Coasts either of England or Ireland the Heavens fought for her and so favoured her that by a horrid tempest which arose most of those Ships were either sunk by the waves or broken against the rocks in so much that she sooner heard of the destruction of her enemies than of their setting out to Sea to assault her The year ensuing great preparations were made on both sides but the Heavens not favoring any further proceedings of this kind both the Fleets were so dispersed by storms that neither came within sight of the other And now the King of Spain became well inclined to a peace with England which though proposed by the French he lived not to see brought to effect for he died the 13. of Sept. after 36. But the death of the King of Spain did not dissolve the Combination no more than the deaths of so many several Popes before had done For it still survived in his son Phil. 111. with Clement VIII Only so many former attempts having proved altogether unsuccessful against England there was now with the persons some change also of their Counsels and all their Consultations against England were afterward so directed as to depend for their execution upon the death of the Queen Yet in Ireland there seemed some hopes that something might be effected at present by assisting the Robels there and therefore for their encouragement and assistance the King of Spain by his Agent Don Martin de la Cerda sends them money and Ammunition and the Pope by Mathew de Oviedo whom he designed Archbishop of Dublin Promises of Indulgence with a Phaenix plume to Tir-Oen their General and the year after he sends them his Indulgence it self to this effect That whereas of long time being led on by the Exhortations of his Predecessors and himself and of the Apostolick See for the recovery and defence of their Liberty against the Hereticks they had with Vnited minds and Forces given aid and assistance first to James Fitz-Girald and lastly to Hugh Onel Earl of Tyron Captain General of the Catholick Army in Ireland who with their Souldiers had in process of time performed many brave atchievements fighting manfully against the enemy and for the future are ready to perform the like that they may all the more cheerfully do it and assist against the said Hereticks being willing after the example of his Predecessors to vouchsafe them some Spiritual Graces and Favours he favourably grants to all and every one who shall joyn with the said Hugh and his Army asserting and fighting for the Catholick Faith or any way aid or assist them if they be truly penitent and have confessed and if it may be received the Sacrament a Plenary Pardon and Remission of All their Sins the same which used to be granted by the Popes of Rome to those who go to war against the Turks 18. April 1600. Camd. p. 750. Foul. p. 651. And the next year again for their further encouragement he sends a particular letter to Tyrone wherein he Commends their Devotion in engaging in a Holy League and their valour and atcheivements Exhorts them to continue unanimous in the same mind and Promises to write effectually to his Sons the Catholick Kings and Princes to give all manner of Assistance to them and their cause and tells him he thinks to send them a peculiar Nuncio who may be helpful to them in all things as occasion shall serve 20. Jan. 1601. Foul. p. 655. The King of Spain likewise sends his Assistance a great fleet who landed at King-Sale 20. Sept. under the conduct of Don John d'Aquila who sets out a Declaration shewing the King of Spain's pretense in the war which he saith is with the Apostolick Authority to be administred by him that they perswade not any to deny due Obedience according to the word of God to their Prince but that all know that for many years since Elizabeth was deprived of her Kingdom and All her Subjects Absolved from their Fidelity by the Pope unto whom he that reigneth in the Heavens the King of Kings hath committed All Power that he should Root up Destroy Plant and Build in such sort that he may punish temporal Kings if it should be good for the Spiritual Building even to their Deposing which thing hath been done in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by many Popes viz. by Pope Pius v. Gregory XIII and now by Clement VIII as is well known whose Bulls are extant that the Pope and the King of Spain have resolved to send Souldiers Silver Gold and Arms with a most liberal hand that the Pope Christs Vicar on Earth doth command them the Papists in Ireland to take Arms for the defense of their Faith c. Camd. p. 829. Foul. 658. And not long after more Supplies were sent from Spain under Alonso de Ocampo Thu. l. 125. Cam. an 1601. 1602. But it pleased God to make the Queen still Victorious over All and part of them with the Irish Rebels being beaten and routed in the Field the rest are brought to articles upon which they Surrender All and are sent home when more forces were coming from Spain to their recruit The next year most of the other Rebels being defeated and subdued last of all Mac Eggan the Popes Vicar Apostolick with a party of the Rebels which he himself led with his Sword drawn in one hand and his Breviary and Beads in the other was slain by the Queens forces and the Rebels routed in January 1602 3 and so the whole Kingdom Tyrone also submitting to mercy totally subdued Camd. an 1603. Foul. p. 664. 37. And now this Blessed Queen having by an Admirable Providence of Almighty God been Preserved from All these both Secret Conspiracies and Open Invasions through a long Reign of four and forty years compleat and made victorious over All her Enemies as well abroad as at home Out-lived her great and bitter enemy Phil. 11. King of Spain who himself lived to be sensible of the Divine Judgment of the Iniquity of his Actions against her and to desire a Peace with her though he lived not to enjoy it Out-lived four Kings of France eight Popes and the greatest part of the ninth and maugre all the Powers of Hell the Malice and Wicked Machinations of Men of most turbulent and Anti-christian Spirits Defended that Purity of Religion which even at the very beginning of Her Reign she had with Mature Deliberation and a Generous and most Christian Courage and Resolution notwithstanding all Difficulties and Dangers which on every side threatened her undertakings established was by the same at last brought to her Grave in Peace in a Good Old Age. Her very Enemies admiring as well her Worth and Excellence as her Glory and Felicity see the one extolled by Sixtus v. Thu. l. 82. p. 48. and the other by An. Atestina l. 129. and both more largly described by the Noble and Ingenuous Thuanus l. 129. and Sir Francis Bacon in his
was shed in the barbarous and horrid murders and slaughters which were made upon the Protestants of Merindol and Cabriers condemned meerly for their Religion Thu. l. 6. by a most rigid and severe Sentence of the Parliament of Provence after which he never enjoyed himself says Raleigh nor indeed his life long after his approbation of that Execution wherein their towns and villages to the number of two and twenty were burned and themselves without distinction of age or sex most barbarously murthered But being touched with remorse of Conscience and repenting of it upon his death bed he charged his Son that the injuries done to that people should be enquired into and their murtherers who in the cruelty of their execution had exceeded the severity of the Sentence to be duly punished threatening him with Gods judgments Thu. l. 3. Davil p. 14. if he neglected it And among other Admonitions which he then gave him this was one to beware of the Ambition of the Guises whom he foresaw if admitted to the administration of the Kingdom would reduce both his Children and the People of France to great miseries But Henry 11. no sooner came to his Fathers throne but he presently began to practise the contrary to his directions Davila p. 15.19 displacing those that before had any part in the government and substituting in their room the same men whom his Father had discharged and Guise with the first and at length the three brothers of Guise got into their hands all the principal governments and chief dignities of the Kingdom together with the super-intendancy of all affairs both Martial and Civil the Consequence of which did afterwards make good the truth of his fathers prediction Nor did he much better perform his fathers charge in doing Justice upon the bloody offenders Thu. l. 6. for though he gave the cause a long hearing yet did not the issue of the judgment answer the great expectations which the so many horrid crimes whereof they were accused did raise in mens minds one only of the offenders for want of friends at Court being executed but the principal actors of that wickedness restored to their former dignity and places so that instead of that Justice which if duly executed upon the offenders might possibly have averted or mitigated the Divine vengeance which hath since prosecuted his fathers guilt in his posterity he not only by neglect thereof but also by his own continuance of the like cruelties and for the same cause of Religion appropriated his fathers guilt to himself and with the addition of his own transmitted the same to his posterity with the Divine Vengeance further provoked attending it He began his Persecutions of the Protestants in the first year of his reign and continued the same to the last days of his life with that resolution that no sollicitation of neighbour Princes his allies could mitigate his fury He used his uttermost endeavour says Davila p. 40. to extirpate the roots of those seeds in their first growth and therefore with Inexorable Severity resolved that All who were found convict of this imputation should suffer death without mercy And although Many of the Counsellors in Every Parliament either Favouring the same Opinions or Abhorring the Continual Effusion of blood made use of all their skill to preserve as many as they could from the Severity of his Execution notwithstanding the Kings Vigilance and Constancy was such chiefly by the Incitements of the Cardinal of Lorain one of the Guises that he had reduced things to such a point as would in the end though with the Effusion of much blood have expelled all the peccant humours he means the Protestants out of the bowels of the Kingdom if the accident which followed had not interrupted the course of his resolution That which he calls an accident was the violent and in respect of the course of nature untimely but in respect of Gods Providence most seasonable death of that cruel King in the height of his Resolutions of Inexorable Severity against the Protestants by the hands of that same man whom he had but few days before imployed to apprehend and imprison some of the chief Senators for no other cause but their Religion and their free delivering of their Sentence according to the Laws in Parliament concerning the cause of the Protestants and at the same that Queen Elizabeth was with Her Senators Consulting and Resolved to Establish that Religion which he persecuted which she happily by Gods Blessing effected and procured a Blessing upon her self and her Kingdom while he furiously fighting against God was in a Ludicrous fight running at Tilt by a Splinter of a broken lance which found entrance at his eye though his head and body were clad in armour cut off from further prosecuting his resolutions in the midst of his years and in the midst of his publick Solemnities of the Nuptials of his eldest daughter to the King of Spain which whom he had concluded to make a war against the Protestants and of his only Sister to the Duke of Savoy in the view of the Bastile where those Senators were kept in Prison and within two or three days if not less after one of the chief of them was declared heritick and delivered over to the Secular Power Leaving behind him a Curse upon his posterity and Misery and Confusion to his Kingdom principally caused and promoted by those very instruments whose Counsels and Instigations he had followed in his wicked and bloody practises 40. He left four sons all in a manner children the eldest Francis 11. who succeeded him under the age of sixteen who by reason of his youth Lib. 1. or rather as says Davila his natural incapacity requiring if not a direct Regent yet a prudent assiduous Governour till his natural weakness was overcome by maturity of years the Ancient Customs of the Kingdom called to that Charge the Princes of the Blood among which for nearness and reputation it belonged to the Prince of Conde and the King of Navarre But Katherine of Medicis the Kings mother and Francis Duke of Guise with Charles his brother Cardinal of Lorain uncles to Mary Queen of Scots whom the King in the life-time of his father had married severally aspiring to the Government to which neither had right by the Laws of the Kingdom and therefore despairing by their own power and interest to obtain and retain it alone they resolved to unite their several interests and powers and to share it among them and they quickly obtained she by her interest in the King her Son and they by the means of their Niece his Queen that to the Duke was committed the Care of the Militia Davil l. â— the Civil affairs to the Cardinal and to the Queen-mother the Superintendance of all the Princes of the blood and others of the prime Nobility being excluded not only from the Government but also by arts and affronts removed or repulsed from the
Court it self The Guises having thus intruded into the Authority aforesaid continued the same Resolutions of Severity against those of the Reformed Religion which they had infused or at least fomented and agitated in the former King which they instantly put in execution And the same moneth that this King came to the Crown his Order is sent out for the tryal of the Senators imprisoned by his father Whereof one Anne du Boury was afterward for his Religion executed but the rest not being convicted were only degraded While these were brought to their Tryal by the command of the Cardinal Severe Inquisition is made at Paris Thu. l. 22. into all suspected of that Religion and many both Men and Women are taken and clapt into Prison and many to avoid the danger forced to fly many leaving their infants and little children behind them who filled the streets with the noise of their lamentable crys their goods taken out of their houses were publickly sold and their empty houses proscribed and to increase the Odium of the people against them the same Calumnies which were heretofore cast upon the Primitive Christians of promiscuous copulation in their Nocturnal Meetings the lights being put out were now renued against these and base people produced by the Cardinal to prove it who though upon tryal convicted of fraud and falshood were yet suffered to go unpunished The City being thus diligently searched the same Course is immediately taken in the Suburbes at S. Germans and presently after in the rest of the Cities of France especially at Poictiers Tholouse Aix and throughout the whole Province of Narbon Shortly after command is given to the Court to proceed severely against those who were suspected and with all diligence to attend to the tryal of them without intermission Whereupon the Prisons were all soon emptied some being condemned to death others banished and the rest punished with other mulcts and penalties Nor did all this satiate the fury of these cruel merciless men for dreading the very mention of an Assembly of the Estates which might correct the Exorbitances of their Usurped Power they accused all those as Rebellious and Seditious who desired it and when they perceived the Protestants who were now very numerous notwithstanding all the cruelties used against them to concur in the same desire new Arts and Snares were devised to apprehend them wherein also others who were not of their Religion were often unawares surprised For every where at Paris especially were erected Images of Saints in the Streets by-ways with lighted Candles set up to them in the day time and a deal of Superstitious Worship and boxes set by them into which they who passed by were pressed to cast in money for providing of the Lights and such as refused to do it or neglected to give reverence to the Images were suspected and instantly assaulted by the Rabble and happy was he that in such case could escape with his life though immediately thrust into prison All this was done the same year that Francis came to the Crown And although in the entrance of the next year about 12. Thu. l. 24. Mart. lest the Protestants exasperated by all these Cruelties should be provoked to joyn with them who at that time held a Consultation against the Guises to remove them and the Queen-mother from the Government this severity by the mediation of Colinius the Admiral and Olinier the Chancellour was by a publick Edict for the present in part remitted Yet no sooner was the danger of that Confederacy over by the defeat of the Enterprise at Amboise but the Edict was recalled and new resolutions concluded for the utter ruine and extirpation of the Protestants and that upon this further occasion and by the means following The Guises nothing doubting but that the late attempt at Amboise to surprise and remove them from the Government was secretly excited and managed by the Princes of the blood to whom the right during the Kings inability did belong and that the Protestants thus provoked by such unjust persecutions would favour the right of the Princes resolved to cut off both But considering that it would be difficult and hazardous by open Force to get the Princes into their power Davil l. 2. they resolved to essay to accomplish that by Art and therefore first by all means to conceal and dissemble their suspicion of them and to that purpose endeavoured to have the late business at Amboise imputed to the Protestants and to attribute all to Diversity of Religions which might also serve them to a further purpose viz. to render their own cause and proceedings more plausible to the people and the others more odious and to urge this yet further they endeavoured to possess the King with great apprehensions of the danger of his own person from that party and the people with an opinion that that attempt was designed against the King himself which was so gross a Calumnie that Davila himself though otherwise partial enough against the Protestants thought it not fit to be credited and at last having used all their Arts to beget a confidence in the Princes that they had no designs against them to accomplish their designs they cause an Assembly of the Estates whereat the Princes by their place were to attend to be appointed at Orleans Where against the Protestants in general Thu. l. 26. they presently proceed more openly and having obtained an Edict that all should exhibit a profession of their Faith according to a Form 18. years before prescribed by the Sâ—rbon Doctors and that they who refused should be punished with loss of life and Goods such were sent out throughout the whole Kingdom who should apprehend all that were suspected to be of the Reformed Religion with command to pull down the Houses and Castles of those who made any resistance And the Princes being at length with much Art and difficulty wrought upon to come to the Assembly though contrary to the perswasion of their friends are instantly upon their arrival secured Navar under a kind of Guard but Conde close prisoner Having thus gotten them into their hands they without much difficulty resolve to circumvent Conde with Accusations of Rebellion and put him to death under colour of Law But for Navar they were not a little doubtful what to do with him and at last conclude to murder him secretly But when all these designs against both the Protestants in general and these Princes in particular were brought to the very point of execution and the Tragedy already begun It pleased God by the same means whereby he had decreed to prosecute his judgments and vengeance against this persecuting House of Valois to deliver those who were designed for slaughter and by the seasonable intervention of the otherwise untimely death of this young King before he had accomplished the age of eighteen to confound and disappoint all the subtile machinations of these ambitious unchristian persecutors As the
its being effected was received at Rome with triumphant joy by the new Pope and his Cardinals but how far his predecessors were concerned in the contrivance and promotion of it in regard of the great secrecy wherewith all was managed would be very difficult fully to discover as to all the particulars and circumstances yet that they had a great hand in it Thu. l. 36. Da. p. 189. is evident enough in many passages of the story For when after the first Civil War the King instructed by the Queen-Mother had dismissed the Ambassadors sent in the joynt names of the King of Spain the Pope and the Duke of Savoy with thanks to their Masters for their wholsom counsel and proffers of Forces and Aid to expel and extirpate Heresy out of his Dominions assuring them that he would live according to the rites of the Church of Rome and take care that all his people do the like and that he had concluded the peace to that end to expel his enemies out of his Kingdom and promising by Ministers of his own to acquaint the Pope and other Princes particularly with his resolutions they resolved under pretence of a Progress among other things Da p. 190. to come to a Parly with the Duke of Savoy in Dolphine with the Pope's Ministers at Avignon and with the King of Spain or the Queen his Wife upon the Confines of Guienna that so they might communicate their Counsels to them without the hazard of trusting French-men who either through dependence or kindred might be moved to reveal them to the Protestants And having sufficiently informed and fully satisfied Savoy with their intentions and way Da. p. 194. designed to free themselves without noise or danger from the trouble of the Protestants at Avignon they confer with Ludovico Antinori one of the Pope's trusty Ministers and a Florentine being according to the Queens desire come thither and give that Answer to the Pope's Embassy which they would not trust to the Ambassadors concerning their purpose to extirpate Calvinism by secret stratagems without the danger or tumult of new wars And here no doubt was some matters of no small moment transacted Thu. 36. for the King having gone by Arles and Aix as far as Marseilles returned again to Avignon immediately under the Pope's Jurisdiction But what-ever they were in particular so well it seems was the Pope pleased with the means and method resolved upon for the extirpation of Calvinism Da. p. 194. that in order thereunto he consented that the Publication of the Council of Trent in France should be deferred till such time as they had brought their designs to maturity And probably for the same purpose by the mediation of the King and Queen-Mother desisted from his Excommunication of the Queen of Navar which by his Monitory he had threatned against her And at his instance was the next year held that Consultation at Bayonne before mentioned Thu. l. 37. p. 74. at which he desired that the King of Spain himself should have been present to whom it is not to be doubted but he sent his advice concerning what was there to be resolved But this Pope dying soon after his successor Pius 5. being as yet unacquainted with the mystery of them began presently to be offended with the proceedings in France Da p. 210. till he was better informed of all those reasons which Ludovico Antenori had represented to his predecessor with which he remained fully content and satisfied says Davila The Queen also acquainted him with her Counsels Thu. l. 53. not only by Cardinal Sancta Crux four years before they were executed at Paris by him desiring the Pope's confirmation but also by letters under her own hand as Capilupus testifies who saith that he had seen the very letters themselves Nor was he only privy to these Counsels of the King and Queen-Mother but likewise communicated his counsel and advice in the same business to them He sent to the King of France and his Ministers most excellent instructions for the rooting out of those Hereticks out of that Kingdom says Cicarella Cicarel in vita Pii 5. but tells us not what they were yet that is not hard to guess at from the consideration of his nature and actions as hath been mentioned before as well disposed to promote cruel and bloudy designs as could be And when those Civil Wars which for the space of three years interrupted the course of those Italian policies and stratagems broke out he ordered them also the assistance of his Forces But when the War was concluded and the King with his Mother and Cabinet-Council had resolved to make a Marriage between the young Prince of Navar being now grown up and the King's Sister to be the train to draw the Protestant party into that snare which had been so long before devised the Pope not yet acquainted with this circumstance for though the thing which was to be done had been long resolved on yet the method and manner how to bring it about was often altered as accidents and occasions did intervene when he heard of the treaty of the Marriage but had not notice of the mystery of it and moreover heard of the preparations for a War against Spain he began to be suspitious that the King had forgotten his former kindness and excellent instructions and therefore ordered his Nephew Cardinal Alexandrino in his return from Spain to debate the business with him Whereupon the King assured him that he did all this to obey the instructions of P. Pius But P. Pius lived not to receive this satisfaction Catena in vita Pii 5. or not long after not to see that joyful day which his successor Greg. 13. did and kept with great joy and solemnity for the wished success of these Counsels For the promoting whereof being perswaded by the Cardinal of Lorain Da. p. 361 Answer to Philanax p. 100. and told that this Marriage was intended as a trap to destroy the Prince of Navar and his Protestant party he presently gave his dispensation for the celebrating of it and encouraged the design which was as much as he could do at present things being already ripe for execution Thu. l. 53. But having received an account of the Massacre by letters from his Legate at Paris he read his Letters in the Consistory of Cardinals where presently it was decreed that they should all go directly thence to St. Marks and there solemnly give thanks to Almighty God for so great a blessing conferred upon the Roman See and the Christian world In Minervae aede and that the Monday following a publick Thanksgiving should be celebrated in the Church of Minerva and that the Pope and Cardinals should be at it and thereupon a Jubilee should be published throughout all the whole Christian World and among other causes thereof expressed this was the first To give thanks to God for the destruction in France of
took deeper root and flourished more notwithstanding all their opposition and persecutions She while with rare moderation and a generous plain-dealing constancy and resolution established the Reformed Religion both easily and happily attained her end and was her self established in her Throne and in a long happy and prosperous Reign as long as all theirs from the beginning of their persecutions preserved from all the secret plots and machinations aâ—â— open rebellions and assaults of her enemies made victorious over all and at last brought to her grave in peace and in a good old age leaving her Kingdoms in peace and in a flourishing condition and a blessed and glorious memory behind her while they were cut off in the flower or middle of their age and left their Kingdom embroiled in Civil Wars Confusion and Misery and an infamous memory of their no less unsuccesful than perfidious and barbarous actions 55. Nor was this distinguishing Providence thus visible only between her and those who persecuted the Reformed Religion but also between her and those who deserted the same as is to be seen in the next succeeding King of France Henr. 4. the greatest part of whose Reign was contemporary with her See before Sect. 41. p. 67. and in his Father before him Antony King of Navar who being drawn in by the Pope's Legate and Guises in hopes to recover his Kingdom of Navar or satisfaction for it to desert the Protestants and become Head of the Popish party within the space of about one year after ended his life by a shot before Rouen Had he lived longer says * P. 22. Perefix the Hugonots had without doubt been ill dealt with in France But having received his deaths-wound he became more †Thu. l. 33. solicitous for his own salvation than for his Kingdom for which he had thus wavered in his Religion and at last declared that if he recovered he would openly embrace the Protestant Profession and live and die in it His son Henry 4. of France was bred up from his childhood in the Reformed Religion and when he was grown up * 15â—â— professed himself Head of that party and so continued till his †Thu. l. 45. â—â—â— unhappy Marriage with a Popish Lady Margaret Sister to Charles 9. then King of France which though for its warrant it had the specious colour and pretence of confirming the Pacification and begetting and establishing a better accord between the two parties by so near an alliance between the two Heads of them yet proved as it was intended by the others a snare to the destruction of the chief persons and of great numbers of the rest of his own party and to himself not only unsuccesful in respect of his wife and that not so much through her sterility as her inconstancy and unfaithfulness to his bed but also a snare whereby after he had seen the lives of his best friends and of great numbers of innocent people of his own Religion most barbarously and inhumanely taken away he was himself forced for the saving of his own life to change his Religion in shew and appearance at least But this being by constraint Thu. l. 96. and only in appearance for Religion as was well perceived by Henr. 3. after he had received his deaths-wound which is planted in mens minds by God cannot be commanded or forced by men Upon the first opportunity he returned again to the open profession of that Religion which in the mean time he retained in his heart and constantly professed and maintained the same till after the descent of the Crown of France to him This happened very seasonable for him in many respects being then not a child or youth unexperienced in the World but of mature age about 35. and firm judgment well experienced in affairs both Military and Civil of State and Government being then reconciled to and in perfect amity with the deceased King who upon his death-bed Thu. l. 69. acknowledged him for his lawful Successor recommended the Kingdom to him and exhorted the Lords there present to acknowledg him for their lawful Sovereign notwithstanding his Religion and obey him accordingly being then not in Bearn or the remoter parts of the Kingdom with small or no forces but before the chief City of it in the head of a great Army under his command many of those in the Army who disliked his Religion yet being by the consideration of his undoubted right the recommendation of the deceased King and their own fresh experience of his virtue since his coming to the Army reconciled to his person acknowledging his sovereignty and submitting to his obedience now not as General but as their lawful and undoubted Prince This was 20 years after he had first professed himself Head of the Protestants 13 years after he had again returned to the profession of that Religion wherein he had been bred and educated when he had been all this while preserved notwithstanding all the power of France against him and had withstood all the tentations which after the death of Alancon whereby he became next heir to the Crown of France could invite him to change his Religion and when after all opposition he was as it were led by the hand to the possession of the Kingdom Yet was he not so entirely possessed of it but that there was still matter and occasion left him to make him sensible of that Providence which having preserved him all this while had at last raised him to the Throne and to exercise his dependance upon the same for the future for his entire possession of the Kingdom He was like David after many and long trials advanced to the Throne but yet like him not presently put into the full possession of the Kingdom For the Leaguers who thought his being an Heretick as they reputed him was a sufficient disability to his right to the Crown thought the same a sufficient warrant for them to keep him from it and to continue the rebellion against him which they had begun against his predecessor And to remove or prevent all scruple of Conscience in that respect Thu. l. 98. Foul. 8. c. 7. the Colledge of Sorbon gave them their solemn resolution May 7. 1590. That they who opposed him should merit much before God and Men and if they resisted so mindful were they of the Apostles Doctrine Rom. 13. to the effusion of their bloud should obtain a reward in Heaven and an immarcessible or never-fading Crown of Martyrdom And lest this should not be sufficient they institute a Prâ—cessiâ—n which was made in the presence of the Pope's Legate Cardinal Bellarnâ—ne and all the Bishops who came with him from Italy wherein Rose Bishop of Senlis and the Prior of the Carthusians holding in one hand a Cross and in the other a Halberd led the Van the Fathers of the Capucins Foliacens Paulians Franciscans Dominicans Carmelites following in order all accoutred their Cowles hanging back upon their
their hands in their Princes bloud to be disobedient to Magistrates to stir up seditions among the people to cast off all affection to their own Country and be affected with an adulterous love to foreigners and being thus seasoned with pernitious errors they will in time when grown up bring the same into the Church and State And indeed already since this new sect hath as it were seized upon the youth the manners of our Ancestors have not by degrees insensibly degenerated but like a torrent been precipitated into corruption Nor have whole Families escaped ruine by them by their arts youths being enveigled from their Parents and the inheritances and estates of their Ancessors transferred to these new Lords The complaints and examples of divers Noble Families thus spoiled are known as of Petrus Aerodius Mombrunius Godranus Bollonius Largilactonius the Marques Canilliacus whose Brother was not admitted to his vow in that Society till they were certain of his succession to his elder Brothers Estate And for this purpose they have now their Book of Life as they call it wherein they describe the secrets of Families which they learn from confessions These things and much more having largely discoursed in conclusion he urges the necessity of a speedy remedy and therefore prays that according to the supplication the Jesuites may be decreed to depart the Kingdom within 15 days after denunciation to the several Schools Some days after was Ludovicus Dolaeus heard for the Curates or Ministers who also became Plaintiffs in the Suit Id. â—ul 1594. who among many other things urged That by the Popes were many things inconsiderately and blindly granted them by Paul 3. Power to make new Statutes and to change those which their Founder had established also to absolve hereticks which if the Pope contend is more than the whole Gallican Church can do By Paul 4. To absolve penitents from all kind of crimes even those which are not comprehended in Bulla Caenae Dominicae and from those also which the holy See hath reserved to it self and pro tempore to commute vows and pilgrimages c. by Jul. 3. to give indulgence from fasts and prohibited meats Lastly by Greg. 13. to converse with sectaries and for that purpose to wear secular habits viz. for a disguise a thing prohibited by the S. Canons and to correct all kind of Books and so to mend the writings of the Fathers wherein what Plagiaries they have been is known to them who converse with Books that from thence have great confusions been brought into the Church and the Discipline generally been dissolved for by the Breve of Paul 3. the people are allowed to leave their own Pastors and run after them and to receive the Sacraments from them to whom Greg. hath committed authority to animadvert as well upon the Clergy as the people that all may be done rightly and after the Roman mode so that from Priests whether regular or secular it is uncertain they are suddenly become universal Pastors of the people or rather wandering vagabond Bishops Periodentas circumcelliones hamaxarios Episcopos that there is nothing which they cannot now do at Rome where they are called the Popes eyes mentis Pontificiae oculi that their Principles are inconsistent with the French that it is certain that to them is principally given in charge that they should oppress the Gallican liberty at first by guile and afterwards with open force even as in these last wars they have endeavoured to do that with them they are reckoned anathema who take the Kings part but that the French think the contrary and that not to obey the King is as to resist God and to sight against Heaven that they think that the Pope may excommunicate Kings and People when he pleaseth but the French on the contrary hold them for Sectaries who think that the Pope may interpose his authority in any difference of State that they attribute to the Pope an infinite power over all Kingdoms and set him above the Church above Councils and in fine make his power equal to his will to do what he please but the French hold his power to be finite or limited And for their good deeds and practices that Claud Matthew a ring-leader of the faction whom Henr. 3. had familiarly used in his private devotions and who therefore was well acquainted with his piety and devotion to the Rom. Cath. Religion with great impiety and ingratitude went to Rome and would have perswaded Greg. 13. to have excommunicated him unless he would comply with the leaders of that pernitious faction which being denied by him was after his death obtained of his successor Sixtus that Varada of the same society confirmed Barriere in his purpose to kill the King when he made some scruple at it that they confess as much but with frivolous cavillation seek to excuse it Nor are these the faults of single persons among them forasmuch as it is a usual thing or constant custom with them when they have any enterprize in hand to confer together about it c. that by their occult art of prying into secrets they have by little and little insinuated themselves into the minds of the simple and acquired a dominion in their consciences Whereof there is a fresh example in the five Popish Cantons of the Switzers whom when the Jesuites had in vain attempted to draw them from their League with the other Cantons of the Protestants made for their common safety they leaving the men like the serpent which deceived our first Parents set upon the women and perswaded them not to lye with their Husbands till they had broken off the League But the Switzers discovering the fraud shewed themselves men and handled the Conspirators according to their desert The Venetians likewise whose Justice and Prudence the duration of their State doth easily evince saw as much Yet they since did it an 3607. v. l. 137. and being warned by our example they did not indeed thrust them out of their Territories for how could they do that being so near neighbours to the Pope but did maturely shut them up within their own inclosures and interdicted them the hearing of confessions And how powerful they are among us by these means they openly profess and glory in it in their letters to their General But thus is the discipline of the Church overthrown and contrary to the prudent prohibition of the Council of Nants the saying of St. Aug. Neminem digne poenitere posse quem non sustineat unitas Ecclesiae the judgment of the ancient Christians who condemned Audius for making separation in the Church the people seduced from their own Pastors are adulterously allured to communion in sacris with them apart from others and at last stirred up to rebellion against their Prince and emissaries suborned to murder him Their conspiracies are well known against Prince Maurice which at last took effect and in England those of Parry Cullen York Wikiams in
Priest also shall answer for it as the Prophet saith But that which is the secret root and main prop of their delusion and most effectually deceives them is an unhahpy mistaken opinion deeply rooted in their minds of the infallible authority of the particular Church of Rome For as Cardinal Perron hath well argued V. King James Def. of the Right of Kings if these things be unlawful which have for so many ages been acted by the Papal authority that interposed with all the formality and solemnity that could be it would follow that the Pope hath been Antichrist and the Church of Rome the Synagogue of Satan for so many ages past This is it whatever other specious arguments and pretenses are alledged which makes them no less obstinate in their errors than the Jews are in theirs A deceived heart hath turned them aside and they cannot deliver their soul But if they will but 1. Lay aside the prejudice of Education 2. Consider the great evidence there is that these things are contrary to Christianity 3. And with that compare the little real ground there is to believe this pretended infallible authority it may be God's blessing be a good means to undeceive them but then as to the third particular they must deal candidly and impartially setting aside 1. Such proofs as concern only the perseverance of the Church of Christ in general 2. Such as concern only the authority of particular Churches over their own members for neither of these make any thing for the Church of Rome more than for any other particular Church then what else they can alledge will be found to be far short of what the Jews might alledge to prove that they are still the true Israel of God But the confounding of these things is that which imposeth upon their minds and judgments The ancient Apostolick Creed and what-ever other rule of Faith is mentioned by Irenaeus Tertullian or any of the Ancients and were held to contain the sum of the Christian Faith are to this day generally received and believed by all the Christian World so that Christ hath still a Church upon Earth what-ever become of the Church of Rome the like may be said of the sacred Scriptures but in none of these is the least mention of any such infallible authority of the Church of Rome no nor of any such authority of the Church of Christ as the Church of Rome does pretend to Nor is there any colour or pretence of proof that that authority was ever in any one age to this day the general belief of the Christian World no nor so much as of the Church of Rome it self for 700 years I may truly say for 1100 years and more 2. That they will likewise well consider the prudence of such undertakings the Nobility and Gentry especially of these Nations who embrace the Roman Religion They have had almost an hundred years experience of the ill success and unhappy consequence of such attempts to themselves and their party whereby they have only made a rod for their own backs provoking and exasperating the severity of Laws against themselves and when the Romish Agents had lately dissolved the Government and brought all things into confusion as is not a little apparent they did when they had crept into the Court and insinuated themselves into the several Factions of the Kingdom by underhand dealings incensing them one against another what did they advance their cause by it but only involved themselves in the same publick calamity wherein they embroyled the Nation The Emissaries are men who have neither Estates nor Fortunes to lose or hazard nor wives and children to suffer with them and if their attempts prove unsuccesful can easily retire to their Colledges again beyond Sea And their motions and actions are steered by foreigners who sit far enough out of all danger and in great security expect to make their profit and advantage of us all So that both these have hopes of advantage without any or any great hazard only the more honest and well meaning Nobility and Gentry do certainly run a very great hazard without any probability if things be rightly calculated of much mending their condition at the best For did they now suffer something in their Estates according to the Laws which certainly would never much be pressed did they not continually incense the Kingdom against them by restless attempts through the instigations of the Emissaries endangering the peace and quiet of it yet is that in some measure recompenced by their freedom from the trouble and charge of divers publick employments and the rest would be dearly bought off by enslaving the Kingdom again to the Roman Usurpations and that with so much hazard both to themselves as in respect of conscience and the justice of the undertaking for there is but little of true Christianity in him who will not readily suffer a greater loss rather than venture upon an unlawful or but doubtful action so also of the prudence of it for the higher they go in their attempts there is no doubt but it will fall more heavy upon them after so many and great provocations if they miscarry therein and of that the danger is greater than can easily be foreseen and to the Kingdom in general the peace and prosperity whereof they ought to desire and endeavour upon the account both of natural duty and of interest For whatever some who do not well consider it may promise themselves those who have Estates and Fortunes here be their Religion what it will are like to have their shares of whatever publick calamity or mischief is brought upon the Nation which they who at Rome and from other foreign parts do steer the motions of the Emissaries and other sticklers here in that cause are not much concerned to consider *** 4. And lastly to those who either through weakness and inconsiderateness are scandalized at these and such like wicked practices of the Romanists or any others professing Christianity or through wilfulness and wickedness do make use thereof to confirm or encourage themselves in their affected infidelity who having first sinned themselves into despair of any good by the observance of Religion at last seek to encourage themselves against all fear of evil by the neglect of it This last sort I intended not among Christians in general and yet do here joyn them with the other sort here mentioned because what is to be said to those may be said also to these The scandal and ill use that is made of these practices is either more particular from abuse of pretended miracles and martyrdoms whereby some may be induced to doubt of the ancient Christian Miracles and Martyrs and for satisfaction in this particular I shall here for brevity sake refer them to the writings already written and extant in print some in the English Tongue of the verity of the Christian Religion or from such practices in general of men in great place in Church
afore-mentioned from whence after Mass was ended being recalled by D'Anvil he came into the Chore again and kissing his new Bride before the King Queen and the Brethren when they had entertained one another some little while with discourse they returned into the Bishop's Palace where dinner was provided And I well remember when as Mass being ended I was admitted through the rails into the Chore and standing nigh to Coligni while I fixed my eyes upon him and curiously observed him I heard him say discoursing with d'Anville and looking up to the Ensigns fastned up and down and the sad Monuments of the Battel of Bassac and Moncountour That ere long these being taken down others more pleasing should be set up in their places which words then he meant of the Low-Country War which as he thought was now resolved upon others interpreted as though he had thoughts of a new Civil War which he so much abhorred 7. After Dinner they went into the Palace where a royal Supper was prepared and all orders of the City and the Senate together with the Courts of Accounts Customs and Treasury are entertained according as is usual in a most sumptuous manner a short time was spent in dancing afterwards interludes were brought in The representation of three Rocks silvered over upon which the three Brethren the King the Duke of Anjou and Duke of Alanson did sit and seven more upon which Gods and Sea-monsters were set which followed being drawn along in Coaches and were brought through the great Hall of the Palace which was divided by a triumphal arch in the middle and when they made a stand some choice Musitians recited Verses in their own Tongue composed by the best of their Poets And thus a great part of the night being spent in interludes they afterwards betook themselves to their rest The next day being not able to rise before the Sun was got high at three a clock after-noon they went to dinner at the Duke of Anjou's Palace where after dancing they went toward the evening to the Louvre The day following being Wednesday running at Tilt and interludes which had been a long while in preparing were exhibited at the Cardinal Bourbon's Palace there were represented upon the right hand the Mansions of the blessed and a little below the Elysian-fields possessed by 12 Nymphs on the other side on the left-hand was represented Hell flaming with fire and brimstone and full of sprights and frightful ghosts The Brethren the King the Duke of Anjou and the Duke of Alanson defended Paradise as they called it which many Knights Errant seeking to break into of whom Navar was Captain they were every one of them repulsed and at last thrown headlong down into Hell Then Mercury riding upon a Cock and together with him Cupid came sliding down to the defendants and then after much discourse with them returned into Heaven Then the three defendants came to the Nymphs wandring in the pleasant green fields and led them into the middle of the Hall where the Spectators were with much pleasure entertained with new Dances about the Fountain for a full hour Then the defendants being prevailed upon by their entreaties the Knights Errant that were shut up in Hell were released who presently in a confused skirmish break their spears at last the Gunpowder that was laid by pipes about the Fountain being fired fire broak forth with a great noise and consumed all their Scenes and so all departed This shew was variously interpreted for that the assailants who were most of them Protestants did in vain attempt to get into the seats of the blessed and were afterwards thrust down into Hell for so they put a mockery upon the Protestants and others did bode that it portended some mischief However certain it is that Francis E. of Momorancy whether suspecting some evil or being indisposed by reason of the tossing of the Sea as lately returned from his Ambassy in England having obtained leave of the King went to Chantilly for his healths sake leaving in the Court Henry d'Anville Carolus Meruvius and Gulielmus Thoraeus his Brethren and that very happily for that most Illustrious Family V. Da. p. 370. for it was the general opinion that the plotters of the following Massacre would have comprehended them all in this conspiracy had they not feared that Momorancy who was now absent would have revenged it The next day being Thursday there was running at Tilâ—s held in the Court-yard of the Louvre in which on the one side the King and his Brethren together with the Duke of Guise and the Duke of Aumale in the habit of Amazons and on the other side the King of Navar with his party in Turkish habits contended with their launces Scaffolds being set up on either side from which the Queen-Mother the King's Wife Lorain and all the Court-Ladies beheld the sports 8. Two days before the Counsel concerning the Massacre being not yet concluded the King with great shew of kindness bespeaks Coligni thus You know Father so he called him upon the account of his age and honour what you undertook to me that you would offer no injury so long as you are at Court to the Guises and they again engaged that they as they ought would behave themselves toward you and yours honourably and modestly I repose very great trust in your words but I have not the like confidence in their promises For besides that I know the Guises do by all means seek revenge I know their daring and haughty nature and in what favour they are with the people of Paris It would be a very great grief to me if they who under pretence of coming to the Marriage have brought with them a great party of souldiers well appointed should attempt any thing to your hurt for that would be an injury to my self Therefore if you think it expedient I think it convenient that the Regiment of the Guards be drawn into the City under these Commanders then he named those who were no way suspected who if any turbulent persons attempt any thing may be ready at hand to secure the publick Peace To such friendly discourse Coligni easily yielded his assent out of a desire of domestick Peace and being already overcome by the Court-flatteries therefore a Regiment is drawn within the walls without any suspition of the Protestants 9. This being done they enter into Counsel * Lib. 51. He mentions a former Consultation between the Queen-Mother Anjou Cardinal Lorain Aumale Guise Birage and others in the same Chamber wherein Guise was afterwards by the King's Command killed and afterwards in the same buildings where the King himself Henr. 3. here called Anjou was murthered by a Fryer again and after some debate the thing was left undetermined their opinions varying according to the condition of places and of the persons admitted to the Council For thus it was discoursed before the King with whom were in Council the Queen-Mother the Duke of Anjou and
others There are two factions in the Kingdom one of the Momorancies to whom the Colignies were formerly added but now upon the account of Religion by which they have engaged many to them they constitute a new faction The other is of the Guises nor will France ever be quiet or that Majesty that is taken from Kings by the Civil Wars thence arising ever be restored till the chief of their Heads who disturb the most flourishing Empire and the publick Peace be stricken off They by the troubles of the Kingdom have grown to so great Power that they cannot be taken away at the same time they are severally to be taken off and set one against the other that they may destroy one another Coligni must be begun with who only survives of his Family who being taken out of the way it would much weaken the Momorancies who lie under so great an odium upon the account of their joyning with Coligni But this is an unworthy thing and not to be suffered by you said they directing their discourse to the King that a man whom only Nobility commends one that is advanced to honour by the favour of Kings now grown burdensom to the Nobility equal to Princes in honour grievous to your self should come to that height of madness and boldness that he should count it a sport to mock at Royal Majesty and every day at his own lust to raise Wars in the Kingdom Certainly his madness is above all things by you if you be indeed King to be restrained that by his example all may learn to bear their fortunes decently and use them modestly Nor only shall the faction of the Momorances be broken by his death but the power of the Protestants shall be over-turned of which when he is the very heart and soul in him alone the Protestants seem to live and he being dead they will fall with him This is not only useful but necessary for setling the publick Peace when as experience doth shew that as one house cannot keep two Dogs nor one tree relieve two Parrots so one and the same Kingdom cannot bear two Religions This may be done without danger or blame if some cut-throat as there are enough of them to be had be suborned to take away the life of Coligni encouraged by some present reward and hopes of future who having done the thing may make his escape by the help of a light horse prepared for that purpose V. Dav. p 368 370 The opinion of Alberto Condi Coun. of Retz For then without doubt the Protestants who are very numerous in the City supposing it to be done by the Guises will presently as you know they are a furious sort of people take up Arms and setting upon the Guisians they shall easily be cut off by their greater numbers for the people of Paris are much addicted to them and perhaps the Momorances so hateful to the Parisians shall be involved in the same tumult But if the thing proceed not so far yet at least the blame of the fact from which you shall receive great advantage shall be translated from you upon the Guisians as bearing yet in memory the murder of their Father whom having destroyed their Rivals you shall soon reduce into good order This thing being done you shall forthwith be able to determine concerning the chief leaders of the Protestants whom you have in your power who no doubt will return to their old Religion and due allegiance to you when evil Counsellors shall be removed And when it was debated in the Queens Council among those that were to be trusted their discourse went further that not only the Momorances with Coligni should be taken off but that the Guisians should at some fit opportunity be slain as those whom the Queen ought in no wise to trust or spare being heretofore grievously and often offended by her For so the Counsellors ordered the matter if the Protestants should go about to revenge the death of Coligni they and the Momorances should in the conflict be oppressed by the people as being inferior in strength but not without great loss to the adversaries whom the King having drawn a great number of Souldiers which he had then at his command into the Louvre sitting as a spectator might at last set upon being broken and weakened by fighting and as though they had taken Arms without his command and by way of sedition might command them all to be slain together with the Nobles as taking this or that party for whiles they remained safe there would be no end of murmurs and complaints against the Queen whom the seditious cry out upon as a stranger and so fit to be removed from the Government of the Kingdom 10. These were their divers counsels according to the diversity of the persons but they all agreed in the executing of the matter The Duke of Guise being at last taken into the privity of the fact though otherwise he knew nothing of the other Counsels an Assasine was sought for and presently Morevell appears being as it seemed provided for that purpose who having formerly undertaken to do such a villany he fled into the Camp of the Protestants but being affrighted by the danger of it lest he should seem to have done nothing he treacherously slew Arthurus Valdraeus Moius Monsieur de Muy at the siege of Niort Dav. p. 376. and from that time often changing his lodgings he concealed himself in the house of the Guises in which Family he was brought up from a child An house was also pitched upon in the Cloyster of St. German Auxerrois as they call it the house of Peter Pila Villemur who had formerly been Tutor to the Duke of Guise himself by which Coligni returning home must needs pass Therefore upon the Friday Coligni having dispatched much business in the King's Council where Anjou was present and composed a difference between Antonius Marafinus Guerchius and Tiangius chief of the Nobility of the Burgundians forward men he attended upon the King to the next Tennis-Court from whence after a promise from the King the Duke of Guise and Teligny betaking himself homeward walking on foot by the house of Villemur going gently along and reading a Petition which was then by chance presented to him Morevel discharging a Musquet from a window that had a linen Curtain drawn before it he was shot with a brace of bullets whereof one struck off the fore-finger of his right-hand and the other wounded him more dangerously in his left-arm while Guerchius was upon his right-hand and Rochus Sorbaeus Prunaeus upon his left who as likewise all that were there were exceedingly astonished at what was done But he with a countenance not disturbed only shewed them the house whence the bullets came and presently commands Armanus Claromontius Pilius and Franciscus Movinius that they should go the King and in his name acquaint him with what was done then binding up his arm and leaning upon his