THE Last Efforts OF AFFLICTED INNOCENCE: Being an account of the PERSECUTION OF THE Protestants of FRANCE.  
AND A Vindication of the Reformed Religion from the Aspersions of Disloyalty and Rebellion, charged on it by the Papists.  
Translated out of French.  
LONDON, Printed for M. Magnes and R. Bentley, in Russel-street near the Piazza in Covent-Garden, 1682.   

TO The Right Honourable WILLIAM EARL of BEDFORD, Lord Russel, Baron Russel of THORNHAUGH, Knight of the most Noble Order of the GARTER.  
My Lord,  
'TIS a strange Question asked by St. Peter, Who will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? a Question that intimates Innocence, an effectual Protection against wrong and violence: But he had been taught the Doctrine of the Cross, he had seen his divine Master, the Arche-type of Immaculate Purity and Innocence, basely betrayed by an Apostle of his own, contumeliously abused by a Rabble he had infinitely obliged, Blasphemed by an Impious Soldiery, scoffed and laughed at by profane Governors, and under a colour of Justice, by the cursed Arts of his malicious Enemies, formally Arraigned, Condemned, and Executed as a Traitor to Caesar: This was an instance so clear, it was impossible not to be convinced by it, that Innocence and Goodness instead of protecting men from injury, expose them to it: And lest those he writ to, might, (by the Question he had asked) mistake themselves into a confidence, that Innocence would secure them from Persecution, the inspired Penman obviates the Error, by applying himself immediately to instruct them in their conduct, when oppressed with Calumnies and Wrongs.  
That Golden Age is long since past, when an Universal Innocence secured every one from injury: The World hath since been in a State of War: Inoffensiveness is no longer a sufficient Guard, and by the Law of Nature the weaker yields to the more powerful. The Innocence of the Lamb cannot secure him from the Violence of Wolves, or Subtlety of Foxes; The greater Fish devour the less. The harmless Dove is the daily food of the Birds of Prey; and Man not content to have the Fish of the Sea, the Beasts of the Field, and the Fowls of the Air a Sacrifice to his pleasure, is so maliciously bend to worry his own kind, as if he thought himself created for the ruin of his fellow-Creatures, particularly of Man. Craft and Malice raise themselves Trophies on the Ruins of Innocence, and the Nimrods' of the Earth triumph in the Spoils of their Inferiors, and place their Glory in Oppression and Violence.  
This State of War being very uneasy, reason had recourse to the Expedient of Laws, and Constitution of Governments, to retrieve in some measure, by Religion and Justice, the irreparable loss of Primitive Innocence and Natural Goodness.  
But those ill Inclinations that made Laws necessary to restrain their Malignity from breaking into act, no sooner found the Hand tied up by Laws from violent Attempts, but the Head was employed to elude those Laws by subtlety and artifice, to render that which was designed the protection of the Innocent, a Snare to catch them in; to make Law an instrument of Oppression, and Justice itself a Minister of injury. A State no less dangerous to man in his civil Capacity, than that ill habit of body, that turns the most wholesome food into poison, is dangerous to his nature, consuming and ruining it by that very aliment that should have repaired and preserved it.  
Such is the State of that Government, where a prevalent Faction doth by colour of Law and pretence of Religion, destroy the Religion and Rights of their Adversaries; who are therefore the more miserable, because they suffer unjustly under a form of Justice.  
Such, My Lord, is the State the Protestants in France complain of at this day: The Enemies of their Religion had vowed its Extirpation: They had tried the force of Inhuman Cruelties and unheard of Butcheries to destroy the Professors of it: Finding it impregnable by open assault, they apply themselves to effect by art and subtlety, what they had in vain attempted by force and violence, and to destroy by Law what they had found proof against Fire and Sword, Torture and Massacre. They procure Edicts for demolishing their Churches, rasing their Oratories, and shutting up their Schools, or converting them to other uses; the very method used with so much success by Julian the Apostate, for rooting out Christianity.  
The Protestants alarmed at the Proceed of their Enemies, armed with authority, and vigorously using it to their ruin, apply themselves by Petition to their King, for redress of their Grievances, and preservation of the Privileges granted them by the Edicts and Arrests of his Illustrious Ancestors: That great Prince moved with the justice of their demands, grants an Edict, That no violence be done his Protestant Subjects on the account of Religion. Their Enemies not discouraged resolve to pursue their point, and under specious pretences of Piety, obtain authority to labour the Conversion of Protestants, to visit their Sick, to examine their Children, and to receive their Declaration at seven years old, what Religion (the Reformed or Roman) they would choose to be instructed in: They improve this Authority so effectually and scandalously to the destruction of the Protestants, that laying aside the antiquated means of instruction and argument, they took a new method for Conversion, making use only of Threats to frighten, of Promises to seduce, of Money and Immunities to bribe, and (where these means failed) of force to compel Men, Women, and Children into that Catholic Church, which turns all into Fish that come into its Net, and ensures all who go to Mass a safe Arrival in Heaven.  
The Protestants sensible of the abuse of the Authority of their King, contrary to his intentions, prepare a second Address for relief; but coming to present it, found all Avenues blocked up, no access to his Majesty, no redress in his Courts, the Ministers of State prepossessed to their prejudice, and themselves looked upon as Enemies to the State.  
My Lord, It was the artifice of their Enemies to represent them such to that ambitious Monarch, too generous and compassionate to persecute good Subjects, but extremely jealous of his Authority. So the Jewish Priests finding Pilate convinced of our Saviour's Innocence, and inclined to acquit him, suggest, he had spoken against Caesar, etc. and prevailed with that Judge to Condemn him for Treason, the greatest of Crimes, who upon a solemn hearing, declared he had found no fault in him.  
The greatest Affliction to an innocent Sufferer is aspersion of Gild; Tortures may crack his Sinews, mangle his Limbs, and destroy his Body, but false Aspersions wound the Heart, distract the Spirits, and rend and tear the Soul in pieces. His Innocence may support him against the pains of Racks and Gibbets, but the torture of Calumny is intolerable.  
This, My Lord, is the Case of the Afflicted Protestants: They have for their Religion patiently submitted to the Persecution of their Enemies: But they not content to have stripped them naked, forced them to seek a livelihood in foreign Regions, and live on the Alms of people unknown, endeavour to rob them of their sole support, the reputation of their Innocence; by persuading the World, they are men of Rebellious Principles, Enemies to Government, particularly Monarchy: This of all their Sufferings is the only one they are impatient of, and could not submit to without a Defence.  
My Lord, The Sufferings of the French Protestants, the injustice of their Persecution, the ill consequences that may attend it, and the clearing of their Loyalty, are the principal Subjects of the following Discourses: The three first particulars are peculiar to those of the Reformed Religion in France: The last so far concerns the whole Protestant Party of Europe, as the common Enemy charges them all with Principles of Rebellion: The Author, though he apply himself chief to vindicate the Reformed of France, hath not forgot to add somewhat in justification of other Protestants, and, by a just Translation of the Crime, laid the Gild of Rebellious Principles and Practices at the doors of their Enemies.  
The sight of misery, especially undeserved, melts a generous soul into pity and compassion; but of all the Sufferings our nature is subject to, those undergone for Conscience and Religion are the most glorious, and best deserve Commiseration; when out of sense of Duty to the Sovereign of the World, for an inward and innocent satisfaction of mind, and hopes of pleasure purely spiritual, invisible and feature, men slight all the pleasures of sense; and with true Magnanimity, not only contemn worldly advantages, but cheerfully endure the smartest Afflictions and Tortures: Criminals have that benefit of the Laws they offend, they are allowed to plead for themselves: An Innocent Sufferer hath right to Compassion and Favour, especially a Sufferer on the account of Religion, and who, on that account, hath been forced to seek in strange Countries, the right denied him in his own. Such, My Lord, are these Protestant Exiles, who barred access to the French King their Lord, fled for refuge to the Throne of our most Gracious Prince, who in Commiseration to the distressed Protestants, hath made his Kingdoms a general Sanctuary, where they who could not have justice, quiet, or security at home, find safety, protection, and favour, with the benefit of Laws, and kind influences of a Government infinitely more Gentle than those they were born under.  
My Lord, 'Tis the Glory of the Mighty to protect the Innocent: Nothing makes power look so venerable and divine, as employing it aright. The highest pleasure and best fruit of greatness is the conscience to have used it well: That excellent Prince who esteemed the day lost wherein he had not obliged some of his Inferiors, was the Darling of Mankind: His memory is blest to this day, when others who moved in the same Sphere, but made ill use of their greatness, are mentioned with abhorrence: Persons of eminent dignity and power draw the eyes of inferior mankind, as those Luminous bodies that move in the upper Regions, which all look at, but with aspects different as the Apprehensions they have of them: Those they conceive of a malignant nature, they look on with horror; but those they apprehend benign and good, they behold with pleasure and delight, with hope and confidence, with respect and veneration.  
My Lord, Allow me the liberty to tell your Lordship, that among the Stars of the greater magnitude in our Horizon, the Distressed Protestants fix their Eyes on you, as one of no less Propitious than Powerful Influence: Their envious Enemies have endeavoured to blast their Reputation, and by Calumny and unjust aspersions to rob them of the benefit of that justice they might pretend to at home, and to represent them unworthy any favour abroad: This obliged them to a Vindication of themselves in their own Language: But that being not universally understood in this Kingdom (where they are so nearly concerned to stand right in the opinion of the most loyal and best Reformed Church of the World) I thought it not altogether unuseful to them, to have their Defence published in English for general satisfaction: The same malice that assaulted their Innocence by unjust Aspersions, will be too apt to cavil at their Vindication, and cry down their defence: The Justice of their Cause, without the assistance of a powerful patronage, may be too weak to protect them. And for The last Efforts of Afflicted Innocence, The just Vindication of Persecuted Protestants, what Patronage more suitable, what Protection more agreeable than His, whose noble Extraction and generous Temper naturally incline to pity the miserable, to protect the Innocent, and secure the injured? Whose integrity and soundness in the Protestant Religion, have rendered him eminent for piety, virtue, and worth; and whose ample fortune, dignity, and honour, no less justly than signally distinguish him from other Men? And for that this Character belongs peculiarly to your Lordship, be pleased to excuse the liberty I take to beg, these Discourses may appear in English, under your Lordship's Auspicious Name; and that you will believe, nothing but the lustre of your great Qualities, and the glory of your Name, appearing so proper to protect and grace a Tract of this nature, and the opinion of your goodness and condescension to vouchsafe it that honour, could have inspired me with this presumption. For which I humbly beg pardon, who am,  
My Lord, Your Lordship's most humble, and most Devoted Servant, W. Vaughan.   

TO THE PROTESTANT ENGLISH READER.  
Suave mari magno jactantibus aequora ventis,  
Eterrâ magnum alterius spectare Laborem:  
Sed tua res agitur Paries ubi proximus ardet.  
Reader,  
I Presume you sensible of your happiness, in being born and bred a Member of a Protestant Church, wherein Piety is consistent with sound reasoning, and a Man may be Religious without forfeiting his Senses or renouncing his Judgement: I doubt not but you esteem it a Blessing to be subject to a Government the best constituted of any, and Laws so equally tender of the Prerogative of the Sovereign and Privilege of the Subject, as best conduces to the common welfare of both; and you must be unworthy the Name I addressed you by, if you do not value it as the greatest Blessing on Earth, that the Church and State are under the Protection and Government of a most Gracious and Excellent Prince: But that which the Subject of the following Discourses prompts me particularly to mind you of, is the immediate source of our envied felicity, that our Prince is not only most gracious, most wise and most just, but that he is a sincerely Protestant Prince. A favour of Heaven to which we principally own the preservation of our Rights, sacred and civil, the exercise of our Religion and benefit of our Laws: The miserable condition of the Protestants in France, who sigh forth their just but fruitless Complaints in the following sheets are an Evidence too clear and too sad; That Edicts and Arrests, Privileges and Immunities, Liberties and Laws are too slight a Bulwark to secure Protestant Subjects the exercise of their Religion, and enjoyment of their Civil Rights under a Prince of the Romish Persuasion: These Persecuted Protestants the daily objects of your Charity, are the Successors and Descendants of those of the last Age, to whose Loyalty and Valour Henry the fourth of France acknowledged himself much a Debtor, for the Diadem of that Kingdom, which the Monarch now Regnant there wears with so much Glory, and the Catholic Liguers laboured so vigorously and scandalously to rend away from the Family of Bourbon. It was in consideration of that Fidelity, and as a Princely Mark of his favour, and acceptance of the eminent service they had done him; that Prince, (no less truly than nominally great) confirmed to them the free exercise of their Religion, with ample Immunities and Privileges ratified with all solemnity of Law requisite in such cases: All Europe is witness, the present Protestants of France have not degenerated from the Loyalty of their Ancestors, but have served their Prince with all imaginable Fidelity and Zeal for the Glory of his Crown: The World admires the Royal qualities of their Monarch; his Conduct proves him a Prince every way great: He is particularly famed for strictness of Justice and profoundness of Wisdom. His Protestant Subjects who are lashed so severely by the rod of his Authority, declare him a person of a generous Temper and sweet Disposition, a Man that abhors Cruelty and Violence, and is one of the best natured Princes under Heaven: Rome, to her sorrow, finds him no Bigot, though a Roman Catholic, yet the Protestants of France are persecuted with that rigour and extremity, they think it a happiness to purchase with the loss of all secular enjoyments the freedom of their Conscience, and by a voluntary exile to find in strange Countries that Justice and Peace they cannot have in their own. Poor Hugonots! What can be a sufficient Guarranty, for the exercise of your Religion, which Edicts in its favour obtained on weighty and just Considerations, and ratified with all the solemnity of Law, the loyalty of its Professors, the merit of your Ancestors, the innate goodness and wisdom of your Sovereign cannot secure! If Persecution be your Lot under the Reign of a Monarch so Generous and Sagacious, so free from Superstition, and so full of Heroic Qualities as your Lewis the 14th, cease to complain of the Murders and Massacres under Charles the 9th and Henry the 3d; and arm yourselves with a Christian expectation of greater Sufferings, and more fiery trials of your Patience and Loyalty, when it shall be your misfortune to see the French Crown on the head of a weak, ill-natured or Bigoted Prince: Your present King hath bravely defied the Thunderbolts of Rome, and vigorously attacked its usurp d Supremacy, yet permits you to be rigorously handled; what usage must you expect from a Superstitious Soul, that will receive the Dictates of the Pope as Oracles of Heaven, and hazard Crowns to merit the title of a true Son of the Church, in executing Commands, the most dishonourable and bloody the malice of Priests or interest of the Papacy shall impose upon him? Impute it singly to the good nature of your King, that Fires are not kindled, and Gibbets set up to destroy you as in former Ages; the malice of your Enemies is not abated, and your Religion, the cause of your Sufferings, is the same as then; but your King hath a Soul too noble and tender to command Innocents' to be tortured and burnt; a Spectacle Charles the 9th made his Divertisement and Pleasure: How miserable must you be under a Prince that shall delight in your Sufferings, and think it not just only, but meritorious to extirpate you, when you are thus sharply persecuted under so great a Monarch, who had the goodness to declare he would willingly sacrifice his right hand for (what he calls) your Conversion? Had your sage and wise Prince so much tenderness for you, that he would have sacrificed the instrument of so many glorious Achievements, the Darling of his noble and ambitious soul, for that which conceives your good, and yet is imposed upon by the arts of your Enemies to connive at your ruin, and permit his authority to be abused to warrant and countenance those Violences and Outrages his Soul abhors, and his eyes cannot endure a sight of? Preserve, as you do, your Loyalty to your Sovereign, admire his Virtues, and extol his Goodness: Triumph in the clearness of your Innocence, that the Enemies of your Religion own not any cause of your present Persecution, but your King's Pleasure, that there shall be but one Religion in his Kingdom: But lament the unhappiest of his Education in a Religion of Principles, so unnatural, it would take away that variety God and Nature have unalterably established, no less in the Opinions and Judgements, than in the Tempers and Faces of Men; so tyrannically, it would enslave all Mankind to its Tenets, though never so absurd; so wildly ambitious, it would usurp that Sovereignty God hath reserved to himself over the judgement and conscience, and force Men, contrary to both, to comply with its Superstitions, and become Traitors to God by a profane Hypocrisy, that they may appear good Subjects to the Pope by an outward Conformity to his Impositions; so irrational, it would persuade men to put out their eyes to be guided by it, to abjure their Senses and renounce their Reason, to be governed by its Dictates: Bewail the malice and subtlety of your Enemies, that hath perverted your Prince, from a Father of his faithful Subjects into a Persecutor of Protestants, an Oppressor of the Reformed Church; inspired him with a Cruelty it found not in his Nature, and surprised him to permit Violences and Outrages to be committed upon you, which are no less contrary to his judgement than they are to his goodness.  
But the Moon hath her spots; Solomon and Alexander were not free from miscarriages, and the sagacious malice of the enemies of Protestants, quickly finds out those weaknesses in the Souls of the best Princes they have access to, which they impose upon, and manage to the prejudice of the Reformed Religion: They knew the French King of too good a nature to permit general Massacres, or delight in Cruelty exercised on his Subjects; they were sensible he is not a Bigot, to be persuaded to yield up the Lives of his Subjects to the pleasure of the Pope, or the interest of his Church; nor so silly to believe the God of the Christians can be pleased, as some of the pretended Vicars of Christ have been, with slaughter of men. They observed so much Justice and Equity in his nature, he would be scandalised at a proposal that would have engaged him, contrary to Law, and without colour of Justice, to violate the rights of a loyal and numerous party of his Subjects; they apprehended him too sensible of the interest of his Crown, to approve of a Conduct that would oblige him to oppress millions of Subjects, to whom he ought to be and had often declared himself a Father; and by Persecution of Innocents' to depopulate his Kingdom, which he found too thin planted to serve his great designs: They considered him too jealous of his Authority, to allow any subject or party, how great soever, to attempt without permission from him, upon any privilege or right of their fellow-Subjects: But they knew that Achilles' impenetrable in all other parts, was vulnerable in one, that the Fort is not impregnable which has one weakness by which it may be mastered: They were at a fault, but pursued their Game, and at last hit the Scent. They considered the French King an Ambitious Prince, jealous of his authority, and as impatient of a Traitor as of a Superior: They confess it inhuman as well as unchristian to murder Innocents', and Massacre men for differences in opinion, which they could no more help than those of their constitution. They admit the Pope's invading the Liberties of the Gallican Church, an Usurpation not to be tolerated by so great a Monarch; they own it unworthy the Justice of so excellent a Prince, to violate the Privileges granted his Subjects by his Ancestors; they grant it to be against the interest of the State, to lay waste his Provinces, and depopulate his Countries by forcing his Subjects into foreign parts: But they conceive it just to punish Criminals; they think it both expedient and necessary to root out Traitors and extirpate Rebels, to destroy Vipers which eat out their way through the Bowels of their Mother, to exterminate those Subjects, who to support a Faction and maintain a particular interest of Religion, would ruin their Country; and while he carries the terror of his Arms into Foreign Regions, would put all the Provinces of his Kingdom into a Combustion, and oblige him to withdraw his Forces from prosecuting his Rights, and advancing his Glory by Conquests abroad, to quench with the blood of Civil War the flames that would be kindled in the heart of France: That their zeal for his Service and Glory, had discovered in his Kingdom a Seminary of such Monsters, which must be suppressed: That they were numerous and powerful, and they durst not attack them without particular Commission and the favour of his Authority: That they were a Race of Traitors, who envied the glorious success of his Arms, and maligned his Triumphs, men of Rebellious Principles, that sucked in Treason with their Milk, that were Enemies to Government, especially Monarchy that insisted on Rights, and pretended to Privileges independent of his pleasure: That presumed to think his Authority bounded by Laws, and that his Will is to be controlled by Edicts, and directed by Counsels: That those upstart Innovators of the pretended Reformed Religion, were the men they meant: That Seed of Heretics, that Hydra of Apostates, the Glory of whose ruin was reserved for his Reign: That the Rights they pretend to by Law, may by Law be destroyed: That the illness of their Principles hath forfeited their Privileges: That the Roman Catholics had a Law, and by that Law the Hugonots ought to be destroyed: That a Monarch without Dispotical Authority cannot be great: That blind obedience in the Church is a preparative absolutely necessary for Arbitrary Government in the State: That those Innovators allow the use of private judgement, presume to censure the actions of their Superiors, and dispute the Commands they ought to obey.  
Talibus insidiis! By such Delusions as these, by such artifice and cunning, was that Prince imposed upon, to permit them to be persecuted as dissaffected to the State, whom he loved as his best Subjects: And the same time he opposes the Usurpations of the Pope, and shakes off his yoke; he is persuaded to deliver up to the fury of Papists his Protestant Subjects, whose greatest Crime, is their having renounced the pretended Supremacy of the Roman See: And to prevent the redress they might expect for their Grievances from the Justice and Clemency of their Prince, when rightly informed by their humble Addresses, their Enemies have so prepossessed him to their prejudice, they are barred access to his Throne, denied Justice in his Courts, and their Petitions of Right, rejected as Criminal, and stigmatised with the odious Title of insolent Remonstrances:  
The Defence of the French Protestants against the Charge of Rebellious Principles and Practices, is partly the Subject of the subsequent Discourses: I pretend not to anticipate their Apology, by saying any thing for them, but desire the Reader to peruse what they say for themselves; and that he will learn by their Misfortunes, to value the happiness of being subject to a Protestant Prince, and wish and endeavour, as far as is consistent with Piety, Loyalty, and Justice, to render that Happiness perpetual: Modern Rome pretends, no less than the Ancient, to Empire and Sovereignty: This pretended to Empire over the Body and Estate that sets up a claim to a spiritual Sovereignty over Souls, to serve the design of exercising a Temporal Dominion over Persons and Possessions: Modern Rome, impatient of a Rival in Authority, hath long considered the Reformed Church as old Rome did Carthage, an Enemy without whose extirpation it could not safely subsist, and hath Decreed an irreconcilable and eternal Hostility against it. And where Hostility is Decreed, the Maxim is currant, Dolus an virtus quis in host requirat? Fraud and Force are equally allowed for the Destruction of an Enemy: Carthage might more reasonably have expected sincere and perpetual Amity from Rome, than those of the Reformed Religion may expect from the Papacy, which looks upon them not only as Enemies, but Rebels and Apostates, and solemnly devotes them to Destruction here, and Damnation hereafter.  
If these Inferences seem ill grounded or uncharitable, and inconsistent with the Principles of Christianity, allowed by those of the Roman Religion, let it be considered, whether that Religion hath not long degenerated from a Guide to eternity into a mere instrument of State, and is not principally made use of to support the Grandeur of the Papal Chair, and the Luxury of his Court: That it thinks not itself sufficiently supported without an Inquisition, to root out Dissenters under the title of Heretics; and where the prudence of Princes hath kept out the Inquisition, and denied the Pop●● that colour of Law to exterminate their Subjects the Protestants have been murdered by wholesale in general Massacres, since they could not be retailed to Death by Information and Process. That it makes subjection to the Pope necessary to Salvation; that it declares Protestants, Heretics, and reputes Heretics, Outlaws and Enemies of Mankind, with whom no Faith is to be kept. These are the genuine causes of the Miseries of Protestants under Princes infected with the Doctrine of Rome; hence proceed those Violations of Privileges, breach of Edicts and Laws in their favour, denial of Justice and ruin of their Fortunes and Lives: What Law can bind a Prince, who thinks it not only lawful but meritorious to break it? How hardly shall a Subject have that benefit of Law, which his Sovereign holds himself obliged to deny him? But if Princes would consider, that the Religion of Rome hath Pardon in store for the greatest Crimes, but none for that of denying the Roman Supremacy, that Sin against the Holy See not to be forgiven: That it allows service done that See, not only an Atonement to expiate the Gild of the greatest Villainy, but meritorious to gain him a Crown in Heaven, who will expose himself by the blackest of Crimes to support the Pope's temporal Crown in an exigence: That the Profession and Practice of the Roman Religion by Roman Catholic Princes, hath not been able to secure their Lives from being made a Sacrifice to the Pleasure of the Pope and the interest of his Church, by the hands of Roman Catholic Assassins': Did Princes consider this, neither those who have been bred up in that persuasion could think themselves safe in the Possession of their Crowns, without a dependence on the Pope and a submission (unbecoming a Prince) to his Dictates and interest. Nor could any Prince bred up in a Reformed Religion, (which owns the Supremacy of Kings immediate under God, and makes Loyalty an indispensable duty from the Subject to the Sovereign) be ever seduced to change it for a Religion, which hath furnished a Monk to murder Henry the third of France, (not only a Popish Prince, but a Persecutor of Protestants) and a Ravillac to assassinate Henry the fourth, who having escaped the fury of the Catholic Arms, while he continued a Protestant, fell by the hands of a Popish Villain, after his Perversion to the Popish Religion.   

THE LAST EFFORTS OF AFFLICTED INNOCENCE.  

The First Discourse: Between two Gentlemen, the one of Provence, the other of Paris, etc.  The Provincial. 
YOU will not deny, Sir, but 'tis my fate to surprise you. I cannot imagine this second Interview less surprising than the former. A years absence had given you hope, you were rid of a troublesome Companion; But he is come again.  The Parisian. 
Persons of your Merit and charming Conversation are not to be called troublesome: Surprises of this kind are always agreeable. But where have you been since our last sight of you?  Prov. 
Soon after our second Discourse, I had advice by Letter of urgent affairs hastened me into Provence, where I spent near a twelvemonth: But my business in Provence could not make me so forget the Charms of Paris, but I am come again to take a second taste of the pleasures of it, though perhaps to your trouble: I have found again my Huguenot Gentleman, who hath stayed all this while at Paris, and probably takes more delight in it than I.  Par. 
I perceive, he hath not failed to entertain you afresh with the state of his Religion, the Subject he was so full of the last year. And generally, the Gentlemen of his persuasion, when at liberty, can hardly speak of any thing else, every day affording them new matter of Discourse.  Pro. 
I confess, my Huguenot never meets me, but he speaks to me of it; and with such Triumph and Joy, as if he had stopped your mouth and mine; and that we had nothing to answer the Reasons he brought to prove, That the Conduct now used against the Hugonots, is not only contrary to the Rules of Morality, and that Integrity we ought to practise in observing our promises, but destructive of the true interest of State. And, Sir, to your misfortune, I remember very well, you concluded our last Discourse with these words; These Gentlemen, said you, have taken time to think of their Objestions; 'tis fit, we should take time to think of our Answers; 'tis enough for this day, that we have given them a hearing. This, Sir, is a formal engagement you cannot recede from. You must furnish me with Weapons to defend myself, or rather resolve to engage them without a second: For I find myself not able to bear any longer a part in the Action: I have a treacherous memory, and forget half what is said to me. Every one pleads his Cause in Person with more Vigour and Success, than by Proxy: You will be pleased to hear them speak, and I beg it of you.  Par. 
You have by your Merit gained so absolute an Empire over me, you may command any thing in my Power: I am easily persuaded to enter into Discourse with Persons for whom I have entertained an Esteem, upon the Character you have given of them.  Pro. 
Since you have been pleased to receive my proposal in so obliging a Manner, I will confess the whole truth, and let you see I had that Confidence in your kindness; I have taken the Liberty to appoint my Gentleman and his Lawyer their Rendesvouz at your house; they will be here in half an hour. I knew this to be your day of repose, and came before to see if you would receive us, and if I found you not at leisure to hear and to speak to us, I could have persuaded my Gentlemen to take a turn in the Thuilleryes.  Par. 
They shall be very welcome, and so shall any that comes with you; assoon as they are come, a Lackey shall have order to stand at the door, and tell all that ask for me, I am not within. But, Sir, since you will engage me to day in a formal Combat, I will deal freely with you. I am not of opinion we should engage ourselves to answer particularly all they have said to you; and you reported to me, That Method is fit only for the Schools, and would turn our Discourse into Wrangling and Pedantry. If you will be advised by me, we will raise a Counter-battery: Let us put them on the Defensive, and see how these Gentlemen, who would prove, the safety of the state depends on their preservation, can reconcile with this Maxim the danger they have heretofore put this Monarchy in; for, I aver it, that in threescore or fourscore years they have ten times brought the State to the brink of destruction by the disorders they have caused, and the Wars they have raised in it.  Pro. 
You say well, Sir, that's their weak side, and I join in opinion with you, they are to be attaqu'd there.  Par. 
But to the Business of our Answer; have you not seen a Writing published not long after our last Discourse, entitled, A Letter from a Churchman to a Friend? It was Printed at Brussels by Francis Foppery. 'Tis the very thing you want, being a full and pertinent Answer to all the Complaints contained in the Petition they intended to present to the King.  Pro. 
You may believe, that having had a design these twelve Months past to be perfectly informed of this great Affair, I have not failed to furnish myself with that Piece: I have read, and brought it with me, believing it might be of use in the Subject we are to examine. But what is your judgement of it?  Par. 
I say, he hath written like a man of sense, and considered well what he said: And to tell you my mind, I look not on this Author, as an Author without Mission and without Call, as a private Person who of his own head published a Libel against the Hugonots; 'twas a business designed: That unknown Writer was put on by the same persons that constantly solicit the King to ruin the Hugonots, or by the Agents of the Clergy.  Pro. 
If I may be allowed to add to the Judgement you have given, I could wish, that Writer had in some particulars weighed better what he said, and dealt more ingenuously. For instance, where the Hugonots complain, That in ten years three hundred of their Churches have been demolished, that Author answers, This is quickly said, but hard to prove; 
Pag. 6.  for we aver, that there have not been forty of their Churches demolished within these ten years: If we are called to justify this, we cannot do it: I know that in the Province of Poitou alone, near forty Churches have been demolished. And if that Paper was written by Order of the Clergy, as you conjecture, I wish they had taken care not to contradict themselves: In the Assembly of the Clergy at Paris in May last, where the Bishops at Court had Order to debate the affair of the Regale, and the matter in Controversy between the King and the Pope; The Agent of the Clergy who opened the Assembly, said in his Harangue, that the King had demolished an infinite of Churches: Infinite, (according to Mr. Churchman) is confined in very narrow bounds, being reduced to forty. But I heard a knocking at the door, and am much mistaken if it be not by our Gentlemen; they are the very Men.  The Huguenot Gentlemen. 
I know not, Sir, what you may think of us, who, strangers as we are, come boldly into a house so considerable as yours, without having asked your leave; especially since we are come with a set design to quarrel the Master of the House, and oppose his sentiments. We have reason to fear we shall not be very welcome; But there stands a Gentleman by you hath undertaken we shall; if we have presumed too far, he is to bear the blame.  Par. 
Persons of your Civility are welcome in any place. And as to the Declaration of War you have made against me at your entrance, I am not afraid of it; there is no danger, Sir, of any blood to be lost in our Quarrel; I am of Opinion, whoever is vanquished will not be troubled at it: I apprehend your meaning from the Discourse I have had with this Gentleman, who hath given me an account of what passed betwixt you and him.  Pro. 
My dear Friend, I am resolved to be even with you to day: You have taken a second who is abler than I And I shall engage you with a man too hard for you both. God grant, your Defeat be so happy, as to dispose both of you to Conversion: You shall have no more to do with me, you are in good hands; take my word for it, I will henceforward be only a hearer.  The Huguenot Lawyer. 
Since the Gentleman accepts the Challenge with so good a Grace, he will not be displeased, if I pray we may go into his Study, which doubtless is well furnished; for I foresee we shall have occasion in our Discourse to have recourse to some Books.  Par. 
With all my heart Gentlemen, we will go where you please, my Study is but indifferent, but I believe we shall find there all the Books we shall need.  They go into the Parisians Study, and after a turn or two take their seats, and proceed in their Discourse. 
By what I have heard from this Gentleman, who hath procured me the pleasure of seeing you, I conceive, Gentlemen, you approve not of the Design the King hath to reunite the Religions in his Kingdom, and are not pleased with the Means he makes use of.  Hug. Law. 
Sir, We have more respect for the King, then to presume to judge of his Conduct and condemn it: But we cannot but see, that those who give his Majesty the Counsels on which the Conduct against us is grounded, are the greatest Enemies of the State. All the Jealousy of the House of Austria, all the Forces of Spain and of Germany, will never do France so much mischief as these Politic Bigots.  Par. 
You have an ill opinion of our zealous Catholics; Methinks, the name you give them is not suitable to them. Besides, it hath something of Contradiction in it; you call them Politic Bigots. Devotion is seldom joined with Policy: The Politicians of all ages have been always opposite to the Bigot and Devout.  Hug. Law. 
Really, sir, they may very well be called Bigoted Politicians, when their Devotion and Zeal for the Ruin of the poor Protestants is a mere piece of Policy; their lives and their manners prove it clearly: There are some among 'em, to whom we do too great an Honour, if we think they believe there is a God. I have known some Intendants of the Provinces, who had no Religion at Paris, but became on the sudden in their several jurisdictions very zealous Persecutors of the Hugonots. May there not be found among those of the Council of Conscience some Persons for whose Piety, you Sir, would scarce pass your word? I mean Bishops that keep Concubines; Monks, that are become Courtiers and Effeminate, and these Complacent directors of Conscience, who approve of all Actions, so the Protestants be destroyed, the Protestants; the light of whose Doctrine is too piercing and clear, and exposes too much the vileness of the Actions of their Persecutors, reproaches their Conduct, and torments them in the very use of their pleasures. Is true Devotion consistent with maxims of Morality, so lose as those of our greatest Persecutors? But so runs the stream; thus men make their Court, 'tis the Mode, and all the World follows it.  Par. 
I easily believe, there are men of the Character you have given. But I am persuaded there are of those Saints (or Bigots as you call them) who are really devout. And I am clear of opinion, they are not Enemies of the State as you say: They conceive unity of Religion the greatest good imaginable, and that it would be the Glory of the King to procure this good to France. And this I take to be the Principle they build upon, and the ground of their Actions.  Hug. Law. 
I am of Opinion, Sir, those men may very well be called Enemies of the State, whose Conduct tends directly to its ruin; who inspire into his Majesty's Subjects a mutual hatred, which obliges them to look on one another as Enemies. After that the late King Lewis the 13th. of glorious Memory, had, by the Method he took to appease the late Troubles, taken away the fear the Protestants were under, that there were designs not only against their Liberties, but their Lives, it may be affirmed, the hearts of those of either Religion were so perfectly reunited, it was impossible for the Enemies of the State to find a breach to enter at. But the King hath been made to tell us in one of his Arrests, that the Kindness and Patience he had had for his Subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion, had heightened the adversion of his Catholic Subjects against them. The Aversion the said Catholics have always had against the said Religion, and those who profess it, hath been increased by the publishing the said Edicts, Declarations and Arrests. It is really very necessary, the King should be informed, that contrary to what he hath been made believe, the Edicts of Pacification had established a perfect peace between both Parties, and that happy union hath been considerably altered, since the considerable Breaches that have been made of those Edicts. The Roman Catholic resumes that spirit of Animosity he formerly had; he looks on the Protestant as a Victim ready to be sacrificed to his pleasure, and justifies by the Conduct of his Superiors, the Aversion he hath for his Countrymen and fellow Subjects: The Protestant on the other side looks on the Roman Catholic as an Enemy who endeavours to ruin him. He is full of diffidence, and mistrusts every thing: He dares not speak, nor open his mind freely: He is afraid of being questioned for a Word: His Bowels are shut up against the poor Roman Catholic, to whom he used to be very openhanded: And he cannot forbear saying to himself, doth Charity oblige me to feed an Enemy to day, who, perhaps will take away my Life to morrow? The poor Huguenot in every Village looks upon his Magistrates and Superiors as men authorised to watch all occasions to destroy him. The Magistrates think themselves obliged to be harsh and severe to those who are hated by the Court. They tell us every day, we have Order to humble and mortify you: You may expect what you please, but expect no favour. Heretofore the saying was, you shall have Justice done you, but hope not for more. Alas! 'Tis long since we have been in a Condition to expect any favour. We should now be very well satisfied, could we have Justice done us; for Justice requires men to keep their Promises: We should esteem ourselves happy enough, if permitted to enjoy peaceably the Privileges and Liberties confirmed to us by so many Promises, Edicts and Arrests. You cannot believe it in our Power to look upon our approaching ruin, without being troubled the same time to see others rejoice at our fall. The injuries and reproaches the Hugonots receive from the insulting Roman Catholics pierce to the heart, and make deep wounds which bleed afresh every day. In a word, that sweetness of Commerce and fair Correspondence that reigned among the Subjects of France is broken and lost, and instead of mutual Confidence, nothing appears but a general fear and universal mistrust: The Tumults in several places, the demolishing and burning of Churches, the Seditions raised against the Protestants, the injuries done their Persons for two years past, are convincing Proofs of what I allege. And matters were carried on with so furious haste, the King found himself obliged to stop the Torrent of these Violences by an Arrest. You are not ignorant, Sir, how necessary it is for the peace of a State, that the Inhabitants of a Kingdom be united among themselves by the Bonds of Amity.  Par. 
'Tis for that very reason, Sir, the King would reduce all his Subjects to one Religion: By suffering two different parties in a State, you sow the Seed of immortal Divisions: You know the troubles the Guelphs and the Ghibellines caused in Italy; they that would maintain the peace of a State, must suppress the very Name and Memory of Factions.  Hug. Law. 
'Tis not with Sects in Religion as with Factions in the State, the case is very different. Factions of State may be suppressed by good Conduct, and destroyed by time; yet a considerable time is necessary for doing it; the Example you have mentioned of the Guelses and Gibellines sufficiently proves it: Those Factions reigned several Ages; nor could the Name be extinguished but after hundreds of years, and the desolation of Italy by the fury of the Parties. But to take away the difference of Sentiments in Religion is a more difficult task. Fire and Faggot, Gibbets and Axes signify nothing; this appears clearly by the History of the last Age. We must bear with a mischief we can neither prevent nor remove, and nourish Peace between two Parties which cannot be destroyed, but may be preserved by permitting the difference, and maintaining a War between them: This seems a Paradox, but is not so difficult as you may imagine. Provided the stronger Party oppress not the weaker, 'tis certain the weaker will have for the stronger a kindness and value for the Toleration indulged; And the stronger will permit itself to be won by the kindness and grateful acknowledgements of the weaker: 'Tis a matter tried and of fresh Experience. Every one knows the Union the Catholic and we Hugonots lived in, before they inspired the King with a design to destroy us.  Par. 
This method of preserving Peace is not so sure as you imagine. But I could hearty wish a true remedy could be found for the greatest mischief in a State, which is, the Disunion of its Members, and the Animosity reigning between the Subjects of one Sovereign.  Hug. Law. 
You will grant me then, Sir, that those who blow up the fire, and revive these Animosities, are great Enemies of the State. And this they are evidently guilty of, who inspire into the King, Sentiments of Rigour and Severity against the Reformed. But, alas! The matter is yet more sad; they are not satisfied with endeavouring to take from the King all the goodness and kindness he once had for us; but they labour all they can to root out of our hearts the Love, the Respect, the Veneration and the Tenderness we have for our King. I aver it, we love our King even to adoration; we are so clearly convinced of his sublime Qualities, it adds infinitely to our grief, to find ourselves so ill thought of by a Prince, for whom we have so much Zeal and Admiration. Is it in the power of Man to love and to fear at once the same person? Oh! how shall we do it? We are told every moment the King hath a design to destroy us: He is represented to us with his Sword in his hand ready drawn for our ruin. 'Tis Published, 'tis Printed, that if he live so long, as by course of Nature 'tis presumed he may, he will see our Religion at an end. 
Process verbal of the Assembly March and May 1681.  If God preserve to us this great Prince, so long as all good People ought to wish, he will utterly suppress this Monster in his Kingdom. What means this but to cast us into a general Consternation, with design to stifle and destroy the love we have for our Prince, and to make us look on his Life, as the greatest of our misfortunes? They must have a great stock of Regeneration who can love those they esteem their Enemies; yet all means possible are used to persuade us the King is the greatest Enemy we have. As to the Consternation, they have attained their ends; 'tis general and so great, it cannot be greater. Yet hitherto the Love we have for our King, stands firm against this horrible Consternation, because we have yet some hope the King will permit himself to be moved by our Prayers and Patience. And if disappointed in this, we will apply ourselves to God for Grace, not to do any thing contrary to our duty.  Par. 
To tell you the truth, they slight you so much now adays, they value not at all your Love or your Hatred.  Hug. Law. 
Ah, Sir, say not so; I know well enough those are the Sentiments they would inspire into his Majesty. But to a Prince so sage, and so good as ours, it cannot be a matter of indifferency to be beloved by his Subjects. Oderint dum metuant, (Let them hate so they fear me) is a word for a Tyrant. I am sure, the King cannot endure the thought of having in his Kingdom two millions of Subjects, who should obey him only out of a slavish fear. He is the common Father of his Country, and I cannot but believe he takes us all for his Children.  Par. 
You have no great reason to think so, to deal ingenuously with you, the King takes you not for very good Subjects; and means have been used to make him sensible, you are troubled at his Victories, and that you fear the success of his Arms and Designs, no less than every good Frenchman loves and prays for it.  Hug. Law. 
'Tis true, Sir, this is the Character they give of us to the King, and endeavour to persuade us to believe to be true; for by the usage we have at their hands, and the Speeches they give out of us, they labour to make us sensible, that the Grandeur of the King will be fatal to us, and that having humbled all his Enemies, he will employ his Forces for our ruin; they would persuade us, that our present sufferings are but an effect of former Threats. The King, say they, is become the terror of his Enemies, and the delight of his Subjects; he fears nothing. And having not now any other employment for his Power, will force you headlong into Ruin. Ah! Sir, if we were so unhappy (as we are represented) to behold with trouble the Glory of the King, it would become them to study to reclaim us by changing their Conduct. For what can give more trouble to a good Prince, than to think he hath in his Country a great number of his Subjects obliged to lament his Victories, to mourn amidst the public Joys, and to look upon the Prosperity of the State as fatal and pernicious to their private Concern; being assured when the State hath not other business, it will turn its whole Force against them? If we believe one God, and one Providence, we ought to be persuaded, that God is moved by the Vows and Prayers of men, and that the most unanimous Prayers are the most Efficacious. 'Tis the Interest of a Prince to use all his Subjects with equal kindness, that the Union of their Hearts, and Harmony of their Prayers, may bring down the Blessings of Heaven on the State. But there cannot be a greater Calumny and Falsehood, than to affirm we are troubled at the Prosperity of the State. Hath any one of those of our Religion, who have had the Honour to serve the King in his Armies, been guilty of Cowardice or Baseness whatever? Hath any of them fought with less Zeal, appeared less Brave, or done less for the Victory than others in the Army? What signs are there we are not pleased with the public Prosperity? What Cause have we given for any to think so? The truth is, they describe us such as they would have us to be, and such as they who accuse us would be, if they were in our Case: But God gives us the Grace to retain true French hearts, to rejoice at the Grandeur of the King, and to leave to Providence the success of our private Affairs.  Par. 
'Tis true, you have cunning enough to put a good Face on your Matters, and to colour your Designs with appearances of Loyalty, but you have in your hearts a hidden inclination to revolt.  Hug. Law. 
But is it fit to charge the Innocent with the blackest of Crimes without Proof? 'Tis said we have a secret disposition to Rebellion. How do they prove it? What do they mean by it? In my Opinion, the Design of Rebels is to change the form of Government of a State, as the fanatics did in England by Cromwell, or to call in a stranger into the Country, and submit to new Dominion. I know but these two ends of Rebellion; for to make Insurrection for Insurrections sake, to raise Tumults for no other end, but to make a bustle, is a Design fit only for Fools and Madmen. Can we be liable to the least Suspicion of the former? Have we given by any of our Actions, any colour to believe we desire a change of the present form of Government, and to see the Monarchy turned into a popular State? What should we get by it? Can we promise ourselves greater safety, when exposed to the Authority and Fury of so wild and unreasonable a Beast as the Multitude? As to the second, what advantage can we expect by changing our Master? Are we desirous to be under the Dominion of Spain? Do men think we shall gain by the shift? Or do they believe we have such Maggots in our Brains, as to desire the English may abandon their Isles, and come once more and conquer our Continent? Or that the Hollanders quitting their Marshes, should possess themselves of this Kingdom? Nothing but Frenzy can make men capable of Chimeras as these; so that they who charge us with being Enemies to the State, have as little sense as Charity in their Censure.  Par. 
I perceive by my friends eyes, he burns with impatience to propose his Objections out of a Book in his hand.  Hug. Law. 
What Book is it?  Pro. 
'Tis the Letter of a Churchman to a Friend.  Hug. Law. 
I know it very well, without hearing more of it; I have read that Libel, and easily comprehend what Objections may be raised out of it: But, Sir, give us leave, before we enter into that great affair, to finish what we have begun. The Apology you obliged me to make, hath put me out of my way; for we began, with proving that the Enemies of the Reformed, are Enemies of the State. I have already made it appear, by showing, that they disunite the King's Subjects, that they root out of the King's heart, the Fatherly kindness he had for us; and endeavour to root out of ours, the Love we have for the greatest of our Kings. This concerns the Vitals of the State; it attacks the Principles by which it subsists: For the bond of Love between the King and his Subjects, is that which unites all the parts of this great and vast Body. But 'tis fit I represent to you those horrible Calamities these Enemies of France would plunge the Kingdom in. They would bring back again the last Age, and revive the Reigns of Henry the 2d. and Charles the 9th. In a word, they would set up new Gibbets, and kindle new Fires against the Reformed. Can France expect a great Mischief?  Par. 
Y'are much mistaken Sir, there's no such intention. Some Zealots may desire such a thing; but the King hath not any such Design.  Hug. Law. 
I believe you Sir, We know the Goodness and Clemency of the King, and that he naturally hates all Violence. We see every day the Prudence of his Ministers. But men are led where they never had intention to go; they are moved by degrees to revoke all the Edicts of Pacification. If Matters be carried on with that Violence they have been for some years, and especially within few months past, the Business will be quickly at an end, they will shortly persuade the King, three fourth's of the Hugonots of his Kingdom are converted: They will tell him, the residue is nothing, or not worth the thinking of; And so prevail with him to suppress the Edicts. Thus shall near two millions of Souls remain debarred the exercise of their Religion: 'Tis a violent State, in which Consciences cannot stay long: The Ministers shall be forbidden to Preach on pain of death: Yet they will Preach, (as before in the like case) in Caves, and Woods, and Cellars, and Darkness. And instead of preaching in a few places, they will preach in every place. It cannot be, but they will be discovered, exercising a Religion prohibited by the State, and incur the Penalties to be inflicted by the late Edicts. And according to the Severity of those Penalties they will be Imprisoned, Banished, Hanged. Consider how much it will grate the good nature of the King, to see himself obliged to permit his Subjects to be put to a thousand Tortures, for no other reason but having a desire to serve God. I foresee Matters may be carried yet farther. Among two or three hundred thousand Persons able to bear Arms, remaining still of that Religion, 'tis impossible but there is a great number of Fools, impatient and desperate: In plurality of Voices, Fools are always too hard for the Wise, who are often obliged to permit themselves to be carried away with the stream of the major Vote. Such heady and impatient People, instead of Submitting, will Mutiny, make Parties, take up Arms. And then will the King be forced to draw Rivers of Blood out of the hearts of his Subjects.  Par. 
Ay, Ay, Sir, there is great cause to fear you you are in a powerful and formidable Condition: Where are your Chiefs? where your strong Towns? Where your Money? Where your Foreign Allyances? You have nothing to support you, but the indulgence of our Kings.  Hug. Law. 
Pardon me if I tell you, you do not apprehend me; my design is not to put you in fear, but move you to pity. I do not say, but the King may with all the ease imaginable, dissipate the Forces of any Faction that should rebel against him. I am fully convinced of it, not only by your Reasons, but some stronger Arguments. You say the Reformed have neither Chiefs, nor Towns, nor Money. Have you forgot that saying of the Poet, Furor arma ministrat? Fury never wants Weapons, they who have no Towns, may take some. Those who want Money, may Rob and Plunder. Despair can effect what Valour and Courage never durst undertake. A State that has lying close in its Bowels two millions of Malcontents (though but Women and Children, and the dregs of Mankind) is in danger of suffering terrible Revolutions. After the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, the Hugonots had none to head them. Dandelot was dead, the Admiral assassinated, all the Flower of their Nobility murdered, and the Princes of the Blood Prisoners, yet they never spoke bigger, never insisted on higher Terms than then. But I expect not any benefit to the Reformed from such Revolutions, because God never blesses the designs of defending a Religion by Arms, of Rebelling against our Prince, and making War under pretences of Piety: The furies of Civil War being absolutely inconsistent with Charity. Such heady and impatient people by taking Arms will act against the Principles of Religion, and (I aver it) particularly against the Principles of the Reformed: They are to expect no other success, but to be massacred by the People and the Arms of their Sovereign: They would occasion (as heretofore) millions of Innocents' to perish with them. The King would certainly master them, but would be grieved to see his Countries drowned with the Blood of his Subjects: What greater misfortune than this to a Prince so good-natured as ours? Besides, a State busied in reducing rebellious Subjects, is in a manner abandoned to strangers; who fill and tear it in pieces with Factions, foment Divisions, take advantage of Disorders, and draw Blood from all parts of it, while itself opens the Veins on every side. Those Gentlemen who constantly solicit the King to Rigour against us, are certainly weary of the prosperity of the State; they have no mind to see France any longer the most flourishing Kingdom of Europe: They would bring back that Age wherein the Realm divided against itself, called in the Duke of Parma, the Flemings and Spaniards to enrich themselves with the pillages of the Towns, and desolation of the Provinces.  Par. 
I see, gentlemans, the alarm you have taken, hath stirred your fancy, and put you in a heat: You go on too far, and too fast, there is a design to Ruin you; 'tis confessed, but 'tis by undermining you by degrees: Those very men you call Enemies of the State, have no mind to see the effusion of your Blood.  Hug. Law. 
Were those men guilty of no other mischief, but a design to deprive the King of such a multitude of faithful Subjects, they very well deserved to be called Enemies of the State. I hope those of the Reformed Religion will never permit themselves to run into the Extremities I spoke of; But they will do all they can to go seek in other countries', the peace and the quiet they are denied in their own. I have told you already their Consternation is great and universal. And all the considerable persons of our body seek only a Gate to go out at, and a means to remove out of his Majesty's sight the Objects that displease him.  Par. 
I cannot think they would be much troubled at your departure out of the Kingdom.  Hug. Law. 
Whether they would be troubled I know not, but I very well know they would have cause enough to be troubled. The Count de los Balbazes during his stay at Paris, being in company of several Ministers of foreign Princes, they fell in Discourse of the Conduct of the Court of France, as to the Hugonots. He exclaimed against the Policy of the Cabinet, and said, that for the good of the State it mattered little what Religion the Subjects were of, provided they were Loyal and dutiful to their Sovereign; that a like Conduct had turned some States belonging to the King his Master, into vast Deserts and Solitudes by the expulsion of the Moors; who were a remnant of Jews and Mehometans, multiplied and spread over the Provinces of Castille, Valentia, and Andalusia. They had been baptised, and to escape the Inquisition, made profession of Christianity, but privately used the Worship of their Ancient Religion. Upon some false advice given Philip the second of Spain, of a great design the Moors had against the Christians, they were expelled the Country. They were not permitted to carry any thing away, but some Commodities of Spain, but were forced to leave behind, their Gold, and their Silver, as well as their immovables. This was executed with extreme Rigour: There went out of Spain twelve hundred thousand Men and Women; the greatest part whereof perished several ways; Spain having been well drained of men by sending Colonies into America, was so exhausted by this great Evacuation, 'tis not repeopled to this day. And that Country which was heretofore one of the fairest of Europe, is now a vast and barren Desert, and the Spaniards feel at this day the smart of their Barbarity. God grant a like misfortune happens not to France, and that it make not itself desolate by an expulsion of two millions of her best Inhabitants: I cannot think those who endeavour it are much her friends.  Par. 
However, Sir, I am of Opinion the persons you speak of, take themselves to be as great lovers of their Country, as you, or any of your Party; And if the matter be disputed, I very much question, whether you will carry the Point.  Hug. Law. 
I find all I say to you, doth but vex, without convincing you. But you will excuse the Expressions of miserable persons, who have not the Liberty to speak in Public; they may be allowed at least to complain in Private, and when they can do it without danger. Since you are not pleased with a Discourse tending to demonstrate, that the Enemies of the Reformed of France, are Enemies of the State, I will trouble you but with a word more on that Subject: You cannot but believe that Foreign Allyances are of some importance to France. You understand the Politics so well, you cannot be ignorant, a State without Allies is not capable of doing great things. This makes Prince's labour perpetually to break those Engagements their Neighbours have with their Enemies, and to persuade them to espouse their Interests. The greatest part of the Allies of France are Protestant's: The Swisseses, the Elector of Brandenburg, the King of Swede, and heretofore the Hollander, who perhaps may again renew his Alliance. But can you believe to use the Protestants of France as they are dealt with at present, a proper means to engage strictly the Protestant Allies of the Crown?  Par. 
I do not see the King finds any great difficulty in making Allyances with protestant Princes, or that they concern themselves much, or trouble his Ministers with your pretended Calamities.  Hug. Law. 
The King is now in so elevated a Condition, that all comply with him. Yet the private disgusts of his Allies are still in being, though they do not appear: They are Seeds that will certainly spring up sooner or later. States are not always in a flourishing Condition; when Fortune declares against them, old grudges break out. 'Tis not to be imagined, men can, out of Policy, wholly divest themselves of love to their Religion, and become altogether insensible of the Calamities they suffer whom they call Brethren, though the present State of Affairs may oblige them to dissemble. 'Tis very well known, the Allies I have named, have heretofore concerned themselves in our Calamities, though far less than those we now endure: 'Tis not their Affections, but the Times are changed. The English naturally hate the French, and find new reason to hate them in the rigorous Proceed of the Catholics of France against the Protestants there, who profess the same Religion with the English: To prove that strangers are somewhat concerned for our Calamities, I need but read the Letters of his Majesty of England to the Bishop and Mayor of London; they are newly published, and you will not repent your reading them, being Letters worthy the Piety of that Prince, and capable to clear him from any unjust suspicions that might have been had of him in respect of his Religion.  
His Majesty's Letters to the Bishop of London, and the Lord Mayor.  
To the Right Reverend Father in God, Our Right Trusty and Wellbeloved Counsellor, HENRY Bishop of London.  
CHARLES R.  
RIght Reverend Father in God, Our Right trusty and Wellbeloved Counsellor, We greet you well. Whereas We are given to understand, that a great number of Persons, and whole Families of Protestants in the Kingdom of France, have lately withdrawn themselves from thence, to avoid those hardships and extremities, which are brought upon them there for the sake of their Religion, and have betaken themselves into this Our Kingdom as a place of Refuge, where they may enjoy the liberty and security of their Persons and Consciences. And whereas most of them, if not all, having been forced to abandon their native abodes and accommodations in haste and confusion, must needs be in a great measure destitute of means for their present subsistence and relief: We being touched with a true sense and compassion of their deplorable Condition, and looking upon them not only as distressed Strangers, but chief as persecuted Protestants, very desirous to extend Our Royal Favour, and Protection towards them, not doubting but all Our good and loving Subjects will be also willing and forward on their parts to afford them what helps and comforts they can in this their day of Affliction. We do therefore in very especial manner recommend their Case unto your pious Consideration and Care, hereby requiring you, forthwith to give Directions unto all the Clergy of our City of London, and parts adjacent, that in their solemn Congregations upon the next Lord's day, or as soon as may be possible, they represent the sad state of these poor People, and by the most effectual Arguments of Christian-charity, excite their Parishioners to contribute freely towards the supply of their necessities. We shall not need to press you in this behalf, well knowing your Zeal in so good a work, which will be no less pleasing to Us, than We are sure it will be acceptable to Almighty God. And Our further Pleasure is, that you take care that the Moneys so collected (which We expect should be forthwith returned into your hands) be distributed in such manner as may best answer those ends, for which this Collection is intended. And so We bid you hearty farewell. Given at Our Court at Windsor the 22d. day of July, 1681. In the Three and Thirtieth year of Our Reign.  
By his Majesty's Command, L. Jenkins.  
To Our Right trusty and Wellbeloved Sir Patience Ward Knight, Lord Mayor of Our City of London.  
CHARLES R.  
RIght Trusty and Wellbeloved, We greet you well. Being given to understand that very many Protestants, and even whole Families, finding themselves under great Pressures and Persecutions in the Kingdom of France, for the sake of their Religion, have chosen rather to leave their native Country and Conveniences, than to hazard the Ruin of their Consciences, and therefore great numbers of them are come, and more are endeavouring every day to come into this Kingdom for Shelter and Security. We are very desirous that here they should not only meet with all kind Reception, but also with that Benevolence and Charity which may in some reasonable measure contribute towards their present Relief and Comfort in this their Affliction. To which end, We have signified Our Pleasure to the Bishop of London, requiring him to give Directions unto the Clergy of that Our City, and places adjacent, to represent the sad Condition of these poor People in their solemn Congregations, and also to excite their Parishioners to the free and cheerful Relief of their distressed Brethren. But as we cannot have too many hands employed in so good a work, so We have thought fit to recommend the same unto you also, that by your encouragement and endeavour, Our good Subjects inhabiting in that Our City, may be induced and obliged to a more than ordinary demonstration of their compassion and liberality on this Occasion. And so We bid you hearty farewell. Given at Our Court at Windsor the 22d. day of July, 1681. in the Three and Thirtieth year of Our Reign.  
By his Majesty's Command, L. Jenkins.  The Huguenot Gentlemen. 
YOU know without doubt, that the King of England proceeded further in our favour; declaring all the persecuted Protestants (who should come into England) Denizens of his Kingdom. And that all those who should transport their effects thither in Merchandise, should import them Custom-free; and whereas the Collection for the French Protestants in England was at first made only in the City and Suburbs of London, the King hath commanded it should be made throughout the Kingdom. Nor is it England alone opens its arms to receive the distressed Protestants of France; They are entertained in all places of Europe: The Duke of Hanan hath offered to receive four hundred Families; Swede and Denmark, though very remote, declare themselves ready to embrace the scattered Remains of the Protestant Churches of France. The Charity of England towards them is very edifying, yet I confess, I am not equally satisfied with all other Protestants who might afford Refuge to their persecuted Brethren: I have seen some of them returned as Persons in despair from places where they had promised themselves support, resolved to hazard all, and run again into the temptation they had fled from; being so scandalised with the cold reception and hard usage they had found, that they were ready to hearken to the solicitations of the Missionaries.  Hug. Law. 
I confess, the carriage of some strangers towards our persecuted Protestants appeared to me quite contrary to the spirit of Christianity: And if it continue, what will become of so many poor Peasants and Tradesmen, who groan at this day in search of the means to have liberty of Conscience? What will become of so many eminent Persons, who will be obliged to quit their Country naked and destitute, to follow Jesus Christ, and can carry nothing with them, but their Lives and their Consciences? What can be more Lamentable, than to see how cold men's Charity and Zeal is? 'Tis more deplorable than the Persecution. What is become of that spirit of our Ancestors, that made them have all things common among them? That rendered every private Person sensible of the public Calamity: In the beginning of the Reformation, if those Protestants, who were in peace and safety, had done nothing for those who were under Persecution, the Light of the Reformation had been long since put out in most places of Germany, the Low-Countries, and France.  Hug. Gent. 
men's Charity, I hope, will be awakened again to do something for God and themselves: For, in truth, the Compassion the Protestants in safety should express for their afflicted Brethren of France, is but a good Office done to themselves. There is not a Protestant State Neighbouring on France, but is under apprehension of its Arms, and hath cause to fear it may one day feel the miseries the Reformed of this Kingdom groan under now:  the King carries his Arms, those wicked Councillors who persuade him to ruin our Religion, will carry their Counsels, and make use of the Fortune of this great Monarch to accomplish their designs. This may give them who at present are in safety, cause enough to fear they may not always continue so. It would become them to merit a Compassion they may one day stand in need of, by exercising Compassion towards those who are actually in misery. But above all they ought by Works of Mercy, and the Exercise of fervent Charity, and strict Union among themselves, to divert the Wrath of God that threatens them; and to endeavour to escape the greatest of Misfortunes, the loss of Liberty, and oppression of their Consciences. I cannot forbear adding, that the Children of this World are wiser in their Generation, than the Children of Light, and that their Zeal not only upbraids, but may justly make us ashamed of our coldness: 'Tis difficult to express the great pains the Roman Catholics take, they spare no cost to make Converts, as they call them. There are very considerable Funds assigned for the Maintenance and Encouragement of those they have persuaded to change their Religion. The King allows out of his Revenue, vast sums for gaining and recompensing these new Converts: We have known lewd Women converted big with Bastard Children, who had Pensions of four or five hundred Livers allowed them. 'Tis a Prodigy to me, that we are not willing for the support of poor distressed Protestants, to be at that expense they of the other Party are at, for perverting of Souls. I wish, all Protestant States would imitate the principal Towns of the Low Countries, which give Lodging in a manner gratis to all those who fly thither for Refuge; besides immunity from Parish-Duties and Charges levied for the use of the Town, and furnish with Money and Goods those that have none, till they are in a Condition to subsist by themselves, and make great Collections in their Towns for that purpose.  Hug. Law. 
Though all that could be wished, is not every where done for those who leave their Country to save their Souls, yet sufficient is done to make it appear, that the King's Protestant Allies and Neighbours, are much grieved at the ill usage of their Brethren; and that disgusted with the present Conduct of our Ministers in that Point, they long for an Occasion to show their Resentment: I cannot imagine upon what account our Ruin can be looked upon as advantageous to the State: I will not trouble you with a repetition of the Reasons we gave the last year, to convince the King of our inviolable Fidelity, and consequently, that he is concerned to preserve us no less than any other of his Subjects: I make no question, but you have heard all our Remarks on that Subject.  Par. 
Yes, Gentlemen, I have heard them, and think it needless to insist further on that point: Time will show who are in the right, you or we. Counsels are justified or condemned by the Event: Unfortunate Valour is branded for Rashness, and fortunate Rashness commended for Valour. If the Mischiefs you foretell happen to the State according to your Prediction, it will be judged you were in the right; but if a way be found by fair means, and without effusion of Blood, to bring you again into the bosom of the Church, you will be obliged to acknowledge our Conduct, not altogether so imprudent as you imagined; therefore without looking further into the future, I will consider only the present, and must say, I do not see what great cause you have to complain. You will find it a hard task to persuade us you are miserably and rigorously dealt with, when we see you in full peace, enjoy every man his Estate, and the fruit of his Labour: I will not mince the Matter to you, by denying all we can shall be done for destroying your Religion, but with exception of your Persons and Estates which shall be spared: Is not this fair, and ought you not to rest satisfied?  Hug. Law. 
Ought we not to rest satisfied, say you? Sure, Sir, you take us for People whose God is their Belly, who believe not a future State, but place all their happiness in present enjoyments. The Principal is taken from us, our Religion and the Liberty of our Consciences, and you would have us remain content with the residue. And what is that residue, you say, shall not be meddled with? Our Estates and our Persons: Are not our Persons meddled with, when they exercise a thousand Cruelties, and commit infinite Outrages to make us change our Religion; when they strip us of all means to live, when they reduce us to a necessity of starving, or turning, by declaring us uncapable of employment, and excluding us from all Offices and Professions, and from the exercise of all Trades we could get a livelihood by: When Gibbets were set up in every corner to hang us on, and Fires kindled for burning us, we were allowed the choice of going to Mass or of dying. Are we not reduced now to the same choice by their taking from us all means of living? Are we not in as bad a Condition as heretofore? We must die or change our Religion: 'Tis true, the death now proposed is not hanging or burning as formerly, but I am not yet resolved, whether is more eligible to die in a moment on a Gibbet, or pine to death by a long train of Miseries.  Par. 
You are not wanting to yourselves in setting out to the height the misery of your condition; But leaving out the figures and aggravations of your pathetical Descriptions, the rest will signify little.  Hug. Law. 
Do you call it Figure and Aggravation to be in our condition, expecting every day the thunderbolt of a new Arrest for demolishing our Churches, and depriving us of the Liberty of worshipping God Almighty? You complain to this day of the Outrages committed upon your Churches and Images in the heat of the Civil War: If our Churches were destroyed by Violences as those, we should have the Comfort of being able to preach on the Ruins of them, and hope to see them rebuilt when the Kingdom should be at peace. But we lose all, not only our present Possession, but all hopes for the future. We are forced to grieve at heart for Calamities for which there is no Remedy: I say, to grieve at heart, for 'tis Criminal for us to make the most innocent complaint. Perish we must, and under a Formality, and appearance of justice: Be our Defence never so good, what evidence soever we produce in our favour, we are still in the wrong, our Possession is unjust, and hath no right to ground it. They are not satisfied with taking away our Estates, but they brand us for Usurpers: How prodigiously bold is the Libel in your hand, to challenge us to show one Church demolished that was a Church at the time limited by the Edict, when nothing can be more notorious than that (of the great number of places of Religious Exercise lately interdicted) perhaps there are not two that can be any way suspected to have been set apart for that use since the Edict of Nants. This is clear by the Tables of our Ancient Synods, where we find a greater Number (by half) of places for Religious Worship, than we have at this day. We had them at the time the Edict was made, else how could they appear in Acts of the Synods passed at that time? By the Edict we are to continue in peaceable Possession of all we then had, and what we then had, is now taken from us contrary to the express terms of the Edict, and all the rights of Possession and Prescription. For besides their Arrests ex parte, wherein they pretend we have Liberty to make our Defence, yet condemn us unheard, they extort from his Majesties Declarations that ruin us, that reduce us to Extremity, and run us into Despair.  Par. 
Pray, Sir, which are those ruining Declarations?  Hug. Law. 
I need not tell you Sir, what they are: They are too public to escape the knowledge of a Person so well acquainted as you are with the World: There are Volumes made of them, and our good friends of the Clergy cram their Studies with Collections of them. They set up the Title of them in Triumph; Arrests passed against the Hugonots by the Solicitation of the Clergy of France: Our late Calamities are so grievous, they make us forget the former: Do but call to mind the Declarations published against us within twelve months' last passed, and you will see whether our Complaints are but figurative and pathetic Aggravations.  Par. 
Those Declarations are not very many.  Hug. Law. 
They are not quite as many as the weeks in a year, but half a dozen more such would quite undo us: Have we no cause, think you, to complain of the Declaration that order the Judges or others appointed for that purpose, to go visit our sick at the point of death, to know what Religion they will die in?  Par. 
What harm in that? Every man may die of what Religion he please: Those that visit you, put no force upon you, but ask you a Question or two and leave you.  Hug. Law. 
The fault I find with it, is, that it opens a gap for all sorts of Seduction and Violence. By the Declaration, every door must be opened to the Magistrate; he enters attended with a Curate, and a Missionary: The Arrest excludes not the Relations of the sick from hearing them examined: It neither orders them to withdraw, nor orders the Examination to be taken in their presence. But a Law must always be favourably interpreted: And that the sick may be at liberty to speak their thoughts, their Friends and Relations must be put out of sight: By this excellent Construction of the Arrest, they get the sick person into their hands, force the Husband from the bed of his Wife, and the Wife out of the Arms of her Husband, the Child from his dying Father, and the Father from his Child: Having cleared the Room and secured themselves from fear of a Witness, they promise, they threaten, they frighten a dying wretch and load him with injuries: they take advantage of the disorder of his faculties occasioned by his sickness, and the fright he is in to see so many new Faces about his Bed. A word ill placed, and unwary expression (the effect of a high Fever or Frenzy) is laid hold on, as sufficient ground for Mr. Curate to cry aloud, Mr.— or Mrs.— is willing to die a Catholic: Upon this, the sick person is taken into their care, his Kindred and Friends removed from him, and he made believe, he is perfectly converted. By this Artifice he gives up his last breath amidst Crosses, and Tapers, and Images and Crucifixes, and other Utensils of a Church, into which they say he is entered, though he knows nothing of it. When he is dead, they bury him with like Pomp, they take away his Children in their Infancy, they ransack his House and leave his Family desolate.  Par. 
The Arrest neither says, nor means any such matter.  Hug. Law. 
I know not whether the Arrest have any such meaning: Perhaps his Majesty who passed it, had not: But I am sure this was their meaning who obtained it: It appears by their practice pretended, pursuant to it: Till our days, a man's House was his Castle, and private habitations were inviolable Sanctuaries; Where every one (taking care, not to offend against Law) had free permission to do what he pleased, at least, had the Privilege to die undisturbed. But now we are not allowed to live in quiet, or to die so: Our Enemies have in this particular invented a new kind of Cruelty, unheard of even in the Ages of Persecution and Martyrdom: If in those days men were obliged to live in the Emperor's Religion, they were permitted to die in the Christian: Can any thing be imagined more cruel than the usage we find? A sick wretch in his last Agonies struggling with death, hath need of more strength than his own to maintain the Combat: The smoothest Calm, and greatest Tranquillity of Spirit is little enough to put him in a Condition to face those Terrors that usher in the last moment of his Life: 'Tis some comfort to a man in that case to breathe his last in the Arms of his Wife, or Embraces of his Children: They cherish and help him, he gives them his blessings: Amidst these mutual Offices of Charity and Tenderness, all their hearts melt into Tears: The one and the other desire privacy and quiet to vent their grief, and give free course to their just Lamentations. A Magistrate enters with all the Clergy of a Parish at his heels: The House is filled with noise and bustle: A crowd presently gathers at the door, and with horrid noise and prodigious outcries, grate the Ears of the dying Man: At this very time and in these Circumstances, he who hath scarce strength enough left to breathe out his Soul, must engage in a Conflict he was hardly able to maintain when in perfect health: He must answer; he must study and ponder what to say; he must consider how he may escape the Snares laid for him in captious and ambiguous Questions; he must sustain the shock of Threats, and encounter the influence and power of Authority. He must, for his Comfort, have the patience to hear an ignorant Curate, who to demonstrate our Religion false, shall use no other Argument, but that of repeating a hundred times in a quarter of an hour with a furious tone, that if he die in that Religion, he is damned as a Devil; instead of his dear Children and Friends, he must be content to see about him a company of men, whose Eyes sparkle with rage, and whose Tongues (if he persevere in his Religion) thunder out Reproaches.  
The Condition of a dying man ordinarily disarms the fury of an Enemy, who having given the mortal Wound, gives the man leave to die in peace. Are the miseries of our Life so few, that we must be denied a quiet death? You have, doubtless, heard what happened in the Fauxboarg St. Marcell, since this Declaration: A poor Woman being very ill, through the violence of her Distemper ralked idle: That very time the Commissioner and Priests enter her Chamber, turn out her Relations and Friends who assisted her, make her say what they please, and go their ways to fetch the Consecrated Bread and Oil for extreme Unction. That none in their absence might get into the Chamber, they lock the Door and take the Key with them. The Woman in the mean time coming to herself, was frighted to see a Cross standing at her Beds feet: She presently guessed what had happened in her Fever; she rises, and designing to get away, runs to the Door: finding it locked she resolves to go out at the Window, too great an adventure for one in so weak a Condition. Endeavouring to get down, she fell from the third story, and lay dead with the fall on the Pavement. A more lamentable Accident could not have happened, except that at Ville dieu, a Village of Poitou some months since: The Curate and Churchwarden went into the House of an old Man who lay sick; they turned his Children out of doors, threatening them furiously, if they came near the House, they should hang for it: The poor Fellows frighted with Persecutions they had already endured, retired into the Woods, and durst not approach the House: In their absence, the Persecutors teaz'd the old Man several days: But he had the Sense and Courage to resist their Tentations, who finding at length they could not prevail, quitted him: The poor man left thus without help, was starved to death, and was found dead, having eaten his hands.  Hug. Gent. 
You have told your story, give me leave to take my turn, and acquaint you with one I heard but a few hours before I came hither: In Mompellier, two Maids, the one sick, the other in health, renounced our Religion in one day; she that was sick had done it in the height of her Fever: Being come to herself and hearing what had passed, she was so grieved, she fell again into her Frenzy, and fling herself out at a Window: The other who was in health had no sooner committed the fault, but she repent it: She protested, she had been surprised, and could not live in the Religion they had newly made her embrace. Having made this Declaration, she was put into a Covent, where she found a Well, into which she threw herself: Such are the natural Consequences of the Declarations procured against us.  Par. 
If this be true, why do you not complain? Justice will be done you.  Hug. L. 
Justice, Sir! Of whom shall we demand it? Of the Magistrate, in whose presence these Outrages are done. Of the Sovereign Courts? Which take pleasure in making our Yoke the heavier. Of the Ministry? Who pretend they believe not a word we say. Of the King? Who will not give us the hearing.  Par. 
If this Declaration be executed with Moderation and Equity, what cause to complain of it? For since you are allowed to live in quiet, and at the end of your Life, are asked only what Religion you will die of, what can be more clear, than that without any intention of Ruining you, great care is taken of your Salvation, and that it is hearty wished for?  Hug. Law. 
Can you believe, Sir, that those who have solicited and surprised his Majesty to make this Declaration, have done it out of Love to our Souls, and Care of our Salvation? I make no doubt, but use was made of that very pretence to induce the King to it, His Majesty being uncapable of a base thought or mean design. But I am too fully convinced, those who first suggested it to the King, have very small care of the Salvation of our Souls. There are many of them have no care of their own, how then should they take care of other men's? Others of them have such animosity against us, that if they saw us at Hellgate, and had it in their power to thrust us in, they would certainly do it: But, to speak in cold blood: Let me persuade you on this occasion to make use of your usual Sagacity: How can you imagine, those who solicited this Declaration, aimed at the Salvation of men's Souls? Why should they think, that a man who all his Life long hath been of the Reformed Religion, should desire at his death to turn Roman Catholic? If this man had had any such thought, it should have been made appear in his Life: 'Tis far better living than dying in your Religion: For that which you call Conversion, makes a man capable of Employment and Office, it opens him the way into Dignities and great places, to Gain and great Fortune: What can be more evident, than that a man disposed to turn Catholic, would, for the reason I have intimated, not stay till his death, but do it in his life-time, and as early as he could? But a man in his life hath perhaps a care of his reputation, or is clogged with Interests that oblige him to dissemble; but at his death he slights such respects, he breaks all such bonds, knowing that though he hath lived for others, he must die for himself. This were a good Argument in a Country where the Roman Catholic Religion is prohibited: but in France where it is predominant, where it makes use at this time of its advantages with a high hand, a man hath all encouragement imaginable, with all the freedom he can wish, and probable hopes of extraordinary recompense, to declare at any time his inclinations to quit our Religion: Perhaps those Gentlemen were of opinion that God inspires many people at the hour of their death, who, should they recover, would constantly follow the notions they are then inspired with. True it is, Sir, you know we live in an Age of Miracles and extraordinary Inspirations! We find them very numerous! Most of those who persecute us have great faith for Inspirations! In a word, if this Declaration extended only to those who in their life have made appear some inclination to alter their Religion, it might be thought the desire of their salvation occasioned these visits: But these visits are made to all, without exception to them who all their life-long have been most firm and resolved. I would gladly know what new illumination an old firm Huguenot can be supposed to have from a plain single question asked by a Magistrate in a civil and gentle manner? and if none, whether there be not some other design in the business? Is the ask of such a question looked upon as a powerful instrument of the Holy Spirit for the conversion of an Heretic? Have we any Precedents of Conversion by such means? 'Tis clear then that the Declaration strictly pursued according to the Letter, is not of any use to make a man change his Religion; and it is equally clear that they who solicited that Declaration, being men of sense, did not in the least design by it the conversion of dying men, or the salvation of their Souls.  Par. 
I would fain know what other design they could propose to themselves in it.  Hug. Law. 
'Tis not hard to guests; the Clergy hath a design to load us with miseries, and to render our Religion odious to us by a multitude of calamities attending it: The happiness of Mankind here on Earth consists in the pleasures of Life and Liberty, to die quietly: they have already found out a thousand ways to render our lives miserable and unpleasant, and invent every day new means to continue them so: there wanted nothing but a means to trouble us at our death, to make our yoke insupportable: And they have hit upon't in this Declaration. Besides, having very small hopes of converting (as they call it) Fathers or Mothers, or any person at the age of discretion, they levelled their design against Children and Infants: To compass this, they could not have invented a more effectual means than that they are furnished with by this Declaration, whereby if they can but make believe a man died a Roman Catholic, they make themselves Masters of all the Children he left under age. To bring this about, it was necessary to open a passage to the Beds of the Dying: it was necessary to have liberty of entrance into any house, which could not be had without the authority of the Sovereign: the King's goodness permitted him not to grant all they desired (and had obtained by the Declaration in 1666. since revoked in part, and in part mitigated by that of 1669.) which was, that the Curates should have liberty to enter any house to persuade the Sick to change their Religion. They attempted afresh to revive this Article; but disappointed of their ends, they rested satisfied with what was granted them, which was, that the Judges should go into the houses of the Sick to know what Religion they desired to die in: they thought it sufficient for their purpose, if they could by any means get men's doors open, after which they would take the liberty to enter whether leave were granted them or not. It hath happened accordingly; for this (we see) is the course taken, which puts the Sick into horrible agonies, and their Families into terrible frights.  Hug. Gent. 
I see you are of their opinion who hold they have a design to seize upon our Children.  Hug. Law. 
Alas, Sir, can you doubt of it? if the Declaration against the dying had not sufficiently convinced you; if the Arrest that prohibits the Midwives of our Religion to lay any woman; if the permission granted to the Midwives of the Roman-Catholick Persuasion to baptise our Infants as soon as they are born, had not given you cause enough to support it; I believe you will not require clearer demonstration than the late Declaration so much talked of; by which they are empowered to take from us our Children at Seven years old. A terrible Declaration to Fathers and Mothers: A Declaration will make us take the resolution to throw ourselves at the King's feet, to beg of him that he will take away our lives, or allow us the liberty of our Conscience and our Children, or leave to go naked out of his Kingdom, to live dispersed through all Countries of the world till we pine to death.  Par. 
The Declaration order no more, than that at Seven years old Children shall be of age to choose their Religion. Is this such a matter to be exclaimed at? The Declaration of the Children shall be received, but no violence offered them.  Hug. Law. 
Is this a matter to be exclaimed at, say you! Pray Sir show me in History one Example of such a Persecution, one Precedent of a Grievance of this nature, that denies Parents the liberty to instruct their Children in their Religion. Was it ever heard of, that Children should have power given them to make choice of their Religion at an age they are incapable to distinguish between black and white; an age to be persuaded to any thing with a Plum or an Apple; an age to which the best Arguments are the finest Rattles to play with? No Violence, say you, shall be offered the Children: Is it not a violence and wrong to the Parents, to have their Children seduced and taken away from them? What need of Violence to be used against Children of that Age which are easily persuaded to any thing? The Violence is done to the Parents, whose Children shall be taken away from them, as soon as seduced to declare themselves inclined to be Roman Catholics: In a word, On what account soever Children shall be forceably taken out of the Bosoms of their Mothers, never to return; Can you call it a small Matter, a slight Business, against which there is no cause to exclaim?  Par. 
Once more I affirm it, the Declaration says not, your Children shall be taken from you.  Hug. Law. 
I confess, it does not: Yet they who are entrusted with the Execution of it, will do it. And the Declaration was desired and obtained for no other end. Shall I prophesy to you the issue of this Declaration, as I have been your Historian, in giving you an account of the Consequences of that which concerns the sick. It shall be presently given out, there is no Violence designed. Orders shall be given by word of mouth to the Magistrates, not to permit any to be done. The Priests in a while will not at all regard these Prohibitions, though perhaps at first they will observe some measures, and content themselves, (it may be) with engaging (by Oath in Confession) all the Women, particularly those of mean condition, as the Servants in our Families, to endeavour all they can to seduce the Children, by Promises and private Instructions, and all other means useful to that purpose: For a Hobby-horse, a Child will be made to say, he hath a mind to go to Mass: Two Witnesses shall be ready to swear it: The Child shall presently be taken away, never to be seen again by the Parents: Yet they must pay an extraordinary rate for the Board and Instruction of the Children taken away: Thus will they kill two Birds with one stone; take away the Children, and ruin the Parents, to force them by Poverty to quit their Religion: In a short time they will proceed farther; they will find a pretence to enter our Houses: They will have received News from very good hands, the Children have a great inclination for the Catholic Religion, but that their Parents are harsh to them for it: They will enter by Authority from the Magistrate, and 〈◊〉 out the Parents and Relations: Having the Children alone, they will say what they please: The holy Spirit will inspire them in a moment, and dissipate those thick Mists of Calvinism, that darkened their tender understandings. It will on the sudden make them so clear sighted, they will in a moment discover all Catholic Truths; and must presently be locked up in Cloisters, to be educated there till they come to maturity sufficient to resist a Father and Mother, and proof to the persuasions of Friends, and influence of Relations.  Par. 
This, I grant, is already so obvious, that I shall make no scruple to acknowledge it. You perhaps may be permitted to die in your Religion, but care shall be taken to bring up your Children better. And this is the principal means to be used for destroying your Sect.  Hug. Law. 
We see it very clearly, Sir, The Arrest against our Midwives, that which order the Magistrate to visit our sick, and this last Declaration have put it out of doubt; and you call this Sir— 'Tis a Proceeding you will be puzzled to parallel in the most barbarous Countries and Ages of the World: It violates the most sacred and most venerable Laws: It ruins the Foundation of Authority, by destroying the Paternal, which is the most Ancient, the most Just, the most Venerable, and the ground of all other: Probably, Sir, you have seen the Memoires and Petition we presented to the King on this Subject: The many injustices of that Declaration are so fully made out by the Petition I mentioned, I will forbear enlarging on them here: They are Injustices that fly in our Faces: Can we be silent where nature speaks? Is there a greater cruelty than to rob Parents of their Children? 'Tis a mutilation that puts us to ineffable Torment: 'Tis an usage unthought of in the Age of Torture and Massacre: And will you say still, we have no cause to complain? we are not put to extremities? You may believe, Sir, that in taking away our Children they tear our very Bowels: And that the Punishments we formerly endured, are nothing to this: The Consequences of it you will see surprising and horrible: The tenderness of Mothers, the Sentiments of Religion, and the Fury of Anger, mixed together are a Compound, capable to produce terrible Effects. I fear you may see examples of Fury equal to those of the Jewish Women, who finding their Children were to be forced from them to be baptised, destroyed both the Children and themselves to prevent it. 'Tis a new kind of Torment will dispeople France more than all the Massacres of the last Age: For all those among us who love their Religion, will certainly endeavour to save themselves by retiring out of the Kingdom, though it were sure they should perish in the Attempt: Good God What a spectacle will it be to see the Children violently taken away from their Parents! What Cannibal heart can be hard enough to endure the sight of Mothers bathed in Tears, covered with their own Blood, scratching their Faces, tearing their Hair, beating their Breasts, Sighing, and Groaning, and making hideous outcries after those who rob them of their Children, calling them Hangmen, Robbers, Villains, and other opprobrious Names, dictated by extremity of Fury raging in the tender Soul of a Mother.  Par. 
I cannot deny, but the Catholics themselves were surprised at this Declaration, and that it hath in it something repugnant to the Laws of Nature: But great designs, how just soever, cannot be executed without using some unjust means: The wisest Politicians are often obliged to do some ill that the may attain a greater good. The King hath a mind to have all his Subjects reunited in one Religion. The design is excellent, but cannot be compassed without use of violent means.  Hug. Law. 
Pray, Sir, tell me, Had not the Christian Emperors a design to have their Subjects all of a Religion? Did not they wish Paganism destroyed? This sure was as excellent a design as the ruining of Calvinism: But did they take the like Course to attain the design? Before and in the Reign of Theodosius the Great, the Empire had embraced Christianity almost an Age. The Provinces, the Cities, the Armies, Rome itself was full of Christians: Yet the Senate of Rome was almost all Pagan, and by the Mouth of Symmachus pleaded before the Emperor, to dissuade him from demolishing the Altar of Victory that stood at the Gate of the Senate-house. Yet these Senators were not turned out, nor did any lose his Office for being a Pagan. Symmachus, as zealous as he was for Paganism, received from Theodosius the honour of the Consulship, the highest Office of the Empire: We do not read that the Children of Pagans were taken from them in those days, or had Liberty given them at seven years old to turn Christians against the will of their Parents: The Piety of the Theodosijs and the Constantine's never moved them to act in favour of the true Religion such a violence against nature: They did not in that Age understand it lawful to do ill, that good might come of it: The Impiety and Fury of the Persecutors of the Church never suggested such a thought: The Councillors of that Apostate Emperor who went so dextrously about destroying the Christian Religion, were but bunglers to our Clergymen of the Council of Conscience, who surprise in a manner so ruinous to us, the greatest Prince of the World. Julian destroyed the Schools of the Christians, and shut up their Churches, but it never entered his thoughts, to take away their Children at seven years old to be brought up in Paganism: Every rational man holds it a Maxim, that Religion is not to be imposed by Command, but taught by persuasion. You have read the Book of Father Nicolai the Jacopin, entitled, De Baptismi antiquo usu Dissertatio duplex: In the second Dissertation he tells us, some Schoolmen hold, that Jews and Infidels may be compelled to be baptised. But 'tis hellish Divinity, a Maxim of Executioners and Inquisitors: These sottish Divines ground their Doctrine on some Examples, as that of Chilperic, who commanded the Jews to get themselves baptised, and imprisoned one of them to compel him thereto, as Gregory of Tours reports. Aimoyn writes, that Dagobert obliged them to it upon pain of Banishment: The Capitulars of Charlemagne tell us, that Prince punished with death the Saxons who refused to turn Christians: But Father Nicolai makes it appear, 
Conc. Tolet. 4. Can. 57 de Judaeis, Ann. Christi. 633.  these were particular actions never approved by the Church. He quotes the Council of Toledo, which disapproved the Violence used by Sisebut in Spain against the Jews, in obliging them to be baptised on pain of Whipping and Banishment. He shows further, that the Penalties ordained against Jews and Infidels, were not so much to force them to turn Christians, as to punish them for Crimes otherwise committed: At last he proves, there is not in the Primitive Church any precedent for this Practice of compelling Jews or Infidels into Christianity. Much less may you find an Example of the new kind of Cruelty exercised against us: If you meet with some Ordinances that command Infidels to turn Christians, yet you will never find any Christian Prince made a Law for taking from Jews and Infidels their Children, and hindering them to be instructed in their Religion.  Hug. Gent. 
Yet, Sir, if I mistake not, I have read in the Memoires and Petition you mentioned, that a King of Portugal, called Emmanuel, ordered all Male Children of Jews under fourteen years of Age to be taken from them, and instructed in the Christian Religion.  Hug. Law. 
'Tis true, but you are to observe, the Example is single, that it is modern, being a Precedent but of the last Age, when the Church was very corrupt, and that it proceeds from the infernal source of the Spanish and Portuguess Inquisitions. In a word, he that reports it, though a Bishop, had not the power to forbear saying it was a Jewish Course and unjust in the Execution, that it had not any foundation of Law or of Religion, though it seemed to proceed from a good intention, and had an appearance of Piety. 'Tis Ozorius Bishop of Algarves, who wrote a great Volume in twelve Books of the Life of Emmanuel, the second King of Portugal. The Story is so pat, and the Reflections of this Bishop so proper for the present Conjuncture, I cannot forbear reading to you a Translation I made yesterday of the whole passage, though somewhat long. This Historian having repeated at large the reasons of those who were for permitting the Jews to live peaceably in Portugal, 
Ozorius lib. 1. rerum Emmanualis. Anno. 1497.  and the contrary Arguments, goes on thus. Emmanuel approving the latter Opinion, ordered all Jews and Moors who would not embrace Christianity to quit the Kingdom, and appointed a day, after which those who should be found within the Realm, should be made Slaves, etc. The day drew near: The Jews with great diligence prepared for Embarquing: Emmanuel troubled to see so many thousands persist obstinate to Damnation, that he might at least be instrumental for the Salvation of their Children, bethought himself of a Course good in the Intention, but unjust in the Execution. He ordered all the Jews Children of fourteen years and under, to be taken from their Parents, and secured at a distance to be brought up in the Christian Religion: This could not be done without terrible agitation and trouble of men's minds: 'Twas a horrible spectacle to see Children forced out of the Bosoms of their Mother, and wrenched out of their Father's Arms in which they were locked. The Parents were ill used and cudgelled to make them let go their hold. Every place echoed lamentable Cries, the Women complaining so loud, their Voices reached Heaven. Many of the miserable Fathers were so moved at the atrocity of the Action, they fling their Children into Wells. Others were so desperately enraged, they killed themselves: To add more Calamity to this miserable Nation, they were denied leave to pass into afric: For the King very desirous to bring them to Christianity, thought to induce them to it, partly by hope of Good, partly by fear of Ill: so that, though he stood engaged by his word to permit the Jews to embark, he put them off from day to day, in hopes, time would make them change their Resolution and Religion: This was the Reason, that though at first there were three Ports in Portugal appointed them to embarqueat, they were afterwards prohibited to embark at any but Lisbon. This brought into that City an innumerable multitude of Jews: While they were shammed in this manner in the business of Embarqueing, the day came, on which all that should be found in Portugal and would not turn Christians, were by the Order to remain Salves. The Ports were shut, so that a great number remained, who chose rather to change their Religion (sincerely or feignedly) than to be all their Life subject to slavery: They turned Christians and were baptised: After which they had their Liberty, and their Children restored, and spent the rest of their days very quietly in Portugal: This Action was not agreeable to the Maxims, either of Religion or Law. For with what justice will you endeavour to force men's spirits to receive Mysteries they slight, and have a perfect Aversion for? You would fetter men's understandings, and rob their Wills of their Liberty. 'Tis impossible to be done, nor does our Saviour approve of it. He requires a voluntary Sacrifice, and will not accept of forced Service: It is not his pleasure that Violence should be done to men's understandings, but that their Souls may be fairly inclined, and their Wills won to a love of his Religion: To proceed in this manner, is to encroach on the right of the holy Spirit, and attempt that by humane Power, which Grace alone is capable to work in men's Souls, which yield at last to his holy Inspirations: 'Tis only the holy Ghost can illuminate men's Understandings, and invite and persuade them into a Confession of the Name of Jesus, and into the Communion of Saints, when we reject not his Grace with obstinate ingratitude: To conclude, can any thing be more manifestly opposite to the Spirit of Christianity, than to expose so many and so Venerable Mysteries, things so truly holy and divine, to men under suspicion, and evidently profane? We never consider, how we force those who hate in their Souls the Christian Religion, to commit the highest Crimes they possibly can against Jesus Christ.  
It cannot be denied, but these Reflections are sage and judicious. 'Tis the Light of Reason breaking out of the midst of Darkness: 'Tis good sense flowing from its proper Spring, expressed by the mouth of a Portuguess Bishop living in a Country, groaning under the Tyranny of a severe Inquisition. Can you believe, this Portuguess Bishop could have approved of the last Declaration, that gives way to the seducing of a Child by a Bartholomew Baby, and then taking him away out of the Arms of his Mother? It makes me groan to think this Declaration may reach to Constantinople. I cannot but fear the Precedent may be fatal to the poor Christians in the East, and that the Turk will tread the steps of the Council of Conscience at Paris: What a Desolation will follow, if the Infidel Princes will seize the Children of the Christians? Will not Christianity by this means be quickly destroyed throughout their Dominions? The Turk exacts a Tribute of Children from Greece, which that poor Nation thinks an intolerable slavery: But what will it be, if the like be practised in all Mahometan Empires, and not one Christian Child secure in their Countries? Whereas now, when one is taken out of the Family for tribute, they remain assured of the Possession of the rest.  Hug. Gent. 
Among all the Reasons in the Petition against this Declaration, none affected me more, than that which shows, that Children of seven years of Age were never by any Law in any Age of the World, made subject to Orders of Courts, and Formalities of Justice: But if you compare the Declaration against the Relapsed, with that which concerns the Children, you will meet with Children of seven years old, who, having been regained by their Parents, shall be Imprisoned, Examined on interrogatories, Confronted with Witnesses, and Condemned to make honourable amends by walking bareheaded, and barefoot through the Streets, with a burning Link in their hands to the seat of Justice, and ask pardon for their Crime. 'Tis a spectacle all Europe will rejoice at for the Novelty: As for the Reasons in the Petition grounded on his Majesty's Word and Arrests, which had appointed the choice of Religion to be made at the Age of fourteen, they are now silly Arguments: True it is, they might have passed for good in the Golden Age, but in ours, Men glory in the breach of their Promises, and value themselves upon not keeping their words.  Par. 
Gentlemen, I confess, what you speak of is a little severe, but you do not consider whom it concerns.  Hug. Law. 
Sir, It concerns not his Majesty, as you think. We know the King's intentions are good, and that he sees not the Consequences of what they Act in his Name. But you will allow us to complain of those who surprise his Piety, and of a Clergy who would encroach into their hands the principal management of the State: We see clearly their false Zeal will ruin us, but it will also reduce the Kingdom to extremities. When Princes frame their Conduct by the Maxims of Monks and Jesuits, they ruin their States: Witness the Affairs of Hungary: The Emperor possessed by those false Zealots, took from the Protestants all their Estates, and gave them to the Jesuits. He hath banished their Ministers, demolished their Churches, and expelled them the Kingdom. Can you choose but admire this excellent policy of the Jesuits? At the very doors of the Turk they reduce Christians to such extremity, they have no way of safety, but to throw themselves into the Arms of Infidels. And now, that the Grand Signior is at peace with Muscovy and Poland, you will see how he will employ his Forces, and what will be the Consequence of the Counsels of the blessed Fathers of the Society of Jesus: They are at this day Masters of Europe, they govern all Princes, and are absolute in all Courts: But it may be observed, that Europe hath reason to look on this day, as the Eve of her Destruction. Germany will perhaps be a Prey to the Turk, England a Theatre of Fury, and France with all the puissance of the Genius that governs it, may fall into a condition I dread to imagine; for if they Arm the hand of our Sovereign against us, and persuade him to spill the Blood of his Subjects, the State must be weakened, by having drawn from it the most faithful and truest French Blood in its Veins.  Par. 
I am a Catholic, but none of those who are for Monks and Clergymens' intermeddling in Civil Affairs: Their business is to pray to God for the prosperity of the Kingdom; 'tis certain, that matters are but very little mended since these good men wriggled themselves so deeply into Courts.  Hug. Law. 
But do you not admire, Sir, the boldness of the Jesuits, and the use they make of it at Court by the man they have there at his Majesty's Elbow? They were banished France by Arrest of the Parliament of Paris, being clearly convinced, they had by the hands of John Chatells attempted to murder Henry the 4th. This Prince fearing a stab from them, called them in again by an Edict in January 1604. One Clause of the Edict was, They should be obliged to keep one of their Society, a French- man Born and sufficiently Authorised, to attend the King, to serve him for a Preacher, and to be answerable for the Actions of the Society, that is, That there should always be a Jesuit attending at Court, as an evidence that all those of his Society were looked upon as disturbers of the public Peace, as Murderers of Kings, and Enemies of the State, one of whose Chiefs the Court would have always in its Power, that he might be responsible for the attempts of his Fellows, and remain as an Hostage to receive such Punishments as the Criminal erterprises of his Society should deserve: This is the natural Character which from Father Cotton to Father Le Chaise aught to be given, according to the intention of the Edict, of all the Jesuits that follow the Court. A Character that ought to make them ashamed, and keep them continually humble: Instead of which, they are become Masters of the Consciences of our Kings, the Tyrants of the Church, and, we may say, of all France: This gave occasion to Monsieur de Mezeray, to make this judicious Remark, That this Condition annexed to the Edict, 
Tom. 6. Hen. 4. An. 1604.  instead of branding them, as they imagined who got it inserted, procured them the greatest Honour they could desire. Philip of Macedon was awaked every Morning by a Page, who told him, Remember you are a man: I wish our cruel Enemy were awaked every Morning with these words: Remember you are here to be answerable for the Doctrine and Actions of those, who teach, that Kings may be assassinated when disobedient to the Pope, and inspired these detestable Sentiments into John Chatel, and Clement and Ravaillac, and William Parry, Robert Catesby, Thomas Percy, and other Murderers of our Kings, the Kings of England, and the Princes of Orange in the last Age and this.  Par. 
I see you are no Friend of that good Father, and it must be confessed he is not much yours.  Hug. Law. 
We find by experience, he is not much our Friend: And, (the more unhappy we) he hath as much Credit with the King, as Hatred for our Party. It seems the King cannot refuse him any thing. Was any thing ever seen more terrible, than the Arrest he had obtained, whereby our Ministers and Elders were prohibited on pain of Corporal Punishment, to go into any House, by night or by day on any occasion, but to visit the sick: By this Arrest as soon as a man was an Elder, he was excluded from the Company of all those of his Religion. His Majesty looked on this as so strange a surprise, that he thought fit by another Arrest to explain this, and declare it was not his intention to hinder the Ministers and Elders to visit their Flocks. I will give you another instance how this man abuses his Credit: The King upon the Complaint of his Subjects of the Religion of divers Violences, burning of Churches, and other Outrages done them, passed an Arrest in May 1681. Prohibiting any Violence by Word or Action, to be done to the Reformed. A poor Minister of Poitou, in one of his Sermons, gave God thanks for having inspired the King with this Equity and Clemency: Father Le Chaise had news of it by Letter, and presently obtained another Arrest, which order those to be informed against, who (in their Interpretations of this Arrest) should say, That the Exhortations made in the King's name to the People to change their Religion, are not according to his intention: You are to observe, Sir, that the Exhortations made in the King's Name in Poitou, are no other than strange Menaces, and extraordinary Outrages. And to prevent their being stopped by his Majesty's Arrest, the Sieur de Marillac, and Father le Chaise thought fit to annul it by another Arrest, which will give way to all the Exorbitances his Majesty designed to hinder by this.  Par. 
It hath been observed, there hath been for some months past, an extraordinary Emotion amongst you: What's the Reason of it?  Hug. Law. 
The Reason Sir? 'Tis because we see things hurried on faster than we imagined: To tell you the truth, we have been long sensible of a Design laid to ruin us; but fancied, they would not have gone so roundly to work with us: We lulled ourselves asleep, in hopes the Affairs of the State might occasion a change in ours. But ever since last Summer, we looked upon ourselves to be very near Destruction. The suppressing our Colleges and Academies, convinces us effectually, we have not long to continue in the Kingdom; for if the King were willing we should stay, he would allow us our Ministers, and permit us to enjoy places necessary for Instruction.  Hug. Gent. 
Now you mind me of it, have you seen the Arrest against the Academy of Sedan? if you have, you cannot but think them out of their Wits who draw those Arrests, making one of the wisest Princes of the World speak so ridiculously: They make the King say, he had granted the Hugonots of Sedan an Academy for instruction of their Children, and that they had abused his Grant, by receiving strangers into their Academy: Have you ever seen an Academy strangers were denied access to? I admired at the confidence of these Penners of Arrests in publishing falsities so gross. I was wishing to see the Edict of Reunion of the Principality of Sedan to the Crown: I find it repeated there five or six times, that the King Confirmed to them their Academy with all Rights and Privileges they enjoyed under their Princes: Is not the King Master of it? Is not his Pleasure reason enough? Why then are such notorious falsehoods imposed on the World?  Hug. Law. 
I was more astonished at the Declaration, that gives all Hugonots who will turn Catholics, three years' respite for payment of their Debts: It will be easily granted, they have not in this been very tender of the Honour of the King, or of their Religion: Can any thing be more shameful, than to invite People to Conversion by turning Bankrupts, and solicit them to turn Bankrupts, by promising, that the Catholic Religion shall serve for a Sanctuary to protect them in their Cheats? There is not a dishonest Tradesman in France, who having three years' respite, cannot in that time make over his Estate, abscond or run away a little before the three years are expired, and cheat all his Creditors: This open's a gap to all those frauds that destroy Commerce, and lay Families desolate: These are the Nets the Fisher of the Gospel casts into the Sea, to catch men for Jesus Christ. But I return to the Gentleman's Question, who asked, whence proceeded that strange fright we appear to be in for some months past? Besides the suppression of our Academies; Besides the Declaration that gives Children liberty at seven years of Age to change their Religion, we know it too well, that those Bigots pressed for four or five more, and hoped to obtain them before the end of the year. One to force us to kneel before the Host: Another to forbidden us using any Trade or Mystery: A third to oblige us to permit our Children to be baptised, and our Marriages blessed by the Priests, under pretence of acknowledging your Baptism and Marriages effectual: This is the fatal Blow, the total Revocation of the Edicts of Pacification: This Alarm was spread all over France. The Protestants thought themselves at their last Prayers: Every one considered how to get away. They were all upon the Wing, and are ready to departed as soon as the Blow is given.  Hug. Gent. 
The Declaration which gives Children liberty at seven years of Age to choose their Religion, hath made the King lose in three months' time above fifty thousand Subjects: A Declaration that shall forbid us the exercise of Trades and Mysterier, will empty the Kingdom of near a Million, and one that shall impose on us a necessity to kneel before the Host, will send all the rest packing: And so the State will be soon rid of the Hugonots: Whether this be suitable to the King's intentions, I know not, but know very well 'tis not for his interest: If we had not the courage voluntarily to leave our Country, a Declaration that shall force us to kneel before the Sacrament, will make us abandon all. And it shall be in the power of a Priest, to make all the Reformed in his Parish run away. You know what happened at St. Hippolyta: The like will be done every where else.  Par. 
I do not very well know that story, but have heard something of it.  Hug. Gent. 
I am not exactly acquainted with the Circumstances; the Substance is this. St. Hippolyte is the capital Town of Cevennes, inhabited wholly by People of our Religion: Those of yours being so few there, that the Priest in his Pulpit cannot sometimes without a solicism address in the usual Phrase, my Brethren: The Clergy resolved to ruin this Church of the Reformed: The Priest took the Sacrament to be carried to a sick Person, in the very moment that the Reformed were coming out of their Church on a day of Devotion: He rushes into the midst of the Crowd, lays hold on the first he met, and forces him to kneel; the rest slip away, some on one side, some on the other: The Priest continues bawling, and requires them to kneel. He stays as many as he can, to hinder their escape; and strikes some with the Cross he had in the other hand: This at last procured him some blows, and it was the thing he desired: He informs, and (it being a business concerted) had his Witnesses ready. Upon these Informations, the Court order the Church of St. Hippolyte to be razed, never to be rebuilt; and to weaken the Party, banished twenty or five and twenty of the most considerable Families of the Town: That which is remarkable, is, that the Priests who raised this Sedition, is, as I am told, expelled the Town. By this it is acknowledged, he was the first Author of the disorder: Yet the Reformed are punished, as if they alone were guilty. I have not met with so rigorous a punishment for such an Offence: When the Arrest for adoring the Sacrament shall be passed, the like will happen in all other places, as did at St. Hippolyte. You will hear of nothing but Outrages, and Blood shed, and Imprisonments, and Proscriptions and Punishments: A forced adoration of the Sacrament hath not any precedent in Christianity. 'Twas the Pagan only would have compelled the Christian to adore what he did not believe to be God. This is to usurp a Power over Conscience, to require us formally to abjure our Religion, and to exercise the cruelest of Tyrannies over men. 'Tis making them Idolaters, Profane and Hypocritical all at a time: Idolaters, by forcing them to adore what they esteem not to be God. Profane, in kneeling by way of Adoration, to that which in their hearts they despise and scoff at: Hypocrites, in worshipping outwardly, what they do not inwardly: In a word, it justifies all the Violences of the Infidels against the Christians. A great Minister said not long since to one of our Party, who told him of this Arrest we were threatened with; does it not become the Piety of the King, to cause all his Subjects to adore the God he adores? A Turk may use the same Argument in Turk●, And would not such a proceeding utterly extirpate the poor s●atter'd Churches, that groan in the East under the power of the Infidels? We see we are within an inch of destruction. The wisest course, in my opinion, will be to withdraw before the Blow is given: What think you, Sir, will all this come to? What are we to hope? What are we to fear?  Par. 
To deal freely with you, I believe you have not long to subsist; there is a settled design for extirpating your Religion: All the Edicts in your favour will be in a short time revoked. Some of you will leave the Kingdom, and the King will not be much concerned at it: The rest will stay, and return into the Bosom of the Church in few years: You see what Progress hath been made in Poitou in few months: Fifteen or twenty thousand Persons are already converted. And when the Edicts are all revoked, there is no doubt, but the business will be perfected with greater Expedition.  Hug. Law. 
Ah, Sir, Methinks you might have spared speaking of your Converts of Poitou! The Subject is matter of Terror to our Religion, and of small Credit to yours. If you design to have the Hugonots converted, as they were in that Province, 'tis no other than composing a Church of Rogues and Villains, and reviving in our days the age of Persecution: In a word, never were so much baseness and cruelty mixed in one Action as in the Practice made use of for those numerous Conversions.  Hug. Gent. 
That, Sir, if you please, shall be my task: You will not deny me the pleasure of telling a story, which probably I know better than you: I have Friends in Poitou who inform me of all, and am well acquainted with the Deputies of the Province. I believe I know some Circumstances you may be ignorant of.  Hug. Law. 
I shall most willingly give you the hearing, Sir, if these Gentlemen will do so too.  Hug. Gent. 
First then, you are to know, that the Publisher of the Gazettes swells extremely the number of these Converts: If you account them half or two thirds of what the Gazett speaks, you may perhaps account them more numerous than they are. But the falseness of the Calculation is not the thing I intent principally to insist on: I confess the number of the Revolted is prodigious, and that so many Persons have in so short a time changed their Religion, without Instruction, without Preaching, without Disputes, without knowing why is perhaps a thing not to be paralleled in any Age. But that you may cease admiring at it, I must acquaint you with the whole matter: First you are to know, that the Province of Poitou is the heaviest charged with Taxes of any in the Kingdom, and consequently the poorest: Nothing can be poorer than the Peasants there. I need not tell you, that meanness of Condition abases the Spirits, and takes away men's Courage, it dulls their Wit, puts out the very light of their Understanding, and makes men degenerate almost into Beasts. For ten years' last passed, effectual Orders have been given, that the Peasants living at distance from considerable Towns, should not be instructed; their Churches have been razed, and their Ministers taken away. Ignorance joined with the extreme Misery of their Condition, and Slavery hath made them Brutish, and capable not only of meanest thoughts, but the most base Actions: The Intendant Marillac, a Person who had not thriven very well in the World, applies himself to the Bigots, the Jesuits and their Patriarch, Father La Chaise, for repairing his broken Fortune. This man according to the Orders of those he had sold himself to, began at first with the lesser Temptations: That is, he walked through the Province with his Purse in one hand, and his Sword in the other. But at last, the Myrmidons he had picked out for his assistants with some pitiful Priests, passed from Village to Village entering every House, beginning with Threats, and ending with Promises. They told the poor Wretches, the King would have but one Religion in his Kingdom, that whoever refused to turn Catholic, should be used with the utmost Severity and Rigour: But those who would change their Religion, should be well paid and live at their ease. Accordingly they fall a bargaining with those rascally Wretches; some valued themselves higher than others: One among the rest held out stoutly several days for ten Groats; they offered him a Pistol, he stood out stiffly, and would not bate them a Farthing of four Crowns: At last they gave him his price: This shameful Trade was driven in so scandalous a manner, that these Convertors had provided a multitude of Printed Acquittances, with Blanks for the Names and the Sums; which Blanks were filled with the Names of the new Converts and the Sums they received, in order to the giving an account to the Treasurers of the Chamber of Accounts of the Conversion, whereof the Sieur Pelision is Precedent: These Sums amounted not to much, for some of the Converts had not above sevenpences wrapped up in a piece of Paper. But for recompense, immediately after their Conversion, they were discharged of Taxes, and freed from Quartering Soldiers, and all public Payments: On this Rock split a great number of those Wretches, who feared the sight of the Collectors of Taxes, as of so many Devils, and looked upon the Privilege of exemption from payments as their Sovereign Good, and chiefest Felicity: You may hear the account the Gazett gives, how those Conversions were made: I have in my Pocket that of the 25th. of April 1681. 'Tis in the Article of Poitiers: The Sieur Marillac, Intendant of this Province, applying himself continually with a great deal of Zeal to the work of Conversion, arrived the 28th. of the last month at St. Sauvan, with the Sieur Rabreüil, Vicar-General to our Bishop. He received there advice of importance concerning those of the Religion, and went away the 20th. from St. Sauvan, to hasten to the place from whence he had the News: He received there the abjuration of an incredible number of Persons. Afterwards they returned to Poitiers, and the Bishop much affected with the fruit of this Voyage, sent Missionaries into those parts to instruct the New Converts.  Hug. Law. 
Perhaps, Gentlemen, you observe not how new this Method of Conversion is: I assure myself in all your reading, Sir, you have scarce met with any such Convertors. Our Saviour understood not this way of Conversion: For had he known what belongs to it, instead of his twelve Apostles and seventy Disciples, he would have sent so many Intendants, such as the Sieur Marillac: All the World would have been Christian: To trouble ourselves with Preaching to the Peasants, that's  piece of business: Show them Money in one hand and a Cudgel in the other, you make them Saints in a quarter of an hour; and shall convert more in a month, than St. Paul with his Preaching ever did in twelve. Heretofore in those simple Ages of Primitive Christianity, men made it their business to instruct before Conversion, to make them know and believe before they made Profession, and often Catechised them several years before they were admitted to the Mysteries of Religion: But the Gazettier tells us, Monsieur Marillac understands better the Mystery of Conversion; he knows how to convert numbers in a trice, and afterwards sends Missionaries to instruct them.  Hug. Gent. 
Pray, Sir, Let us not make it a Subject of Mirth; those of our Party have no cause to laugh at it, but to shed Tears, and Tears of Blood: Monsieur Marillac hath not been always so careful as the Gazettier tells us. I know from good hands, those wretched Converts who have been made to abjure their Religion, have not been at all instructed: A Gentleman of Quality, a Roman-Catholick, assured me the other day with an Oath, that being at the Intendants, he saw there about two hundred Peasants, who were come purposely to complain they knew not what Prayers to make, for they had been forbidden to say their old Prayers, and not taught any other; so that since they had been compelled to be Catholics, they had no Religion at all: The bishop of Poitiers one day in good Company rallied these Conversions, calling those new Catholics Monsieur Marillac's Converts: But this is not all.  
The Intendant Marillac having tasted the sweet of these Conversions, and finding Promises and Threats ineffectual to bring about as many as he desired, resolved to make use of more violent Means: He and his Agents had quickly scummed off (out of our Society) those base Souls who had no Sentiment of Religion, and were capable of selling their Consciences to him that bid most. The number of these Wretches was not sufficient to satisfy the eagerness of this Converter. He caused Troops to come to Poitou, and Quartered them upon those of the Religion only, and gave them Order to commit the worst of Outrages, till they had forced their Hosts to go to Mass. He sends Advice to the Inhabitants of a Burrow or Village, that within such a time they were to change their Religion, or to receive a Garrison: The Soldiers he Quartered lived at discretion, being Masters of every House they entered: Masters, Horses and Grooms must all be maintained as they please: Besides this, great Contributions must be every day paid; to one, two Crowns, to another, four, to another eight: And to prevent being charged any more with converting People, without having instructed them, a Capucin or two are placed in Garrison with the Soldiers, and the Inhabitants assessed at three Crowns a day for their Maintenance: And because these Monks by the Rules of their Orders are not to finger any Money, the Soldiers receive it for them, and give them an account: Here than is a Garrison composed in a very singular manner of Soldiers and Capucins: But these unusual means are but suitable to that extraordinary end they are designed for; that the People may not any way dispose of their Goods, the Intendant hath published an Order, wherein he forbids them, on pain of forfeiting four hundred Livers, to remove any thing out of their Houses: And that they might not by absenting from their Houses escape the Cruelties designed to be exercised there, he hath on like Penalty forbidden them to absent when the Soldiers come in. You may believe, the moveables of a rich Peasant cannot hold out long to bear such a Charge: When the Movables are eat up, the Soldiers proceed to Sale of the Land, under pretence, the owner hath transgressed the Orders: Poverty is a great Temptation and you cannot wonder many weak Souls yield to it: Yes, these poor Wretches would think themselves happy, could they come off with the loss of their Goods. All manner of Outrages are committed against their Persons. The Horsemen commonly enter the Burroughs with their Musquetoons in hand crying aloud, Now for the Hugonots, now for the Calvinists: They have at the But of their Musquetoons a little wooden Cross, which by force or surprise they make the People kiss; and having told those that have kissed it, that they are become Catholics, they presently drag them away to Church: As soon as they enter a House, they make it ring again with execrable blasphemies and terrible Oaths, threatening all the mischiefs they design to do, if they of the House go not immediately to Mass. And they are as good as their words; for they take the Master of the House and burn the soles of his feet with a gentle fire. They torture others with Vices and other Instruments to screw in their Thumbs: They have hanged up some Women at the Rafters: Some have escaped death by their Neighbours coming in and cutting the Ropes. They bind Men on Benches, and drub them on the Soles of their Feet, as the Algerines do their Slaves, and the Turks their Spahies. In a Village near Niort they took three Women, bound them fast to Benches with their Faces upwards, and poured in Water at their Mouths; but they had the strength to resist this cruel Torture: If a Husband yield to any of these Tentations, his Wife must follow him whether she will or no: She is dragged to Church with her Hair about her Ears, and sometimes carried thither in a Swoon: Others have been made lay their hands on a Book without knowing what they did, and were afterwards told they had taken an Oath on the Evangelifts, that they would go to Mass: Others have been taken in Sheets, carried to Church, and sprinkled with holy-water. Whereupon 'tis pretended they are become Catholics; and if after they go to hear a Sermon of our Ministers, they are, without course of Law, carried to Prison, and starved there to death. The Intendant in other places hath not given himself this trouble. He hath thought it sufficient to send for the Inhabitants of a Burrow, and tell them. Children, go into the next Room, and give your Names to my Secretary. The good Folks do what they are bid, give in their Names and go their ways: The List is sent to the Curate of the Parish, with Order to receive the Abjurations of all those whose Names he finds there: If afterwards these People say, they made not any Promise, they are cruelly bastonadoed, and frequently to death. I dare not engage further, in giving you the particulars of the Cruelties exercised by the Intendant and his Myrmidons, by the Soldiers and Judges of the Places, for fear, of making too long a digression.  Hug. Law. 
You may do very well, Sir, to particularise a little, and give us the Names of the Places and some of the Persons concerned; these Circumstances would not a little confirm the truth of the Relation.  Hug. Gent. 
If these Gentlemen please, I will relate part of what I know, and will be as brief as I can. In the Burrow of Aulnay in Poitou, the Intendants Deputy caused a Child of fourteen years to be arrested and imprisoned to make him change his Religion. In the same place Huchard, one of the Intendants Assistants, and principal Instrument of his Violences, accompanied with a Sergeant and a Friar, arrested and imprisoned a Widow called Jeanne Micheau, on no other account, but to make her change her Religion, being a Woman of the Age of threescore and twelve. Two days after the Intendant came in Person, caused the poor Woman to be brought before him, and having solicited her very powerfully to change her Religion, he remanded her to Prison because she persevered, and ordered her to be put into a Dungeon, where her own Children could not speak to her. He suborned Witnesses to charge her with a false Crime, and condemned her upon the Deposition of those false Witneses, though neither cross examined nor confronted. Ac the same time he caused a Woman big with Child to be imprisoned, who was forced to change her Religion to save her Child, in evident danger to be lost by her miscarrying in that inconvenient and horrible place she was put in. He caused several others to be imprisoned for the same purpose, that is, to make them change their Religion; some yielded, others held out: At a place called fontain Chavagne, Marsaut Precedent of the Election of Niort attended with two men, would have the Credit of making Convertsfter the Intendants method. He went into several Houses, particularly into Daniel Giraults; and without more ado, fell presently upon the Men and Women cudgelling them lustily, led them out to Mass, and made them lay their hands on a Book to abjure their Religion: They made their Complaint to the Duke de Vieuville Governor of the Province, who was so far from doing them Justice, that he gave them no Answer: The same Marsaut hath frequently put his naked Sword to the Throats and Breasts of the Hugonots to make them change their Religion: And when he met with People in the Country, he made them declare what Religion they were of, and if they said they were Hugonots, he caused them to be sound beaten till they abjured their Religion. In a Borough where Horsemen had been quartered and exercised all the Cruelties I have mentioned, one of them surprised a Woman, and without the least pity of an Infant sucking at her Breast, he trod her and the Child under foot, because she had resisted three Priests and two Horsemen who would have dragged her to Church. The Outrages committed by the Soldiers in the Parish of Echirê are incredible. A Lieutenant Reformade upon the refusal of one Abraham Bourdet to go to Mass, first broke his Cudgel in beating him, and then drew his Sword to run him through, which he had certainly done, had not fear (which gives men Wings) made the poor Men leap over a high Wall, so that he escaped to the wonder of those who saw him. At Challusson in the same Parish, the Soldiers having persecuted to extremity a poor Widow called Mary Rambault, she thought to run away by night and save herself. A Soldier runs after her, takes her, and having bruised her grievously with his Cudgel, and butt-end of his Muskettoon, he took her by the Throat and would have strangled her, had not another Soldier less cruel than he, taken her out of his hands. Having not been able to kill her thus, he resolved to discharge his Musquettoon in her Body, but his Comrade having on the sudden mounted the muzzle of it, he missed his blow with that, he flew upon her, seized her by the Hair, disfigured all her Face, and left her drowned in her Blood and her Tears. The Cruelties exercised in the Parish of Voville are not less: That same Marsaut Precedent of the Election of Niort went into every House with the Curate and some Sergeants, and made those he met fall on their knees, and having laid their Hands on a Boo, they went their ways and reported to the Intendant, that those People had promised on the holy Evangelists to turn Catholics, and the poor Wretches were forced to perform what they never promised, or be cast into a Dungeon. In the same Parish of Voville, Men and Women were dragged above half a League to Church: 'Twas there they tortured two young Maids, and forced them to turn Catholics. In the Parish of St. Christine, Huchard the Intendant of Poitou's Executioner with the Provost of Niorts Lieutenant, carried a Woman Prisoner into the Castle of Benet. And having put Money into her Pocket, pretended she had received it for changing her Religion, though she protested the contrary. In Littiere a Village of Poitou, the Converting Soldiers having taken a Girl of fifteen years of age, to make her change her Religion; drew their Swords upon her, put them to her Throat, threatening to kill her if she would not go to Mass. The Maid refusing, the Soldiers took Faggots they found in the Court, and made a Fire to throw her in: The Father and another of his Children coming to rescue Fer, the Soldiers threw them all three into the Fire, where their  were burnt, and their Skins scorched in several places, and they scarce scaped alive out of the Flame. This poor Man's Name was La Gau, and he made his Complaint to the Consistory of Lusignan, where he left it under his Seal: Thus are Conversions made in the Province of Poitou. You are not to imagine I have told you the thousandth part of what hath been done there. I have confined myself to one instance of every sort of Punishment and Persecution inflicted on the miserable People there. For in all places of the Province, they have exercised almost the same Violences; the Contagion of this cruelty hath passed into Saintong, and the Country of Aunix, where the Sieur de Muin Intendant of Rochefert hath committed the same Outrages and greater, suitable to his harsh and untractable nature, and the mortal Enmity he hath always professed against the Hugonots. So that observing the Connivance of the Court at all Marillac had done, he made no doubt of being countenanced and justified in proceed of like nature, and resolving to outdo what had been acted in Poitou, he exercised Cruelties beyond Imagination. In the Burroughs of Mauzé, Surgeres, and all others about Rochel, he dispersed all the Congregations, interdicted the Ministers, robbed their Houses, plundering and carrying away all their Goods, Burnt, Beat, Imprisoned or put to Flight all those who would not change their Religion. Those who resisted these horrible Persecutions wereforced to save themselves in the Woods, and to live there on Grass like Beasts of the Field. The poor Country People, who by reason of their poverty are destitute of help, were at first the most exposed to these Violences. But now they spare not any, but without respect to Quality or Birth exercise the like Cruelty on all; I that speak to you have seen at Paris three men (who looked like Gentlemen, and said they were of Quality) that swore their Persecutors had wound about their Necks Flax and Tow, to which they set fire, and let it burn till half stifled, half burned they said they would go to Mass. A Lady of a considerable Estate and Family had in her House a Domestic, who had changed his Religion and turned Protestant above four and twenty years since: The Intendant of Rochefort resolved to have this Man with his Wife and Children, to force them to return to the Roman-Catholick Religion: He demanded him of the Lady, and sent the Grand Provost to have him away: All this would not do, the Lady stood out stiffly, and said, she would not deliver her Domestic, without special Order from the King: The Intendant mad to see his Course stopped by a Woman, vowed her ruin, and procured from Court Letters under the Signer with several Blanks, which he intended to fill up at his pleasure, for seizing the Lady and her Children, who, to escape his Violences, were all forced to run away hastily out of the Kingdom. If the Gentry give any relief to the poor persecuted People of their Parishes, they are presently banished their Houses and prohibited coming near them. But that you may better comprehend how they use the Nobility. I must read you a Letter of a Gentleman of the Province of Poitou.  
A Letter of the Marquis of—  
SIR.  
NEver was any thing so unjust as the Persecution I have suffered from Monsieur Marillac Intendant of Poitou, and Pelerin his Deputy by his Order: Pelerin begun it the 15th. of Septemb. 1681. by quartering two Captains, six Lieutenants, one Quartermaster, and sixteen Horsemen in my Territory of— which was more than five parts of all the Company to be quartered in the Parish of Roville, though the said Territory is not a fourth part of the Parish. By this beginning he made appear the design he had to ruin me. However I forbore not the same day to give the Officers a Visit, and treated at Supper and lodged at my House two of the Commanders, who did me the honour to accept of my Invitation. On the morrow being at the Gate of my back-Court, with two of these Officers, and five or six Cavaliers, a Sergeant of Roville served me with an Order of Monsieur de Marillac's in these words, Reneatus Marillac, etc. Upon advice given us of the practices and suggestions of the Sieurs——— Father and Son, We Order that Information be given by us to his Majesty's Council of the Conduct of the said Sieurs——— And in the mean time, we Order them to retire from the House of———— and not to return within two Leagues of it, until it shall be otherwise ordered by his Majesty. The Sergeant writ my Answer, wherein I declared, that the matter of Fact charged in the Order was untrue: Of which Answer the Sergeant gave me a Copy signed with his hand: The next day as I was in my Vineyard at the end of my Garden with one of these Captains, Pelerin passed in the Highway close by us, without saying a word, having with him a Quartermaster, and seven or eight Horsemen: He went into the Base Court of the Castle, where he found my Daughter, whom he approached very uncivilly, telling her, he commanded her to open the Chamhers, the Closets, the Grannaries, and all that was in the House, otherwise he would break them open. My Daughter having answered very civilly, she had not the Keys, and praying him to let her see his Order, he replied angrily, that he was the Intendants Deputy, and had his Orders in his head: You have, adds he, but five parts of the Company in your Territory, I will this day send the rest hither, and reduce you to the Condition I would have you in, and carry away liy force of Arms all that is in this Castle: Then calling up those that were with him, he led them to the Gate of my Outhouse for Husbandry, and finding the Doors and Windows shut, he quartered two Horsemen there, by a Billet directed to an old Servant of mine, whom I had long kept there. Soon after he sent thither a Quartermaster, and more Horsemen with Order to seize all that was in the House: Which Order they executed punctually. And to vex (as much as was possible) a Maid of Quality and Honour, they lodged in my House the Wenches that followed their Troop, which my Daughter was extremely concerned at: When she saw the House was to be plundered, she sent on the morrow to my Nephew de la Ralliere to entreat Pelerin to cease this disorder and affront. The Answer he made to his civil request, was saying to the Quartermaster and Horsemen that were with him these very words with a furious Tone, Take that man, which they did immediately, and took away his Sword; and at the same time another of my Nephews, with a Gentlentan that waited on my Son, and another of my Children under fourteen years of Age, who were walking in the Hall, not dreaming of any such thing, were Arrested by Pelerin's Order. True it is, these last were set at Liberty within an hour: But he sent to the Provost of St. Maixaut, (who, as I learned after, was in Ambush near my House to take me) that he must come and carry away Monsieur de la Raillier to St. Maixaut, which he and his Archers with Musquettoon in hand accordingly did, and put him in Prison, with order that no one should speak with him.  
Monsieur de Marillac's principal design was to have me Arrested, and he was vexed to the heart at the disappointment. This made him give new Orders to the Provosts of the Province, and the People he hath about him, to use all their endeavours to take me by any means: And thinking I would be the Sunday following at the Sermon at Lusignan, to make the Affront more public, he gave Order to a Provost to put himself in disguise, and Arrest me in the Church, but I had notice of his intent, and went not to Church.  
Perhaps, Sir, it will be hardly believed, that a Person of my Age, and (if I may be allowed to say it) of my Birth should be without cause or pretence exposed to the humours of a passionate man, and be forced to seek Sanctuary abroad. If the Lives of my Ancestors and mine have not been signalised with those Dignities to which Gentlemen of merit may reasonably pretend, yet I dare affirm, that they have in several considerable employments, spent their Blood in the Service of our Lawful Sovereigns, when Monsieur Marillac's Ancestors did all in their Power, and stirred up the People to place the Crown of our Kings on the Heads of their Subjects. I may add, that in my particular, I have not failed to do the State some Service, which I can prove by authentic Marks of acknowledgement received from Court, during the late Troubles: Yet under the necessity I find myself to get out of the reach of Monsieur Marillac's Malice, who hath resolved to ruin me and my Family, and declared as much with a great deal of Passion, 'tis a Comfort to me, he cannot in the least reproach my Conduct. I have all my life, not only received his Majesty's Orders with profound submission, and faithfully obeyed them, but have always had a great deal of respect for any employed by him, and have constantly inspired the like Sentiments into my Children. The only Cause of Monsieur Marillac's hate, and the sole Crime he can charge me with, is my being of the Reformed Religion; that I and my eldest Son have complained at Court, of the Violences done by his Order to those of the Religion, and that I joined with others, in signing the Complaints against Pelerin's Extortions: If the terrible Disorders and Outrages committed against the Protestants in Poitou, compelled them to make me acquainted with their Complaints, and to send my Son to the Court, to apply himself to the King for protection; ought he for this to lay (as he hath done) a formed design to ruin my Family? Or can he accuse us of Calumny? One of the greatest Ministers his Majesty employs, who had the goodness to hear us, and you, Sir, know well enough, we offered on forfeiture of our Lives, to justify the truth of our Charge: We desired a Commission of Inquiry, to be directed to the Bishop of Poitiers, a Prelate of known integrity, whom, I can truly say, I never saw: Can Monsieur Marillac have any suspicion of him? Monsieur Marillac, who assumes the Quality of an Apostle, and applauds those, who compare him to St. Paul, and say, St. Paul never made so many Converts as he: This in my Opinion, would have been a fairer way to clear his reputation, and a more legal Method to justify him, then affecting (as he did) to be Judge in his own Cause, and employing Provosts, Assessors, and others of his Train with Promises and Threats, Money and ill usage, to prevail with Men to retract the Complaints they had made of his Exorbitances, and the Outrages he had done them, and were still done by his Order in Poitou: 'Tis a proceeding, I never saw practised or approved in any Court of Justice: Much less will you approve his employing (as he does) in making his Converts no other for the most part than Blasphemers, Men branded by Justice, and of a scandalous Life.  
I am obliged to tell you farther, that since the last Orders he received, he appears with more Courage, and acts more vigorously than ever: He banishes whom he pleases, and shows those who have access to him Letters, he says, of a great Minister, who commands him to carry on things to what points he thinks fit, and promises all he does shall be justified at Court: He shows also Warrants under the Signet, which, he says, have been sent him with Blanks, to put in what names he pleases: Yet we scarce believe all this to be true, though we see some Gentlemen Imprisoned, others Banished, and particularly, I am forced to absent myself to avoid the farther effects of his anger, having already had my House plundered, and my House of Husbandry made a place of Debauchery. And by express Order of an Assessor of Poitiers, this Assessor having lately obtained the Conduct of Troops, and marched in the head of them, hath taken into his Train Robbers and Outlaws, who come with Carts to take away all that the Horsemen have not consumed in the Houses they have been quartered in: They drive away our Beefs and all our , and sell, for twenty times less than they are really worth, the Corn, the Hay, and generally, all that belongs to those of the Reformed Religion: Yet these poor People are forced to maintain the Soldiers in all their Excesses and extravagant Expenses, and they in recompense, without the least formality of Justice possess themselves, not only of the Goods of those who are frighted away from their Houses, but of those who stay at home to maintain them; and having seized the Goods, they sell them publicly, and give discharges to the buyers.  
This, Sir, is the lamentable Condition of the Province of Poitou, which all things are now in a fearful Confusion. I am very well assured, such courses as these are directly contrary to his Majesty's Intentions; and that he will not approve of them: Yet, because we cannot inform his Majesty of our Grievances, but by your Ministry, I take the Liberty to promise myself, Sir, that you will be pleased to take the pains to speak of them to the King, and to the Marquis de Louvois, and to desire his Majesty to take my Family into his special Protection, without which, it cannot be safe. I must also entreat you, Sir, to procure from his Majesty an Order, to what Judge he shall think fit, to inquire into, and inform of the Plunder and Robberies committed on my House and Lands: His Majesty will not deny me the Justice of his special Protection, without which, my Family cannot longer subsist in this Province, after the terrible menaces of Monsieur de Marillac, which have already taken effect: If you will be so kind as to desire it for me and my Son, we may continue with safety in our Houses in the Province, and shall be infinitely obliged to you: When you undertake it, I humbly beg your pardon for the trouble I put you to, and am  
SIR, Your most humble and most obedient Servant, etc.  
But to acquaint you with something yet more horrible, they begin to degrade those Gentlemen that refuse to turn roman-catholics, and strip them of all the privileges of Nobility. There is in the Neighbourhood of Niort a considerable Family, which came off very well in all the actions brought for twenty years passed against the Nobility, to show by what Right they held the Privileges and Exemptions they pretended to: This Family having obtained several Arrests in confirmation of their Nobility, and the Privileges annexed to it, the Informer thought fit to appeal from a Sentence of the Intendant, given in favour of the Family. It was observed at the Council (to which the Appeal was made) that the Family was numerous, and had so many Branches, it filled the Country. This was looked upon as a favourable opportunity, to gain at once many considerable Persons to their Party. The Gentlemen were all solicited to turn Catholics, and promises made to some of them of full Companies in Service, besides Money and Favour. The eldest of the Family had the baseness to yield, and obtained an Arrest in these Terms. Having seen the Evidences and Abjuration of— made before Father la Chaise, we confirm him in his Nobility, and discharge him of all Taxes: And we allow a month's time to the rest of the same Name and Family, to make the like Abjuration. After which time they shall be foreclosed, etc. and made to pay the Taxes assesed on them with all Charges. The proceed of this Suit were all showed me by a Gentleman of two or three thousand Livers a year, who is now reduced to extremity, his Estate seized, himself degraded, and deprived of the Privileges of Nobility, because he abjured not his Religion, as required by the Arrest.  
I will acquaint you with another very special sort of Persecution: The last year an Arrest passed, whereby the King prohibited the Catholics to embrace the Protestant Religion, and forbade the Protestants to receive any Abjuration of the Catholics, under pain of being interdicted the Ministry, and having the Church demolished, wherein any Catholic should have been received into the Profession of the Reformed Religion. At a place in Poitou called lafoy Mott, a Servant Maid a Roman-Catholick, was persuaded by some Rascals, to go with the Protestants to receive the Sacrament in their Church: The Intendant upon notice, sends for the Minister and Elders, and tells them, that though it appeared not, that Servant Maid had abjured, yet there could not be a more certain sign she had been received amongst them, than that she had received the Sacrament with them. Hereupon he made a great noise, interdicted and expelled the Minister, and threatened to have the Church pulled down. And if such Courses be allowed, what Church can be safe? How easy a matter is it for the Curates, the Monks, and the Intendants to send Rascals to receive the Sacrament among us, without our being able to hinder them? They durst not for some time commit these horrible Outrages in the great Towns, where the Protestants were numerous, for fear of provoking them to some desperate Act: But now they resolve, all places shall far alike: Niort, Chatellheraut, and Rochel have already felt the effects of their Fury. There is not any kind of Outrage, but hath been, and is done to the Inhabitants of those Towns: They writ from that Province, that there is not a Protestant left in Thoüars; and generally the Inhabitants of the Towns, as well as the Country, declare aloud, nothing but an absolute impossibility of getting out, shall stay them in the Kingdom. But such is their Cruelty, the Ports are guarded with all strictness imaginable: If any one embark, and they know it, presently they rummage the Vessel, take him and imprison him: I have with me an Original Writing, of those poor Fugitives who were lately taken and imprisoned, which I will read to you.  

WE whose Names are under-written, Prisoners, as well in the Prisons Royal of the City of Rochel, as in the Tower of the Lantern, not only in our own Names, but the Names of those of us who cannot write, being in all, three and thirty Persons professing the Reformed Religion, do hereby certify; that having been forced some weeks since, to leave the Province of Poitou, the place of our Nativity, our Houses and all our Goods, by the unheard of Cruelties and Outrages exercised by Order of the Intendant Marillac, against all those of the said Religion, who will not abandon it and turn roman-catholics; we retired destitute of all conveniences and necessaries for subsistence into the said City of Rochel, in hopes to find there some relief in our distress, and an easy passage into England: Being arrived at Rochel with great pains and toil, several of us having Wives and sucking Children, after some days stay in the said City, we treated with one Mesnier a Merchant of the same City, who hired a Vessel of purpose to transport us into England, and actually took on Board the said Vessel, ever since the 20th. of the last month above one hundred and fifty Persons of us, who remained in the said Vessel two days ready to set Sayl. Which coming to the knowledge of the Judge and Attorney-General of the Admiralty, they sent Guards aboard the Vessel, riding within Musket shot of the Harbour: Which Guards forced us all ashore, having first plundered some of us of our , and made some of us Prisoners, whom (after their Confession taken) they enlarged without entering their names in the Gaolers' Book: Since which we continued at Rochel aforesaid, as well for recovering the Money we had paid Mesiner for our passage (which he absenting himself, we could not obtain) as for finding out some sure means to transport ourselves into England, our intention being not to return home, where neither our Persons nor our Consciences can be in safety, all things being there in ruin and desolation: But accompanied every where by our misfortune, we were so unhappy, that the Civil Magistrates and Lieutenant Criminal of the said City, who could not endure us, made diligent search for us, in all their Houses who had had the Charity to harbour us; and having found us, they put us into Prison, where we continue since All-Saints day; and had been starved to death, but for the Charitable relief of several good People, who sent us Victuals to save us from perishing with hunger, having two days lain on the Board's, some of us half naked, having been taken out of Bed, and not allowed time to put on all our . The said search having been made between the hours of nine and ten in the Evening, when some of us were in Bed, whom they forced to get up and go to Prison, where we continue as Criminals: What they will do with us we know not, nor are we conscious to ourselves of any Crime, unless it be that we make not profession of the Roman-Catholick Religion, for which, we think, they intent to trouble us: Because every day, and almost every hour we are vexed and tormented with the visits of the Kinged Advocate of this City, and several Monks, who make us the fairest and richest promises imaginable, if we will change our Religion. And on the contrary, threaten us terribly if we persist in our Profession. And though we are hoarse with telling them, we will by the grace of God persevere in our Religion, and that we will die rather than forsake it, yet they leave us not, but torment us incessantly. Therefore we conjure all good Christians, not to forsake us in the miserable Condition we are in, but that they will endeavour our enlargement, as well as continue their Charity for our subsistence. We pray God, that he will every day pour on them greater measures of his choicest Blessings, and we entreat them not to forget us in their Prayers, and that they will join their Complaints to ours, and lay them at his Majesty's feet, that we may obtain from his Clemency, such Order as is requisite for our Liberty.  
Dated at the Tower of the Lantern in the City of Rochel, where we are Prisoners, Nou. 4th. 1681. 

Tousot, M. Moussault, aged sixty years.  
Daniel Pivet,  
Jean Coussemean,  
Francis Bourcean,  
Lewis Bomilet,  
John Mentauban,  
Peter Guery,  
James Piron,  
Peter Moinault,  
J. Michau,  
James Haullice,  
John Gouriault,  
Reyneere.     
I confess, this proceeding appears horrible to me, and that it puts me in mind of what Ozorius told us of the Condition of those miserable Jews, who had the Ports of Portugal shut against them, and were constrained to remain slaves in that Country. In the Age of Massacres, every one was at liberty to go out of the Kingdom. If this Course of retaining these persecuted Wretches be continued, there is cause to fear, they will break out at length into some desperate Action; that they will burn their Houses, and set fire on the Towns. The Resolution, I confess, is violent and furious, but Wretches in Extremity bid adieu to their Reason. What think you in your Conscience, is not this an open Persecution, and equal in Cruelty to that of past Ages? What difference will you make between the Reign of Charles the 9th. and Lewis the 14th. the greatest of our Kings?  Par. 
If Matters be thus, why do you not complain? 'Tis very well known, the King loves not Violence: He will certainly do you Justice.  Hug. Law. 
How, Sir, are you ignorant that we complain, but cannot be heard? Do not you know well enough, that the Province of Poitou had Deputies here, who represented to the World the lamentable Condition of the poor Hugonots there? In a word, Have you not seen the Petition they presented to the King? I have it here, and will read it to you.  
To the King.  
SIR,  
YOur Subjects of the Religion, P.R. of Poitou, most humbly show to your Majesty, that they are in extreme desolation, by the unheard of Violences exercised against them for their Religion, by Order of the Sieur Marillac Intendant of the Province: They have formerly exhibited their Complaints to your Majesty, who was graciously pleased to declare, it was not your intention any force should be used to deprive them of the Liberty of Conscience granted them by your Edicts. But their Grievances and great Sufferings having since been infinitely augmented, they are constrained to come again to cast themselves at your Majesty's feet, to implore your justice, having begged leave to inform you, that they are dealt with as declared Enemies, that their Goods and their Houses are pillaged, their Persons assaulted; and 'tis published aloud, the Sieur Marillac will have it so, that he commands it, and that it is to oblige your Petitioners to change their Religion. Your Soldiers, Sir, whom your Laws require to observe the strictest Discipline, are made choice of to execute all these Enormities. Instead of Quartering them indifferently upon all your Subjects, they are Quartered on those only of the Religion, P. R. And when they are so Quartered, not content with ruining their Landlords by the excessive Charges they put tem to for maintaining them, not content with large Contributions of Money exacted from them, not content with frightening them with execrable Oaths and horrible Blasphemies, when they refuse going to Mass, or hearing the Sermons of the Capucins Quartered by Order, on those of the Religion, they are sound Beaten, they are Banged and Cudgelled: Women have been dragged by the Hair with Ropes about their Necks: Others have been Tortured: Old men of fourscore years have been fast bound on Benches. Their Children who would have comforted them, have been abused before their Faces. The most moderate of these Soldiers hinder the Tradesmen from working at their Trades, they rob the poor Labourers of what should maintain them, and make public Sale of their Goods, that being reduced to beggary, they may be forc'd to change their Religion: Others of them seeing neither Threats nor Bastonades, nor the horror of a violent Death, presented every hour to their Hosts by naked Swords and Pistols, ready charged, laid to their Breasts, could prevail with them to quit their Religion, put them in Sheets, carried them to Church, and having sprinkled them with Holywater, pretend they are roman-catholics, and that in case they return to their former Religion, they shall be guilty of the Crime of Relapse, and which is yet more strange and unparallelled in any Age, these poor Wretches are not allowed the liberty to complain. If they apply themselves to the Sieur Marillac, he stops their mouths without hearing them. They are presently imprisoned without Warrant filled, and without any form of Justice, and are kept Prisoners without being proceeded against. And to frustrate the Complaints exhibited to your Majesty, the Provosts and Sergeants have gone from House to House, and forced the Complainants to withdraw their Complaints: If any Gentlemen take upon them to speak of these disorders of which they have been eye-witnesses, they are answered haughtily, they are to meddle with their own Business. Otherwise they will be put into a place of safety: So that this miserable People would think themselves utterly undone, if they were not persuaded, that a Conduct so contrary to your Laws and the Rules of Christianity, will not be approved by your Majesty Prostrate therefore, at your Majesties fiet, they pray with a profound respect, that you will look upon them with a favourable Eye, and hearken to their just Complaints, the truth whereof they offer at the peril of their Lives, to prove before any Judge it shall please your Majesty to nominate: 'Tis from the sole Protection of your Majesty, your Petitioners can expect an end of so many Outrages, and an enjoyment of that Tranquillity they presume to promise themselves, under the Reign of the Greatest and most glorious Monarch of the World. May it therefore please your Majesty, to appoint Commissioners, before whom your Petitioners may prove the Matters of Fact abovementioned, with their Circumstances and Dependences. And in the mean time to Order, that the Soldiers be dislodged, to the end your Petitioners may be at liberty to get in their Harvest: Or if it be your Majesty's Pleasure that they remain in the Province, that they may in that Case be Quartered indifferently on your Subjects of both Religions, that the strong may support the weak, and those who are most able, may bear the Burden as those that are least: That you will enjoin them to live in the Order of Discipline, and require their Officers to see it done, on pain of being accountable for all the Disorders their Soldiers shall commit; that you will prohibit the Soldiers, and all others to exercise any Violence against your Subjects of the Religion, P. R. under pretence of making them change their Religion, upon pain of being punished as disturbers of the public Peace. And that you will be pleased to Order, that those of the Religion, P. R. who are in Prison, may be forthwith proceeded against, or set at Liberty. And your Retitioners shall continue their Prayers to God for the health and prosperity of your Majesty, and the Royal Family.  
If you have a mind to see other pieces as authentic as this, I will read you two Petitions; one intended to be presented to the King, the other presented to the Parliament of Guienne.  
To the King.  
SIR,  
YOur Subjects of the Religion, P. R of Marennes Santonge, and the Government of Broüage, prostrate at your Majesty's feet, most humbly show, That although they have always behaved themselves according to your Majesty's Declarations and Edicts, and are fully persuaded it is your intention, that your Petitioners should live in Peace, and not have any force put upon their Conscience: Yet so it is, that the Governor of Broüage ceases not with his Carrison to go from House to House, and from Village to Village, to compel all manner of ways those of the said Religion to go to Mass, forceably dragging some of them to Church, threatening to kill others if they refuse to abjure, and Quartering Soldiers in their Houses; which they plunder, and sell your Petitioners Goods, forcing them to abandon all, to go seek elsewhere, that quiet they cannot find in their Country.  
This, Sir, was done in the Burrow of Dhier near Brüage; they bond Blanchet, a Ship-Carpenter, to a Table, forced stones into his Mouth, and whetted his Teeth with Flint.  
They carry several Persons to Church, and having made them put their hands on a Book, they pretend they are thereby become good Catholics, and oblige them to Sign an Abjuration of the Religion, though no other means of Persuasion or Constraint have been used to reduce them to it.  
They have acted extreme Outrages upon Chadenne Marinier, Ardoüin and Rambert: And one Voyer, having fled for Refuge to Marennes, was followed by a Sergeant and four Soldiers, who publicly gave him several blows with the flat of their Swords, and beat him on the Stomach with the But end of their Guns. And having made him so weak he could not go, carried him to Prison in a Cart.  
In the Village of Breüil, la Menardiex, and others the Soldiers of the said Garrison, and entered the Houses by force, carried away and sold openly the Goods of those who were fled thither for refuge, to save themselves from the Outrages they had seen done to their Neighbours; particularly to Ardoüin, le Comte, Hervy and Baudry.  
At Peufeucié, the Officers of the same Garrison put their Swords and Pistols to the Throat of one Chasseriau, and said they would kill him, if he would not change his Religion, and say his Prayers: Chasseriau having kneeled and said his Prayers, the Officers called him a thousand names, and beat him outrageously, because he would not change his Religion.  
In the Burrow of Marennes, several Persons are every day imprisoned without the least formality of Justice. The Goods of Fougeron Captain of a Ship were taken away in the same manner: Soleil was beaten and imprisoned, because he would not abjure: And all the Inhabitants of those places are threatened, all manner of Violence shall be used to force them to go to Mass.  
These Outrages, Sir, and those committed in the Isles of Oleron, la Tremblade, and Soubize, force your Seamen and others of the Religion, P. R. to leave the Kingdom. Your Petitioners demand Justice of your Majesty, and have so much the greater hopes of your Clemency, because they have been always most obedient to your Orders, and made appear on all occasion a constant Zeal, and Fidelity to your Service, for which they are still ready to sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes. All the favour they beg, is the Liberty of their Conscience. That your Majesty will be pleased to put a stop to the Violences done them: And that they may live in your Kingdom, according to your Edicts and Declarations. And your Petitioners shall continue their Vows and Prayers for your Majesty's Sacred Person, and the prosperity of your Reign.  

A Petition presented to the Parliament of Guienne by the Inhabitants of the Isels of Santonge, in the Government of Brovage.  
THe Inhabitants of the Isles of Santonge, in the Government of Broüage, making profession of the Religion, P. R. humbly praying, show, that although according to his Majesty's Edicts and Declarations, and an Arrest of Council of the 19th. of May last, they ought to live in full Liberty, as well s others the King's Subjects. Yet so it is, that the Sieur de Carnavalet Governor of Broüage aforesaid, accompanied with part of the Captains of his Garrison and many Soldiers, exercise horrible Violences against your Petitioners, plundering their Houses, giving them blows without number, with the But ends of their Muskettoons and Pistols, dragging them by the Hair, burning their Beards, to force them to change their Religion. By reason whereof, your Petitioners are obliged to have recourse to the Justice and Authority of this Court, that Commissioners may be sent and deputed out of the body of the Court, to inquire into the truth of the Premises, and to direct the whole proceeding therein, to the end a stop may be put to these inhumanities', so contrary to the King's Will, and the public Tranquillity, it being impossible to find upon the place, Officers who will pass any Act against a Governor: In Consideration whereof, may it please this Court, favourably to grant that your Petitioners Complaints may be recorded, and that such of your Lordships as you shall think fit, be sent and deputed to go upon the places to inform themselves of the truth of the Premises, and direct the proceeding to be had for suppressing the said inhumanities', and in the mean time, to take your Petitioners into the safeguard and protection of the King and this Court: And you will do well.  
Signed. 

Chaille, pursuant to my Procuration.  
Bonnin, pursuant to my Procuration.  
J. Pavillon, pursuant to my Procuration.   Signed. Lartiguet, Procurator. Subscribed thus. WE whose Names are under-written, having not been able to obtain a day for hearing the said Petition, nor to have it ssignified to the Court, have personally carried a true Copy thereof to the Attorney General, who took and received it in presence of Monsieur Dalon, Advocate General. At Reole, Septemb. 8th. 1681. Signed. Bon nin, J. Pavillon, Chaille.   
Can you believe, Sir, If these things were Fables, men could have the impudence to present them to the King, and his Ministers, and his Sovereign Courts?  Par. 
But what was the effect of all these Petitions?  Hug. Law. 
The Effect, Sir? 'Twas this: Order was given to the Deputies of Poitou, to go out of Paris in four and twenty hours, and not to return: The Intendant writ from the Province, that all we informed at Court were Fables: He sent Horsemen with Pistol in hand, to force those who had changed their Religion, to give it under their Hands, they had done it voluntarily and unconstrained: This second Violence more cruel than the first secures him against all: The Court is informed of these Subscriptions, and call our Deputies Rascals and false Informers: Not but that the Court very well understands how Matters are carried: They know very well, that the Intendants Guards and Retinue are not Preachers able enough to Convert such Multitudes by their Discourses: Miracles are ceased: And the King hath too clear a sense, to think such numerous Conversions are made Naturally, and without Violence: Whence should this new illumination come, I pray? Or why should it be peculiar to the Province of Poitou? Yet at Court they pretend not to believe a word we say, to the end they may give permission to all Practices against us, yet be able to say, if any Violence be acted, 'tis without Order of the Court: Since September last they have laboured more than ever, to Publish it is not the King's pleasure any Violence should be used. His Majesty hath had the goodness to say as much to several of his Governors and Intendants: In the mean time, 'tis certain, that in the Provinces of Santonge and Poitou, the Violences and Outrages you have heard, are not only continued, but increased. The Sieur Marillac finding himself authorised by the connivance of the Court, hath tripled his Fury. I will tell you a very true story, which will teach you what to believe of the mitigation so much talked of. Four Soldiers Quartered in one House, having sacked and consumed all the Goods in it, and committed all Violences imaginable, to make the Master of the House change his Religion, took his two Daughters, both grown and handsome, they lock them up with themselves in a Rom, and threaten if they resuse to turn Catholics, they must suffer the greatest Extremities; and, to be as good as their words, they put them into a posture to receive the worst Outrage that can be done to a civil Woman: To prevent which, they changed their Religion. I know very well, his Majesty would be so far from Countenancing such an Action, that he would abhor it, if he knew it. Neither do I believe Monsieur Marillac so mad, as to Command such Brutality. But this lets you see what a lose hand is held over the Insolence of the Soldiers; to what point they extend the Permission granted them, to act what Violence they please, provided they oblige the Hugonots to change their Religion. In a word, you may judge from hence, what you are to believe of the Mitigation they tell you of: Ask me not again, Sir, as you did awhile, whence proceeds that terrible fright we are observed to be in for some time past: We see coming towards us that Scourge which now Afflicts Santonge and Poitou: We understand well enough, they will not open a Persecution in all places at once; this would make too great a noise: But when they have laid these two Provinces desolate, they will pass into another: They scatter and lay waste all our Congregations in one end of the Kingdom, and in the other, tell us, we shall be dealt with better far than we imagine, that we are to blame to take the Alarm, and ought not to think of leaving the Kingdom: That is, that we are a File of Wretched men marked out for death; while those at the one end of the File are Hanged or Shot to death, those at the other end are spoken fair to, and made drink, to amuse them, that they run not away, but may, when the rest are dispatched, be Hanged as the others. They began with this poor Province of Poitou, because it is bounded on one side by the Sea, and on the other side borders on all the Provinces of France, so that the wretched Inhabitants have no way to escape out of the Kingdom. And it is certain, those who will permit themselves to be surprised, and neglect the opportunity of getting into a place of safety, will one day dearly pay for their Imprudence and Security.  Hug. Gent. 
Your Reflections have interrupted me in the Course of my story. I have many things more to acquaint you with, which will give you further Light into the Character of this Persecutor who Ravages Poitou. He spreads, and causes it to be spread abroad every where with inconceivable boldness, that 'tis the King's intention, there shall be but one Religion in his Kingdom. If any one chance to say any thing to the contrary, what Religion soever he is of, he is punished for't. It happened, that three roman-catholics said, the King had not declared himself as fully in this particular, as 'twas reported he had; they were all three Imprisoned for it. A Man of the Religion having taken an occasion to ra●ly these Conversions made for Money, and having said, the King was too wise to be at great expense to carry on an Action so base as that, of Bribing People out of their Religion, was Imprisoned and Condemned to go barehead and barefoot, with a lighted Torch in his hand through the Street, followed by the Executioner to the Court of Justice, to beg Pardon for his fault: But I have one thing more to tell you, by which you may better know what a Person he is I am speaking of: He went to Dinner at the Marquis of Verac's, a Gentleman of note in the Province. While they were at Dinner, the Intendant gave Order, the Inhabitants of the place should assemble at the Cross: After Dinner he took his Coach, got up on the streps of the Cross, and said to the Peasants assembled, Children, you are to know, 'tis the King's intention there shall be henceforth but one Religion in France: Turn Catholics: Whoever does so, shall have cause upon all occasions to praise the King's Bounty: Those who refuse shall experience his Severity: To prove what I say, see here, your Lord the Marquis of Verac come along with me to change his Religion: Whereupon the Marquis (who is a very honest man, and a very good Protestant) stepping up immediately to the same Cross, said to the Peasants: Children, The Intendant does but jest with you; The King has no design to revoke his Edicts: And it is not true that I am come along with him, or have any design to change my Religion.  Hug. Law. 
This is surprising, and sufficient of itself, to make out the Character of the Man. I cannot tell, Sir, what you think of these Conversions of Poitou: But as for me, I confess, that assuming the Sentiments of a reasonable Catholic, I could not forbear being of the Opinion of Ozorjus Bishop of the Algarues. That nothing is more opposite to the Spirit of Christianity, than a Conduct of this Nature, that exposes so many Mysteries and holy things to men suspected and evidently profane. Can you choose but tremble, Sir, to think that at this day in Poitou, thousands of those who are forced to go to Mass, and prostrate themselves before that which you call Our Lord, detest and look upon that as an Idol which they pretend to adore: When they are sick, they bring them the holy Oil, and make them take the Sacrament after your manner: They obey with their bodies the Violence used, but they think very Profanely of those things you esteem so Holy. 'Tis, in your Opinion, an enormous Crime these Wretches commit; yet 'tis your Zealous Catholics are the Cause of these horrible Profanations of your Mysteries: When Violence is used to force men to Lock up in the bottom of their Hearts their sentiments of Religion, it produces the effect of that Violent and inconsiderate Zeal of Emmanuel the second King of Portugal, who compelled the Jews to turn Christians, as I told you: The Jews professed themselves Christians, but continued Jews in their Hearts. Their Children inherited their Dissimulation and Religion. Hence it is, that half those Portugese, who, to avoid the Inquisition, are Christians in Portugal; no sooner set foot in Holland, but they are Jews: Those Hugonots who have been forced to turn roman-catholics, will inspire into their Children their Religion, and the disquiet of their Spirit: These Sentiments will be transmitted from Generation to Generation, as a Seed of Rebellion, that will always incline this People to shake off the Yoke imposed on their Conscience, as Soon as they have opportunity. So that by the Course now taken, instead of gaining Servants to God, you raise Enemies to the State. And I had reason to say, that by the Method now used for Conversion, you will make you a Church of Rogues and Villains, of Atheistical and Profane Rascals, destitute both of Religion and Honour: Conversion at this day is a Cloak to cover Debauches, and the most abominable Enormities: Let the most infamous of men profess himself a Catholic, he is presently become a right honest man: That Church which claims the title of Holy as proper to itself, opens her Gates to Bankrupts and Cheats, and exhorts men to become Bankrupts by turning roman-catholics, which is a sure Means of Pardon and Oblivion for all Sins, and in a word, a Salve for all Sores, a Remedy for all Evils.  Hug. Gent. 
Give me leave to tell you a little story, not impertinent to the Purpose which I had the other day from an Officer: You know, 'tis now every ones business to make Converts: 'Tis the employment of Gentlemen and Officers of War, as well as of the Bigots: A Soldier of the Garrison of Friburg, having committed a considerable Robbery, was imprisoned for it. He had wit enough to know, it would go very hard with him, unless he could find Favour. The first Question asked him in Prison, was, what Religion he was of; to which he answered, without the least Hesitation, he was a Huguenot. Presently flocked about him all the Devotees of the Town, and, in the Head of them, Madam de Chamilly the Governor's Wife. Never Martyr made a more resolute Defence than this Soldier, who was looked upon as a Huguenot, would sooner Burn than turn. Monsieur de Chamilly the Governor of the place, came in Person to the Prison, spoke home to the Soldier, and made him understand, it would go very ill with him, if he did not turn Catholic: The Soldier was not a whit moved at all this: But at length he began to relent and yield to the gentle instances of the Lady Governess. Yet not without entering into a formal Treaty, for fear of a surprise, and being hanged when converted. In short, they gave him all the security he desired for his Life, and they kept their words. When the Soldier was got clearly off, his Comrades made it appear he had never been a Huguenot, but to the day of his imprisonment had always been a Roman-Catholick: Madam de Chamilly was so vexed when she knew it, she would have had the Soldier tried again for his Crime: But the business was over, he had obtained his Pardon, and the Matter was past bringing about.  Par. 
Sir, I see you will not have opportunity this day, to make use of the Arguments in your little Book: These Gentlemen make great Complaints, and are not wanting in words to express them. Let me advise you to put up your Book in your Pocket: Methinks, our Discourse has been so long, 'tis now time to take a little Breath. But to interrupt as little as may be a business we are all so much concerned in, I think we may do well to proceed in our Discourse, and finish to morrow.  
The end of the First Discourse.   

The Last Efforts OF AFFLICTED INNOCENCE.  
The Second Discourse.  Prov. Cath. 
GEntlemen, you shall not escape me to day: We have given you leave to Attack us, and must now see how well you can defend yourselves: That Gentleman jeered me, that I was obliged yesterday to put up again my Book in my Pocket: But I'll take it out now, and you shall, if you please Gentlemen, presently give your Answers to the Objections of my Author.  Hug. Law. 
You Author, Sir, is none of the Greatest: He is a Scribbler of Libels, a man without a Name, one that hides himself in a Corner, to shoot as us like a base treacherous Fellow, when most of the World beside glory to appear eminent among those who destroy us. But we will put upon him the Value you please: If we cannot answer him, it will be our fault, having had time enough to provide for it: Every seditious Monk and  writer have made the same Objections against us: These things have been a hundred times charged upon us, and as often answered: But I am very sensible, they are concerned now more than ever, to insist upon and maintain these Calumnies: 'Tis no wonder to see them endeavour to slain the Reputation of those they use as Enemies of the State: Our Loyalty is a continual Reproach to our Persecutors: We cannot be surprised to see them Labouring so earnestly to blemish it.  Prov. 
This, Sir, is beating the Air, and complaining without Cause: That which I have to say and to read to you, is certain and indisputable matter of Fact: Hear what our Churchman says. These Gentlemen have gained themselves no more advantage by adding, They had never been so unfortunate to render themselves unworthy of those Concessions: For if I were allowed to call to mind, and relate here what passed in the Reign of Lewis the 13th of triumphant Memory, they would find it very difficult to persuade the World of the truth of what they say: We may see by the Edicts published on that occasion, to what point the disobedience of those Gentlemen had reduced that great Prince: You may read what follows, and see the terms the Edict of Niort of 27th. of May 1621. is penned in, where the King complains of Exorbitances committed by those of your Religion, of Politic Assemblies, of Rebellions, of taking up Arms, of Orders sent into the Provinces, to seize his Majesty's Revenue and Finances, of Commissions given for making great Guns, and for raising of Soldiers: You will meet with the sieges of Montauban, Rochel, Montpellier and Privas, and many actions of Rebellion committed by you in the late times, when you would not obey the King's Orders, whereby your Churches were to be demolished, and you were prohibited to preach in certain places: But hear what he says after: To which they add, as if they were the most miserable People of the World, that without looking back into times long since past, their present Condition is very different from that they were in some years ago: We know very well these Gentlemen sigh for those times, they call, longsince past, in which they were so formidable: 'Tis true, we are not now in the times of their Erterprises of Ambois and Meaux, and those other attempts of theirs, when they called in the English and the Rheiters to their assistance to Sack all our Provinces, to Rob and pull down our Churches, to surprise the Towns of greatest importance, to give Battle within view of Paris, and in sight of their King. 
The Battle of St. Denis, in 1567.  And when they were not ashamed to propose to Charles the 9th. to disarm first, if he would have peace with them; and to send back for that purpose those six thousand Swisseses he had called in for the safety of his Person, and of the State. Here, Sir, in few lines is a great deal of business, you will not easily rid your hands of.  Hug. Law. 
I'll do my endeavour, Sir, I very well know, that a hundred Authors before yours, charge on us as a great Crime the Civil Wars of the last Age, and of the beginning of this. But if you will give us the hearing, we will examine who ought to bear the blame of them.  Hug. Gent. 
Sir, Before you answer this Anonymus Author, I think you may do well to speak a little to what I read to day in a Book of Dr. Arnaud, entitled, The Overthrow of the Morals of Jesus Christ by the Calvinists: I see it on the Table there, and will, if you please, read you the passage. The first Christians had no other Arms but their Faith and their Patience: 
Book 1 Ch. 5.  Nothing could ever move them to use force for ruining Idolatry. But as for them, as soon as they saw themselves in a Condition to resist the Powers ordained by God, they filled Europe with bloody Wars, they changed the Governments of States, broke down the Images, polluted the Altars, burned the Churches, and profaned the most holy things. You know this Monsieur Arnaud hath gained himself a great Reputation among his Party: And what he says is of more weight, than what is said by an Author without Merit and without a Name.  Hug. Law. 
The Charge is the same, though the Accusers are different. By answering either, we answer both. Save that Dr. Arnaud aims farther than the Anonymus Churchman, and lays his Accusation general, against all the Reformed of Europe, as if they had kindled a War and altered the Government, wherever the Reformation was introduced: The generality of this Charge deserves a particular Consideration, and if these Gentlemen please, I will let them see how unjust it is.  Par. 
We shall gladly give you the hearing. 'Tis a thing we had to say to you, in Justification of the Conduct of the Ministers against you, and of the design the King hath to destroy you. And I explain it thus: You are naturally inclined to a Republican Government, you hate Monarchy, and your Sect hath not made appear that Spirit of Rebellion that animates it in France alone, but in the Low-Countries, in Germany, in England: And generally in all places where it is established, you have shaken off the Yoke of your Lawful Princes, and settled your Religion by taking up Arms against your Sovereigns.  Hug. Law. 
If a Gentleman so clear-sighted as you, can charge us so unjustly, what Equity can we expect from those ordinary understandings which are guided wholly by prejudice? To hear you speak, one would think we had in every place set up the Standard of Rebellion: And that like Mahomet we had established our Sect by force of Arms. The ground of all this is no other, but that in the time of our Reformation, the Low-Countries withdrew themselves from under the Dominion of Spain; and the Protestants of Germany had some engagements with Charles the 5th. To let you see the injustice of this Complaint, I must entreat you to take a short view of the States, where our Reformation is established; and you will see whether it hath entered every where by Arms and Rebellion. As to England, all the World knows, the Reformation was introduced there by Authority of the Sovereign, not by popular Sedition: Henry the 8th. shook off the Yoke of the Pope, and enfranchised his Kingdom from the Tyranny of the Court of Rome. Edward the 6th. his Son and Successor finished what he began. Marry the Daughter of Henry destroyed all her Father and Brother had done, and brought the Kingdom again under the Dominion of the Roman Church: Elizabeth her Sister overthrew all Mary had done, reestablished the Reformation of the Protestants in all her Dominions, and strengthened it by a Reign of above forty years. Swede was reformed under the Authority of Gustavus Erikson, whom your most Catholic Writers cannot reproach with any thing, but his banishing the Roman Religion out of his Countries. He was descended of the Ancient Gothish Kings, and Grandchild to Charles Chanut King of Swede. He was chosen King of Swede, by all the States of that Kingdom with universal joy, and great acclamation, as having merited that Honour by the great Service he had done his Country, in delivering it from the tyranny of the Danes: This than was no usurper, but a Lawful King: A Prince of so much goodness and wisdom as Swede ever had. He Reigned happily thirty seven years, and in acknowledgement of his Merit, the Swedes made their Crown hereditary in favour of his Children, which had before been Elective. This Prince reformed Religion in his Countries without Violence, without Threats, but by fair and gentle Means, without a Sword drawn, or drop of Blood shed: Denmark received the Reformation the same time under Frederick and Christiern the 3 d. his Son without Violence, and only by the Authority of these two Princes. The last Roman-Catholick King of Denmark was Christiern the 2 d. whom F. Maimburg, in his History of Lutheranism describes as a Monster. He assured himself the Conquest of Swede by the most inhuman and barbarous Action History ever mentioned. That is, by Massacring the Senate, and all the flower of the Nobility of the Kingdom at a Feast he invited them to: This Tyrant was driven out of Denmark by his Subjects there, who called in Frederick Duke of Holstein, and placed him on the Throne. This Frederick was a Prince as eminent for wisdom, and renowned for goodness, as Christern the last who made profession there of the Roman-Catholick Religion, was infamous for his Wickedness, Treachery and Cruelty. For proof of this truth, I rely not on a Witness liable to suspicion, but on Father Maimbourg, in his first Book of the History of Lutheranism: I have already made out a considerable number of the Reformed Countries, where it appears the Reformation was not introduced by revolt of the Subject, but established by Authority of the Sovereign. The Swisses were a free State before the Reformation, and therefore at liberty to make choice of their Religion, and may be added to the number of Countries reformed without Rebellion.  Par. 
Let me advise you, Sir, to stop there: For if you step but a little further, you will come to Geneva, your Metropolis and your Rome: And I believe, you will find it a hard task, to justify their manner of changing the Ancient Religion there: They expelled their Bishop, deprived the Dukes of Savoy of the ancient Rights they had in the City, erected themselves into a sovereign Republic against all sorts of Right, Humane and Divine.  Hug. Law. 
I think, Gentlemen, you have no cause to suspect the History of Geneva, lately published by Monsieur Spon: He affects a sincerity not very pleasing to the Protestants: They of Geneva have judged it so little favourable to them, they have prohibited the sale of the Book in their City. And it has pleased the Enemies of the Protestants so well, they have given it high Eulogies and magnificent Approbations: However I will rely on what that Author says. If you read that History, Sir, you will find the Bishop of Geneva was not in any Age Sovereign of the City; true it is, he had some rights over the temporalties of it, as some Bishops of France, (particularly those who are Dukes, Earls, and Peers of the Kingdom) have over their Sees and Episcopal Cities, as the Bishop of Strasbourg had there, as the Elector and Archbishop of Cologne hath over that City: But these are not rights of Sovereignty: The Bishop of Geneva never was a Sovereign Prince, but the Syndic and Council of the City have always been Sovereign Magistrates in Civil Affairs: The Historian tells you further; the Duke of Savoy never had any lawful right over the City of Geneva: They have had Judges who were called Vidons; but the Judges had jurisdiction over no other but Savoyards, settled in the Territory of Geneva: And 'twas by mere sufferance of the Genevois, the Dukes of Savoy had a right of Jurisdiction over the Savoyards in their City. 'Tis confessed, the Dukes of Savoy have sometimes kept their Court in Geneva, but without any Authority, other than the permission of the Syndics and Council of the City. This Author informs you also, that the Dukes of Savoy resolved at any rate to make themselves Masters of Geneva, got a Creature of theirs, Peter de la Baum to be made Bishop. This man, being a Traitor to the City, he ought to have protected, did all in his Power to bring it under the Tyranny of the Savoyards: Those who most vigorously opposed this Enterprise, and obliged him first to retire, were very Zealous roman-catholics. They put themselves under the protection of the Canton of Fribourg, which had been, and was then of the Roman-Catholick persuasion. The Doctrine of the Reformed was preached in the City, many were converted, the Bishop returned to oppose them. He had a great Contest with the Senate about some Prisoners, he pretended, belonged to him, in prejudice of the Council of the City, who was judicially possessed of their Business: The Council carried it against the Bishop, and remained Masters of the Prisoners, the subject of this Controversy was matter of Jurisdiction, not of Religion. The Bishop having lost the Cause, withdrew out of the City. He was so far from-being expelled or driven away, that his Authority was owned there a long time after. But discovery being made of several Conspiracies of this Bishop, tending to an absolute suppression, both of the Religion and Liberty of the City, being then for the most part reformed, his Authority at last expired in a little State he was not able to manage; the free People of it having made choice of a Religion contrary to his.  Par. 
'Tis easy, in so short an Account as you give, to cover truths with falsehoods: the matters of Fact are for the most part disguised: And it would not be difficult to give them another Face, which would represent this Enterprise a mere Rebellion: But 'twill be too long a digression to enter into particulars of this nature: We had rather hear what you can say in favour of your Protestants of Germany.  Hug. Law. 
I say, Sir, there's no reason to accuse them of Rebellion against their Sovereigns. 'Tis perhaps the League of Smalcald you would lay to their Charge: It was, Sir, a League defensive only: F. Maimbourg shall witness it. They concluded, says he, 
Hist. Lutb. lib. 3. An. 1531.  their League of mutual defence against all those who would trouble them in the exercise of their Religion. The same Author tells us, that if the Protestant Princes had any design to prevent the Emperor, and take up Arms before him, Luther opposed it. And the Letter he writ on that Subject to the Elector of Saxony, may be seen at this day at the beginning of the first Tome of Luther's works: Is there any thing more natural, than to unite in order to common safety? This League was not made by Rebels and seditious Subjects, but by Sovereign Princes: 'Tis very well known, the Emperor is not Master of the Empire, which is a Confederation of several States united under one Head, yet reserving to themselves-their Liberty and Sovereignty. In matters of Peace and War, Impositions, raising Armies, and all other Acts of Sovereignty, the Princes and free Towns do what they please: They make War one against another: They end their differences as they please, and enter, when they think fit, into Interests contrary to those of the Emperor: If the Emperor attempt any thing against the Privileges of any Member of the Empire, they remedy themselves by Arms, without incurring the penalty or name of Rebels. Who knows not this, must be a stranger to the History of Germany: The Golden Bull is express in it. Declaring, that if the Emperor violate any Right or Privilege belonging by that Bull to the Members of the Empire, the Prince's Ecclesiastical and Secular have Power to oppose him, and cannot on that account be charged with Rebellion: Nor can the Protestants of Germany be charged with Rebellion for entering into the League of Smalcald. Which was not more against the Emperor, than against all other who should persecute them. True it is, these Confederates ten years after had War with Charles the 5th. but were forced into it: They did not take up Arms first, the Emperor formed a design to destroy them, and they were obliged to defend themselves: Besides, there is nothing more false, than that this was properly a War of Religion. That was only a pretence by which Charles the 5th. engaged Pope Paul the 3d. in the League against the Confederates of Smalcald. The Pope indeed would have it pass for a holy War, undertaken for the destruction of Heresy. The Emperor on the contrary published a Manifesto, wherein he professed, That the War he was entering into, was not a War of Religion: That this appeared clearly by his permitting liberty of Conscience to the Lutheran Princes and Soldiers, who faithfully served him in his Armies, and that he had not entered into a League with the Pope, otherwise than as a Prince who assisted him against the Common Enemy: 'Tis certain he had in his Army many Protestant Princes, particularly, Maurice and Angustus Dukes of Saxony, and Albert and John Marquesses of Brandenbourg. Charles whose Ambition knew no bounds, had no other design, but to destroy the liberty of the Empire, and to make it Hereditary in his Family: This appeared by the consequence of the War, wherein though he had all the good Fortune he could hope for, he performed not a tittle of what he had promised the Pope: He endeavoured not the destruction of Lutheranism, but having taken the Confederate Towns, put them to great Ransoms, and drew from them vast Sums of Money, and huge quantities of Ammunition, but left them at full liberty to profess what Religion they pleased. The Pope perceiving himselfabused, he called home his Nephew and his Troops, which returned miserably scattered into Italy. All the Benefit he reaped by this War, was vexation at heart, for having assisted Charles to oppress Germany, and having opened him a way for oppressing Italy: But how can it be imagined, Charles the fifth undertook this War out of Zeal to Religion, when, if he was of any Religion, he was perhaps more a Lutheran than a Roman-Catholick. Which there is just cause to believe, because Ponce de Leon his Confessor and depositary of his most secret thoughts, in whose Arms he expired, was condemned to be burnt as an Heretic by Philip the Son of Charles: I see on your Table, the Abridgement of the History of France by Mezeray, the first Edition. Let us see, what he says, the last Age thought of it. This Author is a Roman-Catholick and judicious: He is read by all, and you cannot suspect him: Philip, says he, 
Ann. 1559.  At his arrival into Spain, caused to be burnt in his presence at Sevill and Valladolid, a great multitude of those they call Lutherans, Men and Women, Gentlemen and Churchmen, and the Effigies of Constantius Pontius, Confessor to Charles the 5th. who attended him to his death. 'Tis no wonder he was not afraid to slain the Memory of his Father; for, if some may be credited, he was about to have an information put in against him, and to have his bones burnt as an Heretic. And that he forbore this proceeding for no other reason, than that his Father had been an Heretic, he was thereby devested of his Estates, and consequently, had no right to resign them to his Son. Philip indeed appeared a great Zealot for his Religion. But if you will believe the Germans, the terrible hatred he had against the Protestants, proceeded not so much from his love to the Catholic Church, as from his violent resentment against the Lutheran Confederates, who opposed the Design of Charles the 5th. to make him associate of the Empire with Ferdinand his Brother, whose Successor in the Empire Philip aspired to be. But to return to our Subject, I say, the Germans fought for their Religion and Liberty by Power inherent in the Princes of the Empire, who are as much Masters of their States, as the Emperor of his: Maurice of Saxony effected what Frederick could not. He recovered the Liberty of Germany, and broke the Yoke under which it groaned. Having thus justified the Protestants of Germany. I know of no other but the States of the United Provinces, who are charged to have changed their Religion, to set up and maintain a new form of Government.  Par. 
Ah! Sir, as for them, I advise you for your credit, not to engage in their defence: 'Tis so publicly notorious, they were Subjects of Spain, and that in changing their Religion, they changed their Master by as plain a Rebellion as ever was in the World, I am so much your Friend, I would not have you undertake their Cause.  Hug. Law. 
No, Sir, I will not undertake it: 
Grotius de antiquitate Reipublicae Batavicae.  'Tis done to my hand. Read what the learned Grotius hath writ of the Original and Government of the Provinces of the Low-countrieses: Read their Historians, read ours. You will find these People never were absolutely Subjects of Spain, that the Earls of Holland never were their absolute Masters, that the Government was mixed, partly Aristocratical, partly Monarchick. These Historians will tell you, the Provinces of the Low-Countries were reformed long before they took up Arms against the King of Spain; that in the first Wars there was an equal, if not a greater number of Roman-Catholick, than of Protestant Lords and Towns engaged against the Catholic King. That the States chose the Duke of Alencon, a Son of France, a Roman-Catholick for their Master: That before that Election, they had submitted themselves to Archduke Mathias a good Roman-Catholick: You will see there, that the horrible Cruelties of the Duke of Alva forced this poor People beyond the bounds of patience: That Tyrant boasted he had destroyed by the hands of the common Executioner eighteen thousand Persons, and had made the Confiscations of the Condemned, amount to eight millions of Gold yearly. You may, if you please, read in Mezeray's Abridgement, who is neither Hollander nor Huguenot, 
Ann. 1557.  That before the Duke of Alva left Spain, they arrested the Marquis of Berguen, and Floris de Mentmorency Montigny, who were gone from the States of the Low-Countries, to make their Remonstrances to King Philip: The former died of grief, or was poisoned; the other was Beheaded, though both were good roman-catholics: By which it appeared, the Council of Spain had formed their design against the Liberty of the Low-Countries as much (at least) as against their new Religion. If you have a mind to hear any more of the Low-Country Wars, let us read Mezeray in the same place: This year, said he, They make the beginning of the Low-Country Wars, which lasted till the Peace of Munster without intermission, other than that of the Truce agreed by the mediation of Hen. 4th. The fear of the Inquisition was the principal Cause of the War. The Inquisition was extremely pernicious and insupportable to the Flemings, for besides the two violent rigours it exercised against those who had embraced the new Opinions, it broke off all Commerce, etc. The very Clergy was no less displeased at it for the seven newly erected Bishoprics, taken out of the Metropolitan Dioceses of Rheims, Treves and Cologne, and the Bishoprics of Liege and Munster; because they had appropriated to these new erected Bishoprics the richest Abbeys of the Low-Countries, and bestowed them on Prelates at the Devotion of the Council of Spain: So that under pretence of maintaining the ancient Religion, the Spaniards laboured to establish an absolute Dominion in Provinces, which own but a limited Obedience according to their Laws and their Privileges: This, Sir, was the true source of these Wars, wherein not only the Lay-subjects of both Religions, but the Roman-Catholick Clergy of the Low-Countries, were engaged against the King of Spain for the preservation of their Liberty. Read Strada, whom you cannot suspect of partiality in our favour, and you will discover through all the Disguisements of that Author, that it was not Religion, but the Cruelty of the Spanish Government, was the sole Cause of the revolt of those Provinces: If all this will not satisfy you, I will give you leave, Sir, to brand the memory of our Kings, who maintained the Rights of these Provinces, thought their Cause just, and supported them against the erterprises of a Master, who had lost his just Rights of Lawful Sovereignty over them, by endeavouring to be their Tyrant.  Par. 
I see we shall never agree in this point: We were better return to our Civil Wars of France, wherein those of your Religion have spilt so much Blood, and appeared always of a Spirit inclined to Rebellion.  Hug. Law. 
If you think we have nothing to say for ourselves, you are very much mistaken, Sir: We have so many things to answer, we know not what Method to put them in, nor how to comprehend them in few words: The Wars you would charge us with as a Crime, have been Civil Wars, of the same nature with others raised in the Bowels of a State, by the discontent of the People, and the jealousy of the great ones; to which, Religion was but an accidental ingredient: This, Sir, I undertake to prove evidently by History. But before I enter on that, I beg leave to make some Reflections: Is it not a great piece of injustice, in those who read the History of the last Age, to fix their eyes on those thirty years only, which passed between the death of Henry the 2d. and that of Henry the 3d. without taking notice of the forty years elapsed, during the Reign of Francis the 1st. and Henry the 2d? If they charge us with having been engaged in the Civil Wars those thirty years, ought they not to commend the patience we had for forty years before? Admit it, we were afterwards more impatient than we ought; however 'tis true, that for almost half an Age, we patiently endured unheard of Cruelties, without seeking any means of Revenge or Defence. During the Reigns of Henry the 2d. and Francis the 1st. the Land was overflowed with our Blood, the Prisons were full of our poor Captives, the Executioners were employed in nothing else but burning and quartering those poor Wretches, who were not guilty of any other Crime, but praying to God in a Language they understood, and refusing to adore any thing, but what they knew to be God: There is no sort of Cruelty but was exercised upon them; they were burnt; they had their Members plucked off with hot Pincers; they were racked and put to all sorts of Tortures; they were buried alive: There were horrible Massacres committed upon them: Such were those of Cabrieres and Merindol, wherein they razed Houses and Towns, laid waste a whole Country, cut the Throats of several thousands of Persons, and caused others to perish by Famine on the Mountains. The Court made it a divertisement to see the horrible Torments these poor People suffered. You shall hear the Account Mezeray gives of it. There was, says he, a general Procession at Notre dame, 
Mezeray's Abridgement, etc. Ann. 1548.  where the King assisted, to declare by this action the Zeal he had to maintain the Religion of his Ancestors, and to punish those who would change it. This he confirmed by the horrible Torments of many miserable Protestants, who were burnt at the place of Execution in Paris. They were hoist up with a Pulley and an iron Chain, and then let fall into a great fire. This was often reiterated: The King was so pleased with it, that he fed his eyes with this Tragic Spectacle: And 'tis said, the horrible Cries of one of these Wretches affected him so, that all his Life after, he was from time to time haunted with a very troublesome remembrance of it: I should scarce have reported this, had the Relation been made by any Author not a Roman-Catholick, for it would have been looked upon as false and incredible. Those horrible imaginations that from time to time persecuted Henry the 2d. did not reform him. His Reign was stained throughout with the Blood of his Protestant Subjects: In all places of the Kingdom, Fires were kindled and Gibbets set up to destroy them. The Duchess of Valentinois, that King's Mistress, making great advantage of the Confiscations of the Protestants, served as a fury to awaken his Cruelty every moment: That lascivious she-Wolf thirsting after the blood of the Faithful, and with a ravenous Appetite coveting their Estates, demanded their death as a recompense, for those criminal favours she was so liberal of to her King and her Pages: If these poor People met at night in a private House for Instruction and Comfort, they were surprised, and used as Sorcerers found at a Sabbath adoring the Devil. To add a Persecution more cruel than the rest, they published Calumnies against them, blacker than the Devil had ever invented; they renewed against them all the old Accusations of the Pagans against the Primitive Christians: They charged them with strange Crimes, says Mezeray; it was said, they roasted little Children, 
Mez. Abr. An. 1557.  and having made great Cheer, put out the Lights, and turned the place into a Brothel; a great number of them was burnt. In all this time did any one take up Arms? Perhaps they were so weak, you will say, they durst not; I am of Opinion, the Reformed were as numerous about the end of the Reign of Henry the Second, as at the beginning of the Reign of Francis the second, when the first Troubles began: 'Tis not to be imagined, that vast multitude of People was converted in five or six months; there were at that time of the Reformed Religion, some Princes, several great Lords, many principal Officers of the Crown, and of the People an infinite number. Mezeray tells us, that in one of their Meetings they surprised some of the Queen's Maids of Honour; yet not one of the Reformed thought of making any defence under the Reign of this Prince, who persecuted them with Fire and Sword: Can you wonder, that having been driven to extremity by long and continual Violences, they had no more patience, but at last endeavoured some means to save themselves from the fury of their Tormentors?  Par. 
You know the primitive Christians did not so; they had no other Weapons but their Prayers and Tears, to defend themselves against the Persecutions of the Pagan Emperors.  Hug. Law. 
I wonder Sir, how those of whom you have borrowed that Reflection, dare produce the Example of the Primitive Christians. 'Tis true, the Primitive Christians had not any Arms to defend themselves; nor had they any to attack with: They did not burn Heretics, but laboured their Conversion. There is not a more certain Character of a false Church, or false Zeal, than Persecution, Violence, and Fury: There have sat on the Imperial Throne, Constantine's and Theodosii, as well as Deccis and Diocletians; but a Constantine or a Theodosius never made use of Arms against the Pagan Religion, which had made so many Martyrs: 'Tis not out of Charity alone, that Christian Princes ought to forbear attacking a false Religion with punishment and torture; but out of Prudence the Church only can have Martyrs, and ought not to be robbed of the Glory of that Privilege, and that powerful argument for proof of her Doctrine: Nothing raises a greater prejudice against the constancy of true Martyrs, than the obstinacy of Heretics, who persist in their Opinions to Death. Our Accusers, Sir, are very unjust in their proceeding with us; to have the Sword in one hand, and the Faggot in the other; to cover Towns and Countries with dead Bodies; to destroy pellmell the Innocent with the Guilty; to shed the blood of Infants; Women and old Men having one foot in the Grave; to commit Massacres; to drown France with the blood of its Inhabitants; to Burn, Quarter, and invent new Torments: This is laudable Zeal, merit of the highest degree, that raises men to be Saints, equal with St. Dominick. But if a poor Huguenot lift up his Arm to put by the blow that is made at him, this is fury and rage, and the fruit of a spirit opposite to that of the true Church: I cannot forbear applying to this purpose, what St. Athanasius said to them who reproached him with making his Escape; If they think it a shame to me, to have made my Escape, let them be ashamed to have forced me to it by their Persecution. When Men run away, 'tis an argument of the Cruelty of those they run from: We fly not from the Gentle and Courteous, but the Bloody and the Cruel. There is no defence where there is no Persecution. I confess it, Men are Men; the love of Life is strong and powerful, the inclinations and Counsels of flesh and blood prevail often over those of strict Piety. Were it true, that our Fathers took up Arms to save their Lives, 'tis a weakness they ought to be pardoned for, in an Age which may very well be called an Age of Fury.  Par. 
In my opinion, Christian Virtues ought to be constant; what is done out of a principle of virtue in one time, aught to be done in another, for true virtue is always the same; Perseverance is the Character and the Proof of its truth: Had those of your Religion endured out of a principle of Christian Constancy, the ills done them under the Reigns of Francis the first, and Henry the second, 'tis probable the same Constancy would have accompanied them under the Reigns of Francis the second, and Charles the ninth.  Hug. Law. 
The same virtue, Sir, uses a different Conduct at different times. Francis the first, and Henry the second, were Princes at full age and of years of Discretion; they acted as they thought fit, their own Faculties were their Guides, there is no doubt but God had established them for the exercise and trial of his Church in her new Birth. They were Persons of a Character, against which we were not permitted to lift up a hand: But Francis the second was a Child, a weak Child, incapable of business, and governed by bloody Princes, who in his Name did what they pleased, and would have extirpated the House of Bourbon and the whole Protestant Party. Charles the ninth took the Sceptre in hand at an Age he was as little capable to Govern as Francis the second: 'Tis certain, Subjects are not obliged to bear the Grievances done them by those who usurp and abuse the Royal Authority, with the same submission they ought to receive the Miseries they endure, by the ill use Kings make of their proper Authority. Hence it proceeds, that the Reigns of most of our Kings in Minority, are troubled with Civil Wars, when those who have possessed themselves of the King's Person, abuse his Name, and the People think not themselves obliged to submit to a Tyrannical Power newly usurped: We observed not nor acknowledged in the Princes of the House of Guise, any Character that could oblige us to suffer their Persecutions they declared and acted against us, much less could we acknowledge any such Character in the Pope, his Substitutes, or his Clergy, the first Authors of our Miseries. These were our Enemies, these were the Party we engaged against, a Party that had no right to use us so barbarously. 'Twas not against our Kings, but this sort of People, we first took up Arms. True it is, our Kings coming afterwards to their Majority, found themselves engaged beforehand to prosecute our ruin; and we having our Swords in our hands, made use of them to avoid the violence and fury of their Ministers. But we never wanted either Love to their Persons or Faithfulness in their Service: In the heat of the Civil Wars, our Hugonots had constantly true French hearts, and an inviolable Fidelity to their Kings. We are reproached with the coming in of the English and the Rheisters' into France. Those who introduced them never designed to make them Masters of the State; but I can prove it by a hundred Evidences, that the League which opposed us, had a design to take the Crown of France from the lawful Heirs, and to bring the Kingdom under the Dominion of Spain. In the first Civil Wars under Charles the ninth, the Princes had obliged themselves to give Haure de Grace to the English for security: The Hugonots had no sooner obtained Peace, but they laboured with more Zeal than any other Subjects of France to regain the place. 
Mez. Abr. An. 1563.  Mezeray gives you an account of it: All the French, says he, applied themselves with extraordinary ardour to recover the Town: The Hugonots were more forward and eager than the Catholics, to purge themselves from the Reproach cast upon them of having introduced Strangers into France. In the late Wars for Religion, the Rochelois reduced to the last Extremities, were solicited by the Duke of Buckingham to yield to the King of England, and acknowledge him their Sovereign; and in case they would do so, he promised they should be succoured in a far better manner than they had been. They rejected the Proposal with contempt, and chose rather to expose themselves to all the Rigours of their Prince highly incensed, then to enter under the Dominion of a Stranger: I could produce many such Examples to prove that our Hugonots though in Arms were never guided by a Spirit of Rebellion, but took care only how to save their Religion and their Lives: But enough of these Reflections. If you think fit, we will now come to the principal matter, and consider of those Wars which are charged on us as a very high Crime.  Par. 
In arguing, men turn things as they please; our business now, is matter of Fact and Historical Relation, which must be done without shift or disguise, that the truth may appear. Pray, think of that, Sirs, and do not enlarge yourselves in useless Reflections.  Hug. Law. 
'Tis my intention to do as you advise, you shall have no Harangues from us, I will only relate plain matter of Fact. And that my Evidence may neither be suspicious nor obscure, I will make use of no other than Monsieur Mezeray's Abridgement, which I have in my hand. I will lay aside the History of T●uanus, as written in a learned Language, because I will not say any thing but what all the World may examine the truth of. They reckon six Wars from the first taking up Arms in the beginning of the Reign of Charles the ninth, till the end of the Reign of Henry the third, that is, that Arms were so many times taken up after the Rupture of the Edicts of Pacification obtained by the Reformed. Our principal business will be to justify the first taking up Arms by the Princes, of which the rest are but Consequents: This first War cannot be better defined, then by saying, it was form by the jealousy of two Parties, in dispute not about Religion but the Government: That it was fomented by Katherine de Medicis Regent of France, under her Children in their Minority, and that it was maintained by Zeal for Religion, which came in by the By, and made it so cruel and barbarous, nothing being more furious and brutal then false Zeal. We will examine the Rise and Progress of these two Parties: Their first rise must be taken from the last years of the Reign of Henry the second, which was after the loss of the Battle and Town of St. Quintin; 
Mez. Abr. Ann. 1557, 1558.  the old Constable Montmorency and his two Nephews, the Admiral Chatillon, and Dandelot his Brother, were taken Prisoners there: The greatest and bravest of the Nobility of France being all perished or made Prisoners in those fatal Engagements, the Duke of Guise at his return from Italy was looked upon as the sole Tutelar Angel of France. They would have given him the Title of Viceroy: But thinking it too ambitious, they gave him the Title of the King's Lieutenant-General within and without the Kingdom, which was verified in all the Parliaments. The Constable, 'tis known, was the Favourite of Henry the second, who loved him to that degree, that after his misfortune and imprisonment, unfortunate as he was, yet at his return to Court the King made him lie in his own bed. But his Absence was fatal to him and his Family: The Duke of Guise rendered himself necessary to the King, and as Mezeray says, the misfortune of France was the happiness of the Duke of Guise, and the fall of the Constable was his Exaltation: The Duke of Guise had in all his Erterprises the success, every one knows. He recovered Calais from the English; he took Thionville; he married his Niece the Queen of Scots, to the Dauphin, who was afterwards Francis the second. Fortune abandoned the Constable, and sided with the Duke of Guise. Read the words of Mezeray, from that very time the jealously between these two Houses, tended to the forming two contrary Parties in the Kingdom, as will appear. This is the first Seed of the Civil War, wherein Religion had not any part: Thence forward, the House of Guise used all its power to destroy Montmorency's Party. The Duke met with the pretence of Religion luckily by the way: Admiral Chatillon, and Dandelot his Brother, the Constable's Nephews, were suspected; the Spaniards increased the Suspicion, by saying, that at the taking of St. Quintin, they found Heretical Books amongst Dandelots' Baggage. Henry the second being a violent Persecuter, caused him to be arrested, and committed him Prisoner to Blaise de Montluc, a Creature of the Duke of Guise; this was a matter agreed on by the Guises and the Spaniards, with design to weaken the Constable by the loss of his Nephews. But they missed their aim, the Constable's favour brought Dandelot clear off, and gained him his Liberty: And the Authority of Henry the second, kept the two Parties in an appearance of Peace during the rest of his life, which was not long; but in the beginning of the Reign of Francis the second, the Discord broke out. Mezeray will tell you in the beginning of this Reign, the cause of the Civil War: A Multitude of Princes, says he, and of puissant Lords, is an infallible cause of Civil War, when there wants Authority powerful enough to keep them within the bounds of their duty: This was the misfortune of France after the death of Henry the second. From the time of his death, the Factions formed during his Reign, began to appear, and to fortify them the more, unhappily met with different Parties in Religion; a great number of Malcontents, who longed for change, and, which is more, many Soldiers and Officers of War, who having been disbanded were desirous of Employment at any rate: Methinks that by this Relation, Religion is not the cause of the Troubles; but the cause of them were the Factions of Princes and great Lords, who meeting with Parties differing in Religion, made use of them to serve their designs. In the same place that Author makes it appear, the two Parties fought not for Religion but for Empire: On the one side were the Princes of the Blood and the Constable; On the other, the Princes of the House of Guise; and between both, the Regent, who by turns made use of one to beat down and destroy the other, that she might Reign. The Princes of Guise having got into their hands the Person of Francis the second, a weak Prince, governed under his Authority in a tyrannical manner. The Princes of the Blood, Antony and Lewis de Bourbon, who ought to have had the management of Affairs during the King's Minority, could not endure that Strangers should enjoy an Authority and Honour belonging of right and properly to them. These Princes were ill used; Antony of Bourbon King of Navarre, came to Court, but was slighted, they did not so much as give him a Lodging, and he might have lain on the Pavement, had not the Marshal of St Andrew received him. The Princes began with the Pen, and caused several Writings to be published, to make it appear that the Laws of the State admit neither Women nor Strangers to the Government; that during the Minority of the Kings, this honour belongs to the Princes of the Blood; That the Guises were not natural French; that it was dangerous to commit to them the Government of the State, because of their Pretensions on the Kingdom, in saying, they were descended from Charlemaign. At last, Lewis of Bounbon Prince of Conde, resolved upon a dangerous attempt, to gain Possession of his Rights, which the weakness of his Brother the King of Navarr abandoned, and gave up to the Princes of Guise. He designed to seize the Person of King Francis the second, and remove the Guises from Court. The Admiral and Dandelot were of the Party, and the Prince of Conde was the Head: But because the success of the Enterprise was doubtful, they would not appear in it: Lafoy Renaudie was entrusted with the management of this great design, which goes under the name of the Conspiracy of Amboise, which our Churchman, whose Book you have in your hand, makes such a noise about; there cannot be a greater injustice then to charge our Hugonots with this Affair. 'Tis certain there were engaged in that business as many Roman Catholics as Hugonots; or if the number of Hugonots were greater, it was because there were more Malcontents of their Party; the Chancellor de l' Hospital was one. I have read in good Authors, that La Renaudie was a Roman Catholic, yet I will not undertake to justify it: 'Tis agreed on all hands that all the Officers who had received Indignities at Court, and been unjustly expelled thence, engaged themselves in the Enterprise, to be revenged of the Princes of Guise. There was at Court, says Mezeray, a great number of Persons out of all the Provinces, particularly Soldiers and Officers of War, demanding Pay or Reward. The Cardinal of Lorraine who had the management of the Finances, was much troubled with them, and apprehended a Conspiracy in their multitude: This made him publish an Edict, commanding that all those who followed the Court to demand any thing, should retire on pain of being hanged on a Gibbet, which was publicly set up for that purpose: A great part of those who had served in the Armies disgusted with this Indignity, turned against the Cardinal. Thus you have an account of what persons that Party was composed, which would have destroyed the Princes of Guise, where there appears so sensible and so clear a cause of Revolt, 'tis not worth our pains to go in search of a hidden one: On the one side, the Rights of the Princes of the Blood, which they were resolved to maintain; on the other side, the design to be revenged of the grossest affront that ever was put on Persons of Quality, by setting up a Gibbet to hang them on, for no other cause but that they desired to be paid for the blood they had lost, are so visibly the causes of this Conspiracy, that 'tis ridiculous to make Religion the only ground of it: The chief of all the Malcontents was Lewis of Bourbon, Prince of Conde: And though he appeared not in the Enterprise, and several of the Conspirators denied to the Death, his being privy to it, yet 'tis certain he was. Mezeray tells us, That the Prince of Conde going to Court, met at Orlians the Lord Cipierr, who told him the Plot was discovered: And that nevertheless the Prince continued his Journey. By this it appears, the Prince knew of the Plot. A little before, the same Author tells us, the Conspirators had chosen him for their Head, but not to bear any part in the action, which was to be carried on by La Renaude under his Authority. The Princes of Guise were fully convined of it, for they no sooner got the Prince of Conde in their power, but they caused him to be proceeded against, and Sentened to be Beheaded.  Par. 
We will suppose, Sir, that you can prove the Conspiracy of Amboise, was a Conspiracy of all the Malcontents; that a Prince of the Blood was the Head of them, and that your Hugonots were not more deeply concerned in it, than others; what's that to the purpose? Is a Criminal less guilty for having Accomplices? Is it allowable on any pretence whatever, to enter into so Criminal a Conspiracy against your King?  Hug. Law. 
Against our King? Ah, Sir, you will never be able to prove that: All our Historians bear these pretended Conspirators Witness, they had no design against the King, or the Regent, but only against the Princes of Guise: Read, if you please, what Mezeray says. They resolved to present their Petition to the King, and to seize the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, and exhibit Articles against them. This was their design: But who, adds Mezeray, could have secured the Princes of Guise from being killed upon the spot, or that the Malcontents would not have made themselves Masters of the Persons of the Queen Mother and the King? 'Tis certain, it was laid to their Charge, they would have attempted both. It was laid indeed to their Charge, but not proved; of twelve hundred Persons who perished on this occasion, there was not one they could get to confess this, though use was made of most violent Tortures to force them to it. Monsieur de Thou gives them this Testimony: 
Thuan. Hist. Lib. 24.  Not one of the Conspirators was convicted of any attempt against the King or the Queen, but only against Strangers, who governed all at Court in a tyrannical manner; that is, the Princes of the House of Guise. Can you think it, Sir, so great a Crime for the Princes of the Blood, and the Chief Officers of the Crown, to endeavour to gain their natural places and lawful Authority, by taking forceably an Infant King (and weak, when Major) out of the hands of Tyrants, who were going to hang up his Majesty's good Servants, to establish the Inquisition in France, and to burn the true hearted French at the Stake? The Prince of Conde and the Admiral were, in my opinion, Names that carried Grandeur and Authority enough in them, to oppose very lawfully the Tyrants of France. Your Churchman in his Book, tacks the Enterprise of Meaux to that of Amboise, as if they were both of one nature. We are not now, says he, in the time of the Erterprises of Amboise and Meaux: The man hath forgot both the Author and the end of the Enterprise of Meaux: The Head of it, was the same Prince of Conde; the end was to remove from about the King the same Tyrants, who under the name of Councillors, made Charles the ninth commit Violences which exceeded those in former Reigns, and to violate Edicts and Treaties, he had by solemn Oaths obliged himself to observe, and made use of the seeming Peace granted to the Party of the Princes, for hatching the most horrible and blackest Treasons that ever have been heard of. After the first Civil War, the Peace was made by the Edict of the 18th of March 1563. this Peace served only as a Cloak for a Cruel War made with more safety against the Reformed after they had been disarmed: The Reformed made their Complaints to the Prince of Conde and the Admiral: But these two great great Men answered, 
Mezeray. 1567.  says Mezeray, That they must endure any thing rather than take up Arms again: That second troubles would render them the horror of all France, and make them the Object of the King's hatred. This was their Resolution; but when a Principal Person at Court had given them express advice, it was resolved the Prince and the Admiral should be taken, the former to be kept perpetual petual Prisoner, the other to lose his head on a Scaffold; by the advice of Dandelot, the boldest of the three, they resolved not only to defend themselves, but to attack their Enemies with open force: And in order thereto, to remove the Cardinal from the King's Person. This, Sir, was the design of the Enterprise of Meaux, and I have told you the Motives of it. I would advise those who for this Enterprise would charge the Prince of Conde with Rebellion, that they would think well of it: The Hero who at this day bears the same name, whose veins are filled with that Illustrious Blood, is an Evidence sufficient to convince the World, we may retain our Love to our Country and Fidelity to our King, without loving those who abuse the Infancy of our Kings, by making them Arm against the Liberty and Lives of the Princes of their Blood: If the Prince of Conde opened this second War by the Enterprise of Meaux, it was because he had not any other way to save his Liberty and his Life.  Par. 
The Enterprise of Meaux hath made you pass from the Conspiracy of Amboise, to the second Civil War, without touching on the first, which is the principal, and you promised to justify.  Hug. Law. 
Well, Sir, I will, if you please, return to my Task. The first War was not a War of the Hugonots alone, but it was a War of Antony and Lewis of Bourbon: The two Brothers, Antony and Lewis of Bourbon, says Mezeray, came not to the Assembly of Melun; for two months before, Antony retired into Gascoign, and his Brother went thither to him. Being then in more safety, they provided for their Affairs, and projected means to make themselves able to dislodge the Guises. The Design took wind, they were drawn to Court, and their Persons secured; a strong Guard was placed on the King of Navarr, and the Prince of Conde imprisoned; his Process was made, and by a terrible Arrest framed by the Guises, he was Condemned to lose his Head. Was there ever so strange and unworthy a proceeding, that Strangers should Condemn to Death, the second Prince of the Blood? And can it be thought strange, that a generous Prince should seek means to be revenged for so horrible an affront? He escaped miraculously by the death of Francis the second, whose Authority the Princes of Guise had abused. The King of Navarr redeemed himself by yielding the Regency to the Queen: The Constable Montmorency fell off from the Princes, because they would have called him to account for the vast Gifts made him by Henry the second. Then was formed the famous Triumvirate between the Constable, the Marshal de St. Andre, and the Duke of Guise; whose principal design was to efface the Name and Memory of the Family of Bourbon: But if the Constable was against the Princes, the Marshal Montmorency, his Son, and Governor of Paris, was for them though a Catholic; by which it appears, that Religion was not the cause of those Troubles: The Queen Mother ambitious to Reign absolutely, and alone, was weary of the Tyranny of the Princes of Guise. And to ruin their Party, she openly favoured the Party of the Prince of Conde. The Queen Mother, says Mezeray, to reward the Services the Admiral had done her, granted or pretended to grant him assistance on several occasions: She caused an Edict very favourable to the Hugonots to be published in 1562. She proceeded yet further, and caused the Prince of Conde to Arm. In this very Page, Sir, our Historian reports, that the Duke of Guise being come to Paris with Twelve Hundred Horse, entered the Town at the Gate of St. Denis, through which the Kings make their solemn Entry: The Queen perceiving his design to take the Government from her, writ to the Prince of Conde, then retired to his House, recommending very affectionately to him, her Son, the Kingdom, and herself. If you look upon the following Page, you will see she sent for the Prince, who having got all his Friends together, took his Journey to go to the Queen, and passed the Seine at St. Clou. This, Sir, was the first taking up Arms, and the beginning of the first War; which was kindled by the Divisions of the great ones, and the unhappy policy of Catherine de Medicis. The Prince of Conde sent to the Princes of Germany the Original Letters of the Queen Mother, wherein she prayed him to deliver her and the King out of Captivity: The Regent who put Arms into the Prince of Conde's hands, reaped not the benefit she expected from them, but was retained in slavery with the young King, by the Tyranny of the Guises, and carried to Paris against her will. Can you wonder, that a Prince of the Blood, of great Courage, and in Arms at the Request of the Queen, should pursue his point, and endeavour to be revenged of the Guises who had almost brought his Head to the Scaffold? Can you think it strange? The Protestants immediately made themselves of the Party of a Prince of the Blood, who had so justly taken up Arms to defend himself from the horrible Violences and Outrages of his Enemies; for than was the time, Sir, when the Massacres of Vassy, Seus, Auxeure, Cahoy, Tours, and a hundred other places were perpetrated: Then it was, that the Parliament of Paris passed an Arrest, whereby they gave order the Hugonots should be killed wherever they were found. It was not Henry the second commanded these Cruelties, but the Tyrants, who abused the Authority of an Infant King: Christian Morality doth not Condemn a lawful defence against those who unjustly attack us.  Par. 
Your Party kept not within the bounds of mere defence: They made violent Attacks, they proceeded to Extremities in their fury, beat down and profaned Churches, broke down Images, killed and tormented Priests. You are not ignorant what horrible Cruelties were exercised by your Baron of Adrets.  Hug. Law. 
I pray, remember, Sir, I am not obliged to justify any more than the first taking up of Arms. I will not justify any thing was afterwards done; when men have once taken Arms in hand, they become deaf to Piety and Reason. The Prince of Conde did all he could to hinder these Disorders: There is not one among us but Condems the Conduct of that time full of Exorbitance and Fury. But I will undertake, Sir, to justify the Outrages committed by our Hugonots on your Churches, Images, and Priests, when you shall have justified the Barbarous Inhumanities' of your Catholics against our Hugonots. Can you approve of that action of the Provincial, who finding at Briguoles a Sister of his that refused to go to Mass, caused her to be Ravished by the Cordelier who carried the Cross, and by all those who would take that Brutal Pleasure; and afterwards caused her to be Burnt with flaming Lard, which he procured to be dropped upon her? Can you approve of what was done at Tours, where three hundred Persons were flaid, and then beaten to death; young Women stripped naked, Ravished in the Face of the Sun, then killed; Men cut up alive under pretence of finding Money swallowed into their Bellies? Can you approve of what was done at Orange? Where some were killed with many gentle blows of Poniards, that they might be the longer a dying; others were Impaled; some Burnt; others Sawed; Women were hanged at the Windows, and the Infants out of their Bosoms dashed against the walls; the old Men being drawn up in rank, to see this horrible Spectacle before they were Massacred. This is not the thousandth part of Actions I could relate like these. The Answer of the Baron of Adrets to those of our Party, who reproached him for his Cruelty, was; 'Tis not Cruelty to be Cruel to them who have first been cruel to us; the first is called Cruelty, the second, Justice: And to clear himself of the Imputation, he reckoned up many thousands who had been killed in cold blood, and put to Tortures never heard of before: When you have justified all this, I will undertake the justification of our Breakers of Images and Profaners of Churches. I have something more to say to you. Be so kind to justify the Conduct of the Spaniards, who are so Catholic and so devoted to the Holy See; make us a little Apology for what they did at Rome, when taken by Charles de Bourbon, under the Command of Charles the fifth. Let's look into Fa. Maimbourgs History of Lutheranism, which I see on your Table: He will tell you, Sir, these good Catholics were Cruel and Profane beyond Example in History. 'Tis impossible, says he, to express all the Outrages committed in that lamentable Pillage: It infinitely exceeds in all sort of Crimes, what the Goths and Vandals heretofore did when they sacked Rome; nothing was spared but Deformity and Poverty: All things else became the prey of a Conqueror, the most brutish that ever was. If you please to read on, you will find that the Spaniards and Italians, by the relation of their own Historians, were more cruel and covetous than the Germane Lutherans. To conclude, if you will undertake to defend all that hath been done by your Catholics in Wars for Religion, I will entreat you to justify the horrible Enormities committed in the East by those Croisadoes who left their Countries, their Estates and their Children, to go and adore the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ, and recover the Holy Land out of the hands of Infidels. I must entreat you to hear the reading of a Passage out of the Byzantine History, which I translated last night, foreseeing I should have occasion to make use of it in my defence on this Article to day. 
Nicitas Chroniates in the Life of Alexius Ducas.  Into what Method shall I digest the horrible Crimes committed by Execrable Men? Shall I begin with their Outrages on the venerable Images they trod under foot; or those committed on the Relics of Holy Martries, which they threw into the nastyest places? Or shall I speak of that which is as horrible at this day to hear, as those were to see at the time they were acted? The Divine Body and Blood of our Saviour were split on the ground and thrown in the dirt; those who could seize the rich Cases the sacred Vessels were put in, secured the Vessels in their Pockets, and made use of the Cases for Cups and Trenchers. True forerunners of Antichrist, acting before hand what he should commit, etc. In pillaging the Churches, the Holy Vessels were their prey; and the Mules and Beasts of burden were brought to the Church doors; where, the Pavement being slippery, they often fell and bruised themselves to death, so that the holy places were defiled with the Blood and Dung of those Beasts: Amidst all these Disorders, to the greater affront of Jesus Christ, there sat on the seat of the Patriarch, a Woman laden with Sins, a Minister of Furies, a Servant of Devils, and Mistress of Sorceries, Enchantments and Poisonings, singing Impure Songs, and dancing Lascivious Dances: Hear the Author's Reflection: 'Tis evident, these People abuse us, in saying they are going to Conquer the Holy Sepulchre of Christ, when they discharge all their fury against Christ himself, and with the Cross they carry on their Shoulders, violate and profane the Cross of Christ, for a little Gold and Silver: Now, Sir, if you please, you will yield me up these Saints and Devout Croisadoes as not to be justified in the Actions I mentioned, and I will be excused from justifying those actions of the Hugonots, and confess the Outrages they were guilty of, were effects of the fury of War, and not the fruits of a true Zeal of Religion.  Par. 
You know well enough, Sir, we do not approve of all our Catholics may have done against you in these Civil Wars: Our wisest Authors look upon the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and others like it, as actions to be condemned, and the shame of France to all Posterity.  Hug. Law. 
To think otherwise and to be wise, Sir, are hardly consistent. For the Providence of God declared itself so signally against the Authors and Executioners of those abominable Counsels, we cannot but see it: Mezeray observes in his History, That the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, were Massacred at Blois, in the same Hall were the first Council was held to deliberate of the Massacre of St. Bartholemew; the principal Executioners whereof, 
Anna 1572.  were the Guises: The same Author tells us, Another Council had been held for the same purpose at St. Clou, in the house of Gondy, where the Duke of Anjou, who afterwards was Henry the third, presided. And that afterwards, that unfortunate Prince was assassinated in the same Chamber, in the same place, and on the same day, by Clement the Monk; the whole World knows the Tragical Death of Charles the 9th. whose blood gushed out through all the Pores and Passages of his Body: If you would know what that signified, read those five Lines Mezeray hath placed over the Picture of that Prince at the beginning of his Life.  
Unhappy Councillors of Murders and Massacres,  
Tormented ever with Stings of sharp Remorse!  
Behold the dire Effects of your Advice,  
A Young and Vigorous King yields his last Breath,  
Swimming in streams of his own blood to Death.  
The Characters of Divine Vengeance are equally visible in the death of Henry the third: He died in his one and fortieth year, being the flower of his Age, and in the midst of a Reign the most promising and hopeful for Glory and Renown, France ever saw: He died by the stroke of a Lance in the Eye, at a Tournament, that is, a Sport: He who had often made it his Divertisement to feed his Eyes with the horrible Spectacle of the Torment of Hugonots, he caused to be burnt; he who had promised with horrible Oaths to see Ann de Bourg burnt, as soon as his Daughter's Wedding and his Sister's should be over. Events like these are very proper to prove, that there is a God in Heaven who sees the Actions of men, and renders to every one according to his Works.  Par. 
These Reflections serve only to slain the Memory of the Dead: Let their Graves be their Sanctuary to secure them from our Censure. Leave intermeddling with the Judgements of God, and sum up the substance of what you have to say in justification of your Wars for Religion.  Hug. Law. 
The sum of all, is this, Sir, That these Wars were not originally Wars of Religion, but Wars of State: Wars, to which the two Factions of Montmorency and Guise had given birth; Wars, wherein the Roman Catholics were of contrary Parties as well as the Hugonots: For you see (in the pursuit as in the beginning of the War) the chief Roman Catholic Families of the Kingdom, engaged in the Party of the Princes of the Blood, and put into the List of those whose Throats were to be cut: The Marshals Montmorency and Coss, and Byron Grand Master of the Artillery, were no Hugonots: Yet Mezeray tells you, they were in the List of those who were to be Massacred at Bartholomewtide: That the Marshal Montmorency's being at Chantilly absent from Court, saved the Life of his three Brothers: That Coss was saved by the Intercesions of Madam Chateau Neuf Monsieur Mistress; and that Byron Grand Master of the Artillery, saved himself, by pointing some Culverins towards, etc. It was not the Zeal of Religion only animated these Furies, but Avarice, and Ambition, and a desire to Reign without a Rival: Hence it came, that a great number of Roman Catholics were Butchered with the Hugonots. Read Mezeray's words: This Deluge of blood, swept away abundance of Catholics, who were dispatched by order of the Sovereign Powers, or the instigation of private Persons. To have Money, or a good Office, or a revengeful Enemy, or an Heir longing to be in possession, was to be a Huguenot: The Duke of Guise, as great a Catholic as he was, saved, during the Massacre, above a hundred Hugonots in his Palace, whom he thought he could gaint o his Service. Had all the Hugonots been willing to have placed him on the Throne, as he thought those hundred were, he would have saved a Million of them, and would have been their great friend and Protector. So true is it, that the Ambition of the great ones, was the cause of these Wars on the one side and the other: Hath not the Duke of Alencon Brother of Charles the ninth and Henry the third, been seen at the head of Thirty Thousand of these Malcontents? Yet he was no Huguenot, nor ever favoured them of the Religion: Were not Marshal Danville and several other firm and professed Roman Catholics engaged for the same Party? By which it appears, all those Wars were the Wars of the Discontented in general, whether Catholics or Hugonots. To Conclude, Sir, for justifying our Hugonots in these Wars, I can prove they had not any design but to preserve themselves, the State, and the Illustrious Princes of the Family of Bourbon now Regnant: On the contrary, the opposite Party was a Spanish Faction, who covered their Designs with the Specious Veil of Religion, but were Enemies to the State, and would have put the Crown upon the Heads of Strangers.  Par. 
As to the last Article, I pray Sir engage not in the proof of it. Repetitions are troublesome to the Speaker, and no less tedious and unpleasant to the hearer. This Gentleman hath acquainted us with what you have to say on that Subject: for he hath endeavoured to prove, the faction of the Guises would have taken away from the Branch of Bourbon, their Lives and the Crown, to bring France under the Dominion of a Stranger. 'Tis possible there might be some such design, but the faults of others do not justify us: If the faction of the Guises had Criminal designs, are you therefore more innocent?  Hug. Law. 
Sir, that which hath been said by us on this Subject, is not the hundredth part of what may be said to prove, the faction of the house of Guise, which called itself the Holy Union, and went under the name of the League from the year 1576. to the year 1600. was altogether Spanish, and an Enemy to the State; and that our Party which was wholly opposite to the other, was altogether French. But I will comply with your desires, and say no more of it, provided you will in requital answer a question I am going to ask you. What reason you Gentlemen of the Roman Catholic Religion have to Condemn the Protestants for their pretended Rebellions against their Princes, on the account of Religion?  Par. 
'Tis on this Ground: That Subjects own absolute obedience to their Sovereign's in all things: That the Sovereign is Master of the Religion of his Country: And that Subjects have no right to demand toleration of a Religion different from that of the State.  Hug. Law. 
You have answered just as I expected: And according to these Maxims you argue very right: For if a Prince is absolute Master of the Religion of his People, as of other their Concerns; if Subjects are obliged to follow always the Religion of their Sovereign, doubtless there is reason to charge them with Rebellion, who with Arms in their hands, desire to be tolerated in the Exercise of a Religion different from that of the State. But, Sir, have you thought well of the Maxim you proposed? Do you remember 'tis the Maxim of Hobbs in his Politics? You know how famous Spinosa was for Impiety: He was for allowing every one Liberty to think and speak what he pleased concerning Religion, yet attributes to the Sovereign an absolute Authority over the Religion of the State: You know these two men are an Object of Execration to all Divines, and that they are generally looked upon as great Enemies of Religion: And amongst all their Maxims, this in particular hath been looked upon as one of the most Pernicious: Consider a little, how far it may be carried: If the Prince be Master of Religion, you Catholics must be Reform in England and Holland, and so must the Lutherans in Denmark and Swede, and the Christians of the East must turn Mahometans in Persia and Turkey: If therefore this may peradventure be a false Maxim, as certainly it is, is it so great a Crime to be of a Religion different from that of the State? And if you are of a Religion different from that of your Prince, is it a Crime to obtain from him a toleration to exercise it in private or public.  Par. 
Either you misapprehend me, or I have not well expressed myself: I design not to assert, the Empire of Kings extends to the Conscience, or that they are Masters of the Religion of the heart: I know very well we are to obey God rather than Men: I coufess it allowable, and frequently necessary to be of a Religion different from that of our Prince: In a word, 'tis no Crime to desire permission of the Prince to make public profession of a Religion different from his: My meaning was, that the Prince is Master of the External part of Religion: That if he will not permit any Religion but his; when we cannot obey, we may die patiently without making other defence than our Sufferings: Because true Religion ought not to make use of force and Arms for its establishment: Princes are infinitely to blame when they violently oppose the Establishment of the true Religion, but they are, answerable only to God for it.  Hug. Law. 
In this sense, I confess, your Maxim is pious, and bears the Character of the Primitive Christian Morality: And now, Sir, I have you where I wished you: I ask you with confidence, what ground you Roman Catholics have to charge us with the violation of this Maxim? If you think it good, why d' you not observe it? If you observe it not, why make you such ado, why clamour you so much against others, who do not observe it? You may very well be allowed, Gentlemen, to make the like Objection against the Reformed. You, who are of a Religion, whose History, if written, would be a continual Series of Rebellion against Sovereigns, of Attempts against their Authority, Conspiracies against their Lives, and Assassinations committed upon their Persons, for the sake of Religion, and under pretence of maintaining it. You know the History of past Ages and the present, and cannot be ignorant that when a Prince meddles never so little with what you call the Estate, the Immunities and Privileges of the Church, though these things concern not the grounds of Religion, he is called impious, an Heretic, and a favourer of Heretics, and permission is given to rebel against him. For an Abbey; for the Revenues of a Bishopric taken into the hands of a Prince; for the Rights of Regale; for Nomination to some Benefices what a bustle is made, what extravagant Insolences are not committed? According to that pious Maxim upon which you ground your Charge against us, and so cruelly prosecute it; those who labour for the maintenance of Religion, are to be merely patiented, and ought not to make use of any means that may diminish or endanger the Authority of the Prince. But will you cast your eye upon the Conduct of the League, that Holy Union, which in 1576. appeared under that name for the preservation of the Catholic Faith? You will see how they observed this Maxim. The first honour Monsieur Mezeray does them, 
Mez. Abr. 1576.  is to call them a great Faction, and the first Achievement he attributes to them, is, that they had suppressed the Royal Authority. In a short time, says he, it was evident, this Faction having taken root in almost all the Provinces, put forth Branches so high, it covered and almost stifled the Authority Royal: 'Twas this League engaged the whole Kingdom into a Party, whereof the King of Spain was the Head, and made the French sign a Treaty of Union against the Authority of their lawful Prince. 'Twas this League forced Henry the 3d to sign at the States of Blois this Holy Union; So that from King, says Mezeray, he became the head of a Cabal, and instead of being the common Father, declared himself an Enemy of one part of his Subjects. 'Twas this League, which in derogation of the Royal Authority, went to stab the Favourites of Henry the 3d almost in his bosom. And that poor Prince disarmed of his authority, took pleasure and comfort in erecting Statues, and setting up Monuments for those they had robbed him of by their barbarous assassinations: 'Twas this League endeavoured by all means to render Henry the 3d odious, by insolent Sermons, by Confessions, wherein the Monks inspired their Penitents with an aversion against their Prince, and imposed on them for Penance, a necessity to hate him. 'Twas this League, 
1584.  says Mezeray, which having heated the Zealous, stirred the Factious, and persuaded the Princes, began to rise, to List Soldiers, to make Assemblies, to choose Chiefs, at whose Summons by Billet, though they owned not themselves Heads of the Party, those who were Listed were obliged to repair to several places of Rendezvouz. 'Twas this Holy Union treated the same year with the Spaniard, and made a League Offensive and Defensive to Exclude from the Crown its Lawful Heirs. 'Twas this League seized against the King's Authority all the Towns it could take in the Kingdom: And not content with that, would have had permission from Rome, to attempt the King's Life, and for that end made Fa. Matthew the Jesuit take so many Journeys, that he was commonly called the Courier of the League: Compare this design with the Erterprises of Amboise and Meaux, and see which is the more Criminal. Our Protestants are accused for having endeavoured to free our Kings from the slavery they were kept in by Prince's Strangers, yet you are well pleased that the same Prince's Strangers should attempt their Lives: 'Twas this League brought the Rheiters into France in 1585. 
1588.  'Twas this League unworthily chased away their King from his Capital City at the Barricade of Paris, and obliged him to save himself by night in great disorder, that he might escape being shut up in a Closter, shorn a Monk, perpetually Imprisoned, and perhaps Murdered. 'Twas this League called their Prince Tyrant, excommunicated him, blotted his Name out of the public Prayers, and caused Arms to be taken up against him on all sides, after the death of the Princes of Guise. In fine, 'twas this Holy League made for the preservation of the Catholic Faith, that assassinated the King at St. Clou, by the hands of a Jacobin Monk. Shall I proceed to expose other horrible actions of this Holy League, and what they did to hinder Henry the 4th from enjoying the Crown that belonged to him? 'Tis not necessary, the memory of it is fresh, and all the World knows it: When you have recollected what you have heard, I cannot tell whether you will think it prudent in a Roman Catholic to hit us so confidently in the teeth with that Maxim; that Religion ought not to be defended by Arms; and that under pretence of Religion, nothing ought to be done that may any way hurt the Royal Authority.  Par. 
Sir, give me leave to tell you, this Invective is unjust: You charge our Religion with the Crimes of particular men: Do you believe the actions of the League were agreeable to the Principles of the Catholic Religion?  Hug. Law. 
If I did you injustice in that point, I did but requite you in kind for the like injustice you had done us: For you would make our Religion answerable for all the disorders happened forty years together in the Civil Wars of France, the last Age. Were it true, that Motives of Religion only had engaged the Reformed in those Wars, yet those Disorders ought not to be imputed to the Reformed Religion, whose Doctrine persuades not, nor inclines men to Revolt. But I affirm it, Sir, I do your Religion no wrong, if I lay to its charge all the Disorders and furious Enormities of the League. Because the Pope the Head and Author of your Religion was the Author and Promoter of that League; because there were public Rejoyceing at Rome, and Te Deum sung for the Bartholomaean Massacre: The Sieur du Maurier, Author of the Memoirs of Holland will inform you, that there is to be seen this day at Rome a piece of Picture, wherein is drawn the Massacre of the Admiral, with these words, Pontifex probat Colinij necem; the Pope approves of the kill of Coligny. This Massacre was committed before the League was hatched, and openly owned, though it was then formed, and acted with a furious vigour: The assassinate of Henry the 3d was approved by the Court of Rome. Public Eulogies were made in praise of him who committed the Assassinate, and public Invectives against him that was murdered; this Prince, as well as Henry the 4th his Successor, was Excommunicated by the Pope: Their Subjects were absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance, and all the Powers of Europe raised against them. All this, Sir, may we justly impute to your Religion, because the Religion of Rome, and the Italian Divinity spread throughout Europe, authorise these Rebellions against Princes, when the great Article of your Religion is concerned; which is, Obedience to the Pope. 'Tis the Pope assumes a power to deprive Kings of their Crowns, and to transfer their Estates to others; 'Tis the Pope authorises the assassinates of Kings and sacred Persons, when these facts are perpetrated pursuant to their Bulls of Deposition; 'tis the Pope usurps the temporal Estate of the Emperor in Italy, and under pretence that the Emperors had lost their Right by Heresy, made himself Sovereign of the City of Rome. 'Tis the Pope styles himself Superior to Kings, and makes Crowned heads stoop to kiss his feet; 'tis the Pope trod on the necks of Emperors, applying to himself those words, The young Lion and the Adder shalt thou tread under thy feet; 'tis the Pope hath drowned Germany with blood, arming the Father against the Son, and the Son against the Father, to force from the Emperors the right of Investiture into the great Benefices. The times are much altered since the Popes called themselves the Emperor's most humble Servants, and said they were but dust and ashes in their presence: I see there the Works of Gregory the Great, and could let you see in them the Style of the Popes in those days, when they writ to the Emperors; but I had rather let you see it in the Margin of Father Maimbourgh's History of Lutheranism: You will allow me who am a Huguenot, the pleasure (which is not small) to take out of the Margin of a Jesuits Book those words of St. Gregory, which the Ministers have so often quoted; 
Hist. Luth. lib. 11. Ann. 1530.  Ego verò haec Dominis loquens, quid sum nisi pulvis & vermis, ego indignus famulus vester? I that take the Liberty to speak thus to my Lords, what am I but dust, and a Worm, your unworthy Servant? You will do us a pleasure to read the Text of Fa. Maimbourgh. This holy Bishop forbore not to execute what had been commanded him, having remained satisfied with making a most humble Remonstrance to the Emperor his Master in a Letter extremely submissive. This vexes you, Sir, as it pleases us; I confess our joy may be taxed of some malice but 'tis a matter so rare and so singular to hear a professed Jesuit, and one under the fourth vow, speak thus of a Pope, you will pardon us for being pleased with it; but the days are long since gone, when they spoke thus at Rome: The Popes have since those days assumed and exercised a Power to Depose Emperors and Kings, to declare them Tyrants, to raise their Subjects against them, when they do any thing the Popes pretend to be contrary to Religion: This is a matter so publicly notorious, it hath been proved a hundred times. Now Sir, I will dare your Roman Catholics to charge us with our pretended Rebellions, and having maintained our Religion by Arms; and give me leave to tell you, I wonder the prudence of your Churchman, and the interest of his Party, permitted him to renew the memory of our Wars for Religion; for he might have easily foreseen, we would not fail to expose to public view so many horrible Conspiracies those of his Character and Religion every day plot and carry on in those Countries where the Supremacy of the Pope is not acknowledged: If we acted a part in the Civil Wars of France, they cannot reproach us with having designed the murder of our Princes, and actually assassinated them. We have never been charged with having designed and endeavoured to blow up with powder a whole State in a moment, not only the head but all its principal Members: We are now under great Sufferings in France; but amidst all our Sufferings, we glory that our very Enemies bear witness of our Fidelity and Innocence; but the Martyrs of your Churchman, those poor Catholics, he laments and bewails, that they are cruelly put to death in England, under pretence of a pretended Conspiracy, are sufficiently convicted to have been tampering with as horrible an Enterprise as any hath been designed this Age.  Par. 
We have done with that, Sir, let's hear no more of it, I pray, whether the English Catholics be guilty or not, let not us inquire further; this Gentleman hath said as much on that Subject as you can; do not attack us, you will find work enough to defend yourselves; you think you have said enough, but you have not spoken a word of the last Wars you raised in the Kingdom; the Wars of Montauban, of Rochel, etc.  Hug. Law. 
As to the Plot in England, you shall not scape so; you shall hear a great deal more of it, if you please; I know all this Gentleman said to you of it, he told you what he knew, but not all that may be known of it; such order is taken to hinder the transportation of authentic Copies of the Trials of those Criminals into Foreign parts, we scarce know any thing of them; so that you are not to admire this Gentleman seemed not throughly instructed: But because that formidable Pamphlet you took out of your pocket, charges us to have occasioned a Persecution against the Catholics in England, under pretence of a pretended Conspiracy, you must allow us to justify ourselves a little more fully, and to add to what we have said, what is since come to our knowledge; but, If you please, I will first speak a word or two to the last Wars of Religion in France about the beginning of this Age: I am for plain dealing, I will never call evil good, nor good evil; I am of their number who cannot approve of these Wars, nor make it their business to justify them. The places of safety which had been given us were the seeds of this War; the King was desirous to have them put into his hands, the Hugonots were obstinately bend to retain them: It was ill done, without doubt they ought to have restored them, and to have relied on the Providence of God and the King's Justice. Yet this we have to say for ourselves.  
First, 'Tis not just to charge a whole body of men with that which was done but by a part: Perhaps three fourth's of all the Protestants of France were for a Submission: These doubtless would have carried it both for Number and Prudence, but they were the weakest of the Party: The turbulent Spirits were Masters of all their Forces and Arms.  
Secondly, We say the Religion of great men keeps them not from being ambitious: They reign in Confusions, and make themselves formidable by raising Troubles, they abuse the simplicity of the People, and make them pay for the Follies and Crimes of those who abuse them: This was one cause of the last Wars; we had great men of our persuasion, who being in the head of a great Party, made themselves formidable at Court for the strong places they were Masters of. These men foresaw that by the change of Affairs designed at Court, their Credit and their Pensions would be lost; they did all they could to bear up themselves, and engaged in their Quarrel the people, whose Zeal is always sufficiently ignorant and ill enough guided. Methinks some charity ought to be had for people who have no ill intention, but only the misfortune to permit themselves to be seduced, by mistaking interests of Religion: It must be considered also that most of those who took Arms were frighted into it: Our Enemies who desired nothing more than to see us rise, that they might take that occasion to destroy us, caused Rumours to be spread, that there was a design to massacre all the Hugonots; that it was agreed by a secret Article in the Treaty of Spain, and of the Marriages lately made: The pressing so earnestly to have again into the King's hands the places of strength given by his Father to the Protestants, heightened our suspicion. The horrible Image of the Massacres and Torments of the last Age, was fresh in memory; many had been Spectators, and some had been Sufferers in those horrible Tragedies. The fear of seeing like days again drove them out of their Wits, and hurried them into a design to prevent Calamities that appeared otherwise inevitable: This is a truth to which the late King of glorious memory bears witness in his Declaration of the 10th of Nou. 1615. And that great Prince found in that Source of the War, a reason to excuse it. When he says, The poor people having too lightly believed there were designs against their Lives, had precipitated themselves into this Enterprise, thinking themselves forced into it for their just and lawful defence: Besides, if you consider with what Spirit our Protestants were animated in the last Wars, you will find some cause to excuse them; perhaps there was in their Conduct somewhat of the spirit of that Governor who writ to Tiberias, The Empire is yours, my Government is mine. That is, they were jealous of their Liberties and Privileges to that degree, they would not have them infringed in the least; but you cannot with justice charge them to have been animated with a Spirit of Contempt, or hatred, or revolt against their Sovereign. All their design was to Cantonize themselves to preserve their Religion; this only excepted, they were always ready to sacrifice all for the Grandeur of their King and the good of the State: This is acknowledged more than once by the Roman Catholic Historians. After all, these Troubles ended about threescore years since cannot be at this day a lawful Cause for revoking the Edicts of Pacification; because our Kings have defaced the memory of those Troubles by so many Declarations, and have confirmed by their Royal words frequently and solemnly given us, the favours they had granted us. Good God where is that integrity? what's become of that sincerity and good faith men ought to practise? Will they never call to mind that there is in Heaven a God faithful to his promises, who threatens vengeance on those who violate Treaties and Alliances?  Par. 
Gentlemen, I cannot endure you should make such a noise about pretended breaches of words. Is not a King always Master of his Arrests and Declarations? Is any thing more ordinary than to see that revoked at one time which hath been established at another? Is a Prince charged to have dealt falsely or deceitfully when he charges or revokes some Laws he had made?  Hug. Law. 
Let me entreat you, Sir, not to permit yourself to be misled and imposed upon by that sorry argument so often brought against us: Consider, I pray, there is a great deal of difference between Sumptuary Laws, or Regulations of Proceed in Suits Criminal or Civil, and Treaties bonâ fide made with Subjects, and People who are or enter under the Dominion of a Prince. A Sovereign may revoke Sumptuary Laws and alter the forms of Proceed which have been heretofore, but are not now useful to the State, because they are not Treaties; he made not these Laws irrevocable, he was not engaged, he did not promise any he would not revoke them, but in the Edicts of Pacification, our Kings treated with Men in the presence of God, they engaged themselves to allow them some Liberties and preserve them: They promised this solemnly without reserving a Power of Revocation. It cannot be denied, but the Council of France is universally blamed, for looking upon all Treaties made with those who are, or enter under the King's Dominion as Toys to play with and deceive the simple, and false Dice to cheat those who mean honestly and act fairly. For those many years the United Provinces have had in their subjection Bolduc and Mastricht, Cities wherein the Roman Catholics have all manner of Liberty, and the Burgesses great Privileges, they have not failed to observe to a tittle the Treaties and Capitulations agreed on. I heard read the other day the Record of what was transacted upon the voluntary surrender of Sedan to the King: There cannot be a thing fairer than the Privileges the King grants to the Town and the Religion then predominant there: Nothing more solemn than the manner of their mutual engagement, by an Oath of Fidelity on the Subjects part, and on the part of the Sovereign, by the Liberties he allows them; but the memory of all this is vanished. When we mention these Treaties at Court, all the answer we have is, The King's mind is altered. This Conduct (which is observed in matters of State as well as of Religion) does France a greater injury than can be imagine d; it renders the French Government intolerable, at a time when France would have it appear the most easy: The People of Flanders and the Franche Comte lately conquered, retain to this day an affection for Spain, and groan under a Yoke which is not at present very heavy; 'tis because they know the Privileges and Liberties they enjoy, shall not last long; there is more danger than you think of in this manner of proceeding; for the World never wants some Factious Spirits who mind not that other men's sins cannot justify or excuse them in theirs; they forget that the faults of Princes against their Subjects do not authorise Subjects to rebel against their Princes; they frequently say to one another, We are not obliged to keep our words with him that breaks his with us: Fregit fidem, frangatur eidem. You see you have carried us a great way from the place we were at; but you will think it fit, Sir, that we return thither again, and speak now of the Conspiracy in England.  Par. 
You are strangely in love with that Subject. Let me lead you where I will, you are still for returning thither. And what shall you get by it? All you can say is overthrown in one word: It is constantly denied there is one word of truth in all that story.  Hug. Law. 
'Tis for that very reason, Sir, we return so often to that Subject. Can you think it fit we should patiently endure ourselves to be charged to have invented by the most Diabolical malice that ever was conceived, a Romance, a Fable (such as you suppose the History of this Conspiracy to be) out of a formed design and of set purpose to destroy the Honour, the Estates, and the Lives of Millions of innocent Persons? What proof have we ever given, that we are capable of so horrible a Treason? I know very well, you will object the same to us, and ask what colour there is to believe, that you Catholics could have conspired to massacre Millions of Innocents': And that 'tis as probable the Protestants have invented this Plot to destroy the Catholics, as that the Catholics have entered into a Conspiracy to destroy the Protestants: But, Sir, the presumptions are far stronger, if not altogether for us: 'Tis not to be found in History, we ever plotted infernal Devices like this, to destroy our Countrymen, or charged them with such black Crimes to ruin them: On the contrary, the History and memory of Men yet living, inform us, 'tis ordinary with the misguided Zealots of your Religion to make Parties and enter into Conspiracies for exterminating by Poison, Fire, and Sword, those they call Heretics. So that 'tis more just to charge your Catholics with a Crime ordinary with them, than to charge us Protestants with a wicked action, which no Age can show we ever were guilty of.  Par. 
You suppose that which we say is a Calumny; that 'tis ordinary with us to endeavour to get rid of Heretics by Poison, Fire, and Sword.  Hug. Law. 
Alas, Sir, have you already forgot all I said t' you but now, and you never contradicted? I mean, all those Massacres and Torments you have put the Protestants to; if you speak of Conspiracies, take but the pains to read your own Authors, they will sufficiently inform you. 'Tis the policy of your Bigots to deny confidently the clearest matters of fact, and things most notorious and generally acknowledged; the method they take is not altogether ill, for if they cannot deceive the World, they will impose upon some; but this hinders not the Catholic Historians (who value themselves on their honour and sincerity) to give us relations of things as they really were: To this day your English Catholics deny the Powder-Plot in 1605. and maintain it was an invention of Cecils: Notwithstanding all this, Mezeray hath ingeniously given us the History of that Plot, without regarding in the least the impudence of the Conspirators, who said (as at this day) 'twas a Crime falsely charged upon them to take an occasion to destroy them: If you will not believe me, here is Mezeray, read him; 
Jan. 1606.  The greatest part of these last (says he) retired to Calais, where the King had commanded the Governor to allow them refuge; those who governed his Conscience having presently persuaded him, 'twas a pure Persecution raised by the Ministers against the Catholic Religion. 'Tis their custom, you see, to conspire, and stoutly to deny the Conspiracy discovered; but the evident proofs, every day produces, make out the truth of this last Plot, and the falseness of their Assertions who deny it.  Hug. Gent. 
Sir, before we enter on this business, I pray I may be allowed to make my Confession: I confess that the last year when I discoursed this Gentleman about our affairs, I was not throughly informed of the State of those in England: For instance, I said, Oats and Bedlow were not turned Protestants; I have since learned the contrary, and that they turned Protestants assoon as they had given in their Depositions; being convinced by our Divines, that Religion which authorised such designs, could not be the true. But I pretend not that this doth in the least invalidate their Testimony, they were the honester men for turning Protestants; but let them have been of what Religion they will, if they believe there is a God and a Hell, 'tis not imaginable they could be so desperately wicked to damn themselves in a frolic, by inventing so long and horrible a story against millions of Innocent people: And as I was ill informed concerning the Religion of Oats and Bedlow, I was no better informed, as to the number of Witnesses who made Oath in that business. Of all the Trials of the Conspirators having read only two or three, I knew none of the Witnesses but those two against whom the Jesuits of St. Omers published so many Libels. I said not a word to you of the Depositions of Prance, Dugdale, Jennison, Dangerfield, and several others; and the truth is, they endeavour to persuade us on this side the Sea, that all this great affair hangs only on the Testimony of two pitiful Rascals; but by the Trials of the other Conspirators, we have seen the Depositions of Dugdale, who said he had seen a Letter of Whitebread, Provincial of the Jesuits in England, wherein he advised one of the Conspirators, to make choice of bold and desperate men to execute the design, and that it mattered not whether they were Gentlemen or not: This Dugdale hath sworn he was engaged into the Plot by Gavan, and several others; that he knew of several Meetings at Boscobel, at Tixal, and other places, where my Lord Stafford, my Lord Peter, Levison, and many others were present to find out a means to destroy the King and set up Popery; that afterwards Harcourt the Jesuit, made choice of him to be one of the Assassins'; and that Gavan another Jesuit, had often endeavoured to persuade him it was not only lawful but meritorious to kill any one for the advancement of Religion; that he fetched proofs out of Scripture, and instanced Garnet for an Example, whose Relics had wrought Miracles; and that he assured him he should be Canonised for this action. If this be compared with the Trials of Barriere, John Guignard, John chatel, and Ravillac, and with the History of Garnet the English Jesuit, whom they have made a Martyr; and you reflect upon the Chamber of Meditations into which the Jesuits put them, they would prepare for such extraordinary actions; it will appear this Evidence hath not the air of fiction, and that nothing is more agreeable to the ordinary Conduct and Principles of the Jesuits. The same man swears, Harcourt the Jesuit was the first gave him the news of Sir Edmundbury-Godfrey's death, in these words, This night Sir Edmundbury-Godfrey hath been dispatched. In Langhorn's Trial he says that Ewers the Jesuit had differed with him about the Murder of Godfrey: Dugdale having told the Jesuit, he would be hanged if this spoiled not the whole business, the Jesuit answered, that Godfrey was a great Persecutor of Nightwalkers and lewd people, and it would be easily believed one of them had murdered him in revenge. In the same Trial he deposes, that in the Conferences the Jesuits of the Plot had with him, he learned they were to have an Army in readiness for a Massacre when they had assassinated the King; that once they were in a mind to begin with the Massacre, but afterwards altered the project: In Wakeman's Trial the same Witness deposes further, that my Lord Stafford had promised to pay him beforehand five hundred Pounds Sterling, to kill the King with Pistol, Poniard, or otherwise; that Ewers the Jesuit when he showed him Harcourt's Letter, which brought the news of Godfrey's Death, said, That Godfrey was grown a little too inquisitive, and that they had done well in killing him. Prance another Witness deposes, That Harcourt the Jesuit paying him for an Image of the Virgin, told him there was a Plot against the King's Life; that Fenwick, Ireland, and Grove had said in his presence, there should be in readiness an Army of fifty thousand men to establish the Catholic Religion; and that my Lords, Powis, Bellasis, and Arundel were to command it. That when Prance complained the poor Tradesmen would be ruined, and have nothing to do in a time of War; it was answered, He need not trouble himself for that, he should have employment enough, to make Images for the Churches. The same Witness in the Trials of Green, Berry, and Hill, gives in his Deposition the whole Story of the Murder of Godfrey: He says, That to agree the manner of that Murder, they had several Meetings at an Alehouse at the sign of the Blow; that they laboured much to persuade him it was no Crime to kill a turbulent and overbusy man; that the project being agreed they had dogged Godfrey several times; that at last about nine a Clock at night, the Conspirators having observed Godfrey returning from St. Clement's, Laurence Hill went to the Gate toward the street, and meeting Sir Edmund, entreated him to come and part two men who were a fight by the Waterside; that Godfrey having followed Hill, when they had him at the end of the Pales, Hill fling a cord about his neck and strangled him; that Green finding he was not quite dead, wrung his neck about; that having kept the Corpse some days, and carried it from place to place, at last they laid it a cross a Horseback, carried it into the fields, and threw it into a Ditch, having first run his Sword through his body. Robert Jennison another Witness in Wakeman's Trial deposes, he had heard Ireland one of the Conspirators say, that the Roman Catholic Religion was to be shortly set up in England; that there was but one person could hinder it, and that they could easily poison the King; that the same Ireland being told by the Deponent, that the King went a Hunting and a Fishing with a very thin Guard, said he should be very glad they were rid of the King: In Stafford's Trial, the same Jennison deposes, that in the Meetings of the Priests and Jesuits he had been at, he heard them say, It was necessary for the Good of the Catholic Religion, to alter the Government, and to reform it after the model of France; that Ireland a Priest had solicited him to come along with him to help him to dispatch the King; that the same Priest had asked him, if he knew any brave and resolute Irishmen fit to give that great blow. That being in Harcourt's Chamber with many other Jesuits, he had heard them say, that if C. R. would not be R. C. he should not be long C. R. the meaning whereof was, that if Charles Rex would not be a Roman Catholic, he should not long be Charles Rex; that they made him take the Sacrament and an Oath of Secrecy, and than discovered to him the whole Plot. In the same Trial Smith declares, that having been born a Protestant, Abbot Monutague and Father Gascoigne had laboured at Paris to make him a Roman Catholic; telling him, that in a short time the Catholic Religion should be the predominant Religion in England; that having designed to go to Rome, and passing through Provence in his way to Italy, they had obliged him to many Conferences with Cardinal Grimaldi, who at last persuaded him to turn Catholic; and that he was made Priest: That Cardinal Grimaldi told him, he had Correspondence with many great English Lords, that he was very well assured the Roman Catholic Religion should be prevalent in England; but that there was one man they must be rid of, and that was the King; that in truth he was a good Man, but however he must be made away, because he was an Obstacle to their Designs: The same Witness says, that having left Provence, he went into the English College at Rome, where he continued long; and that he heard the Jesuits say in their Sermons and ordinary discourse, That the King of England was not truly King, because he was an Heretic, and that whoever killed him should do a very meritorious act. And when he and five or six more were ready to leave that house, the Fathers earnestly exhorted them to maintain that Maxim, That People are not obliged to obey the King of England. And that they should take care to instruct accordingly in Confession, all those they should find capable to enter into this great design. There is another Witness, Dennis by name, a Roman Catholic, and a Jacobine Monk; and such at the time of his Deposition, having neither quitted his Religion nor Order. This Monk deposes, that being in Spain at Madrid, in the Chamber of James Lenck an Irishman, Archbishop of Tuam; this Archbishop told him, That Dr. Oliver Plunket was to be employed very speedily to procure Succours from France, to be sent into Ireland for maintaining the Catholic Religion in Ireland and England, and that be the Archbishop would in a short time go in person into that Country to advance so pious a work. The same Witness deposes, that the Earl of Carlingford s Brother caused great Sums of Money to be levied in the Covents; and that they said openly, this money was designed for the bringing over an Army into Ireland, when time should serve. Edward Turbervil, another Witness, swears expressly, That Stafford being lodged at Paris at the corner of Beaufortstreet, the Deponent came to him, and stayed with him several days: That Stafford having taken an Oath of Secrecy from him not to discover what he should trust him with, he told him at last, they were in search of one to kill the King of England, who was an Heretic, and consequently no King, but rather a Rebel against Almighty God, and that he solicited him to undertake this great Action.  
Here Sir, are a great many Witnesses besides Oats and Bedlow, who swear as home as they: Can any reasonable man imagine, there can be found so many Infernal Spirits (as here are Witnesses) capable to invent so horrible a Calumny to destroy a Religion and all that profess it? And if it were possible to suborn one Witness or two, have you ever seen a precedent of such a Subornation that hath gained so great a number of Witnesses? Besides, what is there improbable in this History of the Plot? Is it not the Spirit and Custom of your Bigots and blind Zealots to use such means as these to promote their Religion? Read the Life of Queen Elizabeth, and you will find she was no sooner delivered from one Conspiracy, but another was framed against her. The words of Stafford who passes for a Martyr among you, are remarkable.  
In his Speech to the Lord High-Steward, 
Stafford's Trial, pag. 200.  and the Peers, his Judges, he declares, That he did believe, those of the Roman Religion had (since the Reformation of the Church of England) entered into several most wicked and most dangerous Conspiracies; particularly the Conspiracy of Babington, and that of the Earl of Westmoreland, or the Northern Rebellion raised by the Papists in Queen Elizabeth 's time. He declares further, That he believed, there was a wicked Conspiracy in the Reign of King James, wherein some of the Conspirators were roman-catholics, and some Protestants. And that after this followed that execrable Plot, called The Gunpowder-Treason: And when Sir, could they have made choice of a more favourable time wherein to revive and reduce into practise those bloody Maxims, than a time when they assured themselves, and were fully persuaded, they should find a King of their Religion in the Person of his Royal Highness? 'Tis true the King of England hath been favourable to them in tolerating them; but they were notsatisfyed with this, and having lost all hopes of prevailing with him to turn Roman Catholic, they looked upon his Life as a great Obstacle to their Designs, for it made them lose time, and they had reason to fear the Protestants in the interim might discover the design; so that it was their interest speedily to make away a King, who possessed the place of him from whom they promised themselves a full re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Religion in England. Recollect the Evidence, add to it the Letters and Memoirs that were seized, and the Murder of Godfrey, and I will justify it, a man must have the Forehead of a Jesuit to deny there was a Plot. The Memoirs and Letters are very numerous, you may read them in the printed Trials; particularly you will find a great Collection of them printed with Stafford's Trial. But, pray Sir, remember Coleman's Letter, I spoke to you of last year; that alone is enough to stop the mouths of those who dare say this Plot is an invention of the Protestants. To which Calumny we will constantly oppose, as an impenetrable Buckler, the words of that Letter, acknowledged by Coleman to be his. We have here a mighty work upon our hands, no less than the Conversion of three Kingdoms, and by that perhaps the utter subduing of a Pestilent Heresy which has domineered over great part of this Northern World a long time: Coleman 's Trial, pag. 69. I said not a word t' you of another Letter as plain as this, which you may see in Ireland's and Grove's Trials, where you will find words to this effect. Every one had notice not to make too much haste to London, nor to be there long before the day appointed, nor to appear much in the Town, before the Congregation was ended, for fear of giving cause to suspect the Design. This Letter doth not tell us what was the design of this famous Assembly, but it lets us see, they had some great design in hand, and the Plot being discovered at the same time, 'tis not hard to guests what it was: It hath been proved before the House of Commons, that upon the first discovery of the Plot, one of the Lords accused to have had a hand in it, writ to another of the same Lords then in Staffordshire, that their designs were discovered, and that he should use his best endeavours to conceal all such their Catholic Friends as were concerned in that affair. This Letter was found by a Justice of the Peace in the house of that Lord to whom it was directed, upon the search made for Arms in Roman Catholic houses, and was produced to the Commons in Parliament with all the Witnesses, to whom it was showed the moment it was found.  Hug. Law. 
You have reason to wish, Gentlemen, that my Friend here had not been any better instructed than formerly in these matters, but had still continued under his mistake; that Oats and Bedlow had not changed their Religion, but remained Roman Catholics after the Plot discovered; for the pains he hath taken to inform himself, have made him acquainted with many particulars which cannot please you, since they make it clearly appear there was a Plot.  Par. 
We might have easily known all this already, being taken all out of those Trials printed in several Languages; but since you make use of them, you will allow me to do so; and give me leave to ask you whether the clearing of Wakeman, the Queen of England's Physician, be not an evident proof that all your Witnesses are false Witnesses? For they are in effect no other. Oats and Bedlow charged Wakeman to have treated for fifteen thousand pounds, for poisoning the King: Here are two Witnesses, enough to Condemn a Man. Here is in question one of the principal Crimes laid to the charge of the pretended Conspirators, their design to make away the King, yet this man is acquitted by his Judges. It necessarily follows, your two famous Witnesses were taken for false Witnesses; and if they were not to be credited against Wakeman, why should they be credited against the rest?  Hug. Law. 
Do not say, Sir, that the clearing of Sir George Wakeman is a proof of his innocence, or of the falsehood of the Evidence; say rather, that the Chief Justice who sat at that Trial, hath been since impeached before the Peers of England in Parliament; and had the Parliament continued sitting, perhaps that Judge had smarted for it: The King was not very well satisfied of Wakeman's innocence after his Acquittal: For that Poison Merchant having had the confidence to appear at Court after his enlargement, the King caused him to be turned out with shame.  Par. 
There is one thing sticks still very hard with me as to this Plot; that of twelve or fifteen Persons who have been executed for the pretended Conspiracy, not one confessed himself guilty in the least. When Men are ready to appear before God, the Mask falls off itself; the fear of Hell softens the hardness of their hearts: You shall not see a Malefactor but discharges his Conscience at his death; if some of them were hardened enough to deny to the death, yet sure one or other of them would have confessed something; but there hath not been one of them who did not protest to the last he was innocent. Consider after what manner died Stafford, and Plunket, the Primate of Ireland, who were Persons of Honour and Quality.  Hug. Law. 
It surprises me, Sir, to hear you make their obstinate Silence an Argument of their innocence; every day we see Criminals, who to save their Credit, and have the pleasure of saying they die innonocent, resist the most violent Tortures: Yet you cannot comprehend, how Men who have long fortified their Courage, and prepared for an Enterprise, the most dangerous that may be, have the power to keep till death, a Secret, on which depends not only their Honour, but the preservation of all the Roman Catholics in England: Had they confessed themselves Guilty, they must have named their Complices; and in so doing, they would have destroyed an infinite number of People, and rendered their Religion abominable in the World, by making it appear, it inspires into its Votaries such horrible Sentiments, and gives Birth to such furious designs: These Considerations are of weight and strength sufficient to keep the weakest of Men from revealing a Secret of this importance. When the Powder-Plot was discovered in 1605. not one of the Conspirators confessed; and nothing had ever been proved upon them out of their own mouths, had not the Judges had the ingenuity to cause Garnet and Hall to be imprisoned in two Dungeons, where they could speak to one another; and in the Wall between the Dungeons, there was a place they placed two Witnesses in, who heard all the Prisoners said, and gave so exact an Account of their Discourse, that they confessed all: But would you know the cause they keep their Secrets so well? 'Tis the horrible Oath they impose on all those who enter into such Conspiracies: Read Mezeray, where I have left him open. The last of January, eight of the principal Conspirators were executed at London for High-Treason; not one of them accused the Priests or the Monks, for they were obliged to Secrecy by terrible Oaths. To satisfy you fully in this particular, I will let you see the form of the Oath administered to all those who entered into this last Plot. There is a Copy of it.  

The Oath for the Plot in England.  
I Whose Name is underwritten, do in the presence of Almighty God, and of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Blessed Archangel Michael, the Blessed St. John the Baptist, the holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, and all other the Saints in Heaven, and of you my Ghostly Father, declare from the bottom of my heart, that I believe the Pope, the Vicar-General of jesus Christ, to be the sole and only Head of the Church upon Earth, and that by virtue of the Keys, and the power of binding and looseing given to his Holiness by our Lord Jesus Christ, he hath power to Depose all Heretic Kings and Princes, to put them out of their Office, or kill them. And therefore I will from the bottom of my heart defend this Doctrine and the Rights of his Holiness, against all sorts of Usurpers, especially against him who pretends to be King of England, because he hath falsified his Oath made to the Agents of his Holiness, by not keeping his promise to Establish the Holy Roman Catholic Religion in England. I Renounce and Disavow all manner of Promise and Submission to the said present King of England, and all obedience to his Officers and inferior Magistrates; and I believe that the Protestant Doctrine is Heretical and Damnable, and that all those who do not forsake it shall be damned: I will assist with all my power the Agents of his Holiness here in England, to extirpate and root out the said Protestant Doctrine, and to destroy the said pretended King of England, and all those his Subjects, who will not adhere to the Holy See of Rome, and the Religion there professed. Moreover, I promise and declare, that I will keep Secret, and not divulge directly or indirectly, by word or by writing, or other Circumstance whatsoever, what you my Spiritual Father, or any other engaged in the advancement of this Holy and Pious Design, shall propose and give me in charge; and that I will diligently and constantly promote it; and that neither hope of Reward nor fear of Punishment shall make me discover any thing relating thereto; and that if I be discovered, I will never confess any Circumstance of it. All these things I swear by the most Holy Trinity, and by the Blessed Body of God, which I intent to receive presently, and that I will accomplish and inviolably perform them all; and I call to Witness all the Angels and Saints of Heaven, that such is my true intention: In Witness whereof, I receive the most holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.   Hug. Law. 
Well Sir, and what say you of this? This comes from good hands; from a great house allied to that of England: But had it fallen from the Clouds, we might have known it by the Character; had it been a forged piece, it must needs have been made by a Roman Catholic, and one deeply versed in the Cabal of these blind Zealots; for there is not a Protestant, and but few Roman Catholics, who understand the style and conduct of this Cabal with so much perfection, as he must have done, who should invent this form of an Oath. And now, Sir, you may, if you can, draw from the silence of the Conspirators an Argument against the truth of the Plot.  Par. 
Since you are so much for answering, I should be very glad, Sir, to hear what you have to say to the business of my Lord Howard, and the Earl of Shaftsbury: This last will be shortly convicted of having suborned Witnesses against the Queen of England, and the Duke of York, to make them Complices in the Plot. May not he who would have suborned Witnesses against the Queen and first Prince of the Blood, be rationally presumed to have suborned Witnesses against five or six pitiful Priests?  Hug. Law. 
We hope, Sir, the innocence of the Earl of Shaftsbury will save him. Perhaps it will be objected, he may be more for a Republican Government, than may befit the Subject of a Monarchy; but we cannot believe him capable of the base actions he is charged with. If he miscarry, he will not be the first innocent person hath perished by the malice of false Witnesses: Can any thing be clearer, than that this Charge against him is a Counter-battery raised by your Catholics? Nothing can be more proper to make men suspect, that all hath been said of the Plot, is merely fictitious, than to produce men to testify, Endeavours have been used to suborn them: For if Endeavours have been used to suborn them, why not to suborn others? I wonder only this act of the Tragedy began so late: 'Tis true, we may see something of it in Wakeman's Trial and in Dugdale's Depositions: For this Witness tells us, he had seen a Letter sent from Paris to St. Omers, from St. Omers to London, from London to Tixal, wherein it was advised, That the Presbyterians should be accused of a Design against the King's Life, which would oblige those of the Church of England to join with the Catholics to destroy the Presbyterians. Observe now the Event of this Counsel: The Earl of Shaftsbury is looked upon as the head of the Presbyterians; the Presbyterians are the great Enemies of the Conspirators, and labour with most Zeal the Discovery of the Plot. We must destroy their Credit, say you, and charge them with the blackest of Crimes; and who are the Witnesses made use of against the Earl of Shaftsbury? They are all Roman Catholics: Can you think it a hard matter in a business where the safety of a whole Party and of the Roman Religion is at stake, to find five or six persons who will Sacrifice themselves to save the honour of their Religion, and the Life of their Patriarches? And how do they Sacrifice themselves? Their Ghostly Fathers persuade them, that to bear false Witness against Shaftsbury, the great Enemy of the Roman Church, is so far from being an offence to God, that they do him very considerable Service in it. So that instead of one or two, I believe they may find a hundred false Witnesses in this affair; and this is the cause honest men are so much in fear for the Life of that Lord. But let us suppose things to be as you would have them; let us put the Case that Shaftsbury is the most wicked of men; doth it follow, that because out of hatred to the Roman Religion, and for Excluding the Duke of York from the Succession, he would have suborned some Witnesses against the Queen and the Duke; he must therefore have framed and invented this long train of Conspiracies and that multitude of particular matters of Fact, Letters, Meetings, and Consultations, that appear in the History of the Plot? Doth it follow, that because he would have suborned Witnesses, he must therefore succeed in it? Or if he hath had the fortune to find one Wretch or two capable to be Suborned, is it probable he could have found out so great a number? Hath he searched England and Ireland all over, to scum out for his purpose all the Rascals capable to give and maintain a false Testimony? How many Witnesses have been produced about the Plot in Ireland? Hath the Earl of Shaftsbury Suborned them too? Is this probable, Sir, or will any man believe it?  Par. 
This probably is all you have to say to us about the Plot in England; I think it high time to put an end to our Discourse, it hath been somewhat long; you may well be weary of speaking as we are of hearing.  Hug. Law. 
We should have had much more to say to you, if we were allowed to speak, and could produce all the proofs the Cabal hath found the means to bury: Had we but seen Plunket's Trial, we could without doubt have added many things to what you have heard: And if it were in our power to discover the Mysteries of the Irish Plot, we should certainly stop their Mouths, who say, the reason of our ill usage in France, is that the King may revenge the Outrages, done to the Roman Catholics in England.  Hug. Gen. 
Gentlemen, if you please, before we make an end, because I am in the humour of making Retractations and Confessions, I will confess t' you, that speaking last year of the death of King Charles the 1st, and how great a share the Jesuits had in his Death, I gave you but a very imperfect account. I have since searched into the bottom of that affair; and, if you please, will acquaint you what I have learned. 
Du Moulin's Answer to Philanax Anglicus. pag. 58.  I must tell you then, that 'tis known when the late King of England was Beheaded, there was a Roman Priest a Confessor, who having seen the King's Head cut off, flourished his Sword, and with Demonstrations of extraordinary joy, cried out, Now we are rid of our greatest Enemy. There is proof, that the News of the King's Death being come to Rouen, and discoursed in a great Company of men very well instructed in the Mysteries of the Zealous Cabal; one of them spoke thus: 
Pag. 58, 59  The King of England had promised us at his Marriage, that the Catholic Religion should be re-established in England, and because he put it off from time to time, we often called upon him to perform his promise; we were so plain, as to tell him, That if he did it not we should be forced to make use of means to destroy him: We gave him fair warning, and because he would not follow our advice, nor keep his Word with us, we have kept ours with him. A Gentleman of honour, a Protestant, who was in the Company, gave me this Relation. The Author who produces this Proof, produces also a Letter from a Secretary of State, who was actually in the Service of the Crown, when the Accusation was brought against the Jesuits about the Death of the King; this Secretary, whose name was Morris, in answer to a Letter from the Author of the Accusation, says to this purpose. I am not allowed, nor does it become me to make Conjectures, or draw Consequences from the Orders his Majesty gave me concerning you, beyond what he hath precisely expressed. You know in what trust and capacity I served his Majesty, 
Pag. 64.  and what it was my duty to say, and whereof to be silent: But this I may safely say, and will do it confidently, that many Arguments did create a violent suspicion, very near convincing Evidences, that the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly guilty of the Murder of that Excellent Prince, the Odium whereof they would now file to the account of the Protestant Religion. The same Author adds, That a Protestant, a little before the King's death, met upon the Road from Rouen to Diep, a Company of Jesuits, who taking him for a Catholic, told him they were going into the Army of the Independants in England, and that they would make work enough there. An English Lady at Paris, being seduced by a Jesuit, turned Roman Catholic; soon after came the news of the King of England's Death: The Jesuit visiting the Lady, found her all in Tears for this lamentable Accident. Madam, says the Jesuit smiling, you have no reason to lament what hath happened, the Catholics are delivered of the greatest Enemy they had, and his Death will be much to the advantage of the Catholic Religion. The Lady angry at this discourse, sent the Jesuit packing down Stairs, and conceived such horror against the Roman Catholic Religion, she would never after endure to hear speak of it. A very understanding Man visiting the Monks at Dunkirk, that he might sound them what they thought of the King's Death, said, That the Jesuits had laboured much to bring about that great work: A Monk answered, That the Jesuits always assumed to themselves the credit of every great Work; but that their order had contributed to this as much if not more than they. 'Tis certain there was an universal Joy in all the English Seminaries on this side the Sea, for the Death of the King: They thought themselves so sure of their Designs, that the Benedictines were taking care how to prevent the Jesuits from possessing themselves of the Lands belonging to their order; and the Nuns quarrelled among themselves who should be Lady Abbesses: To conclude, the same Author reports, That he offered to prove in due course of Law, 
Pag. 61, 62.  his Charge against the Jesuits for the Death of the King; but that he was unwilling to publish his Proofs before hand, lest those who were guilty of the Charge, might have opportunity to get them out of the way or destroy them. I do not understand English, but I got a Friend of mine who does, to Translate me this Book, being, an Answer to a Book, entitled, Philanax Anglicus. I remember these Particulars in it, which, in my opinion, sufficiently prove, that the Charge of the King's Death on the Roman Catholics, is not altogether groundless; but I begin to be sensible we abuse your patience: Therefore, Gentlemen, we will break off here, and take our Leaves.  Prov. 
I wished them gone a quarter of an hour ago: The Lawyer, as he took out of his Pocket the Oath he gave us to read, dropped a Paper I took up, and having half opened it, I spied written a top, To the King: I folded it up again and he never perceived me: I long extremely to see what it is: Let's read it.  
To the King.  
SIR,  
YOur Majesty may very well be surprised to see at your feet an unknown Person, who having made his way through the Crowds about your Majesty, is come to expose himself to the splendour of Rays so glorious as yours. The high State your Majesty is in, deprives of course the greatest part of your Subjects of the Liberty to present themselves before you; but the Sentiments endeavoured to be inspired into your Majesty, to the disadvantage of your Subjects of the Protestant Religion, keep them at greater distance, and absolutely take from them the advantage of appearing before you, to present to your view the true portrait of their Miseries; to prevent being dazzled with the Lustre of your Throne, they have put a vail between themselves and Your Majesty, and have drawn a Curtain, behind which they may make their Complaints, by a voice out of the Ground. If this voice have the good fortune to reach Your Majesty's Ear, be Graciously pleased to give it Audience, and to look upon this private unknown Person as a poor Wretch, who in the name of Millions of other Wretches is come to Expose to Your Majesty's view their common Calamities, and to have an end put to their Miseries by Your Majesty's Justice and Mercy: Their Miseries are extreme, had they been but ordinary, we should have submitted with silence; It will not be believed, that under the Reign of the greatest of our Kings, of him who was born for the Glory and Happiness of France, there is so great a number of miserable Persons within an inch of Despair; but 'tis Your Goodness, Sir, is the cause of our Calamities, by giving way to the malice of our Enemies, by permitting itself to be surprised by the Counsels of our Persecutors. These ill Counsellors, Sir, forgetting or not knowing the true Interests of Your Majesty, arm Your Majesty against the faithfullest of Your Subjects; against People who by Birth, by Inclination, by Interest, and by their Religion, are obliged to adhere inseparably to Your Majesty: The blood which was heretofore spilt with so much joy, to gain to Henry the 4th that Crown Your Majesty now wears with so much Glory, circulates in our veins, and burns with impatience to be shed in Your Service: But our Enemies, Sir, who are in truth the Enemies of the State, force us to cease to be Your Subjects, to seek other Sovereigns, to live in another Air, and to people the Estates of Your Neighbours, who perhaps will shortly be Your Enemies; they hurry us out of our Country, and labour to stifle in our hearts those Sentiments of Love and Respect for Your Majesty, which Nature had so deeply rooted there; they will pull down our Churches, they rob us of our Liberty to serve God, they take from us all means of Livelyhoood, they plunder our Goods, they force our Children from us, they consume our Houses, and in some Provinces abuse our Persons, they Imprison us, they put us to the Rack, they Torture us, they beat us to death, they Hang, they Burn us without course of Law: The Instruments that Execute these Outrages are Your Soldiers, who in the heart of Your Kingdom commit Enormities, humane Nature would abhor, if committed in an Enemy's Country, and in the fury of War: They possess the Souls of Your Protestant Subjects with a Spirit of terror and fear, by showing them Your Majesty's Arm always lifted up for their ruin: Thus they endeavour to make us hate him as a Tyrant, whom by duty and inclination we love as the best of our Kings. We know very well, Sir, that to surprise Your Majesty they make use of an apparent Piety, and mind you of the Name, Your Majesty bears, of Most Christian, to inspire into Your Majesty those Sentiments so disastrous and pernicious to us; but in the Name of God we Conjure Your Majesty to consider, that those Counsels of breach of promise and of violence, are absolutely contrary to the Spirit of true Religion. Nothing can be more agreeable to Piety than Integrity in our actions and just performance of our promises. We lived in a profound Peace under the shadow of those Edicts Your Majesty hath so often and so solemnly confirmed to us; these Councillors, Sir, engage you in a Conduct steered by that horrible Maxim, all true Christians detest, That Faith is not to be kept with Heretics: They render Your Majesty's Justice and Truth to Your Promises suspected to all Strangers, who cannot but doubt the stability of any Treaty to be had with you, seeing the Promises made to your Subjects violated in so cruel a manner: The Declarations obtained every day by surprise from Your Majesty; slain the most Glorious Reign France ever saw; not only by the mortal Wounds they give to Your Majesty's Justice, and your truth to your Promises, but by open violations of the most sacred Laws of God and Nature. All Europe looks with astonishment on the Permission granted by the wisest of Kings, to annul in his Kingdom Paternal Authority, and to see Children armed to Revolt against their Parents, in an Age they know not what Revolt is: Your Majesty is too clear-sighted, not to discern that Crimes and ill means are not the paths by which Souls ought to be led into the true Religion; those who lay Siege to Your Majesty, and make you take Resolutions so dismal to Your Subjects of the Protestant Religion, carry all with a high hand, without any regard to their honour, or the glory of the greatest of Kings; to induce them to that which they call Conversion, they invite men to turn Bankrupts, to rebel against their Superiors, to falsify their words, to be Hypocrites and profane; for those they draw in by hopes of not paying their Debts, or of Impunity for any Crime, and those they force to turn by Bastonade, fear of Poverty, and other Violences exercised upon them, cannot but become Hypocrites and profane, detesting in their hearts those sacred things they are forced to reverence in appearance. Your Majesty is told, the Parents are ill Christians, but their Children will be good Catholics; but we conjure Your Majesty to consider, the false zeal of our Persecutors makes as many Criminals, as it pretends to make Catholics; and that by the Law of God, Children are punishable for the Crimes of their Parents; the unhappy Parents look upon them as Tyrants, who fetter their Consciences; they are Rebels in their hearts, and will never let slip any opportunity to be revenged for the Oppression they are under; how can it be hoped, God will bless the posterity of those base Wretches, who for fear of some Temporal Punishment, or hope of some inconsiderable advantage, Renounce a Religion they believe to be true, and harbour in their heart's Rebellion against their Sovereigns? These Sentiments will be transmitted to their posterity; for it is natural for Parents to inspire their thoughts into their Children. Thus Your Majesty shall see continued in Your Kingdom a Generation of Malcontents, of Dissmblers, of Profane, Rebellious, and ill Christians; such will be the good Catholics begot of those Parents, who are at this day forced to change their Religion. Among this wretched Multitude there will doubtless be some, who totally forgetting their duty, will take desperate Resolutions, and choose rather to die in a violent manner, than to live reduced to a condition wherein they betray their Conscience and suffer a thousand Calamities; and it cannot but infinitely grieve Your Majesty's good Nature and Clemency, to see yourself forced to revive the Age of Massacres: Our zeal for Your Majesty's Service holds out hitherto against the sense of our present Sufferings, and the fear of future ills; Your Majesty hath not in Your Armies by Sea or Land, an Huguenot Officer who is not ready to sacrifice his Life in Your Service: There is not Your Kingdom a Protestant who doth not venerate, (I may say adore) Your Majesty, as the brightest Image God hath given of himself to the World; we hope, they will always look upon the Thunderbolts that come from your hand, with that respect and fear they regard those that fall from Heaven; but we hope also, Your Majesty in imitation of that Divinity, whose Image you are, will pity so many miserable Persons who groan under their Sufferings, without murmuring against the hand that causes them. Especially, when you consider these Wretches have all Europe to witness their faithfulness to Your Service; and the World sees them free from the least stain of Rebellion: Your Majesty will not permit us to be persecuted any longer for no other reason, but because, as 'tis supposed, we are not illuminated. Alas, Sir, 'tis a Grace that depends not upon ourselves, 'tis not a thing within the power of Man, nor is it an effect of fear, punishments and tortures. We doubt not, but if Your Majesty would take the pains to cast Your Eye, upon the Arrests and Orders exhorted from Your Majesty against us, and the Consequences of them, they would appear dreadful and horrible; Your Majesty should see Trade interrupted and spoiled, Your Towns desolate by the desertion of the Inhabitants, and a great breach in Your State by the loss of so many considerable Members of it ready to fly out of it; you should see your Neighbours enriched and fortified by the spoils of Your Kingdom, France in many places, become a vast Desert, and a considerable number of unhappy Consciences, groaning under a cruel Servitude they are reduced to; You should see a People in despair, capable of the most violent Resolutions against themselves. We hope, Sir, that God the Protector of Afflicted Innocents', will lay open all these Considerations to Your Majesty's Eyes, that you may act as the common Father of Your Subjects: We remember, Sir, that kind and excellent Expression of Your Majesty, not long since; That You considered us all as Your Children, and would have given Your Right Hand for our Conversion: Here we see Your Majesty in Your Natural state, and admire the genuine goodness of Your temper, and are persuaded 'tis not without violence you are obliged to arm Yourself against us, as if we were Your Enemies. When Children have attained the age of discretion, their Parents use only the ways of persuasion to reduce them to Duty; because the heart is not won but by fair and gentle means, and our Spirits naturally abhor and resist force. We hope therefore, Your Majesty will again awaken Your Paternal Compassions towards those Children whom you look upon as gone astray; and that you will leave it to Heaven and its Grace, to reduce them into the right way, if out of it, and that You will not permit our Consciences to be dragged into Paths which we are not persuaded are right: 'Tis this hope alone, Sir, keeps us from falling into despair, this only supports us; this will ever make us most earnest Petitioners to Heaven, for the preservation of Your Royal Person, for Your Glory, and the good Success of all Your Designs.  Prov. 
What think you of it, Sir?  Par. 
I am not surprised at it; these poor People are so restless in their misery, 'tis no wonder they toss and tumble themselves every way; but they are very simple, if they think they can find a way to convey such a Paper to His Majesty, the Avenues are all blocked up. And should it come to the King's Hands, he is beset round with those shall take effectual order he shall not alter his Mind: I should think it best to let them have it again, but that if you restore it, they will bevexed we have seen it. 'Tis better pretend we know nothing of it, nor say a word of it to them; they will think they have lost it elsewhere.  Prov. 
I will be advised by you. Farewell, Sir, 'tis high time to leave you to your Repose.    

The Printer to the Reader.  
The Copy of the following Letter being come to my hands, I thought it not improper to be communicated to the Public, because it concerns the present State of the Religion in France, the Subject of this Work.  
SIR,  
YOu desire I would inform you, what you are to believe of the Reports spread in the Province you are in, of the great Mitigations lately happened (as 'tis said) in the Affairs of our Religion. A Man cannot write with much certainty of these matters, yet I will venture to comply with your desires; never were Reports more groundless than those, for matters are so far from being mitigated, they begin to be worse than ever: The business between the Bailiff of Charanton and the Gentlemen of the Consistory, is revived. You know, without doubt, that the King upon the Petition they presented him, had ordered the Bailiff not to proceed any further, and gave them leave in the mean time to apply themselves if they saw cause, to the Parliament for Remedy; but within these five or six days the Chancellor said to the Deputy-General, it was much wondered the Consistory had not sued forth an Appeal from the Sentence of the Bailiff, that they must look to it; for if they would not appeal, the King would take off the Prohibition, and give the Bailiff leave to proceed: What is the meaning of this, but to let us see they intent to Exterminate us? for questionless you remember, one Article of that Sentence was, that we should pay the Sacrament such respect as is due to it. Whether what was said to Monsieur Ruvigny will take effect, I know not; but you know well enough, that in what concerns us, they do not their business by half, but go through with their work. The Provinces of Poitou and Aunix are in a condition that deserves all manner of Compassion, all acts of the most Barbarous Cruelty are exercised in those Countries; the Relations we have thence would break your heart: 'Tis true, the Troops are drawn out, which is the only ground I know for the reports of mitigation; but the Forces were drawn out of Poitou, for no other reason, but because there was business to employ them elsewhere, or to lay the noise the violence of their proceed raised in those parts: In all other points, the Persecution in those Provinces is not at all abated; from Poitiers to Rochel, there is not a Minister to be seen; and in all that Province, formerly full of places for Religious Worship, there are not six places but the Churches are shut up, or the Ministers silenced; all those Churches which were appendants of Manors, the tenure whereof gave Right to the Lords to have Religious Worship performed there, were all shut up on the sudden: The Ministers of other Churches yet standing, are some confined, others banished, others silenced, and most imprisoned, Monsieur Bossatran Minister of Niort, and seven of his Elders, are Prisoners at Rochel; The Sieurs Paumier, D'Isle, Champion, Le Pain, Du Son, Loquet, Ministers of St. Maixaut, de la Motte, de Mougon, de Fontenay, de Marennes, and many others, have had Sentence pronounced against them, that their Goods shall be sold, or are imprisoned, or fled, or banished; one is confined to Vezelay, another to Bezomson, others to other places, so that in all these Provinces you can hardly find one officiating Minister; this new kind of Persecution is exercised upon pretence, that the Ministers gave Certificates to those who are gone out of the Kingdom; they Prosecute with that cruelly those who give relief to these miserable Fugitives, that Burgesses of Rochel have been imprisoned and fined for giving them a glass of water. The Marquis of Dompierre, a Gentleman of Note, hath been a long time Prisoner for harbouring forty or fifty poor men, who were in search of means to set themselves at Liberty, from the tyranny exercised upon their Consciences. 'Tis true, the Intendant Marillac hath not any Soldiers left; but he stirs not abroad without his Deputies and his Guards, who act the same Outrages the Soldiers did: He sends before him his Harbingers into the Villages to frighten them; when arrived, he calls before him the Inhabitants of the Protestant Profession, exhorts them to obey the King's Orders and embrace his Religion; those who carry his Orders about, observe no Measures, Menaces, Promises, Troubles newly raised or revived, Discharges, Officers pay, easing those who have been overrated in Assessments, and money distributed, have made an infinite number of Revolters: The Shepherds are smitten that the flocks maybe scattered. The Ministers of all Churches held by right of Tenure, are taxed in assessments to the King, that they may be forced to desert: The violence is so terrible and excessive, by the Taxes they assess for payment of Offices (as they call them) that the Country is not eased in the least by the Soldiers being drawn out; those who the last year were taxed but at thirty Livers, have this year been taxed by the Intendant at five or six hundred. Thus all are obliged to desert, and if any one leave his house he is carried to Prison, under pretence he was going out of the Kingdom. 'Tis certain that nothing but an inability of getting out, hath retained in the Provinces any Person of the Protestant Religion; and you may be assured, that the next Spring Millions will follow you into strange Countries; they who cannot go out at the Door will leap out at the Window, and trust the mercy of the Waves to convey them to some Vessel at Sea: God grant the poor Wretches may in foreign parts meet with tender Hearts and Compassionate Souls; these reports of mitigation are raised by our Enemies, on design to cool the fervour of that Charity, those Protestant Countries which enjoy the Peace God hath taken from us, exercised toward our fugitive Brethren; and those Enemies are in the midst of us as well as among our Adversaries. We have among us some wretched Traitors who spread a Report, that we shall shortly see a great change of Affairs; that there shall be a Reformation in France, not of us, but a Reformation of far greater value and importance, and therefore we are not to think of leaving the Kingdom. These Men catch new hold, when others let go theirs, and fancy grounds of fresh hopes, where others see nothing but cause of Despair: You understand well enough what such Persons think, and what is to be expected from them. This, Sir, you are to believe of the mitigations you have heard of: What I have now told you is truth, of which I have been an Ocular Witness, being lately returned out of the places where the Facts have been committed; you see there is cause to wish your Gazetteers had better Information or better Intentions, and would not Stuff their Gazettes with News grounded on intelligence altogether false: We have had a flying Report that Marillac will be recalled, but 'tis as true as the rest. Expect not he shall be Revoked till he hath completed our ruin in the Province of Poitou; the design of this Letter was only to inform you of the particulars you desired to know; I will not make it longer, but Conclude with assuring, you I am,  
Sir, Your most humble and obedient Servant. Paris Jan. 20. 1682.   

A Catalogue of Plays, Printed for R. Bently and M. Magnes.  

1. FArtus, or the French Puritan.  
2. Forced Marriage, or the Jealous Bridegroom.  
3. English Monsieur.  
4. All mistaken, or the Mad Couple.  
5. Generous Enemies, or the Ridiculous Lovers.  
6. The Plain-Dealer.  
7. Sertorions, a Tragedy.  
8. Nero, a Tragedy.  
9 Sophomisba, or Hannibal's overthrow.  
10. Gloriana, or the  of Augusta Caesar.  
11. Alexander the Great.  
12. Methridates, King of Pontus.  
13. Oedipus, King of Thebes.  
14. Ceasar Borgia.  
15. Theodocious, or the force of Love.  
16. Madam Fickle, or the witty false one.  
17. The Fond Husband, or the Plotting Sisters.  
18. Esquire Old Sap, or the Night Adventures.  
19 Fool turned Critic.  
20. Virtuous Wife, or God luck at last.  
21. The Fatal Wager.  
22. Andromecha.  
23. Country Wit.  
24. Calesto, or the  Nun.  
25. Destruction of Jerusalem in 2 parts.  
26. Ambitious Statesman, or the Loyal Favourite.  
27. Misery of Civil War.  
28. The Murder of the D. of Gloucester.  
29. Thestilis, a Tragedy.  
30. Hamlet Prince of Denmark, a Tragedy.  
31. The Orphan, or the Unhappy Marriage.  
32. The Soldier's Fortune.  
33. Tamburlaine the Great.  
34. Mr. Limberham, or the kind Keeper.  
35. Mistaken Husband.  
36. Notes of marrow by the Wits.  
37. Essex and Elizabeth, or the Unhappy Favourite.  
38. Virtue Betrayed, or Anna Boloyn.  
39 King Leer.  
40. Abdellazor, or the Mare's Revenge.  
41. Town Fop, or Sir Timothy Tawdery.  
42. Rare an tout, a French Comedy.  
43. Moor of Venice.   
FINIS.