The pacification which had taken place in the month of August, 1655, putting a stop to the outrages upon the Protestants, was, as to its terms, considered by Morland, the envoy, very unsatisfactory; for which terms he greatly blamed the Swiss ambassadors. He looked on such a peace as worse than the continuance of war, and mourned over the scandal that the sufferers should have been forced to confess themselves guilty of rebellion. Thurloe, representing the Government at home, sent out instructions to the minister to complain to the Bernese of the unfair conditions which they had sanctioned; to let them know it was everywhere amongst Protestants "laid to heart;" to attempt arresting the ratification of the treaty; and to "prosecute its amendment." Allusion occurs to "the sixty thousand pounds voluntarily gathered in England for the relief of these people;" and then the instructions end with the clause—"that the treaty between his Highness and the King of France is agreed, but that his Highness will not sign it until he have satisfaction in this business of Piedmont—and that as he hath caused a large contribution to be made for them, so that he cannot nor will not desert them."[554] To write thus, however, was at that time too late, the Swiss States, through fear of France, having already agreed to the ratification.
Cromwell and Louis XIV.
Three years afterwards, Cromwell, upon learning that the treaty had been violated, and apprehending the occurrence of fresh massacres, wrote once more to Louis XIV. In a letter dated May, 1658:—"New Levies," he said, "are privately preparing against 'em, and all that embrace the Protestant Religion are commanded to depart by a prefix'd day; so that all things seem to threaten the utter extermination of those deplorable wretches whom the former massacre spar'd. Which I most earnestly beseech and conjure ye, most Christian King, by that RIGHT HAND which sign'd the League and Friendship between us, by that same goodly ornament of your Title of MOST CHRISTIAN, by no means to suffer, nor to permit such liberty of Rage and Fury, uncontroul'd we will not say, in any Prince (for certainly such barbarous severity could never enter the breast of any Prince, much less so tender in years, nor into the female Thoughts of his mother), but in those sanctify'd cut-throats who, professing themselves to be the Servants and Disciples of our Saviour Christ, who came into this World to save Sinners, abuse His meek and peaceful name and precepts to the most cruel slaughter of the Innocent. Rescue, you that are able in your tow'ring Station, worthy to be able, rescue so many Suppliants prostrate at your feet, from the hands of Ruffians who, lately drunk with Blood, again thirst after it, and think it their safest way to throw the Odium of their Cruelty upon Princes. But as for you, great Prince, suffer not, while you reign, your Titles, nor the Confines of your Kingdom, to be contaminated with this same Heaven-offering Scandal, nor the peaceful Gospel of Christ to be defil'd with such abominable Cruelty."[555]
1658.
Whether prevented by Cromwell's remonstrance or not, the horrors anticipated did not occur; although, after the Protector's death, and the restoration of Charles II., the unhappy Vaudois were again plunged into the miseries of war. The letter just quoted ends Milton's immortal correspondence on the subject—a correspondence which moves with admiration the depth of one's soul: whenever since that time has the Protestantism of England burnt with such a vivid and steady light in the midst of her foreign diplomacy?
Other Persecuted Protestants.
Nor were the Piedmontese the only foreign Protestants who excited sympathy in the breast of the Protector, and amongst the reformed Churches of England. Brethren in Poland and Silesia had suffered exile for their faith; and, on their behalf, as in the case of the Vaudois, collections were promptly ordered to be made. The same thing was effected in the case of the persecuted Bohemians. A committee was appointed in this instance, as in the former one, and a declaration was drawn up touching the condition of the Polish Protestants. "If a cup of cold water," says that document, "given to one disciple as such, shall not lose its reward, how much more when a bountiful relief is given to more than five thousand disciples; which we should be the more forward to advance, because they acknowledge they have received much confirmation in the religion for which they suffer by light received from our countryman, John Wicklif, that famous witness of Christ against Antichrist, even in the darkest times of Popery." A letter, by John Durie, begged an extension of charity to other suffering Protestants in Germany; and another letter, by Morland, stated:—"There are above five thousand left whom God hath snatched out of their cruel rage, wandering miserable, naked, and, indeed, reduced unto plain beggary. There remains no refuge for them but in God, and those who in God's stead do watch for the good of the Church."
Upon its being represented that the Papists had burned Bibles printed in the Bohemian and Polonese languages, and that the exiled Protestants were in great want of the Scriptures, it was ordered that out of the fund collected for the relief of the sufferers, the sum of £1,000 should be paid to procure for them copies of the Word of God. In another document amongst the papers of the Committee, it is said:—"The poor exiled Churches are in great want of this spiritual food, as of their daily bread, and desire rather to take something from their mouths to supply the necessity of their souls." The Committee was resolved that the cause of these sufferers should be commended to the King of Sweden, to be remembered in any treaty of peace between him and the King of Poland.[556]
1658.
The French Protestants were indebted to Cromwell for effectual protection when they were exposed to imminent danger. Some of them, who were citizens of Nismes in Languedoc, had, amidst the excitement of a municipal election, been betrayed into acts of very great violence, and had even assailed their opponents with a volley of musket shot, upon which the French Government despatched a party of troops to take vengeance upon the offenders. The successors of the Huguenots in that ancient city, justly fearing, that as chastisement had been entrusted to the hands of the soldiers, the innocent would be liable to suffer with the guilty, despatched a representative to Cromwell to request his intercession on their behalf. The Protector gave him an audience immediately upon his arrival, and invited him to "refresh himself after so long a journey, and he would take such care of his business that by the time he came to Paris he should find it despatched." That very night he sent a messenger to his ambassador Lockhart, with a despatch commanding him to secure mercy on behalf of the Protestant citizens of Nismes, or take his departure from the French Court. Mazarin complained of this as being too imperious, but confessed that he could not help himself in the matter; and orders were forthwith sent to arrest the march of the troops. "So that nobody," remarks Clarendon who relates this incident, can wonder that Cromwell's "memory remains still in those parts, and with those people, in great veneration." In other ways also the Protector made the Cardinal feel and acknowledge his great power. For, as his Eminence told Madame Turenne, "he knew not how to behave himself; if he advised the King to punish and suppress" the insolence of the Protestants, Cromwell "threatened him to join with the Spaniards, and if he shewed any favour to them, at Rome they accounted him a heretic."[557]