LETTER I.

YOu are not at all mistaken; I can now easily satisfie you in what you desire to know concerning the Protestants of France. One that is a Friend to us both, who is lately come thence, hath fully acquainted me with the condition they are in. I saw him the day after his arrival, and found him ordering his Books, and loose Papers, which were just opened. After our first Salute, I ask'd him what they were. They are, said he, French Books; and those Printed Sheets, are the new Edicts, Declarations, and Acts which the King of France hath lately publish'd against the Protestants of his Kingdom. I am very happy, said I, in lighting on you at the opening of your Pa­pers. I was extremely impatient of knowing, with some certainty, what it was drove so many of them from their Native Country; and I per­ceive, [Page 4] by the care you have taken to collect all the pieces which concern them, that I could not have met any one who might better satisfie my cu­riosity. They come hither in Troops almost every day, and the greatest part of them with no other Goods, but their Children. The King, ac­cording to his accustomed Goodness, hath had pity on them, so far as to provide means whereby they may be able to gain their Lively-hood; and amongst other things, he hath ordered a general Collection for them throughout the Kingdom. We were all resolved to answer the charitable Intentions of our Gracious Prince, and were beginning to contribute freely. But to tell you the truth, we were extremely cooled by certain Rumors. It is confess'd, that their King is very earnest to make them embrace his Religion: but they assure us, that he uses none but ve­ry reasonable Means, Declarati­on of the 17th: of Iune, 1681. and that they who come hither with such Outcries, are a sort of People not gifted with much patience, who easily forsake their Native Country, being dissatisfied, that their merit, as they con­ceive, is not sufficiently rewarded. Besides, they are represented to us very much suspected in the point of their Obedience and Loyalty. If we may believe many here, they have been very factious and rebellious; such as in all times have struck at the higher Powers both in Church and State; which, you must needs see, would not be much for our purpose in these present Conjunctures. In truth, this is intolerable, (cry'd our Friend) I cannot endure that the Innocence of these poor people should be run down at this rate: I perceive Father La Chaise is not content to perse­cute them in their own Country with the utmost cruelty, but trys all ways to shut up the Bowels of their Brethren in foreign parts: he endeavours to ruine, and to famish them every where; in England as well as France: A Hatred so cruel, and, if I may so say, murderous, agrees not so well with the Gospel of the Meek Iesus, whose Companion Father La Chaise styles himself. For, he came not to destroy men, but to save them. Let this Jesuite alone, said I, and his Emissaries, I do not doubt but he hath too much to do in all the Affairs of Protestants. But tell me inge­nuously, do they give just cause to them of France, to quit their Country as they do, and are they persons whom the State and the Church may trust? You your self shall be Judge, said he, and that you may be fully inform'd of the Cause, I will give you a particular Account of the State of these poor People. But before I speak of the Evils they have suffered, it is sit you should know, what it is that they have right to hope for from their King, and from their Countrymen; you will then be more affected with the usage they find.

You cannot but have heard of the Edict of Nantes. Here it is, said he, (taking up one of the Books that lay upon the Table.) It is a Law which Henry the Fourth confirmed to establish their Condition, and to secure their Lives and Privileges, and that they might have liberty freely to [Page 5] profess their Religion. It is called the Edict of Nantes, because it was concluded of at Nantes whilst the King was there. It contains 149 Articles, 93 general, and 56 particular. You may read it at your leisure, if you please: I will only observe some of them to you at present. Look, I pray, (said he) on the sixth general, and the first particular Article. Liberty of Conscience, without let, or molestation is there most expresly promised, not only to them who made profession of the Protestant Reli­gion, at the establishment of the Edict, but, (which is principally to be observed) to all those who should imbrace and profess it afterwards. Art. 1. Pa [...] ­tic. For the Article saith, that Liberty of Conscience is granted for all those who are, or who shall be of the said Religion, whether Natives or others. The seventh general Article grants to all Protestants the right of having Divine Service, Preaching, and full exercise of their Religion, in all their Houses who have Soveraign Iustice: that is to say, who have the privilege of appointing a Judge, who hath the power of judging in Capital Cau­ses, upon occasion. There are a great many Noble Houses in France which have this privilege. That seventh Article allows all Protestants who have such Houses, to have Divine Service and Preaching there, not only for themselves, their own Family and Tenants, but also for all per­sons who have a mind to go thither. The following Article allows even the same Exercise of the Protestant Religion in Noble Houses which have not the right of Soveraign Justice, but which only hold in Fee-simple. It is true, it doth not allow them to admit into their Assemblies above thirty persons besides their own Family. The ninth Article is of far greater importance: it allows the Protestants to have, and to con­tinue the exercise of their Religion in all those places where it had been publickly used in the years 1596, and 1597. The tenth Article goes farther yet, and orders that that Exercise be established in all places where it ought to have been by the Edict of 1577, if it had not been; or to be re-established in all those places if it had been taken away: and that Edict of 1577, granted by Henry the Third, declares, that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion should be continued in all places where it had been in the Month of September that same year; and moreover, that there should be a place in each Bailywick, or other Corporation of the like nature, where the Exercise of that Religion should be established, tho it had never been there before. These are those places which since have been called, with reference to the Exercise of Religion, The first places of the Bailywick. It follows then from this tenth Article of the E­dict of Nantes, that besides the Cities and Towns in which the Exercise of that Religion ought to be continued, because they had it in the years 1596, and 1597, it ought to be over and above in all those places where it had been in the month of September in the year 1577, and in a convenient place of each Bailywick, &c. altho it had not been there in that Month. [Page 6] The eleventh Article grants also this Exercise in each Bailywick, in a second place where it had not been either in the Month of September, 1577, or in the years 1596, or 1597. This is that which is called The second place of the Bailywick, in distinction to that other place of the same na­ture, which is granted by virtue of the Edict of 1577. When Henry the Fourth sent Commissaries into the several Provinces to see his Edict put in execution, there was scarce found any considerable City or Town where the Commissaries did not acknowledge that the Exercise of the Protestant Religion had no need to be confirm'd, or re-established, because it had been used there in some one of the three years above-mentioned: in so much, that there were whole Provinces which had no need of those two places, granted out o [...] pure favour, I mean, the two places of each Bailywick; all the Cities, and all the Towns of those Provinces claiming that Exercise by a better Title. This is it which made the Bishop of Rodes, (Monsieur Perifix) afterwards Archbishop of Paris, Ann. 1599, p. 285, and 286, E [...]it. Amsterdam, 1664. in his History of the Life of Henry the Fourth, to say, that that Prince by his Edict of Nantes granted to the Protestants Liberty of Preaching almost every where. But he granted them farther, the means and full power of breeding up, and teaching their Children. Read, as to that, the thirty seventh particular Article. It declares, that they shall have publick Schools and Colleges in those Ci­ties and Places where they ought to have the publick Exercise of their Re­ligion. The Edict having secured, as you see, the Exercise of the Pro­testant Religion, secures also the condition of them who should profess it, to the end that they might, without any molestation, each one according to his quality, follow those Trades, Employments and Offices which are the ordinary means of mens Livelyhood.

Indeed, the thing of it self speaks this. For it is plain that they do not grant in good earnest the free Exercise of a Religion, who debar the persons that profess it the use of means necessary for their subsistence. Nevertheless for their greater security, Henry the Fourth hath declared to all Europe by his Edict, that he would not that there should be any dif­ference, as to that point, between his Protestant and his Papist Subjects. The thirty seventh general Article, as to that is express. This it is: We declare all them who do or shall make profession of the pretended Re­formed Religion, capable of holding and exercising all Conditions, Of­fices, Honours, and publick Charges whatsoever, Royalties, Seigneuries, or any Charge in the Cities of our Kingdom, Countries, Territories, or Seigneuries under our Authority. The fifty fourth Article declares, that they shall be admitted Officers in the Courts of Parliaments, Great Coun­cil, Chamber of Accounts, Court of Aids, and the Offices of the general Treasurers of France; and amongst the other Officers of the Revenues of the Crown. The seventy fourth Article puts them in the same state [Page 7] with their Fellow Subjects, as to all publick Exactions, willing that they should be charged no higher than others. Those of the said Religion pre­tendedly Reformed (saith the Article) may not hereafter be overcharged or oppressed with any Imposition ordinary or extraordinary, more than the Catholicks: And to the end that Justice might be done and admini­stred impartially, as the Edict explains it self, the 30th. 31st to the 57th Articles set up Chambers of the Edict in the Parliaments of Paris and Roan, where the Protestant Counsellors ought to assist as Judges: and Chambers Miparties in the Parliaments of Guienne, Languedoc and Dauphine, consisting each of two Presidents, the one Protestant, the other Papist, and of twelve Counsellors, an equal number of each Religion, to judge without Appeal, (exclusive to all other Courts) all Differences of any importance which the Protestants might have with their Fellow Subjects as well in Criminal, as in Civil Matters. In short, this great Edict for­gets nothing which might make the Protestants of France to live in peace, and honor: It hath not fail'd even to explain it self, as to the Vexations which might be created them, by taking away or seducing their Children. For, read the eighteenth general Article. It forbids all Papists of what quality or condition soever they may be, to take them away by force, or by perswasion against the will of their Parents: As if it had foreseen that this would be one of the ways which their Persecutors would use, to vex and ruine them. But the 38th. Article goes farther yet: That Wills, that even after their death, Fathers shall be Masters of the Education of their Children, and consequently of their Religion; so long as their Children shall continue under Guardians, which is by the Laws of France till the 25th year of their Age: It shall be lawful for Fathers, who profess the said Religion, to provide for them such persons for their education, as they think fit, and to substitute one or more, by Will, Codicil, or other Declaration made before Publick Notaries, or written and sign'd with their own hand.

You perceive then plainly, continued our Friend, that by this Edict King Henry the Fourth made the condition of the Protestants equal al­most in all things to that of his other Subjects. They had reason then to hope that they should be allowed to exercise their Religion, to breed up and instruct their Children in it, without any disturbance; and that they should have as free admission to all Arts, Trades, Offices and Employments as any of their Fellow Subjects.

This is very clear, said I, and I am much obliged to you for explain­ing to me what this famous Edict of Nantes is, which I had heard so much discourse of. But they who have no affection for the Protestants tell us, that it is a Law which was extorted by violence; and consequently, is not to be kept. I will not stand now (said our Friend) to examine whether that consequence be good; you cannot but perceive that it is dangerous. But I dare assure you that the Principle from whence it is drawn; namely, [Page 8] that the Edict was extorted by violence is very false. I would not have you take my word for it. But I will produce an unexceptionable Wit­ness. It is the Archbishop of Paris; he who writ the Life of Honry the Fourth. That one Witness is worth a thousand; for he was a declared Enemy of the Protestants. According to him: The general Peace was made, the Ligue extinguish'd; and all persons in France had laid down their Arms, when this Edict was granted in favour of them. It is ri­diculous now, to say, that it was extorted by violence, there being then no party in all the Kingdom in a condition to make the least attempt with impunity. Moreover, that Prelate could not forbear owning expresly what it was mov'd the King to grant them that Edict: It was the sense of the Great Obligations he had to them. See the Book it self; read the Passage. The Great Obligations which he had to them would not permit him to drive them into despair; and therefore to preserve them a just ballance, he granted them an Edict larger than any before. They called it the Edict of Nantes, &c. Indeed the Obligations he had to them were not small. They had testi­fied an inviolable Loyalty to him in all his Troubles. They had spent freely their Lives and Fortunes to defend his Rights, and his Life against the Princes of Lorrain, who made so many Attempts to keep him from the Throne of his Ancestors, and to usurp his place. Had it not been for their Valour, and their Loyalty, the Crown had gone into the hands of Strangers; and (since we must speak out) had it not been for them, the Blood of the Bourbons would not this day have been possessed of the Throne.

The Edict of Nantes then, was the Effect and the Recompence of the Great Obligations which King Henry the Fourth had to his Loyal Pro­testants, and not as is slanderously reported, the fruit of any violence, gained by force, and granted against the hair. But farther, the Law of Nature and common policy might challenge such an Edict for them as well as Gratitude. It is true, that Soveraign Magistrates are appoint­ed by God to preserve the publick peace, and by consequence, to cut off, or prevent, as much as in them lies, whatever may disturb it: It is true also that new Establishments in matters of Religion may cause great trou­bles in a State, and that there are Religions which have Maxims so per­nicious, that when Magistrates are of a different opinion, or but so much as tolerate such a one, their Lives and their Kingdoms are never in safety. But Henry the Fourth found the Protestant Religion wholly establish'd in the Kingdom when he came to the Crown: Besides, he who had so long profess'd it, knew perfectly well that it had none of those dreadful Ma­xims, which makes Princes and States jealous; that on the contrary, in it, Loyalty and Obedience of Subjects to Soveraigns of what Religion, and what humor soever, was to them an Article of Faith, and an obligati­on of Conscience. He knew that Protestants, by their Religion were [Page 9] peaceable men, who sought but to serve God according to his Word, and were always ready to spend the last drop of their blood for the service and the honor of their King.

But he knew also that the zeal of the Romish Clergy always animated the Popish Common People against them, and that they would be sure to fall upon them, unless he took them into his protection. The Law of Nature then did not permit him to abandon to the rage of the multi­tude so many innocent persons; and common policy warned him to pre­serve so many faithful Subjects for the State, so capable of supporting it on occasion, as he had so freshly experienc'd. It being certain, that had it not been for them, the Pope and the Ligue had ruin'd the whole King­dom; But it was not possible, either to defend them from the fury of the People, or to preserve them for the service of the State, if he had grant­ed in favour of them any thing less than the Edict of Nantes: so that this Edict in truth was to be ascribed to common Equity and Prudence no less than Gratitude.

But, said I to my Friend, do you believe that the Grandson of Henry the Fourth is bound to make good what his Grandfather did? I do not doubt it at all (answered he) otherwise there would be nothing secure or certain in Civil Society; and wo be to all Governments if there be no Foundation of publick Trust. 1. For if ever Law deserv'd to be regard­ed by the Successors of a Prince, it is this. It was establish'd by a Hero, who had recovered the Crown for his posterity, by his Sword: and this Establishment was not made but after mature and long deliberations, in the calm of a prosound Peace, obtained and cemented by many and signal Victories. That Hero hath declar'd expresly in the Preface of the Edict, that he establish'd it in the nature of an irrevocable and perpetual Law; willing, that it should be firm and inviolable; as he also saith himself in the 90th. Article. Accordingly he made all the Formalities to be observ­ed in its establishment, which are necessary for the passing of a fundamen­tal Law in a State. For he made the observation of it under the quality of an irrevocable Law, to be sworn to by all the Governors and Lieutenant-Generals of his Provinces, by the Bailiffs, Mayors, and other ordinary Judges, and principal Inhabitants of the Cities, of each Religi­on, by the Majors, Sheriffs, Consuls and Jurates, by the Parliaments, Chambers of Accounts, Court of Aids, with order to have it publish'd and registred in all the said Courts. This is expresly set down in the 92d. and 93d. Articles. Was there ever any thing more authentick? 2. The same Reasons which caused the Establishment, remain still, and plead for its continuance. 1. The Family of Bourbon preserved in the Throne. 2. The Law of Nature and common Policy. 3. The two Successors of Henry the Fourth look'd not upon themselves as unconcern'd in this Edict. Their Word, and their Royal Authority are engaged for [Page 10] its observation no less than the Word and Royal Authority of its Illustri­ous Author. Lewis the Thirteenth confirm'd it as soon as he came to the Crown by his Declaration of the 22d. of May, 1610, ordering, that the Edict of Nantes should be observed in every Point and Article. These are the very words. Read them (said he) shewing me a Book in Folio, call­ed, P. 156, & 157, of the Lions Edition. The Great Conference of the Royal Ordinances and Edicts. I read there in the first Book, Title 6, of the second Part of the Volume, not only the Article he mention'd, but also the citation of nine several Declarati­ons publish'd at several times by the same King, on the same subject. Lewis the Fourteenth, who now Reigns, (says our Friend) hath likewise assured all Europe by his authentick Edicts and Declarations, that he would maintain the Edict of Nantes according to the desire of his Grandfather, who had made it an irrevocable Law. He himself ac­knowledges and confirms it himself anew; by his Edict of Iune, 1680, where he forbids Papists to change their Religion. There it is; pray take the pains to read it. Lewis by the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre, to all persons to whom these Presents come, Greeting. The late Hen­ry the Fourth; our Grandfather, of Glorious Memory, granted by his Edict given at Nantes in the Month of April, 1598, to all his Subjects of the Re­ligion pretended Reformed, who then lived in his Kingdom, or who afterwards should come and settle in it, Liberty of professing their Religion, and at the same time provided whatsoever he judged necessary for affording those of the said Reli­gion pretended Reformed means of living in our Kingdom, in the Exercise of their Religion, without being molested in it by our Catholick Subjects: which the late King, our most Honored Lord and Father, and we since have authorised and con­firmed on other Occasions, by divers Declarations and Acts. But this Prince is not content to tell what he hath formerly done, in confirmation of the Edict of Nantes; read some Lines a little lower, and you will see that he repeats again his former Ingagements. We declare, that confirming as much as is, or may be needful, the Edict of Nantes, and other Declarations and Acts given in pursuit of it, &c. That is to say: That by this new Edict he signs once more the Edict of Nantes, and for a more authentick con­firmation of that important Law, he ratifies together with it, and seals with his Royal Seal all the Declarations which had already confirmed it. If all this is not sufficient to render His Word Sacred and Inviolable, there is nothing in the World can do it: all things are lawful, and it is to no purpose to talk of any Obligation, or of any Bond in humane So­ciety. They cannot make void, or break the Clauses of an Edict so well deserv'd by the Protestants, so just and so wise in it self, so solemnly esta­blish'd, so religiously sworn to, and so often, and so authentically con­firm'd by three Kings, without shaking all the Foundations of publick Se­curity, without violating, in that Act, the Law of Nations, and silling the World with fatal Principles, which by ruining all mutual Faith a­mong [Page 11] men, render Divisions in States incurable; and consequently immortal.

Dear Sir, said I, I am much pleased with what you have inform'd me. O how I shall dash them out of countenance, who hereafter shall compare the condition of our Papists in England with that of the Protestants in France. There is no sort of good usage but what is due to these in their own Country; of which they have deserved so well by preserving that Family which now reigns there. What have they not a right to hope for under the protection of an Edict so authentick? But our Papists in En­gland have they ever deserved a like protection? Hath there ever been pass'd any Act of Parliament in favour of them, like to this Edict? On the contrary, have not there been pass'd 1000 against them? And not one, but upon the provocation of some Sedition, or open Rebellion. See Sta­tures at large. 1 Elizab. 1. 5 Eliz. 1. 13 Eliz. 1. 23 Eliz. 1. 27 Eliz. 2. 35 Eliz. 2. 1 Iacob. 4. 3 Iac. 4, 5, &c. You need but review the Fundamental Laws of the Land now in force against the Pope, against the Jesuits, Seminary Priests, and in general against all the Papists. There is decreed justly against them all the contrary that by the Edict of Nantes is promised to the Protestants.

You are much in the right (said our Friend) when you use the word justly on this occasion: Princes and Protestant Magistrates cannot look up­on, nor by consequence, treat Papists otherwise than as declared an [...] mortal Enemies of th [...]ir Persons, and of their States. They may disguise themselves as they please: [...] in truth, every Papist is a man who takes the Pope to be the Soveraign Head of the Universal Church, and believes that on that very account, there is no Prince, nor King, nor Emperor who is not subject to his Censures, even to Excommunication. Now who knows not that it is a general Maxim of that Religion, that they ought to treat all excommunicated persons, as common Pests? Upon this all Sub­jects are dispensed with from their Oaths of Allegiance to their Princes, Kingdoms are laid under Interdicts; and they are no way obliged to keep faith with Hereticks. This is the original and damnable Cause of the many Conspiracies that have been made against the Sacred Lives of our Kings: And if you will search our Histories, you will find none of the forementioned Acts ever passed but upon some previous provocation given by the Papists Insolence, or Rebellions: of the Massacres in France and Ireland, wherein they of Rome have so triumph'd, and of the gene­ral consternation into which so lately our Nation was cast. They would fain perswade us, that these pernicious Maxims are peculiar to the Je­suits and some Monks: But a little Treatise, called, Printed for Henry Brom [...], 1674. The Disserence between the Church and Court of Rome, proves undeniably, that it is the judg­ment of all true Papists. I could produce other invincible authority, if this point were here to be proved. There cannot then be too great cau­tion against such persons: whatever they pretend, they do not design simply the exercise of that Belief which their Conscience dictates to them, they grasp at the Power, and aspire at Dominion: they design, whatever [Page 12] it cost them, to have their Church reign once more here in England ▪ There is nothing they dare not attempt, nothing they are not ready to act, that they may compass it. They are implacable Enemies who wait but for an opportunity to cut our Throats: and we must needs be very sense­less and stupid, if after so many proofs as they have given us of their desperate malice, we should repeal those Laws which tie up their hands. You are much in the right, I replyed, but let us leave them for the pre­sent, and return to our Protestants of France. You have shewed me their Rights, now let me understand their Grievances. I am willing to do it, said he; but it is a little late: and if you please, being somewhat weary with my Journey, we will defer it till to morrow. I will expect you here in my Chamber at the same hour you came to day. I told him with all my heart. And as our Conversation ended there, I think it not amiss to end my Letter also, intending in another to let you know the pre­sent condition of those poor People. I am your, &c,

LETTER II.

I Did not fail to wait on my Friend at the appointed hour. Sit down (said he) as soon as he saw me in the Chamber, and let us lose no time in needless Ceremony: I was just putting my Papers in order, by which I would desire you to judge of the Protestants Complaints, and the Reasons that have made them leave their Country: But since you are here, take them as they come to hand.

The first is a Verbal Process of the extraordinary Assembly of the Arch­bishops and Bishops held in the Province of the Arch-Bishop of Paris, in the Months of March and May, this 1681. It is a Piece which justifies a Truth, that the World will hardly believe: Namely, That whereas the Protestants by Virtue of the Edict had the Exercise of their Religion al­most every where, they have it now scarce any where. See the proof in the tenth Page of that Verbal Process, where one of the Agents, General of the Clergy of France, alledgeth as so many publick Testimonies of the Piety of their King, An almost Infinite Number of Churches demolish'd, and the Exercise of the Religion pretended Reformed suppress'd. I leave you to imagine what a consternation such a terrible Blow must have put those poor people into; not to mention their Grief to see those Holy Places beat­en down, whose very Stones they took pleasure in; instead of having the Hea­venly Mannah shower down at the Doors of their Tabernacles, at this present they are forc'd to go 30 or 40 miles through the worst of ways, in the [Page 13] Winter, to hear the Word of God, and to have their Children baptized. But let us go on to a second Piece.

Here is a Declaration hath lain heavy upon them, in reference to an infinite number of living Temples, who are [...]ar otherwise to be lament­ed for, by reason of the rigor they are us'd with, than the Temples of Stone that are demolish'd. It is of the thirteenth of March, 1679. Pray read it. It forbids all Popish Clergy-men, whatever desire they have, to turn Protestants; and even all those Protestants, who have forsaken their Religion out of Lightness, or Infirmity; to return to it again, upon better knowledge of the truth, press'd to it by their Consciences, and desiring to give glory to God. This dreadful Edict, will not suffer, that any of them shall satisfie their Consciences, in so important an Affair, under any less penalty, than that of the Amende Honorable, perpetual banishment, and consiscation of their Goods. I beseech you (said I) what doth the Declaration intend, by making Amende Honorable? You have reason to ask, replyed he, it is that you ought not to be ignorant of. Know then, that for them to make Amende Honorable is to go into some publick place, in their Shirt, a Torch in their Hand, a Rope about their Neck, followed by the Hangman, in this Equipage (which is that of the most infamous Criminals) to ask pardon of God, the King, and Justice for what they have done: that is to say, on this occasion, for having dar'd to rep [...]nt of sinning against God, for having forsaken a Religion which they believ'd Heretical and Idolatrous, and consequently, the infallible way to eternal damnation; and for being willing thence-forward to profess the Prote­stant Religion, in which only they are perswaded they can be saved. This is, dear Friend, what they in [...]lict upon all Popish Ecclesiasticks to whom God vouchsafes Grace to discern the true Religion, and upon all Protestants, who having been such Wretches as to forsake it, are a [...]ter­wards so happy as to be convinc'd of their Sin; and to repent. They call the first Apostates, and the other Relaps. But Names do not change the nature of things: the Misery is, that all this is executed with the ut­most rigor. The Prisons of Poictiers, and those of other places are at this present filled with this sort of pretended Relapsed Persons; and it is not permitted to any one to relieve them. What possibility is there then for such as are in like Circumstances, and whose number every day increases, to continue in France?

But the mischief is much increas'd since this Declaration. What was particular to Ecclesiasticks and Relapse Protestants, is now become uni­versal to all Roman Catholicks. I shewed you the Piece yesterday. It is that very Edict of Iune, 1680, wherein they pretend to confirm the Edict of Nantes. A Blessed Confirmation! The Edict of Nantes, Art. 1. pat [...]. as I have shewed you, allows the Liberty of Conscience to all them who were then Protestants, and to all such as would be afterwards, Inhabitants, or o­thers. [Page 14] But▪ what doth this new Edict declare! Our Will and Pleasure is, that our Subjects, of what quality, condition, age or sex soever, now making profession of the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion, may never forsake it, to go over to the pretended Reformed Religion, for what Cause, Reason, Pretence or Consideration soever. We will that they who shall act contrary to this our Pleasure, shall be condemned to make Amende Honorable, to perpetual banishment out of our Kingdom, and all their Goods to be confiscated. We forbid all Ministers of the said pretended Reformed Religion, hereafter to receive any Catholick to make pro­fession of the pretended Reformed Religion, and we forbid them and the El­ders of [...]heir Consistories to su [...]fer in their Churches or Assemblies any such, un­der penalty to the Ministers of being deprived for ever of exercising any Functi­on of their Ministry in our Kingdom, and of suppression for ever of the Exercise of the said Religion in that place where any one Catholick shall be received to make profession of the said pretended Reformed Religion. Lord! what a horrible proceeding is this! (cryed I, as soon as my Friend had read it) do they call this confirming of Edicts in France? what a Violence is this to the Consciences of Ministers and Elders, to command them to shut the doors of the Church of Jesus Christ to all their Neighbours who come thither for admission: (and to have this done) by them who are called by God to open the Door to all the World? Is not this to force them to violate the most Essential and Sacred Duty of Christian Charity? In truth, if there were nothing else but this; I do not see how they can stay there much longer with a safe Conscience. They must swallow worse Potions than these (said my Friend) you shall see presently quite other Preparati­ons. What (replyed I) have they the heart to use thus cruelly those poor Churches within whose Walls any Roman Catholick changes his Re­ligion? Don't doubt it (said he) they make no conscience at all to ex­ceed their Commission, whensoever they are enjoyn'd to execute any penal­ty. I will give you an Example, which will amaze you There is a great Town in Poitou called La Motthe, where the Protestants have a Church consisting of between three and four thousand Communicants: a young Maid of about seventeen years old, who from a Protestant had turned Pa­pist, had stole her self into the Congregation upon a Communion-day▪ Now you must observe, that the Protestant Churches are full on those days. For they would believe themselves very much to blame, if they lost any Opportunity of partaking at the Lord's Supper. Nevertheless, without considering how easie it was for that young Maid not to be disco­vered by the Consistory in such a Crowd, and tho those poor people were not at all within the Letter of that rigorous Edict, they have made them un­dergo all the penalty. The Exercise of their Religion is wholly suppress'd there, and their Minister not allowed to preach in France. This is very cruel (said I to our Friend) and tho it were true that those Ministers and those Elders were guilty upon such an account, why should the whole flock [Page 15] be punished? Those poor Sheep what have they done? That is very usual for those Gentlemen (answered he:) I have a hundred Stories to instance in. I cannot forbear telling you one, which many of their own Devotees were scandalized at. S. Hippolyte is a place in where all the Inhabitants are Protestants, except the Curate, and it may be, two or three poor wretches, who are not Natives of the place neither. A fancy took the Curate to put a Trick upon the Protestants; for this he chose a Sunday; and the very moment that they came out of the Church, he came and presented himself before them with his Sacrament, as they were almost all come out. You must know that the Church is on the farther side of a Bridge, which must be pass'd over, going and com­ing. Several of them were upon the Bridge, others had pass'd it, and part were yet on the other side; when the Curate appear'd, all of them, who could possibly, got away and hid themselves: but neither the place, nor the great haste of the Curate would permit all of them to do so. He went up directly to one of the Company, whom he had born an ill will to for some time: he bids him kneel: and the other answering that his Conscience would not suffer him to do it; he gave him a Cuff on the Ear. He that was struck grumbled; and so did two or three who were about him. The Curate went on his way, threatning hard. Next day there were Informations made on both sides: the Curate in his, not complaining of any person but him he had struck, and two or three o­thers who had grumbled at it. The Friends of the Curate perceiving that he had done the wrong, propos'd an Accommodation. It was by misfor­tune consented to. Prosecution ceased on each side, and it was believed that there was an end of that business: there was not a word spoken of it in above a year. But the Intendant of Languedoc revived it last Winter, when they thought of nothing less; and of a matter particular to two or three, made it a general Concern of the whole Congregation. He cites them before the Presidial of Nismes, to whom he joyn'd himself. He condemns them to demolish their Church in a Months time. Those poor people go and cast themselves at the feet of the Court; but to no pur­pose. The King's Council hears and confirms this strange Order of the Intendant, and the Church is rac'd to the ground. The Council which gave this Sentence was the first in which the Dauphine was present. The Report of such an Order being spred among the Courtiers, and all being amaz'd that heard it, a certain person took the liberty to tell the Dauphin, that for the first time he had been at the Council, he had assisted to a great Injustice. What say you to that? said a Duke and Peer, to the Dauphin, who had made no reply to the former. I say, answered the Dauphin, that he may be much in the right. I told our Friend, I had e­nough of this. You must not be weary, said he, this is but the beginning of sorrows. Let's go on to the rest. Here is, said he, a Little Book [Page 16] which comes just now to my hand, in it are stitch'd up together, three Acts concerning Schools. The first is of the ninth of November, 1670. It forbids all Protestant Schoolmasters to teach any thing in their Schools, but to read and write, and Arithmetick. The second, which is of the 4th. of December, 1671, ordains, that the Protestants shall have but one only School in any place where they have the publick Exercise of their Religion; and but one Master in that School. The third is of the ninth of Iuly, this present 1681. Look upon them (said he) and give me your o­pinion. It seems (said I) that the first contains nothing which the Pro­testants may complain of, at least, if that which I read there be true, namely, that by the Edict of Nantes it is expresly ordain'd, That in the Schools of those of the pretended Reformed Religion, there shall not any thing be taught, but to read, write, and cast account. For according to this, the Edict of 1670 is entirely conformable to that other Edict which is the Law. You are in the right, said I, but they who fram'd the Act, have deceived you, and have made no scruple to ground it upon a matter of fact entirely false. For the Article which speaks of Schools, doth not mention the least word of that restriction, which the Act assures us to be there expressed, namely, of teaching only to read, write, and cast account. See the Article length: it is the 37th particular. Those of the said Re­ligion may not keep publick Schools, unless in Cities and places where the publick Exercise of their Religion is allowed, and the Provisions which have heretofore been granted them for the erection or maintenance of Colleges, shall be authenti­cated where occasion shall require, and have their full and entire effect. Where is that express Order? It is expresly ordered to teach only to read, write, and cast account; upon which the Act is grounded. Is it possible (said I) that they should have no sense of the horrid shame which must arise upon conviction of forgery in a matter of fact of this nature? They never stick at so small a matter as that (said he) in the design they have of rooting out the Protestants. Those who are in France dare not open their mouths to discover such kind of Falsities; and Strangers, whom they carry [...]air with, will not so far concern themselves as ever to suspect there should be falshood in a matter of fact so easie to be made out; and which they make to be so positively af [...]irm'd by so great a King. So that they do not fear at all the shame you speak of. After all, they are but pious Frauds, at which, they of the Popes Communion never blush. And what say you (continued be) to that other Act which reduces all Schools to one, in each City and Town where the Protestants have the publick Exercise of their Religion, and that which requires that there should be only one Master in that School. I replyed that it was an excel­lent way to restore Ignorance, the Mother of the Roman Faith and De­votion. In truth, says he, the care of one Master cannot go far. Be­sides there is a Protestant Church which alone hath two thousand Children [Page 17] of age to be taught. Those poor people have done all they could to ob­tain of the Council, that at least there might be two Schools in each place, one for Boys, and the other for Girls. But it was to little purpose that they pleaded good manners for it, which such a mixture of both Sexes visibly was offensive to. They were deaf to all their Prayers and to all their Remonstrances. But this is not all yet. In the Execution of this rigorous Act, they have taken away [...]rom them that little which was left them. For the Judges of the places will not suffer that any School­master teach, unless they have first of all approved of him, and receiv'd him in all their Forms. As therefore their approbation is a matter full of invincible Di [...]iculties; above all, when they are to give it to a man of merit, and who may do good, it is come to pass by means of these two Acts, that all the little Schools of the Protestants are shut up. From the little Schools they have proceeded to Colleges. You see by the Act of the last of Iuly, which suppresses for ever that of Sedan. They have taken away also the College of Châtillon sur Loin. So that, hereafter the Protestants in France are to lie under worse than Egyptian Darkness. I leave you now to judge whether they are to blame to seek for light in some Goshen. In truth, said I, this is very hard. But if they who inspire into the King such strange Acts, have no respect for Henry the Great and his Edicts, at least they ought to be more tender of the Glory of their own Illustrious Prince, and not to expose him, as they do, to be ranked with that Emperor against whom the Holy Fathers have cryed so loudly. Is it possible they can be ignorant that this method o [...] extinguishing the Protestant Religion is exactly the same that Iulian took to extinguish the Christian Religion? I do not think (said our Friend) that they can be ignorant of a truth so well known; especially since one of their eminent Writers hath publish'd the History of the Life of S. Basil the Great, and of S. Gregory Nazianzen. There they might have read in more than one place, that it was likewise one of the Secrets of that Emperor, Mr. God. Hermant, Doctor of the Sorbin. Tom. 1. Book 2 p. 204. and Note [...] of the same chap [...]. p. 625. to ruine the Christians by keeping them from all Improvement in Learning, and to prohibit their Colleges and Schools; and which the Fathers judg'd to be most subtle policy. But their zeal transports them above the most odious Comparisons. They stick not to give occasion for them every moment. I will shew you an Example which will astonish you, I have here light upon the Paper.

They are now come to take the measures of that barbarous and inhu­mane King who us'd Midwives of his own Religion to destroy the Race of the people of God in Egypt. For by that Declaration of the 28th of February, 1680, It is ordered, that the Wives of Protestants shall not be brought to bed but by Midwives or Chyrurgeons who are Papists. This they make to be observ'd with the utmost rigor, so far that they put a poor woman in prison for being present at the Labour of her Sister, [Page 18] whose delivery was so quick and fortunate, that there was neither time nor need to call a Midwife.

That, you may in few words understand of what consequence this is to our poor Brethren, I need but acquaint you, that the King of France in his Edict of the Month of Iune, 1680, where he forbids Papists to change their Religion, acknowledges himself, what experience doth but too plainly justifie, namely, that the Roman Catholicks have always had an a­version, not only against the Protestant Religion, but against all those that profess it, and an aversion which hath been improv'd by the publication of E­dicts, Declarations and Acts. That is to say, that whatever pretence the Roman Catholicks make to the contrary, they have always been, and still are Enemies of the Protestants; and that the Protestants ought to look to be treated by the Catholicks as Enemies. After this what can they judge of the Design, and Consequences of a Declaration, which puts the Lives of their Wives and Children into those very hands which the King, who makes the Declaration, acknowledges to be hands of Enemies? But far­ther, the Declaration it self discovers, that one of its intentions was, to make the Children of Protestants to be baptized by Midwives, or by Po­pish Chyrurgions. And what mischief do they not open a way for by that? The Protestants will hold that Baptism void, which hath been admini­stred by such hands, they will not fail to make it be administred anew, by their Pastors. This shall pass for a capital Crime in the Pastors and Fa­thers, and they shall be punished as sacrilegious persons who trample on the Religion in Authority, the Religion of the King: for the most odi­ous Representations are still made use of. Nay, said I, by this they will likewise claim a right, from the Baptism's being administred by Papists, to make themselves Masters of the education of their Children. You are in the right (said he) and that Article ought not to be forgotten. It is just, will they say, that they should be brought up in the Church which hath consecrated them to God, by Baptism, at least, that they should be bred up there, till they are of age to chuse for themselves: and when they are of age, they will say then, that it is just they should, as well as others, be liable to the same Edict which forbids Catholicks to change their Religion. Is not this enough already to make one forsake such a Kingdom? A Christian for less than this would surely flie to the utmost Parts of the World. But to proceed,

Here is that terrible Decree which fills up the measure, as to what concerns the poor Children. It comes to my hand very seasonably. It is the Declaration of the 17th. of Iune last. This ordains that all the Chil­dren of Protestants shall be admitted to abjure the Religion of their Fa­thers, and become Papists as soon as they shall be seven years old: It de­clares, that after such an Abjuration, it shall be at the choice of the Chil­dren, either to return home to their Fathers, and there to be maintain'd, [Page 19] or to oblige their Fathers and Mothers to pay for their Board, and Main­tenance, where ever they please to live. It adds extreme Penalties to be laid on them, who breed up their Children in foreign parts, before they are sixteen years old. But I pray read over the whole Edict. Upon that I took the De [...]aration from our Friends hand, read it, and returning it to him again, could not forbear declaring, that I did not now wonder any more that the Protestants of France were in so great a Consternation. They are much in the right (said I) Discretion and Conscience oblige them to depart out of a Country, in which there is no security for the salvation of their dear Children. They are of too great a value to be so hazarded. What is more easie, for them who have all the power, than to induce such young Children to change their Religion? There is no need for this, to shew them all the Kingdoms of the World and their Glory. A Baby, a Picture, a little Cake will do the business; or if there want somewhat more, a Rod will not fail to complete this worthy Con­ver [...]ion. In the mean while, what a condition are their wretched Fa­thers in, besides the most inexpressible grief of seeing what is most dear to them in the world seduc'd out of the Service and House of God; they shall likewise have this addition of Anguish of having their own Children for their Persecutors. For, knowing, as I do, the Spirit of that Reli­gion, I doubt not but they will all prove rebellious and unnatural, and renounce all that love and natural respect which is due to them, whom they owe their Lives to.

They'll give Law to their Parents, they will oblige them to make them great Allowances, which they will dispose of as they list; and if their Fathers pay them not precisely at the time appointed, I am sure, no rigors shall be forgotten in the prosecution. No certainly, said our Friend, and I could give you an hundred Instances, if there were need. Even before this merciless Declaration was made, the Goods of Parents were seis'd upon, exposed to sale, to pay for the maintenance of their Children, who had been inveigled from them, and been made Pa­pists. If they dealt with them so then before the Declaration, what will they not do when they see themselves supported and armed with Royal Authority? But there is no need I should insist farther on the dreadful Consequences of this Declaration. It hath been lately Printed in our Lan­guage, and Notes made upon it, wherein nothing hath been forgotten. The Book is written impartially: tho I can scarce believe what is express'd in the Title Page, that it was written in French; however, some Galli­cisms are put in to make you believe it: but the Protestants of that Na­tion are not us'd to such bold Expr [...]ssions upon such kind of Subjects: and I doubt much whether they could do it.

If they have reason to fear for the birth, and for the tender years of their Children, they have no less for themselves. Here is a proof of it. [Page 20] It is the Declaration of the 19th. of November, 1680: By which it is or­dained, That whenever they are sick, they shall suffer themselves to be visited by the Papist Magistrates. Thus, having made their lives bur­densome to them, they take a thousand ways to torment them in their Beds, as soon as any Disease hath seised them. It is not henceforth permitted to them either to be sick, or die in peace. Under colour of this Decla­ration they are persecuted, and all means are tryed to shake their Faith, under the pretence of being ask'd what Religion they will die in. First a Judge presents himself with the awe of his presence, accompanied by one of the King's Sollicitors and two Papist Witnesses. They begin their Work by driving all Protestants, who are with the sick man, out of his Chamber: Father, Mother, Wife, Husband, Children, none are ex­cepted. After that, they do with the sick person as they list: they draw up a Verbal Process, or such as they like. Lies with them are but pious Frauds. Whatsoever the sick man answers, he hath still abjur'd, if these Gentlemen please to make a conversion of it; and there is no possibility of disproving it. The Verbal Process is drawn up in good Form. If the sick man recovers, and refuses to go to Mass, immediately he is sub­ject to all the penalties of a Relapse. If he dies and chances to be the Father of a Family, they take away all his Children, to breed them up in the Popish Religion; and his Estate, to preserve it, as they pretend, for the Children of a Catholick Father. Can any one who hath any care of his own salvation, or any affection for his Children, live expos'd to such dreadful Inconveniences, if God offers any means to avoid them?

I am afraid I tire you with the Recital of so many Calamities. Fear not that, answered I, I am resolv'd to know all. You do not consider what you say, replyed he, I should need whole weeks to tell you all. Imagine all the Suprises, all the indirect practices, all the base tricks of Insinuation, and little quirks of Law are put in ure: together with all manner of violence, to accomplish the Work. Neither do those E­nemies of the Protestants always neglect the Oracles of the Scripture. It says, I will smite the Shepherd, and the Sheep of the Flock shall be scattered. These Gentlemen then, that they may the more easily scatter the Sheep, smite, every where, the Shepherd, and constrain them to fly. They im­prison one, for having by the Word of God confirm'd some of his Flock, whom the Popish Doctors would pervert: another, for being converted to the Protestant Religion in his youth, long before any Law was made against pretended Apostates. They hire forlorn Wretches to go to the Sermons of the Protestant Ministers, and to depose before a Magistrate, that the Ministers said, that the Church of Rome was idolatrous, or that the Faithful are persecuted, that they spake ill of the Virgin Mary, or of the King. Upon this, without being heard, (and tho it be offered to be made out by the Deposition of an infinity almost of persons of credit, [Page 21] that the testimonies of these two or three Wretches are absolutely false) Orders are issued out for the seising the Bodies of the Ministers. They are clap'd in Jayl as soon as taken: they are condemn'd to pay excessive Fines: they force them to make the Amende Honorable, they banish them the Kingdom. The Intendant of Rochefort suppress'd one there, upon the most extravagant Deposition that was ever taken. The Deponent ha­ving, been at the Sermon of that Minister, said, That there was nothing to be found fault with in his words, but that he perceiv'd his thoughts were not inno­cent. If there are any amongst them so happy as to consound so the false Witnesses, that the Judges are asham'd to use all those rigors; none of the Charges of Imprisonment, or of the Suit are ever recovered against any one. A Minister who may have sixty or seventy pounds a year, and seven or eight in Family to maintain, must be condemn'd with all his in­nocence to pay all these great costs. I could, upon this Head, tell you a hundred Stories, but that it would be too tedious. I have met both at Paris and in other Provinces many of these persecuted Ministers, who ac­quainted me with their Adventures, Germany, Holland and Switzerland are full of them, and I am told, there are some of them here in England. Their absence from their Flocks is but too good a proof how hot the persecution is against them. And so let's go on.

You may remember that the Edict of Nantes judg'd it necessary for the preservation of the Estates, and Credit of the protestants, and for the safety of their Lives, to erect Tribunals where supreme Justice might be administred by Judges of the one, and of the other Religion. But all these Tribunals are suppress'd: namely, the Chambers of the Edict of Paris, and of Rouen. It is some years since the Chambres Miparties were suppress'd by the Delaration of Iuly, 1679: so that here is their Fortunes, their Credit, their Lives, all at the mercy of their sworn Enemies. For you have not forgot that the King of France acknowledges, in one of his Declarations, that the Papists have always hated the persons of the Pro­testants. Judge then if it be safe for them to stay longer in such a King­dom.

But there is no method proper to ruine them, which is not made use of, that if one fails, another may be sure to take. Synods and Conferences are absolutely necessary, for the Admission of their Ministers, for the Correction of Scandals, for the preservation of Peace in their Congrega­tions, for the subsistence of their Colleges, and for the support and exer­cise of their Discipline. At first they kept them with all sort of Liberty. Under Lewis the Thirteenth, they thought fit to forbid them to hold any Synod, unless some Protestant Commissary, who was to be named by the Court, were present. This was observed till the year 1679, when a De­claration was publish'd, requiring that there should be a Papist Commis­sary in their Synods. That is to say, Sir, said I, interrupting our Friend, [Page 22] they will pry into their hearts, and perfectly know where their strength or their weakness lies. If there were nothing but that in it, replyed our Friend, that Declaration would not allarm them so much as it doth. For there is nothing done in their Assemblies, which they are not willing all the world should know. They defie their most mortal Enemies to prove the contrary. Can there be a more undeniable proof of this, than the practice of the Protestant Commissary, who sends to the Court a Copy well attested of all the Results of the Deliberations which are made, while the Synod or Conference is held? What do they fear then, re­plyed I, from the presence of a Papist Commissary? Because they know that the end of the Court cannot be to discover their Secrets, since they have none; therefore it is that they justly fear, that this Papist Commis­sary hath been set over them, to create them trouble in the most innocent Affairs, to hinder those Deliberations which are most necessary for the due preservation of their Flocks, to silence those Ministers among them whom he shall perceive to be of greatest Ability, and of Credit, to dis­hearten one by threatnings, to corrupt another by promises, to sow Dis­sention and Division among them, and to employ all means possibly to ru­ine them. These are the just fears which have hindred them till this present, from assembling any Synods with this so destructive a condition, hoping continually that, it may be, God would touch the heart of their King. But perceiving no favourable change, and not being able to sub­sist without holding their Synods, I learn'd, as I came out of France, that these poor people are resolv'd to run these hazards, and that their Synods are upon assembling in several places. May God vouchsafe to preside in the midst of them by his Grace, and remove far from them all the Evils [...]hey have cause to fear. It may be, by their good Examples, and their Religious Behaviour they may convert them, who are set over them for a snare, as it happened to their Fathers in the last Age also. Then was con­trived the placing of Papist Commissaries, to spie out their liberty. But these Commissaries were so taken with the Modesty, the Piety, the Cha­rity, the Decency of Order, and the devout Prayers of the first Reform­ers, that they gave Glory to God, and embrac'd the Religion which they had persecuted,

The Jesuites nevertheless have thought all these Evils of which I have spoken, too slack and gentle. That they may not be at any more trouble, they will do the business once for all. They have contrived to starve all the Protestants: and to effect this, they have made all the means of gain­ing a livelyhood, to be taken from them, by the Acts of the Council of State, of the sixth of November, 1679, and the 28th. of Iune, 1681. 1. They have turn'd out of all Jurisdictions and Seignuries (which are almost infinite in France) all Protestants who had been admitted Officers in those Jurisdictions. All Stewards, Bailifss, Sollicitors, Officers of the [Page 23] Exchequer, Registers, Notaries, Clerks, Serjeants and Ushers that were Protestants, of all sorts, throughout the whole Kingdom, are cashiered by virtue of these Acts; they have reduc'd to Beggary thousands of Fa­milies, which had no other subsistence, but by these Employments. 2. Look upon those two Pieces, which they procured also, for the same in­tent. The Title of the one is, The Order of the Council Royal of the Fi­nances (or Treasury) of the 11 th. of June, 1680. The other is, An Or­der of the Council of State of the 17 th. of August of the same year. By the means of these two Pieces, the Jesuites have made the Protestants to be kept out of all the Affairs of the Finances, Customs, which they call Traites Forains, of Aids, Gabelles, Taxes of all sorts of Commissions, to which the Edict of Nantes ordered, that they should be admitted in­differently with the Papists. This second hath taken away the Bread of a vast number of Families more. 3. They every day make the Prote­stant Captains and Officers (who have serv'd so worthily by Land and Sea) to be turn'd out of their Commands. Those brave Men after they have spent their Estates to advance their Masters Honor, and ventured their Lives a thousand times for his Glory; see themselves shamefully, as so many Cowards, cashiered, without any exception for them who having signa­liz'd and distinguish'd themselves by particular Actions, had deserv'd ex­traordinary Pensions. Because they will not be less faithful to God, than they have been to their King: they are resolved Disgrace and Beggary shall be the Reward of their Service. By this, they take away from all the Protestant Nobility the means of maintaining themselves in that Rank in which God by their Birth hath placed them. 4. As to the Merchants, look what the Jesuits have thought upon to ruine them. They have ob­tain'd an Order of Council of State, of the 19th. of November, 1680, which grants to all Protestants who change their Religion, the term and forbearance of three years for the payment of the principal of their Debts, with prohibition to all their Creditors to bring any Action against them, during that time, upon pain of Non-suit, Noli prosequi, and all Charges, Damages, Costs and Interests. I perceive very well, (said I to our Friend) that this puts those who revolt in a way to secure and withdraw their Goods; and to enjoy in peace the Fruits of their turning Bankrupts. But I do not see how this tends to the ruine of those Merchants in general, who per­severe in the Protestant Religion. That is (said he, smiling) because you have not so subtle a wit, nor are so quick-sighted as the Jesuits. You know very well that Merchants subsist by their Credit: if their cre­dit be low, they must fall; there is no more trading for them, their bu­siness is done. Now do you not perceive, that the credit of all Pro­testant Merchants is ruined by this Order, which puts them in a way of turning Bankrupts as they please, with all indemnity; and of inriching themselves with those Goods they have been trusted with? Who do you [Page 24] think after this will be so silly as to take their word? Who can tell, with any certainty, whether they with whom they deal, are persons who will continue in the Protestant Religion? Is there any thing more common than such Changes in Religion now adays? It's enough (said I) I was mistaken, I perceive now very well that the ruine of the Protestant Mer­chants is unavoidable. Go on to the other Professions. For I see they are resolved that no Protestant shall get Bread among them. You are in the right (said he) you have seen it in many of them, I'll shew it you now in the rest. 5. All Papists who drive any Trade, or exercise any Art, are forbid [...]o take any Protestant Apprentice. I have seen the Order, but have it not now by me. By this you see that all young men of the Prote­stant Religion (who have not means of their own) are reduced to this extremity, either of starving in France, or turning Papists, or forsaking that Kingdom. For the same Order forbids any Protestant who drives or professes any Trade, to have under them any Apprenti [...]e▪ either Pa­pist or Protestant, that so they may not be able to do work enough to maintain their Families. 6. The Grand Master and Grand Prêvot have given notice, by Virtue of Letters under the Signet, to all Protestants who had Privileges, whereby they had right to keep Shops, as Chyrur­gions, Apothecaries, Watchmakers, and other Tradesmen, to forbear using their privileges any longer, and to shut up their Shops, which hath been punctually executed. 7. They have establish'd Societies of Physicians at Rochelle, and in other places, where, as I am assured from good hands, there were none ever before. None but Papists will be received into those Societies. By this, the Jesuits have found out the way, at one stroke to hinder the Practice of all the Protestant Physicians; however able and experienc'd they may be. In so much that the Lives of all sick Protestants are by this means put into the hands of their Enemies. 8. In short, there is scarce now any place in all France where they may get their livelyhood. They are every where molested and hindered from exercising in quiet any Trade or Art which they have learn'd. To dispatch them quite; they require of them not only that they shall continue to bear all the Burdens of the Government, altho they take from them the means of doing it: but also that they bear double to what they did; that is to say, they use a rigor far greater, than what was practised upon the People of God, when they were commanded to deliver the same tale of bricks, and yet had not straw given them as formerly. In effect, at the same time that they will not allow them, of the Protestant Religion, to get a penny: they exact of them to pay the King double, nay, treble, to what they paid before. Monsieur de Marillac, Intendant of Poitou, hath an Order of Council which gives him alone the Power of the Imposition of the Tax in that great Province. He discharges the Papists, who are at ease, and overcharges the poor Protestants with their proportion, who before [Page 25] that fainted under their own proper burden; and could bear no more. I will tell you farther on this occasion, that the Jesuits have obtain'd an Order of the King, by which all Protestants who change Religion, are exempted for two years, from all quartering of Soldiers, and all Contri­butions of Moneys which are levied on that Account, which also tends to the utter ruine of them who continue firm in the Protestant Religion. For they throw all the burden upon them, of which the others are eas'd. From thence in part it is, that all the Houses of those poor people are filled with Soldiers, who live there as in an Enemy's Country.

I do not know if the zeal of the Jesuits will rest here: For they want yet the satisfaction of keeping S. Bartholomew's Day, as they kept it in the former Age. It is true, what is allowed them is not far from it. For which is the better of the two, to stab with one blow, or to make men die by little and little, of hunger and misery? As to the Blow (said I to our Friend) I do not understand you. Pray, if you please, explain your self, what do you mean by keeping S. Bartholomew's Day? Monsieur de Perisix, that Archbishop of Paris, who hath writ the Life of Henry the Fourth (answered he) shall tell you for me. There's the Book, the place may be easily found. Here it is [...] Six days after, Surl' an. 1572 Edit. Amsterd. p. 30. which wa [...] S. Bar­tholomew 's Day, all the Huguenots who came to the (Wedding) Feast, had their Throats cut, amongst others, the Admiral, twenty persons of the best qua­lity, twelve hundred Gentlemen, about four thousand Soldiers and Citizens: afterwards through all the Cities of the Kingdom, after the Example of Paris, near a hundred thousand were massacred. An execrable Action! Such as ne­ver was, and I hope to God never will be the like. You know then well, con­tinued our Friend, directing his Speech to me, you know well now what it is to keep S. Bartholomew's Day, and I believe that what I said is no Riddle to you. The Jesuits and their Friends set a great value on them­selves in the world, because they forbear cutting the Protestants Throats, as they did then. But, Merciless as you are, do you ere the less take away their lives! You say you do not kill them, but do you not make them pine to death with hunger and vexation? He who gives slow poison is he less a poisoner, than he who gives what is violent and quick, since both of them destroy the life at last? Pardon this short Transport (said our Friend) in good earnest I cannot restrain my indignation, when I see them use the utmost of cruelty, and yet would be looked on as patterns of all moderation and meekness. Let me impart to you three Let­ters which two of our Friends who are yet in France have written to me since I came from Paris. I received the two first at Calis, before I got into the Pacquet Boat; the last was delivered me last night after you went away from any Chamber. You will there see with what Gentleness they proceed in those Countries. He thereupon read to me his Letters, and I have since took Copies of them, and send them here inclosed.

Do you intend to conclude there, said I to our Friend? I have a mind to do so (replyed he) tho I have a thousand Insolences and Outrages more yet to acquaint you with. But it is late; and I have produced but too much to justifie the French Protestants who forsake their Country, from any suspicion of impatience or wantonness. You see now what are the Reasonable Means that are used to convert them. Those goodly means which have been employed are, To despise the most Sacred Edict that was ever made by men; to count as nothing promises repeated a hundred times, most solemnly by authentick Declarations; to reduce people to utmost Beggary; to make them die of Hunger, in my opinion, a more cruel death than that by Fire or Sword, which in a moment ends life and miseries together; to lay upon them all sorts of afflictions, to take away their Churches, their Ministers, their Goods, their Children, their liberty of being born, of living, or of dying in peace, to drive them from their Employments, their Honors, their Houses, their native Country; to knock them on the head, to drag them to the Mass with Ropes about their Necks, to imprison them, to cast them into Dungeons, to give them the question, put them to the Rack, make them die in the midst of torments, and that too without so much as any Formality of [Page 30] Justice. This is that they call Reasonable Means, Gentle and Innocent Means: For these are the Terms which the Archbishop of Claudio­pol [...]s useth, at the Head of all the Deputies of the Clergy of France, in the Remonstrance they made to their King, the last year when they took leave of his Majesty. I must needs read you the passage: here is the Remonstrance, and the very words of that Archbishop: Those gentle and innocent means which you make use of, Printed at P [...]ris cum Privi [...]gio Chaz Lio­nard, In­primt [...]r du [...]y. 1680. Sir, with so much success to bring the Hereticks into the bosom of the Church, are becoming the Bounty and Goodness of your Majesty, and conformable at the same time to the mind of the divine Pa­stor, who always retains Bowels of Mercy for these strayed Sheep: he wills, that they should be brought back, and not hunted away, because he desires their salva­tion, and regrets their loss. How far is this conduct from the rigor wherewith the Catholicks are treated in those Neighbouring Kingdoms which are infected with Heresie. Your Majesty makes it appear, what difference there is between Reason and Passion, between the Meekness of Truth, and the Rage of Imposture, between the Zeal of the House of God, and the Fury of Babylon. In good truth, cryed I to our Friend, after the reading of this passage: this is in­sufferable, and I cannot forbear taking my turn to be a little in passion. Methinks they should blush to death, who call those Cruelties, which have been executed upon innocent Sheep, Meekness; and that Rigor, and the fury of Babylon which we have inflicted upon Tigers, who thirsted after our Blood, and had sworn the destruction of Church and State. They plague and torment to death more than a million of peaceable per­sons, who desire only the freedom of serving God according to his Word, and the Laws of the Land, who cannot be accused of the least shadow of Conspiracy, and who by preserving that Illustrious Blood which now reigns there, have done to France Services deserv'd, together with the Edict of Pacification, the love, and the hearty thanks of all true French Men. And we have put to death in a legal manner, it may be twenty wretched persons (the most of which had forfeited their lives to the Law, for being found here) convinced by divers Witnesses, who were the greatest part Papists, of having attempted against the Sacred Li [...]e of our King, and the lives of millions of his faithful Subjects. Surely they would have had us let them done their Work, let them have rooted out that Northern Heresie, which they were, as they assure us by their own Letters, Omahon S. Th. Mag. Disputatio Apolegitica de Iure Regni Hi­b [...]rni [...] pro Catholicis, n. 20. in so great, and so near hopes of accomplishing. But we had not forgot the Massacre of Ireland, wherein, by the confession of one of their own Doctors, who knew it very well, more than a hundred and fifty thousand of our Brethren, in the midst of a profound peace, without any provocation, by a most sudden and barbarous Rebellion, had their Throats cut by that sort of Catholicks, whose fate they so much bewail.

Altho your Transport be very just, and I am very well pleased with it, [Page 31] said our Friend to me, I must needs interrupt you; to bring you back a­gain to our poor Protestants. What say you to their Condition? I say (answered I) that there can be nothing more worthy compassion; and that we must entirely forget all that we owe to the Communion of Saints, if we open not our hearts, and receive them as our true Brethren. I will be sure to publish in all places what you have informed me, and will stir up all persons to express in their favour all the Duties of Hospitality and Chri­stian Charity. To the end (said he to me) you may do it with a better heart, at our next meeting, I will fully justifie them against all those malici­ous Reports which are given out against their Loyalty and their Obedience to the Higher Powers. Let us take for that all to morrow seven-night, As you please, said I, so we took leave one of another: and thus you have an end of a long Letter, assuring you, that I ever shall be, Sir, Yours.

The third Letter. The French Protestants are no Antimonarchists.

SInce you know the reason why this my third Let­ter comes so late, I will not take up your time in excusing my long silence. Our Friend being now recovered from his Indisposition, which was the main stop hitherto, we agreed upon a day, when I came to his Chamber at the hour appointed. I cannot tell, sais he, whether, before we enter upon this matter, to justifie our French Protestants in point of Fidelity towards their Superiours, I should not impart to you several Letters, which have since come to my hands, wherein I have an account of several fresh Persecutions since August last. I told him, No: For besides that what you related to me at our second meeting is more than enough to convince the greatest Infidel, That the Mischiefs are at the height in that Kingdom, and that there is no security of Conscience for the Protestants who stay there; besides all this, our Streets are full of instances of the new troubles they give them. There is no Man but knows what was the event of the Marquiss de Venour's Deputation, wherein he gave a List of the cruelties used in Poictou against our poor Protestants: He was forced to fly from his Estate and Country. Every body has heard how many Gentlemen of good condition, and several Ministers, have been imprisoned for no other fault but their zeal for a Religion they believe to be the only true and safe one, the exercise of which is likewise tolerated by one of the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, as you have already so well made out. In short, we are assured by a thousand credible Witnesses, as likewise by the sight of several Procla­mations, [Page 2] That they ruine all the Protestants that are Taxable in France, by a Secret they have found out to Tax the people at Will, and then make one or more responsible for all the rest; That they are barba­rously cruel upon the least complaint of any thing, that falls from them in the height of their misfortunes; That they Demolish their best Established Temples, upon the least pretence; and that besides all this, they condemn them to the Galleys, if they offer to quit the Realm, to serve God according to a good Conscience in any other Countrey, with a Fine of a thousand Crowns for the first Fault, and Corporal Punishment for the rest, upon their Friends that shall any way coun­tenance, directly or indirectly, their departure out of the Realm. I have read the Proclamation, and you may read it, says our Friend, when you please, for it lies there upon my Table. The strangest thing in it is, that they glory of their pretended Conversions in Poitou and elsewhere, as if they had been carried on with all the gentleness and Christian temper imaginable, when all Europe knows they have used no other but carnal means, and since I am provoked to say it, the De­vil's Weapons, the allurement of Riches, Promises of worldly Advan­tages, Threats, Force, and a thousand unheard of Cruelties, whereby they have brought the poor People to this hard choice, either to turn Papist, or perish by Hunger and ill usage. And many times we see their Consciences will not suffer them to continue in that Communi­on they have been thus forced into; for they come over by Flocks, and the Prisons in France are full of these pretended Relaps. But because you know all this already, I proceed now, says he, to the Justification of our poor persecuted Brethren.

I am very well satisfied that this groundless Accusation, as if they were Seditious Firebrands, and Enemies to Monarchs and Monarchy, has given them no prejudice with you. If Accusation were enough to render guilty of this Crime, Moses and Christ, the old and new people of God had certainly lost their Cause. The Enemy of Truth has ever made this his Charge against the Innocence of Gods Children. Moses was accused for Seducing the people; Exod. 5.4. 1. King. 18.17. Ier. 38.4. Neb. 6.6. Luc. 23.2. Act. 24.5. & 17.6. Elias, for Troubling Israel; Ieremi­ah, That he did not pray for the Prosperity of this people, but their mischief; the People of God, That they designed to revolt from the King of Persia; Iesus Christ himself, That he perverted the people, and forbad to pay Tri­bute to Caesar; and his Apostles, That they were common Pests, Movers of Sedition, and that turned the World upside down. You have read Turtullians Apologetick, and Arnobius against the Gentiles. You see there, how the most innocent of the Primitive Christians, and the meekest of Men, were charged with the same Crime. Our Protestants of France have no reason to expect other measure than that of their Saviour and the Saints departed, since it is the same Religion they strive [Page 3] for: And by the Grace of God we shall with as much ease acquit them of all those Imputations laid to their charge.

There is certainly no stronger Proof of what the Opinions of a Church are, than the publick Declarations her self has made of her Principles, by open Professions or Confessions of Faith; these are authentick pie­ces, composed with the approbation of the whole Body, and published on purpose to declare to the World what in sincerity such a Church be­lieves in matters of Religion. The Protestant Church of France has not been wanting in this particular, but has composed and published a Confession of Faith that all the World might be sure what really are her thoughts and belief: And certainly, without the highest injustice, we cannot reject what she has thus made Protestation of. Then I told our Friend, you need not enlarge upon this point, for no Man of sense will dispute this Principle with you. Let us come to the Question. I shall soon dispatch it, says he; I will read to you the two last Articles of our Protestants Confession of Faith.

‘We believe, That God will have the World governed by Laws and Policies, Art. 39. to the end there may be a restraint upon the inordinate Appetites of Men; and for this end, that he has appointed King­doms, Commonwealths, and all other sorts of Government, Heredi­tary or otherwise, and whatever appertains to the dispensation of Ju­stice, and that he himself will be acknowledged the Author of it. For this cause he has put the Sword in [...]o the Magistrates Hand, to punish Faults committed, not only against the second Table, but like­wise against the first. We ought therefore, for God's sake, not only to submit to the Government of Superiors, but also to honour them, and hold them in such regard, as esteeming them his Lieutenants and Officers, whom he has constituted to exercise a Lawful and Sacred Trust.’

‘We hold it therefore our Duty to obey their Laws and Statutes, Art. 40 to pay Tributes, Imposts, and other Duties, and to bear the Yoke of Subjection with a cheerful and good will, be they Infidels, provided the Sovereign Empire of God be kept entire. Thus we detest those that would reject Authority, put all things in common, and over­throw the course of Justice.’

Here you see the Confession of the Protestants of France, where you find they make it a part of their Religion and Faith to believe that it is God who appoints Kingdoms, Hereditary, and others; That we ought to Honour Princes, and hold them in all Reverence, as the Lieu­tenants and Officers of God, to obey them, to pay them Tribute, to sub­mit to them with a good will, though they happen to be of another Re­ligion than ours; and they reject with horror all those that reject the Powers. Can any thing be said stronger, or with greater exactness?

[Page 4]Moreover these Protestants of France have a Liturgy, a Form of Common-Prayers, as well as our Church of England, There it is that in the presence of God, and speaking to God, they do confirm by a publick Act of Worship all that they say of Kings and Potentates in their Confession of Faith. After they have said to God, We have thy Precept to pray for those whom thou hast set over us, Superiors and Gover­nors, they add, We Beseech thee therefore, O heavenly Father, for all Kings and Princes, thy Servants, to whom thou hast committed the dispensation of Iustice, and particularly for the King, &c. If ever we ought to believe Mens words, no doubt it is when they speak to God in the Act and fervor of their Devotion: If a man be not wicked to the last degree, or an Athiest, he will then at least speak the thoughts of his Heart. And upon such an account it is that the Protestants of France own, in con­formity to their Confession of Faith, That it is God who has set Ru­lers over them, to Govern; That all Princes are the Servants of God; That the Justice they dispence to men, is that of God himself, of which God has committed to them the Administration or Rule. And upon that score it is they pray to God for their own King, and for all other Princes, That he would give them his holy Spirit, and all Graces re­quisite to well Governing. Is this the stile of a seditious People, Ene­mies to Monarchs and Monarchy?

Since therefore the Confession of Faith, and form of Common-Prayer, speaks the mind of the whole Body of the French Protestants, it will be needless to quote the Sermons and Writings of their particular Mi­nisters; yet because I observe, to my great grief, there are many here cry down the incomparable Calvin, as if, in this point of obedience to Monarchs, he were not very sound, I must needs read to you what he has said upon that subject in his excellent Institution: It is in his fourth Book, Chap. 20. where, after he has shewed, Sect. 22 & 23 of this Chapter, the Duty of Subjects towards Princes and Magistrates, which he makes consist in having a profound Reverence for them, to observe their Commands with a perfect submission, to pay such Taxes and Rates as they put upon them, to offer up Prayers and Thansgivings to God for their Prosperity; and when he has there proved by Scripture, That we cannot resist the Magistrate without resisting God, who is prepared to defend them, he considers, Sect. 24. That there are many who fancy we owe not this respect and obedience, but to good Princes, and so may despise the wicked, and shake off the yoke of Tyrants. This Maxim he confutes, as a most pernicious error, in the following Sections, of which I shall here give you a taste.

[Page 5] ‘The Word of God obliges us to submit, not only to the authority of Princes that use us well, but in general to the Dominion of all those, after whatever fashion, that exercise Sovereign Power, though they perform nothing less than the Duty of a Prince. For however the Lord assures us, that Magistrates are the Bounty of his Grace, set up for the conservation of Men, and that therefore he sets them bounds, within which they ought to keep, yet he declares at the same time, that whatever they prove, they hold their Power of him; that they who seek the publick good in their Sovereign Administration, are the lively Images of his Goodness; that they which rule with violence and oppression, were raised by him to the Throne for a Scourge to a sinful people; but that the one and the other are equally invested with that Sacredness of Majesty which he has stamped upon the Fore­head of all lawful Authorities. I shall insist upon this point, which the Spirit of the Multitude does not so easily conceive, to wit, that this admirable and Divine Authority, that the Lord by his Word con­fers upon the Ministers of his Justice, remains no l [...]ss with a Man that is never so wicked or unworthy of all honour, if once he be raised to the Sovereign Power; so that his Subjects ought no less to Reverence him, in regard of Allegiance due to Sovereigns, than if he were a good King. First, I would have it carefully observed, the special Provi­dence of God in bestowing Crowns, and setting up Kings, of which we are so often told in Scripture. It is God, says Daniel, that remo­veth Kings, and setteth up Kings. Dan. 2.21. & 4.25. And speaking elsewhere to Nebu­chadnezz [...]r, Thou shalt be, says he to him, wet with the Dew of Hea­ven, till thou know that the most High Ruleth in the Kingdom of Men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. We know well enough what a kind of King this N [...]buchadnezzar was, who took Ierusalem. He was an U­surper, and an accomplished Villain. Nevertheless the Lord assures us in Ezekiel, Ezek. 29.19. that he had given him Egypt as a Reward for the Service he had done him, in the mischief he did to Tyre. And Daniel says to the same King, Dan. 2.37.38. The God of Heaven has given thee a Kingdom Power, and Strength, and Glory, and wheresoever th [...] Children of Men dwell, the Beasts of the Field, and the Fowls of the Heaven, has he given into thine hand, and hath made thee Ruler over them all. He says also to Belshazzar, this King's Son, Dan. 5.18. The most high God gave Nebu­chadnezzar, thy Father, a Kingdom, and Majesty, and Glory, and Ho­nour, and for the Majesty that he gave him, all People, Nations, and Languages trembled and feared before him. Whenever we find God has set up any man to be King, let us call to mind the heavenly Ora­cles, which appoint us to Honour and Fear the King, and then we shall not fail to bear Respect, even in the persons of Tyrants, to this mighty Character wherewith God has been pleased to honour them, [Page 6] Samuel, telling the People of Israel what they were to suffer from their Kings, uses these words, This will be the manner or Right of the King that shall Reign over you; He will take your Sons, and will appoint them for himself, for his Chariots, and to be his Horse-men, and some shall run before his Chariots. 1 Sam. 8.11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. And he will take your Daughters to be Confectio­naries, and to be Cooks, and to be Bakers. And he will take your Fields, , and your Vineyards, and your Olive-yards even the best of them, and give them to his Servants. And he will take the tenth of your Seed, and of your Vineyards, and give to his Officers, and to his Servants. And he will take your Men-servants and your Maid-servants, and your goodli­est Young-men, and your Asses and put them to his Work. He will take the tenth of your Sheep, and ye shall be his Servants. Doubtless Kings have no Right to deal thus, those that the Law so carefully directs to Moderation and Temperance: But Samuel calls this the Right of the King over the People, because the People are under an indispensable Obligation to submit, and are not allowed to resist, as if the Prophet had explain'd himself after this manner, The mismanagement of Kings shall come to this height, and you shall have no right to oppose it, your part must be to take their Commands, and to obey them.’

Calvin, after this, produces a long passage out of Ieremiah, where great punishments are denounced against all those that would not sub­mit to the Government of Nebuch [...]dnezzar, who originally was but an Usurper as wel as a Tyrant. And he concludes, that we ought to re­ject these seditious thoughts, ‘That a King ought to be handled as he deserves, and that there is no reason we should behave our selves as Subjects towards him, if he carries not himself like a King towards us.’ After which, he most substantially answers the Objections which unquiet Spirits are used to make against this Doctrine. And now I leave it to reasonable Men to judge, whether it be not the greatest In­justice to this excellent Person, to declare to the World, That he was an Enemy to Kings.

They that followed him, have after his example, all taken the same side upon this subject. No doubt you have read what their great Sal­masius has writ in defence of our blessed Martyr King Charles the first. Their famous Amyraldus likewise took occasion from the Martyrdom of our good King, to Print an excellent Discourse of the Power of Kings; where, by the strongest Arguments, taken out of the Word of God, he proves beyond dispute, That the Majesty and Person of Sovereign Prin­ces ought at all times to be Sacred to all their Subjects. We have like­wise, to the same purpose, the Letter of their learned Bochart, to Doctor Morley, then Chaplain to His Majesty, and now most deservedly Bishop of Winchester. You may see there how this excellent person defends the Rights of all Crowned Heads; He takes in there, in the Compass [Page 7] of a few Pages, the strongest things that can be said. The force of all this, is, that the performance of these Protestants has exactly answered their Confession of Faith, the Prayers of their Liturgy, and what their Doctors have taught, as often as there was occasion for it. They have been always the first in assisting their Kings, when there was need, with their Lives and Fortunes.

Every Body knows how many mischiefs the Queen, Catharine de Me­dicis did them. Yet when the Guises had seized the person of Charles the Ninth, who had nothing but Tears to oppose their violence, Mez. Hist. de Franc. Tom. 2. p. 841. as Mezeray well observes; and that the Queen, finding her self under the same streights with the young King, had called for help upon the Prince of Condè and his Friends: the Protestants came in from all parts, and ventured all they had to set their Majesties at Liberty. It is a remarkable Story. Me­zeray does all he can to di [...]guise the matter: but so known a Truth could not but extort this confession from him. ‘The Queen writ two Letters the same day to the Prince, full of pitty and good words, Ibid. recommend­ing to him the safety of the Kingdom, beseeching him to take compas­sion of the innocent tears of his King, who was held captive by his own Subjects; and that he would generously attempt his rescue, a [...] ­suring him, that he should be maintained in whatever he should do.’ The same Historian confesses in his Chronological Abridgement, That by these Letters, the Queen who was then Regent, gave to the Prince who was then a Protestant, a just ground to take up Arms: which he did, so soon as he received the Order. Then flew in like lightning to the assist­ance of the King and Queen, the same Protestants, that with so much ri­gour and violence had been persecuted by them. ‘He sent presently, says M [...]zeray, to the Reformed Churches; especially to those upon the River Loire, to Bourges, Poitiers, and others more remote, ordering them immediately to seize all the Passes: and that for his part, he was resol­ved to expose his person, and all that was in his power, to make good the Kings Commands, and Revenge the injury done to his Majesty.’ You have here, Sir, the true Cause of these Prote [...]ants first taking up Arms: and, as you see, it was upon a glorious account. For it was, in short, to succour their King, whom stranger-Princes (who aimed at his Crown, as it appeared at last) held Captive. Besides, all here was law­ful. They take not up Arms, but by order of the Regent, who promises the Head of the Protestants, That he should be justified in all he did. And she made her word good to him, however, the great credit his enemies had, and the Queens inconstancy, had for some time run down the credit of this glorious Action with the people. For the King gave an authen­tick testimony of the Innocence and Loyalty of the Prince and his Friends upon this occasion. It is by the sol [...]mn Edict of 1563. where the King says, ‘That the sincere and true intent of our said Cousin the Prince of [Page 8] Conde may not be doubted, we have said and declared, and do say and declare, That we esteem this our said Cousin, as our good Kinsman, faithful Subject and Servant; as likewise We hold all those Lords, Knights, Gentlemen, and other Inhabitants of Towns, Communal­ties, Boroughs, and other Places of our Kingdoms and Countries of our Dominion, that have followed, assisted, aided, and accompanied him in this present War, and during the said Tumults, in what part or place soever of our Kingdom, for our Good and Loyal Subjects and Servants; believing and esteeming what was done before this by our s [...]id Subjects, as well in regard of the taking up of Arms, as the Ar­ticles of Justice agreed among them, and the Judgments and Executions of the same, was done with a good Intent, and for our Service.’

Henry the Third was their mortal Enemy: He was the chief Author of that detestible Massacre, where by the confession of the Bishop of Rhodes himself, Hist. de Hen. le Grand. s [...]r l'an. 1571. near a hundred thousand Protestants had their throats cut. And yet all this did not hinder them from coming in to his assistance; so soon as ever they saw his Crown and Life in danger. They forgot that he had been their Pers [...]cutor, and remembred only that he was their King. And all Europe knows, that without their aid he had been lost. He was shut up in Tours, hard pressed by the Army of the Ligue, which consisted, as every one knows, all of Roman Catholicks. Already three parts in four of his party, Mez. Hist. de Franc. Tom [...] pag 634. and those of the bravest, as Mezeray assures us, were slain, and the Duke of Mayenne, General of this Army of Parricides, had made himself master of the Suburb, when the Protestant recruits came. ‘This brave Captain, says Mezeray, (speaking of Chastillon) lodged his Men in the Isle, in despite of their continual Firing upon him from every part of the Suburb, and made them work so hard, that they had co­vered themselves in less than two hours. The Liguers, so soon as they had discovered them, and knew him by his face, did well to cry, To your Quarters White Scarfs, this is none of your quarrel: brave Cha­stillon, we have no design against thee, retreat, it is against him that Mur­dred thy Father, let us but alone, and we will revenge his death; ad­ding several reproaches against the King, more insolent, than commonly upon such occasion Souldiers use to do. Chastillon answered, That he they spake so ill of, was their King; that it was for women to rail, and that he would see the next day whether they were as good at fight­ing as they were at scolding.’ But the Duke of Mayenne fearing to stand the shock of the Protestant Troops, considering, as Mezeray says, That it might not be safe to encounter with old Souldiers that had been used to blows, he quits all his advantages and marches silently away at three a clock in the morning. Thus was Tours relieved, and Henry the Third saved by the same Protestants, to whom he had done so much mischief. And by this the Protestants preserved the Crown to the Family of Bourbon, f [...]om which [Page 9] it had been gone past recovery, if Tours had been taken. For indeed, they that laid the siege, and intended to dethrone their King, were heads of that powerful Faction which, (as the Bishop of Rhodes testifies) would have broken the succession of the Royal Line. Hist. de Hen. le Grand sur l'an. 1576. And the General of the Army was own Brother to the Duke of Guise, who, as the same Bishop tells us, designed the Crown for himself.

As for King Henry the Fourth, Grand-father to our King, as well as to the present King of France, there is no man that understands the least of those Histories, but knows it was his faithful Protestants that preserved him for the Throne, and set the Crown upon his Head. The Bishop of Rhodes acknowledges, Id sur la même ane [...]. That this Great Prince had been bred up from his Birth among the Huguenot party, and that they were his best support. And indeed, they expended their blood more than once to save his, against the rage of the Ligue, and the ambition of the Lorain Princes, who would have usurped his right. So soon as ever Henry the Third, his Predeces­sor, assassinated by the Fryar Iaques Clement, was dead: they did not do, as Papists that were then in his Army. For whereas these for the most part fell into Cabals, and gave him a thousand troubles by their Seditious Resolutions, which tended either to exclude him from the Succession, or tear the Government in pieces: the Protestants kept steady: they im­mediately owned him for their King. The Huguenot Nobility, with the Forces they had brought (which were all Protestants) swore Allegiance to him presently. They are the very words of the Bishop of Rhodes. Id sur l'an. 1589. And when unhappily, which cannot be enough lamented, he forsook their Religion, fearing the Papists should choose another King in his stead; their Fideli­ty failed them not for all that, they maintained his Cause with the same zeal, whil'st divers [...]apists continued to keep his Garrisons from him, and armed several Assassins to take away his Life. ‘ Peter Barriere, says Meze­ray, had designed to kill the King, Sur l'an. 1593. because he heard some of the Cler­gy say, That it would be an exploit worthy eternal praise, and that would carry a man straight to Heaven.’ When he was come to Lions with this resolution, the same Popish Historian adds, ‘He communica­ted it to the Archbishops Vicar General, to a Capucin Fr [...]ar, and to two other Priests, who all approved of it, and encouraged him to do it.’ Me­zeray tells us afterwards, That Barriere having a little demurred upon the Kings having forsaken the Protestant Religion, Christopher d' Aubry, Cu­rat of S. Andrè des Arces, and Varade Rector of the Jesuits, heartened him by their advice to pursue his Hellish Design of stabbing the King. You know the story of Iohn Chastel, one of the Jesuits Scholars, to the same purpose, how he wounded the King in the mouth with the stab of a Knife, which he intended for his throat. It is well known what share the Jesuits had in this attempt: This young Desperate confessed, Mez. sur l'an. 1594. that he heard them say, That it was lawful to kill the King. There were found in [Page 10] their Colledge several Pieces full of Invectives, and most pernicious Pro­positions against the Honor and Life of Henry the Third, and Henry the Fourth his Successor then Reigning. The famous Act of Parliament at Paris has eternized the Memory of this Execrable Attempt. ‘It Ordains, That all the Priests and Scholars of the Colledge of Clermont, and all others that stiled themselves of the Society of J [...]sus, should quit the Kingdom in fifteen days, as corrupters of Youth, disturbers of the publick Peace, and Enemies to the King and Kingdom.’ Which was done accordingly. And it is fit I should tell you upon this, how Cardinal d'Ossat bemoaned their loss, by reason of the apparent advantage the poor Protestants had by it: You may see it in the eighth Letter of his first Book; these are his words: ‘It must needs give a Prince converted to the Catholick Religion, whom we should have comforted and confirm­ed by all means possible, great offence and prejudice against Catholicks: when they that boast themselves the Pillars of the Catholick Religion, have thus endeavoured to get him Murdered. Whereas if there had been any pretence for Assassinates, it should have been the Hereticks that should have procured it and seen it done, because he had quitted and forsaken them, and they had reason to apprehend him: And yet they have attempted no such thing either against Him, or any of the five Kings his Predecessors, whatever slaughter their Majesties made amongst them.’ You have here at once an authentick Witness of the exact Loy­alty of the Protestants of France to their Soveraign, how viol [...]nt soever the Soveraign might have been: and a dreadful warning for all Princes to consider the Spirit of Popery, perpetually engaged in Murder, and ready to spill the most Sacred Blood, if they think it runs cross to their interest, The death of this Great Prince Henry the Fourth, is a prece­dent enough to make the heart of any Prince ake, that is so unhappy as to have in his Dominion, or near his Person, these sort of common pests. It was to much purpose to profess the Romish Religion, while these Mon­sters, out of a suspicion perhaps that his heart was not Roman enough, never rested till they had pierced it by the hand of that abominable Villain Ra­villiac, Hist. de Hen. le Grand sur l 'an. 1610. who had been a Monk, as the Bishop of Rhodes assures us. And what he says of the hardiness of this wicked Fellow, to suffer all without speaking a word▪ plainly shews us who were those Devils and Furies that Inspired him with such cursed Thoughts. ‘He was taken in the very Fact, says the Bishop of Rhodes, (after he has given an account of the Crime of Ravilliac) being Interrogated several times by the Commission­ers of Parliament, condemned, the Courts met, and by Sentence torn between four Horses in the place of Execution, after they had torment­ed him with hot burning pincers in the Breast, Arms and Thighs, with­out discove [...]ing the least fear or grief in the midst of so great Torment: which confirmed the mistrust they had, that certain Emiss [...]ries, under [Page 11] pretence of Zeal, had instructed and charmed him by false assurances, that he should die a Martyr if he kill'd him, whom they made believe to be a sworn enemy of the Church.’ But I should not make an end this day, if I were to take notice of all the Stories of the malice and fury of the Papists against such Princes, as have not had the happiness to please them, and give you all the proofs of the affection and untainted Loyalty of the Protestants for their Kings, how little secure soever they have been to them.

However, said I to our Friend, do not conclude before you have quit­ted the Subjects from that suspicion, which the proceedings of the present King of France has [...]aised every where of the innocence of this poor peo­ple. For according to the manner he has treated them within his King­dom, he must needs look upon them rather as his Enemies than his Sub­jects: Must there not have been some failure on th [...]ir part, and that they have entred into some conspiracy, or are revolted, to deserve such hard usage?

I must confess, says h [...], it would make one suspect some such thing by that course is taken with them: For who could ever think, that so Great and Wise a Prince would deal with Loyal Subjects, as if he had to do with Traytors? And yet, which is the prodigious part of the History of Lewis the Fourteenth, there is nothing more certain, than that these very Protestants, to whom they have done so much mischief, have always ob­served exactly their duty towards their King. One may safely say, by their behaviour, they have loved him as their Eyes: Their Loyalty has been yearly tryed, during the minority of this King. All the World knows it: neither could any thing ever corrupt or shake it. By their Care and Address, all the Towns, where they had any Interest at that time, as Montauban, Nimes, Rochel, declared for their King, and disposed not only the Provinces that belonged to them, but those adjoyning likewise. God knows what had become then of the Crown, had it not been for the warm Sermons of those Ministers, whose mouths are now stopt, and the courage of those very Protestants they now persecute with so much vio­lence: Whil'st the Popish Prelates and great Lords drank publickly the health of Lewis the Fifteenth, these poor persecuted People were with Sword in hand exposing themselves to the utmost dangers to preserve the Kingdom to Lewis the Fourteenth. It is matter of Fact, which the King knows. He has born them witness more than once, that their Loyalty upon this account, had contributed in the highest degree to the security of his Crown. And it is fit upon this occasion I should impart to you a wonderful Piece: It is a Letter of this Kings, writ to his Electoral High [...]ess the Marquess of Brandenburg. My Friend that gav [...] me this L [...]tter, copyed it from the Original, which was seen by a thousand Ho­ [...]orable Witnesses, that may be produced in time and place. It may [Page 12] not be impossible, but that I may shew you the Original. This was the Letter,

Mons. le Mareschal de Sbam­berg. Mr. du Quesne.Such happy Beginnings were followed with suitable Success. The Protestants have been remarkable upon an hundred occasions since, both by Sea and Land: they were always observed to be the first when they were to fight for their King and Countrey. All the World knows to whom they owe their Victories in Portugal, over the Spaniards, which was so highly advantagious for France; and the Defeat of the Famous De Ruyter, who after so long and great a Reputation, was at last o­vercome by a French Protestant. I will conclude with an observation which they assure me this King made himself, That neither in that great number of Conspirators, who had laid so dangerous a plot against him, some years since, nor amongst that monstrous Croud of Poisoners, that have alarmed all France, and destroyed so many considerable Fa­milies, was there found one single Protestant.

After all this, to persecute them as they do, and proclaim them to be Firebrands and disturbers of the publick peace, Enemies of Monarchs and Monarchy; is it not to punish those that deserve Reward? Is it not by a shameful aspersion, no less ridiculous than fowl, to contrive the oppression of persecuted Innocence? You are in the right, said I, but yet pray do not forget to answer some Objections which are made [Page 13] every day to blast or render suspicious the Loyalty of these poor people.

First, they accuse them for concealing dangerous poison under these words, in their Confession of Faith, So long as the Sovereign Power of God be kept inviolable. ‘We hold, that we ought to obey their Laws and Ordinances, pay Tribute, Imposts, and other Duties, and bear the Yoke with a cheerful and good Will, although they were Infidels, Pro­vided the Sovereign Power of God be kept inviolable.’ Whence they in­fer, that they hold it for an Article of Faith, that Subjects may take Arms against [...]heir lawful Prince, whenever they fancy that what he commands is not suitable to the Principles of their pretended Reformation.

That is a Gloss, replies our Friend, that spoils the Text, and a new aspersion, these Protestants have given no ground for: Nay they fore­saw, and have confuted it before-hand, in resolving, as they have done, That Subjects ought to bear the Yoak of their Subjection with a cheerful and good Will, though their Princes were Infidels. For this plainly intimates, That although our Kings were Enemies to our Religion, we are always obliged to submit to their Orders. And if you would know what then is the meaning of this exception, Provided the Sovereign Power of God re­main inviolable, I answer, it means no more than what St. Peter and St. Iohn intended when they said to the great Council of the Jews, ‘Whe­ther it be right in the sight of God, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye:’ Acts 4.19. Or what all the Apostles meant when they said to the said Council, We ought to obey God rather than Man: Than what St. Ch [...]ysostome intended when he told his Auditors, ‘When we say, Acts 5.29. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, we only mean such Du­ties as are not against Piety and Religion, Chrys. in Matth. c. 17. because whatever harms Faith and Virtue, is not C [...]sar's, but the Devil's Tribute.’ Or to bring an Authority of greater weight to those of the Popish persuasion, this exception imports no more than what we find in the Canon of the Papal Decree: ‘If the Master command those things that are not re­pugnant to the Holy Scriptures, let the Servant obey his Master; If he command the contrary, Decr. Caus. 11. q. 3. c. 93. Si Dominus. let him rather obey the Lord of the Spi­rit than him of the Flesh. If what the Emperor command you be lawful, execute his Commands; if it be not, Answer, We ought to obey God rather than Man.’ In a word, the French Protestants mean no more by this their exception, than what all Mankind ought to think in this matter, if they have the fear of God before their eyes, viz. That as God is King of Kings, and by consequence, to whom our Princes and we owe an indispensible Obedience, without any reserve, we must never admit of a dispute between the one and the other, to obey the Orders of the Prince, when they are contrary to those of God. Pro­vided [Page 14] the Soveraignty of God be kept inviolable, that is, to the end we dimi­nish not the Soveraign power of God, but that God be always owned for the King of all Kings: it is absolutely necessary, that in such a con­trariety between his orders and that of the Prince, we prefer his without any manner of hesitation. To do otherwise, would be to place the Prince in God's stead, and so make an Idol of him. This is all the Pro­testants would say.

But then I asked our Friend, what would they have the Subjects do upon such occasions, especially if Princes proceed to violence and punish­ing, thereby to make themselves be obeyed with preference to God? Methinks, says he, they explain themselves clearly enough, when they say, We ought to bear the yoke of subjection with a chearful and good will, though our Princes were Infidels. For an Infidel Prince signifies here, a Prince that in his Laws and in his practice is opposite to the appointments of God: is an ene [...]y, and so, a persecutor of the true Religion, when­ever he has a fair opportunity, and is so disposed. To say then, as do the Protestants in their Confession of Faith, that although Princes were Infidels, we ought to bear the yoke of subjection: is it not to declare it to be the duty of subjects to suffer quietly whatever their Prince pleases to in­flict upon them? Indeed they do not mean, that we should exec [...]te the commands of Princes, when they are contrary to the commands of God: but on the other side, they are not for casting off their Allegiance, upon pretence that their Prince does not herein do his duty, and is unjustly s [...] ­vere to them. Whence it is plain from the Doctrine of the French Pro­testants, that Christian Subjects upon these unhappy occasions, ought to continue alike faithful to their God and to their Prince: to their God, in being careful to observe his Statutes in the midst of all the threats and outrages of men: to their Prince, by suffering with all humility and Christian patience, whatever is imposed upon them, either to torture their Conscience, or force them to renounce their holy Religion. Their wor­thy Calvin makes it evident, that this was his opinion, when from what the Scripture ordains, to honor and [...]ear the King, he concludes, that Chri­stians are obliged to reverence, even in the person of a Tyrant, the mighty Cha­racter with which it hath pleased God to honor Crowned Heads. For a Tyrant is an unjust and cruel Prince, who thirsts after the Blood of his people, and is always invading their Goods, or Life, or good Name. Therefore when Calvin teaches, that Christians ought to pay respect, even in the person of these sort of Princes, this mighty Character with which it hath pleased God to honor Kings: it shews plainly, that in his judgment what­ever wrong or oppression a Prince commits upon his Subjects, they re­main always under an indispensible obligation of being subject to his Scepter, so far from ever having a right to take up Arms to depose him, or to set force against force. It is the same which M [...]ses Amyraldus, that [Page 15] famous Protestant of Saumur, proves at large in his Discourse of the power of Kings, upon the occasion of those unhappy Troubles, which had so fatal an end, and so reproachful to the Nation. He m [...]kes it ap­pear by undeniable proofs, that nothing can be more pernicious to man­kind, more against the Word of God, nor more opposite to the practice of Jesus Christ, that of his Apostles, the behaviour of the Primitive Christians, and the very genius of Christianity than to assert a right for subjects to take up Arms against their King upon any pretence or ground whatever. And it will not be amiss, that I thereupon read to you a passage or two out of the Letter of the learned Bochart, Minister of Caën, to Doctor Morley Bishop of Winchester, ‘If one had any right to arraign a King, says he, why not Saul, who had twice revolted from God, Let. de M. Boch. 3. part. who had slain with the edge of the sword a whole Town of the Priests of the Lord, who had taken a­way Davids wife by force and given her to another, and sought his in­nocent life, after so many eminent Services done the State by this young Prince: and who could pretend more to it than David, who was appoint­ed by God, anointed and consecrated to the Government of Israel? Yet David, who was a Prophet, and a man after Gods own heart, was of another mind, as we are assured by Holy Writ. Saul seeking him in the desarts, went alone into a Ca [...] where David lay hid, who find­ing him in such a condition, might as [...]asily have killed him as Macrinus did Carcalla,. Nay, one would think he ought not to have omitted so fair an occasion of ridding himself of his enemy, especially when he was in a manner constrained to it by his own Souldiers, who minded him of the Prophetick Promise God had made him, to deliver his Enemy into his hand: But he calmly disswades them by a sober reply, to attempt nothing against Saul: The Lord forbid, says he, that I should do this thing to my master the Lords anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord, that is to say, A man that God has set apart for so Sacred and Divine a Charge, if he make ill use of it, as did Saul and such like: nevertheless, as he is a King, he ought to be exempt from all Civil Punishment, and left to the judgment of the last day.’ In an­other place this Learned Person lays down for a Maxim, That against the oppression of a King there is no humane remedy. He maintains likewise, That when Kings abuse their Power, and treat ill their Subjects, all ought to be remitted to Gods Iudgment-seat, and in the mean time to have recourse to our Tears and Prayers, which are, saith he, the weapons of a true Christian. Thus the Author of the Books called, [ Les derniers, efforts de Pinnocence assligè, the last attempts of persecuted innocence] who is a French Prote­stant, very well known to the World, and my particular Friend, Deuxi [...]m [...]. Entret. p. 75. takes it for a Religious Principle, and that which bears the Charact [...]r of the an­cient Christian Moral, ‘That the King is Master of the exteriour part of [Page 16] Religion: that if he will suffer none but his own, if we cannot conform, we ought to die without resistance: because the true Religion is not to employ the Arm of Flesh to establish it in a flourishing condition: That Princes become very guilty, when they oppose by force the setling of the true Religion, but they are to answer to none but God for it.’

This is Sir, says our Friend, the true sense of the French Protestants, in this important Affai [...] ▪ I could make it out by a thousand more wit­nesses of credit, if it were needful. And I am well assured, that after so many pregnant Testimonies, there is no reasonable person can be of­fended at their Confession of Faith: Therefore let us go to your other Objections. I would with all my heart, said I, but that it is so late. And besides, I would be glad to make my Objections stronger, by running o­ver a new Book, which the Enemies of the French Protestants make a great noise with in England, and put it into the hands of all our people of Quality, to prejudice them against these poor Protestants. It is the History of Calvinism, by Monsieur Maimbourg, a Secularised Jesuit. If you will take my word, let us put it off till this day sevennight. Be it so, says our Friend, and so we parted: This shall be also the end of my Let­ter: I am,

The fourth Letter. The Protestant Loyalty vindicated against Maimbourg.

I Failed not to be at our Friends Chamber at the time appointed: Well, says he, so soon as we were sat down, What do you say of our Se­cularized Jesuit and his Book? I told him, his Book smelt strong of a Libel. And as for him, he is a man so full of Equivocation, that he will hardly ever forget his former profession. He would fain have us believe, that his design is to make a Satyr against the French Protestants, whom he charges at random with many crimes: and yet when he comes to cast up his reckoning, one would swear he set Pen to paper for no other end but to write in their praise, and to let after-ages know, That the Huguenots or Calvinists, as he is pleased to call them, were far honester men and better Christians, than their enemies the Papists: For what is it he omits for the advantage of those, he himself acknowledges to be true Protestants? ‘ Lewis de Bourbon, Prince of Condè, had a strength of parts, a constancy and greatness of mind, Hist. du Calv. Ed. de Holland. 1682. worthy his high Quality of Prince of the Blood. He had the courage of a Hero, and as much Wit as Valour. He had a largeness of Soul and of Understanding, equal to the greatest men of former ages, Pag. 124. Pag. 415. Pag 422. and ought to be reckoned amongst the chiefest Men of the Royal house of Bourbon, had he not spoiled so many rare Qualities, Pag. 124. which made him one of the most beloved men in the World, by unfortunately dying a Huguenot. The Lady de Roye, his Mother-in-law, and Eleonor de Roye his Wife, were both very wise Wo­men, couragious, and of great vertue: but both these likewise, the most zealous and resolute Huguenots of their time. Cardinal Odet, Pag. 197. & 198. the elder of the three Brothers of Coligny, was one of the handsomest men in France, and who got the greatest love and esteem of any man at Court for his Wit and Learning, for his Prudence and Ability in the management of Affairs, for his sweet and obliging Deportment, and for [Page 18] his magnificence and wonderful generosity. He had certainly been one of the greatest and most accomplished Prelates of the Kingdom: had he not disgraced his Coat and Character by Heresie, in becoming a Calvinist. The Chancellor Michael de L'Hospital, was a man of extra­ordinary merit. Pag. 203, 204. It is not to be denyed, but that he was one of the most considerable men of his time, in all curious and substantial know­ledge, and in all the perfections of Moral Virtues. But after all this, we neither can nor ought to conceal what eclipsed the beauty of so many ra [...]e Endowments, which was, that he openly countenanced Calvinism. Ia [...]es du Bosc of Esmendreville, Pag. 280. second President in the Court of Aids of the Parliament of Roüen, a Man of high Birth, and great Worth, dis­graced all his good Qualities by an obstinate adherence to the Huguenot party. Francis de la Noüe, surnamed Bras de Fer, was one of the bravest men of his time, Pag. 414, 415. as he has evinced by a thousand noble Exploits: He was not only equal to the Stoutest, but to the wisest and most knowing Commanders of old. Pag. 475. Iasper de Coligny, Admiral of France, a Man of Method, Wit and Courage, quick and watchful, bold, a good Souldie [...] and great Captain, was almost the only person that was a good Hugue­not amongst all the people of Quality on his side.’ Now we must know what Monsieur Maimbourgh means by a good Huguenot: He explains him­self very clearly in that passage where he commends the Queen of Nu­var, Pag. 462, 463. Mother to Henry the Fourth: These are the words, ‘She was a Princess, that besides the perfections of her Body, had so great a Soul, so much Courage and Wit, that she had deserved the glorious Title of the Heroess of her time, had not Heresie, which though at first she was hard­ly brought too, yet at last she cleaved to with an unmoveable Resolution, been so great a blot in her Scotcheon. However, we must allow her to have been a good Huguenot, living up, in all appearance, to the greatest Piety and Regularity: For as to the other great Persons of this Sect, ex­cept the Admiral, they only carryed the name of Calvinists, not very well knowing what they were themselves; and to speak truly, the Court was then very corrupt, where there was little difference between Catholick and Huguenot, but that the one went not to Mass, nor the other to a Sermon; As to any thing else, they agreed v [...]ry well the one with the other, for the most part, having no Religion at all, either in De­votion or the fear of God, which this Queen Iean d' Albret bewails in one of her Letters.’ Whence it appears, That according to Monsieur Maimbourg, to be a good Huguenot, is to lead a virtuous Life, contrary to that of a deb [...]uched Court, to be very devout in the fear of God, and to grieve for the corruption of the Age. This is the notion he gives us of the true French Protestants, whom he calls, The good Huguenots. He is very far from giving so advantageous a Character to those zealous Ca­tholicks, whom he makes the Bulwark of his Church against the pretend­ed Heresie of the Protestants.

[Page 19]He affects the contemptuous compellation of little King, Pag. 157. when he speaks of Francis the Second, of whom he says in another place, ‘That he had conceived so great a prejudice against the Huguenots, that he bound himself under a solemn Oath to drive them all out of the Kingdom. The Reign of the little King Francis. The little King Francis being dead, &c. At the death of the little King Francis, &c. Pag. 154. Pag. 179.319.’ And what doth he not say of the Queen, Katharine de Medicis, the other scourge of the Calvinian Heresie? He has represented her as the most wicked of all Wo­men: As he says, ‘She had Principles that favour'd little of Christianity: Pag. 164. Pag. 248. She was an ambitious Queen, who by a wicked Policy would govern at any rate, even to the sacrificing Religion it self.’ Pag. 453. She did not deal faith­fully with the Huguenots, when she made the Peace with them. Her only design was, to deceive them. ‘It was she that put the King upon that barbarous resolution, which was executed upon that bloody and accursed day of St. Bartholomew.’

He sets out Charles the Ninth, as a Son worthy of such a Mother. ‘This Prince was of an impetuous humour, Cholerick, Revengeful, Pag. 454. and very Cruel, which proceeded from his dark Melancholy temper, and from his wicked Education. Pag. 456. He was so good a Proficient in what his Mother taught him, who was a Woman the best skilled of any in her time in the Art of Dissimulation, and deceiving people, that he made it appear, he had outdone her in her own Craft. Pag. 458. What was it he did not do for two years together to deceive the poor Admiral? He expressed the greatest value and love for him imaginable: Embraced him, kissed him, called him his Father.’ And yet so soon as ever they advised him to dispatch him out of hand. ‘He stood up in the greatest rage, Pag. 460. and swore by God, (according to his wicked custom) Ay, I will have him dis­patched; nay, I will have all the Huguenots destroyed, that not a man remain to reproach me hereafter with his death. Pag. 474. They hung the Body of the Admiral by the heels upon the Gibbet of Mount-Faucon, light­ing a Fire underneath to make him a more frightful spectacle. It was so miserable a sight, that Charles the King would needs see his Ene­my thus dead: which certainly was an act altogether unworthy, I will not say of a King, but of a man of any Birth: to such a degree had this Spirit of hatred, revenge and cruelty, which he had learn'd of his Mother, prevailed upon him.’

As for Henry the Third, another mortal Enemy to the Protestants, Monsieur Maimbourg sets him out as the falsest and most unnatural of Mankind. ‘The Sieur Aubery du Maurier, says he, Pag. 189. tells us in the Pre­face of his Memoirs, that he has heard his Father say, that he had it from the mouth of Monsieur de Vellievre, that at the same time he shew­ed large Instructions to oblige him earnestly to intercede for the Life of Mary Queen of Scots, he had private ones quite contrary from the hand [Page 20] of Henry the Third, to advise Queen Elizabeth to put to death that com­mon Enemy to their Persons and Kingdoms.’ And could there be a stranger cruelty, than what he makes this Prince guilty of, when as yet he was only Duke d'Anjou? Pag. 421, 422. The Prince of Condè, after he had defended himself a long time most bravely at the Battle of Iarnac, was forced at last to yield up himself: Two Gentlemen received his Sword with all man­ner of respect. ‘But the Baron of Montesquiou, Captain of Monsier's Swiss Guards, being come up whil'st this was doing, and finding by them that it was the Prince of Condè, So they called The Duke of Anjou: Kill him, kill him, says he, and with a great Oath, discharged his Pistol at his Head, and shot him dead at the stump of a Tree, where he leant. It was an action doubtless no ways to be excused, especially in a French Man, who ought to have had respect and spared the Royal Blood, had it been in the heat of the Battle, much more in cold Blood. They say, this was done by the express com­mand of the Duke d'Anjou.’

He says of the Duke of Montpensier, ‘an irreconcilable enemy to the Huguenots, Pag. 418. that he would give them no Quarter; that he always talked of hanging them; that all he took prisoners, he put to death presently without mercy; that he said to that brave and wise la Noüe, (who came to surrender himself Prisoner of War) My Friend, you are a Huguenot, your Sentence is passed, Pag. 478. Prepare for death: that the day of the Mas­sacre, this bigotted Catholick went through the Streets with the Marshal de Tavannes, encouraging the People, that were but too forward of themselves, Pag. 171, 172. and provoking them to fall upon every body, and spare none.’

He makes the Cardinal of Lorrain, that great Champion for Popery, to be Author of a sordid and cruel proceeding. He says of the Duke of Guise, whom the Catholicks looked upon as the invincible Defender of their Faith, ‘that indeed he did service to the Religion, but that he like­wise made it serve his turn; Pag. 132. and to invest him with that almost Regal Power, which in the end prov'd so fatal to him.’ Now a Subject that makes Religion a step to mount him into his Princes Throne, and take a­way his Crown, can he be otherwise esteemed than as a prophane and wicked man?

Speaking of the Ligue, which as he says, had for the chief Actors Philip the Second, Queen Katharine, and the Duke of Guise, the great supporters of the Pope, ‘That it had like to have destroyed Church and State at once, and that the greatest part of those that ran headlong in with that heat and passion, Pag. 491. Pag. 490. and chiefly the People, the Clergy, and the Fryars, were but the stales of such as made up this Cabal, where Ambition, Revenge and Interest, took more place than Religion, which was used but for a shew to cheat the World.’

[Page 21]At last he represents the Court of Charles the Ninth, which had been that of Francis the Second, and was afterwards that of Henry the Third, as a pack of Miscreants and Atheists. ‘The Court, says he, was at that time very corrupt, where there was no difference hardly between a Catholick and a Huguenot, but that the one went not to Mass, Pag. 462, 463. nor the other to Sermon: As for any thing else, they agreed well enough, for as much as the one and the other, at least generally speaking, had no Religion at all, profane, without the fear of God.’ And yet it was from this Court, as from a deadly Spring, that flowed all the Persecutions which the Protestants suffered under the Reigns of three of their Kings. And Monsieur Maimbourg is very pleasant; when he makes it up of Hu­guenots as well as Papists. All the World knows, that the Huguenots were banished from the Court of Charles the Ninth, so that all he says of this Court, can light upon none but the Papists, who alone were ad­mitted at that time. You are in the right, says our Friend, and it will do well, to finish the draught, Monsieur Maimbourg has given us of this Court, that I read to you what the Bishop of Rhodes writes of it in his History of Henry the Fourth, Hist. de Hen. le Grand. sur l'an. 1572. ‘There never was one more vitious and corrupt, Wickedness, Atheism, Magick, the most enormous uncleanness, the fowlest treacheries, perfidiousness, poysoning and murder, predomi­nated to the highest pitch.’

But I beseech you, Sir, says he, tell me what you would infer from these words of Monsieur Maimbourg, that gives such Encomium's to the same Protestants, whom he would seem at the same time to cry down with all his might: and makes such heavy Reflections upon those same Roman Catholicks, whom he makes the Pillars of his Church, and the greatest enemies to the Protestant Rel [...]gion.

I make no doubt, replyed I, but I draw the same Consequences from hence as [...]ou do: that Monsieur Maimbo [...]rg plainly shews by this, that he ought no [...] to be believed, when elsewhere he charges so many faults upon th [...] first Protestants of France, and imputes all the great Exploits to their enemies the Papists: and that the true Protestants, or the good Huguenots, being so pious, and having the fear of God before their eyes, for which he comm [...]nds them, could not be the causes of Disorders; though very likely their Adversaries might have been, whom the Historian represents as the most wicked, ambitious, ungodly and cruel of men. By this he likewise convinces us, that his Book ought not to be regarded, and that we ought not to look upon his accusations against that which he calls Cal­vinism, otherwise then as railing and aspersions invented at will to make way for his better reception at Court, or some other by end that is not worth enquiring after. It is that which prejudices his Book with all In­genious Persons, and renders it unworthy the least consideration. Yet since the enemies of the French Protestants make such a noise with it, let [Page 22] me intreat you, Sir, to clear the matters of Fact to me, which he produces with so much confidence, to raise a jealousie in Princes upon these poor Men, as if they were the Authors of those Troubles and Disorders in the last Age, which came within a very little of ruining France.

Pag. 96.First, he charges their Religion with being a mortal enemy to Monarchy. I confess, you have made the contrary appear beyond dispute in our for­mer Conference. But he lays his Charge upon matters of Fact, where­of I have not knowledge enough to clear the Objections. Pag. 501. ‘One shall hardly see, says he, more dreadful Conspiracies, than those which the Huguenots have made against our Kings: For instance, that cruel business of Amboise and that of Meaux; not to mention their terrible Rebellions which have cost France so much Blood; and the unhappy Intelligences they have held with the enemy, to withdraw themselves from their Allegiance, and set up openly for a Commonwealth, as they have done more than once.’ I beg of you to give me all the light you can to deli­ver Innocence from so black an Aspersion. With all my heart, says our Friend; and besides, when I have taken off this reproach, I promise to make it as clear as the Sun at Noon-day, that they are Father Maim­bourgs Catholicks, who are guilty of all these desperate Conspiracies a­gainst the persons of Kings, which he so unjustly and fasly lays to the Protestants.

His first proof of the dreadful Conspiracies of the Huguenots against that of their Kings, is the business of Amboise and Meaux. But before I enter into Particulars, I set against him an unexceptionable Witness, who openly declares, That the Huguenots entred not into any Conspiracy a­gainst their Kings in either of those places: My Witness is one of the same Religion with Monsieur Maimbourg, and what is more, a Cardinal, and one so knowing and of so extraordinary worth, Cardinal d'Ossat. Ex Elog. Clar. Vir. Sam­mart. that Monsieur Sainte-marthe is not afraid to stile him, The Flower of the Colledge of Cardinals, the Light of France, and the New Star of his Age: Sacrati ordinis aureum Florem, Ocellum nostrae Galliae, sui denique seculi novum Sidus. He had over and above this advantage of Monsieur Maimbourg, that he lived in the time of the businesses of Amboise and of Meaux. The insur­rection of Amboise happened in the year 1560. and Cardi­nal 'd Ossat was born 1536. He was above twenty years old at the time of the [...]irst: and he was too exact and too knowing, not to have throughly examined the Causes and Motives of two Occurrences, that made such a noise all over Europe. You shall hear what he says in his eighth Letter of the [...]irst Book, upon the occasion of an attempt against the Life of Henry the Fourth. You had it already: but I cannot forbear reading it again to you, for it deserves to be writ in Letters of Gold upon the Front of all the French Kings Palaces. ‘To a Prince turned Catholick, who should have been encouraged and con­firmed by all means possible, it was to give him great offence and distaste at the Catholicks, when they that call themselves the support of the [Page 23] Catholick Religion, should go about to have him Assassinated; that, which if there were any pretence for, the Hereticks ought to have pro­cured, or done it themselves, because he had quitted and forsaken them, and they had therefore reason to fear him; and yet they attemp­ted no such thing, either against him, or any of the five Kings his Predecessors, whatever Butchery they had made among them.’ These re­markable words, And yet they attempted no such thing, either against him, or any of the five Kings his Predecessors, are a manifest confutation of all that Monsieur Maimbourg's Libel sets forth against the Loyalty of the French Protestants, from the beginning of the Reformation, which was under Francis the first, to the Reign of Henry the fourth. The busi­nesses of Amboise and of Meaux happened, the one under Francis the second, the other under Charles the ninth, two of the five Kings, Pre­decessors to Henry the fourth, of whom Cardinal d'Ossa [...] speaks. As­suring us therefore, as he does, That the Protestants never attempted any thing against the life of these five Kings, he positively denies what Monsieur Maimbourg asserts, That in [...] two affairs, the Huguenots had entred into terrible Conspiracies against their Kings. Now in the presence of God, which of these two ought we rather to give credit to, the Cardinal, a man of an unspotted Reputation, and who was an Eye-witness of these two passages now in dispute, or Monsieur Maimbourg, who writ his Libel sixscore years after the business of Meaux, and whom the Pope himself has turned out of the Jesuites Order for an untoward reason? For every body knows it was for being detected of falsehood in his Writings, that the Pope put this high Affront upon him.

But to come to our present purpose, and to be short, we will stick to the account Monsieur Maimbourg himself gives of that he calls the bu­siness of Amboise. This is that he says, Pag. 127, ‘That at a very close meeting at la Fertè sous Ioûare, they determined a high point of Conscience, by the advice of Divines, Canonists, and Lawyers, who all agreed, That This pre­sent St [...]te of Affairs was, That the Duke of Guise, and the Cardi­nal of Lor­rain having made them­selves Ma­sters of the Mind the Person, and the Autho­rity of the young King Francis the second, became insufferable Tyrants in the Kingdom, com­mitted a thousand insolencies upon the Princes of the Blood, and gave all imaginable suspicion that they aimed at the Crown, as pretended Heirs to Charles the Great. during the present State of affairs, men might take up Arms to seize in any manner the Duke of Guise, and the Cardinal of Lorrain, his Brother, to bring them to Tryal, provided a Prince of the Blood, who is in this case a lawful Magistrate, would head the Party: That all this having been allowed of by a general Consent, the Prince of Con­dé P. 128. resolved to head them, upon condition that they attempted no­thing against the King and the Royal Family, nor against the State▪ That to carry on this attempt under the Authority of the Prince, they chose La Renaudie, a Gentleman of Perigord: That he contrived P. 129. a meeting of a considerable number of Gentlemen and other Deputies [Page 24] at Nantes: That after he had discovered to this Meeting what had been concluded at La Fertè, he told them that the concealed Head of this Party was the Prince of Condè, who had made him his Lieute­nant; That it was agreed that five hundred Gentlemen, and a thou­sand Foot, under thirty chosen Captains, should upon the tenth of March meet from several Quarters at Blois, at which time the Court was to be there, and pretending to present a Petition to the King, should secure his Apartment, that they might effect their designs up­on the Guises: P. 130 That the Guises having discovered this, immediately removed the Court to Amboise: That La Renaudie, who was resolved to do that at Amboise which he could not now do at Blois, P. 131. was be­trayed by one he trusted: That by this means they apprehended most of his Associates without much trouble: That they hanged a great many presently, without the form of a Tryal: That they cast some into the River: P. 132. That they hanged up the Body of La Renaudie, who was slain, and afterwards cut it into Quarters: That the chief of his Captains were Beheaded, after they had all confessed: That three of their Captains, who came last, and had attacked the Castle, were cut to pieces.’

This was the end of that attempt. After this general account, Mon­sieur Maimbourg comes to the Prince in particular, P. 133. and this he says, ‘As to the Prince of Condè, when the King reproached him for attempt­ing against his Person, and against the State, he justified himself like a great Man, and suitable to his high Courage; for in presence of all the great ones at Court, that were then by, and before the King, the Queens, and Royal Family, he gave the Lie to as many as should dare to say that he headed those that had attempted the King's Sa­cred Person, or his State, profering to lay aside the consideration of his being Prince of the Blood, and maintain that Challenge in single Combate; but no body took him up. This he might do question­less with all Justice, it being certain that he was resolved the first Ar­ticle of the Consult at La Fertè should be, That they should attempt nothing against the King's Majesty, nor against the State.’ Mezeray adds something here that is too remarkable to be passed by. Mez. Hlst. de France, Tom. 2. P. 771. The Prince, after he had profered, To justifie his Innocence against his Accusers, by Sword or Lance, said, That he assured himself he should make them confess that they themselves were the persons who had sworn the subversion of the State and Royal Family. ‘He had no sooner done speaking (says this Popish Hi­storian) but the Duke of Guise, seeming not to take it to himself, ad­dressed to him, and told him, That it was not to be endured so foul a Charge should be laid upon so great a Prince, and offered to be his Second, if there could be any so audacious as to maintain these false Accusations.’

[Page 25]It appears by what Monsieur Maimbourg sets down and asserts, That the design of that business of Amboise was only to seize the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain, to bring them to their Tryal; That it was re­solved at the undertaking of this business, That they would attempt no­thing against the King, the Royal Family, or the State; That indeed the Prince of Condè did not attempt any thing against the Kings Majesty or State in this business of Amboise. When therefore Monsieur Maimbourg, so shamefully contradicting himself, dares say in another place, That you shall hardly meet with a more desperate Conspiracy than that of the Hu­guenots against their King in the business of Amboise: P. 501. What can he pass for less, in the sense of all honest men, than an infamous Libeller? A­gainst the testimony of his own conscience, against what himself had writ and avowed, does he lay a heavy accusation upon the Innocent; and all this in hopes to afflict the afflicted, and to shut up the Bowels of their Brethren in Foreign Parts, from taking compassion of the poor French Protestants, who are so terribly persecuted in their own Coun­trey. He would make all the World jealous of them, that they might no where find reception, but be reduced, wherever they go, to dye with Hunger and Affliction. You see what a worthy Wight this Author proves, that they make such a do about amongst Persons of Quality, to prejudice them against their poor Brethren. For we must not think that the argument he makes in his Recital, to perswade us, That to attack the Guises was to fall upon the King, can excuse him from contra­diction and calumny in this particular. They are not groundless proofs that will justifie an accusation of this weight, especially when it has been acknowledged that the persons accused designed neither against King nor State, but only against the Guises. ‘There never was any thing (says he) so heinous as this Plot. For to seek to possess themselves of the King's Appartment to seize his principal Ministers, P. 13 [...]. and kill them before his face, as Captain Mazeres, who with others, under­took the bloody execution, attests: Is it not to set upon the King him­self, and to seek to make themselves Masters of his Person and Go­vernment.’ I shall not trouble my self to take off what he says of the Confession of Captain Mazeres. Mezeray observes expresly in his Chronological Abridgment, That the brave and wise Castelno, [...] when he was confronted, sufficiently reproved this Captain: and the famous Monsieur de Thou has the same passage in his History. Monsieur Maim­bourg himself acknowledges, That the result of this meeting was not to kill the Guises, but only to apprehend them, that they might be brought to Tryal by the ordinary course of Justice. These are the very words of their resolution, as Mezeray reports them: That whilst the King, by rea­son of the tenderness of his years, and the Artifices of those that had shut him up to themselves could neither foresee nor prevent the danger his Pers [...] [Page 26] and Government were in: they ought to seize upon the Duke of Guise, and the Cardinal his Brother, to bring them to Iustice before the States. As to what Monsieur Maimbourg pretends, that to endeavour to secure the Kings Ap­partment by force, and in his presence to seize his principal Ministers, is to seize the King himself, and endeavour to become master of his Person and Govern­ment. I say, his pretence is unjust and very rash, in regard of those ex­traordinary Circumstances France was then under.

1. Francis the Second who then reigned, was very young, and Mon­sieur Maimbourg, who calls him so often The little King Francis, gives him no very advantageous Character.

2. The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain, who were stran­gers, having become masters of the Person and Government of this young Prince, played the Tyrant so, as to make the whole Kingdom desp [...]rate; and then they had put all the Princes of the Blood from having any thing to do with the Government, the Children of the hou [...]e, whose chief­est Interest it was, to preserve King and State.

3. ‘This Illustrious Prince of Condè, whom Mezeray represents to us of so sweet a temper and great a courage, sincere and loyal, an enemy to all tricks and cheats, Mez. Hist. de Franc. Tom. 2. pag. 1016. Id. ib. pag. 768. and detesting to do an ill thing, and who for this reason cannot be suspected in this matter, had got the Informations to be drawn by men of known & unblemished reputation concerning the behavior of the Guises; by which Information he had made it appear, that they were guilty not only of many Oppressions & Violences, Id. ib. pag. 758. but had moreover a design to ex­tinguish the Royal Line, that they might possess themselves of the Crown, having already got into their hands the Justice, the Money, the Garrisons, the Souldiers, and the hearts of the common people.’

4. Indeed, the Guises declared publickly, that Provence and Anjou belonged to them, and it was a thing commonly known, that they set men to work who were versed in History, Id. ib. pag. 756. to find out their Genealogy in the Line of Charles the Great, on purpose to challenge their right of Succession against the Descendants of Hugh Capet; of which Francis the Second, then Reigning, was one; as is likewise Lewis the Fourteenth who now Reigns. It was because the Protestants opposed this design, and that the business of Amboise, as well as other contests which they had afterwards with the Guise Faction, down to the Reign of Henry the Fourth, were to no other end, Id. ib. pag. 773. but to preserve the Crown to the posterity of Hugh Capet; it was, I say, for this cause, that the Protestants were called Huguenots, from the name of Hugh. Mezeray observes very well, that this was always e­steemed by them to be the original of this Appellation: ‘But they, says he, took this name for an honor, giving it another sense, as if they had been the Preservers of the Line of Hugh Capet, whom, they said, the Guises intended to destroy, that they might restore the Crown to the Posterity of Charlemayn, of whose Issue they boast themselves to be.’ [Page 27] A great man of the Popish Religion has made it appear, Guy Co­quil [...]e dans ses Me­moirs pour la Refor­mation de l' Estat Ec­clesia­stique. that this is the only probable Etimology of the Name. So that far from the Protestants of France taking it as a reproach, they ought to be proud of it, as a lasting Work of their inviolable Loyalty to their Kings, and their glorious op­positions they made against the attempts of the Guises, who aimed at the Crown.

5. Besides, that we have the Word of such a Prince as the most Re­nowned Prince of Condè, who asserted it more than once in great Assem­blies; the whole Conduct of the Duke of Guise makes it evident, what detestable Design this ambitious Family had. Mezeray Hsst. de France, p. 578, 771. When he had got Francis the Second into his hands, ‘He took upon him, says Mezeray, to equal himself with the Princes of the Blood, and to give orders in the Mili­tary Affairs, and the Cardinal his Brother to direct the Treasury: Idem ib. p. 744, 745. whereas the ancient Laws of the Realm (as the same Historian has very well observed) Ordain, That the Blood Royal shall have the preference before [...], in matters of Government. Pag. 746. They had in a short time made a way for themselves to the Soveraign Power: as Mezeray adds, (speaking of the Duke and the Cardinal) and possessed themselves of all Charges and Places of Trust, the Garrisons and the Treasury, so or­dering it, that all this passed either through their own hands, or through those of their Creatures. When the King of Navar came to Court, Pag. 749. his Purvoyer could find no room for him in the Castle; and the Duke of Guise, who had taken up the next Apartment to the King, told him plainly, That it should cost the Life of him and ten thousand of his Friends, before he would quit it:’ as much as to say, he would have the Preference before the first Prince of the Blood; and in truth he did tram­ple upon him. The event shewed plainly afterwards, that the Prince of Condè and his Friends understood very well, that the Guises aimed at the Crown. ‘The Duke procured full power to summon all the Princes, great Lords, Captains, and others of all Conditions, Id. ib. pag. 766. to give them his Orders what they were to do, to raise men immediately as many as he should think fit: and generally to provide and order all things, either in Ammunition or repairs of Fortifications, in as ample manners as the King himself could do.’ So that he wanted nothing but the name of King. And Mezeray is forced to acknowledge, ‘that since the Mayors of the Palace, Id. ib. pag. 840. there had never been such an Encroachment made by any French Man upon the Crown.’ He takes notice moreover, of the bitter Resent­ments the French had of an Edict so injurious to their King. When the Queen-Mother intreated him to go strait to the Court, which was then at Monceaux, and not pass through Paris: he took no notice of her Request, but made his Entry in the Capital City of France, by the Gate of St. Den­nis, in the midst of the Peoples Acclamations, the Provost of the Merchants going before him: All Ceremonies, says Mezeray, which ought to be paid to [Page 28] the King alone. The Dukes death, and the incessant opposition of the Protestants, hindred him from going farther. But his Son, who succeed­ed him in his Ambition and in all his Designs, made it appear upon the first occasion, how far the Treacherous Intentions of this Family went. He shuts up his King in the Louvre, on purpose to lay him aside. You have the Story of it in Mezeray's Chronological Abridgement, under the year 1588. He put himself in the head of that powerful Faction, which, as the Bishop of Rhodes assures us, Hist. de Hen. le Grand. sur l'an. 1576. Id sur l'an. 1584. designed to take away the Succession of the Royal Family. The same Bishops tells us, That this new Duke of Guise, had thoughts of making himself King, and that he endeavored it se­veral ways.

6. The Prince of Condè, who was so well assured that the Duke of Guise, Father to this Man, had so foul a design, did questionless look upon him with another eye then Maimbourg do's, who would make us believe, Hist. du Cal. pag 317. ‘that he was in a very high degree Master of all the excellent Qualities which can contribute to make a great Prince, without any fault that might Ecclipse the splendor of so glorious Perfections: and that he was a truly Christian Hero.’ Id. pag. 318. At this rate, a profound Dissimu­lation and horrid bloody Treason are to be reckoned as nothing. The Prince of Condè profers to justifie his Innocence against his Accusers by ‘Combat, Mez. Hist. de Franc. Tom. 2. pag. 771. assuring himself to make them confess, that it was they them­selves who had conspired the overthrow of the Government and Blood Royal.’ This Defiance was chiefly intended to the Duke of Guise. But this Duke would not take it to himself: Mez. A­breg. Chro. but deeply dissembling the mat­ter, he commends the Prince his generosity, and said, He was likewise ready to justifie his Innocence, though privately he took care to have him apprehended. In good earnest, Monsieur Maimbourg's Morals must be strangely depra­ved, since he is no longer a Jesuit, not to find any fault in a Prince guilty of so prosligate a Dissimulation and notorious Treachery. And does he think, if Lewis the Fourteenth ever comes to open his eyes, he will think himself obliged to those that would make such a Man pass for a truly Christian H [...]ro, who has done his utmost to disappoint him of the Crown, by taking it from his Ancestors, and endeavoring to cut off the Illustrious Race of the Bourbon's? If an [...]nglishman should Canonize Cromwell, and place him among the Hero's, Can you imagine he should be well re­ceived at Court, or that the King should repose any great confidence in his Loyalty? Monsieur Maimbourg must know, that the Prince of Condè, being what he was, could not look upon this pretended Hero otherwise than as a Monster. He was obliged, by the duty of his Relation, his Honor, Loyalty, and all that was becoming a Great Mind, with all his might to set himself against those wicked Designs, which he saw the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain had so plainly layed. Would you have had him stood with his hands in his pockets, when he discover­ed [Page 29] so great danger, and suffer Strangers to ruine the State, and take the Crown away from his Family with a high hand?

7. These Usurpers had laid their business so well, and were become so absolute Masters of the Person, the Mind, the Authority, and the whole Power of the young King, that it was impossible to carry any Address to the King, unless by their means: and to do any thing against them to bring them to Justice, but, as one may say, in the Kings presence, who was continually in their hands; and by consequence, to redress a mischief that so absolutely required a remedy, without resolving upon some great and extraordinary attempt. Either therefore the Prince of Condè must have done what he did, or else have suffered the Throne to be usurped, and the Royal Family sacrificed, contrary to that duty he owed to France, to his King, to Himself, and to his whole Race. If Monsieur Maimbourg will have it, that the Prince of Condè should have let the Guises go on, his King ought to look upon him as his mortal Enemy: If he believes he did his duty, let him retract, and be ashamed of those unadvised words, That he would have taken the Kings Lodgings by force, as Affairs then stood, to seize in his presence upon his chief Ministers, was to attack the King him­self, and to seek to make himself master of his Person and Government. In the condition matters were then, it was the only humane means left to rescue the young King from slavery, to give a stop to the Outrages of a Forain domineering Power, or rather Tyranny, and to preserve the Crown to its right Heirs. If God was not pleased, in his All-wise providence, to give so good success to the attempt as was hoped: it failed not never­theless of doing some good. It gave a check to the wicked designs of the Guises, and made them sensible, that whil'st they had to do with men of that Courage, they should not purchase the Kingdom at so cheap a rate as they thought for. Besides, I must not conceal it from you, that the Pro­testants were not the only Men that Lifted themselves under the Prince of Condè for this important Service to their Country, and to the Royal Family: several Roman Catholicks shared with them in the glory of this Attempt. The famous Mezeray has published it to all the World. So that Monsieur Maimbourg is [...] out, Mez. Hist. de Fran. Tom. 2. pag. 757, & p. 763. when he would make it a quarrel upon Religion. And much [...] unjustly is he mistaken, when he offers to say, that at the business of Amboise, The Huguenots entred into a horrible Con­spiracy against their King. I am satisfied, says I to our Friend, and I am confident every honest man, that knows as much as you have told me of this matter, will look upon this Jesuits Imputation with amazement and detestation. Pray give me an account now of the business of Meaux.

The French Protestants, rep [...]yed he, are no less innocent of Conspi­racy against their King in the business of Meaux, than they were in that of Amboise. The testimony of the eminent Cardinal d'Ossat, is an in­vincible [Page 30] Defence to them in this Affair, and puts them beyond the reach of Calumny. But I suppose you would be throughly informed of this matter. I will do it in as few words as possibly I can: And I will take the account partly from Monsieur Maimbourg himselff; partly from two other Popish Historians, who have much a greater esteem in the World than he, it is the famous President de Thou, and Mezeray. We will take it from the beginning.

You have not forgot what I told you at our former Meeting, when I gave you an account of the first War the Prince of Condè was forced to make for rescuing the King, Hist. du Calv. pag. 261. at the earnest intreaty of the Queen-mother, then Regent. I shall not need to take off a thousand odious Reflections, which Monsieur Maimbourg lays upon the French Protestants in relation to this War. They are either the faults of some private persons, who having acted contrary to the principles of the Reformed Religion, were disowned by all sincere Protestants; or false Suggestions, which the so­lemn Edict of Charles the Ninth, in the Year 1563. has sufficiently confuted: the King there owning, as done for his Service, all that the Prince of Condè and his Friends had done in this first taking up of Arms. This noted Edict Ordains, That the Protestant Religion should be pub­lickly exercised in several parts of the Kingdom, Popelin. Hist. de Fran. Vol. 1. l. 9. an. 1563. which the Edict names; it puts all the French Protestants under the protection of their King, in what part of France soever they should make their abode; it Wills, That every one of them, when they come home, should be maintained and secured in their Goods, Thuan. l. 34. Honors, Estates, Charges, Offices, &c. The Prince and the Protestants observed the Articles of the Treaty of Peace most exactly. Mez. Hist. de Fran. Tom. 2. pag. 903. Hist. de Calv. pag. 341. Monsieur Maimbourg tells us himself, That all the places which the Hugue­nots held, submitted to the King. Nay, we English have occasion to com­plain of their too great exactness in this point: For they were the hottest in taking Havre de Grace from us, which we had possessed our selves of, only to give them succor against their Persecutors. All their great Soul­diers came against us to the Siege of this Town. The Prince of Condè lodged all the while in the Trenches. Mez. Hist. de Fran. Tom. 2. pag. 904. All the French, says Mezeray, went thither in great fury, especially the Huguenots. But their Adversaries dealt not so with them: they broke the Edict every where in a shamful and barbarous manner. In his A­bridg. Chr. Iul. 1563. This Illustrious Queen of Navar, that made France happy with Henry the Great, was the first that experienced how little sa­cred that protection was held, which had been so solemnly promised to the Protestants. Id. Hist. of France, Tom. 2. pag. 924. ‘Some great Men, to curry-favor with Philip King of Spain, by some signal service entred into a Conspiracy with him to seize the Queen Iane d' Albret and her Children in the Town of Pau in Bearn, and carry them to the Inquisition in Spain. An attempt, says Mezeray, which escaped punishment, for the Qualities sake of those persons which were engaged in it.’ Afterwards they put it into the Kings head to take [Page 31] a Progress through France, and in this unhappy Progress it was, that the ruine of the Protestants was agreed upon and sworn to, contrary to so solemn an Edict. ‘The Queen was perpetually importuned by the Pope, Maimb. Hist. du Calv. p. 344. by all the Catholick Princes, and especially by her two Sons-in-law, Philip the Second King of Spain, and Charles the Third Duke of Lorrain, to perswade the King to take up a generous resolution, to prohibit the Hu­guenots the exercise of their Calvinism, &c.’ That is, to break his Royal word, and to demonstrate by so pregnant a proof, that the Church of Rome does not think her self obliged to keep Faith with Hereticks: and consequently, that they whom she holds Hereticks, ought never to take her word, no not when she expresses her self by the mouths of the great­est Princes of the World, and by the most Authentick Records. Mon­sieur Maimbourg, without the least scruple or ceremony, calls these Breaches of Publick Faith, a generous resolution. And as ill luck would have it, his Predecessors knew but too well how to perswade Catharine de Medicis, and Charles the Ninth that so it was. ‘The Queen and the King, Id. ib. pag. 345. says he, who were at least staggered by these Remonstrances, being under such a disposition, it was no wonder, if the Huguenots were not very kindly used during this Progress, though nothing was done directly a­gainst the Pacification. They built another Citadel at Lyons in opposi­tion to the Huguenot party, who were yet the strongest in that place, and they ordered the slighting of those new Fortifications in the places they held during the War. They forbid the exercise of their pretended Re­ligion ten Leagues round such places as the Court should pass, though it was allowed by the Edict in certain Towns within that compass, which they interpreted to be when the King was not there, or within ten Leagues. They made a new Edict at Rouseillon, the Counte de Tournons house, by which they were forbidden, upon pain of death, to hold any meeting but in the presence of Officers appointed by His Majesty to attend there. And the Magis [...]rates had order to force the apostate Fryars and Priests, who were turned Huguenots that they might marry, to quit their wives upon pain of the Gallies for the men, and perpetual Imprisonment for the women. Whenever the Catholicks made any complaint against the Huguenots, or the Huguenots against the Catholicks; these had always more favour shewed them than the other, who were generally found in the fault right or wrong. The conference the Queen had, as she passed by Avignon with the Vice-Legat, which gave him wonderful satisfaction, pleased them not so well: so that they chose rather to be directed by that she had at Bayonne with the Duke d' Alva. They did believe that a League was made between the two Crowns, to drive the Calvinists out of the Dominions of both the Kings, and the rather, because they knew that the Queen was then contriving an interview between the Pope and the Catholick Princes.’ According [Page 32] to Monsieur Maimbourg, it is no ways to act directly against the Edict of Peace, to hinder the Exercise of the Protestant Religion in several Towns where it was permitted by the Edict, to impose conditions upon Protestant Congregations, enough to disturb that peace and repose the Edict had promised them; to deprive many of them of that freedom of Conscience the same Edict allowed them. Nor to offer all those other Injuries to the Huguenots, which Monsieur Maimbourg himself tells us they did, though the Edict had given assurance of quite the contrary. Mezeray deals more sincerely: He ingenuously confesses, ‘That they daily retrenched that Liberty, which had been allowed them by the Edict, in so much that it was in a manner reduced to nothing, Mez. ubr. Chron. Id. Hist. de Fr. Tom. 11. p. 926. and that they under­mined the Liberty of Conscience they had promised them, by seve­ral Expositions they put upon the Edict.’ He gives many Instances but one amongst the rest, which I am resolved to set down: It is this, ‘The Count de Candale had contrived a League with his Brother Christopher Bishop of Aire, Id. ib. p. 932. Montluc, Gabriel de Chaumont, Laytun, Descars, Mervilles his younger Brother, and Gaston Marquess of Trans, of the same house of Foix, who was the Author of this Advice: The Contents of which being published, he afterwards made open War against the Huguenots. By this means he became guilty of High Treason, neither could they excuse the action from being an attempt against the Kings Authority, and the Faith of the Edicts. But his zeal was not displeasing to the Catholicks: besides, that regard was to be had to his Quality, and to so many Great Men that were engaged in this Affair: Which is the rea­son why the King, to stop the Huguenots mouths, owns by a Declarati­on all that this Count and his Complices had done, as having had his Order for it.’ This is that which Monsieur Maimbourg calls, To do no­thing directly against the Edict of Peace. It is fit you should know what the same Mezeray relates concerning the Conferences of the Queen at Bayonne with the Duke d' Alva, Id Abregè Chron. sur l'an. 1565. one of the greatest Enemies the True Religion ever had. ‘She had discourse every night with the Duke d'Alva: And the event has shewed since, That all these Conferences drove at a secret Alliance between the two Kings, utterly to root out the Prote­stants. The Huguenots believed, the Duke d'Alva had advised the Queen to invite them to some great Assembly, and so to rid herself of them without mercy: that he had let fall these words, That a Ioal of Salmon was better worth, then all the Frogs of a Marsh: that from the time of the Assembly of Moulins, the Queen had executed this Design, had things happened as she expected.’ St. Bartholomews day does not a little confirm this mistrust of the Huguenots. But you shall hear what it was made the Prince of Condè take those Resolutions Monsieur Maim­bourg so exclaims against. Id. Abreg. Chron. sur l'an. 1565. ‘The intention of destroying the Huguenots, was, evident, because they daily retrenched them of that liberty, which was given them by the Edicts, so that they had in a manner brought [Page 33] it to nothing: The people fell upon them in those places, where they were the weaker party; where they were able to maintain their Ground, the Governor made use of the Kings Authority to oppress them; they dismantled those Towns that had shewed them any favour; they built Citadels in the same places; no Justice was to be obtained for them, either in Parliament or Council; they murdered them without restrai [...]t, neither were they restored to their Estates or Offices. These complaints were brought two or three times to the Prince of Condè, and to Co­ligny, who at two meetings, had given this Answer both times, That thoy ought to endure all patiently, rather than to take up arms. But when one of the chief Men at Court, had given them certain notice that they were resolved to seize the Prince and the Admiral, to confine the first to perpetual Imprisonment, and bring the other to the Block: Dandelot's advice, who was bolder than the rest, put them upon a resolution, not only of defending themselves, but likewise to attack their Enemies by open force; and for this end, to drive the Cardinal of Lorrain from the King's presence, and cut off the Suisses.’ They were six thousand Suisses they had raised, under pretence of hindring the Duke d' Alva's passage, but indeed to destroy the Protestants, as Monsieur Maimbourg himself sufficiently hints, Maimb. Hist. du Calvin. p. 355. and as I shall plainly shew you from a remark­able passage of Monsieur de Thou: Which passage shall likewise serve to confirm what Mezeray has told us, That one of the chief men at Court gave certain notice to the Protestants, that they were resolved to seize the Prince and the Admiral: And to convince Monsieur Maimbourg of the greatest Impudence, and at the same time of the highest Injustice done to a Prince, that was the Hero of his age, See but how this Jesuit relates to us the occasion and motive of that he calls, The business of Meaux: Pag. 362 [...] ‘The Prince was always in hopes, that the Queen would have procured for him to be Lieutenant General over the whole Kingdom: That she had promised to bring him to the point he aimed at, when the Treaty of Orleans was made. Tho she was no ways inclined to put so great a charge in his hands, but said it only to fool him. She was resolved to set the Duke of Anjou upon him, who was the dearest to her of all her children: And she instructed him so well, that when the Prince of Condè came some days to the Queens Supper, Monsieur, who watched for an opportunity to affront him, took him aside to a corner of the Reom, where he treated him in a strange manner, so far as to tell him in a threatning way, laying his hand upon his Sword, That if ever he thought of this place, contrary to that respect he ow'd him, that he would make him repent it, and make him as inconsiderable as he aspired to be great. After this, the Prince touched to the quick, Pag. 364. disputed no farther with himself what party to take, though he concealed his resentment at that time, to make his Revenge the surer, of which from [Page 34] that moment he laid the design. And this was the true cause of the second Troubles, which he cloaked with the pretence of Religion; which had the least share, if any at all, in that violent resolution which he took, and in that unhappy and abominable attempt at Meaux. Indeed he had already had two Meetings with the Colignies & chief of his Friends, one at Chastillon, and the other at Valery, where nothing was as yet a­greed upon. But presently after Monsieur had used him thus, and that he found himself thus tricked by the Queen, and all his credit at the Court lost, he went, and had a third at Chastillon: And there it was, that without discovering any thing more, than what had been said in the two former about the Ligue, which they said was made to oppress and ruine their Religion; they resolved to take Arms, not only to defend themselves, but likewise to assault, and to cut in pieces the Suisses which the King had caused to be raised, and to make themselves Masters of the whole Kingdom, by seizing upon the Sacred Person of the King, the Princes his Brothers, and the Queen.’ Really this is intolerable. I could never have thought so private a Person, as Monsieur Maimbourg, could have dared to blast by so impudently false a story, the memory of so great a Prince, in the face of his Highness the Prince of Condè now living, who no doubt shares in so foul a Disgrace cast upon one of the most renowned of his Ancestors.

1. Mezeray gives Monsieur Maimbourg quite another reason of the second Troubles: and to find out those that were the cause of them, there was no need that he should go to make of one of the sincerest Princes the World ever had, a Hypocrite and a wicked Person that made a stale of Religion, using it for a cover to his pernicious Designs, and to a mad unbridled Ambition and Revenge. Philip the Second, King of Spain, says Mezeray, Mez. Hist. de Fran. Tom. [...]I. pag. 946. contrived a second Civil War in France: the severe effects of which, had almost put it to its last gasp. See, from a Papist Writer, what was the true incentive of discord in these second Troubles. Surely then Monsieur Maimbourg has some secret malice against the house of Bourbon, to impute, as he does, the crime of a Blood-thirsty King, to the gene­rous Prince of Condè.

2. But with what face dare he say, that they resolved, at the third meet­ing of the Protestants to take arms, though at that time they discovered no more than what they had done at the two former, where, by the way, no such thing was concluded? With what face dare he say this, who is told by Mezeray, That in this last meeting, they determined to resist force by force, Abrig. Chron. sur l'an. 1569. forasmuch as one of the chief men at Court gave certain notice that they had resolved to seize the Prince and the Admiral? In short, the learned President de Thou, whom he quotes some times in his Hi­story, could have informed him of all that was needful to hinder him for ever doing so cruel an injustice to so excellent a Prince. For he [Page 35] tells us in the beginning of his 42 Book, ‘That the Protestants met one and another time with the Prince of Condè, the Admiral, and d' Andelot, at Valery first, and afterwards at Chastillon upon Loin; That after having well discussed the matter Pro and Con, they at last una­nimously agree to try all means before they came to the last Remedy, that is, to take Arms: But that after this, Provocations growing high­er, especially by reason of the Suisses, which the King would not dis­miss, though he was entreated to do it, and that the Duke d' Alva was now entred into the Low-Countries. There came Letters from one of the great Lords at Court, who was a Friend to the Prote­stants, by which the Prince was advised, that it was determined in a private Councel that they intended to seize upon him and the Admiral, to cramp the one in Prison, and cut off the others head: that at the same time they would put two thousand Swisses into Paris, two thou­sand into Orleans, and as many into Poictiers: that then they would re­peal the Edict, and set out others for the extirpation of the Protestants.’ For that reason it was, according to Monsieur de Thou, that they came to a resolution: and not as Monsieur Maimbourg reproaches them, with­out proof or ground, that they might seize the Sacred Person of the King, Mez. Hist. de Fr. Tom. 2. p. 714, & 841. his Brothers, and the Queen, (The Guises, Monsieur Maimbourg's Hero's, are only capable of such Exploits:) but to present their most humble Pe­titions to the young King in such a posture, as might secure them from the rage of their irreconcileable Enemies; and to drive the Cardinal of Lorrain from the Court, who had sworn the ruine of the Princes of the Blood, and sought the extirpation of the Huguenots, for no other end, than because they opposed with all their might this detestable Design, as Mezeray very well observes. I fancy, Id. ib. pag. 754, 755. it will not be amiss to read the passage to you. ‘The Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain look­ed upon the Protestants as a hindrance to the establishment of their Gran­deur. They easily foresaw, if the The King was Francis the Se­cond. King should happen to dy of that sickness, which they apprehended very dangerous they should have no farther pretence to keep the Authority longer in their hands, which then they held in his name, the Who was afterwards Charl [...]s the Ninth. Duke of Orleans that was to succeed him, being a Minor, and that therefore the Princes of the Blood had all the reason in the World to take it from them. They knew like­wise very well the weakness of these Princes, and thought they had strength enough to order them like the others, could they but hinder the gathering together of the Factions of the Hugue­nots. Religionaries, who came to joyn them from all parts; for which cause they made haste to di­sperse them, before they should be able to form themselves into a Body, which would certainly prove very sturdy and formidable, and might serve as a retreat for all the rest. Some thought, and indeed their pri­vate dealings, and those they confided in, made it appear, that they [Page 26] had attempted to draw them on their side; nay they had a mind to declare themselves head of this Party, if the Princes of the Blood should have got the better at the beginning; but that the Religionaries did always refuse to come in to them. It was, they say, one of the chief reasons why they set themselves upon their ruine.’

Id. ib. p. 958.This Cardinal thirsting after the Blood of the Huguenots, because they would not betray the Interest of the Blood-Royal, and who was wonderfully desirous of troubles, as necessary for the setting a Value upon his Power, and placing his Nephews in their Fathers Credit, became an un­moveable obstacle to the Kingdoms Peace. Besides the Prince knew that he was to fall into the hands of this merciless Prelate, Hist. de l' Etat de Fran. &c. [...]ons le Reg. de Francois H. P. 688. to p. 699. who had caused him to be condemned to have his head cut off under Francis the Second, and that the whole Royal Family was in danger, especi­ally the House of Bou-bon, if he made not haste to prevent it, in seiz­ing upon his person, that he might Mez. Hist. de Fran. Tom. 11. p ▪ 956. rid the Court of him. There­fore he takes Horse, with about Id ib. p. [...]57. l. p. 958. four hundred of his Friends, to make his way to fall at the Kings Feet, where he might offer his | complaints of the severe Persecutions the Protestants lay under all over the Kingdom, and to remove from his Majesties presence this pub­lick Pest, who had ingrossed him to himself, and imposing upon his tender years, possessed him with Resolutions so pernicious to the Prin­ces of his Blood, and to his best Subjects. The Queen, upon the news of this, Id. ib. p. 957. Ib. withdraws the King to Meaux, a town of Brie. By her Order the Marshal of Montmorancy goes to while off the Prince, till six thou­sand Suisses should be got into Meaux. The Constable argued exceed­ing well for staying at Meaux, forasmuch as there was not the least dan­ger to the Kings Person. Id. ib. p. 958. ‘At first, says Mezeray, the Queen liked well of this advice, but within an hour after, her mind was altered, either through the inconstancy of her Sex, or the Cardinal of Lorrain's dis­suasions. They say that this Prelate, being very desirous of troubles, as requisite to put a value upon his power, and to establish his Ne­phews in their Fathers Credit, suggested as if Montmorency held In­telligence with the Prince, P. 959. That she and her Children would be de­livered into their hands; representing to her likewise, That if this should not so fall out, yet she was to consider, That by staying at Meaux, she would be confined and helpless under the imperious Au­sterity of the Constable, who set himself to keep their Majesties in so inconsiderable a Town for no other end than to have them at his own disposal At the same time, to encrease her suspicions, his Emissaries spread a Rumour about the Court, That the Constable and Chancellor had sent a secret dispatch to the Prince, and were to deliver him up one of the Gates of the Town.’The Queen, startled at the Cardi­nal's Suggestions, and it may be at those false reports, called the Coun­cil [Page 37] a second time, in the Apartment of the Duke of Nemours, who was strongly tyed up by Interest with the House of Guise: There it is resolved by the advice of this Duke, that it was fit to carry the King to Paris, and to be gone presently aft [...] Mid-night. It was to no purpose, that the Chan­cellor layed before the Queen the Inconveniences that would happen up­on this course, and cryed out, ‘That they exposed the Sacred Person of the King to the utmost peril; that they betrayed the publick Interest for private ones; that they cut off all means and hopes of accommo­dation; and that the Ambition of some, was engaging the Kingdom to the necessity of entring into an Implacable War.’ The Cardinal's evil Counsel carryed it. The King went away in the midst of seven or eight hundred Horse, flanked with the Six thousand Suisses. Ibid. Pag 960. ‘At peep of day they discovered the Princes Troops, who were not in all above Four hundred Horse. The Kings Troops seeing them in their way, and that they cut off their passage, made a Halt to receive Orders. In the mean time the Prince, knowing that the King was there, advanced leisurely with his Horse, and asked to speak to his Majesty: But the young King would not vouchsafe to hear him, but kept himself all the while covered under the Guard of his Suisses.’ The Prince, enraged, that they would not suffer him to lay his just Complaints before the King, changed both his Countenance and his Purpose, says Mezeray, and put him­self in a Posture to vent his Fury upon the Suisses, who stood here in his way, and whom he knew his enemies had appointed to destroy him and all the Protestants: But what could Four or Five hundred men do against above seven thousand? All ended in some slight Skirmishes of words ra­ther then blows, as appears from Monsieur de Thou's History, who, no doubt, had better ground for what he said, Thuan Hist. l. 42. then either Mezeray or Mon­sieur Maimbourg, who makes here a great deal of noise about a very incon­siderable business. Whatever it was, the Constable thought fit to have the King conveyed speedily to Paris through By-ways with a strong par­ty, which brought him thither the same day without any hazard; and all the rest of the Army got thither the next day. This is the truth of the business of Meaux, Hist. du Calv. pag. 363. which Monsieur Maimbourg calls a terrible Conspi­racy of the Prince of Condè against the Sacred Person of his Soveraign Lord the King. He has the impudence to call those Wicked Arms, which were taken up for no other end, but to preserve to France the Noble Blood of the Bourbons, which at this day does it so much honor, and which a Con­spiracy of cruel and unreasonable Adversaries, were at the very point of spilling to the last drop, that they might afterwards usurp to themselves the right of the Heirs of the House. Is it, that Monsieur Maimbourg would have had all this Noble House extinct, and that the Guises, who pretend to come from Charlemain, should have possessed the Throne at this day? In good truth, his King is much beholding to him. Thus [Page 38] then it is, that he begins to observe what he promises in his Advertise­ment, To serve Ep. De­dicat. his gracious Protector with more warmth, zeal and freedom, than ever.

You must give me leave, says I, smiling, to give a check here to the carier of your Victory: Hist du Calv. pag. 368. The nature of that Here­sie which the Prince professed, i [...] to har­den the heart and to infuse into it all the rage, which the spirit of rebellion is capable of. Monsieur Maimbourg is very unjust to attribute to the genius of the Reformed Religion of France, the outrages of Subjects Rebellion against their Prince. You have, beyond dispute, shewed the contrary in our former Conference, from their Confession of Faith, the Prayers in their Liturgy, and from what their most Famous Doctors have taught publickly: Therefore when our Jesuit (for his change of Habit does not hinder, but that we have still too much cause to call him by this name) charges the Protestant Religion, to which unjustly he im­putes Heresie, with Inspiring Rebellions and Outrages: he gives us a cast of his office, to put the sham upon us, well knowing what the J [...]suits Religion is really guilty of in this point; and to augment the displeasure of his King against the poor Huguenots, the most faithful of his Subjects. But setting aside this Jesuitical pliableness and malice, tell me a little, Do you think this action of the Prince of Condè very regular, to shew him­self before the King, in Arms, as if he would wrest from him by force that Justice which was denyed him? I will allow, that his enemies had sworn his ruine, and that of all the Protestants of France, I cannot que­stion it, after all those proofs which you have brought; I will allow be­sides, that the Six thousand Suisses which environed the King, had never been raised nor kept up, but to be the Executioners of this unjust and bloody Design: should a Subject endeavor to cut them off, even before his Soveraigns eyes, who secured them by his Royal Authority? Was not this to invade that Soveraign Authority, which ought never to be touch­ed by any Subject? In a word, this attempt of the Prince, is it not point blanck contrary to the Maxims of the Protestant Religion of France, as you have represented it to me, That we ought never to repel force by force, when it is our Soveraign that does the wrong? I am very glad, says our Friend, that you have made this Objection: it will give me occasion to say somthing that will help to clear all that they reproach the Huguenots with till the Reign of Lewis the Thirteenth.

Hist. de Calv. pag. 462, 463.1. All that pretend to be Protestants, are not so. Monsieur Maimbourg himself is of the same opinion. And it is a shameful Injustice to make the Religion answerable for the miscarriages of those, that are a disgrace to it, and that make it appear, by leading a life quite contrary to its max­ims and instructions, that they are not its followers but its enemies. This is the Injustice Monseiur Maimbourg does to the Protestant Religion in every Page of his Libel. For example, he imputes to it the beastly and barbarous behavior of the Baron des Adrets, P [...]g. 273, 274, 275. though he himself acknow­le [...]ges, he was a man of no Religion, far from being what he elsewhere [Page 39] calls a good Huguenot, a man truly devoted to the Principles of the Pro­testant Religion, who breathes nothing but piety towards God, and love and bounty towards his Neighbor. He likewise imputes to it the Exploit of certain seditious Fellows, Pag. 370. that coyned Silver Money with the Princes stamp, and this Inscription in Latin, Ludov. XIII Rex Franc. I can­not tell, whether what he says of this Coyn, be true: I have not the Book by me which he quotes. De Thou and Mezeray, who are otherwise so exact and curious, speak not a word of it. And considering the ha­tred that has always been against the Huguenots, they would in all pro­bability, have kept some of this Coyn very carefully, to have stopt their mouths, as often as they should reproach the Papists with the several at­tempts they had made against Kings. However it be, if the Story be true, they that caused such money to be coyned, are wicked Wretches, and have most insolently transgressed the 39 ^th and 40 ^th Articles of the Confession of Faith made by the Reformed Church of France: So that the true French Protestants, are so far from owning them for their Bre­thren, that they detest them as utter Enemies to their holy Reli­gion. In general, all they that have failed in the respect which is due to Potentates, having thereby acted contrary to the Principles of the Reformed Religion, cannot be reckoned among the true Protestants. It is therefore an idle thing to reproach us with the Extravagancies and En­terprises of such men. We have nothing to do with them. And if the Prince of Condè, was no otherwise a Protestant, than as Monsieur Maim­bourg would maliciously insinuate, if under a false pretence of Religion, to deceive a simple people that put great confidence in him, he concealed a Criminal Revenge and Ambition: the honest Huguenots disown him; and it would be an unconscionable thing to make them guilty of what this Prince had committed, when at the same time he must have declared himself an enemy to their Religion, by having violated, after such a manner, their Confession of Faith in so essential a Point. But God for­bid we should have so ill an Opinion of this Hero, as Monsieur Maim­bourg would perswade us to! Mez [...]ray himself assures us, that the Prince was sincere, an enemy to cheats and treacheries, Hist. de France, Tom. 2. P. 768. & 1016. and abhorred to do an ill thing. He was then, doubtless, what he desired that men should take him for, a true Protestant, which is to say, a good Christian.

2. But the best Christians have their faults: Wherefore there is no man that does not sometimes yield to the temptations offered him. And when w [...] know the temptations to be strong, as no doubt they are, which Aristotle calls Iust Griefs, we are apt rather to pity than blame men, for the faults they have committed. I am well assured, Monsieur Maimbourg will not deny, but that the Prince's integrity has been put to the severest tryal. For he confesses, that the Queen broke her word with him in a matter of the Highest Consequence: and that the Duke d' Anjou had pas­sed [Page 40] a cruel Affront upon him, which touched him to the quick. Besides, the Prince knew upon very good grounds, that his enemies were about to seize his Person a second time: It is true, they talked only of shutting him up in Prison during life: But he could not forget, that they were not men to be satisfied with so little, when once they had got him in their hands. For when he was first in Prison, they condemned him to lose his Head by the hand of the common Executioner: And then, it was manifest, they designed the death of the Admiral, his great Friend, and of a Million of innocent Persons more. Suppose it therefore to be true, that at the sight of death, and of so many Injuries and so great a spilling of Blood, the Prince's head was a little turned, and that being intent upon saving his own Life and Honor, and the Lives and Honor of so many brave Men as were engaged with him, &c. he forgot that he could not, without a want of respect to his King, attack his Ministers, how wicked or injust soever they might be; supposing this to be true, ought he to be used after that insolent manner, as Monsieur Maimbourg treats him? Is he the only Hero, the only true Christian, that has dis­covered his Infirmity under so heavy a Temptation? And when is it, that a Fault is most excusable, if it be not, when a Man is hurryed away by such violent storms?

3. But I cannot endure, that so glorious an attempt should be blemish­ed with the least Imputation. The Prince by his Birth, and the great Concern that engaged him in, was under a particular Obligation to watch for the preservation of the Crown and the Blood Royal: all the World must grant it. It is most certain, that the Princes of the House of Lorrain aimed at the Crown, under a pretence that it belonged to them as the lawful Successors of Charlemain, and that they only waited a fit op­portunity to possess themselves of it. Experience shews plainly that he was not deceived, when Henry the Third, to escape the ambitious At­tempts of the Duke of Guise, Nephew to the Cardinal of Lorrain, was forced to run from his Palace and his capital City, where the Duke had made every body against him, and where they shewed the Suissers with which they intended to make him a Monks crown, Mez. Hist. dr Franc. Tom. 111. pag. 508. when they had taken a­way that of a King. The Prince knows moreover, that the Cardinal of Lorrain, to compass his wicked Design, was resolved to rid himself of all the Princes of the Blood, whatever it cost him. They had thoughts of stealing away the Queen of Navar, and her Son, the first Prince of the Blood, to destroy them in a most cruel and shameful manner, by putting them into the Spanish Inquisition. They had raised Six thousand Suisses to seize his Person, put the Admiral to death, and to root out all the Protestants, that is, the main Supporters of the Rights of Hugh Capet's true Line, against the false pretences of the Mock-posterity of Charlemain. The Prince, who sees and knows all this, is he not obliged to set himself [Page 41] with all his might against this Bloody Conspiracy of Strangers, who are about to shed the Noblest Blood of France, to supplant the Heirs of the Family, and usurp their Place? There is no question of it. But things were come to such a pass, that the Prince could no longer set himself ef­fectually against the wicked purposes of the House of Guise, by the com­mon methods of Remonstrances and Petitions to his Majesty, and by the course of Justice either in Council or Parliament: For the Cardinal of Lorrain and his party, swayed all in the Parliament and Council: They had all the power at Court: There was no coming to the King, but by them: They were so got into this young Prince, who was, at the most, but sixteen years of age, that he would hear nothing but what these peo­ple told him, and blindly took their advice in every thing. It was then absolutely necessary, either that the Prince, against his duty of Prince of the Blood and a faithful Subject, should suffer all the Royal Blood to be spilt, with that of all true French men, and that the Crown should be usurped by Strangers: or else that he should do something extraordi­nary, and put Himself in a posture to overcome all the difficulties, which hindred him from undeceiving the King, making him to understand who were his real enemies, and bringing them to condign punishment: which could never be done, without the assistance at least of several of his Friends, and cutting off the six thousand Swisses, who were to seize his Person and ruine all the honest party; unless, in short, he would become a prey to the Cardinal, when he should present himself before the King to request Justice. I must confess, the Protestant, that is, the Christian Religion, never allows a Subject to take up Arms against his Soveraign, upon any pretence whatever. But a Prince of the Blood does not take up Arms against his Soveraign, when he takes them up to no other end, but to hinder Strangers from laying hands upon the Crown, and changing the Succession. It is true indeed, that these Strangers, taking the ad­vantage of Charles the Ninth his tender years, were predominant in his Court, and that it is an odd sort of a way for a Subject to come armed before his King, and to seize upon his chief Ministers before his face, and as it were tea [...] them out of his arms. But Prudence directs us, of two Evils always to avoid the greatest. And I do not think any one will di­spute it in earnest but that to suffer a Kingdom to be taken from its lawful Heirs, and all the Royal Family to be oppressed by Tyrants, who have ingrossed their King for no other end, but to destroy him, is an evil infinitely greater, than to come short, for some little time, of the Laws of good manners, till the King and Kingdom were safe. There are none, but such as would be glad to have the way left open, either to invade the Throne or Royal Authority, whereby to work the overthrow of the State; I say, there are none, but the ambitious and common Pests, that have the impudence to perswade the King, that to fail in these rules [Page 42] of Good manners, when it is upon the utmost necessity, and in prospect to save the Crown, is to give a mischievous example, and encourage Re­bellion. Extraordinary actions upon absolute necessity, as this attempt of the Prince, never ought to be drawn into example for ordinary pro­ceedings, which should always be directed by the Laws and Customs of the Country. Had the business succeeded, it had been easie for the Prince and his Friends to have excused to the King this indecent Vio­lence, and justified by the event of the sincerity of their Intentions, in the same manner as by the event it proved, that when Charles the Se­venth, whil'st he was Dauphin took up Arms, it was neither against the King his Father, nor against the Kingdom: which was the Example that was brought to resolve the scruples of some of the Prince's Friends, who were afraid of the odious Reflections which might be made upon the at­tempt at Meaux, how necessary or innocent soever it might be in it self. And Monsieur de Thou, who gives us an account of this particular, tells us likewise, that the design the Prince and his Friends had in arming themselves, was to drive from the Helm the Enemies of the publick Peace, to undeceive the young King, and to settle all things quiet in his Kingdom. But I ought to read you the whole Passage, since it is in my hand. Thuan. Hist. l. 42. ad ann. 1567. pag. 467. ‘ Objiciebatur, Cardinalem semper Regi ejusdem, &c. It was ob­jected, that the Cardinal always beset the King, and that the Swisses were continually about him, whom if they should attack in these Cir­cumstances, they would not seem to assault the Cardinal and the Swisses, but the King himself. This must, no doubt, draw the utmost envy of all men upon them; but the King, whose favour they should seek, would never forgive them. To this d' Andelot, who was almost always for the warmest Counsel, answered, That the intention of the Protestants would be judged by the event: as formerly Charles the Seventh, when he was yet but Dauphin, made it appear to all the World by the conclu­sion of the War, that he fought neither against his Father nor his King. Nor indeed could any one imagine, that a Body made up of French, should conspire their Kings ruine. For though we have an account of the Conspiracies of some single persons, an universal revolt was never yet heard of: But if fortune should favour their first attempts, there would be an end of a fatal War, which being crush'd at the beginning, the enemies of our common repose might be removed from the Government and the King, of whom, being better informed of things, a confirma­tion of the Edicts might be obtained, and a firm peace setled in the King­dom.’

Here is enough to convince all the World of the Insolence and Malice of Monsieur Maimbourg, in treating the renowned Grandfather of the present Prince of Condè so rudely, in an attempt, which as it had no­thing in it contrary either to the Principles of Christian Religion or good [Page 43] Politicks, was, doubtless, every way glorious, and deserves the highest commendations. The Prince appeared in this a true Hero: He comes to the succor of his King and Country, and all the honest part of the Kingdom, and with five or six hundred men he attempts to cut off the six thousand Swisses, who were to be the Tools and Bulwork of a Fo­rain Tyranny: He had not failed of success, had not the contrivances of the Queen, who then favored the enemies of the State, disappointed him of the Conquest. But God was not yet pleased to give repose to France. The King retreats from Meaux to Paris, against the advice of the wisest of his Councel. And the Prince, to hinder the utter ruine of a Party, that was the only check to the wicked designs of the House of Lorrain, found himself obliged to raise a small Army to give Battle at St. Dennis, to be­siege and to take several Towns: But the deep respect he had for his King, made him and all his party lay down their Arms, at a time when he was just ready to take the Town of Chartres, and to have reduced all the enemies of the State. Hist. de Franc. de Mez. Tom. 2. p. 985. So soon as ever they proposed any safety for his Person, and for the security of his faithful Protestants, who were the only true Supports of the Crown against the ambition of the Guises; he immediately quitted all his Advantages, and accepted of the Peace which was offered him. This was the substance of the Articles, says Me­zeray, Id. ib. pag. 986, 987. ‘That they should fully and peaceably enjoy the Edict of Ia­nuary, without any Qualification or Restriction whatever. That they should be put and maintained under the Kings protection, as to their Estates, Honor and Priviledges. That the King would esteem the Prince for his good Kinsman, and his loyal Subject and Servant, and all those that followed him for good and loyal Subjects.’

You see now what this business of Meaux was, with the Consequences of it, that Monsieur Maimbourg has made such ado about so as to make it pass with the affair of Amboise, for horrible Conspiracies which the Hu­guenots have contrived against the Kings of France. To hinder the Princes of the House of Guise from usurping the Crown of the French Kings, and taking it from Lewis the Fourteenth, in the person of his Predecessors, and destroying the whole Race of the Bourbons, must pass according to this man, for contriving horrible Conspiracies against the Kings of France. Thus It is that he courts his Hero, and complements the present Prince of Condè.

But what does he mean, said I to our Friend, when he says moreover, Not to speak of their cruel Rebellions, that have cost France so much blood, and the mischievous intelligences they have held with the enemy to rid themselves of the Monarchy, and with open face set up a Commonwealth, as they have done more than once?

[Page 44]Our Friend answered me, That since he distinguishes this from the pre­tended Conspiracies of Amboise and Meaux, he must by the Rebellions and Plots he Imputes to these Protestants, needs mean the other Troubles that happened after these two first, to the Reign of Henry the Great, and those that were revived in the beginning of the Reign of Lewis the 13 ^th. Hist. du Calv. p. 399, &c. In­deed he accuses them upon this account, that contrary to the Treaty they had made, the Protestants ‘refused to surrender to the King San­cerre, Montauban, Milhaud, Cahors, Albi and Castres, but especially Ro­chel, the Rebellion of which Town, says he, openly maintained by the Heads of the Huguenot party, who were resolved to make it their chief place of strength was the true ground of the breach, Id. ib. pag. 402. because it would not admit the Garrison, which the King would have put in there, but re­ceived several of the chief Leaders of the Huguenots, went on with the Fortifications, Pag. 403. and gave the Court reason to believe, that the Prince and the Admiral were preparing for a War. Upon which it was re­solved, to surprise them, and carry them away. The Marshal de Ta­vannes, Pag. 404. a great Friend to the House of Guise, and Confident of Queen Catharine, undertook to do the thing, whil'st the Prince was at his house called Noyers, Pag. 405. in Bourgoyne.’ But the matter being discovered just as it was to be executed, Pag. 406. Pag. 407. the Prince made his escape to Rochel with his Fami [...]y and the Admiral: His Friends, upon this news, came in to his aid from all parts; whil'st the King repealed all the Edicts made in favor of the Protestants, and drew all his Forces together. This is, in short, the account Monsieur Maimbourg gives, who, according to his custom, fails not to charge the Huguenots with all the Villanies that were committed in this third War, Mez. Hist. de Fran, Tom. 2. pag. 985. by profligate fellows on both sides.

But the Towns he complains of, knew very well at that time, what Mezeray has since published to all Europe, That the Councel, which is to say, the Cardinal of Lorrain, and his Creatures, had no other end in making this Peace, but to remove the imminent danger the Parisians would have been in upon the taking of Chartres, and to disperse the great Force the Huguenots had got together, that they might oppress them, when scattered. The same Historian tells us, Id. ib. pag. 986. That some of the Court sent them word, that if they took not good caution they would be cheated; and the Admiral made it appear to them what the inconvencies would be. Being a person of an excellent judgment, he plainly discovered that treaty to be nothing else, but a trick to a­muse, and so surprise them. This ought, at least, to have perswaded these poor people to have gone warily to work in surrendring their Garrisons, till they had seen how the Guise party, that governed all, would observe the Articles of this Peace, Ahr. Chr. sur l'an. 1568. which, as Mezeray expresses it, exposed them to the mercy of their enemies, without other security than the word of an Ita­lian Woman. It was not long, before the Huguenots found by experi­ence, [Page 45] that the intelligence they had received from Court was but too true, and that the Admirals opinion was [...]ut too well grounded. Immediately the Parliament of Toulouse Beheaded Rapin, a worthy Gentleman, whom the King had sent thither to solicit the Ratification of the Edict of Peace. Monsieur de Thou gives an account of it. Thuan: Hist. l. XLII. sub. sin. ‘Whatever complaint the Prince could make of so outragious a breach of the Peace, the Court, where the Guises were predominant, made him not the least satisfaction.’ I leave you to judge then, whether the Protestants had reason to believe they had dealt fairly with them, when they saw they had murdered a Man, without being questioned for it, who was sent by his Soveraign to solicit the verification of the Edict of Peace. They found themselves constrained therefore, for the safety of their own lives, and the lives of the Princes of the Blood, to shut up the Gates of their strong Places against those Emissaries that came from their deadly Enemies, who at the bottom had no other design in destroying the Huguenots party, than there­by to make the way more easie for the destruction of the Princes of Hugh Capet's Line, and open themselves a passage to the Throne, or Tyranny rather. Doubtless, they ought to have stood more carefully upon their Guard, forasmuch as they could not but know what Mezeray, after Mon­sieur de Thou, assures us was acted so publickly; to wit, that the Popish Preachers ‘stirred up the people incessantly by their vehement Declama­tions, saying, That if there was a necessity to make the Peace, Mezeray Hist. de France, Tom. 2. pag. 995. Thuan. Hist. lib. 44. ad an. 1568. it was a sin to keep it; that there could be no alliance betwixt Christ and Belial that there is no Obligation to hold Faith with Hereticks, but that all Chri­stians ought to fall upon them as Monsters and common Pests; that it was an acceptable Sacrifice to God, to wash their hands in the Blood of these unclean Beasts. And for this, they quoted in their own sense, a Decree of the Councel of Constance, imp [...]ing, That no Faith was to be kept with them; adding Examples out of holy Scripture, of those that were slain by the Levites upon Moses his order, of those that had worshipped the golden Calf▪ and of Iehu, that slew all the Priests of B [...]al, when he had got them together upon promise of safe conduct. Monsieur de Thou observes, that those Preachers were J [...]suits.’So that all the Protestant Princes and their loyal Subjects, may well think, from the account these two Popist Historians give, what hazzard they run, when either they receive or su [...]r in their Dominions▪ these bloody Spi­rits, enemies to publick Faith▪ and by consequence to Mankind. But I must needs give you all that Mezeray says upon this Subject, in his Chro­nological Abridgement, which will wholly suppress the impudence of the Jesuit Maimbourg, Ad ann▪ 1568. in charging the Protestants with the breach of this Peace: These are his words▪ ‘They [...]ailed not to cheat the Hu [...]uenots both of their Peace and liberty of Conscience. They were then in greater danger than during the War. In th [...]e [...] time, there were [Page 46] more than Two thousand killed in several parts, either The same Mezeray in his Hist. Tom. 2. pag. 995, & 996, ob­serves, That it was shrewdly gues­sed, that the Murder of some Per­sons of Quality, as that of Si­pierre, who were set upon during the time of these rumours, was not done without the privacy of the Highest Powers; and that d'Arsy, or the Marquess d'Ars, who kil­led Sipierre, said publickly. That he did nothing but what he had good warrant for. by their particular Enemies, as Renè Lord of Sipiere, son to Claud of Savoy Count of Tende, and thirty per­sons of his Train, which Gaspar de Villeneuve Mar­quess d'Ars, murdered in Fraius, or else by popular Insurrections, as at Amiens near a hundred, at Au­xerre a hundred and fifty, several at Blois, Bourges, Issoudun, Troyes, and twenty other places. The Prince was at Noyers in Burgundy. There they caught a Sol­dier measuring the Graft and the Wall in order to scale the place. When the project failed, the Queen sent some Troops into Burgundy, to take him by force, whom they could not catch by craft. He sent Teligny, and afterwards Iaquelin de Rohan his Wives Mother, to Court, to beseech the Queen Mother to ob­serve the Peace & the Edicts But it was not a thing longer to be hoped for, when he found, that whoever was of that Opinion, he was called Liber­tine and Politician, and that the Chancellor of the Hospital, who advised to Peace, was dismissed from Court, and sent to his House of Vignan, as su­spected for a Huguenot. The Prince's Mother-in-law was scarce gone from Court, when he understood that the Troops had private Orders to block up Noyers, and that if he continued there three or four days longer, he would not be able to get away. Coligny perceiving plainly the Trains that were laid for them, was come to Tanlay Castle, whence going to the Prince, they both wen ftrom Noyers with a Party only of a hundred and fifty Horse, under whose Guard were, a sad sight, their Wives and Children, most of them in their Nurses arms, or not out of their Hanging-sleeves. The P [...]ince having escaped all danger by his Expedi­tion, got to Rochel the 18 ^th of September: Soon after the Queen of Na­var came thither likewise, with the Prince her Son; and afte [...] [...]er, all the Huguenot Officers▪ with the greatest part of their Forces.’

Now let all the World judge, whether it was the Protestants of France that were Authors of this third War, or not rather the Guises, who thirsted after the Blood of this Innocent People, to clear the way to that of the Royal Family. I will prove hereafter, that Rochel in particular was not so much in the wrong, for pleading her Priviledges, to avoid the admitting those Men, who came for no other end but to destroy her. Mon­sieur Maimbourg is scandalized at it, Hist. du Calv. Pag. 402. under pretence that the Cardinal of Lorrain, who did all at Court, had invested them with Regal Authority, who came to take away their Religion, Liberty and Lives. But a scan­dal very absurdly taken. There is no man but sees it plainly: and what I shall tell you hereafter, will make it more plain. I will not enter into the Particulars of this unhappy War, where the Prince of Condè was killed in cold Blood, Ib. pag. 422. after the Battle of Iarnac, and which concluded [Page 47] wit [...] a Peace yet more unfortunate. They allowed, in this Peace, seve­ral very great Advantages to the Protestants: but it was only to have an opportunity to cut their Throats in the most Treacherous and Inhumane manner that was ever heard of. To say the truth, Id. ib. l. 6. pag. 453. says Monsieur Maim­bourg, as the Queen made this Treaty, it is very likely, that such a Peace as this was never really meant on her side, who concealed her Intentions, and did not grant so many things to the Huguenots, otherwise than to make them lay down their Arms, that she might fall upon such as she had a mind to be re­venged of, the Admiral especially, upon the first favorable occasion that should offer it self: which she thought she had met with at last, when she had prevailed with the King to take that horrid Resolution, which was executed upon that Bloody and Accursed Day of St. Bartholomew. Under pretence of Mar­rying the Prince of Navar to the Lady Margaret, Sister to Charles the Ninth, all the Protestants, that were of any Quality, were drawn to Paris. The Queen of Navar was taken away in five days by a hot Fe­ver, occasioned, as many believed, by the art of the Perfumer Messer René, a Florentine, suspected for a skillful man at poysoning, Id. ib. l. 6. pag. 4 [...]. Id. ib. pag. 468. Upon the year, 1572. as Monsieur Maimbourg himself acknowledges. At last to make the Feast more so­lemn, they had the Admiral murdered by an old retainer to the House of Guise, called Louviers Monrevel, who shot him with a Carabine: and they concluded it with this cruel Butchery, which Monsieur de Perefixe, Archbishop of Paris, sums up in these words, in his History of Henry the Great. ‘All the Huguenots that came to the Feast, had their throats cut; amongst others, the Admiral, Twenty other Lords of note, Twelve hundred Gentlemen, Three or four thousand Soldiers and Citizens, and then through all the Towns of the Kingdom, Histor. de France▪ Tom. 2. P. 1110. after the pattern at Paris, near a Hundred thousand men A detestable action, such as ne­ver was before, nor never will be, by the help of God, the like.’ But all the Popish World was of the Archbishop of Paris his mind, witness what Mezeray says, ‘The holy Father, and all his Court, expressed a mighty joy at it, and went in a solemn Procession to the Church of St. Lewis, to give God thanks for so happy a riddance: where the Cardi­nal of Lorrain, who found not himself in such a transport of joy, had placed over the door a Latin Inscription after the ancient manner, giving the reason of this Ceremony. They were not less rejoyced in Spain, than at Rome, where they preached up this Action before King Philip, under the Title of The Triumph of the Church militant.’ It is true, that Monsieur Maimbourg, Papist as he is, could not bring himself to second this Joy of his High Priest, and one of his Hero's the Cardinal of Lor­rain. But on the contrary, he has highly condemned so shameful a Fact; neither could he forbear to Declame, in more than one place, Hist. di [...] Calv. pag. 476. l. 6. Ib. 477. against those barbarous people that did it. My Reader, says he, ought not to ex­pect from me an account of all that was done upon this unhappy day, which I [Page 48] wish, with all my heart, had been buryed in the sh [...]des of eternal Oblivion. ‘So soon as it rung the Warning Toxin, It is called in French, which i [...] a certai [...] flow s [...]nd they give the Bell, when it is to warn of Fire, or a­ny thing ex­traordina­ry. Bell at the Palace, there were more than Fifty thousand men Armed running up and down the Streets, like so many Furies let loose, breaking open doors, crowding into the Houses that were marked out, or that they themselves had observed, making the Air sound with the hideous Cries that were heard from the groans of Men and Women that were assassinated, and the Oaths and Blasphemies of those that murdered them, Dispatch, kill, stab, knock them down, fling them out of the windows, made Paris all that day, which was upon a Sunday, and a Feast, a bloody Theater of Cruelty, or rather an abominable Butchery, by the slaughter of above Six thousand persons, whose Blood ran down the kennels, Pag. 478. and their Bodies, all gored with Wounds, dragged into the River. This was what we might reasonably expect from the brutish and blind rage of a Rabble, when they are let loose to do what they please with impunity. But that which we find in this altogether mis-becoming the French generosity, which ought to be the proper character of the Nobility of the Kingdom, especially those of the Highest Rank, was, that the Marshal de Tavannes, the chief contriver of this Massacre, and the Duke de Montpensier, too warm a Catholick, went up and down the Streets encouraging the People, who were already but too much transported of themselves, and setting them on upon every body sparing none. The King himself, who saw out of his Chamber-window the mangled Bodies floating upon the Water, was so far from being troubled at the sight, that he shot with a long Gun, though to no p [...]rpose, cross the River, at those, who they had told him, were got into the Faubourg St. Germain to save themselves from the Massacre, and cryed out as loud as he could stretch his voice, that they should pursue and kill them. Pag. 479. However, he was afterwards ex­treamly trouble at it; and to excuse himself from the imputation of so cruel an Act, he caused Letters to be writ the same day, to all the Governors of the Provinces, that all which was done at Paris upon St. Bartholomew's day, was the effect of an old Quarrel that was b [...]tween the Duke of Guise and the Admiral, which drew on such deadly Con­sequences, it being impossible to hinder them during that rage the Pa­risians were then stirred up to, by running into Arms for the Guises a­gainst the Huguenots. However, this excuse passed but for a little while. They made the King sensible, that besides it would not be cre­dited, it would expose his Majesty to the contempt of his Subjects, when they should see by this, that he had not authority enough over the Guises to be obeyed by them, nor power and resolution to punish so great a fault. Wherefore wholly changing his mind, he appointed the Tuesday following to appear himself in Parliament, where he declared, the same which he likewise caused to be writ to all the Governors, that [Page 49] this Massacre was committed by his Order, though to his great grief, for prevention of a Hellish Conspiracy, which the Admiral with the Huguenots had entred into against his Person, and against all the Princes of the Blood, thereby to possess himself of the Soveraign Power and of the Regality, when they should at one blow have destroyed all the Royal Line. The premier President, Christopher du Thou, though in his heart he abhorred so foul an action, as that of St. Bartholomew's day, Pag. 480. and openly disclaimed against it all his life, does yet undertake, out of a flattery little becoming so great a Magistrate, to commend it, as the effect of a singular prudence, and in his Speech to extol the King, who to preserve the Government, by suppressing those that would have over­thrown it, understood so well how to practice that excellent Rule of Lewis the Eleventh, who was used to say, He that knows not how to dis­semble, knows nothing of the art of Governing. And the better to prove this Plot, which gained but little faith then, and that no body believes now, they proceeded against old Briquemaud, Marshal du Camp to the Princes Army, against Caragnes Chancellor to the party, and against the dead Admiral. They were all three hanged, the last in Effigy, by some­thing made up like him, with a tooth-pick in his mouth, as he was al­most always used to have, and the two others in person, before the King and the Queen, who would needs see the Execution out of the Town-house window. They thought by this likewise, to perswade the They were the new King of Navarre, and the new Prince of Condè. Princes, whom they had a mind to draw over from that Party, by making them believe, That they had engaged with those, who were their greatest enemies, and the most profligate of all men.’

What do you think, says our Friend, after he had read all this long story out of Monsieur Maimbourg; what do you think of the enemies of the French Protestants, and their dealings? I assured him, I was extream­ly surprised: and that out of respect to the quality of those that acted, I durst not tell him all I thought. But I heartily thank Monsieur Maim­bourg, for letting the World know, that this pretended hellish Conspi­racy, charged upon the Huguenots, to take away their good Name, after they had taken away their Lives, was but a shameful Story, raised by a devilish malice to excuse a hellish action: and for so freely censuring the meaness of the Premier President, Christopher du Thou, who was so base to commend that in publick, which he abhorred in private, and to countenance such a Story, against the Dictates of his own Conscience. All the World may by this easily discern the Spirit of Popery: It is a Spirit of Murder and Lying. It causes the shedding Rivers of Blood, and it invents Lies to colour its Murders, and to commit fresh ones, Joh 8.44. by which Briguemaud and Cavagnes were hanged. This is to say much in a few words, says our Friend. And if Monsieur Maimbourg had been constant­ly so ingenuous, as he is upon this occasion, his Book would be no Li­bel, [Page 50] but a true and righteous defence of the Protestants Innocence. All those dreadful things which he there alledges against them, are the stamp of the same Spirit, which vouches a Conspiracy, to justifie the Massacre. Neither was it harder for him to be assured of that, than to satisfie him­self, that this last report was a meer Story. This Story was, as he says himself, the first means his Church thought fit to use for the conversion of the young King of Navarre, who was afterwards Henry the Great, and the young Prince of Condè to the Roman Religion. They likewise believed, says he, that this, meaning the false rumour of a hellish Conspi­racy against all the Royal Line, would help towards the Conversion of the Princes, by making them believe, they were engaged with those that were their greatest enemies and the worst of Men. An excellent way of converting truly! And becoming the Christian Religion.

I will now read to you, what account Monsieur Maimbourg gives of Charles the Ninth's proceedings in the accomplishment of this excellent Work, Id. ib. p. 481. after as Christian a manner, as it had been begun. ‘Whilst they were Massacring the Huguenots in the Louvre, and all over Paris, the King sent for those Princes into his Closet, where, after he had in short given them the reason of this bloody Proceeding, of which they them­selves had seen some part, and which was yet in execution, he tells them with a stern countenance, imperious and threatning accor­ding to his custom, that being resolved no longer to suffer in his King­dom so wicked a Religion, which teaches its Followers to revolt, and even to conspire against the Person of their Sovereign, he expected they should presently renounce this cursed Sect, and that they should embrace the Faith which was always professed by the most Christian Kings, from whom they had the honor to be descended: and that if they refused to comply with him in this, he would use them just as they had seen them used, whose Rebellion and Impiety they had hitherto been directed by. To this the King of Navarre answered, with all respect, that he was no ways obstinate, but was ready to submit to in­struction, and sincerely to embrace the Catholick Religion when he should be convinced of the truth of it, which as yet he was ignorant of. P. 482. The Prince of Condè answered, That his Majesty, whose Subject he was, might dispose of his Life and Fortune as he pleased; but not of his Religion, for which he was accountable to God alone, of whom he held it. This answer given to a fierce and hasty Master, put him into so great a rage, that falling into hard words, calling him ever and anon, Seditious Mad-man, Rebel, and Son of a Rebel: he swore by God, that if he did not comply, in that little time which he should give him, he would have his life. Nay more, not being able to en­dure to see, that in spight of all their endeavors to convert him, this Prince should still continue unmoveable: he drew his Sword, and [Page 51] vowed he would destroy all the rest of the Huguenots, that persisted in their Heresie, beginning presently with the Prince of Condè. And it was with much ado, that the young Queen prevailed with him to lay by his Sword, casting herself at his feet to entreat him, with hands lifted up, and tears in her eyes, but to forbear a little while. He yield­ed, but at the same time, making the Prince be brought before him, he cast two or three thundring looks at him, without saying any more than these three words to him in a threatning and frightful tone, Mass, Death, or the Bastile: and so turning away, he dismissed him. This wrought so strongly upon the Mind of the poor Prince, and so terrified him, P. 483. that he solemnly abjured Calvinism in the presence of his Uncle the Cardinal of Bourbon, as had done before him, the King of Navarre, the Lady Catharine his Sister, and the Princess of Condè.’ You see what were the motives, that converted the Princes. And this detestable Massacre was the introduction of the fourth War upon the Pro­testants, as Mezeray says. Abr. Chr. sur l'an. 1573.

As to the Fact, our Jesuite, Jesuite as he is, notwithstanding con­demns it. Neither has he the Heart to charge the Huguenots with these new troubles. Id. ib. The King raised several Armies to extirpate those that had escaped the Massacre. They layed the two so much talked of Sieges of Rochel and Sanvane; which were raised at the arrival of the Polish Embassadors, come to seek for the Duke of Anjou, elected King of that Kingdom, whither he went. Charles the Ninth falls very ill. The Prince of Condé flies into Germany, Hist. de Hen. le Grand par l' Eveq. de Rhodes sur l'an. 1574. and returns again to the Pro­testant Communion. The King dies after a thousand remorses of Con­science upon the account of St. Bartholomew's Massacre. For we are told, That oftentimes he fancied that he saw a Sea of Blood flowing before his Eyes, and that they should hear him from time to time cry out, Ah! my poor Subjects, what have ye done to me? They forced me to it. Then though too late, he acknowledg'd, Mez. Hist. de Fran. T. 11. p. 1168. that it was not the Protestants, as the Jesuite Maimbourg so maliciously reports, but the Montmorency's and the Guises, who had been the real Authors of all the Troubles. He had owned, says Mezeray, That the Houses of Montmoren­cy and Guise were the true causes of the Civil Wars. The King of Po­land, who was afterwards called Henry the Third, returns into France, Id. ib. 1170. and succeeds Charles the Ninth. The Protestants apply to him for Peace, and at the same time, Mez. A­breg. Chr. s [...]r l an. 1575. Id. ib. That Atheism and Blasphemy may be ex­emplarily punished, and that the Ordinances against enormous and lewd Whoring, which drew down the Wrath of God upon France, might be execu [...] [...]ut, says Mezeray, this untoward reproof, made the Huguenots mere ha [...]ed at Court than did all their Insurrections and Heresies. They had no fruit [...] their demands: they would not be hearkned to. Id. ib. The War was kept up every where. The Duke of Alanzon, pre­sumptive [Page 52] Heir to the Crown, Id. ib. retired from Court, and headed the Pro­testants. "The King of Navarre likewise withdrew four Months after. Their conjunction with the Prince of Condè, Id. ib. sur l'an. 1576. who had raised a conside­rable Army, obliges the Court at last to agree to Peace, which they had so long desired. The Edict was prepared and verified the 15 ^th of May, 1576. Id. ib. ‘It allowed the Protestants the free exercise of their Re­ligion, which from that time forwards, was to be called La Reli­gion pre­t [...]ndue Re­formed. The Pretend­ded Reformed Religion. It allowed them Church-yards, and made them capable of all Offices both in the Colledges, Hospitals, &c. forbid far­ther enquiry after Priests and Fryars, that were married; declared their Children Legitimate, and capable of Succ [...]ssion, &c. expressed a deep resentment of the Slaughters upon St. Bartholomew's day: ex­empted the Children of those, that had been killed, from the Arriere­ban. Duty of the Militia, if they were Gentlemen, and from Taxes, if Yeomen: repealed all the Acts which had condemned the Admiral, Briquemaud, Cavagnes, Montgommery, Montbrun, and others of the Religion: owned the Prince and D' Amville for his good Subjects, Casimir for his Allie and Neighbor, and owned all they had done, as done for his Service: gave to those of the Religion, for their better security of Justice, the A Court of Justice consisting of half Prote­stants, and half Pa­pists. Ib. Chambres my parties, in each Parliament or Court of Justice, &c.’

But all this was only for a new decoy to catch the Huguenots. Mezeray observes, that so soon as they had got the Duke of Alanzon from them, they began afresh to contrive their ruine. And then it was, that ter­rible League broke out, which under pretence of extirpating the Pro­testants, set the whole Kingdom in a flame. All the Historians agree, that it was the pernicious cause of all the Wars, that were made against the Huguenots, during the Reign of Henry the Third, and that had like to have laid France waste. Wherefore, to justifie the innocence of the Protestants, during all these troubles, we need only observe the measures and designs of the League, which was the cause of them. I will keep to what Monsieur Maimbourg says. He is thus far ingenuous, ‘This League, Hist. du Ca. v. p. 490. P. 491. says he, had like to have overthrown both Church and State. The most of those that went into it, or rather run headlong and blindfold with so much heat and passion, and especially the com­mon people, the Clergy and the Fryars, were but stales to those that composed the Cabal, where Ambition, Malice, and Self-Interest had more share, than Religion, which in all probability was brought in for no other end, but to ch [...]at the World. These were the King of Spain, Queen Catharine, and the Duke of Guise: who cast up their Accounts together, though upon very different reasons, yet such as agreed all against the State: the Duke, to make himself head of a Party, which after the expiration of the The Line b [...]fore that of Bour­bon. Valois, might advance him to yet a higher pitch; the Queen, that she might have a pretence to [Page 53] bring in her Grandchild Henry, Son to Charles Duke of Lorrain, in­stead of the lawful Successor to the Crown; the King of Navarre, her Son-in-Law, whom she cared not for; and the Spaniard, to take ad­vantage of the division the League would cause among the French, to make them ruine one another, and afterwards become their Master. This League divided the Catholicks, who took Arms one against an­ther, the one to s [...]cure Religion, as they said, the other to defend the Royal Authority, and the Fundamental Law of the Land, which they designed to overthrow. It obliged the King, for prevention of the dangerous Conspiraci [...]s of the Leaguers, P. 492. to come to a difficult ex­treme, and to join his Forces with those of the Huguenot Party, to reduce the Catholick Rebels to their Duty. It stirred up terrible Commotions all over the Kingdom. This cursed League was made in opposition to the Royal Authority, under the fair pretence of Reli­gion. It had a fowl beginning, though contrary to the common ap­prehension of those, who know not how to fift into the bottom of it. Its procedure was abominable, being neither more nor less, but almost a continued attempt against the Government of a King, who was at least as good a Catholick as they that headed the League.’ In con­clusion, P. 494. that the rise and design of the League extended to the Subver­sion of the Royal Family.

I shall not need to give an exact account here of all the steps the Contrivers of this violent Conspiracy took, Hist. de Hen. le Grand sur Pan. 1576. since the holding of the Estates at Blois in the year 1576. Where, as the Bishop of Rhodes says, The King, Henry the Third, was forced to declare himself Head of the League, whereby from a Soveraign he became head of a Faction, and Enemy to a part of his Subjects, down to the year 1589. when they caused this unfortunate Prince to be stabbed by Iaques Clement the Fryar. It is enough to understand, that by the confession of Monsieur Maimbourg hims [...]lf, the Duke of Guise and his Complices, did not put Henry the Third upon persecuting the Protestants with that heat and violence, for any other end, but by the ruin [...] of the Protestants to compass The Sub­version of the Royal Family. This was the bottom of all their Designs▪ All their aim was to take the Crown from its lawful Heirs. The first thing the Guises and the Queen Mother proposed to themselves, when the Duke of Alenzon was dead, says the Bishop of Rhodes, was each to make sure of the Crown, as if the Succession had been at an end. Ib. sur l'an. 1584. ‘This Prelate says further, that the Duke of Guise his design was to secure the Crown to himself. So soon as ever the League was co [...] to a heighth and strengthened, they that had contrived it, made it [...] that it was not only to s [...]cure Religion for the future, but from [...] moment to get themselves up to the Throne; and that thei [...] [...] was not only upon the King of Navarre, who was to succ [...]d, [...] [Page 54] upon Henry the Third, who then Reigned. They had hired certain Id. sur l'an. 1588. new Divin [...]s, who undertook to maintain, "That a Prince who does not his duty, ought to be deposed; That nothing but a Power well disposed, is of God; else, when it is out of order, it is not Authori­ty, but Invasion; and that it is as ridiculous, to say such a one is King, who knows not how to Govern, and is void of Understand­ing, as to believe that a blind Man may be a Guide, or that a sensless Statue may give motion to living Men In short, the same Bishop asse [...]ts in express Terms, That the Duke of Guise, 'perpetually urged Henry the Third, to give him Forces to accomplish the extirpation of the Huguenots, in whose ruine he certainly expected to involve the King of Navarre.’

It appears from all this, That the Protestants could not omit de­fending themselves with all their might, in the Wars which the League stirred up against them, without betraying their King, their Country, the Lawful Heir of the Crown, who headed them, and the whole Line of the Bourbons. I do not think there needs any more to take off all aspersions. Neither can I imagine what the Jes [...]ite Maimbourg means, who understood all this so exactly well, to say of these worthy Defen­ders of the Crown, Hist. du Calv. p. 490. They became more obstinate and more insolent under Henry the Third. What! would he have had, all the Protestants suf­fered their Throats to be cut, he that maintains the design of those, who would have cut the Protestants Throats, to have been the Subver­sion of the Fundamental Law of the Land, the extinguishing of the Royal Family, and to have taken away the Crown from his Kings Renowned Grandfather? In good earnest his King is much beholding to him, to call that Obstinacy and Insolence, which was the heroick attempts of those, who so often hazarded th [...]ir Lives, to preserve that Throne for for him which he enjoys with so great Glory.

You see easily then, says our Friend; that justly they can no more charge the French Protestants with Rebellion, than they can do with any Plot against their King, down to the Reign of Henry the Fourth, whom they delivered from the fury of the League, and seated in the Throne in despite of all the obstructions of this powerful Faction. Id. ib. p. 501, 502. Therefore Monsieur Maimbourg is but an infamous Detractor, when he charges them with ‘Rebellions, which cost France so much Blood, and Plots, which he accuses them to have layed with the Enemies, to withdraw themselves from under the Monarchy, by openly setting up for a Com­monwealth.’ The later part of this accusation is so absurd, that it de­serves not to be considered. Whom would this Man perswade, that they who made no other War, but under the conduct of Princes of the Blood, who were so nearly concerned for the support of the Monarchy, should [...]v [...]r end [...]avor to set up a Commonwealth? Besides, Is there any [Page 55] likelihood, that so many Protestants of the Nobility, who hold all their Honor of the Monarchy, and had no other Lustre, but as they were Rays of the Royal Sun, should have renounced their glory and depen­dence upon the Court, to lie obnoxious to the caprice of a seditious multitude under the obscurity of a Commonwealth?

They took up Arms about the beginning of Henry the Fourths Reign, or indeed rather, they continued in Arms: but it was only to compleat his Conquests, and to settle him in the Throne, by dispersing the re­mainder of the League, which held out as long as it could, from own­ing him King, even when he was turned Roman Catholick, and recon­ciled to the Pope. So soon as all the troubles were appeased, and every one reduced to his duty, he setled the famous Edict of Nantes, under the Title of Perpetual and Irrevocable, as I shewed you at our first meeting: which gave the Protestants a full Peace, during the remain­ing part of this Prince's Life. His Life had been as long as glorious, in all appearance, but for the wicked knife of the vile Ravillac, who had the confidence to spill this illustrious Blood, in time of Peace, which was so much reguarded in the heat of War. The disorders broke out again, after France had lost its wise Pilot, and invincible Protector. But because this Conference has held us so long; Let us, if you please, defer what we have more to say in justification of the French Protestants, till another time. Only give me leave, before we part, to read to you a passage out of Mezeray. He confutes in very few words, all Monsieur Maimbourg's Calumnies, by which he would maliciously charge the Protestant Religion, with all the mischiefs in France, and all the rest of Europe, during the Reigns of Francis the Second, and Charles the Ninth, whereas this excellent Historian, who has more sincerity than the Jesuite, though of the same Religion, lays them all to the abominable Wickedness, the Papists of these two Courts were alone guilty of. These are his words ‘ Charlee the Ninth lived 25 years wanting 31 days. But he began not to Reign, till after the Siege of Rochelle. His Mother always kept the Government in her own hand, with three or four of her Confidents, Mez Hist. de Fr. Tom. 11. p 1171. who turned all upside down, to keep the Authority to themselves. Thence sprung the continual Civil Wars, pursued with so many fatal Battles, Pillages, and all sorts of Waste. Thence came the abuse of Military Discipline, the Corruption of Manners, the overthrowing of Laws: In short, this barbarous day of St. Bartholomew, and a thousand other mischiefs that perplexed his Reign, had all their rise from hence. Three great Evils prevailed likewise in those days, which did most provoke the Divine Majesty, to wit, Blasphemy, Sorcery, and all sorts of Villa­nies; [Page 56] which having begun ever since the Reign of Henry the Second, drew the vengeance of Heaven upon this unhappy Kingdom, and were the cause that God visited it with so many Judgments one after another.’ After we had read this passage, we appointed a day to meet again, and so parted. I take my leave therefore, for this time, and remain, &c.

The fifth Letter. French Protestants innocency, under Lewis the Thirteenth.

I Was no sooner come to our Friends Chamber, and that we were sate down, but we fell to our business. I am very well satisfied, says I to him, in all that you have told me hitherto in behalf of the French Protestants; and I am convinced, That till the Reign of their King Lewis XIII. they cannot justly charge them with any Plot or Rebellion against their Kings. If at any time they have taken up Arms, it was always to secure the Crown to their lawful Prin [...]es, against the ambitious designs of the House of Guise, and under the Au­thority of the first Princes of the Blood, who had a natural Right to oppose the Usurpation these Strangers would have made; who, ma­king an ill use of the Simplicity, Minority, and Weakness of the Kings Francis the Second, Charles the Ninth, and Henry the Third, had ta­ken the Scepter out of their hands, or at least would have deprived their Rightful Successors of it, had not the Protestants given Succour with their utmost Force, the great Prince of Condè first, and afterwards the King of Navarre. Therefore to say the truth, they armed only in their Kings Quarrel, and especially to secure to France the Illustrious House of Bourbon, which sits on that Throne at present. After all, it is clear, That hitherto they cannot question their Loyalty, or their In­nocence, but through the heart of Henry the Great, by blasting his Me­mory, and disgracing his Crown and all his Posterity. But I must con­fess to you, That I am to seek, how well to defend them against the Reproaches for their several Insurrections under the Reign of Lewis the Thirteenth. For in the Year 1615 they joined with the Prince of Conde against their King, which had like to have set the whole Na­tion in a Flame. In the Year 1620 they sided with the Queen-Mo­ther, who raised Forces against the King her Son. In the Years 1621 and 1622 they gave the occasion, by the Meeting they held at Rochel, [Page 58] contrary to the King's express Command, of a most bloody War, in which many of their Garisons were Besieged, Taken, and Sacked. In the Year 1525 they carried away their King's Ships from Blavet, they seized upon the Island of Oleron, they had divers Battels. Lastly, in the Years 1627 and 1628 they gave fresh disturbances under the Com­mand of the Duke of Rohan, and Rochel Revolted from its Allegiance to that degree of obstinacy, that nothing but the utmost extremity of Famine could make them open their Gates.

These several Insurrections, which are continually objected against them, gives occasion to their Enemies to cry them down at Court a­mongst the Nobility, and indeed all over the Nation, as a restless sort of people, active, and dangerous, whose Religion inspires them with a Spirit of Sedition and Back-sliding, pernicious to Monarchs and Mo­narchies. Therefore pray Instruct me what I may answer in their Ju­stification and Defence.

I know not, says our Friend, whether you are in jest or earnest, but for my part I find nothing more easie than to satisfie any reasonable Perso [...] in this point.

1. [...]tis is a hundred and sixty Years since there have been Protestants in France. Hist. du Calv. p. 10.11.12. For by the Confession of Monsieur Maimbourg himself, the Reformation begun to be settled ever since the Year 1522. And all the World agrees, That from this Year to the Death of Henry the Second, who was killed with a Lance by Montgomery, in the Year 1559, which was about 37 Years after, the Protestants continued all along exactly Loyal an [...] in the deepest Veneration for their Kings. Monsieur Maim­bourg indeed disputes the thirty Years under the Reigns of Francis the Second, Charles the Ninth, and Henry the Third, but I have confuted all his Calumnies in this particular, and you have allowed the strength of my Arguments for clearing the Protestants during these three Reigns; so that here are 67 Years of Allegiance and Loyalty. Neither have they any thing to say against them upon this account for the one and twenty Years that Henry the Fourth Reigned, or for the four first Years of Lewis the Thirteenth, no more than for the 54 Years that passed between the Year 1629, at what time all the Wars about Religion ceased, and this present time 1682, when they are persecuted with the utmost Rigour. So that for a hundred and sixty Years that the Protestants have been in France, there are but fourteen in which they have any thing to object against them, that is, from their uniting with the Prince of Condè in the Year 1615 to the general Peace concluded in the Month of Iuly 1629. And of these fourteen Years, we must deduct seven, which are the Years 1616, 1617, 1618, 1619, 1623, 1624, and 1626. in which there were no Civil Wars. Thus when all is cast up, and due Deduction made, allow the worst that can be, there are but seven [Page 59] Years which they can reproach them with. And suppose it true, that the Protestants, during these seven Years, should have forgot themselves so far as to have come short of their duty towards their Sovereign; is it just to infer from thence, That the Principles they go by proceed from a Spirit of Sedition and Rebellion? Is there any proportion between se­ven Years misbehaviour and uneasiness, and above a hundred and fi [...]ty Years Duty and Loyalty, such Duty and Loyalty, as have undergone the greatest proofs? And since they have testified twenty times more Zeal and Constancy for the service of their Kings, than they have shew­ed Disobedience and Opposition to their Orders; does not Reason and Justice plainly oblige us to conclude from thence, That they are ani­mated by a spirit of Loyalty and Obedience? It must be confessed, That their Loyalty, which stood firm for more than fourscore Years, was shaken to some degree for the space of seven Years. But he that swounds away is not dead: The Sun goes not out when it is [...]clipsed; And the Loyalty of the Protestants is so well recovered from its faint­ing Fit, that it is more than half an Age that we find it resisting all manner of Provocations and ill usage, without yielding in the least. This long and constant perseverance of the Protestants in their duty, is that we ought to have regard to, if we would be just in taking the true Character of their Spirit, and not the infirmity of a hasty and short­lived transport. This ought to be enough to satisfie all reasonable Men: and yet it is not all that can be said in behalf of these poor persecuted people.

2. It is a great matter, Sir, that they can with no Justice impute those Insurrections you spake of, to the whole Body of the French Protestants. For, First, There was an infinite number of them not in the least concerned. Secondly, they that were the Ring-Leaders, See the following Quotati­on. were only Protestants in Name, but really men only of this World, Ambitious or Covetous, who only made use of Religion for a Mask to hide their wicked purposes, and for a pretence to [...]ish in troubled Waters. But if there happened to be any sincere Protestants who were drawn in by these Hypocrites to take up Arms with them, as it is not to be doubted, they did it not in pursuit of the Principles of their Religion, which is point-blanck against such proceedings, but out of too great a fear of Death, or something worse, through a usual Infirmity of Nature, from which the best of Christians are not wholly exempt. The first need no defence; the second deserve it not, and the third sort plead their fear (the rather because just, as it were easie to prove) as well as their re­pentance. As the first are they that held to the true Principles of their Religion, it is but reasonble that we should make our judgment of the French Protestants from their behaviour. The second, as they did but act a part, and were Impostors, there is no reason their Extravagan­cies [Page 60] and Rebellions should be charged upon the true Protestants, who disown their Fraternity: And because the third falled out of weakness, it is the duty of a Christian Compassion, and the sense of our own In­firmities to forget and forgive their Failures. I propose nothing in all this, Collecti­on of E­dicts and Declarati­ons, Prin­ted at Pa­ris by Al­lowance, by Anth. Stephens, in the year 1659 P. 104, 105, 107, 108, 109, & 110. but upon the most authentick Authority that could be wished for upon such an occasion; it is a Declaration of Lewis XIII. given at Bour­deaux the 10th of November, 1615. upon the joyning of the Protestants with the Prince of Condè. ‘Many, says this King, speaking of the Protestants of his Kingdom, have taken up Arms against us, to assist the Commotion begun by our Cousin the Prince of Condè; amongst which, there are that use Religion only for a better Pretence to con­ceal their Ambition and extream thirst of bettering themselves by the disturbance and ruine of the State; and the rest have been Cheated, and Imposed upon by false suggestions and vain fears that the former sort have put into their heads, as if there were no avoiding Persecution, but presently to take up Arms with them in their own defence, making them believe, the better to work upon their easiness, That in the pri­vate Article, upon the Match with Spain, it was agreed and covenanted to drive them out of the Kingdom, or wholly to destroy them; which they being too forward to believe, have run into this Engagement, out of a conceit that they are forced to it in their own defence, which makes their Fault pardonable, and worthy rather of Pity than Punish­ment. But these tricks have not prevailed or seduced the wiser and better sort, who profess the same Religion purely out of Conscience, as expecting to be Saved by it, and not to promote a Faction; who, to a considerable number, as well Lords, Gentlemen, Towns, Cor­porations, as other private persons of all qualities, condemn and ab­hor the wickedness and rashness of their attempt, and have publickly declared by word of mouth, and writing, That it ought to be esteem­ed as neither more nor less than a down-right Rebellion, &c. We have declared and ordained, and do declare and ordain, upon Con­sideration, and in favour to the Loyalty which has been observed to­wards us by an infinite number of our good Subjects of the said Re­ligion, amongst which there are of the chiefest and best Quality, who deserve a special Proof of our Good-Will, That what has been com­mitted by those of the same Religion, who have taken up Arms a­gainst us, or that have in any manner aided or assisted them, have like­wise the favour of our Edicts, and that they share in this Grace as if they had always continued in their Duty, &c.’

This same King would by no means have the least Reproach lie upon those Protestants, whose Fault he had declared Pardonable, though they had joined with the Prince of Condè. For when they came to consi­der 'all things for appeasing these first troubles, he owns them for his [Page 61] faithful Subjects, and maintains all they had done, as done for his Ser­vice. It is in Article XVII. of the Edict of Blois, See the same Co [...] ­lection. in the Year 1616. and by your leave I will read you the Article ‘That there may be no question of the good intention of our dearest Cou [...]in the Prince of Condè, and of those that joyned with him, we declare, That we hold and esteem our said Cousin the Prince of Condè to be our good Kins­man and faithful Subject and Servant; as likewise the other Princes, Duk [...]s, Peers, O [...]ficers of our Crown, Lords, Gentlemen, Towns, Com­munalties, and others, as well Catholicks as those of the pretended Reformed Religion, of what quality or condition soever, that have as­sisted, joined, and united themselves with him, either before, or du­ring the Cessation of Arms, understanding also thereby the Deputies of the pr [...]tended Reformed Religion, lately assembled at Nismes, and now at our City of Rochel, to be our good and Loyal Subjects and Servants: And having seen the Declaration addressed to us by our said Cousin the Prince of Condè, We believe and look upon what was done by him and the aforenamed, to have been done for a good end and pur­pose, and for our Service.’

In all the following troubles, the same distinction is to be made. The whole Body of Protestants was never engaged in them; the greater and more sober part always kept to their Obedience and Duty, in de­spite of all the Injuries that were done them. They were contented to encounter God and their [...]ing with Tears and Prayers, or if they were seen in Arms, it was in the Armies, and under the Standards of their King, whil'st they that were not Protestants, but in shew, made all the stirs, which they unjustly impute to the true Protestants, of which, if any were drawn in by the insinuation of several disaffected persons, and through impatience of the unjust Severities they were treated with, a­gainst the Engagement of the Edicts, to defend themselves by force of Arms, their Religion, which is from Jesus Christ, never allowed it in opposition to their Superiors. But after all, it was but a small number of the Protestants that gave in to those rough Provocations they then lay under: In so doing, they departed from the Principles of the Prote­stant Religion: Their own Brethren, an in [...]inite number of them, have con­demned them for it, true Christians are pardon'd daily for faults committed upon far more flight motives: The King himself, that then Reigned, has de­termined, That the cause of their taking up Arms, which was undoubtedly a very just grievance as well as a sudden terror, made their Crime par­donable, and rather deserving Pity than Punishment. However, to lay the fault of particular Men, upon the whole Body, or the Protestant Reli­gion it self, as their Enemies do every day, is as if we should charge the whole Church and Romish Religion with the Faults of those Papists, who to a very great number followed either the late Prince of Condè in [Page 62] the troubles of the year 1615. or the Queen-Mother, Mary de Medicis in those of the year 1620. or the present Prince of Conde in the Civil Wars during the minority of Lewis XIV. I am confident the Papists would cry out against it, as a great and foul Injustice done to their Church. And yet why do they continually use the Protestants thus unreasonably? I presume this may serve for a full Justification, in reference to the Spi­rit of Rebellion imputed upon the account of what passed in the be­ginning of the Reign of Lewis XIII. They cannot wrong them more, than to make their Religion answerable for the weakness of some of them, who were disapproved by the wisest among them, who have more reason to be considered, than a few, who acted contrary to the Principles of the Protestant Religion, as they are contained in their Con­fession of Faith, established by their most eminent Divines, as I shewed you at our third Conference. So that I suppose, Sir, it will be need­l [...]ss to run through all the several troubles, which followed the first, down to the year, 1629. This may answer the whole.

Yet methinks, said I, you should not have done, before you have said something particularly of Rochel. Its Rebellion and Siege have made too great a noise in the World, and perchance that which happened about this Town, is what has raised the greatest cry against the French Pro­testants, as Commonwealthsmen and Traytors. Therefore I shall no more question their Loyalty, and you will enable me to defend them suf­ficiently under the Reign of Lewis XIII as well as under those that went before; if you can set me right in the excuse of Rochel. It will be no hard matter for me, says our Friend, to satisfie you in this Point. And we English are particularly oblig [...]d to make out the inno­cence of the Protestants in this affair. If any be to blame, we are. For it was we that engaged them in this last War. But, God be thanked, they can charge us with nothing, To make it the clearer to you, we must take the Business a little higher.

Rochel did belong to the Kings of England, being a part of their Dominion by the Marriage of Eleanor, M [...]z. Hist. de Fr. T. 1. p. 456. Id. ib. p. [...]54. & D [...] Chesne Antiq. de la Fran. p. 584.585. Mez. ib. p. 842, 843. Id. ib. p. 885, 886. Countess of Poitou, in the year 1152. with Henry II. when he was yet but Duke of Normandy. But the King of France, Lewis VIII. assaulted and took it by force in the year 2224. It fell again into the hands of our Kings, who were the right­ful Lords of it, in the year 1359. by the Peace of Bretegny, as part of the Ransome for Iohn King of France, who was taken Prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers, by Edward Prince of Wales. But in the year 1372. the Rochellers were so unhappy as to withdraw their Allgiance from their natural Lord our King Edward III. And to compleat their Revolt, they put themselves under the pow [...]r of the French King. This occur­rence ought to be observed, though I shall say nothing of it, but in Mezeray's own words. ‘This Town, says he, having shaken off the [Page 63] English Yoke, desired to come under the French, upon condition of prese [...]ving that liberty it had acquired by its own means. And there­fore, it delivered it self up to the King, it made so good a Bargain for it self, (which was agreed by Letters under the Broad Seal, and the Seals of his Peers) that the Castle should be demolished, and that there never should be any within or near the Town, &c.’ The same Historian touches upon this in another place. ‘In consideration, says he, that Rochel came voluntarily into France, the King, Tom. 11. p. 978, 979. Charles V. seeing that the Townsmen having of themselves quitted the Power they were under, to the great hazard of their Lives, could either con­tinue free, or give themselves up to whom they pleased, granted them all the Priviledges they could d [...]re, as, That they might Coin Florins, Mony of a mixt Metal; [...] the Castle should be demo­lished, and that no other should be built in their Town. And by other Letters he promises them, that their Walls and Forts should stand; and that he would raise none upon them.’ He goes on with the other great Immunities that were granted to Rochel by this King, and by his Successors, not sticking to declare ingenuously, that ‘ Henry II. and Francis I. by sometimes placing their Governors and Garisons, had infringed their Priviledges. He adds, 'That the Rochellers looked up­on this as a violation, and always waited for a more favourable occasi­on to restore themselves to their original Right.’

By this you see that Rochel did not deliver it self up to France, but upon Conditions, and so were to continue their Obedience no longer than the Articles stipulated by the Rochellers, and accepted by the King of France, were observed. It appears that one of these Articles says expresly. That they were never to build Castle or Fort either in or about the Town. Notwithstanding contrary to this Agreement, they raise a Fort before Rochel, in time of the War, which was in the Years, 1621▪ 1622. And though they promised by the Articles of Peace, which were afterwards agreed upon, that this Fort should be slighted, yet it always continued: which was the cause of those troubles, that follow­ed in the Years, 1625, 1626. the Rochellers being no longer obliged to keep touch with the King of France, because he had broke the Treaty, by vertue of which alone, they became his Subjects. The Affairs of Europe disposing the late King, our Soveraign Lord Charles I. to inter­pose for a Pacification: The Rochellers, and such other Protestants of France as had engaged in their Quarrel, agreed to refer all their Con­cerns to him. And he obtained it for them a second time, that this Fort, which was so great an eye-sore to Rochel, should be demolished; for which he was Guarantee by an Authentick Declaration, that his Embassadors gave in Writing. I will read it to you.

Our King pressed the performance of so Solemn a Promise, for de­molishing the Fort Louis, to little purpose: when they neither took no­tice of his sollicitations, nor the obligation to which his Embassadors had tyed him up, to see this Treaty of Peace executed You may perceive it by the Duke of Buckingham's Manifesto, who at last landed upon the Isle of Rè, with an Army, to discharge the Royal Word of our Sove­raign. This is the Manifestò.

This Declaration shews that our Kings are resolved to love and che [...] ­ish the Protestants of France; and that our Great Monarch in holding his Arms open to them at this day does but follow the steps of his Prin­cely Father. He demonstrates thereby to all his people, that he in­herites his goodness, as well as his Crown; and that, as this holy Martyr, he knows assuredly, that these poor persecuted, would breath nothing but loyalty in the enjoyment of the Edicts. The same Declaration shews undeniably the innocence and justice of our arming upon the oc­casions, whereof we are treating, as not having been made but upon the extreamest necessity, when there was no other way left to hold France to that promise, of which our King was the Garante, and to prevent the lo [...]s of Rochel, which was undone only for committing its concerns to his Majesty. Honour, sincerity, publick faith, the Law of Nations, the urging Duty of conscience, all obliged us to run in to the succour of a Town, that had cast it self upon our Monarch, and that had full right to shake off the yoke of France, since it had been no otherwise given up to the French, but upon a condition that was broken, which was, that they should build no Fort upon its Territory, whereby to give cause of suspicion. Nevertheless, as the Declaration ob [...]erves, they had not only built one, against the Article of the Treaty, which made the Treaty void, and put Rochel, into its full liberty, which it had acquired at o­ther [Page 69] times: but they had built several, which blocked up the Town on every side, and destroyed its trade,

Our arming therefore upon this occasion, was just. It was justified by the publick faith, and the Law of necessity, and had no other end but to protect the weak, who were oppressed contrary to the [...]ngagement of the Treaty, which was the supporting of a good cause. For Rochel, which they wasted after so many manners, was then in right to defend it self, being no longer subject to the Prince, who attaqued it. Con­ditio non impleta liberat fidem, say the Civilians, A condition not fullfilled takes off all Engagement. Rochel had said to the King of France, you shall be my King, if you build no Fort upon my Territory, but not otherwise; and the King of France consented, or rather swore, to a solemne Treaty, that he would not be Master of Rochel, but upon this condition. So that from the moment, in which he had broken the con­dition agreed upon and accepted of, he put Rochel into its orignal right. The Rochellers are no longer his subjects; and therefore, if they shut the gates of their Town against him, if they defend themselves as well as they can against his invasion, if they call in their friends for suc­cour; they do it in their own right, and it is to do them open wrong, it is traducing them, to charge them with Rebellion upon this account. Are men Rebells, when they defend themselves against the invasions of a Prince, that is not their King? This is so evident, said I here to our friend, that you need say no more. I must confess, the French Prote­stants are set right in my opinion. They are not guilty of the Wars, which infested France from the Reign of Francis the Second, to that of Henry the Fourth. They lived in perfect good understanding with their Countrymen during the Reign of this great Prince. The Wars under Lewis the Thirteenth cannot justly be imputed to them: because the greater and sounder part of them, were not engaged; because the real promoters of difference, were Protestan [...]s only in name; because if any true Protestants did go in, it was upon motives and mistakes, which in the opinion, even of their King, made their fault pardonable; and because the standing out of Rochel, must by no means pass for a Re­bellion. So that indisputably, it is the effect of a dark and devilish ma­lice in Monsieur Maimbourg and his Brethren, to cry them down, at such a rate, as incendiaries and seditious, by which they would render them suspected to the Magistrates and people, where they go to be out of the reach of that cruel persecution that was [...]s them. I cannot recover my s [...]lf out of the astonishment, that so wise a Prince, as theirs is, should desire to lose such subjects, by driving them into despair. All Europe, sayes our friend, is of the same mind. They say plainly, that the King of France cuts off the hand, which saved his Crown, and of which he [Page 70] or his son may stand in need some time or other, to defend themselves against the Ligues of the Roman Clergy. It is more then fifty years, that they whom they persecute, have given the highest testimony of their loyalty and zeal for the service of their Kings. But what is yet more surprizing, they make use of their loyalty for an occasion of persecut­ing them more severely. For I know it from the first hand, in the Me­morial, which was Presented to their King by a certain Abbot some years since; to invite him to root them out, and to open to him the way, they lay down plainly their loyalty, which sayes this Memorial, they make an Article of faith and a point of conscience, to satisfie him that there was no danger from them, whatever injury or rigour they used towards them. I have seen this Memorial, of which there was means found to get a copy: the Abbot, who was the bearer, having forgot the Rule and charge, that he was under, to be secret. But I can assure you, the French Court were not a little pleased with this motion, since it doth only follow the Memorial step by step, in all the tricks and out­rages that have been practiced upon the Protestants against the security of the Edicts. To be short, that which will compleat your amazement, is that this Great Lewis the Fourteenth whom the whole World has in admiration, was disposed quite another way, as appears not only by his Letter to the Elector of Brandenburg, which I have already communicat­ed to you, and is but a private transaction; but by a solemne Decla­ration, which I must needs read to you before we part.

[Page 73]Can we doubt, but, they who perswade this great Prince to vi­olate a word so solemnly given, are his mortal Enemies, Enemies to his glory as much or more then the Protestants? Were I not obliged to go abroad, I would instantly discharge my self of the last part of my promise to you: which is to shew you, that the Papists are the really guilty persons of the sins of Rebellion and conspiracie, which the Je­suits Maimbourg, and such as he, falsly impute to the French Prote­stant. But this shall be for our next meeting. Upon which, having first appointed an other time, we parted.

The Sixth Letter. Papists themselves Antymonarchists.

I was sure to come at the hour appointed. Our friend had two lit­tle Books in his hands, just as I came into the room. He compared them one with an other, and I observed him to smile, whilst he was doing of it. Pray, said I, give me leave to awake you out of your pleasant Dream, and ask you, what you are so intent upon, that, for what I can perceive, pleases you very well. If you please to sit down, replied he, I will tell you in short. So I took my seat, and he went on. One of the two Books, that you saw me have, is The History of Calvinisme, and the other The Policy of the Clergy of France. Whilst I was expecting you, I read what Monsiuer Mainbourg says in the First, to take off the prejudice Protestant Kings and Princes might have ta­ken against the Principles and usual practice of Papists. And I must confess to you, I could not forbear smiling, when I saw the ridiculous evasions this man made use of, especially after I had compared them with the objections of the Author of The Policy of the Clergy of France, which he pretends to confute. I must needs read all this to you. You shall find proofs enough there to justifie you in what I promised, That they are the Papists who are really to be feared in the point of Rebel­lion and conspiracies, into which the principles of their Religion have so often lead them; and not the Protestants of France, whose Reli­gion is so directly opposite to these sort of practices, and who, by the help of God, have never been guilty of them, properly so speaking, as I have before demonstrated to you.

‘It is certain, says Monsieur Maimbourg, that in the glorious con­dition the King is at this day, Hist: of Calv: lib: 6. p 151▪ 152. having vanquished all those, that con­spired against this Soverain Power, to which they all bow: he might with [Page 75] ease, and justly deal with the Huguenots, as the Protestant Princes do with the Catholicks. Nay, his glory seems to oblige him to it. For is it not a wonderful thing, to see some Princes, who come infinitely short of him in every thing, denying the Catholicks the free Exercise of their Religion within their Territories: and yet to have it expected, th [...] he should endure those that profess theirs freely to Exercise in his King­dome? Might he not very reasonably Say to the Huguenots: Ei­ther let these Princes allow the free Exercise of my Religion under them, or else do not look that I [...]hould allow you the freedom of [...]xercising yours and theirs in France. If you would have us observe the Edicts, that were made in your favour; see then that they make the like in favour of the Catholiks. And it signifies no­thing, what one of their last witnesses has [...] of late, to give the best answer he could to this powerful argument, which overthrows them. He thought to take it off, by saying, that there is a great difference betwixt the one and the other in this respect, in as much as the Catholicks believing that the Pope may depose a Prince, who is esteemed at Rome a Heretike or Excommunicated Person, there is rea­son to be at defiance with them, and to apprehend their conspiring against such a Prince; which cannot be said of the Protestants, who are far from any such belief, so that there is no ground to suspect them, or imagin they should attempt any ill against the Catholick Princes their Soveraigns. To shew, plainly how little force there is in such an An­swer, which is indeed but a poor shifting, we need only mark these two things, which have been laied down in this History of Calvin­isme, and which cannot be denied. The first is, that more dismal conspiracies are hardly to be met with, then those the Hugunots have made against our Kings, such as the accursed attempts of Amboise, and of Meaux; not to take notice of their terrible Rebellions, which have cost France so much blood, and of the unhappy Plots they have entred into with their [...]nemies, to withdraw their subjection from the Monarchy by openly setting up a Commonwealth; as they have done more then once. The second is, that it is by no means our be­lief, that a Pope can depose Princes, though they be Hereticks, nor absolve their subjects from the Oath of Allegiance, and give up their right to him that can first take it. Far from this, our most Christian Kings, who are known to have been the most zealous Defenders of the Catholike faith, and the greatst Protectors of the holy See, to which they have always unmoveably held, notwithstanding all the differences they had with some Popes about temporal Affairs, and the right of their Crown, which they must never give up: our Kings, I say, have ever protested against this pretension, grounded upon a principle, which our Doctors have always condemned, as directly contrar [...] to the divine [Page 76] Law. There may be seen to this purpose the remonstrances and the protestations, that I have mention [...]d, which Charle [...] the Ninth direct­ed to Pope Pius the Fourth, upon the occasion of Queen Iean of Na­var, as obstinate a Huguenot as she was. Therefore the King might justly use the Huguenots, as the Protestant Princes in their States do the Catholicks.’

I should not have done to day, if I should take notice of all that Mon­sieur Maimbourg says upon this subject. He makes it consistent with the Duty and Honour of the King of France, to overthrow an Edict, which was the reward of the Loialty and of the eminent services of the Protestants, an Edict confirmed in all the Parliaments of the King­dome under the title of a perpetual and irrevacable Law, Ratified by a thousand Royal promises, and by a thousand authentike Declarations, which Lewis the Fourteenth had himself solemnly sworn to observe up­on so many occasions. It seems, says the Jesuite, that he is bound to do it for his glory, which is to say, according to this man of conscince, that one does his Duty, when he breaks his word, and his Oath; and that he acts for his Glory, when he dishonours himself and his Ancestors, by perjuries and overthrowing the most Religiously established Laws. But above all, it is a pleasant fancy, that the argument, he furnishes his King with to stop the mouth of the Huguenots, who do not prevail with the Princes of their Religion, to permit the free exercise of the Ro­man Religion in their Dominions. Might he not very justly say to the Hu­guenots, says he, speaking to the King of France, either see that these Princes allow the free exercise of my Religion with them, or do not think to have the free exercise of yours and theirs in France. If it be expected that we should consider the Edicts which have been here made in your behalf, let them shew then the like favour to the Catholicks. Monsieur Maimbourg calls this a powerful argument, which overthrows the Huguenots. But as to that I remit him to the Author of the Critique General of his History. He will there find his dream entertained, Crit. Gen. de hist. de Calv. à Ville Franc. 1682. let. 22. p. 322. as it deserves. It is sufficient for my purpose, to let you see that what the Author of the Policy of the Clergy urges, to prove that the Papists, upon account of the principles of their Religion, are always to be feared in Protestant States, is no Poor groundl [...]ss evasion, as Monsieur Maimbourg would have us believe. And that you may be the better judge of it, give me leave to read all that this exellent Author has writ upon the Subject. La Pol [...] du Cler [...] de Fran. 3. M E E­dit. à la Hage p. 102. I am confident, after you have heard it read, you will not less wonder, then I do, at the confidence of the Jesuite, who never appears more positive, then where he has least reason. So then our friend read to me this following discourse.

[Page 77] Hugonot Princes cannot allow the same toleration to Catholicks in their States, that Catholick Princes can allow to Hugonots; because Pro­testant Princes cannot be assured of the fidelity of their Catholick Sub­jects, by reason they have taken Oaths of fidelity to another Prince, whom they look upon as greater than all Kings. It is the Pope; and this Prince is a sworn [...]nemy of the Protestants. He obliges the Peo­ple to believe that a Soveraign turned Heretick has forfeited all the Rights of Soveraignty; that they owe him no Obedience; that they may with impunity revolt from him, that they may fall upon him as an Enemy of the Christian Name, even to assassinate him. [See the Iesuits Morals, cap. 3. Book the third.] And thereupon he cited to me, Mariana, Carolus, Scribanus, Ribadinera, Tolet, Gretser, Hereau, Ami­cus, Les [...]ius, Valentia Dicatillus, and several others, that are cited by the Iansenists, in the Book of the J [...]suits Morals, and by the Mini­sters. All these Authors, said he to me, teach conformably to the Divinity of Rome, that a Heretick Prince, and Excommunicated by the Pope, is but a private person, against whom Arms may be ta­ken; that he may be likewise Assassinated, or poysoned. He added to this, the examples of the many Parricides that have been committed, or attempted in pursuance of these Maxims. How many times, said he, would they have Assassinated Queen Elizabeth? Prince William of Orange was twice Assassinated, and lost his Life the Second time. Henry the Third, was not he killed by a Iacobin, as Excommunicated by the Pope, and stript of the Royal Dignity? Iohn Chastel, did not he attempt the same thing upon Henry the Fourth? And did not Ravilliac out of a false Zeal Assassinate him? After which he gave me an ac­count of the Gun-powder Plot in England; by which, in the year 1606. the Catholicks had undertaken to blow up the King and all the Grandees of the Kingdom, by a Mine they had made under the Par­liament House. He told me of the Jesuits Garnet and Oldcorn, Chief of that Conspiracy, who were put into the number of the Mar­tyrs, whether they would or no; for the Jesuit Garnet going to Ex­ecution, some one of his Companions telling him so [...]tly in his Ear, that he was going to be a Martyr, he answered, Nun [...]u [...]m audivi parricidam esse Martyrem, I never heard that a Parricide was a Martyr. He relat­ed to me a hundred scandalous Stories of that nature. Amongst others, he told me one that extreamly surprized me; he read it to me with all its circumstances, in a little Book that had been published by an English Minister, who calls himself the King of Englands Chaplain. Thus it is in short: A Divine, who had been the Chaplain of King Charles who was beheaded, turnd Catholick some time before his Ma­sters Death, and the English Jesuits put such confidence in him, that they imparted to him a very dreadful thing; It was a Consultation al­lowed [Page 78] of by the Pope, about the means of re-establishing the Catholick Religion in England. The English Catholicks, seeing that the King was a Prisoner in the hands of the Independants, formed the Resolution of laying hold on that occasion to d [...]stroy the Protestant, and re-establish the Catholick Religion. They concluded that the only means of re­establishing the Catholick Religion, and of laying aside all the Laws that had been made against it in England, was to dispatch the King, and destroy Monarchy. That they might be authorized and maintain­ed in this great Undertaking, they deputed eighteen Father-Jesuits to Rome, to demand the Popes advice. The matter was agitated in se­cret Assemblies, and it was concluded, that it was permitted and just to put the King to Death. Those Deputies, in their passage through Paris, consulted the Sorbonne, who, without waiting for the Opinion of Rome, had judged that that enterprise was just and lawful; and up­on the return of the Jesuites, who had taken the Journey to Rome, they communicated to the Sorbonnits the Popes Answer, of which se­veral Copies were taken. The Deputies, who had been at Rome, be­ing returned to London, confirmed the Catholicks in their Design. To compass this point, they thrust themselves in amongst the Independants, by dissembling their Religion. They persuaded those people that the King must be put to Death; and it cost that poor Prince his Life some Months after. But the Death of King Charles not having had all the Consequences that was hoped; and all Europe having cryed out with horrour against the Parricide committed upon the Person of that poor Prince; they would have called in again all the Copies that had been made of the Consultation of the Pope, and of that of Sorbonne; but this English Chaplain who had turned Catholick would not restore his; and he has communicated it, since the return of the Family of the Stuarts to the Crown of England, to several persons who are still alive, and were Eye witnesses of what I have now told you.

I never heard this before. But the English Calvinists not Pro­ducing any authentick pieces to prove this accusation, it may be look­ed upon as a Calumny.

My Hug [...]not Gentleman would not answer for it, for he is ve­ry just; However he added, that what rendred it very probable, is that this Conduct is a sequel of the Divinity of the zealous Catholicks of Spaim, Italy, and even of France: Mor [...]over there are several Circum­stanc [...]s which render the thing apparent. For example, he that lately published this story, had already once published it in the year 1662, to answer a little Book that insulted over the English Calvinists, in that they had put their King to death. The Divine, who knew the story [Page 79] that I have related, published it to prove that the Catholicks were guilty of the Crime which the Calvinists were accused of. When this story came to light, there was a great alarme in the House of the Queen-Mother of the King of England, that House being full of Jesuits; and even that great Lord, who had lead the Jesuits to Rome, and had made himself chief of that Conspiracy, was one of the principal Officers of the House. They immediately demanded Justice of the King, by the means of the Queen-Mother, for the injury that he who had pub­lished this scandalous story had done them. The Doctor offered to prove his Accusation, and to produce his Witnesses, who were still liv­ing. The great Lord and Officer of the Queens House, and the Jesu­its, seeing the resolution of this Man, durst not push him on; they only obtain'd from the King, by the means of the Queen-Mother, that he should be silenced. You must avow that there are but few that are in­nocent, who would have been so easie in so terrible an Accusation. Be­sides, it is certain that this Consultation of Rome has been seen by se­veral persons. If it is false, it must have been forged by this Chaplain who was turned Catholick, and who shewed it since; tho it must be confessed that this is not very likely. However, as all this is reduceed to a single Witness, my Gentleman acknowledged that the proof was not wholly in forme; but he stood much upon the late Conspiracy of England, which was discovered two years ago, by which half the Kingdom was to have had their Throats cut to become Masters of the rest.

Be it as it will, my Hugonot Gentleman concluded from all this, that a Protestant Prince can never be assured of the Fidelity of his Catholick Subjects. On the contrary, said he, the Protestants are sub­ject to their Prince out of Conscience, and out of a Principle of their Religion: They acknowledge no other Superiour than their King, and do not believe that for the cause of Heresie it is permitted, either to kill a lawful Prince, or to refuse him obedience.

They oppose against us, said he to me, the English and Holland Ca­tholicks: But what has been promised to those people that has not been performed? The United Provinces of the Low Countries are en­tred into the Union with this Condition, of not suffering any other Religion in their States, than the Protestant. Though England was reformed under Edward the 6 th, afterwards under Elizabeth, by several Acts of Parliament, which are the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom, it was ordered that no other Religion should be suffered than that the Anglicane Church made choice of, and that they would not suff [...]r the Assemblies of those, whom they at present call Nonconformists. It [Page 80] was even forbidden to the Priests and Monks to set Foot in England, and to make any abode there. However they have not kept up to this rigour, and every one knows that there is at present above ten thousand Priests and Monks disguised in England, and that there has ever been so. Wherefore more has been given to the Catholicks, than was pro­mised them. But in France, where we live under favourable Edicts, they have promised us what they have not performed: It is only against us that they make profession of not performing what they have pro­mised. The Edicts of Pacification are in all the Forms that perpetual Laws ought to be; they are verified by the Parliaments, they are con­firmed by a hundred Declarations, which followed by Consequence, and by a thousand Royal Words: In fine, they have been laid as irre­vocable Laws, and as foundations of the Peace of the State. We re­ly upon the good Faith of so many promises; and on a sudden we see snatcht from us, what we looked upon as our greatest security, and which we had possessed for above a hundred years Thus there is nei­ther Title, nor Prescription, nor Edicts, nor Acts, nor Declarations which can put us in Safety. This is what he told me, and I avow to you, that this part put me in pain, for I am a Slave to my Word, and an Idolater of good Faith: I look upon it as the only Rampart of Ci­vil Society; and I conceive that States and Publick persons are no l [...]ss obliged to keep what they promise, than particular men.

That is true. But do not you know that the safety of the people, and the publick good, is the Soveraign Law; Very often we must suffer, and even do some Evil, for the good of the State. Pea­ces and Treaties are daily broken, which have been solemnly sworn, because that the publick interest requires it should be so.

My Hugonot made himself that difficulty, and told me thereup­on, When War is declared against Neighbours, to the prejudice of Tre­ties of Peace and Alliances, this is done in the Forms. They publish Manifesto's; they expose, or at least, they suppose Grievances and Infractions in the Articles of the Treaty, that have been made by those against whom War is declared. When a Soveraign revokes the Graces that he had done his Subjects, it is ever under pretence that they have rendered themselves unworthy of them. But are we accused, or can we be accused of having tampered in any Conspiracy, of having had Intelligence with the Enemies of the State, of having wanted Love, Fidelity and Obedience towards our Soveraigns? If it be so, let us be brought to Tryal, let the Criminals be informed against, and let the Innocent be distinguished from those that are Guilty. We speak boldly th [...]rein, because we are certain they can reproach us with nothing; [Page 81] and we know that his Majesty himself has very often given Testi­mony of our Fidelity. He knows that we did not enter into any of the Parties that have been made against his Service, since he has been upon the Throne. During the troubles of his minority, it may be said, that none but those Cities we were Masters of, remained Loy­al. When the Gates of Orleans were shut upon the King, he went to Gien; and that City was going to be guilty of the same Crime, with­out the vigour of a Hugonot, who made way with his Sword in his hand to the Bridge, and let it down himself: This action was known, and recompenced; for the King immediately made him Noble who had done it. We had not any part in the disturbances of Bordeaux, in those of Britany and Auvergue, nor in the Conspiracy of the Chevalier do Roban: Not one Hugonot was engaged in these Criminal Cases. The King has been pleased to acknowledge it; and we look upon the Testi­mony of so great a King as a great Recompence. But our Enemies, who continually sollicit him to our ruin, ought to be mindful, that it would be more civil in them, to leave the King the liberty of follow­ing his inclinations: These would without doubt move him to pre­serve the effects of his kindness for people who have preserved for him an inviolable Fidelity. This is what he told me upon that point; and I confess I was in great perplexity how to answer him; for I durst not make use of that Maxim that I have seen often maintain'd by some people, That one is not obliged to keep Faith with Hereticks. I have ever admired that saying of Charles the Fifth: He caused Mar­tin Luther to come to Worms, and gave him safe Conduct, and his Im­perial word, that no hurt should be done him. But not having been able to obtain from him what he desired, he sent him back; [...]ome one would have persuaded Charles, That he ought to cause Luther to be seized without having regard to the safe Conduct, because that this man was of the Character of those with whom one is not obliged to keep ones word. Though [...]incerity, were banished from all the Earth; an­swered he, it ought to be found in an Emperour. A saying very wor­thy of so great a Man! But tell me, Sir, is it not an Opinion very con­trary to that of Charles the 5 th, which is the cause that so little Con­science is made of keeping touch with those people in what has been promised them?

This Doctrin, that one is not obliged to keep Faith with He­reticks, is taught by some Casuists, and they pretend that it is found­ed upon the Authority of the Council of Constance, because that that Council caused Iohn Hus to be burnt; contrary to the Faith of the safe Conduct that the Emperor Sigismond had granted him, and Ierome [Page 82] of Prague, notwithstanding the safe Conduct that the same Council had given him.

This Morality ever appeared to me terrible; and I have been oft [...]n scandalized at the Conduct of that great Council of Con­stance.

The most part of the Catholicks reject that Morality, and main­tain we are obliged to keep Faith with all the World, without ex­cepting Infidels and Hereticks; otherwise there would never be any Treaty between the Turks and the Christians, that were real. It is pretended that the Council of Constance has not established this Max­im, That we are not obliged to make good to Hereticks what we have promised them. Iohn Hus had no safe Conduct from the Council, he had only the Emperours; and thereupon the Council in the Nine­teenth Session declared, That any safe Conduct, granted by the Em­perour, by Kings, and the other Secular Princes to Hereticks, could not do prejudice to the Catholick Faith, and to the Ecclesiastical Ju­risdiction, and could not hinder from proceeding in the Tribunal of the Church, to the punishment of Hereticks, who had provided them­selves with such a safe Conduct, Thus the Council did not violate its promise, for it never gave any; neither did it oblige the Emper­our to violate his Faith: But the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, that had not given any word, made Iohn Hus his Process.

That distinction seems pleasant to me: I have heard say, that the Church does not put its hand into blood: When Iohn Hus was convicted of Heresie by the Council, he was delivered without doubt to the secular Arm to be burnt. Those Secular Judges, were not they Imperial Judges? Thus the Emperor violated his safe Conduct, in permitting his Judges to put a Man to Death, to whom he had promised all security. But what do they say of Ierome of Prague, to whom the Council it self had given a safe Conduct, and yet was burnt?

They say that the Council, in the safe Conduct that was given to Ierome of Prague, had inserted this Clause, Salva Iustitia; that thus they had only promis'd to warrant Ierome of Prague, from violence, and not from the arrests of Justice: But I avow to you that all this is not capable of justifying the Conduct of that Council. Neither does it pass in France for a Rule that they will follow. If they do not keep with the Hugonots all that has been promised them, it is not that they ground themselves upon the Morality and the Conduct of the Council of [Page 83] Constance. They do not pretend to depart from sincerity; they make profession of keeping the Edict of Nantes: Do you not see this at the Head of all the Declarations which are made against them? And now lately, in that by which the Catholicks are forbidden to embrace the P. R. Religion, upon pain of Confiscation of goods, loss of Honour, and Banishment; though never any Declaration was made that was more contrary to the Edicts of Nantes. We have one called Bernard, and another Lawyer of the City of Poictiers, called Tilleau, who have made large Commentaries upon the Edict of Nantes, to make it ap­pear, that without formally revoking that Edict, the Hugonots may be deprived of all that Edict grants them, in giving to every one of the Articles Interpretations and Glosses that would never have been imagined: And these are the measures they follow,

This is good to amuse. But after all, this does not satisfie the Conscience, and one is no less convinced of having violated his word: For those who obtain Declarations against the Hugonots, ac­cording to the Glosses of Bernard and Tilleau, are well perswaded that they are Glosses of Orleans, which overturn the Text. But do you know what I told my Hugonot, to stop his Mouth, upon these Infra­ctions in the Edicts?

Perhaps you told him, that one is not o [...]liged to keep a word that has been extorted by violence; that the Hugonots have obtained those [...]dicts by main force: That ours were constrained to yield to the misfortune of the times; but that at present the King is in Right of Nulling those promises. Our Advocates plead daily thus at the Bars, and there are likewise grave Authors who write it.

You have guessed right: but thereupon my Hugonot grew strange­ly passionate. Ah! this is, said he, a cruelty we cannot suffer. This is our strength, and they are so bold as to attacque us in this part, as if it was our weak side. It is true, that we were armed some years be­fore that the Edict of Nantes was made. But in favour of whom did we bear those Arms? It was to establish the Illustrious branch of Bour­bon upon the Throne, that belonged to it. We shall ever be proud of having shed the purest of our Blood, to restore to France it's lawful Kings of which they designed to deprive it. A [...]ter this growing more cool, he made me an abridgement of the History of the League. He shew [...]d me that the House of Lorrain, in that time, aimed not so much at Heresy as at the Crown. He minded me that from the time of Charl [...]s the 9 [...]h, the Princes of that House caused a Book to be Printed, for the proving their Genealogy, and to make appear that they were descended [Page 84] in a direct Line from the Second Race of ou [...] Kings, for the making way to the Crown. He acquainted me that there was at the same time a Concordat passed between the Duke of Guise, the Duke of Mont­morency, and the Marshal de St. Andrew, which was called the Trium­vi [...]ate. One of the Articles of that Concordat bore, in express terms, that the Duke of Guise should have in charge to deface intirely the name of the Family and Race of the Bourbons. Henry the Third, said he to me, could he be suspected of Heresie, or an [...]ider of Here­ticks? Never was any man more linked to the Catholick Church than he. Yet the House of Guise had sworn his ruin: They would have sha­ved him, which they highly threatned him with, and they one day writ upon the Chappel of the Battes, to the Augustins of Paris, these four French Verses.

They are of the same sense with those two Latin Verses which were found set upon the Palace Dyal.

The Faction of the House of Guise caused this to be done: And this poor Prince, after a thousand delays and troubles, resolved at length to make that execution so famous in our History; it is that of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise, who were executed at the States of Blo­is. That Prince must needs have seen his ruin approaching, and in­evitable to come to that, since that he well foresaw that this blow would raise him so many storms, and give him so much trouble. Who knows not that the Faction of Rome, and of Spain, had a Design of raising the House of Lorrain to the Throne of France, for the excluding the House of Bourbon? In the year 1587. the Pope sent to the Duke of Guise a Sword engraven with flames, telling him by the Duke of Parma, that amongst all the Princes of Europe, it only belonged to Henry of Lorrain to bear the arms of the Church, and to be the Chief there­of. Almost all the Kingdom was engaged in that Spirit of revolt: The King found no o [...]her support, than the King of Navar and of his [Page 85] Hugonotes. It was Chastillon, the Son of the Admiral de Coligny, who saved the King from the hands of the Duke of Mayenne at Tours. This Chief of the League cryed to him, retire ye white Scarfs; retire you Chastillon, it is not you we aim at, it is the Murderer of your Father. And in truth, Henry the Third, then Duke of Anjou, was President in the Council when the Resolution was taken of making the Mas­sacre of St. Bartholomew, in which the Admiral Coligny perished. But his Son, forgetting that injury, to save his King, answered those Re­bels; You are Traytors to your Country; and when the Service of the Prince and State is concerned, I know how to lay aside all revenge and particular interest; he added, that after the Assassinate commit­ted by the League, in the person of Henry the Third, Henry the Fourth was ready to see himself abandoned by his most faithful Servants, be­cause of the Protestant Religion, which he made profession of, which appears by a Declaration that this Prince made in the form of an Ha­rangue to the Lords of his Army, on the 8 th day of August, 1589, in which he says, that he had been informed that his Catholick Nobility set a report on foot they could not serve him, unless he made profes­sion of the Roman Religion, and that they were going to quit his Ar­my. Nothing but the firmness and fidelity of the Hugonots upheld this wavering Party. He must be, said my Gentleman, the falsest of men, who dissembles the Ardour and Zeal with which those of our Religion maintained that just Cause of the House of Bourbon, against the attempts of the League: And to prove, said he, that their interest was not the only cause of their fidelity, we must see what they did when Henry the Fourth turned Roman Catholick. It cannot be said but that they then strove to have a King of their Religion: However, there was not one who bated any thing of his Zeal and Fidelity, the King was peaceable possessour of the Crown, the League was beaten down, he was Master in Paris, he was reconciled to the Court of Rome when the Edict of Nantes was granted and published: Our Hugonots were no longer armed, nor in a condition of obtaining any thing by force of arms. Since that the Change of Religion had reduced all the Ro­man Catholicks to him, he would have been in a State of resisting their violence. It was the sole acknowledgment of the King, and of good Frenchmen, that obliged all France to give Peace to a Party that had shed their Blood with so much Zeal and Profession for the preserving the Crown, and the restoring it to its legitimate Heirs. I acknowledge that we did our Duty; but are not those to be thanked who do what they ought? How is it possible that these things are at present worn out of the memory of men? I am certain, that if the King was made to read the History of his Grand-father, he would preserve some incli­n [...]tion [Page 86] for the Children of those who sacrific'd themselves for the glory of his House.

No man can be ignorant of the necessary dependance that must be between the Roman Catholick Clergy and the Court of Rome. This Court is the Head, the Clergy is the Body, the Ecclesiasticks and Monks are the Members, and all these Members move by the Orders of the Head. Again, I have no Design to chocque the Gentlemen of the Clergy, whose persons I respect: I do not doubt but that they have good French Hearts; But in fine, they have their Maxims of Con­science; they are of a Religion, and they must follow its Principles. Now the Principles of their Religion binds them to the Holy see, and its preservation preferably to all things; moreover, Interest deceives the Hearts and Minds of men. Their Interest obliges them to take the Popes part, who is their Preserver and Protectour▪ and what they do out of interest, they perswade themselves that they do it out of Conscience. First, it may be said of the Monks, that all the Houses they have in France, are so many Citadels that the Court of Rome has in the Kingdom. Those great Societies have withdrawn themselves from the jurisdiction of the Bishops, they depend immediately on the Holy See; they have all their Generals of Orders at Rome; and those Generals who are Italians and Spaniards, are the Soul of the Society; they are obliged to follow their Opinions and their Orders; the Italian Divinity is the Divinity of the Cloisters. Thus the King may reck­on, that all the Monks look upon him as the Pope's Subject, as being lyable to be Excommunicated, his Kingdom put under an Ecclesiastical Censure, his Subjects dispensed and released from the Oath of Allegi­ance, and his States given by the Pope to another Prince. And every time that this happens, they will believe themselves obliged, out of Conscience, to obey the Pope. If in those Orders of Monks there hap­pen to be some particular men, who follow other Principles, it is cer­tain that they are in no Number, so that the Body of the Monks is absolutely in the Interests of the Court of Rome, and by consequence in that of Spain. Thus you see already a considerable Party of whose Fidelity the Kings of France cannot be assured. And what is this Party? One may say that it is all France: for the begging Monks and the Jesuits are Masters of all the Consciences; they are Confessors, they are Directors, they persuade what they will to those that are devoted to them. The House of Bourbon ought not to doubt of this truth, if it never so little calls to mind the endeavours that were used by the Monks for the forcing from it the Crown, when the Ra [...]e of the Va­lois came to fail. It is against this so considerable Party that the State ought to take its Precautions, in preserving that other Party which can [Page 87] never be of intelligence with this; it is that of the Reformed. Hist­ory tells us how impossible it is to be long without having Disputes with the Court of Rome. It is always attempting, and we are obliged to defend our selves against its enterprises. It is capable of setting great Engines a going, of making Engagements and Alliances: It had twenty times like to have ruined Germany, it has dethroned great Emperours, it has likewise caused great troubles in France, and one cannot be too secure against its ambition,

I fancy that your Hugonot's Advocate would not spare the rest of the Clergy, and that he endeavoured to prove that w [...] can be no more assured of their Fidelity than of that of the Reli­gious.

What you have already heard may make you easily imagine that, for the giving the more force to what he had to say against our Divines, he prevented what might have been objected If you under­stood these matters, Sir, said he to me, you could tell me that our Clergy of France teach a Divinity wholly different from that of Rome; that all make profession of maintaining the Liberties of the Gallicane Church; the principal Articles of which are, 1. That the King of France cannot be Excommunicated by the Pope. 2. That an [...]cclesiastical Censure cannot be laid upon their Kingdom. 3. That it cannot be given to others. 4. That the Pope has nothing to do with the Tem­porality of Kings. 5 That he is not Infallible. 6. That he is infe­riour to the Council. These, you would tell me, are the Maxims of the Sorbonne, that have often censured the contrary Propositions. This Divinity is maintained by the Authority of the Parliaments, who have often declared the Bulls of the Pope abusive, null, scandalous and impious, and have appealed from the Execution of these Bulls, when they found them contrary to the Liberties of the Gallicane Church. The Estates assembled at Tours, during the League, caused the Bul's of Excommunication to be burnt by the hands of the Ex­ecutioner, that had been published against Henry the Third and Hen­ry the Fourth. This looks great and magnificent, if you please, but these fair appearances have no foundation; I do not speak of the Di­vinity of the Parliaments, which is that of the Politicians; I speak of the Divinity of the Clergy.

Once more, added he, I do not at all doubt of the Fidelity of the Divines of France to their King; but they shall never perswade me, that this Fidelity and Zeal for their Prince is without exception; and I make no other exception agai [...]st it than what they themselves make: [Page 88] Will you hear them speak? Read the Harangue that Cardinal du Per­ron made to the third Estate, in the name of all the Clergy of France ▪ in the Assembly, 1616. and remembe [...] that it is not the Cardinal du Perron who speaks, it is the Clergy of France assembled in a Body who speak by the mouth of that Cardinal. All France struck with a sense of the two horrible Parricides that had been committed in the persons of the two late Kings, both of them assassinated out of a false Zeal for Religion, would draw up a form of an Oath, and establish a Fundamental Law of the State, which all the Subjects were to swear to; and this Law imported, that every one should swear to acknow­ledge and believe, that our Kings as to their Temporalities do not depend on any but God; that it is not lawful for any cause whatsoever to assassinate Kings; that even for causes of Heresie and of Schism Kings cannot be Deposed, nor their Subjects Absolved from their Oath of Allegiance, nor upon any other pretence whatsoever. This Law, methinks, is the security of Kings, this is a Doctrine which all the Hugonots are ready to sign with their Blood. What did the Clergy of France do thereupon? It formally opposed that Law; (Works of Cardinal du Perron, p. 600 and following) they were willing to ac­knowledge the Independancy of Kings, in regard of the Temporalty; they consented that Anathema should be pronounced against the assas­sinates of Kings. But they would never pass the last Article; that for what cause soever it was, a King cannot be Deposed by the Pope, stript of his States, and his Subjects absolved from the Oath of Al­legiance. He who spoke for them, alledged all the examples of Emp­erours and of Kings, who had been Deposed and Excommunicated by Popes, upon account of refusing Obedience to the Holy See, and approved them; he alledged the Example of St. Vrban the Second, who Excommunicated Philip the First, and laid an Ecclesiastical Cen­sure upon his Kingdom▪ because he had put away his Wife Bertha, Daughter of a Count of Holland, to Marry Bertrade Wife of Foulques Count d' Anjou, then still alive. He made use of the testimony of Paul Emile, who said, that Pope Zacharias discharged the French from the Oath of [...]ide [...]i [...]y that they had made to Chilperick. These two Princes were no [...] Hereticks; yet the Clergy of France approved their having been stript of their States by the Popes; which makes appear, that the Clergy in the bottom judges that the Pope has Right to lay an Ecclesiastical Censure upon the Kingdom of France, and to depose its Kings for any [...]er cause as well as that of Heresie. Is it not to abuse the World, to confess on one side that the Temporalty of Kings does not depend on the Pope, and establ [...]sh on the other, that the Pope may in certain cases Interdict these Kings, Excommunicate them and Absolve their Subjects from the Oath of Allegiance? In fine, this is [Page 89] the result of that Famous Opinion of the Clergy of France. So that if Christians are obliged to defend their Religion and their lives against Heretick or Apostate Princes, when once absolved from their Allegi­ance, the Politick Christian Laws do not permit them any thing more than wha [...] is permitted by Military Laws, and by the Right of Nati­ons, to wit, open War, and not Assassination and Cl [...]ndestine Con­spiracies: that is to say, that when a Pope has declared a Prince de­prived of his S [...]ates, his Subjects may set up the Standard of Rebel­lion, declare War against him, refuse him Obedience, and kill him if they can meet with him, provided it be with arms in their hand, and by the ordinary course of War. I cannot comprehend how one [...]an be secured of the Fidelity of those who hold such like Max­ims. For in fine, Kings are not infallible, and if they happen to do any thing that the Court of Rome judges worthy of Excommuni­cation and Int [...]rdiction, they are Kings without Kingdoms and Sub­jects, acco [...]ding to our Clergy of France, as well as according to the Divines of Italy. But perhaps the Sorbonne, which is the Depository of the Fren [...]h Divinity, does not receive these Maxims so fatal to the safe­ty of Ki [...]gs: Let us see what it has done. In the Month of December, 1587, because Henry the Third, for the security of his Person and of his State, made a Treaty with the Rütres, or the German Protestants, the Sorbo [...]ne, without staying for the Decisions of Rome, made a pri­vate determination which said, That the Government might be tak­en from Princes, who were not found such as they ought to be, as the admini [...]tration from a suspected Tutor: This was known by the King, he sent for the Sorbonne some days after, and complained of it. Af­ter the death of the Princes of Guise, which happen'd at Blois, the Sor­bonne did much worse: they declared and caused to be published in all parts of Paris, That all the People of that Kingdom were Absolv­ed from the Oaths of Fidelity that they had sworn to Henry of Valois, here [...]ofore their King: they ra [...]ed his name out of the publick Pray­ers, and made known to the People that they might with safe Con­science unit [...], a [...]m and contribute to make War against him, as a Ty­rant. If I would add to that the Story that I know this Gentle­man told you concerning the Death of the late King of England we should find that the Sorbonne has [...]ver been of the same Opinion. This is the truth of it, every time that our Kings affairs shall carry them to extremity against the Court of Rome, the Clergy of France will suppress their discontents while matters go well for the Court of France; but if things turn other ways, the Maxims of our Divines against the King will be sure to break out. Every sincere person will al­low, [...]ha [...] it has never been otherwise than so, and that it will [Page 90] be always thus; which may be observed in the very least dis­putes.

I was willing to read all these passages to you out of The Policy of the Clergy of France, because the Author of that excellent piece, proves there exceed [...]ng well, all that I pr [...]m [...]sed to shew you, for the close of our Conferences, which is, that the Papists are truly Guilty of the Con­spiracies and Rebellions, which Monsieur Maimbourg would falsly fast­en upon the Hugonots. Of this the Murder of Henry the Third, that of Henry the Fourth, the violence of the League, the several attempts against Queen Elizabeth, King Iames, and our holy Martyr Charles the Fir [...]t, not to mention the late Plot, that has made such a noise in the World, are undeniable proofs. But you have seen likewise, which ought to awaken the Protestant Princes to a purpose, that all these black attempts, have not been the fruit of impatience and human frailty, un­der the temptation of some severe persecution; but the natural Con­sequence and effect of the Principles of the Roman Religion, as we are assured by those very men, who pass for the Oracles of this Reli­gion. For you have seen just now out of Authentick pieces, that the Pope, the Cardinals, and all the Divines of Italy, who are the Pil­lars of the Roman Catholike Religion, all the Regulars of France, who draw after them more then three fourths of the French Papists, and the Sorbonne it self, when the rod is not over it, own publickly, that the Pope may Excommunicate Kings, when he judges them Hereticks or countenancers of Heriticks, to interdict their Kingdoms, absolve their subjects from their Allegiance, and expose them to the fury of all the World. You have also seen, that the whole Clergy of France was of this opinion, by the mouth of Cardinal Perron, so that this pernicious Doctrine is the vowed Faith of the whole Popish Gallican Church, as well as of the Court of Rome, the great depository of the Roman Re­ligion and all its misteries. From whence evidently follows, what the Author of The Policy of the Clergy of France, infers, That there is no safety for the Crown, nor for the life of Kings, whether they be Pro­testants themselves, or only protect such as are, whilst they are beset with Papists: so that there is not the same reason to tolerate Popery in Protestant Kingdoms, as there is to to [...]erate Protestants in Popish Kingdoms. Monsieur Maimbourg would make us believe, that all this is but a poor shift. Hist. de Calv. p. 501. And to convince us of it, he says, that we need but to consider these two things: First that there are not to be found more de­testable Conspiracies, then those the Hugonots have made against their Kings &c. Secondly, that it is by no means th [...] belief of the Roman Ca­tholicks, princes, [...]. 50 [...]. that a Pope may depose Princes, though they were Hereti [...]ks, ac­quit their subjects from their Allegiance, and bestow their Dominions upon [Page 91] those that can first take them. But I have evidently shewed you the falsness of the first assertion: and for the second it is expresly disprov­ed by those undeniable proofs, the Author of The Policy of the Clergy, has produced, to shew that the Roman Catholicks hold that belief, which Monsieur Maimbourg af [...]irms they do not. You say, Monsieur Maim­bourg, that it is by no means your belief, that a Pope can depose Princes &c. At this rate, the Pope, who is the head of your Church, this head, for whose infallibility you have so much disputed, knows not the belief of your Church: for he believes, that by the principles of the Church of Rome, he has the power, which you seem to deny him: The Cardinals, the Bishops, and all the Divines of Italy, all your Re­gulars, all your Clergy of France, speaking by the mouth of your Car­dinal du Perron, your Sorbonne it self, so renowned for its great num­ber of able men, did not know, in so important a case, what was the belief of your Church. For they have all held, that it be­lieves the Pope can depose Princes &c. At least he should have given some answers to the Authentick Acts and notorious matters of fact, which the Author of The Policy of the Clergy, had quoted to this pur­pose. To say nothing of all this, and to think it enough, to say at randome, It is by no means our belief, that a Pope may depose Princes, even though they were Hereticks &c. this is to pass the sentence of an unjust judge, who rather then fairly to confess his errour, makes no conscience of denying that in words, in which his heart gives him the lie. And I beseech you, consider what he adds, to make us believe, that the Roman Catholicks have not that belief, which the Popes them­selves attribute to them. So far from that, says he, that our most Christ­ian Kings, who are known alwais to have been the most zealous asserters of the Catholick Faith, and Witness the Me­dal, where one of them caus­ed to be Engraven. Perdam Babyloni [...] nomen. I will root out the name of Babylon. p. 33 [...]. the chiefest Protectors of the Holy See, to which they have inviolably held in all times, notwithstanding all the disputes, they have had with some Popes about temporal concerns and the rights of their Crown, which they are bound never to relinquish: our Kings, I say, have ever protested against this claim, which is grounded upon a Doctrine, that all our Doctors have ever condemned, as point blanck against the Divine Law. To this purpose may be seen the Remonstrances and Protestations, which I have said that Charles the Ninth addressed to Pope Pius the Fourth upon the account of Queen Jane of Navarre, as obstinate a Heretick as she was. What can be said to such childish stuff? Is it not an ex­cellent way of arguing, The Kings of France do not believe the Pope has that power over them, as he challenges to him self: therefore it is by no means the belief of the Roman Catholicks, that the Pope has such a power▪ so that Princes who are Protestants, or protect such as are, can be in no danger either of life or Crown from their Popish subjects? The Remonstrances and the Protestations, which Monsieur Maimbourg makes such a noise with, [Page 92] did they prevail, that more than half the Papists of France should no [...] rise against their King Henry the Third so soon as ever the Pope had thundred out his [...]xcommunication against him? This crowd of peo­ple of Churchmen and of Fryars, who by Monsieur Maimbourg's own confession, P. 490.491. entred into a League with so much heat against this poo [...] Prince; did they not make it appear plainly, that the good Catholick subjects take much notice of the particular belief and the weighty Protestations of the French Kings, when the Pope has pronounced Anathema? The almost perpetual Conspiracies of our Papists against the sacred Majesty of our Kings, and against their faithful Subjects, are likewise a strong evidence of Monsieur Maimbourg's sound reason­ing. Do not the Catholicks of England plainly shew, that they take these particular decisions of the French Kings for the rule of their Faith and of their practice? But this assertion, All our Doctors have ever condemned the Doctrine, upon which is grounded the claim of Popes against Kings, as directly opposite to the Divine Law, is such a piece of confidence, as, it may be, never was the like. I must confess, I could not have believed, that what is said of the Jesuitical impudence, could have gone thus far. Sant. Tract. de Haeres. et de Potest. Summi. Pont. c. 30. & 31. Bell. Tract. de potest. summi Pont. in Temp. a [...] ­vers. Barel Rome 1 [...]10. p. 35 What then! Is it that Anthony Santarel, the Jesuite, who has written, That a Pope has power to depose Kings, discharge their Subjects from the obedience they owe them, and deprive them of their King­doms for Heresy, nay if they governe negligently, or are not useful to their Kingdom, that Cardinal Bellermin, who was likewise a Jesuite, and has maintained, That the Pope may absolve Subjects from their Oath of Al­legiance, and deprive Kings of their Dominion; that a thousand other Priests of the same Society, quoted in the second part of the moral Divinity of the Jesuits, ought not to be reckoned among the Doctors of the Church of Rome: that Monsieur Maimbourg pronounces so po­sitively, All our Doctors have ever condemned this Doctrine, as directly op­posite to the Divine Law? But perchance, Monsieur Maimbourg, since he left the Society, has almost as good an opinion of the Jesuits, as their good friend sof the Port Royal: No doubt he has taken up the same prejudice, which these Gentlemen have done, that those Jesuits are no other in the Harvest of the Church, than the tares that annoy the good Corne, and that they ought not to be reckoned among the Christian Doctors. However he ought to have the best intelligence, and know them better than any man. At least he should not have forgot­ten, that he was informed how the whole Sorbonne, in a body, declared it self in this point of the same judgment with the Jesuites, upon the particular case of Henry the Third. He should as little forget, that Cardinal du Perron, in one of the greatest assemblies of the World, maintained with open face, not in behalf of the Jesuits, but of the whole Clergy of France, and as the mouth of all the Prelates of the [Page 93] Kingdom, that the Pope has all that power over Kings, which the Je [...]u [...]ts attribute to him.

Therefore, not to s [...]ay longer upon these [...]llings of Monsieur Maim­bourg, you may easily see, says our friend, that as much as it is false, that the Protestants, who abhor all those principles, above mentioned, are to be suspected by any King of any Religion whatever, in whose Do­minion they abide: so far certain and undeniabl [...] is it, that Roman-Catholick Subjects, of what Countrey soever, from the cursed tenents o [...] their Religion, ought to be dreaded by their Kings, whether Pro­testants, or favourers of such.

I told our friend, interrupting of him, that I was already fully sa­tisfied of the second Article: neither can I imagine how it is possible, that any man in this Kingdom should doubt of it, after the no less cleer then convincing proofs, that our worthy Bishop of Lincolne has brought, in his learned Observations upon the Bull of Pius the Fifth for the pre­tended Excommunication of our renowned Queen Elizabeth. As to the Loyalty and honest intentions of the Protestants of France I am likewise fully satisfied by all that you h [...]ve said▪ And I make no que­stion; but they that have been so good Subjects in a Kingdom, where their Loyalty has undergon such rough Tryals, will be all zeal and flame in the service and for the Honour of our good King, who takes them into his Protection with so much charity and compassion. But pray tell me, before we part, what do you think of a little story, which Monsieur Maimbourg has printed at the end of his Libell, under the Title of The Declaration of the Dutchess of York? I could tell you a great many things upon this subject, said our friend. For I have the whole History of it. I have it here in English. But to speak particularly to it, would force me to discover too many misteries. It would carry us a great way, and is much more proper for another time. I will only tell you, that this Declaration was drawn up for quite another person, then the late Dutchess of York; and it were easie to prove, that the greater part of what is there said, does not at all sute with this La­dy. It was from much a different principle, to what is reported in this piece, that she made so suddain a change of her Religion. And they who were by, when she lay a dying, have testified of quite o­ther thoughts, then those they have made her declare when they make her say, she found the Romish Religion so plainly taught in the holy Scripture. Her great unquietness of Spirit which she discovered, when she lay a dying, is as little sutable to these words in the Declaration, I have been particularly and strongly convinced of the real presenc [...] of Ie­sus. Christ in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, of the Churches infallibilit [...] [Page 94] &c. But all these things will be set out in their proper colours. How­ever they are not to our present purpose. I hope I have set you right, a [...] to the justification of the French Protestants quitting their Coun­trey, and of their unshaken Loyalty to their Soveraign.

I do acknowledge, says I, and am extremely obliged, for the light you have given me in this matter. I will be sure to improve it up­on occasion; neither shall it be my fault, if these poor persecuted Peo­ple do not find a better Countrey with us, than that they are come from. After which I took my leave of our friend, and remain