Decree of the Council of State, forbidding private Individuals to receive
the sick of the pretended Reformed religion into their houses.
The King being notified, that various private individuals, as well in the good City of Paris, as in other parts of his kingdom, have taken upon themselves, under the pretext of charity, to receive sick persons of the pretended Reformed religion into their houses, and that in some places such accommodations for the sick have been provided by the Consistories, and the intention of his Majesty being that the said persons of the said religion shall be taken to the Hospitals, and there treated like the Catholics, and that these willing to be converted, may avoid the danger of being hindered by being in the said private houses, in the hands of persons of the said religion. His Majesty in Council expressly forbids all private individuals, of whatsoever rank or condition, from receiving, under pretext of charity, the sick of the said religion into their houses, but commands that they be taken to the Hospitals, to be there treated like the sick Catholics. Under penalty to a private individual, who infringes this law, of paying a fine of 500 livres, and forfeiting, to the Hospital in the place, all the furniture and other articles used about the sick persons; and to the Consistories who infringe the law, the penalty will be a prohibition of all religious exercises in the places where they have houses to receive sick persons of the pretended Reformed religion.
His Majesty enjoins the publication of this Decree upon the Intendants. Commissioners, &c., &c.
Given in the Council of State of the King, His Majesty being present, held at Versailles, the 4th September, 1684.
- Signed, Colbert.
upon it, and forbids all public exercise of the pretended Reformed
religion in the Kingdom.
Louis, by the grace of God King of France and Navarre: to all that are and shall be, greeting.
The King Henry the Great, our Grandsire of glorious memory, desirous that the peace he had obtained for his subjects, after the
