and I doubt not but they have done it already Some perhaps may make an objection on this occasion which 't will be good to answer which is that as the Edict consider it how we will is become only a Law of State by Henry the Great 's Authority so it may likewise be revok'd and annul'd by Lewis the 14th his Grandson and Successor For things may be ended by the same means they have bin begun If Henry the Great has had the power to change the form of governing the State by introducing a new Law why has not Lewis the 14th the same power to alter this form and annul whatsoever his predecessor has done But this objection will soon be answer'd by considering it's built upon a false principal and offers a falser consequence It is not the single Authority of Henry the Great which has establish'd the Edict The Edict is a Decree of his Justice and an accord or transaction that past between the Catholicks and the Reformists Authoriz'd by the publick Faith of the whole Estate and seal'd with the seal of an Oath and ratified by the execution of it now this renders the Edict inviolable and sets it above the reach of Henry's Successors and therefore they can be only the Depositaries and Executors of it and not the Masters to make it depend on their wills Henry the Great never employ'd the force of Arms to make the Catholicks consent to it and though since his death under the minority of Lewis the 13th there have bin Assemblies of the States General the Edict has remain'd in full force 't was then as we have already said a fundamental Law of the Kingdom which the King could not touch But supposing this were not a work grounded on the bare Authority of Henry which is false it does not therefore follow that his present Majesty can revoke it The Edict is a Royal Promise which Henry the Great made to the Reformists of his Kingdom as well for himself as his Successors for ever as we have already seen and consequently this is a condition or hereditary Debt charged on himself and Posterity Moreover it is not true that Henry the Great has changed any thing in the Government of the State when he gave Liberty of Conscience to his Subjects for this Liberty is matter of right and more inviolable than all Edicts seeing that it is a right of Nature He has permitted a publick exercise of the Reformed Religion but this exercise was established in the Kingdom before his Edict and if he has enlarged the priviledges of the Reformed as without doubt he has he did not do it without the Consent and Approbation of the State and has herein violated nothing of his lawful engagements But 't is not the same with Lewis the 14th who of his own pure Authority makes a real and fundamental Change against the concurrence of one part of his Estate and without the consulting the other hereby violating his own Engagements those of his Kingdom and even the Laws of Nature too In fine if we consider what means have been used to arrive at the Revocation in question how shall a man not ackowledge the State is sensibly interested therein They are not contented to suppress the Religious Assemblies and to null the Protestants priviledges by unjust Decrees but they also send them Soldiers to dispute points of Religion with them They are Sack't like People taken by Assault forced in their Consciences and for this purpose Hell it self is let loose upon them and this is the effects of a Military and Arbitrary Government regulated neither by Justice Reason nor Humanity Can it be thought that France will be at ease in this manner or that wise people will think this an equitable way of governing There needs only another design another passion to satisfie another vengeance to execute and then wo be to them who shall oppose it for the Dragoons will not forget their Office To these two Reflections which respect the French King and his States we may add a third which will have regard to the Interests of Kings Princes and other powers of Europe as well of one as of the other Religion We shall not be much mistaken if we say that they have a common and general concern herein inasmuch as these skilful Artists in misery do as much as they can to trouble the good understanding that is betwixt them and their People We are perswaded that their wise and just Government will in this respect put them beyond all fear but this hinders not examples of this nature from being always mischievous and naturally tending to beget in the minds of the Vulgar who commonly judge only of things in general suspitions and distrusts of their Soveraigns as if they dream'd of nothing but devouring their Subjects and delivering them up to the Discretion or rather the Fury of their Soldiers The greater moderation and Justice that Princes have the less they are obliged to those who furnish people with matter for such dangerous thoughts which may produce very ill Effects Beside is it not certain that the Princes and States of Europe cannot without a great deal of pleasure see France which makes so great a Figure in the affairs of the World and gives them so powerful an influence now put her self in such a condition as that no just Measures can be taken from her For after so scandalous and publick a violation of the word of three Kings and of the publick Faith what Credit can be given for the future to her Promises or Treaties It will not be sufficient to say that they will have no force but what Interest inspires but that they will hereafter depend on the Interest or Capriciousness of a sort of Heady People that will give nothing either to the Laws of Prudence or Equity but manage all by force If they have had the power to do within the Kingdom what they have lately put in execution what will they not do as to Affairs without If they have not spared their own Country-men with whom they had daily Commerce who were serviceable to them will they spare the unknown Will they have more respect to Truces or Conventions of four days Transaction than to an Edict of an hundred years continuance and that the most August and Solemn that ever was which yet they made no other use of then to amuse a People and to involve them more surely in an utter Desolation Methinks they have resolv'd to bring things to this pass That there being no more Faith to be had in France all her Neighbours should be continually upon their Guard against her and the more so when she promises then when she threatens more in Peace then in War so that there is no more hopes of being at quiet but what the Surety of Hostages or the diminution of her Forces can give This being so in respect of all Princes and States in general what may the Protestant Princes and
States in particular think but that it is the design of France to ruine them all and to make no stop till she has devoured them Every body knows that the Protestant Princes understand their Interests well enough to be able to discern them through the Clouds wherewith they would cover them and 't is not doubted but they see that this is a beginning or Essay which France expects shortly to give the last stroak to The Court there has suffer'd it self to be possess'd with gross Bigotry and a false Zeal of Catholicism 'T is the Genius a la mode each there is become a persecutor even to Fire and Sword and there are some perswaded that this shall weigh down the Ballance Vain Glory is no small Ingredient in this design Policy has her Prospects and Mysteries in it too and as these Prospects have no Bounds so her Mysteries want not invisible Springs and surprising ways which she will joyn when she pleases to the Power of Arms. She thinks the Season is ripe and she needs only to dare The easiness she has found in making Conquests and Conversions swells her Courage and already some talk of nothing but a further progress in so fair a way 'T is to be hoped that Protestant Princes and States will from thence draw their just Conclusions As to Catholick Princes and States they have too sagacious Judgments not to see how much they share in this Affair It will be made use of to break the good understanding which is betwixt them and the Protestants by amusing those with the fair Pretext of the Catholick Religion and cunningly inspiring these with Jealousies of a general Design to destroy them If the Catholick Princes and States remove not these Suspitions if they suffer France still to aggrandize her self by her pretended Zeal for Catholicism which at the bottom is but a Mask they may already be assured that they are lost It will signifie little to say We are good Catholicks as well as you this will not secure them from Dragoons all that will not take the Yoke shall be Hereticks nay worse than an Heretick for now the greatest Heresie is not to submit Spain Germany and Italy already know this in some measure But it will not be thought a Paradox if to all that we have said we add That the Pope himself and the whole Body of the Roman Church find themselves sensibly interess'd in the Persecution of us And yet we will say nothing herein but what is evident Truth and which the wisest of the Roman Catholicks must agree to For is it not the worst Character that can be given of the Roman Clergy to represent them as an Order of Men who not only cannot endure any thing that is not subject to them in a Religious but also in Civil Society as Men that are not content to Anathematize all that displease them but design nothing so much as to exterminate them not only to exterminate them but also to force their Consciences and inspire their Opinions and propagate their way of Worship by the knocking Arguments of Swords and Staves as an Order of Men who neither Faith nor Justice who promise only to deceive who for a while curb their fury only that afterwards they may the more insult that in Peace as well as War contrive only to overturn and destroy that make Allyances only to surprize and finding themselves more powerful deny those they have surprized the Liberty to escape These are the exact Features and Colours by which the Roman Clergy may be easily known if we judge of them by the persecution in France the like whereof was never seen to this day The Aegyptians and Assyrians once persecuted the Israelites but forced them not to embrace the Worship of their Idols they contented themselves with making them Slaves without doing violence to their Consciences The Heathens and the Jews persecuted the primitive Christians forced their Consciences indeed but they had never granted them an Edict nor by persecuting them did violate the publick Faith nor hindred them to make their escape by Flight The Arrians cruelly persecuted the Orthodox but besides that they went not so far as to make the common sort of people sign formal Abjurations there was no Edict or Concordat between the Two Communions Innocent the 3d. by his Croysades persecuted the Waldenses and Albigenses but these people also had no Edict Emanuel King of Portugal furiously persecuted the Jews but he gave them leave to depart out of his Kingdom and they had no Edict It was the same with those Remains of the Moors who had setled themselves in some Cantons of the Kingdom of Granada they were defeated in a War and commanded to retire into the Country from whence their Ancestors came In the last Age the Duke of Alva exercised dreadful Cruelties upon the Protestants of the Seventeen Provinces but he did not hinder them from flying nor violated any Edict and at the worst death was their Release The Inquisition is to this day in Spain and Italy but they are Countries in which no Religion besides the Roman was ever permitted by Edicts and if the Inquisitors may be accused of Violence and Cruelty yet they cannot be convicted of Perfidiousness But in this last Persecution of France there are Five things that strike the Mind with horror they make the Consciences and Religion of Men to depend Soveraignly upon the Will of a King they violate a Faith Authentickly sworn to they force Men to be Hypocrites and wicked by seeming to embrace a Religion which they abhor they prohibit all Flights or retiring out of the Kingdom they do not put to death but preserve Life to oppress it with longer Torments If after this the Court of Rome and its Clergy dispersed over the rest of Europe disclaim not so odious and so criminal a Conduct if they condemn it not it will be an indelibel Stain to the Honour of their Religion Not only Protestants who are of a different Communion but also in an infinite number of their own Catholicks will be mightily scandaliz'd thereat nay even the Turks and Jews and Pagans will rise up in Judgment against them They may already know what they have bin condemned of in what passed in the Council of Constance concerning John Huss and Jerom of Prague whom they put to Death notwithstanding the safe Conduct of the Emperor Sigismund but there is something greater here There only Two Men were concerned here more than 1500000. those they put to Death and if they had done the same to these they would have embraced their Death with Joy and Comfort The Council thought its Authority greater than Sigismund's but there cannot be produced one above that which has establish'd our Edict We are not ignorant of the different Methods which the Persecutors take to shelter themselves from publick Condemnation Some take a speedy course to deny the Fact and to perswade the World That Force and Violence have had
condition for the taking some effectual course which he was resolved to do to reunite those again to the Church who upon so slight occasions had withdrawn themselves from it And forasmuch as this Intention of the King our said Grandfather could not be effected by reason of his suddain and precipitated Death and that the Execution of the foresaid Edict was interrupted during the Minority of the late King Our most Honoured Lord and Father of Glorious Memory by reason of some new Enter-prises of those of the pretended Reformed Religion whereby they gave occasion for their being deprived of several Advantages which had been granted to them by the foresaid Edict Notwithstanding the King Our said late Lord and Father according to his wonted Clemency granted them another Edict at Nismes in the Month of July 1629 by means of which the Peace and Quiet of the Kingdom being now again re-established the said late King being animated with the same Spirit and Zeal for Religion as the King our said Grandfather was resolved to make good use of this Tranquility by endeavouring to put this pious design in Execution but Wars abroad coming on a few years after so that from the Year 1635 to the Truce which was concluded with the Princes of Europe in 1684. The Kingdom having been only for some short Intervals altogether free from troubles it was not possible to do any other thing for the advantage of Religion save only to diminish the number of places permitted for the Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion as well by the Interdiction of those which were found erected in prejudice to the disposal made in the said Edict as by suppressing the mix'd Chambers of Judicature which were composed of an equal number of Papists and Protestants the erecting of which was only done by Provision and to serve the present Exigency Whereas therefore at length it hath pleased God to grant that Our Subjects enjoying a perfect Peace and We Our selves being no longer taken up with the cares of protecting them against our Enemies are now in a condition to make good use of the said Truce which we have on purpose facilitated in order to the applying our selves entirely in the searching out of means which might successfully effect and accomplish the design of the Kings our said Grandfather and Father and which also have been our intention ever since we came to the Crown we see at present not without a just acknowledgment of what we owe to God on that account that our endeavours have attain'd the end we proposed to Our selves forasmuch as the greater and better part of our Subjects of the said Pretended Reformed Religion have already embraced the Catholick and sice by means thereof the Execution of the Edict of Nantes and of all other Ordinances in favour of the said Pretended Reformed Religion is made useless we judge that we can do nothing better towards the entire effacing of the Memory of those Troubles Confusion and Mischief which the Progress of that false Religion hath been the cause of in Our Kingdom and which have given occasion to the said Edict and to so many other Edicts and Declarations which went before it or were made since with reference thereto than by a total Revocation of the said Edict of Nantes and the perticular Articles and Concessions granted therein and whatsoever else hath been Enacted since in favour of the said Religion I. We mâ—kâ— known that we for these and other Reasons us thereto moving and of uâ—certain Knowledg full Power and Royal Authority have by the present perpetual and irrevocable Edict Suppressd and Annull'd do suppress and annul the Edict of the King our said Grand father given at Nantes in April 1598 in its whole extent together with the particular Arcicles ratified the Second of May next following and Letters Patent granted thereupon as likewise the Edict given at Nismes in July 1629. declaring them null and void as if they had never been Enacted together with all the Concessions granted in them as well as other Declarations Edicts and Arrests to those of the Pretended Reformed Religion of what Nature soever they may be which shall all continue as if they never had been And in pursuance hereof we Will and it is our Pleasure that all the Churches of those of the Pretended Reformed Religion scituate in our Kingdom Countries Lands and Dominions belonging to us be forthwith demolished II. We forbid our Subjects of the Pretended Reformed Religion to Assemble themselves for time to come in order to the Exercise of their Religion in any Place or House under what Pretext soever whether the said places have been granted by the Crown or permitted by the Judges of particular Places any Arrests of our Council for Authorizing and Establishing of the said places for Exercise notwithstanding III. We likewise prohibit all Lords of what condition soever they may be to have any publick Exercise in their Houses and Fiefs of what quality soever the said Fiefs may be upon Penalty to all our said Subjects who shall have the said Exercises performed in their Houses or otherwise of Confiscation of Body and Goods IV. We do strictly Charge and Command all Ministers of the said Pretended Reformed Religion who are not willing to be Converted and to embrace the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion to depart out of our Kingdom and Countries under our Obedience fifteen days after the Publication hereof so as not to continue there beyond the said term or within the same to Preach Exhort or perform any other Ministerial Function upon pain of being sent to the Galleys V. Our Will and Pleasure is that those Ministers who shall be converted do continue to enjoy during their Lives and their Widows after their decease so long as they continue so the same Exemptions from Payments and Quartering of Souldiers which they did enjoy during the time of their Exercise of the Ministerial Function Moreover we will cause to be paid to the said Ministers during their Lives a Pension which by a third Part shall exceed the appointed Allowance to them as Ministers the half of which Pension shall be continued to their Wives after their Decease as long as they shall continue in the state of Widdow hood VI. And in case any of the said Ministers shall be willing to become Advocates or to take the Degree of Doctors in Law we will and Vnderstand that they be dispensedwith as to the three Years of Study which are prescribed by our Declarations as requisite in order to the taking of the said Degree and that after they have pass'd the ordinary Examinations they be forthwith received as Doctors paying only the Moyâ—ty of those dues which are usually paid upon that account in every Vniversity VII We prohibit any particular Schools for instructing the Children of those of the Pretended Reformed Religion and in general all other things whatsoever which may impâ—rt a Concession of what kind soever in favour of the said