S E E T C H OF T H E
b o ok tc diffidents * .* This claufe Henry of Anjou fwore to ob-
i ferve, before he was permitted to afcend the throne.
In procefs of time, however, the Roman catholics, having,,
under the protection and influence of fucceflive iovereigns,
acquired a confiderable afcendency, ventured to appropriate
the expreffion of diffidents to all thofe who diflented from
the catholic religion. This alteration in the ufe of the title
was attended at firft with noincroachments on the privileges
of the other febts; and the term diffidents, though now conveying
the idea of a reparation from the eftabliihed worlhip,.
was not yet regarded in an obnoxious light. The diffidents
indeed ftill continued in fuch unqueffioned pofleffion of all
rights civil and religious, that, when it was. agreed by both
catholics and proteftants to perfecute the arians, it was
thought neceflary, prior to their perfecution, to expel therm
from the body of diffidents. In confequence of this ex-
clufion, the arians, in the reign of John Gafimir, were:
firft rendered incapable of being elebted nuntios, afterwards-
deprived of their places of worffiip, and finally baniihed..
from Poland t ,
* 44 Pacem inter diffidentes fervabo.” '
Henry, who objected to this univerfal toleration,
tried' to withhold his confent; upon
which one o f the PolHh envoys cjied out,
44 Unlefs your Majeily confirms this article,
44 you cannot be king o f Poland,” nifi earn
conditioner approbaveris, Rex Poloni® non
eris. P a c .C o n . Aug . 111. p. 19.
•f T h e following quotations from-Leng-
nich prove the truth o f thefe fails-:
44 Credebant ariani fe ad diffidentes per-
44 tine re, veruna neque diffidentes- illos in
“ eorum nume.ro effe voluerunt.
44 Poiif mortem Uladiflai IV . catholic! de--
“ clarabaift, non effe, diffidentes nifi qui tri«
“ unum Deum colerent.
44 In comitiis 1658, rex nuntium, quia,
“ -feibe arianoF-um erat, ad'nnanus ofculum..
£i-a.dmit te re nolebat ; et nuntii inter fe con--
e‘ -ftitueb.ant, ne ipforum conclavi arìanis.,
“ locus effet.” ' Jus Pub’. II. ¿ 6 7 . feq...
For the extirpation o f the arjan feit, John.
Cafimir was dignified by the pope with the.
title o f orthodox, as if orthodoxy confitteci,
in perfecution.
Tant sense animis ccelettibus irte.! •
This,
P R E S E N T R E I G N . 2 1
This perfecution of the arians, inadvertently aflented to by ci^ p.
the proteftants and Greeks, was only a prelude to that which1— <*
they in their turn fuffered from the catholics: for, as the catholic
party became the moil powerful, the term diffidents, now
confined only to perfons profeffing the proteftant# and Greek
religions, began to grow of a left inoffeniive import, and to
convey an idea of non-conformity. The febtaries diftin-
guiihed by the appellation of diffidents, perceiving the intention
of the catholics to undermine their privileges, ftipu-
lated and obtained, that they ihould not be blended with
the arians, or fall under the penal laws enabled againft
that feet. But thefe promifes were infenfibly eluded, their
privileges were gradually dimini f l iedin the courfe of a
few years they were fubjebted. to. a variety o f difqualifica-
tions, and at length, in 17 3 3 , formally incapacitated from;
fitting in the diet +, An old law of Ladillaus II,
againft heretics, as well as the penalties levelled againft the
arians, were revived,, and occafionally put in force againft the
diffidents,
Thefe continued perfecutions greatly diminiflied the
number of diffidents, and rendered of courfe their remon-
ftrances ineffebtual. The catholics, who now took the lead
in the diet, went fo far as to declare it high treafon in the:
diffidents to feek the reftoration of their immunities by the
ioterceffion of foreign-powersalthough many of thefe foreign
powers- were guarantees to the. treaty of Oliva, in which
* Namely, the Lutherans and Calvinilts ;. fecuting taws enacted agiinft the arians are
all other proteftant feits, the Mem. in-nilt force againft them. Pac. Con.
nonitcs, anabaptifis, and qnakers, being n o t , HI. p . a8, 29.
indudecLamong the diffidents; and the per- t- Lengnich, Hitt. Pot; p. 3 - 6 ,
i t