accursed seede of their doctrine throughout Europe in Italy yea euen in Rome the sea of that holy Priest If they bee so deepe as they say in the king of Wisigothes fauour why doo they not perswade him to expell the Moores out of Spaine If they be kings of Hierusalem why goe they not to thrust out the Turkes If they be Princes of the Empire why do they not display their force against the Lutherans but must needes come to disturbe the quietnesse of Fraunce wherein they are but straungers But herein may we see our bad destinie that hath brought vs to that passe that wee take our enemies for our frends periured wretches for faithfull persons forreiners for houshold seruantes and Atheists for religious men so as we may say Ephraim is as a cake on the herth not turned straungers haue deuoured his force and hee knoweth it not Thus much for the first attaint that they giue the king let vs proceed to the rest Their bad Angell the spirite of discord hath taught them that there is a great sympathie or resemblance betweene heauen mans body and a monarchy that in each of them them there are two principall things In heauen the sunne and the moone In mans body the head and the hart In a monarchy the king and the nobilitie That the eclipse of the sunne or moone darkeneth the heauen the sicknesse of the head or heart disquiet the whole body and through controuersie betweene the king and his nobilitie the whole monarchie tendeth vnto destruction Following therefore this lesson they seeke to kindle the torch of diuision betweene the king and his nobilitie for whereat The Guysards 4. 5. pretēces else dooth that fierce desire to encroch vpon certayne gentlemen whom the king hath aduanced ayme or whereto tendeth the reintegration of the nobilitie in her former dignitie It is noueltie it is a wonder in France yea it is felony it is sacrilege that a subiect should set downe a law and measure to his Prince that he should bridle his will that he should limit or straighten the supreme authoritie It is a spite to nature that the arme should command the head that the soule should obey the body and that reason should stande in awe of the sences It is the dissolution of all ciuill societie to make the maister to honour the seruaunt the regent obey his scholler the magistrate yeeld to the passions of the people And what is all this but to seeke to make the Prince hate those whom he loueth cōtemne those whom he esteemeth abase those whom he aduanceth and to face him to will that that hee willeth not and yet is it the thing that the seditious nowe seeke to put in practise it is one of the marks that their purposes doo aime at it is the way that they take to crosse the kings power but vnder what pretence that men of base gold haue receiued open honor and honorable persons be forced to lye at ancker Who complaineth strangers What strāgers such as of petie companions haue by the liberalitie of our kings beene exalted But admit they were houshold seruants yea naturall Princes what of that If the king holdeth not the crowne of vs but of God and the ancient law of this realme who diuideth honors as he listeth why should we prescribe him a law and measure in louing of vs Kings vse not to submit themselues to that distributiue iustice of the rules of Philosophie which measureth the reward by the desert neither to the forme of the Olimpian iudgement which had certaine lawes beyond the which they neuer passed Kings are as auditors Realmes as counting houses and subiects so many coūters whom we make to be worth sometime 100. sometime 1000. and sometime 10000. Kinges doo resemble the sunne and dignities the moone which sometime appeareth great sometime small now in a corner then in the plaine middest sometime light sometime darke euen as the sunne giueth it light and euen so do kings make dignities high or low great or small as occasion falleth out according to the time as it please them in which case the subiect should resemble the Lesbian rule which bendeth some time to one side sometime to another euen as it please the soueraigne and so shal we haue the subiectes obedient to Princes which the ancients as Eschines saith haue pictured vnto vs by the goddesse Pitarchie the wife of Iupiter and mother of felicitie I say not that the Prince should indifferentlie deuide honors for the reward of vertue being communicated Plut. in Nicia Liu. lib. 9. de 1. to the vnworthie groweth into contempt as it happened at Athens when the people seeing Hyperbolus fallen brake the Ostracisme at Rome when Flauius Appius libertine had gotten the office of Aedilis Curulis and in France when Charles the sixt at the siege of Bourges made aboue 500. Monstrolet cap. 93. bannerets But by force violence and open threat to endeuour to limit the kings will is it not to seeke to stay the sun or rather to fasten a haulter to hange themselues For if the the law do deeme those guiltie of treason that haue vsed the Emperors sacred L. Sacri affatus cap. de diu vesc anker If in old time the Romaine Censors disgraded a bourgesse for yaning too wide in their presence if in respect of the magistrate it was not lawfull to laugh in the Senate of the Areopagites and if according to Vlpian the magistrate may lawfullie proceed by a mends and seisure vpon body goods against those that rashly do speake against him what shall become of these rebels that doo bring the subiects out of taste with their due obedience to the K. that doo kindle the fire of sedition in his estate that arme themselues against his person that seise vpon his townes that do conuent forren Princes to the spoile of his realme And the law Valeria saith that in such cases we must preuent the way of iustice by the way of deed Whereat then stayeth it ye french men that the lawe is not fulfilled what letteth vs from imitating that good tribune Aulus Cornelius Cossus who in the battel spying out Tolumnius the Captaine of the Fidenates exclaimed saying Is this that periured and breaker of alliance Is this that defiler Liuie lib. 4. dec 4. of the common law of nations And wherefore do not we with that valiant Romaine bring to ground with the speares point those traitors those periured persons that do breake the law of nations that doo delight only in our displeasure and do bring this estate into combustiō To say that they wil restore the nobility to their first eminencie is to couer themselues with a wet sacke for who but their race haue troden vnder foote al respect of French nobilitie who but their father and Oncle caused that by edict of the 18. of August 1559. al donations sessions transports and alienations giuen to Gentlemen in recompence
third reason is ciuill for by the lawes it lyeth not in the meaner magistrate to cōmād the greater neither may he resist the iudgement of his superior as sayth the Emperour Iustinian or correct his acts either take notice of appeales from him as Vlpian saith yea if he chance to admitte any accusations against his superiour he may be taken for a partie and called into an action of iniurie as Caesar when he being but Praetor was accused before a Quaestor to be a partie in the conspiracie of Cateline he caused the iudge to be cōdemned in great fines because Suetonius in Iulio sayth Suetonius he suffered a greater magistrate to be accused before him Also by decree of the Parliament the 7. of Ianuarie 1547. all inferiour iudges were forbidden to vse any defences against the royall iudges because by an auncient saying The lesser may not commande the greater Doth it then beseeme the Guisardes to receiue the peoples complaintes to take notice of the kinges actions or to limitte the kinges will Besides sith that vnder the benefite of peace tilled by his Maiesties wisedome the people were freed from sundrie impositions what need we now counterfeit Hercules Dyon Timoleon or Aratus who were intituled correctors of tirāts must we vse such corrosiue medicines where there was scarce any sore where passed calamities were buried vnder the law Amnestia wold right that we should preuent the way of Iustice by the way of deede were it reason the seruant should prescribe a law to his master Is it not the custome in case of excessiue exactions to haue recourse to the estates as we had in the yeare 1338. in the time of Philip of Valois Otherwise to proceede to fire and sworde before wee lay any playsters is to fester not to close vppe the wounde to empaire not to amende the condition of the people which had neuer good successe against their king vnder Philip the faire anno 1312. vnder Charles the sixt about the yeare 1382. and vnder Henry the second the people oppressed with extraordinarie taxes sought by force to shake off that yoke but the whole storme light vppon themselues Not that I meane herein to imitate Anaxarchus who to the ende to comfort Alexander who was oppressed with sorrowe for the murder of Clitus tolde him that Dice Themis that is iustice and equitie are Iupiters assistors thereby to shew that whatsoeuer the princes actions can be no other but iust and right but contrariwise I say that it is euill done to wast treasures prodigally and to oppresse the subiectes as Tiberius Caesar saide It is the part of a good shepheard to sheare his sheepe not to slea them I say with Seneca the more lawfull that all thinges are to the king the lesse lawfull they are And that the father is not more bounde to the bringing vp of his children or the nurse to giue them her breast then is the Prince to the protection of his subiectes But withall I say that resisting the power by God established we resist his ordinance also that it would proue a dangerous gappe of great consequence if conspirators might by force and violence proceed to reformation as do these factious persons that manifestly do aspire to the crowne which is the thing that hath armed them neyther must these hypocrites alter the occasion for at whom are they greeued Not at the third estate for as they say they purpose to discharge the same of the burden of subsidies neither at the nobilitie for it they will restore to the auncient dignitie neither at the Clergie for they go about to reestablish the Church in hi◠ancient liberties neyther at the Protestantes for they shew all fauour to sundry of them besides that heretofore they haue sought to giue them a desire to come vnder the couert of their protection therein resembling but with this glose if the Protestantes Plut. de defect orat be heretikes the God of the Planetiades who expelling the wicked by one gate let them in againe at an other It is then the king that they shoot at the Princes of the bloud Iustice yea it is all good Frenchmen that they are offended withall and yet do they liue yea they liue in greatnesse and glorie and are esteemed faithfull in their disobedience loyall in their disloyaltie true in their falseshoode peace masters in their bloudie warres zealous to the common-wealth in their priuate commoditie fathers of the people in exactions and pillers of the Church in their sacrileges This is the cause O eternall God that hast so long fauoured the French Monarchie that we do present to thee our teares our sighes and sobbes for what else may a torne people rent in peeces with a thousande mischiefes and choked with forren tyranny present vnto thee O Lord in their anguish they visite thee and thy discipline causeth them in complayntes to crie vnto thee Sith therefore thou art pitifull take from vs the torch of thy indignation couer our faultes with thy grace and display thy prouidence vpon this miserable estate Let thy issue be prepared as the break of the day and come vnto vs as the slow raine and seasonable vppon the earth Wherefore O almightie God who art the Iusticer sith thy fury traceth like the fire that the rockes do cleaue before thy face plead O Lord with plague bloud with these infamous monsters who delight only in murder and crueltie Come vpon thē in a storme and let thy pathes be in a tempest giue them to be a slander and curse in all places Send vpon them famine and sword and make them O God to reape the whirle winde because they sowe the winde And you O most christian king weene not in reading this to heare the voice of a mutinouspeople and such as desire domesticall troubles but rather Sir the mournings and as it were the last sobs of your poore subiects Hearken O mercifull king to the complaints of your France which is deuided into factions spoyled by the stranger and couered with sores Is it not enough sayth she that man is borne in teares growe vp in sighes liue in payne and finish his life in griefes but he must be made vtterly miserable Is it not enough that beeing bauled at of my enemies I haue groned vnder the burden of so many forraine warres but that my owne children must pearce my flankes plucke out my guttes and bath themselues in my bloud Is it not enough that the plague consume mee but I must bee wasted with famine Is it not enough that I perish with hunger but that warres must hasten my death Is it not enough that I become a fable to strangers but they must drinke my bloud gnawe my bones and sucke vp the marrowe of my children And if as the wise man sayth the multitude of people bee the Crowne of the King and that the principall lawe that God and nature hath giuen vnto Princes is the preseruation of their subiectes
wherefore most Christian king doo you authorize the hangmen of your people If good Princes doo feare for their subiectes and Tyrantes their subiectes why doo you O Prince take weapons in the middest of your subiectes or rather why doo you not arme your selfe for the defence of Frenchmen against strangers If sir there be no question of your owne remayning in your countrie onely but also that your countrie must dwell in it selfe as Camillus sayde to the Romaines will you suffer your France to be made a butcherie a graue and a wildernesse If as it was sayde to Denis the Tyrant of Siracuse tirannous domination is no beautifull monument to be buried in what braue sepulchre may a king haue in a lande all tainted with the bloud of his poore subiectes If as a certaine Romaine sayde Caesar fastened his images by raysing those of Pompey what footing may your estate take by authorising the nearest of your bloud If as sayde Iason the tyrant of Thessaly it be necessarie to doo wrong in retayle to the end to doo right in grosse what were it to redeeme publike peace with the life of two or three rebelles If a king ought rather to feare dooing euill then receiuing euill as the one beeing cause of the other and that hee dooth euill that hindereth not the doing of euill when he may will you Sir suffer so many bloudie murders to bee committed vnder your name and authoritie and which is more by those that clayme to them selues the branches of Charlemagne that doo euen by trompet sounde you a Tyrant and that doo turmoyle both heauen and earth to pull vppon you the hatred of the Clergie of the Nobilitie and of the people Shall it bee sayde that vnder your scepter these young harebraynes these lost children of fortune haue with incredible boldnesse troden downe your edictes violated your lawes strangeled the peace whereto you were so solemnely sworne and robbed and murdered your poore subiectes Can you without horrour heare of their bloudie slaughters without pittie of the destruction of your townes without teares of the desolation of your subiectes and without greeuous displeasure of that ease which the strangers doo reape in your trauayles Consider most mercifull king that they thrust the knife into your handes wherewith to shedde your owne bloud that the rigour of your weapons lighteth vpon your subiectes that getting the victorie ouer them you can not triumph but in your owne shame neyther gaine but in your owne losse that those are to bee feared that doo nothing but vpon necessitie that haue no hope but in dispaire that looke for no peace but in warre and that haue nothing left but weapons and courage That the destruction of the Princes of the bloud and of the members and subiectes of the estate can not be far from the ineuitable destruction of your crowne That extremitie changeth humanity into furie clemencie into dispaire and obedience into rebellion That there be certaine vertues that do openly fight against the enimies as force and valiancie but that those are best which do vndermine the aduersaries hearts as faith clemencie and mercie That the course of reason must stay the Princes power in imitating the same which when it is at the highest in the North part walketh more slowly and by slacknesse maketh his course more assured Consider that those whom with fire and sword they pursue are the same children to whome you are a father the sheepe to whom you are a sheepheard the seruants to whom you are a master the subiects to whom you are a king euen the same subiects to whome of late you pawned your faith And sith it is accounted among matters of fortune if a Prince breaketh promise sith it is a warrant to his subiects of their mutal oblagitions with farre greater reason is he debter to iustice in his owne deed Taint not therfore sir your so pure and cleaine faith neither make it a slaue to the passions of a few seditious persons The people beholdeth you as the sunne that shineth equally vpon al let your loue therefore be generall if you desire to be beloued for loue naturally wil begin at the most perfect of the true Prince to his subiectes of the true father to his children and by a certaine reflection the children do loue the father and the subiects the Prince If in your opinion any heresie buddeth foorth in France if there bee any maime in the Church let it please your maiestie to consider that the wounde lieth in the soules of the heretikes that the soule is a spirituall thing which neither fire nor water can bite that for obtaining the victorie thereof you must be armed with spiritual weapons that the disease is not cured by the disease that to lay a necessitie where God leaueth a libertie is to make a mortall wound in the conscience that onely rigor causeth not men to change aduice but for the most part maketh them more resolute and to perseuer That religion cannot be aduanced by the destruction of the estate and that the estate is scattered by the dissipation of the subiectes And if there be nothing vppon earth more greater or more religious then your maiestie it may please you to set before you the example of 300. bishoppes that were in the Councell of Nice 150. in the Councell of Constantinople 200. in the Councell of Ephesus and 630. in the Councell of Calcedon who all were of opinion to vse no other wepons thē Gods word against Arrius Macedonius Nestorius Eutiches monsters conuicted of heresie and blasphemy against the holy Trinitie Let your maiestie if it please you cast your view vpon the clemencie of Augustus toward the Iewes to whō hee sent his ordinary almes and sacrifices to Hierusalem vppon Theodoricke king of the Gothes who being a fauorer of the Arrians would not force the consciences of his subiects vppon the king of the Turkes who sent his almes to the Calogers Christian religious persons of mount Athos to the end they might pray to God for him vpon the Pope who suffereth the Iewes to set foote in Italie vppon the Emperor Charles the fift who by prouision at Ausbourge 1530. granted that peace which we call of the religion and in the yeare 1555. conuerted the saide prouision into a perpetuall edict vpon your realme of Poland and Boheme wherein sundrie religions do florish And yet onely in your realme of France shall they endeuour to plant faith by armes Other Princes do liue in peace and you sir are wrapped in continual wars After their example most courteous Prince then change the labors of your poore subiects into rest and their misfortunes into prosperitie And nowe that it seemeth God hath chosen your raigne to the end vnder the same to repaire the breaches of his church with both your hands seise vpon this heauenly gift prepare a councel a schoole of saluation wherein the blinde in faith may bee lightened the diseased consciences healed the darkenesse of heresies expelled and the truth may shine forth so shal God be serued of you you of your subiects and this realme set free from the miseries that doo now oppresse it This shal be the right felicitie of a good king FINIS