| What falser idea of glory, than to force from men’s mouths, by violence and a long series of torments, a profession which the heart abhors, and for which one sighs night and day, crying continually to God for mercy! | What falser idea of glory, than to force from men s mouths, by violence and a long series of torments, a confession which the heart abhors, and for which they afterward sigh night and day, crying continually to God for mercy! |
| What glory is there in inventing new ways of persecutions, unknown to former ages, which indeed do not bring death along with them, but keep men alive to suffer, that they may overcome their patience and constancy by cruelties, which are above human strength to undergo? | What glory is there in inventing new ways of persecution, unknown to former ages, persecutions which indeed do not bring death along with them, but keep men alive to suffer, that their patience and constancy may be overcome by cruelties, which are above human strength to undergo! |
| What glory is there in not contenting themselves to force those who remain in his kingdom, but to forbid them to leave it, and keep them under a double servitude, viz., both of soul and body? | What glory is there in not contenting himself to force those who remain in his kingdom, but to prohibit also their leaving it, and so keep them under a double servitude both of soul and body? |
| What glory is there in keeping his prisons full of innocent persons who are charged with no other fault than serving God according to the best of their knowledge, and for this to be exposed to the rage of dragoons, or condemned to the gallics and executions on body and goods? Will these cruelties render His Majesty’s name lovely in his history to the Catholick or Protestant world? | What glory is there in stuffing his prisons full of innocent persons who are charged with no other crime than the serving God according to the best of their knowledge, and for this to be exposed either to the rage of the dragoons, or be condemned to the gallies, and suffer execution on body and goods?
What falser idea of glory for the king than to make it consist in the abuse of his power, and to violate without so much as a shadow of reason his own word and royal faith, which he had so solemnly given and so often reiterated; and this, only because he can do it with impunity, and has to deal with a flock of innocent sheep that are under his paw and cannot escape him? And yet ’tis this which the clergy of France, by the mouth of the Bishop of Valence, calls a greatness and a glory that raises Louis XIV. above all other kings, above all his predecessors, and above time itself, and consecrates him for eternity? Tis what Monsieur Varillas calls “Labours greater and more incredible, without comparison, than those of Hercules!” ’Tis what Mr. Maimbourg calls an heroic action — “the heroical action (says he) that the king has just now done in forbidding, by his new Edict of October, the public exercise of the false leligion of the Galvinists, and ordering that all their churches be forthwith demolished!” Base unworthy flatterers! Most people suffer themselves to be blinded by the fumes of your incense? |
The concluding paragraph of the translation of 1686 is much abridged — it runs thus:—
“However, ’twill be no offence to God or good men to leave this writing to the world, as a protestation made before him and them against these violences, more especially against the Edict of 1685, containing the Revocation of that of Nants, it being in its own nature inviolable, irrevocable, and unalterable. We may, I say, complain, amongst other things, against the worse than inhumane cruelties exercised on dead bodies, when they are dragged along the streets at the horse-tails, and digged out, and denied sepulchres. We cannot but complain of the cruel orders to part with our children, and suffer them to be baptized and brought up by our enemies. But, above all, against the impious and detestable practice, now in vogue, of making religion to depend on the king’s pleasure, on the will of a mortal prince — and of treating perseverance in the faith with the odious name of rebellion. This is to make a God of man, and to run back into the heathenish pride and flattery among the Romans, or an authorising of atheism or gross idolatry. In fine, we commit our complaints and all our interests into the hands of that Providence which brings good out of evil, and which is above the understanding of mortals whose houses are in the dust.”
