PERSECUTIONS BY PROTESTANTS.

Translated from the Lettres Choisies de Monsieur Simon.

Letter XXXIII.-Written under the name of some new Converts at Paris to M. Jurieu, Minister of the Walloon Church at Amsterdam, and at that time a Refugee.

VERY HONOUred Pastor,

-

WE every day receive great consolation from the pastoral letters you have the goodness to write to your poor flock, abandoned here in the midst of wolves. Alas! the evil spirit hath sown tares among the good grain. There are false brethren among us who do every thing in their power to draw us into the same state of perdition as themselves. They have shown your letters to the Catholics, whose remarks upon them have caused us much uneasiness. They say you do wrong in blaming the French Bishops on account of your persecution: they assure us that many of them did every thing in their power to prevent the entrance of the military, and other enemies of Jesus Christ, into their villages; and that since they have been there, they have used every effort to get them away. The most learned doctors of the Gallican Church have, as well as the most able bishops, held the maxim, fides non imperatur, faith does not command." Within a short time since, they have also printed, at Paris, some works composed by the doctors of the Sorbonne, highly condemning the Inquisitions of Italy and Spain, who have put people to death simply on account of their faith: they therefore conclude that you, as a Protestant, do wrong in objecting to the Bishop of Meaux, "that the true Church never persecutes any, &c." However, we have not been able to reply to the persons who show us these books, published by the Sorbonne, and printed at Paris more than thirty years since; and they strongly infer from this, that you are wrong in saying you can prove the spirit of persecution in the Roman Church from its principles, its doctrine, and its practice! And, upon the score of persecution in general, the Catholics here defy us to prove that the French Ecclesiastics ever dipped their hands in the blood of Heretics, as your Ministers have done at Geneva and in Switzerland. They show us the proceedings against Valentine Gentilius, printed at Geneva, in 1597. This poor wretch was thrown into a dungeon, loaded with chains, and, notwithstanding he retracted his errors, they refused to re

t

lease him, till, after languishing some time, he presented a petition to the Senate of Geneva.

The Catholics here urge several other facts against us, which throw us into a deal of perplexity: they produce the letters of the celebrated Andrew Dudith, who quitted his bishopric to join the Protestants, whom he afterwards abandoned to join the Unitarians, being offended at the conduct of the Protestant Ministers of Geneva and Switzerland. These letters are printed with those of Socinus, and are in the library of the Polish Brethren. There is one addressed to Beza, who was a friend of Dudith, dated Cracovia, 1570.-In this, speaking candidly, as to a friend, he observes, "The disciples of the apostles never caused any persons to be burnt on account of a difference in belief; they neither inflicted cruel deaths, nor sent people into exile, nor armed subjects against their sovereigns; nor did they ever publish statutes for the purpose of establishing religion by force of arms. "Tell me," says he, "I pray you, notwithstanding this reformation of the Gospel, which you believe is only to be found in its purity among yourselves, if every kind of crime is not com. mitted among you with impunity? Whether many places have not been stained with the blood of a number of persons? Whether snares have not been laid for a number of princes and magistrates; and whether rewards have not been offered to thieves and assassins, excited to robbery and murder by the promises of eternal life; and whether you have not excited rebellion and sedition in France, the finest country in the world?"

This is a strange picture of the Reformation; and they make us observe, at the same time, that it is not Catholics who speak in this manner; but our friends, and persons who publish what they have seen with their own eyes!" You approve," says Dudith, in the conclusion of his letter to Beza, " of persons who have long carried on a cruel war in the heart of their own country.-You pray to God for their success and salvation; and those who die in battle you place among the number of martyrs! Has Christianity any need of such defenders? Did your Master, Jesus Christ, put arms into your hands for the defence of religion?" These words, from one friend to another, are certainly very strong; but Dudith professed to speak to Bezȧ with his usual freedom, and with all possible sincerity.

The Catholics also furnish us with extracts of a letter from the same Dudith, which he wrote to Volsius, Minister of the Gospel

at Zurich, representing to him that the Catholics are greatly wronged in being accused of cruelty, since the Reformed, or the Calvinists, are worse than they; and this he proves by the example of Servetus, Gentilius, and others, whom the Calvinists put to death on account of their creed. He objects to Volsius, that those of Zurich had suddenly expelled Ochin, a man far advanced in years, from their city, during the rigours of winter, with his wife and children, without even giving him a hearing ! He also describes the persecutions which Lasco and several strangers with him underwent, on the part of the Evangelisals, who refused them shelter in any of their towns during the coldest severity of winter. After this Dudith observes, they surely cannot have the effrontery to reproach the Catholics with the cruelty and the tyranny of the Church of Rome.

Now when you ask in your Pastoral Letter who they are who disturb societies, who kill, massacre, and pillage, those who live peaceably, the Catholics reproach us with the letters of the cele brated Dudith, and with the behaviour of the Dutch Calvinists towards the Remonstrants, or Arminians, whose only crime was their refusal to subscribe to the Catechism of the country, in which they judged there were some things not agreeable to the word of God.

In a word, we are so pestered with arguments by the learned Catholics in this city, that we beg you will send us some able man whom we may consult in our doubts and difficulties.-You know that some of our ministers have for a long time past paid their visits in secret to our brethren in the Spanish low countries without discovery. We have only to add, that the Catholics remark that you confound certain opinions, only taught in cloisters by the monks, with the real sentiments of the Church of Rome! In combating these opinions, they say, you make it apparent that you are a very poor theologian; and that your Pastoral Letters are full of evident proofs of your ignorance of Ecclesiastical History, &c. &c.

Paris, March 15, 1687.

TO THE RIGHT REV. DR. MILNER,

In Answer to his Lordship, Page 177.

RIGHT REV. SIR,

THAT my writings should have drawn a torrent of insolent abuse upon a personage of your exalted rank, and amiable and humane qualities, which I myself have had the honor of expe

riencing, has made such a deep impression of grief upon my mind, that I sincerely think the conviction I feel will haunt me even to the grave.

With regard to the Letter upon the Veto, respecting which your lordship made some just and incontrovertible remarks, I am quite innocent; the paragraph was sent to the printer, who, not knowing but it came from me, inserted it; and my indisposition at the time preventing me from receiving the proof, it was admitted without my knowledge.

When that letter first caught my eye; after my recovery; I felt a deep sorrow for its insertion, as it is a contrast to my Catholic' principles, most strongly marked in the first number of the Magazine; particularly with regard to his Holiness, our common Father, and only Head of the Church of Jesus Christ, established in the union of the true Faith. The pretended Veto neither will nor can bear any discussion in Catholic matters; it should be buried for ever with a requiescat in pace. Such are even the sentiments of most of my Protestant friends, who are subscribers to the C. Magazine. Can a Protestant King, or Queen, &c. have any influence in Catholic concerns, or possess a Veto in the choice of their Bishops, or Prelates? It is ridiculous to suggest it. The King may be the head, or have an influence in the national Church, or a Presbyterian Kirk, because these are only civil powers, upon a human establishment, and enforced by law. If a layman or a woman could once be intruded into the affairs of the Catholic Church, I verily believe there would be an end to Catholicism; but this is out of all possibility.

If all the Catholic Prelates of Ireland and England had made a different declaration to what they have done, still would my education and conscience have revolted against it; besides, if the Veto were attempted to be granted, the Almighty would not suffer it; some public calamity would ensue, like that of Dathan, &c., or some other visible mark of God's displeasure.

For your lordship's sake, I shall drop what has been said respecting the emigrant Clergy without any farther observation.— I truly rejoice to hear that the scandal given has been limited to a small number, and that even that number has since been reconciled to the Church of God. Hoping that the insertion of your lordship's letter will atone for what I in my zeal may incautiously have published, I remain, sincerely,

Your lordship's most humble and most obedient servant, Moorfields. BALDWIN JANSON.

PROTESTANT MISSIONS TO THE SOUTH SEAS, &c.

ONE of these, which has some time since assumed the name of The Missionary Society, appears to be a concern of magnitude, supported by large funds, and a credit almost unbounded!Among these, the Missionaries sent to Otaheite, and our settlement at Botany Bay, have obtained much notice; but here they have so far forgotten their original errand of converting the natives, that one cause of the failure of their mission has been imputed to the circumstance of the natives, or rather the converts, being supplied with spirituous liquors by the converters.-These men it seems found a better account in becoming purveyors for the appetite, than either in the preaching or the practice of self-denial.

It is an undeniable fact, that the persons employed as Missionaries, instead of being men of sober deportment and good morals, are obtained by their employers much in the same way as recruits for the army; or rather as mechanics and others, wanted to go abroad! Hence, one of the former friends of the Society observed, "The enchanting descriptions which were given of the ambrosial air, and the fragrant groves, female beauty, and manly gentleness, together with the bounty of nature, in presenting bread of her own preparing with one hand, while she withdrew the curse with the other, by rendering labour unnecessary, were powerful inducements with young men of roving dispositions and unsettled prospects, to offer themselves for this pious work.

It is well known, that the object of the Directors being to complete this mission in as short a time as possible, they were not exceedingly strict as to the degree of Christian experience of those who offered themselves as candidates; and the results, with respect to several of the persons sent out, will justify the assertion, that no very close enquiries were made concerning the moral dispositions, or mental abilities of the persons set apart for this ill-judged mission.

"I am compelled, however, to notice the conduct of a gentleman who accompanied this mission. Being a surgeon, he was led to consider, that the sure means to establish the mission, and render it respectable in the eyes of the natives, would be, to begin by relieving some of those diseases which had been introduced by

NO. VI.

D d