The Acts of Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France, Introduction 2 · Section 17
SECT. XVII.
This Edict was kept tolerably well for twelve years, during the Life of Henry the Great (as they called him after his Death.) And yet there were many infractions of it, of which the National Synods held at Gap, 1603. and at Rochell, 1607. Complained in their Bills of Grievances. But no ſooner was he ſent out of the World by the Parricidal Hand of a Diſciple of the Jeſuits, but the Reformed immediately found their want of him. And though they had ſome ſprinklings of Court Holy-water now and then, yet the old implacable Malice of the Popiſh Clergy againſt them brake out upon all occaſions, and Louis the Thirteenth, who ſucceeded his Father, as another Antiochus, at their inſtigation, made War with God's Saints in his Kingdom, ſeized upon their Cautionary Towns, took away from them their Franchiſes, deprived their Miniſters of thoſe Sallaries, for which the Churches, parting with their Tithes in lieu of that Money which was to be paid by Tallies out of the Exchequer unto their Paſtors, had compounded with his Father: He devoured, brake in pieces, and ſtamped the reſidue of them with his feet; ſo that their ſtrength was quite gone, and they lay at his mercy. He could do with them as he pleaſed. But the time of their total ruin was not yet come; And God giveth the Churches ſome mercy in the midſt of judgment. Hence, the French King having other deſigns in his head, and looking beyond the bounds of his native Kingdom, he leaves perſecuting his Reformed Subjects, and that there might be a Calm at home, and theſe oppreſſed lull'd aſleep, he iſſueth out his Edict of Grace and Pardon to them from Niſmes in the Lower Languedoc, dated July, 1629. Which is offered to the Reader's eye.