the fair proportion of judges as concerning the upholding of the Edict of Nantes. The abolition of the guaranteed chambers destroyed the integrity of the edict, and abandoned the professors of their religion to dismal forebodings.” The king agreed to suspend the execution of the ordinance, and to allow time for contriving some compromise. The deputies of the churches declined to be parties to tampering with the edict. After a protracted show of deliberation, the chambers were suppressed.[1]
In 1669 William Russell, afterwards styled Lord Russell, married Lady Vaughan, née Lady Rachael Wriothesley, Ruvigny’s niece. In 1670 we have an indication of the Deputy-General’s zeal in a letter from Madame de Maintenon to her brother, D’Aubigné, Governor of Amersfort, in which she reproaches him for persecuting Protestants, a class of people “more wretched than culpable,” engulphed in “errors in which we ourselves were, and from which persecution would not have dragged us;” she concludes thus:— “I repeat, dear brother, let not Monsieur de Ruvigny have occasion to complain of you any more.” Re-union between Catholics and Protestants was the plausible shape, which, at this date, the hostile designs against Huguenots adopted. The scheme was to beguile Protestants into making concessions approxi mating to Romanism, and capable of illustrating the unreasonableness of any separation from the Church of Rome. The court knew that there were lukewarm Protestants who could be formed into a considerable party, and might break up the Reformed Church with internal controversy concerning essentials and non-essentials. The Marquis de Ruvigny won great praise by exposing this conspiracy, and warning the reformed leaders against it. There were two vacancies in the pastorate of the Temple of Charenton, and the court had been anxious to fill them with latitudinarian divines. Ruvigny, a member of the congregation (for that was the only temple allowed to Parisian Protestants), made great efforts to obtain the appointment of Pastor Du Bosc, and his advocacy met with much sympathy at court. The reason of its failure was very flattering to Du Bosc, namely, that the Archbishop of Paris took the trouble of seeking an audience from the king, whom he prevailed upon to veto such a formidable nomination. At length, through the good offices of Monsieur Caillard, the celebrated legal practioner, the Consistory of Charenton received the protection of government in making a free election, and Pastors Allix and Ménard were elected accordingly. In 1671 it is stated that the desolation of Protestant temples would have been even worse than it was, had it not been for Ruvigny’s frequent interpositions, in which all his own popularity at court, and all the influence of English fraternal sentiments towards the Huguenots were urged by him in pleading for justice and clemency towards Protestant worshippers. This year he presented a new representation and petition regarding the Edict of Nantes, being the second requéte-general. The Privy Council required that the usual conclusion of all public petitions, summing up the various items of wrong and remedy, should in this case be struck out, and that an indefinite prayer, for Royal protection, clemency, and charity should be substituted.
The Pasteur Du Bosc, in the eloquence of whose pleadings the king delighted, was frequently in Paris taking a leading part in drawing up petitions and remonstrances, which he could not always prevail on Ruvigny to present to the wayward monarch. Again that pastor, for sermons preached in the Temple at Charenton, seemed doomed to banishment. But the Deputy-General represented that the sermons were in perfect good taste, and Louis replied, “I believe you thoroughly.” Then Ruvigny ventured to ask, if there was no sealed order to be issued. The king replied, “No; there is none, and there shall be none. Tell Du Bosc to put his mind at rest.”
In the service of their churches the importunity of the Protestant Deputies drove Lord de la Vrillière out of all temper and patience. He declared that the Pastor of Caen was not a Lord Deputy-General, and yet that he was the real author of the petitions concerning grievances. He said further, that such a number of ecclesiastical deputies crowding into Paris was like a Synod — a political assembly met without license; and that the king wished no residents from their number near his court, except the Lord Deputy-General. Ruvigny hinted that his shoulders could not bear the whole burden. Du Bosc, who sometimes thought that the Marquis ought to speak better out, replied more strongly, and insisted that they were not transgressing the regular bounds — that they were bound to supply the Deputy-General with information about current events and cases, and that they now, as before,
- ↑ “1669. — His Majesty begins to suppress the Chambers of the Edict, which had been extorted from his predecessors by the Huguenots. The Chamber of the Parliament of Paris was suppressed the first.” — Father Daniel, “History of France.”
