The death of Mazarin in 1661 forms, another epoch in the history of the Protestants. New edicts Avere pul> lished, intended to damage their financial interests, and to become impediments to the free exercise of their re- ligion. Thus, in 1662, an edict forbade them to inter their dead except at daybreak or at nightfall. Another decree in 1663 excused new converts from payment of debts previously contracted with their felloAv-^eligion- ists. In 1665 their children were allowed to declare themselves Roman Catholics— if boys, at fourteen ; if girls, at twelve years of age ; parents either to continue to provide for their apostate children, or to apportion to them a part of their possessions. In 1679 it Vi-as de- creed that converts who had relapsed into Protestant- ism should be banished, and their property confiscateiL In 1680 Huguenot clerks and notaries were deprived of their employments, intermarriages of Protestants and Roman Catholics were forbidden, and the issue of such marriages declared illegitimate, and incapable of succes- sion. In 1681, to strike terror to the hearts of the Prot- estants, a royal declaration granted the right to Hu- guenot children to become converts at the age of stren years. " The kidnapping of Protestant children was ac- tively set on foot by the agents of the Roman Catholic priests, and their parents were subjected to heavy pen- alties if they ventured to complain. Orders were issued to pull down Protestant places of worship, and as many as eighty were shortly destroyed in one diocese. The Huguenots offered no resistance. All that they did was to meet together and pray that the king's heart might yet be softened towards tliem. P.Iow upon blow follow- ed. Protestants were forbidden to jirint books without the authority of magistrates of the Romish communion. Protestant teachers were interdicted from teaching any- thing more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Such pastors as held meetings amiil the ruins of the churches which had been pulled down, were compelled to do jien- ance with a rope round their necks, after which they were to be banished the kingdom. Protestants were pro- hibited from singing psalms on land or water, in work- shop or in dwellings. If a priestly procession passed one of their churches while the psalms were sung, they must stop instantly, on jiain of fine or imprisonment to the officiating minister." In short, from the pettiest an- noyance to the most exasperating cruelty, nothing was wanting on the part of the " most Cliristian king" and his abettors. The intention apparently was to provoke the Huguenots into open resistance, so as to find a pre- text for a second massacre of St. Bartholomew.
In 1683. Colbert, who had been Louis's minister for several years, and who, convinced that the strength of
HUGUENOTS
396
HUGUENOTS
states consisted in the number, the intelligence, and the industry of their citizens, had labored in all possible ways to prevent the hardships which Louis, led by his mistress, Madame de IMaintenon, and his Jesuit confess- or. Fere la Chaise, was iuflictuig on the Protestants, was removed by death. Military executions and depreda- tions against the Protestants now began throughout the kingdom. " Pity, terror, and anguish had by turns agi- tated their minds, until at length they were reduced to a state of despair. Life was made almost intolerable to them. All careers were closed against them, and Prot- estants of the working class were under the necessity of abjuring or starving. The mob, observing that the Protestants were no longer within the pale of the law, took the opportunity of wreaking all manner of outrages on them. They broke into their churches, tore up the benches, and, placing the Bible and hymn-books in a pile, set the whole on Are ; the authorities usually lend- ing their sanction on the proceedings of the rioters by banishing the burned-out ministers, and interdicting the further celebration of worship in the destroyed church- es" (Smiles, Iluyiienots, p. 136-G) . Bodies of troops which had been quartered upon the Protestants to harass them, now matle it a business to convert the Protestants. Ac- companied by Jesuits, they passed through the south- ern provinces, compelling the inhabitants to renounce their religion, demolishing the places of worship, and putting to death the preachers. Hundreds of thousands of Protestants, unwilling to renounce their rehgion, fled to Switzerland, the Netherlands, England, and Germany. In vain was it attempted to restrain this self-expatria- tion by cordons along the borders. Many Protestants also made an insincere profession of Roman Catholi- cism. These, on the slightest appearance of relapse, were piit to death. On October 23, 1685, Louis at last revolted the edict of Nantes. This revocation enacted the demolition of all the remaining Protestant temples throughout France ; the entire proscription of the Prot- estant religion; the prohibition of even private wor- ship under penalty of confiscation of body and property ; the banishment of all Protestant pastors from the king- dom within fifteen days ; the closing of all Protestant schools; the prohibition of parents from instructing their children iu the Protestant faith ; the obligation, under penalty of a heavy fine, of having their children baptized by the parish priest, and educating them in the Roman Catholic religion ; the confiscation of the property and goods of all Protestant refugees who failed to return to France within four months ; the penalty of the galleys for life to all men, and of imprisonment for life to all women detected in the act of attempting to escape from France. " Such were a fe;v of the dastard- ly and inhuman provisions of the edict of Revocation. It was a proclamation of war by the armed against the unarmed — a war against peaceable men, women, and children — a war against property, against family, against society, against public morality, and, more than all, against the right of conscience." But when we take into consideration the private character of the king, how completely he was controlled by abandoned women and their friends, tlie Jesuits, who both feared and hated Protestantism, because, if successful, it would have been a death-blow to their own wicked association, we can- not wonder that '• great was the rejoicing of the Jesuits on the revocation of the edict of Nantes," and tliat "Rome sprang up with a shout of joy to celebrate the event," and that " Te Deums were sung, processions went from shrine to shrine, and the pope sent a brief to Louis, conveying to him the congratulations and praises of the Romish Church."