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<DATE>2014-06-16</DATE>
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<NAME>TCP Staff (Michigan)</NAME>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed as part of batch B140314.pdcc.</ITEM>
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<TEXT LANG="eng">
<FRONT>
<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
<PB REF="1" MS="y">
<P>A REMONSTRANCE OF THE <HI>Popi&s;h Clergy of France,</HI> To their pre&s;ent KING LEWIS XIV.</P>
<P>Wherein is attempted an utter SUPPRESSION &amp; SUBVERSION OF THE Prote&s;tant Religion IN THAT King's Dominions and Conque&s;ts.</P>
<P>Tran&s;lated into Engli&s;h By a PERSON of QUALITY, For the Public benefit.</P>
<P><FIGURE>
<FIGDESC>woodcut depicting a crowned cannon and Henry Brome's initials'</FIGDESC>
<P>H B</P>
</FIGURE></P>
<P><HI>LONDON:</HI> Printed for <HI>Henry Brome</HI> at the Gun in St. <HI>Paul</HI>'s Church-yard. 1677.</P>
</DIV1>
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<BODY>
<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB REF="2">
<PB N="3" REF="2">
<HEAD>The Remon&s;trance of the Clergy of <HI>France,</HI> made to the King the 17. of <HI>Augu&s;t</HI> 1675. by the mo&s;t Illu&s;trious and mo&s;t Reverend <HI>Jean Bapti&s;te Adhemar de Monteil de Grig|nan,</HI> Lord Archbi&s;hop of <HI>Claudiopolis,</HI> Coadjutor of the Arch|bi&s;hoprick of <HI>Arles,</HI> and Councellor to the King in his Councils, a&s;&s;i&s;ted by the Lords, Archbi&s;hops, Bi&s;hops, and other Deputies of the General A&s;&s;embly now held at St. <HI>Germain en Laye.</HI></HEAD>
<OPENER><SALUTE>SIR,</SALUTE></OPENER>
<P>_YOur Maje&s;ty may peradventure by &s;urpriz'd to find, that after all tho&s;e great and advantageous things, your Maje&s;ty has already done for the benefit of the Church, this &s;ame Church &s;hould again this day, by her principal Mini&s;ters, pour out her Re|mon&s;trances and Complaints at the foot of your Royal Throne, and implore your Sovereign Au|thority again&s;t the attempts of tho&s;e who are Enemies to Religion.</P>
<P>If, Sir, we &s;hould here &s;uffer our &s;elves to be wholly govern'd by the motions of our own hearts, we &s;hould then only rai&s;e our voices to make the World echo with the many and great acknowledgements the Church of <HI>France</HI> &s;o &s;trictly owes to your Maje&s;ties Piety and Vertue: But her immediate and pre&s;&s;ing nece&s;&s;ities oppo&s;e that Inclination, and compel us for &s;ome &s;hort &s;pace to &s;u&s;pend the Tran&s;ports of our Gra|titude, that we may repre&s;ent to your Maje&s;ty, what you have yet re|maining to do for the entire Re-e&s;tabli&s;hment of Religion, wherein the principal point of our happine&s;s does con&s;i&s;t.</P>
<P>And that which does mo&s;t encourage and embolden us to &s;atisfie this pre&s;&s;ing duty, is, that we are a&s;&s;ur'd we have the honour to &s;peak to a King already prepo&s;&s;e&s;t in our favour; and although the hearts of Kings, according to the Oracle of the Scipture, are in&s;crutable, we neverthele&s;s very well di&s;cern in that of your Maje&s;ty, your reli|gious intentions for the Church. Piety inhabits that great, that magnanimous heart, an interiour Advocate, that pleads for us much better than we can for our &s;elves.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides, Sir, what is pa&s;t is a &s;ufficient Warranty to us for what is to come, the glorious Te&s;timonies that Religion has, upon all oc|ca&s;ions, receiv'd of your Maje&s;ties Chri&s;tian zeal, the Demoli|tion of &s;o many Temples that Violence had erected to the Idol of Errour; the &s;uppre&s;&s;ion of &s;o many Colledges, which were the Se|minaries of Perdition, wherein they infected our over credulous youth with the poy&s;on of Untruth, the withdrawing your Maje&s;ties
<PB N="4" REF="3">Royal Grace and Favour; and tho&s;e other ways mixt with &s;everity and &s;weetne&s;s, contriv'd by your own Piety and Wi&s;dom to reduce tho&s;e &s;traying Souls into the Paths of Salvation: All the&s;e great ad|vantages, which ought to be Objects of an Eternal Gratitude to the Church, are to us almo&s;t certain pre&s;ages, that your Maje&s;ty will fini&s;h what you have &s;o happily begun, and give the la&s;t &s;troke to this mon&s;trous <HI>Hydra</HI> of Here&s;ie.</P>
<P>Your Maje&s;ty, Sir, may ea&s;ily perfect the Work, in doing that for the particular good of Religion, which you have already done in regulating the Admini&s;tration of publick Ju&s;tice. You have, Sir, acquired to your &s;elf the prai&s;e and admiration of Forreign Nati|ons, as well as tho&s;e of your own People, by the Reformation of the Politic Laws of your Kingdom: Attract, Sir, al&s;o the Bene|dictions of Heaven upon your Per&s;on and Po&s;terity, by reforming tho&s;e Edicts and Declarations which &s;ole Nece&s;&s;ity, and the di&s;or|der of Affairs have wre&s;ted from the hands of the King's your Pre|dece&s;&s;ors. And there are &s;ome al&s;o crept in even in the&s;e later times, which require you Maje&s;ties Application, to which the ma|lignity of Heretics gives &s;o fal&s;e colour, and &s;o many pernitious Interpretations, that we cannot avoid preferring our &s;ubmi&s;&s;ive Complaints, and humbly to apply our &s;elves to your Maje&s;ty for redre&s;s.</P>
<P>If we will believe the&s;e Enemies of our Religion, we are not only not permitted to endeavour the Conver&s;ion of Children not yet arriv'd to fourteen years of age; but are al&s;o forbid to receive them into the bo&s;om of the Church, when in&s;pir'd by God him&s;elf to de&s;ire it. But the&s;e wilfully blind People do not &s;ee, that there are things in the Order of the Church, which cannot properly be the bu&s;ine&s;s of Humane Regulation, fora&s;much as they are already regulated by the expre&s;s, either natural or po&s;itive Laws of God: They do not di&s;cern that this is to offer violence to your Maje&s;ties Zeal, Piety and Ju&s;tice. For were it not in fine, to endeavour to pre&s;cribe Limits to the Divine Mercy, and to &s;ubject the Grace of the Almighty to the Authority of Humane Laws? Our God is no more a re&s;pecter of Ages, than of Per&s;ons, &s;aith St. <HI>Cyprian,</HI> his Spirit blows where and when it plea&s;es him, without being &s;ubject either to time, or the Laws of men; and if it be a Crime worthy the &s;evere&s;t Cha&s;ti&s;ement from God, to &s;hut a man's eyes again&s;t the Light of Truth, and to re&s;i&s;t the Divine Attractions of Grace, is it po&s;&s;ible, without being criminal, to &s;hut the doors of the Church again&s;t tho&s;e, who by this &s;ame Grace are brought unto it? We are, as well as St. <HI>Paul</HI> was, Debtors to all, to Greeks and Barbarians, to the wi&s;e, and to the ignorant; and &s;hould we deny the Bread of the Word of Life to poor Children, who de&s;ire to be in&s;tructed by us! Should we &s;ee the&s;e innocent Souls, who are the mo&s;t perfect Images of the Son of God, and the true Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven, peri&s;h before our eyes! The Saviour of the World commands, that &s;uch be &s;uffered to come unto him; and &s;hall it not be lawful for us to take them by the hand? According to the&s;e fal&s;e Maxims of the Heretics, our duty &s;hould be oppos'd again&s;t our duty, and we &s;hould, Sir, find our &s;elves reduced to the
<PB N="5" REF="3">&s;ad nece&s;&s;ity either of violating the Laws of God, to ob&s;erve yours; or of violating yours, to ob&s;erve the Laws of God. But we are far from believing, that this can be comformable to the intentions of the mo&s;t ju&s;t and clear &s;ighted of all Kings: The Rules of Chri&s;tianity and Religion are too deep engraven in your Maje&s;ties Royal heart, to &s;uf|fer &s;uch dangerous interpretations as the&s;e, and to clear all manner of doubt in &s;o important an affair.</P>
<P>We are formerly permitted to go vi&s;it the &s;ick of the pretended Reform'd Religion, without being call'd; and we found by happy ex|perience, that many who all the the time of their lives, had been ob&s;tinate Confederates with Errour, became at their death faithful Confe&s;&s;ors of the Truth: The &s;ickne&s;s that weakned their Bodies, &s;erv'd to fortifie their Faith; di&s;abus'd with the vanities of the World, they more Willingly gave ear to the admonitions of Con&s;cience; the approaches of death, di&s;&s;ipated the illu&s;ions of life; and whether it were that Grace was no more &s;trong, or that their hearts were grown more flexible to In&s;truction, their &s;ouls, even when half &s;epa|rated from the body, began with plea&s;ure to reli&s;h Chri&s;tian Verities. But how go matters now &s;ince we have been forbid to vi&s;it the&s;e &s;ick per&s;ons? what de&s;ires &s;oever the&s;e poor Wretches have to recon|cile them&s;elves to God and the Church, how importunate &s;oever they are to have Prie&s;t, who is that Charitable man in the Go&s;pel who&s;e a&s;&s;i&s;tance they &s;tand in need of, to plunge them into the heal|ing Pool of Repentance? Tho&s;e about them oppo&s;e the&s;e ju&s;t de&s;ires, not one will do that good Office for them, and all their Friends con&s;pire to &s;tifle the&s;e good Di&s;po&s;itions, or to render them fruitle&s;s; and pre|tending them to be but idle ravings of an Imagination di&s;ordered by the violence of the Di&s;ea&s;e, with all po&s;&s;ible caution and endeavour, hinder the Church from being made acquainted with it. What can there be then, Sir, more ju&s;t to remedy &s;o criminal a Vexation, than to &s;uffer the Pa&s;tors of the Church, un&s;ent for, to go and vi&s;it the&s;e &s;ick per&s;ons, to the end they may truly di&s;cover their real Inclination? Is it not to allow tho&s;e of the Religion a &s;ufficient Toleration, and full liberty of Con&s;cience, &s;eeing it is to make them ab&s;olute Ma&s;ters of their own free choice even to death, and to take order, that Parents and Relations may not exerci&s;e over them the mo&s;t in&s;olent and cruel of all Tyrannies, in taking this Liberty from them?</P>
<P>But being, Sir, it would be the greate&s;t rudene&s;s and inju&s;tice, too much to abu&s;e your Maje&s;ties more precious lei&s;ure, we &s;hall pa&s;s over the other grievances we have to repre&s;ent, in &s;ilence; of which al&s;o the Commi&s;&s;ioners your Maje&s;ty has graciou&s;ly appointed to be pre|&s;ent at our Conferences, may give a more full account: But, Sir, the goodne&s;s of God prompts us to renew one mo&s;t humble reque&s;t; a Suit that we have often preferr'd, but &s;hall never cea&s;e to &s;igh, till your Maje&s;ty &s;hall do us the grace to grant it. Which is by a &s;olemn Law, and that under very &s;evere penalties, to forbid all your Catho|lick Subjects to change their Religion, &s;eeing that this pretended Li|berty of Con&s;cience is look'd upon by all the Catholics, as a Preci|pice &s;et before their feet, as a Pit-fall made to trap their &s;implicity, and as a door &s;et open to all manner of Licenciou&s;ne&s;s. Take from them, Sir, take from them this fatal Liberty, and &s;ettle them in a ble&s;&s;ed nece&s;&s;ity of being always faithful. Such a Law as this cannot
<PB N="6" REF="4">po&s;&s;ibly interfere with the Edicts that permit Liberty of Con&s;cience, fora&s;much as tho&s;e Edicts having only re&s;pect to them, by whom they were with the greate&s;t importunity &s;olicited, and for whom alone they were made, can no ways comprehend the Catholics, by whom they have ever been loath'd and abhorr'd.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides, Sir, if the&s;e of the Reform'd Religion are tolerated to continue in their fal&s;e Belief, why &s;hall not the Catholics be permit|ted to bind them&s;elves fa&s;t and firm to the true Religion, by all the Ties that may prevent the incon&s;tancy of Humane Fancy? The Law, Sir, that we humbly propo&s;e to your Maje&s;ty is the &s;tronge&s;t of all tho&s;e Ties, and in impo&s;ing it upon your Catholic Subjects, your Maje&s;ty will not fortifie their own re&s;olutions, yield to their own de&s;ires, authorize their own wi&s;hes, and fa&s;ten, as I may &s;ay, the &s;a|cred Knots by which they de&s;ire irrevocably to bind them&s;elves to the Faith of the Holy Church: And we have rea&s;on, Sir, to hope your Maje&s;ty will not deny them a means they intreat from you of a&s;&s;u|ring their Salvation; or rather that you will not deny it to God Al|mighty, who this day by my mouth requires it at your hands.</P>
<P>What Sir, can you deny him, after all the Pro&s;perities he had &s;howr'd upon your head? What Succe&s;s has he not ble&s;s'd your Arms withal, when animated by your Royal Pre&s;ence? It appears as if your Ene|mies were multiplied to no other end, but only to multiply your Victories. All your Campagns have been &s;ignal, either by the taking of &s;ome con&s;iderable Place, or &s;ome Province, and your Maje&s;ty has &s;o accu&s;tom'd us to &s;ee nothing in the Hi&s;tory of your Reign, but Victory upon Victory, and Conque&s;t upon Conque&s;t; that having made us to forget that the chance of Arms is uncertain, it now appears &s;trange, that it can be &s;o much as once contrary to us.</P>
<P>Is it not to God that you &s;tand oblig'd for the&s;e glorious Succe&s;&s;es? Yes doubtle&s;s, Sir, it is; and it now remains, that you give the la&s;t and highe&s;t Te&s;timony of your Acknowledgment, by making u&s;e of your Authority for the utter Extirpation of Here&s;ie.</P>
<P>Your Maje&s;ty has done nothing hitherto for the glory of your Name, that can parallel the Renown of &s;uch an Enterprize. Actions that point at Religion, carry with them a Character of Glory, that other Exploits, how Heroic &s;oever, can pretend no Title to: That which is enough to create a Hero in War, is not &s;ufficient to make a Hero in Religion: The Re-e&s;tabli&s;hment of Altars in a conquer'd Coun|try, is more glorious than the Conque&s;t it &s;elf: Catholics re&s;tor'd to liberty, do better adorn a Triumph, than conquer'd E<GAP DESC="illegible" RESP="KEYERS" EXTENT="5 letters">s, and the Titles of Protector of the Faith, and Defendor of the Church, &s;ound much better in chri&s;tian ears, than tho&s;e of Conqueror and Invin|cible.</P>
<P>O how happy had the Church been, if the Jealou&s;ie of your Ene|mies would have &s;uffered your Maje&s;ties zeal to have acted at its own liberty and full extent! We &s;hould then, Sir, no more need to petiti|on you in the behalf of Religion: Your Maje&s;ty had prevented our de|&s;ires, and even out-done our greate&s;t expectation. Your Enemies, 'tis true, have attempted to thwart your great and pious de&s;igns; but, Sir, the&s;e weak oppo&s;itions, ought only to &s;erve to augment the force of your zeal. Let the&s;e Maligners of your Glory, and the Pro&s;peri|ty of the Church, learn to their co&s;t, to know, that you can at the
<PB N="7" REF="4">&s;ame time both &s;ight for your Dominions, and labour for Religion; that like tho&s;e Illu&s;trious Re&s;taurators of the Old <HI>Jeru&s;alem,</HI> you can hold your Sword in one hand, and build the Walls of the Holy City with the other. That is to &s;ay, that you can at once both make your Enemies feel the power of your Arms, and the Enemies of God feel the power of your Laws.</P>
<P>It is, 'tis true, &s;ometimes an Heroic Vertue in tho&s;e who command the Reins of Empire, and to whom all things ought to be &s;ubmitted, them&s;elves to give place to time, and to certain Conjunctures that hap|pen in affairs: But, Sir, here the Cau&s;e of God is only in que&s;tion; con|&s;ult nothing but your heart in this ca&s;e, re&s;ign your &s;elf up to the Conduct of your own zeal, do as your Piety &s;hall in&s;pire you; the zeal of the Hou&s;e of God has &s;ometimes holy Tran&s;ports, preferable to that equal temper, which is the perfection of all other Vertues; and the &s;ame God who is the mover of tho&s;e religious Sallies, is War|ranty for their Event.</P>
<P>What ought you not to expect from that tran&s;cendent Genius, that rai&s;es you &s;o high above the re&s;t of men? What ought you not to ex|pect from that Supreme Valour, the too liberal Fountain, 'tis true, of our fears and apprehen&s;ions for your Maje&s;ties &s;afety; but that ren|ders you, Sir, the terror of your Enemies.</P>
<P>What glory will it be to your Maje&s;ty, when future Ages &s;hall know, that if the Kingdom of <HI>France,</HI> happy under your Reign, has with|drawn and pull'd in its Frontiers on every &s;ide, the Church more hap|py has extended hers into the heart of <HI>France.</HI> Po&s;terity will then know, that if the felicity of <HI>Augu&s;tus,</HI> occa&s;ioned the felicity of his Domi|nions, the felicity of <HI>Lewis</HI> the Great, has created the felicity both of his Kingdom and the Church; and they will then al&s;o know, that as this Spou&s;e of Je&s;us Chri&s;t has delivered you in Bapti&s;m from the &s;ervitude of &s;in, you al&s;o delivered her in your Kingdom, from the oppre&s;&s;ion of Here&s;ie; that as &s;he admits you to the participation of her Sacraments, you have admitted her to a &s;hare in your Victories; and in a word, that as &s;he daily &s;acrifices upon her Altars whatever &s;he has of more precious and adorable for the Con&s;ervation of your &s;acred Per&s;on, you have al&s;o &s;acrific'd your mo&s;t precious time, and be&s;t endeavours, to procure her all the advantages &s;he either can, or ought to expect from a mo&s;t Chri&s;tian Prince.</P>
<P>Your Maje&s;ty then, Sir, &s;ees your &s;elf engag'd both in Piety to God, and upon the account of your own particular Glory, to &s;upport the Intere&s;t of Religion. What, Sir, can we more de&s;ire? We have nothing more to beg of you, in order to the Gratification of our de&s;ires for the Pro&s;perity of the Church, and &s;hall never think we hazard the Cau&s;e of God, when whe ab&s;olutely re&s;ign our &s;elves with an entire confidence to your Maje&s;ties perfect Wi&s;dom, and Power|ful Protection.</P>
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<P>Printed at <HI>Paris:</HI> By <HI>Frederick Leonard,</HI> Printer to the King and the Clergy of <HI>France,</HI> in <HI>James Street</HI> at the Crown of <HI>Venice.</HI> MDCLXXV.</P>
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<P><HI>With the Kings Priviledge.</HI></P>
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