Dauphiné (France) -- Description and travel; Huguenots; Waldenses
The Elector suggested to Brousson that while at Berlin he should
compose a summary account of the condition of the French Protestants,
such as should excite the interest and evoke the help of the
Protestant rulers and people of the northern States. This was done by
Brousson, and the volume was published, entitled "Letters of the
Protestants of France who have abandoned all for the cause of the
Gospel, to other Protestants; with a particular Letter addressed to
Protestant Kings, Electors, Rulers, and Magistrates." The Elector
circulated this volume, accompanying it with a letter written in his
name, to all the princes of the Continent professing the Augsburg
Confession; and it was thus mainly owing to the Elector's intercession
that the Huguenots obtained the privilege of establishing
congregations in several of the states of Germany, as well as in
Sweden and Denmark.
Brousson remained nearly five months at Berlin, after which he
departed for Holland to note the progress of the emigration in that
country, and there he met a large number of his countrymen. Nearly two
hundred and fifty Huguenot ministers had taken refuge in Holland;
there were many merchants and manufacturers who had set up their
branches of industry in the country; and there were many soldiers who
had entered the service of William of Orange. While in Holland,
Brousson resided principally with his brother, a banished Huguenot,
who had settled at Amsterdam as a merchant.
Having accomplished all that he could for his Huguenot brethren in
exile, Brousson returned to Lausanne, where he continued his former
labours. He bethought him very much of the Protestants still remaining
in France, wandering like sheep without shepherds, deprived of
guidance, books, and worship--the prey of ravenous wolves,--and it
occurred to him whether the Protestant pastors had done right in
leaving their flocks, even though by so doing they had secured the
safety of their own lives. Accordingly, in 1686, he wrote and
published a "Letter to the Pastors of France at present in Protestant
States, concerning the Desolation of their own Churches, and their own
Exile."
In this letter he says:--"If, instead of retiring before your
persecutors, you had remained in the country; if you had taken refuge
in forests and caverns; if you had gone from place to place, risking
your lives to instruct and rally the people, until the first shock of
the enemy was past; and had you even courageously exposed yourselves
to martyrdom--as in fact those have done who have endeavoured to
perform your duties in your absence--perhaps the examples of
constancy, or zeal, or of piety you had discovered, might have
animated your flocks, revived their courage, and arrested the fury of
your enemies." He accordingly exhorted the Protestant ministers who
had left France to return to their flocks at all hazards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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