Patience Justice Prayers and Tears The ancient Christians accordingly chose rather to be Kill'd than to Kill and Signed the Truth of their Religion with their Bloods And yet it cannot be denied but that a false Religion is a very powerful Exciter of the Minds of Men and surmounts all other Passions and unites Men more strongly than any other thing so that we must confess that Kingdoms are divided in effect more by their Religions than by their Bounds and therefore it daily happens that those that are possess'd by an Opinion of Religion have little regard to their Prince their Country Wives and Children and from hence springs Rebellions Dissentions and Revolts And in the same House if they are divided in Religion the Husband cannot agree with the Wife and Children nor one Brother with another That therefore a Remedy might be had for so great a Calamity it had been decreed at Fountain-bleau That there was need of a Council and the Pope having since declared there should suddenly be one that Men ought not in the mean time to hammer on t for themselves new Religions Rites and Ceremonies according to their own Fancies For this would not only endanger the publick Peace but the Salvation of their Souls too That if the Pope and the Council fail'd the King would take the same Care his Ancestors had and provide for the Peace and Welfare of his Kingdom That it was to be hoped the Bishops would for the future exercise their Functions with greater Care and Diligence That the Cure might come from that Fountain which had caused the Distemper That they ought to arm themselves with Vertues Good Manners and the Word of God which are the Arms of Supplicants and then go out to War against our Enemies and not imitate unskilful Captains who disfurnish their Walls to make an Irruption The Discourse of one that lives well is very persuasive but the Sword has no other power over the Soul than to destroy it with the Body Our Ancestors overcame their Sectaries with their Piety and we ought to imitate them if we would not be thought rather to hate the Men than their Vices Let us therefore said he pray daily for them that they may be reduced from their Errors and discharging the hateful Names of Lutherans Huguenots and Papists which were introduced by the Enemy of Mankind and are too like the ancient Factions of Guelfs and Gibellins let us only retain the Ancient Appellation of Christians But then because there are many who only pretend Religion but are in Truth led by Ambition Avarice and Novelty it is fit to suppress these Men in the very beginning These are the Men that ought to be kept under by the Force of Arms. When the States came to debate A Difficulty proposed the Clergy and the Commons were of Opinion That their Powers were determined by the Death of the late King and that they ought to return Home Which was over-ruled by the King of Navar and the Council And they were ordered to proceed because by the Law of France the King never dies but the Lawful Succession is transmitted without any interruption The Cardinal of Lorraine had design'd in the former Reign to make a Speech in the Name of the three Estates which was then not opposed but now the Commons would not suffer it because contrary to the Ancient Usage And for that they had some things to object against the Cardinal himself Jean l' Ange an Advocate of the Parliament of Bourdeaux The Deputy of the Commons speaks against the Clergy spoke for the Commons and remarked three great Faults in the Clergy Ignorance Covetousness and Excessive Luxury which had given Being to the new Errors and Scandal to the People That the Preaching of the Word of God which was the chief cause of the instituting Bishops was totally neglected and they thought it a shameful thing and beneath their Dignity And by their Example the Curates had learned to neglect their Duty too and had ordered the Mass to be sung by Illiterate and Unworthy Stipendaries That the excessive Pomp and Avarice of the Clergy who pretended by it to promote the Glory of God had raised an Envy and an hatred of them in the Minds of the People And therefore he desired that a Council might be assembled by the order of the King to remedy these Mischiefs After him James de Silty Comte de Roquefort And is seconded by the Deputy of the Nobility made a Bold and an Elegant Oration in the Name of the Nobility and taxed the Clergy for invading the Rights and oppressing the People under Pretence of the Jurisdictions granted them by the Ancient Kings of France That therefore the King ought in the first place to take care to reform the Clergy and assign good Pensions to those that Preached the Word of God as had been done by many of his Ancestors which he named Jean Quintin le Bourguinon The Clergy apologize for themselves made a long tedious Speech in the behalf of the Clergy to shew I. That the Assembly of the three Estates were instituted for the providing for the Sacred Discipline II. That the King might understand the Complaints of his People and provide for the Necessities of his Kingdom by their Advice and not for the Reformation of the Church Which could not Err and which neither hath nor ever shall have the least Spot or Wrinkle but shall ever be Beautiful But then he ingenuously confest That the Sacred Discipline was very much declined from its Ancient Simplicity That therefore the Revivers of the the Ancient Heresies were not to be heard and all that had Meetings separate from the Catholicks were to be esteemed Favourers of Sectaries and to be punished Therefore he desired the King to compel all his Subjects within his Dominions to Live and Believe according to the Form prescribed by the Church That the Insolence of the Sectaries was no longer to be endured who despising the Authority of the Ancients and the Doctrine received by the Church would be thought alone to understand and imbrace the Gospel That this was the next step to a Rebellion and that they would shortly shake off the Yoak of the Civil Magistrate and with the same Boldness fight against their Prince that they now imployed against the Church if Care were not speedily taken He desired that all Commerce between them and the Catholicks might be forbidden and that they might be treated like Enemies and that those who were gone out of the Kingdom on the account of Religion might be banished That it was the King's Duty to draw the Civil Sword and put all those to Death who were infected with Heresie to defend the Clergy and restore the Elections of Bishops to the Chapters the want of which had caused great Damages to the Church That it had been observed That the very Year the Pope granted the King the Nomination of Bishops this Schism began and has
Peace which is disliked by Coligni THIS Year there began a sharp Persecution against all that were suspected to favour the Reformation in the Netherlands year 1561 and for the greater terror they burnt the Houses of all those they Convicted for holding private Meetings Perrenot Bishop of Arras A Persecution in the Low-Countries and Cardinal Granvel hoping by this means to prevent the spreading of a Religion in that Country which had made such progresses in Germany and France They that imbraced this Religion were no less scandalized by the multiplying the Bishopricks and thereupon drew up a Confession of their Faith to be exhibited to King Philip beseeching him in the end of it that he would put a stop to the bloody Executions which destroyed so many of his innocent People This Confession was the same in substance with that published by the French Protestants and amongst other things they took particular care to insert That the Civil Magistrate was the Ordinance of God and therefore was to be obeyed Their Tributes to be duly paid and all manner of Respect and Reverence to be shewed to them and that Prayers were to be made to God for their preservation In the month of February The French Affair the new King of France left Orleans and went to Fontainbleau where the Prince of Conde waited upon him and being introduced into the Privy Council asked the Chancellor if there were any Accusation depending against him and was told by him and the whole Council they were intirely satisfied of his innocence and leave was given him to demand an Acquital in the Parliament of Paris And a Decree was made to that purpose and Published by the Order of the Council March 13. after which he went to Paris to prosecute his Discharge before that Court. In the mean time Queen Catharine Queen Catharine favoureth the Protestants the Regent of France seemed very much to favour the Protestant Party and by her Arts and Dissimulation so far prevailed upon the spirit of the King of Navarre who was their Head that he told the Danish Ambassador he did not doubt but he should see the Reformed Religion settled in France within one year The Queen on the other side told Montmorency That she counived at them for the present that she might the more easily elude the designs of the King of Navarre by seeming to comply with him But then she said he and the other great Men of that Kingdom ought to oppose them and to complain that the Religion of their Ancestors was every where violated and despised She designed by this First To divide the great Men in the Point of Religion Secondly To weaken the Interest of the King of Navarre And thirdly To preserve the Romish Religion in France But Montmorency who was her Instrument designed only the last yet he was very active in it The Queen in the interim carried her dissimulation so far that she ordered Jean de Monluc Bishop of Valence who was a great favourer of the Reformation and no Enemy to the Protestants Doctrine to Preach frequently at Court and She and the King were sometimes present at his Sermons He would sometimes speak very freely against the Corruptions that were in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and obliquely tax the Papal Authority The favour the Queen shewed to this Bishop made Montmorency suspect that in her Heart she had a kindness for the Protestant Party and that underhand she and Navarre had one and the same design And thereupon he deserted her and joyned with the Guises his till then Mortal Enemies the Duchess de Valentois procuring the Reconciliation Magdalen of Savoy Wife to Montmorency was also an implacable enemy to the Reformation and hated Coligni the Admiral for that and other causes and therefore she perpetually stimulated him against the Protestants Francis Montmorency The younger Montmorency's Advice to his Father Son of the Constable was a person of great Prudence and he wisely advised his Father not to lose the least of his friends in so necessary a time for he foresaw a Tempest would arise in France of what Religion soever they were that it did not become a wise Man to endeavour to gain new friends with the loss of his old ones and to prefer the uncertain friendship of reconciled enemies before the tried affections of his old Acquaintances That if he rejected Conde Coligni and Rochefoucault on the Account of Religion he would deprive his Family of the affistance of three great Men and perhaps the Queen would think never the better of him therefore his advice to his Father was to sit still and let Coligni and the Guises fight it out without taking part on either side and in all probability Guise would be worsted and he would become the Arbitrator of the two contending Religions And in the mean time it was most certain there were many great Errors by length of time crept into the Church which he ought not to defend because they were injurious to the Majesty of God. The good old Gentleman was much moved at this Advice from his Son but made no other answer to it than That he certainly knew that if the Religion were changed the Civil Government would be changed too That he cared not what became of him if his little Masters did well and the Actions of Henry II. might not be called in question who was a wife Prince and his good Master So he perished in his first resolves believing he was obliged to defend the Cause of Religion against his best and most ancient and tried friends The Pope seeing his Jurisdiction and Authority decline so fast in Germany year 1560 England and France The pretended Submission of the Cophthites greedily embraced a pretended Overture made by one Abraham a Syrian Impostor who pretended he was sent by the Copthites an Eastern Sect of Christians to make a submission to the Holy See whereupon he sent Christopher Roderick and John Baptista Elianus two Jesuits to them who gained nothing by this Mission but an exact Account of the Opinions of these Cophthites and a certainty of the Frauds of this pretended Ambassador Abraham who had feign'd this Mission to the Pope for his own Ends. This Mortification was soon after attended by another Livonia falls off from the See of Rome not less afflictive to his Holiness for Gothard Ketler Master of the Teutonick Order in Livonia intirely submitted to Sigismond King of Poland which put an end to that Order when it had flourished there 357 years He was thereupon made Duke of Gurland and Semigallen and Governor of Livonia and Marrying a Wife withdrew himself and his Subjects from the See of Rome The Archbishoprick of Riga was also about the same time changed into a Dukedom John Kothewick ☜ ☜ the last Archbishop of that See embracing the Augustane Confession put himself under the Protection of the Crown of Poland and was by Sigismond made Duke
his care That the King could not neglect the cause of this sorrowful Widow and her Orphan and Children who appeal'd to his fidelity and the Memory of his Ancestors who had in all times of affliction succoured the Princes of Germany Spain and England That Philip the Bold the Son of St. Lewis had with a potent Army defended an Orphan-Queen of Navarr and brought her into France where she was after Married to Philip the Fair from whom Joan the present Queen of Navarr was lineally descended And that John Labrett the Grandfather of this Queen being in like manner persecuted by one of the Popes and driven out of a part of his Kingdom the rest had been defended and preserved by Lewis the Twelfth and his Successors That the Popes themselves have heretofore fled to the French for protection when they have been expelled out of their Sees who had often restored them defended and enriched them with the grant of many Territories That this Queen was so near a Neighbour and such an Allie to the Crown of France that no War could be made upon her without the great damage of France That all Princes were Interested in the Friendship and Peace of their Neighbours and obliged to keep all Wars at a distance from them for the preservation of their own quiet and security Since therefore his Majesty saw by this Bull that there was a design to deprive his Ancient Allies of their Dominions and at pleasure to set up others in their stead he had just reason to fear that as the Spaniards had heretofore on such pretences possess'd themselves of all the Countries to the Pyrenaean Hills so that in time they might pass them too and descend into the Plains of France and so a dismal and destructive War might be rekindled between these powerful Princes to the great hazard and ruin of Christendom Lastly the Queen of Navarr being a Feuditary of the Crown of France and having great Possessions in that Kingdom was under the Protection of the Laws of it and could not be drawn out of it to Rome either in Person or by Proxy no Subject of France being bound to go to Rome but if the Pope had any cause against them he was obliged to send Judges to determine upon the place even in those Cases that came before him by Appeal That therefore this Citation was against the Majesty Law and Security of the Crown of France and tended to the diminishing of the esteem of that King and Kingdom That if the Form of this Proceeding were considered what could be more contrary to the Civil Law than to force a man out of his proper Court and condemn him in another without any hearing For there are Laws That no accused person shall be cited out of the Limits of the Jurisdiction in which he lives and that the Citation shall not be obscure and perfunctory but declared to the proper person or to his family And the Constitution of Pope Boniface the Eighth That Citations set up in certain places of Rome should be of force was recall'd by Clement the Fifth and the Council of Venna as hard and unjust or at least mitigated and it was decreed that they should not be used but when there was no safe coming to the person accused But in France where the Queen of Navarr resides it cannot be pretended that there is no safe coming to her And what can be more contrary to Natural Equity than to condemn unheard It is forbidden by the Canons and Decrees of Councils and there is a noble example of this in Ammianus Marcellinus where Pope Liberius being urged by Constantius to condemn Athanasius chose rather to be banished than to sentence him without hearing And in the Judgment against Sixtus the Third who was accused of Incest Valentinian the Emperor observed the same method and made him appear and answer in a Synod before Fifty Bishops For the same reason the Sentence of Nicholas the First against Lotharius the Son of St. Lewis for having two Wives was thought void and null Nor was this Sentence against the Queen of Navarr of better force because she was absent and unheard That the Popes have always shewn that respect to Crown'd heads as to admonish them by their Legates before they decreed ought against them So Alexander the Third sent two Cardinals to Henry the Second into England when he was accused of the Death of Thomas a Becket A.B. of Canterbury That he might purge himself before them of this crime So of late Clement the Seventh did the like in the case of Henry the Eighth to whom he sent Cardinal Campeius And if it were granted that the Judgment were rightly passed how could the Dominions of the Queen be exposed for a prey and given to the first Invader they belonging to the King as Lord of the Fee Therefore the King believes that the Pope is deceived by false reports and instigated by the craft of his Ministers who not regarding the publick peace have drawn him from his natural goodness to Counsels which are dishonourable to his Holiness and destructive to his Authority and to that of the See of Rome tending to the alienating of the hearts of his friends from him and the disturbing of the Peace of Christendom And his Majesty is the more perswaded of the truth of this because his Holiness so earnestly espoused the Interest of Anthony the Husband of this Queen in his life-time and endeavoured to perswade King Philip to restore to him the Kingdom of Navarr or at least to give him the Island of Sardinia as an Equivalent But then there is nothing more offends the King than the considering that whereas so many Kings Princes and Free States above Forty years since have defected from the See of Rome and committed the offence charged upon the Queen and so by the rule of Justice ought to be first punished as first offending yet the Pope has not proceeded in the same way or with equal severity against any of them so that from hence it is clear that an occasion is sought by her enemies to oppress and ruin her by surprize whilest she is a Widow her Children Orphans the King of France who ought to protect her being a Minor and disturbed by Civil Wars and for this reason the King is the more obliged to defend her from injury and himself from contempt seeing without acquainting him with it they have begun this Process against a Queen so nearly related to him That if this Accusation had been made on the account of Religion and for the Glory of God the Pope ought in the first place to have shewn his care of her soul and from the Word of God to have administred fitting Remedies and not to have proscribed her Kingdoms and Dominions The Deposing of Princes and disposing of their Dominions the cause of great Calamities and given them for a prey to the first Invader The Pope has a Supremacy given him That he
may consult the Salvation of Souls and the repose of Christendom and not that he may deprive Princes of their Kingdoms and dispose of their possessions at his pleasure which the former Popes have never been able to do in Germany and other places without bringing great reproach and dishonour on the Church and disturbances upon the World. That therefore the King desired with the greatest humility that he could or ought that the Sentence against the Q. of Navarr should be revok'd and all the Pope's Ministers should be inhibited from proceeding in this cause by a publick Act and if this were not done the King should be forced against his will to make use of the same remedies his Ancestors had imployed in the like cases according to the Laws and Rights of his Kingdom But before all things he protested he should do this unwillingly and therefore they only should bear the blame who by their rashness had forced him to use the power God had given him in so just a cause and to implore the assistance of his friends against them There was at the same time distinct Memorials and larger Instructions sent to the French Ambassador for the Defence of the Bishops The Bishops defended by the King also and D'Oysel who was an active Minister prevail'd upon the Pope to have the Proceedings against the Bishops stopt and the Sentence against the Queen of Navarr revok'd and abolished So that at this day it is not to be found amongst the Constitutions of Pope Pius the Fourth The 18th of May there having been no consideration had of the XXXIII Articles put into the Council the 4th of January The Queen complains of the Proceedings of the Council the Queen wrote to Lanssac her Ambassador complaining very bitterly of the delays and shifts which had been made in this business and said that the hope good men had hitherto had of the success of this Council and the opinion of their sincerity who met in it would both vanish without any fruit and their dissimulation and connivance would more and more inflame the wrath of God against us who had now made it manifest unto all men that the affairs of the Church needed a Reformation and a severe correction and to that purpose had invited and brought together from all parts of the Earth so many men famous for their Piety and Learning to this Council and if after all this he shall see us still stubbornly resist his will he will be necessitated to punish those men who have hindred so good a work and so necessary to the peace of the Church That therefore the King had wrote to the Cardinal of Lorrain to assemble a Congregation of the French Clergy and after a mature deliberation had amongst themselves to demand earnestly of the Fathers of the Council that these things might be considered and determin'd as soon as was possible But the Cardinal was by this time won over to the Pope's side The Pope gained the Cardinal of Lorrain to his side and was willing to sacrifice the safety of France and the King's Will to the Interest of the former In order to this he delayed the Execution of his Orders from day to day and at last that he might totally disappoint them asked leave of the King to go to Rome believing the Kings Ambassadors would do nothing in his absence And not long after Lanssac obtained leave to return into France Who went to Rome The Cardinal of Lorrain went from Trent towards Rome the 18th of September and with him five of the French Bishops But the other French Ambassadors did nevertheless insist stoutly to have the Articles considered by the Council who that they might elude this pursuit made some Decrees which had some respect to those things the French had desired but which aimed at the granting a Liberty and Immunity to the Clergy against all the Laws Privileges Liberties and Jurisdictions and Lawful Authorities of all Kingdoms States and Princes which being seen by La Ferriere and Du Faur the King's Ambassadors at Trent they by their Master's Order opposed the said Decrees The 27th of September the King by a Letter having commanded his Ambassadors to insist upon their first Demands and to assure the Council that as none of the Christian Princes should exceed him in the fervor of true Piety and a desire to promote the Affairs of the Council so if they still went on to cure the desperate wounds of the Church with a light hand or rather to plaster them over and conceal than cure them whilest they omitted the proper and most necessary remedies and instead of considering the Reformation of the Church turn'd the edge of their Authority against the Power of Princes and the Decrees of Councils he would not have the Presence of his Ambassadors add Authority to such unjust Decrees to the great prejudice of his Royal Dignity and to the Damage of the Liberties of his Kingdom He said also that he had been informed that the Council had entertain'd a design to declare the Marriage of Anthony de Bourbon King of Navarr and Joan his Queen unlawful and to declare Henry his Son a Bastard and he commanded them not to be present at any such Act. Lastly he commanded them to repeat their former demands and if the Fathers of the Council would not grant them then to leave Trent and go to Venice and stay there till they had further Orders from him He told them also that his principal desire was by a serious Reformation of Church-affairs and manners the corruptions in which had caused so many to make defection from the Church of Rome by the Authority of a General Council to unite the divided minds of men in the matters of Religion That his Ambassadors and Proctors had often treated with the Pope and the Fathers of the Council about this and to that end had exhibited the said XXXIV Articles to which no satisfactory return had been made but on the contrary they having lightly touched the business of Reformation had exercised an Authority which belonged not to them against the Rights The Council has no Authority over Princes Liberties and Power of Soveraign Princes That they neither could nor ought to inquire into the Civil Administration which was not subject to their Court nor to derogate from those Constitutions and Customs which had been long enjoyed by Princes nor to Anathematize Kings all which things tended to Sedition and the interruption of the publick Peace That he would not suffer that Authority which he had received from his Ancestors to be weakned by their unjust censures Yea he commanded them to tell the Fathers That if they presumed any more to undermine the Authority of Kings and the Prerogatives of their Betters that they should then also protest against their proceeding and leave Trent Advising the Bishops and Divines of France who were in the Council to promote the Reformation of Religion as much as was