Invasion which was after attempted in 88. when many were so cunningly engaged that they knew not of and so were not able to accuse any but the person that ingaged them as Sir Francis Bacon in his Observations upon the Libel published 1592. and in his Collection of the Felicities of Queen Elizabeth shews from a Letter of one of their Principal Heads which was intercepted and not only practised before but also repeated immediatly after this Plot when Five had severally undertaken the Earl of Salisbury's death and vowed the performance of it and yet it was so ordered that none of those Five knew who the other Four were for the better preventing the discovery of the rest if any one by attempting and not performing should be apprehended from hence it may well be answered That it is very probable that Winter and Fawkes from whose Confessions this mistake hath arisen and the Objection may be made and most of the other Conspirators did indeed know of no other Author of the Contrivance but Catesby And yet it may very well be that He received it from others the first Contrivers of it either immediately or mediately either the full Project expresly with the Reasons mentioned by Thuanus under some Oath of Secrecy or Engagement not to discover from whom he received it or at least some such Hints and Intimations of it as were sufficient to set on work a mind so active and well disposed to improve the same to the utmost and without any such engagement he might be apt enough to take the Invention upon himself not only out of Devotion to the Society whose reputation he might thereby the better secure in case it should miscarry but even out of an Ambition to be reputed the Author of so Glorious an Enterprise And that He should be intrusted with so Great a Secret and the Chief visible Management of it rather than any of the rest was very likely 1. Because he and his Family had been addicted and devoted to the Jesuits from their very first coming into England and were harbourers of Campian who with his Comrade Parsons the two first and principal who were designed and employed for that Service came into England Anno 1580. where he was apprehended 22. July in the year next ensuing as we are informed by Sanders 3. de Schismate Anglicano From which time it is not unlikely that he held correspondence with F. Parsons who soon after returned to Rome and continued there Rector of the English Colledge till some years after the discovery of this plot he was shamefully turned out of Rome by Mounsieur Bethunes the French Embassadour and Order from the King of France being discovered to plot a new treason against his Majesty to introduce the Duke of Parma as we are told by a Romanist But 2. this was not all why Catesby was preferred before the rest in this service for in this respect Tresham might perhaps have claimed that honor as well as he as we may see in Sanders but Catesby had another more special qualification as being more Cautious and Cunning as we may observe in Thuanus 21. But because so plausible a Pretense for the Occasion of these desperate resolutions at that time as the King of Spain's then deserting of the Conspirators upon his Treaty of Peace with England may seem to have some weight in it though it must be noted that this seemes rather to have been the Conjecture of the Historians and others than that any such thing was expresly alledged by the Conspirators for ought appears in the Printed Confessions of Fawkes and Winter yet that we may leave no scruple and make it further appear that we have not only the concurrence of all Circumstances to confirm our belief of the truth of what hath been said but have also sufficient matter and ground for Answer to all Objections we shall return such Answer though touch'd before as may both sufficiently solve this doubt and be of some use to other purpose And therefore it must be remembred 1. That all the neighbouring Popish Princes especially France Spain and the Archdukes of Austria toward the latter end of the Queens Reign were not a little concerned upon Fear of what Consequence the Vnion of the three Kingdoms viz. of Scotland with England and Ireland might prove in time as is not only apparent in it self but intimated to us by the Papists themselves in their Supplication to King James before the discovery of this plot and thereupon bent all their Consultations and used all Means to prevent or hinder it as well after the Kings coming in as before and even by their Embassadours here did not only tamper with some of the Prime Ministers of State to corrupt them but also practised to raise stirs and Rebellions Of the French Cambden tells us that the French Embassadour studied to move Commotions ne duo divisa Britanniae Regna Angliae Scotiae in unum coalescerent and others inform us of his tampering with some of the Prime Statesmen here And of Count Arembergh Embassadour Extraordinary for the Archdukes we find him reported to have been an agent in the Treason of Watson and Clark and not only so but that He and they were the Contrivers of it and that He drew into it the Lord Cobham and by his means his brother Brook Parham the Lord Grey of Wilson and at length Raleigh also was brought in 22. And 2. we must take notice that there was certainty a deeper mystery in the Counsels of Spain than meerly an Invasion intended For long before this The King of Spain as Sir Fr. Bacon in his Report of the Treason of Loper well observes having found by the Enterprise of 88 the Difficulty of an Invasion of England layed aside the Prosecution of his Attempts against this Realm by Open Forces and by all means projected to trouble the waters here by Practise first to move some Innovation in Scotland then he sollicited a Subject within this Realm being a Person of great Nobility to rise in Arms and Levy war against her Majesty Perhaps he means the Earl of Darby whom Richard Hesket endeavoured to perswade to assume the Title of King deriving his Right from his great Grandmother Mary daughter of Hen. VII and made him large promises of Aids and Money from the Spaniard threatning him with sudden destruction if he did not do it and conceal the business Cambd. Anno 1593. Lastly either of himself or his Counsellers and Ministers using his name descended to a course Against all Honour all Society and Humanity Odious to God and Man Detested by the Heathens themselves to take away the life of her Majesty by Violence or Poison A matter which might be proved to be not only against all Christianity and Religion but against Nature The Law of Nations The Honour of Arms The Civil Law The Rules of Morality and Policy Finally the most Condemned Barbarous and Ferine Act that can be imagined
the Guises should immediately depart the City and go every one to his own house that thereby all might take notice that whatsoever had been done at Paris proceeded from their faction But the Queen and Anjou especially who did both of them with an over-weaning affection incline to the party of Guise did intercede seeing the King was at first enraged only against Coligny as not yet forgetting his flight from Meaux drew him on who yet wavered to the slaughter of all the Protestants in the City so that not knowing where he set his foot they brought him by degrees to this pass that he should take the whole blame upon himself and so ease the Guisians who were not able to bear such a burden And to that end Anjou did as it it was laid produce Letters found in Teligny's desk written by the hand of Momorancy in which after the wound given to Coligny he did affirm that he would revenge this injury upon the Authors of it who were not unknown with the same mind as if it had been offered to himself Thereupon the Queen and Anjou took occasion to shew the King That if he persisted in his former dissimulation things were come to that pass that he would endanger the security of the Kingdom his Fortunes Riches and Reputation For the Guisians who do by these Letters and otherwise understand the mind of the Momorancies being men desirous of troubles and seeking grounds of them upon every occasion will never lay down their Arms which they have by the King's command taken up to offer this injury that they will still keep them under pretence of desending their safety which they say is aimed at by the enemy and so that which was thought to have been the end of a most bloudy war will prove to be the beginning of a more dangerous one For the remainders of the Protestants who see their matters distressed will without doubt gather themselves to the Momorancies who are of themselves strong and thence will take new strength and spirits which if it should happen what a face of the Kingdom will appear when the name and authority of the King's Majesty being slighted and trampled upon every one shall take liberty to himself and indulge to private hatred and affections according to his own lust Lastly what will foreign Princes think of the King who suffers himself to be over-ruled by his subjects who cannot keep his subjects in their duty and lastly who knows not how to hold the reins of legal power Therefore there is no other way to prevent so great an evil but for the King to approve by his publick Proclamation of what was done as if it had been done by his command For by this means he should take the arbitrement and power to himself and on the one hand disarm the Guises and on the other hand keep the Momorancies from taking up Arms and lastly should bring it about that the Protestant affairs now already very low should be separated from the cause of the Momorancies That the King ought not to fear the odium of the thing for there is not so much danger in the horridness of a fact the odium whereof may be somewhat allayed by excuse as in the confession of weakness and impotency which doth necessarily bring along with it contempt which is almost destructive to Princes By these reasons they easily perswaded an imperious Prince who less seared hatred than contempt that he might recall the Guisians to obedience and retain the Momorancies in their loyalty to confirm by publick testimony that whatsoever had been done was done by his will and command Therefore in the morning viz. upon the Tuesday he came into the Senate with his Brethren the King of Navar and a great retinue of Nobles after they had heard Mass with great solemnity and sitting down in the Chair of State all the orders of the Court being called together He complained of the grievous injuries that he had from a child received from Gaspar Coligny and wicked men falsly pretending the name of Religion but that he had forgiven them by Edicts made for the publick Peace That Coligny that he might leave nothing to be added to his wickedness had entred into a conspiracy how to take away him his mother his brethren and the King of Navar himself though of his own Religion that he might make young Conde King whom he determined afterwards to slay likewise that the Royal Family being extinct he usurping the Kingdom might make himself King That he when it could not otherwise be did though full sore against his will extinguish one mischief by another and as in extream dangers did use extream remedies that he might extirpate that impure contagion out of the bowels of the Kingdom Therefore that all should take notice that whatsoever had been that day done by way of punishment upon those persons had been done by his special command After he had said these things Christophorus Thuanus chief President in a speech fitted to the time commended the King's prudence who by dissembling so many injuries had timely prevented the wicked conspiracy and the danger that was threatned by it and that that being suppressed he had now setled peace in the Kingdom having well learnt that saying of Lewis XI He that knows not how to dissemble knows not how to reign Then the Court was commanded that diligent enquiry should be made concerning the conspiracy of Coligny and his Associates and that they should give sentence according to form of Law as the heinousness of the fact did require Then lastly Vidus Faber Pibraccius Advocate of the Treasury or Attorney-General stood up and asked the King whether he did will and command that this declaration should be entred into the acts of the Court to the preservation of the memory of it whether the orders of Judges and Civil Magistrates which he had complained were corrupted should be reformed And lastly whether by his command there should be an end put to the slaughters and rapines To these things the King answered that he did command the first that he would take care about the second and that for the third he did give command by publick proclamation through all the streets of the City that they should for the future abstain from all slaughters and rapines Which declaration of the King astonished many and among the rest Thuanus himself who was a man of a merciful nature and altogether averse from bloud and feared that example and the danger that was threatned thereby who also did with great freedom privately reprove the King for that if the conspiracy of Coligny and his company had been true he did not rather proceed against them by Law This is most certain he did always detest St. Bartholomews-day using those verses of Statius Papinius in a different case Excidat illa dies aevo nec postera credant Saecula nos certe taceamus obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur
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 Collection of her Felicities while her Neighbours who wickedly and barbarously persecuted the Professors of that Reformed Religion for their Religion sake which she with great and Christian Moderation towards the adversaries of it happily established and defended either lived not out half their days or died violent deaths and were murthered by their own Subjects of the same Religion with themselves or were otherwise unhappy in their attempts in that Eminently Remarkable manner as is so far from being impertinent to our subject and design briefly to note that it would be a great fault and unworthy neglect not to do it Certainly who ever shall impartially and without prejudice consider the History of this blessed and happy Queen and with it compare the History of the Times both precedent and subsequent to her reign and especially of her neighbours in France durng her own times must needs acknowledge not only an Admirable Providence over Her in both Preserving and Blessing her in all her Affairs but a Special Distinguishing Providence thus favouring her and at the same time in a very remarkable manner disfavouring Crossing Blasting and Severely Punishing and Revenging the different and contrary Courses and Practises of her Neighbours and others 38. We might here remember the Story of Don Sebastian King of Portugal who in the heat of his youth and devotion to the See of Rome had tendered his service to the Pope and engaged in an Expedition against England and Ireland but having raised a great Army and prepared a great Fleet was by the King of Fesse prevailed with to assist him in the recovery of his Kingdom in Mauritania Where with Stukely who commanded the Italian Forces raised by the Pope and King of Spain for the service against Ireland whom he perswaded to go with him first to the African war he was slain dyed without issue and left his Kingdom a prey to the Spaniard whereby not only the present storm which threatned the Queen was blown over but the Spaniard also for divers years diverted by his wars with Portugal from molesting the Queen in that manner which otherwise 't is likely he would have done and from some such Invasion as though then intended was not actually undertaken till ten years after We might here also remember Don John of Austria in the heat of his eager designs upon England cut off
the Authority of the Supreme Courts the priviledges of the Church and of the Nobility the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom c. In the mean time to heighten and inflame the odium of the people against the King nothing is omitted either in the Pulpit or out of it by slanders calumnies and false reports And while among other devises they endeavour to represent him as a worshipper of Satyrs and a Magitian they exercise a kind of magick or witchcraft against him devising religious execrations and instituting strange superstitious rites women and maids clad only in such fine linen that their bodies might be seen through it and some carrying burning tapers in their hands they sang over certain mysterious rithms with dissonant and confused tones and voices and then suddenly extinguished their torches as if they hoped or wished that the King's life should be thereby or in like manner also extinguished and a great deal such stuff too long to be here related By these means were the people every where incensed and enraged against the King but especially by the new Doctrines of the Preachers and Confessions were the minds of men generally so perverted that they made it almost a sport to break Faith with him and betray their trust and many thought it their duty so that the Cities daily revolted from his obedience Thu. l. 94. sin At Bourdeaux the J suites for a conspiracy and tumult raised there were by the President of the Province expelled the City to prevent the like for the future And when from thence they repaired for refuge to Agen and * Vesuna Paetrocariorum Vesuna those Cities thereupon presently rebelled But the greatest fury and rage of the people was at Tholouse stirred up as was believed by these new Theologists While the Leaguers are thus busy both at home and abroad Thu. l. 95. prâ— Thu. l. 94. the King is not idle but treats with his Neighbour Princes and States for men and money and to mitigate the fury of his own people with great importunity and submission solicits for absolution for killing the Cardinal from the Pope who was highly enraged against him for that sacrilegious act as he pretended but probably more for killing the Duke if that be true which the State of Venice and the Dukes of Tuscany and Mantua certified the King that the Pope and the Duke had agreed in secret to marry the Pope's Niece to Prince Jonvil the Duke's Son and to depose the King thrust him into a Monastery and make the Duke King in his place His Ambassador going about this affair to Rome was by the way admonished by the Duke of Tuscany that the King should do well to trust more to his own forces and strength at home than to the Pope's favour for if things succeedeed well with him in the beginning of those commotions in France he should have friends enough at Rome and among them the Pope himself but if otherwise he should find them his bitter enemies And so it proved for when this proud and insolent Pope to gratifie his own pride and ambition and magnify his authority in the opinion of the people had drawn on the King and his Ministers to do all acts of submission and base prostration to him as far as he could he turned him off at last without any absolution and not not long after began to proceed to Excommunication against him Wherefore the King when he could obtain no favour from the Pope Thu. l. 95. treats more openly with the King of Navar and concludes an agreement with him to the no little joy of all sober men who thought there was no such way for setling that Kingdom as by this reconciliation of the King of France with Navar the first Prince of the Bloud the next Heir of the Crown and an excellent General and Commander Had he done this at first rather than so basely and foully broak his Faith he had certainly by God's blesting which he might then with more reason have expected prevented the growth of this faction of the League to this height and most of this trouble to himself and his Kingdoms But this now afforded new matter for the Preachers and Writers to exasperate the minds of the people withal And the Pulpits ring and the Presses sweat with virulent Sermons and Books against the two Kings Among those who bestirred themselves in this kind were Father Comolet the Jesuit Genebrard Fr. Feu-ardentius and Bucherus famous for his Book de Justa Henrici 3 Abdicatione and many others mentioned by our Author And in their Sermons besides those ways of moving the people by stirring up their passions of fear and hatred they had another part to act which was to encourage them to action by moving their hopes and expectations and this was done by acquainting them with the victories and happy progress and prosperous success of their Armies and friends abroad amplifying the same as much as might be And what-ever news came whether good or bad the Preachers were generally the publishers of it if good to magnify and set it out to the best advantage if bad to represent it to the people as occasion served partly comforting and encouraging them under the misfortune and partly stirring them up to more forwardness and greater assistance to the War So that these matters were the general and ordinary subject of their Sermons And besides these good services which they performed severally the famous Colledge of Sorbon it self by a publick Decree order that the Kings name and the Prayers for him be put out of the Canon of the Mass and instead thereof other Prayers for the Catholick Princes be inserted and that those who shall say Mass otherwise than by this Decree is appointed shall be held for excommunicate c. And not to be wanting to the encouragement of his devoted Sons in so meritorious undertakings their good Father the Pope sends out his Monitory against the King whereby he is excommunicate unless within ten days he will do the Leaguers the kindness to set at liberty the Cardinal of Bourbon whom they having already agreed to the deposing of him may set up for their King and moreover make his submission within the term of 60 days from the publication of the Monitory which was posted up in Rome the 23 of May Da. p. 811. and within a few days after published at Meaux ten leagues from Paris These dealings of the Pope with the King seemed so hard and unreasonable to the Princes of Italy that they advised the King no longer to treat with him as a suppliant Thu. p. 430. but to deal with him according to his own rough nature and presently to seize upon Avignon and the County of Veniessine Da. p. 811. But the King was not a little grieved at it and said That he thought it very hard that he who had ever fought and laboured for Religion should be rashly excommunicated because he would not
and be distributed at the pleasure of the Court and all the Kings Subjects were interdicted to send their children to the Schools of that Society out of the Kingdom to be instructed in Learning upon pain of Treason This was executed the Summer following Li. 112. Some few days after this was made another Decree whereby Chastel's Father's house which was neer to the Palace was ordered to be pulled down and a Pyramid to be erected in the place of it with the Decree inscribed upon it ad aeternam facti memoriam which was likewise done with other inscriptions in detestation of the crime V. l. 134. 58. How necessary for the safety both of the King and Kingdom this was and that the Decree should be strictly executed throughout the whole Kingdom and duly and constantly observed for the future many in the Court and most in the Parliament of Paris and of the Clergy were very sensible and the King could not be ignorant especially after such fair warnings And yet whereas the Jesuites being by virtue of this Decree exterminated out of the Jurisdictions of the Court of Paris Thu. l. 129. which extends to near half the Kingdom and likewise of Burgundy and Normandy continued notwithstanding for three years after to keep up their Schools in the Territories of Tholouse and Bourdeaux to which many sent their Sons to be taught and many again from that Society changing their habits as if they had also renounced their vow crept into other Schools though the King was often importuned to command those Courts by his Edict to publish the Decree and it was once or twice so resolved in Council the execution notwithstanding was continually retarded by the craft and subtilty saith our Author of some about the King but perhaps some thoughts of a peace with Spain which had been proposed might make it thought unseasonable at that time But the Parliament of Paris was not wanting to do what in them lay 21 Aug. 1597. and by another Decree under a severe penalty prohibited all Cities Colledges and Universities to admit any of that society though pretending the renunciation of their vow to preach or to excrcise any sacerdotal Ministery or to teach children either publickly or privately Thu. l. 120. The year following the King was again provoked through the obstinacy and insolency of the Court of Tholouse to send out his Edict commanding those Courts to publish the Decree and was moved by the Chancellor Ph. Huraltus Cevernius so to do but by some Courtiers says our Author the business was at present delayed and at last wholly put off and very likely was now also though unseasonable in respect of the King's desire to obtain a dissolution of his Marriage with the Queen Margaret Thu. ib. Perefix p. 294. that he might marry his beloved Mistress La belle Gabrielle whereof he began about this time to treat with the Pope's Legate And indeed though I know not whether so much be written by any yet it seems very legible in the actions and occurrences which are written that this was so powerful a motive with him as made him not only desist from further enforcing the execution of the Decree and total extermination of the Jesuites but on the contrary to yield to their Restitution Thu. ibid. For the Jesuites about this time taking occasion upon a Convention of the Clergy to offer him a supplication ceased not afterwards till by supplications and recommendations every where sought they at last obtained their desire the Pope's Legates sparing no pains on their behalf So out Author who afterward tells us L. 129. that when Ignatius Armandus their Provincial about a year before they were restored had made a Speech to the King for them the King answered that the business was now in the Pope's hands without whose direction he would determine nothing negotium penes Pontificem esse quo inconsulto nihil velit decernere But it may be more plainly perceived in a passage afterward at their restitution L. 132. for when the Parliament interceded against their restitution and were very averse from publishing the Kings Eidict for that purpose at last comes And. Huraltus Messius into the Senate and acquaints them from the King with the whole series of the business and tells them that above five years since the Pope had dealt with the King that the Jesuites might be restored to the same state in the Kingdom wherein they were before the Decree This was about the beginning of the year 1604 and the King having in the year 1598 treated with the Legate about the dissolution of his Marriage as hath been said in the year 1599 he obtained the Pope's Breve to certain Delegates L. 123. who upon hearing of the cause pronounced the Marriage null ab initio so that this points us to the time exactly and considering the common practice of the Court of Rome to neglect no opportunity of promoting their own ends it cannot be thought that they would let this go without some assurance from the King of the restitution of the Jesuites which at the same time was earnestly sollicited It is true that the King 's beloved Mis who had engaged him to send to the Pope about it died in Child-birth before the commission to the Delegates was sent yet this hinders not but she might before have prevailed with him to give all satisfaction to the Pope in order to the obtaining of it and that thereupon he might so far have engaged to the Pope that he knew not afterwards how to get off when he would and this it seems was the true reason why the business hung so long and yet was done at last For thus Messius goes on relating the series of the business the King says he put it off from day to day as much as he could he did not refuse or excuse himself from denying it but sought delays and when he could no longer shift it off Quantum potuerat diem de die dixisse he proposed certain articles almost uniform to the contents of the Decree and by his Embassador laboured with the Pope to be content with their restitution under those conditions For the Pope demanded their universal restitution throughout the whole Kingdom but the King offered it in certain places appointed to a certain number and in the Territories subject to the Court of Paris were only two places assigned them From that time two years passed without any mention of the business whereat the King who desired to gratifie the Pope in it was troubled at length the King's Ambassador being instant with the Pope he answered that the articles proposed by the King seemed to him to be such as the Jesuites ought to be contented with them but that hitherto he had deferred his answer because the General of the Society Aquanina shewed himself not at all satisfied with them nor would subscribe to them c. that the business therefore
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 Gondi Coun. of
almost in the same words Thence Navar and Conde go to the King and complain of the indignity of the fact and since they and theirs could not be secure at Paris they desire leave to depart Upon this the King aggravating the matter to the highest and adding deeper oaths than before promised that he would take such revenge upon the Assasine the authors and abetters of this fact as should satisfy Coligny and his friends and should be an example to others for the future that what was done was as great a grief to him as to any but since what was done could not be undone he would take the greatest care that might be for a remedy and would make all men understand that Coligny had the wound but he had the smart and that they might be eye-witnesses of this thing he desires them that they would not depart out of Paris And he discoursing thus Queen Katharine who was then present seconded and saith The affront was offered to the King not to Coligny and if this villany should not be punished it would ere long come to that pass that they would even dare to set upon the King himself in his house therefore all means are to be used most sharply to revenge so great a villany These words being spoken with much heat and seeming indignation the minds of Navar and Conde were somewhat appeased who did not believe there was any dissimulation so that there was not a word more made of their departure out of the City Presently some were sent to pursue the Assasine though none as yet knew who he was All the gates of the City are shut up till search had been made except two by which provision was brought in and even they were kept by a guard appointed by the King In the mean while the maid and the boy that were taken in Villemur's house who was then from home were examined a part by Christopher Thuanus and Bernardus Prevotius Morsanus Presidents of the Court and James Viole a Senator and the maid confessed that a few daies since Villerius Challius a servant of the Guises brought a Souldier to that house and commended him to her as if he had been the Master of the house being a very near friend and familiar acquaintance of his and that therefore he made use as long as he was there of Villemur's Chamber and Bed but what his name was he did industriously conceal The boy who had served the Assasine but a few days said he was sent by his Master who dissembled his name and called himself sometimes Bolland sometimes Bondol the King's Archer in the morning to Challius to desire him from him that he would have the horses in readiness which he promised him From all which discoveries it was yet uncertain who was the Assasine but when as they both agreed in Challius it was given in charge to Gaspar Castraeus Naucaeus Captain of the King's Guard that he should seize him and bring him forth to examination Then Letters are written to the Governors of the Provinces by the King in which he detested the fact and commanded that they should make it their business that all might understand that it did highly grieve him and that ere long there should be given a most severe example of so great a crime In the mean while d'Anville Cossaeus and Villarius Marshals visiting Coligny about noon saluted him in most friendly manner and told him that that they did not come thither to exhort him to patience and fortitude For that say they these virtues are as it were natural to thee thou hast been wont to admonish others and therefore wilt not be wanting to thy self He answering with a smiling countenance said I speak truly and from my heart death doth nothing affright me I am ready most willingly to render to God that spirit which I have received from him whensoever he shall require it But I do greatly desire an opportunity to confer with the King before I depart this life for I have some things to acquaint him with which concern both him and the safety and honour of the Kingdom which I am well assured none of you dares carry to him Then d'Anville told him he would willingly acquaint the King with that his desire and having so said he with Villarius and Teligny daparted leaving Cossaeus there to whom Coligny said Do you remember what I said to you a few hours since be wise and take heed to your self What he meant by these words was not understood by all 12. But when the King knew by d'Anville and Teligny his desire he in shew seemed not unwilling to come to him about the afternoon There came together with him the Queen-Mother with the Brethren Anjou and Alanson Cardinal Borbon Monpensser Nevers Cossaeus and Tavanius Villarius Meruvius Thoreus Momorancies Brethren Marshals Naucaeus and Radesianus These being let in the rest are by the King's command shut out except Teligny and a Gentleman of the Family who stood at the Chamber-door here it is published in writing that some secrets were discovered to the King by Coligny but others deny it and say that the discovery of this secret was purposely hindered by the Queen lest the King whose nature she began to distrust being mollified and perswaded by the word of Coligny should change his resolution That which was openly heard was this when Coligny gave the King thanks the King with a sad and troubled countenance did earnestly enquire of his state and did protest that what had happened to him was a very great grief to him The wound is thine said he but the pain is mine But I swear then according to his manner he swore I will so severely revenge this injury that the memory of it shall never be blotted out of the minds of men To this Coligny answered God is my witness before whose tribunal I now seem ready to stand that I have been all my life long most loyal and faithful to your Majesty and I always and with all my heart desired that your Kingdom might be most flourishing and peaceable And yet I am not ignorant that there have been some who have called me Traytor and Rebel and a perturber of our Kingdom but I trust God will some time or other judg between me them before whom I am ready if it be his pleasure that I should at this time depart out of this life to give an account of my faith and observance towards you Moreover whereas I have been advanced by Henry your Father to many and great honours which your Majesty hath been pleased to confirm to me I cannot but according to that faith and love that I have for your affairs desire that you would not let slip so notable an opportunity of an happy enterprize especially now that the breach is already made and there are many tokens and pledges of your mind as to the Belgick Expedition so as if the matter now begun be relinquished it will be
it begged Pardon for his contrary asseveration which he sought to elevate by a forced Interpretation or Equivocation And professing that he would speak the truth ingenuously He answered that he had hitherto so constantly denyed it because he knew that no man living but one he meant Greenwell could accuse him as guilty of the late Fact But now that he saw himself encompassed with such a cloud of witnesses he would no longer dissemble but did confess that above V moneths agone he was acquainted by Greenwell with the whole matter That before that Catesby had in general told him that the Catholicks in England were attempting some great thing as to Religion and asked whether if good men should be involved in the danger this were to be made matter of Conscience But that he who had a contrary command from the Pope that he should not engage in any Conspiracy refused to hear any further of it That he did pour out Prayers for the good success of the great cause and amongst other things used the Hymn that was commonly Sung in the Church but intended nothing else when he did so but only prayed God that in the next Parliament no grievous Lawes might be made against the Recusants so they are called in England who keeping within their own houses have their liberty and refuse to Joyne in worship with the Protestants Garnot being twenty times Examined 12 Feb. and 26 Mar. between the Eids of Febr. and the VII of the Calends of April two dayes after he is arraigned at the Publick Tribunal in London * The reason whereof the Earl of Salisbury declared at his Tryal See the Proceedings Y Guild Hall Here the Crimes are layed to the charge of the Prisoner by Sir John Crook which are afterwards enlarged on in a long Speech by Sir Edward Cook the Kings Attorney General Then after Garnet had said something for himself and especially something concerning Equivocation he was Examined by Cecil and others that sate as Judges in that case And lastly the Earl of Northampton made a long and elaborate discourse against him in which he largely handled the Authority which the Popes arrogate to themselves of deposing Princes and discussed that Chapter of Nos sanctorum the ground as he said of this and such like Conspiracies At length Sentence is passed by the Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench that Garnet should be Drawn Hanged and Quartered His Plea for himself was only this that although he did a long time before know of the Conspiracy by common fame and Rumours for Greenwell only informed him of all the particulars but under the Seal of Confession by the Laws of which he was forbidden to discover it to any man living yet that he did admonish Greenwell to desist from the Fact which he did very much disapprove of and to hinder others engaged in Conscience or privity in it Here Cecill severely reproved him For said he if he did disapprove of the Fact why did he afford Greenwell the benefit of Absolution before he had by his penitence given testimony that he did truly and from his heart detest the Fact Furthermore when as he understood the matter from Catesby where there was no Seal of Confession this was sufficient to have made a discovery of the Plot if he had so highly abhorred it as he did pretend But there were other things that lay heavy upon his charge and these chiefly which were amongst his Confessions written with his own hand and sent to the King viz. That Greenwell did acquaint him with this not as with a sin he had to confess but as an Act which he well enough understood and in which he required his advice and counsel That Catesby and Greenwell came to him to require his advice upon the matter and that the whole business might be resolved among them That Tesmund for so he was now called who e're while was Greenwell and he did not long agone consult together in Essex of the Particulars of this Conspiracy Lastly when Greenwell asked who should be Protector of the Kingdom Garnet answered that that answer ought to be deferred till they saw how things should go When these things were brought to his remembrance and did make it appear that he knew of the Conspiracy otherwise then by the way of Confession all that he answered was that whatsoever he had signed with his own hand was true Being brought to Execution the Third of May being Inventio crucis Holy rood day he said he came thither that day to find an end at length of all the crosses that he had born in this life that none were ignorant of the cause of his punishmentâ— that he had sinned against the King in concealing it that he was sorry for it and humbly begged the Kings Pardon that the Plot against the King and Kingdom was bloody and which if it had taken effect he should have detested with all his heart and that so horrid and inhumane a Fact should be attempted by Catholicks was that that grieved him more then his death Then he added many things in defence of Anne Vaux who was held in Prison and lay under great suspition upon his account Being accused that he had while Q. Eliz. was alive received certain Breves from Rome v. Proceedings Q 3. in which he and the Peers inclined to Popery were admonished that when that miserable Woman should happen to die they should admit of no Prince how nearly soever related in blood but such as should not only tolerate the Catholick Faith but by all means promote it he said he had burnt them the King being received for King And when he was again Examined upon the same things he referred Henry Montacute who asked him about it The Recorder of London to his Confessions subscribed by him Being taxed for sending Edmund Bainham to Rome not to return to the City before the Plot should take effect This he thus excused as if he had not sent him upon that account but that he might inform the Pope of the calamitous state of England and consult with him what course the Catholicks should take and therefore referred them again to his Confessions Then he kneeled down upon the Stage to his Prayers and looking about hither and thither did seem to be distressed for the loss of his life and to hope a Pardon would be brought him from the most merciful Prince Montacute admonished him that he should no longer think of life but if he knew of any Treachery against the King or Kingdom that he should as a dying man presently discover it for that it was now no time to Equivocate At which words Garnet being somewhat moved made answer that he knew the time did not admit of Equivocation that how far and when it is lawful to Equivocate he had otherwhere delivered his opinion that now he did not equivocate and that he knew nothing but what he had confessed Then he excused himself that
that the Bull doth always Oblige Elizabeth and the Hereticks but not the Catholicks rebus sic stantibus but only then when they should be able publickly to put it in execution And that it might in due time be effectually Executed Missions are made into England to Prepare a Party to adhere to the Spaniard at his coming to invade us Bacon Observ Collect. Consid And the better to conceal and disguise the Practice and make the Queen and her Councel the more secure it is Resolved not to have any Head of the party here But the Emissaries coming dayly over in various Disguised Habits deal particularly Camd. sine Ann. 1580. and so more effectually with the people in their secret Confessions Absolving them particularly in private from Obedience and Fidelity to the Queen Camd. p. 315.348 as the Bull of Pius v. had done in publick but only in general and severally Engaging them in that secret manner as hath been before mentioned so as none could be privy to others engagements And these Doctrines were every where inculcated Camb. fin An. 1581. Thu. l. 74. That Princes not professing the Roman Religion are fallen from their Title and Royal Authority 2. That Princes Excommunicate are not to be Obeyed but thrown out of their Kingdoms and that it is a meritorious work to do it 3. That the Clergy are exempt from the Jurisdiction of Secular Princes and are not bound by their Laws 4. That the Pope of Rome hath the Chief and Full Power and Authority over All throughout the whole world even in Civil matters 5. That the Magistrates of England are not Lawful Magistrates and therefore not to be accounted Magistrates at all 6. That what ever since the Bull of Pius v. was published which some hold to have been dictated by the Holy Ghost hath by the Queens Authority been acted in England is by the Law of God and Man to be reputed altogether void and null These Doctrines thus secretly instilled into mens minds in private were seconded with several pernitious Books in print against the Queen and Princes Excommonicate And as well to deter the rest from Obedience and move them to Expectation of Change and Reconciliation to the Church of Rome as to encourage their own party Camd. an 1580 l. 318. they not only by Rumours but also by printed Books gave out that the Pope and King of Spain had conspired to subdue England and take it for a prey Gollect of the Churches This is true says Sir Fr. Bacon and witnessed by the Confessions of many that almost all the Priests which were sent into this Kingdom from that year 1581. to the year 1588. at what time the Design of the Pope and Spain was put in Execution had in their Instructions besides other parts of their Function to distil and insinuate into the People these Particulars It was impossible things should continue at this stay They should see ere long a great change in this State That the Pope and Catholick Princes were careful for the English if they would not be wanting to themselves Which are almost the very words of Sanders mentioning the considerations upon which these Seminaries were at first founded But notwithstanding this Camd. an 81. Thu. lib 74. Bac. Collect. we are not to think that All the Priests which were sent over were acquainted with the Arcana and Secrets of the Disign but only the Superiours and some of the best qualified for the business who managed and steered the actions of the rest according to their private Instructions 30. Hereupon says Rishton who published and inlarged Sanders his book speaking of these Missions soon after ensued a great change of minds and wonderful encrease of Religion Which that we may know it by its Fruits presently appeared in several desperate attempts and Resolutions to Kill the Queen First by Somervil who being taken and condemned with Hall a Priest and others whom he confessed was three days after found strangled in the prison for fear probably least he should have discovered others Then to pass by the practise of Bern. Mendoza the Spanish Ambassadour Lieger here with Throgmorton and Martins book by William Parry Doctor of Law encouraged thereunto by Ben. Palmius a Jesuite Thn. lib. 79. Ragazonius the Popes Nuncio in France Cardinal Como and the Pope himself who sends him his Benediction Plenary Indulgence and Remission of all his Sins and assures him that besides his Merit which he shall have in Heaven his Holiness will remain his debtor to acknowledge his desert in the best manner he can and after all this very much excited to it by Dr. Allens Book which saith he teacheth that Princes Excommunicate for heresie are to be deprived of their Kingdoms and Lives All which Parry confessed produced the Letter from the Pope written by Cardinal Como and was executed in March 1584 and the Pope soon after in April was called to account in another world Immediately before this in Thuanus precedes the relation of the murther of the Prince of Aurang 10. Jul. by Bal. Gerard confirmed in his resolution by a Jesuite at Treves promising him if he dyed for it he should be happy and be put in the number of Martyrs and also encouraged to it by a Franciscan at Tourney and three other Jesuites at Treves 31. To Gregory succeeded as well in his practises as in that See Sixtus v. chosen Pope the twenty fourth of the same moneth of April and about this time John Savage into whose head the Doctrines that it is meritorious to Kill Excommunicated Princes and Martyrdom to die for so doing being by the Giffords and Hodgeson priests throughly inculcated made a vow to kill the Queen And soon after the same resolution is taken up by Antony Babington a proper young gentleman of a good family upon the same principles in like manner inculcated and somewhat enforced with other hopes if he escaped the danger by Ballard a Jesuite who incited him to it as not only Just and Holy in it self but moreover Honourable and Profitable to him if he should overcome the difficulty For what could be more Just and Holy than with the hazard of his Life to vindicate his Countrey and the Cause of Religion without which Life it self ought to be nothing esteemed of Elizabeth was now long since by the Lawful Successor of Peter cast out of the Communion of the Church from that time she doth not reign in England but by a usurped Power contrary to the Laws exercise a cruel Tyranny against the true Worshippers of God Whoever should kill her doth no more than he that should slay a profane Heathen or some damned accursed creature he should be free from all sin either against God or Man yea would merit a Crown of Glory and if he survived the enterprise should doubtless obtain a great reward under the notion of Reward not obscurely insinuating his marriage with the Queen of Scots Thus
is this Jesuites discourse with him represented by the Excellent Thuanus who there informs us that this business was transacted with the Spanish Ambassadour Mendoza and was to have been seconded by a forrein Army and Paget a gentleman of a Noble family sent into Spain about it And at last all things being agreed on both at home and abroad the day appointed for the perpetrating the business is S. Bartholomews day memorable for the Parisian Massacre fourteen years since and for that reason purposely made choice of But before the day came the business being detected Ballard and Babington and several other of the Conspirators were apprehended whereof some had sworn to be the Executioners of the Queens murther and among them Savage now again swore it and others were to be of the party which the while was to rescue the Queen of Scots and upon their own Confessions and Letters intercepted were Convicted Condemned and Executed And in this Conspiracy was a project of making an Association under pretense of fear of the Puritans These were executed but the twentieth of September and in January following was the French Ambassadour l' Aubaspinaeus a man wholly devoted to the Guisian Faction and Lieger here projecting the same business Camb. an 1.87 and to that purpose treated with William Stafford a Gentleman of a Noble Family to kill the Queen at first more covertly but afterward more openly by his Secretary who promised him great Honours a huge summ of Money great Favour with the Pope the Duke of Guise and all the Catholicks Stafford refused it himself but commended to him one Moody and in Consultation how to do it Moody proposes to lay a bag of Gunpowder under the Queens Bed-chamber and secretly give fire to it But this being discovered by Stafford the Secretary thinking to be gone into France was intercepted and upon his examination confessed the whole matter 32. Hitherto had the Actors and Abettors of most of these Conspiracies to put the better Colour upon their unjustifiable attempts besides the Cause of Religion pretended also the Title of the Queen of Scots to the Crown of England Camb. an 1586 who having been discovered to be privy to most of the former and found guilty of that of Babington was therefore condemned and now this being found to have been designed upon the same pretense Queen Elizabeth by great importunity of the Parliament who had confirmed the Sentence was prevailed with to sign a Warrant for the Execution whereupon she was beheaded the eighth of February following And here we must not omit a Notable Artifice of the Jesuites who being at last out of hope of Restoring their Religion by Her or Her Son Camb. an 86 began to set up a feigned Title for the King of Spain and imployed one of their Society into England as is discovered by Pasquier a French Writer to draw off the Gentry from Her to the Spaniard and to thrust her headlong into those dangerous Counsels which brought Her to Her end and at the same time least the Guises her kindred should give her any assistance stirring Them up to new enterprises against the King of Navarre and Conde And agreeable hereunto was the discovery of that for which she was condemned viz. by Gilbert Gifford a Priest then sent over into England to immind Savage of his Vow and to be the Letter-carrier between the Queen of Scots and the Confederates who presently goes and offers his Service to the Secretary Walsingham to discover them and that forsooth out of Love to his Prince and Countrey although he had not long before been one of those who provoked Savage to his vow to kill her and accordingly he first conveyes them to Walsingham by whom they are opened transcribed and carefully sealed up again and returned to Gifford who then conveys them to the Queen of Scots Babington or who ever else they are directed to which is so plain a prosecution of the same design that it is a wonder that Camden should be so much at a loss to find out the mystery of this undertaking of the Priest More might be observed to manifest this Juggle if it were necessary to the present business 33. The Design of the Pope and Spaniard to Invade England had been now long since perceived here not so much by printed books which were designed only to work upon the vulgar and their own party as by the secret Letters of Morton and others which were intercepted and Chringhtow the Scotch Jesuit's papers miraculously as himself acknowledged when by him torn and thrown into the Sea blown back into the Ship wherein he was taken But now their preparations being in good forwardness as well for the assault from abroad by their Navy and Army as for their reception and admission here by their party prepared by their Agents the Emissaries the better to disguise the business and to make the Queen and her Counsel the more secure Camb. an 1586 they not only publish a Book wherein the Papists in England are admonished not to attempt any thing against their Prince but to fight only with the weapons of Christians Tears Spiritual Arguments Sedulous Prayers Watchings Fasting Thu. lib. 89. Canrd an 1588 but also a Treaty of Peace is earnestly sollicited by the Duke of Parma with Authority from the King of Spain which though not soon yielded to by the Queen who suspected some fraud or deceitful design in it yet being at last obtained is kept on foot till the engagement of both fleets break it off in the famous year of 88. At which time all the preparations being fully compleated for execution the Pope who had before promised the assistance of his Treasure begins first to thunder out his Bull Which with a book written by Doctor Allen is printed at Antwerp in English in great numbers to be sent over into England in which book for the greater terrour of the people are particularly related their vast preparations which were so great that the Spaniards themselves being in admiration of them named it the Invincible Armado and the Nobility Gentry and people of England and Ireland are exhorted to joyn themselves with the Spanish Forces under the conduct of the Dake of Parma for the Execution of the Popes Sentence against Elizabeth With this Bull is Dr. Allen being extraordinarily †Thu. l. 100. out of the time allowed by the Canons even of this Pope made Cardinal of purpose for this exploit sent into Flanders to be ready * Thu. l. 89. upon the Spaniards Landing Some such Officer we may suppose was intrusted with the three Breves which were in like manner seur to be in readiness to be sent over and published in the Popes name in three principal places of this Kingdom as soon as the Powder-plot was discharged and had done its execution as Bishop Andrews reports from the Spontaneous confession of a Jesuit at the time of his writing who was then
here in prison Respons ad Apol. Bellarm. cap. 5. pag. 113. to pass over into England as the Popes Legate cum plena potestate and here to publish the Bull In which Bull the Pope by the power which he saith is from God by the Lawful succession of the Catholick Church deseended to him over All persons for several causes there in specified and more fully expressed in the Bulls of Pius v. and Gregory XIII doth again proscribe the Queen Takes away all her Royal Dignity Titles and Rights to the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Declaring her Illegitimate and a Usurper of those Kingdoms Absolving her Subjects from their Oath of Faith and Obedience to her Threatens All of what condition soever under danger of the wrath of God not to assist her in any wise after notice of this Mandate but to imploy all their power to bring her to Condigne punishment Commands All Inhabitants of those Kingdoms diligently to execute these Mandates and as soon as they have certain notice of the Spaniards coming to joyn all their forces with them and in all things be obedient to Parma the King of Spain's General and lastly Proposing Ample Reward to those who shall lay hands upon the proscribed Woman and deliver her to the Catholick party to be punished in conclusion out of the Treasury of the Church committed to his Trust and Dispensation he draws out his treasure and Grants a Full Pardon of All their Sins to All those who should engage in this expedition This Thuanus relates more at large and presently adds It was agreed in secret that King Philip should hold the Kingdom when reduced to the Obedience of the Church of the Pope in Fee as of the Holy See according to the Articles of the contract by Ina Henry 2. and King John made and renewed with the Title of Defender of the Faith And to reduce it to this Obedience these were the forrein Preparations which were made according to Thuanus his Account A Navy of 150. * Of vast burden says Cicarella besides an infinite number of small ships In vita Sixti v. Ships extraordinarily well furnished and in it of Mariners and Seamen 8000. Gally-slaves a great number 2080. says Camden of Souldiers 20000. besides Gentlemen and Voluntiers for scarce was there any family of note in Spain which had not son or brother or cousin in that fleet Brass Guns 1600. Iron Guns 1050. Of Powder Bullet Lead Match Muskets Pikes Spears and such like weapons with other instruments and engines great abundance as also of Horses and Mules and Provisions for six moneths And that nothing might be wanting as to matters of Religion they brought along with them the Vicar General of the Sacred Office as they call it that is the Inquisition and with him of Capucines Jesuites and Mendicants above 100. And besides all these were prepared in Flanders and those parts by the Duke of Parma of Flat-bottomed Boats for transportation of men and Horse and other necessaries 288. of Vessels for Bridges fitted with all things necessary 800. and of Armed men 20900. 50000 Veterane Souldiers says Sir Fr. Bacon But all these preparations and forces were not greater than was the Spaniards expectation and confidence of an assured Victory and Absolute Conquest of this Kingdom and that not only in respect of the strength and greatness of their Forces though so great that in admiration of this Navy they named it as hath been said The Invincible Armado and so was it called in a Spanish ostentation throughout Europe and hath indeed been thought the greatest Navy that till that time ever swam upon the Sea though not for number yet for Bulk and Building of the Ships with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions But that which very much heightened their Confidence was the supposed Goodness of their Cause and presumption of the Divine assistance accordingly favouring them in it and thereby signally ratifying the Sentence of Christs Vicar this being assigned as an Apostolical Mission against the Incorrigible and Excommunicate Hereticks to reduce them to the Obedience of the Catholick Church of Rome and to execute his Holines's Sentence of Excommunication against that accursed Anathematized woman though this that we may note it by the way was properly and anciently reputed the Office only of Satan and his Angels and Ministers and never taken out of their hands till Pope Gregory VII after above a thousand years exercise of it by the Plenitude of his Power took upon him to dispose as it seems of the Kingdom of Darkness as well as of the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth But the Judgement of Heaven was contrary to their expectations and as the Scripture tells us The Curse Causeless shall not come so it pleased God to turn their curse into a Blessing For with this Monstrous Navy though the Spaniards perswaded themselves that the English terrified with the sight of it would not dare to assail it but only sailing at a distance observe their Course and the while give Parma an opportunity without difficulty Thu. p. 253. to waft over his Forces and pour them in upon London yet did the English though through the abuse of that fraudulent Treaty and some reports of the Spaniards not coming out that year at the instant purposely cast abroad not altogether ready and prepared couragiously engage and in few days having taken and sent home two of their great ships so distressed this Great Navy that they were forced to fly and having chased them toward the North until for want of Powder they were forced to give them over returned home with the loss not of an hundred men and but of one Ship while these Executioners of the Popes Anathema according to the Curse in the Scriptures Camd. p. 533. came out against us one way and fled before us seven ways being driven about all Britain by Scotland the Orcades Ireland grievously afflicted with Tempests Shipwracks and all kind of Miseries and very much curtailed Thu. p. 255. and at last Resolving in Councel that for as much as the Heavens and the Sea being their Enemies their condition was now such as by no Humane Strength Virtue or Counsel could be restored every one should return into Spain which way he could and all meet at a place appointed they accordingly held their Course for Spain and many by Tempests and other misfortunes being lost by the way the rest returned with Ignominy and Disgrace having lost as the Spaniards write saith Thuanus 32. Ships 10000. Men and 1000. more carried Captive into England but as the English and Dutch write above 80. Ships and as some of their own say the greatest part of that so Glorious Fleet which had been the preparations of five whole years at the least Cicarti in vita Sixti v. says Bacon through Spain Italy Sicily Flanders their most expert Commanders and Veteran Souldiers Camd. pag. 513. 516. being sent for even out of America
when the Senate interceded against the promulgation of the Edict a mandate was sent out to them to promulgate it without further delay which being again and again reiterated they at last obeyed The Guises the Constable and others of their party in the mean time leaving the Court contrive to hinder the Execution of it and oppose the Hugonot Faction as they call it not doubting but having by the Arts aforesaid gotten Navarre to their party to obtain their desires And first they endeavour to insinuate into the Lutheran Princes of Germany and if possible to engage them against the Protestants of France who in a point or two wherein Luther and Calvin differed incline rather to Calvins opinion or at least to render them more slack in affording them their assistance Then after a three days secret consultation with the Duke of Witenberg to this purpose at Zabern to which they had invited him and an out ragious violence committed in the way by the Duke of Guise his company upon an Assembly of the Protestants at Vassy met to hear a Sermon whereof sixty men and women were by them slain and above two hundred more wounded the Duke with a great retinue speedily repairs to Paris in an insolent manner without any respect to the King by the way and contrary to the Queens express will and pleasure and not contented to go the nearer way by S. Martins he goes about with his attendants being accompanied by the Constable the Duke of Aumale his brother and the Mareshal of S. Andre and enters by S. Denis gate by which the Kings of France in Royal State are used to make their entrance to that Metropolis of the Kingdom being met by divers of the Magistrates of the City with the acclamations of the Rabble in such sort as is used by the people to their Kings Hereupon the Queen after divers other insolencies of this party fearing that under pretext of asserting the Catholick Religion they would usurp the Supreme Power of the Kingdom and get into their hands the King her self and other Children She commends all Dav. l. 3. Thu. l. 29. and the whole Kingdom to the Care of the Prince of Conde the next Prince of the blood and earnestly and frequently importunes his assistance to stop the proceeding of the Confederates But they who upon longer Consultation had made sufficient preparation for what they intended easily prevented him and having exasperated the people with feigned rumours from all the Provinces of the Kingdom of pretended injuries done to the Catholicks by the Protestants an Artifice wherein the Cardinal of Lorain's greatest skill consisted the Duke draws out a party and at Fountain-bleau seiseth upon the King whom with the Queen and Her other Children they carry by force to Paris the King weeping to see himself his mother and brothers carried as it were into Captivity The Queen the same day they were seised renued her importunity to Conde desiring him not to abate his courage or neglect his care for the preservation of the Crown or suffer their enemies to arrogate to themselves the absolute Power in the Government The Confederates on the other side being come to Paris with the young King and the Queen having in the morning by a party led by the Constable fired one of the places without the Gates where the Protestants assembled to Prayers and Sermons and in the afternoon another whereby also the neighbour buildings were consumed and permitted licence to the Rabble to abuse and injure those they suspected for their Religion held frequent Consultations how best to Order their affairs for their own advantage In which Counsels the Duke of Guise openly declared that he thought it most expedient to proceed to a War with the Hugonots so to extinguish the fire before it burst out into a consuming flame and to take away the root of that growing evil Thus was the first Civil War begun the Confederates pretending the Authority of the King and Queen Regent whom they had by force gotten into their power and the Prince alledging the express Authority of the Regent and that the Orders sent out in the Kings Name against him were by the Confederates obtained by force and dures This I have related the more largely because hitherto the Protestants had been onely passive that since now they had engaged in Action as many of them did in this service of the Prince it may the better appear upon what grounds they did Act which was not upon pretense of Religion though no doubt that was a great motive to them but for defence of the Laws and for the Liberty of their Prince and Lawful Governour and against those who did aspire not to the Regency onely but to the Crown and Kingdom it self by a long train of policies and violent Cruelties But this War was rather sharp than long which besides the slaughter of eight thousand men in one battel at Dreux besides great bloodshed and mischief in many other places was in short time the destruction of two of the principal Authors of it Navarre and * He was shot returning from the Camp to his Quarters by Poltret who being taken upon his examination said he was imployed by Colinius and exhorted to it by Beza but being brought to the rack he utterly denyed it and concerning Beza persevered in his denyal to the last but concerning Colinius being brought to execution and with the terrour of his approaching execution being besides himself he one while affirmed and another while denyed it Colinius and Beza calling God to witness utterly denyed it and Colinius wrote to the Queen that before his execution the business might be further examined but he was in few days after executed Thuanus lib. 34. But was it really so Who employed and exhorted Parry not against a Commander of an Army but against his Prince who Lopez who so many more against Queen Elizabeth who James Clement to murther Henry the third of France who Jo. Chastel to murther Henry the fourth To mention no more Guise being both slain and the Constable the only surviving Triumvir being taken Prisoner thereupon an Accomodation followed without difficulty upon these Conditions among others That all free Lords not holding of any but the Crown might within their Jurisdictions freely exercise the Reformed Religion that the other Feudataries might do the same in their own houses for their own families provided they lived not in †So Davila but Thuanus lib. 35. modo ne in pagis aut municipiis habitent quae majori jurisdictioni regia excepta subsunt any City or Town where the Courts resided That in every Province certain Cities should be appointed in the Fauxburg whereof the Protestants might Assemble at their Devotion That in all other Cities and Towns every one should live free in his Conscience without trouble or molestation That all should have full Pardon for all Delinquences committed during or by occasion of the War declaring all to
Constable Momorancy in his time an active persecutor of the Protestants the Viscount de Turenne and others whom the Queen favouring the contrary faction of the Guises continually by divers calumnies incensing and exasperating the King against them and by other stratagems which they discovered drove into despair of safety by any other means which no doubt was not a little increased by the experience which they had seen of her perfidiousness and cruelty in the case of the Protestants all men being suspitious of those whom they have observed false and perfidious to others And to these Alancon the King's younger Brother upon the same occasions besides some other causes of discontent joyned himself as head Besides those of the Nobility there were two other subsidiary Factions in the Court. Thu. l. 59. pr. The one of those who desirous by any means to retain the Religion of their Ancestors and careless for any amendment or reformation of it did easily suffer themselves in favour of them who took up Arms under pretence of defending it to be drawn in either by fraudulent interpretations to elude or plainly and altogether to violate the Faith given to the Protestants The other of those who would not depart from the religion of their ancestors but yet desired many things in it in tract of time through covetousness and gross ignorance brought in to the dishonour of God and offence of many to be corrected and therefore being more favourable to the Protestants held that things ought to be transacted in a friendly manner with them that the Faith publickly given them should be faithfully kept and that by any means peace without which the business of reformation could not proceed should be setled The first favoured the Guises who sought all occasions of War the latter the Momorances who perswaded Peace Of this last opinion were those famous men Michael Hospitalius Chancellor of France Paulus Foxius Many others were of the same mind as Jo. Monlue Bishop of Valence and Car. Marillac Arch-Bishop of Vienna Thu. l. 25. Christophorus Thuanus Christophorus Menilius though they never engaged in Arms on either side And this was the party which were called Politicks a name saith our Author by the seditious attributed to them who were studious for the good of the King and peace of the Kingdom li. 52. and male contents But that faction which desired stirs alwaies prevailing in the Court hence it came to pass that so many Edicts of Pacification were made one upon another and as often violated the War being so often renewed and with the same levity where-with it was begun laid down again Whereof the King by this time became sensible Thu. l. 57. and observed but when it was too late that that unhappy massacre had contrary to what was expected dissolved the bonds of peace and publick security And therefore with indignation perceiving that the Counsellors of it had more respect to the satisfaction of their own private hatred and ambition than to the publick Faith and quiet of the Kingdom without which he could never keep up his Royal Majesty being not a little incensed against them he resolved from that time to remove them from the Council and to send away from him his mother her self under a more honourable colour of visiting her son Anjou in Poland whom he had newly almost by force thrust out of France having to be rid of him procured him to be chosen King there And believing that the Civil Wars in France were raised not so much for the cause of Religion as through the factions of that Kingdom that the chief leaders of them were the Guises and the Momorances he resolved without any regard of the Law or the justice of either cause to destroy both these potent Families being no less exasperated against Guise than Momorancy and therefore had often thoughts of taking him out of the way But in the midst of these troubles without in his Kingdom and others within in his mind and body after very grievous and long pains so that long before his death he felt himself dying he ended his life every way miserable by that sickness which few thought natural Pauci naturalem ei rebantur memores quae summus dissimulandi artifex prae impatientia interminatus matri frotri esset neque ignari quam non sponte nonus Rex Galliam relinqueret p. 441. in octav and again p. 493. Mortut corpus a Chirurgis medicis apertum in quo livores ex causa incognita reperti conceptam multorum opinionem auxerunt potius quam minuerunt l. 57. but rather procured by his own Mother and Brother Anjou as our Author doth sufficiently intimate and was further remarkable by the effusion of his own bloud who had so perfidiously and barbarously shed the bloud of so many of his subjects Davila saith he began some months before to spit bloud others that he died of a Bloudy-flux and that much bloud issued out of all the passages of his body and that he happened to fall down and wallowed in his own bloud And whereas Davila says that he ended his life with grave and pious discourses others say that he ended it with imprecations and cursings and that his last words were meer blasphemies Whereof which is most credible the reader considering his natural temper life and actions may easily judge He died under five and twenty years of age without issue male to succeed him leaving only a daughter by his Queen with whom he had been above four years married and a bastard-son And these were the fruits which he reaped of his bloudy and persidious counsels and practices 51. Nor did his next Brother Anjou called Henr. 3. reap any better fruits of his counsels and actions in the massacre and other enterprizes against the Protestants who in great haste Thu. l. 58. upon notice of his Brother's death shamefully stealing from his Kingdom of Poland in his return to France was well admonished by the Emperor Maximilian that at the beginning of his Reign and first entrance into France he should settle peace among his subjects and the same counsel was often repeated to him by the Duke of Venice in the name of the Senate Yet he was no sooner arrived in France but by the counsel of his Mother and the Guisian and Italian faction the same Cabal which contrived the massacre he resolved the contrary till finding it a work too hard by open force to destroy the remaining part of the Protestants being moreover strengthened by the association of the Politicks with them there was at last a Peace concluded upon such terms as Thu. l. 62. Davila l. 6. had they been granted in sincerity and justly performed might have produced much happiness to that Kingdom For besides what related to the particular concerns of Alancon D'Anvil and others of the Politicks and male-contents to the Protestants was granted full liberty of Conscience and free exercise of their Religion
the Massacre had been held This we may not without reason look upon as the just judgment of God upon him for his wicked dealings in that barbarous Massacre Again when we see his Popish Subjects every where break faith with him and all bonds and oaths of Obedience and Fidelity to him and teach and hold it to be their duty so to do when we see them through whose importunity he had violated the publick faith given to the Protestants to rage and storm and furiously exclaim upon his breach of faith with themselves when we see him brought to need and desire the assistance of the King of Navar and his Protestants with whom he had broken faith against those for whom to comply with their perfidious and rebellious humours he did it and by them notwithstanding thus brought to his end and murthered with whom he had so basely complied in that perfidious dealing this we may likewise with great reason look upon as a just judgment of God upon him for that his perfidious dealing with the Protestants And certainly if all the circumstances of the History from that barbarous Massacre of the Protestants at Merindol and Cabriers under Francis 2. to the death of this his Grand-son Henr. 3. the last of his race for almost 50 years be duly considered it will be hard to find in any History a more eminent example of Divine Vengeance prosecuting a Family to the utter extirpation of it than this an example wherein the judgment of God is more conspicuous and remarkable or the causes of that judgment more manifest and apparent wherein the sin and the punishment do more exactly agree or of a more remarkable distinguishing providence if with this the hapy reign and actions of their neighbour Prince Queen Elizabeth be impartially compared This was a judgment not upon one person alone nor upon a Family so as to involve all in one sudden destruction as is sometimes seen but a continued prosecution of vengeance against a whole Family for three generations without intermission V. Sect. 39. the Grand-father Fran. 1. not long enjoying himself or his life after he had authorized that fatal persecution His Son Henr. 2. having time to repent and reform and admonished so to do by his dying Father but persevering in his Fathers sin cut off by a violent death in the height and heat of his persecutions against the Protestants and upon his consummation of an agreement for a War against them His four Sons all living to be men but not to half the age of men three of them coming successively to the Crown but so as rather only to wear the Crown than by a just and peaceable exercise of their authority to sway the Scepter being at first over-ruled by the deceitful and pernicious counsels of their Mother and her Italians and the violent courses of the Guisian Faction to destroy their subjects and at last necessitated by the bold attempts of the Guisians and fury of the Leaguers to fight for Crown Liberty and Life against them whereby they and their Kingdom were continually embroiled in Civil Wars and miserable confusions each of them succeeding other as in their access to the Crown so in their unhappy reign if they might be said to reign while so obnoxious to the wills of others and continually imbroiled in such confusions and exit and catastophre of it the first Francis 2. cut off by a death remarkable though not for the kind yet for the time and season of it both in respect of his years and of those who were preserved by it V. Sect. 40. p. 63 64. the next Charles 9. living some years longer and thereby more capable by his own personal management of the affairs of the Kingdom to derive the guilt of his Ancestors miscarriages upon himself and increase it by his own which accordingly he did in no mean degree being likewise cut off by a death every way remarkable in respect both of the time and all other circumstances and lastly the third Brother Hen. 3. coming likewise to that unhappy end which hath been but now related all of them with their Brother Alancon dying without issue to succeed them Nor did this fate attend only the succession but light also upon those who were incapable to succeed in the Government their bastard Brother Angolesme who had been a forward actor in the Massacre being also as hath been said cut off by a violent death and of their Sisters Elizabeth the eldest * V. Sect. 39. p. 60. married to Phil. 2. of Spain a Marriage concluded with an agreement between him and her Father of a War against the Protestants but solemnized with the otherwise untimely death of her Father and by Philip her Husband first employed in the * V. Sect. 42. p. 74. Consultation at Bayonne and at last brought to that †V. Sect. 44. unhappy end when great with child and in the 23 th year of her age which hath been mentioned before and is more fully related in the late French History of Dom Carlos and Margaret the youngest first forced by her Mother and Brother Charles to a Marriage with the King of Navar that unhappy Marriage which was made the introduction to the Massacre afterwards for her * V. Busbeq ep Aug. 27. 1583. Da. p. 599. Thu. l. 80. lewdness and incontinency reproachfully turned from the Court by her next Brother Henr. 3. and at last divorced from her Husband when King of France without issue by him unless she had any by any other which was kept secret as her Brother objected to her If their other Sister Claud married to Charles Duke of Lorain was less unhappy in this respect she seems less to have merited the like misfortune for we meet with no mention of her in all the story of these confusions in France Thus were five Kings in a continued succession cut off besides three others of the same line the youngest son of Francis 1. in few months after the beginning of those persecutions at his age of 23. and the second and youngest of Hen. 2. who never came to the Crown and their whole line and posterity extirpated in France while they sought the extirpation of the Protestants there whereby the Crown at last notwithstanding all opposition and endeavours to hinder it descended to a Protestant Prince and all this by a constant course of Divine Vengeance upon that Family for about 44 years for so long it was from the execution of the Decree of the Parliament of Province Apr. 1545. and the death of the King 's youngest son Sept. 8. following to the murder of Henr. 3. Aug. 1589. the very same space of time which Queen Elizabeth happily and prosperously reigned in England and most of it contemporary Wherein it is very plain and observable a triple difference between her and them viz. a different cause or end and aim of their actions a different manner of proceeding and a different success As
sacred Decrees and Oecumenical Councils as inferiour to them that he can decree nothing against the Kingdom or their Kings or contrary to the Decrees of the Court of Parliament or in prejudice of the Bishops within their limits and therefore to admit those new Sectaries would be to nourish so many enemies within the bowels of the Kingdom who if it should happen that the Popes in a fury should raise arms against us would denounce war against the King and Nation of France also in respect of their unreasonable and exorbitant priviledges contrary to the Common Law and of their ambitious Title their Practice for corrupting of youth and ruining of Families and lastly addressing himself more especially to the Senators he admonished them to beware that they did not when too late condemn their own credulity when they should see through their connivance that the publick tranquility not only in this Kingdom but through the Christian World should be endangered by the craft guiles superstition dissimulation impostures and evil arts of these men But the Senate whether through security or hatred of the Protestants whom these men were believed born to subdue determined to deliberate further on the business 5 Apr. 1565. in the mean timegranting them liberty publickly to open their Schools and instruct the youth And here we may take notice by the way who were the first and chief favourers and introducers of the Jesuites and thence further observe whose Scholars they were who were the chief actors in those troubles in France Apr. 1594. Thu. l. 110. But thus hung the cause till after the discovery of Barrieres conspiracy the University with unanimous consent nemine reclamante renewed their Suit and prayed Judgment by their supplication to the Parliament wherein they set out that the Estates in the Senate had long since complained of this new Sect that great confusions were then raised by them in the discipline of the Schools that from that time they have given occasion of greater troubles since the factious did openly addict themselves to the Spaniards party and have confounded not only the City but the whole Kingdom with horrid seditions that this was prudently foreseen from the beginning by the Colledge of Divines who by their Decree declared this new sect to have been introduced to the destruction of all Discipline as well Civil as Ecclesiastical and namely denying the obedience of the University as well to the Rector of it as moreover to the Arch-Bishops Bishops Curates and others the Prelates of the Church that notwithstanding those Jesuites made supplication to the Senate to be incorporated into the University and the cause being heard the Senate suspended the the Suit Salvo partium jure so that nothing in the interim should be innovated in the cause in prejudice of the Decree that yet the Jesuites have not only not at all obeyed the Decree of the Court but forgetting their sacerdotal profession have thrust themselves into publick businesses carried themselves as spies for the Spaniards and managed their concerns and therefore pray that since all these things are openly and publickly known the Senate will interpose their authority and by their Decree command that Sect to depart not only from the University of Paris but out of the Kingdom and exterminate them thence Hereupon after various delays by the Jesuites the cause came again to an hearing in the Parliament not openly but at the instance and through the importunity of the Jesuites and their friends the dores being shut And Ant. Arnald of Counsel for the University deploring the condition of France heretofore formidable but of late become despicable to all through sactions which factions have been caused by the Jesuites largely confirmed from experience of what had since been acted the truth of what was wisely foreseen and foretold so many years before That the Emperor Charles 5. when fortune favouring him he conceived hopes of obtaining and transferring to his Family a universal Monarchy and by his own sagacity and long experience found that many were tied up by scruples of conscience could not devise a more effectual means to work upon them than by introducing men of the Spanish design the Jesuites to the destruction of others under shew of Religion who in secret at confessions and openly also when occasion should be offered in their Sermons alienating the credulous and simple people from the obedience of their lawful Governors should insensibly draw them to his party That the principal Vow of these men is to be absolutely and in all things obedient to the General of their Order who for the most part is a Spaniard or subject of Spain as appears from the series of those who for these 50 years from the beginning of their Society have been their Generals for such were 1. Ignatius Loiola their founder 2. Jac. Lain 3. Enaristus 4. Fr. Borgia and 5. at present Cl. Aquanina that to their vow these horrible words are annexed in which they profess to acknowledge Christ as present in their General that their Sect whereas in Italy and France at the beginning it was generally opposed was with great applause approved in Spain they pray day and night for the safety and prosperity of the pious prudent vigilant Catholick King of Spain who opposeth himself a sa wall of defence for the house of God the Catholick Faith but for the most Christian King of France never and let the F. General say the word that the King of France should be killed the command of the Spaniard must ex voti necessitate be obeyed That though upon their petition at Rome for the Popes Confirmation an 1539. they were at first opposed yet at last obtained it this fourth vow being added to it that they should be ready to obey the Pope at a beck which is that which doth so much ingratiate them at Rome but ought to make them so much the more suspected in France And that their Counsels tend to the subversion of the Kingdom is hence manifest that when ever the Popes exceeding their authority have sent out their censures against the Kingdom of France there have not been wanting pious men who with the common suffrage of the Gallican Church have couragiously opposed such their rash attempts as he shews more at large from divers instances in the times of Carolus Calvus Ludovicus Pius Philippus Pulcher Carolus vi and Ludovicus xii but now in these late tumults it hath fallen out quite contrary the sacred Order being corrupted with the venom of this sect and taught that he who is once chosen Pope although of the Spanish Nation or Faction and a sworn enemy to the French may notwithstanding give up the whole Kingdom for a prey and absolve the French from their Faith and Obedience which they owe to their Prince That this is a schismatical and detestable opinion altogether contrary to the word of God who hath divided the spiritual power from the secular as far as Heaven is
from the Earth and as much repugnant to the safety and conservation of Kingdoms as it is certain that the true Christian Religion is necessary thereunto That these monsters have kindled these furies in the minds of the French and excited so many slaughters and horrid confusions every where Hence that publick assertion of Tanquerellus 33 years since V. supra sect 41. p. 66. that the Popes may declare the King's subjects free from their Oath of Fidelity Hence that resolution 5 years since by the greater number of the Colledge of Sorbon that is those who were new moulded in the shop of the Jesuites that Subjects may be absolved from their Obedience to their Prince V. sect 53. That this Vow instituted by the Castilians of Spain which with so strait a tye binds mens consciences to the perpetrating of any kind of enterprize and to the killing of Kings themselves by suborned emissaries hath dissolved and wholly abolished the glorious institutes of our Ancestors the Laws of the Realm and the liberties of the Gallican Church whereas we have received this Law from our Ancestors that the Oath of Fidelity whereby the Subjects of France are obliged to their Kings can by no censures of the Popes be dissolved which is so conjoyned with the safety and weal of the Kingdom that without certain ruine it cannot be severed from it that the Royal Power in that suffers no rival nor admits any equal Jurisdiction That these emissaries and assertors of this excessive power in the Pope crept in insensibly at first in small numbers into France but in short time filled the whole Kingdom and with secret frauds and seditious Sermons have stirred up the wars That the first Conspiracies more pernitious than the Bacchanals and that of Cataline were hatched in their Colledge at Paris that the Spanish Agents did often secretly convene there that there the Nobility at their secret Confessions were enjoyned for the expiation or satisfaction of their sins to engage for the League viz. by a special commutation of penance into an hereick act of virtue and those who refused were denied the benefit of absolution That by them was the sedition at Vesuna stirred up and the rebellions at Agen Tholouse c. and the Spanish Souldiers brought into Paris that by their counsel the Council of xvi emboldned by the forein Forces offered the Kingdom of France to the King of Spain and 13 daies after ensued that detestable butchery of the principal Senators That at their Schools at Lions and afterward at Paris was made the late Conspiracy for the murder of the King as is attested by the confessions of Barriere for among them they are held for real Martyrs who lay out their lives for the killing of Kings Hence F. Commotet the last Christmas taking for his text out of the book of Judges the example of Ehud who slew the King of Moab and fled away cried out We have need of another Ehud whether Monk or Souldier or Lacquey or Shepherd it matters not Hence the furious speeches of Bernard and Commotet calling the King Olofernes Moab Nero Herod and every where bawling in their Sermons that the Kingdom may be transferred by Election c. That among these counterfeit Priests it is a symbol of their profession One God one Pope and one King of the Christian World meaning the Catholick King to whom they design the universal Monarchy of the whole World stirring up every where wars and rebellions that thereby the vast body of that Empire may grow up and devour the lesser Princes That by them Philip King of Spain when he had long gaped after the Kingdom of Portugal and foresaw that so long as the King and Nobility continued in safety he could not obtain his desires perswaded the young King Sebastian having removed his intimate and faithful friends from him to sail into Affrica and rashly engage in fight upon great disadvantage contrary to the opinion of all his party wherein himself and almost all the flower of the Portugal Nobility perished Nor did they cease till they had also ruined Don Antonio and till the King of Spain * V. Harlaeum apud Thu. l. 132. not so much by his Arms as by their Arts had made himself Master of the Kingdom Nor ought it to impose upon the credulous that they are vulgarly reputed serviceable for the †V. Sim. Marion apud Thu. l. 119. instruction of youth whose manners they rather corrupt instilling evil principles into their tender minds which in that age make the greater impression upon them and under a shew of Piety teach them to embrue 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. Jul. 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
Martyr who had devoted himself for the liberty of the French every where resounding not only at the Churches but in the Markets Streets and at Feasts he was easily perswaded that he should do a thing pleasing and acceptable to God who should kill the cruel Tyrant who without any right tore in pieces that most Christian Kingdom with the loss of so many souls and therefore when Malavicinus did moreover furnish him with the authority of God and the Pope to that purpose he readily undertook it being put to the rack he made no othero nsession than he had done before At the same time was also executed one Nic. Anglus a Capuchin Frier of St. Michel in the Diocess of Thoul in Lorrain being convicted and condemned for the same crime The next year after Ridicone was first apprehended and while he was in prison Ledesma a Minister of the King of Spain Thu. l. 118. employed one Pet. Owen a Carthusian Frier who for his dissolute manners being censured in his Monastery had fled into Spain to suborn an emissary to murder the King Owen having treated with a Souldier in the King's Army about it to whom he had made great promises was himself the next year after apprehended and convicted both by witnesses and by his own confessions but was pardoned by the King in respect to the Carthusians being satisfied to have taken the evidence in a judicial manner whereupon he might when he pleased expostulate with the Spaniards But shortly after these things ensued the Peace with Spain at Vervins and not long after some hopes given of the restitution of the Jesuites which was at last granted as we have seen whereupon one might have thought that his enemies being all either subdued or reconciled having reconciled himself to the Church to the Pope to those of the League who remained unsubdued to the Spaniard and to the Jesuites that he should henceforward have enjoyed his Kingdom his new Religion which had brought all these blessings with it and his Misses too at least his life in safety But alas it may be feared he had forgotten to reconcile himself truly to his God which made the rest but male facta gratia quae ne quiequam coit rescinditur For when a mans ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him But while he was thus endeavouring to engage the Jesuites to himself the Spaniard on the other side spared neither pains Thu. l. 132. nor promises that by their emissaries they might allure to themselves the minds of those who through the late Civil Wars were alienated from him and under the specious colour of Religion might invite them to disturb the publick peace and quiet of the Kingdom laying hold on all occasions for that purpose and that they might discover his arcana secret counsels and from the knowledge of them the better order their own designs made it their main business to corrupt those who were employed by the principal Officers and Ministers of State Thus among others Nic. L'Oste whom the Secretary Villeroy employed in decysering letters being corrupted by them with an annual pension of 1200 Crowns l. 128. continually discovered all the secrets of the mto the Spanish Embassador They had before corrupted the Mareshal de Biron and some other persons of Quality which being discovered brought him to his end about two years since and now they not only again set upon the Count d'Auvergne L 132. 134. who had been convicted of Biron's conspiracy and pardoned but also the Seigneur d'Entragues and the Marquise de Vernevil his beautiful and witty daughter the King's Miss to corrupt them and that by no meaner or other agents than their Embassadors in France Jo. Taxis and his successor Batth Sunica who to introduce him at first made use of an English sugitive Th. Morgan an actor in the Conspiracies against his own Princess Queen Elizabeth L. 134. The next year this same Embassador Suniga first in person and afterwards to avoid suspition by his Secretary Brunellus treated and at last agreed with Lewis Merargues a Gentleman of Provence to betray Marseilles to the King of Spain which both Merargues and Brunellus confessed being apprehended in private conference in Merargues's Chamber and in Brunellus his hose under his garter was a paper found written in Spanish with his own hand which confirmed the same Vn memoire contenant le plan de son entreprise Perefix These things I the rather note because of use as well to confirm the truth of their like practices in England as to help to ground some conjecture on concerning the murder of this King 60. While the Spaniards are thus active to continue their old and make new friends in France it is not likely they would be unmindful of the Jesuites whom they had always found such ready instruments to serve them and in other Countries were still as well affected to the interest of Spain and the house of Austria V. l. 135.136 though contrary to that of their own Countrey as ever Nor is it to be thought that the Jesuites would be so easily drawn off from their old Friend and Patron by those little expressions of kindness not sufficient to compensate their injuries received and besides might be doubtful whether proceeding from any real affection to them or not especially considering their subjection to the same F. General by whom the motion of their society in other Countries under their several Provincials is in a correspondent uniformity steered only 't is probable as becomes wise men they would be cautious and wary how they did hazard the loss of what they had gotten and therefore act upon pretty sure grounds yet we meet with some influences of their affection to their old friend For to say nothing of F. Cotton a prime man of the Society and the King's Confessor his consulting a supposed Daemoniack concerning the * L. 132. King's life the same Father is reported to have †P. du Moulin Answ to Philanax Ch. 5. brought and recommended to the King a certain Spaniard of whom the King a while after received from Monsieur de la Force Vice-Roy of Bearne and Navar a description with an advertisement that such a day he went from Barcelona into France with intent to kill his Majesty and shewing his letter to Cotton commanded him to bring the man again but Cotton returning a good while after told him he was gone and could not be found and that not a year before the King was murdered he was in disgrace for writing * P. du Moulin ibid. divers things to the Provincial of the Jesuites in Spain which the King had revealed to him in confession and that †Foul. 9. c. 2. the D. of Sully proved to the King that he was guilty of betraying his secrets What these secrets were I find not but this is to be noted that he had then a great
V. Thu. l. 103. which had been very agreeable to the first flourishing state of the Church after the times of Persecution or by restoring to the Arch-Bishops and Bishops their ancient authority which was in some sort done and held for four years after to have cast of that Antichristian yoke of the Papal Usurpations under which he afterwards neglecting that opportunity unhappily enslaved himself and his Kingdom and so having reformed that grand abominable abuse he might with the more facility afterwards have established by the mature deliberation of a lawful Council such a Reformation of the Gallican Church as perhaps might not have been inferior to any which hath been made in other places And afterwards L. 107. when he resolved to be reconciled to the Church they admitted and absolved him notwithstanding the Pope's Legate opposed it all he could contending that he could not be absolved by any but the Pope But these things which might have given encouragement to a conscientious and truly pious mind to constancy and further dependance upon God to him perhaps proved a further tentation their fidelity to him making their perswasions to change his Religion the more prevalent with him especially concurring with a more powerful motive viz. the reducing of the rest of the Kingdom to his obedience And therefore though like David he waxed stronger and stronger and the League like the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker yet in about half the time that David was kept out of the greatest part of his Kingdom he began to yield to the tentation And first when the Leaguers through the incitations of the Pope and the King of Spain were about to assemble to choose a Catholick King though that was not unlikely to break their party by their emulations and divisions concerning the person forgetting his former resolutions and neglecting his conscience instead of dependance upon the Divine Providence he applies himself to humane Policies and resolves to change his Religion without staying for the determination of a lawful either General or National Council L. 107. And this after a few hours instruction whereby he pretended he was much informed of what he was ignorant before being solemnly done he next not long after by a * L. 107 108. special Embassador makes supplication to the Pope to be admitted to his favour And though he had presently hereupon two notable experiments by the attempts of Barriere and Chastel of the vanity and deceitfulness of such shifts and humane Policies without the favour of the Divine Protection and Blessing besides a faithful and sound admonition from the good Queen Elizabeth yet his confidence and reliance upon God being before weakned it commonly proving with perverted minds as with corrupted stomachs which turn their natural food and nourishment into the nourishment of their disease these did but provoke him to the more earnest pursuit of humane politick means and therefore again when he had already broken the party of the League L. 109. L. 108. and Paris wherein their chief strength lay had submitted to him and besides all this the Pope had unworthily repulsed his Embassador and given him a just provocation which certainly he might have improved with the concurrence and good liking of the French Nobility and Clergy toward the reformation of that abominable abuse of the Papacy which is the original or prop of all the rest he was notwithstanding easily wrought upon at the slight intimation of the Pope who when he saw it was in vain longer to oppose him L. 113. was very willing to receive his submission to send another Embassie and basely prostrate himself to him basely I say because it is not likely that he did it out of Conscience or Religion but rather out of fear of Emissaries and Assassins which is * A percussoribus qui quotidie vitae ejus insidiantur metuentem expresly mentioned by his Agents to the Pope as a motive to his reconciliation and for the same reason 't is likely as hath been shewed before he at last notwithstanding all perswasions earnest intercessions and supplications to the contrary restored the Jesuites again and among other favours subjected the government of his conscience to them This was the foundation upon which he built his Greatness which having laid for his security he presently set himself to heap up Treasures and at last raised a great Army for the execution of some grand design which whatever it was in truth he pretended to be for the promotion of the Christian cause against the Infidels But alas all was built upon a sandy foundation he had forsaken the rock of his salvation and relying upon vain policies had ungratefully forsaken him by whom he never had nor should have been forsaken so long as he continued faithful and constant to his duty and prostituting his conscience to obtain a staff of reed Isa 35.6 had broken the staff of his surest confidence aggravating also the offence of his spiritual Fornication and the burden of his galled conscience which is alwaies heaviest in times of danger by persisting in the continual scandals of his Amores whereof the Arch-Bishop Perefix often complains as justly to be blamed * Pag. 461. in a Christian Prince a man of his age who was married on whom God had conferred so great mercies and who had such great enterprizes in his hand This was it which made his apprehension of his approaching death so strong and lamentable and subjected him to the effects of that Religion to which he had subjected himself as those who consult and crave the assistance of witches and evil spirits make themselves thereby the more obnoxious to their power and malice Thus did he fall from that Grandure which by the space of near another eighteens years he had been raising upon this false foundation Such profane policies subjecting Religion to a subservience to secular ends though succesful for a while yet frequently at last concluding in an unhappy catastrophie Nor could the specious pretence of his grand design find acceptance with him who prefers obedience before sacrifice This was it which was in general foreseen and foretold by our good Queen by a more genuine spirit of Prophesie and from better Principles than they were moved by who foretold the same indeed more particularly but yet only like witches and evil spirits who foretell the storms they mean to raise And she her self who built her assurance upon a better foundation continuing constant to the last to her Conscience and Religion and to her God was by him constantly blessed and preserved to the last during a Reign more than twice as long as his and from conspiracies neither fewer nor in themselves less dangerous than those against him and this was it which made her to hear the full relation of a horrid conspiracy against her person with that undaunted courage which amazed him who should have been the actor of it Parry apud Cambd.
without exception of times or places c. and Towns for their security till the Articles should be fully and perfectly performed And these Articles were concluded by the Queen-Mother her self in person and confirmed by a publick Edict with all the solemnity that could be the King himself being present in Parliament sitting in his Throne of Justice But these Articles says Davila as soon as they were known to those of the Catholick party exasperated most of their minds in such manner that they not only murmured freely against the King himself and the Queen-Mother but many were disposed to rise and would have taken Arms to disturb the unjustness as they call it of that Peace which was generally by them esteemed shameful and not fit to be kept if within a-while they had not manifestly understood that the King and Queen purposely to recover and draw home the Duke of Alancon had consented to conditions in words which they were resolved not to observe in deeds For as he presently adds having exactly performed all things promised to the Duke of Alancon none of the other Articles were observed either to the Protestants in general or to the King of Navar and Prince of Conde in particular but the King permitting and tacitly consenting to it the Assemblies of the Protestants were every where violently disturbed c. And the Guises who were not slack in laying hold of any opportunity to augment their own greatness and to secure the state of that Religion which was so streightly linked to their interests began upon the conjuncture of so great an occasion secretly to make a league of the Catholicks in all the Provinces of the Kingdom under colour of opposing the progress and establishment of heresy which by the Articles of the Peace was so fully authorized and established And this was the Faith of a Catholick Prince whose Conscience was directed by the religious Jesuites and so great a votary that though a King Thu. l. 61 Busbeq epist 20. he would often make one of the Flagellantes and was believed would have changed his Kingdom for a Cell though Guise had never attempted to force him to it this the obedience and loyalty of his Catholick Subjects But this was nothing to what followed for his was but the beginning of that Holy League which may justly put to silence all clamours and answer all calumnies against the Protestants in France upon occasion of any miscarriages of theirs under so long and grievous oppressions and unjust persecutions and was the pattern and precedent which was followed by that faction here which the Romish Emissaries and Agents partly raised and partly ruled or secretly influenced to promote their own designs as may be perceived by comparing such evidences and testimonies as are to be met with of their mysterious practices in their works of darkness with their Principles laid down to undermine this Church and State extant in printed Books Lib. 6. p. 449. Lib. 8. c. 2. p. 496. Thu. l. 63. The form of the League may be seen in English at large in Davila and Fonlis to this effect The Covenant of the Princes Lords and Gentlemen of the Catholick Religion for the entire restitution of the Law of God and preservation of his holy worship according to the form and rites of the holy Church of Rome abjuring and renouncing all errors contrary to it 2. For the preservation of King Henr. 3. and his Successors in the State Honour Splendor Authority Duty Service and Obedience due to them c. 3. For the restitutton of their ancient rites liberties and priviledges to the Provinces of the Kingdom c. In case there be any opposition against this aforesaid or any of the Covenanters their friends or dependants be molested or questioned for this cause by whomsoever it be all that enter into this Covenant shall be bound to imploy their lives and fortunes to take vengeance upon them either by way of justice or force without any exception of persons what-ever They who depart from this Covenant shall be punished both in body and goods All shall likewise swear to yield ready obedience and faithful service unto that Head which shall be deputed and to give all help counsel and assistance as well for the maintenance of this League as for the ruine of all that shall oppose it without exception of persons and those that fail shall be punished by the authority of the Head c. All the Catholicks of the several Cities Towns and Villages shall be secretly advertised by the particular Governors to enter into this League and concur in providing Men Arms and other necessaries c. Into this League framed with so much art Davila p. 451. that making a shew to obey and maintain the King it took from him all his obedience and authority to confer it upon the head of their Union as Davila notes when many were engaged in France they began secretly to treat at Rome for Protection and in Spain for men and money nor did they find in either place any aversness to their desires Da. p. 461. V. Thu. l. 63. And though they thought it unfit to dispute openly whether the States were superior to the King or no yet while these things were acted in secret without his knowledge or consent they sought cunningly by a kind of cheat to take away his prerogative and with his consent to settle it in a certain number who should have power to conclude and determine all business without contradiction or appeal and to that end * At the Assembly of the States at Blois which consisted most of such who had subscribed to the Catholick League petition the King that for the dispatch of all business with speed and general satisfaction he would be pleased to elect a number of Judges not suspected by the States who together with twelve of the Deputies might hear such motions as from time to time should be proposed by every Order and conclude and resolve upon them with this condition that what-ever was joyntly determined by the Judges and Deputies together should have the form and vigour of a Law without being subject to be altered or revoked which had been in effect to unking him and leave him little more than the title But the King not ignorant of the importance of that demand Thu. l. 63. became sensible of their designs and of his own danger which more manifestly appeared in certain secret instructions to Nic. David with which he was sent to the Pope concerning the deposing of the King and thrusting him into a Monastery and setting up Guise in his place c. which being taken with David in his journey and published by the Protestants were not believed at first till the same being also sent to the King of Spain the French Ambassador there happened to get a copy of them and sent them to his Master as Thuanus relates from his own mouth The King therefore returns them