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A30330 A collection of several tracts and discourses written in the years 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684, 1685 by Gilbert Burnet ; to which are added, a letter written to Dr. Burnet, giving an account of Cardinal Pool's secret power, the history of the power treason, with a vindication of the proceedings thereupon, an impartial consideration of the five Jesuits dying speeches, who were executed for the Popish Plot, 1679.; Selections. 1685 Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1685 (1685) Wing B5770; ESTC R214762 83,014 140

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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
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
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 B●…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.
laid before them they are obliged to submit or they fall from the Catholick Faith the chief Branch of which is To believe all the Traditions of the Church And since the Church is the same in all Ages according to their Doctrine the Traditions of any one Age must be as good as the Traditions of any other can be all being grounded on the same Authority And now let all the Reasons that Arnold brings to prove from the Churches believing Transubstantiation in any Age that she must have always believed it be considered and applied with a small variation of the Terms to this Purpose and we shall see if they conclude not as strongly in favour of this Doctrine as for that which he has pursued so much How can it be imagined says he that a Doctrine so contrary to common Sence and Reason could have been so universally received if every Man had not been taught it by those who instructed him in the Faith Will Men easily change their Faith Or tho particular Persons would prevaricate would the whole Clergy conspire to do it Or would the People take it easily off their hands These and many more Topicks of that sort may be so mustered up and set off by a Man of Wit and Eloquence that an ordinary Person would stare and not know what to say The Premises will shew that there is need but of very little Art to change the same Plea and fit it to this purpose with two great advantages beyond what can be fanci'd to be in the other The one is that the generality of Mankind is naturally more concerned in the preservation of Temporal things than about nice points of Speculation the one they see and handle every day and are much concerned about the other they hear little of and are not much touched with them So that it is less probable there could be a change made in opinions on which the Titles of Princes and the Peace of Kingdoms depended than about subtil Discourses concerning Mysteries So that the Plea is stronger for the Tradition of deposing Kings than for Transubstantiation A second Difference is That there was a continual Opposition made to the belief of Transubstantiation in all Ages which they themselves do not deny only they shift it off the best they can by calling the Opposers Hereticks but for the deposing Doctrine there was not one Person in the whole World that presumed to bring it in question from the first time it was pretended to till those whom they call Hereticks disputed against it and tho some few others who hold Communion with them have ventured on a canvasing of that Doctrine it is well enough known what thanks they got from Rome nor can they shew any one Book licensed according to the Rules of their Church that denies it And thus the Plea for this Doctrine has a double Advantage beyond that for Transubstantiation Upon the whole matter then if Tradition be a sure Conveyance and if we may pronounce what is truly a Tradition either from the Opinions of Doctors the Constitutions of Popes the Decrees of General Councils and the universal Consent of the whole Church for some Ages then the Doctrine of deposing Kings to which all these agree must be reckoned among Church-Traditions There is but one other Mark that can be devised of a Tradition which is What the Church has taught and believed in all Ages but for a certain Reason which they know very well they will not stand to that They know we do not refuse such Traditions and if only such may be received then the Worship of Images the Prayers to Saints the Worship in an unknown Tongue the Belief of Transubstantiation the Sacrifice of the Mass the denying the Chalice to the Laity the redeeming Souls out of Purgatory with many other things of the like nature will be soon taken off of the File And indeed in this sence the deposing Doctrine is so far from being a Tradition that we have as undeniable Evidences that the Church for the first six Ages knew nothing of it but on the contrary abhorred the thoughts of it as we have that their Church these last six Ages has set it up From which among many other Reasons we conclude that these latter Ages have not been acted with the same Spirit nor followed the same Doctrine that was the Rule of the former Ages There is more than enough said to shew that these Doctrines are a part of their Faith from which they can never extricate themselves but by confessing either that their Church has erred or that Tradition is no true Conveyance when they do either of these they turn their Backs on Rome and are in a fair away to come over to our Church with which purpose I pray God inspire them The mean while it is no wonder if those of that Communion have been guilty of such horrid Plots and Rebellions every where especially in England since Henry the 8th's time There was in his Reign First a Rebellion in Lincolnshire another greater one in the North and some lesser ones after that In Edward the 6th's time there were Risings both in the North and in the West But these succeeded so ill and turned only to the ruine of their own Party that they resolved to try secreter ways in Queen Elizabeth's time in whose long and blessed Reign there scarce passed one year in which there was not some Plot against her Life There was not Matter enough to work upon for raising any considerable Rebellion in England But in Ireland there were more frequent attempts that way It is true the Care and Providence of God was too hard for all their Plots how closely soever laid and they were turned back on themselves not so much to the ruine of the chief Plotters who were wise enough to conveigh themselves out of the way as of many Noble Families that were poysoned with their ill Principles All the Blood which the State was forced to shed lies at their door who were continually giving fresh Provocations And for King Iames not to mention the Conspiracies against him in Scotland nor that Plot of Cobham and Watson upon his first coming to this Crown the Gun-powder Treason was a thing that went beyond all the wicked Designs that had been ever in any Age contrived And when his late Majesty was Embroiled in his Affairs in this Island how did they take advantage from that Conjuncture to break out into a most horrid Rebellion in Ireland joyned with a Massacre of Persons of whatsoever Age or Sex or Condition Which was so far set on by Rome that a Nuncio came publickly to direct their Councils I will not dwell on Particulars that are suffciently known but only name these things to shew That no Reign of any of our Princes since the Reformation has been free from the dismal effects of these Doctrines And for his Sacred Majesty who now Reigns whom God long preserve from their Malice they
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 w●…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
signified the joy in Heaven at that days work and that the Church was to flourish again by the death of the Hereticks But leaving these discantings on this seeming Miracle Morvillier that was Lord-Keeper advised That for justifying or at least mitigating the Censures that might be made on these proceedings there should be a Process carried on against the dead Admiral to prove him guilty of a Conspiracy against the King and the Royal Blood and there were some few Protestants kept Prisoners who had been taken out of the English Ambassadors Lodgings who to save themselves they hop'd might be brought to accuse the Admiral But while this Mock-Process was making there was a real prosecution of the like Cruelties in many other parts of France At Meaux a little Town not far from Paris they began on the 25th of August being Monday and spent the whole Week in shedding more Blood They killed two hundred many of those were Women whom they Forced before they Murdered them At Troye in Champaigne about the same number was killed At Orleans a thousand were also killed Six or seven hundred at Roan tho the Governour did what he could to hinder it At Bourges Nevers and Charite all they found were killed At Tholouse two hundred were killed At Burdeaux they were for some time in suspence being afraid of the Rochellers but the Priests did so inflame the Multitude that the Governour could not restrain their rage longer than the beginning of October so then they Massacred all that they could find This beginning was followed by all the Towns on the Garvinne But next to Paris Lions was the place where the most barbarous Cruelties were acted The Governour had a mind to save the Protestants and gathered together about six or seven hundred of them whom he lodged in several Prisons that so he might preserve them And to give the People some content he granted them the pillage of their Houses But they were so heated by the Clergie and by some that were sent from the Court to promote the Massacre every where that they broke open the Prisons and murdered them all dragged their Bodies through the Streets and opened the Bellies of the fattest of them to sell their Greese to Apothecaries And when they could do no more they threw ●…em into the River of Rhosne which was coloured with the Blood and filled with the Carcases of the slain These Examples were followed in many more places but detested by others who were not Papists enough to overcome Nature and all Morality The Governours in some places restrained the People and in many places the Souldiers tho more inured to Blood defended the Protestants from the Rable that were set on by the Priests The Answer the Governour of Bayonne made deserves to be remembred who wrote to the King in these Words SIR I Have communicated your Majesty's Command to the Inhabitants of the Town and the Souldiers of the Garrison I find many good Citizens and brave Souldiers but never a Hangman here And therefore in their Name and my own I humbly beg your Majesty would employ our Arms and Lives in things which are possible for us to do how dangerous soever they may be and we will spend the last drop of our Blood in your Service This gave great Offence at Court and soon after both he and the Count of Tendes Governour of Provence who had also given Orders that there should be no Massacre made within his Jurisdiction died very suddenly And it was believed they were both poisoned In all there were as Thuanas says Thirty thousand massacred over France tho he believes they were not quite so many Mezeray estimates them at five and twenty Thousand But Perefixè says that over all France near an hundred thousand were butchered And Veremundus says that besides those who were killed an hundred Thousand Persons were set a begging most of those being Widows and Orphans Many of t●●m fled to the places of strength in France and great numbers went out of the Kingdom For when they had escaped the first rage of the Massacre they clearly perceived the design of their Enemies was to extirpate them Root and Branch And tho the King at first declared he would observe the Edict inviolably they had learned from sad experience how little his Faith was to be depended on and they were further convinced of it by fresh Proofs For the King pressed the King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde very hard to change their Religion the former was tractable and hearkned to instruction but the latter continued resolute and would hear nothing This put the King once into such a Rage that he called for his Arms and was going in Person either to kill him or see him killed had not his vertuous Queen who had been instructed by her Father to abhor all cruel Proceedings about Religion cast her self at his Feet and with many Tears diverted him from so ignominious an Action But he sent for him and said only these three words to him Mass Death or the Bastil Yet he generously resolved to suffer Death or perpetual Imprisonment rather than go to Mass had they not found out a Tool fit to work on him One Sureau-des Rosiers that had been Minister of the Protestants at Orleans had now to save his Life changed his Religion But to have some reputation in it pretended that he had resolved to have done it sooner tho when that fear was over he returned to them again but was never much considered after that He was therefore employed to perswade the Prince of Conde and what by his endeavours and what by fear of Death both the King of Navarre and he went to Mass and wrote Letters full of Submission and Obedience to the Pope tho they were no sooner out of that Snare than they declared that what had been obtained of them was extorted by force This being done the King sent his Orders over all France bearing date the 22d of September to turn all Persons out of any considerable Imployments that would not renounce their Religion and a long form of Abjuration was sent with it which was to be the Test both which are printed by Veremundus The Process against the Admiral was carried on before the Parliament of Paris and without any proofs that ever were published they on the 27th of October judged him guilty of a Conspiracy against the King and his Crown And therefore ordained his Body to be hanged if it could be found or if not that he should be hanged in Effigie his House of Chastilion to be razed and a Pillar set up with an Inscription to defame his Memory his Blood was also attainted and his Children declared ignoble and incapable of any Priviledges in France And the Sentence concluded with an Order for celebrating St. Bartholomews day in all time coming with Processions and publick Thanksgivings for the Discovery and Punishment of that Conspiracy There were also two other Persons