adhesion to formularies noticed in
Ward's Ideal Church, p. 358; and analogous cases in
Mill's Hist. of India, vol. i. pp. 399, 400, and in
Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. p. 87; also
Combe's Notes on the United States, vol. iii. pp. 256, 257.
135
Blanco White (Evidence against Catholicism, p. vi.) harshly says, ‘sincere Roman Catholics cannot conscientiously be tolerant.’ But he is certainly mistaken; for the question is one, not of sincerity, but of consistency. A sincere Roman Catholic may be, and often is, conscientiously tolerant; a consistent Roman Catholic, never.
136
We also see this very clearly in England, where the dissenting clergy have much more influence among their hearers than the clergy of the Establishment have among theirs. This has often been noticed by impartial observers, and we are now possessed of statistical proof that ‘the great body of Protestant dissenters are more assiduous’ in attending religious worship than churchmen are. See a valuable essay by Mr. Mann On the Statistical Position of Religious Bodies in England and Wales, in Journal of Statist. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 152.
137
Respecting the working of this in England, there are some shrewd remarks made by Le Blanc in his Lettres d'un François, vol. i. pp. 267, 268; which may be compared with Lord Holland's Mem. of the Whig Party, vol. ii. p. 253, where it is suggested, that in the case of complete emancipation of the Catholics, ‘eligibility to worldly honours and profits would somewhat abate the fever of religious zeal.’ On this, there are observations worth attending to in Lord Cloncurry's Recollections, Dublin, 1849, pp. 342, 343.
138
‘Les processions catholiques seraient interdites dans toutes les places, villes et châteaux occupés par ceux de la religion.’ Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 39.
139
Of these facts we have the most unequivocal proof; for they were not only stated by the Catholics in 1623, but they are recorded, without being denied, by the Protestant historian Benoist: ‘On y accusoit les Réformez d'injurier les prêtres, quand ils les voyoient passer; d'empêcher les processions des Catholiques; l'administration des sacremens aux malades; l'enterrement des morts avec les cérémonies accoutumées; … que les Réformez s'étoient emparez des cloches en quelques lieux, et en d'autres se serroient de celles des Catholiques pour avertir de l'heure du prêche; qu'ils affectoient de faire du bruit autour des églises pendant le service; qu'ils tournoient en dérision les cérémonies de l'église romaine.’ Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. pp. 433, 434; see also pp. 149, 150.
140
‘On pouvait dire que La Rochelle était la capitale, le saint temple du calvinisme; car on ne voyait là aucune église, aucune cérémonie papiste.’ Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 342.
141
Mém. de Richelieu, vol. ii. p. 100. For other and similar evidence, see Duplessis Mornay, Mémoires, vol. xi. p. 244; Sully, Œconomies Royales, vol. vii. p. 164; Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. pp. 70, 233, 279.
142
Quick's Synodicon in Gallia, vol. ii. p. 196.
143
For a striking instance of the actual enforcement of this intolerant regulation, see Quick's Synodicon in Gallia, vol. ii. p. 344.
144
Bazin, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. p. 124; Mém. de Richelieu, vol. ii. pp. 109, 110; Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 238.
145
In 1625, Howell writes that the Protestants had put up an inscription on the gates of Montauban, ‘Roy sans foy, ville sans peur.’ Howell's Letters, p. 178.
146
Sometimes they were called dogs returning to the vomit of popery; sometimes they were swine wallowing in the mire of idolatry. Quick's Synodicon in Gallia, vol. i. pp. 385, 398.
147
It is observable, that on the first occasion (Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. p. 362) nothing is said of Ferrier's immorality; and on the next occasion (p. 449) the synod complains, among other things, that ‘he hath most licentiously inveighed against, and satirically lampooned, the ecclesiastical assemblies.’
148
See this frightful and impious document, in Quick's Synodicon, vol. i. pp. 448, 450.
149
The notion of theologians respecting excommunication may be seen in Mr. Palmer's entertaining book, Treatise on the Church, vol. i. pp. 64, 67, vol. ii. pp. 299, 300; but the opinions of this engaging writer should be contrasted with the indignant language of Vattel, Le Droit des Gens, vol. i. pp. 177, 178. In England, the terrors of excommunication fell into contempt towards the end of the seventeenth century. See Life of Archbishop Sharpe, edited by Newcome, vol. i. p. 216: compare p. 363; and see the mournful remarks of Dr. Mosheim, in his Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 79; and Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs, pp. 175, 176.
150
On the treatment of Ferrier, which excited great attention as indicating the extreme lengths to which the Protestants were prepared to go, see Mém. de Richelieu, vol. i. p. 177; Mém. de Pontchartrain, vol. ii. pp. 5, 6, 12, 29, 32; Mém. de Duplessis Mornay, vol. xii. pp. 317, 333, 341, 350, 389, 399, 430; Felice's Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 235; Biog. Univ. vol. xiv. p. 440; Tallemant des Réaux, Historiettes, vol. v. pp. 48-54. Mr. Smedley, who refers to none of these authorities, except two passages in Duplessis, has given a garbled account of this riot. See his History of the Reformed Religion in France, vol. iii. pp. 119, 120.
151
Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 123.
152
Capefigue, vol. i. p. 123; Bazin, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. i. p. 364; Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. p. 183; Mém. de Rohan, vol. i. p. 130.
153
Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 124; Mém. de Pontchartrain, vol. ii. p. 100; Le Vassor, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. ii. pp. 333, 334. The consequence was, that the king was obliged to send a powerful escort to protect his bride against his Protestant subjects. Mém. de Richelieu, vol. i. p. 274.
154
Capefigue's Richelieu, vol. i. p. 38; Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. pp. 28, 29, 63.
155
Mém. de Fontenay Mareuil, vol. i. p. 450; Mém. de Bassompierre, vol. ii. p. 161. See a similar instance, in the case of Berger, in Benoist, Hist. de l'Edit de Nantes, vol. ii. p. 136, whom the Protestants sought to deprive because ‘il avoit quitté leur religion.’
156
Bazin, Hist. de Louis XIII, vol. i. p. 381. Sismondi (Hist. des Français, vol. xxii. p. 349) says that they had no good reason for this; and it is certain that their privileges, so far from being diminished since the Edict of Nantes, had been confirmed and extended.
157
M. Felice (Hist. of the Protestants of France, p. 237) says of Lower Navarre and Béarn, in 1617: ‘Three-fourths of the population, some say nine-tenths, belonged to the reformed communion.’ This is perhaps overestimated; but we know, from De Thou, that they formed a majority in Béarn in 1566: ‘Les Protestans y fussent en plus grand nombre que les Catholiques.’
