This declaration was, in March, 1682, confirmed under the edict of Louis XIV, duly registered by the Parliament of Paris. The declaration brought out not a little antagonism and criticism in Rome but was not at once condemned. In 1691, however, a brief of Alexander VIII declared that the conclusions of this convention of 1682, and the edicts in which the same were represented, were to be considered as null and void. Through the prohibition of various writings in which the opinions of this declaration were defended, the papal view in regard to the same was also made clearly evident. In 1684, was prohibited, under a special brief of Innocent XI, a treatise from Natalis, in 1685, one from Neimburg, in 1688, one from Dupin. During the same period, the Index Congregation condemned writings to the same purpose by Choiseul, Borjon, Fleury, Févret, Arnauld, and others. The defence of the French position made by Bossuet was also under consideration for condemnation but was never formally prohibited. The following statement from the historian Dejob, while referring to issues that were under discussion at the Council of Trent, is equally applicable to opinion in France on ecclesiastical organisation in the succeeding century: “Frenchmen of the sixteenth century found as a rule no attraction in puritanism, in mysticism, or in epicureanism. They approved of the conclusions of the Council of Trent in maintaining against the Protestants the invocation of the Saints, the use (as symbols) of images, the feeling for the ceremonials of religious observance. Feeling assured that all homage was actually and finally addressed to God, they approved the action of the Council in maintaining for the government Church a monarchical hierarchy, always provided that the national clergy should lose none of its privileges, and that the prerogatives of the King should not be assailed. Finally, they realised that Catholicism had the advantage of being in accord with the feeling of the people and with justice and common sense, in defending against the partisans of predestination the belief in the freedom of the will and in justification by works; for, while concerning themselves little with equality under the law, they held stoutly to equality before God. It may, in fact, be said that their theory of relations of man before God could be summed up in the three famous words that were adopted by their descendants in expressing a political ideal: liberty, equality, fraternity.... “They believed further that while it was not the duty of believers to abandon the joys of this world, their salvation in the world to come could be assured only through self-denial and penitence. In accepting the aims and the ideals of the Counter-reformation, France was, therefore, called upon for no sacrifice of convictions or of practice.”[42] [Sidenote: The Gallican Church Historians]