Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/32

  Tudor Queen's example of hospitality was followed by her Scottish successor. He wrote assuring letters both to the Dutch and to the French refugees. He recognised the two special causes of the renown of the Queen, his deceased sister — first, her zeal for the worship of God; and secondly, her hospitality to strangers. He declared his esteem for those who had left their native lands for the sake of religion, and also the obligations under which they had laid their adopted country by their contributions to manufactures, useful arts, and political economy.

His letter to the Dutch refugee church I copy from Strype (“Annals,” vol. iv. page 386):—

“,— Encore que vous me n’ayez vu jusqu’à present, si est ce que je ne vous suis point étranger ni inconnu. Vous savez quant à ma religion quel je suis, non seulement par le bruit que vous avez pu entendre de moi, mais aussi par mes écrits en lesquels j’ai veritablement exprimé quel est l’affection de mon âme. C’est pourquoi je n’ai besoin d’user de beaucoup de paroles pour vous representer ma bonne volonté envers vous, qui êtes ici refugiés pour la religion.

“Je reconnois que deux choses ont rendu la Reine, ma Soeur défunte, renommée par tout le monde. L’une est le désir, qu ’elle a toujours eu, d’entretenir et fomenter le Service de Dieu en ce royaume. Et l’autre est son hospitalité envers les étrangers — à la louange de laquelle je veux hériter.

“Je sais bien, par le temoignage des Seigneurs de ce royaume (comme vous m’avez dit), que vous avez toujours prié Dieu pour elle, et que vous n’avez outrepassé votre devoir. Je sais aussi, que vous avez enrichi ce royaume de plusieurs artifices, manufactures, et sciences politiques.

“Si l’occasion se fut presentée lorsque j’etois encore éloigne comme en un coin du monde, je vous eusse fait paroitre ma bonne affection. Mais comme je n'ai jamais taché ni voulu empiéter sur le bien d’aucun Prince, aussi, puisque maintenant il a plu à Dieu me faire Roi de ce pays, je vous jure que si quelqu’un vous moleste en vos Eglises, vous vous adressant à moi, je vous vengerai. Et encore, quoique vous ne soyez pas de mes propres Sujets, si est-ce que je vous maintiendrai et fomenterai, autant que Prince qui soit au monde.”

To the French refugees he wrote: “Je vous protégerai ainsi qu’il convient à un bon Prince de defendre tous ceux qui ont abandonné leur patrie pour la religion.” He kept his word royally, though he drew rather pitifully upon their gratitude by asking the London pasteurs to write in his favour against John Welsh, and against the other victims of the persecution which we were carrying on in Scotland beneath hypocritical forms of law. The French and Dutch ministers wrote “a long letter in elegant Latin” to the ministers of Edinburgh, dated from London, 26th February 1606; the French ministers signed themselves Robertus Masso Fontanus, Aaron Cappel, and Nathaniel Marius.”- “By defective and otherwise misleading statements, the Government succeeded in inducing a few foreign ministers, who had not the means of judging of the merits of the case, to blame the imprisoned ministers, and to vindicate the Government.” The malignant rumours with which the king and his councillors had poisoned the minds of the refugees were contradicted by the good confessors in a Latin letter, dated from the Castle of Blackness, and addressed to the Presbytery of Edinburgh, “with the intention that it should be sent to the ministers of the French and Flemish Churches in London, for their better information.”

We now lose the assistance of Strype, but a valuable auxiliary succeeds him. The Camden Society volume entitled “Lists of Foreign Protestants and Aliens resident in England 1618-1688, edited by Wm. Durrant Cooper, F.S.A. (1862),” is prefaced with useful information by the editor. Lord Treasurer Buckhurst now appears in his new title of Earl of Dorset, and Secretary Sir Robert Cecil has been raised to the peerage as Earl of Salisbury. The London Companies of weavers, cutlers, goldsmiths, &c, so much esteemed for their feasts and funds, seem to have prevailed on those statesmen to listen to them, and at least to make a show of busying themselves for their protection against alien industry. It was complained on 22d July 1605 “that the English merchants were injured because foreigners were allowed to export baize and other goods without paying double custom.”

