Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 1.djvu/356



. &endash; Royal Commissioners (being Protestants) continued to sit in the provincial church courts after the abolition of National Synods. The King threatened to send Roman Catholic commissioners in their stead, on the pretext, “que l’on accusoit les Synodes de cacher une partie des resolutions, que la Cour avoit le plus d’interêt d’savoir.” The Messieurs Ruvigny suggested a compromise, namely, that there should still be the Protestant Commissioner, but that a Roman Catholic should be associated with him, which was first acted upon at the Synod of Rouen in 1682 (where the Protestant Commissioner was the Marquis de Heucourt). See the “Life of Du Bosc,” p. 119. The very last Provincial Synod was held at Lizy, in the diocese of Meaux, in 1683, when only one Royal Commissioner was named by the king, a Roman Catholic Nobleman, who was accompanied by a Romish Priest as an assistant-commissioner. See “Bulletin de la Societe de l’Hist. Prot.,” tom. 2, p. 458.

