Dragoons desolated a Kingdom and plunder'd above a 100 thousand Families Do we think this method is pleasing to him whom we both own to be the Author of our Faith he has said That he will not suffer Hell Gates to ruine his Church but he has not said he will open Hell Gates for the propagating his Church Now if there were any thing that looks like the Gates of Hell it is the persecutions of France Whatsoever Antipathy there may be between the See of Rome and us we will not believe that the present Pope has had any part or that the Storm has fallen on us from him We know he is a mild Prince and his temper leads to more moderate Councils than those of his Predecessors Moreover we know the Clergy of France do not always consult him in what they undertake and we have had often offered to us what has bin done against Rome to induce us to submit our selves to the King's will in these other matters and how small a deference is paid to its Authority So that we hope the Pope himself considering us still as Men and Christians will condole us and blame the methods used against us had he no other reason than the interest of Religion Perhaps one day it will be our turn to blame that which will be taken against him However 't is certain the Protestants of France are the most fit objects of publick compassion the world ever knew Some sigh and lament under a hard Slavery which they would willingly change for Irons in Algiers or Turke For there they would not be forced to turn Mahometans and might still entertain some hopes of liberty by the way of ransâ—m Others are wandering about strange Countries stript of their Estates separated in all probability for ever from their Parents their Relations and Friends whom they have left in the most doleful condition imaginable Husbands have left their Wives and Wives their Husbands Fathers their Children and Children their Fathers We have seen our Estates vanish in a moment our honest ways of living our hopes our Inheritances We have scarcely any thing left us but our miserable Lives and they are supported by the Charity of our Christian Brethren Yet amongst all these Afflictions we are not destitute of Comfort we if ever any did do truly suffer for Conscience sake the Malice of our Persecutors not being able to charge us with the least Misdemeanour We have served our King and the State with Zeal and Faithfulness We have submitted to the Laws and to Magistrates and for our Fellow-Citizens they have no reason to complain of us We have for Twenty years together suffered with an unexemplary patience all those furious and dreadful Storms aforementioned And when in Vivaretz and Cevennes some have thought themselves bound in Conscience to preach on the Ruines of their Temples illegally demolisht their small number which were but a handful of Men Women and Children has only served to stir up more the Resignation and Obedience of our whole Body In these latter Storms we have been like Sheep innocent and without defence We then comfort our selves in the Justice of our Cause and our peaceable Deportment under it But we comfort our selves likewise in the Christian Compassion shewed us by Forrein Princes and more especially of his Majesty of England who has received us into his Countries succoured and relieved us and recommended our distressed Condition to all his Subjects and we have found in them not only new Masters or the Affections of new Friends but of real Parents and Brethren And as these bowels of Commiseration have been as Balm to our Wounds so we shall never lose the remembrance of it and hope we nor our Children shall ever do any thing by Gods Grace unworthy any of these their protections All our Affliction then is to see our Religion oppressed in the Kingdom of France so many Churches wherein God was daily served according to the simplicity of the Gospel demolished so many Flocks dispers'd so many poor Consciences sighing and groaning under their Bondage so many Children deprived of the lawful Education of their Parent but we hope that at length the same God who heard heretofore the Sighs of his People in the Servitude of Egypt will also hear at this time the Cries of his Faithful Servants We call not for Fire from Heaven We are for no resistance we only pray that God would touch the Hearts of our Persecuters that they may repent and be saved together with us We entreat such a deliverance as he in his Wisdom shall think fitting However 't will be no Offence to God nor Good Men to leave this Writing to the World as a Protestation made before him and them against these Violences more especially against the Edict of 1685. containing the Revocation of that of Nants it being in its own Nature inviolable irrevocable and unalterable We may I say complain amongst other things against the worse than inhumane Cruelties exercised on dead Bodies when they are drag'd along the Streets at the Horse Tayls and dig'd out and denyed Sepulchers We cannot but complain of the Cruel Orders to part with our Children and suffer them to be Baptized and brought up by our Enemies But above all against the impious and detestable practise now in vogue of making Religion to depend on the Kings pleasure on the will of a Mortal Prince and of treating perseverance in the Faith with the odious name of Rebellion This is to make a God of Man and to run back into the Heathenish pride and flattery amongst the Romans or an authorising of Atheism or gross Idolatry In fine we commit our Complaints and all our Interests into the Hands of that Providence which brings Good out of Evil and which is above the Understanding of Mortals whose Houses are in the Dust An EDICT of the French KING Prohibiting all Publick Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion in His Kingdom LEWES by the Grace of God King of France and of Navarre to all present and to come Greeting King Henry the Great Our Grandfather of Glorious Memory desiring to prevent that the Peace which he had procured for his Subjects after the great Losses they had sustained by the long continuance of Civil and Forreign Wars might not be disturbed by occasion of the pretended Reformed Religion as it had been during the Reigns of the Kings his Predecessors had by his Edict given at Nantes in the Month of April 1598. Regulated the Conduct which was to be observed with Respect to those of the said Religion the places where they might publickly exercise the same appointed extraordinary Judges to administer Justice to them and lastly also by several distinct Articles provided for every thing which he judged needful for the maintenance of Peace and Tranquility in his Kingdom and to diminish the Aversion which was between those of the one and other Religion and this to the end that he might be in a better
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
no share in the Conversions but that they were soft and calm and voluntary and that if there were any Dragoons concerned therein 't was because the Reformed themselves desired them that they might have a handsom pretence to change their Religion Was there ever seen so much Impudence What will they not deny who can deny what 's done in the Face of the Sun and what a whole Kingdom from one end of it to the other hath seen and to this day sees For in the beginning of the year 1686. whilst I am composing this sad Rehearsal they continue to exercise in France the same Rage that ended the preceding year the same Dragoons both in Cities and Countries execute the same Fury against some lamentable Remains of Protestants who will not fall down and worship They are used like Rebels in their Persons in their Estates in their Wives and in their Children and if there be any difference 't is in this that their sufferings are still increasing Yet if we will believe the Clergy haranguing the King and the Bishop of Valence their Speaker he tells his Majesty how miraculous his Reign is seeing such infinite number of Conversions are made to the Roman Church without violences and Arms much less saith he by the force of your Edicts as by the example of your exemplary Piety If we will believe the greatest part of the Abjurations which these poor Opprest People are forc'd to make they speak indeed the same sence viz. That they have done this without being constrain'd thereto Thus is the Credulity of the publick impos'd on They have Seeds of Imposture sown at their Feet which are to grow with the time Posterity who shall see these Records will belive they contain the truth Here say they is what has bin told the King who must not have falshoods offer'd him Here is the proper acts and deeds of those that were converted Why will not then Posterity believe it seeing that at present there are indeed people impudent enough or to speak better paid well enough to publish it in strange Countries and there are found credible persons enough to believe it But I pray what likelihood is there that 150000 persons already gone out of France without any thing constraining them to it should leave their Houses their Lands of Inheritance their Effects and several their Wives and Children for to wander about the World and lead a miserable Life for a humour Is there any likelihood that Persons of Quality of both Sexes who enjoyed 10 15 20 30 thousand Livers per annum would abandon these their Estates not only for themselves but for their Successors expose themselves to the periss and incommodiousness of long Journies and reduce themselves in a manner to Beggary which is a condition the most insupportable in the world to Persons of Quality and all this without any reason without any occasion What likelihood that this 150 thousand persons who have already escap'd some of 'em into Switzerland others into Germany some into Denmark others into Holland some into Suedeland and others into England and some into America without seeing or knowing one another yet have agreed to tell the same lie and to say with one voice That the Protestants are cruelly persecuted in France and that by unheard of Severities they are forc'd to change their Religion altho' there is no such matter Is it likely that the Embassadors and Envoys of Foreign Princes should lye all of them in consórt in telling them this news wherein there is no truth But I pray If in France the Protestants thus voluntarily and without constraint change their Religion that the Dragoons are cal'd in only as their good friends whence happens this so strict general Guard on the Frontiers to hinder Peoples departure How is it that the Prisons of the Kingdom are cram'd with Fugitives stopt by the way Whence is it that those who have chang'd are watch'd with such great care to hinder their flight to the obliging them to deposit sums of money to secure them from the suspition of it This must be an Epidemical Distemper that has seiz'd on his Majesties Subjects that shall make them fly thus without reason But is not this a fine cover to say that the Protestants have themselves call'd in the Dragoons to have the better pretence to change their Religion It is about 10 or more years since there was a Bankset up to traffick for Souls Mr. Pelison has for a long time bin the great dealer of Paris in this infamous Trade of purchasing Converts These Conversions have of late bin the only way of gaining applause and recompences at Court and in a word a means of raising ones Fortune and yet we must be told that instead of being Converted by these easie ways we had rather choose the help of Dragoons that is of being pillag'd At least let any one tell us why since these pretended voluntary Conversions the People not willing to go to Mass they have bin obliged to send them Troops and use them with the same severity as before This is so gross and palpable an untruth that others have undertaken to defend these Violences as being naturally of the genuine Spirit of the Catholick Church and for this purpose they have continually in their mouths that passage of the Gospel compelle intrare compel them to come in and the persecution which the Orthodox of Africk offer'd the Donatists c. Were this a place to dispute against these furious Divines we could easily show 'em the vanity of these allegations but we shall rather ask 'em whether the Jews and Pagans had agreed upon an Edict with the Apostles when our Saviour says to them compel them to come in Has St. Augustin ever written for he is cited in this matter That we ought to be perfidious towards those whom we esteem as Hereticks when we promis'd to live with 'em like Brethren and fellow Citizens The Donatists had they any Edicts which would shelter 'em from the insults of the Orthodox If we yield to this detestable Divinity what will become of all us Christians For in short the Papist is as much an Heretick to the Protestants as the Protestants are to the Papist yet they live together in peace on the Faith of Alliances Treaties and Promises But these publick Pests as much as in them lies have brought all things into confusion and a State of War They arm the Catholicks against the Protestants teaching the Catholicks by this example that their Religion obliges him to betray and surprise the Protestants when they can do it unpunish'd and knock â—ut their Brains if they will not change their Religion They arm the Protestant against the Catholick for after all what Peace and Society can we have with People who not only make no Conscience to break their Faith but on the contrary make it a case of Conscience to break it when they shall find occasion Thus have they by their