petitions as the following. They breathe the pure Gospel of Christ :

"PETITION PRESENTED BY MARISCHAL SCHOMBERG FOR THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS.

SIR,-We, your subjects of that religion (which we call the Reformed), do, with most profound reverence, cast ourselves at the feet of your Majesty, that so we may represent the many aggrievances which have been passed upon us, one after another, and may most humbly beg some effectual resentment of the same, from your justice and goodness.

"The edicts of the kings, your predecessors, and particularly those of Henry the Great, and Louis the First, which your Majesty most authentically confirmed at your happy inauguration; and since, by divers and sundry declarations, have always had regard to those of the said religion, which consists of a considerable part of those people which God has committed to your charge; and as such, they have not only been permitted to exercise their employments, and arts, and trades, whereby they gain their livelihood, but also have been promoted to places of trust and honour, as effects of their merit and virtue; they have also enjoyed a liberty of conscience, by a free exercise of their religion and discipline in all places privileged by the aforesaid edicts, and commissioners also have been appointed to take care that there should be no infringements or violations thereof.

"There have been also courts of justice, consisting of men of both religions, that at all times the Protestant might be assured of impartial justice, both as to their persons and estate. And the gentlemen, particularly, had right to place in their fie-farms, those of one or the other religion, without any difference. In short, your petitioners enjoyed almost the same freedom and advantages as the other subjects of your Majesty.

"It is true, Sir, that these are the concessions of the kings, your predecessors, and of your present Majesty,

and have been established with such circumstances as the edicts themselves call a perpetual and irrevocable law, designed purposely to keep your subjects, both of the one and the other religion, in perfect amity. And your petitioners can confidently aver, that they so demeaned themselves under this law and privileges, as never to have rendered themselves unworthy thereof; but, on the contrary, have gained this advantage, that your Majesty hath made many solemn and gracious declarations, testifying the entire satisfaction that your Majesty had conceived of the zeal and loyalty of your petitioners, in times of most hazard and difficulty. And now, Sir, we need not to search the histories of many years to demonstrate the difference of our present condition from those times; for it is now but a few years since your petitioners have not only been made incapable of being admitted into public offices, but discharged of those in which they were invested, and in which they have always served with honour and fidelity. For, contrary to the true intents and words of this edict, they have taken from your petitioners the privilege of equal admission with others into the commission of consulates and the municipal offices of towns, even in those very corporations wherein your petitioners are the greatest in the administration of the civil government and management of that money which is levied upon them.

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They have not now in many places any admittance to the meanest office in the public, nor are they licensed to exercise those arts and trades whereby they gain their whole livelihood and subsistence.

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They can reckon up at least 300 Protestant churches, which in the space of ten years have been demolished, notwithstanding that some of them have been expressly named in the edict of Nantz, and others comprehended within the limits and sense thereof.

"The Commissioners, which are always ready to receive process against your petitioners, yet stop their ears to their complaints, and if they do take notice of them, it is with a corrupt and partial sentence; and

oftentimes the Catholic Commissioners pronounce judgment against your petitioners without the intervention and assent of those of their religion.

"Those who have changed from the Protestant to the Catholic religion, not finding that quietness of conscience which they expected therein, so that they have returned again to their first persuasion, have been exposed to the most rigorous penances, under the term of relapse, and the ministers and consistories have been liable to be suppressed.

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66 If of the Catholics become Protestants, they presently persecute those to whom they applied themselves for clearing their doubts, or declaring their belief, pretending that thereby they come within the compass of that crime which is called insubordination.

"The chambers of this edict are not only incorporated with the Parliaments, against the express sense of the edicts, but are extinguished wholly and suppressed.

"The children of your petitioners, though born in their religion, are often taken from them before they have attained to that age which the edicts allow them, before they are obliged to declare the religion on which they resolve to profess. And if hereupon they address themselves to your Commissioners, advising them to put in execution the edict, they either refuse to take cognizance thereof, or else elude it in that manner, that for several years together they take not the least notice of their complaints; nor have the ordinary judges any regard thereunto.

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They will not suffer the Protestants to entertain more than one schoolmaster in the town where they live; and though the children amount to 2000 or 3000 in number, yet they will not allow them more than one master for them all.

"Your petitioners have been much surprised by a declaration issued out for changing the form and tenor of their Synods, by placing certain Catholic Commissioners for assistants therein-which being entirely contrary to the meaning and substance of those edicts and

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declarations of Louis XIII., set out in the years 1623, and to the custom always observed, hath no other foundations than those pretences which reflect on the honour of your petitioners, and that fidelity which they have ever possessed towards the service of your Majesty.

"The bishops, under colour of their visitations, and by virtue of an order of arrest from your Privy Council, have pretended to suspend the exercises of the religion of your petitioners for several weeks.

"The clergy which have entered the Protestant churches, to hear sermons which are there preached, do object unto the ministers matters which they never uttered, or take advantage of certain terms which cannot be avoided in controversy, to form a criminal process against them before a judge, who is prepossessed with a prejudice against them; and in the meantime the clergy do not cease to justify themselves against the petitioners, by such courses as are expressly forbidden by the aforesaid edicts.

"The justices of several places to whom matters relating to the edicts did never appertain, do now undertake, by unknown methods of procedure, to interdict or suspend the ministers of whole provinces.

"In fine, so far are they proceeded, as to make a declaration forbidding Protestant women to make use of other chirurgeons, or midwives, than those which are Catholics, that so their children may be dipped in water by them in case of necessity,-which, as it is directly opposite to the sense of the edicts, so it is also to the principles of that religion which your petitioners profess; for their consciences will never allow them to consent hereunto, because that, as on one side, they cannot believe that baptism is of an absolute and indispensable necessity, where death prevents the due care and caution we use to obtain it ; so, on the other side, your petitioners have that just reverence to so great a sacrament, as not to commit the same to the administration of lay persons, nor believe that such dipping or sprinkling with water can ever supply the place of baptism.

"These proceedings, Sir, and many more of them very considerable, are more easily mentioned in general, than to be troublesome to your Majesty in a recital of the particulars, which are either notoriously known to the world, or to be justified and made good by attestations which your petitioners have in their hands, together with judgments, arrests, and declarations. All the world, which observes the low condition unto which your petitioners are reduced, begin to consider them as persons exposed to the malice and persecution of those who desire their total destruction.

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Nothing more can be added to the general consternation of those who profess the Protestant religion in all parts of the kingdom; so that many for fear, or for necessity, have been forced to abandon their dwellings, and seek their repose in the dominions of strangers. Such as remain here are detained by the love they bear to their native country, or by some difficulty they find in the disposal of their estates, though the greatest number are obliged with an affection to your Majesty and your government. In all these aggrievances, Sir, your petitioners have no other defence and protection, under God, than the justice and clemency of your Majesty, by which they have formerly had access to your sacred son, which have ever lent a gentle ear to the just complaints of your petitioners, having nominated Commissioners of your Council particularly to examine their cause, and make report thereof to your Majesty. But the great wars which your Majesty hath lately maintained, have diverted this care to greater thoughts, whereby the evils and oppressions of your petitioners have been multiplied and increased.

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"And now, Sir, since your Majesty enjoys the triumph of those glorious successes with which God hath favoured your designs, and that your people expect likewise to share some part of the fruit of their labours, your petitioners hope, through the justice and gracious goodness of your Majesty, that no distinction shall be made between your petitioners and your other subjects,