COLLECTIONS.

MEMOIR OF THE FRENCH PROTESTANTS, WHO SETTLED AT OXFORD, MASSACHUSETTS, A. D. 1686; WITH A SKETCH OF THE

ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE PROTESTANTS OF FRANCE.

BY A. HOLMES, D. D. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

AMONG the numerous emigrations from Europe to New England, since its first settlement, that of the French Protestants has been but slightly noticed, and is now almost forgotten. The history of these emigrants, humble as it may seem, is entitled to preservation. The simplest narrative of the causes and circumstances of their emigration, and of their previous and subsequent fortunes, were enough to render it interesting to every descendant of the early settlers of our country, especially to the descendants of the pilgrims of New England.

Nearly a century and a half ago, these Protestants came from France, to seek an asylum in America. The same cause, which brought our forefathers to these shores, brought them. Both, holding the strictest tenets of the Reformation, were denied the privilege of professing and openly maintaining them. In the one instance, conformity to the requisitions of the Protestant Episcopal church was exacted; in the other, to those of the Roman Catholic. It was to

the last of these that the Huguenots of France were subjected; and when to the distant fulminations of the Vatican succeeded the intoleránt edicts of their own princes, they fled, in all directions, from a country where life was insecure, and repose impossible.

The French Protestants, from the first, adopted the principles of that eminent reformer, JOHN CALVIN, who was a native of France. The title of Reformed was first assumed by them; and afterwards became the common denomination of all the Calvinistical churches on the Continent.* "The doctrine of their churches was Calvinism, and their discipline was Presbyterian, after the Genevan plan." Of this discipline, the judicious Hooker, with no less candour than discrimination, says: "A Founder it had, whom, for mine own part, I think incomparably the wisest man that ever the French church did enjoy, since the hour it enjoyed him." This was a just tribute of respect to Calvin, to whom the Church of England, in common with all the Protestant Reformed churches, is more indebted for the purity of her doctrines, than to any other single reformer. Although the English church and the New England churc hesrejected his discipline, neither were insensible to the merits of this truly great man, nor forgetful of the eminent service, which he rendered to the cause of truth, and to the Protestant interest.

Notwithstanding the barbarous persecutions of the Albigenses and Waldenses by the Roman Catholic church, "there was not a total extinction of the truth. It was suppressed, but not destroyed. Its professors were dead; but the truth lived; it lay concealed in the hearts of the children of these martyrs, who groaned for a reformation." When learning revived

*Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, iv. 356. Tr. Note

Robinson's Memoirs of the Reformation in France, prefixed to his translation of Saurin's Sermons.

+ Hooker's Eccles, Politie, Pref.

Quick's Synodicon in Gallia Reformata, Introd. 2 vols. fol. Lond. 1692.

in France under Francis I. the Reformation revived in that kingdom. Luther began it in Germany, and Zuinglius in Switzerland; a little while after, Calvin was called forth to be a glorious instrument of it in France. And the Lord owneth him," says the English historian of the French synods," and his fellow servants, notwithstanding all the storms of Popish rage and fury against them in this great work; insomuch that the whole kingdom is enlightened and ravished with it, and many of the most eminent counsellors in that illustrious senate, the parliament of Paris, do profess the Gospel openly, and in the very presence of their king Henry the Second, though to the loss of honour, estate, and life. It was now got into the court, and among persons of the highest quality. Many nobles, some princes of the blood, dare espouse its cause. The blood of the martyrs proving the seed of the church, and, as Israel of old, so now, the more the professors of the Gospel are oppressed and persecuted, the more are they increased and multiplied."*

The Reformed Protestants in France formed themselves into regular church assemblies; and "it was the great care of the first Reformers to preach up sound doctrine, to institute and celebrate pure evangelical worship, and to restore the ancient primitive discipline."

The Bible was translated by Olivetan, an uncle of Calvin, a minister in the vallies of Piedmont, from the original Hebrew and Greek into the French language; and it "was read in their solemn meetings in the great congregations." It was perused and studied by the nobles and peasants, by the learned and the illiterate, by merchants and tradesmen, by women and children, in their houses and families; and they thus became wiser than their Popish priests, and

* Quick's Synodicon.

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most subtile adversaries. Clement Marot, a courtier, and a man of wit and genius, by advice of M. Vatablus, Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Paris, translated fifty of the Psalms of David into French metre; Beza, the other hundred, and all the Scripture songs; and Lewis Guadimel, a most skilful master of music, composed those sweet and melodious tunes, to which they are sung even to this day. Sacred music, thus revived, charmed the court and city, the town and country. The psalms, thus brought home to men's bosoms, and adapted at once to their understanding and taste, were sung in the Louvre, as well as in the Pres des Clercs, by the ladies, princes, and even by Henry the Second himself. To this sacred ordinance alone may be greatly attributed the decline of Popery, and the propagation of the gospel, in France. It so happily accorded with the genius of the French nation, that all ranks and degrees of men practised it in the temples and their families. Children and youth were now catechised in the rudiments and principles of the Christian religion, and could give a good account of their faith, and a reason of their hope. Their pious pastors thus prepared them for the communion table, where they partook in both kinds, the bread and the wine, according to the primitive institution of Jesus Christ.

Although the French Reformed churches were internally improved, and became multiplied throughout the kingdom; yet they were subjected to the severest trials. So early as 1540, an edict was passed, interdicting the exercise of the Reformed religion, and prohibiting the giving of an asylum to those who professed it, on pain of high treason.

The complaint of Justin Martyr to the Roman emperor, that the Christians were punished with torture and death, upon the bare profession of their being

* Quick's Synodicon.