The persecution of the Hugonots in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, was condemned by the greatest men in France.  M. d’Aguesseau, the father of the celebrated chancellor, resigned his office of Intendant of Languedoc rather than remain a witness of it:  his son repeatedly mentions it with abhorrence.  Fenelon, Flechier, and Bossuet,[086] confessedly the ornaments of the Gallican church, lamented it.  To the utmost of their power, they prevented the execution of the edict, and lessened its severities, when they could not prevent them.  Most sincerely lamenting and condemning the outrages committed by the Roman Catholics against the Protestants at Nismes, as violations of the law of God and man, but doubting of the nature and extent, which some have attributed to them, the writer of these pages begs leave to refer to the sermon preached on them by the Reverend James Archer, a Roman Catholic priest, and printed for Booker, in Bond-street, by the desire of two Roman Catholic congregations, as expressing the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, and of all real christians on heretics and the persecution of heretics.

III.

The Correspondence of Bossuet and Leibniz, under the auspices of Lewis the XIVth, for the Reunion of the Lutheran Protestants to the Roman Catholic Church.

This correspondence forms one of the most interesting events in the life of Bossuet; the letters, of which it consists, and the other written documents, which relate to it, are highly interesting.  We shall attempt to present our readers with a short account—­

    1st.  Of the circumstances which led to this correspondence;

    2ndly.  Of the Project of Reunion, delivered by Molanus, a Lutheran
    Divine, and Bossuet’s sentiments on that Project;

    3dly.  Of the intervention of Leibniz in the negotiation; and

    4thly.  Of the Project suggested by Bossuet, and the principal
    reasons, by which he contended for its reception.

III. 1.

It appears that, towards the 17th century, the Emperor Leopold, and several sovereign princes in Germany, conceived a project of re-uniting the Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches.  The Duke of Brunswick, who had recently embraced the Roman Catholic religion, and published his Fifty Reasons for his conversion, (once a popular work of controversy), and the Duke of Hanover, the father of the first prince of the illustrious house, which now fills the throne of England, were the original promoters of the attempt.  It was generally approved; and the mention of it at the Diet of the Empire was favourably received.  Some communications upon it took place between the Emperor and the ducal Princes:  and with all their knowledge, several conferences were held upon the subject, between certain distinguished Roman Catholic and Protestant Divines.