way capable to appease the troubles prevent the ambuscadoes or sustain the great charges of the Realm Therefore she ought to receive him for her husband and the Companion of her Fortunes and designs having both power will and courage to defend her in all conditions and that he would never suffer her to be in quiet but onely by the consummation of this Marriage This wicked man by this Counsel did promise to himself either to reign with him being his familiar friend or by this action to crie down the Queen and overthrow her Authority as afterwards it came to pass The Marriage is now to be accomplished and the Importunities of the Earl prevailed on Maries heart who married him in the face of the Church with all the ceremonies requisite to it Some have written that this virtuous Lady by reason of her beauties was strongly persecuted by diverse with daily motions concerning marriage And that the easiness of her nature which could not resist the great importunities and continual battels which love stirred up against her did bring upon her a deluge of misfortunes likewise her neighbour Princes who knew not the Artifice of her enemies did in the beginning blame her for having so easily adhered to a man who was so dangerously suspected concerning that she ought to clear her reputation from the least shadows of suspition wherewith Envy began to cloud it But who shall well consider a young widow of seventeen years of age placed in the furthest part of all the world where Heresie had over-turned all order and let loose the blackest furies of Hell for the dissolution of the State Who shall contemplate her alone as the morning Star in the midst of so many clouds without assistance without forces without Counsel persecuted by her brother outraged by the Hereticks betrayed by the Queen of England under the colour of good will sought for in marriage by force of Arms by the Princes of her own Realm he shall find that she hath done nothing improvidently in chusing those by friendship which necessity did give her by force and whether that there are times and revolutions of affairs so dangerous and remediles in which we have no other power left us but onely to destroy our selves 7. In the mean time the Lutherans and the Calvinists The persecution of the Queen of Scots by the Protestants did not cease to cry out and to bray against their Princess and having begun by in famous libels they prevailed so much by their Trumpets of Sedition that they kindled a war under the pretence of revenging the Kings death whom they had caused to be pourtrayed dead in a bloudy Standard with his little Son at his feet who demanded vengeance Bothuel who as yet was drunk with the sweetnesses of affection which he received from his new spouse was altogether amazed when he saw an Army marching in the field against him And that the clamour of the people did charge him aloud with the death of the King The Queen was struck into such a horrour at the report of the Crime that forthwith she commanded him to withdraw himself and never to see her more and although she was ignorant that his Courage and Valour were able to secure her from the tempest which was falling on her yet she chose rather to abandon her self as a prey to all the fury of her Enemies than to keep but one hour that person near her which she then onely knew to have had some ill designs on the person of the King He fled from Scotland into Denmark where after ten years tedious imprisonment he living and dying did protest that Queen Mary did never know of the conspiracy against her husband that those who gave the blow having demanded some Warrant from the Queen for their discharge she made answer that it was sacriledge to think of it so innocent a Soul she had This protestation which he made at his death before the Bishop and other Lords of the Realm was afterwards sent to diverse Princes of Europe and to Elizabeth her self who did dissemble it In the mean time the Rage of the Infidels did seize on Mary and did constrain her with execrable violence and treasons plotted under hand by the Agents of the Queen of England to resign the Kingdom to her son whom The fury and infidelity of Ambition these seditious people caused to be Crowned at one year of age to put all the Authority into the hands of Murray in the quality of Regent Not content with this they surprized her in a morning as she was putting on her cloathes and taking from her all ornaments worthy of her quality they cloathed her in a sordid habite and having mounted her upon a horse which by chance passed through a Meadow they brought her into a place out of the way and confined her to a Castle scituate on the lake of Lenox under the guard of the Earl of Douglas Brother by the mothers side to the Vice-Roy using her as a lost creature and with horrible boldness accusing her for the death of her husband and a design to invade his Kingdom In this captivity she was charged with contumacies by the Concubine of her Father a most insolent woman to whom the keeping of her was committed and by a disrobed Prior who did visite her and tendered her some Remonstrances to assist her as her Father Confessor And at that time some black and butcherly spirits did take a resolution to strangle her and to publish to the world that she had done it of her self being overcome by dispair What an indignity was this and what a confusion in nature and the laws of the world to behold that excellent Lady to whom grace and nature had given chains to captivate the hearts of the most barbarous That great Princess whom the sun did see almost as soon to be a Queen as a living creature She that was born to Empires as all Empires seemed to be made for her to be deprived of her sweet liberty to see herself severed from all commerce with mankind to be banished in a desart where nothing but rocks were the witnesses of her sufferings Nay which is more she is now become the captive of her own subjects and a servant to her slaves The poor Turtle ceased not to groan and often through the grate would look on the lake wherein every wave she conceived she beheld the waving image of her change of fortunes Not long after she entered into a deep melancholy when the evil spirit that fisheth in troubled waters did tempt her into thoughts of despair representing to her that since the air and the earth were shut from her she should make choice of the water into the which she should throw her self and end the langushment of her captivity by burying her self in a moment with her afflictions But as her pious soul was fastened unto GOD by chains not to be dissolved she fervently besought the Divine
propose three Remedies to take away the differences and to re-establish the true Queen in her Kingdom The first was That she should give assurances to the Queen Elizabeth no ways to disquiet her in the Succession of the Crown of England The Second was That she should grant an Act of Pardon and Forgetfulness to her rebellious Subjects for fear the punishment should otherwise extend to a number that was infinite The third was That the Marriage with Bothuel being condemned to be unlawfull she should consent to be espoused to some Illustrious Person in England who should be answerable in all conditions and maintain both Kingdoms in a perpetual friendship to which Queen Mary shewed a singular inclination 9. But the Queen of England was wonderfully The labyrinths of the hypocrisie of Elizabeth amazed at this Sentence and proceedings and although in publick she seemed to be much contented at the justification of her Cousin yet in secret she much raged at it and encouraged the Accusers to prosecute their complaints in full Parliament telling them They were both lazy and impertinent to begin their Suit and not to accomplish it The Process upon this was brought again to the Councel of England where the bastard Murray armed with the outragious pen of Buchanan used all his power even to the affrighting of the Agents of Queen Mary by the Authority of Elizabeth But the best sort of people began to murmure saying that it was necessary that the Traitours should be taken off and the innocent Queen re-established in her Kingdom On the one side Elizabeth ceased not to make delays and on the other she pretended that she would understand what should be the conditions of her Inlargement whether it were to appear civil and humane or whether she would sound the minds of those further whom she thought did talk with too much liberty concerning that affair In the mean time the Spirits which could not clearly enough discover the labyrinths of her dark heart conceived that Truth had now prevailed to publish the innocence of the Queen of Scotland that the Deceitfull hopes Storm was grown into a Calm and that she now began to arrive at her desired haven she now was looked on by every one with another eye and the greatest personages in England did passionately desire an Alliance with her The Earl of Liecester an intimate favourite of Elizabeths observing that his Queen had no intention to be married and that the Scepter of England did look upon this Prisoner did entertain a delicate Ambition to court her in the way of Marriage but the Transalpine humour of his most jealous Mistress did so perplex him that he durst not tell to his own heart what his own thoughts were He most passionately desired that the Queen would make some overture to him of it to submit all things to her discretion and to make her understand that this would be a happy means to take away all doubts and misapprehensions that should arise from Scotland But so it was that he durst not proceed in it so well he understood the spirit of Elizabeth who was as apt to receive an evil impression as she was cruel to revenge it The Duke of Norfolk who was President at the Treason against the Duke of Norfolk and his ruin Trial of Queen Mary was advanced above all others in Dignity and remarkable over all the Realm for his great and gallant qualities The bastard Murray did flatter him with the hope of his Sisters marriage The Earl of Liecester began to dive into his heart concerning that suit and gave him some touches of it whether it were that by that means he would know the pleasure of Elizabeth or whether he were resolved to destroy the Duke who onely was able to cast a shadow on his light Throgmorton who was a friend unto them both did first carry the message and acquainted Norfolk that Leicester had a desire to speak with him on a business of high importance which was concerning his marriage with the Queen of Scotland he told him That he spoke this unto him as of himself but counselled him as a friend to refer the further proceedings on that marriage to the Earl of Leicester who though it was thought did pretend himself to it yet he desired that his modesty would give way that the Earl might advise him because there was no great apparence of any thriving in that motion without his direction He believed this counsel and as soon as the Earl began to open his mouth concerning it he did comply unto him with all honour and submission and did express himself to be indifferent and cold enough concerning that marriage although to speak the truth her Innocence so much persecuted had kindled already the first fire of love within his heart Leicester touched with this courtesie did increase his flame and did remonstrate to him that this Marriage would highly conduce to the benefit of the State because it would prove a happy means to divert all strange Alliances which might carry the Queen of Scotland to pursue her pretensions to the Crown of England and serve absolutely to confirm her in the good opinion of Queen Elizabeth The Duke who was indued with a natural freedom of disposition and knew not how to dissemble beholding himself at one time betwixt two violent fires of Love and Honour did entertain the heat which too soon he did evaporate and besought the Earl since he pretended no more to that affair and that he himself would not proceed in it without his assurance that he would do him a courtesie worthy of the place which he had near the Queen for which he never would be ingratefull This the Earl did promise him and if men may judge by apparence very heartily which did so blow up the heart of the Lover that in thinking of it he did adore his own thoughts It was indeed a strange temptation to propose unto himself so accomplished a Beauty and so eminent a Virtue on whose trayn two Kingdoms did attend The world is not capable to be governed by two Suns and the heart of man suffers more than mortal Agonies when it sustains the shock of two violent passions who unite their forces and designs to make a war upon him The Duke beholding himself flattered with these Great passions of Love and Ambition loves by divers other Agents did write unto the Queen of Scotland with magnifick complements and offers of unparallel'd service with the greater pomp sweetness to enter into the secrets of her thoughts The Prisoner who laboured for nothing more than to break her chains asunder did desire rather to see the end of that affair than to understand the beginning of it but the experience which she had of the dissimulation and jealousies of Elizabeth did make her to go upon these considerations as on a fire covered with ashes Wherefore without being much moved at it she made answer That she must commit the
fifteenth year of her age being himself not much more indebted unto yeares than she was All things laughed at the beams of this bright Morning and it seemed that Felicity her self had with full hands poured down her favours upon a Marriage which had been made in Heaven to carry along with it the approbation of all the earth But who can dive into the secrets which Providence The inconstancy of humane affairs hath in her own breast concealed from us Or who is he that hath tears enough to deplore the condition of great Fortunes when they are abandoned to the pillage and plunder of destruction This young French King having in his way but saluted Royalty after his reign but of six moneths was taken out of the world by an Impostume in his ear All France did groan under this loss by reason of the excellent inclination of that Prince but she was more touched with the impressions which in her heart her most dear Spouse received who desired to sacrifice the rest of her dayes unto the ashes of her husband Nevertheless as the tenderness of the Kings age who was troubled besides with divers indispositions of body and the short time they were married together did not permit that any issue should be left behind him there did arise upon it a report that the young Her return into Scotland Queen should return into her own Countrey where two Crowns did attend her the one in England the other in Scotland she being the true Inheritress of them both of one of which she took possession and was deprived of her rights in the other by the injustice of Usurpation 3. Elizabeth of England now began to torment The first fire of the jealousie of Estate her self with a furious jealousie against her and had already laid the Design to stop her in her return to Scotland but God was pleased that she was gallantly accompanied with a great part of the most generous of the Nobility of France and did pass the seas very fortunately and arrived so suddenly in Scotland as if she did flie in the Air there she was received of all the good Catholicks with wonderfull entertainments of applause and joy Elizabeth who did swell with despite that she failed in her design covering her artifice with the vail of friendship did send a solemn Embassage with Presents to congratulate her arrival and to give her the assurances of an eternal Alliance The good Princess who had a heart as credulous as generous was passionately taken with this friendship and disputed with her self how she should overcome her in honour and in courtesie She took from her Treasurie a Diamond of which she made a Present to her It was cut in the manner of a heart and enriched with a verse of Buchanans who had not as yet his spirit infected with Treason In the mean time Elizabeth not unlike those Sorcerers which from the fairest mornings do produce the foulest weather did not cease under-hand to sow troubles and divisions in the Realm of Scotland endeavouring to destroy her Cousin by the fines of policy whom she durst not attach by the force of Arms. On the first arrival of Queen Mary into Scotland she found the Kingdom overspread with the factions of the Calvinists which at that time troubled all the Estates in Christendom And seeing that the youth and inexperience of her widow-hood was not compatible with the great underminings which her Enemies did daily form against her State she began after the space of five years to think of a second Marriage The small success in her first marriage made Her second marriage her suspect an alliance with strangers and those who were most near unto her did disswade her from it She did cast her eyes on her Cousin Henry Stuart the young Earl of Lenox who for the comeliness of his person was one of the most remarkable in the Kingdom of Scotland and having procured a Dispensation from the Pope she married him This affection The seed of the jealousie of love although most innocent in it self being not mannaged with all the considerations of State did bring upon her the jealousie of other Princes and was in the end attended with great disasters But to speak the truth the Earl of Murray natural brother to the Queen a pernicious and luxurious man who under-hand was the Instrument of Elizabeth of England did sow the first seeds of all these Tragedies In the beginning of these troubles he was called The Prior of S. Andrew as being ordained by James the Fifth to Ecclesiastical dignity but having drunk the air of a turbulent and furious Ambition which Knox the Patriarch of the Hereticks in Scotland had inspired in him he did not cease to affect the Quality of Regent and of King nor sparing any wickednesses to arrive to the butt of his desires As he observed that the Queen his sister being yet Ambition the beginning of all evils very young and very beautifull was sought for in marriage by the King of Spain to be married to his Son and by the Emperour to be maraied to his Brother he used the utmost of his power to divert that Design politickly fore-seeing that such alliances would tend to the diminution of his power and he failed not with most violent perswasions to represent unto her that she should enjoy neither peace nor honour in her Kingdom if she were espoused to a forreign Prince and the better to divert her from it he ceased not to advance the perfections of young Lenox which he did rather to amuse her and to possess her with thoughts of love than in earnest to bring the marriage to accomplishment The generous Princess who understood not yet what Dissimulation meant gave car unto him and overcome by his counsel she proceeded to the effects of the marriage with the Earl of Lenox who was indeed accomplished with all excellent endowments both of body and of mind but being very young had not the qualities requisite to serve him to secure himself This Murray who thought he should reign in him and by him and that having advanced him to the Royal Dignity the King should be but as the instrument of his will did find himself much deceived when he observed the King to grow cold in his behalf and to reign with an Authority more absolute than he intended His fury did proceed to that height that he drew into the field to make war against the King but having bad success therein he was constrained to retire himself into England where he began his designs to destroy his Sister He had in the Scotch Court the Earl of Morton who was unto him as his other-self to whom he gave Commission to throw the apple of Discord on this marriage of the King and Queen This he performed with incredible The effects of Envy and Ambition cunning and finding some disposition by the cooling of his affection he perswaded Lenox That he was
whole Negotiation to the Queen and trust to none to whom she had not spoken and openly testified her desires In the mean time the Earl of Leicester who had promised to speak unto her and who onely could give a fair colour to the estate of that Marriage to perswade Elizabeth to incline unto it did deferre to speak unto her from day to day and being importuned to it by the violent sollicitations of the Duke he counterfeited himself sick and continued in a malignant silence He knew very well that to ruin a good busines The fury of Elizabeth we must make use of an indiscreet tongue he therefore permitted that some Ladies who for the most part with curiosity enough do deliver the secrets of lovers should report the first news of it unto the Queen This was to put her spirit upon the Rack and to torment her in the most sensible part She who was extreamly jealous on any motions that were made unto her concerning the Queen of Scotland and would grow into a fury upon the least discourse that did reflect upon her right unto the Crown finding her self assaulted at one time by two strong passions did enter into a rage that cannot be represented Her spirit which naturally was formed for dissimulation could not now conceal it self but she did let fall some words unto the Duke of Norfolk telling him That although he slept softly upon a cushion be should take care it was not taken from him And immediately upon it leaving off these riddles she sharply reproved him for presuming on the marriage with the Queen of Scotland without first acquainting her with it The Duke made answer That he never attempted any thing of himself without attending her pleasure and commandement and that he gave an express charge to the Earl of Liecester to acquaint her with it and to desire her condiscent unto it but perceiving her Majesty was averse unto it he would willingly forbear any further suit having no other aim but to rule his life and fortunes according unto her intentions On this promise she departed from him and went to look out the Earl of Liecester who was the Master of the Guard of the Chamber who understanding that she was advertised that the secret of the marriage was deposed in his brest he was suddenly possessed with a great fear which made him look pale and tremble in the presence of the Queen whom he prevented and with tears in his eyes besought her to excuse him that he had not acquainted her with it because he said he waited an opportunity to find her in a good humour to give the less trouble to her mind which is found before to be too much disquited His counterfeit sickness his pale colour but above all the inordinate affection which Elizabeth did bear unto him did at that time save him from the thunder of her Choler But poor Norfolk did presently behold himself abandoned by his friends discountenanced by the Queen followed spied persecuted and at last confined to the Tower of London Not long after there were scaffolds made in the The horrible Catastrophe of the Duke of Norfolk great Palace a Tribunal was planted and seats were made one both sides of it for the Commissioners to sit who were to be his Judges He was brought to the Bar by two Knights before whom an Ax was carried the back whereof was turned towards the accused The Earl of Talbot was made President of the Court and sate on the Judgement seat and on both sides of him there were ranked a considerable number of Judges and Counsellours After that their Commission was read the Duke was cited and accused to have endeavoured to dispossess Queen Elizabeth and to set the Queen of Scotland on her Throne To hold great intelligence with the Pope and forreign Princes enemies to the Crown of England and with his possession to have assisted the enemies of the State with many more particulars The poor Duke was much amazed to see himself so suddenly invested with so dangerous an accusation and charged with so many Articles He desired that he might be allowed Counsel to draw up his justification but it was refused and being demanded to answer readily to the Crimes of which he was accused he replied very innocently I commend my self to God and to my Peers The Atrocity of the Crimes do amaze me but the Royal Clemency of her Majesty which hath conferred favours on me beyond my hope doth again incourage me I beseech you my Lord President that I may have right done unto me and that my memory may not be too much oppressed with the variety of confused complaints I acknowledge my self happy to have you my Peers to be my Judges and most willingly do commit my life to the integrity of the greatest part of you assuring you on my innocence that I will not faulter with you and though I do ingeniously acknowledge that I have not altogether directed my actions according to an exact rule of Justice yet so it is that I have not offended her Majesty At that time there was one Barret Advocate General to the Queen a violent man bold against those who were fearfull and fearfull of those who were bold who to shew his abilities and the zeal which he did bear to the service of his Mistress did vigorously proceed against the Duke and did perplex him with multitudes of words The good Duke who knew better how to handle his sword than his tongue and had withall but an uncertain memory did defend his honour and his life as well as he could but his party was no way equal so much Authority perfidiousnes and malice did pour down upon him that he was not able to wade through it At the last he was commanded to withdraw that they might advise upon his sentence and on his return they shewed the edge of the Ax towards him to carry him before hand the sad news of the sentence of his death which condemned him to be drawn upon a sledge unto the Gibbet to be there hanged drawn and quartered This sentence did startle him at the horrour of it and produced from him these expressions Sentence is here pronounced against me as a Traitour but I do trust in God the Queen I hope though I am deprived of your company I shall rejoyce in that which is in Heaven in that assurance I will prepare my self for death I desire nothing of the Queen but onely that she will be favourable to my Children and my servants and that there may be care taken for the discharge of my debts Some moneths afterwards the sentence of death being a little moderated he was brought to the place of execution where he died like a Divine rather than a Souldier preaching to the people and accusing himself that he treated on the marriage with the Queen of Scotland without acquainting his own Queen with it He also accused himself of having seen letters written
he should sway his Scepter or his life Cardan who was imployed no less than one hundred hours to make his Horoscope did easily observe in the stars the incommodities of his body and disasters of his person but he could no way attain to the period of his life which is of the secrets reserved in the knowledge and in the method of God All England was extreamly corrupted in her faith under the Regency of this Seimer and the Ladies of the Court were enveloped in the errours of the time He found none but the Lady Marie daughter to Henry the Eight and Katharine which continued in the Religion of their Grand-Fathers and though she was tempted and sollicited on all sides yet she would not suffer her self to be surprized with a new Faith but with a vigorous force did roar against all the torrents of Opinions and the overflowing disorders which reigned in that age It was for this that God did cause her to mount on the Throne of his own Tower and gave her the grace to be both the restorer of Religion and the State by the assistance of this Cardinal As soon as Edward was dead not without suspition Mary the lawfull heir is troubled and Jane is chosen Queen by Faction of poison Dudley Duke of Northumherland who was then most mighty in power and had newly married his Son to the Lady Jane issued from the bloud Royall conceived himself strong enough to begin the Regency of England the better afterwards to usurp the Crown He caused his Daughter-in-Law to be proclaimed Queen of England and seized on the Tower of London and gave order for the apprehending of Queen Mary But the generous Princess being advertised of the attempt did take horse in the time of night and secured her self in a place of strength and conjured all her good Servants to assemble themselves to defend her person and her right It is to be admired that persevering in the true Religion contrary to that of the great ones of the Kingdom at the same time when she conceived her self abandonned and her cause most deplorable that she should behold the principal of the Nobility and Gentry and Commonalty to fall down before her and to offer her their obedience and their Arms to take the possession of the Crown She marched immediately to London in the middle of her Army apparelled in a Gown of Velvet of a violet colour and mounted on a white horse She entered into the Citie with great applauses of her Subjects and surprized the Duke and caused him to deliver his Daughter in Law into her hands It was a spectacle worthy observation to consider the Inconstancy of these worldly affairs and to look on that person who but yesterday promised to himself to force the whole Kingdom under the power of his Laws to tremble now at the fear of death pronounced by his Judges who condemned him to be drawn upon a Hurdle to be hanged drawn and quartered The Queen sent him Catholick Divines to convert him to whom he gave ear and abjuring Heresie he imbraced the Catholick Religion which was the occasion that the Queen did moderate the Sentence of the Execution and was contented that his head onely should be cut off with his sons who was the husband of Jane This miserable Lady from a high Tower where she was prisoner beheld the body of her dear husband without a head at the sight whereof she fell down into a swoun and being a little recovered she melted into tears and did fetch from her heart so many and so deep sighs that they seemed to be able not onely to mollifie the hearts of men but to cleave the Rocks asunder There was a long Deliberation concerning her The Execution of the Lady Jane Fact because the Queen had an inclination to pardon her observing her to be both young fair knowing and of a delicate temper and one who had not offended but by the violent suggestions of her Father-in-law and of her Husband who had put the Crown upon her head But the Judges did remonstrate that it was of a most dangerous consequence to suffer that person to continue alive who had carried the Title of a Sovereign and that one day it might give a new fire to the enterprizes of the Remainder of her Faction On these Considerations the Sentence of Death was pronounced which she received with a Constancy admirable in her Sex and age A Doctour was sent unto her to reduce her to the Catholick Religion which at the first she refused alledging That she had too little time to think on an Affair of that importance Which being reported to the Queen she deferred the Execution for certain dayes to instruct her at more leisure so that she was gained to God and continued to the the last hour of her life in such tranquility of mind that a little before she came out of prison to go to her Execution she wrote divers Sentences in Greek Latine and English on the contempt of Death and when on the Scaffold it was represented to her that she should die by the sword which according to the custom of that Countrey is accounted a nobler kind of Execution than to die by the Axe she said That she would die by that Axe which was yet discoloured with her husbands bloud and couragiously she tendered her neck to the Hang-man drawing tears from her self and the hearts from all those that did behold her O most unfortunate Ambition that hast made so young a Princess a sacrifice of Death who for the excellency of her spirit might have been another Minerva or at least the tenth of the Muses Behold the strange Revolutions which did prepare the way to Cardinal Pool for the performance of those high Designs which God had committed to his Conduct Queen Marie did incontinently make void all the Sentences which had been pronounced against him and called him back into England to which place in a short time he came as if he had been carried on the shoulders of all honest men The Pope made him his Legate and gave him full power to ordain and execute all things which he should conceive necessary for the glory of God and the establishment of the true Religion He travelled to this Work with incomparable wisdom Pool travels to the Reducement of England to the ancient Faith and with a zeal invincible He well perceived that to restore Religion by arms was to undertake a most laborious if not an infinite work which would open all the veins in England and draw drie as well their purses as their bloud and cover the Kingdom with the calamities of civil wars which would continue for many Ages He resolved to put his good Counsels in execution with gentleness which others propounded to perform with all violence And in the first place he had recourse to Prayers The course he held to Mortifications to Vows and to Devotions which he performed in secret and which
surprized by King Ptolomey courting a Mistris of his for which contempt in that instant the Ladie was enforced to drink poison and the unfortunate Courtier was hanged before his own lodging Another minion of the Emperour Constantius after he had mannaged the Julius Capit. affairs wars revenues houshold and person of the Emperour was disgraced and put to death because he presented to his Master at that time incensed with choler a pen ill made for writing to sign certain dispatches withal Macrinus a hunter a fencer Eunapius in Aedes a scrivener became an Oratour then a Fiscal next Pretour of the Palace then Emperour and lastly was massacred with his son Piadumenus Ablavius most powerful under Constantine torn in pieces under Constantius as a victim What circumvolutions what comedies what tragedies what examples to those who in this world have no other aim but to become great casting under foot all laws both divine and humane Out alas It is said that Cambises King of Persia to teach Herod l. 5. justice to a certain President of his who newly then entered into office commanded him to cover the chair of judicature with the skin of Sesamnes his father put to death and flayed because he had been an ill Judge What should he do being seated on this Note woful Tribunal upon the bloud of his father but become wise by a dreadful experience An infinite number of ambitious men are in office and magistracie mounted upon the ruins and bloud of their Predecessours who have made most wicked and deplorable trials and have pursued the same ways without fearing the like event I. Learn O Noblemen that all the greatness of Instructions the world cannot make you great if not by contempt of it All therein is little and yet to despise that little is a great matter II. Know that your fortunes ought to be as the Sixtus in bibliotheca Patrum Non est minimum in humaenâ vitâ negligere minima halcyons nest which seemeth sowed to her bodie Matters most aptly proportioned to our nature are the best What face soever a man sets upon it he is little Much turmoyl of government and affairs may well hinder him but never make him happy III. You must use the honour which God hath Semper circumveniunt montem Sir nunquam ad terram promissionis perveniunt Petrus Blesensis p. 40 allotted you as the coyn of his coffers for which you in his last judgement are accountable and must limit your pretenses and desires with mediocrity otherwise you shall be as they who wandered perpetually about the mountain of Sir without ever arriving at the land of promise Conclusion of the Second Book That the life of a bad Courtier is a perpetual obstacle to virtue TO approve good by words and pursue evil in effect to condemn the world and adore it to desire heaven and be fixed to the earth to love ones self excessively and live perpetually contrary to the better part of our self to seek for peace and live in an everlasting warfare to lodge in one same heart fire and ice sickness and health joy and sorrow death life To command imperiously and obey faintly to be ever abroad and never out of prison to dream without sleep and sleep without repose to be divided to all the world and never within ones self To wish that which cannot be had and contemn what is possessed To seek after that which hath been despised and hourly to change resolution To exercise no piety but by constraint nor reason but by fits Not to avoid one sin but by another and to descend into the precipice with open eyes To take up the buckler after the wound received and to be cured by the overthrow of health To slake thirst with salt water and quench fire with sulphur To have no constancy but for evil nor amity for any thing but that which deserveth it not To have sottish actions and glorious pretexes as much faith as the ice and assurance as the wind To be the slave of a thousand false Deities and not to reflect on the true Divinity To prefer the fetters and onions of Aegypt before the liberty and palms of the heavenly Sion To leave Paradise to follow the gardens of Tantalus and those enchanted Islands which recoyl backward according to the proportion we think to approch them To carry under a smooth countenance a heart spotted as the skin of a panther To joyn a voluptuous life to a penurious avarice to prodigality servitude to predominance nobilitie to baseness pride to misery and envy to pitie To promise without faith swear without regard command without reason appoint without order affect without choise hate without cause walk without a path and to live perpetually banished from ones self so to become too much tyed to ones self This is the life of a Courtier who hath alienated himself from the life of God Adde hereunto that vice is commonly waited on with a most painful life wherein if endeavour be not used to sanctifie it by virtue there is found a hell anticipated where a Paradise is imagined Petrus Blesensis Chancellour to the Archbishop of Epist 4. Canterhury having some time attended in the Court of the King of England recounteth the evils he there found by experience in a letter which he addressed to the Chaplains of the same Prince There he complaineth the Courtiers many times suffer for hell all those pains which S. Paul endured for Heaven For they are exposed to dangers both of sea and land rivers and mountains thieves and false brothers to fasting and watching to weariness and to all the incommodities of human life He hath seen saith he bread and wine served up which one could not put into their mouthes without shutting their eyes such loathing it enforced and viands that killed men under the shew of nutriment He hath known Lords draw their swords for a cabbin which deserved not a battel among hogs He hath seen a Prince who delighted to be attended by officers suddenly surprized to whom he gave notice of his remove when they had physical drugs in their bellies and made them oftentimes run themselves out of breath through forrests and darkness and at other times to pine away in expectation of all that which would but frustrate their hope He hath seen harbingers troublesom before they received gifts and most ungrateful after they had them who made no scruple to put an honestman out of his lodging and to pull him both from table and bed that he might lie in the streets He hath seen at Court porters worse than Cerberus with whom the memory of a benefit lasted not three days and who took pleasure to make those stand in the durt and rain that had obliged them Buffons and jesters found ever free passage nothing but virtue and honesty had a wainscot face shewed them Finally all the plagues of Aegypt dwelt there frogs flies ulcers rivers of
when he had drunk gave the cup to his Deacon as esteeming him the most worthy person of the feast next himself Maximus who infinitely seemed to be pleased therewith although he inwardly felt himself gauled with this liberty did so outwardly dissemble it that he caused S. Martin to be applauded through all his Court protesting that none but â—e was worthy the title of a Bishop and that he had done at the table of an Emperour what the other Bishops would never have acted in the house of a mean Judge On the other side the wife of Maximus who already possessed the title of Empress made her self a Magdalen at the feet of Saint Martin and although never woman touched this chaste creature he suffered her to exercise all sort of ceremonies towards him undergoing a thousand troubles to rid himself of her importunities This seemed not strange in the age of threescore and ten and in the reputation of sanctity wherewith he had filled the world that a woman should kiss his feet but it was a thing very unusual to behold a Princess humbled in the dust of the earth to perform this office She regarded neither purple diadem quality nor Empire she had no eyes but for S. Martin being blind to the rest of the world After this first banquet Maximus and the Ladie went to the Saint and besought him again to take a bad dinner which the Empress would in private prepare for him with her own hands and although he in the beginning refused it was impossible for him to escape from these Saint-like invitations For these are snares which catch eagles as well as sparrows Needs would the Queen do all offices in this second feast She played the cook dressed the dining-room laid the cloth gave to the holy man water for his hands was his cup-bearer and waited on him all the time of his meal standing bolt upright as a servant with her mind intentive on her office Dinner being ended she did eat the scraps and remainder of the table which she preferred before all the Imperial delicacies Verily we may say women are violent in their affections and when once they go the right way their virtues have no mean I will not seek to penetrate the Ladies intentions which I suppose were very good but considering the proceedings of Maximus there is great cause to think he endeavoured by his infinite courtship to charm the nature of Saint Martin which to him seemed somewhat harsh Yet the great man endowed with the spirit of prophesie freely told all which should befal him Behold some part of the disposition of Maximus which I was willing to present on paper that it might appear of what condition they ordinarily are who bear arms against the obedience due to Kings who are the lively images of God The Tyrant began a revolt in England and from that time determined to establish the Citie of Trier in Germanie as the seat of his Empire and thence to raise a pair of wings to flie above the clouds which were Italie and Spain He chose for his Constable a man very consonant to his humour and of great resolution who caused himself to be called the Good man the better to colour the wickedness of his Master With this bad Councellour he endeavoured to stir up the souldiers and on every side drew the warlick troups to his party The good Emperour Gratian speedily armeth to stiffle tyranny in the birth thereof and in person goeth to encounter his adversary He had then very freshly drawn good souldiers from the Kingdom of Hungarie to his assistance of whom he made much account Others seeing that he much esteemed of them were stung with jealousie and grew cold in their Masters behalf The poor Prince being on the point to wage battel found himself carelesly and traiterously abandoned by his legions who daily stole away to increase the Army and strength of Maximus This black and hydeous treason much amazed the Emperour who complained as the Eagle in the Emblem that his own feathers gave him the storke of death seeing his souldiers who should have born him on their wings delivered him to his enemy through a neglect which shall make the Roman history to blush eternally So that seeing there was no safety for his person he sought to regain Italie as soon as possible accompanied onely with a full troup of horse consisting of about three hundred men Maximus well discovered that he would at any price whatsoever have the bloudy spoil of his Master For he charged this Good man to pursue him with all violence and not to desist till the prey were in his clutches which he did taking horses with him who ran like a tempest and could well endure any tedious travel In the end he met with the Emperour at Lyons and fearing he might escape bethought himself of a mischievous stratagem For he secretly caused the Emperour to be enformed the Empress his wife was in danger of her person if he stayed not some while to expect her because she was resolved to follow him thinking no place capable of safety or consolation where her husband was not This false report much softened the heart of Gratian who was as good a husband as an Emperour he therefore resolved to hasten to the Empress though not without evident danger of his life There is an unspeakable power in the love of neighbours which is the cause that birds and fishes are oft-times voluntarily caught with twigs and nets not fearing to put their life in danger where they see some part of themselves to be This Prince who in the extreamest disasters of his fortune was full of courage and flew every where like a flash of lightening to give order to his affairs at the news that the Empress was on her way to follow him was much terrified nor was Pitifull death of the Emperour Gratian. there an object of peril which he framed not in his thoughts Moments seemed days unto him and days as Ages A thousand santasies of affrightment summoned his heart in his solitude There was no living for him if he beheld not his dearest love in his arms She was a Princess of much merit daughter of the Emperour Constantius born after the death of her father whom Gratian faithfully loved though he as yet had no issue by her The Tyrant understanding his game succeeded to Socrat. lib. 5. cap. 11. Zozom lib. 7. cap. 13. his wish made a litter to pass along much like to that of the Empress and disposed his ambushes round about in the way The Emperour perceiving it afar off and supposing his wife Constantia was in it spurs his horse and flyeth with those wings which love and joy gave him being at that time followed by few of his people The murderers assailed and massacred him but he still shewing the courage of a Lion bare himself bravely amongst swords and halbards leaving the mark of his hand all bloudy on a wall as S. Hierom
he had done in all the Courts of the world besides Excess of virtues stand in the account of crimes with malign eyes so as to be culpable one must be an able man Galerius resolved to overthrow Constantine for those qualities which made him amiable to all the world and not thinking it safe to take him away by main force he made war against him like a fox persecuting him in that manner as sometimes Saul did the invincible David He found by chance that a King of the Sarmatians made an incursion on the territories of the Roman Empire and shewed himself â—o furious that none durst any more encounter him than an enraged beast Galerius gave commission to Constantine to bid him battel thinking it was a most honourable pretext to be freed from him and that he had a reasonable excuse with Constantius the father when he should shew him his son dead in the bed of honour The young man who shut up his eyes to danger and onely opened them to glorie went thither readily and all succeeded so prosperously that he not onely brake the troops of the Sarmatians but also led this King along enchained to Galerius This man who received not so much joy to see an enemie at his feet as sorrow for the prosperitie of a friend very coldly commended this encounter and determined with himself to involve the virtue of Constantine in other battels still seeking in his valour the matter of his ruin It was at that time a thing very ordinarie to make condemned men to fight with savage beasts in an Amphitheater thereby to give contentment to those who are delighted to behold such spectacles Galerius called for a combat of Lions and beheld it with Constantine who was very impatient to see that such as undertook the assault of those beasts performed it in his opinion so coldly He therefore had a desire to adventure himself therein Galerius who observed him over-strong for men thought he might find his tomb in the bellie of Lions Note how under colour of withholding him he thrust this young virtue further on alreadie much enkindled with his proper flames The valiant Prince descendeth in person into the list and assaileth the Lion whom he slew with an incomparable strength whereupon so loud acclamations and such extraordinary applauses were raised through all the Amphitheater to the honour of brave Constantins that it alone was sufficient to make the treacherous Caesar burst with anger Envie is a mischievous vice it resembleth those mountains which throw their burning entrails against flowers that blossom on their tops as the envious Envie dart gall and flames against those men who bravely bloom over their heads Galerius made the son of his friend reign in hearts by the same ways wherewith he endeavoured to deprive him of life and Scepter In the end he still persisting in his wickedness and not ceasing to prepare new ambushes some men of good understanding advised Constantine to withdraw himself from the malignity of this wicked man which he did forsaking his Court without leave taken and speedily returning into England where at that time his father expected him with much impatience Zosinius saith that in this voyage he took the post-horses which best fitted him and maimed all the other to take from his enemies the means of pursuit The fourth SECTION His entery into the Empire IT was in this revolution of times that Diocletian and Maximian having dispossessed themselves of the Empire and Constantius having swayed certain years with a most prosperous and peaceable government died at York a Citie of England to the great grief of the West which he had so prudently governed Constantine by good chance was there and nominated by his father for the Empire a little before his death which judgement was approved with such consent of the souldiers and all the people that he had scarcely as yet wiped away his tears when the purple was cast on his shoulders and he saluted Emperour The good son who thought on nothing but to render the last duties of his piety to the memory of his father found this honour unseasonable and would have declined it by all means but a grave Oratour hath said in his Panegyrick there Quis te Cyllarus aut Arion posset cripere quem sequebatuâ— Imperium Eumenius is no horse so swift which can steal from mortal eyes a man whom the Providence of God pursueth with Empire in hand He is constrained to yield though through modesty he would not be absolutely pronounced Emperour but contented himself with the title of Caesar well foreseeing he was to have many great affairs upon his hand before he could be peaceably established in his throne The first shock he had came from two Kings of Germanie to wit Assacar and Gaisus who passing the Rhene with huge troups endeavoured to overwhelm the Gauls thinking to surprize a young Emperour as yet uncollected in the uncertainty of his affairs But he nothing amazed speedily encounters defeats and takes them leading them enchained in a triumph whereupon succeeded an accident which I should rather attribute to the humour of Diocletion than of Constantine For after he had taken his pleasure Constant an 2. upon these two Kings he delivered them over to wilde beasts in a combat which he caused to be presented for the entertainment of the people And although the Oratours of his time much applauded this in him as an act of justice for the great havock they both had made notwithstanding having regard to the qualitie of the persons this proceeding cannot be excused from cruelty never made familiar to the manners of Christians This forreign war drew along with it civil wars A wonderful spectacle of the affairs of the world wherein the powers of the earth encountered together with incredible servours and terrible 〈◊〉 Behold a marvellous game and a great spectacle of the vanities of the world you shall see seven Princes who aspired to the Monarchy haling each one to himself a piece of the purple which they râ—nt in pulling and despoiled themselves of it in seeking to put it on The most fiery of them all who would swallow the whole earth could not have so much as five foot to cover his body Maxentius the son of Maximian companion of Diocletian a man lost in conscience and reputation condemned by the judgement of his own father who thought him unworthy to succeed in the Empire understanding that Constantins was dead and that they had chosen his son the young Constantins born of an English mother entereth into desperate furies and being then at Rome ready for the purpose caused himself to be declared Emperour by the souldiers whom he had gained alluring them by the means of large promises Galerius who after the death of Constantius and the retirement of Diocletian and Maximian thought himself the nearest to the Monarchie laboureth speedily to hinder the tyranny of Maxentius and having already made two Caesars to succeed
make horrible havock unlesse Grace and Reason cause some temper There is not any devil more familiar in Court more injurious to civil conversation more pernicious to States then Choler and Revenge Pride which is born with the most eminent conditions nourisheth it flatterers enkindle it insolent tongues sharpen it fire and sword end it In some it is haughty and cruel as it appeared in Dagobert a young Prince son of Clotharius the Second who in his tendrest years had I know not what of salvage in him which savoured of the manners of Paganisme or the humours of his Grandmother Fredegond Aymonius l. 4. p. Aemilius Annals of France albeit he afterward gained victories over himself The King his Father had appointed him two Governours Arnold to rectifie his manners Sadragesillus to breed him up to Armes and Court-like behaviour The first governed him like the Sun the second as the Northern-wind The one insinuated himself with much sweetnesse the other undertook him with too proud and arrogant an apgroach which in him rather caused Aversion then Choler of Dagobert somewhat rough Instruction From whence it came to passe that he being one day invited to the Princes Table where he did eat apart as the Kings son he placed himself right ouer against him took Dagoberts glasse and drank to him wherewith he was so desperately offended that instantly he fell upon him and taking a knife on the table cut off his beard and most contemptuonsly disfigured him Sadragesillus in this plight presented himselfe to King Clotharius who was likewise enraged and caused his son to be pursued commanding his Guard to apprehend him but he saved himself in the Sanctuary of Montmartre under the protection of S. Denis untill his fathers anger was pacified who spared not to give him a sharp reprehension and to raise Sadragesillus to great dignities to take away the acerbities of the affront he had received Another time S. Arnold asking leave of the same Dagobert to retire from Court out of the desire he had to passe the rest of his dayes in sweet solitude the King many times denied him and he growing a little earnest in a good cause he furiously draws froth his sword threatning to kill him if he persisted in this request A Lord there present stayed the blow and the Queen shewing her husband the unworthinesse of his Choler so gained him that he came to himself gave his Master full satisfaction and permitted him to go whither he thought good most affectionately recommending his person and state to him Seneca hath well said that Choler was not a sign of a courageous but a swoln spirit as it by experience appeared in Dagobert who was little war-like For being but in one piece of service against the Saxons where he received a very slight hurt he made so many ceremonies about it that he sent a lock of his bloudy hair to his father to implore his aid It is true that this Prince being in his youth a little unruly hearkned afterward to the good reasons of his Councel and became very temperate 2. There are Martiall angers which are generous Generous anger of K. Clotharius and bold when a heart upon a good occasion is enflamed to the avengement of some Injustice as it happened to Clotharius the Second who coming to succour his son Dagobert presently appeared marching along the Rhine and made himself remarkable by a notable head of hair whereupon Bertrand Captain of the Saxons darting some insolent words at him the King suddenly passed the river with great danger of his person observeth his enemy pursues him strikes him down from his horse and cuts off his head which he fixed on the top of a launce to fill the Saxon Army with terrour Thus should the anger of a great Prince be bent against proud and unjust adversaries not against his own Subjects This spurre hath sometimes added valour to the sweetest natures witnesse Charles the Simple Valour of Charles the Simple who seeing that Robert had gathered together a huge army of Rebels against him passed the river of Aisne to charge him and the other putting himself into a readinesse to resist him animating his own side and braving in the head of his army Charles looked him in the face as the Butt against which he should unburden all his gall spurs forward directly towards him and so succesfully hits him with a thrust of his lance in the mouth that he tore out his tongue and killed him 3. Yet Choler is extremely dangerous in matter of Arms especially in things where some resolution is to be taken with counsel and maturity For it troubleth The passion of anger is very prejudiciall to Military art in a General the art said an Antient and many times causeth errours irreparable This is but too much verified in the fatall day of Crescy-field where Philip of Valois one of the most valiant Monarchs which ever handled Sceptre gave battel to Edward King of England The English Army bravely encamped heard Masse leasurely took its repast and coolely expected the enemy to fight with firm footing at which time our Philip animated with anger and above all fearing lest the English might escape him hastned his army what he could causing it to march and tyring it out on the day of battel The Monk Basellus a man wel experienced in feats of arms Philip of Valois a great and a generous King loseth a battel out of a peevish humour of anger shewed him it were much better to expect till morning on which he seemed to be resolved but this Choler had already put fire into his souldiers and although some cryed out Stay Ensign-bearers yet those who marched before were so afraid to be out-gone by them who followed that they had not the patience When they came to joyn battel the Genoway Archers who were in the French army protested aloud they were not able to do their duty and instantly disbanded whereupon the King grew into a fresh anger and commanded to cut them in pieces which with all possible violence was executed ours being cruelly bent to devour their members whilst the arrows of the enemy fell upon them like hail and the horse gauled with shot horribly neighing ran away with their riders and all the place was covered with dead bodies This trouble of mind cost the losse of a battel wherein Froissard saith were eight French against one English-man and thirty thousand men where among others the King of Bohemia and Charles Count of Alencon the Kings brother were slaine in the place Behold the disasters of an il-governed Passion which never is well knowne but by the experience of its misery 4. There are other nice and haughty Cholers which are brought forth in the Curiosities of an imperious life as it happened to many Emperours who took a glory in being angry and to make their brutishnesse famous by bloudy effects Bajazet shewing one day the pleasure of hawking to the Count
against me In the third place I require that my servants who have attended on me with great fidelitie during so many afflictions may have free leave to retire where they please and enjoy those small Legacies which in my last Will my povertie hath bequeathed to them I conjure You Madam by the Bloud of Jesus Christ by the nearness of our consanguinitie by the Memorie of Henrie the Seventh our common Father and by the title of a Queen which I carrie to my Grave not to denie me these reasonable Demands but by one word under Your hand to grant me an assurance of them and I shall die as I have lived Your most affectionate Sister and Prisoner QUEEN MARY It is uncertain whether this Letter came to the hands of Elizabeth because no Answer can be found unto it whether it were that those next unto her did conceal it from her or whether through the hardness of her heart she did dissemble it In the mean time King James employed himself for The vain endeavour to delay her death the Deliverance of his Mother the Ambassadours from France Monsieur de la Mote Aigron and Monsieur del Aubispene were commanded thither upon that and other occasions and Monsieur de Belieurs did there also carry himself with great wisdom courage and fidelity as may appear by his grave Remonstrance which is to be read in the History of France Howsoever the Arrest of Death was suspended for there moneths until such time that the clamours of the Lutherans and Puritans did cause the Thunder to fall down upon that hand which desired nothing more than to strike home the blow The more advised did remonstrate unto her That it was without example to commit a Ladie the Queen of France and Scotland and the nearest Kinswoman she had in the world into the hands of a Hang-man A Queen which was not her prisoner of War but her Guest whom she had called and invited into her Kingdom and sent unto her assurances of her fidelitie That she ought to consider that what was done proceeded from her Secretaries and not from her And if that after twenty years imprisonment she should have consented to be taken from it by force it did not deserve to be punished with Death That if she should cause her to die it would open a wound from whence there would issue such abundance of bloud that many Ages could not stanch it That Italie France and Spain and all the Christian Kingdoms of the world would be offended at it and that she should bring upon her Kingdom the Arms of Christendom who would be glad of that pretence to invade her Kingdom That it would be a most remarkable affront to her Son James and all his Race who could not but be mindfull of it That it would incense the Spirits of her Kingdom and render them unreconcileable to her And in the end that it was to be feared that Heaven would arm it self against so bloudy a Design That she should use the miserable and especially a Queen who came into her Countrey for protection with more Reverence That she should hazard much in her death but could lose nothing by her life seeing she had so many Guards Prisons Bars and Walls to secure her if she had an intent to enterprize against the State But the insolent Ministers did incessantly crie out That she must put an end to her Imprisonment by putting an end unto her Life That the Queen ought to remember that she had usurped her Titles and her Name and sometimes caused her self to be proclaimed Queen of England and of Scotland and that Sovereigns never pardoned those who did so far intrench upon their Authority That the life of Elizabeth and Mary were incompatible That the onely means to take away all pretences from the Catholicks was to cut off this Root which would make all their hopes to perish That King James was instructed in their Religion and would rather look after the advancement of his own State than take vengeance for the Death of his Mother That forreign Princes were too much perplexed with the difficulties of their own Affairs and took care rather to defend their own than to invade her Kingdom That her Cousin the Duke of Guise was in a bad condition in France and that Henrie the Third would be very carefull how he did espouse her quarrels And if other Princes were so hardy to undertake it they were to understand that England had a deep ditch about it That Queen Elizabeth was mortal and if she should die there was not that calamitie to be conceived which both Religion and the State would not suffer under the reign of Marie in the revenge of her Imprisonment and other injuries she had received That she could not but remember that great personages did write things well done on the sand but did engrave their Discontents in brass The Preachers made it to be a work of Religion with their absurd Allegations out of the Bible which they did corrupt to their bloudy meaning And the Lawyers as ignorant as the Ministers were absurd did produce some Histories for the punishment of Kings which were altogether impertinent But there needed not so much labour to perswade a Woman who had in her so much vanity as once in her life to make a Princess head to fly upon a Scaffold and who did not remember that in the Reign of Queen Mary being her self accused of offending the Estate and expecting her sentence of death she did so much fear the Axes of the Hang-men in England that she was resolved to petition to her Sister to send for an Executioner to France to cut off her head Now was the Commandment given for her death and it was signified to the poor Victim who for a long time was prepared for this Sacrifice Some passionate writers do indeavour to divert this Crime from the reputation of Elizabeth taking their ground on a Letter which she wrote to the Queen of Scotland in which by a shamefull perfidiousness she doth write That her spirit was tormented with an incomparable Sorrow by reason of the lamentable Event which was arrived against her will and that she had not a soul so base as either by terrour to fear to do what was just or by cowardice to denie it after it was done But who doth not see that this is to mock and to Elizabeth entirely culpable of the death of Queen Mary traduce the Story and the belief of mankind Davison her Secretary who mannaged this sad affair as the true instrument of her malice doth express in his Attestation reported in the most faithfull Memorials of England by Cambden that after the departure of the French Ambassadour sent to prevent the Execution she commanded him to shew the Instrument for putting the Queen of Scotland to death which being done she most readily signed it with her own hand and commanded him to see it sealed with the Great Seal and
is as the Wise-man said as the rain-bowe that is bright in the fair clouds This is he whom after so many storms so many tempests and such a deluge of Christian bloud God seems to exhibit as a restorer of things a Peace-maker to the world an avenger of evils and a bestower of blessings And indeed this is not done by humane counsel but by the gubernative reason of God which is his Providence that he might demonstrate to the world by no vain auguries that to this man as to the Patriarch Noah the tops of the mountains should appear the waters of strife and the flouds of contention being dried up This I suppose is that dove with silver wings and whose hinder parts glittered as the purest gold whereof the Prophet spake Innocentius hath ever shined brighter then silver by the candour and uprightnesse of his mind but now the latter parts of his life promise a golden Age unto the world He doth not sit idle amidst the complaints and mournings of the Church he doth not revel in an uncircumspect and lazy greatnesse but with unwearied pains and a mind alwayes vigilant he is intent upon illustrious cares for Christ and aimeth at the consolation of mankind The amiable name of Pamphilius is delightfull unto all men and delightfull is the name of Innocentius so often consecrated to the salvation of men Innocentius the first extinguished Alaricus boasting himself in the prey of the Roman Empire with his prayers and by his splendour re-beautified the face of the eternall City when it was infuscated with the sooty vapours of a brutish Warre Innocentius the second dissipated the Schism of the counterfeit Anacletus and with the co-assistance of S. Bernard composed the Christian world when it was disunited with great discords A pure white dove fore-shewed the inauguration of Innocent the third by flying to his side without doubt designing the solicitous endeavours whereby he laboured to consociate all Christian Princes by firm Leagues one with another and to exasperate them against the common enemy of Religion Innocentius the fourth came to Lyons that he might reconcile the irregular tumults in the Church and that by his authority he might remove Frederick the Emperour that fomented many things and disturbed all things Innocentius the fifth was no sooner crowned but presently he addicteth his mind to pacifie the Cities of Italy and being by such pious determinations immortall in glory he spent his short Pontificate in a fatherly care of his people Innocentius the sixth when the flame of a destructive warre devoured France and England stood stoutly for the House of God and with a great spirit laboured for Peace with John and Edward at that time the Kings of the Nations Innocentius the seventh mounted not otherwise to this pitch of supreme Dignity but by a faithfull endeavour constantly transacted to reconcile the Princes and appease the cities of Italy which a malignant force of discord had precipitated into imminent destruction Innocentius the eighth was most desirous of Peace among Christian Princes and could not without some motions of impatience see any go to warre but upon the most important and importunate causes Innocentius the ninth when before his Pontificate he was the Aposticall Nuntio of Gregory the fourteenth staying six years among the Venetians conjoyned them both in Arms and Armies with the Pope and Philip the second King of Spain and irritated them against the Turk whereupon that most famous victory of Naupactus broke the boldnesse of the Sarazens and after a wonderfull manner improved the conduct of Christian Affairs Oh how is the name of the Innocents born and consecrated unto Peace Oh joyful appellation unto Christians The Tenth will accomplish what the nine have attempted so much the greater as this number is the more noble Go on thou dove of Innocence display thy silver wings flie over both earth and sea view the world shew forth in all places the celestiall olive give Peace so ambitiously desired and by such constant expectations wished give Peace I say so often called for and to be implored of thee the Anointed of the Lord or else at this time it must be despaired of What remaineth Greatest Princes but that you grant that to our Petitions which you have hitherto denied to our Reasons Whatsoever restraineth passion whatsoever can appease an armed man in fury doth now run towards you in one troop that so it may be honourable for you to be thus intreated and shamefull for you not to yield to these intreaties Behold the Pope the Pastour and Parent of the whole Church stretcheth out friendly hands unto you and when he might command intreats you almost forgetting that he is the Pope he becomes an humble suppliant A man dear to heaven and born for great enterprises Worthy in all places to bear the felicities of the world about him amidst all his exalted prosperities is your Petitioner that Divine wit equall to his heighth feels a colluctation with these burdens and in a vigorous and circumspect old age is grieved by you The bowels of a Father are urged who is as often fruitfull in the generation of children as he desires those children to be reconciled to Peace Be ashamed not to hear him whose predecessour Attila would hear He is full of dayes honour his grey hairs he is a Father acknowledge his Charity he is the Pope be observant of his Dignity God forbid that he like meek Jacob should be compelled to say Simeon and Levi are brethren in iniquity Let not my soul participate of their counsels and in their company let not my glory come Cursed be their fury because it is obstinate and their indignation because it is cruel The whole Church lamenteth with her Pope in times past triumphing now deformed full of filth now bedewed and almost drowned in tears and tired under cares and sorrows He beseecheth you that you would not suffer the Ammorites and the Moabites to insult in your destructions Prevent the petulancy of such an objection that even Barbarians did reverence him and yet he had Parricides to his sonnes How often have we seen the Priests at Jubilees prostrate in the Sanctuary with ejulations How often have we beheld Religious persons wearying the Altars with unwearied prayers How often have we seen the well-disposed Virgins imploring the aid of heaven by frequent sighs How often have we gladly beheld the Devout multitude crouding the Church to pour forth their wishes Of what quality and complexion is that rigour that which God a vert will not hear the whole world How is the metall of their souls compounded that would make heaven iron unto us and almost noxious whilst it either seemeth not to hear or what it heareth to contemne To be never free from Warres they think is either for the publick profit or for their own if for the publick let them hear S. Augustine crying out That felicity acquired by Martiall exploits is alwayes a brittle perishable beauty
thousand Crowns to him who should bring him to him and having understood that the Pope had made him his delegate into France and Flanders he did importune the French King by all manner of Sollicitation to deliver him into his hands But the brave Prince although it was directly against his Interest would do nothing that was against his generous mind and received the Cardinal with all courtesie and fidelity because he would not offend the Pope howsoever he would not suffer him to continue long in France because he would not exasperate the King of England for he had great use of his assistance in the war which he made against the Emperour Pool was then constrained to repair to Flanders where he was charitably received by Cardinal Everard Bishop of Cambray and he continued there sometimes attending the disposition of the Pope But Henry understanding that he was retired into that Province did again kndle his choler and that in so violent a heat that he promised the Flemmings to entertain four thousand men in pay for ten Moneths in favour of the Emperour against the French if they would abandon the Cardinal to his discretion Howsoever he found none that would favour his violence which did so incense him that he caused the Countess of Salisburie to be arrested She was mother to the Cardinal and daughter to the Duke of Clarence brother to Edward the fourth She was accused for having received a letter from her Son and for having worn about her neck the figure of the five wounds of our Saviour on which he commanded that a Process should proceed against her which was performed accordingly and the perverse and abominable Judges who made all their proceedings to comply with the merciless sury of their Prince did condemn her to death and caused her head to be cut off upon a Scaffold where she gave incomparable demonstrations of her piety and constancy Her dear Son who did love and respect her with all the tenderness of affection was extreamly afflicted at it and could find no comfort but in the order of Gods providence and in the glory of her death which was pretious before God After this the Legate was called back to Rome and after he had informed Paul the third of the misery of the people of Christendom who incessantly groaned under the calamity of war kindled betwixt the two principal Crowns he did contribute the uttermost of his indeavour to provide a remedy for it This good Pope was courteous liberal magnificent well versed in letters and above all a great lover of Astrology It seemeth that the Harmony of celestial bodies with which his spirit was so delicately transported did touch his Soul with a desire to make a like harmony on earth He was passionate for the Peace of Christian Princes and as he well understood the great capacity of Cardinal Pool joyned with the Royal bloud which gave him a more full Authority he did not delay to send him with a most Authenticall Commission to mediate an accord betwixt the two Kings The holy Prelate undertook this busines with great courage being carried to it as well by his own inclination as by election He failed not to represent unto their puissances all reasons both Divine and humane which might move them to an accord for the glorie of God for the glory of their own Monarchies and for the safety of their people But as he found in the ear of Henry the Eighth a Devil of lust which obstructed all the force of reason which was presented to him to divert his passion so he found in the spirit of these two Monarchs a horrible jealousie of Estate which stopped all enterance to his saving Counsels The time was not yet come and it was to row against the wind and tide to press that business any further He was constrained to return to Rome where the Pope gave him Commission to go to Wittimbergh where he continued certain years delighting in the fruits of a sweet tranquillity In the end the Councel of Trent being already assembled to extirpate Heresies and remedy the disorders with which its venemous Contagion had infected the brest of Christendom he was chosen to be president thereof which place for some time he executed to the admiration of his knowledge and the universal approbation of his zeal But when Paul the third having exceeded the age He is considered on to be Pope of four-score years did pay the Tribute common to the condition of the living he was obliged to return to Rome where all the world did cast their eyes on him to make him the head of the Church All things seemed to conspire to his Election his age his bloud his virtue his knowledge his great experience in affairs the general affection of all which did pass almost to veneration It was onely himself that resisted his own Fortune because he would not assist himself and permitted nothing of a submiss softness to over-act his generosity neither in that nature would he be a suppliant although it were for the chiefest Miter in the world The Nephews of Paul the third who as yet possessed the most high Authority of affairs considering the faithfulness of the great services which he had rendered their uncle did perswade him with importunity to this chief Bishoprick of the world And as the Conclave was assembled and the Decision of the great business did approch unto maturity they came at night into his Chamber to speak with him concerning his promotion and to offer themselves to his service to prefer unto him that Sovereign dignity But he shewed so little complacence to their discourse that in stead of making indearments and submissions of which they who pretend to honour are always excessively prodigal he made answer to them That God was the God of light and that the affair which they came about ought not to be treated on in darkness That one word did rebate the edge of their spirits and on the morning following the good Fortune which for two moneths together did look directly on Cardinal Pool did slack its foot at the dismission of the Nephew Cardinals and Julius the Third was chosen Pope a person of much renown and a great Lawyer Pool his Competitor well understanding that it was He retireth again into solitude not expedient to reside under the eyes of a Potentate to whom the power over Christendom was secretly preferred retired to Mentz into a monastery of Saint Benets where he enjoyed the delights of rest to which his inclinations carried him exercising his devotion to the height and recreating himself with good letters which he always loved But God who by his means was pleased to bring about the greatest revolution of Estate as Europe ever saw did cause occasions to arise to draw him from that solitude to return again to his great imployments It is necessary in this place to make mention of the condition of the affairs in England to behold virtue in
the day of its own brightness to consider how Providence guarding her dear Pool as the apple of her eye did reserve him for a time which made him the true Peace-maker of that nation For this effect it came to pass that Henry the Eighth The Estate of England having reigned eighteen years in schism leading a life profuse in luxury ravenous in avarice impious in Sacriledge cruel in massacres covered over with ordures bloud and Infamy did fall sick of a languishing disease which gave him the leisure to have some thoughts on the other world It is true that the affrighting images of his Crimes The death of Henry the Eighth and the shades of the dead which seemed to besiege his bed and perpetually to trouble his repose did bring many pangs and remorses to him Insomuch that having called some Bishops to his assistance he testified a desire to reconcile himself unto the Church and sought after the means thereof But they who before were terrified with the fury of his actions which were more than barbarous fearing that he spoke not that but onely to sound them and that he would not seal to their Counsels which they should suggest unto him peradventure with the effusion of their bloud did gently advise him without shewing him the indeavours and the effects of true repentance and without declaring to him the satisfactions which he ought to God and to his Neighbours for the enormities of so many Crimes He was content to erect the Church of the Cardeleirs and commanded that Mass should there be publickly celebrated which was performed to the great joy of the Catholicks which yet remained in that horrible Havock To this Church he annexed an Hospital and some other appurtenances and left for all a thousand Crowns of yearly Revenue As he perceived that his life began to abandon him he demanded the Communion which he received making a show as if he would rise himself but the Bishop told him that his weakness did excuse him from that Ceremony he made answer That if he should prostrate himself on the Earth to receive so Divine a Majesty he should not humble himself according to his duty He by his Will ordained that his Son Edward who was born of Jane Seimer should succeed him and in the case of death that Marie the Daughter of Queen Katharine should be the inheritress of the Crown and if that she should fail that his Daughter Elizabeth although a Bastard should fill her place and possess the Kingdom On the approches of death he called for wine and those who were next unto his bed did conceive that he oftentimes did repeat the word Monks and that he said as in despair I have lost all This is that which most truly can be affirmed of him for it is a very bad sign to behold a man to die in the honour of his Royal dignity and by a peaceable death who had torn in pieces JESUS CHRIST who had divided the Church into schisms who of the six Queens that he espoused had killed four of them who had massacred two Cardinals three Archbishops eighteen Bishops twelve great Earls Priests and Religious Men without number and of his people without end who had robbed all the Churches of his Kingdom destroyed the Divine worship oppressed a million of innocents and in one word who had assasinated mercy it self Howsoever he wanted not flatterers who presumed to say and write that his wisdom had given a good order to his affairs and that he happily departed this world not considering what S. dustine doth affirm That all the penitencies of those who have lived in great disorders and who onely do convert themselves at the end of their life being pressed to it by the extreamity of their disease ought to be extreamly suspected because they do not forsake their sins but their sins do forsake them It was observed indeed that at his death this King did testifie a repentance of his savage and inordinate life but we cannot observe the great and exemplary satisfactions which were due to the expiation of so many abominable sins King Antiochus made submissions of another nature and ordered notable restitutions to recompense the dammages which he had caused to the people of the Jews nevertheless he was rejected of God by reason of his bloudy life and the Gates of the Temple of mercy were shut against him for all eternity The foundation of a small Hospital which Henry caused at his death was not sufficient to recompense the injuries of so many Churches which he had pillaged nor of so much goods of his Subjects as he had forced from them seeing we know by the words of the wise man That to make a benefit Eccles 34. of the substance of the poor is to sacrifice a Son before the eyes of his Father He had by his Testament ordained many tutors to The Reign of Edward His Uncle Seimer spoileth all his Son who were able to have made as many Tyrants but Seimer Uncle by the mothers side to the deceased King gaining the favour of the principal of the Lords of the realm whom he had corrupted with mony and great presents did cause himself to be proclaimed Protector and Regent He took a great possession on little Edward the Son of Henry heir to the Crown whom he brought up in schism and Heresie against the intentions of his Father This furious man immediately began his Regency with so much insolence that he almost made the reign of Henry the Eight to be forgotten he fomented the poison which he had conceived under him he did use the Catholicks most unworthily and did cut off the head of his own Brother by a jealousy of women But as he had made himself insupportable so it came to pass that the affairs of war which he had enterprized against the French did fall out unfortunately for him Dudley one of the chiefest of the Lords drawing a party to him did accuse him of Treason and caused his head to be cut off on the same Scaffold where before he had taken off the head of his own Brother This death was followed with great fears and horrible commotions for the Regency which presently after was extinguished by the death of the young King Edward This poor Prince was rather plucked with pincers The Qualities and death of King Edward from his mothers womb than born and he could not come into the world without giving death to her who conceived him He was said to have none of the comeliest bodies He spake seven languages at fifteen years of age and in his discourse did testifie a rare knowledge of all those sciences which were most worthy of a King It seemeth that death did advance it self to ravish his spirit from his body which did awake too early and was too foreward for his age for he died in his sixteen year having not had the time throughly to understand himself and to see by what course