POPISH POLICIES and PRACTICES Represented in the HISTORIES OF THE PARISIAN MASSACRE GUN-POWDER TREASON CONSPIRACIES Against Queen ELIZABETH AND PERSECUTIONS OF THE PROTESTANTS in FRANCE Translated and Collected out of the famous THVANVS and other Writers of the Roman Communion WITH A DISCOURSE CONCERNING THE ORIGINAL of the POWDER-PLOT LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew-Bell over against the Inner-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street 1674. THE HISTORY OF THE Bloody Massacres OF THE PROTESTANTS IN FRANCE IN THE Year of our LORD 1572. WRITTEN In Latin by the Famous HISTORIAN J A. AVG. THVANVS and faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew-Bell by Flying-horse-Court in Fleet-street 1674. A brief Introduction to the History of the MASSACRE THE Lords of the House of Guise whether through the instigation of the Jesuites whom they first introduced into France and highly favoured or through their emulation * V. Discourse sect 40. against the Princes of the Blood who favoured the Reformed Religion or both professing themselves great zealots for the Papal Authority and irreconcilable enemies to the Hugonots as they called them of the Reformed Religion especially after the dissentions grew high between them and the Princes to whom they doubted not but the Protestants would adhere as well upon the account of Religion as of the Right of the Princes having * V. Disc sect 41. by force gotten the young King Charles 9. into their hands endeavoured by all means to raise in his mind as great prejudice and hatred against the Protestants and the chief men of their party as possible The young King thus trained up in prejudice against them and moreover from his youth inured to cruelty and the slaughters of his Subjects even in cold blood whereof by the D. of Guise he had been early made a spectator was scarce out of his minority when he was ivited by the Pope V. Disc sect 42. the K. of Spain and the D. of Savoy to joyn in a holy League for the extirpation of the Hereticks but being by nature of an Italian genius and well instructed by his Mother in the policies of her Country he chose as a more safe and surer way to attempt that rather by secret stratagems and surprize than by open hostility And therefore at an enterview at Bayonne between him with his Mother and his Sister the Queen of Spain accompanied with the D. of Alva having by the way had secret conference at Avignon with some of the Pope's trusty Ministers the Pope having perswaded that meeting and earnestly pressed the King of Spain himself to be present at it it was concluded to cut off the chief heads of the Protestants and then in imitation of the Sicilian Vespers to slaughter all the rest to the last man But the design being discovered to the Prince of Conde Colinius and others of the Nobility when they perceived such preparations made for the execution of it as unless timely prevented they were likely suddenly to be all destroyed V. Disc sect 43. they put themselves into a posture of defence whereupon broke out a Civil War But that being contrary to the design to effect the business by stratagem and surprize it was in few months composed for the present but shortly after when the same design was again perceived to be carried on and the like inevitable danger approached as neer as before was again renewed in the former manner and continued somewhat longer and hotter than before V. Disc sect 45. Whereupon the King perceiving that the greatest difficulty was to beget and confirm in the Protestant Nobility a trust and confidence in himself used all arts imaginable to do that and to that purpose in all solemn manner granting and confirming to the Protestants in France very fair terms of peace and security he at the same time pretended a resolution to make a war with Spain entred into a League with the Queen of England and with the Protestant Princes of Germany and which was the principal part of the policy proposed a match between the Prince of Navar the first Prince of the Blood and chief of the Protestant Party and his Sister Margaret as that which would not only serve his purpose to beget a confidence in the Protestants of his sincerity and good intention but moreover afford him a fair opportunity at the solemnization of the Marriage of effecting his design at last which had been so often and so long disappointed All which having managed with wonderful art and dissimulation he at last obtained what he desired as in the following History is more particularly related THE HISTORY OF THE MASSACRES OF THE Protestants at PARIS and many other places in FRANCE in the Year of our Lord 1572. 1. THE day of the Nuptials between Henr. Lib. 5. King of Navar and Margaret Sister to the King of France drawing on which was appointed the * August 18th 15th of the Kalends of September the King by Letters solicits Coligni that he should come to Paris having before given in charge to Claudius Marcellus Provost of the Merchants that he should see to it that no disturbance did arise upon Colignie's coming to Paris Likewise Proclamation was published the third of the Nones of July July 5th when he was at Castrum-Bononiae about two miles from the City wherein it was for bidden that any of what condition soever should dare to renew the memory of things past give occasion of new quarrels carry pistols fight duels draw their swords especially in the King's retinue at Paris and in the Suburbs upon pain of death But if any difference should arise among the Nobles concerning their Honour or Reputation they should be bound to bring their plaint to the Duke of Anjou the King's Deputy throughout the whole Kingdom and to pray justice of him if they were of the Commons they should betake themselves to the High Chancellor de l'Hospital if it shall happen among those that shall not be in the Court but in Paris they shall go before the ordinary Magistrate It was also provided by the same Proclamation that those who were not of the Courts of any of the Princes or Nobles or of the Retinue of others or were not detained upon some necessary business but were of uncertain abode and habitation about Paris or the Suburbs should depart from the Court City within 24 hours after the publication of this Edict upon the same pain of death This was published for three days together with the sound of Trumpet in the Court and through the City and it was ordered that the publication should be repeated week by week upon the Sabbath-day Also there was adjoyned to the guards of the King's body for his greater security a guard of 400 choice Souldiers all which Coligni full of confidence and good assurance so interpreted as if the King desirous of the publick Peace did only prepare a contrary strength against
those which were seditious and movers of troubles Therefore he comes into the City though many were greatly disturbed at it to whom when they importunately dehorted him both by letter and word of mouth he after he had given them thanks answered in one word That he was resolved now that Peace was concluded and things past forgotten to rely upon the saith of the King and that he had rather be dragged through the streets of Paris than to take up Civil Arms again 2. Among other letters there was one brought to him being now come to Paris written very smartly after this manner Remember that it is an established Decree of the Papists upon the account of Religion and confirmed by the authority of Councils that Faith is not to be kept with hereticks in the number of which Protestants are accounted Remember also that Protestants upon the account of the former Wars do lie under an eternal odium so that it is not to be doubted but this is the Queens resolution that Protestants be rooted out by any means whatsoever Add to this that it cannot be but that a woman that is a stranger and an Italian descended of the race of the Popes whom they oppose and of a Florentine and guileful nature should study all extremities against her enemies Consider moreover in what School the King was educated in which he drew in with his milk under his good Tutors this Doctrine that he should make it a sport to swear and forswear to use the name of God profanely to defile himself with Whoredomes and Adulteries to dissemble his Faith Religion Counsels to set his countenance according to occasion And that he might be accustomed to the effusion of the bloud of his Subjects he was taught from his childhood to behold the slaughters and butcheries of * And of men also v. l. 24. p. 275. beasts that he is setled in this perswasion to suffer no Religion in his Kingdom but that which may uphold his state according to the opinion of his Master Machiavel otherwise it would never be at Peace so long as two Religions flourished in it and that it was instilled into his ears that the Protestants did decree to spoil him of his Life and Empire And therefore he would never suffer the Protestants who had once whether upon a just or unjust cause taken up Arms against him to enjoy the benefit of his Edict but that he would with Arms revenge what was done with Arms against him nor would he look upon himself obliged to keep his Covenants which he had entred into with his armed Subjects These are the Arts of Princes the Elements of Policy the Arcana Imperii So Commodus of old commanded Julian whom he owned and embraced as his Father to be slain Thus Antonius Caracalla under pretence of mustering slew the prime youth of the City So Lysander cut the throats of eight hundred Milesians called together under pretence of friendship and society So Sergius Galba raged upon six thousand Spaniards and lately by the command of Antonius Spinola the chief men of the Isle of Corsica were called together to a Feast and slain In our memory did Christiern a King of a barbarous nature use the same arts in the Massacre of Stockholm So heretofore Charles 7 though reconciled to the Duke of Burgundy yet abstained not from killing him though he begged for his life Nor are the discourses that the King lately had with his mother at Blois unknown For when in a jocular manner profanely using as his custom is the name of God he asked her whether he had not acted his part handsomely at the coming of the Queen of Navar the Queen answered that he had begun well but these beginnings would little advantage him unless he proceeded But I said he with often repeated oaths will bring them all into your toils From these words the truth whereof you may be assured of you ought to take counsel and if you are wise get out of the City and so from the Court as from a most filthy sink with all the speed as may be 3. Coligni having read this letter though he was not a little troubled at it yet that he might not seem altogether to neglect the admonitions and intreaties of his friends made answer That there was no place left for these suspitions that he could never perswade himself that so great perfidiousness could enter into so good a King than whom France for this many years never had a better That Anjou indeed was more averse to the Protestant party but that hatred would now cease even out of respect to the affinity contracted with the King of Navar. For the rest the League entred into with England and that which the King was now making with the Protestant Princes of the Empire did sufficiently shew how he stood affected to the Protestants when as he would have one of the Sons of the Elector Palatine in his retinue and some one of the English Nobles as Leicester or Burgleii who were most forward for Religion Moreover he had given his Faith to the Prince of Orange and Nassau his Brother concerning aids against the Spaniards and that a great supply was preparing in the place of those who were routed under Jenlis their leader That John Galeacius Fulgosius who lately returned from Florence did assure them that Cosunus would lend the King two hundred thousand Aurei towards that War That the King's Ambassador did carefully pry into the counsels of the Duke of Alva and daily acquaint the King with them That this he knew every day from the King That the Navy that Philip Strossy and Polinius Garda do command at Broage and upon the Coasts of Poictou was not prepared to any other use but to disturb the Spanish Fleet which being done it shall go to help the Prince of Orange at Flushing As for himself and his own particular safety all might be secure of that for that he through the King's means is reconciled to the Guises each engaging their Faith to the King that they would neither of them hereafter impeach one the other Lastly that the King did all he could to make Peace at home and War abroad and that he might transfer the War into the Low-Countreys and against the Spaniards Wherefore he prayed the Author of the writing and others that are of his mind that they would no more with these suspitions trouble his mind which was taken up with more weighty businesses and better designs but rather that they would joyning their prayers with his beg of God that he would prosper things so well begun and bring them at last to an happy end for the good of the Church and Kingdom 4. The same things were written to Coligni from the Rochellers which he did in as friendly manner take off with all moderation and constancy Therefore when they could not divert him from that mind they set upon the King of Navar with Letters dated 6 of the Eids
Kings of the Earth the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints whether there reigneth not that man of sin the son of Perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God above all nominal Gods as Kings and Emperors or that is worshipped or reverenced so that he as God Cum super Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus qui fecit Imperatorem dum se Donatus super Imperatorem extollit jam quasi hominum excesserat metas ut se ut Deum non hominem aestimaret c. Optatus l. 3. which with more reason may be said of the Pope sitteth in the Temple the Church of God though adulterous and apostate Church shewing himself that he is a God above all earthly Gods as Kings and Emperors and the immediate Vicar of the true God For the Doctrine of the Primitive and Ancient Church how contrary that is to these Principles and Practices every one may see in the sacred Scriptures and it is almost vulgarly known from the writings of the ancient Christians commonly cited as to obedience to temporal Princes and Magistrates But be this never so evident I know it will be hard to perswade one who hath been trained up in the Popish Principles to believe it Not only the prejudice of Education but more particularly the opinion of the Perseverance and Infallibility of the Church which above all things from their tender years is deeply rooted in their minds will be a great obstacle and stumbling block in their way But let them take heed that a too particular application of a general promise do not deceive them The Jews had as express promises as any they can pretend and were as zealous as they are now and yet were deceived with lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as they do now the Church the holy Catholick Apostolick Roman Church 12. Here also such Princes as having escaped these corruptions will again subject their necks to the Roman yoak may see what a snare they involve themselves in and what a slavery they must lie under to the Papal Tyranny how dangerous it is to have their peoples minds infected with these Principles and their consciences directed by such Guides And here King James's Defence of the Right of Kings sub fin if there be any truth in that speech of Cardinal Perron That so long as the Kings of France have kept good terms of concord with the Popes they have been the more prosperous and on the contrary when they have jarred with the Holy See they have been infested with boisterous storms and tempests here I say if this be true they may perceive the true reason of it viz. in the one case they were free from the molestation of the Popes and their Emissaries and in the other they were infested by them But how little truth there is in that assertion may partly appear by what hath here been written and is also proved by our late learned King James in his solid confutation of it by instances not only in France but other Countries also And in England who hath been more prosperous and succesful than she who wholly cast off the Pope's authority and would not be courted to so much as to admit his Legate and who more unhappy than they who have too much complyed with them 13. Lastly we must here take notice of that which cannot but administer matter of grief to all true and cordial Christians and that is the scandal of these Principles and Practices the occasion which thereby is given to those who are not well acquainted with the Doctrines and Practices of the ancient genuine Christians nor have well considered the great evidences of the truth and excellence of the Christian Religion to suspect it to be no other than what they apprehend it to be in the lives and actions of such spurious professors of it viz. a meer Imposture with great subtilty and artifice managed for secular ends and the injury which thereby is done to the holy Martyrs when we shall see Rebels seditious Traytors and Parricides honoured and magnified as Martyrs and that not by the vulgar only but by their Popes themselves and Cardinals by their learned Writers in printed Books and Preachers from their Pulpits nay when we shall see Relations in printed Books and representations by printed Cuts and Pictures of most horrible persecutions and martyrdoms pretended to be suffered where in truth was no such matter what a tentation may this give to weak unlearned or prejudiced minds to suspect that the ancient holy Martyrs either suffered not at all or if they did were only such turbulent spirits or poor deluded souls as many of these Nor hath the holy providence of God escaped their prophane abuse by entitling it to such trifles as a prudent Historian would disdain to mention and palpable lyes as may be seen in Sanders Ribadeneira and other such like Writers To which if we add the abuse of miracles by lyes and forgeries we shall find that the gates of Hell that is the counsels have prevailed against these degenerate successors of Peter with a witness Nor could a more effectual means be devised for the subversion of Christianity and all Religion not the very arms of Mahomet and his sect than this mystery of iniquity nor if it be well considered hath the whole World produced any thing which doth better deserve the name of Antichrist And indeed if we consider the present growth of Atheism and Infidelity among us and trace it to its roots and original we shall find it all to be of an Italian Extraction and from thence propagated to France and so to England and other parts Nor shall we find any other reasons for it than what are here mentioned the Italians perceiving better what is acted among themselves than those who are more remote For let the Italian subtilty be what it will I think it is plain that they have made no deeper search into either the secrets of Nature or of Antiquity from one or both of which they must derive their principles if they have others besides what are here mentioned than other Nations have made 63. And now before I conclude I must crave leave to make this address to several sorts of persons distinctly And first to all Christians in general that they will seriously consider whether they be not obliged for the honour and reputation of our holy Profession and whether our great Lord doth not require it of them to declare against this Romish Faction and their Unchristian or rather Antichristian and abominable scandalous principles and practices that is all National Churches and Vniversities publickly by solemn Decrees and Protestations if not by excommunication and all particular private Christians by abstaining from their communion and coming out of that Babylon that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues 2. To those who are not of that Communion and
of Coligni be comprehended in the same guilt To whom doth it not seem absurd and most ridiculous that Coligni should at so unseasonable a time conspire against Navar that professed the same Religion with him and whom he had in his power for four years together Thus many did discourse and so they judged that upon the account of this fact the French Name would for a long time labour under an odium and infamy and that posterity would never forget an act of so great unworthiness Typographical Errors to be Corrected as followeth in THe Hist of the Massacre Pag. 5 l. 1. Burleigh l. 7. Cosmus p. 7. l. 4. compact p. 8. l. 10. when he l. 36. Palace near the Louvre p. 12. l. 1. receive p. 13. l. 28. Antonius Marafinus Guerchius without commas so p. 14. l. 2. Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus l. 7. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 8. Moninius l. 26. racket p. 18. l. 7. your Kingdom p. 21. l. 9. as he did p. 28. l. 11. Cossenius l. 36. Atinius l. 37. Sarlaboux p. 29. l. 5. Merlin the Minister Coligny p. 32. l. 32. Claromontius Marquess of Renel p. 34. l. 19. Caumontius p. 35. l. 25. Monralbertus Roboreus Joach Vassorius Cunerius Rupius Columbarius Velavaurius Gervasius Barberius Francurius p. 36. l. 15. Armanus Claromontius Pilius l. 32. Bellovarius l. 36. Durfortius Duracius l. 37. Gomacius Buchavanius p. 40. l. 36. Perionius p. 41. l. 13. Languages who had private fends and contentions with Carpentar l. 22. to those l. 30. Roliardus p. 43. l. 2. Sancomontius Sauromanius l. 3. Bricomotius p. 53. l. 33. Meletinus p. 57. l. 17. Arles where l. 36. suspition of poison given p. 58. l. 2. Mombrunius p. 62. l. 20. Helionorus Chabotius p. 63. l. 11. Chabotius THe Hist of the Powder-Plot Pag. 8. l. 27. Harrington p. 14. l. 30. detest p. 15 l. 21. for wikes r. de Vic p. 16. in marg So on the p. 22. l. 27. dele Look entituled l. 29. for Provincial r. Father General A TRUE NARRATION Of that Horrible CONSPIRACY AGAINST King JAMES And the whole PARLIAMENT OF ENGLAND Commonly called the Gun-Powder TREASON Written in Latine by Jacobus Augustus Thuanus Privy-Councillor to the King of France and President of the Supream Senate of that Kingdom Faithfully rendred into English LONDON Printed for John Leigh at the Sign of the Blew Bell by Flying-Horse Court in Fleet-street 1674. The History of the Powder-Plot MDCV. Translated out of Thuanus lib. 135. NOw shall we in a contiued Relation declare that Horrid and by all Parties justly * So detestable it seems it was to some of the Students of the English Colledge at Rome that being informed of the discovery of the Plot Sixteen of them abhorring such jugling and bloody Designs forsook the Colledge slipt into France some of them turning to the Church of England whither they came Foulis Hist of Popish Treasons li. 10. c. 2. p. 692. detested Conspiracy entred into a-against the King of Great Britain which being discovered about the end of this year 1605 was in the next year suppressed by the Death of the Conspirators To the Petition for Liberty of Conscience made by the Papists in the former Session of Parliament and rejected by the King there was a rumour there would be another preferred at the next Sessions which had been now often deferred which should be in no danger of being denyed as the former but should carry with it a necessity of being granted by the King whither he would or not Therefore those that managed the Affairs of the Kingdom under a generous and no wayes suspcious King fearing nothing worse did make it their business to avoid such Petitions and that necessity that did attend them But among the Conspirators it was consulted not how they might obtain the Kings favour which they now despaired of but how they might revenge that repulse though with the ruine of the Kingdom which the other never thought of The beginning of these Counsels are to be derived from the latter end of Q. Elizabeth For then as appeared afterwards by proofs and confessions Robert Winter to whom Oswald Tesmond alias Greenwell of the Society of the Jesuits joyned himself as his Companion was by the advice of Hen. Garnet Provincial or Superiour of the said Society in England Robert Catesby and Francis Tresham of the Gentry instigating privately sent into Spain in the name of the Catholicks with Letters Commendatory to Arthur Creswell of the same Society living in Spain Des. 1601. Mandatis and with Commands to the King of which this was the summe That he should forthwith send an Army into England for which the Catholicks would be ready in Arms as soon as it came over In the mean while that he should assign yearly Pensions to some Catholick Gentlemen Furthermore that he should insinuate it to the King that there were some Gentlemen and Military persons that were aggrieved at the Present state of things whom he might easily draw to his Part by relieving their necessities And whereas the greatest difficulty after the Landing such an Army would be for supply of Horses they in England would take care to have Two thousand Horses ready provided upon all occasions This thing was secretly transacted by the Mediation of Creswell with Petrus Francesa Secretary to King Philip and Franciscus Sandovallius Duke of Lerma and he affirmed that the thing would be very acceptable to King Philip and that he had offered his utmost assistance that it was also agreed among them of the Place of Landing For if the forces were great then Kent and Essex would be most commodious for their Landing if less Milford in Wales and that King Philip had promised by Count Miranda toward that Expedition Ten hundred thousand Crowns Decies centena aurcorum M. Stored with these promises Winter returns into England and acquaints Garnet Catesby and Tresham what he had done These things were transacted under Q Elizabeth who dying about this time Mar. 1603. Christopher Wright who was privy to these Matters is speedily sent into Spain who bringing the News of the Queens Death Sir Will. Stanly presseth the business of the Pensions and the Expedition With him was sent from Bruxells by William Stanly Hugh Owen and Balduinus 22 Jun. 1603. one of the Society of the Jesuits Guido Fawkes with Letters to Creswell that he should speed the business To him was given in Command that he should signifie to the King that the Condition of the Catholicks would be more hard under the new King then it had been under Q. Elizabeth and therefore that he should be no means desist from so laudable an Enterprize That Milford lay open for an easie Landing to Spinola But the state of things was changed by the death of the Queen and King Philip returned an Answer worthy of a King that he could no longer attend to their Petitions for that he had sent Ambassadors
Invasion which was after attempted in 88. when many were so cunningly engaged that they knew not of and so were not able to accuse any but the person that ingaged them as Sir Francis Bacon in his Observations upon the Libel published 1592. and in his Collection of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth shews from a Letter of one of their Principal Heads which was intercepted and not only practised before but also repeated immediatly after this Plot when Five had severally undertaken the Earl of Salisbury's death and vowed the performance of it and yet it was so ordered that none of those Five knew who the other Four were for the better preventing the discovery of the rest if any one by attempting and not performing should be apprehended from hence it may well be answered That it is very probable that Winter and Fawkes from whose Confessions this mistake hath arisen and the Objection may be made and most of the other Conspirators did indeed know of no other Author of the Contrivance but Catesby And yet it may very well be that He received it from others the first Contrivers of it either immediately or mediately either the full Project expresly with the Reasons mentioned by Thuanus under some Oath of Secrecy or Engagement not to discover from whom he received it or at least some such Hints and Intimations of it as were sufficient to set on work a mind so active and well disposed to improve the same to the utmost and without any such engagement he might be apt enough to take the Invention upon himself not only out of Devotion to the Society whose reputation he might thereby the better secure in case it should miscarry but even out of an Ambition to be reputed the Author of so Glorious an Enterprise And that He should be intrusted with so Great a Secret and the Chief visible Management of it rather than any of the rest was very likely 1. Because he and his Family had been addicted and devoted to the Jesuits from their very first coming into England and were harbourers of Campian who with his Comrade Parsons the two first and principal who were designed and employed for that Service came into England Anno 1580. where he was apprehended 22. July in the year next ensuing as we are informed by Sanders 3. de Schismate Anglicano From which time it is not unlikely that he held correspondence with F. Parsons who soon after returned to Rome and continued there Rector of the English Colledge till some years after the discovery of this plot he was shamefully turned out of Rome by Mounsieur Bethunes the French Embassadour and Order from the King of France being discovered to plot a new treason against his Majesty to introduce the Duke of Parma as we are told by a Romanist But 2. this was not all why Catesby was preferred before the rest in this service for in this respect Tresham might perhaps have claimed that honor as well as he as we may see in Sanders but Catesby had another more special qualification as being more Cautious and Cunning as we may observe in Thuanus 21. But because so plausible a Pretense for the Occasion of these desperate resolutions at that time as the King of Spain's then deserting of the Conspirators upon his Treaty of Peace with England may seem to have some weight in it though it must be noted that this seemes rather to have been the Conjecture of the Historians and others than that any such thing was expresly alledged by the Conspirators for ought appears in the Printed Confessions of Fawkes and Winter yet that we may leave no scruple and make it further appear that we have not only the concurrence of all Circumstances to confirm our belief of the truth of what hath been said but have also sufficient matter and ground for Answer to all Objections we shall return such Answer though touch'd before as may both sufficiently solve this doubt and be of some use to other purpose And therefore it must be remembred 1. That all the neighbouring Popish Princes especially France Spain and the Archdukes of Austria toward the latter end of the Queens Reign were not a little concerned upon Fear of what Consequence the Vnion of the three Kingdoms viz. of Scotland with England and Ireland might prove in time as is not only apparent in it self but intimated to us by the Papists themselves in their Supplication to King James before the discovery of this plot and thereupon bent all their Consultations and used all Means to prevent or hinder it as well after the Kings coming in as before and even by their Embassadours here did not only tamper with some of the Prime Ministers of State to corrupt them but also practised to raise stirs and Rebellions Of the French Cambden tells us that the French Embassadour studied to move Commotions ne duo divisa Britanniae Regna Angliae Scotiae in unum coalescerent and others inform us of his tampering with some of the Prime Statesmen here And of Count Arembergh Embassadour Extraordinary for the Archdukes we find him reported to have been an agent in the Treason of Watson and Clark and not only so but that He and they were the Contrivers of it and that He drew into it the Lord Cobham and by his means his brother Brook Parham the Lord Grey of Wilson and at length Raleigh also was brought in 22. And 2. we must take notice that there was certainty a deeper mystery in the Counsels of Spain than meerly an Invasion intended For long before this The King of Spain as Sir Fr. Bacon in his Report of the Treason of Loper well observes having found by the Enterprise of 88 the Difficulty of an Invasion of England layed aside the Prosecution of his Attempts against this Realm by Open Forces and by all means projected to trouble the waters here by Practise first to move some Innovation in Scotland then he sollicited a Subject within this Realm being a Person of great Nobility to rise in Arms and Levy war against her Majesty Perhaps he means the Earl of Darby whom Richard Hesket endeavoured to perswade to assume the Title of King deriving his Right from his great Grandmother Mary daughter of Hen. VII and made him large promises of Aids and Money from the Spaniard threatning him with sudden destruction if he did not do it and conceal the business Cambd. Anno 1593. Lastly either of himself or his Counsellers and Ministers using his name descended to a course Against all Honour all Society and Humanity Odious to God and Man Detested by the Heathens themselves to take away the life of her Majesty by Violence or Poison A matter which might be proved to be not only against all Christianity and Religion but against Nature The Law of Nations The Honour of Arms The Civil Law The Rules of Morality and Policy Finally the most Condemned Barbarous and Ferine Act that can be imagined
is this Jesuites discourse with him represented by the Excellent Thuanus who there informs us that this business was transacted with the Spanish Ambassadour Mendoza and was to have been seconded by a forrein Army and Paget a gentleman of a Noble family sent into Spain about it And at last all things being agreed on both at home and abroad the day appointed for the perpetrating the business is S. Bartholomews day memorable for the Parisian Massacre fourteen years since and for that reason purposely made choice of But before the day came the business being detected Ballard and Babington and several other of the Conspirators were apprehended whereof some had sworn to be the Executioners of the Queens murther and among them Savage now again swore it and others were to be of the party which the while was to rescue the Queen of Scots and upon their own Confessions and Letters intercepted were Convicted Condemned and Executed And in this Conspiracy was a project of making an Association under pretense of fear of the Puritans These were executed but the twentieth of September and in January following was the French Ambassadour l' Aubaspinaeus a man wholly devoted to the Guisian Faction and Lieger here projecting the same business Camb. an 1.87 and to that purpose treated with William Stafford a Gentleman of a Noble Family to kill the Queen at first more covertly but afterward more openly by his Secretary who promised him great Honours a huge summ of Money great Favour with the Pope the Duke of Guise and all the Catholicks Stafford refused it himself but commended to him one Moody and in Consultation how to do it Moody proposes to lay a bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed-chamber and secretly give fire to it But this being discovered by Stafford the Secretary thinking to be gone into France was intercepted and upon his examination confessed the whole matter 32. Hitherto had the Actors and Abettors of most of these Conspiracies to put the better Colour upon their unjustifiable attempts besides the Cause of Religion pretended also the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England Camb. an 1586 who having been discovered to be privy to most of the former and found guilty of that of Babington was therefore condemned and now this being found to have been designed upon the same pretense Queen Elizabeth by great importunity of the Parliament who had confirmed the Sentence was prevailed with to sign a Warrant for the Execution whereupon she was beheaded the eighth of February following And here we must not omit a Notable Artifice of the Jesuites who being at last out of hope of Restoring their Religion by Her or Her Son Camb. an 86 began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imployed one of their Society into England as is discovered by Pasquier a French Writer to draw off the Gentry from Her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into those dangerous Counsels which brought Her to Her end and at the same time least the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirring Them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarre and Conde And agreeable hereunto was the discovery of that for which she was condemned viz. by Gilbert Gifford a Priest then sent over into England to immind Savage of his Vow and to be the Letter-carrier between the Queen of Scots and the Confederates who presently goes and offers his Service to the Secretary Walsingham to discover them and that forsooth out of Love to his Prince and Countrey although he had not long before been one of those who provoked Savage to his vow to kill her and accordingly he first conveyes them to Walsingham by whom they are opened transcribed and carefully sealed up again and returned to Gifford who then conveys them to the Queen of Scots Babington or who ever else they are directed to which is so plain a prosecution of the same design that it is a wonder that Camden should be so much at a loss to find out the mystery of this undertaking of the Priest More might be observed to manifest this Juggle if it were necessary to the present business 33. The Design of the Pope and Spaniard to Invade England had been now long since perceived here not so much by printed books which were designed only to work upon the vulgar and their own party as by the secret Letters of Morton and others which were intercepted and Chringhtow the Scotch Jesuit's papers miraculously as himself acknowledged when by him torn and thrown into the Sea blown back into the Ship wherein he was taken But now their preparations being in good forwardness as well for the assault from abroad by their Navy and Army as for their reception and admission here by their party prepared by their Agents the Emissaries the better to disguise the business and to make the Queen and her Counsel the more secure Camb. an 1586 they not only publish a Book wherein the Papists in England are admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but to fight only with the weapons of Christians Tears Spiritual Arguments Sedulous Prayers Watchings Fasting Thu. lib. 89. Canrd an 1588 but also a Treaty of Peace is earnestly sollicited by the Duke of Parma with Authority from the King of Spain which though not soon yielded to by the Queen who suspected some fraud or deceitful design in it yet being at last obtained is kept on foot till the engagement of both fleets break it off in the famous year of 88. At which time all the preparations being fully compleated for execution the Pope who had before promised the assistance of his Treasure begins first to thunder out his Bull Which with a book written by Doctor Allen is printed at Antwerp in English in great numbers to be sent over into England in which book for the greater terrour of the people are particularly related their vast preparations which were so great that the Spaniards themselves being in admiration of them named it the Invincible Armado and the Nobility Gentry and people of England and Ireland are exhorted to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces under the conduct of the Dake of Parma for the Execution of the Popes Sentence against Elizabeth With this Bull is Dr. Allen being extraordinarily †Thu. l. 100. out of the time allowed by the Canons even of this Pope made Cardinal of purpose for this exploit sent into Flanders to be ready * Thu. l. 89. upon the Spaniards Landing Some such Officer we may suppose was intrusted with the three Breves which were in like manner seur to be in readiness to be sent over and published in the Popes name in three principal places of this Kingdom as soon as the Powder-plot was discharged and had done its execution as Bishop Andrews reports from the Spontaneous confession of a Jesuit at the time of his writing who was then
incensed the Pope against him Thu. l. 94. For the Pope had agreed with Guise in secret to marry his Niece to the Prince of Jonvil Guise his son and heir and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and compel him by the Popes authority to renounce his right to the Kingdom and to set up Guise the father King in his place But how zealous and jealous he was for the Dignity and Authority of the Holy See is worth our further notice in an instance related by a good Catholick the learned Civil Lawyer William Barclay in his book De Potestate Papae dedicated to Pope Clement VIII None of all the writers of the Popes part saith he hath either more dilig ntly collected or more ingeniously proposed or more smartly and subtilely concluded their reasons and arguments for the Popes Authority than the Eminent Divine Bellarmine who although he attributed as much as with honesty he could and indeed more than he ought to have done to the Authority of the Pope in Temporals yet could he not satisfie the Ambition of that most Imperious man Sixtus v. who affirmed that he held a Supreme Power over All Kings and Princes of the whole Earth and all People and Nations delivered to him not by humane but Divine Institution In so much that he was very near by his Papal Censure to have abolished to the great detriment of the Church all the works of that Doctor which at this day oppose heresie with very great success as the Fathers of that Order of which Bellarmine was have seriously told me cap. 13. But enough of Sixtus By whom for example we may guess by these fruits what likelyhood there is that he and such as he whereof there hath been no small number Popes since the tenth Age especially that Seculum Infelix when with a great Eclipse of Learning the Popes of Rome as even Bellarmine noteth degenerated from the Piety of the Ancients were partakers of and directed by that Holy Spirit which God giveth to them that obey him to conduct them in all truth or rather the Spirit of the world the Spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience whose works they have done 35. The three next succeeding Popes Vrban 7. Gregory 14. and Innocent 9. did not all of them live out half three years from the death of this and therefore we cannot expect to hear of any attempts or design of theirs against this Kingdom But after Clement VIII who was elected Pope 3. Feb. 1591 2. was settled in his seat the like practises soon began again wherein those agents whom we have mentioned before Hesket Lopez and Complices his Cullen York and Williams who confessed some others and Squire were imployed to raise rebellion poison or assassinate the Queen Lopez by the King of Spain's Ministers of State not without the privity and consent of himself all the rest incited and encouraged by the Jesuites who for the like practises at the same time against the most Christian King though then become Catholick too Thu. l. 111. were exterminated out of all France and a Pyramid erected for their perpetual Infamy But from all these God still preserved her the Emissaries being discovered taken and Executed Nor did he only preserve her from their attempts but shortly after blessed her with happy successes in an Expedition against the Spaniards then preparing again to Invade England Bacon Observ wherein the King of Spains Navy of 50. tall Ships besides twenty Gallies to attend them were beaten and put to flight and in the end all but two which were taken by the English burned only the twenty Gallies by the benefit of the Shallows escaping the town of Cadiz manned with 4000. foot and 400. horse taken sack'd and burnt but great Clemency used toward the inhabitants Camd. an 1596 and at last the English returning home with honour and great spoils besides the two Gallions and about 100. great brass Guns and great store of ammunition and provisions of war taken in the town and with very small loss and but of one person of quality the Spaniards having lost in all first and last 13. of their best men of war and 44. other Ships of great burden and in Ships great guns and military provisions by the estimate of the most knowing persons above 3000000 ducates And when the King of Spain not long after that he might repair this loss in a heat had from all parts gathered together all the Ships he could and manned even the strangers Ships which were in the Ports of Spain and set out this Navy to Land upon the Coasts either of England or Ireland the Heavens fought for her and so favoured her that by a horrid tempest which arose most of those Ships were either sunk by the waves or broken against the rocks in so much that she sooner heard of the destruction of her enemies than of their setting out to Sea to assault her The year ensuing great preparations were made on both sides but the Heavens not favoring any further proceedings of this kind both the Fleets were so dispersed by storms that neither came within sight of the other And now the King of Spain became well inclined to a peace with England which though proposed by the French he lived not to see brought to effect for he died the 13. of Sept. after 36. But the death of the King of Spain did not dissolve the Combination no more than the deaths of so many several Popes before had done For it still survived in his son Phil. 111. with Clement VIII Only so many former attempts having proved altogether unsuccessful against England there was now with the persons some change also of their Counsels and all their Consultations against England were afterward so directed as to depend for their execution upon the death of the Queen Yet in Ireland there seemed some hopes that something might be effected at present by assisting the Robels there and therefore for their encouragement and assistance the King of Spain by his Agent Don Martin de la Cerda sends them money and Ammunition and the Pope by Mathew de Oviedo whom he designed Archbishop of Dublin Promises of Indulgence with a Phoenix plume to Tir-Oen their General and the year after he sends them his Indulgence it self to this effect That whereas of long time being led on by the Exhortations of his Predecessors and himself and of the Apostolick See for the recovery and defence of their Liberty against the Hereticks they had with Vnited minds and Forces given aid and assistance first to James Fitz-Girald and lastly to Hugh Onel Earl of Tyron Captain General of the Catholick Army in Ireland who with their Souldiers had in process of time performed many brave atchievements fighting manfully against the enemy and for the future are ready to perform the like that they may all the more cheerfully do it and assist against the said Hereticks being willing after the
by the Plague in the flower of his age Thuan. if his heart was not broken as was thought Raleigh by the disappointment of his ambitious designs after he had fouly by the Popes Dispensation falsified his Oath taken to observe the Treaty made with the States General And we might here likewise take notice not only of what some may think observable in the Death of the King of Spain Thu. l. 120. if not devoured yet in a great measure wasted and consumed by Lyce bred in his own body which in so great quantities issued out of four several tumours in his breast as that it was as much as two men by turns could do to wipe them off from him with napkins and cloathes but of that which others may think more remarkable in his Life which is that having twice most solemnly Sworn to the States General of the Low-Countries over which he held only a kind of Seigniory to Maintain their Ancient Rights Raleigh Priviledges and Customes which they had enjoyed under their thirty and five Earls before him and afterwards obtained from the Pope a Dispensation of his Oathes which Dispensation says Sir Walter Rawleigh was the true cause of the war and Blood-shed since when he sought contrary to his Oathes and all Right and Justice not only by new devised and intolerable Impositions to tread their National and Fundamental Laws Priviledges and Ancient Rights under his feet and both by Arts dividing their Nobility and by Force to enslave their Persons and Estates and make himself Absolute but moreover by introducing among them the Exercise of the Spanish Inquisition to Tyrannize also over their Consciences and in pursuance hereof had committed many barbarous Murders and Massacres among them by the Just Providence of God he was thrown out of all and those Rights and Priviledges which he sought to abolish and that Religion which he sought to oppress were by that people retained and enjoyed with greater freedom and liberty than ever so that in conclusion the recompense of that oppression and cruelty which he exercised upon them was the loss of those Countries which says Raleigh for beauty gave place to none and for revenue did equal his West-Indies besides the loss of an hundred millions of money and of the lives of above four hundred thousand Christians by him cast away in his endeavours to enslave them If besides this we reflect upon his many and various attempts against the Queen of England Thu. l. 120. some of them with so great study and vast expense of his Treasure his unhappy Wars in aid of the Rebels in France which his ambitious hopes had no less devoured than they had England all of them unsuccessful and remarkably blasted and himself at last so weary of them that he was glad to desire peace with both his fruitless wasting of 5594. Myriads of Gold as himself confessed without any other profit than the acquest of Portugal which he thought might be as easily lost as his hopes of the Kingdom of France had suddenly vanished and however was sufficiently ballanced with his loss in Africa and elsewhere the death of his eldest son by his own command as the lesuite * 9. Ration Temp. 12. Petavius saith expresly and the less of all his other sons save only Phil. 111. who succeeded him and was the only son of all his four wives who survived him If we seriously I say reflect upon all these we may look upon the prolongation of his life in respect of himself but as a continuance of trouble and misery to him and in respect of this blessed Queen to have been designed by God for an Exercise of her Faith and Virtue and a necessary means to render his Favour and never failing Providence over her the more Manifest Conspicuous and Exemplary to encourage others to Fidelity to him and Resignation to his most Wise Powerful and Gracious Providence But though these things do well deserve our notice yet that which I call a Distinguishing Providence is yet more admirable and remarkable in her nearer neighbours in France 39. When Queen Elizabeth began her Reign in England Henry 11. was King of France His Father Francis 1. who in the beginning of his Reign which was about the time of Luthers first appearing against Indulgences had unhappily entred into a league with the Pope Leo X. which in the judgment of many says Thuanus brought destruction upon his affairs and family though in many things unhappy throughout his whole Reign yet certainly was he in nothing more unhappy than in the guilt of so much innocent blood as was shed in the barbarous and horrid murders and slaughters which were made upon the Protestants of Merindol and Cabriers condemned meerly for their Religion Thu. l. 6. by a most rigid and severe Sentence of the Parliament of Provence after which he never enjoyed himself says Raleigh nor indeed his life long after his approbation of that Execution wherein their towns and villages to the number of two and twenty were burned and themselves without distinction of age or sex most barbarously murthered But being touched with remorse of Conscience and repenting of it upon his death bed he charged his Son that the injuries done to that people should be enquired into and their murtherers who in the cruelty of their execution had exceeded the severity of the Sentence to be duly punished threatening him with Gods judgments Thu. l. 3. Davil p. 14. if he neglected it And among other Admonitions which he then gave him this was one to beware of the Ambition of the Guises whom he foresaw if admitted to the administration of the Kingdom would reduce both his Children and the People of France to great miseries But Henry II. no sooner came to his Fathers throne but he presently began to practise the contrary to his directions Davila p. 15. 19 displacing those that before had any part in the government and substituting in their room the same men whom his Father had discharged and Guise with the first and at length the three brothers of Guise got into their hands all the principal governments and chief dignities of the Kingdom together with the super-intendancy of all affairs both Martial and Civil the Consequence of which did afterwards make good the truth of his fathers prediction Nor did he much better perform his fathers charge in doing Justice upon the bloody offenders Thu. l. 6. for though he gave the cause a long hearing yet did not the issue of the judgment answer the great expectations which the so many horrid crimes whereof they were accused did raise in mens minds one only of the offenders for want of friends at Court being executed but the principal actors of that wickedness restored to their former dignity and places so that instead of that Justice which if duly executed upon the offenders might possibly have averted or mitigated the Divine vengeance which hath since prosecuted
of his favourable disposition towards them And therefore having granted them as fair conditions of Peace Thu. l. 50.51 as without danger of suspition of his too great favour he could he speedily takes order for the effectual restraining and repressing of the injuries and oppressions which were presently after the peace concluded begun again against the Protestants and gives them leave to call and hold Synods by which means had he dealt sincerely and proceeded soberly and steadily therein he might certainly much better have secured the peace and happiness of his Kingdoms to himself and his successors than he did by those contrary crafty and violent courses which he followed with the chief of the Protestant Princes and Nobility he deals more particularly He had even at the treaty of Peace caused some speeches to be given out Thu. l. 47 as if upon the conclusion of that Peace at home he intended a War in the Low-Countreys against the Spaniard which could not but have been for the benefit and advantage of the Protestants there And shortly after upon another occasion causes the like speeches to be repeated again Thu. l. 50. and a motion by the by to be made in secret of a Marriage between the Lady Margaret his Sister and Henry Prince of Navar. Of both which there is again a proposition made by some Protestant Gentlemen sent by the King to Navar and Colinius for that purpose and to assure them of the Kings extraordinary good will towards them and to invite them to come to Court which the King also by letters and other special messengers earnestly sollicited And to create a further confidence and assurance in them and the rest of the Protestant Nobility of his sincerity Thu. l. 50.51 he causes an overture of a Marriage to be made to Queen Elizabeth of England between her and his brother the Duke of Anjou and moreover enters into a League with her and at the same time also with the Protestant Princes of Germany against the Spaniard And having by these arts at last prevailed with Navar and Colinius to come to Court with the Prince he proceeds in the treaty of Marriage and Colinius is received with all the expressions of favour and kindness imaginable he consults with him how to carry on the Belgick War gives him leave to raise what Forces he will in the frontiers in order to it and in so great favour is Colinius received at Court by the King his Mother and Brothers that the Guises forsooth are so offended at it as thereupon to leave the Court. In sum such were the arts and deep dissimulation which were used as effectually deceived this prudent person and a great part of the Nobility and such was the King's care of secrecy and to whom his designs were imparted that as soon as he perceived that Ligneroles who yet was his brother the Duke of Anjou's confident was but acquainted with the design he presently caused him to be murthered The management of this first business having succeeded according to the King's mind the next thing to be considered is the manner how to accomplish the design Thu. l. 51 â— And of this he holds a consultation with the Queen his Mother his brother Henry Duke of Anjou who was afterward Henry 3. the Cardinal of Lorain Claud his Brother Duke of Aumale Henry the young Duke of Guise and Ren. Birage Vice Chancellor and som others Thu. l. 51. Da. p. 361. This done away goes the Cardinal to Rome to treat with the Pope about these secret Counsels and to manage the present affairs with more secrecy he goes seemingly as discontented at the Court of France At last the Marriage concluded and the Pope's dispensation obtained the time of solemnity is appointed whereunto besides the principal Nobility of the Protestant Religion in France Imbd. an 572. from England is invited the Earl of Leicester and the Lord Burleigh and out of Germany the Prince Elector Palatine's Sons that if it were possible they might at once cut off all the heads of the Protestant Religion For now in conclusion is put in execution that horrible Massacre which for the matter was as long since as the enterview at Bayonne resolved on though for the manner and method of execution not till of late fully concluded Da. p. 363. Thu. l. 51. And first they begin with the Queen of Navar who being a woman and a Queen they thought fittest to take her away by poison and that so prepared and administred by the perfume of a pair of gloves as to work only upon her brain and put her into a fevor and therefore her body being dissected in open view but her head under colour of respect untouched it was divulged that by the testimony of skilful Physitians she died of a fevor as Davila relates the story The next to be made sure of in particular was that brave person Colinius a man who though through necessity ingaged in them yet detected out of an innate hatred of such broils the late Civil Wars even to his own ruine and destruction at last as Thuanus upon several occasions often notes and as real a well-wisher of his King and Countreys good as any Subject in France as appeared more fully in some instances discovered after his death But the King and Queen-mother by the arts of the Guisian Faction being prepossessed of a contrary opinion of him after all their fraudulent expressions of favour to him caused him to be shot by a retainer of the Guisian Family Da. p. 367. Thu. l. 52. to secure themselves from the imputation of so odious a fact but being thereby only maimed not killed out-right they presently according to their former dissimulations repair to his lodgings to visit him and with great shew of sorrow for the accident appoint him Physitians and Chirurgeons and a guard for his defence and order a strict search for the apprehension of the assasine This done upon the eve of St. Bartholomew being Sunday Da. p. 371 372. the Duke of Guise by order from the King having about twilight given direction to the Provost des Marchand the chief head of the people of Paris to provide 2000 armed men with every one a white sleeve on their left arm and white crosses in their hats to be ready upon notice instantly to execute the Kings commands and that the Sheriffs of the several Wards should also be ready and cause lights upon the ringing of the bell of the Palace-clock to be set up in every window himself at the hour prefixed with the Duke of Aumale and Monsieur d'Angoulesme the King's bastard-Brother and other Commanders and Souldiers to the number of 300 went to the Admiral Colinius his house and having forcibly entred the Court-gate kept by a few of the King of Navar 's Halbardiers and the servants of the house who were all killed without mercy they likewise kill the Admiral himself and threw his body out
business and so full was he of it that being come to Paris and endeavouring to perswade the King to the admission of the Council of Trent in France he urged it with this as a most weighty argument That the memoâ—y of the late fact which is to be commended to all ages as conducing to the glory of God and the dignity of the holy Roman Church might be as it were sealed by the approbation of the holy Synod For so would it be manifest to all who now are or hereafter shall be that the King consented to the destruction of so many lives not out of hatred or revenge or sense of any private injury of his own but out of an ardent desire to propagate the glory of God That what could not be expected whilst the faction of the Protestants stood now they being taken away the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion which by the Synod of Trent is cleared and defended from the venome of the Sectaries might be establishâ—d beyond controversie and without exception through all the Provinces of the French Dominion But the King had no mind to admit the Council much less to make that an occasion to perpetuate the memory of that fact which he was already contriving how to excuse And therefore was the Legate dismissed without any effect as to that particular to the Pope's no great satisfaction yet he solaced himself with atchievement of the Massacre which because it had happened in the beginning of his Papacy he reckoned a most prosperous omen Thu. l. 52. Seres p. 794. and among his greatest felicities And to increase his comfort the head of Colinius was sent him to Rome for a present 47. Thu. l. 54. But alas in France all men generally and the King himself had already far other thoughts of that Tragedy and the Legate found a far other face of things there at his coming than he expected and had left at Rome for the King now more sensible of the foulness and odiousness of the fact when done as is usual in such cases the heinousness of sin seldom appearing to wicked minds till actually committed was in great perplexity whether to own it or not and how to excuse it And therefore it was long debated at Court whether to admit the Legate at all or by some handsome excuses to put him off without audience though out of respect to the Pope and to the person of the Legate thought well affected to the interest of France it was at last permitted but not without such caution and admonition to him as hath been mentioned For this unhappy King had no sooner accomplished these deep designs from which he promised himself so great security content and happiness but he found himself surprized and involved in inextricable difficulties perplexity and misery And besides the daily secret horrors of his mind and conscience Thu. l. 57. which appeared in their nocturnal effects and productions disturbing and interrupting his sleep with direful and frightful dreams which drove him to the use of Saul's remedy 1 Sam. 16. by Musick to refresh and quiet his disturbed spirits that anxiety which arose in his mind after the fact committed from his fears and doubts of what might be the ill consequence of it was now no less than his hopes had been before of that happiness and tranquility which he had promised himself that he should obtain by it For though he had before promised himself great security by the destruction of the heads and slaughter of so great a party of the Protestants yet having done the deed that desperation into which he apprehended his perfidious cruelty had driven those who remained and by the articles of the last agreement of Peace held Rochel and other strong places in their possession rendred them not a little formidable to him and perplexed his mind with doubts and fears of new troubles from so just and great provocation These cares of what might be the consequence of this action at home Thu. l. 53. were increased and aggravated by his apprehension of what effects so barbarous an act which is reporâ—ed to have filled with stupor and amazement the Great Turk himself at the hearing of it might produce in his neighbours abroad lest they thereby might be moved out of commiseration to send their aid and relief to his so injuriously oppressed subjects Wherefore all ways and means were studied and devised to give some satisfaction to the Protestants at home by treaties and favourable Edicts though his former often and foul breaches of his Faith made this very difficult and to excuse the foulness of the late fact both to them and to the Princes and States abroad Thu. l. 52. It had been considered before-hand out of that sense and pre-apprehension they had of the wickedness and foulness of the design how to cast the imputation of it upon the Guises who also out of the same sense and pre-apprehension endeavoured all they could to avoid the odium of it And being done the King immediately whether affrighted and terrified says Thuanus with the atrocity of the fact or fearing the odium of it dispatched his Letters to the Presidents of the Provinces to lay all the blame upon the Guises alledging that it was done without his privity or consent that they fearing that the friends and relations of Colinius would revenge the injury done to him upon them had raised the tumult which he was not able to repress in time with a great deal to this purpose And to the same purpose were Letters written by the Queen and sent not only through France but also to the Helvetians and dispersed through England and in divers parts of Germany But as it usually happens upon the perpetration of such horrid crimes and wickedness that the authors of them distracted with the horrors of their guilty conscience when they find no satisfaction or assurance of security in any course they take to conceal or palliate their crime continually devise and attempt new ways and means and by their often change and inconstancy to any promote that discovery which they seek to evade so it happened in this case For as these Letters were disproved by his express commands which as Davila relates he had but few daies before sent out so doth he now again in few days after contract the same and in full Senate declares that all was done by his own will and command and orders so much to be entred of record in the publick acts of the Curt. Cicarel in vita Greg. 13. Thu. l. 53. And though to the Pope and Spaniard he owned that he did it upon the score of Religion yet knowing that with others this would not so much excuse as aggravate and increase the odium of it some other cause was to be devised and pretended And therefore first to extenuate the fact V. l. 54. he pretends that his commands extended only to the cutting off of Colinius and his Confederates which