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 Tin* Torments 
 
 of 
 
 ProfestaHt Shires 
 
 hi the Frencli Kiiufs Galleys, and in 
 tJie Dungeons of Marseilles^ 
 
 1686—1707 A.D. 
 
 With some Illustrative Texts. 
 
 Edited by 
 
 Professor Eclwarcl Arber, D. Litt. {Oxon.),F.S.A., 
 
 Fellow of King's College, Loiidou. 
 
 Privately Piiuted. 
 
 Only to he obtained from 
 The Manager, 26, Priory Road, Bedford Park, London. W 
 
 11)07.
 
 
 General Preface. 
 
 The central purpose of this Series of Books is 
 not to excite the least ill will or prejudice towards 
 any existing body of Christian men and women 
 whatsoever : but rather to implant and cherish in 
 the hearts of all its Readers a perfect detestation 
 and execration of Compulsion in Religion ; and of 
 Persecution for Religious Opinions. 
 
 Christian History only too sadly demonstrates 
 the truth of our blessed Lord's saying, ' I came not 
 to send peace ; but a sword ' ; because we mortals 
 will not act upon the Golden Principle of Life 
 that he has given us, ' By this shall all men know 
 that ye are my disciples; if ye have love one to 
 another,' E.A. 
 
 ia 
 
 r\r-\y-
 
 Contents. 
 
 General Preface -----.--.. y. 
 
 Contents ----....... vii.-xii. 
 
 Introduction ......... xiii.-xli. 
 
 A True Kelatiou of the Sad Estate of the Keforiued Churches in France. 
 
 •167 [9] 1-45 
 
 Note 2 
 
 The Preface 3, 4 
 
 A Brief Relation of the Persecuted Protestants in 
 
 France ---...--. 5.42 
 
 A List or Catalogue of the Protestant Churches 
 
 deniolislied in France ------ 48-45 
 
 The Present State of the Protestants in France. 
 
 1681 47-90 
 
 To the Header 49-51 
 
 Letter I. .-.-..-.- 53-65 
 Letter 11. 66-90 
 
 Three Letters from France. 
 
 First Letter 84, 85 
 
 Second Letter - - - - - - - 85, 86 
 
 Third Letter by [Sir J. P.] - - - • ■ 86-88 
 
 yii.
 
 Contents. 
 
 Jean Claude. 
 
 Au Account of the rersecntions and Oppressions of tlie Protestants 
 
 in France. 1686 - - - 91-156 
 
 Note 92-94 
 
 M(tflcyH of Fdct pvovinti the Pevsecuiio)} - - - 9.5-132 
 
 First Method. Law Suits in Courts of Justice- 97-100 
 
 Second Metliod. Deprivation from all Offices and 
 Employments ; and, in general, 
 of all ways of subsistence - 97, 101-103 
 
 Third Method. Infractions of the Edicts, under 
 the pretence of Explications of 
 them 97, 104, 105 
 
 Fourth Method. New Laws and Orders - 97, 106-109 
 
 Fifth Method. Juggleries and deceptive 
 
 Tricks - ■ . . 97,110-113 
 
 Sixth Method. The animating of the people 
 
 against the Huguenots - 97, 114-116 
 
 The Revocation Atrocities .... 117-125, 127-132 
 
 A Description of the Revocation Edict - - - 126, 127 
 
 TtefiectioiH on all tJiese cruel PeysecntioiiH. 
 
 I. The dignity of the King has been sullied by 
 
 persuading him to break his word - - 133-139 
 
 II. The great injury to the Trade of France. 
 
 The Huguenots will, one day, be missed 140-143 
 
 III. All the Princes and Powers of Europe, 
 
 whether Catholic or Protestant, are 
 
 deeply concerned in these Persecutions 144-146 
 
 IV. The Pope [Innocent XL] himself and the 
 
 whole Body of the Roman Church are 
 affected, by this last Persecution in 
 
 France 147-149,153 
 
 Yiii.
 
 Contents. 
 
 In which there are Five things that strike the niind 
 with horror : 
 
 They make the Consciences and Keligion of Men 
 to depend sovereignly upon the Will of a King. 
 
 They violate a Faith authentically sworn to. 
 
 They force men to be hypocrites and wicked ; by 
 seeming to embrace a Religion which they 
 abhor. 
 
 They prohibit all flights, or retiring, out of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 They do not put to death ; but preserve life, to 
 
 oppress it with longer torments - - - 148 
 
 The impudent and lying Assertions of the Romanists : 
 
 M. Grosteste des Mahis. 
 
 That force and violence have had no share in the Con- 
 versions ; but they were soft, calm, and voluntary : 
 and that if there were any Dragoons concerned 
 therein ; it was because the Reformed themselves 
 desired them, that they might have a handsome 
 pretence to change their Religion - - - 150 
 
 D. de Cosnac, Bishop of Valence. 
 
 He tells Louis XIV., How miraculous his reign is ; see- 
 ing such infinite numbers of Conversions are 
 made to the Roman Church, without violence and 
 Arms : ' much less by the force of your Edicts, as 
 by the example of your exemplary piety' [! ! I] - 150 
 
 The Consolations of the Hugiienots ... - 155, 156 
 
 ix.
 
 Contents. 
 
 Some early details of the Kevocation Atrocities, in the begin- 
 
 iiiiij,' of tlie Dra^oniuulcs. 1685 - ■ - 157-182 
 
 A Short Account of the unheard-of Cruelties which 
 
 they have exercised upon those; of Montauban, etc. 159-167 
 
 A Letter sent from Bordeaux, givinff an Account of 
 
 the Persecution 168-178 
 
 An Extract of a Letter, by T. G., containing some 
 more instances of the cruel usage of the 
 Protestants 179-182 
 
 Louis de Marolles. 
 
 A Specimen of Papal and French Persecution ; as also of the 
 Faith and Patience of the late French Confessors and Martyrs. 
 
 1686-1692 183-258 
 
 Dedication of this History, by his son - - ■ 185, 186 
 
 The Contents of this History 187, 188 
 
 The History of the Sufferings of the blessed Martyr, 
 
 Louis de Marolles - 189-255, 316, 328-332. 337, 338, 353. 354, 388 
 
 Reflections bv the Writer of this History - - - 256-258 
 
 Elie Neau. 
 
 An Account of the Sufferings of the French Protestants, Slaves 
 on board the French King's Galleys. 
 
 1692-1698 259-280 
 
 A True and Exact List of the French Protestants, 
 
 Slaves on board the French King's Gallevs - 271-280 
 
 A Faithful Account of the Cruelties done to the Protestants 
 on board the French King's Galleys, on account of the Reformed 
 
 Religion. 1700 281-302 
 
 see also 378-380, 389-398 
 
 Preface by the Editor 283, 284 
 
 Letters from Marseilles. August 1700 - - - 285-288 
 
 Several other Letters from Marseilles. September- 
 October 1700 ...--.. 289-297 
 
 Observations by the Editor 298-301 
 
 Postscript - . ■ - - - - - - - 302 
 
 X.
 
 Contents. 
 
 Isaac Le Fevre. 
 
 An Historical Account of his Sufferings and Death. - - - 303-412 
 1686-1702 
 
 Note 304 
 
 Preface of the English Editor 305-310 
 
 An Account of the Sufferings and Death of that 
 faithful Confessor and Martyr. Monsieur Isaac 
 Le Fevre - - - 311-412 
 
 A Letter to the Confessors, from Herr Heinrich 
 
 Esclier, President of the Swiss Republic - 349-351 
 
 The History of the Labours. Sufferings, and 
 Death, of Pierre Mauru, 1686-1696; fur- 
 nished by Isaac Le Fevre : who protested 
 that he did not think that there was a 
 greater Saint on eartli tlian Mauru - - 355-368 
 
 Monsieur D. L's Answer to the Missionary - 369, 370 
 
 The poor, simple, l)ut illustrious. Shepherd ; 
 
 who learned to write since he was in bonds 374, 375 
 
 The young Huguenot Maiden of Marseilles - 376, 377 
 
 Monsieur D. S. L's Petition to the Intendant of 
 Marseilles, on l)ehalf of the Protestant 
 Slaves in the Gallevs. June 1700 - - 381-384 
 
 The P'irst Storm and Fury of the Bastinados. 
 
 June 1699— July 1701 - -281-302,378-380,389-398 
 
 An Extract of a Letter from Pierre de Serres 
 the Elder, with a bloody and torn body, and 
 manacles on his hands. October 18 1700 - 393-394 
 
 Extracts of Letters concerning the death of 
 
 Isaac Le Fevre ...--- 403-405 
 
 A Memoir of Isaac Le Fevre, by certain Galley 
 
 Slaves Marseilles. August 21 1702 - - 408-412 
 
 xi.
 
 Contents. 
 
 Hilary lleneu. 
 
 The Preface to the Second Enj^lish Traiishilioii (1707) oi Jeiui 
 
 Claude's * Les riaintes des ri'oteslaiits cnielleiueiit oppriincs 
 
 dans le liovaiune de Fnince' (1686) - - - 413-431 
 
 Jean Francois Bion. 
 
 An Accoimt of the Torments which the French Protestaiits 
 
 endure aboard the Galleys. 1708 - - - 433-460 
 Dedication to Queen Anne --.-.. 435, 436 
 
 Preface 437, 438 
 
 The Sufferings of the Protestants in the French Galleys 439 - 460 
 
 Index 461-470 
 
 Xll.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 A few words, at the outset, require explanation. 
 Aliiiouer. The Chaplain of a Galley, or a Prison. 
 A})ie}ide HoiiorahJc. This degrading punishment is described 
 at pp. 67, 68, 78, 419. 
 
 AjMsfatc. The Government name for a Roman Catholic who turned 
 Protestant. The Huguenots called siich a one, a Proselyte. 
 
 Ayf/ouzin. The Boatswain's Mate of a Galley, or a Galley Serjeant. 
 
 Bastonnade. The Bastinado : which was not inflicted on the soles of 
 the feet, as among the Turks, but on the back ; with a tarred 
 rope, dipj)ed in the sea, and as hard as an iron liar, pp. 
 294, 392. This awful torture is descril)ed at pp. 285-296, 299, 
 390-392, 458, 459. 
 
 Coniifc. The Boatswain of a Galley. 
 
 Courficij. The raised Gangway, between the two rows of Slaves, of a 
 Galley. 
 
 Coio-fiie)'. The Chase Gun of a Galley, throwing a 361b. ball. It was 
 placed at the Prow, on the Coursey. 
 
 Exercise of Religion. Public Divine Worship. 
 
 GalJerian. Marolles seems to use this word in the sense of a 
 Protectant Galley Slave, pp. 207, 240. 
 
 Misf<io)i(trief<. The Fathers of the Royal Mission of France for the 
 conversion of the Protestants ; who greatly urged on the Per- 
 secution, and were ever increasing the torments of the Huguenot 
 Slaves. They were the Directors of the Hosijital of the Galley 
 Slaves on shore at Marseilles. They also appointed and controlled 
 the Almoners in the Galleys, p. 379. 
 
 Rehqjscd. The Government name for a Huguenot who, having become 
 a Roman Catholic, afterwards returned to Protestantism. 
 
 B.P.R. ' Religion Pretendue Reformee,' Religion pretended Reformed, 
 was the Government name for the Huguenot Church. 
 
 Siijfcrin(/ Socictij, also called, The Chained Society. A small Associa- 
 tion of the leading Huguenot Galley Slaves at Marseilles, p. 295. 
 
 xiii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Temple. Tlic hiiiUliiij,' in wliicli :i h'l'ciicli Protestant Cliiircli met lor 
 Divine Woi'sbip, ]). 109. That at Cliaicnton in I'aris was practically 
 the Meti-opolitaii Protestant Cliiiicii of iMaiuc. Jkax Ci.al'DK 
 was its Senior Minister at the Uevocatioii ; and refers to his 
 instant expulsion Ii'omi l''i-ance, at p. 127. 
 
 All sums of nu)n(\v mentioned in this Vohnne should he multiplied 
 twice or thrice, in order to ascertain the corresponding^ puchasing 
 power of the same in the present day. Thus, 1,000 French Livres =^ 
 i;iOO then, or X-200 to X:!00 now. 
 
 XIY.
 
 1 
 
 Introduction. 
 II. 
 
 t is not possible to deal adequately here with so vast a subject as 
 this gigautic Persecution. All that can 1)G done, is very briefly 
 to touch upon the following points : 
 
 III. How (lid thifi prodirjioiifi and niercilefm PeraccHtioii, jthe 
 
 loiHicfit ill Iliniian History, arif^e t Hoir was if. that it 
 became at all i^ofisihle ?) 
 
 IV. TT7(o ircve its real Authors '! 
 
 V. lis relation to Eiujlish Historij of that period. 
 
 VI. Some otJier information from the E)if/tis/i Envoy at Paris. 
 
 VII. The Bei^ocation Atrocities. 
 
 VIII. What arc ire to think of the French Confessors of that Ar/e ! 
 
 IX. TI7(o n-erc the supposed Gainers hj/ it.' and what was their 
 
 success .' 
 
 X. Wliat sliould the study of tliis VoUone lead us to do / 
 
 Besides all this; tbere is herein such a Picture of the French 
 Galley Life of that Time as does not exist elsewhere in our language. 
 
 XY.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 III. 
 
 Hoiv did tliifi prodiriioKfi and mercUefis Persecution, flic lonf/eat 
 in Htonan Hifitorii, arise l^ Hoir was it, that it became at all possible ? 
 
 1. /^"^ liAUOK, wbo lived in the midst of it all, tells us. 
 
 I To begin with Matters of Fact. There is 
 
 ^-^ nobody but knows that, a while after his present 
 Majesty of France [Louis XIV.,] came to the 
 Ci'own, there arose in the K^ingclom a Civil War [of the 
 Fronde, 1()4H — 1()53] ; wliicli proved so sharp and desperate 
 as brought the State within a hair's breadth of utter ruin. 
 It is also known that, in the midst of these Troubles, 
 those of the Reformed Religion kept their loyalty in so 
 inviolalile a manner, and attended it with such a zeal and 
 extraordinary fervour, that the King found himself obliged 
 to give public marks of it, l)y a Declaration, made at Saint 
 Germain, [May 21,] in the year 1652. Then, as well at Court 
 as in the field, each strove to proclaim loudest the deserts of 
 the Reformists : and [Anne of Austria,] the Queen Mother 
 herself readily acknowledged, That they had preserved the 
 State. I 
 
 This is known by all : but it wifl hardly be believed, 
 though it l)e too true, what our enemies themselves a 
 hundred times told us, and which the sequel has but too 
 shrewdly confirmed. That this was precisely the principal 
 and most essential Cause of our ruin ; and of all the 
 mischiefs which we have since suffered. Endeavours were 
 used to envenom all these important services in the King's 
 and his Ministers' minds, by persuading them. That if, on 
 this occasion, this Party could conserve the State : this 
 shewed they could likewise overthrow it, should they have 
 ranked themselves on the other side ; and might still do it, 
 when such a like occasion should offer itself. That there- 
 fore this Party must be suppressed ! and the good they have 
 done no longer regarded but as an indication of the mischief 
 which they may, one day, be capable of doing. This 
 diabolical reasoning, which hinders subjects from serving 
 their Prince, to avoid drawing on themselves chastisements 
 instead of recompenses, was relished as a piece of most 
 refined Isnbtle'] Policy. 
 
 For, as soon as the Kingdom was settled in peace, the 
 Design was advanced of destroying the Reformists, pp. 95,96. 
 xvi.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Consider we a while, what they make the King say — 
 That at his first coming to the Crown, he was in the Design 
 which he now comes from executing. They would say, 
 without doubt, from the time he actually took in hand the 
 reins of Government [,in 1661]: for he was too young before 
 to enter personally on any Design of this nature. He 
 entered thereon then precisely at the time when the Civil 
 Wars were ended. But what does this mean, but that he 
 undertook this Design, at the very time when the Protestants 
 came from rendering him the most important service Sub- 
 fw jects were ever capable of ! They came from rendering him 
 the highest testimonies of loyaltj^; when the greatest part 
 of his other Subjects had taken up Arms against him ! 
 They had vigorously opposed his enemies' progress ; rejected 
 the most advantageous offers ; kept towns for him, yea, 
 whole Provinces ; received his Servants and Officers into 
 their bosoms, when they could not find safety elsewhere ; 
 sacrificed their estates to him, their lives, their fortunes : 
 and, in a word, done all with such a zeal as became faithful 
 Subjects in so dangerous a conjuncture. And this is the 
 time, when the King enters on the Design of destroying 
 and extirpating them ! 
 
 This so confirms the truth of what we said in the 
 beginning, that it puts it out of all question, That the 
 Project of their Destruction was grounded on the services 
 they had rendered to the King. p. 136. 
 
 2. The Huguenots as implicitly believed in the Divine Right of 
 Kings as niucli as Louis XIV. himself did. Claude tells us, 
 
 We know very well the Authority of Kings ; and the 
 respect and submission with which we should receive their 
 Orders : and therefore have we [had] , during all these 
 unsupportable usages, a patience and an obedience so 
 remarkable that it has been the admiration of the Catholics, 
 our countrymen, p. 137. See also p. xxiv. 
 
 Elsewhere he wrote, in 1688. 
 
 The Protestants receive their Evils with all the respect 
 and all the humility that they owe to a Sacred and Sovereign 
 Authority ; which they consider as the lively Image of that 
 of GOD on the earth. 
 
 XYii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 3. This religions belief gave them a Patience that was simply 
 i^iracnlons. 
 
 Benoit^ tells us, The Patience of tlie Reformists passed into a 
 Proverb among the Catholics. When they wished to speak of a 
 Patience beyond all measure; they called it, 'The Patience of a 
 Huguenot,' 'Hist, of the Edict of Nantes,' iv., 459. 
 
 This is confirmed by the following statement at pp. 169, 170. 
 
 All those thundering Declarations and destructive 
 Arrests (which continually were sued for, and obtained 
 against us ; and which were executed with the extremity of 
 rigour) were scarce ahle to move any one of us. The for- 
 bidding of our Public Exercises, tlie demolishing of our 
 Churches, and the severe Injunction that not so much as 
 Two or Three of us should dare to assemble in order to 
 anything of Divine Worship ; had no other effect upon the 
 far greater part of us, than to inflame our zeal, instead of 
 abating it : obliging us to pray to GOD with greater fervour 
 and devotion in our Closets, and to meditate of his Word 
 with greater application and attention. And neither the 
 great Wants, to which we were reduced by being deprived of 
 our Offices and Employs, and other means of living ; and 
 by those insupportable Charges with which they strove to 
 overwhelm us, as well by Taxes as the Quartering of 
 Soldiers, both [of] which were as heavy as could be laid upon 
 us : nor the continual trouble we were put to, by Criminal 
 and other matters of Law, which, at the suit of one or 
 other, were still laid to our charge, though upon the most 
 frivolous and unjust pretences imaginable — I say, all these 
 were not able to wear out our patience ; which was hardened 
 against all Calamities: insomuch as the Design of forcing 
 us to abandon the Truth of the Gospel would infallibly have 
 been shipwrecked, if no other means had been taken in 
 hand for this purpose: 
 
 But, alas ! our enemies were too ingenious to be baulked 
 so ; and had taken our ruin too much to heart, not to study 
 for means effectual and proper to bring about their desires. 
 They called to mind what a prodigious success a new kind 
 of Persecution had had, of late years, in Poitou, Aunis, and 
 Saintonge ; which the Intendants of those places had 
 bethought themselves of : and they made no difficulty to 
 have recourse to the same, as to a means infallible, and not 
 to be doubted of. 
 xviii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 4. As Citizens, the Huguenots led an absolutely blameless life. 
 Claude says, 
 
 'Yet, amongst all these Afflictions, we are not destitute 
 of comfort. We, if ever any did, do truly suffer for Con- 
 science sake : the malice of our Persecutors not being able 
 to charge us with the least misdemeanour. We have served 
 our King and the State with zeal and faithfulness. We 
 have submitted to the Laws and to the Magistrates : and as 
 for our fellow-citizens, they have no reason to complain of 
 us. We have, for twenty years together, suffered, with an 
 exemplary patience, all thoTse furious and dreadful Storms 
 afore-mentioned. 
 
 In these latter Storms, we have been like sheep, 
 innocent and without defence. We then comfort ourselves 
 in the justice of our Cause ; and our peaceable deportment 
 under it. p. 155. 
 
 ' 5. And so, for those twenty years together, 1665-168.5, we watch 
 the Gathering of this dreadful Storm : during which time, some Four 
 Hundred Edicts, Declarations, etc., were issvied against the Huguenots ; 
 being at the rate of about one every fortnight. At last, the Storm 
 burst, in the Dragonnades, and the Revocation, of the year 1685. "j 
 
 XIZ.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Who were its real Authors ? 
 
 1. /^ X 11 tliis point, we are able to adduce an Eye Witness 
 
 O 
 
 testimony that cannot possibly be disputed, from the 
 ' Savile Correspondence.' (Camden Society. 1858.) 
 
 Henry Savile was the younger brother of Geokge 
 Savile, who later became the Marquis of Halifax. He was our Envoy 
 Extraordinary at Paris from February, 1679, till March, 1682. He had 
 Ijreviously been somewhat a Man of Pleasure : but his intimate 
 association with the best Huguenot Society in the French metropolis 
 led him strongly to advocate their Cause ; and especially to write 
 that noble Letter to Charles II., from which we shall presently quote. 
 His Letters are addressed to his brother George ; or to Sir Leoline 
 Jenkins, the Secretary of State : with their rei^lies. All the dates 
 are of the New Style ; and the references are to the Camden Society's 
 Volume. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. June 5 1679. 
 
 [(Francois de) Harlay de Chanvallon,] The Arch- 
 bishop of Paris, and Father [(Francois d'Aix] la Chaise, do 
 all they can to prevail with this King to make him revenge 
 the Quarrel of the English Catholics [in the Popish Plot] 
 upon the French Protestants : who tremble for fear of some 
 violent Persecution ; and are ready to go into England in 
 such vast numbers as would be a great advantage to the 
 nation, if you would, by easy Naturalization, make it, in the 
 least, easy to them. 
 
 I find those who are rich are afraid our King should 
 meddle with their affairs : but the crowd and the number 
 talk of nothing but the necessity of his declaring himself 
 Protector of the whole Protestant Religion ; and live upon 
 the hopes of seeing that Glorious Day. 
 
 How ripe you are for such designs I cannot answer : 
 but, after some steps are made, I believe you will find this 
 a very necessary one. p. 93. 
 
 I hear from England, I shall be forced to keep a Chap- 
 lain ; which I never less needed : having never failed [going 
 to the Protestant Temple at] Charenton one Sunday, since 
 I came into France. How much more that is for the 
 King's service, you cannot imagine; unless you saw how 
 kindlj^ those poor i)eople take so small a countenancing as 
 mine is. pp. 94, 95. 
 
 XX.
 
 introduction. 
 
 George Savile. [London.] June 12 1679. 
 
 It becomes the zeal of the French Clergy to press the 
 King to a Persecution, by way of revenge upon us here : but 
 I will hope wiser things of the Government there, than that 
 so unreasonable a thing should prevail. 
 
 However, if the fear of it putteth thoughts into the 
 Protestants of removing thither ; I am sure we must 
 renounce all good sense, if we do not encourage them by all 
 possible invitations. It hath ever been so much my prin- 
 ciple, that I have wondered at our neglecting a thing we 
 ought to seek : and those that have not zeal enough to 
 endeavour it for preserving of our Religion, might have wit 
 enough to do it for the increasing our Trade. 
 
 I approve your going to Charenton, and your counte- 
 nancing the Protestants ; which I think the principal work 
 of an English Minister in France : but I am apt to believe 
 [that] it may make the Court there very weary of you ; it 
 being a method that they have of late been so little used to, 
 that they take it for an injury, pj). 97, 98. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. June 16 1679. 
 
 The Judges [of the ' Chambre Ardente '] , that were 
 appointed to try the prisoners for poison, have their authority 
 increased ; by being also made Judges of all things relating 
 to the poor Protestants here. By which means, I suppose 
 we shall suddenly see more Temples demolished ; their pre- 
 decessors having condemned sixteen in Gascony and Poitou 
 within these six months. Brittany and Normandy come 
 next. I doubt [fear'] these poor people have the worse 
 quarter; in revenge of what is done to the Papists in 
 England. Would to GOD, we had a good change made ! 
 p. 100. 
 
 Henry Savile. Saint Germain. February 9 1680. 
 I am grown such a Pillar at Charenton, that very grave 
 people, looking upon me as such, do often speak to me to 
 prefer [place'] Protestant servants in England, p. 136. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. February 28 1680. 
 
 My great assiduity at Charenton has gained me a 
 general acquaintance and kindness among the Huguenots ; 
 
 xxi.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 and, as generally the women are most pleased with such a 
 proceeding, I have got into the friendship of the gravest. 
 
 They all think themselves unliappy, by being of a 
 different Persuasion from the Government ; [and] appre- 
 hending, daily, greater calamities than they yet lie under, 
 most of them are disposed to marry their children rather 
 into England and Holland than in France. 
 
 Amongst this number, there is one who will give 
 '200,000 Crowns down, paid at London and in English 
 Crowns, viz., £25,000, with a very pretty daughter, as 
 modestly bred as I have ever seen, and where there is as 
 little exceptions, either to the Person or Family, as is 
 possible. 
 
 She has given me full authority to look her out a Man 
 of Quality in England ; without further restriction than 
 assuring me that there is but one in France to whose 
 Proposals she would hearken ; and that does not appear 
 likely. So that my negotiation is most likely to take place. 
 
 To my own knowledge (Pray, speak not of this !) my 
 Lord and Lady Sunderland have had thoughts, ever since 
 their Embassy [here], of having this young woman for my 
 Lord Spencer. She is just fourteen. 
 
 I think there is nothing more to be said upon this 
 subject ; but to tell you the name of this young creature; 
 who is [Esther de La Tour,] daughter to the [Charles de 
 La Tour,] Marquis de Gouvernet ; a Gentleman of a very 
 ancient family, and a most plentiful fortune, in Dauphiny. 
 piD. 141, 142. 
 
 It is a delightful Episode iu this jtragic Story, to see such a cou- 
 firmed old bachelor as Henry Savile engaged in match-making in such 
 anxious times. Curiously enough, Esther did marry, in April 1684, his 
 nephew, Lord Eland, the elder son of the Marqviis of Halifax. He 
 died in June 1688, without children ; and Lady Eland was buried in 
 Westminster Abbey on 26th May 1694, aet. 28. 
 
 This negotiation however shows how intimate the English Envoy 
 had now become with the Parisian Huguenots. If anybody knew the 
 real state of affairs, he did. 
 
 George Savile. Rufford. March 2 1680. 
 
 In the meantime, my credit with the French Protestants 
 I owe wholly to you : your zeal being so notorious, that it 
 throweth a lustre upon all your poor relations. It is enough 
 xxii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 to be akin to a man that goetli twice a day to Charenton ! 
 Heaven reward you, for giving such countenance to the 
 Gospel ! p. 143. 
 
 This piece of raillery only confirms how intiniate Henry Savile 
 now was with the Charenton Congregation : as also does the following. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. March 23 1680. 
 
 As for the other Demoiselle, whom I would prefer to a 
 humbler condition ; your answer is obliging to her, and just 
 to your present domestics. But if any remove should make 
 room for her, you would much oblige us poor folks at 
 Charenton; and me, as a particular Pillar of that place, 
 p. 148. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. November 30 1680. 
 
 I hear of another Declaration against the Huguenots ; 
 which, if true, will make brave work, viz., That whoever 
 does not kneel, meeting the Host, shall be whipped through 
 the streets by the Hangman. 
 
 There is also an Edict coming forth, to forbid Marriages 
 between people of different Religions, p. 169. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. December 4 1680. 
 
 When the Edict against the Huguenots, concerning the 
 visiting their sick, passed the Parliament [of Paris], this 
 last week, it was spoken against by several with more 
 freedom than is usually there taken : but it passed, out of 
 obedience to the King's Orders ; not out of any approbation 
 of the thing, pp. 169, 170. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. January 15 1681. 
 
 Several Protestant Officers go from hence to the Elector 
 of Brandenburg [, afterwards, Frederick I., King of Prussia] ; 
 and are permitted to go. Those who go to the States 
 [General of Holland] steal away privately, p. 172. 
 
 We now come to the heart of this Correspondence, so far as the 
 Huguenots are concerned. Henry Savile had been for thirty months 
 English Envoy at Paris, in the closest touch both with the French 
 Court, and also with the best French Protestant Society in that capital. 
 No Englishman could possibly know better than he did, who were the 
 real Authors of this great Persecution : which, he tells us, was invented 
 by the malice of the Jesuits, and executed by the boundless power of 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 xxiii.
 
 Tntrofliiction. 
 
 The followiiifi statemoiit, tluirefore, is of tlic liij^licst possible 
 autliority. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. July 22 1681. 
 
 And now, Sir, let me say something concerning the 
 Protestants of this Kingdom. Their present eminent Suffer- 
 ings are known to all Europe : and I leave to Sir Richard 
 Mason to add such particulars to what I have formerly writ, 
 as Avill I hope make our Master sensible of their calamities. 
 
 It may therefore not be amiss to let him know what the 
 World expects from him upon such an occasion ; who is 
 the chief Protestant Prince in Europe. If he be not 
 Guarantee of the Treaty of Nantes ; at least, he is so of 
 one of the year 1626, which confirms that : and therefore is 
 in as much right to take measures for maintaining that 
 Treaty, as the late one of Nimeguen, of which he was 
 Mediator. So much is certain as to the Right. Whether 
 he should use it, and how far, will be the question. 
 
 The first, if not the only, Objection will be. That, upon 
 his asking relief for the Protestants here, this King will do 
 the like of him, for the Papists in England. 
 
 But upon what Treaty can the King build such a pre- 
 tention ? or what parity is there in the conditions of these 
 people ? We have Laws, of ancient date, actually in force 
 against our Catholics ; and were never yet put vigorously 
 in execution. These people have positive Laws in their 
 favour, as positively broke for the Persecution of them ; 
 notwithstanding the Guarantee of a foreign Prince. A body 
 of ours [the English Catholics^ are actually found designing 
 mischief to the Government. The whole body of these are 
 in perfect obedience ; and have been so personally service- 
 able to this very King that, in one of his Edicts, he does 
 himself own the Crown upon his head to their services in 
 the last Civil War. 
 
 So that this ought to be no very prevalent argument to 
 hinder the King from pleading their Cause : esj)ecially when 
 (in all human appearance) both his Foreign and Domestic 
 Concerns would receive new life from an avowed Protection 
 of all the Protestants in Europe. A station GOD Almighty 
 has so long offered to his Family : and would, no doubt, 
 upon so sound a bottom, make him flourish equally with 
 a great Predecessor of his own [, Queen Elizabeth], who 
 found this [to be] the only way to be quiet in her life, and 
 glorious after it. 
 xxiv.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Now, should His Majesty's circumstances admit of these 
 measures ; were not the properest method to begin with 
 A Declaration to all Europe, in French and Latin, to offer 
 countenance and encouragement to all such as, receiving 
 prejudice from the Profession of the Protestant Religion in 
 any other countries, could come and harbour themselves 
 in his ? 
 
 The effect of this would be, That no restrictions what- 
 soever would hinder these people from going to him ; who 
 submit to their Miseries here, for want of assurance of not 
 finding [that they maij not find^ as great elsewhere: whilst 
 the misrepresentations, given by some ill men, of the present 
 position of our Affairs, make people balance ; who would fly 
 into England, upon the first Public Assurance [that] they 
 should be well received there. 
 
 I have formerly urged, upon the same subject, to one of 
 your predecessors, the number of French Seamen of this 
 Religion, their willingness, and easiness of transportation ; 
 [and] the considerable number of wealthy people ready, 
 with great sums [of money], to come to you. Nay, I had 
 once (and hope, upon good encouragement, I could retrieve 
 [secure^ them) prepared a body of men, that should have 
 brought you the Manufacture of Sail Cloth, so much wanted 
 in England. But all this was upon the hopes of a Bill of 
 Naturalization : which, so unfortunately failing, lessened 
 my credit with them ; as well as my hopes of doing a con- 
 siderable service to the nation. 
 
 But all these matters may be recovered again, by a 
 hearty Declaration ; by some sort of Commission established 
 for Strangers to address to, upon their first arrival; and by 
 a Bank in the City on purpose for this use, that men may 
 convey their estates with great privacy. 
 
 Though I have dwelt much too long upon this subject; 
 I cannot omit telling you. The Ports of France are stopped 
 to all Protestants under the age of sixteen. Three hundred 
 were, upon it, refused passage for England, last week, at 
 Dieppe : and though I know any Prince may stop his Ports 
 to his own subjects; I question whether, in a case of no 
 crime, they can regularly be debarred going into the 
 territories of a Prince in amity. 
 
 I leave that circumstance, as well as all others, to your 
 
 XXY.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 better judgement; craving pardon for this long trouble. 
 Wliich I shall conclude with my most hearty wishes that 
 His Majesty would concern himself as far in this matter, as 
 can consist with his power and dignity, to free these poor 
 oppressed people : who are like[ly] to suffer all the Miseries 
 that can be invented by the malice of the Jesuits, and 
 executed by the boundless power of this King ; who, in 
 things of this nature, hath given himself so wholly into 
 their hands, that their credit with him has given jealousy 
 to all his other Ministers : whereof not one does approve 
 [of] these methods; but are willing, upon all occasions, to 
 declare they are not the Authors of them. pp. 209-211. 
 
 The next two Letters were in reply to this noble Appeal. 
 
 George Savile. London. August 7 1681. 
 
 In particular, I shall endeavour to justify my Protestant- 
 ship, by doing all that is in my power towards the encourage- 
 ment of those that shall take Sanctuary here out of France : 
 though, even in that, our present condition considered, there 
 is great tenderness to be used in the manner of it; that we 
 may give no occasion for a higher Persecution against them 
 there, or (by disputing the Prince's power over his own sub- 
 jects) draw a question upon us, which would hardly be 
 decided in our favour : and we are not strong enough to 
 support our having the wrong end of an argument, p. 212. 
 
 Sir Leoline Jenkins. Whitehall. ^^,'^^/^^^^ , 1681. 
 
 7th August 
 
 What you write of the poor Protestants of that side, 
 is great sense, and a noble compassion. 
 
 On this day sevennight [21st July, O.-S.], there was a 
 Memorial, drawn by some of them already came over, read 
 before His Majesty in Council. 
 
 His Majesty ordered Letters immediately to be prepared 
 for his royal signature, to my Lord [Bishop] of London, 
 and my Lord Mayor, for the making a speedy Collection ; to 
 answer, in some measure, their present necessities. 
 
 The Memorial, His Majesty was pleased to refer to a 
 Committee : and of Eight or Nine Points which the French 
 demanded, as a help and an ease towards their transport 
 and their settlement, there was nothing but what my Lords 
 assented to, as far as things were practicable here. 
 xxvi.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 I do hope the Collection in London will prove consider- 
 able ; and may be so disposed of, as will best suit with the 
 exigences of those people. 
 
 Besides this Collection ; there is a ^rief directed to be 
 issued out, all the Kingdom over: and His Majesty hath, 
 this day, agreed to everything in the Report and Advice of 
 the Committee. 
 
 That great point of interceding for them with the 
 French King, has not yet been debated, p^). 213, 214. 
 
 xxyH
 
 1 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 V. 
 
 Its rchdion to I'UujIisJi Historj/ of thcit period. 
 
 i will he well to give here in full, the Order in Council to which 
 Sir Leoline Jenkins refers. 
 
 At the Court at Hampton Court, 
 the 28th day of July 1681. 
 
 Present 
 The King's most excellent Majesty. 
 
 [William Sancroft,] Lord [Edward Conway,] Earl of 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. Conway. 
 
 [John Robartes, Earl of [Thomas Belasyse,] Lord 
 
 Radnor,] Lord President Viscount Fauconberg. 
 
 [of the Council]. [Laurence Hyde,] Lord 
 
 [Arthur Annesley, Earl of Viscount Hyde. 
 
 Anglesey,] Lord Privy [Henry Compton,] Lord 
 
 S^^^- Bishop of London. 
 
 [Henry Hyde,] Earl of Master Secretary [Sir Leo- 
 
 Clarendon. line] Jenkins. 
 
 [John Granville,] Earl of [gi^ jqhn Ernley,] Master 
 
 Bath. Chancellor of the Ex- 
 
 [William Craven,] Earl of chequer. 
 
 Craven. Master Seymour. 
 
 [George Savile,] Earl of Master [Sidney] Godolphin. 
 
 Halifax. 
 
 HIS MAJESTY, by his Order in Council of the 21st 
 of July instant, having been graciously pleased to 
 refer a Memorial, presented to His Majesty on 
 behalf of the distressed Protestants abroad, to 
 the consideration of the Right Honourable the 
 Lords Committees of this Board for Trade and Planta-tions, 
 with directions to report their opinion thereupon; And their 
 Lordships having, this day, made their Report to His 
 Majesty in Council — His Majesty, upon due consideration 
 thereof had, was pleased to declare, 
 
 That he holds himself obliged in Honour and Con- 
 science to comfort and support all such afflicted Protestants 
 xxviii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 who (by reason of the rigours and severities which are used 
 towards them, upon the account of their Religion) shall be 
 forced to quit their native country, and shall desire to 
 shelter themselves under His Majesty's Royal Protection, 
 for the preservation and free exercise of their Religion : 
 And, in order hereunto, His Majesty was pleased further to 
 declare, 
 
 That he will grant unto every such distressed Protestant 
 who shall come hither for refuge, and reside here, his 
 Letters of Denization under the Great Seal, without any 
 charge whatsoever : and likewise such further Privileges 
 and Immunities, as are consistent with the Laws, for the 
 liberty and free exercise of their Trades and Handicrafts. 
 
 And that His Majesty will likewise recommend it to 
 his Parliament, at their next meeting, to pass an Act for 
 the General Naturalization of all such Protestants as shall 
 come over, as aforesaid ; and for the further enlarging their 
 Liberties and Franchises granted to them by His Majesty, 
 as reasonably may be necessary for them. 
 
 And, for their encouragement, His Majesty is likewise 
 pleased to grant unto them. That they shall pay no greater 
 duties, in any case, than His Majesty's own natural-born 
 Subjects : and that they shall have all the Privileges and 
 Immunities that, generally, His Majesty's native Subjects 
 have, for the introduction of their children into Schools 
 and Colleges. 
 
 And His Majesty was likewise pleased to order, and it 
 is hereby ordered accordingly. That all His Majesty's 
 Officers, botli Civil and Militarj% do give a kind reception 
 to all such Protestants as shall arrive within any of His 
 Majesty's Ports in this Kingdom ; and to furnish them 
 with free Passports, and [to] give them all assistance and 
 furtherance in their journeys to the places to which they 
 shall desire to go. 
 
 And the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners 
 of His Majesty's Treasury are to give orders to the Com- 
 missioners of His Majesty's Customs, to suffer the said 
 Protestants to pass free, with their goods and household 
 stuff, whether of a greater or a smaller value, together with 
 their tools and instruments belonging to their Crafts or 
 Trades, and, generally, all what belongs to them, that may 
 
 xxix.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 be imported according to the Laws now in force ; without 
 exacting anything from them. 
 
 And for the further relief and encouragement of the 
 said necessitous Protestants ; His Majesty hath been pleased 
 to give oi'der for a General Brief through his Kijigdom of 
 England, Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick, for 
 collecting the charity of all well-disposed persons, for the 
 relief of the said Protestants who may stand in need 
 thereof. 
 
 And to the end that, when any such come over, being 
 Strangers, they may know where to address themselves to 
 fitting persons, to lay their Requests and Complaints before 
 His Majesty: His Majesty was graciously pleased to appoint 
 [William Sancroft,] the Most Reverend Father in GOD, 
 his Grace the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and [Henry 
 CoMPTON,] the Right Reverend Father in God, the Bishop 
 of London, or either of them, to receive all the said 
 Requests and Petitions ; and to present the same to His 
 Majesty, to the end such Order may be given therein as 
 shall be necessary. 
 
 Phil. Lloyd. 
 
 London. 
 
 Printed by the Assigns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, 
 
 and Henry Hills, Printers to the King's 
 
 most excellent Majesty. 
 
 1681. 
 
 XXX.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 The national Collection, on this occasion, amounted to jG3,819 in 
 London, and £12,788 in the country. 
 
 The total amount of the Collections in England for the Huguenots, 
 down to 1701, amounted to .£136,382: independent of the Parliamentary 
 Grant of dEl 5,000 a year from 1695, referred to at p. 428. 
 
 2. The Reader must take special note, that the first four Texts, 
 on pp. 1-182, in this Vokime were in circulation in England before the 
 happy and glorious Revolution of 1688 ; which they tended to make 
 all the easier. 
 
 Although Claverhouse and his Dragoons were imitating the 
 French Government in Scotland ; Englishmen were quite determined 
 that they would not be Dragooned out of their Religion. 
 
 The crucial question in the Trial of the Seven Bishoi^s in 1688 was, 
 Had the King's mere Declaration the force of Law or not '? as was the 
 case in France. 
 
 James II. fully purposed to do in England all that Louis XIV. did 
 with impunity in France. But the English i^eople had had a better 
 political education than the French nation. They had had their 
 M((f/)ia Charta ; and, for four hundred years after, their 07xe national 
 Parliament had met at Westminster. In fact, the bulwark of the 
 British Constitution had already been largely biiilt up against Royal 
 Tyranny. So that James XL, w^hen (by his ceaseless attempts to destroy 
 English Law) he had united an indignant nation against him, very 
 wisely for himself, ran away. As he knew well enough ; there was 
 always the chance that he might be beheaded, like his father. 
 
 3. That King's relations to the Hugvxenot Refugees in England are 
 briefly touched upon at pp. 92-94. 
 
 4. For a subsequent Account of those Refugees in England down 
 to 1707, see Hilary Reneu's Preface at pp. 413-431 ; which is the 
 latest information contained in this Volume. 
 
 5. Another side-light on English History is. That this Volume 
 teaches us to understand what was meant, at that time, by the Doctrine 
 of Passive Obedience, and Non Resistance, to the Royal Authority ; 
 which was so preached up by the Hot-Heads and High-flyers of the 
 Church of England to their Nonconformist brethren in those days. The 
 Huguenots accepted that Doctrine absolutely : but our Nonconformists 
 remembered Naseby. 
 
 XXXI.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Some other infornmtlon from the Enfjlinh Envoij at Paris. 
 
 Some further particulars respecting the Huguenots may be quoted 
 here from 'the Savile Correspondence.' (Camden Society. 
 1858.) 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. March 1 1681. 
 
 The Coininissioners for Relif^ioii do still proceed to 
 destroy Temples in all places. That of Caen in Normandy 
 escaped narrowly, about a month ago: but that of Quarenton 
 was condemned ; and the reason given, because it was too 
 near the coast of England — which fright[en]s those of 
 Dieppe ; though theirs is named in the Edict of Nantes. 
 p. 189. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. March 8 1681. 
 
 Eight Sea Officers were put out of their employments 
 last week; only for being of the Religion: and such methods 
 are taken, that, within a year, there will not be left any ; 
 unless perhaps the age and merit of Monsieur [the Marquis 
 Abraham] Duquesne may get him alone excepted, j). 189. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. April 26 1681. 
 
 You may have observed in the ' Gazettes,' of late, the 
 number of Proselytes to the Roman Church in Poitou : of 
 which, I believe, one of the most prevailing arguments is, 
 [the] taking half the taxes from New Converts, and placing 
 them upon those who remain firm ; that, whilst 'they get 
 Souls for God Almighty,' as they call it, the King may lose 
 no money. All other mortifications of quartering Soldiers, 
 etc., are not omitted, p. 193. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. June 25 1681. 
 
 The Huguenots are in daily expectation of a very severe 
 Edict against them ; by which any of their children shall 
 be capable of choosing their Religion at seven years old. 
 How this will correct the chastisements of their parents, 
 and how it will expose them to the temptations of the 
 Seducers, is enough apparent. 
 
 In Poitou, the quartering Soldiers upon them has made 
 so many Proselytes, that the same trick is to be tried in 
 Languedoc ; and 500 Dragoons are ordered to march thither, 
 for that purpose, pp. 197, 198. 
 xxxii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. July 2 1(581. 
 
 The Edict I mentioned in one of my last, concerning 
 the Hugnenots and their children, does so alarm them, that 
 they are making extraordinary Deputations to tlie King, to 
 prevent it. By the next post, 1 shall give you a better 
 account of it. In the meantime, our want of a Bill of 
 Naturalization is a most cruel thing, in this conjuncture, 
 p. 201. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. July 5 1681. 
 
 Old Monsieur de Ruvigny has given a Memorial to the 
 King concerning the Edict coming forth about the children 
 of the Huguenots. The King said, He would consider it. 
 But these poor people are in such fear, that they hurry their 
 children out of France in shoals : not doubting but this 
 Edict will soon be followed by another to forbid their send- 
 ing them out of the Kingdom. I will confidently aver, that 
 had a Bill of Naturalization passed in England, last winter; 
 there had been at least fifty thousand Souls passed over by 
 this time. p. 201. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. July 12 1681. 
 
 I send you here the terrible new Edict concerning the 
 children of the Huguenots. They are more sensible of this, 
 than [of] all the former mortifications [that] have been 
 given them. p. 206. 
 
 Then, in the order of time, comes that Letter of 'great sense, and a 
 noble compassion,' from which we have quoted at pp. xxiii-xxvi. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. October 15 1681. 
 
 Here is great discourse of an assurance the Cardinal 
 d'Estree has given the Pope, of the King's resolutions to 
 extirpate the Protestant Religion in France. The truth is, 
 the most trivial means are not neglected ; and they have 
 descended so low, as to displace Painters out of the Goblins, 
 as unworthy to gain any livelihood : with other little 
 severities, one would have thought, far beneath the obser- 
 vation of so Great Men as busy themselves in ' so noble a 
 work,' as they call it, 'as the rooting out [of] heresy.' p. 229. 
 
 Henry Savile. Paris. November 21 1681. 
 
 I send this in favour of a Protestant Linendraper who, 
 with all his substance, is resolved to retire into England : 
 in order to which he has packed up his shop, and sent it in 
 
 xxxiii.
 
 Introdiiction. 
 
 specie to Dunkirk: having paid all the duties and customs, 
 on this side, for exportation. But, being now told, ' That 
 his Religion will not hinder the confiscation of his goods,' 
 he goes first to London himself, before he will hazard his 
 effects. 
 
 This being his case, he desires a recommendation to 
 you, begging your favour and assistance ; which I hope you 
 will please to afford him as far as the Law will permit : 
 which, if stretched a little upon the account of Religion, 
 will not, I believe, give ofi'ence to the most rigorous 
 Legislators. 
 
 This man will be able also to give you some lights into 
 the method of bringing the Manufacture of Sail Cloth into 
 England; the Project I have always appeared so fond of: 
 which may entitle him to some favour ; though I need not 
 doubt but he will, from your bounty, find all the regular 
 assistance desired, on his behalf, by. Sir, 
 
 Your most faithful, and most humble, servant. 
 Master Secretary Jenkins. 
 
 Here is a Protestant Haberdasher, in the same trouble 
 about carrying his effects. Pray instruct me, what to say 
 to such people, upon the like occasions. 
 
 I assure you, it is worth a serious consideration : for if 
 you refuse to take substantial Tradesmen, with their ware, 
 they w^ill go into Holland ; so that they will get the rich 
 Merchants, and we only the poor ones. p. 236. 
 
 Henry Savile. February 13 1683. 
 
 In obedience to your commands, I have recollected 
 what contests I had, during my employment in France, 
 concerning the Most Christian King's new Edicts in point 
 of Religion : from which I ever maintained that the 
 [British] King's subjects were exempt. 
 
 Not to trouble you with every little accident of this 
 kind ; I shall mention the two most material : 
 
 The first Avas the case of Mistress Bikerton : to whom, 
 on her death-bed, the Commissary carried the Ciirate [Cure]; 
 according to the methods of the Edict. 
 
 Of this, I complained to Monsieur DE Croissy, who 
 justifying the proceeding; I demanded an audience of the 
 King himself : who, being prepossed in the matter, did also 
 xxxiv.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 argue the reasonableness of the thing. All my arguments 
 against it weighed but little with him, till I showed him 
 his own printed Edict; where it being particularly specified, 
 ' nos sujets,' he did himself allow me in the right ; and 
 accordingly gave order that all Commissaries should be 
 warned to forbear the like proceedings for the future. 
 
 The second dispute happened in the case of my Lord 
 William Hamilton : to whom the Curate went alone, 
 without the Commissary ; contrary to the form of the 
 Edict. This made my Complaint so justifiable in the 
 manner, as well as the matter, that I would not be con- 
 tented with anything less than the Curate's coming to my 
 house to ask my pardon. 
 
 This, Monsieur de Ceoissy told me, was impossible to 
 obtain ; but, upon speaking to his Most Christian Majesty, 
 he commanded the Archbishop of Paris to order the Curate 
 to do what I desired : wliich was performed so well, that 
 nothing of the like kind happened during the remainder of 
 my employment. 
 
 I shall add nothing further; but that I humbly conceive 
 the King's subjects are, and ought to be, in France on the 
 footing of the Treaty of Nantes : that being the rule of 
 Religion there, at the time of the last Peace betwixt the 
 two Crowns. If it be otherwise ; so many accidents will 
 daily happen, that it will at last be [a] matter of very 
 great clamour: it being made, according to the new Edicts, 
 very uneasy either to live, or die, in France, pp. 269, 270. 
 
 XXX Y.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Revocdtion Atrocities. 
 
 1. '' I ">liere is tlie merest glance, in this Volume, at these Enormities, 
 I at pp. 117-120, 157-182; the full Story of which can never 
 
 * be told. 
 
 These Atrocities/will ever be a dark blot on the history 
 of the brave French Army; seeing that they turned themselves into 
 Cut-throats, Plunderers, and Tormentors, of perfectly inoffensive 
 people; who made no resistance at all, and who were their own 
 countrvmen. ' 
 
 XXXYl.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 What are ire to tJihik of the French Confessors of that Age ■ 
 
 When the Reader has read the first four Texts on pp. 1-182, of 
 this Volume ; he will do well to pass on to BioN's 
 descrijition of Life on a French Galley in those days, 
 at pp. 437-447. 
 "2. After which, he may turn back to the four chief Narratives 
 of tliis book, riz. the Sufferings of 
 
 Louis de Marolles, a cultivated Country Gentleman of 
 Champagne. 1686-1692. at pp. 183-258. 
 
 Elie Neau, a naturalized British Subject living at New York, 
 and the Captain of a small ship. 1692-1698, at pp. 259-280. 
 
 Isaac Lefevre, an Advocate of the Parliament of Paris. 1686- 
 1702, at pp. 303-412 : 
 together with the Narrative of 
 
 Jean Francois Bion, a Roman Catholic Priest serving as 
 Almoner on the ' Superbe ' Galley; Avhom the tortures of the 
 Huguenots converted to Protestantism. 1703-1707, at pp. 433-460. 
 
 3. Interwoven with these Narratives, will be found 
 
 The frightful Laljours and Sufferings of Pierre Mauru. 1686- 
 1696, at pp. 355-368; far surpassing those of Samson among the 
 Philistines. 
 
 The Letter of the simple, but illustrious, Shepherd; who learnt 
 to write since he was in bonds, at pp. 374. 375. 
 
 The Story of the Huguenot Maiden at Marseilles, at pp. 376, 
 
 »»r7r7 
 Oil. 
 
 The Petition of Monsieur D. S. L., on behalf of the Huguenot 
 Galley Slaves, to the Intendant at Marseilles ; which made such a 
 noise. June 1700, at pp. 381-384. 
 
 The pathetic Christian Letter of Pierre de Serres the Elder, 
 Oct. 8 1700, just after he had been bastinadoed, at pp. 393-394. 
 
 4. After the Peace of Ryswick, at which nothing was done to help 
 them, the Sufferings of the Huguenot Slaves were increased. From 
 June 1699, they were brought under the Tent at the Stern of the Galley, 
 and there chained, during the Ronmn Catholic Divine Service. If they 
 did not kneel and take off their Caps at the elevation of the Host ; 
 they were most cruelly bastinadoed, almost to death. This was the 
 very height of barbarity. All Europe, Catholic as well as Protestant, 
 exclaimed against this monstrous Inhunmnity: so that the French 
 Court, for very shame, ordered it to be stopped in July 1701. See 
 pp. 281-302, 378-380, 389-398. 
 
 xxxvii.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 BlON witnessed a revival of lliis haibai-ity in 17();i, pp. 4,07-459. 
 
 .O. Wlicti we look oil all this imiueuse mass of Misery and 
 Suffering; we have always to recollect that the Confessors had only to 
 pronounce the two words, 
 
 ' J'abjure.' I abjure, 
 to be delivered from it all. But those words were never sjioken. They 
 chose rather to lay down their lives than to utter them. 
 
 C. The Courage, the Fidelity, the Piety, and the C'harity towards 
 GOD and their brethren, of these Huguenot Galley Slaves were beyond 
 all praise. They attained to a most exalted Christian character. Truly 
 the> were indeed the Saints of GOD ! 
 
 7. Their Letters are most beautiful. A iiumber of other Letters, 
 written by the very men mentioned in this book, will be found in the 
 'Journal des Galeres, 1696-1708,' in the Eighteenth \'olume of the 
 'Bulletin Historique et Litteraire ' of the Societe de I'Histoire du 
 Protestautisme Fraueais, Paris. 
 
 XXXVlll.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 IX. 
 
 WJio irrrr the supposed (idiners hi/ >( .' mul ulint icas their success /, 
 
 T 
 
 1. ^ I ^lie Popes, the Hiei'tirclvy, the Priests, the Monks, and tlie 
 Nnns, of the Chinch of Kouie were thought to be the 
 gainers by this Peisecntiou ; so shouhl the infamy of it, 
 to the end of Time and through all Eternity, rest upon all 
 
 those who took any part or share in it. 
 
 We must, however, discriminate. Doubtless, some of tlie Frencli 
 
 Bishops and many of their Secular Clergy secretly abhorred these 
 
 Inhumanities; which tliey were helpless to prevent, mid which the 
 
 Pope blessed. 
 
 It is indiibitable that the Order of the Jesuits engineered the 
 
 whole thing ; and therefore should the execration of the entire Human 
 
 Race rest on that Order for ever ! Their crime against perfectly 
 
 innocent people is passed all human forgiveness. 
 
 2. But the glorious thing of the whole matter is, That this 
 frightful Persecution failed. 
 
 Councillor Reynaud told Louis de Marolles at Paris, on May 
 27 1686. 
 
 Before seven or eight months are at an end, your 
 Religion shall be no more mentioned in France ! p. 215. 
 
 3. But Hilary Reneu, writing twenty-one years after that, says, 
 
 As, for instance, they gave out sometime since, That all 
 the Protestants of France went to Mass ; and were really 
 converted to the Romish Religion— than which, nothing is 
 more notoriously false. 
 
 For proof whereof, one need only observe. That the 
 present War [1707] having necessitated the raising of [the] 
 Militia in France, Personal Taxes have been laid on the 
 Protestants who refuse to go to Mass ; which serves as a 
 Fund for the payment of the said Militia. So that the 
 Clergy of France, who had promised the French King to 
 extirpate the Protestant Religion and to make the Romish 
 triumph, have done quite the contrary. For let them 
 banish the Ministers, prohibit the Assemblies, exile them, 
 and inflict even death itself ; if they please ! This doth not 
 destroy Religion ; but only, as it were, cuts off those rivulets, 
 
 xxxix.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 whose springs remain. For they cannot hanish the Light 
 of the Reformed ; ]ior liinder the Consolation of the HOLY 
 GHOST! p. 42L 
 
 4. At tliisliour, Pi-otest:uitism liolds an impoi'tajit and lionourable 
 position in the natioui-.l life of France; and long may it continue 
 to do so ! 
 
 Xl.
 
 Introduction. 
 
 X. 
 
 Wliaf the study of tJiin Vol tune Hhottld lead uh to do 1 
 
 The pieparation for the press of the heroic and pathetic Story 
 contained in this Volume so affected me, that I went to Paris 
 to get into touch with the existing French Protestants, the 
 lieirs of tliis great Christian Tradition. 
 I had there the opportunity of meeting with the representatives of 
 the ' Union Nationale des Eglises Ileformees Evangeliques ' ; and to 
 find, among the meinhers of those Churches, an eminent Christian 
 Gentleman, who is willing to act as an authorized Honorary English 
 Secretary, to answer in English any questions concerning those 
 Churches, and to receive such donations or subscrij)tions as the readers 
 of this Volume may be disposed to send to him for the same, or for the 
 diffusion of the Holy Scriptures in France. 
 The address of this Gentleman is, 
 
 Monsieur Andre Raoul-Duval, 
 26 Avenue Marceau, 
 Paris. 
 Our French brethren have great need of effective sympathy and 
 help; especially since the Separation of Church and State in that 
 country. 
 
 Will not some strong-souled English-speaking Protestants (whether 
 Conformist or Nonconformist) interest themselves in their affairs; and 
 offer to them both friendship and funds '} 
 
 The ' Entente Cordiale Politique ' is, and will be. a great blessing 
 to the entire human race : but we ought also to supplement that, with 
 the 'Entente Cordiale ' of all Evangelical Christians; who so ardently 
 desire to see the reign of our blessed Lord established in the hearts of 
 all mankind. 
 
 May Almighty GOD ever have us all in his holy keeping ! 
 
 Edward Arber. 
 
 xli.
 
 A T^rue Relation 
 
 of the 
 
 Sad Estate 
 
 of the 
 
 Reformed Churches in France ; 
 
 and several Passages of the great Persecution 
 they lie under. 
 
 Collected out the several Addresses and Speeches in prints 
 made unto the French King ; 
 
 by 
 
 A hearty Well-tvisher to the Protestant [f Interest'], 
 
 London. 
 Printed in the year 167[_9']. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves.
 
 Note. 
 
 This Text is taken from a small secretly-printed 
 Tract, in the Library of Sion College (Victoria Embank- 
 ment, London. E.G.), which seems to be rare: for no 
 other copy has yet been traced. 
 
 Its Title-page is somewhat torn : but its date is fixed 
 at 1679, by the reference, at page 29, to Louis XIV's 
 Proclamation against 'Apostates,' of March 13 1679. E.A.
 
 The Preface. 
 
 THE DISTRESSED CONDITION of the Protestants 
 of France (who cannot expect relief from any, 
 under GOD, but this Kingdom) hath moved me to 
 publish this little Treatise of their Persecutions ; 
 and sooner than I designed, for that their total 
 ruin seems to be at hand. From His Majesty's care of 
 maintaining the true Protestant Religion in these Realms ; 
 and, in obedience to his command, the Lords and Commons, 
 now assembled in Parliament, taking it into their consider- 
 ation which way it may be settled on sure and unshaken 
 foundations : I hope that this zeal will shew itself as 
 forward in protecting abroad that same Religion with us 
 professed in substance (some Ceremonies only omitted, 
 which are used in our Church), as in preserving it un- 
 corrupted from Popish superstition at home ; not only 
 Christianity, but even Humanity and our own Interest, 
 obliging us to interpose on their behalf. 
 
 And though I know His Majesty's gracious and generous 
 nature needeth not precedents or examples to incite him to 
 it: yet I cannot omit some passages in the 'Memoirs' of 
 the Duke of Rohan ; where he shows the zeal both of King 
 James and King Chaeles I. for the Protestant Interest. 
 
 King James, in the year 1612, after a League made with 
 the Queen of France against the Spaniard, hearing that 
 the Edicts relating to the Protestants were infringed, he 
 signified to the Queen, that, if she continued to persecute 
 them for their Religion, that League should no longer 
 continue: because, said he,' Nature teacheth. Lib. i of the Duke of 
 when we see our neighbours afflicted for a RoHAN's'Memoirs,' 
 thing that relates to us ; we ought to con- p. 29. Printed at 
 sider the consequents thereof, so as to Paris. I66I. 
 provide for it,' 
 
 The same worthy Author relates that, in the Second 
 War against the Protestants, the late King Chaeles, anno 
 1627, in the third year of his reign, was so great a Patron 
 of the Reformed Churches as to interpose as [a] Mediator ; 
 
 3
 
 Charles I., a Surety for the Hugenots. 1679. 
 
 and, with the consent of the French King, became their 
 Lib. 3, p. 184 ; and Protector or Surety, that their Edicts of 
 Lib. 4, p. 212. Nantes should remain inviolated. 
 
 He further saith, in his Fourth Book, page 207, that 
 the King of England, after a while, hearing that they were 
 again unjustly oppressed, sent a Gentleman, by name Mr. 
 De Vic, to declare to the Duke of Rohan, how much he was 
 concerned in the Persecution of the Protestants ; and 
 required them, on all occasions, to make their comjDlaints 
 to him, that, as he was Caution for the performance of the 
 Edicts, he might demand satisfaction for the breach : and 
 that, in case the French King should refuse, he would 
 employ the strength of his Kingdoms, and expose his own 
 person, in the vindication of the said Edicts. 
 
 And, in the Fourth Book, page 213, the Duke of Rohan 
 writes. That the Duke of Buckingham, being in the Port 
 of Rochelle, sent to the Protestants one Mr. Beecher, 
 commissionated [^commissioned] to tell them. That the King, 
 his Master, hearing of the oppression of the Protestant 
 Page 214. Party, whereof he counted himself a mem- 
 
 ber ; and being moved with compassion towards them, and 
 finding himself bound in honour to relieve them : he offers 
 them his best succour by sea and land ; protesting that he 
 would not prosecute any pretension of his own, but only 
 the performance of things promised them. 
 
 Since then, heretofore, it hath been accounted the 
 Interest of England to protect the poor distressed Protestants 
 in Policy, as well as on a Religious Account, by our former 
 Kings and Princes : I hope it will be esteemed so now : and 
 that GOD will incline both His Majesty, and all in 
 Authority, to imitate them herein. Hereby shall His 
 Majesty gain a great deal of honour and glory, render him- 
 self more formidable to his enemies, and have a great Interest 
 both in the prayers and affections of many thousands of 
 Souls; who, for want of his protection, are daily made weary 
 of their lives, by the slavery and miseries they endure for 
 their Religion. A sad Catalogue whereof (sufficient to melt 
 the hardest heart), the ensuing Treatise will sufficiently 
 discover : all the passages being collected out of authentic 
 Authors ; or the Speeches and Addresses in print, made by 
 the Deputy General, and other Deputies, of the Protestants 
 from several parts of the Kingdom of France, to their Most 
 Christian King, as they generally term him. 
 i
 
 A Brief Relation of the Persecuted 
 Protestants in France. 
 
 THE CALAMITIES the Reformed Churches groan 
 under, this day, are so numerous, whether we con- 
 sider the Church in general or the particular mcra- 
 hers of it, that to give a Full View of them to the 
 World would be a work of great time as well as 
 labour. I shall, therefore, in this Narrative, as compen- 
 diously as may be, offer to your view several instances and 
 cases relating both to the Church in general; and to several 
 worthy persons, who, with an undaunted Christian courage 
 and resolution, both have been, and at this day are. Sufferers 
 for their Religion. All which instances are not to be con- 
 sidered simply in themselves, as Crosses befalling some 
 particular persons : but as the Spring-head whence flow all 
 those miseries wherewith the Church at this time is almost 
 overwhelmed ; so many families ruined, and reduced from 
 plentiful estates to want of bread ; and such Provinces and 
 Cities filled with mourning and lamentation, as have been 
 most inhabited by them. 
 
 ' The foundation whereon the Privileges and Liberties 
 enjoyed by the Protestants are built, is on some Edicts 
 made at Nantes by Henry IV., King of France and Navarre, 
 and proclaimed, after a solemn manner, to be irrevocable and 
 perpetually observed, in the month of April 1598 : and was 
 published in the Parliament of Paris, the 25th of February 
 1599A 
 
 There were Edicts, before this, passed in favour of the 
 Protestants, during the reigns of Feancis I., Henry II., 
 Francis II.; and by Charles IX., in the beginning of his reign, 
 in the month of January 1561 : whereby the Protestants 
 had leave to assemble together to hear the Word preached 
 
 5
 
 Coligni's bead carried to Home, as a trophy. i679. 
 
 in all parts of the Kingdom ; provided they met without 
 their City Gates, 
 
 The year following [15G2], he made a second Edict, per- 
 mitting them to preach in their Cities : every person nobly 
 descended having likewise a Privilege granted him of keep- . 
 ing a Minister to preach and administer the Sacraments. 
 This Peace lasted till the month of September [15G5]. J 
 
 Second War. 
 I The Second Troubles broke out in the year 1565, and 
 ended in the year 1568 : the former Edict being confirmed 
 to them, which was made in 1562; justly termed by the 
 Protestants, ' The Dissembling or Feigned Edict ' ; as by 
 what followeth will plainly appear. 
 
 Third War. 
 / For in the month of August, anno 1568, the Third 
 Troubles broke out ; and continued until the month of 
 August 1570. At which time, the Protestants willingly 
 embraced, as they did at all other times, a Peace : and, in 
 favour of them, the King published many Edicts ; which, 
 for brevity sake, I shall not here relate. 
 
 Fourth Yiar. 
 But Satan, the great Author of all sedition, division, 
 and cruelty, stirred up Instruments to disturb their peace, 
 on the 24th of August 1572, being Saint Bartholomew's 
 Day, a day never to be forgotten by Protestants ; whereon 
 they massacred most treacherously more than Seventy 
 Thousand Protestants, so that the streets of Paris ran down 
 The Admiral with blood : and, among them. Admiral 
 
 Coligni's head COLIGNI and several persons of great Quality, 
 
 was carried, as a who, for that very end and purpose, were 
 Trophy, to Borne ; invited to the Court by that treacherous 
 as thuanus, and bloody Prince, under specious pretences 
 
 De Caroio IX, of kindness. 
 
 P' ^^^' This cruel and deceitful practice occa- 
 
 sioned a Fourth War or Commotion in the Kingdom ; which 
 was, in the month of July 1573, appeased by another Edict.^ 
 
 Fifth War. 
 [ In February 1574, the Fifth Commotion began; and 
 many Papists in that Kingdom, by reason of oppression, 
 6
 
 1679. The Sixth and Seventh Civil Wars. 
 
 joined with the Protestants in taking up Arms for the 
 defence of their Privileges : but these Troubles ended in 
 1576 ; their former Edicts being augmented and confirmed. 
 
 Sixth Wa7\ 
 
 This advantageous Peace to the Protestants being 
 made ; at a general Convocation of the States at Blois, on 
 the 24th of November 1576, an Address was resolved to be 
 made to the King, That all Edicts formerly inade in favour 
 of the Protestants might be annulled ; and only the Roman 
 Catholic Religion be established throughout the Kingdom. 
 Unto this request, the King, at the solicitations and earnest 
 pressing arguments used by them and the bloody Clergy 
 (who, on all occasions, were incendiaries, and stirred him up 
 both to massacring of his loyal subjects, and [to] breaking 
 all promises and Edicts made to them), consented; and 
 confirmed it by Letters Patents, the 25 February 1577. 
 These severe proceedings kindled a Sixth War. 
 
 But, before the States were separated, an Edict was 
 given at Poitiers, in September 1577: whereby, though many 
 Privileges formerly granted to Protestants were taken away ; 
 yet they, out of a love to peace, submitted to the King's 
 Will and Pleasure. Only, by reason of the treachery they 
 had met withal, they insisted to have Eight Towns delivered 
 in hostage for six years ; which was the Term of Peace 
 promised by the King. But the King, according to the 
 maxim among the Papists, ' That no faith is to be kept with 
 Heretics,' did not long keep this Peace inviolated : but 
 endeavoured underhand, in a clandestine way, their ruin. 
 
 Seventh War. 
 Charles IX. died in April 1576 ; and Henry HI. 
 reigned in his stead. He was hardly warm in his throne, 
 but his bigoted Council put him on the doing [of] many 
 things equally infringing the Liberties of the Papists as 
 well as the Protestants : whereupon a new War ensued ; 
 and the Duke of Alencon headed them. In a little time, 
 they grew so numerous and strong, that the King, to 
 prevent those Evils which would inevitably accompany such 
 a War, huddled up a Peace : confirming to the Protestants 
 all former Edicts ; and to the Papists, their former Privileges 
 granted by his Predecessors.
 
 The Edict of Nantes, oO April 1598. 1679. 
 
 Henry IV., King of Navarre, succeeded liiiii in the 
 Kingdom, in the l)oginning of July 1591. The Kijig con- 
 firmed the Edicts made hy th(? late King, [in] Soptomber 
 1577, in favour of the Protestants ; and declared that he 
 would maintain the Privileges formerly granted to them. 
 Although, on the 25th of July 1593, he abjured his Religion: 
 yet his tenderness to the Protestants (knowing their prin- 
 ciples to be such as that he might safely reign and rule, 
 without fearing any disloyal attempts, as afterwards he 
 found from the pretended mortified Monks and Jesuits) was 
 such, that, at Nantes, he proclaimed that Edict ; whereon 
 depends the only safety and Privileges the poor Protestants 
 enjoy. 
 
 'After the publication of this Edict at Nantes, which, as 
 I have already mentioned, was anno 1598; the King caused 
 a Publication hereof to be made throughout the whole 
 Kingdom, and sent Commissioners in all his Provinces to 
 see them put into execution, for the establishing of a firm 
 Peace : Avhich lasted so long as this worthy Prince lived. 
 
 This Edict had a larger extent than any that had ever 
 before been made in favour of the Protestants ; and was 
 punctually observed during his reign. He was stabbed 
 by Ravaillac : one by most imagined to be set on work by 
 the Duke of Guise; for that [because] in his house that 
 villain had been privately harboured for some days before 
 that bloody act. / 
 
 Louis XIII. succeeded him : but, instead of being such 
 a friend to the Protestants, he used all severity towards 
 them. In the beginning of his reign, he raised an army ; 
 and took from them all Ports, or whatever Towns of Strength, 
 they had had, by an interru2)ted right, many years in pos- 
 session : but the King of England (as Defender of the Faith ; 
 and consequently concerned in the welfare of such as 
 possessed the same Faith) interposing in behalf of the 
 Protestants on all occasions, all former Edicts made by 
 King Henry IV. were confirmed and ratified. 
 
 The same Edicts have likewise been confirmed by 
 Louis XIV., who at present sits on the throne of his 
 ancestors: and, in the year 1652, by a particular Declaration, 
 [he] did so much right to his Protestant subjects, as to 
 confess they had given him proof of their loyalty beyond all 
 he could imagine : and thereupon decreed that all Edicts, 
 Orders, Declarations, or Proclamations, whatsoever, made 
 8
 
 1G79. Louis XIV. enlames that Edict. 
 
 fc>" 
 
 in their behalf, should continue in full force and virtue; 
 threatening that whosoever should presume to act contrary 
 to this Declaration should incur his high displeasure, and 
 be esteemed a traitorous enemy to the Kingdom. 
 
 . He likewise enlarged this Edict ; confirming to the 
 Protestants the Titles of several Churches which had 
 before this been founded and built, with an irreversible 
 Decree: the Romish Clergy, even then, being very busy; and 
 endeavouring, by all means imaginable, to have them razed 
 to the ground.
 
 OF LATER YEARS, that viperous brood, to colour 
 the like malicious Designs and attempts, have 
 found out, or rather invented, some indirect 
 ways to give a semblance of Justice to such 
 practices ; by accusing the Protestants of having 
 unjustly erected new Churches since the Edict: hereupon 
 requiring them to produce the Titles of all their Churches. 
 It hath been their practice of old, on all occasions, to accuse 
 the Protestants of passing the bounds limited in the Edict 
 of Nantes : and two Commissioners, for this end, were 
 usually chosen, the one, a Roman Catholic, by the King, 
 the other a Protestant and elected by Protestants ; the 
 King's Council being Umpire, if at any time they differed. 
 
 And hereby the Romish Clergy, by specious pretences 
 of Equity and Justice, have dexterously carried on their 
 Designs to the destruction and ruin of the Protestants. 
 The injustice of whose proceedings may by any impartial eye 
 be discerned, if they consider. That whereas the Reformed 
 Churches were wont to demand of the King a Commisioner 
 to be by him appointed ; and then made their own choice 
 of the other, whereby they might be relieved whenever 
 oppressed : the Clergy have refused the person by them 
 elected, and have chosen some other, whom they might, 
 either by his ignorance, easily guide their own way ; or, by 
 reason of poverty, with fair and large promises, easily 
 pervert. 
 
 2. That, of late years, the Roman Catholic Com- 
 missioner hath usurped a Privilege to nominate his Partner, 
 such a one as the Clergy have judged most fit to serve their 
 Designs. An instance whereof, I shall give in one Monsieur 
 SiGONiAC of the Upper Guienne, who was chosen by the 
 Bishop of MoNTAUBAN ; contrary to the Avill of the Pro- 
 testants, so declared before the King. This person, however, 
 after such time as he had done whatever the Bishop and his 
 crew would have him do, after he had robbed the Protestant 
 Church of the little Treasure they had, to defray his 
 expenses in following the business for which the Bishop 
 10
 
 1679. Protestants charged with Usurpations. 
 
 had chosen him, viz., their ruin ; he changed his Religion, 
 as a recompense whereof, the Protestants were compelled to 
 give him whatever he asked. 
 
 Another example I have met Avithal which I cannot 
 omit, the more clearly to discover the illegal proceedings of 
 the Po2)ish Clergy against the Protestants. One Monsieur 
 DE La Tapisserie, of Burgundy, chosen Commissioner, the 
 last year [1678], contrary to the will of the Protestants, 
 was, by bribes and promises of preferment, induced to sign 
 an Act for the Demolition of several of the Protestant 
 Churches, whereof he professed himself a member ; and 
 which ever had been esteemed to be founded on a good and 
 just Title. This Gentleman hath, of late, from a remorse of 
 his unjust proceedings, confessed that he was put into the 
 Commission by the Jesuits ; and, for so acting, had an 
 annual pension paid him by them. 
 
 3. That Avhereas in such Commissions, the one Com- 
 missioner cannot act in the absence of the other, and ought 
 not to act without the consent of the other ; nevertheless 
 the Popish Commissioner is now become absolute Master, and 
 hath gotten the sole power into his hands : and a Prohibition 
 is issued forth, forbidding the Commissioner that should 
 transact for the Protestants, to control the will and pleasure 
 of the other. 
 
 4. That the Catholic Commissioners are wholly at the 
 devotion of the Clergy is clear as the light. For common 
 sense and laws of reason will, that since the Clergy is the 
 Party accusing, that they shew the times and circumstances 
 thereby to prove these pretended Usurpations ; and to pro- 
 duce evidences for what they allege. For, all the world 
 over, in such cases, two things are required : 
 
 First. That he that shall labour to dispossess another 
 of his possession, shall shew by what power or virtue he 
 attempts it. 
 
 Secondly. That the person in possession be kept in 
 it, till such time as his adversary shall prove, by a more 
 authentic testimony, that he enjoys his possession, not by 
 right; but by usurpation. 
 
 Nevertheless these fundamental Maxims of Common 
 Justice are overthrown, which concern the Protestants of 
 France ; as if they ought not to participate in Natural 
 Equity and Justice. 
 
 Whenever the Clergy will dispute with, or control, 
 
 11
 
 Titles of Protestant Churches questioned. 1679. 
 
 tlio Protestants in anything, whether the Titles of their 
 Chm-ches, or their Liberties, they shall be heard with all 
 patience: which liberty is denied to the Protestants. 
 
 They have compelled thein to produce the original 
 Titles to their Churches, and to justify them : although, for 
 above Eighty years their Titles have been deemed good and 
 incontestable ; and, by the Law, after Forty years of quiet 
 possession, the Title is held to be good by the most rigorous 
 Inspectors. 
 
 But besides a long possession enjoyed by the Protestants, 
 it appears, and that undenial)ly, that King Henry IV., the 
 year after the publication of the Edict of Nantes, sent 
 Commissioners into every Province, to inform him of the 
 state and condition of the Protestants ; and, under the 
 hands of all Civil Magistrates, both in Cities, Towns, and 
 Countries, had Certificates brought him ; which, having 
 narrowly examined and deliberately considered, he con- 
 firmed, and allowed them the Places of Worship they then 
 possessed. 
 
 Nay, more than this ! LouiS XIIL, his successor, sent 
 other Commissioners for the same end and purpose, in the 
 year 1620. 
 
 Shall the Establishment, or Title, of these Churches 
 then, after so many Confirmations, be questioned ? or is 
 there any reason to dive any more to the bottom of them ? 
 or are Commissioners now chosen better to be believed than 
 they that were then employed ? Have these a clearer sight 
 and inspection into things than they ? 
 
 But supposing that their Titles were, by negligence, 
 lost in so great a revolution of time, they not dreaming, 
 after so many years, to have them questioned ; with what 
 Colour of Justice can they take any advantage thereat '? 
 Would they not, in Equity, be relieved ; after that, by Com- 
 missioners, in the space of Twenty years, these Privileges 
 and Titles were thrice examined and allowed ? 
 
 But, besides this, they have much more to plead. For 
 the disorders of War having caused some interruption in 
 their Religious Exercises in many j)laces ; they procured an 
 authentic Declaration, anno 1622 ; a second in 1626 ; and a 
 third in 1629 : by which the Protestants had granted to 
 them the free Exercise of their Religion in those jjlaces 
 which were allowed them in 1620. This is expressed in the 
 12
 
 1679. The nature of the Protestant Titles. 
 
 Declaration, anno 1626 ; and afterwards confirmed in 1629. 
 So that we see, in those Times, the adversaries of the 
 Reformed Church did not use so narrowly to search into 
 the Estahlishments of the Protestant Divine Service. It 
 was then sufficient to know, Whether they were founded, 
 or had a being, in 1620 ? : the King's Declarations then 
 deciding all such malicious contests. 
 
 Moreover, in the years 1649 and 1650, Louis XIV., 
 King of France, gave two Decrees ; importing that the 
 Protestants should not be molested in the Exercise of their 
 Religion, nor in the possession of their Churches, nor in 
 any other Privileges formerly granted to them : but that 
 they should enjoy all things as at the time of his father's 
 death. What reason then, or with what Justice, can the 
 Clergy give them the trouble they do at this day ? 
 
 Neither is this all these distressed Protestants have to 
 allege ; for more than five parts of their Churches are now 
 demolished, for which they can produce authentic and 
 undeniable Titles : as will appear by the Registry of their 
 Christenings and Marriages ; by their Consistory Books ; 
 by the enrolled succession of Ministers before, and ever 
 since, the Edicts of Nantes ; by the Account Books of the 
 Salaries from time to time paid to the Ministers. All 
 which are sufficient evidences to the most scrupulous 
 [exacting^ Judges, but the Romish Clergy and their Com- 
 missioners ; who Avill not allow of anything that may 
 favour the Protestants. 
 
 Although these evidences and proofs before the King's 
 Council, and in their Courts of Parliament, have been 
 allowed of; although all the several Decrees and Edicts of 
 Henry IV. and all the translations [ ? transactions] of the 
 Commissioners in those Times, and during the reign of the 
 late Louis XIII., have been examined and narrowly looked 
 into by inveterate enemies of the Protestant Church, and 
 have been allowed of, as undeniable Testimonies : yet, of 
 late years, they will not pass muster with them ; but they 
 accuse the former Commissioners, either of inadvertency in 
 not well examining the Titles, or of want of understanding, 
 or of partiality. Thus have they found out a thousand 
 wiles to disallow what hath been formerly done : so that, 
 by such fallacious means, I may aver, nothing can have so 
 good a foundation but they will shake it, if not overthrow it. 
 
 It were needless to produce proofs of this. They glory 
 
 la
 
 The destruction of Protestant Churches. 1679. 
 
 in it thoniselvos. Among tliom, a Monk of tho Barnabite 
 Order, and a Deputy from the Clergy of Beam, boasteth in 
 print that, of One Hundred and twenty-three places where 
 the Pi-otostants used to assemble to hear the Word of GOD, 
 all Churches well founded, there remained but Twenty: the 
 rest all demolished. 
 
 Some Churches have, either by war, or fire, or some 
 Revolters in whose hands the Records and Titles lay, 
 irrecoverably lost them ; as, for example, in Brittany, Vitry 
 and some others : and although they have, notwithstanding 
 the loss of their original Titles, given good proof of their 
 Churches' legal establishment ; yet these testimonies would 
 not be allowed of, but they were condemned to be demolished, 
 by an Order of this present King. 
 
 There is no fence against their sophistry and malicious 
 allegations. If the Churches are near the sea, then they 
 allege that, by reason of their situation, they ought not to 
 be allowed of ; let their Titles be, what they will ; as at 
 Note, that, by the Carantan in Normandy, although a Baili- 
 Edict of Nantes, wick. Sometimes they say. That the towns 
 in every Bailiwick were taken by assault during the War. 
 [Baiiiiage] , they Many examples hereof may be given. The 
 have the Privilege Church of Negrepelisse shall, for brevity 
 of a Church. sake, suffice : which was proved to have 
 
 been in their possession ever since the year 1561, by such 
 undeniable testimony that, with all their subtilty and 
 craft, they could not gainsay it ; but their Title, though 
 never so good, could not hinder it from being demolished. 
 
 So far are they from being concerned for whatever the 
 World shall say of their unjust practices, that they are 
 arrived to that height of impudence as that, of late, they 
 have made no difficulty of condemning one Church to be 
 demolished, which is expressly mentioned in Twenty-eighth 
 Article of the Edict of Nantes, viz., Chauvigny in Poitou. 
 This severe Act passed on it, the Gth of August 1665. 
 
 a
 
 HEREBY MAY EVIDENTLY appear that tlie Court 
 of France designs nothing more than the ruin 
 and utter extirpation of the Protestant Religion : 
 since neither Edicts, Declarations, or Decrees, 
 heretofore made and oftentimes confirmed, shall 
 he valid ; and that it is not Usurpations they so greedily 
 look at ; but they use those Terms only as a cloak to their 
 violent and illegal proceedings. For a further discovery of 
 which vile practices, I shall specify several severe Decrees 
 lately passed on the Protestants : 
 
 Of Threescore and One Churches in Poitou, there 
 remaineth but One uncondemned, viz., ^^ ^j^^ Churches 
 Niort : obliging therefore about 80,000 ^^^^^ ^^^ 
 Souls to live without the Exercise of their ciemoiished. 
 Religion. 
 
 In the country of Gex, of Twenty-three Churches, 
 they have spared but Two ; and these, they report, only out 
 of their clemency : so that they lie open to the adversary, 
 to be taken away at pleasure. 
 
 In Guienne, of Fourscore Churches, there remain but 
 Three uncondemned by the Catholic Commissioner ; who is 
 wholly governed by a Jesuit, named, Mesnier. 
 
 In Brittany, they have condemned all, Vitry not 
 excepted : according to the counsel of the Marquis de 
 Chastelet [i.e., Paul Hay, Sieur de Chastelet, the Younger] , 
 in his Book of Politics, concerning the Hugenots [,in 1669], 
 
 In Normandy, they have, with the like fury, prosecuted 
 them, that few are left ; except at Rouen, Caen, and Dieppe. 
 
 In Provence, of Fifteen or Sixteen Churches ; [there] 
 remain only Two or Three. 
 
 Let me now then put an appeal to any rational man's 
 judgement, Whether it is probable that so many Churches, 
 now become heaps of rubbish, had only Usurped, and not 
 Just, Titles ? as if in Poitou, there were but One that was 
 legally established ; and all the rest had no just foundations"? 
 The like may be said of other Provinces. 
 
 15
 
 760 Protestant Churches in 1599. 1679. 
 
 Laiiguedoc, and Leaenes, and Vivarais, and Danphigny 
 are likewise filled with complaints for ruined and desolate 
 Chui'ches; not having a fourth part, in these respective 
 Counties lProvinces~\, left them, of what they enjoyed: not 
 to name those of Saintonge, Augumois, and Aunis, which 
 are in the Black Book, ready to he condemned ; and sixty 
 others whereof they have but little hopes. 
 
 Is there any reason to think that these Churches, had 
 their Titles not been good, would have been so long spared, 
 that none of the Popish Clergy would have had a fling at 
 them till now ? or have complained of such Usurpations ? 
 None that knows them, or their malicious minds, can think 
 so. 
 
 In the National Synod held at Montpcllier, anno 1599, 
 the sum of 120,000 Livres [;i;i2,000] given by the King as a 
 Stipend for Ministers, was divided after the proportion of 
 Seven Hundred and sixty Churches : without reckoning 
 places privileged with Liberty of Preaching, as many Manors, 
 Cities, and Bailiwicks ; or those that were ordered to be re- 
 established by the Edict published in 1577. 
 
 How few remain of this great number, the sad Catalogue 
 of the Ruined Churches will discover, which I shall annex 
 at the close of this Narrative. 
 
 The Churches that have hitherto escaped their fury are 
 in a continual expectation of being destroyed ; their Titles 
 being no better than those that are become ruinous heaps. 
 Nay, many of those Churches are left untouched, whose 
 j^., ., , Titles may be with the greatest difficulty 
 
 thrpiotrstants to cleared ; and consequently, at their pleasure, 
 have their children nnder some pretence of Justice, may be 
 baptized but in demolished : or else such are left, as are the 
 
 such places as, ' most inconveniently situated, as in marshes, 
 by the Edict of or low grounds which are often overflown, 
 
 Nantes, are or else impassable in the winter ; depriving, 
 
 appointed for i3y such means, many good Christians of 
 
 Divine Worship. ^^^q possibility of hearing the Word ; inso- 
 much that, in many places, these poor creatures are forced 
 to travel forty-five miles to hear a Sermon, or to baptize 
 their children, which often die by the way. 
 
 And by reason of the many Churches demolished, those 
 that are standing are not able to contain the tenth part [of 
 the Congregations] : and the Papists, being enraged to see 
 such great Assemblies, have brought their complaints to the 
 16
 
 1679. Huguenots forced to destroy their own Churches. 
 
 King ; and some Persons of Quality have been imprisoned. 
 As Madame de Reynier ; who, being amongst others accused, 
 was sent to the Bastille in Paris, and, for some time, kept 
 in suspense of her life : the crime laid to her charge, being 
 only for having been present at an Assembly in her parish 
 of Issoudun in Poitou ; a Church, now demolished, which 
 had above 3,000 Communicants. After this Lady had 
 remained a considerable time a Prisoner ; she was banished 
 the Province. 
 
 The barbarous and inhuman manner of executing these 
 cruelties, in the destroying of their Temples, is also very 
 remarkable. For they are not only \_si7nply'] satisfied with 
 their being demolished : but they will oblige the Protestants 
 themselves to destroy them ; that they may become equally 
 guilty with these villains of ruining those places dedicated 
 to the Service of the Most High GOD. And because many 
 would not assist, or have a hand, in such a diabolical work ; 
 their houses have been plundered, and laid level with the 
 ground : and great fines have been laid on them besides. 
 This has been the case of many Persons of Quality in 
 Poitou. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 2 17
 
 THESE INSATIABLE MEN have not been satisfied 
 with these severe proceedings against the Churches: 
 but, with the like fury, have they assaulted all the 
 Protestant Academies and Schools ; with which 
 the whole Protestant Interest cannot but fall. 
 Whence shall they be supplied with Ministers, if the 
 Nurseries, wherein they are bred up, be destroyed ? 
 
 The Academy of Puis Laurence, established at Mon- 
 tauban formerly, was removed, out of this very Design to ruin 
 it the more easily, as it appears : the Romish Commissioners 
 having, of late, condemned it ; and it lieth now in jeopardy 
 before the King and the Council. The University of Saumur 
 is in the like danger. 
 
 Howbeit the foundations of these Universities are firm 
 and solid. For, besides a quiet possession of seventy 
 years; according to the Edict of Nantes and other Edicts by 
 Henry IV. and Louis XIII., they were allowed and confirmed. 
 Henry IV. comprehended them in the gift he made them, 
 anno 1599 : and, in the Articles of Peace by Louis XIII. 
 to those of Montauban, they were again ratified ; and he 
 formally promised to continue his bounty for the maintaining 
 their Academy and Colleges. Likewise, in his Answer to 
 Cahier, in 1611, the Nineteenth Article, he grants to the 
 Academies of Saumur and Montauban the same Privileges, 
 Immunities, and Prerogatives, as the other Academies in 
 the Kingdom enjoyed ; according to the will and intention 
 of King Henry IV., expressed in his Answer to Cahier, 
 anno 1602, the Fourth Article. Yet all these Engagements 
 and Obligations, both of Conscience and Honour, cannot 
 prevail on these men to shew the least humanity. 
 
 18
 
 WHERE AS, BY this Edict of Nantes, the 
 Twenty-seventh Article, the Protestants were 
 to be admitted into all Offices and Commands ; 
 and by the Declaration of Louis XIII., anno 
 1629, which said Declaration this present King 
 hath declared should be duly observed ; and by the Eleventh 
 Article in the Treaty of Peace at Montauban, it is expressly 
 allowed: yet, contrary to all these Edicts and Declarations, 
 they are now declared incapable of any Office or Employment 
 whatsoever; or at Montauban, Montpellier, Milhaud, Real- 
 mont, Saverdun, Mauvezin, Casteljaloux, and many other 
 places. The poor Protestants, in all Provinces, by this 
 means, are so oppressed, that both their lives and fortunes 
 are exposed daily to the barbarity of their enemies. 
 
 The Romish Clergy do not deny but that, by the Edict 
 of Nantes, the Protestants ought to be admitted into Public 
 Employment and Offices : but they maintain that it is 
 contrary to Right ; both Divine, Civil, and Canonical. To 
 Divine Right, because it is contrary to the decency of the 
 Roman Catholic Interest, that the faithful should bring 
 their controversies before Infidels : and, as St. Paul to the 
 Corinthians, it is contrary to the Civil Right ; for that he 
 forbids them to place in any Offices of Trust or Honour 
 such as are enemies to the Faith. 
 
 Thus these implacable enemies of the Protestants, as 
 they have endeavoured to take from them their spiritual 
 bread ; so have they likewise laboured to take from them 
 their temporal and corporeal bread. For, besides keeping 
 them out of all Offices of Profit or Honour, they exclude 
 them from setting up any Trade or Profession, unless they 
 abjure their Religion; whether Shoemakers, Tailors, Apothe- 
 caries, etc.: so that, in many Provinces of France, the 
 Protestant Artificers are brought to beggary and want of 
 bread. 
 
 These proceedings are likewise directly contrary to all 
 the Edicts both of Henry IV., Louis XIII. and this King 
 now reigning : those Edicts indifferently admitting the 
 
 19
 
 The Punishment of Protestant Proselytes. 1679. 
 
 Protestants, as well as others, into Public Charges, Ofi&ces, 
 Dignities, and Employments. 
 
 But, alas, in lieu of these Privileges, many of the 
 Protestants are banished ; others have had their estates 
 seized and confiscated ; and others have been scourged by 
 the hands of the Hangman. Some of them, after their 
 death, have been taken out of their graves, and dragged 
 along the streets on sledges. As, at Fontenay le Comte, a 
 Gentleman, having a little before his death abjured the 
 errors and heresies of Rome, was thus used after his death ; 
 his wife was most barbarously used for following his 
 example, and for educating her children in the same faith ; 
 and the Minister, before whom this Abjuration was made, 
 was seized upon, and cast into gaol for some considerable 
 time. 
 
 And lest the number of Converts should too fast 
 increase, an Edict passed on the 2nd of August 1666, 
 called ' The Edict de Relapse ' ; whereby such as have once 
 embraced the Roman Catholic Religion are, on peril of a 
 perpetual banishment, forbidden to return to the Protestant 
 Church. 
 
 What an unparalleled tyranny is this, thus to rack the 
 Consciences of poor men ! to constrain them, by force, to 
 play the hypocrites ! to appear visible Papists, having 
 through ignorance been deluded : when, in their hearts, 
 they are duly sensible of their errors ; and, but for fear, 
 would readily turn to the Protestant Church ! 
 
 In the execution of this cruel Edict, so eager and 
 violent have they been, that they have punished many from 
 returning from Popery to the Protestant Religion, even 
 before this Edict came forth. As one, named, Jean Gayrard, 
 who, having turned Papist on the 2nd of August 1662 ; and, 
 the year before this Edict, (being convinced of his erroneous 
 and heretical Religion) having become a Protestant : for 
 this he was condemned, in the Parliament of Toulouse, to 
 be led by the Hangman, with a rope about his neck, only in 
 his shirt, bare-headed and bare-footed, before the Cathedral 
 Church of Montauban ; and, at the conclusion of High 
 Mass, on his knees, to beg pardon of GOD and the King. 
 After this, he was fined and banished. This procedure is 
 directly contrary to the Ninth Article of the Edict of 
 Nantes. 
 
 In short, none can imagine the desolation in many 
 20
 
 1679. The Kobberies of Protestant children. 
 
 families, by reason of these barbarous Declarations. On the 
 decease of a father, or mother ; if, in times past, they have, 
 either of them, been Roman Catholics, although they 
 have, before their death, abjured the heresies of Rome, and 
 before this Declaration : yet the children have been taken 
 away by violence from the surviving parent, to be bred up in 
 the idolatrous worship of the Church of Rome. They have 
 thus robbed some parents of their children, and carried 
 them away into Cloisters and Monasteries ; and obliged the 
 parents to allow them pensions, such as themselves shall 
 think fit. 
 
 An example we have of this, in a Gentleman of Bur- 
 gundy, named Monsieur de Farot. Because his Wife 
 became a Roman Catholic, seven or eight years past ; they 
 took from him three children. One of them, being of twelve 
 or thirteen years old, forsook his mother, being desirous to 
 profess the Protestant Religion ; and fled to his father : but 
 was, in a few days, by force, fetched out of his arms, by 
 twelve Pursuivants ; and he was threatened never to see 
 his child's face any more. 
 
 Many such like examples could I give. One Binder, 
 of Rouen, a Painter, was thus robbed of his children. 
 
 But herewith they rest not satisfied : but have, of late 
 years, deprived parents of their children, where both of them 
 have been bred up and continued in the Profession of the 
 Protestant Religion. By such unjust and barbarous dealing, 
 most Cities and parts of the Kingdom where the Protestants 
 inhabit, have become dismal and solitary with mourning 
 and lamentation. These transactions have been not only 
 connived at by Authority ; but encouraged : and at Rouen, 
 in the Parliament, a Decree passed for the taking away of a 
 young Gentlewoman (whose parents lived and died in the 
 Protestant Religion) from her friends, contrary to her 
 declared will and consent, to be educated in the Romish 
 Church, under such a Guardian as the Bishop should 
 appoint. 
 
 Unto this ' Declaration de Relapse,' as they style it, 
 they have added another ' Against Blasphemers ' : which, as 
 they interpret, reacheth to such as shall speak against the 
 mysteries of their Religion. An Act of great importance, 
 and which is the cause of innumerable Evils to the Pro- 
 testants : for their Ministers, their Books of Controversy, 
 
 21
 
 The Chambers of the Edict. 1679. 
 
 nay, for their private discourses of Religion, they are liable, 
 on all occasions, to be condemned for 'Blasphemy'; where 
 the Romish Clergy shall be the Judges. 
 
 And whereas, by the Edict of Nantes, there was a 
 
 • f H ' Chambre de I'Edict, ou Mi-parte,' tliat is, 
 
 ^ , . ^.^ , , a Court of Judicature, where all matters 
 in a book, intituled . , -r-k • .r^ • • i 
 
 'An Explication of relating to the Protestants, m matters Civil 
 the Edict of ^^' Criminal, were definitively determined: 
 
 Nantes,' written ^s may appear by the Thirty-fourth Article 
 by a Papist, one in the Edict of Nantes, whereby the Judges 
 Monsieur [Pierre] are decreed to be half of them Protestants, 
 Bernard, the and the other half of them Roman Catholics ; 
 
 King's Councillor to the end that Justice might impartially 
 atBeziers. Printed ]jq done to all parties, as is expressed in the 
 at Paris, by the Thirtieth Article. 
 
 King's Printer, g^^^ ^^^ Clergy, the better to compass 
 
 their great Design, which is the absolute 
 ruin of the Protestants, have, by their Interest in Court, 
 procured an Order from the King and his Council, forbid- 
 ding this Court of Justice to take any cognizance about 
 ' Revolters,' or 'Blasphemers'; but that the Parliament 
 alone shall determine what ought to be done : which, by the 
 continual applications of the Clergy, are ready to condemn 
 whatever comes before them. So that this ' Chambre de 
 I'Edict' is now wholly taken away in most Provinces, as at 
 Paris, Rouen, and elsewhere : expressly contrary to the 
 Edict of Nantes ; which, being composed of Ninety-two 
 Articles, hath Thirty-eight expressly relating to this Court 
 of Justice. 
 
 This great Privilege being thus abrogated, their lives 
 and estates are at the mercy of their merciless enemies ; 
 the Archbishops and Bishops having the liberty, at their 
 pleasure, to sit in Parliament : whereby the Interest of the 
 Clergy becometh so considerable, that they carry all before 
 them ; and whatever they do against the Protestants, they 
 account a sacrifice well pleasing to GOD. 
 
 The injustice done by these Parliaments against the 
 As at Toulouse Protestants is not conceivable ; much less 
 
 Rouen, Rennes, to be expressed : and all other Courts of 
 Bordeaux, Pau, Judicature follow their cruel examples ; for 
 
 Provence, Dijon, every petty Judge in the country hath no 
 Metz. other way to render himself famous, but 
 
 22
 
 1679. The Protestant Agents ordered to quit Paris, 
 
 by persecution. As the Judge of Mezieres commanded 
 "for a rule to be generally observed, That all of the 
 Reformed Religion should fall on their knees, when 
 the little bell should ring, going before their Host 
 or Sacrament, which they carry to sick people in their 
 solemnity. 
 
 Monsieur Femault, Lieutenant General of Dreux, 
 caused Daniel Sibille, a Protestant Minister of Fon- 
 taines, to be carried away prisoner, his chamber to 
 be rifled, and his body to be cast into a dark Dungeon, 
 where he kept him a long while ; and would not 
 release him till he had paid a great fine : to punish him, as 
 he pretended, because he had been one of twenty that had, 
 five years before, accompanied a dead corpse to the grave. 
 
 So that the Protestants now can have no hopes of any 
 Justice ; not only in those matters that relate to their 
 Treaties, Edicts, and Royal Declarations, and other par- 
 ticulars relating to their Liberty of Conscience ; but also in 
 Civil Matters : and when they appeal to the King or his 
 Council, where their affairs are finally concluded ; they 
 cannot be heard. 
 
 It hath often happened that some Deputies of Provinces 
 or Cities, sent by them, to make known their grievances, 
 have received an express Order from the King to return 
 home, before they could come to declare their business. 
 
 After this manner. Monsieur de Vignolles, appointed by 
 the Province of Lower Languedoc, was used, when he went 
 to Paris, to complain of the ill usage the Protestants had 
 met withal. He was no sooner arrived at Paris ; but one of 
 the King's Pursuivants was dispatched to him ; com- 
 manding him to depart the City in eight days, on pain of 
 imprisonment. Likewise, Monsieur Faisse, whom the 
 inhabitants of Privas had sent with their orders, as soon as 
 he did appear, the Captain of the King's Guard commanded 
 him, in the King's name, to depart instantly ; on the like 
 peril of imprisonment. 
 
 And when the Province of Lower Guienne had sent 
 Monsieur Sarrau to represent their grievances to the 
 Court ; he received a private letter, under the King's Seal, 
 forbidding him to come to Court. 
 
 Many more such precedents might be alleged; and if 
 some have been successful (after many difficulties, affronts, 
 
 23
 
 The Protestant Agents fail to get Justice. i679. 
 
 and injuries), when they have come to have their Cases 
 heard, many times no Advocate dare appear to plead their 
 cause: and, when heard, let them bring never so strong 
 arguments, and use never so much reason, they have been 
 at last slighted and rejected, and their most apparent proofs 
 scorned ; whereas the least surmises of their adversaries 
 liave been counted good. They have sometimes spent whole 
 years to pursue their affairs, and in expectation of audience : 
 where as sentences obtained against them by the Clergy 
 have been dispatched in less than twenty-four hours. Nay, 
 many times, after long waiting and great charges, the 
 Protestant Agents have been forced to return home, with 
 the sad tidings of the loss of their juster Causes. 
 
 24
 
 AFTER THIS MANNER, the Consciences, goods, 
 honour, and the very lives, of these poor Christians 
 are exposed to the cruelty of their merciless ene- 
 mies, on a thousand occasions ; without any help, 
 or hope, of Justice. A Roman Catholic may, at his 
 pleasure, destroy a Protestant. Witnesses are never want- 
 ing. The King's Attorney Generals, or their Deputies, or 
 the Bishops' Syndics, or the Judges for the Convents or 
 Ecclesiastical Chapters, will never fail to prosecute. 
 
 Some have been condemned to be chained to the Pillory. 
 
 Some have been fined 100 French Livres, or i£10 English, 
 for having made mention of a story related by sundry 
 Authors. How a Priest endeavoured to cheat the World by a 
 false miracle, by causing a vine to pierce through the head of 
 an Image, which, being cut in the time of year that the sap 
 mounts upwards, the sap would drop at the eyes : whereat the 
 poor people were deluded ; thinking the image had, without 
 such art, wept of itself. This passed, a considerable time, 
 for a great miracle : but at length the cheat was discovered. 
 
 Another Protestant was forced to stand in the Pillory, 
 and was amerced [^fined] , for having said. That GOD had 
 buried a Saint's body, for fear his bones should be adored ; 
 and that when the Devil offered to take them, an Angel 
 from GOD withstood him, saying, ' The Lord rebuke thee ! ' 
 This we find in Holy Writ, Deut. xxxiv. 6 ; and in the Epistle 
 of St. Jude V. 9. 
 
 Another was cast into Prison ; because he said. That 
 the Romish Priests hid their lights under a bushel. 
 
 Another was, after the like manner, punished, and 
 condemned to pay a considerable fine, only for saying. That 
 the Cross they worship was but a piece of wood. 
 
 If any Protestant hath an enemy of the Roman 
 Catholics, or a Suit in Law, he shall be most assuredly 
 accused of having spoken amiss of the Pope, the Mass, or of 
 the Virgin Maky: and their False Witnesses are ever ready; 
 which, being sworn, the Protestants lose their Cause. And 
 if these Witnesses be convicted of perjury; they are seldom 
 
 25
 
 The False Accusers of Protestants go scot free. 1679. 
 
 punished : or such light punishments are inflicted as serve 
 rather to emholden them, than terrify. As the Priest of 
 Eymet in Guicnne, wlion he had accused a great many of 
 the inhabitants of that place of having profaned the holy 
 mysteries of the Church of Rome ; the Judges found the 
 accusation to be false : but though it tended to the 
 destruction of the lives and goods of many of the inhab- 
 itants ; yet he escaped unpunished. 
 
 The Priest of Chatellerault accused a poor, innocent, 
 harmless, damsel of having spoken of the King in a dis- 
 respectful manner ; for which she was in danger of having 
 her tongue cut out, and of being whipped by the common 
 Hangman. The Judges discovered this Priest to be a 
 villain, and a false accuser : however nothing was done 
 unto him. 
 
 Likewise, Monsieur de La Touche was accused by the 
 Abbot of La Chapelle, before the Parliament of Rennes, to 
 have taken a Chalice out of a Church ; for which he was 
 burnt alive, by the order of that Parliament : and, since, 
 his innocence hath appeared, and he found guiltless of the 
 fact, by the execution of the right Offender. However, they 
 have done nothing to repair the injury done to his name 
 and memory ; but declared, for that he was a Heretic, he 
 hath deserved it ! 
 
 Neither hath the Parliament of Toulouse taken any 
 notice of a wicked Varlet that took a false oath against a 
 Merchant of Montauban, That he had spoken amiss of the 
 blessed Virgin. 
 
 The Minister of Pausange, one Monsieur Robineau, 
 was likewise falsely accused by an Augustine Friar and a 
 Curate to have preached up sedition; and for this pretended 
 [allegecr] crime only, he was kept many months in the 
 Prison at Poitiers : and though, at last, his Accusers were 
 convicted for false accusations ; he could have no satisfaction 
 for all his sufferings. 
 
 Monsieur [Jean] Bokie, Minister of Turenne, was also 
 cruelly handled. He was cast into a deep Dungeon, put in 
 fetters, threatened with death, treated in a most inhuman 
 manner for a whole year; and at last was banished for ever, by 
 an Order of the Parliament of Bourdeaux : only because, as 
 they say, he used several expressions in his Sermons, which 
 might seem reflecting on the honour of the Virgin ; where as 
 ho said nothing else in his Sermon but this, That none but 
 26
 
 1679. More False Accusers unpunished. 
 
 Jesus Christ was born without sin. 
 
 The Bailiff of Privas was never punished : although he 
 had been convicted, before the Judges of Vivarais, for having 
 raised and encouraged false accusations against many of the 
 inhabitants of Privas ; whom he accused to have hindered 
 their brethren from changing their Religion, by terrifying 
 their Consciences. 
 
 A Priest of Niort was convicted before the King and 
 his Council, for having falsified an Order for the demolition 
 of the Protestant Church of Niort ; which was intended 
 against the Church of Mer : but was not punislied in the 
 least. Never was there a bolder attempt made before the 
 King and Council : but, instead of treating him according 
 to his merits, they laughed at what was done. 
 
 A thousand such instances might be given : but, for 
 brevity sake, I shall mention no more. 
 
 27
 
 WHEN SUCH NOTORIOUS crimes appear before 
 the Judges ; they declare that the Roman 
 Catholic Church must be preserved : not con- 
 sidering the incumbent duty upon them of 
 punishing such vile offenders, and of doing 
 Justice to all that come before them. 
 
 But that their Design is to suppress these poor Pro- 
 testants, by all manner of unjust and violent means, is most 
 apparent ; that, being thus wearied by continual vexations 
 and miseries, they might, at last, the more easily be inclined 
 to yield to the strength of temptation, to seek the freedom 
 of their bodies by the ruin of their Consciences, and the 
 abjuration of the Gospel. 
 
 They give all manner of freedom to the Priests and 
 Monks ; whose carriage is very insolent, and prone to insult 
 over the poor Protestants. They are the persons that 
 execute the severe and unjust Decrees and Orders of the 
 King against them: as in Poitou, where the Priests, of any, 
 were the most eager and diligent in the destroying of their 
 Churches, razing their very foundations ; overthrowing 
 several private houses ; and rifling the Castles of several 
 Gentlemen and Persons of Quality who professed the 
 Reformed Religion. 
 
 If, unhappily, any division were in private families 
 between Man and Wife, or other relations ; these firebrands 
 and fomenters of strife (a certain sign or mark, as our 
 blessed Saviour frequently speaketh, of whose offspring 
 they are) would come and offer the Protection of the 
 Church. 
 
 If a man is poor, and brought to beggary; they promise 
 him protection against his Creditors, and Mountains of 
 Gold, if he will but change his Religion : imitating herein 
 the old Serpent, who, with his faAvning flatteries, beguiled 
 our First Parents. They will undertake to provide for his 
 children ; to put his daughters into Nunneries, and his boys 
 into some Abbej^ or good employment. But no sooner are 
 they debauched ; but (as the Priests said to Judas, after he 
 28
 
 1679. The craft of the Priests and the Monks. 
 
 had betrayed his Lord, ' See thou to that ! ') they slight them, 
 and leave them in the lurch, their promises are forgotten ; 
 and, through despair of what they have done, [some] end 
 their days, like Judas, with a rope. 
 
 If a lewd son would shake off his father's yoke, they 
 shall flock to him with the greatest pretences and profession 
 of kindness ; pitying him, and promising great matters, if 
 he will but join himself to their Church. 
 
 If a daughter be disorderly, or undutiful to her parents 
 in this ; after the like manner will they encourage her : 
 promising to help her to a good Match. They entice her 
 into their Nunneries of uncleanness : and will oblige her 
 father to maintain her ; and to pay great sums of money 
 yearly, and rather more than his estate ]^means'] can 
 possibly bear. 
 
 If a man be prosecuted for any crime, the changing of 
 his Religion is a sure refuge. By this means, the old Count 
 DE LoRGE hath saved his life ; when he was in the Bastille, 
 for coinage of money. Many others, by the like course, 
 have escaped their due reward. 
 
 If a man be sick, and, by reason of poverty, is carried 
 to the Hospital ; his entertainment will be very harsh and 
 merciless: and, unless he renounces his Religion, he will be 
 forsaken by all, and die miserably. 
 
 A Danish Gentleman was carried to a Hospital at 
 Paris, called, * Hotel de Dieu ' ; being mortally wounded. 
 The Priests earnestly pressed him to renounce his former 
 Profession of the true Religion : but, finding him to persist 
 firmly and immovably, they made use of false apparitions 
 of supposed Devils ; appearing with a Death's head, wherein 
 they had put lighted candles, Telling this poor young 
 Gentleman that he should be damned, if he did not turn his 
 Religion, By these things, they so terrified him, that he 
 died in despair, the 24th of January 1666. 
 
 The King hath, of late [13 March 1679, see page 
 66], put forth a Proclamation against all Churchmen 
 [the Roman Catholic Clergy'] that shall embrace the 
 Reformed Religion; declaring them 'Apostates,' thereby 
 to have the better plea to punish them. They are, 
 by this Proclamation, to be banished for ever : which 
 is contrary to the Liberty of Conscience granted by 
 the Edicts to all manner of persons Ecclesiastical and 
 
 29
 
 The chief Protestant Cities of France. i679. 
 
 Civil. This, indeed, cannot l)ut seem strange, that the 
 Clergy shonld suffer their own Ojder to he treated in this 
 manner : hecause they verily believe that the intention of 
 the Priest is required in the Sacrament : and what intention 
 can th(n' have who, by constraint, are kept in the Profession 
 of a Religion which they believe to be false? Methinks, they 
 should be afraid of forcing men to be guilty of sacrilege, 
 hypocrisy, and profaneness, against their wills; and making 
 them so many Idolaters : for, according to their own 
 doctrine, in such a case, if the Priest had not a right 
 intention in consecrating the Elements, the people then 
 adore nothing but Bread. 
 
 But this is not all the misery the Reformed Churches 
 lie under. The Ministers are hindered from preaching the 
 Gospel to their Flocks, for fear of having them scattered. 
 Their mouths are stopped by threats and violence. They 
 are forced to pay great sums of money. They are banished, 
 cast into Dungeons ; and, in short, used at the pleasure of 
 the Roman Clergy. 
 
 Those Cities where the Protestants were most numerous 
 and powerful have suffered most : as Montauban, Millau, 
 Rochelle : which Churches were the most flourishing in 
 France.^ 
 
 £The first of these hath lost its University, its privileges 
 and freedom. It has been pillaged ; 5,000 or 6,000 soldiers 
 being put [there] in garrison several months together. 
 Many of the principal inhabitants have been, some hanged, 
 others burnt. Others have had their houses plundered and 
 demolished. Many, by severe and barbarous usage, have 
 been constrained to go to Mass ; and, at last, forced to accept 
 a General Pardon for supposed crimes.. For, during the 
 time of the pretended [alleged] tumults objected against 
 them, there was neither a sword drawn, nor a gun shot off, 
 nor a drop of blood spilt, nor any violent act committed. 
 It was only a company of people met together in their 
 Church, according to their usual manner, that sent to the 
 King's Deputy in the Province, to intreat him to forbear 
 the execution of the King's Private Letter, which deprived 
 them of that right which most justly belonged to them 
 (namely, their Classes or Colleges, built by them at their 
 own charges), and gave them to the Jesuits. They desired 
 only so much time as to acquaint His Majesty with their 
 30
 
 1679. The treatment of Protestant Proselytes. 
 
 pleas and grievances. This is the crime for which they have 
 been treated as severely as if they had made an attempt 
 against the State : and, since that time, they have l)een at 
 the mercy of the crnel Priests, that deal with the miserable 
 inhabitants in a most tyrannical manner. 
 
 Millau has been threatened after the same manner ; 
 only because the Protestant inhabitants did bury a dead 
 corpse after their usual manner: contrary to the King's 
 Proclamation, that forbids them many expressions of kind- 
 ness, or charity, or sorrow, on such occasions, j 
 
 In Rochelle, the Papists have banished most of the 
 Kcfiest 3,nd wealthiest inhabitants ; and laid greater taxes 
 on the rest. 
 
 But these Cities have been much more favourably dealt 
 with than Privas. This town did very much flourish under 
 the protection of the late deceased King [Louis XIII.] ; and 
 the inhabitants were confirmed there in their Privileges 
 by several Orders from the King: so that they have enjoyed 
 a long space of peace for about thirty-two or thirty-three 
 years. But now, of late, they have been all banished the 
 town and its territories ; after a most savage and barbarous 
 manner. These inhabitants, that were near 500 or 600 
 Souls, men and women, besides children, are now driven 
 from their habitations ; and forced to wander up and down, 
 and to shelter themselves in woods and forests, as the 
 miserable beasts : they not being suffered to rest in any 
 habitable place, 
 
 I shall, in the next place, give a brief Account of the 
 cruel usage of such as have been bred up in the Romish 
 Religion; when, from a sense of their former delusions, they 
 embrace the Protestant faith : contrary to the Liberty of 
 Conscience granted by all former Edicts. 
 
 If they be Females ; their parents take them away by 
 violence, and hurry them away into Convents : where they 
 are most barbarously persecuted, kept only with bread and 
 water ; sometimes famished and starved to death ; some- 
 times whipped to death. 
 
 Sometimes the subtilest Monks and Friars come to 
 visit them, to discourse and ensnare them with promises of 
 disposing of them well in marriage ; and, according to their 
 inclinations, suiting most diabolically their temptations : 
 and, if these will not prevail, they force their parents to 
 
 31
 
 Endless cruelties. i679. 
 
 disinherit them. And in case they persist, then either the 
 Ministers, or some relations or friends, are accused of having 
 seduced them from their Church. 
 
 If they be Males ; they are commonly disinherited. 
 
 A thousand examples might be brought of these cruel- 
 ties practised by the Papists against the French Protestants. 
 
 32
 
 THUS I HAVE, with all the brevity that may be, laid 
 open the First Causes of all the Evils that have 
 befallen the Reformed Church. 
 First, Justice is denied them ; their Judges 
 being their Adversaries : their Courts of Edicts 
 (where they made all their complaints ; and whence only, if 
 at any time, they had Justice done [to] them) demolished. 
 
 Although, by a peaceable possession for seventy years 
 enjoyed, and confirmed likewise by various Edicts and 
 Declarations of the King ; yet are they, at this very day, 
 so miserably oppressed with such severe Decrees, that the 
 hardest heart cannot but pity and relent at the very 
 Relation of their miseries. 
 
 One Decree forbids their Singing of Psalms in their 
 houses. 
 
 By another Decree, they are prohibited a corres- 
 pondence [letter-ivriting~\ one with another. 
 
 They are, by another, rendered uncapable of bearing 
 any Of&ce. 
 
 By another, their Ministers' mouths are stopped ; so 
 that they cannot preach : but they are in continual danger 
 of being accused, for not speaking with reverence of the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 They are forbidden to print books in vindication of 
 their Religion, without the Magistrate's Order, and the 
 King's Attorney General's ; which can never be expected. 
 
 They are forbidden any private meetings of their Minis- 
 ters to regulate the affairs of their Congregations ; and to 
 see to a punctual observance of the Public Discipline. For, 
 in the interval of time between the Provincial Synods, it 
 was their custom to ordain new Ministers. Now, they are 
 forbidden any such practice of Ordaining : to the end that 
 the Churches may be destitute of Ministers ; and, conse- 
 quently, of the Word and Sacraments. 
 
 Another Decree forbids them to do acts of charity to 
 any of their brethren ; ( when they cannot themselves vindi- 
 cate their Cause against the adverse party. 
 
 By another, their Ministers are not suffered to preach 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 3 33
 
 The Decrees against the Protestants. 1679. 
 
 at any considerable distance from their residence ; that 
 they might not have the privilege of a Plurality : many 
 Congregations being but small and unable to maintain a 
 Minister; wherefore, till this Decree, two or three Congrega- 
 tions joined their stocks together for the better subsistence 
 of a Pastor. Now it is very observable that this poverty 
 proceeds from the detention of 135,000 French Livres 
 [.1*13,500] granted as a Pension by King Henry IV. for the 
 entertainment of such Ministers : for were this payment 
 continued by the King's Officers, every Congregation would 
 have a distinct Minister. 
 
 Their National Synods are prohibited. 
 
 Their public Schools are taken away from them every- 
 where : so that their children cannot be taught by any of 
 the Protestant Religion ; and are often taken from them 
 and shut up in Convents, and their parents forced to main- 
 tain them in such places. 
 
 They have not the liberty to make a Profession of any 
 of the Mechanic Arts and Sciences ; so that all means of 
 subsistence are taken from them : and of that little they 
 have, they are frequently pillaged and plundered. 
 
 They are forced to the repair and rebuilding of the 
 idolatrous Popish Churches, Chapels, Priests' Houses, more 
 than the Papists themselves. 
 
 Their lives and estates are in continual danger : for if 
 they be charged with any supposed crime, they have no 
 ' Courts of Edicts ' to relieve them : but must submit to the 
 Parliaments and Higher Courts.; 
 
 The Liberty of Conscience, formerly granted, is miser- 
 ably abridged ; and the Inquisition, in effect, established 
 and set up : they not daring to discover their minds before 
 the Papists, for fear of being accused of Blasj)hemy.^' 
 
 If any be sick, they cannot lie quietly in their own beds 
 at their own houses, nor in the Hospitals ; without con- 
 tinual solicitations from Priests and Monks to change their 
 Religion : they having the liberty to enter their houses at 
 pleasure ; which, to dying men, though never so well fixed 
 in the Religion, must needs be a great trouble and torment. 
 
 The Priests, by this liberty, frequently and falsely 
 pretend that the deceased party, by signs or otherwise, 
 discovered a desire that their children should be bred up by 
 them in the Popish Religion. Thus did they deal with 
 Monsieur RossiL, Minister of Saintonge. 
 34
 
 1679. The (loom of the Protestants is only delayed. 
 
 If a man, in a violent fever, lying under a delirium, 
 lets fall the least expression whereat the Priest can catch 
 any liold ; they take it for a real conversion, and then drive 
 out of the chamher all his former friends, even his own 
 Wife : taking away, at the same time, his children into 
 their custody. And if he chance to recover, they will force 
 him to go to Mass ; or else they put the ' Decree against 
 Revolters ' in execution against him. 
 
 If they find a sick man in his right senses, they will 
 then, by subtle fallacious questions, examine him as to 
 whether he will not embrace a true Faith, or a good and 
 sound Doctrine ? and whether or no, he desires to die in 
 the True Church ? 
 
 Thus are these poor wretches persecuted to death ; and 
 in some sense even in their graves : and many have been 
 taken up thence, and by the Papists burnt ; as hath 
 happened lately at Rennes. 
 
 [(Jean Baptiste) Adhemar de Monteil de Geigan,] 
 The Bishop of Uzes, lately [August 17 1675 ; see page 88.] 
 in a Speech to the King, in the name of the rest of the 
 Clergy, after his, and their, thanks for what His Majesty 
 had done against the Protestants ; he exhorted and conjured 
 him to strike the last stroke at them ! he having a most 
 fit opportunity wholly to destroy them. 
 
 The Parliament of Beam, and the Clergy of Pau, have 
 very earnestly requested the same : and there is no doubt to 
 be made by any, after the reading of all these inhumanities, 
 but their request will be granted ; though, for some short 
 time, it be delayed. 
 
 By these former instances, we may see how well the 
 Edict of Nantes, made by King Henry IV,, and since 
 frequently ratified as a perpetual and irrevocable Ordinance, 
 is observed. 
 
 This cruel usage we cannot, in reason, think proceeds 
 from any misdemeanours committed by them against the 
 King ; since the former Declarations, Edicts, and Grants of 
 Liberty of Conscience, to them ; the King having declared 
 the contrary in his Declaration of 21st May 1652 : and in 
 his Letter of 1655, he useth these words, speaking of the 
 Protestants, ' I have good reason to praise their affection 
 and fidelity for my service ; they having on all occasions, 
 given me sufficient proofs, by contributing to the welfare of 
 my affairs.' This Letter is in print. 
 
 35
 
 How UNJUST THEN this severity is, any rational 
 man may judge. Most of the severe Edicts already 
 mentioned have been made of late years : one 
 whereof, not yet related, I shall add ; and with 
 that, conclude, viz. 
 That it is prohibited to the Protestants to depart the 
 Kingdom ; 
 according to the counsel of the Marquess of Chastelet [i.e., 
 Paul Hay, Sieur de Chastelet, the Younger.] 
 
 A sad example of this severe Decree, I shall shew you in 
 the barbarous and unjust procedure of the Parliament at 
 Rouen against the Lady Baurogek and her daughters ; and 
 Monsieur Le Moine, Pastor of the Protestant Church at 
 Rouen : occasioned by the flight of Mademoiselle Darques 
 out of France into England. 
 
 Monsieur Darques, a Councillor of the Parliament of 
 Rouen, had a daughter brought up, all her life-time, under 
 the tuition of the Lady Le Grand, her grandmother, in the 
 Reformed Religion. The Lady Le Grand, being eighty-five 
 years of age, and daily ready to expire ; Mademoiselle 
 Darques (fearing to be persecuted for her Religion by her 
 father and mother, and other relations ; who frequently, on 
 that account, seemed displeased with her) took her leave of 
 her grandmother, and privately withdrew herself out of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 Hereupon, Monsieur Darques, her father, accused the 
 Lady Bauroger and her daughters with a pretended 
 [alleged'] crime of Rape, and forcibly carrying away his said 
 daughter; 'who,' he saith, 'is yet in nonage': although she 
 exceeds twenty ; which, by the laws of Normandy, is counted 
 full age. The pretext of colour for this supposed crime was 
 the intimate friendship and acquaintance of the Lady 
 Bauroger and her daughters with Mademoiselle Darques. 
 
 Many persons were employed to surprise [entrap] the 
 Lady Bauroger; and to give a greater likelihood to this 
 unjustly imputed crime. Monsieur Fugerolle, a Councillor 
 36
 
 1679. The sad Story of Lady Bauroger. 
 
 of the said Parliament, made her three several visits ; she 
 being, on her occasions, at such times abroad [out of doors]. 
 
 This worthy Lady, not willing to pass by such civilities, 
 went, not long after, to repay his visits, and to know his 
 business. 
 
 Monsieur Fugeeolle replied, That he had been thrice 
 to wait on her about a business, touching which, if she 
 would give him a satisfactory answer, he should account 
 himself infinitely obliged to her. He told her, That 
 Monsieur Darques was extremely disconsolate at the 
 departure of his daughter; and that, with tears, he had 
 entreated him to make her the visits he had made, to 
 prevail with her safely to convey, for his sake, a Letter to 
 his said daughter, to remove such fears as she seemed (by 
 this absenting herself from him and her other friends, and 
 flying into a strange country) to lie under. He told her, 
 That he knew that Mademoiselle Darques was very familiar 
 with her daughters : and, on that account, he hoped to 
 understand whither she had gone ; and that the Letter he 
 had written, which was full of expressions of kindness and 
 promises of many advantages, might be delivered to her. 
 He entreated her to write also to her, to persuade her to 
 trust to her father's promises ; and he [Monsieur Darques] 
 would ever acknowledge the kindness. 
 
 The Lady Bauroger could not imagine that a person, 
 reputed a Man of Honour, should, by this visit and discourse, 
 ensnare her : but, with all civility, made him this answer. 
 That she knew not where Mademoiselle Darques was, for 
 the present : but, as she was a friend of her daughters, in 
 all likelihood, in a short time, she might know the place of 
 her retreat ; and how to write to her. That she was very 
 willing to serve them both, if Monsieur Fugerolle would 
 engage that she should not be brought into any trouble : 
 but, as then she protested, that she knew not whither the 
 young Gentlewoman was gone. However, at their request, 
 she would write a Letter, and in it enclose her father's 
 Letter, to be sent by the first opportunity she could hear of. 
 
 The next day. Monsieur Fugerolle came to the said 
 Lady, with a Letter from Monsieur Darques unsealed. He 
 communicated to her its contents. 
 
 The Lady took it, on condition that no inconvenience 
 might befall her : which was promised, in this manner, by 
 the said Fugerolle, That he would engage to save her 
 
 37
 
 Mademoiselle Darques flies into England. i679. 
 
 harmless ; unless that Mademoiselle Darques were found 
 
 in her house. 
 
 The Lady Baukogek wrote afterwards a Letter, accord- 
 ing to her promise, endeavouring to persuade the young 
 Gentlewoman, on her father's promises, which she did 
 esteem most real and sincere, to return. This Letter she 
 sent open to Monsieur Darques ; desiring to know whether 
 it was according to his mind : who returned it to her with 
 many thanks, highly approving of it. 
 
 These Letters she, without delay, sent to Paris, to a 
 daughter residing in that city ; desiring her, if she could 
 by any means learn where Mademoiselle Darques was, to 
 send those Letters to her. But, after some time spent in 
 vain, not, by all her enquiry, discovering the place of her 
 retreat ; these Letters were sent back to Rouen. 
 
 Hereupon this Lady, understanding by Monsieur 
 FuGEROLLE that the young Gentlewoman was in England, 
 she, not dreaming of the design laid against her, designed 
 to send the Letters into England ; and to direct them to her 
 sister [Esther Le Lou] , who was married to the Right 
 Honourable the Lord [Denzil] Holles. 
 
 But wdiilst she was thus contriving to send these 
 Letters, Monsieur Darques, being most impatient at his 
 daughter's absence, sent her a most rude message: whereat, 
 being nettled, she returned him the two Letters by Monsieur 
 Fugerolle. 
 
 A few days after this. Monsieur DE Cerisie, a nephew of 
 the Lady Bauroger, one employed by Monsieur Darques 
 in the management of some law-suits, came to visit her; 
 and told her, That Monsieur Darques was fully persuaded 
 that she knew where his daughter was ; and that he was 
 resolved to prosecute her, if she did not suddenly restore 
 her to him again. 
 
 The Lady was much suprised thereat ; and perceived 
 too late the treacherous dealings she had met withal. She 
 returned therefore this answer to Monsieur DE Cerisie, 
 That she had nothing to say to him, as he was Monsieur 
 Darques's delegate. That she had given an account of her 
 Commission to Monsieur Fugerolle ; at whose request, she 
 had undertaken it, without promise of success. 
 
 And when he enquired, On what ground she thought 
 to convey with safety a Letter to her ? her reply was. That 
 she knew her to be an intimate acquaintance of her 
 38
 
 1679. Lady Bauroger loses her two daughters. 
 
 daughters ; and therefore doubted not but to hear from her, 
 wherever she were, according to her promise [to Monsieur 
 
 Fugerolle] . 
 
 Monsieur Darques, being informed by Monsieur DE 
 Cerisie, of what had passed between the Lady Bauroger 
 and him in their conference, caused the said Lady and her 
 daughters to be summoned to give personal appearance, 
 that they might be examined by the Bailiff of Rouen ; and 
 that report thereof might be made by him to the Judges. 
 
 The Judges of the Court, only upon this Information, 
 passed a sentence against the said Lady and daughter : 
 because, out of kindness to Monsieur Darques and his 
 daughter, she was willing to receive, and convey if possible, 
 a Letter, which imparted nothing but a compliment, and a 
 few sorrowful expressions for her leaving him without any 
 farewell ; and desiring to hear from her. 
 
 When the Lady BAUROGER saw these unjust proceed- 
 ings against her ; and that Monsieur Le Moine, Minister of 
 the Protestant Church at Rouen, had been clapped into 
 prison, merely on suspicion of having a hand in the departure 
 of the young Lady : she went privately out of the city ; and 
 fled to Orleans, with her two daughters. Where she had 
 not been long, but one of her daughters sickened with the 
 smallpox, and died ; leaving her sister infected with the 
 same sickness, of which, in the space of three weeks, she 
 likewise deceased : to the unspeakable grief of her mother ; 
 who had no other children but these two daughters, and 
 they by all esteemed as accomplished as any in the whole 
 country. 
 
 This unsupportable loss, any one would think, should 
 soften the hardest hearts ; and put a stop to all the former 
 unjust proceedings in law : which had no other ground but 
 that this worthy Lady professed the Protestant Religion. 
 But, alas, instead of pity, these inhuman brutes, for they 
 deserve not the name of men, continued still to prosecute 
 her: insomuch that she was forced to go to Paris, to acquaint 
 His Majesty with her innocency, by the means of his Excel- 
 lency the Lord [or rathe?' Sir William] Lockhart, Am- 
 bassador from the King of Great Britain. 
 
 The Lord Ambassador, having received the Lady 
 Bauroger into his house, acquainted Monsieur [Simon 
 Arnauld, Marquis de] Pomponne, one of the French King's 
 
 39
 
 Lady Bauroger is imprisoned and fined. 1679. 
 
 Ministers of State, with her Case; and pressed him very 
 earnestly to move the King in it. Accordingly he did : hut 
 could ohtain no other answer, but that the business was to 
 be examined and tried in the Courts of Justice ; and that it 
 was but reasonable that a father should prosecute for the 
 carrying away of his daughter. 
 
 Not long after, Monsieur Darques, upon false informa- 
 tions, for he could not justly accuse the Lady of anything 
 but of the receipt of his Letter, procured a Sentence in 
 the Bailiff's Court of Rouen, the King's Officers consenting 
 thereunto, that the Lady should be condemned to die, unless 
 she should bring back the said Mademoiselle Darques : but 
 the rest of the Court gave this following Sentence. That the 
 Lady Bauroger should be banished nine years out of the 
 jurisdiction of the Bailiship of Rouen, That she should be 
 condemned to pay all the costs, and a Thousand Pounds 
 sterling as a penalty or fine. 
 
 When the said Lady heard of this cruel and unmerciful 
 Sentence, and that her enemies were ready to seize all her 
 estate ; she went to Rouen, yielding herself a prisoner : 
 knowing her own innocency ; and that he that governs and 
 overrules all things, was able to set bounds to the malice 
 of her adversaries. 
 
 The Lady, after twelve weeks' close confinement, made 
 an Appeal to the Parliament [of Rouen]; her adversaries 
 not being able to prove that she had any knowledge of the 
 flight of Mademoiselle Darques into England: and obtained 
 the sentence, That the Lady Bauroger should be released 
 from Prison, without being absolved or condemned : and 
 that she should pay all the costs of the Suit ; which were 
 great, the Process having depended eight months. 
 
 This example alone may serve to discover the inhuman 
 practices towards the poor persecuted Reformed Churches. 
 Many large folios cannot contain the innumerable Examples 
 and Relations, not forged Stories but real Truths, of the 
 injustice done to the Protestants. 
 
 I shall conclude this short Narrative with a true and 
 exact Relation of the sufferings of a Gentleman of an ancient 
 family, named Monsieur Mondeville le Fanue ; who hath 
 been in the Common Gaol of Caen in Normandy, above the 
 space of three years; and still continues [there in 1679]. 
 40
 
 1679. The cruel fate of Mondeville le Fanue. 
 
 This Gentleman, in the year 1655, was married to a 
 Gentlewoman bred up in the Popish Religion. By her, he 
 had several children. The first was a daughter : and his 
 Wife's kindred intended to carry her away by force, to be 
 baptized according to the Romish superstition. To that 
 end and purpose, his mother in law procured from the 
 Judges of Caen an express command to the Ministers of 
 the Protestant Church [there], not to baptize the child, on 
 pain of 500 Livres of France [=ii50] forfeiture: contrary 
 to the King's Declaration, anno 1669, Article xxxix., ex- 
 pressed in the terms 
 
 We order and commanded that the children whose 
 father is a Protestant, shall remain in their parents' 
 custody ; and those that shall take them away and detain 
 them, shall be constrained to restore them. 
 
 Hereupon he was constrained, by night, to avoid the 
 insolency and fury of the common people, to carry the 
 child as far as Bayeux, five French leagues distant from 
 Caen, there to be baptized after the manner of the Reformed 
 Churches. 
 
 As he was going to baptize his third child at the 
 Protestant Church in Caen, the Vicar of St. John's Church 
 stopped him ; and took him by the throat suddenly in so 
 violent a manner that he almost choked him: and, to avoid 
 the fury of the common people, who began to flock about, 
 he returned to his house. 
 
 The last, being a daughter, was carried away by 
 stealth by the forementioned Vicar; and was baptized in 
 the Romish way. 
 
 The mother of these children shortly after dying ; 
 although by the custom of the country the Father hath the 
 right of being Guardian and Tutor of his children : yet 
 most unjustly, and contrary to the Thirty-ninth Article 
 of the Edict, the relations of the deceased Gentlewoman, 
 who were all Papists, chose her brother (who needed a 
 Tutor himself) to have the care of the education of these 
 children. And thereupon he was condemned to give up his 
 children into the care of this young Guardian. 
 
 From this Sentence, he made his Appeal to the Par- 
 liament of Rouen : but his adversaries, by their false 
 witnesses ; and a counterfeited [forged] Contract, before 
 marriage, allowing the education of his children in the 
 Romish superstitious Church, which he evidently cleared 
 
 41
 
 Mondeville le Fanue is ruined, and in prison. 1679. 
 
 [exposed], Two Judgements passed against him, and were 
 confirmed ; enjoining him to deliver up his children, under 
 the penalty of 800 Livres French money [= .4.'80]. 
 
 Upon this, he petitioned the King's Council ; and 
 obtained a Letter under the King's Seal to Monsieur 
 CliAMiLLA, Intendant of Caen, commanding him to put a 
 period [etui] to this Affair. But he, being wholly ruled by 
 [Francois de Nesmond,] the Bishop of Bayeux, and others 
 of the Clergy and rigid Papists, this poor Gentleman was 
 made prisoner. 
 
 At the taking of him, they miserably abused him ; 
 beating him, tearing his clothes, breaking his sword, 
 dragging him after this manner in the streets : and, in all 
 probability, had not a Gentleman, named the Viscount of 
 Caen, coming by, caused him to be put into his coach, with 
 his guard to conduct him to Prison, he had been massacred 
 by the bloody crew. 
 
 Besides all this bad usage, some debtors to him have 
 obtained an Injunction upon any proceeding at law against 
 them, until he shall deliver up his children. His estate is 
 all seized, and he is kept at the King's allowance ; that 
 hereby he may be compelled, not have wherewithal to buy 
 bread for his children, to deliver them up. This Order was 
 confirmed and given by Six Ecclesiastical Councillors. 
 
 All that these inhuman wretches have to allege for 
 this barbarous usage is this, That they hold it right and 
 equitable to deprive a man of whatever goods or comforts 
 he enjoys, in favour of their Religion; which ought to take 
 [the] place of all private Interests whatsoever, as they say, 
 Summa est enmi Batio quce pro Religione facit : and, by 
 this precious maxim of theirs, this worthy Gentleman, for 
 not prostituting his children to their diabolical supersti- 
 tions, hath been, for more than three years, imprisoned; 
 and placed among the most notorious rogues who, for their 
 villanies, are under restraint. Neither can this poor Gentle- 
 man, on any solid grounds, ever hope for deliverance, till 
 such time as, by death, he receives that glorious crown and 
 reward promised by Christ unto all such as are faithful 
 unto death. 
 
 42
 
 Here follows a List or Catalogue of the Protestant Churches 
 
 demolished in France ; by the Order of tJie King 
 
 and Jiis Council. 
 
 B 
 
 Anno 1661. 
 Y A DECREE of the 24th March, 
 
 Saint Bauzile, in the diocese of Montpellier. 
 
 A7ino 1662. 
 By a Decree of the 21st July, 
 Lticque. 
 
 Twenty-three Churches in the County of Gex, by a Decree of 
 23rd August, 
 
 Gex, Chalez, Peron, Divone, Grilly, Grassy, Colonges, Farges, 
 Pougny, Cessy, Cequy, Souverny, Coulez, Versoy, Crosset, Chevry, 
 Poully, Meyrin, Vergnier, Pregny, Saconuay, Tlioiry, Saint Gian. 
 
 Anno 1663. 
 Aubision, by a Decree of the 11th of January. 
 
 Thirteen Churches, by a Decree of the 4th of March, viz. 
 Lants, La Caste, Gignac, D'Ongles, D'Oppedettes, Signarques, 
 Roquefln, Gordes, La Bastide, Des Gros, La Breouilli, Soviliers. 
 Montagnac, by a Decree of the 15th of June. 
 
 Eighty-nine Churches condemned by Six Decrees of the 5th of 
 October, in the Dioceses of Uzes, Nimes, and Mande, scilicet. 
 In the Diocese of Nimes. 
 Bellegarde, Marvejols les Gardon Hommiers, Puechredon, Lougrian, 
 Saint Nazaire des Gardies, Orthou, Saint Jean de Serres, Cezas, 
 Cambo, Massilargues les Andiize, Dourbies, Aguzau, Saint Bresson, 
 Saint Benezet, Saint Saviour de Pourcils, Saint Jean de Crieulon, 
 Gatuzieres, Saint Bonet de Salendrengues, Gaujac, near Anduze, 
 Saint Jean de Baussells, Lauvejol, Vabres, Candiac, Massanes, Liouc, 
 Bragassargues, Brouzet, Rouret, Saint Julien de la Nef, Roquedun, 
 Courbes, Sendras, Saint Jean du Pin, Maruejols in Vaunage, Boardie. 
 
 In the Diocese of Uzes. 
 Benezet, Concules, Saint Jean de Cerargues, Villefort, Combas, 
 Touset, Mejane, Saint Hyijolite de Caton, Castlenau, Desplane, 
 Mouteils, Martinargues, Fone on the Lussan, Saint Bauzile of Uzes, 
 Brueys, Roubiac, Serignac, Avejan, Cannes, Ozou, Saint Martin de 
 
 43
 
 A 8hort List of Churches demolished. i679. 
 
 Valgalges, Gadargues, Megrane, Arlande, Montagnac, Verfevil, Move, 
 Poguadoresse, Saint Victor de Malcap, Saint Etieiine de Forvene, 
 Foissac, Montmiraille, Fese, Maugieres, La Rovini^re. 
 
 In the Diocese of Maude. 
 Grifac, Castelbouc, Balme near Bare, Montvaillant, Mazaribal, 
 Tiinelac, Mandenaur de Rousses, Fraisinet de Fourgues, Saint 
 Andiot, Saint Andre de Lancise, Saint Michel de Dezee, Saint 
 Laurence de Trebe, Saint Julien des Points, Point de Montvert, 
 Ribautes, Saint Casine, Geneyrac, Saint Julien du Nef, Saint Jean 
 de Rocques, La Roiaviere, La Brugiere, Cincens, Bizarre Ardaillers, 
 Cros, Talleyrac, Salargues, Breaw, Bouvillargues, Guoysargues, 
 Marignargues, Rodillan, Saint Cezaire, Courvessac, Montredon, 
 Leques, Salinelles le moine, Galarques, Lascours, Cruvieres, 
 Gujane, Crespien, Vio, Sauzet, Rochegude, Seynes, Daumesargues, 
 Bovisset, Saint Martin de Campelade, Taraux, Foutarzche. 
 
 Anno 1664. 
 
 Seyne, by a Decree of the 12th of May. 
 
 Landouzy, Gercis, Sernay, Rue des Boheins, Leval ; by a Decree 
 of September 22nd. 
 
 Saint Crois de Candele, Vehaw, Vestries, Milhaw ; by a Decree of 
 October 3rd. 
 
 Alencon, by a Decree of 20th October. 
 
 The new Church of Montauban, by a Decree of the 29th of 
 October. 
 
 The Church at Nesmes, by a Decree of the 28th November. 
 
 Anno 1665. 
 
 Churches demolished in Brittany, by a Decree of the 19th of 
 January : 
 
 Syon, Croissie, La Rochebibnard, Dinan, Ploer, Saint Malo. 
 
 In Picardy, by a Decree of the 27th of January : 
 Salonel, Canesures, Lindeboeuf . 
 
 By a Decree of the 23rd of April, 
 Le Mesnil. 
 
 Forty-two demolished in Poitou, by a Decree of the 6th of August : 
 Belabre, Chavigny, Exoudua, Saint Gelaie, Courteilles, Benay, 
 Couhe, Marcillac, Puigni, Peselechat, Parthenay, Le Vigean, Saint 
 Benoir, Puybeliart, Lucon, La Chaune, Belleville, Poire, Saint 
 Hermine, Le Boupire, Chantaunay, Saint Gilles Survye, Tolmont, 
 Marevillo, La Jaudovinicre, Mavilleron, Saint Fulgent, Saint Jovin
 
 1679. A Short List of Churches demolished. 
 
 de Milli, Benet, La Brassardiere, La Chataigneraye, Faussay, La 
 Buaidiere, Cezay, Aubanie, Guire, La Bouchetiere, Lande Blanche, 
 La Milliere, Boisfragon, La Chapelle Temet, La Marini^re. 
 
 What Churches have been destroyed since 1666, though there hath 
 been many ; yet few of their names are come to my hands : unless 
 
 In 1672. 
 Saint Andre de Beausse, by a Decree of December 20th. 
 
 In 1673. 
 By a Decree of February 3rd : 
 Unet, Galapian, Favillet, Aimmet, Ligneux, Saint Barthelme de la 
 Perche. 
 
 There are six times more Churches destroyed [than the above] . 
 He does not speak of hundreds, and above, destroyed in Beam ; and 
 infinite others. 
 
 Many, besides these, are demolished: and near Two Hundred in 
 the Black Roll are registered; which are, by most, feared in a short 
 time will be condemned. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 45
 
 T'he Present State 
 
 of the 
 
 Protestants in France, 
 
 hi Three Letters^ 
 
 ivritteii hy a Gentleman in London to liis 
 Friend in the cou^itry. 
 
 The First shews the Privileges granted to them 
 hy the Edict of Nantes. 
 
 Tlie Second sets forth the Injustice that is do?ic them ; 
 
 and the Cruelties that are used to force them 
 
 to reyiouyice their JRcligion. 
 
 Tlie Third indicates their hmocency and their Loyalty. 
 
 Londoti. 
 
 Printed for John Holford, Bookseller in the Pall Mall ; 
 
 over against Saint Albaiis street. 
 
 1681. 
 
 47
 
 To the Reader. 
 
 I AM UNDER a necessity of begging excuse for what 
 follows ; because it will come short of the Title Page, 
 which promises Three Letters. The truth is, the 
 Third was in a manner ready, when so many fresh 
 instances of the barbarity used to the poor Protestants 
 in France came to my hands, that I found myself obliged 
 either to defer any Account for some time, or else to publish 
 these Two Letters by themselves. 
 
 But I must confess I was not long in taking my choice. 
 For I saw it so requisite to say something presently, that I 
 resolved out of hand to publish these my Two first Letters. 
 The Enemy has been so industrious as to waylay these poor 
 people ; and whilst they will not suffer them to live in 
 France, they endeavour to prevent their subsisting any- 
 where else. 
 
 Amongst some, they are represented as Enemies to the 
 Religion established : however, they profess the same Faith, 
 and desire to be esteemed as Brethren. 
 
 Amongst others, they are made to appear a mixed 
 multitude ; part Protestant, part Papist ; whereas it is as 
 impossible for any number of Papists, or indeed almost any, 
 to thrust themselves in amongst them undiscovered, as 
 it would be for a Black [man] amongst Whites. Their 
 Ministers are such as have had their education amongst 
 them, well known and approved before admitted to that 
 Office ; strictly observed, and under a careful Discipline, 
 after admission ; their people well acquainted and observed 
 among themselves, as is usual for such as are under a 
 Persecution, or the jealous Eye of their Superiors. Besides 
 greater care cannot be taken than is by the French 
 Churches, to whom the recommendation of all that come 
 over [to England] is remitted, to see that their Attestations 
 and Testimonials are true and substantial : and I hope the 
 printed Advertisement has already given satisfaction in this 
 point. 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 4 49
 
 The Huguenots bring fresh Trades to England. 1681. 
 
 But that nothing may be wanting to augment the misery 
 of these poor Fugitives, and to render them at the same time 
 worse than unprofitable to their Brethren ; it is suggested 
 to the common people [of England] , That they come to take 
 the bread out of their mouths : by overstocking those populous 
 Manufactures, which seem already rather to be overcharged ; 
 and by surfeiting the land with people. Which objection, 
 if we consider strictly according to Interest, conies not up 
 to any weight or consideration. For many of the Manufac- 
 tures they bring over, are such as we had not before ; and, 
 by consequence, of the greatest and most unexceptional 
 benefit to us. Others, though not wholly new ; yet bring so 
 great improvement to those we had already of the same kind, 
 that they do, in a manner, create a new Manufacture. There 
 are, likewise, [those] that give helx3 to a full Trade, that 
 wanted hands before to supply it. And now if any are so 
 unfortunate as to bring over such as we are more than filled 
 with already ; I would beg that, as men, we would consider 
 the common Laws of Humanity, and let necessity take place 
 of inconvenience ; and, as Christians, to have especial regard 
 to those that are of the Household of Faith. 
 
 Now that we should be over-peopled, I think there is no 
 danger ; when no considering man but will allow that our 
 nation wants more than a million of people, and that no 
 country is rich but in proportion to its numbers : for multi- 
 tudes create scarcity ; and that, industry. 
 
 But be the Politic Consideration what it will ; never 
 were there greater objects of Christian Charity and Com- 
 passion than these poor people. 
 
 First. If we look upon the privileges of mankind ; we 
 shall find them here infringed to the scandal of our Being. 
 Men not only forced to renounce their thoughts, and say 
 the contrary to what, at the same time, they declare them- 
 selves to believe : but having, by violence, Holy Water cast 
 on them, and dragged at a horse's tail to Mass, they shall 
 be pronounced Roman Catholics ; and made to suffer as 
 * Relapsed,' if they dare renounce what they never con- 
 sented to. 
 
 They are neither permitted to live at home ; nor to go 
 abroad. 
 
 The holy and religious duty, as the Papists account it, 
 of Confession is prostituted to oppression ; and polluted 
 50
 
 1681. Huguenots punished, for the sake of the EngHsh. 
 
 with the intermixture of secular concerns. For the Con- 
 fessors now, in France, conjure their penitents, upon pain 
 of damnation, not to conceal any deht they owe to a 
 Pt'otestant : and, when revealed, immediately they attach 
 [impound] it in the debtor's hands, under the same penalty. 
 
 Secondly. If we consider them, as they are Protestants 
 of France, never had people greater Privileges, better 
 settled, nor upon juster grounds : of which the First Letter 
 will abundantly convince any reasonable person : and yet 
 it will appear, by the Second Letter, that no people were 
 ever reduced to a more miserable estate, and lived ! 
 
 But that which ought to move an Englishman, in all 
 diversities of his passion, at once, is; not only that they 
 are of our Communion, or that our Kings are Guarantees 
 for the Edict of Nantes : but that we are, in a manner, 
 punished in them. For a great inducement to this inhuman 
 usage, not only seems to be, but is really owned by them 
 to be, from the rage they have conceived against us, for the 
 preventing of their bloody and hellish Designs [in the 
 Popish Plot] , by the exemplary punishment of some Popish 
 traitors. Nay, if they durst for shame speak out, I am sure 
 they would tell us. That since they could not execute their 
 malice upon English Protestants, they are resolved to 
 wreak their revenge upon the French ; and scourge them, 
 for our sakes. 
 
 51
 
 The Present State 
 
 of the 
 
 Protestants in France. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 YOU ARE NOT at all mistaken! I can now easily 
 satisfy you in what you desire to know concerning 
 the Protestants of France. One that is a Friend 
 to us both, who is lately come [from] thence, hath 
 fully acquainted me with the condition they are in. 
 
 I saw him, the day after his arrival ; and found him 
 ordering his books and loose Papers, which were just 
 opened. 
 
 After our first salute, I ask him. What they were ? 
 
 ' They are,' said he, ' French books ; and those printed 
 sheets are the new Edicts, Declarations, and Acts, which 
 the King of France hath lately published against the 
 Protestants of his Kingdom.' 
 
 ' I am very happy,' said I, ' in lighting on you, at the 
 opening of your Papers. I was extremely impatient of 
 knowing, with some certainty, what it was that drove so 
 many of them from their native country ; and I perceive, 
 by the care you have taken to collect all the Pieces which 
 concern them, that I could not have met any one who might 
 better satisfy my curiosity. They come hither in troops, 
 almost every day; and the greatest part of them, with no 
 other goods but their children. 
 
 ' The King [Charles II.] , according to his accustomed 
 goodness, hath had pity upon them, so far as to provide 
 means whereby thej^ may be able to gain their livelihood ; 
 and, amongst other things, he hath ordered a General 
 Collection for them throughout the Kingdom. We were all 
 resolved to answer the charitable intentions of our gracious 
 Prince; and were beginning to contribute freely: but, to 
 
 S3
 
 The Huguenots maliciously written against. lesi. 
 
 tell you the truth, we were extremely cooled by certain 
 rumours. It is confessed tliat their King is very earnest to 
 make them embrace his Religion ; but they assure us, That 
 Declaration of the he uses none but very reasonable means', 
 17th of June 1681. and that they who come hither, with such 
 outcries, are a sort of people not gifted ivith niuch patience, 
 who easily forsake their native country ; being dissatisfied 
 that their merit (as they conceive) is not sufficiently re- 
 warded. Besides, They are represented to us [as] very much 
 suspected in the point of their obedience and loyalty. If 
 we may believe many here, They have been very factious 
 and rebellious; such as, in all times, have struck at the 
 Higher Powers, both in Church and State ; which, you 
 must needs see, would not be much for our purpose in these 
 present conjunctures.' 
 
 ' In truth ! this is intolerable ! ' cried our Friend. ' I 
 cannot endure that the innocence of these poor people 
 should be run down at this rate ! I perceive [that] Father 
 [Francois d'Aix] la Chaise is not content to persecute 
 them in their own country with the utmost cruelty ; but 
 tries all ways to shut up the bowels of their Brethren in 
 foreign parts. He endeavours to ruin, and to famish, them 
 everywhere ; in England as well as France. A hatred so 
 cruel, and, if I may so say, murderous, agrees not so well 
 with the Gospel of the meek Jesus ; whose Companion 
 [i.e. S. J.] Father LA Chaise styles himself. For he came 
 not to destroy men ; but to save them.' 
 
 'Let this Jesuit alone,' said I, 'and his Emissaries! I 
 do not doubt but he hath too much to do in all the Affairs 
 of Protestants. But tell me, ingenuously [candidly~\, do 
 they give just cause to them of France, to quit their country 
 as they do ; and are they persons whom the State and the 
 Church may trust ?' 
 
 ' You yourself shall be Judge !, ' said he, ' and that you 
 may be fully informed of the Cause ; I will give you a 
 particular Account of the state of these poor people. But 
 before I speak of the Evils they have suffered ; it is fit you 
 should know what it is that they have a right to hope for, 
 from their King, and from their countrymen. You will 
 then be more affected with the usage they find. 
 
 ' You cannot but have heard of the Edict of Nantes. 
 Here it is,' said he, taking up one of the books that lay upon 
 54
 
 1681. The Edict of Nantes, April 1598. 
 
 the table. * It is a law which Henry IV. confirmed to 
 establish their condition, and to secure their Lives and 
 Privileges ; and that they might have liberty freely to 
 profess their Religion. It is called the Edict of Nantes; 
 because it was concluded of at Nantes, whilst the King 
 was there. It contains 149 Articles : 93 General, and 56 
 Particular. You may read it at your leisure, if you please. 
 I will only observe some of them to you, at present. 
 
 ' Look, I pray,' said he, * on the Sixth General, and the 
 First Particular Article. Liberty of Conscience, without 
 let or molestation, is there most expressly promised, not 
 only to them who made Profession of the Protestant 
 Religion at the Establishment of the Edict ; but (which is 
 principally to be observed) to all those who should embrace 
 and profess it afterwards. For the Article Art. i. Partic. 
 saith. 
 
 That Liberty of Conscience is granted to all those 
 
 who are, or who shall be, of the said Religion ; whether 
 
 natives or others. 
 
 * The Seventh General Article grants to all Protestants 
 the right of having Divine Service, Preaching, and full 
 Exercise of their Religion, in all their Houses IFamiliesI 
 who have Sovereign Justice : that is to say, who have the 
 privilege of appointing a Judge that hath the power of 
 judging in Capital Causes, upon occasion. There are a 
 great many noble Houses in France which have this 
 Privilege. That Seventh Article allows all Protestants who 
 have such Houses, to have Divine Service and Preaching 
 there : not only for themselves, their own family and 
 tenants ; but also for all persons who have a mind to go 
 thither. 
 
 ' The following Article allows even the same Exercise 
 of the Protestant Religion in noble Houses which have not 
 the right of Sovereign Justice ; but which only hold in Fee 
 Simple. It is true, it doth not allow them to admit into 
 their Assemblies above thirty persons ; besides their own 
 family. 
 
 ' The Ninth Article is of far greater importance. It 
 allows the Protestants to have, and to continue, the Exercise 
 of their Religion in all those places where it had been 
 publicly used in the years 1596 and 1597. 
 
 ' The Tenth Article goes farther yet, and orders that 
 that Exercise be established in all places where it ought to 
 
 55
 
 Henry IV. grants the Liberty of Preaching. lesi. 
 
 have been, by the Edict of 1577, if it had not been ; and to 
 be re-established in all those places, if it had been taken 
 away. And that Edict of 1577, granted by Henky III., 
 declares. That the Exercise of the Protestant Religion should 
 be continued in all places where it had been in the month 
 of September [of] that same year : and, moreover, that there 
 should be a place in each Bailiwick lBailliage~\, or other 
 Corporation of the like nature, where the Exercise of that 
 Religion should be established; though it had never been 
 there before. These are those places which, since, have been 
 called, with reference to the Exercise of Religion, " The 
 First Places of the Bailiwick." It follows then from this 
 Tenth Article of the Edict of Nantes, That, besides the 
 Cities and Towns in which the Exercise of that Religion 
 ought to be continued, because they had it in the years 
 1596 and 1597 ; it ought to be, over and above, in all those 
 places where it had been in the month of September in the 
 year 1577; and in a convenient place of each Bailiwick, etc., 
 although it had not been there in that month. 
 
 ' The Eleventh Article grants also this Exercise in each 
 Bailiwick in a second place, where it had not been, either in 
 the month of September 1577, or in the years 1596 or 1597. 
 This is that which is called, " The Second Place of the 
 Bailiwick " ; in distinction to that other place of the same 
 nature, which is granted by virtue of the Edict of 1597. 
 
 ' When Henry IV. sent Commissaries into the several 
 Provinces to see his Edict put into execution ; there was 
 scarce found any considerable City or town where the Com- 
 missaries did not acknowledge. That the Exercise of the 
 Protestant Religion had no need to be confirmed, or re- 
 established ; because it had been used there in some one of 
 the three years above mentioned : insomuch that there 
 were whole Provinces which had no need of those two 
 '' Places " granted out of pure favour, I mean. The Two Places 
 of each Bailiwick; all the Cities and all the towns of those 
 Provinces claiming that Exercise by a better Title. 
 
 ' This is it which made the Bishop of Rhodez, Monsieur 
 [(Hardouin de) Beaumont de] Perefixe, afterwards Arch- 
 Anno 1599, pp. 285, bishop of PARIS, in his ' History of the Life 
 286. Edit. Amster- of Henry IV.' to say, That that Prince, 
 dam. 1664. by his Edict of Nantes, granted to the 
 
 Protestants, Liberty of Preaching almost everywhere. 
 
 ' But he granted them farther, the means and full power 
 56
 
 1691. The livelihood of the Huguenots is secured. 
 
 of breeding up and teaching their children. Read, as to 
 
 that, the Thirty-seventh Particular Article. It declares, 
 
 That they shall have Public Schools and Colleges in 
 
 those Cities and places, w^here they ought to have the 
 
 23ublic Exercise of their Religion. 
 
 ' The Edict having secured, as you see, the Exercise of 
 the Protestant Religion, secures also the condition of them 
 who should profess it, to the end that they might, without 
 any molestation, each one according to his Quality, follow 
 those Trades, Employments, and Offices, which are the 
 ordinary means of men's livelihood. 
 
 ' Indeed, the thing of itself speaks this. For it is plain 
 that they do not grant in good earnest the free Exercise of 
 a Religion, who debar the persons that profess it [from] the 
 use of means necessary for their subsistence. Nevertheless, 
 for their greater security, Henet IV. hath declared to all 
 Europe, by this Edict, that he would not that there should 
 be any difference, as to that point, between his Protestant 
 and his Papist subjects. 
 
 'The Thirty - seventh General Article, as to that, is 
 express. This is it. 
 
 We declare all them who do, or shall, make Profession 
 of the pretended Reformed Religion, capable of holding 
 and exercising all Conditions, Offices, Honours, and public 
 Charges, whatsoever; Royalties, Seigniories, or any Charge 
 in the Cities of our Kingdom ; Countries, Territories, or 
 Seigniories, under our authority. 
 
 ' The Fifty-fourth Article declares. That they shall be 
 admitted Officers in the Courts of Parliament, Great Council, 
 Chamber of Accounts, Court of Aids, and the Offices of the 
 General Treasurers of France ; and amongst the other 
 Officers of the Revenues of the Crown. 
 
 ' The Seventy-fourth Article puts them in the same 
 
 state with their fellow-subjects as to public exactions ; 
 
 willing that they should be charged no higher than others. 
 
 ' " Those of the said Religion pretendedly Reformed," 
 
 saith the Article, "may not hereafter be overcharged or 
 
 oppressed with any Imposition ordinary or extraordinary, 
 
 more than the Catholics." 
 
 ' And to the end that Justice might be done and adminis- 
 tered impartially as the Edict explains itself, the Thirtieth, 
 Thirty-first to the Fifty-seventh, Articles set up "Chambers 
 
 57
 
 The Chambers of the Edict, etc. 1681. 
 
 of the Edict" in the Parliaments of Paris and Rouen, where 
 the Protestant Councillors ought to assist as Judges ; and 
 " Chambers Mi-parties " in the Parliaments of Guienne, 
 Languedoc, and Daui)hiny, consisting each of Two Presi- 
 dents, the one Protestant and the other Papist, and of 
 twelve Councillors, an equal number of each Religion, to 
 judge without Appeal, exclusive to all other Courts, all 
 differences of any 'importance which the Protestants might 
 have with their fellow-subjects, as well in Criminal as in 
 Civil matters. 
 
 ' In short, this great Edict forgets nothing whicli might 
 make the Protestants of France to live in peace and honour. 
 It hath not failed even to explain itself, as to the vexations 
 which might be created them, by taking away, or seducing, 
 their children. For, read the Eighteenth General Article. 
 It forbids all Papists, of what quality or condition soever 
 they may be, to take them away by force, or by persuasion, 
 against the will of their parents : as if it had forseen that 
 this would be one of the ways, which their Persecutors 
 would use to vex and ruin them. 
 
 ' But the Thirty-eighth Article goes farther yet. That 
 wills that, even after their death. Fathers shall be masters 
 of the education of their children, and consequently of 
 their Religion, so long as their children shall continue 
 under Guardians ; which is, by the laws of France, till the 
 twenty-fifth year. 
 
 It shall be lawful for Fathers who profess the said 
 Religion, to provide for them such persons for their 
 education, as they think fit : and to substitute one or 
 more, by Will, Codicil, or other Declaration, made before 
 Public Notaries ; or written and signed with their own 
 hand. 
 
 'You perceive then plainly,' continued our Friend, 'that, 
 by this Edict, King Henry IV. made the condition of the 
 Protestants equal almost in all things to that of his other 
 subjects. They had reason then to hope that they should 
 be allowed to exercise their Religion, and to breed up and 
 instruct their children in it, without any disturbance : and 
 that they should have as free admission to all Arts, Trades, 
 Offices, and Employments, as any of their fellow-subjects.' 
 
 ' This is very clear,' said I, ' and I am much obliged to 
 you for explaining to me what this famous Edict of Nantes 
 88
 
 1681. Henry IV. 's Obligations to the Huguenots. 
 
 is ; which I had heard so much discourse of. But they who 
 have no affection for the Protestants tell us, That it is a 
 law which was extorted hy violence ; and, consequently, is 
 not to be kept.' 
 
 ' I will not stand now,' said our Friend, ' whether that 
 Consequence be good. You cannot but perceive that it is 
 dangerous. But I dare assure you that the Principle from 
 whence it is drawn, namely. That the Edict was extorted by 
 violence, is very false. I would not have you take my word 
 for it : but I will produce an unexceptionable witness. 
 
 ' It is [(Haedouin de) Beaumont de Perefixe,] the 
 Archbishop of Paris, he who wrote the "Life of Henry IV." 
 That one witness is worth a thousand : for he was a declared 
 enemy of the Protestants. According to him, The General 
 Peace was made, the League extinguished, and all persons, 
 in France had laid down their Arms ; when this Edict was. 
 granted in favour of them. 
 
 'It is ridiculous now, to say. That it was extorted by 
 violence ; there being then no Party in the Kingdom in a 
 condition to make the least attempt with impunity. More- 
 over, that Prelate could not forbear owning expressly what 
 it was [that] moved the King to grant them that Edict. It 
 was the sense of the Great Obligations he had to them. See 
 the book itself ! Read the passage ! " The Great Obligations 
 which he had to them would not permit him to drive them 
 to despair; and therefore, to preserve them a just balance,^ 
 he granted them an Edict larger than any before. They 
 called it. The Edict of Nantes, etc." 
 
 ' Indeed, the Obligations which he had to them were 
 not small. They had testified an inviolable loyalty to him 
 in all his troubles. They had spent freely their lives and 
 fortunes to defend his rights, and his life, against the Princes 
 of Lorraine ; who made so many attempts to keep him froiu 
 the Throne of his ancestors, and to usurp his place. Had 
 it not been for their valour and their loyalty ; the Crown 
 had gone into the hands of Strangers : and, since we must 
 speak out, had it not been for them, the Blood of the 
 Bourbons would not, this day, have been possessed of the 
 Throne. 
 
 ' The Edict of Nantes, then, was the effect and the 
 recompense of the Great Obligations which King Henry IV. 
 had to his loyal Protestants : and not, as is slanderously 
 reported, the fruit of any violence, gained by force, and 
 
 39
 
 Loyalty, a Huguenot Article of Faith. lesi. 
 
 granted against the hair [umvillmghj] . 
 
 ' But, farther, the Law of Nature and Common Policy 
 might challenge such an Edict for them, as well as 
 Gratitude. 
 
 'It is true, that Sovereign Magistrates are appointed by 
 GOD to preserve the public peace; and, by consequence, to 
 cut of¥, or prevent, as much as in them lies, whatever may 
 disturb it. It is true also, that new Establishments in 
 matters of Religion may cause great troubles in a State : 
 and that there are Religions which have Maxims so per- 
 nicious, that when Magistrates are of a different opinion, or 
 but so much as tolerate such a one, their lives and their 
 Kingdoms are never in safety. 
 
 ' But Henry IV. found the Protestant Religion wholly 
 established in the Kingdom ; when he came to the Crown. 
 
 ' Besides he, who had so long professed it, knew perfectly 
 well. That it had none of those dreadful Maxims which 
 make Princes and States jealous ; That, on the contrary, in 
 it Loyalty, and Obedience of Subjects to Sovereigns, of 
 what Religion and what humour soever, was to them an 
 Article of Faith, and an Obligation of Conscience. He 
 knew that Protestants, by their Religion, were peaceable 
 men, who sought but to serve GOD according to his Word ; 
 and were always ready to spend the last drop of their blood 
 for the service and the honour of their King. 
 
 ' But he knew also that the zeal of the Romish Clergy 
 always animated the Popish common people against them ; 
 and that they would be sure to fall upon them, unless he 
 took them into his protection. The Law of Nature then, 
 did not permit him to abandon to the rage of the multitude 
 so many innocent persons ; and Common Policy warned him 
 to preserve so many faithful subjects for the State, so 
 capable of supporting it on occasion, as he had so freshly 
 experienced. It being certain that, had it not been for 
 them, the Pope and the League had ruined the whole 
 Kingdom. But it was not possible, either to defend them 
 from the fury of the people, or to preserve them for the 
 service of the State, if he had granted in favour of them 
 anything less than the Edict of Nantes : so that this 
 Edict, in truth, was to be ascribed to Common Equity and 
 Prudence no less than to Gratitude.' 
 
 * But,' said I to my Friend, ' do you believe that the 
 60
 
 1681. The Edict, an Irrevocable and Perpetual Law. 
 
 grandson of Henry IV. is bound to make good what his 
 grandfather did ? ' 
 
 * I do not doubt it at all,' answered he, 'otherwise there 
 would be nothing secure or certain in Civil Society : and 
 woe be to all Governments, if there be no Foundation of 
 Public Trust ! 
 
 ' First. For, if ever a law deserved to be regarded by the 
 successors of a Prince, it is this. It was established by a 
 Hero, who had recovered the Crown for his posterity by his 
 sword : and this Establishment was not made but after 
 mature and long deliberations, in the calm of a profound 
 Peace, obtained and cemented by many and signal victories. 
 
 * That Hero hath declared expressly in the Preface of the 
 Edict, That he established it in the nature of an Irrevocable 
 and Perpetual Law ; willing that it should be firm and 
 inviolable: as he also saith himself in the Ninetieth Article. 
 Accordingly, he made all the Formalities to be observed in 
 its establishment, which are necessary for the passing of a 
 Fundamental Law in a State. For he made the observation 
 of it, under the quality of an Irrevocable Law, to be sworn 
 to, by all the Governors and Lieutenant - Generals of his 
 Provinces ; by the Bailiffs, Mayors, and other ordinary 
 Judges, and principal inhabitants of the Cities, of each 
 Religion ; by the Majors, Sheriffs, Consuls, and Jurats ; by 
 the Parliaments, Chambers of Accounts, Courts of Aid : 
 with order to have it published and registered in all the 
 said Courts. This is expressly set down in the Ninety- 
 second and Ninety-third Articles. Was there ever anything 
 more authentic ? 
 
 ' Secondly. The same reasons which caused the Estab- 
 lishment, remain still ; and plead for its continuance : 
 
 1. The Family of Bourbon preserved in the Throne. 
 
 2. The Law of Nature and Common Policy. 
 
 3. The two Successors of Henry IV. looked not upon 
 themselves as unconcerned in this Edict. Their Word, 
 and their Royal Authority, are engaged for its observa- 
 tion ; no less than the Word, and Royal Authority, of its 
 illustrious Author. 
 
 ' Louis XIII. confirmed it, as soon as he came to the 
 Crown, by his Declaration of the 22nd of May 1610 ; 
 ordering, " That the Edict of Nantes should be observed in 
 every Point and Article." These are the very words. 
 Read them !' said he ; shewing me a book- in folio, " The 
 
 61
 
 Louis XIII., and Louis XIV., confirm the Edict. 
 
 Great Conference of the Royal Ordinances and Edicts." ' 
 
 I read there, in the First Book, Title G, of the Second 
 pp. 156, 157, of the Part of the Volume, not only the Article 
 Lyons Edition. he mentioned : but also the citation of 
 
 Nine several Declarations published, at several times, by 
 the same King, on the same subject. 
 
 ' Louis XIV., who now reigns,' says our Friend, ' hath 
 likewise assured all Europe, by his authentic Edicts and 
 Declarations, that he would maintain the Edict of Nantes, 
 according to the desire of his grandfather; who had made 
 it an Irrevocable Law. 
 
 'He himself acknowledges and confirms it himself 
 anew, by his Edict of June, 1680; wherein he forbids Papists 
 to change their Religion. There it is. Pray, take the pains 
 to read it over.' 
 
 Louis, by the grace of GOD, King of France and 
 Navarre, to all persons to whom these Presents come. 
 Greeting. The late Henry IV., our grandfather, of glorious 
 memory, granted, by his. Edict given at Nantes, in the 
 month of April 1598, to all his subjects of the Religion 
 pretended Reformed who then lived in his Kingdom, or 
 who afterwards should come and settle in it. Liberty of 
 Professing their Religion ; and, at the same time, provided 
 whatsoever he judged necessary for affording those of the 
 said Religion pretended Reformed means of living in 
 our Kingdom in the exercise of their Religion, without 
 being molested in it by our Catholic subjects : which the 
 late King, our most honoured Lord and Father, and we, 
 since, have authorized and confirmed, on other occasions, 
 by divers Declarations and Acts. 
 
 'But this Prince is not content to tell what he hath 
 formerly done in confirmation of the Edict of Nantes. 
 Read some lines a little lower ; and you will see that he 
 repeats again his former engagements.' 
 
 We declare that, confirming as much as is, or may 
 be, needful the Edict of Nantes, and other Declarations 
 ^ and Acts given in pursuit of it, etc. 
 
 ' That is to say. That by this new Edict he signs once 
 more the Edict of Nantes ; and, for a more authentic con- 
 firmation of that important law, he ratifies together with it, 
 and seals with his royal seal, all the Declarations which had 
 already confirmed it. 
 
 'If all this is not sufficient to render his Word sacred 
 62
 
 1681. English Papists are not like the Huguenots. 
 
 and inviolable, there is nothing in the World can do it ! 
 All things are lawful ! and it is to no purpose to talk of any 
 Obligation, or of any Bond, in Human Society ! They 
 cannot make void, or break the Clauses of an Edict, so well 
 deserved by the Protestants, so just and so wise in itself, so 
 solemnly established, so religiously sworn to and so often, 
 and so authentically confirmed by three Kings ; without 
 shaking all the foundations of public security ; without 
 violating, in that act, the Law of Nations ; and filling the 
 World with fatal principles, which, by ruining all jnutual 
 faith among men, render divisions in States incurable, and 
 consequently immortal.' 
 
 * Dear Sir,' said I, ' I am much pleased with what you 
 have informed me. O, how I shall dash them out of 
 countenance who, hereafter, shall compare the condition 
 of our Papists in England with that of the Protestants in 
 France ! There is no sort of good usage but what is due to 
 those in their own country ; of which they have deserved 
 so well, by preserving that Family which now reigns there. 
 What have they not a right to hope for, under the protection 
 of an Edict so authentic ! But our Papists in England, 
 have they ever deserved a like protection ? Hath there ever 
 been passed any Act of Parliament in favour of them, like 
 to this Edict ? On the contrary, have not there been passed 
 a thousand against them ! and not one, gee statutes at 
 but upon the provocation of some sedition, large. 
 or open rebellion! You need but review lEUz.i. SEiiz.i. 
 the Fundamental Laws of the land now i3Eiiz.i.23Eiiz.i. 
 in force against the Pope; against the 27Eiiz.2. 35Eiiz.2. 
 Jesuits, Seminary Priests ; and, in general, ^ Jacob. 4. 
 against all the Papists. There is decreed ^ J^^°^- ^' ^^ ^*«- 
 justly against them, all the contrary that, by the Edict of 
 Nantes, is promised to the Protestants.' 
 
 'You are much in the right,' said our Friend, 'when you 
 use the word justly on this occasion. Princes and Protestant 
 Magistrates cannot look upon, nor by consequence treat, 
 Papists otherwise than as [the] declared and mortal enemies 
 of their Persons, and of their States. They may disguise 
 themselves as they please : but, in truth, every Papist is a 
 man who takes the Pope to be the Sovereign Head of the 
 Universal Church ; and believes, on that very account, [that] 
 there is no Prince, nor King, nor Emperor, who is not 
 
 63
 
 The Papists grasp at Power and Dominion. leni. 
 
 subject to his Censures, even to Excommunication. Now, 
 who knows not, that it is a general Maxim of that Religion 
 that they ought to treat all Excommunicated Persons as 
 common pests? Upon this, all subjects are dispensed with 
 from their Oaths of Allegiance to their Princes ; Kingdoms 
 are laid under Interdicts; and they are in no way obliged to 
 keep faith with Heretics. 
 
 * This is the original and damnable Cause of the many 
 Conspiracies that have been made against the sacred lives of 
 our Kings : and, if you will search our Histories, you will 
 find none of the forementioned Acts ever passed, but upon 
 some previous provocation given by the Papists' insolence 
 or rebellions ; of the Massacres in France and Ireland, 
 wherein those of Rome have so triumphed ; and of the 
 general consternation [of the Popish Plot] into which so 
 lately our nation was cast. 
 
 ' They would fain persuade us. That these pernicious 
 Maxims are peculiar to the Jesuits and some Monks : but a 
 little Treatise [by Bishop William Lloyd] , Printed by Henry 
 called, " The Difference between the Church Brome, 1674. 
 and Court of Rome," proves undeniably that it is the judge- 
 ment of all true Papists. I could produce other invincible 
 authority ; if this point were here to be proved. 
 
 ' There cannot then be too great caution against such 
 persons. Whatever they pretend ; they do not design simply 
 the Exercise of that Belief which their Conscience dictates 
 to them. They grasp at the Power, and aspire at Dominion. 
 They design, whatever it cost them, to have their Church 
 reign once more here in England. There is nothing they 
 dare not attempt, nothing they are not ready to act, that 
 they may comj)ass it. They are implacable enemies, who 
 wait but for an opportunity to cut our throats ; and we 
 must needs be very senseless and stupid if, after so many 
 proofs as they have given us of their desperate malice, we 
 should repeal those Laws which tie up their hands.' 
 
 * You are much in the right,' I replied, ' but let us leave 
 them for the present, and return to our Protestants of 
 France. You have shewed me their Rights : now let me 
 understand their Grievances ! ' 
 
 ' I am willing to do it,' said he, ' but it is a little late ; 
 and, if you please, being somewhat weary with my journey, 
 we will defer it till to-morrow. I will expect you here in 
 64i
 
 1681. The present condition of the Huguenots. 
 
 my chamber at the same hour you came to-day.' 
 
 I told him, * With all my heart ! ' 
 
 And as our Conversation ended there, I think it not 
 amiss to end my Letter too : intending in another to let you 
 know the present condition of those poor people. 
 
 I am your, etc. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves.
 
 LETTER TT. 
 
 I DID NOT fail to wait on my Friend at the appointed 
 hour. 
 ' Sit down,' said he, as soon as he saw me in the 
 chamber, ' and let us lose no time in needless cere- 
 mony ! I was just putting my Papers in order; by 
 which I would desire you to judge of the Protestants' Com- 
 plaints, and the Reasons that have made them leave their 
 country. But since you are here ; take them as they come 
 to hand ! 
 
 ' The First is a Verbal Process of the extraordinary 
 Assembly of the Archbishops and Bishops held in the 
 Province of [(Francois de) Harlay de Chanvallon,] 
 the Archbishop of Paris, in the months of March 
 and May, this 1681. It is a Piece which justifies a 
 Truth, that the World will hardly believe : namely, That 
 whereas the Protestants, by virtue of the Edict, had the 
 Exercise of their Religion almost everywhere ; they have it 
 now scarce anywhere. See the proof in the tenth page of 
 that Verbal Process, where one of the Agents General of the 
 Clergy of France allegeth as so many public testimonies of 
 the piety of their King, " An almost infinite number of 
 Churches demolished ; and the Exercise of the Religion 
 pretended Reformed suppressed." 
 
 ' I leave you to imagine what a consternation such a 
 terrible blow must have put those poor people into : not to 
 mention their grief to see those Holy Places beaten down, 
 " whose very stones they took pleasure in." Instead of 
 having the heavenly Manna showered down at the doors of 
 their Tabernacles ; at this present, they are forced to go 
 thirty or forty miles, through the worst of ways, in the 
 winter, to hear the Word of GOD, and to have their children 
 baptized. 
 
 ' But let us go on to a second Piece. Here is a Declara- 
 tion that hath lain heavy upon them, in reference to an 
 infinite number of Living Temples ; who are far otherwise 
 66
 
 1681. Edict against 'Apostates ' and ' Relapsed.' 
 
 to be lamented for, by reason of the rigour they are used 
 with, than the Temples of Stone that are demolished. 
 
 ' It is of the 13th of March 1679. Pray, read it ! It for- 
 bids all Popish Clergymen, whatever desire they have, to turn 
 Protestants : and even all those Protestants who have for- 
 saken their Religion out of lightness or infirmity, to return 
 to it again, upon better knowledge of the Truth; pressed to 
 it by their Consciences, and dpsiring to give glory to GOD. 
 
 This dreadful Edict will not suffer that any of them 
 under satisfy their Consciences in so important an affair, 
 shall any less penalty than that of 
 
 the "Amende Honorable," 
 
 Perpetual Banishment, and 
 
 Confiscation of their goods.' 
 'I beseech you,' said I, 'what doth the Declaration 
 intend, by making "Amende Honorable"? 
 
 ' You have reason to ask,' replied he. * It is that, you 
 ought not to be ignorant of. Know then, that for them to 
 make "Amende Honorable" is to go into some public place, 
 in their shirt, a torch in their hand, a rope about their neck, 
 followed by the Hangman ; in this equipage (which is that 
 of the most infamous criminals), to ask pardon of GOD, the 
 King, and Justice, for what they have done : that is to say, 
 on this occasion, for having dared to repent of sinning 
 against GOD ; for having forsaken a Religion which they 
 believed [to be] heretical and idolatrous, and consequently the 
 infallible way to eternal damnation ; and for being willing 
 thenceforward to profess the Protestant Religion, in which 
 only they are persuaded they can be saved. 
 
 ' This is, dear Friend, what they inflict upon all Popish 
 Ecclesiastics, to whom GOD vouchsafes grace to discern 
 the true Religion ; and upon all Protestants who, having 
 been such wretches as to forsake it, are afterwards so happy 
 as to be convinced of their sin, and to repent. They call 
 the first, "Apostates " ; and the other, "Relapsed": but 
 names do not change the nature of things. 
 
 ' The misery is, that all this is executed with the utmost 
 rigor. The Prisons of Poitiers, and those of other places, 
 are, at this present, filled with this sort of pretended 
 Relapsed Persons : and it is not permitted to anyone to 
 relieve them. What possibility is there then, for such as 
 are in like circumstances, and whose number every day 
 increases, to continue in France ? 
 
 67
 
 No French Catholic may turn Protestant. lesi. 
 
 'But the mischief is much increased since this Declara- 
 tion. What was particular [peculiar~\ to Ecclesiastics and 
 Relapsed Protestants, is now become universal to all Roman 
 Catholics. I shewed you the Piece yesterday. It is that 
 very Edict of June 1680, wherein they pretend to confirm 
 the Edict of Nantes. A blessed confirmation ! The Edict 
 of Nantes, as I have shewed you, allows the Liberty of Con- 
 science to all them who were then Protestants ; and to all 
 Art. 1 Par. such as would be afterwards, inhabitants or 
 
 others. But what doth this new Edict declare? 
 
 Our Will and Pleasure is, that our Subjects of what 
 Quality, condition, age, or sex, soever, now making pro- 
 fession of the Catholic Apostolic Roman Religion, may 
 never forsake it, to go over to the pretended Reformed 
 Religion, for what cause, reason, pretence, or considera- 
 tion, soever. We Will that they who shall act contrary to 
 this Our Pleasure, shall be condemned to make ' Amende 
 Honorable,' to perpetual banishment out of our Kingdom, 
 and all their goods to be confiscated. 
 
 We forbid all Ministers of the said pretended 
 Reformed Religion hereafter to receive any Catholic to 
 make Profession of the pretended Reformed Religion ; and 
 we forbid them and the Elders of their Consistories to 
 suffer in their Churches or Assemblies any such : under 
 penalty to the Ministers of being dex^rived for ever of 
 exercising any function of their Ministry in our Kingdom; 
 and of suppression for ever of the Exercise of the said 
 Religion in that place where any one Catholic shall be 
 received to make Profession of the said pretended 
 Reformed Religion. 
 
 * Lord ! what a horrible proceeding is this ! ' cried I, as 
 soon as my Friend had read it. ' Do they call this confirm- 
 ing of Edicts in France ? What a violence is this to the 
 Consciences of Ministers and Elders, to command them to 
 shut the doors of the Church of Jesus Christ to all their 
 neighbours, who come thither for admission ! and to have 
 this done by them, who are called by GOD to open the door 
 to all the World ! Is not this to force them to violate the 
 most essential and sacred duty of Christian Charity ? In 
 truth, if there were nothing else but this ; I do not see how 
 they can stay there much longer, with a safe Conscience.' 
 
 * They must swallow worse Potions than these,' said my 
 Friend. ' You shall see presently quite other Preparations ! ' 
 68
 
 1681. The young Maid of La Motthe. 
 
 ' What ! ' replied I, ' have they the heart to use thus 
 cruelly those poor Churches, within whose walls any Roman 
 Catholic changes his Religion?' 
 
 ' Do not doubt it ! ' said he. * They make no Conscience 
 at all to exceed their Commission ; whensoever they are 
 enjoined to execute any penalty. I will give you an example 
 which will amaze you. 
 
 ' There is a great town in Poitou, called La Motthe ; 
 where the Protestants have a Church consisting of between 
 3,000 and 4,000 Communicants. A young Maid, of about 
 seventeen years old, who from a Protestant had turned 
 Paptist, had stole herself into the Congregation upon a 
 Communion Day. Now you must observe, that the Protestant 
 Churches are full on those Days : for they would believe 
 themselves very much to blame, if they lost any opportunity 
 of partaking at the Lord's Supper. Nevertheless, without 
 considering how easy it was for that young Maid not to be 
 discovered by the Consistory in such a crowd, and though 
 those poor people were not at all within the Letter of that 
 rigorous Edict ; they have made them undergo all the 
 penalty ! The Exercise of their Religion is wholly sup- 
 pressed there ; and their Minister is not allowed to preach 
 in France.' 
 
 ' That is very cruel,' said I to our Friend, ' and though 
 it were true that those Ministers and those Elders were 
 guilty upon such an account ; why should the whole Flock 
 be punished ? Those poor sheep, what have they done ? ' 
 
 ' That is very usual to those Gentlemen,' answered he. 
 ' I have a hundred Stories to instance in. I cannot forbear 
 telling you one, which many of their own devotees were 
 scandalized at. 
 
 ' Saint Hii3polyte is a place in , where all 
 
 the inhabitants are Protestants ; except the Curate, and it 
 may be two or three poor wretches, who are not natives of 
 the place neither. 
 
 'A fancy took the Curate to put a trick upon the 
 Protestants. For this, he chose a Sunday : and, the very 
 moment that they came out of the Church, he came, and 
 presented himself before them with his Sacrament ; as they 
 were almost all come out. 
 
 'You must know that the [Protestant] Church is on 
 the farther side of a Bridge ; which must be passed over, 
 going and coming. Several of them were upon the Bridge, 
 
 69
 
 The Curate of Saint Hippolyte. leei. 
 
 others had passed it ; and part were yet on the other side. 
 When the Curate appeared, all of them who could possibly, 
 got away, and hid themselves: but neither the place, nor 
 the great haste of the Curate, would permit all of them to 
 do so. He went up directly to one of the company ; whom 
 he had borne an ill will to, for some time. He bids him 
 kneel ; and the other answering, That his Conscience would 
 not suffer him to do it ; the Curate gave him a cuff on the 
 ear. He that was struck grumbled ; and so did two or 
 three who were about him. The Curate went on his way ; 
 threatening hard. 
 
 * Next day, there were Informations made on both sides : 
 the Curate, in his, not complaining of any person but him 
 he had struck; and two or three others who had grumbled 
 at it. The friends of the Curate, perceiving that he had 
 done the wrong, proposed an Accommodation. It was, by 
 misfortune, consented to. Prosecution ceased on each side; 
 and it was believed that there was an end to that business. 
 There was not a word spoken of it in above a year. 
 
 ' But the Intendant of Languedoc revived it, last winter 
 [i.e., 1680]; when they thought of nothing less; and of a 
 matter particular [relating'] to two or three, made it a 
 general concern of the whole Congregation. He cites them 
 before the Presidial of Nimes ; to whom he joined himself. 
 He condemns them to demolish their Church in a month's 
 time. 
 
 'Those poor people go and cast themselves at the feet 
 of the Court : but to no purpose. The King's Council hears 
 and confirms this strange Order of the Intendant : and the 
 Church is razed to the ground. 
 
 'The Council which gave this sentence was the first in 
 which [Louis, Duke of Buegundy,] the Dauphin was 
 present. The report of such an Order being spread among 
 the Courtiers, and all being amazed that heard it ; a certain 
 person took the liberty to tell the Dauphin, That the first 
 time he had been at the Council, he had assisted at a great 
 injustice. 
 
 ' " What say you to that '? " said a Duke and a Peer to the 
 Dauphin ; who had made no reply to the former. 
 
 * " I say," answered the Dauphin, " that he may be much 
 in the right." ' 
 
 I told our Friend, I had had enough of this. 
 70
 
 1681. Forgery as to a Matter of Fact in an Edict. 
 
 ' You must not be weary,' said he. ' This is but the 
 beginning of sorrows. Let us go on to the rest ! 
 
 ' Here is,' said he, 'a little book which conies just now 
 to my hand. In it are stitched up together Three Acts con- 
 cerning Schools. The First is of the 9th of December 1670. 
 It forbids all Protestant Schoolmasters to teach anything 
 in their Schools but to read and write, and Arithmetic. 
 The Second, which is of the 4th of December 1671, ordains 
 that the Protestants shall have but one School only in any 
 place where they have the Public Exercise of their Religion ; 
 and but one Master in that School. The Third is of the 9tli 
 of July, this present 1681. Look on them,' said he 'and give 
 me your opinion!' 
 
 'It seems,' said I, 'that the First contains nothing which 
 the Protestants may complain of ; at least, if that which I 
 read there be true, namely. That, by the Edict of Nantes, 
 it is expressly ordained, That in the Schools of those of the 
 pretended Reformed Religion there shall not anything be 
 taught but to read, write, and cast accounts. For, according 
 to this, the Edict of 1670 is entirely conformable to that 
 other Edict, which is the law.' 
 
 ' You are in the right,' said he : ' but they who framed 
 the Act have deceived you ; and have made no scruple to 
 ground it upon a Matter of Fact entirely false. For the 
 Article which speaks of Schools doth not mention the least 
 word of that restriction, which this Act assures us to be 
 there expressed, named, " of teaching only to read, write, 
 and cast accounts." See the Article at length ! It is the 
 Thirty-seventh Particular. 
 
 Those of the said Religion may not keep public Schools 
 unless in Cities and places where the Public Exercise of 
 the Religion is allowed ; and the Provisions which have 
 heretofore been granted them for the erection or 
 maintenance of Colleges shall be authenticated where 
 occasion shall require, and have their full and entire 
 effect. 
 
 'Where is that express Order, " It is expressly ordered 
 to teach only to read, write, and cast accounts," upon which 
 the Act is grounded ? ' 
 
 ' Is it possible,' said I, ' that they should have no sense 
 of the horrid shame which must arise upon conviction of 
 Forgery in a Matter of Fact of this nature ? ' 
 
 ' They never stick at so small a matter as that,' said he, 
 
 71
 
 The suppression of Schools and Colleges. lesi. 
 
 ' in the Design they have of rooting out the Protestants. 
 Those who are in France dare not open their mouths to 
 discover such kind of falsities : and Strangers, whom they 
 carry fair with, will not so far concern themselves as ever 
 to suspect there should he falsehood in a Matter of Fact 
 so easy to be made out ; and which they make to be so 
 positively affirmed by so great a King. So that they do not 
 fear at all the shame you speak of. After all, they are but 
 Pious Frauds ; at which, they of the Pope's Communion 
 never blush. 
 
 ' And what say you,' continued he, ' to that other Act 
 which reduces all Schools to one in each City and town, 
 where the Protestants have the public Exercise of their 
 Religion ; and that which requires, that there should be only 
 one Master in that School ? ' 
 
 I replied that it was an excellent way to restore 
 Ignorance, the Mother of the Roman Faith and Devotion. 
 
 ' In truth,' says he ' the care of one Master cannot go 
 far. Besides, there is a Protestant Church which alone 
 hath 2,000 children of age to be taught. 
 
 ' Those poor people have done all they could to obtain 
 of the Council, that, at least, there might be two Schools in 
 each place : one for Boys, and the other for Girls. But it 
 was to little purpose that they pleaded good manners for it ; 
 which such a mixture of both sexes visibly was offensive to. 
 They were deaf to all their Prayers, and to all their 
 Remonstrances. 
 
 ' But this is not all yet. In the execution of this 
 rigorous Act, they have taken away from them that little 
 which was left them. For the Judges of the places will not 
 suffer that any Schoolmaster teach ; unless they have first 
 of all approved of him, and received him in all their Forms. 
 As therefore their approbation is a matter full of invincible 
 difficulties ; above all, when they are to give it to a man of 
 merit, and who may do good : it is come to pass, by means 
 of these two Acts, that all the little Schools of the Protestants 
 are shut up. 
 
 ' From the little Schools, they have proceeded to Colleges. 
 You see [that], by the Act of last July [1681], which sup- 
 presses for ever that of Sedan. They have taken away also 
 the College of Chatillon sur Loin. So that, hereafter, the 
 Protestants in France are to lie under worse than Egyptian 
 72 *
 
 1681. Huguenots must employ Catholic Midwives. 
 
 darkness. I leave you now to judj^e, whether they are to 
 blame who seek for light in some Goslien ! ' 
 
 ' In truth,' said I, ' this is very hard ! But if they who 
 inspire into the King such strange Acts, have no respect for 
 Henry the Great and his Edicts, at least they ought to be 
 more tender of the glory of tlieir own illustrious Prince ; 
 and not to expose him, as they do, to be ranked with that 
 Emperor, against whom the holy Fathers have cried so 
 loudly. Is it possible they can be ignorant that this method 
 of extinguishing the Protestant Religion is exactly the same 
 that Julian took to extinguish the Christian Religion?' 
 
 ' I do not think,' said our Friend, ' that they can be 
 ignorant of a truth so well known: especially since one of 
 their eminent Writers hath published the Monsieur Godfrey 
 History of "The Life of Saint Basil the hermant. Doctor 
 Great," and " of Saint Gregory, Nazianzus." of the Sorbonne, 
 There they might have read, in more than Tom. i, Book 2, 
 one place, that it was likewise one of the P- 204 ; and Notes 
 secrets of that Emperor to ruin the of the same 
 Christians, by keeping them from all im- Chapter, p. 625. 
 provement in Learning; and to prohibit their Colleges and 
 Schools: which the Fathers judged to be a most subtle policy. 
 
 ' But their zeal transports them above the most odious 
 comparisons. They stick not to give occasion for them 
 every moment. I will show you an example which will 
 astonish you. I have here lighted upon the Paper. 
 
 ' They are now come to take the measures of that 
 barbarous and inhuman King who used Midwives of his 
 own Religion to destroy the race of the People of GOD in 
 Egypt. For, by that Declaration of the 28th of February 
 1680, it is ordered. That the Wives of Protestants shall not 
 be brought to bed, but by Midwives or Chirurgeons 
 [Surgeons~\ who are Papists. This they make to be observed 
 with the utmost rigour; so far, that they put a poor woman 
 in prison for being present at the labour of her sister ; 
 whose delivery was so quick and fortunate, that there was 
 neither time, nor need, to call a Midwife. 
 
 ' That you may, in few words, understand of what con- 
 sequence this is to our poor Brethren, I need but acquaint 
 you, That the King of France, in his Edict of the month 
 of June, 1680, where he forbids Papists to change their 
 Religion, acknowledges himself, what experience doth but 
 
 73
 
 Children, seven years old, may turn Catholics. 1681. 
 
 too plainly justify, luunely, That the Roman Catholics have 
 always had an aversion, not only against the Protestant 
 Religion; hut against all those that profess it: and an 
 aversion which hath heen improved by the publication of 
 Edicts, Declarations, and Acts. That is to say, That, what- 
 ever pretence the Roman Catholics make to the contrary; 
 they have always been, and still are, enemies of the Protes- 
 tants : and that the Protestants ought to look to be treated 
 by the Catholics as enemies. 
 
 'After this, what can they judge of the Design and 
 consequences of a Declaration which jDuts the lives of their 
 wives and children into those very hands, which the King, 
 who makes the Declaration, acknowledges to be the hands 
 of enemies ? 
 
 'But farther, the Declaration itself discovers that one 
 of its intentions was to make the children of Protestants 
 to be baptized bj^ Midwives, or by Popish Chirurgeons : and 
 what mischief do they not open a way for, by that ! The 
 Protestants will hold that Baptism void, which hath been 
 administered by such hands. They will not fail to make it 
 be administered anew by their Pastors. This shall pass 
 for a Capital Crime in the Pastors and Fathers ; and they 
 shall be punished as sacriligious persons, who trample on 
 the Religion in Authority ! the Religion of the King ! For 
 the most odious representations are still made use of.' 
 
 ' Nay ! ' said I, ' by this, they will likewise claim a 
 right, from the Baptisms being administered by Papists, 
 to make themselves masters of the education of their 
 children.' 
 
 ' You are in the right,' said he, ' and that Article ought 
 not to be forgotten. " It is just," will they say, " that they 
 should be brought up in the Church which hath consecrated 
 them to GOD by Baptism ; at least, that they should be 
 bred up there, till they are of age to choose for themselves." 
 And when they are of age, they will say then, " That it is 
 just they should, as well as others, be liable to the same 
 Edict which forbids Catholics to change their Religion." 
 Is not this enough already to make one forsake such a 
 Kingdom ? A Christian, for less than this, would surely 
 fly to the utmost parts of the world ! But to proceed. 
 
 ' Here is that terrible Decree which fills up the measure, 
 as to what concerns the poor children. It conies to tny 
 74
 
 1681. Children persecuting their Parents. 
 
 hand very seasonably. It is the Declaration of the 17th of 
 
 June [1681] last. 
 
 This ordains that all the children of Protestants 
 shall be admitted to abjure the Religion of their fathers, 
 and become Papists, as soon as they shall be seven years 
 old. It declares that, after such an Abjuration, it shall 
 be at the choice of the children, either to return home ta 
 their fathers, and there to be maintained ; or to oblige 
 their fathers and mothers to pay for their board and 
 maintenance, wherever they please to live. It adds extreme 
 penalties to be laid on them who breed up tlieir children 
 in foreign parts, before they are sixteen years old. 
 
 * But I pray, read over the whole Edict !' 
 
 Upon that, I took the Declaration from our Friend's 
 hand, read it ; and, returning it to him again, could not 
 forbear declaring that I did not now wonder any more that 
 the Protestants of France were in so great a consternation. 
 ' They are much in the right,' said I. ' Discretion and Con- 
 science oblige them to depart out of a country, in which 
 there is no security for the salvation of their dear children. 
 They are of too great a value to be so hazarded. What is 
 more easy, for them who have all the power, than to induce 
 such young children to change their Religion ! There is no 
 need, for this, to show them all the Kingdoms of the World 
 and their glory. A baby [doir\ , a picture, a little cake, will 
 do the business : or, if there want something more, a rod 
 will not fail to complete this worthy conversion. 
 
 * In the meanwhile, what a condition are their wretched 
 fathers in ! Besides the most inexpressible grief of seeing 
 what is most dear to them in the World seduced out of the 
 Service and House of GOD ; they shall likewise have this 
 addition of anguish, of having their own children for their 
 Persecutors. For, knowing as I do, the Spirit of that 
 Religion, I doubt not but they will all prove rebellious and 
 unnatural ; and renounce all that love and natural respect 
 which is due to them, whom they owe there lives to. They 
 will give law to their parents. They will oblige them ta 
 make them great allowances ; which they will dispose of as 
 they list : and if their fathers pay them not precisely at the 
 time appointed, I am sure no rigours shall be forgotten in 
 the prosecution.' 
 
 ' No, certainly,' said our Friend, ' and I could give you a 
 hundred instances; if there were need. Even before this 
 
 75
 
 Not permitted to be sick, or to die, in peace. 1681. 
 
 merciless Declaration was made, the goods of the parents 
 were seized upon [and] exposed to sale, to pay for the 
 maintenance of their children who had been inveigled from 
 them, and been made Papists. If they dealt with them so 
 then, before the Declaration ; what will they not do, 
 when they see themselves supjjorted and armed with Royal 
 Authority '? 
 
 ' But there is no need I should insist farther on the 
 dreadful consequences of this Declaration. It hath been 
 lately printed in our language ; and Notes made upon it, 
 wherein nothing hath been forgotten.'* 
 
 The book is written impartially ; though I can scarce 
 believe what is expressed in the Title Page, that ' it was 
 written in French ' : however, some Gallicisms are put in, to 
 make you believe it. But the Protestants of that nation 
 are not used to such bold expressions upon such kind of 
 subjects : and I doubt much whether they could do it. 
 
 ' If they have reason to fear for the birth, and for the 
 tender years, of their children ; they have no less, for them- 
 selves ! Here is a proof of it. It is the Declaration of the 
 19th of November 1680. By which it is ordained. 
 
 That whenever they are sick, they shall suffer them- 
 selves to be visited by the Papist Magistrates. 
 
 ' Thus, having made their lives burdensome to them, 
 they take a thousand ways to torment them in their beds, as 
 soon as any disease hath seized them. It is not henceforth 
 permitted to them, either to be sick, or [to] die, in peace. 
 Under colour of this Declaration, they are persecuted ; and 
 all means are tried to shake their Faith, under the pretence 
 of being asked. What Religion they will die in ? 
 
 'First, a Judge presents himself with the awe of his 
 presence, accompanied by one of the King's Solicitors and 
 two Papist Witnesses. They begin their work by driving 
 all Protestants, who are with the sick man, out of his 
 chamber: Father, Mother, Wife, Husband, Children, none are 
 excepted. After that, they do with the sick person, as they 
 list. They draw up a Verbal Process, or such as they like. 
 Lies with them are but Pious Frauds. Whatever the sick 
 
 * Animadversions upon the French i hament the 8th of July following. 
 
 King's Declaration against the Pro- Translated out of French. London 
 
 testants, given at Versailles the 17th 1681. — E.A. 
 
 of Jiine 1681 ; and registered in Par- ' 
 76
 
 16H1. False Witnesses present at the Sermons. 
 
 man answers, he hath still abjured ! if these Gentlemen 
 please to make a conversion of it : and there is no 
 possibility of disproving it. The Verbal Process is drawn up 
 in good form. 
 
 'If the sick man recovers, and refuses to go to Mass; 
 immediately he is subject to all the penalties of a Relapsed. 
 If he dies, and chances to be the father of a family ; they 
 take away all his children to breed them up in the Popish 
 Religion ; and his estate, to preserve it, as they pretend, for 
 the children of a Catholic father. Can any one who hath 
 any care of his own salvation, or any affection for his 
 children, live exposed to such dreadful inconveniences ; if 
 GOD offers any means to avoid them ? 
 
 ' I am afraid I tire you with the recital of so many 
 calamities ! ' 
 
 * Fear not that ! ' answered I, ' I am resolved to know all ! ' 
 'You do not consider what you say!' replied he. 'I 
 
 should need whole weeks to tell you all ! Imagine all the 
 surprises, all the indirect practices, all the base tricks of 
 insinuation, and little quirks of law, that are put in ure 
 \_7ise~\ , together with all manner of violence, to accomplish 
 the work. 
 
 'Neither do those enemies of the Protestants always 
 neglect the Oracles of the Scripture. It says, "I will smite 
 the Shepherd, and the sheep of the Flock shall be scattered." 
 [Zech. xiii. 7.] These Gentlemen then, that they may the 
 more easily scatter the sheep, smite everywhere the Shep- 
 herds ; and constrain them to fly. They imprison one for 
 having, by the Word of GOD, confirmed some of his Flock, 
 whom the Popish Doctors would pervert ; another, for being 
 converted to the Protestant Religion in his youth, long 
 before any law was made against pretended Apostates. 
 
 * They hire forlorn wretches to go to the Sermons of the 
 Protestant Ministers, and to depose before a Magistrate that 
 the Ministers said, That the Church of Rome was idolatrous, 
 or that the Faithful are persecuted ; That they spake ill of 
 the Virgin Mary, or of the King. Upon this, without 
 being heard, and though it be offered to be made out by the 
 Deposition of an infinity almost of Persons of Credit tliat 
 the testimonies of these two or three wretches are absolutely 
 false, Orders are issued out for the seizing the bodies of the 
 Ministers. They are clapped in gaol as soon as taken. 
 
 77
 
 The Ministers flying into other countries. isei. 
 
 They are condemned to pay excessive fines. They force them 
 to make the "Amende Honorable." They banish them the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 ' The Intendant at Rochefort suppressed one there, upon 
 the most extravagant Deposition that was ever taken. The 
 Deponent, having been at the Sermon of that Minister, said, 
 That there was nothing to be found fault with in his words ; 
 but that he perceived his thoughts were not innocent. 
 
 ' If there are any amongst them so happy as to confound 
 so the False Witnesses, that the Judges are ashamed to use 
 ^ill those rigours: none of the charges of Imprisonment, or 
 of the Suit, are ever recovered against any one. A Minister, 
 who may have MiSO or £70 a year, and seven or eight in 
 family to maintain, must be condemned, with all his 
 innocence, to pay all these great costs. I could, upon this 
 head, tell you a hundred Stories: but that it would be too 
 tedious. I have met, both at Paris and in other Provinces, 
 many of these persecuted Ministers; who acquainted me 
 with their adventitres. Germany, Holland, and Switzer- 
 land, are full of them : and I am told there are some of them 
 here in England. Their absence from their Flocks is but 
 too good a proof how hot the Persecution is against them. 
 And so let us go on. 
 
 'You may remember that the Edict of Nantes judged 
 it necessary for the preservation of the estates and credit 
 of the Protestants, and for the safety of their lives, to erect 
 Tribunals where Supreme Justice might be administered 
 by Judges of the one, and of the other, Religion. But all 
 those Tribunals are suppressed : namely, the " Chambers of 
 the Edict " of Paris and of Rouen. It is some years since 
 the " Chambres Mi-parties " were suppressed, by the Declara- 
 tion of July 1679. So that here are their fortunes, their 
 credit, their lives, all, at the mercy of their sworn enemies. 
 For you have not forgotten that the King of France 
 acknowledges, in one of his Declarations, that the Papists 
 have always hated the persons of the Protestants. Judge, 
 then, if it be safe for them to stay longer in such a 
 Kingdom ! 
 
 * But there is no method proper to ruin them, which is 
 not made of ; so that if one fails, another may be sure to 
 take. Synods and Conferences are absolutely necessary, for 
 the admission of their Ministers ; for the correction of 
 78
 
 1681. A Papist Commissary at eacli Synod. 
 
 scandals; for the preservation of peace in their Congrega- 
 tions ; for the subsistence of their Colleges ; and for the 
 support and exercise of their Discipline. At first, they kept 
 them with all sorts of liberty. Under Louis XIII., they 
 thought fit to forbid them to hold any Synod unless some 
 Protestant Commissary, who was to be named by Court, 
 were present. This was observed till the year 1670 ; when 
 a Declaration was published, requiring that there should be 
 a Papist Commissary in their Synods.' 
 
 ' That is to say, Sir ! ' said I, interrupting our Friend, 
 ' they will pry into their hearts ; and perfectly know where 
 their strength, or their weakness, lies.' 
 
 ' If there were nothing but that in it,' replied our 
 Friend, * that Declaration would not alarm them so much 
 as it doth. For there is nothing done in their Assemblies, 
 which they are not willing all the World should know. They 
 defy their most mortal enemies to prove the contrary. Can 
 there be a more undeniable proof of this, than the practice 
 of the Protestant Commissary : who sends to the Court a 
 Copy, well attested, of all the results of the deliberations 
 which are made while the Synod or Conference is held"?' 
 
 'What do they fear then,' replied I, 'from the presence 
 of a Papist Commissary ? ' 
 
 ' Because they know, that the end of the Court cannot 
 be to discover their secrets ; since they have none : there- 
 fore it is that thej^ justly fear that this Papist Commissary 
 hath been set over them, to create them trouble in the most 
 innocent affairs, to hinder those deliberations which are 
 most necessary for the due preservation of their Flocks, to 
 silence those Ministers among them whom he shall perceive 
 to be of greatest ability and of credit, to dishearten one 
 by threatenings, to corrupt another by promises, to sow 
 dissension and division among them, and to employ all 
 means possible to ruin them. 
 
 'These are the just fears that have hindered them, till 
 this present, from assembling any Synods with this so 
 destructive a condition: hoping continually that, it may be, 
 GOD would touch the heart of their King. But perceiving 
 no favourable change, and not being able to subsist without 
 holding their Synods ; I learned, as I came out of France, 
 that these poor people are resolved to run these hazards; 
 and that their Synods are upon assembling in several 
 places. 
 
 79
 
 The Jesuits' plans to starve all the Protestants, lesi. 
 
 ' May GOD vouchsafe to preside in the midst of them 
 hy his grace; and remove far from them all the Evils they 
 have cause to fear ! It may be, hy their good examples and 
 their religious behaviour, [that] they may convert them, 
 who are set over tliom for a snare ; as it happened to their 
 fathers in the last Age also. Tlien was contrived the 
 placing of Papist Commissaries to spy out their liberty. 
 But these Commissaries were so taken witli the modesty, 
 the piety, the charity, the decency of order, and the devout 
 prayers, of the first Reformers, that they gave glory to 
 GOD, and embraced the Religion which they had per- 
 secuted. 
 
 * The Jesuits, nevertheless, have thought all these Evils, 
 of which I have spoken, too slack and gentle. That they 
 may not be at any more trouble ; they will do the business 
 once for all ! They have contrived to starve all the Pro- 
 testants ; and, to effect this, they have made all the means 
 of gaining a livelihood to be taken from them, by the Acts of 
 the Council of State of the Gth of November 1679, and of 
 the 28th of June 1681. 
 
 ' 1. They have turned out of all Jurisdictions and 
 Seigniores, which are almost infinite in France, all Pro- 
 testants who had been admitted Officers in those Juris- 
 dictions. All Stewards, Bailiffs, Solicitors, Officers of the 
 Exchequer, Registrars, Notaries, Clerks, Serjeants, and 
 Ushers, that were Protestants, of all sorts, throughout the 
 whole Kingdom, are cashiered ; by virtue of these Acts. 
 They have reduced to beggary thousands of families ; which 
 had no other subsistence but by these Employments. 
 
 ' 2. Look upon those two Pieces ; which they procured 
 also for the same intent. The title of the one is, " The 
 Order of the Council Royal of the Finances [,or Treasury] , 
 of the 11th of June 1680." The other is, "An Order of the 
 Council of State of the 17th of August of the same year." 
 By the means of these two Pieces, the Jesuits have made 
 the Protestants to be kept out of all the affairs of the 
 Finances, Customs which they call " Traites Forains," of 
 Aids, Gabelles, Taxes of all sorts of Commissions : to which 
 the Edict of Nantes ordered that they should be admitted 
 indifferently with the Papists. This second [device] hath 
 taken away the bread of a vast number of families more. 
 
 * 3. They, every day, make the Protestant Captains and 
 80
 
 1681. More plans to destroy all the Protestants. 
 
 Officers, who have served so worthily by land and sea, to he 
 turned out of their Commands. Those brave men (after 
 they have spent their estates to advance their Master's 
 honour ; and ventured their lives a thousand times for his 
 glory) see themselves shamefully, as so many cowards, 
 cashiered ; without any exception for them who, having 
 signalized and distinguished themselves by particular 
 actions, had deserved extraordinary pensions. Because 
 they will not be less faithful to GOD than they have been 
 to their King ; the Jesuits are resolved [that] disgrace and 
 beggary shall be the reward of their service. By this, they 
 take away from all the Protestant Nobility the means of 
 maintaining themselves in that rank in which GOD, by 
 their birth, hath placed them. 
 
 ' 4. As to the Merchants, look what the Jesuits have 
 thought upon, to ruin them ! They have obtained an Order 
 of Council of State, of the 19th of November 1680, which 
 grants to all Protestants who change their Religion, 
 
 The term and forbearance of Three Years, for the pay- 
 ment of the Principal of their debts : with prohibition to 
 all their Creditors to bring any Action against them 
 during that time ; upon pain of Non-suit, Noli prosequi, 
 and all charges, damages, costs, and interests. 
 
 ' I perceive very well,' said I to our Friend, ' that this 
 puts those who revolt [Jbeconie Roman Catholics] in a way 
 to secure and withdraw their goods; and to enjoy in peace 
 the fruits of their turning Bankrupts : but I do not see how 
 this tends to the ruin of those Merchants in general, who 
 persevere in the Protestant Religion.' 
 
 ' That is,' said he, smiling, ' because you have not so 
 subtle a wit, nor are so quick-sighted, as the Jesuits. You 
 know very well that Merchants subsist by their credit. If 
 their credit be low, they must fall ! there is no more trading 
 for them ! their business is done ! Now, do you not perceive 
 that the credit of all Protestant Merchants is ruined by 
 this Order ; which puts them in a way of turning Bank- 
 rupts as they please, with all indemnity ; and of enriching 
 themselves with those goods they have been trusted with. 
 Who, do you think, after this, will be so silly as to take 
 their word '? Who can tell, with any certainty, whether 
 they with whom they deal, are persons who will continue 
 in the Protestant Religion '? Is there anything more 
 common than such changes in Religion now a days ? ' 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 6 81
 
 The Protestants are double-taxed. lesi. 
 
 *It is enough,' said I. * I was mistaken. I perceive now 
 very well that the ruin of the Protestant Merchants is 
 unavoidable. Go on to the other Professions ! For I see 
 they are resolved that no Protestant shall get bread among 
 them.' 
 
 ' You are in the right,' said he. * You have seen it in 
 many of them. I will shew it to you now in the rest. 
 
 * 5. All Papists who drive any Trade, or exercise any 
 Art, are forbidden to take any Protestant Apprentice. I 
 have seen the Order; but I have it not now by me. By 
 this, you see, that all young men of the Protestant Religion, 
 who have not means of their own, are reduced to this 
 extremity : either of starving in France, or turning Papists, 
 or forsaking that Kingdom. For the same Order forbids 
 any Protestant who drives or professes any Trade, to have 
 under him any Aj^prentice, either Papist or Protestant ; 
 that so they may not be able to do work enough to maintain 
 their families. 
 
 ' 6. The Grand Master and Grand Prevot have given 
 notice, by virtue of Letters under the Signet, to all 
 Protestants who had Privileges whereby they had right to 
 keep shojDS, as Chirurgions, Apothecaries, Watchmakers, and 
 other Tradesmen, to forbear using their Privileges any 
 longer; and to shut up their shops: which hath been 
 punctually executed. 
 
 ' 7. They have established Societies of Physicians at 
 Rochelle, and in other places ; where, as I am assured from 
 good hands, there were none ever before. None but Papists 
 will be received into those Societies. By this, the Jesuits 
 have found out the way, at one stroke, to hinder the practice 
 of all the Protestant Physicians ; however able and 
 experienced they may be : insomuch that the lives of all 
 sick Protestants are, by this means, put into the hands of 
 their enemies. 
 
 ' 8. In short, there is scarce now any place in France 
 where they may get their livelihood. They are everywhere 
 molested and hindered from exercising in quiet any Trade 
 or Art which they have learned. 
 
 ' To dispatch them quite, they require of them, not only 
 that they shall continue to bear all the burdens of the 
 Government, although they take from them the means of 
 doing it : but also that they bear double to what they did, 
 82
 
 1681. Keeping Saint Bartholomew's Day. 
 
 that is to say, They use a rigour far greater than what 
 was practised upon tlie People of GOD, when they were 
 commanded to deliver the same tale of bricks ; and yet had 
 not straw given to them as formerly. [Ex. v.] In effect, at 
 the same time that they will not allow them of the 
 Protestant Religion to get a penny; they exact of them to 
 pay the King double, nay, treble, to what they paid before. 
 
 ' Monsieur de Makillac, Intendant of Poitou, hath an 
 Order in Council, which gives him alone the power of the 
 Imposition of the Tax in that great Province. He dis- 
 charges [iinder-taxes]^ the Papists, who are at ease; and 
 overcharges the poor Protestants with their proportion ; 
 who, before that, fainted under their own proper burden, 
 and could bear no more. 
 
 * I will tell you farther, on this occasion, that the Jesuits 
 have obtained an Order of the King, by which all Protestants 
 who change their Religion are exempted, for two years, from 
 all quartering of Soldiers, and all contributions of money 
 which are levied on that account : which also tends to the 
 utter ruin of them who continue firm in the Protestant 
 Religion. For they throw all the burden upon them, of which 
 the others are eased. From thence, in part, it is, that all 
 the houses of those poor people are filled with Soldiers; who 
 live there as if in an enemy's country. 
 
 ' I do not know if the zeal of the Jesuits will rest there. 
 For they want yet the satisfaction of keeping Saint Bar- 
 tholomew's Day, as they kept it in the former Age. It is 
 true, what is allowed them is not far from it. For which 
 is the better of the two. To stab with one blow? or to 
 make men die, by little and little, of hunger and misery ? ' 
 
 * As to the blow,' said I to our Friend, ' I do not under- 
 stand you. Pray, if you please, explain yourself! What 
 do you mean by "keeping Saint Bartholomew's Day"?' 
 
 'Monsieur [(Hardouin de) Beaumont] de Perefixe, 
 that Archbishop of Paris who hath writ [ten] the "Life of 
 Henry IV.",' answered he, ' shall tell you for me. There is 
 the book. The place may be easily found. Here it is, " Six 
 days after, which was Saint Bartholomew's Day, all the 
 Huguenots who came to the [Wedding] Feast, had their 
 Sur Fan 1572. throats cut : amongst others, the Admiral, 
 
 Edit. Amsterdam, twenty persons of the best Quality, twelve 
 p. 30. hundred Gentlemen, about four thousand 
 
 83
 
 The infamous de Marillac ravages Poitou. leei. 
 
 soldiers and citizens. Afterwards, through all the Cities of 
 the Kingdom, after the example of Paris, near a hundred 
 thousand were massacred. An execrable action ! sucli as 
 never was: and I hope to GOD never will be the like!" 
 
 'You know then well,' continued our Friend, directing 
 his speech to me, ' You know well now, what it is to " Keep 
 Saint Bartholomew's Day": and I believe that what I said 
 is no riddle to you. 
 
 ' The Jesuits and their friends set a great value on 
 themselves in the World ; because they forbear cutting the 
 Protestants' throats ; as they did then. But, merciless as 
 you are ! do you ever the less take away their lives ? You 
 say. You do not kill them: but do you not make them pine 
 to death with hunger and vexation ? 
 
 *He that gives slow poison, is he less a Poisoner than he 
 who gives what is violent and quick ? since both of them 
 destroy the life at last ! 
 
 'Pardon this short transport!' said our Friend. * In 
 good earnest, I cannot restrain my indignation when I see 
 them use the utmost of cruelty ; and yet would be looked 
 on as patterns of all moderation and meekness ! 
 
 * Let me impart to you Three Letters ; which tAvo of 
 our friends who are yet in France have written to me, since 
 I came from Paris. I received the Two first at Calais ; 
 before I got into the Pacquet Boat. The last was delivered 
 to me last night, after you went away from my chamber. 
 You will there see, with what gentleness they proceed in 
 those countries.' 
 
 He thereupon read me his Letters : and I have since 
 took copies of them ; and send them here enclosed. 
 
 A Copy of the First Letter. 
 
 WE ARE JUST upon the point of seeing that Reformation, 
 which hath cost so much labour and pains and so much 
 blood, come to nothing in France. To know the condition 
 of the Protestants in the several Provinces of this Kingdom, 
 you need but read what the first Christians suffered, under the reigns 
 of the Emperors Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Maximin, Dioclesian, and 
 such like. 
 
 There are four Troops of Horse in Poitou ; who live it free quai'tera 
 84
 
 1G81. More of de Marillac's fearful deeds. 
 
 upon all of the Protestant Religion, without any exception. AVhen they 
 have pillaged the houses of them who will not go to Mass; they tie 
 them to their horses' tails, and drag them thither by force. 
 
 The Intendant [,Monsieur de Marillac,] whom they have sent 
 thither, who is their most bitter enemy, hath his Witnesses ready 
 suborned, who accuse whom they please, of what crimes they please ; 
 and after that, cast the poor men into dark Dungeons, beat them with 
 cudgels, and tlien pass Sentence of Death to terrify them. Afterwards, 
 under-hand, they send others to try them by fair means ; to promise 
 them that their mourning shall be turned into joy, if they will but go 
 to Mass. Those whom GOD gives the grace to resist, die in the 
 Dungeons, through unspeakable anguish. 
 
 Three Gentlemen of Quality, who went about to confirm some of 
 the poor people in their village, that began to waver, were presently 
 clapped up [in irons] , flax put about their necks, and then set on fire ; 
 and so they were scorched, till they said they would renounce their 
 Religion. 
 
 There would be no end, if I should relate all that is done. This you 
 may be assured of, that the People of Israel were never so oppressed 
 by the Egyptians as the Protestants are by their own countrymen. 
 
 A Copy of the Second Letter, 
 
 TO MAKE GOOD my promise of giving you an exact Account of 
 the continuance of the Persecution which is raised against the 
 Protestants in France ; I shall acquaint you. That they of 
 Poitiers are threatened with being made a Garrison this 
 winter. I say, they, the Protestants ; for none but they, must quarter 
 any of them. 
 
 Monsieur DE Maeillac gives himself up wholly to the making of 
 Proselytes. 
 
 The Deputies of Poitiers are now here to make complaint of the 
 violences they still labour under. They offer by a Petition which they 
 have presented, at the cost of their lives, if they are found guilty of any 
 falsehood, or if they do not make out what they say. 
 
 They set forth that, by the orders of Monsieur de Marillac, the 
 Protestants are dealt with as declared enemies ; that their goods and 
 their houses are plundered ; their persons assaulted ; and that the 
 Soldiers are employed as the Executioners of these outrages. That they 
 are quartered upon the Protestants only. That, besides the excessive 
 expense they put them to, they exact money of them with dreadful 
 oaths and execrations. They knock them down. They drag women by 
 the hair of the head, and with ropes about their necks. They have put 
 
 85
 
 The Intendant Du Muins harries Aunis. 1681. 
 
 them to the torture with screws; by clapping their fingers into a vice, 
 and squeezing them by degrees. They have bound aged men, eighty 
 years old, and beaten them ; and have misused, before their eyes, their 
 children who came to comfort them. They hinder handicrafts men 
 [artizans] from working. They take from labourers what they use for 
 their livelihood. 
 
 They set their goods openly to sale ; and they clap their swords and 
 pistols to their breasts who are not fright [en] ed with their other usages. 
 They drag them, [clothed] in sheets, into their Churches. They throw 
 Holy Water in their faces; and then say, 'They are Catholics!'; and 
 shall be proceeded against, as Relapsed, if they live otherwise. It is 
 not permitted to these miserable persons to complain. Those who would 
 have attempted it, have been seized on; and the Prisons are full of 
 them. They are detained there, without any Process being made 
 against them ; and even wdthout so much as having their names 
 entered in the Gaol Books. 
 
 If any Gentleman speaks to Monsieur de Marillac ; he answers 
 them, That they should meddle with their own business I that other- 
 wise he will lay them fast ! 
 
 This is a taste of what they are doing here. 
 
 A Copy of the Third Letter. 
 [By Sir J. P., of 31 August 1681, O.S.] 
 
 BEING VERY BUSY ; it shall suffice, at this time, to send you a 
 copy of a Letter, which I, just now, received from Saintes, con- 
 cerning the Protestants of this Kingdom. Sir J. P., our common 
 friend, writ it me. He is now making his Tour of France. I 
 intreated him to inform himself, as well as he could, how they treated 
 the poor people in those places that he was to pass through ; that he 
 might give me a full Account. This is his Letter, dated the last of 
 August [1681] , Old Style. 
 
 I am now going out of Aunis ; where I met with nothing but 
 objects of compassion. The Intendant of Rochfort, who is Monsieur 
 Du Muins, lays all waste. It is the same person concerning whom, at 
 [(Jean Baptiste) Colbert,] the Marquis de Seignelay's, we were told 
 so many pleasant Stories, last winter, at Saint Germain. Do not you 
 remember that they talked much of a certain Picard [a native of 
 Picardy] , who owed all his fortune [career] to his Wife ; and whom 
 the Marquis DE Seignelay treats always as the worst of men? That 
 is the man I He is born to do mischief, as much as ever man w^as ; 
 and his employment hath increased his Insolence beyond measure. 
 
 86
 
 1681. Du Mains devastates Surgeres and Moze. 
 
 To this he hath added, to the Protestants' grief, all the barbarous zeal 
 of Ignorance : and, if the King would let him do it, he would soon act 
 over again the Tragedy of Saint Bartholomew's [Day] . 
 
 About ten days ago [21st August, 1681, O.S.] , he went to a great 
 town in Aunis, called, Surgeres ; accompanied by his Provost, and about 
 forty Archers. He began his feats with a Proclamation that all the 
 Huguenots should change their Religion : and, upon their refusal, he 
 quartered his Troop upon those poor people. He made them live there 
 at discretion ; as in an enemy's country. He made their goods to be 
 thrown into the streets ; and their beds, under the horses' feet. By his 
 order, the vessels of wine and brandy were staved ; and their horses' 
 heels washed with it. Their corn was sold, or rather given away, for 
 a fourth part of what it was worth : and the same was done to all the 
 Tradesmen's goods. Men, Women, and Children, were put to the 
 torture ; were dragged by force to the Popish Churches : and so great 
 cruelty was used towards them, that the greatest part, not being able 
 longer to endure the extremity of the pain, renounced their Religion. 
 By the same means, they forced them to give it, under their hands, 
 'That they had abjured withovit constraint; and of their free choice.' 
 
 The goods of those who found means to escape, are sentenced to 
 be sold ; and to be pillaged. 
 
 Proud of so noble Expedition, our good man returns to Rochefort, 
 the place of his ordinary abode ; forbids all the Protestants, who are 
 there pretty numerous, to remove any of their goods out of the town, 
 under penalty of confiscation of what should be seized, and corporal 
 punishment over and above; and he commands them all to change 
 their Religion in five days. This was done by Sound of Trumpet ; that 
 no one might plead ignorance. The term expires to-morrow. 
 
 After this, he marched to Moze, which is another great town in 
 Aunis ; where there is a very fair Church of the Protestants, and a very 
 able Minister. There he set out the same Prohibitions, and the same 
 Commands, that he had at Rochefort. Upon this, a very worthy person 
 of the place, and Elder of the Church, named, Monsieur Jarry, 
 addressed him with a most humble Remonstrance : and this cruel and 
 barbarous man made him presently to be clapped up in irons. After 
 this, he quartered his men upon those of the Protestant Religion: 
 where he exerciseth the same violence which he did at Surgeres, 
 Nevertheless hitherto no one hath made shipwreck of his Conscience 
 in this place. They all suffer this cruel Persecution with an admirable 
 constancy. GOD, of his mercy, support them to the end I 
 
 All the rest of Aunis is in extreme consternation. 
 
 There are likewise Prohibitions made at Rochelle against the 
 shipping of any goods : insomuch that all they who fly away, run a 
 
 87
 
 The reasonable, gentle, and innocent, means. lesi. 
 
 great hazard of carrying their lives only for a prey. Adieu.' 
 
 I will end mine, as Sir J. P. doth his letter, All your friends, etc. 
 
 'Do you intend to conclude there ?' said I to our Friend. 
 
 ' I liave a mind to do so,' replied he, ' though I have a 
 thousand insolencies and outrages more yet to acquaint 
 you with. But it is late : and I have produced hut too 
 much to justify the French Protestants who forsake their 
 country, from any suspicion of impatience and wantonness. 
 
 You see now the Reasonable Mea?is that are used to 
 convert them. 
 
 ' Those goodly Means which have been employed are : 
 
 ' To despise the most sacred Edict that ever was made 
 by men. 
 
 ' To count as nothing, Promises repeated a hundred 
 times, most solemnly by authentic Declarations. 
 
 * To reduce people to utmost beggary. 
 
 ' To make them die of Hunger ; in my opinion, a more 
 cruel death than that by Fire or Sword, which, in a moment, 
 ends life and miseries together. 
 
 ' To lay upon them all sorts of afflictions. 
 
 ' To take away their Churches, their Ministers, their 
 goods, their children ; their liberty of being born, of living, 
 or of dying, in peace. 
 
 ' To drive them from their Employments, their Honours, 
 their houses, their native country. 
 
 ' To knock them on the head. 
 
 ' To drag them to the Mass, with ropes about their necks. 
 
 ' To imprison them, to cast them into Dungeons, to give 
 them the Question [^put them to to7''ture~\, to put them to 
 the Rack, to make them die in the midst of torments: and 
 that too, without so much as any Formality of Justice. 
 
 ' This what they call Reasonable Means, Gentle and 
 Innocent Mea?is. 
 
 'For these are the terms which [(Jean Baptiste) 
 Adhemae de Monteil de Geigan,] the Archbishop of 
 Claudiopolis useth, at the head of all the Deputies of the 
 Clergy of France, in the Remonstrance they made to their 
 King, the last year, when they took leave of His Majesty.* 
 
 ' I must needs read you the passage. Here is the 
 
 * There was an earUer similar Re- 
 monstrance made by the same Arch- 
 bishop and the Clergy, on August 17 
 
 88 
 
 1675, to Louis XIV. It was printed 
 in English in 1677. See p. 35.
 
 1681. More than a million persons persecuted. 
 
 Remonstrance ; and the very words of that Archbishop : 
 
 " Those gentle and innocent means which yon make 
 use of, Sir, with so much snccess, to bring the Heretics into 
 the bosom of the Church, are becoming the bounty and 
 goodness of your Majesty; and conformable, Printed at Paris. 
 at the same time, to the mind of the Divine Cum privUefjio. 
 Pastor; who always retains bowels of mercy 'Chez Leonard, 
 for these strayed sheep. He wills that they imprimeurduRoi.' 
 should be brought back ; and not hunted ^^'^^• 
 away : because he desires their salvation, and regrets their 
 loss. How far is this conduct from the rigour wherewith 
 the Catholics are treated in those neighbouring Kingdoms 
 which are infected with Heresy ! Your Majesty makes it 
 appear, wdiat difference there is between Reason and Passion! 
 between the meekness of Truth and the rage of Imposture ! 
 between the zeal of the House of GOD and the fury of 
 Babylon!'" 
 
 ' In good truth ! ', cried I to our Friend, after the reading 
 of this passage, ' this is insufferable ! and I cannot forbear 
 taking my turn to be a little in passion. Methinks, they 
 should blush to death, w^ho call those cruelties which have 
 been executed upon innocent sheep, Meektiess : and that, 
 Rigour and the fury of Bahylou, which we have inflicted 
 upon tigers, who thirsted after our blood, and had sworn 
 the destruction of Church and State. 
 
 ' They plague and torment to death more than a Million 
 of peaceable persons ; who desire only the freedom of serving 
 GOD according to his Word and the laws of the land ; who 
 cannot be accused of the least show of conspiracy ; and who 
 (by preserving that illustrious Blood which now reigns there) 
 have done to France services which deserved, together with 
 the Edict of Pacification, the love and the hearty thanks of 
 all true Frenchmen. And we have put to death, in a legal 
 manner, it may be. Twenty wretched persons (the most of 
 which, had forfeited their lives to the Law for being found 
 here), convinced by divers Witnesses, who were the greatest 
 part Papists, of having attempted against the sacred life of 
 our King, and the lives of millions of his faithful subjects. 
 Surely, they would have had us let them do their work ! 
 let them have rooted out that Northern Heresie ! which 
 they were (as they assure us, by their own Letters) in so 
 great, and so near, hopes of accomplishing. But we had 
 
 89
 
 A Plea for Hospitality and Christian Charity, lesi. 
 
 not forgot the Massacre of Ireland [in 1G41]: wherein, by 
 
 c. M. Hibcrnus ^^^^ confession of one of their own Doctors, 
 
 [ Cornelius who knew it very well, more than 150,000 
 
 O'Mahony], of our brethren, in the midst of a profound 
 
 s.Th.Mag. Dispii- peace, without any provocation, by a most 
 
 tatio Apoioffctica sudden and barbarous Rebellion, had their 
 
 de jure iiegni throats cut by that sort of Catholics, whose 
 
 HihernicB pro f^te they SO much bewail.' 
 
 CatJiolicis. N. '20 
 
 [Francofnrti.1645.] 'Although your transport be very just, 
 
 and I am very well pleased with it,' said our Friend to me, 
 * I must needs interrupt you, to bring you back again to our 
 poor Protestants. What say you to their condition ? ' 
 
 'I say,' I answered, 'that there can be nothing more 
 worthy [of] compassion ; and that we must entirely forget 
 all we owe to the Communion of Saints, if we open not our 
 hearts, and receive them as our true Brethren. I will be 
 sure to publish, in all places, what you have informed me; 
 and will stir up all persons to express in their favour all the 
 duties of Hospitality and Christian Charity.' 
 
 ' To the end,' said he to me, ' you may do it with a 
 better heart; at our next meeting I will fully justify them 
 against all those malicious Reports which are given out 
 against their Loyalty and their Obedience to the Higher 
 Powers. Let us take for that, all to-morrow seven -night ! ' 
 
 ' As you please ! ' said I. 
 
 So we took leave one of another: and thus you have an 
 end of a long Letter. 
 
 Assuring you, that I shall ever be, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 [In the 1683 enlarged Edition of this Text, under the title of, 'An 
 Apology for the Protestants of France, in reference to the Persecutions 
 they are under, at this day. In Six Letters.' 
 The additional Letters are : — 
 Letter III. The French Protestants are no Anti-Monarchists. 
 Letter IV. The Protestant Loyalty vindicated against Maimbourg. 
 Letter V. French Protestants' innocency, under Louis XIII. 
 Letter VI. The Papists themselves, Anti-Monarchists.] 
 90
 
 An Account 
 
 of tJiG 
 
 Persecutions and Oppressions 
 
 of the 
 
 Protestants in France 
 
 {.By 
 yean Claude 7\ 
 
 Printed in the Year 1686. 
 
 91
 
 Note. 
 
 This Text is the First, and an Abriclf<ed, Translation of Claude's 
 anonymous Work into our language. 
 
 It is given here, because it is the identical English Impression that was, 
 by the orders of King James II, burnt, by the Common Hangman, before the 
 Royal Exchange, on Wednesday, May 5 1686. 
 
 Lord Macaulay gives the follow^ing account of this transaction. 
 
 ' About the same time the King began to show, in an unequivocal manner, 
 the feeling which he really entertained towards the banished Huguenots. 
 While he had still hoped to cajole his Parliament into submission, and to 
 become the head of an Euro]3ean coalition against France, he had affected to 
 blame the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and to pity the unhappy men 
 whom persecution had driven from iheir country. He had caused it to be 
 announced that, at every church in the kingdom, a collection should be made 
 under his sanction for their benefit. A proclamation on this subject had been 
 drawn up in terms which might have wounded the pride of a sovereign less 
 sensitive and vainglorious than Lewis. But all was now changed. The 
 principles of tlie treaty of Dover were again the principles of the foreign policy 
 of England. Ample apologies were therefore made for the discourtesy with 
 which the English government had acted towards France in showing favour 
 to exiled Frenchmen. The proclamation which had displeased Lewis was 
 recalled. The Huguenot ministers were admonished to speak with reverence 
 of their oppressor in their public discourses, as they would answer it at their 
 peril. James not onlj' ceased to express commiseration for the sufferers, 
 but declared that he believed them to harbour the worst designs, and owned 
 that he had been guilty of an error in countenancing them. One of the most 
 eminent of the refugees, John Claude, had published on the Continent a small 
 volume in which he described with great force the sufferings of his brethren. 
 Barillon demanded that some opprobrious marlc should be put on this book. 
 James complied, and in full council declared it to be his pleasure that Claude's 
 libel should be burned by the hangman before the Eoyal Exchange. Even 
 Jeffreys was startled, and ventured to lepresent tlmt such a proceeding was 
 without example, that the book was written in a foreign tongue, tliat ic had 
 been printed at a foreign press, that it related entirely to transactions which 
 had taken place in a foreign country, and that no English government had 
 ever animadverted on such works. James would not suffer the question to 
 be discussed. "My resolution," he said "is taken. It has become the 
 fashion to treat Kings disrespectfully ; and they must stand by each other. 
 One King should always take another's part ; and I have particular reasons 
 92
 
 Note. 
 
 for shoAving this respect to the King of France." There was silence at the 
 board : the order was fortliwith issued ; and Claude's pamphlet was committed 
 to the flames, not without the deep murmurs of many who had always been 
 reputed steady loyahsts. 
 
 ' The promised collection was long put off under various i)retcxts. The 
 King would gladly have broken his word : but it was pledged so solemnly 
 that he could not for very shame retract. Notliiug, however, which could 
 cool the zeal of congregations was omitted. It had been expected that, 
 according to the practice usual on siicb occasions, the people would be 
 exhorted to liberality from the pulpits. But James was determined not to 
 tolerate declamations against his religion and his ally. The Archbishop of 
 Canterbury was therefore commanded to inform the clergy that they must 
 merely read the brief, and must not presume to preach on the sufferings of 
 the French Protestants. Nevertheless the contributions were so large that, 
 after all deductions, the sum of forty thousand pounds was paid into the 
 Chamber of London. Perhaps none of the munificent subscriptions of our 
 own age has borne so great a i^roportion to the means of the nation. 
 
 ' The King was bitterly mortified by the large amount of the collection 
 which had been made in obedience to his own call. He knew, he said, what 
 all this Uberality meant. It was mere Whiggish spite to himself and his 
 religion.' History ii. 76-78. Ed. 1858. 
 
 The following is the official account that appeared in the ' London 
 Gazette ' : 
 
 Whitehall, May 8. — The French Ambassador having, by a Memorial, 
 complained to His Majesty, That a Book, intituled, ' Les Plaintes des Pro- 
 testants cruellement opprimes dans le Koyaume de France,' was sold and 
 dispersed in this Kingdom : in which Book are many Falsities, and scandal- 
 ous Reflections upon the Most Christian King : And that the said Book was 
 likewise Translated into English, and Printed here. His Majesty was pleased 
 to Order, That diligent Enquiry should be made after the Translator and 
 Printer of the same, that they may be prosecuted according to Law : And 
 that a printed Copy of the said Book in French, and another in English, 
 should be Publickly burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman ; which was 
 accordingly put in execution on Wednesday last, [May 5,] before the Royal 
 Exchange. No. 2136. Monday, May 10, 1686. 
 
 Hilary Reneu, in 1707, gives the following account of this First English 
 Translation. 
 
 ' This book was first published in French in the year 1686 : and then 
 translated into English ; a copy whereof a Merchant of London sent to one 
 of his brothers in France. 
 
 He, some time after, acquainted him, That, upon the instances of [Paul 
 Barillon,] the French Ambassador at this Court, the same had been 
 ordered to be burnt ; and the Translator and Printer thereof almost ruined 
 by imprisonments and fines : and that the Papists took a great deal of care 
 to suppress aU the copies ; lest the Nation sliould be made acquainted with 
 the truths contained therein, where the Cruelties exercised against the 
 
 93
 
 Note. 
 
 Protestants of France, who would not abjure their Religion and embrace the 
 Romish, are so truly represented. 
 
 It was at the same time that preparations were making, in order to put 
 the same Methods in practice against the Protestants of England : where the 
 Pope kept openly a Nuncio ; besides several Monks and Jesuits. 
 
 There were also several Writers, as Sir Roger L'Estrange and others, 
 ■employed and well i)aid to assert, That there was no Persecution in France ; 
 but, contrariwise, Voluntary Conversions to the Romish Religion : and that, 
 as to the great number of people who left their country to come over into 
 this, under pretence of Religion ; they did it only for private ends and 
 self interest. 
 
 But these Impostures were soon borne down by the sight of so many 
 poor wretches that thronged hither for refuge from those dreadful Calamities 
 which were inflicted on them : the consideration of which made the Nation 
 seriously think of securing the Protestant Religion ; which its enemies 
 ^designed to destroy here, as they had done in France and elsewhere. 
 
 Some years after, the Gentleman, who received this book in EngUsh, 
 <;ame over to augment the number of the Refugees in this Kingdom : and 
 enquiring after it, it was impossible for him to light on any other copy here. 
 
 But, having been told since, that the anonymous Author was that 
 ^excellent Man of GOD, the late Monsieur Claude, Minister at Paris, who 
 died in Holland soon after he had written this book ; by this means, he got 
 •one in French : and, very lately, by the care of a Reverend Divine, another 
 in English, perhaps the only one extant.* Doctor Manningham. 
 
 Which being compared together, it appears that the Translator, for some 
 regard he had to those Times, when the Enemies of our holy Religion were 
 in great credit, did designedly omit several Matters of Fact, and them the 
 most important to the Causes of the Refugees : insomuch that above the 
 fourth part of it was cut off in the translation ; though the Translator fared 
 mever the better for it. 
 
 Seeing then the great efforts made to suppress this Book ; it the rather 
 <deserves to be preserved among Protestants to aU Posterity. And forasmuch 
 as the Refugees in this Kingdom durst not, by reason of the strict Prohibition, 
 keep any of them ; it is thought [to be] of the utmost importance to revive it 
 again : especially at this juncture, which seems so much more favourable than 
 the former, and to offer it entire, as if it were a new Work, to the nation ; 
 according to the Refugees' first intent : in which view, it is now reprinted 
 in both languages, for the convenience of those that understand but one. 
 
 The whole of Reneu's Preface is reprinted at pp 413-431. E.A. 
 
 * This is a mistake. E.A.
 
 An exact Account of the cruel Oppressions 
 
 and Persecutions of the French 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 THE CRUELTIES EXERCISED, of late, on the 
 Protestants in France, do appear so detestable to 
 all who have not divested themselves of Humanity, 
 that, no wonder, the Authors of them use their 
 utmost endeavours to lessen, what they cannot 
 conceal. Were not this worse than barbarous usage a Project 
 of a long contrivance ; a man might, for charity sake, 
 suppose this, their palliating it, to be an acknowledgement 
 of their own displeasure at it. However, their boldness is 
 inexcusable, who shall endeavour to impose upon the World 
 in matters known, not by Gazettes and News-Letters: but 
 by an infinite number of Fugitives, of all conditions; who 
 have nothing left but tears and miseries, to bring along 
 with them into foreign nations. It is certainly too bar- 
 barous to oppress innocent people in their own country ; 
 and afterwards to stifle their Complaints in other places 
 where they are driven: and, by this means, to deprive them 
 of a Compassion which the bare instincts of Nature never 
 refuse to the miserable. Yet this is the course our Perse- 
 cutors of France have held. Their Cruelty must be attended 
 with Impostures, that the mischiefs which they have acted 
 may pass undiscovered. 
 
 I think we should be much to blame, if we suffer them 
 to go on in this Second Design, as they have done in the 
 First ; and therefore we shall choose some principal 
 Instances : whereon we shall make such Reflections, as 
 thereby to judge with greater evidence and exactness on the 
 whole Proceeding ; and we shall advance nothing in our 
 Reflections, but what all the World of reasonable people 
 will allow. 
 
 To begin with Matters of Fact. There is nobody but 
 
 95
 
 The Huguenots must be suppressed ! j. ciaudc. lese. 
 
 knows that, a while after his present Majesty of France 
 [Louis XIV.,] came to the Crown, there arose in the Kingdom 
 a Civil War [of the Frondo, 1048—1653] ; which proved so 
 sharp and desperate as l)r()ught the State within a hair's 
 breadth of utter ruin. It is also known that, in the midst 
 of these Troubles, those of the Reformed Religion kept 
 their loyalty in so inviolable a manner, and attended it 
 with such a zeal and extraordinary fervour, that the King 
 found himself obliged to give public marks of it, by a Decla- 
 ration, made at Saint Germain, [May 21,] in the year 1652. 
 Then, as well at Court as in the field, each strove to pro- 
 claim loudest the deserts of the Reformists : and [Anne of 
 Austria,] the Queen Mother herself readily acknowledged, 
 That they had preserved the State. 
 
 This is known by all : but it will hardly be believed, 
 though it be too true, what our enemies themselves a 
 hundred times told us, and which the sequel has but too 
 shrewdly confirmed, That this was precisely the principal 
 and most essential Cause of our ruin ; and of all the 
 mischiefs which we have since suffered. Endeavours were 
 used to envenom all these important services in the King's 
 and his Ministers' minds, by persuading them, That if, on 
 this occasion, this Party could conserve the State: this 
 shewed they could likewise overthrow it, should they have 
 ranked themselves on the other side ; and might still do it, 
 when such a like occasion should offer itself. That there- 
 fore this Party must be suppressed ! and the good they have 
 done no longer regarded but as an indication of the mischief 
 which they may, one day, be capable of doing. This 
 diabolical reasoning, which hinders subjects from serving 
 their Prince, to avoid drawing on themselves chastisements 
 instead of recompenses, was relished as a piece of most 
 refined [subtle~\ Policy. 
 
 For, as soon as the Kingdom was settled in peace, the 
 Design was advanced of destroying the Reformists ; and, 
 the better to make them comprehend that their zeal had 
 ruined them, the Cities which had shewed most of it, were 
 first begun with. Immediately then, on slight pretences, 
 they fell on Rochelle, Montauban, and Millau ; three towns, 
 where those of the Reformed Religion had most signalized 
 themselves for the Interest of the Court. Rochelle under- 
 went an infinite number of Prescriptions. Montauban and 
 Millau were sacked by the soldiers. 
 96
 
 BUT THESE BEING but paiticiilai- sti-okes and 
 mere Preludes, wliich decided nothiug; they tarried 
 uofc long before they made appear the Great and 
 General Macliines they were to use, in the carrying 
 out of their inteiuled Design to the last extremity. 
 It will be a difficult matter to give an exact account of these 
 several Methods : for never human malice produced such a 
 multiplicity of them ! Every day brought forth new ones, 
 for twenty years together! 
 
 To take only notice of the chief of them : which were 
 First. Law Suits in Courts of Justice, 
 
 Secondly. Deprivations from all kinds of Offices and 
 Employs ; and, in general, of all ways 
 of subsistence. 
 Tliirdly. The Infractions of Edicts ; under the 
 
 notion of Explications of them. 
 Fourthly. New Laws and Orders. 
 Fifthly. Juggles and amusing \_(lece2iticc^ Tricks. 
 Sixthly. The animating of [the] people ; and the 
 inspiring of them with hatred against 
 us. 
 These are the most considerable means which the Perse- 
 cutors have employed to attain their ends, during several 
 years. I say, during several 3'ears : for Avhat they designed 
 being no easy matter, they needed, therefore, time to order 
 their Engines ; not to take notice of their traverses and 
 interruptions by foreign wars: yet whose success [in them] 
 has not a little contributed to increase their courage, and to 
 confirm them in the Design which they had against us. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 
 
 97
 
 THE FIRST OF those means Las had an infinite 
 extent. We should begin with the recital of all the 
 Condemnations of Churches, or Suppression of 
 Exercises of Religion [Public Worship^; and all 
 the other vexations which have happened by the 
 establishing of Commissaries. This was a snare dexterously 
 laid immediately after the Treaty of the Pyrenees [in KHiO]. 
 The King, under the pretence of repairing the Edict of 
 Nantes, sent them into the Provinces. The Roman Catholic 
 Commissary was everywhere His Majesty's Intendant: who 
 was, be sure, a fit man for the purpose, armed Avith the 
 Royal Authority; and who was well instructed in the secret 
 Aim. The other [Protestant Commissary] was either some 
 hungry Officer, a slave to the Court; or some poor Gentle- 
 man, who had usually neither intelligence requisite in this 
 sort of affairs, nor the liberty of speaking his sentiments. 
 The Clergy had set them up. He Avas their ambulatory 
 Sx^ii'it. The Syndics were received before them, as formal 
 parties in all our affairs. The Assignations were given in 
 their name; the Prosecutions also: and as well the discords 
 of the Commissaries, as the Appeals from their Ordiiumces, 
 must be finally decided in the King's Counsel. 
 
 Thus, in general, all the rights of the Churches for the 
 Exercises of Religion, the burying places, and all such 
 dependencies, were called into a review ; and consequently 
 exposed to the fresh pursuits of the Clergy, and the ill 
 intention of the Judges. In which, there was not the least 
 dram of Equity. For the Edict having been once executed 
 according to the intention of him that made it, — there 
 needed no second touches ; it being, moreover, wholly 
 unlikely that those of the Reformed Religion (who had been 
 ever, in the Kingdom, the Suffering Party) could usurp 
 anything therein ; and extend its limits beyond what 
 belonged to them. 
 
 But there were other Designs in hand than the pro- 
 viding against the Contraventions : and therefore, by this 
 98
 
 J. Claude. icsG. All Imnidatioii of Criminal Processes. 
 
 Older [of IGGO], tlie j^i-oatcst part of the Cliiii-ches, cited 
 for the justifying' of tlieir i-ights, saw th(Miiselves soon 
 condeiniied, one after aiiothe)-, hy Decrees of Council; hovv^ 
 good and sufficient soever th(Mr Titles and Defences were. 
 Scarcely passed a week, whei-ein these kiiids of Decrees 
 Avere not made ; and if it happened that the modesty of the 
 Judges saved any of them, by the great evidence of tlieir 
 right, as this sometimes happeiu'd: besides that the number 
 was small in comparison of those condemned; the Judges 
 often received orders to condemn them, when tliey shewed 
 tliat they could not in Conscience do it. 
 
 But tlie oppressions of this kind did not terminate in 
 the bare condemnation of Churches: for particular persons 
 liad their part. In ordinary and civil affairs, wliere the 
 matter concerned a piece of land, perhaps a house, a del)t 
 between a Roman Catholic and a person of our Religion ; 
 Religion Avas, to be sure, always one of the chief heads of 
 the accusation. Tlie IMonks, the Emissaries, the Confessors, 
 and all the w^hole tribe of that crew, interested themselves 
 in the affair. In the Courts of Justice, all the cry Avas, ' I 
 plead against a Heretic ! I have to do with a man of a 
 Religion odious to the State ; and which the King would 
 have extii'})ated ! ' 
 
 By this means, there was no longer any Justice to be 
 expected. Few Judges were proof against this false zeal: 
 for fear of drawing the fury of tlie whole Cabal against him; 
 or of passing for a favourer of Heretics. 
 
 It is not to be imagined how many unjust sentences, 
 this sort of jirejudices has given in all the Courts of the 
 Kingdom; and how many men's families have lieeii ruined 
 by them! When anyone complained: the answer was 
 ready, 'You liave the remedy in your own liands! Why do 
 you not turn Catholic '? ' 
 
 Yet all this had been nothing, had the Persecution kept 
 there; and not proceeded to fasten on the reputation, the 
 liberty, and even the very lives, of persons, by a general 
 Inundation, as a man may term it, of Criminal Processes. 
 Writings were printed at Paris, and sent from thence to all 
 Cities and parishes of the Kingdom; which empowered the 
 Curates, Churchwardens, and others, to make an exact 
 enquiry into whatsoever the pretended Reformists might 
 have done or said, for twenty years past, as well on the 
 subject of Religion as otlierwise; to make Information of 
 
 89
 
 The rersecutioii of the Ministers, j. ciaude. mnc. 
 
 this before the Justices of tlie place; and [to] pimish tliem 
 without remission. 
 
 So have we seen, for several years, the execution of 
 these OrckH's. The Prisons everywhere iilled with this kind 
 of criminals; Jieither were False Witnesses hicking: and 
 that which was most liorrihle was, tliat though the Judges 
 were convinced that tliey Avere Knights of the Post \_notoriouH 
 perjurers}; yet they maintained them, and carried them 
 through such points as they knew to he untrue, Tliey 
 condemned innocent and virtuous pei-sons to be whipped ; 
 to the Galleys ; to banishment; and to Public Penances: and 
 if a spark of Honour or Conscience at any time hindered 
 them; yet there was alsvays, at least, an impunity for the 
 False Witnesses. 
 
 This kind of Persecution chiefly fell on the IMinisters. 
 For a long time, tliey might not preach without having for 
 Auditors, or to speak better, Observators, a troop of Priests, 
 Monks, Missionaries, aiul such kind of people ; wlio made 
 no scruple to charge tliem with things which they not so 
 much as thought of, and to turn others into a contrary 
 meaning. They also went so far as to divine the thoughts, 
 to make crimes : for as soon as ever any Minister spake of 
 Egypt, Phaeaoh, the Israelites, of good or bad people, as it 
 is difficult not to speak of these matters when they ex- 
 plained the Scripture ; tliese spies never failed to report 
 that by 'Egypt' and 'the wicked,' they meant the Catholics ; 
 and by ' the Israelites.' the pretended Reformists. Tht> 
 Judges concerned themselves in this ; and, what is most 
 strange, the Ministers of State themselves respected these 
 interpretations of thoughts as evident proofs ! On these 
 grounds, the Magistrates filled the Prisons Avith this kind 
 of poor people, keeping them therein for Avhole years 
 together; aiul often inflicted on them several corporal 
 penalties. 
 
 100
 
 IT IS ALREADY scoii,l)y lliis First l^ind of Porsecutioii, 
 what Avere tlie usages shewed in France to the Reform- 
 ists, ])ofoi'e tlioy came to the utmost violence. But we 
 sliall see them appear more, in what we have to add 
 touching the privation of Offices and Employs; and, in 
 general, of the means of gaining a livelihood: which is the 
 Second Way we mentioned, that has been used to effect onr 
 ruin. It is not liard to comprehend that in a great Kingdom, 
 as Prance is, wher(^ the Protestants wei'e dis])ersed over all 
 parts, there were an ijihnite number who could not subsist, 
 nor maintain their families, but 1)y the liberty of serving 
 the ])nblic, either in Offices, Arts, Trades, or Faculties; each 
 according to his Calling. Henry the Great was so yveW 
 convinced of the necessity and jnstice of this, that he made 
 it an ex])ress Article, the most distinct, perhaps, and formal, 
 of all contained in his Edict : and therefore it Avas here tlie 
 Persecutors thovight themselves obliged to do their utmost 
 (^ndeavours. 
 
 In this regard, they began with the Arts and Trades ; 
 which, under several pretences, tliey rendered almost 
 inaccessible to the Protestants, by the difficulties of arriving 
 to the IMastership of them ; and l)y the excessive expenses 
 they mnst be apt {Jiahle /o], to l)e received therein: there 
 being iio candidate but was foj'ced, for this purpose, to 
 maintain Law Suits; under the weiglit of which tliey, for 
 the most part, fell, not being ahle to hold them out. 
 
 But this not being sufficient; by a Declaration in KHJO, 
 they were reduced to one-third in the towns where tlie 
 Protestants were more in number tlian the other inhabi- 
 tants: and they were forbidden to receive any therein, till 
 this diminution was made; Avhich at one stroke excluded 
 all the pretenders [/(ppJicdiitH]. 
 
 Some time after, they absolutely drove all the Reformists 
 from the Consulships and all other oMunicixJal Officers of thei 
 Cities: Avhich A\^as, in effect, the depriA^ing them of the 
 knowledge of their proper Affairs and Interests; to invest 
 wholly the Catholics Avith them. 
 
 lOi
 
 Decrees iiieapacitcitiiig Iluj^ueiiots. j. chuuie. 1686. 
 
 Ill inno, tlie Kiii^' issued out an Order wliicli deprived 
 them in genei-al of nil kinds of Offices and Employs, fi-orn 
 the greatest to the smallest. They wer(> made incapahle so 
 much as to exercise any Employ in the Custom-houses, 
 Guard, Treasury, or Post Offices: to he Messengers, Coach- 
 men, or Waggoners, or anything of this nature. 
 
 In the year IGSl, hy a Decree of Council, all Notaries, 
 Attorneys, Solicitors, and Sergeants, making profession of 
 the Reformed Religion, were rendered incapable, throughout 
 the Kingdom. 
 
 A year after, all Lords and Gentlemen of the Reformed 
 Religion were ordered to discharge their Officers and 
 Servants of the said Religion; and not to make use of them 
 in any case : without any other reason than that of their 
 Religion. 
 
 In 1683, all Officers helonging to the King's Household, 
 and those of the Princes of the Blood, were also rendered 
 incapable of holding their places. The Councillors and 
 other Officers of Aids, and Chambers of Accounts ; and 
 those of the Seneschalship, Bailiwicks, and Royalties; 
 Admiralty, Provostships, and IMarshalls' Courts, Treasury, 
 Excise, and others who belonged to the Toll Offices, and 
 such like husinesses, were ordered to leave their })laces, in 
 favour of the Catholics. 
 
 In 1684, all Secretaries helonging to the King and 
 Great Officers of France, as well Titulary as Honorary ones, 
 and their Widows, were deprived, by a Revocation of all 
 their Privileges, of what nature soever they were. 
 
 They also deprived all those that liad purchas(>tl 
 any Privileges for the exercise of any Professions: as 
 Merchants, Surgeons, Apothecaries, and Vintners; and all 
 others, without exception. 
 
 Nay, they proceeded to this excess. That they would 
 not suffer any Midwives of the Reformed Religion to do 
 their Office: and expressly ordained, for the future, that our 
 Wives should receive no assistance in that condition but 
 from Roman Catholics. 
 
 It is not to he expressed how many particular 2)ersons 
 and families they reduced everywhere, hy these strange and 
 unheard of methods, to ruin and miseiy. 
 
 But hecause there Avere yet many which could sustain 
 themselves; other Methods of Oppression must be invented. 
 To this end, they issued out an Edict from the Council, bv 
 102
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The Hugueiiots arc greatly over-taxed. 
 
 v\ Inch the New Converts, us tliey call them, were discharged 
 I'l'oni any i)aynients of their dehts for three years. This, for 
 tlic most part, fell on the Reformists; who liaving had a 
 more particular tie of Interest and Affairs with these pre- 
 tended Converts, hecause of their communion of Religion, 
 were reckoned amongst their chief creditors. By this 
 Order, they had found the secret to recompense those that 
 changed, at the charge of those who continued firm. And 
 this they did likewise hy another way: for they discharged 
 the Converts of all the dehts which those of the Religion 
 had contracted [Avith tliem] in common; wliicli, hy con- 
 se(juenco, fell on the rest. 
 
 Add to this, the Prohihition to sell or alienate their 
 estates on any pretence whatever; the King annulling and 
 l)reaking all Contracts and other Acts relating to that 
 matter, if it did not appear that, after these Acts, they had 
 stayed in the Kingdom a Avhole year: so that the last 
 remedy of helping themselves with their estates in extreme 
 necessity, was taken from them. 
 
 Tliey deprived them likewise of another, which seemed 
 the only one remaining: which was, to seek their hread 
 elsewhere, hy retiring into other countries, there to get 
 their living hy labour; since this was not permitted to 
 them in France. By repeated Edicts, the King forbade 
 them to leave his Kingdom, on severe penalties : which 
 drove them to the last despair: since they saw themselves 
 reduced to the horrible necessity of dying with hunger in 
 their own country; without daring to go to live elsewhere. 
 
 But the cruelty of their enemies stopped not here : for 
 there yet remained some gleanings in the Provinces : 
 though very few, and as thin as those in Pharoah's dream. 
 The Intendants in their districts liad orders to load the 
 Reformed with taxes : which they did, either by laying upon 
 them the tax of the New Catholics, who were discharged 
 thereof in favour of their conversion; or by laying exor- 
 bitant taxes, Avhich they called. Duties : that is to say, he 
 Avho in the ordinary Roll was assessed at 40, or 50, Livres 
 [ M4:, or 4i5], was charged, by this Imposition, at 700 or 
 800 [ - i'TO, or i'80]. Thus had they nothing more left; 
 for all was a prey to the rigour of the Intendants. They 
 raised their taxes by the effectual Quartering of Dragoons; 
 or by Imprisonment, from Avhence they were not freed until 
 the.y had paid the utmost farthing. 
 
 103
 
 THESE WERE THE Two first Engines or Miichin^^s 
 which the Clergy made use of against us: to which 
 they added a Third, whicli mc have teiTned, The 
 Infractions of the Edict of Nantes, under pretence 
 of Explications. 
 Those who would know their nunilx^r and quality, need 
 only read the hooks Avritten and published on this subject, 
 as well by the Jesuit, Meynier, an Author famous for his 
 Illusions, as by one [Pierre] Bernard, an Officer in tlie 
 Presidential Court of Beziers in Languedoc. There you 
 will find all the Turns which the meanest and most 
 unworthy Sojihistry could invent to elude the clearest texts 
 of the Edict ; and to corrupt the sincerity thereof. 
 
 But because we do here give you only a Brief Account 
 of our Troubles; we will content ourselves with observing 
 some of the principal, issuing from this fountain. 
 
 What was there, for example, more clear and unques- 
 tionable in the Edict than tliis, viz., That it was given with 
 an intention to maintain those of the Religion in all the 
 rights that Nature and Civil Society give to men. Yet, in 
 1081, there came out an Edict that children might, at tlie 
 age of seven years, abjure the Reformed Religion, and em- 
 brace the Catholic : under pretence that the Edict did not 
 precisely mark that, at this age, they should continue at 
 their parents' disposal. Who sees not that this was a mere 
 trick ; seeing that, on [the] one hand, the Edict foi'badt^ to 
 take the children from their parents by force, or fair means ; 
 and, on the other hand, the Edict supposed and confirmed 
 all the Natural Rights, of Avhich, without controversy, this 
 is one of the most inviolable. 
 
 Was there ever a more manifest Infraction of the Edict 
 than that which forbade those of the Protestant Religion 
 who had passed over to the Roman, to return to that Avhich 
 they had left : under pretence that the Edict did not 
 formally give them, in express terms, this liberty? Por 
 when the Edict permits, generally, all the King's subjects. 
 Liberty of Conscience ; and forbids the perplexing and 
 104
 
 j.ciaiuio. iGHtj. Suppression of Scliools and (colleges. 
 
 troubling" them, and oIlVM-iiig aiiylliiiig contrary to this 
 Liberty: who sees not that this Exception toucliiiig tlic 
 pretendod Rchipsers, is so far fi'oni being" an Explication of 
 the Edict, that it is a notable Violation of ii . 
 
 Wherennto we may add, Tiio charge given to the Roman 
 Catholics not to change their r?«digion, and embrace the 
 Reformed. For when the Edict gives Liberty of Conscience, 
 it does it, in proper terms, for all those who are, and .s7/r/// 
 he, of the said Religion. Yet, if Me believe tlie Clergy, tliis 
 was not Hpjnry the Great's meaning: intending only to 
 grant it to those Avho made Profession of it at the time of 
 the making" his Edict. 
 
 That of Nantes gave also to the Reformed tbe piivih'g(i 
 of keeping ' small, or little. Schools ' in all places where 
 they had the Exei'cise of their Religion : and by this term 
 of ' small, oi- little, Schools * according" to the common 
 explication, those were always understood, where one might 
 teach Latin and Humanity. This is the seiise which has 
 ever J^een given, in all the Kingdom, to this expression ; 
 [and] which is still given, when it concerns the Roman 
 Catliolics. Yet, by a new Interpretation, this pennission 
 was restrained to the bare liberty of teacliing to read and 
 write ; as if the Reformists were unworthy to learn any 
 more : and this, on purpose to tire out the parents ; and to 
 drive them to this extremity, either not to know what to do 
 with their children, or to be forced to send them to tlie 
 Roman Catliolics for education. 
 
 The Edict gave them the liberty, in all places where 
 they had Churches, to instruct publicly their children and 
 others in what concerns Religion: which visibly establislKul 
 the right of teaching them Theology: seeing their Theology 
 is nothing else but this Religion. 
 
 And as to Colleges, wherein they might be instructed 
 in Liberal Sciences, the Edict promised Letters Patents in 
 good form. Yet it was supposed that the Edict gave no 
 right to the Reformed to instruct them in Theology: noi- 
 to have Colleges: and, on this supposition, Three Academies 
 were condemned — all that remained. Tliat of Sedan, 
 although grounded on a particular Edict, was suppressed as 
 the rest ; and even before them. 
 
 105
 
 BUT WE MUST jf() fintlior; jukT seeing- ^ve have 
 uiulert.iken to shew, in this A])rid^eineiit, the 
 principal things they liave done to exercise our 
 patience, before they came to the utmost Fury : 
 we are not to pass over the N(nv Ordei-s, or New 
 Laws: which were, to us, as so many New Inventions to 
 torment us. 
 
 The iirst of tliese Orders whicli appeared, was touching 
 tlio manner of Burials, and of interring the dead. The 
 number of attendants was reduced to Thii-ty persons in those 
 places where the Exercise of our Religion was actually 
 established; and to Ten, where it was not. 
 
 Orders were also issued out to hinder the communica- 
 tion of Provinces with one anotlier, by Circulatory Letters 
 or otherwise ; though about matters of alms, and disposal 
 of charity. 
 
 Prohibitions were likewise made of liolding of Col- 
 loquies, in the interval of Synods; excepting in two cases: 
 The providing for Churclies destitute by the death of their 
 Ministers; and The Correction of some Scandals. 
 
 They likewise took away fro]n tliose places allowed by 
 the Edict, what they called, 'Exercises de Fief,' all the 
 marks of the Temples; as the Bell, the Pulpit, and other 
 things of this nature. 
 
 They were likewise forbidden to receive [(dlow^ their 
 INlinisters in Synods to have any deciding voice there; or to 
 note them in the Catalogue of those that belonged to [the] 
 CI lurches. 
 
 Others forbade the singing of Psalms in private houses : 
 as also some that commanded them to cease singing, even 
 in tli3 Temples; when the Sacrament passed l)y, or at the 
 time of any Procession. 
 
 Others were made to hinder Marriages at such times as 
 were forbidden by tlie Romish Church. 
 
 Others forbade Ministers to preach anywhere, except in 
 11 le place of their usual residence. 
 106
 
 J. ciaudu. \i>Hti. New Laws for tho Hugnonots. 
 
 ()tli(M-s lorbadc tlicii' sottlin<;' in [)l!i(U's, unless sent by 
 tlie Synods; tliouii;"!) tlie Consistories liud called tbeni 
 tliitlier. according" to their usual I'ornis. 
 
 Others wer(> made to liindei- the Synods from sending 
 to any Churches more Ministci-s t.hiiii were thei-e in the 
 preceding Syjiod. 
 
 Others, to hinder those that \V(>re desigiunl tor the 
 Ministry from being educated in foreign Universities. 
 
 Others banished all foieign Ministers; though they had 
 been ordained in the Kijigdom, and [had] spent there the 
 greatest part of their lives. 
 
 OtluM's forbade ^Ministers, or Candidates for the Ministry, 
 to reside in places where Preaching was forl)idden; or nearer 
 than six miles of them, 
 • Others forbade the peo])le to assemble in the Temples 
 under jjretence of Praying, Reading, or Singing of Psalms; 
 except in the presence of a ^Minister, placed thei-e by the 
 Synod. 
 
 One ridiculous one was made to take away all the backs 
 of the seats in the Churches ; and [to] reduce them all to an 
 exact uniformity. 
 
 Another, to hinder the Churches that were a little more 
 rich from assisting the weaker; for the maintenance of 
 their Ministers, and other necessities. 
 
 Another, to oblige parents to give their childi-en who 
 change their Religion, great pensions. 
 
 Aiu)ther, to forbid marriages between parties of different 
 Religions; even in the case of scandalous cohabitation. 
 
 Another, to prohibit those of the Religion, from that 
 time, to entertain in their houses any domestics or servants 
 that were Roman Catholics. 
 
 Anothei', which made tliem uncapable of being Tutors 
 or Guardians: and consequently put all Minors, whose 
 fathers died in the Profession of the Protestant Religion, 
 under the power and education of Roman Catholics. 
 
 Another, forbidding Ministers and Elders to hinder any 
 of their Flock, either directly or indirectly, from embracing 
 the Roman Religion; or to dissuade them from it. 
 
 Another, forbidding Jews and Mohamedans to embrace 
 the Reformed Religion; and the Ministers either to instruct 
 [them], or receive them into it. 
 
 Another, subjecting Synods to receive such Roman 
 Catholic Commissaries as should be sent them from the 
 
 107
 
 More New Laws for (he Huguenots, j. ciiuuic. ic^c. 
 
 King; Avitli an express Order to do notliing Inil in his 
 ])resence. 
 
 Anotlier forbidding tlie Consistoi'ies to assemble^ oftenor 
 ilian once in fifteen days; and in presence of a Calliolic 
 (Commissary. 
 
 Another, forl)idding Consistories to assist, on })retence 
 of charity, the poor sick persons of tlieii- Jleligion : and 
 ordaining that tlie sick shonld he carried into tlieir [tJie 
 Roman (^athoJic^ Hospitals; strictly forbidding any man to 
 entertain tiiem in liis honse. 
 
 Another, confiscating, in favour of the Hospitals, all the 
 lands, rents, and other ])rofits of what Jiatnre soever, which 
 miglit have appertained to a. cojulejiined Church. 
 
 Another, foi'bidding JNIinisteis to come nearer than 
 three hnigiies to tlie place where the Privileges of I'ieaching 
 were in qnestion or debate. 
 
 Anothei-, confiscated to the Hospitals all the revenues 
 and rents set apart for the maintenance of the poor; even 
 in such Chnrches as were yet standing. 
 
 Another, subjecting sick and dying persons to th(> 
 necessity of receiving visits, sometimes from Judges, Com- 
 missaries, or Cliurch Wardens; sometimes fiom Curates, 
 Monlis, Missionaries, or other Ecclesiastics; to induce them 
 to change their Religion, or [to] require of them express 
 Declarations concerning it. 
 
 Another, forbidding parents to send their children, 
 before sixteen years of age, to travel in foreign countries, on 
 any pretence whatever. 
 
 Another, prohibiting Lords or Gentlemen to continue 
 the Exei'cise of Religion in their houses: unless they had 
 first produced their Titles l)efore the Commissaries ; and 
 Inid obtained from them a License t(i liave Preaching. 
 
 Another, Avhich restrained the right of entertaining a 
 Minister [^maintauuHf/ a ChapJaiii^ to those only avIio were 
 in possession of their lands, ever since the P^dict of Nantes, 
 in a direct or collateral line. 
 
 Another, which forbade Churches, called ' Bailliage,' to 
 reccMve into their Temples any of another Bailiwick. 
 
 Another, Avliich enjoined Physicians, Apothecaries, and 
 Chirni'geons, to advertise the Curates, or Magistrates, of the 
 condition of sick Protestants; that the Magistrates, or 
 Curates, might visit them. 
 
 But amongst all these New Laws, those which have most 
 108
 
 J. cuaiido. insG. Tlie Catliolic IxmicIi in eacli Temple. 
 
 sorvcd the Design and Intention ot the Clei-gy liavo been, 
 Oil [the] oiH' hand, the Proldhition of receiving into their 
 Teiujdes any of those who liad changed their Religion, or 
 their cliildren ; or any Roman Catholic of what age, sex, or 
 condition, soever: under pain of forfeiting tliei)- Churches ; 
 and the Ministers doing Public Penance, with banishment, 
 and the confiscation of their estates — and, oji the other side, 
 the setting up. in all Temples, [of] a particulai- bench for tlio 
 Catliolics to sit on. For, by this means, as soon as anyone 
 resolved to change his Religion, they needed only to make 
 him do it in private ; and to find him, the next morning, in 
 the Tem})le, to be observed by the Catholics, who were in 
 their seat. Immediately, Infoiinations were made; and 
 afterwards Condemnations, in all the i-igour of the law. 
 
 T)ie Roman Catholics jieeded only to enter into the 
 Temple, under pretence that they had a place there ; and 
 then they slipped in amongst the croAvd : and imnwdiately 
 this was a contravention to the Declaration, aiul an un- 
 avoidable Condemnation. It is. by this means, they have 
 destroyed an infinite nTimber of Temples and Chuj'ches; 
 and put into irons a great number of innocent Ministers: 
 for villains and false witnesses were not wanting on this 
 occasion. 
 
 109
 
 Ai;r. THESE PJ10CEEDING8 wore so violent, tliiit 
 they must needs make a strong impression in tiie 
 Reformists' minds, wliereiinto these things tended. 
 And, in effect, there were many of them, that 
 bethought themselves of their safety, by leaving 
 tlie Kingdom. Some transported themselves into one 
 Kingdom, and some; into anoth(»r; according as their 
 inclinations led tliem. 
 
 But this was what the Court never intended, for more 
 than one reason ; and therefore, to hinder them, they 
 renewed from time to time the Decree which we have men- 
 tioned, which strictly prohibited, under the most severe 
 penalties, any to depart the Kingdom without leave : and 
 to this end, they strictly guarded all Passages [outlets^ on 
 the fi'ontiers. 
 
 But these precautions did not answer their expecta- 
 tions ; and it Avere better to blind the people by hopes of 
 al)ating this rigorous usage at home : and to this end, in 
 16G9, the King revoked several violent Decrees ; which pro- 
 duced the effect expected. For though the judicious saw 
 well enough that this moderation sprang not from a good 
 principle ; and that, in the sequel, the same Decrees would 
 be put in execution : yet the most part imagined they would 
 still confine themselves wathin some bounds, in our regard ; 
 and that they would not pass to a total destruction. 
 
 We have often drawn the same conclusions from the 
 several Verbal Declarations, which came, many times, from 
 the King's ow^n mouth. That he pretended not to indulge 
 us : but he would do us x)erfect justice; and let us enjoy the 
 benefits of the Edicts in their whole extent. That he would 
 be very glad to see all his subjects reunited to the Catholic 
 Religion; and would, for the effecting tliis, contribute all his 
 power: but there should be no blood shed, during his reign, 
 on this account ; nor any violence exercised. These precise 
 and reiterated Declarations gave us hopes that the King 
 would not forget thejn ; and especially [that], in essential 
 110
 
 J. Claude. 1686. Tlic sli.iiii moderation of tlie Kiiijj:. 
 
 matters, he would let us enjoy the effects of his bounty 
 and equity. 
 
 It was the more expected, hy a Letter [of September (*> 
 1666,] he Avrote to the Elector of Brandenburg; copies of 
 which, the Ministers of State took care to disperse througli- 
 out the whole Kingdom. His Majesty assured him. That 
 he was well satisfied with the behaviour of his Protestant 
 subjects: from whence we drew this natural conclusion, 
 that he intended not then to destroy us. 
 
 To which we may add. The management used soni(>- 
 tim.es in the Council ; where Churches were conserved 
 Ijjreserved] , at the same time when others were ordered to 
 be demolished : to make tlie World believe, they observed 
 measures of Justice; and that those which they condemned, 
 were not grounded on good Titles. 
 
 Sometimes they softened several too rigorotis Decrees ; 
 other times they seemed not to approve of the violences 
 offered by the Intendants and Magistrates ; even to giving 
 Orders to moderate them. In this manner did they hinder 
 the execution of a Decree made in the Parliament of Rouen ; 
 which enjoined those of the Reformed Religion to fall on 
 their knees, when they met the Sacrament. 
 
 Thus did they stop the prosecutions of a puisne Judge 
 of Charenton ; who ordered us to strike out of our Liturgy 
 a Prayer which was composed for the Faithful, that 
 groaned under the tyranny of Antichrist. 
 
 It is thus also, that they did not extremely favour 
 another Persecution, Avhicli began to become general in the 
 Kingdom, against the Ministers; under pretence of obliging 
 them to take an Oath of Allegiance, wherein other clauses 
 were inserted, [that were] contrary to what the Ministers 
 owe to their Charges [i<7oc/is] and Religion, 
 
 It was thus also, they suspended the execution of some 
 Edicts which they themselves had procured, as well to tax 
 the Ministers, as to oblige them to reside precisely in the 
 place where they exercised their Ministry. 
 
 With the same Design, the Syndics of the Clergy had 
 the art to let the principal Churches of the Kingdom to 
 be at rest for many years, without disturbance in their 
 Assemblies : whilst they, in the meantime, desolated all 
 those in the country. 
 
 They suspended also the condemnation of the Univer- 
 sities ; and reserved them for the last. 
 
 Ill
 
 Louis XIV. hiiinbuggino' the Huguenots, j. ciauac i68G. 
 
 It was also, in Lliis view, that, at Court, thoy first 
 seemed unahle to helieve, and at hist not al)le to approve of, 
 the excesses which one, dk Makill.-vc, an Intendant of 
 Poitou, committed in that l^rovince. A man poor and 
 ci'ueJ, more fit to prey on the highways than to be an 
 Intendant of a Province: ihough, indeed, tliey had a Chiuse 
 expressly to make these Expeditions. 
 
 But, amongst all these Illusions [^Dcccpfions, Jiigg- 
 Ici'icfi^, there are iu)ne more remaikable than Five or Six; 
 which [it] will not be improper here to take notice of. 
 
 The First was. That, at the very time when, at the 
 Court, they issued out all the Decrees, Declarations, and 
 Edicts, we have spoken of herebefore ; and which they 
 paused to be put in execution with the greatest rigour : 
 at the same time that they interdicted their Churches, 
 demolished their Temples, deprived particular persons of 
 their Offices and Employments, reduced people to Poverty 
 and Hunger, imprisoned them, loaded them with fines, 
 banished them, and (in a word) ravaged almost all : the 
 Intendants, Governors, Magistrates, and other Officers, in 
 Paris, and over all the Kingdom, coolly and gravely gave 
 out, The King had not the least intention to touch the 
 Edict of Nantes ; l)ut would most religiously observe it. 
 
 The Second was, That in the same Edict which the 
 King published to forbid Roman Catholics to embrace the 
 Reformed Religion, which was in the year 1082 (that is to 
 say, at a time when they had already greatlj^ advanced the 
 work of our destruction), they caused a formal Clause to be 
 inserted in these terms, ' That he confirmed the Edict of 
 Nantes, as much as it was, or should be, needful.' 
 
 The Third, That in the Circular Letters which the King 
 wrote to the Bisliox^s and Intendants, to oblige them to 
 signify the ' Pastoral Advertisement' of the Clergy [, July 1 
 1682,] to our Consistories, he tells them, in express terms, 
 ' That his intention was not that they should do anything 
 that might attempt upon what had been granted to those 
 of the Reformed Religion, by the Edicts and Declarations 
 made in their favour.' 
 
 The Fourth, That, by an express Declaration, published 
 about the latter end of the year 1684, the King ordained. 
 That Ministers sliould not i-emain in the same Church 
 above the space of three years ; nor return to the first, 
 112
 
 J. C'ljimic. lasG. The craft of tlie King and tlie Clergy. 
 
 wiiliiii tlio space of twelve; and that they shoidd be tlius 
 translated from Cliurch to Church at least twenty leagues 
 distant from each other. Supposijig, hy a manifest conse- 
 (|iience, tliat Jiis Design was yet to permit the Exercise of 
 Religion to the Ministers in the Kingdom for Twelve years 
 at least: tliongli indeed they, at that moment, designed the 
 Revocation of tlie Edict; and had resolved [on] it in the 
 Council. 
 
 Tlie Fifth consists of a Request presented to the King 
 hy the Assemhly of the Clergy, at the same time that they 
 vvere drawing up an Edict to revoke that of Nantes^ and 
 [had] put it into the hands of the Procureur General to 
 frame it : and, in the Decree which was granted on this 
 Request, the Clergy comi)lained of the misrepresentations 
 which the Ministers were wont to make of the Roman 
 Church, to which they attrihuted doctrines which they do 
 not hold ; and [they] heseecli His Majesty to provide against 
 it : and also expressly declared, That they did not yet desire 
 the Revocation of the Edict. Upon which, the King, by his 
 Decree, expressly forbade the Ministers to speak, either 
 good or hurt, directly or indirectly, of the Church of Rome 
 in their Sermons : supposing, as every one might see, that 
 it was his intention still to let them preach. 
 
 Were ever such Illusions \_Ji(g(/leries^ known ! But 
 was there ever any greater than this, which they put in 
 the very Edict we speak of ? The King, after having 
 cancelled and annulled the Edict of Nantes and all that 
 depended thereon : after having interdicted for ever all 
 public Religious Exercises; and also for ever banished all 
 the Ministers from his Kingdom : he expressly declares, 
 
 That his AVill is, that his other subjects, who are not 
 willing to change their Religion, may remain where they 
 are in all liberty, enjoy their estates, and live with the 
 same freedom as heretofore ; without any molestation on 
 pretence of their Religion, till it shall please GOD to 
 enlighten and convert them. 
 
 These were [the] Amusements [Deceptions] and snares 
 to entrap them, as it has since appeared : and as it still 
 appears every day, by the horrible usages they suffer; of 
 which, we shall speak in what follows. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 8 113
 
 BUT WE SHALL, fusi, moiition a Proparatory 
 Macliiiio Inu'fJiod], wliich the Perse ciitorH have 
 liot failed to employ, to effect their J3esign ; and 
 which we have reckoned to he the Sixth in order. 
 It consists in disposing insensihly the people 
 l)y degrees to desire our destruction ; to approve of it, when 
 done; and to diminish in their mind the horror, whicli 
 ]iaturally they must have, at the cruelties and injustices of 
 our Persecutors' contrivances. 
 
 For this purpose, several means have heen used ; and 
 the commonest liave heen the Sermons of the Missionaries 
 and other Controversial Preachers, with which the Kingdom 
 had heen, for some years, stocked, under the title of 'Royal 
 Missions.' They were fitting youths, chosen for this 
 purpose, who had such an education given them, ^vhich Avas 
 so far from making them moderate, as rather inflamed 
 them : so that it is easy to comprehend what Actors they 
 were, Avhen they not only found themselves upheld ; hut 
 saw themselves moreover set on, and had express orders to 
 inspire their hearers with clioler [^roifjer^. And so well did 
 they acquit themselves herein, that it was not their fault if 
 Popular Commotions have not followed thereon in great 
 Cities ; yea, in Paris itself : had not the prudejice of tlie 
 Magistrates hindered them. 
 
 To the Preachers, we must join the Confessors and 
 Directors of ]Men"s Consciences, the Monks, the Curates; 
 and, in general, all Ecclesiastics, from the highest to the 
 lowest. For they, heing not ignorant of the Court's Inten- 
 tion in this matter, every one strove to shew most zeal, and 
 most aversion to the Reformed Religion : hecause every one 
 found his Interest lay therein ; this being the only way to 
 raise and estahlish his fortune [career']. 
 
 In this Design of animating the people; there passed 
 few days wherein the streets did not ring, as well with the 
 publication of Decrees, Edicts, and Declarations, against 
 the Protestants; as also with Satyrical and Seditious Libels, 
 of which the people in the towns of France are very greedy. 
 11*
 
 J. ciaiKio. Kiso. Tlio Writers against the Huguenots. 
 
 J^ut tliose things served only loi- I lie Dicuuor sort of 
 peoplo ; and the Persocutors had \]io mortification to s(H' 
 this Design disapproved l)y all those \\li() were a degree 
 above the mobile [iiiolf]. 
 
 Wliereforc they employed the pens of some of their 
 Authors wlio liad acquired any reputation in the World ; 
 and, amongst others, that of [Espkit Flechiek, Bishop of 
 NiMES,] the Author of the 'History of Theodosius the 
 Great'; and that of Monsieur [Louis] Maimbourg, hereto- 
 fore a Jesuit. He publislied liis ' History of Calvinism' : of 
 which he has since had the leisure to repent, by the smart 
 and pertinent Answers which have been given him. 
 
 Their exaniph^ lias been followed by several others: 
 and Monsieur [Antoine] Arnauld (avIio will ahvays make 
 one in these matters) M'ould not deny himself the satisfac- 
 tion of venting his choler; and, at the same time, endeavour 
 to recover the favour he has lost at Court. But although 
 his 'Apology for the Catholics' Avas a Work as full of fire 
 and passion as the Bigots themselves could wish; yet it was 
 not agreable, because his person was not. He was so 
 ill gi'atified for it, that he complained thereof to the 
 Archbishop of Rheims in a Letter; the copies whereof 
 were dispersed all over Paris. Amongst other things, he 
 exaggerated his misfortune ; and compared himself with 
 another w^ho, for much less services, received 20,000 Livres 
 [=£2,000], as a reward from the King. This more and 
 more shewed the character of the person. However they 
 needed him not : not wanting violent Writers. 
 
 Amongst whom, we must not forget one Monsieur 
 Soulier, formerly, as they say, a Tailor, and at present [the] 
 Author of the 'History of the Edicts of the Pacification'; 
 nor Monsieur [Pierre] Nicole, once a great Jansenist. and 
 now a proselyte of the Archbishop of Paris, Author of the 
 l)ook, entitled, ' Protestants convinced of Schism ' : nor the 
 Author of the 'Journal des Savants,' who, in liis ordinaiy 
 Gazettes, highly affirms, That the Catholic Faith must be 
 planted by Fire and Sword: alleging for the proof thereof, 
 a King of Norway who converted the Nobles of his country, 
 by threatening them, ' to slay their children before their 
 eyes ; if they would not consent to have them baptized, and 
 be baptized themselves.' [See the Number for 1(5 April 
 1685.] 
 
 For a long time, we have seen, in Paris and elsewhere, 
 
 iia
 
 The Huguenots make a lawful defence, j. ciaudc. ighg. 
 
 nothing' but such sort of Writings : to suoli ix, height has 
 Passion come. 
 
 Whilst all these things which we have here observed 
 were done in France ; they, by great steps, advanced to 
 their End. 
 
 It is not to be imagined that the Reformed neglected 
 their common Interests; or [that they] did not all that 
 respected a just and lawful defence. They frequently sent, 
 from the furthest Provinces, their Deputies to the Court. 
 They maintained their rights before the Council. Thither 
 they brought their complaints from all parts. They em- 
 ployed their Deputy General to solicit their Interests ; as 
 well with the Judges and Ministers of State as with the 
 King himself. Sometimes also they presented General 
 Addresses ; in Avhich they exposed their grievances, with 
 all the humility and deference that Subjects oAve [to] their 
 Sovereigns. But they were so far from being heard, that 
 their Troubles were still increased ; and their second con- 
 dition became worse than the first. The last Petition 
 presented to the King liimself, b}^ the Deputy General, in 
 March 1685, was expressed in terms most submissive, and 
 most capable of moving pity: as every one may judge; [it] 
 having been since printed. Yet it produced no other fruit 
 but the hastening of what they had long resolved [on], 
 namely, to use open force to accomplish our ruin. 
 
 116
 
 THIS WAS EP^FECTUALLY done some months 
 alter [, in 1G85] ; and executed in a manner so 
 terrible and violent, that, as we said in the 
 beginning, there are few in Euro^je, how distant 
 soever from the notice of the common accidents 
 [^incidc)its~\ of the World, who have not heard the report of 
 it. But it is certain [that] tlie circumstances are not known 
 to all : and therefore Ave shall give an Account of them 
 in few words ; if it be hut to stop the mouth of their 
 Impudence, avIio published abroad, Tliat no violences have 
 been offered in France; and the Conversions there made, 
 were Avith free consent. 
 
 At first, they took this measure. To quarter soldiers 
 in all the Provinces, almost at the same time ; and chiefly 
 Dragoons, which are the most resolute troops of the 
 Kingdom. Terror and Dread marched I^efore them : and, 
 as it were by consent, all France Avas filled Avitli this news, 
 That the King AA'ould no longer suffer any Huguenots in 
 his Kingdom : and that thej" must resoh'e to change their 
 Religion ; nothing being able to keep them from it. 
 
 They began Avitli Bearn ; Avhere the Dragoons did their 
 first executions. These Avere folloAved, soon after, in High and 
 LoAV Guienne, Saintonge, Aunis, Poitou, High Languedoc, 
 ViA^arais, aiul Dauphigny. After Avliich, they came to 
 Lyonais, Cevenues, Low Languedoe, ProA^ence, Vallees, and 
 the country of Gex. Afterwards, they fell on the rest of 
 the Kingdom, Normandy, Burgundy, NiA^ernais, and Berry, 
 the Countries of Orleans, Touraine, Anjou, Brittany, 
 Champagne, Picardy, and the Isle of France : not excluding 
 Paris itself, which underAvent the same fate. 
 
 The first thing the Intendants Avere ordered to do, was to 
 summon the Cities and Commonalties. They assembled the 
 inhabitants thereof Avho professed the Reformed Religion ; 
 and there told them, ' It Avas the King's Pleasure that tliey 
 should, without delay, become Catholics : and if they AA^ould 
 not do it freely, they Avould make them do it by force ! ' 
 
 117
 
 The Kevocatioii Atrocities. j. ciaiuic. igsc>. 
 
 Tlie poor peo[)l(', surprised with siicli a Proposiil, 
 answered, They were ready to sacrifice iIumi- estates and 
 lives to tlie King: l)iit, their Conscience's hciiiif (jOD's, 
 they could not in that manner dispose of thcjii. 
 
 There needed no more to make tliem immediately 
 bi'ing the Dragoons; which were jiot far off. The troops 
 immediately seized on the gates and aAenues of the Citie^. 
 They placed Guards in all the Passages {thoroughfares] : 
 and often came, with their swords in their hands, crying, 
 ' Kill ! Kill ! or else he Catholics ! ' 
 
 They were quartered on the Reformists at discretion ; 
 with a strict charge tliat none should depart out of their 
 houses, nor conceal aiiy of their goods or effects, under great 
 penalties; even on the Catholics that sliould receive, or 
 assist, them in any manner. 
 
 The first days were spent in consuming all the pro- 
 visions the house afforded ; and taking fi'om them Avhatever 
 they could see, money, rings, jewels; and, in general, what- 
 soever was of value. 
 
 After this, they pillaged the family; and invited not 
 only the Catholics of the placT, hut also those of the neigh- 
 bouring Cities and towns, to come and buy the goods, and 
 other things which Avould yield money. 
 
 Afterwards, they fell on their persons: and there is 
 no wickedness or horror which they did not put in practice, 
 to force them to change their Religion. Amidst a thousand 
 hideous cries, and a thousand blasphemies; they hung men 
 or women, by the hair or feet, on the roofs of the chamber, 
 or [the] chimney hooks; and smoked them with wisps of 
 wet hay, till they were no longer able to l)ear it: and when 
 they had taken them down, if they would not sign, they 
 hung them up immediately again. 
 
 They threw them on great fires, kindled on purpose ; 
 and pulled them not out, till they were half roasted. 
 
 They tied ropes under their arms; and plunged them to 
 and again into wells : from whence they Avould not take 
 them, till they had promised to change their Religion. 
 
 They tied them, as they do criminals put to the Ques- 
 tion [the torture]; and, in this posture, with a funnel filled 
 with wine, poured it down their throats till, the fumes of it 
 depriving them of their reason, they made theni say, they 
 would consent to be Catholics. 
 
 They stripped them naked; and, aftei- having offeretl 
 118
 
 J. Claude, uistj. The Kevocatioii iVtrocitios. 
 
 tliojii a tliousand iiifanious indignities, lliey stuck Lhoiii 
 with pins from the top to tlio hottoiii. 
 
 Tliey cut them witli peii-kiiives : and sometimes willi 
 ]e<l-hot pincers took them by tlie nose, and dragged them 
 alK)ut tlieir rooms till they promised to become Catholics; 
 or that the cries of these poor wretclies (that, in this con- 
 dition, called on GOD for tlieir assistance.) constrained them 
 to let them go. 
 
 Tliey beat them witli stav(*s ; and dragged them, all 
 braised, to the Churches: where their baie forced presence 
 was accounted for an Al)juration. 
 
 They held them from sleej)ing seven or eigiit days; 
 relieving one another to watch tliem day and night, and 
 Iceep tliem waking. 
 
 They threw buckets of water on their faces ; and tor- 
 mented them a thousand ways : holding over their heads 
 kettles turned downv\ ards ; whereon they made a continual 
 noise, till these poor creatures had even lost their senses. 
 
 If tliey found any sick, either men or women, that kept 
 tlieir beds, distempered with fevers or other diseases ; they 
 had the cruelty to bring twelve drunis, sounding an Alarm, 
 for whole weeks together without intermission, till they 
 had promised they would change. 
 
 They plucked off the nails from the hands and toes of 
 others; which could not be endured without intolerable pain. 
 
 They burnt the feet of others. 
 
 They blew up men and women with bellows; even till 
 they were ready to burst. 
 
 If, after these horrid usages, there were yet any that 
 refused to turn, they imprisoned them ; and for this, chose 
 Dungeons dark and noisome, in which they exercised on 
 them all sorts of inhumanity. In the meantime, they 
 demolished their houses, desolated their hereditary lands, 
 cut down their woods, and seized their wives and children 
 to imprison them in Nunneries. "When the soldi(>rs had 
 devoured and consumed all in a house, the farmers of their 
 lauds furnished them with subsistence: and to reimburse 
 them, they sold, by authority of Justice, the ' fonds ' [land'] 
 "of their hosts, and put tliem [tJte farmers] in possession 
 thereof. 
 
 If some, to secure their Consciences, and to escape 
 the tyranny of these furious men, endeavoured to save 
 
 119
 
 The Ito vocation Atrocities, j . ciaucie. 1686. 
 
 themselves by fliglit ; they were pursued, and hunted in the 
 fields and woods, and were shot at like wild beasts. The 
 Provosts rode about the higiiways; and the Magistrates 
 of places liad orders to stop them, without exception. They 
 brought them back to the places from whence they fled ; 
 using them like Prisoners of War. 
 
 / But M^e must not fancy that this Storm fell only on 
 ' the common sort. Noblemen and Gentlemen of the best 
 Quality Avere not exempted from it. They had soldiers 
 quartered on them in the same manner, and with the same 
 fury, as the Citizens and Peasants had. They plundered 
 their houses, wasted their goods, razed their Castles, cut 
 down their woods ; and their very persons were exposed to 
 the insolence and barbarity of the Dragoons, no less than 
 those of others. They spared neither Sex, Age, nor Quality. 
 Wherever they found any unwillingness to obey the com- 
 mand of changing their Religion, they practised the same 
 violences. 
 
 There were still remaining soiue Officers of Parliaments, 
 which underwent the same fate ; after having been first 
 deprived of their Offices : and even the Military Officers, 
 who were actually on Service, were ordered to quit their 
 Posts and Quarters, and [to] repair immediately to their 
 houses, there to suffer the like Storm ; if, to avoid it, they 
 would not become Catholics. 
 
 Many Gentlemen and other Persons of Quality, and 
 many Ladies of a great age and ancient families, seeing all 
 these outrages, hoj^ed to find some retreat in Paris, or at 
 the Court ; not imagining the Dragoons would come to seek 
 them so near the King's presence : but this hope was no 
 less vain than all the rest. For immediately there was a 
 Decree of Council [of October 15 1685], which commanded 
 them to leave Paris in fifteen days ; and to return without 
 delay to their own houses : with a prohibition to all persons 
 to entertain, or lodge, them in their houses. 
 
 Some, having attempted to present Addresses to the 
 King, containing complaints of these cruel usages, humbly 
 beseeching His Majesty to stop the course thereof, received 
 no other answer than that of sending them to the Bastille. 
 
 120
 
 B 
 
 EFORE WE PROCEED any further, it will not be 
 amiss to make some Remarks. 
 
 The First shall be that, almost everywhere, at 
 
 the head of these Infernal Legions, besides the 
 
 Commanders and Military Officers, the Intendants also; the 
 
 Bishops marched, every one in his diocese, with a trooji of 
 
 Missionaries, Monks, and other Ecclesiastics, i 
 
 The Intendants gave such Orders as they tliought most 
 fitting to carry on Conversions; and restrain natural pity 
 and compassion, if, at any time, it found a place in the 
 hearts of the Dragoons, or their Commanders: which did 
 not often happen. / 
 
 _And as for the Bishops, they were there to keep Open 
 House; to receive Abjurations; and to have a general and 
 severe inspection, that everything might pass there accord- 
 ing to the Intentions of the Clergy. ^ 
 
 The Second thing observable is, That when the Dragoons 
 had made some yield, by all the horrors they had practised ; 
 they immediately changed their Quarters, and sent them to 
 those who still persevered. This order was observed, in 
 this manner, even to the end : insomuch that the last, that 
 is to say, those who had shewed the greatest constancy, 
 had, in fine \_tJie end^, quartered on them alone, all the 
 Dragoons, which, at the beginning, were equally dispersed 
 amongst all the inhabitants of the place ; which was a load 
 impossible to be sustained. 
 
 A Third Remark which we shall make is. That, in 
 almost all the considerable Cities, they took care, before 
 they sent troops thither, to gain, by means of the Inten- 
 dants, or some other private way, a certain number of 
 people, not only to change their Religion themselves, when 
 it should be seasonable ; but also to assist them in pervert- 
 ing others. So that, when the Dragoons had sufficiently 
 done their part, the Intendant, with the Bishop and the 
 
 121
 
 ]\oinarks on the lie vocation At^u(•iti(^s. j. ciamic. icsc. 
 
 Conuiuuidoi- of the Forcos, again asst'inhlcd tliese miserable 
 inhabitants already mined, to exhort them to obey the 
 King, and become Catholics; adding thereto most teri-ible 
 tlu'eats, that they might ovei-awe tliem : and then, the New- 
 Converts failed, not to execute what tliey had promised; 
 Avbich they did with the more success, because the peojde 
 did yet put some kind of confidence in them. 
 
 A Fourth Observation is, Tliat wluni the Master of the 
 house, thinking to get rid of tlie Dr.igoons, liad obeyed and 
 signed what they would ; he was not freed from them, for 
 all this, if his Wife, Children, ;ind the meanest of his 
 domestics, did not do the same tiling : and when his Wife, 
 or any of his Children, or family fled : they ceased not to 
 torment them, till he had made them return, which often- 
 times being impossible, the change of tbeir Religion did not 
 at all avail them. 
 
 The Fifth is, That when these poor wretches fancied 
 their Consciences would be at rest by signing some form of 
 an Equivocal Abjuration offered them ; a little while after, 
 these cruel men came to them jigain, and made them sign 
 another, which plunged them into su( li depths as cast them 
 into the utmost despair. 
 
 Nay, farther, they had the boldness to make them 
 acknowledge. That they embraced the Roman Religion of 
 their own accord ; without having been induced thereunto 
 by any violent means. 
 
 If, after this, they scrupled to go to Mass ; if they did 
 not communicate; if they did not tell their beads; if, by a 
 sigh esca2)ed from them, they signified any unwillingness : 
 they had immediately a fine laid upon them; and they were 
 forced to receive again their old guests. 
 
 In fine, for a Sixth Remark, As fast as the troops 
 ravaged in this manner the Provinces, spreading terror and 
 desolation in all parts ; Orders were sent to all the frontier 
 countries and seaport towns to guard well the Passages, 
 and [to] stop all such who pretended to escape from Prance : 
 so that there was no hope of these poor wretches saving 
 themselves by flight. None were permitted to pass, if he 
 brought not along with him a Cei'tificate of his Bishop or 
 Curate, that he was a Catholic. Others were put in prison; 
 122
 
 J. Claude. 168G. Kciiiurks on t\w IJuvocatioii Ati'ocities. 
 
 aud UhC'd like traitors against thoir couiiLry. All straiigo 
 vessels lying in tlie ports were searclied. The coasts, 
 bridges, passages to livers, and tlie liigliways, were strictly 
 guarded, both night and day. 
 
 T\\e neighboin-ing States were nlso required not to 
 harbour any nioin^ fugitives; and to send back again such 
 as ihev li;ul already i-eceived. Attempts were also made to 
 seizt^ on, and carry away, some M'bo had escaped into foreign 
 countries. 
 
 123
 
 WHILST ALL THIS was uctiii}'- in the KiiFgdoni, 
 the Court were con salting to give the last 
 stioke ; which consisted in repealing the Edict 
 ot Nantes. ( Mnch time was spent in drawing 
 up the Matter and Form of this new Edict. 
 Some would have the King detain all the Ministers; and 
 force them, as they did the Laity, to change their Religion ; 
 or condemn them to perpetual imprisonment. They alleged 
 for their reason, That if they did not do it, they would he 
 as so many dangerous enemies against them in foieign 
 nations) 
 
 i Others, on the contrary, affirmed, Tliat, as long as the 
 Ministers coiitinued in France, tliis their presence would 
 encourage the people to ahide in their Religion; whatsoever 
 care might he taken to hijider tliem: and that, supposing 
 they should change, they would he but as so many secret 
 adversaries nourished in the bosom of the Church of Rome; 
 and the more dangerous, on the account of their knowledge 
 iind experience in controversial matters. 
 
 This last reasoning prevailed. It was then resolved on 
 to hanish the Ministers ; and to give them no more than 
 fifteen days' time to depart the Kingdoni.\ 
 
 As to what remained, the Edict was given to the Pro- 
 cureur General of the Parliament of Paris, to draw it up in 
 such form as he should judge most fitting. 
 
 But, hefore the publishing of it, Two things were 
 thought necessary to be done. The First, to ohlige the 
 Assembly of the Clergy separately to present to the King 
 a Request concerning the matter above mentioned; in w^hich 
 also they told His Majesty that they desired not at present 
 the rex)ealing of the Edict of Nantes : and the Other, to sup- 
 press, in general, all kinds of books made by them of the 
 Reforjued Religion ; and to issue out an Order for that 
 jiurpose. 
 
 By the first of these things, the Clergy sought to 
 shelter themselves from the reproaches which might be 
 124
 
 J. Claude. 1686. All tlic Hiigueiiot boolvS suppressed. 
 
 cast on tlieiii as tlio Autlioi-s of so many misoi-ies, injiisticos, 
 and oppressions ; Avliicli this Repeal would still occasion: 
 and by the other, tlicv pretended to make tlie Conversions 
 much more easy, as they styled them, and to confirm those 
 which had been already made ; by taking from the people 
 all Works which niii^lit instruct, fortify, and br-ing them 
 back again. 
 
 125
 
 IN FINE, THIS Rcwocjitive Edict of Nantes was sigiKnl 
 and pul)lished on Tliin-sday, Ixmii^- ili(> fstli oi OctohcM-, 
 in the year 1(585, N.S. 
 ' It is said [that Michel Le TErjiiER,] tlie Cliancelloi; 
 of France shewed an extreme joy in sealing it: hut it 
 liisted not long; tins being the last thing he did. For as 
 soon as he came Jiome from Fontainebleau, he fell sick ; 
 and died within a few days [, in October 1()85].) It is 
 (•(H'tain that this man's policy, rather than his natural 
 inclination, induced him, in his latter years, to become one 
 of our Persecntors. 
 
 The Edict was registered in the Parliament of l\iiis: 
 and immediately after in the others. 
 
 ^ It contains a, Pj*(^face, and T\\elve Articles. 
 
 In the Pjeface, the King shews that Henry the Great 
 liis grandfather, did not give the Edict, and Louis his 
 father, did not confirm it by his other Edict of Nimes, but 
 ill the Design of endeavonring more effectnally the reunion 
 of their subjects of the Pretended Reformed Religion to the 
 Catholic Church ; and that this was also the Design which 
 he had himself, at his first coming to the Crown. That, it 
 is true, he had been hindered by the wars which he was 
 forced to carry on against the enemies of his State: but that, 
 at present, being at peace with all the Princes of Europe, he 
 wholly gave himself to the making of this reunion. That 
 GOD had given him the grace of accomplishing it: and 
 seeing the greatest and best part of his subjects of the said 
 Religion had embraced the Catholic one, the Edi(^ts of 
 Nantes and Nimes consequent!}^ became void and useless. 
 
 By the First Article, he suppresses and repeals them in 
 all their extent ; and ordains that all the Temples, which 
 are found yet standing in liis Kingdom, shall be immediately 
 demolished. 
 
 By the Secon.d, he forbids all sorts of Religious Assem- 
 blies of what kind soever. 
 
 The Third prohibits the Exercises of Religion to all 
 126
 
 J. ciaiuin. 16HG. Tlic coiiteiit.s of tlic Kevooation Edict. 
 
 Lords and OcJitlomcMi of aii\' (,)iiality; iiiidei- coipoi-al penal- 
 ties, and (Confiscation of tlicir estates. 
 
 T]ie Fonrtli ])anislies from the Kijigdom all the Minis- 
 ters; and enjoins them to depart thence within fifteen days 
 after the puhhcation of lliis lildict, under the penalty of 
 being" sent to the dallcys. 
 
 In the Fiftli and Sixth, he promises recompenses and 
 advantages to the Ministei-s and their widows who should 
 change their Religion. 
 
 In the Seventh and l^ighth, he forl)ids the instruct iiig 
 of children in the l^retended Reformed Religion; and 
 ordains that those that shall he horn henceforward shall be 
 baptized, and brought up, in the Catholic Religion; enjoin- 
 ing parents to send tliem to the Churches, under the penalty 
 of being fined 500 Livres [=^ £50]. 
 
 The Ninth gives four months' time to such persons as 
 liave departed already out of the Kingdom to return : other- 
 wise their goods and estates to be confiscated. 
 
 The Tenth, with repeated Prohibitions, fovln'ds all his 
 subjects of the said Religion to depart out of liis realm, 
 they, their Wives and children ; or to convey away their 
 effects: under pain of the Galleys for the men; and con- 
 fiscation of body and goods for the women. 
 
 The Eleventh confirms the Declarations heretofore 
 made against those that relapse. 
 
 The Twelfth declares, Tliat as to the rest of his subjects 
 of the said Religion, they may, till GOD enlightens them, 
 remain in the Cities of his Kingdom, countries and lands of 
 his obedience, there to continue their commerce, and enjoy 
 these estates; without trouble or molestation iTpon preteiu-e 
 of the said Religion: on condition that they have no 
 Assemblies, under ])retext of I^raying, or Exercising any 
 Religious Worship Avhatinci-. 
 
 In order to put this Edict in execution; the very same 
 day that it was registered and published at Pai-is: they 
 began to demolish the Church of Charenton. The eldest 
 Minister thereof [irlio irti.^ Jean Claude lii nisei f~\ was 
 commanded to leave Paris within twenty-four hours; and 
 immediately to de^jart the Kingdom. For this end, they 
 put him into the hands of one of the King's Footmen ; 
 with orders not to leave him, till he was out of his 
 dominions. 
 
 127
 
 The Miiiistoi-s luirriod out of France, j. chuuic. losc. 
 
 His colleagues Avere [u] liitJe better treuted. Tliey gUNc 
 them forty-eight hours to quit Paris; and then left tlieiii 
 upon their parole. 
 
 The rest of the Ministers were allowed fifteen davh : 
 l)at it can hardly be believed to wliat vexations and cruelties 
 they were all exposed. 
 
 First of all, tliey neither permitted them to dispose of 
 their estates, nor to carry away any of their moveables or 
 effects. Nay, they disputed them their books and private 
 papers, on pretence tiiat they must justify [prove] their 
 books and papers did not belong to the Consistories wherein 
 they served: which was a thing impossible, since there were 
 no Consistories that then remained. 
 
 Besides, they would not give them leave to take along 
 with them, either Father or Mother, or Brother or Sister, 
 or any of their kindred : though there were many of them 
 infirm, decayed, and poor; which could not subsist but ])y 
 their means. 
 
 They went so far as even to deny them their own 
 children ; if they were above seven years old. Nay, some 
 they took from them that were under that age ; and even 
 such as yet hanged upon their mothers' breasts. They 
 refused them Nurses for their new-born Infants, [to] which 
 the mothers could not give suck. 
 
 In some frontier places, they stopped and imprisoned 
 them, upon divers ridiculous pretences. They must 
 immediately prove that they were really the same persons 
 which their Certificates mentioned. They were to know 
 immediately whether there were no Criminal Process or 
 Informations against them. They must presently justify 
 that thev carried awav nothing that belonged to their 
 Flocks. 
 
 Sometimes, after they liad thus detained and amused 
 {juggled] theui ; they were told that the Fifteen Days of 
 the Edict were expired, and that they should not liave 
 liberty to retire : but must go to the Galleys. 
 
 There is no kind of deceit and injustice which tliey did 
 not think of, to involve them in troubles. 
 
 As to the rest, whom the force of Persecution and hard 
 usage constrained to leave their houses and estates, and to 
 fly the Kingdom ; it is not to be imagined what dangers 
 they exposed them to ! Never were Orders more severe or 
 128
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The Twelfth Article of the Edict a sham. 
 
 more strict, than those that were given against them. 
 They doubled the Guards in Posts, Cities, liighways, and 
 fords. They covered the country with Soldiers. They 
 armed even the peasants to stop those that passed ; or to 
 kill them. They forbade all the Officers of the Customs to 
 suffer any goods, moveables, merchandize, or other effects, 
 to pass. In a word, they forgot nothing that could hinder 
 the flight of the Persecuted ; even to the interrupting 
 almost [of] all commerce with neighbouring nations. 
 
 By this means, they quickly filled all the Prisons in 
 the Kingdom. For the fear of the Dragoons ; the horror of 
 seeing their Consciences forced, and their children taken 
 away ; and of living for the future in a land where there 
 was neither Justice nor Humanity for them : obliged every 
 one of them to think of an escape ; and to abandon all, to 
 saA^e their persons. 
 
 All these poor Prisoners have been since treated with 
 unheard-of rigours, shut up in Dungeons, loaded witli heavy 
 chains, almost starved with hunger, and deprived of all con- 
 verse [conversation^ but that of their Persecutors. They 
 put many into Monasteries, where they experience none of 
 the least cruelties. Some there are so happy as to die in 
 the midst of their torments. Others have, at last, sunk 
 under the weight of the Temptation : and some, by the 
 extraordinary assistance of GOD's grace, do still sustain it 
 with an heroic courage. 
 
 These have been the consequences of this new Edict in 
 this respect. 
 
 But who would not have believed that the Twelfth 
 Article would [not] have sheltered the rest of the Reformed, 
 that had a mind still to stay in the Kingdom : since this 
 Article expressly assures them. That they might live there, 
 continue their trade, and enjoy their estates; without being 
 troubled or molested, upon pretence of their Religion. 
 
 Yet see what they have since done; and yet do, to these 
 poor wretches. They have not recalled the Dragoons and 
 other Soldiers, which they despatched into the Provinces 
 before the Edict. On the contrary, they, to this da}', 
 commit, Avith greater fury, the same inhumanities which 
 we have before represented. 
 
 Besides this, they have marched them into Provinces 
 where there were none before : as Normandy, Picardy, 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 9 129
 
 Colbert's conversions by force, j. ciaude. lese. 
 
 Berry, Champagne, Nivernais, Orleans, Blesois, and the 
 Iwle of France. They do the same violence there, exert the 
 same fury, as they did in other Provinces. 
 
 Paris itself, where, methinks, this Article of the Edict 
 should have been best observed ; because [it is] so near the 
 King's presence, and more immediately under the govern- 
 ment of the Court — Paris, I say, was no more spared than 
 the rest of the Kingdom. 
 
 The very day that the Edict was published, without 
 more delay, the Procureur General, and some other Magis- 
 trates, began to send for Heads of Families to come to their 
 houses. There, they declared to them. That it was 
 absolutely the King's Will that they should change their 
 Religion. That they were no better than the rest of his 
 subjects; and that if they would not do it willingly, the 
 King would make use of means, which he had ready, to 
 compel them. 
 
 At the same time, they banished, by Letters under the 
 Priv}^ Seal, all the Elders of the Consistory ; together with 
 some others, in whom they found more of constancy and 
 resolution : and to disperse them, chose such- places as 
 were most remote from Commerce ; where they have since 
 used them with a great deal of cruelty. Some complied : 
 others are yet under sufferings. 
 
 The diligence of the Procureur General and the 
 Magistrates not succeeding so fully as they wished, though 
 threats and menaces were not wanting : Monsieur [ (Jean 
 Baptiste) Colbert, Marquis] de Seignelay, Secretary 
 of State, would also try what influence he could have, 
 Avithin his Division of Paris. For this end, he got 
 together about five, or six, score of Merchants and others 
 into his house ; and, after having shut the doors, forth- 
 with presented them with the Form of an Abjuration, 
 and commanded them, in the King's name, to sign it : 
 declaring that they should not stir out of doors till they 
 had obeyed. The Contents of this Form were, ]iot only 
 that they did renounce the Heresy of Calvin, and enter 
 into the Catholic Church; but also that they did this 
 voluntarily, without being forced or compelled to it. 
 
 This was done in an imperious manner, and with an 
 air of authority ; yet there were some that dared to speak : 
 but they were sharply answered, That they were not to 
 130
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The Great Method of the Dragoons. 
 
 dispute it ; but to obey ! So that they all signed, before 
 they went out. 
 
 To these methods, they added others more terrible : as 
 Prisons, the actual seizing of their effects and papers, the 
 taking away of their Children, the separation of Husbands 
 and Wives ; and, in fine, the Great Method, that is to say. 
 Dragoons and Guards. 
 
 Those that most firmly stood out, they sent to the 
 Bastille and to the Fort L'Eveque. They confined them to 
 their own, or others', houses ; where they lay concealed for 
 fear of discovery. They plundered the houses of many 
 others, not sxmring their persons: just as they had done in 
 other places. 
 
 Thus the Twelfth Article of the Edict, which promised 
 some relaxation, and a Shadow of Liberty, was nothing but 
 an egregious deceit to amuse \_ju()gle] the credulous, and 
 keep them from thinking to make their escape ; a snare to 
 catch them with the more ease. 
 
 The Fury still kept its usual course ; and was heated 
 to such a degree that, not content with the desolations in 
 the Kingdom, it entered even into Orange, a Sovereign 
 Principality, where the King, of right, has no power ; and 
 taking Ministers away from thence by force, removed them 
 into Prisons. Thither the Dragoons were sent, who com- 
 mitted all kinds of mischief : and, by force, constrained the 
 inhabitants thereof, both men, women, and children, and 
 the very Officers of the Prince [of Orange] , to change their 
 Religion. And this is the state of things in the year 1685 : 
 and this, the accomplishment of the dealing which the 
 Clergy had shewed us, three years since, towards the end of 
 their 'Pastoral Letter' [of July 1 1682], 'You must expect 
 mischiefs more dreadful and intolerable than all those 
 which, hitherto, your Revolts and Schisms have drawn 
 down upon you ! ' And, truly, they have not been worse 
 than their words. 
 
 There are some in the Kingdom who still continue 
 firm ; and their Persecutions are still continued to them. 
 
 There are invented, every day, new torments against 
 those whom force has made to change their Religion, 
 because they are still observed to sigh and groan under 
 their hard servitude ; their hearts detesting what their 
 
 131
 
 150,000 llefugees have escaped, j. ciaude, lese. 
 mouths have professed, and their hands signed. 
 
 As to such that have escaped into foreign countries, 
 who are at least 150,000 persons* ; their estates are con- 
 fiscated : this being all the hurt tliat can be done to them 
 at present. I say, at present : for it is not to be questioned 
 but our Persecutors are contriving to extend their Cruelties 
 farther. But we must hope, in the compassions of GOD, 
 that whatsoever intentions they may have of destroying the 
 Protestant Religion in all places ; he will not permit them 
 to effect their Designs. The World will surely open its 
 eyes ; and this, which they now come from doing with a 
 high hand, and a worse than barbarous Fury, will show, 
 not onl}^ the Protestants, but the wise and circumspect 
 Catholics, what they are to expect, both [the] one and the 
 other, from such a sort of people. ": 
 
 * This was CLAUDE'S estimate in 
 the Spring of 1686. The total number 
 of this great Huguenot Emigration 
 has never yet been precisely ascer- 
 132 
 
 taincd : but it must have reached to 
 several Hundreds of Thousands of 
 persons. — E.A.
 
 IN EFFECT, HE that shall give himself the leisure to 
 reflect on the Matters of Fact which we come now 
 from relating, which are things certain, and acted in 
 the face of the sun ; he shall see, not only the 
 Protestants suppressed : but the King's honour 
 sullied ; his countries damnified [rumed] ; all the Princes 
 of Europe interessed [concenied] : and even the Pope him- 
 self, with his Church and Clergy, shamefully discredited. 
 
 For to begin with the King himself. What could be 
 more contrary to his dignity, than to put hira upon 
 breaking his word ; and persuading him. That he might, 
 with a safe Conscience, violate, revoke, and annul, so solemn 
 an Edict as that of Nantes ? 
 
 To palliate in some sort the violence of this x:)roceeding, 
 they make him say, in this new Edict, 
 
 That the best and greatest part of the Reformed 
 
 Religion has embraced the Catholic ; and therefore the 
 
 execution of the Edict of Nantes, and whatsover else has 
 
 been done in favour of the same Religion, remains void. 
 
 But is not this an elusion unworthy of His Majesty: 
 
 seeing that if this ' best and greatest part of his subjects 
 
 of the Reformed Religion have embraced the Catholic,' 
 
 they have done it by force of Arms ; and by the cruel and 
 
 furious Oppression which his own troops have laid upon 
 
 them. 
 
 Perhaps, one might thus speak, had his subjects changed 
 their Religion of their own free will : although that, in this 
 case too, the Privileges of the Edict continue for those that 
 remain. But, after having forced them to change by the 
 horrible inhumanities of his Dragoons, after having deprived 
 them of the Liberty which the Edict gave them ; to say 
 coldly. That he only revokes the Edict, because it is now 
 useless, is a raillery [inockerij'] unbefitting so great a Prince. 
 For it is as much as if he said, That he was indeed obliged 
 to continue to his Protestant Subjects all the Privileges due 
 to them; but having himself overthrown them by a major 
 
 133
 
 The Expressions of the Revocation Edict, j. ciaude. lese. 
 
 \_greater] force, he finds himself, at present lawfully and 
 fairly disengaged from this Obligation : which is just as if a 
 father, who himself had cut his children's throats, should 
 glory in the being henceforward freed from the care of 
 nourishing and protecting them. Are other Kings wont 
 thus to express themselves in their Edicts ? 
 
 What they make him moreover say, to wit : 
 
 That Henry the Great, his grandfather, gave only 
 the Edict of Nantes to the Protestants, that he might 
 the better effect their re-union to the Roman Church. 
 That Louis XIII. also, his father, had the same Design, 
 when he gave the Edict of Nimes : and that he himself 
 had entered therein at his coming to the Crown — 
 is but a pitiful salvo. 
 
 But suppose (seeing they are willing we should do so) 
 the truth of this Discourse! and take we it simply, and 
 according to the Letter, in the sense wherein they give it 
 us : what can we conclude thence, but these following 
 Propositions ? 
 
 That Henry the Great, and Louis XHI., gave only the 
 Edicts to our fathers to deceive them ; and w^ith an intent 
 to ruin them afterwards with the greater ease, under the 
 mask of this Fraud. 
 
 That not being able to do this, being hindered by other 
 affairs, they have committed this important Secret to His 
 present Majesty; to the end that he should execute it, when 
 he met with an opportunity. 
 
 That His present Majesty entering into the thought 
 of this at his first coming to the Crown, he only confirmed 
 the Edicts and Declarations of 1G43 and 1652, with other 
 advantageous Decrees to the Reformed Religion, but to 
 impose on them the more finely, lay snares in their way; or, 
 if you please, crown them, as they crowned of old the 
 sacrifices. 
 
 That all that has been done against them, since the 
 Peace of the Pyrenees [in 1G60] till this time [1686], 
 according to the Abridgement which we have made of it, 
 has been only the execution of a Project: but of a Project 
 far more ancient than we imagine ; seeing we must date it 
 from the Edict of Nantes, and ascend up to Henry the 
 Great. 
 
 In fine. That which has been till now, has been a great
 
 J. Claude. 1686. Claiide's ironical reasoning. 
 
 mystery : but is not one at present ; seeing the King, by 
 his new Edict, discovers it to all the World, that he may be 
 applauded for it. 
 
 Will it not be acknowledged that the enemies of France, 
 who are willing to discredit the conduct of its Kings, aiul 
 to render them odious to the World, have now a happy 
 opportunity : 
 
 Henry the Great gives his Edict to the Protestants 
 with the greatest solemnity imaginable. He gives it them 
 as a recompense of their services. He promises solemnly 
 to observe it; and, as if this were not enough, he binds 
 himself thereunto with an Oath. He executes it to the 
 utmost of his power; and tliey peaceably enjoyed it to the 
 end of his reign. Yet all this is but a mere Snare : for they 
 are to be Dragooned at the proper time ! But being himself 
 surprised by death ; he could not do it : but leaves it in 
 charge to Louis XIII., his son. 
 
 Louis XIII. ascends the Throne, issues out his Decla- 
 ration immediately, That he acknowledges the Edict of 
 Nantes as perpetual and irrevocable, it needing not a new 
 Confirmation ; and that he would religiously observe every 
 Article of it : and therefore sends Commissioners to seef^it 
 actually executed. When he begins a war, he protests that 
 he designs not at Religion : and, in effect, he permits the 
 full Liberty of it in those very towns he takes by assault. 
 He gives his Edict of Ninies, as the Edict of a triumphant 
 Prince ; yet declares therein that he understands that of 
 Nantes should be inviolably kept: and shews himself to the 
 last as good as his word. But this is only intended to lull 
 the Protestants asleep ; in expectation of a favourable occa- 
 sion to destroy them ! 
 
 Louis XIV., at his coming to the Crown, confirms the 
 Edict ; and declares, That he will maintain the Reformed 
 in all their Privileges. He afterwards affirms, in another 
 Declaration, how highly he is satisfied with their services ; 
 and mentions his Design of making them to enjoy tlieir 
 rights. But this is but a mere amusement [beguilenient^, 
 and an artifice to entrap them ! the better to colour over 
 the Project of ruining them at a convenient time. 
 
 What a character now of the Kings of France will this 
 afford to its enemies, and foreign nations ! and what confi- 
 dence, do they think, will be henceforward put in their 
 
 135
 
 Kiiiii, the reward of doing one's Duty. j. ciaucie. 1686. 
 
 Promises and Treaties ! For if they deal thus with their 
 own Subjects, if they caress them only to ruin them ; what 
 may Strangers expect from them? 
 
 Consider we a while, what they make the King say — 
 That at his first coming to the Crown, he was in the Design 
 which he now comes from executing. They would say, 
 without doubt, from the time he actually took in hand the 
 reins of Government [,in 16G1]: for he was too young l)efore 
 to enter personally on any Design of this nature. He 
 entered thereon then precisely at the time when the Civil 
 Wars Avere ended. But what does this mean, but that he 
 undertook this Design, at the very time when the Protestants 
 came from rendering him the most important service Sub- 
 jects were ever capable of ! They came from rendering him 
 the highest testimonies of loyalty ; when the greatest part 
 of his other Subjects had taken up Arms against him ! 
 They had vigorously opposed his enemies' progress; rejected 
 the most advantageous offers ; kept towns for him, yea, 
 whole Provinces ; received his Servants and Officers into 
 their bosoms, when they could not find safety elsewhere ; 
 sacrificed their estates to him, their lives, their fortunes : 
 and, in a word, done all with such a zeal as became faithful 
 Subjects in so dangerous a conjuncture. And this is the 
 time, when the King enters on the Design of destroying and 
 extirpating them ! 
 
 This so confirms the truth of what we said in the 
 beginning [p. 94], that it i)uts it out of all question. That 
 the Project of their Destruction was grounded on the 
 services they had rendered to the King. Do Christian 
 Ethics allow these most unchristian Policies ? Is it not a 
 strange thing, that ive must be taught tJiis important 
 secret ; and all Europe besides ? For although the Pro- 
 testants have done nothing on this occasion but their 
 Duty ; it could never be imagined [that] their Duty should 
 be made their Crime ; and [that] their Ruin should spring 
 from whence should come their safety. GOD has brought 
 Light out of Darkness ; but the unchristian Politics of 
 France, on the contrary, have brought Darkness out of 
 Light. 
 
 However, they cannot deny but that, in this new Edict, 
 the King is made to say, ' He has entered on the Design to 
 destroy the Protestant Party, in the very time wherein 
 they have signalized and distinguished themselves with 
 136
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The Continual Storm of Twenty Years. 
 
 great success for the Interest of the Crown': which will 
 furnish, perhaps, matter enough to thinking men for reflec- 
 tion, as well within as without the Kingdom ; and will 
 shew them what use is made of Services, and what recom- 
 j)ense is to be expected for tliem. 
 
 But we shall say no more of the Expressions of the 
 new Edict : hut rather consider the Matter of it. 
 
 Was ever a worse and harder usage than that which 
 we have suffered for the space of twenty years [16()5-1685]; 
 which have been employed in forming the late Tempest 
 which has fallen upon us. It has been a continual Storm 
 of Decrees, Edicts, Declarations, Orders, Condemnation of 
 Churches, Desolation of Temples, Civil and Criminal 
 Processes, Civil Imprisonment, Banishments, Penances, 
 Pecuniary Mulcts, Privation of Offices and EmjDloy, 
 depriving Parents of their Children ; and all those other 
 Persecutions which we have already briefly summed up. 
 
 We were told, on [the] one hand, that the King would 
 continue to us the Edict of Nantes ; and he delivered 
 himself, on several occasions, to that effect : and, on the 
 other hand, we were made to suffer in our estates, our 
 reputations, our jjersons, our families, our Religion, and 
 our Consciences; and all, by unjust and indirect ways, by 
 unheard-of inventions, by oppressions and public vexation, 
 and sometimes by under-hand dealings — and all this, under 
 the veil of the King's Authority ; and because this was his 
 Good Pleasure. 
 
 We know very well the Authority of Kings ; and the 
 respect and submission with which we should receive their 
 Orders : and therefore have we [had] , during all these 
 unsupportable usages, a patience and an obedience so 
 remarkable that it has been the admiration of the Catholics, 
 our countrymen. 
 
 But it must be acknowledged that those who put His 
 Majesty on dealing thus with us, or have used his Name 
 and Authority for this, could not do him otherwise a greater 
 dishonour than they have done. 
 
 For, after all, those Kings, who would have themselves 
 esteemed for their Justice and Equity, govern not their sub- 
 jects after this manner. They are not for putting all to an 
 uncertainty ! filling all places with lamentation and terror ! 
 They seek not their satisfaction in the tears and groans of 
 
 137
 
 The ways the Clergy made use of the King. j. ciaude. 1686. 
 
 their innocent people ! nor are they pleased with keeping 
 their Subjects in a perpetual agitation ! They love not to 
 have their names mentioned with terror ! nor meditate con- 
 tinual Designs of extirpating those who give constant and 
 unquestionable proofs of their loyalty! much less to invent 
 cruel Projects, which, like mines, in their time, shall destroy 
 their own natural Subjects ! for what else have been these 
 sly and equivocal Declarations, Counter-Orders, and Revoca- 
 tive Edicts '? 
 
 There are Three things very remarkable in this whole 
 Affair : 
 
 The First is. That, as long as they have been only in 
 the way, the true Authors of the Persecution have not con- 
 cealed themselves, but the King, as much as they could. It 
 is true the Decrees, Edicts, Declarations, and other things, 
 went under the name of His Majesty; but at the request of 
 the Agents and Factors for the Clergy : and whilst they 
 were busied in these matters, the King declared openly his 
 intention of maintaining the Edicts, and that it was Abuses 
 which he designed to correct. 
 
 The Second is, That when they came to the last 
 extremities, and to open force ; then they have concealed 
 themselves as much as they could, [and have] set forth 
 the King at his full length. There was nothing heard but 
 this kind of Discourses : ' The King will have it so ! The 
 King has taken it in hand ! The King proceeds further 
 than the Clergy desire ! ' 
 
 By these two means, they have had the address to be 
 charged with the lesser parts of the Cruelties; and to lay 
 the most violent and odious part at the King's door. 
 
 The Third thing which we should remark is, That the 
 better to obtain their ends, they have made it their business 
 to persuade the King that this work would crown him with 
 Glory ; which is a horrid abuse of his credulity, an abuse 
 so much the greater by how much they would not have 
 themselves thought to be the Authors of this Counsel ; and 
 when any particular person of them is asked, this day, 
 'What think ye of it? ', there are few of them but condemn it. 
 
 In effect, what more false an Idea could they give to 
 His Majesty of Glory, than to make it consist in surprising 
 a poor people dispersed over all his Kingdom, and living 
 138
 
 J. Claude. 1686. FalsG notions of Glory. 
 
 securely under his wings, and the remains of the Edict of 
 Nantes: who could not imagine [that] there were any 
 Intentions of depriving them of the Liherty of their Con- 
 sciences ; of surprising and overwhelming them, in an 
 instant, with a numerous Army; to whose discretion they 
 are delivered, and who tell them. That they must, either by 
 fair means or foul, become Roman Catholics; this being the 
 King's Will and Pleasure. 
 
 What a falser notion of Glory could they offer him, 
 than the putting him in the place of GOD ; making the Faith 
 and Religion of men to depend upon his Authority, and that 
 henceforward it must be said in his Kingdom, ' I do not 
 believe, because I am persuaded of it ; but I believe, because 
 the King would have me do it!' : which, to speak pro^jerly, 
 is. That I believe nothing : and that I will be a Turk 1 
 or a Jew ! or whatever the King pleases ! 
 
 What falser Idea of Glory than to force from men's 
 mouths, by violence and a long series of torments, a Pro- 
 fession which the heart abhors : and for which one sighs,, 
 night and day, crying continually to GOD for mercy ! 
 
 What Glory is there in inventing new Ways of Perse- 
 cutions, unknown to former Ages ! which, indeed, do not 
 bring death along with them: but Ixecp men (dive to suffer; 
 that they may overcome their patience and constancy 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 keeping his Prisons full of 
 innocent persons, who are charged with no other fault than 
 serving GOD according to the best of their knowledge 1 
 and for this, to be exposed to the rage of the Dragoons ! 
 or condemned to the Galleys ! and to execution on Bodj^ 
 and Goods ! 
 
 Will these Cruelties render His Majesty's name lovely 
 in his History, to the Catholic, or Protestant, World '? 
 
 But we should be very loath to exaggerate anything 
 which may violate the respect due to so great a Prince : 
 but we do not think it a failure in our duty, fairly to repre- 
 sent how far these refined Politicians have really interessed 
 [involved] his honour in the sad misfortunes wherein they 
 
 139
 
 The Huguenots will, one day, l)c missed ! j. ciauae. lese. 
 
 luive plunged us ; and how criminal they have, thereby, 
 made themselves towai'd him. They have committed 
 numberless misdemeanours against their country; of which 
 they are members, and for which, a man would think they 
 should have some consideration. Not to speak here of the 
 great number of persons, of all Ages, Sexes, and Qualities, 
 which they have cut off from it by their fierce tempers ; 
 although, perhaps, this loss be greater than they are willing 
 to imagine ; it is certain that France is a very populous 
 country : l)ut when these feverish fits shall be over, and 
 they shidl, in cold blood, consider Avhat they have done, they 
 will find these diminutions to he no matter of triumph ! 
 
 For it is not possible that so many substantial people, 
 so many entire families, who distinguish [ed] themselves in 
 the Arts, in the Sciences, Civil and Military, can leave a 
 Kingdom, without, one day, being missed ! At present, 
 whilst they rejoice in their spoils, possess themselves of 
 their houses and estates, this loss is not felt. It is recom- 
 pensed by booty : but it will not be always so ! 
 
 Neither shall we insist here on that almost general 
 interruption of traffic, which these most unchristian Perse- 
 cutors have caused in the principal towns of the State ; 
 although this be no small matter. The Protestants made 
 up a good part of the Trade, as well within the Kingdom 
 as without ; and were therein so mixed [up] with the 
 Catholics, that their affairs were in a manner inseparable. 
 They dealt as it were in common, when these Oppressions 
 came upon them : and what confusions have they not pro- 
 duced ! How many industrious measures have they broken ! 
 How many honest designs have they not disappoiuted ! 
 How many manufactures ruined ! How many Bankrupts 
 made ! and how many families reduced to beggary ! 
 
 But this is what the O^jpressors little trouble them- 
 selves about. They have their bread gained to their mouths. 
 They live in wantonness and ease : and, Avhilst others die 
 with hunger, their revenues are ascertained [secured] to 
 them. But this hinders not the Body of the State to suffer, 
 both in its honour and profit : and we may truly say, That 
 Four Civil Wars could not have produced so much mischief, 
 as time will shew to spring from this Persecution. 
 
 But we will leave the consequence of this Affair to 
 time ; and only sa}', That the Edict of Nantes, being a 
 150
 
 J. Claude. 1686. Wluxt then caii be inviolable in France ! 
 
 Fundamental Law of the Kingdom ; and an Agreement 
 between two Parties by a reciprocal acceptation, under the 
 peaceable reign of Henky the Great, by the public faith, 
 and by mutual oaths, as we have already seen : this must 
 certainly be of ill example to the Interest of the State, That, 
 after having made a thousand infractions of it, it must be, 
 at length, revoked, cancelled, and annulled, at the motion 
 of a Cabal [clique^ who abuse their Interest; and hereby 
 make themselves fit for enterprising and executing any- 
 thing. After this Violation ; what can henceforward be 
 thought firm and inviolable in France ! I speak not of par- 
 ticular men's affairs : but of General Establishments, Royal 
 Companies, Courts of Justice, and all other ranks of men 
 interessed [involved^ in Society; even the very Rights of 
 the Crown, and Form of Government ! 
 
 There are in the Kingdom a great many thinking men ; 
 I mean not your Poets and such like kind of Flatterers, who 
 make Verses, Orations, Panegyrics, and Sermons too, for 
 preferments and benefices : but I speak of solid and 
 judicious persons, who see into the consequences of things, 
 and know well how to judge of them. Shall we think, 
 that these men see not what is too visible, that the State 
 is pierced through and through, by the same blow given to 
 the Protestants ; and that such an open Revocation of the 
 Edict leaves nothing firm or sacred. 
 
 It is to no purpose to allege distinctions in the matter, 
 and to say. That the Pretended Reformed Religion was 
 odious to the State ; and therefore was thus undertaken. 
 For, not to mention the dangerousness of the example, as 
 to the general aversion to our Religion in the minds of 
 Catholics, it is certain that (excepting the Faction of the 
 Bigots ; and what they call the Propagators of the Faith) 
 neither the Commons, nor Great People, have any animo- 
 sity against us ; but, on the contrary, do bemoan our 
 misfortunes. 
 
 Not to touch further on this, who knows not, what an 
 easy matter it is to run down any Cause ; or render it 
 odious, or indifferent, in the minds of the people ? There 
 are never wanting reasons and pretences, in matters of this 
 nature. One Party is set up against another ; and that is 
 called the State (right or wrong), which is the prevailing 
 one : like as in Religion, not the best and honestest, but 
 the powerfullest and boldest, part is termed the Church. 
 
 141
 
 The Edict was a Fundamental Law. j. ciaude. lese. 
 
 We must not judgo of these things then from their Matter; 
 but from their Form. 
 
 Now if ever there was, since the world stood, a matter 
 authentic and irrevocable, it was the Edict of Nantes ! To 
 revoke or cancel it, is to set up one's self above our obliga- 
 tions to GOD as well as to Men ! It is to declare openly 
 that there are no longer any Ties or Promises in the 
 World ! and this is no more than the wise will easily 
 comprehend ; and I doubt not, but they have done it already. 
 
 Some, perhaps, may make an Objection, on this occa- 
 sion ; which it will be good to answer : which is, That as 
 the Edict, consider it how we will, is become only a Law of 
 State by Henry the Great's Authority ; so it may likewise 
 be revoked and annulled by Louis XIV., his grandson and 
 successor : for things may be ended, by the same means 
 £that] they have been begun. If Henry the Great has had 
 the power to change the Form of Governing the State by 
 introducing a new Law ; why has not Louis XIV. the 
 same power to alter this Form, and annul whatsoever his 
 predecessor has done ? 
 
 But this Opinion will soon be answered by considering 
 that it is built upon a false Principle ; and offers a falser 
 Consequence. It is not the single Authority of Henry the 
 Great which has established this Edict. The Edict is 
 a Decree of his Justice ; and an Accord or Transaction 
 that passed between the Catholics and the Reformists ; 
 authorized by the Public Faith of the whole State ; and 
 sealed with the seal of an Oath ; and ratified by the execu- 
 tion of it. Now this renders the Edict inviolable; and sets it 
 above the reach of Henry's Successors : and therefore they 
 can be only the Depositaries and Executors of it ; and not 
 the Masters, to make it depend on their will. Henry the 
 Great never employed the force of Arms to make the 
 Catholics consent to it : and, though, since his death, under 
 the minority of Louis XIII., there have been Assemblies of 
 the States General ; the Edict has remained in full force. 
 It was then, as we have already said, a Fundamental Law 
 of the Kingdom ; which the King could not touch. 
 
 But supposing this were a work grounded on the bare 
 Authority of Henry ; which is false : it does not therefore 
 follow that His present Majesty can revoke it. The Edict 
 is a Royal Promise, which Henry the Great made to the 
 142
 
 J. Claude. 1686. Liberty of Conscience, a liiglit of iSaLure. 
 
 Reformists of his Kingdom, as well for himself tis for his 
 successors for ever, as we have already seen : and, conse- 
 quently, this is a condition, or hereditary debt, charged on 
 himself and [his] posterity. 
 
 Moreover, it is not true that Henry the Great has 
 changed anything in the Government of the State ; when 
 he gave Liberty of Conscience to his Subjects : for this 
 Liberty is [a] matter of Right, and more inviolable than 
 all Edicts ; seeing that it is a Right of Nature. He has 
 permitted a public Exercise of the Reformed Religion ; but 
 this Exercise was established in the Kingdom before his 
 Edict: and if he has enlarged the Privileges of the Reformed, 
 as Avithout doubt he has, lie did not do it w^ithout the con- 
 sent and approbation of the State; and has, herein, violated 
 nothing of his lawful engagements. 
 
 But it is not the same with LouiS XIV. : who, of his 
 own pure authority, makes a real and fundamental Change; 
 against the concurrence of one part of his State, and with- 
 out consulting the other [_i.c., the JRonian CatJiolics]: herel)y 
 violating his own Engagements, those of his Kingdom, and 
 even the Laws of Nature too. 
 
 In fine, if we consider what means have been used to 
 arrive at the Revocation in question ; how shall a man not 
 acknow^ledge that the State is sensibly interested [implicated^ 
 therein. They are not contented to suppress the Religious 
 Assemblies, and to annul the Protestants' Privileges, by 
 unjust Decrees: but they also send them Soldiers to dispute 
 Points of Pieligion with tJieni ! They are sacked like people 
 taken by assault, forced in their Consciences ! and for this 
 purpose, Hell itself is let loose upon them ! and this is the 
 effects of a j\[ilitarif a?id Arhitrttrij Government, regulated 
 neither by Justice, Reason, nor Humayiitij. Can it be thought 
 that Prance will be at ease in this manner ? or that wise 
 people will think this, an equitable way of governing ? 
 
 There needs another Design, another Passion to satisfy, 
 another Vengeance to execute ; then, woe be to them who 
 shall oppose it ! for the Dragoons will not forget their 
 Office ! 
 
 153
 
 '^O THESE TWO Reflections, wliicli respect the 
 Fiencli King and his States; we may add a Third, 
 which will have regard to the Interests of Kings, 
 Princes, and other Powers, of Europe, as well of 
 the one, as of the other, Religion. We shall not be 
 much mistaken if we say, that they have a common and 
 general concern herein ; inasmuch as these skilful Artists 
 in Misery do as much as they can to trouble the good 
 understanding that is betwixt them and their jjeople. We 
 are persuaded that their wise and just Governments will, 
 in this respect, put them beyond all fear : but this hinders 
 not examples of this nature from being always mischievous, 
 and naturally tending to beget in the minds of the vulgar, 
 who commonly judge only of things in general, suspicions 
 and distrusts of their Sovereigns ; as if they dreamed of 
 nothing but devouring their subjects, and delivering them 
 up to the Discretion, or rather the Fury, of their Soldiers. 
 The greater moderation and justice that Princes have, the 
 less they are obliged to those who furnish people with 
 matter for such dangerous thoughts ; which may produce 
 very ill effects. 
 
 Besides, is it not certain that the Princes and States of 
 Europe cannot, without a great deal of pleasure, see France 
 (which makes so great a figure in the Affairs of the World, 
 and gives them so powerful an influence) now put herself in 
 such a condition, as that no just measures can be taken 
 from her '? For, after so scandalous and public a Violation 
 of the Word of three Kings, and of the Public Faith, what 
 credit can be given, for the future, to her Promises or 
 Treaties ? 
 
 It will not be suflicient to say that they will have no 
 force but what Interest [self- interest^ inspires : but that 
 they will hereafter depend on the Interest or Capricious- 
 ness of a sort [number^ of Heady People, that will give 
 nothing either to the laws of Prudence or Equity ; but 
 manage all by Force. 
 
 If they have had the power to do, within the Kingdom,
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The bigotry of the French Court. 
 
 what they have lately pat in execution ; what will they not 
 do as to Affairs without? If they have not spared their 
 own countrymen, with wlioni they had daily commerce, 
 who were serviceable to them ; will they spare the unknown ? 
 Will they have more respect to Truces, or Conventions, of 
 four days' transactions, than to an Edict of a hundred 
 years' continuance ? and that the most August and Solemn 
 that ever was : which yet tliey made no other use of, than 
 to amuse [delude] a people, and to involve them more surely 
 in an utter desolation. Methinks, they have resolved to 
 bring things to this pass. That, there being no more Faith 
 to be had in France, all her neighbours should be con- 
 tinually upon their guard against her; and the more so, 
 when she promises than when she threatens; more in Peace, 
 than in War : so that there are no more hopes of being at 
 quiet, but what the Surety of Hostages, or the diminution 
 of her forces, can give. 
 
 This being so, in respect to all Princes and States in 
 general ; what may the Protestant Princes and States in 
 particular think, but tliat it is the Design of France to 
 ruin them all ; and to make no stop till she has devoured 
 them. Everybody knows that the Protestant Princes 
 understand their Interests well enough, to be able to 
 discern them through the clouds wherewith they would 
 cover them : and it is not doubted but they see that this is 
 a Beginning or Essay, which France expects shortly to give 
 the last stroke to. 
 
 The Court there has suffered itself to be possessed with 
 gross Bigotry, and a false zeal of Catholicism. It is the 
 Genius a la mode. Each there is become a Persecutor, even 
 to Fire and Sword ; and there are some persuaded that this 
 shall weigh down the balance. Vain Glory is no small 
 ingredient in this Design. Policy has her Prospects and 
 Mysteries in it too : and as these Prospects have no bounds, 
 so her Mysteries want not invisible springs and surprising 
 ways ; which she will join when she pleases, to the power 
 of Arms She thinks the season is ripe; and that she 
 needs only to dare ! The easiness she has found in making 
 Conquests and Conversions swells her courage ; and already 
 some talk of nothing but a further progress in so fair a way! 
 It is to be hoped that Protestant Princes and States will 
 from thence draw their just conclusions. 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 10 IM
 
 All who Hubmit not, shall be Heretics ! j. ciaiuie. 1686. 
 
 As to Catholic Princes and States ; they have too 
 sagacious judgements not to see how much they share in 
 this Affair. It will be made use of, to break the good under- 
 standing which is betwixt them and the Protestants : by 
 amusing ldeludmg~\ those, with the fair pretext of the 
 Catholic Religion ; and cunningly inspiring these, with 
 jealousies of a General Design to destroy them. 
 
 If the Catholic Princes and States remove not these 
 suspicions ; if they suffer France still to aggrandize herself, 
 by her pretended zeal for Catholicism, which at the bottom 
 is but a Mask : they may already be assured, that they are 
 lost ! It will signify little to say, ' We are good Catholics 
 as well as you ! ' This will not secure them from [the] 
 Dragoons ! All that will not take the yoke, shall be Heretics ! 
 nay, worse than Heretics ! for now, the greatest Heresy is 
 not to submit ! Spain, Germany, and Italy, already know 
 this in some measure. 
 
 146
 
 BUT WILL IT not be thought a Paradox if, to all that 
 we have said, we add, That the Pope himself, and 
 the whole body of the Roman Church, find them- 
 selves sensibly interessed [^iuiplicated'] in the 
 Persecution of us : and yet we will say nothing 
 herein, but what is evident truth ; and which the wisest of 
 the Roman Catholics must agree to. 
 
 For is it not the worst character that can be given of 
 the Roman Clergy, to represent them, as an Order of Men 
 who not only cannot endure anything that is not subject to 
 them in a Religious, but also in a Civil, Society — as Men that 
 are not content to anathematize all that displeases them, 
 but design nothing so much as to exterminate them : not 
 only to exterminate them, but also to force their Con- 
 sciences, and inspire their Opinions, and propagate their 
 Way of Worship, by the knocking arguments of Swords and 
 Staves — as an Order of Men who keep neither Faith nor 
 Justice ; who promise only to deceive ; who for a while curb 
 their fury, only that afterwards they may the more insult ; 
 that, in Peace as well as War, contrive only to overturn and 
 destroy ; that make Alliances only to surprise ; and, finding 
 themselves the more powerful, deny those they have sur- 
 prised, the liberty to escape. Tliesc are the exact features 
 and colours by which the Roman Clergy may be easily 
 known ; if we judge of them by the Persecution in France: 
 the like whereof was never seen, to this day. 
 
 The Egyptians, and the Assyrians, once persecuted the 
 Israelites : but forced them not to embrace the Worship of 
 their idols. They contented themselves with making them 
 slaves ; without doing violence to their Consciences. 
 
 The Heathens and the Jews persecuted the Primitive 
 Christians, and forced their Consciences indeed : but they 
 had never granted them an Edict ; nor h\ persecuting them, 
 did they violate the Public Faith; nor [did they] hinder 
 them to make their escajie by flight. 
 
 The Arians cruelly persecuted the Orthodox : but, 
 besides that, they went not so far as to make the common 
 
 147
 
 Five thinii:s tliat strike with horror, j. ciaude. icse. 
 
 'in 
 
 sort of people sign formal Abjurations. There was no 
 formal Edict, or Concordat, between the two Communions. 
 
 Innocent III., by his Crusades, persecuted the Walden- 
 ses and Albigenses : but these people also had no Edict. 
 
 Emanuel, King of Portugal, furiously persecuted the 
 Jews: but he gave them leave to depart out of his Kingdom; 
 and they had no Edict. 
 
 It was the same with those remains of the Moors who 
 had settled themselves in some Cantons of the Kingdom of 
 Granada. They were defeated in a war ; and commanded to 
 retire into the country from whence their ancestors came. 
 
 In the last Age, the Duke of Alva exercised dreadful 
 cruelties upon the Protestants of the Seventeen Provinces : 
 but he did not hinder them from flying ; nor [did he] violate 
 any Edict — and, at the worst. Death was their release. 
 
 The Inquisition is, to this day, in Spain and Italy ; but 
 they are countries in which no Religion, besides the Roman, 
 was ever permitted by Edicts : and if the Inquisitors may 
 be accused of violence and cruelty; yet they cannot be 
 convicted of perfidiousness ! 
 
 But, in this last Persecution of France, there are Five 
 things that strike the mind with horror : 
 
 They make the Consciences and Religion of Men to 
 depend sovereignly upon the Will of a King. 
 
 They violate a Faith authenticly sworn to. 
 
 They forced men to be hypocrites and wicked ; by 
 seeming to embrace a Religion which they abhor. 
 
 They prohibit all flights, or retiring, out of the 
 Kingdom. 
 
 They do not put to death ; but preserve life, to 
 oppress it with longer torments. 
 
 If, after this, the Court of Rome, and its Clergy 
 dispersed over the rest of Europe, disclaim not so odious 
 and so criminal a conduct ; if they condemn it not ; it will 
 be an indelible stain to the honour of their Religion. Not 
 only Protestants, who are of a different Communion ; but 
 also an infinite number of their own Catholics will be 
 mightily scandalized thereat. Nay ! even the Turks, and 
 Jews, and Pagans, will rise up in judgement against them ! 
 
 They may already know what they have been con- 
 demned of, in what passed, in the Council of Constance, 
 148
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The deaths of Huss, and Jerome of Prague. 
 
 concerning John Huss, and Jekome of Prague ; whom they 
 put to death, notwithstanding the Safe Conduct of the 
 Emperor Sigismund : ])ut there is something greater here. 
 There only Two men were concerned : here more than 
 Fifteen Hundred Thousand. Those they put to death: and 
 if they had done the same to tliese, they would have 
 embraced their death with joy and comfort ! The Council 
 thought its Authority greater than Sigismund's : but there 
 cannot be produced one above that which established our 
 Edict. 
 
 149
 
 WE ARE NOT ignorant of the different Methods 
 which the Persecutors take, to shelter them- 
 selves from public condemnation. 
 Some take a speedy course, to deny the fact ; 
 and persuade the World, ' That force and 
 violence have had no share in the Conversions ; hut they 
 were soft, and calm, and voluntary : and that if there were 
 any Dragoons concerned therein, it was because the Re- 
 formed themselves desired them ; that they might have a 
 handsome pretence to change their Religion,' [ (Mabin) 
 Grosteste des Mahis. ' Considerations sur le Schisme,' 
 11 August 1685.] 
 
 Was there ever seen so much Impudence ! What will 
 they not deny, who can deny what is done in the face of the 
 sun ; and what a whole Kingdom, from one end of it to the 
 other, hath seen, and to this day -sees ! For, in the begin- 
 ning of the year 1686, whilst I am composing this sad 
 Rehejirsal, they continue to exercise in Prance the same 
 rage that ended the previous year. The same Dragoons, 
 both in Cities and countries, execute the same Fury against 
 some lamentable remains [residue^ of Protestants; who will 
 not fall down and worship. 
 
 They are used like Rebels in their persons, in their 
 estates, in their Wives, and in their children : and if there 
 be any difference, it is in this, that their Sufferings are still 
 increasing. 
 
 Yet, if we will believe the Clergy, haranguing the King, 
 and [Daniel de Cosnac,] the Bishop of Valence, their 
 Speaker, he tells His Majesty, How miraculous his reign is; 
 seeing such infinite numbers of Conversions are made to 
 the Roman Church, without violence and Arms : ' much 
 less,' saith he, ' by the force of your Edicts, as by the 
 example of your exemplary piety.' If we will believe the 
 greatest part of the Abjurations which these poor oppressed 
 people are forced to make ; they speak, indeed, [in] the same 
 sense, viz., That they have done this ; without being 
 constrained thereto. 
 150
 
 J. Claude. 1686. Was there ever seen so much impudence ! 
 
 Thus is the credulity of the Public imposed on. They 
 have Seeds of Imposture sown at their feet ; which are to 
 grow with the time. Posterity, which shall see these 
 Records, will believe they contain the truth. ' Here,' say 
 they, ' is what has been told the King ; who must not have 
 falsehoods offered him ! Here are the proper Acts and Deeds 
 of those that were converted ! ' Why will not, tlien, 
 Posterity believe it? seeing that, at present, there are 
 people impudent enough, or to speak better, paid well 
 enough, to pul)lish it in strange countries ! and there are 
 found persons credulous enough to believe it. 
 
 But, I pray, what likelihood is there that the 150,000 
 persons already gone out of France — w^ithout anything that 
 constrained them to it, should leave their houses, their lands 
 of inheritance, their effects, and several their Wives and 
 children, to wander about the world, and [to] lead a miser- 
 able life, for a humour ! Is there any likelihood that Persons 
 of Quality, of both sexes, who enjoyed 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, 
 80,000, Livres [= i:l,000, .i:i,500, £2,000, £8,000,] per annum, 
 would abandon their estate \_proi)ertij~\, wot only for them- 
 selves but for their successors ; expose themselves to the 
 perils and incommodiousness of long journeys; and reduce 
 themselves, in a manner, to beggary (whicli is a condition 
 the most insupportable in the World to Persons of Quality) ; 
 and all this, without any reason ? without aii}^ occasion ? 
 
 What likelihood [is there] tliat this 150,000 persons wlio 
 have already escaped (some of them into Switzerland, others 
 into Germany ; some into Denmark, others into Holland ; 
 some into Sweden, and others into England; and some into 
 America), without seeing or knowing one another: and yet 
 have agreed to tell the same lie, and to say with one voice, 
 ' That the Protestants are cruelly persecuted in France ; 
 and that, by unheard-of severities, they are forced to change 
 their Religion ' : although there is no such matter ? 
 
 Is it likely the Ambassadors and Envoys of Foreign 
 Powers should lie, all of them, in consort ; telling them this 
 news : wherein there is no truth ? 
 
 But I pray, if in France the Protestants thus volun- 
 tarily and without constraint change tlieir Religion ; and 
 that the Dragoons are called in, only as their good friends : 
 whence happens this so strict and general Guard on the 
 frontiers, to hinder people's departure '? How is it that the 
 Prisons of the Kingdom are crammed with fugitives, 
 
 151
 
 The argument of the furious Divines, j. ciaude. isse. 
 
 stopped by the way ? Whence is it, tliat those who have 
 changed, are watched with such great care to hinder their 
 flight, to the obliging them to deposit sums of money to 
 secure them from the suspicion of it ? This must be an 
 Epidemical Distemper that has seized on His Majesty's sub- 
 JQCts, that shall make them fly thus, without reason ! But 
 is not this a fine cover [imagination, pretence] to say, That 
 the Protestants have themselves called in the Dragoons, to 
 have the better pretence to change their Religion ! 
 
 It is about ten or more years since there was a Bank 
 set up to traffic for Souls. [The ' Caisse des Conversions,' 
 founded in 1676. The price for a Conversion, in out of the 
 way districts, was Twelve Shillings a head.] Monsieur 
 Pelisson has, for a long time, been the great dealer of Paris, 
 in this infamous trade of purchasing Converts. These 
 Conversions have, of late, been the only way of gaining 
 applause and recompences at Court ; and, in a word, a 
 means of raising one's fortune : and yet we must be told. 
 That, instead of being converted by these easy ways, we 
 had rather choose the help of [the] Dragoons, that is, of 
 being pillaged ! At least, let any one tell us. Why, since 
 these pretended voluntary Conversions, the people not being 
 willing to go to Mass, they have been obliged to send them 
 troops ; and [to] use them with the same severity as before ? 
 
 This is so gross and palpable an untruth ; that others 
 have undertaken to defend these Violences, as being 
 naturally of the genuine Spirit of the Catholic Church : 
 and, for this purpose, they have continually in their mouths, 
 that passage of the Gospel, Com/pclle intrare ! 'Compel them 
 to come in ! ' [Luke xiv. 23.] ; and the Persecution which 
 the Orthodox of Africa offered the Donatists, etc. 
 
 Were this a place to dispute against these furious 
 Divines, we could easily shew them the vanity of these 
 allegations : but we shall rather ask them. Whether the 
 Jews and Pagans had agreed upon an Edict with the 
 Apostles, when our Saviour says to them, ' Comj^el them to 
 come in ! ' Has Saint Augustine ever written (for he is 
 cited in this matter). That we ought to be perfidious towards 
 those whom we esteem as Heretics ; when we promised to 
 live with them like brethren and fellow -citizens ? The 
 Donatists, hfid they any Edicts, which would shelter them 
 from the insults of the Orthodox ? 
 152
 
 J. Claude. 1686. The Pope sanctions the Revocation Edict. 
 
 If we yield to this detestable Divinity : what will 
 become of all of us Christians ? For, in short, the Papist is 
 as niucli a Heretic to the Protestant, as the Protestant is to 
 the Papist : yet they live together in peace, on the faith of 
 Alliances, Treaties, and Promises. But these Public Pests, 
 as much as in them lies, have brought all things into 
 confusion, and a State of War. They arm the Catholics 
 against the Protestants : teaching the Catholics, by this 
 example, that their Religion obliges them to betray and 
 surprise the Protestants, when they can do it unpunished ; 
 and to knock out their brains, if they will not change their 
 Religion. They arm the Protestants against the Catholics : 
 for, after all, what Peace and Society can we have with 
 people who, not only make no Conscience to break their 
 faith ; but, on the contrary, make it a Case of Conscience to 
 break it, when they shall lind occasion. Thus have they, by 
 their Dragoons, desolated a Kingdom ; and plundered above 
 a Hundred Thousand Families. 
 
 Do we think this Metliod is pleasing to him ; whom we 
 both own to be the Author of our Faith ? He has said, 
 That he will not suffer the Gates of Hell to ruin his 
 Church [Matt. xvi. 18] : but he has not said. He will open 
 the Gates of Hell for the propagating of his Church. Now 
 if there were anything that looks like the Gates of Hell, it 
 is the Persecutions of France. 
 
 Whatever antipathy there may be between the See of 
 Rome and us ; we will not believe that the present Pope 
 [Innocent XI.] has had any part ; or that the Storm has 
 fallen on us from him. {^Claude tvas mistaken in this. 
 Innocent XI. approved of tJie Revocation, hij his Brief of 
 November 13 1685.'] We know [that] he is a mild Prince; 
 and [that] his temper leads to more moderate counsels than 
 those of his predecessors. Moreover we know, [that] the 
 Clergy of France do not always consult him in what they 
 undertake : and we have had often offered to us, what has 
 been done against Rome, to induce us to submit ourselves 
 to the King's Will in these other matters ; and how small a 
 deference is paid to its Authority. So that we hope that 
 the Pope himself, considering us still as men and Christians, 
 will condole us ; and blame the methods used against us : 
 had he no other reason than the Interest of Religion. 
 Perhaps, one day, it will be our turn to blame that, which 
 will be taken against him ! 
 
 153
 
 OWEVER, IT IS certain the Protestants of France 
 are the most fit object of public compassion, the 
 AVorld ever knew. 
 
 Some sigh and lament under a hard slavery ; 
 
 which they would willingly change for irons in 
 
 Algiers or Turkey. For there, they would not be forced to 
 
 turn Mahometans ; and might still entertain some hopes of 
 
 liberty, by way of ransom. 
 
 Others are wandering about strange countries, stripped 
 of their estates [propertij^ : separated, in all probability for 
 ever, from their parents, their relations and friends ; w^hom 
 they have left in the most doleful condition imaginable. 
 Husbands have left their Wives; and Wives, their Husbands; 
 Fathers, their Children; and Children, their Fathers. We 
 have seen our estates [prGj^ertij^ vanish in a moment ! our 
 honest ways of living ! our hopes ! our inheritances ! 
 
 AA'^e have scarcely anything left us, but our miserable 
 Lives ; and they are supported by the charity of our 
 Christian Brethren. 
 
 154
 
 YET, AMONGST ALL these Afflictions, we are not- 
 destitute of comfort. We, if ever any did, do truly 
 suffer for Conscience sake: the malice of our Perse- 
 cutors not being able to charge us with the least 
 misdemeanour. We have served our King and 
 the State with zeal and faithfulness. We have submitted 
 to the Laws and to the Magistrates : and as for our fellow- 
 citizens, they have no reason to complain of us. We have, 
 for twenty years together, suffered, with an exemplary 
 patience, all tliose furious and dreadful Storms aforemen- 
 tioned. 
 
 And when [, in July 1683], in Vivarais and Cevennes, 
 some have thought themselves bound in Conscience to 
 preach on the ruins of their Temples illegally demolished ; 
 their small number (which were but a handful of men, 
 w^omen, and children) has only served to stir up more the 
 Resignation and Obedience of our whole body. In these 
 latter Storms, we have been like sheep, innocent and with- 
 out defence. We then comfort ourselves in the justice of 
 our Cause ; and our peaceable deportment under it. 
 
 But we comfort ourselves likewise in the Christian 
 compassion shewed us by foreign Princes; and more 
 especially of [James II.,] His Majesty of England: who 
 [agauist Jiis ivilV] has received us into his countries, suc- 
 coured and relieved us, and recommended our distressed 
 conditions to all his Subjects : and we have found in them, 
 not only new masters, or the affection of new friends ; but 
 of real parents and brethren. And as these bowels of com- 
 passion have been as balm to our wounds : so we shall 
 never lose the remembrance of it ; and hope that we, nor 
 our children, shall ever do anything, by GOD's grace, 
 unworthy of any of these our Protectors. 
 
 All our affliction then is, to see our Religion oppressed 
 in the Kingdom of France ; so many Churches, wherein 
 GOD was daily served according to the simplicity of the 
 
 155
 
 A Protest affliinst these Violences, j. ciautie. lese. 
 
 '& 
 
 Gospel, demolished ; so many Flocks dispersed ; so many 
 poor Consciences sighing and groaning under their bondage; 
 so many Children deprived of the lawful education of their 
 Parents. But we hope that, at length, the same GOD, who 
 heard heretofore the sighs of his people in the servitude of 
 Egypt, will also hear, at this time, the cries of his faithful 
 servants. AVe call not for fire from heaven ! We are for 
 no resistance! We only pray that GOD would touch the 
 hearts of our Persecutors, that they may I'epent, and he 
 saved together with us. We entreat such a deliverance, as 
 he, in his wisdom, shall think fitting. 
 
 However, it will 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 Revoca- 
 tion of that of Nantes : that being, in its own nature, 
 inviolable, irrevocable, and unalterable. 
 
 We may, I say, complain, amongst other things, against 
 the worse than inhuman cruelties exercised on dead bodies; 
 when they are dug out, dragged along the streets at the 
 horses' tails, and denied sepulchres. 
 
 AVe cannot but complain of the cruel Orders to part 
 with our children ; and [to] 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. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 456
 
 Some early details 
 
 of the 
 
 Revocation Atrocities^ 
 
 i7t the hegmting of the D?^agomiades. 
 1685 A.D. 
 
 Taken from 'An Edict [i.e., the Revocation Edict] of the French King,' 
 etc. 2nd Edition corrected ; with Additions. Printed by G.M. 1686. 
 
 British Museum Press-marlcs. France. (Louis XIV.) 4632. aaa. 38; 
 and 116. f. 48. 
 
 157
 
 A Short Account of the violent Proceedings 
 and unheard-of Cruelties which have been 
 exercised upon those of Montauban, and which 
 continue to he put in practice in other places, 
 against those of the Reformed Religion in 
 France ; for to make them renounce 
 their Relimon. 
 
 o 
 
 ON SATURDAY, the 8/18tli of August 1685, the 
 Intendaiit of the Upper Guienne, who resides at 
 Montauban, having suninioned the principal 
 Protestants of the said City to come before him, 
 represented unto them, That they could not be 
 ignorant that the Absolute Will and Pleasure of the King 
 was to tolerate but One Religion in his Kingdom, viz., The 
 Roman Catholic Religion : and therefore wished them 
 readily to comply with the same ; and, in order thereto, [he] 
 advised them to assemble themselves, and to consider what 
 resolution they would take. 
 
 To this Proposal, some answered. That there was no 
 need of their assembling themselves upon that account : 
 forasmuch as every one of them, in particular, was [ready] 
 to try and examine themselves ; and [to] be always in a 
 readiness to give a Reason of the Faith which was in them. 
 The next day [, August 9/19], the Intendant again com- 
 manded them to meet together in the Town House [Hotel 
 de Ville] ; which he ordered should be left free for them, 
 from noon till six of the clock in the evening. W^here 
 meeting accordingly ; they unanimously resolved, as they 
 had lived, so to persist till death, in their Religion. 
 
 Which resolution of theirs, there were some deputed 
 by them to declare to the Intendant : who presenting them- 
 selves before him, he who was appointed Spokesman, began 
 
 159
 
 The Kevocation Atrocities at Moiitauban. less. 
 
 to address himself to the Iiiteiulaut in tliese words, 'My 
 Lord ! we are not unacquainted, how we are menaced with 
 the greatest violence.' 
 
 'Hold there!' said the Intendant, 'No violence!' 
 
 After this, the Protestant continued, ' But whatever 
 force or violence may be put upon us.' 
 
 Here the Intendant, interrupting him again, said, ' I 
 forbid you to use any such words !' 
 
 Upon which second interruption; he contented himself 
 to assure him, in few words. That they were all resolved to 
 live and die in their Religion. 
 
 The day after [, August 10/20], the Battalion of La 
 Fere, consisting of sixteen Companies, entered the City ; 
 and were followed by many more. 
 
 The Protestants, all this while, dreaming of no other 
 Design they had against them, but that of ruining their 
 estates [j^^^ojiertij^ and [of] impoverishing them, had already 
 taken some measures how to bear the said trial. They had 
 made a Common Purse, for the relief of such who should 
 be most burdened with Quartering ; and were come to a 
 resolution to possess what they had in common. But, alas ! 
 how far these poor Souls were mistaken in their accounts ; 
 and how different the treatment they received from the 
 Dragoons was, from what they had expected ; I shall now 
 relate to you. 
 
 First therefore, in order to their executing the Design 
 and Project they had formed against them, they made the 
 Soldiers take up their Quarters in one certain place in the 
 City: but withal appointed several ' Corps de Guard ' [Gimrt?- 
 houses~\, to cut off the communication which one part of 
 the City might have with the other ; and [they] possessed 
 themselves of the Gates, that none might make their 
 escape. 
 
 Things being thus ordered ; the Troopers, Soldiers, and 
 Dragoons, began to practise all manner of hostilities and 
 cruelties, wherewith the Devil can inspire the most inhuman 
 and reprobate minds. 
 
 They marred and defaced their household stuff; and 
 broke their looking-glasses, and other like utensils and 
 ornaments. They let the wine run about their cellars ; and 
 cast abroad and spoiled their corn, and other alimentary 
 160
 
 168.3. The Kcvocatioii Atrocities at Montauban. 
 
 provisions. And as for those things which they could not 
 break or dash to pieces, as the furniture of beds, hangings, 
 taijestry, linen, wearing apparel, plate, and things of the like 
 nature ; these they carried to the Market Place ; where the 
 Jesuits bought them of the Soldiers, and encouraged the 
 Roman Catholics to do the like. They did not stick to sell 
 the very houses of such as were most resolute and constant 
 in their Profession. 
 
 It is supposed, according to a moderate calculation, 
 that, in the time of four or five days, the Protestants of 
 that City were the poorer by a Million of money [that is, 
 1,000,000 Lii-res --= .£100,000] than they were, before the 
 entering of these Missionaries. There were Soldiers who 
 demanded 400 Crowns [=£80] a piece from their hosts, for 
 spending money ; aiid many Protestants were forced to pay 
 down 10 Pistoles [= £S 15s.] to each Soldier, on the same 
 accoun^ET 
 
 In the meantime, the outrages they committed upon 
 their Persons were most detestable and barbarous. I shall 
 only here set down some few ; of which I have been 
 particularly informed : 
 
 A certain tailor, named Bearnois, was bound and 
 dragged by the Soldiers to the ' Corps de Guard'; where 
 they boxed and buffeted him all night : all which blows 
 and indignities he suffered with the greatest constancy 
 imaginable. 
 
 The Troopers who Quartered with Monsieur Solignac, 
 made his dining room a stable for their horses ; though the 
 furniture of it was valued at 10,000 Livres [= £1,000] ; and 
 forced him to turn the broach [s/j/^] till his arm was nearly 
 burnt, by their continual casting of wood upon the fire. 
 
 A passenger, as he went through the said City, saw 
 some Soldiers beating a poor man, even to death, for to 
 force him to go to Mass : whilst the constant Martyr, to his 
 last breath, cried, He would never do it!; and only requested, 
 They would dispatch and make an end of him ! 
 
 The Barons de Caussade and de La Motte, whose 
 constancy and piety might have inspired courage and 
 resolution to the rest of the citizens, were sent away to 
 Cahors. Monsieur d'ALLiEZ, one of the prime Gentlemen 
 of Montauban, being a venerable old man, found so ill- 
 treatment at their hands, as it is thought that he will 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 11 161
 
 The Kevocation Atrocities at Montauban. less. 
 
 scarcely escape with his life. 
 
 Monsieur de Garrison, who was one of the most con- 
 siderable men of that City, and an intimate friend of the 
 Intendant, went and cast himself at his feet ; imploring his 
 protection, and conjuring him to rid him of his Soldiers, 
 that he might have no force put upon his Conscience : 
 adding, That, in recompense of the favour he begged of him, 
 he would willingly give him all he had ! which was to the 
 value of about a Million of Livres [= £100,000]. But, by 
 all his entreaties and proffers, he could not in the least 
 prevail with the Intendant : who gave orders that, for a 
 terror to the meaner sort, he should be worse used than 
 the rest, by dragging him along the streets. 
 
 The Method they most commonly made use of, for to 
 make them abjure their Religion, and which could not be 
 the product of anything but Hell, was this. Some of the 
 most strong and vigorous Soldiers took their Hosts, or other 
 persons of the house, and walked them up and down in some 
 chamber, continually tickling them, and tossing them like 
 a ball from one to another ; without giving them the least 
 intermission : and keeping them in this condition for three 
 days and nights together; without meat, drink, or sleep. 
 When they were so wearied and fainting that they could no 
 longer stand upon their legs ; they laid them on a bed ; 
 continuing as before to tickle and torment them. After 
 some time, when they thought them somewhat recovered, 
 they made them rise, and walked them up and down as 
 before ; sometimes tickling, and at other times lashing 
 them with rods, to keep them from sleeping. 
 
 As soon as one party of these barbarous Tormentors 
 were tired and wearied out, they were relieved by others of 
 their companions ; who, coming fresh to the work, with 
 greater vigour and violence reiterated the same course. By 
 this infernal invention (which thej had formerly made use 
 of, with success, in Bearn and other places) many went dis- 
 tracted [^insane^ ; and others became mopish and stupid, 
 and remain so. 
 
 Those who made their escape were fain to abandon 
 their estates \_'propertii~\ ; yea, their Wives, children, and 
 aged relations, to the mercy of these barbarous, and more 
 than savage. Troops. 
 
 The same Cruelties were acted at Negreplisse, a City 
 162
 
 1685. Tlie Atrocities in the Upper Guienne. 
 
 near to Montauban ; where these bloody Emissaries com- 
 mitted unparalleled outrages. 
 
 Isaac Pavin, a citizen of that place, was hung up by 
 his arm-pits ; and tormented a whole night, by pinching 
 and tearing off his flesh with pincers ! though, by all this, 
 they were not able to shake his constancy in the least. 
 The wife of one Rouffion, a Joiner, being violently dragged 
 by the Soldiers along the streets, for to force her to hear 
 Mass, died, of this cruel and inhuman treatment, as soon as 
 she reached the Church Porch. 
 
 Amongst other of their Devilish Inventions, this was 
 one. They made a great fire round about a boy of about 
 ten years of age ; who continually, with hands and eyes 
 lifted up to heaven, cried, ' My GOD ! help me!': and when 
 they saw the lad resolved to die so, rather than renounce 
 his Religion; they snatched him from the fire, when he was 
 at the very point of being burnt. 
 
 The Cities of Caussade, Realville, Saint Anthonin, and 
 other towns and places in the Upper Guienne, met with the 
 same entertainment [treatment] ; as well as Bergerac and 
 many other places of Perigord, and of the Lower Guienne, 
 which had a like share of their cruel and inhuman usages. 
 
 The forementioned Troops marched, at last, to Castres ; 
 to commit the same insolencies and barbarities there also. 
 And it is not to be doubted, but that they will continue and 
 carry on the same course of Cruelties wherever they go ; if 
 GOD, in pity and compassion to his people, do not restrain 
 them. 
 
 It is to be feared, for it seems but too probable, that 
 this dreadful Persecution, in conjunction with those 
 artifices the Papists make use of to disguise their Religion, 
 and to persuade Protestants that they shall be suffered to 
 worship GOD as formerlj^ will make many to comply with 
 them : or, at least, make their mouths give their hearts the 
 lie, in hopes of being, by this means, put into a condition 
 to make their escape ; and [of] returning to that Profession, 
 which their weakness hath made them deny. 
 
 But, alas ! this is not all. For those poor wretches 
 whom, by these devilish ways of theirs, they have made to 
 blaspheme and abjure their Religion, as if this were not 
 enough, must now become the Persecutors and Tormentors 
 
 163
 
 The Dragoons, the very Emissaries of Hell. i685. 
 
 of their own Wives and Chiklren, for to oblige and force 
 them to renounce also. For they are threatened that if, 
 witliin three days' time, they do not make their whole 
 family recant in like manner, those rough Apostles, the 
 Dragoons, shall be fain to take further pains with them, in 
 order to the perfecting of their Conversion. And who, 
 after all this, can have the least doubt, but that these 
 unhappy Dragoons are the very Emissaries of Hell ; whose 
 very last efforts and death-strugglings these seem to be. 
 
 This Relation hath given a Short View of some of those 
 Sufferings the Reformed have undergone : but not of all. 
 
 It is certain that, in divers places, they have tried to 
 wear out their patience, and overcome their constancy, by 
 applying red-hot irons to the hands and feet of men, and to 
 the breasts of women. 
 
 At Nantes, they hung up several women and maids by 
 their feet, and others by their arm-pits, and that stark 
 naked ; thus exposing them to public view, w^hich assuredly 
 is the most cruel and exquisite Suffering that can befall 
 that Sex : because, in this case, their shame-facedness and 
 modesty are most sensibly touched ; which is the most 
 tender part of their Soul. 
 
 They have bound mothers that gave suck unto posts, 
 and let their little infants lie languishing in their sight, 
 without being suffered to suckle them, for several days: and 
 all this while left them crying, moaning, and gasping for life, 
 and even dying for hunger and thirst ; That, by this means, 
 they might vanquish the constancy of their tender-hearted 
 mothers — swearing to them, they would never permit they 
 should give them suck, till they promised to renounce their 
 Profession of the Gospel. » 
 
 They have taken children of four or five years of age, 
 and kept them from meat and drink for some time : and 
 when they have been ready to faint away, and give [up] the 
 ghost, they have brought them before their parents ; and 
 horribly asseverated [solemnly declaring~\ that, except they 
 would turn, they must prepare themselves to see their 
 children languish and die in their presence. 
 
 Some they have bound before a great fire ; and, being 
 half roasted, have after let them go. 
 
 They beat men and women outrageously. They drag 
 them along the streets ; and torment them day and night. 
 164
 
 1685. A vast army of prodigious Butchers. 
 
 The ordinary way they take is, to give them no rest : for the 
 Soldiers do continually relieve one another, for to drag, beat, 
 torment, and toss up and down, these miserable wretches ; 
 without intermission. 
 
 If it happens that any, by their patience and constancy 
 does stand it out, and triumph over all the rage and fury 
 of those Dragoons ; they go to their Commander, and 
 acquaint him they have done all they could, but yet without 
 the desired success : who, in a barbarous and surly tone, 
 answers them, ' You must return upon them, and do worse 
 than you have done ! The King commands it ! Either they 
 must turn : or I must burst and perish in the attempt ! ' 
 
 These are the pleasant flowery paths, by which the 
 Papists allure Protestants to return to the bosom of their 
 Church. 
 
 But some, it may be, will object, ' You make a great 
 noise about a small matter ! All Protestants have not been 
 exposed to these cruelties : but only some few obstinate 
 persons.' 
 
 Well ! I will suppose so : but yet the horror of tliose 
 Torments inflicted on some, hath so filled the imagination 
 of these miserable wretches, that the very thoughts of 
 them have made them comply. It is indeed a weakness of 
 which we are ashamed, for their sakes ; and from whence, 
 we hope GOD will raise them again, in his due time: yet 
 thus much we may allege for their excuse, That never was 
 any Persecution, upon pretence of Religion, carried on to 
 that pitch, and with that politic [crafty^ malice and cruelty, 
 that this hath been : and, therefore, of all those which 
 ever the Church of Christ [has] groaned under, none can 
 be compared to it ! 
 
 True indeed it is, that, in former Ages, it hath been 
 commoDi to burn the Faithful, under the name of Heretics ; 
 but how few were there exposed to that cruel kind of death, 
 in comparison of those who escaped the Executioners' 
 hands ! But, behold here, a great people at once oppressed, 
 destroyed, and ruined, by a vast army of prodigious 
 Butchers ! and few, or none, escaping. 
 
 Former, yea, late. Times have given us some instances 
 of Massacres ; but these were only violent Tempests and 
 sudden Hurricanes, which lasted but a night, or, at the 
 most, a few days : and they who suffered in them were soon 
 
 165
 
 The most cruel of all the Persecutions. icso. 
 
 out of their pains ; and the far greater number escaped the 
 dint of them. 
 
 But how much more dreadful is the present condition 
 of the Protestants in France ! And to the end we may 
 take a true View and right measures of it ; let us consider 
 that nothing can be conceived more terrible than a State of 
 War : but what War is to be compared with this ! They 
 see a whole Army of butcherly Cannibals entering their 
 houses; battering, breaking, burning, and destroying, what- 
 ever comes to hand[s] ; swearing, cursing, and blaspheming, 
 like Devils ; beating to excess ; offering all manner of indig- 
 nities and violence ; diverting themselves, and striving to 
 out-vie each other, in inventing New Methods of Pain and 
 Torment ; not to be appeased with money, or good clieer ; 
 foaming and roaring, like ravenous raging lions ; and pre- 
 senting death at every moment : and that which is worse 
 than all this, driving people to destraction and senseless 
 stupidity, by those devilish Inventions we have given you 
 an instance of, in the Relation of Montauban. 
 
 Moreover, this Persecution hath one characteristical 
 Note more : which, without exaggeration, will give it the 
 precedence in History for cruelty, above all those which the 
 Church of GOD ever suffered, under Neeo, Maximinus, or 
 DiocLESiAN : which is, The severe Prohibition of departing 
 the Kingdom ; upon pain of the Confiscation of Goods, of 
 the Galleys, of the Lash, and of Perpetual Imprisonment. 
 All the Sea Ports are kept with that exactness, as if it were 
 to hinder the escape of traitors and common enemies. All 
 the Prisons of Sea Port towns are crammed with these 
 miserable fugitives, men, women, boys, and girls ; who 
 there are condemned to the worst of punishments, for 
 having had a desire to save themselves from this dreadful 
 Persecution and deluging Calamity. This is the thing 
 which is unparalleled ; and of which we find no instance. 
 
 This is that Superlative Excess of Cruelty, which we 
 shall not find in the List of all the violent and bloody 
 proceedings of the Duke of Alva. He massacred ! he 
 beheaded ! he butchered ! but, at least, ho did not prohibit 
 those that could, to make their escape. 
 
 In the last Hungarian Persecution, nothing was 
 required of the Protestants, but only that their Ministers 
 should banish themselves, and abandon a.nd renounce the 
 conduct of their Flocks ; and because they were unwilling 
 166
 
 1685. A Prayer for deliverance. 
 
 to obey these Orders, therefore it is they have groaned 
 under so long, and so terrible, a Persecution as they have 
 done. 
 
 But this Hungarian Persecution is not to be compared 
 with that we are speaking of. For the fury of that Tempest 
 discharged itself upon the Ministers only. No Armies were 
 employed to force the jDcople to change their Religion, by a 
 thousand several Ways of Torment ; much less did it ever 
 enter the thoughts of the Emperor's Council to shut up all 
 the Protestants in Hungary, in order to the destroying of 
 all those who would not abjure their Religion : which yet 
 is the very condition of so many wretched persons in 
 France, who beg it, as the highest favour at the hands of 
 their merciless enemies, to have leave to go and beg their 
 bread in a foreign country ; being willing to leave their 
 goods and all other outward conveniences behind them, for 
 to lead a poor, miserable, and languishing, life in any place ; 
 where only they may be suffered to die in their Religion. 
 And is it not, from all this, most apparent that those 
 Monsters who have inspired the King with these Designs, 
 have refined the Mystery of Persecuting to the utmost ; 
 and advanced it to its highest pitch of perfection. 
 
 O, great GOD ! who, from thy heavenly Throne, dost 
 behold all the outrages done to tlij^ people, haste thee to 
 help us ! Great GOD ! whose compassions are infinite, 
 suffer thyself to be touched with our extreme desolation I 
 If Men be insensible of the calamities we suffer ; if they be 
 deaf to onr cries, not regarding our groans and supplications: 
 yet let thy bowels, O, Lord ! be moved, and affect thee in 
 our behalf! Glorious GOD, for whose Name's sake, we 
 suffer all these things ; who knowest our innocence and 
 weakness, as well as the fury and rage of our Adversaries, 
 and the small support and help we find in the World : 
 behold, we perish ! if thy pity do not rouse thee up for our 
 relief. It is thou, [who] art our Rock ! our GOD ! our Father ! 
 our Deliverer ! We do not place our confidence in any ; but 
 thee alone ! Let us not be confounded ; because we put 
 our trust in thee ! Haste thee to our help ! Make no long 
 tarrying, O Lord ! our GOD and our Redeemer ! 
 
 167
 
 A Letter sent from Bordeaux ; giving an 
 
 Account of the Persecution of those of the 
 
 Protestant ReHgion in France 
 
 [, about October 1685]. 
 
 Sm, 
 
 WHAT YOU HAVE heard concerning the Perse- 
 cution of those that are of our Religion in the 
 land of Beam, Guienne, and Perigord, is but 
 too true : and I can assure you, that they, who 
 have given you that Account, have been so far 
 from amplifying the matter, that they have only acquainted 
 you with some few particulars : yet am I not much surprised 
 at the difficulty you find to persuade yourself, that the things 
 of which your friends inform you are true. In cases of 
 this nature, so amazingly unexpected, we are apt often to 
 distrust our own eyes : and I profess to you that, though 
 all places round about us echo the Rej)ort of our ruin and 
 destruction ; yet I can scarcely persuade myself it is so 
 indeed, because I cannot comprehend it. 
 
 It is no matter of surprise, or amazement, to see the 
 Church of Christ afflicted upon earth ; forasmuch as she is 
 a stranger here, as well as her Captain, Lord, and Husband, 
 the holy and ever-blessed Jesus, was : and must, like him, 
 by the same Way of Cross and Suffering, return to her own 
 country ; which is above. It is no matter of astonishment 
 to find her, from time to time, suffering the worst of usage, 
 and [the] most cruel Persecutions. All Ages have seen her 
 exposed to such trials as these ; which are so necessary for 
 the testing of her Faith, and so fit a matter for her future 
 Glory. Neither is it any great wonder if, amidst these sore 
 trials, vast numbers of those who made Profession of the 
 Gospel, do now renounce and forsake it. We know that all 
 have not Faith: and it is more than probable that they, who 
 do not follow Christ, but because they thrive by it, and for 
 168
 
 1685. The marvellous patience of the Huguenots. 
 
 the loaves, will cease to be of his retinue, when he is about 
 to oblige them to bear his Cross, and [to] deny themselves. 
 
 But that which seems inconceivable to me is, that our 
 enemies should pitch upon such strange Ways and Methods 
 to destroy us, as they have done ; and that, in so doing, 
 they should meet with a success so prodigious and doleful. 
 
 I shall, as briefly as I can, endeavour to give you an 
 Account of so much as I have understood of it. 
 
 All tnose thundering Declarations and destructive 
 Arrests (which continually were sued for, and obtained 
 against us ; and which were executed with the extremity of 
 rigour) were scarce able to move any one of us. The for- 
 bidding of our Public Exercises, the demolishing of our 
 Churches, and the severe Injunction that not so much as 
 Two or Three of us should dare to assemble in order to 
 anything of Divine Worship ; had no other effect upon the 
 far greater part of us, than to inflame our zeal, instead of 
 abating it : obliging us to pray to GOD with greater fervour 
 and devotion in our Closets, and to meditate of his Word 
 with greater application and attention. And neither the 
 great Wants, to which we were reduced by being deprived of 
 our Offices and Employs, and other means of living ; and 
 by those insupportable Charges with v/hich they strove to 
 overwhelm us, as well by Taxes as the Quartering of 
 Soldiers, both [of] which were as heavy as could be laid upon 
 us : nor the continual trouble we were put to, by Criminal 
 and other matters of Law, which, at the suit of one or 
 other, were still laid to our charge, though upon the most 
 frivolous and unjust pretences imaginable — I say, all these 
 were not able to wear out our patience ; which was hardened 
 against all Calamities : insomuch as the Design of forcing 
 us to abandon the Truth of the Gospel would infallibly have 
 been shipwrecked, if no other means had been taken in 
 hand for this purpose. 
 
 But, alas! our enemies were too ingenious to be baulked 
 so ; and had taken our ruin too much to heart, not to study 
 for means effectual and proper to bring about their desires. 
 They called to mind ^^■hat a prodigous success a new kind 
 of Persecution had had, of late years, in Poitou, Aunis, and 
 Saintonge; which the Intendants of those places had 
 bethought themselves of: and they made no difficulty to 
 have recourse to the same, as to a means infallible, and not 
 
 169
 
 Soldiers turned into Butchers and Hangmen, less. 
 to be doubted of. 
 
 I must toll you, Sir, That we had not the least thought 
 that ever such Violent Methods as these would have been 
 pitched upon, as the means of our Conversion. We were 
 always of opinion, that none but [the] Dennuieux's and the 
 Maeillac's could be fit Instruments for such like enter- 
 prises : neither could we ever have imagined that Generals 
 of Armies (who account it a shame and reproach to attack 
 and take some paltry town or village) should ever debase 
 themselves to besiege old men, women, and children, in their 
 own houses ; or that ever Soldiers (who think themselves 
 ennobled by their swords) should degrade themselves so far 
 as to take up the trade of Butchers and Hangmen, by 
 tormenting poor Innocents, and inflicting all sorts of 
 punishments upon them. 
 
 Moreover, we were the less in expectation of any such 
 thing ; because, at the self-same time they treated us in 
 this manner, they would needs persuade us, That the 
 King's Council had disapproved the Design. And, indeed, 
 it seemed very probable to us, that all reasons (whether 
 taken from Humanity, Piety, or Interest) would have made 
 them disavow and condemn a Project so inhuman and 
 barbarous. 
 
 Yet now, by experience, we find it but too true, that 
 our enemies are so far from rejecting the said Design, that 
 they carry it on with an unparalleled zeal and application ; 
 without giving themselves any further trouble to effectuate 
 their desires, than that of doing these Two Things : 
 
 The First of which was, To lull us asleep ; and to take 
 away from us all matter of suspicion of the mischief they 
 were hatching against us : which they did, by permitting 
 some of our Public Exercises of Religion ; by giving way to 
 our building of some Churches ; by settling Ministers in 
 divers places to baptize our children ; and by publishing 
 several Arrests and Declarations, which did intimate to us 
 that we had reason to hope we should yet subsist for some 
 years. Such was that Declaration, by which all Ministers 
 were ordered to change their Churches every three years. 
 
 The Other was to secure all the Sea Ports of the King- 
 dom, so as none might make their escape : which was done 
 by renewing the ancient Prohibitions of departing the 
 170
 
 1685. The Ke vocation Atrocities in Beam. 
 
 Kingdom without leave ; but with the addition of far more 
 severe Penalties. 
 
 After these precautions thus taken : they thought 
 themselves no longer obliged to keep any measures ; but 
 immediately lift[ed] up the hand to give the last blow for 
 our ruin. 
 
 The Intendants had orders to represent to us, That 
 the King was resolved to suffer no other Religion in his 
 Kingdom besides his own ; and to command us all, in his 
 name, readily to embrace the same : without allowing us 
 any longer respite to consider what wc had to do, than a few 
 days ; nay, hours — threatening us. That if we continued 
 obstinate, they would force us to it by the extremity of 
 rigour. 
 
 They presently executed these their menaces, by filling 
 our houses with Soldiers ; to whom we were to be left for 
 a prey : and who, not content with entirely ruining us, 
 should, besides, exercise upon our persons all the violence 
 and cruelty they could possibly devise. And all this, to 
 overcome our constancy and perseverance. Four months 
 [•? July — October 1685] are now passed and gone, since they 
 began to make use of this strange and horrible way of con- 
 verting people ; worthy of, and well becoming, its Inventors. 
 
 The country of Beam was first set upon, as being one 
 of the most considerable out-parts of the Kingdom ; to the 
 end that this mischievous enterprise, gaining strength in 
 its passage, might, soon after, overwhelm, and, as it were, 
 deluge, the other Provinces in the same sea of the utter- 
 most Calamity. 
 
 Monsieur Foucault, the Intendant, went himself, in 
 person, to all the places where we were in any numbers ; 
 and commanded all the inhabitants that were of the 
 Protestant Religion, under penalty of great amercements 
 \_fi}ics~\ , to assemble themselves in those places he appointed 
 to them : where, being accordingly met together, he charged 
 them, in the King's name, to change their Religion; allowing 
 themselves only a day or two to dispose themselves for it. 
 
 He told them. That great numbers of Soldiers were at 
 hand, to compel those that should refuse to yield a ready 
 obedience. This threatening of his being immediately 
 followed by the effect, as lightning is by thunder ; he filled 
 the houses of all those who abode constant in their 
 
 171
 
 Inventing New Ways of Pain and Torture. i685. 
 
 resolution to Live and Die faithful to their Lord and Master, 
 Jesus Christ, with Soldiers : and commands those insolent 
 Troops, fleshed with blood and slau{:^hter, to give them the 
 worst treatment they could possibly devise. 
 
 I shall not undertake, Sir, to give you a particular 
 Account of those excesses and outrages that these enraged 
 Brutals committed, in executing the orders they were 
 charged with. The Relation would prove too tedious and 
 doleful. It shall suffice me to tell you that they did not forget 
 anything that was inhuman, barbarous, or cruel ; without 
 having regard to any Condition \_QuaUt}j'\, Sex, or Age. 
 
 They pulled down and demolished their houses. They 
 spoiled, dashed to pieces, and burnt, their best moveables 
 and household-stuff. They bruised, and beat to death, 
 venerable old men. They dragged honourable Matrons to 
 Mass ; without the least pit)^ or respect. They bound and 
 fettered innocent persons, as if they had been the most 
 infamous and profligate villains. They hung them up by the 
 feet, until they saw them ready to give up the ghost. They 
 took red-hot fire shovels, and held them close to their bare 
 heads ; and actually applied them to other parts of their 
 bodies. They immured them within four walls ; where they 
 let them perish for hunger and thirst. 
 
 And the constancy wherewith they suffered all these 
 torments, having had no other effect but that of augment- 
 ing the rage of these Furies ; they never ceased inventing 
 New AVays of Pain and Torture, till their inhumanity, at 
 length, had got the victory ; and triumphed over the 
 patience and faith of these miserable wretches : insomuch 
 that, of all those many numerous Assemblies we had in 
 that Province, as that of Pau, de Arthes, de Novarre, etc., 
 there are scarcely left a small number; who either continue 
 constant, in despite of all these cruelties; or else have made 
 their escape into Spain, Holland, England, or elsewhere ; 
 leaving their goods and families for a prey to these merciless 
 and cruel men. 
 
 Success having, thus far, answered their expectation ; 
 they resolved to lose no time : but, vigorously prosecuting 
 their work, they immediately turned their thoughts and 
 Arms towards Montauban ; where the Intendant, having 
 summoned the citizens to appear before him, speaks to 
 them much of the same language as was used to those of 
 172
 
 1685. Atrocities in Lower Guienne and Perif»:oi'cl. 
 
 &' 
 
 Beam. Whereunto they having returned about the same 
 answer; ho orders 4,000 men to enter the City; and makes 
 them take up their Quarters, as at Beam, only in the 
 houses of the Protestants ; with express command to treat 
 them in like manner as they had done those of Beam. 
 These inhuman wretches were so diligent and active in 
 executing these pitiless Orders, that of 12,000 or 15,000 
 Souls, of which that Church did consist, not above Twenty 
 or Thirty families have escaped ; who, in a doleful and 
 forlorn condition, wander up and down the woods, and hide 
 themselves in thickets. 
 
 The ruin of this important place drew after it the 
 desolation of all the Churches about it, which were all 
 enveloped in the same common calamity ; as those of 
 Realmont, Bourniquel, Negrepelisse, etc. 
 
 Yet was not the condition of the Churches in the 
 Upper Guienne more sad and calamitous than that of those 
 of the Lower Guienne, and of Perigord ; which this horrible 
 Deluge hath likewise overwhelmed. Monsieur [Louis 
 Francois] Boufflees and the Intendant having shared 
 the country between them : Monsieur Boufflers took, for 
 his part, Agenois, Tonneins, Clerac, with the adjoining 
 places ; and the Intendant took upon him to reduce Fleis, 
 Monravel, Gensac, Cartillon, Coutras, Libourne, etc. The 
 Troops which they commanded, in the meantime, carried 
 desolation to all the places they passed through ; filling 
 them with Mourning and Despair, and scattering Terror and 
 Amazement amongst all those to whom they approached. 
 
 There were, at the same time, 17 Companies at Sainte 
 Foy, 15 at Nerac ; and as many, in proportion, at all other 
 places. So that all places, being filled with these Troops 
 accustomed to licentiousness and pillage ; there is not any 
 one of the said places where they have not left most 
 dreadful marks of their rage and cruelty : having, at last, 
 by means of their exquisite tortures, made all those of our 
 Religion submit themselves to the Communion of Rome. 
 
 But forasmuch as Bergerac was most signally famous 
 for the long trials it had most gloriously endured ; and that 
 our enemies were very sensible of what advantage it would 
 be to the carrying on of their Design, to make themselves 
 masters there also, at any price whatsoever; they accordingly 
 
 173
 
 The victims of a barbarous Military Fury. leso. 
 
 failed not to attempt the same, Avith more resolution and 
 obstinacy than at any of the forementioned places. 
 
 This little town had already, for three years together 
 ['? 1G83 — 1685], with admirable patience and constancy, 
 endured a thousand ill treatments and exactions from 
 Soldiers ; who had picked them to the very hones. For, 
 besides that it was almost a continual passage for Soldiers; 
 there were no less than 18 Troops of Horse had their 
 Winter Quarters there : who yet, in all that time, had only 
 gained Three Converts ; and they such too, as were main- 
 tained by the alms of the Church. 
 
 But to return. The Design being formed to reduce the 
 City; 2 Troops of Horse were immediately ordered thither, 
 to observe the inhabitants : and, soon after, 32 Companies 
 of Foot enter [ed] the town. Monsieur BouFFLERS, and the 
 Intendant of the Province, w^ith the Bishops of Agen and 
 Perigueux, and some other Persons of Quality, rendered 
 themselves there at the same time. 
 
 They sent for Two Hundred of the chiefest citizens to 
 appear before them ; telling them. That the King's express 
 Will and Pleasure was, [that] they should all go to Mass ; 
 and that, in case of disobedience, they had orders to compel 
 them to it. 
 
 To which the citizens unanimously answered, That 
 their estates [proj^erty^ were at the disposal of His Majesty; 
 but that GOD alone was the Lord of their Consciences : and 
 that they were resolved to suffer to the utmost, rather than 
 do anything contrary to the motions of them. 
 
 AVhereupon they were told. That if they were so 
 resolved, they had naught else to do, but to prepare them- 
 selves to receive the punishment their obstinacy and disobe- 
 dience did deserve. 
 
 And, immediately, 32 Companies more, of Infantry and 
 Cavalry, entered the City ; which, together with 34 Com- 
 panies before mentioned, were all Quartered with Pro- 
 testants : with express command not to spare anything 
 they had ; and to exercise all manner of violence upon the 
 persons of those that entertained them, until they should 
 have extorted a promise from them, to do whatsoever was 
 commanded them. 
 
 These Orders then being thus executed, according to 
 the desires of those who had given them ; and these miser- 
 able victims of a barbarous Military Fury being reduced to 
 174
 
 1685. The Revocation Atrocities at Bertrerac. 
 
 &' 
 
 the most deplorable and desolate condition ; they were again 
 sent for to the Town House [Hotel cle Ville] ; and once 
 more pressed to change their Religion. 
 
 They answering, with tears in their eyes, and with all 
 the respect, humility, and submission, imaginable, ' That the 
 matter required of them, was the only thing they could not 
 do': the extremest rigour and severity is denounced against 
 them. 
 
 They presently made good their words, by sending 34 
 more Companies into the City ; which made up the full 
 number of 100 ; who, encouraging themselves from their 
 numbers, and, flying like enraged wolves upon these innocent 
 sheep, did rend and worry them in such a manner, as the 
 sole Relation cannot but strike with horror and amazement. 
 
 Whole Companies were ordered to Quarter on one 
 Citizen ; and persons, whose sole estate did not amount to 
 10,000 Livres [= £1,000], were taxed at the rate of 150 
 Livres [= £15] a day. When their money was gone, they 
 sold their household stuff ; and sold that for Twopence 
 which hath cost 60 Livres [= £6]. 
 
 They bound and fettered Father, Mother, Wife, and 
 Children. Four Soldiers continually stood at the door, to 
 hinder any from coming in to succour or comfort them. 
 They kept them in this condition two, three, four, five, and 
 six, days ; without either meat, drink, or sleep. On the one 
 hand, the Child cries, with the languishing accent of one 
 ready to die, ' Ah ! my Father ! Ah ! my Mother ! Y/liat 
 shall I do? I must die! I can endure no longer!' The 
 Wife, on the other hand, cries, ' Alas ! my heart fails me ! I 
 faint! I die ! ' 
 
 Whilst their cruel Tormentors were so far from being 
 touched with compassion, that, from thence, they took 
 occasion to press them afresh, and to renew their torments : 
 frightening them with their hellish menaces, accompanied 
 with most execrable oaths and curses ; crying, ' Dog ! What 1 
 Avilt not thou be converted ? Wilt not thou be obedient ? 
 Dog ! Thou must be converted ! We are sent on purpose to 
 convert thee ! ' 
 
 And the Clergy, who are witnesses of all these cruelties 
 (with which they feast their eyes), and of all their infamous 
 and abominable words (which ought to cover them with 
 horror and confusion), make only a matter of sport and 
 laughter of it. 
 
 175
 
 The great terror at Bordeaux. i6B5. 
 
 Thus these miserable wretches, beiug neither suffered 
 to live or to die, for when they see them fainting away, they 
 force tliom to take so much as to keep body and soul together; 
 and seeing no other way for tliein to be delivered out of this 
 Hell, in which they are continually tormented : are fain, at 
 last, to stoop, under the unsupportable burden of these 
 extremities. So that, excepting only a few (who saved 
 themselves by a timely flight; preferring their Religion 
 before all temporal possessions), all the rest have been con- 
 strained to go to Mass. 
 
 Neither is the Country anj'^ more exempt from these 
 calamities than Towns and Cities; nor those of the Nobility 
 and Gentry, than Citizens. They send w^hole Companies of 
 Soldiers into Gentlemen's houses ; who treat them in the 
 most outrageous and violent manner conceivable : insomuch 
 that not a Soul can hope to escape ; except, it may be, some 
 few who, like the Believers of old, wander in deserts, and 
 lodge in dens and caves of the earth. 
 
 Furthermore, I can assure you, that never was any 
 greater consternation than that which we are in here [at 
 Bordeaux] at present. The Army, we hear, is come very 
 near us; and the Intendant is just now arrived in this City. 
 
 The greater part of the most considerable Merchants 
 are, either already gone, or are casting about, how best to 
 make their escape ; abandoning their houses and estates 
 \jpropcrty~\ to their enemies. There are not wanting some 
 cowardly spirits [i.e. the Neiv Converts~\ , who, to avoid the 
 mischief they are preparing for us, have already promised 
 to do whatsoever is required of them. 
 
 In a word, nothing is seen, or heard, in these parts, but 
 consternation, weeping, and lamentation : there being scarce 
 a person of our Religion, who hath not his heart pierced 
 with the bitterest sorrows, and whose countenance hath 
 not the lively picture of Death imprinted on it; and, surely, 
 if our enemies triumph in all this, their triumph cannot 
 likely be of any long continuance. 
 
 I confess, I cannot persuade myself to entertain so good 
 an opinion of them, as to think that ever they will be 
 ashamed of these their doings ; so diametrically opposite to 
 176
 
 1685. The Gospel passeth for a Fable. 
 
 the Spirit of the Gospel: for I know that the Gospel, in their 
 accounts, passeth for a Fable. But this I dare aver, that 
 this Method of theirs will infallibly lay waste the Kingdom; 
 which, according to all appearance, is never like[ly] to 
 recover of it : and so, in time, they themselves will be 
 m.ade as sensible of these miseries as others now are. 
 
 Commerce is already, in a manner, wholly extinct ; 
 and there will need little less than a Miracle to recover it 
 to its former state. What Protestant merchants will 
 henceforward be willing to engage themselves in trade, 
 either with persons without faith, and who have so cowardly 
 betrayed their Religion and Conscience ; or w4th the out- 
 rageous and barbarous Persecutors of the Religion which 
 they profess ? and who, by these courses, declare openly and 
 frankly, that it is their principle, Not to think themselves 
 obliged to keep their word with Heretics. And who are 
 those, of what Religion soever, that will negotiate with a 
 State exhausted by Taxes and Subsidies, by Persecutions, 
 by barrenness and dearth of several years' continuance ; 
 full of a despairing people ; and which infallibly will, ere 
 long, be full of those that are proscribed, and be bathing 
 in its own blood. 
 
 And these miserable wretches (who have been deceived 
 by those who have told them. That it would never be 
 imposed upon them to abjure their Religion : and who are 
 stupified l)y the extremity of their Sufferings, and the Terror 
 of their bloody and cruel enemies) are wrapped up in so 
 deep an Astonishment, as doth not permit them to be fully 
 sensible of their Fall. But as soon as they shall recover 
 themselves, and remember that they could not embrace the 
 Communion of Rome, without absolutely renouncing the 
 Holy Religion they Professed; and when they shall make a 
 full reflection upon the unhappy change they have been 
 forced to make : then, their Consciences (being awakened, 
 and continually reproaching their faint-heartedness) will 
 rend them with sorrow and remorse ; and inflict torments 
 upon them equal to those the damned endure in Hell ; and 
 will make them endeavour to be delivered from this anguish, 
 and to find rest in the constant Profession of that Truth 
 which they have unhappily betrayed. 
 
 And, on the other side, their Enemies will be loath 
 to take the lie at this time of the day ; and therefore will 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 12 177
 
 The New Converts in an Abyss of Horror. i685. 
 
 endeavour, through fear of punishments, to oblige them to 
 stay in that Abyss of Horror, into which they have precip- 
 itated them. But because all the Sufferings they can 
 possibly threaten them with, will be no ways considerable, 
 when compared with those tortures their Consciences have 
 already inflicted on them ; and wherewith they threaten 
 them in case of a Relapse : they will be constrained to drag 
 them to the Place of Execution ; or else seek to rid them- 
 selves of them, all at once, by a General Massacre, which 
 many good Souls have so long desired. 
 
 I hope. Sir, you will not be wanting in your most 
 earnest prayers, to beg of GOD, That he would be pleased 
 to take pity of these miserable wretches ; and to make the 
 heart of our Sovereign [, Louis XIV.,] to relent towards us ! 
 That he would convert those who, in their blindness, think 
 they do him service, by putting us to death ! That he 
 would cause his voice to be heard by them from heaven, as 
 to Saint Paul, ' Saul ! Saul ! why persecutest thou me?'; 
 and make the rest the examples of his exemplary Justice ! 
 Finally, That he would grant that all those who have denied 
 him, being touched with a true repentance, may, with Saint 
 Peter, ' Go out, and weep bitterly.' 
 
 I am, 
 
 Sir, 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 178
 
 An Extract of a Letter, by T. G., containing 
 
 some more instances of the cruel and barbarous 
 
 usage of the Protestants in France. 
 
 B 
 
 UT THIS, SIR, is not the thing which 
 troubles me most, at this time. There 
 is another cause of my grief ; which is 
 but too just, and even pierceth my heart 
 with sorrow : and that is. The cruel 
 Persecution which the poor Protestants of France do suffer; 
 amongst whom I have so many near and dear Relations. 
 
 The torments they are put to are almost incredible: 
 and the heavenly courage, wdierewith some of them are 
 strengthened, by their great Captain and Leader, to undergo 
 them, is no less amazing and wonderful. 
 "^ I shall give, for instance, one or two of these Cham- 
 pions ; that by them, you may judge of the rest : 
 
 A young woman was brought before the Council, in 
 / order to oblige her to abjure the Truth of the Gospel ; which 
 C she boldly and manfully refusing, she was commanded back 
 j again to Prison: where they shaved her head; and, having 
 /stripped her stark naked, in this manner led her through 
 Tthe streets of the City ; where many a blow w^as given her, 
 ^and stones were flung at her. 
 
 j' After this, they set her up to the neck in a tub full of 
 
 I water : where after she had been for a while, they took her 
 
 \ out ; and put upon her a shift dipped in wine, which, as it 
 
 ! dried and stuck to her sore and bruised body, they snatched 
 
 j off again ; and then had another ready, dipped in wine, to 
 
 I clap upon her. This they repeated six several times : and 
 
 when, by this inhuman usage, her body was become very 
 
 raw and tender, they demanded of her, ' Whether she did 
 
 not now find herself disposed to embrace the Catholic 
 
 Faith'?' for so they are pleased to term their Religion. 
 
 179
 
 More Revocation Atrocities. t.g. less. 
 
 . But she, being strengthened by the spirit and love of 
 
 \ him for whose Name's sake she suffered all these extremi- 
 Ities, undauntedly answered, That she had before declared 
 her Resolution to them, which she would never alter : and 
 that, though they had her Body in their power, she was 
 resolved not to yield her Soul to them; but [to] keep it pure 
 and undefiled for her Heavenly Lover : as knowing that a 
 little while would put an end to all her Sufferings, and 
 give a beginning to her enjoyment of Everlasting Rest. 
 
 Which words of hers, adding fuel to their rage, who 
 
 (l^now despaired of making her a Convert ; they took and 
 
 ( fastened her, by her feet, to something that served the turn 
 
 1 of a Gibbet : and there let her hang, in that ignominious 
 
 I posture, with her head downwards, till she expired. 
 
 The other person whom I would instance ; and whom I 
 pity the more, because, for ought I know, he may yet 
 survive, and still continue under the Tormentors' hands, is 
 an old man. 
 
 He having, for a great while, been kept close prisoner, 
 upon the same account as the former, in a deep Dungeon, 
 where his companions were darkness and horror and filthy 
 creeping things ; he was brought before his Judges, with 
 vermin and snails crawling upon his mouldered garment : 
 who, seeing him in that loathsome condition, said unto 
 him, ' How now, old man ! Does not your heart begin to 
 relent? and are not you willing to abjure your Heresy?' 
 
 To whom, he answered, ' As for Heresy, I profess none : 
 but if, by that word, you mean my Religion ; you may 
 assure yourselves that as I have thus long lived ; so I hope, 
 and am resolved, by the grace of GOD, to die in it.' 
 
 With which Answer they, being little pleased, but 
 furiously incensed, spoke to him in a rougher tone, ' Dost 
 thou not see, that the worms are about to devour thee ? 
 Well ! since thou art so resolved ; we will send thee back 
 again to the loathsome place from whence thou camest, 
 that they may make an end of thee, and consume thy 
 obdurate heart ! ' 
 
 To which he replied, with the words of the holy patient 
 Job, Novi postqiiam vermes confoderlnt fCorpusJ istud, in 
 came mea me visuruni esse Deum. ' I know that, after 
 worms have eaten this Body, that, in my flesh, I shall see 
 GOD ! [xix. 26.] 
 180
 
 T. G. 1685. The utmost barbarity of the Dragoons. 
 
 And having so said, he was sent back to his loathsome 
 dark abode : where if he be still, I pray GOD to give him 
 patience and strength to hold out the end ; that so he may 
 obtain the Crown of Life. 
 
 I should be too tedious, in giving you all the particulars 
 of their cruelty, and of ^he Sufferings of the Protestants : 
 yet I cannot well forbear acquainting you with what, lately, 
 I am most credibly informed of : which take as follows. 
 
 Some Dragoons were Quartered with a person, whom 
 they could, by no means, oblige to renounce his Religion. 
 Upon a time, when they had well filled themselves with 
 wine, they broke their glasses at every Health they drank, 
 and so filled the floor where they were with the fragments; 
 and, by often walking over and treading upon them, reduced 
 them to lesser pieces and fragments. And, being now in a 
 merry humour,, they must needs go to dance ; and told 
 their Host, That he must be one of the company : but 
 withal, that he must first pull off his stockings and shoes, 
 that he might move the more nimbly. In a word, they 
 forced him to dance with them, bare-footed, upon the sharp 
 points of glass : which when they had continued so long as 
 they were able to keep him on his legs, they laid him down 
 on a bed. 
 
 A while afterwards, [they] stripped him stark-naked ; 
 and rolled his body, from one end of the room to the other, 
 upon the sharp glass, as before-mentioned : which having 
 done till his skin was stuck full of the said little frag- 
 ments, they returned him again to his bed ; and sent for a 
 Chirurgeon [Surgeon] to take out all the said pieces of glass 
 out of his body — which, you may easily conceive, could not 
 be done without frequent incisions, and horrible and most 
 extreme pain. 
 
 Another person being likewise troubled with the 
 unwelcome company of these Dragoons ; and having 
 suffered extremely at their hands, without the expected 
 success of his Conversion ; one of them, on a time, looking 
 earnestly upon him, told him. That he disfigured himself, 
 with letting his beard grow so long. 
 
 But he, answering, That they were the cause of it ; 
 who Avould not let hiiu stir out of doors, for to go to the 
 Barber : the Dragoon replied, ' I can do that for you, as well 
 
 181
 
 The devilish Inventions of the Drajroons. t. g. leso 
 
 o 
 
 as the Barber!'; and with that, told him, He must needs try 
 his skill upon him. 
 
 And so fell to work ; but, instead of shaving him, he 
 flayed all the skin off his face. 
 
 One of his companions, coming in at the cry of this 
 poor sufferer; and, seeing what he had done, seemingly 
 blamed him for it, and said. He was a bungler ! : and then, 
 to his Host, ' Come ! your hair wants cutting too ; and you 
 shall see, I will do it much better than he hath shaved you ! ' 
 And thereupon begins, in a most cruel manner, to pluck 
 the hair, skin, and all, off his head ; and flayed that, as 
 the other had done his chin. Thus making a sport and 
 merriment of the extreme suffering of these miserable 
 wretches. 
 
 By these inhuman, and more than barbarous, means it 
 is, that they endeavour to overcome the most resolved 
 patience ; and to drive people to despair and faint-hearted- 
 ness by their devilish Inventions. They refuse to give 
 them death, which they desire : and only keep them alive 
 to torment them so long, till they have vanquished their 
 perseverance. For the names of Martyrs and Rebels are 
 equally odious to their enemies ; who tell them. That the 
 King tvill have obedient subjects; but neither Martyrs! nor 
 Rebels ! and that they have received orders to convert 
 them ; but not to kill them ! 
 
 Sir, I beg your pardon for having so long entertained 
 you, with these more than Tragical Passages ; and [I pray,] 
 that you would not be wanting to recommend the condition 
 of these poor, destitute, afflicted, and tortured, persons to 
 the bowels of compassion of our Heavenly Father ! that he 
 would be pleased not to suffer them to be tempted above 
 what he shall give them grace to bear. Which is the 
 hearty Prayer of 
 
 Your faithful friend, 
 
 T. G. 
 
 182
 
 A Specime?i of Papal a7icl Fre?ich 
 Persecution ; 
 
 as also of 
 
 The Faith a?id Patie?ice of the late 
 F7^e7ich Confessors a7id Martyrs. 
 
 Exhibited 
 
 in the cruel Sufferings, and most exemplary Behaviour, 
 
 of that emitient Confessor and Martyr, 
 
 Monsieur Louis de Marolles^ 
 
 Councillor to the French King, and Receiver of the 
 
 Consignations in the Bailiwick of Saifite Menehould 
 
 in Champagne .- 
 
 from his Condemnation to the Galleys, 16S6, 
 
 to Jiis death in the Dungeon, 1692. 
 
 Done newly out of {thel French [Original, 
 printed at the Hague, 1699]. 
 
 London. 
 1712. 
 
 183
 
 To 
 
 Monsieur Heinsius, Councillor and Pensionary 
 of Holland and West Friesland. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 AFKIEND OF MY father's, to whom I have communicated some 
 Letters written with his own hand, would needs take the pains 
 to put in order, The History of his Sufferings and Martyrdom ; 
 with which it i^Ieased GOD to crown him. 
 
 I take the liberty, Sir, to dedicate it to you ; and I hope you will 
 not take it ill. 
 
 I thought that the History of the many Evils and Sufferings which 
 the most cruel Violence could invent, wherewith to triumj)h over his 
 Faith and Constancy, might serve to fortify and strengthen those who 
 are persecuted for the Truth ; and to awaken those who are negligent 
 in the exercise of Piety. 
 
 I have also been persuaded that the History of a Martyr, who hath 
 made so much noise in the World (if I may say it without vanity), could 
 not be better dedicated than to the Premier Minister of a Common- 
 wealth, no less charitable than powerful ; and which affords subsistence 
 and support to so many Millions of persons, who have forsaken all, to 
 preserve that Fidelity which they owe to GOD. 
 
 Every one. Sir, is acquainted with the weight and influence which 
 your counsels have in all the Deliberations of the State; and the 
 Eefugees are not ignorant of the obligations, which engage them to 
 publish their acknowledgements. It is for this reason that, in acquitting 
 
 185
 
 DedicatioD. i699. 
 
 myself of so just a duty, I iutreat you to grant me the honour of your 
 protection ; and to permit me to style myself, 
 
 With a most profound respect, 
 Sir, 
 Your most humble, and most obedient. Servant, 
 
 DE Maeolles. 
 The Hague. 
 
 12 March 1699. 
 
 ['.'The Preface to this English -Translation is omitted; as being 
 not much to the purpose. — E.A.] 
 
 186
 
 The Contents of the History of the Sufferings 
 of the blessed Martyr, Louis de Marolles. 
 
 I, The Introduction, shewing that it is the Lot of the Eighteousto 
 be exposed to Sufferings ; and the wisdom of Providence in so 
 
 ordering it 189 
 
 II. Monsieur de Marolles, a person eminent as well for his Birth 
 
 and Employments as [for] the greatness of his Sufferings - 193 
 
 III. That he was a good Philosopher and Mathematician ; and par- 
 
 ticularly skilled in Algebra 193 
 
 IV. That he made it his chief business to instruct himself in 
 
 Religion, and to grow and advance in Piety : concerning which, 
 and the former attainments, here is to be seen his Character 194 
 V. That, endeavouring to get out of the Kingdom ; he was per- 
 suaded by the Intendant to settle in Alsace. In which Section, 
 there is a curious Disquisition concerning the place of the 
 famous Battle with Attila ....... 196 
 
 VI. That the assurances of the Intendant proved a false security - 197 
 VII. The whole Family of the Marolles proved eminent Confessors 197 
 VIII. Our Martyr, being apprehended and imprisoned at Strasburg, 
 was strongly solicited to change his Religion : but in the 
 several Conferences with him, for that purpose, he bravely 
 
 stood his ground - 199 
 
 His "Wife and Children [are] imprisoned at Strasburg - - 199 
 IX. His friends of the Romish Religion assure him that his Peace 
 and Pardon was to be had on no other terms than the change 
 
 of his Rehgion 203 
 
 X. He is removed from Strasburg to the Prison of Chalons ; where 
 he is visited by the Bishop, who treated him with much 
 humanity. But remaining firm in his Religion ; [he] is con- 
 demned to the Galleys 204 
 
 XI. After his condemnation, he is removed from Chalons to [the 
 
 the Conciergerie at] Paris ; and from thence to La Tournelle - 206 
 XII. Here he is alternately used with mercy and rigour, by one 
 or other, to induce him to Apostatize : but without effect ; 
 though once he staggered, yet again recovered - - - 207 
 And when it was i^roposed to him to be sent to [Jacques B. 
 BoussET,] Bishop of Meaux, to be Instructed ; he refuses, 
 
 and with good reason - - 208 
 
 XIII. From La Tournelle, the Court belonging to the Parliament of 
 Paris, where criminals are tried, he is removed to Les Tour- 
 nelles, where Prisoners condemned to the GaUeys are sent 
 till their departure. Where, in the Dungeon, and with a 
 chain on his neck of thirty pounds weight, he suffered great 
 
 187
 
 Contents. 
 
 1699. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXI. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 XXV. 
 
 XXVI. 
 
 XXVII. 
 
 188 
 
 extremities : and though tempted, not only with a releasement 
 but preferment ; yet would not abjure his Religion. Whence 
 also he writes many comfortable Letters to his friends - - 211 
 
 Writes to, and is visited by, his Wife ; who washes his wounds : 
 and she acquainting him with an infamous Fraud, contrived 
 by the Papists, to allay the wonder of his constancy ; and, 
 namely, That he was besides himself, he proposed to the 
 Learned, a Mathematical Problem 222 
 
 He departs in the Chain [Chain-gang'] , from Paris, though 
 ill of the fever ; and, arriving at Marseilles, is put into the 
 Hospital, as an Invahd . . 224 
 
 He is removed on board the Galleys ; and designed to be 
 embarked for America. On which sorrowful occasion, he 
 wonderfully comforts his Wife ; lessening, instead of aggrava- 
 ting, that, and his other. Sufferings .... - 227 
 
 At first, indeed, he is treated in the Galleys with some lenity 
 and respect : whether from Design, or the compassion of 
 some General Officers, is hard to determine .... 229 
 
 They now begin to treat him with rigour ; and he is much 
 deprived of the liberty of Writing. He finds, however, some 
 opportunities to write to his Wife ; and congratulates her on 
 her escape out of the Kingdom, concerning which he had 
 been extremely solicitous 232 
 
 His several Conferences and Disputes with [Cardinal Louis 
 A. DE NOAILLES,] the Bishop of Marseilles, and others of 
 the Clergy ; in all which, he stands firm 237 
 
 He does, with wonderful dexterity, acquaint his Wife, with 
 the particularities of his state and treatment .... 239 
 
 It happened to our Martyr, as before it had to Monsieur Le 
 Fevre, to be worse handled after his Conferences. For to 
 break his constancy, by Orders from the Court, he is removed 
 from the Galley to the Dungeon : which he describes ; and 
 where he continued Six years, till his death. Of the Three 
 first of which, we have no account 242 
 
 In the Three last years, it appears by some Letters from him, 
 into what an Abyss of Misery he was cast : and how great 
 was the strength of his Faith and Hope ; and how greatly he 
 comforted his Companions in Sufferings 244 
 
 The Rigours he endured seemed to be greater than the King 
 loaded him withal 250 
 
 Monsieur DE Marolles and another Confessor do, by their 
 Letters, mutually comfort each other 250 
 
 Writes his last and most admirable Letter to his Wife ; acquain- 
 ting her with his Spiritual Conflicts, and their happy issue 251 
 
 The Account of his Death : with some particulars of his Life, 
 not known before 253 
 
 The Conclusion ; with most edifying Reflections upon the whole 256
 
 The History of the Sufferings of the blessed 
 Martyr, Louis de Marolles. 
 
 1 
 
 I, f T IS CERTAIN that the wisdom of GOD, under the Gospel 
 Dispensation, hath chosen the Voice of Afflictions, and the Cry 
 of the Blood of Martyrs, to manifest the power and victories 
 of Faith. And, in consequence of this, the Author of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, having given some examples of the surprising 
 effects of the Faith furnished by the Martyrs, from thence he draws 
 this Conclusion, or rather Exhortation, ' Wherefore seeing we also are 
 compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses, let us lay aside 
 every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run 
 with patience the race that is set before us ! Looking unto Jesus, the 
 Author and Finisher of our Faith : who, for the joy that was set before 
 him, endured the Cross, despising the Shame, and is set down at the 
 right hand of the Throne of GOD. For consider him, that endured 
 such contradiction of sinners against himself ; lest ye be wearied and 
 faint in your minds.' [xii. 1-3.] 
 
 To copy therefore, after the Divine Oracles; and to imitate in 
 particular this Author ; I shall lay before the eyes of Christians, the 
 Sufferings of some later Confessors and Martyrs; to the end that, 
 being animated and encouraged by those great examples, they may 
 preserve to GOD that Fidelity which they owe to him, in the midst of 
 the most sharp and severe trials. 
 
 Jesus Christ (who hath redeemed us ; and who shall judge the 
 World) doth prescribe us our Duty, when he says, [Matt. x. 32, 33.] 
 ' Whosoever shall confess me before Men ; him will I confess also 
 before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me 
 before Men ; him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.' 
 Now we must not imagine, nor flatter ourselves, that the rigour of 
 this Command doth regard only those who shall renounce Jesus Christ 
 as Saviour of the World, to receive the Alcoran [Koran] . This precept 
 doth likewise extend to the salutary Truth which GOD hath made 
 known unto us ; since, in Saint Mark viii. 38, it is declared, by the Son 
 of GOD, in these express words ' Whosoever shall be ashamed of me 
 and of uiij ivonls, etc.; of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when 
 
 189
 
 The Day of Martyrdom, the Day of Birth. i699. 
 
 he Cometh in the glory of the Father, with the holy angels.' 
 
 From thence it is, that the first Christians (jealous of the honour 
 of GOD, and of the purity of their Faith) chose to expose theniselves 
 to all manner of miseries ; rather than to do anything which bore the 
 least resemblance of Idolatry, or which might be liable to sinister 
 interpretations : as did apjjear by the Writings of the first Doctors of 
 the Church ; and particularly of Tertullian. 
 
 They did likewise rank among the Apostates those, as Cowards, 
 who gave money to the Commissioners to be comprehended in the 
 number of those who had obeyed the Ordinances made against the 
 Christians ; although they had done no such thing. 
 
 But as they exercised this rigour towards feeble Christians ; they 
 did likewise take great care to collect the Acts and Monuments of the 
 EusEBius. Eccles. Martyrs, as did appear by a Letter of the Church of 
 Hist. Lib. I., p. 4. Smyrna, occasioned by the death of Saint Polycaep 
 their Bishop ; who had seen the Apostle John. And if Time had not 
 robbed us of those precious Kelations ; one might more exactly see 
 both the number and constancy of all those Martyrs, of whom now we 
 hardly know the names. 
 
 They did celebrate the Day of their Death, as being that of their 
 Birth. They made Encomiums ui)on them, on the score of their Suffer- 
 ings. Insomuch that, at length, the Christians, in prosperity, (being 
 inwardly convinced of the vast and infinite difference between theirs, 
 and their own zeal and piety ; between theirs, and the lives of those 
 illustrious Martyrs) began to invocate them, and worship their relics. 
 But, in the beginning, it was not so. 
 
 The Faithful of Smyrna do say, in their Letter, that they 
 EusEBius. Eccles. had gathered together the bones of the Martyr, 
 Hist. Lib I., p. 17. PoLYCAKP, 'which they valued and prized above 
 gold or i^recious stones, to reposite them in a suitable and convenient 
 place, to the end that, meeting and assembling there as much as they 
 possibly could, they might celebrate the Day of his Martyrdom or of 
 his Birth ; as well in memory of those who have sustained this 
 glorious fight, as to instruct and confirm Posterity by their example.' 
 
 This place v>here they reposited the bones of those happy men, 
 was (as is confessed by the Learned) the Churchyard, where they buried 
 them ; and where the first Christians met, to celebrate the memory of 
 the Martyrs. 
 
 It is very certain, by this Letter, that they did not, as yet, invocate 
 those Martyrs; since making Reflections uj)on the proceedings of the 
 Jews, who solicited the Proconsuls to hinder the Christians from 
 collecting the bones of Polycarp, ' for fear,' said they, ' that they 
 should worship him ; instead of him that was crucified ' : those Faithful 
 190
 
 I 
 
 1699. The rise of the Worship of KeHcs. 
 
 answered, That the Jews were ignorant. That they might worship 
 and serve no other than him who died for the Salvation of Men ; whom 
 they adored as the Son of GOD : but they loved and honoured, as it was 
 just they should, the Martyrs, as Disciples and Imitators of him. 
 
 It did appear from another passage of Saint Ie^neus, alleged by 
 EuSEBius, that the Christians were grieved that they could not inter 
 the bodies of the Martyrs. He observes, moreover, that the Pagans 
 caused them to be burnt, to expose their ashes to the wind, or [to] cast 
 them into the Rhone ; thereby making a mock and derision of the 
 hopes which the Christians had of the Resurrection. 
 
 EuSEBlus doth further inform us, That, in his time, under the 
 Persecution of Maximinian, they hindered the Histor. Martyr. 
 Christians from burying their Martyrs, ' as if that,' Pala;st., Cap. 9. 
 saith he, ' had been of some importance.' 
 
 When the Church enjoyed some repose, under the Christian 
 Emperors ; they began everywhere to seek for the bodies of the most 
 famous and illustrious Martyrs, to erect tombs and monuments to 
 them. Their Dreams then served, instead of Proofs, to discover and 
 distinguish them : and they began to have too great an esteem and 
 regard for their relics. 
 
 We read, in the Fourth Tome of the great Blhliotheca of the Fathers, 
 some Treatises attributed to Eusebius by the Jesuit Sibmond ; among 
 which, in the Second Book which treats of the Resurrection, there is 
 mention made of Saint Romain, Martyr of Antioch. And it is observed 
 there. That an Apostate Chirurgeon [_Surfjeoii\ , being ordered to cut 
 out his tongue, reserved and kept it by him ; for a proof against those 
 who would have accused him for not performing his Commission. Upon 
 which Eusebius makes this reflection. That he did not throw that 
 which he had cut, away; but preserved it at his house against his 
 Resurrection : as the weak and inflrm Faithful were wont to do, that 
 they might honour those fragments of the bodies of the Martyrs which 
 they could recover and procure. 
 
 There are two things remarkable in this History : the growing cus- 
 tom of worshiping the Relics ; but withal, that custom disapi^roved and 
 rejected by wise and knowing persons. 
 
 The people had so strong a bias and inclination to superstition, 
 that, in the time of Theodosius the Younger, the Histor. Socrat. 
 Novatians, those of them at least who made a par- Lib. VII., c. 2.3. 
 ticular Sect upon the account of Easter Day, did assemble near to the 
 tomb of Sabbatius, in the isle of Rhodes, where he died in exile, to pray 
 over his sepulchre. Bishop Atticus caused the body to be conveyed 
 away by night, to take them off from this superstition. 
 
 191
 
 Examples of Fidelity and Perseverance. i699. 
 
 It is therefore true, according to tlie sentiments of the greatest part 
 of Christendom, that we are to collect the Acts of the Martyrs, only to 
 be instructed and encouraged by their example. 
 
 It is, with this view and consideration, that the First Christians, 
 and our Fathers in the time of the Reformation, did compile and leave 
 us as mvich as they could of the History of those who have sviffered for 
 the Faith. And we, their successors, should be wanting to our duty, 
 and to that care which future Posterity expects and requires from us, if 
 we shovild neglect to acquaint future Ages, how gx'eat and violent have 
 been the efforts of the Persecution, which, under a great and powerful 
 King, hath been unjustly carried on against us ; and with the greatness 
 of the strength and constancy of so many Faithful : who, by their admir- 
 able patience, have sustained the Combat without falling ; or who have 
 piously and courageously recovered their lapses. 
 
 One shall see them, by thousands, forsake their country, their 
 goods, their friends, to go out of the Kingdom, at the peril of being 
 condemned to the Galleys, or confined to some Prison or Cloister ; and, 
 in each, exposed to all the temptations, and all the secret miseries, 
 which it is very difficult to give a lively representation of. 
 
 We have seen persons of Birth and Quality, as Monsieur the Mar- 
 quis of MoNBETTON, descended from the Family of La Foece, of seventy- 
 four years of age, also Men of Learning and Study, under the Chain, 
 or upon the Bench of Galley Slaves with the oar in their hand, under 
 the inspection of a severe Committee. 
 
 We have seen Monsieur MussON, a famous Councillor in the Parlia- 
 ment of Paris, departed, with all his family, to come and give glory to 
 GOD at the Hague ; where he lived with the approbation of all honest 
 persons. We have seen, I say, this celebrated Magistrate condemned 
 to the Galleys, without any regard to the dignity of his character, 
 which could not exempt him from the apparent infamy of that arrest ; 
 which will, in future Ages, be his, and his family's, glory. 
 
 Would not one, who sees and considers this inflexible rigour, be apt 
 to say, That to serve GOD according to the Convictions of a man's 
 heart, and the motions of his Conscience, was the greatest of all crimes I 
 and the most unj)ardonable of all trespasses ! 
 
 Well I GOD be praised I that, in an Age so infected with the love 
 of the World, wherein Piety is on all sides exposed to the attacks of 
 Impiety and Libertinism ; the Reformed Churches of France will be 
 able to furnish and afford the succeeding Ages, great examples of 
 Fidelity and Perseverance, in the midst of the most dangerous and most 
 sensible Afflictions : and, indeed, everyone ought to contribute their 
 assistance towards the Publication of the History of those noble and 
 worthy Confessors and Martyrs of Jesus Christ. 
 192
 
 1629-85. Marolles, a cultivated Country Gentleman. 
 
 II. And, truly, it must have been thought a great neglect of this 
 duty, to have deprived the Public of the knowledge which it ought to 
 have of the blessed Martyr, Louis de Marolles ; who hath filled the 
 Louvre, the Parliament, France, and all Europe, with the sweet odours 
 of his Sufferings and Afflictions. To perpetuate which, we might here 
 produce several Letters which he wrote with his own hand ; and others 
 likewise which were wrote to him by several persons, and even by some 
 of his Roman Catholic friends, to which he hath answered : only that to 
 do this, would require a Volume. It shall therefore suffice to give some 
 brief Idea of his Sufferings ; and of the invincible firmness of his Faith 
 dui'ing so sharp and tedious a trial : and the names of the persons con- 
 cerned shall be suppressed and concealed, that they may not be exposed 
 to resentment. 
 
 Monsieur Louis de Marolles was born about the year 1629, as 
 appears by one of his Letters, a little before his death, which happened 
 in the year 1692, where he speaks. That he had almost accomplished 
 sixty-three years, 
 
 He was born at Champagne, of an ancient Family, very noted for 
 their skill in the Law. He dwelt at Sainte Menehould ; where he 
 exercised the Office of King's Counsellor, and Receiver of Consignments : 
 his Religion making him incapable of any other Post. 
 
 His eldest brother was slain by a cannon ball, which broke his leg, 
 at the taking of Sainte Menehould by the King: and went thither, by 
 Orders of the Court, to direct where to apply the batteries, for the 
 attack of the weakest part of the place. He was brought back to 
 Chalons; where the King sent him his Chirurgeon [S»rgco»] : who 
 having cut off his thigh four fingers too low, they were forced to begin 
 the operation anew ; in which he died. 
 
 III. Our Louis de Marolles was loved and esteemed by all those 
 that knew him ; because he was of a sweet and easy temper, and of a 
 pleasant conversation. 
 
 He was endued with a perfect good Judgement : insomuch that, 
 upon the first mention of the New Philosophy of Gassexdi and 
 Descartes, founded on experience ; he applied himself to study them, 
 and did, of himself, make a great progress and proficiency therein. I 
 have seen some Remarks and Observations which he made upon the 
 VacuiTm, with quills full of quicksilver ; in which there appeared as 
 much jvistice in his Reasonings, as exactness and accuracy in his 
 Observations. 
 
 He applied his experience to the study also of Physic ; as far as 
 Philosophy, and his own natural sense and understanding, could enable 
 his mind to find out some Medicines proper to heal the sick : and his 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 13 193
 
 Marolles, a great Algebraist. 1629-85. 
 
 children have several receits [recipes] written with his own hand. 
 
 Having learned of Monsieur Claude de Marolles, of Vitry in 
 France, his relation, the grounds and fundamentals of Algebra: those 
 two friends did advance so far in this Science, that they were, both of 
 them, the Prime Artists [leading Algebraists] of their Age. They held 
 a correspondence, by Letters, with all those who were excellent in this 
 Science ; especially with Father [Jacques] de Billy, a learned Jesuit, 
 who hath presented the public with, Diophantes redivivus. There is in 
 manuscript, A Treatise of Algebra, composed by our Louis de Marolles ; 
 with the Solution of a great number of very difficult and curious 
 Problems. 
 
 As he was endued with a clear and perspic\ious spirit ; he delivered 
 and explained himself after so plain and intelligible a manner, that one 
 might easily apprehend the meaning of what he said. Those also who 
 desired to profit by his conversation, became in a short time skilful in 
 this Science : as, among others, a certain honest man, who lived with 
 the Duke of Mayne, and who faithfully maintained that friendship 
 with him which he owed him : having done all that in him lay, to pro- 
 cure him some ease and refreshment. One may say. That if Monsieur 
 DE Marolles had loved the World ; he would have appeared among the 
 Learned with pomp and distinction. 
 
 IV. But he was contented to lead a quiet and obscure life, in the 
 place of his nativity, amongst his relations ; who are the most noted 
 persons in Sainte Menehould : and made it his chief business and occu- 
 pation to instruct himself in Religion, and to grow and advance in 
 Piety. This virtue was in him a truly Christian grace, founded uj)on 
 the knowledge, and ui)on the lively persuasion, of the Truth, and of 
 his Duty. 
 
 It was not the effect of a phlegmatic and melancholic temper; which 
 sometimes puts on the appearance of Piety, the better to judge and cen- 
 sure all Mankind. Never was any man more agreable and pleasant in 
 everything, wherein Piety was not concerned. He made use of Music 
 for his recreation ; and sometimes of Hunting, to preserve his health 
 by that exercise. In a word, he was esteemed by all the World, and 
 affectionately loved by his friends ; always of a smooth and equal tem- 
 per ; always shewing an honest and becoming gravity, without being 
 crabbed and troublesome ; always of a light and cheerful humour, sup- 
 ported by the beauty and good disposition of his mind ; having a heart 
 satisfied and contented with his condition. 
 
 The Pastor of his Church, a man of great merit and strict probity, 
 his intimate friend, and one in whom he placed his most entire con- 
 fidence, doth thus speak of him, in one of his Letters. 
 194
 
 1629-85. Mrirolles's Theoloaical Studies 
 
 &' 
 
 Monsieur DE Marolles was of a very happy constitu- 
 tion. His temper was free from vapours of melanclioly ; 
 and did not carry him into any opposite or contrary Passion. 
 He was endued with a solid Spirit, capable of vast applica- 
 tion ; w4th an exact Judgement and discerning quality. He 
 never filled his mind with vain cares and solicitudes ; but 
 maintained a great steadiness and constancy in misfortunes. 
 This was not a bare natural disposition in him ; but he had 
 strengthened it by study, meditation, and piety. He had a 
 good heart ; and a firm resolution never to be wanting in 
 any of his duties. All this gave him a fund of peace and 
 tranquility ; so that he was scarce ever seen to be in a pas- 
 sion. He knew how to be seasonably serious, and merry, in 
 conversation ; and rendered himself so pleasant and agree- 
 able in Society, that I have seen but few people like him. 
 
 He had attained a sufficient Light and Knowledge in 
 the History of the Church, so as very much to ground and 
 confirm him against the Romish Religion. He perfected and 
 comj)leted his knowledge by diligently reading the dispute 
 betwixt Monsieur [Jean] Claude and Monsieur [Antoine] 
 Arnauld upon the Eucharist; and Monsieur [Matthieu de] 
 Larroque's ' History of the Eucharist.' And he likewise 
 read the other books of the Time ; when they fell into his 
 hands. After the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and some 
 other books which he made use of to feed and nourish his 
 devotion ; he employed his time in the study of the Mathe- 
 matics, and particularly of Algebra : and [he] recreated 
 himself with Music. 
 
 You know that he had a great desire to bring up his 
 family well : one of his chief maxims with relation to that 
 being. That it is necessary to restrain children from trifles, 
 in order to render them of a Just mind; and never to fill 
 them with vain fears, nor vain hopes. The cares and dis- 
 tractions which followed upon his marriage did sometimes 
 create in him some cares and uneasiness : but he contented 
 himself therewith, out of a principle of Duty. When the 
 Affairs of Religion began to be taken in hand ; he did often 
 declare to me, That he feared nothing so much as to see his 
 Wife and children suffer : and that, if he could find the 
 means to send them out of the Kingdom, he was in no fear 
 for himself. In all our affairs, he maintained a free spirit ; 
 and I never saw him embarassed but once, in a nice and 
 critical conjuncture. He, during all that time, did afford me 
 
 195
 
 Marolles and his Pastor part company. less. 
 
 more succour and consolation than I am able to express : 
 and I do believe that I did often contribute to strengthen 
 and confirm him in his good resolutions ; which doth afford 
 me at present a true joy and comfort. 
 
 He remained a long time unresolved in his choice of a 
 retreat into foreign countries. I was at first in a mind to 
 go into Switzerland : and I had proposed to Monsieur the 
 late Count D ' E, to sell his land, and purchase others there; 
 to which he was well enough inclined. I endeavoured to 
 engage Monsieur de Marolles to take the same course : 
 and not to separate. He did testify some inclination there- 
 to for some time : but, in a journey which we made together 
 to Vitry, Monsieur the Doctor Le T. persuaded him to go 
 with Monsieur Beck ; as being a man able to make a good 
 shift, and one that could find out the means to procure a 
 good settlement anywhere. And since that time, he wholly 
 laid aside his thoughts of travelling into those parts : and 
 we, each of us, took different measures. 
 
 A little while after, the Exercise of Religion [^Public 
 WorshijJ^ was taken away from us. At length they expelled 
 
 me from Ep . Monsieur de Maeolles came to me to 
 
 Neuv ; and the day following, to Helmauru: where we 
 
 had our last conversation together ; which was veiy tender 
 and affecting. 
 
 V. In order to comprehend the reason which drew Monsieur de 
 Marolles into Germany ; you must know that some Protestants, going 
 from Champagne, to Lorraine, bordering upon the Duchy of Deux 
 Fonts, the inhabitants of the County of Saarbruck and Alsatia had 
 been prevailed upon, by Monsieur de La Goupelliebe to settle them- 
 selves in that country : he assuring them, with an oath, that no person 
 should be molested or disturbed ; and that the Exercise of Religion, 
 which was established at Lixim and Bourbac, should be preserved ; 
 because they had a mind to populate and re-establish that desolate and 
 ruined country. 
 
 Several discoursed with me [the Writer of this Biography] about 
 it : to whom I answered, That we must consider that country, just as 
 we do a Tree in a large champaign field, when we are overtaken and 
 surprised by a storm ; and one retires thither, only to find a shelter a 
 while under its branches. That, moreover, it would be more easy to go 
 out of the Kingdom ; being upon the frontiers thereof. 
 
 Thus did Monsieur de Marolles and I reason, when we were 
 together at Helmauru, near to Yitry, on Easter Day, [April 22nd,] in the 
 196
 
 1685-1688. Bartlielmi de Marolles is imprisoned. 
 
 year 1685 [JV.S.] : which was the hist time I ever saw him. 
 
 I shall observe, in going along, that this Village derives its name 
 from another which is called Mauru ; and they say, Helmauru, instead 
 of Les Mauru. The little river of Moivre gives them both their names. 
 From whence it must be concluded. That the famous battle of Attila 
 was fought in Chamiiagne, near to Chalons, at a place called Mauriacnm. 
 There is a village called Pogny, derived from the Latin word, Pwjna ; 
 Avhich signifies, A fight or battle. The river of Moivre does, in this 
 place, discharge itself into the Marne: and Vitry perhaps took its name 
 from this victory. This may serve to determine Authors upon this 
 point ; which is very much perplexed and embarrassed in History. 
 
 VI. All the promises and assurances of Monsieur de La Goupelliere 
 were but weak and slender securities; as had been foreseen: and, a few 
 days after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes [October 18 1685] , 
 some Archers were sent to compel those who had been solicited and 
 invited to settle themselves in those Quarters, to abandon them and 
 return home. 
 
 VII. Monsieur Barthelemi de Marolles, a young nephew of our 
 illustrious Martyr, was stopped at Biche ; notwithstanding that he had 
 a Certificate from' the Grand Bailiff of the County of Saarbruck, as 
 having, about six months since, preached in the Church of Bourbac. 
 He continued three months a prisoner in that Fort ; and was, at length, 
 conveyed to Chalons. They took him out of the Prison of the Town, 
 to remove him into that of the Bishopric ; in order to make room for 
 his Uncle, whom they had brought thither. 
 
 This young man, who was then but nineteen years of age, continued 
 three years in the Prison of the Bishopric : and (after having sustained 
 their Disputes, Promises, and Threatenings) he was, at length, set at 
 liberty as a Confessor ; and came to continue his studies with success 
 at Utrecht, where he now [1699] is. 
 
 One cannot, without injustice, refuse to the name of de Marolles 
 those praises and encomiums which it deserves. I shall not stoji with 
 observing that their Family is invested with ancient Titles of Honour 
 and Nobility : as the Wardship of Noblemen's Children ; which, accord- 
 ing to the custom of Vitry, belongs only to Gentlemen. 
 
 I choose rather to insist upon the praises which Piety hath 
 procured them. For, besides our Martyr and his nephew, who have 
 been just mentioned; there is still at Amsterdam, Monsieur Thierri 
 de Marolles, an Advocate, whom, together with his whole family, 
 we are to look upon as so many Confessors. He retired at first to 
 
 197
 
 Thierri de Marolles's family banished. leseiess. 
 
 Metz ; from whence be was forbid [den] to depart. At length, the Count 
 DE Byssi caused him to come before him, the 28tb day of Jauviary 1686; 
 and ordered him to quit the City the same day, with bis family, 
 consisting of eight persons. 
 
 He returned to the Castle of Clemery sur Seille ; where he spent 
 the winter. The 8th day of May 1686, the Grand Provost of Nancy 
 took them all prisoners ; and committed them to his Archers. And, 
 the next day again, he had them all stripped to their shirts (being the 
 Husband, Wife, three young Damsels, and three Boys), in the presence 
 of the Judge, and the Mayor of Clemery. They took away all the 
 money which was sewed up in their clothes ; and, at length, they 
 covered them, one after another, with the Provost's Morning Gown, to 
 search them all over their bodies. Would not one say. That they 
 treated them at discretion ; as if they had been Prisoners of War, 
 Assassins, or Poisoners ? They were, all of them, at length, carried 
 prisoners to Chalons ; w^here they were separated. 
 
 The Mother and Daughters were put into different Convents : the 
 Boys, who were very young, with Scriveners or Notaries. The Maids 
 did imitate these brave examples ; each of them continuing firm and 
 steadfast in their Religion. 
 
 They were, all of them, set at liberty, and sent out of the Kingdom, 
 the 1st of March 1688 : together with Monsieur de Beauchamp, an Elder 
 [of the Protestant Church] of Charenton ; and Monsieur DE Maeolles^ 
 Student in Divinity, of whom we have spoken before. 
 
 198
 
 A' 
 
 VIII. j^ S FOR OUR Martyr, with Madame Mary Gommeret his 
 Wife (the daughter of Monsieur Gommeret ; formerly a 
 famous and noted Magistrate of Sedan, and very high in 
 the esteem of Monsieur the Marshal DE Fabere) ; they 
 settled themselves at Lixim. 
 
 He had four children. The two Daughters are [in 1699] , with their 
 Mother, in the Society of Ladies of Quality at Haarlem ; from whom 
 they receive all manner of kindness and consolation. 
 
 The two Sons are in the Service. The elder (who had his leg 
 broke twice ; once at the battle of Landen, and another time by an 
 unfortunate accident) is an Officer in the Earl of Albemarle's Regiment; 
 and the younger [is an] Ensign of the Regiment of Monsieur de Saint 
 Amand : both of them loved and esteemed by those that know them. 
 
 They were very young, when their father endeavoured to go out of 
 France ; since he saw he could no longer stay there with Liberty of 
 Conscience. Bvxt GOD (who called hiui to glorify his name ; and to 
 carry, along with his chains, the good odour of the Reformation, even 
 into the Praetorium) suffered him, to be stopped, with his whole family, 
 on Sunday, the 2nd day of December in the year 1685, upon the 
 territories of France, two leagues on this [the Frencli] side of the 
 Rhine, by one, Monsieur Bourbon, an Aide-Major [Assistant Major] of 
 Strasburg ; accompanied by two Cavaliers. 
 
 They were, all of them, conveyed to one of the Prisons of the City ; 
 and put into a square Tower which stands into the middle of the river. 
 He observed that this Tower is 26 feet in front ; and 106 in height. 
 
 We must, in this place, hear what he saith himself. 
 
 A little while (says he) after he had been there, 
 IVIonsieur the ]Marquis de Chamilly, Governor ; IMonsieur 
 DE La Grange, the Intendant ; together with the JMajor 
 and Aide-]Major Bourbon ; came to interrogate and examine 
 me. I told them the naked truth of things ; without 
 disguise or dissimulation. After which they departed. 
 
 The next morning, IMadame [de Chamilly,] the 
 Governess gave herself the trouble to visit us. After 
 having told us, That she sympathized in our disgrace ; she 
 
 199
 
 Conferences with Jesuits at Strasburg. less 86. 
 
 said, That there was a remedy to be had ; that it hiy in our 
 power ; that we must obey the King's Orders, and get 
 ourselves Instructed ; and that she woukl send us some 
 Father Jesuits for that purpose. 
 
 I answered her, That, as to my part, I found myself 
 sufficiently Instructed : but that I would not refuse to hear 
 those, whom she should do me the honour to send to me. 
 
 The same day, in the afternoon, came Father Dez, 
 Rector, accompanied with another Jesuit, to visit us. They 
 passed nothing but civilities ; making me a thousand offers 
 of service : and desiring freely to let him know if I wanted 
 anything out of their House, or any of their books ; seeing 
 I had no other book besides our ' Psalms.' And because I 
 proposed to set myself as fairly as I possibly could in his 
 esteem ; I prayed him to send me Thomas [Haemmeelein] 
 a Kempis's De Imitatione Christi : which he did, with 
 some others, and particularly Monsieur [Jacques B. 
 BossuET, the Bishop] de Condom's ' Exposition of the 
 Catholic Faith.' 
 
 He came again to visit me, and asked me. What 
 scruples I might have concerning my Religion ? 
 
 I answered. That I had none : but that I was very well 
 persuaded that it was the good and true one. 
 
 He replied, That my discourse shewed me to be 
 prejudiced. 
 
 Upon this, we entered into debates : and the subject of 
 this conversation ran upon this, viz., Our acknowledgement 
 of the Protestants of the Augsburg Confession for Brethren ; 
 and upon the Eucharist. 
 
 One may, by these first steps, discover the sincerity and dove-like 
 simplicity of this blessed Martyr. He was arrested in the Kingdom : 
 and if he had had a mind to say, That he was going to Strasburg (as he 
 was solicited and desired to do), there was nothing which could prove, 
 or convince [convict] , him of the contrary : and they wovild not then 
 have condemned him; but would have been contented to send him 
 back to Champagne. But being always faithful to his GOD, and ever 
 careful to preserve his innocence and integrity ; he used neither deceit 
 nor equivocation. ' I told them,' saith he, ' the true state of things ; 
 without disguise or dissimulation ' ; that is, as he expresses himself in 
 another Letter, That he declared sincerely that his design was to go out 
 of the Kingdom, and seek in foreign countries the Liberty of serving 
 GOD according to the motions and directions of his Conscience. 
 200
 
 1685-86. Conferences with Jesuits at Strasburg. 
 
 It would be a curious tiling to know what reflections the 
 equivocating Doctors made in private ujion this sincerity. But to 
 this Christian sincerity, must be joined the prudence and moderation 
 with which our Martyr behaved himself, to the end, that even 'his 
 good might not be evil spoken of; according to the precept of Saint 
 Paul. 'I proposed, however,' saith he, 'to set myself as fair as I 
 possibly could in his esteem.' 
 
 I shall not relate all those Conferences and Conversations in which 
 this faithful Christian discovered his knowledge, and the solid founda- 
 tions of his Faith. He confirmed his sentiments by Reason, the Word 
 of GOD, and some Passages of the Fathers. 
 
 Some days after the visits of Father Dez, he received 
 another from Father RoBiNE : and their discourse was con- 
 cerning the Authority of the Church, in explaining the 
 meaning of Scripture. Monsieur de Marolles said, That 
 the Scripture was explained by itself ; and the maxims of 
 good sense. 
 
 Upon which, the Jesuit asked him, If he were infallible? 
 
 To which, having replied, That he had not presumj)tion 
 enough to believe himself such ; the Jesuit concluded, ' That 
 I must therefore doubt of all my decisions.' 
 
 To which I answered, (saith he) ' That because I might 
 be mistaken ; it did not at all follow that my judgements 
 must be dubious : and that his Maxim was good for nothing 
 but to establish Infidelity.' 
 
 They discoursed about Councils, and their pretended 
 Infallibility. They examined what was meant by the word, 
 Church : our Martyr af!irming, That the True Church, to 
 Avhich Jesus Christ communicates and imparts his Graces, 
 could not be composed of hypocrites, [and of] impious and 
 profane persons. 
 
 He observes that, in another visit, this same Priest 
 engaged him in a dispute about the pretended Schism ; with 
 which they charge and reproach us, telling him, That Ave 
 must rather suffer and endure all, than give such a scandal 
 to the Church. 
 
 He answered, That so soon as we find ourselves forced 
 to a Worship, which we esteem disagreeable to GOD ; we 
 can no longer hold and join in Communion with those who 
 would oblige us to such Worship : and that, besides, they 
 had driven us out of it, by Excommunications, by Torments, 
 and cruel Deaths. 
 
 201
 
 Conferences with Jesuits at Strasburg. 1685-86. 
 
 He alleged the example of Eliab, and of those 7,000 
 men who had not bowled their knees to Baal [1 Kings xix, 18] ; 
 and asked the Jesuit, Whether he believed that those 7,000 
 persons did separate from the True Church, by joining 
 themselves to Elias ? 
 
 To which the Jesuit Father returned no answer: but 
 went away, a little after. 
 
 Monsieur and Madame de Chamilly came to visit 
 him, attended by Father Rector Dez, and Monsieur Sev., 
 [Protestant] Minister of Bourbon, who (either had made, or 
 was ready to make,) his Abjuration: which, however, he 
 hath since detested and abhorred; having left France, as I 
 have been informed, to lament his Fall. 
 
 Their conversation was like to the former. And as 
 Master de Maeolles went about to speak of what had 
 passed in the Ninth Century, as concerning Paschasius 
 and Ratramnus ; he observes that they stopj^ed his mouth, 
 by saying. That it was one of Minister [Jean] Claude's 
 Fables : which plainly shews that those Doctors spend but 
 very little study in Controversies, to attribute that to 
 Claude ; which all our Authors have taken notice of, before 
 him. 
 
 Monsieur de Marolles proceeds in his Relation, and 
 says, 
 
 When I saw myself treated after that matter ; I did 
 exactly keep that silence, wiiich they imposed upon me ; and 
 the Rector began to read again out of those books, which he 
 had brought. And after a Lecture, which lasted a very 
 long while ; Monsieur the Marquis DE Chamilly bid 
 Monsieur Sev. tell me his opinion. But he made no other 
 Answer but, That he shared in our disgrace. 
 
 After which, they all went out ; and Father Rector 
 never came more to see me since that time. 
 
 But Father Godinet and another came several times. 
 As, in the first conversation, he repeated part of the same 
 things which Father Dez had told mo before ; I made him 
 the same Answers. 
 
 In another, this Jesuit undertook to prove to him. That 
 a Sign may be the Thing Signified. 'You know,' saith he, 
 'the noble thing which [John (Sobieski),] the King of 
 Poland did, at the raising of the Siege of Vienna. Is it not 
 true, that, one or two years after, the same King might 
 202
 
 1685-86. Conferences with Jesuits at Strasburg. 
 
 himself have represented his exploits upon a Theatre. It 
 would therefore be himself, which did represent himself: 
 'and he,' I say, 'would have been both the Sign and the 
 Thing Signified together.' 
 
 To which piece of Sophistry, our Martyr replied, ' That 
 I found his Example very strange, and his Proof very weak : 
 and that his Proposition proved nothing else, but that the 
 King of Poland might represent his Past, by his Present, 
 Actions ; and that his Present Actions were only Signs and 
 Representations of his Past Actions, and not the Actions 
 themselves : and that to prove what he said. It was sufficient 
 only to observe that any other person, besides the King, 
 might have made the like Representations. 
 
 In another visit, the discourse happened to be upon the 
 words of Jesus Christ, ' This is my body:' which the Jesuit 
 called. Operative, that is, That they converted the bread into 
 the proper Body of Christ, by expressly declaring that it 
 was so : and Monsieur de Marolles affirmed that they were 
 Significative, that is, that they did express what was already 
 done. 
 
 Father Godinet, to prove what he said, alleged this 
 Example. ' If the King should say to Monsieur DE Chamilly, 
 " You are Marshal of France! ": no one would question but 
 that he was so.' 
 
 Oar Martyr, 'That it was not to be doubted, but that if 
 the King should make Monsieur de Chamlly, Marshal of 
 France, he would speak in the common phrase of the whole 
 World, and say, " I make you Marshal of France ! " ' 
 
 This Dispute was very long. I only take notice, by 
 these two circumstances of it, to shew the presence, and 
 freedom, of mind of this illustrious Prisoner. 
 
 IX. During the time of the confinement of Monsieur de Makolles 
 at Strasburg, he received several Letters from his friends of the Roman 
 Catholic Religion. I have read one from a Magistrate of Sainte Mene- 
 hould, his relation and friend ; and two others from that generous friend 
 of his, who was with the Duke of Mayne. In one of which, he told 
 him, 
 
 That a Cousin Germain of Monsieur de Saumaize, 
 having tried, if he could deliver a Petition to the King, to 
 obtain leave [for Monsieur de Saumaize] to go out of the 
 Kingdom, upon condition of leaving all his estate in his 
 hands, consisting of 708,000 Livres [= £70,800] of rents ; 
 
 203
 
 Marolles's family removed to Chalons. lese. 
 
 thinking that this clause Avould further the reception of 
 the Proposal ; and that it would be received in favour of so 
 near a relation, a man of merit, and one to whom they 
 actually sought occasion to do good. 
 
 But they answered, That it would be a mark of great 
 consideration and favour to the person who should meddle 
 with it ; if, upon a like demand, he were not sent to the 
 Bastinado. 
 
 At length he directs his discourse to his friend : 
 
 Nevertheless, our ancient friendship obliges me to 
 Monsieur conjure you to have pity upon your dear 
 
 Makolles was Wife, your children, and yourself ; and not 
 
 then at Uberty at to expose yourself to the fatal and miserable 
 l^ixi™- consequences which might happen, if you 
 
 were so ill advised as to think of making your escape. 
 The very thoughts of it make me tremble with horror ! I 
 must speak plain, dear Sir ! Not all my credit, and that of 
 all my friends, nor our alliance, would be able to save you 
 from the Galleys ; nor the rest of your family from per- 
 petual imprisonment. They will, thereupon, make use of a 
 Severity, which nothing can be able to mollify ; especially, 
 at first, when they will support the Laws by examples. 
 
 This friend wrote this, in answer to Monsieur DE Marolles, who had 
 written to him from Lixim desiring him to procure leave for him to dei)art 
 out of the Kingdom ; and promising, in his favour, to make him a donation 
 of all his estate [property] , upon condition of receiving only 5,000 
 Francs. The fear of falling into the hands of the Dragoons was the 
 cause that he did not stay for the Answer ; and that he did not receive 
 this Letter till he was in the Prison of Chalons. 
 
 It was easy for him to conclude from the Answer of this generous 
 friend of his, that he was not to promise himself any favour or mode- 
 ration : but that he must look to be treated with the utmost severity. 
 
 X. It is probable that Monsieur de Chamilly wrote to the Court 
 much about the same time that our Martyr was maintaining the truth 
 of his Faith against the Jesuits. 
 
 The 17th of January 1686, he was removed from Strasburg to 
 Chalons with his family; where he arrived on Monday, the 28th of 
 January. They carried them in a waggon, attended by Monsieur 
 Bourbon, the Aide-Major who had stopped them; together with an 
 Officer and five Troopers. He was put into the Prison of the City of 
 Chalons ; where, he observes, he continued just six weeks. 
 204
 
 1686. 
 
 The Sentence of the Court of Chalons. 
 
 He was immediately visited by [(Charles G. G. de) Vintimille du 
 Luc,] the Bishop of CHALONS SUR Marne ; who is now [1699] Arch- 
 bishop of Paris. AVe must do him justice, and say. That the zeal 
 which he hath foi- his Ri'ligion is as conforiuable to his character; as 
 the persecuting spirit of several other Bishops is far from it. 
 
 He wrote to Monsieur de Chamilly, in favour of Monsieur de 
 Marolles, so soon as he knew of his confinement at Strasburg : and^ 
 in the visit which he made him at Chalons, he told him, Tliat if he 
 could, he would conceal him under his robe. 
 
 During the first four weeks that our Martyr continued at ChalonSr 
 he had liberty enough. The Ecclesiastics who believed themselves 
 able to cope with him, at first were eager to signalize themselves. But 
 when they found his constancy to be invincible ; they locked him up 
 in a Dungeon, without suffering him to see any person for the space of 
 thirteen days. [See page 209.] 
 
 After which, he was brought to Judgement, the 9th of March ; and 
 his sentence was pronounced against him by torch-light. 
 
 Here follows a copy of his Sentence. 
 
 Upon perusal of the Process, 
 extraordinarily made, at the request 
 of the Attorney General in the Baili- 
 wick and Presidial Court of Chalons, 
 against Louis de Marolles, of the 
 Pretended Reformed Pieligiou, form- 
 erly Receiver of the Monies deposited 
 in the Bailiwick of Sainte Menehould: 
 who stands accused, and is Prisoner 
 in the Royal Gaol of the City of 
 Chalons, viz. 
 
 A Letter written from the 
 Marquis DE Louvois to Monsieur 
 DE MiROMENiL, Inteudant in the 
 Province of Champagne, dated Dec- 
 ember the 14th 168-5, at the bottom 
 of which, there is written, 
 
 A Copy; whereof the original is 
 in our hands. Signed, Miromenil. 
 
 By which, among other things, 
 the said Sieur de Miromenil is first 
 commanded from His Majesty, that 
 Process be made and perfected 
 against the said de Marolles, ac- 
 
 cused by tbe Officers of this Court, 
 according to the rigour of his Edicts 
 and Ordinances : 
 
 Secondly. The Interrogatory of 
 the said Prisoner, of the 28th "Janu- 
 ary last past : at the bottom whereof 
 are the Requests of the said Attorney 
 General, requiring that the Witnesses 
 who deposed in the said Informations 
 taken ['?] , and the Decree of the 
 Criminal Lieutenant in this Court : 
 
 Thirdly. Tlie Information taken, 
 the said day of January 29th last 
 past : 
 
 Fourthly. The Requests of the 
 said Attorney General, requiring that 
 tlie Witnesses, wlio deposed in the 
 said Information, may be further 
 examined as to their Depositions ; 
 and confronted with the said DB 
 Marolles, Prisoner : 
 
 Fifthly. A Judgement of the 
 said day of January 29th, for the 
 Examination and confronting of the 
 said Witnesses : 
 
 205
 
 Marolles sentenced to l)e a Galley Slave. 1686. 
 
 Sixthly. The Examination of 
 the said Witnesses, and confronting 
 of the same with tlic Prisoner, of the 
 same day : 
 
 Seventhly. And the conclusions 
 and desires of the said Attorney 
 General ; the said Prisoner being 
 heard at the Bar in the open Court : 
 
 We adjudge that the said de 
 Marolles is declared, proved, and 
 convicted, of having been apprehend- 
 ed, endeavouring to go out of the 
 Kingdom, with his family ; contrary 
 to His Majesty's Edicts and Declar- 
 ations. 
 
 For reparation whereof, 
 
 We have condemned, and do 
 condemn, the said de Marolles, 
 Prisoner, to serve the King for ever 
 as a Slave on board the Galleys ; and 
 
 his personal goods and chattels for- 
 feited to the King, by this our 
 Sentence, Judgement, and Decree. 
 
 Done in the Council Chamber, or 
 open Court, the 9th of March 1686. 
 
 Signed at the bottom Sebille, C. 
 
 JOURDAIN, J. JOURDAIN BAUGIER, 
 Le VAUTREL, DEU DU Vieux 
 Dampierre, Rambourg : all Coun- 
 cillors to the King in the Bailiwick 
 and Presidial Court of Chalons, the 
 year and day above mentioned. 
 
 Signed, Dompmartin. 
 Signified and delivered the present 
 Copy to the said Louis DE Marolles, 
 Prisoner in the Royal Gaol of Chalons, 
 nominated in the Sentence above 
 transcribed: speaking to himself, 
 that he may not plead Ignorance. 
 
 Whereas the Sergeant bad forgot Monsieur de Marolles's Appeal 
 to the Parliament of Paris ; he caused him to be put in mind of it, and 
 the Sergeant corrected his mistake. 
 
 XI. This 9th of March [1686 N.S.], when the Sentence was 
 pronounced against Monsieur de Marolles, was on a Saturday : and 
 on the Monday following, they took him out of the Dungeon, to convey 
 him in a waggon to Paris ; attended by three Archers from Chalons. 
 
 The younger of Monsieur de Marolles's sons, the elder being gone 
 from Chalons, presenting himself upon the way, without the City, to 
 accompany his father ; the Archers suffered him to ride in the waggon 
 with him : and [they] treated the Prisoner with as much civility as 
 could be expected from that sort of persons. They had a certain respect 
 for him ; which Virtue begets in the hearts of the most barbarous. 
 They told him, That they did not fear he would make his escape out of 
 their hands : and they did not mind to guard him with that severity 
 and exactness, which they generally use tow^ards Galley Slaves. 
 
 He arrived at the Conciergerie [at Paris] upon Thixrsday, the 14th 
 of March 1686. His son went with him into the Chamber, where they 
 immediately put the Prisoners that come from all parts, till such times 
 as they have informed themselves of the nature of their Condemnation. 
 The night approaching ; he asked. If he might return the next day, to 
 see his father '? 
 
 They told him. He might. 
 206
 
 1686. Marolles at the Conciergerie at Paris. 
 
 But coming thither, tlie next iiioruiiig; he was told that he might 
 see him no more. 
 
 I find a Bill [Mci)ior((iiiliu)i] of his hand [writing] ; wherein ho has 
 written as follows. 
 
 I was put into a dark Dungeon ; wliore I have heen 
 these two months, without seeing anybody. 
 
 On Saturday, the 11th of May 1680, I was brought 
 before my Judges at the Court where Criminal Causes are 
 tried ; and, contrary to what is usual, my Judgement was 
 deferred till Tuesday, the 14th of the same : and my 
 Condemnation of Chalons was confirmed the same day. 
 
 About two a clock in the afternoon, they put irons 
 upon my hands, put me into a coach, and I was carried to 
 Les Tournelles ; where I entered, making the 2t3th Gallerian 
 [Galley Slave'] * 
 
 Les Tournelles was a Palace in Henry II's time ; but now they 
 send the persons thither who are condemned to the Galleys, until the 
 departure of the Chain [C]iain-gini(/] . 
 
 XII. Thus is our Martyr entered ujion one of the first Theatres in 
 the "World ; where he maintained the Profession of his Faith in oppo- 
 sition to the Threats and Promises of the World with courage and mild- 
 ness, to the edification of all good persons. 
 
 So soon as he was arrived at Les Tournelles, and was loaded with 
 chains ; having some spare moments to write to his family and friends, 
 he employed those moments in comforting and rejoicing them, by 
 giving them an Account of the state of his Soul and the tranquility of 
 his Heart : putting his trust in GOD ; and counting himself happy, in 
 that he suffered for the glory of his Name, and of his Truth. 
 
 We have all his Letters, written with his own hand ; which I shall 
 not give to the public ; because it would require a Volume to contain 
 them : it being my design only to give the History of his Sufferings ; 
 which are undeniable proofs of the most notable effects which Hope, 
 Piety, and the Grace of GOD, can produce in a Soul. 
 
 He says, in one of his Letters, dated from La Tournelle, the 6th of 
 May 1686, 
 
 I was put into a dark Dungeon in the Conciergerie ; 
 where I hav^ been buried for these two months. 
 
 On the morning of my arrival ; I was twice brought 
 
 * Marolles seems to use the word, I Galley Slave. See also page 240. — 
 'Gallerian', in the sense of a Protestant | E. A. 
 
 207
 
 The endeavours of his Judges to save him. lese. 
 
 t>' 
 
 before the Procurator Goucral, in a chamber of the Con- 
 ciergerie ; and I returned such Answers to the Questions 
 which he put to me, as Jesus Christ inspired me with, 
 according to his promise. He made mc another visit ; and 
 gave me this testimony. That it was admirable to see me 
 do that for Error ; which none of them, j^erliaps, would do 
 for the Truth. 
 
 A little while after, the Chief President had me brought 
 out of the Dungeon, with the greatest honour in the World. 
 When I was come to the chamber where he waited for me ; 
 he caused all his attendance (consisting of six or seven 
 Persons of Merit) to go out : and honoured me with a private 
 conference, for the space of two hours. He expressed towards 
 me much goodness ; and desired to serve nie : and, so soon as 
 he was gone out, he betook himself to his company again ; 
 and said, as I was informed by one of my friends who was 
 present, ' I come from discoursing with a good man.' These 
 are only words : but yet they afford some comfort. 
 
 I did likewise receive several marks of the favour and 
 goodness of the President of the Court of Justice where 
 I was condemned. He talked with me at the door of the 
 Dungeon ; and, after some discourse, he told me. That it 
 was with great grief and sorrow that he saw me there ; 
 That he wished that I might be seized with some light 
 sickness, to have an occasion to take me out from thence, 
 and to put me in the Infirmary ; That, whenever I desired 
 to speak with him, I needed but to tell the Jailor, who 
 should acquaint him with it ; and he would not fail to come 
 to the Conciergerie to see me. 
 
 All these gentle methods had their end and view ; but 
 they were, I thank GOD ! unsuccessful : GOD having put 
 it into my heart to continue faithful to him ; even unto 
 death, if need required. 
 
 In another Letter, dated from Les Tournelles, the 2ud of July, he 
 informs ns of a combat, in which he had yielded up against his own 
 heart and mind. He confesses that, being in the Prison of Chalons, 
 
 The tears of a Wife and family which are dear to me, 
 and which were not able to move me at Strasburg, joined 
 to those of two brothers in law, who came to see me at 
 Chalons, induced me to accept certain Proposals ; which 
 were made me by two of the most eminent and considerable 
 persons in the Province. 
 208
 
 I 
 
 1686. Marolles in a Dungeon at Chalons. 
 
 I have been informed that those Proposals were to desire his 
 liberty, in order to Instruct himself more fully in the Controversies 
 which occasion our Separation from the Church of Rome. 
 
 But a few days after, GOD having given me to under- 
 stand my fault, and having afforded me an opportunity of 
 repairing it ; I embraced it with joy, fervency, and tears : 
 and that Father of Mercies, who knows how to produce 
 light out of darkness, made use of my infirmities thereby 
 to give me that strength and steadfastness which I have 
 since had. This gives me reason to hope that he will 
 continue this favour to me unto the end ; and that he 
 will always proportion his gifts and graces to the trials to 
 which it shall please him to expose me. 
 
 For the former missing of their end ; they did, at 
 length, make me new offers ; which affected me yet less than 
 the former : and I rejected them all, without deliberating 
 upon them. At which, they were so enraged ; that I was, 
 next day, put into a Dungeon, where I lay thirteen days 
 [February 24 — March 8 1686] before my condemnation. 
 This passed at Chalons. 
 
 Being in the Conciergerie at Paris, one of my friends, 
 Tutor to the children of the King and Madame Montespan, 
 came, with His Majesty's permission, to see me. He proposed 
 to me to go, for eight or ten months, to [Jacques B. 
 BossuET,] the Bishop of Meaux, to get myself Instructed. 
 This is their way of speaking. 
 
 I returned to him thanks, and assured him, That it 
 was not in the power of Time to change my Light and 
 Knowledge : and that I was persuaded that the Bishop of 
 Meaux could not satisfy me more than the other Bishops 
 which I had already seen. 
 
 We must not pass over, without animadversion [taking notice 
 of] , this uprightness of Soul, this uiceness of Conscience, in our 
 Maxtyr. Notwithstanding that his Conscience might have solicited 
 him, by his ijresent miseries, and by the fear of future calamities ; by 
 the sincere affection which he bore to his Wife and family; notwith- 
 standing this, I say, he rejects and silences all whatsoever the love of 
 the World and of this Life, whatsoever the bonds of Flesh and Blood, 
 could represent nnto him, to suppress his Fidelity; and tarnish the lustre 
 and glory of his Sufferings and Confession. They profer him, from the 
 King, his liberty for eight or ten months : during which time, he might 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 14 209
 
 To be Instructed = a Promise to renounce. 1686. 
 
 hope, not only to go out of bis Dungeon; but also [to] expect some happy 
 change, or some favourable opportunity to escape the Chain and the 
 Galleys, to which he was condeinned for ever. How would a heart, less 
 filled with the love of GOD, and the knowledge of its Duty in all its 
 extent, have invented specious pretences and captions arguments to 
 free itself from such dreadful miseries 1 But our Martyr, having regard 
 tx) nothing but his Duty, opposes the very first assault of the Temptation, 
 and tramples it under his feet. 
 
 It must not be imagined that this invincible Constancy is, in any 
 manner, the effect of stubbornness and obstinacy. The Jesuits of 
 Strasburg, and the Ecclesiastics of Chalons, were convinced that the 
 Faith of our Martyr was accomj)anied with Light and Knowledge. This 
 great man knew how to distinguish between the reasons which may 
 engage us to seek some new instruction ; and those secret motives of 
 tbe heart which are not to be hearkened unto. 
 
 When there do arise, of themselves, reasons for some doubts and 
 scruples about the Faith ; then a man is necessarily, and indispensably, 
 obliged to get himself Instructed and informed. In such a case, this 
 care and pains is a debt which a man owes to himself : and negligeiice 
 therein can proceed from nothing else but either an unreasonable 
 stubbornness, or a criminal indifferency. 
 
 A man must likewise enquire into the Religion of his neighbours 
 and his countrymen ; either to reap advantage from their Light and 
 Knowledge, or to communicate and impart ours to them, and help 
 forward their salvation as much as i)ossibly we can. 
 
 But when one enjoys a full and entire persuasion of his Faith, 
 especially by its opposition to a doctrine whose false foundations one 
 knows ; and that the motive which imts us upon seeking Instruction 
 proceeds only from a heart desirous to free itself from those Afflictions 
 which are occasioned by its Religion : then this secret motive, whereof 
 a man is convicted within himself, cannot, doubtless, be acceptable to 
 GOD, nor procure his blessing. This is a crime. This is to temj)t GOD; 
 because it is to put a secret cheat upon one's self, and to call in 
 question a known Truth. 
 
 Besides, as things stood in France, to talk of getting one's self 
 Instructed, was tacitly to engage one's self to renounce one's Religion. 
 Monsieur db Marollks knew this very well ; which made him reject 
 all those offers, without bestowing a moment's deliberation upon 
 them. 
 
 They likewise made him the same Proposals, just when he was 
 ready to depart for the Galleys. We follow the order and course of 
 time ; and therefore when we come to sjjeak of that, we shall hear his 
 Answer. 
 210
 
 1686. Two months in a dark Dungeon at Paris. 
 
 But is it not much to be wondered at, that the Bishop of Mkaux 
 would not venture himself with this illustrious Prisoner to Instruct 
 him, either whilst he was in the Conciergerie, or at Les Tournelles. 
 Were not they as convenient places to apply himself to the conversion 
 of Monsieur de Marolles in, as Meaux, or Gormilly the country-house 
 of that Prelate ? What reason could hinder him from exercising his 
 charity in those places of misery and affliction '? This is easily known, 
 that [that] Bishop would run no hazard. He thought it concerned his 
 reputation not to enter the List [s] with this learned i)erson ; without 
 being first assured of the victory : as if the Instruction which we owe 
 to ovir neighbours was like a theatrical combat ; wherein all the 
 spectators should know the party that was to be vanquished. 
 
 This brings to my mind the Saying of a certain Minister to a 
 Courtier, being at Fontainebleau, at the time of the Revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes. This Courtier would needs engage [induce] him to 
 take a dinner with him, to enter into conversation with [Jacques B, 
 BossuET,] the Bishop of Meaux, and Father [Francois d'Aix] la 
 Chaise. The Minister's answer to his importunities was. That he 
 might do what he pleased. But he let him know, That it was his 
 humour to answer with civility and assurance to their arguments ; that 
 therefore he must consider what he designed to do : adding, with a 
 smile. That he believed it was not the humour and inclination of those 
 Gentlemen to follow the chase in the jjlain and open field. They would 
 be for having the beast shut up in a Park, that they might be sure of 
 the Prize. 
 
 XIII. Let us return to the History of our Martyr. After having 
 languished two months [March 14 — May 11] in a Dungeon; he was 
 brought before the Court on Saturday, the 11th of May 1686. We are 
 informed of what passed there, by a Letter which he wrote to his 
 Sister-in-law, dated from Les Tournelles, the 17th of May. 
 
 I have been two full months with seven miserable 
 wretches, condemned either to the Galleys, or to be hanged, 
 or to be broken upon the Wheel, in a Dungeon so dark that 
 I could not well discern their faces. They have all been 
 troubled with rheums [^catarrh^ and fluxes [dysetitry^ : 
 which GOD hath preserved me from ; although I am old, 
 and they are all of them young. 
 
 The 11th current, I was taken out of the Dungeon, 
 contrary to my expectation, for I expected that they would 
 let me rot there ; and brought to the Criminal Court, to be 
 judged. 
 
 IMonsieur the President of the House, who was at the 
 
 211
 
 Marolles's Sentence is confirmed at Paris. 1686. 
 
 head of my Judges, ordered ine to sit down on tlie Prisoners' 
 Stool ; and took my oath to speak the truth. I answered 
 to all, whatsoever he desired to know of me. After which, 
 he made me an Exhortation ; and hade me think seriously 
 with myself, That it was not they, that should judge me : 
 and that the Declaration of the King did expressly mention 
 my condemnation. 
 
 I returned him thanks for liis goodness which he 
 expressed to me, and told him, That I was in no great 
 trouble to deliberate ; that my resolution was • fixed long 
 ago ; and that I resigned myself to the Court, and was ready 
 to suffer the penalties to which they should think fit to 
 condemn me. That how great and severe soever they may 
 be ; they would be less uneasy to me, than to act against 
 the lights of my Conscience, and to live like a hypocrite. 
 
 They ordered me thereupon to withdraw^ : and I was 
 conveyed back to my Dungeon. 
 
 I expected to be conducted in the afternoon to Les 
 Tournelles : but they deferred my Judgement till Tuesday 
 following, the 14th of May. 
 
 Three or four hours after, they came to carry me away. 
 They put manacles upon my hands ; and so conducted me 
 in a coach to Les Tournelles. 
 
 It is uot known, for what reason they delayed, contrary to what 
 is usual, to pronounce the Sentence of Monsieur de Maeolles. It is 
 probable that the Court designed to inform the King of the constant 
 resolution of ovir Martyr ; and to make some new attempts in his 
 favour. Indeed, I find, in a Letter of Recommendation written from 
 Paris to Monsieur de Courselles, Governor of Toulon, in favour of 
 Monsieur de Marolles, that his Sentence of Condemnation to the 
 Galleys had been confirmed at the Parliament of Paris ; but after svich 
 a manner as had procured pain and trouble to all the Judges ; that the 
 Chief President and Procurator General did intend to represent to the 
 Iving all the circumstances of the affair, and the merit of the person: 
 but as the Declarations were formal, the King would make no> 
 exception. 
 
 If the trvith of the matter were known, perhaps one might find 
 the Clergy hastening his condemnation ; while an august Parliament 
 deferred it, in order to solicit his pardon. So true it is, that the Genius 
 and disposition of the Roman Catholic Religion, in its most trusty 
 Ministers, is a barbarous and unmerciful Genius ; which breathes forth 
 nothing but Blood and Violence, always contrary to Christian Charity 
 and Moderation. But be that as it will, he was at length sentenced ;, 
 212
 
 1686. A chain, weighing 30 lbs., put on his neck. 
 
 and the Sentence of the Presidial of Chalons was confirmed. 
 Let us hear the following part of his Letter. 
 
 The Governor of [Les] Tournelles, knowing who I was, 
 find heing informed of my crime, caused me to be treated 
 with as much gentleness as can be expected in that place. 
 They were contented to put a fetter upon one foot. 
 
 But, the next morning, he came to tell me that he had 
 just received Orders whicli very much afflicted him ; which 
 was tliat the King liad commanded that the chain should 
 be put upon -my neck. 
 
 I thanked him for his goodness whicli he expressed to 
 me : and told him, that I was ready to pay a respectful 
 obedience to the Orders of His Majesty. I laid aside my 
 hat. They took the chain from off my foot : and put on me 
 another about my neck ; which doth not, I believe, weigh 
 less than thirty pounds. 
 
 Tlius you see, my dear Sister, the state and condition 
 Avhich the wise Providence of GOD hath chosen and allotted 
 for me, out of a thousand others in which he might have 
 placed me. I expect from his mercy, strength and constancy 
 to suffer all for his glory and my own salvation. Do not 
 afflict yourself at my condition, my dear Sister ! It is more 
 happy than you think for ! Weep not for me ! Keep your 
 tears for so many miserable wretches who live not so 
 contentedly as I do ! Grant me the assistance of your 
 prayers ! I assure you, that I do not forget you in mine. 
 
 And, in another Letter, of the 16th of May, i.e. the day after the 
 chain was pnt on his neck, he says, after such another Relation as that 
 hefore mentioned. 
 
 Thus, Sir, (I suppose he wrote to Monsieur [Pierre] 
 JuRiEU) you have an Abridgement of my Misery, and to 
 speak more truly, of my Glory: for I continually give thanks 
 to GOD for the honour which he hath done me, in not 
 thinking me unworthy to suffer for his Name's sake. Let 
 your prayers accompany mine, to obtain from the mercy of 
 GOD, his succour and assistance so long as it shall please 
 him to continue my Sufferings and Afflictions ! 
 
 Eight days after that, the Procurator General went thither: and 
 Ave are informed, by a Note written with our Martyr's own hand, of 
 what passed between that famous Magistrate and himself. 
 
 213
 
 The Procunitor General tries to save him. lese. 
 
 The 24th of May 1G8G, the Procurator General came 
 to visit those who were condemned to the Galleys. ^ 
 
 He addressed himself to me ; and seeing the chain upon 
 my neck, he told me, That it was with grief that he saw me 
 in so miserahle a condition ; and that he did greatly desire 
 to deliver me out of it. That I was so much the more worthy 
 of pity and compassion; because it was my prejudices which 
 plunged both myself and family into misery. 
 
 I answered him, That I should be very much to blame, 
 if it were so : but that it was my opinion that, in cases which 
 concern our salvation, we must despise and neglect whatso- 
 ever relates only to this Life ; and that it was this thought 
 and consideration which induced me to bear my Evils with 
 patience. 
 
 He replied, That he was persuaded that I was right as 
 to my intentions, that I had a sincere zeal for the glory of 
 GOD and my own salvation ; but that I wanted Knowledge : 
 and that he would come again to see and talk with me, 
 within a little time; that there was nothing which he w^ould 
 not either do, or give, to deliver me out of my misery. 
 
 I told him, That I did, with much thankfulness and 
 respect, receive the tokens of his goodness which he was 
 pleased to shew me. 
 
 After which, he departed. 
 
 Three days after, he received another visit ; of which we have like- 
 wise an Account written with his own hand. 
 
 Monday, the 27th of May 1686, between seven and 
 eight a clock in the evening, a Councillor belonging to the 
 Court of La Tournelle, who sat next to, and on the right 
 hand, of the President of the House, when I was brought 
 into the Court before my Trial, came to visit the Prisoners 
 at Les Tournelles. 
 
 After he was gone out, Monsieur Le Roi, our Head 
 Keeper, took me out of the place where we are, and brought 
 me into the Chamber, which is called the Council Chamber: 
 where the Councillor waited for me. I had my Chain about 
 my neck. 
 
 He told me, with all the ingenuity and candour in the 
 World, ' All our Assembly, Sir, are touched with grief for 
 the misery to which we know you are reduced ; and I come 
 to solicit you to deliver yourself out of it. We know that 
 214
 
 1686. The Court of La Tournellc try to save him. 
 
 you have lived like a very honest man; and that you proceed 
 from a good Family. Consider with, and examine, yourself, 
 by the rules both of Policy and Conscience. Before seven 
 or eight months are at an end, your Religion shall be no 
 more mentioned in France ! Even at jn'esent, there are 
 very severe Edicts against the New Converts, who do not do 
 their duty : and in other places [as Spaing, your Religion 
 has been extinguished this 130 years [i.e. since 1556]. But 
 I do not come hither to dispute w4th you about it. You 
 know that it hath subsisted and continued in the Kingdom, 
 only upon Sufferance and Toleration; and out of a necessity 
 of appeasing and puttijig an end to the Troubles. It lies 
 wholly in your power to advance yourself higher than you 
 have ever yet been ; and to procure peace to your family. 
 
 I answered, That I was very much obliged to their 
 Illustrious Assembly for passing so favourable a judgement 
 upon me, and for the goodness which they expressed 
 towards me; and to himself in particular, for the marks 
 which he gave me of his goodwill ; [and] that I did return 
 them all a thousand thanks : but that nothing should ever 
 be able to make me do any [thing] against my Conscience ; 
 and that I had but little regard for all the Advantages of 
 this Life. That if it were true that I was in an error, and 
 it should please God to convince me of it, by giving me new 
 Light and Knowledge ; I should not fail to follow them 
 with much zeal and joy, out of the sole view of the Glory 
 of GOD. 
 
 I said moreover, That the Edict of Nantes was to 
 reward the good services which that King, Henry IV., had 
 received from the Protestants ; rather than to appease the 
 Troubles, which were then allayed ; the Arms being laid 
 down, and the King in a peaceable possession of the 
 Crown. 
 
 I said nothing of Religion ; because of what he said to 
 me. That he was not come to dispute with me about it. 
 
 This good Councillor went away a little after ; desiring 
 me to think seriously upon what he had said unto me. 
 
 Monsieur Le Roi told me, as he carried me back, That 
 this Councillor was sent as Commissioner, by the Court of 
 La Tournelle, to speak to me, from the part [on the behalf] 
 of that famous Society; who were never touched with so 
 much trouble and compassion for any person, as they were 
 for me. 
 
 215
 
 'I fix my confidence on the Eternal Rock !' lese. 
 The Councillor's name was Monsieur Reynaud. 
 
 I must advertise the Reader that the Chamber of La Tournelle is 
 a Chamber, or Court, belonging to the Parliament of Paris, where 
 criminals are tried : to the end that it may not be confounded with La 
 Tournelle, or rather Les Tournelles, whither they send the persons 
 condemned to the Galleys until their departure. There is, at present, 
 in that Parliament, La Tournelle Civile, and La Tournelle Criminelle. 
 
 Monsieur DE Maeolles wrote several Letters from Les Tournelles 
 to Ms Wife, children, and friends. He sent one, dated the 16th of May, 
 to Monsieur Jukieu ; to which that Pastor returned an Answer the 27th 
 of the same month. He received an Answer from our Martyr, the 2nd 
 of July 1686 ; who assured him that his Letters did tend to the consola- 
 tion of himself, and [of] all those to whom he could communicate them. 
 And after having returned him thanks for his good advice ; he tells him 
 
 The manner of my Suffering, and the good Eye \_02)i?iio7i] 
 with which GOD makes me regard all my Sufferings, 
 persuades me that he will give me the grace to continue 
 faithful unto him ; even unto death. I do not fix my eyes 
 upon the condition in which I am ; which troubles and 
 afflicts those that see it much more than it does myself. 
 I place them solely upon the rewards which GOD has 
 promised to all those that fear his name. I am certain that 
 the light Afflictions with which he is pleased to visit me, will 
 produce in me, according to his divine promise, an eternal 
 weight of exceeding great Glory. I comfort myself, because 
 the Sufferings of this present time are not to compare with 
 the future Glory which is to be revealed in us ; and I j)ut 
 my trust in what Saint James says, ' Blessed is the man 
 who endures temptation ; for, when he shall have been 
 tried, he shall receive the crown of incorruptible glory and 
 immortality which GOD reserves for his Elect, [i. 12.] I 
 rejoice in that our Saviour doth pronounce those Blessed, 
 who suffer for Righteousness' sake [Matt. v. 10.] . 
 
 Thus, Sir, I make all my glory and happiness to consist 
 in this. That my Redeemer doth not count me unworthy to 
 suffer for his Name's sake. I fix my confidence on the 
 Eternal Rock ! I put all my trust in him ! I exiDect hell? 
 and succour from him alone ! I persuade myself that 
 nothing shall be able to move me ; fixed on so solid a 
 foundation. 
 216
 
 1686. *I have had five fits of the Tertian Fever.' 
 
 He put in practice what he so well wrote in an excellent little 
 Treatise, of bis own handwriting, upon Providence; which he composed, 
 without doubt, in the time of his confinement. The whole Letter may 
 be seen inserted in the 'Pastoral Letter' of Monsieur Jurieu, in the 
 year 1686. 
 
 I proceed to what concerns the History of his Sufferings. He says, 
 a little lower, 
 
 That Sir, is my usual occupation ; as niucli as the 
 infamous place wherein I am confined, will permit. I call 
 it, infamous ; because there is not an honest or virtuous 
 word to be heard there. It resounds with nothing but 
 filthiness and execrable blasphemies. They make such a 
 noise and tumult all day, and for the greatest part of the 
 night, that I could scarce heretofore meet with one happy 
 moment to lift uj) my heart to GOD. I was so overwhelmed 
 with drowsiness, that I often fell asleep before I liad made 
 an end of my Prayer. When I awaked, about three or four 
 a clock of the morning, I endeavoured to keep myself awake, 
 that I might, whilst the place was free from noise, pay my 
 homage to GOD with some attention. 
 
 I have [had] more liberty, since these ten or twelve days. 
 For, when it is fine weather, they suffer the Chain to go out, 
 and abide in a Court all day ; except it be six of us who are 
 kept locked up. I spend one part of this time in reading, 
 meditation, and prayer : and I do likewise take the liberty 
 to sing some Psalms, as I have done in all places of my 
 imprisonment, without ever being complained of for it. 
 
 Thus you see, in two words, an Abridgement of our 
 Misery. 
 
 We lie, fifty-three of us, in a place which is not above 
 thirty feet in length and nine in breadth. There lies on 
 the right side of me a sick peasant : with his head to my 
 feet, and my feet to his head. There are likewise others. 
 There is scarce one amongst us, who doth not envy the 
 condition of several dogs and horses. This makes us all 
 desire that the Chain [Chain-gang'] may depart quickly. 
 They conceal this from us: but, as far as we can judge, it 
 will depart next Saturday [, July 20 1G86]. 
 
 We were yesterday ninty-five condemned persons in 
 number : but two of them died that day, and one to-day. 
 
 We have still fifteen or sixteen sick ; and there are but 
 few who escape it. I have had five fits of the Tertian Fever : 
 
 217
 
 Anticipating the Journey to Marseilles. lese. 
 
 but, I thank GOD ! I am very well recovered of it ; and in 
 a disposition to make the voyage [journcij^ to Marseilles. 
 We shall take in some of our brethren at Burgundy : wbo 
 are condemned to the Chain for the same Cause for which I 
 am ; [and] who have the honour to be the first condemned 
 by the Parliament of Paris. 
 
 We likewise meet with two other Letters, which a German Minister 
 wrote to him in the Latin tongue, full of instruction and consolation. 
 
 In one of the Answers which our Martyr made him, he begs the 
 assistance of his prayers, 
 
 Hoping (saith he) that, by the means of the powerful 
 assistance which several other Servants of GOD as well as 
 you, do afford me, my Sufferings will end in the glory of 
 our Creator, the edification of our brethren, and my own 
 salvation. 
 
 AVhen I reflect (saith he) on the merciful Providence of 
 GOD towards me, I am ravished with admiration ; and do 
 evidently discover the secret steps of Providence : who hath 
 formed me, from my youth, after a requisite manner to bear 
 what I suffer. I have always had but little love for those 
 things which Worldlings esteem and admire ; and more care 
 to provide for my Soul than my Body. Although I do 
 acknowledge, to my shame and confusion, that I have not 
 served so faithfully as I ought to have done ; and that I have 
 not been so thankful as I ought to have been, for so many 
 benefits and favours which he hath conferred on me : I have 
 always had a zeal for his Glory and Truth. 
 
 And these are those holy seeds which he hath had the 
 goodness to preserve in my heart ; which, in this time of 
 desolation, began to produce in me the excellent Truths ; 
 whose sweetness affords me a pleasure, which I am not able 
 to utter and express to you. 
 
 It is this happy condition in which I am, which assures 
 me that GOD will finish the work which he has begun in 
 me : and I believe I may say, with his faithful Apostles, 
 that I am confident that neither Angel, nor Principality, 
 nor Power, nor Height, nor Depth, nor things present, nor 
 things to come, nor any other creature, shall ever be able to 
 separate me from the love which GOD hath shewn me in 
 his Son Jesus Christ. [Rom. viii. 38, 39.] 
 
 I can truly and sincerely say. Sir, that the Prisons and 
 dark Dungeons in which I have been confined, for above 
 218
 
 1686. * My threatened Evils do not at all terrify nie/ 
 
 these six months, and the chain which I now carry about 
 my neck, have been, so far from shaking the holy resolntion 
 which GOD hath put into my heart, that it hath only 
 strengthened and confirmed it. I have sought GOD in 
 quite a different method in my Afflictions, than ever I did 
 in a state of worldly prosperity : and I may say. That he 
 hath suffered himself to be found by me. He hath very 
 delightfully communicated liimself to me by the sweetness 
 of his consolations. In the midst of the transitory Afflic- 
 tions, which it is his will that I should suffer, he hath made 
 me to taste of solid good things. 
 
 The Evils with which I am threatened, do not at all 
 terrify me. If they are violent ; I am not in a condition to 
 bear up long against them : and so a Christian death will 
 put a happy period \_c'tid] tliereto. If they are moderate ; 
 I shall have reason to bless our GOD for it : who shall con- 
 tinue his favour and goodness towards me. These con- 
 siderations make me look upon the time to come, with the 
 eye of constancy and assurance. 
 
 It appears by these few Extracts wliicli we give of the Letters of 
 that blessed Martyr, how great was the tranquility and assurance of 
 that Christian and heroic Soul. 
 
 It was therefore to no purpose to renew the attack ; to pervert, or 
 stagger, a heart so full of knowledge, fervour, and piety. We have 
 already observed, That it had been proposed to him to spend eight or 
 ten months with the Bishop of Meaux. They renew the charge, by 
 proposing an unlimited time. 
 
 How great and dangerous was that Temptation ! Our Martyr is 
 under the Chain ; and has a prospect of a dreadful futurity [future]. 
 He is solicited, not only by his own Flesh ; but also by the sight of his 
 afflicted Wife, and by his fatherless children which he leaves in the 
 midst ; insomuch that the natural love of Life, the sense of Afflictions, 
 the prospect of the dreadful Miseries which his condition represented 
 to him, Conjugal Love, and Paternal Affection, did all of them combine 
 to induce, and constrain, him to accept a Proposal ; which seemed, at 
 first, to oblige him to nothing. 
 
 They offer him his liberty, only upon condition that he would 
 promise to endeavour to get himself Instructed ; without setting any 
 limited time. He might flatter himself that they would open a door for 
 his deliverance, without complying with the King's Orders. But his 
 Soul, faithful to his GOD, filled with his holy resolutions, looks upon it 
 as a crime to accept a Proposal ; from which there might be drawn the 
 
 219
 
 Others try to save Marolles. igsg. 
 
 least consequence prejudicial to the certainty of his Faith. He is in 
 the presence of his Enemies. The combat is begun. He is resolved to 
 win the victory ; without so much as hearing talk of returning into his 
 Tent. He tramples the AVorld under his feet ; and will not allow that 
 Enemy time to recover new strength. 
 
 One of his friends did first make this Proposal to him, from 
 Monsieur Mokell, a rich Partisan, or Farmer of the King's Revenues, 
 at Vitry : who promised to procure his deliverance from the Chain the 
 next day; if he would take even an unlimited time, to api)ly himself in 
 good earnest to get Instructed. He assured him, What should be 
 promised him, should be faithfully observed and performed. This 
 passed about the end of June. 
 
 Other persons renewed the attack on the first day of July ; as he 
 informs us, by a Note written with his own hand : wherein he gives us 
 the reasons for his refusal. 
 
 At Les Tournelles, Wednesday, the 17th of July 1686, 
 ten or twelve days before our departure from thence, an 
 Advocate of the Court of Parliament came to see me, 
 accompanied with a Lady who was unknown to me, and 
 Madame Lamblin who had done me the honour of a visit 
 in the Prison at Chalons. She was the Wife of a Treasurer 
 of France, She testified, by her tears, that she was sensibly 
 touched with the condition in which she saw me ; and that 
 slie wished, with all her heart, that she could procure my 
 deliverance out of the misery which I suffered. 
 
 The discourse fell uj)on the Proposal which had been 
 made me some days before, viz.. To go to the Bishop of 
 Meaux to be Instructed. This is their way of speaking. 
 
 The Advocate began to speak upon this point ; and 
 employed all his Rhetoric to prove that I ought to accept of 
 that offer : and said. That he did not believe that I could 
 offer any sufficient reasons to the contrary. 
 
 When he had made an end of his discourse, and had 
 given me place to speak; I answered. That I thought 
 myself very much obliged to do as I did, for the following 
 reasons : 
 
 I said that in the Conferences which I had had with 
 the Reverend Fathers the Jesuits at Strasburg ; they had 
 not given me any manner of satisfaction in my Objections, 
 which I made to them. That the same Answer, or much to 
 the same purpose at least, had been given me at Chalons : 
 and I had read the same things in the Works of the famous 
 Monsieur [Antoine] Arnauld : and since they had not 
 220
 
 1686. Why he resolved to follow his Vocation. 
 
 satisfied me in that Author, the}' could not afford inc more 
 satisfaction elsewhere. 
 
 That I was very strong!}' persuaded of the truth of my 
 Faith ; about which I had no manner of doubt: and 1 feared 
 [that] it was tempting GOD to accept the offer which they 
 made me. That, on the other hand, the space of eight 
 months that I had been confined, hath enured [accustouied] 
 me to Sufferings; that, by that means, GOD had discovered 
 to me the vanity of this Life, and [of] all that is here below : 
 that thereby he had broken asunder most of the bands and 
 ligaments which engaged me to the World ; and had put 
 into my heart a great disrelish for the Earth, and an ardent 
 desire after Heaven. That I esteemed this state sufficiently 
 happy to think seriously to preserve it. 
 
 I added. That all the civilities which I was persuaded 
 I should receive from so famous and nohle a Prelate, and 
 the considerable alteration which would happen to my 
 condition, would make me, within a few days, forget all my 
 miseries ; and would root in my heart the Love of the World 
 and the Pleasures of Life more strongly j)erhaps than ever: 
 to plunge me again into misery ; without any certainty of 
 receiving so much favour aiul assistance from GOD therein, 
 as I have already received till this present. 
 
 That, for those reasons, I was resolved to follow my 
 Vocation ; and to end my days in Suffering, if it was the 
 will of GOD. 
 
 That, as to the rest, I did with great acknowledgements 
 and thankfulness, receive the tokens which he gave m.e of 
 his charity and affection. 
 
 Since then, he came several times to see me ; always 
 backing what he had advanced, with the strongest arguments 
 he could. The last time that he saw me, which was on 
 Monday, the 15th of July 1686, he told Monsieur Le Roi, 
 our Head Keeper, that he came by the orders of the Procu- 
 rator General. 
 
 And, the next day, the Procurator General honoured me 
 with a visit, and told me, That he came to try yet again, if, 
 before our departure for Marseilles, there were yet any room 
 left to rescue me from the Chain [Chain-gang'] and misery : 
 and asked me, If there were no alteration in me'? 
 
 And when I returned him the thanks due to his civility; 
 I told him, That all my disgrace had wrought no change 
 
 221
 
 Marolles's Wife washes his wounds. 1686. 
 
 upon the disposition of my Heart ; no more than upon that 
 of my Mind. He then dej)arted. 
 
 The Chain is to depart next Saturday, the 20th of this 
 month. 
 
 The more one reflects upon the condition of our Martyr, for the 
 space of two months since his condemnation, till his departure from 
 Paris, the more shall one admire his virtue, strength, and piety, in this 
 so dangerous and obstinate a Combat which he had with the World. 
 
 I do not find that any Ecclesiastic, in all that great City, sought to 
 have any Conference with Monsieur de Marolles. This is to be 
 wondered at ; that, whilst the Members of Parliament expressed so 
 much pity and compassion for that ilkistriovis Prisoner, the Clergy 
 should look iipon him with so much indifference. But there is a great 
 deal of reason to believe that they were afraid of this holy and learned 
 man. 
 
 XIV. We have given an idea of his piety and his conflicts. We 
 must lay him open on all sides ; and consider his great Soul in all the 
 different occurrences and concerns of life. His GOD possessed, and 
 wholly filled, him ; after which, the cares of his Family succeeded in 
 their order. 
 
 Upon his first coming to Les Tournelles ; he acquainted his Wife, 
 with that freedom of spirit which he generally used, the 14th of May 
 1686. 
 
 I informed you, mj dear Child ! that my Judgement was 
 confirmed this morning, by Sentence of the Court, and that 
 I am at present at Les Tournelles, with Monsieur Le Favky ; 
 which is no small comfort to me. Although I have a great 
 desire to see you; yet it is so hot, that I advise you to 
 stay till tomorrow morning : but send to me [his sons,] 
 DE Marolles and his brother, that I may have the satis- 
 faction to see them ; and receive a true and exact account 
 of your state and condition. I meet here with something 
 more agreeable, and more grievous, than the Dungeon : 
 but we must submit to all. 
 
 His Wife, under the greatest affliction that can be imagined, visited 
 him as often as she could, and put her hand through the grate to wash 
 the wounds, which the chain had made upon him, with water in which 
 musket balls had been steeped. 
 
 She heard, one day, that the Clergy had spread a report in Paris, 
 That he was besides himself. This infamous Fraud was contrived to 
 222
 
 1686. Marolles's famous Mathematical Problem. 
 
 allay the wonder and admiration which the constancy of our Martyr 
 raised in all that great City. 
 
 So soon as he was informed of it ; he proposed a Problem to the 
 Learned, to the end that they might exercise themselves in the Solution 
 of it: and thereby judge of the situation of his mind, and of the nature 
 of the calumny which had been forged against him. 
 
 I have not this Problem at present : but it did appear by a Letter 
 of his dear friend and scholar, who was then with the Duke of Mayne, 
 that our Martyr (being always free in his chains ; always of an even 
 temper, and like to himself) answered to the Questions which were 
 proposed to him, just as if he had been at ease in his Closet [Study] . 
 
 This friend of his, said to him. I perceive there is an 
 error in the Solution of the Problem which I sent you, upon 
 the Condition which I pretended to add to yours. It is 
 true, my Four Numbers have all the requisite and necessary 
 conditions : but it is not true, that their Sum, being made 
 equal to a Number given, would produce the same effect 
 with respect to the Conditions annexed. Nevertheless, I 
 am well enough satisfied that your Problem is resolved 
 thereby. I am going to reduce it into Lines ; and make 
 a Geometrical Problem of it, to puzzle the Akchimedes 
 of our Time. 
 
 Thus I intend to propose it : 
 
 To divide a Line given into Four Lines commensur- 
 able among themselves, and to the whole; and which may 
 be of such a nature that the difference of any two, taken 
 at pleasure, may likewise be commensurable : and more- 
 over between the difference of any two parts, taken 
 likewise at j)leasure, to assign a Mean Proportional, which 
 may be commensurable to all the Lines mentioned in the 
 Prorblem. 
 One may conclude from these words, as also from the Report of 
 Monsieur [Abbaham] di: Moivre, belonging to the Royal College 
 [Society] of London, who was acquainted with Monsieur de Marolles 
 during his confinement, that the Problem which he proposed, was that 
 which Monsieur [Jacques] Ozanam printed in these words. 
 
 To find out Four Numbers, whose Number may be equal to a 
 Number given ; and such, that the Difference of any Two of them 
 whatsoever, may be a Square Number. 
 
 Those who know what application of mind this Science requires, 
 will be able to judge of the strength of our Martyr. But he had taken 
 the good course ; and thrown himself into the arms of Providence, 
 and i)eaceably submitted to the will of GOD. 
 
 223
 
 A 
 
 XV. A T LENGTH, THE Chain [Chain-ganfj] departed from Paris, 
 
 on Saturday, the 20th of July [1686]. Monsieur DE 
 
 Maeolles had then the Fever. He had dreaded his 
 
 sorrowful separation from his Wife : and his Wife, cast 
 
 down and sick with affliction, could not be present at his sorrowful 
 
 departure. 
 
 They had not above the breadth of a Key [Quay] to cross, to enter 
 into the boat. The Gallerians [Galley-slaves] go two by two, carrying 
 a long chain which passes through their particular chains in rings. 
 Our Martyr was permitted, by favour, to be in the last rank. In those 
 few steps which he had to take, he met his children ; who cast them- 
 selves upon his neck, and embraced him. It is hard to represent this 
 sorrowful Adieu, without grief and emotion. 
 
 One may easily imagine that this famous Gallerian, who, some 
 months since, made so miich noise in Paris, drew a great concourse of 
 people. Every one seemed touched with his misery : and an ancient 
 Roman Catholic Merchant, breaking through the throng, came and 
 embraced and encouraged him ; offering him his purse. This man 
 hath since given glory to GOD; and retired with his family to London, 
 there to make Profession of the Truth. 
 
 Monsieur DE Maeolles wrote from Dijon to one of his friends in 
 Paris. The Letter is dated the 30th of July ; ten days after his 
 departure from Les Tournelles. 
 
 Our treatment (saith he) is extremely prejudicial to me. 
 I dissembled my condition as much as possible at my 
 departure. I had the Fever on Thursday, the 18th of July ; 
 which continued on Friday, and was more violent on Satur- 
 day. I set out, therefore, in this condition ; after having 
 resigned myself to the will of GOD : and I have not yet got 
 rid of this Fever ; which hath been continual, and without 
 intermission. I may tell you, my dear Sister, that it brought 
 me even to Death's door : but GOD, in his infinite goodness, 
 hath raised me up again ; and I am now past danger. 
 
 Our Captain had compassion on me ; and, the second 
 day, he had me loosed from the Chain ; and kept me always 
 in his chamber, or in the boat with him. I must confess 
 that, in this voyage yourney~] it was, that I perceived, in 
 224
 
 1686. MaroUes's arrival at Marseilles. 
 
 good earnest, that I suffered. But, notwithstanding this, my 
 dear Sister, bless GOD with me that he was pleased to 
 grant me such a speedy deliverance. I perceive my strength 
 sensibly to return ; and I hope that, before I arrive at 
 Marseilles, I shall be perfectly well recovered. 
 
 It (lid appear by all the Letters of this holy man, that he was so 
 far from angmeuting, that he lessened, his Miseries ; that he might not 
 aggravate the affliction of his Wife. So that when he speaks of his 
 miserable condition ; one must be persuaded that it was much harder 
 than he speaks of. Of this, we have a proof in a Letter which he 
 wrote from Marseilles, a little while after his arrival. It is dated the 
 25th of August. 
 
 As I left Paris. sick of a Fever ; it hath accompanied me 
 to this place. "I have undergone incredible fatigue, and 
 have been twice at the point of death : in which condition, 
 I lay upon planks without any straw under me ; and my 
 hat for a pillow. 
 
 When we left the water; it was much worse for us. 
 We were forced to be jumbled, fourteen hours a day, in a 
 waggon, for all those roads are very rough and stony : and 
 [, at night,] thrust into Dungeons. Thus, my dear and true 
 friend, GOD having thus proved me, and furnished me with 
 necessary assistance : he hath, at length, brought me here, 
 pretty free from the Fever ; but very weak. It is a pitiful 
 sight to see my leanness. 
 
 And, what is terrible, at my arrival, for want of examin- 
 ing into my condition, they sent me away into the Galley. 
 
 1 was conducted by two of our Guards ; who supported me ; 
 and I was no sooner come thither, but I was chained as the 
 other Galley Slaves were. But several Officers, coming to 
 see our Chain, had compassion on me : especially Monsieur 
 P., from whom I received infinite favours. They spake to 
 the Major [of the Galley] ; who sent a Chirurgeon ISiir- 
 geon] to see me : upon whose report I was let loose, and 
 sent to the Hospital; where I now am. 
 
 It is a fine place; admirably well ordered. I live almost 
 wholly at my own charges. We are very well served in it ; 
 and, in short, I am very well satisfied with it. I begin to 
 eat, and to recover my strength by degrees ; and, with 
 GOD's assistance, there are hopes of my perfect recovery 
 within a short time. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 15 225
 
 Marolles and Le Fevre in Hospital together. lese. 
 
 I know not, if it hath pleased GOD to hear the ardent 
 prayers which I have put up to him for the success of the 
 Voyage of Versailles ; and I wait with extreme impatience 
 to hear about it. 
 
 By this ' Voyage of Versailles,' he meant his Family's departure out 
 of the Kingdom ; which gave him great uneasiness. 
 
 I am, (saith he, in a Letter of the 30th of September) 
 in daily concern for my poor Family. May it please GOD 
 to put a speedy end to the uneasiness which I have about it! 
 
 He was about three weeks in the Galley Slaves' Hospital. He 
 wrote a Letter of the 15th of September ; by which it appeared that he 
 was there still. 
 
 The miserable Voyage [Journey'\ which I have made, 
 hath learnt me what it is to suffer. It is there that I begin 
 to feel my Sufferings. Let us therefore comfort ourselves, 
 my dear Child ! since they are past and gone ; and I am in a 
 place of rest. I live very contentedly in the company of 
 Monsieur Le Fevre. We are always together. Our beds 
 join to one another. We make use of but one pot. Fresh 
 supplies are daily offered to Monsieur Le Fevee and myself. 
 One Monsieur M., a Banker, hath proferred us money ; if we 
 have occasion for it. Monsieur La F. hath likewise written to 
 me twice, to offer me some. But I thank GOD, we do not 
 yet want it. Monsieur P. hath my little treasure in his 
 hands. He hath provided me a Steward at the Hospital, to 
 take care to buy me whatsoever I want ; and who reckons 
 with Monsieur P. for his expenses. Thus you see, my dear 
 Heart ! that I have nothing else to do ; but to pray to GOD, 
 and to be cheerful. 
 
 We see how much this great man made of that little rest and ease 
 which he had, to comfort his poor Wife. He proceeds, 
 
 Let this comfort you ; and give you occasion not to 
 trouble yourself at my condition ! For it is easy, by the 
 grace of GOD. I have further to tell you. That, in a visit 
 which was made here a little after our arrival, I was declared, 
 ' Invalid'; in regard to the infirmities which you know I am 
 subject to. 
 
 Monsieur [(Jean Baptiste) Colbert, Marquis] de 
 Seignelay [, Minister of the Marine,] sent, eight or ten 
 days since, Three Hundred Pardons for Galley Slaves. 
 226
 
 1686. The dreaded Embarkation for America. 
 
 XVI. One would wonder to see that, among so great a number of 
 Pardons, there was not one for our Martyr : although great intercession 
 was made for him ; and his condemnation had troubled his Judges and 
 all honest men. But it seems as if they had made it their business, 
 a,nd were in honour obliged, to triumph over his constancy and piety. 
 
 He tells us, a little above, that he was declared, ' Invalid,' upon the 
 account of his known and secret infirmities. Nevertheless, we find 
 him, a few days after, on board the Galleys. There are Letters of his, 
 which he wrote on the 23rd and 30th of September, from on board the 
 Old Galley, ' Saint Jean ' ; where he says. 
 
 It is designed, next week, to embark 150 Invalid Galley 
 Slaves for America. I was ranked in this number : but one 
 of my friends told the Intendant, That I was [just] recover- 
 ed from three great fits of sickness, which I have had since 
 my departure from Les Tournelles. 
 
 This is what he said to his son. He proceeds in the Letter ; of 
 which we give some extracts. 
 
 The favour which he grants me is, that he reserves me for 
 a Second Embarkation ; which is to be made towards the 
 middle of November. The advantage that I shall gain by 
 this delay is, That he, who sj)oke to the Intendant for me, 
 hath the direction of the vessel in which I shall make the 
 voyage. Fear not, Sir ! This is not able to shake my 
 constancy ! GOD, by his grace, hath fixed it upon too solid 
 foundations ! I can sincerely assure you, that I heard this 
 news with as little emotion, as I am now in about it. 
 
 It must, nevertheless, be acknowledged that this kind of Persecution 
 was a terrible Temptation, So long as one is in the Kingdom [of 
 France] , one flatters one's self, one hopes, one receives a little succour 
 and comfort from one's friends and relations. The [Protestant] Church 
 whose eyes are upon us, the edification of our brethren, and all things, 
 conduce to animate and encourage us to the Conflict. But to see one's 
 self deprived of all those powerful motives at once ; to go into a New 
 World, there to be buried as it were, separated from the rest of man- 
 kind, in a state worse than that of a Slave ; abandoned to the discretion 
 of a man, who goes to the end of the world in quest of riches, and who 
 (without any regard to Humanity) treats his Slaves in proportion to 
 their labour, and the profit which he reaps thereby. Good GOD ! what 
 an Egypt is this to those faithful Martyrs who are transported thither ! 
 
 Monsieur de MAROLiiES, notwithstanding, received this news, with- 
 out any emotion. 
 
 227
 
 Marolles and Le Fevre are separated. 1686. 
 
 It is no matter to me (saith he) whether I die by land 
 or sea, in Europe or America. I am persuaded that all 
 kinds of death of GOD's children are precious in his eyes. I 
 do likewise believe that my death would be more edifying, 
 and more glorious, if it should hapxDen during my bonds. 
 I have fully resigned myself to the Avill of GOD. I am 
 persuaded that all states and conditions in which it shall 
 please him to put me, are those states in which he judges I 
 shall glorify him better than in an infinite number of others, 
 [to] which he might allot me. 
 
 Speaking to his son, concerning his embarking towards the middle 
 of November, he saith, 
 
 You must not be afflicted ! This was decreed in Heaven, 
 before it was appointed on Earth ; and we must all be 
 persuaded that it is for our good, that GOD is thus pleased 
 to order it, 
 
 He spoke, in this Letter, of Monsieur le Fevee, his companion in 
 bonds ; and it were to be desired that some one would give us the 
 History of his Sufferings, ''' 
 
 Those two famous Martyrs did comfort and encourage each other. 
 I have read a Letter of Monsieur de Marolles, in which he says of 
 Monsieur Le Fevee, that he wrote ' like a Divine ' [, see page 244] . 
 
 They separated them, at their departure out of the Hospital, to put 
 them on board of different Galleys. Monsieur de Maeolles tells his 
 son to acquaint Monsieur Le Fevre's relations, 
 
 That he was, last Saturday, (this Letter is dated the 
 30th September 1686) removed from the ' Reale,' where he 
 was, since our coming out of the Hospital ; and put on board 
 an armed Galley, called, the ' Magnifique.' He is distin- 
 guished from other Galley Slaves ; and placed in the stern. 
 
 In his Letter of the 23rd of September to his Wife, he diverted 
 himself, with giving her the description of his Galley Slave's habit 
 [uniform] . We shall make no difficulty in giving some Extracts of it, 
 which show his great Soul in his natural state, and in the familiarity 
 of a Husband who opens his breast to his Wife. 
 
 This was written in 1699. Translation of it, which was printed 
 Monsieur Le Fevre died in 1702. in London in 1704, is reprinted afc 
 His Life appeared in French at Rot- pp. 303-412. E.A. 
 terdam in 1703 ; and the English ! 
 228
 
 1686. Marolles is fairly well off in a Galley. 
 
 I live at present altogether alone. They bring me food 
 from abroad [outside^, bread and meat; at the rate of nine 
 sous [= 4M.] a daj'. I am furnished with wine in the 
 Galley for nothing; and with some of the King's bread. He 
 that supplies me with wine eats with me ; and he is a very 
 honest man. I am treated w4th civility by all on board the 
 Galley; seeing that the Officers visit me. 
 
 I am getting a quilt made to-day. I intend to buy 
 sheets ; and am going to work to procure my ease. You 
 will say, perhaps, That I am an ill manager : but I have had 
 enough of lying ujDon the hard boards, ever since Tuesday 
 till this time. 
 
 If you were to see me in my fine Galley Slave habit 
 \^n}iifor)u~\ , you would be ravished with admiration ! I have 
 a fine little red Jacket, made just after the fashion of the 
 Carriers' Frocks of the Ardennes. It is put on like a Shirt : 
 for it is open but half-way before. I have likewise a fine 
 red Cap, two pairs of Breeches, two Shirts with threads as 
 big as my finger, and Stockings. 
 
 My Clothes of Liberty are not lost ; and if it would 
 please the King to shew me favour, I would take them again. 
 
 We have the honestest Patron of all the Galleys. He 
 treats me with all manner of civility and respect. He will 
 put me into what place of the Galley I please : and he hath 
 promised me that, when it is cold, he will let me lie in his 
 cabin. Let all these succours, which GOD affords me, 
 comfort and rejoice thee! I am already used to the place 
 where I am, as if I had been there all my life-time. 
 
 I am better here than in the Hospital. We enjoy a 
 good air ; for there is none of us sick, neither are we 
 pestered with ill scents. 
 
 He mentions, at the bottom, his uneasiness about the 
 '' Voyage of Versailles.' 
 
 One may judge, by the clieerfulness with Vy-hich he describes his 
 inisery, of the greatness of his Soul, the liberty of his Mind, and the 
 tranquility of his Heart. 
 
 We must likewise conclude, that, in speaking of his Afflictions and 
 Sufferings, he doth rather lessen than aggravate them ; so that, when 
 he gives a discription of his Misery, we ought to believe it upon his 
 bare word ; although there wanted other testimonies. 
 
 XVII. True it is, he had been represented [recommended] to the 
 
 229
 
 Hiiyghens wants the Mathematical Problem. i68G. 
 
 Governor, the Intendant, the Captains of the Galleys, and the Chiefs of 
 the Squadrons. They had been acquainted with the merit of Monsieur 
 DE Marolles; and were touched with his virtue. Every one would 
 have been glad to enjoy his company. 
 
 Much about that time, when the report was spread in Holland, of 
 his Embarkment for America; a Pastor, one of his relations and 
 friends, wrote to him upon this subject : and intreated him, at the 
 bottom of his Letter, to send him the Problem which he had sent to 
 Paris ; because several learned and curious persons, and particularly 
 amongst others the famous Monsieur [Christiaan] Huyghens, desired 
 to have it. 
 
 He returned this friend of his an Answer, after the most Christian 
 and edifying manner. After which, he spoke to him about the Problem^ 
 and gave him two or three Solutions of it ; desiring them to excuse 
 him, in that he did not find out more, by reason of the noise which the 
 Galley Slaves made in the Galley. 
 
 But this Letter is lost. 
 
 "We have taken notice that our Martyr lessened the account of his 
 miseries, instead of aggravating it. Of this we find an unexceptionable 
 proof in a Letter which he wrote to his Wife, the 6th of October, in 
 which he declares to her his trouble, because the Report of the ill usage,, 
 which he had received, had been spread abroad. 
 
 It would (saith he) have troubled me very much to 
 have tarried any longer in the Hospital. The corrupted air,, 
 which one sucks in there, would perhaps have flung me into 
 a relapse : and I enjoy here a very healthful air. I am 
 exceedingly more strong than I was at my entrance here. 
 I am sincere in what I write to you ; and I disguise nothing 
 from you. For a proof of which, I am going to tell you that 
 which will give you trouble ; whereas it ought to afford you 
 joy : for the remembrance of past Evils is agreeable. I tell 
 you ingenuously \_candidlif~\ that the iron which I wear on 
 my foot, although it doth not weigh three pounds, did 
 trouble me much more at first, than that which you saw 
 about my neck at Les Tournelles. This proceeded only 
 from my great leanness at that time : but, now that I have 
 recovered my former good state, it is nothing so with me. 
 Besides that we learn, every day, to place it so as it may 
 give us the least uneasiness. 
 
 And in another Letter, which he wrote to his son, the next day^ 
 being the 7th of October 1686, he says, 
 
 230
 
 1686. Marolles allowed to walk on the Galley, 
 
 I know not, (saitli he) my dear Child ! what M. thought 
 of, when he gave an Account of the ill treatment which 
 they give us. At least, I am certain that he ought not to 
 have comprehended me therein ; for certainly I have been 
 used very well in the Hospital. 
 
 I was visited, almost daily, by Monsieur F., Controller 
 General of the Galleys, a man of understanding and credit. 
 He came, about seven days ago, to see me in the Galley 
 where I am : and we continued in discourse together, for the 
 space of almost two hours, in the stern. He always offered 
 me money upon his own credit, and from his friends : as 
 
 likewise did Monsieur Jam ; and Monsieur Sel , 
 
 another Ofiicer. You see, therefore, that one must be very 
 hard to be satisfied, if, in the condition in which one is, one 
 is not contented therewith. You will see, by the Letter 
 which I wrote to your mother, on the 23rd of September, 
 that I am very well here. 
 
 I have not met with any trouble ; excei)ting the first 
 two or three days that I was chained upon a bench with 
 two Galley Slaves, day and night. But there are, at first, 
 certain Rules to be observed ; and, I thank GOD ! they did 
 not last long. 
 
 For, since that time, I have been let loose all the day ; 
 and have had liberty to walk to and fro, as much as I would, 
 on the Galley. 
 
 Monsieur de Marolles did speak with discretion, not to cast liis 
 Family into the excess of aflQictions : but this is no argument that one 
 should not reflect upon the rigour which they exercised towards him. 
 
 He had been declared, 'Invalid,' when he was in Hospital; and 
 incapable to serve, because of his secret infirmities. They had put him, 
 as 'Invalid,' in the List for an Embarkment for America. Nevertheless, 
 a few days after this, they take him out of the Hospital, to chain him, 
 day and night, for the space of three days, upon a form in the Galley. 
 It is hard to penetrate into the mystery of so unequal a conduct. We 
 cannot, at present, give the reason of this change : nor know if it were 
 by a secret Order from [the] Court, which intended to tire out this 
 blessed Martyr ; or whether it was the compassion of some General 
 Officers, who would exempt him from the Embarkment for America, 
 which was to be made in November. 
 
 Although it should be so ; our Martyr himself was not able to see 
 into this mystery ; and did not then understand this good intention, if 
 there were any in it. For he says to his son, in the same Letter, 
 
 231
 
 He is anxious about the 'Voyage of Versailles.' lese. 
 
 Take special care not to speak to your Mother of the 
 Embarkments for America. I am, at present, very well. 
 I live with him that sells the wine in our Galley. I am 
 very well fed. I lie in his chamber ; and we have each of 
 us our bed. 
 
 We see the care which this good Husband and Father took, to give 
 an account of those few conveniences which he enjoyed, for the 
 consolation of his Family ; the sorrowful condition of which afforded 
 him. the most sensible occasion of his uneasiness. 
 
 You afford me (he proceeds) the greatest satisfaction in 
 the World in sending me word, that your Aunt hath put 
 your Business of Versailles in a good forwardness ; and that 
 your Mother is, with GOD's assistance, in continual hopes 
 to finish it. Fail not to let me know what she hath done 
 in it ; upon your first knowledge of it. I beseech GOD, with 
 all the powers of my Soul, to grant you a happy issue to 
 this affair ! 
 
 I have already observed that, by this ' Business,' he meant, their 
 going out of the Kingdom. 
 
 XVni. We have, a while ago, put it as a Question, Whether the 
 inequality of the conduct [treatment] which we observed with respect 
 to Monsieur de Maeolles did proceed from a spirit of rigour ; or from 
 a good intention ? But one cannot any longer doubt, but that they did 
 it for no other end but to sink and depress, with the weight of 
 Affliction, both him and Monsieur Le Fevbe, his illustriovis companion 
 in Sufferings and Glory. 
 
 This is what he wrote to his Wife, seventeen days after that of 
 which we have just now spoken. It is dated from the 'Fiere,' the 24th 
 of October 1686. 
 
 You must not disturb and disquiet yourself for me. I 
 am at present in perfect health ; but, in order fully to 
 persuade you that, I will conceal nothing of my condition 
 from you. I give you to understand that Monsieur Le Fevee 
 and I are not any more set loose from the chain, neither 
 day nor night ; and that we are not any longer allowed the 
 liberty of going on shore, nor suffered to receive Letters, 
 nor write any which are not seen. Wherefore, if you do 
 not meet with any more Trifles in mine, by which I 
 endeavoured to divert thee in thy trouble ; be not afflicted 
 at it ! and do not impute anything to rue for it ! 
 
 He meant, without doubt, by these Trifles, that which he had 
 232
 
 1686. He is transferred to the ' Fiere ' Galley. 
 
 written to her concerning his Seaman's liabit [^uniforni] . 
 
 Monsieur Le Pe^tre had the honour to appear before 
 the [Cardinal Louis A. de Noailles,] the Bishop of Mah- 
 SEILLES ; and exactly at the time, they tell us, when the 
 Orders were come down from the Court to reduce us to the 
 condition which I have just told you I am in. 
 
 I have [passed] , and must again, within a little while, 
 pass, into different conditions. I have changed my Galley 
 thrice in one week. From the * Grande Saint Jean,' I have 
 been removed to the ' Petite Saint Jean ' ; and from thence 
 to the ' Grande Royale ' : from whence I was conducted with 
 several other Galley Slaves, to the ' Pare ' ; a place, where 
 they divide them. Lastly, I was put on board an armed 
 Galley, which is called the ' Fiere.' 
 
 The Intendant told me, I must prepare myself for a 
 Second Embarkment for America; which is to be about the 
 middle of November next. If I happen to be one of the 
 number ; let not this afflict you, my dear Child ! Let us 
 resign ourselves to the Providence of GOD ; who does all 
 things with an infinite wisdom, and with a most noble end 
 for his children. We are not able to make a good choice ; 
 because we do not know what is best for us. Let us, there- 
 fore, leave it to him! who knows how to bring light out of 
 darliness; and to call the things that are not, as if they 
 were : and let us be persuaded that he will do nothing but 
 what will be for his own glory, and our salvation ! 
 
 Let us not oppose his will, hj impatience, or fruitless 
 tears ! We cannot be ignorant of his divine will. It 
 evidently appears to us by the effects ! Our separation, 
 which to consider it in itself, is the most hard and bitter 
 thing in the World to us, is not so, if we consider it, as the 
 will of GOD ; since it is from thence, that it doth proceed. 
 And since the Judgement of Men doth only pronounce the 
 Decrees of Providence; let us lay our hands upon our 
 mouths ! let us, with j)rofound submission and obedience, 
 adore the hand which smites us ! Let us say with Eli, ' It 
 is the Lord ! let him do what seemeth him good ! ' [1 Sam. 
 iii. 18.] Let us not doubt but that he will shew us, by a 
 happy experience, that all worketh together for the good of 
 those that love and fear him ! Let us profit by his disci- 
 pline ! Let us not regard our state, with the eyes of the 
 body ! Let us not confine our sight to the Miseries of this 
 
 233
 
 Teaches Algebra to an Officer of the ' Fidre.' lese. 
 
 Life ! Let us carry it to the glorious recompenses which 
 GOD promises his children ! Let us be persuaded that if 
 we weep and mourn now ; there will come a day when we 
 shall be comforted ! 
 
 These are the considerations, my dear Wife ! which 
 support me ; and which make me swallow and digest all my 
 Misery, without much trouble. Believe what I am going to 
 tell you ; and practice it ! Do not disquiet yourself for me; 
 for all my changes are for the better ! I protest to you, that 
 I never yet have been so well as I am now. 
 
 There are two little cabins at the head of the Galley ; 
 of which I have one. This favour was procured me by a 
 young Officer ; to whom I teach Algebra. 
 
 It is four or five days ago, since I was visited by a 
 certain Head of a Squadron, called, Monsieur DE I. I 
 should, perhaps, have received as much from another Chief 
 Head of the Squadron ; if he were not absent. This makes 
 me to be considered by the Sub-Officers of the Galley. Let 
 this comfort thee ! 
 
 I know not what so many honest persons may think, who could not 
 refuse their esteem to the merit of Monsieur de Maeolles, nor their 
 admiration of his patience, to see so resolute a proceeding in the 
 Persecution which was made against him. I am, for my part, persuaded 
 that it is impossible that this Spirit of Cruelty and Violence, which the 
 Eomish Religion inspires, must have great prejudices in the minds of 
 all those who are able to judge of the Fury of the Persecutors, and the 
 Patience and Constancy of the Martyrs. 
 
 One sees an honest man ready to be snatched out of the land of 
 the living, as I may say; ready to be confined for ever; and without 
 any hopes of returning, in those remote and unknown climes, where 
 Cruelty and Barbarity have a full scope to exercise their Fury upon the 
 miserable. What tranquility, nevertheless, do we see in the heart of 
 our Martyr! what trust in the Providence of his GODl what resig- 
 nation, what submission, to his will ! 
 
 As he was deprived of the liberty of writing with that ease that he 
 formerly did, as he observes in the foregoing Letter ; we find no Letter 
 from him, for the space of a whole month. 
 
 Nevertheless, it appears that his good friend, which was with the 
 Duke of Matne, was, in that time, to present a Petition for Monsieur 
 DE Maeolles to the King : from which he expected no good success, no 
 more than his friend. 
 234
 
 1686. 'The Voyage of Versailles' is accomplished. 
 
 This Letter is dated from the Galley, the 'Fi^re,' the 26th of 
 November 1686.- 
 
 He acquaints his Wife with the joy which he had for 
 her Voyage of Versailles ( that is, her departure out of 
 France) ; which makes me (saith he) daily pour out my Soul 
 hefore my GOD, to thank him for all the mercies and favours, 
 which he has bestowed upon us all. The other Letter was 
 delivered to me, the 6th current ; together with another 
 excellent one from our good relation and friend. 
 
 This was that Pastor who wrote to him, upon the news of his 
 transportation into America; and who desired him to send him his 
 Problem. 
 
 I wish I were able to send him an Answer ; and to 
 return him all the thanks which so many marks of his 
 precious friendship which he affords me, deserve. But I 
 dare not undertake it ; and you must acquit me of that 
 duty towards him. You must assure him and all his family 
 of the sincerity of my affection ; that his good Letter 
 afforded me great consolation ; that it strengthened my 
 faith, and settled my hopes ; and that it hath produced 
 excellent fruits in my Soul. 
 
 He, notwithstanding, returned him an Answer a little while after. 
 
 Desire him always to afford me the assistance of his 
 good prayers ! My support, perhaps, is owing to the 
 supplication of so many good Souls ; who pray for me, both 
 in private and public. For, of myself, I am altogether 
 nothing else but weakness and infirmity. Nevertheless, by 
 the grace of GOD, I still stand ! and I hope that I shall 
 persevere faithful unto him, even unto death ; and that, in 
 recompense, he will give me the Crown of Life. 
 
 Whatsoever hazard I run to write to thee ; I will not 
 forbear to do it as often as GOD shall give me opportunity. 
 It is the only liappiness which is left us in our sorrowful 
 separation, to be able to confer with, and comfort, one 
 another. But I shall likewise confine myself to write to 
 thee alone for the future. Acquaint our intimate friend in 
 particular with it ; and desire him not to take it ill, that I 
 use him thus. 
 
 It is certainly Monsieur Jueieu that he means; from whom he 
 
 235
 
 ' Thou hast offered up the goods God gave us ! ' lese. 
 
 received notable service and great consolations. 
 
 Let liini know, likewise, that I received his last and his 
 first at the same time ; for which I return him thanks, and 
 desire that he would always assist me with his prayers. 
 
 If the Letters that I shall write to you are intercepted, 
 and imputed to me as a crime ; it shall be a crime which I 
 shall always take pleasure and delight in confessing before 
 all those who shall question me about it. I do not think 
 that person [to be] of a just and equitable spirit who can 
 think ill of, and blame, a Husband for endeavouring to 
 comfort his Wife, in such sorrowful conjunctures as these 
 are; to which it hath ^deased GOD to reduce us. This, 
 my dear Heart ! is my resolution on that point. 
 
 Notwithstanding, let us, both of us, do all things with 
 a Christian prudence ; so that we may give no handle 
 against us, to those who only wait for an Opportunity : and, 
 as to the rest, let us rely upon the Providence of GOD, the 
 singular favours and mercies of which we daily experience. 
 
 A little lower, after having exhorted her, to offer their bodies and 
 sonls to GOD as a living sacrifice ; holy and acceptable, which is our 
 reasonable service [Rom, xii. l] , he says, 
 
 This is what I daily study to do. I can truly tell you, 
 that there pass but few nights but I water my bed with my 
 tears. I do not say this, my dear Heart ! to afflict thee. I 
 do, on the contrary, imagine that this news may afford thee 
 matter of joy ; and a holy occasion to join with me in bless- 
 ing GOD for it. For these tears are not the effects of a 
 worldly sorrow ; which bringeth forth nothing but death. 
 But they proceed from the grace of GOD : some of them 
 from that godly sorrow, which bringeth forth repentance to 
 salvation, never to be repented of ; others from the joy which 
 I feel, when I consider, with admiration, how great the 
 mercies and favours are, which GOD doth, and hath, 
 bestowed upon jow all, and upon myself. 
 
 I likewise reflect with extreme joy and satisfaction 
 upon the sacrifice, which thou hast offered up to GOD, of 
 the goods which he had given to thee and me. Thou 
 mightest have enjoyed them; if thy heart had been turned 
 and inclined that Way ! But thou hast made thee a treasure 
 of them in heaven ; where rust and thieves spoil not. This 
 treasure will provide, for the time to come, for thee and our 
 236
 
 1686-87. Chained, night and day, for three months. 
 
 children, a solid foundation for eternal life. 
 
 Thou hast esteemed the precious Liberty of serving 
 GOD of much greater worth than the riches of this World. 
 Thou hast, like Maey, chosen the good part; which shall 
 not be taken from thee. I assure you, my Dear ! that thou 
 couldest not have made a choice more to my mind. I praise 
 GOD with all the powers and faculties of my Soul : who 
 hath given me a Wife truly Christian ; who will, in my 
 absence, do her endeavour to learn [teacli] our children to 
 be Christians. 
 
 XIX. During the month of December [1686], our Martyr had 
 several Conferences and Disimtes with Clergymen, at the Bishop of 
 Marseilles's [house] . The effect of these Conferences were to be 
 feared ; because they often served only to render their condition worse: 
 as it is thought it happened to Monsieur Le Fevee ; who had been with 
 the Bishop of Marseilles before Monsieur de Marolles. 
 
 He acquaints us, in a Letter wrote to his Wife, with all that 
 happened to him. It is dated from the Galley, the 'Fiere,' the 20th 
 January 1687. 
 
 He begins with wishes for the New Year ; and advises 
 her not lightly to give credit to all the grievous Reports 
 which were spread abroad of his condition ; and to believe 
 nothing of it but what he should write himself. Speaking 
 of this public Report, he saith : 
 
 All that is false, of which you sent me word ; except 
 two things : that, for above three months since, I have been 
 confined to the chain, day and night ; and that I have not 
 been free from thence, only to be conveyed to the Bishop of 
 
 IVlABSEILLES. 
 
 I assure thee, that I have not, as yet, received orders 
 from any one to employ myself in work. I sat very quietly 
 in my place, and saw it done, before the short days : and it 
 is, at present, done, almost every day, before I am removed 
 from my place. Praise GOD therefore with me, for this 
 merciful treatment which he affords me ; and beseech him 
 that, so long as he shall think good to continue my 
 Sufferings, my condition may not become worse ! 
 
 They, it is probable, judged him unable to bear the fatigue, by 
 reason of his weakness and secret infirmities. 
 
 I assure you, (he proceeds) I have not so much reason 
 to complain as you imagine ; and that the time slips away 
 
 237
 
 Conferences at the Bishop of Marseilles's. i687. 
 
 very quickly. The week is no sooner begun ; but I find 
 myself at the end of it. 
 
 When I am up, after having presented my petitions to 
 GOD, I read six, seven, or eight, Chapters of Holy Scripture. 
 I make such Reflections and Observations thereon as I am 
 able. I draw from this divine source all the consolations 
 which I stand in need of. GOD himself doth most plenti- 
 fully furnish me with them ; and, with his precious Balm 
 of Gilead, he gently anoints and su^Dples all the wounds, 
 which my Sufferings may make in my Heart. 
 
 All those Letters, of which we give Extracts, are written with his 
 own hand. 
 
 The good Monsieur Le Fevre (he proceeds), my dear 
 companion in bonds, hath been taken, a month since, out of 
 the 'Magnifique,' where he was very well lcoinfortable~\, and 
 removed to the ' Grande Reale,' where they put fetters and 
 two chains on his foot. This sad condition did not long 
 continue thus. A Galley Slave, belonging to our Galley, 
 was, the day before yesterday, on board the same Galley 
 where he was ; and informed me, at his return, that he did 
 not any longer wear his chains and fetters, but in the night 
 only. 
 
 It would be a difficult matter rightly to fathom the mystery of all 
 those changes and alterations. Monsieur de Maeolles says nothing of 
 it. 
 
 Was it not that when those blessed Martyrs had met with some 
 «ense of humanity in the Galley wherein they were, and their virtue 
 had procured them some compassion ; then the zealous Missioner, 
 always cruel, always implacable, caused them to be removed elsewhere, 
 to try if they could not at length meet with barbarous Officers, and fit 
 to do the work of Executioners. 
 
 The rigour, perhaps, was likewise augmented against these famous 
 Oonfessors, when the Conferences had not succeeded to the honour of 
 the Missioners. It seems that this was the opinion of our Martyr, when 
 he adds, 
 
 I tell thee ingenuously [candidhj] , my dear Child ! that 
 I was afraid that the end of the Conferences, which I had 
 at [Cardinal Louis A. de Noailles,] the Bishop of Mar- 
 seilles's, would cast me into a very bad condition. But 
 my fears are dissipated ; and they are ended as well and as 
 238
 
 \ 
 
 1687. Interview with the Bishop of Marseilles. 
 
 happily as I could desire them. I have therein followed the 
 advice of Saint Peter. I have thereat rendered a reason 
 with mildness and reverence of the hope that is in me. 
 £1 Pet. iii. 15.] 
 
 I made an end of those affairs at the sixth interview. 
 I have had the honour to dispute more than once before 
 that illustrious Prelate : but the strongest debate was 
 between a Divine come from Paris and myself. 
 
 Last Tuesday, the 7th of this month, was the last time 
 that I was there. After having told this Almoner that the 
 Answers, which he made to my Proposals, could not give 
 me satisfaction ; we parted good friends. 
 
 When I came down ; I desired to pay my respects to 
 the Bishop. They told me. That he was at Mass ; and that 
 if I would stay for him, he would not fail to return. I 
 asked leave of one of our Patrons who attended me ; the 
 which he granted. 
 
 I had the honour to speak to him. He caused me to 
 come up into his chamber. We came thither, and several 
 Clergymen with us, and after having told him that his 
 Almoner and I had finished our Conferences ; I returned 
 him thanks for the goodness and charity which he expressed 
 to me in this rencounter [disputation] ; and I assured him, 
 that I should be always ready to acknowledge it. 
 
 He answered me, in the most obliging manner in the 
 World ; telling me, That he was sorry that he could not 
 make me a Catholic ; and that all that they were able to do, 
 was to pray to GOD for me. At my departure, he told me, 
 That he would willingly serve me, if opportunity should 
 offer. 
 
 I believe that it will please you very much to hear this 
 little Account. 
 
 XX. I shall not make any difficulty to discover tlie petty confi- 
 dences, wherewith he entertained his Wife in her forlorn estate ; 
 notwithstanding that he desires her to communicate his Letter to 
 nobody. 
 
 He gives her an Account of the little respects which he received : 
 but it is easy to discover, through this little Account, that he enters 
 uj)on it with a design to allay, by all manner of means, the trouble of 
 a Wife overwhelmed with grief. The greatness of his Soul, while 
 making his Duty his principal care, knew how, in other matters, to 
 accommodate himself without difficulty to his sorrowful condition. 
 
 239
 
 Marolles's life on the 'Fiere' Galley. les?. 
 
 My paper is full (saith he to her), and I find that I have 
 yet a long Story to tell you. I am lodged in one of the 
 extremities of the Galley, which is called the Prow or Beak, 
 in a little Cabin, which is about seven or eight feet square. 
 Its ceiling is so high that I cannot stand upright in it. We 
 generally lie, four of us, therein, two Gallerians and two 
 Slaves. I commonly boil the pot twice or thrice a week ; 
 in which is put five quarters of a pound of mutton. This 
 does not make a full pound of our country weight. There 
 is but little beef here ; and almost no veal. The Gallerian 
 and I eat together ; though I alone pay for it : but he does 
 me service enough for it other ways. The bread is dear 
 here. I have sometimes eaten of the King's. 
 
 As to the rest of the food, that which the King allows 
 the Galley Slaves is always, and for the whole day, a good 
 half Porringer full of beans dressed in oil. I eat none at all 
 of it ; so my usual food is bread : with which I have, of late, 
 eaten a few dried raisins ; a pound of which costs me 18 
 deniers [= 1^ Sols. = l^d.], and that serves me for three or 
 four meals. The wines here are so gross, that they breed 
 very much gravel. 
 
 I lie upon a mattress of a Galley, which they call 
 'Strapontin' \^hanimock~\. It is made of three or four old 
 coats which are brought thither. I had it from a Gallerian 
 belonging to my bench, who went off with the First Embark- 
 ment for America. It cost me 4^ Sols. [= 3fd.] 
 
 I have, about a month since, begun to lie undressed, 
 and in sheets. If the cold, which we feel, doth very much 
 increase, I will again lie in my clothes. They have lent rae 
 a quilt, which, together with my great coat, serves me for a 
 coverlet. 
 
 I have bought coals, which are very dear ; and I make 
 a little fire in our apartment. Our Officers come to warm 
 themselves, and talk with me, at my fire. I mean those 
 who have the command of the Gallerians ; and I always 
 receive civility enough from them. They denied entrance 
 into our Galley to some Officers of other Galleys, who came 
 to see me. 
 
 Would not one imagine that Monsieur de Maeolles was a Prisoner 
 of State, to whom they might have communicated some secret of 
 importance. But who will not admire to see the zealous Persecvitors so 
 circiamspect, with respect to those whom they persecute. They must, 
 240
 
 1687. Arrival of another Chain Gang of 150 men. 
 
 of necessity, mistrust the goodness of tlieii- Cause ; since the voice and 
 discourse of the Confessors and Martyrs is so formidable to them. 
 The Inquisition leads them, with the gag in their mouths, when it 
 celebrates that tragical Procession of its 'Act of Faith ' : and, in France, 
 they beat upon drums, to hinder the people from hearing the words of 
 the Faithful ; which they lead to punishment. Cruel Religion I Barbar- 
 ous Piety ! Thy language, thy carriage, makes thee sufficiently known 
 to all those who are persuaded there is a GOD, who calls Men to his 
 knowledge, to save them. 
 
 Let us hear the latter part of our Martyr's Letter. 
 
 The Second Embarkment for America is made ; but 
 I believe that the vessel is yet in the Port. They have 
 apparently laid aside the thoughts of sending me thither. 
 
 There arrived here a Chain [Chain-gang'] of 150 men, 
 the beginning of last month ; without reckoning 33 who died 
 by the way. Monsieur Gaenier is one of the number ; with 
 a nephew of Monsieur Varnier, Doctor of Physic. These 
 two came from Vitry in France. Monsieur Ghanguinon de 
 Vassy ; and his brother-in-law. He went by the name of 
 Chemet. There were seven or eight of them Protestants. 
 The four first [above mentioned] are in the Hospital. 
 
 I divert myself, after my morning and evening Acts of 
 Piety and Devotion, either with Algebra or Geometry. I 
 have been told that there is, in this City, a man who 
 pretends to Algebra. If this be so, we may teach other 
 something : but he is gone, five or six weeks since, to Paris. 
 
 Let not any person whomsoever see this Letter ; 
 because of all the Trifles which are in it, with which I was 
 obliged to satisfy you. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 16 241
 
 1 
 
 XXI. f T HATH BEEN heretofore observed that Monsieur Le Fevee 
 was more rigorously bandied, after the disputes about 
 Religion which he had at [Cardinal Louis A. de Noailles,] 
 the Bishop of Mabseilles's. 
 
 It was the sentiment of Monsieur de Maeolles, concluding it from 
 the civility of the Bishop, that nothing more grievous would happen to 
 him. 
 
 Notwithstanding, about six weeks after his Conference, he was taken 
 out of the Galleys, to be shut up in a kind of Dungeon ; which was 
 made purposely for him in the Citadel [of Saint Nicolas] of Marseilles. 
 
 It is highly probable that these Orders came down from the Court, 
 upon the Report of this Ecclesiastic from Paris, of which he makes 
 mention in his Letter. For it must be observed. That all the different 
 Persecutions, all the augmentations and additions to the pains of our 
 Martyr, were done by express Orders from the Court. He had made 
 such a noise in the World, that they endeavoured at Versailles to 
 triumph over his Patience. 
 
 The World will doubtless be very glad to know the labours of this 
 holy man upon his last Theatre ; where he maintained the Conflict, 
 for the space of six years [12 February 1687 — 17 June 1692] against 
 Nakedness, Hunger, Cold, and Darkness. 
 
 242
 
 1687. His Letter to his Wife of October 25th. 
 
 He wrote to his Wife a Letter, dated the 25th of October 1687. He 
 speaks under the name of a third person : but, to my knowledge, it is 
 -written with his own hand. 
 
 One may conclude from the date of this Letter, with what severity 
 lie was handled ; and with what straitness and vigilancy he was kept : 
 because he could not let any one hear from him till eight months after 
 lie was shut up. 
 
 You desire, Madame, (saith he to her) to hear from your 
 husband. This is what we learn from the Report of the City. 
 
 The 12th of last February [1687], he was taken out of 
 the Galley ; and put into the Citadel. He is thrust into a 
 little room, which served for a Soldier's Lodge [lodging']. 
 But they have made such an alteration therein, that the 
 most of the light that is there, comes in by the chimney. 
 The King allows him five Sols. [= 4d.] a day for his sub- 
 sistence. He lives upon that. He is committed to the cus- 
 tody of the Major; who, the better to secure him, places a 
 Sentinel, day and night, at the out-gate of his chamber, and 
 another at the top of his chimney. They say. That he is 
 not grieved : but doth very patiently suffer his affliction. 
 
 This is what we learn from the Report of the City. 
 
 Be not afflicted at his condition. He is endued with 
 •constancy enough to put him above all ! We are all more 
 a-pt to complain than he ; and we have great reason to say, 
 with David, 
 
 O, Lord! how long! 
 
 How long, O, GOD of Hosts! 
 
 Farewell, Madame ! I recommend both yourself and 
 family to the grace and mercy of the Lord ! 
 
 Be pleased to pardon me, if I do not tell you my name. 
 I am no less your Servant. 
 
 243
 
 His Letter to another Huguenot Galley Slave. i69u 
 
 XXII. I have met with no Letter of the Three following years : 
 [168H-1690]: but we see, by those which he wrote in the years 1691, 
 1692. into what an Abyss of Misery they had cast and confined him ; 
 and how great was the strength of his Faith and Hope. 
 
 He comforted his companions in service and affliction ; and assured 
 them of the Fidelity with which he was resolved to keep to his Savionr. 
 I find a Note, without date, which is written with a trembling hand : 
 but it is the hand of our Martyr. It is an Answer to another Confessor,. 
 who had written to him ; wherein he tells him, 
 
 I know not, how to express to you, my most honoured 
 and dear Friend, how agreeable were the things which you 
 have, and do still, communicate to me. You have fully 
 satisfied my desires. 
 
 I praise GOD that he hath heard the prayers which 
 I offered up for your re-establishment \_restoration^ . I 
 beseech him, with all the powers of my Soul, that he would 
 carefully preserve you, both for jour own [sake], and for 
 the sake of those to whom you afford great consolation. 
 It was not without a great sense of grief and sorrow, that 
 I heard of all that you suffer, and our brethren with you. 
 Let us all comfort ourselves with the Cause of our 
 Sufferings ! Let us always fix our eyes upon the recom- 
 penses, which GOD reserves for us ! Let us assure ourselves 
 that all that we suffer is a certain Sign that our names 
 are written in the Book of Life ! Let us count it all our 
 happiness that GOD doth not think us unworthy to suffer 
 for his Name ! I have not time to say more now : therefore 
 wait always patiently ! 
 
 I am sorry that they have given themselves the trouble 
 to procure a Pension for me. Write to them, that they 
 trouble themselves no more about it ! I am contented to 
 live on bread and water. 
 
 They had made it their endeavours to procure him some relief: 
 but they were unsuccessful, by reason of the cruel severity of those 
 who had the management of him. 
 
 This is what he tells us, in a Letter of the 31st of August 1691 ; 
 which he wrote to his friend. 
 
 I confess with you, that Monsieur Le Fevre is an excel- 
 lent man. He writes like a complete Divine ; and that 
 which he is to be most esteemed for is, that he practises 
 what he says. May the Lord bless, preserve, and strengthen^ 
 2ii
 
 1691. ' My eyes fail me. I use broken spectacles.' 
 
 both yourself and him ! and tliis will afford me great and 
 singular consolation. I thank you both, for the encourage- 
 ments which you give me. The Lord will give me grace 
 to profit thereby ! Do not turn your eyes upon me : but 
 regard yourselves and the rest of our brethren; and it will be 
 there, that you will find occasion to bless the Lord! Assure 
 them all, that I daily pour out my Soul before GOD, several 
 times a day, to procure for them the succour and assistance 
 which they stand in need of. 
 
 To come to the Question which you so earnestly put to 
 me, concerning my nourishment. I acquiesce and content 
 myself with everything : and I had not opposed it, but 
 \_siuipJy'] because I know I have to do Avith a Major, who 
 gets me my food, who will pocket the money that shall be 
 given, and will always treat me very ill. 
 
 Thougli I should have my diet from the Ordinary ; it 
 would be the same thing ! I have already passed through 
 their hands. 
 
 Let tlie Lord preserve, and fill with his favours and 
 blessings, all those holy Souls who interest themselves in 
 my behalf ! 
 
 If I ever have the opportunity to answer you again : it 
 shall be in a more ample manner than I liave at present 
 done ; when I did it precipitately, and Avithout well con- 
 sidering what things I have to answer to. 
 
 My lamp gives but little light. My eyes fail me. I 
 make use of broken spectacles. All this not proper to 
 dispatch business. 
 
 It appeared, by some Letters, that our Martyr would not me\ldle 
 with any great sum of money; for fear it should be thought, that his 
 design was to corrupt his Guards therewith. 
 
 We likewise see by others, the strictness with which they kept 
 him ; to hinder him from receiving any Letter from his friends, or 
 sending any news to them concerning himself. 
 
 But of this we see enough, in a Letter written with his own hand, 
 the 6th and 16th of December 1691, to make us, on the one hand, groan 
 with horror to behold the condition to which this holy man was 
 reduced : and, on the other, to admire his Patience, and Confidence in 
 his GOD. This Letter is written to his Wife ; whom he chides, for 
 troubling herself at his condition to that degree, as to impair her 
 health. 
 
 245
 
 The Deluge of this Age. leoi. 
 
 It is not ahove two hours ago, my dear Heart ! that I 
 received a Letter which gives nie more sorrow than joy. 
 I received it, when I was in the midst of my offering up my 
 Evening Sacrifice to GOD, on the Sahhath Day, 
 
 Tliou behevest that I hide the condition and place in 
 which I am from thee ; but I have much more reason to 
 believe that thou dost conceal thine from me : and I know 
 that my judgement is but too true, by what you confess to 
 me of it. That which grieves me is, that you make me an 
 occasion of your indisposition. If it is I that put the 
 sword to your heart ; then do I very innocently stab 
 myself ! My spirit, my heart, is too deeply engaged to thee ; 
 not to be sensibly affected with the Evil which thou 
 sufferest ! Be not disturbed at this new Cross which GOD 
 lays upon me, by thy means ! Do not fear that it will 
 prejudice my health ! I will bear it like a Christian ; and 
 always with the submission which I owe to the Orders of 
 my GOD and Father, full of tenderness and compassion 
 towards me. Imitate me in that, my dear and well-beloved 
 Widow ! and not in the many failings which you have 
 known in me. Love me always tenderly, as thou hast 
 done ! but let this love, which I desire of you, be ahvays 
 regulated by Divine Love ! as that which I have for thee is 
 never separated from it. 
 
 Although I have great reason to bless myself for thee ; 
 and although I daily pour out my Soul in praises to GOD, 
 for the singular favour which he hath done me, in joining 
 me to so Christian a Wife ; for thou hast contributed very 
 much to the moderating of my Sufferings, by saving thyself 
 and our dear Family from the Deluge of this Age : yet I 
 always feared that you did not receive, with submission 
 enough, the affliction, by which it pleases GOD to prove us. 
 
 Let us imitate Eli, and say with him, in all our Suffer- 
 ings, 'It is the Lord ! Let him do what seemeth him good!" 
 [1 Sam, iii. 18.] 
 
 What reason have you to fear lest evil should befal me? 
 Dost thou question the omnipotency of GOD ? Oughtest 
 thou to imagine that GOD would desert me at last, after 
 several years' miraculous preservation of me ; though I 
 should lose my life, to preserve my Fidelity, ^vhicli I owe to 
 my Saviour? Do not think that that is the way to lose it ! 
 It is, on the contrary, the true way to save it. * He,' we 
 are told by Jesus Christ, ' who will save his life, shall lose 
 246
 
 1687-92. Marolles describes his Dungeon. 
 
 it ; but he that will lose it, for my sake, shall save it ! ' 
 [Matt. xvi. 25.] Remember, in order to give thee more 
 confidence in the goodness of GOD, that 
 
 The Angels have pitched. 
 After some such Exhortations ; he gives her an Account of his 
 Miseries in these words. 
 
 I must, at present, satisfy thy curiosity. I have so many 
 things to tell thee thereupon, that I cannot tell thee them 
 without disguise, and without an imaginary and borrowed 
 name. May the Lord, who favours us in so eminent and 
 miraculous a manner, grant, if it be his pleasure, that no 
 inconvenience may happen thereupon ! But I desire of 
 thee, beforehand, that thou wilt not make it a subject of 
 Affliction : but that you would take occasion thereby to bless 
 the Lord ! 
 
 The place in which I am, served formerly for a Lodging 
 for Soldiers. But, since that, they have converted it into a 
 Dungeon. They have made so much alteration therein, 
 that there doth not so much light come in at present, as to 
 hinder me, by day, from running myself against the walls. 
 
 After I had been there three weeks ; I was assaulted 
 with so many inconveniences ; that I thought I could not 
 live there four months to an end : and it will be five years 
 [1687-1692], the 11th of next February, that GOD doth 
 preserve me therein. 
 
 About the 15th of October [1687] in the first year, 
 GOD, who never sends me Evils but for my good, afflicted 
 me with a painful defluxion [^injiavimatori/ discharge^ , which 
 fell in the elbow of my right arm and shoulder. I could 
 not undress myself. I spent the night, sometimes on my 
 bed, sometimes walking backwards and forwards in my 
 usual darkness. I set myself to reflect upon the occasion of 
 my disease, and concluded that it did proceed from the cold 
 and moistness of the winter ; and that to remedy it, I must 
 drink my wine pure and unmixed : which I did for two days 
 following. At length, perceiving my pains to increase; I 
 took the contrary course, and drank water : and finding 
 myself Avell after it, I have ever since continued it. The 
 defluxion, which I was just now speaking of, was so bad, 
 that I felt it for near[ly] a year. The Lord hath tried me 
 with several other inconveniences : but he hath delivered 
 me out of them all. 
 
 247
 
 The utter rascality of Major Lambert. 1687-92. 
 
 I forgot to tell thee, my Dear ! to give thee a complete 
 description of my little Sanctuary ; that it is ten of my feet 
 in length, and twelve in breadth. All my goods are a bed 
 from the Hospital ; which was brought there about five or 
 six months before my entrance therein. I lie upon one of 
 the Hospital quilts, with a straw bed under it ; and, in this 
 respect, I am much better than in the Galley. 
 
 This is the Fourth winter which I have spent there, 
 almost without fire. The First of these Four, I had none at 
 all. The Second, they began to give me some the 28th of 
 January ; and took it away from me before February was 
 out. The Third, they gave me some for about fourteen or 
 fifteen days. I have not yet seen any this winter; and I 
 will not ask for any at all. The Major might give me some, 
 if he would ; for he hath money of mine : but he will not 
 give me a Double [the Sixth part of a Sou'] of it ! I have 
 sensibly felt the Cold, Nakedness, and Hunger : but all this, 
 I thank GOD ! is past and gone. 
 
 I have lived on Five Sols [=4d.] a day ; which is the 
 subsistence which the King hath appointed for me. I was, 
 at first, fed by an Ordinary ; which treated me very well for 
 my Five Sols. But another, which succeeded him, fed me, 
 for the space of five months ; and scotched [cheated^ me off 
 daily Three Sols in my food. 
 
 The Major, at length, undertook to feed me in his turn ; 
 which he did at first very well : but at length he left off to do 
 well. He opens my Dungeon but once a day ; and hath 
 caused my dinner, several times, to be brought at nine, ten, 
 and eleven, a clock at night: and I did not receive any bread 
 from him once, for the space of three days ; and, at other 
 times, twice in twenty-four hours. 
 
 Let not so many miseries afflict thee, my Dear! Con- 
 sider, as I have done, that this diet was appointed me b}^ the 
 Sovereign Physician of my Body and Soul ; to whom I have 
 resigned myself : and that he would not have appointed it, 
 if he had not judged it necessary. It is by this means, and 
 the sparing manner after which I have lived for all this 
 present year, that GOD hath preserved me in life and 
 health. Beware, therefore, of falling into regret ! w^hereas 
 you ought to bless GOD for his merciful conduct towards me. 
 
 I have just told you, that I have suffered Nakedness. 
 I have been almost a year without shirts. My clothes are 
 more torn and ragged than those of the poorest beggars 
 248
 
 1687-92. The good Almoner of Fort Saint Nicolas. 
 
 whicli stand at the Church doors. I have gone bare-foot till 
 the 15th of December [? 1689] . I say bare-foot : for I have 
 had stockings, which had no feet ; and a pair of old shoes, 
 unsewed on both sides, and bored through the soles. 
 
 An Intendant, who came into this City, three years 
 ago [1688], saw me in this magnificent dress; and, though 
 he promised me much, yet he left me ten months in this 
 condition : at the end of which, GOD raised me up succour, 
 which there was no room to expect. 
 
 He put it into the heart of a charitable and pious 
 person, the Almoner of the Citadel, to visit me. This, with- 
 out doubt, was done with the agreement \_C07ise7it~\ of the 
 King's Lieutenant ; who is likewise very charitable. And 
 having seen me in the sorrowful condition in which I was ; 
 he went out immediately to fetch me some of his linen : 
 but I hindered him. But, at length, he did solicit so well 
 for me, that he procured me a whole Galley Slave's suit ; 
 and obliged the Major to buy me a pair of shoes, and a close 
 pair of breeches, out of my own money. So that, by the 
 care of this good person, I am better clothed than I have 
 ever been, in all my captivity. 
 
 He procured me likewise a most notable advantage, 
 which is, that ever since this year and a half [June 1690 — • 
 December 1691], the King's Lieutenant gives me, everyday, 
 a lamp full of oil ; which gives me light for six, seven, and 
 eight, hours. This gives me opportunity to read the Holy 
 Scripture more than I did before. They [formerly] gave 
 me but a little candle, for a Liard \_tJie Fourth part of a 
 Sou~\ a day. 
 
 I believe that this is enough to satisfy thy curiosity. 
 
 I must further add, That I have been, for these five or 
 six months, troubled with an oppression of the lungs ; which 
 almost took away my breath. I have likewise been troubled 
 with giddiness ; and have fallen down, so as to break [liut't'\ 
 my head. This giddiness I impute to the want of food. But 
 I am now, by the grace of GOD, in more perfect health than 
 I have been these forty years. I speak, my Dear! sincerely, 
 as in the presence of GOD. It is two or three months that 
 they have given me regularly three little loaves, and often 
 soup : since which time, my head is almost settled, and I 
 sleep much better, and my giddiness is almost over. 
 
 After the comfortable news which I tell you ; think no 
 more, but to rejoice at it, and to praise GOD for it ! and 
 
 249
 
 Punished, to strike a Terror in France. 1692.. 
 
 labour after thy health ! which shall always be mine. Thi& 
 I conjure you, in the name of GOD! and let not your sus- 
 picions any more trouble the rest and satisfaction which I 
 find in the possession of my GOD ! 
 
 XXIII. That Major of the Citadel [of Saint Nicolas] , from whom 
 our Martyr received such ill treatment, is called Lambert. He cannot 
 allege the King's Orders in excuse. 
 
 He was not commanded to be sure to keep back his money, to make 
 his advantage [profit] out of the King's Five Sols, not to send him his^ 
 dinner till ten o'clock at night, to let his clothes rot upon the body of 
 his Prisoner, and to refuse him fire in the winter. However rigorous 
 the Orders might be ; one might execute them like an honest man : and 
 not like an Executioner ! 
 
 One may likewise judge of it, by a Letter of our Martyr, written on 
 the First day of the year 1692, to one of his Companions in affliction. 
 
 After having acquainted him with the situation of his Soul ; and 
 having assured him that, through the grace of GOD, Flesh and Blood 
 had never harrassed him to yield to any of their pernicious counsels : 
 he gives an account of his little necessities ; and says, 
 
 I entreat you, with my usual boldness, to buy me, if 
 you can, for Three Sols and a half [ = 3d.] some thread 
 which is not dyed, to mend my linen ; and as much brown 
 thread, for my breeches and other clothes ; and to cause the 
 whole to be bound up into two bottoms [^skeins^. That will 
 be enough to serve me, the remainder of my days. It is 
 above six weeks since the Serjeants have asked the Major, 
 every day, for some for me ; without ever obtaining any. 
 
 Thus do I fare in all things with him. He has, for these 
 three months, refused to get my linen washed. 
 
 Must he not be both barbarous and cruel, to use him after this 
 manner ! 
 
 XXIV. In the following Letter may be seen how those two famous 
 Confessors did comfort and encourage each other. Monsieur DE 
 Marolles tells his friend, 
 
 You speak just to my mind, my dear Brother, when you 
 say. That we alone shall be the persons, whom the King will 
 not make to feel the effects of his clemency. We are brought 
 upon the Stage, in order to strike a Terror into the whole 
 Kingdom ; and upon whom, must fall that vengeance, which 
 250
 
 1692. His last Letter to his Wife, of March 24th. 
 
 the King makes those to feel, who do not acquiesce and 
 submit to his Orders. But if we have had the misfortune to 
 disobey our great Monarch ; let this be our comfort, that 
 we did it out of an indispensable necessity, to which we were 
 reduced, of disobeying him. We have preferred the obedience 
 which we owe to the Divine, to that which we owe to [the] 
 Human, Majesty. This is the laudable crime, for which we 
 suffer so many miseries ! Let us always fix our eyes upon 
 the glorious recompenses which GOD reserves in Heaven 
 for us ! for that very crime for which the God of this World 
 will, perhaps, never forgive us. Let us wait the will of the 
 Lord ; and be always faithful to him ! 
 
 It must be observed that, in this Letter, there are certain proofs 
 that some of our Martyr's Letters had been communicated to the King.. 
 
 XXV. He wrote again to his Wife, on the 24th March 1692 ; and 
 acquaints her with the sole trouble that hath afflicted him during the 
 whole time of his Captivity. 
 
 He begins with his joy that her Letter of the 16th of December, 
 had been delivered to him. After which, he advertised her, That the 
 pleasure of this correspondence might be interrupted ; and that she 
 must prepare herself for it. At length, he tells her. 
 
 The Christian manner in which, my dear Wife ! you 
 received tlie Account of my Sufferings, engages me to hide 
 nothing thereof from you. All that you know, is but very 
 little in comparison of what I am a going to tell you. 
 
 I know very Avell that I cannot perform what I propose 
 to myself, without making an open confession of my in- 
 firmities, and of the narrowness of my spirit. But I have 
 always been sincere ; and will continue so to the end. I 
 will endeavour to make myself pass for no other than for a 
 man of very common endowments. 
 
 When I was taken out of the Galley, and brought 
 hither; I found, at first, a great deal of pleasure in this 
 change. My ears were no longer offended with the horrid 
 and blasphemous sounds, with which those places con- 
 tinually echoed. I had liberty to sing, at every turn, the 
 praises of my GOD. I could prostrate myself before him, 
 as often as I pleased. Moreover, I was discharged from that 
 uneasy chain ; which was infinitely more troublesome to 
 me than that, of Thirty pounds weight, which you saw me 
 carry. 
 
 251
 
 Marolles in a profound Abyss of Affliction. ? i687. 
 
 But notwithstanding all these troubles ; the Lord (who 
 had a mind to make me experience his succour and assis- 
 tance in a rare and extraordinary manner) suffered me to 
 fall into a terrible Trial. 
 
 The solitude and perpetual darkness in which I spent 
 my days, presented my narrow Soul with such a frightful 
 and terrifying Idea, that it made a very fatal impression 
 thereon. It was filled with a million of false and vain 
 Imaginations, which did very often transport it into 
 deliriums and idle fancies ; which lasted sometimes for the 
 space of two whole hours. 
 
 My prayers were no remedy against this Evil. GOD 
 was pleased that it should continue for some months. I 
 was plunged into a profound Abyss of AlHiction. When 
 I considered, together with this sorrowful condition, my 
 little bodily rest ; I concluded from thence, that it was the 
 high road to distraction [insanity^ , and that I should never 
 escape falling into it. 
 
 I incessantly implored the succours of my GOD ! I 
 begged of him, that he would never suffer mine enemies to 
 triumph over me and my Sufferings in so sorrowful a 
 manner as that was ! At length, (after much prayer, sighs, 
 and tears) the GOD of my deliverance heard my petitions ; 
 and, after many tempests, sent a perfect calm and serenity. 
 He dissipated all these Illusions, which gave me so much 
 trouble. 
 
 After having delivered me out of so sore a trial ; never 
 have any doubt, my dearest Wife ! that GOD will not 
 deliver me out of all others in general ! Do not, therefore, 
 disquiet yourself any more about me ! Hope always in the 
 goodness of GOD ; and your hopes shall not be in vain ! 
 
 I ought not, in my opinion, to forget to take notice of 
 a considerable circumstance, which tends to the glory of 
 GOD. The duration of so great a Temptation was, in my 
 opinion, the proper time for the Old Serpent to endeavour 
 to cast me into Rebellion and Infidelity. But GOD always 
 kept him in so profound a silence, that he never once offered 
 to infest me with any of his pernicious counsels : and I never 
 felt the least inclination to revolt. 
 
 Ever since these sorrowful days ; GOD hath always 
 filled my heart with joy ! I possess my Soul in patience. 
 He makes the Days of my Affliction speedily to pass away. 
 I have no sooner begun them ; but I find myself at the end 
 252
 
 1692. Marolles buried by Turks, among the Turks. 
 
 of them. With the Bread and Water of Affliction with 
 which he tries me; he doth afford me continually most 
 delicious repasts. 
 
 XXVI. This is the last Letter of this blessed Martyr which hath 
 been put into my hands. We must believe that they doubled the 
 strictness with which they kept him, to deprive him of this consolation. 
 
 We are likewise informed by the Letter of a faithful Confessor 
 who was on board the Galleys, and who hath always run all hazards to 
 do our Martyr all the services that he could, that the extreme weakness 
 of his body and eyes hindered him from reading and writing, a month 
 or two before his death : which happened on the 17th of June in the 
 year 1692 ; and he was buried by Turks, in the same place where those 
 Infidels were buried. 
 
 There is an Extract of a Letter written from Marseilles, of the 19th 
 of June 1692 ; which says. 
 
 The subject of this jDresent [Letter], is chiefly to 
 acquaint you with death of Monsieur de Marolles, that 
 famous Confessor of Christ ; who hath been so long shut 
 up in a Dungeon in the great Citadel : where they have 
 made him to suffer very much. He was pressed to the last, 
 to change his Religion : but he hath always persevered in his 
 own. He died the day before yesterday ; being buried by 
 Turks, among the Turks. They must make an end, as they 
 had begun. 
 
 Thus is he out of his Misery ; and crowned with glory 
 in Abraham's bosom. We ought to desire to end our days 
 as holily as he did ; who died a true Martyr, with great con- 
 stancy and resignation. Thus shall he enjoy an eternal 
 recompense : whereas his Persecutors shall have a great 
 Account to give to the Sovereign Judge. 
 
 I pass by other circumstances, for fear of discovering the Author 
 of this Letter ; who is perhaps a Roman Catholic, smitten with the 
 Sufferings of our Martyr. 
 
 If you do not know Monsieur DE Marolles's relations ; 
 communicate, if you please, what I write to you to Monsieur 
 Bernard ; who hath sometimes asked me about him. May 
 GOD comfort the afflicted ! who ought to be glad to hear 
 that he is at rest. He had nothing to hope for, but Suffer- 
 ings in this World ! 
 
 253
 
 Marolles's Life, nothing but a living Death. 16S7-92. 
 
 There is still another Letter, of the 20th of June, written to his 
 Wife, by that generous Confessor who was on board the Galleys, and 
 ^who rendered our Martyr all manner of services and consolations ; as 
 doth appear by the Answers which Monsieur de Makolles returned to 
 his Letters. He saith, among other things, that this dear Martyr of the 
 Lord resigned his spirit into the hands of his Father, on the 17th day of 
 the present month : and was, the next day, laid in his last grave, by six 
 Turks ; as it is the custom here, to bury those who die faithful to their 
 Saviour. 
 
 I cannot (he proceeds) give you an exact Account of his 
 last hours ; nor of his last words. But I will tell you, in a 
 few words, that which hath been known. 
 
 You have already learned by the Letters of this dear 
 Martyr, that, after having groaned for some time under 
 irons, he was removed to a Dungeon, dreadful for its 
 •obscurity, and much more so for its stench. 
 
 You know that they fed him but very ill there : and 
 that he often laboured under Hunger ; not having enough 
 even of bread and water, which was his common diet. This 
 great austerity made him very weak, and flung him into 
 great Vertigoes {^Gicldiness~\ : so that he fell down, about 
 two months since, with very weakness ; and dashed his head 
 -against the wall, in which he made several wounds. He 
 has been continually languishing ever since that moment ; 
 and his Life hath been nothing else but a living Death. 
 
 Those who had the management of him were insensible 
 of all his pains ; excepting that, for these six weeks past, 
 they gave him a little better, and a little greater, quantity 
 of, victuals. But his body was weakened, and his nature 
 brought so low, that it could not recover its strength. 
 
 This faithful Servant of the Lord had almost lost his 
 sight, about a month since : and although I had sent him 
 your last Letters ; he could neither read them, nor return 
 any Answer. He likewise returned me those which I, from 
 time to time, wrote to him. He was forced to be contented 
 with hearing by word of mouth from me : and caused me to 
 be told. That he recommended himself to the prayers of his 
 good friend ; and that he thought of nothing else but his 
 Departure. GOD hath, at length, disposed of him ; and he 
 shall return to us no more. 
 
 He hath gone through the most cruel torments which 
 Inhumanity, in its utmost extent, could inflict : but yet GOD 
 254
 
 1692. Visited by the Missionaries, when dying. 
 
 hath never suffered them to make a prize of his Innocence. 
 
 I must tell 5^ou, for your consolation, that, from the 
 time that they saw this dear Martyr begin to grow weak 
 and decay, he was often visited by Doctors of the contrary 
 Communion : but this firm and immovable Servant of GOD 
 w^as not moved by their visits. He heard, without trouble, 
 that which he rejected; and did not return railing for rail- 
 ing. He blest his enemies to the last. His glory will never 
 be blotted out, neither in Heaven, nor in the Earth ! 
 
 253
 
 L 
 
 XXVII. f ET US FOLLOW the thoughts of this Confessor of the 
 Truth, and say with him, That the Glory of Monsieur 
 DE Marolles will never be extinguished in the eyes 
 of GOD or Men ! 
 
 One may, without exaggeration, say, That he was one of the most 
 famous Martyrs that the Church ever knew. He hath undergone all 
 the most formidable Afflictions that the World, that the Fury of 
 Persecution, could invent. He hath suffered everything which was able 
 to shock Human Nature. But he sustained it, like that house built upon 
 a rock, which Jesus Christ speaks of in the Gospel ; which the most 
 violent storms could not overthrow. 
 
 He seemed to be engaged to the World by the strongest bonds of 
 Flesh and Blood. He had an Estate. He had a Wife and children who 
 were dear to him. How often have they laid before him, by flattering 
 promises, the advantages of the World ! since such great and frequent 
 efforts were made to triumph over his Fidelity. They could not say. 
 That a morose and conceited humour had produced anj-thing like 
 obstinacy in his Soul. His constancy was well founded. It was 
 enlightened, and grounded upon good reasons. He always gave a reason 
 of his Hope with modesty. This is a testimony which all the Doctors 
 who have had any Conference with him, cannot refuse to give him. 
 
 One year on board the Galleys. Five years in a Dungeon, perplexed 
 with darkness and stench : always exposed to Cold, Nakedness, and 
 Hunger. Imagination itself cannot, without horror, form a just Idea 
 of all those Sufferings. 
 
 Notwithstanding, this blessed Martyr, learns [teaches] us, that 
 during the whole time of so tedious and dreadful a Combat, in which he 
 was besieged by all the horrors of this Life, in which the World 
 presented him with its riches and honours ; this Soul, faithful to his 
 GOD, always kept his Flesh in a respectful silence to the adorable 
 Providence of that great GOD, who would be glorified in his Afflictions. 
 
 What a Treasvire of Consolation and Instruction would it be to all 
 the Faithful, if we had the Thoughts, tlie Meditations, the Prayers, the 
 private Conferences of his holy Soul with his GOD, during those five 
 years in which his body lay ' buried in the deep mire,' to speak in the 
 language of the royal Prophet. [Ps. Ixix. 2.] 
 
 256
 
 1699. Eeflections of the Writer of this History. 
 
 But since we cannot have an Account of the effects which this 
 eminent Faith produced ; we ought to make many useful and salutary 
 Reflections upon so famous an example. 
 
 Those Libertines, who despise Piety and ridicule its promises, 
 ought to tremble and stand in awe of the Judgements of GOD. They 
 believe, neither in Heaven nor Hell, nor the Resurrection, nor Life 
 Eternal. What assurance have they of this annihilation ? which should 
 make them expect death with such a brutal security ; as if they had 
 certain demonstrations of this pretended future Annihilation. 
 
 Our Martyr was endued with a solid judgement, a piercing spirit. 
 He was enlightened ; and was a good Philosopher. He had time often 
 to reflect upon Eternity : and the reward appeared to him so certain, 
 that his Hope gave him the victory over all the most dreadful Evils 
 which were able to shake and stagger the heart of Mankind. Such a 
 steady, such an unshaken. Fidelity wants but very little of being as 
 forcible and convincing as the Testimony of a Soul which had already 
 enjoyed the blessed Vision of GOD. 
 
 This Martyr should likewise awaken those Christians lulled asleep 
 in error : who flatter themselves that they are not liable to those 
 penalties with which Jesus Christ has threatened those who shall 
 deny him before Men ; because they have not abjured the Gospel, to 
 receive the Alcoran [Koran], . 
 
 Our Martyr, being convinced of the Truth which GOD had made 
 known unto him, was persuaded that the Fidelity, which GOD expected 
 from him, obliged him not to suffer the Truth, by any means, to be 
 prejxidiced; nor any breach to be made in his Faith. He would preserve 
 it pure and inviolable ; as he had received it from his GOD. 
 
 He likewise learns \teaclies'\ those sluggish Christians, who live in 
 the World as the rest of men do, content with performing the exterior 
 Service which Religion prescribes — our Martyr, I say, learns [teaches] 
 them to work out their Salvation with a holy Fear. For if we must be 
 faithful to him, when he calls us to Suffering ; we do not owe him less 
 obedience, in the things which he commands us to do, and which the 
 Gospel requires of us. 
 
 His example likewise instructs us to put our trust in GOD, in the 
 most sorrowful conjunctures of this life. Did we but know his secret 
 Soliloquies ; how often should we find him strengthening and comfort- 
 ing himself with those words of his Saviour, ' Let not your heart be 
 troubled ; and be not fearful ! Ye believe in GOD ; believe also in me 1 * 
 [John xiv. 1.] And with those of his Apostle, 'I know whom I have 
 believed ; and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 17 2fi7
 
 A Religion ending disputes by Fire and Faggot. 1699. 
 
 committed unto him [2 Tim. i. 12.] insomuch that neither Death nor 
 Life shall ever separate me from the Love which GOD hath shewed 
 me in Christ Jesus. [Rom. viii. 38, 39.J If GOD is for us ; who shall 
 be against us ? [Rom. viii. 31.] 
 
 Lastly. This cruel Inhumanity, with which our Martyr was so long 
 persecuted, ought to give us just Ideas of the Romish Religion. For 
 where Truth is, there also 77mst Humanity and Charity, of necessity, be 1 
 
 By consequence, a Religion which ends disputes by Fire and Faggot, 
 cannot, without dispute, have any share in the salutary Truths which 
 Jesus Christ delivered ; nor [in] that Spirit of the Gospel, which is a 
 Spirit of Mildness ; which doth good to all men, but especially to those 
 of the Household of Faith. 
 
 GOD grant that those of this Communion, who sincerely seek to 
 work out their salvation, may seriously think thereupon : and that the 
 sight of so much Violence and Barbarity which this Religion inspires 
 and exercises ; that the voice and groans of so many afflicted persons, 
 because they would not betray their Consciences ; may rouse them, out 
 of their stupidity, to read the Word of GOD 1 that they may search out 
 the Truth therein 1 and openly profess it, after they have found it, in 
 giving glory to GOD 1 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 258
 
 zAn Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Sufferings 
 
 of the 
 
 French Protestants^ 
 
 Slaves on board the French Kings Galleys, 
 
 By 
 
 Elie Neau^ 
 
 One of their fello'V9 Sufferers, 
 
 Together with 
 
 ji List of those ypho are still on board 
 the said Galleys, 
 
 London. 
 
 Printed for Richard Parker at the Unicorn, 
 
 under the Royal Exchange ; 
 
 and sold by A. Baldwin, near the Oxford Ar}7is, 
 
 in Warwick Lane. 
 
 1699. 
 
 259
 
 An Account of the Sufferings of the French 
 
 Protestants, Slaves on board the French 
 
 King's Galleys, etc. 
 
 IT IS NOT out of any vanity, that I have been induced to 
 publish the following Account of my Sufferings, while 
 I have remained on board the French King's Galleys, 
 or in the Dungeons of Marseilles : but the Lord, out 
 of his infinite mercy, having saved me out of my dis- 
 tresses, brought me out of darkness, and broken my fetters; 
 some pious people have thought I should be ungrateful, did 
 I not praise the Lord for his goodness, and publish his 
 wonderful works to the children of men. 
 
 I left the Kingdom of France, upon account of my 
 Religion, in the year 1679, being then aged about eighteen 
 years : and went to Saint Domingo, and from thence to 
 New York ; where I married some time after. 
 
 As I had been bred to the sea ; some friends of mine 
 fitted out a small ship, of about 80 tons; which they trusted 
 to my care and command : I having been made a Free Denizen 
 [^Citizen, though alien boni] of England, by his present 
 Majesty [, William III.], in the first year of his reign [1689]. 
 
 I sailed from New York on the 15th of August 1692, 
 bound for Jamaica : and was taken, on the 29th, by a Priva- 
 teer from Saint Malo ; which was returning home from 
 Saint Domingo. I continued two months on board his ship: 
 after which, I was put in Prison [at Saint Malo] , with other 
 Seamen and Prisoners at War. 
 
 The Judge of the Admiralty, being informed that I was 
 a French Protestant, gave notice thereof to the King's 
 Attorney ; who, having acquainted Monsieur DE Pontchae- 
 TKAIN with it, received orders to persuade me to change my 
 Religion ; or in case I proved obstinate, to condemn me to 
 the Galleys. 
 
 261
 
 Neau sent to the Parliament at Rennes. 1692-93, 
 
 This Order was signified unto me: but GOD was pleased 
 to assist me in such a manner, that I was not terrified in 
 the least ; and I did not hesitate at all to answer, That I 
 could not comply with their desire ; seeing it was against 
 my Conscience. 
 
 Their solicitations proving vain ; I was brought before 
 the Court to be examined, and was asked, Why I did not 
 return into the Kingdom, when the King had, by a Procla- 
 mation, recalled all his subjects who were in foreign 
 countries ? 
 
 I answered, That it was because the Gospel commanded 
 me, when I was persecuted in one Kingdom, to fly into 
 another country. 
 
 The Judge (being likely a stranger to Scripture maxims 
 and expressions) told me. That I blasphemed : but having 
 desired him to tell me, Wherein ? he would not ; and 
 repeated the same word. 
 
 I replied. That this was an expression of the Son of 
 GOD, contained in the Gosj^el. 
 
 Whereupon he inclined his head, looking upon the 
 Greffier, or Clerk of the Court, and repeated once more^ 
 That I blasphemed. 
 
 He examined me also upon several other Articles,, 
 foreign to my purpose ; and sent the Informations he had 
 taken to Court. 
 
 I remained four months in the Prisons of Saint Malo ,•: 
 where I had many temptations to overcome, as threats and 
 promises : but, by the grace of GOD, I was proof against all 
 their artifices. 
 
 The Order of the Court being arrived ; my Sentence was 
 pronounced : and I was sent to Rennes, to appear before the 
 Parliament of Brittany. 
 
 I was put on horseback, bound hand and foot : but the 
 shaking of the horse causing my arms to swell, the manacles 
 proved then too little, and I felt then a most exquisite pain. 
 
 An Advocate of the Parliament, who travelled the same 
 road, pitying my condition, desired those who were appointed 
 to conduct me, to take off the manacles : but had much ado 
 to persuade them to it. I was then considerably eased ; 
 but it was impossible for me to hold a pen to write, in a 
 fortnight's time. 
 262
 
 1693. Neau sentenced to be a Galley Slave. 
 
 Some days after my arrival at Rennes, I appeared before 
 the Great Chamber; and was commanded to hold up my 
 hand, and [to] swear to answer truly and directly the Inter- 
 rogatories which should be made unto me. 
 
 They asked me first, my Name and Profession; and 
 then. Why I had settled myself in a foreign country, con- 
 trary to the King's Orders ? 
 
 I own I was then struck with such a terror that I could 
 hardly speak : but they bade me to be assured, and to answer 
 the Questions that were put to me. 
 
 This having revived me ; I told them, ' I had left my 
 native country because Jesus Cheist, the King of Kings, 
 commanded me to fly from that country, where I could not 
 enjoy the Liberty of Conscience ; and [to] retire into 
 another.' 
 
 The First President told me, That Persecution was a 
 great Evil : but added, That I was not to be ignorant that 
 Saint Paul commands to obey Kings, not only in temporal 
 things ; but likewise for Conscience. 
 
 I replied. That, likely. Saint Paul did not understand 
 that passage in the sense of his Lordship : ' for if he did so, 
 my Lord ! ' said I to the President, ' why did he not obey 
 Nero ? ' 
 
 He asked me afterwards, Whether I had fired upon the 
 King's subjects'? But understanding that my ship had no 
 Guns, nor any other offensive Arms, he asked me. Whether 
 I would have fired upon them, if I had been in a capacity 
 to do it ? 
 
 I replied. That it was natural for a man to defend his 
 estate and goods. Whereupon he interrupted me, in these 
 words. ' It is a great misfortune for you to be born in that 
 Eeligion ; and that the HOLY GHOST has not enlightened 
 you ! Withdraw ! ' 
 
 I was remanded to the Prison ; and, two hours after, 
 the Attorney General came to tell me. That if I would 
 change my Religion, I should have my Pardon ; and that 
 they would help me to a good employment at Brest. 
 
 I gave him the same Answer I had given to the King's 
 Attorney at Saint Malo, viz., That I was ready to lose my 
 life, rather than renounce my Religion. Whereupon he 
 went away; commanding to put me to the Chain [Chain- 
 gang^, with some other Galley Slaves. 
 
 263
 
 The march of the Chain-gang to Marseilles. 1693. 
 
 It was on the 3rd of April 1693, that I was tied to the 
 Great Chain, with fifty-nine other Slaves, which were con- 
 demned to that dreadful punishment : some for Desertion, 
 others for defrauding the King's duties upon Salt \_La 
 Gahelle], and others for horrid crimes, as Robbery and 
 Murder ; and four for Rapes. 
 
 It rained almost all that month ; so that we could 
 hardly travel five leagues a day : and when we arrived at 
 night at any village or town to lie, they put us, as so many 
 beasts, into stables ; where, though always wet and dirty, 
 we often wanted straw to lie upon. We had three pence 
 halfpenny a day for our nourishment: but it often happened 
 that we could find no bread for our money in those villages, 
 where we were obliged to lie [the night] , upon the road. 
 
 When they put us in these stables ; they fastened both 
 ends of the Chain to the walls : so that we had only the 
 liberty to lie down ; but not to stir at all. 
 
 That hard fatigue, and the coldness of the water, threw 
 me into a bloody flux [dysentryf] : and, being unable to 
 walk, I gave 40 Livres [= ii4] to our Captain, to obtain the 
 liberty to be carried in a cart : happy to have found a man 
 whose cruelty could be melted with money ! 
 
 As we went through all the ca^^ital Cities of the 
 Provinces that lie between Brest and Marseilles, our 
 number increased apace : for we took above 60 other Slaves 
 at Saumur and Angers, condemned for various crimes. We 
 recruited also at Tours, Bourges, and Lyons : insomuch 
 that we were upwards of 150 men when we arrived. It is 
 indeed a horrid spectacle to see such a number of men 
 fastened to a Chain ; and exposed to so many miseries, that 
 Death is not so hard, by half, as this punishment. 
 
 We arrived at Marseilles on the 10th of May [1693] ; 
 and, about the same time, [there] arrived also 800 other 
 Slaves from several parts of the Kingdom. 
 
 We were divided in Forty lots : and I and several 
 others were sent on board the ' Magnanime,' commanded 
 by Monsieur de Soisan. 
 
 There were on board that Galley, six persons upon 
 account of their Religion : and, amongst them, there were 
 three very timorous and fearful ; who sometimes had the 
 weakness to comply, in some manner, with the Idolators 
 264
 
 1693-94. Neau strengthens his fellow Galley Slaves. 
 
 of the mystical Babylon. GOD was pleased to send me 
 thither to encourage them ; and my example and exhor- 
 tations wrought such an impression upon them, that they 
 resolved to glorify the name of their Saviour openly, and 
 without any disguise. 
 
 One of them told the First Lieutenant of the Galley, 
 with a Christian courage and resolution. That he had 
 indeed been so unhappy as to faint under the weight of the 
 Persecution ; but that he begged GOD's pardon for that 
 crime : and that he abhorred the Idolatry of the Church 
 of Rome. 
 
 They told him, in my hearing. That they would make 
 bim expire, under beating : but he answered, That, by the 
 grace of GOD, he was ready to die ! 
 
 This was enough to kindle the fury of the Captain of 
 the Galley against me : who complained that, since I had 
 arrived, that man had discontinued to do ' his duty,' to 
 use his own phrase ; for so they speak of such, who have 
 the weakness to go to Mass, etc. 
 
 This incensed them so much against me, that they 
 resolved to treat me with a greater severity than the rest of 
 the Slaves : and loaded me with two chains ; whereas the 
 others had but one. 
 
 There happened, some time after, another thing, which 
 considerably increased their rage. A Roman Catholic Slave 
 on board the 'Guerriere,' for having deserted the King's 
 Service, (observing that the Officers used more severity on 
 Monsieur [Pieere] Carriere than any others ; and under- 
 standing he was there only for refusing to change his 
 Religion) had the curiosity to know from him. What was 
 the Religion, he maintained with so much constancy and 
 magnanimity ? 
 
 That faithful Confessor explained to him the principles 
 thereof ; and gave him a New Testament, translated by 
 Father [Denis] Amelote. 
 
 I was informed thereof, and writ to him some Letters 
 to encourage him to go on with the examination of our 
 Religion : to which he applied himself with so much 
 sincerity that, upon Easter Day next following [11 April 
 1694 N.S.'], he refused to worship the Host: and had the 
 courage to declare to his Captain, That he would never own 
 himself any more a Roman Catholic. 
 
 265
 
 The hardships the Galley Slaves suffer. 1693-94. 
 
 They loaded him with two chains ; and used him with a 
 most barbarous severity. They searched immediately his 
 pockets ; and having found therein some of my Letters ; my 
 Persecutors were enraged against me, and made me 
 sufficiently fear the effects of their Fury. 
 
 Their barbarous usage did not fright[en] our new 
 Proselyte into any compliance : for GOD has so streng- 
 thened him, that, for these five years since he has been, and 
 is still [1G99], a most glorious Confessor to his Name. 
 
 When my enemies saw that their chains and other 
 hardships wrought no impression upon me ; they writ to 
 the Court, That I spoke English ; and was perpetually a 
 writing. 
 
 This reason was sufficient for them to obtain an Order 
 to transfer me from the Galleys into the Prison of th& 
 Citadel of Marseilles. 
 
 But before I speak of the cruelties they exercised upon 
 me ; I think it may not be improper to give a Short Account 
 of the hardships the Slaves are exposed to. 
 
 They are Five upon every form [bench^ , fettered with 
 a heavy chain, which is about ten or twelve feet long. They 
 shave their heads from time to time, as a sign of their 
 Slavery; and are not allowed to wear any hats or periwigs : 
 but the King allows them, every year, a Cap, with two 
 Shirts, two pairs of Drawers of the coarsest linen, a sort 
 of Upper Coat of a reddish stuff, and a Capote [^great-coat, 
 or cloak^ (but it is to be observed, that they have, of late, 
 but one Coat and Capote every two years), and two pairs of 
 Stockings, every year. 
 
 They have only beans, and nothing else, for their food ; 
 with about fourteen ounces of coarse bread a day : and 
 never a drop of wine, whilst they are in Port. They are 
 devoured in winter by lice ; and in summer by bugs and 
 fleas ; and are forced to lie one upon another, as hogs in a 
 sty. I shall not take notice, in this place, of the barbarity 
 they are used with, by the Officers of the Galleys : which is 
 beyond imagination. 
 
 The Protestants are obnoxious [exposed, liable^ to all 
 these miseries ; and to a great many others besides. They 
 are not allowed to receive any money from their friends 
 and relations ; unless it be very privately. They are, every
 
 1694-96. Neau a prisoner in Fort Saint Nicolas. 
 
 day, threatened and tormented by Priests and Friars : who,, 
 being unable to convince them by reasons, think that 
 severity alone can do it. To this I must add, the trouble 
 and vexation a Christian Soul is afflicted with, to live with 
 wicked and desperate fellows ; who never use the tremendous 
 name of GOD, but for cursing and swearing. 
 
 On the 3rd of May in the year 1694, Orders came from 
 the Court to transfer me into the Prison of the Citadel 
 [i.e. Fort Saint Nicolas] : and I was put into the same 
 Dungeon wherein Monsieur Laubonniere, one of our most 
 illustrious Confessors, died, seven months before. 
 
 I was forced to lie upon the stones : for I could not 
 obtain, for a year together, any bed, nor even straw, to lie 
 upon. There was a strict order to suffer nobody to speak to 
 me; nor me to w^rite to anybody: and the Aide-Major 
 {_Assistant Major] came every night to search my pockets,, 
 when he had taken his round. 
 
 Though my condition was as miserable as possible, 
 nobody took pity on me ; and the victuals they gave me 
 were hardly sufficient to keep me alive. 
 
 In the meantime, GOD, out of his infinite love, afforded 
 me such comforts, that I little regarded the miseries I was 
 reduced to. 
 
 I remained there about a year, without seeing anybody ; 
 but, about that time, the Director of Conscience of the 
 then Governor came to see me, as they were bringing 
 me my dinner. 
 
 He had hardly looked upon me, but he cried out, 
 'Lord ! in what condition are you, Sir!' 
 
 I replied, ' Sir, do not pity me ! For could you but 
 see the secret pleasures my heart experiences ; you would 
 think me too happy ! ' 
 
 He told me. That the greatest Sufferings did not 
 entitle a man to the glory of Martyrdom, unless he were so 
 happy as to suffer for Truth and Justice. 
 
 Which I granted him ; but told him withal, That the 
 HOLY GHOST had sealed that Truth in my heart ; and that 
 [that] very thought was my comfort in all my afflictions. 
 
 That Priest, taking his leave of me, wished that GOD 
 would multiply his grace on me ! and sent me a straw-bed 
 to lie upon. 
 
 267
 
 Neau is removed to the Chateau d'lf. 1696-98. 
 
 I continued Twenty-two months [May 1694 — March 
 1696] in that Prison ; without changing any clothes : my 
 beard being as long as the hair of my head ; and my face 
 as pale as plaster. 
 
 There was, just under me, a generous Confessor, whom 
 they had so much tormented that they had turned his 
 brains ; but, having some good intervals, had always reason 
 enough to refuse to comply with their desires. 
 
 He asked me, one morning, with a loud voice, How I did? 
 
 This was immediately reported to the Governors, where- 
 upon I was immediately removed into another Prison : 
 where I continued very little [time] ; because of my singing 
 of Psalms, though I sung with a very low voice, that I 
 might disturb nobody. 
 
 I was put, on the 20th of May 1696, in a subterraneous 
 Hole ; wherein I remained till the 1st of July next following. 
 
 Then I was sent, together with the distracted person I 
 have named, by express Order from the Court, to the 
 Chateau d'lf, about five miles from Marseilles, in the mouth 
 of the harbour. 
 
 They had likewise, five weeks before, sent thither three 
 other persons from the same Citadel. We were all, at first, 
 in different Prisons ; but as five Sentinels were required to 
 keep us, they obtained leave from the Court to put us 
 together in a secure place : so that, on the 20th of August, 
 I and the poor Gentleman I have spoken of, were put into a 
 Hole ; and the other three into another. 
 
 The place was so disposed, that we were obliged to go 
 down a ladder into a dry ditch ; and then go up the same 
 ladder into an old Tower, through a cannon hole [embrasure] . 
 
 The vault, or arch, wherein we were put, was as dark 
 as if there had been no manner of light in heaven ; stinking ; 
 and so miserably dirty, that I verily believe there is not a 
 more dismal place in the world. 
 
 We might have received some money to help us in this 
 great distress : but they would not suffer it. So that all 
 our senses were attacked at once. Sight, by darkness; Taste, 
 by hunger ; Smell, by the stench of the place ; Seeing, by 
 lice and other vermin ; and Hearing, by the horrid blas- 
 phemies and cursing which the Soldiers, who were obliged 
 268
 
 1698. Neau is delivered ; being a British Subject. 
 
 to bring us some victuals, vomited against GOD and our 
 holy Religion. 
 
 The Missionaries (who flattered themselves that we 
 could not resist much longer) were almost enraged, when 
 they saw our firm resolution to die in the Profession of our 
 Religion ; and therefore began to talk of nothing else, but of 
 the Judgements of GOD. And thereupon, I could not for- 
 bear, one day, to tell them, That the Judgements of GOD 
 were upon them ; for he suffered them to fill up the measures 
 of their crimes, in insulting over us in our miseries : but 
 that GOD was just; and would not fail to avenge us, and 
 [to] punish them according to their demerits. 
 
 Having continued six months in that Pit ; my fellow- 
 sufferer happening to die ; I was removed into the other, 
 with the other three Confessors. As that poor man was in 
 his agony, he heard some of the Soldiers say. That it was 
 necessary to send for the Chaplain. But he made a sign 
 with his hand to testify his aversion to it ; and so gave up 
 the ghost unto the Lord. 
 
 We continued, all four, in the other Pit for some time, 
 without seeing any light at all : but, at last, they gave us 
 leave to have a lamp while we eat our victuals. The place 
 being very damj) ; our clothes were rotten by this time. 
 
 But GOD was pleased to have mercy upon me, miser- 
 able sinner ; and upon another of my fellow Sufferers : for, 
 on the 3rd of July [1698], the Lord broke our fetters; the 
 Right Honourable [William Bentinck,] the Earl of 
 PoKTLAND, then Extraordinary Ambassador to the Court 
 of France, having reclaimed us, in His Majesty's name. 
 
 We left two of our companions in that dreadful Pit, 
 and about 370 others on board the Galleys; where they 
 glorify the name of GOD, with an unparalleled courage and 
 constancy. 
 
 This is the Short, but Sincere, Account of my 
 Sufferings : which I have written at the request of several 
 eminent persons, as a means to comfort and rejoice in the 
 Lord, the faithful Servants of Jesus Christ ; and confound 
 the Emissaries of Satan, who would fain make the World 
 believe that there is no Persecution in France. 
 
 269
 
 A Psalm of Thanksgiving. ie29. 
 
 And now, Bless the Lord, O, my Soul ! and all that is 
 "within me, bless his holy name ; and forget not his 
 benefits ! I love the Lord ; because he hath heard my 
 voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his 
 ear unto me ; therefore will I call upon him as long as I 
 live ! The sorrows of Death compassed me, and the pains 
 of Hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. 
 Then called I upon the name of the Lord, ' O, Lord ! I 
 beseech thee, deliver my Soul ! ' Gracious is the Lord, and 
 righteous ; yea, our GOD is merciful ! The Lord preserveth 
 the simple. I was brought low ; and he helped me. Return 
 unto thy rest, O, my Soul ! for the Lord hath dealt 
 bountifully with thee. For thou hast delivered my Soul 
 from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. 
 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. I 
 believed, therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted. 
 I said in my haste ' All men are liars ! ' What shall I 
 render unto the Lord, for all his benefits towards me ? I 
 will take the Cup of Salvation, and call upon the name of 
 the Lord ! I will pay my vows unto the Lord, now in the 
 presence of all his people ! Precious in the sight of the 
 Lord, is the death of his Saints. O, Lord ! truly I am thy 
 servant ! I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid. 
 Thou hast loosed my bonds. I will offer unto thee the 
 sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the Name of 
 the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord, now in the 
 presence of all his people. In the Courts of the Lord's 
 House, in the midst of thee, O, Jerusalem ! Praise ye the 
 Lord ! 
 
 Elias Neau. 
 
 270
 
 A True and Exact List of the French 
 
 Protestants, Slaves on board the French 
 
 Galleys, for adhering to the Profession 
 
 of the Protestant Religion. 
 
 [July 1698.] 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Montauban. 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Provence. 
 
 Givaudan. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 Dauphiny. 
 Nimes. 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Montauban. 
 
 Abbeville. 
 
 Poitou. 
 
 Near Gonesse. 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 Poitou. 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Near Amiens. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 AT MAESEILLES. 
 
 On hoard the * Fortune.' 
 
 Monsieur Pierre Serres senior. 
 Antoine Grange. 
 Pierre Gascuel. 
 Matthieu Pelanchon. 
 Antoine Pelecuer. 
 Antoine Agulhon. 
 Jean Marvege. 
 Isaac Apostolick. 
 Pierre Boulogne. 
 Pierre Joram, Ten. 
 
 On board the 'France.'' 
 
 Monsieur Jean Serres junior. 
 Jean Lepicier. 
 Charles Bouin. 
 Jean Rousleau. 
 Jacques Poissan 
 Nicolas Josue. 
 Jean Pierre Clerc. 
 MoisE FoACHE. Eight. 
 
 The Years they 
 
 were sent to 
 
 the Galleys. 
 
 1686 
 1689 
 1691 
 1689 
 1691 
 1695 
 1686 
 
 1686 
 
 1686 
 1691 
 1688 
 1693 
 1689 
 1692 
 1693 
 
 The 'Grande,' or 'Great.' 
 Valleys of Piedmont. Monsieur Jean Musseton. 
 
 1689 
 
 271
 
 Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. i698. 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 Cevennes. 
 Dauphiny. 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Tierache. 
 
 Rojan. 
 
 Langiiedoc. 
 
 Francastel. 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Lyons. 
 
 London. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 Monsieur Antoine Chabert. 
 Louis Mannuel. 
 Pierre Boyer, 
 Antoine Mercier. 
 
 The Years they 
 were sent to 
 the Galleys. 
 
 1696 
 1689 
 
 Five. 1689 
 
 The 'Fidelc; or 'Trusty: 
 
 Monsieur Jean Dubui. 
 Monsiel Daniel Gouin. 
 
 Jacques Peridier. 
 
 Nicolas Daubigny. (a Proselyte) 
 
 Jean Samson. 
 
 Joseph Guigue. 
 
 Matthew Terey. Seven. 
 
 1691 
 1693 
 1693 
 
 1697 
 
 Languedoc. 
 Anduze. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Quercy. 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Nimes. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Niort. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Anduze. 
 
 Anduze. 
 
 Montauban. 
 
 Castillon, near 
 Bergerac. 
 272 
 
 The 'Brave: 
 
 Jean Bouvely. 1689- 
 
 Pierre Lafon. 1688 
 
 Andre Bousquet. 169& 
 
 (Messieurs Abel Damouin, and] 
 
 Etienne Damouin, of a noble r 1690 
 family. I 
 Michel Gascuel. Six. 1689 
 
 The 'Bardie; or 'Bold: 
 
 Monsieur Francois Sabattier. 1683 
 
 GUILLAUME Roux. 1690 
 
 Elie Eruan. 1688 
 
 Marc Gresse. 1689 
 
 David Lauvet. 1688 
 
 Monsieur Baptiste Bancilhon. 168& 
 
 Monsieur Louis Duclaux. 1689 
 
 Jean Lambert. 168^ 
 
 Philippe Tardieu. 1688 
 
 David Puec. 1688 
 Jean Negre. 
 Jean Jacques. Twelve. 
 
 The 'Dame: or 'Lady: 
 
 Monsieur Barthelmi Gauma. 1689,
 
 1698. Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 
 The Years they 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Na7nes of the Protestants. 
 
 were sent to 
 
 Birth. 
 
 
 the 
 
 Galleys. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Jean Roseveau. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiuy. 
 
 Jean Marin. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Daxiphiny. 
 
 Alexandre Vacher. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 MoisE Renault. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Pierre Renaut. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Anduze. 
 
 Pierre Vallat. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiuy. 
 
 Daniel Borel. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Anduze. 
 
 David Conte. 
 The ' Gloire; or ' Glory: 
 
 Nine. 
 
 1689 
 
 Nimes. 
 
 Marc Antoine Reboul. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Daniel Jauvel. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Marc Odou. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Jean Pierre Dintre. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Joseph Corbiere. 
 
 
 1690 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Etienne Ferineau. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Normandy. 
 
 Pierre L'Orphelin. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 MoisE Brissac. 
 
 
 1690 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Pierre Sauzet. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Jean Vincent Mallet. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Valleys of Piedmont. Jean Gendee. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Pierre Chapelle. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Negrepelisse. 
 
 Jean Capelle. 
 
 Thirteen. 
 
 
 The 'Heroine: 
 Uzes. Claudius Sauvet. 
 
 Bordaux in Dauphiny. Pierre Garnier. 
 Brie. Nicolas Robline. 
 
 Alais. Pierre Mailhey. 
 
 Nimes. Jean Villaret. 
 
 Alais. Etienne Arnout. 
 
 1688 
 
 1698 
 1691 
 
 1688 
 Six. 1691 
 
 The ' Guerriere: or ' Warlike: 
 
 Bourdeaux. Jean Fayan. (a Proselyte) 
 
 Languedoc. Monsieur Pierre Carriere. 
 
 Dieppe. Monsieur Jean Ardant. 
 
 Beam. Monsieur Loustallet. 
 
 Gascogny. Pierre Augereau. 
 
 The 'Belle: or 'BeaiitifuV 
 Saintonge. Monsieur Jacques Rullaud. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 18 
 
 1686 
 
 1687 
 
 1687 
 
 Five. 1691 
 
 1693 
 
 273
 
 Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. i698. 
 
 The Names of the 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 Beam. 
 Dauphiny. 
 Alais. 
 Givaudan. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 Monsieur Jean Cazallet. 
 Etienne Taedieu. 
 Jean Espase. 
 Pierre Quet. 
 
 The Years they 
 were sent to 
 the Galleys. 
 1687 
 
 Five. 
 
 The 'Reme,' or 'Queen.' 
 
 Dauphiny. Pierre Richard. 
 
 Valleys of Piedmont. David Volle. 
 
 Languedoc. Pierre Quay. 
 
 Sedan. Henri Delo. 
 
 The 'Ilhistre,' or 'Illustrious.' 
 
 1691 
 
 1688 
 1692 
 1693 
 
 Four. 
 
 Nimes. 
 
 
 Monsieur Claudius Joussaud. 
 
 1686 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 
 Jean Several. 
 
 1692 
 
 Switzerland. 
 
 Charles Major. Three. 
 
 1686 
 
 
 The 
 
 ' Magnanime,' or 'Magnanimous.' 
 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 
 Alexandre Astier. 
 
 1689 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 
 Jean Martin, 
 
 1692 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 
 Simon Pineau. 
 
 1690 
 
 ■Cevennes. 
 
 
 (Monsieur Marc Antoine Capdu, 
 ^ a Gentleman. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Abraham Daude. 
 
 1689 
 
 
 
 Jean Mercier. Six. 
 
 1687 
 
 Poitou. 
 
 The ' Souveraine ,' or 'Sovereign.' 
 
 Daniel Benet. One. 
 
 
 The ' Sirene,' or 'Mermaid.' 
 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Jean Mitchell. 
 
 1692 
 
 Givaudan. 
 
 Pierre Moulin. 
 
 1690 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Isaac Lunadier. 
 
 1689 
 
 Nimes. 
 
 Jean Rouvien. 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Monsieur Jacques Serguieres. 
 
 1686 
 
 Vitry le Francois 
 
 Jacques Morel. 
 
 1686 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Jean Marcelin. 
 
 
 Gascogny. 
 
 Antoine Platon. Eight. 
 The ' Galante,' or ' Gallant.' 
 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Jean Soulage. 
 
 1691 
 
 274 
 

 
 1698. Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 The Names of the 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Cevennes. Jean Dureand, 
 
 Saintonge, Pierre Geimaud. 
 Valleys of Piedmont. Pierre Bonnet. 
 
 Bergerac. Monsieur Elie Pichot. 
 
 Bergerac, Monsieur Armand Du Queyla. 
 
 Bergerac. Samson Labuscagne. 
 
 ;Saintonge. 
 
 Jacob Albert. 
 
 The Years they 
 were sent to 
 the Galleys. 
 1689 
 1689 
 1689 
 1692 
 1692 
 1692 
 Eight. 1689 
 
 The 'PerU; or 'Pearl' 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Francois Augier. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 ■Cevennes. 
 
 Jacques Picmarin. 
 
 
 1692 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Alexis Brunel. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 ■Champagne. 
 
 Jean Chaminon. 
 
 
 
 Bergerac. 
 
 Jacques Martel. 
 
 
 1692 
 
 Bergerac. 
 
 Aaron Guerard. 
 The ' Valeur; or ' Valour: 
 
 Six. 
 
 1692 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 Pierre Allard. 
 
 
 1693 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Monsieur Francois Rochebiliere. 
 
 1693 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Pierre Alix. 
 
 
 1687 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Jean Galien. 
 
 
 1695 
 
 Conde in Brie. 
 
 Pierre Berteaud. 
 
 
 1696 
 
 .Piccardy. 
 
 Daniel Boulonnois. 
 The ' Vaillante: or 'Stout: 
 
 Six. 
 
 1696 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Andre Thiers. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Jean Flavart. 
 
 
 1693 
 
 Normandy. 
 
 Jacques Pinet. 
 TJte 'Invincible: 
 
 Three 
 
 1691 
 
 Havre de Grace. 
 
 Jean Campion. 
 
 
 1689 
 
 .Lucerne. 
 
 Pierre Raubert. 
 The ' Saint Louis: 
 
 Two 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Pierre Peridier. 
 
 
 1693 
 
 'Cevennes. 
 
 Jacques Sabatier. 
 The 'Forte: or 'Strong: 
 
 Two 
 
 1695 
 
 LausR.nne. 
 
 Jean Francois Du Moulin. 
 
 
 1690 
 
 •Cevennes. 
 
 Jean Liron 
 
 
 1691 
 
 JHavre de Grace. 
 
 Pierre Petel 
 
 Three 
 
 1689 
 
 275
 
 Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. i698. 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Poitou. 
 
 Lausanne. 
 Cevenues. 
 
 Danphiny. 
 Uzes. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 The ' Couronne,'' or 'Crown.' 
 Andre Gazeau. 
 
 The ' Duchesse,' or 'Duchess.' 
 Abraham Touvenain. 
 Daniel Toysonniere. 
 
 TJie ' Reiionwiee,' or 'Fame.' 
 Jean Veau. 
 Israel Bouchet. 
 
 The Years they 
 were sent to 
 the Galleys. 
 
 One 
 
 1687 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Two 
 
 1692 
 
 1693 
 
 Two. 
 
 The 'Dauphine,' or ' Dauphiness.' 
 Bergerac. Jacques Fauret. 
 
 Valleys of Piedmont. Jean Beru. 1689 
 
 Saintonge. Elie Eianjeaud. Three. 1689 
 
 The ' Coiiqueratite,' or ' Conquering.' 
 
 Meaux in Brie. Louis Cochet, 1687 
 
 Meaux in Brie. Jacques Cochet. 1687 
 
 Daupliiny. Etienne Meunier. 1688 
 
 Vivarais. Daniel Aesau. Four. 1696 
 
 TJie ' Fleur de Lis,' or 'Flower de Luce.' 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Etienne Fer. 
 
 1689 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Jacques Chau. 
 
 1692 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Pierre Silvain. 
 
 1687 
 
 County of Foix. 
 
 Joseph Lafon. Four. 
 The 'Fiere; or 'Proud.' 
 
 1697 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Jacques Vigne. One. 
 
 1688 
 
 Th 
 
 e 'Favorite,' or 'Favourite.' 
 
 
 Beam. 
 
 Pierre Toureille. (a Proselyte) 
 
 1686 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Pierre Mazel. 
 
 1689 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Andre Meunier. 
 
 1689 
 
 Boulonnais. 
 
 Monsieur Elie Francois Le Doux. 
 
 1690 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Jean Jacques Meynadier. 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 David Douvier. 
 
 1689 
 
 Chatellerault in 
 Poitou. 
 
 Ielie Maurin. Seven. 
 
 1686' 
 
 276 
 

 
 1698. Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 The 
 
 Vaissat in Quercy 
 
 •Chatellerault. 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 •Cevennes. 
 
 Normandy. 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 ■Cevennes. 
 
 Lianguecloc. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 €evennes. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 DreiTx. 
 
 Danphiny. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Geneva. 
 
 Champagne. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 County of Foix. 
 
 Champagne. 
 Langi;edoc. 
 
 Natnes of the Protestants. 
 
 The Years they 
 
 were sent to 
 
 the Galleys. 
 
 ' Vieille Beale,'' or ' Old Royal.' 
 
 Monsieur Andre Vallete. 1686 
 
 Monsieur CARorN Guillemot. 1687 
 
 Monsieur Pierre Peraud. 1693 
 
 Pierre Didier. 1690 
 
 Jean Julien. 1688 
 
 Antoine Mejanin. 1689 
 
 Monsieur Jean Garnier. 1686 
 
 Monsieur Philippe Allix. 1686 
 
 Monsieur Paul Peletan. 1689 
 
 Pierre d'Algue. 1692 
 
 Daniel Cros. 1689 
 
 Antoine Astrict. 1692 
 
 Etienne Bertrand. 1691 
 
 Pierre Praloyer. 1690 
 
 Pierre Raimond. 1692 
 
 Louis Capelier. 1692 
 
 Jean Piron. 
 
 Philippe Ture. 1686 
 
 Jean Prunier. 1689 
 
 Monsieur Jean Francois Malblanc. 1687 
 
 Abraham Janoir. 1684 
 
 Antoine Bovene. 1689 
 Joachim Lautre. 
 
 Etienne Barnavon. 1689 
 
 Claudius Odot. 1688 
 
 Jean Daude. Twenty-six. 1693 
 
 The 'Grande Reale,' or 'Great Roijal.' 
 
 Tremblade. 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 Rochelle. 
 
 Kochelle. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 Poitou. 
 
 Quercy. 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Monsieur Elie Bonnin. 
 Jean Biliaud. 
 Jean Pierre. 
 Henri Beneteau. 
 Bertrand Auvelle. 
 Jean Maurin. 
 Charles Melon. 
 Jean Tourtelot. 
 Daniel Conte. 
 Isaac Petit. 
 David Reboul. 
 
 1689 
 1693 
 
 1693 
 1687 
 
 1691 
 1686 
 1690 
 1688 
 
 1688 
 
 277
 
 Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. i698. 
 
 Tie Names of the 
 
 
 The Years they 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 ivere sent to 
 
 Birth. 
 
 
 the Galleys. 
 
 Croicy in Normandy. 
 
 Monsieur Daniel Bouboet. 
 
 1697 
 
 Croicy in Normandy. 
 
 Monsieur Solomon Bourget. 
 
 1697 
 
 Croicy in Normandy. 
 
 Monsieur Benjamin Germain. 
 
 1697 
 
 Diocese of Castres. 
 
 Monsieur Jean Senegal. 
 
 1697 
 
 Diocese of Castres. 
 
 Isaac Bonnet. 
 
 1697 
 
 Diocese of Castres. 
 
 Etienne Cros. 
 
 1697 
 
 Vivarais. 
 
 Claudius Laurent. 
 
 
 This is a foreigner. 
 
 John James Shebert. 
 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 David Saget. 
 
 1698 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Pierre Bertrand. 
 
 169& 
 
 Uzes. 
 
 Pierre Martinique. 
 
 1698. 
 
 London. 
 
 William March. 
 
 1697 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Antoine Pelaton. 
 
 169& 
 
 Langiiedoc. 
 
 Pierre Roumegeon. 
 
 1698 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 David Tache. 
 
 1698. 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 Jean Antoine Pontis. 
 
 1698. 
 
 Pompidou. 
 
 Etienne Gout. 
 
 1698. 
 
 Pompidou. 
 
 Laurence Fouquier. 
 
 1698 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 David Leger. Thirty. 1698 
 
 These two ' Reales ' are called Invalides, or Hospitals. 
 
 Upon the Galleys in the Ocean. 
 AT BORDEAUX. 
 
 On the 'Amiitiotcs' ; or 'Emerald J 
 
 Nimes. 
 
 Nimes. 
 
 Pompidou. 
 
 Mande. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 Quercy. 
 
 Normandy. 
 
 Provence. 
 
 27a 
 
 Monsieur Marc Antoine Damouin. 169(> 
 
 Jean Gachon. 1689 
 
 Pierre Bastide. 1689 
 
 Pierre Meynadier. 1689 
 
 Cesar Combet. 1692 
 
 Jean Comerc. 1689 
 
 Etienne Pecheu. 1690 
 
 Isaac Grimal. 1690 
 
 Antoine Durand. 1689 
 
 Pierre Boetias. 1689
 
 1698. Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Castres. 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 David Loup. 
 Antoine Peyrier. 
 Daniel Rame. 
 
 The Years they 
 were sent to 
 the Galleys. 
 
 1693 
 1690 
 Thirteen. 
 
 The 'Princess ';or' Warlike.' 
 
 
 
 Pierre Capelan. 
 
 
 Daupbiny. 
 
 
 Jacques Blanc. 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 
 Jean Giraud. 
 
 1691 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 
 Jacques Dupon. 
 
 1691 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 
 Pierre Dumas. Five. 
 
 1691 
 
 
 
 AT BllEST. 
 
 
 
 The 
 
 'A7nazon\- or 'Marchioness.' 
 
 
 Neuchatel in 
 Switzerland. 
 
 [Monsieur Joseph Bois de la Tour. 
 
 1687 
 
 Daiiphiny. 
 
 
 Jean Laurens. 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 
 Jean Daude. 
 
 1692 
 
 Beziers. 
 
 
 Barthelmi Ressignol. 
 
 1689 
 
 Havre de Grace. 
 
 Abraham Lenu. 
 
 1689 
 
 Saintonge. 
 
 
 Pierre Borrue. 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 
 Jean Seimene. 
 
 1689 
 
 Tournay. 
 
 
 Jacques Dupour. Eight. 
 
 1689 
 
 
 The 
 
 'Shilling'; or 'Triumphant.' 
 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 
 Monsieur Clement Patonnier. 
 
 1686 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 
 Etienne Salles. 
 
 1691 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 
 Pierre Maistre. Three. 
 
 1689 
 
 AT SAINT MALO. 
 
 The 'Firm'; or 'Palm.' 
 
 Saintonge. Monsieur Francois Pindou. 1686 
 
 Pompidou. Jean Revole. 1690 
 
 Cevennes. Jean Bancilion. 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. Pierre Barraque. Four. 1691 
 
 279
 
 Protestant Slaves on board the Galleys. i698. 
 
 The Names of the 
 
 Places of their 
 
 Birth. 
 
 Names of the Protestants. 
 
 The Yeai's they 
 ivere sent to 
 the Galleys. 
 
 
 The 
 
 'Victory'; or the 'For 
 
 •tmiate. 
 
 
 
 Langiiedoc. 
 
 
 Matthieu La Marte. 
 
 
 
 1690 
 
 Daupliiny. 
 
 
 Antoine Bbeynard. 
 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Dauphiny. 
 
 
 Pierre Blanc. 
 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Languedoc. 
 
 
 Antoine Second. 
 
 
 
 1691 
 
 Champagne. 
 
 
 Daniel Reige. 
 
 
 
 1689 
 
 Cevennes. 
 
 
 Jean Barte. 
 
 
 Six. 
 
 1691 
 
 These are the names of such Slaves, which it has been 
 possible to procure : for they are so vigilantly observed, that 
 it is very difficult for them to write ; and so there are a 
 great number of them, whose Names or Country \^Province~\ 
 are unknown to us. 
 
 It may be observed, in the foregoing List, that there 
 are some Foreigners amongst them : and we must add that 
 there are a great number of them, who are English Denizens 
 [^Citizens, though alien hoDi] ; or [were] taken in His 
 Majesty's Service. 
 
 Some, doubtless, are dead since this List ; and Twenty- 
 two were lately set at liberty, by the solicitation of the 
 Dutch Ambassador at Paris : but they have been sufficiently 
 recruited ; seeing One hundred and forty men, coming from 
 [the Principality of] Orange to pray to GOD, were sent to 
 the Galleys at once ; besides a great many more, afterwards. 
 
 280
 
 <t/t Faithful Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Cruelties done to the T^rotestants 
 
 071 hoard the French Kings Qalleys^ 
 on the accou7it of the Reformed Religion. 
 
 Done out of the French [Text, 
 printed in HoUcdkL^ 
 
 London. 
 
 Printed for J. Nutt, 
 
 near Stationers Hall. 
 
 1700. 
 
 281
 
 An Abstract of some Letters ; wherein are 
 
 related the horrible Cruelties done to the 
 
 French Protestant Slaves on board 
 
 the Galleys, on the account of 
 
 the Reformed Religion. 
 
 THE FRENCH NATION, which has formerly valued itself, above- 
 all the World, for its Humanity and Generosity, is no longer 
 to be known by either of these Characters. For, alas, the 
 Spirit of Persecution has so embittered the tempers of such as were 
 otherwise good-natured, that nothing in the whole World comes nigh 
 them for Cruelty and Barbarity. We have seen nothing so horrible, 
 since the Account of the Outrages committed in the Spanish Conquest 
 of America, published by Bartolome de las Casas, one of their 
 Bishops. 
 
 The French Protestants have, for a long time, been silent under 
 the severity of their ill usage ; or have only whispered their complaints 
 of it : the reason of which may be easily guessed. But now their bar- 
 barous Persecutors have carried things to that extremity, that there is 
 nothing left them, either to hope or fear. The worst that can be done 
 to these faithful Servants of GOD is, to kill them : the only thing in 
 the World they most wish. 
 
 Now, that we might not be tempted to aggravate anything in this 
 Account, we have strictly kept to the Relation given us in the Letters 
 of such as are the daily Spectators of these horrible objects ; amongst 
 which [Writers] , some are of the Roman Communion. 
 
 We might have given the World a more methodical and more 
 
 283
 
 Preface. 1700. 
 
 moving Account of these matters : l)ut we thought it best to leave it to 
 Nature to speak without Art; the air of native Simplicity being more 
 proper to convince all people, that here is nothing invented, or insincere. 
 In short, Ave have extracted nothing out of those Letters but pure 
 Matters of Fact. For if we shoiild have made Reflections on these 
 things; we should have made a Volume: a very instructive one indeed 1 
 for we should then have seen the marvellous Submission, Patience, 
 and Resignation, of those holy Confessors. 
 
 That exactness to which one that copies from others is restrained, 
 will compel us to make some repetitions of the same things ; biat these 
 are so many different Witnesses and Testimonies of the same Matters 
 •of Fact: and yet we have shunned Repetitions as much as possible; and 
 have written nothing, but what we can prove by [the] several Letters. 
 
 28^
 
 ONE, JEAN SOULAGE, a plain and innocent youth 
 of Sainte Criice in Sevena, [Cevennes, see page 
 274,] a Slave on board the Galley called the 
 ' Gallant,' being in the Summer Campaign 
 [Cruise] of 1699, having constantly refused to 
 pull of¥ his Hat before the Host, after many instances, 
 received at first a thousand abuses by words, kicks, and 
 blows with a cane, before they brought him to the Bastonade. 
 And as the Martyr continued to refuse it with resolution ; 
 the Captain, accompanied with other Officers and the 
 Chaplain, ordered him to be stripped stark naked, and to 
 be laid at his full stretch upon the Coursey \Gmigumy], 
 that is, the place on which the Officers walk betwixt th& 
 benches of the Slaves ; and made them give him so cruel 
 a Bastonade, that the Chaj)lain, fearing lest his victim 
 should die on the spot, ordered them to give over ; saying,. 
 ' It is enough.' 
 
 This poor Soulage received so many blows, both on 
 the Coursey and the Benches, that it flayed off all his 
 skin ; and, instead of skin, his body was crusted over Avith 
 one entire scab, under which abundance of purulent matter 
 bred : and, by the blows given him, he lost one of his arms, 
 insomuch that the Chirurgeon \_Surgeon] told the * Comite ' 
 (that is, the Boatswain of the Slaves), that if they persisted 
 in beating this poor young man, he could not live four days 
 longer. Upon which, these Executioners ceased their 
 outrages a little while. 
 
 December 15 1699. You have here that which we hear has been 
 done on board the Galleys, called the ' Valour,' the ' Queen,' the ' Gallant,' 
 the ' Renown,' and others. They have given the Bastonade twice, or 
 thrice, in the harbour and at sea. 
 
 PiEREE Sauvet, of Montelus in the diocese of Uzes, is 
 dead of it. Israel Bouchet, Louis Isoire, and Jean 
 ViAU, have undergone the same punishment. An Officer of 
 the Stern sent for the said Sauvet, and another called 
 
 285'
 
 Several Protestants are bastinadoed. 1699-1700. 
 
 Jean Viau, to make them see how the backs of the others 
 were mangled and all of a gore blood, to terrify them : and, 
 indeed, this sight, together with the cruel blows they 
 received, was very terrible. But, notwithstanding all this, 
 they persevered constantly ; and, in a few days after, 
 Sauvet died of their barbarity. 
 
 In February 1700, the Chaplain of the ' Magnanime ' 
 ordered Monsieur Antoine Capduc to be most cruelly 
 bastonaded : because he had, as he said, lately complied, 
 and would not do it now ; being penitent for his Fall. 
 This blessed Servant of GOD suffered this torment with 
 an admirable patience. 
 
 They thought, the next day, to fright him into a com- 
 pliance, by the terror of renewing the same punishment. 
 But he answered. He was ready for it ; and had but one 
 life to lose for his Saviour's sake. 
 
 And, accordingly he was, on the 2nd of February 
 [1700] , stretched all along ; and bound fast with cords to 
 two cross-pieces of timber, to make him assist at the Saying 
 of the Mass : and [they] gave him, at the same time, a 
 thousand blows on his back. This lamentable sight 
 occasioned the Slaves to give little attention to the Mass. 
 
 At the same time, Francois Augier and Jacques 
 Piemarin suffered a cruel Bastonade; because the}^ would 
 not put off their Caps to the Host. AUGIER underwent it 
 twice ; and they had a mind to bring him to it the third 
 time : but the Surgeon prevented it by saying, that if they 
 did it, the man would give up the ghost under the blows. 
 And indeed he was very sick, and like[ly] to die of it. 
 
 August the 9th [1700], they gave the Bastonade to 
 Israel Bouchet, a Slave on board the ' Renown ' : but a 
 more barbarous one to David Laget, on board the 
 ' Magnificent ' ; because he refused to reverence the Host. 
 The Captain told him, That he was to be bastonaded, either 
 till he complied, or should die under the blows : and, indeed, 
 by being so cruelly used, he was left nearer death than life. 
 
 But, for all that, they renewed the punishment this 
 very day, August the 9th ; and caused a lusty and strong 
 Turk to strike above one hundred blows upon his naked 
 body. The execution being over, and the man unable to 
 stir hand or foot ; he was taken up by four men, and cast 
 286
 
 1700. Gentlemen born suffer the Bastonade. 
 
 into the * Rougeole,' that is, the Sink [Bilge'] of the Galley, 
 loaden with chains. And a Turk having uttered some words 
 expressing his compassion ; he was laid on the Coursey; and 
 received the Bastonade for it. 
 
 March the 26th 1700, Antoine Capduc, Francois 
 AuGiER, Israel Bouchet, Jacques Piermarin, and others, 
 have been handled with the utmost cruelty. But, particu- 
 larly, Jean Soulage hath been so ill used, that he is past 
 recovery : his body being made at first but one wound, it 
 turned afterwards into a vast ulcer. When urged to comply, 
 he answered, both with an admirable courage and meekness. 
 That it was better to obey GOD than men ; and that, for his 
 part, he was ready to suffer death. 
 
 Jean Durand, on board the 'Magnanime,' was as 
 ill-used as the others. 
 
 August the 18th [1700] , Talon and Sausset, on board 
 the ' Dauphine,' endured a sharp Bastonade : and, notwith- 
 standing all, they remained constant and unmoveable. 
 The Captain ordered the Boatswain to bang these miserable 
 men to death, if they persisted in their refusal ; which was 
 performed accordingly : for they made a fresh onset upon 
 these two, viz., Talon and Sausset ; as well as upon Israel 
 Bouchet in the 'Renown', and upon anothernamed Bernard. 
 
 August the 20th [1700] . Besides the aforesaid Talon 
 and Sausset ; they have, this very day, inflicted, in the 
 most cruel manner, the same punishment on Monsieur 
 DuMOUiN and Monsieur Boisques, Gentlemen born. 
 
 It is very fit that their Courage and Patience should be known by 
 the testimony of a Roman Catholic. The contents of his Note, dated 
 August the 20th, are these. 
 
 A few days ago, they so outrageously abused these 
 miserable men that it deserves compassion. They gave the 
 Bastonade to two of them : and, this morning, to four ; 
 among whom are these Gentlemen, Monsieur BoiSQUES 
 and Monsieur DuMOUiN. I am not able to express how 
 courageously they suffered it ! 
 
 There is something extraordinary in this case. A poor 
 old man of Vivarais, on board the ' Brave,' who had some 
 days since undergone it, remained deprived of all sense and 
 motion under the blows : but, for all that, they gave him 
 as many blows as were appointed. In short, I could not be 
 
 287
 
 A Koman Catholic prays for the Tormented. 1700. 
 
 able to tell you, how patiently they suffer. Let us pray to 
 GOD Almighty, that lie will be jDleased to strengthen them, 
 that they may bear up under the Torments prepared for 
 them ! 
 
 August the 16th 1700. One Faguin, a Proselyte, is, this 
 very day, to be removed from the ' Warlike ' Galley into the 
 'Faithful': where is one D'Aubigne, another Proselyte; 
 who has embraced our Religion under the Cross. They are 
 to be tried by a Council of War ; and to die under the 
 Bastonade. 
 
 October the 6th 1700. They give, every day, the 
 Bastonade in four or five Galleys : but so cruelly, that the 
 sufferers of it are almost killed by it. They spare neither 
 young nor old, disabled nor sick. Gentlemen nor Scholars : 
 their rage reaches to all. They have already given the 
 Bastonade to a very great number of people. 
 
 October the 15th 1700. Monsieur Serres senior, 
 MoEiN, Carriere, Lostalet, Alexandre Astier, Antoine 
 Grange, Andre Pelican, and Peleyier, have been used with 
 the most barbarous cruelty that can be thought, and 
 brought to the last extremity; and, afterwards, they have 
 been carried to the Hospital. 
 
 There are on board the ' Old Reale ' a great many of our 
 Brethren, old, maimed, and disabled ; among whom, there 
 is an eminent one, viz., Monsieur Andre Valette : who 
 was, in summer time, put near an oven, that he might 
 burst [die] with the heat and smoke thereof ; and in 
 winter time, shut up in the 'Rougeole,' that is, the Sink 
 \^Bilge~\ of the Galley, where all the water and filth of the 
 ship runs, and where the cold is sharper than anywhere 
 else. 
 
 288
 
 The Abstracts of several other Letters from 
 
 Marseilles, concerning the Sufferings of the 
 
 Confessors ; since the things beforementioned 
 
 in the Letters dated the 9th, and 
 
 20th, of August [1700]. 
 
 SEPTEMBER THE 20th and 24th [1700]. Our dear 
 Brethren, the three DuMOUiN brothers, and three 
 others, have suffered fifty blows each : and, the next 
 day, the same punishment was inflicted on them. 
 About the same time, they gave a very severe Bas- 
 tonade to a Slave on board the ' Strong ' ; because he would 
 not be uncovered at the time of the Service of the Popish 
 Religion. 
 
 Some of our Brethren, the Slaves on board the ' Queen ' 
 Galley, were used after the same manner; particularly, 
 Dayid Volle, born in Piedmont, who twice suffered the 
 Bastonade. He was searched, as well as Pierre Gay ; and 
 all their books and Letters taken from them. Our Brother, 
 FoURTELET died September the 13th ; well disposed and 
 prepared for it. 
 
 The same Letters say. That on the 18th of September, 
 both Monsieur DE Montolieu the Commander, and the 
 Major, went on board the 'Warlike'; and because the 
 ' Argouzin,' that is, the Boatswain's Mate, had not fettered 
 and bound up the Slaves in chains hard enough to his 
 liking, the Commander upbraided, threatened, and boxed, 
 him ; and ordered that he should immediately be put into 
 chains. He was still in chains on the 22nd ; and narrowly 
 observed. 
 
 Upon the 19th, they gave all the ' Argouzins ' of the 
 other Galleys the same Orders, not to take off the fetters 
 from any of the Protestants : which Orders were repeated 
 on the 22nd, upon pain of the gallows. 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 19 289
 
 ' Strike ! know tliat I will never do it ! ' i70<>. 
 
 They add, That the said Officers went upon Sunday, 
 Septemher the 19th, on board the * Magnanime,' about the 
 refusal of putting off the Cap : for this is the only pretence, 
 when they have a mind to overwhelm the Protestant Slaves 
 with blows. They caused the Bastonade to be given to our 
 Brethren that were there ; to the number of eight. And 
 because they could not, in the morning, overcome them ; 
 the same punishment was inflicted again, at Evening Praj^ers, 
 in so barbarous a manner, that the very thought of it strikes 
 one with horror. 
 
 When they were asking them, in the midst of their 
 Torments, Whether they would put off their Caps, or not ? 
 one of them answered the unrighteous Persecutor, ' Strike! 
 for the reason why I did expose myself as a Sacrifice, was 
 not to put it off ; but to let you know" that I will never do 
 it !' This we have from a Popish Slave in the same Galley; 
 who called the Chaplain of it 'a Hangman ! ' 
 
 And for fear lest Alexandre Astier, Pineau, Romageon, 
 or Capduc, should put their hands on their deep wounds, 
 though they had much ado to lift them up ; the Persecutors 
 were so cruel as to load them with manacles. The most 
 courageous among them had them still. 
 
 The 24th, Astier sent word. He was very ill, and 
 desired the Prayers of the Brethren ; and that he was 
 resolved to die. For it was given out, that they were 
 ordered to try him, that very day, by a fresh onset. 
 
 The Chaplain of the * Warlike ' Galley has summoned, 
 and charged the Slaves of his Galley to put off their Caps, 
 under pain of the Bastonade. And because Monsieur 
 LosTALET, formerly one of the parishioners of Monsieur La 
 Placette, and a very pious Gentleman, answered him very 
 stoutly ; the said Chaplain fell into a violent passion, and 
 threatened him mightily. The brethren in that Galley are 
 so narrowly kept, that it is almost impossible for one to 
 come near them. 
 
 They have likewise threatened the Protestant Slaves 
 on board the ' Old Reale,' appointed for the disabled Slaves, 
 with the Bastonade. 
 
 By Letters dated October the 1st, we hear, That, on 
 the 25th of September, they have, once more, given the 
 Bastonade on the ' Proud,' Galley, before the Major and 
 the Captain. 
 290
 
 1700. The Suffering Society, the Church, their Keligion. 
 
 That, on the 27th and 28th, they did the same on the 
 * Queen ' and ' Dauphine,' Galley. That in the last 
 mentioned, the Boatswain, immediately after Evening 
 Prayer, ordered that fifty blows should be given to Berru, 
 born at Piedmont, and to Bonneval ; and this, out of his 
 own private authority, to humour the barbarous Chaplain, 
 who longed for the repast of this sight : but such dealing 
 is quite contrary to Equity and Order ; otherwise these new 
 Inquisitors and Executioners, the Boatswains I mean, may, 
 when they please, and without any Form of Process, 
 butcher these miserable men. 
 
 Tliat, on the 29th, Alexandre Astier did suffer, once 
 more, the Bastonade on the 'Magnanime' Galley; and 
 again, the next day. This is the fourth time he hath 
 undergone this cruel punishment. They add thereto. That 
 the Lieutenant of the said Galley came on board on purpose 
 to have the said Astier brought again to the same Torment : 
 but seeing [that] he was not able to get up, he ordered the 
 Surgeon to visit him ; who found him sick of a great Fever, 
 and almost dead. This w^as the reason why he was 
 immediately sent to the Hospital, that it should not be 
 said, That he died in the Galley of his wounds. But there 
 is no likelihood of his re'covery. 
 
 The thing which has enraged these furious men is. 
 That this young man had, in the torment of his second 
 Bastonade, promised to put off his Cap : but one of the 
 Brethren having written to him with warmth and vigour; 
 and rexDresented to him the reproach that he would, by this 
 base inconstancy, bring upon himself, upon the Suffering 
 Society, upon the Church, and upon their Religion : it came 
 to pass, within an hour and a half after that, as the Papists 
 were saying their Prayers, he gave satisfaction for the fault 
 he had committed ; and declared openl}^. That his weakness 
 had betra^'ed him ; and that he had rather expiate his 
 crime by his death than to commit it again. And when 
 he was carried to the Hospital bruised with blows, and 
 giving up the ghost ; one of our Confessors, seeing him, 
 said, with a loud voice, 'O, how lovely is he, in the condition 
 in which he now is ! ' 
 
 On the 30th of September, they gave again, on board 
 the ' Amazon,' Galley, so cruel a Bastonade, that blood 
 came out of the mouth of Maurin Gresle ; by reason of 
 the blows given him. 
 
 291
 
 * We do expect a great jjutcliery.' 1700. 
 
 October the 4th, They add, That, the day before, they 
 had tied Monsieur Elie Maurin with a Popish Slave, to 
 make him, that way, assist at Mass. That he complained 
 of tliis violence ; and hid himself under his seat, saying, 
 He had rather die than comply. He exhorted his brethren 
 to acquit themselves well in their duty ; being resolved to 
 encourage them more effectually by his own example. 
 
 Moreover, they send us these particulars ; which 
 happened on Monday morning, October the 4th, ' They 
 gave, just' now, a General Order, either to put off the Cap ; 
 or to make an end of all those who will not do it. So that 
 we do expect,' say they, ' this evening, or tomorrow, a 
 great butchery.' 
 
 Such Order was punctually executed ; as may be seen 
 
 by Letters written afterwards, dated October the 11th, viz.. 
 
 That Monsieur Pierre Serres, the eldest of those three 
 
 worthy brothers, has, together with three other fellow 
 
 / Sufferers, twice undergone the terrible punishment of the 
 
 \^ Bastonade ; that all their limbs are mostly cruelly torn in 
 
 pieces ; that they are bruised and bloody all over, by reason 
 
 of their deep wounds, insomuch that the blood gushed out 
 
 of Monsieur Serres's side ; that he being left half-dead 
 
 upon the Coursey, some other Slaves were fain to take him 
 
 up ; and that they have bound his hands with manacles, as 
 
 a further addition of cruelty. Let them cry, and complain, 
 
 never so much ! this will not avail them, if they do not 
 
 comply. They strike without any pity ; yea, with such 
 
 /violence on the naked body that all the blows go to the 
 
 /very marrow, and make the body rebound half a foot high. 
 
 When they are weary of striking, they allow them to rest 
 
 till the next day ; and then they begin again, and strike 
 
 j harder and harder on these mangled bodies, and upon the 
 
 C^same wounds. Notwithstanding which, we are assured 
 
 that these Confessors have suffered all these Outrages with 
 
 an extraordinary and edifying Patience. 
 
 Among those who underwent this painful punishment, 
 there were La Grange and Pellevier ; who are very sick 
 of it. Monsieur Elie Maurin, a pious and zealous Con- 
 fessor, whose virtue and constancy hath heretofore been tried 
 in several sharp encounters, has, with another of the same 
 Galley, borne all with great bravery; together with the two 
 other Slaves of the ' Fine ' Galley, viz. Monsieur Rullian 
 292
 
 1700. The Storm of the Bastinados. 
 
 and Monsieur Caralet. 
 
 The fury of these Executioners is grown to such 
 extremity, that they intended, on the 11th of October, in 
 the morning, to inflict the same punishment upon Monsieur 
 Serees and some others : had not some friends found out a 
 way to send them to the Hospital, as a shelter from these 
 new Outrages. 
 
 They write that, on the same day, viz. the 12th, Monsieur 
 MussoN, a Vaudois, a very pious man, together with the 
 other Protestants in his Galley, were to undergo the same 
 trial : but, at the end of the Letter they add. That the 
 execution was put off to the next day. I have in my hands 
 a Note from Monsieur MussON to a friend of his in those 
 parts ; by which it appears that he prepares himself for his 
 Sufferings with a holy and entire submission. 
 
 It is given out. That the Storm will reach all the other 
 Galleys, and that the same punishment will be inflicted on 
 all our Brethren that are Slaves in the ten Galleys that 
 went out about a quarter of year ago ; and which will 
 soon, it is thought, return. So that these poor people will 
 be so far from enjoying some ease in the haven after the 
 hard fatigues of their Campaign \_Criiise~\, that they will 
 meet with a Storm in the harbour far more dreadful than 
 any they have endured at sea. 
 
 The Letters from Marseilles, dated October the loth [1700] , repre- 
 sent unto VIS the Torments our Brethren are put to, thus : 
 
 The Wheel, on which the Martyrs of our blessed Lord 
 formerly expired, was very sweet, if compared with the 
 bitterness of our Sufferings ; because their torments 
 proceeded without intermission till Death gave them the 
 Crown of Martyrdom. But our punishment which pierces 
 into the very bones ; which bruises, which tears, the skin 
 off to the very blood ; which makes all the back swell with 
 the multitude of blows, given with a rope done over with 
 pitch and tar, and dipped half a foot into the sea ; and 
 which leaves a man half-dead, b}' reason of One Hundred 
 and Twenty blows given at one beating by a lusty Turk ; 
 who leaves us in that wretched condition, in order to begin 
 again, in the afternoon, or the next morning, as fiercely and 
 cruelly as ever; permitting these miserable men to live tJius, 
 that this barbarous usage may be the more lasting; and that 
 they may be put naked again upon the Coursey \_Gangioayl; . 
 
 293
 
 Striking till they be weary, and out of breath, noo. 
 
 There is something, I say, in this punishment more 
 dreadful and terrible than the Wheel : for they are itpoii 
 the point of death, and yet theij are not j^^tt to death ; 
 and the Executioners never give over striking till they be 
 weary, and out of breath; and are forced to send tlie 
 Sufferers to the Hospital. WJio could forbear treml)ling, 
 and being deeply affected, at the sight of so amazing a 
 spectacle ! Who could believe that such as bear the name 
 of Christians coulTl harden their bov^^els to that degree, as 
 to inflict such horrible torments ! 
 
 The same Leiter of October tiio 16tb, acquaints us with that which 
 follows : 
 
 As to particulars, I must tell you, with unspeakable 
 
 grief, that all the Galleys almost have been severely treated; 
 
 except the 'Old Reale' appointed for the disabled Slaves, 
 
 and some others : and that they have cruelly butchered all 
 
 those who would not put off the Cap ; insomuch that in 
 
 some Gallej^s six or seven Slaves, or more, of the same 
 
 /Galley, have been stretched on the rack [i.e. the Gangwaif] 
 
 \and struck 50, 100, and 120 times, with a rope in many 
 
 /places done over with pitch and tar, and dipped in the sea: 
 
 and that they have inflicted twice, thrice, four times, or 
 
 more, this cruel punishment on them till they had promised 
 
 to put the Cap off, or that the Tormenters had been forced 
 
 to send them to the Hospital. 
 
 After that, they speak of what we mentioned before 
 concerning Monsieur Serres ; to whom they gave the Bas- 
 tonade twice ; and sent him, last Sunday, very sick to the 
 Hospital. He is still there ; and a little better. 
 
 They add to it, That Monsieur Maurin underwent the 
 same torment three, and I think four, times : and he was, 
 last Monday, shut up in one of the Dungeons of the 
 Hospital. That Monsieur Carriere and Monsieur Lostalet 
 have been twice most cruelly abused ; having received, at 
 one and the same time, six score blows each ; so that they 
 have been forced to send them away very sick, raw, and 
 bruised, to the Hospital. Monsieur Lostalet hath been, 
 all along, constant and steady, as well as Monsieur Serres, 
 Maurin, Grange, and Pelevier; and are all now in the 
 Hospital, very sick with the blows they received. They add, 
 That Monsieur Lostalet was exposed to so great sufferings 
 294
 
 1700. The CIer(jij, the only Cause of these Barbarities. 
 
 that he is not able to stir out of liis bed, but by the help of 
 some ropes hanging down from the ceiling, and of some 
 men besides. Monsieur Seiguieres hath also so undergone 
 the Bastonade ; and is extremely ill of it. 
 
 The Major declared, to-day, That they would be let 
 alone till they are recovered : and then they should be 
 racked [flog(jcd'] again and again, till they should either die, 
 or promise to put their Caps ofl to the Host. 
 
 These faithful Confessors begged leave to let them go 
 into the Sinks [Bilge'\, or into the filthiest and darkest 
 places of the Benches : but the Papists are not so kind 
 now, as they were, last winter, to the Confessors on board 
 the ' Old Reale ' ; for they can never be prevailed upon to 
 grant them anything. Somebody addressed a humble 
 Petition to the Intendant, begging of the favour to 
 discountenance such Outrages, and to let these Confessors 
 remain in the Sinks : but he was deaf to their entreaties. 
 On the contrary, they caused all the Brethren of six or 
 seven Galleys to be stretched, the next day, or the day 
 following, upon the Coursey : who courageously refused to 
 put ofiE their Caps. They have done the like in all the 
 Galleys: but no execution, as yet, in that [the 'Old Reale']; 
 wherein our dear and honoured old Confessors are. 
 
 This is a piece of the [Roman Catholic] Missionaries' 
 policy, who keep them, no doubt, for the end of the 
 Tragedy ; and that they may be reckoned very indulgent : 
 because they are the sole Masters of that Affair, there being 
 no Captain to command in that Galley ; and that no man 
 may look upon them as the Authors of these Barbarities. 
 But they put on, to no purpose, the sheep's skins. They are, 
 for all that, ravenous wolves within! For they are the onlij 
 Cause of these punishments ; having written to the Court, 
 and given a thousand false representations of the Sufferings 
 of our Brethren, and of their behaviour. They are likewise 
 the Cause why the Commanders and the Majors have 
 received strict orders ; nay, that they have been chidden for 
 having, on some occasions, been too remiss. NoRvith- 
 standing, we have it from good hands, that some friends of 
 this Suffering Society having written, and spoken, in their 
 behalf, to some Ministers of the French Court ; and desired 
 them to put an end to the Torments inflicted on these 
 innocent men : it was answered them. That they were not 
 
 295
 
 The reason for putting off the Cap. 1700. 
 
 worse dealt with than the other Slaves. ' Either,' say they, 
 * these Gentlemen do not know the thing ; or tliey tolerate 
 those who abuse us.' 
 
 It is well known at Marseilles, that they do not deal so 
 well, by far, with our Brethren as they do with the other 
 Slaves. For profligate wretches, if compared with these 
 faithful Confessors (who make no noise, nor do any injury 
 to anybody), profligate wretches, I say, have leave to have 
 their chains taken off, and to go into the town about their 
 business. But our Brethren are all debarred this indulgence ; 
 nay, their relations and friends are kept off from seeing 
 them : and, which is worst of all, they bruise and flay them 
 alive, upon pretence that they will not put off their Caps, 
 when they are saying Mass. 
 
 The Papists object, That, when they come to our 
 Churches, they put off their Hats : and consequently we 
 must do the like, when they are performing their Divine 
 Service. But our Brethren answered, That it was quite 
 another thing. For the Papists went willingly, and out 
 of their own accord, to our Churches ; but they are sentenced 
 to the Galleys, because they will not adhere to an erroneous 
 Worship ; and, being bound in chains there, they cannot 
 come out of them, when the Papists are there at their 
 Religious Exercises. Our Brethren endeavoured to hide 
 themselves in places where they could not be seen : and 
 now, they say, we are prosecuted for refusing to do a thing, 
 viz. to put off our Caps ; which we cannot do, unless we 
 betray our Consciences : for this would be a tacit consent 
 to their Doctrine and Worship. 
 
 The Papists reply, That putting one's Cap off is no great 
 matter ; and that they do not intend thereby to have us 
 believe their doctrine. But when they have prevailed upon 
 them to put off their Cap ; their design is to oblige them to 
 turn their faces towards the Stern, where they are saying 
 Mass, and lifting up the Host : as they have done with 
 somie of them. 
 
 By Letters, dated October the 29th, we hear, That the 
 Galleys which were at sea are come back again ; and that 
 the faithful Protestants, who are on them, prepare them- 
 selves to suffer, with an entire submission, wha^tever 
 happens. And we are, at the same time, told that those 
 296
 
 1700. Pierre de Serres sent to Hyeres. 
 
 Confessors who are on board the Galleys that had i\ot been 
 strictly searched, have undergone the horrid trial of repeated 
 Bastonades ; except the ' Old Reale,' wherein are the 
 disabled Slaves. 
 
 We hear likewise, that the faithful Confessors who 
 bravely suffered the cruel Bastonades, and who are 
 miraculously cured of their deep wounds, are sentenced to 
 die in dark and deep Dungeons ; that there may be no 
 witness of their Constancy. Particularly, Pierre de 
 Serres senior, a worthy Confessor, who has been removed 
 into the Island of Hyeres : where they have fitted for him, 
 and many others, the last place of their punishment, viz. 
 The bottom of a Tower, so deep that one cannot go down it, 
 but by the help of a long ladder ; and nothing is to be 
 found there, but a thick soft mire full of toads, and such 
 loathsome insects. 
 
 297
 
 You HAVE HERE a True Account of the most barbarous Sufferings 
 that ever any Martyr was exposed unto. When they made Com- 
 Ijlaints of it to the Ministers [Ambassadors] of the French 
 Court in foreign parts; they said, 'It was but a tale!': and when 
 they acquainted, at Paris, the Ministers of State with it ; they have, in 
 like manner, said, ' There was no truth in the matter I ' This is indeed a 
 riddle to us. 
 
 For if these Gentlemen, who seem so incredulous, know the truth 
 in the thing ; it is surprising that they should deny a Matter of Fact so 
 notorious ; and indeed acted before the sun, and before a multitude of 
 Eye-witnesses. But Charity obliges us to believe that the Ministers of 
 the French Court, and the King himself, are not perfectly informed of 
 the oixtrages that are committed. 
 
 Moreover, we do not wonder at their unbelief ; because there are, 
 in this horrible case, many things scarcely to be believed. It is 
 incredible that men, who pretend to be Christians, should commit such 
 barbarous Cruelties ! It is likewise incredible that men, compounded 
 of flesh and blood and as weak as other men, should be able to suffer 
 five, or six, times this terrible Punishment, we will not say without 
 dying (for some are already dead of it), in Torments as grievous as those 
 miserable creatures suffer, whose bones are broken on the Scaffold ; 
 and [who] are left in that condition on the Wheel till they have breathed 
 out their last. 
 
 Some persons have done all they could to let the King be informed 
 
 of these horrid transactions ; which are enough to make the most 
 
 barbarous Cannibal quake and tremble. And these suffering Confessors 
 
 have addressed their humble Petitions to the Court ; wherein their 
 
 miseries were faithfully represented. There hath been but One of all 
 
 these Petitions returned, with this Answer. ' This to be proved': but 
 
 care was immediately talcen to stoj) all the ways and means of doing it. 
 298
 
 1700. Bloody, torn, and bathed with Vinegar and Salt ! 
 
 We cauiiot duly represent the horror of their puuishiaent. You 
 have liere the description of it, word for word as it was sent us. 
 
 They stretch the naked body on the Coursey ; and sometimes they 
 compel some of their faithful Brethren, who are appointed to suffer the 
 same Martyrdom, to hold them fast by the feet and hands : that these 
 Confessors (being terrified with the horror of the torment, and the 
 barbarous service they are forced to do) should yield before they be i)ut 
 to the torture. And the strongest Turk on board the Galley strikes, 
 with all his might, the naked body, with a rope done over with pitch 
 and tar, and dipped in the sea. And by the force of these dreadful 
 blows, the body rebounds above half a foot high from the place 
 whereon it is extended ; and falls down again. They strike till all the 
 skin and flesh of the back is torn off to the very ribs ; which 
 becomes all of a gore blood, and one entire wound : upon which the 
 Surgeon, instead of balsam, pours Salt and Vinegar ; after having 
 opened, with a razor, the wounds that are not open enoiigh. 
 
 One may easily conceive the pains of a body, all bloody, all torn, 
 and bathed all over with Vinegar and Salt I Barbarity itself never 
 contrived a Torment so inhuman ! And if Mankind doth not rise up 
 in indignation against such cruelties ; surely the bowels of Humanity 
 and Pity are perished amongst Menl 
 
 If the profligate Slaves mvitiny and rebel ; they are condemned ta 
 suffer 20 or 30 blows : but as for our innocent Confessors, they are 
 condemned to 300 or 400 cuts with a cord : given, indeed, at several 
 times, because if they were given without intermission, they would 
 die in the execution. But, as it is, they are left more than half-dead ; 
 without skin and without flesh on their backs : and, when they see 
 them almost expiring, they carry them to the Hospital. They take 
 care indeed to heal their wounds; but to what intent? Only to put 
 them into a condition to endure the same punishment again! Ah! cruel 
 mercy ! which rescues men from death, to expose them to Torments a^ 
 thousand times worse than dying. If, after these painful trials, they 
 are shut up in dark Dungeons, it is only to bury them alive : but, 
 however, they look on this sort of Burial as a great favour I 
 
 If they can find no help on earth, they will appeal to the Tribunal 
 
 29a
 
 Find out Ways to mitigate these Sorrows ! 1700. 
 
 of the righteous GOD above ; and wait for that dreadful Day, wherein 
 those who shew no Mercy shall find Judgement without Mercy. 
 
 Our blessed Confessors entreat all men in general to have pity on 
 them I for this is the Cause of Human Nature. But, particularly, they 
 intreat the compassion of their [Protestant] Brethren of what condition, 
 country, and language, soever — Kings, States, Magistrates, People, 
 Pastors, Flocks, Rich, and Mighty — that everyone wovild, in their 
 several places and stations, apply themselves to find out Ways and 
 Means of mitigating their Sorrows : on account of which the Church 
 cries out, ' All ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any Sorrow 
 like imto my Sorrow ; which is done unto me ! wherewit^i the Lord 
 hath afflicted me, in the day of his fierce anger.' [Lam. i. 12.] . 
 
 Their pretence for their Cruelty is ; because these holy Martyrs 
 refuse to put off their Caps when the Host is lifted up. But if they 
 refuse it from a principle of Conscience ; the Persecutors become mur- 
 derers, both of body and soul, by pushing men's Consciences to such 
 extremities. 
 
 The Tyrants of old, who were visibly acted [actuated] by the 
 Devil, were not so violently enraged against the Servants of GOD. 
 Some of them, for fear of their Torments, presented their Petitions to 
 the Magistrates, begging to be excused from being present at the 
 heathen sacrifices, and alleging several excuses : which were very often 
 received [allowed] . But the Church did never approve of them. These 
 weak persons were put into the Number and List of ' The Lapsed,' who 
 were to do public penance ; and were called Libellatici. 
 
 Nothing else was required of those who were dragged to the altars 
 
 of false Gods, but to throw a grain of frankincense into the fire : but 
 
 the true Christians chose rather to suffer death than to do it. And yet 
 
 the presenting of a Petition to be excused, or the throwing of a grain 
 
 of incense into the fire, is not more, but perhaps much less, than to 
 
 put off one's Cap, in order to reverence and give Religious Worship to 
 
 that which is not God. This serves to make it appear that the 
 
 Constancy of our Confessors is neither stubbornness, nor strong 
 
 Prejudice ; as their Persecutors pretend. 
 300
 
 The Cap, a Keligious Honour, or a Civil Respect. i7uo. 
 
 But, granting it to be an invincible Prejudice ; is it not an incon- 
 ceivable madness to be so cruelly bent against a person under such a 
 Prejudice? Ought not a simple Prejudice to be pitied? especially 
 when it does no ill to GOD or Man 1 Would the Romish Church be 
 more disesteemed, because there would be some prejudiced persons 
 who would not adhere to her Worship ? and is she now ever the more 
 valued for having extorted, by a hundred repeated Tortures, some 
 counterfeited homages ? 
 
 That which is required of these blessed Confessors is either a 
 Religious Honour ; or a Civil Respect, such as is done to the statue of 
 a Prince. If it be a Religious Honour ; it is to us downright Idolatry. 
 Now, to force men to a Worship that they look upon as idolatrous, is a 
 piece of barbarity practised only by heathen Persecutors. 
 
 They must not say, as some Ministers [Ambassadors] of the French 
 Court in Switzerland do, That we must pay an honour to the Religion 
 of the Prince : for our Conscience will not bear such management ! The 
 heathen Idolaters alleged the same reasons to the Christians, who 
 would not throw a grain of incense to the Gods of the Emperors. 
 
 If the honour required be a Civil Respect, it is a Fury beyond all 
 aggravation, to extort Civil Respects by such horrible, repeated, and 
 mortal cruelties I No reasonable Master ever hanged his Servant, or 
 broke him upon the Wheel, for the neglect of his Cap 1 
 
 301
 
 Postscript. 
 
 THIS ACCOUNT WAS lately printed in Holland ; and is confirmed 
 l)y unqiiestiouable Advice sent us in many Letters froin other 
 parts, representing the worse than Pagan Barbarities done to 
 onr renowned Brethren in the French Galleys : who, after the most 
 cruel persecution of Fifteen years [1685-1700], remain glorious 
 Confessors of the Reformed Religion, as we see in the mournful 
 instances briefly represented in this Pa^^er ; which is far from being 
 a full Account of their miseries. 
 
 For, besides the many others who have suffered the cruel 
 Bastonade, there is no particular mention made of those other 
 excellent and illustrious men who are miserably kept in dark and 
 dismal Dungeons, in all the circumstances of horror and inhumanity. 
 As Monsieur [Isaac] Lefevke in the Castle of Saint Jean ; Monsieur 
 DE Lansonnikre and Monsieur Serres the younger in the Castle of 
 Saint Nicolas ; Monsieur Maurix in the Hospital ; Monsieur Mounter 
 in the Chateau d'lf ; Messieurs Carrieres, two brothers, in different 
 Dungeons of the same Castle ; and Monsieur Fabian, the Proselyte, in 
 another Dungeon. 
 
 I shall name no more ; since these serve to give a most splendid 
 Testimony to the Reformed Religion, like to that which the same 
 Truths received about 1,700 years ago ; when they first appeared in the 
 World. And, perhaps. Infinite Wisdom sees it expedient to give new 
 proof of the value of the holy Gospel in these last days of it, to render 
 the Purity of its Doctrine more dear to such as do but too coolly 
 embrace it; as well as more conspicuous to such as profanely reject it. 
 
 It is therefore hoped that all Lovers of the Reformed Religion will 
 piously disperse these important Papers, far and near, amongst their 
 acquaintances in this and other nations ; to convince the World of the 
 divine Truth and infinite Worth of Protestancy ; and of the inhuman 
 Cruelty and Antichristian Spirit of Popery. 
 
 302
 
 <tAn Historical Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Sufferings and Death 
 
 of the 
 
 faithful Co7ifcssor a7id 3Vlartyi^^ 
 
 S\4onsieur Isaac Le FelPre, 
 
 An Advocate of Parliainejit ; 
 ivho, after Eifjhteen Years' Imprisonment, 
 died a Slave ui the French King's Galleys. 
 
 Together ivith 
 
 ^ pa7^ticular Relatio7i of the co7iclitio7i 
 
 of the other 7}iise7^able P7^iso7ie7^s the7^e. 
 
 Extracted 
 
 out of his own, and other Confessors', Letters 
 
 and authentic Memoirs. 
 
 Done into English from the French Edition, 
 puhlished at Rotterdam in 1703 A.D. 
 
 To which is prefixed, A Preface by t/ie Editor. 
 
 London. 
 
 Printed by T. W., for TJiomas Bennet, 
 
 at the Half-Moon hi Saint Paul's Churchyard, 
 
 1704. 
 
 303
 
 Note. 
 
 Tliis Text is here somewhat abridged : but no 
 Matters of Fact have been omitted, E.A, 
 
 304
 
 The Preface of the Editor. 
 
 IT IS A fixed and unalterable Maxim with me, ' That that Church, 
 or Body of Christians, who are for promoting their Interest by 
 
 the Spirit of Persecution, i.e., by laying any Violence on the 
 Consciences of men, are not, and cannot be, a true part of the Church 
 of Christ.' 
 
 I need not enlarge on this point, since the whole tenor of the 
 Gospel, that is, the whole Christian Dispensation, breathes forth 
 nothing but Love and a Universal Charity, even toward those who are 
 so unhappy as still to persist in the wrong : and would have no other 
 force offered to them, but such as j)roceeds from the strength of a 
 cogent Argument. The nature of Man is such, as [it is] not to be 
 dragged, but lead by gentle and rational methods, to his Duty : and 
 whenever any Violence is offered to him, he is apt to break out into a 
 Passion ; and, by that very means, to be jDrejudiced against the Truth 
 itself. 
 
 To set this matter in a clear light ; let vis take a Short View of the 
 Method which the Apostles and their immediate followers pursued in 
 converting persons to Christianity. 
 
 Saint Petee, in his Discourses to the Jews and Proselytes, makes 
 use only of such Arguments to convince them, as were convictive, and 
 ' pricked them to the heart ' : and the greatest instance of his severity 
 was, by virtue of his Spiritual Authority, against Ananias and Sapphira, 
 who lied against the HOLY GHOST ; which cannot be drawn into 
 consequence to justify the practice of any future Ages. 
 
 The famous Synod of the Apostles, recorded in Acts xv., was so far 
 
 from rigour, and imposing upon the Consciences of the new-converted 
 
 Gentiles, as it only enjoined them such things as Natural Reason would 
 
 have dictated to them. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 20 305
 
 The Preface of the English Editor. noi. 
 
 Saint Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, tlioiigh truly zealous 
 in the Cause of Christ and his Religion, though he pronounced his 
 ' Anathema's ' and ' Marantha's ' very frequently : yet was he so very 
 far from the Spirit of Persecution, that he was for reducing men from 
 the Error of their Ways by the Spirit of Meekness. And when he had 
 passed the most dreadful sentence of Excommunication against the 
 Incestuous Person ; with what tenderness does he express himself, upon 
 that Person's repentance. 
 
 I need not insist iipon the practice of the other Apostles : since it 
 is plain, that the severest of them were not for committing Delinquents 
 in points of Conscience to the Secular Power : but condemned them by 
 their own Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Censures. 
 
 What has been said of the Aj)ostolical Times, may, with a great 
 deal of reason, be applied to their immediate followers ; who were so 
 far from being of a Persecuting Spirit, that they endeavoured by the 
 force of Arguments to reconcile men unto GOD, and to the belief of a 
 crucified Saviour ; and, in these their endeavours, suffered the greatest 
 of Persecutions themselves, from their most implacable Enemies, the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 If this be Matter of Fact, as it certainly will appear to be, to all 
 who will enquire into the Acts of the Apostles, and into the Writings of 
 the Fathers of the first Three Centuries : then what judgement shall 
 we pass on the proceedings of the present Romish Church; who, by 
 contrary methods, endeavour to gain Proselytes to their Communion ? 
 Are Inquisitions and Dragoons proper means of making New Converts 
 to the truly Christian, Catholic, and Apostolical, Faith ? If not ; how 
 justly may we blame the whole conduct of the Papists, in their endea- 
 vouring to bring over to their Communion such as in Conscience differ 
 from them, by Violence and unheard-of Barbarities. 
 
 There is something so frightful and terrible in the very Genius and 
 
 Spirit of Popery, that would make an honest man quite out of conceit 
 
 with it; though he were never so much inclined to hold Communion 
 
 with it, upon other accounts. It gives a shock to Human Nature, and 
 
 makes it start within itself, to think that That, and onJy That, can be 
 S06
 
 1704. The Preface of the Enghsh Editor. 
 
 tlie True Chiu'ch: which suiiports its Interest, not only by Fraud iiud 
 Cunning; but by open Oppression and Cruelties offered, not only to the 
 Estates and Bodies, but also to the Souls and Consciences, of Men. 
 
 To pass by the Former Method of proi^agating the Roman Catholic 
 Religion ; of which their Missionaries (both of the Jesuitical and other 
 Orders) are great Masters : we shall only insist upon the Latter Means, 
 which they not only allow of, but even prescribe to be used, for the 
 regaining of those that are departed from their Communion ; that is, to 
 speak in their own words, 'for [the] ExtiriDating of Heresy and Heretics.' 
 
 And here, a modest Heathen would blush for them, to hear, with 
 what confidence and effrontery, they prevaricate with GOD and Man. 
 They tell you indeed, That their Church is all Love and Charity ; that 
 it breathes forth nothing but Meekness and Gentleness ; and that the 
 rigours it makes use of towards others are the pure effects of its zeal 
 for the good and welfare of their Souls. All this sounds very well ; 
 and it were to be wished that their Practice were consonant to their 
 Profession : but, alas I when we come to enquire into it, we shall soon 
 perceive how" the one runs quite counter to the other. 
 
 From the very first rise of Popery, that is, from the very time that 
 the Pope set up for Universal Bishop, and claimed a Supremacy over 
 all other Chvirches, it is well known what Methods were used by the 
 Church, and especially by the Court of Rome, to support the Holy 
 Father in his unjust and antichristian Usurx^ation. Hence it came to 
 pass, that those Bishops who would not submit to his tyrannical upstart 
 Hierarchy, were excommunicated, declared Heretics, delivered over to 
 the Secular Power ; and (where the Popish party prevailed) were 
 sometimes deprived of their Sees, sometimes banished, and sometimes 
 put to death. This was the first step made to advance the Papal Chair. 
 
 But this was not all ; nor did matters stoi)here. The Popes wanted 
 one jewel more to complete their Triple Crown. They aimed at joining 
 Saint Paul's Sword to Saint Peter's Keys ; and affected the Supremacy 
 in Temporal as well as in Spiritual Affairs. The Christian Princes 
 opposed the Usurpation for some time, and the Pope was forced to drop 
 this point, till, at last, taking the advantage of their mutual contests, 
 
 307
 
 The Preface of the English Editor. iioi. 
 
 whicli ( no question 1 ) were uuder-haud kept up by him, he gained his 
 end. For some of those Princes he, by promises, wheedled, and others 
 he, by threatenings, huffed [hectored, bullied] , into a compliance with 
 his ambitious ends. 
 
 Now the Papal Court w^as arrived to its greatest acme : and what 
 Violence and Force, what Cruelty and Oppressions, it has exercised 
 from that time hitherto, in order to keep up its spiritual and temporal 
 grandeur, is notorious to all who know anything of Church History. 
 Saint Petee's Keys have not been so useful to support the Papal 
 Throne as Saint Paul's Sword. So that if any Prince has been so resty 
 \_restive] as to call in question this new-acquired authority : not only 
 Bulls and Excommunications ; but even Fire and Sw^ord, Depositions 
 and Massacres, have been the effects of putting the affront on this 
 Universal Monarch. 
 
 Hence it has come to pass that Subjects have been discharged of 
 their allegiance to their lawful Sovereigns ; their Kingdoms disposed of 
 to others, Armies and Fleets raised. Invasions encouraged, Plots and 
 Massacres countenanced and blessed, by the Roman Pontiff : especially 
 if this has been against Heretical Princes ; or Princes that seemed to 
 favour Heretics. To this Spring, we owe the Doctrine of not keeping 
 faith with Heretics ; of the lawfulness of deposing and killing Kings ; 
 with the like. To this, we owe the Crusades raised, and Inquisitions 
 set up, against those that opposed the Papal Tyranny, both before, and 
 since, the Reformation begun in Luther's time. In short, if we survey 
 Popery from top to bottom, we shall find a black Spirit of Persecution 
 running through all its parts ; and that it may well be styled ' the great 
 Whore ; which makes itself drunk wdth the blood of the Saints.' 
 
 Need we rake into the History of past Ages to justify the charge? 
 No I We have one nearer home, within our own memory ; nay, within 
 our present knowledge, and which proves but too well the truth, or at 
 least the probability, of what is contained in the following Relation of 
 the Sufferings and Death of Monsieur Le Fevre. 
 
 One would have thought that so soft and polite a nation as France 
 
 pretends to be, would never have acted with so much Fury against its 
 308
 
 1704. The Preface of the EiigHsh Editor. 
 
 own members : but the diabolical Spirit of Antichrist has infused its 
 venom into that, as well as into other nations. The Prince [is] actuated 
 with a Popish zeal ; and, to shew he deserved the Character, given by 
 the Court of Rome, of ' Most Christian,' was resolved to have but One 
 Religion in his Kingdom. Hence was the Edict of Nantes repealed, 
 and the Protestants oppressed on all hands ; their Ministers and 
 principal men banished ; and the rest left to be converted by Missionary 
 Dragoons. Under this Oppression, they have long groaned ; and the 
 Galleys, Prisons, and Dungeons, have been their last refuge. 
 
 Now will you say. That such Persecutions of Men, for the sake of 
 Religion alone, is consonant to the Gospel ? Do not such men, and such 
 a Church, as act upon such bloody principles, shew by what Spirit they 
 are led, viz., not by that of the meek-spirited Jesus ; but by that of the 
 Devil : who was always a hater of the brethren, and a murderer from 
 the beginning. How does this, their practice fly into their very faces ; 
 and upbraid them with the falsehood of their Profession ! 
 
 But to conclude. A Jew, a Heathen, or a Mahometan, may, with 
 as good a grace pretend to Christianity, as he who professes himself 
 a Christian ; and yet acts with such a persecuting temper of mind as is 
 diametrically contrary to the Genius of the Christian Religion. 
 
 A word or two with respect to the following Papers ; and we have 
 done. 
 
 It is unknown who was the Collector of them ; and therefore we 
 shall not trouble ourselves with guessing at random about the Author. 
 [He was a Frenchman, pp. 312, 313 ; living in Holland, p. 351.] 
 
 That which is most certain is, That they contain in them an 
 Account of the Sufferings and Death, not only of Le Fevee ; but also 
 of many others who were his Companions, and bore up with patience, 
 constancy, and faith, under all the pressures of their cruel Enemies : 
 some on board the Galleys ; and others in the nastiness of some 
 loathsome Dungeon. 
 
 To consider the Variety of Torments which they endured, should 
 
 melt our hearts with compassion. To consider their Steadfastness in 
 
 309
 
 The Preface of the English Editor. 1704. 
 
 adhering to the Profession of the Christian Faith, should teach us to 
 prepare ourselves against the fiery trial ; and to consider the unwearied 
 Malice and Cruelty of their Persecutors, should put us upon praying, 
 ' From such inhuman Principles, and such inhuman Practices, as 
 Popery infuses into, and teaches, its disciples; good Lord deliver us!' 
 
 310
 
 An Account of the Sufferings and Death of 
 
 that faithful Confessor and Martyr, Monsieur 
 
 Isaac Le Fevre, of Chateau -Chinon in the 
 
 Nivernais, Advocate in Parliament. 
 
 IT IS A wonder to me, that our Lord Jesus Cheist and Ms Apostles 
 having foretold, in all the sacred Books of the New Testament, 
 that the condition of the Faithful and of the Church should be 
 
 exposed to Persecutions and the Cross in this life ; as they them- 
 selves vrere exjjosed to it, in the whole course of their Ministry — I say, 
 It is amazing that the Church of Rome has placed the Temporal 
 Prosperity and Glory of those that defend it, among the Marks and 
 Characters of its Truth and Faith; and which the famous Cardinal 
 Bbllaemino makes his Fifteenth and last Characteristic Mark of the 
 True Church. It surprises me that she glories in it ; as if she designed 
 to fulfil the Prediction of the HOLY GHOST, concerning the mystical 
 Babylon, who says, 'I am Queen; and shall see ilo sorrow I' [Rev.xviii.7.] 
 
 But it is yet more astonishing that Saint John having foretold, in 
 the Revelations, that the True Church should not only suffer great 
 Persecutions from the Pagans, its professed Enemies : but also from 
 the False or Antichristian Church ; of which he, that calls himself the 
 Head, sits in the Temple of GOD, shews himself to be God, and exalts 
 himself above all that is called God. 
 
 It is a wonder to me, I say, that she should make it her business to 
 Oppress and Persecute those Christians who have separated themselves 
 from her, and those that will not come into her Communion, with Fire 
 and Sword ; and which, for divers Ages (thn t is to say, since she has 
 acquired that power and authority in the World, which the Spirit of GOD 
 foretold us, that the Beast and her false Prophet would usurp), has 
 exercised all manner of Fury and Cruelties against them : as appears by 
 what has been done, within the last five or six Centuries, against the 
 Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemians, Lutherans, and the Calvinists, as 
 they are called ; and this, in all countries that are unhappily subjected 
 to her jurisdiction. Where the Kings, Princes, and States, have unjustly 
 assisted that Murderess of Saints with their forces : as appeared, in the 
 
 311
 
 Le Fevre, the ' Calvin' of the Galley Slaves. 1703. 
 
 foregoing Ages, in Italy, France, England, and Germany ; and as lias 
 been seen in the last, and in our. Age, in all parts of Europe where that 
 Beast is adored, and exercises its dominion; and as it is, yet particularly 
 to be seen in our France, by this late and extraordinary Persecution 
 that was raised there, some years ago, by that Antichristian Church, her 
 Clergy, and her Prelates : and where, unhappily, the Prince that reigns 
 there, answers but too much to the Designs and Solicitations of that 
 Cruel and Persecviting Society, and which he makes [himself] one of its 
 chief supports. A Persecution that, perhaps, has not been guilty of so 
 many Massacres, nor spilt so much blood, as those that have preceded it : 
 but which has, in its proceedings, larger characters of Inhumanity, 
 Cruelty, and Barbarity, than have been seen, from the beginning of 
 Christianity down to our Times. A Persecution, wherein the Devil and 
 his Agents have displayed more Cunning and Craft, which the HOLY 
 GHOST calls, ' the depths of Satan,' than were ever seen in all the 
 former. This may give us great reason to believe that the Kingdom of 
 Satan and of the Antichristian Beast is not far from its end ; and that, 
 as their time is but short, they employ also their utmost strength to 
 compass their damnable designs, that is. To exterminate the True 
 Church ; and, if possible, to destroy the Elect of GOD. 
 
 But I do not here pretend to write a History, or to make a Descrip- 
 tion, of this dreadful and terrible Persecution. There is already enough 
 writ [ten] on that subject; and, doubtless. Time will produce yet more 
 complete Histories of it. I shall only speak of the Sufferings of a 
 blessed Martyr, that finished his course gloriously on the Galleys, in 
 the Prisons and Dungeons, of Marseilles, Sufferings that lasted 
 Seventeen years. I shall only give the Church, and the Faithful, the 
 admirable examples of Faith, Patience, Piety, Charity, and all kinds of 
 Virtues, which that Herald of GOD supplied us wath, during that long 
 continuance of Conflicts and Trials which he maintained so gloriously. 
 
 There have been illustrious and generous Champions who before, 
 and like him, have signalized their Faith and Courage by a happy Death ; 
 which confounded their Persecutors, and edified all good people. Bvit 
 it must be confessed that there was something peculiar in this man : 
 either for the length of his Sufferings ; or for the Example of all kinds 
 of Virtues that he made appear in it ; or for so many excellent and holy 
 Exhortations which he gave to his brethren, to all the Confessors in 
 the Prisons and on the Galleys, and which made him to be looked upon 
 by the Persecutors, as the Minister of those Galley Slaves and Prisoners 
 of Jesus, whom they called, ' their Calvin ' : and who, for that reason, 
 was kept closer, and treated more cruelly ; as will appear by the History 
 which I give of it to the public. And, in short, for the many fine Letters, 
 and divers other Writings in Prose and Verse, addressed to his friends 
 312
 
 1687. Le Fevre's Sister in a Convent at Nevers. 
 
 and relations in France and foreign countries, that would make large 
 Volumes, if they could be collected together. 
 
 The name of this Martyr is Isaac Le Fevee ; at present known 
 everywhere : his bonds having rendered him famous in France, and in 
 all Protestant countries. By profession, he was an Advocate or Coun- 
 cillor at Law. Aged about 37 years, when he was condemned ; and 54 
 years of age, when he died in June 1702. 
 
 He was born at Chateau-Chinon in the Nivernais, of honourable 
 parents, and of one of the most considerable Families of that covmtry ; 
 whom I have known and conversed with, and of whom I can justly give 
 this Character, That they were the best i^eople among us : and whose 
 eulogy our happy Martyr gives us in one of his Letters, written in the 
 Prisons of Marseilles, which I think it my duty to insert here ; and the 
 rather, because I was a witness of the greatest part of what he says of 
 them. 
 
 Where, after having spoken of the Sufferings, and the Perseverance, 
 of his dear Sister, who was, at that time, in a Convent at Nevers ; and 
 who glorified GOD there, by her courage and patience ; and who died 
 afterwards in the faith of Jesus Christ, without ever having done any- 
 thing against her Conscience, Piety, and Fidelity : that being, as it were, 
 natural and hereditary to that holy Family — he speaks thus of them, 
 
 What GOD works in her, charms me ! That great GOD 
 hath been mindful of his Promise in favour of the children 
 of those that fear him. My predecessors, my father and 
 mother, were of that number. P. Le Fevre and M. 
 Elignard (having walked before him, in Christian sim- 
 plicity ; and performed their duty) died both, in a good old 
 age, in the Communion of the True Church. GOD took 
 her to himself betimes, whom he had made the instrument 
 of bringing me into the world : but I know her piety was 
 exemplary ; and her life edifying, and very remote from the 
 vain amusements of this Age. 
 
 You know what was the probity, the zeal, the patience, 
 of my deceased Father. I cannot mention him without 
 tenderness ; but his memory is too dear to me to pass it 
 over in silence. You visited him on his Death Bed, or 
 rather on his Bed of Life ; and I remember that, in coming 
 away, you gave him this testimony, ' I came to edify and 
 comfort a sick person ; but he edifies and comforts me ! ' 
 
 Such you saw him then, and such he was in all the 
 course of his sickness, which was very long and very 
 severe, always resigned, patient, and very willing to give up 
 
 313
 
 The duatli of Le Fevre's Father. i687. 
 
 his Soul into tlie liaiids of his Creator and his GOD. He 
 was naturally hasty and passionate : but the grace of GOD 
 raised him so much above himself, that it made him the 
 most patient man in the World, in the extremest and most 
 violent pains of the Stone and the Colic, which racked his 
 reins and entrails. 
 
 He being struck with the dead Palsy on one side ; I 
 carried him often from one bed to another, because it gave 
 him ease. All my little services were so pleasing to him, 
 and he commended them so much, that he could not endure 
 me out of his sight. His Palsy degenerated into an Apoplexy. 
 He was four days and nights in an agony, his eyes always 
 cast up to heaven ; not with the face of a dying man, but 
 of one in an ecstacy : shev.dng always when they roused 
 him with caustics out of that lethargic slumber, that his 
 heart and mouth breathed after nothing but his GOD. 
 
 I praise GOD, the God of my fathers, for the spirit of 
 meekness wdierewith he had endued his Servant, for the 
 patience of a Martyr which he had given him, and for 
 the sincere and internal Piety with which he had inspired 
 him. And, as long as I live, I shall bless the Lord GOD of 
 all Flesh, the Father of Spirits, that granted me the favour 
 to be present at that Change ; terrible indeed to the 
 reprobate, but sweet and full of consolation for his children : 
 and because, in tha^t moment when he took the Soul of his 
 Servant to himself, he x^ut these words into my mouth, 
 which I pronounced with an elevated voice, ' Lord Jesus, 
 receive his Spirit into thy hands ! ' 
 
 May the blessed Jesus put them again into my heart 
 and mouth, at the last moment of my life ! and say himself 
 to my Soul, ' Come, good and faithful Servant ! enter thou 
 into the joy of thy Lord ! ' : and [may he] say to my Soul ' I 
 am thy Saviour ! ' 
 
 I cannot live, much less die, without my GOD ! 
 Neither the World, nor the devils, shall ever separate me 
 from him ! I will be faithful to him unto death ! 
 
 I could not forbear publishing this Testimony of our Martyr in 
 f avovar of such a pious father ; and also because it shews singular marks 
 of the son's Piety and Charity. 
 
 But I return to his History. This Martyr had been very well 
 educated. He had Learning and Ingenuity. He was sent to Geneva in 
 1663; where he went through- the Course of Philosophy. 
 314
 
 Le Fevre, an Advociite of tlie Parlianiuiit of Paris. 
 
 A little while ai'ter, he went to study the Law at Orleans; wliere he 
 maintained Theses, and took his Dej^rees. 
 
 Afterwards, he went to Paris, where (having shewed his Testimonials 
 to Monsieur Talon ; who was at that time Advocate General) he was 
 admitted as one of the Advocates of the Court of Parliament. 
 
 But since I intend only to descrihe his Martyrdom here, and what 
 immediately preceded it; I shall say nothing of his youth, nor of his 
 behaviour within his jiaternal family : only that it was always wise and 
 well-regulated. 
 
 He lived some time in Paris ; from whence he returned into 
 Provence, and was employed in the concerns of the Marchioness of 
 Saint Andre Montbkun : on which occasion he took a journey into 
 Poitou and Saintonge, to settle her affairs ; which he i3erformed as 
 well as could be done. 
 
 Being in that country, he was brought into question by the Intend- 
 ant of Rochefort, concerning his Religion ; on false Informations that 
 had been given [to] him. Being cited before him ; he ajipeared there, 
 though he was sick of a hectic [coyitinual] Fever ; which left him while 
 he was in the Intendant's house. He was dismissed and discharged. 
 
 From thence, he came to Paris jnst at the same time that the Edict 
 of Nantes was revoked, [October 18 1685] , which caused him to depart 
 from thence again immediately for Burgundy, to give the Marchioness 
 of Saint Andre an Account of her business ; and afterwards to dispose 
 himself for a retreat [an exile] , for the quiet of his Conscience, and to 
 serve GOD at lil^erty in some foreign country. 
 
 This is the Relation that he gave himself of what passed at that 
 Lady's house ; and how they treated her, and all those of that place. 
 That Letter, written from a Galley of Marseilles, in 1686, deserves to be 
 entirely inserted here : since it contains the Relation of what happened 
 to him until his going from thence ; and the recital of the Persecutions 
 that w^ere carried on in those i)arts, wherein he had the share which he 
 mentions in his Letter. 
 
 I received your Letter most fortunately ; in a time 
 Avlien I was more observed, and closer kept than ever. 
 Nobody dares come near, or speak to, me : and they refuse 
 any, that asks to see me, to come into the Galley wherein I 
 am. All the Letters that are sent to me, are detained from 
 me ; and sent to the Intendant. Other Galley Slaves have 
 the liberty of being freed from the Great Chain, by giving 
 some money ; but that liberty is absolutely denied me. 
 They will neither let me write, nor read. 
 
 315
 
 Marolles separated from Le Fevre. lese. 
 
 And notwithstanding all those obstacles ; your consola- 
 tions are come to my hands. I have deceived the vigilance 
 of my Keepers ; and read that fair Letter, equally strong 
 and comfortable, with inexpressible delight. I find it full 
 of tenderness and charity ; which penetrates my heart with 
 love and acknowledgement. Some passages in it make me 
 enter into the Joys of the Blessed; and to consider the Glory 
 that is laid up for us in the Heavens, as if it were present. 
 
 I am touched to the quick, and feel, my most honoured 
 Father ! (Permit me to call you so ; because I have the 
 honour to be your Disciple and Pupil in Jesus Christ), and 
 am very sensible, that GOD, who made use of your Ministry 
 to form the True Faith in my heart, continues to make use 
 Oi it to this day, for my confirmation and perseverance in 
 that Faith ; and to strengthen me in my pious design and 
 holy resolution to die rather a thousand times, than to 
 forsake so great a Salvation. 
 
 My Soul, discouraged and tired with the voice of the 
 Stranger, rejoiced with great joy at that of its dear Shepherd. 
 The tears which you draw out of my eyes serve for aliment 
 to that inward Joy ; and do but increase my Tranquility. 
 Faithful Minister of Jesus Christ! you discharge the Office 
 of a good Pastor well ; and your reward will be great in 
 Heaven. I owe you a large Answer, and desire passionately 
 to acquit myself of that duty : and seeing this beginning 
 had good success ; I hoj)e all the rest will have the same. 
 
 As lie was also asked news of Monsieur de Marolles, to whose 
 Chain [Chain-gang] he was joined at Chalons; and with whom, it was 
 known, he had been some time in the Hospital of Marseilles : he 
 answers in that same Letter, before he sjieaks of himself. 
 
 There is at present no communication between the 
 illustrious Monsieur DE Marolles and me. We were but 
 few days together. He was declared an ' Invalid ' ; and, as 
 such, put on board of a Hospital Galley. The reason of 
 that change I am a stranger to. 
 
 That generous Champion appeared like a burning Lamp 
 in the Metropolis of the Kingdom : and I am but a smoking 
 Match ; whom our GOD, who makes choice of the weak 
 things to confound the strong, has looked upon in his great 
 compassions. 
 
 Sir, and my most dear Pastor, I am so far from the 
 perfection you impute to me, that I shall endeavour to 
 316
 
 i68f . Le Fevre leaves Paris for La Noele. 
 
 entertain you with my fears and troubles, my great 
 weaknesses, my Sufferings, and with the great favours that 
 GOD has done me. I shall make no exact Relation of my 
 little Adventures ; but speak only of the dispositions I was 
 in, at that tim.e when GOD plucked up the plants which he 
 had planted in the places of my residence ; from what 
 I found myself to have, when I was seized ; and, lastly, of 
 our heavenly Father's blessings on my weak beginnings. 
 
 The Spirit of Fear and Weakness reigned in the 
 Provinces from whence I came ; when I had the honour to 
 see you at Paris. I thought to have found more Constancy 
 and Steadfastness in that great City : but, alas, there v/as 
 a general consternation in it ; and I was obliged to leave it. 
 O, mournful remembrance ! It was in the time when GOD 
 was pleased to break down the Fence [tJie Edict of Ncuites^ 
 wherewith, in his Providence, he had encompassed his 
 Church. You gave me your blessing ; and I left you and 
 my dear relations with weeping eyes and a more sorrowful 
 heart. We lamented the calamities of Joseph ; and I can 
 say. That from that day I had great sorrow and a continual 
 affliction at my heart until the day of my Condemnation to 
 the Galleys. 
 
 The Marchioness of Saint Andre expected my return, 
 to finish her great affairs ; saying, She could trust nobody 
 but me. I was three weeks in a continual hurry ; oftener 
 at Nevers, and at Moulins in Bourbonnais, than at Noele. 
 
 I was known to be of the Religion ; and great cares 
 were taken to inform me of any considerable Persons 
 changing their Religion in any place. I saw nothing but 
 fallings [away] on tlie right and the left. The most pious 
 sank under the power of the Temptation. Trembling seized 
 me. I said, in my grief, ' If the cedars fall ; what will 
 become of the bulrush ? ' 
 
 The Lady of Saint Andre, who thought herself shel- 
 tered from the Storm, was attacked in her turn. Monsieur 
 DE Harlay, Councillor of State, and at that time Intendant 
 of Burgundy, writ to her from Parai le Moineau. His 
 Letter was full of civilities ; but pressing, and without 
 flattery. He said, Of two things, she must do one : forsake 
 her Religion ; or resolve to lose her estate, her liberty, and 
 also to suffer in her own person. This is the doleful choice 
 she was to make. 
 
 317
 
 'You liave not yet resisted unto ])lo()(l !' i685. 
 
 Tlie Lady desired time; without prouiisiug anything 
 by that first Answer. 
 
 Monsieur t]ie Intendant gave her fifteen days at farthest 
 to consider of it : and explained himself so distinctly and 
 powerfully on liis orders, that Madame DE Saint Andre and 
 Monsieur and Madame de Mombrun, seeing themselves 
 brought to extremities, resolved to seek for some Allowances 
 to be made in the Reunion that was proposed to them. 
 That design was put in execution ; and an Act of Reunion 
 w^as drawn up on the model [of those] of the Gentlemen of 
 Grenoble, and those of Lyons. A Letter was joined to that 
 Act ; and Monsieur DE Monchanin du Monceau was the 
 bearer of all, who came to Dijon before the fifteen days were 
 expired. 
 
 But it was in vain. Monsieur the Intendant w^ould not 
 yield to anything. He rej)eated his former threats ; and told 
 the Sieur DE Monchanin, that he would send twelve Archers 
 to take me. [(Gabriel de) Roquette,] the Bishop of 
 AuTUN seemed also to be very angry with me. They had 
 been informed, That I had taken much pains in Poitou to 
 confirm my brethren ; and that I continued yet to go, from 
 time to time, in the Provinces of Nivernais, and of Berr}', 
 for the same purpose. 
 
 Monsieur de Monchanin endeavoured to excuse me ; 
 and told the Intendant, That I was no wicked person ; and 
 that if it were a crime to be wedded to one's Religion, we 
 Avere all guilty. 
 
 And as he was going to enlarge upon our misfortunes, 
 and the hardships that were exercised against us ; the said 
 Sieur Intendant interrupted him, saying, ' What do you 
 complain for ? You have not yet resisted unto blood ! ' 
 
 These words, to speak it, 'en passant,' have made great 
 impressions on me since. They are Saint Paul's Avords in 
 the 12th of the Hebrews: but, assuredly, it was not with the 
 same spirit, nor to the same end, that the Intendant made 
 use of them here. It is rather with that of Julian the 
 Apostate; who thus answ^ered the complaints of the Chris- 
 tians of those Times, whom he persecuted, ' It belongs to 
 you to suffer ! for your Master foretold that it would happen 
 to you.' It is thus that this famous Apostate, and the 
 celebrated Monsieur de Harlay, insult the poor afflicted, in 
 persecuting them themselves. O, it was not the Spirit of 
 GOD that inspired those words into that Intendant, as he 
 318
 
 1685. The Marchioness becomes a Roman Catholic. 
 
 did into Saint Paul ; who spoke them, by the inspiration 
 of GOD, to comfort and strengtlien the afflicted Hebrews: 
 and the former, by the orders of a Prince that has under- 
 taken to exterminate the Church of GOD, and to terrify and 
 discourage the persecuted believers. 
 
 Monsieur de Monchanin informed us, at his return, 
 That the lutendant would not come in person ; but that he 
 had deputed Monsieur the Lieutenant General, with the 
 King's Attorney of Autun, to execute his Orders ; and that 
 the Bishop, accompanied with those Gentlemen and the 
 Marshals of Dijon and Aiitun, and with his ordinary 
 attendance, was coming to La Noele. 
 
 A fine equipage, a fine retinue, for a Clergyman ! Did 
 the Ajjostles go to convert nations with satellites of this 
 nature ? Monsieur d'Autun is a Prelate that attended the 
 rest. But neither he, nor any of his brethren the Prelates 
 that have been at the head of the Archers and Dragoons, 
 to make Roman Apostolical Missions — I say, none of those 
 Prelates consider. That there is a King of Kings above him 
 Avhom they would please ; to whom an Account must be 
 given tor those violent and cruel proceedings, so disagreeable 
 to their character ; but which they have authorized by their 
 presence or approbation. 
 
 In the mean time, to speak something in their praise, 
 those illustrious Prelates are Persons of their Word. They 
 had indeed promised that treatment, in the Letter which 
 they addressed to us, in the beginning of their great 
 Persecutions. Et erant tiovissima vestra pejora prioribits. 
 [See page 131.] 
 
 Bvit let us bear our Martyr. Continued he, 
 
 That I was particularly threatened ; and that he advised 
 me to absent myself. 
 
 I told him, that I would follow his advice : and, 
 accordingly, I went from La Noele two hours before that 
 numerous company came there. I was in great perplexities. 
 I loved the Truth above all things : but I had no kind of 
 inclination for Martyrdom ; and I saw no other hopes to 
 escape it than by flight. 
 
 This I had often designed to do : but the Lady 
 Marchioness had always opposed it very earnestly ; so far 
 as to tell me. That if I left her, I should make her despair ! 
 I had yielded to her requests; as I did again on that occasion. 
 
 319
 
 The Bishop of Autun threatens Le Fevre. less. 
 
 One thing surprised and afflicted me, which was, That 
 however fatal soever that conjuncture was; that Lady never 
 neglected the care of her business ! 
 
 She, seeing me designed to retire, said to me very 
 kindly, fifteen days before my departure, ' Where will you 
 go, Sir ? You are not fit for the Galleys ! Do you find 
 yourself disjjosed for Martyrdom ? Fifteen days' imprison- 
 ment will kill you! See, if you can resolve to do, as we 
 have done ! ' 
 
 I answered, That I had no inclination for Martyrdom ; 
 but that GOD gave strength : and that it was impossible 
 for me to do as she had done ; because I should think 
 myself damned ! 
 
 In the mean time, I took horse for Chateau- Chinon : 
 where my Sister, being persecuted by the Emissaries of the 
 Bishoi3 of Nevers, by the Curate of the j3lace, and by her 
 own husband, very earnestly desired me to come. She had 
 after sent me an Express, to intreat me not to refuse her my 
 assistance and comforts. Nevertheless, to please Madame 
 de Saint Andre, I went to Nevers; where a Judiciary Lease 
 of her lands was renewed. 
 
 In the mean time, Monsieur dAutun, a very ingenious 
 Court Prelate, what by his promises and by his threats, 
 prevailed upon that Lady to sign her Reunion [with the 
 Church of Rome] ; and her example was followed at 
 La Noele with tears. The Bishop, having been treated in 
 the Castle by the Marquis DE Mombrun, continued his 
 intrigues; being very well satisfied that he had sped so well. 
 
 Madame had writ to me at Nevers, That he was very 
 well inclined to me, and vexed that he had not met with 
 me ; that he would have done nothing but what I pleased ; 
 and that he would hinder anybody from doing me any 
 violence in his diocese. However it be ; I saw quite the 
 contrary, a little while after. 
 
 The Curate of La Noele had endeavoured to persuade 
 me to give him a visit in his Episcopal Palace at Autun. 
 Upon the refusal that I made ; that Prelate writ thundering 
 Letters against me to Madame de Saint Andre. 
 
 Speaking of me, in his last Letter, he said, ' If that 
 man does not give satisfaction in four days ; the Sub- 
 Delegates of the Intendants of Dijon and Nevers have 
 orders to take him, wherever they find him, though it were 
 in your house ; which will be a trouble to your Ladyship. 
 320
 
 1685. Empire of Conscience not under earthly Kings. 
 
 I have hitherto hindered it from being done. Both Divine 
 and Hnman Laws oblige ns, to make him do what you have 
 done. Yon ought to constrain him to it; or forsake him!' 
 
 I would willingly know, Where that Prelate will find 
 those Divine Laws in the Scrij)ture ? such Laws that 
 authorize Bishops to force Christians, with Dragoons and 
 Archers, to abjure their Religion, and [to] unite themselves 
 to a Communion that they esteem false and antichristian ? 
 
 Is it in these words, in the Gos^jel ' Force them to 
 come in ! ' ? But who will believe that Jesus Cheist would 
 have said that they must bring the Gentiles (for that is 
 spoken of them) to the Profession of the Christian Religion 
 by Bastinadoes, by Force, by Violence, and by such Cruelties 
 and Barbarities that everybody knows at jDresent to have 
 been exercised by the Guards and the Dragoons ; at whose 
 head were my Lords the Bishops, or those who followed 
 their orders "? 
 
 In truth, it is not to be comprehended what genius, 
 what eyes, people must have, not to see that the Business 
 of Religion was then carried on by the strongest, the most 
 earnest, and the most prevailing. Exhortations ; such as 
 were those of the Apostles : who (by that mild, but powerful 
 and efficacious, way) brought so many people and nations 
 to the knowledge of the Gospel, and to the Faith of Jesus 
 Cheist. And I dare believe. That when the Bishops 
 and the ingenious men of their Communion read this 
 Commandment of Jesus Cheist, ' Compel them to come 
 in ! ' they form no other Idea of it to themselves than that 
 which I have just now represented, and that the Apostles 
 said of it. And I question whether any of them are bold 
 enough to find Archers and Dragoons there, that plunder, 
 steal, strike, people : and draw them, by force, to the Mass ; 
 who believe nothing of it, and abhor it. 
 
 No ! That cruel and violent Force is founded upon 
 another Master's command than the Lord Jesus ; whom 
 these Gentlemen make no scruj)le to avow. They say, ' It 
 is the King's pleasure ! ': though they know, as well as we, 
 that the Empire of Conscience is not under the jurisdiction 
 of the Kings of the Earth, how great soever they be : 
 but entirely under GOD, the King of Kings, and King of 
 Heaven and Earth. 
 
 This is a long and particular Account of what happened to our 
 Martyr until his Flight. 
 2 Protestant SlaYes. 21 321
 
 HE FOLLOWED THE design of liis Flight as he had formed it ; 
 to endeavour to escape the threatenings and persecutions that 
 were preparing for him. 
 
 But, as he was going to retire into Switzerland, he was 
 seized, on Sunday the 4th of February 1686, in the County [Province] 
 of Burgundy, near the town of Pontarlier ; with a Swiss, whose name 
 was La Toue. He was sent to Besan9on ; where he was abused, and 
 robbed of all he had. They took his weapons from him, as also a 
 watch of 23 Louis d'Or [of 20s. each] value: and the Intendant La Fond 
 gave his horse to the Archer that took him, for his pains. All his other 
 equipage was dispersed here and there : in which he was distinguished 
 from others ; to whom they returned what was taken from them. 
 
 They clapped him into irons, as appears by a Letter to one of his 
 friends, of the 12th of April. 
 
 After having remained three weeks in Prison, with some that made 
 their Abjuration, and were then set at liberty: he was brought to the 
 Council Chamber, on his trial ; though he had then a Fever. The same 
 day. Sentence was pronounced against him. 
 
 The day following, he was put into a Dungeon ; with fetters on his 
 feet, night and day: where he endured great temptations for two 
 months and some days. 
 
 He remarks, That, when he was before the Court, a 
 Councillor, seeing him wear his irons awkwardly, said to 
 him, by way of insult over his weakness, 'When a person is 
 convinced that he is in the True Religion ; he must suffer 
 even unto death ! ' 
 
 That truth, says he, made an impression on my heart ; 
 and I found myself strengthened by it. I also answered 
 him. That what he said was very true ; and that I was in 
 the way to it. 
 
 There are Caiaphas's of that nature, who often speak Oracles and 
 Truths which they think not of : like that High Priest of the Jews who 
 said, ' You know nothing at all ; nor consider that it is expedient that 
 one man should die for the people ' [John xi. 49, 50] ; speaking of the 
 322
 
 1686. Le Fevre is in prison at Besan9on. 
 
 death of Jesus Christ, which they had resolved on, in their unhappy 
 and perfidious Council. 
 
 Being in this sad condition ; he refused a supply of 
 money which one of his relations sent him : because (said 
 he) it was but Justice they should return to him what they 
 had taken from him : and, besides, I am speedily to be 
 fastened to the Chain [Chain-gang'] . He added, I am in the 
 number of the profligate, and treated as a wicked man : but 
 GOD will have mercy upon me ! He has never forsaken me ! 
 I am in a place where the air is infected, and where I feed 
 upon such diet as would formerly have poisoned me : but I 
 find sweetness and consolations in them beyond my present 
 hopes. 
 
 By a Letter from the same place, of the 12th of May, he continues 
 the description of his condition in these words, 
 
 There can be nothing more outrageous than their bad 
 usage of me. The more they see me languish, the more 
 they endeavour to aggravate my confinement. For some 
 "weeks past, they would suffer nobody to come into it \_tlie 
 Dungeon] . If there was any place more infectious in it, I 
 was brought thither. In the mean time. Truth had always 
 the upper hand in my Soul : GOD, who knows the purity of 
 its intentions, supporting it with his grace. He fights 
 against me ; but fights also for me. My weapons are tears 
 ,and prayers. My faith is weak, and I am a great sinner : 
 but that GOD of Mercy (the Refuge of the Afflicted, the only 
 Asylum of the Miserable ; who does not quench the smoking 
 flax, nor break the bruised reed) will have pity on me and 
 my great weaknesses. He will not suffer me to be con- 
 founded ; because I hope in him. With the temptation ; he 
 will also give me the means to escape. I will not leave him, 
 until he has blest me ! 
 
 In this manner, that holy man entertained himself [corresponded] 
 "with his friends in the beginning of his imprisonment, and the miseries 
 -he suffered in a dark Dungeon : where, he says in another place, if the 
 manner wherewith they treated him, afflicted his body ; his Soul was 
 eased by it: that it was [a] physic prepared by a hand that could not 
 fail ; which the bitterer it is, will be the more salutary. 
 
 He was solicited to petition Monsieur the Intendant, either for 
 twhat they had taken from him when he was seized, or to request him 
 
 323
 
 Le Fevre's Sister sent to a Convent at Moulins. lese. 
 
 to abate the rigours of bis imprisonment. But he thought it not fit ; 
 because they would always require him to do, what they would have 
 him [do] : for they still offered him Liberty, as they did at first, if he 
 would abjure. 
 
 And upon this, he calls GOD to witness, that nothing 
 but the hopes of a Heavenly Crown retains him in his Religion ; 
 which he believes to be the only pure and holy [one] , wherein 
 Salvation is to be found : and that he would rather finish 
 his days in Torment, than forsake a Religion that would 
 make him happy in the greatest misfortunes, and patient in 
 tribulations ; which made him despise shame ; and which 
 put into his heart to pray for his Enemies and his Perse- 
 cutors. He said, He had compassion on them ; and pitied 
 them. They believe they do GOD service ; and GOD dis- 
 covers to me, by the light of his Grace and of his Word, 
 that their zeal is inconsiderate ; and that they fight against 
 GOD and his Truth. 
 
 At that time, the Superior of the Jesuits of Besan9on came, from, 
 the Intendant, to tell him, That he would send him away, the Monday 
 following, though he should go alone, to be fastened to the Chain 
 [Chaifi-gang] . A worthy message of a Jesuit I And then he heard 
 that his dear Sister (a pious and prudent woman ; and who persevered, 
 like him, in spite of all the Persecutions which she had suffered) was 
 sent into a Convent at Moulins in Bourbonnais : and that increased his 
 affliction ; but also his zeal and his fervour. ' Holy Father ! ' said he on 
 that occasion, ' keep us in thy name 1 ' Here is the Patience and Faith 
 of the Saints. 
 
 During his abode in the Prison of Besan9on ; he writ to one of his 
 friends. 
 
 That on the Thursday and Friday last before his Letter, 
 five persons had been condemned for their lifetime to the 
 Galleys, for the Religion : all poor people, remote from their 
 country. One of the five was a Patrician of Montauban ; 
 who had left his Wife and the least of his children. He was 
 carried to Prison, with one of his children of fourteen or 
 fifteen years of age ; who, because of his youth, was put into 
 the Hospital of Besan9on, to be instructed in the Roman 
 Religion. There were also two unmarried men : the one 
 of fifty-six, the other of sixty, years of age. The latter was 
 sick and dying when hfi was condemned; and was exempted 
 324
 
 1686. A good Roman Catholic's appreciation of Le Fevre. 
 
 from the Dungeon and Irons, but laid on a little straw : 
 nevertheless, an example of patience and virtue. 
 
 Though Monsieur Le Fevre had been judged [condemned] with 
 precipitation ; because thej' would make examples : nevertheless he 
 was exhorted to make an Address to the King. 
 
 Either (said he,) because that, when he was seized, they 
 could not well convict him of a design to forsake the King- 
 dom; and, moreover, because they persuaded themselves that 
 the fear of punishment would make him change his Religion : 
 but GOD, he adds, (who surprises the wise in their crafti- 
 ness; and who often makes choice of the weak things of this 
 World to confound the strong) did not forsake me ; and 
 made me see nothing but horror in the change that was 
 23roposed to me. 
 
 Though he was extraordinarily solicited to it, both by his Judges 
 themselves, and by other Roman Catholic persons that his friends were 
 obliged to make use of, to give him some assistance, and to hear from 
 him. Wherein he was well served by Monsieur N. ; who testified much 
 respect for him. 
 
 Monsieur Le Fevre's merits (said he to the friend of 
 the Protestant Religion, that had desired him to go and see 
 him in Prison) and his unhappy engagement [acUierence'l 
 in the Reform Religion, make me share in the vexations of 
 his Prison and Irons : which have, nevertheless, nothing 
 strong enough to exorcise the Demon that possesses him. 
 He is tired with the importunity of my presence ; [and] not 
 willing to hear anybody any more about his conversion : for 
 which I would give my life ! 
 
 That good man, who seems very zealous for his Religion, must 
 needs be charmed with our Martyr's virtue ; seeing he would have 
 given his life for his conversion. The Roman Catholic zeal goes but 
 seldom so far as this man urges his. 
 
 325
 
 HE WAS CONDUCTED from Besan^on, where he had been 
 judged, to Dijon; where he came the 30th of May 1686: but 
 the hardship of the journey, added to the irons that were left 
 on him and those that were brought with him, had bruised 
 him, and made an impression on his flesh. 
 
 I am (says he in a Letter, of the Isfc of June, from the 
 Prison of the Court of Dijon) — I am, as it were, impotent. 
 I suffer great pains all over my body : and if it had not 
 been for the comfort that the Lord sent me at Aussone,. 
 they would not have brought me alive to Dijon. My irons 
 were taken off at Aussonne, and I was set on horseback ; 
 whereas, before, I was in a wagon, in a killing posture ; and 
 pressed on all sides. But whatever happens to us ; we put 
 our trust in GOD ! We hope in him only ! I have had some 
 Fits of an Ague more violent than usual : but GOD will not 
 forsake me ! 
 
 In short, the Prisons, and the entertainments that he found in 
 them, at Dijon were more favourable to him, and those that were also 
 condemned with him, than those at Besan^on : for which he was 
 thankful, and testified his acknowledgements. 
 
 They speak no more here (says he, in a Letter written 
 from the Keeper's Lodge of the Court of Dijon) of Irons- 
 and Dungeons. GOD permits us to recover the strength we 
 stand in need of, to bear the Chains that are preparing for 
 us. I am treated with much humanity. 
 
 And there likewise, as at Besan(;on, came divers Letters of 
 Recommendation, in his behalf, from divers Persons of Quality and 
 friends from Paris and [the] Province [sj . They were useful indeed to 
 shew the merit of that Prisoner, for whom so many Persons of the First 
 Quality concerned themselves : but they were also prejudicial to him ; 
 for that [because] his Judges, looking upon him as a considerable 
 person, took so much the more labour to endeavour to gain him. 
 
 And seeing that Promises prevailed nothing ; they made use of 
 Rigour : supposing that he would yield, at last, to the extremity of tha 
 326
 
 1686. Le Fevre is in prison at Dijon. 
 
 Torment. But gaining nothing by the one, nor the other ; they resolved 
 to make him an example of severity, to divert others from the like 
 design. Insomuch that his Merit, his Friends, and Acquaintance, were 
 almost as prejudicial to him as the Cause he maintained. 
 
 The Letters of Recommendation (said he to one of his 
 friends at Paris, to whom he writ) do me harm ! Let us 
 make no more use of them, Sir ! and do no longer impor- 
 tune Monsieur the Marquis of ; to whom I wish a 
 
 Marshal's Staff of France ! 
 
 And as his friends sent him sums of money for his 
 assistance, above what he could desire of them, besides the 
 Recommendations which they procured for him; he did not 
 accept of them, because he had no need of them, saying, 
 That Plenty was troublesome to him : or if he accepted 
 them, it was to relieve the poor Prisoners that were con- 
 demned as well as he, that were in necessity and misery ; 
 but always, with a proviso and with most earnest desires, 
 
 that his brother-in-law, the Sieur , should return the 
 
 sums he received, to those that supplied him with them. 
 
 He was also so nice [scrupulous'}, that he would not 
 discover his own necessities to his friends, that he might 
 not seem importunate : saying. That though he should want 
 anything, he would not tell them ; that the Quality of a 
 Galley Slave had not abated his courage; and that, if he had 
 much, he would give much — those that were condemned to 
 the Galleys with him being very poor people, destitute of 
 all human relief ; but rich in faith. 
 
 Being yet in the Prison of Dijon; they would have 
 obliged him to present a Petition to Monsieur the Inten- 
 dant, to obtain some favourable usage, when he should be 
 at the Chain. But he thought it not fit, saying, That if he 
 could distinguish himself from others, which he believed 
 could not be done ; it would be cowardice to separate himself 
 from them. 
 
 We do not fear (said he) all the preparations they 
 threaten us with ; and which we cannot avoid, without a 
 miracle. We wait for it. The sight of a passionate Deputy 
 and a Troop of inhuman Guards will be nothing frightful 
 to us. That which troubles me most is the blasphemies 
 and the impatiences of the wicked wretches with whom we 
 shall be coupled. 
 
 327
 
 The kindness of the Prison Keeper at Dijon. lese. 
 
 Furthermore, as his Soul was full of acknowledgement 
 as well as of zeal and charity ; he made known to his 
 friends that he was particularly obliged to the Keeper, for 
 the civilities which he had received in his Prison at Dijon: 
 who is (said he) a very honest man, and little fit for the 
 Office he had ; the disorder of his affairs having made him 
 to take up that employ. 
 
 I should but little feel my Captivity (added he), if the 
 noise of the Chain did not tingle continually in my ears ; 
 and if the Reverend Father Jesuit, who came from Vezelai, 
 CoRBiGNi l'Ornu, did not visit me so often ; or [did] only 
 discourse with me, conformable to the condition wherein 
 I am. 
 
 It was, at that time, that the Chain [Chain- gang'] to 
 which he was to be fastened, passed from Paris to Dijon, 
 under the conduct of the Sieur de Saint Previl. And 
 hearing that Monsieur de Maeolles was in the Prison of 
 the Tournelles, and that very likely he should be put to 
 that Chain, as he was really; he asked news of him; waiting, 
 as to himself, pretty calmly for that doleful event : and, in 
 that expectation, he employed his time to fortify all those 
 that came to visit him ; to comfort his absent friends every- 
 where, by his Letters ; and to exhort them to be faithful 
 and to persevere, in the most feeling and edifying terms 
 that could be. 
 
 328
 
 AT LAST, HAVING continued about two months in the Prisons in 
 Dijon, he was conducted with his companions to Chalons on 
 the river Saone : where the Chain arrived, that came from 
 Paris ; to which Monsieur de Marolles was fastened, and who 
 was then sick. As he notes in a Letter that he writ from Chalons, the 
 3rd of August 1686, wherein he says. 
 
 If it were not for the sickness of the illustrious Mon- 
 sieur DE Marolles, which still continues; I would tell you, 
 my dear friend, nothing but matters of rejoicing: but my 
 heart is wounded. I hope, with the assistance of Heaven, 
 that the Fever of that Martyr of the Lord Jesus will abate 
 by rest : because they were to go by water ; and that they 
 had a little liberty, their chains being something lighter. 
 
 At first, he was coupled with a Dragoon Officer, whose name was 
 Bon Valet, a very mild and discreet man. Brigadier of the Marquis 
 D'OUAETlGNi's Company : who was condemned to the Galleys, for having 
 let Monsieur DE Ville Franche Montbrun, the Lady his sister 
 Mademoiselle DE La Jonchere, and others, escape. That Officer was 
 a Roman Catholic : but was used, as if he had been of the Religion. 
 
 As for him, he suffered much the first night ; after which, he was 
 bound with Monsieur de Marolles, and lay with him. 
 
 We may easily imagine that these Martyrs' journey was painful 
 and uneasy. Here is the Relation he gives of it, from the Hospital of 
 the Galley Slaves at Marseilles, of the 20th of August 1686, as soon as 
 they arrived there. 
 
 It seemed to me, as if I had been gone above six months 
 from Dijon. The Lord hath made my flesh and skin grow 
 old. I have found myself in the pains of death. The Guard 
 have thought me dead ; and, as such, one took one thing, 
 and another took another thing, from me : and without the 
 little stop we made at Avignon, I could exj)ect nothing but 
 a cruel death. With long intreaties, Monsieur de Saint 
 Previl suffered me to take a litter ; on condition I should 
 pay the Guard. Money was a great assistance to me. I 
 have dispersed it. 
 
 329
 
 Marseilles, the Abode of Misery. lese. 
 
 But wherefore all those cares and expenses to come to 
 a place that may be called, The Abode of Misery ; where I 
 am mixed with a very great number of Galley Slaves ? I 
 have been forty-eight hours, without being able to eat or 
 drink what they give here ; and without being able to close 
 an eye. 
 
 At last, recommending my soul to GOD in that con- 
 dition, I spied Monsieur J, coming to me ; who told me that 
 I was recommended to him by his friend G. After that 
 visit, the Fever left me. My life is not precious to me! I 
 could leave it with delight, if it was GOD's will : but the 
 Lord works miracles to preserve it to me. Farewell, my 
 Dear ! Greet the Brethren, and pray for me ! They con- 
 tinue to speak of Controversies to me ; and of changing my 
 Religion ! How long. Lord ! 
 
 When they were come to Marseilles, which was in the month of 
 August, Monsieur de Marolles and he were put into the Hospital of 
 the Galley Slaves, as sick men. He says, in a Letter written from that 
 Hospital, the 13th of September, 
 
 Monsieur DE Marolles and myself have been, some 
 days, near each other. Our beds join; and we eat together^ 
 Our captivity, and our frequent sicknesses, do not hinder us- 
 from diverting ourselves. 
 
 It is from that place, that he desires his friend to whom 
 he writ, to give the Wife of that illustrious Companion of 
 his Sufferings a visit from him, and to assure her, that it 
 would be the greatest pleasure in the World to him, to dO' 
 her husband service ; who is, says he, one of the best. 
 Christians, and the most enlightened, that I know. 
 
 Doubtless it was a great comfort to both of them, to be together in 
 that miserable place ; and to be able to assist and strengthen each 
 other mutually. Nevertheless, both of them, were expressly forbid to- 
 see the Galley Slaves of the Eeligion ; or to send them anything. 
 
 But the continuance of those two holy men in that place was not 
 long : for they had been told that, as soon as they were recovered, they 
 should be separated. Wherein (says he) I shall have great loss of that 
 godly man's conversation. And it is not to be questioned but that they 
 made a kind of Paradise of their retirement in that place ; wherein 
 they had divine and celestial conversations. 
 
 It is from thence that he writes, concerning the prohibition that 
 was made them, to communicate anything to the other Galley Slaves. 
 330
 
 1686. Le Fevre is very ill in the Hospital. 
 
 The Exercises of Piety and Charity are no longer 
 permitted. There is no more Sincerity to be used: but I 
 hope always in Divine Providence, that does all things 
 wisely, that it will draw Good out of Evil and Light out of 
 Darkness ; when we shall return to the Lord our GOD with 
 all our heart. Our Evils are great ; but our sins are yet 
 greater : and GOD must strike us with great strokes to 
 draw our affections from the earth. 
 
 These were the reflections that he made then on their particular 
 condition, and on the news that was writ to him of the state of the 
 Reformed in general, and of some particulars of his acquaintance: of 
 whom he says, in finishing his Letter, 
 
 The end of your Letter informs me that you have 
 sorrows. The Lord Jesus comfort you ; and inspire you by 
 his Spirit what you have to do ! May it please that great 
 Saviour to raise up them that are fallen ; and to strengthen 
 those that stand, more and more ! 
 
 While he was in that Hospital of the Galley Slaves, with Monsieur 
 DE Marolles, he was very ill. 
 
 I fall (said he) from one relapse to another; and have 
 found myself at Death's door. The Physician of the 
 Hospital took great care of me : and he wondered to see me 
 not complain ; and that the pains I endured did not make 
 me sigh. 
 
 I could not walk (says he) these two days ; and find 
 myself very weak : but do not believe, for all that, that our 
 condition is so unhappy as the people of the World think it;. 
 nor that we are so much to be pitied. No ! doubtless, were it 
 onhj for the Testimony of a good Conscience, we are happy : 
 and nothing, in regard of that, can take our joy from us in 
 our Sufferings and great pains. The Divine Comforter, who 
 puts us all into heart again, comes to our assistance. 
 Sometimes he hides himself ; because we are people of little 
 faith : but GOD, who knows our Sincerity, pities our weak- 
 nesses. He supports us, and takes us by the hand : and, in 
 that state, Death is no longer a King of Terrors to us. We 
 are assured by him that loved us, that we shall receive 
 mercy, and die the death of the Righteous. What an 
 advantage ! What comfort ! And what solid happiness is 
 this! 
 
 331
 
 The sorting of the Slaves on the * Grande Eeale.' 
 
 In the meanwhile, as he had been told that he should be separated 
 from his dear companion, Monsieur de Marolles, as soon as he should 
 be a little better ; they were as good as their word with him : and he 
 was carried from that Hospital into the Galley called, the ' Grande 
 Reale ' ; where he was but a very few days, but very ill, according to 
 the description he gives himself of his condition, by a Letter of the 
 17th of September 1686. 
 
 He says, They send Monsieur de Marolles and me to 
 the Galleys ; without any regard that we are languishing 
 and weak. Monsieur de Maeolles began to walk : but I 
 cannot stand. The Physician of the Hospital told us, That 
 it was not his fault ; and that he was going to desire 
 Monsieur Begon, Intendant of the Galleys, to let us tarry 
 some time longer. But it was in vain. Monsieur de 
 Marolles was declared, * Invalid,' and was put into the 
 ' Saint Jean ' ; so that he is exempted from rowing : and I 
 expect what it shall please GOD to send me. 
 
 I went on board yesterday ; where I was immediately 
 loaden with chains. We are jDitied, An Officer told me, 
 That if we were here for our crimes ; we might expect all 
 manner of kindness. To all this, and to all my sufferings ; 
 I oppose the will of GOD ! If poverty, sicknesses, pains, and 
 captivity, are the means he will make use of ; why should I 
 refuse them ? I shall die contentedly, when it shall please 
 GOD to call me. 
 
 These are hard extremes : but though GOD should kill 
 me : yet will I hoj^e in him, and praise him all the days of 
 my life ! 
 
 I am reduced to lie on a board that is but a little above 
 two feet wide. I have nothing to cover me ; but the Galley 
 Slaves, my neighbours, have stripped themselves for me ; 
 and if the lice and the bugs had not afflicted me, I found 
 myself disposed for a deep and calm sleep ; notwithstanding 
 the great noise that is made in the Galleys. 
 
 While I was on board the ' Grande Reale,' I was entered 
 among the rest : for, in that Galley, all the Slaves are 
 entered down, from whencesoever they come. She never 
 goes to sea, nor moves out of the harbour. When she has 
 many Slaves on board, they are all sorted from time to 
 time ; except those that they have a respect for : and they 
 are brought into a spacious place, where the Intendant, the 
 Commissary General, and the Captains of the Galleys, meet; 
 332
 
 1686. Le Fevre's sorrowful looks serve his turn. 
 
 and there they make choice of the lustiest and most vigorous 
 of those that are judged best able to row, and the rest are 
 sent back again to the ' Grande Reale ' until further orders. 
 Choice being made of those that are in health ; they are 
 divided among the Armed Galleys. Each Captain takes his 
 share. 
 
 But I was not cheapened [bargained for']. My bad 
 looks were useful to me on that occasion. There was but 
 one Captain, or Chief of the Squadron, that put a little jest 
 on me. For, turning towards me, he told his man, That he 
 knew not how to choose ; and [he] would make his own 
 choice. Then he asked the Sieur Bonvalet, Which was the 
 Advocate of us two ?, for he wanted one. I answered him, 
 with such a sorrowful and languishing tone. That I was the 
 Advocate, that he turned himself away from me. 
 
 Some of his friends, knowing him to be in that miserable con- 
 dition, obtained that favour for him, to be put on board another Galley, 
 called, the ' Magnifique ' ; in hopes that he might find more ease there 
 of his troubles, by the credit of some friends with the Captain. And, 
 Indeed, he found himself pretty well there, by that Captain's recom- 
 mendation of him to the Comites [Boatswains] and Argousins [Galley 
 Serjeants, or Boatswain's Mates^i 
 
 Insomuch (said he) that he was afraid that he should 
 not stay there long ; being ill looked upon by the Fathers of 
 the Mission, and the Almoners : whose eyes he prayed GOD 
 to open, and shew them that, whilst they thought to do him 
 service, they fought against him. It happened even so. 
 For, at two days' end, he was more exactly observed than 
 before ; the liberty of seeing his friends being taken from 
 him, as also to confer with them by writing, or to receive 
 any Letter from them, directly addressed to him. He had 
 not so much as the liberty to converse with those that were 
 in the same Galley with him ; being always fastened to the 
 chain, and kept shorter than can be expressed. 
 
 At that time, he was sent for to [Cardinal Louis A. de NoAHiLES,] 
 the Bishop [of Marseilles] ; but, because of his indisposition, the 
 Conference, which was to be had with him, was deferred to another 
 time ; as he observes in a Letter of the 14th of October 1686. 
 
 It is known since, that he came, another time, before that Bishop ; 
 and that he was strongly tempted and solicited to change his Keligion, 
 with assurance of his liberty. But that interview served only to confirm 
 
 333
 
 Le Fevre's Letter to his Pastor. les?. 
 
 liim in bis Faith ; and in the design to glorify GOD by his Sufferings, 
 so long as it should please him to continue them : as he happily per- 
 formed to the end ; having always testified an extraordinary aversion 
 to that cowardice, and an invincible resolution to be Faithful to his 
 GOD, how ill soever they should treat him. 
 
 But it must not be forgotten, that, before he came out 
 of the Galleys to be put into the Dungeon, he writ an 
 excellent Letter ; in answer to his Pastor : which will 
 doubtless be very edifying to the public. He says to that 
 Pastor, 
 
 When you are absent from your Flock, your heart 
 watches, and your cares and officious ardour extends to, the 
 least of your lambs. Blessed be GOD, the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, the GOD of all mercy, that inspired 
 you with the comfort and exhortations that you sent 
 to me ! 
 
 I have gone, since, through divers horrible trials to 
 the Flesh ; and found that the more I am afflicted, the 
 more salutary your counsels were to me. No ! I do not 
 question but that your prayers have drawn the Graces upon 
 me, that I stood in need of, to profit by my temptations. I 
 praj GOD to grant, according to his riches, all the desires 
 of those that have taken the care to convey your Letter 
 safely to me ! 
 
 My design was, dear Pastor ! to give you an exact 
 Relation of what happened to me : but certain reasons 
 hinder me from it. I shall tell you but one word of my 
 condition. I told you formerly, that I was observed and 
 shut up ; but had not yet seen anything. I was put on 
 board a Galley; where I was treated, observed, and kept, 
 closer than I had been before. I was loaded with irons and 
 chains. I lay on the boards ; and though it was very cold, 
 they hindered me from covering myself. They railed at 
 me; and raised up their cudgels against me. A Fever 
 seized me ; and all my body was full of pain. 
 
 In that condition ; my Soul, raising itself above visible 
 things, sought its GOD, its Sovereign, and its only hope ! 
 The comforts that our Lord Jesus Christ gave us, increased 
 proportionably to the number of the Evils that we endured 
 for his sake. He encouraged me in all my fears ; and said 
 to my Soul, ' I am thy salvation ! ' 
 334
 
 1637. In the Galleys, we taste ineffable delights ! 
 
 On board one Galle}^ I had experimented the assistance 
 of Men : on board the other, I experimented the assistance 
 of GOD, What shall I say to you, my dear Pastor ! The 
 turtle is pleased in its moans. That HOLY and divine 
 SPIRIT, which is nothing but Love and Charity, was 
 himself my Comforter. Who else could give me what I 
 could never have expected ; and make me desjDise the 
 things I feared most ? The faithfulness of my GOD is 
 great ! He is near those that wait on him, to support, 
 maintain, and defend, them in the possession of their 
 salvation. He is the only, the admirable, the mighty, 
 GOD ! He leads us through darkness to his marvellous 
 light ; and, among the dread of the Galleys, he makes us 
 taste ineffable delights ! I might truly say, ' When I am 
 weak; I am strong!' I passed divers days in that condition: 
 when, at last, I found that I slept well ; and that all that I 
 did eat agreed with me. 
 
 I stop here ; and have said enough to make you rejoice, 
 a-nd to oblige you to be more constant in your prayers and 
 supplications. I shall only add. That I am weakness itself. 
 I have fightings without, and fears within. My heart is 
 often troubled. My Soul trembles, and finds itself fainting : 
 and if GOD comforts me always, if he exerts his power in 
 miy great infirmities ; it is because he is my refuge, and 
 that divers persons that are pleasing to him pray with me 
 for my preservation in faith, and in his love. I conjure 
 you then, by the charity you have for me, to pray without 
 ceasing ; and not only for me alone, but also for my dear 
 fellow Sufferers ! 
 
 We have everything to fear ; both from ourselves, and 
 from those whose zeal is not according to GOD. They add 
 Craft to Violence, to make us forsake a Religion, to which 
 we are convinced our salvation is annexed. It is to make 
 us go down quick into Hell. 
 
 Lord Jesus !, who has given us grace to retain the 
 Patience which is taught in thy Word, keep us, according 
 to thy divine promises, in the hour of temptation ! Finish 
 what thou has begun ! I will not leave thee, until thou 
 hast blest me ; until thou hast received my Soul ! It is my 
 Paith ! and my Hope ! 
 
 Here are divers Witnesses, whose state is conformable 
 to mine. They are Confessors that preserve their Hope 
 and Faith inviolably : and that are resolved to suffer all 
 
 335
 
 * The race is difficult. The way is rough.' i687. 
 
 (yea, death itself, if it please the Lord) for the Word of GOD 
 and the Testimony of Jesus. We endeavour to attain the 
 mark of our high calling. The race is difficult. The way is 
 rough. But we cast our eyes on the Lord Jesus, the 
 Author and Finisher of our Faith. We place all our con- 
 fidence in him, that raises the dead ; and that calls things 
 that are not, as if they were. Offer to our GOD, in the 
 Land of Benediction where he has called you, pleasing 
 sacrifices of humble hearts and penitent souls, to disarm 
 his anger ! and, for my part, I will offer him prayers for 
 you from the bottom of my heart, Holocausta Medtillata, 
 that he may fill you with all kind of joy, and enrich you 
 more and more with the graces of his HOLY SPIRIT ; and 
 that, in your days, you may see all your sheep enter again 
 into the sacred Fold ! Oh ! if that is the object of my 
 wishes ; it is also often the subject of my tears and my 
 sighs ! 
 
 336
 
 HE CONTINUED ON board the Galleys only till the month of 
 April 1687 : so that he was not quite a whole year there 
 [September 1686 to April 1687]. 
 We cannot apprehend the reason of it ; unless it was because 
 he was judged, ' Invalid,' as Monsieur de Marolles was : and, as such, 
 both ought to have been sent back into the Hospital of the Galley 
 Slaves, where they had been put immediately upon their arrival at 
 Marseilles. But, whether it was to hinder those two Confessors from 
 having any communication with other Galley Slaves, or with the rest 
 of the people ; or whether they were minded to make them feel more 
 sensibly all the hardships and rigours able to crush them, or to bring 
 them to the Change that was proposed to them in vain : they were both 
 put into Dungeons in the two utmost parts of Marseilles ; Monsieur 
 DE Marolles in Fort Saint Nicolas, Monsieur Le Fevre in Fort Saint 
 Jean. Which was done, as he says, by an Order that the Bishop and 
 the Intendant had from the Court. Where they remained until their 
 deaths : Monsieur de Marolles until the 17th of June 1692, when he 
 rendered his Soul into the hands of his GOD ; and Monsieur Le Fevre 
 until the night of the 13th or 14th of the month of June 1702, ten years 
 after his dear companion. 
 
 Now, as he was far from any intercourse, and deprived of all the 
 means of having any, being kept close and guarded in his Dungeon ; 
 there was no news to be had of him, but very rarely, with great trouble 
 and charge : [a] good part of the money that was designed for him and 
 his com]3anions being employed to pay those that undertook to serve 
 them in it ; which they did, not without extraordinary dangers — so far, 
 that some of them have been condemned to be hanged ; and, have been 
 executed, without pardon. Which made him say. That it was a prodigy 
 to find a faithful Messenger ; and that GOD must raise him extra- 
 ordinarily to hinder him from seeing the greatness of the danger he 
 exposed himself to. Which was the reason that he kept his Letters 
 sometimes a year; without finding a fit opportunity of sending them. 
 
 It was about this time, that he composed a large Discourse on, 'The 
 Necessity of Sufferings ' ; and the indispensable duty to endure them, 
 when GOD calls us to it : quoting divers passages of the Scripture, and 
 several fine Places of Tertullian, on that subject. 
 
 And, on that occasion, he desired his Pastor earnestly to compose a 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 22 337
 
 The description of Le Fevre's Dungeon. 1687-1702. 
 
 Tract concerning Martyrdom. He satisfied his request : for which he 
 testified his acknowledgements to him. He copied it, and sent it to the 
 other Prisoners ; and, among others, to Monsieur DE Marolles, who 
 was then living. From thence, it was sent to Geneva ; where it was 
 printed, to distribute copies of it in the Galleys and Prisons : which our 
 Author did not know of, but by a copy that was sent to him afterwards. 
 
 But to return to the Prison where that Confessor was confined ; 
 and where GOD continued the wonderful assistance of his Grace and 
 Spirit to him in a greater measure than before : as appears in the 
 sequel by the Letters that have been received from him, sent either to 
 his friends in France and in foreign countries ; or to the Confessors in 
 the Galleys, with whom he always kept correspondence as much as 
 possible. Wherein it will appear what excellent and admirable lights 
 sprang out of the darkness of his Prison, by the conversations between 
 his Soul and his GOD, while he was deprived of those of the World. 
 
 I shall begin with the description of his Prison which he made 
 himself ; and by that, of his outward condition during all the time of 
 his hard captivity, which lasted sixteen years. 
 
 That Prison is in Fort Saint Jean; the situation whereof 
 (he says) he knows not ; the Gate by which he entered into 
 it, being on the harbour. It is a vault of an irregular 
 figure ; which was formerly a stable : but being too moist, 
 was found unhealthful for horses. There is yet a rack and 
 a manger in it : and no light can come into it but by the 
 door; the upper part whereof is broken, and grated [lined 
 with ci^oss-bars^ within and without. Over against the 
 opening are bars, fastened to an iron bar riveted at the 
 top into the wall. That place is very dark and moist. 
 They only give it light by whiles. The air of it is infected, 
 and gives an ill scent. Everything moistens and rots in it. 
 All the wells and fountains are above me. I never saw any 
 fire there, but that of a candle. 
 
 As he entered into that place ; they searched him, and took the 
 only book that he had left, from him. 
 
 At first, he lay, two or three nights, in a very moist manger : and, 
 above a month, on a very short and narrow chest ; having two seats of 
 straw, one at the feet and the other at the head, higher than the chest, 
 so that he laid high and low, without any other covering than the 
 King's garments. Nevertheless (he says) he slept quietly enough. 
 Sometimes the cold interrupted his sleep: but he shifted as well as 
 he could. 
 338
 
 1687-1702. Le Fevre is of a delicate constitution. 
 
 This hard entertainment (adds he) caused me a 
 defluxion [discharge^ on the teeth, great pains in the 
 reins, rheum, rheumatism, and at last a continual Fever. 
 But GOD made use of those Evils to wean my heart from 
 the World ; and to teach me to persevere in a faithful 
 resignation to his will. 
 
 Though he was of a weak and delicate constitution ; yet GOD 
 raised him five times from extraordinary sicknesses, which he had at 
 divers times and in divers places : as at Geneva, at Paris, at Toulouse, 
 tind at Saint Jean d'Angle ; so that he had all kinds of Agues, and a 
 cruel Colic [spas^ns] in the stomach. It is impossible but that a 
 body of such a weak constitution should suffer extremely in such an 
 unwholesome place : affected with drowsiness ; having almost nothing 
 but skin and bone, with a rheumatism, flying pains chiefly in the neck 
 and shoulders, and perpetual hummings in the ears. 
 
 Nobody durst come near him, nor look upon the place of his retreat ; 
 much less speak to him. 
 
 In some moments (he says) he considered Death as his 
 best friend, and as his great comfort ; that the happiness 
 of this Life consisted in the losing of it ; and that he ought 
 to desire death, to be happy in some manner. 
 
 Be sensible of my misery (said he to a dear relation 
 whom he entertained with \_coniniU7iicated] his sorrowful 
 condition) ; but be yet much more sensible of the glory and 
 the happiness to which this misery tends. Death is nothing. 
 Jesus Christ conquered it for me : and, when the time 
 shall come, he will give me sufficient strength to pull off 
 the Mask it bears in great afflictions. Major est Metus 
 Vitcc quam Mortis. The fear of living a long time is 
 greater than that of dying soon. In the mean time, it is 
 moi'e honourable to endure the most wretched life, than to 
 desire death. 
 
 Can there be a finer thought I 
 
 There were some intervals of time (when his pains redoubling; and 
 Ms strength diminishing), that he spoke as if he were just dying ; and 
 thought that he was not far from death. 
 
 He said, under that apprehension, That he asked 
 pardon of all those whom he had offended by weakness, 
 inadvertency, or otherwise. And I declare before GOD 
 <says he) that I freely forgive those that have offended me 
 in any manner whatsoever ! 
 
 339
 
 The secret gift of two Shirts, a Bolster, etc. i699. 
 
 No! it is not likely that I can live much longer: unless 
 the Lord move the hearts of those to compassion, that give 
 order for my sustenance : the aliments which they give me 
 being full of divers kinds of nastinesses and impurities in 
 very great number; and unless GOD acts in an extraordinary 
 manner on my body and on the aliments that they give us. 
 
 That complaint of the badness of his food is found in divers 
 passages of his Letters : wherein he gives an account of it to his 
 friends, that desired him to inform them of his condition ; to the end 
 they might remedy it one way or other, or to comfort him about it» 
 And there is reason to believe, by what he says of it here and there on 
 divers occasions, and by the continuation of that bad usage which was- 
 not remedied, notwithstanding all the remonstrances that could be 
 made against it — I say. There is reason to believe that there was a 
 design to hasten the death of that Confessor; whose perseverance, and 
 the wonderful graces that GOD displayed in him, caused a spite, and 
 excited the fury of the Enemies of the Faith : as it happened to his. 
 illustrious companion. Monsieur db Maeolles, whose end was hastened 
 by the like usage. 
 
 He wrote, in the year 1699, that they had cruelly 
 persecuted him, divers years, by the corruption of all the 
 food which they gave him, either to drink, or to eat. But 
 (says he) the Lord supports my weak nature in a miraculous 
 manner. 
 
 Besides the badness of his food ; he had yet Poverty to- 
 oppose ; being often without linen or clothes. It is likely 
 (said he) that I should have been without a shirt, if GOD 
 had not given me two by an extraordinary way; but I 
 could never discover to whom I am indebted for them (who^ 
 at the same time, caused also a bolster and some other 
 things to be given him). I fell immediately on my knees 
 before my GOD, to thank him for such an unexpected 
 assistance. 
 
 At the same time, a proposition was made to him of making a 
 present to the Major of the Citadel to oblige him to take some care of 
 him : but he refused it, by telling those charitable persons that advised 
 him to it, that there was danger in it, both for them and him. 
 
 In the mean time, that good Servant of GOD called 
 himself happy. GOD, (said he) comforts and supports me 
 340
 
 A Letter from a Confessor on a Galley to Le Fevre. 
 
 in a sensible manner. He gives me strength to sniTer my 
 Afflictions with joy, and with an invincible Patience and 
 Perseverance : and if I should tell you, That sometimes I 
 am so contented and happy that I forget I had any sorrow, 
 I should tell you the truth. In that condition, at the 
 Hours of Spiritual Exercises, he repeated and sang the 
 beginning of the 35th Psalm, 'Plead thou my cause, etc.,' 
 and the 130th Psalm ; which he said were very suitable to 
 his condition: and furthermore, That he felt and knew that 
 GOD had not forgotten him, that he had always been near 
 to support him : and that, in his poverty, he eat, drank, and 
 slept, at his regular hours. 
 
 In that time he thought himself near his death, writing to one of 
 his friends, That he must not depend too much on his health, nor his 
 life. One of his fellow Sufferers, [a] Confessor on board the Galleys, 
 writ him an excellent comfortable Letter on that subject ; which 
 deserves to have some Extracts of it made public. 
 
 Be of good courage, (said he) Sir! and most dear 
 Brother! If the wisdom of GOD has designed your 
 Dungeon for your tomb ; he has also prepared his mag- 
 nificent Kingdom, to receive your Soul there, while your 
 body shall remain in the dust for a time, which can be but 
 very short. In your Death, you will find the beginning of 
 the new Life ! The miseries that you suffer in your body 
 serve only to make your Resurrection more glorious and 
 triumphant. Our troubles are thorns that GOD puts into 
 our flesh, to purge and cleanse us as gold in the pot of the 
 Refiners ; to draw us from the pleasures of the Earth ; 
 and to wean our affections from the World, for fear we 
 should perish with it. 
 
 But to accomplish the will of our GOD more perfectly; 
 let us constantly remember, by his example, that we ought 
 to forgive our enemies, with all our heart, all the Evils that 
 they make us suffer; without retaining the least resentment 
 of it. Let us be moved with compassion towards those 
 poor, miserable, and blind, creatures ! and let us pray the 
 Eternal Father not to reward them according to their sins ! 
 that he will not remember their iniquities, to punish them 
 for them : but, on the contrary, that he may please to drown 
 them in the Ocean of his Grace ! that he will save them by 
 his Mercy, and receive them into his Covenant; and fit them 
 for the participation of his most blessed Immortality ! 
 
 341
 
 Another perfect Rascal of a Major. igst-ito?. 
 
 Our Martyr answered those Exhortations admirably well. For 
 writing to one of his kinsmen, to whom it had been said, That he must 
 needs have given some reason for the ill usage that was given him ;, 
 seeing they exercised no such rigours against any others : he says, 
 
 I take GOD and the Angels to witness, That it is only 
 for the cause of Religion that I am thus treated ! That is. 
 all my crime against men : but not against GOD ; who 
 chastises me in his mercy, and thereby makes me compre- 
 hend that he is so much the more proi)itious to us, because 
 he seems severe to us. And that, so far from murmuring 
 against it, he prayed him incessantly not only to exercise 
 his mercy on those that suffer, but on those also that inflict, 
 the punishment. He that commands us to love our enemies^ 
 works what he commands, in us himself ! The World has. 
 looked upon us, a long time, as Tottering Walls : but it does 
 not see the Almighty Hand that supports us. 
 
 They do not forget to try always (says he, elsewhere) to' 
 weary out my patience : and there is reason to believe that 
 the money that is given for me, is not employed to my 
 relief. It does not come to our hands ; and I do not know 
 what is done with it ; nor where it goes. 
 
 That which is certain is. That when I entered into my 
 Dungeon, the Major told me, That the King would not 
 raaintain me ; and that I ought to give order for my 
 expenses, and to regulate it. 
 
 For that reason, he was permitted to send Bills of Exchange, drawn; 
 by him on his Relations, for the payment of his Provision ; without 
 suffering him to write anything abovit his condition, or his health. 
 
 I did it (says he) ; and agreed with a Public House 
 Keeper [Bestaurateiir] , for Ten Pence a day, to live a life 
 according to my condition. Which lasted but three months; 
 because the Host that served me with provision, cheated me,, 
 and that the Major favoured him : though he seemed not to 
 approve of his conduct, on the complaints that were made 
 to him about it. 
 
 He had also promised. That I should be eovered with a 
 Mattress and Covering ; mine (said he), being rotten, and 
 my Covering all rags : but all this, without effect. 
 
 In the mean time, how great soever my anguish was ; 
 I esteemed it more expedient to suffer Life, than to desire 
 Death : unless it be desired, as Saint Paul did,^ to be with 
 342
 
 1687-1702. ' It is glorious to suffer for God's Cause ! ' 
 
 Christ ; to possess the fulness of that holiness and charity, 
 that is only to be found in Heaven .... 
 
 GOD (said he) will be glorified by my Sufferings. The 
 longer they are, and the more difficult to be supported ; 
 the more Glory the Lord will have by them ! Alleging on 
 that subject, the words of an Ancient, Uncle esset magnum 
 persevcrare, nisi ifiter tribulationes et tentationes esset 
 perseverandum. 
 
 I am (says he) always pursued with the same violence. 
 There is no intermission in regard of me. They always 
 deny me all manner of commerce with the Living; and also 
 with the Dead [i.e., hooksl^. Certainly, they would use no 
 Villain as they have served me. But the Lord, who is 
 my GOD, my Protector, and my Deliverer, has relieved me. 
 He has had pity on my weakness ; and given me a Patience 
 that I never durst have hoped for. Glory be given to him 
 for it, now and evermore ! 
 
 It is glorious (says he again elsewhere, on the same 
 subject) — It is glorious to suffer for his Cause ! It is the 
 most excellent manner, whereby GOD can be glorified by 
 Men ; as it is the greatest sign of Glory and Honour that 
 GOD does to Men. I do not refuse the honour he does to 
 me in that regard : but I conjure him, by the bowels of his 
 mercy, to produce in me powerfully, both to will and to do, 
 according to his good pleasure. I acknowledge that Men 
 make me suffer for GOD ; and that GOD makes me suffer 
 for my sins. That he permits Men to make me suffer, is 
 doubtless for my sins : but it is, at the same time, also for 
 his Interest, and for Justice ! Therefore it is that GOD 
 (always just, and faithful in his promises) takes my part, 
 and the defence of my Cause. If he does not hear me 
 ad voluntatem ; he will hear me ad salutatem ! and whether 
 I live, or whether I die, I will live to him ! and die to him ! 
 
 343
 
 AFTERWARDS, HE WAS two years and some months [1696-1698] 
 closely confined, until the end of the year 1698 : insomuch that 
 he had no kind of intercourse with the World, and his friends ; 
 he that served him for a Messenger having been imprisoned. 
 They took away all his Works, his pious books, some Writings, some 
 Sermons, the Abridgement of Monsieur [Jean] de La Placette's 
 'Morals' ['La Morale Chretienne ' ] : and he kept only the Translation 
 of our Psalms, printed at Neuchatel. 
 
 Some days after he had been in that solitude [? in 
 1696] ; the ]VIissionary, Father GuiRAUD, accompanied with 
 another Clergyman (who, having doubtless already seen 
 him before, had protested that he would not see him until 
 the Day of the Resurrection ; yet came nevertheless to see 
 him) came to him. He spoke to him, caressed him, and 
 would enter into controversy with him : but he entangled 
 and embarassed himself strangely; and brought nothing 
 but confusion away from his visit. 
 
 It was in speaking of his privation of conversation with 
 the World, that he said, It was the School of Sufferings ; 
 wherein he had learnt to die to the desires of the World, to 
 one's self, and to Self-love. It is in retirement and solitude, 
 that we raise ourselves to GOD ; and converse with him in 
 Prayer, which is the refuge of Saints, and the comfort of 
 IMartyrs. It is there that a faithful Life finds all that it 
 can, and ought to, desire of its Jesus the Comforter ! and 
 that it has so much the more familiarity with its Creator, 
 because it has the less with the Creature. 
 
 Tt was on Christmas Eve of that year [1696] , that a Soldier, who 
 had done him some little service, was condemned to be hanged. 
 
 But (said he,) in those Extremities of Sufferings, and 
 in those Oppressions of the Flesh ; GOD made me feel his 
 assistance, in sight of those that surrounded me. It hap- 
 pened but once or twice to me, to tell them. That they 
 violated all the Laws of Humanity in regard of a man, who 
 3ii
 
 1695-98. He had given nobody any subject of complaint. 
 
 had given nobody any subject of complaint; and whose 
 Innocency and Sincerity was known to them. In saying to 
 them, That, as for the rest, I trusted in GOD ! and that, 
 when a man suffered for GOD, he wanted no courage ! That 
 he did not suffer all this, by his own strength ! That he was 
 there, ready to suffer ; and that he did not refuse to die ! 
 
 As this holy man desired nothing so much as his Sanctification, 
 without which he knew that his Courage and Patience would be in vain, 
 he said, in a Letter to Mademoiselle R., 
 
 I enter into the Tenth Year of my Sufferings (This was 
 in 1695) ; and, by GOD's grace, I have neither lost Spirit ; 
 nor Patience ; nor Faith ; nor Health, at least not totally. 
 Ah ! my dear Kinswoman ! The Lord has heard your 
 prayers; and those of the Moses's and of the Samuel's that 
 intercede for me. He has spared my weakness ! He has 
 pitied my frailty ; and he will finish what concerns me ! 
 
 If I was but disburdened from the weight of my sins, 
 if I could disengage myself from the thoughts of the World ; 
 I should be too happy ! I should be incomparably more 
 happy, than I was in the World ; though, when I left it, 
 I had almost what I could reasonably desire in it. But I 
 confess, with grief and confusion, that I am a man of little 
 faith, and a sinner ! I have desired my visible and temporal 
 Liberty with too much ardour and fervency ! 
 
 This is very near [all] hitherto, that is, to the month of November 
 1698, what could be collected of his condition, as to the Evils and the 
 Sufferings to which he was exposed all that time 
 
 345
 
 WE HAVE SAID that he and his companions had much trouble 
 to find opportunities and means to have any correspondence 
 with each other ; that it was not done, without great charges 
 and extraordinary dangers, both for themselves and those 
 that assisted them. 
 
 But, at last, they were wholly deprived of that comfort for two 
 years and some months [1696-1698], occasioned by some persons that 
 brought him Notes and Letters, and which delivered those he sent to 
 others ; and who were severely punished for it : insomuch that nobody 
 could hear anything of his condition all that time ; but only that he was 
 living. 
 
 But, at the end of those two years, it is not known by whose order, or 
 how, he was put again into the same state as before, for that kind of 
 Liberty of Correspondence ; which rejoiced him much, and his friends 
 also, who continued their intercourse by Letters with him as formerly, 
 but also with more precaution than before : that Liberty having also 
 been rendered impracticable with the Confessors on board the Galleys. 
 However so much as there was of it, his friends, and particularly his 
 Pastor, rejoiced with him for it. Who made his acknowledgement, and 
 gave his thanks to GOD for it, by a Letter of the 3rd of March 1699. 
 Wherein, answering to that which they looked upon as a singular favour 
 from GOD, he says, 
 
 Nothing is more true than what you say. The more a 
 man is accustomed to Evils ; the greater the least favours 
 which he receives, are taken. Moreover, common afflictions 
 have passed with us, a long time, for favours ; but that 
 same Liberty that GOD procures, and continues to us, as 
 little as it is, is yet nevertheless a most real grace, and a 
 signal favour : because I stood very much in need of it. 
 
 Let us say then (what had been said to him on that 
 subject, in quoting this Verse of Virgil) 
 
 O, Mcliboee, Deus nobis hccc otia fecit : 
 but let us add to it, with the Poet, and in the spirit of pure 
 Christianity which we profess, by the grace of GOD, 
 
 Namque erit ille niihi semper Deus. Illius aram 
 Soepe tener nostris ovilihus inibuet Agnus. 
 346 
 
 i
 
 1699. Peace of Ryswick does not benefit the Confessors. 
 
 Enlarge thyself, my Soul! (said he). Enlarge thyself 
 in benedictions, to thank the Lord thy GOD ! 
 
 When he was so strictly shut up, and without communication with 
 any person whatsoever; seeing only him that brought him his victuals, 
 but who was doubtless forbid [den] to tell him of anything that passed 
 in the World, not knowing whether the Treaty of Peace [of Ryswick in 
 1697] was ended and concluded ; he desired, in the first Letter that he 
 writ, [on March 3 1699.] to be informed, If the Peace was made ; and 
 (what they were more concerned at than anything else) whether the 
 Church of GOD had any share in it, and any release of its afflictions ; as 
 he and his suffering Companions had passionately desired, and in some 
 manner hoped for. But being, all of them, informed of the contrary ; 
 they blessed GOD for continuing them still in their Misery : and all of 
 them testifying, in that regard, a perfect submission to his will. 
 
 Nevertheless, he makes most bitter complaints and 
 lamentations on that occasion, in his Letters, of the mourn- 
 ful state of his brethren in the Kingdom ; with ardent 
 prayers to GOD for their deliverance and perseverance. 
 And speaking of those that flattered themselves with the 
 Toleration and regards that was had for divers ; and 
 particularly for those of his acquaintance, whom he believed 
 to be in a kind of indifferency on that account : he said, 
 That those that did not complain were, th-e more to be 
 pitied for it ; and that they whose Consciences were never 
 at quiet, were the most happy ! 
 
 And as to those who, in the heat of Persecution, had 
 abjured their Religion ; (he said, in testifying his grief for 
 their unhappy condition) I am persuaded that if the 
 Christians that have been subverted by those Waters and 
 Storms that surround us, and wherewith we are (as it were) 
 overwhelmed, were well persuaded of that Eternal Truth, 
 that ' Blessed are those that suffer for righteousness sake ! ' 
 and of that other Truth, That we shall be judged by the 
 truth manifested in the Word of GOD, as Jesus Chkist 
 tells us, in express terms, in Saint John, cap. xii., v. 48 ; and 
 in such a manner as is capable to make impression on the 
 hardest hearts, ' He that rejects me, and receives not my 
 words, has one that judges him; the word that I have 
 spoken, the same shall judge him in the Last Day' — I say, 
 I am persuaded that if their hearts were filled with those 
 two Truths; undoubtedly they would arise again from their 
 
 347
 
 Le Fevre's opinion of the New Converts. i699. 
 
 Fall ; and they would neither fear Life, nor Death, nor 
 Galleys, nor Dungeons ! 
 
 O, let them not deceive themselves ! (said he, in writ- 
 ing to one of his dear kinswomen ; speaking of those that 
 had signed, and who did part of what was required of them) 
 To despise the Cross, is to despise him that was crucified ! 
 There is no medium ; when Jesus Christ, by his Providence, 
 puts us under the necessity of suffering for him. To fail of 
 it, to excuse one's self, and to compound with Flesh and 
 Blood, is properly to deny Jesus Christ. In that respect, 
 he exhorts his relations and friends to forsake all things. 
 He blames them for their addicting themselves to the World ; 
 and he confutes all the reasons which they pretended to 
 have, for their tarrying in the Kingdom [of France] . 
 
 ZiB
 
 SEVERAL CONSIDERABLE PERSONS having, divers times, testi- 
 fied their desire of procuring for him in particular, and for all 
 his compaxiions, some alleviation in their Captivity and their 
 Sufferings ; and also their complete deliverance : and, among 
 the rest, the praiseworthy and charitable Swiss Cantons ; who have 
 signalized their zeal on that account, and generously employed their 
 assistance and beneficence to ease them in their Miseries. Particularly, 
 the illustrious Monsieur Escher, Burgomaster of Zurich [and President 
 of the Swiss Republic] , and his family, having ardently solicited the 
 Ministers of France in their favour; and largely distributed their 
 charities for their relief : they did not forget also to express the sense 
 which they had, of their charity and generosity towards them. 
 
 But (says our Martyr) instead of having regard to those 
 just solicitations of those venerable Magistrates, they took 
 occasion thereby to redouble their chains, and to aggravate 
 their captivity. And (says he) the Tempest and Storm 
 is particularly fallen on Monsieur de L'Ausonieee, who had 
 the greatest liberty ; and, by whose ingenuity, they could 
 entertain their communication : who is since shut up in a 
 Dungeon, deprived of all intercourse ; where he continues 
 to glorify GOD, and to edify his brethren and all the 
 Church of GOD, which is well informed of it, by his Faith, 
 his Patience, and his Perseverance. 
 
 Having received a Copy of the Letter that Monsieur the Burgo- 
 master Escher sent to those dear Confessors on that subject ; I think 
 I owe that honour to this sage Magistrate, and that edification to the 
 public, to insert it in the History of our Martyr : who took the care to 
 convey it to our hands. It is as follows. 
 
 Gentlemen, and most dear Brethren, 
 
 1 SHOULD COUNT myself among the most unworthy of men, if, after 
 so many testimonies of friendship, affection, and esteem, where- 
 with divers of your Letters are filled for me, the least of your 
 friends, and who never deserved anything from you, I should 
 remain altogether insensible. 
 
 349
 
 Letter from the President of the Swiss Kepublic. 
 
 I would have endeavoured, some time ago, to acquaint you with 
 my acknowledgement ; and have only delayed the time to acquit myself 
 of that duty, because I was in hopes to be able to give you some good 
 news. 
 
 I have laboured for your deliverance. I have employed my friends 
 about it: and, having had occasion to go, the last week, to Soleure, 
 I have repeated my instances to Monsieur the Ambassador Amelot. 
 
 But as they gave me no positive Answer, and always sent me away 
 with the same compliment, To remain satisfied, that things would be 
 done sooner than I thought : and therefore finding myself, to my great 
 regret, frustrated of the hope I had conceived hitherto; I cannot remain 
 silent any longer. 
 
 But I return you, Gentlemen, and most dear Brethren, my most 
 humble thanks for the goodness you have had, to think on a person 
 that assuredly shares in your Troubles, Sufferings, and Afflictions ; and 
 who, until this time, as I have but even now said, has employed all his 
 endeavours to ease you in the hard Slavery which is so unjustly laid 
 upon you : but who, for all that, does not pretend to have deserved the 
 great eulogies that I have observed in your Letters. I am willing, and 
 find myself obliged (as a Christian and a Brother of the same Com- 
 mvmion), to continue to endeavour the procuring of your deliverance: 
 but desire you to moderate your acknowledgements ; and to be persuaded 
 that, though I have the honour to be invested with the Chief Post in 
 the Helvetic Body, yet, nevertheless, I acknowledge myself a poor sinner, 
 who ought not to seek for comfort in worldly vanities, but in a lowliness 
 and humility of mind. 
 
 Dear Brethren ! I have read your Letters. I haA^e read them very 
 •carefully over; and they have afforded me much edification, I have 
 observed in them, that GOD raises you up as extraordinary Instruments 
 of advancing his glory. 
 
 I have observed in you, a zeal for the House of GOD ; an exemplary 
 Piety; and exact imitation of those glorious Martyrs and Confessors of 
 the Primitive Church ; an unparalleled Constancy ; an inexpressible 
 Patience ; Souls ravished with Spiritual Joys ; and Eyes enlightened 
 with the bright beams of Divinity^, even here on earth : and that all 
 those virtues make you triumph over your Enemies, despise all the Evils 
 that they make you suffer, and bear the reproach of the World with 
 patience, on the prospect alone of glorifying the great name of GOD. 
 
 Persevere, Sirs, in that holy resolution ! since you see that GOD 
 does such great things for you : and that he has called you to suffer 
 for his holy Name in those wretched places, that are commonly the 
 receptacles of the villains of the World ; and who, doubtless, by their 
 ■wickednesses add a torment to your righteous souls. 
 350
 
 Queen of Denmark's eftbrts for the Confessors. 
 
 But be of good beart, my dear Bretbreu ! since you know tbat GOD 
 has so disposed of tbings, tbat all sball work togetber for good to bis 
 cbildren : and tbat, as all buman tbings bave tbeir end, tbe good GOD 
 bas also ordained an end to your labours ; wberein be will reward you 
 witb tbe wages of tbe Rigbteous. 
 
 Gentlemen 1 I recommend myself and my numerous family to your 
 prayers I knowing tbat tbey will surely be beard ; as proceeding from 
 tbe hearts of tbe True Friends of GOD. I sball always remember your 
 Sufferings in my prayers ; tbougb tbey may be accompanied witb many 
 infirmities. 
 
 I bave sent Forty Pistoles [= £35] to Monsieur M., at Berne ; to dis- 
 tribute amongst you, as be bas opportunity. Be pleased to accept of 
 tbat small sum, wbicb comes from me and tbree of my sons ; and be 
 assured tbat it comes from free bearts, tbat wish you tbe continuation 
 of tbe divine comforts, and a speedy deliverance. 
 
 Witb all opportunities of doing you service ; and particularly this 
 is my wisb, wbo am sincerely. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 Your most humble, and most obedient, Servant, 
 Heinrich Escher. 
 
 Tbe solicitations and requests of other Princes and Great Persons 
 in tbe World tbat concerned themselves in this affair, bad almost tbe 
 same effect as those of tbe praiseworthy Evangelical Cantons : for tbey 
 were also ineffectual. 
 
 Everybody knows the pains that were taken about it by [Charlotte,] 
 the wise and pious Queen of Denmark, the illustrious Prince [Frederick] 
 of that name, and their Excellencies Monsieur and Madame de Mayer- 
 OROON, Ambassador from that Court to that of France : who, for a very 
 long time, employed all their cares with the Ministers of State to obtain 
 •some favour and justice in tbat regard: but witb as little success as 
 the venerable Cantons. 
 
 On tbe contrary, it has been observed tbat their Torments and 
 Miseries have been increased : tbe very charity of those Princes and 
 States towards them having been imputed to these poor Afflicted for 
 a crime ; saying, Tbey held private correspondence with foreign 
 countries. And I know from Madame de Mayercroon's own mouth; 
 ■whom I had tbe honour to see, as she passed through the Provinces ; 
 who told me, witb grief and compassion, That it was in vain to solicit 
 for these afflicted persons. That it was notified to their Excellencies, 
 that tbe King thought it strange, that foreign Princes should concern 
 themselves witb the affairs of his subjects. 
 
 351
 
 Huguenot Prisoners of War sent to the Galleys. 
 
 This was the reason that Monsieur Le Fevre de la Mothe, the 
 brother of our blessed Martyr — who went purposely to Copenhagen, at 
 the Court of Denmark, to desire that intercession might be made for 
 those poor captives; after having been there a long time and procured 
 Persons of Quality to treat with Monsieur de Bonrepoux, at that time 
 Ambassador of France in that Court, that (if it were possible) to obtain 
 something by his mediation — seeing that all this had no effect ; he was 
 obliged to drop the business, and retire to the Post where the 
 Providence of GOD had called him, at Halle in Saxony. 
 
 His dear brother, being informed of it in his Dungeon, (having 
 writ divers times, either to him ; or to others his friends at Paris, who 
 on their side made use of several Persons of Quality to the same 
 purpose) desired them earnestly not to request anything more of these 
 Grandees in his behalf : because that, instead of meeting with any ease^ 
 they perceived, and plainly experienced, that it added to their Miseries.^ 
 
 The Court of France was so little disposed to grant anything that 
 was favourable to them, that, after the Peace, the King of England and 
 their High Mightinesses the States General, and their Ambassadors^ 
 had all the trouble in the World to obtain the deliverance of those that 
 ought to be released by the Treaty of the Peace of Ryswick ; as having^ 
 been taken Prisoners of War, by land and sea, in the Service of that 
 King, and of the Lords the States [General] : and this, because they 
 were French Protestants, by virtue whereof, they had been (though, 
 unjustly) condemned to the Galleys and Prisons ; where they suffered 
 all the cruelties and rigours imaginable. The Ministers of State of the 
 French Crown having declared that none should be expressly demanded^ 
 but those that were, for certain, comprehended in the Treaty of Peace : 
 and [the English and the Dvitch] were also forced to undergo many 
 tergiversations [subterfuges, evasions] and repulses, before they could 
 obtain their ends. 
 
 And, after that time, the condition of those Confessors grew worse 
 and worse in many things ; and the cruelty of the Persecutors was so 
 far from being diminished and satiated by the continuance of the Evils 
 which they made them suffer, that it took new force and measures to 
 aggravate the Torments and Pains of those that were in the Galleys 
 and in the Prisons. 
 
 352
 
 BESIDES, IT SEEMS to me, that I ought not to pass over in silence, 
 who were the particular Friends, with whom our Martyr had the 
 greatest correspondence and intelligence. 
 
 Doubtless, his love and charity extended to all the Confessors. 
 He writ often to them all in general; and in behalf of them all, without 
 exception. He often desired of them all, their friendship, their prayers, 
 and their consolations : and when he heard that any sad accident, or 
 particular affliction, or the increase of their miseries, happened to any 
 one of them, he did not fail of exijressing his compassion to them as 
 soon as he could ; nor of comforting them, as well as he was able, with 
 a free-hearted love which shewed how sensible he was of their 
 Afflictions. 
 
 Monsieur de Maeolles was one of those with whom he kept up 
 the greatest familiarity imaginable ; and Whose friendship he valued 
 the most: and which he maintained till the death of that happy Martyr; 
 which preceded his by several years. 
 
 They were fastened to the Chain at Chalons ; as has been already 
 said. They were fellow Sufferers in the journey to Marseilles; whither 
 they arrived in a very bad condition. They spent some time together 
 in the Hospital, in one chamber ; eating together, and comforting and 
 strengthening each other, with all the joy and affection imaginable. 
 Afterwards, they were put on board one Galley. And, lastly, separated 
 for ever in Prisons far distant from each other : and without having 
 any communication with, or news from, one another ; without much 
 difficulty. 
 
 It is impossible for me (said he, to his Pastor, who 
 inquired of him about that generous Confessor, who had 
 been his companion in study). It is impossible for me (said 
 lie) at present to have any intercourse with that holy man ; 
 who has a sister, nephews, and nieces, in the place where 
 you are. I know only that he is well ; and that he sings 
 the praises of GOD without ceasing. When they took us 
 out of the Hospital of the Galley Slaves (where we thouglit 
 they would have suffered us to recover our strength, 
 according to custom ; having both been sick to extremity) 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 23 353
 
 The affecting parting of Marolles and Le Fevre. lese. 
 
 , in order to j)nt him on board another Galley ; he would 
 embrace me, and take his leave of me. 
 
 I said to him, ' We shall not leave each other long ! 
 We shall really see one another again ! We have not 
 forsaken each other ! We are more united than ever : and 
 we shall see each other again in Heaven ; and in the great 
 Day of the Lord ! 
 
 Monsieur de Marolles died a little while after; and the World 
 has seen the History of his Sufferings and of his Martyrdom. [See 
 pp. 183-258.] 
 
 354
 
 THE SIEUR PIEREE MAURU (who died also a Martyr' and 
 wlio triumphed so gloriously in his Life, and by his Death, over 
 all the efforts of Men and Devils) was one of his intimate 
 friends. 
 I have not Memoirs enough, to give you his particular History out 
 of them ; but it is the Interest [advantage] of the piiblic, and the 
 Church of GOD chiefly, to be informed of the conflicts and the 
 victories of one of the most illustrious Martyrs in Patience, in Faith, in 
 Humility, in Charity, and in all kinds of virtues that ever were. 
 
 That happy Martyr was not of Bar, as was said, biit of Loisy in 
 Brie ; the grandson of a Butcher, and of a pretty good Family. Going 
 out of the Kingdom; he was stopped in Burgundy. He was joined to 
 our Martyr in the Prison of Besan9on ; and condemned, very near [ly] 
 the same time, to the Galleys for ever. It was there, that their 
 acquaintance and friendship began ; wherein Le Fevee rejoiced 
 every time he spake of him. It was there, that they comforted and 
 exhorted each other to the Confession of Jesus Cheist; to Fidelity 
 and Perseverance, in spite of all the Evils that Men could do unto 
 them. 
 
 I was (said he) a witness how little he valued the 
 money that was taken from him ; and of the joy w^hich he 
 felt, when he was condemned to the Galleys. He ran his 
 race with the same courage and zeal, which he had begun 
 in the Prisons of Besan9on. 
 
 Before he came to the Galleys, he was coupled, in the 
 way, with Philippe le Boucher ; who was also one of the 
 most holy Confessors that has been. And because that 
 poor man could not carry his Chain ; which he was forced to 
 do, or suffer for it : Mauru raised the Collar with his hands 
 above his head, and he, (who was stronger) bore it on his 
 head and shoulders ; and taking a forked stick off a tree, he 
 supported it in such a manner that his companion was, as it 
 were, wholly discharged of the burden ; he carrying, in that 
 manner, all the burden, even in the heat of the dog days. 
 
 When he was come to the Galleys ; the Slaves of both 
 Religions were witnesses and admirers of his Patience, in 
 
 355
 
 ' No greater Saint on earth than Pierre Maiiru ! ' 
 
 the most horrible and continual Sufferings, to which the 
 greatest and most infamous Malefactors were ever exposed. 
 
 Our Martyr says, The Patience of that Confessor of 
 Jesus Christ, in whom GOD displayed all the greatness of 
 the riches of his grace while he was living, is not to be 
 imagined. 
 
 It cannot be comprehended how a man could suffer 
 what he suffered, and what he suffers continually ; and yet 
 live. His body was covered all over with ulcers. He was 
 seven or eight times sick, even to death. But his long and 
 dangerous sicknesses did not hinder him from being in all 
 the Summer Expeditions : and he is yet, at this time, 
 actually in the Expedition ; covered with blood and sweat. 
 He is a Prodigy in Piety, in Humility, and in Constancy. 
 He is a man perfect in the Faith and Love. I protest unto 
 you, in the sincerity of my heart, that I do not think that 
 there is a greater Saint on earth ! 
 
 In a word, we have almost no Letters from our Martyr, wherein he 
 does not take notice of the esteem, love, and admiration, he had for that 
 famous PiEEEE Maueu : who had been distinguished, among all the 
 Confessors on board the Galleys, by the most cruel and the most 
 rigorous treatments. From the time he went on board of them, until 
 his death, there has almost been no interruption in those extraordinary 
 Sufferings ; except, when he was at the point of death, they offered him 
 to recover his strength, on purpose to renew his Torments. And, with- 
 out doubt, his age (for he was but about thirty years when he was taken 
 and condemned), but chiefly the grace of GOD, gave him extraordinary 
 strength to support the Torments wherewith they exercised his Patience 
 for so long a time. 
 
 This is what we shall see in some Extracts of his Letters; and in 
 the recital of his death by a Roman Catholic ; who was on board the 
 Galleys, and saw him die. 
 
 Here is the Abridgement, or Extract, of a Letter, wherein he gives 
 Monsieur Le Fevre an Account of his condition, wherewith he was 
 minded to entertain [inform] his Relations ; and which he [Monsieur 
 Le Fevre] desired might be sent to his Pastor ; and kept the original 
 carefully to himself. There are some phices in it, (said he) that may, 
 perhaps, seem weak to you : but there are some so feeling and 
 pathetical, as may elevate our thoughts in the very reading of them. 
 
 356
 
 M' 
 
 Letter of Pierre Mauru to Le Fevre. 
 
 A Letter from Pierre Mauru to 
 Monsieur Le Fevre. 
 
 ONSIEUR, MY MOST dear and honoured Brother, 
 you are so present in my mind, that an hour does 
 not pass without thinking of you : and without 
 raising my heart to GOD to desire the necessary 
 graces of him, for you as well as for myself, to 
 finish your course in his fear and in his love ; that he might 
 give you and our dear brethren that are captives for his 
 Cause, the grace to be faithful to him, even unto death ; 
 to the end that, according to his holy promise, we may be 
 worthy to receive the Crown of Life at his liberal hand. 
 
 It seems to me that, for some time past, they do not 
 observe me so much ; and give me a little more liberty. It 
 may be to endeavour to surprise me more easily, as they 
 have done at other times ; but, by the grace of GOD, these 
 surprises have been in vain ! 
 
 AVhen they have taken any Letters from me, they 
 served only to make the sincerity of my heart, and the 
 truth of the Profession which we make before GOD and 
 Man, to appear more bright. 
 
 And when they have taken any Letters of those that 
 were directed to me, they have seen that my relations and 
 friends are of the same sense and mind. Our Captain 
 having had them, he came to examine me. Who they were, 
 that had writ[ten] to me ? Among others, one of my 
 cousins, who is a man full of the love of GOD and of zeal 
 for his glory, exhorted me to persevere! and, being full of 
 a holy jealousy, gave me to understand that he envied my 
 happiness ; seeing the favours that GOD did me. Upon 
 which, that Captain bade me answer his Letter ; and write 
 to him. That he might come ; and he should be put into 
 the like condition ! 
 
 After enlarging himself in his praises towards Monsieur 
 Le Fevke, which I omit here, he says : 
 
 Monsieur, and my most dear Brother, I have profited 
 by your excellent instructions. I constantly remember 
 what past when you fought so valiantly in repulsing your 
 adversaries with Spiritual Arms, wherewith GOD has fur- 
 nished you by his Divine Grace. The desire of my soul is 
 
 357
 
 How many blows I have received with hoopsticks ? 
 
 never better accomplished, than when I see the victory of 
 Truth, and the confusion of Superstition and Falsehood. 
 
 You desire that I should give them the particulars of 
 what they have done to me : but, my most dear Brother, 
 I cannot do it ! It would take up too much time ! How- 
 ever, all this is nothing, in comparison to the treasures that 
 are reserved in Heaven for those that shall be found worthy 
 of Eternal Life. 
 
 You desire me to tell you, how many blows I have 
 received with cudgels and hoopsticks : which is an impos- 
 sible thing. It was sometimes above forty, and sometimes 
 for eight or ten days successively ; and the least was above 
 twenty, blows. But what will you have me to say ? Those 
 blows are indeed a little painful ; but the joy I feel in 
 suffering for Jesus Christ alleviates all the pain : and 
 when, after having suffered for Jesus Christ, the consola- 
 tions of Christ abound in us by the HOLY GHOST who 
 comforts us, that sacred balm heals all our sores, and gives 
 also a perfect health to our Souls. It makes us despise all 
 other things. In a word, as long as we belong to GOD ; 
 nothing can take us out of his hand ! 
 
 But, my most dear Brother, that which you say in 
 your Letter of the good that has been wrought in me, 
 proceeds merely from the grace of GOD : who, by his 
 mercy, made us sensible of his assisting hand in those 
 times ; and not only afforded it to me, but also to all those 
 that ask it of him, with a good heart to employ it in his 
 service. . . . 
 
 But, my most dear Brother, if you had seen the whole 
 course of my life, and had also as exactly observed the 
 unfruitful Works of Darkness in it ; it would perhaps have 
 hindered you from considering what you extol in me : for 
 the horror which you would have had of so many sins and 
 vices that have reigned in me. When I reflect upon them, 
 and represent to myself those frightful Mountains of 
 Iniquity, I am filled with confusion. 
 
 In short, finding myself in that condition, and on the 
 other hand feeling my heart pierced with grief to see the 
 justice of GOD inflamed against his people, and seeing 
 daily new subjects of cruelty; I cast myself, trembling, 
 before my GOD to confess my sins to him, and to ask 
 pardon with tears : protesting unto him, by the assistance 
 of his grace, to consecrate the remainder of my life to his 
 358
 
 ' I am sensible that, of myself, I can do nothing.' 
 
 service, to glorify him and suffer for his Truth; rather than 
 fall into those extremities, into which the World, the Flesh, 
 and the Evil Spirit, had brought so many by seduction, 
 by fear, by vanity, and by infirmity. 
 
 This Father of Mercy, by his infinite goodness, heard 
 my prayer ; and made my Soul to feel the consolations of 
 his Spirit : and he has not only comforted and rejoiced my 
 Soul, but also assisted me, in my greatest weaknesses ; and 
 assures me still, that he will support me to the last breath 
 of my life. 
 
 I am loath to give you the particulars of what you ask 
 me : because there seems to be something to be considered 
 in it, as coming from myself ; to turn it to my advantage : 
 and as if I had a mind to praise myself, or [to] seek to be 
 praised by others. But Sir, and my most honoured Friend, 
 I am sensible that, of myself, I can do nothing ; therefore 
 if there be any glory or praise due, it belongs wholly to 
 GOD, who is the Author of it : for as to me, I am weakness 
 itself and mere vanity ; but GOD shewed forth his power 
 in my great weaknesses. 
 
 You are not ignorant, and have known from the first 
 time that we were in the Dungeons, what distrust I had 
 of myself, and the fear of fainting in my struggling with 
 the Flesh ; which is an Enemy to the Cross. I feared, on 
 the other hand, that if I should have returned into the 
 World, which is a Second Enemy of our Salvation, I should 
 have suffered myself to be carried away with it. 
 
 But, at last, I felt the Spirit of Jesus Christ : who, by 
 his grace, had made himself master of my desires and 
 affections : which made me say unto you, with sincerity of 
 heart, That I would rather be your companion to bear the 
 reproach of Jesus Christ, than to run the hazard of entering 
 into the World, if the choice had been left to me ; for fear of 
 being involved again in the affairs of this present Life. 
 
 I shall begin then to give you some satisfaction, in 
 informing you of the things you desire of me ; and which 
 are known to all those that are here. 
 
 When I was put on board ; our Captain, who is a man 
 that enquires very exactly into all things, would know. 
 Wherefore I was sent to the Galleys ? As soon as he knew 
 it, he sent for the Almoner ; and made me to be searched all 
 over, to take what Books and other Papers I had from me. 
 
 359
 
 A Sub-Officer that will out do the Missionaries. 
 
 Afterwards, he often sent for Priests, to endeavour to 
 make me alter my Religion : forbidding any others to speak 
 with me. 
 
 He took an occasion, by virtue of a Letter of one of my 
 relations, which he caused to be given me again, to make 
 me change my seat. 
 
 And, at last, they fixed me to the form [bencli] near the 
 Pump : and a Spy was set over me ; and one to endeavour 
 to insult me, and 2)ut me upon needless labour, on purpose 
 to vex me. Nevertheless, (as he rather tired himself with 
 affronting me ; and not seeing me complain) he left me ; 
 and allowed me also, sometimes after, conveniences to 
 write with. 
 
 When they knew that he did nothing more to me, they 
 made me shift my seat to have others abuse me ; but I soon 
 became their friend : which made them change my place often. 
 
 Having, at last, performed their Mission ; and seeing 
 that they could not have their design upon me, they sought 
 for other means. 
 
 A Sub-Officer, who was ingenious in malice, desired 
 that he might manage me ; and that he knew he could do 
 more than all the Missionaries. They gave him all the 
 power over me ; except that of putting me to death. 
 
 Every day, he sought new Torments. Sometimes he 
 would make me supply all the forms [boicJies^ of the Galley 
 with water. Sometimes he said, They had given me a 
 Letter, though he knew very well the contrary ; or that 
 somebody had spoken to me ; and all was to find an occasion 
 to beat me : though he had searched me, and taken what 
 money and useful things I had, from me. 
 
 He made me go, with a great chain about me, to tap 
 water barrels : and, for one that fell down and broke, he 
 made him that he had sent along with me, to beat me so, 
 that those that saw it, threatened to bring him hefore the 
 Major, to have him put to the Chain; so that he would come 
 no more. 
 
 Afterwards, he made me to cleanse all the Quarters of 
 the Galley all alone, as well that of the Pump as others ; 
 and now and then he shewed the Under Commissarj^ or 
 Quarter Master, some stains, to make me be beaten with a 
 cudgel : and they did their endeavour to make the Galley 
 Slaves abuse me, to tire my patience. 
 360
 
 More weary of Tormenting, than Maura of Suffering. 
 
 After which, seeing the Constancy that GOD gave me, 
 by his grace ; they took all the Galley Slaves away that 
 were on the seat with me, and having chosen the most 
 wicked Turks and Moors they could find, they placed tliem 
 about me to abuse me. But, on the contrary, as barbarous 
 as they are, they were more civil to me than the others. 
 
 Another while, they made me scour iron Ballisters 
 \_Machmes for tliroiving missiles^ ; and finding j)laces on 
 them where it could not be done, they took occasion to 
 beat me. 
 
 In short, for some time, they thought to do me a 
 diskindness, by taking my bread away in the morning, and 
 making me fast until one or two a clock : and they cut it 
 into small pieces, that I might not sell it. 
 
 Sometimes to fatigue me, they coupled me to carry 
 cordage ; or [to] do something with others, that promised 
 them to kill me. But GOD had supplied me with strength 
 to support all with vigour, with patience, and also with 
 joy: finding myself happy to suffer all these things for the 
 love of my Saviour. Those that threatened to kill me with 
 working, desired me (before the day was ended) to go more 
 softly : whereas, in the morning, they boasted to make me 
 sink under my labour ; thinking me much unequal to them 
 in that regard. 
 
 In short. Sir, at last, a favourable day presented itself, 
 as we were making a tent; that having broke two needles, 
 and not having wherewith to buy others, the Under Of&cer 
 or Boatswain beat me very severely. The Captain came 
 upon deck, and being minded to know what it was for ; I 
 desired the favour of him to speak a word in private to him. 
 
 He heard me, and put a stop to the rigour : making as 
 if he was ignorant of what had passed before ; and seeming 
 to be astonished, though he was very well informed of 
 all. He ordered, That I should be no more treated in that 
 manner ; and also to return me some money tliat was 
 taken from me. But I am certain that he gratified 
 [reivarded'] him very well, that had bragged to make me 
 obey his will; and to oblige me to change my Religion: 
 because I believe he was more weary of tormenting me, 
 than I was in enduring it. 
 
 If my body suffered all day long; my heart rejoiced, 
 and was glad in my Saviour, day and night. In that time, 
 
 361
 
 Maiiru and Le Boucher in Hospital. 
 
 my Soul fed chiefly on that Hidden Manna ; and my GOD 
 made me possess a joy that the World knows nothing of: 
 and that, with the holy Apostles, I rejoiced daily to have 
 been worthy to suffer for the sake of my Saviour; who 
 made my heart feel such consolations as transported me 
 with tears of joy [almost] besides myself. 
 
 The rest which they gave to my body did not continue 
 long. For, a little while after, oars were brought on board 
 the Galleys, to exercise new comers : and those people 
 (being always animated against our holy Religion) took 
 occasion to beat me, at their pleasure ; always representing to 
 me, that I might avoid those Torments [by changing] . But 
 when they made those Proposals; my Saviour represented 
 to my Soul the Torments which he suffered to redeem it; 
 and that I must suffer with him. 
 
 At last, after all this, we must put to sea; where the 
 rigour of the work, and the blows, brought me divers times 
 to Death's door. As soon as the Almoner perceived me well 
 cast down with faintness, he came to tempt me : but my 
 Soul rowed towards Heaven ; and he was never pleased 
 with what I answered him. 
 
 At the end of that painful Voyage, I fell into a great 
 sickness ; wherein I continued for the space of a month, 
 without taking anj-thing but such broths as you know. 
 
 I had been sick eleven days ; when they carried me to 
 the Hospital. For three weeks, they expected my death 
 daily. And that which is to be admired [ivondered] at is, 
 that [though] I could not stir, I felt no more pain ; and such 
 broth as it was that they gave me, I never took anything 
 that seemed so good. 
 
 I said daily, ' This is the day of my deliverance ! I 
 shall suffer no more pain ! I am ready to enter into my 
 Everlasting Rest ! ' 
 
 As weak as my heart was ; it made its efforts to keep 
 itself towards Heaven. I had no motion, but the starting 
 of the Inward Man. But GOD did not think fit to with- 
 draw me yet : but would raise me out of that sickness. 
 
 And when I began to recover my health, our dear 
 friend, Philippe Le Boucher, came also sick into the 
 Hospital. I was acquainted with it. He was very sick ; 
 and I had no strength to go. Rising up to draw near each 
 other ; we should have fallen down, if they had not assisted 
 362
 
 'Painting of Calvin's back with cudgels.' 
 
 us. We were full of joy to see each other : but I cannot 
 tell you our conversation during the fifteen days we were 
 together, 
 
 I left him sick there. And that day they carried me on 
 board the Galley, the Fever took me again. I was sick 
 on board the Galley, from some days before Christmas till 
 Easter. 
 
 They used me as bad as they could ; thinking to make 
 me die : but GOD would preserve my life to render the 
 False Prophets, Liars ; who said, That the Missionaries had 
 foretold that I could not live a year, after their malediction. 
 And many persons employed themselves to make them 
 speak truth : but GOD made them all liars ! 
 
 There were some, in all the Voyages, who to make 
 themselves sport, made me to be beaten continually : but 
 chiefly our Captain's Steward, who called it, ' Painting of 
 Calvin's back with cudgels'; and then asked scoffingly, 
 ' Whether Calvin gave strength to work, after having been 
 ladened with so many blows ? ' 
 
 And when he had a mind to begin again, he asked, ' If 
 they would not give Calvin his commons \^food, diet, fare]'}' : 
 and it was his delight to see me daily cast down with blows 
 and fatigues. The wheedling Officers, that would please 
 him, made use of those means, as if they tickled him to make 
 him laugh. 
 
 When they saw me lift my eyes to Heaven ; he said, 
 ' GOD does not hear the Calvinists ! They must suffer 
 their due, until they either die, or change ! ' 
 
 In short, my most dear Brother, (so long as we were at 
 sea, or that we were obliged to row), no day passed, wherein I 
 was not put in a condition ready to die. In the mean time, 
 those that were with me, as miserable as they were, did 
 their endeavour to assist me, and to make me take some 
 nourishment. But in all those Excesses of Pain that the 
 Flesh felt, my GOD did not leave me comfortless .... 
 
 As for what remains (added he). They will have an end 
 in a little time ; and the joy of being with GOD will soon 
 make me forget all those Evils. And, indeed, when I was 
 at some ease to meditate on the Words of Eternal Life, my 
 heart was at its delight : and when I looked on my bruised 
 flesh, I said, ' These are the marks that Saint Paul rejoiced 
 to bear in his body.' 
 
 363
 
 God made use of you, to serve us for a Pastor. 
 
 I fell always sick, after every voyage : and, when I was 
 no longer in the trouble of labouring [at the oar] and in 
 the fear of blows, I had time to meditate at leisure, and to 
 give GOD thanks for having supported me by his goodness, 
 and strengthened me by his Spirit, in all my recoverings 
 from sickness. 
 
 They troubled me much in the Hospital, for having 
 visited one of my friends there. They put me once to the 
 Chain : and I was often threatened with it. I thought all 
 my voyages were at an end ; but, some time ago, GOD 
 returned me my health : minding to make those that 
 endeavoured to destroy it, to know that he rescues, as it 
 were, from death ; and also to dispose me yet to glorify him 
 in Sufferings. 
 
 In fine, Sir, and my well-beloved Brother in Jesus 
 Christ, I am ready to suffer, when it shall please my GOD ; 
 being assured, by faith in his promises, that he will make 
 me more than Conqueror. 
 
 As for the remainder, I shall tell you. That if I have 
 suffered any inconvenience ; GOD did me the favour to 
 satisfy me for it. My friends could not find the means to 
 assist me ; not having the liberty to come near me : and 
 some money that they had sent me having been lost ; by 
 the grace of my GOD, I have been very well contented with 
 bread, when I had nothing else. In the mean time, there 
 have always been some ways found to assist me with some- 
 thing. My friends have had yet great care of me ; and, 
 above all, Jesus Christ has made me feel the effect of his 
 precious promises. 
 
 I am obliged to conclude. I have a companion here 
 that embraces you with a sincere affection. We recommend 
 ourselves to your holy prayers ; and we pray to GOD, with 
 with all our Souls, for you, as for ourselves ! 
 
 GOD is a faithful witness of the affection I have for 
 you in my heart ; as it is also most just : seeing that you 
 have instructed and comforted me. God made use of you, 
 as of one of his faithful Ministers, to serve us for a Pastor, 
 during the time of our imprisonment; and all that you had 
 of your own, for our consolation, was common to us. I 
 recommend you to the mercy of GOD ; and pray that good 
 Father, with all my heart, to be your deliverer ! to make 
 you enjoy his favour here, and in Heaven his glory! 
 364
 
 Mauru's Ten Years of Sufferings and Miseries. i686-i696. 
 
 My dear Brother ! pray for me ! I am altogether as 
 much yours as my own. 
 
 P. Mauhu. 
 
 These two Martyrs had always some correspondence together, 
 though with much trouble, until the death of the blessed P. Mauru : 
 who was always tormented, almost after the same manner as he 
 represents it in his Letter, to the end of his life. And when they 
 ceased, or interrupted, their rigorous and unheard of Torments, that 
 were exercised against him, 
 
 It is (as he observes himself in another Letter to his 
 dear friend) because they cannot make me suffer much more,, 
 or strike me in the condition I am in, without killing me : 
 and they would be troubled about that. All that they can 
 do is, to hinder me from conversing with my friends, from 
 reading and writing ; which is very vexatious to me : but 
 they cannot hinder my prayers from ascending to my GOD ; 
 and from being heard, in the name of Jesus Christ my 
 Saviour, by whom I call upon him. 
 
 He wrote likewise two other Letters to Monsieur Le Fevre, that 
 shewed in an admirable manner his piety towards GOD, the fervent 
 desires of his sanctiflcation, and his perfect submission to his will ; his 
 extraordinary charity towards the Church of GOD, and [to] those of its 
 members that are yet exposed to Persecutions ; those whom Providence 
 had withdrawn into foreign countries ; and particularly towards his 
 dear brethren and fellow Sufferers, encouraging himself with them, by 
 fervent prayers, to finish with joy and honour, the painful but happy 
 course they ran ; and wherein they fight for the Faith. 
 
 But, at last, after about ten years Sufferings and extreme Miseries ;. 
 (his health being absolutely impaired, and his poor body being^ 
 overburdened with diseases and blows) he fell into an extraordinary 
 weakness, with a defluxion [runnitig discharge] and a continual cough 
 that hardly suffered him to breathe or speak, and giving in that 
 condition a thousand and a thousand testimonies of Faith, Hope, and 
 Charity (which made his Persecutors and Tormentors to burst with 
 envy ; but particvilarly the Missionaries, who grew desperate when they 
 saw their solicitations ineffectual, and themselves confounded by the 
 courage and patience of that Martyr ; like the Jews formerly by the 
 Discourse of Saint Stephen, the first Martyr of Jesus Christ, but 
 which edified and ravished the rest, yea, the Roman Catholics them- 
 selves) ; he yielded up his Soul to GOD, in such a manner, as we are 
 going to shew in the Narration that was made of it by unsuspected 
 
 365
 
 Pierre Mauru dies in April. i696. 
 
 persons [above suspicion] ; and which Monsieur Le Fevre took care to 
 send to us, to inform us of the deliverance of that faithful Servant of 
 GOD, and of the honour and glory wherewith he finished his Martyrdom. 
 
 It may be, (said Monsieur D. S, Le P., in sending a 
 Letter of Mauru to Monsieur Le Fevee) — It may be the 
 last time you may have any of his Letters. His voice and 
 strength are very low. But if the sad dispositions of his 
 dejected Body ought to afflict us, those of his Soul ought to 
 fill us with joy and consolation. His Resignation to the 
 will of GOD, his Humility, his Patience in the midst of 
 his Evils, are so great, that it is hard to find such rare 
 examples of piety. 
 
 He was in that languishing condition from the end of 
 the year 1695 to the beginning of April 1696 : but was 
 perpetually and narrowly observed by villains, who took it 
 upon them ; and, above all, extraordinarily tormented by a 
 Missionary, who was let loose to seduce that chosen Servant 
 of GOD, if it were possible. 
 
 Soon after that, he died. 
 
 Here follows the testimony that one, G.C.R., a Galley Slave, gives 
 of him ; whose name is unknown, as also the crime for which he was 
 in the Galleys. 
 
 As to Monsieur Mauru, (sa^^s he, writing from his 
 Galley to Monsieur D. S. L., who was on board another) 
 you must know^ that he died last night. I did not believe 
 him [to be] so near his death ; for, when I was with him 
 yesterday from you, he spoke with the same earnestness as 
 he formerly used to do. I told him of the desire your 
 Brother and you had to hear from him ; that is, to receive 
 a Letter from his hand. 
 
 He assured me, ' That it was impossible for him to write 
 four lines together ; that he desired me to make his excuse 
 to both of you; to give you thanks for all your favours 
 towards him ; and to tell you, that he waited with resigna- 
 tion the Lord's hour.' (I make use of his own words). 
 
 I took the opportunity of dinner-time to speak with 
 him. All the servants being at table ; I stayed a full half- 
 hour with him. 
 
 (He says, by another Letter of the same G.C.R., from the Hospital, 
 the Saturday morning.) 
 
 368
 
 1696. The Almoner casts his body on a dunghill. 
 
 You cannot question, but that I have taken all the 
 share I ought, in the death of your Friend, and that I have 
 been touched with it : but chiefly when they carried him 
 from hence to his grave. 
 
 Monsieur V. having caused a coffin to be made for him, 
 and having laid him in it ; the roguish Catalan, being at 
 the door, went with all speed to the rascal Guerard, and bid 
 him go and tell Monsieur MiROUR (It is the Almoner that 
 was in the Chamber), that those kind of peojDle ought to be 
 thrown on a lay-stall [jmbbish heap, dungliilX] ; and not put 
 in a coffin. 
 
 The Almoner came down immediately, being glad of the 
 occasion, and caused the coffin to be unnailed again, and 
 took the body out of it, to be carried away like a Turk. 
 That action seemed cruel to a great many people : and I 
 would have made a noise about it, if it would not have done 
 me mischief. 
 
 I could have wished, for your sake, and his own, to have 
 been able to have eased him more than I have done ; but 
 the place would not permit it : though I assure you, I have 
 gone, divers times, beyond \jrgardless o/] all considerations. 
 I have had two furious attacks before him, by the little 
 Father [of the Mission] ; who would not have me see him. 
 That poor man was always afraid that some harm would 
 come to me, for his sake : but I laughed at it. 
 
 An Extract of a Letter of Monsieur D. S. to Monsieur 
 Le Fevre, on the same subject. 
 
 WE ARE ALSO more particularly informed, by a 
 Brother that was with him, that he had made 
 an end answerable to his life. He preserved 
 his senses as sound to the last gasp, as when 
 he enjoyed a perfect health. His Faith and 
 Constancy were brighter than ever. 
 
 As his Body grew weak, his Soul raised itself with more 
 vigour and zeal towards Heaven, or rather towards its GOD ; 
 as being more disengaged from matter. The Seducers, that 
 stood round his bed, (and who, like so many ravening wolves, 
 devoured already his Soul, in hopes to make it fall into 
 Apostacy) were lively repulsed : and found, to their con- 
 fusion, that if his Body grew weak, his Soul had, on the 
 contrary, acquired new strength. So that, seeing themselves 
 
 367
 
 He endured all that the fury of Men could invent. 1686-96. 
 
 cast on the ground and conquered, they were constrained 
 to forsake him ; and to leave that holy Soul in the hands 
 of tliat Sovereign Pastor, who conducted it into the 
 Everlasting Pastures. 
 
 He endured all that the fury of Men could invent, to shake 
 his constancy : but all their efforts were vain, and produced 
 quite a contrary effect ; seeing they were so many means to 
 wean him from the Earth, and purified him as gold in the 
 furnace ; having only served to make his Virtue shine more 
 bright. 
 
 As his Virtue, his Mildness, and his Charity, distinguished 
 him from the rest of the Faithful in his life time ; they 
 would also distinguish him, after his death, by an unworthy 
 treatment. That poor corpse having been put and nailed in 
 a coffin, which we had caused to be made to bury him in : 
 two miserable Galley Slaves, Catalan and Guerard, both 
 of them formerly Priests, brought hither for a rape, and 
 murder, having advertised the Father of the Mission, whose 
 name is MiROUR ; they took him out of the coffin, and cast 
 him on the ground, to be carried to the lay-stall [rubbish- 
 heap, dung]iill.^ 
 
 This was tlie end of that Man of GOD ; whom our Martyr said^ 
 was the greatest Saint on earth ; whom he had made one of his most 
 intimate friends; and whose virtue was the continual object of his 
 admiration. 
 
 368
 
 I SAY NOTHING of some other famous Martyrs that have finished 
 their course in the Prisons and on board the Galleys ; because we 
 have no sufficient Memoirs on that subject. 
 
 Neither will I say anything of those illustrious Confessors who 
 (having signalized their Courage, their Piety, their Charity towards GOD 
 and towards their afflicted brethren ; by their example, by their counsel, 
 by their exhortations, and by all the most assiduous and the most im- 
 portant assistance that could be given them in their condition) exposed 
 themselves, on that account, to a great many perils. Who, I say, for 
 all that, and for their steadfastness to maintain the Faith and refusing 
 to do that which they would have forced them to, contrary to their 
 Consciences, some of them, after having almost been beaten to death, 
 have been cast into horrible Dungeons: and who glorified GOD, and 
 edified their brethren and all true Christians dispersed here and there ; 
 who are very well informed of the greatness of their Evils, and of their 
 inviolable Perseverance. We have indeed divers faithful Memoirs of 
 what they have suffered, and what they yet suffer, with courage and 
 patience : of whom we shall only say something ' en passant,' until 
 there is occasion to speak more amply of them. 
 
 I shall neither speak of those that are yet on board the Galleys : 
 though I had a great many things to say of the wisdom of their conduct, 
 and of the Piety and the Charity wherewith they signalize themselves in 
 the midst of their labours and their Sufferings. 
 
 Our Martyr's Letters are full of testimonies of their Fidelity and 
 holy life ; as also of acknowledgements for the charitable assistances 
 that he had received from them on all occasions, of love, affection, and 
 zeal for their persons ; for their consolation, and their increase in all 
 kind of graces and benedictions of GOD. 
 
 Certainly, these good Servants of GOD laboiir in the work of Faith 
 in such a manner as will make their persons and names venerable in 
 the present Age, and in the Ages to come, in the Church of GOD, and to 
 all the Christians that compose the True Church. They may all be 
 assured that, while they combat so courageously for the Faith, GOD is 
 also fervently invoked everywhere for their Victory and their Persever- 
 ance ; which is the Victory of the Saints, to whom GOD has promised 
 glorious and eternal rewards. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 2i 369
 
 Father Laurent ready to cuff Monsieur D. L. 
 
 In the mean time, such strange things happened, snch great Cruelties 
 and Rigours were practised against all those poor Confessors in general, 
 and particularly against some of them (either because of their Constancy, 
 or because of the charitable care which they took of each other, and of 
 their mutual assistance in their necessities and misfortunes) ; of which 
 I cannot forbear to give the public some Account ; according to the 
 Relations that I find of them in our Martyr's Letters ; and of others 
 that have been witnesses of them, that have seen them, and that have 
 been themselves exposed to the like. 
 
 See what he*writes of Monsieur D. L. ; a person recommended by 
 his great zeal, and that extraordinary charity wherewith he assisted all 
 his brethren and fellow Sufferers on board the Galleys, and in the 
 Prisons. 
 
 After having been (says he,) some time on board the 
 Galleys, having been in a Summer's Expedition, as they 
 would have disj)ensed with him from ' going a new Voyage ' ; 
 the Sieur Laurent, Superior of the Mission, having heard 
 of it (for they are commonly those debonaire Ecclesiastics 
 that, in all occasions, are instrumental in redoubling the 
 ills and pains of the Confessors), he ran to him, and asked 
 him, If he would go to the Hospital to be Instructed ; that 
 he might be excused from that Summer's Expedition ? 
 
 'I am very far from such a thought,' answered that 
 generous Confessor of the Truth. 
 
 They spake of Controversies. The conclusion whereof 
 was, that the Missionary, by an excess of zeal, or 
 rather of choler, called him, A very drunkard, saying, That, 
 at that hour, he was drunk, and a babbler: and that 
 Reverend Father was ready to cuft' him with his fists. 
 
 He went on board the Galley, saying * I will go ; and 
 return in it : but whatever happens, I will glorify GOD in 
 my body ! ' 
 
 But the charitable assistances, and the good offices, which he had 
 done to his brethren for divers years, being discovered : he was, for 
 that reason, taken out of the Galleys, and carried into the Fort Saint 
 Nicolas at Marseilles ; [and] deprived of all conversation with others. 
 
 370
 
 M' 
 
 ONSIEUR LE FEVRE having, for a very long time, had a 
 particular correspondence with the three famous Brothers, 
 Messieurs D. S. [de Serres] ; whom he compared to the 
 Thi-ee Hebrew Children that were cast into the Fiery 
 Furnace : whereof one ought to have been released from the Galleys, 
 to which he was condemned only for Ten Years, if Roman Catholic 
 zeal would suffer those Gentlemen to do the Justice they ought, and to 
 keep their word with those whom they are pleased to call Heretics. 
 
 He mentioned them very often in his excellent Letters, with the 
 praises he owed to their virtues : and everywhere with an extraordinary 
 acknowledgement of the great services which he received of them ; and 
 of the brotherly kindness that they shewed him, to his death. 
 
 And we have elsewhere a great number of proofs of their great zeal 
 and fervent charity; the memory whereof will never perish in the sight 
 of GOD, nor in the minds of Men. 
 
 Monsieur D. S. ['? Piekre Serres senior] the father, 
 having been informed against, by some traitors, or [by] 
 other means, for having distributed some money and books 
 among the Confessors, Monsieur de Montmort, Intendant of 
 the Galleys, made him come before him in his house ; and, 
 having abused him, sequestered him in the Dungeon of the 
 Hospital of the Galley Slaves, fastened, day and night, to a 
 great chain : where they do not suffer him to have any 
 communication with anybody whatsoever. And he is the 
 very same, who was said to be one of those Galley Slaves 
 that were condemned to that punishment of a Slave, that is 
 called, ' The Bastonade on the Coursier ' ; a misfortune 
 that was common to divers other Confessors : of which it 
 will not be amiss to give you the Account of it here, in 
 short. 
 
 After the carrying away of Monsieur D. L., whom we 
 have mentioned before, and for reasons almost of the same 
 nature as those in question here ; the Afflictions (say the 
 Relations that we have of it) increased daily. 
 
 And a rumour was spread at Marseilles, That they were 
 going to shut up all the Confessors of the Galleys in [the] 
 
 371
 
 Tlie liitendant's dark Cells at the Hospital. 
 
 Dungeons of the Galleys Slaves ; as Monsieur D. L. was in 
 that of [Fort] Saint Nicolas, But there were only, for 
 that time, Monsieur D. S. P. and two of his fellow sufferers. 
 Messieurs M. and S. ; with a Roman Catholic, whose 
 name was Monsieur Pasquet, a Slave of the same Galley. 
 Monsieur D. S. [? Pierre Serres] [had done to him] some 
 considerable services, by means of a certain woman of 
 Marseilles; but who (having been suborned by her husband; 
 who, it is likely, knew of the correspondence which she had 
 with that Monsieur D. S., in favour of the rest) she went 
 and declared it to Monsieur the Intendant, in hope of some 
 good reward. Who, after some precautions about it, caused 
 Monsieur Pasquet to be seized; and made him to be bastina- 
 doed so severely, that he had almost died under the blows. 
 
 He caused Monsieur [Francois] Sabattier to be also 
 soundly bastinadoed ; having ordered him to be brought 
 into the Hospital of the Galley Slaves. He caused Monsieur 
 D. S. the younger ['? Jean Serres junior], in particular, 
 to be brought from the ' Favorite ' : and having examined 
 them all, he would have sent them to the Citadel ; but the 
 Governor of that place refused it. 
 
 Upon which refusal, the Intendant ordered little 
 boarded rooms to be built in a great Chamber of the 
 Hospital, with chains fastened to the wall. And because 
 they should not speak with each other through the chinks, 
 or receive ever so little light through them, he caused great 
 lintels {^pieces of timber^ to be put everywhere: and, having 
 chained them, he shut them up in them ; feeding them 
 with bread and water. 
 
 Monsieur Musseton was shut up there, by reason of a 
 Letter that was intercepted at the Post Office ; by which he 
 gave an Account to Monsieur Leger P., at Geneva, of the 
 rigorous treatment that Monsieur the Intendant had 
 exercised to Monsieur de Lausoniere, before all that 
 disturbance. 
 
 As for Monsieur de S[erres] the younger; it is not 
 said that he was so cruelly treated as the rest, at least in 
 regard of the Bastinado. His sincerity and constancy 
 startled Monsieur the Intendant ; who threatened him 
 terribly, if he did not declare who sent them the Bills of 
 Exchange and the books that he distributed : saying. That, 
 by their examples and their billets \_Lett&rs'] , the de Serres 
 [family] perverted the New Converts. 
 372
 
 Living in the dark Cells on bread and water. 
 
 He frankly owned that he had received them ; and 
 shared them among his companions : hut he protested, at 
 the same time, that, if he should be torn in pieces, or be 
 beaten to death, he would not tell of whom he had them ! 
 
 In the mean time, he was shut up, like the rest, in a 
 hole ; where it is to be feared he will soon end his days : 
 being of a weak constitution ; and considering the bad 
 provisions that are given there. 
 
 Afterwards, Monsieur Archambaut, with the Inten- 
 dant's Secretary, was on board the ' Hardy ' Galley, to take 
 Monsieur Bancilhon at his bench ; where, having seized 
 him, he forbade him to stir, that he might hide nothing, if 
 he had anything about him : and having caused his irons to 
 be taken off, he coupled him with a Turk, and caused him 
 strictly to be searched ; without having found anything but 
 a well-sj)ecified \_detailed~\ List of all the Confessors. 
 
 He was afterwards brought before the Intendant ; who 
 made him to be shut up in one of those Holes [in the great 
 Chamber]: which he had reserved, to put them in, that the 
 capricios [^caprices, ivhims] of the Fathers of the Mission 
 should direct him ; where they are kept without seeing 
 daylight, except a moment in the morning when they are 
 served with bread, living at that time on bread and water. 
 
 We do not know whether there was some little lenity 
 shewed them afterwards. He that served them Avith bread 
 reports. That he always found Monsieur D. S. [? Serees] 
 praying to GOD. 
 
 373
 
 THESE ARE THE Confessors, with whom our Martyr had most 
 correspondence and acquaintance. I say, the most ; for he had 
 some with many others, and very considerable ones : as 
 Messieurs de l'Auboniere, La Cantinieee, Neau, Morin, 
 Philippe Le Boucher, Yalette, Bancilhon, [Francois] Sabattier, 
 MussETON, Baptiste, Blanchard, and others ; of whom I find glorious 
 testimonies in his Letters. Some of whom have already died Martyrs 
 in the Prisons and Dungeons : and the rest persevere gloriously in the 
 holy race of Martyrdom ; waiting for the Crown that GOD prepares for 
 them in the Heavens, at the end of their conflict and their course. 
 
 Among all those, he makes mention of a Priest ; who had been put 
 on board the Galleys, and afterwards in a Dungeon qt Fort Saint 
 Nicolas, chained by the legs and hands : whom they had forced to alter 
 his opinion by bad treatment, and threatenings to burn him ; because 
 he had been a Priest, and was converted. 
 
 As also of a Shepherd, who was also transferred from the Galleys 
 to a Dungeon in Fort [Saint] Nicolas and from thence to a Dungeon 
 of the Castle of J. F. It is a jplace, into which they go down on 
 ladders ; and where is no other light but that of a lamj), which the 
 Gaoler makes them pay for. That place is so frightful, that a Monk, 
 who went thither to see the prisoners that are there, could not forbear 
 to say. That the place struck him with horror ; that he had not courage 
 enough to return thither again to visit them ; saying, That the sad con- 
 dition of those that were there, had forced tears from his eyes : and that 
 worms were bred in the head of one of them, before he was dead. 
 
 It is out of that Prison, from whence that poor, simple, but illus- 
 trious, Shepher J found means to write Notes to his dear fellow Sufferers 
 on board the Galleys. Here is one of them, directed to Monsieur 
 FOETUNAT, Confessor; which is very edifying. 
 
 Sir, (says he) if I have not the honour to know you hy 
 sight, finding, by sad experience, with what exactness, 
 sincerity, and zeal, you act towards everybody ; I have 
 reason to hope from your goodness, that you will permit my 
 affections, this day, to come from the bottom of this dark 
 Dungeon, to greet you, one day, in your chains, with all 
 375
 
 A Letter of the simple, but illustrious, Shepherd. 
 
 the respect and humility that I am capable of, and to give 
 you thanks at the same time for the good you do me ; but, 
 above all, Sir, for the prayers which you offer up to the 
 Lord on my behalf. 
 
 I desire you, dear Sufferer of the living GOD, to 
 supplicate that great GOD to have pity on such a poor, 
 weak, and languishing, creature as I am ; to give me meek- 
 ness of spirit, to humble myself before my neighbours ; to 
 penetrate my heart by his immense charity, that I may love 
 him only, all the days of my life. Lastly, [to] desire him 
 that he would be pleased to give me all the Conformity I 
 ought to have to the Doctrines of his dear Son : who came 
 into the world to teach us by his Word, and to guide us by 
 his good Example ; to the end, that I may neither speak, say, 
 or do, anything but what is for the glory of his name, the 
 edification of my neighbours, and the advancement of 
 my own salvation. If you grant me this favour, as I 
 expect it from your charity ; I can assure you, that I shall 
 acknowledge it as I ought, all the days of my life. 
 
 I send you a Letter which I have taken the liberty to 
 direct to Monsieur Du Bassonere, and other friends. 
 
 Praying to the Lord to deliver you speedily from the 
 inhumanity of our unjust Oppressors, that you may sing 
 the sweet Songs of Sion in his holy House; 
 
 I am, Sir, and most illustrious Confessor of Jesus Christ, 
 
 With all the respect that is due to you, 
 
 and which I am capable to give. 
 
 Yours, etc. 
 
 This is (said our Martyr) what a poor Shepherd speaks and writes ; 
 who pretends not to have learned to write, but since he was in bonds 
 for GOD'S Cause. Is not this a kind of miracle ? and is it not only 
 literally, but eminently, the fulfilling of that promise of the Scriptures, 
 ' And they shall be all taught of GOD ! ' 
 
 He writ [wrote] others also of the same style ; which made one of 
 the Confessors, that sent them to another, say, ' Might it please GOD 
 that all Kings were as happy on their Throne, as this poor Shepherd 
 is, in the dirt of the Dungeon ! See what the grace of GOD can operate 
 in the minds of the most ignorant I ' 
 
 At first, he was reduced to lie almost naked on the ground, or 
 rather on the stinking nastiness at the bottom of a Dungeon : where 
 he received some money to sustain his miserable corporeal life ; and 
 some books ; and some clothes to cover his nakedness. 
 
 375
 
 THOUGH I HAVE no other design than to write the Life and 
 Martyrdom of Monsieur Le Fevre ; leaving the whole History 
 of all the Confessors on board the Galleys and in the Prisons 
 to those that shall give us an Exact Description of the Perse- 
 cutions and [the] Evils which they suffered : yet, nevertheless, I have 
 said something of the condition of his friends, and of those that have 
 had any particular correspondence with him. Neither do I believe that 
 I ought to omit certain particular facts that happened in those Times ; 
 whereof he, or his correspondents, have informed us by their Letters : 
 as also of some other vexatious events that concern [ed] all the Con- 
 fessors in general. 
 
 Here is a very considerable particular of it. 
 
 I have been afflicted ; but yet more rejoiced, (says the 
 Confessor, of whom we have this History) for what haj)- 
 pened, some days past, at Marseilles, to a young handsome 
 Maiden ; whom GOD took to himself by sickness. 
 
 As she was at the point of death, a Priest came to take 
 her Confession ; because she had been so weak [as] to fall 
 [to relapse~\ , when the torrent of Persecution ran so high. 
 But she would not hear him : or, to say better, she made 
 quite another Confession to that Seducer, than he expected 
 to hear from her ; when he charged her with denying her 
 heavenly Jesus. 
 
 'What!' says he to her, 'you do not believe that GOD 
 is in the Host ! Dare you revile such a great Mystery thus ? ' 
 
 'No!', said she, 'I do not believe anything of it! My 
 Saviour is spiritually everywhere : but Heaven is the place 
 where he dwells, and I adore him there ; and not in that 
 which is nothing without him. This is my Faith; wherein I 
 will die ! ' So lifting up her eyes towards heaven ; she gave up 
 her Soul to her faithful Creator in that blessed disposition. 
 
 The Priest called witnesses to attest this. Upon this, 
 her body is carried to the Court : from whence, according 
 to the sentence passed upon it, it was drawn, by the 
 Executioner, on a dung-cart, through the City; and then 
 cast on a dung-hill. 
 376
 
 The young Huguenot Maiden of Marseilles. 
 
 They cut off also the back part of her liead ; and it is 
 said they cut out her tongue also, for having glorified her 
 GOD. 
 
 Thus men exercised their dishonourable cruelty and 
 inhumanity on that poor corpse, that was going to be 
 buried : while the Angels carried her Soul triumphantly 
 into Abraham's bosom. 
 
 How honourable do I find that sepulture (continued 
 he) ; and how glorious art thou, O, Daughter of Heaven ! 
 to bear the liverj' of thy Master, and of thy Spouse ! and 
 how happy is thy fate ; which ma}' put Temporizers to the 
 blush, and is truly worthy of emulation ! They refused 
 that poor corj)se the earth it required : and she was buried 
 under a heap of stones ; which the false devotees, armed 
 Avith a furious zeal, discharged upon her. 
 
 Who could believe that so civilized and polished a nation as ours, 
 and which [has] passed hitherto for such in the World, ever was, and is 
 yet, capable (for new examples of it appear every day) of such cruelties 
 and barbarities, which the Cannibals, the Anthropophagoi, and others 
 of the cruelest nations in the Earth, would be ashamed to commit ! 
 
 Nor can it be said, That it is only the effects of a furious and 
 brutal Mob whose passions are carried to the excess : since it is done 
 in [the] sight of the Clergy ; who give encouragement to it themselves. 
 It is done, with the knowledge of the Judges of the places ; who do not 
 hinder it. It is done, by virtue of the Sentences and the Decrees; which 
 the Subalterns and the Sovereigns give against those Faithful ; and, 
 doubtless, the Court is not ignorant of it : and, consequently, it is 
 equally approved and authorized by the Politicians and Ecclesiastics 
 of the Kingdom. Herein they approve themselves to be Members of 
 Antichrist ; the greatest Enemy and Persecutor of the Saints, next to 
 the Devil. 
 
 O, that, at one time or other, all the Edicts, Declarations, Decrees, 
 Sentences, and Judgements, given, in this unhappy Kingdom, against 
 the poor Protestants, might be collected into a Body ! and that the 
 History of all the Cruelties and Barbarities that have been committed 
 against them, in conseqiTence of all those Judgements, might be pub- 
 lished ! It would be a fine Volume 1 It will make a fine part of the 
 French Law, and be a great honour to the nation I 
 
 In the mean time, it is for the Interest of the Church of GOD that 
 it should be known ; and, on that occasion, it may be said, ' Here is the 
 Patience and the Faith of Saints I And how long. Lord! how longl' 
 
 377
 
 As ALL THOSE poor Confessors had conceived some hopes, at 
 least divers of them, that the Peace that was treating at 
 Ryswick would bring some quiet to the Church ; and some ease 
 to its misfortunes, and perhaps their deliverance. 
 
 Perceiving that nothing came of it ; they could not forbear to 
 express some resentment itpon that account : as if there had been a 
 neglect in the Protestant Princes. But having been exactly informed 
 by somebody they had enquired of, about the state of things in that 
 respect ; and of the invincible obstacles that were found against the 
 good intentions, zeal, and charity, of the Protestant Princes and States : 
 they humbly shewed their submission to the will of GOD ; and resolved 
 to be patient, and to loersevere with an admirable confidence. And they 
 gave great examples of it. 
 
 For, since that time, their Evils have been increased, instead of 
 being abated ; as well as the Persecutions against the Protestants that 
 are yet in the Kingdom : for they have never ceased, nor been inter- 
 rupted, during the War [of 1689-1697] ; but have taken new forces and 
 new measures, that (if it were possible) they might the sooner ruin the 
 Protestant Religion. The Design whereof (if we believe the Panegyrists) 
 makes one of the most remarkable characters of the French King's zeal 
 and grandeur. 
 
 These j)oor Confessors have, since that time, had divers furious 
 attacks ; and [have] been exposed to a number of Miseries, of which 
 there had been no one instance before : and which are only put in use 
 against them, either by Orders from the Court ; or by the solicitations 
 of the Clergy, whose zeal is always passionate and furious ; or by the 
 advice of the Judges, Governors, Inteudants, Almoners, and Officers of 
 the Galleys ; who are strongly persuaded that it is their advancement 
 to hasten the ruin and the destruction of those that persist in the 
 Protestant Religion, and who (by the example of their Patience) 
 encourage others to persevere in it. 
 
 One of those Confessors says, in a Letter of the 29th of June 1699, 
 
 An Order is given on board all the Galleys, to put all 
 Protestants to the Chain again, that had bought themselves 
 off for their ease ; and to make them be present at Mass : 
 378
 
 The Fathers of the Mission direct the Almoners. 
 
 and, on the refusal of keeping themselves in the same 
 posture as the Roman Catholics, to give notice of it to 
 Monsieur the Commander of the Galleys. 
 
 And tliey have already treated two persons very 
 rigorously. The one on board the ' Valiant ' Galley, and 
 the other on board the ' Queen ' Galley : to whom they have 
 twice given the Bastinade on the Coursier \_Chasc Giiti] 
 most cruelly ; because they would not pull off their Caps, 
 and keep standing, as the Roman Catholics, when Mass is 
 said. I leave you to imagine what cruelty will be exercised 
 against them ; when they shall be exposed, all naked, to the 
 tugging of the oar. 
 
 Two of those good Believers, DucLOS and Richakd, 
 have suffered that bloody flagellation, with an admirable 
 patience and constancy. Before they gave the Bastonade 
 to the first ; a wicked Sub Officer over the Slaves had 
 stunned him with kicks on the head, to endeavour to make 
 him stand up : and the Lieutenant (who is an unhappy 
 Apostate ; and who caused the Bastonade to be given him) 
 caused him afterwards to be manacled ; and caned the 
 Turks to make them strike harder. But their constancy, 
 instead of discouraging those wicked Persecutors, animated 
 them the more against them ; threatening them with more 
 terrible Evils : while Messieurs the Almoners, who are their 
 adversaries, make it their delight to have them treated so 
 barbarously. 
 
 Are not these (adds the Confessor) good Disciples of 
 Jesus Christ, and charitable Ministers of the Gospel ! who 
 use such means to submit Souls to the obedience of him, 
 who says, 'Learn of me; for I am humble and meek ! ' They 
 are Children of him who is a Murderer from the beginning. 
 And that which is strange is, that while they treat us so 
 cruelly, they have the impudence to tell us, That the 
 Church does not love shedding of blood ; and that people 
 ought to be drawn by mildness. 
 
 As for what remains, (says he again) they are the 
 zealous Fathers of the Mission of France (that are Directors 
 of the Hospital of the Galley Slaves ; and that settle 
 Messieurs the Almoners in their employ), who have, as it 
 is said, extorted that Order from a Minister of State : which 
 can hardly be believed, that such an ingenious [ciiUivated^ 
 Minister has been caj)able of giving so cruel an Order, and 
 so wicked, and contrary to Justice as well as Humanity. 
 
 379
 
 Huguenots chained under the Tent at the Stern. 
 
 In the mean time, see how they behave themselves 
 towards these poor people. 
 
 In the first place, the Almoners caused them to be 
 fastened to the Chain in the Stern Quarter; near their 
 altars. Then they tell them, That they should not pretend 
 [think, atte))ipt^ to come, and commit any irreverence to 
 their altars ! 
 
 To which those Confessors answer. For what reason is 
 it, that they chain them so maliciously near the Stern : 
 and do not give them the liberty, as other Slaves, to go to 
 the fore part of the Galley, from under the Tent, with the 
 Turks : and then they could not scandalize them. 
 
 But they will not hear those reasons ; but say, ' The 
 King will have it so ! ' 
 
 There would be (continues he) a hundred times more 
 reason to make them go to the fore part with the Turks, 
 tlian the Primitive Church had formerly to make the 
 Catechumens go out of the Temple, when they were going 
 to celebrate the Eucharist. 
 
 I 
 
 380
 
 WE HAVE BEEN informed since, by our Martyr's Letters, and 
 by those of others, that the treatment which they received 
 was come to a point of Cruelty of which there is no example, 
 nor practice, on board the Galleys : insomuch that they have 
 been obliged to present a Petition to the Intendant [which was written 
 by Monsieur D. S. L., see page 384] . 
 
 And seeing that Request has made so much noise at Marseilles, and 
 at the Court, where it was sent ; and that it produced the effects which 
 we shall see hereafter: it is fit the public should see and judge of it. 
 It is this. 
 
 To nuj Lord, the Intendant, etc. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 THE PROTESTANTS THAT are on board His 
 Majesty's Galleys have never dared to represent to 
 your Grandeur, the punishments which they have 
 suffered, for so many years past, in common with 
 the Galley Slaves : which are more than sufficient 
 to afflict them. 
 
 But, my Lord, if they dare [to] open their mouth at 
 this time, it is not to complain of those that are imposed 
 on them more than on those wretched persons : but only to 
 inform your Greatness of it, who, doubtless, will abhor it ; 
 [they] being contented to suffer, afterwards, what you 
 please ! 
 
 They supplicate your Lordship then, to permit them to 
 inform you, with the most profound respect. 
 
 That the weakest among them are made to row in the 
 posts, where the most vigorous can hardly hold it, under a 
 shower of blows. 
 
 They give them Bastinados, and Double Bastinados, on 
 the naked body, on the benches, or on the Great Gun. 
 
 Being sick in the Hospital ; they take them from 
 among the Turks (which is their common post), and place 
 them among the Roman Catholics : to have a pretence \_an 
 excuse~\ to load them with chains, on the refusal they make 
 
 381
 
 The Petition of the Husruenot Slaves in June. 1700. 
 
 '& 
 
 to adhere to their Mysteries ; which they expose to their 
 sight on purpose. 
 
 Some of them, they cause to be tied with cords to the 
 benches ; with their hands to their backs. 
 
 Others they drag to the Stern of the Galleys, where 
 they perform their Divine Service; and where they are 
 soundly beaten. 
 
 Others are actually kept in the ' Roujole,' the Sink 
 \_Bilge^ of the Galley ; where it is impossible to lie down 
 or stand. 
 
 They are deprived of the least advantage that the 
 greatest villains on board the Galley enjoy. 
 
 It would tire your patience, my Lord, if we should give 
 you a longer particular of the hardships which they make 
 them suffer. 
 
 To exercise, with Authority, those Excesses of Violence; 
 they have been blackened at the Court, and before Monsieur 
 the Commandant of this place, for having intercepted his 
 orders. 
 
 They Avill not, my Lord, tire your Honour with the 
 rehearsal of the bad ideas that have been given of them ; 
 nor that which might justly be opposed to them. But what- 
 soever is reported of them ; GOD knows their innocency, 
 and the candour of their conduct ! which is, by his grace, 
 without reproach towards Men ; except their inviolable 
 affection which they have for their Religion is counted a 
 crime to them, which they have sucked in with their 
 milk : and which being the only cause for which they are 
 condemned to the Galleys ; they ought to have no other 
 punishment inflicted on them than those which their 
 Condemnation bears, according to the Laws of Equity, and 
 the intention of our great Prince; who, by his royal bounty, 
 would not suffer this Re-doubling of Punishments, if it 
 should come to his knowledge. 
 
 Whatsoever bad pencil they make use of, to describe 
 them : they cannot represent them otherwise than that 
 their Sacred Maxim always is, To fear GOD, to honour the 
 King, and to be his faithful Subjects, and friends of the 
 Community ; as Saint Peter exhorts us to. 
 
 As for what remains, what Afflictions soever they can 
 make them feel ; they suffer them, b}'^ GOD's assistance, 
 with all the patience and submission that the holy Gospel 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ requires of his true Disciples; 
 382 
 
 I
 
 1700. The Search for the Author of the Petition. 
 
 and they will never discontinue their prayers for those 
 very persons that add any weight whatsoever to their 
 Affliction : chiefly for the happy preservation of our in- 
 vincible Monarch, That GOD will be pleased to bless him, 
 Avith his choicest blessings of Heaven above and Earth 
 beneath ; and maintain peace in his dominions, with a 
 flourishing prosperity to his heart's desire. 
 
 They will not fail to pray to GOD also for your 
 Honour, my Lord ; and for those that belong to you. 
 
 '\\Tio would not have thought, but that the sight of such a Petition 
 would have moved some compassion for those poor afflicted persons ; 
 and that (without favouring them with what they did not ask) orders 
 would be given to do them that Justice which they had reason to hope 
 for, on [in respect to] the Ee-doubling and aggravating their Punish- 
 ments, and the wrongs that were done them : against all the rules of 
 Justice, and against the usage and practice of the Galleys; where they 
 never (at least, without cause) increase the Punishments of those that 
 are condemned there, beyond what the Sentence of their Condemnation 
 bears ; unless they commit new crimes. 
 
 In the mean time, the Petition was so far from prodvicing that 
 effect, that it served only to confirm and increase those Extraordinary 
 Punishments and Rigours, which they represented in it to Monsieur the 
 Intendant. 
 
 It happened to them, just as it did to the afflicted People of GOD in 
 Egypt, when Moses and Aaron presented themselves before Pharoah 
 to ask the liberty for that People to go and sacrifice to their GOD: who, 
 instead of granting it them, caused their yoke to be doubled. ' You are 
 idle I you are idle! therefore you say, "Let us go, and do sacrifice to 
 the Lord I" Go, therefore, now and work! for there shall be no straw 
 given you ; yet shall ye deliver the tale of [the] bricks.' 
 
 Their labours have been increased on the occasion of that Petition ; 
 which served only to make them more rigorously treated than before. 
 
 The Petition (says one of the Confessors, in a Letter of 
 the 28tli of June 1700) having been sent back from the 
 Court : instead of its being verified or recorded, and to see 
 if the truth had been declared in it ; the Intendant's 
 Secretary endeavoured only to find him out, that might be 
 the Author of it. 
 
 For that purpose, he went on board some [of the] 
 Galleys ; questioning those whom he suspected. Some of 
 those that were in the Roujole \_BiIge'], and consequently 
 
 383
 
 Monsieur D. S. L. at once owns the authorship. 1700. 
 
 in the misery mentioned in the Petition, were first 
 examined. 
 
 Afterwards, that Secretary, leaving the other Gallerians, 
 went to Monsieur D. S. L.; and shewing him the Petition, 
 he owned the fact immediately, saying, That he thought it 
 unworthy for a good man, and chiefly for one that is called 
 in question for the Trutli, to tell a lie. 
 
 In the mean time, that Gentleman threatened him 
 terrihly at first. 
 
 Two days after, the Captain came ; who, speaking more 
 civilly to him, made him comprehend that that business 
 might draw other disgraces upon him. 
 
 And, indeed, it set all these Gentlemen of the Mission, 
 the Almoners of the Galleys, and divers other passionate 
 persons, against him : who pretended to be offended by that 
 procedure ; and, looking upon him as the Author of that 
 Piece, did their endeavour to ruin him. 
 
 He has been threatened with a Dungeon : which is (said 
 he) to serve for a grave before his death. 
 
 They have writ [ten] to the Court about it; and repre- 
 sented him as a monster, that ought to be exterminated 
 without relief. I am (said he) disposed to {jprepm^ed for~\ 
 all events ; knowing that my Enemies' strength depends on 
 him in whom I hope : who will limit their power and their 
 intrigues ; if he sets none to their calumnies, and their 
 unjust desires. 
 
 It is also thought that there was a particular Order 
 from the Court, to keep him close shut up. 
 
 In the mean time, it appears plainly that the Court is 
 much prepossessed against us ; to condemn the very Com- 
 plaints that are put forth in the bitterness of the hardship 
 that is felt. They do not use the Turks and Barbarians 
 so, that are Slaves with us : for they are heard, and have 
 Justice done them. 
 
 We shall see, in the sequel, how, since that time, the hardships of 
 those beloved Confessors have increased ; and the means they have 
 used to do it. 
 
 389
 
 IN THE MEAN WHILE, Monsieur Le Fevre, who felt those Cruelties 
 continually in his Dungeon, and who was so far from seeing them 
 either to end or diminish, that (in spite of all the Complaints which 
 
 he daily made) he saw them rather to continue and increase, had 
 also a design to prefer a Petition on his own behalf, as the other Con- 
 fessors had done, after he should have his Pastor's opinion of it : to 
 whom he writ expressly on that subject, in the month of November 
 1699. Who approved the design, not finding any inconveniency in it ; 
 because they could use him no worse than they did : and if it proved 
 ineffectual for his relief (as it was more likely than otherwise), it would, 
 at least, be a Witness, before GOD and Men, against the Authors of 
 those Injuries and Cruelties. 
 
 But the counsel which he requested on that subject was accom- 
 panied with a strong and sincere Protestation of his compliance to the 
 will of GOD ; and a constant resolution of continuing to glorify him 
 until the last breath of his life, by his Patience and Perseverance in the 
 Faith : as all the other Confessors do, that acquit themselves, in a very 
 edifying manner, of the Dvities of Christianity ; and that keep a holy 
 correspondence on [obsei-vcnice of] that subject more exactly and more 
 zealously than that which is performed in the Societies of the Churches 
 that are free ; admonishing and correcting each other with charity and 
 brotherly love ; attending to their duties as much as is possible ; 
 Fasting, Praying, and Exhorting each other continually, by word and 
 writing, to piety and good works. 
 
 Our Martyr seeing the little success, and also the vexatious 
 consequences which his brethren's Petitions had ; and, it may be, not 
 having, at that time, the liberty for it (for sometimes he was deprived 
 of all conversation [co7-respoiidence] ; and without being able to give any 
 news of himself, or receive [any] from others) : he had no great hopes 
 to succeed in his Complaints ; not seeing any likelihood that they were 
 better disposed towards him than to his brethren. 
 
 He knew, by experience, that they were not favourably disposed 
 towards him. For, from the year 1689, two charitable Ladies, of his 
 kindred, had presented a Petition to the Intendant, Monsieur de 
 MONTAIOET, to obtain his liberty ; on a just suggestion which they 
 made of his weak and languishing condition. But no regard was had 
 to it. 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 25 385
 
 1687-1702. Le Fevre wrote much in his Dunj^reon 
 
 &' 
 
 So that he continued in his Misery and Sufferings: but always 
 occupied in holy meditations ; and in sending Prayers, Litanies, Para- 
 phrases on the Psalms, Elegies, and Pieces of Christian Poetry, to his 
 brethren and his other friends, for their edification; desiring their 
 opinion and correction of them. 
 
 A little after he was put into the Dungeon of [Fort] Saint Jean, he 
 began a Sonnet in praise of the King : which (he says) he communicated, 
 without much reflection upon it, to the Commander. . . . 
 
 We have several Paraphrases of his, on all the Psalms; the 
 translation of 'The Imitation of Christ' into Verse; Elegies, and 
 Epistles to William, King of England, of glorious memory; which, 
 being joined together, would make a great Volume, that might be made 
 public, if thought fit. All, or most of, those Pieces are at Geneva; 
 where they talk of printing them : but that kind of Works has need to 
 be reviewed again. 
 
 Having heard, at that time, that a particular Memoir was presented 
 to His Britannic Majesty, to desire the deliverance of those poor Captives, 
 particularly the infirm and others; among whom they had placed him, 
 under the name of Ishmael Le Fevee, Advocate at Dijon, instead of 
 Advocate in the Parliament of Paris: he wrote, and sent (as was 
 reasonable) a particular Memoir of his condition ; Avherein he represented 
 the length of his Sufferings, and the Rigours they had exercised, and 
 continued to exercise, against him. 
 
 In such a manner (as he said) as was not practised 
 against any, keeping him shut uj) close in a place where he 
 believed never any Prisoner had been put before him, of 
 which he describes the insupportable inconveniences ; and 
 wherein he remarks there was no light, but from about noon 
 until the hour that they brought him his su^^per; without 
 having once been let out of it, for divers years, to take the 
 air [_for exercise'] , as is practised with other prisoners. 
 
 He had complained of all this, as he was advised ; and as he notes 
 in one of his Letters, in June 1700. 
 
 According as you advised me (says he, to his Pastor), 
 in the last Letter you honoured me with ; I complained of 
 the corruption and malignity of my provisions ; and the 
 pains they brought upon me : but I was little the better for 
 it. Those that have undertaken to make me renounce my 
 holy Religion, say and do what they please. They have 
 habituated themselves to do evil ; and all the satisfaction 
 386 '
 
 ' The King will not contradict himself ! ' 
 
 they have given me is, that they send me word, by my Nurse's 
 daughter. That they gave me such water as the Commander 
 drank, and that they gave me the best of what they eat 
 themselves ; That I was sick, and had lost my taste ; That 
 •everybody desired my liberty ; and that it was only my 
 fault that I had it not. But when they deny the most 
 evident and palpable things ; I have nothing to answer, but 
 that I am here to suffer. 
 
 Nevertheless, my most dear and honoured Pastor, I can 
 sincerely protest unto you that the corruption and malignity 
 of the food which they give me, has strange effects on my body. 
 
 I shall not explain the particulars of them to you ; but 
 remark only these two. The one is, that it commonly made 
 me void more or less blood out of my body. Formerly I had 
 some days of ease : but, for some time past, there is no 
 more of that. It is my daily bread. The other is, that, 
 very often, it brings the Colic [^sjjasms^ into my breast 
 and stomach, for divers hours. The last fit made me suffer 
 violent pains, from the evening unto the next morning. I 
 vomited sharp and bitter waters by fits : and, as they came 
 up, my pain increased also. 
 
 For some time, I thought it was beyond what the Judge 
 intended ; or to explain myself more particularly, I could 
 hardly think that the Court took notice of such small 
 matters : but Monsieur de Montmort, formerly Intendant, 
 would not leave me in that thought. 
 
 Some days before the Peace [of Ryswick on September 11 
 1687 O.S.], he sent a citizen of Marseilles to me; who said, 
 He was a Physician ; and that he was ordered to inspect the 
 food that was given me. 
 
 I was afterwards visited by another person, Avho answered 
 me, being required to do it. That he came from Monsieur DE 
 Montmort ; who executed the Orders of the Court. 
 
 But, after those proceedings ; they redoubled the dose : 
 and the Fever, joining with other inconveniences, reduced 
 me to keep my bed three or four days. 
 
 This is confirmed by the conversation I had with the 
 Governor, the Major of the place who is at present Com- 
 mander, and a Person of Quality, whose name I know not. 
 The latter, after some discourse, spake to me thus, ' You 
 ought rather to yield to what these Gentlemen tell you, 
 than to the solicitations and arguments of the Clergy : 
 for, in short, you may be assured, That the King will not 
 
 387
 
 Le Fevre wishes his Pension to he stopped. 
 
 contradict himself ! ' He added, ' If you had lived like a Saint ; 
 we should he less surprised at your resolution !'.... 
 
 And, ou this occasion, be desired that tbey should persuade a 
 Relation and friend of his, who was so charitable as to allow him a 
 Pension, which he paid for him, to stop the same ; seeing that, for so 
 many years past, they had made such an inhuman use of it : pretending 
 [alleging] it might procure him some ease, saying, Providence would 
 take care of him I 
 
 So long as I had money, I made no scrujjle of putting 
 it in the liands of the Officers of the Fort. I have signed 
 all the Bills [of Exchange] they have presented [to] me ; and 
 all those they required of me. 
 
 He adds, That he ought not to forget to mention what 
 a Knight of the Order of Saint Louis had repeated two or 
 three times to him, to wit. That it was not for his Religion 
 that he was taken out of the Galleys, to be put into Prison: 
 but because he writ, together with DE Marolles, into 
 foreign countries ; and that he had made Verses against 
 the King. 
 
 I uiidertook (said he) to prove that imputation false: 
 and I always told that Gentleman, That he was the only 
 person that durst say any such thing ; and so ill invented. 
 And, indeed, I did not begin to write into foreign countries, 
 and to make Verses, till I was detained a Prisoner at this 
 Fort : where I made but an indifferent Sonnet in praise of 
 the Kiug. My intention was good. 
 
 Besides, when I was brought hither, Monsieur de 
 ScoRHiYE, Commissary of the Galleys, to whom I had been 
 recommended, told me, ' It was to ease me.' In truth, if it 
 was intended so ; it was very ill performed. 
 
 As for what remains, it is very likely that they bad a mind to make 
 him away, by that ill treatment and that corruption of food : as tbey 
 did to Monsieur de Marolles, in making bim to fast, and almost starve, 
 in Prison ; and it was that, indeed, that hastened bis death. But it 
 pleased GOD to preserve bis person longer, in spite of the violence 
 and injustice of bis Persecutors, for the consolation of his dear 
 Companions ; and the edification of the Church of GOD, which is so 
 much honoured bv bis Patience and Perseverance. 
 
 388
 
 IT WAS SO far, as we have remai-ked, from any regard having been 
 had to the jnst complaints of the General Petition presented by 
 the Confessors of the Galleys, as all the Rules of Justice and all 
 
 Human Laws required, that, after that time, the condition of those 
 poor aflBicted persons grew worse, their pains and labours were increased, 
 and New Inventions and Ways were found out for pretences to torment 
 them ; and to avenge the Missionaries, Almoners, and others, for the ill 
 success of the pains they took to convert those pretended [so called] 
 Heretics: who, by their Patience and Perseverance in their holy 
 Religion, confounded their pernicious designs. 
 
 For it is not [to be] questioned, but that it was from the artifices 
 and the suggestion [s] of those good-natured Clergy (Ministers, not of 
 Jesus Christ ; but of that Apocalyptical Beast, that was to be made 
 drunk with the blood of the Saints [Rev. xvii. 6.] ) that what they call 
 the Bastinado was invented [that is, applied to the Confessors] : which 
 is the most cruel and rigorous of all the punishments that they make 
 use of in the Galleys, and that only, on the greatest villains, and in 
 extraordinary cases ; and which they have found proper to put in use 
 against our Confessors, as being judged most efficacious to triumph 
 over their Faith and their Patience. 
 
 They had, indeed, made use of it against divers among them, on 
 certain occasions ; as has been observed in the person of the glorious 
 Martyr, Pierre Mauru. But the barbarity was not so general, neither 
 for the causes, nor on the pretences, they took, in those Times, to 
 exercise it against so many innocent persons. I mean, against all those 
 that would not comply with their idolatrous Worship, or take off their 
 Caps while they were performing, what they call, the Divine Service : 
 which, for that reason, they placed them, before they began, in such 
 places where they might be spectators of it; as the other Roman 
 Catholic Galley Slaves. 
 
 But few persons are ignorant of the History of the Bastinado. It 
 may be said, that all Europe has been informed of it ; and abhorred it. 
 And we are willing to do our unhappy nation that justice to believe, 
 that there are a great number, I will not only say of those that are good 
 men, but [of] many others; and it may be also, a good number of the 
 Clergy (whose zeal is not altogether so passionate and furious), that 
 
 389
 
 First Storm and Fury of the Bastinados. June i699— July 1701. 
 
 heartily detest those cruel and bloody Executions, that are exercised on 
 account of Eeligion. 
 
 I do not pretend [attempt] to write an exact and particular History 
 of it here. Divers Eelations have been seen of it in several places, 
 that have been printed ; with the names of those that suffered it, and 
 of the Galleys on which they endured the Torment. 
 
 I shall only speak summarily of it, and with respect to what our 
 Martyr informed us of it, in his Letters : wherein he thought it was 
 material to acquaint us [with] what he knew of it, by the few Relations 
 that were sent him from the Galleys to his Prison, for his holy con- 
 solation and pious exhortations on that subject; and by what we find 
 of it, in some of those Confessors' Letters to our, and their, friends. 
 
 We see in one of those Relations, printed at Amsterdam, the Title 
 whereof is, 
 
 A Relation of the Cruelties that are at present exercised on our 
 Brethren of France, on board the Galleys ; according to the true 
 Advices from Marseilles.'' 
 
 I say, we see there the names of above Thirty of those innocent 
 persons, of all ages and conditions, soundly beaten, at divers times, 
 and on board divers Galleys. 
 
 I shall take notice of some of them, that I find in my Memoirs ; 
 and describe the most memorable circumstances of the Torments of 
 some of them ; which the Extracts, that are sent us, mention. 
 
 The epoch [time] of the beginning of this kind of Massacre is noted 
 to us from about the end of the year [or rather from June] 1699 [, see 
 page 378] ; which have continued above a year, not having ceased until 
 about the month of July 1701 : which was done by the Fury and 
 Malice of the Missionaries ; who, by false information, have surrep- 
 titiously obtained Orders from the Court, as it is px'etended [alleged] , 
 to cause the Bonnet or Cap to be taken off, during the Service ; and 
 to punish them that refvTsed to do it. 
 
 In consequence whereof, the Officer that commanded in the Port, 
 went on board the Galleys ; and caused that Bastounade to be given to 
 divers, that refused to take off their Caps. 
 
 Being tired with that sad spectacle ; he sent the Major of the 
 Galleys to perform those inhuman Executions : and, with divers sweet 
 words mixed with rigorous threatenings, he gained some of them ; and 
 made the rest to be carried away by force, and ill treated. But those 
 that had promised, acknowledged their favilts ; and i^rotested that they 
 would take off their Caps no more : resolving rather to suffer the worst, 
 than yield to the Enemy. Some of them have had the Bastonnade 
 
 * The contemporary English trans- I reprinted at pp. 281-302. — E. A. 
 latiou of the Tract, of 1700, has been | 
 390 
 
 I
 
 The Storm was great on the Galleys in harbour. 
 
 two or three times, on that occasion [accotcnt] . 
 
 The Storm was great on board of all the Galleys that were in 
 harbour ; except that wherein the Old Men and Invalids were : where 
 nothing was said at that time ; fearing, perhaps, to give them the 
 Crown of Martyrdom too soon. Those that were at sea were also 
 exempted from it. 
 
 Some of the Officers, that presided at those fine Executions, 
 exhorted them only to take off their Caps, by way of civility ; and not 
 to give any scandal : and that they did not desire them to change their 
 Religion. 
 
 ' Take off your Cap ! Look towards the Stern ! ' said the Major to 
 any, whom he had a mind to lash, ' and, afterwards, pray to GOD ! 
 Calvin ! or whom thou wilt ! ' 
 
 And as some of the weakest had some scruples, under the umbrage 
 [excuse] of that Civility ; and some inclination to comply with it, to 
 avoid such great punishments : they were fortified against it, by their 
 other brethren. They yielded wholly to their Exhortations ; and were 
 confirmed in them, by what a Pastor writ to them, whom they had 
 desired to do it. 
 
 391
 
 Here is an Extract of a Note from Marseilles ; that 
 precedes what we have related, some months. [October 1700.] 
 
 THEY HAVE UNMERCIFULLY butchered our 
 brethren on board the Galleys that were not at sea, 
 for justly refusing to i)ut off their Bonnets leaps'] 
 during the Service : and they have been so exasper- 
 ated against those that shewed an unshaken 
 constancy, that they have put them in such a condition as 
 would make the rocks to tremble, if they were capable of 
 any sense. After that barbarous usage; they carried divers 
 of them, who were constant, to the Hospital. 
 
 The first time they gave that cruel Bastonnade to 
 Monsieur Serres the Elder; he had almost expired under 
 the burden of that punishment : as you will see, by one of 
 his Letters, which I annex to this. 
 
 I leave you to think, in what a pitiful condition they 
 put him, the next morning ; when they gave it him again 
 in such a cruel manner, that the blood gushed, or at least 
 spurted out, upon the Great Gun. \_TJie Chase Gun, at the 
 Proiv, on the Coursier or raised Gang-way, hettreen tJie two 
 rows of Slaves.] 
 
 From thence, he was carried to the Hospital. From 
 whence, after GOD had miraculously recovered him, he was 
 transferred to the Castle of J.F. ; and there he is left, with- 
 out so much as giving him an old straw bed to lie on. GOD 
 be praised ! we have heard from him. His almost broken 
 bones make him feel great pains all over his body. 
 
 The two Messieurs Carriere's, that underwent the 
 same inhumanities, are transferred also to the same place. 
 
 Poor Monsieur Elie Maurin, who was twice put upon 
 the rack, is shut up in the Hospital, with bread and water. 
 
 Monsieur le Houstales, and others, are still very sick. 
 
 Alexandre [Astier, see page 274], of the 'Magnanime,' 
 Galley, has been tortured four times with a tarred rope, 
 dipped in the sea ; which makes it as hard as an iron bar. 
 
 No ! what reason soever I have to comfort myself, (says 
 392
 
 T700. Pierre de Serres the Elder's Letter of October 18th. 
 
 that Confessor) and to wipe the tears from my eyes, for the 
 joy that the sublime glory of their Triumph ought to give 
 me : yet I cannot stop them, when I represent to myself 
 the horrible Martyrdom they have been made to suffer ; 
 and when I converse with those about it, that afflict their 
 Souls with me for them. Surely, the Deliverer draws near ! 
 seeing the number of the bricks are doubled. [Ex. v.] 
 
 Before all things, Monsieur my dear Ally, and most 
 honoured Pastor (It is Monsieur Le Fevee that speaks 
 here ; and who sends those Extracts) , I invite you to come 
 and see what may be called a Man, more than Vir prodigii, 
 who, like a brave Soldier, is never more ardent, than on 
 [the] occasion, and in the midst, of danger. The ruder the 
 shock is, the more his heart is inflained ! Notwithstanding 
 all the sores he is covered with ; he is yet preparing for 
 greater combats ! 
 
 An Extract of a Letter, that Monsieur de Serres the Elder 
 
 ivrit, the 8th of October 1700, with a bloody and torn body, 
 
 and manacles on his Jiands ; tvith this Inscription 
 
 To the dear Faithful, that have not been ashamed of 
 me, in my chains ; Peace, Love, and Grace of our Lord, be 
 communicated and multiplied unto you to the end ! 
 
 Gentlemen, Ladies, and Brethren ; whom I love in 
 Jesus Christ, 
 
 I WRITE TO you, with manacles on my hands ; and 
 the Marks of my Divine Jesus printed on my back. 
 C, and another, that went before me, having 
 obeyed, after four blows with the cudgel ; the Major 
 came to me. 
 He told me a parcel of idle Stories : to which I answered 
 in few, but sedate, words. That he might do his Office ! 
 
 My resolution animated him against me : so that he 
 gave me tlie cruellest blows in the World ; and my Soul was 
 almost expiring. 
 
 He would have had me to comply, by forbearing to 
 strike me : but seeing me to persist in my resolution, he 
 was enraged. 
 
 My constancy, which was an example to others, gave 
 them courage : but I am deceived. It was the Celestial 
 
 393
 
 Pierre de Serres the Elder's Letter of October 18tli. 1700. 
 
 Grace ! What thanks do I owe to my GOD for the inestim- 
 able favour he has done me, to suffer for the Interests of 
 his Glory! Let all Christian people praise him with me! 
 To which I invite you, dearly Beloved in the Lord ! But, 
 above all, faithful Souls, pray him to give me the gift of 
 Perseverance ! that I may hold out to the end ! without 
 which, all the rest would be vain ; and I should be covered 
 with eternal confusion. 
 
 As the Major was yet treating our brethren ill; and 
 that, by his order, they were putting manacles on me : a 
 man came hither from Monsieur the Intendant, whose name 
 is Monsieur Regis ; who whispered the Major in the ear, 
 and showed him a Memoir. 
 
 Presently, I was asked for: and the Major said to him, 
 with a threatening tone, ' O, it is Monsieur Serres ! I have 
 lashed him severely : but, this evening, I will lash his back, 
 so that he shall feel it as long as he lives ! ' 
 
 So that, my dear friends, I am preparing myself for 
 death ; and shall be happy, if I die in the Faith. They 
 desire it more to me, than to all my companions together. 
 
 It is thought, that I shall be, this evening or to-morrow, 
 at the Castle of J. F.; after they have put me to the Torture. 
 I wish it was this hour ; for it would spare me an inexpres- 
 sible Torment. 
 
 I have served my brethren in the Forts, and here ; with 
 the hazard of my life ! I have exhorted them as well as I 
 could ; and served them for an example. May it please the 
 Father of Mercy that I do not degenerate ! In the name of 
 the Lord, implore the assistance of GOD, that I may remain 
 victorious ! Accompany me, wdth your prayers, in my 
 Dungeon ! If I am carried thither, I shall not lose sight of 
 you : but shall, for ever, preserve the remembrance of your 
 bounties, charity, and tenderness ! May it please GOD to 
 give you ample rewards for it, in this life ; and Eternal 
 Happiness in that wdiich is to come ! 
 
 I embrace and honour you, with all my heart ! and am, 
 and ever shall be. Gentlemen and Ladies, Brethren and 
 Sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 Your most humble, and most obedient. Servant, 
 [Pierre de] Serres. 
 The 18th of October 1700, 
 on board the ' Fortune ' Galley. 
 
 All this was written with that Martyr's own hand. 
 394
 
 * Our triumph will bring honour to the Church.' 
 
 No ! that I may be suffered to say so, (adds he, whose 
 History I write) there is none but the Spirit of Jesus Christ 
 that can cause any body to act and speak thus, on the like 
 occasion : therefore eternal Praise and Glory ought to be 
 given to him for it ! 
 
 Monsieur Le Fevre says, That brave Confessor was 
 in those holy and courageous dispositions before he entered 
 in the combat : which he shews by an Extract of Letters to 
 his dear brother that was in the Port of Genoa. Wherein, 
 after having spoken of divers Confessors that had been 
 cruelly tormented (to wit. Messieurs Carriere, and Fajan, 
 a Proselyte, whose constancy had sustained so many assaults, 
 and disappointed the Almoner, who was a passionate man, 
 of his design: and four that were on board the 'Magnanime,' 
 Galley, who suffered the Bastonnade twice) , he says. That he 
 was also threatened ; but that he was ready, and expected 
 all from the success of Grace : 'If we confess Jesus Christ,' 
 said he, ' before men ; he will confess us before his Father, 
 and the angels, etc' 
 
 ' If GOD makes us triumph ; our triumph will bring 
 as much honour to the Church of GOD as shame to 
 unchaste Babylon. Our victory will be her defeat : and the 
 means which she makes use of filling [up] the Cup of her 
 Abominations, her unhappy end of her dark reign will be 
 so much the nearer.' 
 
 In another [Letter], he says. That he is like a City 
 that is blocked up ; and which expects, every moment, to 
 be besieged by a formidable Army, that will put all to Fire 
 and Sword ; ' and I fortify myself against all attempts ; 
 and hope to disappoint the Design of all the forces that are 
 against me : because my eyes are upon GOD ! I conjure 
 you, to pray to him for me ! and for all those in the same 
 condition with me ! that we may be powerful and invincible 
 Wrestlers with GOD.' 
 
 This is (says our Martyr) a great example of strength ; 
 but also, at the same time, a mournful subject. I cannot 
 forbear to say. That it may be they never revenged themselves 
 more sadly, more uselessly, and in a more deplorable manner. 
 
 395
 
 The family of the de Serres. 1700. 
 
 To be thus treated (adds he) is called in Latin, 
 excarnificari [the flesh to he torn to pieces], if I am not 
 deceived. I would fain know, what names the French 
 Roman Catholics give to those fine Executions ? For, in 
 short, afjainst whom do they revenge themselves? Against 
 true Sheep ! Against Victims of Humility and of Patience; 
 that do not cease to pray for the conversion, and for the 
 prosperity, of those that flay us, and devour us ! 
 
 But in spite of all those torments ; this faithful Con- 
 fessor is yet living [March 1700], and continues to glorify 
 GOD in a Dungeon of the Castle of J. F. : into which 
 place he was removed, with divers other brethren, that 
 suffer there, like him, all the Horrors and Cruelties where- 
 with they are able to treat ' prisoners, whose Life and 
 Perseverance confound the false zeal of the Enemies and 
 Persecutors of the True Religion. 
 
 Meanwhile his younger brother suffered almost the 
 same Rigours, divers years, in a Dungeon of Fort Saint 
 Nicolas: where he w^as joined with the illustrious Monsieur 
 DE L'AusoNNiERE ; wlio was removed thither before him : 
 and who had been so great a succour and edifier to all his 
 brethren on board the Galleys and in the Prisons, by a great 
 many good and charitable Offices which he did [to] them, to 
 the hazard of his life ; and for which, he was shut up in the 
 Dungeon. 
 
 The third brother of Messieurs [de] Seeres continues on board the 
 Galleys, where he endures the same labours as the other Confessors ; 
 not having been exposed to the cruel and extraordinary Bastonnades of 
 those that were on board the Galleys that are in harbour : becavise he 
 was then at sea, in the Galleys that conducted the Cardinals that went 
 for Rome, to Civita Vecchia ; and which were [for] some time in the 
 harbour of Genoa. So that he did not arrive at Marseilles until after 
 the Storm of the Bastinados was over : which, as we have said, lasted 
 a little above a year [or rather from June 1699, p. 378, to July 1701, 
 p. 390]. 
 
 One of those three brothers, having been condemned to the Galleys 
 but for nine or ten years, ought, according to the course of Justice, to 
 have been set at liberty at the end of that term. It was demanded ; 
 and they solicited also for a pretty long time, after the expiration of 
 that time : but it was in vain. The Roman Catholic zeal, that will not 
 have them keep faith with Heretics, dispenses also Kings, Princes, and 
 Magistrates, with breaking of Treaties made with them ; to violate the 
 396
 
 1701. All Europe abhorred these cruel Bastonnades. 
 
 most sacred Edicts, and Laws, and Judgements, when it is advantageous 
 to them: which they observe rather to the greatest villains of mankind; 
 and to those that may be called, the Plagues of the Common-wealth. 
 
 It was in the same spirit that an Order being come from the Court, 
 to set all the ' Invalids,' those that had accomplished their time, and 
 those that had been condemned for deserting, at liberty; of whom there 
 were some of the Religion : there was another Order to strike them 
 out of the Roll of those that were to be set at liberty, if any had been 
 placed in it ; and forbidding any of them to be placed in it, for the 
 future. It is not said, by what Order; but there is no reason to believe 
 tb.at it comes from anywhere else, because they durst not do anything in 
 that regard, but by those Superior Orders : which do not want, on such 
 occasions, to be most powerfully solicited by our poor Confessors ' good 
 friends, the Missioners and the Clergy, as the matter of the cruel 
 Bastonnade was ; which may be very well said to be the work of those 
 l^ersons, w^ho (at the sight of those very Executions that were made of 
 them) had the impudence to say, That the Church did not love blood. 
 
 This ought to make us (say some of those Confessors, 
 in an excellent Letter which they writ on that subject) to 
 redouble our prayers for the conversion of our enemies ; and 
 [to] take the better heed to ourselves : considering that we 
 have still need of the Fiery Trial ; seeing that Providence 
 leaves us in it. GOD grant it may be, in his mercy, for 
 our sanctification and his glory ! 
 
 They had also demanded the deliverance and liberty of 
 some Vaudois, the Duke of Savoy's subjects, according to 
 the Orders he had given for it to his Ambassador at the 
 Court of France : and they had writ about it to Marseilles. 
 But as they were in hojjes to see the effect of it ; the 
 calumnies wherewith the Missionaries blackened those poor 
 people, and wherewith they had influenced the Court, have 
 hindered their deliverance hitherto. 
 
 This was written in the month of March 1700. 
 
 At last, the Fury of the Bastinado ceased in the year 1701 ; also by 
 Order from the Court. 
 
 It is very unlikely that it was in compassion of the Miseries of 
 those innocent Confessors of Jesus Christ ; seeing they have none for 
 so many and other unusual and extraordinary Miseries, to which the 
 other Galley Slaves are not exposed. 
 
 But as all Europe, all the foreign Princes and States of all Europe, 
 as well Roman Catholic as others, shewed an abhorrence of it; and could 
 not forbear to reproach the Ambassadors and Envoys; and other public 
 
 397
 
 * Tliey oiiain our feet ; but they cannot chain our Souls ! ' 1702. 
 
 and private persons of that Court whom they saw, for it : it made them 
 something ashamed, and they were ordered to cease, after some Infor- 
 mations made on board the Galleys by themselves of the state of things 
 in that regard [7'espect] ; where both the Missionaries and [the] Officers 
 excused themselves as well as they could, endeavouring to lessen the 
 heinousness of the facts. Some of them [, however,] impudently denying 
 it : but still retaining their hatred, passion, and spirit of revenge 
 against those poor afflicted Captives. After which, they had a kind of 
 calm for some months : but the Storm was not long from returning. 
 
 We have noted unto you, (say two of those famous Con- 
 fessors) by our Letter of July last (They Avrit this in January 
 1702), that we enjoyed some calm; but, a little while after, 
 they put us to the flhain again, and searched us very strictly. 
 They took all our books from us ; yea, though they were of 
 Roman Catholic Authors : as also the money which we had ; 
 however, that was returned to us again, the next day. But 
 if they had found any considerable sum, and had not kept 
 it : they would have returned it to us, penny by penny, to 
 the end that they on whom they found it, might not assist 
 their brethren with it, as they formerly did. For they have 
 always taken very great care to hinder charity among us ; 
 for which reason, divers have been shut up in Dungeons. 
 
 IMoreover, the Gentlemen IMissionaries caused the Order 
 to keep us to the Chain, to be renewed. 
 
 'We are', say the}^ 'a ]\lark and Laughing Stock to the 
 first comers ! ' : but we take heed to the Orders of Providence; 
 and we submit ourselves to its will ; without which, they 
 cannot hurt a hair of our head. Let the World despise us as 
 much as it pleases ; if it please GOD, the angels will acknow- 
 ledge us one day in glory ! The reproach of Jesus Christ is 
 better than all the honours and pleasures of the World. 
 
 They chain our feet : but they cannot chain our Souls ! 
 nor hinder them from mounting up to GOD ! 
 
 They make our Bodies labour and sweat : but our Soul 
 raises itself towards heaven, and unites itself to GOD, 
 rejoicing in the sense of its love ! 
 
 They shut us up in dark Holes ; and sequester us from 
 all society : but they cannot hinder GOD from visiting us, 
 in his love ; and his holy angels from keeping us faithful 
 company ! 
 
 In this manner, those generous Confessors comforted each other ; 
 giving glory to GOD, and edifying his Church. 
 398
 
 IN THE MEAN TIME, those poor Recluses in tlie Prisons and 
 Dungeons were no more spared, than those on board the Galleys. 
 Their misery continued: and [was] increased on some; having been 
 
 more strictly kept than usually. 
 
 Monsieur Le Fevre was one of those. For the ill treatment whereof 
 he complained, though in vain, continued until his death, or to the 
 approaches of his death ; which happened in the month of June 1702, 
 when GOD delivered him, at last, from all his Miseries : not having 
 been able, for above a year before, to receive any Letters froin any of 
 his friends on board the Galleys, and elsewhere ; nor to send any of his 
 to anybody whatsoever. 
 
 If [Madame Salicofpee,] a Lady of Marseilles saw him sometimes, 
 it was in the presence of such persons that did not give them the 
 liberty to discourse together of what they would willingly have done. 
 
 It was only known that he was living, but with many inconveniences 
 and Evils: and [was] growing, every day, weaker and weaker; but 
 always in the most pious and Christian dispositions that a Martyr of 
 Jesus Christ could be capable of. 
 
 So that, from the beginning of the year 1700 until that absolute 
 deprivation of all correspondence, we have had but two or three Letters 
 from him. 
 
 The one containing the Historical Extracts of the cruel Executions 
 of the Bastonnade ; which we have described. 
 
 Another, wherein he represents his miserable condition; and the 
 reasons he had to demand his deliverance, under the name of an ' Invalid,' 
 almost entirely consumed by the long continuance of his Sufferings. It 
 was, without doubt, because that he had heard that Lists were making 
 for that purpose, that were to be sent to the Court: not knowing, 
 j)erhaps, that those of the Religion were to be excepted out of it. 
 
 But not relying much xipon that, he prepared himself for death : 
 concerning which, his Pastor (who had been informed that the con- 
 tinuation of his Troubles had very much weakened him) writ to him, 
 io confirm him more and more in his glorious hopes ; for which he had 
 courageotisly fought, and continued yet to do. To which, making a short 
 recapitulation of his Troubles, he answers. That he will live and die in 
 that Faith. That they had taken the freedom of Money from him divers 
 times ; but that he preferred the hopes of his Salvation before all that. 
 ' 399
 
 Le Fevre's last letter of January 18tli. 1701. 
 
 Afterward, he desired them to take care to pay some small dehts, 
 which he reiueinbered ; and which were but of very little consequence. 
 
 The third and last was of the 18th of January 1701 : wherein he 
 answers another of that Pastor, on the same subject as the first. See 
 some Extracts of it here. 
 
 He says. The Apostle Saint James calls those blessed that have 
 persevered in their Sufferings. 
 
 I am not surprised, Sir, and my most honoured Pastor, 
 that you speak tlie same language to me : neither that you 
 add to it, That Fifteen years of Combat and Perseverance 
 against all the efforts of the Devil and tlie World are, with- 
 out contradiction, admirable dispositions for a happy death; 
 and an infallible security of a glorious reward. In speaking 
 thus, you suppose what is to be supposed. 
 
 But, alas, how trembling is this foundation in regard 
 to me ! What we do, is mixed with good and evil : and I 
 must confess that my best actions fall short of those inward 
 motions that ought to make them valuable. How can I 
 count them worthy [of] anything '? 
 
 It is true, that I am resolved to suffer; and to suffer all, 
 both life and death, as much as lies in me : and that I give 
 nobody cause to complain. But though I endeavour to live 
 well, and to attain to the glorious liberty of the Children of 
 GOD ; I force myself much, and advance but little. 
 
 And here it must be observed, That never anybody spake to him of 
 GOD's grace towards him ; of the opinions they had of his Faith and of 
 his Patience in his conflicts ; of the joy he ought to have of it within 
 himself ; and of the edification that others received by it : but that he 
 immediately oi)posed his defects, his weakness, and his imperfections, 
 against it ; and as he always was intent upon them, he would have 
 been willing that they would have set them often before his eyes. 
 
 Do not, my dear Pastor, (said he) give so much attention 
 to those little advantages, which you praise in me : but 
 remember, above all things, to pray that I may be delivered 
 from those great sins that are always in me. Testifying 
 also, in the mean time, everywhere great acknowledgements 
 to GOD for the Graces he had granted him ; and living 
 continually in a holy confidence in his mercy, and a solid 
 hope in his salvation. 
 
 As he was very much concerned to have his relations discharge 
 themselves of [discontinue] the Pension, which they allowed him for 
 400
 
 1701-02. No Letter from Le Fevre for seventeen months. 
 
 his subsistence; he pretended, That living upon what the King allows 
 for the maintenance of the Captives, they would not be so eager to 
 corrupt his food. I do not api^rehend for what reason. It may be, he 
 had a very good one for it ; which he did not tell. He insisted yet 
 extraordinarily on that subject, in his last Letter: and prays that his 
 generous benefactor might be persiTaded of it ; as he had formerly 
 desired him many times. 
 
 But that charitable relation thought he ought not to yield to such 
 desires, saying, as he himself reports it in his Letters on the abuse 
 which he said was made of that money. That he had answered him. 
 That he ought always to do his duty : and if they put that money to a 
 wrong use, it was so much the worse for them, that did it to the 
 prejudice of a poor Prisoner. 
 
 And upon this, he enlarges himself, in his acknowledge- 
 ments, in praises and in blessings to that charitable 
 relation, and his great family. And ends that last Letter, 
 which was of the 18tli of January 1701, with fervent and 
 most sincere prayers for his Pastor and his family : which 
 he never failed to do in all his Letters, but which he does 
 in this, with an extraordinary fervour; such as a pious 
 dying person does for his family and his friends, which was 
 a kind of Presage that it was his Last Benediction. 
 
 For, since that time, that is to say, a w^hole year and some months, 
 we have received none of his Letters : nor did he receive any that his 
 Pastor writ to him, in hopes that, at last, he might overcome the 
 difficulties that hindered the correspondence, as those of the brethren 
 on board the Galleys made us hope ; having, for their part, done all that 
 lay in their power, to bring it about. 
 
 One Lady [, Madame Salicoffre,] only had leave to see him some- 
 times, but very rarely, as we have said, in the presence of witnesses. 
 She found him always almost in the same resolutions as Saint Stephen 
 was in, that moment when they went to stone him, that is, full of 
 Faith and of the HOLY GHOST, and of all zeal and charity also for 
 his Persecutors. 
 
 The last time she saw him, was two days before his death. He 
 seemed to her very weak and lean : using, but in vain, and without 
 receiving (as he said to that Lady) any ease, the physic they would 
 permit to be given him. 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 26 401
 
 Madame Salicoffre's last visit to Le Fevre. 1702. 
 
 She went away very mucli edified by him ; recommending him to 
 the grace of GOD, and to those who (in that extremity of his life) 
 looked after him : with a promise that he should be interred, and put 
 into the ground, after his death, which happened the second day 
 following ; during which time, he had, with respect to his Soul, only 
 the presence of his GOD, and the consolations of his Spirit, for his 
 assistance. . . . 
 
 402
 
 BESIDES WHAT THE Lady Salicoffre, who had seen him two 
 days before his death, writ of him to a Lady of her acquaintance 
 at Paris ; some famous Confessors have taken care to inform us 
 of it also, by a Letter of the 14th of June 1702 ; that is to say, 
 two or three days after his death. 
 
 Finally (says Monsieur D. S. H. J. to us, in making 
 a kind of Eulogy or Panegyric on that blessed Martyr). 
 Finally, that blessed Champion of the Lord Jesus, the 
 most illustrious and the most generous of my Companions 
 in Sufferings, passed at eleven of [the] clock of night from 
 the bitterness of tlie Conflict to the ineffable svv'eets of the 
 magnificent Triumphs of the blessed Martyrs of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ. What glory ! what incomparable honour ! 
 was it for that famous Confessor to die in the field of 
 battle, in remaining more than Conqueror by that powerful 
 Saviour. But rather, what inexpressible happiness is it for 
 him, to have so well defended that good Master's Cause; and 
 to have received, of his merciful favour, the just prize of 
 the inviolable Fidelity that he had for him, the Crown of 
 Life, which he promised to all them that conquer. 
 
 See, I say, that holy Martyr passed from his long and 
 most uneasy Prison into the perfect liberty of the Children 
 of GOD ! from that dark dwelling that had served for a 
 Stable, and wherein there is yet a manger, into the Palace 
 of the King of Kings, all radiant with light! from his 
 tiresome solitude^into the company of the holy angels and 
 of his Companions in Service that are dead, like him, for 
 the Testimony of Jesus ! In a word, behold him passed to 
 the full possession of GOD himself; to enjoy the sublime 
 riches of his Glory, and taste the blessed Peace, to the 
 Eternal Consolation of his Soul ! 
 
 Certainly, the contemplation of his charming Glorifi- 
 oation stops my tears ; and so far am I from calling him 
 back to earth again by my sorrows, that I desire to dislodge 
 from under these Tents of Kedar, where they never speak 
 of Truce or Peace, to enter into that delightful Mansion of 
 
 403
 
 The Confessors afflicted at the death of Le Fevre. 1702. 
 
 the Prince of Peace! where Righteousness dwells; Avhich 
 will he incomparably better for me, than to remain longer 
 in this afflicting Abode of Mortals. 
 
 It is, my most honoured Pastor ! the sweet hope of 
 being one day with our good Jesus, to contemplate the 
 Glory that GOD gave him, that supports me in the long 
 course of Seventeen Years' labour in chains, that I endure 
 for his Gospel: and that hope will not confound me, by the 
 assistance of his Grace; wherein I most humbly place all 
 my confidence, to overcome all the Enemies of my salvation. 
 
 He adds, in another Letter, 
 
 All our Society is affiicted at that loss. The death of 
 our most precious Friend will particularly pierce my dear- 
 brethren his Associates with grief. The Lord comfort us all ! 
 
 He says, That he considered nobody in the World more 
 than his dear person, for his favours to him and his 
 brethren ; and for the consolations and edifications which 
 they all received of him. 
 
 When those on board the Galleys were informed of his 
 dying condition ; that dear Confessor had composed an 
 excellent Prayer, proper for the consolation of a Believer 
 that is going to give up his Soul to GOD : but they could 
 not send it him. Finally, he informs us, That they were 
 told, that the Commander, seeing him, after his death, 
 carried from the Prison, said to those that were with him, 
 ' See ! The mortification that this poor man suffered Six- 
 teen Years and Two Months in that Prison is something 
 wonderful ! ' This he repeated divers times : being doubt- 
 less forced to the admiration of that Martyr's Patience ; in 
 spite of so many Evils and trials that he suffered, and 
 which were known to that Officer. 
 
 ■»> 
 We learn, by another Letter from Messieurs B. B., posterior to that 
 of which we have given you an Extract, 
 
 That the same evening in which he died, they found 
 the means to give him the last Letter from his Pastor. 
 But, being near his end, and not able to read, he ordered it 
 to be carried back again, that those things might not be 
 found about him. 
 
 Those Confessors say, That he retained his senses to 
 the last. For a man, that saw him take some broth a little 
 405
 
 1702. Four Confessors carry him to his grave. 
 
 before night, told us, That he si)oke freely ; and that he 
 believed that he should die that night. As it also happened 
 about eleven of the clock. His lungs were touched some 
 time before : and, the three or four last days, he was taken 
 with a looseness [diarrhoea^ and vomiting, that weakened 
 him quite. 
 
 We were exceedingly afflicted at it : and being only able 
 to assist hiiQ with our wishes, we recommended our brethren 
 to redouble our prayers. 
 
 As for his corpse, Madame Salicoffee caused it to be 
 "wrapped up in linen, and laid in a coffin : and he was buried 
 by four of our brethren. 
 
 We are sorry that we could not collect what he might 
 have said in his sickness. He is dead : that is to say plainly, 
 He has conquered, by the grace of GOD. There remains 
 nothing more for him than to triumph with his Saviour ; 
 and to possess that Eternal Kingdom and Crown, which he 
 freely purchased for his Confessors and Martyrs. . . . 
 
 4C5
 
 HOWEVER, IT IS bj- the assistance of those Kings, Princes, _ 
 and Powers, of the World, that that Beast exercises its I 
 Furies and Tyranny against the Church of GOD and his ■ 
 Saints. It is, by her continual solicitations, that she " 
 obliges them to second her damnable Designs to destroy and ex- 
 terminate them wholly from the earth, if it were possible : and that she 
 inclines them, for that purpose, to violate all the Laws of Humanity ! 
 all the Laws of Society ! all the Rules of Justice ! their Words ! their 
 Oaths ! their most authentic and most inviolable Edicts and Declar- 
 ations ! according to that damnable principle, That no faith ought to 
 be kept with Heretics. 
 
 It is that, of which we have seen in the foregoing Ages, and in this 
 more than [in] any other, the fatal examples that all the World knows : 
 particularly in our unhappy country. 
 
 Where they have sacrificed to the furious zeal of the Clergy divers 
 Hundreds of Thousands of the Iving's good Subjects and faithful 
 Servants ; in whom no other crime was found than that of their 
 Religion. 
 
 Where they have cruelly pursued those that endeavoured to leave 
 it, to serve GOD at liberty in foreign countries ; filled the Prisons and 
 the Galleys with a great number of those poor fugitives ; and where they 
 put yet, every day, men, women, and children of all ages, of all sexes, 
 and of all Conditions [Quality] , in the Prisons, Galleys, and Convents. 
 
 Where they punish with death those that they discover in private 
 Assemblies to pray to GOD at liberty: and they unpardonably condemn 
 the Ministers and others (that go to instruct, comfort, and confirm them 
 in the Faith) to Gibbets, Racks, and to the most cruel punishments. 
 
 Where, by divers ways, they forced those that remained in the 
 Kingdom to go to Mass, to communicate, and participate in the 
 Idolatrous Worship that is practised here : leaving them, for that 
 purpose, to the discretion of the Clergy, Intendants, Governors, and 
 Judges of Provinces ; among whom, it is rare to find any Equity in that 
 regard [respecf] . 
 
 Though it may be, there are some of them that do it against their 
 will ; but, wjio, to make their Court, are obliged to perform those cruel 
 duties : and whose great reason, which they allege, for the Violences 
 which they commit is, That the King commands it. As if Kings and 
 ^06
 
 1703. ' God will require an Account of their Usurpations I ' 
 
 Princes are Masters of their Subjects' Consciences, as they are of their 
 Bodies and Estates. 
 
 Finally, where it has been, and yet may be, seen, the Clergy (Bishops, 
 Abbots, Priests, Monks), at the head of the Soldiers and Marshals' men, 
 perform their Mission in the places where there are yet any Protestants ; 
 and force them, by imprisonments and great fines, to do what they call 
 their 'duty': that is, to go to their Churches, and assist at the idolatrous 
 and superstitious Worship of their Religion ; and to send their children 
 thither, whereof divers examples might be alleged, if it were expedient. 
 
 All this is done with pomp ; and in the sight, and with the knowledge, 
 of all the World. All Europe is well informed of it, by true Relations 
 that are everywhere made of it. But GOD sees it also. He hears it. 
 He takes notice of it : and, one day, he will require an Account of all 
 those Powers, of their Usurpations over his Empire and his Rights. . . . 
 
 507
 
 An Extract of, A Memoir concerning 
 
 Monsieur Le Fevre, from Marseilles, 
 
 the 2 1 St of August 1702. 
 
 M' 
 
 ONSIEUR LE FEVRE, having been condemned to 
 the Galleys by the Parliament of Besan9on, came 
 sick to Marseilles, the 20th of August 1686. 
 
 He was presently looked upon, as a person fit 
 to support and strengthen his brethren and Com- 
 panions at the Chain, by his Exhortations and Consolations. 
 Therefore care was taken to observe him most exactly ; and 
 to take all the means fro-m him of holding correspondence 
 with his friends. 
 
 Having been some time on board the ' Grande Reale 
 and 'Magnifique' Galleys; where he was sent, by the 
 divident [^distribution] that is made every year of the Galley 
 Slaves : he was shut up, about the month of February, in 
 Fort Saint Jean, which is at the entrance of the harbour of 
 Marseilles, in a Dungeon, that had formerly served for a 
 Stable ; the windows whereof were so close [ly] shut up, 
 that there was but little light in it. 
 
 He was exposed there, to a mournful Solitude ; and to a 
 great number of hardships and rigours. And though he 
 paid a considerable Pension, besides the Five Sols [= 4d.] 
 that the King allows the Prisoners that are there ; yet he 
 was sufficiently abused [defrauded] in his provision and 
 his drink : for everybody is sensible that it is not good to 
 be in the hands of a covetous and inhuman Gaoler. 
 
 He was not suffered to have any fire in the severest 
 season of the Winter, to go out to take the air [for exercise] , 
 nor to write to his relations, nor to have any conversation 
 with the living : as he notes in a Letter which he writ to 
 one of his friends. But, in spite of the vigilance wherewith 
 he was kept, his brethren of the Galleys had found the 
 408
 
 1702. Le Fevre died on June 13tli. 
 
 means to communicate with him, by writing : which they 
 did for some years. 
 
 In the year 1696, a Serjeant (that delivered the Letters; 
 and who was well paid for it) was discovered ; and was 
 condemned to be hanged for it. He confessed that he had 
 carried Letters from one part to another ; but that he 
 believed he had done a good work for that solitary person ; 
 knowing, for a certainty, that there was no harm in those 
 Letters — that solitary person, nor those whom he corres- 
 ponded with, not being in a condition to do any harm. 
 
 After that time, the door of Monsieur Le Fevke's 
 Dungeon was guarded in sight. The Soldier that stood 
 Sentry before the Gate of the Governor's House, guarded 
 the Dungeon at the same time. 
 
 The Serjeant of the Guard, attended by two or three 
 Musketeers, brought him his provisions every day : and 
 when they went the rounds, they always asked him, 
 What he was doing ? So much care they took of guarding 
 him. 
 
 Notwithstanding all this, his brethren had yet some 
 correspondence with him ; according as they found Soldiers 
 fit for it. 
 
 But that correspondence was quite broke off, when 
 there was most occasion for it ; seeing that it was at the 
 time when our blessed Confessor began to be in Consump- 
 tion. They could no longer know how he did, but by the 
 Soldiers that brought him his food : who told us, That he 
 was well ; seeing that he did eat and drink : as those 
 commonly do that are touched in the lungs. 
 
 His distemper increasing daily ; he kept his bed alto- 
 gether in the month of June [1702]; and he had a vomiting 
 and looseness \_diarrhoea^ , that quite spent [exhausted^ 
 him. 
 
 He had his perfect senses until the last day : for a 
 Soldier told us. That the evening of the 13th of June, he 
 saw him take some broth : and, in taking it, said, with a 
 settled mind and submission to the will of GOD, that he 
 should not live that night over. AVhich was true. For, the 
 Gaoler's daughter, carrying some wine to him about eleven 
 a clock in the night, found him dead. 
 
 Monsieur the Commander told the person that came 
 
 509
 
 The Governor wondered he had lived so long. 1702. 
 
 to give him a visit, That he died at four of the clock in the 
 morning : but two Soldiers told us, That they were not yet 
 laid to sleejD; when the Gaoler's daughter came and told 
 them, that she found him dead. But what signifies the 
 hour ! It is certain that it was in the night, between the 
 13th and 14th of June 1702. 
 
 That Soldier, having one of our Letters for him, with 
 another from a charitable Pastor that was his relation ; he 
 said, He was too weak to read them ; that he should carry 
 them back again, and return them to the party from whom 
 he received them : not being willing they should find those 
 Writings after his death. A sign of his usual prudence 
 and wisdom. 
 
 The Commander had ordered the Gaoler to leave a man 
 with him in his Dungeon, to assist him that night ; seeing 
 he drew to an end : but the Gaoler did not do it. 
 
 He was wrapped in a winding sheet ; and put into a 
 coffin. 
 
 Orders were sent on board the Galley, to send four 
 Turks to bury him: but four of our brethren obtained leave 
 to go, in their stead ; to do their last duty to that faithful 
 Martyr of Jesus. He was buried in a corner of that Fort, 
 near the Ditch. 
 
 The Governor, seeing him dead, said aloud, ' It is won- 
 derful that this man could live so long in a penance of 
 Sixteen Years and Two Months that he had been in this 
 Prison.' 
 
 The Gentleman, and the other Commander before him, 
 have often been with the Jesuits, Missionaries, etc., to tempt 
 our Martyr: but he gave them always a reason for his Faith, 
 with so much constancy, piety, zeal, meekness, and humility, 
 that they went away quite confounded, in admiring his 
 Patience and his Virtue. 
 
 It is [a] great pity that we could not collect his last 
 words : but GOD did not suffer it, for reasons he has in his 
 profound wisdom. 
 
 He did not continue idle in his Solitude. He read or 
 writ [wrote^ continually. He had made a Translation of 
 the Psalms; and [had] turned the book of 'The Imitation of 
 Jesus Chkist,' that the Almoner sent him, into French 
 Verses. Divers Books and Papers were found with him ; 
 410
 
 1687-1702. They always found Le Fevre joyful and contented. 
 
 which the Almoner took : and it is not likely that he will 
 part with them. 
 
 About eighteen months past ['? December 1700], that 
 faithful Servant of Jesus Christ, having a mind to obtain 
 some victory over himself, desired us to pray to GOD for 
 him, in an extraordinary manner: and, to join our prayers 
 with his, he appointed us the h )ur of Nine in the evening, 
 when we should hear the Gun Fire that was done every day, 
 for to retire ; when it is most quiet, having ^there being'] no 
 labour to do on board the Galleys, and most of the Slaves 
 being laid down. GOD heard him : but he did not tell us 
 in what it consisted. 
 
 Every line of the Letters that came from that faithful 
 person's hand shewed his piety, his devotion, his capacity, 
 and the charity he had for all his fellow Sufferers. 
 
 The Gaoler, the Soldiers, and all those that saw him 
 in his Dungeon, cannot say otherwise of him, if they would 
 testify the truth ; but that he was very virtuous. 
 
 When we asked the Soldiers concerning him ; they said, 
 ' He was a Saint ! ' : not knowing how to express themselves 
 [in] other ways. He was not a Saint, as their ignorance 
 commonly understands of others, a minute [trifling, petty'] 
 or fabulous Miracle Saint: but he was a man, in whom they 
 m.ight have seen a great miracle ; if they had given attention 
 to him, as they ought to have done. For it is no small 
 matter, that a person, of such a weak and delicate constitu- 
 tion, should remain, so many years, in such a captivity as 
 our Martyr was [in] : [and yet] that they always found him 
 joyful and contented in it : [so] that he triumphed there, 
 over what the World has of Sweets and Rigours ; and 
 triumphed there, over himself also ! I say, It is no small 
 thing ! It is an advantage that GOD does not grant every- 
 body ! Happy are they, in whom the Lord works those 
 Wonders of Grace and Mercy ! 
 
 GOD grant that, by the example of that good Servant 
 of GOD, we may persevere in the Fidelity which we owe 
 him, to the end of our days ! that we may live the life of 
 Saints, and die the death of the Righteous ! and enter into 
 the rest of the Ever Blessed ! 
 
 411
 
 * God grant we may persevere in our Fidelity to liim ! ' 
 
 The brethren, that sign here for Witnesses of the truth 
 of tlie above mentioned, recommend themselves and their 
 fellow Sufferers to your prayers ! 
 
 Signed. 
 
 Marseilles, 
 the 21st of August 1702. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 412
 
 The T^reface 
 
 to the 
 
 Second English Translation (1707) 
 
 of 
 
 yean Claude s 
 
 Les Plaintes des Protestants 
 
 cruellement opprimes dans le Royaume 
 
 de France, (1686) 
 
 By 
 Hilary Reneu. 
 
 913
 
 The Preface. 
 
 THIS BOOK ^YAS first published in French in the 
 year 1686 : and then translated into English ; a 
 copy whereof a Merchant of London sent to one of 
 his brothers in France. 
 
 He, some time after, acquainted him, That, 
 upon the instances of [Paul Bakillon,] the French Am- 
 bassador at this Court, the same had been ordered to be 
 burnt ; and the Translator and Printer thereof almost 
 ruined by imprisonments and fines : and that the Papists 
 took a great deal of care to suppress all the copies ; lest 
 the Nation should be made acquainted with the truths 
 contained therein, where the Cruelties exercised against the 
 Protestants of France, who would not abjure their Religion 
 and embrace the Romish, are so truly represented. 
 
 It was at the same time that Preparations were making, 
 in order to put the same Methods in practice against the 
 Protestants of England : where the Pope kept openly a 
 Nuncio ; besides several Monks and Jesuits. 
 
 There were also several Writers, as Sir RoGErv, 
 L'EsTRANGE and others, employed and well paid to assert. 
 That there was no Persecution in France ; but, contrari- 
 wise, Voluntary Conversions to the Romish Religion : and 
 that, as to the great number of people who left their 
 country to come over into this, under pretence of Religion ; 
 they did it only for private ends and self interest. 
 
 But these Impostures were soon borne down by the 
 sight of so many poor wretches, that thronged hither for 
 refuge from those dreadful Calamities which were inflicted 
 on them : the consideration of which made tlie Nation 
 seriously think of securing the Protestant Religion ; which 
 its enemies designed to destroy here, as they had done in 
 France and elsewhere. 
 
 Some years after, the Gentleman, who received this 
 book in English, came over to augment the number of the 
 Refugees in this Kingdom : and enquiring after it, it was 
 
 415
 
 One Fourth of Claude's text left out. H.Rcneu, 1707. 
 
 impossible for him to li<;ht on any other Copj' here. 
 
 ]5iit having boon told since, that the anonymous Author 
 was that excellent Man oi GOD, the late Monsieur Claude, 
 Minister at Paris, who died in Holland soon after he had 
 written this book ; by this means, he got one in French : 
 and, very lately, by the care of a Reverend Doctor 
 Divine, another in English, perhaps the Manningham. 
 only one extant.* 
 
 Which, being compared together, it appears tliat the 
 Translator, for some regard he had to those Times, when 
 the Enemies of our holy Religion were in great credit, did 
 designedly omit several Matters of Fact, and them the most 
 important to the Causes of the Refugees : insomuch that 
 above the Fourth Part of it was cut off: in the Translation ; 
 though the Translator fared ne'er the better for it. 
 
 Seeing then, the great efforts made to suppress this 
 Book; it the rather deserves to be preserved among Pro- 
 testants to all Posterity. And forasmuch as the Refugees 
 in this Kingdom durst not, by reason of the strict Prohi- 
 bition, keep any of them ; it is thought [to be] of the utmost 
 importance to revive it again, especially at this juncture, 
 which seems so much more favourable than the former; and 
 to offer it entire, as if it were a new Work, to the nation, 
 according to the Refugees' first intent : in which view, it is 
 now reprinted in both languages, for the convenience of 
 those that understand but one. 
 
 The i)ublic will see that this book is an Abridgement of 
 the cruel and inhuman Persecution exercised against the 
 Protestants in France, for several years together, to the 
 prejudice of the Edict of Nantes ; and its dismal consequences, 
 to the beginning of the year 1686. 
 
 It is likewise a solemn Protestation of above 150,000 
 Refugees in several Protestant States ; who (both for them- 
 selves, and their brethren that could not escape the hands 
 of the Dragoons) do call to Heaven and Earth, for Vengeance 
 of the Outrages done to them, or their relations ; as also for 
 the Cruelties still exercised against those that have the 
 misfortune to be yet kept in Prisons, Dungeons, Convents, 
 or Galleys, for the sake of their Religion, to the prejudice of 
 Natural Rights, Treaties, Public Faith, Edicts, Promises, 
 and Oaths. 
 
 * This is a mistake. — E.A. 
 
 416
 
 1707. £200,000 paid to transport the Refugees to England. 
 
 It is to be hoped [that] there are other Writers since 
 Monsieur Claude, who will have gathered together the 
 further Transactions relating to this subject ; in order to 
 transmit the memory thereof to Posterity : in spite of the 
 disguises and lies the Authors of those Evils and Malicious 
 Reports have spread abroad ; by means of the Declarations 
 and Subscriptions which they have forced from those they 
 persecuted, obliging them to say, That their pretended 
 Abjurations were voluntary. 
 
 But these foul Imputations, so well known to the 
 Refugees in this country, oblige them to challenge them as 
 false : and to put this Question to their Enemies, To what 
 purpose, were things as you say, are the Passages \_Ports, 
 Outlets,^ by sea and land, shut up, and guarded with so 
 much cost and precaution ; even against those that have 
 given you such Declarations ? 
 
 Why are so many thousands of both sexes come into 
 this country ? 
 
 It is well known, they will return this Answer, That 
 the loss of those people is but inconsiderable to France ; 
 since they are only the poorer and meaner sort that go 
 away : for the rich are so narrowly watched, that they 
 cannot escape. 
 
 But this is another notorious falsehood. For, on the 
 contrary, there are, in general, only those who had money 
 or credit, that could be at the vast expenses necessary for 
 their escape : which has been computed to amount to, at 
 * least, £200^00^ sterling in specie, paid to the Masters of 
 English ships, meTety forTEe~passage of those that came 
 over into this country. 
 
 And as to Quality (without undervaluing, in the least, 
 any of those that fled into other countries), there are come 
 hither, a Duke and Marshal of France, some Generals 
 of Armies, a Duchess, several Counts and Countesses, 
 Marquises and Marchionesses, Judges of Sovereign Courts, 
 Viscounts, Barons, Noblemen and Gentlemen, Ladies and 
 Gentlewomen, Men of Learning, Lawyers, Physicians, 
 substantial Merchants, Tradesmen \^Artiza?is~\ of all sorts ; 
 and many Captains, Masters, Mariners, Gardeners, and 
 Husbandmen : besides the great number of Ministers ; who 
 were banished that Kingdom ; with orders to depart forth- 
 with, upon pain of the Galleys. 
 
 These are the persons who are said to be but of little 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 27 417
 
 Tlie hazards, shipwrecks, and dangers, of the Refugees. 1707. 
 
 consequence : whilst their Enemies do say, in other places, 
 That the loss is irreparable. 
 
 Now it is plain, on the one hand, that the love of one's 
 country, estate \_property~\, settlement, relations, friends; 
 plenty of wine; and other enjoyments of this life; are 
 very strong ties: from whence it must be confessed, on the 
 other hand, that there must be some stronger motives, to 
 induce such multitudes to forsake all the afore-mentioned 
 advantages, and [to] seek an asylum in foreign countries 
 and unknown languages ; against [in consequence o/] the 
 Persecution of an ungrateful country, where one is not 
 allowed to worship GOD according to one's Conscience ; as 
 the Author of this book has manifestly evidenced. 
 
 This is, nevertheless, the dismal lot of the Refugees : 
 and were this a proper place to speak of the hazards, ship- 
 wrecks, and dangers, which so many thousands have been 
 exposed to ; and how many have perished before they arrived 
 in this free country ; no doubt but the Reader would pass a 
 charitable judgement upon those that are come over. But 
 this would require a Volume by itself. 
 
 However, to hear the Emissaries of Rome, who do not 
 stick impudently to affirm it, one would think that there 
 had never been any Persecution in France ; or, at least, if 
 there had [been], that it has ceased: 'seeing', they say, 
 ' that there are now no Protestants left ' ; which they 
 endeavour the more to insinuate, in this time of war [1707], 
 when all correspondence is cut entirely off. 
 
 It is, therefore, the duty of those that are here, to refute 
 that falsehood ; by asserting real and sensible Matters of 
 Fact : such as may convince the World, and Great Britain 
 in 2^articular, that, since the Revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, the Reformed of France have continually been 
 persecuted. 
 
 For, not to speak of the slaughters committed in the 
 Cevennes, nor of what has passed elsewhere ; but only of 
 certain Matters of Fact, which have happened since the 
 death [in 1686] of the Author of this book, as may be proved 
 by persons living here : and transacted in a little district of 
 the Parliament of Guienne, reputed to be one of the most 
 indulgent of that Kingdom in point of Religion ; by reason 
 of the trade of that country with the northern Protestants, 
 418
 
 H. Reneu. 1707. The Popisli Atrocitics in Guienne. 
 
 one may thereby judge, Whether there is still such a thing 
 as a Persecution in France? 
 
 To which end, the Papists in this Kingdom are desired 
 to address themselves to Martha Guisard, living in Frith 
 street, Soho. She will tell them, That she came out of 
 France, because Jean Guisard, her father, was burnt at 
 Nerac ; being accused of having irreverently received the 
 Host. 
 
 Let them speak to Mrs. Tinel, Wife to a French 
 Minister at Bristol, and to his Sister-in-law. They will tell 
 them. That the Sieur Margueron, their The History of his 
 father, was hanged at Sainte Foy ; for edifying death is 
 having held a religious Assembly in his to be sold at the 
 house. His estate [^;ro^er^//] was confis- Widow Baldwin's 
 cated; and the house pulled down. Their in Warwick laue. 
 mother [was] condemned to make [the] Amende Honorable,' 
 her head shaved by the Hangman, bare -footed and in her 
 shift, holding in her hand a lighted torch ; and afterwards 
 [was condemned] to a perpetual ImprisQnment. And that 
 they escaped the like severities, by their flight into this 
 Kingdom ; with their brother, since killed in our Army. 
 
 Let them ask of the Sieur Peyferie and his family, 
 What made them abandon a great estate, to be reduced to 
 great straits in Tower street, Soho ? He will answer, That, 
 being accused, with some neighbours of his, of having 
 exercised his Religion [^Jiad Divine Service^ in his country 
 house ; he was condemned to be hanged : and his house 
 demolished, and his woods destroyed. But GOD, of his mercy, 
 delivered him from that danger. 
 
 Let them inquire of Mistress Charlotte [de La 
 Ramiere] and Mistress Mary [de La Ramiere] , daughters 
 of the Sieur de La Ramiere, who died in the Service of 
 England ? They will tell them. That his castle was pulled 
 down, and his woods destroyed ; for having held there a 
 religious Assembly. 
 
 The Sieurs Dupre, and MoiSE Du BouST, now living 
 in the parish of Saint Giles in the Fields, will testify. That 
 they were persecuted in their persons and their estates, 
 [and] their houses demolished ; before they fled into this 
 country : where they are necessitated to live upon the 
 charity of the nation ; the one being eighty years old, and 
 the other grown ' Invalid ' in our Army. 
 
 419
 
 The Popish Atrocities in Guienne. ii. Rencu. 1707. 
 
 Martha Trapeau and Mary Labe, living in Soho, will 
 answer, That, being sick, they received a visit from the 
 Priest and Magistrate; to whom they declared, That, not- 
 withstanding they had, through their Persecutions, been 
 forced to abjure their Religion; they were resolved, however, 
 to die in it ! But, been recovered ; they were condemned to 
 make [the] * Amende Honorable ' ; and to be perpetually 
 confined in the Manufacture [ ? ] of Bordeaux: from 
 whence they made their escape, to the great danger of their 
 lives. 
 
 It is in the same Place of Torment, that Olympe 
 Passelaigue, of Bergerac ; Joan Dorrat and Joan, her 
 sister, of Faugueroles; JoAN Groux ; Judith Chabot; 
 Catherine Mulh ; the two Mrs. Gorinx ; Martha Cove ; 
 and others now here, to the number of Eighteen, were 
 confined, for endeavouring to fly from the Persecution 
 (having had the misfortune to be taken, going out of 
 France) : from whence they, afterwards, made their escape 
 in the night, through the windows. 
 
 As for the men, if any of them are surprised, making 
 their escape ; it is [the] * Amende Honorable ' and the 
 Galleys : and the Sieurs Constans and Bessete, of Duras, 
 have undergone that punishment, for assisting in the 
 Assembly with the Sieur Margueron ; and do there [still] 
 keep company with a great many others, that suffer Per- 
 secution for the cause of Religion. 
 
 The Sieur Augier, of Casteljaloux, who died in the 
 Fortress of Blaye, is also an example of the rigour exercised 
 by the Persecutors. 
 
 To shew how they still deal in France with the 
 Protestants ; here is an undeniable Matter of Fact. 
 
 Mary Perreau, living in Spittlefields, will tell you. 
 That she was married, at Plymouth, to Pierre Perreau, 
 a French Pilot ; who, a month after their marriage, being 
 sailed for the Straits [of Gibraltar] , was taken, and carried 
 into France : where he was condemned to the Galleys for 
 101 years. 
 
 Since then, as it is Death, or the Galleys, for the Men 
 who refuse to change their Religion, or are found making 
 their escape : so it is ' Amende Honorable ' and Perpetual 
 420
 
 1707. The failure of the Clergy to destroy Protestantism. 
 
 Imprisoument for the Womeu ; Avhere a great number have 
 died, and, among others, the illustrious Wife of the holy 
 Martyr, the Sieur Margueron ; and, lately, the Confessors, 
 Madame La Serre and Madame Gentillot. 
 
 The Prisons continue still [to be] filled with Women : 
 some of whom have been above Twenty years in the Town 
 House [Hotel de Ville'] of Bordeaux, glorifying GOD by 
 their Sufferings. And, amongst others, Madame Villotes, 
 a gentlewoman of eighty years of age, Avho has a daughter 
 living in Soho ; Claudine Le May, and Joan [Le May] her 
 daughter ; Madame Barbot ; Madame Charlemont ; and a 
 great many more : [who] do sufficiently testify, that, were 
 it not for the Persecution, so many persons would hardly 
 be kejjt in Prison. 
 
 These are Living Witnesses, for such as desire to be 
 further satisfied of the Truth ; and this small number, which 
 might be infinitely increased, it is hoi)ed will suffice, both to 
 manifest the Truth, and to confute the malice of those who 
 are endeavouring to subvert it, by their false slanders against 
 the Refugees. 
 
 As, for instance, they gave out sometime since. That all 
 the Protestants of France went to Mass ; and were really 
 converted to the Romish Religion — than which, nothing is 
 more notoriouslj^ false. 
 
 For proof whereof, one need only observe, That the 
 present War [1707] having necessitated the raising of [the] 
 Militia in France, Personal Taxes have been laid on the 
 Protestants who refuse to go to Mass ; which serves as a 
 Fund for the payment of the said Militia. So that the 
 Clergy of France, who had promised the French King to 
 extirpate the Protestant Religion and to make the Romish 
 triumph, have done quite the contrary. For let them 
 banish the Ministers, j)rohibit the Assemblies, exile them, 
 and inflict even death itself ; if they j)lease ! This doth not 
 destroy Religion; but only, as it were, cuts off those rivulets, 
 whose springs remain. For they cannot banish the Light 
 of the Reformed ; nor hinder the Consolation of the HOLY 
 GHOST ! 
 
 But say they. The Persecutors do not notv use Rigours. 
 They will instruct the Reformed by degrees : who, being 
 once well instructed, will have no repugnance to remain in 
 the Romish Church. 
 
 421
 
 * We are not so to be instructed by you ! ' h. Reneu. 1707. 
 
 This is a great mistake. The Reformed are not desirous 
 of Instructions from sucJi Masters ! 
 
 Let them he told, never so often, That their Ministers 
 have misrepresented the Romish Religion ; and that they 
 are to hearken to their Converters, who will give them a 
 right information of it. To this, they will readily answer,. 
 We are not so to be instructed by you ! For the Edicts and 
 Declarations, you have obtained from the King against us ; 
 our Ministers banished, at your solicitations ; our brethren 
 condemned to the Galleys, or to Death, by your Prosecutions; 
 the Cruelties exercised against us, by the Dragoons ; all your 
 Treacheries, Injustices, and Cruelties: do sufficiently shew 
 us, what your Religion and Faith is ; and plainly convince 
 us, That it is not from GOD ; what Profession soever you 
 pretend to make of Christianity. 
 
 Let this suffice to be said in justification of the 
 Protestants that still remain in France, under the longest 
 and sharpest Persecution that ever was heard of; and in 
 which Fraud and Imposture are countenanced by Force. 
 And this is the reason, [why] the Matters of Fact, here 
 mentioned, have been produced, from one little part of the 
 Kingdom only : because they may so easily be proved here,. 
 viva voce. And, then, let anyone judge what is transacted 
 in other places ; where the Protestants are used with greater 
 severity ! And, by the way, one may here see the Causes 
 and Motives of the depopulating of France; and the Reasons 
 why so many thousands fled into Protestant countries, to 
 shelter themselves from the injuries their brethren are still 
 exposed to. 
 
 Having now represented the several Qualities [^social' 
 positions^ of the French Refugees in this Kingdom ; who 
 must not be supposed to be of higher rank than those that 
 have taken sanctuary in other countries : it may be con- 
 fidently affirmed. That such an increase of people is an 
 advantageous acquisition to this Kingdom. 
 
 For they were not all poor, as is well known at the- 
 Exchequer and Royal Exchange. Especially, if we give any 
 credit to the computation, that has been made in France, 
 of what they brought over ; and of the loss that Kingdom 
 has thereby sustained. 
 
 It is confidently reported there, that (some time before 
 422
 
 1707. 7,000 Kefugees perished in the War in Ireland. 
 
 the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and during the 
 great Persecution) many Protestants, foreseeing the mis- 
 fortunes likely to hefal them, sent away a great part of 
 their estates \_prope7^tij^ out of France. Insomuch that it 
 is computed, the Refugees, one with another, (either in 
 money, goods, jewels, or other moveables) have brought 
 over, at least the value of One Hundred Pounds sterling 
 [each]: whereby that nation is so much impoverished in 
 its funds ; which it has so very much wanted since. To 
 this they add, That, of the necessary computation, it is 
 reckoned at Seven Pounds per head, per annum : and there- 
 fore, by the Rule of Contraries, that country whither they 
 have transplanted themselves, is by so much the gainer. 
 
 However, it is hoped none will be so uncharitable as 
 to doubt that, out of gratitude as well as affection, the 
 Refugees are entirely devoted to a nation that has received 
 them with so much humanity. This will appear, if it be 
 considered how great a share they had in the Reduction of 
 Ireland : where upwards of Seven Thousand of them perished, 
 either by Sword or Sickness ; which must otherwise have 
 fallen upon the English. 
 
 Some of the Refugees have endeavoured to subsist, 
 both by Liberal and Mechanic Arts, and Husbandry : but, 
 above all, by their mutual Trade and Correspondence with 
 their acquaintance and friends that have settled in other 
 countries, as Switzerland, Geneva, Germany, Holland, and 
 the Northern Crowns \_Scandinavia~\ . Which has much 
 increased all the revenues of this Kingdom; and given a 
 greater blow to France than Six Civil Wars could other 
 ways have done: and, at the same time, has procured to 
 this Kingdom in particular, a real and lasting advantage. 
 As the House of Lords were pleased to take notice, in a 
 Conference with the Commons about the Bill for preventing 
 Occasional Conformity, in the words following : 
 
 As to the Foreign Protestants, there is great reason 
 to give them all just encouragement. Page 24. 
 For as they have brought among us Printed in 
 many New Manufactures ; so they have February 1703. 
 carried them so far, that, of late years, we have exported 
 to the value of a Million of Woollen Manufactures more 
 than was done in King Charles's reign, before they 
 
 423
 
 The increase of Houses through the Kefugees. 1707. 
 
 came among us : and the putting them under apprehen- 
 ^ sions or discouragements, may be a means to drive them 
 to a country, where they are sure of an entire Liberty. 
 The Lords add, 
 
 We have felt the happy effects of the Liberty granted 
 
 them in the hist reign : and it is to be hoped, that 
 
 nothing will be done in this, to impeach that ; or to raise 
 
 apprehensions and fears in the minds of men, that are 
 
 so useful to us in the important Article of our Trade. 
 
 The opinion of that noble House, who have thus 
 
 eminently stood up for the Refugees, ought, one would 
 
 think, to have silenced that multitude of malicious Libels 
 
 that are daily published against them : whose Authors have 
 
 so little modesty as to affirm. That the French are come 
 
 over, for want of means of subsistence ; and not out of zeal 
 
 for Religion. Which calumny the English Tradesmen 
 
 [Artizans] magnify exceedingly ; because, tliey say, That 
 
 the French Refugees work cheaper than they do. 
 
 Now, supposing that were true ; it can be no damage, 
 in the least, even to them that comj)lain. For if a Shoe- 
 maker, for example, gets threepence or fourpence less, in a 
 pair of Shoes : he, on the other hand, will save that, in his 
 Gloves, and much more in his Hat ; which, by the same 
 reason, will be rendered as cheap in proportion, and so of 
 all other things. 
 
 But if anyone would contest this matter farther; we 
 shall leave their justification to the landlords of those 
 houses that have been built since their coming over; the 
 rents of which, by a modest computation, cannot amount 
 to less than ^£80,000 yearly : and they, without doubt, will 
 affirm that their Refugee tenants are no ways prejudicial 
 to the nation. For those of them that subsist of them- 
 selves, relieve, to the utmost of their power, such of their 
 brethren as are necessitous ; and readily pay both parish 
 and national taxes. 
 
 They have most of them been naturalized, though at 
 their own proper charges ; and pay the rent of their 
 Churches, and the Salaries of their Ministers, Readers, and 
 Schoolmasters : whereas, in other countries, especially in 
 Holland, the Refugees are naturalized gratis ; they have the 
 freedom of keeping shops and exercising their respective 
 Callings; and have been supplied with above a hundred 
 424
 
 1707. The States General's great kindness to the Refugees. 
 
 Churches, either in the United Provinces or in Germany, at 
 the charge of the States General : Avho (very far from 
 suffering them to pay the Ministers of the country where 
 they reside) do themselves pay the stipends of the Refugee 
 Ministers, Readers, and Schoolmasters ; Avhich are very 
 considerable. 
 
 But what is yet more to their advantage is. That, since 
 the Persecution, which hath lasted now above Twenty-one 
 years [1685-1706.], most of which time, the States General 
 have, in conjunction with this Kingdom, been engaged in an 
 expensive War against France, not one Refugee in Holland 
 has ever paid one farthing for his personal estate [jn'opertyl , 
 or Stock in Trade. 
 
 One might enlarge very much on this subject ; were it 
 not feared that the Libellers would insinuate from hence, 
 as though the Refugees complained : whereas they are so 
 far from it, that it is unwillingly they are forced to instance 
 these things, to defend themselves against those that 
 endeavour to asperse them with the taking away the bread 
 out of [the] Englishmen's mouths ; in order to render them 
 odious to the common people. 
 
 It is also in that view alone, the Refugees allege the 
 advantageous settlement of their brethren in Brandenburg; 
 the History whereof has been printed at Berlin by Robert 
 Roger in 1690: which shews that they Her Majesty's 
 believe in that country that the Refugees Brief for the 
 are a very great benefit to them ; seeing Protestants of the 
 His Prussian Majesty is not content only PrincipaUty of 
 to favour them in his own dominions, OJ^a^i^ge, owned 
 but likewise causes his Ambassadors in Subjects of His 
 other Protestant Courts, to make Collects ^^'"^^i^^ Majesty. 
 [Collections'] in the behalf of all such Pro- .^ , ,^.^ 
 
 L -' „ . , . , . November 1703. 
 
 testants as take refuge m his countries. 
 
 If therefore all Politicians agree. That multitudes of 
 people make the glory of Kings, and the riches of a country; 
 why are then so many Libels suffered here to be published, 
 in opposition to those General Maxims '? The Refugees 
 think them under an obligation to declare it ; and [to] let 
 the public know, That this Evil proceeds from the Enemies 
 of their Religion : some unquestionable Proofs whereof shall 
 be brought hereafter. 
 
 But first it is proper to give an Account of a very 
 
 425
 
 An Increase of People is the Source of Riches. 1707. 
 
 remarkable thing that happened in the year 1664. 
 
 Some Popish villages, of the district of Lalew in the 
 Low Countries, (corresponding with Amsterdam ; and 
 coming accidentally by some Books of Controversy) were 
 soon persuaded of the falsehood of the Popish Religion ; and 
 thereupon forsook it : which the Curates perceiving, [they] 
 made their complaint to the Bishop, and the Bishop to the 
 French King. 
 
 After several Citations, Sentence was pronounced. That 
 they should either go to Mass, or leave the country. Those 
 pious Christians rather chose the latter. At which, King 
 Charles II. was pleased to order Deputies to be sent 
 thither, to invite them over into England ; and to make them 
 very advantageous offers, besides defraying their charges. 
 
 But the Kings of Sweden and Denmark, the States of 
 Privileges. granted Holland, and the Electors Palatine [and 
 to the Exiles of o^] Saxony, and Brandenburg, having, at 
 
 Lalew, in the same time, sent their Deputies : [and] 
 
 17 Articles, by the conditions offered on the part of the 
 
 Chables Louis, Elector Palatine being more advantageous 
 Earl [Elector'] than the others ; they settled in his- 
 
 Palatine, 5 August country, to the number of 1,800 men, 
 ^^^^- women and children, Tradesmen [Artizans^ 
 
 and Husbandmen. 
 
 But, by reason of the late wars in the Palatinate,^ 
 and the destruction of Billingheim, they were obliged to 
 leave that country and settle in Pomerania : where they 
 now are. 
 
 This may serve to confute the unthinking Libellers. 
 For no sufficient reason can be given, why such numbers of 
 Protestants, as come over of themselves, should be less 
 esteemed than those who are invited by great offers. For 
 they, as well as these, increase the consumption of our 
 manufactures and products ; especially that of corn, and 
 thereby save the Five Shillings per Quarter on what they 
 consume, which would otherwise be paid on exportation. 
 
 Add to this, the sentiments of Sir Thomas Culpeper in 
 his Political Treatise, Sir William Petty in his ' Political 
 Arithmetic,' Sir Josiah Child in his 'New Discourse of. 
 Trade,' and Sir Francis Brewster in his ' Essays on 
 Trade ' : wherein it is manifest, all their efforts chiefly aim 
 at inculcating the absolute necessity of an Increase of 
 People, which, they say, is the Source of Riches ; and confess 
 426
 
 1707. The great number of sick, maimed, and poor. Refugees. 
 
 that this nation, being under-peopled, stands in need of 
 being recruited. 
 
 It has been already said, That the Refugees, to testify 
 their acknowledgements, have readily exposed themselves 
 to the perils of war ; and that, in the Reduction of Ireland, 
 above Seven Thousand of them perished. Which must, once 
 more, be repeated, because it is the sad Spring from whence 
 proceeds the great number of sick and maimed persons ; 
 Widows and Orphans, that have lost their husbands, fathers, 
 brothers, and other relations, who, during their lives, 
 supplied their wants: besides several old Gentlemen, old 
 Ministers and their Wives ; who, in process of time, being 
 grown weak and out of employment, after having spent all 
 they had saved out of France, are reduced to the necessity 
 of begging the public charity of the nation. 
 
 And because it is these, that are most exposed to the 
 continual machinations of their Enemies, let this Preface 
 inform the Reader of what, perhaps, he may be unacquainted 
 with ; which is, The manner of their subsistence : since a 
 more favourable opportunity will hardly ever offer itself, 
 than the present publication of their Complaints against 
 their countrymen. 
 
 And to this purpose, it is necessary to remind him of 
 what passed in the Sessions of Parliament, 1695 : when 
 these poor people presented a Petition to the House of 
 Commons. Whereupon a Committee was appointed : in 
 which (upon the examination of their several Qualities, 
 Ages, and Callings) it was found that the number of old 
 Gentlemen and Ministers, their AVives, Children, Widows, 
 and Orphans, was then 2,460 persons, worthy of the public 
 charity of the nation. As appears by the Committee's 
 Report to the House, containing the Declarations of King 
 Charles II. of the 28th of July 1681, and of King William 
 and Queen Mary of the 25th of April 1689, mentioned in 
 the said Report, importing. 
 
 That the French Protestants having been invited, with 
 great Promises of Assistance, to come hither ; it were a 
 great scandal to the Government and Religion, if they 
 were not speedily relieved ; and that it would be strange 
 if this nation should suffer itself to be outdone by their 
 neighbours in so excellent a work, seeing that what 
 charity soever is bestowed upon them (besides the blessing 
 
 527
 
 £15,000 a year granted to the Kefugees in 1695. 1707. 
 
 that redounds from it) the nation is never the poorer ; 
 since it receives it back by consumption as fast as it is 
 given. 
 
 In consideration of which Report, the House of Com- 
 mons voted i;i5,000 sterling ^;er annum for the subsistence 
 of those poor Refugees. 
 
 But £3,000 being appointed for the Ministers, out of 
 the said sum; there remained but i;l2,000 for the Laity, 
 both here and in Irekind : which, being then paid in Remote 
 Tallies and Malt Tickets, and the same being ordered to be 
 sold by the Lords appointed for regulating the manner of 
 distributing the charity of the nation, there was, in 169G, 
 1697, and 1698, lost by them ^06,559 9s. lOd. [annually]; 
 which deprived the poor of Seven Months' subsistence. 
 During which time, they were obliged to borrow what they 
 could, without having any prospect of repaying the same, 
 unless the Deficiency on the Tallies should be made good : 
 which, as it was never done, has increased their number. 
 This is the account of what passed in Parliament. 
 
 One might add to the misfortune of that Deficiency, a 
 yet heavier loss for the poor French Refugees : which is. 
 That they did not receive the charity of the nation, the year 
 King William died ; which was then due, and never paid. 
 The Warrant for which is yet unsatisfied. 
 
 Which losses inevitably obliged them to contract debts 
 for their daily sustenance ; so, being wholly unable to 
 satisfy their creditors, many of whom have acted rigorously 
 [to them], to the utter ruin of such as Avere left destitute 
 by these unexpected Deficiencies : which, together with the 
 continuation of the war and the calamities that attend it, 
 have so increased their misery, that, by a List newly pub- 
 lished by order of His Grace [Thomas Tenison,] the Lord 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, and [Henry Compton,] the 
 Lord Bishop of London, containing the Quality, Age, Sex, 
 and Habitation, of every one, it appears that, from the year 
 1696 and the Report then made to this present time, they 
 are increased to more than double the number: and, that 
 for some years, the £12,000 has not been sufficient to ]3ay 
 the rent of their lodgings. And, besides, most of them 
 being old and sick; let anyone imagine the straits these 
 poor people are reduced to, which is not fit to be published: 
 428
 
 1707. The kindness of Secretary Harley to the Refugees. 
 
 and what assistance can they expect from the other 
 Refugees; who, according to the Enemies' computation, 
 have so little for themselves as will hardly suffice to main- 
 tain them [selves]. 
 
 So that, unless some more effectual means he found 
 out for their support ; their numbers without a miracle 
 must daily increase : for, humanly speaking, though the 
 Refugees should exceed the Macedonians in charity to one 
 another [2 Cor. viii. 2, 3.], nothing is to be expected, but an 
 addition of misery. 
 
 But there is reason to expect better things from this 
 charitable nation ; when, with their wonted compassion, 
 they will be pleased to take notice of the great occasion 
 there is, for exercising their clemency towards such a 
 number of miserable objects : it being to be hoped there are 
 many who will follow the example of the Right Honourable 
 Master Secretary [Robert] Harley [, afterwards Earl of 
 Oxford] ; whose kindnesses and charitable offices, proceeding 
 from mere motives of Religion and Humanity, towards these 
 poor Sufferers, they have often felt the good effects of ; as 
 well as of so many other worthy Members of Parliament, 
 who know, That giving to the poor is lending to the Lord. 
 [Prov. xix. 17.] 
 
 It has been already observed. That the Enemies of the 
 Reformed Religion are those Libellers who are always 
 endeavouring to propagate that of Rome : and strive to 
 render the condition of the French Protestants bitter and 
 grievous. 
 
 They have Emissaries who make it their business to 
 descend from the general, even to the particular persons 
 of the poor; whom they attack with grievous calumnies: 
 reproaching them, with having left their Wooden Shoes, and 
 the Garlic and Onions they lived upon, to come hither, to 
 live at ease ; and [to] rob Greenwich Hospital, and the 
 Widows and Orphans of the nation, of the Charities which 
 they so much better deserve ; and are now bereft of, by 
 their being bestowed upon such unworthy people. 
 
 Thus they endeavour to deprive them of all manner of 
 comfort, that they may be obliged to return to France : 
 whilst, on the other hand, they make the Ways and Means 
 of repairing thither, so very easy to such as are willing to go. 
 
 Several instances of such Intrigues might be brought, 
 
 429
 
 The French Committee accused ; but exonerated. 1707. 
 
 whereby they have enticed away many children : who, in 
 France, are pnt into possession of tlie whole estate of the 
 Family; provided they abjure their Religion. 
 
 Those Emissaries of Rome pretend to do those Evils, 
 that Good may come of it : but that is to accumulate Crime 
 upon Crime ! 
 
 One of their creatures had the confidence to present a 
 Petition to Her Majesty [, Queen Anne], and to his Grace 
 [, Thomas Tenison,] the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 \and [, Henry Compton,] the Lord Bishop of London, import- 
 ing that the French Committee, apijointed by the Lords 
 Commissioners for distributing the public charity, were 
 false to their trust: beseeching Her Majesty to give him 
 leave to secure their j^ersons ; and that, in the meantime, 
 the charity of the nation should be suspended. 
 
 Upon this and such like representations ; Her Majesty 
 Avas pleased to order Sir Owen Buckingham, the then Lord 
 Mayor, to summon the English Committee to examine the 
 matter, and make their Report. 
 
 The person, thereupon appearing before them, could not 
 make out the least appearance of Misdemeanour in the French 
 Report made Committee: and (finding that the Report 
 
 the 26 July 1705. would not be in his favour ; and that Her 
 Majesty had ordered the Attorney General to prosecute him) 
 he made his escape beyond the sea. Since which, it has 
 been discovered [that] he was a Papist in disguise, that 
 [had] fled from Piedmont, for having killed a Priest ; and 
 his AA-'ife has confessed that he was to receive a reward, 
 could he have compassed the design of annulling the French 
 Committee : which consists of persons beyond all suspicion, 
 who give an exact Account of their Administration to the 
 English Commissioners ; who, both the one and the other, 
 employ their time, care, and pains, for no other principle 
 than their duty to GOD, and charity to their poor brethren. 
 
 Yet such Re]3resentations, false as they are, (having 
 passed for current ; without any defence for afflicted Inno- 
 cence) have proved of dangerous consequence. For it hath 
 been observed, for some years past, that the charitable 
 example of several worthy Christians, who have formerly 
 left Gifts and Legacies at their death, is very little followed 
 at this time ; when there is so great an occasion for it. 
 430
 
 1707. A Penny a year asked from each English Subject. 
 
 The disuse of which laudable custom is, in a great 
 measure, attributed to the subtle and crafty insinuations 
 of the Emissaries of France and Rome ; who leave no means 
 unattempted for the destruction of the Refugees : whilst 
 the Popish tenet of the Merit of Good Works, by the Pope's 
 Indulgences and the Priests' Exhortations, is an almost 
 incredible support to the necessitous English and Irish in 
 France. 
 
 To sum up all. From what has been said, it is to be 
 hoped no one will suffer himself any longer to be prejudiced 
 against the poor Refugees ; but that all will submit to the 
 favourable Declarations of those august Bodies, the Houses 
 of Lords and Commons : that so the great number of poor 
 members of Jesus Christ Avho have escaped the Perse- 
 cution, and now implore the charity of the nation in a 
 manner proportionable to their wants, should live comfort- 
 ably, and die in peace. 
 
 Which might be effected, could it be contrived that each 
 of Her Majesty's Subjects in England should give but a 
 Penny every year towards their relief ; and that would 
 suffice them : which would not in the least be felt ; if it 
 be considered that it would all be spent here. Besides, as 
 most of them are old and sickly, Death, humanly speaking, 
 will, in a very little time, rid the nation of them : and the 
 younger, who do not remember France but with sentiments 
 of resentment, are [being] daily blended among the English. 
 Insomuch that if, after the present War [1702 — 1713] is 
 ended, there should be a liberty of returning, there are few 
 [that] will go back, but those that now seem chargeable to 
 the nation, and have left great estates there. 
 
 But their number will be compensated doubly, by the 
 parents and friends of those that remain ; who will be 
 induced to come hither: where [they] (joining with those 
 whose abilities and talents permit them to enjoy the happi- 
 ness and liberty they find under the reign of Her Most 
 Sacred Majesty) will altogether esteem it their glory and 
 felicity to live here; and to be faithful and zealous Subjects 
 of the country that has been their Sanctuary ; and thereby 
 increase the power, and glory, and riches, thereof. 
 
 431
 
 An ^Account 
 
 of the 
 
 Torments which the French 
 Protestants endure aboard the Q alley. 
 
 By 
 
 yea?t [^Francois'\ Bion^ 
 
 Sometime Priest and Curate of the Parish of Urcij in 
 
 the Province of Burgundy ; and Chaplain to the 
 
 ' Superbe ' Galley in the French Service. 
 
 London, 
 
 Printed for John Morphew, 
 
 7iear Stationers Hall. 
 
 1708. 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 28 433
 
 To the Queen. 
 
 Madam, 
 
 May it please your Majesty ! 
 
 IN GRATITUDE TO those wretches, whose heroic 
 Constancy raised in me that admiration, which was 
 the first cause of my happy Conversion ; I humbly lay 
 at your Majesty's feet, an Account of their Sufferings. 
 Their, only hopes, under GOD, are in your Majesty! 
 the glorious defender and ornament of their Faith. The 
 Charity by which you support such numbers of their brethren 
 in your dominions, the concern you have expressed for the 
 pressures the French Churches labour under, and the zeal 
 for their restoration to their Ancient Splendour ; leave no 
 room to doubt of your Majesty's generous intentions. And 
 that Providence, which watches over your Sacred Person, 
 and distinguishes your reign by so many Exploits, both 
 at home and abroad, from those of your most glorious 
 Ancestors, will, no doubt, reward your piety ; and enable 
 your Majesty to ease them of their chains: after having 
 broken those of Europe. 
 
 They would not thus presume to make their way 
 through the crowd of your admirers ; and disturb the 
 acclamation that surrounds your August Person, with the 
 •doleful rehearsal of their misery : did not your Majesty's 
 known goodness facilitate their access ; and your love of 
 Justice, and proneness to redress grievances, encourage 
 their presumption. 
 
 435
 
 Dediccation. 1703. 
 
 I am, in particular, happy in being so far instrumental 
 in their future deliverance, as to make their Case known to 
 the best and greatest of Queens : and I am proud that it 
 furnishes me with an opportunity of letting the World 
 know that I am, 
 
 May it please your Majesty, 
 
 Your Majesty's most faithful Subject, 
 
 and obedient humble Servant, 
 
 John Bion, 
 
 heretofore Chaplain to the ' Superbe ' Galley in the 
 French King's Service. 
 
 436
 
 The Preface. 
 
 AS I PURPOSED in this Work, only to make the 
 Sufferings of the Protestants condemned to the 
 Galleys, for the sake of Religion, known to the 
 World : people will he apt to think that, when I 
 speak in general of the different sorts of ' Forcats ' 
 or Slaves, which are on them, I go beside the rules I 
 prescribed to myself. But if it be considered that it is 
 no little Torment to the Protestants to be amongst Male- 
 factors and lewd and profligate Villains ; whose continual 
 blasphemies and cursings have no parallel, but among the 
 damned in Hell : it will not be thought beside my purpose, 
 to have given to the World a particular Account of the 
 various sorts of those men who live in the Galleys. 
 
 There is, besides, a block, those, who never saw the 
 Galleys but in the Port at Marseilles, Avill infallibly stumble 
 at ; if not removed. Which is, that whereas the Galley 
 Slaves are not, during that time, in that wretched condition 
 they are in, whilst at sea, and tugging at the oar. Being 
 allowed to keep shop about the Port ; and there to work and 
 sell all manner of commodities. And sometimes having 
 leave to walk in the Town : giving only one penny to the 
 Algousin [Boatswain's Mate, or Gatley Serjeant^, as much 
 to the Turk, with whom each of them must then be coupled ; 
 and five pence to the 'Pertuisenier' or Partizan Bearer, who 
 guards them. There being some besides, that even have 
 their Wives at Marseilles. And all being permitted to hear 
 from their friends ; and receive money from their relations. 
 All such comforts and favours, as well as all manner of 
 correspondence with friends, are utterly denied the 
 Protestants. 
 
 I have not descended to particulars, in what relateth to 
 the usefulness of Galleys in Sea fights, for the keeping of 
 the Coasts ; or convoying of Merchant Sloops, when there 
 is any danger of their being taken, or set upon, by the 
 Brigantines the Duke of Savoy keeps commonly for that 
 
 437
 
 1708. Preface. 
 
 purpose, during the war, in Villa Franca, Saint Hospitio, 
 and Oneglia. 
 
 Nor did I take notice in this Work, how the Galleys in 
 an engagement wherein there are Men of War, serve to 
 keep off and sink with their cannon shot out of the 
 Coursier, a Gun so called, the Fire-ships tlie enemy sendeth 
 to set the ship on fire ; and to tow away such as are 
 disabled in the fight. 
 
 I might also have observed how, in every Galley, there 
 are five Guns upon the foredeck, viz., four six or eight 
 pounders: and a fifth, called the Coursier [Chase Gun^y 
 which carrieth a 36-lb. ball. 
 
 And herewith, when an enemy's ship is becalmed, a. 
 Galley, which with her oars can do what she pleaseth, may 
 attack that ship fore and aft, to avoid her broadsides ; 
 and ply her with the Coursier ; so that, sometimes, if she 
 haj)peneth to let [givel her a shot which cometh between 
 wind and water, she forceth her to surrender. Which how- 
 ever happeneth seldom enough ; for a ship needs but a little 
 Avind, to make nothing of overthrowing five or six Galleys. 
 
 I did not think fit either to give here, an Account of 
 the numbers of Galleys in France ; which are twenty-four 
 at Marseilles, and six upon the Ocean. Not to speak of the 
 six small rooms in every Galley, under the deck ; wherein 
 ammunition and provisions are kept, and which they call, 
 the ' Gavon,' the ' Scandclat,' the ' Campaign,' the * Paillot,' 
 the ' Tavern,' and the ' Fore-room.' 
 
 All these particulars would have carried me too far out 
 of my way, and beside my purpose ; which is only to give 
 a plain and faithful Account, without amplifying, of the 
 Sufferings of the Protestant Galley Slaves. 
 
 If there be anything omitted in this Relation ; it will 
 not be found as to any material point. And as my sole 
 aim in it hath been to work a fellow feeling in other 
 men's hearts ; I shall not find myself at all disappointed, 
 although their curiosity should not be fully satisfied. 
 
 The Lord, in his mercy, pour out his blessings upon 
 this Work ! and favourably hear our Prayers and Supplica- 
 tions, which we shall never cease to make unto his Divine 
 Majesty, for the deliverance of our poor distressed brethren. 
 
 438
 
 The Sufferings of the Protestants in the 
 French Galleys. 
 
 THE DISMAL ACCOUNTS handed down to us, by 
 Historians, of the Torments inflicted on Christians 
 by the Heathen Emperors, in the first Ages of the 
 Church, might justly be suspected, if the woeful 
 experience of our own, did not put the truth of 
 them out of dispute. For though it be not easy to conceive 
 how men can put off all that is tender and generous in their 
 natures, and degenerate into the ferity lferocitij~\ of brutes; 
 yet it is but looking on the World around us, and being 
 convinced that they can even outdo their fellow-animals in 
 Cruelty to one another. Nay, we may see many professing 
 Christianity, under the specious pretence of zeal for its 
 Interest, commit such Barbarities as exceed, [or] at least 
 equal, the rage of the Persecutors of the Primitive Chris- 
 tians. History abounds in instances that shew the nature 
 of a Spirit of Persecution ; and how boundless its rage 
 and fury ! But the sad effects it hath, of late years, pro- 
 duced in France, as they are still fresh and but too obvious, 
 are scarcely to be paralleled in any Age or Nation ! 
 
 All the World knows the Protestants there lived, under 
 the protection of the Edict of Nantes : a Treaty as full and 
 solemn as ever any was ! It was at first religiously observed : 
 but, in time, several breaches were made in it. Many of 
 its branches were, by degrees, lopt off : till, at last, under 
 the present King [Louis XIV.] , at the continual teasing 
 and solicitation of the Jesuits, those restless and busy 
 insects ! it was perfidiously broken ; or, as they please to 
 term it, repealed. 
 
 But Religion and its propagation must be the cloak, 
 under which those crafty Silversmiths intend to jDlay their 
 game. And therefore having first confidently taught. That 
 the King hath a Despotic Power over the Consciences as 
 well as Estates ; and consequently his Will to be the Rule 
 
 439
 
 Protectant Slaves, of all men the most miserable. 1703-07. 
 
 of their Religion ; they, by several arts and methods, but 
 chiefly by dreadful punishments, force weak people to play 
 the hypocrites, and embrace a Religion which in their 
 hearts they detest. Such as were too good Christians to 
 l)rostitute their Consciences to vile worldly interests, are 
 denied the benefit of retiring into foreign countries : and 
 punished, if discovered, often Avith death ; or reserved for 
 more cruel usage, and condemned to spin out their wretched 
 lives in the Galleys. 
 
 Of these last I design to give the public an Account, as 
 being of all inen the most miserable : the Barbarities 
 committed in those horrid machines exceeding all tliat can 
 possibly be imagined. The ingenuity of the famous Sicilian 
 Tyrants in inventing torments deserves no longer to be 
 proverbial : being far excelled, in this pernicious art, by the 
 modern Enemies of Religion and Liberty. 
 
 I shall endeavour to satisfy the curosity of those who 
 desire to be informed of the treatment the Slaves, and 
 particularly the Protestants, in the Galleys meet with ; and 
 to convince such as are loath to harbour any hard thoughts 
 of the French Court : that justifies its j)roceedings by 
 pretending that what they suffer, is not on the account of 
 Religion; but a just and lawful punishment for Rebellion 
 and Disobedience. 
 
 My being, several campaigns [cruises'], Chaplain aboard 
 one of the Galleys, called, 'La Superbe,' gave me a sufficient 
 opportunity of informing myself of the truth of the follow- 
 ing Relation. And I hope my integrity will not be called 
 in question by anybody, that hears, that during my stay in 
 that Service, I never received the least disgust, or met with 
 any disobligation. The Certificates I have from Monsieur 
 DE MoNTOLiEU, Chief Flag Officer of the French Galleys, 
 and Monsieur d'Autigny, Captain of the aforesaid Galley, 
 whose Chaplain I was ; a reward for iny services conferred 
 on me by the French King, in the year 1704, at the recom- 
 mendation of Monsieur de Pontchartrain ; several good 
 Offices done me by the General and other Officers who 
 knew me : will, I hope, screen me from the suspicions or 
 calumny of such who, through malice or perhaps Interest, 
 might be inclined to misrepresent me. 
 
 Neither shall a blind zeal for the Protestant Religion, 
 which I have lately embraced, hurry me beyond the strict
 
 1708. *I shall relate nothing but what "my eyes have set^i.'' ' 
 
 bounds of Truth ; or make me represent things in any 
 colours but their own. I should be an unworthy Professor 
 of that holy Religion, if, on any consideration, I should in 
 the least deviate from the strictest truth : to which end, 
 I shall relate nothing by hearsay ; but, like the Apostle, 
 confine myself to those things * my eyes have seen.' 
 
 441
 
 BUT BEFORE I proceed to show the Sufferings and 
 Misery the wretches in the Galleys labour under; 
 I shall give a short description of that Vessel. 
 A Galley is a long flat one-decked Vessel ; 
 though it hath two masts. Yet they generally 
 make use of oars ; because they are built so, as not to be 
 able to endure a rough sea, and therefore their sails, for the 
 most part, are useless : unless, in cruising, when they are 
 out of sight of land ; for then, for fear of being surprised 
 by ill weather, they make the best of their way. 
 
 There are five Slaves to every oar: one of them, a Turk; 
 who, being generally stronger than Christians, is set at the 
 upper end to work it with more strength. 
 
 There are, in all, 300 Slaves : and 150 men ; either 
 Officers, Soldiers, Seamen, or Servants. There is at the 
 Stern of the Galley a Chamber, shaped on the outside like a, ' 
 cradle, belonging to the Captain ; and solely his at night or 
 in foul weather : but, in the day-time, common to the 
 Officers and Chaplain. All the rest of the crew (the Under 
 Officers excepted ; who retire to other convenient places) 
 are exposed above deck, to the scorching Iieat of the sun by 
 day, and the damps and inclemencies of the night. There 
 is indeed a kind of a tent suspended by a cable from head 
 to stern that affords some little shelter: but the misfortune 
 is, that this is only when they can best be without it, that 
 is, in fair weather. For, in the least wind or storm, it is 
 taken down ; the Galley not being able to endure it, for fear 
 of oversetting. 
 
 The two winters (in anno 1703, and in 1704) we kept 
 the coasts of Monaco, Nice, and Antibes; those poor 
 creatures, after hard rowing, could not enjoy the usual 
 benefit of the night, which puts an end to the fatigues and 
 labours of the day: but were exposed to the winds, snow,, 
 hail, and all other inconveniences of that season. The only 
 comfort they wished for, was the liberty of smoking : but 
 that, on pain of the Bastinado, the usual punishment of the 
 place, is forbidden. 
 442
 
 1703 07. An Account of a Galley, and its Government. 
 
 The vessel being but small for the number, the men 
 consequently crowded, the continual sweat that streams 
 down from their bodies whilst rowing, and the scanty 
 allowance of linen ; one may easily imagine, breed abundance 
 of vermin. So that, in spite of all the care that can be 
 taken, the Galleys swarm with lice, etc. ; which, nestling in 
 the plaits and laps of their clothes, relieve, by night, the 
 Executioners who beat and torment them by day. 
 
 Their whole yearly allowance for clothes is two Shirts 
 made of the coarsest canvas, and a little Jerkin of red serge 
 slit on each side up to their arm holes ; the sleeves are also 
 open and come not down so low as their elbows. And every 
 three years, a kind of coarse frock, and a little cap to cover 
 their heads ; which they are obliged to keep shaved, as a 
 mark of Infamy. 
 
 Instead of a bed, they are allowed, sick or well, only a 
 board a foot and a half broad. And those who have the 
 unfortunate honour of lying near the Officers, dare not 
 presume, though tormented with vermin, to stir so much as 
 a hand for their ease : for fear their chains should rattle, and 
 awake any of them ; which would draw on them a punish- 
 ment more severe than the biting of those insects. 
 
 It is hard to give an exact description of the pains and 
 labours the Slaves undergo at sea ; especially during the 
 long campaign [^cruise^. The fatigue of tugging at the 
 oar is extraordinary. They must rise to draw their stroke, 
 and fall back again almost on their backs : insomuch that, 
 in all seasons, through the continual and violent motion of 
 their bodies, the sweat trickles down their harassed limbs. 
 
 And for fear they should fail, as they often do through 
 faintness, there is a Gang-board, which runs through the 
 middle of the ship, on which are constantly posted three 
 Comites, an Officer somewhat like a Boatswain in Her 
 Majesty's Ships : who, whenever they find, or think, that 
 an oar does not keep touch with the rest, without ever 
 examining whether it proceeds from weakness or laziness, 
 they unmercifully exercise a tough wand on the man they 
 suspect ; which, being long, is often felt bj' two or three of 
 his innocent neighbours ; who being naked when they row, 
 each blow imprints evident marks of the inhumanity of the 
 Excutioner. 
 
 And that which adds to their misery is. That they are 
 
 as
 
 The lashing of the relentless Comites. 1703-07. 
 
 not iillowed the least sign of discontent or complaint ; that 
 small and last comfort of the miseia])le ! hut must on the 
 contrary endeavour wltli all their might to exert the little 
 vigour that remains ; and try, hy their submission, to 
 pacify the rage of those relentless Tigers : whose strokes are 
 commonly ushered in, and followed hy, a volley of oaths 
 and horrid imjjrecations. 
 
 No sooner are they arrived in any Port ; hut their 
 work, instead of being at an end, is increased : several 
 laborious things previous to casting anchor being expected 
 from them ; which in a Galley is harder than a Ship. And 
 as the Comite's chief skill is seen in dexterously casting 
 anchor, and that they think Blows are the Life and Soul 
 of Work ; nothing is heard for some time, but cries and 
 lamentation : and as the poor Slaves' arms are busy in the 
 execution of his commands ; his are as briskly exercised in 
 lashing them. 
 
 To support their strength under all these hardships 
 during the campaign, every morning, at eight of the clock, 
 they give each man his proportion of biscuit : of which, 
 indeed, they have enough ; and pretty good. At ten a 
 Porringer of oil, with peas or beans ; often rotten ; and 
 commonly musty. I call it. Soup, according to their use : 
 although it be nothing but a little hot water, with about a 
 dozen peas or beans floating on the top. And when, on 
 duty, a Pichone of wine, a measure containing about two- 
 thirds of an English Pint, morning and evening. 
 
 When at anchor in any Port, all who have any money 
 are allowed to buy meat : and the Turk that commands the 
 oar, and is not chained, is commonly the person employed 
 for this purpose: as also to see it dressed in the Cook 
 Room. But I have often seen the Captain's Cook, a brutal 
 l)assionate man, take the poor men's pot, under pretence 
 that it troubled him, and either break [it] , or throw it over- 
 board : whilst the poor Avretches were fainting for want of 
 that little refreshment ; without daring so much as to 
 murmur or complain. This indeed is not usual, but where 
 the Cook happens to be a villain: of which sort of men there 
 are plenty in the Galleys. 
 
 The Officer's table is well furnished, both for plenty and 
 delicacy : but this gives Slaves only a more exquisite sense 
 414
 
 1703-07. The life on board a Galley, while in harbour. 
 
 of their misery ; and seems to brave their poverty and 
 hunger. 
 
 ^ We sj)ent the Carnival of 1704 in the Port of Monaco- 
 Our Officers frequently treated the Prince of that place- 
 aboard the Galley. Their entertainments were splendid- 
 Music and all things that could promote mirth were procured.. 
 But who can express the affliction of those poor creatures, 
 who had only a prospect of Pleasure : and whilst others 
 revelled at their ease, were sinking under a load of chains, 
 pinched with hunger in their stomachs, and nothing to- 
 support their dejected spirits. 
 
 Nay, and what is worse, they are forced to add to the 
 pomp and honour done to Great Men who visit their Officers: 
 but in such a manner as moves the compassion of all who 
 are not used to such dismal solemnities. 
 
 When a Person of Quality comes on board, the Comite 
 gives twice notice with his whistle. The first time, they 
 are all attentive : and the second, the Slaves are obliged to- 
 salute, as they call it, three times ; not with a cheerful 
 'Huzza!' as in an English Man of War; but by howling in- 
 a piteous tone ; making a lamentable complaining outcry. 
 
 When the badness of the weather hinders the Galleys- 
 from putting to sea; such as have Trades work in the Galley. 
 Such as have none, learn to knit coarse stockings : the 
 Comite for whose profit they work, gives them yarn, and 
 pays them about half the usual price : and this not in money, 
 but some little victuals or wine which they are obliged to take- 
 out of the Ship's Cellar (of which the Comite is the Keeper);, 
 though it be generally bad, and dashed with water. For, 
 though they had as much gold as they could carry, they 
 durst not, on pain of the Bastinado, send for any wine from.' 
 the shore. 
 
 The most moving spectacle of all is, to see the poor 
 Souls that have no Trade. They clean their comrades' 
 clothes, and destroy the vermin that torment their neigh- 
 bours : Avho, in return, give them some small share of that 
 scanty pittance they purchase by working. 
 
 One may imagine that such ill treatment, diet, and 
 infection, must needs occasion frequent sickness. In that 
 case the usage is thus : 
 
 There is in the Hold, a close dark room. The air is- 
 
 445
 
 The loathsome Hospital in the Hold. 1703-07. 
 
 admitted only by the scuttle, two feet square : which is the 
 only passage into it. At each end of the said room, there is 
 a sort of a scaffold, called, 'Taular': on which the sick men 
 are laid promiscuously ; without beds or anything under 
 them. "When these are full ; if there be any more, they are 
 stretched all along the Cables : as I saw in the year 1703 : 
 when, being on the coast of Italy, in winter time, we had 
 above threescore sick men. 
 
 In this horrid place, all kind of vermin rule with an 
 arbitrary sway; gnawing the poor sick creatures without 
 disturbance. 
 
 When the duties of my function called me in amongst 
 them, to confess, advise, or administer some comfort: which 
 was constantly twice a day, I was, in an instant, covered all 
 over with them ; it being impossible to preserve one's self 
 from their swarms. The only way was, to go down in a 
 night gown : which I stripped off when I came out ; and, by 
 that means, rid myself of them, by putting on my clothes. 
 
 But when I was in, methought, I walked, in a literal 
 sense, in the Shades of Death. I was obliged, notwith- 
 standing, to make considerable stays in this gloomy 
 Mansion, to confess such as were ready to expire. And the 
 Avhole space between the ceiling and the Taular being but 
 three feet ; I was obliged to lie down, and stretch myself 
 along their sides to hear their confessions : and often while 
 I was confessing one, another expired just by my side. 
 
 The stench is most intolerable : insomuch as that there 
 is no Slave, though ever so weak ; but will rather choose to 
 tug at his oar, and expire under his chain, than to retire to 
 this loathsome Hospital. 
 
 There is a Chirurgeon ^Surgeon] to take care of the 
 sick. At the first setting out of the Galley, the King lays 
 in drugs for the use of the crew; which are always very 
 good : and therefore the Chirurgeons make money of thenr 
 in the several places we arrive at : so that the persons they 
 are intended for, have the least benefit of them. 
 
 During the sickness, the King orders each man in the 
 room we have described, 1 lb. of fresh bread, and the same 
 quantity of Fresh meat, and 2 oz. of rice a day. This is the 
 Steward's province : and he discharges his duties in such a 
 manner, that five or six campaigns make his fortune. We 
 have frequently had in our Galley three score and ten sick 
 men ; and the quantity of flesh allowed for that number 
 M6
 
 1703-07. The sick Slaves defrauded of their food. 
 
 never exceeded 20 lbs. weight, and that bad meat too: 
 though, as I have observed, the King's allowance is 1 lb. for 
 every man ; the rest going into his own pocket. 
 
 Once, out of curiosity, I tasted it ; and found it little 
 better than hot water. I complained to the Chirurgeon and 
 Steward; but [they], being great [f/r/cA] and 'commensales' 
 {companions at table] , they connived at one another. 
 
 I complained to the Officers also : but for what reason 
 (I only guess), they did not regard me. And I have too 
 much respect for the Captain to say, That he had any reason 
 or interest to wink at so great a piece of injustice; though 
 he could, by his own authority, do these wretches justice: 
 who often refused that water, made only more loathsome 
 by the little quantity of meat put into it ; and the little 
 care used about it. 
 
 I enquired of other Chaplains, Whether the same was 
 practised aboard their Galleys ? They frankly confessed 
 it was : but durst own no more. 
 
 After the Campaign of 1704, I, having occasion to go to 
 Versailles, thought myself obliged, when there, to give an 
 account to Monsieur [Louis Phelypeaux, Comte] de Pont- 
 CHARTRAIN, one of the King's Ministers, whose particular 
 province the Sea Affairs are. 
 
 I offered him a short Memorial, and some Advices ; 
 which I thought most proj)er to prevent the like abuses for 
 the future. 
 
 He was pleased to be so well satisfied, and found them 
 so agreeable to some intimations given him before ; that he 
 regarded my advice, and offered me his Interest. The King 
 was pleased to order me a gratuity. I left the Warrant 
 with Monsieur Thome, Treasurer General of the Galleys, 
 living at the Marais du Temple, to serve as an acquittance 
 for the several payments he has made me. 
 
 This is a brief Account of the Galley, and the Govern- 
 ment thereof. 
 
 M7
 
 I NOW PROCEED to shew what sort of people are 
 condemned there. 
 There are, in a Galley, five several sorts of people, 
 under the notion of Slaves ; besides Seamen and 
 Soldiers : viz. Turks, such as are called ' Faussioners,' 
 Deserters, Criminals, and Protestants. 
 
 The King buys the Turks to manage the stroke of the 
 Oar, as I have already shewn ; and they are called ' Vogue- 
 avants ' \_Bow-oarsinGti] and they, together with such as are 
 on the seats called 'Banc du quartier', 'de la Gonille', and 
 'les Espaliers' [^Stroke oars], have the same allowance with 
 the Soldiers. They are generally lusty strong men ; and the 
 least unfortunate of the whole crew. They are not chained : 
 but only wear a ring on their foot, as a badge of Slavery. 
 
 When they arrive at any Port, they have liberty to 
 trade. Some of them are worth £300 or £400. They 
 frequently send money to their Wives and families : and (to 
 the shame of Christians be it spoken ! ) there is a great deal 
 more charity amongst them, than is to be found amongst us. 
 
 I had taken one, called Tripoli, for my Servant. He 
 was a most religious observer of his Law. During the 
 Ramadan, a Feast kept by them, the first Moon of the year; 
 he never eat or drank from sun rising to sun setting : in 
 spite of all the toil and fatigue of the oar, he never seemed 
 uneasy ; though ready to faint through weakness. 
 
 I could never so much as persuade him to take a little 
 wine ; though I have often urged him, merely out of com- 
 passion. 
 
 The Officers make use of no other Servants ; and they 
 are so trusty, that they are never found out in any theft or 
 roguery. 
 
 If any, by chance, commit a fault ; all the Turks 
 importune their respective masters to intercede for him 
 with the Captain. 
 
 If any be sick ; they are all busy about him, to do him 
 all the kind offices in their power. They club to buy him 
 448
 
 1703 07. The Story of the dying Turk. 
 
 meat, or to purchase anything that may refresh him, or do 
 him good. 
 
 In short, in the Galleys, one would think that the 
 Turks and the Christians had made an exchange of prin- 
 ciples : and that the latter had abjured the Precepts of 
 their Saviour, and that the others had taken them up. 
 And, accordingly, preach up Christ to a Turk in a Galley ; 
 and his answer presently is that, He had rather be trans- 
 formed to a dog ; than be of a Religion that countenances 
 so much barbarity, and suffers so many crimes. 
 
 I cannot omit one remarkable instance of their con- 
 stancy and firm adherence to their Religion. One of them 
 who spoke French fell sick. I found him stretched on the 
 cable, in the place I have already described. I had done 
 him some services : and seeing me do the duties of my 
 function to some of his neighbours, he called me to him, 
 and bade me farewell, telling me, That he found he could 
 not possibh' live four hours longer. 
 
 I ventured to talk to him of GOD, our Saviour Christ, 
 and the principles of his Religion ; and told him that 
 ' through him alone, he was to expect Salvation.' 
 
 I found what I said made some impression. 
 
 Whereupon I embraced him ; and told him, I would 
 answer for his Soul if he would renounce Mahomet, who 
 was but an Impostor, and believe in Jesus Christ, the 
 only Redeemer and Saviour of Mankind ; whose holy and 
 excellent doctrine he had heard me so often preach. 
 
 He told me. He would do what I thought fit. 
 
 I answered, That all I desired was his consent to receive 
 Baptism 'without which,' I told him, 'he could expect no 
 salvation.' I explained, in a few words, the nature and 
 design of it : and having induced him to consent, I went 
 for some water; and secretly told the Captain what had 
 happened. 
 
 But, unluckily, another Turk, a friend of his (who also 
 understood French, and had heard all that had past), whilst 
 
 1 was away, said something to my Proselyte in his own 
 language : so that, by the time I came back, he had quite 
 altered his resolution; in such wise that I could by no 
 means persuade him to perform the promise he made me. 
 
 Nay, his friend throw himself over him ; and exhorted 
 him to continue true to the Prophet Mahomet : in spite of 
 
 2 Protestant Slaves. 29 M9
 
 The Peasants who evade the Salt Tax. 
 
 the Comite, who was present, and threatened severely to 
 heat him, if he desisted not. He prevailed, in despite of 
 all; for the poor wretch died in my presence in his error. 
 
 Had I understood Religion as well as I do now, I 
 should not, in that extremity, have insisted so much on 
 the absolute necessity of Baptism; but, having given him a 
 general notion of the Principles of the Christian Religion, 
 I should have admonished him to repentance; and to 
 implore the Divine mercy for pardon of his sins, through 
 the merits of Christ : and so, in saving his Soul from 
 death, I should have hid a multitude of my own sins. The 
 Reader, I hope, will excuse my former error. 
 
 Though, as appears from what hath been said, the Turks 
 on the Galleys are treated somewhat better than the 
 Christians ; and though they be in no wise molested on the 
 score of Religion, for, whilst Mass is a saying, they are put 
 into the caique or long-boat, where they divert themselves 
 by smoking and talking : yet there is not one of them, but 
 would give all the World to be at his liberty. 
 
 For the very name of a Galley is terrible to them : 
 because, notwithstanding their treatment is pretty easy, 
 yet they are Slaves during life ; unless, when thej'^ are very 
 old and unserviceable, they meet with friends who are 
 willing to lay out a large sum of money for their ransom. 
 
 Which shews how little those persons are acquainted 
 with the affairs of that nature, who say that. There are, in 
 the Galleys, men who would not accept of their freedom ; 
 though it were offered them. It is just like talking of a 
 Battle which one never saw, unless at a great distance ; or 
 knows nothing of, but by hearsay. 
 
 Those who are called 'Faussoniers' [^deceivers'] are 
 generally poor Peasants, who are found to buy salt in such 
 Provinces where it is cheap, such as the country of Bur- 
 gundy, or the country of Dombe. In France, what they 
 call a Pint of Salt, weighing four pounds, costs 3s 6d. 
 
 There are some poor peasants and their whole families, 
 who, for want of Salt, eat no soup sometimes in a whole 
 week : though it be their common nourishment. A man in 
 that case, grieved to see his wife and children in a starving 
 languishing condition, ventures to go abroad, to buy Salt in 
 the Provinces where it is three parts in four cheaper. If 
 450
 
 1703-07. The Deserters and Criminals in the Galleys. 
 
 discovered ; he is certainly sent to the Galleys. It is a very 
 melancholy sight to see a Wife and children lament their 
 Father; whom they see laden with chains, and irrevocably 
 lost : and that for no other crime, but endeavouring to 
 procure subsistence for those to whom he gave birth. 
 
 These, indeed, are condemned only for a time ; perhaps 
 five, six, or eight, years : but the misfortune is, that having 
 served out their time, if they outlive it, they are still 
 unjustly detained. For Penance, and Masses, avail nothing 
 in this Purgatory ! Indulgences are excluded, especially if 
 the man be unfortunately strong and robust ; let his 
 Sentence be what it will ! The King's Orders are that, 
 when the time of the Sentence is expired, they should be 
 set at liberty, and sent home. But in this, as in many 
 other cases, his Orders are not duly put in execution : 
 which, indeed, does not excuse him ! since a good Prince 
 is obliged to have an eye on the Administration of his 
 Ministers and Servants. 
 
 As for Deserters ; their sentence runs during life. 
 Formerly they used to cut of¥ their nose and ears : but, 
 because they stank, and commonly infected the whole 
 crew; they only now give them a little slit. 
 
 Though these are inexcusable : because desertion is, 
 upon several accounts, dangerous and base ; yet it moves 
 one's pity, to see young men, wlio often happen to descend 
 from good Families, condemned to so wretched and so 
 miserable a life. 
 
 Such as are condemned for Crimes, are generally 
 'Filous' \_Pick230cJ,'ets~\, Sharpers, Rooks [Cheats~\, or High- 
 waymen. The most notorious Villains are [the] least 
 daunted; and take heart soonest. They presentlj^ strike up 
 a friendship with those of their own gang. They tell over 
 their old rogueries, and boast of their crimes : and the 
 greatest villain passes for the greatest hero. 
 
 The misery they have reduced themselves to, is so far 
 from working any amendment, that it makes them more 
 desperate and wicked : insomuch that if any stranger 
 chances to come aboard, though it were but a handkerchief 
 or some such trifle, they will certainly steal it, if they can. 
 Their common employment is to forge Titles, to engrave 
 false Seals, and to counterfeit Handwriting : and these they 
 
 461
 
 The Galleys are too mild for the Criminals. 1703-1707. 
 
 sell to others as bad as themselves ; that often come in, 
 some time after, to bear them company. But though they 
 feel no remorse ; yet they feel the Comite ! who, with a 
 rope's end, often visits their shoulders; but then, instead of 
 complaining, they vomit out oaths and blasphemies enough 
 to make a man's liair stand on end. 
 
 There was one who, shewing me the mark the ro^De had 
 made about his neck, bragged that, though he had escaped 
 the gallows, he was not thereby grown a coward : but that, 
 as soon as ever he had been at liberty, he had robbed the 
 first person he met with. And that, having been taken, 
 and brought before a Judge who knew him not ; he had 
 Ijeen only condemned to the Galleys : where, he thanked 
 GOD ! he was sure of bread and good company, the remain- 
 der of his days. 
 
 It is certain, that how terrible and hard soever the 
 usage of such may be in the Galleys : yet it is too mild for 
 them ! for, in spite of all the misery they endure, they are 
 guilty of crimes too abominable to be here related. 
 
 Over which, we sliall draw a veil ; and go on to the 
 Protestants : who are there purely because they chose 
 rather to obey GOD than Man ; and were not willing to 
 exchange their Souls for the gain of the World. It is not 
 the least aggravating circumstance of their misery, to be 
 condemned to such hellish company. They who have so 
 great a value for the Truth of Religion as to prefer it to 
 their worldly Interest, must be supposed to be indued with 
 too much Virtue, not to be in pain and under concern for 
 the open breach of its rules, and the unworthiness of its 
 Professors. 
 
 452
 
 THE PROTESTANTS, NOW on the Galleys, have 
 been condemned thither at several times. 
 The first were put in, after the Revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes [October 18 1685]. The term 
 prefixed for the fatal choice of either Abjuring their 
 Religion, or Leaving the Kingdom, was a fortnight : and 
 Unit, upon pain of being condemned to the Galleys. But 
 this liberty, by many base artifices and unjust methods, was 
 rendered useless, and of none effect. There were often secret 
 orders, by the contrivance of the Clergy, to prevent their 
 embarking ; and to hinder the selling of their substance. 
 Their debtors were absolved by their Confessors ; when they 
 denied [the payment of] a debt. Children were forced from 
 their fathers' and mothers' arms ; in hopes that the tender- 
 ness of the Parent might prevail over the -zeal of the 
 Christian. They, indeed, were not massacred, as in Hpjeod's 
 time: but the blood of the Fathers was mingled with their 
 tears. For many Ministers, who had zeal and constancy 
 enough to brave the severest punishments, were broken 
 alive upon Wheels, without mercy ; whenever surprised 
 discharging the duties of their function. The Registers 
 and Courts of Justice where the Sentences were pronounced 
 against them are recorded ; and the Executioners of them, 
 are lasting monuments of the bloody temper and fury of 
 Popery. 
 
 The Laity were forbidden, on pain of the Galleys, 
 leaving the Kingdom, on any pretence whatsoever. But 
 what Posterit}^ will scarcely believe ! the Protestants of 
 all Sexes, Ages, and Conditions, used to fly through deserts 
 and wild impracticable ways ; they committed their lives 
 to the mercy of the seas, and ran innumerable hazards ; to 
 avoid either Idolatry or Martyrdom. Some escaped very 
 happily \_fortnnatelij~\ ; in spite of the vigilance of the 
 Dragoons and Bailiffs : but a great many fell into their 
 hands. The Prisons were filled with Confessors. 
 
 But the saddest spectacle of all, was to see 200 men at 
 a time, chained together, going to the Galleys ; and above 
 
 453
 
 Bancilhon, Serres, and Sabattier, in the Chateau d'lf. 
 
 100 of that number, Protestants. And what was barbarous 
 and unjust to the last degree, was that they were obliged, 
 when there, on pain of the Bastinado, to bow before the 
 Host, and to hear Mass : and yet, that was the only crime 
 for which they had been condemned thither. 
 
 For suppose they were in the wrong, in obstinately 
 refusing to change their Religion ; the Galleys Avere the 
 punishment ! Why then, were they required to do that, 
 which had been the Cause of their condemnation ? Espe- 
 cially since there is a Law in France, that positively forbids 
 a Double Punishment for one and the same fault, viz., Non 
 his punitur in idem. But in France, properly speaking, 
 there is no Lp^av ; where the King's commands are absolute 
 and peremptory. I have seen a General Bastinado on that 
 account ; which I shall describe in its proper place. [See 
 pp. 457-460]. 
 
 It is certain, that though there were at first a very 
 great number of Protestants condemned to the Galleys ; 
 the Bastinado and other Torments hath destroyed [between 
 1685 and 1707] above Three parts of Four : and the most of 
 those who are still alive are in Dungeons, as Messieurs 
 Bancilhon, De Seeees, and Sabattiee, who are confined 
 to a Dungeon at Chateau d'lf ; a Fort built upon a rock in 
 the sea, three miles from Marseilles. 
 
 But the generous constancy of this last, about eight or 
 ten months ago [•?1706], deserves a place in this History; 
 and challenges the admiration of all true Protestants. 
 
 Monsieur [Feancois] Sabattier, whose charity and 
 zeal equal those of the Primitive Christians, having a little 
 money, distributed it to his brethren and fellow Sufferers in 
 the Galleys. But the Protestants being watched more 
 narrowly than the rest ; he could not do it so secretly but he 
 was discovered, and brought before Monsieur DE MoNTMORT, 
 Intendant of the Galleys at Marseilles. 
 
 Being asked ; he did not deny the fact. 
 
 Monsieur Montmort not only promised him his Par- 
 don : but a reward if he would declare, Who it was that had 
 given him that money ? 
 
 Monsieur Sabattier modestly answered that, ' He 
 should be guilty of ingratitude before GOD and Man ; if, 
 by any Confession he should bring them into trouble who 
 had been so charitable to him. That his person was at his 
 454
 
 Francois Sabattier is bastinadoed. 
 
 disposal : but he desired to be excused as to the secret 
 expected from him.' 
 
 The Intendant replied, He had a way to make him tell ; 
 and that immediately. 
 
 Whereupon, he sent for some Turks who, at his 
 command, stripped Sabattier stark naked ; and beat him 
 at several times with rope ends and cudgels during three 
 days. And seeing this did not prevail over this generous 
 Confessor; he himself (which never happened to an 
 Intendant before) turned Executioner! striking him with 
 his cane ; and telling the bystanders ' See, what a devil of 
 a Religion this is ! ' These were his own expressions ; as 
 is credibly reported by persons that were xn-esent. The 
 Gazettes and Public Letters gave us an Account of the 
 same. 
 
 At last, seeing he was ready to expire ; he commanded 
 him into a Dungeon where, maugro all torments. Providence 
 hath preserved him to this day. [He was released in l7l3.] 
 
 But though most of the Protestants of the first date 
 are destroyed : yet the Wars in the Cevennes [1702-1705] 
 have furnished them with more than enough to fill the 
 vacant places. These Wars may be properly called, A 
 Second Persecution : because the cruelty and inveterate 
 malice of a Popish Priest was the occasion and first cause 
 of them. 
 
 One of the most bitter and passionate Enemies of the 
 Protestants was the Abbot Du Chelas ; whose benefice 
 was in the Cevennes. He kept an exact account of the 
 Protestants in his district. 
 
 Whenever he missed them at Mass ; he used to send 
 for them, under some pretence or other, to his house : and 
 used to make his servants tie them (whether men, women 
 or maidens) to a tree, stripped down to their waist ; and 
 then, with horsewhips, [he] scourged them till the blood 
 gushed out. 
 
 This the Papists themselves do not deny ; who own 
 that this Du Chelas was an ill [bad'] man : and yet this 
 his proceeding against the Protestants, being meritorious 
 at Court, he had encouragement to hope for a reward. 
 
 But, at last, his Protestant neighbours, perceiving there 
 were no hopes of pacifying this Monster by submission and 
 fair means, gj-ew desperate: and, one night, invested his 
 
 455
 
 The War in the Cevennes. 1702-05. 
 
 house. He leaped out of his window into his garden ; but 
 not being able to get out, he begged Quarter: but, as he 
 had never granted any, they served him in his kind, by 
 killing him. 
 
 And because they were sure of being pursued; they kept 
 the country : and, by degrees, their numbers increased. All 
 that wore tormented for not going to Mass, made a body 
 and joined them. 
 
 GOD blessed their Arms with success for some time : 
 but (for good reasons, no doubt ; though unknown to us) he 
 gave them up into the hands of their Enemies : and not 
 only them ; but the inhabitants of the neighbouring 
 countries, as the Vivarais and Languedoc. And [on] the 
 bare suspicion of being in their Interest, those with whom 
 any Arms Avere found, those who refused to frequent the 
 Mass, were either hanged, or broken on the Wheel. 
 
 That pretended Rebellion was made use of, as a pretence, 
 to send to the Galleys several rich Protestant Merchants. 
 
 There is, since that time, a Gentleman, Monsieur 
 [Francois Pelet, Baron de] Salgas by name, who, before 
 the Repealing of the Edict of Nantes, enjoyed a plentiful 
 estate in the Cevennes. In order to keep it ; he abjured 
 his Religion, and promised to go to Mass. His spouse, 
 a worthy Lady (with whom I have often conversed at 
 Geneva, where she lives) refused : and generously rejected 
 all proposals on that subject. 
 
 Seeing they threatened her with a Cloister; she en- 
 deavoured to gain time : but, at last, her husband told her, 
 That there was a positive Order from the Court to confine 
 her, if she did not comply and go to Mass. 
 
 This courageous Lady, who deserves to be a pattern of 
 Piety and Zeal to Posterity, having, l)y prayer and other 
 acts of devotion implored the Divine assistance, resolved to 
 quit her country, her husband, children, and estate, and all 
 that is dear and precious here below. 
 
 She took her opportunity, one day, when her Husband 
 was gone a hunting, without communicating anything of 
 her design to anybody, but to such as were instrumental 
 in her escape. She retired to Geneva ; where she might 
 have liberty to make an open Profession of her Religion, 
 and bemoan the misfortune of her family. 
 
 Some time after, the Wars of the Cevennes broke out. 
 456
 
 1702 u7. The Story of the Baron de Saigas. 
 
 Monsieur de Salgas was accused of assisting the Canisards 
 with provisions; and, in spite of his hypocrisy and pre- 
 tended zeal for his new Religion, he was sent to the 
 Galleys. 
 
 But, here, we must admire the wisdom of Providence ; 
 very remarkable in this dispensation. For this has proved 
 the means to open his own eyes ; and to let him see his 
 error : as appears from the j)enitential Letters he writes to 
 his friends, his Christianlike behaviour under his Sufferings, 
 his Exhortations to his fellow Sufferers, and the noble and 
 pious example he shews them. 
 
 He hath had frequent offers made him, of being restored 
 to his estate on the same conditions he had preserved it 
 before; but he hath hitherto been proof against all their 
 attemj)ts. 
 
 He was, some years ago, put into the Hospital General 
 for the Galleys, at Marseilles. This is a kind of ]\Ianu- 
 factory [ ? ] ; where their treatment is somewhat easier 
 than in the Galleys. 
 
 But, at the siege of Toulon [1707], he and all his 
 brethren were taken out of that Hospital ; and reduced to 
 their old station and former miserable condition : l)esides 
 losing 12 or 14 Louis d'Or [= £12 or £14:] which he had 
 procured, to purchase such necessaries as might keep up 
 and support his spirits under the hardships he endured. 
 
 This account came to his Lady, while I was there 
 [Therefore BiON was at Geneva in 1707]; who is, as one 
 may easily imagine, under an inexpressible concern for the 
 miseries her Husband groans under. 
 
 But it is time to bring this sad Relation to a 
 conclusion. In order where unto, I shall, according to my 
 promise, give an Account of the General Bastinado, at 
 which I was present ; and it was not the least means of 
 my Conversion. GOD grant that it may be effectual to my 
 Salvation ! 
 
 In the year 1703, several Protestants out of Languedoc 
 and the Cevennes, were put on board our Galley. 
 
 They were luirrowly watched and observed. 
 
 I was mightily surprised, one Sunday morning, after 
 saying Mass on the Bancasse (a table so placed, that all in 
 the Galley may see the Priest when he elevates the Host) 
 
 457
 
 SecoiKl kStorm and Fury ot the Bastinados. 1703. 
 
 to hear the Comite say, He was going to give the Huguenots 
 the Bastinado; because they did not kneel, nor show any 
 respect to the mysteries of the Mass: and that he was going 
 to acquaint the Captain thcrewitli. 
 
 The very name of Bastinado terrified me: and, though 
 I had never seen this fearful Execution, I begged the Comite 
 to forbear till the next Sunday ; and that, in the mean 
 time, I would endeavour to convince them of what I (then) 
 thought their duty, and mine own. 
 
 Accordingly, I used all the means I could possibly think 
 of, to that effect: sometimes making use of fair means, giving 
 them victuals and doing them some good offices ; sometimes 
 using threats, and representing the torments that were 
 designed them ; and often urging the King's command, and 
 cjuoting the passage of St. Paul that. He who resists the 
 Higher Powers, resists GOD ! 
 
 I had not, at that time, any design to oblige them to do 
 anything against their Consciences. I must confess, that 
 what I did, at that time, chiefly proceeded from a motive of 
 pity and tenderness. 
 
 This was the cause of my zeal : which had been more 
 fatal to them ; had not GOD endued them with resolution 
 and virtue sufficient to bear up against my arguments, and 
 the terrible Execution they liad in view. 
 
 I could not but admire, at once both the modesty of 
 their Answers and greatness of their Courage. ' The King ' 
 said they, ' is indeed Master over our Bodies ; but not of 
 our Consciences ! ' 
 
 At last, the dreadful day being come ; the Comite nar- 
 rowly observed them to see the fruit of my labours. There 
 were only Two, out of the Twenty, that bowed their knee to 
 Baal. 
 
 The rest generously refused it : and were accordingly, 
 by the Captain's Command, served in the manner following. 
 
 Here, like another ^NEAS (with regret calling to mind 
 the miseries and ruin of his own country, the very memory 
 whereof struck his Soul Avith horror), I may truly say, 
 Infanduin Regina jnhes roiovare doloi'eni ! 
 
 In order to the Execution, every man's chains were 
 taken of¥ ; and they were put into tlie hands of four Turks: 
 who stripped them stark naked, and stretched them upon 
 the Coursier, the Great Gun we have described in the 
 458
 
 The Bastinados convert Bion to Protestantism. 
 
 Preface [see page 438]. There they are so held that they 
 cannot so much as stir. During that time there is a horrid 
 silence throughout the whole Galley. It is so cruel a scene 
 that the most profligate obdurate wretches cannot bear the 
 sight : but are forced to turn away their eyes. 
 
 The victim thus prepared, the Turk pitclied upon to be 
 the Executioner, with a tough cudgel or knotty rope's end, 
 unmercifully beats the poor wretch ; and that too the more 
 willingly, because he thinks that it is acceptable to his 
 Prophet, Mahomet. 
 
 But the most barbarous thing of all is, that, after the 
 skin is flayed off their bones, the only loalsam they apply to 
 their wounds is a mixture of Vinegar and Salt. 
 
 After this, they are thrown into the [Galley's] Hospital 
 already described. [See page 445.] 
 
 I Avent thither, after the Execution ; and could not 
 refrain from tears at the sight of so much Barbarity. They 
 quickly perceived it ; and, though scarce able to speak 
 through pain and weakness, thej' thanked me for the com- 
 passion I expressed ; and the kindness I had always shewn 
 them. 
 
 I went with a design to administer some comfort ; but 
 I was glad to find them less moved than I was myself. 
 
 It was w^onderful, to see with what true Christian 
 Patience and Constancy they bore their torments ! in the 
 extremity of their pain, never expressing anything like 
 rage ; but calling upon Almighty GOD, and imploring his 
 assistance. 
 
 I visited them, day by day ; and, as often as I did, my 
 Conscience upbraided mc for persisting so long in a Religion ; 
 whose capital Errors I had long before perceived: and, above 
 all, that inspired so much Cruelty; a temper directly oppo- 
 site to the Spirit of Christianity. At last, their wounds, 
 like so many mouths, preached to me, made me sensible of 
 my Error, and experimentally taught me the excellency of 
 the Protestant Religion. 
 
 But it is high time to conclude ; and draw a Curtain 
 over this horrid scene ; which presents us with none but 
 ghastly sights and transactions, full of Barbarity and 
 Injustice: but which all shew how false what they pretend 
 
 459
 
 The Virtue, Constancy, and Zeal, of the Huguenots. 
 
 in Prance is, for detaiuiuf^ the Protestants in the Galleys, 
 viz., That they do not suffer there, upon a Religious, but 
 a Civil account ; being condemned for Rebellion and Dis- 
 obedience. 
 
 The Punishments inflicted on them, when they refuse 
 to adore the Host ; the rewards and advantages offered 
 them, on their compliance in that particular ; are a 
 sufficient Argument against them : there being no such 
 offers made to such who are condemned for Crimes. It 
 shows the World also, the almost incredible Barbarity used 
 against the French Protestants; and, at the same time, sets 
 off, in a most glorious manner, their Virtue, Constancy, 
 and Zeal for their holy Religion. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 960
 
 Index. 
 
 This Index, besides Personal Names, contains the names of all Cities and 
 Villages in France connected with the Hugneuots, but not of Provinces or 
 Districts, that are mentioned in this Volume. 
 
 Allowance must be made for tlie varying ways of spelling the same name 
 in the different texts. 
 
 Abbeville. 271. 
 
 Adhemar de Monteil de Grigan, Abp. 
 
 Jean B. 35, 88. 
 Agen, Bp. of. 174. 
 Agulhon, Antoine. "271. 
 Aguzan. 43. 
 Aimmet. 45. 
 Aix la Chaise, Francois d", S.J. xx, 
 
 .54, 211. 
 Albemarle, Earl of=:A. J. von Keppel. 
 Albert, Jacob. 275. 
 AJeneon. 44. 
 Aleni/on, Duke of. 7. 
 Algue, Pierre d'. 277. 
 Ahx, Pierre. 275. 
 Allard, Pierre. 275. 
 AlUx, PhiUppe. 277. 
 Alva ; Duke of. 148, 166. 
 
 Alliez. d\ 161. 
 
 Amelot, ; French Ambassador in 
 
 Switzerland. 350. 
 Amelote, Denis. 265. 
 Anne, Queen of England. 430, 431, 
 
 435, 436. 
 Anne of [Austria] , Queen, xvi, 96. 
 Annesley, Arthur : Earl of Anglesea. 
 
 xxviii. 
 Amiens. 271. 
 Apostohck, Isaac. 271. 
 
 Archambaut, . 373. 
 
 Ardant, Jean. 273. 
 Arlande. 44. 
 
 Armand Du Quevla, . 275. 
 
 Arnauld. Antoine. 115, 195, 220. 
 Arnauld, Simon ; Marquis de Pom- 
 
 ponne. 39. 
 Arnout, Etienne. 273. 
 Arsau, Daniel. 276. 
 Arthes. 172. 
 Astier, Alexandre. 274. 288. 290, 291, 
 
 392. 
 Astrict, Antoine. 277. 
 Atticus, Bp. 191. 
 Attila. 197. 
 Aubanie. 45. 
 
 Aubigne, d'. 288. 
 
 Aubision. 43. 
 Augereau, Pierre. 273. 
 
 Augier, . 420. 
 
 Augier, Francois. 275, 286, 287. 
 Augustine, Saint. 152. 
 Aussonne. 326. 
 
 Autigny, d'. 440. 
 
 Autun, Bp. of = G. de Roquette. 
 Auvelle, Bertrand. 277. 
 Avejan. 43. 
 
 B., Messieurs B. 404. 
 
 Balme, near Bare. 44. 
 
 Bancilhon, Baptiste. 272, 373, 374, 
 
 454. 
 Bancilion, Jean. 279. 
 
 Baptiste, . 374. 
 
 Barbot, Madame . 421. 
 
 Barillon, Paul ; French Ambassador 
 
 at London. 93, 415. 
 Barnavon, Etienne. 277. 
 Barraque, Pierre. 279. 
 Barte, Jean. 280. 
 Basil, Saint. 73. 
 Bastide, Pierre. 278. 
 Bauroger, Lady. 36-40. 
 Bayeux. 41. 
 Beam, Parliament of. 35. 
 
 Beauchamp, de. 198. 
 
 Beaumont de Pprefixe, Abp. H. de. 
 
 56, 59, 83. 
 
 Beck, . 196. 
 
 Beeeher, . 4. 
 
 Begon, . 332. 
 
 Belasyse, Thomas; Viscount Faucon- 
 
 berg. xxviii. 
 Bellamino, Card. Roberto F. R. 311. 
 Bellegarde. 43. 
 Belleville. 44. 
 Belabre. 44. 
 Benav. 44. 
 Benet. 45. 
 Benet, Daniel. 274. 
 Beneteau, Henri. 277. 
 Benezet. 43. 
 
 Benoit, . xviii. 
 
 Bentinck; William; Earl of Portland, 
 
 269. 
 Bergerac. 163. 173-176. 272, 275, 276, 
 
 420. 
 
 461
 
 h}(lex. 
 
 Bevnard, .'253. 
 
 Bernai-a, . 287. 
 
 IkH-nard, Pierre. 22, 104. 
 
 Beruois, . 161. 
 
 Berru, .291. 
 
 Bessete, . 420. 
 
 Bertcaud, Rierre. 27-5. 
 
 Bertiand, Etienne. 277. 
 
 Bertraucl, Pierre. 278. 
 
 Bern, Jean. 276. 
 
 Beziers. 279. 
 
 Biliaiul, Jean. 277. 
 
 liill. Jolm. XXX. 
 
 liilly. Jaciiues de. 194. 
 
 Binder, . 21. 
 
 Bion, Jean F. 433-460. 
 
 Bizarre Ardaillers. 44. 
 
 Blanc, Jacciues. 279. 
 
 Blanc, Pierre. 280. 
 
 Blanchard. . 374. 
 
 Blois. 7. 
 
 Boardie. 43. 
 
 Boetias, Pierre. 278. 
 
 Bois de la Tour, Joseph. 279. 
 
 Boisfragon. 4.5. 
 
 Boisqnes, . 287. 
 
 Bonnet, Isaac. 278. 
 
 Bonnet, Pierre. 275. 
 
 Bonneval, . 291. 
 
 Bonnin, Elie. 277. 
 
 Bonrepoux, de ; French Ambas- 
 sador at Copenhagen. 352. 
 
 Bon valet, . 333. 
 
 Bon Valet, . 329. 
 
 Bordaux. 273. 
 
 Bordeaux. 176, 420, 426. 
 
 Bordeaux, Parliament of. 
 
 Borel, Daniel. 273. 
 
 Borie, Jean. 26. 
 
 Borrue, Pierre. 279. 
 
 Bossuet, Bp. Jacques B. 
 209, 211, 219, 220. 
 
 Bouchet, Israel. 276, 285- 
 
 Boufflers, Marshal Louis F. 
 
 Bouin, Charles. 271. 
 
 Boulogne, Pierre. 271. 
 
 Boulonnois, Daniel. 275. 
 
 Bourbac, 196, 197. 
 
 Bourbon. 202. 
 
 Bourbon, . 199, 204. 
 
 Bourbon, The House of. 
 
 Bourget, Daniel. 278. 
 
 Bourget, Solomon. 278. 
 
 Bourniquel. 173. 
 
 Bousquet, Andre. 272. 
 
 Bouvely, Jean. 272. 
 
 Bouvillargues. 44. 
 
 Bovene, Antoine. 277. 
 
 Bovisset. 44. 
 
 Boyer, Pierre. 272. 
 
 Bragassargues. 43. 
 
 Breynard, Antoine. 280. 
 
 Brandenburg, Elector of - Frederick 
 I., King of Prussia 
 
 462 
 
 22, 26. 
 
 187, 200, 
 
 287. 
 
 173, 174. 
 
 61. 
 
 273, 288, 294, 
 
 302, 392. 
 
 Breaw. 44. 
 
 Brewster, Sir Francis. 426. 
 
 Brissac, Moise. 273. 
 
 Brittany, Parliament of. 262-264. 
 
 Brome, Henry. 64. 
 
 Brouzet. 43. 
 
 Brueys. 43. 
 
 Brunei, Alexis. 275. 
 
 Buckingham, Duke of = 0. Villiers. 
 
 Buckingham, Sir Owen. 430. 
 
 Byssi, Count de. 19.s. 
 
 C. . 393. 
 
 Caen, xxxii, 15, 40-42. 
 
 Caen, Viscount of. 42. 
 
 Calvin, Jean. 130, 363, 391. 
 
 Calvin of the Huguenot Galley Slaves, 
 
 the nickname of I. Le Fevre. 312. 
 Caml)0. 43. 
 Cami)ion, Jean. 275. 
 C^andiac. 43. 
 Canesures. 41. 
 
 CJanterbury, Abp. of = W. Sancroft. 
 C;apduc, Marc A. 274, 286, 287. 290. 
 Capelan, Pierre. 279. 
 Capelier, Louis. 277. 
 Capelle, Jean. 273. 
 
 Caralet, . 293. 
 
 Carriere, Pierre. 265. 
 
 302, 392, 395. 
 
 C!arriere, ; his brother. 
 
 Cartillon. 173. 
 
 Casas, Bp. Bartolome de las 283. 
 
 Castelbouc. 44. 
 
 Casteljaloux. 19, 420. 
 
 Castillon. 272. 
 
 Castlenau. 43. 
 
 Catalan, . 367, 368. 
 
 Cannes, . 43. 
 
 Caussade. 163. 
 Caussade, Baron de. 161. 
 Cazallet, Jean. 274. 
 Cequy. 43. 
 
 Cerisie, de. 38, 39. 
 
 Cessy. 43. 
 
 Cevennes, The War in the. 455. 456. 
 
 Cezas. 43. 
 
 Cezay. 45. 
 
 Chabert, Antoine. 272. 
 
 Chabot, Judith. 420. 
 
 Chalez. 43. 
 
 Chalons. 187. 
 
 C'hamilla, . 42. 
 
 Chamilly, Marchioness de. 199, 200, 
 
 202.' 
 Chamilly, Marquis de. 199, 202-205. 
 Chaminon, Jean. 275 
 Chantauna>'. 44. 
 Chapelle, Pierre. 273. 
 Charenton. xiv, xx, xxi. 111, 198. 
 
 Charlemont, Madame . 421. 
 
 Charles de Lorraine. Duke of Guise. 8. 
 Charles Louis, Elector Palatine. 426. 
 Charles IX., King of France. 5, 7.
 
 Index. 
 
 Charles I., King of England. 3, 4. 
 Charles II., King of England, xx, 
 
 xxviii, 3, 4, 53, 423, 426, 427. 
 Charlotte, Queen of Denmark, 351. 
 Chastelet, Marquis de = P. Hay. 
 Chatellerault. 26, 276, 277. 
 Chatillon sur Loin. 72. 
 Chau, Jacques. 276. 
 Chauviguy. 14, 44. 
 
 Chemet, . 241. 
 
 Chevry. 43. 
 
 Child, Sir Josiah. 426. 
 
 Cincens. 44. 
 
 Claverhouse =: J. Graham. 
 
 Claude, Jean, xiv, xvi, xvii, xix, 
 
 passim 91-156 ; 195,202, 416, 417. 
 Clemery sur Seille. 198. 
 Clerac. 173. 
 Clerc, Jean P. 271. 
 Cochet, Jacques. 276. 
 Cochet, Louis. 276. 
 Colbert, Jean B. ; Marquis of Seigne- 
 lay ; Minister of the Marine. 226. 
 Colbert, Jean B. ; Marcjuis de Seigne- 
 nelay ; the great Financier. 86, 
 130. 
 Coligni, Gaspard II. de ; Admiral of 
 
 France. 6. 
 Colonges. 43. 
 Combas. 43. 
 Combet, Cesar. 278. 
 Comerc, Jean. 278. 
 
 Compton, Bp. Henry, xxvi, xxviii, 
 XX, 428, 430. 
 
 Coucules. 43. 
 
 Conde. 275. 
 
 Condom, Bp. of J. B. Bossuet. 
 
 Constance, Council of. 148, 149. 
 
 Constans, . 420. 
 
 Conte, David. 273. 
 
 Conte, Daniel. 277. 
 
 Conway, Edward ; Earl of Conway, 
 xxviii. 
 
 Corbiere, Joseph. 273. 
 
 Cosnac, I3p. Daniel de. 150. 
 
 Couhe. 44. 
 
 Coulez. 43. 
 
 Courbes. 43. 
 
 Courselles, de. 212. 
 
 Courteilles. 44. 
 
 Courvessac. 44. 
 
 Coutras. 173. 
 
 Cove, Martha. 420. 
 
 Crassy. 43. 
 
 Craven, William ; Earl of Craven, 
 xxviii. 
 
 Crespien. 44. 
 
 Croicy. 278. 
 
 Cros. 44. 
 
 Cros, Daniel. 277. 
 
 Cros, Etienne. 278. 
 
 Croissie. 44. 
 
 Croissy, do. xxxiv, xxxv. 
 
 Cresset. 43. 
 
 Cruvieres. 44. 
 
 Culpeper, Sir Thomas. 426. 
 
 Damouin = Dumouin. 
 
 Darques, — . 36-40. 
 
 Darques, Mademoiselle, — — . 36-40. 
 
 Daubigny, Nicolas. 272, 288. 
 
 Daude, Abraham. 274. 
 
 Daude, Jean. 277, 279. 
 
 Daumesargues. 44. 
 
 Delo, Henri. 274. 
 
 Dennuieux, . 170. 
 
 Descartes, Rene. 193. 
 Des Gros. 43. 
 Desplaue. 43. 
 
 Deu du Vieu Dampierre, . 206. 
 
 Dez, - — -, S.J. 200-202. 
 Didier, Pierre. 277. 
 Dieppe, xxxii, 15, 273. 
 Dijon, Parliament of. 22. 
 Dinan. 44. 
 Dintre, Jean P. 273. 
 Divone. 43. 
 
 Dompmartin, . 206. 
 
 D'Ongles. 43. 
 
 D'Oppedettes. 43. 
 
 Dorrat, Joan ; and her sister, Joan. 
 
 420. 
 Dourbies. 43. 
 Douvier, David. 276. 
 Dover, Treaty of. 92. 
 Dreux. 277. 
 
 Du Bassouere, . 375. 
 
 Du Boust, Moise. 419. 
 Dubui, Jean. 272. 
 Du Chelas, Abbot. 455, 456. 
 Duclaux, Louis. 272. 
 
 Duclos, . 379. 
 
 Dufour, Jacques. 279. 
 Dumas, Pierre. 279. 
 Dumouin brothers. The three. 287, 
 289. 
 
 Dumouin, Abel. 272. 
 
 Dumouin, Etienne. 272. 
 
 Dumouin, Marc A. 278. 
 Du Mouhn, Jean F. 275. 
 
 Du Muins, . 86. 
 
 Dupon, Jacques. 279. 
 
 Dupre, . 419. 
 
 Du Queyla, Armand. 275. 
 Durand, Autoiue. 278. 
 Durand, Jean. 275, 287. 
 Duras. 420. 
 Du(iuesne. Abraham, xxxii. 
 
 E, Count d\ 196. 
 Eland, Lady, xxii 
 Eland, Lord. xxii. 
 Elizabeth, Queen of England, xxiv. 
 Emanuel, King of Portugal. 148. 
 Ernley, Sir John, xxviii. 
 Eruaii, Elie. 272. 
 
 Escher, Heinrich ; President of the 
 Swiss Republic. 349-351. 
 
 463
 
 Index. 
 
 163. 
 
 273, 288, 302, 395. 
 
 23. 
 276. 
 
 11.5. 
 
 Espase, Jean. 274. 
 
 Estree, Card. cV. xxxiii. 
 
 Kusebius. 190, 191. 
 Exoudua. 14. 
 Eymet. 26. 
 
 F, . 231. 
 
 Fabre, Mar.shal de. 199. 
 
 Fabiau, . 273, 288, 302, 395. 
 
 Faj^uin, Jean. 273, 288, 302, 395. 
 
 Faisse, . 23. 
 
 Fa.jau, Jean. 273, 288, 302, 895. 
 Far{<es. 43. 
 
 Farot, de. 21. 
 
 FauiL^iieroles. 420. 
 Fauret, Jacques. 276. 
 Faussay. 45. 
 FaviUet. 45. 
 Faviu, Isaac. 
 Fayan, Jeau. 
 
 Femault, 
 
 Fer, Etienne. 
 
 Feineau, Etienne. 273. 
 
 Fese. 44. 
 
 Flavart, Jean. 275. 
 
 Flechier, Bp. Es])rit 
 
 Fleis. 173. 
 
 Foissac. 44. 
 
 Fone on the Lussan. 
 
 Fontarzche. 44. 
 
 Fontenay le Comte. 
 
 Fortunat, . 374 
 
 Foucault, . 171 
 
 Foache, Moise. 271 
 Fouquier, Laurence. 
 
 Fourtelet, . 289. 
 
 Fraisinet de Fourges. 44. 
 France, Provincial Parliaments 
 
 — see Parliaments. 
 Francis I., King of France. 5. 
 Francis II., King of France. 5. 
 Fredericli I., King of Prussia. Ill, 
 
 423. 
 Frederick, Prince of Denmarli. 351. 
 Fugerolle, . 36-38. 
 
 G., . 330. 
 
 G. T. 179-182. 
 Gaclion, Jeau. 278. 
 Gadargues. 44. 
 Galapian. 45. 
 Galarques. 44. 
 Galien, Jean. 275. 
 
 43. 
 
 20. 
 
 278. 
 
 of 
 
 Galleys of France. Tlie Establish- 
 ment of tlie French Galleys iu 
 the reign of Louis XIV. was 
 Twenty-four at Marseilles ; and 
 Six upon the Ocean, at Bordeaux, 
 Brest, Rochelle, and Saint Malo. 
 Those mentioned at pp. 278-280 
 seem to have had two names. 
 Galleys went out of use at the 
 end of that King's reign. 
 
 464 
 
 L'Amazone. 279, 291. 
 L'Ambitieuse. 278. 
 La Belle. 273. 
 La Brave. 272, 287. 
 La Brilliante. 279. 
 La Couquerante. 276. 
 La Couronne. 276. 
 La Dauie. 272. 
 La Dauphine. 276, 287, 291. 
 La Uuchesse. 276. 
 L'Emeraude. 278. 
 La Favorite. 276, 372. 
 La Ferme. 279. 
 La Fidele. 272, 288. 
 La Fiere. 232, 233, 235, 276, 290. 
 The Fine. 292. 
 La Fleur de Lis. 276. 
 La Forte. 275, 289. 
 La Fortune. 271, 394. 
 La Fortunee. 280. 
 La France. 271. 
 La Galante. 274, 285. 
 La Gloire. 273. 
 La Grande. 271. 
 
 La Grande Reale, one of tlic two 
 Hospital Ships (in addition to the 
 Hospital on shore) for Galley 
 Slaves at Marseilles. 228, 233, 
 238, 277, 278, 332, 3.33, 408. See 
 La Vieille Reale. 
 La Grande Saint Jean. 227, 233, 
 
 332. 
 La Guerriere. 265, 273, 279, 288-290. 
 La Hardie. 272, 373. 
 La Heroine. 273. 
 L'lllustre, 274. 
 L' Invincible. 275. 
 La Magnanime, 264, 274, 286, 287, 
 
 290, 291, 392, 395. 
 La Magnifique. 228, 238, 286, 333, 
 
 408. 
 La Marquise. 279. 
 La Palme. 279. 
 La Perle. 275. 
 La Petite Saint Jean. 233. 
 La Princesse. 279. 
 La Reine. 274, 285, 289, 291, 379. 
 La Renommee. 276, 285-287. 
 La Saint Louis. 275. 
 La Sirene. 274. 
 La Souveraine. 274. 
 La Superbe. 433, 436, 440. 
 La Triomphante. 279. 
 La Vaillante. 275, 379. 
 La Valeur. 275, 285. 
 La Victoire. 280. 
 La Vieille Reale was the other of 
 the two Hospital Shijjs (in addi- 
 tian to the Hospital on shore) for 
 Galley Slaves at Marseilles. 227. 
 288, 290, 294, 295, 297. See La 
 Grande Reale. 
 
 Garnier, Pierre. 241, 273.
 
 tndeoc. 
 
 Garnier, Jean. 277. 
 
 Garrison, de. 162. . 
 
 Gascuel, Michel. 272. 
 Gascuel, Pierre. 271. 
 Gassendi, Pierre. 193. 
 Gatuzieres. 4.3. 
 Gaujac, near Anduze. 43. 
 Gauma, Bartlielmi. 272. 
 Gay, Pierre. 289. 
 Gayrard, Jean. 20. 
 Gazeau, Andre. 276. 
 Gendre, Jean. 273. 
 Geneva. 277, 372, 4o7. 
 Geneyrac. 44. 
 Gensac. 173. 
 
 Gentillot, Madame . 421. 
 
 Gercis. 44. 
 
 Germain, Benjamin. 278. 
 
 Gex. 43. 
 
 Ghanj^ninon de Vassy, . 241. 
 
 Gignac. 43. 
 Giraud, Jean. 279. 
 
 Godinet, , S.J. 202, 203. 
 
 Godolphin, Sidney ; Earl of Godolphin. 
 
 xxviii. 
 
 Gommeret, . 199. 
 
 Gommeret, afterwards de Marolles ; 
 
 Mary. 199. 
 Gonesse. 271. 
 Gordes. 43. 
 
 Gorinx, The two Mrs. 420. 
 Gouin, Daniel. 272. 
 Gout, Etieune. 278. 
 Graham, John ; Viscount Dundee. 
 
 xxxi. 
 
 Grange, . 294. 
 
 Grange, Antoine. 271, 288. 
 
 Granville, John; Earl of Bath, xxviii. 
 
 Gregory, Saint, Nazianzus. 73. • 
 
 Gresler, Maurin. 291. 
 
 Gresse, Marc. 272. 
 
 Grifac. 44. 
 
 Grilly. 43. 
 
 GrimV, Isaac. 278. 
 
 Grimaud, Pierre. 275. 
 
 Grosteste de Mahis, Marin. 1.50. 
 
 Groux. Joan. 420. 
 
 Gucrard, . 367, 368. 
 
 Guerard, Aaron. 275. 
 Guigue, Joseph. 272. 
 Guillemot, Cardin. 277. 
 
 GiTiraud, . 344. 
 
 Guirc. 45. 
 
 Guisard, Jean. 419. 
 
 Guisard. Martha. 419. 
 
 Guise, Duke of Guise = Charles de 
 
 Lorraine. 
 Gujaue. 44. 
 Guoysargues. 44. 
 
 Haemmerlein, Thomas, ii Kempis. 
 
 200, 386. 
 Hamilton, liOrd WiUiam. xxxv. 
 Harley, de. 317, 318. 
 
 Harlcy, Robert ; Earl of Oxford. 429. 
 Harley de Chanvallou, Abp. F. de. 
 
 XX, xxxv, 66, 115. 
 Havre. 275, 279. 
 
 Hay, Paul ; Sieur de Chastelet. 15, 36. 
 Heinsius, Daniel. 185, 186. 
 Helmauru. 197, 198. 
 Henry II., King of France. 5, 207. 
 Henry III., King of France. 7, 56. 
 Henry IV., King of France. 5, 8, 12, 
 
 13, 18, 19, 34, .35, 55-61, 73, 83, 101, 
 
 105, 126, 134, 1.35, 141-143, 215. 
 Hermant, Godfrey. 73. 
 Hills, Henry, xxx. 
 HoUes, Esther, Lady. 38. 
 Holies, Lord Denzil. 38. 
 Huss, John. 149. 
 Huyghens, Christiaan. 230. 
 Hyde, Henry ; Earl of Clarendon. 
 
 xxviii. 
 Hyde, Lawrence ; ViScount Hyde. 
 
 xxviii. 
 Hyeres. 297. 
 
 I., de. 234. 
 
 Innocent III.. Pope. 148. 
 
 Innocent XI., Pope. 153. 
 
 Intendants-see Chamilla, Dennuieux, 
 Du Muins, Foucault, Harley, La 
 Fond, La Goupelliere, La Grange, 
 Marillac, Miromenil, Moutmovt 
 and Montolieu. 
 
 Iraeneus, Saint. 191. 
 
 Isoire, Louis. 285. 
 
 Issudoun. 17. 
 
 J., . 330. 
 
 J.,D. S. H. 403. 
 Jacques, Jean. 272. 
 
 Jam , . 231. 
 
 James I., King of England. 3. 
 James II. , King of England. 92-94, 155 
 Jauoir, Abraham. 277. 
 
 Jarry, . 87. 
 
 Jauvel, Daniel. 273. 
 
 Jenkins, Sir Leoline. xx, xxvi-xxviii, 
 
 xxxiv. 
 Jerome, of Prague. 149. 
 John II. (Sobie.sld) ; King of Poland. 
 
 202. 
 Joram. Pierre. 271. 
 Josue, Nicolas. 271. 
 Jourdain, C. 206. 
 Jourdain, Baugier, J. 206. 
 Joussaud, Claudius. 274. 
 Julian the Ai>ostate, Emperor. 73. 
 
 318. 
 Julien, Jean. 277. 
 Jurieu. Pierre. 213, 216, 217, 235. 
 
 Keppel, Arnold Joost von ; Earl of 
 Albemarle. 199. 
 
 L., D. 370-372. 
 
 L., D. S. xxxvii, 366, 381-384. 
 
 465
 
 IndeJc. 
 
 . 275. 
 374. 
 
 45. 
 
 192. 
 
 196, 197. 
 
 de. 
 
 220. 
 
 La Bastide. 43. 
 Labt', Mary. 420. 
 La Bouchetiere. 45. 
 La Brassardiere. 45 
 La Breouilli. 4.S. 
 La Brngiere. 44. 
 La Bnardierc. 45. 
 Labuscaj^ne, Samson 
 
 La Cantiniere, . 
 
 La Caste. 43. 
 
 La Chaise^F. d'Aix la Chaise 
 
 La Chapelle. 26. 
 
 La Chapelle Temet. 
 
 La Chataigneraye. 
 
 La F., . 226. 
 
 Lafou, Joseph. 276. 
 Lafon, Pierre. 272. 
 
 La Fond, . 322. 
 
 La Force, Family of 
 Laget, David. 286. 
 
 La Goupelliere, de 
 
 La Grange. 292, 294. 
 
 La Grange, de. 199. 
 
 La Jaudovinicre. 44. 
 
 La Jonchere, Mademoiselle 
 
 329. 
 Lalew. 426. 
 La Mariniere. 45. 
 La Marte, Matthieu. 280. 
 Lambert, Major. 248-250. 
 Lambert, Jean. 272. 
 Lamblin, Madame — 
 La Milliere. 45. 
 La Motthe. 69. 
 La Motte, Baron de. 
 Landouzy. 44. 
 Lande Blanche. 45. 
 La Noele. 317-320. 
 Lants. 43. 
 La Placette, Jean de. 
 
 La Ramieie, de. 
 
 La Ramiere, Charlotte de. 
 La Ramiere, Mary de. 419 
 Larroque, Matthieu de, 
 La Rochebibnard. 44. 
 La Rouviere. 44. 
 La Roviniere. 44. 
 Lascours. 44. 
 
 La Serre, Madame . 
 
 La Touche, de. 26, 
 
 La Tour, . 322. 
 
 La Tour, Charles de ; 
 
 Gouvernet. xx. 
 La Tour, Esther de ; 
 
 Lady Eland, xx. 
 
 La Tapisserie, . 11 
 
 L'Aubonniere, de. 
 
 Laurens, Jean. 279. 
 
 Laurent, . 370. 
 
 Laurent, Claudius. 278. 
 Lawrence, Pius— Pius Lawrence. 
 Lausanne. 275, 276. 
 
 L'Ausonniere, . 302, 349, 372, 396 
 
 Lautre, Joachim. 277. 
 
 466 
 
 161. 
 
 290. 
 419. 
 
 344. 
 
 419. 
 
 195. 
 
 421. 
 
 Marquis de 
 afterwards 
 
 267, 374. 
 
 Lauveiol. 43. 
 
 Lauvet, David. 272. 
 
 Le Boucher, Pliilippe. 355, 362, 374. 
 
 Le Boupire. 44. 
 
 Le Doux, p:Ue F. 276. 
 
 Le Favrv, — — . 222. 
 
 Le Fevre, Isaac. 226, 228, 232, 233, 
 
 237, 2.38, 242, 244 ; passim 302-412. 
 Le Fevre, Ishmael Isaac Le Fevre. 
 Le Fevre, M. (previously Elignard) ; 
 
 the mother of Isaac Le Fevre. 
 
 313. 
 Le Fevre, P. ; the father of Isaac 
 
 Le Fevre. 313. 
 
 Le Fevre de la Mothe, ; brother 
 
 to Isaac Le Fevre. 352. 
 Leger, David. 278. 
 Le Grand, Lady. 36. 
 
 Le Houstales, . 392. 
 
 Le Lou, Esther ; afterwards Lady 
 
 Holies. 38. 
 Le May, Claudine. 421. 
 Le May, Joan. 421. 
 Le Mesnil. 44. 
 
 Le Moine, . 36, 39. 
 
 Lenu, Abraham. 279. 
 
 Leonard, . 89. 
 
 LeP., D. S. 366. 
 Lepicier, Jean. 271. 
 Leques. 44. 
 
 Le Roi, . 214, 215, 221. 
 
 L'Estrange, Sir Roger. 94, 415. 
 
 Le T., Doctor. 196. 
 
 LeteUier, Francois M. ; Marquis de 
 
 Louvois. 205. 
 Le Tellier, Michel ; Chancellor of 
 
 France. 126. 
 Leval. 44. 
 
 Le Vautrel, . 206. 
 
 Le Vigean. 44. 
 
 Libourne. 173. 
 
 Ligneux. 45. 
 
 Lindeboeuf. 44. 
 
 Liouc. 43. 
 
 Liron, Jean. 275. 
 
 Lixim. 196, 199, 204. 
 
 Lloyd, Bp. William. 64. 
 
 Lloyd, Philip, xxx. 
 
 Lockhart, Sir William. 39. 
 
 London, 272, 278. 
 
 Lorge, Count de. 29. 
 
 L'Ornu, Corbigni. 328. 
 
 L'Orphehn, Pierre. 273. 
 
 Lostallet, or Loustallet, . 273, 
 
 288, 290, 294. 
 Lougrian. 43. 
 Louis, Duke of Burgundy ; the 
 
 Dauphin. 70. 
 Louis XIII., King of France. 8, 12, 
 
 13, 18, 19, 31, 61, 79, 90, 134, 135, 
 
 142. 
 Louis XIV., King of France. jjrtss/»i. 
 Loup, David. 279 
 Louvois, Marquis de — F. M. LeteUier.
 
 hideoc. 
 
 Lucerne. 275. 
 Lucon. 44. 
 Lucque. 43. 
 Lunadier, Isaac. 
 Luther, Martin. 
 Lyons. 272. 
 
 274. 
 308. 
 
 M., . 226. 
 
 M., . 23L 
 
 M., . 3.5L 
 
 M., . 372. 
 
 IvI.. C. Hibernns 
 Macaulay, Lord 
 Mailhoy. Pierre. 
 IVrainibonrg, Louis 
 
 C. O'Mahony, 
 
 92. 
 
 273. 
 
 90, 115. 
 
 . 44. 
 94, 416. 
 
 274. 
 
 278. 
 
 419, 420, 421. 
 
 . 419,421, 
 
 Maistre, Pierre. 279 
 Major, Charles. 274. 
 Maiblanc, Jean F. 277. 
 Mallet, Jean V. 273. 
 Mandenanr de Eousses 
 Manninghani. Doctor. 
 Mannuel, Louis. 272. 
 Marcelin, Jean. 
 March. Wilhani. 
 Marcillac. 44. 
 Marevillo. 44. 
 
 Marguerou, 
 
 Margueron, Madame, 
 Marignargues. 44. 
 
 Marillac, de. 83, 8-5. 86, 112, 170. 
 
 Marin, Jean. 273. 
 Marolles, Barthelemi. 197, 198. 
 MaroUes, Claude de. 194. 
 Marolles, Louis de, passim. xiii, 
 xxxvii, xxxix, 183-255 : 316. 328- 
 332, 337, 338, 340, 353, 3-54, 388. 
 
 Marolles, de ; his elder son. 185, 
 
 186, 199, 206, 222. 
 
 Marolles, de; his younger son. 
 
 199, 206, 222. 
 
 Marolles, Thierri de. 197, 198. 
 
 Martel, Jacques. 275. 
 
 Martin, Jean. 274. 
 
 Martinargues. 43. 
 
 Martinique, Pierre. 278. 
 
 Marvege, Jean. 271. 
 
 Maruejols in Yaunage. 43. 
 
 Marvejols les Garden Hotnmiers. 43. 
 
 Mary II, Queen of England. 427. 
 
 Massanes. 43. 
 
 Massilargues les Anduze. 43. 
 
 Mason, Sir Richard, xxlv. 
 
 Maugi^res. 44. 
 
 Maurin,'-Elie. 276, ?288, 292, 294, 
 302, ?374, 392. 
 
 Maurin, Jean. 277. 
 
 Mauru, Pierre, xxxvii, 355-368, 389. 
 
 Mauvezin. 19. 
 
 Mavilleron. 44. 
 
 Maximinian, Emperor. 191. 
 
 Mayercroon, de. 351. 
 
 Mayercroon, Madame . 351. 
 
 Mayne, Duke'de. 194, 203, 223, 234. 
 
 Mazaribal. 44. 
 
 Mazel, Pierre. 276. 
 
 Meaux, Bp. of— J. B. Bossuet. 
 
 Meaux. 276. 
 
 Megrane. 44. 
 
 Mejane. 43. 
 
 Mejanin, Antoine, 277. 
 
 Melon, Charles. 277. 
 
 Mer. 27. 
 
 Mercier, Antoine. 272. 
 
 Mercier, Jean. 274. 
 
 Mesnier, S. J. 15. 
 
 Metz, Parliament of. 22. 
 Meunier, Andre. 276. 
 Meunier, Etienne. 276. 
 Meynadier, Jean J. 276. 
 Meynadler, Pierre. 278. 
 
 Meynier, , S. J. 104. 
 
 Meyrin. 43. 
 Mezieres. 23. 
 Milhaw. 44. 
 Milhaud. 19. 
 Millau. 30, 31, 96. 
 
 Miromenil, de. 205. 
 
 Mirour. . 367,368. 
 
 Mitchell, Jean. 274. 
 Moivre, Abraham de. 223. 
 Mombruu, Marquis de. 318, 320. 
 
 Mombrun, Marchioness de. 318. 
 
 Monbetton, Marquis of. 192. 
 
 Monchanin du Monceau de. 318, 
 
 319. 
 
 Monde ville le Fanue. 40-42. 
 
 Monravel. 173. 
 
 Montagnac. 44. 
 
 Montauban. 18-20, 26, 30, 44, 96, 159- 
 163, 271. 272. 
 
 Montauban, Bp. of. 10. 
 
 Montelus, 285. 
 
 Montespan, Madame de. 209. 
 
 Montmiraille. 44. 
 
 Montmort, de. 371, 385, 387, 454. 
 
 MontoUeu, de. 289. 440. 
 
 Montpellier. 16, 19. 
 
 Montredon. 44. 
 
 Montvaillaut. 44. 
 
 Morel, Jacques. 274. 
 
 Morell, . 220. 
 
 Morin. 288, 374 = ? E. Maurin. 
 
 Moulin, Pierre. 274. 
 
 Moulins. 324. 
 
 Mounier, . 302. 
 
 Mouteils. 43. 
 
 Move. 44. 
 
 Moze. 87. 
 
 Mulh, Catherine. 420. 
 
 Musson, . 192. 
 
 Musseton, Jean. 271, 293, 372, 374. 
 
 N., . 325. 
 
 Nantes. 104. 
 
 Nantes in 1598, The Edict of. xxlv, 
 xxxii, XXXV, 4, 5, 8, 12, 14, 16, 
 18- 20, 22, 35, 47, 51, 54-62, 68, 
 71, 72, 92, 98, 104. 105, 124, 133- 
 135, 140, 440. 
 
 467
 
 Index. 
 
 Nantes in 1685, The Revocation of 
 tlie Edict of. 126, 127, l;U), liU, 
 197, B15, :U7, 423, lo-i, 406. 
 
 Nantes. 164. 
 
 Nean, Elie, or Elias. xxvii, 259-270, 
 374. 
 
 Ncf^re, Jean. 272. 
 
 Negrepelisso. 14, 162, 173, 273. 
 
 Nerac. 173, 419. 
 
 Nesmes. 44. 
 
 Nesniond, Pip. Fx'ancois de. 42. 
 
 Nencluitel. 279. 
 
 Nevers, Bp. of. 320. 
 
 Newcomb, Tlionias. xxx. 
 
 Nicole, Pierre. 115, 
 
 Ninieguen, Treaty of. xxiv. 
 
 Ninies. 271, 272," 273. 274. 278. 
 
 Niort. 15, 27. 272. 
 
 Noailles, Card. Bp. Louis A. de. 188, 
 233, 237-239, 242, 333. 
 
 Novarre. 172. 
 
 Odot, Claudius. 277. 
 Odou, Marc. 273. 
 O'Mahony, Cornelius. 90. 
 Orange, Protestants of tlie Princi- 
 pality of . 131,280. 
 Orthou. 43. 
 
 Ouartigni, Mar(|uis d'. 329. 
 Ozanam, Jac([ues. 223. 
 Ozou. 43. 
 
 P., . 226. 
 
 P., D. S. 372. 
 
 P., Leger. 372. 
 
 P.. Sir J. 86-88. 
 
 Paris, Parliament of. 126, 206, 216, 
 
 218. 
 Parliaments of France, Provincial. 
 
 See Beam, Bordeoux, Dijon, 
 
 Metz;, Paris, Pan, Province, Ren- 
 
 nes, Rouen, Toulouse. 
 Partlienay. 44. 
 Paschasius, Radbertus. 202. 
 
 Pasquet, . 372. 
 
 Passelaigue, Olympe. 420. 
 
 Patonnier, Clement. 279. 
 
 Pan. 172. 
 
 Pan. Parliament of. 22. 
 
 Pausange. 26. 
 
 Pecheu, Etienne. 278. 
 
 Pelanchon, Matthieu. 271. 
 
 Pelaton, Antoine. 278. 
 
 Pelecuer, Antoine. 271. 
 
 Pelet, , Baroness de Saigas. 4-56, 
 
 457. 
 Pelet, Francois ; Baron de Saigas. 
 
 456, 457. 
 Peletan, Paul. 277. 
 
 Pelevier, . 288, 292, 294. 
 
 Pelican, Andre. 288. 
 
 Pelisson, . 152. 
 
 Peraud, Pierre. 277. 
 
 P(^reftxe— H. de Beaumont de Pere- 
 
 fixe. 
 
 468 
 
 Pcridier, Jarques. 272. 
 Pcridier, Pierre. 275. 
 Periguenx, Bp. of. 174. 
 Peron. 43. 
 Perreau, Mary. 420. 
 Perreau, Pierre. 420. 
 Peselechat. 44. 
 Petel, Pierre. 275. 
 Petit, Isaac. 277. 
 Petty, Sir William. 426. 
 
 Peyferi^, . 419. 
 
 Peyrier, Antoine. 279. 
 Pholypeaux, Louis ; Comte de Pont- 
 
 chartrain. 261. 440. 447. 
 Pichot, Elie. 275. 
 Piermarin, Jacques. 275, 286, 287, 
 Pierre, Jean. 277. 
 Pindou, Francois. 279. 
 Pineau, Simon. 274, 290. 
 Pinet, Jacques. 275. 
 Piron, Jean. 277. 
 Platon, Antoine. 274. 
 Ploer. 44. 
 Pogny. 197. 
 Poguadoresse. 44. 
 Point de Montvert. 44. 
 Poire. 44. 
 
 Poissan, Jac<iues. 271. 
 Poitiers. 7, 26, 67, 85. 
 Polycarp, Saint, 190. 
 Pomponne, Monsieur^S. Arnauld. 
 Pontchartrain. de = L. Phely- 
 
 peaux. 
 Pontis, Jean A. 278. 
 Pougnj\ 43. 
 Poully. 43. 
 Praloyer, Pierre. 277. 
 Pregny. 43. 
 Privas. 27, 31. 
 Provence, Parliament of. 22. 
 Prunier, Jean. 277. 
 Puec, David. 272. 
 Puechredon. 43. 
 Puigni. 44. 
 Puis Laurence is the name of a place ; 
 
 not that of a man. 18. 
 Puybeliart. 44. 
 
 Quay Pierre. 274. 
 Quet, Pierre. 274. 
 
 R., G. C. 366. 
 
 R., Mademosielle . 345. 
 
 Raimond, Pierre. 277. 
 Rame, Daniel. 279. 
 
 Rambourg. . 206. 
 
 Raoul-Duval, Andre, xli. 
 
 Ratramnus, the Monk of Corby. 202. 
 
 Raubert, Perre. 275. 
 
 Ravaillac. m. 
 
 Realrnont. 19, 173. 
 
 Realville. 163. 
 
 Reboul, Marc Antoine. 273. 
 
 Reboul, David. 277.
 
 Index. 
 
 Reikis. . 39"). 
 
 Reii^e, Daniel. 280. 
 
 Renault. Moise. 273. 
 
 Renault, Pierre. 273. 
 
 Rcneu, Hilary, xxxi, xxxix, 93. 113- 
 
 431. 
 Renncs. 35. 
 
 Rennes, Parliament of. 22, 26, 262-264. 
 Ressif^nol, Bartht'hni. 279. 
 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes — 
 
 see Nantes. 
 Re vole, Jean. 279. 
 
 Reynaud, . xxxix, 216. 
 
 Rejnier, Madame de. 17. 
 Rheinis, Abp of. llo. 
 Rianjeand. Elie. 276. 
 Ribautes. 44. 
 
 Richard, . 379. 
 
 Richard, Pierre. 274. 
 
 Robartes, John ; Earl of Radnor. 
 
 xxviii. 
 Robine, — — , «. J. 201. 
 
 Robineau, . 26. 
 
 Robline, Nicolas. 273. 
 Rochebiliere, Francois. 275. 
 Rochefort. 78, 86, 87, 315. 
 Rochegnde. 44. 
 Rochelle. 30, 31, 87, 96, 277. 
 Rodillan. 44. 
 Roger, Robert. 425. 
 Rohan, Duke de. 3,4. 
 Rojan. 272. 
 
 Romageou, . 290. 
 
 Roijueduu. 43. 
 
 Roquefin. 43. 
 
 Roquette, Bp. Gabriel de. 318, 320. 
 
 Roseveau, Jean. 273. 
 
 Rossil, . 34. 
 
 Roubiac, . 43. 
 
 Rouen. 15, 21, 36. 39. 
 
 Rouen, Parliament of. 22. 36, 40, 41, 
 
 111. 
 
 Routtion, . 163. 
 
 Roumegeon, Pierre. 278. 
 Rouret. 43. 
 Rousleau, Jean. 271. 
 Rouvien, Jean. 274. 
 Roux, Guillaume. 272. 
 Rue des Bohcius. 44. 
 Rullaud. Jac<iues. 273. 
 
 RulUan, . 292. 
 
 Ruvigny, de. xxxiii. 
 
 Quarenton. xxxii. 
 Quercy. 272, 277, 278. 
 
 S., . 372. 
 
 S., D. 367. 
 
 S. D. =^? P. fterres, sen. 371. 
 
 S.,D., the younger—'? J. Serres, jun. 
 
 372. 
 Sabatier, Jac<iues. 275. 
 Sabattier, Francois. 272, 372. 
 
 374, 4.54, 455. 
 
 Sabbatius. 191. 
 
 Sacormay. 43. 
 
 Saget, David. 278. 
 
 Sancroft, Abp. William, xxviii, xxx, 
 93. 
 
 Savile, George ; Marquis of Halifax, 
 xx-xxii, xxvi, xxviii. 
 
 Saint Amand, de. 199. 
 
 Saint Aiidiot. 44. 
 
 Saint Andre de Beausse. 45. 
 
 Saint Andrt' de Lancise. 44. 
 
 Saint Andre Montbrun. The Marchio- 
 ness. 315-320. 
 
 Saint Anthonin. 163. 
 
 Saint Barthelme de la Perche. 45. 
 
 Saint Bauzile. 43. 
 
 Saint Bauzile of Ujces. 43. 
 
 Saint Benezet. 43. 
 
 Saint Benoir. 44. 
 
 Saint Bresson. 43. 
 
 Saint Bonet de Salendrengues. 43. 
 
 Saint Casine. 44. 
 
 Saint Cezaire. 44. 
 
 Saint Crois de Caudele. 44. 
 
 Sainte Cruce. 285. 
 
 Saint Etienne de Forvene. 44. 
 
 Saint Fulgent. 44. 
 
 Sainte Menehould. 183, 193. 194, 
 203. 
 
 Saint Foy. 173, 419. 
 
 Saint Geiaie. 44. 
 
 Saint Gilies Survye. 44. 
 
 Saint Gian. 43. 
 
 Saint Hermine. 44. 
 
 Saint Hippolyte. 69, 70. 
 
 Saint Hypolite de Caton. 43. 
 
 Saint Jean de Baussells. 43. 
 
 Saint Jean de C'erargues. 43. 
 
 Saint Jean de C'rieulon. 43. 
 
 Saint Jean de Rocques. 44. 
 
 Saint Jean de Serres. 43. 
 
 Saint Jean (h\ Pin. 48. 
 
 Saint Jovin de Milli. 44. 
 
 Saint Julien de la Nef. 43. 
 
 Saint Julien du Nef. 44. 
 
 Saint Julien des Points. 44. 
 
 Saint Laurence de Trebe. 44. 
 
 Saint Malo. 44, 261-263. 
 
 Saint Martin de Campelade. 44. 
 
 Saint Martin de Valgalges. 43. 
 
 Saint Michel de Dezee. 44. 
 
 Saint Nazaire des Gardies. 43. 
 
 Saint Previl, de. 328. 329 : and 
 
 also 224, 225. 
 
 Saint Romain. 191. 
 
 Saint Saviour de Poureils. 43. 
 
 Saint Victor de IVIalcap. 44. 
 
 Saigas, de = F. Relet. 
 
 Salargues. 44. 
 
 Salicoffre, Madame . 399, 401- 
 
 403, 405. 
 
 Salinelles le moine. 44. 
 
 Salles, Etienne. 279. 
 
 Salonel. 44. 
 
 469
 
 Index. 
 
 Sainsou, Jean. 272. 
 
 Saucroft, Abp. William, xxviii, xxx, 
 
 93. 
 
 Sarrau, . 23. 
 
 Kauniaize, de. 203. 
 
 Saumur. 18- 
 
 Hausset, . 287. 
 
 Sauvet, Pierre. 285, 286. 
 
 Sauzet. 44. 
 
 Savertlun. 19. 
 
 Sauvet, Claudius. 273. 
 
 Sauzet, Pierre. 273. 
 
 Ravile, Heury. xx-xxvl. xxxii-xxxv. 
 
 Second. Antoine. 280. 
 
 Hedan. lO-^, 274. 
 
 Seiguieres, . 295, 
 
 Seimene, Jean. 279. 
 
 Sel , . 231. 
 
 Sendras. 43. 
 
 Senegal, Jean. 278. 
 
 Serguieres, Jacques. 274. 
 
 Sernay. 44. 
 
 Serignac. 43. 
 
 Serres, The Family of the de. 371, 
 
 372, 373, 395-397. 
 Serres, Jean de, jun. 271, 302, 372, 
 
 373. 
 Serres, Pierre de, sen. xxxvli, 271, 
 
 288, 292-294, 297, 371, 372, 392-394, 
 
 454. 
 
 Scorhive, de. 388. 
 
 Sev. ; Pastor at Bourbon, 202. 
 
 Several, Jean. 274. 
 Seymour, Master, xxviii. 
 Seyne. 44. 
 Seynes. 44. 
 Shebert, John J. 278. 
 Sibille, Daniel. 23. 
 Sigismund, Emperor. 149. 
 Signar(i[ues. 43. 
 
 Sigoniac, . 10. 
 
 Silvain, Pierre. 276. 
 
 Sion College Library. London, E.G. 2. 
 
 Sirmond, S.J. " 191. 
 
 Socrates, Scholasticus. 191. 
 
 Soisan, de. 264. 
 
 Solignac. 161. 
 
 Soulage, Jean. 274, 285, 287, 
 
 Soulier, . ll.'j. 
 
 Souliers. 43. 
 Souverny. 43. 
 Strasburg. 187. 
 Surgeres. 87. 
 Syon. 44. 
 
 Tache, David. 278. 
 Talleyrac. 44 
 
 Talon, . 287. 
 
 Talon, . 315. 
 
 Taraux. 44. 
 
 Tardieu, Etienne. 274. 
 
 Tardieu, Philippe. 272. 
 
 Tenison, Abp. Thomas. 428, 430. 
 
 Terey, Mathew. 272. 
 
 Tertullian. 190, 337. 
 
 Theodosius, P^mperor. 115, 191. 
 
 Thiers, Andre. 275. 
 
 Thoiry. 43. 
 
 Thome, . 447. 
 
 Timelac. 44. 
 
 Tinel, Mrs. . 419. 
 
 Tolmont. 44. 
 
 Tonneins. 173. 
 I Toulouse, Parliament ol. 20, 22, 26. 
 f Touset. 43. 
 ! Toureille, Pierre. 276. 
 j Tourtelot, Jean. 277. 
 I Touvenain, Abraham. 276. 
 
 Tournay. 279. 
 
 Toysonniere, Daniel. 276. 
 
 Trapeau, Martha. 420. 
 
 Tremblade. 277. 
 
 Tripoli, a Turk. 448, 
 
 Ture, Philippe. 277. 
 
 Turenne. 26. 
 
 Unet. 45, 
 
 V, . 367. 
 
 Vabres. 43, 
 
 Vacher, Alexandre. 273. 
 
 Vallat, Pierre. 273. 
 
 Vallete, Andre. 277, 288, 374. 
 
 Vaissat. 277. 
 
 Varuier, . 241. 
 
 Veau, Jean. 276. 
 Verfevil. 44. 
 Vehaw. 44. 
 Vergnier, 43. 
 Versoy. 43. 
 Vestries. 44. 
 Viau, Jean. 285, 286. 
 
 Vic, de, 4. 
 
 Vigne, Jacques. 276. 
 Vignolles, — de. 23. 
 Villaret, Jean. 273. 
 
 Ville Franche Montbrun, de. 329. 
 
 Villefort. 43. 
 
 Villiers, George, 1st Duke of Bucldng- 
 
 ham, 4, 
 
 Villotes, Madame . 421. 
 
 Vintimille du Luc, Abp. Charles G. 
 
 G. de. 205. 
 Vio. 44. 
 
 Vitry. 14, 15. 196, 197, 220, 241, 274, 
 Voile, David. 274, 289. 
 
 William III., King of England. 261, 
 386, 427, 428, 
 
 The End, 
 
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 1575 A.D. 
 
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 Index. 
 
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 the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes 
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 1703-1707 A.D. 
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 A SPECIMEN PAGE OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Knox is banished from Frankfort. 1550. 
 
 Which thing he did accordingly. At which time, after 
 certain communication among themselves, they commanded 
 that Knox should preach no more till their pleasure were 
 further known. 
 
 The words concerning the Emperor were these, spoken 
 in the pulpit in a town of Buckinghamshire, in the beginning 
 of Queen Mary's reign, as by the said book a^^peareth; where 
 it is said : 
 
 ' O, England ! England I if thou wilt obstinately return into Egypt ; 
 that is, if thou contract marriage, confederacy, or league, with such 
 Princes as do maintain and advance Idolatry; such as the Emperor, 
 who is no less an enemy to Christ than Nebo : If for the pleasure and 
 friendship, I say, of such Princes, thou return to thine old abominations 
 before used under Papistry : then assuredly, O, England I thou shalt be 
 plagued and brought to desolation by the means of those whose favour 
 thou seekest ; and by whom thou art procured to fall from Christ, and 
 serve Antichrist ! ' 
 
 There were other eight places ; but this was most noted, 
 in that it touched the Emperor. 
 
 But it seemed the Magistrates abhorred this bloody, 
 cruel, and outrageous, attempt. For that Avhen as certain of 
 Knox's enemies followed hardly the Magistrates, to know 
 what should be done with him : they did not only shew 
 most evident signs of disliking their unnatural suit ; but 
 also sent for Masters Williams and Whittingham, willing 
 them that Master Knox should depart the 
 of^KNor^''''''* City. For otherwise, as they said, they 
 should be forced to deliver him, if the 
 Emperor's Council, which then lay at Augsburg, should, 
 upon like information, send for him. 
 
 The 25th of March [1555], Master Knox, being the 
 night before his departure, made a most comfortable Sermon, 
 at his lodging, to fifty persons, or thereabout, then present; 
 which Sermon was of the Death and Resurrection of Christ; 
 and of the unspeakable joys which were prepared for GOD's 
 Elect, which, in this life, suffer trouble and persecution for 
 testimony of his blessed name. 
 
 The next day, he was brought three or four miles in his 
 way, by some of those unto whom, the night before, he had 
 made that Exhortation : who, with great heaviness of heart 
 and plenty of tears, committed him to the Lord.
 
 A SPECIMEN PAGE OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 !700. Protestant Slaves bastinadoed on tlie (xaileys. 
 
 There is something, I say, in this punishment more 
 dreadful and terrible than the Wheel : tor they are iq)on 
 the point of deatJi, and ijet they are not pat to death ; 
 and the Executioners never give over striking till they he 
 weary, and out of breath ; and are forced to send tlie 
 Sufferers to the Hospital. Who could forbear trembling, 
 and being deeply affected, at the sight of so amazing a 
 spectacle ! Who could believe that such as bear the name 
 of Christians could harden their bowels to that degree, as 
 to inflict such horrible torments ! 
 
 The same Letter of October the 16th. acquaints us 
 
 As to particuhxrs, I must tell you, with unspeakable 
 grief, that all the Galleys almost have been severely treated ; 
 except the 'Old Reale' appointed for the disabled Slaves, 
 and some others : and that tliey have cruelly butchered all 
 those who would not put off the Cap ; insomuch that in 
 some Galleys six or seven Slaves, or more, of the same 
 Galley, have been stretched on the rack [i.e. the Gangivaij\ 
 and struck 50, 100, and 120 times, with a rope in many 
 j)laces done over with pitch and tar, and dipped in the sea : 
 and that they have inflicted twice, thrice, four times, or 
 more, this cruel punishment on them till they had promised 
 to put the Cap off, or that the Tormenters had been forced 
 to send them to the Hospital. 
 
 They add to it, That Monsieur Maurin underwent the 
 same torment three, and I think four, times: and he was, 
 last Monday, shut up in one of the Dungeons of the 
 Hospital. That Monsieur Carriere and Monsieur Lostalet 
 have been twice most cruelly abused ; having received, at 
 one and the same time, six score blows each ; so that they 
 have been forced to send them away very sick, raw, and 
 bruised, to the Hospital. Monsieur Lostalet hath been, 
 all along, constant and steady, as well as Monsieur Serres, 
 Maurin, Grange, and Pelevier ; and are all now in the 
 Hospital, very sick with the blows they received. They add, 
 That Monsieur Lostalet was exposed to so great sufferings 
 that he is not able to stir out of his bed, but by the help of 
 some ropes hanging down from the ceiling, and of some 
 men besides. 
 
 The Major declared, to-day, That they would be let 
 alone till they are recovered : and tiien they should be 
 racked [Jiogged^ again and again, till they should either die, 
 or promise to put their Caps off to the Host.
 
 REA 
 
 3. T/ie Sayings of the Wise^ 
 
 ov 
 
 Food for Thought. 
 
 A Book of Moral Wisdom, gathered 
 
 from the ancient Philosophers. By 
 
 William Baldwin. 
 
 1555 A.D. 
 
 Love, and Live I 
 The Epistle. 
 The Prologue to the Reader. 
 
 Book I. The Lives and witty [pi^/)?/] 
 Answers of the Philosophers. 
 
 The Seven Sages, and other Philo- 
 sophers. 
 
 Book II. Precepts and Counsels. 
 
 1. Of the profit oi Moral Philosophy. 
 
 2. Of GOD ; of his power, and of his 
 
 works. 
 
 3. Of the Sonl, and [the] governance 
 
 thereof. 
 
 4. Of the World, the love and plea- 
 
 sures thereof. 
 
 5. Of Death ; not to be feared. 
 
 6. Of Friendship and Friends. 
 
 7. Of Coiinsel and Coimsellors. 
 
 8. Of Riches and Poverty. 
 
 9. Of Silence, Speech, and Communi- 
 
 cation. 
 
 10. Of Kings, Rulers, and Governors ; 
 
 how they should rule their 
 Subjects. 
 
 11. The Precepts of the Wise. 
 
 The Conclusion. 
 G 
 
 DY. 
 
 Book III. Proverbs and Adages. 
 
 1. The use of Proverbs and Adages. 
 
 2. Of Wisdom, Learning, and Under- 
 
 standing. 
 
 3. Of Justice, Laws, Cities, and 
 
 Governors. 
 
 4. Of Power, Honour, Virtue, and 
 
 Strength. 
 
 5. Of Liberality, Patience, Use, and 
 
 Diligence. 
 
 6. Of Knowledge, Ignorance, and 
 
 Error. 
 
 7. Of Money and Covetousness. 
 
 8. Of the Tongue, Fair Speech, and 
 
 of Flattery. 
 
 9. Of Truth, of Faith, of Error, and 
 
 Lying. 
 
 10. Of Bringing up and Manners ; of 
 
 Dispositions and Instruction. 
 
 11. Of Love, Lust, and Lechery. 
 
 12. Of Marriage, and Married Folk. 
 
 13. Of Sorrow, Gladness, Fear, and 
 
 Boldness. 
 
 14. Of Anger, Wrath, Envy, Malice, 
 
 and Revenge. 
 
 15. Of Liberty and Bondage, Masters 
 
 and Servants. 
 
 16. Of Women, Wine, and Drunken- 
 
 ness. 
 17-22. Divers Sentences of sundry 
 
 matters. 
 28. Of Benefits and Unthankfitlness. 
 Pithy Metres of divers matters. 
 
 Book IV. Parables and Semblables 
 
 \Si)mlitiides\ . 
 
 Index. 
 
 3s. 6d.— 4 frs. 43 cts.— $0*85 cts.
 
 A SPECIMEN PAGE OF THE THIRD VOLUME. 
 
 Frie7idship h better than Riches. 
 
 Pytliagoras. 
 True and perfect Friendship) is, to make one Heart and 
 Mind of many hearts and bodies. 
 
 Plato. 
 Friendship ougiit to be engendered of Equahiess ; for 
 where Equality is not, Friendship may not long continue. 
 
 Friendship is a great furtherance of a man's felicity; 
 and without it no wealth may be perfect. 
 
 Cicero. 
 He that would endeavour to take away Friendship 
 from the fellowship of Man's life, should seem to take away 
 the sun from the world. 
 
 Aristotle. 
 Tlie agreement of evil men in mischief is not Friend- 
 ship : for Friendship is so pure of itself, that it will not be 
 used in evil. 
 
 Socratcfi. 
 Likeness of manners engendereth Friendship. 
 
 Plato. 
 Good Will is the beginner of Friendship ; which, by 
 use, causelh Friendship to follow. 
 
 Isocrates. 
 Distance of place severeth not, neither hindereth. 
 Friendship; but it may let [liinder'] the operation thereof. 
 Friendship is better than Riches. 
 
 ILenophon. 
 There is neither Friendship, nor Justice, in them 
 among' whom nothing is common. 
 
 There is no man who woukl choose to be without 
 Friends ; althougli he had plenty of all other riches. 
 
 Socrates. 
 Every man is, by nature, friendly to everybody. 
 
 Aristotle. 
 It is the propert}' of Friends to live and love together. 
 The Friendship that is between good and honest men 
 cannot be broken, nor altered. 
 
 Plato. 
 Friendship is the lover of Love. 
 
 Isocrates. 
 A man ought to be the same to his Friend as he would 
 be to himself. A Friend is himself in another person. 
 
 Hermes. 
 If thou desire to be thought a Friend, do thou the 
 works that belong to a Friend !
 
 To celebrate the Throne and Equipage ol' GOD's Almightiuess ; and what he 
 vorks, and what he suffers to be wrought, with high Providence, in his Cliurch ; the 
 ,'ictorious agonies of Martyrs and Saints ; the deeds and triumphs of just and pious 
 STations, doing valiantly through Faith against the enemies of Christ ; to deplore the 
 jeneral relapses of Kingdoms and States from Justice and GOD's true "Worship. 
 
 Milton. 
 
 A Christian Library. 
 
 A popuLAE Selection of Religious Literature. 
 
 Edited and Privately Printed by 
 
 Professor EDWARD ARBER, D. Litt. (Oxon.), F.S.A., 
 
 Fellow of Iving's College, London. 
 
 1. f I ">HESE CHEAP BOOKS for thinking men and women will widely 
 
 I represent the Life, the Tliought, and the History, of many Christian 
 
 Churches ; and therefore each Writer must be regarded as solely 
 
 responsible for his own opinions. As Milton says, ' Opinion in good men is 
 
 but Knowledge in the making,' 
 
 2. Of the great mass of the earlier, or the later, Church History and 
 Biography, the present-day Christians are almost entirely ignorant : and yet is 
 not that, the chief Record of the Divine Government of the Hnman Race during 
 the Christian Era ? It will be found full of the deepest interest and instruction ; 
 almost as much so as the Historical Books of the ' Old Testament.' 
 
 3. Some Aids to the study of the ' Bible,' that are now^ practically inac- 
 cessible, will be included in this Series. 
 
 4. It will also contain Helps towards the Formation of a Christian 
 Character : as Lord Fairfax's ' Advice to a Son,' the Marquis of Halifax's 
 ' Advice to a Daughter,' and the like. The first of these helpful and stimiilating 
 Books of Conduct is now ready. It is ' The Sayings of the Wise, or Food for 
 Thought.' A Book of Moral Wisdom, gathered by William Baldwin. 
 
 5. It is further intended to reproduce herein some of the European Master- 
 pieces of Christian Thought and Devotion : such as, ' The Whole Duty of Man,' 
 Pascal's ' Thoughts on Religion and other Subjects,' Baxter's ' The Saints' 
 Everlasting Rest,' and other similar Works. Calvin occupies a very prominent 
 position in the first Volume, W'hich is now ready : and it is hoped to follow that 
 up with Luther's Life told in his own words, together with his ' Table Talk.' 
 
 6. The ' Christian Library ' then will be of a very interesting character. 
 
 E. A, 
 Only to be obtained by Prepayment to ^'^ 
 
 The Manager, 26 Priory road, Bedford Park, London, W., Englau(J. 
 
 PkBiCY Ldnd, Humphrees and Company Limited, Bradford.
 
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