Synodicon in Gallia reformata, or, The acts, decisions, decrees, and canons of those famous national councils of the reformed churches in France being I. a most faithful and impartial history of the rise, growth, perfection and decay of the reformation in that kingdom, with its fatal catastrophe upon the revocation of the Edict of Nants in the year 1685 : II. the confession of faith and discipline of those churches : III. a collection of speeches, letters, sacred politicks, cases of conscience, and controversies in divinity, determined and resolved by those grave assemblies : IV. many excellent expedients for preventing and healing schisms in the churches and for re-uniting the dismembred body of divided Protestants : V. the laws, government, and maintenance of their colleges, universities and ministers, together with their exercise of discipline upon delinquent ministers and church-members : VI. a record of very many illustrious events of divine providence relating to those churches : the whole collected and composed out of original manuscript acts of those renowned synods : a work never be extant in any language.

CHAP. XII. A Warrant signed for 45000 l. for the Churches.

FRiday the 22th of June, the Lord de Rouvray produced in this Assembly the Original Grant of Augmentation of five and forty thousand Livers which it hath pleased His Majesty to bestow upon our Churches. And this Assembly ordered the said Lord de Rouvray to return for us and for all the Churches, our most humble thanks unto their Majesties, who have by this their extraordinary Bounty laid new obligations upon us to call upon our God with the greatest Ardency in our Prayers, that he would bless and prosper their Majesties Persons, Crown and Government. And the said Grant was deposited in the hands of the Sieur Bonnet, Pastor and Deputy of Xaintonge, who was to lodge it safely in the Archives of Rochel; whereof he shall give advice by Letters under his own hand unto the said Lord de Rouvray.

The Copy of that Warrant.

This first day of October, One thousand six hundred and eleven, the King being at Paris, assisted by the Queen Regent his Mother in Council, having been well informed for what considerations the late King of glorious memo∣ry had by a Warrant of the third of April, One thousand five hundred ninety and eight, granted unto his Subjects of the P. Reformed Religion, the yearly sum of five and forty thousand Crowns to be employed in some secret Con∣cerns of theirs: And although His present Majesty be not obliged by those secret Articles, Warrants, and Answers unto Memoirs made in favour of those his said Subjects, to increase or augment the said sum; yet nevertheless, desiring as much as in him lieth to gratifie and favour his laid Subjects, and that he may-give them a sense of his good will and love to them, His Majesty, by the advice of the aforesaid Lady the Queen Regent, and of his meer grace and liberality doth grant unto those of the said P. Reformed Religion, the above-mentioned sum of five and forty thousand Crowns, and over and above the same another yearly sum five and forty thousand Livers

as an Act of Bounty, which said Moneys he wills and o future it be issued out of the General Fonds of his Treasury, by vertue of this present Warrant, which to this purpose he hath signed with his own hand, and is counter-signed by me his Councillor in his Council of State, and Secretary of his Commandments.

Signed Louis, and Lower, Philippeaux.

12. This Assembly giveth full power to the Lords our General Deputies to pass a contract with the Lord du Candal about the Receipt and manage∣ment of the five and fourty thousand Livers Augmentation Money, and if possible they shall make but one only Contract of the two sum, to wit, of that first granted, and of the aforesaid Augmentation, and of their Receipt, al∣ways reserving the right of our Churches.

13. The s••me General Deputies are charged to oppose themselves formal∣ly against all persons whatsoever, that shall endeavour at Court to obtain any Relief to the detriment of the body of the Churches in this Kingdom, and contrary to the Union sworn by us, and advice shall be given hereof un∣to the Churches, that so the Pastors more especially, and the Consistories may do their duty in suppressing such like motions and Enterprises, as being scandalous, and menacing the Churches with great confusions.

14. This Assembly injoyneth all the Consistories of those places, where the Courts of Parliament and Chambers of the Edict are established, to remon∣strate unto the Counsellors professing our holy Reformed Religion their timorous luke-warmness in not opposing and resisting the Verification and Recording of those Letters of Abolition, it being their special duty to have opposed them, and to have demanded that their Act of Opposal might be re∣corded: Moreover the Consistories of those self-same Towns are exhorted to present unto the said Parliaments and Chambers of the Edict the General Declaration of this National Synod concerning those Letters of Abolition.

15. This Assembly ordaineth that for the future the Provinces shall send unto the National Synods a Catalogue of their Pastors in actual service, and of the Proposans maintained by them, attested by the Manual Subscription of the Moderators and Scribes of their Synods: Otherwise there shall be no reckoning made of the Rolls brought in, when as the Moneys given us by his Majesty shall come to be distributed.

16. This Assembly yielding to the necessity of the times, and observing that whatsoever Petitions and Addresses have been made unto their Majesties by our extraordinary Deputations, are always ill resented, and misconstrued, and became so very unpleasing and distastful to their Majesties, that they would never vouchsafe a kind or acceptable answer to them; therefore it doth at present conceive it best for us to keep our selves unto the ordinary ways of humble Petitions and Remonstrances, by the mouths of our General Depu∣ties, Hoping that the goodness and clemency of the King and of the Queen Regent his Mother, and that the Justice of our Lords in the Privy Council will by this means, the former having been disliked by them, grant that we shall at last reap and receive the fruit and benefit of them. And to this purpose the said General Deputies shaving rendred our most humble thanks unto their Majesties for their gracious favours conferred upon their most Loyal and most Humble, and most Dutiful Subjects of the Reformed Religion, and particularly for the Augmentation of fifteen thousand Crowns a year granted to our Ministers) are charged most humbly to Petition their Majesties, that they would be pleased to exempt them from that necessity which is imposed upon them (and now with greater severity than ever, and contrary to that Liberty of Conscience promised us) of stiling our selves, of the pretended Re∣formed Religion: Because we had rather and more willingly suffer the great∣est torments, than stand obliged to condemn with our own mouths our

most holy Religion. And their Majesties also shall be requested to grant leave unto us in all Cities and Towns where▪ there be a number of families of our Religion, to keep lesser Schools, for the Education of our Children, and that those Restrictions and Modifications annexed unto the answer gi∣ven to that article in our last complaint and Bill of Grievances may be taken off the file: This being a matter which can never be dismembred nor seve∣red from our Liberty of Conscience. And whereas contrary to the hopes conceived at first by the Churches, when they sent their Commissioners from every Province, this Assembly is fully assured from all quarters, that the far greater part of our demands and remonstrances have been rejected, and that they have been all turned over to the Privy Council, and that it may be truly said, that after all the great coyl and noise made, nothing hath been yielded us, except a few Burying places, and those also in divers places to the detriment and disadvantage of our Religion, the said Deputies are charged to complain thereof unto their Majesties, and most humbly to peti∣tion that it may be remedied and redressed and to this purpose the Memoirs of the Provinces and Churches groaning under these oppressions shall be put into their hands, that so some effectual course may be taken for their re∣lief, and by such methods as they shall judge most fit to effect and compass it; and they shall farther insist on the Revocation of the Letters of Abolition verified in the Courts of Parliament. And whereas it is a matter of great im∣portance and concernment to all the Provinces, that they be duely acquainted with the issue and success of our Renewed and Repeated Supplications unto their Majesties, the aforesaid Deputies are injoyned, that as soon as they shall have received an answer to them, they do immediately transmit it un∣to the Provinces.

17. The Sieurs Bigot and de la Combe were Deputed by this Assembly to prosecute at Law Monsieur Palot, that so the Churches Moneys remaining in his hands, and with which he was intrusted, and which he oweth unto us, and would never render an account of them, may be recovered. And to this purpose it giveth Letters of Attorney unto the said Sieurs Bigot and de la Combe, with full power to receive all offers from Monsieur Palots Partners, and to treat with them in the Name of all the Provinces, and authorizeth them to accquit the said Partners of any summs which may be due by the said Palot even to the one third of the whole, provided the said Partners will make good the other two thirds, if they cannot compound with them upon better terms, that so the two thirds may come free info the Churches hands. But and if they cannot obtain better terms, and that they may be enabled to defray the Costs of this suit, they shall receive an yearly allowance of fifteen Hundred Livers, to be paid them quarterly by the Lord of Gandal, out of those Moneys which are to be paid into the Churches for the octo∣ber quarter of the year one thousand six hundred and Eleven, and this to be done proportionably every year, quarter and day as long as the suit conti∣nues, and we farther promise, that if it shall please God to succeed their care and diligence with his Blessing, to give them a considerable gratuity for their pains. And the said Sieurs Bigot and de la Combe are ordered to advise and consult with the Lords General Deputies, without whose Approbation they may not receive any offers from the Partners, nor act any thing in the said process. And the said Lords Deputies shall deliver unto the said Bi∣got and de la Combe all Papers concerning this matter, and notify unto them at what time they may be in Paris, and the said de la Combe is allowed for his journey thither the sum of one hundred and fifty Livers, which shall be paid him by the Lord du Candal out of the fore-mentioned quarter, of the sum of fifteen hundred Livers.