Selected quad for the lemma: order_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
order_n	army_n	great_a	king_n	2,826	5	3.6464	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55466	Popish treachery, or, A short and new account of the horrid cruelties exercised on the Protestants in France being a true prospect of what is to be expected from the most solemn promises of Roman Catholick princes / in a letter from a gentleman of that nation, to one in England, and by him made English.	Gentleman of that nation.	1689 (1689)	Wing P2958; ESTC R1443	10,181	40

first he began with retrenching by degrees all the Hugonots from his House who had any Imployment therein and the which he had given them as a recompence of their faithful service to him insomuch that in a short time there was not a Souldier in his whole Guards but what was of his own Religion Merit was no longer consider'd in their persons he no more advanc'd any of them to the places of Trust in the Kingdom he put out those he had formerly preferred thereto and he set forth divers Declarations prohibiting them all kind of Offices Arts and Trades so that none but Papists could exercise or profess any by which means vast numbers of Protestants were reduc'd to inevitable misery He took their Colledges and Schools away from them so that they had no Master of their Religion to teach their Children either to Read or Write When he had done that he then sent Troops of Missionaries into all the Towns to gain as many as they could by cunning Tricks or price of Money and 't was a strange thing to see the shameful Commerce this people made of buying those whom extream poverty oblig'd to sell themselves The misery was so great in some places that they were forc'd to turn Papists sometimes for ten Crowns sometimes for five sometimes for two sometimes for a great deal less These Missionaries walk'd about every where with Baggs of money in their Hands and for the space of two years together one saw hardly any other Traders stirring up and down the Kingdom but these Dealers for the Souls of men who bought them according to their Profession and the number of their Families At the same time Pensions or Imployments were given to those of any consideration who would turn Papists The King by a Declaration gave liberty to Children at seven years of Age to choose a Religion and the Fathers of such Children as became Papists were forced to give them yearly Pensions and always more than what they were well able by which means they seduced abundance of the younger sort bringing mourning and desolation into many Families which for the most part of the time they utterly ruin'd After this they forbad their Minister to speak any thing of Controversie or of what pass'd against them upon which prohibition and divers others of the like nature they daily made them say things that had never entred into their thoughts They hired false Witnesses to depose against them who were often reduc'd to avow their lying Testimonies and 't was frequently prov'd too the Priests and others had suborn'd them But as their ruine was absolutely sworn so nothing satisfy'd them their Estates were confiscated their persons cast into prison banish'd or condemn'd to some other shameful disgrace There was no safety for any they found ways to bring the most moderate into trouble and especially to destroy those who were capable of giving some good Example to others These are the degrees of the Desolations of this people and of the tears they have been made to shed for about twenty five years last past during which time no body possess'd in peace what they had and every one were in perpetual inquietudes for themselves and for their Children But these were only the beginnings of their Misery and the Essays of Popish fury and perfidiousness Whilst on one hand they persecuted some they assured others that the King had no design against their Liberty In almost all the Edicts which His Majesty set forth he inserted some Article to lull them asleep He said that not one Tittle of the Edict of Nantes should be violated And he insinuated that his intention was only to interdict the Religion and to stop there The Elector of Brandenburgh having had the bounty to intercede for them the King of France gave him an Answer that is to be seen in many of the Protestants Writings by which he assur'd His Highness That so long as he liv'd no wrong should be done to his Subjects of the Reform'd Religion that he acknowledged them for good ones and would maintain them in all their Priviledges In the mean time he had taken from them many of these priviledges and what is remarkable at the same time that he wrote this Letter to his Highness of Brandenburgh he in the very self same instant caused many of their Temples to be Demolish'd and others to be shut up put the Ministers into Prison oppressed private persons with heavy Injustices and made those to mourn bitterly whom he said he would protect He began a thing too which had never been heard of in any Age not even in the Savagest Nations or the most remote from Christianity that is He made Children to be taken from their Fathers and Mothers and to be put into Convents with a strict charge not to let their Parents see them not excepting even persons of the highest Birth and of Families to which he had obligations that ought never to have been forgotten by him He took away seven from the Duke de la Force an Ancient Duke and Peer of the Kingdom the Eldest not being then Twelve Years old He did the like by all those of the Count de Roy whom he had some time before permitted to go and serve the King of Denmark in Quality of General of his Armies In a word at the same time that he promised to protect the Hugonots he even then did all he could to ruine them and there was nothing but Sighs and Tears amongst them One saw every where Souls afflicted to the very Grave some bewailing the loss of their Pastors and Temples others the dispersion and ruine of their Families others the carrying away of their Children and others trembled for fear of the same or of greater Misfortunes In fine do but mark now how far their Fraud and Cruelty went that Edict of Nantes was Revoked which they had so often promis'd and so often sworn should be inviolably observ'd and this Fence being quite broke down all that great people was abandon'd to the Rage and Fury of the Souldiers But what is yet more notorious to push on the Cheat as far as the fraudulent Wit of Man could carry it in the very Act for Cessation of the forementioned Edict this King declared that he was desirous that all people should live quietly in their Families and that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion being interdicted every one might live in his own House as he pleas'd But at the same time that His Majesty solemnly Swore this promise he sent his Armies to surprize the Protestants in their Towns and Houses with orders to Plunder Burn Demolish Beat and in short to make them suffer all manner of Evils could be devis'd Death only excepted which in this circumstance would have been look'd on as a great Happiness The King Usurp'd the Throne of God and took upon him the Empire over the Conscience and in his Name whole Towns were summon'd by puissant Armies to turn Papists