“that “all which might have been held decreed in 1682, on “the ecclesiastical power, ought to be held as not de− “creed, since they had no intention of making any “decree, nor of doing prejudice to the churches.”−— Ambiguous words and most fortuitously framed, which assuredly do not tend to confirm the four articles, but which, on the other hand, would be quite insignificant, if they did not evince a disposition to abandon them. This letter, but little creditable, was one of the effects of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, one of the evidences of the decaying character of Louis the Great,³²³ and one of the proofs of what we have elsewhere³²⁴ asserted, the secret inclination which, since the year 1560, biassed the French clergy towards the ultramontane system. ³²² D’Aguesseau says that “the terms of this letter were coached so that it could only be considered as a testimony of the grief of these bishops, in learning the prejudice which this pope entertained with respect to them, in regard to what had passed in the assembly held at Paris in 1682. They did not avow that these pretensions were well founded.” Whatever d’Aguesseau may say about it, the letter of these bishops does them no honour: it will be found in our second volume. ³²³ We shall transcribe in vol. 2, the letter of Louis to the pope, announcing that the edict of March, 1632, would not be executed. This letter is dated, as is that of the bishops, on the 14th of Sept 1693. ³²⁴ See page 302. Happily, the other orders of the state upheld with perseverance the four maxims of the clergy, against the clergy itself, and the interests of the throne, almost forgotten by the declining monarch. Among the magistrates to whom the Gallican church owes the maintenance of her ancient doctrine, at this era, the advocate general Talon is distinguished, author of a treatise on the authority of kings in the administration of the church, one of the best works published on this subject. He professed the same principles in the exercise of his duties, and especially in a request preferred in 1688. We shall terminate this chapter by some extracts from this requisition.: “In an assembly held on the subject matter of “the regale, the bishops, aware that the ultramon− “tane doctors, and the emissaries of the Court of “Rome, omitted no care to spread through the “kingdom the new doctrines of the pope’s infalli− “bility, and of the indirect power which Rome en− “deavours to usurp over the temporal power of the “king, this assembly, we say, does not pretend to “make a decision on a doubtful point of contro− “versy, but, to render publie and authentic testi− “mony to an established truth, taught by all the “fathers of the church; confirmed by all the coun− “cils, and especially by those of Constance and “Basle.