all our powers and the emancipating us from all scrupulosity concerning truth or falsehood this perhaps is the character of Mr. Varillas's Religion thô those that know him well assure me that Religion makes very little impression on him and if that is true then his Apophthegme fails in himself since the Interest of a Pension and the passion of making himself acceptable in the present time have as entirely freed him from all regard to Truth as ever any false Principle of Religion did an enraged Zealot It is matter of horrour to see Religion and Conscience set up as the violentest Corrupters of Truth but we know out of what school this has sprung and it seems Mr. Varillas has so devoted himself to the Order of the Jesuites that he is resolved to speak aloud that which they more prudently think fit to whisper in secret and indeed if we may judge of him by this character that he gives of Religion we must conclude him to be entirely possessed with it since never Man seem'd to be less solicitous than he is concerning the truth or falsehood of the things that hoavers He accuses me of favouring my own side too much and that if I confess some of King Henry's faults it is only that I may have an occasion to excuse the wretched Cranmer This is some Intimation as if he had read my Book but I doe not believe he has done it for thô I have no great opinion either of his Vertue or of his Understanding yet I doe not think he is so forsaken of common-sense and of all regard to his reputation as to have adventured to have advanced so many notorious falsehoods if he had seen upon what Authentical grounds I had so exposed them that I doe not think it possible even for Mr. Maimbourg himself after all his 50 years Noviciat to arrive at a confidence able to maintain them any longer if he had once read my Book and what I had writ was at least so important that he ought to have weakned the credit of my History by some more evident proofs than that of saying barely that I was extreamly partial to my own side My book was so much read and so favourably spoken of in France these three Years past that in common decency he ought to have alledged somewhat to have justified his Censure but this manner of writing was more easy as well as more imperious And if a large Volume of History supported with the most Authentick proofs that has ever yet perhaps accompanied any Book of that sort is to be thus shaken off it is a vain thing to write Books for Men of Mr. Varillas's temper This had been more pertinent if he had voucht for it a report which was so spread over Paris that I had received advices of it from several hands of a design in which as was reported a Clergy-man was engaged that has many excellent qualities to which Mr. Varillas seems to be a great Stranger for he has both great application and much sincerity He has searcht with great exactness that vast Collection of Mss. that relate to the last Age which are laid up in the King's Library and he had found so many things relating to England that he intended to publish a Volume of Memoires relating to our Affairs he had also said that in some things he would enlarge himself more copiously than I had done and that in other things he must differ from me Matters generally grow bigger by being oft told so this was given out as a design to write a Counter-History which should overthrow all the credit that my Work had got But upon my coming to Paris I found some sincere enquirers into truth and who by consequence are Men that have no value for Mr. Varillas who intended to bring us together that we might in an amicable manner reason the matter be foresome of our common Friends and both of us seemed to be so well disposed to sacrifice all to truth that two Persons of such Eminence that they can receive no honour by the most advantageous Characters that I can give them who were Mr. Thevenot and Mr. Auzont did procure us a meeting in the King's Library and in their presence In which the Abbot as he discovered a vast memory great exactness and much sincerity so he confessed that he had no exceptions to the main parts of my History he mentioned some things of less moment in all which I gave not only our two learned Arbiters but even himself full satisfaction so that I quickly perceived I had to doe with a man of honour He insisted most on the judgment of the Sorbonne against K. Henry's Mariage which is not in their Registers But I was certainly informed by a Dr. of the Sorbonne that their Registers are extreamly defective and that many of their Books are lost He alledged a letter to K. Henry that he had seen telling him that it was to be feared that he might be displeased with the decision of the Sorbonne and that it might doe him more hurt than good which Letter bearing s after the decision that I have printed does not seem to agree with it To this I answered that all the other decisions of Universities being given simply in the King's favours and that of the Sorbonne bearing only that the Majority had declared for him this left ablot upon the matter since when the opposition is inconsiderable decisions are given in the Name of the whole Body but the mention of the Majority imported that there was a great opposition made which thô it was not supported by a number equal to the other yet was so considerable as to lessen very much the credit of the Decision To this I added that K. Henry's printing this the Year after it was given and none ever accusing that piece of Forgery Card. Pool on the contrary acknowledging that he was in Paris when it was obtained these were undeniable Evidences of its genuinness to which he answered by a hearty acknowledgment that he had seen another Letter in which the detail of the whole Proceeding of the Sorbonne is set down and as I remember there were but one or two more than the Majority that opined on the King's side but the rest were in different Classes Some suspended their opinions others thô they condemned the Mariage yet did not think it could be broken since it was once made and some were positively of the Pope's side In end after some hours discours in which all the Company was fully satisfied with the Answers that I gave he concluded that as he had seen many more Letters relating to that matter than I had done so if I thought fit he would furnish me with a Volume of Authentical proofs for what I had writ greater than that which I had already printed And these were the Letters of the French Ambassadours that were in King Henry the 8th's Court that are in the King's Library but I did not stay
another But since for a round Periods sake he will needs split Charles the 5th in two and name both the Emperour and the K. of Spain as two Pretenders he might have as well subdivided him into the King of Arragon and Castile Sicily and Naples and the very Titular Kingdome of Ierusalem might have come in for its share 16 He tells us that thô the match of Scotland was the most for the Interest of the Nation yet King Henry was so angry with his Nephew the King of Scotland for taking part against him in his last war with France that he resolved never to give him his Daughter Here Mr. Varillas will see again the necessity of purchasing a Chronological Table for thô that will cost him some money which as I am told goes very near his heart yet it will preserve him from some scurvy errours they may spoil the sale of his books for any one of those Tables even the worst and cheepest would have shewed him that it was not his Nephew that took part with France against him but his Nephew's Father for King Iames the 4th that was King Henry's Brother-in-Law made war on that occasion and was killed in it leaving an Infant Son behind him but it is pleasant to see the Ignorance of this Scribler that makes in one place King Iames the 4th to court the Princess for his Son thô he died several years before she was born and then makes King Iames the 5th to be making war with his Uncle during his Father's life and while himself was an Infant 17. He says the Emperour came and pretended the second to the Princess and upon that he sets down a large negotiation that he had with Cardinal Wolsey But he shews here an ignorance of Charles the 5th's Life thô he pretends to have made more than ordinary discoveries concerning his Affairs that proves that he has studied all History alike ill He reckons up the series of the Propositions for the Princess quite wrong for she was first contracted to the Dolphin the 9 November 1518 by a Treaty yet extant then Charles the 5th came into England in Person and contracted a Mariage with her at Windsor the 22 of Iune 1522 after that there was a Proposition made for the King of Scotland that was soon let fall and last of all there was a Treaty set on foot for the King of France then a Widdower or for his second Son the Duke of Orleans it being left to Francis's option to determine that and so remarkable a passage as Charles the 5th's coming to England in person was unhappily unknown to Mr. Varillas otherwise he would have dressed up a mighty Scene of Politicks to adorn it 18 He gives us the character and the History of Card. Wolsey with his ordinary colours in which truth comes very seldome in for an ingredient he tells us how he was Bp. of Tournay or rather Oeconome of that See and how many journeys he made between Tournay and London and that he being enriched at Tournay he got the Bishoprick of Lincoln after that upon the Bp. of Winchester's death he had that See from that he was raised to be Archbishop of York then he was made Chancellour of England then Cardinal and Legat à Latere and last of all he was made Chief Minister of State and to shew our Author 's deep Judgment this last Article seemed so doubtful a point to him that he must needs bestow a proofe on it and he sends us to P. Leo the 10th's Register thô the advancements that he had already reckoned up may well make this pass without a more particular Proof nor is P. Leo's Register a place likely to find it in Here is a great deal to let his Reader see how entirely he was possessed with the History of that time since he could run out so far with the Character and History of that Minister but for the strain in which he sets out his Character one must see it is only Mr. Varillas's fancy for how came he to know Cardinal Wolsey's air and manner of deportment even in the smallest thing I that have seen much more of him in his Letters Dispatches and Instructions than Mr. Varillas can pretend to have done dare not goe so far because I have not arrived at Mr. Varillas his pitch of Religion but if his character is no truer than the History that he gives of Wolsey I know what name is due to it He was made Bishop of Tournay in October and Bp. or Lincoln in the March thereafter or rather in February for the Temporalty was given him the 4th of March which is always restored after the Consecration so that here was not time enough to make such journies between Tournay and London nor to enrich himself with the former he had not Winchester but 15 years after that but he was made Archbishop of York two year after he had Lincoln he was also made Cardinal and Legate before he was made Chancelour for Warham Archbishop of Canterbury was Chancelour while he was Legate and had some disputes with him touching his legative power upon which he obtained that Dignity for puting an end to all disputes and in stead of his being last of all Minister of State he was first of all Minister of State while he was only the Lord Almoner and all his other dignities came upon him as the natural effects of that Confidence and favour into which the King had received him 19. He cannot assent to some Historians that imagine he was the Confident of K. Henry's Pleasures since he thinks if that had been true he could not have been so cheated afterwards as he was Here is a Demonstration that he never read my History into which I have put besides other Evidences of his being on the secret of Anne Boleyn's matter two letters that she writ to him which are undeniable proofs of it But as for the long Story into with he runs out concerning Charles the 5th's Intrigues with him and his way of writing to him in the stile of Son and Cousin for which he cites on the Margent the Emperour's Letters to Wolsey that lie in his fancy that is the greatest Library in the World but the hardest to be come at all this is so loosely writ that it is plain Mr. Varillas had no light to direct him in it since he says not a word of the most important circumstance of it which was the Emperour's coming in person to England which was beleeved to have been done chiefly to gain Wolsey entirely and in which it is certain that he had all the success that he had wisht for 20. He says Wolsey being alienated from the Emperour engaged the King of France after he was set at liberty to treat for a Match between the Dauphin and the Princess of England upon which they were contracted with great Magnificency but that was not enough for the Cardinal's malice I have formerly
writ his Life tells us in how great State he went to York with a Train of 160 Horse and an Equipage of 72 Carts following him with his Houshold-stuf for the King restored him not only his Archbishoprick of York but also his Bishoprick of Winchester which Mr. Varillas fancies he took from him and it was impossible for a Man that had those two great Benefices to be reduced to any degrees of Want 38. He says Anne Boleyn raised Cranmer to the Dignity of chief Minister of State who was one of the profligatest Men of England that had nothing of Christianity in him but the outward appearances being ambitious voluptuous bold turbulent and capable of all sorts of Intrigues He had studied long in Germany where he was infected with Lutheranisme thô he did not outwardly profess it He took a Concubine in Germany whom he afterwards married by the King's permission He had been Chaplain long in the Family of Boleyn so when the See of Canterbury fell vacant Anne Boleyn presented him The Fit here is extream hot and long and shews how entirely Mr. Varillas was subdued by it since it is hardly possible for a Man to spit out more Venome and Falsehood at once Cranmer was never in the Affairs of State much less chief Minister And any Ignorance less than Mr Varillas's would have found that Cromwel succeeded Wolsey in the Ministry As for Cranmers Ambition as he had passed the greatest part of his Life in a secret Retirement so he was in Germany when the See of Canterbury fell vacant and when he understood that the King intended to raise him to that Dignity he excused himself all he could and delaied his Return to England some Months that so the King might have time given him to change his Mind He was so far from being turbulent and hardy and from being a Man of Intrigues that his plain Simplicity made him to be despised by his Enemies till they found that there was a wise Conduct under all that Mildness and Slowness And it was this simplicity and his keeping himself out of all Intrigues that preserved him in K. Henry's esteem He never went to study in Germany but was sent into Italy and Germany to reason with the learned Men in the Universities concerning the King's Divorce He married a Wife in Germany and was so far from obtaining the King's Permission to marry her that upon a severe Law that was afterwards made against the Mariage of the Clergy he sent her into Germany for some time yet he franckly owned his Mariage to the King when he questioned him upon it and there was never the least imputation laid upon his Chastity except this of his Mariage which we think none at all He was never Chaplain in the Boleyn Family but lived private in Cambridg when the King came to hear of him and to imploy him in the Prosecution of the Divorce And so far was he from being presented by Anne Boleyn upon the Vacancy of Canterbury that he was then in Germany And now it appears what a secret Mr. Varillas has of making as much Falsehood go into one Period as would serve another to scatter up and down a whole Book but we know the Society that has this secret and it is certain that Mr. Varillas has learnt it to perfection 39. He says the King accepted Cranmer upon condition that he would pronounce the Sentence of Divorce between their Majesties of England in case that the Pope ratified their contested Mariage and thus by a way so uncanonical he was made Archbishop of Canterbury There was no occasion of demanding any such Promise of Cranmer for he had openly declared his opinion that the Mariage was incestuous and unlawful so that his Judgment was already known But Mr. Varillas shews how little he knew our matters when he says that Cranmer was made Archbishop in an uncanonical way for as he was chosen by the Chapter of Canterbury so he had his Bull from Rome and how little soever this is Canonical according to the Canons of the Ancient Church yet Mr. Varillas has no reason to except to the Uncanonicalness of it 40. He says he was installed by another Artifice for being required to swear the Oath to the Pope he had a Notary by him who attested that he took this Oath against his Will and that he would not keep it to the prejudice of the King He made no Protestation that he took that Oath against his Will but he repeated a Protestation twice at the high Altar that he intended not by that Oath to the Pope to oblige himself to any thing that was contrary to the Law of God to the King's Prerogative or to the Laws of the Land nor to be restrained by it from proposing or consenting to any thing that might concern the Reformation of the Christian Faith the Government of the Church of England or the Prerogatives of the King and Kingdome This is a different thing from protesting that he took the Oath against his Will which as it had been ridiculous in it self so was very far contrary to that native Singleness of Heart in which he always acted 41. He says there was an ancient Law against the Subjects of England's acknowledging a forreign Jurisdiction upon which the King raised a Sute against his Clergy for owning the Pope's Jurisdiction in that which was a mixt Court relating both to the Temporal and the Spiritual And he adds that the Clergy had an easy Answer to this Charge since that Law had no regard to the Spiritual Authority Matters of Law are things of too delicate a nature for so slight a Man as Mr. Varillas to look into them He represents this as one single Law that was very old and that related only to Temporals whereas if he had known any thing of our Laws he would have seen that there was a vast number of Laws made in the Reigns of many of our Kings such as Edward the first Edward the third Richard the second Henry the 4th and Henry the 5th all relating to this matter and these Laws were made in express Words against all that brought Bulls and Provisions from Rome to Ecclesiastical Benefices 42. He says the motions of the Clergy in their own defence could not but be feeble since they had two such treacherous Heads as Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury and Lee Archbishop of York so they made a submission to the King but he would not receive it unless they would acknowledg that he had the same Authority over the Ecclesiastical Body that he had over his other Subjects and thus without thinking on what they did they furnished the King with a pretence of calling himself Head of the Church of England Cranmer was so little concerned in this matter that it was past two years before he was Archbishop while Warham was Archbishop of Canterbury for the Submission was made in March 1531 and he was consecrated in March 1533.
Mr. Varillas's Religion and his morals that he begins to lose patience when he sees how far I am like to carry him in a more copious discovery But there are a sort of men that must be severely repressed and there are some times in which even a fool is to be answered according to his folly Yet I will so far manage my Reader as not to overcharge him too much therefore as to many of those Political digressions that Mr. Var. makes upon the Interest of England France and Spain I will pass them quite over as the whipped cream that he sets before his Reader Some of them are not unpleasant if they were proposed as considerations which might perhaps have had their weight but his averring them confidently is not to be excused they might pass in a kind of a Book of Politicks as a refining upon the actions of Princes but this way of writing is by no means to be allowed in History since it is without any sort of evidence and History ought to relate things as we find they really were designed and transacted and not as we imagine they ought or might have been I am now entring upon a subject in which it will be much more easy for me to say too much than too little for Mr. Varillas commits so many Errours that thô I am resolved to let lesser matters pass unregarded yet I find so many in my way which require a discovery that I am engaged in a task as ingrateful to my self as it must be severe upon him 1. He begins with an assurance that all the rest of Wiclef's Heresy were so entirely rooted out of England that the whole Nation without excepting one single Person was of the same Religion during the Reign of Henry the 7th I am not now near the Records of that time but in my History I have shewed by the Records of K. Henry the 8th's Reign that in the year 1511. which was but two years after Henry the 7th's Death there remain yet in the Registers of the See of Canterbury the Processes of 41 Persons of whom 7 were condemned for Hereticks and delivered to the Secular Arm and the rest had the weakness to abjure and from this hint one must conclude that Mr. Varillas had no knowledg of our Affairs but he thought the Period was rounder and the air of writing was more assuming when he asserted that the whole Nation without excepting one single Person was of the same Religion The Opinions objected to those Persons shew that the Reformation found a disposition in the Nation to receive it by the Doctrines which were entertained by many in it For the chief of them are that the Sacrement of the Altar was not Christ's Body but material Bread That Images ought not to be worshipped That Pilgrimages were neither necessary nor profitable and that we ought not to address our Prayers to Saints but only to God But since this may be thought only a flourish of Mr. Varillas's Pen I go to other matters in which it cannot be denied that a greater exactness was necessary 2. He lays down for a foundation to all that was to come after that P. Arthur was very unhealthy when he was married That he was recovering out of a great Disease of which he died 5 Months after It is true he does acknowledg that three Words in the Bull that was granted for the subsequent Marriage seem to import that this Marriage was consummated yet he takes the Word of the other Historians and repeats this of P. Arthur's ill Health so often that he hoped it seems by that means to make his Reader swallow it down easily Here he had writ a little more artificially if he had set over against this on the Margent some citation of a Letter or Recital vvhich vvould have cost him nothing and have been full as true as his other citations are Many Witnesses that vvere examined upon Oath deposed before the Legates vvhen this matter vvas examined that P. Arthur vvas of a good Complexion vigorous and robust when he vvas married that he bedded vvith his Princess every night and the Decay of vvhich he died vvas ascribed to his too early Mariage And of this Mr. Varillas takes some notice vvithout reflecting on the consequence that the Reader might naturally draw from it for he says K. Henry the 7th delayed the marrying of his second Son 6 years after he had obtained the Bull and that the Death of his eldest Son made him apprehend the loss of his second Son if he married him so young And thô he intervveaves a Politick reflection according to his vvay that is to say impertinently and says if this fear vvas not altogether just yet since K. Henry the 7th had no other Son it vvas not altogether unreasonable But it is obvious that this is altogether impertinent if P. Arthur's Mariage vvent no further than a publick Ceremony But there are other circumstances that overthrovv this as much as a thing that is of its nature secret is capable of being disproved It is said by our Historians who writ at that time that the Spanish Ambassadour took proofs of the consummation of the Mariage And in the Bull of dispensation for the subsequent Mariage this was also supposed as a thing that was perhaps done But thô our Author set on the Margent the precise Words in which he says that was conceived yet either he never read the Bull and so took this upon trust or he was in a fit of his Religion which was so violent that it made him not only take no care of what he said whither it was true or false but made him advance a deliberate falsehood For whereas in the Preamble of the Bull of Dispensation for the younger Brother it is set forth that P. Arthur and the Princess had been lawfully married and had perhaps consummated their Mariage where the matter of fact is set down in a dubious manner he makes that the Dispensation had allowed their Mariage even thô the former had been consummated And as the Words that he cites are not the Words of the Bull so they give a different notion of the matter since as he gives the Words they seem only to be a clause put in to make the Bull more unquestionable whereas in truth they are a part of the matter of fact represented to the Pope And thô this doubtful way of representing this matter of fact that is in the Bull was all that could be decently said upon this case yet it seems the Spaniards who knew the Mariage was consummated resolved to set the matter past dispute for they either procured at that time a Breve of the same date with the Bull or they forged one afterwards in which in the Preamble this matter is asserted without any perhaps or other limiting Word it being positively set forth that the Mariage was consummated If Mr. Varillas's Religion sets him at liberty from the
to forgive who by the way was not Duke but only Earl of Suffolk is a Dream better becoming so slight a brain as is that of Mr. Varillas than the consummated wisdome of the King and Queen of Spain But thus it falls out when a Library Keeper turns Statesman and when from being a teller of tales he will turn a Writer of Histories which he composes out of his own Imaginations he must needs fall into childish errours When do Kings fall under those weaknesses as to disinherit an only Son to cover them from a remote fear and a very remote one it was for the Archduke needed at that time the assistance of England against France too much to be in a condition to raise a Civil War in England and to support a competition to the Crown which could have no other effect as to him but to give France an opportunity during the distractions of England to come and destroy him In short here is a Vision of a poor-spirited Pedant which is too much considered when it named and laught at 7. He pretends to enter into the reasons that were alledged at Rome both for and against the granting of the Bull but at last he concludes that Pope Alexander the 6th would not consent to it that he might not give occasion to accuse him of having broken the Discipline of the Church But here is such a false representation of the Court of Rome at that time and in particular of P. Alexander the 6th that since Mr. Varillas will needs write Romances I must put him in mind of one Rule that as Painters shew their Judgment and Learning in that which is in one Word called le Costume observing the Air Manners and Habits of the Ages and Scenes to which their Pieces belong so Poets when they bring unknown Names into their Plays they may clothe them with what Characters they please but if they represent Men whose Histories are known they must not confound Characters nor represent a Nero as a grave Philosopher or as a good natured Prince nor a Marcus Aurelius as a wanton Stage-player or as a bloody Tyrant And therefore thô Mr. Varillas may shew his pretended discoveries concerning Men that are less known yet when he brings in an Alexander the 6th on the Stage it is too bold a violation of Poetry to lay a strictness of Conscience or a sense of Honour to his charge and thô there is one part of this Period true that there had never been any dispensation of this sort formerly granted to serve as a Precedent for it yet that exactness in which he represents the Enquiry that the Divines of Rome made concerning this matter agrees ill with the State of the Court of Rome at that time and a Painter may as justly represent the old Romans in Pantalaons and with Hats in their hands 8. He says K. Henry the 7th was preparing all things for the Mariage of his Son to the Princess when he died And a little before that he had said that her Parents sacrificed the Interest of their Family to the satisfaction of the King of England by consenting to it A Match with the Heir of the Crown of England was no very costly Sacrifice and for his vision concerning the design of marrying her to the Duke of Calabria and by that means of restoring the Kingdome of Naples it does so ill agree with the Character of the King of Arragon that since there is no proof brought of this I must look on it as one of those Imaginations with which Mr. Varillas loves to entertain his Readers But for K. Henry the 7th he was so far from making any preparations for the Mariage that one of the Writers of that Age assures us that at his Death he charged his Son to break it apprehending perhaps a return of a new civil War upon the issue of a doubtful Marriage 9. He gives us a new tast of his unskilfulness in ordering his Scenes He had found that when Henry the 8th's Divorce came to be started there was some discourse of a Match between him and Francis the first 's Sister afterwards the Queen of Navarre and therefore he thought a proposition for her might come in before the Mariage as a pretty ornament to his Fable But the silence of all the Papers of that Time which I have seen is a much better evidence against it than his pretended negotiation of Mr. de Piennes is for it to which no credit is due It is well known that in the Archives of Venice there are Recitals laid up of all the Negotiations of their Ambassadours and Mr. Varillas having perhaps heard of this he fancied it would have a good grace to cite such Recitals as to French Affairs thô all that know the State of France know that this has not been the practice of that Court But as there is no proof to shew that there was any such Proposition made at that Time so the State of K. Lewis the 12th's Court differs extreamly from it in which the Count of Angoulême afterwards Francis the first and his Sister were not so favourable as to give us reason to think that pains was taken to raise that Lady to the Throne of England 10. He tells us that King Henry the 8th calling a Parliament in the beginning of his Reign they thought themselves bound in point of Honour to oblige to execute his Father's Orders relating to his Mariage who had not only made it the chief Article of his Testament and charged his Son to do it upon his last Blessing but had laid the same charge on the Men of the greatest Credit in England as he spoke his last Words to them upon which the Parliament being careful to maintain this Authority to which they pretended over their Master did oblige him by repeated Remonstrances to marry the Princess Here he goes to show how implacably he is set against the Crown of England formerly he had debased their Birth but he thought that was not enough now he will degrade them of their Dignity and give the Parliament a Superiority over them But it is a fatal thing for an ignorant Man to write History for if Mr. Varillas could have so much as opened our Book of Statutes he would have found that the first Parliament that K. Henry the 8th held was assembled the 21. of Ianuary 1510. almost 8. Months after the Mariage which was celebrated six Weeks after he came to the Crown in which time if Mr. Varillas had understood any thing of our Constitutions he would have known that it was impossible for a Parliament to have met since there must be 40. Days between a Summonds and a Meeting of Parliament so that if the new King had summoned one the Day after his Father's Death it could not have met sooner than the day before the Mariage 11. He says the Queen bore five Children the first three Sons and the other two Girls
not made Secretary of State till near the end of this Negotiation nor was he ever sent to Rome with Brian nor was Brian a Lord but only a Knight and it was a year after this Sute was first begun before Brian was imploied in it so that he could carry no such deluding Message to the Pope concerning the Queen's desiring the Divorce And for this pretension of the Queen's desiring to retire to a Monastery it was never made use of by the English Ambassadours It was on the contrary a notion of the Pope's who thought that if that could be put in her Head it would be the easiest Method of getting out of this uneasy matter and therefore he ordered his Legate Card. Campegio to advise the Queen to it And for the scandals of Brian's Life they must have been very great if they gave offence at Rome at that time but as I can not answer much for Brian so I will not trouble my self to vindicate him but he could not behave him more indecently at Rome than Campegio did in England when he came over Legate who scandalised even the Court with his lewd behaviour 31. He says the Pope was sensible of his obligations to the King and resolved to do all he could to gratify him and so ordered Cajetan to examine the matter who did it in his manner after the Method of the Schools And here he gives us an abstract of his Book He laid this down for a Maxime that the High-Priest under the N. Testament had no less Authority than the High-Priest had under the Law of Moses who had power to allow of such Mariages to good ends and in good Circumstances and that the end of this Mariage was noble that the Crowns of England and Spain being united might send their Fleets to block up Constantinople And that by this Mariage as Italy was to be set at Peace so K. Henry was diverted from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy and that therefore the Pope could not grant a Dispensation for annulling it And with his usual Confidence he cites on the Margent Cajetan's Consultation And this he says confirmed the Pope in his Resolution not to grant the Dispensation for breaking the Mariage upon any Terms whatsoever I have given such Authentick Demonstrations of the Falsehood of this Particular that I am sure the strongest Fit of Mr. Varillas's Religion can not resist them For the Pope upon the first Proposition franckly granted the Dispensation and only consulted with some Cardinals about the Methods of doing it and afterwards he sent one over to England and promised that he would do not only all that he could grant either in Law or Justice but every thing else that he could grant out of that plenitude of Power with which he was vested in the King's favour The Pope also proposed a Method that perhaps would have brought the matter to an easier issue which was that if the King was satisfied in his own Conscience concerning the Divorce in which he did not think that there was a Doctor in the whole World that could judg so well as himself then he might put away his Queen and marry another and then the Pope would confirm all For the crafty Pope thought it would be easier for him to confirm it when it was once done than to give Authority to do it and in short the Pope made the King still believe that he would do it till by that means he brought the Emperour to grant him all he desired And as for Cajetan's opinion I am now in a Countrey where I cannot find his Works so I cannot be so positive in this matter but as far as my Memory serves me Cajetan writ nothing with relation to this matter but only in the body of his School-Divinity that he had published long before this Sute began he had set on foot a new Opinion touching the Prohibitions of marrying in near Degrees which the Church by a constant Tradition had in all Times lookt on as Moral Laws whereas he asserted they were only Positive Precepts that did not bind under the Christian Religion and by consequence that there was no Law now against Mariages in those Degrees but the Law of the Church with which the Pope might dispense In all the Books that I have seen that were writ for the Queen's Cause Cajetan's Authority is brought as a thing already abroad in the World and not as a Consultation writ upon this Occasion and by what I remember of that Cardinal's Life it is said that in his reasonings with Luther he had found himself so defective in the knowledg of the Scripture that whereas formerly he had given himself wholly to the Study of School-Divinity he after that gave himself entirely to the Study of the Scripture in which making allowances for his Ignorance of the Original Tongues he succeeded to admiration But thô I cannot procure a Sight of his Treatise concerning the Degrees of Mariage the Idea that I retain of his solide way of writing makes me conclude that he was not capable of writing in so trifling a manner as Mr. Varillas represents the Matter For what Man of sense could say that the Highpriest under the Jewish Religion could dispense with a Brother's marrying his Brother's Widdow in some cases in case that a Brother died without Children his Brother or the next of Kin might have married the Widdow by the Dispensation that the Law gave and not by a Dispensation of the Highpriest And for the Ends that he pretends of those two Princes going to block up Constantinople with their Fleets a Man must be ignorant in History to the Degree of Mr. Varillas to imagine this since as the Kings of those Times had no Royal Fleets but were forced to hire Merchant Vessels when they had occasion for them so the blocking up of Constantinople was too bold a project for those Days and does not seem to have been so much as once thought on And for the other Ends that he mentions thô the procuring such a Peace to Italy as was for the Interest of the Popes was a thing for which they would have sacrificed any thing yet this differs much from P. Iulius the second 's Character who granted the Dispensation since his whole Reign was a continued Imbroilment of Italy Nor does it appear that K. Henry's Mariage could have any influence on the Peace of Italy unless it were very remote And as for the other Reason alledged for the Mariage that it diverted K. Henry from marrying into Families suspect of Heresy this is too great a violation of the Costume for it seems Mr. Varillas had the present State of Europe in his Head when he writ it but Cajetan could not write this for in the year 1503 there were no Families in Europe suspect of Heresy so that all this reasoning that is here entitled to Cajetan is a mass of Mr. Varillas's crude Imaginations which doe equally discover both his Ignorance