State it attacks the Principles by which it subsists For the bond of Love between the King and his Subjects is that which unites all the parts of this great and vast Body But 't is fit I represent to you those horrible Calamities these Enemies of France would plunge the Kingdom in They would bring back again the last Age and revive the Reigns of Henry the 2d and Charles the 9th In a word they would set up new Gibbets and kindle new Fires against the Reformed Can France expect a great Mischief Par. Y' are much mistaken Sir there 's no such intention Some Zealots may desire such a thing but the King hath not any such Design Hug. Law I believe you Sir We know the Goodness and Clemency of the King and that he naturally hates all Violence We see every day the Prudence of his Ministers But men are led where they never had intention to go they are mov'd by degrees to revoke all the Edicts of Pacification If Matters be carryed on with that Violence they have been for some years and especially within few months past the Business will be quickly at an end they will shortly perswade the King three fourths of the Hugonots of his Kingdom are converted They will tell him the residue is nothing or not worth the thinking of And so prevail with him to suppress the Edicts Thus shall near two millions of Souls remain debarr'd the exercise of their Religion 'T is a violent State in which Consciences cannot stay long The Ministers shall be forbidden to Preach on pain of death Yet they will Preach as before in the like case in Caves and Woods and Cellars and Darkness And instead of preaching in a few places they will preach in every place It cannot be but they will be discover'd exercising a Religion prohibited by the State and incur the Penalties to be inflicted by the late Edicts And according to the Severity of those Penalties they will be Imprison'd Banish'd Hang'd Consider how much it will grate the good nature of the King to see himself oblig'd to permit his Subjects to be put to a thousand Tortures for no other reason but having a desire to serve God I foresee Matters may be carryed yet farther Among two or three hundred thousand Persons able to bear Arms remaining still of that Religion 't is impossible but there is a great number of Fools impatient and desperate In plurality of Voyces Fools are always too hard for the Wise who are often oblig'd to permit themselves to be carryed away with the stream of the major Vote Such heady and impatient People instead of Submitting will Mutiny make Parties take up Arms. And then will the King be forc'd to draw Rivers of Blood out of the hearts of his Subjects Par. Ay Ay Sir there is great cause to fear you you are in a powerful and formidable Condition Where are your Chiefs where your strong Towns Where your Money Where your Forraign Allyances You have nothing to support you but the indulgence of our Kings Hug. Law Pardon me if I tell you you do not apprehend me my design is not to put you in fear but move you to pity I do not say but the King may with all the ease imaginable dissipate the Forces of any Faction that should rebel against him I am fully convinc'd of it not only by your Reasons but some stronger Arguments You say the Reformed have neither Chiefs nor Towns nor Money Have you forgot that saying of the Poet Furor arma ministrat Fury never wants Weapons they who have no Towns may take some Those who want Money may Rob and Plunder Despair can effect what Valour and Courage never durst undertake A State that has lying close in its Bowels two millions of Male-contents though but Women and Children and the dregs of Mankind is in danger of suffering terrible Revolutions After the Massacre of St. Bartholomew the Hugonots had none to head them Dandelot was dead the Admiral assassinated all the Flower of their Nobility murther'd and the Princes of the Blood Prisoners yet they never spoke bigger never insisted on higher Terms than then But I expect not any benefit to the Reformed from such Revolutions because God never blesses the designs of defending a Religion by Arms of Rebelling against our Prince and making War under pretences of Piety The furies of Civil War being absolutely inconsistent with Charity Such heady and impatient people by taking Arms will act against the Principles of Religion and I aver it particularly against the Principles of the Reformed They are to expect no other success but to be massacred by the People and the Arms of their Soveraign They would occasion as heretofore millions of Innocents to perish with them The King would certainly master them but would be griev'd to see his Countreys drown'd with the Blood of his Subjects What greater misfortune than this to a Prince so good-natur'd as ours Besides a State busied in reducing rebellious Subjects is in a manner abandon'd to strangers who fill and tear it in pieces with Factions foment Divisions take advantage of Disorders and draw Blood from all parts of it while it self opens the Veins on every side Those Gentlemen who constantly solicit the King to Rigor against us are certainly weary of the prosperity of the State they have no mind to see France any longer the most flourishing Kingdom of Europe They would bring back that Age wherein the Realm divided against it self call'd in the Duke of Parma the Flemings and Spaniards to enrich themselves with the pillages of the Towns and desolation of the Provinces Par. I see Gentlemen the alarm you have taken hath stirr'd your fancy and put you in a heat You go on too far and too fast there is a design to Ruine you 't is confest but 't is by undermining you by degrees Those very men you call Enemies of the State have no mind to see the effusion of your Blood Hug. Law Were those men guilty of no other mischief but a design to deprive the King of such a multitude of faithful Subjects they very well deserved to be call'd Enemies of the State I hope those of the Reformed Religion will never permit themselves to run into the Extremities I spoke of But they will do all they can to go seek in other Countreys the peace and the quiet they are denyed in their own I have told you already their Consternation is great and universal And all the considerable persons of our body seek only a Gate to go out at and a means to remove out of his Majesties sight the Objects that displease him Par. I cannot think they would be much troubled at your departure out of the Kingdom Hug. Law Whether they would be troubled I know not but I very well know they would have cause enough to be troubled The Count de los Balbazes during his stay at Paris being in company of several Ministers of forraign Princes they
into a condition I dread to imagine for if they Arm the hand of our Soveraign against us and perswade him to spill the Blood of his Subjects the State must be weakned by having drawn from it the most faithful and truest French Blood in its Veins Par. I am a Catholick but none of those who are for Monks and Clergymens intermedling in Civil Affairs Their business is to pray to God for the prosperity of the Kingdom 't is certain that matters are but very little mended since these good men wriggled themselves so deeply into Courts Hug. Law But do you not admire Sir the boldness of the Jesuits and the use they make of it at Court by the man they have there at his Majesties Elbow They were banish'd France by Arrest of the Parliament of Paris being clearly convinc'd they had by the hands of John Chatell attempted to murder Henry the 4th This Prince fearing a stab from them call'd them in again by an Edict in January 1604. One Clause of the Edict was They should be oblig'd to keep one of their Society a French man Born and sufficiently Authoriz'd to attend the King to serve him for a Preacher and to be answerable for the Actions of the Society that is That there should always be a Jesuit attending at Court as an evidence that all those of his Society were look'd upon as disturbers of the publick Peace as Murderers of Kings and Enemies of the State one of whose Chiefs the Court would have always in its Power that he might be responsible for the attempts of his Fellows and remain as an Hostage to receive such Punishments as the Criminal enterprizes of his Society should deserve This is the natural Character which from Father Cotton to Father Le Chaise ought to be given according to the intention of the Edict of all the Jesuits that follow the Court. A Character that ought to make them asham'd and keep them continually humble Instead of which they are become Masters of the Consciences of our Kings the Tyrants of the Church and we may say of all France This gave occasion to Monsieur de Mezeray to make this judicious Remark That this Condition annex'd to the Edict Tom. 6. Hen. 4. An. 1604. instead of branding them as they imagin'd who got it inserted procur'd them the greatest Honour they could desire Philip of Macedon was awak'd every Morning by a Page who told him Remember you are a man I wish our cruel Enemy were awak'd every Morning with these words Remember you are here to be answerable for the Doctrine and Actions of those who teach that Kings may be assassinated when disobedient to the Pope and inspir'd these detestable Sentiments into John Chatel and Clement and Ravaillac and William Parry Robert Catesby Thomas Percy and other Murtherers of our Kings the Kings of England and the Princes of Orange in the last Age and this Par. I see you are no Friend of that good Father and it must be confess'd he is not much yours Hug. Law We find by experience he is not much our Friend And the more unhappy we he hath as much Credit with the King as Hatred for our Party It seems the King cannot refuse him any thing Was any thing ever seen more terrible than the Arrest he had obtain'd whereby our Ministers and Elders were prohibited on pain of Corporal Punishment to go into any House by night or by day on any occasion but to visit the sick By this Arrest as soon as a man was an Elder he was excluded from the Company of all those of his Religion His Majesty look'd on this as so strange a surprize that he thought fit by another Arrest to explain this and declare it was not his intention to hinder the Ministers and Elders to visit their Flocks I will give you another instance how this man abuses his Credit The King upon the Complaint of his Subjects of the Religion of divers Violences burning of Churches and other Outrages done them pass'd an Arrest in May 1681. Prohibiting any Violence by Word or Action to be done to the Reformed A poor Minister of Poitou in one of his Sermons gave God thanks for having inspir'd the King with this Equity and Clemency Father Le Chaise had news of it by Letter and presently obtain'd another Arrest which orders those to be inform'd against who in their Interpretations of this Arrest should say That the Exhortations made in the Kings name to the People to change their Religion are not according to his intention You are to observe Sir that the Exhortations made in the Kings Name in Poitou are no other than strange Menaces and extraordinary Outrages And to prevent their being stopp'd by his Majesties Arrest the Sieur de Marillac and Father le Chaise thought fit to annul it by another Arrest which will give way to all the Exorbitances his Majesty design'd to hinder by this Par. It hath been observ'd there hath been for some months past an extraordinary Emotion amongst you What 's the Reason of it Hug. Law The Reason Sir 'T is because we see things hurryed on faster than we imagin'd To tell you the truth we have been long sensible of a Design laid to ruine us but fancy'd they would not have gone so roundly to work with us We lull'd our selves asleep in hopes the Affairs of the State might occasion a change in ours But ever since last Summer we look'd upon our selves to be very near Destruction The suppressing our Colledges and Academies convinces us effectually we have not long to continue in the Kingdom for if the King were willing we should stay he would allow us our Ministers and permit us to enjoy places necessary for Instruction Hug. Gent. Now you mind me of it have you seen the Arrest against the Academy of Sedan if you have you cannot but think them out of their Wits who draw those Arrests making one of the wisest Princes of the World speak so ridiculously They make the King say he had granted the Hugonots of Sedan an Academy for instruction of their Children and that they had abus'd his Grant by receiving strangers into their Academy Have you ever seen an Academy strangers were deny'd access to I admir'd at the confidence of these Penners of Arrests in publishing falsities so gross I was wishing to see the Edict of Reunion of the Principality of Sedan to the Crown I find it repeated there five or six times that the King Confirm'd to them their Academy with all Rights and Priviledges they enjoy'd under their Princes Is not the King Master of it Is not his Pleasure reason enough Why then are such notorious falshoods impos'd on the World Hug. Law I was more astonish'd at the Declaration that gives all Hugonots who will turn Catholicks three years respit for payment of their Debts It will be easily granted they have not in this been very tender of the Honour of the King or of their
means of Revenge or Defence During the Raigns of Henry the 2d and Francis the 1st the Land was overflowed with our Blood the Prisons were full of our poor Captives the Executioners were imploy'd in nothing else but burning and quartering those poor Wretches who were not guilty of any other Crime but praying to God in a Language they understood and refusing to adore any thing but what they knew to be God There is no sort of Cruelty but was exercis'd upon them they were burnt they had their Members pluck'd off with hot Pinsers they were rack'd and put to all sorts of Tortures they were buried alive There were horrible Massacres committed upon them Such were those of Cabrieres and Merindol wherein they ras'd Houses and Towns laid waste a whole Country cut the Throats of several thousands of Persons and caus'd others to perish by Famine on the Mountains The Court made it a divertisement to see the horrible Torments these poor People suffer'd You shall hear the Account Mezeray gives of it There was says he a general Procession at Nostredame Mezeray's Abridgment c. Ann. 1548. where the King assisted to declare by this action the Zeal he had to maintain the Religion of his Ancestors and to punish those who would change it This he confirm'd by the horrible Torments of many miserable Protestants who were burnt at the place of Execution in Paris They were hoys'd up with a Pulley and an iron Chain and then let fall into a great fire This was often reiterated The King was so pleas'd with it that he fed his eyes with this Tragick Spectacle And 't is said the horrible Cryes of one of these Wretches affected him so that all his Life after he was from time to time haunted with a very troublesome remembrance of it I should scarce have reported this had the Relation been made by any Author not a Roman-Catholick for it would have been look'd upon as false and incredible Those horrible imaginations that from time to time persecuted Henry the 2d did not reform him His Raign was stain'd throughout with the Blood of his Protestant Subjects In all places of the Kingdom Fires were kindled and Gibbets set up to destroy them The Dutchess of Valentinois that King's Mistress making great advantage of the Confiscations of the Protestants serv'd as a fury to awaken his Cruelty every moment That lascivious she-Wolf thirsting after the blood of the Faithful and with a ravenous Appetite coveting their Estates demanded their death as a recompence for those criminal favours she was so liberal of to her King and her Pages If these poor People met at night in a private House for Instruction and Comfort they were surpriz'd and us'd as Sorcerers found at a Sabbath adoring the Devil To add a Persecution more cruel then the rest they publish'd Calumnies against them blacker then the Devil had ever invented they renew'd against them all the old Accusations of the Pagans against the Primitive Christians They charg'd them with strange Crimes says Mezeray it was said they rosted little Children Mez. Abr. An. 1557. and having made great Cheer put out the Lights and turned the place into a Brothel a great number of them was burnt In all this time did any one take up Arms Perhaps they were so weak you will say they durst not I am of Opinion the Reformed were as numerous about the end of the Reign of Henry the Second as at the beginning of the Reign of Francis the second when the first Troubles began 'T is not to be imagin'd that vast multitude of People was converted in five or six months there were at that time of the Reformed Religion some Princes several great Lords many principal Officers of the Crown and of the People an infinite number Mezeray tells us that in one of their Meetings they surpriz'd some of the Queens Maids of Honour yet not one of the Reformed thought of making any defence under the Reign of this Prince who persecuted them with Fire and Sword Can you wonder that having been driven to extremity by long and continual Violences they had no more patience but at last endeavour'd some means to save themselves from the fury of their Tormentors Par. You know the primitive Christians did not so they had no other Weapons but their Prayers and Tears to defend themselves against the Persecutions of the Pagan Emperors Hug. Law I wonder Sir how those of whom you have borrowed that Reflection dare produce the Example of the Primitive Christians 'T is true the Primitive Christians had not any Arms to defend themselves nor had they any to attack with They did not burn Hereticks but labour'd their Conversion There is not a more certain Character of a false Church or false Zeal then Persecution Violence and Fury There have sate on the Imperial Throne Constantines and Theodosii as well as Decij and Diocletians but a Constantine or a Theodosius never made use of Arms against the Pagan Religion which had made so many Martyrs 'T is not out of Charity alone that Christian Princes ought to forbear attacking a false Religion with punishment and torture but out of Prudence the Church only can have Martyrs and ought not to be robb'd of the Glory of that Priviledge and that powerful argument for proof of her Doctrine Nothing raises a greater prejudice against the constancy of true Martyrs then the obstinacy of Hereticks who persist in their Opinions to Death Our Accusers Sir are very unjust in their proceeding with us to have the Sword in one hand and the Faggot in the other to cover Towns and Countries with dead Bodies to destroy pell-mell the Innocent with the Guilty to shed the blood of Infants Women and old Men having one foot in the Grave to commit Massacres to drown France with the blood of its Inhabitants to Burn Quarter and invent new Torments This is laudable Zeal merit of the highest degree that raises men to be Saints equal with St. Dominick But if a poor Hugonot lift up his Arm to put by the blow that is made at him this is fury and rage and the fruit of a spirit opposite to that of the true Church I cannot forbear applying to this purpose what St. Athanasius said to them who reproach'd him with making his Escape If they think it a shame to me to have made my Escape let them be asham'd to have forc'd me to it by their Persecution When Men run away 't is an argument of the Cruelty of those they run from We fly not from the Gentle and Courteous but the Bloody and the Cruel There is no defence where there is no Persecution I confess it Men are Men the love of Life is strong and powerful the inclinations and Counsels of flesh and bloud prevail often over those of strict Piety Were it true that our Fathers took up Arms to save their Lives 't is a weakness they ought to be pardon'd for in an Age
which was verified in all the Parliaments The Constable 't is known was the Favourite of Henry the second who lov'd him to that degree that after his misfortune and imprisonment unfortunate as he was yet at his return to Court the King made him lie in his own bed But his Absence was fatal to him and his Family The Duke of Guise render'd himself necessary to the King and as Mezeray says the misfortune of France was the happiness of the Duke of Guise and the fall of the Constable was his Exaltation The Duke of Guise had in all his Enterprizes the success every one knows He recovered Calais from the English he took Thionville he married his Niece the Queen of Scots to the Dauphin who was afterwards Francis the second Fortune abandon'd the Constable and sided with the Duke of Guise Read the words of Mezeray from that very time the jealously between these two Houses tended to the forming two contrary Parties in the Kingdom as will appear This is the first Seed of the Civil War wherein Religion had not any part Thence forward the House of Guise us'd all its power to destroy Montmorency's Party The Duke met with the pretence of Religion luckily by the way Admiral Chatillon and Dandelot his Brother the Constables Nephews were suspected the Spaniards increas'd the Suspition by saying that at the taking of St. Quintin they found Heretical Books amongst Dandelots Baggage Henry the second being a violent Persecuter caused him to be arrested and committed him Prisoner to Blaise de Montluc a Creature of the Duke of Guise this was a matter agreed on by the Guises and the Spaniards with design to weaken the Constable by the loss of his Nephews But they miss'd their aim the Constables favour brought Dandelot clear off and gain'd him his Liberty And the Authority of Henry the second kept the two Parties in an appearance of Peace during the rest of his life which was not long but in the beginning of the Reign of Francis the second the Discord broke out Mezeray will tell you in the beginning of this Reign the cause of the Civil War A Multitude of Princes says he and of puissant Lords is an infallible cause of Civil War when there wants Authority powerful enough to keep them within the bounds of their duty This was the misfortune of France after the death of Henry the second From the time of his death the Factions form'd during his Reign began to appear and to fortify them the more unhappily met with different Parties in Religion a great number of Male-Contents who long'd for change and which is more many Soldiers and Officers of War who having been disbanded were desirous of Employment at any rate Methinks that by this Relation Religion is not the cause of the Troubles but the cause of them were the Factions of Princes and great Lords who meeting with Parties differing in Religion made use of them to serve their designs In the same place that Author makes it appear the two Parties fought not for Religion but for Empire On the one side were the Princes of the Bloud and the Constable On the other the Princes of the House of Guise and between both the Regent who by turns made use of one to beat down and destroy the other that she might Reign The Princes of Guise having got into their hands the Person of Francis the second a weak Prince governed under his Authority in a tyrannical manner The Princes of the Bloud Antony and Lewis de Bourbon who ought to have had the management of Affairs during the Kings Minority could not endure that Strangers should enjoy an Authority and Honour belonging of right and properly to them These Princes were ill us'd Antony of Bourbon King of Navar came to Court but was slighted they did not so much as give him a Lodging and he might have lain on the Pavement had not the Marshal of St Andrew receiv'd him The Princes began with the Pen and caused several Writings to be publish'd to make it appear that the Laws of the State admit neither Women nor Strangers to the Government that during the Minority of the Kings this honour belongs to the Princes of the Bloud That the Guises were not natural French that it was dangerous to commit to them the Government of the State because of their Pretensions on the Kingdom in saying they were descended from Charlemaign At last Lewis of Bounbon Prince of Conde resolv'd upon a dangerous attempt to gain Possession of his Rights which the weakness of his Brother the King of Navarr abandon'd and gave up to the Princes of Guise He design'd to seize the Person of King Francis the second and remove the Guises from Court The Admiral and Dandelot were of the Party and the Prince of Conde was the Head But because the success of the Enterprize was doubtful they would not appear in it La Renaudie was intrusted with the management of this great design which goes under the name of the Conspiracy of Amboise which our Church-man whose Book you have in your hand makes such a noise about there cannot be a greater injustice then to charge our Hugonots with this Affair 'T is certain there were ingag'd in that business as many Roman Catholicks as Hugonots or if the number of Hugonots were greater it was because there were more Male-Contents of their Party the Chancellor de l' Hospital was one I have read in good Authors that La Renaudie was a Roman Catholick yet I will not undertake to justifie it 'T is agreed on all hands that all the Officers who had receiv'd Indignities at Court and been unjustly expell'd thence engag'd themselves in the Enterprise to be reveng'd of the Princes of Guise There was at Court says Mezeray a great number of Persons out of all the Provinces particularly Soldiers and Officers of War demanding Pay or Reward The Cardinal of Lorrain who had the management of the Finances was much troubled with them and apprehended a Conspiracy in their multitude This made him publish an Edict commanding that all those who followed the Court to demand any thing should retire on pain of being hang'd on a Gibbet which was publickly set up for that purpose A great part of those who had serv'd in the Armies disgusted with this Indignity turn'd against the Cardinal Thus you have an account of what persons that Party was compos'd which would have destroyed the Princes of Guise where there appears so sensible and so clear a cause of Revolt 't is not worth our pains to go in search of a hidden one On the one side the Rights of the Princes of the Bloud which they were resolv'd to maintain on the other side the design to be reveng'd of the grossest affront that ever was put on Persons of Quality by setting up a Gibbet to hang them on for no other cause but that they desir'd to be paid for the bloud they had lost are so visibly the
causes of this Conspiracy that 't is ridiculous to make Religion the only ground of it The chief of all the Male-Contents was Lewis of Bourbon Prince of Conde And though he appear'd not in the Enterprize and several of the Conspirators deny'd to the Death his being privy to it yet 't is certain he was Mezeray tells us That the Prince of Conde going to Court met at Orlians the Lord Cipierr who told him the Plot was discovered And that nevertheless the Prince continued his Journey By this it appears the Prince knew of the Plot. A little before the same Author tells us the Conspirators had chosen him for their Head but not to bear any part in the action which was to be carryed on by La Renaude under his Authority The Princes of Guise were fully convin'd of it for they no sooner got the Prince of Conde in their power but they caused him to be proceeded against and Senten'd to be Beheaded Par. We will suppose Sir that you can prove the Conspiracy of Amboise was a Conspiracy of all the Male-Contents that a Prince of the Bloud was the Head of them and that your Hugonots were not more deeply concern'd in it than others what 's that to the purpose Is a Criminal less guilty for having Accomplices Is it allowable on any pretence whatever to enter into so Criminal a Conspiracy against your King Hug. Law Against our King Ah Sir you will never be able to prove that All our Historians bear these pretended Conspirators Witness they had no design against the King or the Regent but only against the Princes of Guise Read if you please what Mezeray says They resolv'd to present their Petition to the King and to seize the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain and exhibit Articles against them This was their design But who adds Mezeray could have secur'd the Princes of Guise from being kill'd upon the spot or that the Male-Contents would not have made themselves Masters of the Persons of the Queen Mother and the King 'T is certain it was laid to their Charge they would have attempted both It was laid indeed to their Charge but not prov'd of twelve hundred Persons who perish'd on this occasion there was not one they could get to confess this though use was made of most violent Tortures to force them to it Monsieur de Thou gives them this Testimony Thuan. Hist Lib. 24. Not one of the Conspirators was convicted of any attempt against the King or the Queen but only against Strangers who govern'd all at Court in a tyrannical manner that is the Princes of the House of Guise Can you think it Sir so great a Crime for the Princes of the Bloud and the Chief Officers of the Crown to endeavour to gain their natural places and lawful Authority by taking forceably an Infant King and weak when Major out of the hands of Tyrants who were going to hang up his Majesties good Servants to establish the Inquisition in France and to burn the true hearted French at the Stake The Prince of Conde and the Admiral were in my opinion Names that carryed Grandeur and Authority enough in them to oppose very lawfully the Tyrants of France Your Church-man in his Book tacks the Enterprize of Meaux to that of Amboise as if they were both of one nature We are not now says he in the time of the Enterprizes of Amboise and Meaux The man hath forgot both the Author and the end of the Enterprize of Meaux The Head of it was the same Prince of Conde the end was to remove from about the King the same Tyrants who under the name of Councellors made Charles the ninth commit Violences which exceeded those in former Reigns and to violate Edicts and Treaties he had by solemn Oaths obliged himself to observe and made use of the seeming Peace granted to the Party of the Princes for hatching the most horrible and blackest Treasons that ever have been heard of After the first Civil War the Peace was made by the Edict of the 18th of March 1563. this Peace serv'd only as a Cloak for a Cruel War made with more safety against the Reformed after they had been disarm'd The Reformed made their Complaints to the Prince of Conde and the Admiral But these two great great Men answer'd Mezeray 1567. says Mezeray That they must endure any thing rather than take up Arms again That second troubles would render them the horrour of all France and make them the Object of the Kings hatred This was their Resolution but when a Principal Person at Court had given them express advice it was resolv'd the Prince and the Admiral should be taken the former to be kept perpetual petual Prisoner the other to lose his head on a Scaffold by the advice of Dandelot the boldest of the three they resolv'd not only to defend themselves but to attack their Enemies with open force And in order thereto to remove the Cardinal from the Kings Person This Sir was the design of the Enterprize of Meaux and I have told you the Motives of it I would advise those who for this Enterprize would charge the Prince of Conde with Rebellion that they would think well of it The Hero who at this day bears the same name whose veins are fill'd with that Illustrious Bloud is an Evidence sufficient to convince the World we may retain our Love to our Countrey and Fidelity to our King without loving those who abuse the Infancy of our Kings by making them Arm against the Liberty and Lives of the Princes of their Bloud If the Prince of Conde opened this second War by the Enterprize of Meaux it was because he had not any other way to save his Liberty and his Life Par. The Enterprize of Meaux hath made you pass from the Conspiracy of Amboise to the second Civil War without touching on the first which is the principal and you promis'd to justify Hug. Law Well Sir I will if you please return to my Task The first War was not a War of the Hugonots alone but it was a War of Antony and Lewis of Bourbon The two Brothers Antony and Lewis of Bourbon says Mezeray came not to the Assembly of Melun for two months before Antony retir'd into Gascoign and his Brother went thither to him Being then in more safety they provided for their Affairs and projected means to make themselves able to dislodge the Guises The Design took wind they were drawn to Court and their Persons secur'd a strong Guard was plac'd on the King of Navarr and the Prince of Conde imprison'd his Process was made and by a terrible Arrest fram'd by the Guises he was Condemn'd to lose his Head Was there ever so strange and unworthy a proceeding that Strangers should Condemn to Death the second Prince of the Bloud And can it be thought strange that a generous Prince should seek means to be reveng'd for so horrible an affront He
escap'd miraculously by the death of Francis the second whose Authority the Princes of Guise had abus'd The King of Navarr redeem'd himself by yielding the Regency to the Queen The Constable Montmorency fell off from the Princes because they would have call'd him to account for the vast Guifts made him by Henry the second Then was form'd the famous Triumvirat between the Constable the Marshal de St. Andre and the Duke of Guise whose principal design was to efface the Name and Memory of the Family of Bourbon But if the Constable was against the Princes the Marshal Montmorency his Son and Governour of Paris was for them though a Catholick by which it appears that Religion was not the cause of those Troubles The Queen Mother ambitious to Reign absolutely and alone was weary of the Tyranny of the Princes of Guise And to ruine their Party she openly favour'd the Party of the Prince of Conde The Queen Mother says Mezeray to reward the Services the Admiral had done her granted or pretended to grant him assistance on several occasions She caus'd an Edict very favourable to the Hugonots to be publish'd in 1562. She proceeded yet further and caused the Prince of Conde to Arm. In this very Page Sir our Historian reports that the Duke of Guise being come to Paris with Twelve Hundred Horse entred the Town at the Gate of St. Denis through which the Kings make their solemn Entry The Queen perceiving his design to take the Government from her writ to the Prince of Conde then retired to his House recommending very affectionately to him her Son the Kingdom and her self If you look upon the following Page you will see she sent for the Prince who having got all his Friends together took his Journey to go to the Queen and pass'd the Seine at St. Clou. This Sir was the first taking up Arms and the beginning of the first War which was kindled by the Divisions of the great ones and the unhappy policy of Catherin de Medicis The Prince of Conde sent to the Princes of Germany the Original Letters of the Queen Mother wherein she pray'd him to deliver her and the King out of Captivity The Regent who put Arms into the Prince of Conde's hands reap'd not the benefit she expected from them but was retained in slavery with the young King by the Tyranny of the Guises and carried to Paris against her will Can you wonder that a Prince of the Bloud of great Courage and in Arms at the Request of the Queen should pursue his point and endeavour to be reveng'd of the Guises who had almost brought his Head to the Scaffold Can you think it strange The Protestants immediately made themselves of the Party of a Prince of the Bloud who had so justly taken up Arms to defend himself from the horrible Violences and Outrages of his Enemies for then was the time Sir when the Massacres of Vassy Seus Auxeure Cahoy Tours and a hundred other places were perpetrated Then it was that the Parliament of Paris pass'd an Arrest whereby they gave order the Hugonots should be kill'd whereever they were found It was not Henry the second commanded these Cruelties but the Tyrants who abused the Authority of an Infant King Christian Morality doth not Condemn a lawful defence against those who unjustly attack us Par. Your Party kept not within the bounds of meer defence They made violent Attacks they proceeded to Extremities in their fury beat down and profan'd Churches broke down Images kill'd and tormented Priests You are not ignorant what horrible Cruelties were exercis'd by your Baron of Adrets Hug. Law I pray remember Sir I am not obliged to justify any more then the first taking up of Arms. I will not justify any thing was afterwards done when men have once taken Arms in hand they become deaf to Piety and Reason The Prince of Conde did all he could to hinder these Disorders There is not one among us but Condems the Conduct of that time full of Exorbitance and Fury But I will undertake Sir to justify the Outrages committed by our Hugonots on your Churches Images and Priests when you shall have justified the Barbarous Inhumanities of your Catholicks against our Hugonots Can you approve of that action of the Provincial who finding at Briguoles a Sister of his that refused to go to Mass caused her to be Ravish'd by the Cordelier who carried the Cross and by all those who would take that Brutal Pleasure and afterwards caused her to be Burnt with flaming Lard which he procured to be dropt upon her Can you approve of what was done at Tours where three hundred Persons were flaid and then beaten to death young Women stript naked Ravish'd in the Face of the Sun then kill'd Men cut up alive under pretence of finding Money swallow'd into their Bellies Can you approve of what was done at Orange Where some were kill'd with many gentle blows of Ponyards that they might be the longer a dying others were Impall'd some Burnt others Saw'd Women were hang'd at the Windows and the Infants out of their Bosoms dash'd against the walls the old Men being drawn up in rank to see this horrible Spectacle before they were Massacred This is not the thousandth part of Actions I could relate like these The Answer of the Baron of Adrets to those of our Party who reproached him for his Cruelty was 'T is not Cruelty to be Cruel to them who have first been cruel to us the first is called Cruelty the second Justice And to clear himself of the Imputation he reckon'd up many thousands who had been kill'd in cold bloud and put to Tortures never heard of before When you have justify'd all this I will undertake the justification of our Breakers of Images and Profaners of Churches I have something more to say to you Be so kind to justify the Conduct of the Spaniards who are so Catholick and so devoted to the Holy See make us a little Apology for what they did at Rome when taken by Charles de Bourbon under the Command of Charles the fifth Let 's look into Fa. Maimbourgs History of Lutheranism which I see on your Table He will tell you Sir these good Catholicks were Cruel and Prophane beyond Example in History 'T is impossible says he to express all the Outrages committed in that lamentable Pillage It infinitly exceeds in all sort of Crimes what the Goths and Vandals heretofore did when they sack'd Rome nothing was spar'd but Deformity and Poverty All things else became the prey of a Conqueror the most brutish that ever was If you please to read on you will find that the Spaniards and Italians by the relation of their own Historians were more cruel and covetous then the German Lutherans To conclude if you will undertake to defend all that hath been done by your Catholicks in Wars for Religion I will intreat you to justify the horrible Enormities committed in the East by those
Croisado's who left their Countries their Estates and their Children to go and adore the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ and recover the Holy Land out of the hands of Infidels I must intreat you to hear the reading of a Passage out of the Byzantine History which I translated last night foreseeing I should have occasion to make use of it in my defence on this Article to day Nicitas Chroniates in the Life of Alexius Ducas Into what Method shall I digest the horrible Crimes committed by Execrable Men Shall I begin with their Outrages on the venerable Images they trod under foot or those committed on the Reliques of Holy Martrys which they threw into the nastyest places Or shall I speak of that which is as horrible at this day to hear as those were to see at the time they were acted The Divine Body and Bloud of our Saviour were split on the ground and thrown in the dirt those who could seize the rich Cases the sacred Vessels were put in secur'd the Vessels in their Pockets and made use of the Cases for Cups and Trenchers True fore-runners of Antichrist acting before hand what he should commit c. In pillaging the Churches the Holy Vessels were their prey and the Mules and Beasts of burden were brought to the Church doors where the Pavement being slippery they often fell and bruised themselves to death so that the holy places were defil'd with the Bloud and Dung of those Beasts Amidst all these Disorders to the greater affront of Jesus Christ there sate on the seat of the Patriarch a Woman laden with Sins a Minister of Furies a Servant of Devils and Mistress of Sorceries Inchantments and Poysonings singing Impure Songs and dancing Lascivious Dances Hear the Authors Reflection 'T is evident these People abuse us in saying they are going to Conquer the Holy Sepulchre of Christ when they discharge all their fury against Christ himself and with the Cross they carry on their Shoulders violate and profane the Cross of Christ for a little Gold and Silver Now Sir if you please you will yield me up these Saints and Devout Croisado's as not to be justify'd in the Actions I mentioned and I will be excus'd from justifying those actions of the Hugonots and confess the Outrages they were guilty of were effects of the fury of War and not the fruits of a true Zeal of Religion Par. You know well enough Sir we do not approve of all our Catholicks may have done against you in these Civil Wars Our wisest Authors look upon the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and others like it as actions to be condemn'd and the shame of France to all Posterity Hug. Law To think otherwise and to be wise Sir are hardly consistent For the Providence of God declar'd it self so signally against the Authors and Executioners of those abominable Counsels we cannot but see it Mezeray observes in his History That the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain were Massacred at Blois in the same Hall were the first Councel was held to deliberate of the Massacre of St. Bartholemew the principal Executioners whereof Anna 1572. were the Guises The same Author tells us Another Councel had been held for the same purpose at St. Clou in the house of Gondy where the Duke of Anjou who afterwards was Henry the third presided And that afterwards that unfortunate Prince was assassinated in the same Chamber in the same place and on the same day by Clement the Monk the whole World knows the Tragical Death of Charles the 9th whose blood gush'd out through all the Pores and Passages of his Body If you would know what that signifi'd read those five Lines Mezeray hath plac'd over the Picture of that Prince at the beginning of his Life Vnhappy Councellors of Murders and Massacres Tormented ever with Stings of sharp Remorse Behold the dire Effects of your Advice A Young and Vigorous King yields his last Breath Swimming in streams of his own bloud to Death The Characters of Divine Vengeance are equally visible in the death of Henry the third He dy'd in his one and fortieth year being the flower of his Age and in the midst of a Reign the most promising and hopeful for Glory and Renown France ever saw He dy'd by the stroak of a Lance in the Eye at a Turnament that is a Sport He who had often made it his Divertisement to feed his Eyes with the horrible Spectacle of the Torment of Hugonots he caus'd to be burnt he who had promis'd with horrible Oaths to see Ann de Bourg burnt as soon as his Daughter's Wedding and his Sister's should be over Events like these are very proper to prove that there is a God in Heaven who sees the Actions of men and renders to every one according to his Works Par. These Reflections serve only to stain the Memory of the Dead Let their Graves be their Sanctuary to secure them from our Censure Leave intermedling with the Judgments of God and sum up the substance of what you have to say in justification of your Wars for Religion Hug. Law The sum of all is this Sir That these Wars were not originally Wars of Religion but Wars of State Wars to which the two Factions of Montmorency and Guise had given birth Wars wherein the Roman Catholicks were of contrary Parties as well as the Hugonots For you see in the pursuit as in the beginning of the War the chief Roman Catholick Families of the Kingdom engag'd in the Party of the Princes of the Bloud and put into the List of those whose Throats were to be cut The Marshals Montmorency and Cosse and Biron Grand Master of the Artillery were no Hugonots Yet Mezeray tells you they were in the List of those who were to be Massacred at Bartholomew-Tide That the Marshal Montmorency's being at Chantilly absent from Court sav'd the Life of his three Brothers That Cosse was sav'd by the Intercesions of Madame Chateau Neuf Monsieur Mistress and that Biron Grand Master of the Artillery sav'd himself by pointing some Culverins towards c. It was not the Zeal of Religion only animated these Furies but Avarice and Ambition and a desire to Reign without a Rival Hence it came that a great number of Roman Catholicks were Butchered with the Hugonots Read Mezeray's words This Deluge of bloud swept away abundance of Catholicks who were dispatch'd by order of the Soveraign Powers or the instigation of private Persons To have Money or a good Office or a revengeful Enemy or an Heir longing to be in possession was to be a Hugonot The Duke of Guise as great a Catholick as he was sav'd during the Massacre above a hundred Hugonots in his Palace whom he thought he could gaint o his Service Had all the Hugonots been willing to have plac'd him on the Throne as he thought those hundred were he would have sav'd a Million of them and would have been their great friend and Protector So
and he never perceiv'd me I long extreamly to see what it is Let 's read it To the King SIR YOur Majesty may very well be surpriz'd to see at your feet an unknown Person who having made his way through the Crowds about your Majesty is come to expose himself to the splendour of Rays so glorious as yours The high State your Majesty is in deprives of course the greatest part of your Subjects of the Liberty to present themselves before you but the Sentiments endeavour'd to be inspir'd into your Majesty to the disadvantage of your Subjects of the Protestant Religion keep them at greater distance and absolutely take from them the advantage of appearing before you to present to your view the true pourtrait of their Miseries to prevent being dazl'd with the Lustre of your Throne they have put a vail between themselves and Your Majesty and have drawn a Curtain behind which they may make their Complaints by a voice out of the Ground If this voice have the good fortune to reach Your Majesties Ear be Graciously pleas'd to give it Audience and to look upon this private unknown Person as a poor Wretch who in the name of Millions of other Wretches is come to Expose to Your Majesties view their common Calamities and to have an end put to their Miseries by Your Majesties Justice and Mercy Their Miseries are extream had they been but ordinary we should have submitted with silence It will not be believ'd that under the Reign of the greatest of our Kings of him who was born for the Glory and Happiness of France there is so great a number of miserable Persons within an inch of Despair but 't is Your Goodness Sir is the cause of our Calamities by giving way to the malice of our Enemies by permitting it self to be surpriz'd by the Counsels of our Persecutors These ill Counsellors Sir forgetting or not knowing the true Interests of Your Majestie arm Your Majesty against the faithfullest of Your Subjects against People who by Birth by Inclination by Interest and by their Religion are obliged to adhere inseparably to Your Majesty The bloud which was heretofore spilt with so much joy to gain to Henry the 4th that Crown Your Majesty now wears with so much Glory circulates in our veins and burns with impatience to be shed in Your Service But our Enemies Sir who are in truth the Enemies of the State force us to cease to be Your Subjects to seek other Soveraigns to live in another Air and to people the Estates of Your Neighbours who perhaps will shortly be Your Enemies they hurry us out of our Country and labour to stifle in our hearts those Sentiments of Love and Respect for Your Majesty which Nature had so deeply rooted there they will pull down our Churches they rob us of our Liberty to serve God they take from us all means of Livelyhoood they plunder our Goods they force our Children from us they consume our Houses and in some Provinces abuse our Persons they Imprison us they put us to the Rack they Torture us they beat us to death they Hang they Burn us without course of Law The Instruments that Execute these Outrages are Your Soldiers who in the heart of Your Kingdom commit Enormities humane Nature would abhor if committed in an Enemies Country and in the fury of War They possess the Souls of Your Protestant Subjects with a Spirit of terrour and fear by shewing them Your Majesties Arm always lifted up for their ruine Thus they endeavour to make us hate him as a Tyrant whom by duty and inclination we love as the best of our Kings We know very well Sir that to surprize Your Majesty they make use of an apparent Piety and mind you of the Name Your Majesty bears of Most Christian to inspire into Your Majesty those Sentiments so disastrous and pernicious to us but in the Name of God we Conjure Your Majesty to consider that those Councels of breach of promise and of violence are absolutely contrary to the Spirit of true Religion Nothing can be more agreeable to Piety than Integrity in our actions and just performance of our promises We liv'd in a profound Peace under the shadow of those Edicts Your Majesty hath so often and so solemnly confirm'd to us these Councellors Sir engage you in a Conduct steer'd by that horrible Maxim all true Christians detest That Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks They render Your Majesties Justice and Truth to Your Promises suspected to all Strangers who cannot but doubt the stability of any Treaty to be had with you seeing the Promises made to your Subjects violated in so cruel a manner The Declarations obtained every day by surprize from Your Majesty stain the most Glorious Reign France ever saw not only by the mortal Wounds they give to Your Majesties Justice and your truth to your Promises but by open violations of the most sacred Laws of God and Nature All Europe looks with astonishment on the Permission granted by the wisest of Kings to annul in his Kingdom Paternal Authority and to see Children arm'd to Revolt against their Parents in an Age they know not what Revolt is Your Majesty is too clear-sighted not to discern that Crimes and ill means are not the paths by which Souls ought to be led into the true Religion those who lay Siege to Your Majesty and make you take Resolutions so dismal to Your Subjects of the Protestant Religion carry all with a high hand without any regard to their honour or the glory of the greatest of Kings to induce them to that which they call Conversion they invite men to turn Bankrouts to rebel against their Superiors to falsify their words to be Hipocrites and profane for those they draw in by hopes of not paying their Debts or of Impunity for any Crime and those they force to turn by Bastonade fear of Poverty and other Violences exercis'd upon them cannot but become Hypocrites and profane detesting in their hearts those sacred things they are forc'd to reverence in appearance Your Majesty is told the Parents are ill Christians but their Children will be good Catholicks but we conjure Your Majesty to consider the false zeal of our Persecutors makes as many Criminals as it pretends to make Catholicks and that by the Law of God Children are punishable for the Crimes of their Parents the unhappy Parents look upon them as Tyrants who fetter their Consciences they are Rebels in their hearts and will never let slip any opportunity to be reveng'd for the Oppression they are under how can it be hop'd God will bless the posterity of those base Wretches who for fear of some Temporal Punishment or hope of some inconsiderable advantage Renounce a Religion they believe to be true and harbour in their hearts Rebellion against their Soveraigns These Sentiments will be transmitted to their posterity for it is natural for Parents to inspire their thoughts into their