Six at Arles at Ments at Reims at Towrs and at Chaalons on the Soan of all which the Canons are still to be found Thus the Church of France could not miss the being reformed and Pope Adrian would needs contribute towards it by giving several Reglements to Charlemain drawn from the Councils of the Greek and Latine Churches and the Papal degrees which he sent to him in the Year 789 by Ingilram Bishop of Mets. The Ecclesiastiques had their particular Judges for their Lands where the Kings Judges had no inspection neither for things Civil nor Criminal and as for their persons they were judged by none but of their own Body Now it was almost impossible to Convict them for mean and reproachful people were not admitted to accuse them and there were to be Seventy and Two Witnesses to Convict a Bishop Forty for a Priest Thirty Seven for a Deacon and Seven for others of inferiour degree all without exceptions and if they were of the Laity only such as had Wife and Children This last condition was required in all sorts of Testimonies at least in matters Criminal Charlemain excessively encreased the power of the Bishops by renewing in all his Dominions the Law of Constantine the Great quoted in the Sixteenth Book of the Theodosian Code which allows of one of the parties pleading before a Secular Judge to bring the Cause before the Bishops and leave it to their Arbitration without Appeal though the other party doth not consent thereunto Which would have still continued perhaps had they not corrupted the effects of so holy a Law by infinite deceits and by appeals to the Metropolitan and from thence to the Court of Rome against the express terms of it It was in the Eight Century that the Metropolitans commonly took up the Title of Arch-Bishops for there are none mentioned in the foregoing Those that subscribed the Council of Chaalons and to the immunity of the Abby of Saint Denis had not this Title as yet Towards the end of the same Age or about the beginning of the Ninth began the Devotion and Pilgrimages to Saint Jacques or James the Great in Gallieia This Apostle suffered Martyrdom at Jerusalem however his body was immediately carried into Spain and being hid in the times of the Pagan Persecution was not found out again till about that time by the Bishop of Iria near Compostella where King Alphonsus built him a Church at the recommendation of Charlemain Pope Leo transferr'd thither the Episcopal See of Iria and Two Hundred years afterwards Pope Calistus II. the Metropolis of Merida We find by the Ecclesiastical Capitulary's of Charlemain that there were besides some Chorevesques and although they were only the Successors of the Seventy Disciples they pretended nevertheless to do all Functions of Bishops who were Successors to the Apostles There were indeavours for Five or Six Hundred Years together used to bring them to the just bounds they ought to have kept it were difficult to describe it and in the end it was found much more easie to abolish then to regulate them The ignorance amongst the Bishops was amazing since they were enjoyned even to learn to understand the Lords-Prayer and Charlemain after so great a reformation had much ado to bring them only to make some little kind of exhortations to the Peple To dissipate these Clouds of Darkness it was ordained there should be Schools in the Bishopricks and the Abbeys but they only taught the Psalter Musick to Compose and Grammer I find one Capitulary that enjoyns them to send their Children to study Physick it does not mention at what place Under so ignorant a Prelacy the People could not but be blockish unpolished and very illiterate all their Religion was turned into Superstition and there were a great many Soothsayers Enchanters Tempestaries and other such infamous Sorcerers who were very wicked because they thought themselves such or would have others believe so We must not wonder if amidst such gross Ignorance even the very Women would needs Usurp a Power in the Church There were some Abbesses so vain without doubt because many of them were of great Families as to give their blessing to people with the sign of the Cross and Vail some Virgins with the Sacerdotal Authority Likewise the better to reform the Clergy it was ordained that they should live by Rules and in common The superiours of those Communities were called Abbots and they Chanons which is to say Regulars In those very times there were found to be certain Amphibies if I may so say Who put on the habit of the Religious and yet would neither be Monks nor Priests It was said they should be compelled to one of the two Professions it being fit they should make their choice to be either one or other The Covetousness of the Clergy was not less apparent then their ignorance all the Councils from the Fifth Century and all the Capitulary's are full of Rules and Orders to Tye them up from Selling of Holy Things They took Money for Ordinations for Visits for the Crisme for Baptising for Preaching for Confirmation and for every thing People of servile condition were not admitted to Orders which we should have noted before If such had been admitted their Masters had power to disband and turn them out of that sacred Militia and bring them back to the Slavery and Chains of their former mean condition Even the Free-men could not be admitted to enter into Orders or into a Monastery without Letters from the King because many were otherwise apt to creep in either out of base Cowardise as afraid to serve in the Wars or for want of understanding being seduced thereto by such as had a mind to get their Wealth and Estates from them Because the Arch-Deacons managed the Almes and Offerings the Laity would needs get that preferment and this abuse had been introduced in the former Ages Whatever Orders Pepin could make they still held the most part of the Abbeys and Bishopricks and enjoyed the Revenue allowing but a small portion thereof to the Bishops and Abbots Charlemain did almost quite root out this abuse and restored the liberty of Elections at least his Capitularies bear it however History makes mention that he often named and recommended people to Benefices Tithes were become obligatory so that such were excommunicated who did refuse to pay them after three admonitions and it was even exacted upon the encrease of Cattle Pious Donatives were not restrained unless by one Law which prohibited the Church from receiving any which disinherited Children and the next of Kin. Charlemain had a very great care of the poor Of every thing that was bestowed upon the Church there was Two Thirds alloted for them the other third only being for the Clergy unless in some places where they were richest they shared them equally afterwards they made the Division in Four parts one for the Bishop one for the Clerks one for the Poor and
and to give him the liberty of Marrying with another they had enlarged their Patriarchal Jurisdiction over all the West by necessitating the Bishops to have confirmation from them for which they paid certain rates which in time were converted into what they call Annates in admitting the appellations of Priests and in taking cognisance of things that belong only to Bishops Nay much more they had as it were annihilated the Provincial Councils in taking away their Soveraignty by a cassation of their Judgments insomuch as those Assemblies were in the end laid aside as useless yielding no other satisfaction to such as resorted thither but the displeasure of having their Sentences oftentimes reversed at Rome without any proofs or any reasons brought before them Gregory II. made it a Rule of common Right That none should be so bold as to condemn any that appealed to the Holy See But they never made a greater breach in the liberties of the Gallican Church then when they introduced the Belief that no Councils could be called without their Authority and after they had made divers attempts to set up perpetual Vicars in Gall found out the way to have their Legats admitted and received To this purpose they first made use of a Canon of the Council of Sardique which gave them power to send Legats into the Provinces to review any Process of the Deposition of Bishops where complaint was made After they had accustoned the French Prelats to suffer the Legats in such Cases they gained by little and little another Point during the weakness of their Princes which was to send a Legat whether there were any such Process or Appeal or not and finally when they had received the Yoak Alexandre II. setled it for a maxime that the Pope ought to have the whole Government of all the Churches Of these Legats some of them had the whole Kingdom under their jurisdiction others a part only They came with Authority to Depose Bishops or the Metropolitan himself when they pleased to Assemble Councils in their District to preside with the Metropolitan and precede him to make Canons to send to the Pope the decision of such things to which the Bishops would not consent as likewise all Acts of the Council which he disposed of at his Will and it is to be observed that their Suffrage counterpoised those of all the Bishops and often by their sole Authority they judged of the Elections of Bishops of Benefices of the Excommunications of Laics and other such like so that those Assemblies formerly so Holy and Sovereign for the Discipline having now no more power were to speak properly rather Councils to assert the Will of the Pope then lawful and free Councils Now after Alexandre II. had ordained that the Bishops of those Provinces whether the Legation extended should be at the charges for their subsistence and defray their expences and that Gregory VII had added to the Oath the Bishops take when they receive the Pall that they would Treat them Honourably at their going and upon their return and would furnish them with all necessaries the profit of those imployments was not less great then the Honour and Dignity So that the desire of gain made them court these imployments with great earnestness and the Popes bestowed them as rewards upon their creatures There was nothing but going and coming of Legats and as soon as one had cramm'd his Purse immediately another came in his place Insomuch as the Bishops and Clergy extreamly tired and impoverished by these perpetual exhaustings did not look upon these Legations any longer as a remedy but as a disease In effect it became so importunate and vexatious that at length they were forced to consider of some moderation and not to receive any more Legats but upon very important occasions We should never have done if we quoted all the Councils that were assembled in this Century We find a great number in the Epistles of Yves de Chartres Gregory VII and Gefroy de Vendosme I will likewise set down some An. 1003. The Bishops of France approved the Marriage of King Robert with Berthe and the year after being constrained by the Anathema's from Rome they revoked their Sentence and Excommunicated the King Glaber relates that many were celebrated in Italy and in Gall about certain usages of no great importance as to consider whether they should Fast on the days between the Ascension and Pentecost permit the Benedictines to Sing the Te Deum on the Lent Sundays and celebrate the Feast of the Anunciation the 25th of March or else the 18th of December as the Spaniards did according to the Decree of their Tenth Council of Toledo The decisions were That those Fasts should be all abolished excepting upon Whitsuntide Eve the Benedictines maintained in their Singing the Te Deum in Lent and the Festival of the Annunciation be observed in March King Robert convened several Councils particularly one about the year 1017. at Orleans to extirpate the Heresy of the Manicheans which sprung up apace in that City another in the same place An. 1029. for the Dedication oâ— St. Agnes Church which he had built there The same year was held one at Limoges Gauzlin de Bourges presiding about the contest started Whether they must give St. Martial the Bishop of Limoges the Title of Apostle as the Limosins would have it or only that of Confessor as some others maintained These frivolous questions proceeded from the ambition of the Prelats who to gain precedency from others did all of them attribute the Foundations of their Churches to the Apostles or Disciples of Jesus Christ and to that end invented Fables and perverted all History This Council had not power enough to determine this question it was again debated with great contention in that of Bourges An. 1033 in the second of Limoges and that of Beauvais which were held in the year 1034. and withal they consulted the Holy Chair herein where it was decided that St. Martial ought to be revered as an Apoâ—â—le In this second Council of Limoges complaint being made concerning Absolutions granted to such as being Excommunitated addressed themselves to the Pope it was said That none could receive Pennance or Absolution from the Pope if he were not sent thither by his Bishop The same Glaber writes that the same year 1034. there were divers Councils in the Provinces of France particularly in Guyenne for the reformation of Manners which all people most earnestly desired thereby to appease the wrath of God who had sorely afflicted France with Famine Amongst divers Decrees there was one which Ordained upon pain of Excommunication abstinence from Wine upon Fridays and Flesh upon Saturdays unless Sickness or some great Festival hapned upon those days Gerard the Bishop of Cambray rejected this Decree as a Novelty contrary to the Orders and Rules of the Church and which had no Foundation but I know not what Revelation These Assemblies labour'd likewise to secure what
Theodosius's in that of Honorius and in Valentinian's the III. The last day of the year 406. the Alains and the Vandals bringing along with them the Burgundians the Sueves and divers other barbarous People passed the Rhine and made an irruption in Gaul the most terrible that had been ever known Some conjecture it was at this time that they Massacred St. Ursula and her Glorious Train which have been called the Eleven thousand Virgins though in the Tombs said to belong to those Martyrs were found the Bones of Men and Children there are three or four different opinions on this Matter but neither of them without such difficulties attending as are not to be solved Year of our Lord 407 Those Barbarians having ravaged all Germania Prima and Belgica Secunda fell upon Aquitain In the year 409. some numbers of the Vandals and Sueves marched from thence into Spain Two years after the rest being affrighted upon the coming of Ataulphus King of the Visigoths out of Italy took the same course and follow'd them However there were some Alains still remaining in Dauphine and about the River Loire who had Kings amongst them for above Threescore years but in the end they submitted to the Dominion of the Visigoths and the Burgundians Year of our Lord 408 The Vandals and the Sueeves possessed Galicia the Silingi and Betica and the Alani part of Lusitania of Provence and Carthagenia Sixteen years afterwards the Vandals passed over into Africa but in the mean while Vallia King of the Visigoths who fought for the Romans utterly rooted out the Silingi and weakened the Alani so much that being unable to subsist alone they put themselves under Gunderic King of the Vandals The Suevi maintained themselves almost two Ages in Spain In fine their Kingdom was likewise extinguished by Leuvilgildus King of the Visigoths in the year 588. All these Barbarians were divided in several Parties or Bands and had each their Chief running about and scowring the Countreys without intermission so that at the same instant there were several of the same People in Places far distant from one another and of contrary Interests Year of our Lord 409 Ann. 408. Stilicon who was accused for bringing them in is Massacred by order of Honorius Alaric King of the Visigoths his good friend to revenge his Death besieged the City of Rome three times and the last time he takes it by Treachery the 20th day of August in the year 410. About the end of the same year he dyes in Calabria near Cosentia while he was making himself ready to go into Africa Ataulphus his Cousin succeeded him and Married Placid ia Sister to the Emperor Honorius whom he had taken in Rome Year of our Lord 412 Ann. 412. Ataulphus goes into Gallia Narbonnensis and takes Narbonna he remained there but Three years The Count and Patrician Constantius who was since Emperour and Married his Widdow Placidia compelled him tâ— go into Spain where he Year of our Lord 415 was kill'd by his own People in Barcelonna about the Month of September Ann. 415. They elected Sigeric in his stead and served him after the same manner within Seven days Vallia his Successor was recalled into Gaul by Constantius who gave him Aquitania Secunda with some Cities of the neighbouring Provinces amongst others Thoulouse where Year of our Lord 419 he fixed his Royal Seat Ann. 419. But he dyed in a few Months afterwards and Theodoric succeeded him Vnder this King and under Evaric or Euric the Visigoths made themselves Masters of all the Three Aquitani and the Two Narbonnensis Hitherto very few of the French had received the Light of the Gospel they yet Year of our Lord From the year 300 to the year 400. Adored Trees Fountains Serpents and Birds but the Gauls were most of them Christians unless it were such as dwelt in places less accessible as the Mountainous Woody and Boggy Countreys or in the Germanick or Belgick Territories which were perpetually infested by the incursions of the Barbarians The Faith had been Preached to them by some Disciples of the Apostles and even from the Second Age or Century divers Churches established amongst the Gauls at least in the Narbonnensis and Lugdunnensis Prima Under the Emperour Decius about the year 250. there were divers Holy Preachers sent from Rome who planted other Churches in several parts as Saturninus at Thoulouse Gatian at Tours Denis at Paris Austremonius at Clermont and Martial at Limoges The persecutions of the Heathen Emperours had sorely shaken them Constantine re-assured them afterwards the incursions of the Barbarians again destroys them especially those in Germania and Belgica and the Arian Heresie much troubled those in Aquitania Clowis restores them and endowed them plentifully In the fourth Age the Gallican Church produced a great number of Holy Bishops above all Hilary Bishop of Poitiers an invincible Defender of the Holy Trinity Maximin and Paulin de Treves who maintained the same Cause and at the same time with him the Great St. Martin of Tours parallel to the Apostles Liboire du Mans Severinus of Colen Victricius of Rouen all four contemporaries Servais de Tongres elder by some years and Exuperius de Tholouse who lived yet in 405. About the middle of the same Age many of those that had Devoted themselves to God came from towards Italy to inhabit in the Islands of Provence and the Viennensian Mountains as likewise a while afterwards great numbers flocked out from Ireland and took up their stations in the Forrests of the Lyonnoises and the Belgicks Their example and a Zeal to that Holy Profession drew many People either to come into their Monasteries or dwell in Solitude but still under the Conduct of the Bishops and the Discipline of the Canons Of these there were principally Four sorts such as lived in Community those were called Cenobites such as having formerly lived so retired into Solitude aspiring to a greater perfection these were the Hermits or Anchorits such as associated in small companies of three or four in a knot without any Superior or any certain Rule and such as wandred all about the Countrey on pretence of visiting Holy Places and finding out such Persons as were most advanced in Piety There were some also that strictly confined themselves to a Cell either within some City or in the Desert they were called Incluses or Recluses all lived by the labour of their Hands and most of them gave what they got to the Poor though in the greatest strictness they were not obliged to renounce their Wealth nor were they excluded from enjoying it in case they returned again to the World but such a return was indeed looked upon as a kind of a desertion Councils being extream necessary to preserve the Purity of the Faith and Ecclesiastical Discipline there were several held in Gaul An. 314. The Emperour Constantine caused one to be Assembled at Arles where there were Deputies from all the Western Provinces to determine
the Daughter of Theodoric was yet in his insancy The Fame of Clovis his Valour spread even to the East The Emperour Anastasius thereby to engage him the closer to the Empire sent him Consulary Honorary Letters and the Imperial Ornaments viz. The Purple Robe the Mantle and the Diadem Clovis having put them on in St. Martins Church Mounted on Horseback in the Portall and bestowed a Largess on the People after that day he was ever Treated with the Title of Consul and August which were not altogether useless to him towards the bringing the Gauls to better Obedience by those Titles for which they had still some reverence Theodoric King of the Ostrogoths jealous of his success takes in hand the Defence Year of our Lord 508 and 509. of his Grand-Son and sends a great Army on this side the Mountains made up of Goths and of Gepide and Commanded in Chief by the Count Ibba The French held then the City of Carcassonne besieged and the Burgundians that of Arles the first quitted their Siege and joyned the others at Arles to hinder him from passing the Rhosne There hapned many Combats and at last a bloody Battle the Count gained it having killed 30000 French and Burgundians and afterwards wrested from them all Year of our Lord 510 they had conquer'd in Provence and in Languedoc excepting Thoulouse and Vzez After this advantage Theoderic remained King of the Visigoths and having taken away the Crown and Life of Gesilac joyned what they held in Gaul and in Spain to his Kingdom of Italy till his Grandson Amalaric should be come of age Clovis fretted at these losses distemper'd with a long Fever and having the Spirit Year of our Lord 510 and 511. of a Conqueror that is to say Unjust and Sanguinary lays snares for the other petty Kings of the French who were his Kindred and rids himself of them by methods full of Cruelty and Treachery He incited Chloderic Son of Sigebâ—rt King of Colen to kill his Father and caused him afterwards to be Massacred by his own Domestiques He compelled Cararic and his Son we know not in what Countrey they Reigned perhaps it was at Triers or Arras to enter into Holy Orders and being informed that the Son expressed some threatnings he sent and caused the Throats of both to be cut He cleft in two the Heads of Ragnacaire King of Cambray and Riquier his Brother with a Battle-axe they being both delivered into his hands by their own Subjects and his Satellites assassinated Rignomer King of Mans in his own City He dyes himself at Paris the 26 th of November in the year 511. and is interred Year of our Lord 511 in the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul which he Built and where St. Genewiefue had been buried the same year his Reign was 30 years and his Age 45. Some have made him parallel with Constantine the Great and find great resemblance betwixt them both for Good and Evil. He had four Sons living Thierry Clodomir Childebert and Clotaire the first by a Concubine the other three by Clotilda and by the same also a Daughter named Clota or Clotilda who Sixteen years afterwards married Amalaric Ring of the Visigoths in Spain Under his Reign the French wholly freed themselves from the Roman Empire and became their Allies on equal terms till then as I believe they had been stipendaries or tributary to them That part of Gall which reaches from the Rhine to the Loire was called France The French measured those Lands and took the third or fourth part which they shared amongst themselves There were but two sorts of People or Conditions amongst them the Free-men and the Slaves all the Free-men bore Arms. Gall which was almost a Desert began to be re-peopled and to rebuild their Towns The Galls paid a Tribute to the French but the natural French paid hardly any thing but their personal Service These lived according to the Salique Law the Galls Conformed to the Roman Institutions These were called Romans all the other Nations which flocked thither from beyond the limits of the Empire were named Barbarians They were bred to the exercise of War from their greenest years of a good shape and stature enured to Labour strong and so nimble that they were upon the Enemy almost as soon as the Dart they had thrown against them They had left off the use of Arrows and employ'd in their stead for offensive weapons the Sword the Angon which was a Dart of moderate length having an Iron bearded Head and cheeks of Iron and the two-edged Axe which they called Francisque This might be darted as well as the Angon but neerer at hand For defensive Aâ—ms unless it were their Commanders they had only the Buckler which they managed very dextrously to shelter and Tortoise-like cover themselves when they went to make a Charge or an Assault Their whole Armies were Infantry or if there were some few Horse they served only to attend the General and carry his Orders They retained a good part of the establishment made by the Romans as the manner of raising Imposts but much lesser of providing Magazines for the subsistance of their Forces of maintaing Horses and Carriages for Travellers on the great Roads of publick Sports Horse-racing and combats of wild Beasts and their Kings believed themselves as absolute as Emperours created Dukes Counts and great Masters of their Militia nay even Patricians and perhaps the Mayers of the Palace held the Office of Praefecti Praetorii In the Fifth and Sixth age the Gallican Church received few into the Church for Bishops but Saints or such as they made so They were for the most part the greatest Lords of the Countrey who to secure themselves from the suspicions and Year of our Lord 400. unto 500. or thereabouts jealousies the Visigoths and French might have against them cast themselves into the Church as a safe Harbor or Asylum They reckon amongst the most Holy Honorat d'Arles being of the Monastery of the Isle of Lerins which bears his Name to this day Hilary his Successor and Eueheres of Lyons coming from the same place German d'Auxerre and Loup de Troyes Palladius or Palais de Bourges Brice de Tours Agnan d'Orleans Simplicius de Vienne and Mamertus his Successor This was he who instituted or rather revived those Processions or Litanies we call Rogations which all the Church hath received All these did not survive the one half of this Age unless Loup or Lupus who lived a long while after In the Second lived Apollinaris-Sidonius of Clermont Alcimus Avitus the Successor to Mamert Eleutherius of Tournay Remy de Reims the true Apostle of the French and Vaast of Arras these three survived a long time after Clovis We should not omit the illustrious Virgin Geneviefve who even in her life time was the Patroness of Paris and remaineth so still nor St. Maximin or Mesmin Abbot of Micy near Orleans which Place now bears his Name
belonged to the Church from the Rapine and Thefts of some Lords and restore the Discipline for which some Canons were made in the Second of Limoges That of Beauvais was held Fifteen days after that of Bourges Pope Leo IX being come into France Convened one at Reims towards Autumne An. 1049. Victor II. One at Toulouze An. ✚ 1056. To extirpate abuses and especially Simony which is more difficult to be taken from the Church then their Riches which is the cause of it King Henry desiring to have his Son Philip Crowned Assembled the Prelats and Lords of the Kingdom at Paris An. 1059 or 60. Amat Bishop of Oleron Legat from Rome in Aquitania Tertia and Narbounensis held divers Two in Gascongne One wherein he Excommunicated such as detained any Goods belonging to the Church another wherein he Dissolved the Marriage of Centulle Vicount of Bearn and another also at the Burrough of Deols in Berry with Hugh Legat and Arch-Bishop of Lyons about the affairs of that Abby The same having the Popes Legation in the lesser Bretagne Convened one An. 1079. in that Province to take some course against the abuses of false pennances that is to say their ☞ imposing of slight pennances for great crimes About the end of the year 1080. there were three One at Lyons where Hugh de Die the Popes Legat caused the Sentence to be confirmed whereby Manasses Arch-Bishop of Reims had been deposed One at Avignon where he consecrated another Hugh Bishop of Grenoble and the Third at Meaux in which Vrsion de Soissons was deposed and Arnold a Monk of St. Medard installed in his place The year following the same Hugh and Richard Abbot of Marseille Cardinals called one at Poitiers Amat d'Oleron Legat in Aquitain came likewise thither They provisionally ordained a Divorce of William Earl of Poitiers from his Wife because of their consanguinity That of Toulouze in An. 1090. was Convened by the Legats of Vrban II. Some Rules were there made concerning Causes Ecclesiastical and the Bishop of that City purged himself of certain things imposed upon him The most famous of all was the Council of Clermont An. 1095. where the same Pope with great zeal Preached up the First Croisade and to obtain the assistance of the Holy Virgin towards those that should undertake the Expedition ordained the Clergy to recite the Office or Heures of our Lady which the Chartreux and Hermits instituted by Peter Damianus had already received amongst them There was one more at Tours the year following to prepare them to that expeditition of the Holy Land The last year of this Century they had one likewise at Poitiers whereat John and Benedict Cardinal Legats presided King Philip was here struck with an Anathema for having retaken Bertrade and the Kingdom of France put under an interdiction The precedent year there had been one held at Autun and the following there was also one at Baugency for the same business The prohibition of Marriages even to the seventh Degree extreamly embarrass'd the Eleventh and Twelfth Century and as that rigour was excessive the Princes broke thorough without much scruple and afterwards became obstinate against Excommunications with so much the more Reason and Pretence as having the opinions of many great Lawyers who reckoned these Degrees after another manner then the Church-men so that it served for little else but a specious colour for such as were distasted with their Wives to procure their Divorce The custom practised in the Church of Jerusalem where because of the too great confluence the Laity communicated only under the species of Bread introduced it self by little and little into the Western Church and there is some appearance that the Canon of the Council of Clermont was favourable to it ordaining That those that communicated should take the two species separately this was to avoid that abuse of the Greeks who soaked or dipped the Bread in the Wine Vnless in case of necessity or by PRECAVTION That is to say if there were danger of spilling the Challice as when the multitude and throng of Communicants was too great There was like a change in the Government of some Churches the Sees of Gascongny which had been vacant above two ages were filled the Bishopricks of Arras and Cambray both which had been Governed by one Pastor since Saint Vaast began each to have their own after the death of Gerard II. who held them both and Manasses was the first Bishop of Cambray An. 1095. The same thing was attempted for Noyon and Tournay which had been joyned since St. Medard but King Philip opposing they remained so united till the year 1146. When Simon the Son of Hugh the Great being Bishop thereof they were divided Anselme a Monk of Soissons and Abbot of St. Vincent de Laon was the first that held the See of Tournay An. 1179 Gregory VII by his Bulls gave or as others say confirmed to the Arch-Bishop of Lyons the Primacy of the four Lyonnoises only being perhaps perswaded as some others that Lyons was in antient times the capital City and first Church of the Galls The Arch-Bishop of Tours was the first who submitted but those of Sens and Rouen opposed it with all their might and although this establishment had been maintained in the Council of Clermont and since by judgment contradictory which was given in the Court of Rome Anno 1099. they had much ado to submit themselves and it was as I believe during this Contest that he of Rouen began out of emulation to take up the Title of Primate of Normandy The Abbot Odillon being excited by divers Revelations to ease the Souls that were in Torments after Death ordained the Monks of his Congregation of Clugny to make a Commemoration every year the day after All-Saints in their Prayers and Divine Service which the Universal Church received soon after About the end of his Age three famous Religious Orders had their Birth That of the Chartreax Anno 1086. by Bruno Canon o◠Reims and St. Hugh Bishop of Grenoble who were the first that retired into the horrid Solitude of the Chartreuse in Dauphine which gave name to this Order That of St. Anthony at Vienne in the same Country by a Gentleman named Gaston who devoted his Person and Estate to the assistance of those that were seized with the Distemper called St. Anthony's Fire and came to implore the intercession of that Saint at Vienne where they had his Corps brought thither from Constantinople by Jocelin Count d'Albon in the time of King Lotaire Son of Louis Transmarine This Gaston got together some Companions who at first were of the Laity but soon after they became Friars under the Rules of St. Augustin and planted their Congregation in several Provinces In the year 1098. Robert Abbot of Molesme Instituted the Order of the Cisteaux being as it were a younger Sprig of that of St. Bennet and became so Potent that for more then Twenty years
also troubled England the Kings William and Henry maintaining it was a Right and Prerogative of their Crown and in all times possessed by their Ancestors For which cause Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had lost his See but at last that difference was composed An. 1107. upon condition the King should for ever relinquish the Investitures in the Church and that reciprocally the Bishops should render him Hommage This was to speak properly nothing but the changing of terms for he that doth Hommage is a Vassal and receives and holds of him to whom he renders it And indeed the Popes could have wished that the Bishops had not done it to Lay-Princes and they had expresly forbid it to those in France but the resolution King Lewis the Gross and his Successors shew'd in this point obliged them to relaxe They durst not at the same time contend both with this great Kingdom and Germany they must leave some place of shelter in time of need and besides they did not so much trouble their Heads to lessen France with whom they had no contests for Dominion as to pull down the Emperours who being very powerful in Italy had still an aim of restoring their Imperial Throne in the City of Rome Besides France was better united and by consequence more difficult to be subdued then the Empire where the Subjects as well those of Germany as those of Italy and the Kingdom of Arles being divided amongst themselves and having all different Interests have at length ruin'd that vast body by their Jealousies and Rebellions It was for this reason the Popes made it their business so much to lessen that power and it is certain that all other Princes of Europe growing jealous of it as the most formidable then in being joyned willingly with the Popes to suppress it The defence of the Holy See and the Authority of the Church admitting a specious pretence to side with them This reflection is not useless Now to return to our Narrative Henry V. sunk under all this weight as his Father had done before In the beginning his Presence made things prosper in Italy but when after various success he was driven thence his burden was left to the mercy of Calistus who confined him to a perpetual imprisonment Then he himself tir'd with the daily Admonitions and Remonstrances from all parts and not able to wade through the many Conspiracies and Rebellions which hourly threatned to or'ewhelm him yielded the Cause at last He utterly renounced the Investitures and promised to leave the liberty of Elections to the Ecclesiasticks This was in Anno 1122. The scandal and persecutions which these Schismes caused in Christendom gave occasion in my opinion for that false prediction which was spread abroad in those days That the world was near its end and the Kingdom of Antichrist was then begun St. Norbert and some other persons of an irreâ—ragable Sanctity preach'd it as a most certain Truth which was but little doubted and begot so much terror that Pope Paschal who fled into France to avoid persecution staid some time in his journey at Florence to see what the event of this dreadful report would come to Soon after the agreement Henry V. being dead without Children the Empire was given to Lotbarius Duke of Saxony and after him to Conrade Those two Princes left the Popes in quiet and made no breach of Peace with them So that there was no more fear of Schisme on that side The Church having rested in tranquillity for eight years began to be disturb'd again by another most dangerous division for after the death of Honorius II. which hapned in the year 1134. two contrary Factions or Interests in the Sacred Colledge elected each a Pope on the same day One the Cardinal Gregory who took the name of Innocent the II. The other the Cardinal Peter Leonis who called himself Anaclet This last had been a Monk at Clugny a scurvy commendation for him to the Order of the Cisteaux which was then become the most predominant in France His Right if examined in due form appeared the best but his ambitious and haughty proceeding spoil'd his Title the great Gifts ☞ he made of things belonging to the Church to make himself Master of Rome gave just cause to believe there was somewhat of Simonie in his promotion and that he deserved not the Popedom since he bought it Many good people were of opinion so says John of Salisbury that in the like contests they ought to have owned neither of those concurrents but have elected a Pope anew who had not privately made any interest for the Popedom which is of such a nature as well as all other Benefices that whoever bribes for it renders himself unworthy of it And indeed King Lewis VII wavered for some time betwixt both parties and assembled the Council of Estampes to resolve him which of the two was the Legitimate The perswasions of Henry II. King of England had already a little inclined him towards Innocent the Council of Estampes fully determin'd it that Council having been satisfied by the discourses of St. Bernard who with much zeal and vehemence set forth the Right and Merits of that Pope After so solemn a decision most of the Princes in Europe declared for him there was only Roger Duke of Apulia and William Duke of Aquitain that supported Anaclet The First that he might have a Pope convenient for him and more easie to be managed then his predecessors the Second having been perswaded by Gerard Bishop of Angoulesme that his Election was Canonical It was thrown in Gerards Teeth that at first he had been of the contrary party but his spleen because he was not continued in his Legation of Aquitain by Innocent drove him to side with Anaclet who indeed confirmed it to him It was one of the handsomest and indeed most profitable employments the Court of Rome could bestow for besides the three Aquitains both Touraine and Bretagne were comprehended in it I divide Bretagne from Touraine because the former had its Arch-Bishop apart this was the Bishop of Dole who since the insurrection of Neomene took upon him to be the Metropolitan The often reiterated complaints of the Metropolitan of Tours and the sollicitations of the Kings of France in the Court of Rome could not obtain a Judgment in this matter for a long while but Philip Augustus tyr'd with their long delays prosecuted it with so much resolution and talked so high that Innocent III. determin'd it by a definitive Sentence in An. 1198. which restored Dol and the other Bishopricks of Bretagne to the Metropolis of Tours We find in the Life of St. Bernard how he withdrew Duke William from espousing the party of Anaclet so that there was none for him but Roger Duke of Apulia on whom Anaclet conferr'd the Title of King of Sicilia upon condition to pay an acknowledgment of Six hundred Crowns yearly to the See of Rome The Kingdom of Sicilia comprehended the
Prevost des Marchands and the Eschevins went a good way into the Fauxbourg to receive him and made him a Harangue the Governess replied to it In the Month of April a difference arose which was like to have embroiled all month April Provence between the Archbishop of Aix Paul Huraud de l'Hospital and the Parliament A Priest had forced a little Boy of Six or Seven years old the Parents giving information the Arch-bishops Official or Chancellor order'd that the Parties should proceed before him but upon the Parents appeal the Parliament ordained one of the King's Judges should have the hearing of it In fine month April the Priest by Sentence was Condemned to such Death as his Abomination deserved Before Execution the Parliament summon'd the Archbishop to degrade him but as in Provence the Ecclesiasticks were wont to enjoy the same Privileges and Franchises as those of Italy enjoy'd the Archbishop complaining they had infringed the Liberties of the Church excommunicated all such Councellors as had been assisting in this Prosecution forbid any within his Diocess to administer the Sacrament to them and sent a Brief to all the Churches containing their several Names This Scandal was the greater as hapning to be near the time of Easter The Parliament offended with this proceeding cited the Archbishop and upon default of Appearance declared his Brief calumnuous and his Excommunication null and abusive ordained he should take it off and enter the same in the Court Register or upon Record within three days in default whereof he should pay Ten thousand Crowns fine In the mean time the Archbishop was obstinate to persist and the Parliament to compel him the People were divided into two Parties and grew hot even to the danger of some great Commotion Nevertheless the Parliament having order'd a seizure of the Archbishop's Temporal Estate the only Bridle for the Clergy when they more value their Revenues than either their Duty or their Dignity he soon complied took off his Excommunication month May. purely and simply and sent to his Diocesans to receive those Judges to the Communion whom he had deprived Year of our Lord 1602 The following year in the Month of March almost the like Scandal hapned at month March Bourdeaux The Archbishop who was the Cardinal de Sourdis a hot-brained man had demolished an Altar in the Church Saint André his Cathedral without communicating it to the Chapter The Canons endeavouring to Rebuild it were drove away somewhat too rudely by his People The Parliament took the Cause in hand and upon their Complaint put the Mason in Prison who had pull'd down the Altar The Cardinal breaks the Prison doors and takes him thence Some days after the Parliament assisted by the Jurats who came with a strong hand caused the Altar to be Rebuilt The Cardinal was so enraged that the Sunday following being informed the first President by Name Godfrey Malloüin Sessac and the President Verdun were hearing Mass in the Church of Sainct Project he went thither with his Archiepiscopal Crosier and the Holy Sacrament and there Excommunicated them by Bell Book and Candle The Parliament in great wrath for the injury done to all their Body by this affront to their Head made a Decree which enjoyned him to revoke his Censures and to cause the same to be published in the same Church upon the Penalty of Four thousand Crowns Fine forbidding all Bishops to use the like for the future to any Judges for doing their Office upon Pain of Ten thousand Crowns The King having received the Complaints of either Parties brought the Business before himself and there kept it to allay the heats on either hand There were divers Reglements published this year necessary to discharge the King's Debts and make the Money circulate Amongst others the Suppression of the Triennals created upon necessity of the Siege of Amiens and their Reimbursement by the Ancient and Alternatives They did however reserve those of the Espargne Parties Casuelles Extraordinaries for War and some others The Prohibition against Transporting Gold or Silver out of the Kingdom or exposing any more Foreign Coin except Pistols and Reals of Spain Another forbidding the wearing of Gold or Silver upon their Cloaths or to squander away that precious Metal in guilding The King authorized this last by his own Example and look'd very sowrely upon a Prince who presumed to appear before him with that Gawdry This Reformation did much discountenance the Gossips and Year of our Lord 1601 Gallants and was reckoned one of the Publick Grievances by that sort of Cattle who have no other Perfections but what they borrow from the Lace-man ✚ and the Taylor The most Universal cause of all the Disorders and Corruptions sprang from Luxury the extraordinary Taxes first brought forth and Nursed this proud and dainty Monster tho'to say truth both of them were as yet but in the Cradle The Contractors and Exchequer-men having abundance of Money which for the most part cost them but the dash of a Pen did lay it out in all manner of Vanity And most of the Gentlemen who were picked to equal those foolish Expences did by over-swelling and strutting burst themselves like the Frog in the Fable Then when they were so ruined and had nothing left to sell but their Honour they Married with those Fellows Daughters to get great Portions which they could not have met with in Houses of Repute or Quality not considering that from such corrupted Blood nothing but a corrupt and vicious generation ☜ could proceed It was therefore become most necessary to repress the insolency of these Robbers and their Pillage or unlawful Gains that caused it The King for that purpose establish'd a Royal Chamber composed of Judges of known and approved integrity selected from amongst the Masters of Requests belonging to his Parliament and the Cour des Aides of Paris The People who are easily fed with vain hopes imagined that the Gallows would soon do them Justice upon those Robbers under the specious title of Officers and that their Spoil would be restored at least in part to such as had been fleeced by them but by vertue of great Presents and Intrigues they found out able Mediators for some of the greatest Lords many fair Ladies together with the Ministers of the King's Pleasures attaqu'd the Clemency of that good Prince with so many Engines and Importunities that he admitted those Rascals to Composition after the Chamber or Court had sat till the year 1604. and so punish'd them only in their Purses and that but very lightly Thus the Publick far from receiving that Satisfaction they so justly expected had the displeasure to find this Inspection served only to secure that booty to them who had so unmercifully rifled the Kingdom Nor could they distinguish the Innocent few as they were from the Guilty since not the most wicked but the more weak were the most roughly handled The Adventures of a Man who said he was Sebastian King of Portugal
was drawn up and signed by the Witnesses then present The Ceremony being over and the Gates open'd the Count de Castro Ambassador of Spain came to congratulate the Senate upon their reconciliation with the Holy Father and the Cardinal went to celebrate Mass pontifically in the Patriarchal Church where were present the Senate and the Count de Castro the people flocking thither from all parts with incredible joy Those Bishops that had not submitted to the Censures received absolution likewise but whilst they were in dispute about the Conditions with those whom the Pope had preposed for this Affair they wholly abstained from Celebrating and thus in effect submitted to the interdict after all The Senate honoured such as had written in their defence with good Pensions and took them into their protection but their whole power and care was not enough to secure Fra Paolo from the malice of some Assassines who having watched him a long time surprized him one day as he was returning to his Monastery and wounded him in several places with a Stiletto but such care was taken in the cure that he recovered Afterwards he hung up the Stiletto before an Altar in the Church belonging to his Convent with this inscription Dei Filio liberatori not so much perhaps to Consecrate his acknowledgment to God as to immortalize the horror of that Assassinate and stir up the publick hatred against those who were believed to be the Authors I come now to the Truce between the Vnited Provinces and the King of Spain The two parties were extremely fatigated with a War of above forty years continuance they had both of them diversly resented the inconveniencies and did dread the Event the Spaniards had expended infinite Sums of Money and lost more Men then those Countries were worth They saw no probability of reducing them by force and apprehended withal that if they should chance to get too much advantage over them they might cast themselves into the Arms of the French for protection which would have drawn after them the other Provinces that were yet left them But the greatest of their fears was lest they should utterly ruine their Trade to the Indies and hinder the Arrival of their Flota's Year of our Lord 1606 which are their main subsistence Besides their Council imagined that as the War had served only to exasperate and harden those People the more and taught them better how to defend themselves a Peace would soften them by little and little recover their wonted communication and perhaps incline them to respect their ancient Soveraign at least the Catholick party who made up near a fourth part of those revolted Provinces Withal the Arch-Duke Albert most ardently desired the Peace thereby to enjoy Flanders quietly and be able to employ his Money and Friends to gain the Imperial Throne which he expected would soon be vacant by the death of Rodolphus On the other hand the Provinces finding themselves overwhelmed with debts almost forsaken by the English and under the apprehension of being so too by the French who grew weary of contributing so much towards the expences of a War without reaping any apparent profit Many of their Merchants imagined that a Peace would bring them Mines of Gold and some being greatly allarm'd at the progress of Marquiss Spinola who amongst other places had taken Grol and Rhimbergue took the freedom to say That since they could not subsist of themselves in a separate body of State it were better they should rejoyn themselves to their natural Lord then to put themselves under another who would lie more heavy upon them as being so near a Neighbour A certain Flemming named Caminga one of the first of those who were otherwhile called Gueux having one night held such like discourse was the next day found dead in his Bed at Embden Their dispositions being such on either part the Arch-Dukes first sounded the Foord by Valrave de Wittenhorst and John Jevart who in the Month of May month Decemb. of the year 1606 first conferred with some particular Members of the States then towards the end of the same year were heard in the Assembly of the States themselves This first time having represented the long and cruel miseries of War and praised the mild and good intentions of the Arch-Dukes they propounded the re-union of those Provinces with the rest under the obedience of Year of our Lord 1607 their ancient Prince The States were not over-much pleased with the discourse and sent them back with an Answer directly contrary to their demand viz. That by the Decree made at Utrecht Anno 1579. the King of Spain had lost his right of Soveraignty over those Provinces and that they had been Vnited in one Body and declared a free State and Republick the which had been confirmed by a prescription of more then five and twenty years and by several Princes and States with whom they had made Year of our Lord 1607 divers Treaties and Confederations The Arch-Dukes as is believed made this Essay only in point of honour for their Deputies sent immediately to let the States know That the intention of their Princes was not to gain or take advantage of the United-Provinces but to leave them in the condition they then were in and to Treat upon that foot This proposition did not displease the States and on their side the Arch-Dukes month February and March to shew they acted sincerely employ'd in this Negociation Father John Neyen or Ney General of the Cordeliers but who was a natural Flemming and had been bred up in the Protestant Religion till the age of two and twenty years His Father was one Martin Ney otherwhile very well known too and employed by the Father of Prince Maurice As to the rest his behaviour appeared to have so much of integrity that notwithstanding his change of Religion and Habit the Hollanders had a great deal of confidence in him He brought them very obliging Letters from the Arch-Dukes who offer'd amongst other things to take away all suspicion of any surprize to depute none for this Treaty but Originaries of the Low-Countries to hold the Conferences in such place as it should please the States to chuse to agree to a Truce of eight Months and to get the conditions ratified by the King of Spain The States accepted of the Truce to begin on the fourth of May the Letters of the ratification were deliver'd on either part and publication thereof made The difficulty was for the ratification from Spain Lewis Verreiken Secretary of State to the Arch-Dukes brought it the fourteenth of July to the Hague but as it was only in paper subscribed Io el Rey and sealed only with the little Seal moreover as it gave the Arch-Dukes the Title of Lords of the Low-Countreys and they had omitted this Clause That they should treat with those Provinces as holding them for a free Country The States found it imperfect as well in form as in substance month
rage in so much that having one day had some words with him for she was come from Val de Rüel to Rouen she hired a wicked Slave who upon Easter-day wounded him to death whilst he was at the Altar in his Cathedral Year of our Lord 587 Church The Murtherer for she was compell'd to deliver him up to a Nephew of that Bishop to do what he thought good with him confessed that she and Melantius with the Archdeacon of Rouen had given him Money to commit the Parricide and that none might doubt of this truth she put Melantius into that Episcopal See King Gontean by good fortune avoided three or four Attempts she made against his Person and notwithstanding either out of faint-heartedness or because the Neustrian Lords jealous of their Authority would not have suffered him to undertake any thing against the Mother of their King he did not do so much as he ought to secure his Life by the Chastisement of this Megera Year of our Lord 587 When Childebert had attained to the age of Fifteen years he began to make himself to be feared by some examples of severity having caused Duke Magnoald to be killed whom he had invited to his Palace to see a Combat of Wild Beasts and Arrested Gontran-Boson to Punish him according to what Judgment King Gontran should pronounce who very well knew the Treachery of this Villain and indeed did not pardon him The other Grandees of Austrasia particularly Ranchin Vrsion and Bertefroy took the allarm at it Fredegonda by her secret Correspondence encreased their Apprehensions so that in Consort with her they conspited to kill their King and make his two Sons to Reign the eldest of which was but two years old Childebert having had notice hereof from Gontran his Uncle sent for Ranchin and caused him to be knocked on the Head going out of his Chamber Vrsion and Bertefroy who had sheltred themselves in a Church were handled after the same manner Year of our Lord 588 The Emperor Mauritius had for some time sollicited King Childebert upon very advantageous Conditions to make a Descent into Italy for the driving out the Lombards at length Childebert to acquit himself of his Promise and the Sums he had received went thither with a powerful Army Autaris knowing by experience that Money drew the French thither but would not drive them back again did not profer them any but resolved in himself either to Conquer or else to dye with Honour The Fates were favourable to him in a great Engagement at the entrance to the Alpes Childebert having been soundly beaten retired Year of our Lord 589 What ever Intreaties Rccared could make to King Gontran he could not obtain a Peace on the contrary he was obstinately bent to continue the War against him but he only encreased his Shame and Losses Duke Boson whom he had sent into Septimania despising the Enemy and minding nothing but to Debauch suffered himself to be drawn into an Ambuscade where most part of his Army was defeated by a very small number of Visigoths Year of our Lord 589 90. The stirs and troubles between the Nuns of the Abby of St. Croix of Poitiers did puzzle King Gontran as much as if it had been a business of greater moment amongst them there were two Princesses Crodield Daughter of King Cherebert and Basine Daughter of King Chilperic Crodield having a fancy in her own Head to Command accused Lubovere her Abbess of many Irregularities to make her be put out After that she went away with forty Nuns of her Cabal to make complaint to King Gontran then being returned to Poitiers she seized upon St. Hilary's Church with a Troop of Pick-pokets who committed a world of Villanies and lewd Actions there They were fain to make use of the Regal Authority and Power to punish those Rascals and call an Assembly of the Bishops to judge of the Accusation against the Abbess She was declared Innocent and Crodield and Basina Excommunicated which was again confirmed by another Assembly of Bishops of the Kingdom of Gontran but at the Intreaty of the King 's the Council of Mâ—ts gave them Absolution Basina went again into the Monastery Crodeild stubborn in her Disobedience had leave to dwell in a Country-House which King Childebert had ordained for her Year of our Lord 590 A second Army which Childebert sent into Italy against the Lombards did most of it perish there by Famine and Sickness but withall struck King Autaris into so much dread that he promised the French if they would leave him in Peace that he would every year send them some Presents Childebert discovered again another of those Assassins whom Fredegonda sent to Murther him This new Attempt giving him occasion to examine and inquire into the old Conspiracies they apprehended Sonnegisile who had been concerned in that of Ranchin This Person accused Giles Bishop of Rheims and the King gave order to lay hold on him but upon complaints made by the Bishops that they should treat a Prelate thus without hearing him he released him to bring it to a formal Trial. For this end he calls a Councel at Mets the Fifteenth of November and there this unhappy Wretch convicted by Witnesses and his own Confession of Treason and Lasae Majesâ—atis and of his having been the Firebrand of the Civil Wars he was deposed from his Bishoprick and banished to Strasburgh the King having given him his Life upon the Petition of the other Bishops The Count Waroc and other Princes of Bretagne notwithstanding the Oath they had given two or three times ransacked the Bishopricks of Rennes and Nants which belonged to King Gontran he would once for all punish their audacious Attempts and commanded his Forces in the Kingdom of Burgundy to march that way They had two chief Commanders Ebracaire and Boubelene who could not accord together The first of these left his Companion with the best part of the Army upon the point of the business however Boubelene defended himself valiantly for two days together but on the third he was overwhelmed and perished with almost all his Men. Ebracair being returned to Court was devested of all his Estate and Goods to the King who awarded them to the Heirs of Boubelene Year of our Lord 590 or 591. King Gontran Hunting one day in the Vosga perceived that some body had killed a Buffalo The Keeper accused the Chamberlain to the King and the Chamberlain denying the Fact Gontran compels him to justifie himself in Combat as the custom then was in doubtful cases His Champion and the Keeper kill each other and he as being Convicted by the death of his Champion was tied to a Stake and Stoned Year of our Lord 592 From the same Principle of levity of mind which caused these violent Fits in Gontran proceeded his Inconstancy and Apprehensions which turned him sometimes on one side sometimes on another He could not but mortally hate Fredegonda and yet nevertheless upon her
or Brass that by boiling Water or cold Water and another likewise by presenting themselves before the Cross were in use also by the approbation of the Bishops Such as had any Quarrels and Contests gave their Oaths for caution and security in publick which were made upon the Shrines of Saints or on their Tombs This was also the way to purge or clear themselves of any Crime when accused in a Court of Justice and the Accused in certain cases as Adultery and the like when it could not be fully proved was allowed to bring several of their Friends to make publick Oath either Men or Women according to their Sex As for Marriages they took the liberty to repudiate or cast off their Wives when they could not endure them Their Kings had sometimes several at the same time and the Proximity of Blood or Degrees of Parentage never hindred them from satisfying their Desires When it pleased them the Children of their Mistresses succeeded them as well as the Legitimate They made Money of the Gold they found in their own Country and Coyned it more fine and of a much higher value than the Visigoth Kings a Mark of the Excellency of their Royalty above all others Payments were made as much with Gold and Silver not Coined as Coined But we shall elsewhere more amply Discourse and Explicate the Manners and Customs of this Nation and all the Orders they observed in their Judicatories their Wars and in their Government The natural Language of the French was the Teutonick or German the Austrasians at least those nearest to the Rhine kept to it ever and use it still but much changed or corrupted Those the most distant on this side and the Neustrians left it by little and little for that of the Galls which was the Romanick or Romanciere otherwise called the Rustick Latin engendred of the Rust and the Corruption of the Roman or Latin wrested and turned according to the genius of the Nation and the Idioms of the several Provinces as well for the inflexion and signification of Words as the Air Accent and Phrase Notwithstanding the Conversion of Clovis and all the care of the Prelates who by Authority of the Kings pulled down the Temples there were yet a world of Pagans especially amongst the French and those of the most Principal and as for those that were converted they had much ado to wean them from their ancient Superstitions they bore a Reverence still to the places where the Gentiles had Worshipped and Adored and still retained some remainders of their Ceremonies their Festivals Augures and the Witchcrafts of Paganism which they mingled with the Exercises of the Christian Religion Since the Baptism of Clovis the Gallican Church not only enjoyed in all liberty the Gifts the Galls had bestow'd upon her but likewise acquired much greater ones by the liberality of the French Her excessive Riches begot envy in the Ambitious and the Covetous To enjoy them they Courted and Caball'd for Bishopricks which they would not have desired if there had been nothing but Study and Labour The Grandees of the Court renounced the noblest Employments for a Miter where they met with Honour Authority Riches and assurance against Disgrace There was no need of forbidding them to chuse Lay-men against their Wills but rather not elect them when they used underhand dealings to obtain it There were few chosen but of noble Race and the Elections were ever made with the Kings leave never against his Will Oft times he forced them by his absolute Commands or prevented them by Recommendations which were all one as a Command The Bishops knew well enought this was to violate the Canons but the fear of bringing things to greater disorder Interest and Complaisance shut up their Mouths and tied their Tongues The only Man Leontius of Bourdeaux had the courage or boldness to call a Councel at Saintes to thrust out one Emerius a young Youth who had been named for Bishop of that Church by Clotair I but King Cherebert his Son received him but very scurvily that was put in his place and caused him to be carried into Exile in a Chariot full of Thorns These unworthy Elections and Intrusions bred most infinite Disorders publick Simony which spread it self from the Head even over all the Members the Non-Residence of Bishops their servile and perpetual adherence to the Court a disgust to Christian Vertues and the Functions of their Ministry the love of Vanity and the things of this World which led them into all manner of Pleasures and Secular Employments as Feastings sumptuous Cloaths Hunting and the use of Arms. From hence arose the scorn of the People towards these false Pastors who were crept in at the Windows and in the Civil Wars a wonderful desire and itch to invade the Wealth and Goods of the Church as esteeming it only the taking from such as were wholly unworthy of enjoying them thereby to correct their excess by paring away what was superfluous It cannot be denied but there were some extreamly irregular as Salonius d'Ambrun and Sagittarius de Gap who should rather be termed Bandits then Bishops Giles de Rheims a perfidious and factious Firebrand of Civil Wars Saffarac Bishop of Paris and Contumeliosus of Riez both of them as I think guilty of Uncleanness and Deposed for that Crime and that Cautin of Tours of whom Gregory recounts most horrible wicked things But in Recompence there were a great many who having edified their Flocks by a most Religious Conduct have left their Names and Memory in great veneration amongst all the Faithful In the beginning of this Age flourished Remy de Reims and Vaast d'Arras whom I have mentioned in the last but were still in being Gildard of Rouen Aquilin d'Eureux Contest de Bayeux Melaine de Rennes Avite de Vienne Cesarius d'Arles Venne de Verdun a little after Ageric or Agroy of the same City Lubin de Chartres Firmin d'Vzez and Macutus or Malo first Bishop of Quidalet This City having been ruined the Bishoprick was transferr'd to another which was raised out of its Ruines and bears the name of this holy Prelate About the middle of the same Age were Nicetius de Treues Paul de Leon in Bretagne Felix de Nantes Aubin d'Angers Lauto or L de Coutances Medard de Noyon Saulge d'Alby Germain de Paris This last died Anno 579. and was Interred in the Church of St. Vincent which was likewise called St. Croix and is at this day St. Germain des Prez And about the latter end lived Gregory de Tours who hath written the History of the French till within a year or two of the time of his Death it hapned as I believe Anno 595. Sulpicious de Bourges whom they surnamed the Severe to distinguish him from the Affable who since fat in the same Bishoprick St. Gall de Clermont Milleard or Millard de Sees Arigla de Nevers and Sanson de Dol. Amongst those most holy
our Lord 790 This very Year was begun as some do hold that indissoluble Alliance between France and Scotland Charles having sent four Thousand Men in assistance of King Achaius who made him a present say the Scottish Authors of Claudius Clement and Alcuinus an Anglo-Saxon two learned Men for that Age. It is added that they came to Paris and erected some publick Schools Beginning of that Famous Vniversity the Mother of all those that are in Europe Year of our Lord 791 France having at this time no other Affairs Charles thought it was time to take his Revenge of the Huns but so as it proved a blessing to them by their being subdued to embrace the Christian Faith They had say some Autâ—ors seven Ringues or Vast Enclosures lock'd within one another and wonderfully Pallisadoed and strengthned with Rampires into which they made their retreat with their Spoil which they had practised above two hundred Years Charles having passed the River Emms which divides Bavaria from their Country went forwards with his Forces who marched along the two sides of the Danube attended with a Fleet which sailed on the same River and at the same time another Body of Eastern French-men entred upon them from Bohemia Upon his arrival they all fled and left two of their Ringues to him and afterwards he made his way and ravaged as far as the River Rab. Had it not been for a great mortality which almost destroy'd all his Horses he would have push'd his Conquest further We must observe That the Country of those Avari which lay on the East of Bavaria was by the French because of their Situation Eastward in respect of them called Oosterich whence comes the name of Austria Year of our Lord 792 An eminent danger wherein he found himself the following Year prevented his return thither as he had projected The French Austrasian Lords offended at the lofty behaviour of the Queen Fastrade conspired to be freed from her to ridd themselves of their King her Husband and to set up one of his Bastards named Pepin in his stead who had a handsome face but crooked and as malicious as it was possible The plott was discover'd by a poor Priest who being accidentally in the corner of a Church where they met for this purpose over-heard them discoursing of the design Charles by Sentence of the Estates caused several to be beheaded some their Eyes to be put out others hanged and his Bastard to be shaved and thrust into the Abby of Prom which is in the Bishoprick of Triers Year of our Lord 793 This Year Liderick de Harlebec Great Forester of Flanders was made Earl of it but not hereditary though from him are descended the Earls of that Country Year of our Lord 793 The same Year a Tumult was raised in the Dutchy of Benevent contrived perhaps by Grimoald and the rest of the Lombards which proved so dangerous that Lewis King of Aquitaine went into Italy with his Forces to assist his Brother Pepin Year of our Lord 793 Whilst Charles was at Ratisbon and had laid a Bridge over the Danube to go and subdue the Avari A Design was propounded to him which would have proved of great benefit in that War and for ever after to all Europe Which was to make a Communication between the River Rhine and the Danube and by consequence between the Ocean and the Black-Sea by cutting a Channel from the River Almuâ—s which discharges it self into the Danube to the River Redits which falls by Bamberg into the Meine which does afterwards run into the Rhine near Ments To which end he caused a world of men to work but the continual Rains that hapned filling up his Trenches and over-flowing and washing away his Banks ruined that brave and useful Undertaking Besides he was diverted by two accounts of ill tydings one the revolt of the Saxons who having kept themselves quiet seven or eight years now threw off again both the Yoake of Obedience and of Religion The other that the Forces Commanded by his Counts in the Marea of Spain were defeated by the Saracens Year of our Lord 794 Felix Bishop of Vrgel had in his answers to Elipand Bishop of Toledo published a most dangerous heresy That Jesus Christ as Man was but the Adopted Son of God the Father And although about two Years before the King having sent for him obliged him to recant and to go to Rome to abjure his Errour nevertheless he began anew to dogmatize Wherefore he caused a Councel of French Bishops to assemble at Francfort as also several Bishops of Germany and Lombardy who all condemned that Error in presence of the Pope's Legat They also rejected the Second Councel of Nice which had ordained the adoration of Images and pronounced that it did not deserve the title of Oecumenique Whilst the King was at Francfort died Queen Fastrada his third Wife Year of our Lord 794 From thence he went and fell with all his Forces upon the Saxons Country his Army being divided in two whereof he Commanded one part himself and his Eldest Son the other struck so great a Terror thorough all those Provinces that instead of running to their Arms they came running to him to begg for Mercy and this good Prince sparing the blood of those obstinate People contented himself with the taking away of one third of all such as were capable of bearing Arms and transporting them to the Sea-Coast of Flanders Year of our Lord 796 Upon his Return he passed away his Winter in the Country of Juliers where having discovered some hot Baths he built a fair Palace and a Church to the honour of the Virgin Mary For which reason that place was called Aix la Chapelle These Baths had in former times been accommodated and adorned with handsome Structures by some great Lord or Roman Governor whose Name was Granus it is not well known in what time from whence in Latin it takes the name Aquis Granum But I should have told you that before this Year was expired the Saxons had once more play'd the enraged Devils cutting in pieces an Army of the Abodrites in the Passage to the Elbe as they were marching by the King's Command upon an Expedition against the Avari Viltzan who Commanded them was slain which put the King into so great Wrath that he gave up all Saxony to the mercy of the Sword and at this time there were slain at the least Thirty thousand of those People bearing Arms. Pope Adrian his intimate Friend being dead Leo was Elected by the Senators and the Principal of the Clergy at Rome He sent him an Ambassadour to give Year of our Lord 796 him notice of his Election and to carry the Keys of St. Peter's Church with the City Banner and other honourable Presents to him desiring him to send one of his Princes thither to receive the Oaths of Fidelity of the Romans a certain proof that the King in quality of Patrician held
to Boson An. 879. There was one at Fimes in Champagne in 881. amongst whose Acts we find an exhortation and advice to King Louis Son of Louis the Stammerer to Govern well King Arnold had one held at Mets An. 888. That of Valence in Daulphine An. 890. gave the Kingdom of Burgundy Cis-jurane or Arles to Louis the Son of Boson In the same Kingdom there was one at Vienne two years after of which some Canons are remaining The same year that of Reims where Foulks Successor to Hincmar presided which ordered comminatory Letters to Baudouin or Baidwin Earl of Flanders who Invaded the Propriety belonging to the Churches The question about the Worshipping of Images and that touching Predestination had like to have divided the Gallican Church For the first it is certain there were no Bishops in all France that would have broken them or rejected the Intercession of Saints unless Claude de Turin who was so pelted on all hands that he could not stand his ground But many and those of the most Learned amongst others Jonas of Orleans and Agobard of Lyons could not consent or yeild that Images should be adored In so much that the Emperors Theophilus and Michael having sent Ambassadors into France An. 825. to consult with the Debonnaire about the means to take away that Schism which divided the Greek Church from the Roman the Bishops who were Assembled at Paris to confer about it examined the Sayings of the Fathers with their reasons and opinions on that Subject whence they did infer that the Worshipping of Images was not to be permitted They also wrote Letters conformable thereunto to be sent unto the Pope on this occasion as well in their own as in the Emperors name and others likewise for his Holyness to send to the Eastern Emperors But we do not find that these resolutions had any effect the Gallican Church hath allowed and received the Worshipping of Images and hold those of a contrary opinion to be Heretiques For the question of Predestination that made more noise yâ—t It was Godeschale the Monk a Native of Germany but who had taken his Frock in the Abbey of Orbais in the Diocess of Soissons who gave occasion for these Disputes On his return from a Pilgrimage to Rome passing by Ments he made out some propositions upon this Subject which seemed to be hard and Scandalous he was accused for Teaching that God destined or Predestinated unchangeably the reprobated to be damned as the Elect to be glorified and therefore as he was the Author of good Actions so he was likewise the Author of Sin Those on the other side for him maintained that he held no other then the Doctrine of St. Augustine St. Gregory St. Fulgentius and in fine the whole Church which is that God prepares Eternal punishments for those whom he foresees will dye in Sin without Predestinating or Inclining them to Sin However it were Rabanus Maurus Arch-Bishop of Ments adjudged him guilty of the Error whereof he was accused but because in condemning him he seemed to contradict that Proposition in General that God Predestinates to Death not knowing it was the opinion of St. Fulgentius and authorised by many of the Fathers Godeschale reproached him that his was contrary to their Sentiments There is some likely-hood this Monk did not express himself with all that respect and submission he ought to so great a Prelat and indeed being cited before the Council of Ments he presented a Petition containing an accusation against him The Arch-Bishop call'd him Make-bate and Insolent and sent him back to Hincmar his Arch-Bishop to give judgment against him Hincmar who of himself had but little mercy and was besides'something evilly disposed against the Monk because of his too confident proceedings used great severity towards him For in the Council of Crecy he caused him to be condemned for his Incorrigible obstinacy and for his having been the cause of trouble to be deposed from the Order of Priesthood whipped till he should throw his Writings into a Fire which was kindled near him then shut up in close imprisonment where he died at ten or twelve years end He persisted however in his opinions to the last and Hincmar treating him like one excommunicated deny'd him the Sacraments even at the time of his dissolution and Christian Burial after his death Now as in the Council of Crecy that the Arch-Bishop had composed four Chapters wherein he seemed to refute that Proposition of St. Fulgentius and examine and oppose some others of St. Augustin's the greatest men of those Times withstood the enterprise Amongst others St. Prudence Bishop of Troyes Servais Loup a Priest of Ments Loup Abbot of Ferrieres Ratramne a Monk of Corbie Nay even the Church of Lyons to whose judgments Hincmar referr'd himselftogether with all those of the Kingdom of Arles and his Pastor St. Remy who for his Doctrine and Ecclesiastical capacity was to be compared with the ancient Fathers Divers Councils were held and many things written on either side especially by John Scot for Hincmar and by Florus for the Church of Lyons By which say the Learned it appears they were all for St. Augustine but did not well understand themselves or explain their own meaning clearly so that the Errors they charged each other withal lay only in the different Interpretations and Sence of either Party And indeed the Councils before whom these Controversies were brought wisely suppressed them declaring that they were to be considered in a more ample manner and sober discussion Which certainly they would never have done if there had appeared any positive or notorious errors in either Party All the mischief of this Storm fell upon two Priests Godeschale and John Scotus who suffer'd because they had reflected on the Bishops The first was handled as is above-mentioned the other having been mightily baffled and despised was compelled in the end to forsake the Court and Kingdom And even after his death was condemned as the Precursor of Berenger and the Sacramentarians Rabanus and Amalarius Deacon of Treves were likewise censured or blamed in their life time for holding that villainous or filthy opinion of the Stercoranists which is not to be explained without trespassing on that respect which is due to the most Sacred of all Mysteries The Authority especially was excessively encreased ever since Pepin made use of their interest to obtain the Crown and Charlemain after the Pattern of the Visi-Goth Kings would have affairs both Civil and Ecclesiastical debated in the same Assemblies where those Bishops being the Principals often times carried things so as best pleased and served themselves But the Rebellion of Louis the Debonnair's Children against their Father and afterwards the Civil Dissentions ensuing raised their power to a higher pitch yet and put them into such a Capacity that they seemed to pretend a Right of Electing Kings like the Pope who disposed of the Empire as if it had been a Benefice depending on him It is
be in their own power He therefore took this Business mightily to heart and dispatched the Abbot Leon to France with an order to the Prelates to Assemble in Council about that Affair and to Seguin Archbishop of Sens to Represent his Person amongst them Year of our Lord 994 Hugh complained opposed it and held good some time against this Enterprize But a new born Royalty could not but comply and yield at last to those Orders for fear of being quickly tumbled down again The Council which was held at Reims deposed Gerbert and restored Arnold to his See after three years imprisonment Gerbert withdrew himself to his Disciple King Otho who bestowed upon him the Archbishoprick of Ranonna from whence some years after he was raised to the Holy Chair Year of our Lord 994 In the year 994. the unhappy Charles died in Prison at Orleance It is not said what became of his Wife but he two Sons Otho and Lewis and two Daughters Gerberge and Hermengarde All these Children went to the Emperor Otho III. The eldest enjoyed the Dutchy of the lower Lorrain some years and died without Heirs The other is not mentioned Hereafter we shall take notice to whom his Daughters were Married Year of our Lord 994 and the following King Hugh as well as Pepin and all such Princes as set up by a new Title amongst People that are not perfectly Barbarians was truly Religious Devout and a lover of the Church and Church-men gave up all the Abbies he held and surrendred the Right of Election to the Clergy and Monks By his Example those Lords that possessed Church-Lands as their own Patrimony not only restored them but for Restitution of their unjust Enjoyment and Detention founded divers Monasteries which they peopled with reformed Monks who certainly were much less good and more interested then the former had been Year of our Lord 996 He ended his Life Anno 996. the 29th of August or according to others the 22th of November aged about Fifty five years having Reigned nine years and some months He was buried at St. Denis If he Married Blanche the Widow of Lewis last Carolovinian King he had no Children by her but by his first Wife Adeleide Daughter according to some of William II. Duke of Aquitain he had a Son named Robert and three Daughters Haduige or Avoye Wise of Renier IV. Earl of Monts and of Haynault Adelais Wife to Renand I. Earl of Nevers and Gisle who Wedded Hugh I. Earl of Pontieu to whom she brought the City of Abbeville in Marriage Year of our Lord 996 The same year 996. Richard surnamed Sans Peur or without Fear Duke of Normandy ended his days in his Palace of Fâ—scamp aged Sixty four years of which he had Reigned nine and was Interred before the Portal of the Church there His Son Richard II. succeeded him About these times that Sacred Fire which they named the Burning Sickness and had otherwhile made great destruction broke out and kindled again cruelly tormenting France especially for two Ages It seized again on a suddain and burnt the Intrails or some other part of the Body which fell off piece-meal Happy were those that escaped with the loss of a Leg or an Arm. This caused many great Donatives to be given to those Saints whose help they believed they had received in the midst of their dreadful Torments as likewise the frequent sounding of Hospitals for such as were infected with this Distemper The Calamity which Anno 994. destroyed in Aquitain Angoumois Perigord and Limosin above 40000 Persons in a few days time wrought at least this good that the Grandees who had troubled this Province by their private Feuds fearing the Wrath of God made a Solemn Oath amongst themselves to do Justice to their Subjects and for this end formed a Holy League which drew other Provinces by their Example to do the like It was likewise in this Age that Pilgrimages to the Holy Land grew very Frequent I mean amongst the Seculars for the Monks and Clergy-men travelled to those Holy Places from the time of King Clovis If the Tenth have deserved the name of the Iron Age which is commonly bestow'd upon it must have been for the continual and very Bloody Wars between the Western Princes and for the terrible Devastations of the Normans the Hungarians and the Saracens but if they called it so for the ignorance and irregularity of their Manners it was rather in respect to the Church of Rome where in truth there were horrible Disorders and Crimes then those of France and Germany It is certain that the Bishops and Abbots notwithstanding the Prohibitions of Princes and Councils bore Arms and went to the Wars a Custom which passed into a Law and Obligation and lasted a long time in the third Race That several were plunged into Vanity Luxury and Dissolution and lived rather like Princes of this World then Apostles of Jesus Christ That those Wars which scourged them made them yet but more worthy of Chastisement for the Disorders and Licentiousness they fell into That their Manners run to ruine with their Buildings and that as there hardly remained any Monastery or Church entire so there was scarce any Discipline left not even amongst the very Monks That in fine many Churches were without a Pastor for example there was but one Bishop in all the Country of Gascongny who enjoyed the Revenue of six or seven Bishopricks But after all these Ruines they began before the middle of this Century to gather up the broken pieces or fragments and reform the behaviour of the Clergy as well as rebuild their Churches William Duke of Aquitain and Auvergne having founded the Monastery of Clugny in the year 910. and St. Mayeule having raised as it were a Nursery of Religious good Men they took some Plants from thence to stock and furnish those Abbys which the Princes re-edifi'd This Abbot and Odillon his Successor furnished at least twenty or thirty who remained still in submission to their common Mother and formed the Congregation of Clugny As much did William Abbot of St. Benigne at Dijon as likewise Abbon de Fleury to some others about Aquitain Subordinations which may procure much good and perhaps much greater evils St. Gerard of the Blood of the Dukes of Lorrain having embraced a Monastick Life reformed Eighteen or twenty Adalberon Bishop of Metz Brother to Frederic first Earlo Bar made a Regulation in those of his Bishoprick amongst others in that of Gorze and at St. Arnold from whence he expelled the Canons who were grown disorderly to place Monks in their stead Abbon de Fleury going to settle his Reformation in the Monasteries of Squirs upon the Garonne which therefore was called the Rule and in the Language of that Country La Reovle and near to which was built a City of that name was knock'd down by a Sedition which the Gascon Monks of that place and the Women had raised against him Amongst the Bishops there
mentioned and Hugh both Abbots of Clugny who being favoured by Heaven were in great credit with the Princes of this world of Thierry Bishop of Orleans Burchard de Vienne Bruno de Toul all three in the beginning of this Century and in the latter part of it Austinde d'Auch Hugh de Grenoble Arnold de Soissons and Maurille de Rouen Add to these Prelats Brune who was Institutor of that most austere Order of the Chartreux and Robert Abbot of Molesme who was Institutor or Founder of the Cisteaux For Robert d'Arbresel he is not yet in the Catalogue of Saints France was not exempted from Heresies In the year 1000 there started up a Phanatiqee Peasant named Leutard in the Burrough de Vertus within the Bishoprick of Chaalons who broke down the Images Preached that they ought not to pay Tithes and maintained that the Prophets had not always spoke those things that were good he was followed by an innumerable multitude of the Populace who believed him to be inspired of God his Bishop it was Guibin having easily convinced him and afterwards disabused those ignorant people the unhappy wretch in despair to see himself forsaken cast himself into a Well his Head foremost Some years afterwards came from Italy I know not what Woman infected with the dotage of the Manicheans which she inspired into a couple of the most Noble and most Learned Clergy-men of Orleans and those into several other people of several conditions King Robert who made his Residence in that City being informed hereof assembled a Council An. 1017. to convince them but not able to dis-infatuate them they kindled a fire in a neighbouring Field to burn them if they persisted in those Follies These obstinate Zealots far from dreading those Flames ran to them Thirteen were burnt Ten whereof were Canons of St. Croix The same severity was practised towards all of that Sect that could be discovered in any place especially at Toulouze An. 1022. But the remainders or Seeds of those ashes or as some say the frequent Commerce the French who travelled to the Levant had with the Bulgarians who were Manicheans soon after raised up this Phrensie again in Languedoc and Gascongne The error of the Sacramentaries was more subtil and therefore did not make so great a progress Joh. Scot. Erigene and other half Learned and too subtil Wits disputing about the incomprehensible Mistery of the Holy Sacrament according to the notions and terms of humane Philosophy had raised doubts and difficulties in the minds of Men touching the real presence of the Body of JESVS CHRIST in the Holy Eucharist We may believe that even in the Tenth age some scruples had been made by people contending herein since there were miracles wrought to prove it But the First that durst openly say contrary to the belief of all former ages that the Holy Sacrament was but the Figure of the Body of our Lord was Berenger Arch-Deacon of Anger 's Treasurer and Super-intendant of St. Martin de Tours As he was one of the most Learned Men of his time and had such charms in his Discourse and Entertainment that he was followed by vast numbers of Disciples for which reason his adversaries said he was a Magician he drew to his party Brâ—â—o Bishop of Anger 's and very many others who spread his Doctrine thorough France Italy and Germany Durandus Bishop of Liege and Adelman his Rector afterwards Bishop of Bresse stopt the current of it by their Writings and King Henry by his Authority so that he kept close and quiet for some years At the end whereof moving the question afresh Pope Leo IX condemned it in the Council of Rome and in that of Vercel both in An. 1050. In the last they ordered Scots Book to be burned which was the Well from whence he had drawn his error Five years afterwards Hildebrand Legat from Pope Victor II. being sent into France to reform the Clergy convened a Council at Tours where he compell'd him to abjure his Error and subscribe his Retractation For all this he desisted not from his former ways they were fain to cite him before the Council which was held at Rome An. 1059. where he was ordered to burn Scotus his Book with his own hand and Sign to a Confession of Faith composed by Cardinal Humbert but as soon as he was at liberty he renews the Dispute which lasted till the year 1079. when Gregory VII having summon'd him before another Council in Rome managed this turbulent Spirit so well that he owned and confessed both from his Heart and Tongue the substantial Conversion of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of JESVS CHRIST Being returned into France he took up the Habit of St. Bennet for his pennance and retired into the Priory of St. Cosmo which is in an Island of the Loire about two Leagues from Tours whither he drew several Cannons of St. Martins who were enchanted with the sweetness of his Conversation He passed the rest of his days there with great austerity and died very Religiously An. 1091. aged above Fourscore years What care soever was used to reform the disorders and take away the Weeds and Darnel out of the Church yet they could never pluck up the most spreading and fruitful root of Simony I shall give you a little taste of it In a Council which the Legat Hildebrand held at Lions An. 1055. there were 45 Bishops and 23 other Prelats who without any other accusation but their own Consciences publickly avowed this crime and renounced their Benefices An example very common as to the fault but singular for the repentance I do not know any times wherein so many Churches and Abbeys were built as in these days King Robert himself founded above 20. There was not one Lord but ✚ valued himself in so doing The most wicked affected the Title of Founders whilst they ruined the Churches on the one hand they built on the other and made their Sacrilegious Offrings to God of those things they had ravisht from the poor and needy The fancy that reigned in Mens minds at the beginning of this Century is most remarkable which was to pull down old Churches to build new nay even the fairest and noblest to erect others after their own mode This change of material Walls seemed to be a sign of that change was made in those times in the whole Face and if we may say so the Body of the Gallican Church From the Eighth Century the Popes had found out means to diminish the Authority of Metropolitans obliging them by a Decree in Council held at Ments by St. Boniface necessarily to receive the Pall at Rome and subject themselves Canonically to obey the Roman Church in all points A Profession since changed into an Oath of Fidelity under Gregory VII They had likewise attributed to themselves exclusively to all others the Right of Separating or Dissolving the Spiritual Marriage which a Bishop contracteth with his Church
Popes Legat. Afterwards the Archbishop of Sens gave him leave to explain and make good his Propositions against St. Bernard But being come for that purpose to the Council of Sens he would or durst not dispute there but appeal'd to the Pope Being on his way towards Rome to pursue his Appeal he stopt at the Abby of Clugny and there led a holy Life in the Habit of St. Bennes which he had long before taken upon him These Prosecutions were carried on by the Zeal of St. Bernard Abbot of Clervaux a Burgundian Gentleman who had raised himself to so high an Esteem for several years before amongst the Clergy the Nobility and Common People that there hapned no Cause in Matters Ecclesiastical no considerable Contest no important Enterprize wherein his Judgment was not required together with his Counsel and Mediation To shew us that the Wise and Virtuous have a more natural ☞ Empire then that which proceeds from Power or the Institution of Man Year of our Lord 1141 The Clergy of Bourges had elected for their Archbishop one Peter de la Chastre a Person of singular Learning and Piety The King whether he did not like him or desired that Benefice for another refused to give his consent Peter would therefore have desisted but Pope Innocent enjoyned him to perform his Duty which the King obstructing it bred a great deal of trouble and grew to that height that the Pope Excommunicated the King and put the King under an Interdiction Thibauld Earl of Champagne a Lord of great Authority as well for his Power as his Vertues having intermedled somewhat too much about this business offended the King whose anger was yet more inflamed upon another occasion which was this Rodolph de Vermandois who was in effect the first Prince of the Blood but in those days that Title was not known those Princes being considered only according to the Year of our Lord 1141 42. dignity of their Lands caused his Marriage with Gerbete Cousin German to Thibauld to be dissolved upon pretence of Parentage that he might have Alix-Pernelle the Sister of Queen Alienor for his Wife The Pope at the instigation of Thibauld Excommunicated Rodolph and interdicted the Bishops that had pronounced the Divorce Lewis lays all upon Thibauld and enters his Lands in Hostile manner Thibauld has recourse to the Pope who to deliver him from that War which oppress'd him takes off the Excommunication but as soon as that was over he thunders it a second time and then the King more exasperated then before turns his Army into Champagne They take Vitry by force putting all to the Sword and setting Fire on the Church wherein three hundred poor innocent People were burnt who were got in to secure themselves Year of our Lord 1143 and 1144. At the recital of this Cruelty the Kings Bowels yearned and his Conscience was mightily troubled He mourned and dispairs St. Bernard had much ado to persuade him that he might obtain Mercy from God upon his Repentance In this Condition it was easie to persuade him to restore the Archbishop of Bourges to his See and procure a Peace for the Earl Year of our Lord 1143 and 1144. Fulk King of Jerusalem being dead Anno 1142. the Government being in the hands of Melisenda his Widow his youngest Son Baldwin and the Christians of that Country worse then the Turks their Affairs ran all into confusion so that Sangnin Sultan of Assyria tore the Principality of Edessa from them one of the four Members of the Kingdom of Jerusalem The King had before Vow'd a Voyage to the Holy-Land these sad Tidings moved both him and the other French Princes to carry them Relief St. Bernard the Oracle of those times being consulted with herein refers the business to the Pope who sent him orders to Preach the Croisade over all Christendom Year of our Lord 1146 Beginning with France he Conven'd a National Council at Chartres by whom he was chosen for Generalissimo of that Expedition but he refused the Sword and was content to be the Trumpet only He proclaim'd it every where with so much fervour so great assurance of good success and as they believed with so many Miracles that the Cities and Villages became Deserts every one listing themselves for this Service Year of our Lord 1147 The Emperor Conrad and the King were the first that took the Badge of the Cross with an infinite number of Nobility Each of these Princes had a Legat from the Pope in his Army Conrad led threescore thousand Horse he went away first and arrived at Constantinople about the end of March in the year 1147. Year of our Lord 1147 The King staid some while in France after him to receive Pope Engenius who by the Revolted Romans was forced to quit that Country He set forwards a fortnight after Whitsontide in the same year and having marched thorough Hungary and Thrace passed the Bosphorus so that the following Lent in Anno 1148. he got into Syria whilst on the other hand his Naval Force was put to Sea to meet him there Year of our Lord 1147 By Advice of his Parliament held at Estampes he left the Regency of the Kingdom to Rodolph Earl of Vermandois and Suger Abbot of St. Denis who was in great Credit at Court even from the time of Lewis the Fat. Before his departure he went according to the usual Custom into St. Denis Church to receive his Staff and Scrip the Badges of Pilgrimage and the Standard de L'Oriflamme on the Altar of the Holy Martyrs It is fit we should tell you the Kings of France of the Second Race display'd at the head of their Armies St. Martins Cope or Mantle But Capet and his Line after their great Devotion to St. Denis made use of the Banner belonging to his Church which they called Oriflamme It had wont to be carried or born by the Count de Vexin-Francois who was Hommager to the Church of St. Denis After the Kings had possession of this County they appointed some Person of great Merit and Illustrious Birth to carry it There is not that wicked or mean Artisice and Treachery but the perfidious Manuel Emperor of Greece put in practise to destroy both the Emperors and the Kings Armies Against the first he had his will by Poysoning their Meal he was to furnish them withall with Lime and Plaster and appointing such Guides as having led them a long way about which made them waste all their Provisions at last delivered them half dead and languishing into the hands of the Turks who cut them all in pieces so that there was not a tenth part of them escaped Year of our Lord 1148 The King being likewise gotten into Asia found the Emperor Conrad at Nicea where he comforted him in the best manner he could Then he marched along by the Sea-side and ran the same hazard as the other had done however he saved himself more by good fortune then
People pretended they had the better Title and had most commonly maintain'd themselves in possession of it alledging the Popes could not deprive them of a Right born with the Church its self and practised in the times of the Apostles Year of our Lord 1160 King Lewis relying upon the Judgment of the Gallican Church whom he Assembled for this purpose at Estampes adhered to Alexander All the West followed his Example excepting the Emperor Frederick who with his Almans and what Partisans he had in Italy fiercely rejected him because he was Install'd without his Approbation King Henry besides the Kingdom of England held the Dutchy of Normandy which had then a part of Bretagne holding of it the Country of Maine Anjou Touraine and the Province of Aquitain His Ambition upheld by this great increase Year of our Lord 1160 of Power made him revive afresh the Right his Wife had to the County of Toulouze For this end having made Alliance with Raimond Prince of Arragon and Earl of Barcelonna he raised a great Army of Aquitains and Routiers amongst whom was Malcolme King of Scotland enter'd upon Languedoc took Mâ—issac Cahors and some other places The jealousie Lewis had of his growing Greatness moving him at least as much as Year of our Lord 1160 61. the Prayers and Intreaties of Earl Raimond his Brother-in-Law caused him to march that way and cast himself into Toulouze but he had so few with him that it was in the power of Henry to have forced that City had not the scruple of falling upon his Soveraign deterr'd him from it After which they were reconcil'd but Henry would not let fall his claim and hold of the Earldom of Toulouze till he bestow'd his Daughter Jane Widow of William II. King of Sicily on Earl Raimond In these days the cursed Crew of Routiers and Cottereaux began to make themselves known by their Cruelties and Robberies we cannot tell certainly why they were so called but they were a kind of Soldiers and Adventurers coming from divers parts as from Arragon Navarre Biscay and Brabant who wandred over all Countries and would be hired by any one that offer'd to take them provided they might be allow'd all manner of Licence The Cottereaux were most of them Foot-Soldiers the Routiers served on Horseback In the mean while Pope Alexander fearing the Emperor after he had pull'd down the Pride of the Milannois might come to Rome did not judge himself a fit match and so retired into France where he remained above three years Year of our Lord 1161 This year he held a Council at Clermont in which he did not forbear to thunder against Victor Frederick and all their Adherents Year of our Lord 1161 The most Potent and most Factious Family in all France was the House of Champagne Lewis to divide them from the English and gain them to himself takes Alix for his third Wife who was youngest Sister to the four Brothers Champenois for Constance his second Wife was dead Anno 1159. and for the two Daughters of his first Bed he gave one to Henry the eldest of the four Brothers Earl of Troyes and the other to Thibauld the second Earl of Blois Year of our Lord 1162 Pope Alexander came to Torcy on the River Loire where the two Kings Lewis and Henry received him with extream submission Both of them alighted and each taking one of the Reins of his Horses Bridle conducted him to the House prepared for him Year of our Lord 1162 A second time the Emperor came into the County of Burgundy bringing his Victor with him and a second time some endeavoured to procure a Conference betwixt him and the King to determine that Difference which made the Schism by the Judgment of a Council They agreed upon the place of Interview to be at Avignon as being the Frontier of either Prince whither the King by Oath obliged himself to bring Alexander But that Pope refusing to go there saying he could be judged by none it broke off the Conference and put the King in very great danger For the Almans having reproached him that he kept not his word plotted to way-lay him and had taken him Prisoner had not the King of England caused his Army to advance to disengage him Thence follow'd a cruel War between the Emperor and Alexander which horribly tormented Italy and out of which the Emperor could not withdraw himself but by the means of a shameful submission craving Pardon of the Pope and suffering him to set his Foot upon his Throat Which hapned in Anno 1177. in the City of Venice Year of our Lord 1163 Anno 1163. Alexander assisted at the Council of Tours Assembled by his order and there he thunders once more against Victor and Frederick He caused some Decrees likewise to be made against the Hereticks who had spread themselves over all the Province of Languedoc There were especially of two sorts The one Ignorant and withall addicted to Lewdness and Villanies their Errors gross and filthy and these were a kind of Manicheans The others more Learned less irregular and very far from such filthiness held almost the same Doctrines as the Calvinists and were properly Henricians and Vaudois The People who could not distinâ—uish them gave them alike names that is to say called them Cathares Patarins Boulgres or Bulgares Adamites Cataphrygians Publicans Gazarens Lollards Turlupins and other such like Nick-names Year of our Lord 1163 Death of Odo III. Duke of Burgundy to whom succeeded Hugh III. his Son There being Peace between the two Kings Lewis employs himself in doing Justice and suppressing Disorders The Inhabitants of Vezelay having made a Corporation would have shaken off the Abbot who was their Lord protected by the Earl of Nevers He compell'd them and their Earl to ask Pardon and break their Corporation The same year he went in Person to â—ight the Earl of Clermont the Earl du Puy and the Vicount de Polignac Lords of Auvergne who denied to forbear plundering of Churches overthrew them and brought them Prisoners to Paris where having detained them a long while he releas'd them upon giving their Oaths and Hostages In like manner he punished the Earl of Chaalons with the loss of his County because he had pillag'd the Abby of Clugny and kill'd above five hundred some Monks some Servants However the Daughter of this Man re-entred upon her Patrimony Year of our Lord 1163 Thomas Becket Chancellor of England elected Archbishop of Canterbury Anno 1163. soon lost the good favour of King Henry for divers causes and particularly Year of our Lord 1164 for stickling too fiercely in maintaining the Priviledges of the Clergy Being banished the Kingdom he retired himself in France in the Abby of Pontigny of the Diocess of Sens whence he gave much trouble to his King and suffer'd not a little himself during six years Year of our Lord 1164 Death of Victor the Anti-Pope in whose stead the Cardinals of his Party elected Guy
By this Constitution the Regular Canons were excepted upon condition they should have a Companion to converse always with them that they might not turn absolute Brutes by daily frequenting of rude Peasants worse then solitude it self This Companion was but his second and by consequence the other who Officiated was first in respect of him for which reason they called him Prior and hence comes it that those Benefices were named Priories though in effect they are but simple Cures no more then those held by the Secular Priests There are several proofs in the Acts of the Councils and elsewhere that Pluralities were forbidden an Abuse that must be for ever condemned by true Church-men who look upon their Benefice as a Charge of Souls but ever practised by such as consider them only as a Revenue The Princes of those times did easily give way to great Revenge and run into extream Violence but when the first heat of their fury was spent they were easily persuaded to Repentance as well by the Sentiments of Christianity imprinted in their Hearts their Religion not being only meer Policy but true Faith as by the good Instructions and Arguments of their Bishops and others of the Clergy For those godly Pastors not knowing how to sooth and flatter Vice in any one much less give way to Crimes in Ruling Potentates and Grandees that ought to be Exemplary to inferiors boldly reproved them for their faults which otherwise they knew themselves must answer for at the Tribunal of the King of Kings They first made use of Admonitions which they did by word of Mouth if there were opportunity of access or else by Writing If afterwards they found the Vice incurable the Scandal continue and increase they added reprehensions and those sometimes publick and in the end let loose the Censures of the Church upon them By this Evangelical liberty assisted with the Holy Spirit they often mollified the hardest hearts and gained respect by their Apostolick constancy whilst others were but slighted and contemn'd as not having the courage to open their Mouths against the greatest Sinners When any Church was wronged in her Liberty or Goods the Priests took down the Shrines and Images of their Saints and set them on the ground either to turn the hearts of their Persecutors and bring them to Repentance or to inflame the indignation of the People against them Those that did not believe the reality of the Body of Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament were Hereticks but the too curious started several Questions touching the manner and the circumstances of that incomprehensible Mystery Some not being able to conceive what could become of the Sacred Body of Our Lord after they had eaten it said it passed with the rest of our Digestion Rupert Abbot de Tuit was of that opinion that the Bread and the Wine remained with the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ And it appears that Peter de Blois believed that the Cup could not be Consecrated without Water and that it was no Sacrament without the Chalice because it is a Mystical Repast and in a Supper there must be somewhat to drink as well as to eat In those times they yet Communicated in both the Species but divers and amongst others the Monks of Clugny to prevent the Profanation in case the Cup should happen to be spilt or some small drop should remain sticking on the Beard of the Communicant administred the Bread dipt in the Wine and that Bread was round and about the thickness of a Crown Now this method not seeming conformable to the institution of the Sacrament by our Saviour was often reproved and condemned by the Popes themselves who at length not being able to rectifie this abuse took the Cup wholly from the Laity Such as impugne the real Presence however are mistaken in saying that the word Transubstantiate was introduced by the Council of Latran which was held in Anno 1215 for we find it in Peter de Blois who wrote some years before but it is true that that Council authorized that Term of Transubstantiation The use of publick Pennance was yet very common the Penitents could not come into the Church nor Communicate nor receive the Blessing or the Salutation of Peace nor Shave his Beard nor cut his Hair nor put on any Linnen nor Christen a Child they eat nothing but Bread and drank only Water on Mundays Wednesdays and Saturdays in each Week But this severity was much abated by the Indulgences or Relaxations of Punishments allowed by the Canons The Popes freely bestowed these Indulgences on such as took the Cross to go into the Holy Land or against Hereticks and Schismaticks The Bishops likewise when they Consecrated any Church were not sparing to such as would come to visit them upon condition they would come the day before and give their Alms or Contribution towards the upholding and maintaining of the Fabrick They had then a particular fancy to build Subterraneal Chappels I have observed that at the building their Churches they would in the Foundations often times bury Vessels full of Silver that so when either Time or other accidents should come to destroy them they might find wherewith to rebuild them anew Also when any happen'd to fall to ruine they brought the Relicks of that Saint that was most honour'd by all the Neighbouring Countries to invite People out of Devotion to contribute largely towards another Edifice It was impossible but they should be rich for there was no one died that did not leave them some Legacy I shall observe by the way that by their Wills they ever affranchised some certain number of Slaves according to their Qualities and we may reckon this amongst others for one main cause which hath by little and little abolish'd Slavery or Servitude in France Those Persons that had committed great Sins though they were not such whom the Canons ordained to do publick Pennance yet they omitted not especially being at the point of Death to make a publick Confession and divers great Princes would needs die flat upon the Ground lying upon a Cross of Daft and Ashes some even with a Rope about their Necks others in the Habit of a Monk or Friars holy Frock and Cowle believing that Sacred Livery would shelter them against the Torments in the other World Auricular Confession had ever been practis'd in the Church Gratian examining in the second part of the Decree whether it were of absolute necessity or not after he hath mustred the Reasons on either side according to his Method seems to leave every one his Judgment free assuring us that Persons both very Devout and Pious were many for it and many against it But the Church hath determin'd it in the affirmative The Monks did not Administer the Sacraments to the Laity nor did they hear Confessions unless it were from those of their own Coat it being forbidden them by the Councils to exercise any Curial Function A certain Abbot of
Monk as well as his own choice The Father might put his Children into the Monastery without acquainting the Mother and even against her will He had that power over them till they were Ten years of Age afterwards that Term was enlarged to Thirteen says Yves de Charâ—res and then to Fourteen as we find it in Gratian. When the Father had resolv'd and destined his Son to Monachism he offer'd him to God in the Church belonging to the Convent wrapped all over or sometimes only the Arm in the Altar Cloth and by that Devotion obliged him so fully that he could not gainsay it But Clement III. and Calistus III. changed that too unnatural Right and Power and declared That those Children ought not to be compell'd to Monastick Life unless they did by their own free choice oblige themselves when they had attained to years of Discretion The Dignity of Cardinals was in great lustre their Colledge was numerous and their Vertue and Birth most eminent France had as great a share at least in this Advantage as Italy Duchesne who has written their Lives very exactly hath noted in this Twelfth Age above Fifty that were Frenchmen the greatest part of them having been bred in Monasteries particularly in the Congregation of Clugny and Order de Cisteaux These last were almost all of them the intimate Friends or Disciples of St. Bernard Galon Disciple of Yves de Chartres Bishop of Beauvais then of Paris Guy Brother of Stephen Earl of Buâ—gundy Archbishop of Vienne and afterwards Soveraign Prelat by the name of Calistus II. Pontius de Melgueil Abbot of Clugny Stephen Son of Thierry Earl of Montbelliard William de Champagne successively Archbishop of Sens and of Rheims Uncle to King Philip Augustus and very powerful in the Government of the Kingdom Rodolph de Nesle Henry de Sully and Albert Brother of the Duke of Brabant were all of illustrious Birth and withall of extraordinary Vertue excepting Ponce or Pontius who was singular for the Disorders of his Life which were scandalous after his re-entry perforce into the Abby which he had once renounced that going to Rome whither he was cited by the Pope he was confin'd to a perpetual imprisonment where a Month after he died And nevertheless a certain Martyrologist quoted by Duchesne does call him Saint The end of Albert was also Tragical but the Cause being brave his Memory is the more glorious He had been Elected Bishop of Liege upon the Sollicitation of Henry Duke of Brabant his Brother The Emperor Henry VI. who hated both of them would not give his consent to this Election The Pope however confirms him and Albert comes to Rheims to be Consecrated which was then the Metropolis of Liege The Emperor took this for an outrageous affront and slighting and dispatches some German Cavaliers after him to take his Revenge These Ruffians having craftily insinuated themselves into a familiarity with the Bishop who then sojourned at Rheims found an opportunity one day to get him out of Town to take the Air and walk and Murther'd him with Nineteen Wounds then made their escape to Verdun and from thence into Germany to the Emperor Four hundred and twenty years after that is in the year 1612. the Arch-Duke Albertus of Austria and his spouse the Infanta Clara Eugenia obtained leave of the Most Christian King Lewis XIII to take his Corps up out of the Cathedral Church at Rheims where it had been deposited till that time and caused it to be convey'd to Brussels in great Pomp. Paul V. compleated his Crown of Honour by Canonizing him as a Martyr for the liberty of the Church which is the Spouse of Jesus Christ I observe Eight or ten other Cardinals who had no other Nobility but what their Vertue acquir'd as one Robert de Paris who with some others so pressed Pope Paschal that he had made him break the Treaty by which he had yielded up the Investitures to the Emperor Henry V. Foulcher de Chartres Matthew de Rheims and Alberic de Beauvais the first of whom had been Secretary to Godfrey de Buillon in his Expedition to the Holy Land the second Prior of St. Martins des Champs or in the Fields and the third a Monk of Clugny and Abbot of Vezelay Stephen de Chaalons Bernard de Rennes these two had likewise been Monks Rowland d'Auranches and Matthew d'Angers all which took their names from the places of their Nativity according to the Mode of Men of Learning who were of mean Extraction There were divers others besides whose Parents are unknown to us as one Yves a Canon of St. Victor raised by his Learning to that Dignity and one Martin who came from the Abby de Citeaux and was Bishop of Ostia a Prelat of an Apostolick Continence and Fragality It is related that he being sent as Legat into Denmark for the Conversion of those Infidels he came back so poor that he Travel'd on Foot as far as Florence herein much more like the humble Apostles of Jesus Christ then the other Legats of those times who comming very beggerlike into those Provinces whither the Popes sent them went thence again loaden with Spoil as from a Country Conquer'd by them and returned back to Rome with an Equipage sit for a King The Bishop of Florence seeing this good Man on foot made him a Present of a Horse not out of generosity but hopes to oblige him to be his Friend in a Process he had at Rome ready to be determined but when it came to Judgment and this good Man to deliver his opinion he Addresses himself to him and said freely he did not know he was to have been his Judge and therefore pray'd him to go to the Stable and take his Horse again that his Vote might be without partiality Neither did France want for Bishops whose Learning Merits Zeal and Piety acquir'd the Titles of Great Men and of Saints Not to mention again that Galon Guy of Burgundy William de Champagne and Albert de Brabant whom we lately ranged amongst the Cardinals France had amongst others seven great Archbishops Hildebert de Tours Peter de Bourges who was of the Family de la Chastre Odvard de Cambray Arnold Amaulry de Narbonne Henry de Rheims Rotrou de Rouen and Hugh de Vienne Arnold had been Abbot of Clerveaux and was the first Inquisitor to root out the Heresie of the Albigensis Rotrou was Son of the Earl of Warwick near of Kindred to the King of England as Henry was to the King of France Louis the Gross but both of them more eminent for their Christian Humility then high Birth Hugh endured rather to be expell'd from his See by the Emperor Frederic I. then to renounce Alexander III. whom he believed to be the true and Legitimate Pope I should never come to an end if I undertook to give an account of all the Bishops of this Age who deserve Immortality and Renown But can we forget Yves and
cannot say how long she survived after the year 1180. but there is yet to be seen in the Parochial Church of that place her Monument and her Effigies also in Stone which over-head is crowned with Flowers The People of that Country assure us That God by divers Miracles hath approved the Devotion they have towards her Lewis VIII King XLII POPE HONORIUS III. All along this Reign and beyond it LEWIS VIII Surnamed the Lyon and the Father of St. LEWIS King XLII Aged Thirty six years compleat Year of our Lord 1223 PHilip Augustus had not caused his Son to be Crowned in his Life-time whether he had a jealousie of him or thought his Family so well Establish'd that he had no need of such precaution to secure the Crown to him He was therefore Crowned at Rheims with his Wife Blanch de Castille the Tenth day of the Month of August The King of England did not assist at his Coronation as he ought to have done in Quality of Pair of France but sent Ambassadors to summon him according to the Oath he had made at London to surrender Normandy to him with all those other Countries that had been taken from King John his Father They receiv'd for Answer That they had been Consiscated by Judgment of the Pairs and that they pretended to have the remainder likewise which he held so far were they from giving back what he demanded Year of our Lord 1022 and 1223. As the People of Languedoc did easily return again to their Natural Lord Raimond Earl of Toulouze Amaury finding himself too weak to stay in those Countries came and resigned and yielded up all the Right and Title he had into the hands of the King who for Recompence made him High Constable It was then but an Employment lasting no longer then the War So that we sometimes find such Lords on whom it hath been conferr'd two or three several times Year of our Lord 1224 Raimond Earl of Toulouze having made his Address to Pope Honorius with all imaginable submission the Holy Father sent to his Legat to call a Council at Montpellier to reconcile him with the Church After which Raimond before an Assembly of the Clergy in Languedoc promis'd and sware entire Obedience to the Roman Church sufficient security to the Clergy for restitution and the enjoyment of their Goods and Profits and the extirpation of Hereticks throughout all his Country Upon this satisfaction the Pope received him to Mercy and owned him for Earl of Toulouze Year of our Lord 1224 But as the resistance and opposition of his Subjects hindred him from making good his Promises the Pope sent a Legat to the King it was Romain a Cardinal that had the Title of St. Angelo to persuade him to undertake that Expedition which he did the more readily because it suited with his zeal and with his Interests Year of our Lord 1224 The two Kings Lewis of France and Henry of Germany eldest Son to the Emperor Frederic had a Conference at Vaucouleurs where they Treated about several Difference between the two Crowns and made divers Propositions but came to no conclusion At his return from thence pursuant to a Resolution had been taken to drive the English wholly out of France Lewis enters Poitou gains a Battle there over Savary de Mauleon General of the English in Guyenne makes himself Master of the Cities of Niort and of St. John d'Angely and generally over all the Places even to the Garonne and receives the Homage of all the Lords of those parts Year of our Lord 1224 There was nothing left but Rochelle where Savary de Mauleon defended himself for a long time expecting Relief from England In fine being basely disappointed and deceived by the King of England's Ministers who sent him Chests full of old Iron in stead of Silver to satisfie the Garison he was forced to surrender the Town the 28th day of July and afterwards pretending whether true or false that he had been Treated in England as a Person whose Faith they suspected he quitted his old Master and went to the King of France After the taking of that important City the Kings to secure it the better to themselves had as it were outvied each other in gratifying it with many great Priviledges by which means it was raised to a high pitch of Renown for its Wealth and Liberty but through their ill management of those Advantages she hath utterly lost them all in these latter times Year of our Lord 1225 The rest of Guyenne had been gained by the French if Richard Brother to King Henry had not landed at Bordeaux with a great Army which raised up the drooping Spirits He took St. Macaire near Bordeaux by Storm but la Reoule gave him a great Repulse and being inform'd that the French Army was at the River Garonne he Ship'd himself again and left order with Aimery Vicount de Touars to procure a Truce There wandred a certain Person about Flanders near this time who said he was that Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Emperor of Constantinople that had been taken Prisoner by the King of Bulgaria He related how he made his escape out of Prison and put them in mind of several Tokens and Circumstances to know him by The Flemings who mightily loved Baldwin gave Credit to this Man and put him in possession of all Flanders Year of our Lord 1225 The Countess Jane Daughter of Baldwin finding her self at a loss for her Husband Ferrand was still a Prisoner at Paris had recourse to the King who sent word to this pretended Baldwin that he should come to him at Peronne He came boldly thither but disdaining or not being able to answer the Questions put to him which he must needs have known if he were not a Cheat the King commanded him to depart his Territories within three days and gave him a safe Conduct Being afterwards forsaken by all the World he endeavour'd to escape away in a disguise but he was taken in Burgundy and carried to the Countess who after ✚ she had made him undergo divers Tortures sent him to the Gibbet as an Impostor His Execution did not hinder malicious People from believing that the Daughter had chosen rather to hang her Father then to restore him to his Soveraignty Year of our Lord 1225 This same year the King being in Touraine the Legat went to him and obliged him to prolong the Truce with Aymery Vicount de Touars the only Nobleman that opposed the King yet in Poictou This Vicount shortly after came to Paris to render Hommage to the King in presence of the King of England's Ambassadors Year of our Lord 1226 The City of Avignon having refused the Army passage was besieged the 14th of June It defended it self obstinately Guy Count de Saint Pol one of the bravest of the Besiegers was slain there the Plague got amongst the Soldiers and the Earl of Champagne Male-content went away without leave The King nevertheless swore he would not
came to the Crown Three hundred years after by King Henry the Fourth surnamed the Great The Daughters were named Isabella Blanch Margaret and Agnes Isabella was Married to Thibauld the II. King of Navarre and died without Off-spring Blanch a little before this Voyage to Africk Married Ferdinand called De la Cerde eldest Son of Alphonso X. King of Castille and had two Sons who were unjustly deprived of the Kingdom by their Grandfather because their Father had preceded him and Representation had no place Margaret was Affianced to Henry Duke of Brabant and Limbourg then that Prince turning Monk Married to John his Brother and Successor They had no Children Agnes Espoused Robert Duke of Burgundy and brought him many Philip III. King XLIV POPES A Vacancy GREGORY X. Elected the 1st of September 1271. S. Four years four Months ten days INNOCENT V. Elected in January 1276. S. Seven Months JOHN XXI Elected in July 1276. S. Eight Months NICHOLAS III. Elected in November 1277. S. Two years nine Months Vacancy of Two Months Martin IV. Elected Feb. 21. 1281. S. Four years one Month seven days HONORIUS IV. Elected in April 1285. S. Two years one Month whereof six Months in this Reign PHILIP III. Surnamed the Hardy King XLIV Aged Twenty five years four Months Year of our Lord 1270 THE Christian Army wholly disconsolate for the death of their King and ready to sink under their Toils and Dangers resumed courage and received refreshments upon the arrival of Charles King of Sicily who with his Naval Forces landed at the very time the King his Brother was giving up the Ghost Being come ashoar he came and paid him his last Duty and caused his Flesh to be all taken from his Bones as it was then the Custom when any died in Foreign Countries He carried the said Flesh to Sicily with him and buried it in the Abby of Montreal near Palermo and King Philip kept the Bones which he deposited in St. Denis in France The Funeral being over they continued the Siege Charles having the Command of the whole Army because Philip being fallen Sick could not act At the end of three Months the taking of the place being most infallibly certain though not till the Winter was over King Philip's impatience who much desired to Year of our Lord 1270 go and take possession of his Kingdom and yet more the interest of his Uncle Charles who cared for nothing but to get Money and oblige the King of Tunis to pay him Tribute were the Motives that made them give Ear to Propositions of Peace with that Barbarian King Year of our Lord 1270 They allowed him a Truce for Ten years provided he would defray the whole Expences of that Expedition and that he would pay to Charles as much Tribute as he paid to the Pope Annualy That he would deliver up all the Christians he then held in Slavery That he would grant free liberty of Trade and exemption of Imposts to all their Merchants and would permit them to dwell in Tunis and have the Exercise of the Christian Religion At the end of the Siege Prince Edward of England arrived there with his Forces hoping that after the taking of that place the two Kings would go into the Holy-Land as they had promised but they thought it fitter to return to their own homes and left him to pursue his Voyage Year of our Lord 1270 Heaven seemed to be angry at their return all manner of misfortunes followed them Part of the Vessels wherein Philip was Embarked arrived happily enough at the Port of Trapani or Trapos in Sicily but the others that had King Charles and his on board were overtaken with a moit furious Tempest which destroy'd most of them with the loss of Four thousand Men all their Equipage and the Treasure that was in them Besides all this Thibauld King of Navarre being taken Sick ended his days at Trapani about the end of December his Brother Henry the Fat succeeded him Isabella of Arragon Queen of France being great with Child hurt her self by a fall from her Horse and died in the City of Cosenza Alphonso Brother of St. Lewis was taken off with a Pestilential Fever at Siena and his Wife Isabella de Toulouze died in the same place about twelve days after him So that King Philip cloathed in Mourning Weeds for the Death of his Father his Wife and his nearest Relations after so much Expence and Toil brought nothing back into France but empty Chests and Coffins full of the Bones of the dead Year of our Lord 1271 He staid in Sicily about two Months departed towards the end of February crossed Italy and arrived at Paris in the beginning of Summer He was Crowned at Rheims the Fifteenth day of August or as others say the thirteenth by the Bishop of Soissons the Archbishops See being vacant Of the ancient Pairs of the Laity there was none assisted at this time but the Duke of Burgundy and the Earl of Flanders Robert Earl of Artois bore the Sword of Charlemaine they name it Joyeuse At their going thence he intreated the King to go and visit his Country and received him in his City of Aâ—ras with such Welcom and Expressions of Joy as hitherto had not been heard of in France This King passing thorough Rome paid his Devotions on the Tomb of the Apostles At Viterbo finding the Cardinals had been there Assembled for two years together without coming to any agreement concerning the Election of a â—ope he exhorted them to make some end that the Church might be no longer without a Head His good Advice did not take effect till Eight Months afterwards upon their electing of Thibauld de Piacenza Archdeacon of Liege who went Legat into Syria with Prince Edward he took the name of Gregory X. Year of our Lord 1271 The Earldom of Toulouze was vacant by the decease of Jane the Daughter of Raimond and Wise of Alphonso Philip put himself into possession pursuant to the Terms of the Treaty made with Raimond in the year 1228. but it was King John that annexed it to the Crown Year of our Lord 1271 This year died Richard pretended King of the Romans The year after his Brother Henry III. King of England followed him and his Son Edward I. of that name who was in the Holy Land succeeded Year of our Lord 1272 Year of our Lord 1272 In a Bloody Quarrel the Earl of Armagnac had against Gerard Lord of Casaubon his Vassal it hapned that Roger Earl de Foix whom the Earl of Armagnac had called to his aid pursued Gerard and besieged him in a Castle belonging to the King whither he was fled and had put himself under his Protection The King angry for the little Respect these Earls had for him marched into those Countries with an Army capable of striking a terrour to the very heart of Spain He besieged Roger in his Castle de Foix and being resolved to level a Mountain wich hindred his approach
to it daunted him so much that he came and threw himself at the Kings Feet He could not however obtain his Pardon till after he had been detained Prisoner a year in the Castle of Beaucaire At his return from the Holy Land Edward passed thorough France and did Homage to the King Being afterwards gone to visit his Countries of Guyenne Gaston de Moncado Lord of Bearn refused to render him Homage Edward seized upon his Person and kept him Prisoner in his Train for a while From whence making his escape the King of England made complaint to Philip Soveraign Lord of Guyenne This King having summon'd his Parliament and Debated the Case gave Judgment in favour of Edward and compelled Gaston to hold his Lands of him The Viscounty of Bearn was Originally a Member of the Earldom or County of Gascongny which held of the Dutchy but had been dismembred and held by Lords who were the Issue of those Dukes till it came to the House of Moncado by the Marriage of the Princess Mary Daughter of Vicount Peter and Sister of the Vicount Gaston deceased without Children This was about the year 1170. The Princess being yet a Minor having put her self I know not for what reason under the Power of Alphonso II. King of Arragon in whose Dominion she had also some Lands was obliged to do Homage for Bearn to that King and to Marry William de Moncado which Advantage Alphonso procured him as a Recompence for his having brought about the Marriage between Prince Raimond Berenger Earl of Barcelonna his Father and Petronella Daughter and Heiress of Ramir le Moyne king of Arragon The Family of Moncado is one of the Nine most illustrious of all Catalongne and are said to be Issue of a Dapifer or Grand Seneschal to Charlemain Year of our Lord 1273 The Electors displeased to see the German Empire so long in confusion met together at Francfort upon the earnest intreaties of the Pope and without any regard to the opposition King Alphonso made resolved never more to make any Emperor that was not of the German Nation So that at that very time they elected Rodolphus Surnamed Rufus who had been Master of the Palace to Othocare King of Bohemia He was Earl of Habspurg a Family which as well as that of Lorrain were the Issue of the Earls of Alsatia and the Mayre Erchinoald He was raised to the Imperial Dignity principally by the Suffrage of Vernher Archbishop Year of our Lord 1273 of Mentz the only Elector almost that knew him and whom he had otherwhile obliged in some Affair of Importance Now it was the more easie for this Elector to do him this good Office because the King of Bohemia and all the other German Princes refused this Title as being much more burthensom then gainful or honourable Year of our Lord 1273 Many and different Subjects required the Assembling of a Council The necessary Regulation for the future in the Election of Popes the Refermation of Abuses in the Church and of Morality amongst the Christians the Differences about the Grecian Empire between Michael and Baldwin and for that of Germany between Rodolph and Alphonso the hopes to unite the Greek Church to the Roman and the pressing necessity for assisting the Faithful that were remaining in the Holy Land to which the Pope had solemnly obliged himself at the time he received the news of his Election Year of our Lord 1273 For these Reasons he had Convoked a Council in the City of Lyons which lies as it were in the midst of the principal Estates of Christendom He came thither himself about the latter end of this year 1273. and was visited by the King who let him have several of his Gentlemen and Officers to serve him for a Guard Year of our Lord 1274 The Council was open'd the First day of May in the year 1274. there were present Five hundred Bishops seventy Abbots and a thousand others as well Doctors and Deputies as Chapters Gregory presided accompanied with Fifteen Cardinals The Ambassadors from the King the Emperor Rodolphus and from several other Western Princes were there Those from Michael the Emperor of Greece arrived there at the Fourth Session and prescuted some Letters from him by vertue of which they were admitted to an abjuration of their Schism and a profession to follow the Faith of the Roman Church especially about the Procession of the Holy Ghost After that the Pope owned Michael for rightful Emperor of the East and forbad Baldwin to bear that Title any longer This was the end for which Michael had feignedly desired the re-union The Election of Rodolph was likewise confirmed but not till after King Alphonso had submitted and referr'd his Right to the disposal of the Pope upon Condition he might have leave which was granted him to take the Tenths of all the Clergy in his Kingdom to make War against the Moors Thus all the Reparations whatever happens are ever laid upon the Peoples Shoulders to make satisfaction who pay for all at last There were several Constitutions concerning the Elections Provisions and the Residences of Benefices They Treated about the setling many Differences betwixt the Princes and Cities in Italy It was Ordained That the Cardinals should be hence-forward shut up in the Conclave for the Election of Popes and they made very severe Decrees against Usurers by vertue whereof the King put them all in Prison thoroughout the whole Kingdom but soon after he released them upon the payment of some certain Taxes which he imposed upon them Which was to tell the truth only the way to teach them for the future to take the greater Usury that so they might have enough both for themselves and for him They granted likewise a great many Indulgencies and Priviledges to such as listed themselves for the Holy Land or did contribute their Money towards that Expedition and they suppressed all the Orders Mendicants excepting only the Preachers and the Minors The Augustins and the Carmelites were tolerated only till a more ample deliberation Two great and Holy Scholastick Doctors died in these times St. Thomas Aquinas Year of our Lord 1274 near Terracina as he was coming to the Council and St. Bonaventure in Lyons after he had been assistant there The first was of the Order of the Preaching Friers the other of the Minors and had been made a Cardinal by Pope Gregory X. Year of our Lord 1274 Philip tired with being a Widower four years cast his Affection upon Mary Daughter of Henry and Sister of John Duke of Brabant Married her at the Bois de Vincennes in the Month of August and Crowned her the year following in the Holy Chappel of Paris on St. John Baptist's day He would needs have the Archbishop of Year of our Lord 1275 Reims perform â—he Ceremony without any regard to the right of him of Sens who was the Metropolitan The 21th of July Henry the Fat King of Navarre died at Pampeluna his
have no more war on that side but the Nobility liked rather to be under the King of France who had Employments and Offices to bestow Henry de Villars Arch-Bishop of Lyons and John de Chisy Bishop of Grenoble byass'd the Dukes mind so as to make it run that way He had therefore in the year 1343. made a Donation to King Philip of the Lordship of Daulphine and the Lands adjoyning upon condition that all their priviledges should be preserved intirely that it should be incorporated for ever in the Crown of France and that the Kings eldest Son should enjoy it and bear the Title and the Arms of Daulphine for which the King gave him Forty thousand Crowns of Gold and ten thousand Florins Rent to be levied on the Countrey Year of our Lord 1349 This year 1349. he confirmed the Contract and afterwards retired himself into a Convent of the Jacobins where he took on the Habit. The Pope tyed him to the Church by Sacred Orders fearing he might start back and gainsay the thing He received them all on Christmass-day the Subdiaconal at midnight Mass the Diaconal at Mass by break of day and the Priesthood at the Third Mass The same day he Celebrated and eight days after was promoted to Episcopacy and honoured with the Title of Patriarch of Alexandria Year of our Lord 1350 In 1350. Philip had likewise either by purchase or by engagement of James of Arragon King of Majorca the Counties of Rousillon and Cerdagna in the Pyreneans and bought of the same Prince the Barony of Montpellier in Languedoc which the House of Arragon held in Under-Fief of the Crown of France for the sum of Sixscore thousand Crowns of Gold currant Money In the Month of June of the year 1350. the Truces wer prolonged between the Kings for three years Year of our Lord 1350 Two Months afterwards Philip fell sick at Nogent le Roy perhaps of the toil and fatigue of his new Marriage very often mortal to antient people that take beautiful Wives Feeling his last hour draw near he sent for his Children and the Princes of his Blood and gave them warning and counsel to live in amity and concord with one another make a Peace if it could be had maintain good Order and countenance Justice case the People and other fine and excellent things which Princes oftner recommend to their Successors at their deaths then practise themselves while they are alive He expired the Two and twentieth day of August in the seven and fiftieth year of his age and in the Three and twentieth of his Reign Very brave in his own person more happy in Negotiations then in Battle hard-hearted towards his Subjects suspitious vindicative and one that suffer'd himself to be too far transported by the impetuosity of his anger He had two Wives Jane and Blanch that the Daughter of Robert II. Duke of Burgundy and this of Philip d'Evreux King of Navarre By the First he left two Sons John who Reigned Philip who was Duke of Orleans but had no posterity and one Daughter named Mary who Married John Duke of Limburgh Son of John III. Duke of Brabant By his Second he had but only one Daughter Posthumus she was named Jane who died at Beziers in the year 1373. as they were conducting her to Barcelona to marry John Duke of Girona eldest Son to Peter IV. King of Arragon The Queen her Mother survived her Husband almost Fifty years which she passed in perpetual Widdow-hood Thus under the Reign of King John there were two Queens Dowagers in France this same and Jane d'Evreux widdow of Charles the Fair who died in the Month of May Anno 1970. John I. King L. By some called the Good King Aged XLII years POPES CLEMENT VI. Two years three Months during this Reign INNOCENT VI. Elected in December 1352. S. Nine years and near Nine Months URBAN V. Elected the Eighth of October 1362. S. Eight years and above Two Months whereof one year and Six Months during this Reign Year of our Lord 1350 AFter John had assisted at the Funeral of the King his Father he was Crowned at Reims with his Second Wife Jane of Boulogue the Twenty sixty day of September From thence he came and made his entrance into Paris the Seventeenth of October sate in his Seat of Justice in Paris gave the Order of Knighthood to his two eldest Sons to some other Princes and Lords and began some shew of labouring about the Polity and the Reformation of the whole Estate The Prince having maturity of age the experience of Affairs a valour tried in occasions the example of his faults before his Eyes and four Sons that would soon be able to draw their Swords promised a happy conduct and a most flourishing Government yet having the same defects as his Father too much of impetuosity and precipitation for revenge little prudence and as little consideration for the miseries of his poor people he fell into greater misfortunes and such as did not let go their hold but stuck to him till his death The Blood wherewith he sullied the entrance of his Reign was a presage and perhaps a cause of it much likelier then the prodigious Comet which appeared this year Rodolph Earl of Eu and of Guisnes Constable of France a prisoner of War to the English ever since the Battle of Caen had made divers voyages into France Year of our Lord 1350 to procure his own deliverance and that of his Compagnons Some perswaded the King were it true or false that under this pretence he practised some contrivances in favour of the English he was then arrested by the Prevost of Paris the Sixteenth of November and the Nineteenth beheaded obscurely and without form of Process in presence of the Duke of Bourbon and seven or eight Lords of note before whom it was given out in publique he had confessed his crime His spoil was thus divided his Office of Constable was given to Charles d'Espagne de la Cerde Favourite to the King the Earldom of En to John d'Artois Son of that Robert of whom we have mention'd so much and that of Guisnes to Jane the only Daughter of the defunct whose first Husband was Gualter Duke d'Athenes and her Second to Lewis Earl d'Estampes of the Branch d'Evreux from which sprung that of the Earls d'Eu Princes of the Blood Year of our Lord 1351 That he might not be inferiour in magnificence to the English who was a sumptuous and liberal Prince who had instituted the Order of the Garter King John instituted or rather revived the Order of the Star in a famous Assembly which he held in his Palace of St. Ouyn neer Paris and ordained that whereas those Knights did formerly wear the Star upon their Helmets or Crest or hung about their necks they should now have them embroidered on their Cloaths The Chapter was held upon Twelfth-day Charles the Fifth his Son observing this Order much debased by the multitude of mean
all France was left exposed to the plundrings of the licentious Soldiers as well French as English Now at the very hour that Paris was reduced to the extreamest want and it was in the power of the Navarrois and only depended upon him alone to give the mortal blow to France his heart was changed in a moment without any apparent cause but an extraordinary favour of Heaven towards this Kingdom Insomuch as he made his agreement with the Dauphin and referr'd almost all his pretensions to his own free Will in despite of all the arguments and oppositions of his Brother who quitted him and retired to the English at Saint Sauveur le Vicomte Year of our Lord 1359 This Peace saved the City of Paris but did not ease the neighbouring Provinces * for those Garrisonn'd places that had held for the King of Navarre declared for the English that they might still have opportunities to plunder The Lord Auberticour a Hennuger ravaged Champagne by means of certain Castles he held upon the Marne and the Seine Broquard de Fennestranges a Knight of Lorrain drawn into the Service of France with Five hundred adventurers whom he had under his Pay delivered the Countrey of him having defeated and taken him prisoner in a great Fight near Nogent upon the River Seine but himself became a more severe scourge burning and laying all waste till the Dauphin could give him the Arrears due to his Soldiers During all these Wars with the English until Charles VIII had driven them out of France there were many of these Captains whereof some paid their Men out of their own pockets and then hired them out to those that would bid most and others maintained theirs with the plunder they took indifferently on either side These last were called Robbers those that Commanded them were meer Soldiers of Fortune when they were snapt they found no quarter Year of our Lord 1359 There were Propositions of Peace perpetually on foot between the two Crowns King John though he had all manner of liberty even for Hunting and all pastimes and gallantries was very weary of his imprisonment nevertheless he referr'd those conditions the English propounded for his Release to the Estates of his Kingdom They being assembled at Paris for this purpose it was in the Month of May found them so hard that all with one voice chose rather to have War and offer'd very great sums to carry it on but these could not be levied so soon The King of England netled with their Reply raised a formidable Army there were Eleven hundred Vessels and near an hundred thousand fighting Men landed at Calais with his four Sons who began to march although the Season was very far spent They let him keep the Field at his own pleasure the Towns were so well provided that he could not take one neither St. Omers nor Amiens nor Reims where he thought to have been Crowned King of France nor Chaalons Burgundy redeemed themselves from plundering for Two hundred thousand Florins and some Provisions for his Camp Nivernois compounded likewise Brie and Gastinois were ransacked About the latter end of Lent he came and encamped within Seven Leagues of Paris between Chartres and Montlehery and finding they made no one step towards the satisfying his demands he plants himself just before the City Gates with design to oblige the French to Speak or to Fight Year of our Lord 1360 After he had tarry'd there some time without being able to gain either the one or the other he turns back towards Beauss resolved to refresh his Men along the River Loire and in case of misfortune retreat into Bretagne Cardinal Simon de Langres the Popes Legat and the Dauphins Deputies always follow'd his Camp and sollicited him eternally for a Peace One day he being encamped in the Chartrain Countrey there arose a dreadful Storm with so much Lightning and Thunder and such a shower of great Hail that it grievously maim'd a great many of his Men and killed above a thousand of his Horses He took this prodigy as a warning and command from Heaven and turning himself towards our Lady's Church of Chartres which was to be seen about five or six Leagues off made a promise before the Almighty of concluding the Peace besides the Duke of Lancaster with other English Lords pressed him earnestly because his Army was much shatter'd and he had brought over almost all the force of England Year of our Lord 1360 The Deputies on either part met the First of May at the village called Brotigny within a mile of Chartres In this place Treating in the name of the two Kings eldest Sons they concluded upon all the Articles in eight days time On the one side they gave the English King besides what he had already all Poitou Saintongne Rochel and the Countrey of Aulnis Angoumois Perigord Limosin Quercy Agenois and la Bigorre in full Sovereigaty besides Calais the Counties of Oye Guisnes and Pontieu and three Millions in Gold for the Ransom payable at three several Terms of King John who should be brought to Calais and set at liberty after the restitution of those places force-mentioned and upon giving up as Hostages his Three youngest Sons his Brother Philip and other Princes of the Blood and besides all these Thirty more as well Earls as Illustrious Knights and two Deputies of each of the Nineteen Cities whose Names were expresly mention'd On the other hand the King of England renounced the Title of King of France and generally all his other pretensions Year of our Lord 1360 And till the two Kings could ratify the Treaty a Truce was agreed upon for a year In the Month of July King John was brought over to Calais where he was immediately visited by his Children and staid there till the Five and Twentieth of October when King Edward coming thither both of them swore to the agreement of Peace very solemnly That between the King of England and the Earl of Flanders and another between the King of Navarre and King John were made up in the same place and Year of our Lord 1360 this last sworn by the two Philips Brothers of those two Kings the Treaties were confirmed by the Holy Father under the penalty of Ecclesiastical censures against those as should first contravene King John being freed from Captivity the Four and twentieth of October which he had now undergone four years and one Month went to give Thanks to God at the Church of St. Denis in France There he received the King of Navarre into Favour who came and Saluted him The Thirteenth of December he made his entrance into Paris and the City testified their joy by a Present of Plate of a Thousand Marks Year of our Lord 1361 The extream necessity he was in for Money to pay his Ransom made his generous courage stoop to a weakness judged to be more prejudicial to the Honour of the Noble House of France then even the Treaty of Britigny it self
had a design to recover it by force and to this end had besieged it the Mareschal having armed himself to relieve it the Grand Master of Rhodes undertook to make an acommodation Year of our Lord 1406 Whilst they were in Treaty the Mareschal employ'd his Arms against the Turks After he had conducted the Emperour Manuel from Modon to Constantinople he went and besieged the City of Scandeloro which he took by assault Then the Peace with Cyprus being made he turned his designs towards the coasts of Syria because he had War with the Sultan of Egypt for some Merchants Goods which that Barbarian had taken from the Genoese The Venetians jealous of their prosperity and watchful of the Mareschals actions gave speedy notice by a nimble vessel to all the Ports upon that coasts So that where ever he would have gon on shoar he found them armed and well provided to receive him Thus he missed Tripoly and Sayeta but he took Baruc which he carried by storm This good success encreased the Venetians rage so much that lying in wait for him upon his return having discharged the greatest part of his Men and Ships Charles Zeni who commanded their Gallies set upon him without any War declar'd How weak soever he was he defended himself so stoutly that they could not force him but they took three of his Gallies wherein was Chastean Morand and Thirty Kinghts of Note The mournful Letters these prisoners sent to the Court because they knew the Venetians never set any free whom they had taken till the Peace was made and their friends lamentations to the Princes and the Kings Council wrought so much that they sent to the Mareschal not to revenge himself for this Treachery but allow of those excuses the Venetians made The Mareschal knowing they were contrary both to the Truth and his own Honour published a Manifesto directed to the Duke and to Zeni relating the whole Fact in a quite different manner giving them the Lye and challenging them to a Combat either One to One or Ten against Ten all Knights or either of them in a single Galley to which no answer was made Year of our Lord 1406 The University of Paris did not desist from pursuing the re-union of the Church and had in order to it dispatched some Deputies to Rome to Innocent but Bennet endeavour'd to break these measures by his intrigues in the Court of France The Cardinal de Chalan his Envoye was but ill receiv'd yet he for a while hindred the Decree the Parliament were about to make against the University of Toulouze who had embraced the defence of that Pope and written Letters in his favour injurious both to the King and his Council but that of Paris addressing themselves to the King with as much zeal obliged the Parliament at last to give Sentence That the said Letters should be burnt at the Gates of Toulouze Lyons and Montpellier and those that wrote them should be proceeded against Notwithstanding theycould not obtain that substraction so many times demanded Year of our Lord 1406 During these Transactions Innocent the Pope of Rome dies and his Cardinals elected Angelo Coraro a Venetian called Gregory XII but obliged him both by Oath and Writing to abdicate the Papacy when Benedict would do the same and to give notice of this condition to all Princes He at first comply'd with his Promises and sent an Embassy to his Competitor for the Union They agreed upon the City of Savonna for their Conference all necessary Orders for their security and for their conveniencies were issued out and the King omitted nothing that might be helpful sending his Ambassadors to labour in it who were well received every where But the two Anti-Popes each on Year of our Lord 1407 his part sought difficulties and delays denying to meet personally and endeavouring to put things off by a thousand tricks Bennet shusfled a long time before he would give up his Abdication in Writing Gregory yet longer about his security and the way he should go Sometimes he pretended he must go by Sea another while it must be by Land finding out most incomprehensible difficulties in adventuring either way Year of our Lord 1407 The Duke of Burgundy notwithstanding his feigned reconciliation which he daily coloured over with new marks of confidence causes the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated The executioner of this so abhorred a Fact was a Norman Gentleman named Rodolph d'Oquetonville animated by a particular resentment for that the Prince had put him out of an Office he held under the King Upon the 23 or 24th of November in the night time as the Duke returned from visiting the Queen who was then in Child-bed mounted upon a Mule with only two or three Servants about him he who had Six hundred Gentlemen his Pensioners the Murtherer who waited for him in the Street called Barbette accompanied with Ten or a Dozen more like himself First gave him a blow with a Battle-axe which cut off one hand and then a Second that cleft his Head in two the rest likewise mangled him with divers wounds and left him lying in the Street This done they all saved themselves in the Duke of Burgundy's House having strowed the way with Calthrops and set fire to a House that they might not be pursued Upon the first noise of this Murther the Burgundian put a good face upon it and went to the Funeral of the deceased bemoaned him and wept for him but it being mentioned in Council that search should be made in all Princes Hostels for the murtherers the horror of this crime did so confound him that he took the Duke of Bourbou aside and confessed to him that he was the Author of it Afterwards being come to himself again he went from thence and the next day fled into Flanders with his Cut-throats His retreat with his threatnings gave some apprehension that he would put the Kingdom into a flame and every man feared the like treachery might fall upon his own Head And for this reason instead of prosecuting him they sought by all mean toa ppease him The Duke of Berry and the Duke of Anjou King of Sicilia took a journey to Amiens to confer with him he came to them well attended his ill act leaving him no security but force and promised to return to Paris and justify himself before the King provided they kept no Guards at the City Gates Year of our Lord 1407 In the interim the Dutchess of Orleans who was at Blois when her Husband was murthered came to Paris with her Sons she had three Charles Philip and John the eldest was not above Fourteen years old to make her complaints to the King He gave her the Guardianship of her Children but durst not promise to do her justice for fear of over-turning his Kingdom The disconsolate Widow knowing therefore that her Husbands murtherer was returning retired with her young ones to Blois Year of our Lord 1408 According to his
word the Duke of Burgundy came to Paris towards the end of February at the head of Eight hundred Gentlemen all armed from Head to Foot only they did not put their Helmets on The Queen and Princes received him with all the demonstrations of confidence but they could not prevail with him to own the murther of the Duke of Orleans publickly He gave Commission for it to a Cordelier named John Petit Doctor in Divinity his Orator and obtained Audience for him in the Great Hall of the Hostel de St. Pol. This mercinary Divine endeavour'd in presence of the Princes and Council to make it appear That the Duke of Orleans had been a Tyrant every way that he was guilty of the crime de Laesae Majestatis both Divine and Humane That he had once bewitched the King another time had conspired to kill him and another to have him Deposed by the Pope That therefore his death was just and necessary It was not the Monks Harangue but necessity and danger that perswaded the Council They gave him an Act in Writing that abolished this crime and in appearance reconciled him with the Queen The King desired to put an end to the collusion of the Anti-Popes he resolved to publish an Order for Substraction the Fifteenth of May. In the mean time Pope Benedict having intelligence of it sent his Bulls to Paris forbidding him to do so upon Year of our Lord 1408 pain of Excommunication Those that brought them to wit Sancho Lupi and a Rider belonging to the Popes Stable having delivered them to the King and the Duke of Berry the Fourteenth of May were immediately seized on The Council sate three days to consider what was to be done having heard the Opinions and Remonstrances of the University the King caused a Pen-knife to be stuck into the Bulls which the Rector of the University afterwards cut in pieces Year of our Lord 1408 The Substraction was after this published and then those that brought the Bulls were tryed by Commissioners Their Sentence was severe they were drawn on a Sledge twice about the Palace-yard then mounted upon a Scaffold where being adorned with Paper Miters and clothed with long painted Vests after the Dalmatian fashion upon which Benedicts Arms were fastned they were severely reproached by a Doctor and after led back to their prison Divers Prelats and Clergy-men that sided with him were likewise sent to Goal Upon this news the two Popes who pretended to be going to Savona fled each his several way Benedict into Catalogna in a Galley and Gregory by Land to Sienna both of them forsaken by their Cardinals When the Burgundian was again returned to Artois the Dutchess of Orleans supported by the Queen who had Cantonized her self at Melun came to intreat the King that he would hear her Orator this was the Abbot of St. Denis in justification of the memory of her Husband and reparation for his death They gave him Audience in the Castle of the Louvre the King the Queen and Princes of the Blood being at the Council After this Harangue of the Widows Orator there Year of our Lord 1408 were divers Assemblies held with more animosity then zeal for Justice where in sine the Burgundian notwithstanding his Act of Abolition was declared an enemy to the State and it was ordered that Forces should be sent to fall upon him on every side and that all the ways should be strongly guarded to keep both him and all others from coming near the King He was at that instant at L'Isle in Flanders arming himself to restore John of Bavaria his Wives Brother to the Bishoprick of Liege This false Prelate who had nothing but the vain Spirit of the World deferring to take Holy Orders gave occasion to the Liegois to turn him out of the Episcopal See and to put in Thierry one of the Lord de Perruveys sons whose Original was from the House of Brabant They were not satisfy'd with having driven him out of their City but besieged him in Maestricht and had kept him blocked up for four Months When they had notice that the Burgundian had taken the Field they raised the Siege and retired but those haughty and rude People hearing that he had iu all but Sixteen thousand Men forced the Lord de Perruveys to seek him out and give him Battle They were three to one yet were they routed and cut in pieces Perruvey and his two Sons and Thirty thousand Liegois lay dead upon the place they had no quarter given them the Bishop rather a Tyger then a Shepherd could not have Blood enough to satisfy his cruel Thirst Their submission did not appease his sanguinary Rage when he was setled he fell not only upon the guilty and the ring-leaders but upon Women and Children Priests and Religious Votaries There was nothing else to be seen round about Liege and those other Cities that were Dependencies but Forrests of Wheels and Gibbets and the Meuse was choaked up with the multitude of their wretched Carkasses thrown into that River bound two and two together From hence began that implacable hatred of the Liegois against the House of Burgundy Had the Duke been worsted in that Battle all the Orleanois party were ready to have run open mouth upon him when they had received this news they found more cause to consult their own safety then his ruine The Queen did not believe her self secure in Paris She departed thence the Thirteenth of November being attended by the Duke of Bretagne her Son-in-law and took the King with her to Tours Year of our Lord 1408 The Duke informed of all particulars by the Parisians soon got to Paris with Four thousand Horse and Two thousand Foot mounted behind them they received him with great joyfulness and sent some Deputies to the King to desire he would return William Earl of Holland proffers to endeavour an accommodation A Second Peace was Treated on between both parties which being well advanced the Widow of Orleans a haughty and vindicative Princess died with grief and anger the 4th of December The Orphans were forced to consent to a reconciliation with him that had murthered their Father It was concluded in the City of Chartres about the end of the month of March The King with the Queen and the Princes being on a Scaffold in the Great Church but pallisado'd round about to hinder the People from seeing what they did the Burgundian fell on his knees before the King and pray'd him by the Mouth of his Advocate and afterwards with his own to lay aside his anger and receive him into his Favour but touching the Murther he expressed himself thus That he was ready to justifie himself The Princes that were present kneeled likewise and joyned their Requests to his Then addressing himself to the Princes of Orleans he desired them to forget what was past and harbour no revenge in their hearts After this they made them embrace and promise amity to each other and
united Year of our Lord 1415 When all his Forces were in readiness he made no scruple to declare his Pretensions and after he had written Letters full of Protestations and Threatnings to the King whom he stiled only his Cousin Charles of France he came and landed at Havre de Grace at the mouth of the River of Seine where he put on shoar six thousand Men at Arms thirty thousand Archers and all other Necessaries proportionably With these he laid Siege to Harfleur The place defended it self bravely by the courage of four hundred Men at Arms and seven or eight Lords of that Province that had thrown themselves in there In fine it was taken by assault and sacked perhaps not without some secret intelligence or at least the cowardize or baseness of the Chiefs of the French Army who took no great care to relieve them The blame fell on the Constable d'Albret In the mean time the King having set up the Oriflamme or Standard at St. Denis got his Soldiers together The English had lost a great many of their bravest Men upon their Attaques Diseases reigned in their Army and a scarcity of Provisions for they were forced to keep close together reduced them to great streights Insomuch as having held his Quarters for three weeks together along the Sea Coasts they were forced to remove and took their march towards Calais They crossed the Country of Caux the Earldom of Eu and the Lands of Vimeu with intention to pass the River Somme at Blanquetaque Year of our Lord 1415 The French Army which was as yet nothing but a multitude of Rascals pickt up in haste durst not attaque them in their march but when the King who was come in Person to Rouen had sent fourteen thousand Men at Arms and all the Princes to them excepting the Dukes of Guyenne Berry Bretagne and Burgundy it wa resolved they should go and fight them and instead of strongly guarding the passages over the Somme whereby to ruine them they went to way-lay them on the other side of the River and lodged themselves at Azincour in the County of St. Pol. The English being tired seeing the French to be four times stronger then themselves and believing they should be utterly lost if they came to an Engagement sent to profer them reparations for all damages done from the time of their landing in France But their Offers were rejected and Battle presented for the next day being the five and twentieth of October Year of our Lord 1415 The same causes that made them lose that of Crecy and that of Poitiers made them again lose this same I mean the necessity or desperate condition they reduced them unto either to vanquish or to dye their impetuous precipitation the confusion in which they fought all the Chiefs striving to be in the Head besides the ill order of their Van-guard drawn up so close that none but the first Ranks had room to stir themselves and the inconvenience of the Soil so fat and slippery with the Rain and withal so deep that they stood half way the Leg in Myre The Field was bestrewed with Six thousand of theirs and with Sixteen hundred of the English Amongst the slain were the Earl of Nevers and Anthony Duke of Brabant Brothers to the Duke of Burgundy the Duke of Alenson the Constable d'Abret the Duke of Bar the Mareschal de Boucicaut the Admiral Dampierre the Archbishop of Sens Brother of Montaigu and the Vicount de Lannois Son of the same Amongst the Prisoners the Dukes of Orleans and of Bourbou the Earls of Vendosme and Richemont and fourteen hundred Gentlemen The Army indeed Victorious but as much shatter'd as if they had been vanquish'd had much ado to crawl to Calais from whence their King Henry went over again into England Year of our Lord 1415 This great misfortune begot such Civil Discords as made the Wound much greater The Duke of Burgundy went on with his design of usurping the Government and he believed this Juncture very favourable towards it But when it came to be known that he was marched to Dijon with the Duke of Lorrain and ten thousand Horse to come again to Paris they brought the King back with speed and the Duke of Guyenne quartered Men in all the places thereabout The Burgundian being arrived at Lagny sent to the King to desire he might come to him and that the Duke of Guyenne might receive his Wife again whom he had pack'd away to entertain a Mistress He was promised satisfaction in this second thing he demanded but for the first he could never obtain it he was expressly forbidden to come near Paris but only with his own Servants There had been no security for him he found they had put all his Friends in Prison Hang'd up all his Soldiers they could light upon and sent for the Count of Armagnac his greatest Enemy to take the Constables Sword The mischief proceeded principally from the evil Counsels of certain Plagues in Court who for their private Interests promoted the differences between the Princes and plunged the young Duke of Guyenne into all Debauchery The University and Parliament made loud Complaints and moved that young Prince so much that he did promise to take some order but in few days afterwards he fell sick of a Loosness whereof he died the Five and twentieth of December not without visible marks Year of our Lord 1415 of Poyson The Count d'Armagnac being arrived at Paris the nine and twentieth of the same Month set aside the Propositions for Peace envenomed the Sore instead of healing it and made himself absolute Master of the Government having obtained the Soveraign Administration of the Treasury and the Command of Captain General of all the Fortresses with power to put in what Governors and what Garrisons he pleased After the death of the Duke of Guyenne the Succession to the Crown was to fall to his second Brother John Duke of Touraine The Earl of Hainault whose Daughter he had Married had carried him into his Country all honest Frenchmen wished he might return to inform himself in all Affairs In the mean time to gain the affection of the People and shew he was not engaged to any Party he Commanded both of them to lay down their Arms. The Burgundian who had stood gaping idly in Lagny was glad of so fair a pretence to retire He went back into the Low-Countries vexed to the very Soul that his Enemies should deride him and call him John de Lagny not much in haste The Emperor Sigismund desiring to procure the Churches Peace and also a Peace amongst Christian Princes made a Voyage into France and from thence Year of our Lord 1416 into England but without any success because the Constable refused the Truce for four years which he had propounded betwixt those two Crowns The King received him magnificently at Paris and was willing he should take his place in Parliament but it was not so well
relished that he should upon any occasion assume the Authority to bestow the Order of Knighthood upon a Gentleman He resolved to erect the Earldom of Savoy to a Dutchy for Ame VIII and divers Authors tell us he had made choice of the City of Lyons for that purpose Year of our Lord 1416 but the Kings Officers let him know it would not be suffered wherefore he performed the Ceremony at the Castle of Montluel in Bresse out of the Territories of the Kingdom However the Letters Patents for the said Erection are dated from Chamberry the Nineteenth of February It is fit we observe that ever since the time of the Carlian Race the Title of Count or Earl was as eminent as that of Duke and it seems the Grandees liked it better since we find some who having Dutchies yet took the names only of Counts Such in France was the Count of Toulouze who held the Dutchies of Septimania and Narbonne and the Earl of Savoy did the same though he had the Dutchies of Chablais and Aouste which he did not omit amongst his Titles But as Men who in length of time change their humours and fancies had an imagination that there was something greater in the Title of Duke Ame VIII Earl of Savoy was willing to have that Title given to the Earldom he bore the name of Year of our Lord 1416 France met with nothing but misfortune upon misfortune the defeat of the Constable before Harfleur which he besieged then of the Naval Forces upon that Coast the continual Incursions of the Burgundian Troops the death of the Duke of Berry who was the only Person that could have allayed these Disorders the King of Englands second landing this was at Tonques with the loss of divers places in Normandy taken by his Forces Besides all this the earnest endeavours of both Parties to make an Alliance with him but the Burgundian with most industry and forwardness enraged that they had thrust him out of the Government and the Earl of Hainault his Cousin to get a support for the Dauphin John his Son in Law whom the Orleans Faction would deprive of his Birthright to prefer and advance Charles Earl of Pontieu his younger Brother Year of our Lord 1416 The new Governor rendred himself daily more odious by Exactions without measure equality or justice laid upon the Clergy as well as the Laity for which reason the Parisians heartily desired the Burgundians return and indeed there was a Plot discovered to have let in his Forces The chief Conspirators paid down their Heads for it the rest were imprisoned all who were suspected banished even Members of the Parliament and University the Burghers Arms seized upon their Chains taken away and the Butchers Company abolished Year of our Lord 1417 The passion for Government did so far transport the Burgundian that he Conferr'd with the King of England at Calais and renewed the Truce for his Countries only which was in some manner an obligation not to assist the King at all From thence retiring to Valenciennes he had confidence with Duke William Earl of Hainault and the new Dauphin his Son in Law They sware mutual assistance against all their Enemies So the Dauphin declared himself against the Armagnacs and promised the Duke he would never return to Court till he carried him along with him It was therefore resolv'd that the Earl of Hainault should go thither to treat of those Affairs but should leave the Dauphin at Compeigne Not being able to obtain the recalling of the Burgundian he threatned to carry back the Dauphin home with him whereupon they intended to detain him till he had given up the Dauphin but having private notice he craftily made his escape But they secur'd themselves of the Dauphin another but a more wicked way by giving him Poyson of which he died the eighteenth of April Charles his Brother a sworn Enemy to the House of Burgundy succeeded to the Title of Dauphin and of Duke de Touraine and which is more to a right of inheriting the Crown to the great satisfaction and joy of the Duke of Anjou his Father in Law who was mightily suspected to have had some hand in the removal of the two eldest out of the World that his Son in Law might Reign Year of our Lord 1417 But his joy was not long lived dying in the following Month of August He left three Sons Lewis Rene and Charles the two first had successively the Titles of King of Sicilia Charles was Earl of Maine The Kings Person the Dauphin and the City of Paris were in the hands of the Constable d'Armagnac the Queen only was some kind of counterpoise to his Power They living with much freedom and licence in her Family it was easie for the Constable Year of our Lord 1417 to fill the Kings head with jealousies against this Princess so that he commanded one named Bouredon to be taken thence and thrown into the River as a Party concerned in those Intrigues and afterwards sent away the Queen his Wife as it were a Prisoner to Tours She could never be brought to forgive him this injury nor even the Dauphin her own Son it being by his consent although he were not then above the age of Sixteen years The Queens confinement the lamentable death of the two Dauphins the displacing of a great many Officers the plundering of all the open Country by the unpaid Soldiers the depredations of the Armagnac's who robbed the very Shrines in the Churches furnished the Burgundian with specious Pretences to publish his Manifesto's and to send to all the chief Cities to desire they would be assisting towards the restoring the King to his liberty The most part of those in Champagne and Picardy with the Isle of France received him with open Arms because he put down all Subsidies However all was nothing unless he could get into Paris he marched round about it approaching or going farther off for two Months together according to the Advice he had from his Friends that were in the place Whilst he was besieging Corbeil he goes away in haste to Tours with some Troops of Horse and having had a Conference with the Queen at Marmoustier whither she was come purposely under a pretence of taking the Air he brought her with him to Troyes From that time she claimed the Regency Year of our Lord 1417 In so favourable a juncture the King of England failed not to push on his Affairs Caen Bayeux Coutance Carenian Lisieux Falaise Argentan Alenson and in fine the greatest part of Normandy surrendred themselves up to him without scarce a blow given excepting Cherbourgh which defended it self three Months and yet the Constable chose rather to see the Kingdom lost then his Authority and the Burgundian consented rather to have it dismembred by the English then governed by his Enemy In Germany there were several Companies of Vagabonds began to strowle about having no Riligon no Law no Country or Habitation their Faces
tax which he had ordered for their maintenance Being returned to Tours he fell into the like Fitts of fainting as before His Servants having vowed him to Saint Claude he went thither on Pilgrimage and left the General Lieutenancy of the Kingdom to Peter de Bourbon Lord of Beaujeu his Brother Never was such a Pilgrim seen the Countries he passed felt his Devotions he marched accompanied with six thousand Soldiers and did always some terrible thing or other in his way In this he seized Philibert Duke of Savoy and brought him into France that young Prince dying the next year in the City of Lyons and his brother Charles succeeding him he declared himself his Guardian For since the decease of Duke Ame IX their Father he had alwayes had a great hand in the affairs of Savoy upon pretence that these young Princes were his Sisters Children Year of our Lord 148 Happily for Italy Mahomet being on the point to begin again the Siege of Rhodes and to send a new Army to Otranto dyed at Nicomedia the third of May. Now whilst his two Sons Bajazeth and Zizim were contending for the Empire between themselves the Pope and King Ferdinand took the courage to besiege Otranto and the Turks whilst the division betwixt their Princes lasted expecting no succours surrendred upon composition A short while after Zizim having been defeated twice fled to Rhodes where expecting to find an Asylum he fell into captivity For the Knights for a Pension of 50000 Crowns which Bajazeth promised to pay them yearly detained him Prisoner and with the Kings permission sent him to the Castle of Bourgneuf in Auvergne where he remained some years treated honourably enough Year of our Lord 1489 Year of our Lord 1481 Every thing gave apprehensions to King Lewis he still kept his wife at distance from him and these last years he continued her in Savoy he bred his Son like a Captive at Amboise amongst Servants lest he should grow too high-spirited and alwayes took along with him the first Prince of the blood Lewis Duke of Orleance not suffering any to cultivate his mind by any Education He married him this year to one of his daughters named Jane a most wise Princess but ugly and Lame and one whom the Physitians assured uncapable of bearing any Children Perhaps themselves had taken a course for that purpose Year of our Lord 1481 A little while after his return from Saint Claude he fell again for the third time into his fits of Swooning He caused himself to be carry'd to Clery where he had built a Church to his good Our Lady And there he received some relief but which lasted not long Year of our Lord 1481 The 10th of December Charles d'Anjou Count du Mayne being sick at Marseilles whereof he dyed the next day by his Testament instituted King Lewis his universal Heir in all his lands to enjoy the same he and all the Kings of France his Successors recommending most earnestly to him to mantain Provence in it's liberty 's Perogatives Customs Rene Duke of Lorraine Son of Yoland d'Anjou reclaimed against this institution maintaining that it could not be made to his prejudice the King on the contrary justified it to be good because Provence is a Country ruled by written Law according to which any person may dispose of his own in favour of whom he pleaseth besides the Counts of Provence had always called the Males to their Succession to the prejudice of the daughters Palamedes de Fourbin Sieur de Souliers who managed the Mind of Charles made him find these reasons to be good and for this he in recompence had the Government or to say better the Soveraignty of Provence during his whole life Year of our Lord 1482 When the Affairs of Mary of Burgundy began to be setled that Princess going ahunting fell from her horse and died of it at Gaunt the 25th of May with the fruit wherewith her womb was pregnant In four years she had borne three children Philip Margret and another that had but a short life The death of Mary brought trouble and disorders afresh amongst the Flemmings Her Husband had so little Authority because of his Covetous Poverty amongst those people who were wont to have Princes extreamly Liberal and Magnificent that he was forced to suffer that the Children he had by her should remain under the guard of the Gauntois After a great famine which had afflicted France during the year 1481. there followed an Epidemical Sickness altogether extraordinary which seized upon the Great as well as the Little ones It was a continual and violent Feaver which set the Head on fire whereby the most part fell into Phrensies and died as it were Mad. Year of our Lord 1482 William de la Mark called the wild Boar of Ardenne incited and assisted by the King Massacred most inhumanely Lewis de Bourbon Bishop of Liege either in an Ambuscade or after he had defeated him in Battle and soon after himself being taken by the Lord de Horne brother to the Bishop successor to Lewis had his head cut off at Mastrict Desquerdes had even the last year made himself Master of the Town of Air at the price of 50000 Crowns bestowed on the Governour From this advantagious Post which bridled the Flemmings he made them incline as well by cunning too as force to treat of the Marriage of Margret Daughter of their deceased Princess with the Dauphin Charles though she were hardly two years old and Charles almost twelve The Gauntois Ambassadors having seen the King at Clery made report to their Council of the Kings intentions He demanded for her dowry only the County of Artois and they would needs add to it those of Burgundy of Masconnois Auxerois and Charolois thereby to weaken their Prince so much that he might never be able to bring them under his Yoke Year of our Lord 1482 The King was in so ill a condition that hardly could he suffer them to see him to present so advantagious a Treaty The Daughter was to be put into his Hands about the end of this Year but there remaining yet some difficulties to be determined they brought her not into France till the April following and the Wedding was celebrated at Amboise at the end of July Year of our Lord 1483 Then Edward King of England who upon the faith of the Treaty of Pequigny had ever flattered himself that the Dauphin should Marry his Daughter and held himself so well assured that he made her be called the Dauphiness seeing himself bafled by the French and scoffed by his own Subjects as one fouly imposed upon was so moved with shame and grief that he died the 4th of April delivering France from the apprehension of many mischiefs he might have done them during the Minority of Charles VIII He had two Sons Edward and Richard and five daughters Marry'd to Noblemen of that Country He had also had two Brothers George Duke of Clarence
the accustomed Ceremonies and Magnificence Being returned to Paris the Duke of Bretagne sent a complaint to him for having supported the Rebellion of his Subjects The Dame according to her Father's wonted Method in stead of returning him an answer Debauched his Ambassadors from his Service These were the Lord D'Vrfe whom she made Grand Escuyer and Poncet de la Riviere on whom she bestowed the Mayoralty of Bourdeaux Year of our Lord 1484 The Cardinal de Balue after his being set at Liberty went to Rome and as that Court is a Region of perpetual Intrigues he Succeeded so happily therein that in short time be got great Credit and some good Benefices He moreover prevailed with the Pope so far that after the Death of Lewis XI he sent him into France as Legat à Latere He made his entrance with so much arrogance that he made use of his faculties before ever he had the Kings consent or had presented them in Parliament to be examined whether they contained nothing contrary to the Rights of the Crown and the Liberties of the Gallican Church The Parliament offended at this bold undertaking forbid him to take upon him the Characters of his Legation or to exercise the power Notwithstanding the Kings Council after he had shewed his reasons and made his necessary Submissions gave order he should be received in that Quality with the usual Respect and Honour and that he should exercise his Functions Which he did for some days when hearing news of the Death of Sixtus he returned on his way to Rome with a Present only of a Thousand Crowns in Gold which the King gave him towards defraying the Expences of his Journey Year of our Lord 1484 The Council Establish'd by the Estates had neither Power nor Vertue the Dame de Beaujeu usurped all the Authority She turned out all those from the Kings Service as were not at her Dvotion and brought in d'Vrfe Riviere and Graville prime Chamberlain who watched and as it were beleaguer'd the young King These Folk wanting some brave daring Heroe to oppose the Duke of Orleans did likewise keep Rene the Duke of Lorrain at Court to whom they restored the Dutchy of Bar till such time as the King should be of Age to do him right for the County of Provence assigned him a Pension of 36 Thousand Livers per Annum and a company of an Hundred Lances During these disorders in France the Scene was wholly changed in England Henry Earl of Richmond after the Battel in the year 1471 where Henry VI. Lost his Crown and Liberty endeavouring to make his escape into France was by Tempest thrown upon the Coasts of Bretagne where the Duke Seized on him and detained him Prisoner in favour of Edward or rather to engage that King to protect him always against Lewis XI And indeed Edward never forsook him whatever advantage Lewis could propound to him and which was more paid him fifty Thousand Crowns yearly for his Pension When Edward Died he gave him his full Liberty and withal assisted him with Money and six Thousand Men wherewith he put to Sea having a Strong Faction in England whereof the Earl of Buckingham was Head Now it happened that a Storm having scattered his Ships the Confederacy was discover'd and Buckingham Beheaded with most of the great men who were concerned in it So that he returned and Landed in Normandy and from thence got back into Bretagne waiting for a better opportunity King Richard desiring to have him at what price soever profer'd Landays so much Money and such considerable assistance in time of need against the Breton Lords that this Perfidious and Mercinary Soul promised to deliver him up to his People The Earls Friends in England got a hint of this bargain and gave him Notice at the very nick of time when it was to be put in execution He immediately departs from Vannes under pretence of going to wait upon the Duke who was at Renes then striking into another Road made his escape with four more to Anger 's He was so closely pursued by Landays Men that he slipt thorough the passage but one hour before they came to the place The King was then at Langeais who received him very kindly And a great number of English Landing every Day in the Ports of France to joyn with him he gave him some broken Companies that were in Normandy with which he adventured over into England In fine having gained the Victory over Richard who was slain in the Field be ascended the Throne which he pretended did belong of Right to him as being the Eldest of the House of Lancaster He was indeed of that Family but at a remote distance as being but the Son of a Daughter of the Duke of Somerset's and of Edmond who was Son of Owen Tudor a Gentleman of Wales and Catherine of France who after the Death of King Henry V. her Husband was clandestinely Married to him Year of our Lord 1485 The Duke of Orleans the Duke of Bourbon likewise to whom the Constables Sword without any power was more an injury or burthen then an Honour made a new party against the Government The Duke of Bretagne Charles Earl of Angoulesme the Duke of Alenson and John de Chaalon Prince of Orenge who was Son of a Sister of the Duke of Bretagne entred into it Charles Earl of Dunois was the primum mobile The Duke of Orleans was the first that spoke and being retired to Beaugency demanded an Assembly of the Estates They immediately carried the King thither He besieged him in the place and forced him to an accomodation wherein it was agreed that the Earl of Dunois should retire to Ast in Piedmont After that they got the King to March against the Duke of Bourbon who finding him on a sudden in the midst of his Country accepted of such conditions as they would impose Year of our Lord 1485 The Soldiers they had Levied for these ends fell most of them into Bretagne The Duke of Orleans having sent all his thither for the Dukes Service the Dame sent the Kings thither also in behalf of the Lords Landays prompted as we may believe by his wicked Genius pursued the utter Destruction of the Lords with all his might and would not recede in the least from the Sentence he had obtained that they should lose both their Castles and their Heads He had raised a great Army for this purpose who had Ordersto Besiege Ancenis a place belonging to the Mareschal de Riux The Lords had taken the Field to prevent it The Armies being in sight of each other some good minded People made the Chief Commanders of the Dukes Army so Sensible how heighnous it would be in them to spill the Heart Blood of their own Friends and Kindred for the sake of the most profligate wretch in the whole World that they embraced each other mutually and agreed to joyn their Supplications to the Duke that he would be pleased
them that they could scarce forbear doing the like to his person Year of our Lord 1495 The same Day he had news of Alphonso's flight That King finding himself mortally hated by his Subjects whom both he and old Ferdinand had Treated most cruelly resigned his Crown which he had not worn a year to young Ferdinand his Son and retired to Messina in Sicilia where he shut himself up in a Monastery to do pennance all the rest of his Days They were not many for before the end of that year he ended his life Dying of the Gravel which made him Languish with most grievous Torment Alphonso's fears and astonishment was so strange that although the French were yet above sixty Leagues distant he fancied they were in the very Streets of Naples and that the Trees and Stones cried out France His wife begging him to stay but only three days that she might say she had been one whole year in her new Kingdom he would not allow her that little satisfaction but said he would throw himself out of the Windows if they offer'd to detain him any longer He made so much hast to fly thence that he took none of all the vast Riches with him which he had heaped up in his strong Castles The misfortunes of this House or rather the Judgments of the Almighty God followed the Son as they had done the Father and Grandfather Ferdinand came and had posted himself at the passage de Cancello near the Abbey of Saint Germans to defend the entrance into the Kingdom As soon as ever the Mareschal de Rieux drew near to attack him he quitted it and all his Forces Disbanded John James Trivulcio a Milanese by Birth but who having been Banished by Ludovic was Listed in his Service came over to the Kings Party and gave him up Capoua which gave example to all the rest to do the like the City of Naples shut her Gates against him in a word he retired to the Island of Ischia leaving the defence of the Castles of Naples to his most considing Officers The two and twentieth of February the King made his entrance into that City the People triumphing at his Victory and receiving him as if he had been their founder and deliverer The Castles did not hold out long Thus in four Months this young King marched thorough all Italy was received every where as their Soveraign Lord without using any Force only sending his Harbingers to mark out his Lodgings and Conquer'd the whole Kingdom of Naples in fifteen days excepting only Brindes Year of our Lord 1495 Greece was almost ready to follow the same Dance with Italy Bajazeth Siezed with the extreamest Terror had drawn away all his Garrisons to strengthen his City of Constantinople the Grâ—ecians were ready to cut the Throats of all the Turks and the Turks cast their eyes towards Zemes or Zizim and wisht he were their Soveraign The jealous Venetians and the Pope made this design miscarry amidst all those fair hopes they poysoned that Prince before he was resigned into the hands of the French And withal gave the Turks notice of all the correspondence the King held in those Countries Which cost the Lives or Ruin of above fifty Thousand Christians whom the King was to have furnished with Arms to have Siezed divers maritime Towns at the time he was to pass into Greece This Bright Sun-shine of Fortune did so dazle the young King and all his Council who had but little Sence or Judgment that they scarce minded or took care of any thing Several Cities that had set up the Standard of France returned to the Arrogonians for want of sending some body to receive and take possession for the King the Favourites on whom he bestowed the Governments squandred away the Ammunitions his Soldiers lived at discretion and his Lords became insolent The People were not eased no justice was done to those Gentlemen of the Angevin Faction who had been thrown out of all their Estates So that the Love they had at first for the French was soon converted into hatred and made them forget the sorrows under the foregoing Tyrannies Year of our Lord 1495 Whilst the King and his Court full of young Fopps wasted their time in dancing Feasting Gaming and pleasant Walks the Venetians laboured to form a League against him comprizing the Pope the Emperor the Arch-Duke his Son Ferdinand King of Arragon and Ludovic Sforza so many Heads could not readily be brought to agree together it required near a whole years time to adjust them And the League they thought to contrive to obstruct his going into Italy could now only serve them to turn him out again At first Ludovic would by no means side with them on the contrary he endeavoured his utmost to hinder them but having attained his own ends he was the most zealous to promote and hasten it It was concluded about the end of Lent and published upon Palm-Sunday in presence ☞ of the Turkish Ambassador The Venetians and the Pope his good Friends would needs gratify him with that joyful news before he took his leave The information the King had thereof put him upon thoughts of his return but yet ere he went he would needs make his Triumphant entrance into Naples the Thirteenth Day of May. He was on Horse-back in an Imperial Habit a Crown upon his Head the Globe in his right Hand and a Scepter in his Left under a Canopy born by the greatest Lords of that Country and the People shouting aloud and crying Long live the August Emperor With this Ceremony he was conducted to the great Church where he received anew their Oaths of Fidelity He left in all four Thousand men to defend that Kingdom and the Country furnished him with twice as many Gilbert de Bourbon Duke of Montpensier had the Title and power of Vice-Roy a good man but of little judgment and one that loved his ease so much he seldom rose from his Bed till Noon Daubigny the Office of Constable and the Government of Calabria George de Sully that of the Dutchy of Tarente Gratian Guerre a Gascon that of Abruzzo Stephen de Vers the Dutchy of Nola. He parted from Naples the Twentieth of May. The Pope had offended him too much to stay his coming he went from Rome and retired to Orvieto But the King did not fail to restore all those places he held belonging to the Church As soon as he was gone some distance the Colonnas lately so zealous for his Interests turned their backs upon him the Florentines alone out of a desire to regain their own offer'd to maintain his quarrel and to furnish him with a good force to convoy him but he refused both the one and the other and again confirmed the Liberty of the Pisans He lost twelve or fifteen days time at Pisa and at Sienna during which the Confederates Army had leasure enough to Assemble Perhaps he waited for news from the Duke of Orleans who remained yet
the progress of those Opinions and to reform the Clergy whose dissolute behaviour had given rise to those Scandals The year after Lewis Berquin of Artois for Preching Luther's Errors was burnt in Paris the two and twentieth of March. This very year 1528. were forced the first Seeds Englands Schism The Cardinal Woolsey to be revenged of the Emperour who had deluded him and despised him as likewise to oblige King Francis who slattered his ambition and his avarice had perswaded his Master that his Marriage with Catherine of Arragon was not good it being against the Law of God that a Woman should marry the two Brothers for when Henry took her Year of our Lord 1528 she was then Widow of his eldest Brother Arthur that therefore the Pope must declare it null and that afterwards he might marry with Margaret the Kings Sister Widow of the Duke of Alenson In effect the Irons were put into the Fire and the Pope as things then stood betwixt him and the Emperour hearkned most willingly to it and commissioned two Cardinals Campejus and Woolsey to he judges of the matter upon the place He also sent a Bull to Campejus which dissolved the Marriage with order nevertheless not to deliver it nor to let it be seen but as a Secret But finding the Emperors Affairs succeeded better then his own and that he would make him repent it he sent to Campejus to Burn it and to wira-draw the business After which Catherine refusing to own those two Cardinals for Judges and appealing to the Holy See before whom the Ambassadors from the Emperor and the Arch-Duke Ferdinand protested likewise a Nullity of all that they could judge his Holiness removed and brought it before himself which enraged the King of England beyond expression Mean while Woolsey repented he had carried it on so far because he perceived now that Henry who so earnestly desired the Divorce had no inclination to marry Margaret of France but a Damoiselle of the Queens his Wife with whom he was Furiously in Love She was called Anne Bullen was Imbued with the opinions of Luther ☞ yet withal too gallent and one that could Sing and Dance too well to be wise or staid Henry observing therefore that he retarded the business instead of helping it forward with dispatch let him fall into disfavour and immediately every one turned their backs upon him This proud Cardinal who used ordinarily to say the King and I saw himself forsaken of all his Friends displaced from his Office of Chancellour then Banished to his Bishoprick afterwards made a Prisoner persecuted all manner of ways and reduced to the extremest misery In fine the following year as they were bringing him from York to London to answer to such Treasons as were laid to his Charge he dyed as it hath ever been desired those proud Ministers may die and fall who abuse the Authority of their Masters Year of our Lord 1529 After the ruine of the French Army in the Kingdom of Naples the Spaniards reduced all the Towns and Places at their ease In Milanois the Confederates Army commanded by the Duke of Vrbin regained Pavia which Dugast had taken but the Count de Saint Pol was surprized at Landriana by Antonio de Leva who marched out of Milan not above five Leagues from it In the midst of this danger his Lansquenets proved Turn-Coats his Italians abandoned him he was overcome and made prisoner All his Horse and his Van-guard made their escape to Pavia After this Defeat there was a kind of tacit Truce between the Princes All would have a Peace the King out of desire to get home his Children the Pope upon the consideration of his many former miseries and sufferings and the Emperor because he had obtained what he desired About the Month of June it was first concluded at Barcelona between the Pope and the Emperor very advantageous to the first because the other had a most eager desire to go and receive the Imperial Crown at Rome The principal Conditions were that the Emperor should give his Bastard Daughter to Alexander de Medicis That he should re-establish that Family in Florence with the same Power and Authority it had before they were driven from thence and that he should procure those Cities and Places to be restored which belonged to the Church On the other hand the Pope received him as Homager for the Kingdom of Naples upon the presenting him annually with a white Horse and gave him power of nomination to the four and twenty Cathedral Churches which were in controversie with this he also granted him a fourth part of the Fruits and Revenues of the Church as well in his own Lands as in those of the Arch-Duke Ferdinand to be employ'd in making a War against the Turks In the following Month of July Margaret Aunt to the Emperor and Louisa Mother of the King meeting at Cambray to Treat of a Peace between the two Crowns did conclude it likewise in presence of the Ambassadors from the Pope the King of England and the Venetians It was published the Fifth day of August The Articles were almost the same as those at Madrid excepting that the King retained the Dutchy of Burgundy to which the Emperor reserved his Rights and Actions to be pursued by fair and friendly methods and proceedings It was likewise agreed he should revoke the Sentence of Condemnation pronounced against Bourbon and that he should restore all his Goods moveable and immoveables Year of our Lord 1529 to his Heirs and as to his Ransome he should pay two Millions of Gold Crowns to the Emperor or for his Account to wit 1200000 Crowns ready Money upon the Release of his Children 400000 to the King of England as from him and for security of the remaining 400000. he should engage to him the Lands which Mary of Luxemburgh had formerly in Flanders Brabant and Haynault and which she brought to the House of Bourbon-Vendosme Moreover that he should redeem the Flower de Luce this was a Jewel of Price which Duke Philip the Good had pawned to the King of England whom he should likewise satissie in the Emperors behalf for the Sum of 500000 Crowns in Gold which he had promised to that King in case he did not Marry his Daughter As for the Venetians and Florentines the Allies of France they were comprized in this Treaty after such a manner that they were left to the discretion of the Emperor Although the King of England was discontented that it had been concluded without his knowledge nevertheless standing in need of the King for the vacating of his Marriage he forgave him the 500000 Crowns and gratified his Son Henry whose God-Father he was with the redemption of the Flower de Luce. In return the King so order'd it that the Doctors of his Universities and those of Italy held favourable Consultations touching the Divorce Whilst the Treaty was on Foot the Emperor leaving Spain Landed at Genoa the 12 th of August
intelligence of a School-master whom the desire of Gain had wrought upon to shew them a certain place where they might scale it It was upon a Shrove-tide Festival when Figuerba and all the Nobility of the Spanish Army were come thither to make a Carousel The City being taken Figueroa cast himself into the Citadel the Mareschal caused it immediately to be batter'd and in a few days forced it to capitulate Year of our Lord 1555 Queen Mary and the Cardinal Pool her Cousin fearing lest the quarrel betwixt the two Kings should embroil the English in a War earnestly desired to procure a Peace between them Their great instances engaged them to send Deputies betwixt Calais and Ardres to treat They Arrived there the one and twentieth of May. For their accommodation several Tents were set up containing a large Hall in the midst of them having four Gates one to the East for the Popes Legates one at the West part for the English Ambassadors one in the South for those of France and one on the North for the Emperors The two Princes according to the Proposals made by the English agreed well enough about the referring all their differences to the judgment of the Council but the King declaring he would not restore the Duke of Savoy till the Emperor surrendred up Navarre to Jane d'Albret and Piacenza to the Farneses the Assembly broke up without concluding any thing Neither the one nor the other were very well prepared for a War so that this Summer past without any great exploits The Imperial Army after several Marches and Skirmishes employ'd themselves in fortifying the Burrough of Corbigny upon the Meuse which they named Philip-Ville Martin Van Rossen Mareschal of Cleves who commanded it dying of the Plague the Prince of Orange succeeded him in that employ Beyond the Alpes after the capitulation of Siena they likewise took the Port-Hercole The French succeeded ill at the Siege of Calvi in Corsica The Mareschal de Brissac took Vulpian and though but little assisted by the Court made head bravely against the Duke d'Alva who succeeded Figueroa This Duke could bring Five and Twenty Thousand Men into the Field notwithstanding he received an affront before Saint Ia being forced to raise his Siege Year of our Lord 1555 The Five and Twentieth day of May Henry d'Albret King of Navarre died at Hagetmar in Bearn The King had a great desire to seize upon the rest of that petty Kingdom and to give Anthony de Bourbon who had Married the Heiress some Lands in exchange but Anthony hast'ned to go and take possession of it and his Wife found means to preserve it notwithstanding the perswasions and treachery of her Officers The King was so fretted at it that he dismembred Languedoc from his Government of Guyenne to bestow it on the constable he refused to give that of Picardy which Anthony surrendred upon his going away to Lewis Prince of Conde his Brother and gratify'd Coligny with it After his departure it hapned that la Jaille being gone to make incursion in Artois with a party of the Arriere-band was upon his return cut in pieces by Hausimont Governor of Bapaume a slight shock which yet so terrified the French that they put their Men in Garrisons About the same time the Diepois having Information that two and twenty great Flemmish Vessels were returning from Spain loaden with rich Goods went and laid in wait for them about Dover and not staying to fire at them went directly aboard Their Vessels were little and low the other large and high built so that they maul'd them with Shot and Granado's from above The Fight lasted six hours hand to hand at length some of them took Fire which burnt half a dozen of either Ships and parted them sooner then otherwise they would have done Jane Queen of Spain Widdow of Philip the Fair and Mother of the Emperor Charles V. died in Spain the Twelth of April Aged 73 years She had been lock'd up as one distracted ever since the death of Philip her Husband however the Estates still reserved the Title of Queen of Spain for her which in all publick instruments was joyned with that of the Emperor her Son This Great Prince finding his Body grown weak and his head crazy not being any longer able to support either the heavy burthen of worldly Affairs nor his own decayed Cottage Resolved in a Council of Women these were his two Sisters to renounce his Soveraignty Having therefore sent for his only Son Philip King of England to come to him to whom the year before upon his Marriage he had already given the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicilia and since that also the investiture of the Dutchy of Milan he assembled the Estates of the Low-Countries at Bruxels the Five and Twentieth of October and there he Created him first Chief of the Order of the Fleece then he resigned up those Provinces to him A Month after in the same City in presence of the Governors and Deputies of his other Estates whom he had called thither for that purpose he yielded up and remitted to him all other his Kingdoms and Seigneories as well in Europe as in the new World He had nothing now left him but the Empire which he held yet a year hoping to oblige his Brother Ferdinand to resigne that up likewise to his Son In the Month of March of this same year Pope Julius III. ended his life Marcel II. who was Elected in his place held it but one and twenty days and they Elected the Cardinal John Peter Caraffa Aged fourscore and one year old He was Son of the Count de Matalone in the Kingdom of Naples and they called him Theatin because he had been Archbishop of Theati and had there instituted the Order of Clerc's Regulars who took their name from that City Many because of the resemblance of the habit have confounded the Jesuits with them His religious life and austere manners which made the World affraid of a severe reformation were immediately changed into a proud and a luxurious huffing vanity He was of a haughty heart and a stubborn Spirit and yet suffer'd himself to be circumvented by his Nephews and led any way as they pleased Amongst the rest he had two Sons of his Brothers these were Charles who had born Arms for the French under the Mareschal Strozzi and Alphonso Count de Montorio greatly desirous to raise themselves the first very proud and rash the second more mild and moderate To this he gave the Government of the Church Lands and to the other a Cardinals Hat The Uncle and the Nephews for divers injuries received hated the Spaniards and by a necessary consequence all those of that party especially the Duke of Florence and the House of the Colonnas who besides all this have ever been averse to the power of the Popes Year of our Lord 1555 Being therefore prompted by this resentment and that spirit so ordinary in many of the Papal
they treated them after that manner not as French-Men but as Lutherans Laudonniere having pick'd up as many as he could with the Boats he had ordered to creep along the Shoar set Sail for France Year of our Lord 1568 The King's Council who were half Spanish not minding to take any Revenge for this Massacre a private Person by Name Dominique de Gourgues Native of Mont de Marsan in Gascongne a man of Heart and great Resolution offended for that the Spaniards having otherwhile taken him Prisoner in the Wars of Italy had put him in their Galleys undertook to avenge both his own Injury and that of France With part of his Estate which he sold and what his Brother President of the Generality of Guyenne lent him he equipp'd some Vessels with Two Hundred Soldiers and a Hundred Sea-men went and Landed in Florida and joyning with the Barbarians of the Country who mourned and groaned under the Oppression of the Spaniards attaqu'd and by Storm took the Fort Charles and two more which they had raised in two places at some distance In them were above Eight Hundred men The Barbarians beat out the Brains of such as thought to escape into the Woods and he caused all the rest to be hanged who Surrendred at discretion with this Writing Not as Spaniards but as Pirates Upon his return into France the Avenger of his Country and the Deliverer or Redeemer of Florida instead of Elogy's and Rewards met with Accusers and a mortal danger the Ambassador of Spain demanded his Head and the Council was ready to give it him so that he was forced to hide himself till after the Peace when the Admiral and his Friends brought him off from all trouble Peter Bertrand Son of Blaize de Montluc gained no less Honour in his Enterprize but had less a fortunate Success He had a design to build a place either by fair means or by force in such a post as he should find most convenient in the Kingdoms of Manicongo Mozambique or Melinda to serve as a Retreat for the French to carry on the Trade of Africa and the East-Indies as the Portuguese did For this purpose he fitted three great Vessels and some Barks with Twelve Hundred Soldiers His younger Brother Fabian and a Cadet of the House of Pampadour accompanied him A Tempest having cast him upon the Coasts of Madera his men would needs go on Shoar for fresh water the Portuguese received them with Cannot shot and made a Salley to cut them off Bertrand enraged that they should thus violate the common right of Mankind and the Alliance between the two Crowns of France and Portugal Lands Eight Hundred Men goes directly to them whilst his Brother cut off their Retreat and so Slew them all At the same time he Marched towards the City which bears the same Name as the Island puts his Cannon in Battery forced and sacked it but as he was Assaulting the great Church where part of the Garrison yet defended themselves he received a wound in his Thigh whereof he died in a few dayes after Thus was that Enterprize interrupted which would have been no less useful then glorious All those that went along with him ran great hazard of their Lives when they were come back into France They were fain to hide or keep out of the way a long time the Credit and Interest of Montluc nor the power of the Admiral who stood up stoutly for every thing wherein the Honour of the French was concerned had much adoe to secure them against the Complaints and Instances of the Portugal Ambassador who prosecuted them before the King's Council as Pirates The intention of those that made the Peace of Chartres was not to keep it but to take their advantage better than they had done before So that it could not last long The Huguenots contravening to the Treaty retained several places amongst others Sancerre Vezelay Montauban Castres Millaud and Rochel which they Fortified in all hast They manifestly had Intelligence with Queen Elizabeth and with the Princes of Germany and the Admiral had particular Correspondence with the Prince of Orange A Normand Gentleman Named Coqueville had raised Seven or Eight Hundred Men in the Country of Caux to carry to him but being charged and then invested by the Mareschal de Cossé in Saint Valery's they threw down their Armes and Coqueville was Beheaded month June c. On the other hand they did not let the Huguenots enjoy either Peace or their Liberty of Conscience they were more in danger than in the time of War In three Months time above Two Thousand of them were kill'd in divers Places either by their particular Enemies as René Lord de Cipierre Son of Claude de Savoye Count de Tende and Thirty Persons of his Train whom Gaspard de Villeneure Marquess d'Ars Massacred in Frejus as he returned from Nice whether he Year of our Lord 1568 went to see the Duke of Savoy his Kinsman or by popular Tumults as at Amiens near a Hundred People at Auxerre an Hundred and Fifty many at Blois at Bourges at Issoudun at Troyes and in twenty other Places But nothing seemed more cruel than what the People did at Ligny in Barrois where a Huguenot upon a Holy-day having refused to comply in some trivial Ceremony and committed some little Indecency was haled out of his House by the populace in the Magistrates presence and burnt upon a pile of Wood which they fetched from his own dwelling The Prince was then at Noyers in Burgundy a Castle of his Wives A Soldier was surprized measuring the Fosse and the Wall to Scale the place and that design being detected the Queen order'd those forces to go into Burgundy which were raised for the Besieging of Rochel and to take him by Force since they could not catch him by craft At the same time as they aimed at his Person as Head of the Party so they used all means imaginable to divide the Huguenots and unlink those from him who appeared most zealous to follow him On the contrary he endeavour'd to keep them United and make them all speak by his Mouth He sent Teligny then Jacqueline de Rohan his Wives Mother to Court to Supplicate the Queen Mother to maintain the Peace and the Edicts but that was what he ought never to have hoped for when he could not but observe that if any one were of his opinion he was called Libertine and Politician as much as to say one that had no true Love to Religion and that the Chancellour de l'Hospital who gave pacifick Counsels was discharged from Court and confined to his House at Vignan near Estampes as suspected to be a Huguenot and indeed his Wife his Daughter and his Son in Law were so The Seals were given to John de Morvillier Bishop of Orleans Hardly was the Princes Mother in Law gone from Court when he had News that some Forces by secret Order were drawn about Noyers to surround him
together master'd almost all the rest of Daufine In Auvergne the Count de Randan a zealous Catholick had made sure of Limagne but on the contrary most of the Lords of the Province as we have before hinted resisted him stoutly The Parisians who thought the taking of the Bearnois so they called him infallible were mightily surprized when they saw he after the having received a supply of four thousand English the evening before the day that the Duke of Mayenne decamped from Diepe having made a long march came on All-Saints day attaqu'd and forced their great Retrenchments of the Fauxbourgs Saint Jacques and Saint Germains then the Fauxbourgs themselves with so much vigour that he might have entred the month November City had his Cannon but come timely enough to beat open the Gates It 's said he got up into the Steeple of the Abby St. Germains and thence at leasure contemplated the tumults and hurry he caused in Paris Bourgeing Prior of the Jacobins was taken in the Trenches of the Fauxbourg Saint Jacques with his Armour on and fighting courageously they convey'd him to Tours where the Parliament condemned him to be drawn by four Horses upon the Depositions of some Witnesses whether true or false who gave Evidence that he had incited Jacques Clement to kill Henry III. which he ever constantly denied and died so The Duke of Mayenne knowing the King drew toward Paris sent the Duke of Nemours thither with all expedition who did not arrive till towards night the next day he came himself with the gross of his Army Upon the noise of his arrival Year of our Lord 1589. November the King withdrew his out of the Fauxbourgs into the Field and having stood there three hours in battalia went to Linas From thence he went and took Estampes and Janville then Vendosme Maille Benehard who was Governor not having the discretion either to surrender it in time or defend it bravely was there beheaded He marched afterwards to Tours where he staid but two days and went to attaque Mans. In it there were twenty Companies of Foot and one hundred Gentlemen Bois-Daufin commanded there They had caused all the Suburbs to be burnt down as if resolved to defend themselves to the utmost extremity and yet at the first Cannon Shot glancing upon their Wall they made Composition which the more honourable by so much was it the more shameful In fine in Anjou Mayne and Touraine the League could preserve only the Town de la Ferte Bernard The King left that it being of more importance to employ his Arms for the reduction of Normandy In the Month of September Pope Sixtus had chosen the Cardinal Caetan to go Legat into France His Orders were To take care they should provide France month September with a King that were Pious a Catholick and agreeable to the French To that effect to go directly to Paris where the Ambassadors of Spain and Savoy were to meet to hear all the Propositions should be made to him to shew himself wholly disinteressed to engage for no Pretender to hear even the King of Navarre if there were any hopes of reconciling him to the Church with honour and dignity to the Holy See After these Instructions given the Pope received Letters written to him by the Duke de Piney deputed to his Holiness on behalf of the Royalist Nobility assuring him he was upon his Journey towards Rome to give him a good Account of that Body this caused him to stop his Legat for some weeks but the League importuned him so much that he was at last obliged to let him go month November He arrived at Lyons the Ninth of November so fraught with an opinion of his great Power and Conduct that he thought to dispose of all France at to his own pleasure and unravel all the grand Affairs with those little Intrigues and trivial Subtilties they make use of in deciding those amongst themselves at Rome So having refused the offer the Duke of Nevers made him of his City which ever since the death of Henry III. he had kept neuter betwixt both Parties and without giving notice of his coming to the Catholick Lords who were with the King but only to the Duke of Mayenne he caused his Brief to be published containing the subject of his Legation and afterwards came to Paris Year of our Lord 1589. November Now because in the Brief no mention was made of the Cardinal de Bourbon the Duke was possest with some apprehensions lest the Pope and the Spaniard had agreed to make some other Person King and by consequence make him lose that Authority he would preserve under the name of that Cardinal and therefore to prevent that danger he made haste before the arrival of the Legat to have him solemnly declared King and in effect he was proclaimed so in all the Cities of that Party by vertue of a Decree of the Council for the Union verified in Parliament and from that time Justice and all other publick Acts began to be administred in the name of Charles X. the Title and the Power of Lieutenant General still reserved to the Duke There were then four different Factions in Paris besides that of the Royalists who durst not too openly discover themselves That is the Party called the Politicks because they considered the State much more then Religion for which the greater part being less concern'd then for their own proper interest believed the stronger side was ever the most just and wished the King might become so but in the mean while never declar'd for him The second was that of the Lorrain Princes consisting of their Friends and a Party of Zealous Catholicks The third were the Spanioliz'd if we may use this Phrase whom the luster of Peruvian Gold had fetter'd to King Philips Interest and the fourth a sort of People too amorous and fond of liberty who aimed to set up a Government whereby absolute Authority might be restrained within the bounds of Laws This latter did not long subsist the other three though Enemies amongst themselves conspiring to make them odious and to destroy them in so much as not knowing which way to turn they quickly joyned with the Spanish who received them with open Arms. In the beginning the Spaniards promised themselves their own hearts desires from the charming power of their Pistols they did not know they had to do with People that were ever craving and never satisfied Wherefore when Mendoza the Ambassador imagining he had made a Party sufficient propounded in Council that they should chuse the King his Master for Protector of the Holy Union The Duke was hugely surprised and after he had consulted with his ablest Heads made Answer that the Legat being so near it would be thought a Crime to resolve upon so weighty a business without first communicating of it to him This reply piqued the Spaniard much and they were quits with him for some days after when he demanded Money
in Soveraignty His Brother the Duke of Nemours was become very absolute in that Government having begirt and over-aw'd that great City by five or six places he held about it but by the same means and by reason of certain new Imposts which he laid by Advice of a Ferrarese a Fellow of a seared Conscience he became most odious to the People In so much that the Archbishop of Lyons sent thither by the Duke of Mayenne having underhand heightned their Discontents and blown the Coals carried it on so far that the Citizens took up Arms and seized on the Person of the Duke of Nemours confining him to Pierre-Encise but he got nothing by it for they afterwards stood Neuters not submitting to any Orders but their own till their entire Reduction although for form-sake they owned him as Lieutenant to the Duke of Mayenne People of honest Principles judged Nemours worthy to be so used for his having followed the cursed Policy of Machiavel which makes Princes become Tyrants and the People Miserable but all the Heads of the League perceiving by this President what usage they were to expect from the Duke of Mayenne did now study nothing but the best methods to secure their own Places and to surprize others to make the better Accommodation with the King month November He was then gone into Normandy to receive Bose-Rose who commanded the Fort of Fescamp to his obedience While he was at Diepe the Wife of John de Montluc Balagny Governor of Cambray came to him by night to demand a prolongation of the Truce till the Agreement with her Husband should be declared He Treated upon these Conditions That he and his should have Cambray and Cambresis in full Soveraignty That the King should take him into his Protection and should allow him certain Pensions and for this Balagny should acknowledge him only by kissing his Hand The joy this brought him was soon disturbed by those bloody Reproaches the Queen of England made him for his change of Religion When from Diepe he went to Calais thinking to find some Agents from that Queen to begin a Treaty he met nothing but Letters from her full of bitterness and found she would recal her Forces out of Bretagne He had much ado to pacifie her but much more to endure the presence and over-free Discourses of the Deputies from the pretended Reformed Churches whom he had allowed to hold a General Assembly at Mantes whither he returned at his departure from Calais He looked kindly upon them received their Memorial named Commissioners to examine it and offer'd them satisfaction upon some Articles such or very near as they had already had under Henry III. But they could not be contented with so little a Reward for so great Services as they had rendred him they demanded much more so that not to exasperate them by an absolute denial Year of our Lord 1593 he only dismiss'd them and permitted them to hold Provincial Assemblies and afterwards to Convocate a National Synod and Politick Assembly month December His Conversion undermined the League to the very Foundation It was now look'd upon if we may so express it only as a Castle in the Air supported but by one single Stone viz. the Popes denial to give him Absolution In effect his Holiness would not suffer the Duke of Nevers to enter into Rome which was in November month November December and January but in Quality of a Prince of Italy not of Ambassador and upon condition he should remain there but two days that he should receive no Visits nor make any to the Cardinals This Prince however contrived it so that the Term was prolonged and he had Audience twice of the Pope the first time in December the other in January but brought thence no satisfaction for the King though as to his own Person they gave him as much and more then he desired The Duke of Mayenne failed not to talk high upon this refusal of his Holiness However this was not a reason strong enough to with-hold such as were already inclining towards the King and falling off from the League Lewis de L'Hospital Vitry was discontented for that the said Duke detained four and twenty thousand Crowns due upon Musters to his Company of Gentsdarmes This Man was the first who return'd to his obedience as he had been the first that left the King after the death of Henry III. When he forsook that Party formerly he was Governor of Dourlens which place he left to them and made a shew as if he would have done the like by Meaux now to the League telling the Inhabitants whom he expressly called together that he freely left them to their own liberty only his Advice was they should follow his Example This said he went forth with his Troop of Horse but had so well disposed of Affairs before-hand that they deputed some to him the same day to desire he would come back put on their White Scarfs and turned away Five hundred Men much amazed whom the Duke of Mayenne had sent thither Vitry had Twenty thousand Crowns Reward of the King the Office of Bayliff and Governor of the City with the Reversion of both for his Son and the Bourgeois the confirmation of their Priviledges and an exemption from Tailles for nine years All other Governors bargain'd for more or less according to the importance of their Places or the quality of their Persons Most of the Cities got likewise several Advantages accordingly as those that directed them were Politick or Affectionate Year of our Lord 1593 but every one almost would have it inserted in their Treaties That there should be month December no Exercise of the Pretended Reformed Religion allowed within such a certain distance of their Territories Year of our Lord 1594 The design was laid and a great Party made to receive the King into Paris and to this purpose he came to St. Denis The Duke of Mayenne having got some hint of month January it took the Government from the Count de Belin and gave it to Brissac whom he believed the most faithful of all his Partisans The Parliament finding by this their Measures broken and apprehending the Duke would make the Spaniards Masters of the City spake warmly to him that they might keep Belin the Duke urged some Reasons to the contrary but those satisfied not and they continued their Assemblies The business grew hot to such a degree that the Duke made his Soldiers and Friends take up Arms whence would have followed most grievous Slaughter in the Streets and perhaps the utter loss of Paris to the King had not the wisest of that great Body temporised and persuaded the rest to give way yet for a while The Third day of the Month of January hapned the Reduction of the City of Aix The Duke of Mayenne did not think there had been any place more assured to his Party then this same because the Count de Carces had Married a Daughter of his Wives
decimations for Leo did grant them so easily to the King that ever since the Pope his Successors have made no difficulty to do the same and have suffer'd them to become very common and frequent Such was the State and disposition of things when Luthers Schisme began first to appear The great noise it made soon stifled all the lesser disputes particularly that between the Orders of Saint Francis and Saint Dominique about the Conception of the Virgin-Mary which hath been since revived by the Dominicans stiff adherence to the Doctrine of Saint Thomas It likewise put an end to those which some Monks of Colen had raised against John Reuchlin who called himself Capnion Occasioned thus A certain Pseffercorn Renegado Jew had advised the Emperour Maximilian to cause all the Hebrew Books of the Rabins to be burnt not with design this counsel should be put in execution but to oblige the Jews to redeem the Writings of their learned Doctors with great Sums of Money of which he pretended to have his share Reuchlin very Skilful in the Hebrew Tongue having been consulted with by the Emperour upon this Subject was of a contrary Sentiment and put down his Reasons in Writing Pseffercorn mad he should hinder him of his Prey wounded his Reputation with biting Satyrs and some Monks of Colen taking up the cause and quarrel of this Fourbe because he had been Baptized in that City caused his Adversarie's Book to be burnt It is sufficiently known what Martin Luther was an Augustine Monk Native of Islebe in the County of Mansfeild Professor in Theology in the new University of Wittemberg Founded by Frederic Elector and Duke of Saxony who loved and valued him for the volubility of his Wit and his Eloquence He was a chearful Man and of very gay humour but too vehement and too intemperate in Speech extremely Confident who never retracted and delighted too much in the Musick of his own Commendations and Applause The occasion that brought him into the Lists is known likewise and that he was not excited to it but by the interest of the Wallet because the Preaching of the Croisade had been committed in Germany to the Jacobins against the ancient Custom which ever allotted it to the Augustins in those Countries In the beginning he Preached only against the abuse of those Indulgences by that means to ruin the Trade of the Jacobins who vended them but being pusht onward from Dispute to Dispute he was transported so far that he declared himself wholly against the Roman Church Anno 1520. 'T was the Protection of Frederic Duke of Saxony then esteemed the wisest of the German Princes and the Applause of the Nobless of Franconia that emboldned him to set up the Standard of Rebellion So long as Frederic lived he durst make no change in the outward form of Religion nor quit his habit of a Year of our Lord 1524 Monk but after his Death which hapned in the year 1524. Duke John his Successor being absolutely intoxicated with his Eloquence permitted him every thing He therefore cast off his Froe and Three years afterwards Married an un-vailed Nun. Then cutting at large as we may say in the whole piece he shaped a Religion after his own Mode which he changed added to or retrenched so long as he lived So that one may say he had no steady or certain belief and those Articles he framed were rather dubious than Dogmatical although he published them as Oracles He died at Islebe Anno 1546. the Six and twentieth of February revered of all those who followed his Doctrine as a great Apostle and on the contrary detested by the Catholicks as an Hereslarque and the publick Incendiary of Christendom Some time before he thus Un-masqued himself there had appeared several Preachers who fell foul upon the Vices of the Prelates and the Court of Rome threatning them with Divine Punishment as horrible as sudden and near at hand A Constitution of Leo X. made in the year 1516. which forbids them Preaching the like things of the farcing their Sermons with Tales Prophecies Revelations and Miracles is an evident proof thereof Luther's Credit drew after him one Party of the Augustins startled many more and rendred all of them so suspected that the Pope was like to have abolish'd the whole Order This pretended Evangelical Liberty open'd the Cloister Gates to many other Monks especially in Germany un-vailed great numbers of Nuns let loose the People against the Church-men and push'd on the Nobility to seize upon their rich Possessions But Luther did not remain long sole Head of this Revolt for whether it were he gave rise to these Motions or whether some malign influence disposed mens Minds thus to Brouilleries and Contention there arose in a short time a Prodigious quantity of new Doctors and of novel Sects who destroyed the one the other yet notwithstanding agreed all in these Six points The first That they directly shock'd the Superiority of the Pope The second That they would admit no other Judges of the Articles of Faith but the Holy Scriptures only The third That they rejected certain Books of it some more others fewer which they said were not Canonical The Fourth That they retrenched several Sacraments The Fifth That they held several Novelties concerning Grace and free Will And the Sixth That they denied Purgatory Indulgences Images Prayers to Saints and many Ceremonies of the Church After his Death the Confusion was incomparably greater It would be endless to enumerate all the Authors the Names and the Whimseys of these different Sects there were some that received the Errors of Ebion of Manes of Year of our Lord 1547. c. Paulus Samosatenus of Sabellius of Arius of Eutyches and other ancient Hereticks There were such who finding no firm footing or foundation any where did only acknowledge there was one God the Creator of all things these were called Deists Others going farther and making a last effort of Impiety denied there was any other Divinity besides Nature alone The furious Irruptions of the Turks into Hungary and the fatal Discords amongst the three greatest Princes of Christendom Charles V. Francis I. and Henry VIII were very favorable to these Sowers of new Seeds For whil'st Christendom was affrighted at the Ravages of the Infidels and every where in Divisions they had not the leisure to consider of these disputes And then Charles V. standing in need of the Princes of Germany to resist Francis I. and to get the Empire to be settled upon his Son which he could never obtain would not prosecute them to the utmost or totally destroy them as he might have done after the gaining of the Battel of Mulberg On the other hand Francis I. his Rival openly supported them and entred into League with them though at the same time he burnt the Sacramentaries in his own Kingdom Add thereto the difficulties the Popes made for the holding of an Oecumenical Council whose Authority perhaps
unlawful Cabals and an unworthy Traffick of which they had undeniable Proofs before them Nevertheless such as were sincere and well meaning men amongst them moderating this difference found out an expedient to compose matters but which in truth did in some sort prejudice one advantage France had ever been in possession of But she knew how to recover her former right afterwards and to maintain it The Cardinal de Lorraine had now no other thought but to hasten the conclusion Year of our Lord 1563 of the Council that he might return into France to settle the Affairs of his House He went to wait on his Holiness at Rome with whom he had long and private Conferences and after he came back to Trent he acted altogether in concert with the Legates In so much as the said grand Assembly which during the space of twenty seven years and under the Pontificat of Five Popes had been interrupted and resumed divers times finally ended on the second day of December in the year 1563. To the unexpressible satisfaction of his Holiness who thereby was deliver'd of many great fatigues and far greater apprehensions of the diminution of his absolute power The Decisions have been received in France as to the points of Faith but not those for Discipline there being many that infringe the Rights of the Crown the Liberties of the Gallican Church the authority of the secular Magistrate the Priviledges of the Chapters and Communities and divers usages received in the Kingdom and if several of their Reiglements are practised it is not by vertue of the Decrees of that Council but of the Kings Ordonannces Year of our Lord 1561 c. Whilst that was held Calvinisme which the Edicts of King Francis I. and Henry II. had suppressed began to appear again publickly under the favour of those conjunctures we have before specified The Edict of July deliver'd them from the dangers of death the Colloquy of Poissy gave them confidence to Preach openly the Edict of January the Liberty of Exercise and the accident of Vassy the occasion to take up Arms. From thence followed infinite Murthers Robberies Destruction of Churches Burnings Prophanations and Sacrilegious Out-rages Those people inraged for that they had burned so many of their Brethren revenged it cruelly upon the ☞ Clergy as many as they caught they cut off their Ears and their Virilia some were seen to wear them upon strings hung round like Bandeliers They spared Year of our Lord 1563 not the Sepulchres of Saints nor even the Tombs of their own Ancestors they burned all the Reliques of which notwithstanding as by a Miracle we now find as many as ever and broke in pieces all the Shrines and Sacred Vases to get the Gold and Silver that enriched them From all which impieties this good at least accrued to the publick that they Coyned good store of Money but one thing was a loss without any the least profit and never to be repaired to wit the destruction of the ancient Libraries belonging to Abbeys where there were inestimable Treasures for History and for the works of Antiquity The Clergy in these Wars sustained likewise great damage in their Temporal Estates for besides that the Huguenots invaded them in many places the Kings also constrained them four or five several times to alienate much Lands for great Sums of Money to be employ'd towards the expences of their War and gave them so short a time that they were forced to sell at a very mean rate Shall we ✚ say these distractions were their ruine or their reformation since it is certain that as those riches serve them for a decent and necessary subsistence when they are moderate so are they the chief cause of their corruption when excessive and that when ever the Church had the least then was she always the most holy and pure When Francis Duke of Guise was Assassinated near Orleans the Queen-Mother and the Huguenots being on either hand delivered from that approaching ruine wherewith he threatned them were easily inclined to a Peace The Queen and the Prince her Prisoner treated it personally the Edict was dispatched to Amboise the nineteenth of March 1563. This was the first of the seven granted them by King Charles IX and Henry III. for so often did they take up Arms sometimes being thereto necessitated otherwhile out of choice and design The Massacre of Saint Bartholomew which in all probability should have utterly quelled them did but rather encourage them to undergo all future extremities since it left them no other prospect to save themselves but by hazarding their All. Now this first Peace in 1563. displeased his Holiness so much that he resolved to discharge his wrath upon those whom he believed to be the most dangerous Enemies of the Catholick Religion in France particularly upon Jane d'Albret Queen of Navarre who had banish'd it out of her Kingdom and pull'd down all the Churches and upon some Prelates who manifestly countenanced Huguenotisme Year of our Lord 1563 He had a mind to Summon the Queen before the Council and to have made her process at that grand Tribunal but foreseeing the Emperors Ambassadors would soon oppose it as they had done in the like Case concerning the Queen of England he resolved to cite her to Rome and caused the Citation to be posted up at the Gates of Saint Peters Church and at the Inquisition declaring if She did not make her appearance that her Lands and Lordships should be proscribed and that She should personally incurr all the penalties provided against Hereticks As for the Prelates he gave orders likewise to the Cardinals of the Inquisition to cite them to Rome upon a day certain and if they appeared not personally to carry on their process to a definitive Sentence which he would pronounce in his secret Consistory The Inquisitors by vertue of this Command cited Odet de Coligny Chastillon Cardinal Bishop of Beauvais but who had quitted his Purple to follow the fortune and opinions of his Brothers and bare the Title of Count de Beauvais N. de Saint Romain Arch-Bishop of Aix John de Montluc Bishop of Valence John Anthony Carracciol of Troyes John de Barbanson of Pamiez Charles Guillard of Chartres Lewis d'Albret of Lascar Claude Reyne of Oleron John de Saint Gelais of Vzez and Francis de Nouilles of Acqs. In the same number they might very justly have placed Peter du Val Bishop of Sees who was of the same sentiments with Montluc After these Proceedings in the Court of Rome the Pope pronounced the Sentence against the Cardinal de Chastillon whereby he declared him an Heretick Seducer Schismatick Apostate and one perjur'd degraded him of his Cardinalship deprived him of Offices all Dignities especially the Bishoprick of Beauvais which he held of the Holy See exposed him to all the faithful that could apprehend him deliver him up to justice The Cardinal to shew that he depended no way on the jurisdiction of the
Pope resumed the Purple and assisted cloathed in that manner at the Act of the Majority of the King in the Parliament of Rouen whereat the Pope was so incensed that he publickly pronounced the Sentence and caused it to be affixed in the Markets of Rome and afterwards dispersed all over Europe But as for the Queen of Navarre the Kings Council considering the consequences of suffering a Princess to be dispoyled who was related to the King and that her Husband died fighting in defence of the Catholick Religion that her Case would be a prejudgment against all Crowned Heads and that this Chastisement would turn less to the advantage of Religion then to the profit of the King of Spain who from thence would take an opportunity to invade her Countrey made such effectual Remonstrances to the Pope by the mout h of Henry Clutin-Doysel his Ambassador that the Citation given against this Queen was revoked As for the Bishops the Cardinal de Lorrain having likewise informed the Pope that it was against the Rights and usage of the Gallican Church to suffer their Process to be made at first instance at Rome it stop'd that business for th e present but five years after Pius V. taking advantage of the weakness of the Kingdom to extend his own Authority pronounced a like Sentence against them as that which had been thundred against the Cardinal de Chastillon and caused it to be published in France The Rebellion of the Huguenots produced the Faction of the League the example of their Confederations with Forreign Princes authorised also the measures these took with Spain The proceedings of both Parties were almost the same at first they affected a strict Discipline then after a little while they fell into all manner of Licentiousness Their Pulpiteers and their Libellers were equally insolent and Factious they employed the same Maxims and used the same Language and Arguments against Soveraign Authority which they attacked and for the Liberty of the Subjects and of Conscience to those whom they Debauched In like manner both the one and the other when they found they were in such extremities they could not possibly extricate themselves by ordinary means suborned Assassines to help them out but all who made use of those cursed means perished by a like fate For as Poltrot murther'd Francis Duke of Guise so the Son of that Duke kill'd the Admiral the Quarante-cinq Massacred this Prince at Blois and those whose hands were stained in his Blood did most of them come to a Bloody end the wrath of Heaven punishing the first by the second and these by a third who were so too by others Which had gone on to infinity if the Clemency of King Henry IV. had not put a stop to those Murthers which necessarily trod upon the heels of one another The first Lineaments of the League were traced in Guyenne and in Languedoc during the first Civil War when there was danger lest the Huguenots should make themselves absolute Masters of those two large Provinces In the year 1585. Humieres with the Nobless in his Government of Vermandois formed one at Peronne and Lewis de la Trimouille another in Poitoü The House of Guise labour'd hard to collect and joyn them all together especially after the Death of the Duke of Anjou Not perhaps that those Princes were then pushed on with the ambition of usurping the Crown as they have been accused but because they were so by the Natural desire of self-preservation For the Physicians assuring them that Henry III. could not live long they justly feared when he should be no more to be crushed either by his Favourites betwixt whom he had a mind to share his Kingdom or by the Huguenots whose hatred against their Family could not be satiated with less then the blood of all those Princes therefore it was they so provided and Fore-Arm'd themselves lest they should remain exposed to the Mercy both of the one and the other It is probable the Forces they afterwards got into their hands by the Confluence of such potent Party 's both from within and without the Kingdom might inspire them with thoughts that were both more high and more Criminal though it would be yet a much more easie task to find credible Conjectures then an certai n or convincing Proofs of it The Pope the Sorbonne the Jesuits and almost all the new Religious Orders contributed with all their might to form the League But yet their Credit would never have been sufficient to maintain it if the People had not been so very ill used as they then were and if the burthen of the Imposts the Insolence of the Favourites the Weaknesses and scandalous Manners of Henry III. had not given them both an aversion and contempt for the Government The Duke of Nevers began it out of zeal and then disowned it out of jealousie Father Claude Matthieu a Jesuite was the first Courier for them Gregory XIII fomented it Sixtus V. approved and protected it Some will needs have that the former contributed to the Conspiracy of Salcede as the latter excommunicated the King of Navarre and the Prince of Condé Anno 1585. After the Barricades he wrote to the Duke of Guise comparing him to the Machabees and gave him notice he had Created a Legat a Latere this was John Francis Morosini to whom the Cardinal de Bourbon and himself should communicate all their designs The Death of this Prince murther'd at Blois gave him much Year of our Lord 1588 grief that of the Cardinal de Guise and the detention of the Arch-Bishop of Lyons furnished him with a pretext of revenging it with the Anathemaes of the Church His Monitory against King Henry III. was published the four and twentieth of May affixed in the usual places at Rome the same Day and on the Gates of the Cathedral Churches of Meaux and Chartres the three and twentieth of June If the Relations we have of those times are true this Pope was even transported with joy upon the news he received of the Assassination of the said Prince and highly applauded the act of Jacques Clement in the Consistory comparing it to the most glorious Mysteries of Christianity and to the generosity of the most glorious and Illustrious Martyrs He thought after this change he was bound openly to take in hand the defence of Religion and to hinder Henry IV. from getting into the Throne so long as he remained out of the Church He therefore sent the Cardinal Caetan Legate a Latere to the Duke of Mayenne Upon this occasion the Members of Parliament who were remaining still at Paris and those that had withdrawn themselves to Tours being directly opposite acted after a quite different manner but with alike heat the one for the Pope the others for the King The Sorbon refused nothing to the intreaties of the League and the desires of his Holiness in an Affair that concerned Religion It is not unknown what Year of
out the French declaring himself the Soveraign 135 Is Crowned King of Bretagne 136 Over-runs and ransacks Anjou 137 Nera Foulges 204 Neustria and its extent 17 Nicephorous Emperor of the East 107 His death 110 Nicholas Moine or Monk of Soissons contradicted by a Modern Author Church of the Twelfth Age. Nicholas I. Pope Excommunicates a Council of Bishops in France who declare him Excommunicate 141 Annul the second Marriage of Lotaire King of Lorraine with Valdrade and confirm the first with Thietberge ib. Nicholas III. Pope conspires against Charles King of Sicilia 318 His death 319 Nogaret William seizes on the Person of Pope Boniface 332 c. St. Norbert Founder of the Order of Premonstre afterwards Archbishop of Magdeburg Church in the Twelfth Age. Normandy first erected to a Dutchy 163 Ravaged by a Civil War between the Heirs of Henry King of England after his death 170 c. All in Blood and Fire by the quarrels of the particular Lords of the Country 215 Normans course along the Coasts of France 123 Their descents and pillaging of Gascogne and Aquitania Secunda 134 Course along the Coasts of Spain and take Sevill 125 Course along the Coasts of Flanders 129 Land in Neustria and Bretagne 135 Enter upon Neustria again ib. Called Truands 146 Scowre pillage and ravage France 151 c. Besieges the City of Paris 155 Defeated and cut in pieces 157 Whence so great numbers of such barbarous People could come into France 158 Re-enter France by the Mouth of the River Seine 160 Become Masters of that Province called since Normandy and on Bretagne 163 Revolt against their Duke 178 Their name began to grow glorious and powerful in Italy 215 Nantes County Difference between Henry King of England and Conan Count of Renes or of the Lesser Bretagne 247 O. Odo Duke of Burgundy 237 Odo third Duke of Burgundy 248 Reduced to reason 254 Odo I. Abbot of St. Genevieve 278 Office of Constable 295 Officers Princes are responsable for the faults of their Officers 304 Ogine Queen of France 175 Onfroy Chief of the Normans in Italy and of his Conquests 216 Orders Sacred and of such as were admitted during the Eighth Century 115 Orders famous which took beginning during the Eleventh Age. 233 Orders Religious established during the Third Age. 339 Orders Sacred have each their Function 286 Order of Fontevraud and its confirmation 290 Organs when first brought and used in France 93 Oriflame born as a Standar in time of War 244 Ostrogoths over-run and ravage all Italy 217 Otho William chief of the Earls of Burgundy that is to say of the Franche-Comte 209 His death 212 Othelin Earl of Burgundy puts himself under protection of the King of France and gives him his Earldom 324 Othomans or Ottomans and the beginning of their dreadful Family or House 329 Otho King of Germany and Lorrain assists Lewis the Transmarine against his Subjects 179 Otho Duke of Burgundy 184 Otho King of Germany makes himself Master of Italy Is Crowned King of Lombardy afterwards Crowned Emperor 185 Remedies several Commotions in Italy by severe punishments ib. Causes his Son Otho to be Crowned and Associated in the Empire 186 His death 187 Otho II. Emperor and King of Germany 186 Gives Lorraine to his Brother Charles 188 Makes an irruption in France to his confusion ib. His death 189 Otho III. Emperor and King of Germany his death 209 Otho Emperor 263 Is Excommunicated by Pope Innocent 264 P. Paganis Hugh Institutor of the Order of the Templers 275 Pairs of France who were to assist at the Coronation of the Kings reduced to the number of Twelve 240 Paleologus Michael becomes Master of the City of Constantinople 309 Pamiez made a Bishoprick 326 Paris very much consider'd by the Kings of the first Race 31 Paving of its Streets 254 Surrounded with Walls 255 Parliament of Wormes 142 Of Attigny 265 Parliament of Poissy 142 Parliament of Compeigne 184 Parliament of Wormes 152 Parliament of Estampes 217 Parliament of Soissons 266 Parliament of Amiens 309 Pascal Pope Murther committed in his House in hatred of the French His death 124 Paschal II. Pope comes into France and holds a Council at Troyes in Champagne 227 Ill treated by the Emperor 236 Paschal III. Antipope 272 Pastorels Crossed 306 Patarins Hereticks 278 Peasants and Pastorels take up Arms for the recovery of the Holy Land 348 Peace with the Danes 110 With the Saracens of Spain ib. With the Greecks ib. Peace between King Lewis the Transmarine and his Rebellious Subjects 178 Peace between King Lewis the Transmarine and Hugh le Blanc 180 Peace between the two Empires Between the French and the Danes 123 With the Saracens of Spain 123 Peace between King Lothaire and the Emperor Otho II. 188 Peace with the English 236 Penitence publick 274 Penitents publick excluded from Functions Civil Military and from Marriage ib. Pepin Maire of the Palace of Austrasia his death 58 Pepin the Gross or d'Herstal Prince of Austrasia 69 Makes War upon Thierry King of Neustria seizes his Person and the Government of all France ib. Reduceth the Revolted Frisians ib. Assembles a Council 70 Expedition against the Almans 72 Makes an Alliance with Bathod Duke or King of the Frisons ib. His death his Children 78 Pepin the Brief Son of Charles Martel Duke and Prince of the French in Neustria 84 He with his Brother ranges the Dukes of Aquitain who were revolted to reason 86 Pepin called the Brief Elected Annointed and Crowned King of France 90 A generous action that made him more considerable amongst the French Lords of his Court ib. Makes the Saxons Tributaries to France 92 Becomes Protector of the Roman Church against the Lombards Marches into Italy with his Army and compels Astolphus to give up the Exarchat of Ravenna and the Justices of St. Peter 92 93 Receives the Oath of Fidelity of the Duke of Bavaria 94 Forces the Saxons to do the same and to pay him Tribute ib. Subdues all Aquitain in divers and several Expeditions 95 His death his Wives and Children ib. Pepin King of Italy his feats of Arms. 109 Unfortunate Enterprize against the Venetians 110 His death ib. Pepin Son of Lewis the Debonaire is made King of Aquitain 122 Espouses Engheltrude 123 Pepin Son of Bernard King of Italy chief of the first Branch of Vermandois 123 Pepin King of Aquitain 122 He embraces the Cause of the Emperor his Father against his Brother Lothaire then turns against him 126 His death his Wife and his Children 129 Pepin King of Aquitain shaved and confined in a Monastery and afterwards in the Castle of Senlis 137 Perfidiousness of the Emperor against the Christians of the second Croisade to the Holy Land 225 Phenomenas very extraordinary 109 Philip King of France 220 Concerns himself in the Quarrel of the Flemings unsuccessfully 222 Runs into disorders and vexations with his Subjects ib. Is threatned with Excommunication by the Pope ib. Repudiates Berthe his
Protests to Francis her Brother she will forsake her Errors ib. She repents it again and writes to Calvin ibid. Mary Stuart Wife of Francis II. 671 Is beheaded Mary of Cleves espouses the Prince of Condé 717 Mary de Medicis Married to Henry IV. 885 Is Crowned and declared Regent 941 Massacre of Vassy the first Signal of the War for Religion 679 Matthias Arch-Duke Brother to the Emperour in the Low-Country 751 Matilda Wife of Alphonso III. King of Portugal the Subject of the Pretensions of Catherine de Medicis to that Kingdom 753 Prince Maurice besieges Newport is beaten at first by the Arch-Duke Albert and at length gains the Victory 880 Maximilian II. succeeds to Ferdinand I. 692 Maximilian Emperour Elected King of Poland 740 Duke of Mayenne leads an Army Royal against the Prince 742 The Spaniards in deliberation for cutting off his head 842 Agrees with the King 851 Puts the King upon the Siege of Amiens 858 Serves well in that Siege 859 Horace de Monte a Neapolitan Archbishop of Arles Named for the dissolving of the Marriage of Henry IV. 871 Montmorency Connestable of France comes to the Assembly of the Grandees Convocated by Catherine de Medicis at Fontainbleau 668 Harrasses the Army of the Huguenots 697 Gives them Battle is wounded to death his great courage in that last moment ibid. The Prince of Montpensier at the Estates of Orleans 670 Seeks the Heyress of Sedan for his Son 818 His Death 824 Morisco's exterminated in Spain 933 Mouker the place where Requesens gained a Battle 751 Moulins place of the Assembly where they made the Famous Edict of that Name 694 Mustapha Bassa enters the Island of Cyprus 713 N. NAmur Surprized by Don Juan of Austria Governor of the Low-Countries 751 Nani Ordinary Ambassadour of Venice to the Pope retires with Duodi the Extraordinary Ambassador 926 Nantes the Parliament of Renes is transfer'd thither 665 The place of the Famous Edict of that name 866 Adolphus of Nassaw vanquish'd by Albert 880 Philip of Nassaw restored to Liberty marries Eleonor of Condé and is restored to his Principality 924 Nemurs Duke put in Prison after the death of the Duke of Guise 787 Escapes 789 Is made Governor of Paris 806 Aspires to the Crown 831 His strange Kind of Death 844 Nerac Jane d'Albret banishes thence the Roman Religion which Charles IX re-establishes 693 Nerestan Philibert Captain of the Guard du Corps is made Grand-Maistre of the Order of Nostre-Dame of Mount Carmel Church 16 th Age. Neyen John or Ney a Cordelier deputed by the Arch-Dukes to mediate a Peace between them and the United Provinces 929 Nevers Duke pursues the Huguenots receives a blow which he feels all his life after 698 Nicholas III. Pope Chu 16th Age. Nicosia taken by the Turks 713 Fra. Noialles Bishop of Dags Ambassadour in Turky 716 Notables assembled at Saint Germains en Laye 765 La Noue Francis a Huguenot Captain his Wisdom in admiration amongst the Catholiques 698 The Nouueaux a Cabal under Charles IX 724 Noyers a Castle of the Prince of Condés a Soldier measures the Fosse or Graft and they would have surprized that Prince 702 Noyon taken by the Duke of Mayenne 829 Besieged by Henry IV. 839 Is taken ib. O d'O Surintendant of the Finances under Henry III. 752 Upon the refusal of the Duke of Longueville declares to Henry IV. the Sentiments of those Catholiques who follow'd him 798 His death 840 His Vices ib. d'Ognagne a Spanish Captain Conducts the Soldiers who surprized Amiens 857 Ochinus Bernardinus Apostatises question whether he were the Institutor of the Capucins Chur. 16 th Age. Orange Prince Founder of the States of the United Provinces 699 Orange Prince is thwarted by the Flemmish Lords 752 Provinces that obey'd him 751. 757 Is elected Lieutenant by the Arch-duke Matthias 751 Puts the Ducal Vesture upon the Duke of Anjou 759 Is assassinated ib. Recovers of his Wounds ib. Discovers the Treachery of Salsede ib. Thwarts the Duke of Anjou 762 Treats the French courteously after their Attempt upon Antwerp Retires to Antwerp 763 Is Kill'd 767 Order of Saint Michael greatly vilified 753 Its Institutor and reasons for its Establishment 753 754 Orders new of Religious are the Promoters of the League Ch. 16 th Age. Order of the Annunciation ib. Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem Ch. 16 th Age. Order of Saint Lazarus ib. Order of the Celestial Annunciado's ib. Order of the Templers ib. Orleans the Prince of Condé goes thither and the Huguenots make it their place of Arms. 686 d'Ossun Surnamed the Brave flies at the Battle of Dreux and for madness starves himself to Death 687 Ostend attempted by the Duke of Anjou but misses his aim 762 Besieged by Duke Albertus 889 How long the Siege lasted 913 c. Oysans a Fort built by Lesdiguieres 785 P PAceco Duke of Ascalone Ambassadour from Spain foments the Division between the Pope and the Venetians 926 Pacification of Ghent 695 Papaux a Name given to the Catholiques by the Huguenots 673 Pareus Ambros accused of having Poisoned Francis II. 671 Paris besieged by Henry III. reduced to extremity and saved by a detestable Monk 794 795 Parliament of Paris gives the Name of Conservator of the Country to the Duke of Guise 667 Parma Duke brings Relief to Don Juan of Austria 751 Commands the Army after the Death of that Prince 752 Takes Maestrickt 757 Takes Breda 758 Takes Tournay after it had been bravely defended by a Lady ib. Invests Antwerp Hath much ado to resolve to come into France 811 Enters Paris and hath Compassion of them 812 Takes Corbeil ib. Retires from Ivetot with great industry 822 Dies at Arras 827 Paul IV. his Death 662 Endeavours to set up the Inquisition every where ib. The Romans beat down his Statuas ib. Paul III. suspends the Council of Trent 668 Approves of the Jesuites Ch. 16 th Age. Paul V. declares the Cardinal de Joyeuse Legate in France for three Months that he may represent him as Godfather to the Daufin the Son of Henry IV. 923 The Paulette its Author and its Establishment 912 Perigueux sacked 740 Perthau Bassa escapes at the Battle of Lepanto 714 Philibert Emanuel Duke of Savoy yields his Right in Portugal to the King of Spain 752 His Death 757 Philip of Spain intermeddles with the Affairs of France under pretence of Religion 678 Sends Ambassadors to Charles IX to sollicite him to depute to Nancy where the Assembly of Christian Princes was assigned 691 Causes the Council of Trent to be Published and sets up the Inquisition in the Low-Countries 695 His merciless Councils ib. Puts his Son to Death and causes his Wife to be Poisoned 700 Seizes upon Portugal 753 Equipps a mighty Fleet against England 783 Gives the Low-Countries to his Daughter Isabella the Conditions of the Donative 869 His Malady his Death his Age and his Successor ib. Philip III. King of Spain is married to Margaret of France
Piety For he left but one Fourth part of his Treasure and Goods to be divided amongst all his Children and gave the rest to the Poor and to the Metropolitan Churches of his Kingdoms He was buryed in the Church of Aix la Chapelle which he had erected He caused all the Laws and Customs of the several Nations under his Empire to be digested in writing contrived several Capitulary's or Ordinances he Collected all the ancient Poetry that contained the brave Acts of the French to serve as Memoirs for a History thereof which he did intend to Compose He understood Theology so well that he wrote himself against the Heresy of Felix Vrgel and about the controversy of Images He made Speeches in their great Assembly's and took as much care to make his Eloquence triumphant as his Arms. In the clearest Nights he pleased himself in the Observations of the Spheres and Planets whereof there are many curious things in his Annals which it is believed were made by himself To illustrate his Language which was the Dutch he brought it under Rules and made the Grammer and assigned names for all the Months in that Tongue as likewise for every Wind such as for the most part are retained to this very day In fine hitherto no King of France hath had a life and Reign so long and so Illustrious nor a Kingdom of so large extent as he His Fame would be without blemish as it is beyond parallel had he not been too much given up to Women and too indulgent towards his Mistresses and his Daughters in their carriage He had at least Three lawful Wives Hermengard Daughter of Didier King of the Lombards whom he repudiated the second year Hildegard Daughter of Childebrand Duke of Suabia and Fastrade Daughter of one Count Rodolph The last brought him no Children but Hildegard had Nine Four Sons and Five Daughters The Sons were Charles Pepin Lewis and Lotaire these two last were Twynns Lotaire dyed young Charles and Pepin fell in the strength of their Age. Louis reaped alone the whole Succession of his Father The Daughters were named Rotrude who was promised to the young Emperor Constantine Son of Leo the III. and Irene she dyed when Marriageable Berte who espoused Count Angilbert afterwards Abbot of St. Riquier Gisele who became a Nun and Hildegard and Adelelaid who dyed in infancy Neither the number or names of his Mistresses are set down who were not few but amongst his Bastards there is mentioned Pepin the Crook-back Hugo Duke of Burgundy called the Great Abbot Dreux Bishop of Mets and amongst Seven or Eight Daughters Tetrade Abbess of Argentuil Euphrasia Abbess of Saint Laurence of Bourges and Hildetrude who became scandalous in her Fathers House by her actions The Gallican Church had never yet been in so great disorder as towards the latter end of the Seventh Age or Century and to the middle of the Eighth and indeed they were above Sixty Years without any Council Nevertheless they had happily enough preserved their Temporal Estates under Pepin the young who was a liberal and religious Prince but Charles Martel his Son had not the same countenance nor shewed the same respect as he had done Many Prelates of Neustria and Burgundy having favoured Rainfroys Party gave him an occasion to squeeze them and the Wars he had against the Saracens furnished him with a pretence of taking away the riches of the Altars to defend them In some Countries he gave the Abbeys and Bishopricks to Lay-men who instead of keeping Clergy-men maintained Soldiers In others he took away their Lands and Tithes and distributed them amongst his Warriours The Priests and Monks that mixed with them laid down their Psalters to take up the Sword some out of pure licentiousness others to get a livelihood For the same reason the Bishops and Abbots turned Soldiers and were made Captains The whole Clergy was in extreme disorder the most of them had Concubines there were some Deacons known to have at least Four or Five in keeping The least debauched married Wives and proceeded even to second Marriages The Nuns neither kept their Cloisters nor their Vows In fine there was no rule no obedience of Inferiours towards their Superiours little Divine Service no Study and great ignorance in things of Religion and the Holy Canons This disorder gave opportunity to Boniface a Man very Illustrious in those days as well for his exemplary Life as his Activity and Zeal to strengthen himself with the Authority of the Pope that he might apply some Remedy He was an Englishman by birth who by a particular inspiration and emulation of divers holy men of the same Robe had gone from his Monastery to sow the Seed of the Gospel amongst the barbarous Nations in Germany especially the Frisiae the Turingi and the Catti and had devoted his Service to the Pope so strictly and intirely as to change his English name which was Vinfred or Winifred to that of Boniface he had been first made Bishop by Gregory the II then Archbishop by Gregory the III and by him not only honoured with the Pall but also with the Title of his Vicar In this quality he divided Bavaria where there was but one Bishoprick into Four Diocesses This was in the Year 739. The following Year he established Three in Germany one at Wirtsburgh another at Buraburgh and the third at Herpsford These two last held not this honour long But the Pope together with the Title of Vicar had given him power to call Councils and to make Bishops in those Countries which he had Converted to the Faith with Letters of Recommendation to those People and to Charles Martel praying him to take him into his protection which he did as likewise an Order to the Bishops of Bavaria and Germany to assemble together when he should call them as being his Vicar Now Prince Carloman having declared he would restore the Ecclesiastical Discipline Boniface embraced that work with much willingness and as he was active and indefatigable he advanced apace but not indeed without somewhat diminishing the Liberty and the Dignity of the Gallican Church to the advantage of the Popes At his instance Carloman held a Council in Germany the place is not mentioned where he assisted with the Grandees of his Kingdom and the Year after another at the Royal Palace of Leptines or Estines just against Bincks in Hanault which confirmed the Acts of the former Pepin likewise Convocated one at Soissons An. 754. and subscribed it with three of the Great Men of his Country's perhaps there might be one belonging to Neustria one to Burgundy and one to Aquitain In all these Councils Boniface presided in quality of Legate from the Holy Chair And in the first the Clergy Signed a Profession in writing which obliged them not only to keep the Catholique Faith but likewise to remain in Unity subject and obedient to the Roman Church and Saint Peters Vicar which being carried to Rome
and laid upon the Tomb of that Prince of the Apostles was received with huge joy by Pope Zachary and not without reason Thus there as upon all other occasions he contrived things so that all made still more and more for the Popes Severaignty and tended chiefly to that end As to the Discipline it was resolved that the Bishops should be re-admitted to their Sees the Churches to the enjoyment of their Goods and the Clergy to their Rules but the two first particulars were not brought to pass till the time of Charlemain The Canons which they made were principally to prohibit the Clergy from bearing Arms or going in the habit and garb of Soldiers and yet the Bishops could not be excused from going to their Wars and Armies till Charlemain exempted them by a particular Capitulary to take away their Wives and Concubines to hinder and prevent Incests and Adulteries the punishment whereof was left to the Bishops and also to abolish and root up the remainders of Pagan Superstition The Religious of both Sexes were enjoyned to walk by the Rule of Saint Bennet which Wilfred Bishop of York had set up and caused to be observed in England Till that time the Rules of Saint Colomban and Saint Cesarius of Arles amongst many others had born the greatest Vogue in France At the Council of Soissons were two men Condemned who were Consecrated but without any See Adelbert a Gaul and Clement of the Scotch Nation The first was an Hypocrite and Frantick rather then an Heretique he made the ignorant people follow him as having a particular Spirit of God built Oratory's and set up Crosses near Fountains in Woods and the midst of open Fields The other Preached divers Errours maintaining that Jesus Christ descending into Hell Redeemed Pagans as well as the Faithful that they ought according to the Jewish Custom to marry their Brothers Widdow and that which appeared more horrible he would needs keep his Wife and wear his Mitre at the same time At Leptines Carloman caused it to be ordained with the Consent of the Clergy either voluntary or extorted that to carry on the War which he had on every side of him he might take part of the Lands belonging to the Church and bestow it during pleasure or while that necessity lasted on his followers who for every Mansion or House should pay only a Crown in Gold or twelve Deniers in Silver and the Ninths or Tenths towards the reparation of the buildings and that such as held these Precaires or Leases during pleasure hapning to dye the Prince should give it to any other upon the like conditions In the Year 779. Charlemain made an Edict wherein he ordains that such as held those Lands should pay the Nones and the Tithes to the Church But moderates the Tax or Quit-Rent to a Sol for Fifty Manses and half a Sol for Thirty Besides the Council of Francfort and Lewis the Debonnaire in his Edict of 828. Charges the Possessours with the Reparation of Churches This was the beginning of the Alienation of those Lands by publick Act and Authorized by Law There are some that maintain that those Kings did not only invest the Laity with these Church Lands but the Tithes and all the Rights and Revenues of the Altar as the first fruits oblations distributions for Masses and other Prayers and even with the right of putting in Priests whence say they is derived the gifts and presentations claimed and exercised by many Lords in divers Churches Hence they are called Patrons a name found in the Council of Rheims held Anno 878. It had been ordained in the Council of Soissons that thenceforward a Council should be held there every year to stifle and suppress disorders and heresies at their first birth Likewise Pepin called one at the Royal Palace of Verberie Anno 752. where he would assist in person one at Mets the year following one at Vernon upon the Seine two years after one at Compiegn about the same distance of time and one at Gentilly right against Paris Anno 767. We have the Canons of the first four but nothing of that at Gentilly unless the two questions they propounded to wit Whether the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son which the Greeks denyed and whether we ought to adore Images We may almost put in the Rank of Councils the Conventus or Assemblies which the Kings often held as that of Duria in 760. that of Neures of Wormes Attigny Orleance and Saint Denis which were held successively from the year 763. to 768. In all which the Lords being joyned with the Bishops they ordained such things as concerned the Polity and Government of the Church as well as what concerned the Temporal and Government of the Kingdom Of the decisions of Councils and the Ordinances made in those Assemblies partly Politique and partly Ecclesiastical were Composed those Laws which are called Capitulary the best and most holy that any Nation hath had since the Roman Law Never Prince had more affection for the Honour and the Discipline of the Church then Charlemain There hardly passed any year in all his life but there were either some of these Assemblies or Councils for that purpose I will not quote the years of the Councils held at Wormes which were Five at Valenciennes Geneva Duren and other places because we have only the names But that of Frankford is very considerable It might be called the Western Council for the Bishops of the greatest part of Italy with those of Germany and those of Gall were there It was called and appointed by Charlemain who it seems presided in it at least he reasoned and argued very learnedly against the Errors of Elipand of Toledo and Felix d'Urgel who taught that Jesus Christ was the adopted Son of God the Father according to the Flesh Those whimseys were Condemned and that Great King refuted them in a long Letter which he wrote to the Bishops in Spain very amply and very learnedly They also discussed the questions about Images The Council of Nice had ordained that they should be retained in the Churches and adored In France they would have them allowed to be set up in Churches as things proper to instruct the people but not to be adored Wherefore the Fathers in this Western Council Assembled disdaining to acknowledge that for Oecumenick rejected that Adoration in all respects and manners and condemned it by common consent and Charlemain wrote a Book to oppose it to which Pope Adrian made a reply There remains nothing of that of Aix la Chapelle held in 809. but that the question concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost was again debated and no doubt but they agreed That the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son For the French believed that so firmly that it was the cause of having it added as an express Clause in the Symbol of Faith or Creed The last year of his life he Convocated