day, several of them being contained in our American collections.* The effect of psalmody in promoting the Reformation was striking. The psalms were sung not only in churches but in families, and no gentleman of the Reformed faith would sit down at his table without singing God's praise. It was made a part of the morning and evening worship. Their popularity made entrance for religion even at court; and king Henry II. wavered long before he would condemn them. Each of the courtiers selected a favourite psalm. That of the king was the forty-second: Ainsi qu'on oyt le cerf bruire: which he used as a hunting-song. The queen chose the thirty-eighth, which she sang to a lively air. Antony, king of Navarre, the father of Henry IV. adapted the thirty-fifth to a tune called the Poitou dance. Even Papists used to sing them, as Goudimel's melodies were easy and agreeable. Ten thousand copies, set to music, were dispersed through the country.t Multitudes were wont to meet in the Pres-aux-Cleres, a noted promenade, and sing the psalms in concert. Even the king and queen of Navarre with many lords and gentlemen were sometimes found there, engaged in this entertainment. The cardinal of Lorraine is said to have got the odes of Horace and Catullus translated and set to music, in order to supplant these dangerous sacred hymns.

The success of the word preached was wonderful. Indeed, to use our modern phraseology, the progress of the Reformation in France was by a succession of glorious revivals. The priests complained that their altars were forsaken. There was no city where the Reformed religion was not planted. Men of every profession, not excepting ecclesiastics, embraced the gospel in opposition to all their temporal interests, and in spite of the greatest persecutions.

If the Reformed National Church of France should be measured with reference to its National Synods, the period of its existence would be only a century: but it existed both before and after these limits. During this period there were holden twenty-nine national synods, and the following schedule will be useful to show when and where they met.

* It is truly delightful to find some of these very airs reproduced, after so long a time, and valued by our first musicians. See Chants Crétiens, Hastings's, Manhattan Collection, and Mason's Modern Psalmist.

† Bayle's Dict. Art. Marot.

+ Quick's Synodicon, i. page v.

Upon a slight inspection of this table, it will appear, that the meetings of the National Synod did not actually take place much oftener than once in four years. They were intended indeed to be annual, and at the end of its sessions each Synod made arrangements for its next meeting. But in consequence of the civil wars, and the opposition of the court, long intervals occurred, and between the last two Synods no less than fifteen years elapsed.*

This first National Synod was held in troublous times, amidst strong persecutions, and at the very doors of the court. It is memorable for the Confession of Faith, and Discipline, which were there adopted. "This," says Quick, "was the Confession which was owned in their first National Synod held at Paris, in the year 1559, and presented unto

* In the following pages the word Synod is to be understood of the National Synod, except where restricted by some other term.

Francis the Second, king of France, first at Amboise, in behalf of all the professors of the Reformed religion in that kingdom; afterwards, to Charles the Ninth, at the Conference of Poissy. It was a second time presented to the said king, and at length published by the pastors of the French churches, with a preface to all other evangelical pastors, in the year 1566. It was also most solemnly signed and ratified in the National Synod held the first time at Rochelle, 1571, the year before the Bartholomean massacre, by Jane queen of Navarre, Henry prince of Bearne, Henry de Bourbon Prince of Condé, Louis count of Nassau, and Sir Gaspard de Coligni Lord High Admiral of France."

In regard to the church polity of the French Protestants, it is the less necessary for us to enlarge, as it was substantially the same with our own. The Huguenots were Presbyterians. Their Consistories were the same with our Church Sessions; their Colloquies were Presbyteries; and their National Synod was like our General Assembly. As this, however, is a point of great interest, we may be allowed to mention some of the peculiarities of their system.

The Consistory was made up of the minister, elders, and deacons. In places where the discipline had not been established, the elders were elected by the people and minister, in established churches by the Consistory. They met regularly once a week, and oftener if there was necessity. In order that church-officers might be familiar with their constitution, the Discipline of the Church was read in every Consistory, at least every time the Lord's Supper was administered, and each elder and deacon was bound to have a copy for his private study.

Colloquies

The Colloquy was a Classis or Presbytery. were required to meet twice a year, and if convenient, four times. They were opened with a sermon, as is our own

custom.

The Provincial Synod was like our own, and was composed of one minister and one or two elders from each church. These brethren travelled at the common expense of their churches; and those churches which refused to pay their deputies' charges, were, after two or three admonitions, deprived of their ministry. Such was the strictness of that presbyterial rule, which some among us have ignorantly represented as a mere recommendatory supervision. If a minister came to the synod without his elder, or an elder without his minister, any instructions which he brought were

void, unless in case of inevitable necessity. "In those cases,' says Laval, "if the church sent its instructions, they were received, if they were signed by a minister and an elder; on the other hand, if there were no lawful excuse for absence, they were subject to the censures of the Colloquy or Synod, even to suspension of the sacrament, according as the Colloquy or Synod thought fit. The Provincial Synods judged sovereignly in the cases brought before them, except of things wherein all the churches of France were interested, as the depositions of a minister, controversies (either concerning doctrine or discipline), &c. For in these cases, there was an appeal to the National Synod." The elders who were deputed to Synods or Colloquies, had deliberative votes on all points of discipline, but not of doctrine, the judgment of which was reserved entirely to the ministers and professors of divinity. Whatever was decreed by Provincial Synods, as a rule of church government, required the sanction of the National Synod, in order to make it valid. In case of difference between the Synods of any two provinces, they were to choose a third to reconcile them. No deputy was allowed to depart without leave, or without a copy of the Synodical decrees. The Provincial Synods met. twice a year.t

The National Synod, as has been said, was directed to meet once a year; this was seldom possible, and there are but four instances in which it was held for two years in succession. The third canon of the chapter, relating to this judicatory, serves at once to show its constitution, and to afford a glimpse of the suffering to which the Huguenots were exposed. "Forasmuch as at this time it is very difficult and dangerous to assemble the National Synod in a great number of ministers and elders, it is thought good for the present, and till such difficulties can be removed, that the brethren assembled in every Provincial Synod, shall choose out only two ministers and elders, who are persons of great experience in church affairs, to be sent in the name of the whole province." Until the year 1614, there was a show of ecclesiastical independence preserved; but the National Synod of this year seems to have found it necessary to obtain the royal license. In 1623, Louis XIII. declared his purpose that no National Synod should ever be held, except in the presence of a lord commissioner. The same was extended to Collo

* Laval, vol. iv. page xxi.

† Discipline, chapter viii.

quies and Provincial Synods, till at length, not even a Consistory could meet but in the presence of a Romish commissioner.*

Since it has seemed good to some who call themselves Presbyterians, to abridge as much as possible the powers of church judicatories, and since, in order to this, they have been rash enough to cite the case of the Church of France, as exhibiting a milder form of Presbyterianism; we shall furnish, for their further use, an article of unquestionable authenticity, viz: the clause of submission of the provinces to the National Synod; and this we do, not as vindicating the particular practice, but as destroying all arguments founded on the ecclesiastical mildness of the French churches. This clause was inserted in all letters of commission from the provinces, and was as follows: "We promise before God, to submit ourselves unto all that shall be concluded and resolved on in your holy assembly, and to obey and perform it to the best of our power; being well persuaded, that God presideth in the midst of you, and guideth you by his Holy Spirit into all truth and equity, by the rule of his word, for the weal and benefit of his church, and the glory of his great name; which also we beg of him most ardently in our daily prayers."t

"The National Synod," says Laval, "had power definitively to decide all ecclesiastical affairs. It was to confirm or repeal the sentences of suspension, excommunication, or deposition, pronounced by the Consistories, Colloquies, and Provincial Synods, against ministers, elders, or deacons."

The following sketch may suffice to refresh the reader's memory as to the succession of events. The Reformed Church of France may be said to have been settled upon a Calvinistic and Presbyterian basis at the last Synod of Paris in 1559; being the year in which Henry the Second died. Francis the Second was governed by the Duke of Guise, a declared enemy of the Huguenots. During the minority of Charles the Ninth, Catharine of Medicis pretended for a while to hold the balance between the two great parties, and encouraged the Conference at Poissy in 1561, with this view. She soon changed her plans, and endeavoured, by no less than three wars, to exterminate the Protestants. In 1572 the massacre of St. Bartholomew's took place; the history of which might well fill a volume. Upon the assassination of the

*Laval iv. page xxv.

* Quick, vol. i.

page

xli.