THE FEENCH CHUECH IN BOSTON 163 



alms' chests at the church door. A proiuiueut seat was 

 reserved in the church for the ''auciens" or elders of the 

 cougregatiou. These, with the pastor, constituted the 

 Cousistoire, or Church Session. They were elected by 

 the people, holding office for a term of years, and had en- 

 tire charge of the church government, both spiritual and 

 material. 



V 



The Earl of Bellomont, while governor of Massachu- Favourable 

 setts, in an address to the General Court upon his last °^'"'°° 

 visit to Boston, thus expressed his opinion of the French 

 refugees : "I recommend to your care the French min- 

 ister of this town, who is destitute of a maintenance, be- 

 cause there are so few families here. Let the present 

 raging persecution of the French Protestants in France 

 stir up your zeal and compassion towards him. I wish 

 for your sakes the French Protestants had been encour- 

 aged among you. They are a good sort of people, very 

 ingenious, industrious, and would have been of great use 

 for peopling this country, and enriching it by trade." 

 Perhaps stimulated by this interest, the French Protes- 

 tants in Boston presented a petition to him and to the 

 general court for aid in the support of the gospel ministry 

 among them. They " take leave to signifie that many of 

 their flock being already gone away who contributed 

 much for the subsistence of their minister, the few that 

 remain are not capable of furnishing the one-half that is 

 necessary, and they must undergo the unhappyness of 

 being deprived of the consolation of the holy ministry of Petition for 

 the word of God (whereof the unheard-of cruelty of the '^''^ 

 persecutors of the church had deprived them in their own 

 country) unless they may obtain your Christian assist- 

 ance. ' ' The petitioners also state that they have ' ' borne 

 great charges in paying taxes for the poor of New Ox- 

 ford, who by occasion of the war withdrew themselves, 

 and since that they have assisted many who returned to 

 Oxford in order to their resettlement." 



