The Acts of Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France, Introduction 2 · Section 22 – Section 24
SECT. XXII.
Their firſt method of Law-Suits in Courts of Juſtice had an infinite extent. By the Tricks and Quirks of Law a multitude of Churches were condemn'd, and the crafty wicked Commiſſioners totally ſuppreſſed all Exerciſe of Religion in them. This Trap was cunningly laid as ſoon as the Treaty of Peace and the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Spain were concluded. For under the ſpecious pretence of repairing the Infractions of the Edict of Nantes, Commiſſioners were diſpatched into the Provinces. The Roman Catholick Commiſſioner was always the Intendant of the Province, a proper Tool to do the Court's buſineſs, armed with Royal Authority, and privy to the ſecret of the Plot. The other, a Proteſtant in profeſſion, ſome needy, hungry Officer, a devoted Slave unto the Court, who had neither Intelligence neceſſary for the Affairs, nor Liberty to declare his Senſe and Sentiments about them. The Clergy ſet them both up, and their Agents were received as formal Parties in all Matters relating to the Reformed, yea and the very Citations and Proſecutions went all in their Names. And in caſe of different Opinions betwixt the Commiſſioners, all Appeals from their Ordinances muſt be finally decided by the King and Council.
Thus in general, all the Rights of the Reformed Churches for Exerciſe of Religion, and for thoſe places in which they buried their Dead, and all their Dependencies were ordered to be reviewed, and thereby expoſed to the freſh Suits and Proſecutions of the Clergy, and the miſchievous Intentions of their Judges. And in all this tranſaction you ſhould rarely meet with one dram of Equity. For the Edict having been once executed, according to the intention of Henry the Fourth, it needed no reviſal. Beſides, how improbable a thing was it, that the Reformed, who had always been the ſuffering Party in the Kingdom, ſhould uſurp any thing in it, or extend their bounds beyond what of right belonged to them? But there were other deſigns in hand than to provide againſt the Violations of the Edict, and therefore by thoſe Orders given unto the Commiſſioners, the greateſt part of the Churches cited before them to prove their Rights, ſaw themſelves condemned immediately one after another by the Decrees of the Privy-Council, tho' their Titles were never ſo clear and evident, and their defence managed with as much ſtrength and reaſon as poſſible. Scarcely a Week paſſed in which ſome of theſe Decrees were not made and pronounced. And if it fell out, that the Judges for meer ſhame could not condemn them, as it ſometimes ſo happened, tho' their number was very ſmall in compariſon of thoſe which were condemned, yet the Judges receive peremptory Orders from above to do it, and do it they muſt, tho' againſt their Conſciences. At this rate, before the Year 1673, they had deſolated hundreds of Churches. A Monk of the Barnabite Order, and Deputy for the Clergy of Bearn, gloried, that of One hundred and twenty three places which the Proteſtants had to worſhip God in, and thoſe upon the moſt legal and unqueſtionable Titles, there remained but twenty, all the reſt having been demoliſhed. The Temple of Vitré in Brittaine was deſtroyed, becauſe they could not produce their Titles to it, when as they were irrecoverably loſt by Fire, War, or the perfidious hands of Revolters. If a Church was near the Sea, that was reaſon enough why it muſt be demoliſhed. So was the Temple of Carantan in Normandy ſerved, altho' a Bailywick. One while they pretend, the Town, in which it is, was taken in the Civil Wars, and therefore their Temple muſt be returned either to the Papiſts, or elſe be utterly ruinated. This was the fate of that of Negrepeliſſe, tho' it had been in the poſſeſſion of the Reformed ever ſince the Year 1561. Nay, a Church expreſly mentioned in the Edict, and that they had not impudence enough to call in queſtion its Title, yet they had the malice to demoliſh, viz. the Church of Chauvigny in Poictou; this was done Aug. 6. 1665. Of threeſcore and one Churches in Poictou in the Year 1674. there remained but one uncondemned, viz. that of Niort. So that above 80000 Souls were obliged to live without any Publick Worſhip of God at all. In the Country of Gex they reduced three and twenty Churches to but two. In Guienne, of fourſcore Churches there were but three left uncondemned by the Catholick Commiſſioner, who was wholly governed by the Jeſuite Meiſnier. In Normandy their fury had brought all their Churches unto thoſe three of Caen, Rouen, and Diep. In Provence, of their ſixteen Churches there remained but three. If there be any Churches ſtanding, and not converted into ruinous heaps, they be ſuch as are moſt inconveniently ſituated, in Marſhes or low Grounds, which were often overflown with Waters, or unpaſſable in Winter; ſo that theſe poor Chriſtians were deprived of all poſſibility of hearing God's Word, and neceſſitated to travel forty Miles and more to worſhip God publickly, and to get their Children baptized; for they may not do any exerciſe of Religion, as Preaching, Marrying, or Adminiſtring of the Sacraments, but in thoſe places which by the Edict of Nantes were appointed for Divine Worſhip.
Beſides, the Papiſts were very barbarous and inhumane in the cruel execution of their Decrees, for they would oblige the Proteſtants themſelves to demoliſh their Temples with their own hands. And becauſe many of them, out of Honour and Conſcience, would not contract the guilt of ſo great a Sacriledge upon their Souls, as to ruinate thoſe holy Places which were dedicated to the Service and Glory of God, nor have any thing to do in that Diabolical Work, their own Houſes have been plundered, and levelled with the ground, and unconſcionable Fines laid upon them. This hath been the caſe of divers Perſons of eminent quality in Poictou.
I could here have exhibited a Catalogue of Churches demoliſhed in France by the King's order, and that of the Council, in ſeveral Provinces and Dioceſes of that Kingdom, in the Years 1661, 1662, 1663, 1664, 1665, 1672, and 1673. But becauſe by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes they are now all a heap of Ruines, I ſhall ſpare my ſelf the labour of tranſcribing, and my Reader the pains and time of reading them. The Zeba's and Zalmunna's of that Kingdom have either burnt up all the Synagogues of God in it, or elſe they have took thoſe Houſes of God into their poſſeſſion.
SECT. XXIII.
But the Oppreſſions of this kind did not terminate in the bare condemnation of Churches, but particular Perſons alſo had a very large ſhare and part in them. In common civil matters, as about a piece of Land, an Houſe, a Debt between a Roman Catholick and a Proteſtant: Religion muſt be one of the chief Heads of Accuſation againſt the Proteſtants. The Monks, the Miſſioners, the Confeſſors, and that whole Crew of malicious fiery Zealots, intereſſed themſelves immediately in the affair. They bawl out in Courts of Juſtice, I plead againſt an Heretick. I have to do with a Man of a Religion odious to the State, and which the King will have extirpated. By this means there was not any Juſtice to be expected. Few Judges were proof againſt this falſe Zeal, for fear of drawing down the fury of the whole Cabal upon themſelves, or paſſing for Favourers of Hereticks. 'Tis not to be imagined, how many unjuſt Sentences theſe prejudices procured in all the Courts of the Kingdom; and how many Innocent Families were ruin'd by them. If any one complained of the wrong done them, they were preſently twitted in the Teeth, You have the remedy in your own hands. Why do you not become Catholicks? Thus the Conſciences, Goods, Honour, and Lives of theſe poor Servants of God lie at the mercy of unrighteous Judges, and of their mercileſs perfidious Enemies. A Roman Catholick may at his pleaſure deſtroy a Proteſtant: Witneſſes are never wanting, the Kings Attorneys-General, or their Deputies, or the Agents and Syndicks of Biſhops, or Judges for Convents, and Collegiate Churches, will never fail to proſecute. Some have been Condemned to the Pillory, others to the Chain in the Gallies, others to exorbitant Mulcts and Fines, for but relating a ſtory out of known Authors, how a Prieſt cheated the World with a falſe Miracle, by paſſing a Vine through the Head of an Image, which being pierced in that Seaſon of the Year, when the ſap aſcends upward, the ſap would drop out of the Eyes, whereat the deluded People believed that the Image did weep of it ſelf. Another Proteſtant was forced to ſtand in the Pillory, and ſeverely Fined for ſaying, That God had buried the Body of a dead Saint leſt his Bones ſhould be adored, and that when the Devil offered to take them up again, an Angel from God oppoſed him, with, The Lord rebuke thee, Satan! Another was caſt into Priſon, becauſe he had ſaid, that the Roman Prieſts did hide their Lights under a Buſhel. Another had an Unconſcionable Fine put upon him for ſaying, That the Croſs which they worſhipped, was but a piece of Wood.
SECT. XXIV.
Let the Proteſtants prove the Witneſſes which ſwear againſt them to be ſuborned, to have ſworn falſly, yea, though they proved Perjury upon them, they are either not puniſhed at all, or elſe their puniſhments be ſo ſlight and trifling, that inſtead of terrifying, they do embolden theſe malicious Villains to do the more miſchief. I ſhall produce a few Inſtances.
The Prieſt of Eymet in Guienne accuſed very many of the Inhabitants of that place for profaning the holy Myſteries of the Church of Rome. The Judges examining this matter found his Accuſation to be falſe, a moſt malicious and miſchievous Calumny; which though it tended to the deſtruction of ſo many Innocent Perſons, of their Lives, and Eſtates, yet he eſcaped without puniſhment.
The Prieſt of Chaſtelheraut accuſed a poor harmleſs Damſel for ſpeaking diſreſpectfully of the King. For this ſhe was in danger of having her Tongue cut out, and being whipped by the Common Hangman. But though the Judges diſcovered this Prieſt to be a Villain, an impudent, bloody, falſe Accuſer, yet no puniſhment was inflicted on him.
Monſieur de la Touche was accuſed by the Abbot of La Chappelle before the Parliament at Rennes, to have taken a Chalice out of a Church; for this ſuppoſed Crime he was, by Order of that Parliament, burnt alive. But though ſince this horrible Execution his Innocency hath appeared, and he was found guiltleſs of the fact, the real Offender having confeſſed, when and how he ſtole it, for which he ſuffered condign puniſhment; yet they have done nothing to repair the injury done unto the name and memory of the Innocent Sieur de la Touche, but declared, That becauſe he was an Heretick, he deſerved to be burnt to aſhes, as he was.
Monſieur Robineau, Paſtor of the Church in Pauſange, was alſo falſly accuſed by an Auguſtinian Fryar, and a baſe Curate, to have Preached Sedition, and for this pretended Crime only, he was kept many Months in the Priſon at Poictiers: and though at laſt his Accuſers were convicted of Falſhood▪ Calumny, and Perjury, yet he could never get any ſatisfaction for his great Sufferings.
Monſieur Borie, Paſtor of the Church in Turenne, for Preaching that none but Jeſus Chriſt was born without ſin, was accuſed of blaſpheming the bleſſed Virgin, and yet this very Doctrine is that of the Dominican Fryars. However this Godly Miniſter is handled moſt unmercifully, he is thrown into a deep Dungeon, bound with Iron Chains, menaced with Death, and treated after a moſt inhumane manner for a whole year, and at laſt by an Order of the Parliament of Bourdeaux, he was baniſhed for ever the Land of his Nativity.
A Prieſt of Niort was Convicted before the King and Council for falſifying an Order to demoliſh the Proteſtant Church in that Town, which was intended againſt the Church of Mer: Never was there a more bold attempt before his Majeſty and the Privy-Council: Yet inſtead of puniſhing him according to his Deſerts, they turned the whole fact into a piece of Raillery and Laughter.