The Memoirs

Church Discipline at Montauban

Mlle du Plessis1 set out on the 2nd of June 1584 (from the north of France) to join M. du Plessis, who on account of the position he held in the King of Navarre's household could ill be spared from his master's side. On hearing of her arrival at Sainte Foi, M. du Plessis came to meet her. As on the one hand the King of Navarre had not decided where to establish his principal residence, while on the other he had given permission for the deputies from the churches to meet at Montauban on the 20th August, M. du Plessis made up his mind to bring his family to this town so that his wife might have the pleasure of being near him during the Assembly. Afterwards they could move to whatever place in which the King might choose to pass the winter. After M. du Plessis had escorted his family to Montauban he rejoined the King at Pamiers. Mlle du Plessis made no change in her way of living whilst she was at Montauban, neither in food, nor dress nor coiffure, behaving exactly as she had done for the past fifteen years during which she had had the happiness of being accepted by several of the largest and best churches in Christendom, notably in Sedan, Germany, England, the Low Countries and France. Everywhere, to God be the glory, many people of worth can testify to the modesty with which she conducted herself. M. du Plessis returned to Montauban with the King for the Assembly ; there are many deputies from most of the churches in France who can bear witness that Mlle du Plessis neither in dress nor in behaviour showed vanity or cause for scandal.

1 The following chapter was written by Mlle du Plessis but is not included in the Memoir. She wrote it in the third person.

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[/act p. 198

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Whilst he stayed in Montauban M. du Plessis sometimes asked M. Berault, the minister of the town, to come and see him and to eat and to drink with him, and M. Berault had plenty of opportunities, whilst they conversed together, to acquaint M. du Plessis with the schism which had arisen in his church. But as the schism was of his own contriving he naturally sought for no remedy. Mile du Plessis found that several very well-behaved families in the town were cut off from court because their womenfolk wore no false hair, although they protested against the way in which M. Berault interpreted a decree of the synod in a different way to what was the rule in all the other churches ; she also found other families who were publicly preached against because their members would not take an oath that their daughters should never wear wigs nor nets of gold thread, whence arose tumults and riots in the town. All the ladies of these various families were most anxious to settle how they were to dress their hair while M. du Plessis was still at Montauban. Sacrament Sunday drawing nigh M. Berault came to the house where Mile du Plessis lodged about ten days beforehand, bringing with him the sacrament tokens for the ' Ten ' » of the ward ; Mile du Plessis thereupon asked M. du Plessis to request M. Berault to give tokens for all of her household who were entitled to partake the Lord's Supper, a thing which she would never have done if she had not been willing to submit to the discipline of the church at Montauban, provided always that she was duly notified of the regulations. She very well knew without being told by M. Berault, that she could have applied to the court minister had it not been her wish to do everything possible for edification and friendliness. When M. du Plessis sent one of his men with a list of all his household who were eligible to join the Communion, accompanied with a request for tokens for them, M. Berault replied that he

1 Officials whose business it was to distribute the tokens to communicants.

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had enough to do with looking after his own flock without undertaking any further charge. He gave no other reason nor did he try to see M. du Plessis although he lodged in the same house and there was nothing but a gallery to traverse between the room in which he sat and M. du Plessis' bedchamber. He could have seen him and told him why he sent such a vague answer or what he really wanted the du Plessis family to do, and he would have received every satisfaction. After such a reply M. and Mile du Plessis decided that M. Berault required no change to be made in her attire but that he would prefer that they should apply to the court minister so that no prejudice should be done to the observances which he demanded from his own congregation. This being so Mile du Plessis thought no more of making any alteration in her accustomed coiffure. Some days after, as Mile du Plessis was leaving her lodging at the hour of morning service on her way to present a child for baptism along with M. de Chatillon, several members of the Montauban consistory met her at her door, saying that they had been waiting a long time for her. She answered that they had done wrong to do so for they knew that M. du Plessis' door always stood open to all worthy men. They said that they had been bidden to wait by the consistory so that M. du Plessis might not hear what they had to say to her. She replied that she would find it hard to keep anything from her husband, to whom she told even her thoughts so far as lay in her power, and knowing who M. du Plessis was she thought their behaviour passing strange. To be brief they told her what they had been sent to say, to wit, that she must discard her false hair. She said that it was curious that since they would not admit M. du Plessis' household among their flock that they should expect her to recognize them as her pastors. Moreover, in regard to their request she must refer them to M. du Plessis and she would abide by his decision.

Shortly after this a special consistory was held to consider the schism which had existed at Montauban

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for four years past. It was composed of the town consistory to which was added the court consistory and certain well-known ministers of other churches. After a discussion on several families in the town the trouble with the du Plessis family was mentioned, although neither M. nor Mile du Plessis had expressed any desire that their affairs should be brought before the meeting. The meeting was of opinion that, having regard to the modest behaviour of the whole family in dress and general behaviour and, moreover, M. du Plessis' manner of living being very well known to every one, no change in their costume should be required. This decision was influenced by the well-known spitefulness of court gossip, whose criticisms they could not escape, as well as by the fact that Mile du Plessis was not a citizen of Montauban and was therefore not amenable to its regulations. This being decided, M. Cahier, the court minister, was asked to give them their tokens. Passing M. du Plessis' lodging he came in and only finding Mile du Plessis at home he told her that he should have their tokens ready whenever M. du Plessis liked to send for them. Soon afterwards, however, M. Cahier was forbidden by the Montauban consistory or rather by some of its members to give tokens to M. du Plessis either for himself or any of his family. It seemed a strange proceeding, considering how the matter had been discussed in such a worthy and notable company, that its decision should be contradicted by a few private persons. However, when M. du Plessis sent for his tokens M. Cahier came to excuse himself for not doing as he had been told to do, and thereupon the news ran all round the town and the court that M. du Plessis and all his family had been excommunicated without a word of explanation. It was an aggravation that several nobles and people of quality of the other religion were at court at the time. The result was that on Saturday morning when M. du Plessis went to the King's levee every one began to laugh at him, and some even took it as an occasion to abuse our religion and our

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ministers which really did annoy him. Mile du Plessis went to the sermon and on her return two elders of the court consistory escorted her home. As she was conversing with them in her chamber Messrs Berault and Bironier, both ministers of Montauban, came in. M. Berault began by making his excuses for coming so seldom to see M. du Plessis, adding that his reason for not doing so was that he knew how busy M. du Plessis was whilst the Assembly sat. Mile du Plessis replied that her husband had certainly been very much occupied but in spite of that, other people had been to see him ; she knew, she said, that M. Berault had not really come to excuse himself and she might tell him plainly that M. du Plessis had not been so angry for a long time past as he was at the present moment. M. du Plessis had brought his family to Montauban to give them peace and quiet but they got nothing of the sort. Instead of having the happiness of serving as a means of edification as they had done for the last nine years, in whatever country they had lived, here, in Montauban, they had had the unhappiness of being nothing but a cause of scandal ; M. du Plessis thought it passing strange that he and all his family should be excommunicated without a word ; and finally that it was neither in accordance with the law of charity nor the commands of God to punish a wrongdoer before admonishing him. Thereupon M. Berault told her that he had come from the consistory to make her understand that she must leave off her false hair. She begged him to allow M. de Roupeyroux, and other members of the court consistory present to bear witness to what he said to her and she to him. He told her that he had no authority to do this and she persisting and calling on M. de Roupeyroux, M. Berault pressed the matter no more and rose to go. Mile du Plessis said to him, " Sir, you should have spoken to M. du Plessis who is the head of this family." And so Messrs Berault and Bironier departed and an hour later the consistory of Montauban and that of the court met with

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the others who had sat in the previous meeting and it was immediately decided that tokens should be given to M. du Plessis for himself and his family. And since tokens had been granted it was also agreed that the family should be granted their due place. M. Berault and the whole consistory of Montauban came to see M. du Plessis who thereupon complained of their behaviour to him ; saying that " he thought it strange they should refuse him the sacrament without saying a word to him first. Indeed he thought their whole behaviour to his family strange ; his house stood open at all times to worthy people and they had all had opportunities to speak with him. Instead of doing so M. Berault had spoken to his wife in the open street as she came away from the sermon, admitting that he had purposely chosen this way of approaching her so that her husband might know nothing about it, which was a very unseemly and ill-considered proceeding. And then without a word further tokens had been refused to his whole family men as well as women, although thanks be to God, not one of them but was fully instructed in religion ; further, that when the consistory attached to the King's household had decided to admit his family to the sacrament, he, M. Berault, had forbidden M. Cahier to give them tokens. And so, before he, M. du Plessis, had heard a word from him all the court and the town were laughing at him, and his wife and household were debarred from the Lord's Supper to the great scandal of many worthy people and the great amusement of others of the contrary religion of all sorts who chanced to be in Montauban. Moreover, as the Assembly lately held in the town was on the eve of scattering the scandal would be carried all over France, all the more because his name was tolerably well known by God's grace. He consoled himself with the knowledge that his own and his family's mode of life was well known and he hoped the blame of the scandal would fall on others and not on himself. All the same he greatly regretted to see the minister and

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consistory of a well-known church involved in the blame." (Then he set forth his reason for bringing his family to Montauban that they might find peace, the welcome they had received in all other churches, the well-known propriety of their conduct, and although they had never changed their mode of life the happiness they had had to be an example wherever they were living.1) " If Montauban," he continued, " was treated as the only Church it would be a repetition of the error of the Donatists. It had no claim to a separate discipline but should conform to the rest of the churches in France, and it was for M. Berault to bend his opinion to the decision of the national synod, of which he could not pretend ignorance, and not to hug himself in his own obstinate peculiarities against the advice of so many pious and sound members of the church at that time gathered together at Montauban. These had all condemned his behaviour, particularly in the case of himself, his wife and his family. He would always govern his household according to the rules laid down by the churches but not by those of the church of Montauban if it thought itself above the others." He spoke to them in all kindness, but it hit him hard to be thus dragged into publicity and he told them plainly that he should have been ashamed to make such a fuss over a matter of indifference. A notorious schism had already arisen in M. Berault's church and what was worse, legal proceedings for damages had resulted, and, to the scandal of the church, and the hazarding of the whole system of ecclesiastical discipline, the case was to be heard in the court of the Parlement of Toulouse on the first possible day. He repeated again and again that for the true edification of the church complaints should not be made about hair if the head under it were safe. " And M. Berault must not fancy that he was the only Christian, the only pastor or the only wise man. . . ." And after this harangue M. Berault retired, making small answer.

1 This passage is abridged as it is mainly repetition of previous statements on the subject.

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At the close of the Assembly the churches begged the King of Navarre to allow M. du Plessis to accompany M. de Laval to lay their grievances before the King. The King of Navarre demurred on account of M. du Plessis' position in his household, but being pressed he yielded the point. M. du Plessis would gladly have been spared this journey for he was not well and needed leisure to attend to his health. He had worked very hard all through the Assembly ; his family had come south in the hot weather and he had meant to ask for a month or six weeks' leave to look about for a suitable place to settle in for the winter. But without regard to his wishes the journey was decided on. He left Mile du Plessis ill with a severe chill which kept her in bed for a fortnight before his departure. Smallpox had just begun to show in two of his little children which filled / him with the greatest alarm, for one of his lacqueys had died of it a week before. At length recommending his family to God's care he set out for Blois. Whilst he was away Mile du Plessis hardly stirred from bed or her room and kept her head so muffled up that her hair could give no scandal. If she did venture out one day to hear a sermon she spent the following eight in bed. But in spite of the trouble she was in both on account of M. du Plessis' absence and of her own and her children's illnesses not one of the three ministers of Montauban came to see her, although she purposely complained of their neglect in such a way that they should hear of it.

A month before the Christmas Communion, as the custom is, a catechism was held in each town ward, when all those who were about to partake the Lord's Supper were catechized and their medals given them at the close of the meeting. M. Berault came to the house where Mile du Plessis lodged to hold a catechism. Hearing this Mile du Plessis, although still ill, rose from her bed so that her household might share in the benefits of the instruction and came into the hall where some fifty or sixty persons were already assembled, these being all

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those eligible in the ward. She wore her night-cap and her head was covered up with a black kerchief ; her family were all dressed very soberly ; she went in with her children, her women and her men-servants and yet M. Berault turned them all out. It appeared that he did this, as she heard afterwards, because of the complaint she had made to the first consistory. But he turned her men-servants out as well as the women, although the rules about hair could not have applied to them ; and her whole household were greatly annoyed because of the scandal it gave to the assembled company. In consequence of this action on the part of M. Berault Mile du Plessis wrote the following remonstrance to the consistory with her own hand :

" The members of the consistory are informed that on Friday last the members of the town ward were assembled at the house of Mile de Bonencontre, our hostess, to share in the customary catechism. And as wherever there is a church and an assembly of the faithful our family ought to be present as members of the body of the church whereof Jesus Christ is the head, I rose from my bed, ill though I was, and came to the place where the catechism was being held, together with our whole family, men and women, all of whom were members of our religion and communicants of the Holy Sacrament. This I did for the following reasons : First, to claim our membership in the church of Christ : secondly, to receive instruction ; thirdly, with God's assistance, to serve for edification among those gathered together.

" I know not why I was afflicted with the unhappiness of seeing all my family, men as well as women, turned away by M. Berault, who, for fear he might have to admit them to the Lord's Supper, interrupted his discourse as soon as he thought he recognized members of M. du Plessis' household. Those that he was doubtful about he left, but the rest were turned away, so that I was deprived of the good I was entitled to get from the meeting in two points. First, because M. du Plessis'

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household, for which I am responsible in his absence, was turned away without knowing why (which I maintain M. Berault had no right to do because not having received us into the Church of God he cannot cast us out of it), and secondly, because instead of edifying the assembly, as we hoped, we were made a cause for scandal. I therefore beg the consistory to read my confession of faith which I have written down and which I hold in my heart and confess with my mouth ; and I beg them to judge whether there is anything which contravenes the faith of all Christian churches. I also beg to know whether they have heard anything to the discredit of M. du Plessis or myself or any of our household ; and finally whether they can or ought to debar us and our household from an assembly of the faithful or from the Holy Sacrament.

" As M. du Plessis has been deeply offended by M. Berault, in the persons of myself and our household, during his absence, in as much as we were all turned away from the meeting held for the catechizing, I hereby cite M. Berault to submit to the judgment of the consistory which I ask them to give on the above-mentioned facts. I urge this all the more strongly because I find more of temper and ill will than of brotherly love in his conduct. Moreover, over this question of false hair I see quarrels arise and flourish in this church to the great scandal of all men, caused solely by the fact that M. Berault has not understood, or has not correctly reported the decision reached by the General Synod on the wearing of quinquelets, which he takes to mean the use of brass wire in the hair. This was not the meaning attached to the term by the synod, which is proved by the difference between the reports of all the other churches present. This difference between them and the church here would seem like an attempt at assuming absolute authority and power (on the part of this church) regardless of the law of charity. I would ask the Assembly to read what M. Calvin says in his comment of the passage in the letter

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of St Paul to Timothy in which this matter is discussed. M. Calvin declares in his comment that the Apostle had in mind a reformation of manners rather than of clothes and was not troubling himself over little things. Moreover he takes all power from the ministers and leaves it to the magistrates.

" At the same time I declare that I have no wish to go against the discipline as settled by the whole body of churches in France, whose object is to honour God and set a good example to our neighbour. I therefore call on the consistory to judge whether they have ever seen any immodesty in my clothes or in my manners or in those of my household, such as would authorize our exclusion from the church and the sacraments. And for the reason I have given above I decline to admit M. Berault to be my judge."

Here follows the confession of faith which Mile du Plessis laid before the consistory.

" I believe in one God and one Essence, l all wise, all good, all just, all powerful, who made heaven and earth, who is manifest to us in the old and new testaments. I believe that there are three Persons and one essence : the Father who is the beginning and origin of all things : the Son who is the eternal wisdom : the Holy Ghost who is eternal virtue and power proceeding from the Father and the Son : three Persons not confounded but distinct, not divided but of one essence, one eternity, one omnipotence.

" I believe that God in three persons by His power, wisdom and goodness created heaven and earth and all that in them is ; also that, according to His word He governs all things and has a peculiar care of His children whom He cherishes for Jesus Christ His Son's sake.

" I believe that the first man, whom God created in His own image, fell from grace by disobedience and sin and is wholly cut off from God. I believe that all the offspring of Adam are partakers in his sin so that we can only return to God through grace. For our spirit is blind, our hearts are depraved and our wills perverted, but God, out of His loving kindness, saves those whom He has chosen from the general corruption and damnation of all mankind, through the eternal wisdom of Jesus Christ His Son, without consideration of works and solely through His mercy.

1 Essence,' lot Substance, was used in the French confession of faith.

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" I believe that all we need for salvation is given us through Jesus Christ : that He, being the wisdom of God and His eternal Son, took on our flesh to be both God and man, like unto us save only for sin ; that by the eternal virtue of the Spirit He was conceived in the Virgin's womb of the seed of David according to the flesh ; that in His person two natures are joined together and yet, notwithstanding, the divine nature remains, uncreated, infinite and all pervading while the human nature remains finite, created with form, measure and attributes ; and although Jesus Christ in His resurrection endowed His body with immortality yet its nature was not thereby altered.

" I believe that God, by sending His Son, chose to show us His inestimable loving kindness by delivering Himself over to death for our sins and rising again from the dead for our justification : and that by the single sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ upon the cross we are reconciled to Him and become acceptable to Him, so that in Jesus Christ we have wisdom, righteousness, justification and redemption by His death upon the cross. We have entire satisfaction and all our righteousness is founded on the free remission of our sins. It is this which gives us liberty to call on God through Jesus Christ, His Son and our mediator, in full confidence that God is our Father.

" I believe that the righteousness of Christ is given to us through faith, which illuminates us by the secret working of the Holy Spirit, so that it is a gift and a peculiar grace given by God to those whom Jesus Christ accepts. By this faith we are born again into a new hfe, for by nature we are subjected to sin. Through it we are filled with the desire to obey and serve God according to His will, as made known to us by His word, to which nothing should be added, nor anything taken away. I believe that God gave His law unto Moses as the sole rule for the worship, love and reverence which we owe to God as well as for the duty and love which we owe to all men who are our neighbours. I believe that Jesus Christ is our sole advocate and mediator and that in His name we can boldly pray to God and ask Him for all things needful, even as He taught us to call on God the Father in His name saying, ' Our Father which art in Heaven '. I believe that all our prayers should be likened unto this.

I believe that all the faithful ought to watch over and maintain the unity of the Church, and that wherever there is a gathering in God's name each one should join it ; those who keep aloof separate themselves from the union of Christ. I believe that the Church is the whole company of the faithful who bind themselves to keep God's Word as written in the Old and New Testaments ;

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who strive to live in the fear of God and profit by it day by day ; that the Church administers the Holy Sacraments as ordained by God for the confirmation of our faith and the strengthening of our weakness ; which sacraments are outward and visible signs of God's care by means of His Holy Spirit, which never speaks to us in them in vain. At the same time their substance and reality are founded in Christ and apart from Him they are but vain shadows.

" I believe that there are two sacraments ordained of God and established and in use in the Church ; baptism, which is a sign of our adoption and acceptance into the body of Jesus Christ, so as to be washed and cleansed by His blood and renewed in holiness of life by the Holy Spirit. And the Lord's Supper, which signifies not only that Jesus Christ died and rose again for us but that He verily nourishes us with His body and blood, so that we may be one with Him and live in Him and thus, through the secret virtue of the Holy Ghost, He may nourish and quicken us spiritually with the substance of His body and blood. Which things can be understood only by faith. Albeit I believe that God gives us in baptism and in the Lord's Supper, in very truth and deed, those things which He signifies in them.

" I believe that every believer, before he comes to the Lord's table, should examine himself, search out his faith, and repent of his sins with a desire to amend his evil life and to be in charity with his neighbour. I believe that the rule and discipline as established by our Lord should be observed in the Church : which is that there should be pastors and men of sober life in charge of the Church so that pure doctrine may flourish, vice be repressed and punished and the poor and others be comforted. I believe that all true pastors, wherever they be, have an equal power, that no church can claim to dominate any other, that all are under one sovereign lord and one universal bishop, our Lord Jesus Christ. In the matter of kings, and of princes and magistrates set over us by kings, I believe we should obey them, provided that their commands are in no ways contrary to our duty to God and the love we owe to our neighbour, for in such matters God must be obeyed before men.

" I believe that in the Church all things indifferent should be governed by the rule of charity, and that in the observance of regulations, which have not yet been received as part of the discipline of the Church, censure and excommunication should be charily used, since everything in the Church should tend to the glory of God and the edification of our neighbour. Those to whom God has given abundantly of His grace ought to give an

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example of charity in sustaining the feeble, recognizing that we should never confound our neighbour for whom Christ died. Those who join the company of the faithful for the purpose of receiving instruction and confirmation of their faith should never be turned away. If after confessing their faith they are not found in error, and if there is no evidence of scandal against them, but on the contrary they are found to be of modest behaviour, they should be admitted to the Sacrament. To act otherwise lightly and with obstinacy is mere tyranny in the Church.

" I believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again for our justification and is ascended into Heaven in our name to open its doors to us and to be our Intercessor and Advocate. I believe He will return to judge the quick and the dead in like manner as he was seen to ascend. I believe that Jesus Christ will not come except to save His elect so that I have full assurance of salvation since my advocate is my judge, and hence I believe that I shall be filled with a felicity which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived.

" This is the substance of my faith in the which I pray God, for Jesus Christ's sake and by virtue of the Holy Ghost, I may live and die and hold fast to the last breath of my body and the last drop of my blood."

The above testimony of faith was sent to the consistory and read aloud to the whole company. M. Bironier, the minister, and M. le Clerc, an elder, were deputed to go to Mile du Plessis' lodgings and assure her that her faith had never been called in question, but that she would not be admitted to the Lord's Supper unless she discarded her wig. She begged them to pronounce a judgment on what she had written and had required of them. A week passed and then another at the end of which Mile du Plessis wrote again begging to know whether she would be admitted to the sacrament. M. Bironier and another elder were once more sent to her to declare that she could not be admitted wearing a wig but as for her men-servants they might present themselves for catechism and be admitted. Without a moment's delay she wrote the following paper and sent it to the consistory.

" Upon the declaration of the members of the con-

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, sistory that they cannot admit me until I have discarded my wig I ask them to point out the article in which the disuse of false hair is ordered by the National Synod, offering to submit so soon as they show me the rule as laid down and particularized. Otherwise I must inform them that at the last sacrament, when a great number of ministers were assembled at Montauban, it was agreed that I was to be admitted in my usual attire, on the grounds that neither in my hair nor my dress did I show any immodesty. Now that M. du Plessis is away, as every one knows, on the service of the churches, I cannot alter my mode of dress without his knowledge and approval. If, however, they persist during his absence in refusing me admittance to the sacrament I hereby declare that I shall appeal to the National Synod."

A week later Mile du Plessis seeing the sacrament drawing near decided to send a declaration to the consistory. M. Berault presided at it. His reply was that he could receive no more communications in writing but that if she had something to say to them she must come before them in person. Directly she knew their wishes she appeared before them and read aloud the following paper, which was the same as she had already sent to them. In consequence of the message sent to me last Wednesday by the members of the consistory that I should not be admitted to communion unless I removed my hair, or rather the brass wire which is in it, I make the following demand, viz., that I should be shown the express article, as determined and put into writing by the National Synod, in which this matter is particularized and set out so that I may have the pleasure of obeying it, declaring once again that if you can show me this article I shall immediately conform to it in accordance with my desire to submit myself to the Church's discipline. And I beg the whole company of the consistory and each member of it in particular, in God's name and in the name of the charity we all owe to one another to show me this article on which some of you formed your action

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and which is so far unknown to me. In default of showing it to me I plead M. du Plessis' absence, now away on the service of the churches, without whose commands I am not at liberty to make a change in my attire. For the whole question was discussed and settled by him at the last Sacrament day and I was admitted to communion by the advice of many worthy men. I beg to remind the members of the consistory of the duty wives owe to their husbands to whom, by God's express commandment, their will is subjected. And also how Saint Peter expounds in the third chapter of his first epistle what that duty is. You cite this chapter against braiding the hair while all the time, gentlemen, you cannot be ignorant, as plainly appears in the text, that the chief aim of the apostle is to admonish wives to be submissive to their husbands, even infidel husbands. All the more am I bound to obedience seeing that M. du Plessis professes the same faith as we all do, and, moreover, is endowed with many gifts which he employs daily in the service of the churches. And since, notwithstanding my request to be shown the above-mentioned article of the National Synod, and regardless of my petition to wait until M. du Plessis makes his will known you persist in excluding me from the Lord's Supper, I do hereby declare that I appeal to the National Synod, and you are bound to admit me as an appellant (pending the decision of the National Synod). I must request you to say without delay whether, having regard to my appeal, you intend to let the whole procedure remain in suspension until such time as the National Synod shall declare its will, and in the meantime whether you will receive me and my whole family to communion, to this end catechizing us and giving us our tokens. For there can be no disobedience in me where no command has been given. But should I have the unhappiness to have my just plea refused by you and if, ignoring my appeal, you exclude me from your communion I solemnly tell you I shall be deeply grieved and most miserable. I shall suffer in

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patience as a chastisement sent me by God to try me, who perchance makes use of me to bring order out of disorder.

" I declare to you that by God's grace I hope to go where I can share in the Lord's Supper and partake of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in a church and in the company of the faithful where God is worshipped and our neighbour is edified. Nevertheless, I do not forget the commandment given us, ' therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee. Leave there thy gift before the altar . . . and first be reconciled with thy brother.' Therefore, for fear lest some of you should misinterpret my behaviour as resulting either from disobedience or from loving vanity more than communion with our Lord Jesus Christ and thereby entertain a bad opinion of me, I protest before God, to whom I appeal as my witness, that I hold the dressing of my hair an indifferent matter. If I believed as do some that this command is of God I should not hesitate to obey nor await a decision by the National Synod. But on account of the dissensions which have arisen in this church I have most carefully searched the Scriptures all through and have found no clear commandment on the matter and, beyond the holy advice of Paul to Timothy on braided tresses and gold and pearls or costly array and that of St Peter on the plaiting of hair and wearing adornments of gold and the putting on of apparel, I have found no mention in Holy Writ of discarding hair except where gold, pearls and other articles of dress are also included. And yet a fortnight ago M. Berault preached that gold and precious stones were created by God and were matters of indifference, whose use for adornment was permissible provided that a proper regard for rank, station in life and calling was observed. This confirms me in my opinion that hair is also indifferent considering that there is no mention in the Scriptures of wearing gilt wire, which is the real point of dispute and cause of schism in this church.

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" It is a very mischievous thing for human counsel, however good and holy, to be put in the place of God's commandments as has been too much done by the Roman Church. This is indeed my chief reason for wishing that this dispute should be settled for the sake of peace and quiet in the churches. Because if, as you affirm, the commandment is of God, not only the church of Montauban, but all the other churches as well should obey it, and will grievously sin if they fail in its observance. On the other hand if it is an indifferent matter the pastor may admonish and reprove for edification but I do not believe that particular churches can, on their own authority, cut off members of Christ, for whom He died, from the body of the church ; cut them off, I repeat, neither from the church nor from the blessed sacraments unless a Synod, national and not merely provincial, has so ordained for the glory of God and the edification of our neighbour, after ripe consideration. In such a case people would not be debarred from communion for matters of indifference but because they set up sects apart and broke the unity of the church. Questions of discipline should be held in a different degree of respect to the laws of God which every one, without exception, is bound to obey. These, gentlemen, are my views on the subject in dispute, and I pray you to uphold me and not to take umbrage at my words nor think ill of me. And if, by chance, any one of you is especially offended with me, remember that we are all prone to error and need God's pardon daily for our wrongdoing. And now that you have this full and ample declaration from me I beg you, in God's name, to see that M. Berault does not in future publicly preach against the faults of which he says I am guilty, so that I am not made a cause for scandal to the congregation to whom I cannot explain my conduct as I can to you. Furthermore, gentlemen, since we are all mortal and have no sure morrow, if it should be God's will to take me from this world before the dispute is settled I fear the affair will never be properly

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understood ; I therefore beg you to keep in safe custody for future reference, first, my complaint against M. Berault in your consistory, and the judgment I required of you ; secondly, my confession of faith ; thirdly, my appeal which I should wish you to produce at the National Synod ; fourthly, this present declaration and petition. All these documents are written and signed with my own hand and I have kept copies of them. These I offer to collate with the originals sent to you as I intend to use them in my appeal to the National Synod. I hope this will be received in the same loving kindness with which I offer it and I pray God that He will pour down His Holy Spirit on us for Christ's sake, so that we may labour for His glory and for the edification of His church.

" Gentlemen, I forgot to mention that if M. du Plessis and I had found the rule generally accepted when we first came to Montauban we should have been extremely loth to cause dissension in this church. I am certain that my husband would have wished me to conform and I should have agreed with him. But the truth was, we found the split already made so that certain people finding themselves debarred from communion without as they alleged being heard in their own defence, appealed to the magistrates of Toulouse. You cannot be ignorant how detrimental such a course must be to our religion nor how greatly all sober people deplored it. And even if the affair had been confined within our own town I still saw another most regrettable result both here and in the vicinity. Altar was opposed to altar either because the nobility would not condescend to observe your rules, or because you, the ministers, were not in agreement among yourselves, which seemed to point to the lack of any clear commandment on the part of the synod. It was therefore obvious that even if I discarded my wig the difficulty would be in no way lessened. And as I could not heal the schism by any compliance on my own part with a rule made neither by God nor the synod I did not feel called upon to obey you. Gentlemen, some

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of you, knowing how little I care how I dress my hair, may think I have been solicited by others to take up their cause. I therefore declare, before God whom I call in witness, who knows the hearts of men and judges their inmost thoughts, that I have been solicited by no one. My only motives are those already laid before you. I submit everything to M. du Plessis and my sole desire is that you should understand my position to your own enlightenment and the tranquillity of your consciences as well as to take from you any reason to think evil of me.

" Written on Wednesday the 9th April 1584." Having read the above declaration Mile du Plessis left on the Friday before Sacrament Day, accompanied by all those of her household who were eligible to partake the Lord's Supper, and went to Villemeux three leagues beyond Montauban which belongs to the same colloquy. She explained everything that had passed at Montauban to M. l'Hardy, the minister, and to several of the Elders who came to call on her and was admitted to communion. The whole affair was then referred to the .National Synod which was to be held at Montpellier in the following month of May, which may God illuminate with His Holy Spirit.