ommended to their brethren
was embodied in a measure, which was afterwards known as "The
Project." The chief objects of the project were to exhort the
Protestant people to sincere conversion, and the exhibition of the
good life which such conversion implies; constant prayer to the Holy
Spirit to enable them to remain steadfast in their profession and in
the reading and meditation of the Scriptures; encouragements to them
to hold together as congregations for the purpose of united worship;
"submitting themselves unto the common instructions and to the yoke of
Christ, in all places wheresoever He shall have established the true
discipline, although the edicts of earthly magistrates be contrary
thereto."

At the same time, Brousson drew up a petition to the Sovereign, humbly
requesting him to grant permission to the Huguenots to worship God in
peace after their consciences, copies of which were sent to Louvois
and the other ministers of State. On this and other petitions,
Brousson observes, "Surely all the world and posterity will be
surprised, that so many respectful petitions, so many complaints of
injuries, and so many solid reasons urged for their removal, produced
no good result whatever in favour of the Protestants."

The members of the churches which had been interdicted, and whose
temples had been demolished, were accordingly invited to assemble in
private, in the neighbouring fields or woods--not in public places,
nor around the ruins of their ancient temples--for the purpose of
worshipping God, exciting each other to piety by prayer and singing,
receiving instruction, and celebrating the Lord's Supper.

Various meetings were accordingly held, in the following month of
July, in the Cevennes and Viverais. At St. Hypolite, where the temple
of the Protestants had been destroyed, about four thousand persons met
in a field near the town, when the minister preached to them from the
text--"Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God
the things which are God's." The meeting was conducted with the utmost
solemnity; and a Catholic priest who was present, on giving
information to the Bishop of Nismes of the transaction, admitted that
the preacher had advanced nothing but what the bishop himself might
have spoken.

The dragoons were at once sent to St. Hypolite to put an end to these
meetings, and to "convert" the Protestants. The town was almost wholly
Protestant. The troops were quartered in numbers