Leaguers Nevertheless not only of the Nobility Gentry and Laity but also of the Clergy Prelates arch-Arch-Bishops Bishops and others many were more sensible of their duty than either to be drawn with such false though specious pretences or to be affrighted with the terrors of the Pope's pretended authority from it And therefore when the Pope's Mandates were read in the Parliament which sat at Tours Thu. l. 101. they made an Act of Parliament whereby the Monitorials made at Rome Mar. 1. were declared Nul Abusive Seditious to be damned full of impieties and importures contrary to the sacred Decrees Rights Immunities and liberties of the Gallican Church and it was decreed that the Copies of them sealed with the seal of Marsil Landiranus and signed by Sextil Lampinetus should be by the common Hangman publickly torne and burnt before the Palace Gates c. that Landiranus who pretending himself the Popes Legate brought those Mandates should be apprehended c. and Gregory calling himself Pope the 14th of that name was declared an enemy of the publick Peace of the Vnion of the Catholick Church and of the King and Kingdom a partaker of the Spanish Conspiracy a Favourer of Robels and guilty of the cruel detestable and inhumane parricide treacherously committed upon the most Christian and truly Catholick King Henr. 3. And this was required to be published by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops through their Diocesses The like was also done at Chaulâ—m and Caen. The next day after this was an Edict made in favour of the Pretestants with the general consent of all as necessary published whereby the Edict of July was revoked and the former Edicts in favour of the Protestants restored And very fair they were to have created a Patriarch of their own in France which the Senate urged but was opposed by the new Cordinal of Bourbon a man of no worth who was out of hope of being the man himself and was a promoter of a new faction of the Thirdlings among the King's party yet in those things which concerned the Collation of Benefices they gave that power to the Arch-Bishop which the Pope had usurped or pretended The King in a speech to a great Assembly of the Nobility and Officers of his Army upon the death of the former King had told them that of those things which Thu. l. 97. as they knew his Predecessor had at his death recommended to him this was the chief That he should maintain his Subjects of the Roman Catholick and of the Reformed Religion in equal liberty aequabili in libertate till by the authority of a lawful Occumenical or National Council something should be decreed concerning that difference which he would religiously observe and professed before them all that he had rather that day should be his last than to do any thing whereby be might be said to waver in his Faith or to have renounced that Religion which hitherto he had professed before he should be further instructed by a lawful Council to whose authority he did submit himself and therefore he gave free leave to those who were not satisfied with this to depart adding and when they have forsaken me yet God will never forsake me who I call your selves to witness from my childhood hath as it were led me by the hand and heaped upon me great and unconceivable benefits Nor did the beneficence of God toward David appear greater or more miraculous than when beyond the expectation of all through so many difficulties and dangers he brought me to the Throne so that I ought not in the least to doubt but he who breaking through so many obstacles hath called me to the Kingdom will preserve me in it and defend me against all the assaults of my enemies c. I value not the Kingdom of France no nor the Empire of the whole World so much that for the obtaining of them I would make any defection from that Religion which as true I have from my tender years imbibed with my Mothers milk and embrace any other faith than what as I have said before should be resolved in a lawful Council The like confidence in God Da. p. 900. Perefix p. 147. Thu. l. 98. with resignation to his will he afterwards expressed in a pious Prayer in the head of his Army before the Battel of Yvry after which he obtained a very notable Victory over a much greater Army Yet notwithstanding after all this whether through the importunity of the Roman Catholicks of his own party or the violence of his enemies who were assembled to elect a Catholick King Thu. l. 106 107. which was much urged by the Pope and the King of Spain he sell off from his constancy and without the determination or instruction of any lawful General or National Council changed his Religion and at last also submitted himself to the Pope The report of this being brought to Queen Elizabeth who had been very liberal in her assistance to him upon the score of Religion Camden anâ— 1593. and was very solicitous for him she presently dispatched Th. Wilkes to know the truth of it and if not already done earnestly with reasons which she sent in writing to disswade him from it To whom the King excused himself from the necessity of his condition which he also did by Morlantius to the Queen her self with great offers of amity and kindness calling her his Sister as is usual whereat being much grieved and troubled she presently took her pen and wrote the ensuing Letter in what Language I know not but thus in English out of the Latine in Camden Alas how great grief what a floud of sorrow what sighs did I feel in my mind from those things which Morlantius hath told me O the faith of men is this the World Could it be that any earthly thing could drive the fear of God from you Can we expect an happy issue of this deed Or can you think that he who with his right hand had hitherto sustained and preserved you was now about to leave you It is a thing very dangerous to do evil that good may come of it Yet the good Spirit as I hope will inspire a better mind into you In the mean time I will not cease in the first place of my Prayers to commend you to the Divine Majesty and to beseech him that the hands of Esau may not spoil the blessing of Jacob. That you solemnly offer me your Amity I know that I have indeed well deserved it nor truly would it repent me had you not changed your * * This hath respect to his submission to the Pope and to some passages wherein he called her Sister or himself her Brother Father Certainly now can I not from thence be your Sister by the Father However I for my part will always more dearly love my own than our adscititious Father which God best knows whom I beseech reduce you to the right path of a more sound judgment
Spirit for our Principles it will not be difficult to conclude whether these men be the Authors or Propagators of the true Religion for here for their Religion that only is to be taken about which the difference is and for which they contend seeking by these means to maintain and promote it or rather of an abominable innovation and corruption of the true Religion and whether their Church he the true and faithful Church of Christ 2 Thes 2. or rather that mystery of iniquity that abomination of desolation that man of sin and son of perdition who hath set up himself in the Temple of God 9. We may here also behold the Principles from whence all these actions and practices have proceeded V. Foul. l. 1. c. 4. l. 2. c. 1. V. Foul. l. 2. c. 2.5 6. V. Foul. l. 2. c. 3 4. viz. 1. That the Bishops of Rome as successors of St. Peter have a supreme power and authority derived to them from Christ over all Christian Persons and Churches all Nations and Kingdoms all Princes and States 2. That by this power and authority they may lawfully absolve subjects from all duty of Obedience and oath of Fidelity to their otherwise lawful Princes and Governors and deposing them may dispose of their Kingdoms and States to whom they think fit 3. That Princes excommunicate by the Pope are no longer to be obeyed by their Subjects but to be deprived of their Kingdoms and lives 4. That to rise in Arms against such Princes excommunicate or by any means to murder and destroy them is not only lawful but moreover meritorious even in their own subjects and that to die in such an attempt is martyrdom c. And of all this we have here a more effectual evidence than only from the writings or printed Books of some private men viz. in the Bulls and Acts of the Popes themselves of Universities and Colledges of Divines the frequent Sermons of their Preachers and Instructions of Confessors and Practices of their Penitents Note It is here to be noted that besides these Practices and Principles so pernitious and destructive to the Sacred though Civil Right of Princes and States and the peace and quiet of Common wealths there are others no less pernitious and destructive to the Church and to the Salvation of particular persons which because they come not within the compass of this History we take no notice of 10. And here we may see what is the Religion of these men For though there be other points in controversy whereof many little more than meer verbal about words and expressions which are kept up only through heat of contention and might easily be agreed by sober judicious and disinteressed persons and others originally only the private opinions of some men of great authority in their times wherein the substance of Religion is no more concerned than in the speculations of Philosophers though now commonly received and adopted into Religion by the Popes and their Faction whether for secular advantage or to hold up their pretended Infallibility yet these are their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their * V. Sandys Europae speculum of their Head Assertions p. 24. in 4 to fundamental and ruling Principles for which they contend the Principles from whence all these Persecutions Wars Massacres and Murders have proceeded and the Religion quae nunc novo exemplo Martyres facit as †Vindic. Areopag c. 27. p. 124. Del Rio speaks in the case of Garnet whom he and Bellarmine will needs have to be a * To whom we may say with Optatus lib. 3. Si illos videri Martyres vultis probate illos amasse pacem in qua sunt Prima Fundamenta Martyrii aâ—t dilexisse Deo placitam unitatem an t habuisse cum fratribus charitatem Nam omnes Christianos fratres esse probavimus Charitatem illos non habuisse manifestissime constat sine qua nullum vel nominari potest vel esse martyrium saith he to the Donatists p. 99. Martyr whether he will or not But perhaps some may say that this is not the faith or practice of all of that communion Nor do I think it is but that many are better Christians than to be imposed upon by the strength of such delusions such especially who living in such Churches as continue in that communion are not satisfied to separate from their own Church though they clearly perceive and abominate these abuses and heartily desire their reformation and many such I doubt not but there have been and still are among the most sober judicious and pious of the French even of the Clergy And though I am very willing to think charitably of many of our English Romanists yet I see not how they can be excused who separate from the Church of England which is and ought to be their own Church so long as it continues a member of the Church of Christ which an unjust excommunication by an apostate Church cannot hinder to joyn with such a Faction Nor do I see how they can be excused who refuse to take the Oath of Allegiance which I am very confident not a man of the ancient Christians would have refused and it is hard not to think that because they received not the love of the truth offered to them that for this cause God hath sent them strong delusions that they should believe a lie c. But notwithstanding that some who for the reason mentioned continue in that communion may by the mercy and grace of God escape these delusions yet it is apparent that these are the Doctrines of the Pope the Church and Court of Rome and of the Jesuites and the rest are generally so seasoned and levened with such conceits of the Pope's authority as are easily improved into these when ever occasion is offered especially if any thing of private interest intervene as is very observable in the History of France though they of all Papists are least inclined to favour the Papal Usurpations where scarce a City unless restrained by the powerful presence of some of the loyal Nobility or inhabited most by Protestants but did or was ready to revolt to the League at every occasion 11. And here again if we take for our Principles two more of Bellarmine's Notes of the true Church viz. * C. 11. Sanctity of Doctrine containing nothing false as to the Doctrine of Faith nothing unjust as to the Doctrine of Manners and †C. 9. Agreement in Doctrine with the ancient Church we may hence also conclude whether this Church of Rome hath continued a true and faithful Church of Christ or hath indeed made that defection which was foretold should succeed the dissolution of the Roman Empire as the Christians in all ages have unanimously and universally understood that which should be taken away and become the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth which is expresly said of the mystical Babylon the great City which then reigned over the
of Books and so to mend the writings of the Fathers wherein what Plagiaries they have been is known to them who converse with Books that from thence have great confusions been brought into the Church and the Discipline generally been dissolved for by the Breve of Paul 3. the people are allowed to leave their own Pastors and run after them and to receive the Sacraments from them to whom Greg. hath committed authority to animadvert as well upon the Clergy as the people that all may be done rightly and after the Roman mode so that from Priests whether regular or secular it is uncertain they are suddenly become universal Pastors of the people or rather wandering vagabond Bishops Periodentas circumcelliones hamaxarios Episcopos that there is nothing which they cannot now do at Rome where they are called the Popes eyes mentis Pontificiae oculi that their Principles are inconsistent with the French that it is certain that to them is principally given in charge that they should oppress the Gallican liberty at first by guile and afterwards with open force even as in these last wars they have endeavoured to do that with them they are reckoned anathema who take the Kings part but that the French think the contrary and that not to obey the King is as to resist God and to sight against Heaven that they think that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and People when he pleaseth but the French on the contrary hold them for Sectaries who think that the Pope may interpose his authority in any difference of State that they attribute to the Pope an infinite power over all Kingdoms and set him above the Church above Councils and in fine make his power equal to his will to do what he please but the French hold his power to be finite or limited And for their good deeds and practices that Claud Matthew a ring-leader of the faction whom Henr. 3. had familiarly used in his private devotions and who therefore was well acquainted with his piety and devotion to the Rom. Cath. Religion with great impiety and ingratitude went to Rome and would have perswaded Greg. 13. to have excommunicated him unless he would comply with the leaders of that pernitious faction which being denied by him was after his death obtained of his successor Sixtus that Varada of the same society consirmed Barriere in his purpose to kill the King when he made some scruple at it that they confess as much but with frivolous cavillation seek to excuse it Nor are these the faults of single persons among them forasmuch as it is a usual thing or constant custom with them when they have any enterprize in hand to confer together about it c. that by their occult art of prying into secrets they have by little and little insinuated themselves into the minds of the simple and acquired a dominion in their consciences Whereof there is a fresh example in the five Popish Cantons of the Switzers whom when the Jesuites had in vain attempted to draw them from their League with the other Cantons of the Protestants made for their common safety they leaving the men like the serpent which deceived our first Parents set upon the women and perswaded them not to lye with their Husbands till they had broken off the League But the Switzers discovering the fraud shewed themselves men and handled the Conspirators according to their desert The Venetians likewise whose Justice and Prudence the duration of their State doth easily evince saw as much Yet they since did it an 3607. v. l. 137. and being warned by our example they did not indeed thrust them out of their Territories for how could they do that being so near neighbours to the Pope but did maturely shut them up within their own inclosures and interdicted them the hearing of confessions And how powerful they are among us by these means they openly profess and glory in it in their letters to their General But thus is the discipline of the Church overthrown and contrary to the prudent prohibition of the Council of Nants the saying of St. Aug. Neminem digne poenitere posse quem non sustineat unitas Ecclesiae the judgment of the ancient Christians who condemned Audius for making separation in the Church the people seduced from their own Pastors are adulterously allured to communion in sacris with them apart from others and at last stirred up to rebellion against their Prince and emissaries suborned to murder him Their conspiracies are well known against Prince Maurice which at last took effect and in England those of Parry Cullen York Wikiams in Scotland those of James Gordon and Edmond Hay and with us that so often mentioned of Barriere But among the ancient Christians these monsters were unheard of Of the Christians was no Cassius no Niger no Albinus as Tertullian speaks Nor was that crime ever heard of in France till the coming in of the Jesuites For it was brought in by them from Spain whence they had their original where the Gothes as an ancient Author informs us took up this detestable custom that if any of their Kings pleased them not they put him to the sword and set up whom they pleased in his place On behalf of the Jesuites Cl. Dureus rather pleaded in bar of the action than spoke to the merits of the cause but P. Barnius answered more copiously in writing But as much of what was spoken by the others is here purposely omitted for brevity sake so those things particularly which I find answered by him except that of Portugal which notwithstanding his answer seems very probable as well agreeing with their principles and actions though such mysterious practices are not easy to be fully proved And thus stood the case with the Jesuites in France when the King was about to * Which was done 17. Jan. proclaim war against their great Patron the King of Spain and whether the particular consideration of these or either of these to prevent what they feared might be the consequence of them †V. Perefix 229. did produce that attempt of their Scholar Chastel or not for he was more deeply seasoned with their principles and instructions than to make a full confession yet certain it is that that attempt did produce a more speedy determination of the cause than could otherwise have been expected by a Decree 29 Dec. 1594. Thu. l. 111. whereby the Court did ordain that the Priests and Students of the Colledge of Clermont for they would not call them by the name of Jesuites and all others of that Society as corrupters of Youth perturbers of the publick Tranquillity and enemies of the King and Kingdom shall within three days after denunciation depart from Paris and all other Cities where they have opened School and within fifteen days after out of the Kingdom upon pain to be prosecuted as guilty of Treason and that their Goods and Lands shall be imployed for pious uses
V. Thu. l. 103. which had been very agreeable to the first flourishing state of the Church after the times of Persecution or by restoring to the arch-Arch-Bishops and Bishops their ancient authority which was in some sort done and held for four years after to have cast of that Antichristian yoke of the Papal Usurpations under which he afterwards neglecting that opportunity unhappily enslaved himself and his Kingdom and so having reformed that grand abominable abuse he might with the more facility afterwards have established by the mature deliberation of a lawful Council such a Reformation of the Gallican Church as perhaps might not have been inferior to any which hath been made in other places And afterwards L. 107. when he resolved to be reconciled to the Church they admitted and absolved him notwithstanding the Pope's Legate opposed it all he could contending that he could not be absolved by any but the Pope But these things which might have given encouragement to a conscientious and truly pious mind to constancy and further dependance upon God to him perhaps proved a further tentation their fidelity to him making their perswasions to change his Religion the more prevalent with him especially concurring with a more powerful motive viz. the reducing of the rest of the Kingdom to his obedience And therefore though like David he waxed stronger and stronger and the League like the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker yet in about half the time that David was kept out of the greatest part of his Kingdom he began to yield to the tentation And first when the Leaguers through the incitations of the Pope and the King of Spain were about to assemble to choose a Catholick King though that was not unlikely to break their party by their emulations and divisions concerning the person forgetting his former resolutions and neglecting his conscience instead of dependance upon the Divine Providence he applies himself to humane Policies and resolves to change his Religion without staying for the determination of a lawful either General or National Council L. 107. And this after a few hours instruction whereby he pretended he was much informed of what he was ignorant before being solemnly done he next not long after by a * L. 107 108. special Embassador makes supplication to the Pope to be admitted to his favour And though he had presently hereupon two notable experiments by the attempts of Barriere and Chastel of the vanity and deceitfulness of such shifts and humane Policies without the favour of the Divine Protection and Blessing besides a faithful and sound admonition from the good Queen Elizabeth yet his confidence and reliance upon God being before weakned it commonly proving with perverted minds as with corrupted stomachs which turn their natural food and nourishment into the nourishment of their disease these did but provoke him to the more earnest pursuit of humane politick means and therefore again when he had already broken the party of the League L. 109. L. 108. and Paris wherein their chief strength lay had submitted to him and besides all this the Pope had unworthily repulsed his Embassador and given him a just provocation which certainly he might have improved with the concurrence and good liking of the French Nobility and Clergy toward the reformation of that abominable abuse of the Papacy which is the original or prop of all the rest he was notwithstanding easily wrought upon at the slight intimation of the Pope who when he saw it was in vain longer to oppose him L. 113. was very willing to receive his submission to send another Embassie and basely prostrate himself to him basely I say because it is not likely that he did it out of Conscience or Religion but rather out of fear of Emissaries and Assassins which is * A percussoribus qui quotidie vitae ejus insidiantur metuentem expresly mentioned by his Agents to the Pope as a motive to his reconciliation and for the same reason 't is likely as hath been shewed before he at last notwithstanding all perswasions earnest intercessions and supplications to the contrary restored the Jesuites again and among other favours subjected the government of his conscience to them This was the foundation upon which he built his Greatness which having laid for his security he presently set himself to heap up Treasures and at last raised a great Army for the execution of some grand design which whatever it was in truth he pretended to be for the promotion of the Christian cause against the Infidels But alas all was built upon a sandy foundation he had forsaken the rock of his salvation and relying upon vain policies had ungratefully forsaken him by whom he never had nor should have been forsaken so long as he continued faithful and constant to his duty and prostituting his conscience to obtain a staff of reed Isa 35.6 had broken the staff of his surest confidence aggravating also the offence of his spiritual Fornication and the burden of his galled conscience which is alwaies heaviest in times of danger by persisting in the continual scandals of his Amores whereof the Arch-Bishop Perefix often complains as justly to be blamed * Pag. 461. in a Christian Prince a man of his age who was married on whom God had conferred so great mercies and who had such great enterprizes in his hand This was it which made his apprehension of his approaching death so strong and lamentable and subjected him to the effects of that Religion to which he had subjected himself as those who consult and crave the assistance of witches and evil spirits make themselves thereby the more obnoxious to their power and malice Thus did he fall from that Grandure which by the space of near another eighteens years he had been raising upon this false foundation Such profane policies subjecting Religion to a subservience to secular ends though succesful for a while yet frequently at last concluding in an unhappy catastrophie Nor could the specious pretence of his grand design find acceptance with him who prefers obedience before sacrifice This was it which was in general foreseen and foretold by our good Queen by a more genuine spirit of Prophesie and from better Principles than they were moved by who foretold the same indeed more particularly but yet only like witches and evil spirits who foretell the storms they mean to raise And she her self who built her assurance upon a better foundation continuing constant to the last to her Conscience and Religion and to her God was by him constantly blessed and preserved to the last during a Reign more than twice as long as his and from conspiracies neither fewer nor in themselves less dangerous than those against him and this was it which made her to hear the full relation of a horrid conspiracy against her person with that undaunted courage which amazed him who should have been the actor of it Parry apud Cambd.
satisfied and because to the more effectual prevention of so great a mischief a more particular discovery of the matter of fact and of the instruments and circumstances of it may be necessary all who have any love to their Country or regard to the interest and safety of themselves or their relations though the consideration of Religion should not move them are concerned to use their utmost endeavour in it But if neither the consideration of the horrid confusions and massacres heretofore raised in France by these Furies nor of their continual Treasons and Conspiracies against Queen Elizabeth and her Kingdoms which they then would have betrayed to the invasions of the King of Spain as now probably they would to the King of France that is those who steer their motions though their common agents may be generally ignorant of the design nor of that horrible Gunpowder Conspiracy against King James the Royal Issue and flower of the English Nobility and Gentry nor lastly of our late Civil Wars which may in time be justly proved and demonstrated to have been the product of the Romish machinations to which might be added their restless endeavors for the subversion of our Government and for the breaking of the great Metropolis of this Nation as the two main obstacles in their way if all this and besides all the safety of his Majesties person which perhaps may be further concerned in it than is commonly apprehended be not sufficient to awaken us of these Nations to a speedy vigilance and activity before it be too late to discover and detect their machinations and couragiously oppose their proceedings especially those who are in authority within their several Jurisdictions to look narrowly if not into their matters of Religion yet at least into their provisions of Arms and Ammunition into their correspondencies and secret negotiations and engagements and especially to discover those who under several disguises not only insinuate themselves into familiarity with persons of Quality and creep into their Families under the notions of Physitians Painters and other employments but also get into publick offices and employments and perhaps to be chosen into the Parliment it self it may be feared we shall ere long smart for our stupidity and supine negligence 3. To those who still continue of the Roman Communion and are in danger to be drawn in to engage in such undertakings for the promotion of their Religion by fraud and force by disturbance or subversion of Governments raising or fomenting wars between Christian Princes and States and such like means that they will well consider the justice and piety thereof For most certain it is and agreed on all hands that they are contrary to the means used by our Saviour and his Apostles and Disciples and their Successors for the original propagation of the Gospel Nor ought it to be replyed as some have impiously said that that was for want of force for he who could command legions of Angels is not to be thought to have wanted force if he had pleased to make use of it nor had the Christians for many ages before these Unchristian Doctrines were ever thought of less power in the World than they have had since or less occasion to have made use of it had they thought it lawful and besides it is no less contrary to their Doctrine than to their Practice 2. The use of such means is most injurious and scandalous to the most holy pure and innocent Religion which hath been always most propagated and glorified by the magnanimous sedate and constant sufferings of its genuine Professors but always most dishonoured by the furious violent and perfidious practices of the spurious Zealots of the abuses of it 3. It is contrary to the very nature of the true Religion and the express Doctrine of the sacred Scriptures 4. It is condemned by the judgment of God disappointing blasting and confounding all attempts of that nature in these Kingdoms for near an hundred years together Nor will their zeal and good intentions excuse them Paul had as much of both when he persecuted the Christians as they can have and of the Jews he testifies to the Romans that they had the zeal of God but not according to knowledge and our Saviour foretold that they who should kill his Disciples would think they do God good service in it Nor will their following of the probable opinions of their Confessors excuse them for when blind guides lead the blind both fall into the ditch as our Saviour saith Nor will it be much comfort to them who dye in their sins through the Priests default that the Priest also shall answer for it as the Prophet saith But that which is the secret root and main prop of their delusion and most effectually deceives them is an unhahpy mistaken opinion deeply rooted in their minds of the infallible authority of the particular Church of Rome For as Cardinal Perron hath well argued V. King James Def. of the Right of Kings if these things be unlawful which have for so many ages been acted by the Papal authority that interposed with all the formality and solemnity that could be it would follow that the Pope hath been Antichrist and the Church of Rome the Synagogue of Satan for so many ages past This is it whatever other specious arguments and pretenses are alledged which makes them no less obstinate in their errors than the Jews are in theirs A deceived heart hath turned them aside and they cannot deliver their soul But if they will but 1. Lay aside the prejudice of Education 2. Consider the great evidence there is that these things are contrary to Christianity 3. And with that compare the little real ground there is to believe this pretended infallible authority it may be God's blessing be a good means to undeceive them but then as to the third particular they must deal candidly and impartially setting aside 1. Such proofs as concern only the perseverance of the Church of Christ in general 2. Such as concern only the authority of particular Churches over their own members for neither of these make any thing for the Church of Rome more than for any other particular Church then what else they can alledge will be found to be far short of what the Jews might alledge to prove that they are still the true Israel of God But the confounding of these things is that which imposeth upon their minds and judgments The ancient Apostolick Creed and what-ever other rule of Faith is mentioned by Irenaeus Tertullian or any of the Ancients and were held to contain the sum of the Christian Faith are to this day generally received and believed by all the Christian World so that Christ hath still a Church upon Earth what-ever become of the Church of Rome the like may be said of the sacred Scriptures but in none of these is the least mention of any such infallible authority of the Church of Rome no nor of
it begged Pardon for his contrary asseveration which he sought to elevate by a forced Interpretation or Equivocation And professing that he would speak the truth ingenuously He answered that he had hitherto so constantly denyed it because he knew that no man living but one he meant Greenwell could accuse him as guilty of the late Fact But now that he saw himself encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses he would no longer dissemble but did confess that above V moneths agone he was acquainted by Greenwell with the whole matter That before that Catesby had in general told him that the Catholicks in England were attempting some great thing as to Religion and asked whether if good men should be involved in the danger this were to be made matter of Conscience But that he who had a contrary command from the Pope that he should not engage in any Conspiracy refused to hear any further of it That he did pour out Prayers for the good success of the great cause and amongst other things used the Hymn that was commonly Sung in the Church but intended nothing else when he did so but only prayed God that in the next Parliament no grievous Lawes might be made against the Recusants so they are called in England who keeping within their own houses have their liberty and refuse to Joyne in worship with the Protestants Garnot being twenty times Examined 12 Feb. and 26 Mar. between the Eids of Febr. and the VII of the Calends of April two dayes after he is arraigned at the Publick Tribunal in London * The reason whereof the Earl of Salisbury declared at his Tryal See the Proceedings Y Guild Hall Here the Crimes are layed to the charge of the Prisoner by Sir John Crook which are afterwards enlarged on in a long Speech by Sir Edward Cook the Kings Attorney General Then after Garnet had said something for himself and especially something concerning Equivocation he was Examined by Cecil and others that sate as Judges in that case And lastly the Earl of Northampton made a long and elaborate discourse against him in which he largely handled the Authority which the Popes arrogate to themselves of deposing Princes and discussed that Chapter of Nos sanctorum the ground as he said of this and such like Conspiracies At length Sentence is passed by the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench that Garnet should be Drawn Hanged and Quartered His Plea for himself was only this that although he did a long time before know of the Conspiracy by common fame and Rumours for Greenwell only informed him of all the particulars but under the Seal of Confession by the Laws of which he was forbidden to discover it to any man living yet that he did admonish Greenwell to desist from the Fact which he did very much disapprove of and to hinder others engaged in Conscience or privity in it Here Cecill severely reproved him For said he if he did disapprove of the Fact why did he afford Greenwell the benefit of Absolution before he had by his penitence given testimony that he did truly and from his heart detest the Fact Furthermore when as he understood the matter from Catesby where there was no Seal of Confession this was sufficient to have made a discovery of the Plot if he had so highly abhorred it as he did pretend But there were other things that lay heavy upon his charge and these chiefly which were amongst his Confessions written with his own hand and sent to the King viz. That Greenwell did acquaint him with this not as with a sin he had to confess but as an Act which he well enough understood and in which he required his advice and counsel That Catesby and Greenwell came to him to require his advice upon the matter and that the whole business might be resolved among them That Tesmund for so he was now called who e're while was Greenwell and he did not long agone consult together in Essex of the Particulars of this Conspiracy Lastly when Greenwell asked who should be Protector of the Kingdom Garnet answered that that answer ought to be deferred till they saw how things should go When these things were brought to his remembrance and did make it appear that he knew of the Conspiracy otherwise then by the way of Confession all that he answered was that whatsoever he had signed with his own hand was true Being brought to Execution the Third of May being Inventio crucis Holy rood day he said he came thither that day to find an end at length of all the crosses that he had born in this life that none were ignorant of the cause of his punishmentâ— that he had sinned against the King in concealing it that he was sorry for it and humbly begged the Kings Pardon that the Plot against the King and Kingdom was bloody and which if it had taken effect he should have detested with all his heart and that so horrid and inhumane a Fact should be attempted by Catholicks was that that grieved him more then his death Then he added many things in defence of Anne Vaux who was held in Prison and lay under great suspition upon his account Being accused that he had while Q. Eliz. was alive received certain Breves from Rome v. Proceedings Q 3. in which he and the Peers inclined to Popery were admonished that when that miserable Woman should happen to die they should admit of no Prince how nearly soever related in blood but such as should not only tolerate the Catholick Faith but by all means promote it he said he had burnt them the King being received for King And when he was again Examined upon the same things he referred Henry Montacute who asked him about it The Recorder of London to his Confessions subscribed by him Being taxed for sending Edmund Bainham to Rome not to return to the City before the Plot should take effect This he thus excused as if he had not sent him upon that account but that he might inform the Pope of the calamitous state of England and consult with him what course the Catholicks should take and therefore referred them again to his Confessions Then he kneeled down upon the Stage to his Prayers and looking about hither and thither did seem to be distressed for the loss of his life and to hope a Pardon would be brought him from the most merciful Prince Montacute admonished him that he should no longer think of life but if he knew of any Treachery against the King or Kingdom that he should as a dying man presently discover it for that it was now no time to Equivocate At which words Garnet being somewhat moved made answer that he knew the time did not admit of Equivocation that how far and when it is lawful to Equivocate he had otherwhere delivered his opinion that now he did not equivocate and that he knew nothing but what he had confessed Then he excused himself that
averting of imminent evils which he illustrates with this Instance A Malefactor Maleficus confesses that himself or some other hath put Powder or something else under such an entry or groundsel and except it be taken away the house will be burnt the Prince destroyed and as many as go into or out of the City will come to great mischief or hazard and then for some reasons resolves for the Negative contrary to the common sense and opinion of almost all the Doctors as he there acknowledgeth whereof this is one viz. because Pope Clement VIII by his decree had commanded the Superiors of the Regulars to be most diligently cautious that they should not make use of that knowledge of sins which they had by confession for exterior government which shews saith he that the Pope doth most approve that opinion which will have Confessors so to carry themselves as if they had heard nothing at all in confession At length from this Doctrine he draws these Consequences The 1. to this purpose If one Malefactor confessing among the circumstances of his sin discover his partner in it and the other also presently comes and confesses but conceals that sin wherein he was partner with the other the Confessor may not use this knowledge to examine him concerning that sin which his partner hath confessed The 2. is That a Priest may not no not for fear of death threatned him reveal this crime to any one and that in that case he may say that he knows not nor hath heard any thing of such sin because in truth he doth not know nor hath heard it as he is a man or as a member of the Common-wealth but as a Priest Yea he might say that he hath not heard it in Confession or that the accused person hath not confessed this to him if he do but the while think in his mind viz. so that I may reveal it and all these he may confirm upon Oath Nor may the Priest be compelled to reveal it by any one no not by the Pope much less by any other This passage hath so many suspicious circumstances both in it and concurring with it as all together may be equivalent to a full and direct proof of what is said that Del Rio was privy to the conrivuance of this horrible Powder Plot if not himself the Contriver of it 6. For 1. if we consider the Nature of the Instance nothing could have been better fitted to express this plot of blowing up the Prince and People together more agreeing in all particulars by burning a house not firing a City destroying Prince and People King and Parliament not the Prince alone or also with his family and houshold only by powder not by poison assasination or open rebellion by laying it under a house not under a bed as Moody proposed and all this in so unusual and extraordinary a case when instances enow and mischievous enough might have been given of more ordinary and usual designs and when he had other Doctors who write concerning the same question under his consideration who must needs have put other instances into his mind had not this been studied by him and here made use of upon design If any of those Doctors whom he there cites give any such instance he may reasonably be absolved from all suspicion which otherwise will lie very heavy upon him But it may be thought that perhaps he did this in conformity to the subject which he handles Magick and therefore makes his instance of a Witch or Magitian and of Powders and placed under a groundsel or entry But first were there not many other instances of notorious wickednesses more usual or frequently done or reported to be done by such Artists And secondly was ever any such thing done or pretended or reported to have been done by Art Magick We may therefore reasonably suspect that this instance was not devised meerly for conformity to his subject of Magick but rather proposed under that notion and those terms for a blind a little to disguise and hide the design from such as having no thoughts of such enterprises might easily be diverted from any supition of it while yet it might be plain enough to such minds as were sufficiently disposed to practise such projects 7. And 2. if we consider the Case wherein this Instance is given viz. Of Concealing Confessions his Resolution of it and that contrary to the common sense and opinion of almost all the Doctors as he confesseth And lastly his Confirmation of his resolution by the Authority of the then present Pope and directing the practice of it by equivocation this may direct us to his End and Design in divulging both this Instance and in this very case his Doctrine and Resolution that confirmed by the Popes Authority for concealing Confessions viz. By the one to insinnate and intimate the Contrivance and by the other to encourage and promote the Practise and Execution of it by confirming the Confessors in Concealing Confessions and encouraging the others to the more security of not being discovered To which end and purpose also was probably the Treatise of Equivocation which was found in Treshoms lodging V. Foulis pag. 700. then very seasonably written and designed which was seen and allowed by Garnet v. Proceedings I. And this with Del Rio so mutually conspiring in a tendency and subserviency to the same end do confirm the conjecture of the design of both And it seems very consonant to the subtile practises of the Jesuites rather in this sly secret manner underhand to insinuate this project than directly and expresly to have proposed it so that it had been no great wonder if it had been longer before it had been apprehended and put in execution and it is not improbable that Garnet V. Foulis pag. 695 696. Abbot Antilogia cap. 11. who had been ingaged in former Conspiracies and held correspondence in Flanders might long before have knowledge of it though he would seem to have received his first knowledge of it by Creswel from Catesby 8. Again 3. if with the form and composure of this instance we shall compare the mysterious and aenigmatical form and composure of some other things relating to this conspiracy which are now plain enough to be understood the plain explication of those will teach us how to unriddle the mystery of this and direct us how to expound it Such was that form of Prayer which was taught to some of their party some time before the intended execution of this Plot for the prosperity of their Labours and downfal of Heresie in these words alluding to the working in the Mine and blowing up of the House Prosper Lord their pains that labour in thy cause day and night Let Heresie vanish like smoak Let the memory of it perish with a crack like the ruine and fall of a broken house Foulis pag. 698. And that very Letter which was the occasion of the happy discovery and prevention of
after the Plot defeated Nor do we find any in Holy Orders except the Pope himself to have had any hand in it or particular knowledge of it but such as were of this Society of the Jesuites For the Secular Priests though two of them in pursuance of the Popes Bulls immediately upon the coming in of the King were ingaged in a Conspiracy of their own if not trapan'd by the Jesuites V. Stowe Fuller Anno 1603. Sect. 14. against him but of a lower and more ordinary nature and by the Actions of the Jesuites perceived something in general that the Jesuites had then some notable Plot in agitation yet we may reasonably believe that they were utterly unacquainted with the Kind and Particulars of this so high and refined a project above the pitch of their imaginations to conceive not onely from what hath been already said out of their Confessions but also by reason of the differences and dissentions which were then and have since continued between the Jesuites and them V. Declarat Motuum Edit 1601. Watsons Quodlibets Edit 1602. 15. 2. Nor were they two or three Jesuites only in a corner and they of the lower rank or of mean or ordinary authority but such as were of greatest reputation place and Authority among them who were concerned in this business as besides Osw Tesmond alias Greenwel who with Robâ—rt Winter was by Garnet Catesby and Tresham Anno 1601. sent into Spain with Letters commendatory to F. Creswel to Negotiate the then intended Spanish Expedition besides Gerrard and Hammond and Hall besides * V. Wilson Hist of King James F. Weston who heretofore Anno 1595. at Wisbich castle by his contention for a Superiority over the other Priests as well as Jesuites began the differences which have since continued between them and in his book de Triplici hominis Officio Printed Anno 1602. foretold of many calamities storms and dangers that were like to ensue upon the Queens death as did also the Author of The Ward-word Printed at Lovane 1599. said to be Parsons as was observed and noted * Answer to the Supplication chap 4. Edit Lond. 16â—4 in Print before this Plot was detected besides all these and many more no doubt not yet discovered the Superiour of the whole Order of English Jesuites even their Provincial himself here in England F. Hen. Garnet who had been eighteen years here in England and a promoter of former conspiracies and held correspondence with divers other of prime note and authority in forrein parts as with F. Creswel in Spain who being many years Vice-praefectus Anglicanae Missionis Sub provincial and Leger there did great matters and by the Authority which he had with the two Philips 11 111. Kings of Spain obtain'd many things of them for the good of the Catholick cause in England as we read in Alegambe and about a month or six weeks * About the time that Banham was sent by Garnet to the Pope before this Plot should have been effected went from Villadolit to Rome to be created a Cardinal saith L. Owen but more probably upon some other negotiation concerning this great business then in hand L. O. of the Engl. Col. in forrein parts pag. 74. Lond. 1626. quar also with F. Baldwin in the Low-countries of like place and Authority there ever since the year 1590. at which time Del Rio read Divinity at Doway as he did afterward at other places in those parts as Leige and Lovane who being so famous as he was in those parts and so great a zealot against hereticks it is not to be doubted that he had frequent converse with F. Baldwin and divers others of the English Fugitives of the better quality Lastly at Rome with the English Assistant there F. Parsons whom we may conclude to have had particular knowledge of this design not only from what he wrote concerning the Journey or Pilgrimage to S. Winefreds-well the mystical prayer which he ordered his Students to use to say nothing of the many projects which his working brain continually devised and his furious zeal as earnestly urged and prosecuted or of his Letter wherein he wrote Anno 1600 that he had then been ten years dealing in such matters but we are moreover given to understand so much from some of his own Religion though not of his Order and that he was highly accessory to it both before and after the discovery as might be proved by great and manifest instances The Jesuites Reasons unreasonable Doubt 1. But for his Correspondence at Rome we need do no more but first remember who Garnet was viz. Provincial of the English Jesuites and then reflect upon the continual weekly or octiduan Intelligences which the Provincials from all parts constantly transmit concerning all matters of moment to their several respective Assistants at Rome who immediately impart the same to the F. General of the whole Society always Resident there and he or they as the matter requires or deserves to the Pope of which the Discourse of the Jesuites Politicks written under Paul v. Printed in the Myst of Jesuit part 2. and other Writers give us an account and then we cannot doubt of his correspondence there not only with the English Assistant Parsons but also at least by means of the Assistant with the F. General Claudius Aquaviva and with the Pope himself and that in this very particular being a matter of so great moment which doth more particularly appear by the Bulls prepared to be sent over hither as soon as the plot had taken effect and other instances not necessary here to be insisted on So that if we consider the Persons and their Correspondences and Intelligences it will not be hard to conceive how easily this Plot wheresoever or by whomsoever invented might be communicated if by Del Rio to our Incendians here if by any of them to him if at Rome both to him and to them or for the more secret conveyance of the notice of it from thence by him to them Which is not unlikely that it was and that it was the contrivance of F. Parsons who at that time Anno 1600 had been ten years dealing in such matters and studying and promoting projects against his Country as we may perceive by his aforesaid letter then written 16. Lastly if from the Actors we come to consider their Actions and Management of the whole business we shall find a wonderful agreement from first to last in all the Circumstances not one crossing or thwarting our conjecture not one sailing not one that doth not afford some matter or ground to confirm it For 1. If we consider the whole Section of Del Rio and with it compare the Actions and carriage of the Conspirators in all there is so punctual an agreement that without further proof it seems to own and bewray its parent being as like him as if according to our proverb it was spat out of his mouth at least to discover that
that the Bull doth always Oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks but not the Catholicks rebus sic stantibus but only then when they should be able publickly to put it in execution And that it might in due time be effectually Executed Missions are made into England to Prepare a Party to adhere to the Spaniard at his coming to invade us Bacon Observ Collect. Consid And the better to conceal and disguise the Practice and make the Queen and her Councel the more secure it is Resolved not to have any Head of the party here But the Emissaries coming dayly over in various Disguised Habits deal particularly Camd. sine Ann. 1580. and so more effectually with the people in their secret Confessions Absolving them particularly in private from Obedience and Fidelity to the Queen Camd. p. 315.348 as the Bull of Pius v. had done in publick but only in general and severally Engaging them in that secret manner as hath been before mentioned so as none could be privy to others engagements And these Doctrines were every where inculcated Camb. fin An. 1581. Thu. l. 74. That Princes not professing the Roman Religion are fallen from their Title and Royal Authority 2. That Princes Excommunicate are not to be Obeyed but thrown out of their Kingdoms and that it is a meritorious work to do it 3. That the Clergy are exempt from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and are not bound by their Laws 4. That the Pope of Rome hath the Chief and Full Power and Authority over All throughout the whole world even in Civil matters 5. That the Magistrates of England are not Lawful Magistrates and therefore not to be accounted Magistrates at all 6. That what ever since the Bull of Pius v. was published which some hold to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost hath by the Queens Authority been acted in England is by the Law of God and Man to be reputed altogether void and null These Doctrines thus secretly instilled into mens minds in private were seconded with several pernitious Books in print against the Queen and Princes Excommonicate And as well to deter the rest from Obedience and move them to Expectation of Change and Reconciliation to the Church of Rome as to encourage their own party Camd. an 1580 l. 318. they not only by Rumours but also by printed Books gave out that the Pope and King of Spain had conspired to subdue England and take it for a prey Gollect of the Churches This is true says Sir Fr. Bacon and witnessed by the Confessions of many that almost all the Priests which were sent into this Kingdom from that year 1581. to the year 1588. at what time the Design of the Pope and Spain was put in Execution had in their Instructions besides other parts of their Function to distil and insinuate into the People these Particulars It was impossible things should continue at this stay They should see ere long a great change in this State That the Pope and Catholick Princes were careful for the English if they would not be wanting to themselves Which are almost the very words of Sanders mentioning the considerations upon which these Seminaries were at first founded But notwithstanding this Camd. an 81. Thu. lib 74. Bac. Collect. we are not to think that All the Priests which were sent over were acquainted with the Arcana and Secrets of the Disign but only the Superiours and some of the best qualified for the business who managed and steered the actions of the rest according to their private Instructions 30. Hereupon says Rishton who published and inlarged Sanders his book speaking of these Missions soon after ensued a great change of minds and wonderful encrease of Religion Which that we may know it by its Fruits presently appeared in several desperate attempts and Resolutions to Kill the Queen First by Somervil who being taken and condemned with Hall a Priest and others whom he confessed was three days after found strangled in the prison for fear probably least he should have discovered others Then to pass by the practise of Bern. Mendoza the Spanish Ambassadour Lieger here with Throgmorton and Martins book by William Parry Doctor of Law encouraged thereunto by Ben. Palmius a Jesuite Thn. lib. 79. Ragazonius the Popes Nuncio in France Cardinal Como and the Pope himself who sends him his Benediction Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his Sins and assures him that besides his Merit which he shall have in Heaven his Holiness will remain his debtor to acknowledge his desert in the best manner he can and after all this very much excited to it by Dr. Allens Book which saith he teacheth that Princes Excommunicate for heresie are to be deprived of their Kingdoms and Lives All which Parry confessed produced the Letter from the Pope written by Cardinal Como and was executed in March 1584 and the Pope soon after in April was called to account in another world Immediately before this in Thuanus precedes the relation of the murther of the Prince of Aurang 10. Jul. by Bal. Gerard confirmed in his resolution by a Jesuite at Treves promising him if he dyed for it he should be happy and be put in the number of Martyrs and also encouraged to it by a Franciscan at Tourney and three other Jesuites at Treves 31. To Gregory succeeded as well in his practises as in that See Sixtus v. chosen Pope the twenty fourth of the same moneth of April and about this time John Savage into whose head the Doctrines that it is meritorious to Kill Excommunicated Princes and Martyrdom to die for so doing being by the Giffords and Hodgeson priests throughly inculcated made a vow to kill the Queen And soon after the same resolution is taken up by Antony Babington a proper young gentleman of a good family upon the same principles in like manner inculcated and somewhat enforced with other hopes if he escaped the danger by Ballard a Jesuite who incited him to it as not only Just and Holy in it self but moreover Honourable and Profitable to him if he should overcome the difficulty For what could be more Just and Holy than with the hazard of his Life to vindicate his Countrey and the Cause of Religion without which Life it self ought to be nothing esteemed of Elizabeth was now long since by the Lawful Successor of Peter cast out of the Communion of the Church from that time she doth not reign in England but by a usurped Power contrary to the Laws exercise a cruel Tyranny against the true Worshippers of God Whoever should kill her doth no more than he that should slay a profane Heathen or some damned accursed creature he should be free from all sin either against God or Man yea would merit a Crown of Glory and if he survived the enterprise should doubtless obtain a great reward under the notion of Reward not obscurely insinuating his marriage with the Queen of Scots Thus
and had cost before ever they set out to sea not so little as 12000000 aurea centies vicies centena millia aureorum as appeared by their books of account as the Spanish Ambassadour informed the French King in the hearing of Thuanus 34. Notwithstanding this defeat of his Military Forces after so great preparations and that with so great expense of his Treasure yet it seems the King of Spain was so well pleased with the proceedings of his Agents the Emissaries here that he thought good to erect another Colledge for them the next year and that they might not be far from his Court at Villadolit Which in short time about two years after sent out a Mission into England the Emissaries coming over in the Disguised Habits of Seamen Merchants Thu. l. 100. Souldiers c. In the mean time Sixtus v. dyed about 27. Aug. 1590. in so great hatred of the people for his intolerable Exactions New Impositions that there was presently in the vacancy a concourse of the people to throw down the Statue which in his life time was erected for him in the Capitol Cicarel in vita ejas At his Election the Cardinals in the Conclave were all first sworn that whoever of them should be chosen Pope among other things for the Benefit of their Religion the Dignity of the Holy See and the Splendour of the Sacred Colledge of Cardinals should to the best of his Power Engage the Catholick Princes to fight against the Turk Hereticks and Schismaticks And how well this man being chosen prosecuted the design of his Oath may be understood in part by what hath been said already and may be further seen in his dealings with our Neighbours in France Whereof an instance or two by the way and a word or two of his quality and manners will not be much beside our purpose He had his Original as himself used to glory from an Illustrious House for for want of Covering it was in all parts illustrated by the Sun-beams being born of poor parents in a pittiful Cottage But his good qualities were must conspicuous after his Election to the Papacy being a most Imperious Proud Ambitious Vain-glorious Gluttonous Covetous Unjust Revengeful Inhumane and rashly severe man the contraries whereof by a special faculty of Dissimulation he had before simulated as he is described by Thuanus and Cicarella in his life He began the exercise of his Authority with a rash and unjust condemnation of a young man of Florence to be hanged Thu. l. 83. Cicarel in vita for only refusing in his Masters house to deliver an Ass to the Popes Officers which was not his in whose name they demanded it but the young mans master's all men pittying the hard case of the poor fellow Nor was this dealing used only with men of inferiour quality for by his command the Cardinal Saluiato at Bononia having summoned Count John Pepulus a man of prime Nobility and of no less Piety and Probity for entertaining certain Gentlemen who were exiles in some places out of the Popes Territories which were anciently granted to him by the Emperor when he pleaded a Prescription of the Emperors Priviledge caused him in the night to be pulled out of his own house and having a Priest ready to confess him presently to be strangled And that we may see how well he could use both swords in the beginning also of his Papacy he sent out his Excommunication against the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde after a glorious Preface concerning the Authority given to Peter and his Successors far above all the Powers of Earthly Kings and Princes which never swerves from right judgment Declaring them to be Sectaries and publick and manifest Favourers and Defenders of Sectaries guilty of high treason against the Divine Majesty and Enemies of the Catholick Faith to be faln from all Right of Dignity and them and their Successors to be unworthy to succeed in any principality particularly in the Kingdom of France Absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Fidelity and lastly Exhorting the King of France to be mindful of his Oath at his Coronation and to Extirpate all the seeds of the Sectaries And we may suppose that he was true to his Oath and the Interest of his See when he deceived the expectations of the Leaguers in France and their assistants the Spaniard least as Cicarella notes if the King of France and his party should have been overcome by the Assistance of Spain the Spaniard might take the advantage of it to enlarge his own Dominions too much Thu. l. 96. which might have proved dangerous to the Holy See But he made them amends for it afterward though without any expense of his Treasure for he sent out his Excommunication against the King of France himself although a man of an irreconcilable hatred against the Protestants and who had been a promoter of the Parisian Massacre unless within ten days he should set at liberty the Cardinal Bourbon whom the Rebels desired to make head of their party This was published in May and the 1. of August after was the King murthered by James Clement a Jacobin who was thus resolved in the Case by the * F. Edm. Burgoin who was afterwards excuted for it drawn in pieces by four horses his quarters burned his ashes scattered in the wind Danita l. 10. p. 857. Prior of his Covent that if he undertook it not out of hatred or desire of private revenge but inflamed with the love of God for Religion and the good of his Country he might not only do it with a safe Conscience but should merit much before God and without doubt if he should die in the act his soul would ascend to the Quires of the Blessed and as some say he was likewise encouraged by F. Commelet and other Jesuites This fact of Clement was highly extolled in France both in Sermons and Printed books and the Leaguers had that opinion of his Martyrdom for he was presently killed in the place and afterward pulled to pieces and his body burned that they came to the place and scraped up the very dust and earth whereon any of his blood lighted as Sacred Relicks and put it into a Vessel in which they came intending to carry it to Paris and there erect a Monument of his Martyrdom ad adorationem but by a vehement wind which suddenly arose both vessel and passengers were all drowned not one escaping and the relicks cast away Nor was the fact less extolled at Rome even by the Pope himself in a Premeditated Speech in the Consistory wherein he not only preferred that wicked wretch before Eleazar and Judith but most impiously and blasphemously compared his fact for the greatness and admirableness of it to the Mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour The King had caused the Duke of Guise who was head of the Rebels to be slain and this was one main matter which
incensed the Pope against him Thu. l. 94. For the Pope had agreed with Guise in secret to marry his Niece to the Prince of Jonvil Guise his son and heir and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and compel him by the Popes authority to renounce his right to the Kingdom and to set up Guise the father King in his place But how zealous and jealous he was for the Dignity and Authority of the Holy See is worth our further notice in an instance related by a good Catholick the learned Civil Lawyer William Barclay in his book De Potestate Papae dedicated to Pope Clement VIII None of all the writers of the Popes part saith he hath either more dilig ntly collected or more ingeniously proposed or more smartly and subtilely concluded their reasons and arguments for the Popes Authority than the Eminent Divine Bellarmine who although he attributed as much as with honesty he could and indeed more than he ought to have done to the Authority of the Pope in Temporals yet could he not satisfie the Ambition of that most Imperious man Sixtus v. who affirmed that he held a Supreme Power over All Kings and Princes of the whole Earth and all People and Nations delivered to him not by humane but Divine Institution In so much that he was very near by his Papal Censure to have abolished to the great detriment of the Church all the works of that Doctor which at this day oppose heresie with very great success as the Fathers of that Order of which Bellarmine was have seriously told me cap. 13. But enough of Sixtus By whom for example we may guess by these fruits what likelyhood there is that he and such as he whereof there hath been no small number Popes since the tenth Age especially that Seculum Infelix when with a great Eclipse of Learning the Popes of Rome as even Bellarmine noteth degenerated from the Piety of the Ancients were partakers of and directed by that Holy Spirit which God giveth to them that obey him to conduct them in all truth or rather the Spirit of the world the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whose works they have done 35. The three next succeeding Popes Vrban 7. Gregory 14. and Innocent 9. did not all of them live out half three years from the death of this and therefore we cannot expect to hear of any attempts or design of theirs against this Kingdom But after Clement VIII who was elected Pope 3. Feb. 1591 2. was settled in his seat the like practises soon began again wherein those agents whom we have mentioned before Hesket Lopez and Complices his Cullen York and Williams who confessed some others and Squire were imployed to raise rebellion poison or assassinate the Queen Lopez by the King of Spain's Ministers of State not without the privity and consent of himself all the rest incited and encouraged by the Jesuites who for the like practises at the same time against the most Christian King though then become Catholick too Thu. l. 111. were exterminated out of all France and a Pyramid erected for their perpetual Infamy But from all these God still preserved her the Emissaries being discovered taken and Executed Nor did he only preserve her from their attempts but shortly after blessed her with happy successes in an Expedition against the Spaniards then preparing again to Invade England Bacon Observ wherein the King of Spains Navy of 50. tall Ships besides twenty Gallies to attend them were beaten and put to flight and in the end all but two which were taken by the English burned only the twenty Gallies by the benefit of the Shallows escaping the town of Cadiz manned with 4000. foot and 400. horse taken sack'd and burnt but great Clemency used toward the inhabitants Camd. an 1596 and at last the English returning home with honour and great spoils besides the two Gallions and about 100. great brass Guns and great store of ammunition and provisions of war taken in the town and with very small loss and but of one person of quality the Spaniards having lost in all first and last 13. of their best men of war and 44. other Ships of great burden and in Ships great guns and military provisions by the estimate of the most knowing persons above 3000000 ducates And when the King of Spain not long after that he might repair this loss in a heat had from all parts gathered together all the Ships he could and manned even the strangers Ships which were in the Ports of Spain and set out this Navy to Land upon the Coasts either of England or Ireland the Heavens fought for her and so favoured her that by a horrid tempest which arose most of those Ships were either sunk by the waves or broken against the rocks in so much that she sooner heard of the destruction of her enemies than of their setting out to Sea to assault her The year ensuing great preparations were made on both sides but the Heavens not favoring any further proceedings of this kind both the Fleets were so dispersed by storms that neither came within sight of the other And now the King of Spain became well inclined to a peace with England which though proposed by the French he lived not to see brought to effect for he died the 13. of Sept. after 36. But the death of the King of Spain did not dissolve the Combination no more than the deaths of so many several Popes before had done For it still survived in his son Phil. 111. with Clement VIII Only so many former attempts having proved altogether unsuccessful against England there was now with the persons some change also of their Counsels and all their Consultations against England were afterward so directed as to depend for their execution upon the death of the Queen Yet in Ireland there seemed some hopes that something might be effected at present by assisting the Robels there and therefore for their encouragement and assistance the King of Spain by his Agent Don Martin de la Cerda sends them money and Ammunition and the Pope by Mathew de Oviedo whom he designed Archbishop of Dublin Promises of Indulgence with a Phoenix plume to Tir-Oen their General and the year after he sends them his Indulgence it self to this effect That whereas of long time being led on by the Exhortations of his Predecessors and himself and of the Apostolick See for the recovery and defence of their Liberty against the Hereticks they had with Vnited minds and Forces given aid and assistance first to James Fitz-Girald and lastly to Hugh Onel Earl of Tyron Captain General of the Catholick Army in Ireland who with their Souldiers had in process of time performed many brave atchievements fighting manfully against the enemy and for the future are ready to perform the like that they may all the more cheerfully do it and assist against the said Hereticks being willing after the
example of his Predecessors to vouchsafe them some Spiritual Graces and Favours he favourably grants to all and every one who shall joyn with the said Hugh and his Army asserting and fighting for the Catholick Faith or any way aid or assist them if they be truly penitent and have confessed and if it may be received the Sacrament a Plenary Pardon and Remission of All their Sins the same which used to be granted by the Popes of Rome to those who go to war against the Turks 18. April 1600. Camd. p. 750. Foul. p. 651. And the next year again for their further encouragement he sends a particular letter to Tyrone wherein he Commends their Devotion in engaging in a Holy League and their valour and atcheivements Exhorts them to continue unanimous in the same mind and Promises to write effectually to his Sons the Catholick Kings and Princes to give all manner of Assistance to them and their cause and tells him he thinks to send them a peculiar Nuncio who may be helpful to them in all things as occasion shall serve 20. Jan. 1601. Foul. p. 655. The King of Spain likewise sends his Assistance a great fleet who landed at King-Sale 20. Sept. under the conduct of Don John d'Aquila who sets out a Declaration shewing the King of Spain's pretense in the war which he saith is with the Apostolick Authority to be administred by him that they perswade not any to deny due Obedience according to the word of God to their Prince but that all know that for many years since Elizabeth was deprived of her Kingdom and All her Subjects Absolved from their Fidelity by the Pope unto whom he that reigneth in the Heavens the King of Kings hath committed All Power that he should Root up Destroy Plant and Build in such sort that he may punish temporal Kings if it should be good for the Spiritual Building even to their Deposing which thing hath been done in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by many Popes viz. by Pope Pius v. Gregory XIII and now by Clement VIII as is well known whose Bulls are extant that the Pope and the King of Spain have resolved to send Souldiers Silver Gold and Arms with a most liberal hand that the Pope Christs Vicar on Earth doth command them the Papists in Ireland to take Arms for the defense of their Faith c. Camd. p. 829. Foul. 658. And not long after more Supplies were sent from Spain under Alonso de Ocampo Thu. l. 125. Cam. an 1601. 1602. But it pleased God to make the Queen still Victorious over All and part of them with the Irish Rebels being beaten and routed in the Field the rest are brought to articles upon which they Surrender All and are sent home when more forces were coming from Spain to their recruit The next year most of the other Rebels being defeated and subdued last of all Mac Eggan the Popes Vicar Apostolick with a party of the Rebels which he himself led with his Sword drawn in one hand and his Breviary and Beads in the other was slain by the Queens forces and the Rebels routed in January 1602 3 and so the whole Kingdom Tyrone also submitting to mercy totally subdued Camd. an 1603. Foul. p. 664. 37. And now this Blessed Queen having by an Admirable Providence of Almighty God been Preserved from All these both Secret Conspiracies and Open Invasions through a long Reign of four and forty years compleat and made victorious over All her Enemies as well abroad as at home Out-lived her great and bitter enemy Phil. 11. King of Spain who himself lived to be sensible of the Divine Judgment of the Iniquity of his Actions against her and to desire a Peace with her though he lived not to enjoy it Out-lived four Kings of France eight Popes and the greatest part of the ninth and maugre all the Powers of Hell the Malice and Wicked Machinations of Men of most turbulent and Anti-christian Spirits Defended that Purity of Religion which even at the very beginning of Her Reign she had with Mature Deliberation and a Generous and most Christian Courage and Resolution notwithstanding all Difficulties and Dangers which on every side threatened her undertakings established was by the same at last brought to her Grave in Peace in a Good Old Age. Her very Enemies admiring as well her Worth and Excellence as her Glory and Felicity see the one extolled by Sixtus v. Thu. l. 82. p. 48. and the other by An. Atestina l. 129. and both more largly described by the Noble and Ingenuous Thuanus l. 129. and Sir Francis Bacon in his Collection of her Felicities while her Neighbours who wickedly and barbarously persecuted the Professors of that Reformed Religion for their Religion sake which she with great and Christian Moderation towards the adversaries of it happily established and defended either lived not out half their days or died violent deaths and were murthered by their own Subjects of the same Religion with themselves or were otherwise unhappy in their attempts in that Eminently Remarkable manner as is so far from being impertinent to our subject and design briefly to note that it would be a great fault and unworthy neglect not to do it Certainly who ever shall impartially and without prejudice consider the History of this blessed and happy Queen and with it compare the History of the Times both precedent and subsequent to her reign and especially of her neighbours in France durng her own times must needs acknowledge not only an Admirable Providence over Her in both Preserving and Blessing her in all her Affairs but a Special Distinguishing Providence thus favouring her and at the same time in a very remarkable manner disfavouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the different and contrary Courses and Practises of her Neighbours and others 38. We might here remember the Story of Don Sebastian King of Portugal who in the heat of his youth and devotion to the See of Rome had tendered his service to the Pope and engaged in an Expedition against England and Ireland but having raised a great Army and prepared a great Fleet was by the King of Fesse prevailed with to assist him in the recovery of his Kingdom in Mauritania Where with Stukely who commanded the Italian Forces raised by the Pope and King of Spain for the service against Ireland whom he perswaded to go with him first to the African war he was slain dyed without issue and left his Kingdom a prey to the Spaniard whereby not only the present storm which threatned the Queen was blown over but the Spaniard also for divers years diverted by his wars with Portugal from molesting the Queen in that manner which otherwise 't is likely he would have done and from some such Invasion as though then intended was not actually undertaken till ten years after We might here also remember Don John of Austria in the heat of his eager designs upon England cut off
a wary answer such as though not altogether denying their demand yet gave them no great satisfaction But though they failed in this attempt to unking the King with his own consent yet they resolved though without or contrary to his consent not only to moderate the last articles of Peace but to break them utterly and again with more force than ever to begin the War against the Protestants whereby they brought the King to this necessity that he must either plainly and openly break his faith given to the Protestants which he had done before only by connivance or engage with them in a more dangerous War against the Leaguers And divers disswaded him from breach of his Faith among the rest William Lantgrave of Hesse Thu. l. 63. besides the reason he gave him in mind of that late and memorable example of Ladislaus 4. King of Hungary who having sworn a Truce with the great Turk Amurath 2. being perswaded by the Pope and Cardinals out of a vain hope that they could absolve him from the obligation of it perfidiously broke it Whereupon in the first encounter the Turk lifting up his eyes to Heaven and calling to Christ to behold and punish the perfidious dealing where with his followers had dishonoured him he was himself slain with 30000 of his men on the other side the French Theologists did openly both in Sermons and printed Books contend that the Prince is not obliged to keep Faith with the Hereticks alledging to that purpose the Decree of the Council of Constance and therefore War is to be undertaken to extirpate them And by the advice of the Bishop of Lymoges and Morvillier sometime Bishop of Orleans the King determined since he could not by open resistance hinder the designs and progress of the League which already had taken too deep root to make himself Head and Protector of it and draw that authority to himself which he saw they endeavoured to settle upon the Head of the League both within and without the Kingdom which accordingly he did causing it to be read published and sworn in open assembly and with high protestations declared that he would spend his last breath to reduce all his people to a unity in Religion and an entire obedience to the Roman Church which done he without much difficulty prevailed with Navar and the Protestants to yield to some restraints of the publick exercise of their Religion And thus by a new Edict of Pacification were things in * For in the midst of peace nothing but the persecution of heresie was daily threatened Da. p. 479. some sort quieted for some time 52. But after the death of Alancon the King's youngest Brother who died without issue and not without suspition of poison in the flower of his age being about thirty wherein we may take notice by the way of the Divine Vengeance by degrees extirpating that Family which so wickedly sought the extirpation of the Protestants the King having no issue nor like to have any Busbeq ep 5. notwithstanding all his visits and supplications at the Monuments of Saints and Religious places whereby the Crown was likely to descend to the King of Navar a Protestant Prince who was next heir to it the Leaguers presently begin new troubles Thu. l. 80. the Preachers from the Pulpits fill their hearers minds with fears and jealousies meetings are every where held Souldiers secretly listed and Officers appointed and the more to enrage the people Thu. l. 81. while the Preachers fill their ears with the noise of approaching dangers dreadful and horrid representations of most terrible persecutions which the Catholicks are said to suffer in England are presented to their view both in printed Books and also in Cuts and Pictures which are set up in publick places and persons appointed to relate the sad stories of them and tell the people that thus it will be also in France if the King of Navar be admitted to the Kingdom and therefore to secure themselves of a Catholick King they resolve to set up the Cardinal Bourbon for head of the League at present and to succeed the King in case he should die without issue And the better to strengthen themselves they renew their League with the Spaniard Da. p. 526. and having suddenly raised a considerable Army contrary to the King 's express prohibition by his Edict Da. p. 535. they begin to make themselves Masters of many Cities and Fortresses some by secret practices some by open force of Arms Da. p. 550. driving out the King's Governors and Officers and in short time through the fury of the people and great converse of the Clergy in favour of the League became so formidable to the King that he was forced to a new agreement with them against the Protestants Da. p. 557. to banish their Preachers confiscate their estates and with all speed denounce a War against them wherein such men should be made Commanders as the League should confide in and a great deal more partly against the Protestants and partly to strengthen their own party Da. p. 598. This agreement was made by the King only to comply with his present necessity and not with any intention to perform it For being now out of hope of issue himself he resolved to further Navar 's right and to unite himself with him as his lawful Successor and make him partaker in matters of Government to which end he held secret correspondence with him Da. p. 600. But the Leaguers force him to go on with the War and upon the score of his treaty with Navar raise great clamors and calumnies against him that the cause of Religion is betrayed the Protestants openly favoured the course of the War interrupted and that the King shews openly that his mind is averse to the Catholick party and that he desires by all means to cherish and maintain heresy Da. p. 606. And now the minds of the people are more than ever inflamed against his person and proceedings which were publickly inveighed against in the Pulpits and particularly slandered in private meetings Thu. l. 86. but especially by the Priests at the secret confessions of the people whom they refused to absolve unless they would enter into the League and for the more secret carrying on of the business intrusted in this new Doctrine that as well the Penitent who shall reveal what he hears from his Confessor as the Confessor who reveals what the Penitent confesseth doth incur the guilt of mortal sin From calumnies and slanders they proceed to conspiracies and actions And at Paris they set up a new Council of sixteen Da. p. 606. Thu. l. 86. which hold their secret meetings first at the Colledg of Forlet commonly called the cradle of the League afterwards at the Colledge of the Dominicans and at the Jesuites Colledge they plot to surprize Boulogne and there to admit the Spanish Fleet prepared against England Da. p.
he learned that Doctrine from them Whereupon their Colledge being searched among the papers of F. John Guignard were found many writings that taught that Doctrine many things against the late King and that praised the murder of him and likewise against the present King that perswaded the killing of him and tending to sedition and parricide that it would be well done to thrust Navar though professing the Catholick Religion into a Monastery there to do penance if without war he cannot be deposed war is to be made against him if war cannot be made he must by any means be taken out of the way c. all which he was convicted to have written with his own hand and was therefore hanged Also John Gueret the ordinary Confessor of Chastel F. Alexander Haye and John Bell all of the same Society were likewise convicted of the like offences but were condemned only to perpetual banishment and confiscation of their goods 57. Thu. l. 37. The Society of the Jesuites to whom the Bishop of Clermont gave his house in Paris called Clermont house from whence they were called the Society of Clermont by those who disliked their ambitious arrogant appropriating to themselves the Title of Jesuites as that which doth belong to all true Christians was by the recommendation of Charles Cardinal of Lorrain the Guisians alwaies highly favouring this new Society first admitted in France in the year 1550. by Henr. 2. of whom was obtained a Charter for them to build and erect a School at Paris but there only and not in other Cities But when this Charter and the Pope's Bull of confirmation of their institution were brought into the Court to be allowed and were read the Parliament referred them both to the consideration of the Bishop of Paris and of the Colledge of Divines Whereupon they gave their Sentence in writing to this effect That this new Society by an insolent Title appropriating to themselves the name of Jesus and so licentiously admitting any persons howsoever illegitimate facinorous and infamous without any respect and which nothing differs from other secular persons in Rites Ceremonies or rule of living whereby the Orders of Monks are distinguished moreover is endowed with so many Priviledges Liberties and Immunities especially in the Administration of the Sacraments to the prejudice of the Prelates and of the Sacred Order and also even of the Princes and Lords and to the great grievance of the people contrary to the Priviledges of the Vniversity of Paris seems to violate the honourableness of the Monastick Order to enervate the studious pious and necessary exercise of Virtue Abstinence Ceremonies and Authority and also to give occasion to others to forsake their Vows to withdraw their due Obedience from the Prelates unjustly deprive the Lords both Ecclesiastical and others of their rights to introduce great disturbance in the Civil Ecclesiastical Government Quarrels Suits Dissentions Contentions Emulations Rebellions and various Scissures that for these causes this Society seems very dangerous in respect of Religion as that which is like to disturb the Peace of the Church to enervate the Monastick Discipline and to tend more to Destruction than to Edification This so startled the Society that they desisted from any further prosecution till the Reign of Francis 2. When the Guisians who highly favoured this new Society carrying all before them they resumed the business again and first the Bishop of Paris Eust Bellaius was required to give his Sentence which he did in writing That that Society as all new Orders was very dangerous and at these times instituted rather to stir up Commotions than to make up the Peace of the Church and after a sharp censure of their arrogant title adding that in the priviledges granted to it by Paul 3. are many things repugnant to the Common Law and prejudicial to the power and authority of the Bishops Curates and Vniversities and therefore it would be more advisable that since they are by the Pope appointed and bound to instruct the Turks and Infidels and publish the Gospel among them yet in places which are near to them they should have their Colledges assigned as heretofore the Knights of Rhodes had in the borders and out skirts of the Christians This and the other sentence being read and considered by the King in Counsel the Court notwithstanding through the instigation of the Cardinal of Lorrain was commanded to publish as well the Pope's as the King's Charter without any regard to the intercession of the Bishop and Colledge of Divines and the Jesuites exhibited a supplication to the Court whereby they subjected themselves to the Common Law and renounced all priviledges contrary to it But the Parliament thought fit rather to remit the whole business to a General Council or to a Convention of the Gallicane Church And at a great meeting of the Bishops at the Conference at Poisy they were admitted to teach but under many conditions to change their name be subject to the Bishop of the Diocess to do nothing to the prejudice of the Bishops Colledges Curates Universities or other Orders or their Jurisdiction and Function but be governed according to the prescript of the Common Law and renounce all contrary priviledges c. Hereupon was opened Clermont School at Paris But when this liberty was interrupted by the whole University of Paris the business was again brought before the Parliament The University having before advised with Carolus Molinaeus his Consultation or opinion and resolution of the Case which was afterwards published was that the University had good cause to declare against them for a Nusance because they had erected a new Colledge contrary to the ancient decrees of Synods the General Council under Innocent 3. the Decrees of the Court c. their Institution was not only to the detriment of the several Orders but to the danger of the whole Kingdom and every wise man might justly fear that they might prove spies and betray the secrets of the Kingdom they seemed to be instituted to lie in wait for the estates of dying people they set up a new School in a University to which they would not obey which was not only monstrous but a kind of sedition c. And it was argued on both sides in full Parliament by Pet. Versorius for the Society highly commending their Original and Institution and by Steph. Pascasius for the University as much condemning both their Institution and their Practice their Institution in respect of their obligation by vow both to their General who is always chosen by the King of Spain and whom they profess to respect as God present upon earth and promise a blind Obedience as they call it to him absolutely in all things and to the Pope to whom because they are so obsequious they ought so much the more to be suspected by the French who indeed acknowledge the Pope as Head and Prince of the Church but so as that he is bound to obey the
obedience but these conjoyntly and unanimously conspired against him with the inveterate enemies of the Kingdom the Spaniard nor was there one of that Society found who was of the King's party touches upon foreign examples how in Portugal they and they only deserting the cause of their Country adhered to the Spaniards and were the cause of the slaughters of so many Priests and devout Persons two thousand perishing under the Spaniards in several manners and by a singular indulgence obtained the Pope's pardon of so many confessed slaughters then having spoken of the reasonableness of the Decree which exterminates the Jesuites and had been received without contradiction in all other Courts had not they withstood it who were not well felted in the King's obedience and were hardly brought off from their inveterate hatred against him and answered objections he presents the humble obsecrations and obtestations of the Parliament for the continuance of it and to these adds the humble supplication of the University and at last imminds him of the regard which his Predecessors had always had to the intercessions of the Supreme Courts at whose Petition or Advice they revoked or altered their Edicts if they contained any thing amiss that this the Courts of the Kingdom beseech his Majesty and promise themselves from his Grace that he will please to suffer them to enjoy their authority entire which indeed is the authority of the King himself as that which depends upon him c. But all would not do notwithstanding the intercession of the Parliament the deprecation of the University the disswasions of those he held both able and faithful to him he had made an Edict and it must be published and the Jesuites restored mal-gremesme les avis de quelques uns de son Conscil And they must not only be restored but moreover have a new Colledge built them at La Flesche which the King endowed with an annual Rent of 11000 Crowns Aurei and prevailed with the Clergy for 100000 more toward the building of it and he also orders that the hearts of Himself his Queen and their Successors shall be there intombed in a Church to be built by himself and in the mean time a Father of that Society is admitted to the inspection and conduct of his own being made his ordinary Preacher and Confessor viz. Father Cotton who presently thereupon began to shew his zeal for the Pope against a Sentence of the Colledge of Divines passed two years before wherein they had asserted the Liberties of the Gallican Church against the Pride and Havghtiness and Avarice of Rome and among other things that other Bishops have power to order the publick affairs of the Church within their own Diocess as well as the Roman Bishop in his V. l. 129. and at his instance by the command of the King L. 144. for the Court could not be brought to consent to it not only the marble Table whereon the Decree was engraved but the Pyramid it self with all the other inscriptions in detestation of that fact of Chastel was taken down and demolished and the printâ—d Cuts of it prohibited which being notwithstanding greedily bought up diligent search was by the King's command made for the brass Plate from which they were printed which yet was not found till few days before the murder of this King also renewed the common hatred against the Jesuits 59. But before we proceed to the murder it self of this King it will be necessary to take notice of some other Conspiracies against him whereof some were contemporary with those of Barriere and Chastel though not discovered till afterward and some were since The first of Nic. Malavicinus the Pope's Legate resident with the Arch-Duke at Bruxels who having every where sought for an assassine Thu. l. 123. at last light upon Ch. Ridicone a Dominican Friar of Gant who was very ready to lay down his life for the cause of Religion but before he would undertake this business desired in the first place to have the authority of the Pope and Cardinal's approbation wherefore the Legate for his satisfaction gave him a writing under his hand in the name of the Pope and Cardinals to that purpose and having furnished him with Mony and blessed him with the sign of the Cross he dismissed him giving him also for his better security from discovery a faculty or dispensation to wear a secular habit of a Souldier and to ride dance fence c. Being thus prepared for the business the Jesuite Hoduma to whom his Mother at confession had discovered the agreement desired to see him and having viewed him disliked nothing but his little stature saying that there needed a more robust man In his journey at Vermand he understood that the King was reconciled to the Church and came to the Crown by lawful succession yet he went on as far as St. Denys but from thence returned to Bruxels to the Legate and gave him this reason of his return whereat the Legate shaked his head and telling him that the Bearnois so he called the King and all his party stood still excommunicated by the Pope perswaded him to persevere in his purpose to whom Ridicone answered if I could see the Pope's mandate then it should soon be considered on At the same time Pet. Arger of the same Monastery at Gant having first treated with Malavicinus at Bruxels and then going to Rome being returned from thence likewise undertook the design of killing the King Some time after Ridicone with whom a servant of the Legates had afterward dealt in secret went also to Rome whither Malavicinus had returned where being by him confirmed in his purpose he took his journey by Milan and having there communicated the business to the Spanish Ministers he came into France about the same time that Alex. Medices the Pope's Legate arrived there the King being then reconciled not only to the Church but to the Pope also At last being taken when the King saw that the business could not be examined in a judiciary way without the great infamy of Malavicinus and that not without some reflexion upon the Pope with whom he was already reconciled and moreover casting some suspition upon the Arch-Duke to the disturbance of the business of peace whereof some overtures had been made by the Legate he resolved to dissemble it and dismiss Ridicone out of the Kingdom requiring him not to return again upon pain and penalty of Treason Being returned to Gaunt he resumed his former design of killing the King and after some secret conference at the Monastery of St. Vincent in the King of Spain's Territories he returned again into France where being again apprehended he was condemned and executed At his Trial being asked how he could think of such a thing as to kill the King he answered that by the frequent Sermons from the Pulpit and daily Disputations in the School which he heard and moreover the praises of James Clemont as of a glorious
Martyr who had devoted himself for the liberty of the French every where resounding not only at the Churches but in the Markets Streets and at Feasts he was easily perswaded that he should do a thing pleasing and acceptable to God who should kill the cruel Tyrant who without any right tore in pieces that most Christian Kingdom with the loss of so many souls and therefore when Malavicinus did moreover furnish him with the authority of God and the Pope to that purpose he readily undertook it being put to the rack he made no othero nsession than he had done before At the same time was also executed one Nic. Anglus a Capuchin Frier of St. Michel in the Diocess of Thoul in Lorrain being convicted and condemned for the same crime The next year after Ridicone was first apprehended and while he was in prison Ledesma a Minister of the King of Spain Thu. l. 118. employed one Pet. Owen a Carthusian Frier who for his dissolute manners being censured in his Monastery had fled into Spain to suborn an emissary to murder the King Owen having treated with a Souldier in the King's Army about it to whom he had made great promises was himself the next year after apprehended and convicted both by witnesses and by his own confessions but was pardoned by the King in respect to the Carthusians being satisfied to have taken the evidence in a judicial manner whereupon he might when he pleased expostulate with the Spaniards But shortly after these things ensued the Peace with Spain at Vervins and not long after some hopes given of the restitution of the Jesuites which was at last granted as we have seen whereupon one might have thought that his enemies being all either subdued or reconciled having reconciled himself to the Church to the Pope to those of the League who remained unsubdued to the Spaniard and to the Jesuites that he should henceforward have enjoyed his Kingdom his new Religion which had brought all these blessings with it and his Misses too at least his life in safety But alas it may be feared he had forgotten to reconcile himself truly to his God which made the rest but male facta gratia quae ne quiequam coit rescinditur For when a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him But while he was thus endeavouring to engage the Jesuites to himself the Spaniard on the other side spared neither pains Thu. l. 132. nor promises that by their emissaries they might allure to themselves the minds of those who through the late Civil Wars were alienated from him and under the specious colour of Religion might invite them to disturb the publick peace and quiet of the Kingdom laying hold on all occasions for that purpose and that they might discover his arcana secret counsels and from the knowledge of them the better order their own designs made it their main business to corrupt those who were employed by the principal Officers and Ministers of State Thus among others Nic. L'Oste whom the Secretary Villeroy employed in decysering letters being corrupted by them with an annual pension of 1200 Crowns l. 128. continually discovered all the secrets of the mto the Spanish Embassador They had before corrupted the Mareshal de Biron and some other persons of Quality which being discovered brought him to his end about two years since and now they not only again set upon the Count d'Auvergne L 132. 134. who had been convicted of Biron's conspiracy and pardoned but also the Seigneur d'Entragues and the Marquise de Vernevil his beautiful and witty daughter the King's Miss to corrupt them and that by no meaner or other agents than their Embassadors in France Jo. Taxis and his successor Batth Sunica who to introduce him at first made use of an English sugitive Th. Morgan an actor in the Conspiracies against his own Princess Queen Elizabeth L. 134. The next year this same Embassador Suniga first in person and afterwards to avoid suspition by his Secretary Brunellus treated and at last agreed with Lewis Merargues a Gentleman of Provence to betray Marseilles to the King of Spain which both Merargues and Brunellus confessed being apprehended in private conference in Merargues's Chamber and in Brunellus his hose under his garter was a paper found written in Spanish with his own hand which confirmed the same Vn memoire contenant le plan de son entreprise Perefix These things I the rather note because of use as well to confirm the truth of their like practices in England as to help to ground some conjecture on concerning the murder of this King 60. While the Spaniards are thus active to continue their old and make new friends in France it is not likely they would be unmindful of the Jesuites whom they had always found such ready instruments to serve them and in other Countries were still as well affected to the interest of Spain and the house of Austria V. l. 135.136 though contrary to that of their own Countrey as ever Nor is it to be thought that the Jesuites would be so easily drawn off from their old Friend and Patron by those little expressions of kindness not sufficient to compensate their injuries received and besides might be doubtful whether proceeding from any real affection to them or not especially considering their subjection to the same F. General by whom the motion of their society in other Countries under their several Provincials is in a correspondent uniformity steered only 't is probable as becomes wise men they would be cautious and wary how they did hazard the loss of what they had gotten and therefore act upon pretty sure grounds yet we meet with some influences of their affection to their old friend For to say nothing of F. Cotton a prime man of the Society and the King's Confessor his consulting a supposed Daemoniack concerning the * L. 132. King's life the same Father is reported to have †P. du Moulin Answ to Philanax Ch. 5. brought and recommended to the King a certain Spaniard of whom the King a while after received from Monsieur de la Force Vice-Roy of Bearne and Navar a description with an advertisement that such a day he went from Barcelona into France with intent to kill his Majesty and shewing his letter to Cotton commanded him to bring the man again but Cotton returning a good while after told him he was gone and could not be found and that not a year before the King was murdered he was in disgrace for writing * P. du Moulin ibid. divers things to the Provincial of the Jesuites in Spain which the King had revealed to him in confession and that †Foul. 9. c. 2. the D. of Sully proved to the King that he was guilty of betraying his secrets What these secrets were I find not but this is to be noted that he had then a great