Protestantism in France From Death of Henry IV to the Revolution - James Aitken Wylie

property, which had for a half-century been in
possession of the Protestants. "These estates," so
reasoned the Jesuit Arnoux, a disciple of the school
of Escobar, "belong to God, who is the Proprietor
of them, and may not be lawfully held by any save
his priests."[2] Consternation reigned in Bearn; all
classes united in remonstrating against this
tyrannical decree, which swept away at once their
consciences and their property. Their remonstrance
was unheeded, and the king put himself at the head
of an army to compel the Bearnese to submission.
The soldiers led against this heretical territory,
which they burned with zeal to purge and convert,
were not very scrupulous as to the means. They
broke open the doors of the churches, they burned
the Protestant books, compelled the citizens to
kneel when the Host passed, and drove them to
mass with the cudgel. They dealt the more
obstinate a thrust with the saber; the women dared
not show themselves :in the street, dreading worse
violences.[3] In this manner was the Popish
religion re-established in Bearn. This was the first
of the dragonnades. Louis XIV was afterwards to
repeat on the greater theater of France the bloody
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