Martinego The English reject the Council who was sent to Treat with Queen Elizabeth for the same end as I have said already came into Flanders and from thence according to the ancient Custom sent for Leave to come into England but was denied it the Council of England not thinking it fit to admit a Nuncio from the Pope when there were so many Roman Catholicks in the Nation who being brought up in that Religion would be apt upon such an Encouragement to Imbroil our Affairs at home and abroad The Bishop of Viterbo the Popes Legate at Paris thereupon began to Treat with Throcmorton our Ambassador in that Court That Queen Elizabeth would be pleased to send her Ambassadours to the Council in which he was seconded by Letters from the Kings of France Spain and Portugal and the Cardinal of Portugal and the Duke de Alva To which she replied That from her Heart she desired a General Council but she would have nothing to do with a Papa That she would have nothing to do with the Pope neither whose Authority was banished out of England by the consent of the Three Estates That it belonged not to him but to the Emperour to call a Council and that she acknowledged no greater Authority in him than in any other Bishop The Twenty fifth of July Erirk King of Sweden was Crown'd with great Pomp at Stockholme upon the Baltick Sea. Erick King of Sweden Crown'd The Cardinal of Caraffa Hanged Charles Cardinal of Caraffa and Nephew of the last Pope was strangled the Sixth of March in the Castle of St. Angelo upon pretence That he had Exasperated Paul IV. his Uncle with his false Stories and put him upon a War That he had caused the Truce between France and Spain to be broken had entered underhand Treaties with the Protestant Princes of Germany and also with the Turk the Enemies of Christianity but in reality because the Pope was much offended with the sharp Answers the Cardinal made after he was imprison'd The Pope being thereupon made sensible that the Cardinal was a Person of great Spirit and Interest and if ever he were dismiss'd he would at one time or other Revenge the Quarrel upon the Popes Relations so that his Holiness contrary to his first Intentions found it was needful to cut him off though against Law as his own Canonists generally said The Count de Paliani Brother of the Cardinal of Carafsa had the same fate but on other pretences In France all that desired the Peace of the Church and the Reformation of Religion A National Council defired in France concluded the Pope would not hold a Council whatever he pretended and therefore urged the having of a National Council which was opposed by the Guises and their Faction for fear the Protestant Party should prevail in it against the Catholick They did whatever they could to perswade the King and Council from it and procured the Pope to perswade Philip King of Spain to interest himself in it who sent Anthony Bishop of Toledo to perswade the Queen to send the French Clergy to the Council of Trent and that in the mean time to prevent a Schism the thoughts of a National Council should be laid aside He had Orders also as occasion offered to threaten those who favoured the Protestants and to give assurances of his Masters readiness to support the young King which was ill taken in France as a kind of usurping a Right to interpose their Spanish Pride in the French Affairs Toledo died in France and Maurice his Successor for became very importunate with the Queen to begin a Persecution against the Protestants which was as stiffly opposed by the King of Navar year 1560 who demanded his Kingdom The King of Navar drawn over to the Popish Party by the King of Spain's Arts. and interrupted all the Spanish Proceedings by his frequent Complaints to the young King. King Philip finding to his Cost that this Princes Power was greater in France than he imagin'd began a Design upon him to make him more pliant to his Desires This was to reject his Wife and Marry Mary Queen of the Scots and then declaring himself Head of the Catholicks in France the King of Spain was to give him Sardinia for Navar and to help him to Conquer England and so two Heretical Queens were for Heresie to be laid aside and the Pope was to Consecrate and Bless the Business The King of Navar detesting the Project of Repudiating his Queen the Exchange of Sardinia was driven on with more eagerness pretending it was the greatest Island in the Mediterranean Sea next Sicily and the most fruitful rich and populous and situate very conveniently for a Conquest of Barbary This Project being also seconded by the Popes Nuncio the Cardinal of Ferrara prevented the calling of a National Council which Wise Men thought was the only thing that could have prevented the Civil War which after broke out to the almost total Ruine of France Though the Edict of July had forbidden all Meetings of the Protestants year 1561 yet their Number daily increasing and with it their Confidence A new invented Convention for the Regulating matters of Religion in France not only Sermons were openly made but the Priests were in many places forcibly expell'd and the Churches seized for the use of the Ministers which gave being to the Edict of the 3d of November for the Restitution of those Churches upon pain of Death which by the Perswasion of the Ministers themselves was obeyed throughout the Kingdom But when notwithstanding Men seem'd rather enraged than appeased by the Edict of July and the Conference of Poissy was broken up without any effect there being every day news brought of new Commotions they began to think of some more effectual Remedy which that it might meet with the greater approbation and by consequence be the more universally executed the Presidents and some chosen Members of all the Parliaments of France were summon'd before the King to St. Germain by whose Advice it was to be drawn and Moddel'd Upon which the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise left the Court conceiving the thing would do it self now Montmorancy and the King of Navar had espoused that Interest About the same time there was a dreadful Tumult at Dijon A Tumult aâ— Dijon whil'st the Protestants were assembled at their Sermon the Rabble thought fit to make themselves the Executioners of the Edict of July and having procured a Drum to beat before them they marched against the Huguenots but the Meeters made use of their Weapons and repell'd Force with Force The Rabble thereupon turn'd their fury against the Private Families and plundered several Houses There were also some Tumults at Paris on the same score and towards the end of the year all things tended to a general Revolution Having thus represented the State of Religion in all the rest of Christendom Scotch Affairs as shortly and as
possible for the good of his divided Kingdom and to that end to stay still at Trent But then the King did trust to their wisdom and conscience that they would not approve of by their presence or consent to any thing which was prejudicial to the Royal Authority Prerogative or Dignity of the King or Kingdom of France But however the Council still persisting in their former Methods La Ferriere came into the Council and made a sharp Oration against the Pope and the Council Polano * Pag. 721. in his History of the Council of Trent has the sum of this Oration and Thuanus saith it was pronounced the 22d of September But however I will not trouble the Reader with it here because of its great length this Oration pleased none of the Fathers the French themselves not excepted because he set Princes as the Ministers of God above the Anathema's of the Clergy and made both their persons and revenues subject to the Laws and Authority of Kings telling them too plainly of their great prevarications obstinacy and unwillingness to reform or be reformed But however all the Fathers could do was to bring the Faith of the Ambassadors in question which they soon discuss'd by producing their Instructions This failing they cavell'd at the parts of the Oration and endeavoured to pervert the sense and meaning of it so that Ferriere was forced to publish an Apology for it And soon after this they mended the matter by a sharper Oration in which amongst other things they told the Council plainly The Ambassadors of France put a severet Protestation into the Council That Hadrian the Sixth was in the right when he told the world That what care soever was taken of the lower members of the Church that body could not be restored to its health if the Head also the Pope were not reformed Towards the end they said They protested only against Pius the Fourth They Venerated the Apostolick See the great Pontiff the Holy Church of Rome for the increase of whose Dignity their Ancestors had so often shed their blood and of late had fought in France but it was against the Soveraignty of Pius the Fourth that they protested all whose Decrees and Sentences they refused and despised and seeing there was nothing done at Trent but all was dispatched at Rome and what was here published was rather the Dictates of Pius the Fourth than the Decrees of a General Council they denounced and testified That whatever was decreed in that Convention or should hereafter be decreed or published they being only the Decrees moved by Pius the Fourth they should not be approved by the Most Christian King nor the French nor be taken for the Acts of a General Council And then commanded all their Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Divines to return into France till God should restore to the Catholick Church the ancient form and liberty belonging of right to General Councils and to the Most Christian King his just Rights Thuanus saith he can hardly believe this Oration was made tho' he finds it Printed in the Commentaries of Jacques de Bourdin Secretary of State. But however it shews the sense great men had of the Council of Trent at that time when it was best understood A little before this time the Emperor being about leaving Inspruck The Emperor opposeth the intended Proceedings of the Council against Queen Elizabeth discovered that they consulted at Rome and Trent about proceeding against Queen Elizabeth of England and he wrote to the Pope and the Legates that if the Council would not yield that fruit which was desired that they might see an Union of Catholicks to reform the Church yet at least they should not give occasion to Hereticks to unite themselves more which they would do in case they proceeded against the Queen of England For undoubtedly they would then make a General League against the Catholicks which would be the cause of great Inconveniences We may see by this how hardly this Holy Council was kept from giving the world a Cast of its office in deposing Princes and disposing of their Dominions and absolving their Subjects from their Allegiance tho' we are now told this is none of the Doctrines of that Church but however it is undoubtedly her practice This Admonition was so effectual that the Pope desisted at Rome and revoked the Commission given to that purpose to the Legates at Trent When the French Ambassadors had put these two Rubs in the way of the Council The French Ambassadors leave Trent and go to Venice they retired as the King their Master had before commanded them to Venice and gave an account of what they had done to the Cardinal of Lorrain at Rome and to the King of France this last approved it but the former having made his private Market with the Pope who extremely flattered this proud turbulent vain-glorious Prelate was very much displeased with what the French Ambassadors had done in his absence at Trent But when he came there and found the Ambassadors were supported by the King and that there was no fetching them back from Venice till the things proposed by the Council were revoked he perswaded the Legates to compound the difference and the Infallible Council laid by these Decrees which displeased the Crown of France and passed only a general Decree against the Violaters of the Ecclesiastical privileges and Immunities in the Twenty fifth Session This was the last Session of this Council The last Seffion of the Council of Trent and was held the fifth and sixth of December In it was determin'd the points concerning Purgatory the Invocation of Saints the Worship of Images and Reliques the Prohibition of Duels and all that pertain'd to the Reformation of the Manners of the Clergy All that had been done under Paul the Third Julius the Third and two Years before this in this Convention were then also ratified and confirmed And the Pope was desired to approve the same and so the Council was dismissed with Acclamations The Pope made a grave Oration in a Conclave of the Cardinals and giving God unfeigned thanks that the Council was ended he commended the Emperor the Apostolick Legates and the Bishops and said Tho' he was tree from the obligation of all Laws yet he would cause these to be exactly and inviolably preserved and if any thing was omitted he would supply it The Protestant Ministers of Germany at the same time put out a Protestation against this Council subscribed by many of them Thus ended the Council of Trent The censure of the Council which was desired and procured by Godly men to reunite the Church which began to be divided but hath so established the Schism and made the parties so obstinate that the discords are become irreconcileable And being intended by Princes for the reformation of the Ecclesiastical Discipline hath caused the greatest corruption and deformation that ever was since Christianity began The Bishops hoped to
Condition soever We wish Friendship Grace and every Good Thing We being admonished by many and great Reasons and very much burthened with Our great Age and with continual Annoyance of our Infirmities which has almost overpower'd Our Natural Strength and rendred Our Body infirm which makes Us unfit for Business and having long since determined That Our Kingdom of Spain should go to the most Serene Prince Philip Our Son King of Spain and England And having thereupon abandoned Our usual Palace We have removed with Our Court hither in order with the first good Wind to embark for Spain all things being now ready for that purpose so that Our Voyage can be hindred by none but God Wherefore by this Our Absence the Government of the Sacred Empire belongs to the most Serene and Potent Prince Ferdinand King of the Romans Hungary and Bohemia and Our dearest Brother as being lawfully elected King of the Romans and the next uncontestable Successor after Us the which Government has even already many Years since by our Assent been managed by him in our Name with great Affection he having born the Weight of of it for us with a true brotherly and kind Solicitude That therefore the Christian Commonwealth and especially the Sacred Empire may sustain no Dammage which God prevent whilst We are afar off and that Our said Brother the King of the Romans may transact all Affairs with the greater Authority We have resolved and declared That as King of the Romans he shall have Power absolutely of himself without Our Concurrence to do treat and command all those things which to him shall seem necessary and convenient to the Dignity Profit and Increase of the sacred Empire in the same manner as We could have done the same as Emperour of the Romans In truth there is nothing which We desired so much as to have been present in Person in your Dyet before this Our Voyage which is now assembled at Ratisbonne one of our Imperial Cities and to have brought the Publick Affairs to their desired End by your Advice and then to have committed the Government to Our Brother the King of the Romans in it in our stead whereby we might have admonished you to pay him that Obedience which is due to him But Our Indisposition of Body which is known to all would not suffer Us to take so long a Journey and especially by Land. Besides We consider that the Slipping this favourable Season for Sailing is a thing of great Consideration Wherefore we being not able personally to come to the Dyet as We desired and determined to do nor to bring Our Designs to their Effect Yet We were desirous to make known Our Affection and Devotion to you all by this Edict and discovery of our Mind and thereby expresly to command all and every of you by the tenour of these Letters and by the Imperial Authority under Pain of our greatest Indignation That ye as hath been often said yield to the said King of the Romans Fidelity Obedience and Reverence in Our Name and stead in all his Edicts Commands and Actions and that ye do not resist or disobey him in any thing but observe him in all things as You ought to do to us if we were present in the Empire lest by doing otherwise or suffering your selves to be persuaded to the contrary you do excite and procure Our greatest Indignation And this is Our express and last Will. Given under our Seal at Sudbury in Zealand the seventh Day of September in the Year of our Lord 1556 and in the thirty sixth Year of our Empire I have sought up and transcribed this rare Piece from the Italian Copy in Alfonso Volla in his Life of Charles V. It was penn'd in Latin but I could no where find the Latin Copy and perhaps it was never printed at least I am sure it is very scarce and not likely to be ever used again by any Prince till Time shall be no more The Emperour knew very well The Emperour's Ambassadours to the Electoral Princes saith Thuanus that next to God the Right of Electing and Receiving the Resignation or Surrender of the Empire was in the seven Electoral Princes and that without their Consent and Authority this could not be done and to dispose them to approve and allow this Act of his he had appointed William of Nassaw Prince of Orange George Sigismond Seldius Vice Chancellour of the Empire and Wolfang Haler one of his Secretaries of State to be his Ambassadours to them But a War soon after breaking out between the King of France and his Son King Philip by the breach of the late Truce it was two Years ere that Command of his took its effect In the mean time John Archbishop of Trier of the Family of the Counts of Isemburg died and John Laien succeeded him and Adolph Archbishop of Cologne was succeeded by Anthony his Brother The Emperour set sail the fifteenth of September with a Fleet of sixteen Spanish The Emperour sets sail for Spain and twenty Flemmish Ships all Men of War besides the Admiral in which he and his two Sisters went. At Portsmouth seven English Ships joyned him and at the Isle of Wight seven more He arrived safely at Laredo a Port in Biscaye where he was entertained by a great concourse of the Nobility and Deputies of the Cities of the Kingdom of Spain So soon as ever he set his Foot upon the Shoar he prostrated himself upon the Earth and kissing it he said Hail my beloved Mother His Speech at his landing naked came I out of my Mother's Womb and now I return naked to thee again as to another Mother and here I consecrate and give to thee my Body and my Bones which is all the Acknowledgment I can give for all thy numerous Benefits bestowed upon me His next care was to make a formal and a publick Renunciation of the Kingdom of Spain to his Son Philip in this great Assembly After this he spent two Days at Valladolid with his Grand-son Don Carolo instructing that unfortunate Prince in the Rules of Glory and Virtue and doubtless it was a noble Lecture which so great a Prince like another Patriarch made to his supposed Heir From hence this Glorious Prince retired to a Place he had chosen The description of the Place in which he lived to spend the remainder of his Life being a Valley in the Borders of Spain and Portugal equally Delightful for the Temper of the Air and the Pleasant Crown of Hills which incircled it and supposed to be the Place where the famous Sertorius was basely murthered It is well watered with Springs and Rivolets and rarely Fruitful and lies about eight Spanish Miles from Placentia a City of the Kingdom of Leon by the Town of Scaradilla this Place he had remarked in Hunting and had ordered a small Apartment of seven Rooms fourteen Foot square to be built for him and here he lived with twelve Servants and
one Horse for his own use having reserved an hundred thousand Crowns for his Subsistence which was not over well paid neither spending his Time in the innocent Arts of Grafting Gardning and Reconciling the Differences of his Clocks which yet he could never make to strike together and therefore ceased to wonder He had not been able to make Men agree in the Nicities of Religion Here he first heard of the breach of Truce between his Son and the King of France and though he was something concerned at it Thuanus yet he concluded the Rashness of the Old doating Pope and the Perfidy of the Caraffa's would end in the Ruine of the Prosperity of France as it came afterwards to pass The last Day of October saith the great Thuanus John Sleidan John Sleidan's Death and Character when he had brought down his History to that time with an exact Faith and Diligence dyed of the Plague at Strasburg in the one and fiftieth Year of his Age. He was born at Sleidan a Town in the Dukedom of Juliers near Dueren and from thence he took his Name a Person who for his Learning and great Experience in Affairs was much esteemed by that Age He had spent the greatest part of his Youth in France and being entertained in the Family of Bellay had both learned and done great things in the Service of Cardinal John Du Bellay but a sharp Persecution arising in France against those that were suspected of Lutheranisme he went and lived at Strasburg and served that Free City and being by his own Employments much enformed of the Carriage of Affairs he added to what he had seen what he had learned from Men worthy of Credit and wrote his Book of Commentaries Paul IV had succeeded Marcellus a short lived Pope the twenty sixth of May Natura iracundus pene implacabilis Natalis Comes Paul IV a furious Hare-brained Prince in the Year 1555 as John Sleidan has set forth in his last Book he was a Man of a Furious and unquiet temper and made it his great Design to raise the See of Rome to its former Greatness and Authority but not considering the present state of things mistook his Measures The Submission of England had raised in him extravagant Hopes of Reducing Germany too under his Obedience but then the Peace of Religion appeared so contrary to that Design that it irritated him to the utmost and he threatned the King of the Romans and the Emperour That in a short time he would make them know to their Sorrow how much they had offended him if they did not prevent it by revoking and disallowing the things they had granted That he might have no occasion to proceed as he intended to do not only against the Lutherans but even against them too as Abettors of them But all this Ranting Zeal missing its due Effect he began his Revenges on King Philip the Son of the Emperour who was the best Friend that See had then in Christendom by denying to admit him to the Kingdom of Naples Marc Antony Colonna a Favorite of Philip King of Spain had about this time dispossessed Ascanius his Father who was a Subject of the Popes but had a great Estate in the Kingdom of Naples of all that lay in that Kingdom upon pretence that he was infected with Heresie that he favoured the French Interest against the Emperour and that he lived a dissolute Life And the Accusation had been countenanced and encouraged by King Philip to that height that the Father as much as in him lay at his Death disinherited his Son giving his Estates in the Papacy to the See of Rome and those in the Kingdom of Naples to Victoria his Daughter the Wife of Garzia de Toledo This was made the Pretence of the ensuing War between the Pope and the King of Spain into which the French and English were drawn too and all Christendom almost imbroiled again The Pope however considering that he was not able to deal alone with so Potent a Prince as King Philip under pretence of sending Cardinal Caraffa into France to congratulate the five Years Truce imployed his Interest with the King of France to persuade him to break his Faith so lately given and to renew the War with Philip The Pope had before upon several Pretences clapt up the leading Cardinals and great Men of the Spanish Faction And when the King with all the Respect his Zeal for that See could inspire him with by his Ambassadour desired the Discharge of these Prisoners and the Restitution of Marc Antony Colonna to his Fathers Estate and Castles in the Papacy the angry Pope Replyed That he had Authority and Right to punish his Subjects for their Offences And commanded his Ambassadour to write to his Master not to meddle with what did not belong to him and that he should permit him as Pope to exercise his Soveraignty freely on his own Subjects And accordingly he seized all Colonna's Castles and Estates in the Dominions of the Church pretending to revenge the Wrongs he had done to Ascanius his innocent Father with the consent of his Mother who was also severely treated by the Pope and not contented with all this he declared the Kingdom of Naples forfeited to the See of Rome because King Philip had neglected the Payment of eight thousand Crowns due as a yearly Tribute for that Kingdom He annexes the Kingdom of Naples to the See of Rome and now many Years in Arrear whereupon his Holiness published an Edict by which he annexed that Kingdom as forfeited to the See of Rome and began to fortifie Paliano a City of Champagna di Roma thirty miles from Rome to the East and put a thousand French into it for a Garrison which the more exasperated the King of Spain The Duke de Alva who was then Vice-roy of Naples did all that was possible to mitigate the Pope The Duke de Alva begins a a War upon the Papacy but his Submissions and Protestations more incensed him his Flatterers persuading him they proceeded more from Fear than a Reverence of the Holy See which he so much pretended Whereupon the Vice-roy raised twelve thousand Foot and fifteen hundred Horse and entring the Popes Territories he took Ponte Corvo upon the River Garigliano one of the Pope's Towns in the Borders of Terra di Lavoro without resistance and after that Frusilione the Pope's Forces flying out of it in the Night Hereupon the Pope also levied ten thousand Italian Foot and seven hundred Horse to which he added two thousand Gascoigners which were old Soldiers sent him by the King of France and imprisoned one Lofredo who was sent by the Duke de Alva to persuade the Pope to a Peace before the War was begun and staid at Rome for the Pope's Answer The Duke de Alva hearing this presently marched to Anagni another City in the same Province Anagni taken which the Pope had made his Magazine but here
the River and would not stay for it fearing the French might in the mean time escape him dividing his Horse into five Parts he commanded the Light Horse to begin the Fight his Foot were divided into three Parts according to their Nations Flemings Germans and Spaniards He himself was one of the first that charged the Gasconers who at first stood their ground stoutly and Count Egmont's Horse was slain under him but his Army being most in number when they came to close Fight Horse to Horse and Foot to Foot the Flemings being much encouraged by the hopes of Victory and the French despairing of any other Escape the Fight was a long time doubtful the Gasconers fought manfully the Germans were only Spectators and the French Horse could do little for want of Ground in the very heat of the Battel twelve English Ships coming up put an end to the Fight by gauling the French on the Right Wing with their Canon on that side they thought themselves most secure Fifteen hundred were kill'd in the Fight and many more perished in the Flight being knock'd on the head by the Peasants who were inraged by their Rapins others were drown'd and Thermes Villebone Senarpont the Count of Chaulness and Merviliers were taken Prisoners and the English Fleet took up Two hundred in the Sea and carried them into England to the Queen This Victory cost the Flemings Five hundred Men and was gain'd the Thirteenth of July The Duke of Guise hearing of this Defeat return'd to Pierre-pont in the Borders of Picardy and Champagne the Twenty eighth of July that he might be ready at hand to prevent any Attempt might be made on France The Townsmen meeting as the Custom is in a place call'd the Scholars Field without the Suburbs of St. German near Paris a few of them who were addicted to the Protestant Religion began to sing David's Psalms in French Metre thereupon the People began to leave their Sports and joyning with them sung the same Psalms After this a greater number and among them Anthony King of Navarr and Jonae his Lady who was already suspected to favour that Religion fell into the same Practice The Clergy were much allarm'd at this affirming that this new Invention was design'd to bring the ancient Custom which they had received from the Church of Rome their Mother of singing the Publick Service in the Latin Tongue into contempt by introducing the use of one understood by the meanest of the People Whereupon they represented this as very Seditious to the King who order'd an Enquiry after the Authors of it to be made and forbad the Use of this Custom for the future on pain of Death About the same time The English Fleet unsuccessful News was brought of the arrival of an English Fleet of an Hundred and twenty Ships upon the Coast of Normandy under the Lord Clinton Haure de Grace and Diepe being feared they sent the President of Boulogn to take care of those Places but the Fleet went on and at Conquet a Port of Britain the Thirty first of July they landed an Hundred and fifty Pesants at first opposing them but Seven thousand Men being landed and the Ships with their Cannon playing upon them the Inhabitants left the place and fled The English entred the Town and plundred it but Kersimont the Governor of that Province coming up with Six thousand which he had hastily raised he forced the English with the loss of Six hundred of their Men to return on board their Ships about an Hundrd of them fell into the hands of the French and among them one Hollander who told the Fnench that thirty Dutch Ships under the Command of one Wakenheim had joyn'd this Fleet at the Isle of Wight by the order of King Philip and that they were ordered to take Brest which the French thereupon fortified and took great care of Whereupon the Lord Clinton finding no Good was to be donc returned having made a very expensive and unprosperous Voyage The French by this time had got together a very great Army which the King saw drawn up near Pierre-pont and King Philip's was not less but then neither of these Princes were disposed to try the Hazards of the War any further and Montmorency having agreed for his Ransome at the rate of one hundred and sixty five thousand Crowns and being now grown old and averse from the Thoughts of War he and Christierna the Mother of the Duke of Loraine went to and for between the two Princes to promote a Treaty of Peace Vendosme Vidame of Chartres who was made Governour of Calais after Thermes was taken Prisoner The Treaty of Cambray began had a Design upon S. Omers but it was discovered and prevented In the middle of September Ambassadours from England France and Spain met at Cambray to treat of a Peace in good earnest and the first thing they agreeed upon was the withdrawing of the two Armies because they seemed very dissonant from the End of that Meeting The greatest Difficulty they met with was about Calais which the French were resolved to keep pretending it was an ancient Piece of their Dominions tho'lately recovered And the English on the other side would never consent to the Treaty if it were not restored But before this Contest could be brought to a conclusion Mary Queen of England dyed which ended the Controversie for the present and thereupon this Congress was dissolved and another Meeting appointed in the same Place in January following The fifth of November the English Parliament met The Parliament of England meet and Queen Mary dies but in a very ill Temper On the seventeenth day of that Month the Queen dyed in the forty third Year of her Age when she had reigned five Years four Months and eleven Days Her Death was for some Hours concealed and then it was communicated to the House of Lords by the Lord Chancellour who sent for the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellour signified to them also the Queen's Death and both Houses presently agreed to proclaim Elizabeth her Sister Queen wishing her a long and a happy reign The great Thuanus contrary to his Custom passeth over Queen Mary without any Character he could say little that was good of her and would say nothing that was ill Those of her own Religion are now so sensible of the Errors of her Government that they are more put to it for Apologies than Panigyricks on her Memory In Germany a Dyet was appointed to meet at Frankford the twenty fourth of February The German Affairs to which the Ambassadours named by Charles V before his Voyage into Spain came and delivered his Resignation of the Empire by which he had transferred his Authority to Ferdinand his Brother then King of the Romans to the Electors who after a short deliberation accepted the same and in a solemn manner elected and admitted Ferdinand to the Empire and afterwards crowned him After his return to
Oaths which were not only connived at but cherished On the contrary every Day new punishments are invented against a sort of Men who could never yet be convicted of any wicked Attempt for how can they injure the Prince who never name him but in their Prayers for him Are they accused of breaking our Laws perverting the Allegiance of our Cities or Provinces No the greatest Tortures could never extort a Confession that they so much as thought of any such thing Are they not accused of Sedition only because they have by the Candle of Scripture discovered the shameful and encreasing Villanies and corruptions of the Roman Power which they defire may be reformed Christopher Harlay and Peter Seguier the two Presidents said with great Modesty that the Court had hitherto justly and rightly discharged its Duty in this Particular and that it would still do the same without changing to the Glory of God and therefore neither the King nor People of France would have cause to repent the trusting to it Christopher de Thou with great freedom reflected on the King's Attorney and Advocates for presuming to defame the Proceedings of that Court and indangering its Authority Renatus Baillet desired the Judgments which were blamed might be re-examined and more maturely considered Minart having made a short Preface to soften the Envy which had been raised against them only added That he thought the King's Edicts were to be observed After these Maistre the President made a sharp Harangue against the Sectaries instancing in the Severities which Philip the August is said to have employed against the Albingenses 600 of which he burnt in one day and in the Waldenses which were massacred with Fire and Smoak partly in their Houses and partly in the Dens and Caves they had fled to The King having obliquely reproached the Court for entring upon this Debate The King's Answer without his Order added He now clearly saw what he had heard before That there were some among them who despised both his Authority and the Popes That this was the fault of but a few but it was dishonourable to the whole body of them but only they that were guilty should suffer the Punishment And therefore he exhorted the rest to go on in their Duty The Reflections of la Faur and du Bourg who mentioned the Story of Ahab and the frequent Adulteries exasperated the King more than the rest and therefore he commanded Montmorancy to apprehend them who again ordered Gabriel de Montgomery a Captain of the Guard to take them and carry them to the Bastile Afterwards Paul de Foix Anthony Fumee Eustace de la Porte were also taken into Custody but la Ferriere du Val and Viole were concealed by their Friends and escaped this Storm Men censured these Proceedings as they stood affected but the Wiser were much disgusted That the King should be so far imposed on by others as to come personally into his Court to subvert those Laws he ought to have protected That he should make use of Threats and Imprisonments saying That this was a clear Instance that he was subject to the Passions of others and who could think but these things were the forerunners of great Changes A French Synod held by the Protestant Ministers The Ministers of the Reformed Religion notwithstanding held a Synod at S. German June 28 one Morelle being President in which they setled the order of their Synods the Authority of the Presidents the taking away the Supremacy in the Church the election of Ministers and their Office and Duty Deacons and Presbyters Censures the Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity of contracting and dissolving Marriages which yet were only temporary Decrees to be varied as future Synods should think fit but to oblige particular Persons till so altered About the same time came Embassadours from the Protestant Princes of Germany The Protestant Princes of Germany write to the King of France with Letters to the King subscribed by Frederick Cout Palatine of the Rhine Augustus Duke of Saxony Joachim Elector of Brandenburg Christopher Duke of Wirtimberg and Wolfang Count of Weldentz In which they represent to the King How much they were afflicted to see so many Pious Quiet and Holy Men who professed the same Religion Imprisoned Spoiled Banished and put to Death as Seditious Persons in France That they thought themselves bound by Christian Charity and the Alliance which was between them and France to beseech him well to consider this Affair which concerned the Name of God and the Salvation of so many Souls that he ought to free himself from Prejudice and imploy great Judgment and Reason in it They assured him they were no less solicitous for the Glory of God and the Salvation of their Subjects than he and upon the Differences of Religion had maturely considered how they might be composed That they had found by degrees and insensibly through Avarice and Ambition many Corruptions had crept into the Church which were dishonourable to the Majesty of God and Scandalous to Men and that they ought to be reformed by the Testimonies of the Holy Scriptures the Decrees of the Primitive Church and the Writings of the most Ancient Fathers That the Corruptions and Disorders of the Court and Church of Rome had long since been complained of in France by W. Parisiensis John Gerson Nicholas Clemangius and Wisellius of Groeningen the Restorer of the University of Paris under Lewis XI and other Divines That King Francis his Father of Blessed Memory was convinced of this and had wisely endeavoured to put an end to the Differences of Religion and to reform the Discipline of the Church That now France was not involved in War abroad they besought him the Difference of Religion might by his Authority and Conduct be quietly ended That this might easily be effected if the King would but appoint Learned and Peaceable Men who should examin their Confession of Faith without Partiality or Prejudice by the Holy Scripture and the Ancient Fathers That in the interim he should suspend all Legal Severities discharge the Imprisoned recal the Banished restore their Estates to those that had been ruin'd This they said would be acceptable and pleasing to God Honourable to the King Profitable to France and very Grateful to them The King entertained the Embassadors kindly and having read the Letter said he would suddenly send them a satisfactory Answer but by that time they were arrived at the Borders of France the Fire their coming seem'd to have abated raged more horribly than ever June 19. A Commission issued to try the suspected Members of Parliament Du Bourg first tried a Commission was issued to Jean de Saint Andre the President and Promoter of these Troubles Jo. James de Memme Master of the Requests Lewis Gayaut Robert Boet Eustace Bellay lately a Member of the Court of Parliament but then Bishop of Paris and Anthony de Nouchy to try the Members of Parliament which had been imprisoned
Du Bourg being interrogated by Saint Andre refused to answer None of the Members of that Court being to be Tryed but by the whole Court. Whereupon Bourdin obtained a new Commission from the King commanding Du Bourg to plead before these Delegated Judges and if he refused that they should take him for Convicted and Guilty of Treason He being thus deprived of his Priviledge lest he might seem to despise the King's Authority and making a Protestation to save the Priviledge of others the third Day after answered in such manner to all the Questions proposed that he seemed to differ very little from the Lutherans and Calvinists so without any other Witnesses produced he was by the Bishop of Paris declared an Heretick judged unworthy of the Sacerdotal Character and delivered up to the Secular Power From which Sentence he Appealed to the Archbishop of Sens. Whilst these miserable Men were thus persecuted for their Religion The sad Condition of France during the Persecution and their Favourers Friends and such as had presumed to speak freely were by Informers also brought in Question there was a sad Face of Affairs in France and a sullen silence The Court in the interim was never more Jolly the Preparations for a great Marriage filling it with Mirth and Bravery which in a short time too had as lamentable a Conclusion Among other things there was a Tilt prepared and a Yard made for that purpose not far from the Bastile in which the Members of the Parliament were then imprisoned Some Days being spent in this Divertisement June 29. the King would needs run against the Count of Mongomery and they breaking their Lances the Sight of the King's Helmet by accident flying up Henry II of France slain he received a Wound in the Eye and falling from his Horse was latched by some of his Servants and carried into a Tower belonging to the Bastile It is said whilst they carried him thither he looked up and remembring the Members of Parliament which he had committed there said He feared he had done wrong to those Innocent Men. The Cardinal of Lorrain who was present angry at it reply'd That Thought was put into his Mind by the Devil the Enemy of Mankind That he ought to be careful of his Motions and continue constant in his Faith. Whether this were so or no I will not affirm saith Thuanus my Author because I am resolved to write nothing without good Authority The Physicians saying too That in these kinds of Wounds the Speech is lost At the Report of this Accident Andrew Vesale a Famous Physician was presently sent from Brussels by King Philip that he might however shew his Good-will to this Prince But he came too late the King dying July 2. when he had lived forty Years three Months and eleven Days and reigned twelve Years and three Months The Marriage between Margaret his Sister and Philbert Duke of Savoy was hereupon hasted that it might be finished before his Death and Celebrated it was without any Pomp or Magnificence There was great variety of Opinions some extolling his Life beyond Reason The various Characters of Henry II of France as Martial and Brave and his Conquests by which he had enlarged his Kingdom adding to it a great part of Italy Scotland and Corsica That having obtained a Victory against Charles V at Renty he had reduced that Great Prince to the Thoughts of a Retreat to a Private Life That out of his rare Respect to the Church of Rome not regarding his Oath he had renewed the War and succoured Paul IV. That recalling his Army out of Italy he had been able to defend France against the united Forces of King Philip and Mary of England and at last had ended the War at least by an useful Treaty and by the Marriages of his Daughter and Sister had secured the Publick Peace Others said he had violated the Glory of his Just Arms by breaking the Truce and involved himself by the Fault of others in an unjust and unprosperous War spent vast Treasures and lost the Flower of his Kingdom That the Peace was Desirable but very Dishonourable and the Marriage only a Covering for the infamy of the Concessions And that as he delighted too much in War so he perished dishonourably like a common Soldier His Misses who reigned rather than he his Prodigality and Luxury were not forgotten And the abundance of Poets then in France was taken for an Instance of the Corruptions of the Times To speak freely without Love or Hatred he was a Warlike Prince and too little affected to the Arts of Peace but then he was soft and easie and governed too much by others Wise Men then thought there would follow a War his Children being very yong his Wife Ambitious and the Court divided by Faction And this accordingly came to pass and brought forty Years of great Calamity upon France But I shall for the future be very short in the French Affairs referring the Reader to Davila and other Writers of the Civil Wars of France The Reader may be pleased to know That I have in all this followed Thuanus abridging him in some Places and in others transcribing him at large The King being crowned Francis II a Lad of sixteen Years of Age succeeds him And the Persecution goes on and the Dominion of the Queen Dowager as Guardian and of the Guises as Prime Ministers established to the great Dissatisfaction of the Princes and Nobility of France the next Care was to carry on the Persecution against the Protestants Oliver the Chancellor was imployed against the Members of the Parliament which were imprisoned at the time of the King's Death and S. Andre and Anthony de Mouchy against the rest of the People who that they might spread the terror of their Names over the whole Nation thought fit to begin with Paris Their principal Blood-hounds were Russanges and Claude David two Mechanicks and one George Renard a Taylor who had all three professed the Reformed Religion and were now imployed as best acquainted with these Men. They drew in two Apprentices shortly after who had deserted their Masters And these to gain the greater Applause Slaunders against the Protestants confessed not only that they had Nocturnal Meeting but which saith Thuanus was a notorious Lie that they at them used promiscuous Conjunctions after the Candles were put out And this Impudent Story created a great Detestation of the Protestants in the Minds of the deluded Catholicks whose Ears were open to these kinds of Misrepresentations This lye was carried on with great Industry and these two Wretches were led first to the Cardinal of Lorrain and then to the Queen to communicate this rare Secret no Man daring to contradict it The Queen who was never a Friend to the Protestants from henceforth was more than ever enraged against them But Oliver the Chancellor suspecting the Story examined these Lads separately and by their Varying and
the interim were not idle but the Regent reproach'd the Lords of the Congregation so the Protestants were call'd in a Proclamation that they had brought Englishmen frequently into their Houses that came with Messages unto them and returned Answers back to England though they made no Answer to them because they did not think it convenient either to deny it or openly to Avow it for the present and the King of France and Queen Mary wrote each a distinct Letter to the Lord James Stewart threatning him with Punishment as his wickedness deserved and by Word of Mouth let him know That he would rather lose the Crown of France than not be revenged on the Seditious Tumults raised in Scotland And one Octavian a French Captain landed soon after with a French Regiment great Sums of Mony and Ammunition of War and was forthwith sent back by the Regent for one hundred Horse and four Ships of War and in the mean time she fell to Fortifie Isith or Leith expelling all the former Inhabitants and making it a Colony of French only it being a Sea-Port-Town fit to receive Supplies and a Place that might serve the French Companies for a Refuge if they should happen to be reduced to any great streight This was done about September as appears by a Letter of the Nobility about it in that Month. The Regent's Reputation was by this time at so low an Ebb that nothing she said was believed and all she offered suspected About this time Four Divines and two thousand Men sent from France to Convert the Scots M. Pelleuce Bishop of Amiens afterwards Bishop of Sens arrived at Leith attended by three Doctors of the Sorbon Furmer Brochet and Feretier he pretended he came to dispute with the Preachers of the Congregation and he sent to some of the Nobility residing then at Edinburg desiring a Hearing But for fear their Arguments might not prove so effectual as was expected Le Broche a French Knight came over at the same time with two thousand Foot to reinforce their Sylogisms The Congregation-Nobility reject however their armed Logick and would have nothing to do with them The Eighteenth of October the Lords assembled their Forces at Edinburg The Lords of Scotland Arm against them and depose the Regent and the Regent with the Bishop of St. Andrews Glasgow Dunkeld and the Lord Seaton the same day entred Leith And some Messages having pass'd betwixt them they proceeded so far at last as to suspend the Queen-Regent's Commission discharging her of all Authority till the next Parliament prohibiting the Officers to serve under her or by colour of her Authority to exercise their Offices from thenceforth This Decree bears Date the Twenty third of October The Twenty fifth they summoned the Town of Leith She prevails over them commanding all Scots and Frenchmen to depart within twelve hours But failing in this Attempt the Regent took Edinburg and restored the Mass there and all those of the contrary Religion were forced to flee into England or where they could find shelter Hereupon the Queen sent for more Forces and the Marquis d'Elboeuf was sent from Diep with eighteen Ensigns of Horse which were dispersed at Sea by Tempest so that he arrived not at Leith before the Spring of the next year The Lords retired first to Sterling and then to Glasgow where they reform'd all things after their usual manner and in the mean time they sent William Maitland and Robert Melvil to Queen Elizabeth where at last they obtained what they designed in the manner I have express'd The French hearing this resolved to suppress the Lords before the English should come up to their Assistance and thereupon began to waste and spoil the Country to Sterling but though they met with little Resistance yet they could not attain their End. In February an Agreement was made between the English and the Scotch Commissioners year 1560 sent by the Lords for the Preservation of the Scotch Liberties and Freedoms from a French Conquest and for the Expulsion of the French Forces out of Scotland The Scotch Lords go on with their Reformation the Articles of which were Sign'd the Twenty seventh of that Month. About this time the English Fleet under Captain Winter came up and took all the French Ships in the Fyrth of Edinburg which much amazed the French who were then marching for St. Andrews by the Sea-side whereupon they returned to Leith About the same time the Lords of the Congregation reformed Aberdene but the Earl of Huntley coming up in good time saved the Bishop's Palace which had else been reformed to the Ground The English Land-Forces to the number of two thousand Horse The English Forces enter Scotland and besiege Leith and six thousand Foot entred Scotland under the Command of the Lord Gray in the beginning of April The English at first beat the French into Leith and battered the Town very diligently but remitting in their Care and Industry the French made a Sally out of Leith and cut off a great number of the English which made them more vigilant The last of April a Fire happened in the Town which burnt the greatest part of it with much of the Soldiers Provisions The Seventh of May the Town was Storm'd but the Ladders proving too short an hundred and sixty of the English were slain and nothing was gain'd Soon after there came up two thousand English more In the mean time the French King sent to Queen Elizabeth The French proffer to restore Calais to the English that if she would withdraw her Army out of Scotland he would restore Calais to her To which she replied She did not value that Fisher-Town so much as to hazard for it the State of Britain Thereupon the French perceving no Peace could be had without the French were recall'd out of Scotland and disdaining to treat with the Scots who were their Subjects they began a Treaty with the Queen of England In the mean time Mary of Lorain Queen Regent of Scotland died in the Castle of Edinburg the Tenth of June partly of Sickness and partly of Displeasure Before her Death The Death and Character of Mary Queen-Regent of Scotland she sent for the Duke of Wastellerand the Earl of Argile Glencarne Marshall and the Lord James and bewailing the Calamities of Scotland prayed them to continue in Obedience to the Queen their Sovereign and to send both the French and English out of the Kingdom so asking their Pardon and granting them hers she took her leave with many Tears kissing the Nobility one by one and giving the rest her Hand to kiss She was a Wise Good Religious Princess full of Clemency and Charity and would doubtless have prevented the Calamities of Scotland which befel there in the end of her days if she had been left to her own Measures but being governed by the Orders of France she was forced to do and say what she did to her great
dishonour and disquiet which too at last ended in the Ruine of those she most desired to Promote as it always happens in Breach of Faith. She would often say That if her own Counsel might take Place she doubted not but to compose all the Dissention within that Kingdom and to settle the same in a perfect Peace upon good Conditions Soon after her Death or as Thuanus saith The French forced to leave Scotland a little before it Embassadors from France and England came to Edinburg who sending for the Scoth Nobility began to treat about the sending the French out of Scotland which was at last agreed and the Sixteenth of July the French embark'd on the English Fleet for France and the English Army the same day began their march by Land for Berwick and the Fortifications of Leith and Dunbar were dismantled but sixty Frenchmen were left to keep the Castle of Dunbar and the same number the Isle of Inchkeeth until the States should find means to maintain the said Forts upon their own Charges from all Peril of Foreign Invasion In August the Parliament met A Parliament in Scotland which established a Confession of Faith contrary to the Roman Religion and pass'd three other Acts one for Abolishing the Pope's Jurisdiction and Authority another for Repealing the Laws formerly made in favour of Idolatry and a third for the Punishing the Hearers and Sayers of Mass and with these Acts Sir James Sandelands was sent into France for the Royal Assent of the King and Queen which was refused and he severely treated for undertaking that Embassy by the Guises The Oppression of the Princes of the Blood in France by the House of Guise A Conspiracy in France and of the Protestants by the Roman Catholicks caused a dreadful Conspiracy which drew in all the desperate People of that once most Fourishing Kingdom to the great hazard of its Ruine The concealed Head of this Conspiracy was Lewis Prince of Conde the apparent Godfrey de la Barre Sieur de Renaudie a Young Gentleman of an Ancient and Noble Family of Perigort who falling into a long and ruinous Suit for a Living which his Uncle had intercepted and detained from him in Angoumois had not only been overthrown by his Opposite but had also for some fraud in the management been severely Fin'd and Banish'd for some time he at Lausanne and Geneva had contracted a Friendship with some others of his Country who had fled thither on the account of Religion by whom he had been brought over to that Persuasion and after returning into France in disguise he had wandred over a great part of the Kingdom and made many Friends of that Religion and being a Stout Subtil Man and exasperated by the things he had suffered he undertook this dangerous Employment willingly as a means to revenge the Wrongs he had undergon The Conspirators met the First of February The Conspiracy of Blois formed at Nantes at Nantes in great numbers on diverse Pretences and there form'd the fatal Design of Blois for the Surprizing the King and the Court the Fifteenth of March and the bringing the Guises to a Tryal for all their Encroachments on the French Privileges and Abuses of the Royal Authority The whole Design is so well expressed in Davila his History of the Civil Wars of France that I shall rather refer the Reader thither for his Satisfaction in it than attempt to reduce it into a Dark and scarce perhaps Intelligible Compendium It was very extraordinary Thuanus his Reflection on this Conspiracy that before ever this Kingdom had in the least been shaken by any Commotion the Majesty of the King the Authrity of the Governors and Magistrates being all in their former vigor that such great numbers of Men in all Parts of the Kingdom should enter into so unheard so dangerous a Design But such was the Hatred they bore to the House of Guise and the Detestation that all Men began to entertain of the bloody Practises against the Protestants that though so very many were engaged in it yet they all kept Faith each to other and conceal'd the Secret so that the Guises had notice of it from Italy year 1559 Spain and Germany before any of their Spies in the Kingdom scented or suspected it At last one Pierre Avanelles an Advocate of the Parliament of Paris The discovery of the Conspiracy and a Protestant out of pure Conscience for the preventing so great a Scandal and Mischief discovered this Conspiracy to Stephen L'Allemont Sieur de Vouzay Secretary to the Cardinal of Lorain he having got knowledge of it from La Renaudie the Chief Agent in it who lodged in his House The King was then gone from Blois to Ambois which was a small and strong Town which had also a great and a very strong Castle and easily to be defended Here de Vouzay acquainted the King and the Council with it and was immediately Imprison'd to be produced as a Witness against the Conspirators if it proved to be true and to be treated as an Impostor Andelot and Coligny come to Court on an Invitation if it happened otherwise The Guises were very desirous that Andelot and Coligni the Admiral should be invited to Court fearing or hoping rather that they too were in the Plot. And they accordingly came presently to the Queen-Regent and Coligni in a Discourse before Oliver the Chancellor inveighed sharply against the violent Proceedings in Matters of Religion which had exasperated a great part of the People against the Government and concluded That he believed the granting Liberty of Conscience and suspending the Severity of the Laws till the Controversies of Religion were composed by a Lawful and Free Council would very much appease and quiet them Oliver who desired a Reformation Oliver the Chancellor of France hated the Persecution and desired a Reformation and hated the bloody Methods then in use was glad of this Proposition and recommended to the Guises the granting of a general Pardon and Liberty of Conscience till a Free Counsel could be had as an excellent Remedy of these Evils Which was presently granted excluding notwithstanding those who under pretence of Religion had conspired against the King his Mother Brothers or Ministers Which was published the Twelfth of March in the Parliament of Paris which yet never shock'd the Conspirators who were well resolv'd The same day Renaudie came to Carreliere in Vendosmois not far from Ambois and appointed the rest to meet him the Seventeenth of the same Month the King having changed his Abode they were forced to change the Day That day Deligneris another of the Conspirators and a Captain repenting the Undertaking discovered it to Queen Catherine The Guises had by this time got a good Body of the Nobility about the King and a Party of the Conspirators being met in Arms near Tours the Inhabitants of that City would not endeavour to take them but suffered them to escape
Nobility excused the Clergy and desired the King to preserve their Priviledges and Dignities But then he moved to have the greatest part of the Church Lands sold to pay the Debts of the Crown pretending that a third part of the Parchase Money put out to Use would be as good to them as the whole Land. That the Edict of July might be recall'd and only multiplicity of Sects and ill Language under the pretence of Liberty prohibited That a National Council might be call'd in which the King should preside That all Jurisdictions should be taken from the Church and annexed to the Crown There were also many other things demanded in this Assembly which tended to the Ruine of the Clergy the Papal Authority growing into Contempt and the greatest part either out of a desire to promote Piety The Clergy of France give the King Taxes to save their Revenues and Jurisdictions or of Love to Novelty favouring the Protestant Party and daily increasing their numbers by joyning with them The Clergy to prevent this Storm wisely gave the King four Tenths for six years which very much appeased the King and the Principal Courtiers towards them The Queen by the Advice of Monluc Bishop of Valence wrote about this time a long Letter to the Pope dated the 5th of August In which stating the dangers which attended the differences in Religion she exhorted him to provide speedy Remedies because they were become so numerous ☜ ☜ that they could no longer be suppressed by the Sword that many of the Principal Nobility and Magistrates embraced that way and had drawn over such Numbers and so united them that they were become formidable to the State yet by the Rare Blessing of Heaven they had no Anabaptists Libertines c. none that denied the Apostles Creed or the Interpretation of it received in the Seven General Councils That therefore most were of opinion that notwithstanding these differences they ought to be received into the Communion of the Church which would end in the Peace of the Church That the use of Images which was forbidden by God and as to Adoration disproved by St. Gregory ought to be taken away That Exorcisms and some of the Prayers used in Baptism might be omitted The Lords Supper Administred to all the Laity in both Kinds and the Decree of the Council of Constance ought not to be preferred before the Command of God That the Prayers might be used in the Vulgar Tongue and all that would Communicate might do so the first Sunday of every Month That the Psalms might be sung in the French Tongue A Publick Confession of Sins Prayers for the Prince the Magistrates Clergy Good Weather Fruitful Seasons and all Affliction might be in the same Tongue That the late invented Feast of the Holy Sacrament might be abolished it being unnecessary and the cause of great Scandal and Offence and that this Mystery was Instituted for a Spiritual Worship and not for Shew and Pomp That the use of the Latine Tongue which was foreign and unknown was a great fault the Prayers of the Church belonging not only to the Clergy but to all but as now it stands Who can say Amen to a Prayer in a Language he knows not That if yet the Latine must be used it were fit an Interpretation should be made of the Prayers in the Vulgar Tongue That the Receiving of the Priest in the Sacrifice of the Mass the People only looking Idely on is contrary to the Institution That the Psalms ought to be in the Vulgar Tongue and also the Private Prayers of the People That these things might be granted without derogating from the Papal Authority The Pope was infinitely offended with this Letter and the more because of the fame of a National Council shortly to be holden in France but then he dissembled his Resentment and became the more sincere in the Assembling a General Council which he had rather promised than designed before The Conference was to be begun the First of August at Poissy The Corserence of Poissy and the Bishops and Divines were already arrived there and had entered into a Debate what Points were to be Disputed where they spent the time to no great purpose disputing amongst themselves concerning the Office of a Bishop the Dignity of Cathedral Churches of Colleges and their Exemptions of the Ordination of Curates and Priests concerning allowing them Competent Pensions abating their number reforming the Discipline of the Monasteries of Commendam's and Benfices of cutting off the Pleasures and Luxuries of the Clergy and of Censures And they thought the Answering such like Queries was of great use to the Church in these confused times There appeared for the Protestants Augustin Marlorat The Protestant Ministers Francis de S. Pol Jean Remond Merlin J. Malo Francis de Mureaux N. Tobie Theodore Beza Claud Brisson J. Bouquin J. Viret J. de la Tour Nich. de Crallas Their demands and John De l'Espine who abjuring the Dominican Order did then first openly profess the Protestant Religion Soon after Peter Martyr came to Zurich These Asked four things 1st That the Bishops should be Parties and not Judges 2d That the King and Council should Preside 3d. That all things might be determin'd only by the Word of God 4th That whatever was agreed should be set down by Notaries The Queen yielded all these but would have one of the Secretaries of State be the only Notary and she would not consent that the King should Preside in the Conference The Cardinal of Lorraine had before objected against Beza That he should say that Christ was no more present in the Sacrament than in a Muddy Ditch This Expression is said to have been urged by Melanchthon against Oecelampadins as the Consequence of his Doctrine and was by a mistake of the Cardinal wrongfully charged on Beza who denied and detested it as Blasphemous The First of September the Conference began the King the Queen The Conference begun his Younger Brother and Sister and about Eleven Bishops being present and the Cardinals of Bourhon Tâ—urnen Chestillon Lorrain Armagnac and Guise The King opened it with a short Speech which was seconded by the Chancellor with a longer In which he preferr'd a National Council before a General and shewed that the Errours of many General Councils had been corrected by National Synods The Chancellor's Speech particularly the Arrian General Council of Ariminium was condemn'd by a Private Council held by St. Hillary Bishop of Poictiers and banished out of France He said they neither needed much Learning nor many Books the Bible alone being sufficient by which Religion was to be Tried and Examined That the Protestants were their Brethren and to be treated as such if out of Ambition or Avarice they did otherwise God would judge and condemn them and their Decrees would be rejected That they ought to Amend and give God Thanks for any Errour that was discovered and if they did
Cardinal of Ferrara sent by Pope Pius IV. as Legate to the King. This Laines being present this day at the Conference call'd the Protestant Ministers Monkeys Foxes and Monsters and said they were to be turn'd over to the Council call'd by the Pope Then he fell upon the Queen for medling in things that did not belong to her but to the Pope Cardinals and Bishops and he said it was not lawful whil'st a General Council was in being for the Queen to appoint by her private Authority a Conference here The Queen was much enraged at the Insolence of this Man but out of Reverence to the Legate suppress'd her resentment after this Day there were no more Publick Conferences but they Drew out three of a Side and endeavoured to form such an Exposition of the Lord's Supper as both Parties might agree in which in the End proved impossible to be done and so the Conference of Poissi ended which was the first Liberty that was granted to dispute the Established Religion in France and was blamed by some as a thing of ill Example and approved by others as the only means left to prevent the Storm which hung over their heads But it had not that effect so the Ministers and especially Beza who was invited by the Queen were honourably dismiss'd The Fame of this Conference being diffused through Italy and Spain Philip the Second was strangely surprized at it so the Queen sent Jacques de Monbron * In the History of the Council of Trent call'd Jaques de Montbrun a Person of good Birth and Repute to excuse it That Prince would hardly be induced to hear the reason of it and turning him over to the Duke de Alva he blamed their fearfulness and advised them to return to the same Severities which had been used in the Reigns of Henry II. and Francis II. promising his Masters Assistance for the Extirpation of the Protestants Adding That the King had been sclicited to it by the Catholick Nobility and People of France and that he could not neglect their Petition but he must be wanting to himself That he did not fear such vain reproaches as that with foreign Forces he invaded what was anothers because in this Cause the Spanish Forces were no foreigners when the Religion of their Ancestors was at the stake By this it appeared to the Court of France That there was a Correspondence between their Catholicks and the Spaniards and one Arthur Desier a Priest was taken much about this time near Orleans going into Spain with a Letter from some great Men to King Philip to persuade him to undertake the Protection of their Infant King and of the Catholick Religion which was in great danger to be ruin'd for which he was ordered to do Penance by the Parliament of Paris and committed to the Carthusian Monks to be kept a Prisoner for ever but afterwards he made his Escape This Sentence was pronounced against him the 14th of July In the End of this Year A Popish Position gives great Offence in France one Jean Tanquerel a young Divine proposed as his Thesis in a Disputation That the Pope as Christ's only Vicar and the Monarch of the Church can by his Spiritual and Secular Power command all faithful Princes as his Subjects and if they disobey his Precepts deprive them of their Dignities and Kingdoms which being complain'd off to the King the Chancellor sent a Commission to inquire into it and Tanquerel being fled it was ordered that the Parritor of the Theological Faculty should make a Recantation of it in his Name in the School of the Sorbonne before the Dean and all the Fellows and Students of that Faculty in the Presence of the President of the Parliament of Paris the King's Counsel and Solicitor and for the future the Parliament forbad all such questions to be given And ordered the Sorbonne to send two of their Fellows to beg the King's Pardon This Decree passed the 2d of December and was put in Execution ten days after The Pope had till now dreaded a General Council The Council of Trent recall'd as tending to the abatement of his Power and on that score had delayed it till Cosmus Duke of Florence and the fear of a National Council in France prevail'd upon him to reassume that which was began by Paul III. continued by Julius III. and was at last interrupted by the Commotions of Germany The Pope's Bull. In order to this the 19th of November 1559. he Published a Bull for the recalling this Council to Trent at the Feast of Easter of this Year vehemently Exhorting all Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops and Abbats and all others who had the Right or Privilege to Sit and Vote in a General Council by common right or any Privilege or Ancient Custom that at that Day they would be present in the said Council He also Admonished the Emperor Elect and all other Christian Kings and Princes that if they could not be personally present they should send their Ambassadors thither affirming beforehand that he designed nothing by this Council but the Glory of God the Reduction and Salvation of the scattered Sheep and the lasting Peace of Christendom There was soon after a sharp Invective Printed at Ausburg by Paulus Vergerius Bishop of Cabo di Istria in Friule Vergerius opposeth the Council who was a Cardinal and had been imployed by several of the preceding Popes in great Ambassies and had lately left that Church and betaken himself to the Protestants of Germany In it he set forth the Pride Pomp Luxury Ambition Bribery and corrupt Manners of the Court of Rome which he vow'd he well knew and from his heart detested That the Council was not call'd by the Pope to establish the Doctrine of Christ but those Human Inventions which they had brought in contrary to the Commandments of God not to Purge God's fold but to disseminate their inveterate Errors not to restore Christian Liberty but to introduce a miserable Servitude and Oppression on the Souls of Men none but the Bishops and Abbats who should take an Oath prescribed by the Roman Ceremonial Lib. 1. c. III. § XIV being permitted to sit there That all the inferior Clergy and secular Princes had only a right to come be instructed but not to deliberate or vote by which it must needs come to pass that not only all those who had separated from that Church on the account of her gross Errors would not be heard which was promised at first by Paul III. but that also many of the most Skilful and most Learned Doctors of that Church would be excluded from giving any Vote and all Liberty in which only there was any hope of restoring the Peace of the Church would be taken away and a Door opened to let in a Schism which would never have an end The Pope Ambassadors sent to the Protestant Princes to invite them to the Council perceiving that this Complaint would irritate the Minds
the Protestants and accordingly a new Edict was made which was called The Edict of January the principal Heads of which were these That the Protestants should restore the Ecclesiasticks to their Churches Houses Lands Tithes and other goods whatsoever which they had taken from them forthwith and suffer them peaceably to enjoy their Images Crosses and Statues without any molestation or endeavouring to destroy them or doing any other thing that may disturb the publick Peace upon pain of Death without any hope of Mercy That the Protestants should have no publick Meetings Sermons and Prayers or administer any Sacraments publickly or privately by Night or by Day within any City in any manner whatsoever Yet in the mean time till the Controversies of Religion shall be composed by a General Council or the King shall otherwise order it Those who shall go to or frequent their Sermons shall not be molested provided they be had without the Cities And the Magistrates were accordingly commanded not to disquiet but to protect and preserve them from all Injury That all Seditious Persons of what Religion soever they were should be severely punished and all should be bound to discover and deliver them up to Justice a thousand Crowns being imposed upon any person who should receive abet or conceal such Riotous Offender and the Offender to be whipp'd if not able to pay the Penalty That the said Meetings should be without Arms and that no person should Reproach another on the account of Religion or use any Factious Names That the Protestant Ministers should admit none into their Number till they had diligently examined their Lives Conversations and Doctrines That the Magistrates might freely go to their Meetings to see what was done or to apprehend any Criminal who should be treated according to their Dignity and obeyed That the Protestants should hold no Synods Conferences or Consistories but in the presence of a Magistrate That they should create no new Magistrates or make any Laws or Statutes And if they desire any thing by way of Discipline it should be referred to their Authority or if need be be confirmed by them There shall be no Levies of Men or Monies made by them nor any Leagues entered into for their private Defence And as to Alms they shall only take them of such as are willing to give The Civil Laws especially those concerning Holy Days and the Degrees of Consanguinity and Affinity in Marriages shall be observed That their Pastors shall give Security to the Magistrates for the Observing this Edict and promise That they will not preach any Doctrine contrary to the Nicene or Apostles Creeds or the Books of the Old or New Testament nor use any Reproaches against the Catholicks in their Sermons And the same is injoyned the Catholicks in relation to the Protestants No man shall publish any Libels to defame another or sell or cause them to be sold Lastly the Magistrates are hereby commanded to be very diligent in case any Sedition happens to search out the Offenders and punish them without any Appeal to be allowed to such Offenders A Debate being made concerning the Worship of Images Injunctions published by the Queen's Order concerning Images these Propositions were published by the Queen by the Advice of the Bishops of Valence and Seez and Monsieur Bouthillier d' Espence and Picherel That seeing Errors are according to St. Augustin rather to be rooted out of the Minds of Men than out of Churches and other places the Bishops should take order with the Curates to have the People well Instructed and diligently Admonished concerning the right use of them that all Offence or Scandal might be prevented both by the Royal Authority and that of the Church and that if any opposed this he should be treated as a Violater of the Royal Edicts and of the publick Peace Images of the Trinity forbidden That all Figures of the Holy Trinity should be immediately removed out of all Churches and all other publick and private Places as being forbidden by the Holy Scriptures the Councils and Testimonies of the Fathers and only Dissembled or Tolerated by the Sloth of the Bishops and Pastors That the Pictures of all prophane Persons and others who were not to be found in the Authentick Martyrologies of the Church all lascivious and dishonest Pictures and those of Brutes shall be abolished That no Crowns Garlands or Vestments shall be put upon any Images nor Incense nor Candles burnt before them nor shall they be carried in Processions nor any Prayers or Oblations be made to them nor shall they be worshipped with bended Knees because all these things are parts of Worship That all Images but that of the Venerable Holy Cross shall be taken from the Altars and either placed on the Valves or Walls of the Churches so that from henceforth they may neither be saluted kissed prayed to or presented with Gifts That all Images which were wont to be carried on the Shoulders of Men in the Churches and Streets should according to the late Canon of Sens be for ever abolished Beza opposed the retention of the Cross as brought into use by Constantine the Great and one N. Mallard Dean of the Sorbonne in Paris tho' he confessed some ill things had crept into the Church yet he was of opinion that all this Worship of Images ought stoutly to be defended and retained and put out a Book to that purpose so the Thing fell This Order was made the 14th of February The same Month but some few days before it The King of Navar pretends still to promote the Reformation the King of Navar wrote a Letter to the Elector Palatine in which he testified his great desire to promote a Reformation and that he hoped to have found a way to reconcile Differences by the Conference of Poissi But that this Affair had not succeeded according to his wish and that even in the Dispute about Images which seemed to have less of Difficulty they had yet not been able to agree But that whatever Men pretended he would by the help of God endeavour that the Confession of Faith which could not be destroyed without the Ruin of the Peace of the Nation should insensibly be established as far as the Infancy of the King and the present State of Things would permit He wrote also to the same purpose to the Duke of Wirtemberg and to Philip Landtgrave of Hesse The Elector Palatine wrote an Answer dated the 20th of April from Heidelburg wherein he said he was sorry to see the Affections of the Protestants cool in this Affair and therefore he exhorted him to go on in this commendable Design of Reforming Religion When the Edict of January came to be published the Guises and Montmorancy The Edict of January opposed by the Guises and others who were now reconciled and were absent at the time of making it employed all their Industry to prevent its having its effect alledging it was not made as
Conde comes up towards Fontain-bleau Conde was coming to Court as the Queen had ordered him and was at Pont Sainct Clou within two Miles of Fontain-bleau which when the Queen heard all things were put into Confusion as if a Siege had been expected the Populace running into disorder and the Magistrates conniving at it Nor was the disorder less in the Court. The Queen fearing not without cause that some mischief would ensue if Conde came up the Confederates being in possession of the King and resolving to carry him and the Queen to Paris The Queen would gladly have stood Neuter but the Confederates told her plainly they knew Conde was come to get the King into his Power The Tyiumvirate seize the King. and they were resolved to carry him to Paris and if she pleased she might follow him and so they carried him to Melun not giving her any time to consider of it The Queen followed and took such Lodgings as they assigned her in the Castle Here she would have made her Escape with the King if the Jealousie of the Confederates had not prevented it They knowing this would give a great Reputation to the Party that could gain it and make the opposite Party look like Rebels Next Morning the Queen fell to flatter the Confederates to get them to go back to Fontainbleau and that she might speak with Conde But the Duke of Guise disappointed all her Projects and carried the King and his Brother to the Castle de Vincennes within two Miles of Paris the King weeping as if he had been carried into Captivity by force The next Morning Montmorancy entred Paris pull'd up the Seats and Pulpit of the Protestant Meeting-House near Port St. Jean in the Suburbs and burnt them publickly the people rejoycing greatly at it And in the Afternoon did the same thing without Port de St. Antoine to another such House but here the Fire took the next Houses which abated the Joy though there was at last too much bestowed on so ridiculous an Enterprize Upon this many good Men were injured by the Rabble in the Streets as being suspected in the Point of Religion yet it came not to Blood. The next day after Montmerancy appears very zealous against the Protestants at Paris the King and the Queen were brought up to the Louvre the Confederates pretending they were not safe elsewhere And here they began to talk of Declaring a War against the Prince of Conde which was opposed by the Chancellor whose Judgment was slighted by Montmorancy because he was a Gown-man But he replied That tho he was no Soldier yet he knew very well when War was fit and when not but the violence of the Confederates at last excluded him from that Consultation The Prince of Conde was coming towards the Court but hearing that the Queen out of levity or fear was joyned with the Triumvirate and was gone to Paris The Prince of Conde betrayed by the Queen into a disadvantageous War. he seeing the Enemy in possession of the King's Person concluded they had got a great Advantage over him and yet that the Die being cast it was too late to go back so he went to Orleans to meet d' Andelott and sent to Coligni the Admiral to come thither to him Innocent Tripier de Monterud was then Governour of Orleans for Charles de Bourbon Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon he in the beginning had been very favourable to the Protestants and had equally imployed them with the Catholicks in the Guard of the City but seeing the Queen was now joyned with the Confederate Catholick Lords he changed his Mind and took in more Forces by stealth that he might thereby over-power the Protestants But Andelott entering the place with a small Attendance quickly got together 300 of the Protestants Orleans surprized by the Prince of Conde and seized St. John's Gate and immediately sent to the Prince of Conde to come up so that though Mon. de Monterud endeavoured to recover this Post yet it was in vain and the Town fell into the Hands of the Prince of Conde and Monterud was forced to obtain the Prince's Leave to be gone The Seventh of April the Prince of Conde sent a Letter to all the Protestant Churches and Nobility in France Conde Justifies the War. to bring to him all the Forces and Moneys they were able to raise for the Rescuing of the King out of Captivity and the delivering him out of the Hands of some great Men who had first violated the Laws or Edicts of France and then seizing the Person of the King by force Abused his Authority to the breaking the Peace of that Kingdom The next day he put out a Manifesto wherein he largely unfolded the Truth that the bottom of their Design was to deprive the Protestants of France of that Liberty which had been granted them by the King's Edict The Catholicks begin the War to deprive the Protestants of the Liberty granted them by the Edict of January which he proved amongst other things by the Massacre of Vassy which he said was design'd for a Signal to the whole Nation to do the like He call'd God to Witness his only Intentions were to restore the King and his Brothers and the Queen and the Council to their Liberty to preserve the Veneration due to the Royal Edicts and especially that solemn Edict of January last and to prevent the Moneys given by the States in the last Assembly for the payment of the Debts of the Crown from being mispent or turned to other uses for as for him and his they would manage this War at their own Charges He desired that whilest the King was in their Power no Credit should be given to any Edict Warrant or Commission though under the great Seal or Signed by the King. As for his Brother the King of Navar he should pay him always the Respect that was due to his Character and Place but he desired the Duke of Guise and his Brothers and Montmorancy should lay down their Arms restore the King and his Council to their liberty and suffer the Edict of January to continue in force till the King were of Age and then he would lay down his Arms and he and his would return to their own homes If they refused these just and equal Conditions and attempted any thing with force against him he said he would not bear it but would rescue the King and his People from their violence and they should answer for all the Calamities and Miseries which should follow The Prince of Conde and the Ministers write to the Princes of Germany He wrote two days after this to the Princes of Germany and ordered the Ministers to do so too that the greater Credit might be given to his to the same purpose And in the Conclusion desired they would not be wanting to the King Queen and Kingdom at a time of so much need nor suffer themselves to be prejudiced by
the false pretences of his Enemies but rather would support and strengthen him in the War which he had engaged in for the Glory of God and the Safety of the King and Kingdom The 11th of April he caused the League which the Protestants had entred into to be printed also which was to last only till the King should be of full Age to undertake the Government of his Kingdom in his own Name and at the same time he caused that entred into by the Triumvirate to be printed which they pretended was Confirm'd by the Authority of the Council of Trent which was about that time opened The same Seventh day of April The King and Queen affirm they were at Liberty in their Declaration the King and Queen put out a Declaration at Paris wherein they affirmed that the report of their Captivity was false and scandalously feigned by the Prince of Conde for a colour to his Seditious Practises And that they came willingly and not by force to Paris that they might consult of the means of settling this Commotion The Third day after another Paper was Published by the Queen Navar Bourbon the Cardinal and Duke of Guise and Mentmorancy by the Advice of Aumale the Chancellor St. Andre Brisac and Montmorancy the Younger for the Confirming the Edict of January the Pardon of all past offences and forbidding the troubling or endangering any Man on the account of Religion And giving liberty to the Protestants to meet and Preach any where except in Paris and the Suburbs thereof At the same time an Envoy was dispatched to the Elector Palatine and the rest of the Princes of Germany to consult them about the Council of Trent About the same time there was a Barbarous Massacre made of the Protestants at Sens by the Procurement of Hemar President of Sens and as it was believed not without the knowledge of the Cardinal of Guise The Massacre of Sens. who was Archbishop of that See who was thereupon said to have had a hand also in that of Vassy There was a report spread in the City that the Protestants had a design to surprize the City and deface the Images whereupon the Rabble rose and drowned in the River and Slew in all 100 People of all Ages and Sexes Plundered and pull'd down their Houses and rooted up their Vines of which Conde made a grievous Complaint to the Queen in a Letter of the 19th of April But there being many Complaints of the like nature brought from other parts of the Nation against the Protestants the thing was neglected And Davila takes no notice of it About the same time many Cities throughout the Kingdom of France were surprized by the Protestants which was in many places not possible to be done without Slaughter and the Profanation of the Churches though their Captains at first carried themselves as moderately as they could The Prince of Conde understanding by a Letter he received from the Elector Palatin The Princes of Germany much divided about the true cause of this French War. That the Princes of Germany were much divided about the Causes of this War and Especially the Catholicks He wrote a Letter to Ferdinand the Emperor the 20th of April to inform him of the Causes of these Tumults asserting the King and Queen were carried away against their wills and that he had been forced to betake himself to Arms to restore them to their former Liberty and therefore he beseeched the Emperour to favour him as an Asserter of the Royal Interest The 15th of April Roan taken very easily by the Protestants Roan was taken by the Protestants almost without any Tumult or Resistance And when Henry Robert de la Mark Duke de Bouillon Governour of Normandy was sent thither by the King of Navar to Command them in the King's Name to lay down their Arms they slighted his Authority and gave Reasons for what they had done alledging amongst others the Attempts upon the Protestants at Amiens and Abbeville which they said were sufficient to terrifie the most Peaceable from laying down their Arms but then they were willing to deliver the Keys of the City to him and to keep it for his use and in his Name He leaving the City thereupon they took St. Catherine's a Monastery without the City and put a Garison into it A Tumult arising the next Night some of the Catholicks were slain and others put into Prison So from the Third of May till the City was re-taken the Exercise of the Romish Religion was totally omitted And after that Pont del ' Arche and Caudebec Soon after they took Pont de l' Arche which being taken by the Roman Catholicks the Protestants took Caudebec beneath Roan and when they might have demolished it they endeavoured to keep it but it was soon after re-taken by the Roman Catholicks and so the City was restrain'd on both sides Upon this 300 Horse and 1500 Foot were sent against them which for some time had the better of the Citizens Diepe The Protestants took Diepe the 21th of April without any Resistance and pull'd down the Images and Altars in the Churches The 21th of June Aumale left Roan and Besieged Diepe In the County of Calais the Protestants were the stronger Caen and Bayeux Caen Bayeux were also taken and Reform'd by the Protestants Man 's was taken by the Protestants the Third of April without Resistance Man 's taken by them and in the mean time Forces were raised by both Parties the Queen in her Heart being pleased to see the Prince of Conde Espouse her Cause and desiring to abate the Pride of the Guises and therefore she was earnest to have a Treaty hoping by this means to have both the Parties at her Devotion The Prince of Conde the first of May had sent her a Letter with some Terms for an Accommodation which were That the Edict of January which had been violated by the Conspirators should be observed 2. The Injuries committed upon the Protestants severely punished by the Magistrates 3. Guise and his Brothers and Montmorancy c. who had raised this War should leave the Court and return to their several Governments till the King was of Age to undertake the Government and determine himself this Controversy And then he would lay down his Arms and retire to his home The Fourth of May it was Answered That the King would observe the Edict of January every where but at Paris That all Slaughters Spoilings and Injuries committed should be inquired into and punished but he would not send Guise Montmorancy and St. Andre from the Court because he was satisfied as to their Loyalty needed their Counsel and ought not to set any Mark of Dishonour on them But then they were willing for the sake of the Publick Peace to retire if those that were in Arms in Orleans and all over the Nation would first go home restore the Places taken by them to their former
the Prince publickly That he wondered how they could be prevailed upon to clap up a Peace upon such disadvantageous Conditions when the Affairs of the Protestants were in so flourishing a state That they ought to have remembred that in the beginning of the War the Triumvirate had consented that the Edict of January should be restored and that now two of them the King of Navar and the Duke of Guise were slain and Montmorancy was their Prisoner and consequently a Security for the Prince of Conde Why should not they have had the same Terms That the restraint of the Profession of the Protestant Religion to one place in a Province was to give up that by a dash of the Pen which their Sword could never have obtained That what was granted to the Nobility could not be denied and they would soon see it was safer to serve God in the Suburbs of great Cities than in their Private Families and that it was uncertain whether their Children would be at all like them But however nothing could rescind an Agreement made by common consent Thus ended the first Civil War of France I have transcribed this whole Account of the first Civil War of France from the great Thuanus abridging it as much as was possible and pursuing the Actions only of the great Armies because if I had taken in all he relates of the various Actions between the two Parties in the several great Cities and Provinces it would have swell'd infinitely beyond the design of this Work or otherwise have been so dark as not to be easily intelligible And if the Reader compare this short Account with that given by Davila he will soon see how little the sincerity of that Historian is to be relied on and how small the Reason is for him to treat the Huguenots as Rebels in all the Course of this War. When the War first began the Protestants acted purely on the defensive but after several local Massacres they began to pull down Images and Altars in Revenge for the blood-shed of the other Party and finding to their cost this did but enrage the Roman Catholicks against them and made them the more cruel they fell next upon the Priests and Monks as the Authors of their Calamities this more incensing the Roman Catholicks And they again using the most horrid barbarities that were ever practised by Men the Protestants rose likewise in their Executions on them so that if this War had continued a few years France must have been depopulated Now though in all this the Roman Catholicks were the first Agressors and forced the Protestants to this severity in their own defence yet their Writers cunningly omitting the Provocation or softing the Actions of their own Party set forth at large the Cruelties of the Hereticks as they call them and many times aggravate them above what is true but Thuanus though a Roman Catholick was too great a Man to be guilty of so false a representation and who ever pleaseth to consult him will find I have been very favourable to the Roman Catholicks in this Abstract and have not sought occasions to make them odious without cause A CONTINUATION OF THE HISTORY OF THE Reformation of the Church BOOK IV. The CONTENTS The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France The Causes of the Delay of the Council The Pope's Legates sent to Trent The Prohibition of Books taken into Consideration The French Ambassadors arrive at Trent The French King's Reflections on the Proceedings of the Council The French Clergy arrive there The Pope's Fear of them Maximilian Son of Ferdinand the Emperor chosen King of the Romans The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council The Spanish Ambassadors received in the Council The Fathers of Trent much Displeased with the Peace made in France The Queen of Navarr cited to Rome and many of the Bishops by the Inquisition The French King's Declaration against these Proceedings The Queen Mother of France complains of the Council The Pope Gains the Cardinal of Lorrain to his Side That Councils have no Authority over Princes The Ambassadors of France Protest against the Council and retire to Venice The Council ended The Censure of the Council The State of Religion in Piedmont A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. The Romish Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy and the Cup to the Laity The Siege and Surrender of Havre de Grace Charles the IX declared out of his Minority The Scotch Affairs HAVING thus dispatched what concerns the first French War year 1562 I now return to the Affairs of the Rest of Christendom in the Year 1562. And here I will first begin with the History of the Council of Trent Whilst the recalling this Council was agitated with great heat The Cardinal of Ferrara leaves France the Cardinal of Ferrara the Pope's Legate in France after the Revocation of the Edict of January seeing all things there in the state he desired he took his leave of the King and returned into Italy Before he went however he took care to furnish the King with Money to carry on the Siege of Orleans which he took up of the Bankers of Paris He had raised a vast Expectation of this Council in the minds of all those who had yet any Kindness left in their Hearts for the See of Rome and the more because they thought the Edict of January which had caused the War would then fall of Course it being made only by way of Provision till a Council should determine otherwise As the Cardinal was in his Journey Fifty Horsemen came out of Orleans under the Command of one Monsieur Dampier and surprized all his Mules Horses and Treasures and when he sent a Trumpeter to demand them again the Prince of Conde made Answer That this magnificent and warlike Equipage did not befit Pastors and the Successors of St. Peter but rather Commanders and Generals of War who were in Arms for Religion Yet if he pleased to recal the 200000. Crowns which he had furnished the Triumvirate with to carry on the War against him and the Italian Forces out of France he would then restore all he had taken to his Eminence The Council which was appointed to meet at Easter of the former Year was delay'd to the beginning of this The Causes of the Delay of the Council the Pope putting it off because he was as much afraid of the Spanish Bishops as of the French National Council He had been necessitated to grant great Contributions to King Philip to be levied upon his Clergy and he thought the Bishops would on that score come with exasperated Minds to the Council and all his Thoughts were bent on the keeping the Papal Power undiminished rather than on satisfying the just Compaints of the Nations At last being forced by an unresistable necessity he sent Hercules Gonzaga The Pope's Legates sent to Trent Jerom Seripand and Stanislaus Hosio out of his Bosom to be his Legates at Trent And not long after he
added to them James Simoneta and Mark Sitico Bishop of Altemberg in Transylvania who had orders to open the Council again the Eighteenth of January 1562. That those things might be therein treated of which the * Proponentibus Legatis Legates should propose and in the same Order for the taking away the Calamities of these Times the appeasing the Controversies of Religion the Restraining deceitful Tongues the Correcting the Abuses of depraved Manners and the obtaining a True and Christian Peace by such means as the Holy Council should approve of The French Clergy insisted That mention should be made of a Free and General Council to be call'd for the Quieting of their Differences because their Protestants would never submit to the Determinations of the former Sessions On the contrary the Spaniards professed they would only continue the former Council and therefore they used a middle way and decreed A Council should be Celebrated The Spanish Bishops were as much dissatisfied because all the Power of proposing was given to the Legates and taken from the other Bishops and complained of it to King Philip who Ordered his Ambassador to treat the Pope about it that the Council might be free The Pope Answered the Ambassador That he was not at leisure to dispute about Ablative Cases Positive and the Genders of Words and that he had something else to do And in private he spoke of the Calamities and Dangers of France with the same unconcernedness For when one of the French Cardinals deplored the Danger the See of Rome was in of losing that Kingdom he replied What then if as long as I am Bishop of this City I shall not be forced to abate any thing of the Greatness of my Table and the Magnificence of my Buildings And when they insisted to have the Manners of Men and the Discipline of the Church throughly Reform'd he said In that Particular he would satisfie France to the full and take such Care in it that they should all of them Repent that they had mentioned a Reformation Adding That he foresaw that the Kingdom would be divided on the account of Religion but he did not value the loss of it a Farthing All which Expressions saith Thuanus Are in the Letters of the French Ambassador that was then at Rome out of which I have faithfully Transcribed them and the Letters are now in my Hands The History of this Council is so well described by Petro Soave Polano a Venetian which is in English that I need the less insist upon it but I shall however remark some few things from Thuanus and others for the Enlarging or Confirming the Credit of that History which is much cryed down by the Roman Catholicks as certainly they have good Reason to be offended with that Author who with so much Truth and Impartiality has discovered the Artifices of that Assembly for the keeping up the Grandeur of the Court of Rome and the Suppression and Baffling that Reformation which the most Learned of the Church of Rome then so much desired and panted after The Second Session was held the Twenty sixth of February The Prohibition of Books taken into consideration in which a Decree pass'd against Reading Books suspected of Heresie and a safe Conduct and an Invitation was given to all that would come to the Council Seventeen Bishops were by Name appointed to bring in a Catalogue of such Books as were intended or thought fit to be Prohibited Polano observes that they carried this so high as to deprive Men of that Knowledge which was necessary to defend them from the Vsurpations of the Court of Rome by which means its Authority was maintained and made Great For the Books were Prohibited and Condemned in which the Authority of Princes and Temporal Magistrates is defended from the Vsurpations of the Clergy and of Councils and Bishops from the Vsurpations of the Court of Rome in which their Hypocrisies or Tyrannies are manifested by which the People under pretence of Religion are deceived In summ a better Mystery was never found out than to use Religion to make Men insensible However this may help to keep those in their Church which they now have it doth certainly by Experience render them very Contemptible to all others and unable to defend their Religion which is especially true of their Laity The Fourth of March the business of the Safe Conduct was dispatched in a Congregation A debate whether Episcopacy and Residence are of Divine Right and a Debate was raised and pursued with great Heat by the Spanish Bishops That Episcopacy was instituted by God without any Medium and that Residence and their Pastoral Deligence in feeding their Flock was of Divine Right which they desired might be Confirmed by the Decree of the Council But because this tended to the Establishing the Authority of the Bishops and the Abating that of the Pope his Holiness was much concern'd at it and having consulted the Cardinals about it they by common consent Delayed and by ambiguous Answers deluded the Fathers at Trent and at last totally baffled them in this Point The Second Session was appointed to be the Twelfth of April which was then prorogued to the Fourth of June and from thence to the Fifteenth of the same Month. In the mean time the King of France sent Lewis de Sanct Gelais Sieur de Lanssac The French Ambassadors Arrival Arnold de Ferrier Presiders of Paris and Guy du Faur Sieur de Pibrac his Ambassadors to the Council who arrived at Trent the Nineteenth of May. Lanssac soon after wrote a Letter to give an Account of their being come to the French Resident at Rome in which he said he thought they ought in the first Place to take care that an Event contrary to their Expectation might not attend the Council that the Pope should Order his Legates to shew great patience to those who spake proceed slowly in all things attend the Arrival of those Bishops who were coming and allow a Liberty without condition to all that were to Vote or Speak and not fall under the old Reproach of having the Holy Ghost sent them from Rome in a Portmanteau and lastly that they should take care that what was Decreed at Trent to the Glory of God should not be malignantly Interpreted and Traduced or it may be Corrupted at Rome by a Company of Idle Men He desired therefore he would endeavour to obtain these things of the Pope as he did but the Pope took this Liberty very ill and desired That no Prejudice might be done to his Authority by the French Bishops Adding That he reserved the Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Discipline and of the Court of Rome to himself and that he might with greater Convenience attend this and the Transactions at Trent he intended to go to Bononia The pretence of this Journey was the Crowning of the Emperor in that City who was said to be coming thither for that purpose But the reality was
full to praise Fasting and admonish others to be content with one Benefice The French King had sent Francis de Bolliers Sieur de Manes to dissipate and remove this Jealousie of the Pope's at the approach of the French Bishops and to acquaint his Holiness with his Intentions For that it was commonly said That the Cardinal was sent to get the Transactions in the Conference of Poisey last Year confirm'd by the Synod That the Cup might be granted to the Laity That the Clergy might be allowed Matrimony That the Liturgy might be in the Vulgar Tongue That the Bishops might have but one Diocess and that none should be Elected to that Dignity who could not Preach to the People As to the first Manes excused the Conference of Poisey and said It was appointed by the Queen and the Cardinal for the gaining time and the retarding or keeping back those intestine Commotions they foresaw and for the stopping the Mouths of the Sectaries who complained every where that their Reasons had never been heard That they designed in the Interim to levy Forces so that if they could not convince the Sectaries by Reason they might by force reduce them to their Duty That nothing was done in that Conference And as to the other Points the Cardinal and French Clergy had no other Instructions than what had been sent to the Ambassadors of France and that they brought no prejudged Opinions with them to the Council The Pope was much concern'd upon the Account of a Report that the Bishops of France had moved their King to stop the Payment of First Fruits by the Clergy of France to the See of Rome And he said this was contrary to their Pacts and Agreements with him which was That this Affair should be transacted with the Pope only in a friendly way But then after all nothing so much startled the holy Man as a Report that a Peace was treating secretly with the Protestants and that they would have Liberty given them to Preach and he foresaw that if France were once quieted the Council could not be hurried to a Conclusion but things would be well considered and perhaps the Protestants must be heard in it and amongst them Queen Elizabeth of England which he feared beyond Expression For he thought the Cardinals of Lorrain and Ferrara were so Useful and Necessary to the King of France that he could never have spared them to attend the Council where there was no need of them if he had not had some such pestilent Designs to promote Whereupon he mustered up all the Prelates he could possibly not admitting any Excuse The Popes fears of the French Bishops never to be stopp'd and sent many also who had resigned their Benefices to the Council together with the Coadjutors of other Bishops that so he might have the more Votes believing he was now in the utmost degree of Danger and as if he had not had enough of his own he borrowed some Prelates of his Friends too And amongst them he got leave of the Duke of Savoy that Anthony Bobba Bishop of Cassale who was then that Princes Ambassador in the Court of Rome and Lewis Vanini de Teodolis Bishop de Bertinoro a Person of great Learning and Eloquence who had excused his Attendance in the Council upon his want of Health should now forthwith be dispatched to Trent When this last was going thither he is said to have consolated and strengthened the good Pope in his Anxiety and Fears of the Event with an Assurance That he would certainly get the Victory over the Council which was a very Acceptable Saying to the Pope and that he for that good News Kiss'd the Bishop of Bertinoro when he took his Leave to go to Trent bidding him be careful to get the Victory he had promised him And when after this some flying Reports came to Rome that some Questions were moved in the Council to the prejudice of the Papal Authority by the Bishops he was so moved at it that in the Consistory before all the Cardinals he cried out he and the Romans were betrayed whilest he maintained an Army of Enemies at Trent with great expence By which expression he aimed at the Italian Bishops who were his Pensioners and kept there by him in great numbers And Jo. Baptista Adriani writes He was just upon the Point of inhibiting the Council and had done it if Cosmus Duke of Florence had not averted him from that dangerous and shameful project The 8th Maximilian Son of Ferdinand chosen King of the Romans Polano in his History of the Council of Trent saith the Election was made the 24th of November So that the first date seems to be the day of the opening of the Diet. day of September Maximilian the Eldest Son of Ferdinand the Emperor was chosen King of the Romans at Francfort upon the Maine in a Diet there assembled for that purpose Stroschen a Polander by birth who was then Ambassador for Solyman the Emperor of the Turks was present at Francfort and saw this Ceremony being sent to settle a Truce for eight years between those Princes which had been a long time sought by Busbequius at Constantinople The Emperor was by this League to pay Thirty Millions of Hungarian Duckets for a Tribute by the year In this Diet the Princes of the Augustane Confession and their Allies gave in their opinion concerning the Council in Writing as they promised they would in the Convention at Naumburg They said they could not come to this Impious Council which was Indicted by Pope Pins the Fourth because not so assembled as was prescribed in their Appeals to a pious free and lawful Council given in heretofore in several Diets of Germany This Diet ended about the end of December and the Emperor went by Wormes Spire Weissemburg Strasburg Schlestat and Basil to Friburg in Brisgow being in all places received with great Honour and in the last of these places he held a Diet for Alsatia and then by Constance he went in February to Inspruck where he staid some time on the account of the Council of Trent which he hoped might be ended in the less time if he were near it The French Ambassadors when they came to the Council of Trent were furnished with certain Instructions what they were to ask but had Orders to suppress them till they had conferr'd with the Emperors Ambassadors which happened to have much what the same demands But by this time the Court of France seeing there was no care taken to satisfie the Emperor and that things were carried with great slowness ordered their Ambassador to open their Grievances which were contain'd in Thirty four Articles year 1563 and were accordingly unfolded to the Council the 4th of January as they may be seen at large in Polano his History Pag. 609. I shall not here trouble the Reader with them The 10th of January the King of France ordered his Ambassador to assure the Pope that the Annals which
were taken away in the Assembly of the States of France lately held at Orleans should for the future be paid to the Pope he hoping by this means to have him more ready to grant his desires tending to the peace of the Church which the Pope's Ambassador largely promised On the 14th of February a Decree was made concerning the Residence of Bishops and Pastors with great difficulty and opposition which all tended to the obtaining the Judgment of the Council That the Pope has full power to feed and govern the Vniversal Church The French who hold that a Council is above the Pope were contented to conceal their opinion in this point for fear the Pope should take that opportunity to dissolve the Council without any good done by it But then they were resolved to defend their said opinion if it were opposed whatever happened and upon no terms to lose or yield it King Philip also laboured very hard that the power of the Bishops should be raised and that of the Pope and the Conclave brought lower which they of the Pope's party interpreted as a design to diminish the Spanish Liberties because the Bishops and Chapters of Spain would be more subjected to the will of the King than the Court of Rome would By which means they at last prevailed so far upon that jealous Nation that the power of the Bishops in the end was very much abated and that of the Pope was enlarged and exalted and the Bishops were contented to act as the Popes Delegates and by his Authority and in his Name to exercise their Functions About this time it was that the Cardinal of Lorrain went again to the Emperor to Inspruck which caused a great fear in the Pope's party in the Council for that they suspected he went to adjust with that Prince the ways to bring the Papal power under In the beginning of March the Emperor wrote a Letter to the Pope after he had consulted the Bishops of Quinque Ecclesiae The Emperor dislikes the Proceedings of the Council who went to Inspruck to him wherein he signified to his Holiness That after his Son in the last Diet was Elected King of the Romans and Crown'd and that he had visited his Cities upon the Rhine he was come to Inspruck to promote the Affairs of the Church in the Council as became the Supreme Advocate and Procurator of the Church but that to his great grief he understood that things were so far from going as was to be desired and as the publick State of Affairs required that it was to be feared if speedy remedies were not applied the Council would be ended in such manner as it would give offence to all Christendom and become ridiculous to all those who had made a defection from the Church of Rome and fix them more obstinately in those opinions they had embraced tho' very differing from the Orthodox Faith. That there had not been any Session celebrated for a long time and that it was commonly given out the Fathers and Doctors in the Council had contentions and differences amongst themselves which were unworthy of that moderation which they ought to have and tended very much to the detriment of that concord which was hoped for from them and yet these contests frequently broke out to the great satisfaction of their Adversaries That there was a report That the Pope intended to dissolve or suspend the Council and he advised him not to do it because nothing could be more shameful or damageable and which besides would certainly cause a great defection from the Church and bring a great hatred on the Papacy and from thence cause an equal contempt of all the Clergy That this dissolution or suspension would certainly procure the Assembling of National Councils which the Popes have ever opposed as contrary to the Unity of the Church and which those Princes which were well affected to the See of Rome had hitherto hindred in their Dominions but after this they could find no pretence to deny or delay them any longer Therefore he desired the Pope to lay aside that thought and to apply himself seriously to the celebration of the Council allowing the Ancient Liberty to all in its full extent that all things might be dispatched rightly lawfully and in order and thereby the mouths of their Adversaries who sought an opportunity to calumniate might be stopp'd That it would become his Holiness to attend the Council in person if his health would permit it and he earnestly desired he would That he the Emperor if the Pope thought fit would also come thither that they both by their presence might promote the Publick business That the Pope might compose and decide many difficulties which had arisen from his absence The Emperor sent a Copy of this Letter to the Cardinal of Lorrain also and desired he would promote those things which tended to the Glory of God and the good of Christendom The 21th of May the Count de Luna Ambassador for the King of Spain The Ambassador of Spain received in the Council was received in a Congregation and there was a Speech made in the behalf of that Prince in the Assembly by one Pedro Fontidonio de Segovia a Divine who extoll'd above measure the care of his Master in the Affairs of Religion and especially his severity shewn towards Sectaries he said this Prince Married Mary of England only to the end he might restore the Catholick Religion in that flourishing Kingdom He Reproached the French and German Nations for thinking that much was to be indulged to the Hereticks that being won by these Concessions they might be reduced into the bosom of the Church At last he said That they ought so to consult the Salvation of Hereticks and the Majesty of the Church that all things might be done for the promoting the latter rather than for gratifying the former And he exhorted all Princes to imitate the severity of his Master in bridling Hereticks that the Church might be delivered from so many Miseries and the Fathers of Trent from the care of celebrating Councils A little before this time the news of the Peace made with the Protestants of France came first in Generals and soon after the particular Articles The Fathers at Trent much dissatisfied with the Peace made in France This was blamed by the greater part of the Fathers in that Council who said it was to prefer the things of the world before the things of God yea to ruin both the one and the other For the Foundation of a State which is Religion being removed it is necessary that the Temporal should come to desolation whereof the Edict made before was an example which did not cause Peace and Tranquility as was hoped but a greater War than before The truth is these men would have all the world fight out their quarrel to the last man and then if their Catholicks perish they are as unconcerned as for the Hereticks and accordingly ever
may consult the Salvation of Souls and the repose of Christendom and not that he may deprive Princes of their Kingdoms and dispose of their possessions at his pleasure which the former Popes have never been able to do in Germany and other places without bringing great reproach and dishonour on the Church and disturbances upon the World. That therefore the King desired with the greatest humility that he could or ought that the Sentence against the Q. of Navarr should be revok'd and all the Pope's Ministers should be inhibited from proceeding in this cause by a publick Act and if this were not done the King should be forced against his will to make use of the same remedies his Ancestors had imployed in the like cases according to the Laws and Rights of his Kingdom But before all things he protested he should do this unwillingly and therefore they only should bear the blame who by their rashness had forced him to use the power God had given him in so just a cause and to implore the assistance of his friends against them There was at the same time distinct Memorials and larger Instructions sent to the French Ambassador for the Defence of the Bishops The Bishops defended by the King also and D'Oysel who was an active Minister prevail'd upon the Pope to have the Proceedings against the Bishops stopt and the Sentence against the Queen of Navarr revok'd and abolished So that at this day it is not to be found amongst the Constitutions of Pope Pius the Fourth The 18th of May there having been no consideration had of the XXXIII Articles put into the Council the 4th of January The Queen complains of the Proceedings of the Council the Queen wrote to Lanssac her Ambassador complaining very bitterly of the delays and shifts which had been made in this business and said that the hope good men had hitherto had of the success of this Council and the opinion of their sincerity who met in it would both vanish without any fruit and their dissimulation and connivance would more and more inflame the wrath of God against us who had now made it manifest unto all men that the affairs of the Church needed a Reformation and a severe correction and to that purpose had invited and brought together from all parts of the Earth so many men famous for their Piety and Learning to this Council and if after all this he shall see us still stubbornly resist his will he will be necessitated to punish those men who have hindred so good a work and so necessary to the peace of the Church That therefore the King had wrote to the Cardinal of Lorrain to assemble a Congregation of the French Clergy and after a mature deliberation had amongst themselves to demand earnestly of the Fathers of the Council that these things might be considered and determin'd as soon as was possible But the Cardinal was by this time won over to the Pope's side The Pope gained the Cardinal of Lorrain to his side and was willing to sacrifice the safety of France and the King's Will to the Interest of the former In order to this he delayed the Execution of his Orders from day to day and at last that he might totally disappoint them asked leave of the King to go to Rome believing the Kings Ambassadors would do nothing in his absence And not long after Lanssac obtained leave to return into France Who went to Rome The Cardinal of Lorrain went from Trent towards Rome the 18th of September and with him five of the French Bishops But the other French Ambassadors did nevertheless insist stoutly to have the Articles considered by the Council who that they might elude this pursuit made some Decrees which had some respect to those things the French had desired but which aimed at the granting a Liberty and Immunity to the Clergy against all the Laws Privileges Liberties and Jurisdictions and Lawful Authorities of all Kingdoms States and Princes which being seen by La Ferriere and Du Faur the King's Ambassadors at Trent they by their Master's Order opposed the said Decrees The 27th of September the King by a Letter having commanded his Ambassadors to insist upon their first Demands and to assure the Council that as none of the Christian Princes should exceed him in the fervor of true Piety and a desire to promote the Affairs of the Council so if they still went on to cure the desperate wounds of the Church with a light hand or rather to plaster them over and conceal than cure them whilest they omitted the proper and most necessary remedies and instead of considering the Reformation of the Church turn'd the edge of their Authority against the Power of Princes and the Decrees of Councils he would not have the Presence of his Ambassadors add Authority to such unjust Decrees to the great prejudice of his Royal Dignity and to the Damage of the Liberties of his Kingdom He said also that he had been informed that the Council had entertain'd a design to declare the Marriage of Anthony de Bourbon King of Navarr and Joan his Queen unlawful and to declare Henry his Son a Bastard and he commanded them not to be present at any such Act. Lastly he commanded them to repeat their former demands and if the Fathers of the Council would not grant them then to leave Trent and go to Venice and stay there till they had further Orders from him He told them also that his principal desire was by a serious Reformation of Church-affairs and manners the corruptions in which had caused so many to make defection from the Church of Rome by the Authority of a General Council to unite the divided minds of men in the matters of Religion That his Ambassadors and Proctors had often treated with the Pope and the Fathers of the Council about this and to that end had exhibited the said XXXIV Articles to which no satisfactory return had been made but on the contrary they having lightly touched the business of Reformation had exercised an Authority which belonged not to them against the Rights The Council has no Authority over Princes Liberties and Power of Soveraign Princes That they neither could nor ought to inquire into the Civil Administration which was not subject to their Court nor to derogate from those Constitutions and Customs which had been long enjoyed by Princes nor to Anathematize Kings all which things tended to Sedition and the interruption of the publick Peace That he would not suffer that Authority which he had received from his Ancestors to be weakned by their unjust censures Yea he commanded them to tell the Fathers That if they presumed any more to undermine the Authority of Kings and the Prerogatives of their Betters that they should then also protest against their proceeding and leave Trent Advising the Bishops and Divines of France who were in the Council to promote the Reformation of Religion as much as was
regain the Episcopal Authority usurped for the most part by the Pope and it hath made them lose it altogether bringing them into greater servitude On the contrary it was feared and avoided by the See of Rome as a potent means to moderate their exorbitant power which from small beginnings mounted by divers degrees to an unlimited excess and it hath so established and confirm'd the same over that part which remains subject unto it that it was never so great nor so soundly rooted Thus far Polano The Emperor who was come as far as Inspruck to promote the Council The Emperor goes from Inspruck before the Council was ended finding that his being there did not only no good as he thought it would but rather the contrary the Popish Prelates suspecting his designs were against the Authority of the Court of Rome and were accordingly afraid of every thing so that the Difficulties and Suspicions did turn into bitterness and encrease in number Therefore having other business which would turn more to his Advantage he left that place and returned home but he wrote first to the Cardinal of Lorrain His sense of the Council That the Impossibility of doing good in the Council being palpable he thought it was the duty of a Christian and wise Prince rather to support the present evil with patience than by labouring to cure it to cause a greater By which he seems to mean that any enormities were to be endured from the See of Rome rather than to forsake it and so correct them The Catholick Princes being blinded and misled by their Education The Reasons why the Council had no better success and not understanding that the right of calling Councils was in themselves as it was of old in the Christian Emperors who call'd all the Ancient General Councils thought that they should by force of Arguments and modesty extort some Reformation from them but when they saw they could not agree amongst themselves what was absolutely necessary France and the Empire asking more than King Philip was willing to admit and the Pope being as stoutly resolved whatever happened not to suffer his Power Grandeur or Wealth to be abated Lastly when they all saw that the Protestants would never submit to any Council that was call'd and managed by the Pope or his Legates they all became weary of it and desired it might be ended as soon as was possible and any way to deliver themselves from the charge trouble and vexation of this unprofitable or rather mischievous Conventicle But then as to the Roman Catholicks of this Age who would fain perswade us that nothing was amiss that there was no need of any Reformation that all the differences arose from misrepresenting the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome and that this Council was one of the most holy Assemblies of Learned Impartial and Religious men that ever sate These I say are a a pleasant parcel of Gentlemen and presume that we are as ignorant of and unconcern'd for the Histories of former times as those who profess to be led by an implicite faith in all they have the confidence to teach them which is a great mistake From this day forward the Protestants renounced all commerce and friendship with the Church of Rome and she has by this Council put her self out of the power of a Reconciliation so that now the Quarrel is put intirely into the hands of God and all humane wisdom is baffl'd for ever Time the Sword or the Providence of God may perhaps at last put an end to it but no Counsel or Device of men ever shall I should here have ended this Continuation The State of Religion in Piedmont but that I have been forced to leave some things unspoken to continue the thread of my Relation which I will now go back to and gather up that the Story may be the more compleat and perfect Whilest the Council was sitting the Cardinal of Ferrara travelling through Piedmont and Savoy found the Affairs of that Country as to Religion not much other than in France In divers places of the Marquisate of Saluzza all the Priests were hunted away and in Cherie and Cuni places belonging to the Duke of Savoy and in many other Cities near unto them many were of the same opinions with the Hugonots and many even in the Duke's Court also did profess them and more were discovered every day And however the Duke had set forth a Proclamation a Month before That all that followed those opinions should within eight days depart out of the Country and some did thereupon depart yet afterwards he commanded there should be no proceedings against them and pardon'd many who were condemn'd by the Inquisition and made their Process void as also those who were in the Inquisition and not condemn'd and gave leave to some that were departed to return About the same time there hapned a great tumult and popular commotion in Bavaria because the Cup was not allowed nor Married men suffered to preach A Tumult in Bavaria for the Cup. which disorder proceeded so far that to appease them the Duke promised in the Diet That if in all the Month of June a resolution were not made in the Council of Trent or by the Pope to give them satisfaction he himself would grant both the one and the other The news of this coming to the Council the Legates dispatched Nicholas Ormonet to perswade the Duke not to make that Grant. To whom the Duke replied That to shew his obedience to the Apostolick See he would use all means to entertain his people as long as he could expecting and hoping that the Council would resolve that which they saw to be necessary notwithstanding the Resolution made before by it Reasons against granting Marriage to the Clergy But the Council had good reason to deny this last because say they it is plain that Married Priests will turn their affections and love to their Wives and Children and by consequence to their House and Country and so that strict dependance which the Clergy hath on the Apostolick See would cease and to grant Marriage to Priests would destroy the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy and make the Pope to be a Bishop of Rome only And in another place they tell us that having House Wife and Children they the Clergy will not depend on the Pope but on their Prince and their love to their Children will make them yield to any prejudice of the Church and they will seek to make the Benefices Hereditary and so in a short space the Authority of the Apostolick See will be coâ—fined within Rome Before Single Life was instituted the See of Rome received no profit from other Nations and Cities and by it is made Patron of many Benefices And the Cup to the Laity of which the Marriage of the Clergy would quickly deprive her And that all would become Hereticks if the Cup were granted to the Laity and so a