occasional opportunities of showing his capacity as a politician. He was also elevated to the rank of a Marquis.
One of the Lords constantly resident at the Court of Louis XIV. was called the Deputy-General of the Reformed Churches, or Agent for the Huguenots. He was the representative of the Protestants. All their requests and complaints were presented to the king by his hands, unless at his request he was permitted to introduce an occasional deputation. A salary of 1000 pistoles per annum (£458, 6s. 8d. sterling)[1] was attached to the office. In the summer of 1653 it became vacant by the death of the Marquis d’Arzilliers, who had discharged its duties for nine years with much dignity and efficiency.
Like the present French House of Commons or Chamber of Deputies, Protestant assemblies in France, being representative institutions, necessarily consisted of deputies, or members (as we would call them). But the office of Deputy-General was a novelty ordered by the king in 1601, when Henry IV., considering that a “political assembly” had sat too long, commanded them to separate. In intimating that command to the national or “spiritual” synod which met in May of that year at Gergeau, he softened his peremptoriness by adding, “he however would permit them one or two deputies near his royal person, who should upon all occasions tender him their complaints and requests, and in order that they might nominate and appoint them, another political assembly in this current year would be permitted.”[2] A canon was framed forthwith, enacting and declaring that a National Synod should be called every three years by express warrant from the king, and that a political assembly should be convened in anticipation of each of those triennial spiritual courts, at which assembly the business should be to collect and arrange appeals and complaints concerning the churches’ temporalities, and to elect two Lords Deputies General to be residents at court.[3] By this regulation the Reformed Churches had a perpetual representation established near the King, and hence the name “Deputy-General” (Deputé-General, abbreviated into D. G.).
We must pass on to 1653, when the office was offered to the Marquis de Ruvigny. Louis XIII. had abolished the political assemblies, and during the latter years of his reign the National Synods elected the Deputies-General. Louis XIV., introducing more alterations, had taken the nomination into his own hands. In his reign there were no longer two, but only one lord at Court, called “The Deputy-General of the Reformed Churches” (or “Agent pour les Huguenots”).
The first synod summoned by Louis XIV. was in December 1644, about eighteen months after his accession. It is well known that Cardinal Mazarin was wonderfully tolerant, and any such disposition was practically strengthened by his value for the alliance with England under Oliver Cromwell. But though the reverse of a persecutor, the Cardinal did not foster Protestant synodical action. The year 1653 came and no second National Synod was yet thought of. In that year the Lord Deputy General (the Marquis d’Arzilliers) whom the king had appointed in 1644 (as Louis had bluntly acquainted the Synod then sitting at Charenton), after holding the office (without the form of re-election) for three times the regular term of three years departed this life. His Majesty was again advised to assume the power of nomination, and the following patent was drawn up [see Quick’s Synodicon]:—
- ↑ John Locke has noted the value of French money at this time:—
1 pistole ... (Louis d’or) ... 11 livres. 1 ecu ... (Crown) ... ... 3 livres. 1 livre ... (Pound) ... ... 20 sous. 1 pistole was therefore equal to 220 sous, or no pence (9s. 2d. sterling). Before the reign of Louis XIV. there were two Deputies-General, for whom the annual sum of 13,500 livres was set aside from the Protestant endowments. The endowments were obtained through a composition or commutation entered into between the Protestants and the King with reference to tithes. See also “Danby’s Letters,” page 5.
- ↑ A similar office had been introduced at the Court of Navarre by the same prince. At the National Synod held at Vitre in Brittany, in the Chateau of the Right Hon. Guy, Comte De Laval, 16th May 1583, “The Lord Du Plessis presented himself in the name of the King of Navarre to this Assembly, proposing from his Majesty that there might be sent unto him, being now on the other side of the Loire, certain Deputies, persons of quality and understanding who might be near his Majesty, to acquaint him with the true state of our Churches; and that he might also reciprocally communicate unto the Churches all matters of importance tending to their welfare and preservation. This assembly is of opinion that all the Churches be exhorted effectually to comply with His Majesty’s demands, and in order thereunto, to name one or two deputies to be despatched unto him in the name of the Churches, and this to be done out of hand; and the Province of the Isle of France is to see it done without delay.”
- ↑ Quick’s Synodicon.
