Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew (1st ed. vol 3).djvu/31

 document in the original spelling will he found in the Camden Society Volume of Lists of Foreign Protestants, Introduction, page xviii.]

(Page 27.) Rev. George Mickes, D.D., printed his sermon preached in behalf of the collection. I give copious extracts from it. [This collection is usually said to have been made in 1681; and so it was, according to the old style — see my Note at page 244.]  Section VI. (which extends from page 29 to page 36) is entitled ''The Variegated Policy of James II. and William and Mary’s friendship towards the Refugees''.

(Page 30.) James was unable to reverse the hospitable regulations of the nation, but Henry Savile saw into his antipathy to them, and expressed a fear that he would repeal them. Chancellor Jeffries had a chaplain of French Protestant descendent. Rev. Luke de Beaulieu. After the French Edict of Revocation in October (1685), the Marquis de Bonrepaus came on a diplomatic mission to Fngland, and sought to induce refugees to go back; he reported that the King of Fngland regarded the refugees as enemies. In May 1686 Barillon, the resident French Ambassador, requested that Claude’s Pamphlet “Les Plaintes des Protestants,” should be publicly burnt, which was granted.

(Page 31.) The king’s printer issued a translation of Bishop Bossuet’s Pastoral Letter regarding the “Pretended Persecution.” I give long extracts from replies by Dr William Wake (afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury).

(Page 34.) The regard for refugees on the part of the Earl of Bedford, Rachel Lady Russell and Sir William Coventry is recorded. In 1687, as a step to Popish ascendancy, the king issued his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience — so that he showed no open enmity against the refugees as long as he filled the throne.

The Pasteur Claude (formerly of Charenton, and a refugee in Holland), published anonymously the pamphlet entitled, “Les Plaintes des Protestans Cruellement Oprimés dans le Royaume de France.” The title-page of the English translation was, " An Account of the Persecutions and Oppressions of the Protestants in France. Printed in the year 1686;” this was a quarto pamphlet, which was reprinted in a tract of a pocket size at Edinburgh, entitled, “An Account of the Persecutions and Oppressions of the French Protestants, to which is added. The Edict of the French King prohibiting all publick exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion in his kingdom, wherein he recalls and totally annuls the perpetual and irrevocable Edict of King Henry the IV., his grandfather, given at Nantes, full of most gracious concessions to Protestants. With the Form of Abjuration the revolting Protestants are to subscribe and swear to. Printed by G. M., Anno Dom. 1686.” [The printer was George Mosman, or Mossman.] A new translation appeared in 1707; it was a pocket volume entitled, “A Short Account of the Complaints and Cruel Persecutions of the Protestants in the Kingdom of France. London: Printed by V. Redmayne, 1707.” There is a long Preface, which informs us regarding the former translation, “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 cause 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.” I have compared the two translations, and I find that the pamphlet of 1686 was quite a faithful abridgement, there being only two omissions of any length, viz., (1st), an Account of the original Edict of Nantes, showing the internal evidence for its perpetual obligation, and (2d) the detailed protest at the end, fitted to impress sovereigns and statesmen — otherwise, the abridgement is not material, as will appear from the following extract in parallel columns:—