Most of the clergy in France refused to sign the oath and submit the Church to state control. It included a passage that invalidated any "bishop or archbishop whose see is established under the name of a foreign power." Not only was this person not welcome in France but it was also criminal to support or follow them. The State had outlawed the Kingdom that was "not of this world." They rounded up the resisting clergy and imprisoned some of them and detained others in their churches so that they could forcibly exile them from their new republic that was to be devoid of a free Church. For many of these ministers, their sanctuaries became their prisons.
While awaiting deportation, the ministers heard the mob approach their prisons and churches. They must have known that the mob was coming for them full of furor for the State and disgust for the actions of the Church. They must have suspected what was coming. They approached the

They seized the sanctuary of the ministers and began holding a "trial" to determine their fate. Two-by-two, the ministers were paraded before the "judges" and questioned forcefully. They were ordered to take the oath and admit the right of the State to rule the hearts and minds of the people. When they inevitably refused the oath, they were sent down a narrow stairway to a garden. When they stepped through the door, an angry mob would tear them to pieces and brutally murder them. This bloody exercise in the power of the State--the power to take a life--
One of those martyred was Francis de La Rochefoucauld Maumont--the bishop of Beauvais. He was an invalid and aged minister who could no longer walk. He had been carried to the sanctuary by others on a stretcher and rested on it as others were ushered to their trial and martyrdom. They called his name and he responded, "I am here at your disposal, judges, and I am prepared for my death but I cannot walk to you. I would appreciate it if you would carry my cot wherever it is that you want me." They brought him before the self-appointed judges and he refused to take the oath. They carried him down the narrow stairs and he was murdered like all of his friends.
It is good for us to remember the deaths of these faithful men and their stance against control and for a free Church. They were not afraid of the deadly threats of the State because they were citizens and ministers of a Kingdom that was--at its essence--established under the name of a foreign power: Jesus Christ and a kingdom of love and forgiveness.
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