Courts of Aids Officers of the general Treasuries of France and other Officers of the Exchequer shall be examined and received in places where they have been accustomed and in case of refusal or denying of Justice they shall be appointed by our Privy Councel 55. The reception of our Officers made in the Chamber heretofore established at Castres shall remain valid notwithstanding all Decrees and Ordinances to the contrary And shall be also valid the reception of Judges Councellors Assistants and other Officers of the said Religion made in our Privy-Councill or by Commissioners by us ordained in case of the refusal of our Courts of Parliaments Courts of Aids and Chambers of Accompts even as if they were done in the said Courts and Chambers and by the other Judges to whom the reception belongeth And their Sallaries shall be allowed them by the Chambers of Accompt without difficulty and if any have been put out they shall be established without need of any other command than the present Edict and without that the said Officer shall be obliged to shew any other reception notwithstanding all Decrees given to the contrary which shall remain null and of none effect 56. In the mean time untill the charges of the Justice of the said Chambers can be defrayed by Amerciaments there shall be provided by us by valuable assignations sufficient for maintaining the said charges without expecting to do it by the Goods of the Condemned 57. The Presidents and Councellors of the Reformed Religion heretofore received in our Court of Parliament of Dauphine and in the Chamber of Edict incorporated in the same shall continue and have their Session and Orders for the same that is to say Presidents as they have injoyed and do injoy at present and the Councellors according to the Decrees and Provisions that they have heretofore obteined in our Privy Councel 58. We declare all Sentences Judgments Procedures Seisures Sales and Decrees made and given against those of the Reformed Religion as well living as dead from the death of the deceased King Henry the Second our most honoured Lord and Father in Law upon the occasion of the said Religion Tumults and Troubles since hapning as also the execution of the same Judgments and Decrees from henceforward cancelled revoked and anulled And we ordain that they shall be eased and taken out of the Registers Office of the Courts as well Soveraign as inferiour And we Will and Require also to be taken away and defaced all Marks Foot-steps and Monuments of the said Executions Books and Acts defamatory against their Persons Memory and Posterity and that the places which have been for that occasion demolished or rased be rendred in such condition as now they are to the Proprietors of the same to enjoy and dispose at their pleasure And generally we cancell revoke and null all proceedings and informations made for any enterprize whatsoever pretended Crimes of high Treason and others notwithstanding the procedures decrees and judgments containing re-union incorporation and confiscation and we farther Will and Command that those of the Reformed Religion and others that have followed their party and their Heirs re-enter really and actually into the possession of all and each of their Goods 59. All Proceedings Judgments and Decrees given during the troubles against those of the Religion who have born Arms or are retired out of our Kingdom or within the same into Cities and Countries by them held or for any other cause as well as for Religion and the troubles together with all non-suiting of Causes Prescriptions as well Legal Conditional as Customary seizing of Fiefs fallen during the troubles by hindring Legitimate proceedings shall be esteemed as not done or happening and such we have declared and do declare and the same we have and do annihilate and make void without admitting any satisfaction therefore but they shall be restored to their former condition notwithstanding the decrees and execution of the same and the possession thereof shall be rendred to them out of which they were upon this account disseised And this as above shall have like place upon the account of those that have followed the party of those of the Religion or who have been absent from our Kingdom upon the occasion of the troubles And for the young children of persons of Quality abovesaid who died during the troubles We restore the parties into the same condition as they were formerly without refunding the expence or being obliged for the Amerciaments not understanding nevertheless that the Judgements given by the chief Judges or other inferiour Judges against those of the Religion or who have followed their Party shall remain null if they have been given by Judges sitting in Cities by them held which was to them of free access 60. The Decrees given in our Court of Parliament in matters whereof the Cognizance belongs to the Chambers or Courts ordained by the Edict in the Year 1577 and Articles of Nerac and Flex into which Courts the Parties have not proceeded voluntarily but have been forced to alledge and propose declinatory ends and which decrees have been given by default or foreclusion as well in Civil as Criminal matters notwithstanding which Allegations the said Parties have been constrained to go on shall be in like manner null and of no value And as to the decrees given against those of the Religion who have proceeded voluntarily and without having proposed ends declinatory those decrees shall remain without prejudice for the execution of the same Yet nevertheless permitting them if it seem good to them to bring by Petition their Cause before the Chamber ordained by the present Edict without that the elapsing the time appointed by the Ordinances shall be to their prejudice and untill the said Chambers and Chanceries for the same shall be established Verbal appellations or in writing interposed by those of the Religion before Judges Registers or Commissioners Executors of Decrees and Judgements shall have like effect as if they were by command from the King 61. In all inquiries which shall be made for what cause soever in matters Civil if the Inquisitor or Commissioner be a Catholick the Parties shall be obliged to convene an Assistant and where they will not do it there shall be taken from the Office by the said Inquisitor or Commissioner one who shall be of the Religion and the same shall be practised when the Commissioner or Inquisitor shall be of the said Religion for an Assistant who shall be a Catholick 62. We Will and Ordain That our Judges may take Cognizance of the validity of Testaments in which those of the Religion may have an interest if they require it and the appellations from the said Judgements may be brought to the said Chambers ordained for the Process of those of the Religion notwithstanding all Customs to the contrary even those of Bretagne 63. To obviate all differences which may arise betwixt our Courts of Parliaments and the Chambers of the same Courts ordained
and made publick by many and divers times in the Year 1586 and in 1597 until the end of the Month of August notwithstanding all Decrees and Judgements whatsoever to the contrary 10. In like manner the said Exercise may be Established and re-established in all the Cities and Places where it hath been established or ought to be by the Statute of Pacification made in the Year 1577 the particular Articles and Conferences of Nerat and Fleux without hindering the Establishment in places of Domain granted by the said Statutes Articles and Conferences for the Place of Bailiwicks or which shall be hereafter though they have been alienated to Catholicks or shall be in the future Not understanding nevertheless that the said Exercise may be re-established in the Places of the said Domain which have been heretofore possessed by those of the said Reformed Religion which hath been in consideration of their persons or because of the privilege of Fiefs if the said Fiefs are found at present possessed by persons of the said Catholick Religion 11. Furthermore in each ancient Bailiwick Jurisdiction and Government holding place of a Bailiwick with an immediate Appeal without mediation to the Parliament We ordain that in the Suburbs of a City besides that which hath been agreed to them by the said Statute particular Articles and Conferences and where it is not a City in a Burrough or Village the Exercise of the said Reformed Religion may be publickly held for all such as will come though the said Bailiwicks chief Jurisdictions and Governments have many places where the said Exercise is established except and be excepted the Bailiwick new created by the present Edict or Law the Cities in which are Arch-Bishops and Bishops where nevertheless those of the said Reformed Religion are not for that reason deprived of having power to demand and nominate for the said Exercise certain Borroughs and Villages near the said Cities except also the Signories belonging to the Ecclesiasticks in which we do not understand that the second place of Bailiwicks may be established those being excepted and reserved We understanding under the name of ancient Bailiwicks such as were in the time of the deceased King Henry our most Honoured Lord and Father in Law held for Bailiwicks chief Justice-ships and Governments appealing without intercession to our said Courts 12. We don't understand by this present Statute to derogate from the Laws and Agreements heretofore made for the Reduction of any Prince Lord Gentleman or Catholick City under our Obedience in that which concerns the Exercise of the said Religion the which Laws and Records shall be kept and observed upon that account according as shall be contained in the Instructions given the Commissioners for the execution of the present Edict or Law 13. We prohibit most expresly to all those of the said Religion to hold any Exercise of the same as well by Ministers preaching discipling of Pupils or publick instruction of Children as otherways in this our Kingdom or Countries under our Obedience in that which concerns Religion except in the places permitted and granted by the present Edict or Law 14. As also not to exercise the said Religion in our Court nor in our Territories and Countries beyond the Mountains nor in our City of Paris nor within five Leagues of the said City nevertheless those of the said Religion dwelling in the said Lands and Countries beyond the Mountains and in our said City and within five Leagues about the same shall not be searched after in their Houses nor constrained to do any thing in Religion against their Consciences comporting themselves in all other things according as is contained in our present Edict or Law 15. Nor also shall hold publick Exercise of the said Religion in the Armies except in the Quarters of the principal Commanders who make profession of the same except nevertheless where the Quarters of our person shall be 16. Following the second Article of the Conference of Nerat we grant to those of the said Religion power to build Places for the Exercise of the same in Cities and Places where it is granted them and that those shall be rendered to them which they have heretofore built or the Foundations of the same in the condition as they are at present even in places where the said Exercise was not permitted to them except they are converted into another nature of Building In which case there shall be given to them by the Possessors of the said Buildings other Houses and Places of the same value that they were before they were built or the just estimation of the same according to the Judgment of experienced persons saving to the said Proprietors and Possessors their Tryal at Law to whom they shall belong 17. We prohibit all Preachers Readers and others who speak in publick to use any words discourse or propositions tending to excite the People to Sedition and we injoin them to contain and comport themselves modestly and to say nothing which shall not be for the instruction and edification of the Auditors and maintaining the peace and tranquillity established by us in our said Kingdom upon the penalties mentioned in the precedent Statutes Expresly injoyning our Attourney Generals and their Substitutes to inform against them that are contrary hereunto upon the penalty of answering therefore and the loss of their Office 18. Forbidding also to our Subjects of what Quality and Condition soever they be to take away by force or inducement against the will of their Parents the Children of the said Religion to Baptize or Confirm them in the Catholick Church as also we forbid the same to those of the said Reformed Religion upon pain of being exemplarily punished 19. Those of the Reformed Religion shall not be at all constrained nor remain obliged by reason of Abjurations Promises and Oaths which they have heretofore made or by caution given concerning the practice of the said Religion nor shall therefore be molested or prosecuted in any sort whatsoever 20. They shall also be obliged to keep and observe the Festivals of the Catholick Church and shall not on the same dayes work sell or keep open shop nor likewise the Artisans shall not work out of their shops in their chambers or houses privately on the said Festivals and other dayes forbidden of any trade the noise whereof may be heard without by those that pass by or by the Neighbours the searching after which shall notwithstanding be made by none but by the Officers of Justice 21. Books concerning the said Reformed Religion shall not be printed or sold publickly save in the Cities and places where the publick exercise of the said Religion is permitted And for other Books which shall be printed in other Cities they shall be viewed and visited by our Theological Officers as is directed by our ordinances Forbidding most expresly the printing publishing and selling of all Books Libells and writings defamatory upon the penalties contained in our Ordinances injoyning all our
by our present Edict there shall be made by us a good and ample Reglement betwixt the said Courts and Chambers and such as those of the Religion shall enjoy entirely from the said Edict the which Reglement shall be verified in our Courts of Parliaments and kept and observed without having regard to precedents 64. We inhibit and forbid all our Courts Soveraign and others of this Realm the taking Cognizance and judging the Civil or Criminal process of those of the Religion the Cognizance of which is attributed by our Edict to the Chambers of Edict provided that the Appeal thereunto be demanded as is said in the Fortieth Article going before 65. We also Will and Command for the present and untill we have otherwise therein ordained that in all Process commenced or to be commenced where those of the Religion are Plaintiff or Defendants Parties Principals or Guarrantees in matters Civil in which our Officers and chief Courts of Justice have powâ—â—… to judge without appeal that it shall be permitted to them to except against two of the Chamber where the Process ought to be Judged who shall forbear Judgement of the same and without having the cause expressed shall be obliged to withdraw notwithstanding the ordinance by which the Judges ought not to be excepted against without cause shown and shall have farther right to except against others upon shewing cause And in matters Criminal in which also the said Courts of Justice and others of the Kings subordinate Judges do Judge without appeal those of the Religion may except against three of the said Judges without showing Cause And the Provosts of the Mareschalsie of France vice-Bayliffs vice-Presidents Lievetenants of the short Robe and other Officers of the like Quality shall Judge according to the Ordinances and Reglements heretofore given upon the account of Vagabonds And as to the houshold charged and accused by the Provosts if they are of the said Religion they may require that three of the said judges who might have Cognizance thereof do abstain from the Judgement of their Process and they shall be obliged to abstain therefrom without having cause shewn except where the Process is to be judged there shall be found to the number of two in Civil and three in Criminal Causes of the Religion in which case it shall not be lawfull to except without Cause shewn and this shall be reciprocall in the like cases as above to the Catholicks upon the account of Appeals from the Judges where those of the Religion are the greater number not understanding nevertheless that the chief Justice Provosts of the Marshalsies vice-Bayliffs vice-Stewards and others who judge without appeal take by virtue of this that is said Cognizance of the past Troubles And as to crimes and excess happening by other occasions than the troubles since the beginning of March 1585. untill the end of 1597. in case they take Cognizance thereof We will that an appeal be suffered from their Judgement to the Chamber ordained by the present Edict as shall be practised in like manner for the Catholick and Confederates where those of the Religion are Parties 66. We Will and Ordain also that henceforward in all instructions other than informations of criminal Process in the chief Justices Court of Tholouse Carcassonne Roverque Loragais Beziers Montpellier and Nimes the Magistrate or Commissary deputed for the said instructions if he is a Catholick shall be obliged to take an Associate who is of the Religion whereof the Parties shall agree or where they cannot agree one of the Office of the said Religion shall be taken by the abovesaid Magistrate or Commissioner as in like manner if the said Magistrate or Commissioner is of the Religion he shall be obliged in the same manner as abovesaid to take and associate a Catholick 67. When it shall be a question of making a criminal Process by the Provosts of the Marshalsies or their Leivetenants against some of the Religion a house-keeper who is charged and accused of a crime belonging to the Provost or subject to the Jurisdiction of a Provost the said Provost or their Leivetenants if they are Catholicks shall be obliged to call to the instruction of the said Process an Associate of the Religion which Associate shall also assist at the Judgement of the difference and in the definitive Judgement of the said Process which difference shall not be judged otherwise than by the next Presidial Court assembled with the principal Officers of the said Court which shall be found upon the place upon penalty of nullity except the accused shall require to have the difference Judged in the Chambers ordained by the present Edict In which case upon the account of the house-keepers in the Provinces of Guyenne Languedoc Province and Dauphine the substitutes of our Procurators general in the said Chambers shall at the request of the said house-keepers cause to be brought into the same the Charges and Informations made against them to know and judge if the Causes are tryable before the Provost or not that according to the quality of the crimes they may by the Chamber be sent back to the Ordinary or judged tryable by the Provost as shall be found reasonable by the contents of our present Edict and the Presidial Judges Provosts of Mareschalsie vice-Bayliffs vice-Stewards and others who Judge without Appeal shall be obliged respectively to obey and satisfie the commands of the said Chambers as they use to do to the said Parliaments upon Penalty of the loss of their Estates 67. The outcries for sale of Inheritances and giving notice thereof by warning passed or chalked according to order shall be done in places and at hours usual if possible following our Ordinances or else in publick Markets if in the place where the Land lies there is a Market-place and where there shall be none in the next Market within the jurisdiction of the Court where Judgement ought to be given and the fixing of the notice shall be upon the posts of the said Market-place and at the entry of the Assembly of the said place and this order being observed the notice shall be valid and pass beyond the interposition of the sentence or decree as to any nullity which might be alledged upon this account 69. All Title and papers instructions and documents which have been taken shall be restored by both parties to those to whom they belong though the said Papers or the Castles and houses in which they were kept have been taken and seized by special Commission from the last deceased King our most honoured Lord and Brother in Law or from us or by the command of the Governors and Lievetenant Generals of our Provinces or by the authority of the heads of the other party or under what pretext soever it shall be 70. The children of those that are retired out of our Kingdom since the death of Henry the Second our Father-in-Law by reason of Religion and Troubles though the said Children are born out
Reign the ninth signed HENRY And underneath the King being in Council FORGET And on the other side VISA This Visa signifies the Lord Chancellors perusal Sealed with the Great Seal of Green-wax upon a red and green string of Silk Read Published and Registred the Kings Procurator or Attorney-General Hearing and Consenting to it in the Parliament of Paris the 25th of February 1599. Signed VOYSIN Read Published and in-Registred the Chamber of Accompts the Kings Procurator-General Hearing and Consenting the last day of May 1599. Signed De la FONTAINE Read Published and Registred the Kings Procurator-General hearing and consenting at Paris in the Court of Aids the 30th of April 1599. Signed BERNARD OBSERVATIONS Upon the KINGS TWO DECLARATIONS Given at St. GERMAINS In Laye the Second of April 1666. The one concerning the Affairs of those of the pretended Reformed Religion The other Entituled against the Relapsed and Blasphemers The Preface of the First Declaration LEWIS By the Grace of God King of France and Navarr To all those to whom these Presents shall come Greeting Our greatest care since we came unto the Crown hath been to maintain our Catholick Subjects and those that be of the pretended Reformed Religion in perfect Peace and Tranquility observing exactly the Edict of Nantes and that of the Year 1629. But although the Laws foresee those Cases which happen more ordinarily so as to apply thereto necessary pre-cautions yet seeing a multiplicity of Actions which daily occurr cannot be reduced to one certain rule It was therefore necessary to make particular provisions assoon as difficulties of any sort did occasionally arise and therein to make Judgement and Decision by the ordinary Rules and Forms of Justice Which thing hath made way for many Decrees made in our Council and sundry others passed in our Chambers of the Edict of which there having been no publick notice given our Subjects have found themselves often ingaged in Suites and Contestations which they might have then avoided if they had known that the like questions had been already decided by former Judgements Insomuch that for preventing the like inconveniencies and to nourish Peace and Amity amongst our Subjects as well Catholicks as those of the pretended Reformed Religion the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastick Deputies in the General Assembly of the Clergy which is held at present by our permission in our good City of Paris have very instantly besought us to reduce the said Decisions into one single declaration adjoyning thereunto certain Articles touching some Actions thereupon occuring to the end that the whole may be made more notorious and publick to all our Subjects and that by this means they having no cause to pretend Ignorance may conform themselves thereto and cause to cease the discords and altercations which may arise on such like actions and that what hath been Judged and decided by the said Decrees may be for ever confirmed and established and may be put in Execution as a Law inviolable For these causes with the advice of our Counsel and of our certain knowledge full power and authority Royal We have by these Presents signed with our hand said and declared say and declare We Will and it is our Pleasure that the said Decrees made in our Counsell be kept and observed according to their form and tenour in such manner Observations upon this Preface IF this Declaration which contains fifty nine Articles had hurt them of the pretended Reformed Religion only in points of Commodity and Convenience they have so much respect for whatsoever bears the August name of their Soveraign they would have contained themselves in silence and not have troubled by the importunity of their Complaints the satisfaction which this great Monarch doth injoy in the sweets of Peace and prosperities of his Estate But the deplorable extremity to which they see themselves to be reduced doth forcibly draw from them whether they will or no those groans which they would have stifled if their Sorrows had not been extreme For this Declaration which they esteem as the greatest and most rigorous blow by which they could be smitten like a clap of Thunder doth throw them into the greatest terrors and doth not suffer them to be silent And it seems to them that they should make themselves Criminals if upon this so pressing an occasion which threatens their Goods their Honours their Families their Lives and which is yet more and more dear unto them their Religion and the Liberty of their Consciences they should not cause their sad voice to be heard by his Majesty for that were no other than to testify an injurious distrust as if his Justice and his Royal protection could be wanting to his miserable Subjects who come to prostrate themselves at the feet of this extraordinary Prince given of God expresly for this end that he might do good unto men and that his Scepter no less Just than Puissant might be the Sanctuary of afflicted Innocence So that it is not only their necessity but their sence of their Duty it self which gives them of the pretended Reformed Religion the boldness to address themselves unto the King to demand of him with all profound Humility the revocation of an Ordinance which is not properly his own work but of them of the Clergy who have suggested it Kings have alwayes at the highest point of their Grandeur and of their Puissance made no difficulty to change their most absolute Oders when they have been caused to understand that they had been surprised And yet even from this also they have received Glory because to give Laws is only to rule over others but to revoke those which Persons interessed have imposed upon the Spirit of the Prince is to Reign over Himself and this is the means by which Soveraign Force may make it self to be acknowledged through all the World as truly worthy of Empire if the love of Justice be more powerfull in his heart than that of his Soveraign Authority There is then reason to hope for these generous sentiments from a King whose Soul is yet more noble than the Crown it self which he wears and whose resolution hath already begun to display it self in naming Commissioners of the highest dignity to review the Declaration now in debate Which is a Piece that appears so many strange wayes that they themselves who made it would confess it to be so if they could but for some moments of time devest themselves of their prejudice I. First of all the Declaration sets forth That it was granted at the request and upon the very instant supplications of the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Deputies in the Assembly of the Clergy Which had it not been so clearly expressed might nevertheless have been easily known by reading the Memoires of the Clergy those publick Memoires which were Printed in the Year one thousand six hundred and sixty six For all the same things which were remarkable and which the Clergy pretended to at that
for laying hands on them which cannot be done but in the intervals of Synods because the Discipline of those of the pretended Reformed Religion ordains that the Candidates who have been examined by the Synods shall make three Sermons of tryal on three Lords dayes successively before the Church whither they are sent before they can receive Imposition of Hands and power to administer the Sacraments from the Commissioners deputed for that purpose It must here be added that this Article proceeds yet farther and leaves them of the pretended Reformed Religion no more any surety for their persons or their lives For they are forbidden to deliberate of any affairs for any cause or in any manner whatsoever on pain of being punished So as soon as two or three persons of that Religion be seen together their enemies will pretend that they are consulting of affairs and bring Process against them There will be no Tranquillity for them in the Realm neither can there be any Society Conversation or Commerce amongst them without danger His Majesty is therefore besought with all the Ardour of which his Subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion are capable that he would take off this Prohibition and take away an Article so fatal to their repose ARTICLE XIX The Validity of Marriages That the Ministers Consistories and Synods of the said pretended Reformed Religion take not on them to judge of the validity of Marriages made and contracted by those of the said pretended Reformed Religion AN Article needs not for a thing which they of the pretended Reformed Religion have never designed to undertake They leave it to the Magistrates to judge of the validity of Marriages and their Ministers do pretend nothing therein only their calling obligeth them to reprove and censure the incestuous and the King without doubt doth not intend to deprive them of this power which is given them by their Discipline the exercise whereof is authorized by the Edict of Nantes ARTICLE XX. Those that are sent to Catholick Colledges The like Prohibition is also made to their Consistories and Synods to Censure or otherwise to punish Fathers Mothers and Tutors who send their Children or Pupils to the Catholick Colledges or Schools or elsewhere to be instructed by Catholick Masters notwithstanding that the said Children be not constrained to imbrace their Religion THis Prohibition cannot stand with the thirty fourth Article of the Particulars of Nantes by which it is permitted to them of the pretended Reformed Religion to exercise all Acts and Functions that belong to the regulation of their Discipline And it may be seen in this Discipline the fourteenth Chapter and fourteenth Article that it is forbidden to Fathers and Mothers of that Religion to send their Children to the Colledges and Schools of those of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman Religion This is therefore a manifest repeal of the Edict to take from the Consistories and Synods the power of censuring Fathers and Mothers in this case being that Censure is part of that Discipline the exercise whereof is established by the Edict This doth not hinder but that when the Regents of Colledges and Masters of Schools are of sufficient discretion and fidelity not to discourse of Religion to Infants their Fathers Mothers and Tutors may send them to their Classes to be there instructed for this is a daily practice But if they do attempt to induce them to change their Religion can the Consistories then be blamed for doing their duty in advertizing Fathers and Mothers to withdraw their Children from a place where they believe their Souls are in danger This Article then is of the number of those of which the Edict demands the Revocation ARTICLE XXI Bonefires That when Bonefires are to be made by the Order of his Majesty in publick places and when execution is done upon Criminals of the P. R. R. there Ministers and others of the P. R. R. shall not have power to sing Psalms THe prosperity of the King and of the Estate will alwayes produce sentiments of Joy and Gladness in the hearts of those of the P. R. R. as becomes the true and faithfull Subjects of his Majesty They will render thanks unto God publickly in their Temples and also bless him privately in their houses That it is to no purpose to forbid them to sing Psalms in publick places on what occasion soever and the Clergy have made use of this prohibition only to make shew that they attempt things which never came once in their thoughts ARTICLE XXII Burials in Churches or Church-yards That the dead Bodies of those of the said P. R. R. may not be interred in the Church-yards of the Catholicks nor in their Churches upon pretext that the Tombs of their Ancestors were there or that they had there any right of Lordship or Patronage THis Prohibition is also needless for that they of the said Religion have never had any thoughts of interring their dead in the Churches nor in the Church-yards of them of the C. R. R. But this Article that speaks of Patronages gives occasion to them of the P. R. R. to complain unto his Majesty of the wrong which is done them in all the Provinces of the Realm by hindering them to enjoy their right of Patronage which was left them by the thirty fourth Article of the generals of the Edict of Nantes and confirmed by an authentick Decree of the Council of Estate July 10 1651. by which his Majesty doth keep and confirm his Subjects of the P. R. R. in the possession and enjoyment of naming capable persons to the Benefices of which they are Patrons with the charge only of naming Persons that are Catholicks of whom it gives them power to make the said nominations and presentations which being done the Bishops Arch-Bishops and other Ecclesiastical Collators shall be obliged to admitt in the ordinary Form such nominations and presentations as shall be so made His said Majesty Ordaining that this Regulation should be executed from point to point according to the form and tenure thereof notwithstanding all Judgements to the contrary If the Clergy have gotten any Decrees since this differing therefrom they are Decrees gotten by Surprize and which ought not to be put in ballance with this of 1651 which was granted in Foro contradictorio and upon full Cognizance of the Cause They of the P. R. R. do therefore promise themselves from the Kings Justice that the consideration of his own Ordinance joyned with the authority of the Edict which in the eighty ninth Article willeth that all Lords Knights Gentlemen and others of what quality or condition soever they be of the P. R. R. shall be effectually preserved in the enjoyment of all their Goods Rights Nominations reasons and actions will cause him to maintain his Subjects of the said Religion in a right which doth appertain so legitimately unto them and which is annexed to their Fees and Lands which they possess If there be any small appearance of difficulty in
that they may drive them from all the Jurisdictions of the Realm It is incredible that ever such a Change could be seen to come in an Estate where the Edict of Nantes hath been so well verified by Parliaments and so authentickly confirmed by the successors of Henry the Great Upon what grounds do they interdict them of the P. R. R. of the Functions of Counsellors Clerks or Attorneys what have those charges common with Religion And to exclude them of the P. R. R. from the quality of Counsellors is no other than to cause that their Innocence and the Merits of their Causes should be without support before the Tribunals that they may be oppressed at the pleasure of their enemies and adverse Parties For to reduce them of the P. R. R. to serve themselves of no others than Councellors of the Ca. A. R. R. were to take from them all means to defend themselves in matters of Religion there being no likelihood that Counsellors of another Faith would take on them to defend Interests of that Nature or if they would it must needs be done with such feebleness and negligence that no success could be thereupon expected They proceed so far herein as not to be willing to suffer any Physitians of the P. R. R. as if the Precepts of Hyppocrates and Galen were incompatible with the consession of the Faith of the P. R. R. Churches The Parliament of Rouen have limited the number of two to that great Town and almost all the Universities of France begin to refuse the Degrees of Doctor in Physick to those of the P. R. R. notwithstanding that we see the Jews open and declared enemies of Christianity do exercise this profession and fill even the Chairs of Physick in the most famous Universities of Italy Finally it is not sufficient to say that they do at this day limit the number of those of the P. R. R. that aspire to Professions and Arts we must also add that they exclude them wholly For it is not without incredible pains that any one hath admittance And as for Trades they refuse with a high hand in a manner all those that offer themselves without alledging any other cause than their Religion This is not only simply to shut upon them the gate to Honours and Dignities but it is also to take away from them of the said Religion all means of gaining their Lively-hood and to condemn them cruelly to dye of hunger as if there were left no more humanity for them neither in their hearts nor in their Spirits It is true that the King hath been willing to remedy this injustice by his Decrees given in Council the 28th of June the 18th of September and 10th of November 1665. by which it is ordained that those of the P. R. R. should be indifferently admitted to Arts and Trades serving their Apprentiships and doing their Master-pieces by which also the contrary Decrees of the Parliament of Rouen are rescinded But there are three things which grief and necessity force them of the said Religion to present before his Majesty The first is that neither the Parliaments nor the inferiour Jurisdictions depending on them have any regard at all to these Decrees of the Council They make open profession not to regard them and they are not afraid to say aloud that they will not yield to them at all if the King do not express himself otherwise nor make them understand his Will by a Declaration formal In effect the Court of Money by a Decree of the 17th of December 1666. have forbidden any Master of the Goldsmiths to be received in Rouen untill such times as the number of the Catholicks be supplyed And thereupon the Jurisdiction of Mony in the said Town hath refused an Apprentice-Goldsmith to be received Master and have dismissed him lately by their sentence of the 12th of July 1668. The Parliament of Paris hath fined one named Magdalen de la Fond and put her to pay Costs and Damages and forbids her the exercise of the trade of a Linnen Merchant by their Decree of the seventh of September 1665. somewhat more than two Months after the first Decree of the Council which ordained that those of the P. R. R. should be indifferently admitted to Arts and Trades being dated June 28 1665. And which is yet more astonishing the Council it self made a Decree of the like Nature August 21 of the same year 1665. to forbid that there should be any Linnen Merchant in Paris of that Religion By which one may conclude that the Decrees of the Council are not sufficient to establish a certain Law and that the Declarations of the King are necessary to determine affairs especially in the savour of them of the P. R. R. who find always strong opposition in the Spirits of their Judges The Second thing to be considered in this place is that the Decrees of the Council speak only of Arts and Trades and not of Professions and Charges such as be of small consequence as those of Clerks which hath given them occasion obstinately to refuse Physitians Counsellors Attorneys Clerks Ushers and Serjeants by a marvellous hard usage which constrains them which have these Gifts and Talents proper for the service of the publick to continue in forced silence which renders them unprofitable to the Estate and which overwhelms them in confusion as if they were persons notorious and infamous and which had deserved for their evil Actions not to be admitted into any honest profession nor received into any remarkable Employment This is the reason that they of this Religion which perceive themselves to have any capacity and which may be profitable to their Country think of nothing else but to retire themselves out of the Realm and the Estate by this means will see it self deprived of many persons of merit and service by whom strangers benefit themselves to the prejudice of France The third thing which ought here to be observed is that the Decrees of the Council receive not them of the P. R. R. to Arts and Trades but under condition of Apprentiships and performing Master-pieces to deprive them by this Clause of those Letters of Master-ship which the King hath been accustomed to grant upon important and advantageous occasions as hath been done in favour of the general peace the happy marriage of his Majesty the Birth and Baptism of my Lord the Dolphin They of the P. R. R. cannot express the grief they have conceived from a Decree gotten by surprise from the Council July 21 1664 by which they are deprived of these Letters which are the gracious favours of their Soveraign the refusal whereof cannot be unto them but most sad not only because of the prejudice which they receive thereby but especially because of the dishonour which it casts on them For to refuse them these Letters of Mastership is loudly to declare them unworthy of the least Grace from their Prince and what would they not do to