Titles— that he is the Most Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church. But amidst all this noise of conversions, we have heard more of the temporal than spiritual sword; and, except in the violences and outrages of some of the clergy, we have not heard much of any share they have had in this matter. It is true the celebrated explication of their faith, written some years ago by the then Bishop of Condom, now of Meaux, and most of the conversions, are esteemed the effects of that book. But that explication, which may be well called a good plea, managed with much skill and great eloquence for a bad cause, has been so often and so judiciously answered, that I am confident such as have considered these Answers are no more in danger of being blinded with that dust which he has so ingeniously raised. His book deserves all the commendations that can be given it, for every thing except the sincerity of it.”
“Their great and glorious Monarch being now possessed with this maxime, That he will hare but one religion in his dominions, every one looks on the reducing of many of those they call Hereticks as a sure way to obtain his favour, and so to attain to great dignities in the Church. Therefore the Assembly General of their Clergy being called together (and being so much the more engaged to show their zeal against heresie that they might cover themselves from the reproaches of some that are more bigoted, for their compliance with the king in the matter of the Regale), hath now made an address to all the Calvinists of France, inviting them to return to their communion — to which they have added Directions to those that shall labour in these conversions, which they call Methods by which their minds are in general to be wrought upon, without entering into the details of the arguments by which the controversies have been hitherto managed.”[1]
The heading of the letter, as translated by Burnet, was as follows:—
“The Archbishops, Bishops, and the whole Gallican Clergy,
assembled at Paris by the King’s authority,
wish to their Brethren of the Calvinist sect
amendment, and a return to the Church and an agreement with it.”
The Huguenots never treated this so-called Pastoral as a reality. The real weapons of the persecuting church were the sword, the wheel, and the gibbet. In the view of both king and clergy the destruction of Protestant houses and the desolation and slaughter of Protestant people was “doing God service.” Had not the Saviour said, Compel them to come in? To increase what heretics called “persecution” was to make progress in zeal for universal salvation. So, after the Revocation, all the temples were demolished, and all the Protestant pastors were banished. The dragoons, commanded by gallant officers, were sent to butcher all the pastors that remained among their flocks; and to torture, ruin, and imprison those of the people who refused to be converted.
In 1685 the dragoons bore down with tenfold violence upon the Protestants of France, stupefied by the tale or the memory of the former brutalities of the troopers, and deluded into a life of unguarded and unvigilant security by the lying promise of toleration, embodied in the Edict of Revocation. Every Huguenot, who desired to continue peaceably at his trade or worldly calling, was forced to declare himself a proselyte to the Romish religion, or an inquirer with a view to such conversion. In the eye of the law they all were converts from Protestantism, and were styled New Converts, or New Catholics.
His Most Christian Majesty, Louis, by the grace of God, King of France and Navarre, had issued the celebrated and infamous Edict forbidding all public exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion in his kingdom, from Fontainbleau, 8th October 1685, registered in the parliament of Paris on 22d October, and afterwards in the other parliaments. The clause, from which it derived its best-known name, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, is the following:—
“We have, by this present perpetual and irrevocable Edict, suppressed and revoked, and we do now suppress and revoke, the edict of the king our grandfather given at Nantes in the month of April 1598 in its whole extent, together with those special articles ordained the second of May following, and the letters patent expedited thereupon, and the edict given at Nismes in the month of July 1629. We declare them void, and as if they had never been, together with all grants, made as well by them as by other edicts, declarations, and decrees, to those of the said Pretended Reformed Religion (of what kind soever they may be), which shall in like manner be reputed as if they had never been.” [“Nous . . . avons, par ce présent edit perpetuel et irrévocable, supprimé et revoqué, supprimons et revoquons l’edit du roy, notredit ayeul, donné à Nantes au mois d’avril 1598 en toute son étendue — ensemble les Articles particuliers arretez le 2 may suivant, et les lettres-patentes expediées sur iceux, et l’édit donné à Nismes au mois de juillet 1629 — les declarons nuls et comme non avenus, ensemble toutes les concessions faites tant per iceux que par d’autres édits, declarations, et arrêts aux gens de ladite R. P. R., de quelque nature qu’elles puissent être, lesquelles demeureront pareillement comme non avenues.”]
- ↑ I have given some more particulars as to this document in my chapter on the Marquis De Ruvigny.
