SUFFERING FOR THE FAITH 75 



or ten in some isolated barn or hole in the rocks. He 

 was an orator, was without fear, and was eminently 

 prudent withal. When he was nineteen he was made church at 



'^ Nismes 



pastor of the Reformed Church at Nismes, and a year 

 later, in 1716, the first synod was held, the meeting tak- 

 ing place in an old Roman quarry in the neighbourhood. 

 "The pastors were six young men, peasants of the 

 Cevennes, several of them younger even than Court him- 

 self. They walked all night to the place of meeting, 

 which meant for themselves, if taken, the gallows, and 

 for their audience, penal servitude for life. At dawn 

 the whole company knelt and invoked the presence of 

 the Holy Ghost, after which Antoine Court stood up. 

 He told them of the ruinous condition of their Church, 

 and counselled that discipline be restored and a form of 

 constitution drawn out and signed. Here are some of 

 their rules : 1. Assemblies to be convened once a fort- 

 night ; 2. Family prayer to be held three times a day ; 

 3. The pastors to meet twice a year in synods. Six 

 pastors signed the Covenant. The first was hanged in 

 1718, the second and third in 1728, the fourth in 1732. 

 One other beside Antoine Court escaped," 



In 1720 the Church at Languedoc held a midnight Treachery and 

 meeting in a large cavern, Antoine Court presiding. 

 Treachery had been at work and two companies of sol- 

 diers burst in upon the astonished worshippers. Fifty 

 men, women and children were made prisoners, Cornet 

 himself having a ''miraculous escape." ''Some were 

 sent to the galleys, and nineteen were sentenced to trans- 

 portation. As they entered Nismes, drenched with rain, 

 they sang a psalm while marching through the streets. 

 They started for the seaport of La Rochelle chained to- 

 gether and escorted by soldiers. Each night they slept 

 in stables and were made to lie down in dung. At La 

 Rochelle the whole party was stricken with malarial 

 fever, of which several died. 



". . . The English ambassador induced the govern- 



