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"It is a truth that ought not to be concealed, and which has not yet been sufficiently acknowledged,—a truth which, on account of the important admonitions which it conveys to the present and succeeding generations, deserves not merely to be recorded with pen and ink, but to be graven with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, on a monument more durable than brass, that the wretched and wicked policy pursued with respect to the Protestants, from the days of Louis XIV., was one of the principal causes of the Revolution in France, and especially of the horrid excesses and impieties with which it was attended."-DR M'CRIE.

HISTORY OF THE EARLY PROTESTANT

CHURCH OF FRANCE.

CHAPTER I.

FROM ITS ORIGIN IN 1559 TO 1571.

THE friends of religion are at present much interested in the symptoms of revival which are appearing in the Protestant Church of France, and well may they be so. The influence of that country, with its thirty-two millions of population, and high state of civilization, must be immense throughout Europe. Few centres of Christian influence can be more extensively powerful, and the new life and growth of Popery in various parts of France, render the present revival of the truth the more interesting. In these circumstances, it may not be unseasonable to recall the public attention to the state and character of the Protestant Church, from its origin down to the present day. It is always pleasing to trace the steps of the Great Head of the Church towards his people; and memorials of past mercy are fitted, when gratefully acknowledged, to draw down the Divine blessing, and to suggest plans of present usefulness. My authority for the earlier statements shall be unexceptionable, consisting chiefly of the public acts and decrees of the national councils of the Reformed Church in France, collected by Quick, in his Synodicon, and published in two folio volumes, at London, in 1692. Various other works

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shall be referred to, particularly "Status Ecclesiæ Gallicanæ," London, 1676; and, as the history proceeds, a series of rare and important pamphlets, almost inaccessible to the general reader; also, the Rev. Dr Erskine's Sketches of Church History. My authority for most of the statements connected with the corresponding history of the Church of Scotland shall be the Acts of the General Assembly, printed and unprinted, and various MS. Records of Synods and Presbyteries, to which I have had the privilege of access.

Many are imperfectly acquainted with the early history of the Protestant Church of France. It is imagined that it was small and poor, and that its annals contain little to interest the Christian student; but the truth is, it was one of the largest and most glorious Churches of Christendom, supplied an immense host of martyrs, and furnishes the most interesting and valuable instruction to Christians in every age. I can refer only to the more prominent facts. The doctrines of the Reformation were early introduced into France, and, as in other continental countries, the professors of them were not a little indebted to the countenance and support of persons of rank and influence. At a period when the Church of Rome was so completely paramount, it is not easy to see, humanly speaking, how the Gospel, or its profession, could have made progress at all, had not ministers and people been favoured by the powerful. Accordingly, so early as 1520, the sister of Francis I. was a zealous Protestant, while her brother was a bitter persecutor. Fifteen years later, the Scriptures were translated into the French language, by Olivitan, the uncle of the celebrated Calvin, and shortly after, the Psalms of David were turned into verse by one of the popular poets of the day, and set to melodious music. This last undertaking was attended with remarkable success. There had been nothing of the same kind before, and so the whole music of the people was perverted to superstitious and sinful purposes. Now, the national genius was enlisted on the

side of truth. "This holy ordinance," says Quick, "charmed the ears, hearts, and affections of court and city, town and country. They were sung in the Louvre, as well as in the Pres des Clerks, by the ladies, princes, yea, and by Henry II. himself. This one ordinance alone contributed mightily to the downfall of Popery, and the propagation of the Gospel. It took so much with the genius of the nation, that all ranks and degrees of men practised it, in the temples, and in their families. No gentleman professing the Reformed Religion would sit down at his table without praising God by singing. Yea, it was an especial part of their morning and evening worship in their several houses, to sing God's praises." Such offence did this sacred verse and music give to the Popish priests, and so much did they dread its power, that a leading man of their number had the Odes of Horace translated and set to music as a counteractive. Let us hope that the turning of the Irish Psalms into verse, an honour which has been reserved for the Rev. Dr M'Leod of Glasgow, will be as extensively useful in displacing vindictive and licentious songs, and conveying a saving knowledge of divine truth, in the most interesting form, to a people not less susceptible of the charms of poetry, nor less deeply sunk in the moral degradation of Popery. About the same period in which the Scriptures were translated into French, the celebrated "Institutes" of Calvin were published, and extensively circulated. These means, together with the labours of faithful men, were crowned with the Divine blessing; and the Gospel made such decided progress, that persecution was awakened in a very virulent form. The king himself assisted at the burning of many martyrs at Paris. These proceedings, as has often been the case in similar instances, instead of hindering, accelerated the cause they were meant to destroy, and in so important a degree, that in 1559, the first General Assembly of the Protestant Church was held at Paris, in the very face of a hostile Court. It is remarkable, that this was the very year before the first General Assembly of the Protestant

Church of Scotland was held at Edinburgh, so nearly contemporaneous was the progress of the Gospel in the two countries. In spite of all the persecution which had been sustained, the following is Quick's account of the Protestant cause at the time the first Assembly convened at Paris :

"The holy word of God is duly, truly, and powerfully preached in churches and fields, in ships and houses, in vaults and cellars, in all places where the Gospel-ministers can have admission and conveniency, and with singular success. Multitudes are convinced and converted, established and edified. Christ rideth out upon the white horse of the ministry, with the sword and bow of the Gospel preached, conquering and to conquer. His enemies fall under him, and submit themselves unto him. O the unparalleled success of the plain and zealous sermons of the first reformers! Multitudes flock in like doves into the windows of God's ark. As innumerable drops of dew fall from the womb of the morning, so hath the Lord Christ the dew of his youth. The Popish churches are drained, the Protestant temples are filled. The priests complain that their altars are neglected; their masses are now indeed solitary. Dagon cannot stand before God's ark. Children, and persons of riper years, are catechised in the rudiments and principles of Christian religion, and can give a comfortable account of their faith, a reason of that hope that is in them. By this ordinance do their pious pastors prepare them for communion with the Lord at his holy table. Here they communicate in both kinds, according to the primitive institution of the Sacrament, by Jesus Christ himself."

It would be unjust, however, to the memory of the suffering saints of God, not to be a little more particular as to the early persecutions of the Protestants of France. Clarke, in his Martyrology, gives a short detail, from which it appears that the fire may be said to have been kindled as soon as in 1524. Down to 1560, or in thirty-six years, there were ever and anon cases of martyrdom, in that

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