take our advice first in it CHAP. X. FORM of EXCOMMUNICATION 2. Paâ—is 2. 2. Vitre 2. Observaâ— upon the Discipline 21 THE Province of Poictou requested that there might be another Form of Excommunication framed of a larger Nature than that in our Discipline because the horrible Corruptions of the Age we live in do indispensably need it and call upon us loudly to put it in Execution Whereupon this Form following was drawn up See the Excommunicat 〈◊〉 Jâ—â—emy Ferâ—â—er in the â—nd of the Synod of Tâ—â—neiâ—s My Brethren This is the Fourth time that we declare unto you that N. N. hath been suspended the Lords Table for that hainous Crime of N. committed by him to the great scandal of the Church of God and yet he continues impenitent and rejecteth all Counsels and Admonitions that have been given him which suspension and its causes we have fully notified unto you that you might joyn your Prayers with ours unto the great God to soften his stony heart and to move him unto Repentance and to bring him out of the high and broad way of destruction But notwithstanding our Indulgence to him and long suffering and forbearance of him although we have prayed intreated threatned and adjured him to break off his sinful courses and to return unto the Lord and tryed all means to bring him unto Repentance he yet persisteth in his Ungodliness and Impenitency and is more obstinate and hardned in his Rebellions against God and tramples under foot his Holy Word and scorneth that Discipline which God hath set up in his Church boasting himself of his Sin and causeth unto the Church for a very long time a world of grief and trouble and the Holy and Effectual Name of Jehovah our God to be blasphemed Wherefore we Ministers of the Word and Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ whom God hath armed with Spiritual Weapons Mighty through God to destroy the strong holds of Sin which oppose and exhalt themselves against him and to whom the Eternal Son of God hath given an ample Power of binding and loosing in Earth declaring that what we shall do here below he will ratifie and make it good in Heaven we being willing to purge and cleanse the House of God and to free the Church from all Reproach and Scandal and to glorifie the Name of God by pronouncing an Anathema upon the Wicked and Godless Sinner We do in the Name and by the Authority of our Lord Jesus and by and with the Advice of the Pastors and Elders assembled in the Colloquy at N. and of the Consistory of the Church of N We have and do cut off the said N. from the Communion of the Church we do Excommunicate him and cast him out of the Society of Gods Saints that he may be reputed by you as a Publican and Pagan and that among the faithful he may be an Anathema and Execration Let his Company be lookt upon as contagious and plaguy and his Example possess your Souls with terror and horror and make you tremble under the Mighty Hand of God and know that 't is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the Living God And this our Sentence of Excommunication the Son of God himself will ratifie and may he succeed and prosper it in such an effectual manner that this proud Sinner being ashamed and confounded before God may give Glory to him by his Conversion and that being deliver'd from the power of the Devil who hath hitherto kept him in Chains and Bondage he may be sorry for his Sin with a Godly sorrow and turn from it with a repentance unto life never to be repented of Let us my well-beloved Brethren call upon our God that he would be pleased to yearn with the bowels of his compassion upon this vile and miserable Creature and that this horrible Sentence which to our very great regret and grief we pronounce against him by and with the Authority of the Son of God may serve to abase and humble him and to reduce him into the way of Life and Salvation who hath wandred and strayd as a lost Sheep in the crooked paths of destruction Amen! Amen! Cursed is he who doth the Work of the Lord negligently Amen! If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen! 22. The Province of Xaintonge craved advice what course we might take with them who take out from the Courts of Parliament Prohibitions against the Orders and Censures of the Church as if they were intolerable abuses This Assembly injoyneth all Synods Colloquies and Consistories to procede against such Persons as Rebels against the Discipline of our Church and to inflict upon them the last and heaviest censure of Excommunication provided they have first endeavoured by the ways of Love and Kindness and Grave Religious Counsels to reduce such Persons unto their Duty and to subject them unto our Church Orders CHAP. XI The Canons of the Synod of Dort incorporated with those of the Reformed Churches of France 23 A Motion was made in this National Synod that some course should be taken in time to prevent the spreading of the Arminian Errors that have of late so much troubled the Churches of the Netherlands that they create no trouble to the Reformed Churches of this Kingdom This Assembly embraced the motion very readily and approved of it as very laudable just and needful for the peace of the Church of God and for the Conservation of the purity of our Doctrine and for the farther strengthning of our Union with the Foreign Reformed Churches and therefore counting the Maladies of the Low-Country Churches a very fair Advertisement and warning unto us and that we may imitate so excellent an Example and prevent the danger threatned us by making use of these self-same means they did for the Expulsion of those Errors out of their Bowels wherefore forasmuch as the National Synod of Dort called by the Authority wise Counsel and vigilant forecast of their High and Mighty Lordships the States General of the Confederate Netherlands and of all the United Provinces under their Jurisdiction and Government and in which assisted personally divers great and very Learned Divines from many other Reformed Churches of our Lord Jesus hath been in the Netherlands and still is a most effectual remedy for the Reformation of the Church and the grubbing of Heresies in the Article of Predestination and its depencies This Assembly after invocation of the Name of God decreed that the Articles of the said National Council held at Dort should be read in full Synod which being read accordingly and every Article ponder'd most attentively they were all received and approved by a common unanimous consent as agreeing with the Word of God and the Confession of Faith in these our Churches that they were framed with singular prudence and purity that they were very meet and proper to detect the Arminian Errors and to confound them for which reason all the
alone in this Ministry The Lord raised up and Commissionated many other Worthies to labour in his Vineyard and to gather in his great Harvest of precious Souls for the Fields were already white and longing for the Harvest 'T is true they had a most unkind usage and cruel Entertainment from the Popish Priests and Prelates and from the greater part of the Antichristian World For these wise Men among the People that had skill and understanding in the Visions of God and instructed many yet did according to the Scripture-Prophecy fall by the Sword and by Flame by Captivity and by spoil many days among whom the most renowned were Joseph a Disciple of Waldo who Preached in Dolphiny Henry and Eperon who Preached in Languedoc Arnold Hor who Preached in Albigois and Lollard by whose name the Professors of the Gospel were so called here in England these as they lived zealous Preachers so they died most faithful Martyrs sealing the Truth of Christ with their Hearts Blood as did also many thousands of their Followers Sect. 4. For to exterminate these Hereticks as they were then stiled Pope Innocent the Third published his Croisados granting plenary remission of sins to all Persons that would go to this holy War and destroy them Great Kings potent Princes and noble Lords are all invited commanded and animated to persecute them and in case of neglect on their part they themselves are reputed Favourers and Upholders of them and are exposed to the Thunderbolts of Papal Excommunications and to be deprived of their Crowns Kingdoms Dominions and Lives Thus were the King of Arragon the Counts of Tolouse Beziers and Carcassone served who were all cut off by those prodigious Armies mustered up against them They and many Myriads of their Subjects together with them are most horribly butcher'd and destroyed by the Croisado-Pilgrims Sect. 5. But notwithstanding all the Croisado's Slaughters Massacres and most barbarous Persecutions of the poor Albingenses and Waldenses there was not a total extinction of the Truth it was suppressed but not destroyed as Fire buried under much Ashes it doth at length break out with the more vehement flame Its Professors were dead but the Truth lived it lay concealed in the hearts of the Children of these Martyrs who groaned for a Reformation There was a very great propensity in all the Nations of Europe but especially of France unto it The Papal Power had been crampt by the Pragmatical Sanction in that Kingdom The August Parliament of Paris sixed bounds unto it The learned Sorbonists had several of their Divines who disputed against and decried it Lewes the Twelfth threatned to destroy Babylon When Learning was revived by Francis the First in that Kingdom the Reformation had there its Resurrection Pious and good Men passionately desired and Preached up the necessity of it William Brissonnet Bishop of Meaux promoted it in his Diocess James Fabey born at Estaples in Picardy a Man of great Learning and of an Angelical Life laboured hard in it And in the dawn of the Reformation the Doctrine of the Gospel was embraced by several Persons of great Quality Margaret of Valois Queen of Navarre and Sister to the French King was accused for it by the blood-thirsty Prelates unto her Royal Brother She was indeed a Sanctuary unto God's Fugitives a Covert to them from the storm an hiding place from the Tempest In her House Faber now an hundred years old after a most Heavenly Discourse with the Queen at Supper fell asleep in the Lord. Luther a Divine Herald publisheth the Gospel in Germany Zuinglius one year before him and without any knowledge of him or correspondence with him had thundered against Indulgences and began the Reformation in Switzerland A little while after Mr. Calvin is called forth by God to be a glorious Instrument of it in France * * * See the Author of Status Reipubl Relig sab Henr. 2. p 10. 11. sub Carolâ— 9. p. 94. And the Lord owneth him and his Fellow-Servants notwithstanding all the storms of Popish rage and fury against them in this great work Insomuch that the whole Kingdom is inlightned and ravished with it and many of the most eminent Counsellors in that Illustrious Senate the Parliament of Paris do profess the Gospel openly and in the very presence of their King Henry the Second though to the loss of Honour Estate and Life It was now got into the Court and among Persons of the highest Quality Many Nobles some Princes of the Blood dare espouse its Cause The Blood of the Martyrs proving the Seed of the Church and as Israel of old so now the more the Professors of the Gospel are oppressed and persecuted the more are they increased and multiplied Sect. 6. The Reformed form themselves into regular Church-Assemblies separating themselves as the Primitive Christians did from the unbelieving Jews and their Synagogues so from the unbelieving Papists and their idolatrous Worship It was the great care of the first Reformers to preach up sound Doctrine to institute and celebrate pure Evangelical Worship and to restore the ancient Primitive Discipline They set up purity of Worship according to the Scripture Rule The Holy Bible was translated by Olivetan Uncle unto Mr. Calvin and a Minister in the Valleys of Piedmont from the Original Hebrew and Greek into the French Language He had not any assistance nor incouragement unto this work from any great Prince or State and yet finished it in one Year The Lord blessed him in his undertaking wonderfully that he should begin and finish it in so short a time This Star scatters bright Beams of Heavenly Light and Truth into the dark Corners of the Land to the inlivening and comforting of many thousands of Souls Now the Fountain of Life is opened and the Waters thereof flow down in plenteous streams from the Throne of God and the Lamb to the cleansing quickning and refreshing of the City of God This Holy Bible is read in their solemn Meetings in the great Congregations This divinely inspired Scripture is perused and studied by Nobles and Peasants by the Learned and Ideots by Merchants and Tradesmen by Women and Children in their Houses and Families by this they be made wiser than their Popish Priests than their most subtle Adversaries By this they stop the mouths of Gainsayers and put them to silence and confusion Clement Marot a Courtier and a great Wit was advised by Mr. Vatablus Regius Professor of the Hebrew Tongue in the University of Paris to consecrate his Muse unto God which Counsel he embraceth and translateth fifty of David's Psalms into French Meeter Mr. Beza did the other hundred and all the Scripture-Songs Lewis Guadimel another Asaph or Jeduthun a most Skillful Master of Musick set those sweet and melodious Tunes unto which they are sung even unto this day This holy Ordinance charmed the Ears Hearts and Affections of Court and City Town and Country They were sung in the Louvre as
and foundation was their utter ruine Wherefore that we might not overburden our selves with too great a load of businesses all at once and for that the fury of War is incompatible with the Constitution of good and wholesome Laws we did prudently defer and delay their full and particular satisfaction till such time as we might make the best provision for them that could be desired And now at last through the divine goodness enjoying a greater quiet than ever we believed that we could not better employ our selves than in those concerns of the glory of his holy name and service and that he may he religiously adored invocated and worshipped by all our Subjects and although it be not his good pleasure to permit at this time that it should be in one and the self-same form and mode of Religion yet at least that it may be with one and the self-same mind and intention and in such an order and manner as there may not be any trouble or tumult among them for it that so both we our selves and this Kingdom may always merit and preserve that glorious Title entail'd upon us by the noble Atchievements of our Progenitors of being the Most Christian and so by this means to remove the cause of all those evils and troubles which might fall out upon the score and account of Religion they being of all others the most spreading taking and influential For these reasons we knowing that this was an affair of the greatest importance and meriting our best thoughts and deepest consideration after we had taken in hand the Bills of Grievances presented us by our Roman Catholick Subjects and had permitted our other Subjects of the aforesaid pretended Reformed Religion to assemble themselves by their Deputies to prepare their Bills also and to bring them in together with their Remonstrances unto us and had several Conferences with them about those very matters at sundry and divers times and revised all former Edicts we have judged needful now upon the whole to give unto all our said Subjects one and that a general clear plain and absolute Law by which they may be ruled and governed in and about all those differences which have heretofore fallen out or may hereafter happen and fall out among them which 't is our hope will most effectually contribute to their mutual and full contentment upon all occasions and emergencies whatsoever Sith that we never deliberated nor advised with our Privy-Council about it upon any other ground or respect than that great zeal which we have for God's Service and Glory and that he may be more religiously obeyed and worshiped by all our said Subjects and that there might be setled and established among them a good and firm and durable Peace For the obtaining of which we do most devoutly implore and wait upon his Divine Goodness hoping and expecting the continuance thereof and of that wonderful Protection and Favour he hath always most illustriously vouchsafed unto this Kingdom from its first Foundations laid many hundred years ago unto this very day and that he will be so merciful unto our said Subjects as to give them to understand that in the observation of this our Law consists next and after their duty unto God and us the principal basis and ground-work of their Union Concord Tranquillity and Peace and the setling and restoration of the whole state in its primitive splendour opulency and power As we for our part do purpose resolve and promise to see that it be exactly observed without suffering it in any manner to be transgressed or violated For these Causes We with the Advice of the Princes of our Blood and other Princes and Officers of the Crown and other great and Honourable Persons in our Council of State who are near about us and attend upon us having well and diligently pondered and considered this whole affair we have by this perpetual and irrevocable Edict said declared and Ordained and we do say declare and Ordain I. In the first place That the sense and remembrance of all matters passed both on the one side and the other from the beginning of March in the year 1585. unto the day of our coming unto the Crown and during all the preceding Troubles and all causes and occasions of them shall be for ever suppressed and forgotten as if they had never been Nor shall it be lawful for our Attorney-Generals or any other Persons whatsoever whether publick or private at any time or on any occasions that may be to mention sue implead or prosecute for them in any of our Courts or Jurisdictions whatsoever II. We forbid all our Subjects whatsoever their Estate or Quality may be to revive the memory of past matters or to assault incense injure provoke or reproach one the other upon those accounts or upon any cause or pretext whatsoever to dispute contend or quarrel with or to wrong and offend any one either in word or deed but that they contain themselves within bounds and live together peaceably as Brethren Friends and Fellow-Citizens on pain of punishing the Transgressors as Breakers of the Peace and Disturbers of the quiet and settlement of the Common-wealth III. We Ordain That the Roman Catholick and Apostolick Religion shall be restored and set up again in all places and quarters of this our Kingdom and in all other our Dominions subject to us where the exercise thereof hath been intermitted that it may be peaceably and freely exercised without any trouble lett or hinderance And we do most straitly forbid all Persons whatsoever their quality estate or condition may be upon the Penalties before-mentioned to trouble molest or disquiet the Ecclesiasticks in the Celebration of Divine Service or in the receiving or injoyment of their Tithes Emoluments and Revenues of their Benefices and of all other rights and duties appertaining to them And that all persons who in the late troubles have seized upon Churches Houses Goods and Revenues belonging to the said Ecclesiasticks and who do possess and occupy them do entirely relinquish the same and do peaceably resign and yield up their possession and enjoyment of them and of all rights priviledges and securities unto those Churchmen who are disseized of them Moreover we do most straitly forbid all those of the said pretended Reformed Religion to have any Sermons preached or any other exercise of their Religion aforesaid in any Churches Houses or other Habitations of those the said Ecclesiasticks IV. And the said Ecclesiasticks shall have full liberty to buy those Houses and Edifices which have been built not upon holy but profane grounds taken from them in the late troubles or to compel the Possessors of the said Buildings to purchase the land of them at a certain rate and price which shall be estimated and set upon it by persons of judgment and experience in such matters and for which both the Parties shall agree And in case of non-agreement between them the Judges of those places shall determine saving
in presence of these Witnesses whose names are hereunto subscribed this day of the Month of _____ and in the year of our Lord SECT XLVII When these poor Wretches had signed this Abjuration and hoped thereby to be at rest they were far enough from it for their Consciences flew in their Faces and many of them were driven unto despair Yet their Persecutors never ceased tormenting them they must own and attest it before the World that they embraced the Roman Religion freely voluntarily and of their own accord and that no Violence was offer'd them to move or induce them to turn from the Reformed Religion And if after this they scrupled to go to Mass to communicate after the Popish way to tell over their Chaplet of Beads or if a Sigh escaped from them indicating their Grief and Sorrow for their great Sin in forsaking the Truth immediately there were great Fines laid upon them and their old Guests the Dragoons are sent back again to beat up their quarters and they must entertain afresh those old Guests who had wearied them out of their Faith and Life I have by me a Letter from Mets giving an account of the state of the poor Protestants upon their Abjuration which may not be unacceptable to the Reader My Dear F. YOUR's of the Thirteenth of September is come to my hands by which I perceive you are well informed of all things relating to those Holy Missionaries our Dragoons You cannot for all that imagine what it is to fall into the hands of such Apostles Of all the Families of * * * * * * There were in that Church 10000 Communicants Mets there are left but two Persons which have not subscribed viz. Madamoiselle Goffin who is a Prisoner in the Nunnery of the Female Preachers and Madamoiselle Ferry Sister to Monsieur Le Bachelier the Counsellour who is also clapt up in the Nunnery of St. Clare These are the only two Persons who have refused Subscription yet do not persuade your self into that Opinion that because they have subscribed therefore they must needs be of the Roman Religion nay the very contrary is true for we were never more estranged from it I shall deal plainly with you we ought not to be blamed for our weakness in subscribing for had all the Ministers of France now exiled the Kingdom been resident in it and lain as we have at the cruel mercy of Dragoons I am certainly persuaded that not five in an hundred could have stood it out but must have subscribed as well as we Do not then believe that such as have subscribed have changed their Religion I can give you full evidence that they were never more zealous for the Reformed Religion than now I know we have too too much neglected your Advices but the most eminent among us were too secure even our Ministers themselves who because of the profound peace in which we lived had made Purchaces and richly furnished their houses with the best of Goods And if after all this we have had the Misfortune to expect that ill Hour and Lot of Subscription 't was because there was no means left of saving our selves and whereas we be condemned for our foolish confidence in those golden Promises That neither by word or deed we should be in the least hurt upon the score of Conscience I must reply it was because the Passages on the Frontiers being so strictly guarded we could not possibly escape for on this side of the Kingdom all were so narrowly watched that a poor Cat could not meet with an Hole by which to creep out You writ to me concerning Monsieur N. pray when you see him tell him that Madam N. his Sister-in-law lodgeth at my house with her Family and that already three of her Sons are departed the Kingdom She is one of the sweetest Gentlewomen that may be the Lord bless and assist her in all her designs She ran the same risk with the rest but is little concerned for it There be daily brought into the Prisons of this City Persons of Vitry Chalons and Sedan who are Condemned unto the Gallies or to perpetual Duress Finally on our side we have no means left us of escaping so that we must absolutely resign our selves to the will of our God 'till he open a Door for us Yet I beseech you do not believe that Worldly considerations as of goods and estates do detain us here No no could we but have had liberty of departure we had long e'r this gone away though only with our Shifts about us yea tho' we had left our Children behind us But it is not God's will that we should yet quit this place nay 't is his will that we be patient and that we hinder our Childrens falling into such hands as would educate them in Idolatry in a false Religion and in an aversion for our selves also I must add that we had no preservative from subscribing it was wholly impossible to avoid that Subscription against the Protestant Reformed Religion tho' as yet we are not obliged to go to Mass but expect once more the Dragoons with their Swords in their hands to drive us to it We know we have subscribed but we know also we have not changed our Religion and through Grace we shall never change it I may assure you that so great were our Oppressions that they might have oblig'd us to have been Turks as well as Papists and to have wore a Turban had it been as high again as the Triple Crown Our wisest Catholicks for these last six Months have told us That we should shortly be of one Religion but never be of one belief And they had reason for what they said For we were never more fixed in our Religion than now Sometimes for fashions sake we go unto their Sermons but return extreamly dissatisfied with those Discourses and more confirmed in our first Faith than before Poor Monsieur de Chevenix lies very ill the Curate of his Parish was with him to oblige him to Confession but he positively told him he would not confess himself to any but God who alone could forgive him his sins and not to any mortal creature who was as much a sinner as himself Afterwards he was visited by the Archbishop who would have obliged him to communicate before death which he also as stiffly refused The Archbishop acquainted him with the King's Orders concerning such who being sick refuse to communicate e'er they die He replied that he cared not a Rush for them and that he would never communicate after the Popish manner I know not what may happen hereafter but at present he is mending and I believe he will perfectly recover But the Ordinances of the King or rather of the Clergy are That the sick shall communicate before death and in case they do not their dead Carkasses shall be drawn upon the Hurdle and then thrown into the Common Jakes and all their Goods confiscated and if they
were most cruelly disciplin'd A Lady of eminent Quality gave this Relator this Account That when they had seized all her Estate clapt her up in Prison Arraign'd and Condemn'd her to Death for Murdering five of her Children because she had conveyed them away that they might not be trained up in Popery they took her two youngest one of five and the other of two years and put them into Nunneries They could never get that of five to kiss a Crucifix or bow to their breaden God though they kept her from meat and drink eight and forty hours and having scourged the poor young Heretick unmercifully they returned her with her young Sister whom they had also tormented with Famine and Whipping to the poor Mother in whose Arms one of these Innocent Lambs died a few hours after That very day the Edict was published the Attorney-General and some other Magistrates send for the Protestant Heads of Families who lived in Paris to appear before them and when they came they declared to them That it was the King's absolute Will and Pleasure that they should change their Religion that they were no better than the rest of his Subjects and that if they would not do it willingly his Majesty was resolv'd to compel them to it At the same time by Letters under the Privy-Seal they banished all the Elders of that Consistory together with some others in whom they found more constancy and resolution and they dispersed them into those places which were remotest from all Commerce and Business and have since used them with unparallel'd Cruelties When as the diligence of Mr. Attorney-General and the City Magistrates succeeded not answerably to their desires and expectations Monsieur Seignelay Secretary of State would try what influence he had in his division at Paris Wherefore he gets together about an hundred or sixscore Merchants with some others unto his House and having shut the doors he forthwith presents them a Form of Abjuration commanding them in the King's Name to sign it declaring that they should not stir out of the doors till they had yielded a full obedience The Contents of this Form were That they did not only renounce the Heresie of Calvin and enter into the Catholick Church but also that they did it voluntarily without any force or compulsion This was done after a most imperious manner and with the tone of authority Yet notwithstanding some had the courage to speak tho' they were soon cut short with this reply They were not called to dispute but to obey So that they all signed before they went out SECT LIV. With some of the Ministers they dealt very treacherously fawning upon them with kind words and counterfeit civilities wheedling them into a good opinion of those respects and loves they never had nor intended for them This proved a great and dangerous Snare to two worthy Ministers among others as will appear from this following Letter written to an eminent French Minister in London from Paris October 19. 1685. From Paris Octob. 19. 1685. Monsieur my most honoured Brother SInce you are owner of so much goodness as to interest your self like a kind Brother in those Affairs which particularly concern us and forasmuch as we can avow our Affections for you to be great and sincere and our fellow-feeling of all your Sufferings to be real and very sensible it is but just that when our Brother Du gives you an Account of the state of our Family we should also at the same time acquaint you with that of our Consciences You may then understand my most dear Brother that no sooner was the King's Declaration published which abolishing the Edict of Nants obliged all the Ministers within a Fortnight's time to depart the Kingdom but Monsieur and my self went immediately to seek and take places for our selves and Families in the Brussel's Coach as my Brother went to that of Calais But two or three days after being informed that neither our Wives nor Children should have the liberty of leaving the Kingdom with us and that we should meet with an hundred difficulties in our departure and that we must needs have Certificates from our Intendants which was utterly impossible for us to procure in that short time was now left us we together with divers others went and waited upon Monsieur de la Renie who is the Judge and Civil Magistrate of this City who gave us a Certificate according to the King's Edict which yet in the issue was useless and unprofitable Monsieur de la Renie being particularly acquainted with Monsieur treated us with a great deal of civility and desired us seriously to reflect upon that perplexed condition into which we and our Families were plunged and that we would examine our selves whether with a good Conscience we might not tarry in the Kingdom and whether our presence would not also contribute to the consolation of a multitude of gracious Souls groaning under the pressures of their Afflictions who had been abandon'd by their fugitive Pastours according to the general Complaints brought in against them from all quarters Hereupon we drew up several Projects I formed mine Monsieur framed his and they were both so contrived that any one might easily judge we should never be suffer'd on those terms to live in the Kingdom And to speak the truth they were not approved by my Brother Du who drew up another the Copy whereof we now send you but we must confess most dear Brother that we have found it to be of dreadful consequence and most dangerously insnaring to us But Du having resolutely maintained that we had no other way left us of abiding in the Kingdom than by signing this Writing and if we would not yet he himself would alone in his own person present it to my Lord Bishop of Meaux we did at length sign it Monsieur and my self tho' with extreme repugnancy and with this very restriction that Du should retrieve it out of the hands of the Bishop of Meaux as soon as he had read it which Du solemnly promised us he would do My Lord Bishop perus'd our Writing and having told Du that he conceiv'd the King would never grant us what we desired in it we believ'd our selves oblig'd all three jointly to take our leaves of the Bishop and of Monsieur de la Renie because we were two days after to avoid the Kingdom My Lord Bishop of Meaux dismist us very civilly But Monsieur de la Renie made us a long discourse about our Writing given in to the Bishop of Meaux and that Conference which our Brother had with him telling us among other passages that the King took notice of our Measures that he had approved and praised them that he had a better opinion of us by far than of a great many others who had yet gone beyond us but that the King desired us to continue our Conferences with the Bishop of Meaux and that the King having learnt our intention of going
4. that it would please this Assembly to make a Decree that the Churches of Vic Figenseac Eutre and Leyran now lying in the Province of lower Guyenne and joyned to it might be separated from it and incorporated with the Colloquy of Armagnac lying in the Province of higher Languedoc It was ordered That the two Provinces should confer about it and hear the Opinion of those Churches upon the case and afterward they should determine that which they conceived would be most expedient for them Tâ—â—neins Appeal 34. 12. Monsieur Grand Pastor in the Church of Cajarc in the Province of higher Languedoc did by Letters humbly petition this Assembly to take off the Censure filed against him by the National Synod of Tonneins which had forbidden him any more to Preach in the Church of Caussade The Consuls and Elders also of the said Church and Town joyned with him in the same Petition This Assembly having considered the Testimonials given of him by the Colloquy of upper Quercy and also by the Synod of higher Languedoc do give power unto the said Province to license Monsieur Grand to return and exercise his Ministry as formerly in the Church of Caussade but in the first place they shall most diligently consider whether his Presence and Preaching there will be for its edification and that the Church of Cajarc be duly supplied by another Minister 13. The Church of Saumur contested with the Province of Brittain about a Pension and Maintenance exhibited by them unto Julian Fournier who had quitted the Convent of Capuchins in the City of Blois The Deputies of Anjou and Brittain having been both heard this Assembly moderated the said Charges and reduced them to the Sum of fifty Livers to wit twenty Livers for his Diet and thirty for his Cloths which said Sum shall be paid unto the Church of Saumur by the Province of Brittain out of the Monies granted us by his Majesty's liberality 14. The Lord Baron of Tournebu writ unto this Assembly by an Elder of the Church of Falaise that his late deceased Lady hath bequeathed as a Legacy some considerable Sums of Money which are in the Province of Zealand to be employed in the educating of a Scholar either of Zealand Basil or Geneva that may hereafter serve the Church of Essars in the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments And whereas the Sum bequeathed will not suffice for that purpose the said Lord promiseth on his Honour to make up the rest After the Deputies of Normandy had been heard the Assembly applauding the Design and Zeal of this noble Lord orders the Province of Normandy to intreat the said Lord not to chuse any Scholar out of this Kingdom and that he would be pleas'd to advise with his Colloquy and Synod about him and in case he should not grant unto us our desire he shall be at his full liberty to chuse him whence and where he will but with this Proviso That as soon as he shall be sit for service he be presented unto the Province and admitted by it according to the Canons of our Church-Discipline 15. The Colloquy of Foix in the Province of Higher Languedoc writ and sent their Complaints unto this Assembly of those grievous Oppressions the Churches in those parts have undergone for these last six Years and the great Sums they have been necessitated to expend in keeping possession of our Cautionary Towns there and to support themselves in the Courts of Parliament Chambers of the Edict and the Council of State This Assembly advised the said Colloquy first of all to apply themselves unto their own Province For we could not divert the Monies given for our Minister's subsistence unto any other uses 16. The Colloquy of Gex petitioned this Assembly to compassionate the deep Poverty of their Ministers and to add something by way of augmentation to what was given them in the Synod of Tonneins for their better maintenance Whereupon a Decree past that the Lord of Candal should be desired to pay those Ministers in the first place before any others and that the sixty Livers heretofore allotted towards the maintenance of their Colledge and taken out of the Common Stock of the Churches should not any longer be allowed because there is provision made for the said Colledge another way 17. Monsieur Codur Professor of Hebrew in the University of Montpellier complained that he was never paid his Salery since he exercised his Ministry in the Province of Provence This Assembly dismissed his Affair over to the Pastors and Elders of Lower Languedoc who are ordered by this Assembly to visit the Synod of Provence and to see that those Churches which have been served by the said Monsieur Codur do account with him and give him full satisfaction 18. The Province of Berry declaring that the last National Synod of Tonneins had by a special Order appointed the Lord of Candal to detain by him one portion under the Name of Monsieur Hume and to be paid into that Province in which he should be imployed as a Pastor and he being called to the Cure of Souls in the said Province yet they could never receive a Penny of the said portion as was evident from the Accompts of the said Lord Du Candal Whereupon this Assembly did expresly injoyn him immediately to accompt with the said Province and to pay them out of hand what is owing to them 19. David Chauveton a Scholar Alez Obs 10. upon this Syn. maintained by the Province of the Isle of France and since received into the Ministry and ordained Pastor to the Church of Claye from which having first obtained licence for three Months he departed to visit his aged and diseased Father Pastor in the Church of Limeueill in the Province of lower Guyenne but returned not according to his promise for which cause the said Province hath censured him and condemned him to make a full restitution of all their Charges they were at in his preparatory Studies to the Sacred Ministry Which he not having done they complained of him unto this Assembly who considering that the said Chauveton had served full three Years in the Ministry among them and that he came back unto the Consistory of Paris and offered himself to minister as formerly in the Church of Claye or in any other they would be pleased to provide for him did nevertheless reprove him for not being punctual to his promise in returning at the time prefixed nor sending some lawful excuse for his absence and the Province of Lower Guyenne could not receive the said Chauveton without the consent and dismission of the Isle of France whose he was and therefore ordaineth that the said Chauveton shall pay within one Year the Sum of three hundred Livers unto the said Province in lieu of all their Demands from him for Charges they were at in his Education at School and University And in case he be not able to do it the Province of Lower Guyenne shall disburse the
Officers of His Majesty their Provincial Synod could not meet but towards the end of August which had exceedingly retarded and put back their Journey so that they could not possibly come any sooner unto this Assembly Their Excuses were admitted and they were admonished for the future to keep exactly to the forme prescribed by the former National Synods in their Letters of Deputation and to bring in Writing the Names of those Persons who being Commissionated could not come hither unto this Synod The One and Twentieth day after the Synod had first met and sate there were Letters brought and read in full Assembly from the Province of Provence assembled in their Synod at Cabrieres on the Eight and Twentieth day of August last By which they excuse themselves and crave that they may be excused for not having sent any Deputies unto this Assembly But all their Excuses were rejected and the said Province was censur'd for their neglect of this their Duty they being able if they had been willing to have Commissionated some from out of their Body unto this Synod and they were farther censured for that their Letters were full of blots and razures and that the clause of submission unto the Votes and Canons thereof was not couched in such full and Emphatical terms as the former National Synods had prescribed Prayers having been offered up unto God and all the Letters of Deputation read and examined The Reverend Mr. Durant Pastor of the Church of Paris was nominated and chosen Moderator Mr. Bayly Assessor and Mr. Faucheur a Pastor and Mr. Launay an Elder to be Scribes CHAP. II. The Kings Commissson to the Lord GALLAND AS soon as the Synodical Officers were chosen the Lord Galland declared that by vertue of and in Obedience to his Majesties Letters Patents bearing Date the Seventeenth of April last and verified in his Court of Parliament the Second of May following by which His Majesty had ordained that in all Assemblies of his Subjects of the Reformed Religion whether Coloquies or Synods one of His Majesties Officers being of the same Religion should assist in Person and see that nothing should be propounded or handled but only such Affairs as were permitted by his Edicts and that he should make report thereof unto His Majesty He came now and sate in this Assembly for that His Majesty had Commissionated him as his Deputy unto this present Assembly as was evident by the Letters Pattents of His said Majesty subscribed by the Kings own Hand Lewis and a little Lower by His Majesties Order De L' Omeny and Sealed with the Great Seal in yellow Wax and Dated the Twenty Ninth of July last which were produced and read The Tenour whereof is as followeth Lewis by the Grace of God King of France and Navarre to our well-beloved and faithful Counsellor in our Council of State and Privy Council our Attorney General in our Realm of Navarre Monsieur Augustus Galland Greeting We having Willed and Ordained by our Letters Patents bearing Date in the Moneth of April last that our Subjects of the P. Reformed Religion might hold their Synodical Assemblies as formerly and meet and treat about Matters of their Discipline and that we would Commissionate one of our Officers of the same Religion to be present in those Assemblies and to see that none other Matter should be Debated in them but what is according to our Edicts Now forasmuch as in the Moneth of September next there will be conven'd at Charenton an Assembly of the Deputies of the said Religion from out of all the Provinces of this our Kingdom For these Causes we being well assured of your good affection unto our Service and to the Repose and Peace of our Estate we have Commissionated and do by these presents Commissionate you to meet and be present with them in the said General Assembly whether it sit at Charenton or be removed elsewhere by our permission during the whole time of their Sessions and carefully to take heed that nothing he Treated or Debated in it contrary to our Service or prejudicial to the Publick Peace And in case any other thing shall be proposed or Debated than what concerns the Order and Discipline of the said P. Reformed Religion you shall oppose and suppress it and make those Remonstrances against it as be in such cases needful and give us full and timely notice of the whole and of all and singular passages transacted in it And because of that confidence we have of your Loyalty and Affection we have Commissionated and Deputed and do Commissionate and Depute you for this very end and purpose to be present in all those Assemblies held by our Subjects of the said P. Reformed Religion by our Licence at the said Town of Charenton without your having need of any other powers than what are now given you by these present Letters Pattents which you may communicate unto such Persons as you shall think fit so that none of those our aforesaid Subjects may pretend ignorance you having received full power from us For such is our will and pleasure Given at St. Germain in I aye this Nine and Twentieth day of July and in the Year of Grace One Thousand Six Hundred and Twenty Three and in the Fourteenth Year of Our Reign Signed Lewes and a little lower By His Majesties Order D' LOMENY CHAP. III. A great Debate about this Commission THE Letters Pattents being read The Lord of Montmartyn Deputy General of the Churches unto His Majesty reported that when as He and his Colleague the Lord Maniald were inform'd of His Majesties Will as aforesaid they did what lay in their power by reason and argument to disswade His Majesty from passing this Declaration But notwithstanding all that they did or could urge His Majesty was not pleased in the least to heed or regard them but caused this Declaration to be verified in his Court of Parliament So that neither himself nor the Lord Maniald being able to do any thing more they left it unto this present Assembly to reiterate their Complaints unto His Majesty and if they thought good to tender their Petitions unto His Majesty about it The Synod deliberating in presence of the Lord Augustus Galland about this Affair and cousidering that by this Declaration of His Majesty our Colloquies and Synods were most unjustly charged and condemned for having past beyond the Bounds and Limits of their most humble Duty which they have alwayes deferred and payd unto His Majesty in all their Consultations and Debates and moreover that the benefit of his Edicts was greatly retrenched and those favourable Concessions which His Majesty had granted us were now as good as totally revoked it is resolved that a most solemn humble address should be presented to His Majesty that he would be pleased to maintain our Churches in all their Liberties which had been accorded to them and which they had ever heretofore enjoyed and two Pastors with two Elders were ordained to
well suffer it And as to the Election of Deputies His Majesty being not willing that the Affairs of his Subjects of the Reformed Religion should be without Conduct and Order had immediately upon the Death of the Lord Maniald one of the General Deputies and from September last Commissionated a Person of Honour and qualified for the discharge of that Office to act concurrently with the Surviving Deputy the Lord of Montmartyn until such time as it may be otherwise determined And since by his Writt of the Tenth of October he had given Licence unto this Synod to proceed unto the Election of Six Persons well inclined unto his Service and to the Publick and having no dependance on any one but himself out of which His Majesty will prick two for the discharge of that Office therefore he exhorts the Synod to proceed unto the Nomination and to choose out Persons qualified as before and hath been usually practised in such cases and this should be the rather done now because the present juncture of Affairs will not permit the calling of a Politick Assembly Declaring that in case we neglect the said Nomination The Lord of Montmartyn and the other Lord nominated by the King will lay down the management of those Offices It being unreasonable that for want of General Deputies the common Affairs of His Majesties Subjects professing the Reformed Religion should be abandoned and neglected And the said Lord Commissioner presented His Majesties Writt the tenour whereof is as followeth This Tenth day of October 1626 the King being at St. Germains in Laye considering that the term of Three years for which the Lord of Montmartyn and the Deceased Lord Maniald had been nominated to reside and serve at Court and to attend His Majesty in the quality of General Deputies for His Subjects of the P. Reformed Religion is some while since expired and that it so falls out that there must be a new Election of some other Deputies to succeed them in their Offices and considering that this Election cannot be done more conveniently than in the Assembly and National Synod which His Majesty hath granted to be held by His said Subjects in His City of Castres this last September that so they might not be put to those great Expences and Incommodities which might betide them in case another Assembly should be called for this purpose as also for that the Weal and Safety of the Kingdom will not at present comport with a Politick Assembly His Majesty upon these considerations and for many other divers and good reasons of great importance to his Service and the Repose and Tranquillity of His Government doth grant that the Deputies in the National Synod in the presence of the Lord Galland Counsellor to His Majesty in his Council of State and Commissioner unto the said Synod shall consult about the Election of Deputies to reside and serve near His Majesty instead of the Lords Montmartyn and Hardy one of His Secretaries nominated by His Majesty in his Writt of the Thirtieth of September last and to offer unto him Six Persons meet and qualified for the said Imployment whether they be Members of the said Synod or not provided they be such as are Loyal and well affected unto his Service and to the publick Peace and that have no dependance on any Person in the World besides him that so his Majesty may prick two out of them who may hold and discharge the said Office of General Deputies And in so doing the said Lords of Montmartyn and Hardy our Secretary shall be devested of the said Employment they observing the forms as in such cases are usual and accustomed Provided alwayes that in the said Assembly there be nothing else debated but the said Election and Matters relating to the Discipline of their Religion aforesaid according to the import of his Majesties Edicts and Declarations However this shall not be made a Precedent his Majesty reserving to himself the power of permitting unto his said Subjects of the P. Reformed Religion to hold a Politick Assembly when as in his wisdom he shall judge it needful and his Affairs of State can well comport with it In testimony whereof I am commanded by his Majesty to expedite this present Writt which he was pleased to Sign with his own Hand and is Countersigned by me his Counsellor and Secretary of State and of his Commands and Exchequer Signed in the Original Louis and a little lower Philippeaux CHAP. XI THE Writt having been read the Council voted a Conference to be held about its Contents at my Lord Commissioners Lodgings and Twelve Persons Deputies of the Council were constituted a Committee to this purpose Who having made Reports of the whole The Council considering the change hapned in Affairs by the unexpected and sudden Death of the Lord Maniald and the importunities of the Lord Montmartyn his Colleague to be discharged of such a Borden as he saith is impossible to be born by himself alone and the pressing necessities of our Churches requiring that some Persons should take upon them the care and management of their Affairs who might sollicite them with renewed vigour but principally His Majesties Writt animated by the Exhortations of his Commissioner the Lord Gallanbd who declared according to that Answer made unto the Address presented by the Deputies that the state of His Majesties Affairs would not permit His Majesty to grant us at present a General Assembly And that in case this Council would not nominate the Deputies his Majesty himself would do it even as he had already took course to do it having by his Writt and Warrant of the Thirtieth of September expresly joyned the Lord Hardy in the Commission of the General Deputies with the Lord Montmartyn For all these reasons and to avoid an infinite number of visible inconveniencies The Council proceeded to Elect those Six Persons which were to be presented to his Majesty and by plurality of Suffrages were chosen the Lords Claudius Baron of Gabrias and Beaufort Lewes de Champagne Earl of Suze Henry de Clermont d' Amboise Marquess of Gallerande for the Nobility and the Lords Basin Advocate in Parliament living at Blois Texier the Kings Advocate in the Seneschalsy of Armagnac and Lazaras du Puy Counsellor in the Presidial Court of Bourg in Bresse for the Commons that so his Majesty may out of them choose two whom he best liketh to exercise the Office of General Deputies But forasmuch as that Canon established in our Churches under the good pleasure of His Majesty for the nomination of the said General Deputies requireth that every third year by an express Warrant from his Majesty there should be called a General Assembly and that before it there should be particular Assemblies held in all the Provinces to prepare their Cahiers Memoirs and all other Jurisdictions of the Provinces and to deliver them unto their hands who shall be deputed unto the General Assembly which after wards culleth out those Cahiers
which most concern the Churches and are to be presented unto his Majesty for the Advancement of His Service and the Peace and Repose of His Subjects And whereas 't is full Six years ago since the last Politick Assembly was graciously permitted us by His Majesty and that the former National Synods held at Alez and Charenton and this also of Castres conformable to them have peremptorily decreed that none of our Pastors shall henceforward intermeddle with State-Affairs or assist personally in Politick Assemblies which also His Majesty hath approved The Council because it would not transgress His Majesties Declarations nor the Canons of the Synods before-mentioned nor cause any prejudice to that Government which the goodness of our Kings have approved in the Churches of this Realm and which His Majesty hath given us to understand that he will not abolish declareth that 't is none of its design nor desire by this Election whereunto the Churches are necessitated and the Kings Will obligeth them to prejudice in the least the Rights and Priviledges of General Assemblies to whom the care of State-Affairs doth properly belong nor shall it bind the succeeding National Synods to act after this manner Wherefore it chargeth the General Deputies who shall be accepted by His Majesty to demand at the end of Eighteen Moneths with the profoundest submissions and importunities imaginable his Majesties Writt of the Summons for the General Assembly even as it hath pleased His Majesty to give unto our Churches the firm hopes thereof by His Royal and inviolable promises expressed in plain and formal words in his Writt before-mentioned And whereas the intendment of this Office is in the name of our Churches to represent unto His Majesty all those Matters which concern the Weal and Service of His Majesty and the Repose and Subsistance of His Subjects and that to this purpose it is absolutely needful that there should be Assemblies held in the Provinces unto which there may be brought all the Complaints Remonstrances and Propositions of all and every one of our Churches that from them they may be brought unto the General Assembly and the whole might be there examined and deposited into the hands of the General Deputies and this present Council being an Assembly of another Nature and having no Commission from the Provinces it could not furnish the Deputies now Elected with those necessary Memoirs and Instructions They therefore who shall be retained by His Majesty to discharge and execute this Office shall most humbly petition His said Majesty that he would permit in every Province such an Assembly as soon as possible in which all Complaints and Remonstrances meet for His Majesties perusal may be collected and layd at His Majesties feet by those Lords aforesaid our General Deputies to whom they shall be sent that so by this means His Majesty may be duely and truely informed of the Deportments and Grievances of all his Protestant Subjects because there is not any thing of greater importance to his Weal and Service than this is The Council hoping much from His Majesties great goodness is emboldned to pass beyond its accustomed Bounds and Order and to dispense with it self in this particular Otherwise it would have persisted in its most humble supplications that it might not be obliged unto the said Election The said Lords General Deputies shall confer with the Ministers of State it being a thing of indispensable necessity how they may hold a correspondency with the Provinces and the Provinces with them because without such a correspondency all their actings yea and their Office it self would be utterly useless and unserviceable unto the Churches Every Province shall draw up a Cahier of the grievances of their Churches and of particular Persons professing our Religion which shall be transmitted unto the Church of Paris which shall compile them into one general Cahier to be deposited into the hands of the General Deputies CHAP. XII A Remonstrance of the Lord of Angoulins on behalf of the Mayor Sheriffs and City of Rochell WHEN as the Council had thus decreed in pursuance of His Majesties Pleasure that they would proceed unto an Election of General Deputies to reside near His Majesty the Lord of Angoulins one of the Sheriffs of the City of Rochell Elder of the Church there and Deputy for the Province of Xaintonge remonstrated that in all such Actions the Lords Mayor Sheriffs and free Burgesses of the said City had in all times the Priviledge of a Province and their Deputies did ever appear in Person in all general Politick Assemblies and in National Synods also when as the General Deputies were to be chosen and he petitioned the Council that he might be granted his Vote in the said Election not only in his Quality as Deputy of the Province of Xaintonge but also in that his particular quality as Deputy of the said Lords the Mayor Sheriffs and free Burgesses of the said City according as he was commissionated with full powers so to do by the said Lords which he produced and were Signed by Gachot Secretary of their Council the Fourteenth day of the last October The Deputies of the Province of Xaintonge were heard hereupon who declared that the said Lord of Angoulins being one of their Colleagues and Deputy together with them might as such have his voice in the said Election or otherwise their Province would sustain a very considerable prejudice if one of its Deputies should be excluded from giving his suffrage in the said Election The Synod doing right unto the said Petitioner the Lord of Angoulins and not judging it reasonable that a single Person should have a double Vote in such an Occurrence as this decreed that the said Lord of Angoulins should only have one single Voice in the said Election but however it should be left unto his own choice to take what quality he pleased whether of Deputy for the Province of Xaintonge or of the City of Rochell only And the said Lord of Angoulins did at that instant though it should not be drawn in consequence nor made a precedent for the future nor prejudice the Rights and Priviledges of the said Town and Province declare that he choose to give his Vote in quality of Deputy for the said City of Rochell And this present Act was granted him that he had made the said Declaration Forasmuch as there be divers defaults in the Letters of Commission brought by the Deputies of some Provinces They shall be all exhorted by their Deputies to see that Canon of the Synod of Tonneins executed which had ordered that the Names and Surnames of all Deputies should be expresly inserted into them As also to take special heed that all Letters of Commission and Memoirs be in no wise Signed by the Persons Deputed unto the National Synods nor by those who are substituted in their stead in case of Sickness or Death or any the like accident but by the Officers of the Provincial Synods as Moderators Assessors and
Favour and Royal Benignity towards the Churches who have none nor desire to hold any Intelligence or Correspondence with Strangers but do protest unanimously that they will next and immediately under God depend wholly and solely on his Majesty's Protection and Soveraign Authority And it was resolved that as to the first Particular propounded by the Lord Galland his Majesty's Commissioner that although the Cause of sending those Royal Commissioners into our Ecclesiastical Synods was from divers false Reports spread abroad and taken up against those Synods most unjustly and to their great prejudice and damage and that it had occasioned the former National Synods most humbly to petition his Majesty that he would be pleased to leave the Churches in their ancient State of Liberty yet forasmuch as his Majesty hath ordained that no more Petitions should be presented him to this purpose the Churches do acquiesce in his Majesty's Pleasure sith he will have this his Ordinance inviolably observ'd and this Synod doth yield an intire Obedience to the King's Will and the Order prescribed by his Majesty whereof the Churches hope to reap the Fruits promised them in their Establishment and better Subsistence for the future and approbation of their Innocency and the rather because the last National Synods of Charenton and Castres have already tasted of them and been in a more especial manner aided by the Prudence Equanimity and good Conduct of his Lordship the Lord Galland Therefore a Decree past That conformably to his Majesty's Intention our Synodical Assemblies should subject themselves to a precise observation of his Majesty's Declaration made in the Year 1623 about sending Commissioners unto Synods and Colloquies And his Majesty shall be most humbly petitioned to enjoin those his Commissioners whom he shall be pleased to send into the Provinces not to abuse his Majesty's Name or Authority to the raising of new Difficulties which may deprive the Churches of the Effects of his Royal Bounty 29. And whereas his Majesty by his Declaration of the Year 1623 hath forbidden our Churches to receive into the Pastoral Office such Persons as are born in foreign Countries out of his Jurisdiction and divers Provincial Synods conceived that those Persons were excepted who were born in those States allied unto his Majesty and under the Covert of his Royal Protection wherein also they were confirmed by the Commissioners in whose Presence and no where else some few of those Ministers had been received Now our said Lord Commissioner having at this instant assured us that as it was his Majesty's Intention to comprehend under the name of Strangers all Persons born out of the Kingdom without exception so also that he is pleased to deal favourably with all those who have been admitted since the Year 1623 and to repute them as his natural born Subjects this Assembly intreateth the said Lord Commissioner to continue his good Offices unto our Churches and chargeth the Deputies which shall be sent unto his Majesty to present him our most humble Requests that those aforesaid Pastors may be comprized in that his Act of Grace and that for the future all others so born may be instituted and inducted into the Pastoral Cure of our Churches in the Presence of his Commissioners as if they had been natural born Frenchmen 30. And as for the third and fourth Articles in his Lordship's Speech the Synod hath upon very just Grounds intreated his Lordship to assure his Majesty that the Churches sixing themselves more and more in the observation of those Reglements taken up in the two last National Synods and with which his Majesty is fully satisfied will take all possible care that no Complaints upon those Accounts may be ever hereafter brought unto his Majesty And as for that particular Business of Monsieur Salbert this Assembly deferring all Obedience to his Majesty's Pleasure and leaving the said Salbert in that Estate wherein he is at present doth yet notwithstanding judg themselves bound by the Laws of Charity to have recourse unto his Majesty's Goodness on his behalf And therefore we most humbly beseech his Majesty out of his innate Clemency to remove the Tokens of his just Indignation against him and to let him share and participate in that same Royal Favour which he has vouchsafed and extended unto others involv'd with himself in the Miseries of the late Troubles 31. And whereas a certain Book hath been seen by us bearing Monsieur Beraud's Name whose Preface is already condemned by the Lords of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council and that we are required to examine and censure both it and him After hearing of the said Professor Beraud he did ingenuously acknowledg himself the Author of it but also that it was extorted from him by mere Force and through the Malignity of the Times in the late Confusions and that it was never in his Thoughts or Intention to grant a License unto Ecclesiastical Persons to shed Blood and those Words of which he is accused having occasioned an Exposition quite contrary to his Judgment he declareth with all possible Sincerity and as in the Presence of God that he disapproveth of the Ambiguity in which those Expressions are there couched and detesteth from his very Soul the Consequences which are thence deduced protesting that his Belief is intirely conformable to that of the Reformed Churches in this Kingdom which have according to the holy Scriptures decided in our former National Synods that Pastors should in no wise intrude themselves into the Administration of State-matters because they he wholly alien and foreign to their Profession and therefore the Argument is more valid that they cannot without contradiction to God's holy Word and the Confession of our Churches founded upon it stretch out their Hands to draw Blood from any one or engage in any military Factions This Assembly therefore confirming the Decrees of former National Synods and grievously censuring the said Beraud for having rashly and to ill purpose used those scandalous Expressions tending to establish an erroneous Doctrine declared once again That it doth reject and condemn that Proposition extracted out of the Book of the said Beraud and forbiddeth him and all other Professors in our Universities and Ministers in our Churches to teach or write any such Doctrine for time to come upon pain of incurring all Ecclesiastical Censures 32. And as for those sharp Words mentioned by his Lordship the Commissioner the Churches are utter Strangers to them having declared the Word of God with all Modesty and Meekness however they have been ill handled in divers Places and tho oftentimes our Adversaries have most licentiously perverted the most innocent Expressions of our Faith to render us more odious and criminal 33. The Lord Galland his Majesty's Commissioner requiring that Monsieur Bastide may be removed from the Church of St. Africk in the Province of Higher Languedoc because his Deportments in the said Church have been destructive to the Publick Peace and Tranquillity The Assembly being informed
more particular notice of them unto the Lord Galland we will not therefore detain you any longer than to acquaint you that you may give an intire Credit to whatsoever the Lord Galland shall in out Name declare unto you Moreover we do assure you that as we are very well satisfied with the Carriage and Conduct of your Synod and of your Deputies to us you shall upon all Occasions that occur receive the sensible Pledges of our Good-will Given at Monceaux this 21 st of September 1631. Signed in the Original Louis and a little lower Philippeaux and subscribed To our Dear and Well-beloved the Deputies of the National Synod of our Subjects professing the pret Reformed Religion assembled by our Permission at Charenton 18. His Majesty's Letters being read the said Deputies made report That when they were called into his Majesty's Council and the King having heard them he answered them in these words I have heard and understood all that you have said and you may rest assured that I will preserve you according to my Edicts Give me the Cahier and I will peruse it with my Council After which his Eminency the Lord Cardinal told them That his Majesty was exceedingly satisfied with the Conduct of the Synod and particularly with them their Deputies And it was his Majesty's Intention to maintain his Subjects of the Religion in their Liberty granted by his Edicts and to give them the enjoyment of his Favours and the Fruits of his Royal Good-will and his Majesty had prevented the Petitions of the Churches having already ordered a certain Sum of Money to be delivered unto the Lord of Candall to be distributed among them And his Majesty in token of his accepting the Synod's Petition had taken off the Prohibition laid upon those two Ministers the Sieurs Banage and Beraud and hath permitted them to assist according to the Trust reposed in them by their Provinces in the Synod And as for the Sieur Bouteroue his Majesty hath not been as yet informed of the Contents of the Book written by him nor of the Contents of the Decree denounc'd against him by the Parliament of Grenoble but as soon as he shall have the knowledg thereof he will write unto the Lord Galland his Commissioner and by advising with him will take some effectual course to answer the Request of this Assembly about admitting the said Lord of Bouteroue And as for the rest of their Petitions mentioned in the Cahier presented by them the Deputies unto the King his Majesty was resolved to deal with his Subjects in a manner suitable to his Soveraign Dignity and the Sacred Authority of his Royal Word and would give them most favourable Answers after the breaking up of the Synod and not otherwise 19. Whereupon the Assembly approving the Conduct of their Deputies did give them its hearty Thanks for their Care Faithfulness and Dexterity manifested in the discharge of that Trust committed to them And afterwards his Majesty's Commissioner the Lord Galland acquainted the Synod That by the Letters which he had received from his Majesty and the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal and the Lord de la Vrilliere Secretary of State that his Majesty was very well pleased yea highly satisfied with the Conduct and Moderation of this Assembly and with those Testimonials and Expressions rendred by them of their Affection and Obedience to his Majesty and that within a few days this Synod should receive the Effects of this his Good-will in a very considerable Sum of Monies his Majesty resolving to gratify them so far as to defray the Charges the Assembly must needs be at out of his own Treasury and to bear the Expences of all the Deputies in their Travel and Sojourning here And he farther exhorted the Synod and all the Churches in general to continue in their Duty upon which depended their Preservation and that it would give them a most solid ground to expect and hope for his Majesty's most speedy and favourable Answer unto their Cahier which they had sent unto him and which would be dispatch'd as soon as the Synod was broke up and he desired that they would not be over-long nor tedious in their Sessions for many Reasons that he could give And whereas his Majesty for divers very great and weighty Considerations and Motives had by his Writ the eleventh of August last interdicted the Sieurs Beraud Banage and Bouteroue from being Members of this National Synod and by his express Injunction had ordered their removal out of their respective Provinces and that they should in no wise exercise their Ministry either in Languedoc Normandy or Dolphiny Now out of his meer Grace and Respect had to the most humble Petition of this Synod presented him by their Deputies it hath seem'd good unto him to restore those Reverend Persons Mr. Banage Beraud and Bouteroue unto their respective Churches and given them leave to sit according to that Trust reposed in them as Deputies in this very Synod but chargeth them withal to use for time coming more and greater Moderation in their Writings and Sermons in which it is his Majesty's Pleasure that they should be more circumspect and reserv'd and to keep themselves within the Bounds prescribed them by the Discipline And as for the Sieur de Bouteroue before his Majesty will ordain his Restoration his Majesty desireth to be informed of the Sentence past against him in the Parliament of Grenoble because it relates unto a certain Book written by the said Bouteroue 20. Upon this Declaration made by the Lord Commissioner of his Majesty's Good-will and of his favourable Inclinations unto the Churches it was unanimously voted and decreed That most humble Thanks should be returned unto his Majesty for the Grant of his Gracious Favours and that a new Address should be made him by this Assembly with an humble Petition for the restoration of the Sieur de Bouteroue and that the Synod might have Licence given it to sit without a Dissolution till such time as the Monies destin'd by his Majesty's Liberality for the defraying of its Expences be paid in and distributed according to he Intention of his Majesty by the Synod it self conformably to that Order which hath been always observed in the Dividend of Monies granted us by his Majesty CHAP. VIII Election of General Deputies 21. SEveral Provinces requesting that his Majesty should be pleased to grant out his Royal Writ of Licence for the Election and Nomination of General Deputies the Lord Commissioner declared That it was his Majesty's Pleasure that this Assembly should agree with him in the choice of two Persons acceptable unto his Majesty who might exercise the Office of General Deputies and reside near his Person and attend the Court in all its Progress and Motions The Synod having conferr'd in private by its Commissioners with the forementioned Lord did nominate the Lord Marquess of Clermont and the Lord Galland Lieutenant General in the Bailiwick of the Artillery and of
Translation in 1588. was not only Printed but immediately without passing through those forms of Trial carried up into the Pulpits and was really the Work of one particular person as mine is who in this account had no Prerogative nor Privilege above me excepting that he was deputed thereunto by our Consistory nor was his Labour any other than a slight Revisal of what was done before and which he himself esteemed very little as is well known and remembred by many persons who are yet alive in this City I do also confess unto you that 't is not without some kind of apprehension that I bring now this Affair before you whenas it is loaden with Prejudices and destitute of those two only means for support of its Dignity to wit My personal presence and a view of the whole Body of the Work As to the first were I now in your Synod I could justifie the uprightness of my Intentions and add weight and force unto my Arguments and answer satisfactorily to all Demands and Scruples resolve Difficulties acquit and purge my self from all sinister Opinions taken up against me But I am utterly disabled from doing these things now and at this distance Moreover the sight of the Work would for its grandeur have excited Pity and Commiseration for the Work-man and his faithfulness and diligence therein would have acquired some favourable respect unto the Work it self But my fear of losing in a long Journey that one and only Copy which I have detaineth me from sending it and another unexpected accident of a very long and dangerous sickness hath farther hindred me from supplying that defect by Printing divers pieces of the Old and New Testament which I resolved to have put into your hands as an Essay of the whole so that I have confined my self to a small Specimen of Annotations on the Books of Ecclesiastes and Canticles which I have chosen from among the rest because of their obscurities and perplexing difficulties both in the Original Text and Sence of it Yet notwithstanding these considerations that confidence I have in my God the Author and first mover of me to this Undertaking and who hath enabled me with his special assistance to compleat the whole will undoubtedly bless me with the means to bring it forth in peace through your great Prudence and Justice which only from you could have obstructed it I apply my self unto you on three accounts first to give you a full and faithful information of the State of this Affair Secondly to declare unto you the grounds of my proceedings and to resolve and answer those Objections that have been made against me and lastly to offer unto you a just and modest request hoping that you will kindly receive and fully believe the true Narrative of the first and that I also shall receive reciprocally from you the effects of the two last through the abundance of your Charity and Experience had of your Prudence and Equanimity which is peculiar unto your Assemblies I shall therefore tell you That the Providence of God having inclined me in the first years of my Theological Profession yea and almost from my very Youth upward to Translate and Explain the Italian Bible I was therein so successful and the Blessing of God did so wonderfully follow me in it that both Jews and Christians yea those of the Romish Church also and others of all Professions conceived a very great esteem for me and the greatest Persons of this our Age had my Poor Labours in singular recommendation which I mention not without blushing it is the Truth which I publish to the Glory of God only A multitude of People received instruction by it and were generally edified yea and I am credibly informed from good hands That many persons owed their Illuminations and sincere Conversions to it a most blessed Fruit which never caused any Scandal or Reproach unto my self or to any other on my account I was from that very time excited by a most vehement inward impulse to Consecrate my Studies wholly unto this self-same Work in two other Languages the French and Latin in which I was equally skill'd and they were as to their use both alike and as it were natural to me and Learned Men with whom I conversed advised me unanimously hereunto because there were very many things to be added and amended notwithstanding the pains and diligence of our Fathers and that I should reserve the Latin Version unto my later years because it demanded a more Consummate Judgment Hereupon I resolved to begin with the French the necessity whereof was acknowledged by the National Synod held at Montauban in the year 1590. and afterward by very many Persons of Note and Quality And not hearing nor understanding that any of those Great and Learned Divines of the French Nation did betake themselves to expound the Texts of the Sacred Scripture or to make Annotations on those places which did need them excepting professed Commentators who could but be rarely and seldom consulted with unless in their Ordinary Lectures very few of your Pastors having addicted themselves this way I therefore at first inclined to frame out some brief and solid and perpetual Annotations which should discover at noon-day the Treasures and hidden Sence of the Holy Scriptures and dissolve the knotty difficulties and reconcile the seeming contradictions in it and to sum up all should serve as a guide to the right way of understanding it and be a Fence and Barrier against Errors and a Preservative from Seduction For I was taught by experience and by the example of many great Men in all Professions that this was the most assured shortest and profitable method of proficiency in all Sciences and above all in Theology the mind being by these brief Notes fastened as it were unto the Spring and Centre and not only habituated to the comprehension of the purest highest and strongest Points but also to the limitation and bounding of Conceptions and Expressions I had not proceeded far in this Task before I perceived my labour would be unprofitable unless I did with the same hand revise the literal Translation of the Text that it might be adjusted suitably to those my Annotations which according to my best Judgment I had Religiously affixed to the Text. And because I was not furnish'd with Authority to change what was in common and publick usage and being no ways willing to concur with others in their Glosses which would have been soon visible and apparent to the World when we should be compared together and for that it was easie for me to correct what was amiss in others and to keep at a distance by a free dissent from them and being much displeased with the deplorable deformities and botching and patching of the Vulgar Latin I resolved to assume unto my self that liberty used by all Interpreters which was to form the Letter of the Text into one equal Web and Style and into a Sence agreeable to my
he can hinder them But he hopes that for the future you will use more Circumspection and carry your selves better and avoid all just occasions of displeasing his Majesty though they may occur unto you CHAP. III. The Moderators Answer 6. THE Lord Commissioner having finish'd his Speech the Deputies return'd their Answer by the Mouth of the Moderator Monsieur Garrissoles who thankfully acknowledged the grew Goodness and Mercy of Almighty God in answering the Prayers of his poor Churches with his Heavenly Blessing So that the General Loss which the whole Nation sustained in the Death of the Late King of most Glorious and Immortal Memory is now most abundantly made up and recompensed in the Succession of his present Majesty For though the Sun of this Kingdom did set under a most sad and black Eclipse and was likely to have been Buried in the everlasting Darknesses of an Unconsolable grief of an irremediable Confusion yet we have all seen to our Incredible Joy and Admiration the Peace and Happiness France to shine out again in a New Bright Star from the East who hath revived the Hopes of all his Faithful Subjects and filled Christendom with Wonder and Astonishment when they consider that the good Hand of God hath not only exalted his Majesty from the Cradle to his Father's Throne whose Birth was so long Desired They need not be Proud of it and at last obtained by the Joynt Prayers of his People and most especially of the Churches but also hath put the Reins of the French Empire into the Hands of the Queen Regent a Princess whose Glorious Birth and Extraction seems to serve for no other end than to place her Vertues on the highest Theater of Glory Secondly the beginnings of his Majesties Reign are under most auspicious Stars for Success Victory and an uninterrupted Series of Prosperities upon his People have mutually contended how they might most advance the Reputation of his Crown and have combined together in Strengthning those rightful Arms employed by his Majesty for Defence of the State and Protection of his Allies The Designs of his Royal Highness and of other Chieftains have every where succeeded with Happiness and Glory His Majesty was no sooner Seated on the Throne but he gave out Marks of his Royal Authority his first Declarations were to ratify and Confirm the Edicts of Pacification and to assure all the Churches in his Kingdom of their being Protected by their Sacred Majesties and that as those Edicts had been made in favour to us so also should they be conserved for us That glorious approvement of the Services of * * * Mareschal Turenne and Mareschal Gassion Two Great Men bred up in our Bosom and Communion and raised so far above the reach of Envy that the Staff of Mareschal of France together with the Conduct of Royal Armies were put into their Hands without the least discontentment of any Person in the State And their Majesties Condescention in accepting kindly of our most Humble Petitions presented them by the Hands of our General Deputy and granting us the Priviledge of holding this Synod and committing the Inspection of it unto a Person most Illustrious for his Vertues and well deserving that high Place of Dignity and Honour he enjoyeth in the First and Chiefest Parliament of the Kingdom All these and many other Considerations more do inforce our Souls with a Sweet and Pleasing Violence to break forth into inlarged Praises and Enflamed Thankfulness unto their Majesties for such signal Favours and Benefits vouchsafed to us which we account the First-Fruits and Pledges of a greater Harvest yea and in most ardent Supplications unto our God for the Preservation of their Sacred Persons his Benediction upon their Government the Glory of their Crowns under whose Comfortable Shadow the Churches enjoying a Sweet Peace will never have any other Desire nor Thought than to practise Faithfully and Conscientiously that most express Command of our Lord and Saviour by his Apostle St. Peter to Fear God and Honour the King and that with a most intire and sincere Obedience And as we have no design to do it so neither shall we ever admit any Person to sit as a Member of our National Synods it being contrary to our Ancient Custom who hath not a Deputation from the Provinces nor shall we hold any Foreign Correspondencies nor shall we Receive or Read any Letters coming from Foreigners nor return any answer to them unless that my Lord Commissioner who Represents his Majesties Person shall have first Perused them and approved of our so doing Nor will we debate about State Matters nor make any Orders in relation to them Nor shall we present unto the Pastoral Office in our Churches any Foreign Ministers who be not Natives of this Kingdom nor set up Provincial Councils in Opposition to his Majesties Will nor as his Majesty hath demanded to us will we suffer those Canons of our National Synods concerning the Approbation of Books that shall be Printed on Matters of Religion to be Violated Nor shall we Excommunicate any of those Persons who quit the Communion of our Churches for we do not arrogate unto our Selves any Jurisdiction over them from that Moment in which they left us Nor shall we tollerate any Sermons fraught with Injuries and Reproaches against the Members of the Church of Rome whether in general or particular or that may Excite the People to Insurrections Tumults or Rebellions or taking up of Arms against the Sovereign Authority of their Majesties Nor shall any single Province have an Absolute Power of indicting General and Publick Fasts nor suffer that Monies be Collected from Door to Door nor that the Poor's Monies be diverted from their proper use nor that the Forty Fourth Article of particular Matters in the Edict of Nantes be broken It being our Sincere and most Fixed Resolution to observe in the precisest and strictest manner their Majesties Edicts and under the benefit of them to lead a Quiet and a Peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty But my Lord we do most humbly beseech their Majesties in the First Place that by the Interposal of their Sovereign Authority they would stop the violent Attempts and Practices of such Persons who being instigated by a false Zeal or by reason of their Imployments do trouble the Publick Peace and Tranquillity by an infraction of the Edicts and by actual Enterprises against the Professors of our Religion both in general and particular that so none of them contrary to the principal end the formal and express intention of the said Edicts may be expos'd to Sufferings upon the Account of their Religion or be inforced by reason of them to draw up a Bill of Complaints and Grievances sustained by them for a good Conscience towards God the very title of which is so displeasing unto their Majesties Secondly We most humbly beseech their Majesties to take it into their Royal Consideration that our Confession of Faith was framed
themselves to that Canon of the National Synod of Gorgeau on the Tenth Article of the first Chapter of our Discipline which declared that it was resolved for the future that when Ministers were ordained they should not be sent any more for one Year unto a Church but that the Method prescribed in our Discipline should be most strictly and closely followed All which shall be notified unto all the Churches by reading of this present Act. 23. In all our National Synods this Order shall be observed that after the Moderator Assessor and Scribe who is a Pastor shall have given their Opinions on the Question propounded then the Scribe who is chosen from among the Elders shall give his in the next place and after him my Lord the General Deputy and then the whole Body of Pastors and next to them the Elders who are Deputed by the Provinces and then lastly the Moderator shall collect the Votes and conclude with his own Suffrage and all Provincial Synods are likewise to observe and practise this self-same Method in Debates and Suffrages without swerving from it in the least 24. Sundry Provinces complaining that the Sieurs Daille and Amyrald had violated the Canons made in the National Synods of Alanson 1637. and of Charenton 1644. about the Doctrin of Grace This Assembly having heard those two Eminent Ministers of the Gospel Daille and Amyrald speak in their own Defence and found that they were clear and sound in their Judgments and that they might be well enough discharged from all Blame for having thwarted and transgressed the said Canons and that they had not incurr'd those Censures which were decreed against the Infringers and Violators of them And it being evident that the said Book of Monsieur Daille was not only printed without his knowledg but also against his Will which he proved by his express opposing of it's Publication and that the said Mr. Amyrald hath not written any thing since those Synods aforesaid but according to that License which was granted him by the Synod of Charenton 1644. in case any one should write against him nor have any Writings of his been since published till others had first provoked him by clamouring against his Doctrin For these Causes this Assembly doth unanimously decree nemine contradicente that all that is past on this occasion unto this very Day shall be buried in the Grave of a deep and holy Oblivion and the said Sieurs Daille and Amyrald are exhorted to continue in their Faithful Imployment of those rich Talents which God hath bestowed upon them to the advancement of his Glory and the edifying of his Church 25. And whereas the Happiness of our Churches consisteth very much in their Peace and that all kind of Contentions and Divisions may be obviated and prevented this Assembly treading in the Footsteps of their Predecessors and that Satisfaction may be given to the Requests of all the Provinces who have unanimously demanded a punctual Observation of the Canons made in those Synods of Alanson and Charenton doth confirm those said Canons and absolutely forbids on pain of the last and greatest Censures of our Discipline all Pastors and Professors to transgress them either by publick Lectures Sermons Disputes or Writings against the Natives of our Kingdom or the Subjects of Foreign States nor shall they suffer any of their Scholars to hold any Disputations about them And finally that a strict Conformity may be upheld among us All Colloquies and Provincial Synods when they receive Proposans into the Sacred Ministerial Office shall not use with respect unto these points any particular Forms but shall acquiesce in the Signing and Swearing our Confession of Faith and Church Discipline by these Proposans and in causing them to protest with Hands uplifted unto Heaven calling God to witness upon their Souls that they do reject all Errors rejected by the Decrees of those National Synods of Alanson and Charenton about the Doctrin of Predestination and of Grace the Tenor whereof is as followeth Articles extracted out of the Acts of the National Synods of Alanson and Charenton THat the Purity of Doctrin may be entirely preserved See the Synod of Alanson G. M. Art 8. c. and all misunderstandings between Pastors Professors and Churches may be avoided and to prevent those Inconveniences which would happen thereupon and to tie and maintain more strictly and strongly the Spiritual Bonds of Brotherly Charity and Union among the Faithful this Synod doth most rigorously forbid on pain of all Church-Censures yea and of Deposal from their Ministry all Pastors of Churches and Professors in our Universities to treat in their Sermons Lectures or Writings of those curious Questions which may occasion the Fall or stumbling either of Students in Divinity or of private Christians It being most necessary that both their Flocks and Scholars should keep themselves to the simplicity and plainness of Holy Scripture and to the common Expositions of the Orthodox Creed grounded thereupon and approved by our National Synods particularly by that of Charenton held in the Year 1623. They be also forbidden the using of any new Expressions subject to ill Constructions and Mis-interpretations or contentiously to dispute one with the other upon such Questions or Interpretations or to draw reciprocally the Saw of Controversie betwixt them in Polemical Writings nor shall they violate directly or indirectly the Canons made either in this or former Synods about Printing of Books for whose Contents the Licensers of the Press shall be responsible as much as their Authors unto the Provinces And those Provinces within whose District and Jurisdiction our Universities lie shall take a most especial care of them and see them visited from time to time by Persons chosen to that purpose and to oblige all Professors both in Philosophy and Divinity to send every six Months unto the Examiners of Books in the Neighbour Provinces one or two Copies of the Theses disputed and defended in the publick Schools And the neighbour Provinces are empowred with full Authority together with those in which our Universities are erected to take a particular knowledge of their Estate And in case any Pastor or Professor or any Member of our Churches reading or perusing the Books printed with the License of our Examiners shall find any matter of importance which they may count worthy of Reprehension we give order That they apply themselves to the Authors of those printed Discourses or to the Examiners and Licensers of them and to demand Satisfaction from them and in case they refuse to give it then shall they address themselves unto their Colloquies and Synods And that Church and Province out of which the said Complaint cometh forth is forbidden as are also all other persons whatsoever from intermedling with this Affair or to take upon them to judge and decide it or to inflame and spread this Controversie any farther but according to the Canons of our Discipline they shall leave and resign it entirely unto those Assemblies
another or that the Pastor of one Church shall be removed to another or that he shall be separated no matter how it be from his Flock in case an Appeal be made from this Judgment that Province which hath pronounced it shall nominate two of the Neighbouring Provinces and whose Synods are nearest to be held and shall give unto the Appellant his Choice pf either of them to bring his Appeal before it which shall judge of the Case till further Order But if the Party appealing do not chuse it that very Province from whose Judgment the Appeal is made shall chuse one of the two before which the Appellant shall be bound to appear and subject himself unto its Judgment which shall be of force till the meeting of the National Synod And in case of non-appearance that Province which hath passed Judgment may proceed to pronounce its Execution notwithstanding the Appeal Nor shall this be in any wise prejudicial unto Provincial Synods for in all other matters left undetermined by our Discipline the Judgments of those Synods shall be of full and absolute Authority nor shall there be any Appeal admitted from them within their Precincts And this present Canon shall be universally practised in all the Provinces those only excepted upon whose Account some special Decrees have been formerly enacted 26. Blasphemies being some of the most crying and daring Sins enflaming the Wrath of God against the Children of Men this Assembly being seized with an Holy Horror to see so great a number of profane Wretches involved in this Hellish Crime decreeth That the Four and Twentieth Canon of the Fourteenth Chapter of our Discipline shall be read publickly in all Churches and re-inforced with most lively pungent Exhortations that the Judgments of God may be prevented by a serious and sincere Repentance and this horrible Vice may be banished the Society of Christians and all Consistories are authorized to take the best Course they can for putting this present Act in Execution 27. The Assembly being informed that in divers parts of this Kingdom contrary to his Majesty's Will the Exercise of our Religion is prohibited in those places which are called Annexed tho by the Edicts in these it was always permitted and established and it unanimously judging and with one common consent that this is an Affair of the highest Importance and strikes at the very Root and Being of our Churches and in which the Consciences of all those of our Profession are Sovereignly concerned it doth enjoyn all Pastors and Churches exposed unto this afflicting and most vexatious Tryal to maintain themselves constantly in the possession of their Exercises notwithstanding any Prohibitions to the contrary And in case Pastors shall neglect this their Duty they shall be deposed from the Ministry as Deserters of their Flock committed to their Trust and if any of those Annexed Churches or Members shall neglect their Attendance on them they also shall be deprived of Communion with us at the Lords Table And all Churches within the Precincts of that Province whereunto these Annexes do belong are enjoyned to assist them with Counsel and Comfort and with all other things needful to help defray the Charges of Travel and Prosecutions in Courts of Justice unto which they may be necessitated and obliged And all Provincial Synods in case the ordinary Pastors of those places should be hindred by any Violence from performing their Duties shall take care that they be supplied by other Pastors in such a manner as they shall judge most convenient till some other and more beneficial course can be taken Moreover this Assembly commandeth all the next adjoyning Churches to testifie their Zeal unto the Glory of God and the Communion of Charity which ought to be among Christians by sending and lending their Pastors to them that so the Possession of the Gospel preached and the Dispensation of the Gospel Ordinances may be conserved in those Annexed Congregations As soon as ever this Proposition was made and before the Judgment of the Deputies in this Synod was demanded my Lord Commissioner declared and offered sundry Reasons and Arguments why an Affair of this nature ought not to be debated in it but that according to his Majesty's Permission this Article was to be inserted with others of the like quality into our Bill of Grievances which after the breaking up of this Assembly was to be presented unto his Majesty In answer whereunto this Synod receiving in the most respectful manner whatever came from his Majesty and from the Mouth of my Lord his Commissioner ordained that this Affair should be set in the Head of those which shall be carried unto the King in the Name of this Assembly and which shall be sollicited with all possible respect care diligence and importunity by my Lord the General Deputy and we hope in the mean while that his Majesty will maintain us in those matters which are granted us by his Edict nor that he will be displeased with us for debating about Ecclesiastical Affairs which are brought hither unto this National Assembly and which directly concern our Religion and the Exercise of our Discipline in the nature and number of which are all Ministerial Offices and the respective Duties of private Christians 28. It being judged needful that some certain Person should be nominated who did ordinarily attend his Majesty's Privy Council and Council of State to whom the Churches might apply themselves to take care of their Business and to salve them from those vast Expences which of necessity must be defrayed in the frequent Deputations of particular persons employed in the management of their Law Suits and Differences that our Churches have with their Adverse Parties The Assembly cast their Eyes upon the Sieur Loride des Galinieres Advocate in his Majesty's Privy Council and Council of State and Parliament of Paris dwelling a la Rue des Anglois in the English Street to take upon him this Trust which being motion'd to him the said Sieur Loride assured the Assembly he accepted of it as of a great Honour and that he did most readily and willingly undertake it nor would he demand a Denier of Costs Salaries and Vacations not only for those Affairs wherewith he should be intrusted in his Majesty's Privy Council and Council of State but also for those which he should dispatch as Advocate in the Parliament of Paris and Court of Aids nor would he claim any thing but for what he should himself disburse in the management of these Affairs for our distressed Churches The Assembly kindly embraced his generous Offers and that he may be indemnified they voted presently that the Provincial Deputies should each of them make report unto their Provincial Synod the Contents of this present Act that so in case the said Provincial Synods shall judge meet there shall be given the Sum of Three Thousand Livres a Year by the Provinces according to the Dividend hereafter mentioned And this that the said Sieur Loride may