cureur-Général De Harlay, one of the chief managers of this whole transaction, that 'the majority' of that Assembly 'would with all their heart have changed their mind the day after if they had been allowed to do so.'[1] This evidence is beyond all refutation and all suspicion. It occurs in a private letter to Colbert, hitherto unpublished, and henceforward never to be forgotten. But I shall have occasion to return upon this document later.
In M. Gérin's volume incontestable proofs of that date are to be found in the letters, memorials, and private documents of Colbert, the Archbishop De Harlay, and the Procureur-Général, to establish beyond all controversy (1) that the Assembly of 1682 was neither Synod nor Council of the Church of France, nor even a representative assembly of the French clergy; but an assembly of Archbishops, Bishops, and others nominated by the King, or elected under every kind of pressure and influence of the Court, in the midst of strong and public protests by such men as the Cardinal Archbishop of Aix and the Vicar-General of Toulouse. As a sample out of many, the following will suffice. Colbert wrote to the Bishop of Avranches: 'Sir, the King has judged that you will be able to serve him more usefully than any other. … in the assembly formed of the clergy. His Majesty commands me to write to you, to say that he has made choice of you,' &c. Bossuet writes to De Rancé: 'The assembly is going to be held. It is willed that I should be of it.' Fleury writes: 'The King willed that the Bishop of Meaux should be of
- ↑ Ibid. p. 389.
