deceipt being people little disposed to doe what they say and whom an hundreth crownes would make to speake a very different language As for me hauing receiued the purity of Religion from my fathers I doe indeauour to imitate their zeale and to follow their example which praised bee Almighty God hath beene without reproach I know right well that this point hath beene resolued by excellent Theologians which bee it in piety be in doctrine those of this age doe not surpasse And I beleeue that when God will deliuer vs by humane meanes as oft times by them he hath restored the exteriour condition of his Church we should not oppose our selues against this worke but we ought to labour with the instruments of our deliuerance and to acknowledge in this aboue all the blessings of God powred vpon the Saints and vpon the generous labours of our ancestours that by their firme and bold resistance it hath pleased the Lord to procure libertie rest and prosperity to his Church Therefore the publike necessity being stronger then our patience which by little and little made it selfe guilty of our destruction we had our recourse to the King of Great Britaine to obtaine either by his
although formed contrary to the Order granted by our Kings and according to the commandement and desire of his Maiestie haue beene sent away with ambiguous answeres or with words without effect or with sentences contrary to the most naturall iustice and most solemne Edicts the power of our enemies being come to this point that they haue call far off all hope of a generall assembly to draw an orderly forme of our complaints and then haue finally prohibited our generall Deputies to present their demands in any such forme but to produce them a part piece by piece that they might dissipate all coniunction of our affaires and by that meanes make our Causes to be particular and so to hinder vs that we shall not bee able by any authenticall Act to verifie the body of iniustices which they doe exercise against vs. Being taught by so many experiences that wee can no more hope for any iustice from those which are obliged to administer it and that our ruine was irreuocably resolued in the mindes of those vnto whom the gouernment of the State was committed and that our patience in stead of diminishing our afflictions did augment them and made them irremediable and that wee were in all places accused of too simple a credulity or of an insensible stupiditie in the end I resolued to seeke other courses then those which hitherto had beene so vnprofitably vsed and more solid and firme meanes for our re-establishment And forasmuch as the King of Great Brittaine was the Mediatour of the peace and by the Act of his Ambassadours it was cautioned that it should be inuiolably obserued I beleeued that it was not onely necessary but also most iust to haue recourse to him to informe him of the miserable estate of our condition and to let him know what care they haue taken to deceiue our facility to delude our hopes and to destroy all the apparant grounds of our liberty to vrge the performance of his word and to coniure him aswell in my name is in the name of all our Churches to interuent according to his promise and to intercede that the peace which he caused to be concluded might be faithfully executed This is an Action which I suppose cannot bee blamed euen by our enemies except they be without reason nor reproued by those of our party except they be without conscience For the first doe well know that the Lawes of necessity are the strongest and most naturall they know as well as we our selues the iniustices which they haue done vs the desolations wherewith they haue threatned vs the small estimation of the word which was giuen vs whereof they haue a thousand times very audatiously said that it was not in the Kings power to make vs to inioy it So far forth that the Parliaments by their vniust modifications haue cancelled and cut off the most important Articles for our subsistance neither doe they doubt either of the resolued designe soone or late of our perdition and to expell vs out of the Kingdome or of the preparatiues which they haue made to come to the execution in beginning with the subuersion or Rochell from the which by all kind of forces and plots they would race out the rest of our Churches so that they cannot deny but they haue reduced vs to the vttermost point of extreame necessity Moreouer they that haue craued and borrowed the forces of strangers and of a contrary Religion to their owne to oppresse vs cannot iudiciously complaine that we haue sought the succours of our Brethren to defend vs. And which is more our liues are in question which they plot to extinguish our goods whereof they haue violently bereft vs our liberties which they haue destroyed and the greatest of all our Religion and the consciences which wee haue towards Almighty God of the which they would for euer deface the memory whosoeuer will impute it a crime vnto vs to seeke all possible meanes to preserue the possession of things which are so deare and precious is bereft of all naturall sense neither hath hee any more part of man left him but his face and doth declare himselfe enemy to all Religion and conscience But forasmuch as the ministers of the State haue thought good that the Ambassadours of the King of Great Brittaine by a most authenticall Act signed and sealed in due forme making themselues in the name of their Master Mediators of the conclusion of the treaty and obliged his authority and his word to make vs inioy the effect of all those things which were promised and that the Act it selfe was consigned vnto vs I cannot perswade my selfe that they can be so farre vnreasonable or passionate after their consenting to so solemne a caution as to thinke it strange that wee should haue our recourse to the caution and to the pledge which they themselues haue chosen and approued of and that we intreat him to imploy himselfe towards the principall party to binde himselfe by the accustomed wayes betweene men of this condition to performe his Royall word to discharge him or his caution by the sincere and exact maintaining and obseruation of all the things which were agreed vpon and without the confession whereof the difference should still remaine and the things should be in as deplorable termes as they were before Concerning these among vs which would disappproue this proceeding I say that they cannot with a good conscience except therewithall they defame with odious and execrable titles the generous resistance of those which haue gone before vs and who with their bloods haue atchieued vs this holy and safe liberty for the preseruation whereof we doe together at this time contest by the same proceedings which haue passed the Sea to seeke the succours which we haue obtained and which went into the heart of Germanie to raise multitudes of people and to bring them into this Kingdome and by force to binde their enemies to giue them peace and the liberty which was denyed them and to performe the promise which they had broken And yet notwithstanding by the Edicts of our Kings they are stiled faithfull and obedient Subiects and Seruants and the memory of them shall euer be blessed in the middest of the Church And besides in that which concerneth me it seemeth vnto me that all kind of right and reason doth authorise me in this pursuit for hitherto in all our warres of Religion I haue had in these parts the charge of chiefe Generall of all those which in these Prouinces haue had their armes in their hands for their iust and necessary defence The first peace hath beene fully treated with me according to the power which was giuen me by the generall assembly And in the second my brother and my selfe alone haue sustained the charge of the warre and I haue been present as Generall for the defence of our Churches and in the treaty and conclusion of peace that cautionarie Act of the Ambassadors of strangers was