Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/127

 

The pasteur, Jean Cousin, as a sound divine, a beneficent Christian, and an able and influential man, was never equalled among all the refugee clergy. Although Bishop Grindal’s superlatives were entirely laudatory, and not intending any personal comparisons (in fact, Cousin at the time had no colleague), yet they were literally true. He was the most faithful and most beloved of the ministers of the French Church (D. Joannes Cognatus, Galliae ecclesiae, quae apud nos est, minister fidelissimus et frater meus in Domino carissimus). He was educated for the ministry at Geneva, and was sent to Caen in 1559, to organise the Protestant Church. The church was joined by important persons, among whom Haag mentions Vincent Le Bas, Pierre Pinchon, and sixteen nuns from the Abbaye aux Dames. In a short time the Protestants were a majority of the inhabitants of Caen, and in 1560 they occupied two of the established churches. It appears that Cousin went to London soon after the accession of Elizabeth, in order to assist the pasteur Des Gallars. He was at Caen in the thick of the civil war of 1562, either as its minister or as a visitor. In that year the Huguenots attacked and devastated those Romish ecclesiastical buildings which they did not require for their own worship; and Cousin told the magistrates that idolatry had been tolerated too long, and was now to be overthrown. To counteract this religious revolt the Marquis d’Elbeuf, on the part of the Royalists, took the command of the garrison and retired into the castle. All his sorties were repulsed by the citizens re-inforced by fugitives from Rouen. The townspeople then sent for the Admiral Coligny, who compelled the garrison to surrender. But this success was of little material advantage, because the proclamation of peace through all France left Caen without any title to Protestant public worship, and the citizens had to worship in the surrounding villages of Vimont, Fontaines, and Allemagne.

In June 1563, on the departure of Des Gallars from England, Cousin became the sole pasteur of the London French Church. His old preceptor and correspondent, Theodore Beza, became the chief pastor of Geneva, on the death of Calvin in May 1564. 1565 he wished to receive some token of encouragement or sympathy from our Queen Elizabeth. Cousin’s letter to Cecil, preserved in our State Paper Office, throws no light upon the nature of Beza’s request, but I have copied it as a specimen of the writer’s style:—

“Très honnoré Seigneur, Il pleut à sa majesté restant à Richemont me dire qú’elle feroit response par son Secretaire à Theodore de Beze. A cause dequoy j’ay retenu l’homme messagier jusques à ce jour, or pour ne defaillir au devoir d’ amitié selon la requeste du d$ct$ De Beze à moye specialement faite par ses lettres de luy envoyer quelque response. C’est l’occasion, mon Seign$r$, pour quoy j’ay prins la hardiesse de vous escrivre ce mot de Lettres, le vous presentant par un mien amy accompagné du messagier, fousse moymesme fait volontiers le voyage, tant pour ent$re$ [entendre?] par v$re$ grace l’intention de Sa Majesté que pour faire la reverence à vostre seigneurie. Mais la charge de l'eglise (parce que je suis seul) m’a retenu

priant Le Seigneur n$re$ Dieu, Monsieur Le Secretaire, vous impartir de plus en plus les graces de son saint Esprit, et du santé— vous donner longue et heureuse vie,

In 1568 the trade of the refugees received a shock through a proceeding of the Duke of Alva. The Spanish government attempted to get possession of some cargoes in English ports, but the queen having ascertained that these cargoes were private property, took them under her guardianship. Accordingly the Duke seized all English cargoes in Spanish ports; the Queen retaliated by seizing Dutch cargoes in her ports. This arrestment suspended the business of many refugees of all the foreign churches. Pasteur Cousin laid their case before the Bishop of London 