AN EXACT COPY OF THE PETITION OF THE Protestants in France To their Sovereign LEWIS XIV. For Redress of their present Oppressions. Faithfully Translated from the French.  
LONDON: Printed in the Year 1680:   

A Petition presented to the King, by those of the Reformed Protestant Religion.  
SIR,  
YOur Subjects of the Reformed Religion throw themselves at Your Majesty's Feet, with a profound Respect, to represent to Your Majesty the great Number of Mischiefs that are heaped upon us from time to time, and to supplicate most humbly, that Your Majesty will be pleased that we may find the Effects of Your Justice and Goodness.  
The Edicts of the Kings your Predecessors, and particularly those of Harry the Great and Lewis the Just, which Your Majesty confirmed Authentically at your happy coming to the Crown; and after that by several other Declarations, have had a special regard to those of the said Religion, as being such that make a considerable part of the People which God hath submitted to your Power. As such they were not only admitted into Employments, to practise Arts and follow Trades, without which your Subjects are not able to gain their Livelyhoods, but also to Charges and Honours, which are the Recompense of Merit and Virtue. They had, together with the Liberty of their Consciences, the free Exercises of their Religion and Church-Discipline in all places allotted by the same Edicts. Besides these, Commissioners were authorized to hinder all Obstructions that might impead the same.  
There were Chambers set apart, to the end that those of the Religion might assure themselves of impartial Justice, as well in reference to their Persons as Estates. The Gentlemen particularly had Right and Possession, to put Officers whether of the one or the other Religion into their Fees. In short, Your Majesty's Suppliants enjoyed to all intents and purposes almost the same Happinesses and the same Advantages as the rest of Your Majesty's Subjects.  
It is true, Sir, That they were the Concessions of the Kings your Predecessors, and of Your Majesty itself; but such Concessions as were established by the tenor of the same Edicts, and rendered as a perpetual and irrevocable Law to keep Your Majesty's Subjects, both of the one and the other Religion in a firm and lasting Amity. Your Majesty's Subjects may say, That they have always lived under the Laws of those Concessions, and that they never had the misfortune to render themselves unworthy of that Favour. On the other side they have had this advantage, that Your Majesty has been most graciously pleased, to make a public and solemn Declaration of the entire Satisfaction which Your Majesty has received from the Zeal and Loyalty, which your Suppliants have always made appear in times of greatest jeopardy and hazard. Notwithstanding, Sir, not to look back toward times far remote, how much is the present Condition of your Suppliants different from that wherein they were established some years since.  
They are not only no longer admitted to public Charges and Employments, as they were before, but deprived of those wherein they were invested, and wherein they had served with Honour and Reputation.  
They have taken from us the Party-Authority, and the Municipal Employments in those Cities where your Suppliants are most numerous, and where they have the most Interest, in Political Administration, and in the Management of that Money which is imposed upon them.  
They are no longer admitted to the meanest public Employments in divers places, nor to the practice of Arts, nor the profession of Trades, which are the only means of their Subsistence.  
They can reckon near 300 Churches that have been ordered to be pulled down in less than ten years, some of which were expressly named in the Edict of Nantes, or at least comprehended in the tenor of the same Edict.  
The Commissioners, who are always ready to hear the pretended Controversies and Disputes which are imputed to your Supplyants', refuse to take Cognizance of those of which your Suppliants complain; or if they do, they never pronounce Judgement, but such as tend to partiality.  
Many times the Catholic Commissioners give judgement against your Supplyants', without advising or consulting the Commissioners of your Supplyants' Religion.  
They who cannot find Repose of Conscience without the Limits of their Religion, after they have first quitted it, and would return again, are exposed at present to the most Rigorous punishments, under the notion of a Relapse, being farther Menaced, That their Ministers and Consistories shall be suppressed, which is sometimes actually performed.  
If others have a desire to go from the Catholic, to the Reformed Religion, they disturb those of the Reformed Religion, who make their Addresses for the satisfaction of these Scruples, or for a Declaration of their Faith, and pretend it to be an effect of Subornation.  
The Chambers of Edict are not only Incorporated into the Parliaments, as it was the Sense of the Edict that they might be, but wholly extinguished and suppressed.  
In short, it is come to this, That your Supplyants' Children, though born in the Reformed Religion, are taken from their Parents, before they have attained the Age agreed on and consented to in the said Edicts, for them to choose their Religion.  
If upon this they make their applications to your Majesty's Intendants, as charged with the Execution of the said Edicts, either they refuse to take Cognizance of the same, or else they Ellude, as for many years they have done, all the Complaints which we bring before them.  
They would reduce those of the Reformed Religion, to have no more than one School, where there are about two or three Thousand Children, as if one Master were sufficient to teach so many Children.  
There is a Declaration come to your Supplyants' hands, which informs them of a Change intended of altering the form of holding their Synods by the intermixture of Catholic Commissioners, which is altogether contrary to the Tenor of the Edicts, and the Declaration of Lewis the Thirteenth, in the year 1633, and the Custom always observed. And all this under pretences quite contrary to the Honour and Reputation of your Supplyants', and the Fidelity they have always manifested for your Majesty's Service.  
The Bishops under pretence of their Visits, by a Decree of your Council, assume to themselves to hinder the Exercise of our Religion several weeks together.  
The Catholic ecclesiastics going to the Reformed Churches to hear their Sermons, lay to the charge of our Ministers those things which they never said; or else take occasions from Scholastical Terms of Theology, which cannot be avoided in Controversy, to prosecute us Criminally, before Judges incensed against our Religion, while the same persons forbear not to make use against your Supplyants', of Terms positively forbid by the said Edicts.  
The Chief Judges of places to whom it never belonged to take Cognizance of the said Edicts, assume to themselves a power, by ways of proceeding unheard of, to interdict and silence the Ministers of whole Provinces. At length it is come to this, that they have Published a Declaration, by which it is forbidden, That the Wives of those of the Reformed Religion, shall make use of any other than Roman Catholic Surgeons, or Midwives, which is directly contrary to the Tenor of the said Edicts, and the principles of your Supplyants' Religion. It being impossible that their Consciences should allow them to submit to the Roman Catholic Custom, in reference to Roman Catholic Infants; in regard that on the one side, they do not believe Baptism to be absolutely necessary, when death prevents the care of them that are obliged to procure it; And on the other side likewise believe, That so great a Sacrament cannot be performed by Lay-people; and that Dipping cannot supply the place of Baptism. All these, Sir, and many more considerable things, which would be too long to recount, and too tedious for your Majesty's perusal, are either publicly known, or to be justified by such proofs, as are in your Majesty's Supplyants' hands; as also by Judgements already given, and by public Acts and Declarations in print.  
All the world that sees to what a low condition your Supplyants' are reduced, gins to look upon them, as if they were abandoned to the prosecution and hatred of those that only seek their Ruin; they can add nothing more to the general Consternation, wherein all they of the said Reform Religion are in all parts of the Kingdom. Some have already left their Habitation, either out of fear of Necessity, to seek their Repose or Quiet in Foreign Countries, the greater number are detained by that Love and Duty which they own your Majesty, and perhaps some out of reluctancy to leave their Estates, and the Land of the their Nativity. However, all of us, Sir, next to God, expect no other safety or repose, but from the Justice and Clemency of your Majesty. You have always allowed us your grace and favour to have access to your Sacred person, and a tenderness to hear our Complaints. You have also nominated Commissioners to examine them more particularly, and to make their Report; but the Wars wherein your Majesty has been engaged, having taken up your time abroad, the Evils and grievances of your Supplyants' have been still multiplied and increased. Now (Sir) that your Majesty enjoys the Splendour of a Success that has favoured all your Designs, and that all your people expect to reap the fruit of your Royal Labours, your Supplyants' also hope, That your Majesty's Justice and Bounty will not now forsake them; and that you will be pleased not to make a distinction, between your Majesty's Supplyants' and the rest of your Subjects, or be the occasion, that while the one are in full joy and prosperity, the other should be in continual Mourning and Lamentation.  
For these Reasons, Sir, and for that always your Supplyants' have had the same zeal and Loyalty for your Service, May it please your Majesty to be so gracious, at to express your Majesty's Declaration to the Lords of the Council, to your Precedents, Proctors general of your Parliaments, and your Intendants and Commissioners appointed for the execution of the Law; your other Magistrates and Officers, that it is your Majesty's Royal Intention, that the said Edicts be Observed and Executed, and to order the Commissioners nominated by your Majesty, or such as your Majesty shall be pleased to appoint, to examine the Memoirs and justifications of your Supplyants', and to make Report thereof to your Majesty; particularly to your Majesty's Secretaries of State, to make immediate Report of those who are under oppression, and whose Sufferings are most grievous; to the end there may be a Remedy applied according to your Majesty's good will and pleasure, and your Supplyants' shall always continue their Wishes and their Prayers, for the prosperity of your Sacred person and your Reign.  
FINIS.