China or Iapan but it is so gross an imposition on such as know the Methods of the Courts of Europe that Mr. Varillas presumed too much on the credulity of his Readers when he thought that this could be believed and si non è vero il è ben trovato is so necessary a Character for a Man to maintain that would have his Books sell well which I am told is Mr. Varillas's chief Design that he had best find out some Judge of his Pieces that has a true Understanding since it is plain that he has not sence enough himself to make a right Judgment in such matters 27. He says when Cardinal Wolsey went over into France he caried a Commission to consult the Universities of France touching the King's Divorce but that the change of Affairs in Italy made the King to recal him who was strangely surprised when he found that the King had no thoughts of marrying the Dutchess of Alençon and that he was become so much in love with Anne Boleyn that he was resolved to marry her on any Terms It is an unfortunate thing for a Man to have heard too much and to have read too little of History for as the one gives him much confidence so the other exposes him to many Errours Mr. Varillas had heard that K. Henry had consulted many Universities but not knowing where to place this he fancied that it must be the first step in the whole Matter But he knew not that this was not thought on till after a Sute of above two Years continuance in which the King saw how he was deluded by the Court of Rome and upon that he took the other Method of consulting the Universities All his speculations concerning Card. Wolsey are built on the common Mistake that supposes him ignorant of the King's intentions for Anne Boleyn the falsehood of which I have sufficiently demonstrated 28. He tells us that Card. Wolsey having once several Bishops to dine with them the King knowing of it went to them after Dinner and made a Writing to be read to them that set forth the Reasons against his Mariage the Bishops did not approve it quite yet they were so complying as to say that if those things were true his scruples were well grounded This was too important a thing not be made appear probable by some of his pretended Vouchers thô it is most certainly false for a Resolution signed by all the Bishops of England except Fisher was produced before the Legates to shew how well the King's scruples were grounded 29. He says the Privy Councel acted more steadily and intended to give the King an undeniable proof of his Mistresses Lewdness for Sr. Thomas Wiat that had obtained of her the last favours was willing to let the King know it and so being of the Privy Councel he not only owned the matter to the rest of that Board but was content to let the King know it and when he found that the King would not believe it he offered to make the King himself an Eye-witness to their Privacies but thô the Duke of Suffolk made this bold Proposition to the King he was so far from hearkning to it that Wiat was disgraced upon it and by this means the Mistress was covered from such dangerous Discoveries for the future Such a Story as this might have passed from a Sanders that knew the World little but in earnest it seems the fits of Mr. Varillas's Religion are strong even to Extasy since they make him write as extravagantly of humane Affairs as if he had passed his whole Life in a Desert A Man that knows what humane Nature is cannot think that Wiat would have either so far betraied Mrs. Boleyn or exposed himself as to have made such a Discovery it being more natural for a Man that was assured of a young Lady's Favour to contribute to her Elevation since that must have raised himself than to contrive her Ruin And K. Henry whose imperious temper gave him a particular Disposition to Jealousy must have been of different composition from all the rest of Mankind if he could have rejected a Discovery of this nature And when the secrets of Jealousies are opened to Princes it is too gross even for a Romance to make the Discoverer to begin with the Councel-board and to procure a Deputation from them to acquaint the King with them But as Wiat does not appear to have been a Privy Councelour till near the end of K. Henry's Reign so it is plain enough he was never disgraced but continued to be still imploied by the King in some forreign Embassies to the end of his Life 30. He says Anne Boleyn endeavoured thô in vain to engage Sr. Thomas More to negociate her Affair but he being proof against all corruption Gardiner that was a Canonist was made Secretary of State and was sent to Rome with My-Lord Brian who scandalised all Rome with his lewd behaviour and had the impudence to assure the Pope that the Queen desired to be divorced that so she might retire into a Monastery And made other offers of great advantage to the Pope in case he would allow the Divorce Mr. Varillas cannot say too much in Sr. Thomas More 's commendation but since he was a Man of so much Sincerity it is certain that he approved of the Divorce for in a Letter that his own Family printed among his other Works in Q. Mary's Reign he writing to Cromwel owns that he had approved of the Divorce and that he had great hopes of the King's success in it as long as it was prosecuted in the Court of Rome and founded on the defects that were pretended to be in the Bull and after that most of the Universities and of the learned Men of Europe had given their Opinions in favours of the Divorce four years after it was first moved he being then Chancellour went down to the House of Commons and made those Decisions to be read there and upon that he desired the Members of Parliament to report in their Countries that which they had heard and seen and added these very Words and then all Men will openly perceive that the King has not attempted this Matter for his Will and Pleasure but only for the discharge of his Conscience Upon Wolsey's Disgrace he was made Chancellour and continued in that high trust almost three years which is an evident sign that he did not then oppose the Divorce nor did he grow disgusted of the Court till he saw that the King was upon the point of breaking with the See of Rome So that he would have liked the Divorce if the Pope could have been prevailed with to allow it but he did not approve of the King 's procuring it another way Mr. Varillas is no happier in the other parts of this Article for Gardiner was not sent first to Rome to negotiate this matter Knight that was Secretary of State was first imploied and Gardiner was
such a continuance a Sute moved upon Sr. Tho. Boleyn's return were publick matters and must have lien open to a discovery The whole Recital is impossible as it is told for if she was born after Sr. Tho. Boleyn return'd from an Embassy to which King Henry had sent him that he might enjoy his Wife and in which he staid two years as Sanders says then since King Henry came to the Crown in the year 1509 she must be born in the year 1511 and then the 15th year of her Age will fall in the year 1526 and it being certain that the King began to court her in the year 1527 here is not time enough for her Leudness and her long stay in France But it is certain that she was born in the year 1507 two years before K. Henry came to the Crown and when he was but 14 years old and that at 7 years old she went over to France with K. Henry's Sister when she was married to Lewis the 12th and thô upon that King's Death the Queen Dowager of France came soon after back into England yet Anne Boleyn staid still in France and was in the service of Claud Francis's the first 's Queen and after her Death the King's Sister the Dutchess of Alençon took her into her service and these two Princesses were so celebrated for their Vertue that this alone is enough to shew that she was then under no infamy since she was of their Family She was also Maid of Honour to our Queen Katherine who even by Mr. Varillas's Character was of too severe a Vertue to admit a common Prostitute to that degree of Honour So that here is more than enough to discredit all those Calumnies 25. He says thô there is not Evidence enough in the former Reports yet there is a certain proof for K. Henry's disorders with the Elder of the two Sisters Mary Boleyn since in the demand that K. Henry made for a permission to marry Anne he confessed his disorders with her Sister and offered to do Pennance for them and to vouch for this he cites King Henry's Petition to P. Clement the 7th Here Mr. Varillas shews how little he understands the advantages that he has to maintain his Assertions since there is an Authority for this last that has more appearance of truth in it than all his other Citations put together thô his ignorance made him incapable of finding it out For Cardinal Pool in his Book against K. Henry objects this to him and this has a fair appearance whereas the Petition that he cites is a Dream of his own that was never before heard of But thô I have said more for the honour of Cardinal Pool than all the Panegiricks that have been given him amount to yet I am very well assured that in this particular he was abused by Reports to which he gave too easy a belief for as all the Original Instructions and Dispatches that were made upon that Affair are yet extant in which there is not one Word relating to this matter so it is plain that the Affair was never so far advanced as to demand a permission for a second Mariage since that could never be so much as asked till the first was dissolved and that not being gained there was not room made for it If the King had given such advantages against himself as to have put such a Confession in a Petition to the Pope is it to be imagined that the Popes would not have discovered this in some Authentical manner and even have put it in the Thundering Bull that was afterwards published against him for this alone proved his Hypocrisy of pretending scruples of Conscience at his Mariage beyond exception and if the King acted in this matter without any regard to Conscience it is unreasonable to represent him as so strictly Conscientious and that he would have confessed so scandalous a secret and so to have put himself in the power of those of whom he could not be well assured 26. He gives us a long account of Wolsey's design to engage the King to marry the Dutchess of Alençon Of the Bishop of Tarke's being sent over to bring the English Princess into France upon her being contracted to the Dauphin And of Wolsey's prevailing with him to let that Proposition fall and to set on another for a Mariage between the King of England and the Dutchess of Alençon And that the Bp. of Tarke was cheated by Wolsey and being in the interests of the Dutchess of Alençon he demanded a publick Audience of the King in the presence of the Council in which he imployed all his Eloquence to persuade him to divorce his Queen and to marry the most Christian King's Sister In all this matter Mr. Varillas is only the Copier of Sanders yet he cannot tell another Man's Lie without mixing some additions of his own for the Bp. of Tarke's being sent over to demand the Princess is one of the fruits of his own Religion But thô a Pedant of a Priest such as Sanders had told so improbable a Story yet it ill became a Man that pretends to know Courts and the Negotiations of Ambassadours as Mr. Varillas does to assert such improbabilities as that an Ambassadour sent express to demand a Princess for his Master's Son which was the greatest advantage that France could have possibly hoped for should be so far wrought on by the Minister of the Court to which he was sent as not only to let all this fall but to make a new Proposition for the illegitimating of the young Princess and for offering his Master's Sister to King Henry and all this without any Instructions from his Master and thereby exposing the Dutchess of Alençon to the scorn of being rejected after she was so publickly offered to the King of England thô every Body knows that the first offers of Princesses are made in secret And after all this that the Bishop of Tarke who not only exceeded his Instructions but acted contrary to them in so important a matter was neither recalled nor disgraced but on the contrary he was afterwards promoted to be a Cardinal by the recommendation of the Court of France and he being a Cardinal and seeing afterwards how he was abused if we may believe this Fable is it to be supposed that he either out of his own Zeal for the Court of Rome or by the Accusations that naturally such a Proposition begun by him must have brought on him would not have told all this secret afterwards In short as this Relation contains many particulars in it that are not according to the Forms of our Court such as his demanding an Audience in the presence of the Council for it seems as Mr. Varillas set our Parliaments above our Kings he will make the Privy Council equal to them so the whole is so contrary to all the Methods of Ambassadours that this would scarce pass if it related to the transactions of the Courts of
not made Secretary of State till near the end of this Negotiation nor was he ever sent to Rome with Brian nor was Brian a Lord but only a Knight and it was a year after this Sute was first begun before Brian was imploied in it so that he could carry no such deluding Message to the Pope concerning the Queen's desiring the Divorce And for this pretension of the Queen's desiring to retire to a Monastery it was never made use of by the English Ambassadours It was on the contrary a notion of the Pope's who thought that if that could be put in her Head it would be the easiest Method of getting out of this uneasy matter and therefore he ordered his Legate Card. Campegio to advise the Queen to it And for the scandals of Brian's Life they must have been very great if they gave offence at Rome at that time but as I can not answer much for Brian so I will not trouble my self to vindicate him but he could not behave him more indecently at Rome than Campegio did in England when he came over Legate who scandalised even the Court with his lewd behaviour 31. He says the Pope was sensible of his obligations to the King and resolved to do all he could to gratify him and so ordered Cajetan to examine the matter who did it in his manner after the Method of the Schools And here he gives us an abstract of his Book He laid this down for a Maxime that the High-Priest under the N. Testament had no less Authority than the High-Priest had under the Law of Moses who had power to allow of such Mariages to good ends and in good Circumstances and that the end of this Mariage was noble that the Crowns of England and Spain being united might send their Fleets to block up Constantinople And that by this Mariage as Italy was to be set at Peace so K. Henry was diverted from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy and that therefore the Pope could not grant a Dispensation for annulling it And with his usual Confidence he cites on the Margent Cajetan's Consultation And this he says confirmed the Pope in his Resolution not to grant the Dispensation for breaking the Mariage upon any Terms whatsoever I have given such Authentick Demonstrations of the Falsehood of this Particular that I am sure the strongest Fit of Mr. Varillas's Religion can not resist them For the Pope upon the first Proposition franckly granted the Dispensation and only consulted with some Cardinals about the Methods of doing it and afterwards he sent one over to England and promised that he would do not only all that he could grant either in Law or Justice but every thing else that he could grant out of that plenitude of Power with which he was vested in the King's favour The Pope also proposed a Method that perhaps would have brought the matter to an easier issue which was that if the King was satisfied in his own Conscience concerning the Divorce in which he did not think that there was a Doctor in the whole World that could judg so well as himself then he might put away his Queen and marry another and then the Pope would confirm all For the crafty Pope thought it would be easier for him to confirm it when it was once done than to give Authority to do it and in short the Pope made the King still believe that he would do it till by that means he brought the Emperour to grant him all he desired And as for Cajetan's opinion I am now in a Countrey where I cannot find his Works so I cannot be so positive in this matter but as far as my Memory serves me Cajetan writ nothing with relation to this matter but only in the body of his School-Divinity that he had published long before this Sute began he had set on foot a new Opinion touching the Prohibitions of marrying in near Degrees which the Church by a constant Tradition had in all Times lookt on as Moral Laws whereas he asserted they were only Positive Precepts that did not bind under the Christian Religion and by consequence that there was no Law now against Mariages in those Degrees but the Law of the Church with which the Pope might dispense In all the Books that I have seen that were writ for the Queen's Cause Cajetan's Authority is brought as a thing already abroad in the World and not as a Consultation writ upon this Occasion and by what I remember of that Cardinal's Life it is said that in his reasonings with Luther he had found himself so defective in the knowledg of the Scripture that whereas formerly he had given himself wholly to the Study of School-Divinity he after that gave himself entirely to the Study of the Scripture in which making allowances for his Ignorance of the Original Tongues he succeeded to admiration But thô I cannot procure a Sight of his Treatise concerning the Degrees of Mariage the Idea that I retain of his solide way of writing makes me conclude that he was not capable of writing in so trifling a manner as Mr. Varillas represents the Matter For what Man of sense could say that the Highpriest under the Jewish Religion could dispense with a Brother's marrying his Brother's Widdow in some cases in case that a Brother died without Children his Brother or the next of Kin might have married the Widdow by the Dispensation that the Law gave and not by a Dispensation of the Highpriest And for the Ends that he pretends of those two Princes going to block up Constantinople with their Fleets a Man must be ignorant in History to the Degree of Mr. Varillas to imagine this since as the Kings of those Times had no Royal Fleets but were forced to hire Merchant Vessels when they had occasion for them so the blocking up of Constantinople was too bold a project for those Days and does not seem to have been so much as once thought on And for the other Ends that he mentions thô the procuring such a Peace to Italy as was for the Interest of the Popes was a thing for which they would have sacrificed any thing yet this differs much from P. Iulius the second 's Character who granted the Dispensation since his whole Reign was a continued Imbroilment of Italy Nor does it appear that K. Henry's Mariage could have any influence on the Peace of Italy unless it were very remote And as for the other Reason alledged for the Mariage that it diverted K. Henry from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy this is too great a violation of the Costume for it seems Mr. Varillas had the present State of Europe in his Head when he writ it but Cajetan could not write this for in the year 1503 there were no Families in Europe suspect of Heresy so that all this reasoning that is here entitled to Cajetan is a mass of Mr. Varillas's crude Imaginations which doe equally discover both his Ignorance
shewed that the proposition of a Mariage between the Dauphin and the Princess was in the year 1518 long before Francis the first 's Imprisonment but the Treaty set on foot after his Liberty was either for himself or his second Son and this sort of a Treaty being somewhat extraordinary where the alternative lay between the Father and the Son for the same Lady Mr. Varillas shews his great ignorance of the Affairs of that Time since he says nothing of it for this would have given him occasion enough to have entertained his Reader with many Visions and Speculations 21. He says that Wolsey dealt with Longland the King's Confessour to possess him with scruples concerning the lawfulness of his Mariage that Longland refused to do it but engaged Wolsey to begin and he promised to fortify the scruples that the Cardinal should infuse into the King's mind Upon which the Cardinal did open the matter to the King and the King being shaken by his proposition laid the matter before his Confessour who seconded the Cardinal In this he has taken the liberty to depart from Sanders thô he is the Author whom he generally copies but it is easy to pretend to tell secrets but not so easy to prove them The King himself did afterwards in publick not only deny this but affirmed that Wolsey had opposed his scruples all he could and that he himself had opened them in Confession to Longland and the King himself said to Grineus that he was disquieted with those scruples ever from the year 1529 which was three years before the matter was made publick 22. He says the King upon that consulted the Divines of England concerning the validity of the Mariage and that all those that were Men of probity and disinteressed answered in the affirmative but some that did aspire or that were corrupted thought it doubtful others who were very few in number affirmed it was unlawful This is so false that all the Bishops of England Fisher only excepted declared under their Hands and Seals that they thought the Mariage unlawful 23. He gives a Character of Anne Boleyn in which he takes up the common Reports of her ill shape her yellow colour her gag tooth her Lump under her chin and her hand with six fingers but because all this agrees ill to the Mistress of a King he to soften that adds a long Character of her Wit her Air and Humour in which he lays her charms and here he takes all the licences of a Poët as well as of a Painter But as several of her Pictures yet extant shew the folly of those Stories concerning her Deformity so the other particulars of this Picture are for most part fetcht out of that Repository of false History that lies in Mr. Varillas's Imagination 24. He says the English Historians and some other Catholicks agree to those things and for his Vouchers he cites on the Margent Sanders Ribadeneira and Remond but they add many other particulars thô they differ concerning them and thô he will not affirm them to be true yet he thinks it worth the while to set them down They say that Anne Boleyn's true Father was not known that she was born in England while he was Ambassadour in France that Henry the 8th being in love with the Mother had sent away her Husband that so he might satisfy his Appetites more freely but that he soon quited the Mother for her eldest Daughter Mary that Sr. Thomas Boleyn at his return to England finding his Wife with Child begun a Sute against her but that the King forced him to be reconciled to his Wife and to own the Child that she bore some time after who was Anne Boleyn that this Daughter at the Age of 15 was dishonoured by two of her Father's Domesticks upon which she was sent to France where she was so common a Prostitute that she went by the Name of the English Hackney that she was a common subject of Raillery that she became a Lutheran thô she made still profession of the other Religion He says others make her pass for a Heroïne that cannot be enough commended yet he acknowledges there are not Authentical Evidences left to discover their imposture Here is a way of writing that agrees well with Mr. Varillas's other Qualities he was here in a cold fit and so his Religion did not operate so strong as to disengage him quite from all regard to truth only it produces one start that is sufficiently extravagant for he accuses all that is said in favours of Anne Boleyn of imposture thô at the same time he acknowledges there are not Authentick Evidences to disprove it but how then came he to know that those Commendations were Impostures He answers that in the beginning of this Paragraph and cites in general the Historians of England and other Catholick Writers and for the Historians of England he gives us Sanders alone thô he can hardly make a plural out of him unless he splits him into three or four subdivisions as he had done Charles the 5th when he reckoned up the Emperour and the King of Spain as two of the Pretenders to the Princess Mary But thô I have in my History demonstrated the falsehood of all this Legend so evidently that I had perhaps wearied my Reader by prooving that too copiously yet since I see that nature can croud so much impudence in Mr. Varillas alone as might serve even the whole Order of the Jesuites and that he is resolved to keep up the credit of the blackest falsehoods as the Church of Rome preserves still in her Breviary a great many Lessons with Prayers and Anthems relating to them that are now by the consent of learned Men exploded as Fables I must again lay open this matter thô I thought I had so fully confuted those Lies that even a Pension could not have engaged a Man to support them any more It may seem enough to an impartial Mind that Sanders was the first that ever published those Stories above 50 years after Anne Boleyn's Death that thô Card. Pool and the other Writers of that Time had left nothing unsaid that could blacken K. Henry yet none of them had brow enough to assert Sanders's Fictions and that after Anne Boleyn's Tragical Fall when her Misfortunes had made it a fashionable thing to blacken her yet these impostures were reserved for Sanders and for an Age in which he and many others of his Church were setting on many Rebellions and Conspiracies against Q. Elisabeth they were so powerfully acted by Mr. Varillas's Spirit of Religion thô they had not the folly to own it as he has done as to give themselves the liberty to say the foulest things against the Mother without giving themselves the trouble to enquire whither they were true or false and the things here advanced are of such a nature that either they must be evidently true or they are notoriously false for an Embassy into France of