The Acts of Famous National Councils of the Reformed Churches in France, Introduction 2 · Section 40 – Section 42
SECT. XL.
But tho' by theſe ſteps the Court advanced greatly in their Deſigns, yet they had not attained their end. For the Reformed were not wanting to their common Intereſt, nor did they neglect their juſt and lawful Defence. They ſent frequently from the fartheſt and moſt diſtant Provinces their Deputies to the Court. They aſſerted their Rights before the Privy-Council. They bring their Complaints and Bills of Grievances from all parts of the Kingdom to that Honourable Board to be redreſſed. They employ their Deputy-General to ſollicit their Intereſts both with the Judges and chief Miniſters of State, and the King himſelf. Sometimes they preſented their General Addreſſes, in which they expoſed their Grievances with that profound humility and deference, which Subjects owe their Soveraigns.
I do here tender to the Reader but one Inſtance among many, viz.
The Humble Addreſs of the diſtreſſed Proteſtants in France, as it was delivered to the French King in the Year 1681.
SIR,
YOur Majeſty's Subjects of the pretended Reformed Religion, do with all humility repreſent to your Majeſty, that your Declaration of the 17th of June laſt, does ſo overwhelm them with grief, that they are almoſt out of themſelves; but nevertheleſs, they are ſo bold as once more to have recourſe to your Majeſty, hoping, that being ſtill your moſt faithful Subjects, they ſhall not be denied acceſs for Juſtice; and that rather, like God Almighty, your Majeſty will be tender to hearken to the Voice of the afflicted.
Upon this confidence they throw themſelves at your Majeſty's Feet, and deſire you to conſider, that this Declaration is directly contrary to all the Edicts granted to thoſe of that Religion, and particularly to the Edict of Nantes, which has been given to them as a perpetual and irrevocable Law, and which your Majeſty has frequently confirm'd; for beſides, that this does all along ſuppoſe, that your Subjects of that Religion ſhall enjoy in this your Kingdom all rights as well natural as civil, which are common to any of your Subjects; and that among thoſe Rights, that of the Power of Parents over their Children to the Age of Puberty is one of the moſt general; the 18th Article of that Edict does expreſly provide, That none ſhall by force take away any Children from their Parents, to baptize, or give them the Sacrament of Confirmation, againſt the will of their Parents.
'Tis well known that Confirmation is never given to Children till they are paſt Seven years old; and if the Edict forbids to give them Confirmation at that Age, ſure much leſs will it allow them to be at liberty to chuſe their Religion, and to make abjuration, at that age, of a Religion in which they were born and educated.
'Tis with the ſame Intention that the 38th Article of the ſame Edict does in expreſs words ſay, That the Parents making profeſſion of that Religion, may provide their Children of ſuch Tutors and Guardians as they ſhall think fit, nay, that they may name one or more either by Will or Codicil, before a Notary, or written with their own Hand.
Your Majeſty, Sir, is moſt humbly ſupplicated to weigh the force of the word Education, even after the Death of the Parents; for it evidently demonſtrates, that the Edict had a regard to the paternal Right of Parents over their Children, not only as inviolable during their Life; but extending it ſelf even after their Death; ſo as no zeal of Religion, nor any other Pretext could take it away; nay, it was ſo far from being limited to the age of Seven years, that it was to be preſerv'd during the whole Courſe of the Education, which ſcarce begins at that Age, and is very narrowly limited when it ends at that of Fourteen.
Beſides, Sir, The Edict of Nantes is not either the onelyonly or the firſt Law, that ſpeaks in favour of this Power, which, being a Law of Nature, is as ancient as the World, (and 'tis a Maxim, that natural Rights are immutable) but it is found alſo in an Anſwer given to the Proteſtants in the year 1571. under the Reign of Charles the Ninth; which was the ſevereſt reign againſt thoſe of that Religion.
The Power of Fathers over their Children was thought ſo ſacred, that it was ſaid upon the 24th Article, that Fathers ſhould not be hindred in the Education of their Children according to the Principles of their Religion, and the Motives of their Conſcience, and that even after the Death of the Parents, their Children ſhould be Educated in the ſame Religion, till they had attained the full Age of Fourteen years, and then ſhould be left to their Choice and Liberty.
But, Sir, none of your Royal Anceſtours have more authentically acknowledged this right of Parents than your Majeſty. For beſides divers Judgments given in your Council of State in the years 63 and 65 which are expreſly in favour of this Power, your Majeſty's Declaration in the year 69. has it in expreſs words, That it is prohibited to all Perſons whatſoever, not only to take away from their Parents the Children of thoſe of the pretended Reformed Religion, or to allure them; but they ſhall not alſo make any Change or declaration of Change of their Religion, before they have attained the compleat Age of Fourteen years for the Males, and Twelve for the Females; and that till they have reſpectively attain'd the ſame age, they, the ſaid Children, ſhall, after the deceaſe of their Parents, remain in the hands of their neareſt Relations of the ſame Religion; and that any that ſhall detain them ſhall be oblig'd to reſtore them back to their Relations. All this has been put in execution and confirm'd by divers Precedents, and particularly by a Judgment given by the Archbiſhop of Rheims in the Month of Auguſt 76. by which it is ordain'd, that none of the Female Sex ſhall be received into the Houſe of the Propagation of the Faith at Sedan, till they have attain'd the Age of Twelve years compleat.
Your Majeſty's Suppliants beg leave to repreſent to your Princely Conſideration the Difference that will be found between the Declaration of 1669. and this laſt of 1681. the firſt leaves to Nature its Rights and Priviledges, to Conſcience its Motives and Impulſes, to the civil and common Laws their Principles and Maxims, to your Parliaments their Rules and conſtant Methods of proceeding, to foreign Nations an Example worthy their Imitation, and laſtly to the Roman Catholick Religion the honour of keeping within ſome bounds of Equity, in Conformity to Reaſon and the Practice of the Primitive Church: whereas, under this new Law Nature ſuffers, and groans to ſee Children torn from the Boſom of their Parents to whom ſhe had given them, and who ought to be more theirs at the Age of Seven years, than before; ſince 'tis properly at that time, that their Education begins, and that Parents do as it were take poſſeſſion of their right.
The Conſcience of your Petitioners will be troubled, and diſquieted in the moſt cruel manner imaginable, ſince the Paternal care of Children, for their Education, is one of the moſt important and indiſpenſable duties of Conſcience; every Parent being reſponſible to God Almighty for his Childrens actions, while nature has depoſited them in his hands.
The Civil and Canon Laws will both ſpeak in favour of your Suppliants; for if Children before the age of puberty, which is at fourteen, can neither make a Will, nor be Witneſſes at Law, nor make Vows, nor do any Act of their own will; how can it be thought reaſonable, that they ſhould before that age make choice of their Religion, which is the moſt important Act of their whole Life. Your Parliaments, Sir, who following the common Principles of Reaſon and Equity, did never yet ſubject Children to capital Puniſhments, before the age of Puberty, muſt now violate that Cuſtom of all Nations, and practiſed in all Ages: for by making Children of ſeven years old, capable of chuſing their Religion, they are at the ſame time expos'd to contract the crime of thoſe that are called relapſe, and by conſequence do undergo the capital Puniſhment, ordain'd by your Majeſties Laws, in that caſe.
Foreigners, and Infidels themſelves, will think themſelves well Authoriz'd by this Example, to take the Children of thoſe, who profeſs a Religion contrary to theirs.
And laſtly, the Roman Catholick Religion will hardly avoid the reproach of all good Chriſtians, when it ſhall appear, that it not only receives, but forces Converſions from Children of ſeven years old, that is in an age, when they have but the firſt appearances of reaſon, and when their Judgments ſcarce begin to act; and where by conſequence any change of their Religion cannot proceed from a determinate choice, but from a blind obedience, or yielding to the threat or allurements that can move them. That it is contrary to the Practice of the Primitive Church is ſo viſible, that even admitting your Suppliants to be Hereticks; 'tis moſt certain, that in antient times, the Church never took away Children under age from thoſe that liv'd under the ſame ties of civil ſociety with them, though at the ſame time they thought them Infidels. In a word, Sir, it is an unheard of practice to this day, in all the Nations of the World, that the Power of Fathers ſhould be reſtrain'd to ſeven years over their own Children, particularly in Caſes of Religion.
Thomas Aquinas, one of the greateſt Doctors of the Roman Catholicks, decides poſitively, that it is not lawful to baptize the Children of the Jews againſt the will of their Parents, and that for two Reaſons, one, that it was never the practice of the Church, and the other, that it is againſt the courſe of natural Juſtice, and when the Kings of Spain and Portugal, Siſebuth and Emanuel, carried on by a Zeal of Religion, went about to practiſe ſomething like it, the fourth Council of Toledo oppos'd the action of the King of Spain; and all the World has blamed the proceeding of Emanuel, when he took away from the Jews their Children under fourteen years of Age. The famous Biſhop Oſorius, who ſpeaks of it, ſays, that it was an action neither founded in Juſtice nor in Religion; though it proceeded from a good Intention, and aim'd at a good End, becauſe God Almighty requires from Mankind a voluntary not a forc'd Sacrifice. It being againſt his Laws, that any violence ſhould be offer'd to Conſcience, to which he adds this terrible Circumſtance, that divers of thoſe unfortunate Fathers threw their Children headlong into deep Wells, and precipitated themſelves after them.
It cannot be alledg'd, Sir, that the Declaration of your Majeſty does not order the taking away of Children from their Parents, and that it only gives them the liberty of chuſing their Religion. For in the firſt place, the Violence is not ſo much to be look'd upon as offer'd to the Children, but to the Parents whoſe Children they are by the Gift of God and Nature; 'tis the ſence of the ſame Thomas Aquinas, who ſpeaking of the Jews ſays, that it were injuſtice to baptize their Children againſt their will, becauſe it were the taking away from them that paternal Power, with which they are inveſted by nature, which, ſays he, the Church never did, even in the moſt Chriſtian Princes times, as Conſtantine, and Theodoſius, who without doubt would have permitted it, had it not been againſt all Reaſon. And the Edict of Nantes it ſelf in the 18th Article, forbids equally Force and Perſuaſion, and calls them both Violence, and all Laws have as ſeverely puniſh'd the Rape of Seduction, as that of force in Children under Age.
Secondly, The Age of ſeven years fully attain'd does not hinder, but that as to the Parents the Violence is as great, as if their Children were torn from their Mothers Breaſts; becauſe that all Laws, both natural and civil, do ſubmit Children to their Parents till the Age of Puberty, and therefore 'tis equally unjuſt to take them away at ſeven years old, as in the Cradle.
If it be alledg'd that Children at ſeven years old are capable of ſinning mortally, and ſo may be admitted to the choice of their Religion. We Anſwer, that beſides that, that Principle is not generally allow'd, and that it would be very hard to judge your Petitioners by Maxims which they do not receive; 'tis eaſie to ſee, that it is a very unjuſt and unequal Inference, and that there is a great deal of difference between the firſt Idea's of good and evil, which Children may begin to have at ſeven years old, and the diſcerning or examining of two Religions, with a determination to leave that in which they have been brought up, to follow another, which muſt of neceſſity be leſs known to them, if they are not altogether ignorant of it, and which the World knows to be a choice of ſo difficult a nature, that it is the earneſt endeavour of human Mind animated with the moſt diligent inquiry of its way to Heaven.
Your Petitioners ſhall not here touch upon the fatal and ſad Conſequences which are like to attend the Execution of ſo ſevere a Law; the deſpair of Fathers and Mothers, the inevitable Diſcord between Parents and Children; the change of Education from the tender hands of Parents into thoſe of Strangers: the liberty it gives to ill-diſpos'd Children who will ſcorn the Correction of their Parents, having means ready to ſhake off their Authority, the exaction of unreaſonable Penſions from Parents for the keeping of their Children out of their own Families; the forc'd retreat of many thouſands out of your Majeſties Dominions; the apprehenſion that thoſe who remain will be in to have any Children born to 'em, and a thouſand other Inconveniencies, and Interruptions of the Bonds of civil Society.
Your Petitioners, Sir, are convinc'd as well as all the World, that nothing here can reſiſt your Power; but they know likewiſe, that your Majeſty loves to temper that Power with Sweetneſs and Juſtice, after the Imitation of God Almighty, who never diſplays the Infinity of his Power upon his poor Creatures, but that he doth at the ſame time look upon 'em with Eyes of Compaſſion.
'Tis your Juſtice, Sir, that your Petitioners implore in the Exceſs of their Grief, and 'tis to you, Sir, alone, that they direct, their ſighs and tears, taking the confidence to ſay, as it is true, that they had rather endure all things, and death it ſelf, rather than be ſeparated from their Children in ſo tender an Age, and ſo be hinder'd from Educating them in their own Religion, according to the obligation of their Conſciences.
Therefore your Petitioners humbly beg, that it may be your Royal Pleaſure to revoke and annul the Declaration of the 17th of June laſt, and to order, that that of February 1669. be in full force, and your Petitioners ſhall continue to offer up their Vows and Prayers, for your Majeſty's moſt proſperous and glorious Reign.
But they were ſo far from being heard, that their Troubles became greater, and their repeated Petitions render their Condition ſtill worſe and worſe. When as Deputies from Cities and Provinces have come to the Louvre, in the moſt dutiful manner, with the moſt humble Supplications of the ſorely diſtreſſed Proteſtants, for Relief under their heavy preſſures, they have received an expreſs Order from the King to be gone home again immediately. Thus was Monſieur de Vignolles, Deputy for the Province of Languedoc, uſed: No ſooner was he arrived at Paris, but one of the Kings Purſuivants is diſpatched to him, with a peremptory Command, to depart the City in eight days, upon pain of cloſe Impriſonment. And Monſieur Faiſſé, deputed by the Inhabitants of Privas, did no ſooner appear at Court with their Complaints, but the Captain of the Kings Guards commands him, in his Majeſty's Name, to depart the Court inſtantly, upon the like peril of being clapt up in Priſon. And when the Province of Lower Guienne had ſent Monſieur Sarrau to lay at his Majeſty's Feet an humble Repreſentation of their many Grievances, he received a private Letter, under the Kings Seal, forbidding him to come to Court. A multitude of ſuch Precedents might be produced. And if at any time, and after many difficulties they have been ſucceſsful, and weathered out the ſtorms of affronts and injuries they have met withal, yet when their buſineſſes hath come to an hearing, oftentimes no Advocate could be got to plead their Cauſe; or if they have been heard, although their Arguments were never ſo ſtrong, yet they have been at laſt ſlighted and rejected, and no right done them. They have ſome times ſpent whole years in purſuit of their Cauſes, and in hope of Audience; but have been worn out with delays, whereas Sentences againſt them have been obtained, by the Clergy, in twenty four hours. Yea many times after long waiting, and great Charges, the Proteſtant Agents and Deputies have been forced to return home with the ſad tidings of the loſs of their moſt righteous Cauſes.
The laſt Petition preſented to the King himſelf by the Lord Marquiſs of Rouvigny, the General-Deputy, in March 1684. was couched in the moſt ſubmiſſive terms, that would have moved and melted into pity the hardeſt heart (thouſands having ſeen and read it, for it was afterward Printed,) yet they got nothing by it, but the haſtening of their ruine and deſtruction.
SECT. XLI.
This was effectually accompliſhed ſome few Months following, and in ſuch a terrible and violent manner hath it been Executed, that the darkeſt and moſt diſtant Corners of Europe, yea, and of Aſia and America, have heard and rung of it. But the circumſtances are not known to all, and therefore I ſhall give an account of them in a few words; that the mouth of Impudence may be ſtopped, who publiſh abroad, That no Violences have been offered in France unto the Reformed, and that the Converſions there have been voluntary, and of their free conſent.
At firſt they took theſe meaſures, to Quarter Souldiers in all the Provinces, almoſt at the ſame time, and chiefly Dragoons, which are the moſt reſolute Troops of the Kingdom. Terrour and dread marched before them, and as it were by one common Intelligence, all France was allarm'd and filled with this News, that the King would no longer ſuffer any Hugonots in his Kingdom, and that they muſt reſolve to change their Religion. For there was no human Power could preſerve them in it.
SECT. XLII.
They began with Bearne, in this Province the Dragoons firſt exerciſed their skill in Perſecuting. Soon after the ſtorm breaks out in the High and Lower Guienne; from thence it rides poſt unto Xaintongue, Aunix, Poictou, the Upper Languedoc, Vivaretz, and Dolphiny. Then they roar and ravage in Lionnois, Sevennes, and the Lower Languedoc, Provence, and in the Valleys of Piedmont, and the little Country of Gex. Afterwards they fall with a moſt horrid rage upon the reſt of the Kingdom, upon Normandy, Burgundy, Nivernois and Berry, the Provinces of Orleans, Tourain, Anjou, Brittain, Champagne, Piccardy and the Iſle of France, not excluding Paris it ſelf, which underwent the ſame Fate with the other Proteſtants.
The firſt thing the Intendants were to do, according to their Orders and Inſtructions, was to ſummon the Cities and Commonalties before them; and when thoſe Inhabitants which profeſſed the Reformed Religion were aſſembled, they then very gravely acquaint them, That it was his Majeſty's pleaſure they ſhould without delay become Roman Catholicks, and if they would not do it freely, they would make them do it by force. Theſe poor People, ſurpriz'd with ſuch a propoſition, anſwer, That they were ready to ſacrifice their Lives and Eſtates to the King, but their Conſciences and Souls being not their own but Gods, they could not in any wiſe diſpoſe of them.
There needed no more to bring in the Dragoons upon them: theſe armed and booted Apoſtles are at hand; they ſeize immediately on the Gates and Avenues of the Cities, they place their Guards in all the Paſſages, and brandiſhing their naked Swords, the Cry is, Kill! Kill! or elſe turn Catholicks! They be quartered on the Proteſtants at diſcretion, and are ſtrictly charged by their Officers to let none go out of their houſes, nor to hide and conceal their goods or effects, on great penalties. The Catholicks alſo are threatned in like manner, in caſe they ſhould receive, harbour, or aſſiſt them. The firſt days are ſpent in conſuming thoſe Proviſions the houſe afforded, and plundering them of Moneys, Rings, Jewels, and whatever was of any eſteem or value. Then they ſet to ſale all the goods of the Family, and invite the Papiſts not only of that place, but alſo thoſe of the neighbour Towns and Cities to come and buy them. And be ſure they could ſell them cheap pennyworths, and give them a very good Title.