| AdminHistory | This brief was issued on 5 March 1686 under an Order in Council of 6 November 1685. It originated in a petition of the Ministers and Churchwardens of the French Church in the Savoy, and the King intended that it should be 'for the reliefe of such a shall appeare to be conformable to the Church of England'. In the brief itself the King expresses his resolve to extend his protection to as many poor French Protestant refugees 'as shall live in entire conformity and orderly submission to Our government established both in church and state'. In fact, as shown in these documents, would-be beneficiaries had to show certificates of having received the communion according to the usage of the Church of England. The letters patent were granted for one year, so that they lapsed on 4 March 1687. However, in several parishes no collections had been made up to that time, and on 15 March 1687 the King by an Order in Council called upon the ecclesiastical authorities for action.
In a printed statement of the Lords Commissioners dated 15 March 1688, on the disposal of the money collected upon the brief of 1686 (described as the late brief), it is said that up to Christmas 1687, the sum of £40,000 had been collected under it and paid into the Chamber of London. Since Christmas 1687, a further sum of about £2,000 had been paid into the Chamber and disposed of as the brief directed; and no more was expected from it. |