A DECLARATION OF THE DUKE OF ROHAN Peer of France, etc.  
CONTAINING THE justness of Reasons and Motives which have obliged him to implore the Assistance of the King of Great Britain, and to take arms for the defence of the Reformed Churches.  
Translated according to the French Copy.  
LONDON, Printed for Nathanael Butter 1628.   

A DECLARATION of the Duke of ROHAN Peer of France, etc. Containing the justness of reasons and motives which have obliged him to implore the assistance of the King of Great Britain, to take arms for the defence of the Reformed Churches.  
I Might content myself to oppose the sincerity of all mine actions against the blame which ignorant or malicious persons will undertake to pour upon mine innocence, and upon the necessity of my resolution: It might satisfy me if I had no regard, but to myself to endeavour to do better, and to leave envy, and slander for a chastisement to the calumniators, the equitable judgement of good people, is to me in stead of an honourable recompense, and will always give me more satisfaction than the blame of wicked people is able to do me displeasure.  
But for as much as at the overture of so great and extraordinary things which happen among men, every one discourseth according to his fantasy, and ofttimes evil interpretations do surmount above the most sound opinions, and that above all silence is taken for a confession of the fact, and that Spirits which are facile, and easy to be persuaded, if they be not instructed in the truth, do readily suffer themselves to be surprised, and drawn to error; from whence cometh such diversity of speech among us, and the division of hearts torn by contrary apprehensions, always accompanied with weakness, and followed with ruin; and that the coming of strangers into the Kingdom which men believe (and I do not deny it to have been procured by the care of my brother, and myself,) shall be for a long time the subject of all the good, or of all the evil which shall be discoursed of either within or without this Kingdom: I have thought it my duty to put to light this small Discourse to justify this action to all the world, to make it appear even unto our enemies, that it is grounded upon an evident right, and to our friends that we have been thereunto constrained by the most powerful laws of necessity.  
It is well known to all men by what reasons I was bound to conclude the peace in the treaty before Montpellier, wherein I had thought all at once to procure deliverance, and respiration to the Church of God, to my King the honour and glory which he could desire, and peace, and repose to the whole State, which was thereunto so absolutely necessary: to arrest the progress of the King of Spain, who outrageously spurned with his feet the best, and most faithful Allies of this Crown, that he might the better come with greater facility to the end of this Monarchy, after the which he hath long gaped; and the more easily to attain this peace, we have yielded ourselves with a full confidence into his Majesty's hands, that we might be indebted for our deliverance, next after God, to his only goodness, having for a precious gage of our reestablishment, and preservation, his sacred word, I was persuaded thereunto (besides the reasons above mentioned) by the Letters of the King of Great Britain, and of eminent men amongst us, which did give testimony to have yet much zeal for the Church.  
But I know not through what Council the word which his Majesty confirmed unto me all the time till he came to Lions, and afterwards by many letters, was found so suddenly altered, the public faith violated, and all our dear, and most necessary liberties oppressed.  
For in stead of re-establishing according to the Acts and Conditions of the Peace of Mountpelier, in its first estate, the Magistracy is changed and parted in two by violence; a Citadel built, as a public monument, erected to condemn or to kill our Conscience: and a Garrison of four thousand men maintained within the Town, to the insupportible vexation of all the Inhabitants. In stead of demolishing the Fort of Rochel according to the same promises specified in his Majesty's acts, they have augmented and fortified it with all things necessary for a long and perpetual establishment, and from the same do plot many enterprises against the Town, which being discovered, were authorised, not only by impunity, but even by recompenses given to the undertakers.  
The exercise of our religion is not reestablished in the places from whence it was expelled during the war, but even during the peace many other Churches are entangled in the same persecution, diverse Pastors imprisoned, Edicts and Declarations made against the liberty of discipline, as it appeareth by the presence of Commissaries in the Ecclesiastical Assemblies. And in hatred of the Religion many places are spoilt, and razed in time of peace, as Caumont, Castillon, Pont-Orson, and others: The Chamber of the Edict (a Court of justice for those of both Religions) within the Town of Castres' is not reestablished as it was promised, but is transferred to Beziers a seditious town, and of a contrary religion. They torture, torment and send to the Galleys men that are innocent and of reputation, upon ungrounded suspicions, and invented accusations: They divide our Magistrates by a decree as at Pamies: they confiscate the greatest part of our goods under title of reprisals. To conclude, they do all things otherwise then was promised by the treaty. I made unto the King most humble, and reiterate remonstrances by letters and deputation, but in the end they were offended with my complaints, and imputed them as a crime; the King by an express letter imposed Silence upon me, and prohibited me any more to relieve the interest of our Churches, and proceeded so fare as to offer commissions to certain neighbour Gentlemen of that place of my retreat, with great promises, to seize upon my person, either alive or dead: and for proves of that, they have lately sent one to murder me, which narrowly missing of his purpose, shooting of a Pistol at me burnt my Ruff, and killed one which stood next behind me, having before divulged among those of our religion, by men waged, and paid to that end, that I had sold the liberty of our Churches, and had received the damnable reward of their last infalliable destruction. And to cover unto strangers of our religion the design which they had for our perdition, they publish in brute only war against the Spaniard, the league with other Princes, and States interessed, whilst that underhand by the intermission of a Legate, peace is treated with him; and finally was concluded, as the time did make it appear, leaving for a prey unto him those which they had animated, and armed out of those hopes, whilst they prepared vessels, and all equipage necessary to block up Rochel.  
The affairs were reduced to such terms that Mountpelier was captive, Rochel upon the point to be the like, all the Churches of this Kingdom threatened with bondage, and for mine own particular, I was cruelly ulcered to see myself made so black with Calumnies, as if I had by prevarication consented to the ruin, and oppression of so many poor people, the complaints whereof pierced my heart, and made me to feel a more insupportable dolour than all the rest of my sufferings.  
Being pressed with such displeasures, when all hopes of bettering our condition were taken away, and that by express letters they gave us to understand, that the desire of changing our condition, or to require it, should be for the time to come the greatest, and the most unpardonable of all our crimes, and that if it we not prevented by some bold, and prompt resolution, Rochel would be lost; my brother protected the enterprise of Blavet, from whence ensued the precedent war with such success, as is known to all men, and which notwithstanding by the providence of Almighty God, finished with greater advantage for our Churches, than we should have hoped for: In regard that the King finding it convenient that the peace should be concluded through the intervention of the Ambassadors of England, who by virtue of their commissions bound their Master to the inviolable observation of the treaty, and that by writings, and an authentical act, by them signed, and sealed with their seals of Arms, which were in their behalf sent unto us by Monsieur de Montmartin, (at the time, when I had convocated the Assembly at Nismes, for the acceptation of the peace,) in two Originals, whereof the one is at Rochel, and the other with me, which contain in express terms as followeth: That they give us such assurance, that the King of great Britain will labour by his intercessions joined to our most humble supplications to abridge the time for the demolishing of the Fort Lewis, for the which they as Ambassadors gave us all such Royal words and promises as we could desire. And the said Monsieur de Montmartin did assure me from him in that behalf, that they being returned into England would cause to be delivered unto my brother another Act signed with the Kings own hand, which should contain in express terms, viz. That if the King should refuse, or too long defer the razing of the said Fort, and the entire observation of the treaty of the peace, the said King of Great Britain would employ all the forces which God hath given him to maintain his word, and to make us fully to enjoy those things which have been promised by the answers and declarations of his Majesty, and by the act of the intervention of his Ambassadors. Which gave us hope, that either the conditions of this peace should be more exactly observed then those of the former, or in case of new oppressions, we should have for our warrant to sustain us him who made himself the Mediator of the treaty, interpreter of words given and pledges for the inviolable observation thereof.  
But we have been so unhappy, that although it seemed unto us that this peace built upon so weak foundations should continue many ages, yet notwithstanding it was worse observed than all those which have been violated with more licence, and less consideration: For after that the King's Counsel had revoked all promises which they had made to all strangers which are allied to the Crown, to sign and conclude the league against the Spaniard, they made a shameful peace with him, and have equally contemned all the the Edicts which were given us to move us to lay down the arms we had then taken up for our necessary defence: For the Edict was not verified in the Parliaments, but with modifications, which destroyed them; neither could we with all our suits ever obtain to have the said modification to be read: And in stead of razing the Fort of Rochel, and to deliver the government thereof from souldierss according to the promises; They have on the contrary filled the Fort with new munitions, given the keeping of it to a favourite, and multiplied the soldiers within the Isles; They have drawn and built mighty Forts, to hold them in a perpetual servitude, and to take from Rochel all hope of liberty for the time to come; they have with impunity made erterprises upon the town. They would exile the Pastors which were affectionate to the conservation thereof; they have filled the coast with ships of war, and by land they have hindered them from gathering their fruits at Sea they have arrested the ships which brought corn for their provision; They have oppressed their merchandise with new subsidies, and by this means do spoil their commerce: To conclude, they have made them under the name of peace to feel the hardest conditions which they might suffer during the calamity of the war: and for the height of all evil, they maintain within the enclosure of the walls Commissaries being armed with eminent authority, who insolently do labour to oppress the rest of their liberties, and to subvert all the foundations of their subsistence.  
In the mean time the generality of our Churches hath not been more favourably used; for the Commissaries, who though they were always promised, never came within the provinces for the execution of the Edict; nor the exercise of our Religion was never reestablished in the places where it was ordained by the declaration that it should be replanted, by means whereof there are more than forty Churches of great importance destitute of this consolation. Our Temples are by the same injustice and violence always detained from us as they were before. And even since the peace, in diverse places they have committed new barbarous insolences upon this subject; among others the Cardinal of Sourdis, and the Baron of Peraut, all which remain without reparation, and without punishment: And by an Edict of fresh date the 14. of April, in this year 1627. they term, the liberty of our Religion, a simple toleration, until (as they say) that we be reunited under one Pastor (that is to say the Pope) to make us know that we deceive ourselves in believing that the most just liberties which have been granted us should be perpetual and inviolable: And in the same Declaration they do entirely overturn all the discipline of our Churches, for they do absolutely interdict all the Pastors to make any politic assemblies, although they be but only for the liberty of our consciences, and the assurance which is given unto us to maintain them: And by a like draught of the pen they blast all the Pastors which are not borne within the Kingdom, taking away their liberty to come into the Ecclesiastical assemblies Provincial or Nationall: And they prohibit us to give or lend Pastors to strange Churches or Universities, or to receive any from them without express permission from the King. They command them that are without, to return without delay, and yet notwithstanding they say that they may not re-enter into their houses without Letters Patents from the King, countersigned by a Secretary of State, and sealed with the great Seal: To conclude they impose a yoke such as our fathers never heard of.  
The Church of Rouen having desired the Lord of Veilleux his Minister to come preach to them he was forbidden to go, to the end to take away for the time to come, the liberty of our Churches to provide themselves of Pastors whose doctrine and piety should be for the edification of every one, and not to have power to call others, but only such as shall be to the liking of the Ministers of the State, unto whom from henceforth we must address ourselves for the like affairs, and so to destroy the authority of Assemblies and Synods, and the order hitherto here maintained in our Churches. The reprisal of our goods are always in force & virtue, and if from the Chamber of the Edict some equitable sentence be obtained, there is presently found an elusion by calling the matter into the King's Counsel, or by some contrary judgement of the Parliament given at the request of a Procurator general which doth make the former void and of none effect: And they have condemned diverse persons for cases advowed by the General, and abolished by the Edict; and others are burdened with great fines for the like subject; and moreover there are more than 2000 warrants given in the Province of Languedoc, to take prisoners in hatred of the precedent commotions, which constrain a multitude of persons whose lives are without reproach, to banish themselves from their ordinary habitations, leaving their families desolate, to go seek their liberty, and the assurance of their lives. The Towns which are yet left us in diverse places, do serve no more for retreats for those which have been therein refuged in the former troubles, mine own house filled with people which are driven from their own habitations, and exposed to all injuries for the same subject. And in diverse places they have detained in chains, adjudged to fines, and threatened with more grievous punishment diverse persons, for speaking or writing according to our doctrine, and against the opinion of the Church of Rome, as at Lions, Aix, Beziers and Montpelier.  
At Nismes in hatred that I had there my retreat, they have there stirred up all the persecutions that might be imagined: They have sent Commissaries to appoint Magistrates contrary to the privilege of the place. And the Consuls created they have interdicted them by Decrees, and given out warrants for the attaching of their bodies, and never yet in King's Counsel could they have any justice▪ and in hatred of that which Monsieur d'Aubais had done in accepting generously the charge of Consul, they have lodged in those places which belong unto him certain Companies of horse to eat them up. And was never any amongst us who either for the general or for the particular since the Peace, suing in any request to the Counsel grounded upon the Edict, hath obtained aught, but great expenses, unprofitable suits, continual mocks or bravadoes, and most bitter temptations to bind him either through fear or hope to make shipwreck of his faith.  
I do not here set down the persecutions which I suffer in mine own particular, as some having for hire sought my life, and remain unpunished, and the Auocates which plead my cause have been evil entreated and suspended from their charge in the Chamber at Again: and still they seek by Diabolical practices the means for to take away my life, whereof I dare not complain, fearing thereby to procure some great advantage and honour to those which make themselves instruments of such cowardly & disloyal attempts: And that those which have forged the deceit by whom I was accused to have made some enterprise upon Somniers in the time of peace, who being discovered have received no kind of punishment, in such sort that the principal Officers who sat in judgement acknowledging mine innocence, said notwithstanding that it was important for the service of the King not to have it manifested: And that my Lady my mother having sought her refuge within Rochel for her safety, and to give order for her affairs there, they have used all possible means to have her forth, telling the Inhabitants that she was the only obstacle to the accomplishment of the promises made unto them for their deliverance: And this instance was made after that her houses, and my sisters were full of garrisons, who have outrageously beaten her officers, and committed all the most reproachable insolences: Which notwithstanding are things which I would hold hidden in my bosom, if the persecutions which they have made me to suffer were not the reward of that which they think they own me, for the entire affection which I have always sincerely shown for the good and for the preservation of all our Churches: But in this cause I do not desire that my interests should be had in consideration: if I were myself alone to suffer all these miseries, my feeling thereof should never go beyond the complaint: if it might so please Almighty God only for me to be cast into the sea so the tempest might be appeased: I should always be well content to sacrifice my goods, and my life, for the tranquillity of the state, and for the preservation of the Church of God, more than the which I confess that there is nothing which can be more dear and precious unto me.  
This is in Sum the matter of our grief, whereof every piece might serve for the Subject of a very long and deplorable History: to those which suffer whereof notwithstanding resulteth that they will neither administer mercy nor justice unto us, nor no promises, nor other, no Edicts, no Declarations, nor Acts can cover us from the persecution which vexeth Us, nor from greater calamities which threaten us; neither is there any faith, how public and eminent soever the breaking whereof, for our destruction, is not made a glory; And it is more firmly resolved then ever, to put in practice to our cost this sanguinary Maxim, that there is no faith to be kept with Heretics, for our enemies cannot lose the desire they have for our perdition, exepecting the opportunity and power sufficient to execute it, and in the conclusion, all the essential conditions of peace (which was thought could not be denied us, without an evident injustice, and which imploreth vengeance to God and men) are found in all the principal places to be infringed and violated.  
And above all the evils so great and so sensible, we have with all convenient humility poured forth our complaints and Remonstrances at the King's feet, after that we had endured them with a patience without example: but the practice of our enemies, and the hatred which they bear unto our Religion, have so prevailed over the justness of our Cause, that the most humble supplications of our Churches both in general and particular brought in the behalf of a Nationall Synod, and by the general Deputies, although form contrary to the Order granted by our Kings, and according to the commandment and desire of his Majesty, have been sent away with ambiguous answers, or with words without effect, or with sentences contrary to the most natural justice, and most solemn Edicts, the power of our enemies being come to this point, that they have call far off all hope of a general assembly to draw an orderly form of our complaints, and then have finally prohibited our general Deputies to present their demands in any such form, but to produce them a part piece by piece, that they might dissipate all conjunction of our affairs, and by that means make our Causes to be particular, and so to hinder us that we shall not be able by any authentical Act to verify the body of injustices, which they do exercise against us.  
Being taught by so many experiences that we can no more hope for any justice from those which are obliged to administer it, and that our ruin was irrevocably resolved in the minds of those unto whom the government of the State was committed, and that our patience, in stead of diminishing our afflictions, did augment them, and made them irremediable, and that we were in all places accused of too simple a credulity or of an insensible stupidity, in the end I resolved to seek other courses then those which hitherto had been so unprofitably used, and more solid and firm means for our re-establishment.  
And forasmuch as the King of Great Britain was the Mediator of the peace, and by the Act of his Ambassadors it was cautioned that it should be inviolably observed, I believed that it was not only necessary, but also most just to have recourse to him, to inform him of the miserable estate of our condition, and to let him know what care they have taken to deceive our facility, to delude our hopes, and to destroy all the apparent grounds of our liberty, to urge the performance of his word, and to conjure him aswell in my name is in the name of all our Churches, to intervent according to his promise, and to intercede that the peace which he caused to be concluded might be faithfully executed.  
This is an Action which I suppose cannot be blamed even by our enemies, except they be without reason, nor reproved by those of our party, except they be without conscience: For the first do well know that the Laws of necessity are the strongest and most natural, they know as well as we ourselves the injustices which they have done us, the desolations wherewith they have threatened us, the small estimation of the word which was given us, whereof they have a thousand times very audatiously said that it was not in the King's power to make us to enjoy it. So far forth, that the Parliaments by their unjust modifications have canceled and cut off the most important Articles for our subsistence; neither do they doubt either of the resolved design soon or late of our perdition, and to expel us out of the Kingdom, or of the preparatives which they have made to come to the execution, in beginning with the subversion or Rochel, from the which by all kind of forces and plots they would raze out the rest of our Churches, so that they cannot deny but they have reduced us to the uttermost point of extreme necessity.  
Moreover, they that have craved and borrowed the forces of strangers and of a contrary Religion to their own to oppress us, cannot judiciously complain that we have sought the succours of our Brethren to defend us. And which is more, our lives are in question, which they plot to extinguish; our goods, whereof they have violently bereft us; our liberties, which they have destroyed, and the greatest of all, our Religion, and the consciences which we have towards Almighty God, of the which they would for ever deface the memory, whosoever will impute it a crime unto us to seek all possible means to preserve the possession of things which are so dear and precious, is bereft of all natural sense, neither hath he any more part of man left him but his face, and doth declare himself enemy to all Religion and conscience.  
But forasmuch as the ministers of the State have thought good, that the Ambassadors of the King of Great Britain, by a most authentical Act signed and sealed in due form, making themselves, in the name of their Master, Mediators of the conclusion of the treaty, and obliged his authority and his word to make us enjoy the effect of all those things which were promised, and that the Act itself was consigned unto us, I cannot persuade myself that they can be so fare unreasonable or passionate, after their consenting to so solemn a caution as to think it strange that we should have our recourse to the caution, and to the pledge which they themselves have chosen and approved of, and that we entreat him to employ himself towards the principal party to bind himself by the accustomed ways between men of this condition to perform his Royal word, to discharge him or his caution, by the sincere and exact maintaining and observation of all the things which were agreed upon, and without the confession, whereof the difference should still remain, and the things should be in as deplorable terms as they were before.  
Concerning these among us which would disappprove this proceeding. I say that they cannot with a good conscience, except therewithal they defame with odious and execrable titles the generous resistance of those which have gone before us, and who with their bloods have achieved us this holy and safe liberty for the preservation whereof we do together at this time contest by the same proceed: which have passed the Sea to seek the succours which we have obtained, and which went into the heart of Germany, to raise multitudes of people, and to bring them into this Kingdom, and by force to bind their enemies to give them peace and the liberty which was denied them, and to perform the promise, which they had broken: And yet notwithstanding by the Edicts of our Kings they are styled faithful and obedient Subjects and Servants, and the memory of them shall ever be blessed in the midst of the Church. And beside in that which concerneth me, it seemeth unto me that all kind of right and reason doth authorize me in this pursuit, for hitherto in all our wars of Religion, I have had in these parts the charge of chief & General of all those which in these Provinces have had their arms in their hands, for their just and necessary defence. The first peace hath been fully treated with me, according to the power which was given me by the general assembly: And in the second my brother and myself alone have sustained the charge of the war, and I have been present as General for the defence of our Churches, and in the treaty and conclusion of peace, that cautionary Act of the Ambassadors of strangers was delivered unto me. And the oaths which I have taken in all our assemblies do bind me never to abandon this cause, and to employ all the power, understanding, and means which God hath given me for the preservation and subsistence of our Churches both in general and in particular, and to employ therein whatsoever is most dear unto me. In such sort that I should now hold myself perjured, and a forsaker of this so holy and so just a Cause, if I should not by all my travails and means procure the deliverance of so many poor persecuted Churches, the ordinary complaints and sighs whereof do interrupt my sleep, waken my conscience, and bind me by so necessary a duty to all that I am able to do for the easing of them, I join thereunto the stranger's Caution whereof I have spoken; for in regard that all our Churches have received it with joy and consolation, and have blessed God that the peace was concluded in that manner, they did not believe that it was a piece that should be knawne with worms and rotten in a coffer. But that it should be dear kept, as the authentical gage of our safety, and as necessity should bind us to make it of value and force to our advantage, and to oppose the force of them which have taken this Cause in hand, against the violence of those which might hereafter injustly oppress us: and tread underfoot the promises which were given for our subsistence.  
It may seem of some that I should have entered into communication with our Churches before I should h we resolved for this negotiation, and to call upon the King of Great Britain for his promise: But I do not think that men of good understanding can make so frivolous a scruple. For among the common people every one knoweth that there was no sufficient resolution for that, I know that all men desired it, but I saw no man to at durst attempt it, and I felt myself bound in conscience, and authorised by the right aforesaid, and I saw that we could hope for no general assembly, and that all places among us were filled with spies hired to discover all good actions, and to make them unprofitable, and I considered that to communicate so ticklish a thing to many, would be to expose to the wind, and to lose that hope which was yet left us for our re-establishment, which is the cause that I chose rather to hazard myself alone, then to neglect the interest of our Churches, or to expose any of them to the persecution, whererein such a proceeeding being discovered, they would infallibly have been entangled for ever.  
And to show that in this negotiation I have had no other project than may tend to the good of the Commonwealth, I have therein employed Monsieur de S. Blancard, whose zeal to the Church of God hath been known to all men, whose integrity without reproach was free from all fraud and deceit, and who hath seasoned the courage which he hath shown in all occasions with a singular prudence, beyond the expectation of his age, in such sort that I having made use of a man that was so entirely for the public good, and which hath so often exposed his life for the preservation of the liberties which yet remained unto our Churches, who so honourably ended his life in this quarrel, that the memory of him shall be for ever a good odour, I cannot be suspected to have done this this negotiation for any particular ambition.  
I will not here stand to make answer to those which say that what evil soever is done us, we ought not to repulse it by force, notwithstanding any right or necessity that may seem to authorize our defence, but only oppose thereunto a gentle patience, and a firm resolution to martyrdom: But I leave the decision of this question to divines and Lawyers, and will only content myself to say that such speeches in the mouths of our enemies and of some of our own are suggested by the passion which they have for our destruction. And it is an effect of the hire which they have received, or are made to hope for, experience having taught us to perceive in many, that it is the discourse of one that is hired, and a forerunner of a declaration of an Apostasy. For the first, namely our enemies, I find not that strange, that they endeavour to lull us asleep, that they may bind us, and put out our eyes, and to impose the servitude upon us which they have projected with less peril. For they are taught by diverse proofs that our resistance making them to partake with us of the fear and danger, they cannot make an attempt upon our lives without hazarding of their own, and it is safer and more easy for them to cut our throats in our beds, or to bring us out of prison to execution, then to force us in a breach or in a trench, I only wonder at their impudence, all the world knowing the small account which they make of superior powers established by God, what leagues they have made, not only to preserve their own Religion and lives, but to constrain the Sovereign to exterminate the others, not to bind him to peace, but to force him to an unjust and a barbarous war against his most affectionate subjects, and faithful servants; so fare as to dispossess him of his Throne, and to protest that they cannot subject themselves to a Prince which professeth a contrary Religion to theirs. For those that are among us, I suppose that some speak out of weakness, and out of a desire which they have to see the ancient zeal kindled among us, which they suppose will be extinguished by the licence of arms: But I do imagine also that many are led thereunto by falsehood and deceit, being people little disposed to do what they say, and whom an hundreth crowns would make to speak a very different language. As for me having received the purity of Religion from my fathers. I do endeavour to imitate their zeal, and to follow their example, which (praised be Almighty God) hath been without reproach: I know right well that this point hath been resolved by excellent Theologians, which be it, in piety, be in doctrine, those of this age do not surpass: And I believe that when God will deliver us by humane means, as oft times by them he hath restored the exterior condition of his Church, we should not oppose ourselves against this work; but we ought to labour with the instruments of our deliverance, and to acknowledge in this, above all the blessings of God poured upon the Saints, and upon the generous labours of our ancestors, that by their firm and bold resistance, it hath pleased the Lord to procure liberty, rest, and prosperity to his Church.  
Therefore the public necessity being stronger than our patience which by little and little made itself guilty of our destruction, we had our recourse to the King of Great Britain to obtain, either by his intercession or by his power that the Edicts made for our subsistence might be observed, and that the promise which was given us, wherein, his, also was engaged for our liberty, might not be violated: and that my brother by his presence and his continual solicitations, had greatly advanced it, Almighty God hath given me the grace to bring it to perfection, by the employment of Monsieur de S. Blancard. For the King of Great Britain moved with a fervent zeal for the defence of the Christian faith, and with an incessant desire to see the Church of God out of oppression throughout all parts of the earth, there being no place, where since the small time that God hath called him to the conduct of his Kingdoms that this affection hath not borne his courage, and employed his forces, hath embraced this Cause with great vigour, not moved thereunto out of any ambitious desire to intrude upon others, but only out of the compassion, which he hath of our miseries, and the displeasure to see his intervention with so great indignity contemned, so fare forth as that they will make it serve for the oppression of those whom he desired to relieve; and thereby to add unto his Crown that rich flower of honour, to be the deliverer of the Churches of this Kingdom, which by their faith and constancy even in the persecutions have made themselves to be celebrated throughout the world.  
Moreover, he hath let us know that to be his only design, to the which he protesteth to betake himself with so great firmness, as it hath been religiously confirmed unto me by men of quality, which he hath done me the honour to send unto me, that he would never let go his hold until such time as that it should plainly appear unto him, that by an entire assurance he hath achieved us a firm repose, and a solid contentment: requiring of us nothing else but that which the Churches which are in the estate of resistance, I should do my duty, not only to approve the request which the said Seignieur de S. Blancard had made unto him in my behalf, in the name of our Churches; but also to join ourselves unto his arms, and not to deport ourselves from the general end, for the respect of any particular accommodation, and jointly with him to obtain a good, firm, and assured peace, which shall restore unto all our Churches, at the least part of the prosperity from the which they are fallen.  
And this is the cause wherefore in the name of God I do summon those which have any remainder of ancient zeal in their hearts, and which hitherto have sighed, in attending who should come from any part for the deliverance of the Church of God, and which have always protested, that when they should see any assured grounds of resistance or of subsistence, they would make it appear that they had no less affection than the rest for the consolation of so many poor persecuted flocks, nor show no less resolution to sacrifice all they have to so holy and so glorious an enterprise.  
Therefore the Cause now in hand cannot be said to be unjust; for there was never any more needful: nor the resolution to enter thereinto rash, having for our protector a Prince so religious, so faithful, so near a neighbour, and so powerful: neither is the design impatient, in regard that for the space of a whole year, we have to small purpose expected to see the persecution to cease, and the promised things to be observed: nor the execution of this design criminal, forasmuch as we have no other end but the restitution of the Churches by the means heretofore used by our Fathers, favoured of God, and authorised by natural and politic right.  
As for me, I should for ever feel my conscience charged before God, and mine honour defaced among men, if having seen so many oppressions upon the Church, for the which the Son of God hath shed his blood and endured death; I should not seek with all my power and means to ease it, and seeing so great a day of deliverance to offer itself unto me, if I should not follow and embrace so opportune a favour, which we may justly say to be sent us from above; and if I had either through consideration or through delays of slothfulness diverted so great a blessing, and refused an occasion so advantageous to draw us from the shame and misery wherein we are: confessing freely that I can no longer live among so many public calamities no more than I can survive after the full dissipation of the Church, wherewith we see ourselves so nearly threatened: also I believe that all those which hitherto God hath preserved by so many of his powerful marvels, will not be slack to so laudable a work, and I have too good an opinion of the courage and zeal of every one, to think that they would withdraw themselves through impiety, or to destroy it through perfidiousness.  
And I assure myself, that time shall make all men to see, that I have not been moved to this enterprise out of any desire to make myself great, or to make any profit of the public ruin: For at the same time I see myself engaged to travails, disturbations, and continual watchings, to be incessantly stirred with gree es, and exposed to manifest dangers, my family is constrained to seek by a voluntary banishment among strangers, the repose which it cannot find with me: and as my expenses increase, my revenues do diminish. But my conscience doth so press me in this Cause, that although I should be abandoned of all and left alone (which I think will never be) I am resolved to pursue it until the last drop of my blood, and to the last breath of my life: and though I should go beg my bread among strange nations, God will give me the grace to justify unto the world, that I never had other intent then to sacrifice mine estate, my rest, and my life, and to lay down all my particular interests, for the deliverance of the Church, without having any thought which shall tend to the revolting from the obedience and fidelity whereunto nature and conscience doth bind nice to the King my Sovereign Lord.  
And in this case, (if that were all) I do offer, that if the Church might be reestablished in her first prosperity, voluntarily to exile myself from this Kingdom, and to pass the rest of my life among strangers as a private man, and to renounce all honour and worldly advantage, and to deprive myself of the good and repose which I should procure for others, to meditate by myself, and to celebrate with continual praises the favour which God should show me, to see yet once again his poor people out of anguish and bondage, and to have gotten so great honour, to have made myself the instrument of their deliverance.  
FINIS.