of a Riddle for he has in express Terms laid open his Design in the Explication of the Project Every body knows saith he that those who were so unhappy as to persevere willfully in their Errours and retire into these Countries where they are professed have contributed very much to the Troubles of the last War But one may now confidently say there is no more cause to fear c. in acknowledgement of this extraordinary benefit we enjoy by his Majesty's Courage and Conduct they have put an Hydra with her Heads cut off into the Hands of Fidelity with thâ—se words Audendâ— spes nulla super Those who fled out of France did shelter themselves under the Protection of the Protestant Princes who were very willing to be their Heads And they are the Hydra's Heads represented by the Author as cut off by the Peace that the King bath lately procured to his People The Republick of the United Provinces is counted very mild and indulgent but for all that they would not permit such an Affront as this should be put upon a King a Friend and an Allie After the Peace of Breda and the Campagne of the year 1667. they made a strict search after an Indiscreet Fellow who was accused of causing a Medal to be Coined with the Figure of Gideon stopping the Sun What they found out we do not know but 't is certain That the Medal hath never appeared abroad since and perhaps there never was any such This Jesuit besides his Impudence shews in this Abuse a great Stock of Rashness and Indiscretion Perhaps he was over-hasty in Celebrating the Funeral and making the Epitaph of the Reformed Religion We could easily prove by several Instances to the good Fathers and all those who are led by their Zeal and Example that their Prophecies and Visions do not always prove true Witness the Sede a Dextris of the Famous Anthem Sede a dextris meis donec ponam inimicos tuos Scabellum pedum tuorum persequar inimicos tuos Confringam eos nee convertar donec deficiant That is Sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine enemies thy footstool I will pursue them I will destroy them I will not give over pursuing them till they be quite destroyed This was Solemnly Sung in all the Churches of Paris They have not made for above these Ten years any Speech Sermon Verses or Thanksgivings but they have all along supposed that Heaven was engaged to Restore King James upon the Account of King Lewis XIV his Piety who took up Arms to Vindicate this Prince's Quarrel thus dispossessed of his Throne and punish the Usurper of it They did not Discourse about the Event as a thing dubious In the mean time James was still at St. Germains and William Triumphing in London Every Body will be convinced that there is nothing more improperly applied than this Comparison Since King William hath been all along alive and Calvin's Heresie is dead and utterly destroyed in France But they would do well to remember that Sick People do frequently Recover of the most dangerous Distempers The Death of King William was some years ago believed at Paris with more Confidence than that of Calvinism is now And how many extravagant Fooleries were committed upon that Supposition every body knows but some weeks after they got nothing else but Shame and Confusion by it We have some ground to Hope that the magnificent Promises of the Fathers of the Society will prove ineffectual VVe see young People often get out of apparent Dangers And this Religion as young and new as it is may yet very well be Cured of this violent Disease There are many Heads yet behind on this Hydra to be cut off more than a Million of People must be put to Death And we do not believe That the Most Christian King's Wisdom and Humanity will ever allow such Executions They make him in this Pyramid hold a Discourse not much becoming the Grandson of Henry IV. Without the help of this Hydra bereft at this day of all her Heads the Glory of Extirpating Heresie had continued in the House of Guise and never come to that of Bourbon One word more about the Injury the Jesuist does us in that Emblem 'T is indeed a great peice of Indiscretion in him to force us to Recriminate The Heresie of Calvin and Luther is the Root of Rebellion Rebellion saith he Is the Product of Heresie But what is Popery I pray and what hath it been all along Would these Gentlemen have us to expose to their view at every turn the Assassinations committed at the Instigation of the Devout and Catholick Cabal upon King Henry III. and Henry IV. upon William Prince of Orange and many other great Persons upon score of their being either Hereticks or not Zealous enough to the liking of the Holy Society Who can Read without Horrour the History of England for these Ten years past When we see Murtherers upon Murtherers and Heads cut off still growing up again and supplied by new Assassinates of every Nation These are not only English Jacobites but French-Men also sent into the Camp upon that Service such as Grandval Dumont and such like Monsters There are at this very time lying in our Goals Murtherers who are no English Men who are so far from loving King James that on the contrary they perfectly despise and hate him and who for the Catholick Gang's Sake had devoted themselves to Murder this Prince with whom they are resolved never to be at Peace There is matter enough to write whole Books upon this Subject therefore we will lay it aside I will only say this in behalf of these poor Reformed whom they disguise in the shape of Monsters the better to represent their Cruelty and Rebellion that Thanks be to God they have not done any thing in the last War that looks like a Treasonable Attempt They are not very much obliged to them for it will the Jesuit our Adversary say they were well enough assured that all their Endeavours had been to no purpose But who does not know that Revenge is Sweet to those whose Patience is tired out and are not restrained from it by the Fear of God The good Catholicks and Bigots of the Society would have put all and the Towns of France too to Fire and Sword had they been Persecuted and Tortured asCruelly as we have been The Holy Catholick Church under the conduct of Garnet and Oldcorn two English Martyrs after the Jesuitical Fashion had in the time of King James I. contrived the Gun-Powder Treason in order to Blow up at once the King all the Royal Family and whole Nation but they were not dealt with so severely as they do now with us It did not lie in our power to be shorter in complaining of so Notorious an Affront Had the Jesuit acted as a private Man we should have taken no notice of him for this is the way and practice of his Society But
Intendants and to so many Eye-Witnesses as we have upon the respective Places We cannot insist any longer on such sad and doleful Particulars and therefore we have but just touched upon them but this short glance is enough for our purpose to stir up the Compassion of all Protestants Now the Compassion we desire is not such as consists in Words and Complaints much less in Expressions as evaporate only in Reproaches and have no real Effect 'T is properly Assistance and Relief we beg for the Afflicted Church and that not for the French Church only but also for all the Protestant Churches of Europe which are now more fiercely attack'd than ever they have been since the Reformation No sooner were they born but there was a Conspiracy to stiffle them in the Cradle and in order thereto the Antichristian Rome became every where a Boutefeu increased the Cruelties of the Inquisition set up Gibbets kindled Fires in Spain Germany England and France many Rivers of Blood and many horrid Massacres in France and in the Netherlands under the Reigns of Francis I. Hâ—nry II. Charles IX and Henry III. all French Kings and of Philip II. King of Spain In the beginning of this Age the Protestant Church sound some protection and enjoyed some ease whereby she recovered strength but we must also confess that she degenerated very much during the time of her tranquility God Almighty therefore being justly provoked by our Iniquities and Contempt of his Truth hath about the middle of this last Age raised up three Princes great Persecutors of his Church viz. Leopold Emperor of Germany and King of Hungaria Lewis the XIV and James the II. There is no question to be made but that the destruction of the Protestant Church was resolved upon by these three Princes The natural and we may say irreconcilable Enmity between the two Families of France and Austria is no hindrance to such an Agreement because Popery hath contrived a way for its own preservation which no other Religion can have and the Protestants are wholly deprived of that is the Bishop of Rome the Center of a Temporal Union The several and distinct parts united to that Center need not hold any Correspondence to adjust their Designs they are joined to a common Head and have nothing else to do but to follow its Motions even at that very time when they are the most divided by their Temporal Interests The Emperor began the Persecution He put the Churches of Hungaria and Silesia to incredible Sufferings The Publick hath seen the History of that Persecution and chiefly the Relation of the Calamities of those Glorious Confessors who were sent to the Galleys of Naples and released by the means of the Dutch Lewis the XIV immediately after the Pyrenâ—an Treaty formed the Design of rooting the Protestant Religion out of his Dominions This Undertaking he durst not attempt during the Life of Cromwell who was indeed an Usurper and a Parricide too if you will but who for all that perfectly understood that the true Interest of England and of the Rulers of it consisted in becoming the Head and Protectors of all the Protestants in Europe This was his Masterpiece of Policy whereby be kept all Europe in awe After his Death Charles the II. was re-established on the Throne of his Ancestors This Prince being Educated by a Popish Mother in Popish Courts was in his youth prepossessed against the Protestant Relâ—gion and many Heresies increased in his Reign James the II. succeeded him and it was chiefly between this Prince and the French King that the Measures for the ruine of the Protestant Religion were concerted No sooner did the French Court see him on the Throne but she resolved to give the fatal Blow K. Charles died in February and K. James was at the same time proclaimed King His Advancement to the Crown was more firmly Establish'd by the Death of the Duke of Monmouth in England and that of the Earl of Argyle in Scotland The Edict of Nantes was recall'd in October the same year and every body knows what hath been done since King James though he was influenced by the same Jesuitical Spirit which swayed in both Courts could not however go on so fast as Lewis the XIV and yet nevertheless he had in three years time promoted his Religion more than Lewis had in thirty five when unexpectedly it pleased God Almighty by a Revolution which surprised all Europe to advance William the III. to the Throne of England and by that means to make the greatest part of the Designs of that Antichristian League to prove abortive These short and cursory Observations have no other Aim but to make the Protestant Princes sensible that there is a Plot on foot for their ruine The last Treaty of Peace with the Emperor confirms this truth for by a mutual Agreement with the Emperor's Plenipotentiaries they have inserted an Article whereby the Protestant Princes of Germany are deprived of the Authority of regulating Ecclesiastical Affairs in their own Dominions which had been formerly granted them by the Peace of Passaw and the Treaty of Osnabruck Nay they are constrained to tolerate the Publick Service of the Romish Religion in all the Countreys lately conquered and now restored by France True it is that these Protestant Princes have opposed it but their Oppositions are but bare Protestations which will always prove insignificant if not supported by other Means more effectual The Popish League will every day get strength and the Protestant Party decline now in one place now in another and shall we stand still unconcerned and see to the reproach of our Profession the ruine of the only pure Christianity which hath cost us the best of our Blood If they do not awake and exert themselves in the present Circumstances the Wrath of God will not fail to awake against so heinous a Neglect We will not presume to prescribe the Means proper to prevent the Consequence of the League since they are obvious to every body It will be enough for us to say that it is high time to think on 't and that e're it be long the Disease will be past Remedy The great Revolution in Europe which now seems near at hand by the Death of a King leaving no Issue to succeed him in his vast Dominions will give a fair opportunity to take the fittest Measures for the Preservation of the Protestant Religion For whilst these two great Adversaries of ours shall be obliged to employ themselves in deciding the greatest Controversy they have had for these two hundred years they may be prevailed upon to let fall their Persecution and then the Reformation if powerfully assisted may be able to gain ground upon the Common Enemy In this general Design of protecting and promoting the Reformation upon which Popery hath in this Age so much incroach'd the Princes and People concerned ought in our Opinion to take a special care to preserve the Reformed Religion in France
considerable Refugees a Counsellor of the supreme Court of Paris was informed by one of the chief Members of the Republick of Holland that it was high time for us to look after our Concerns he had often promised to give us timely warning he was as good as his Word and the Person who received it set himself about drawing up the Memoirs they had desired of him after having first discoursed it with those whom he thought fit God hath taken him since into his rest The Memoirs he had drawn proved very good and so well digested that there was nothing either wanting or superfluous in them and so there were Two Persons who prepared these Instructions And though they did not act jointly or communicate their Work one to another nevertheless the things they laid down agreed exactly because Truth and Right are constantly the same and cannot vary We desire you to take notice that those amongst us who have taken care of the Publick Cause have not done it of their own Heads but were impower'd by the Permission nay by a special Order of their Superiors and so you are not to impute the ill Success to the Imprudence of those who might have meddled with these Material Affairs without any Power and Warrant so to do The Instructions then I say were well drawn and exhibited in due time for they were delivered a little before the Conferences about the Peace begun at Reswick The ill Success must be laid neither upon these Instructions nor upon the Authors of them nor upon the Sollicitors nor upon the Sollicitations themselves which were made by the most Eminent Refugees and that with a great deal of Zeal and Conduct seeing they have obeyed the Advices of those Superiors by whom they were to be directed and who set us upon uniting together all the Protestant Powers of both Communions that of Augsburg and that of Geneva We must plainly tell you that we had almost no other Reason for our undertaking these our Sollicitations but to pay our Duty to Truth and Justice though with a slender prospect of Success for we saw well enough that the Authors of our Miseries were fully resolved not to lessen them in the least and that our Friends and Protectors were not able to give Laws to a Prince who is a Persecutor out of an Erroneous Conscience but we ought however to act after such a way as you should have no reason to blame our Conduct in the least This is the Consideration we often represented to the Protestant Plenipotentiaries who were pleased to give us several favourable Hearings and we begg'd them many times to put us in a Condition to acquaint you that the Protestant Princes had done their utmost towards the lessening of your Miseries and the recovering of your Liberties some of them did very Nobly and with all the Marks of Sincerity promise us to do it However after having as well as we could disposed the Embassadors of the Princes of our Communion in our favour we endeavoured pursuant to their Advice to bring both Communions separated from the Church of Rome to an agreement not for such an union as it was reported abroad we have so often desired but only to prevail with them to concur and join their good Endeavours to obtain from the Most Christian King an abatement of the Persecution We plainly discovered in every Member of the Ausgburg Communion not only a tender Compassion for our Sufferings but also very favourable Intentions towards us they were very sensible it concerned them as well as us We made bold to represent unto them that if the Protestant Princes did not stir up their Zeal they would see the great Work of the Reformation that had cost their Illustrious Ancestors a great deal of Sweat and Blood quite ruined under their Hands We desired them to consider how much Popery had in this Age incroached upon the true Religion We exposed to their View the Churches of Bohemia and Austria quite destroyed those of Hungary in extream distress those of the Palatinate devolved to a Popish Prince The City and Church of Strasburg in the power of a Zealous Popish King The Church of England who had lately seen her self upon the brink of ruine by the Conspiracy of two Kings and lastly the Electorship of Saxony now in the hands of a Prince who lately changed his Religion to purchase the Crown of Poland We begg'd them to observe that by adding the Ruine of the French Church to the former Losses it was evident that the true Religion was exposed to the greatest danger more than ever We told them it was high time for them to look out for the fittest Methods to stop the successful progress of Popery and to raise a Bank against the fierceness of Persecution That there was as yet some hopes to save the rest and recover either the whole or some parts of our Losses That the Protestant Religion as weak as it was was strong enough to counterpoise all the united Forces of Popery The Most Potent King of England the High and Mighty States of Holland the Most Serene Elector of Brandenburg the Landgrave of Hesse the Kings of Sueden and Denmark many Princes and Free Towns of Germany the Cantons of Swisserland and their Allies all these I say make up a Body able to compel others to hearken to their Demands since they are able when they please to keep them in awe There was not one among these Plenipotentiaries to whom we represented these Arguments but did acknowledge the Equity of our Requests and the solidity of our Reasons They did both promise and act for they agreed to Name Seven or eight Persons to draw up their Demands We did what we could to have this Business Negotiated so as not to be satisfied with a bare Intercession from which we saw we could reap but small advantage We did represent that in the Treaties of Westphalia at Munster and Osnabruck the Affairs of Religion had been treated of That the French King himself had acted in behalf of the Protestant Princes of Germany that the House of Austria should restore what they had taken from them We did alledge twenty Presidents of Subjects who being protected by other Princes had treated with their own We said indeed that although the present War was not properly a War of Religion Religion however had done all because England and Holland had not made so powerful a League but for the preservation of their Religion as well as their Liberties for they had understood that they bore an ill will against both and therefore said we since Religion hath under other pretences armed the Protestant Princes it is not reasonable that Religion should be forsaken in this Treaty of Peace We added That the said Protestant Princes had a right to demand their being reimbursed for the vast Charges they had been at in this War and for the Blood of so many Subjects whom they had lost in it That it was
not fit that the Protestant Princes should have no satisfaction for the Money they had advanced towards carrying on the War in which they had spent four times as much as the Roman Catholicks To the King of Spain they would have Catalonia Luxemburg Heinant and part of Flanders to be restored To the Duke of Lorrain his Dukedom To the Emperor Philipsburg and Friburg To the Prince Palatine the Palatinate To the Empire many Places upon and on this side the Rhine all this put together made up a Kingdom of Restitutions England as well as the States of Holland sued for nothing and so it was but reasonable they should procure the Protestant Religion some advantage since this was the only concern they had in the present Case It seemed to us they could oppose nothing to all this but their usual Answer viz. The impossibility of making the best of all these good Reasons in the present Juncture of Affairs To this we were sain to submit But you will see however by what we have said that we did not omit any thing necessary to perswade the Plenipotentiaries into a necessity of Negociating our Restauration When we perceived it could not go that way we were forced to have recourse to a bare Intercession and endeavoured that it should be at least powerful urgent unanimous and drawn after such a manner as might be best able to answer our End In short after many Conferences among these Gentlemen upon the Matter they agreed to Word their Intercession after the Form you may have already seen and may see here as follows Memoirs of the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the Protestant Princes in behalf of the Reformed Churches in France WE the Confederates of the Protestant Religion Considering the Calamities many of the Subjects of his Most Christian Majesty professing the same Religion with us have suffer'd and still do suffer upon the account only of serving God according to the Dictates of their Conscience A Liberty the said distressed Subjects might reasonably hope for by the Law of God by the Precepts of Charity and especially by the Laws of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty and which they are to enjoy as good and faithful Subjects who have constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereigns The said Allies moved by these Motives of Justice and Compassion are so much the more concerned for these Afflicted People by how much the more that the Miseries they suffer continuing still since the Peace has been re-establish'd might be imputed to the hatred of his Most Christian Majesty against all the Protestants in general a Consideration which would mightily disquiet the Princes of that Religion who hope by the Peace to live in Amity and keep a good Correspendence with his Most Christian Majesty and therefore it concerns them also to know what will become of so many of the said Subjects of France who have forsaken their Native Country and fled into the Dominions of the said Protestant Confederates for shelter to the end that they may incourage them after the Peace to return home if they can do it with freedom and a good Conscience Therefore the Embassadors and Plenipotentiaries of the said Allies of the Protestant Religion having full Power to Treat about a General Peace think themselves obliged to recommend earnestly in the Name of their respective Sovereigns and Masters to their Excellencies the Embassadors of his Most Christian Majesty having also entreated his Excellency the Mediator to contribute his good Offices thereto that that Ease which this Distressed People have a long time most passionately desired be granted them and they may be re-establish'd in their Rights Immunities and Priviledges in Point of Religion in order to enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience and that those who are either in Prisons or otherwise detained be released and set at Liberty that so the said Afflicted Protestants may reap their share of the Peace which Europe is in all probability shortly to enjoy Delivered into the Hands of his Excellency the Mediator September 18. 1697. Concordare Vidi LELIENROOT It cannot be denied but these Memoirs are very Good Judicious Wise Respectful and yet very pressing as much as the Juncture of time could permit The first thing the Ministers of the Protestant Princes did was to declare That they did not look on themselves as two distinct Bodies but that they espoused the Interests of the Reformed in France as of their own Brethren They represented to the French King very nicely but yet with great plainness how much it concerned him not to reject the joint Intercession of the Protestant Princes That this great Concern of his was to give them good grounds to trust him for the future To make Peace with such powerful States as England Holland the Elector of Brandenburg the Princes of the Mighty House of Brunswick and so many Princes and Towns of Germany professing the Protestant Religion and at the same time to refuse them a thing so reasonable was to renounce all the Maxims of the best Policy and leave in Men's Minds immortal seeds of a War which will break out at the first opportunity Those who truly love the Protestant Religion will no doubt remember it and those who have no great kindness for it will not be sorry to have a Pretence ready of being angry at and revenged for those many Affronts they have received from the French Court. It was a piece of great Prudence and Wisdom of the Protestant Confederates to mention the Laws of the Kingdom of France confirmed by his Most Christian Majesty by Virtue whereof the Reformed are to enjoy all the Priviledges granted them as good and faithful Subjects who constantly kept themselves within the bounds of their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign This Clause fully answers the Objection the French had very often made unto them What authority had they to pretend that the Protestant Religion should be re-established in France seeing most part of them would not so much as tolerate the Publick Exercise of the Catholick Religion nay said they in some of the said Protestant States it was Death for one to turn Roman Catholick To this they prudently reply'd That they kept the Laws of the Kingdoms and States made either in the first Settlement or Reformation of the same but that on the contrary the Most Christian King by expelling the Reformed had broke all the Laws of his Kingdom Laws I say Fundamental Laws stiled Perpetual and Irrevocable Laws ratified in all the Supreme Courts of France received and approved by all the Orders of the State Laws renewed by all the Predecessors and Ancestors of the Prince who now sits upon the Throne and in short Laws Confirmed by his Majesty himself This Article of the Allies Demand suggests another Answer which is this The Subjects of the Most Christian King professing the Reformed Religion have all along behaved themselves as good and faithful
Subjects and consequently have not deserved to forfeit these Priviledges which Henry the Fourth and Lewis the Fourteenth himself had granted them as a Reward not only of their Fidelity but of their great Services too Whereas the Popish Subjects in the Reformed Dominions are as so many fierce Lions kept in Chains who get loose at every turn and Plot against their Sovereigns and the Government as occasion serves In fine we must observe that in these Memoirs the Allies demand all not in hope of getting all but in prospect at least of obtaining something for they did not question but the French would wrangle and maintain their ground with a great deal of Erroneous Zeal but they thought that by yielding by degrees something would be granted These Memoirs being finished and the Plenipotentiaries agreed thereupon the Question was only how to deliver them into the hands of the French Embassadors but they could not agree about the time some were of Opinion not to have them delivered till after the Peace was signed and their Reasons for it were such different Motives as need not be related here and yet we cannot deny but that the fear of delaying and stopping a Peace so much wish'd for by all was the chief spring of this Motion This Opinion had carried it and the Memoirs had been put off till the Signature Ratification of the Peace had it been made the last of August 1697 as the Allies and chiefly the Spaniards required it But the new Memoirs of the French Embassadors whereby they declared in the Name of their Master that he would take off Strasbourg out of his first Offers and keep that Place in lieu of Barcelona which he had lately taken This Proposal I say the Germans were frighted at and that was the Cause why the Conclusion of the Treaty was put off to the 20th of September This little respite we lookt on as particularly designed by God's Providence to put us upon doing his Cause further Service once more and therefore we waited on the Protestant Plenipotentiaries again and represented unto them that a Memoir in our behalf delivered after the Peace was signed would signifie nothing but make the Persecutors of France believe they were not sollicitous for our Concerns and that the French Court would think so too we went through great oppositions upon that Point but the steadiness of that Noble Lord who was the chief of the English Embassy and of the first Minister in Ordinary of that State carried it They were also very much supported by the Embassadors of the Confession of Ausgburg The Memoirs were then delivered into the Hands of the Mediator two days before the Peace was signed The French Embassadors did absolutely reject it at first saying they were strictly forbidden by the King their Master either to receive or give Ear to any such thing The Chief of that Embassy acted very Honourably but as one that is willing withall to follow exactly his Masters Orders The others did not conceal their hatred against the Protestants and let us see that by obeying their Master they did the same time gratifie their own Inclinations The chief of the Embassy did not think fit to refuse obstinately the Protestant Allies this small Courtesy which could do no hurt to his own Religion so that at last he promised to send the Memoirs to his Master accordingly it was sent to the French Court with all the Articles of Peace signed by England Holland and Spain and they were in great expectation of an Answer to the Memoirs together with the Ratification of the Peace When the Express was come they discovered that the French King had sent Orders to his Embassadors to pretend the Memoirs had not been sent and had through forgetfulness been left in the Chief Embassador's Pocket This was their Excuse to the Mediator when at the Messengers arrival he required an Answer to them However no body gave any credit to it but look't rather on it as a sham for they knew very well that all the Ministers of Princes are so exact as to omit nothing upon such Occasions and that there is no Writing though never so little nor even of the least importance but they will take care to transmit it to their Masters and if the French Embassadors had so neglected their Duty they would undoubtedly have lost their King's Favour but the Council of France had some Reasons for not irritating the Protestant Allies by a down right denial at a time when nothing was as yet ratified and they stood in need of every body For all this the Mediator would not so give over but urged that the Memoirs should be sent if they had not done it already and that they should require an Answer to it which came at last but a great while after when all was done and the Chief of the French Embassy departed The two others pleased themselves with Answering in their Masters Name That his Majesties Conscience could not consent to re-establish a Religion of which he had a very bad Opinion That he was so far from restoring the said Religion that he would not so much as see in his Dominions any of those Refugees who had fled out of it That if they had a mind to come back again he was willing to forgive them upon condition they should discharge all the Duties of good Catholicks That as to their Estates he could not restore them not even to those who should have a mind to return because he had already given them to others from whom he did not intend to take them away No body did wonder at such an Answer nevertheless it struck a great many who could never have believed but they would at least deal as favourably with the new Subjects of England Holland and Brandenburg as with the old ones and as it was Lawful for those to go into and come out of France about their own Affairs they thought the same liberty would have been granted to those who 12 or 15 years since had sheltered themselves in Foreign Countreys The second and sixth Articles of the Treaty with Holland are so plain in this Cause that several Inhabitants of Rouen and other Places had sent word to their Friends that by virtue of the Treaty they had liberty to come back and manage their Affairs in France without any fear of molestation The second Article includes a general Pardon without restriction in behalf of all the Subjects of the Most Christian King now in Service of the United-Provinces for it is there provided by this Article That the said Persons of what Quality and Rank soever may and shall re-enter upon and be fully restored to the Possession and peaceable Enjoyment of all their Estates and Honours c. without any Clause excluding Religion And in the sixth Article Religion is expresly named Those whose Goods and Estates have been sersed upon and escheated upon the account of the said War their Heirs or Assigns of what
Punishment lesser than the Wheel and Gibbet But this is certain that all Europe stood amazed at that Clause 'T is easie to discern that both Declarations have a double end First To deprive the new Converts of the Means of receiving any Comfort or Instruction And Secondly To ruine the poor Inhabitants of Orange the sad Remains of a Barbarous Persecution Since they were not dispatched by the Blows of the Dragoons who forced them to Mass their Punishment now must be to Starve by being bebarred of all Commerce with their Neighbours This is sufficient to undeceive those who believe the King of England Soveraign of Orange hath not done what he could to break off the Yoke of the Reformed in France he who could not continue Master in his own Dominions would have had much ado to make himself Master in the Territories of such a Neighbour Here is another Particular The Zeal make they King Lewis the XIV say we have constantly had for the only and true Religion having excited in us the desire of suppressing Heresy This is a new way of Expressing ones self in all the Declarations and Decrees formerly published against us they were pleased to design us by the Name of R. P. R. that is Pretended Reformed Religion but now this Religion is improved to an Heresie even in the Declarations set out against the Protestant Princes to whom they should be more Civil than they are to Subjects The Declaration is issued out under what Title soever you please but really and defacto against the Sovereign of Orange who is not at all subject to the French King They make no scruple to declare him an Heretick and his Religion a Heresie both at Rome and wheresoever the Bull of Caena Domini is publish'd and in France where the Decisions of the Council of Constance one whereof is That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks are so much reverenced any body may easily understand the Consequences of such a Declaration in respect to the King of England but 't is very well for this Prince that he is not liable to the Inquisition and God hath put him in a Capacity of being able to deal well enough with all those who will not perform what they have promised to him Here is another Clause at which Judicious Men have been mightily surprised As all our Desires had no other Aim but the Glory of God and the maintaining of his Church he has been pleasâ—d to bless them hitherto with all the success we could wish and we were extreamly pleased to see that even the greatest part of those whose Conversion lookt the most suspicious have acknowledged and sincâ—rely profâ—ssed the true Religion but as there still remains some c. 'T is not a Matter of great Wonder to see a King lying under so gross an Ignorance since they have raised so many Rampiers and Bulwarks about him on purpose to hinder thereby all the Truths of De jure and De facto all the Instructions Complaints Grievances and all the Objects capable of conveying Light into the Mind and Equity into the Heart from having access unto him but one cannot forbear being astonished at the boldness of those who impose upon that Prince's Credulity it is so far from being true that the most part of the Reformed are termed Papists bona fide that on the contrary the number of those who have been misled and continue in the Romish Religion by some slender degree of persuasion is so small that not one in a hundred and perhaps in a thousand could be found There are some Women and young Girles who although of the Protestant Religion were filled with a sort of a Whimsical and Blind Devotion proceeding rather from the weakness of their Understanding than the tenderness of their Consciences These poor Creatures have let themselves be deceived by the Pompous outside of the Romish Religion and by the shews of Piety which are to be seen chiefly in Nunneries but these being excepted we can assure you that all Wise Ingenuous and Judicious Men are still of the same Opinion only that their aversion against Popery is mightily increased since the time they see it under the Garb of the Dragon If there are no Protestants left but a few obstinate People why then is so much care taken before-hand against so small a number Why then did so many Frenchmen say both in Holland and Paris that if some Course or other was not taken about it all the Countrey of Orange would become a Town as big as the Principality it self Why have the Neighbouring People of Orange been so easily persuaded that Poperty was the true Religion and the Inhabitants of that Place bewitched with such an unbelief as to hold out for the space of 10 or 12 years against any Instruction and Persecution whatsoever in so much as they returned as soon as possibly they could to the Reformed Religion The Bishop of Orange and his Clergy are indeed Bunglers in Comparison with the Bishops of Montpellier and Nismes c. who made so many sincere Converts One must confess that such oversights afford those who suffer Persecution some little satisfaction and a kind of revenge If it be so that the number of stubborn People be so inconsiderable to what purpose then do they take so great a care to shut up the Gates of the Kingdom Why then do they see yet Four or five thousand of the Reformed at once meeting in one single Precinct of it It were to be wished that the Most Christian King would get better information in this Matter for then he would not suffer himself to be so exposed as he is in this Declaration and in that of February the 10th the Title whereof is this The Kings Declaration giving leave to those who are gone out of the Kingdom contrary to his Majesties Command to return within six months upon Condition of Professing and Exercising the Religion of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Church wherein they set forth that a great number of those who were so unhappy as to be gone into Foreign Dominions notwithstanding all the prohibition to the contrary have desired to return into their own Country to profess the C. A. R. R. and that we out of our accustomed Goodness to all our Subjects have granted them particular Licenses so to do and have been also graciously pleased to grant a general one to all others who desire the favour What Equity can one expect I pray from a Council who hath either so bad Intelligence or so little Fidelity They make the King believe and say a great number of those who departed the Kingdom for the sake of Religion desire to return to Mass than which nothing was ever more false with respect to his Majesty be it spoken into whose Mouth these Impostors have put these Words True it is that those who are called Refugees did endeavour to get Liberty to return into France and withdraw their Effects from thence