these Words We will have none to be ignorant or doubtful what we intend to do upon it for by the help of God we will endeavour by all Means to wrest the Kingdom of France out of his Possession But upon the submission of that King these Threatnings came not to any effect Yet he went on against the Emperor Hen. the 4th at the rate he had threatned the King of France I need not tell what all the World knows That he first Excommunicated and Deposed the Emperor in the Year 1076. Then upon his doing of Penance he received him into his Favour But upon new provocations he deposed him a second a third and fourth time in the years 1080 1081 and 1083. In all which he had the concurrence of so many Roman Councils and set up against him first Rodolph after that Herman as his Successors did first Conrade and then Henry that Emperor 's unnatural Sons The prosecution of the History is needless to my Design But in his Letter to Herman Bishop of Mets we meet with that which is more considerable For there he largely justifies his Proceedings which he grounds on the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven being given to St. Peter and the power of Binding and Loosing joined to them More places of Scripture he sought not but his Successor Boniface the 8th made use of Ecce duo Gladii and the power given to the Prophet Ieremiah Over Kingdoms to Root out Pull down Destroy Throw down to Build and to plant And they took it in great dudgeon if any would compare a single Prophet under the Law to Christ's Vicar under the Gospel But Gregory goes on in his Proofs to the Tradition of the Church And says The Fathers had often both in General Councils and in their particular Writings acknowledged That this Power was in the See of Rome That it was the Mother and Head of all other Churches That all matters were to be judged by it from whose Sentence no Appeal could lye Nor could there be a Review made of the Judgments passed in that See And to confirm what he had asserted he cites some Passages out of Gelasius and Iulius and that Clause in the Priviledges granted by Gregory the Great formerly mentioned So here he very fully and formally delivers the Tradition of the Church and builds upon it He also cites the Precedent of Pope Zacharias his Deposing Childeric not for any fault he found in him but because he thought him not fit to Govern From that he goes on to some Reasons such as they are for the justification of his Proceedings The Pope having thus declared the Tradition and Doctrine of the Church it is not to be wondred at if both the Schoolmen mixt it with the Instructions they gave their Scholars and the Canonists made it a part of the Law of the Church Hugo de Sancto Victore Alexander Alensis Bonaventure Durand Peter of Aliac Iohn of Paris Almain Gabriel Biel Henry of Ghant Iohn Driodo Iohn de Terre iremata Albert Pighius Thomas Waldensis Petrus de Palude Cajetan Franciscus Victoria Dominicus a Soto and many others in all 70 are reckoned by Bellarmin but Foulis enlarges the number to 177 whom he cites who did formally assert it Aquinas also taught it tho' in some places he contradicted himself But Boniface the 8th thought his Predecessors had proceeded in this matter too cautiously and therefore he went more roundly to work In the Jubilee in the year 1300 He shewed himself the first day in the Pontifical Habit but the second day he was clothed with the Imperial Habit a naked Sword being carried before him and cried out with a loud voice I am Pope and Emperor and have both the Earthly and Heavenly Empire This upon so publick an occasion looks very like the Teaching the Church Ex Cathedra But because words vanished into Air he left it in writing in these terms We say and define and pronounce that it is absolutely necessary to Salvation for every humane creature to be subject to the Bishop of Rome This being put into the Text of the Canon Law in which it is continued to this day we cannot think it Strange that Panorimitan Ostiensis Silvester with all the other Canonists assert the Popes direct Dominion over all the World And what can they say less Believing him to be Christs Vicar on Earth to whom all Power in heaven and earth was given of his Father therefore the power in Heaven being judged enough for Christ to manage himself they thought all the power in Earth was Committed to the Vicar This passed down without Contradiction among them but was not received by the rest of the Church yet the Indirect or as they termed it the Ecclesiastical power in cases of Heresie was Universally agreed to not one person Opposing it till Luther and his Followers came sawcily to look into the Popes Title to this and many other pretended Rights of the See of Rome But because the Plea for an Indirect Power was not Sufficient Since if a Prince did not Favour Heresie it was of no use And the pretention to a direct power was of an harsh sound Therefore a Title of another kind was set up It was pretended That all the Kingdoms in the Western and Northern parts of Europe were by formal Surrenders offered up to St. Peter and St. Paul And therefore whatever the Popes did was said to be done in Defence of their Rights which made Gregory the 7th fly to them in that flanting Address with which he begins his Sentences against the Emperor First of all the Donation of Constantine the Great was forged By which the Power of all the West Italy Sicily Sardinia Germany France Spain and England were given to the Pope This was put into the Text of the Canon Law and was stood to by all the Canonists It is true the Civilians wrote generally against it Among whom Bartholus may be reckoned for in his Preface to the Digests having mentioned the Opinions of some against it when it comes to his own he delivers it thus Take notice that we are now in the Territory of the Church for he taught at Bulloigne and therefore I say that Donation is valid But till Valla discovered the Impostures of it so manifestly that they are now ashamed to maintain it any longer their plea from it was never laid down But Augustinus Steuchus who undertakes the Vindication of that Donation against Valla does likewise alledge from some Instruments in the Vatican that both the Kingdoms of Spain Arragon France England Denmark Muscovy Sicily and Croatia and Dalmatia did Subject their Crowns to the See of Rome Kranizius tells us that Lakold King of Poland made it Tributary to Rome And for the German Empire tho Steuchus says nothing of it perhaps that he might not offend Charles the 5th yet there is both in the Canon Law and the Letters of Popes more to be
in any one age it hath been believed That St. Peter had power from Christ which he left to the See of Rome by which his Successor in it can depose Kings then this must be an Apostolical Tradition and by consequence of equal authority with any thing written in the Scriptures To these General Considerations about the Authority of the Church and the Certainty of Tradition I shall add Two other about the Nature of Supreme and Soveraign Power By which we may judg of what Extent the Popes Power must be if he have an authority to depose Kings and transfer their Dominions to other persons First When the Soveraign Powers proceed in a Legal way against its Subjects If either they abscond so that they cannot be found Or have such a Power about them that the Sovereign cannot bring them to punishment He may declare them Rebels and set Prices on their Heads And in that case it is as lawful for any Subject to kill them as it is for an Executioner to put a condemned Person to Death These being the several ways the Law provides in those several cases So when a Pope deposes a Prince He may as lawfully set on private Assassinates to kill him as oblige his Subjects to rise with open force against him For if the Pope has a Power over him to depose him this clearly follows from the Nature of Sovereign Power and it is the Course that sometimes must be followed when the Rebel can be no other way brought to deserved punishment and if the Pope has the power of deposing then a Prince who after such a Sentence carries himself as a King is a Rebel against his Supreme Lord And is also an Usurper For his Title being destroyed by the Sentence He has no authority over his Subjects and therefore may be as lawfully killed as any Rebel or Usurper Secondly The Supreme power may in cases of great necessity when the thing is in it self materially just pass over such Forms as ought in ordinary Cases to be observed I need not tell you That in a great Fire Subordinate Magistrates may blow up Houses But doubtless the Supreme Power of all as a King in an absolute Monarchy and such is the Papal Power if these Opinions be true may dispence with some Forms when the Matter is in it self just and if the chief design of a Law be pursued the circumstantial parts of it may upon extraordinary occasions be superseded Therefore if the Pope is Supreme over all Kings and has this deposing Power Then though by the Canon a King ought to be first a Year Excommunicated for his Heresy or favouring Hereticks and at the Years end he may be Deposed by the Pope There are also other Rules for Excommunications tho the Summary way in some cases may be used yet all these are but circumstantial and lesser Matters The design of that Law is That no Heretical Prince or favourer of Heresie be continued in his Power The other are but Forms of Law that cannot be indispensibly necessary in all cases Besides the very Canon Law teaches that when there is both a Notorietas juris Facti Summary proceedings are Legal when then it is Notorious that the Doctrines of the Church of England for Instance are Heretical and that the King is an Obstinate Favourer of these Heresies and will not extirpate them Summary and Secret proceedings are justifiable There is no hope that Bulls Breves or Citations would do any good in this case These would on the contrary alarm the State and bring all the Party under great hazards Therefore from the Nature of Supreme Power it is most justly Inferred That though there have been no publick Sentence of Deposition according to the Forms of the Canon Law yet all these may be dispensed with and a Secret and Summary one may do as well These Positions are such that I cannot fansie any just Exceptions to which they are liable and from all these laid together the Inference will undeniably follow That according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome the power of Deposing Kings is lodged with the Pope by a Divine Authority and that by consequence private persons may conspire to take away the Life of a King so deposed Even though there be no publick Sentence given about it But before I bring the Evidence for all this I shall desire the Reader will a little reflect on the Positions I have laid down in which he will find an Answer to all the Exceptions that can be made against the following Evidence By the first The Authority of the Church being the same in all Ages he will see it is to no purpose to pretend these were dark Ages So that what was done in an ignorant time cannot oblige the World when things are seen in a better light But if the Church has an Authority from Christ that shall last till the end of the World it must be the same in all ages The Ignorance of the age is a very good answer when made by a Protestant but can signifie nothing in a Papists Mouth By the second Of the Churches authority in setling Moral Rules for practice it appears how fond that distinction is which they make between a Canon and a Decree It is true a Decree about a particular Case in which there is some matter of Fact may be wrong according to their Principles and yet the authority of the Church remain entire For instance in the deposing a Prince or condemning a Man for Heresie the Church may either by false Witnesses or mistaking a Man's words be drawn to pass an unjust Sentence by reason of a mis-representation of the Fact But that is nothing to the purpose here where a Decree is made as a perpetual Rule of Practice this must be of the same authority of a Canon about any article of Faith Otherwise it will follow that the Church may mislead the People in matters indispensably necessary to Salvation For such is the Obedience to the Ten Commandments By the first way of judging of the Tradition of the Church from what the most received Writers in any age deliver as the Doctrine of the Church it will appear That the Schoolmen and Canonists are as competent Conveyers of Tradition from the twelfth age downward as the Fathers were from the sixth Age upward and laying this for a Principle That the Church is the same in all Ages they are really more competent Witnesses than the Fathers were First Because they write more closely to the subject they have in hand they consider what is said for or against an Opinion in a more exact manner than the Fathers did who being carried with the heat they are sometimes in go off from the purpose and generally affect Eloquence which is the most improper Stile for nice Matters Whereas the Schoolmen write in a blunt way only considering the purpose they are about coyning the most barbarous words they can light on when they
do hinder him in his Iourney he is ipso facto deprived of all Honour Dignity Office or Benefice whether Ecclesiastical or Secular So here the indirect power over Princes by which they may be both deposed and punished is plainly assumed It is true that same Council did indeed Decree That no Subject should murther his King or Prince upon which some of our English and Irish Writers who condemn these practices think they have great advantages That Decree was procured by Gersons means who observing that by the many Rebellions that had been generally set on by Popes the Persons of Princes were brought under such contempt that private Assassinations came to be practised and in particular that of the Duke of Orleance by the Duke of Burgundy Therefore to prevent the fatal consequer ces which were like to follow on that and to hinder such practices for the future he with great earnestness followed that matter And tho it had almost cost him his life it is like from some of the Duke of Orleance his Faction who were resolved on a Revenge yet at last he procured it But this was only a Condemnation of private Cut-throats And the Article condemned had a pretty Reservation in it for it strikes only against Subjects killing their Prince without waiting for the Sentence of any Iudg whatsoever So if a Sentence be past by the Spiritual Judg then this Condemnation notwithstanding a Prince may be Murthered And the other Decree of that Council passed in the same Session shew they had no mind to part with the Deposing Power Besides the Answer to this Decree is clear It is acknowledged by the Defenders of the contrary opinion That it is not lawful in any case to kill a King but when one that was a King is no more such but becomes a Rebel and an Usurper then it is lawful to kill him Pursuant to the Decree made at Constance a Council met at Siena ten years after in which all the former Decrees made against Hereticks are confirmed and the Favourers or Fautors of Heresie are delared liable to all the pains and censures of Hereticks and by consequence to the chief of them all Deposition After that came the Council of Basil which ratified the forementioned Decree made at Constance about General Councils By which Popes Emperors Kings c. that presumed to hinder any from coming to the Council are subjected to Excommunication Interdicts and other Punishments Spiritual and Temporal Last of all came the Council of Trent and tho met ters were at that pass that the Council durst not tread on Princes as others had formerly done lest they should have been thereby provoked to join with the Protestants yet they would not quite lay aside the pretence of a Deposing power but resolved to couch it so into some Decree that it might continue their claim to a Right which they would not part with tho they knew not at that time what to make of it So in the Decree against Duels they declare That if any Emperors Kings c. did assign a field for a Combat that they did thereby lose their Right to that place and the City Castle or other places about it Now it is certain if by their Decrees a Prince may forfeit any part of his Dominion he may be also dispossessed of all the rest since his Title to his whole Territory being one individual thing what shakes it in any part subjects it entirely to him who has such authority over it Here we have found 7 General Councils as they are esteemed by that Church all either expresly asserting the Deposing Power or ratifying former Decrees that had asserted it And from such a succession of Councils it is reasonable to conclude That this Third Character of a Tradition of the Church agrees to it and if General Councils are fit Conveyors of Traditions we have as full Evidence as can be desired for proving this to be a Church-Tradition This last Character of a Tradition is what the whole Body of the Church has held in any one Age. Upon which they say we may calculate that such opinions must have come down from the Apostles since it seems neither credible nor possible that the Belief of the Church could be changed With this Arnold has of late made great noise And as the new Fashions that come from France do please our young Gallants best so some of the Writers of Controversies among us have taken up the same plea here That the whole Church received the Deposing Doctrine in cases of Heresy may be inferred from what had been said The Church is made up of Popes Bishops Priests Of Soveraign Princes and Subjects of all ranks That the Popes believed it none can doubt So many Definitions of Councils shews us as plainly what the Bishops and other Prelates believed the Writing of the Schoolmen and Canonists shew what the rest of the Clergy believed Those Princes who suffered under the Sentences give at least a tacit consent to it since they never question it but study only to clear themselves of the imputation of Heresie The other Princes who made use of the Donations of the Popes shew as plainly that they believ'd it The great Armies that were brought about their Standards must have also believed it and the people who generally deserted the Deposed Prince notwithstanding the great vertues of some of them and the love that Subjects naturally carry to their Princes shew that they believed it So that if St. Iames his Question Shew me thy Faith by thy Works be applied to this particular the Answer will be easie What shall I mention the frequent depositions of Charles the 1st of Henry the 4th of his Son Henry the 5th of Frederick the 1st Philip Otho the 4th Frederick the 2d and Lewis the 4th in the Empire The frequent Depositions in Sicily and Naples the many attempts upon France that terrible Bull in particular of Iulius the 2d against that good King Lewis the twelfth By which besides the Sentence against the King it appears he designed the total destruction of the Nation promising the Pardon of Sin to every one that killed one French Man the frequent Attempts upon England both in Hen. the 2d and K. Iohn's time not to mention their later Bulls of Deposition against K. Henry the 8th and Q. Elizabeth the many Attempts in Spain particularly the deposing the King of Navarre by P. Iulius and the Sentences against Henry the 4th then King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde All these and a great many more with the strange Effects that followed upon them are so clear Proofs of the Worlds believing this Doctrine for many Ages together that if Men had any Remainders of shame left with them they could not deny it And to this day all their Writers maintain it tho perhaps now the greatest part of the Laity know little of it but whenever the Tradition of the Church is
in these Courses but the Prince of Conde that was next to him in the Royal Blood declared for the Edicts Many great Lawyers were of opinion That the Regents Power was not so vast as to suspend or break the Edict and that therefore the People might follow any Person much more the next Prince of the Blood in defence of it This Plea was yet stronger before the Year ended for the King of Navarre being killed the Prince of Conde was then by the Law of France the Rightful Regent So that all the Wars that followed afterwards till the Year 1570 had this to be said for them That in the Opinion of very Learned Men the King was all that while under Age that the Edicts were broken the Kingdom governed by a Woman and Foreigners against Law and that the lawful Regent was excluded from the Government which made King Iames whose Judgment is not to be suspected in this Case always justify the Protestants in France and excuse them from Rebellion This is a piece of History little understood and generally made use of to blemish the Reformation therefore I thought it necessary to introduce the following Relation with this just account of these Wars that were the pretended grounds with which the House of Guise covered their own Ambition and hatred of the Family of Burbon After France had suffered all the Miseries which a course of Civil Wars for ten years together carries after it the King was advised to set on foot a Treaty of Peace not so much out of a design to quiet Matters by a happy settlement as to ensnare the Protestants into some fatal Trap in which they being catched might be safely and easily destroyed The chief Authors of this advice were the Queen Mother the Cardinal of Lorrain the Duke of Nevers the Count of Rets and Birague the last three were Italians and so better fitted both for designing and carrying on so wicked a Council to which the Duke of Anjou afterwards Henry the third was also admitted They said the extirpation of Heresy might be done much cheaper than by a Civil War It was fit first to grant the Protestants what conditions they desired then to treat them with all possible kindness by which their Jealousies were to be once extinguished and a confidence being begotten in them then to draw the chief Heads of the Party to Court upon some specious Attractive and there they were sure of them The first Bait to be offered was the marriage of the King's Sister to the King of Navarre and if that succeded not they were to invent still a new one till they found that which would do the Business All the danger of this Council was that the Pope and the King of Spain would be much provok'd by it and there might be some hazard of Tumults among the zealous People of France if the King seemed to favour the Hereticks too much But they reckoned that when the Design took effect all who might be discontented with the appearance of favour shewed to them would be well satisfied and the more the Pope and Spaniard complained of it it would advance their chief end of creating a confidence in the Protestants more effectually Thus were their Councils laid The Room in which this was first projected was the Council-Chamber of Blois where 16 Years after the Duke of Guise was killed by Henry the third's orders And it was more fully concluded in that Chamber at St. Clou where the same Henry the third was murdered by a Dominican The Design being agreed on the Queen-Mother made some of her Spies among the Protestants assure them that she hated the King of Spain mortally both on her Daughter's account that was his Queen and as was universally believed had been poysoned by his Orders as also upon the consideration of her own Family of Florence to which the Spaniard was then an uneasy Neighbour and designed to take the Territory of Siena out of their Hands It was reasonable enough to believe that upon such Motives a Woman of her temper would set on a War with Spain The King did also express a great inclination to the same War and to undertake the Protection of the Netherlands which were then under the Tyranny of the Duke of Alva's Government This wanted not a fair pretence Flanders having been formerly subject to the Crown of France He also seemed weary of the greatness of the Duke of Guise and his party which a Civil War did still encrease The King and the Queen-Mother employed also in these Messages Biron Momorancy Cosse and others who were Men of great Integrity and had much Friendship for the Queen of Navarre and the Admiral that were the Heads of the Protestant Party The Queen of Navarre was sensible of the great advantages her Son would receive from such an Alliance An Army was also promised her for the recovery of her Kingdom from the Spaniards which had been easily regained if the Crown of France had assisted her since the Southern Parts of France were almost all Protestants who would have wâ—…llingly served her against Spain Only she being a most Religious Woman had great apprehensions of the unlawfulness at least the extream danger of matching her Son to one of a different Religion therefore she took some time to consider of that part of the Proposition The Admiral was very weary of the Civil War it both ruined his Country and slackened the discipline of War which he had formerly observed with a Roman Severity He thought the Conquest of the Netherlands would be an easy and a great accession to the Crown he knew there was none so likely to be employed in it as himself and he was resolved to carry all the Souldiers of the Religion with him And being Admiral he also designed to raise the greatness of the Crown both at Sea and in the new-found World which was then sending over an incredible deal of Wealth to Spain in which the Spaniards who had landed in Florida and killed a Colony of the French that was setled there had given just cause to make War upon them Therefore as he had often expressed his being so averse to a Civil War that he could no longer look on and see the Miseries it brought on his Country so he was made believe the King did in good earnest intend to assist the Flemings which being both against the Spaniard and in defence of those of the same Religion he would by no means hinder Upon these Considerations there was a Peace concluded between the King and the Protestants by which the free exercise of their Religion was granted some Cautionary Towns were also put in their Hands to be kept by them two Years till there were a full settlement made of the Edicts and the other things agreed to for their Security The King acted his part with all the Artifice possible he became much kinder to the Family of Momorancy and the rest of the Admirals Friends and
of Quality Cavagnes and Briquemaut who had been dealt with to accuse the Admiral but they would not save themselves by so base a ransom so they were both condemned as Complices with him But when the Sentence was pronounced against them Thuanus that was an Eye-Witness says Briquemaut cried out when that part of the Judgment was read that concerned his Children Ah Innocents what have they done And then he who for 50 years together had served in the Warrs with a high and approved Valour being then 70 what for fear of Death what out of pity to his Children would have done any thing to have saved himself He sent the King word first that he would put Rochel in his Hands if he would spare his Life But that being rejected he offered to accuse the Admiral to preserve himself But neither was that considered All that while his Fellow-Sufferer Cavagnes continued most serious in his Devotions and for three hours together was either Praying or reciting some Psalms and expressed no concern for his Life his thoughts being wholly employed about Eternity He encouraged Briquemaut to die as he had lived and to turn himself to God and not to stain so honourable a Life as he had led with an ignominious end And he seeing he must die recollected his Thoughts and seemed ashamed of his former abject behaviour and composed and prepared himself for Death They both were carried to the place of Execution in Hurdles where they not only suffered the reptoches of the Multitude as they went along who threw Filth and Clay at them with their most scurrilous Language but Death it self with much Christian Patience and Magnanimity They were hanged at the Greve and their Bodies after they were dead were barbarously mangled by the cruel Multitude With them the brave Admiral was hanged in Effigie whose Innocence as well as their own they did to their last Breath assert The King who delighted in such bloody Spectacles did not only look on himself with the Queen-Mother and the Court but forced the King of Navarre likewise to be a Witness of it It is needless to say much for evincing the Admiral 's Innocence for all the Writers of the time acknowledg the Process was only to cover the infamy of the Massacre And Thuanus has so fully demonstrated it that none can so much as doubt of it If the Admiral had any such design why came he to Court Why to Paris where he knew he had few Friends and a vast number of mortal Enemies and why did he desire a Guard from the King But since they could not find a better colour for so foul a Business they must make use of the best they had They took another course to stop the Queen of Englands resentments who besides the common Cause of Religion had a particular esteem for the Admiral for they shewed a Memorial which he had given the King to perswade the War of Flanders to Walsingham the ever renowned Secretary of State then her Ambassador in France In which one of the reasons was That if the King would not receive these oppressed Provinces into his Protection they would throw themselves into the Queen of Englands Hands and if the English made themselves Masters of them or of any considerable Ports in them they would be again uneasy and formidable Neighbours to France which would thereby lose the great security they had in taking Calice out of their Hands When Walsingham read this and was asked what he thought of the Admirals Friendship to his Mistress he answered as became so great a Man That he could not say much of his Friendship to the Q. of England but he was sure it appeared from that what a faithful Subject he was to the King of France A Week after this was done the King compleated the Treachery of this Precedure for by his Letters directed to the Governours of the Provinces bearing date the 3d of November He declared he would Tollerate no Religion but the Roman Catholick in all his Dominions Upon which the following Civil Wars began and in excuse of them I shall only say that besides the barbarous and persidious Treatment the Protestants had now received they had this legal Warrant for standing on their own defence That by the former Treaty the King granted them Cautionary Towns for Pledges of the observation of the Edict And it is certain that if a Prince grants his Subjects Cautionary Towns for their Security he does thereby relax their Alleagiance to him and gives them a right to defend themselves if the Agreement upon which these Pledges were given should come to be broken This is the true and just account of that foul and treacherous Massacre even as it is represented by the Historians of that Age and Church who can neither deny nor excuse the Infamy of it tho some rejoyced at it and others wrote in defence of it The King gloried so much in it that three Meddals were struck to perpetuate the memory of it In one Hercules is both with his Club and a Flambeau fighting against the seven-headed Serpent with this Motto Ne ferrum temnat simul ignis obsto On the reverse the King with his Hand supports two Crowned Pillars ready to fall with this Motto Mira fides lapsas relevat manus una Columnas Hereby intimating that Heresy was the Serpent which was to be destroyed by main Force and by Fire And that by this Act the King had supported Religion and Justice In the second the King sits in his Chair of State with a Sword in his right Hand and an Hand on the Head of a Scepter in his left And many Heads lying about his Feet with this Motto Virtus in Rebelles On the Reverse were the Arms of France between two Pillars and two Lawrel Branches with this Motto Virtus excitavit Iustitiam The third had on the one side a Woman environed with Rays and a Book open in one Hand and a Palmin the other and at her Feet many Heads in Flames with this Motto Subducendis rationibus The Reverse was the same with the first The Signification of this was Religion triumphing over Heresy But this was only a false shew of Joy for he was ininvardly tormented with the horrours of a guilty Conscience which the effusion of so much Blood did justly raise in him so that being often troubled with Visions he was frequently heard say Ah! my poor Subjects what had you done But I was forced to it The strange manner of his Death looked like a signal Judgment from Heaven for that bloody day for after a long Sickness which was believed the effect of a lent Poison given him by the Queen-Mother Blood not only came out through all the Conduits of his Body but through the very Pores so that he was sometimes found all bathed in his own Blood And he that had made his Kingdom swim with Blood died thus wallowing in his own All the servile Pens of the Lawyers
a Sentence good or does not think it expedient that is to say They will do it whensoever they find a Prince who will execute the Sentence and yet by that Conquest not grow so strong as by that means to turn the Ballance So the two Considerations to which we owe our Security are the want of Force and the Fear of another Prince his becoming too powerful by the Conquest But I must add that Bellarmine while he was a Jesuite had taught that Heretical Princes were not to be deposed except they endeavoured to turn their people from the Faith This was all his Bounty to them of which we could not pretend to a Crumb since there were such Laws made against Popery among us Yet when he became a Cardinal he considered better of the Matter so that in his Recognitions he retracts that and says therein be followed Durandus his Opinion who maintains it against Aquinas but he thinks the latter was in the right and says Even in that Case they may be deposed only the Church does it not always either because she wants Strength or does not judge it expedient But he concludes If Princes endeavour to draw their Subjects from the Faith they may and ought to be deposed So in our Case there is no Mercy to be expected unless we repeal all Laws against that Religion But after all this there is another Device in the Canon-Law called Ipso facto by which a Sentence is incurred immediately upon the doing of a Fact This began in the Priviledges granted to Monasteries or Churches in most of which this Clause is to be found That if any King or Prince c. did any thing contrary to these Priviledges he thereby fell from his Power and Dignity Now that Heresy is one of the things upon which a Prince is ipso facto under Excommunication and Deposition we have the Authority of Father Parsons or Creswel who tells us That the whole School of Divines and Canonists agree in it and That it is certain and of Faith That a Prince falling from the Catholick Religion and endeavouring to draw away others from it does immediately fall from all his Power and Dignity even before the Pope has pronounced any Sentence and that his Subjects are free from their Oaths of Obedience and may eject such an one as Apostate and Heretick But there is a clearer Evidence for this the great and famous College of the Sorbon seventy Doctors being present when consulted whether the People of France were not freed from their Obedience to Henry the third upon his putting the Duke and Cardinal of Guise to death they before ever the Pope had given Sentence declared That they were absolved from their Obedience and might with a good Conscience make War upon him for the defence of the Catholick Faith Upon which the Parisians wrote to the Pope to desire the Confirmation of that Decision From all which it appears that if the deposing Power be in the Pope the King is not a whit the safer because we know nothing of any such Sentence pronounced against him And thus having made good and illustrated the Positions I laid down against all the Exceptions which that small and condemned Party of Widdrirgton's Followers make use of to cover themselves from the Charge of Treason that lies against their Church I go next to lay open the Evidence after which I shall leave it to every Man's Conscience to pass the Verdict There are in f Pope Gregory the Great 's Works four Priviledges granted one to the Abbey of St. Medard another to the Hospital a third to the Nunnery a fourth to St. Martin's Church of Autim In which after the Priviledges are granted a Sanction is added in these words If any Kings c. shall endeavour to countervene this Writing let him lose the Dignity of his Power and Honour Or shorter in that of St. Medard Let him be deprived of his Dignity These are to be found both in all the MSS and Printed Editions of that Popes Works It is true the first of these to Saint Medard's Monastery is looked on as a forged Piece both by Cardinal Perron Sirmond and Lannoy But as it went for a true one till of late and is still defended by others Baronius in particular concluding from thence for the Popes Power over Kings so the other Priviledges are not denied to be true by any except Lannoy of late for ought I know These have been for above 600 years looked on as the Grants of that Pope But this may seem a private Writing and not of such force About 130 years after that Pope Gregory the 3d deposed Leo the Emperor from all his Dominions in Italy because he would not tolerate the Worship of I mages And if that single Heresie merited such a Sentence what may we look for among whose many imputed Errors this is but one and none of the most considerable Not many years after that did his Successor Zacharias upon a Message he received from France absolve that Nation from their Oaths to Childeric and ordered Boniface to Crown Pepin in his stead And not long after that Pope Adrian gave the Empire of Rome and of the West to Charles the Great As Bellarmine proves from above 30 of the Historians of that time and the Testimony of many Soveraign Princes Yet these being dark Ages in which there was more of Action than Dispute we do not find the Grounds laid down on which those Proceedings were founded But the constant Maxim of the Papacy was once to begin a Practice and then to find Arguments to defend it among which the Practice it self was no inconsiderable one for he was a mean spirited Pope that would in a Tittle fall short of what his Predecessors had assumed About 250 years after Charles the Great had assumed the Empire of the West there arose a Pope Gregory the Seventh that resolved to make the most of his See that could be and reckoning That the Empire of the West was the Gift of his Predecessors and building on that known Maxim That none can give that which they have not he looked on the supreme Dominion of it as one of the Perquisites of the See which he would by no means part with And therefore in his Dictatis in which he asserts the several Branches of his Prerogative these be three of them That the Pope only may use the Imperial Ensigns That he may depose Emperours And That he can absolve Subjects from their Fidelity to wicked Princes And to shew he was in earnest in these Doctrines he began soon to lay about him His first Threatnings were against King Philip of France who was a vicious Prince In a Letter to the Bishops of France he requires them to admonish the King for his Faults and if he did not mend them to put the whole Kingdom under an Interdict And if after all that he continued still Disobedient he Swaggers out in
the same manner that they had done in the worship of Images and as they did afterwards in the points of Transubstantiation and denying the Chalice in the Communion They took care first to infuse it into all the Clergy which God woâ—…'s was no hard thing and then brought them together and made up the Pageant of a Council for giving it more authority So above an hundred years after Gregory the VII had first taught this Doctrine a thing under the name of a General Council sate in the Later an at Rome where upon the advantage the Popes had against the Albigenses and others who were according to their Opinion most pestiferous Hereticks they first precured a Decree for it It is true many Provincial Councils had concurred with Gregory the VII one of these is called a General one 110 Bishops being present and the other Popes who had formerly given out these Thunders But now the matter was to be more solemnly Transacted In this Council many Hereticks are condemned and Excommunicated and all that had sworn Oaths of Fidelity or Hemage to them are Absolved from those Oaths and they are required in order to the obtaining the Remission of their sins to fight against them and those who die doing penance in that manner may without doubt expect Indulgence for their sins with eternal rewards And in conclusion by the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul they Remit to all who shall rise and fight against them two years Penance Here the Council does industriously infuse this Doctrine into all people and calls Rebellion Penance a very easy one to a poor or discontented Subject and assures them of a deliverance from Purgatory and that they should be admitted straight to Heaven for it In an Age in which these things were believed more effectual means than those could not be found out to engage the people in it By this Decree if we are guilty of the Heresies then condemned as no doubt we are of most of them without more ado or any further Sentence upon the declaring us guilty of the Heresies of the Albigenses the Subjects are delivered from their obligations to the King And when they conspire or rebel against him they are only doing penance for their sins and he were hard-hearted that would punish men only for doing of penance About thirty years after that Council the Pope had a mind to regulate the former Law That the Deposing of Kings might be declared a part of his Prerogative and that thereby he might with authority Dispose of their Kingdoms to others For hitherto the Popes had only pretended to the Power of Deposing and then the States of the Kingdom as in an Interregne were to choose a new Prince But P. Innocent the III. thought it was half work except he could bestow as well as take away Crowns His Predecessor Celestine had in a most extravagant humour set the Crown on Henry the Sixth his head with his two feet and then kickt it off again to shew according to Barronius his Comment That it was in his power to give to maintain and take away the Empire A very full Assembly therefore being called of about 1200 of one sort or other to the Lateran again It was first Decreed That the aid of Secular Princes should be required for the Extirpating of Hereticks after that they proceed and enact thus When the Temporal Lord required or admonished by the Church shall neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical wickedness let him be Excommunicated by the Metropolitan and his Suffragans And if he persist in neglecting to give satisfaction for the space of a year let him be signified to the Pope That he from thenceforth may pronounce his Subjects discharged from their Obedience and expose his Territory to be seized on by Catholicks who having exterminated the Hereticks shall possess it without contradiction and preserve it in the purity of the Faieh so as no injury be done to the Right of the Supreme Lord where there is such provided he do not any way oppose himself and the same Law is to take place on them who have no Superiour Lord. The Deposition of the Court of Tholouse being the thing then in their eye made that the Decree runs chiefly against Feudatary Princes yet as the last Clause takes in Soveraign Princes so by the Clause before it was provided That if the Soveraign did any way Oppose what was done against his Vassal he was to forfeit his Right I did in the former part of this Letter meet with all the Exceptions that are commonly made to this Canon Only one pretty Answer which a person of Honour makes is yet to be considered He tells us that there were so many Soveraign Princes or Ambassadors from them at this Council that we are to look on this Decree as a thing to which those Princes consented From whence he Infers It was rather their Act than an Invasion of their Rights made by that Council But be it so he knows they allow no Prescription against the Church If then those Princes consented to it upon which the power of Deposing had that Accession to fortifie it by it can never be recalled nor prescribed against It is true there were many Ambassadors from Princes there But they were all such as either held their Dominions by the Popes Grant or had been either Deposed by him or Threatned with Depositions or were the Children of those whom he had Deposed So no wonder they stood in such fear of the Pope that they durst not refuse to consent to every thing he had a mind to For indeed this Council did only give their Placet to a paper of Decrees penned by the Pope Henry called the Greek Emperor Brother to Baldwin that had seized on Constantinople had no other Title to it besides the Popes Gift Frederick the 2d who had been the Popes Ward was then the Elect Emperor of Germany made so at the Popes Instance who had Deposed the two Immediately preceding Emperours Philip and Otho the 4th the last being at that time alive So that he durst not contradict the Pope lest he should have set up Otho against him But no Emperor except Henry the 4th ever suffered more from the Popes Tyranny than he did afterwards One sad Instance of it was that the Pope having pressed his March to the Holy-land much did at last Excommunicate him for his delays upon which he to avoid further censures carried an Army thither which was so succesful that the Pope who hoped he should have been destroyed in the Expedition as the first Emperor of that name was now being vexed at his Success complained that he should have presumed to go thither while he lay under Excommunication and was in Rebellion against him and went about not only to Dethrone him but to get him to be betrayed by the Knights Hospitallers and Templers into the Sultans hands who abominating that Treachery revealed it to him Iohn
of Brenne had the Kingdom of Ierusalem by that same Popes Gift who took it from Almeric King of Cyprus and gave it him But Almeric had no cause to complain since he held Cyprus only by the same Copy of the Popes Gift So they both were at the Popes Mercy Our Iohn of England was his Vassal as he usually called him But his Successour went higher calling the King of England not only his Vassal but his Slave and Declared That at his beck he could procure him to be Imprisoned and Disgraced Iames King of Arragon who was also the Popes Ward had no less reason to be afraid of the Pope who had Deposed his Father for Assisting the Count of Tholouse Philip Augustus King of France had his Kingdom twice put under an Interdict worse things being also threatned The like Threatnings had been made to Andrew King of Hungary but upon his Submission he was received into favour And now is it any wonder that those Princes gave way to such a Decree when they knew not how to help themselves by Opposing it which would have raised a Storm that they could not hope to weather Anothet thing is remarkable concerning this time by which the Belief of the Deposing Doctrine in that Age will better appear Other Princes whom Popes had Deposed procured some Civilians to write for them and got Synods of Bishops sometimes on their side against the Pope Because it was evident the Pope proceeded not upon the Account of Heresie but of private spite and hatred But in the case of the Count of Tholouse who was a manifest Favourer of that which was esteemed Heresie the Opinions of the Albigenses that were his Subjects not a Writer in all that Age durst undertake to defend his cause nor could he procure one Bishop to be of his side So universally was it received that in the case of Heresie a Prince might be Deposed by the Pope The 3d General Council that Confirmed this Power was the Council of Lions held by Innocent the 4th against the forementioned Frederick the 2d where as the Sentence bears The Pope having Consulted with his Brethren and the Holy Council being Christs Vicar on Earth to whom it was said in the person of St. Peter whatsoever ye bind on Earth c. Declares the Emperor bound in his sins and thereupon Deprived by God of his Dominions Whereupon he by his Sentence does Depose him and absolves all from their Oaths of Fidellty to him Straitly charging all persons to acknowledge him no more either Emperor or King Declaring all that did otherwise Excommunicated ipso facto There are in this Process several things very remarkable It is grounded on a pretence to a Divine Tradition So here the whole Council concur with the Pope in asserting this power to flow from that Conveyance And thus either that Tradition is true or the Councils are not to be believed when they Declare a Tradition 2ly Tho this is but a Decree in one particular Instance yet it is founded on the General Rule And so is a Confirmation of it by which it is put out of doubt that the 4th Council of Lateran included Soveraign Princes within their Decree 3ly When the Emperors Advocate appeared to plead for him He did not at all except to their Jurisdiction over him or Power of Deposing in the case of Heresie but denyed that the Emperor was guilty of the crimes Objected namely Heresie whereby he at least waved the denial of their Power in that case He also desired some time might be granted for the Emperor to appear and plead for himself in person Whereby he plainly acknowledged their Jurisdiction 4ly When the Ambassadors of France and England Interceded that the Emperors desire might be granted the Council gave him near two weeks time to appear in which was so incompetent a time and all had declared themselves so prepossest or rather so overawed by the Pope that hated him Mortally That the Emperor would not appear because they were his professed Adversaries And upon that and other grounds none of them touching on the power of Deposing in cases of Heresie He appealed from them to the next General Council Upon which the Pope and Prelates sitting in Council with Candles burning in their hands thundred out the Sentence against him Here were three very publick Judgments of three General Councils on this Head within the compass of sixty years But it may be imagined these were Councils that wholly depended on the Pope and so their Decrees are to be looked on only as a Ceremony used by the Pope to make his own Sentence look more solemn But when upon the long Schism in the See of Rome the power of that See was much shaken and a Council met at Constance to heal that Breach in which the Bishops taking advantage from that Conjuncture to recover their former Dignity began to Regulate many matters It may be upon such an occasion expected that if any Party in the Church had disliked these practices they should have been now condemned and that the rather since by so doing the Bishops might have hoped to get the Princes to be of their side in their Contests with the Pope But it fell out quite otherwise For as the Murtherers of his late Sacred Majesty pretended when the King was killed that all his power was devolved on them and would have even the same precedence allowed their Ambassadors in forreign parts that his had So the Council of Constance reckoned that whatever Rights the Popes had assumed did now rest with them as the Supreme Power of the Church For in one of their Sessions a Decree was framed made up of all the severe Decrees that had ever been made against those who violated the Rights of the Church And this Clause often returns That all the Breakers of these Priviledges whether they were Emperors Kings or whatsoever other Degree were thereby ipso facto subjected to the Bâ—…nns Punishments and Censures set down in the Council of Lateran And tho they do not call it the Fourth Council yet we are sure it could be no other for they relate to that in which Frederick the 2d was consenting to which was the fourth in the Lateran And in another Decree by which they hoped to have set up a Succession of General Councils at evety ten years end this Clause is added That if any person whether of the Papal for they had subjected the Pope to the Council and had more reason to fear his opposing this Decree than any Bodies else Imperial or Regal Dignity c. should presume to hinder any to come to the next General Council he is declared to be first Excommunicated then under an Interdict and then to be subject to further punishment both Temporal and Spiritual And in the Pass they gave the King of the Romans to go to the King of Arragon they add this Sanction That whatever person whether King Cardinal c.
opinion of any thing that came from so wicked a man and upon such ill motives If this be a good Argument against the Reformation it was as good against Christianity upon Constantine's turning Christian for the Heathen Writers represent him with as black a character as they can do King Henry But we must not think ill of every thing that is done by a bad man and upon an ill Principle Otherwise if we had lived in Iehu's days the same Plea would have been as strong for keeping up the Idolatry of Baal since Iehu had in a very unsincere manner destroyed it and yet God rewarded him for what he had done But whatever might have been King Henry's secret motives his proceedings were regular and justifiable He found himself married to her that had been his own Brothers Wife contrary to the express words of the Law of God The Popes Legat and his own Confessor and all the Bishops of England except one thought his scruples were well grounded Upon which according to the superstition of that time he made his applications to the Court of Rome for a Divorce which were at first well received and a Bull was granted Afterwards some defects being found in that a more ample one was desired which was also granted and Legats were appointed to try the matter But the Pope soon after turned over to the Emperors Party whose Aunt the Queen was and was thereupon prevailed with to recal the Legats Commission destroy the Bull and cite the King to appear at Rome where all things and persons were at the Emperors devotion Upon all this the King did expostulate with the Pope that either his business was just or unjust if it was just why did he recall what he had granted and put him off with such delays If it was not just why did he at first grant the Bull for the Divorce This was unanswerable but the Pope did still feed him with false hopes yet would do nothing Upon which he consulted the chief Universities and the most learned men in Christendom about his Marriage Twelve famous Universities and above an hundred learned Doctors did declare under their hands and Seals some writing larger Treatises about it that his Marriage was against the Law of God And that in that case the Popes Dispensation which had allowed the Marriage was void of it self So after the King had been kept in suspence from December 1527 till February 1533 4. above six years he set his Divines to examin what authority the Pope had in England either by the Law of God or the practice of the Primitive Church or the Law of the Land and after a long and accurate search they found He had no authority at all in England neither by the Laws of God of the Church nor of the Land so this Decision was not made rashly nor of a sudden The Popes Authority being thus cast off it was Natural in the next place to Consider what Doctrines were then held in England upon no other grounds than Papal Decrees For it was absurd to reject the Popes power and yet to retain these Opinions which had no better Foundation than his Authority Upon this many of the things which had been for some Ages received in the Church of Rome fell under debate And a great many particulars were reformed Yet that King was so leavened with the Old Superstition that the progress of the Reformation was but slow during his Reign But it was carried on to a further perfection under King Edward and Queen Elizabeth In all their Methods of proceeding there is nothing that can be reasonably censured if it be confessed that the Pope is not Infallible and the whole Church of Rome acknowledges that it is no Heresie to deny his Infallibility And for the Sale of the Abby-lands they only spoiled the spoilers For the Monks and Fryers had put these publick cheats on the Nation of Redeeming Souls out of Purgatory going on Pilgrimages with the worship of Saints and Images which were infused in the vulgar by many lying Stories pretended Apparitions the false shew of Miracles with other such like Arts. And the credulous and superstitious Multitudes were thereby wrought on to endow these Houses with their best Lands and adorn their Churches with their Plate and richest Furniture It was not to be expected that when their Impostures were discovered they should enjoy the spoil they had made by them nor was it for the publick interest of the Nation to give such encouragement to idleness as the converting all these Houses to Foundations for an unactive life would have been Many of them were applied to good Uses Bishopricks Cathedral and Collegiat Churches Hospitals and free Schools And more of them ought indeed to have been converted to these ends But the excesses of King Henry and his Courtiers must not be charged on the Reformers who did all they could to hinder them And thus all these prejudices with which the Vulgar are misled appear to be very unjust and ill grounded In conclusion If by these or such like considerations any that are now of that Communion can be brought to mind Religion in earnest considering it as a Design to save their Souls by making them truly pure and holy and so reconciling them to God through Christ And if they will examine Matters without Partiality seeking the truth and resolving to follow it wherever they find it and joyn with their Enquiries earnest Prayers to God the Father of lights to open their eyes and grant them his Holy Spirit to lead them into all truth there is little doubt to be made but the great Evidence that is in Truth will in due time appear so clear to them as to dissipate all these mists which Education implicite Faith and Superstition have raised by which they have hitherto darkened FINIS A RELATION Of the Barbarous and Bloody MASSACRE Of about an hundred thousand PROTESTANTS BEGUN At PARIS and carried on over all FRANCE by the PAPISTS in the Year 1572. Collected out of Mezeray Thuanus and other approved Authors LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. A Relation of the Massacre of the Protestants begun in Paris and carried on over all France in the Year 1572. THere are no Principles of Morality more universally received and that make deeper impressions on the minds of all Men that are more necessary for the good of humane Society and do more resemble the Divine Perfections than Truth and Goodness So that if our Saviour denounced a Woe against those who teach Men to break the least of his Commandments what may they look for who design to subvert these that may be justly called the greatest of them That the Church of Rome teaches Barbarity and Cruelty against all who receive not their Opinions and that Hereticks are to be delivered to secular Princes who must burn them without mercy or if they have either Bowels or Conscience so
that they will not be the Instruments of their Cruelty that they shall lose their Kingdoms or Dominions is known to all that have read the Decrees of the 4th Council in the Lateran The violation of Publick Faith was also decreed by another of their General Councils at Constance in which notwithstanding the safe conduct that Sigismund had granted to Iohn Husse and Ierome of Prague care was not only taken that they should be burnt but they made it a standing Rule for the time to come That tho Hereticks came to the place of Judgment trusting to their safe conduct and would not have come without it yet the Prince who granted it was under no Obligation by it but the Church might proceed to Censures and Punishment By these Decrees Cruelty and Treachery are become a part of their Doctrine and they may join them to their Creed upon as good Reasons as they can shew for many of their other Additions The Nature of Man is not yet sunk so low as easily to hear these things without horror therefore it is fit they should be kept among the Secrets of their Religion till a fit opportunity appear in which they may serve a turn and then we need not doubt but they will be made use of If any will be so charitable to their Church as not easily to believe this the History of the Parisian Massacre may satisfie them to the full which Thuanus says was a Pitch of Barbarity beyond any thing that former Ages had ever seen And if the Irish Massacre flowing from the same Spirit and the same Principles had not gone beyond it we might have reasonably concluded that it could never be matched again But we may be taught from such Precedents what we ought to expect when ever we are at the mercy of Persons of that Religion who if they be true Sons of the Church of Rome must renounce both Faith and Mercy to all Hereticks I shall give the Relation of this Massacre from that celebrated late Writer of the French History Mr. de Mezeray only adding some Passages out of Thuanus Davila and others where he is defective But I shall premise a short representation of the Civil Wars of France which are made use of as the Arguments for justifying that Cruelty and by which they do still blemish the Protestant Religion as teaching Rebellion against Princes During the Reign of Francis the 1st and Henry the 2d the Protestant Religion got great footing in France the usual severities of the Church of Rome were then employed to extirpate it yet tho their Numbers were very great and the Persecution most severe they made no resistance But upon the death of Henry the 2d Catherine de Medici the Queen Mother with the Cardinal of Lorrain and the Duke of Guise took the Government in their Hands pretending that the King Francis the 2d was of Age being then sixteen The Princes of the Blood on the other hand alleadged That the Kingdom ought to be under a Regency till the King was at least 22 Years of Age Since Charles the 6th had been admitted at that Age to the Government as a particular mark of their esteem of him So that tho the Age of Majority was at 25 Years and that was a singular exception from a general Rule yet at furthest it shewed that the King could not assume the Government before he was two and twenty It was also an undoubted Right of the Princes of the Blood to hold the Regency during the Minority of their Kings and to administer it by the Direction of the Parliaments and the Assembly of the States Upon these Points many things were written on both sides The Princes of the Blood pretended they were excluded from the Government against Law and upon that were projecting how to possess themselves of the Power which with the Person of the King were violently kept from them But the Prince of Conde being advised to it by Coligny then Admiral of France did also declare for mitigating the Severities against the Protestants This being the Case that the Point was truly disputable no Man can blame the Protestants for joining with their Friends against their Enemies And yet this Plot was driven no further than an endeavour to take the King out of the Hands of his Mother and the Brothers of Lorrain who were all Foreigners The chief Promoter of it was a Papist Renaudy and it was discovered by Avennelles who tho he was most firm to his Religion being a Protestant yet having an aversion to all Plots revealed it out of scruple of Conscience Soon after this Discovery Francis the 2d died and his Brother that succeded him Charles the 9th was without dispute under Age he not being then full eleven years old And according to the resolution of many great Lawyers in the case of his Brother the Kingdom ought to have been under a Regency during all the Wars that preceded the Massacre for he was then but two and twenty At first it was agreed to that the King of Navarre as the first Prince of the Blood ought to be Regent but he being wrought on by the Queen Mother and her Party and drawn over to them the Lawyers were again set to examine How far the Power of the Regent did extend Many published their Opinions That the other Princes of the Blood ought to have their share in the Regency and that the Regents might be checkt by the Courts of Parliaments and were subject to an Assembly of the States The chief Point of State then under Consideration was What way to proceed with the Protestants whose Numbers grew daily and were now more considerable having such powerful Heads A severe Edict came out against them in Iuly 1561 condemning all Meetings for Religious Worship except those that were celebrated with the Rites of the Church of Rome banishing all the Protestant Ministers and appointing the Bishops to proceed against Hereticks with this only mitigation of former Cruelties That Banishment should be the highest Punishment But the Nation could not bear the Execution of this So next Ianuary there was a great Assembly called of the Princes of the Blood the Privy Counsellors and eight Courts of Parliament in which the Edict that carried the name of the Month was passed By it the free exercise of that Religion was tolerated and the Magistrates were required to punish all who should hinder or interrupt it Not long after that the Duke of Guise did disturb a Meeting of Protestants at Vassy as he was on his Journey to Paris his Servants began with reproachful words and from these they went to blows It ended in a throwing of Stones one of which hurt the Duke but that was severely revenged about 60 were killed and 200 wounded no Age or Sex being spared Upon this he encouraged the violation of the Edict every where so that it was universally broken The King of Navarre joined with him
seemed to neglect those of Lorrain He threatned the Parliament of Paris because they made some difficulty in passing the Edict in favours of the Protestants He went secretly to meet with Lewis Count of Nassaw and treated with him about the Wars of the Netherlands He married the Emperor's Daughter who was thought a Protestant in his Heart He entred in a Confederacy with Q. Elizabeth and the Cardinal of Chastilion the Admiral 's Brother who had renounced his red Hat and turned a Protestant being then in England was employed to set on foot a Treaty of Marriage between the Duke of Anjou and the Queen A Peace was also made with the Princes of the Empire And tho both the Spanish Ambassador and the Legat did all they could to hinder the Peace and the Marriage of the King of Navarre yet they seemed to make no account of that at Court Only the King gave the Legat great assurances of his Fidelity to the Apostolick See and that all that he was doing was for the interest of the Catholick Religion And taking him one day by the Hand He desired him to assure the Pope that his design in this Marriage was that he might be revenged on those that were Enemies to God and Rebels against himself and that he would either punish them severely and cut them all in pieces or lose his Crown All which he would do in compliance with the Advices he had received from the Pope who had continually set him on to destroy them and he saw no way of doing it so securely as by getting them once to trust him having tried all other methods in vain And for a pledg of his Faith he offered him a Ring of great value which the Legat refused to take pretending that he never took Presents from any Prince and that the Word of so great a King was a better security than any Pledg whatsoever Upon all these demonstrations of Friendship made to the Protestants it was no wonder if Persons of such Candor as the Queen of Navarre and the Admiral were deceived The Admiral went first to Court where he was received by the King with the greatest shew of kindness and respect that was possible He embraced him thrice laid his Cheek to his squeezing his Hands called him Father and left nothing undone that might possess him with a firm Opinion of his Friendship Nor was the Queen-Mother less officious to express her kindness to him He was allowed to keep fifty armed Gentlemen about him An hundred thousand Franks were sent him for furnishing his Houses that had been spoiled during the Wars And which was more than all the rest when Complaints were carried by him to the King of some who violated the Edict great Insolencies being committed in many places the King ordered them to be exemplarily punished So that there was a general repining over all France at the King's kindness to him The King had also told him that now he had got him near him he would never suffer him to leave him any more The Design succeeding so well on the Admiral the Proposition of the Marriage was also carried on and the Queen of Navarre was next brought to Court but soon after died as was generally believed of Poison that was given her in some perfumed Gloves to conceal which the Chirurgeons that opened her would not touch her Head but pretended she died of an Imposthume in her side The Cardinal of Chastilion was also at that time poisoned which tho afterwards confessed by him that had done it yet was not then so much as suspected The King seemed more and more set on the War in Flanders He sent both to England and Germany to consult about the Preparations for it and had agreed with the Prince of Orange about the Division of the Netherlands That all on their side of Antwerp should come to the Crown of France And what lay on the other side of it should belong to the States He sent a Protestant his Ambassadour to Constantinople to engage the Grand Signior unto a War with Spain He also furnished the Count of Nassaw with Mony and sent some of his best Captains with him to try if they could surprize any Towns near the Frontier who did their part so dextrously that Mons was surprized by the Count of Nassaw and Valenciennes by La Noiie according to Mezeray tho he seems to be mistaken as to Valenciennes for Thuanus and Davila say nothing of it but mention Mons only And Veremundus Frisius who wrote the History of that Massacre the Year after says That they missed their Design in surprising Valenciennes upon which they went to Mons and carried it Upon this all reckoned that the King was now engaged and the War begun So the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde were brought to Court and received with all the Marks of a firm Friendship that could be invented A Dispensation was obtained from the new Pope for the Marriage Veremundus says Pope Pius the 5th had always opposed it but upon the Cardinal of Alexandria's return to Rome who went to assist in the Conclave where Gregory the 13th was chosen the new Pope easily granted the Bull which was believed to have flowed from the Information he received from that Cardinal of the King's Design in this Marriage which to be sure his Holiness would neither obstruct nor delay So the Bull being sent to the Cardinal of Burbon the day was set and the chief heads of the Protestants were all drawn into Paris partly to assist at the Solemnities of a Marriage which they hoped would put an end to all their Troubles partly to get Charges in the Army which all People believed would be commanded by the Admiral Only many of the hottest of them had followed Ienlis and La Noiie into Flanders where it was intended to abandon them to the cruelty of the Duke of Alva who had intercepted and cut off a great Body of them commanded by Ienlis The Admiral pressed the King to declare the War immediately foreseeing that unless it followed suddenly his Friends that had surprized these Towns would be destroyed and the whole Design spoiled But the King put him off with delays in which he expressed much Confidence in him by telling him the secret grounds he had to distrust almost every Person about him and that therefore he must of necessity settle his Court and Councils first before he could enter upon such a War But now the Design being ripe the Duke of Guise to whom it had also been communicated was employed to gather many desperate Men about him who might be fit to execute all Orders and the thing getting into more hands took wind so that they at Rochel being informed of some suspicious Passages wrote to the Admiral to disabuse him and desired he would leave the Court and trust no more to the fair appearances he saw there since these were only the Masks of some great Mischief that
and the bitter ones of enraged Priests were also set on work to appear in Defence of it Of whose Writings Thuanus gives a full account One mercenary Protestant was also hired to excuse if not to defend it I have never been able to meet with any of these Books only Rosseus that wrote in defence of the Holy League calls it the Iustice of St. Bartholomews day And Andreas Eudemon Iohannes does also commend it The Arguments they used have been formerly glanced at The late Civil Wars the pretended Conspiracy of the Admiral the necessity of using desperate Remedies in extream Cases and the Sovereign Power of Kings were what the Lawyers could pretend But the Divines had a better Plea that by one General Council all Hereticks were to be extirpated And by another Faith was not to be kept to them And it cannot be denied but this is unanswerable according to the Principles of the Roman Church The Protestants were not wanting to their own Cause but answered these Books and sufficiently discovered the impudent Allegations of those shameless Persons who hired themselves out to defend so horrid an Action Maximilian the 2d the Emperor is the Person whose Judgment we have least reason to suspect He was the King of France his Father-in-Law and both by Blood and Alliance was joined to the Crown of Spain yet he in a private Letter writing to Scuendi his chief Minister in Hungary has delivered his sense of this Matter so sincerely and fully And that whole Letter is so excellently well written and shews so much true piety and so rare a temper of mind that I shall not fear the Reader 's censure for inserting it at its full length It is but in one Book that I know and that is very scarce Dear Scuendi I Received your Letter and took in good part your Christian and Friendly Condoleance for my late Sickness The Eternal God in whose hands are all things do with me according to his Will I bless him for every thing that befalls me He only knows best what is healthful and profitable and what is hurtful to me I do patiently and chearfully acquiesce in his Divine Pleasure And indeed Matters go so in this World that a Man can have little pleasure or quiet in them for every where there is nothing to be found but trouble treachery and foul dealing God pity us and deliver his Church from these mischiefs It were no wonder if from such a prospect of Affairs a Man should become stupid or mad of which I could say much to you I begin to recover and am now so strong that I walk about with a Stick God be blessed in all his Works For that strange thing which the French have lately acted most tyrannically against the Admiral and his Friends I am far from approving it and it was a great grief to me to hear that my Son-in-Law had been perswaded to that vile Massacre tho I know that others reign rather than he yet that is not sufficient to excuse him nor to palliate such a wickedness I would to God he had asked my advice I should have given him faithful and fatherly Counsel and he should never have had my consent to this Crime which has cast such a blemish on him that he will never wash it off God forgive them that lie under such guilt I apprehend within a little while they shall perceive what they have gained by this method For indeed as you observe well the Matters of Religion are not to be handled or decided by the Sword and no Man can think otherwise that is either pious or honest or desirous of Publick Peace and Happiness Far otherwise did Christ teach and his Apostles instruct us their Sword was their Tongue their Doctrine the Word of God and a Life worthy of Christ. Their Example should draw us to follow them in so far as they were followers of Christ. Besides that mad sort of People might have seen after so many years Trials and so many Experiments that by their Cruelties Punishments Slaughters and Burnings this Business cannot be effected In a word Their ways do not at all please me nor can I ever be induced to approve them unless I should become mad or distracted which I pray God earnestly to preserve me from And yet I shall not conceal from you that some impudent and lying Knaves have given out That whatever the French have done was by my knowledg and approbation In this I appeal to God who knows how deeply I am injured by it but such Lies and Calumnies are no new things to me I have been often forced to bear them formerly and in all such cases I commit my self to God who knows in his own good time how to clear me and vindicate my innocence As for the Netherlands I can as little approve of the Excesses committed there And I do well remember how often I wrote to the King of Spain Advices far different from those they have followed But what shall I say The Councils of the Spaniards relished better than mine They now begin to see their Error and that they themselves have occasioned all the mischief that hath since followed I had a good end be-before me that these noble and renown'd Provinces might not be so miserably destroyed And tho they would not follow my Counsel so that I may well be excused from medling any more yet I do not give over but am sincerely pressing them all I can to follow another method God grant I may see the wished-for effect of these endeavours and that Men may be at last satisfied with what they have done and may use no more such violent Remedies In a word Let the Spaniards or the French do what they will they shall be made to give an account of their Actions to God the Righteous and Just Judg. And for my part by the help of God I shall carry my self honestly christianly and faithfully with all candour and uprightness and I hope God will so assist me with his Grace and Blessing that I may approve all my Designs and Actions both to him and to all Men. And if I do this I little regard a wicked and malicious World How the rest of the World looked on this Action may be easily gathered from the Inclinations and Interests of the several Parties That all Protestants did every where abhor it and hold the remembrance of it still in detestation needs not be doubted All that were noble or generous in the Roman Church were ashamed of it but many extolled it to the Heavens as a work of Angels and others did cast the blame of it on the Protestants The Court of Spain rejoiced openly at it They delighted in the shedding of Protestant Blood and were also glad to see France again embroil'd and to be freed of the fears they had of a War in Flanders In which if the French King had engaged he had in all appearance conquered in one year that
for which his Successors have been since fighting a whole Age. But let us next examine how the tidings of this Massacre were received at Rome by which we may judg how fitly that part of Antichrist's Character of being drunk with the Blood of the Saints agrees to it The News was brought thither the 6th of September upon which a Consistory of the Cardinals was presently called and the Legate's Letter that contained a Relation of the Massacre being read they went straight in a Procession to St. Mark 's Church where they offered up their solemn thanks to God for this great Blessing to the See of Rome and the Catholique Church And on Monday following there was another Procession made by the Pope and Cardinals to the Minerva where they had high Mass and then the Pope granted a Jubilee to all Christendom And one of the Reasons was That they should thank God for the slaughter of the Enemies of the Church lately executed in France Two days after that the Cardinal of Lorrain had another great Procession of all the Clergy the Ambassadours Cardinals and the Pope himself who came to St. Lewis Chappel where the Cardinal celebrated Mass himself And in the King of France his Name he thanked the Pope and the Cardinals for their good Councils the help they had given him and the assistance he received from their Prayers of which he had found most wonderful effects He also delivered the King's Letters to the Pope in which he wrote That more Heretiques had been destroyed in that one day than in all the twelve years of the War Nor did the Pope think there was yet Blood enough shed but that which all the World condemned as excessive Cruelty he apprehended was too gentle Therefore he sent Cardinal Ursin his Legate in all haste to France to thank the King for so great a Service done the Church and to desire him to go on and extirpate Heresie Root and Branch that it might never grow again In order to which he was to procure the Council of Trent to be received in France and as the Legat passed through in his Journey to Paris he gave a Plenary Absolution to all that had been Actors in the Massacre The best Picture-drawers and workers of Tapistry were also put to work to set off this Action with all possible glory and a Sute of these Hangings are to this day in the Pope's Chappel So well do they like the thing that they preserve the remembrance of it still even in the place of their Worship Such a representation does indeed very well agree with their Devotion whose Religion and Doctrine led on their Votaries to the thing so expressed By this we may easily gather what is to be expected from that Court and what we ought to look for when-ever we are at the mercy of Men whose Religion will not only bear them through but set them on to commit the most Treacherous and Bloody Massacres FINIS a a In regiam Majest Bâ—… l. 6. c. 4. sect â—…0 à quocunque privato poteris interfici In Thom. Tom. 3. Dâ—…sp 151. q 12. p. 2. b b Romish Tre sons l. 2. cap 4. The Life of Gerson before his Works and Tom. 1. p. 375. Recog in lib. 5. de Rom. Pont. e e Philopater p. 106 107. l Greg. M. l. 2 post Ep. 38. lib. 11. Ep. 10 11 12. Siquis Regum c. contravenire tentaverit potestatis honorisque sui dignitate careat in alio honore suo privetur g g Baron aâ—… An. 730. n. 5. h h Bellar. de Trans Imperii Romani i i Dictatus l. 2. post Ep. 55. k k Lib 2. Ep. 5. ad Ep. France l l Liv. 8. Ep 21. m m Extra de Major Obed. cap. 1. n n Bellar. de Pont. Rom. lib. 5. c. 151. o o Cuspiman in vita Albert. p p Cap. de Major ut Obâ—…d Exter b b In Vandal l. 8. c. 2. r r Chron Hâ—…saug in vita Abb. Hartiingi s s Bar. ad Ann. 593. Num. 86. t t Bar. ad An. 730. Num. 5. u u 〈◊〉 his Diâ—…â—… Oevres and Râ—…ueil General des Affaires du Cierge de France Conc. Late 3. Chap. 27. anno 1287. Tom 28. Conc. Later 4. Can. 3. Tom. 28. The same Council that established Transubstantiation Math. Paris ad An. 1253. Conc. Lugd. Tom. 28. Conc. Const. Tom. 29. Sess. 19. Sess. 15. Sess. 17. Sess. 15. Con. Sien Tom. 29. Con. Basil Tom. 29. Conc. Trid. Sess. 25 c. 19. Bud de Asse lib. 5. Diseuss Decret Con. Lateran p. 46. Bec. Controv. Angl. p. 115. Acts 20. 21. Micha 6. 8. 1 Cor. 14. Matt. 28. 19. Matt. 26. 26 27. 28. ver Heb. 9. 26 28. Acts 8. 17. Morinus Heb. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 3. 2. 4. 11. Eph. 1. 22 23. Matt 18. 7. 2 Cor. 3. 3. Can. 3. Sess. 19. Thuanus The abstract of the Books written upon the Head is in the Voluminous but Anonymous Historian of these Wars printed at Paris An. 1581. Thuanus lib. 16. Thuanus Mezeray Davila lib. 3 Thuanus lib. 49. Caten vita dâ—… Pio Quinto Printed at Edingburgh 1573. Mezeray Hist. Hen. the 4th Comingii Collectio p. 278. Historie de France An. 1581.